High Guardian Spice: A Show That Meant Nothing
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 тра 2024
- Be careful what you wish for. This video looks into the various problems that plagued the execution of Crunchyroll's original show. What became of High Guardian Spice?
Introduction: 0:00
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme: 1:46
Part One: 3:09
Part Two: 5:35
Part Three: 8:12
Part Four: 9:40
Part Five: 12:44
Part Six: 18:51
Part Seven: 22:24
Part Eight: 25:10
Part Nine: 28:22
Conclusion: 30:38
Twitter : / brahmastrahd
#highguardianspice #crunchyroll #anime - Фільми й анімація
“The show is meant for an adult audience”
*proceeds to give a Sesame Street explanation on who a transperson is*
That's an insult to Sesame Street.
@@icecreamhero2375 yeah that’s true I’m sorry
They were so close to read from Wikipedia
Brought to you by the letter "P".
FACTS, difference is that sesame street would give a good description AND would still be interesting and somewhat wholesome.
my little nit pick of this show is that all of the characters have names based around herbs, not spices. I mean come on missed opportunity to have paprika, turmeric, cayenne or something actually considered a spice in the show.
It's a reference to Scarberough fair, though I doubt the creator understood what the song meant.
Oh my God, imagine the token Indian character constantly getting called tumeric by their bullies in the show in their "racism is bad" episode
To make matters worse the title sounds like a drug. Might as well name all the characters after drugs or change the last 2 words
@@unreal4good367 Ketarine
High Guardian Herbs?
Representation means more than just including a black or gay character, you need to make sure those parts of your audience can see themselves in those characters. The diversity in this show is so shallow it’s almost disrespectful
For all their talk of diversity, all of the writers were white, and I suppose it shows
Yeah that is why I don't care about some representation.
I hate the idea of "representation" in the first place.
Characters that are unbelievable because of the background being showhorned in to check some arbitrary box is... Distasteful.
If you are going to make a character check a box, first make the character be at the very least, be relatable. Good characters dont need to be black or white, male or female, straight or not, and I hate the idea of doing this just to be "inclusive"
If you want a black centric story, then make it. Dont arbitrarily show horn it into a plot that clearly doesnt know what to do with that.
the whole show looks like all of the characters are just black or gay females. Diversity means including everyone, that includes guys and other races.
@@reapordeath I agree with you, as an arabian who has watched mainly western shows, never have I thought this single thought, "why aren't there people like me in the show/movie". I was a kid, I don't start thinking of all of the politics and complain about representation, I just enjoyed the show as it is.
“Who is this for?”
“I don’t know, the kids from the lord of the flies.”
I’ve wanted to make that joke for so long.
uhhhh
@@cake4964 sao abridged reference.
Recomended
@@julianmartinez4719 I know...
I hollered this makes so much sense
Children of the Corn
I think the real problem is in the origin. The plot had been worked on since the creator was young. Sometimes as a writer we need to acknowledge when we outgrew how our first project was and try to create something new. The issue was the creator/show runner couldn't see that while this was their darling, it might have been a flawed piece from their younger years that doesn't stand up to their current love. Our first creations as artists and writers is always messy and under thought or over thought. Its okay to love those works but we still have to see theyre not our best works and move on. I'm around similar age to the creator and I understand on some level why you'd write that sort of story. Its wish fullfilment for when you felt younger and bitter and just wanted the world to work the way you wanted. Your character is super cool and you think its the bees knees and its flawless. But it lacks depth because well you didn't make it deep. You've grown older and more experienced. You know the world won't be fair and even in something good there will always be a need for something else to bring out the true flavor of the work (Salt is in every dessert afterall). If you hold on to that first creation and keep holding and holding and trying to keep it pure eventually you strangle your own darling.... you fail to let it grow and you fail to let yourself grow. To anyone reading this, if your work right now isn't perfect... thats okay. Its right for where you are right now. One day when you get better at writing or art and you get to the point of publishing your work you'll have something thats right for that point if you let yourself grow.
genuinely thank you. I really needed that
That was my thought process on this show as well. I got the vibe that the creator had this in their head for a long time and just never let it change for the better. It was their baby and so it doesn't have to change. It just existing was good enough to some.
This is 100% true. It's really hard to move on from a project you've been working on for so young, especially if it was made when you were young. It could do you some good if you had a fresh start.
I personally think that they could've made this darling of theirs into something better if only the creator further developed the story and characters. Vivziepop has had her projects since her younger years, and look what she has achieved. But her characters are _characters_ with personalities, worries, dreams, wants and issues. She didn't leave her creations alone. She continously worked on their improvement, changing things around all the time. High Guardian Spice does feel exactly like the first project of someone inexperienced and young stuck in time. I just don't understand why it was green lit when it has such glaring issues.
@@XMewMoonLightAkitaoX Vivizie did shop other projects around though and work on other projects. She has a lot of experience in working on various stories. I also think she was willing to take a more critical look at her older content when she had grown. (Off the top of my head I could probably name 3 different projects). HGS was worked on solely alone never giving the opportunity to try other projects to gain experience. So Vivizie I think is a good example of what can happen if you try other projects before going back to revisit and rewrite an old one with a set of new eyes so to speak.
The reason a lot of Western content fails to properly show LGBT issues is because they're shallow. That is, if they make a trans-character, they will not let you forget they made a trans-character. They want you to praise them and give them a cookie for it like they did something not done before, like they're better than everyone else because of it.
Whereas in anime, the LGBT characters can just be characters. That's not their only defining trait. For example, I just watched Dangan Ronpa. Plenty of people think Sakura and Hina may be a bit more than friends. Same with Taka and Mondo. But that's not because the characters run around screaming "HEY GUYS I'M GAY HAVE I TOLD YOU I'M GAY YET?"
The characters don't even mention it. People think they're that close because they hang out together, they show concern for each other, to an extent that seems beyond just a friendship. But the writer didn't make Sakura's "personality" trait "lesbian". She's written as a martial arts master who takes her training very seriously and is very understanding and sympathetic to other people. Hina's written as someone so hyperactive she can hardly sit still, who tries to keep upbeat. Taka is written as someone incredibly straight-laced and a bit naive. Mondo is written as a macho man with a temper.
Even someone who believes they're LGBT wouldn't summarize them as, "Oh, that's the gay one." Their backstories aren't, "They're the gay one". Their stories in the game don't revolve all around them being "the gay one". They have more to them.
In shows like this, that's pretty much all there is to the character. They're more a caricature of LGBT people rather than real characters. It's because the writers have an obsession with labels, and they don't see people beyond those shallow characteristics. Amazingly, I don't sit around and talk to my friends about how I'm trans. It's a subject that rarely comes up. I talk to them about our shared interests or playing games together or going places or writing or tons of other things well beyond what I'm packing in my pants. And I didn't sit around obsessing over being trans when I was younger, either. There is more than one thing that happens in our lives.
The other thing is how much they stereotype everyone. You can see it in things like the costume part, where someone dressed as a "groom" goes around proposing? That's such an absurd setup to begin with, and the entire point of it is only for him to nonsensically act as a persecutor to Snapdragon in a world where that makes ZERO SENSE. No matter how nonsensical, they'll write themselves as victims. It's the cheapest trick in the book: if your character sucks, you try to get people to like them by forcing them to sympathize with them. Of course tragic stories can work, but when your tragic story relies on painting the world as cartoonishly hateful and stupid, you're not going to be the type of person who is good at pulling that off because you have no insight or sympathy yourself.
Just watched a review of Nubia, too, if anyone wants to see more completely absurd SJW logic.
to be honest, if i wanted a show that does that, i would've watched Helluva boss, who not only does it, but does it well.
This is the best comment to describe HGS.
Honestly what they did with the guy is downright offensive. They pretty much state that you become trans when you are too week to be a man. Or at least that's what came across thanks to the terrible writing.
@@richardduska1558 Didn't they say the writer's room was all female when they have a transguy in it?
They often accidentally reveal what they really think about transpeople like that.
I won't say it's "the worst storyline to ever happen" or anything, but it is stereotypical and predictable. If I told you someone on Twitter wrote a transcharacter, you could probably predict the entirety of his story arc. The only unique thing was that he was a bully (and I bet that stopped after the reveal).
That was another thing that bothered me that I couldn't quite put my finger on before, but now I know how to describe it. Decades ago, I loved m/m content and would always be looking for it. Unfortunately, it was almost always the same story - tragic angsty get-together in a world that doesn't' accept them and then they die.
