Episode Review: Gem Glow

 I found myself reviewing Steven Universe. I want to let go of any confusions and feelings left hanging in the air about this show. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. I really want to write down my emotions about it instead of just holding onto these confused emotions and end up sounding so close minded about it. 

Even though I know a good amount of the lore, I'm putting myself through this purgatory because, the show has finally ended and I can finally like, watch everything in a few sittings and re-analyze everything. It's been literal years since I watched most of the episodes. 

Steven Universe is also a great source of creativity for me. I had a gemsona that was themed after my birthstone, who oddly enough had a crush on Lars. 

With all of that being said, these reviews aren't spoiler friendly.

Anyways, let's get started, shall we? -w-

The intro

So first things first. Honestly something that I've never really spoken about is how uncomfortable the character designs make me. Just because a show is a cartoon doesn't mean that all proportions should be over-exaggerated. I really hate Garnet's design because when I look at Ruby and Sapphire's designs, the character designer seemed to be going towards a "cutesy" design and such, and then when I look at Garnet, there's no reflection of that except for her third eye. I think it's horrible character design because I feel like the designer is projecting how they feel about dark-skinned women onto their art. Just a thought. I don't like how she's so beefy and like, therefore "should be understood as the almighty powerful" person in the room. I know that a black woman had provided a voice for her but I'm so against Garnet's existence. This show is so anti-progressive, no wonder people once labelled as edgelords honestly hated it. 

It feels though as if someone was drawing a masculine body type, and then added some thighs and hips to make it "more feminine". I get that Garnet is a "black coded" character but we saw how you created Connie's design, so.. 

was it really necessary to create this "leaning dark-skin sexy" character? 🤢

I feel like Ruby's influence overbares on Sapphire's influence within Garnet's character a bit. It's sort of shown in their relationship dynamic as well. 

Considering my body type, I guess I'm pretty petite but I really identified with Amethyst's personality and Sapphire's proportions. She has like, the best character design, or one of the best. I feel like the team of this show has regressed in a totally not so cute way. They didn't experiment enough with character designs and color palettes until much later in the show, which has created some fun to illustrate characters admittedly, but this show literally has a dumpster fire of problems that should be presented to the fandom honestly in a gentle light, not in a harsh "THIS SHOW IS SOOOO STUPID AND HERE'S WHY." (referring to one of the.. commentators who went a bit viral for describing the show as such). The show is a bunch of red flags disguised as a good intentional show. Just, eugh.

Anyway, time to keep watching this..

I thought it was worth talking about it because sometimes Garnet's existence in the show made me want to stop watching the show at times, quite often than even I have really acknowledged..

This intro kind of reinforced my love for hot dogs, not gonna lie.

The episode itself

I kinda admit the ground shaking when Steven says "noooo!" is pretty funny. Did they get inspiration from GoAnimate videos or something? lmao

I get that the writers are trying to provoke "charm" in the series by showing Steven's misadventures and adventures of both adolescence and growing up as a half-gem human all at once for each episode.. but I would've preferred it if there was some type of like, "Gem training academy" for people like Steven. I know that Steven is one of a kind but these awkward kiddy moments never really appealed to me, if anything I found them really weird and strange. The expressions made me cringe. A lot. That's why I spent most of my time watching Splatoon rather than watching the show again most of the time.

I guess that's a idea for a fanfiction and I can re-design Topaz, my birthstone character. Not going to lie to you, it's really hard to be creative with just a few pictures of one gem.

The animation, especially with the cherry blossom petals is really beautiful. However, that scene has a slight glint of "dumbing things down for their target audience". Hell, adult shows face this a lot more than a lot of other people realize..

I know the soundtrack is something that you're supposed to "love", but it's honestly making me cringe because I feel like they added these "hyper composed beautiful short seconds of music" within the scene to make up for a lack there-of, so there's insecurity in the work..

I guess Steven is truly in a unique position, where all of the gems that surround him just try their best to educate him on how to utilize his gem, and all of the struggles that come with it. Maybe I can learn a thing or two from the mistakes of the filler episodes, too.

It's that scenario where we can see the gems break down from pressure or similar things, such as emotional stress from the situation and other instances. Not specifically their actual gem, but their mental state. So it seems an almost perfect platform for the writers to show what's at stake emotionally for them, and other obstacles. 

I still wish there was a more structured approach to learning how to summon your weapon, though.

Pearl accidentally comes across as a know-it-all in that scene instead of like, being full of wisdom and passion. I would've rewritten the scene a bit more, just like how a few fans had already done.

I hate how the crystal gems act as if they are just like, characters that just happen to be friends instead of individuals that know each other for hundreds and thousands of years. Also.. it makes Amethyst come across as an after-thought character, my favorite character when I was growing up.

I also don't really like how we're just introduced to "beautiful breathtaking landscape" without any information being put out about that if we didn't read the fan wiki during it's broadcast to the world. WE NEED INFORMATION IN ORDER TO FIND IT BEAUTIFUL.

*sighs and takes more notes*

I feel like the animators are still in that phase of "let's animate something impressive in order to get hired" mindset for this first episode. Garnet has a meaningless segment of showing off how to summon her weapons, that don't showcase her personality at all, unless her personality is just.. "flashy". 

So like. I start to like some of the musical segments later on in the show. It's gentle and well-intentioned, and introduces to the viewer the space theme of the show quite easily during supposed light hearted moments. So I can understand why those musical composers took the gig to work on this show, really.

Garnet is so useless as a character-

I feel like the team has a huge projection problem I just can't put my finger on, and they need to work on that. It definitely got worse over time. They need therapy. If not, more therapy. lol

Lol this is making me think and realize that I don't really like Cartoon Network at all if this was it's identity when I was around 9-10 years old. The target demographic for the shows I worshiped from yesteryear (the 2000s). I think I enjoy anime more than I realize. CN is honestly overrated and rots the minds of the youth, especially yours if you're not careful. I know I sound like a anti-TV/anything mother but they weren't wrong in that approach. 

I admit this episode definitely has a very 2015 feel (it was probably produced in 2014 though) and it's a bit nice to revisit those feelings but I'm not sure. Time to time again I realize how much life is a void, even during "those best days" so you better fill up your room with valuable nitnacks, or something..

Something I've learnt from a youtube show reviewer is that, like it's okay to know the names, the real life names of the people who helped make your "Favorite" cartoon a reality. But not okay to like, completely point them out and criticize them openly. I was learning the names of some of my favorite storyboard artists on their work tumblr page, but I didn't want to intrude on their privacy. I will be taking note on them though, for inspiration.

I'm not falling for this sappiness at all. GEEZ. I rather watch MLP:FiM. 

The outro

The outro is iconic and fun to listen to, rather if you're feeling light hearted or really depressed. The credit scene is nice. Even if it does resurface memories of getting bullied and being treated really unfairly. 

At least I'm healing.

Overall rating: 3.5/5

Let's go eat sushi watch anime or something.

Bye Bye Boo.

- Mod Cassandra