Archive for the Steven Universe Category


Steven Universe the Movie and Steven Universe Future

June 28th, 2020

2013 seems a lifetime ago now, doesn’t it? Steven Universe was created in a whole different era, practically. The series’ message of hope and growth and love has resonated widely…possibly even more so, as our future turned less hopeful and more dystopic. I’ve reviewed all of the “seasons” as they came out on Amazon Prime, so the numbering is vastly different than the seasons on disk or by CN’s reckoning.

If you aren’t familiar with the show or why I think it’s worth watching, here are my previous reviews:
Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 | Season 7

Steven Universe is ultimately a story about personal growth, and it includes arcs about love and acceptance, about parenting, about working through dysfunctional family dynamic and toxic and abusive relationships. It includes a queer wedding and some very catchy music.

In a year, we went from a government that finally accepted our relationship, and was working towards broader inclusivity, to a nightmare dystopia. In 2016, my wife and I started to watch an episode or two every night before bed, as a kind of anti-anxiety medicine. Not gonna lie…it worked. We still do “take” two episodes most nights. We reach the end, then start over.

Mild spoilers and major links to music videos to follow. ^_^

In Steven Universe the Movie, Steven and the Gems have a similar experience. The future looks very bright for them and the possibilities are endless…until yet another relic from Pink Diamond’s past pops up and takes revenge for how she was treated. It is, maybe, a little too on the money for those of us in 2020, thinking back with nostalgia, but it’s not nostalgia that saves them, it’s acknowledging the sins of the past, and repairing the hurt, so everyone can grow. Still, way too close for comfort, but critically important to remember.

The music in this movie is both incredibly catchy, ridiculously sticky and in several cases, deeply painful. What made this movie worth watching is that once again, we are reminded that Steven Universe was never a story about a magical boy fighting monsters, it was always a story about personal growth. Watching the Gems recalling who they had been and how they became who they are, was masterfully done. With a musical bonus. The fusion Opal was voiced by Aimee Mann (whose hit song as ‘Til Tuesday, Voices Carry I remember playing – and watching on MTV – on a loop as a teen). I was delighted that she and her musical partner, Ted Leo, get a powerful song during a climactic scene here.

One of the overall themes of Steven Universe as a series has been that choices have consequences…and if you’re not dealing with the consequences of your choices…then someone else is.

The end of the movie is the most spectacular Takarazuka reference. We literally screamed our lungs out when we saw it the first time. Just…..wowowowow, holy crow wow.

 

Steven Universe Future is about what happens when you keep pushing off the consequences of your decisions.

The entire season is focused on Steven coming to grips with a future that he helped build, but which may not actually include him. Like every hero returning from their journey to the underworld, he’s paid a price and like all the heroes before him, that price is normality. Or…is it? Sure Frodo couldn’t stay in Hobbiton, but…he was oozing out of that place long before he left. We all do. I liked the community I grew up in, but I’ve never wanted to return. Part of growing up in the USA has traditionally been leaving your home behind. And just because you’ve returned from the heroes journey doesn’t have to mean you’re done.  Maybe journeying is what you’ll always be doing, and maybe a hero could make an amazing psychopomp because they’ve been there and done that.

Future has one last Utena reference for us and it’s a doozy, so get your roses out and get ready to duel. ^_^ (Also a side-eye to Sailor Moon.)

We cannot fix the past by ignoring it. We can only admit the truth, be the best possible people we are now and allow people to find their own way forward. It’s not an idealist vision of the future, it’s a realist’s vision. The future may or may not look bright, but we’ve still got to put the work in, no matter what.

Once more I want to thank Rebecca Sugar and all the folks on the SU team, with my eternal gratitude for the amazing writing, animation, music and voice acting. I am endlessly surprised by this series, no matter how many times I watch it. And I’ve watched it a lot of times.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Steven Universe has given us a process by which we may move forward towards the future. It’s up to us to build the future we want.





LGBTQ Cartoon: Steven Universe, Season 7

August 26th, 2018

Steven Universe, the blockbuster cartoon about a magical boy is groundbreaking in a dozen ways. In previous seasons, it has dealt with complicated feelings about family, shown us both abusive and functional relationships, discussed war trauma, and repeatedly discusses betrayal, trust, loyalty, friendship and love in its many forms. In a cartoon. For children.

In Season 7 (by Amazon’s reckoning,) Steven Universe delves deeply into those concepts of betrayal and trust. Very deeply. Very, very deeply. This season also complete the process of humanizing the Crystal Gems. In the first few seasons, it is very clear that human relationships are genuinely not a strong point for them. We see this even more starkly in flashbacks to their lives before Steven. In this season, we see the Gems resolve and move through a number of lingering issues by taking part in that humanest of excuses to party – a wedding.

The season begins with secrets, chaos and confusion and geas.
The season resolves with love.
The season ends in chaos and confusion and we have no idea what’s to come.

This season was amazing.

There was not one iota of rebuke or snark in Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding. This is not an episode – heck, it’s not a series – that ever thinks to say, “in your face, haters!” As Steven sings clearly for all of us, caught in the middle of interesting times, for just one day, let’s only think about love…

…and Nell Brinkley. And cowboys. And when the next soundtrack album will be coming out. And holy shit that ending! And all the other stuff. What a season. What a series.