That type of story doesn't have to be BAD, but if that's the story EVERYONE writes then you're going to be wishing you could see some happy characters who get to live in the end. Or, ANYTHING else.
That's where Western transcharacters are. All of them will have Snapdragon's predictable story. Same persecution fetish, same uncertainty, same "my daddy (usually going to be the dad because men are evil) won't let me wear dresses", people who give a damn that they're trans to a cartoonish degree even though most people would think more about what they want for lunch (and also the characters you're supposed to think are "good" will never question it, they all have the exact same values)...
Western transcharacters are stuck in the "they all have the exact same story" phase right now, because they think that making a character trans was in and of itself all that it takes to make a good, original character. They won't have a unique story. It'll be the same even though here Snapdragon's story doesn't even fit in with the universe they've built, for absolutely no given reason.
Just like with the tragic-dead-gay-dude stories, you CAN make a good story out of that, but at some point people want something else and it's going to take a lot of talent to make yours shine above the others all doing the same thing.
@@emeryltekutsu4357
Well it's not THE worst story ever but it did piss me off. The reason being gose to what you described partialy.
We as humans tell stories for 6000+ years, so predictibly there are elements in said stories that get constantly repeated and morals that stay in regardless of interpetation. Well with this show you can notice 2 motives that in a traditional story would be fliped.
1 is the Old magic Vs New magic. Because in the show the new one is described as basicly the better one that dose not need work, disciplin, and it is easy to get. (these are listed as positive aspects by the way.) In any other story these would be all negive trates because humans instincly know that these are values not hinderences.
The second one is again the flash back. Because the messege of "stand up for yourself and don't let other bully you" is NOT a bad massege. Jet this show trys to portray it as such. Again. People know almost instictivly that something is wrong with this even If they can't articulate it.
.
And finaly.... yeah I always forgot that they have a 100% female writer staff so If they care about the "diversity" than they should have hired a trans guy according to their belife system.
I was enjoying the reviews that ripped into this, but actually this is a really good, balanced view that properly explains the problems
Exactly, so many people are biased and one-sided
I wish we had more of these. People like to call themselves "Critics" when all they do is whine without pointing out what was wrong with the thing they're talking about.
@@opalander I think the point of wrong goes mainly to the writting team. I see Ray genuinely want that proyect and what i noticed the most, its the poor decision to take a team who seems to comes out of a progressive twitter hashtag and brags about how diverse, inclusive and all that crap they are. They didn't give a genuine fuck about it, included Ms. "all men must die", who at the time she was looking for another job as soon as HGS was finished .... BACK IN 2019.
You can see part of what Ray wanted squeezed through it in some parts, before you can clearly see the writting team take advantage to push their agenda.
Yeah it's a nice change of pace in terms of an "actual" review and giving criticisms where it's needed.
@@SenseiRaisen I hate to say this but Ray is working on another project that looks just as bad. It looks like it'll be a copy of every other yaoi harem that was ever made.
My problem with high guardian spice is that it's literally flawed in every single aspect. There's not a single aspect that this show nails or at least gets right. And the flaws aren't particularly small.
The animation errors, the subpar animation overall, the bad voice acting, bad script(which makes the dialogue feel extremely unnatural), and overall boring and generic story are all aspects that I would normally be able to tolerate individually. Or even maybe a combination of 2 of them. Not all of them at once
The situation gets even worse when you add all of those terrible aspects in an "anime" that already has high levels of controversy surrounding it. It literally is like pouring gasoline into a fire.
Not just badly executed but also boring, mundain, stereotipical. It has not a single original tought in it. Everything was taken from better shows to make this frankenteinian monster.
it sucks because one thing that could have caught my interest was Sage and her being used to "old" magic and having to relearn it-but they essentially don't do anything with it.
I'm an animator and looking at clips of this show make me shake my head in disappointment.
@@naraku971 I am not an animator(not even close. Hell, I can barely even draw) and even I can notice the flaws. So to you, this must genuinely be absolute torture
Some of the jokes they made were good, but when the VAs say it, they just don't nail it. The delivery is kinda terrible.
21:06 yeah the mature audience warning is pretty weird. Even the creator was confused why Crunchyroll put that warning there.
So...Reye didn't know about the scant cuss words and blood?
@@MrAuthor3DS Raye said it’s mild ,which it is, and anyone can watch the show. Crunchyroll didn’t tell the crew about the warning/rating of the show.
Huh.
My recent theory before seeing your comment was that show was gonna get extremely lewd/ranchy. lol.
@@onesmart229 ehem, lemme repeat what one off the character said
"BASTARD!"
Edit: pls this is supposed to be sarcasm 😭
@@turtlyocean7169 A lot of sub shows say that, but they don’t get a content warning. Dubs may change the line sometimes depending on the network so there may be restrictions on cursing in English.
If they really wanted us to be absorbed in their worldbuilding, they could've tried more unique things for their settings than generic Isekai city #69 and generic magic school that is supposed to be otherworldly and weird even though many stories have already done what HGS did.
And not waste our time during the first episode teaching us nothing.
That's an insult to Isekai shows since those try to do something new every time at least.
@@richardduska1558 how about revenge isekai instead
@@-hello6177 Even in that you have a tonn of options. Will you go full out like Redo the Healer OR will you only aim to get your reputation and honor back like Shield Hero?
@@richardduska1558 Not sure if I'd say shield hero counts, and redo of a healer is a one in a thousand, there used to be quite a bit of variety like with arifureta and the sorts but now it is like, 10/10 times gonna be "humans bad, monsters good" and literally nothing else
People all over criticize the use of the broom, but no one mentions Rosemary managed to stand-up and keep her balance on it, in spite that *every* other scene about her balance shows her being bad at it
I didn’t even watch the show and I noticed that!
@@AnkhAnanku Actually me neither, I refuse to watch this show until it's confirmed to be cancelled
You didn't mention how Crunchyroll vowed to support Japanese anime studios directly via memberships, and then seemingly funnelled those funds into making this show - I think this was another huge factor as to why many people disliked it from the get-go.
Well it turns out we had nothing to worry about on that front, because, according to the creator, CR basically gave them a shoestring budget (not unlike their translators lol)
Crunchyroll doesn't even give 10% of their money they make by subs and dubs to the original, Japanese creators.
Don't support Crunchyroll.
so true
@@osmosis453 tbh this may be straight-up misleading most anime get a very small budget when compared to western anime family guy a show that has a much simpler animation style gets around 2 million PER episode and that's not even a higher amount here in the west [ I read that steven universe has a 9 million per episode budget while that does appear to probably be incorrect because it's so high BUT I can't say for certain] an episode of anime ranges between 100k-300k with 200k per episode with a 12 episode season running around 2 mil- 3.5 mil that means a whole season is about the same cost as some episodes of American shows
when u put that into perspective if the rays team expected an average sum of money that an American animation studio would provide suddenly that 200k or possible 100k or so looks REALLY cheap even though most anime that look 100x better run on this kind of budget also hired way to many storyboard members way before they were needed that costs money for no real gain anyhow I just find this excuses the team provided to be a joke and I'm glad Crunchyroll disbanded it sadly tho there still producing some garbage
@@admiralkaede anime only looks so good on such a low budget because they pay their animators practically nothing and work them insane hours. Animators are notoriously abused in the anime industry. Not really a fair comparison or something we should be looking at as a model.
Professor Caraway: "I'm Transgender"
Rosemary: "I don't know that word"
Professor Caraway: **Proceeds to give a Sesame Street style explanation**
That is an insult to Sesame Street
Short version: a woman dressed up like a man.
@@aklimaron7398 i know high guardián spice is shit but don’t be transphobic
@@sythepie "transphobia" doesnt exist and its sad that every disagreement about something is treated like one.
But yes, i agree the show is trash.
@@aklimaron7398 why do you think you know anything about this?
Representation is a very positive thing
UNLESS that representation is the only thing the show is, high guardian spice feels like it was made based off of nothing but the word "representation" written in capital letters on a whiteboard
Ofc it was. This is why American (mainly Netflix) shows suck. Hmmm I wonder why anime and kdramas are so popular?
What some people don't get too is that this type of writing is bad in ANY case. Replacing LGBT elements with scary elements won't change quality all of a sudden. 1 dimensional things will always be 1 dimensional things
Representation is not a positive thing. It's the narcissistic sociopathic idea that you can't relate with or empathize with someone unless they share some political characteristic with you.
