Forum - View topicWhy Are Anime Fans Obsessed with Steven Universe?
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EricJ2
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Every time I see a spastic US cable cartoon think it's trying to "homage" anime with obnoxiously overtold gags, it tends to fall into two camps: Either you have the Avatar examples of fan-fiction references the animator wants to throw in from a polyglot of newbie sources ("Look, he's a fighter like Lil' Goku! And he rides a big furry thing like the Catbus!"-- And on the other, you have borderline nerd-bashing pokes (usually on CN  ) at a fandom from the outside, like the example of MegasXLR, or those old nightmares of the Samurai Jack Totoro episode, where Tartakovsky put a big vacantly-grinning pop-culture icon into the episode without displaying any remote concept of who or what the character was, but it was sorta like what the Japanese-fan kids knew get it?
(And it's not just CN that's guilty: I remember one episode of Nicktoon's "My Life as a Teenage Robot"--where the visual concept was "Look, it's all kitschy and retro, since she's sort of like Astro Boy!"--which had a character obnoxiously singing "Let's sing the Minky Momo song!" Oh, so it was Momo's theme from the old series? No, it was a funny song with the words "Minky Momo" in it, since the animator thought it sounded all Hello-Kitty and Tokyo-kitschy, 'n stuff.) Simply put, no matter how much anime the shows pretend to reference, or even the animators think they're referencing, US cable toons ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS. There's way too much historic bad blood between the two (we already talked about CN's old grudges on another thread) to ever establish any degree of trust. We're still in our 90's mode of being so desperate to be noticed by the mainstream, we don't even have the decent self-respect to know when some overaged manchildren in the enemy camp are spitting on us for being their dated/stereotypic concept of fan-nerds from twenty years ago.
On this topic, I can only provide my own life-experience: When I was growing up, there was no cable, no Internet, no streaming, very few videogames, and local stations showed whatever cheap cartoons in the afternoon they could afford to syndicate. (Usually public-domain ones, unless you know another reason why a UHF affiliate would show Casper or Mighty Mouse and expect ratings.) We grew up on the 50's and 60's classics, we had Yogi Bear and wartime Bugs Bunny, and tolerated Tom & Jerry just so long as they showed an MGM Tex Avery Droopy cartoon in the middle, because they were ALL WE HAD. And lord help us, we watched them. Why? The term I like to use is "Stockholm Syndrome". When we came home from a brutal day of 5th grade, we wanted to watch ANY F***IN' CARTOON that was on the minute and second we turned on the TV, like reaching for a drink. And for much the same reason. If stations show all they have long enough, we'll start to watch them. And if we watch the least painful one long enough, some illusion of "loyalty" will start to appear. The captive forms an unbreakable bond. (And for anime fans, just try saying anything bad about the 90's DiC dub of Sailor Moon, or the dubbed version of Samurai Pizza Cats.) Our generation grew up memorizing Flintstones episodes, quoting Chuck Jones cartoons as common parlance (pronoun trouble), and knowing why the B/W 30's Fleischer Popeyes were cooler than the lame horny repetitive 50's color ones; the current generation can quote Spongebob references, considers My Little Pony central to their emerging identities, and makes deep analyses of Gravity Falls, even if they don't happen to watch other shows on X-D like the 7D. No one's innocent, no one first invented it, and no one's found the cure. But a wider degree of sparetime activities, something the new kids should be enjoying, can put things in more sane perspective.
(I did, but you have to keep the sections of the argument thematically together, or you lose the basic progression of the thesis. Freshman writing. Otherwise, strung apart, it tends to look like a long string of random-observation rants, which we know it wasn't.) 
Last edited by EricJ2 on Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:34 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I would argue that just about every Western animated television show made in the last 20 years or so has been influenced by anime, if not contain outright homages to anime. I don't see what makes Steven Universe stand out more than other shows. Sure, it's more blatant about its influences, but so was (the sadly under appreciated) SymBionic Titan, with its combining to make a giant robot theme.
I went to the first NYCC panel for Steven Universe about a month before its debut. I was surprised that it was in such a small panel room considering the popularity of series creator Rebecca Sugar's work on Adventure Time. (I doubt they'll use anything but the biggest auditorium now!) What makes Steven Universe great to me is its strong character based storytelling. Especially the character of Steven, who's based on Rebecca's younger brother as a child. How you can write a whole article about SU and not mention her is beyond me. She and her team are the driving force behind the show! |
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hinugundam
 Posts: 57 Location: USA |
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Yeah, I am 30 year old anime fan and I admit that I am obsessed with this show. It,s just so good.
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Looks like something the CN Teen Titans cartoon wanted to be. Nevertheless, I don't really like the whole "LOOK guys we put anime homages. We so kewl nao!" schtick American cartoons pull every now and then. Doesn't help that the references don't have much variety and keep going for popular AS anime (the Utena ones are a nice surprise though.). Guess I'm out of their pandering demographic.
