- Twitter: twitter.com/BrandonRTalks Btw guys I know this isn't an anime lol. Hence the quotes around "anime". I'm making fun of Crunchyroll for advertising it as an anime when it isn't one. And I ain't changing it because people keep clicking on it lol - Join Our Discord Server!: discord.gg/brandonrtalks - Patreon: www.patreon.com/brandonrtalks
It really could be worse of a first episode, which would actually make it more notable. Instead it just commits the far greater sin of being incredibly boring.
Granted, one can argue that something being hilariously bad is better than being mediocre. the Anime Community has plenty of shows that they see as "Hate-watches" to make fun of wth your friends
They could've made the blue haired girl personality be patient, intelligent and carefree, with a mindset of "Everything will work out in the end", which would rear its ugly head when she and Rose would miss the train because SOMEBODY didn't eat fast enough. Rose could've been (and probably is) the hothead, impatient and energetic, maybe even selfish. Polar opposite to her blue haired friend(?). Her selfish trait was revealed when she wanted to cut the line when the orc guy broke the bridge accidently. Blue haired girl would then subtly guilt-trip Rose into helping the dude out, because, y'know, she isn't self-centered. I though up more ways that their character could be expanded, but I'm too lazy to write it down.
You forgot to mention that the biggest controversy about this show was that they used the money that was supposed to go to Japanese anime creators. This was when I gave up on crunchyroll and not even hiring a vtuber could change that for me.
@@daxain7368 Pirating or any other site which lets you watch it for free LEGALLY and use the money on items that help the creators and artist of said anime
Cheesecake thing was an easy fix imo. All they had to say was Rosemary felt bad making her mom the shown part in the locket despite her being missing because her dad and brother are just as important to her, so she chose the cheesecake which is something they all made together.
you made a better writing than their team, this means only 2 things: A) You're an amazing story writer and you should start making books which will be famous, get adaptations and a community will come to life because of your works. B) They really did the worst sh*t ever. C) Both could be applicable.
This, and also maybe Rosemary has a specific memory about her family relating to the cheesecake. A couple of examples .) Her mom came home from a mission that had her away from home from a long time and Rosemary hears her say that she's been looking forward to having her husband's food again for months, and the first thing she asks for is that cheesecake. .) Assuming Rosemary's family are bakers (that's the implication I get from the opening), this is the first recipe Rosemary learned from her father. .) Rosemary's brother, who kinda reads to me as the asshole older brother type, dares a young Rosemary to try and make her dad's cheesecake recipe by herself after implying that she's an incompetent baker/chef, which sends the very competitive Rosemary into overdrive. Whether or not she succeeds at the task doesn't really matter, because it'll either be a moment of triumph that Rosemary would carry with her for years, or it would lead to a bonding moment between her and at least one member of her family where they help her make the cake, which I imagine would be a very precious memory to her. .) Perhaps a combination of all of these things. Child Rosemary knows her mother is coming home from a long mission, and wanting to both impress her whole family with her skills in the kitchen and give her both her dad and brother a break, she decides to make the only recipe she really knows how to make, that being this cheesecake. This can go any number of ways, but it all culminates in a cheesecake being made with most (if not all) of the family working together, and Rosemary feeling a sense of accomplishment because she made this happen.
@@AzariahMarinaStarcasteryou just made something that is centered around the backstory of the cheesecake in the locket, and it’s better than the entire show
@@mydjqiuseven8933 I think so much about the potential of this show it's not even funny. I'm pretty sure I've thought of at least 3 different ways it could be rewritten so far.
I think the thing that offends me most especially as a culinary student is the names. The show is called High Guardian Spice. They are all named after herbs
And Amaryllis is a freacking flower, Idk if it can be even eaten lol. Edit: I googled about it and turns out that amaryllis contains poison and you can die from eating it. Definitely not a spice or a herb.
Who's Ginger ? She could have the spicy satiric character trait ? Peppermint flashy and cheerful. Paprika , inventive and colorful. Wow they had one job. Something as easy as developping chara traits after spices 😭
To be fair, they are going to a school not to learn magic but to become Guardians What are the Guardians you ask? That's classified information, apparently
@@BrandonRTalks imagine naming your show High Guardian Spice and: 1) never explaining what the Guardians are/do 2) never explaining the difference between a Guardian and a High Guardian 3) naming your characters after herbs/flowers instead of spices That would be embarrassing
For the most part, the show gets worse as you go. There are a few individual moments where it gets very slightly better for a few minutes, but nothing worth torturing yourself to get to
@@TheTrueDiablix I salute you for watching the entirety of that show to know this, or you hate high guardian spice so much that you remembered every insult every channel has spewed about this show, rightfully so.
@@randomly47 lol I did watch the whole thing though my reasons were a little different. I'm working on writing my own story for a project of mine and basically after the 1st episode realized it could be a useful tool as a crash course on how not to write a story, so I kept watching
Sonic Colors cs. Sonic 06. Technically, Sonic Colors isn't bad. It's boring as all get out, though. Sonic 06 is objectively, inarguably bad, but it's entertaining.
At least with bad stories, you feel something. Whether youre angry/frustrated by it, find it laughably bad (so funny its good), theres something to talk about. When its boring, what else is there to say. A negative response is better than no response
Rose being selfish could've been fine if it was self aware. Maybe she's inconsiderate, and cares about other people but often doesn't think about how her actions affect them because she's self-centered. That could be challenged when those she cares about are in harms way, forcing her to put others before herself. That could've been character growth and maturity. But lets be honest, the writers dont realize she's selfish because they're writing themselves, and dont realize how flawed they are.
The trixie that steals Rosemary's locket is the only character that has a story. It needs a shiny thing. The shiny thing will allow it to woo a mate. Rosemary trying to get her locket back is what is stopping it from doing its mating dance. If it does not do the dance, it does not get a mate. All four questions are answered, but it is for a minor character that is never seen again and has no further influence on the story. It is a tragic situation that the writer tasked for this subplot did not wonder why her little gem had to be hidden in a turd. Imagine what would have happened if she was given the entire episode to write.
So many of the characters could have been improved with so simple changes, and it wouldn't have even effected their ham-fisted messages. and for the look of the characters, the original scribbles of RR had some minimalistic charm to them, they weren't my cup of tea, but the end result looks much worse.
They didn’t try in the design department either. Seriously, the mom looks like a straight up copy of the protagonist of the She-ra reboot but with hair dye.
I mean, Slice of Life doesn't equate to perfect life. There are some angsty type stories, like usually realistic stuff, like Kiki in Kikis delivery service realizing the sweet old grandma's grandkid isn't a good grandkid, and that she loses her ability to fly.
Okay, but slice of life thrives on character interactions and clashing, a slice of life with boring or unlikable characters is just terrible. HGS has no good characters, has no interesting character interactions, and barely any conflict.
Imagine if LWA's first episode was Akko taking the bus to the airport and then taking a plane to England and then a train to Canterbury and then she gets a broom ride to school and that's the end of the first episode.
I personally HAVE not watched High Guardian Spice, but I thought of a way to make the pink hair girl "Rosemary" more interesting. What if her "quirky" and careless personality was more like a mask for her insecurities and trauma of losing her mother. What if she just acts like she doesn't care so she can shield her pain or grief. Wouldn't it be more interesting, if we had a more in depth character dive into "Rosemary" and her flaws are later slowly patched up as she matures throughout the show.
Actually the part that infuriated people the most was that HGS was funded using donations and subscriptions from viewers who wanted to support anime like My Hero Academia, One Punch Man, Goblin Slayer, Fate/Stay Night UBW & it was redirected into something that wasn't even an anime in the loosest terms
@@dfquartzidn6151 it is false advertisement. They got people thinking it was a show like the ones you listed but brought this trash instead and that is false advertisement and is very much illegal
100% agree about the representation point, the fact this is made by LGBT+ members and allies but still falls into the heartless corporation trope of "queer characterless" where their only defining trait is their sexuality/gender identity. Just look at caraway and several of their moments: - Was lavender's childhood friend> derails conversation to explain transgender identities because old photos. - knows alot about new magic > because they used it to transition. - comforts a distressed child > pushes "transition magic" on said distressed child - has personal relationships outside of being a headmaster > interations don't extend beyond implied poly relationship and sexuality.
They went so far into the corporate feel that it honestly felt transphobic. Conservatives go on and on about how the Transes (TM) try to convert confused children into becoming trans. What does the teacher do here? Try and push for the one character that’s struggling with their gender identity to immediately transition. Granted the transition here can be reversed (unless I misremember), but still. He assumes Snapdragon is a trans woman and tells him about the magic accordingly, even though it’s entirely possible Snap could be non-binary or simply a gender non-conforming man.
Exactly, best rep is when their is rep and they don't talk about it. Have a gay character but making that be all they are is the worst. It's the main reason why I don't like a lot of movies now a days that talk about their rep. In real life those people are hated, those who base their personality on one thing. It doesn't matter what it is. I'm bisexual but that isn't the first thing I'd ever describe myself. I'd talk about how I'm a programmer, how I draw, how I love to write and I don't even really mention my sexuality. Why should I? If it's not a situation where sexuality has to be talked about then I just don't talk about it. If we look at other animes the best one with rep is Jojo bizare adventure. There's black egyptian side main characters and he's introduced more as a wise tarot card reader. Actually jojo inspired a lot of mandalas to start having more non Japanese characters or take place not in Japan.
Im a writer. The moment you said that the plot would be better is if “Rosemary wants to be a guardian because she wants to find her mom who was captured”, already new ideas came in mind: the flashback scene but with more tension and angst, a corruption form through a nightmare but slightly exaggerated. Rosemary, awake in the middle of the night and goes to secret training. Heads to an area, tree bark with sword slashes. Rosemary using her mother’s sword, routinely touching over the blade - the closest connection in holding her mother’s hand. Then recalling her mother’s passed position as a Guardian, and believes to feel that, too. Begins to train in use of the sword, but halfway through her frustration and pain comes out, making her out of control until - stopping herself in time before she could slice her father, again. He tells her about the many nights she has been outside and is concerned about her. Rosemary - not a cheerful, “relatable” person, to the public, but actually a depressed girl in opposite to her hair color’s meaning - claims on wanting to be stronger, faster, determined in finding her mom (without saying the obvious; he and the audience knows). He then urges her to come back inside, which she does, as she was drained out on both training and her emotions’ outbreak. Before joining him, she looked at the sword once more before putting it back in the scabbard she left on a tree. Placing it on her back, the weight resting further at her skin as the guilt within, she follows side by side… Then, the opening comes on! Would have watched it if it started out something like this. Cant say it can’t be intense on emotions when the show gives a warning on possible swearing. And this is just, what I could call, the prologue scene 😁👍🏾
Why do they want to be guardians? I can only answer that for two. Rosemary: Because she wants to follow in her mom's footsteps. Thyme: To find a way to help her dad. Sage: Fucked if I know, it goes against everything she's been told and taught. She complains about "New Magic" the whole time she's there. Something she says the school teaches exclusively. Parsley: Maybe because she wants to get out of her parents' house? But not because she wants to improve blacksmith because from what the show displays, she's already a master smith. She makes a dagger instantly.
When Sage is talking to her parents in the beginning, they say she's going to be a great healer when she comes back, so I'm guessing that's at least part of what's going on. Like maybe her family runs an old magic based clinic/apothecary and Sage is supposed to eventually come home and take over the business after adventuring for a while as a guardian. It would be kinda cool, actually, if that was Sage's original intent when going there, but she either wasn't aware that the magic side of the curriculum was so focused on new magic, or she specifically went there to learn new magic despite knowing it would go directly against her parents' wishes. Also, in Parsley's case, yeah, she seems to exclusively just want to escape her home and having to basically be the unpaid babysitter of the dozen or so siblings she has. Honestly, that's motivation enough for me. I would take the first opportunity I saw to get away from that nonsense, too.
@@AzariahMarinaStarcaster With Sage I suppose that's true, would be interesting to see something like that in the show. 👀Actually sounds like an interesting first episode idea. Instead of starting at a random arch, start in Sage's home which doubles as the Apothecary. Have the same conversation, it can switch to Rosemary's house after that. While true, it would have been nice it she had something more interesting going on. Only issue is she was kind of written to pretty much be cliche regardless of how you write her unless you start from the ground up. Like make her a dwarf female who is from a family of traditionalist dwarves but the reason she doesn't have a beard is because she shaves it off because she doesn't like it, it makes her to hot around the furnaces, or gets in the way. Something like that. Of course, that's also rewriting the High Guardian Dwarves to be more Tolken\D&D style dwarves as well.
The First Episode of "High Guardian Spice" can be summed up in a single phrase. "Slice of Life." Slice of Life episodes don't need to have conflict, and instead focuses more on world building than anything else. The problem: Slice of Life is supposed to be a break from the conflict; meaning we should already be invested in the characters, wanting to see them have a day off from all the conflict, and everything. Doing "Slice of Life" as the first episode, causes major failure, because you have characters that no one is invested in, just hanging out doing pretty much nothing. Slice of Life can be great for world building through visuals, but it should never be the first episode of the entire series.
Plus in order for a Slice Of Life to work, you also need to have good comedy and character interactions. The character interactions in HGS suck since most of the time their dialogue sounds forced and unnatural
@@BrandonRTalks I've wondered what is your opinion on slice of life anime then, as they generally don't have much conflict unless it's something minor or something major as a one off
@@bullettime1116 I made a video on it here, ua-cam.com/video/p_3S8IxULCs/v-deo.html But the bottom line is that I enjoy it, but would prefer it if it had a sense of progression at the same time. Honestly though, I never really felt like High Guardian Spice was actually trying to be slice of life, since it seems more framed as if it was trying to be an adventure/fantasy. But whichever one it was trying to be, it didn't do a great job on both ends.
Yes but, slice of life is usually centered on characters and quickly establishes their personnality (wich are usually very strong and carries the whole show), high guardian spice doesnt do that either
Slice of life have conflict, but they are normally short lived. Like person a lost wallet. A conflict in story just mean, a roadblock for a charter to their goal doesn't matter how long. It the journey that matter, in SOL they can dedicated an entire episode to chasing a cat and get trash that is conflict. Guardian spice have very less conflict and there is barely any journey in solving it. Slice of life have conflict it just there is nothing much at stake less stress for the viewer.
I feel like the locket scene would've had more substance if a) Rose never hinted at what was in it from the beginning b) we don't see what's in the locket until they get it back form the animal thingie and we see the photo of the cake c) Sage gets furious because of this since Rose made her go on a literal goose chase around town (also add some more danger to them being like countryside girls in the city for the first time) and d) THEN have then fight and, once Sage decides to go apologise, she sees Rose looking at the photograph and we're revealed the bigger picture (pun intended) that it was actually a picture of her mother. LITERALLY IT TOOK ME LIKE 30 SECONDS TO COME UP WITH THIS-- WHAT-- HOW COULD THE WRITERS JUST DECIDE TO MAKE THE STAKES AND INVESTMENT SO LOW???
That would've been amazing 😭. God there is potential there. If the writers had put any level of thought into this (and knew what subtlety means), then we could've actually had something decent.
Also it would have been emotional if the writers showed Rose being super scared/sad about it before they get it back and then show some chemistry between her and Sage. That way we learn abt both characters and get to see why they're friends to begin with
The problem is they even failed to entice their supposed target audience. A vast majority of the friends I have are LGBTQ, and most all that have seen this show agree that it is bad. Not only that it is bad but that the "representation" in it is poorly executed and honestly insulting. I am not a member of the LGBTQ community, but I do know this, I wait with baited breath for the show that not only represents them, but does so in a way that makes them layered well written characters who I can genuinely care about and root for, instead of just one dimensional jerks who's only character trait is being LGBTQ. That is what they are, not who they are and there is a big difference. There is more to a person than their sexual preference, that is just one layer of the onion that is who they are. Give me the rest of the onion dang it.
