Evening, geeks. Right now I’m talking about a show I’m a huge fan of: STEVEN UNIVERSE. I’ve been following this show since I think 2014. Creator of the show, Rebecca Sugar, is a clear case of someone who grew up loving anime in the 90s and early 2000s and as an adult got an anime of her own!... and it was good! However...this show gets super long hiatuses for some reason. It’s so bad, there’s a fansite that tells you how long the last episode came out. Today, the last episode that premiered was 65 days ago. The longest wait between new episodes was 125 days! Only four months, yeah that doesn’t seem so bad. But Cartoon Network often drops “Steven Bombs” that are only five episodes long, and then another 80 something days pass in between the next. So, whenever a hiatus ends, it’s a big deal to the fans! A fan kindly ripped this video off of Facebook and posted it to YouTube.
The story is about a boy named Steven Universe that was born as half human, and half gem. Gems are aliens. They are an invasive species that hollows out planets and drains all of the resources available before moving onto the next. Steven slowly learns more and more about the history of Gem kind, including a massive war that happened on Earth, how they’re made, and the caste society they are flung into the moment the come into existence. It gets a bit gay at times. Gay enough to make the UK censor what appears to be two women sharing affections on multiple occasions.
The first season or so is mostly filler at the beginning, the crew was probably getting their feet wet figuring out just what they wanted the show to be. What it became was a fantastic character driven story that explores things you wouldn’t normally expect of a show meant for all ages. Some of the subjects explored include the dynamics of healthy relationships, abuse, emotional awareness, and even metaphorical rape.
“A dark place on the internet” loves to push the whole “pro non-binary gender” thing about the show as the “gems” are actually genderless despite using female pronouns. However, if it’s progressive as they’re trying to make it out to be: then Dragon Ball Z should get a lot more attention and credit because back in the 90s (early 2000s in the US) they had a whole story arch that involved a race of bipedal slugs called the Namekians that all used male pronouns.
The hiatus ends April 9th, and I can’t wait!
Animation geekette signing off,
~Big Eyes
