Latest Love // Steven Universe

Latest Love is a series of posts where I talk about a recent obsession. This could be a bookish obsession or otherwise - anything that has been making me happy recently that I feel like sharing. The important thing about this feature is that it isn't a review. This is just a way of me expressing a few reasons why I like something, and maybe find some more people to talk about it with. 😊

If it's not been clear from my previous Latest Love posts, I really like cartoons. My love for animation has grown immensely in the past two years. Every frame of a well-drawn show fills me with so much joy, and I love watching interviews with creators like Rebecca Sugar to learn about their process and see their sketchbooks and how ideas evolve. For someone who has always been incredibly literature-focused, I have grown such admiration for the art form and how it deals with a different kind of storytelling.

I've written posts about some of my favourite Western-Animated shows already (Voltron: Legendary Defender, Young Justice, Teen Titans, Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra) and I realised that all of them are highly influenced by Japanese Anime. And while there are definitely going to be future posts about my favourite Animes, I thought I'd dedicate a couple of posts to share my love of Western cartoons that have their own unique and more bubbly animation style.

Steven Universe

Re-watching Steven Universe was like falling in love with the show all over again. The colour, animation, characters, and story are all so dreamy, and I'm so glad that this show burrowed its way into my heart.

Steven is the youngest member of the Crystal Gems, a group of alien women dedicated to protecting planet Earth and all its beauty. The team was once lead by his fearless and caring mother, Rose Quartz, but in creating Steven she had to give up her physical form, leaving him with her gem and a big legacy to fill.

What makes Steven Universe so beautiful is that it is all about change. Rose fell in love with Earth because of the way in which everything keeps changing and evolving, from nature to human beings. We see that love for the world in Steven, and even though the Gems are thousands of years old, we see how they become influenced by humans like Steven to learn and grow as well.

What is immediately striking about this show is its use of colour. The pastel pinks and dark starry skies create gorgeous settings that bring Beach City and all of its people to life. They complement the gentle nature of the show and its characters so well, and the animation is bubbly whilst still being able to seem serious. I love Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl and their unusual family set-up. They all show their love for Steven in unique ways, and I love seeing how this one child can bring people together.

This show is full of so much heart, and is incredibly diverse. The Gems all have different body types, and the show is wonderfully queer. As a species, Gems are all female (except for Steven, who is half-Gem), and the show doesn't hesitate in showing romantic relationships between them. Gems are also capable of fusion, where two or more of them can fuse to create a new Gem. Sometimes it's for battle, but other times it's out of love. For a children's show, it is incredibly progressive in the way that it acknowledges the different kinds of relationships, and the depiction of healthy vs. unhealthy relationships is expertly done and so important for kids to learn about.

The characters also deal with issues of self-worth and identity and grief, and the show slowly builds up an intricate plot about how the Crystal Gems came to be and the kind of person that Rose was. But it's also filled with puns and silly humour that is bound to make anyone smile. There are some adorable catchy songs, and others that are incredibly moving.

I'm so glad to see this show keep going, because it is so incredibly precious. It keeps growing in ways that surprise me every time. At its core, Steven Universe is a force of pure good.

I had actually planned to talk about a few shows in this post, but I got caught up in my love for Steven Universe 🙈! What is your latest love?

All gifs are from Giphy (1, 2, 3)