Steven Universe Reviews: Season 1 (Bubble Buddies/Serious Steven)

Clearly I’m doing a great job with getting these out more quickly.

This episode is our first introduction to Connie, this little cutie:

Seriously, she is so adorable. And Steven has a huge crush on her, which is also pretty adorable. After a bad attempt at trying to impress her, Steven runs into the house embarrassed. The Gems realize that Steven has a crush and Pearl and Amethyst are all for setting up a playdate (Pearl says they need to find out what Connie’s favorite tea is, bless Pearl) but Garnet says Steven should just talk to Connie. Steven takes a bracelet out of the fridge (we’ll find out why later) and then goes over to where Connie is. As he approaches her, the cliffs behind her start to crumble. He jumps to rescue her and his gem activates, creating a pink bubble shield around them. Unfortunately, Steven doesn’t know how to deactivate the bubble, nor does he want to ask the Gems for help, so he and Connie try to find another way of breaking it.

After hitting the bubble with a chair and shooting a harpoon at it doesn’t work, Steven comes up with a new idea. He takes Connie to the amusement park, thinking that something there can pop the bubble.

• Steven: Yeah! Tons of horrible accidents happen here everyday! There’s gotta be something to break this bubble. We just gotta find the right ride. Yeah, the kiddy coaster! Alright, we just roll down this ramp as the carts are coming at us, and the crash will break us free!
• Connie: What happens after the bubble pops?
• Steven: We’ll be free!

Steven, NO

Right, so the two of them end up being launched into the middle of the ocean. And while trying to roll themselves back to shore, they fall into a trench created by a sea monster. Connie finally snaps at Steven that he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and that she’s probably going to die without ever having made a single friend. Aw, Connie! As Connie cries Steven pulls out the glowing bracelet from before. He says that he saw her drop it at a parade one day and that he’d been waiting for an opportunity to return it to her. He even kept it in the fridge so it would last longer. This whole scene is really cute, if you can ignore the nonsensical transition of Connie crying about dying to saying “It’s okay, I’m having fun!” Just then the bubble pops and Steven and Connie immediately swim back to shore. They’re attacked once again by the sea monster, which is attracted to the bracelet, but they manage to defeat it. When the Gems show up, Connie tells them how incredible Steven was.

So, something I find notable about this show in general but haven’t had a chance to mention yet. The animation is pretty… muted? For the backgrounds and colors in particular. I mean, if you actually look at the way the backgrounds are drawn in this show, they tend to not be very detailed.

They almost look like they’re unfinished, and even the colors tend to be sort of faded and muted, at least compared to Adventure Time, where everything about the animation was vibrant and colorful and in-your-face. I’m not saying this is a bad thing for Steven Universe, though. Quite the opposite, I find the backgrounds quite pretty, and the fact that they’re more subtle pulls your focus to the characters, who are more vibrantly animated.

Anyway, on to Bubble Buddies. Which unfortunately has a name very similar to a SpongeBob episode and that may get confusing. Connie, as mentioned earlier, is adorable, and she seems like she’ll make a good friendly foil to Steven. She’s calmer and more logical than he is, and she’s already being set up as the voice of reason when she’s with him.

Connie is cute, Steven is cute, the bracelet scene is cute, the whole episode is cute.

Rating: 7.5/10

The episode begins with Steven in Funland, the amusement park. The teacups ride has apparently had an accident, with the teacups having flown out of position with riders still in them. The episode then moves forward to two weeks later. Odd. Steven is with the Gems on a mission, apparently a very serious one. They come to their destination, an upside down pyramid, and head inside. Steven finds a strange, smaller pyramid and touches it, causing it to flip over, and causing everyone inside to gravitate towards a hole in the ceiling. They fall into a room with many doors, and Pearl suggests they split up. Pearl wants to stay with Steven, but Garnet insists on taking him with her while Pearl and Amethyst go together.

Each of the rooms has a dangerous trap in them, and it quickly becomes apparent that Steven is in over his head. Garnet does most of the work while Steven is in constant need of saving. In one room, Steven has a flashback to his time at Funland, where Steven had gotten sick on the teacup ride and fallen out, breaking the lever of the ride and thus accidentally destroying it. In the present, the Gems find themselves in the same room they started in. Pearl says that she and Amethyst have tried multiple doors, but they all end up leading back here. At this point Steven, who is obviously terrified, has a breakdown and says “You were all right about me. I wanted to do this so bad, but now I feel like I’m gonna throw up. This is just like the teacups!” While the Gems reassure him that he’s doing fine, Steven realizes that this is like the teacups ride, with all of the rooms spinning around so they always end up in the same place. Garnet breaks through the floor and they all fall into a large mechanism that causes the temple’s rooms to rotate. Garnet throws Steven at the center and he removes the gem controlling it, which causes the temple to explode. Once freed, the Gems compliment Steven on his ingenuity.

