Hit-Monkey

Okay, this is a bit different. Bryce is a very talkative assassin hired by a Japanese crime boss to kill a reform minded candidate for prime minister. Bryce succeeds in that assassination, to the horror of the country. But he’s then betrayed by the crime boss. He escapes, but find himself badly wounded and alone in the wilderness, where he collapses.

He’s found by a tribe of snow monkeys (Japanese macaques), who take him into their hot pools and nurse him back to health. As Bryce recovers, one member of the tribe, let’s call him “Monkey”, watches as Bryce practices fighting, and begins to pick up his techniques. When another band of assassins track Bryce to that location, they kill Bryce and the entire tribe of monkeys, except for Monkey. Monkey picks up Bryce’s weapons and proceeds to kill the band of assassins.

As he lays dying, Bryce tells Monkey that the people who did this to him and Monkey’s family are still out there, and need to be dealt with. Monkey collects weapons and ammo and sets out on his mission of vengeance. He is immediately joined by Bryce, now in ghost form, who seems bound to Monkey in some manner. Monkey only speaks the language of his own people but Bryce now seems able to communicate with him.

With Bryce as his guide, Monkey enters civilization. What follows is an epic story of Monkey making his way in the world and leaving a trail of carnage as he kills crime bosses and assassins. Monkey is initially appalled by the killing, but gradually charts a path he can accept. When the Yakuza put a price on his head, all of Tokyo and then all of Japan hears about the monkey fighter, with ongoing confusion as to whether he’s a hero or a menace. The stakes steadily rise until the fate of the country is at stake.

Interestingly enough, this is a Marvel series, based on a Marvel comic book series, but it’s on Hulu rather than Disney+. I watched the first episode out of curiosity but found myself binging through the first season of ten episodes (24 minutes each). This is obviously fantasy, and my description might sound a bit whimsical, and it does have a lot of humor, but it’s also dark in many ways with lots of action and gore.

I enjoyed it. If you’re in the mood for something different, I recommend checking it out.