There is no need for *Representation*, we just need well written characters. I’m tired of shows putting in LGBT or POC characters just for the sake of audience(or societal) approval.
This is why I praise Arcane alot. There is diversity itself in the show without making it scream “representation”. There is no boundaries in characters. Any sexualities, any gender, any race, or ethnicity can either be the good or bad character. Actually, there IS no good or bad characters there, they dont set wall in between. They dont even feel like characters, they feel like real people- a mix of both…complex and flawed. *That* is good writing.
@@Evan8787 idk man Arcane is pretty damn good in my book
But I mostly prefer anime for a similar reason
(Arcane and Steven Universe are exceptions)
If only the writing was better and animation was done well and not lazily made, I feel kinda bad for the artists
I feel bad too. So if any discourse is to be put on someone, its honestly Crunchyroll.
Thats the problem with every single one of these shows that focus on diversity. They spend too much on hamfisting diversity that they don't understand subtlety. They don't understand making impacts. Imagine if the travel started with them saying should we fly there but was denied and say that I want to see the modes of transportation in this world. Its about making sense that they can't even get anything about the show right
They show only reason for existing is making every character gay, it was doomed from the start
@@BrahHD I adore how Good-Faith-Criticism without Spite is becoming Popular again!
High Guardian Spice really helped here (the only thing it did right) but it's sure not
just that Franchise.
RWBY and Sherlock were covered by Hbomberguy,
Doctor Who was covered by Jay Exci and Madvocate did The Flash.
Nice!
I genuinely feel really bad for Raye. It seems like he was super passionate about making this show and got stuck with a company that wasn’t. Of course, I don’t know how production went, but it seemed like everyone who worked on the show was either new to the industry or not very experienced. Of course something would flop if no one knows what they’re doing. Also, I think there should have been more trans people working on the show. As a non-binary person myself, it really means a lot when good representation is made, especially since there is so little for me. From my understanding, Raye was the only trans person, and it seems like he was seen as a woman. They even kind of refer to him as one by saying all the writers are women. It’s really sad. I really hope he can create something awesome in the future I feel like he has potential to create something really meaningful!
I think there were a few people who knew what they were doing but unfortunately got wasted.
I mean, a better team might've made better animation or reduced plot holes, but a lot of the show's problems stem from core facets
As fun as it has been to rip on this show, when i think we could of had an rpg version of steven universe, i feel like its such a waste. Its more depressing to know what we missed than to feel happy with what it is
I'm gonna be honest:
I don't feel bad for Raye. As stated at the start of the video, this concept has been shopped around and bastardized between so many studios, for a college project, and for so much more that I feel that it should've been refined and ironed out ages ago. How can you go from a realized senior thesis to having zero worldbuilding and unrealized characters so quickly?
The answer is that the main character is largely the only one written. Rosemary has been around for over a decade. Her original design comes from Raye's self-insert "idealized transition shape" sketches from a high school DeviantArt account.
I do not believe that anyone came into High Guardian Spice passionate or even willing to make a proper show. They all had goals and ideas that had nothing to do with actually producing a piece of quality entertainment or educational media.
@@veraducks strong point
I actually kind of like how old Rosemary looked compared to the more corporate style we have now
I took one look at the characters and thought Rosemary and Sage were pretty cute compared to the rest of the hideous cast.
That was when I saw pictures of them. Then I saw clips from the actual show that were.......animated. If you can call it that.
Old Rosemary looks like Madoka Kaname drawn as an Adventure Time character. She also has more visible personality than Current Rosemary.
I’ve actually seen that old animation recently and I was thinking the same thing
I hate now Rosemary’s design. I hate her stupid hair. I don’t know, I just hate it.
@@NitroNinja324 Watch some Good-Faith-Criticism about that though.
Its fun, its educational, it allows learning from Other's Mistakes.
No wonder Good-Faith-Criticisms (especialy the hour-longs filled with Effort and Skill) become more and more populaar.
Jay Excis legendary Doctor Who Review, Hbomberguys Coverage of both RWBY and Sherlock Holmes, and of course Madvocate for The Flash;
they all have 1 thing in common:
People ocmment seperately from each other that 'The Time flew by' but more interestingly 'I do NOT even know this Franchise but i didnt need to, to enjoy this hour-long Video about it. Wow.'
To be honest, all of the talk about High Guardian Spice being generic (which, to be fair, I agree with) makes me wonder what it would've been if Caraway was a more prominent (and interesting) character. Like, we barely ever see the magical school setting from the perspective of a teacher. What if the fact that Rosemary's mom was missing affected him more? What would've happened if he actually went and actively looked for her after she disappeared? In what way, seeing the daughter of his missing best friend, actually made him feel? What would've happened if Rosemary's mom ever mentioned him to Rosemary, but maybe not by name?
I dunno man, I just like the premise of a teacher and a student working together to discover what happened to a missing person who really mattered to them both.
Edit: Also, I've just noticed that Caraway and Rosemary's mom share a very similiar dynamic and color scheme (mage and warrior, blue and pink) as Sage and Rosemary do, it it makes me mad that a very interesting parallel like that wasn't acknowledged nor used-
Oh oh! What if instead of Rosemary have to stay at her cousin house. They have her stay at Caraway's instead! It would be interesting dynamic, not to mention make the show title, High GUARDIAN Spice, having double meaning now.
@@noirtreize2713 No sorry thats too creative you get a bonk :).
Taking into account that Caraway is trans and is such close friends with Rosemary's mother [who is revealed to be one of the villains at the end], i don't understand WHY he's not one of the core characters.
Ooo, that would have been super cool to explore. I wonder if he was the main character how would that have affected the story. Maybe you should write that out and explore that idea.
@@themasterofw4295 But the creative stuff is so rich with potential! But yeah, too bad it wasn’t explored enough
Ever since I was young I wanted to tell stories, and Gravity Falls inspired me to get into animation. I had one story for years and I fell in love with it's characters, I really want to make it into a series some day.
I see this show and I get scared something like this will happen to me too. "What if I won't have enough experience to write a compelling story? What if it won't find it's audience? What if I produce it and it will be bad and I ruin my beloved characters forever?" High Guardian Spice isn't a great show, but it was made with a lot of passion. It makes me sad to see it fail because I can see myself in the creator's place and how devastated I would feel if it happened to me. :(
Edit: tysm for the wonderful replies! I saw a few more videos about guardian spice and I realized the writing just sucked, and even my worst writing is better than it 😂. if a show like this can exist I'm confident I can make it one day.
I know exactly how you feel: for me it was the webcomics and anime of the 2000s. I look back on my outlines and think how I just wanted to mash together these tropes I had seen second-hand or conflicts broiled in my own head.
I couldn’t write my real human story because I was too much of a coward/introvert to put myself out in the real world, so it was all just the conflicts I’d imagined would happen rather than what did happen. So my writing was never complete.
Maybe I’d have captured the imagination of a generation, maybe I’d appeal to tiny niche overlap of world-builders, trans-folks, and high-fantasy nerds. It doesn’t really matter since I don’t work on it anymore. The only audience I will ever have to please is me.
Go for it, you'll never know if you don't try, but like somebody said in another comment, you also have to learn when to let go, your story and characters may have been cool for your younger self, but in reality they may just suck, and it's time to bury then, but sometimes you'll have to risk it to truly know if that's the case.
Take a Creative Writing Class and look into learning from writers on youtube and other platforms. Learn the art of storytelling and what makes a story good. Truly study and practice your writing and there's no way that your story will fall flat. Believe in yourself and know that you have a story that means something, so it will mean something to someone else. Study other good stories both old and new along with their authors. Find a support system for feedback, and I wish nothing but the best for you in your future endeavors! You can do it! All of you can! The world NEEDS good storytellers now more than ever.
Everyone in the art community has made some form of ‘cringy’ or ‘under-baked’ content. It’s just a way of life. You will run into problems with your work, the best thing is to learn from those pitfalls. Find out what didn’t work in one creation and adjust it in another. It’s all a slow and somewhat harsh process, but one we must go through to improve. I believe in you, and good luck on your career :D
You can always come back and remake your work if you fail
you know, i was fully expecting thyme to have an arc where she fights racism and prejudice because shes a dark elf. im legitimately surprised they didnt do that because i was so sure they would.