I think if we are to reach that point, one of the first steps is to stop talking about them like they're a community. It makes it seem like they're a sort of monolith, when they are all individuals. Communities are people who get together to form something, but that takes more than these superficial character traits. I'm Asian and I'm American, but I'm not part of some Asian American community. Yeah, I can relate with other Asian Americans pretty well, but I don't use that as a way of forming a community with people. Some communities that I have formed is the people I play D&D with, or the people I meet at the archery or gun ranges. Stuff that is more than my superficial traits, because they're my hobbies and I get to meet people with similar interests whom I can learn from. Yeah, a lot of LGBT people may group up together because they have stuff in common, but in my view, that doesn't make them a LGBT community, but rather a community that has a lot of LGBT people. But what do they do for fun? What's the community aspect other than their superficial traits? Do they just hang out together and just...be gay? Probably not. So I guess it comes back to treating people as more than just their superficial traits. As long as people keep seeing them as a community defined by their superficial traits, then how can you expect people to see them as more than their superficial traits? So I guess....LGBT People > LGBT Community. They're people first.
@rolo rawr I have actually heard fairly decent things about Owl House. Haven't checked it out yet though. I've honestly lost a lot of trust for Hollywood and Disney over the years, so it is hard to watch certain things for fear of disappointment. Part of the problem is these shows are not being made by real representatives of that community so much as it is being made by people who are faking it to cash in on the fact that said communities have become quite popular as they have been brought out into mainstream. That is why they make what they call a character when it is actually just a shallow collection of buzz words with no individualism or humanity. That said there are still some fantastic representative characters made, they just seem to be the exception rather than the rule.
@@michaelcox9855 the thing is Dana (the creator) is bisexual, but Disney canceled it so there's that. She is the main creator behind the owl house and she's currently going all out to finish the story in the two seasons she has after it wasn't renewed for a season 3
@@Leader7353 I mean it's not just Disney though. Practically every corporation does this BS. Black history month, Pride month, whatever month they "really care" for that month and then it's right back to basic BS. I am sorry but if they really cared about things like representation they would suck at it so consistently. It's all a shallow cash grab attempt if you ask me. Profit from the past and current suffering of others for profit's sake. It's kinda gross if that's the case too. These people are people not a dang label to exploit.
I'm a writer and I always, ALWAYS, start the story with story with some drama. Either a character having flashbacks of their family dying or watching a building explode. And something that will automatically change the life and views of my character in order to get the readers interested. It was something I grapsed from watching anime because you see how in the first episode, something interesting NEEDS to happen in order to get you interested and curious
This video mainly boils it down to "Conflict is important, and if there's no conflict the story will be bad", so for any writers reading this, let me try to put this in perspective: The reason that conflict is important, is that it's necessary to create *contrast.* If there's no contrast, there's no way to telegraph that the plot is moving forward, and attention stagnates. Even if the events you're showing are necessary to the plot, if there isn't an effort to show how things are different then you can't create meaningful action, because the events are effectively frictionless. As a side example, one that I personally found guilty in spades of this, I'd recommend watching through Season 3 Episode 1 of The Witcher netflix series. There's technically conflict in it, but it's almost impressive how nothing sticks once it's introduced.
@@glumbortango7182 yes! It also helps to gain the attention and interest of your audience. No one would want to see a regular day. Oh, travelling and they just ride the car, stop for some food and walk around. With nothing bizarre happening. Heck nahh. Maybe put in someone mysterious you find along the way or your car broke down during the silent night. But I try to follow R.L. Stine kind of writing where on the very first paragraph, he put a cut of the most serious and dramatic action going on. But only giving the readers a glimpse so they'll get curious. Or from many anime, they at least put in the problem and conflict on the first episode/chapter. We can take this from many shounen manga/anime
@@mr.cheese7339 Yes, you should. Maybe it's not great, maybe you don't have the skill yet to convey it well. But it might be great, or be the see of something that will be great, if you pursue it.
@@tigertoxins584 I actually think that showing gender isn't a bad thing when doing well, this show is just shit so obv people will think that every shows with minorities are like this
@@aliaboulekema-amraoui5317 I don't have any real problems with gender, I just don't like when it gets political or on the point of hyper fixation. Bugsnax pulled it off fantastically.
Later in the series Rosemary gets called out for being a jerk so I think that part was intentional. The problem is that they saved her being called out for a reveal later rather than passively showing that people don’t like her. Even if her friends enable her behavior you can still show background characters glaring at her or moving to avoid being near her. Making the quirky lead toxic is actually an interesting idea, the problem is they don’t treat her like a toxic lead until Sage gets fed up and dumps her. (She also really needed a redeeming moment or two to get the audience on her side but that’s beside the point I was making.)
Honestly, not on about Rosemary, but I can't stand Sage, a lot of the time. She says men basically can't have feelings, gives out to Rosemary for finding gourd carving boring (which it probably is), and cries because Amaryllis said New Magic is better and more convenient (which it is) and when Thyme agrees with Amaryllis, Thyme is the bad guy and has to apologise to poor little Sage, who can do no wrong. But yes, I do agree, Rosemary is a jerk, and people need to show this, not randomly calling her out on it.
"Even if her friends enable her behavior you can still show background characters glaring at her or moving to avoid being near her." That would require them to make background characters that move. :)
Yo, I watched it all the way through and your points are still valid. The thing that pains me the most about this show is that it's almost good in a lot of different ways. I see so much missed and wasted potential that makes me wish I was in the writer's room at the time. As a couple of examples, Snapdragon discovering his transgender identity is ham fisted and actively harmful to the transgender community (in my opinion), yet it almost does it right. The problem in my opinion is that they tried to break gender roles and stereotypes using gender roles and stereotypes. The time when they had to "emotionally" put down a sea serpent falls flat because they treat the serpent like a monster and not a character. Yet they "tried" too. Their game of truth and dare while stuck in a cave waiting to starve to death could have been emotional, but we don't really know who these characters are and thus aren't invested. If anything we are just now getting to know these characters. The birth and accelerated death of the dragon who saved them could have been a thought provoking ethical dilemma. But it's rushed and unintentionally hilarious. Rosemary and Aster's relationship could have been fun, short, and comedic. But it's painful and sounds like the writers have never met a man before. The underlying plot on the worlds magic running out and "the rot" are interesting plot points left open and unexplored. I'm not asking to know the underlying plot, whose responsible, or why it's happening, I just want to know how this effects the world other than "nature" and any character who isn't an elf. The concept of Old and New magic is poorly thought out or what they have thought out is unexplained. Yet it's the best idea they have in this show. Personally, this show is a great show to watch if you want to write stories. It shows you what not to do and why in a way many classes can never do. Yet it leaves enough room and material for you to have inspiration and attempt to fix the show.
This was really insightful! Yeah, it seems like the later parts of HGS suffer from very similar problems. It has potential, but it seems that the writers didn't really care enough to fully bring out that potential, and decided to instead focus on their "representation" and hamfisted political messages.
Problem is....I've been watching ALL kinds of anime and really well written stories with LGBTQ representation. I'm gonna give two examples out of a long list of anime one being Wandering Son it actually has a trans character the other Sweet Blue Flowers has lesbian relationship ( also called Aoi Hana) both are very well done and handle representation honestly and it really does not feel forced nor does it try to pander to make it political. Go watch them and compare it to High Guardian Spice. Also if you like drama with lesbian relationships check out Dear Brother it was made by the same lady who made Rose of versallies aka Lady Ocar. The same people like me who enjoy these anime tore into High Guardian Spice because when you compare that with anime I'm sending you to watch it's absolutely shameful. And we have people gasslighting those like me who don't like this show calling us transphobic, homophobic etc......which is also rather shameful. Caution though in Dear Brother not all characters have a happy ending not all characters are portrayed as realistic but most are. And it's a 70's/80's anime. As for the guy that made HGS he's going on to make what appears to be a gay harem type diet anime which has the same type of cheap looking drawings. If you want a harem boys love type anime.....well anime has you covered on that too. Lol P.S- I like to help people find the type of anime they'd enjoy instead blindly watching them cause not all anime is made for everyone. But anime has all bases covered.
I'm trans. Snapdragon's arc about being trans was harmful and handled correctly. They wrote him more as a boy who doesn't want to be confined by gender roles than a girl who could never fit in or be happy with her body because she looked like a boy. Edit: I meant incorrectly in the second sentence, lol
@@Schnort i'm trans too (transmasc not transfem) and something i noticed is that snapdragon did immediately read as trans to me, but not as a girl. snapdragon read as a trans man who had already socially transitioned and was trying to accept that it's okay for him to be gender nonconforming and still be a man. i've literally only seen writing of a transfem character that is so confused that it accidentally makes them transmasc one other time, and since that time obviously didn't have any trans people on staff, it's not as absurd as snapdragon's writing. however, if they'd written snapdragon as a closeted trans girl, it could've led into something interesting writing wise, albeit it's still less than ideal. they could've used this to talk about how the "kill all men" ideology disproportionately affects marginalized men and closeted trans women, but oh wait, they actually subscribe to that idea.
@@magicalboymlm I'm transmasc too. When viewing Snapdragon's character from this paradigm, he is really relatable. A lot of trans men aren't allowed to be feminine because they "aren't trying hard enough." This is partially why Snapdragon being written the way he is can be harmful.
i also realized one thing that is bothering me so much,, especially their first episode...is that these people NEVER bothered to animate any sort of blinking,, like,, that's totally not important for characters with eyes.,, and yeah..I couldn't stop wanting to cry about this one problem...
I love the conclusion someone made in review of this that they aren't guardians per the show's definition (which was similar to the purpose of some other group or object they are supposed to guard which doesn't exist or something), they aren't named after spices, so the verdict has to be: they're just high.
There literally isn't even any propaganda, not sure why people are full on injecting politics where there isn't any. That being said, it is terrible because there is no subtance, characters are cardboard cutouts, literally hitting every horrible anime trope.
To be fair their propaganda isn't that strong in this show. Apart for a few "all men are irreponsibles/unlikables except the trans or the one thinking about transitioning", it's not that bad. (And i had to watch it two times, on time because i wanted to have my own opinion and a second time with a trans friend who was curious after hearing my complaints) But later the serie has a conversation about transition wich sounded quite genuine. But yeah, for the rest, it is badly animated, the story has no real plot, most of the character are unlikable and move from bad decision to bad decision. Spoiler but many won't watch the show or already have : Special mention for the introduction and sumoning of a demon only to use it for a magical phone call.
Sage is actually the worst character out of all of the main four. She's a man hating and controlling lesbian. Some of the stuff she says: "I don't believe that all guys are awful but..." "Rosemary could do so much better(talking about Rosemary's crush on a guy that the writers did write to be awful), I know what she needs and it isn't him." "You wouldn't get it, you're a guy. Guys don't talk about their feelings, guy friendships are not the same."(talking to a guy who she was partnered up with for the day) "Guys just don't understand that the bond between girls is just... deeper."
Well one of the writers is Kate “Kill all men” Leth of course the writing of the male characters who aren’t girl-turned-guy or “guy that must turn into girl to embrace his feminine side” suffers so much that it infuriates even a girl. I’m a girl, that has talked to so many dudes in my whole life, and I know not every dude is toxic, transphobic, and everything that constitutes a stereotypical idiot male character.
@@brotherhoodofsteel4751 Judging by other reviews I've read it really sounds like they just wrote the boys how they imagined boys are, not how they actually are. A common problem with propaganda fiction like that, the Christian shows do that too all the time.
This might sound counter-intuitive, but hear me out: it would have been much better world-building, interesting and gave a much better impression of a larger world if there was an episode and conflict related to each part of their travel. When I think of large spans of characters traveling, I think of Pokémon. I think of how Ash and his friends could spend a few episodes going from one town to another but each episode had its own conflict to resolve. It made the journey interesting but also showed how massive the world was if it took them more than one episode to get there. They could have done that here. It would have also made it that much more rewarding when they would finally arrive.
Exactly! It's not necessarily the fact that they spend so much time travelling that I have a problem with. It's the fact that it lacks conflict entirely. If they had done things as you said, it would've been far more interesting, even if it took them longer to get to High Guardian Academy, purely because we feel like each scene has a point.
Even in a single episode a simple conflict or dificulty could have make the travel more interesting. I think i remember an episode of Avatar the last airbender where the Avatar team helps a family with a pregnante woman going to take a boat. A this point we already know that they are good person but it show how a simple concept like taking a boat, could make a nice episode. Here it could have been something like traveling in the car of the beginning with a family and after a problem like a broken wheel they chose to help the family with strengh and magic/intelect. It could have shown that our heroes are good person using everything they have to help people. But meh, i'm not a profesional writer ^^
also i was thinkin about the lgbtq stuff in this and was thinkin about undertale, the main examples being alphys and undyne, but it doesnt go like "hEy gUyS tHeY'rE lEsBiAn!!11!!!", the characters are actually GOOD, and so is the writing (also i nearly forgot mad dummy, who's basically trans, but again, theyre not just a one-note character) AND THEN I HEAR SPIDER DANCE AT THE END
If I had to guess (Never watched the show before), but since Rose's mother is missing, it could be painful to see her image, but the photo is still a cherished memory, so she presents the cake, while knowing what it actually means to her. That said, the show still commits the sin of forcing its audience into filling in the blanks themselves instead of just putting in the damn work... Like RWBY does all the time
As a writer, I am actually impressed with how little personality the main characters have. When writing a story, the personalities form themselves. You still have to do work to develop those personalities but they are still there. Even if I did everything in my power to write a recurring character with almost no personality, I couldn't, let alone a main character.
@@Shugunou Of course not, just that kirito has been (rightfully) ridiculed for being bland. There are other factors of SAO that save it from being as bad as HGS, like some action, memorable moments, side characters (even if they inevitably get absorbed into the haram). I'm not saying SAO is the same level of utter garbarge fire as HGS, but I'll still always consider it pretty bad when compared to things like SAOAbridged
@@InsanePigeon Ridiculed as a meme. If people actually hated SAO, why is it rated so highly? It has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. That is pretty rare. My best guess is you haven't even watched the first season all the way through and are just jumping on the trend. I, however, have seen the entire series. In my opinion, the first arc is the worst one so the fact that it is the only one you've seen doesn't give you any authority to say it is bad. If you would actually watch the series instead of jumping on trends, you'd realize it isn't as bad as people tell you. The majority of people on Google gave it 5 stars and that wouldn't happen if it was actually a terrible anime or if the main character had no personality.
@@Shugunou I've watched all the way through GGO but I still didn't care for it that much. I'm guessing that it's highly rated because the stans that like it all upvote it enmasse while the people that didn't like it just don't care to rate it. Besides, I've said the show itself wasn't that bad, just that kirito was bland. Stop going out of your way to say "oh but the anime is rated good" when you were the one that brought the anime up to begin with.