So, Steven obviously isn’t as experienced or as skilled as Pearl, Garnet or Amethyst, hence why Pearl didn’t want to take him along at all and also why Garnet spent most of this episode making sure he didn’t die. It doesn’t help that Steven is still immature and a kid. I mean, Amethyst acts pretty childish, but at least she is an adult (technically? I’m assuming?) and she’s powerful and has control over her abilities. Steven doesn’t have any of that. What he does have is ingenuity. He mind works differently from the Gems, and that’s usually what ends up saving him in past episodes as well as this one. He just needs to learn to actually use his abilities.

This episode got me thinking about Steven’s relationship with each of the Gems. They all have very different approaches in how they deal with him. Pearl is constantly anxious and worried when it comes to Steven, always wanting to protect him from everything and not really trusting him. Amethyst likes playing and having fun with Steven, but doesn’t seem to take him very seriously and can be irresponsible where he’s involved. Garnet seems to be more supportive of Steven, but she also seems very detached from… well, everything. The three of them together kind of balance each other out, but being with only one of them for too long could end up being disastrous.

This is a really enjoyable episode. The temple is an interesting place, it’s pretty exciting, and we get to see Garnet being both a total bad ass and an absolutely adorable mom to Steven.

Rating: 8.5/10

Steven Universe Reviews: Season 1 (Gem Glow/Laser Light Cannon)

The first thing we see of our main character, Steven, is him crying over the fact that his favorite ice cream sandwiches are no longer being made. Incredible.

Anyway, Steven goes home to find Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst fighting off some “Centipeetles” that have invaded. Steven goes to the freezer and opens it to find boxes of Cookie Cats, the ice cream sandwiches he loved so much. Apparently the Gems knew Steven would be upset about them not being sold anymore, so they stole a bunch of them for him. Well, Amethyst stole them. Pearl went back and paid for them later. Steven is so happy that he makes up a rap about the Cookie Cats (no really, this kid is such a dork I already love him) and then takes a bite out of one. As he does, his gem (which is in his belly button) starts to glow.

So, the Gems all have actual gems somewhere on their body, and I guess this is the source of their power? Whatever their power is. Oh, and their weapons come directly out of their gems, but they need to learn how to retrieve their weapons first. Steven doesn’t know how to use his gem powers yet. When his gem glows Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet tell him to try getting his weapon out of it but Steven doesn’t know how. After a while his gem stops glowing and his chance is gone. So, the gems try to help him out for next time.

Okay so there’s so much I like about this part. I like Amethyst saying “Did Pearl tell you the petal thing?”, implying that Pearl tried giving the petal explanation to someone more than once. I like how when Amethyst breaks the dumpster with her whip, the store clerk says “Again?!”, implying that Amethyst has done this more than once. I like how all three of the gems give advice that’s actually not helpful at all, I mean could they try any harder to confuse Steven?

Steven decides instead to try reenacting what was going on the first time his gem glowed. It works, which leads him to believe that Cookie Cats are how he summons his weapon. Oh, and his weapon is a shield because apparently Steven is Captain America. Whoa, they even have similar first names. Steven and Steve. Coincidence? I think not.

Suddenly the ground starts rumbling, and the gems look outside to see a giant Centipeetle. Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet tell Steven to stay inside while they go out to fight, but Steven wants to help. He grabs the freezer full of Cookie Cats and and follow the Gems out. The Gems aren’t doing so well. They’re kind of getting their asses kicked. Steven gets the Centipeetle’s attention and eats another Cookie Cat to try and summon his weapon again, but it doesn’t seem to be working this time. He desperately eats the rest of the Cookie Cats but gets no results. He ends up throwing the freezer at the Centipeetle, which electrocutes it. The Gems are then able to defeat it easily. Steven is distraught over the loss of his Cookie Cats and over the fact that he still hasn’t figured out how to summon his weapon. The Gems reassure him that he’ll figure it out some day, and we end the episode with Steven puking from eating too much.

I can’t help comparing this to the first Adventure Time episode, where we were just thrown into this very strange world with no explanation of how any of it worked. Steven Universe does kind of throw us into the middle of things, but we do get more context and information than we did for Adventure Time. At least, we get a bit of info about how the Gems’ powers work, and we get some set up for what I’m guessing is going to be a big part of Steven’s role and development: learning to use his powers.