They were saving it for the second season
@@bogdankljajic5340 there better not be a second season…
@@gigaswardblade7261 I hope not, but we'll see
@@gigaswardblade7261 the chances of that are 40/60 in my opinion
or the main villain to look like trump
The elf is a ranger and the dwarf is a blacksmith.
Really breaking those stereotypes there.
Am I the only person who feels kind of put out by the way seemingly every gesture towards LGBTQ+ acceptance chooses to use two female characters? Like, I really want a show to have the grits to give me two gay male leads. There's a strange, almost defensive obsession with using lesbians as the sole 'mascot' of the queer community in animation.
Watch ‘Kipo and the age of Wonderbeasts’. One of the main characters in a gay boy, and the main romance explored in the series is his.
The SyFy Chucky TV series lead character a gay teenage boy and that one's pretty good.
Same with bisexuals and transgenders. Like I've seen a lot of transgender females and bisexuals girls in a lot of media, but hardly any transgender male or bisexual boys in media.
it’s definitely because studios have leaned towards wlw characters being the safer more digestible option to include in shows (especially animation geared toward younger audiences.) most major studios are just too scared to include mlm, mtf trans, and enby characters because shows can easily taken down by onslaughts of negative feedback from mainstream audiences :// imo lgbt characters in animation are still very new- wlw/lesbians are also more generally accepted in society- so it makes sense for them to be seen more in animation. so maybe in the future there will be more diversity in lgbt rep than just wlw and lesbian folk.
now that I think of it I've never seen queer males as the leads in any show 😭
That trans teacher was so mundane. In a world of magic you can literally have creative liberties to be metaphorical. Im not a writer nor a movie fan but even I can smell creative opportunity when its right under my nose.
yea like being trans and saying hes trans is his only friccin personality
His voice is horribly matched too. The voice doesn't fit AT ALL with the design of the character.
Probably because the creator of the show, a woman that transitioned to a man, is doing the voice of this character thus making him sound like a real world woman who has transitioned using what technology and methods we have in the real world.
Which, WOULD be fine...... if he weren't changed from female to male through the use of MAGIC. The voice stops being realistic when you make the change FLAWLESS in every other aspect. Now it sounds awkwardly out of place and clashes with the design you've made for the character. They have this problem with the lesbian character too. They very intentionally designed her to be as boyish as possible, but then they made her SOUND as feminine as possible. If the look you're going for is punk rocker, don't make the voice actor channel disney princess. And I'm talkin old school disney princess, your snow whites, not your...... sarah silverman's.
The reason the trans teacher who was magically transformed perfectly into a man is voiced by someone with a COMPLETELY wrong voice for his character design, is simply because they DON'T CARE about integrity. Someone that actually cared about the art they were crafting would've found a non-trans man (who was also ACTUALLY a voice actor) that had a voice that complemented the design of the character they made. The actor in fact, actually, COULD have been a trans man if you found one with the correct voice. But this guy wanted to be in the show and wanted to voice a trans character so he just took this one despite the fact he was a poor fit for the role. He doesn't care, it's representation.
That's all they care about, so long as they get the representation and diversity worked in there, none of the other shit matters. If they have a gay guy in the show, ALL that matters is the guy voicing him is gay, even if the voice is not at ALL a match for the design they have. The character is 14 and the actor sounds like tay zonday? That's fine, he's actually gay in the real world, so that makes this an ok thing to do! Doesn't matter this woman over here has the perfect voice for him, she's not a gay man.
Imagine being influenced/inspired by a bunch of good anime and you somehow make a bad show...
To be fair that's what happens to a lot of fanfiction
* cough * Steven Universe * cough * (although Steven Universe was more wasted potential)
I mean, that's not too uncommon. Lots of people see something great, but they don't have the talent to back it up.
I think its because they don't understand why those elements work in those influences.
But in this case, i think its because they are lying and don't even watch anime
Okay but consider: what if the show was all about Snapdragon and Amaryllis?
Kind of feels like Ray came up with an actually really good, unique story, which then got sidelined by the generic Magic School Sentai plot. And that's a shame.
How is a young boy growing up different and trying to come to terms with not being how his family expects him to be...... unique?
@@haku8135 It isn't, but it would've been way better to get invested in than the dumpster fire that is the "main story".
I absolutely love slimeboys voice acting ! It's really good at portraying his weird social awkwardness. He's probably my favorite character besides the antagonists
"I just came here to cry"
more like i can hear the actual voice actor being forced to voice a role that isnt his style
@@inazuma2332 you can hear Slimeboy? Cause all he sounds to me is like his VA was recording himself with mic that was covered by a pillow.
I honestly heard that VA and wonder if it was intentional or not. It's not like Machine Head from INVINCIBLE. I'd rather have an robot antagonist who speaks in autotune instead of a person reminding me their self identification.
I adore how Good-Faith-Criticism without Spite is becoming Popular again!
High Guardian Spice really helped here (the only thing it did right) but it's sure not
just that Franchise.
RWBY and Sherlock were covered by Hbomberguy,
Doctor Who was covered by Jay Exci and Madvocate did The Flash.
This show could’ve been something great, but honestly it shouldn’t have been crunchyroll’s first show. I like how much respect you gave for the material when reviewing it even though it might be tempting to put it down. Raye has done what a lot of us dream to do, make a show. I just wish he could accept that while this is a love project, this wasn’t that good. And he can’t blame it on Christians/other religions (trust me, we don’t care to bash on this) or anti LGBT+ people (barely any reviews bring this up when talking about the show.) And I’ll admit, the representation is generally good. Snapdragon is a great character, and one of my favorites. I just hope to see the other people from this project grow and maaaaybe in the future Raye could bring Rosemary to the spotlight in a different project and give her some much needed growth.
Hi, I've been around, seeing a few things regarding this show. I want to mention that there are quite a few LGBT people who also hate the show. I think I saw a CrunchyRoll review by a gay person who hated the show, and a few trans people who hated the infamous "I'm Transgender" scene.
@@SaiyanGamer95 i mean, as ace - cant blame them. Just because team claims "diversity" doesnt mean the show wasn't beyond underwhelming - sometimes outright offensive to some groups
@@SorarikoMotone Hey, I'm bi myself and I totally understand and agree with what you said. It's like how people perceived Q-Force, only that show ended up being better than what the trailers showed. This was just as bad if not worse than what we saw from the trailers and what the crew was talking about.
Wait, Raye was accusing people who hated the show of being anti-LGBT?
@@longislandicedtea6323 I've only heard of online news sites saying that.
The worldbuilding is absolutely horrible in the show. They did nothing to tell the audience about the world setting, the people, or even the magic. They just put random shit altogether and expect someone to care.
Plus we literally have zero idea what the fuck a guardian is
I originally felt sorry for Ray, having a passion project crash and burn while also having some genuinely good things in it sucks. Especially when so many people rip into and Ray himself had to have seen how bad things where......then the budget was blamed for everything. I forgot that a budget wrote poor character dialogue, I forgot the budget wouldn't allow for going over the show to fix animation mistakes,and that the budget stopped people from being told to have actual feeling in reading lines. It came off as deflecting blame and really just gives no confidence in their next show. It feels like nothing will be learned and the same mistakes will be made, out this time they won't have extra years to linger on everything.
I mean budget can affect those things, it can and does affect time limits, casting, etc...
@@Mqstodon Exactly! I can believe that time and budget restraints plays a big part in HGS faults. The one thing I cannot fault the budget for is the writing. HGS should’ve has a full script/screenplay or something written season before production or during preproduction. The writing the the biggest issue with this series, cause I was able to overlook and excuse the art/design, initial characters, and concept, but the dialogue, story arcs, and flow were all over the place.
I’ve seen badly animated shows or bad art in general, but if the story is good, it overwrites everything else. Early Attack on Titan (manga) and One Punch Man (web comic) are examples of bad art with a good story.
Not that I don’t think the budget is a crutch of an excuse but literally everything you said can be majorly affected by budget / rushing. For example voice actors were expected to edit their own audio (As admitted by Slime Boy’s VA) which causes compression issues and leads to half of those audio errors. If you consider that, it makes sense that there’s no voice director to direct all of these new/inexperienced voice actors half of which are working at home. Budget is 1000% why you can’t go back and fix animation errors because they don’t care about making something good, at that point they need to make something passable. It also gives me the chance to believe that the shitty dialogue is probably all a 1st or hardly edited 2nd draft as the creators didn’t give themself the time to think over the plot. While they definitely deserve the shit they get, I think you shouldn’t underestimate the snowball effect of a shoestring budget.
