Steven Universe is the show humanity needed, and I hope it wasn’t too late.
Okay, wait. Basics. Steven Universe pops at a basic entertainment level. The character designs are distinct and immediately eye-catching, episodes never go too far in one emotional direction or another multiple in a row, their use of foreshadowing and planting plot devices in advance in a low-key but still memorable way is among the best I’ve seen for a kid-focused show. Especially considering that they’re clearly aiming to be showable in nearly any order while still actually having a clear and strict timeline from episode to episode if you’re binging it. They don’t always do the best job hiding their animation limits, sometimes their use of expression can drift into too formulaic, but how anyone can think this looks interchangeable with half a dozen other shows I’ll never understand.
Also there are so many homages to other shows. Also video games, somewhat unexpectedly. They borrow the robot master select screen from Mega Man 3 at one point. Pearl is a walking reference to Revolutionary Girl Utena. Garnet’s Universe is a series of Dragonball references, but then the final attack is almost certainly a Giga Drill Break. It’s worth noting they only rarely actually change the animation style, but the way they adapt elements of these shows into their own style has its own charm.
Also holy shit I am CONVINCED that the big battle in Ocean Gem was using a background track ripped from an unmade Kingdom Hearts game. They summoned the very soul of Yoko Shimomura, and I love them forever.
The show’s focus is on characters and relationships, so obviously the characters are pretty good. It’s worth noting mostly how each new cast addition manages to bring a new balance and set of traits to the overall pie, and that’s starting with 5 primary characters. Each new one keeps managing to be a new favorite, only for one of the Gems to do something great and new, but then the new characters add another layer and aaaaaaaaaa. It’s great. I mean, there are exceptions, but…
Weakest Episode- Keep Beach City Weird. I don’t have much interesting to say about this one. Actually I considered not even bothering because no episodes really stood out as tedious or offensive or anything. But I remembered some internet lists calling this one the worst and… yeah probably. Ronaldo isn’t great at the best of time, and he’s just the worst sort of asshole here, and then they give up and feed him fresh delusions in the end. I mean I… geeeet it I guess but bleh.
But mostly Steven Universe is a show about the strength of compassion. Steven doesn’t just have near-global empathy, and it’s not just a source of strength. Like, sure, the show totally pulls moments of “I FIGHT FOR MY FRIENDS” heroic resolve, but only one or two belong to Steven. And they’re more about keeping him moving than striking down his foes.
Steven Universe doesn’t just feel for everyone, and see the pain behind fear and hatred. He has the strength to understand, at some impossible intuitive level, that everything they inflict on him is just a fraction of the hurt that brought them where they are. He will heal, he can shield himself, and he can take it, because not doing so instead means he has to suffer seeing another living thing, hurt and scared and almost always alone, die.
All the best episodes of Steven Universe come back to this theme, in one way or another. So Many Birthdays really shows off how Steven thinks of the Gems and how badly he needs them both to love him and each other. Monster Buddies uh… is kinda the episode I was describing with the “hurt and scared and alone” thing. An Indirect Kiss delves into Steven himself a bit more, showing where the edges of the hole never knowing his mother lie.
I’d be remiss not to mention Alone Together, but I’ll admit I didn’t get a lot out of it personally. Like the way it can reflect the experience of the world suddenly noticing you growing up is absolutely a thing that’s pretty obvious, it’s not something I ever really experience? I mean when people randomly hit on me as a young teen I knew they were making fun of me and instead developed a healthy complex about that instead! Totally different.
Buuuuuuuuuuut….
Best Episode- Oh my god Mirror Gem. This is such an encapsulation of the entire show. Steven gets one idea in his head, it leads him to some Gem tech, he does kid stuff with it… but it turns out the key is his boundless empathy, and trying to help something that seems dangerous. But it goes off script at this point because for the first (although probably not the last) time in the show there’s not a clear resolution: Lapis says her clearly heartbroken goodbye and runs of. And sure the very next episode has the Gems confronting her, but it too has no clear-cut “just do what we’ve been doing” resolution. More than that the way they loop the voice clips to characterize Lapis while she’s still in the mirror is inspired, and her reactions afterwards keep adding little layers. Season 1 (which seems to really be two seasons but the show retroactively put them together for some internal reason) shows Lapis in exactly five episodes but that adds up to so much personality my jealousy is unbound.
I also feel sorta glad I don’t really date after watching stuff like this. I feel like I’d have long since run head firsts to fix a problem person and dashed myself on the rocks way before figuring out how to remotely help.
Something about this show inspires oversharing. Must be the empathy high.
All that said I do have a bit of a cap on how much I can hype this season? The ratio of episodes that absolutely popped to the good filler is a bit too lopsided for my tastes, and while the underlying message of the show is something that speaks to me so, so much it also can sometimes lose the thread when it needs to keep Steven… well, his age. Whatever it is. So I might undershoot the score a bit here, but it feels right in the moment.
Oh. Yes.
Whoever said “CK is Pearl” is right to a degree I think Rebecca Sugar might be inside my head and it’s weird. Stop being so right you right person.
Rating- 8/10
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