Okay, I think that I'm gonna do a rewriting of the first episode based on this video and in what I learnt: So, Pink's (I don't bother to know their names, so I'm just gonna call them for their hair colors) mother was a High Guardian, but she misteriously disappeared and the only thing that lasted was her sword. So Pink, who wanted to become a High Guardian before because it implied a wealthy life, is more determined to become one in order to find her mom. Some years later, Pink and her friend Blue decide to go to the capital in order to become Guardians, deciding to get a train. Noticing the long line, they decide to cut while the station staff is distracted. In this meanwhile, the orc gets stuck in the bridge and the girls decide to help him, even tho they know that this will make them lose their place in the line. They help him, but the staff member sends them to the end of the line (we can even add a joke of someone else getting the place that they were going to get in the line). When they were about to enter in the train, there was no more space in and the train started to went it's way. Pink and Blue tried to reach it, but the train was faster, forcing them walk towards the city. When they finally arrive in the city it was already night time. They meet the couple (or I think that they are a couple), who greets them and take them to their home. In there, they dinner, take a shower and go to sleep, where Pink have a nightmare with her mother. Blue then wakes up and comforts her friends assuring that they will find her mother. In the next day, Pink finishes her breakfast and asks to go to city with Blue, but Blue says that she will finish her breakfast first. So Pink decides to go out and train a little while Blue didn't finish, where we even have a moment of Pink remembering the times where she used to train with her mother. In the city, Pink gets excited about the idea of becoming a Guardian, swinging her mother's sword around and almost hitting Red. Pink quickly apologizes, but Red gets (rightfully) mad, but go over the top, speaking ill about Pink and Blue, what makes Pink angry. Red then says that they will meet again in the future to settle the scores before leaving. While discussing about how Red was kinda rude and scary, a bird steals Pink's locket, what makes her distressed. Blue says that she will buy a new one, but Pink says that it wasn't about the locket, but what was in it so they agree to chase the bird. They start to chase it through the city, but since they are tourists, it's gets harder to go after it since they don't know the city and there's a bunch of obstacles in their way, like people and barrels. They them manage to reach the bird, where they watch a mate dance that ends with the locket broken. Pink gets distressed and rushes to it, only to find that what she stored in it was a picture of her mother, that she was using as a reminder of why she wanted to become a Guardian, was intact for her relief. They them decide to look for someone who can fix the locker, and when they find, the goldsmither reveals that it will take a time to be fully repaired. Pink gets upset, but understands. In that night, they discuss about what they will do when they become Guardians, having a little heart-warming moment of them promising to become Guardians together.
👏👏👏👏👏👏 This's amazing although it was mostly the same it had conflict, gave the characters motivation and showcased there friendship well good job. You should definitely become a writer in the future.
"The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference." - Someone already said this somewhere, I just don't know who. But man, would I send everything that is related to this thing straight down to hell...
I genuinely love your anology to crappy Christian shows near the end of the video. These two political extremes HATE each other because of their clashing worldviews, yet what they're doing is intrinsically the same as what their opposition is doing. They're both shit.
I myself noticed a lot of the same stuff from the uber religious folk and the uber woke folk. I think this is because a lot of people who get into the wokeness do so partially out of a need to fill the void left by leaving religion. So they treat it as a religion. They even have their own saints and gods.
11:11 is one of the worst posing I have ever seen, the pose looks so out of place that I couldn't understand why, until I noticed the front foot of the giant is close to the wall, that means that she's not leaning on the wall, she's just standing on one foot, but they want to make it look like she's relaxed or cool or whatever but it comes of as a person who wants to look cool but is trying to hard, as if the show wasn't cringy enough. Sorry if this was long I just had to say it since I'm studying anatomy and posing and to see this in a finished production juat baffles me.
Nice catch! That's completely true, it's like they realised they needed room for Rose and Sage to run past the giant, so they awkwardly tried to make her as close to the wall as possible and failed.
@@BrandonRTalks thanks for noticing me haha, but yeah your rightbit just seems so rushed, but as you said in the video there are more glaring issues in this whole mess of a show, your videos are great by the way I really enjoy them
7:58 that's a good idea. I actually have an idea to expand that and give Rosemary a much more interesting character arc. My idea is that after her mom disappeared, she became devoted to becoming a guardian solely so she could defend herself as she searched the entire, dangerous kingdom of Scarborough to find her mom. From there, we soon learn, and she soon realizes, that she was so laser-focused on finding her mom that she had lost sight of what being a guardian is about, and why she admired her mom for being one, and that is to protect people who cannot protect themselves. This could be shown, for example, with a scene where she saves a defenseless villager from a monster/bandit/whatever and expects them to give her a reward for her efforts. So, her character growth, obviously, is to realize the error of her ways, stop being selfish, and start being the kind of guardian her mom was.
Alternatively, since she only wants the skills of being a master swordwoman for the sake of defending herself, Rosemary ends up failing to actually protect an innocent bystander at one point. The writers could then earn their label of being a story for a mature audience without needing to have random swears by having the person be viciously murdered due to this. Do this relatively early on, so that over the course of multiple episodes there is an investigation by the school over whether the incident was unavoidable due to Rosemary's skills (like too many enemies for her to handle at once) or gross negligence (pursuing personal interest rather than caring for her charge), and if the latter, whether she could be redeemed and continue her study to become a Guardian or not.
I think that the mistake which doomed them from the start is when they dedicated their initial trailer to boasting about how great they are as a production team, and how they are able to do things story wise which most other studios have forgotten how to do. Once you do something like that, anything you produce as a result will be under the harshest of scrutiny. What would have otherwise been a low-budget production flying under people's radar became a subject to be dissected ans studied by everyone on the internet, to comb through and expose every flaw.
"Hey, you almost stabbed me and I'm super pissed, as I should be!" Rosemary: "Almost doesn't mean it happened. 🙄 It's not that serious. Stop yelling at me! 🙄"
Aside from the criticisms of HGS, I really loved how your video was not just an essay; it's as if you wrote and told a story. The beginning introduces your intentions and the reasons why you're covering the already infamous dumpster fire that's been bashed on by so many other youtubers. It also hooks people in by saying that the show itself is not "bad." The middle parts sequentially talk about the different parts of the show that made it boring and how to not do those things. I especially loved how you tied everything to the conclusion, which addresses what you said about the show in the beginning; "not bad, but boring." The ending really made me think about how we evaluate stories and our expectations for them. Even though I never really cared for the show and thus didn't care to watch videos that bashed on it (Because I understood that it was bad and I didn't really need people to repeat it for me), the title of this video hooked me in because it implied that there was something fundamentally wrong with the show that it managed to fail within *only* one episode. As someone who generally likes watching video essays, I really loved your presentation of your analysis of HGS; it not only talked about the show but also about the aspects of what makes storytelling work as a whole. You showed how much you love stories and how HGS is not only a boring show, but a show that disrespects storytelling. This is fairly long and also very late, but you deserve to have your voice be heard by many viewers and high praise. Thank you for making an enjoyable presentation that was informative, insightful, and personal.
13:41 What am I looking at right now? Are those walls made of cardboard or something? They really forgot to put 3D into a wall when every other wall in the same frame is 3D? Also why is the blue haired girl walking FROM the wall like she just walked straight through it a before the frame begins? I know that people kept saying this show looked like trash but honestly I just thought people were talking out of their asses as the internet usually does.
I think this level of HGS writing is the exact thing that makes nowadays modern cartoon failed hard. It is like they deliberately want to not follow the traditional storytelling formula thinking that they can make a story good still even if the story writing formula is a jumbled mess.
Personally I've always thought it's because companies cancel the shows that are actually good for no reason other than "not reaching the target audience" when it does, they just don't realize what the target audience is.
Unless your character is supposed to be mysterious, there’s no reason not to share information about them in your show/book. Like in the Joker, his motivations aren’t clear and that’s the point and it WORKS! Rose isn’t mysterious so it’s uninteresting and makes it look like there’s no thought behind the characters.
I actually got to see the first season of this and while Rosemary does in fact want to become a Guardian to find her mom... I still do not know what a Guardian is or how being one will help her find her mom. In fact, it kinda appears that it would just give her more tasks that have nothing to do with finding her mom.
I like to imagine her mother was a famous alumni of the academy and Rosemary specifically thinks going to the academy will put her in contact with people who can help her find her. Plus I imagine that whatever is going on with her mom is something she couldn't legally investigate without being a guardian, so it's kind of a mandatory step one way or the other. And living up to her mother's legacy is probably also really important to her.
the propaganda point was so accurate it hurt. i bloody hate this kind of "representation" (i prefer to call it hate fuel because let's be real, it makes bigots feel even more justified in their hate) i'm queer and seeing the bits and pieces of this show already made me recoil in the pure, raw and unfiltered sort of cringe because damn. it's so obvious they treat it not as any sort of meaningful mirroring of irl people but as a marketing ploy, preying on a group that's already starved for representation in hopes that this group would eat any shit they offer them as long as it has a particular label slapped on it in my opinion that's even worse than open hate open hate harms people this - whatever this bullshit even is - also harms people, but it pretends to help them, only to deal even more damage, like a parasite
imagine using a very popular premise, doing it poorly, and expecting to get good results... when you use a popular premise, you get all the competition from the other people using that premise... It's even worse when we realize that the premise is unrelated to the quality of the story... like you can make a good story with any premise so long as you execute it well, so all they did by following a common premise was give themselves a tough competition. To make things worse, they didn't even try to execute it well...
Comparing HGS to the VERY bias Religious shows, feels like the biggest slap in the face you can give to these creators. Also 100% agree. if a project is not done out of love, fun and passion. it really shows in the finished product.
@@juanmanuelpenaloza9264 I feel that depends on talent and passion. like with what happened with anything related or connected to Yandere simulator. I hear both the main game and most of it's fan games are made out of petty spite.
@@UsonoHoushi Yeah, fans just made better game to spite creator after he failed to deliver and blamed fans for it. Despite the fact that he streamed games on Twitch while complaining on a lack of time to work on YanSim.
What I thought was ridiculous is that the wikipedia page identifies the main 4 girls....is by their HAIR COLOR. Thats how lacking and bland in their personality they are. Me, my brother, and my Moroccon buddy streamed and watched it together. We barely went through 5 minutes of the first episode, and found so many errors, technical and artistic, that we were absolutely stumped and laughing ourselves to half death at our commentary. The technical aspects especially shocked me. I've seen many shows, good and bad. But I never watched a show thats bad from a technical aspect. The voice acting, sound mixing, dialogue, even the jank in animation. It's something I've never seen before, and as someone who aspires for animation, I find HGS as the bottom of the barrel for aspiring animations.
It's scary because making those mistakes in animation feel unavoidable. It all boils down to budget. However not even budget can fix the terrible story
@@alchemistofsteel8099 They had years to work on this, it was greenlit before 2019 when they showed some of the stuff on the trailer. Plus, I've seen people make absolute gold with shoestring budgets, and they're like one person or a small team. This was neither, so I don't think budget was the issue here at all.
Ngl seeing all these criticisms and rants about High Guardian Spice really does educate me with my own stories, things you should and shouldn't do, what it means for a series to be bad, and what you should fix for it to be slightly better, it's nice listening these kinds of vids. Also it's funny looking how bad it is too
I think when I start getting into writing any story ideas I've had in the past, HGS will have had at least that positive trait about it, that the first episode sucked so much that it was the perfect example of what not to do for a story, and Brandon pointing out each and every detail of how it doesn't make a good story will stick in my mind when I am trying to figure out stories. So if anything, thank you HGS for that alone.
They don't ever explain what a Guardian is actually. None of the things that you said "maybe it changes in later episodes" for actually changed. Also the plot doesn't start until like episode 7, and once again it's something happening to the characters instead of the characters doing anything
@@BrandonRTalks I'm sure you don't really care, but here's a summarized breakdown of the plot: - Thyme's forest is being killed by this purple gunk called "The Rot" - the school just happens to send the class on an assignment to get some healing water from a cave, which also happens to be able to cure the rot (which I guess nobody ever tried or even thought of before) - the bad guys causing the rot decide these 4 girls are getting too close to discovering their secrets or something and send an assassin - the assassin fails, so they send a different assassin, who also fails - that's it. Season's over. End on a post credits scene of Rosemary's mom working for the bad guys.
@@draconis17 yo wtf is that post credits scene, maybe try to build it up or something. Drop little hints that the missing mom is alive and actually working for the villains.
Gotta admit, after listening to this, I finally for some motivation to write again even though my motivation has been dead for well over a month or three ☠️ Anyway, I think you did a great job pointing out flaws - and I’d agree with the fact you can tell when people just don’t seem to put effort into stuff like this
My issue, it was sexist as crap with its creators not simply hating men. No no they blamed us for war and genocide. They compared most of us to Adolf, so yeah that alone told me enough. The animation wasn't anime it's what we call woke toon, same thing at woke universe and uncle pedo grand pa. A cheap effortless CGI cartoon. So I'm happy it failed. It had the potential to create some truly disgusting people.
Oddly enough, this video actually helped me come up with the story for a chapter of a web comic I'm working on. Originally it was going to be like this episode, nothing but pointless "world building", now it has all of the points that you listed in this video. So, thank you for that, don't want to end up like this trainwreck lol.
You just stated all the things I also felt on HGS first episode! 1. They're trying to make Rose the happy-go-lucky "quirky" girl but I saw her as a jerk on how she treat people especially Sage. I rolled my eyes at how she acted cutesy pleasy on her so Sage will stop eating and come with her to town. Hell I will never leave my food for ANYONE just to go to where they want to when they can wait for me for like 5 minutes to finish. And even I was offended at her response on Thyme's reaction being almost chopped off by her. Ghurl-- 2. The scene makes no sense but oh my God ✨Cool Worldbuilding ✨. Which would be cooler if they made a good use of it and didn't use it as display and fillers lol. Such a waste in creativity. And despite it lacking concrete character building and plot, I still went on and finished the series 'coz I'd like to see if there is any. And voila! There is, but like in the last 3 episodes with a cliffhanger in the end where shit gets more deep but what are the chances of it getting season 2, if it already "failed" to appeal to the audience in the boring first half?
In only 20 minutes - and after only watching one episode of HGS - you have given a more concise and thorough critique of the show than pretty much any other reviewer I’ve watched (and I’ve watched more than a dozen). Very well-made!
a lot of it feels like the kinda thing you would have a character do after actually showing how good of a person they are, like start of season two before the story kicks back up kinda things, to show that they still have some flaws or to set up a new arch
Hey I know I'm a bit late to the party with this video. But this was extremely helpful for learning about storytelling and learning about the common stuff. I really like it! Do more video's on good plot and characters! I like it!
Ive recently started liking the phraze- "All bling no basics." - to describe armies that focus on gadgets over logistics and focus on many medals on generals over competant leadership. Turns out the phraze also aplies to storries which focus on worldbuilding and visuals over the characters and plot.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 Trust me the world building is barely there, and the visuals is pretty bad, from the janky animations, the very questionable perspectives in some scenes, very obvious stock photos, etc.
As a person who's queer, I find this show's "LGBT+ presentation" bad and sometimes it even feels like it's just mockery. Everything feels forced af and like it's put there just to make some point that I do not understand.
One last thing the scene with the locket is probably the best one. I’m pretty sure the writers didn’t mean for it to be like this but rose is a warrior and viewed her mom to be strong. I feel like she hid the rest of the photo because she didn’t want to show any weakness to anyone. I wish they would’ve went into that character trait and developed it further to letting her friends into it but oh well ig.
“Do you wanna know who else does that?” Christian movies, please say- OH THANK GOODNESS THE CARTOONS SOMEONE SAID IT Bahahaha as a Christian in the Christian community (who grew up on Christian cartoons, movies, and media overall) I can wholeheartedly admit that most of our media is a dumpster fire, and every message it forcibly shoves down a viewer’s throat falls short in the storytelling (which is putting it LIGHTLY). I’m also an aspiring writer who’s taken apart stories for years, so I pay close attention to what makes up a book or a movie. Never thought I’d see a Christian show’s utter lack of storytelling anywhere else, but here we are with a glimpse of it in a mainstream anime. It’s disappointing, but it’s also a beacon of warning for many people which has helped viewers everywhere become well-versed in what truly makes a good story. For that, I’m grateful. Thanks for this video!! I couldn’t agree more with it and I love all of your observations.