If you want a fantasy show that handles representation in a great way, watch The Dragon Prince, it is a story first show with compelling characters and complex characters, a good amount of which just happen to be from various sexualities
It's so underrated.
I watched the first minute of it and I liked it
@@ihatetheheat4524 it really is
If you want a western one watch owl house
@@ShuTheIdiot Isn't dragon prince also western?
Frankly I don't believe even a single person in this show's world cares that Snapdragon's gender identity isn't just "straight male". Honestly it's surprising they even feel ashamed of or confused by it at all. Just doesn't seem like the kind of setting that could possibly breed that kind of conflict.
no fr
Everything I have seen about the show gives the impression that there is potential for something great if they had focused less on representation
Basically this, *not bad* animation per se, but spice of good or something definetly not.
The show had some potential maybe? Sadly this happened
I wouldn't even say loose any focus in representation. I feel like the should have balance the themes and character arcs between the setting, character traits, story, flow and worldbuilding. Like they could do every lesson they wanted as long as it mixes good everything established in the story.
Minorities don't like being pandered to, it's demeaning. Writing a particular character in and having it in a good story shouldn't be mutually exclusive.
Wise words, well said.
@@andreirachko I adore how Good-Faith-Criticism without Spite is becoming Popular again!
High Guardian Spice really helped here (the only thing it did right) but it's sure not
just that Franchise.
RWBY and Sherlock were covered by Hbomberguy,
Doctor Who was covered by Jay Exci and Madvocate did The Flash.
Nice!
@@nenmaster5218 indeed. I love RWBY like no other show precisely because of this: it made people have long, deep, thoughtful discussions about a variety of things they probably would’ve never thought of before. For instance, RWBY’s de facto protagonist, Ruby Rose, is portrayed as a good leader despite numerous glaring flaws in her strategy and character. This made fans upset and lead to countless debates on what it actually means to be a good leader and why Ruby isn’t one. Can you point me to any other show that sparked such debates? But of course, the credit goes to the people who can sustain such discussions without trolling, bitterness, and salt. We should all be more like that.
@@andreirachko I dont know if that phrase/sentence exists where you are but 'you speak from inside my soul here', Andrei.
Means: I wholeheartedly agree.
@@andreirachko I agree so much with that, hence why i risk being called a b0t
by often commenting to even strangers that they should check out Big Essays full of valid Criticism,
even if they dont actually know or care about the Franchise in Question.
Odd Hobby, but whatever.
If sleep was a food we would all be fat
I think the REAL reason why people are hating this show has nothing to do with lbgtq, feminism or anything else about that, but cuz, this is a show being aired on site that's sole purpose is to stream anime shows, like Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Attack On Titan etc. You know, ACTUAL japanese anime, made in Japan.
Not nothing. Way back anti-SJWs had stuff to say about the feminism aspect, but those voices died out within a month, and everyone forgot about HGS. Now that it's out those people no longer exist, so rn most of the hate is about the actual show
@theythem tbf, the fact the author decided on CRUNCHYROLL of all things to produce their "anime", when its known dogshit of a company to begin with, already imo makes the situation quite bad
I mean if theyre on par, id be happy how it was there, theres very little dynamic, the most interesting fight scene is the one with the cat lady. The worldbuilding, even when the world is suppose to be magic, is very much not fantasy-esque. Now, im speaking from my own opinion on this, but as someones who truly love fantasy, id like to see...more, something interesting. The world is made up, is fantasy, and what is not achievable jere can be told there. I am by no means creative, but id expect some floating gardens, perhaps a better character design, since all of them are humanoid, or the majority of them, some distinct rooms, or maps, like harry potter's maps where they see people walking and all. Plus, it was advertised as "mature audience" but very much childish story wise. Character development is just mostly abrupt, how the blue haired girl suddenly falling in love with the red haired mermaid. The cartoonishly evil girl suddenly accepted in the group etc etc
Both are the problem, but the first part is the worst
Idk, when a lot of the "Criticism" that people levy at this show is "I'm sick of all the WOKE pandering" outweighs the reviews and criticisms like this video had, the legit kind. Then I'm still in the belief that a lot of it was still the "Too many gays in my cartoons lately, getting sick of it, feminazis run amuck again."
I've gotta disagree on some of your point regarding the fantastical highschool trope. Specifically the part where you said "they've begun to outgrow cute highschool girls doing badass things". I think it's important to understand which audience - given the choice of platform - High Guardian Spice was aimed at capturing (as opposed to aimed at because frankly it's a kids show with random mature elements mixed in, which is only one of the aspects that shows it has no idea who it is made for except the creators themselves) was the anime-watching audience. This is most *definitely* not the audience that is in any way tired of cute girls, highschool stories or over the top badassery. In fact one of the shows High Guardian Spice is fairly often compared to, to the point some called HGS a ripoff of it - Little Witch Academia - was not only massively popular but is fairly recent too, in spite of (at least as far as the premise goes) having something very similar if not arguably the same as HGS. Saying High Guardian was trying to capture a dwindling audience because of its genre or concept just doesn't hold water. The only way in which the setting and premise hurt it was A) it lacked even a gimmick to add on top of the generic stuff and B) it tried to market itself as superior to and more original than other shows (by the word of the trailer) while having that incredibly bland premise contrasting with those claims, one of the many things cementing in the minds of the potential audience this production would be all bark and no bite.
Now maybe you were just talking about the RWBY fans specifically rather than Highguardian Spice's potential audience, but I would disagree with the notion that they were trying to go for RWBY's audience specifically (if that, indeed, is what you were arguing) and even if they were I think RWBY's audience is one of those known for their (at times excessive) avid passion for the show, so even they wouldn't have "outgrown" the genre.
yeah, imo this is the problem not of the genre, but of creations of said genre becoming, frankly, extremely crappy lowquality bait
As a RWBY fan peeking from the dumpster which is my taste in media, I can say with certainty that HGS was *not* in any way aiming to capture RWBY fans. HGS’s core elements such as style, premise, setting, age of the protagonists, and even the very title don’t overlap with what an average RWBY fan would find interesting or fun.
@@andreirachko The age of the protagonists?
@@opinionofmine3238 RWBY = late teens, young adults, adults; HGS = middle schoolers and teachers.
I have a question, is it really that out of the ordinary to see a guy wearing nail polish?
Depends where you live I guess.
@selenite. There is literally a guy in my neighborhood that's always wearing different colours on each nail but most times it's black, red and yellow. It actually looks good too
@@karrieamari9808 I live in a small mining town, my wife wanted to learn how to do manicure so she practiced on me.
I came to work with long russian nails one day and got the expected jeering and good natured hazing.
How ever this persisted far longer than acceptable, so one day in the break room I said something akin to "at least I ain't so insecure in my sexuality that I'd turn gay just by havinv my nails done, and even if, I wouldnt fuck any of you guys. Well, except Daniel, he's kind of cute with that full beard."
yes it is
It's certainly out of the ordinary to find a character that's just gay.
"You're an effeminate dude, clearly you must secretly be a transwoman."
8:35 I HEAVLY disagree there. I consider hes arc downright offensive to the subject matter. You CAN make an arc involving this but they way the show portrayed it is awful. The reason why he wanna be a girl esentialy boils down to "I don't like boy stuff" wich I HIGHLY doubt the reaso why people go trough transition. And he flash back seen has several layers of issues that honestly would deserve a video of it's own to go trough it.
It was a long time why I show managed to piss me off on a moral level but this thing somehow managed to do it.
What makes it worse is that transitioning is barely an inconvenience in this world.
@@schwarzerritter5724 Indeed. In a world where you can transform in a HORSE, this shouldn't be wierd at all.
Just turn my into a half dragon with sick ass wings!
@@richardduska1558 being a furry is not the same as living as your preferred gender, transitioning as escapism magic is not representation.
Yeah, it was shallow at best and downright sexist at worst. Either way it's ironic from a crew that prided themselves for being progressive and open minded, yet they followed every single stereotype and cliche to a T
Its Kanji's arc in Persona 4 but done EXTREMELY poorly.
