By CODY AVDEK
Contributing Writer
Cartoons are an underrated and oftentimes overlooked medium of art and media. They’re usually relegated to kid’s shows, and given how some of them are written, it’s not a surprise the medium gets written off as such.
On the other end of the spectrum, “adult” cartoons often try far too hard to distinguish themselves from children’s cartoons. Shows will drive up the sex, alcohol, and drug jokes to show that they’re meant for adults, oftentimes eschewing story writing and character development.
Enter “Steven Universe.” It is a show that is so well written, so thoroughly planned, and so well executed, it’s defined an entire new era of cartoons. It’s gotten people invested in cartoons on a scale that matches “Adventure Time” and taps into a demographic that before now hadn’t been fully represented.
It’s difficult to focus on what makes the show so great because it does almost everything superbly. It tells a highly-compelling story focused around a young boy, Steven, and the Crystal Gems- Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl- a group of sentient alien gemstones that act as his mother-figures. They save the world from various evil creatures, and even occasionally just do mundane things. There’s an episode focusing on Steven trying to get a friend home safely in the snow, or an episode about Steven’s dad talking about how he met Steven’s mother.
Even though the plots aren’t always about world-ending crises, they’re written with compelling storytelling, and the characters are so well-defined you find yourself enthralled; the previously-mentioned episode “Winter Forecast” happens to be one of my personal favorites.
Where the show truly excels is in character development. Each character is given their own wildly contrasting personalities and is shown at highs, lows, and everything in between. The show makes it a point to show each character’s past and personality, and even gives background characters their own episodes of character development. It makes it a point to give every character a time to shine and feel like a real person in a vibrant world, even if the town of Beach City seems to be populated by about a dozen people.
The show is also phenomenal in terms of representation and appealing to everyone. Representation matters heavily in why people like things and identify with characters. “Steven Universe” has multiple characters of different races, body types, and even family types.
Steven never met his mother, and lives away from his father in a house with three alien beings, two of which act as mother figures and one who acts largely like an older sister. The characters Sour Cream and Onion live with their mother as their father is always at sea. The family that runs the local pizza shop is West African, and Steven’s friend Connie is Southeast Asian. Garnet is very clearly drawn to appear black. It stretches far and has reached a much broader span of people as a result.
It uses this to really challenge the social norms of what makes up a family and how people can define their family. While most shows display young children as having typical nuclear families, Steven grows up in a very non-typical family structure, yet still develops like a normal child. Despite the fact that he doesn’t go to school and is far removed from most of human culture, he still enjoys going to the beach, going to the movies, and seeing his human friends. This is not only part of his personality, but acts as an extension of his mother, Rose, who we see only in flashbacks. Steven also has a very healthy relationship with his father, who provides and cares for him even though he can’t be directly involved in the gem side of his life.
It has also struck a huge chord with the LGBT community. Despite technically being genderless, all gems take the form and pronouns of women, and they show gems having intimate relationships with each other several times throughout the show.
There are entire episodes dedicated to the concept of Gem Fusion, what it means to them personally, and Pearl’s complicated relationship with Steven’s mother, Rose Quartz. LGBT representation in children’s cartoons is usually sparing at best and nonexistent at worst. “Steven Universe” puts it in and not only makes it a focal point of the plot and many character’s arcs, but shows it to kids in a way that makes it completely normal and explains relationships in a healthy way.
Even outside of a storytelling perspective, the show is above and beyond its contemporaries. The music in particular stands out as superb, showcasing electronic, jazz, piano, and traditional songwriting pieces, all of which composed by the creators of the show. The music is so well recognized that people have been posting covers and arrangements of the songs, as well as full bands that put together tributes to the music. It also includes songs that the characters sing themselves, blended seamlessly into the plot and the flow of the episode, without coming across as random or ham-fisted.
Artistically the show also excels. In animation, choice of color palette is very important when designing characters as well as backgrounds. The show has a very distinct, purposeful color palette, using mostly pastel blues, reds, and purples. Every environment is designed to blend and compliment the colors of the character’s individual color palettes, and the characters stand out on the imagery without clashing.
The character designs are all memorable and recognizable, as well. No two characters, aside from the ones who are immediately related, look the same. This helps the world feel alive and reminds the audience that these characters aren’t just background props, but living beings in a thriving world.
There is so much to go into about it, but the end result is that you should be watching this show. It’s very rare that a show lives up to its hype, but in this case it truly deserves all the praise it’s been getting and then some, and continues to show that it’s not running out of steam or creative ideas.
The new season started Thursday, Sept. 10, and new episodes air every Thursday on Cartoon Network.
