HIGH GUARDIAN SPICE
Genre: Comedy, Magical girl, Slice-of-Life
Studio: Crunchyroll Studios
Hello my friends. Welcome to another entry of my blog.
Firstly, I want to thank you all, my beautiful readers, for the positive reception that you got for the IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME, I can see that you guys love it, so thank you again. I still need to do a couple more of entries before waiting for the next year, but I will do my best to make them ready, because, like I said before:
The best is yet to come.
Until then, I need to write this entry, because this is the trending of the week, at least in terms of Crunchyroll, and if it is anime-related, I need to do my best to write about it.
Having said that…
But before, I have to be, very honest. I was doing my best to keep High Guardian Spice as far away from me as possible, and it is not because of all I have anything against this idea, it is because of all the controversy surrounding it, especially of all the political manipulation both Crunchyroll and people like Raye Rodriguez and Kate Leht (of which I will discuss about later) were accused of.
In fact, I do my best to avoid discussing politics and propaganda in my blog. Nonetheless, because now, and during the «lifespan» of Masters of the Universe: Revelation, it had to do with something that I cherish as a pivotal part of my childhood, I had to express my thoughts about it.
And because, finally, after almost two years and a half of waiting, High Guardian Spice was finally released on Crunchyroll.
But, there will some parts that will feel more a rant rather than a First Impressions, so be prepared, Just remember, it is my opinion. I will write what I think, and then answer the question:
«Was all the controversy and infamy of High Guardian Spice justified?»
In addition, I need to ask you my friends, the typical question:
A re you guys ok? Feeling happy?
If the answer is yes, then I am happy.
Now, it’s time to add spice to the day (Sorry for the bad joke), with High Guardian Spice.
PREMISE
Now, this is what I am going to do. First, I will talk about the premise of High Guardian Spice, then I will explain a bit of the controversy that started in 2019 until today, and then I will proceed with the story. Always being as impartial as possible.
Anyway, this is the synopsis from Crunchyroll.com
«The lives of four fierce girls converge at High Guardian Academy, the one place where they can stumble comically toward adulthood while becoming the heroes they’ve always admired. As they master the ways of battle and sorcery, the foursome form allegiances, uncover legacies, face betrayals and discover their true identities while preparing to protect the world from an ominous unknown threat.»
In other words, we got the story in which some younglings learn to be magical heroes at a big academy while they grow up by fighting monsters, evil villains and reality, combining genres like fantasy/magical-girl/school-life/adventure story, similar to The Owl House, RWBY, Harry Potter, Little Witch Academia and The Worst Witch. One could think that this premise is wasted, but fortunately, like isekai, it can always find new ways to be original with the right creativity.
High Guardian Spice was created by trans animator Raye Rodriguez, and staff includes comic book writer, Kate Leth. And I repeat, I will talk about her later.
High Guardian Spice has twelve episodes, and it is available at Crunchyroll.
Now. this project was in development from 2017; in fact, I just found this article from 2018.
For some reason, this outlet labels High Guardian Spice an anime, and based on the design, we can clearly see that is anything but anime. It is not made in Japan, it has no Japanese artists, put it simply. It has nothing to do with Japan at all, except for some anime tropes and that’s it.
Then, in August 2018, Crunchyroll released a 1:30 video about High Guardian Spice that, from my perspective, leaves a lot to be desired. Here is the link
Firstly, the staff claims that High Guardian Spice has a lot of heart that no other studio would ever think to invest.
Of that is the case… What about Cartoon Network and Steven Universe? What about Noelle Stevenson and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power? What about RWBY? Yes, the animation of RWBY is not perfect, but is solid enough.
Secondly, the head of Ellation Studios affirms that, there is a lot of authenticity and sincerity in this project, something that, for me, is completely false, for two reasons.
- This style of animation clearly resembles CalArts, which is cheap, simple, and series like Steven Universe, Gumball, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and The Owl House are deeply influenced by it. I have nothing against CalArts, but I am suspecting that some studios use it for the minimal effort rather than giving identity to its creation.
- This definitely does not resemble anime at all. And Crunchyroll supports anime, that is its vision, its goal. Why would they invest in an art style this simple, especially with the millions of subscribers worldwide.
Finally, the video praises itself about being diverse and claiming to do something other studios have forgotten, and barely showing any complete part of High Guardian Spice, aside from some stills and sketches. In other words, they show us nothing.
My point is that this video generated a lot of backlash from Crunchyroll subscribers and fans worldwide. And for good reasons. Interestingly enough, all the comments of this video were turned off.
Similar to DC Twitter of I Am Not Starfire.
Coincidence?
The backlash was so ginormous that the project was delayed for over two years, paving the way for another Crunchyroll originals to be released, including In/Spectre, Tower of God and The God of High School. But since Internet never forgets, all the backlash followed High Guardian Spice until 2021.
In fact, both of the trailers released this year harbour more dislikes than likes.
Finally, we got one of the head writers, Kate Leth, and this beautiful photo that proves how «diverse» this woman can really be.
I hope that this image is clear enough for my beloved readers.