Thanks! I'm also a Christian and share many of the same experiences as you, which is why I also really dislike the majority of Christian media out there. If it's supposed to be for God, then shouldn't you try your hardest to make something of good quality?? 😂 The best Christian media in my opinion are always those that ANYONE can enjoy because they can still stand on their own as a GOOD story, like Veggie Tales and Prince Of Egypt.
@@BrandonRTalks Oh my goodness, yes, EXACTLY!! I find that a lot of Christian movies especially fall into the trap of trying to make the audience feel something rather than truly delivering a thought-provoking, satisfactory narrative. God’s message is advertised to be true enough to stand alone, and yet every piece of Christian media seems to want to defend it…? Rather than tell a gripping story that circles around it…?? It drives me up a wall. Veggie Tales is a lovely exception, though. Also, I haven’t seen Prince Of Egypt yet, but absolutely EVERYONE tells me it’s the brilliant outlier from the rest of its kind. Definitely gonna watch sometime :))
Well my friends, you know that High Guardian Spice is not really an anime, right? Isn't it an USA cartoon? Right? I have not watched this show, because I'm not Anglo, and I don't have that streaming service, I don't even know if it exist in my land.
I'm also Christian, and I agree too. One of my Christian friends and I like to watch awful Christian movies and make fun of them together, because so many of them are so terribly written and acted. But as much as I enjoy ripping on awful Christian movies, I really wish there were more good ones. I want Christian movies that have original enticing stories, memorable characters to care about, movies that make you think, movies that anybody can enjoy regardless if they're Christian or not, etc.!
Yeah, a lot of Christian media sucks, but there are some AMAZING ones out there, such as The Chosen, Prince of Egypt, Joseph King of Dreams, The Bible (made by history), and of course our beloved Veggietales, to name a few.
You know, I had a random, simple thought about the moment where it's revealed what is in the locket and how Rose had claimed it was just a picture of cheese cake only to reveal it was TRULY a picture of her family together. Simply put, have Rose be constantly chipper and upbeat, and be the one usually comforting Sage rather than the other way around. She should have cracks in this demeanor, but she uses her energy and excitement as a mask for her pain. The biggest crack should come as Rose's picture is revealed, with her instinctively denying that anything is wrong as Sage asks about it, perhaps even go a bit further by having her briefly snap at Sage if she were to press her on it. Either way, you can then reveal through flashbacks the full extent of Rose's backstory, possibly even give the full reasoning for why she hides how she feels (my idea is that either her mother or father emphasized that she should be a beacon of hope and love for others, which she took to mean she can't show when she is feeling scared, sad, or worried). Over the course of the story, Rose could learn that she can't, and shouldn't, hide how she really feels and, eventually, she would start telling others about her mother and what happened to her. I'm sure others have suggested these ideas as well, or at least something similar to it, but I just wanted to give my two cents since the series kinda fascinates me.
crunchyroll: "this show** contains strong language and graphic violence." show: "uh akshually 🤓 🚨 we are for kids, and we don't like shedding blood, plus, we say somethings here and there but ultimately we're a kids show. :D"
One of the main reason for the big hate in my opinion is when the teaser came out there was basically nothing about the show just the creators talking about it being revolutionary and nothing ever done. When you put something on a pedestal you expect something great the gold medal of entertainment but what the show was like 6th place and that's what people felt like they were lied to in more ways than it's mediocre to just dumb bad but it got times that from it being pushed out as the greatest thing with the creators inflating their ego
And another things is that, the story and motive is actually already don to quite a handful of anime already. (Not exact, but same motive and direction) The only difference is that those animes are atleast well made, and is polished. (Which layer eps developed) But this show is just stale or downhill.
Because it's the same quality as every other cartoon nowadays but being called an anime, which it isn't, rises the bar and this falls so short of the bar that it wiped out an entire species.
This saddens me on multiple levels. It also saddens me with how basically every animated show on tv is basically just stupid stuff meant for little kids. Amd whenever we have good shows that aren't like that they almost always get canceled despite being popular and loved, just because they feel it's not reaching the target audience of children when the show isn't meant for children. Animation is not just for kids.
I agree - if something is going to provide representation, then it may as well show some effort and care or else it'll just look like empty pandering. Let me remind that Alex of YIIK is technically bisexual - do you really want a character like HIM to represent the community? On the flip-side, Fire Emblem Echoes actually has some interesting autistic (Lukas) and homosexual characters (Forsyth, Python, and Leon), and it's not just because of them being autistic or homosexual.
I have more fun spotting bad animation than anything else with this clusterfuck. Such as the clip at 5:47 where she has a sheath on her back for her sword and she swings the sword to her back in a way that it would have to be a sheath with the opening on its side to actually work properly (and the blade disappears in the last frame or two that we should be able to see it, it feels like)
I'm sure people said this in the comments, but no, 95% of the things you mention as problems or questions don't get fixed or answered in future episodes. Even if they did, in my opinion, they didn't do it correctly. Here's the thing; it's perfectly valid if not good to not answer questions or solve problems immediately. Having questions and problems for later is what helps keep the viewer watching! HGS did this wrong by not establishing the notion that the payoffs will eventually arrive and by not establishing that the resolution will be worth the wait. If they resolved one problem and answered one question within the first episode, it would have accomplished both. While many people are extra nice and patient to endure more than one episode to give it a chance, not everyone is that lenient and not everyone should be that lenient. I watched the whole series to understand the context of videos like this but if understanding the context wasn't worth it, I would've probably never watched to episode 2. Since the minimum of a truly fair chance would've been the entire first episode, they should've accomplished those things within it and they didn't.
Very true. If you want to tease something for later, you've got to make it obvious that it's an actual mystery and make it clear it will be answered eventually. And generally you should have at least one payoff by the end of the episode so we feel like the story's going somewhere
I feel utter embarrassment that a Japanese consumer might come across this and think that this kind of poop represents Western society: because it does.
I was going to say it seems like a group of people thought if they make a stereotypical girly art style with uwu cute things it would make people forget how genuinely trash and lazy the show really is. And then I was going to say you hit the nail on the head with this video. But nah, you straight up super novad the nail and everything else within a 12 mile Radius
As someone who thoroughly adores girly art styles and uwu cutesy aesthetics, the quality of the show didn't escape me for a moment. 90% of what carried me through watching the show is that I'm a fiend for the aesthetic (I devour almost anything vaguely resembling magical girls), but I also happen to have a desire to rewrite High Guardian Spice, which means I need to know everything that's established already so I can make adjustments. If those two things weren't true, idk if I would have cared enough to sit through the whole thing.
With a few combinations of some plot points, some change in motivation and added interactions, the direction they went with probably could have worked ; - Rosemary could have made an instant connection with Aloe who is a baker like her father and wanted to assist her in every way. - She could have initially shown her the family picture in the locket to show her the cake her father made. - Rosemary volunteers to head out and buy more ingredients, prompting the market scene. - While there, she gets her locket stolen by the Trixie and chases after it to get it back, accidentally bumping into Thyme. - The locket is recovered but Rosemary decides to do something conflicting like bargaining the coins meant for the ingredients. - Back at the house, she profusely apologizes to Aloe for breaking her promise and giving away the money: “I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to lose it…”. This would lead to her doubting her own competency as a helpful and respected future guardian like her mother.
I have seen numerous different reviews about High Guardian Spice, and it AMAZES me how they each manage to point out so many different things wrong with the show.
this is one of the reasons owl house is one of my favorite shows, even being a kid show. It represents LGBTQ + characters in a really good way, without that being the main point. The main character is bi, and dates another girl. its just a normal relationship. One of the characters are non binary, and no one talks about it or bats an eye. Its just who they are. Theres also a scene of one of there characters being grounded by her dads, and it also moves the plot forward because she did do a bad thing and now has to sneak out to save her friend. Its just a normal part of the world.
With all the recent right wing outrage directed at Disney, it surprises me that the show has avoided being caught in the crossfire. I mean, it combines witchcraft and magic with LGBTQ+ characters and relationships, which are both big nono's with evangelicals. Yet I've seen maybe one conservative video going after the show fromm one of those Christian vloggers back during Season One after Luz was confirmed to be bi, and pretty much all the comments are clowning on the vlogger.
Wait, who’s the non binary character? Also yeah, I really like Owl House. A shame it’ll end soon, but I guess it’s better to end smth soon before it becomes bad (Spongebob being the clearest example).
@@insideyoribcage Oh yeah, I just searched on Google and you’re right. I always thought Raine was a he because in the Latin American dub, they refer to Raine as a him and he has a male VA.
It's been one of the things I've been saying for a while. Humans point out and focus on the abnormal. Good representation, regardless of who it's representing, doesn't make a fuss about it. It doesn't point at the things it's representing and goes "Look how good we're representing! SEE?!?!?" Point out that those who are being prejudiced. Mark them as the abnormal and the ones being represented as nothing out of the ordinary.
It reminds me a lot on the Steven Universe issue that a lot of people think it's propaganda... But after watching it you can tell that even if there's representation and some political points of view, they actually cared for what they were creating and placed all their passion into it. It may be not perfect and it may be something atypical regarding the plot development, but it was *Good*. You can also dislike it, that's ok, but you can not say it's bad because it is not. Doing that comparision I completely understand what you're referring to about putting your agenda before your plot and wanting to be praised just because you are a minority instead of being an actual good artist. It's just sad that this kind of opportunities gets wasted on people like this.
I have, in fact, seen 2 minute skits where all the characters are portrayed by one person (CalebCity). Most of those characters have more personality than these MAIN characters.
15:17 I hope that was a reference to the book Save the Cat 😆 that’s the book that my scriptwriting teacher gave us that a lot of people use in order to write a good story
- Twitter: twitter.com/BrandonRTalks
Btw guys I know this isn't an anime lol. Hence the quotes around "anime". I'm making fun of Crunchyroll for advertising it as an anime when it isn't one. And I ain't changing it because people keep clicking on it lol
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Lol. Crunchyroll's expectations
are THAT low huh.
Lol XD
Bro your a GENIUS AF! 🤣🤣🤣
High guardian spice makes me finish stories and projects im working on because i know it's better than high guardian spice.
This show is TRASH
"it's not that bad" < proceeds to shit on it relentlessly, lol
The video in a nutshell 🤣
It really could be worse of a first episode, which would actually make it more notable. Instead it just commits the far greater sin of being incredibly boring.
Granted, one can argue that something being hilariously bad is better than being mediocre. the Anime Community has plenty of shows that they see as "Hate-watches" to make fun of wth your friends
@@aquamarinerose5405 Sounds like Boku No Pico and King's Game lol
@@aquamarinerose5405 aaand guilty pleasures too
They could've made the blue haired girl personality be patient, intelligent and carefree, with a mindset of "Everything will work out in the end", which would rear its ugly head when she and Rose would miss the train because SOMEBODY didn't eat fast enough.
Rose could've been (and probably is) the hothead, impatient and energetic, maybe even selfish. Polar opposite to her blue haired friend(?).
Her selfish trait was revealed when she wanted to cut the line when the orc guy broke the bridge accidently.
Blue haired girl would then subtly guilt-trip Rose into helping the dude out, because, y'know, she isn't self-centered.
I though up more ways that their character could be expanded, but I'm too lazy to write it down.
Kinda remind me of hunter x hunter
You just made a better alternative story writing for that scene than the team behind it did for the whole season.
I think the blue-haired girl's name is... brant... jane..haley...ren...probably ren.
@@vicmatthew595sage
but who cares let’s just call her dumbass blueberry
i believe it was sage @@vicmatthew595
You forgot to mention that the biggest controversy about this show was that they used the money that was supposed to go to Japanese anime creators. This was when I gave up on crunchyroll and not even hiring a vtuber could change that for me.
Hiring a vtuber makes me want to give up faster
So, where do you go for your anime instead?
@@daxain7368 fan sub sites
@@daxain7368 Pirating or any other site which lets you watch it for free LEGALLY and use the money on items that help the creators and artist of said anime
yikeeeeeeees
Cheesecake thing was an easy fix imo. All they had to say was Rosemary felt bad making her mom the shown part in the locket despite her being missing because her dad and brother are just as important to her, so she chose the cheesecake which is something they all made together.
you made a better writing than their team, this means only 2 things:
A) You're an amazing story writer and you should start making books which will be famous, get adaptations and a community will come to life because of your works.
B) They really did the worst sh*t ever.
C) Both could be applicable.
This, and also maybe Rosemary has a specific memory about her family relating to the cheesecake. A couple of examples
.) Her mom came home from a mission that had her away from home from a long time and Rosemary hears her say that she's been looking forward to having her husband's food again for months, and the first thing she asks for is that cheesecake.
.) Assuming Rosemary's family are bakers (that's the implication I get from the opening), this is the first recipe Rosemary learned from her father.
.) Rosemary's brother, who kinda reads to me as the asshole older brother type, dares a young Rosemary to try and make her dad's cheesecake recipe by herself after implying that she's an incompetent baker/chef, which sends the very competitive Rosemary into overdrive. Whether or not she succeeds at the task doesn't really matter, because it'll either be a moment of triumph that Rosemary would carry with her for years, or it would lead to a bonding moment between her and at least one member of her family where they help her make the cake, which I imagine would be a very precious memory to her.
.) Perhaps a combination of all of these things. Child Rosemary knows her mother is coming home from a long mission, and wanting to both impress her whole family with her skills in the kitchen and give her both her dad and brother a break, she decides to make the only recipe she really knows how to make, that being this cheesecake. This can go any number of ways, but it all culminates in a cheesecake being made with most (if not all) of the family working together, and Rosemary feeling a sense of accomplishment because she made this happen.
@@AzariahMarinaStarcasteryou just made something that is centered around the backstory of the cheesecake in the locket, and it’s better than the entire show
@@mydjqiuseven8933 I think so much about the potential of this show it's not even funny. I'm pretty sure I've thought of at least 3 different ways it could be rewritten so far.
@@AzariahMarinaStarcaster I bet if you make your ideas into AUs, it would be hella popular.
I think the thing that offends me most especially as a culinary student is the names. The show is called High Guardian Spice. They are all named after herbs
the ONE thing they had to do
And Amaryllis is a freacking flower, Idk if it can be even eaten lol.
Edit: I googled about it and turns out that amaryllis contains poison and you can die from eating it. Definitely not a spice or a herb.
🤦♂️
Who's Ginger ? She could have the spicy satiric character trait ? Peppermint flashy and cheerful. Paprika , inventive and colorful. Wow they had one job. Something as easy as developping chara traits after spices 😭
@@Lostouille Cinammon could be childlike cute, after the expression "cinammon roll"
To be fair, they are going to a school not to learn magic but to become Guardians
What are the Guardians you ask? That's classified information, apparently
Lol imagine naming the show "High Guardian Spice" and never actually explaining what a guardian is or what they do
@@BrandonRTalks imagine naming your show High Guardian Spice and:
1) never explaining what the Guardians are/do
2) never explaining the difference between a Guardian and a High Guardian
3) naming your characters after herbs/flowers instead of spices
That would be embarrassing
What are they guarding?
