Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2!
Cobra Kaiseason 6, part 2 shockingly brought back perhaps the most iconic character fromThe Karate Kidmovies - Mr. Miyagi himself! InCobra Kaiseason 6, part 2, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) can’t focus on guidingCobra Kaiseason 6’s Miyagi-Do castin the Sekai Taikai tournament. Daniel-san is distracted by the revelation that Mr. Miyagi once fought in the Sekai Taikai, a fact LaRusso’s sensei kept from him. ButCobra Kaifans didn’t expect to actually see Mr. Miyagi again in season 6, part 2.
Cobra Kaiseason 6, episode 10, “Eunjangdo” opens with a dream sequence of a young Nariyoshi Miyagi (Brian Takahashi) competing in the Sekai Taikai tournament in the 1940s. Miyagi’s opponent is Daniel LaRusso, himself. Daniel-san is afraid of this younger and more violent version of his sensei, and he’s no match for Mr. Miyagi. When Daniel is at Miyagi’s mercy,the young Miyagi’s face becomes the familiar Mr. Miyagi played by Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, but it’s a more cruel-looking Miyagi thanCobra KaiandThe Karate Kid fans have seen before.
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Cobra Kai’s producers used a combination of CGI and visual effects, as well as archived audio of the late Pat Morita, who died in 2005, todigitally resurrect Mr. Miyagi in Daniel’s dream. The effect is uncanny, as Daniel’s blinking segues from the younger Miyagi to the sensei LaRusso knew and loved. Speaking toTVLine,Cobra Kaiexecutive producer Josh Heald explained the process of creating a digital Miyagi with the approval of Pat Morita’s estate:
There’s a lot of technical things that you need to do with visual effects… There’s obviously talking to Pat’s estate and making sure that they’re aware and that they’re comfortable and that they sign off on that… Even though you’re not having an actor there on set, it’s still his likeness. So we went through all of that process, which was important to us and the studio, and feel like we’ve captured this unfortunate vision that Daniel is having of being trapped in this nightmare that he’s been in. He’s been kind of in a waking nightmare and then he’s having a literal nightmare where a Miyagi like we’ve never seen visits him.
The Karate Kidfans will find the killing blow stance the digital Mr. Miyagi takes to be familiar.It’s similar to how Miyagi looked at the start ofThe Karate Kid Part IIwhen it seemed likeMiyagi would deal John Kreese(Martin Kove) a killing blow after the 1984 All Valley Under 18 karate tournament. (Miyagi fooled Kreese and honked his nose instead.) In Daniel LaRusso’sCobra Kaiseason 6 dream, Mr. Miyagi’s ire is directed at his most beloved student, with no funny nose honk.
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Instead of focusing on his Miyagi-Do’s students inCobra Kaiseason 6, part 2, Daniel LaRusso is distracted by his fears that he never really knew Mr. Miyagi, and that Miyagi kept secrets from him. Exacerbating the bloody Sekai Taikai captain’s headband belonging to Miyagi that Daniel found, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) destabilized LaRusso even more by"gifting"him an authenticSekai Taikai tournamentrecord from the 1940s that listsNoriyoshi Miyagi as killing his opponent in the Sekai Taikai.
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Of course, this completely rocks and upends Daniel-san’s world.Cobra Kaiseason 6’s revelation contradicts what Daniel knows and believes about Mr; Miyagi. As a rule,Miyagi hated tournaments, and he didn’t want Daniel-san defending his All Valley Championship inThe Karate Kid Part III.However, this gives Miyagi’s disdain of tournaments context, asit’s understandable if Mr. Miyagi never got over having killed a man in the Sekai Taikai.
What The Truth About Miyagi Means For Daniel In Cobra Kai & The New Karate Kid Movie
This Changes How Daniel LaRusso Feels About Mr. Miyagi
Cobra Kaiseason 6 still has 5 more episodes to go before its series finale, and there is bound to be a further twist and more details to come about Mr. Miyagi’s past in the Sekai Taikai. It’s possible that despite being verified as authentic, the Sekai Taikai record from the 1940s is erroneous.Mr. Miyagi killing his opponent may also have been an accident.Daniel LaRusso seems to be approaching this truth about Miyagi as if Nariyoshi murdered a man in cold blood.
LaRusso’s journey regarding Mr. Miyagi isn’t over when Cobra Kai is.
Regardless of howCobra Kairesolves the truth about young Mr. Miyagi, Daniel will have a more complete picture of his sensei than ever before. But LaRusso’s journey regarding Mr. Miyagi isn’t over whenCobra Kaiis.Daniel-san will appear inKarate Kid: Legendsand will meet Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), who may have known the young Miyagi. Perhaps they even met in the Sekai Taikai. WhetherKarate Kid: Legendswill resurrect Mr. Miyagi with Pat Morita’s digital likeness the wayCobra Kaiseason 6 did remains to be seen.
