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Agent Ali (also known as Ejen Ali) is a Malaysian Spy Fiction animated series produced by WAU Animation.
In the futuristic city of Cyberaya lives the eponymous Ali bin Ghazali, who accidentally becomes a MATA note agent after using a device of theirs called the IRIS note . With help from his uncle Bakar and other agents, Ali aids MATA in missions to defend Cyberaya, while keeping his agent identity secret from his non-agent friends, family and the general public.
Originally planned to be a solo film with a first teaser posted in 2013, it got reworked along the line into a series which debuted in 2016. After two 13-episode seasons, a film did launch: Agent Ali: The Movie (Mission: NEO) note , on 28th November 2019. On 25th June 2022, the show's 3rd season started airing exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar with new episodes posted weekly.
The first two seasons (as well as soundtracks, shorts, and other related media) are available on their official YouTube channel
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M.A.T.A. Secret Files is a collection of short comics that provide additional stories for the characters, originally featured in monthly magazines before being uploaded on Webtoon.
MISSION: TROPES:
- Action Girl: Alicia is a young girl and a very capable agent of M.A.T.A. Of course, being General Rama's daughter helps.
- Adults Are Useless: Zig-Zagged. Senior Agents will almost always fall in battle, which will put the Young Agents (or just Ali and Alicia) in a position to save the day. However, Pillar Leaders are the most helpful in defeating the enemy as even if they lose, they make way for the others to finish the job. The only exception to all of this is Rizwan, who subverts the trope.
- Affirmative Action Girl: Season 2 introduces more female M.A.T.A. agents.
- Anyone Can Die: During the competition in Season 3, young agents who fail to meet the point requirements will be expelled from M.A.T.A. The first ones out are Jet, Moon and Bulat, two of which have played big roles in the second season and are fan favorites. This means not even major characters will be spared from expulsion. Subverted, as it later turns out in "Mission: Camp", they were never expelled after all.
- Ascended Meme: The movie soundtrack "Kita Jaga Kita" ("We take care of our own"), originally used in the film for the slum citizens who must fend for themselves, went viral in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic as Malaysia's theme for fighting against the virus. On 31st August 2020, (Malaysia's 63rd Independence Day), an official music video was released, dedicated to all Malaysians fighting COVID-19. In late 2020, a short titled "Misi: Juang" (Mission: Fight), depicts the characters in a physical fight against the virus, with a remake of "Kita Jaga Kita" as the background score.
- Bad People Abuse Animals:
- Mission: Comot has a gang using genetically modified cats to rob people, and uses various devices to harm the poor things.
- Played with in Mission: Return and Mission: Purpose, which demonstrate O.O.C. Is Serious Business by having Ali's Override Mode attack Comot, although the I.R.I.S. control Ali to emotionlessly take on any possible hostiles.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: The M.A.T.A. agents mean well and are presented as heroes, but they can also do some morally questionable stuff, whereas the villains are also presented as vile even if they meant well.
- Civvie Spandex: Of a sort. M.A.T.A suits aren't civilian clothes, but they are designed to look like them taking the form of formal attire for adults while childrens' often resemble jackets and casual wear.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The M.A.T.A. agency implements color coding for distinguishing agents in each of the four roles of their Command Roster:
- Neuro agents are the strategists and leaders, usually wearing yellow outfits with hints of green.
- Techno agents specialise in gadgetry and appear in mainly red and white.
- Inviso agents are agile, cunning and masters of disguise and deception, usually wearing outfits of silver and off-white tones.
