Opening Impressions: Steven Universe: "I'll take your word on this..."

So for those who saw the montage, you'll notice that there were a few cartoons and an anime in there. Yeah... this month is going to have a lot of Opening Impressions again, though unlike last time, this time it'll be paced out.

As the medium evolves, new technology and new styles arise, there was 3D animation... which looked awful at the time, Flash animation, which lead to a influx of awful cartoons made as quick and as cheep as possible to make a quick buck (something I wouldn't mind online, but they gained footing on national Television). While those were more of the tech and people behind them, now the trend is style, by way of "Adventure Time style". Smooth 2D imagery embracing the cartoons of old, but not afraid to pull some more mature humor, some more so then others, one of which I'm still contemplating putting in here, which is why it wasn't in the montage. I intend to do Adventure time last, due to its sheer popularity in comparison to the others, but for now, lets start with the one I got asked to do on camera, Steven Universe.

So what do we know of the plot based on the first 5 episodes... barely anything. Apparently this is in the Adventure time formula, but the writing leads to a lot of "breadcrumbs". So, what we do know is this. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl are in charge of protecting Earth from... crystal things... as they are known as the Crystal Gems, who are tasked to do it. A fourth character called Rose gave up her physical body and powers to love Greg Universe and have a son called Steven... and that's it. Most of my notes on the series literally consist of questions. There's a difference between Breadcrumbs and absolute confusion. I'm told that there is a overarching story, right now I believe that as much as I believe the Sonic Boom TV series has an overarching story.

My problems with these five episodes don't stop there, aside from the intro being really bad in comparison to some I've seen, if you've seen the Nostalgia Critic's Top 11 TV show intros, my views on the importance of an intro is the same (list itself it hit and miss for me, may do my own sometime when I think I've got enough to do a fair list). While its not the worst I've seen by any stretch of the imagination, its also nowhere near the top. While the voice acting is quite good for the main characters, the scripts are very hit and miss, with some of the jokes falling flat hard. This isn't always the case, as some jokes work really well with the sheer stupidity of the situation and response. I do find it funny that they reduced what is a glorified Deus Ex Machina device into the punchline of the main joke.

My biggest problem is the start itself, I've spoken to Marissa and she tells me that it does pick up, the characters do improve, mature. I'm just yet to see this. Granted so far all I've seen is the first 5 episodes of Season 1, so I'm willing to see if its true or not. I'll come back to this if I think there's enough for a full review. For now, I'll see you on Monday for the next Opening Impressions on the one series that has nothing to do with this mini marathon of reviews: Log Horizon.