There are few shows I can say were so plague by studio intervention and the general creatives beating themselves over the head for new story ideas.
This animated series had initially some of the most mysterious and attractive images and mysteries on Television (before the streaming wars). This led to a whole cobweb of a fanbase who made theories and thoughtful theories that eventually proved to be much better then the overall conclusion. When your fanbase makes much better theories then your own writing staff maybe it was a mistake to be so vague about your plot. Maybe it's okay to tell your audience that a small cloud in a piece of art painting is just a small cloud and not: aliens, a meteor, or a portal to a interdimensional parallel world.
The second thing that this show did was bad artwork. If you had a critical eye for size and volume then this series is not one for you. Often things are just drawn of different sizes and shapes. This would be alright in an independent comic book on paper but this is digital art and there is no excuse for it.
Thirdly, the episodes and screenwriting. If you find someone who can make you a list of episodes that you really need to watch to know the story then trust that person and do it. So many episodes just go on different segways. Watching a season of this series is like watching a podcast, you start strong with your questions and then somewhere along the line it gets lost into situations and funny skits and everyone forgets about the stories.
Lastly, and this is the main reason why it's a 6. The main character is... meh. Steven is just there, he could be anywhere in the background... the kid has power and a (descent?) talk-no-jutsu but there is just no resolution to his character. He is written as the perfect anti-protagonist. Which is alright but you have to give your audience something else.
The ending, I won't reveal, but it was honestly the best ending it could have had... the best... ending... (trying not to be sarcastic).
This animated series had initially some of the most mysterious and attractive images and mysteries on Television (before the streaming wars). This led to a whole cobweb of a fanbase who made theories and thoughtful theories that eventually proved to be much better then the overall conclusion. When your fanbase makes much better theories then your own writing staff maybe it was a mistake to be so vague about your plot. Maybe it's okay to tell your audience that a small cloud in a piece of art painting is just a small cloud and not: aliens, a meteor, or a portal to a interdimensional parallel world.
The second thing that this show did was bad artwork. If you had a critical eye for size and volume then this series is not one for you. Often things are just drawn of different sizes and shapes. This would be alright in an independent comic book on paper but this is digital art and there is no excuse for it.
Thirdly, the episodes and screenwriting. If you find someone who can make you a list of episodes that you really need to watch to know the story then trust that person and do it. So many episodes just go on different segways. Watching a season of this series is like watching a podcast, you start strong with your questions and then somewhere along the line it gets lost into situations and funny skits and everyone forgets about the stories.
Lastly, and this is the main reason why it's a 6. The main character is... meh. Steven is just there, he could be anywhere in the background... the kid has power and a (descent?) talk-no-jutsu but there is just no resolution to his character. He is written as the perfect anti-protagonist. Which is alright but you have to give your audience something else.
The ending, I won't reveal, but it was honestly the best ending it could have had... the best... ending... (trying not to be sarcastic).