This episode also does a decent job of setting up the character’s personalities. We don’t get much on them, but we get that Steven is the innocent optimist, Pearl is smart and poised but seems a bit uptight, Amethyst is the fun-loving one who doesn’t seem to take most things seriously (I’m guessing she and Pearl are going to be argue a lot), and Garnet is… the laidback and cool but also weirdly intense one?

For a first episode, I think this one was pretty good. It’s enjoyable enough and it’s a decent set up for what’s to come. Plus, I already like all of the characters, so that’s nice.

Rating: 7.5/10

A giant glowing ball that the Gems refer to as a Red Eye is heading toward earth. Apparently the only way they can destroy it is with Rose Quartz’s laser light cannon. Unfortunately, no one know where it is. Plan B is to throw Amethyst at the Red Eye. She just bounces off it and falls, so they launch her again and again. Brilliant.

Meanwhile, Steven wants to find Rose’s cannon, so he goes to see his dad, thinking he might know where it is. His dad’s name is Greg Universe. Greg Universe. I did not know his last name was “Universe”. That is so cool. I mean in hindsight I guess I should have guessed since the show is called Steven Universe but I guess I just thought that was a title. Anyway, Steven tells Greg the situation and Greg says he might have the cannon somewhere in his storage unit. The episode is basically the two of them looking for the cannon while Greg talks to Steven about Rose. It’s actually really cute. Greg talks about Rose like she was the best thing to ever happen to him and he can’t believe how lucky he was to have met her and for her to like him. It’s pretty sweet, honestly. Greg also mentions that Rose gave up her physical form so she could give birth to Steven. So… I guess I’ll find out more about what that means?

When they find the cannon, they bring it back to the Gems, who are still trying to launch Amethyst at the Red Eye, which is getting dangerously close. They set up the cannon, but have no way of activating it. They try using Steven’s gem, which is the same as Rose’s, but even that didn’t work. Greg tries to reassure Steven that they’ll figure out something else, and Steven repeats what Greg had told him earlier in the episode: “If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hot dogs.” Somehow, this makes the cannon start working. They aim it at the Red Eye and blow it to bits, saving the town. Well, most of it. Some of it got crushed by bits of the Red Eye.

So I guess this episode’s purpose is mainly to set up Steven’s relationship with Greg and also give us a bit of background on Steven’s mom, Rose Quartz.

It’s a nice episode. Steven and Greg have a cute relationship. I like how even though Greg isn’t the one raising Steven, they’re still able to have a positive relationship and there doesn’t seem to be any hard feelings there. Greg is a great dad, it’s just that, for whatever reason, Steven stays with the Gems. It’s nice to see something like this in a show for kids.

So yeah, another enjoyable episode. I like Greg and I like his relationship with Steven, and I liked hearing a little about Rose.

Rating: 7.5/10

We Are The Crystal Reviews

Is anyone surprised that I chose Steven Universe?

This has been on my to-watch list for a while, as well as my to-review list. It’s a pretty obvious choice, isn’t it? It was created by Rebecca Sugar, who wrote a lot of my favorite Adventure Time episodes. Plus, everything I’ve seen and heard about it makes it sound awesomely progressive for a kid’s show, and even for most adult shows. I didn’t plan on reviewing this immediately after Adventure Time originally, but since it only has one season out anyway I figured I might as well review it now.

I know a little more about this show than I did about Adventure Time when I started it, but there’s still a lot that I don’t know. Here’s a quick list of what I do know (some of which may not be totally correct):

• I know the names of most of the characters.
• The Crystal Gems are alien space rock things and some of them are dedicated to protecting earth while others are… not.
• I know about Garnet being a fusion even though I’m not 100% clear on what a fusion is exactly or how it works. But the two gems who fused are named Ruby and Sapphire and they were totally a couple which means Garnet is literally made of lesbians, and if you don’t think that’s the raddest shit you’ve ever heard get out of my face.
• Steven is half gem and half human, his mom is Rose Quartz, and Rose Quartz… died? I think? She’s not around anymore, at least.
• Steven’s dad, whose name I think is Greg, is a former musician and though he isn’t raising Steven they’re still pretty close.
• Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet raise Steven for some reason.
• Pearl has a cute design. Just an observation.
• No seriously. Look at her. She kind of looks like a bird and it’s super cute.
• I know Amethyst has some kind of tragic backstory? Something about her not wanting to be made but I’m not really sure what’s meant by that, I just see a lot of sad fan art with a quote that goes something like that.
• Pearl had a huge lesbian crush on Rose Quartz.
• Steven has a friend named Connie, and at one point they fuse (but I’m not sure if Connie is a gem?) and make Stevonnie.

So basically I know some small details, but I’m missing a lot of context and don’t have the bigger picture.

I actually am really excited to start reviewing this, it sounds like a wonderful show.