I've been enamored by several western animated shows from the last decade, but Steven Universe is my favorite.
Anyway, despite losing interest rather quickly when it was first airing, I gave it a legitimate shot back in 2019. And while the show starts as a rather banal episodic adventure fantasy show, and I don't blame my past self for losing interest, it promptly evolves into a captivating fantasy character drama. And I quickly found myself so bowled over by the show that I honestly didn't know how to respond; they say you shouldn't give in to astonishment, but the show grabbed me like little else.
When it comes to television shows, I usually take quite a while to get through them because they're a significant time investment and often are long-winded. I'm against the idea of binge-watching shows on principle and usually watch multiple at once, each at a slow pace. But, in rare instances, shows take center stage; this was one of those. And after a few existential crises, I finished the show. What I was left with was an experience so overwhelmingly remarkable, bizarre, yet eloquently simple that initially, I had to concede regarding any hopes of making a coherent evaluation. So, immediately after finishing it, I began rewatching it, and I rarely rewatch shows at all.
Now, everything I've said up to this point has been unabashed praise, and praise which is weirdly personal in tone, a tone that will not subside. But I do have issues with the show, and there's an entire sub-community that's formed to be critical of this show; I was aware of that when first watching, but I decided not to engage with it until I had watched the show twice. And my first engagement with it was an incredibly transphobic video essay that I found wholly uninsightful, not off to a great start, and unfortunately, the rest wasn't much better. Again, I have issues with the show; want a list of my least favorite episodes? Here you go:
Gem Glow, Together Breakfast, Frybo, Cat Fingers, Arcade Mania, Onion Trade, House Guest, Fusion Cuisine, Say Uncle, Shirt Club, Love Letters, Drop Beat Dad, Restaurant Wars, Future Boy Zoltron, Onion Gang, Rocknaldo, Dewey Wins, Blue Bird, A Very Special Episode.
But for me, the insightful complaints on the show are entirely submerged in a sea of moralistic cynicism directed at a show I view as a celebration of imperfection and one that argues for individualism. And this negative response has only increased my desire to talk about the show; however, whenever I've attempted to write about the show, I admittedly end up deep in the weeds.
So, I'm currently rewatching the show as part of a now-yearly revisit, and one day, I will create a coherent and organized analysis, just not on here. For now, my efforts with this writing are mainly to provide a relatively concise and spoiler-free pitch on why you should watch the show.
So, one enthralling thing about the show is its moral ambiguity and consistent subversion of your initial perceptions of characters. Steven Universe is framed directly from Steven's perspective; you're placed in a status quo. While characters actively evolve and change, much of the show is focused on unraveling that status quo. But admittedly, that status quo hardly begins to unravel until the second half of the First Season, and the truth about early Season One is that, again, it's banal, but later parts of the show wouldn't work as well without it. Now, would I shorten early Season One? Yes, it could stand to lose ~5 episodes, and early Season One spends time in an unpleasant and dysfunctional status quo. However, subsequently, we learn the deeper causes of that dysfunction and witness the characters' attempts at overcoming it. Those changes wouldn't ring nearly as true if the show didn't spend time reveling in dysfunction. For example, Amethyst and Pearl fight a lot early in the show. Generally, their fighting is dull and melodramatic; fights arise from stuff like Pearl getting unreasonably mad at Amethyst for little gags. It's annoying; however, when we begin to learn why Pearl and Amethyst behave the way they do, and they attempt to resolve their differences, it wouldn't be nearly as compelling if the show hadn't spent time on the unpleasant melodrama between the two.
But if you're wondering what type of fantasy story Steven Universe is, not the escapist kind. It's a show where the villains always have more to them, and it's a show where selfless compassion has consequences. To me, it falls under the category of fantasy, which utilizes concepts for unique conflicts and explores deeper themes of the human condition. For example, there's a character whose ability causes them to be nihilistic. And the show explores their struggle with the effects their nihilism has on others and their desperate attempts at dulling those powers. Anyway, if the idea I just mentioned, or anything else I've said, sounds interesting or like something you'd enjoy, I'd recommend giving the show a fair shot.
