Steven Universe, unlike most of the other shows, is one of the shows I've watched for a while now, in fact it's the second best recommended cartoon I started watching.
At first, it was cute and all but nothing I saw that was worthy of such high praise but after So Many Birthdays, I was crying. Yes, that episode is the very episode that made me love this show and every episode like it after just sets the bar up higher and higher.
The story is told through the eyes of Steven Universe, a boy who's half human and half gem. Gems in this world are technically aliens from other worlds and he lives with 3 other gems named
Garnet,
Amethyst
and Pearl
that are part of a team called the Crystal Gems. A team which his mother, Rose Quartz found and led until she sacrificed herself for Steven. There are 2 seasons to it so far so I'll stop at Season 1A for now.
The main story is Steven learning how to be more responsible as his role as a Crystal Gem and trying to learn how it activate and use his gem powers while going through his life, whether it be with the Gems or his friends.
We get to meet Beach City and all of it's residents, literally all of them, apparently there's only like 15 people living here excluding the Gems themselves, and everyone there is so uniquely interesting. I think it's a smart choice, limiting the number of citizens because you can build better characters for everyone and the viewers can slowly identify them as members of Beach City.
We also learn more about Steven and his family, the Crystal Gems and Greg Universe, his human dad.
Greg was an aspiring musician until his performance in Beach City where he met Rose Quartz and fell in love with her. He stayed behind and they were together until Steven arrived.
We don't really know a lot about the Gems in Season 1A except about their powers. Gems summons their signature weapons to combat with and it is where most of their powers are used from.
Garnet's weapon are her gauntlets which she can summon to any size she needs them to be, with them she can launch them and fry enemies by bouncing electricity to them.
Amethyst's weapon is her version of a nine tails whiplash. She can direct energy through it, the whip itself can cut almost anything and she can grab almost anything with it.
Pearl's is a spear which she can shoot energy projectiles, that's really it. we haven't seen that much with the spear done out of combat.
The Gems also have unique strengths as well, Garnet has electrical-based powers and the power of foresight, she also seems to be heat-resistance since she can swim in lava like it's a pool.
Amethyst has this sonic-like spin dash attack and she is crazily endurable, her stomach that is.
Pearl is the more knowledgeable of the 2 about humans and their history and culture, she's also very skilled at mechanics, sword-fighting and ballet. She can also store things inside her gem and project holograms from it.
Most gems can change forms and if their original body sustains too much damage, they can reconstruct their bodies after retreating into their gems.
But the most interesting power that the Gems have is Fusion, a move which combines Gems to create one being with all of their physical and mental attributes, their personalities, their appearances, their powers, even their weapons. In season 1 there are 2 Fusions that were shown to us.
One was Opal, her weapon is a bow and arrows
the other was Sugilite who's weapon is a wreaking glove.
I could spend hours talking about the Gems and everyone in Beach City but I'll save you the time to go watch it yourself, every episode is about 10 to 15 minutes long and each one mostly part of a continuing narrative about gems and how it is affecting Steven's life.
When I talked about this show to my friends, I always said that while Gravity Falls excels at comedy, Steven Universe's is at emotions. Not to say those two lack vise versa but they just do one thing better than the other. So far, Gravity Falls has made me feel but never cry, this show made me cry at least 6 times. I know, I'm a crybaby, let's move on.
The animation is so fluent in this show and the backgrounds are gorgeous to stare it.
The music is spectacular. Rebecca Sugar has a reputation when it comes to writing songs and it shows here, just listen to these songs.
That's all for now and I know I don't talk about the characters that much in this show because every person is written so specially with their own arcs that it really should be up to you to experience. Feel free to voice out your opinions on this show. Favorite episode? Maybe your favourite character.
See you next time.
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