What often irks me about modern LQGBT representation is how it's shoved in the viewers face and we're expected to care, as if that's what makes their character. To me, the best way to write these types of characters is to not draw attention to that facet of their character, and instead focus on making them well rounded, while also dropping subtle hints pertaining to their sexual preference, possible gender swap, etc. In fact, a game I played recently did this very well. In the game Catherine there's a trans character who's friends with the main character and his other friends. She seems like your typical female friend at first, but then they start hinting at the truth. One of the other friends looks a bit uncomfortable when she hits on him, but the biggest clue involves the main plot of the game. In its story the main character is thrown into these dreams where he's tasked with climbing a tower every night, and if he fails he dies for real. What they tell you is that others are having these dreams, but they're all men. Later down the line she tells him that she's been having the same dreams as well. That's when it clicked, she was originally a guy that transitioned. And, there's a possibility where you can get an ending that results in her never transitioning, and we see her as her prior male self; though it's hinted that he may still transition if it pleases his crush. In my eyes the LGBTQ community is no different or special than the straight community, they're human, just like us.
When you demand representation, you get pandering.
People didn’t like how Erica was portrayed (never played Catherine so can’t vouch for that) because showing her pre transition was offensive for many trans people.
Trans ppl regardless of transition status are the gender they say they are, just a heads up.
@@kazzfuchsia1073 I don't really see how showing her pre-transition is offensive. And it's not like she was a bad character, she was a good one who often gave advice to Vincent. Plus, you only see her pre-transition during one of the endings, which you can only get by fulfilling certain requirements. The rest have her post transition. And even during the pre-transition cutscene it's still implied she'll transition into a girl if it pleases the boy she has a crush on.
@@MK_ULTRA420 white man pandering is still well written though, who says they can’t get nice things?
@@TryinaD I know you're being a snarky tryhard but the white man isn't demanding representation to the point of shaming people.
Slime boy and Chompy made the whole thing worth watching.
"A show that meant nothing"
This is one of the _kinder_ things said about this show
_Helluva Boss_ does LGBT characters well because their focus is on creating good characters first and not parading them around like social justice participation trophies. Otherwise the message becomes damaging instead of supportive on top of being straight up mediocre.
It was made by feminists,they dont know how world works
Too bad the creator is an evil lunatic, narcissistic, and doesn't mind destroying lives.
It's the way HGS shoves the "diversity" in your face like the creators deserve a award for it for me personally. There are many shows with diversity that do it well but this show just practically spoon-fed stuff to a "mature audience"
I don't care what you have to say, "Do you.. want rabies?" was perfectly delivered
A few changes could have made the show a lot better, I feel like maybe if Raye would have worked in the industry a bit longer and maybe worked on other peoples shows and gained experience it would have helped a lot, you know, get a feel of the field before going head first into a passion project, it would have given them time to think things through more and make a better show with a more cohesive story and less clunky dialog
Yeah like focus on the story first then political stuffs later. Cause that is what makes anime a big hit to begin with. Even with One Piece that shows lots of ideology and politic standpoint Oda somehow delivers the story telling more to the point we actually feel intrigued of what will happened next. Not only that he gives us many life lessons also like how Luffy said that whether we are a good guy or a bad guy it is up to us to decides on what is bad and what is good.
@@gaming1zanagi-1999. I mean they could put whatever moral they want but the problem the needed to fix if establish the flow of the story and characters/development. I feel like this is failing from a lack of focus of the story they want to tell. They have all these ideas and stories they wanted to tell. However without the lack of flow and smooth character arcs/dynamics we get the show now. I can only hope for the next show they can write a detailed plan of the story and review with a lot of people if the flow is goo.
@@spiderace7994 true that is way better if they put the story telling first I don't say that they can't put other aspect like they can but at least focused on making a good story telling first. Besides the way they treat transgenderism as if it is a casual thing to do or it having no risks at least from how they don't explains it is just messed up.
yeah, like changing every character, story, writer and animator
The trans representation (if you can even call it that) In this show makes me so uncomfortable because it’s the characters only trait not to mention it’s so awkward and it feels out of nowhere but that’s just me
I love how these companies that love claiming to be "diverse" just consider diversity as their own sexuality or gender lol
And it always comes down to things like "Our entire crew is made of middle aged white women some or most of which may lesbian or bi so our product is good!" as if 1. any of that effects the outcome in any huge way and 2. that is very diverse in their own terms
That isn't a bad point there's like one PoC in the main cast. You think the writers are maybe all white?
@@Kat-zh4ly well, it can certainly help the outcome. But it doesn't guarantee quality if the writers are seemingly not trying.
@@seekingabsolution1907 I was pretty tired at the time of writing and forgot about this til you replied, I do take back the outcome comment thinking about how people's experiences change their writing etc. But I will say in a broad term, many times that's how people try to sell their product, is based on who's writing over what's in the story etc. It also does come down to levels of self indulgence in the writer as regardless of who anyone is it's easy to fall into very clear tropes and stereotypes for any character.
Sorry for rambling, my main point is agreeing with you and saying it's moreso not a good selling point to talk more about the writers than the actual story
in bee and puppycat there are noticeable and purposeful mistakes in the voice acting and I like it a lot because it makes the characters more relaxed and human-like but in this show (purposeful or not) the voice acting is horrible. It sounds like a fan-dub rather than the official audio. It’s such a shame because in a couple of scenes animation, character design, and the world itself are decent
I love the respect shown in this review.
I can see a ton of potential in the world but none of it was explored, and what was explored were things that could be explored in any world.
Plus the art style is cute, and it sucks that it went to waste
@@kittykittybangbang9367the artstyle looked great on the concept art, but in motion it looks kind of off to me. Perhaps it's due to the production problems, but it mostly looks like a cartoon with a few anime influences that don't mesh too well
Ah yes, some of life's greatest questions...
"Where do we go when we die?"
"Are we living in free will or is it all an illusion?"
"Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?"
"Is mayonnaise an instrument?"
And yet, none of these questions have puzzled philosophers quite as much as this existential conundrum...
"Is sleep a food?"
If you season it correctly.
ᵒᵏ ᵇᵘᵗ ʷʰᵃᵗ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ʰᵒʳˢᵉʳᵃᵈᶦˢʰ...
for the bedbugs, yes.
Honestly, I unironically love Slime Boy's voice and line delivery in the show.
Just make a spin off with Parsley, Snapdragon, the purple bitch, and Slimeboy. Turn it over to real writers without an agenda, and they'll make some money.
OMG i thouht i changed videos when i saw the comments and view numbers. THIS CHANNEL IS CRIMINALLY, CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED. Grear work, please continue doing thse kinds of well made reviews.
Seriously, all I've ever heard of this show, ever since it was first announced, was how much people didn't like it. I've honestly never seen a show, anime or otherwise, that's had this much of a overwhelming negative reception from start to finish 🤔
It is just straight up not good.
It doesn't help that unlike other not good animes, this one had a lot of money put into it and a lot of marketing.
to be fair, it looks so bad you would have to pay me to watch it.
Part of the reason is this show was made with money Crunchyroll claimed was going to be used to help the anime industry or something like that. So I can't really blame people for being pissed.
That and one of the writers unironically saying to kill all men didn't help either.
The writers for this show were probably as confused as us with what they were expected to create.
The writing credits for High Gaurdian Spice on Wikipedia mostly list people who have worked on children's series. So I don't know why anyone was expecting them to hold up the task of writing super "mature" or "adult" content. That's not to say that kid's show writers can't do both, but when none of the people on board had any experience writing for the intended late teen audience it makes sense why the final result feels more like a children's show.
How did you know they worked on children’s series?
This has reminded me how desensitized I am to bad voice acting.
It honestly didn't deserve the hate it got but I'm not gonna give it the praise it wants. I definitely enjoy it more than the current state what of RWBY is now
Same
most of the hate it recieved was that fan were told that most (i think) of the money Crunchyroll makes, it would go to Japanese animators
While I agree the heat is very crazy and big the company needs to know what they’re doing is not right because what people paid for is stuff created by Japanese animators not some really basic original. I think people would be less peeved if the show was actually really good but honestly it’s not the best
I think you're giving it to much credit whole do understand were you are coming from in my honesty it definitely deserves the hate it got for variety of reasons
@@raphaelbrown6314 I can see that, really I don’t try to be as negative but it is just confusing on why it really became such a thing
Maybe I'm alone but I really like the pure animation style of the show. Sort of reminds me of a modernized ponyo in terms of colors and certain character designs. I think a lot of the characters look nice. Too bad they couldn't have been put in a better project
not gonna lie, slime boy has one of my favorite voices, lines, and deliveries in the entire show. i love his singing, too.
