I was unaware of the Cartoon Network series STEVEN UNIVERSE
until this last chapter of the story came to me. Then again with zero children
in the house that’s not odd. The closest I have are 3 great great nephews and 1
niece and to my knowledge they’ve never seen the show either. Or at least never
talked about it. But looking into it I discovered that the series has been
doing well in the ratings and received a number of awards as well. This installment
being the last of the series I dove in with a basic knowledge of what the show
was about and watched to see how it was.
The show revolves around four gem based aliens known as the
Crystal Gems. Living on the east coast of the US they take on female form for
except for one, Steven. Steven is a hybrid, a half human/half gem boy who
inherited his gem stone from his mother, Rose Quartz. The others are Garnet,
Amethyst and Pearl. From a world of gems they’ve abandoned their home world in
order to follow their leader, the missing Rose Quartz, to protect Earth. Steven
is growing up and learning the complexities of his powers as well as maturing. Along
with the Crystal Gems his life lessons involve his father Greg, his magical pet
lion, his friend Connie and other citizens of the town of Beach City.
Now that you’re aware of the story’s basics it’s on to the
new release on disc. I’ll start by saying that the disc is somewhat confusing
once I began looking into the series. It contains 10 episodes out of the 25
episodes that aired for that last known season. And while episodes 18-24 are
there the last one is not and the rest are out of order from that season. Not
being a regular viewer of the show I couldn’t tell you if that effects anything
while watching or not.
Suffice to say that the series takes the characters and then
allows life lessons to be learned by them in each episode. While the fate of
Earth revolves around the potential attack from the Gem World that is not the
main focus here. It is the things that Steven learns about himself, about his
mother and about his friends that are the focal point of each story.
Using melodic tunes and basic animation the show is one that
small children can enjoy and easily accept. No heavy duty CGI on display here
or intensely detailed artwork found in may anime style shows. Instead the
drawings used are rather basic and something that children can relate to. The
show spends quite a bit of the images detailing the backgrounds perhaps more
than the characters to good effect.
No doubt there is some controversy about the series that
needn’t be. The show has been praised because of the gender issues portrayed in
the show. To start with the heroic warriors of the show are women rather than
men as is normally the case. Steven can fuse himself with other characters and
doing so with a girl named Connie he creates Stevonnie, a cross gendered
character. There is also the same sex proposal of Ruby and Sapphire. The
creator of the show, Rebecca Sugar, has stated that her intent was not to force
the issue on these topics but to provide a cartoon that young children facing
these issues would find comforting as they sorted through their own lives.
For some this will be comforting and the LGBTQ community has
praised the series. While I’ve not read of anti-gay groups protesting the show
I have no doubt that there have most likely been some calling for a boycott of
the series. If issues like these bother you then odds are you won’t enjoy the
series. I would still recommend giving it a watch though before making a rash
decision. The topic is not forced or presented in such a way that it demands
you not only accept but endorse these themes. It does present them in such a
way that they are not threatening, crude or shoved in your face.
On the whole the series is well done and interesting. For
younger viewers it’s easy to see why they would be enchanted by the show. While
combat might be a part of what is going on it’s never presented in a way that
would create fear in a child. I would say that the series and this set in
particular might open the door for parents to sit and talk to their children
about the issues it raises. That’s always a good thing. And for concerned
parents the best way to have your child understand the issues is for them to
not be planted in front of a TV but to have those discussions with you. If a
cartoon, such as this one, can open those doors for you to talk take advantage
of that rather than close the door on all discussion.
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