Last edited by Paiprince on Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:40 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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BrainBlow
 Posts: 364 |
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I'd definitely recommend picking it back up and sticking with it for a while. The first dozen episodes(eleven minutes each, btw) are pretty much just setup to get to know and become familiar with the characters, which becomes incredibly important later. I generally see most people, even those who did not like it at first, getting hooked at episode 13, "So Many Birthdays." And then the ensuing great episodes after that pulls people in, and then they've suddenly watched all the way to episode 24, "Mirror Gem." Then the true nature of this series really starts to rear its head! I've yet to see anyone regretting giving it a proper second chance. |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2027 |
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Dexter's Laboratory also had it's share of anime references, as well as, to a lesser extent, The Powerpuff Girls. None of this is anything new, and back in the 90s, it was even more "nerdy" and unheard of. It's interesting this show has references to Utena of all things, which is pretty cool, since I'm a huge Utena fan.
I don't keep up much with Cartoon Network anymore. I haven't watched it on a regular basis since 2004, when I was 10 (I had obsessively watched it since age 5). I still watch Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls (but only their earlier episodes), and enjoy them both (and not just for nostalgia), but outside of them, I'm pretty much done with Cartoon Network. It doesn't help that I'm 21 and my personal interest in watching children's cartoons has waned. I think Batman: The Animated Series is the one American cartoon that I think nailed the look and feel of mature anime without actually trying to be anime. There were no anime references, and I think it's possible everything fell into place by sheer coincidence. And it's still one of the greatest American cartoons of all time. Last edited by PurpleWarrior13 on Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:57 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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CatSword
 Posts: 1489 |
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It's gonna get a little weird! It's gonna get a little wild!
Love this. I tried Steven Universe for several episodes when it first premiered and...ehhhhhh. Star is great though. Star seems to have a decent amount of anime homages as well, from the battle music being heavily influenced by Pokemon to Star's wind being a mix of the one from Card Captor Sakura and Sailor Moon's.
Huh. Not to be rude but that doesn't sound like the kind of thing anime fans would be flying to. I mean, a lot of anime only GET 13 episodes or less. Anime fans are hilariously impatient (me included) and tend not to be able to wait 13 episodes for a show to start taking off, then nine more episodes to figure out what's really going on. Last edited by CatSword on Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:56 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5536 |
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Honestly, it just feels really try-hard, especially the examples you have given. Rather than paying homage, it's outright mimicking scenes far too often to be really called a homage. It's shoving it's anime "references" too much in the face of the audience and isn't doing anything memorable on it's own.
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DRCEQ
Posts: 6 |
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In the season 2 episode "Shirt Club", Steven acts like Golgo 13 to deal with the problem in the episode. It's actually really funny.
"Steven and the Stevens" has Steven referencing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure with Josuke's pompadour and pose he pulls off. Another EVA reference: In "Space Race", Pearl's spacesuit resembles Rei's plugsuit. Uncle Grandpa directly quotes Princess Mononoke in "Say Uncle". Just read through this whole list of shout-outs here. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ShoutOut/StevenUniverse |
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DRCEQ
Posts: 6 |
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The show's story is memorable on its own. |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1753 |
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Wow, I remember when American cartoon shows aired during prime time could come up with their own jokes instead of constantly making references to anime.
Like, Animaniacs. SU was incredibly boring. I hate that Buzzfeed had to make an article dedicate to how "different" it was because it included people of color voicing over the characters and how unique it was for including homosexual relationships (despite Clarencehaving the exact same thing). Whatever happened to watching a show just because you enjoy it? When media sources tell me that I should watch something because it's "progressive" in its depiction of relationships, etc., I do exactly the opposite and ignore it. The same with SU; Why would I want to watch a show that references anime titles when I've already seen it done earlier and better? I find Clarence to be far more amusing in its references than SU. The "My buddy" parody episode was pure gold. |
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Mr Adventure
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Are you for real? Animaniacs entire premise was about drawing its humor from referencing Hollywood and its tropes. Like classic Warner cartoons from the 30s and 40s did. Practicly EVERYTHING in Animaniacs was a reference to something. |
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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This is an excellent editorial. For whatever reason I have avoided watching Steven Universe because I do not think it will interest me. I've watched occasional clips, but nothing enticing enough.
Perhaps the whole is enjoyable as long as Steven Universe has its own substance and is more than a show of references. |
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BrainBlow
Posts: 364 |
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Because those are just that: References. They're not the main appeal of the show. Not even the slightest bit close. That you claim it is makes me suspect you haven't really watched much of it at all, and it just comes across as dishonest attempts at slander. |
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Mr. Oshawott
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I think it's great to hear that the producers of Steven Universe are admirers of anime!
That said, I have to agree that many of the anime references this show has seem to be more of try-hard turn-offs than homages. |
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