@@Schnort good anime
@@Schnort guardianing
just realized this was ONLY episode 1, literally thought this was a criticism of the overall series lol
Ain't no way am I watching through the entire series 😂
For the most part, the show gets worse as you go. There are a few individual moments where it gets very slightly better for a few minutes, but nothing worth torturing yourself to get to
@@TheTrueDiablix I salute you for watching the entirety of that show to know this, or you hate high guardian spice so much that you remembered every insult every channel has spewed about this show, rightfully so.
@@randomly47 lol I did watch the whole thing though my reasons were a little different. I'm working on writing my own story for a project of mine and basically after the 1st episode realized it could be a useful tool as a crash course on how not to write a story, so I kept watching
@@TheTrueDiablix pfffffttt
“A boring story will always be worse than a bad story”
- some smart person that validates my opinions
Sonic Colors cs. Sonic 06.
Technically, Sonic Colors isn't bad. It's boring as all get out, though.
Sonic 06 is objectively, inarguably bad, but it's entertaining.
I agree
At least with bad stories, you feel something. Whether youre angry/frustrated by it, find it laughably bad (so funny its good), theres something to talk about. When its boring, what else is there to say. A negative response is better than no response
@@Schnort yknow its kinda true its a dumpster fire but its something
I actually liked watching THE EMOJI MOVIE over hgs 😔
"There was nothing in this show that enraged me."
*Literally five minutes later:*
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WRITING IN THIS SHOW!?!?"
𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴
It was a bait and switch for the people who go full reeee when you criticize stuff like this.
Rose being selfish could've been fine if it was self aware. Maybe she's inconsiderate, and cares about other people but often doesn't think about how her actions affect them because she's self-centered. That could be challenged when those she cares about are in harms way, forcing her to put others before herself. That could've been character growth and maturity. But lets be honest, the writers dont realize she's selfish because they're writing themselves, and dont realize how flawed they are.
Nice thumbnail of that character from Madness
And you like other stick figure series? like Castle and sorry for ruin Castle
The trixie that steals Rosemary's locket is the only character that has a story. It needs a shiny thing. The shiny thing will allow it to woo a mate. Rosemary trying to get her locket back is what is stopping it from doing its mating dance. If it does not do the dance, it does not get a mate. All four questions are answered, but it is for a minor character that is never seen again and has no further influence on the story.
It is a tragic situation that the writer tasked for this subplot did not wonder why her little gem had to be hidden in a turd. Imagine what would have happened if she was given the entire episode to write.
🤣
my mind is blown
They should just drop the current plot halfway through a season and focus on the trixie for the rest of the show
"Lemme smash"
"I got a shiny"
"Lemme smash"
@@tyler89557 Excellent reference
I hate how the creators didn't even try to make good characters.
So many of the characters could have been improved with so simple changes, and it wouldn't have even effected their ham-fisted messages.
and for the look of the characters, the original scribbles of RR had some minimalistic charm to them, they weren't my cup of tea, but the end result looks much worse.
This is what happens when you make characters by just checking boxes
The dudes were pretty cool
especially after bragging so much in the trailer
They didn’t try in the design department either. Seriously, the mom looks like a straight up copy of the protagonist of the She-ra reboot but with hair dye.
"Conflict is necessary" _Sweats in Slice of Life writer who loves conflictless storylines that are one-shots_
Your conflict is who put the toilet paper roll on wrong and arguing you did it so the cat wouldn't mess it up. See? YOU ARE ABSOLVED. GO FORTH!
Cowfee
*Green Tea*
Cowfee
*Green Tea*
I mean, Slice of Life doesn't equate to perfect life. There are some angsty type stories, like usually realistic stuff, like Kiki in Kikis delivery service realizing the sweet old grandma's grandkid isn't a good grandkid, and that she loses her ability to fly.
Okay, but slice of life thrives on character interactions and clashing, a slice of life with boring or unlikable characters is just terrible. HGS has no good characters, has no interesting character interactions, and barely any conflict.
What, you didn't like the deathmatch tournament arc of Yotsuba& or Azumanga Daioh's reveal that Yomi was the zodiac killer?
Imagine if LWA's first episode was Akko taking the bus to the airport and then taking a plane to England and then a train to Canterbury and then she gets a broom ride to school and that's the end of the first episode.
😂😂😂 Lotte would be looooooong gone before she arrived.
That's how it felt with the first ep of HGS
Thats other students pov
You like Nu Metal? like Linkin Park and Korn
@@Sr.Anonimo-bk1uzyou like nu metal fashion? and hip hop fashion?
I personally HAVE not watched High Guardian Spice, but I thought of a way to make the pink hair girl "Rosemary" more interesting. What if her "quirky" and careless personality was more like a mask for her insecurities and trauma of losing her mother. What if she just acts like she doesn't care so she can shield her pain or grief.
Wouldn't it be more interesting, if we had a more in depth character dive into "Rosemary" and her flaws are later slowly patched up as she matures throughout the show.
That’s literally Ruby Rose.
@@amberknight7301 no clue who that is
@@mochijuice8074i have no idea who is ruby rose?
I think theyre talking about Ruby Rose from RWBY
@@PunkKimz ok and i know about RWBY and you know about RWBY?
Actually the part that infuriated people the most was that HGS was funded using donations and subscriptions from viewers who wanted to support anime like My Hero Academia, One Punch Man, Goblin Slayer, Fate/Stay Night UBW & it was redirected into something that wasn't even an anime in the loosest terms
WHAT. Okay that’s actually infuriating. Isn’t that a law violation?
Thats why i never support crunchyroll, absolute garbage of a company
@@dfquartzidn6151 it is false advertisement. They got people thinking it was a show like the ones you listed but brought this trash instead and that is false advertisement and is very much illegal
That's a crime.
@@thememan1387 I knew it. Someone can actually bring them into court for this.
100% agree about the representation point, the fact this is made by LGBT+ members and allies but still falls into the heartless corporation trope of "queer characterless" where their only defining trait is their sexuality/gender identity.
Just look at caraway and several of their moments:
- Was lavender's childhood friend> derails conversation to explain transgender identities because old photos.
- knows alot about new magic > because they used it to transition.
- comforts a distressed child > pushes "transition magic" on said distressed child
- has personal relationships outside of being a headmaster > interations don't extend beyond implied poly relationship and sexuality.
They went so far into the corporate feel that it honestly felt transphobic. Conservatives go on and on about how the Transes (TM) try to convert confused children into becoming trans. What does the teacher do here? Try and push for the one character that’s struggling with their gender identity to immediately transition. Granted the transition here can be reversed (unless I misremember), but still. He assumes Snapdragon is a trans woman and tells him about the magic accordingly, even though it’s entirely possible Snap could be non-binary or simply a gender non-conforming man.
It's almost like the writers themselves are "queer characterless"
Background music is "Looking for the Light" , re:zero/rezero
Nvm, wrong ost, but it is from rezero
Exactly, best rep is when their is rep and they don't talk about it. Have a gay character but making that be all they are is the worst. It's the main reason why I don't like a lot of movies now a days that talk about their rep. In real life those people are hated, those who base their personality on one thing. It doesn't matter what it is. I'm bisexual but that isn't the first thing I'd ever describe myself. I'd talk about how I'm a programmer, how I draw, how I love to write and I don't even really mention my sexuality. Why should I? If it's not a situation where sexuality has to be talked about then I just don't talk about it. If we look at other animes the best one with rep is Jojo bizare adventure. There's black egyptian side main characters and he's introduced more as a wise tarot card reader. Actually jojo inspired a lot of mandalas to start having more non Japanese characters or take place not in Japan.
@@chichichichichichiOwO Jojo villain in part 3 in a nutshell:British vampire bodystealer and timestopper losing to emo kid that have dad issues
The writers don't know Rose is a jerk. They write what they know, and lack introspection.
Im a writer. The moment you said that the plot would be better is if “Rosemary wants to be a guardian because she wants to find her mom who was captured”, already new ideas came in mind: the flashback scene but with more tension and angst, a corruption form through a nightmare but slightly exaggerated. Rosemary, awake in the middle of the night and goes to secret training. Heads to an area, tree bark with sword slashes. Rosemary using her mother’s sword, routinely touching over the blade - the closest connection in holding her mother’s hand. Then recalling her mother’s passed position as a Guardian, and believes to feel that, too. Begins to train in use of the sword, but halfway through her frustration and pain comes out, making her out of control until - stopping herself in time before she could slice her father, again. He tells her about the many nights she has been outside and is concerned about her. Rosemary - not a cheerful, “relatable” person, to the public, but actually a depressed girl in opposite to her hair color’s meaning - claims on wanting to be stronger, faster, determined in finding her mom (without saying the obvious; he and the audience knows). He then urges her to come back inside, which she does, as she was drained out on both training and her emotions’ outbreak. Before joining him, she looked at the sword once more before putting it back in the scabbard she left on a tree. Placing it on her back, the weight resting further at her skin as the guilt within, she follows side by side…
Then, the opening comes on!
Would have watched it if it started out something like this. Cant say it can’t be intense on emotions when the show gives a warning on possible swearing. And this is just, what I could call, the prologue scene 😁👍🏾
👏👏👏👏👏
You talk alot
Why do they want to be guardians? I can only answer that for two.
Rosemary: Because she wants to follow in her mom's footsteps.
Thyme: To find a way to help her dad.
Sage: Fucked if I know, it goes against everything she's been told and taught. She complains about "New Magic" the whole time she's there. Something she says the school teaches exclusively.
Parsley: Maybe because she wants to get out of her parents' house? But not because she wants to improve blacksmith because from what the show displays, she's already a master smith. She makes a dagger instantly.
When Sage is talking to her parents in the beginning, they say she's going to be a great healer when she comes back, so I'm guessing that's at least part of what's going on. Like maybe her family runs an old magic based clinic/apothecary and Sage is supposed to eventually come home and take over the business after adventuring for a while as a guardian. It would be kinda cool, actually, if that was Sage's original intent when going there, but she either wasn't aware that the magic side of the curriculum was so focused on new magic, or she specifically went there to learn new magic despite knowing it would go directly against her parents' wishes.
Also, in Parsley's case, yeah, she seems to exclusively just want to escape her home and having to basically be the unpaid babysitter of the dozen or so siblings she has. Honestly, that's motivation enough for me. I would take the first opportunity I saw to get away from that nonsense, too.
@@AzariahMarinaStarcaster With Sage I suppose that's true, would be interesting to see something like that in the show. 👀Actually sounds like an interesting first episode idea. Instead of starting at a random arch, start in Sage's home which doubles as the Apothecary. Have the same conversation, it can switch to Rosemary's house after that.
While true, it would have been nice it she had something more interesting going on. Only issue is she was kind of written to pretty much be cliche regardless of how you write her unless you start from the ground up. Like make her a dwarf female who is from a family of traditionalist dwarves but the reason she doesn't have a beard is because she shaves it off because she doesn't like it, it makes her to hot around the furnaces, or gets in the way. Something like that. Of course, that's also rewriting the High Guardian Dwarves to be more Tolken\D&D style dwarves as well.
They are named after the song.😂😂😂
@@nicoleackerman205 Mhmm, I watched C-Puff's massive documentary on it.
The First Episode of "High Guardian Spice" can be summed up in a single phrase. "Slice of Life." Slice of Life episodes don't need to have conflict, and instead focuses more on world building than anything else. The problem: Slice of Life is supposed to be a break from the conflict; meaning we should already be invested in the characters, wanting to see them have a day off from all the conflict, and everything.
Doing "Slice of Life" as the first episode, causes major failure, because you have characters that no one is invested in, just hanging out doing pretty much nothing. Slice of Life can be great for world building through visuals, but it should never be the first episode of the entire series.
Plus in order for a Slice Of Life to work, you also need to have good comedy and character interactions. The character interactions in HGS suck since most of the time their dialogue sounds forced and unnatural
@@BrandonRTalks I've wondered what is your opinion on slice of life anime then, as they generally don't have much conflict unless it's something minor or something major as a one off
@@bullettime1116 I made a video on it here, ua-cam.com/video/p_3S8IxULCs/v-deo.html
But the bottom line is that I enjoy it, but would prefer it if it had a sense of progression at the same time. Honestly though, I never really felt like High Guardian Spice was actually trying to be slice of life, since it seems more framed as if it was trying to be an adventure/fantasy. But whichever one it was trying to be, it didn't do a great job on both ends.
Yes but, slice of life is usually centered on characters and quickly establishes their personnality (wich are usually very strong and carries the whole show), high guardian spice doesnt do that either
Slice of life have conflict, but they are normally short lived. Like person a lost wallet. A conflict in story just mean, a roadblock for a charter to their goal doesn't matter how long. It the journey that matter, in SOL they can dedicated an entire episode to chasing a cat and get trash that is conflict.
Guardian spice have very less conflict and there is barely any journey in solving it.
Slice of life have conflict it just there is nothing much at stake less stress for the viewer.
I feel like the locket scene would've had more substance if a) Rose never hinted at what was in it from the beginning b) we don't see what's in the locket until they get it back form the animal thingie and we see the photo of the cake c) Sage gets furious because of this since Rose made her go on a literal goose chase around town (also add some more danger to them being like countryside girls in the city for the first time) and d) THEN have then fight and, once Sage decides to go apologise, she sees Rose looking at the photograph and we're revealed the bigger picture (pun intended) that it was actually a picture of her mother.
LITERALLY IT TOOK ME LIKE 30 SECONDS TO COME UP WITH THIS-- WHAT-- HOW COULD THE WRITERS JUST DECIDE TO MAKE THE STAKES AND INVESTMENT SO LOW???
That would've been amazing 😭. God there is potential there. If the writers had put any level of thought into this (and knew what subtlety means), then we could've actually had something decent.
Also it would have been emotional if the writers showed Rose being super scared/sad about it before they get it back and then show some chemistry between her and Sage. That way we learn abt both characters and get to see why they're friends to begin with
Budget, according to the creator
The problem is they even failed to entice their supposed target audience. A vast majority of the friends I have are LGBTQ, and most all that have seen this show agree that it is bad. Not only that it is bad but that the "representation" in it is poorly executed and honestly insulting. I am not a member of the LGBTQ community, but I do know this, I wait with baited breath for the show that not only represents them, but does so in a way that makes them layered well written characters who I can genuinely care about and root for, instead of just one dimensional jerks who's only character trait is being LGBTQ. That is what they are, not who they are and there is a big difference. There is more to a person than their sexual preference, that is just one layer of the onion that is who they are. Give me the rest of the onion dang it.
I think if we are to reach that point, one of the first steps is to stop talking about them like they're a community. It makes it seem like they're a sort of monolith, when they are all individuals. Communities are people who get together to form something, but that takes more than these superficial character traits. I'm Asian and I'm American, but I'm not part of some Asian American community. Yeah, I can relate with other Asian Americans pretty well, but I don't use that as a way of forming a community with people.
Some communities that I have formed is the people I play D&D with, or the people I meet at the archery or gun ranges. Stuff that is more than my superficial traits, because they're my hobbies and I get to meet people with similar interests whom I can learn from. Yeah, a lot of LGBT people may group up together because they have stuff in common, but in my view, that doesn't make them a LGBT community, but rather a community that has a lot of LGBT people. But what do they do for fun? What's the community aspect other than their superficial traits? Do they just hang out together and just...be gay? Probably not.
So I guess it comes back to treating people as more than just their superficial traits. As long as people keep seeing them as a community defined by their superficial traits, then how can you expect people to see them as more than their superficial traits?
So I guess....LGBT People > LGBT Community. They're people first.
