Steven Universe

So before having ever watched an episode, I knew it was popular amongst the people I knew so decided to give it a watch. Admittedly, I had my reservations about starting the series, from watching the adverts for it I was slightly put off by the visual style of the show, the way the animators drew noses did strike me as a bit weird and unnatural. But I know this is a silly reason to be put off a show without giving it a chance so taking the same approach I did with anime I gave it a chance.

And I must say I was very pleasantly surprised.  The show although set in very bizarre surroundings with supernatural themes, is actually a very human story about loss, family, relationships and childhood.

I only watched three ten minute long episodes so the premise is still a little bit vague to me. But what I understood was is that the mother of our protagonist Steven died bringing her child into the world. His mother is a Gem Stone so basically a supernatural being and that is why as a child,  Steven has a gem stone in his belly button. Everyone loved his mother,  so now everyone loves Steven. When his mother died, three other female Gemstones who were friends of his mother became Stevens surrogate parents. He does still have a dad, who means we'll but sadly is kind of useless.

Okay so, a story that on the surface sounds very wacky and bizarre is actually to me anyway, at its heart a very simple everyday tale of surrogacy.

I really enjoyed the show and to me it had very good representation, particularly of the female gender. Often in animated TV series I've seen, the female characters are often housewives but in this the gemstones are basically superheroes who care for Steven without the need of help from any man. Plus the female characters do not look a certain way, they are all different shapes and sizes, where as often in animation they have often been just thin and pretty. For example when we see Stevens mother we see that she towers above Stevens dad and she isn't typically thin and slender yet she is beautiful without having to conform to any typical ideals of beauty. The fact that she is taller than Stevens dad is never an issue and is not mentioned.

Although a sadder premise than many other animated shows, it is a comedy with funny characters plus the visual style is incredible and after a certain amount of time I even learnt to love the noses.