Cashero: Episodes 1-8 (Series Review)
by SailorJumun
After obtaining his unique money-fueled powers, our bumbling Cashero is thrown into battle with an evil corporation. It’s all too much to handle, and he’d much rather return to a normal life. But in a show like this, where you can be clutching cash and kicking ass, what even is normal anymore?
NOTE: This review contains major spoilers, so proceed with caution.
SERIES REVIEW
The first episode introduced us to KANG SANG-UNG (Junho), the everyday guy who inherited super strength from his father. The catch? His strength depends on how much cash he’s carrying, and after using that strength, the cash disappears. In other words, he literally has to pay to be a hero. This is quite frustrating for him and his longtime girlfriend KIM MIN-SUK (Kim Hye-joon), who was eager to get married and settle down in an expensive apartment.
Initially, Sang-ung tries to suppress his powers to save on money. But after witnessing a bus crash, he makes the decision to jump in and help. This action is plastered all over the news, earning the attention of two very different groups of people. There are the good guys, who call themselves the Society of Korean Superhumans. BYUN HO-IN (Kim Byung-chul) has powers activated by drinking alcohol, and BANG EUN-MI (Kim Hyang-gi) has powers activated by eating.
Then there are the bad guys, a wealthy organization called the Mundane Vanguard. The company’s chairman JO WON-DO (Kim Eui-sung) has his daughter JO ANNA (Kang Hanna) run a secret lab, where they confine superhumans and extract their powers. They’ve already taken a member of the Society (cameo by Jo Boa), and their next target is, naturally, Sang-ung.
While Min-suk is at a wedding, Anna has one of her minions set the chapel on fire, hoping to lure Sang-ung out. It works, as Sang-ung immediately rushes over to save the day. It’s all very epic and very Spider-Man and Mary Jane as the couple hug… except, um… they just stay in the burning building, talking, instead of getting the hell out.
Sang-ung then fights off the minion, but I’m too busy wondering why Min-suk is still standing there and not suffering from smoke inhalation. Ho-in and Eun-mi eventually rescue the couple, taking them back to their hideout to introduce themselves and explain their situation. To Sang-ung’s dismay, he’s apparently the only one who can stop the Mundane Vanguard.
The superhuman crew help Sang-ung hone his powers, but they also train him how to fight without his powers (which is smart). At home, Min-suk starts giving Sang-ung an allowance, having accepted his power usage. She even gives him an extra 50,000 won so they can test out other physical activities (again, smart *wiggles eyebrows*).
The crew learn that the baddies are developing a drug from their experiments, which could cause people to die. We see the crew go through several operations to break into the lab and stop them, and I’m gonna be honest — it gets repetitive real quick. The crew commence a solid plan, the baddies swarm in saying “Gotcha!” and then Sang-ung somehow gets his hands on some money to fight back. Same hero poses, some music cues and everything.
Things shift when a new player enters the game. Anna’s younger, somehow more psychotic, brother JO NATHAN (Lee Chae-min) takes over, wanting Sang-ung’s super strength for himself. We don’t learn much else about the siblings, other than the fact that they’re spoiled brats vying for daddy’s attention. They’re the straightforward cartoon villains I expected from this type of show, but they’re still pretty fun to watch; the actors play off each other well.
As the battle between the superhumans and the baddies goes on, the police are on their trail. The lead investigator HWANG HYUN-SEUNG (Jang Hyun-sung) turns out to be Ho-in’s friend, as well as a former member of the Society. Whenever Hyun-seung catches Sang-ung, he lets him go with the warning that it’d be better for everyone if he just kept his head down. But, at this point, Sang-ung can’t just sit back when people are in danger. After all, with great power comes great… well, you know.
Nathan gets to Sang-ung by kidnapping Min-suk, threatening to throw her into an elevator with a bomb if he doesn’t give up his powers. Instead, Sang-ung locks himself and Nathan in the elevator. And with no money left for strength, the blast kills him. Min-suk is unable to accept his death, however, and confronts Detective Hyun-seung when she learns that his ability is time travel. Remembering Sang-ung’s persistent righteousness, Hyun-seung agrees to send her back.
The time travel element is rather cool, and it kind of sucks that we only get to see it in action once. Present-day Min-suk simply plants money into past Sang-ung’s hands, and voilà — he’s now able to survive the blast. And, I have no idea how, but Nathan survives as well. Apparently, Nathan’s had enough, because he kills his sister and then infiltrates the lab to inject himself with all of the superpower samples.
So, it’s all come down to this. Nathan wreaks havoc in a neighborhood, destroying everything in sight. Just as Nathan is about to hurt a little girl, Sang-ung arrives and knocks his ass aside. The two finally go head-to-head, Sang-ung getting weaker and weaker as he runs low on money. When he’s completely out, it seems like all hope is lost. That is, until the little girl from before throws down her piggybank.
Sang-ung watches in amazement as the entire neighborhood starts tossing money out their windows, shouting words of encouragement. It’s a surprisingly touching moment… But the scene goes on for so long that I’m just like Uh, wouldn’t Nathan have killed him by now? Nevertheless, Sang-ung grips his cash, and with the help of Ho-in and Eun-mi, he delivers the final blow. Bye bye, Nathan. Bye bye, Mundane Vanguard.
With the baddies punished and the world saved for another day, Sang-ung’s life returns to normal. Or, as normal as it can be. He and Min-suk finally get their new apartment, and he finds out that they’ll be having a baby. We end with the couple noting just how expensive raising kids will be.
It’s a predictable, neatly bow-tied ending to a fairly predictable series. It hit all the right beats, said all the right things, and yet I’m left here feeling blah. The writing and its themes were obvious, the characters’ development were mostly surface-level — I could go on and on.
I could see what the show was trying to do, having Sang-ung depend on money when really, all he needed was heart and the drive to help people. It just didn’t hit the way I wanted it to. But as a popcorn superhero story, it does its job. It’s easy to let go of all logic and just enjoy watching Junho punch things.
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