Wow, an actual well made, critical review that not just bashing it repeatedly. Props man!
It think if one of the writer's hadn't said a lot of their obnoxious shit on Twitter and the creators had bothered to make a proper trailer for the show it wouldn't have gotten this much controversy, which I think is the main thing holding the show back, if it hadn't had it's controversy it probably would have been as popular as may arifureta or Assasins Pride because they were just as bad shows.
High Guardian Spice Ingrediesnt:
- Diversity
- LGBTQ+ content
- Gore
- 18+ verbal stuff
- Uh... magic?
- Cringyness
- Bad dialogue
This show is “being lgbt is my only personality trait and everyone needs to know” and it really shoves it down your throat, which makes it unlikeable
High Guardian Spice? You mean that show about drunk Slime boy with harp? Cause that all i can remember from it.
Since we’re that far in, let’s also discuss the politics at play in the show. Which, much like the rest of the series, sucks hard and does not ever come close to pulling off well. I’m of the belief you can include allegories and parallels in your fantasy world provided you do it in a way that is unique to the world and does not interrupt the flow of the main story. So long as it doesn’t come off as jarring, fine, if it’s well told, great.
High Guardian Spice does not ever come close to this. They give Sesame Street levels of explanations for sexual identity (in an adult program as well), they straight up create multiple straw men characters whose soul purposes are to deliver their crappy political views, and even worse… none of their allegories ever, EVER, come off as unique to their world. It comes off as lectures, like the creators of the show are talking down to the audience or problems that frankly aren’t as pervasive in the world today as these maniacs wanna believe. It legitimately tells whatever audience that could possibly be interested in this shit (whatever sized mustard seed proportion that may be) to fuck off if they’re not willing to accept their crap… while talking down to the teeny audience this crap was supposedly made for!
Someone said it best a while ago, “The Lord of the Rings had better political allegories in it and Tolkien hated allegories.”
This show was made by feminists. Where you expecting something else besides awful unsubstantiated political views, hatred, bad wring and execution?
@@aklimaron7398 political views like what?
Hey look a good review that doesn't spend time focusing on the pathetic political aspect that a bunch of weirdos who are too hung up on there being too many gays in their cartoons wont stop crying about. You know what it needs? Stupid politics that complain about too many LGBTQ representation and just being the same every other fucking review that wont shut up about how WOKE and SJW the show is and that it hates strait white men because.... pfffffttttblblbbl idk, I've ran out of reasons to be mad at gay people so now I need to feel like a victim I guess.
STOP! This is one of the only good reviews that doesn't delve into that worthless anti-SJW bullshit that wallows about in getting angry at any kind of representation they see.
@@seventeenseventythirteen7465 ... I hate to break it to you like this, but if you've seen the show (endured is probably a better word, lord knows I did), you'll know a good majority of it is politically charged, and more of us are just annoyed at how invasive and terribly conveyed they are, right? It has nothing to do with the character's genders or anything along those lines, it has to do with the fact that some of these characters are either purely defined by whatever ideal the creators have and nothing else. Which... hate to tell you man, but that's some bad writing right there.
But go ahead, keep believing it's because everyone who dislikes the show is anti-sjw or whatever -ism you like. It's so much easier to stereotype a majority rather than listen to whether or not it may have any merit to their words. Here, I'll even like your comment just so that way you feel that much more justified.
@@shadowbyname2802 A good majority of it is just ID/pol that is pointless to get hung up on unless you're the kind of person that sees that as a bigger problem than basically everything around the shit this show is.
Its politics are the most base level representation. There isn't anything of substance other than some identity politics in the form of a handful of LGBTQ characters. It's such an annoying thing to hear about over and over and over again. God damn can we get a review where I don't have to hear about how "WOKE" it fucking is and that the creators are these rabid feminazis that want to turn strait white men into the big gay? I mean the comment bellow you kind of did, and I'd also like to ask him about what political ideas would those be.
So quit cramming your politics about this shows politics into a review that doesn't want to talk about your politics that involve shoving this shows politics into everything.
Ok but in all seriousness, as bad as the show is, I will love and defend slime boy with my life
He needs his own show.
For real
One little thing they can fix is their marketing. I don't care how "diverse" or "inclusive" your staff is. I don't care how "diverse" or "inclusive" your show is. Stop preaching and show us something. What's it like? Who are the characters? A little bit of worldbuilding would be nice, wouldn't you say? Don't tell people to watch it, show them reasons to want to watch it.
Been seeing a lot of people just rip into this show it was nice seeing someone give it a honest review it’s not a completely terrible show but it’s not a good one
Fun fact: even the old-versus-new magic seems to be partly lifted from other sources, e.g. most notably the Preserver-versus-Defiler system of magic from the D&D setting of Dark Sun, in whose world, Athas, all wizards either draw power carefully from their surroundings, thereby not destroying it, or through defilement, which can, in fact, absolutely destroy the local environment.
It also reminds me of Blastia from Tales of Vesperia. Heck, the first half of the game keeps going on about how good blastia is and how it makes everyone's lives better while setting up the eventually reveal that actually it's bad and destroying the environment.
They want a nice representation: Blue Hearts.
it's a nice webtoon, and there's a good representation for trans people without saying so.
And if anyone want a good recommendation for a comic: Winter moon. Quite funny tbh head in without taking it seriously. I mean the main characters are 1- A Gay wizard and 2- a Gold digger and 3- the gay wizard's friend who is straight? also the mum of the three in a world of RPG
Theres also a webtoon called Hyperfocus which is asice of life that shows how a trans nan is dealing with his transitioning expierience
My Problem with this Kind of shows is that they throw you all this stereotypes without letting the characters develope according to what they represent . I had a trans friend and he never told me he was trans . I kind of just knew it by things he told me from the past and problems with his family . He wasn’t like : hi let’s be friends , by the way , I was a women .
If you want to have more characters with interesting genders or personalities , just let it develop naturally. We consumers hate it when you just throw to us this kind of things . It’s like an insult of our intelligence.
By the way , it’s just q random opinion from a random dude .
Honestly, the only reason I even know some of my friends are trans is because multiple of my friends are trans, so we feel comfortable confiding in our issues we face (and that’s only once we’ve all gotten comfortable with each other). Also, sometimes people like to wearing pins or general bits of pride merch, but usually only one small thing so they can communicate to other trans people. Even trans people who are proud of their identity don’t always like talking about it with strangers, people they aren’t close to, or cis people.
The only people we might be more comfortable confiding in are our queer brethren, and even then, sometimes you only want to share that with fellow non-cis people.
Finally! A review that doesn't attack this like lion on a gazelle! Almost every review I have watched thus far immolated this media in one aspect or another, pulling one or two nuggets out of the blaze. However, this is the first one that doesn't feel like it is dancing around the inferno mocking it.
This show had more self inserts then I’m Not Starfire
I think people need to remember that the show was pitched over 5 years ago. Back then, trans characters in shows were a lot less common in the west, so something like that was revolutionary and would need the explanation if this was aimed at a Steven Universe like audience. Animation has changed a lot during that time. LGBT characters are a lot more common, even in children's cartoons. Having a character spout out what being trans means to preteens comes off as rather patronizing now. Doing that on a show aimed at adults makes it even worse.
Even then, the rep rings as hollow. The trans character just comes off as a self insert for the author and has no personality. I'm not even touching the hopefully accidental implication with Snapdragon that being a guy that enjoys more feminine interests automatically means your a trans man like being a crossdresser or just a more feminine guy aren't options, ironically reinforcing the gender binary. It comes across as something for woke points instead of something more genuine, even if I know that's not the author's intention. But... Riverdale pretty much proves that just because you are a part of a minority group doesn't mean that makes you able to tackle that sort of rep flawlessly. (The showrunner's a latino gay man, I believe.) That's the case here. I'm not even touching that one writer that wished all men to die. Even as someone who considers themselves "progressive" and more left wing politics wise is uncalled for.
On top of this, I get a serious "first time writer" vibe from this show. This series started off as a comic that he posted on Tumblr back in the day to vent about his feelings, which explains the wonky pacing and lack of plot until the end, so he never probably came into his own as a writer at the time of creating this. This show has a lot of "Tumblrisms" in general. But considering this is his first project, he might've learnt something from all this and improved his craft for his next series.
