FA+
Shop
So... Steven Universe Anybody?
11 years ago
Review of Steven Universe: 8/10
Yknow... from time to time, there comes along a supposedly kids show, meant to be funny and everything... somehow, this show IS... but it's also one of those that, like FUTURAMA, will make you CRY, if you have any sort of emotions. The main character's friends, these three magical women that are called "Gems", for the type of gem somewhere on their bodies(Pearl in her head, Garnet in her hands, Amethyst in between her boobs), and the main character has a rose-quartz gem in his belly button... all of these main characters live in some nowhere beach town with a mountain, with a temple in it, with a beachhouse built into said-temple. Sounds like a setup made of crap, huh? Well, you'd only be 1/3rd right. The series is a jumble of mismatched information and pretty women fighting monsters.
You begin to get a sense of some kind of storyline somewhere, I forgot where, but it begins to build into something relating a storyline, when you come to like, relate and fall in love with the characters(as friends). One particular episode, you see Steven watching Pearly as she looks up to the sky, and talking about how she wanted to show the main character their home worlds. He goes to his father, and they begin putting junk together, for fun, and just being silly. His father's early-episode lesson? "It's OK to bail!" Later on that episode, Pearly creates a home-made spaceship, and takes Steven up in it. As the ship begins to fall apart around them, Steven forces her to bail, as the ship falls apart and explodes shortly after they eject from the craft. "I was so close... so close..." It all ends with her understanding that she wants to stay and keep Steven safe, wondering why she wanted to leave beyond seeing her home again, despite being immortal.
The next episode I remember off the top of my head, which is a real mind-fuckery. Steven begins giving the Gems birthday parties, but is told-off along the way, around the third party, that "it is childish". He begins to mope and age rapidly, wanting to be grown up. He goes back to the gems as a dying old man, and they throw him a party, but having regressed in happiness and optimism, clearly in depression in such a way as to give up overall on life, at one point, Garnet begins to punch and slap him, crying herself, not wanting to let him die, and hoping to beat it out of his system. They do all of the things that he wanted to do for them, and try everything they can think of to change his mind. In the end, I forget how he got back to being his usual self, but the whole... trying to save him in any way possible... well, I cried when Garnet started to.
Then for another dramatic moment, there was LAPIS LAZULI, two episode(actually only worth a whole 30 minutes(22 if you actually think about cutting out all the ads and what-have-yous) story. Steven wants to try going to school, and Pearl can't think of a way to actually teach him using earth-based methods, so she gives him a magical mirror, that doesn't seem to work at first. He begins to mess around with it in silly ways that only children can think to do stupidly, until it begins to copy what it has seen around the town, watching Steven and the world around him, until it begins talking to him using copied words. He takes it back to the temple to show off, and reluctantly it begins to mimic the things around town in front of them. That gets them worried and upset, and demand he give the mirror back into their care, so he runs out, after knocking Garnet's glasses off of her face, revealing her three eyes, and severely making her angry. He runs out to the beach and the mirror tells him to pull the gem from the back of the mirror, and after he does, Lapis appears, with large round eyes, blank and reflecting, and very angry with the Gems as they attempt to fight her, and finding out that Steven is one as well, but not wanting to hurt the one who freed her, she goes out into the ocean, and getting away without anymore damage to the Gems beyond their pride, for the moment. In the second half, you find that she has taken the whole Ocean, and built a tower, trying not to control the earth, but to reach her home, trying to spread the water as far as it can go, so that she might get to her homeworld. Her gem was cracked and broken, so her powers as-were, were at maybe 1/5th of what they should have been, to enable her travel, but Steven, using his healing-spit, fixes her, and she is grateful to him. Although... as she flies off into the universe, her tower collapses with Steven at the top, but of course, by this time, Steven has had a magical lion-friend, and a future-girlfriend, for long enough that they teleport up to him and grab him as he falls, getting back down and escaping being killed and/or drowned as Steven creates an orb around his father's van and most of the people pack into it.
For the drama, and overall compassion of the series, I would have to give the show a 2/10, add in the animation style being so decent, and the fight-scenes so ... pleasing, I give it another 4/10(6/10 so far). For what story there is, and the characters being how they are, another 1/10. For the hidden adult jokes, humor and just overall old-school feeling, another 1/10, for a total of 8/10! I might discuss the rest later...
