'Toon Reviews 6: Steven Universe Season 1 Episode 46

Open Book

As someone who loves reading reviews, I know hard it can sometimes be to accept that what’s amazing to you can be complete garbage to someone else.  This idea is replicated in this cartoon by also showing what could happen if the person with the different opinion is your best friend.  The idea is that Steven and Connie have finished reading all the entries in a book series, and Connie shows complete dissatisfaction with how it ended.  Steven, not being very clear about his own opinion of the ending, decides to please his friend by taking her to Rose’s room to create a new ending.  Just as it did in its first appearance, the room grants Steven anything he asks for, giving him and Connie everything they need to recreate the ending the way they would want it.  As a result, much of the cartoon is just Steven and Connie going through the different parts of their new ending and Steven coming up with different ways the events would go.  The moments of this are mildly enjoyable, but still not all that exciting compared to other moments in the series.  A possible reason for this is that they all revolve around a book series with so much details being revealed at once, making it hard to keep up with what it’s all about, not to mention a book series that isn’t nearly as important as other parts of the show.  However, there are some interesting things to note as the story goes on.  Every time Steven suggests a different idea for the new ending and asks Connie what she wants to do, she simply responds that they should go with what he wants.  After this happens too many times, Steven comes to the conclusion that he’s not talking to the real Connie, and is instead talking to one created by the room when he said he wanted to see her, which is a pretty clever turn of events.  The reveal leads to a climax where Steven rushes to find the real Connie while being chased down by the fake one, and during the chase, just as the pink whale from the room’s first appearance got Steven to see sense, the fake Connie, in a way, does the same thing here by trying to convince Steven to tell Connie the truth.  As it turns out, Steven likes the official way the book series ended, and pretended not to so Connie wouldn’t think less of him.  Appropriately, when he finds the real Connie, she accepts his opinion and states that how she feels about him is more important than how she feels about a book.  This is perhaps the best way anyone can respond to someone with a different opinion, and given how harshly people in the real world can react to people of that kind, they should turn to this cartoon to re-evaluate their mannerisms.  As basic and slow as this cartoon mostly is, it’s great that there’s still some creative and meaningful moments to take away from it. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Rose’s Scabbard
2. Ocean Gem
3. Lion 3: Straight to Video
4. Alone Together
5. Coach Steven
6. On the Run
7. Maximum Capacity
8. Mirror Gem
9. An Indirect Kiss
10. Space Race
11. So Many Birthdays
12. Steven the Sword Fighter
13. Lion 2: The Movie
14. Bubble Buddies
15. Monster Buddies
16. Laser Light Cannon
17. Winter Forecast
18. Giant Woman
19. Lars and the Cool Kids
20. The Test
21. Steven’s Lion
22. Horror Club
23. Watermelon Steven
24. Gem Glow
25. Steven and the Stevens
26. Marble Madness
27. Warp Tour
28. Open Book
29. Island Adventure
30. Rose’s Room
31. Cheeseburger Backpack
32. Future Vision
33. Secret Team
34. House Guest
35. Serious Steven
36. Joking Victim
37. Beach Party
38. Cat Fingers
39. Tiger Millionaire
40. Together Breakfast
41. Fusion Cuisine
42. Frybo
43. Onion Trade
44. Arcade Mania
45. Garnet’s Universe
46. Keep Beach City Weird
    

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode Steven's attempts to advertise his dad's guitar lessons politically backfire in "Shirt Club."

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