At last! The entire first season of Steven Universe on DVD. 52 episodes of what I sincerely consider to be some of the very best cartooning I have seen in decades. I’m so ecstatic to be able to be writing about cartoons and comics during what is an absolute Renaissance of cartooning and comic making. ^_^

Steven Universe: The Complete First Season on DVD covers the series sequentially from “Gem Glow” through “Joy Ride”, what Amazon Prime considers Season 1 and Season 2. The set consists of three disks, each one decorated to reflect Amethyst’s, Pearl’s and Garnet’s gems. 

In this first season, we meet Steven Quartz Universe, a “magical boy” whose late mom was an alien from the Gem Home Planet. His guardians, Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst, don’t quite understand what being a human is like, but they do their best to make Steven happy, and train him at the same time in what we imagine to be the powers he will inherit from his mother’s gem. Steven can be – and frequently is – annoying and whiny, but as the story plays out, he not only matures as a person and a fighter, but we get a glimpse of the person he will become in future seasons. 

The story begins with what appears to be a standard formula of fighting monsters of the day. This morphs quickly into a layered and nuanced story about love, and betrayal, and war and peace. All the characters, not just Steven, do a lot of changing in this first season. The characters as we we see them in Joy Ride are not the same one’s we met in the beginning. 

Anime fans will recognize references from some popular shoujo series and, for the Okazu audience specifically, the homages to Revolutionary Girl Utena will please. Garnet’s story is also sure to put a smile on your face. 

The quality of the video is good, certainly better than watching it on television or the low-definition version on Amazon Prime. I wonder if the animation would hold up to w Blu-ray release, I’d be interested to find out. 

There are a number of extras on the final disk, including Rebecca Sugar doing demos of some of the songs, and an interview with her about the process for a few key ones (some of which may be spoilers for future season.) It’s very interesting to hear her demos and compare them with the final versions. Videos are interspersed with San Diego Comic Con 2017 footage. I warn you, the music is sticky. I’ll sing a song for a week at a time. Recently I’m stuck on “Working Dead” from the last season and my wife is looping “Stronger Than You” from Season 1 in her head.

I’ve encouraged any number of folks to watch this cartoon, and in doing so, I always caution them about this first season -Steven can be hard to take, especially in the first handful of episodes. But if you haven’t already taken the plunge, this is definitely the right time to grab this collection, get your snack of choice and let Steven, the Crystal Gems and the denizens of Beach City drive their van into your heart.

Ratings:

Art – Starts at 7, but rapidly firms up to 9. The backgrounds are especially brilliant
Characters – 10
Story – 10
Yuri – 10
Service – 0 There’s nothing salacious here.

Overall – 100

I’m going to come down on the side of this is must-watch animation for Yuri fans and one of the best cartoons I’ve ever seen.