I have repeatedly said in public – often on forums for which this is wildly inappropriate – I want a Peridot/Lapis fusion. I want them to become Azurite. And I want to talk about why. So buckle in.^_^

Someonesomewhere commented that they didn’t want a Peridot/Lapis fusion because they felt that fusions were always about “love.” But I want to talk about fusion, because while Sapphire and Ruby’s fusion is absolutely about love, we’ve seen so many kinds of fusion, from Rubies fusing to make a larger Ruby, to Amethyst and Pearl, whose Opal fusion is not once driven by love – but is instead driven by desire to protect Steven. And we’ve seen non-consensual fusion.

For me, fusion is about trust. Garnet’s words bear that out when she tells Greg that to fuse one must have a gem of light at the core of one’s being and a person who can be trusted with that light.

Lapis has been horribly emotionally scarred, from long before we met her and repeatedly after we do. She can’t trust. She’s never seen trust. Peridot keeps trying to trust Lapis, and getting hurt when she betrays that trust. The moment they fuse will be a profound change for a gem who has been our PTSD poster child. And, selfishly, I really want to see that moment. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 I love, love, love, the capsule-shaped fog on the Beach City Boardwalk
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – Sapphire in a tux counts for 4
Yuri – 9

Overall – 10

Gahh! January is so far away!





Steven Universe: The Complete First Season (English)

May 18th, 2018

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.





LGBTQ: Steven Universe, Season 6

September 8th, 2017

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In Season 1 of Steven Universe we met and learned about the Crystal Gems, friendly alien invaders from space. In Season 2 we began to really understand their history. Season 3 deepened our understanding of all the series’ characters and Season 4 brought the first major plots to fruition…and expanded our cast. In Season 5, Steven and we begin to understand that Rose Quartz was not necessarily the beacon of Good that she had been held up to be. As we learn about her flaws, Rose becomes exponentially more interesting.

In Season 6, we begin, at last to put all the pieces we’ve been given into some kind of picture. And the picture we’re getting is nothing like the one we expected.

We’re introduced to Blue Diamond in person. With the chance to directly compare her and Yellow Diamond, we start to get a little bit of a picture of an imperious royal class that understands little and cares not at all about the beings it rules. We spend a lot of time in space this season since, realistically, having neutralized The Cluster, any further contact with the Diamonds would have to be in space or on Homeworld, or Earth would be at risk. Space it is, then.

Several really significant things happened this season – Greg was introduced to just how vast the story in which his son is embroiled actually is. Steven is now very visibly showing signs of super strength, and becoming more confident with his powers. We visit Homeworld and learn that in a strictly defined hierarchy, there’s still an outcast underclass. Amethyst meets her family and finds that she’s just one of the gems after all.  I learned about Holly Blue Agate , a stone I had never heard of before. (Fairly remarkable, as I’ve been collecting semi-precious stones for decades…) and Lars…well…no,that’s a spoiler, I will not spoil.

We get to see that both Yellow and Blue Diamond have genuine affection for Pink Diamond (and I can’t help but wonder what White Diamond, who has never once been mentioned, but whose symbol we’ve repeatedly seen, is like.) In fact, during “What’s the Use of Feeling Blue,” we get the distinct feeling that Yellow Diamond surprises herself when she speaks of missing Pink Diamond.

But once again, the climax of the series is unexpected in ways that we couldn’t even have predicted. Once again we learn that the truth isn’t what we we were told it is, and it isn’t what others think it is, either. So…what is it? The fan theories are flying, thick and fast. ^_^

The last significant thing that happened is that my wife is hooked. Hah. ^_^ Now I can obsess and she’s totally into it. Gotcha. Hee Hee. Hee.

Art – 8
Story- 10
Characters – 10
Service – 1 on principle
Queerness – 7 Fluorite is a lovely nod to polyamory.

Overall – 10

Can’t wait for Season 7. Seriously.





Steven Universe Soundtrack, Volume 1

June 2nd, 2017

Sometimes, you just need the world to have a #1 movie about an Amazon and the debut of the much-desired Steven Universe Soundtrack. ^_^

There’s not much I can really say about this soundtrack to convince you to get it. Either you enjoy Steven Universe, find the music an integral and pleasant part of the series as a whole, or, well, you don’t.

If you do like the music, and have a habit of singing “It’s Over Isn’t It?” for days and days at a time, then you, too, will want to run out and get this-digital only album. It’s available on iTunes, where it soared to #5 in the album charts right away and also on Google Play. 

I find that not only did I remember every episode every song belongs to, I find myself thinking Lapis and Peridot *really* need a duet. Or, I should say, I really need Lapis and Peridot to have a duet. ^_^

I hadn’t realized that Rebecca Sugar herself sings the beautiful ED, “Love Like You.” And now I get to enjoy Olivia Olsen’s version of “Haven’t You Noticed (I’m a Star)” on repeat as well.  And probably the full-version of the OP “We Are The Crystal Gems”  and “Do It For Her”. Which makes me realize that Deedee Magno Hall as Pearl is the winner in terms of songs for me. The depth and honesty and pathos of the writing for Pearl is extraordinary. 

Yes. I’m fangirling. Yes. This will surprise no one.

And now I undoubtedly will sing “It’s Over Isn’t It?” for days and days. And days.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

And days. 

Soar like a comet and get this album and we can all sit around sharing jams and jam.

Tell me what your favorite track is in the comments