@rolo rawr I have actually heard fairly decent things about Owl House. Haven't checked it out yet though. I've honestly lost a lot of trust for Hollywood and Disney over the years, so it is hard to watch certain things for fear of disappointment. Part of the problem is these shows are not being made by real representatives of that community so much as it is being made by people who are faking it to cash in on the fact that said communities have become quite popular as they have been brought out into mainstream. That is why they make what they call a character when it is actually just a shallow collection of buzz words with no individualism or humanity. That said there are still some fantastic representative characters made, they just seem to be the exception rather than the rule.
@@michaelcox9855 the thing is Dana (the creator) is bisexual, but Disney canceled it so there's that. She is the main creator behind the owl house and she's currently going all out to finish the story in the two seasons she has after it wasn't renewed for a season 3
@@michaelcox9855 also, Dana (like alex hirsch) called out Disney a lot for their bs with pride month
@@Leader7353 I mean it's not just Disney though. Practically every corporation does this BS. Black history month, Pride month, whatever month they "really care" for that month and then it's right back to basic BS. I am sorry but if they really cared about things like representation they would suck at it so consistently. It's all a shallow cash grab attempt if you ask me. Profit from the past and current suffering of others for profit's sake. It's kinda gross if that's the case too. These people are people not a dang label to exploit.
I'm a writer and I always, ALWAYS, start the story with story with some drama. Either a character having flashbacks of their family dying or watching a building explode. And something that will automatically change the life and views of my character in order to get the readers interested. It was something I grapsed from watching anime because you see how in the first episode, something interesting NEEDS to happen in order to get you interested and curious
This video mainly boils it down to "Conflict is important, and if there's no conflict the story will be bad", so for any writers reading this, let me try to put this in perspective:
The reason that conflict is important, is that it's necessary to create *contrast.* If there's no contrast, there's no way to telegraph that the plot is moving forward, and attention stagnates. Even if the events you're showing are necessary to the plot, if there isn't an effort to show how things are different then you can't create meaningful action, because the events are effectively frictionless.
As a side example, one that I personally found guilty in spades of this, I'd recommend watching through Season 3 Episode 1 of The Witcher netflix series. There's technically conflict in it, but it's almost impressive how nothing sticks once it's introduced.
@@glumbortango7182 yes! It also helps to gain the attention and interest of your audience. No one would want to see a regular day. Oh, travelling and they just ride the car, stop for some food and walk around. With nothing bizarre happening. Heck nahh. Maybe put in someone mysterious you find along the way or your car broke down during the silent night.
But I try to follow R.L. Stine kind of writing where on the very first paragraph, he put a cut of the most serious and dramatic action going on. But only giving the readers a glimpse so they'll get curious.
Or from many anime, they at least put in the problem and conflict on the first episode/chapter. We can take this from many shounen manga/anime
So ur telling me that this fictional story that I made up just in my head is actually a pretty valid story? Damn, maybe I should write it.
@@mr.cheese7339 Yes, you should. Maybe it's not great, maybe you don't have the skill yet to convey it well. But it might be great, or be the see of something that will be great, if you pursue it.
You talk alot
this show's story telling was brave and stunning, it showed me what not to do in basic story telling.
Just like the song Fight Like A Brave by Red Hot Chilli Peppers
it's pretty obvious that the characters of this show are a projection of the writers that created it.
empty and vacuous barely even able to identify what they are? Sounds about right.
I mean Calloway (the trans professor) isn't even a subtle reference to the creator of HGS. It literally looks like their self-insert OC.
@@How_to_LA you know the moment gender shows up its gonna go to shit
@@tigertoxins584 I actually think that showing gender isn't a bad thing when doing well, this show is just shit so obv people will think that every shows with minorities are like this
@@aliaboulekema-amraoui5317 I don't have any real problems with gender, I just don't like when it gets political or on the point of hyper fixation. Bugsnax pulled it off fantastically.
Later in the series Rosemary gets called out for being a jerk so I think that part was intentional. The problem is that they saved her being called out for a reveal later rather than passively showing that people don’t like her. Even if her friends enable her behavior you can still show background characters glaring at her or moving to avoid being near her. Making the quirky lead toxic is actually an interesting idea, the problem is they don’t treat her like a toxic lead until Sage gets fed up and dumps her. (She also really needed a redeeming moment or two to get the audience on her side but that’s beside the point I was making.)
Honestly, not on about Rosemary, but I can't stand Sage, a lot of the time. She says men basically can't have feelings, gives out to Rosemary for finding gourd carving boring (which it probably is), and cries because Amaryllis said New Magic is better and more convenient (which it is) and when Thyme agrees with Amaryllis, Thyme is the bad guy and has to apologise to poor little Sage, who can do no wrong. But yes, I do agree, Rosemary is a jerk, and people need to show this, not randomly calling her out on it.
People were screaming about her being terrible for far before though, so I think that’s more they caved rather than intentional.
"Even if her friends enable her behavior you can still show background characters glaring at her or moving to avoid being near her."
That would require them to make background characters that move. :)
Why do people call her a jerk idk what she did
I haven't watched the show but I deadass thought they were siblings
Yo, I watched it all the way through and your points are still valid.
The thing that pains me the most about this show is that it's almost good in a lot of different ways. I see so much missed and wasted potential that makes me wish I was in the writer's room at the time.
As a couple of examples, Snapdragon discovering his transgender identity is ham fisted and actively harmful to the transgender community (in my opinion), yet it almost does it right. The problem in my opinion is that they tried to break gender roles and stereotypes using gender roles and stereotypes.
The time when they had to "emotionally" put down a sea serpent falls flat because they treat the serpent like a monster and not a character. Yet they "tried" too.
Their game of truth and dare while stuck in a cave waiting to starve to death could have been emotional, but we don't really know who these characters are and thus aren't invested. If anything we are just now getting to know these characters.
The birth and accelerated death of the dragon who saved them could have been a thought provoking ethical dilemma. But it's rushed and unintentionally hilarious.
Rosemary and Aster's relationship could have been fun, short, and comedic. But it's painful and sounds like the writers have never met a man before.
The underlying plot on the worlds magic running out and "the rot" are interesting plot points left open and unexplored. I'm not asking to know the underlying plot, whose responsible, or why it's happening, I just want to know how this effects the world other than "nature" and any character who isn't an elf.
The concept of Old and New magic is poorly thought out or what they have thought out is unexplained. Yet it's the best idea they have in this show.
Personally, this show is a great show to watch if you want to write stories. It shows you what not to do and why in a way many classes can never do. Yet it leaves enough room and material for you to have inspiration and attempt to fix the show.
This was really insightful! Yeah, it seems like the later parts of HGS suffer from very similar problems. It has potential, but it seems that the writers didn't really care enough to fully bring out that potential, and decided to instead focus on their "representation" and hamfisted political messages.
Problem is....I've been watching ALL kinds of anime and really well written stories with LGBTQ representation. I'm gonna give two examples out of a long list of anime one being Wandering Son it actually has a trans character the other Sweet Blue Flowers has lesbian relationship ( also called Aoi Hana) both are very well done and handle representation honestly and it really does not feel forced nor does it try to pander to make it political. Go watch them and compare it to High Guardian Spice. Also if you like drama with lesbian relationships check out Dear Brother it was made by the same lady who made Rose of versallies aka Lady Ocar. The same people like me who enjoy these anime tore into High Guardian Spice because when you compare that with anime I'm sending you to watch it's absolutely shameful. And we have people gasslighting those like me who don't like this show calling us transphobic, homophobic etc......which is also rather shameful. Caution though in Dear Brother not all characters have a happy ending not all characters are portrayed as realistic but most are. And it's a 70's/80's anime. As for the guy that made HGS he's going on to make what appears to be a gay harem type diet anime which has the same type of cheap looking drawings. If you want a harem boys love type anime.....well anime has you covered on that too. Lol
P.S- I like to help people find the type of anime they'd enjoy instead blindly watching them cause not all anime is made for everyone. But anime has all bases covered.
I'm trans. Snapdragon's arc about being trans was harmful and handled correctly. They wrote him more as a boy who doesn't want to be confined by gender roles than a girl who could never fit in or be happy with her body because she looked like a boy.
Edit: I meant incorrectly in the second sentence, lol
@@Schnort i'm trans too (transmasc not transfem) and something i noticed is that snapdragon did immediately read as trans to me, but not as a girl. snapdragon read as a trans man who had already socially transitioned and was trying to accept that it's okay for him to be gender nonconforming and still be a man. i've literally only seen writing of a transfem character that is so confused that it accidentally makes them transmasc one other time, and since that time obviously didn't have any trans people on staff, it's not as absurd as snapdragon's writing.
however, if they'd written snapdragon as a closeted trans girl, it could've led into something interesting writing wise, albeit it's still less than ideal. they could've used this to talk about how the "kill all men" ideology disproportionately affects marginalized men and closeted trans women, but oh wait, they actually subscribe to that idea.
@@magicalboymlm I'm transmasc too. When viewing Snapdragon's character from this paradigm, he is really relatable. A lot of trans men aren't allowed to be feminine because they "aren't trying hard enough."
This is partially why Snapdragon being written the way he is can be harmful.
i also realized one thing that is bothering me so much,, especially their first episode...is that these people NEVER bothered to animate any sort of blinking,, like,, that's totally not important for characters with eyes.,, and yeah..I couldn't stop wanting to cry about this one problem...
Blinking?
I love the conclusion someone made in review of this that they aren't guardians per the show's definition (which was similar to the purpose of some other group or object they are supposed to guard which doesn't exist or something), they aren't named after spices, so the verdict has to be: they're just high.
I hate to break it to you but the show is still bad in later episodes or even worse at times when it shoves their propaganda straight into your faces.
Yeah, I thought as much. I really just wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, so it wouldn't seem as if I'm being unfair 🙃
Giving it a try so we have legit reason to hate it properly. "Yeah, I know what I'm talking about."
There literally isn't even any propaganda, not sure why people are full on injecting politics where there isn't any.
That being said, it is terrible because there is no subtance, characters are cardboard cutouts, literally hitting every horrible anime trope.
To be fair their propaganda isn't that strong in this show.
Apart for a few "all men are irreponsibles/unlikables except the trans or the one thinking about transitioning", it's not that bad.
(And i had to watch it two times, on time because i wanted to have my own opinion and a second time with a trans friend who was curious after hearing my complaints)
But later the serie has a conversation about transition wich sounded quite genuine.
But yeah, for the rest, it is badly animated, the story has no real plot, most of the character are unlikable and move from bad decision to bad decision.
Spoiler but many won't watch the show or already have :
Special mention for the introduction and sumoning of a demon only to use it for a magical phone call.
I think the good characters are the purple haired girl, Snapdragon, and Slime boy they seem to be the *only* good characters
Sage is actually the worst character out of all of the main four. She's a man hating and controlling lesbian.
Some of the stuff she says:
"I don't believe that all guys are awful but..."
"Rosemary could do so much better(talking about Rosemary's crush on a guy that the writers did write to be awful), I know what she needs and it isn't him."
"You wouldn't get it, you're a guy. Guys don't talk about their feelings, guy friendships are not the same."(talking to a guy who she was partnered up with for the day)
"Guys just don't understand that the bond between girls is just... deeper."
Ouch. The worst part about it is that from the way it's written, the writers don't seem to think Sage is in the wrong.
@@BrandonRTalks no they don't think she's wrong. The guy Rosemary had a crush on isn't the only "toxic male" in the show
@@BrandonRTalks sounds like the writer never even talked to a guy before.
Well one of the writers is Kate “Kill all men” Leth
of course the writing of the male characters who aren’t girl-turned-guy or “guy that must turn into girl to embrace his feminine side” suffers so much that it infuriates even a girl.
I’m a girl, that has talked to so many dudes in my whole life, and I know not every dude is toxic, transphobic, and everything that constitutes a stereotypical idiot male character.
@@brotherhoodofsteel4751 Judging by other reviews I've read it really sounds like they just wrote the boys how they imagined boys are, not how they actually are. A common problem with propaganda fiction like that, the Christian shows do that too all the time.
This might sound counter-intuitive, but hear me out: it would have been much better world-building, interesting and gave a much better impression of a larger world if there was an episode and conflict related to each part of their travel.
When I think of large spans of characters traveling, I think of Pokémon. I think of how Ash and his friends could spend a few episodes going from one town to another but each episode had its own conflict to resolve. It made the journey interesting but also showed how massive the world was if it took them more than one episode to get there. They could have done that here. It would have also made it that much more rewarding when they would finally arrive.
Exactly! It's not necessarily the fact that they spend so much time travelling that I have a problem with. It's the fact that it lacks conflict entirely. If they had done things as you said, it would've been far more interesting, even if it took them longer to get to High Guardian Academy, purely because we feel like each scene has a point.
I reallly loved pokemon for that
Not to mention ash didn't catch a pokemon until episode 3
And Ashe's first conflict. He slept in and the the only pokemon left hates his guts and refuses to help. It was a great start.
Even in a single episode a simple conflict or dificulty could have make the travel more interesting.
I think i remember an episode of Avatar the last airbender where the Avatar team helps a family with a pregnante woman going to take a boat. A this point we already know that they are good person but it show how a simple concept like taking a boat, could make a nice episode.
Here it could have been something like traveling in the car of the beginning with a family and after a problem like a broken wheel they chose to help the family with strengh and magic/intelect.
It could have shown that our heroes are good person using everything they have to help people.
But meh, i'm not a profesional writer ^^
1:01 DO I HEAR MY ORDINARY LIFE IN THE BACKGROUND?????
and now i wanna watch little witch academia lol
also i was thinkin about the lgbtq stuff in this and was thinkin about undertale, the main examples being alphys and undyne, but it doesnt go like "hEy gUyS tHeY'rE lEsBiAn!!11!!!", the characters are actually GOOD, and so is the writing (also i nearly forgot mad dummy, who's basically trans, but again, theyre not just a one-note character)
AND THEN I HEAR SPIDER DANCE AT THE END
If I had to guess (Never watched the show before), but since Rose's mother is missing, it could be painful to see her image, but the photo is still a cherished memory, so she presents the cake, while knowing what it actually means to her. That said, the show still commits the sin of forcing its audience into filling in the blanks themselves instead of just putting in the damn work... Like RWBY does all the time
As a writer, I am actually impressed with how little personality the main characters have. When writing a story, the personalities form themselves. You still have to do work to develop those personalities but they are still there. Even if I did everything in my power to write a recurring character with almost no personality, I couldn't, let alone a main character.
The main character has no personality argument is so much more scathing when it's from a person with a kirito picture.
@@InsanePigeon Are you unironically comparing a 4.6 star anime to a 1.8 star anime?
@@Shugunou Of course not, just that kirito has been (rightfully) ridiculed for being bland. There are other factors of SAO that save it from being as bad as HGS, like some action, memorable moments, side characters (even if they inevitably get absorbed into the haram).
I'm not saying SAO is the same level of utter garbarge fire as HGS, but I'll still always consider it pretty bad when compared to things like SAOAbridged
@@InsanePigeon Ridiculed as a meme. If people actually hated SAO, why is it rated so highly? It has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. That is pretty rare. My best guess is you haven't even watched the first season all the way through and are just jumping on the trend. I, however, have seen the entire series. In my opinion, the first arc is the worst one so the fact that it is the only one you've seen doesn't give you any authority to say it is bad. If you would actually watch the series instead of jumping on trends, you'd realize it isn't as bad as people tell you. The majority of people on Google gave it 5 stars and that wouldn't happen if it was actually a terrible anime or if the main character had no personality.
@@Shugunou I've watched all the way through GGO but I still didn't care for it that much. I'm guessing that it's highly rated because the stans that like it all upvote it enmasse while the people that didn't like it just don't care to rate it. Besides, I've said the show itself wasn't that bad, just that kirito was bland. Stop going out of your way to say "oh but the anime is rated good" when you were the one that brought the anime up to begin with.
