Teen Titans Go! returns with a new arc that puts King Shark in the spotlight, just in time for “Shark Week” (please pardon the tardiness of this review), but also to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the classic Jaws movie this year. Plus, it works well with its whole beach and summer theme, which is a pretty cool bonus. King Shark (Nanaue) here is voiced by Eric Edelstein. Audiences might be familiar with the character, seeing as he’s shown up before on the show, as well as other animated projects, including Harley Quinn. He’s also been in live-action on The Suicide Squad, so one doesn’t need to be a huge comic book geek to know about him. But as is usually the case, it helps! This Teen Titans Go! King Shark Week consists of five 11 minutes long episodes. Here’s a brief rundown of the episodes, complete with some color commentary, and whatever else. Overall, it’s a pretty fun story.

“Them Jaws” sets up the story with the Titans trying to enjoy a day at the beach, but Robin with his usual paranoia, acts as a lifeguard and tries protecting the others from shark attacks. He soon becomes over-protective and ruins everyone’s fun, until they notice Batman, Commissioner Gordon, Aquaman, and Black Manta have all apparently been attacked by a shark. The Titans sail aboard their rusty old boat the Shipwreck (named that way because that’s where they got it from), to investigate. King Shark seems to be on a rampage, despite usually being a lovable bad guy. The Titans’ attempts at stopping him all fail, with Beast Boy (in the form of a fish) getting swallowed, and Robin ending up tied on top of King Shark. Robin does manage to pull out a large tooth from the shark’s back, which was causing him to go berserk. Once calmed down, Nanaue apologizes and suggests they can all hang together until Beast Boy can come up again (he’s comfortable enough inside the shark’s belly for the time being).

There’s not a lot else to comment on the episode but I did like the silly gag when they were trying to name their ship, with puns like Moby Dick Grayson, or the Baitmobile being considered. All in all, this was a decent way to start this new story arc. There’s also a neat sort of cliff-hanger ending, with them wondering who’s tooth that actually was…

“Pool Shark” reveals that Nanaue is still a pretty good pool/billiards player, something he demonstrates by cleaning up the swimming pool of coconut drinks. He explains that he was once a great player in the DC Villains Billiards League, using his special narwhal horn cue. However he was defeated by a mysterious person called the Hands (because he had very small hands), and hasn’t really played the game since. The Titans suggest he should try again; he does and also listens to his gut… literally, since that’s where Beast Boy is, and the two can talk to each other. However just about everything Beast Boy says is wrong, so Nanaue decides to do the opposite of what his gut tells him. It’s also revealed that the guy who defeated him before was none other than Robin (which should have been obvious to viewers considering their silhouettes, and well Robin’s tiny baby hands which are a running gag on the show); Robin once infiltrated the villains’ billiards league trying to obtain a stolen treasure map. Nanaue claims he’ll give him the map if he beats him at pool again, this time the swimming pool being their table (if that makes any sense…). The episode ends with Nanaue tricking Robin into summoning the narwhal they stole the horn turned pool cue from, which beats him up.

In “Shark Tank”, the Titans wish to become worthy of “tank life”, meaning they can wear tank tops in the style of King Shark. Their training includes lots of weight lifting, and the final test is eating spaghetti and meatballs, without dirtying their shirts. They succeed, but soon enough have to confront none other than Bane (voiced by James Adomian), once Nanaue’s friend who had become obsessed with “tank life” and has since gone on a rampage ripping off sleeves from people’s clothes. Bane also manages to get the Titans to join the dark side, and assist him in his crazy schemes. It is up to King Shark and his superior, crop top fueled powers to stop Bane and bring back the heroes. One of the weirder episodes overall but it had its moments and was entertaining enough.

“Lake Side Story” begins with the Titans and Nanaue playing a game of Marco Polo at the lake. Robin is easily found because of his stinky fish breath (which leads to scenes deemed too gross for the universe). Robin meets a fish girl named Sofia (voiced by Tara Strong), who doesn’t mind his breath and the two fall in love. However her fish brother insists that Robin needs to join his gang before dating his sister. Trying to protect their turf (the lake), the fish gang goes up against Nanaue and the other Titans, which leads to Robin denying he knows them just so he could stay with Sofia. Conflicted Robin tries to stop the two gangs from fighting, and explains they should all try and get along. It works, and the fish lay down their weapons… and are all swallowed by King Shark. Overall this was a pretty silly, romantic episode with some musical numbers included in there, to boot.

“Megalodon Jackson” starts with the Titans and Nanaue enjoying a movie with their favorite action star, Don Jackson. They soon are under attack by another, giant prehistoric shark, a Megalodon. It’s the one who bit King Shark in the first entry of this arc, not that it adds a lot to the story but it does bring things full circle, more or less. The new shark (voiced by Michael Jai White) reveals he’s actually Megalodon Jackson, as in he used to be their favorite actor until he was somehow turned into a shark, constantly craving food, so over the course of the episode he swallows Starfire and Raven (similar to how Beast Boy has spent most of this arc inside Nanaue’s stomach). The Titans investigate and the trail leads to an island where they encounter a villainous sea snail, Carmen Conchanello (voiced by David Kaye), who speaks in a monotonous voice. In fact that’s what lead him to become a villain, since he wanted to be a movie star but he was always told he lacks emotion. So naturally in order to get revenge, he turned other actors into fish and other sea creatures (say hello to Seal-ena Gomez!). The Titans fight Conch and Megalodon tricks him; he angers him to the point he actually starts showing some emotion in his speech. They help him come out of his shell, literally. Now that he’s apparently a good enough actor, he’s offered a role in Don Jackson’s new movie. Jackson was turned back to human form, and thus the Titans he swallowed are back as well. Beast Boy is also regurgitated by Nanaue, in case readers wanted to know. Overall, this was a decent episode, and a nice enough way to finish off this short arc.

As a whole this King Shark Week arc was pretty entertaining. There wasn’t that much continuity between the episodes, other than the premise of having Nanaue hang out with the Titans, and Beast Boy being heard but not seen during most of the episodes. Still it had its moments, some amusing ideas and stuff like that there. Nanaue didn’t exactly bring anything new or unique to the show, but that also means he fit in well alongside the rest of characters, without him feeling forced into the plots for no reason other than to do some shark themed comedy sketches.

Teen Titans Go! airs on the Cartoon Network and can be streamed on HBO Max.

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