Steven Universe Season One Review

Sugar’s Crystals will brighten up animation in due time.

What They Say:
In Steven Universe, the world is protected from evil by the Crystal Gems, a group of intergalactic warriors who draw their power from special magical gem stones. The four Gems are Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Steven. Steven is a boy who inherited a gemstone from his mother, a Crystal Gem named Rose Quartz. As Steven tries to figure out the secrets of his gem, he spends his days in Beach City doing activities with the other Crystal Gems, whether it’s helping them save the universe or just hanging out.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Adventure Time, known for a lot of its writing and storytelling, benefits from having a stable of great writers and creators. So it is to be expected that an alum would get a chance to do her own show. That alum would be the writer of episodes such as “Fionna and Cake” and “It Came from the Nightosphere”. That alum is Rebecca Sugar. Sugar’s first foray into the mainstream comes in with Steven Universe, a story of three gem named guardians and a portly boy. If this season proved anything, she should have had her own show sooner.

With that said, Steven Universe is a slow burn. Throughout the first half of the series you get a deluge of great content. Episodes such as “Bubble Buddies” where Steven and Connie trap themselves in a bubble makes for great comedic but also endearing moments. Again it applies to “Tiger Millionaire” where Steven gets into wrestling with Amethyst but also shows the bond between the two. It does however come at a price of depth. While people would love to see things happen from the get go Steven Universe takes its time by emphasizing the concept that you need time to establish connections. Sure as above but you need to know how Pearl acts before the second half. So episodic encounters may best come off as character development, but at worst are superficial.

I emphasize the concept of the slow burn because of the second half. Quickly, we start to see that the buildup makes sense. More characters come into play such as Lapis Lazuli and more mystery builds up such as the active transporters that help teleport Gems. The emotional connections become a focal point as Amethyst’s rowdy nature becomes more appropriate. The constant struggles between her and Pearl takes an interesting turn when they visit Kindergarten in “Warp Tour”, which seems to expose a class system that Amethysts unfortunately belongs to on the lower end. Pearl seeming to be of the higher end of said system, along with her normal self, tends to explain the constant back and forth between the two.

This constant conflict between the members as well as the conflict between and (orb character) is problematic so the Crystal Gems try to hide it to no avail. Steven sees these cracks, but doesn’t run away but rather does his best to address the issue. Many kids that may see their parents go through a rough patch of arguing, and to see a cartoon like Steven Universe pursue rather than suppress these issues, may give them that cathartic release they need to understand that no matter what happens, everything can be alright.

The progressive stance of the female characters is laudable. Diversity is aplenty with different character types, and none of them feel particularly gender swapped. Take Garnett, she feels like a stoic character, not a stoic male character. Her contributions feel unique for her, whether it is with her obsession with video games in “Arcade Mania” or her full enthusiastic support of Stevonnie in “Alone Together” these emotions feel unique to her. Pearl’s overcautious nature may lean towards “motherly” but only at surface level as these emotions apply to anyone who’s over cautious.

Speaking of diversity of character types, a quick note about body types. It’s good to know that a range of body types is represented. Many of the types, whether its Steven’s huskiness or Lars’ rail thinness, spread across the spectrum. Unlike many animation series that go for the strict model type of male/female representation, for the most part Steven Universe tends to keep it even handed.

I would be remiss to not point out that Steven Universe is one of the very few shows of recent years that tends to not show toxic masculinity all the time. Steven is arguably a regular boy who still has powers and doesn’t tend to fit the mold of male characters of past. Unlike certain heroes who tend to find getting girls easy, beating people easier, and aggression the easiest, Steven sees none of that. In these moments of awkward stumbling and mess-ups, it’s his upbeat demeanor and curiosity that makes him more relatable. Never have I seen a male character where I can say, “Hey that seems like me as a kid” in a long time.

Pity that Estelle is underutilized in Steven Universe. Everything that works for Garnet seems to work for Estelle, but the voice director seemed to not get the best out of her performance, which comes off as strongly middling. This performance even translates to her singing as her song battle with Jasper should entertain as well as have an emotional connect. Instead, for a singer of her stature, it comes off as middling, a shame.

In Summary:
There are a lot of things Steven Universe has going for it. The talent is there, the story looks to be progressing as well as being progressive in nature. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the characters are likable and interesting. Sure, there are some quibbles here and there about it, but it’s going to be an interesting ride from here on out with Crystal Gems. If this quality improves, we may just have a gem on our hands.

Grade: A-