- Combat agents are masters of combat, trained to be fighters, in primarily blue attire with yellow as a secondary color.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Tekno and Neuro M.A.T.A pillars function differently from how they were introduced in the second episode. Tekno was a pillar specializing in the creation of gadgets for their teammates, but slowly turned into Support Party Members who used the most advanced devices themselves. Not helped by how non-Tekno agents are now able to upgrade their equipment on their own. Neuro was originally a form of Mission Control, but everyone aside from Rama would act as The Leader and Long-Range Fighter of the group. Kombat has also lost its uniqueness as more and more agents are equipped for powerful attack and heavy combat such as Ali (Tekno), Alicia (Neuro), and Aleks (Inviso). But as of "Mission: Change", it's been redefined to provide defense to their teams.
- Eye Motifs: The large expressive eyes used in this show tie into the development of the titular protagonist. Ali uses a pair of enhanced goggles called the IRIS (Infinite Retinal Intelligence System), which was made by MATA (an acronym which spells the Malay word for eye), the agency that discreetly watches over and protects the city of Cyberaya. The movie has Ali's eyes opened to certain truths, and also concludes his struggle with using the IRIS' "Override Mode" (a Super Mode which takes over him and makes his eyes glow white until he finally controls it). Further hammering the motif is the theme song "Bukalah Matamu" (which means "Open Your Eyes").
- Freeze-Frame Introduction: Almost every new character in the series gets introduced this way. The background blurs and darkens while a colored outline surrounds the introduced character. The name appears in the same color with a font befitting its futuristic sci-fi theme.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Anyone who wields an I.R.I.S. and activates Override Mode gets glowing eyes as a side-effect. This mode was made to allow users to control technology around them, but the glowing eyes usually appear to signify that the I.R.I.S., or something else, is controlling the user.
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: I.R.I.S., which has X-ray vision, night vision, and AR display among its many abilities. It was made by MATA (particularly Ali's mother) with the primary function is to predict any possible situation to obtain the best outcome possible, effectively making its wielder a super agent.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Zigzagged.
- Of the main cast, Ali attacks with his Killer Yoyo while Alicia attacks with her slingshot.
- Of the pillar chiefs, Dayang is often seen with Ganz; the former uses her Orbiting Particle Shield of weaponized spheres to fight while Ganz uses his brute strength. However, the other pillar chiefs Zain and Djin, both male, use a pistol and a sword respectively.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode is titled "Misi: [subject of episode]" ("Mission: [subject of episode]").
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Throughout the show, Bakar tends to flirt with Dos, however, in Mission: UNO, during the M.A.T.A. safe-house raid he ominously warns her that since she tried to hurt his nephew he can't hold back. He still loses, but you don't mess with his nephew.
- The Mole:
- M.A.T.A. grows suspicious of Agent Bakar, and believes him to be a spy/leader of the Numeros named Uno. However, when Uno is finally introduced in Mission: Uno, the episode's ending reveals that the true mole of the Numeros was Jenny with the codename Cinco.
- In Season 3 it turns out that Cinco has a secret intel that she has ordered to locate the mainframe of M.A.T.A. Episode 7 reveals that the intel is Cinco's foster sister, who is also one of the Arena participants and is none other than Kimberly Song.
- Moving Beyond Bereavement: The untimely death of Aliya, Ali's mother, occurred before the series and greatly impacted her immediate family. Ali's father became distant and consumed in his work as town pillar, and Ali too became emotionally distant. The Movie progresses this arc further for both of them: Ali helped Niki, who was Aliya's best friend, believing that he was continuing her heroic legacy by doing so. Niki turning out to be the Twist Villain makes him regret doing so, until his allies motivate him to keep going. By the movie's end, Ali convinces his father to help the people living in the slums that he and his mother had aided in the past, and they improve their livelihoods together.
- Mr. Smith: Ali's name was deliberately chosen by the creators as a nod to common names used by spies in fiction.
- Puppy Love: Mia, Alicia's Only Friend, is shown to have a huge crush on Victor, who is no other than Ali's Only Friend. Victor seems to have no problems with this, which is very ironic compared to Ali and Alicia's keen dislike towards each other.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: At the end of season 2, the MATA Academy is destroyed. Coincidentally, the COVID-19 Pandemic started between then and the events of the movie. The MATA online classes that had implied to happen for a while parallels schools all over the world switching to an online medium to keep students and teachers safe from the virus.