I hope it's awhile before his next series. His credits are incredibley limited with only one credit being relevant (an animation department member on an Amazon show). Usually people will spend years as a writer before they get their first show, which allows them to learn from more experienced writers. I don't want to say I hope they never work again, but I definitely think they need to work with more experienced people before given their own show.
We're really focusing on diversity and inclusion with this series. That's why every single person in our writing room is a White woman with glasses.
I always felt bad thinking this, but this show felt like it was only made as an expression of “representation” and nothing else to me. As if someone wanted to make an animated TV show, but just for it to act as a medium to express a movement that they were passionate about. The elements that actually make up a show, such as the script, voice acting, etc were a means to an end, like how a non-artist would draw out a diagram or something not for the sake of the diagram itself, but to convey a message that they were trying to get across.
I have to do technical drawings (rough drafts for blueprints) for my job sometimes and it makes me want to stop being alive.
I could scribble out a rough sketch and know exactly what it's supposed to mean, but when you have to make something that somebody else can interpret 100% correctly it is tedious beyond reason. In half the time I could design the part in CAD, but NO that's somebody else's job...
Great review... well thought out, carefully chosen words, script, editing, including narration and production. I'm surprised your channel only has 1350 followers, cause it this level I could easily see it with a few zeros added. Keep it up, and I'm sure it will happen! :D
I love how it’s called high guardian *spice* when most characters are named after *herbs,* not spices.
To be fair, naming the show High Guardian Herb would make it sound like some kinda drug. Which the writes were probably on when making this.
I just want to mention that the smell of my mother was the last thing I forget about her
(I forgot her appearance, then her voice, then her smell. Was like "her eyes are black... I guess..? At least her voice was... wait I don't remember! But she had a good smell! Kinda like a nice peach tree" (she died 15 years ago when I was 7 and I didn't live with her))
Wow talk about underrated your video essay is really good
Bad writing makes everything else suck no matter how much you don't want it to. If you want to represent ideas and people positively then WRITE THEM WELL. Don't just slap a label on and pat yourself on the back. Sometimes you need a complainer, a critic, a person who doesn't simply reaffirm how awesome you and your ideas are.
I really enjoyed that you actually took the time to acknowledge the creator and other people behind the show, they were passionate and wanted to do something people could watch and relate to, and yeah, it didn't turn out good, like at all, but hopefully they'll learn from their failure and become better artists.
Thank you for an objective review! I have no time to watch this myself but was curious and so I'm happy I found your video that actually talks about the show, the bad, the good and the ugly, not just comparing it to the worst evil like most other videos.
This is a perfect example of how you run a passion project into the ground.
I gotta say, I always found one of the problems with the shows' themes is that although it tries to be as open as possible to every group, it seems to close itself up if it doesn't benefit a certain group.
Take for example the scene where Snapdragon talks with Caraway, with the latter talking about how his transitioning was one path, but it's not for everyone, even if they are in Snapdragon's shoes. This is a good message to send, as gender dysphoria is a very broad and convoluted topic, and Snapdragon seemed to be more worried about being bullied for liking girly things rather than feeling that he wasn't a guy. Transitioning isn't for everyone, and people should be allowed to like masculine and feminine products regardless of their sex or gender.
Then Caraway then offers to teach Snapdragon about transgenderism, and it just comes off like Caraway is pressuring Snapdragon into a decision he isn't entirely sure about yet, which is the exact antithesis of what the show just said a few seconds ago.
It's similar to how the show tries to show off diversity in the cast, but then they proceed to have races we see only used as a slave or lower class, or how they wanted to push gender equality (to the extent of making the trailer all about it) but then proceed to write in stereotypical toxic men who you'd only realistically meet in a nightclub after they drank 8 litres of high strength booze.
I think this is what people aren't a fan of when it comes to the mass dislikes. Like you said, it isn't just people who are actually misogynistic or diehard zealots, but the vast majority is made up of people who thought the show looked bad and/or were tired of this weird, corporate double standard when it comes to inclusivity.
Feel kinda bad for Rodriguez, after pitching his show for a long time it ended up... a mess.
Good seeing a vid on this show that doesn’t just completely shut on it every chance they get but actually break down its issues. I’ve been curious what all the commotion was about with this show and I’m glad I found this one it’s very informative
Excellent, and balanced and respectful critique, without coddling. Best video I've seen on this topic.
I agree. High guardian spice is the most worst series. The only characters I like is parsley,amaryllis,snapdragon and slime boy. Even Chad astor(seriously I laugh at his words sometime and it could be great potential to make them like rivals that's all. All rivals did that in their own way but noooo)nooo,sireee. They make Astor into an anxiety and anxious girl. Really,I love Astor and snapdragon too. I don't care if snaps pronouns are he or she. I just like snapdragon his personality is so great and relatable to us. Even the axe murder girl is interesting and the chaoticness that flows with her perfectly. Their dynamic is interesting and makes me wanna protect them so much. I just don't like cause she's a sexist and said this guys don't talk about their feelings(she forgive but I felt her apology is too not meaningful and felt forced). Guys,talk about their feelings but whether they want to share their problem or not. That's the point because guys are nice to us sometimes. If you think that statement then why is my dad crying as he heard his colleague died on the phone huh while watching shang chi. He cries and even went to her funeral at the middle of the night does that look like he doesn't have feelings sage. Parsley is a great character but I felt uncomfortable with her boss somehow. Also,the transformations felt I don't know doesn't make sense and the colours. Why are sage and rosemary's hair flown freely and even have different clothes. Why is sage have a crown on her head(does it try to represent soemthing like royalty somehow),thymes has a blue fishtail,what does it represent and why is it not upgraded her weapon hello people. Why? Also sages fishtail is purple but where's a bit of blue in it. And why is parlseys fishtail look so stout and big? It should have a slender fishtail. Did the writers do that because parsley is fat? Those transformation so generic and unoriginal. Even DC superhero girls 2019 transformation are way better than this garbage of an anime. Is that it because I'm confused. I felt so sorry that voiced call. Heard that voice actor is prozd or something. Amaryllis,snapdragon,slime boy and parsley should have been the main characters. Don't get me started with LGBT representation. They look so what's the word? Onauthorizex. I mean it feels so like self inserts that are so bad that make you feel embarass and why it have a modern clothes. They should have I don't specified the time period because in ancient fantasy au they should not have modern clothes. Slime boy is so calm that I admired him somehow. Rosemary,she's a bad and unlikable protagonist. Even south parks representation is way better than this garbage. Ah,even the protagonists have character traits that written beautifully than this and even their representation of the LGBT relationships are somehow great and relatable. Dangit,even an animatics taht rewrote those scenes are better,seriously her animatics are so better than the original and even character redesigns are better than this. Sorry for the rant guys okay.
Loved the review, was actually critical about the show and its flaws and where they came from instead of bitching about WOKE SJWs shoving gay people down everyone's throats.
Glad also to see that most of the comment here are still the same kind of people that would have rather just heard about how it's WOKE SJW trash instead of getting a well balanced review...
I'm always happy to see "criticism" in the form of "Too many gays, stop forcing it down my throat" tarnish a good video...
Good video, good parts and separation. Underrated channel. Subscribed
I didn't even understand why the characters were even named like plants until I remembered it was called High Guardian Spice
Slime Boy,Snapdragon,and Purple haired girl carry this show.
Don't @ me.
@Low Tier Trash
Hi
(also tbf with the Rwby bit... the animation was shoddy outside of the fight scenes. The first 3 or so seasons had incredibly well animated fights and flashes of that sometimes come back in the more modern series even if not quite to the same degree)
Dude! Congrats on the success of this video, that is so awesome to see
you're the best commenter I've ever found. I don't know why but I love your content immensely. It has an almost nostalgic and kind feel that just makes me happy
I think to call it an anime was kinda a bad idea. It IS a cartoon but you can usually tell if something was western-made. HGS is about as much Anime as Tacobell is Mexican food.
One more thing... with all of the profanity it is safe to say this shows target audience were not children, thus it needed some very good worldbuilding such as well established magic system. The magic system in this show is more like an afterthought with completely nonsensical rules.
Its sad when someone passion project turns out so badly.
This is the kindest review I've seen of it so far & gave me a new out look on the show :^)