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The New
Crystal Gems
It’s easy to forget how big the cast of this show really
is. A good reminder is the possibility
of cartoons that bring together characters you’ve never seen interact with
before. That’s a huge selling point with
this cartoon featuring the first team up of one of the most important human
characters, Connie, with major supporting Gems, Peridot and Lapis.
Everything
goes down in a flashback highlighting what went on back home while Steven and
the main Crystal Gems were going to the human zoo. This gives potential to see how well these
characters can take on the task of their usual task of protecting humanity, or
at least help Beach City in some way.
Ultimately, what they ended up doing while in the role of the Crystal
Gems was kind of lacking in scope and action. Rather than doing something like
protecting people in deadly situations or stopping a corrupted Gem, Connie,
Peridot, and Lapis basically did menial work by running the carwash.
Disappointing as this is, there are plenty of
factors to make this direction work.
While Connie has had experience dealing with heavy Gem missions,
protecting humanity is somewhat new to Peridot and Lapis. Sure, Peridot had a hand in stopping the Cluster, but that didn’t involve directly interacting or helping people, and was
different from the Crystal Gems’ usual work.
They can’t really do the usual tasks if they can’t help with little things
like managing a carwash. Plus, since
Lapis and Peridot's thing is observing and trying to understand the customs of Earth, this
whole event turns out to be a pretty fun display of their thought process. Peridot getting analytical over the concept
of working as the Crystal Gems team is a humorous approach with a slightly off
conclusion that it means acting as someone on the team. Plus, her ego where she believes she should
be the strongest of the group, Garnet, makes for a few humorous lines. Lapis even gets a good laugh by playing her
part and showing that she can tell who's who, which is big considering her
complicated relationship with the Crystal Gems.
At
first, this setup was effective as they impressed the carwash customers by
running things with their powers, particularly Peridot’s metal controlling and
Lapis’ use of water. This is the true
way to manage things in Beach City by being true to themselves. Eventually, acting as other characters turned
more important than doing a great job.
Desperate attempts for Peridot to be the best and Lapis trying too hard
to be funny like Amethyst just caused a lot of commotion and destruction. This is where the cartoon starts losing
points for being so quick to turn away from a productive practice for actions
that obviously wouldn’t work. Further
boneheaded was Peridot and Lapis fighting over dominance without regard for
anyone and Connie being too awkward to give a speech as good as
Steven’s.
Thankfully this part is short
and Connie eventually did what was best by pointing out logical solutions. It was because of her that everyone realized
that acting as people they’re not is not as effective as doing their own
thing. This put everyone on the right
track through at least cleaning up the mess and making a new carwash sign as
who they really are, the Crystal Temps.
Ultimately, the light-hearted story doesn’t make this cartoon stand as
monumental as it could be. Still, it
brings plenty of good for Connie, Lapis, and Peridot to prove their worth as
part of the team with mostly strong chemistry all throughout. It’s a fun show of characters be they human
or Gem.
A-
Season 4 Ranking
1. Mindful Education
2. That Will Be All
3. Steven’s Dream
4. Last One Out of Beach City
5. The Zoo
6. Gem Heist
7. Gem Harvest
8. Three Gems and a Baby
9. Adventures in Light Distortion
10. Buddy’s Book
11. Know Your Fusion
12. The New Crystal Gems
13. Kindergarten Kid
14. Future Boy Zoltron
15. Onion Gang
The next Steven Universe review plays more to the show's strengths as Steven deals with the emotional turmoil brought by his questions of his mother by finding a way to talk with her in Rose's room.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Gown and Out" and "Breaking Dad" from The Loud House.
If you would like to check out other Steven Universe reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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