- Shipper on Deck: Almost everyone except Ali and Alicia themselves assume they have a crush on each other and try to tease them about being a couple. Both school classmates and fellow young agents.
- Shout-Out: There are Super Sentai and Kamen Rider posters in Ali's room.
- Stumbled Into the Plot: As Alicia likes to mention, Ali is an agent of M.A.T.A. simply because he found I.R.I.S. due to being mistaken for a spy by accidentally saying a secret codeword.
- Symbolic Weapon Discarding: The reason Ali becomes a MATA agent is because the IRIS is synced to him, throughout the first 2 seasons he trains to wield it better to become a super agent like its former wielder. At the end of The Movie, after he learns from the super agent (aka his late mother) that the potential was never in the IRIS but in the user themselves, the IRIS is confiscated from him as punishment, but he accepts it wholeheartedly, determined to become a super agent without it.
- Take a Third Option: M.A.T.A. is willing to do everything to protect Cyberaya from criminals, so in a critical situation, they must make a Sadistic Choice to finish their mission known as Protocol: Gegas. Protocol: Gegas means M.A.T.A. agents must willingly sacrifice their comrade if they are potentially unable to be saved by the team in a critical situation, for the sake of their mission in order to save Cyberaya. So far, there have been three moments when M.A.T.A. agents used this in some situation:
- In the past, INVISIO pillar chief, Agent Djin, had been left behind after an injury due to Taking the Bullet to stop the terrorists. As a result, the chief had no choice but to leave Agent Djin and protect the Azurium for Cyberaya's safety. While M.A.T.A. remembers him as a Sacrificial Lion due to his heroic act, they didn't know in fact that Djin survived the explosion, and feels betrayed by them. He thinks they planned to murder him, resulting in his Face–Heel Turn and becoming the Big Bad named Uno.
- In the episode Mission: PROTOCOL: GEGAS! where this option was introduced by Alicia and Bakar. After Dos successfully steals the Azurium and injures Alicia, Agent Rizwan orders him to carry out Protocol : Gegas. Which meant that Ali must sacrifice Alicia for the sake of reacquiring the Azurium and saving Cyberaya. Luckily, Ali didn't take this and he chose to save Alicia. However, this resulted in the Azurium falling into Numeros' hands. Alicia, while saved and alive, suffers massive Heroic BSoD and is somewhat traumatized.
- In the final episode of season 2, Mission: Legacy, after Uno decides to destroy the entire academy along with everyone inside, Agent Zain orders Alicia to engage Protocol: Gegas, by saving the others from an explosion, and leaving him alone with Uno in order to defeat him and save the other injured M.A.T.A. agents. As a result, Chief Zain is (supposedly) killed along with Uno.
- Teen Superspy: Ali, Alicia and the M.A.T.A. Academy agents from season 2 are all teens.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
- Ali and Alicia really don't like to work alongside each other in earlier episodes. Their teamwork, however, improves after Ali saves her life, and gradually it upgrades into Vitriolic Best Buds.
- In season 2, many of the young agents at M.A.T.A. Academy don't like Ali and consider him a weakling due to Beginner's Luck. It became worse after his huge mistake in the episode Mission: Return, resulting in him being bullied by Rudy, Roza, Chris, Mika and Jet.
- Unknowingly Possessing Stolen Goods: Ali receives the IRIS, a gadget that Dos stole from MATA, by accident because it was in the container he "buys" his breakfast in. The stall owner gives it for free under the belief that the boy is the operative he is meant to give the IRIS to because Dos says the password the operative would give is "tempoyak udang", which happens to be a breakfast item that Ali wants. Ali is later tracked by his uncle Bakar, who asks him if he mistakenly took anything that isn't his, and later finds Dos and Trez on his tail.
