Karate Kid franchise as a whole full circle.

By making Johnny Lawrence the hero of the story, Cobra Kai threw everything we could expect from a Karate Kid show out of the window and reinvented the very franchise it was trying to honor. Cobra Kai season 6’s cast, which included both major and minor characters from all three Karate Kid movies starring Ralph Macchio, is just an example of how much the show respected the source material. However, the series was more than just a Karate Kid sequel – Cobra Kai also created amazing new characters and made us all invested in a six-season karate soap opera.

6 Cobra Kai Season 4

2021

Cobra Kai season 3 ended with the promise that Johnny and Daniel were finally going to work together, only for season 4 to quickly reverse things. While Daniel and Johnny’s banter was part of the show’s identity from the beginning, season 4 was when some conflicts and story beats started to feel repetitive. That doesn’t mean the show didn’t try to shake things up, particularly with the return of Terry Silver and the introduction of a new generation of rivalries in the form of Anthony and Kenny.

After two seasons in which the characters were quite literally fighting for their lives, returning to the tournament routine felt a little anticlimactic. Cobra Kai season 4 was also redundant in the sense that it ended the same way season 3 had concluded, with Daniel and Johnny accepting that they had to work together and the promise that Terry Silver was now going to be the main villain. Apart from Robby and Johnny fixing their relationship at the end, Cobra Kai season 4 didn’t change the status quo of the show that much.

5 Cobra Kai Season 6

2024-2025

Cobra Kai’s biggest and boldest installment, season 6 had 15 episodes instead of the usual 10 and was released in three parts. Given how divisive Netflix’s multi-part release strategy had been, Cobra Kai season 6 was bound to face some criticism in that regard. The release model itself was not too big of a problem since each part felt satisfying enough on its own, but the best moments of Cobra Kai season 6 were saved for the final episodes. Part 1 felt like one big setup for the Sekai Taikai, whereas Part 2 was all about the action.

It was only in Part 3 that we got to the moments everyone had been waiting for since the day the final season was announced, including but not limited to the resolution of John Kreese’s story, Johnny Lawrence reclaiming Cobra Kai, and Miguel returning to his original dojo. Some of the best, most well-acted scenes of Cobra Kai happened in season 6, part 3, with the final five episodes elevating the rest of the final season and ending the show on a high note. That said, parts 1 and 2 were just not as strong.

4 Cobra Kai Season 3

2021

Between the Miguel cliffhanger from season 2, the pandemic, and the fact that the show was now available globally on a different streaming platform, season 3 was a new beginning for Cobra Kai. Although the way the show handled Miguel’s recovery was not very satisfying and too rushed, the rest of the third season was Cobra Kai at its best. The fights were more intense than ever, with most of them happening outside of the mat.

Topping the school fight was arguably impossible, but Cobra Kai season 3 managed to escalate things in a way that was both fun and concerning. The “karate war” that began in season 2 was now all over the Valley, and some characters, such as Hawk and Tory, were consolidated as villains – at least for a period. John Kreese’s takeover of Cobra Kai changed both the dojo and the show, as his influence was felt in every character. From Hawk breaking Demetri’s arm to Robby fighting his dad, season 3 had Kreese’s fingerprints all over it.

While Cobra Kai season 3 was originally ordered by YouTube in 2019, the show was acquired by Netflix in 2020, with the new season arriving in 2021.

Ironically, season 3 is also when Cobra Kai began to flesh out John Kreese in a way that the Karate Kid movies had never done. The flashbacks to Kreese’s time in Vietnam worked perfectly with the rest of the story and culminated in one of the best finales of the show. Seeing Johnny fight Kreese as we learned about the first time Kreese showed no mercy was an incredible way to wrap up the season, not to mention how the Terry Silver storyline confirmed that the infamous Karate Kid 3 villain was about to the show.

3 Cobra Kai Season 5

2022

Terry Silver may have returned in season 4, but it was in season 5 that the Karate Kid 3 villain stole the show. With Kreese in jail and Cobra Kai having just won the All-Valley, there was nothing or no one that could stop Silver. This allowed Cobra Kai season 5 to have fun with one of the most charismatic characters of the franchise while making Silver a genuinely scary villain. Almost 40 years after Daniel was tricked into learning the Way of the Fist, Silver once again manipulates LaRusso and makes his life a living hell.

Bringing Chozen back was one of the best decisions Cobra Kai could have made.

Cobra Kai season 5 showed us Daniel at his lowest, which was a nice change of pacing after four seasons in which LaRusso seemed to have everything figured out. Unlike season 4, which went back and forth with the rivalries and never committed to settling them for good, season 5 embraced the fact that most of the characters were now becoming friends with each other. Miguel and Robby fought their problems out, whereas Sam and Tory realized they didn’t need to be enemies forever.

What truly makes season 5 a standout, however, is the return of Chozen Toguchi. From a villain who was willing to kill Daniel to the best friend someone could ask for, bringing Chozen back was one of the best decisions Cobra Kai could have made. Wise as Daniel and reckless as Johnny, Chozen was exactly what we needed to counter Terry Silver. Season 5 also had one of the best finales of the show, with all three main villains Daniel LaRusso fought in the Karate Kid movies teaming up against Terry Silver and his men.

2 Cobra Kai Season 1

2018

Daniel LaRusso’s story continued for two more movies after the 1984 All-Valley Karate Tournament, but what happened to Johnny Lawrence after the beginning of The Karate Kid Part II is a question that no one had answered until Cobra Kai premiered on YouTube. The premise of the show was simple yet fascinating – a Karate Kid story where Johnny Lawrence, the bully from The Karate Kid, was now the master who would have to guide a kid who needed a role model and could use some karate.

Miguel was the new Karate Kid, yet he was learning Cobra Kai.

Cobra Kai season 1 is a fantastic lesson in how to honor something from the past and have fun with nostalgia while still doing something fresh. A few minutes into the first episode, it becomes clear that those behind the show are Karate Kid fans who love everything about that universe. However, Cobra Kai season 1 also introduced an all-new set of compelling characters, all of whom defied the expectations we could have based on the movies. Miguel was the new Karate Kid, yet he was learning Cobra Kai.

Sam was Daniel’s daughter, yet, after training as a child, she was currently not interested in fighting. Instead, it’s Robby, Johnny’s son, who becomes Daniel’s first student on the show. Cobra Kai season 1 was a better sequel to The Karate Kid than all of the movies, but it was also a great show on its own even if you had never seen the Karate Kid films.

1 Cobra Kai Season 2

2019

Cobra Kai’s moments of nostalgia are fun, but the show arguably shines the most when its original characters are the ones in the spotlight. This is why Cobra Kai season 2 is the best entry in the series. Following Kreese’s return and their victory at the All-Valley, the Cobra Kai dojo Johnny brought back was no longer just a place for kids to find strength and learn how to fight back. Johnny had opened a dangerous Pandora’s box, and now anything could happen.

With the introduction of Tory and the start of her relationship with Miguel, Cobra Kai now had a complicated love quadrangle that, combined with the karate war between the dojos, split the main characters into two factions. Cobra Kai season 2 was no longer about tournaments and fighting against bullies, meaning there were characters we cared about on both sides. It all culminated in the school fight, which is not only the best season finale of the show but arguably Cobra Kai’s greatest episode.