Okay, I think that I'm gonna do a rewriting of the first episode based on this video and in what I learnt:
So, Pink's (I don't bother to know their names, so I'm just gonna call them for their hair colors) mother was a High Guardian, but she misteriously disappeared and the only thing that lasted was her sword. So Pink, who wanted to become a High Guardian before because it implied a wealthy life, is more determined to become one in order to find her mom.
Some years later, Pink and her friend Blue decide to go to the capital in order to become Guardians, deciding to get a train. Noticing the long line, they decide to cut while the station staff is distracted. In this meanwhile, the orc gets stuck in the bridge and the girls decide to help him, even tho they know that this will make them lose their place in the line. They help him, but the staff member sends them to the end of the line (we can even add a joke of someone else getting the place that they were going to get in the line). When they were about to enter in the train, there was no more space in and the train started to went it's way. Pink and Blue tried to reach it, but the train was faster, forcing them walk towards the city.
When they finally arrive in the city it was already night time. They meet the couple (or I think that they are a couple), who greets them and take them to their home. In there, they dinner, take a shower and go to sleep, where Pink have a nightmare with her mother. Blue then wakes up and comforts her friends assuring that they will find her mother.
In the next day, Pink finishes her breakfast and asks to go to city with Blue, but Blue says that she will finish her breakfast first. So Pink decides to go out and train a little while Blue didn't finish, where we even have a moment of Pink remembering the times where she used to train with her mother.
In the city, Pink gets excited about the idea of becoming a Guardian, swinging her mother's sword around and almost hitting Red. Pink quickly apologizes, but Red gets (rightfully) mad, but go over the top, speaking ill about Pink and Blue, what makes Pink angry. Red then says that they will meet again in the future to settle the scores before leaving.
While discussing about how Red was kinda rude and scary, a bird steals Pink's locket, what makes her distressed. Blue says that she will buy a new one, but Pink says that it wasn't about the locket, but what was in it so they agree to chase the bird. They start to chase it through the city, but since they are tourists, it's gets harder to go after it since they don't know the city and there's a bunch of obstacles in their way, like people and barrels. They them manage to reach the bird, where they watch a mate dance that ends with the locket broken. Pink gets distressed and rushes to it, only to find that what she stored in it was a picture of her mother, that she was using as a reminder of why she wanted to become a Guardian, was intact for her relief. They them decide to look for someone who can fix the locker, and when they find, the goldsmither reveals that it will take a time to be fully repaired. Pink gets upset, but understands. In that night, they discuss about what they will do when they become Guardians, having a little heart-warming moment of them promising to become Guardians together.
You did great! Although technically a lot of the same things do happen, this time it's a lot more solid and well executed.
Good job!
The time you spent writing this was well worth it❤️👏🤝
👏👏👏👏👏👏 This's amazing although it was mostly the same it had conflict, gave the characters motivation and showcased there friendship well good job. You should definitely become a writer in the future.
Gotta love the generic, bland, and uninspired art style used by literally every one of these shows created by these types of people.
NO FR u can just _tell_ what kind of show it'll be based off of the art
The generic art style and not a single straight character.. yeah
yep, the tumblr art style
Steven universe effect
The animation looks like something from Newgrounds
"The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference." - Someone already said this somewhere, I just don't know who.
But man, would I send everything that is related to this thing straight down to hell...
Tom Hiddleston. But maybe he was quoting someone else too, I dunno.
elie wiesel did
This show just exists. And that's just something.
At least it's not the velma show
Yeah
I genuinely love your anology to crappy Christian shows near the end of the video. These two political extremes HATE each other because of their clashing worldviews, yet what they're doing is intrinsically the same as what their opposition is doing. They're both shit.
I myself noticed a lot of the same stuff from the uber religious folk and the uber woke folk. I think this is because a lot of people who get into the wokeness do so partially out of a need to fill the void left by leaving religion. So they treat it as a religion. They even have their own saints and gods.
It just goes to show that zealousy comes more from who you are as a person rather than what political spectrum you align yourself with.
This anime doesn't even feel like it comes from "woke" people, it feels like it comes from the people who *Think* they are woke.
@@ruby8065 that's kinda how it is.
Superbook is fine tho
11:11 is one of the worst posing I have ever seen, the pose looks so out of place that I couldn't understand why, until I noticed the front foot of the giant is close to the wall, that means that she's not leaning on the wall, she's just standing on one foot, but they want to make it look like she's relaxed or cool or whatever but it comes of as a person who wants to look cool but is trying to hard, as if the show wasn't cringy enough. Sorry if this was long I just had to say it since I'm studying anatomy and posing and to see this in a finished production juat baffles me.
Nice catch! That's completely true, it's like they realised they needed room for Rose and Sage to run past the giant, so they awkwardly tried to make her as close to the wall as possible and failed.
@@BrandonRTalks thanks for noticing me haha, but yeah your rightbit just seems so rushed, but as you said in the video there are more glaring issues in this whole mess of a show, your videos are great by the way I really enjoy them
7:58 that's a good idea. I actually have an idea to expand that and give Rosemary a much more interesting character arc.
My idea is that after her mom disappeared, she became devoted to becoming a guardian solely so she could defend herself as she searched the entire, dangerous kingdom of Scarborough to find her mom. From there, we soon learn, and she soon realizes, that she was so laser-focused on finding her mom that she had lost sight of what being a guardian is about, and why she admired her mom for being one, and that is to protect people who cannot protect themselves.
This could be shown, for example, with a scene where she saves a defenseless villager from a monster/bandit/whatever and expects them to give her a reward for her efforts. So, her character growth, obviously, is to realize the error of her ways, stop being selfish, and start being the kind of guardian her mom was.
Legit that would've been so much more interesting and meaningful if that happened.
unfortunately as from what we've gathered so far, the writers are too incompetent to even think of this
Didn’t the team disband already?
Alternatively, since she only wants the skills of being a master swordwoman for the sake of defending herself, Rosemary ends up failing to actually protect an innocent bystander at one point. The writers could then earn their label of being a story for a mature audience without needing to have random swears by having the person be viciously murdered due to this.
Do this relatively early on, so that over the course of multiple episodes there is an investigation by the school over whether the incident was unavoidable due to Rosemary's skills (like too many enemies for her to handle at once) or gross negligence (pursuing personal interest rather than caring for her charge), and if the latter, whether she could be redeemed and continue her study to become a Guardian or not.
Now THIS is a character arc
The style looks like it from those "How to Draw ____" books that look like bootleg anime styles created to be Cash Cow.
I think that the mistake which doomed them from the start is when they dedicated their initial trailer to boasting about how great they are as a production team, and how they are able to do things story wise which most other studios have forgotten how to do. Once you do something like that, anything you produce as a result will be under the harshest of scrutiny. What would have otherwise been a low-budget production flying under people's radar became a subject to be dissected ans studied by everyone on the internet, to comb through and expose every flaw.
"this didn't made me angry"
him after a few minutes: 5:25
"Hey, you almost stabbed me and I'm super pissed, as I should be!"
Rosemary: "Almost doesn't mean it happened. 🙄 It's not that serious. Stop yelling at me! 🙄"
Aside from the criticisms of HGS, I really loved how your video was not just an essay; it's as if you wrote and told a story. The beginning introduces your intentions and the reasons why you're covering the already infamous dumpster fire that's been bashed on by so many other youtubers. It also hooks people in by saying that the show itself is not "bad." The middle parts sequentially talk about the different parts of the show that made it boring and how to not do those things. I especially loved how you tied everything to the conclusion, which addresses what you said about the show in the beginning; "not bad, but boring." The ending really made me think about how we evaluate stories and our expectations for them.
Even though I never really cared for the show and thus didn't care to watch videos that bashed on it (Because I understood that it was bad and I didn't really need people to repeat it for me), the title of this video hooked me in because it implied that there was something fundamentally wrong with the show that it managed to fail within *only* one episode. As someone who generally likes watching video essays, I really loved your presentation of your analysis of HGS; it not only talked about the show but also about the aspects of what makes storytelling work as a whole. You showed how much you love stories and how HGS is not only a boring show, but a show that disrespects storytelling. This is fairly long and also very late, but you deserve to have your voice be heard by many viewers and high praise. Thank you for making an enjoyable presentation that was informative, insightful, and personal.
Thank you! It's super interesting to read analysis on my own content as well, so I really appreciate it!
The video was written better than the show lmao
13:41 What am I looking at right now? Are those walls made of cardboard or something? They really forgot to put 3D into a wall when every other wall in the same frame is 3D? Also why is the blue haired girl walking FROM the wall like she just walked straight through it a before the frame begins?
I know that people kept saying this show looked like trash but honestly I just thought people were talking out of their asses as the internet usually does.
3:48 the .jpg bread is *_painful_* to look at 💀💀💀🦚💀💀
@@crovat5218 and that goofy ahh pancakes 💀
I think this level of HGS writing is the exact thing that makes nowadays modern cartoon failed hard. It is like they deliberately want to not follow the traditional storytelling formula thinking that they can make a story good still even if the story writing formula is a jumbled mess.
Personally I've always thought it's because companies cancel the shows that are actually good for no reason other than "not reaching the target audience" when it does, they just don't realize what the target audience is.
Unless your character is supposed to be mysterious, there’s no reason not to share information about them in your show/book. Like in the Joker, his motivations aren’t clear and that’s the point and it WORKS! Rose isn’t mysterious so it’s uninteresting and makes it look like there’s no thought behind the characters.
I actually got to see the first season of this and while Rosemary does in fact want to become a Guardian to find her mom... I still do not know what a Guardian is or how being one will help her find her mom. In fact, it kinda appears that it would just give her more tasks that have nothing to do with finding her mom.
Bro how do you not know what a guardian is???? It's obviously [REDACTED] and their objective is to guard the [REDACTED]
I like to imagine her mother was a famous alumni of the academy and Rosemary specifically thinks going to the academy will put her in contact with people who can help her find her. Plus I imagine that whatever is going on with her mom is something she couldn't legally investigate without being a guardian, so it's kind of a mandatory step one way or the other. And living up to her mother's legacy is probably also really important to her.
A Guardian is someone who gets high on spice
@@FrenkTheJoy This would've been a way more interesting story
the propaganda point was so accurate it hurt. i bloody hate this kind of "representation" (i prefer to call it hate fuel because let's be real, it makes bigots feel even more justified in their hate)
i'm queer and seeing the bits and pieces of this show already made me recoil in the pure, raw and unfiltered sort of cringe because damn. it's so obvious they treat it not as any sort of meaningful mirroring of irl people but as a marketing ploy, preying on a group that's already starved for representation in hopes that this group would eat any shit they offer them as long as it has a particular label slapped on it
in my opinion that's even worse than open hate
open hate harms people
this - whatever this bullshit even is - also harms people, but it pretends to help them, only to deal even more damage, like a parasite
imagine using a very popular premise, doing it poorly, and expecting to get good results... when you use a popular premise, you get all the competition from the other people using that premise...
It's even worse when we realize that the premise is unrelated to the quality of the story... like you can make a good story with any premise so long as you execute it well, so all they did by following a common premise was give themselves a tough competition. To make things worse, they didn't even try to execute it well...
Comparing HGS to the VERY bias Religious shows, feels like the biggest slap in the face you can give to these creators.
Also 100% agree. if a project is not done out of love, fun and passion. it really shows in the finished product.
Does hate count too tho? Because some of the best stuff was made out of spite and petty emotions, like The Boys.
@@juanmanuelpenaloza9264 I feel that depends on talent and passion. like with what happened with anything related or connected to Yandere simulator. I hear both the main game and most of it's fan games are made out of petty spite.
@@juanmanuelpenaloza9264 you could make the argument they love shitting about superhero tropes that they made a whole series about it
@@UsonoHoushi Yeah, fans just made better game to spite creator after he failed to deliver and blamed fans for it.
Despite the fact that he streamed games on Twitch while complaining on a lack of time to work on YanSim.
Spite can only go do far.
Especially since many fan games ended up in failure due to various reasons.
What I thought was ridiculous is that the wikipedia page identifies the main 4 girls....is by their HAIR COLOR. Thats how lacking and bland in their personality they are.
Me, my brother, and my Moroccon buddy streamed and watched it together. We barely went through 5 minutes of the first episode, and found so many errors, technical and artistic, that we were absolutely stumped and laughing ourselves to half death at our commentary. The technical aspects especially shocked me. I've seen many shows, good and bad. But I never watched a show thats bad from a technical aspect. The voice acting, sound mixing, dialogue, even the jank in animation. It's something I've never seen before, and as someone who aspires for animation, I find HGS as the bottom of the barrel for aspiring animations.
It's scary because making those mistakes in animation feel unavoidable. It all boils down to budget.
However not even budget can fix the terrible story
@@alchemistofsteel8099 it was the budget... Suure...
@@alchemistofsteel8099 They had years to work on this, it was greenlit before 2019 when they showed some of the stuff on the trailer. Plus, I've seen people make absolute gold with shoestring budgets, and they're like one person or a small team.
This was neither, so I don't think budget was the issue here at all.
@@ARStudios2000 apparently it was completed like a while ago, and only recently released. which means they crunched the thing most likely
Watch Ex-Arms. Cruchy Roll is also responsible for that abomination.
Ngl seeing all these criticisms and rants about High Guardian Spice really does educate me with my own stories, things you should and shouldn't do, what it means for a series to be bad, and what you should fix for it to be slightly better, it's nice listening these kinds of vids. Also it's funny looking how bad it is too
I think when I start getting into writing any story ideas I've had in the past, HGS will have had at least that positive trait about it, that the first episode sucked so much that it was the perfect example of what not to do for a story, and Brandon pointing out each and every detail of how it doesn't make a good story will stick in my mind when I am trying to figure out stories. So if anything, thank you HGS for that alone.
They don't ever explain what a Guardian is actually. None of the things that you said "maybe it changes in later episodes" for actually changed.
Also the plot doesn't start until like episode 7, and once again it's something happening to the characters instead of the characters doing anything
Lol, glad to see my criticisms were spot on then
Lol, glad to see my criticisms were spot on then
@@BrandonRTalks I'm sure you don't really care, but here's a summarized breakdown of the plot:
- Thyme's forest is being killed by this purple gunk called "The Rot"
- the school just happens to send the class on an assignment to get some healing water from a cave, which also happens to be able to cure the rot (which I guess nobody ever tried or even thought of before)
- the bad guys causing the rot decide these 4 girls are getting too close to discovering their secrets or something and send an assassin
- the assassin fails, so they send a different assassin, who also fails
- that's it. Season's over. End on a post credits scene of Rosemary's mom working for the bad guys.
@@draconis17 yo wtf is that post credits scene, maybe try to build it up or something. Drop little hints that the missing mom is alive and actually working for the villains.
5:33 "I like her"
"weLl i Don'T!"
I can feel the frustration in your voice, man you're right Rose is a jerk ;-;
@@VioAnimation 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Gotta admit, after listening to this, I finally for some motivation to write again even though my motivation has been dead for well over a month or three ☠️
Anyway, I think you did a great job pointing out flaws - and I’d agree with the fact you can tell when people just don’t seem to put effort into stuff like this
My issue, it was sexist as crap with its creators not simply hating men. No no they blamed us for war and genocide. They compared most of us to Adolf, so yeah that alone told me enough.
The animation wasn't anime it's what we call woke toon, same thing at woke universe and uncle pedo grand pa. A cheap effortless CGI cartoon.