Yknow... from time to time, there comes along a supposedly kids show, meant to be funny and everything... somehow, this show IS... but it's also one of those that, like FUTURAMA, will make you CRY, if you have any sort of emotions. The main character's friends, these three magical women that are called "Gems", for the type of gem somewhere on their bodies(Pearl in her head, Garnet in her hands, Amethyst in between her boobs), and the main character has a rose-quartz gem in his belly button... all of these main characters live in some nowhere beach town with a mountain, with a temple in it, with a beachhouse built into said-temple. Sounds like a setup made of crap, huh? Well, you'd only be 1/3rd right. The series is a jumble of mismatched information and pretty women fighting monsters.
You begin to get a sense of some kind of storyline somewhere, I forgot where, but it begins to build into something relating a storyline, when you come to like, relate and fall in love with the characters(as friends). One particular episode, you see Steven watching Pearly as she looks up to the sky, and talking about how she wanted to show the main character their home worlds. He goes to his father, and they begin putting junk together, for fun, and just being silly. His father's early-episode lesson? "It's OK to bail!" Later on that episode, Pearly creates a home-made spaceship, and takes Steven up in it. As the ship begins to fall apart around them, Steven forces her to bail, as the ship falls apart and explodes shortly after they eject from the craft. "I was so close... so close..." It all ends with her understanding that she wants to stay and keep Steven safe, wondering why she wanted to leave beyond seeing her home again, despite being immortal.
The next episode I remember off the top of my head, which is a real mind-fuckery. Steven begins giving the Gems birthday parties, but is told-off along the way, around the third party, that "it is childish". He begins to mope and age rapidly, wanting to be grown up. He goes back to the gems as a dying old man, and they throw him a party, but having regressed in happiness and optimism, clearly in depression in such a way as to give up overall on life, at one point, Garnet begins to punch and slap him, crying herself, not wanting to let him die, and hoping to beat it out of his system. They do all of the things that he wanted to do for them, and try everything they can think of to change his mind. In the end, I forget how he got back to being his usual self, but the whole... trying to save him in any way possible... well, I cried when Garnet started to.
Then for another dramatic moment, there was LAPIS LAZULI, two episode(actually only worth a whole 30 minutes(22 if you actually think about cutting out all the ads and what-have-yous) story. Steven wants to try going to school, and Pearl can't think of a way to actually teach him using earth-based methods, so she gives him a magical mirror, that doesn't seem to work at first. He begins to mess around with it in silly ways that only children can think to do stupidly, until it begins to copy what it has seen around the town, watching Steven and the world around him, until it begins talking to him using copied words. He takes it back to the temple to show off, and reluctantly it begins to mimic the things around town in front of them. That gets them worried and upset, and demand he give the mirror back into their care, so he runs out, after knocking Garnet's glasses off of her face, revealing her three eyes, and severely making her angry. He runs out to the beach and the mirror tells him to pull the gem from the back of the mirror, and after he does, Lapis appears, with large round eyes, blank and reflecting, and very angry with the Gems as they attempt to fight her, and finding out that Steven is one as well, but not wanting to hurt the one who freed her, she goes out into the ocean, and getting away without anymore damage to the Gems beyond their pride, for the moment. In the second half, you find that she has taken the whole Ocean, and built a tower, trying not to control the earth, but to reach her home, trying to spread the water as far as it can go, so that she might get to her homeworld. Her gem was cracked and broken, so her powers as-were, were at maybe 1/5th of what they should have been, to enable her travel, but Steven, using his healing-spit, fixes her, and she is grateful to him. Although... as she flies off into the universe, her tower collapses with Steven at the top, but of course, by this time, Steven has had a magical lion-friend, and a future-girlfriend, for long enough that they teleport up to him and grab him as he falls, getting back down and escaping being killed and/or drowned as Steven creates an orb around his father's van and most of the people pack into it.
For the drama, and overall compassion of the series, I would have to give the show a 2/10, add in the animation style being so decent, and the fight-scenes so ... pleasing, I give it another 4/10(6/10 so far). For what story there is, and the characters being how they are, another 1/10. For the hidden adult jokes, humor and just overall old-school feeling, another 1/10, for a total of 8/10! I might discuss the rest later...
