By Dustin Cabeal

The story of Amerikarate continues to be lost on me. Its parodies shift back and forth so harshly that it seems more like a spoof of different scenes of movies tied together by a shoestring story. The humor feels more at home on an animation in which it would be shocking and supported by a voice actor. Instead, it reads like an attempt at capturing the humor from something like Rick and Morty.

In this issue, the main guy wanders around because he’s got nothing to do without his dead baby looking brother. He fights a woman, they beat each other’s faces in violently and then fuck. In-between the fighting and the hotel room we learn how his brother lost his limbs.

The story just isn’t ringing true. Perhaps it’s when it calls out its own references, almost to make sure that the audience knows what’s being parodied or maybe it’s something else. I can’t put my finger on what’s off about this story that is keeping it from being fun and enjoyable. The dialogue isn’t bad, but also a tad bit over dramatic. It’s like Hot Shots, but we’re not in the 90s now, so that style of parody isn’t cutting it anymore. That and are we still making the Michael Bay explosion joke? Is that even funny anymore?

The art isn’t bad, but at this point, I have to wonder if it’s the best fit for the story. It’s almost a little too close to looking like Family Guy, which isn’t doing it any favors. It’s too cartoony for the genre that it’s spoofing. It steals the thunder from the jokes and unfortunately, doesn’t add back into the humor. The fights were fairly easy to follow and given ample page time, which also might be a problem. Too much action, not enough story or just make the sex scenes longer so that they serve as a proper distraction.

While I appreciate the attempt, I’m bowing out on this issue. Amerikarate is practically catered to my demographic and yet it’s just not working. There’s more homage than story, but the reason all the movies referenced are memorable was because of their story. Even if the story wasn’t great, the story was the lynchpin that kept it all together and worth watching. Amerikarate has cherry picked so much that it can’t find its own story to keep all the homage afloat and that’s just a shame.

Score: 2/5

Amerikarate #2
Danger Zone