Thanks to a Hulu account assist from Sween, I'm another season into Steven Universe - now just one year behind being fully caught up - and I'm right there with Trev, absolutely loving it. His recent post sums the premise and the appeal up pretty adequately, but one thing neither of us have really hit on yet is the show's emotional core. Yes, it alternates seamlessly between being a cute kid-friendly animated comedy and an action-filled epic space opera of sorts, but where the series really began to shine in Season 2 - to look like something wholly unique and special - was in its exploration of the relationships between its characters. Friendships, romances, platonic bonds, slowly defrosting rivalries, intensely felt personal betrayals, lovers, jealous spurned lovers, loyal guardians, father-son bonds, mother-son love - all this takes center stage in the second season. The very concept of "fusion" - a special, literal fusing of any two Gems into something bigger and stronger - beautifully serves as a metaphor for same-sex marriage and genderfluidity while still making perfect sense as an element of a kid-friendly cartoon. It's actually really impressive, when I step back and think about it, and so is the show's slow-burn reveal of its characters' backstories and origins. Trev has also repeatedly pointed out that the art and music deserve recognition, and they do. (Although I'll never not cringe at Steven's father's perma-sunburn.) Sween, you really owe it to yourself to give this one a whirl. It's fun! And it somehow nails the intersection on the "easy to watch" and "rewarding to watch" Venn Diagram.
Glad you're liking it! Yeah, I didn't want to dive into the emotion side of it too much because you begin talking about "fusions" or Peridot arriving on Earth -- somewhat spoiler territory, but fuck it... it's not like Keith is going to watch this. (Prove me wrong, Keith. Prove me wrong.) I think show-runner Rebecca Sugar commented that Steven is capable of beating his enemies and overcoming his conflicts through his sheer sense of love and compassion. I know... I'm rolling my eyes at the thought of that as well. What's next? Holding hands and singing Barney's "I love you, you love me" song? As much as I mock it, it really hits home. It's not executed in some overly sappy way. And the fact is, Steven is not able to save everyone, or is sometimes thrust into a battle that's way over his head. This ain't just some cookie-cutter, after-school special. There's tragedy just as much as there's comedy and rejoice.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I forgot to mention -- and it's a subtle note -- are the credits to the show. There's not a standard way they close out the show. I mean, more times then not it will cut to a view of the Gem's shrine along the beach and they'll play Sugar's "Love Like You" song (which is a great piece I've been trying to learn on the piano). But say it ends on a really tragic note, maybe it will cut to black in complete silence. Or if they're at the barn, it will close with a still of the barn with just crickets chirping (do crickets chirp?) in the background. It's a subtle touch, but it can make the final emotion of the story linger with you.
Glad you're enjoying it. You might have to search around in unscrupulous online portals to find all of the season 3. As for season 4, there's only a few more eps left to air, which should come back to TV at the end of this month.
I'm not going to watch this...
DeleteAlso, unsure if Trevor has mentioned this, but if you watched Season 2 on Hulu, at least when I watched it, it only had the first half of the season available. So you may have accidentally missed a whole bunch of episodes.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.watchcartoononline.io/anime/steven-universe has all of them available
Yeah, I quickly learned after posting this that Hulu's seasonal delineations don't line up with the consensus seasonal delineations - and neither of those match up well with airdate patterns in the first place. Even the episode order seems inconsistent. But I've definitely seen them all! (Thanks, trakt.tv)
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