So I'm happy it failed. It had the potential to create some truly disgusting people.
18:49 I thought he was about to diss veggie tales 🤣
Oddly enough, this video actually helped me come up with the story for a chapter of a web comic I'm working on. Originally it was going to be like this episode, nothing but pointless "world building", now it has all of the points that you listed in this video. So, thank you for that, don't want to end up like this trainwreck lol.
13:20 plot twist: *it actually was the cheesecake she cried about and not her family*
Lmao that would've actually been hilarious 🤣
@@BrandonRTalks indeed
@@BrandonRTalks also this video was months old how did you see my comment?
@@crossedout_wizzkill1015 UA-cam studio
@@BrandonRTalks cool
You just stated all the things I also felt on HGS first episode!
1. They're trying to make Rose the happy-go-lucky "quirky" girl but I saw her as a jerk on how she treat people especially Sage. I rolled my eyes at how she acted cutesy pleasy on her so Sage will stop eating and come with her to town. Hell I will never leave my food for ANYONE just to go to where they want to when they can wait for me for like 5 minutes to finish. And even I was offended at her response on Thyme's reaction being almost chopped off by her. Ghurl--
2. The scene makes no sense but oh my God ✨Cool Worldbuilding ✨. Which would be cooler if they made a good use of it and didn't use it as display and fillers lol. Such a waste in creativity.
And despite it lacking concrete character building and plot, I still went on and finished the series 'coz I'd like to see if there is any. And voila! There is, but like in the last 3 episodes with a cliffhanger in the end where shit gets more deep but what are the chances of it getting season 2, if it already "failed" to appeal to the audience in the boring first half?
In only 20 minutes - and after only watching one episode of HGS - you have given a more concise and thorough critique of the show than pretty much any other reviewer I’ve watched (and I’ve watched more than a dozen). Very well-made!
a lot of it feels like the kinda thing you would have a character do after actually showing how good of a person they are, like start of season two before the story kicks back up kinda things, to show that they still have some flaws or to set up a new arch
hey now, that's a little unfair comparing LWA academia to this -_- that's like comparing $800 lobster to a tuna sandwich at subways
🤣
Hey, at least a tuna sandwich is also meant to be consumed by the general public.
@@Isiel42 well not with this tuna sandwich
This tuna sandwich has been biten once and it was thrown into the trashcan
God I love lobsters. Especially when they're cooked
Considering Anime budgets, Little Witch Academia is the tuna sandwich in this analogy.
Hey I know I'm a bit late to the party with this video. But this was extremely helpful for learning about storytelling and learning about the common stuff. I really like it! Do more video's on good plot and characters! I like it!
I liked you talked about the flaws in the show. And talking what could of been. Please do more with other anime shows pleaseee!
Ive recently started liking the phraze- "All bling no basics." - to describe armies that focus on gadgets over logistics and focus on many medals on generals over competant leadership.
Turns out the phraze also aplies to storries which focus on worldbuilding and visuals over the characters and plot.
Except the world building and visuals here still suck
@@BrandonRTalks IDK Ive not wathed it.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 Trust me the world building is barely there, and the visuals is pretty bad, from the janky animations, the very questionable perspectives in some scenes, very obvious stock photos, etc.
Someone is watching Perun
@@andresmartinezramos7513 Most certianly.
1:11 got that my ordinary life instrumental
As a person who's queer, I find this show's "LGBT+ presentation" bad and sometimes it even feels like it's just mockery. Everything feels forced af and like it's put there just to make some point that I do not understand.
16:00- that 1 second of arrow shot is so much satisfying than all the arrows thyme fired.
One last thing the scene with the locket is probably the best one. I’m pretty sure the writers didn’t mean for it to be like this but rose is a warrior and viewed her mom to be strong. I feel like she hid the rest of the photo because she didn’t want to show any weakness to anyone. I wish they would’ve went into that character trait and developed it further to letting her friends into it but oh well ig.
“Do you wanna know who else does that?”
Christian movies, please say- OH THANK GOODNESS THE CARTOONS SOMEONE SAID IT
Bahahaha as a Christian in the Christian community (who grew up on Christian cartoons, movies, and media overall) I can wholeheartedly admit that most of our media is a dumpster fire, and every message it forcibly shoves down a viewer’s throat falls short in the storytelling (which is putting it LIGHTLY). I’m also an aspiring writer who’s taken apart stories for years, so I pay close attention to what makes up a book or a movie. Never thought I’d see a Christian show’s utter lack of storytelling anywhere else, but here we are with a glimpse of it in a mainstream anime. It’s disappointing, but it’s also a beacon of warning for many people which has helped viewers everywhere become well-versed in what truly makes a good story. For that, I’m grateful.
Thanks for this video!! I couldn’t agree more with it and I love all of your observations.
Thanks! I'm also a Christian and share many of the same experiences as you, which is why I also really dislike the majority of Christian media out there. If it's supposed to be for God, then shouldn't you try your hardest to make something of good quality?? 😂 The best Christian media in my opinion are always those that ANYONE can enjoy because they can still stand on their own as a GOOD story, like Veggie Tales and Prince Of Egypt.
@@BrandonRTalks Oh my goodness, yes, EXACTLY!! I find that a lot of Christian movies especially fall into the trap of trying to make the audience feel something rather than truly delivering a thought-provoking, satisfactory narrative. God’s message is advertised to be true enough to stand alone, and yet every piece of Christian media seems to want to defend it…? Rather than tell a gripping story that circles around it…?? It drives me up a wall. Veggie Tales is a lovely exception, though. Also, I haven’t seen Prince Of Egypt yet, but absolutely EVERYONE tells me it’s the brilliant outlier from the rest of its kind. Definitely gonna watch sometime :))
Well my friends, you know that High Guardian Spice is not really an anime, right? Isn't it an USA cartoon? Right?
I have not watched this show, because I'm not Anglo, and I don't have that streaming service, I don't even know if it exist in my land.
I'm also Christian, and I agree too. One of my Christian friends and I like to watch awful Christian movies and make fun of them together, because so many of them are so terribly written and acted. But as much as I enjoy ripping on awful Christian movies, I really wish there were more good ones. I want Christian movies that have original enticing stories, memorable characters to care about, movies that make you think, movies that anybody can enjoy regardless if they're Christian or not, etc.!
Yeah, a lot of Christian media sucks, but there are some AMAZING ones out there, such as The Chosen, Prince of Egypt, Joseph King of Dreams, The Bible (made by history), and of course our beloved Veggietales, to name a few.
You know, I had a random, simple thought about the moment where it's revealed what is in the locket and how Rose had claimed it was just a picture of cheese cake only to reveal it was TRULY a picture of her family together. Simply put, have Rose be constantly chipper and upbeat, and be the one usually comforting Sage rather than the other way around. She should have cracks in this demeanor, but she uses her energy and excitement as a mask for her pain.
The biggest crack should come as Rose's picture is revealed, with her instinctively denying that anything is wrong as Sage asks about it, perhaps even go a bit further by having her briefly snap at Sage if she were to press her on it.
Either way, you can then reveal through flashbacks the full extent of Rose's backstory, possibly even give the full reasoning for why she hides how she feels (my idea is that either her mother or father emphasized that she should be a beacon of hope and love for others, which she took to mean she can't show when she is feeling scared, sad, or worried).
Over the course of the story, Rose could learn that she can't, and shouldn't, hide how she really feels and, eventually, she would start telling others about her mother and what happened to her.
I'm sure others have suggested these ideas as well, or at least something similar to it, but I just wanted to give my two cents since the series kinda fascinates me.
crunchyroll: "this show** contains strong language and graphic violence."
show: "uh akshually 🤓 🚨 we are for kids, and we don't like shedding blood, plus, we say somethings here and there but ultimately we're a kids show. :D"
One of the main reason for the big hate in my opinion is when the teaser came out there was basically nothing about the show just the creators talking about it being revolutionary and nothing ever done. When you put something on a pedestal you expect something great the gold medal of entertainment but what the show was like 6th place and that's what people felt like they were lied to in more ways than it's mediocre to just dumb bad but it got times that from it being pushed out as the greatest thing with the creators inflating their ego
And another things is that, the story and motive is actually already don to quite a handful of anime already. (Not exact, but same motive and direction)
The only difference is that those animes are atleast well made, and is polished. (Which layer eps developed)
But this show is just stale or downhill.
As a anime it fails at everything. If it premiered on something like nickelodeon as cartoon, no one would've bated a eye
Because it's the same quality as every other cartoon nowadays but being called an anime, which it isn't, rises the bar and this falls so short of the bar that it wiped out an entire species.
This saddens me on multiple levels. It also saddens me with how basically every animated show on tv is basically just stupid stuff meant for little kids. Amd whenever we have good shows that aren't like that they almost always get canceled despite being popular and loved, just because they feel it's not reaching the target audience of children when the show isn't meant for children. Animation is not just for kids.
I agree - if something is going to provide representation, then it may as well show some effort and care or else it'll just look like empty pandering. Let me remind that Alex of YIIK is technically bisexual - do you really want a character like HIM to represent the community? On the flip-side, Fire Emblem Echoes actually has some interesting autistic (Lukas) and homosexual characters (Forsyth, Python, and Leon), and it's not just because of them being autistic or homosexual.
I have more fun spotting bad animation than anything else with this clusterfuck. Such as the clip at 5:47 where she has a sheath on her back for her sword and she swings the sword to her back in a way that it would have to be a sheath with the opening on its side to actually work properly (and the blade disappears in the last frame or two that we should be able to see it, it feels like)
basically an expired pasteurized milk
still edible but why would you do that to yourself?
I'm sure people said this in the comments, but no, 95% of the things you mention as problems or questions don't get fixed or answered in future episodes.
Even if they did, in my opinion, they didn't do it correctly.
Here's the thing; it's perfectly valid if not good to not answer questions or solve problems immediately. Having questions and problems for later is what helps keep the viewer watching! HGS did this wrong by not establishing the notion that the payoffs will eventually arrive and by not establishing that the resolution will be worth the wait. If they resolved one problem and answered one question within the first episode, it would have accomplished both. While many people are extra nice and patient to endure more than one episode to give it a chance, not everyone is that lenient and not everyone should be that lenient. I watched the whole series to understand the context of videos like this but if understanding the context wasn't worth it, I would've probably never watched to episode 2. Since the minimum of a truly fair chance would've been the entire first episode, they should've accomplished those things within it and they didn't.
Very true. If you want to tease something for later, you've got to make it obvious that it's an actual mystery and make it clear it will be answered eventually. And generally you should have at least one payoff by the end of the episode so we feel like the story's going somewhere
I feel utter embarrassment that a Japanese consumer might come across this and think that this kind of poop represents Western society: because it does.
Damn. smh
I was going to say it seems like a group of people thought if they make a stereotypical girly art style with uwu cute things it would make people forget how genuinely trash and lazy the show really is. And then I was going to say you hit the nail on the head with this video. But nah, you straight up super novad the nail and everything else within a 12 mile Radius
As someone who thoroughly adores girly art styles and uwu cutesy aesthetics, the quality of the show didn't escape me for a moment. 90% of what carried me through watching the show is that I'm a fiend for the aesthetic (I devour almost anything vaguely resembling magical girls), but I also happen to have a desire to rewrite High Guardian Spice, which means I need to know everything that's established already so I can make adjustments. If those two things weren't true, idk if I would have cared enough to sit through the whole thing.
With a few combinations of some plot points, some change in motivation and added interactions, the direction they went with probably could have worked ;
- Rosemary could have made an instant connection with Aloe who is a baker like her father and wanted to assist her in every way.
- She could have initially shown her the family picture in the locket to show her the cake her father made.
- Rosemary volunteers to head out and buy more ingredients, prompting the market scene.
- While there, she gets her locket stolen by the Trixie and chases after it to get it back, accidentally bumping into Thyme.
- The locket is recovered but Rosemary decides to do something conflicting like bargaining the coins meant for the ingredients.
- Back at the house, she profusely apologizes to Aloe for breaking her promise and giving away the money: “I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to lose it…”. This would lead to her doubting her own competency as a helpful and respected future guardian like her mother.
I noticed how long the neck is in the thumbnail and I am now physically uncapable of unseeing if. This will forever plague my mind.
I have seen numerous different reviews about High Guardian Spice, and it AMAZES me how they each manage to point out so many different things wrong with the show.
Story goes, if you combine all reviews you could make a 12 episode series just discussing the wrongs in show lol
5:40 Pretty sure that 99% of the employee's of this show think their "quirky"
this is one of the reasons owl house is one of my favorite shows, even being a kid show. It represents LGBTQ + characters in a really good way, without that being the main point. The main character is bi, and dates another girl. its just a normal relationship. One of the characters are non binary, and no one talks about it or bats an eye. Its just who they are. Theres also a scene of one of there characters being grounded by her dads, and it also moves the plot forward because she did do a bad thing and now has to sneak out to save her friend. Its just a normal part of the world.
With all the recent right wing outrage directed at Disney, it surprises me that the show has avoided being caught in the crossfire. I mean, it combines witchcraft and magic with LGBTQ+ characters and relationships, which are both big nono's with evangelicals. Yet I've seen maybe one conservative video going after the show fromm one of those Christian vloggers back during Season One after Luz was confirmed to be bi, and pretty much all the comments are clowning on the vlogger.
Wait, who’s the non binary character?
Also yeah, I really like Owl House. A shame it’ll end soon, but I guess it’s better to end smth soon before it becomes bad (Spongebob being the clearest example).
@@CJ-kb4gv raine is the nonbinary character
@@insideyoribcage Oh yeah, I just searched on Google and you’re right.
I always thought Raine was a he because in the Latin American dub, they refer to Raine as a him and he has a male VA.
It's been one of the things I've been saying for a while. Humans point out and focus on the abnormal. Good representation, regardless of who it's representing, doesn't make a fuss about it. It doesn't point at the things it's representing and goes "Look how good we're representing! SEE?!?!?"
Point out that those who are being prejudiced. Mark them as the abnormal and the ones being represented as nothing out of the ordinary.
It reminds me a lot on the Steven Universe issue that a lot of people think it's propaganda... But after watching it you can tell that even if there's representation and some political points of view, they actually cared for what they were creating and placed all their passion into it. It may be not perfect and it may be something atypical regarding the plot development, but it was *Good*. You can also dislike it, that's ok, but you can not say it's bad because it is not.
Doing that comparision I completely understand what you're referring to about putting your agenda before your plot and wanting to be praised just because you are a minority instead of being an actual good artist. It's just sad that this kind of opportunities gets wasted on people like this.
Was that... Somehow footage from a live action Kodomo no Jikan?! @ about 5:00
Fun fact: there are multiple web shows on youtube that are made by less than 50 people that have more quality than this show. Let that sink in.
That's because the 50 people have brain cells
And jelloapocalypse ( with the epithet erased team) transcends brain cells
I have, in fact, seen 2 minute skits where all the characters are portrayed by one person (CalebCity). Most of those characters have more personality than these MAIN characters.
And that Brendan/Jello comment didn't age well...
Just pointing out the dragon that never moves but still flies.
1:49
You're right 😭
I never noticed that 😭😭
Thanks for pointing that out!!!
15:17 I hope that was a reference to the book Save the Cat 😆 that’s the book that my scriptwriting teacher gave us that a lot of people use in order to write a good story
It is! I read a lot of books on screenwriting 😅
the main characters of a lot of shows always have a blue and pink hair duo i feel 😭😭
And yet when I complain about actual anime having terrible first episodes, people get upset at me.
People with low standards often get insecure when others don’t like the same slop they do