General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Seis Manos

Seis Manos (translation: Six Hands) is an American adult animated action series, released as a Netflix original anime, about a trio of orphaned martial artists in 1970s Mexico who fight an occult-worshipping crime organization after their kung fu master is murdered.¹ It was created by Brad Graeber and Álvaro Rodríguez, produced by Powerhouse Animation Studios and VIZ Media, and premiered on Netflix on October 3, 2019 with a single season of eight episodes.²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Format	Netflix original anime series, 8 episodes of roughly 26 to 28 minutes, rated TV-MA²
Premiere	October 3, 2019; all eight episodes released the same day³
Creators	Brad Graeber and Álvaro Rodríguez²
Studios	Powerhouse Animation Studios (Austin, Texas) and VIZ Media; Powerhouse's first original series⁴^•⁵
Setting	The fictional Mexican border town of San Simon in the 1970s⁶
Main cast	Aislinn Derbez (Isabela), Mike Colter (Brister), Jonny Cruz (Jesus), Angélica Vale (García), Vic Chao (Chiu), Danny Trejo (El Balde)²
Reception	100% Tomatometer from 9 reviews and 88% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes; 7.1/10 on IMDb⁷^•³
Status	Ended after one season⁸

Spoilers

Premise and characters

The story is set in San Simon, a peaceful fictional Mexican town where an elderly Chinese martial arts master, Chiu, has raised three orphaned students: Isabela, Jesus, and a mute fighter the others call Silencio.¹^•⁹ When Chiu is murdered on the streets of the town, the trio is drawn into a criminal investigation alongside Federale Officer García and American DEA agent Brister.¹ The government agents want to bring down the crime syndicate led by El Balde (Danny Trejo), while the students seek to avenge their master's death.¹

The season's plot mixes demonic powers, drug cartels, ancient rituals, and blood sacrifice.² Across the eight episodes, El Balde summons his fellow crime bosses and transforms them into flesh-eating monsters, the students meet Lo, the brother of their former master, and the season closes with a showdown in which El Balde's mother Alejandra possesses the body of Isabela, followed by a battle against a nemesis who reveals Chiu's secret past.²

Production

Origins. Seis Manos was the first original series of Powerhouse Animation Studios, an Austin-based studio founded on April Fool's Day 2001 by Brad Graeber and two partners after they met at a dot-com company doing online animation for children.⁴ Before pitching the series, the studio built a concept video with music by composer Carl Thiel, who had worked with Powerhouse on earlier projects; the pitch drew interest but, in Thiel's account, was not quite ready at the time.¹⁰ Graeber and Rodríguez pitched designs and a demo trailer to Kevin Kolde and Adi Shankar before the series landed at Netflix.⁴

Influences. Graeber, born in 1975, has said the series began with kung fu heroes set against an Adolfo Constanzo type character mixing cult and curandero practices with criminality, and that the 1989 murders in Matamoros fueled the urban legends of his adolescence; historical elements such as Chinese immigration to Mexico and the founding of the DEA fit the timeline he and Rodríguez were building.⁴ Rodríguez, who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and encountered anime at the University of Texas through films like Akira and Vampire Hunter D, said the series was his first foray into animation.⁴ He is the screenwriter of Machete and Last Rampage: The Escape of Gary Tison and a former staff writer on El Rey Network's From Dusk Till Dawn series.⁶

Casting. Casting director Meredith Layne, who had worked with Frederator on Castlevania, assembled a cast in which some members performed in both the Spanish and English language versions; Graeber said he cast "blind," reviewing takes without names and judging voice quality against the character designs.⁴ The series was directed by Willis Bulliner.¹¹

Style and cultural elements

The series combines Japanese anime fight choreography with themes drawn from Mexican folklore, following criminal activity and the investigation of a Mexican crime organization.⁹ Common Sense Media's review describes it as a B-movie-inspired anime that blends cultures, and notes that the story is presented in a way that recalls 1970s exploitation cinema, with overly dramatic flashbacks, exaggerated slasher sequences, and two-dimensional stereotyped characters.¹² Rodríguez discussed in interviews how exploitation cinema allows writers to "smuggle" larger themes into their work under the guise of action and comedy.¹³

The production team researched the show's historical period to draw on real history; Graeber noted that around the era in which the show is set, women had begun to achieve civil rights in Mexico and specifically had been allowed to become police officers for the first time, which shaped the character of Officer García.¹⁴ A 2024 academic paper examined the series' border representation of Latinx folklore and martial arts.¹⁵

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the season holds a 100% average Tomatometer from 9 reviews and an 88% Popcornmeter from more than 50 audience ratings.⁷ IMDb users rate it 7.1 out of 10.³ The review site LRM Online gave it a grade of B, praising the fight choreography and the performances of the Brister and García characters while noting choppy movement in some animation and generic backstories for the lead trio.¹⁶ The Spanish outlet HobbyConsolas scored it 65 out of 100, crediting the violent action sequences and Danny Trejo's villain while criticizing a plot that fails to fully engage.⁹

The show carries mature-content warnings: Common Sense Media rates it 16+ for martial arts fight sequences, gory events including stabbings and dismemberment, strong sexual innuendo, and nudity.¹² Netflix lists it as TV-MA.²

Release and afterlife

All eight episodes premiered on Netflix on October 3, 2019, and the series was not renewed for a second season.³^•⁸ Audio tracks include English (original), Spanish (Latin America), German, French, Italian, and Japanese, with subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Chinese.² VIZ Media later released Season 1 on Blu-ray.⁵ The series received an Annie Award nomination, according to Netflix's listing.²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Animated television series (individual series) › Adult animated drama and genre series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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