By Jared Free
As a fan of cartoons, anime, manga, and the like, I became used to getting a certain amount of kickback from people. After listening to a song from a show that I liked, I remember a close family asking me “How long are you going to keep listening to stuff like this?” The implication was obvious – I was too old, and would I hurry up and grow up, please? My cheeks got hot, and I fixed my eyes on my lap, but I answered simply – “as long as I like it.” Internally, I was in a swirl trying to think of defenses, rebuttals, evidence that would prove that there was value in the things I loved. I still find myself thinking up responses to questions like these, but thanks to several standout shows over the past few years, I rarely have to use them.
Steven Universe ended earlier this year, and while doing so, it harvested seeds of metaphor, semiotics and music that have been lovingly planted since 2013. The show’s premise is innocuous enough – Steven Quartz Universe is half-human, half magical gem being. His mother gave up her body to make him, and he carries her gem. Now he has to learn to control his magic powers from her three teammates, called the Crystal Gems while helping with the citizens of his town. The story is a Bildungsroman in the truest sense. While he learns about his magical powers from the Crystal Gems, he also helps them come to terms with their own problems and complex relationships in the way that only a human can. And he learns about being a human from the townspeople of Beach City and his human dad, Greg. Steven’s “real” family is small, but he is truly raised by a village, but he turns the premise on its head by helping the village even more than they help him. But all of this is sprinkled sparsely; Rebecca Sugar, the show’s creator, doesn’t hit you over the head with these ideas. She’s just as interested in showing Steven and his best friend Connie sing a song about toast as she is with the show’s more ambitious themes.
And Steven Universe certainly doesn’t lack ambition. Sprinkled on top of the “user’s guide to life” style is a gorgeous metaphor for queer life and acceptance. Sugar has said that she designed the gems to be non-binary woman as a way to express their own gender identity. In Sugar’s words, the gems are fine being read as a woman by humans – but they’re not, because they’re not humans. Sugar is able to use the internal logic of her science-fiction fantasy world to build understanding of LGBTQ+ identity and experience without being preachy or cheesy.
Steven Universe carved a space out on TV where vulnerability, openness and kindness were encouraged, and even seen as heroic traits. With the end of season 5, the show’s originally pitched arc has ended, although there will be a movie coming with more episodes supposedly to follow. But this first “end” of sorts for Steven Universe marks a huge achievement in children’s writing, television animation, and queer representation.