Ok. Now, I am going to be honest. I was never upset due to the cartoon style, the words of the staff, and the decision of Crunchyroll of not investing in a more anime-influenced art.
I WAS UPSET FOR HOW TOXIC THIS AUTHOR WAS ON HER TWITTER. How come they hired her in the first place?
Kate Leth is so diverse that men are no part of humankind. This practically killed High Guardian Spice for me. But I still give it the benefit of the doubt and wait until the series was released.
And now… is High Guardian Spice good?
STORY
It is not!
For startets, I have a question. Why is called Spice? What is the meaning of that word there? All I can think about is that they are talking about Spice as a russet of ginger colour, according to the Dictionary, as in… Sugar and Spice.
Second, in the first episode, literally nothing happens. First we got like two minutes in which our main leads, Sage and Rosemary (they really put a lot of thoughts on those names), telling us that they did this, they did that. And the key word here is TELL. Remember the rule of Show, Don’t tell? Then this followed by six excruciatingly boring minutes in which they are going by carriages, then by bus, then by train to Lyngarth, and they are picked up Sage’s cousin, Anise, who is married with a female elf, called Aloe. (Very subtle!)
Throughout this first minutes, we got that Rosemary got nightmares of her missing mother, who supposedly was a guardian. The troupe of the nightmare is not a bad one, just like flashbacks, can be really useful for character development if executed properly.
There are two problems in the case of Rosemary:
- We already know that her guardian mother disappeared and that she is suffering for that.
- We don’t care. This main character is too one-dimensional she inspires nothing but apathy.
The rest is just meeting Thyme in a random way, some relic about Rosemary’s family and a picture of her. Then another meeting with Thyme, in random circumstances, then we meet Parsley at the end. And that is.
The second episode FINALLY gets the girls on the High Guardian Academy, where we are introduced to the classes, to the staff, Parsley being promoted to more classes due to her being a genius, some supporting characters that didn’t attracted me, except for Professor Caraway, who is a trans man voiced by Raye Rodriguez.
Self-insert? Where?
In fact, is it just me or this characters looks a lot like Eda from The Owl House?
Plagiarismo di plagiarismo
The only entertaining part of episode two was a gargoyle who acts like a bell, opening its mouth when is time to get back to class.
Ok. But the rest is boring, slow, and it has no story at all.
However, to the series’s little credit, episode 2 has more relevance. But episode 1 is pure filler. Some people can interpret it as a blatant testimony of the political agenda of the creators.
In any case, the rhythm is slow, the first episode is extremely boring. And despite episode 2 has some merit, it goes bland in comparison to other series like RWBY, The Owl House, and 2017 The Worst Witch. If episode one shows any background of how Rosemary and Sage were accepted on the academy, or some trials that made them who they are, that would be something.
But they didn’t.
Anyway. After these two episodes, don’t expect me to watch episode three. And I personally don’t recommend it.
CHARACTERS
I will try to make myself quick.
If the «story» is bad, the characters are much worse. Rosemary is the typical enthusiastic, cheerful, impetuous girl with pink hair that is rebellious, but not in a good way. I mean… in a level of being obnoxious. Sage is the textbook level-headed best friend, and possibly girlfriend after to some scene, of Rosemary that practices magic, but is encouraged by her cousin to practice «modern magic».
The only thing that I remember from Parsley is that she is blacksmith and the stereotype of the big sister that keeps house in order. To put it lightly, Hori-san, but with zero charisma.
Thyme is a discount version of Blake Belladona. She has a backstory of being abandoned by her father, but I don;’t really care, also, she is an elf who was exceptionally archer skills.
Cliché? Where?
Amaryllis has every trace of many mean popular girl we have seen countless times, and Snapdragon, her «best friend» and, possibly, equally snobbish.
In other words, the cast of High Guardian Spice is a bunch of stereotypes.
There are other characters but, like I said, I couldn’t care less.
I already mentioned everything I needed to mention about the cast, and I do not want to be repetitive, but… I think there is a dissonance between characters and story, I am saying this because, at no point, I feel that everything going on on the first two episodes affected the characters at all, not even Rosemary and Sage being in two separated classes, or perhaps I was so apathetic toward the characters that I didn’t bother to notice.
I just hope I am not the only one.
CONCLUSION
Okay. So…
«Was all the controversy and infamy of High Guardian Spice justified?»
In my opinion… Yes.
High Guardian Spice is definitely one of the worst series I have seen in 2021, and one of the worst series from Crunchyroll, not as bad as Ex-Arm, because is in another level. Also, despite I hated Masters of The Universe: Revelation, High Guardian Spice is so bad and boring that it makes the former look like a masterpiece.
It has mediocre animation, stereotypes as characters, with awful design, boring pacing, even worse world-building. In other words, Everything we thought was wrong about High Guardian Spice ended up being much worse. But the real crime here was the «diversity». There is no diversity. Just the same vindictive political agenda and propaganda that subtlety tries so hard in encouraging hatred against those who don’t think like them rather than to teach us about the importance of tolerance and acceptance.
And yes. Many can say that, because I didn’t like High Guardian Spice, I am sexist, I am homophobic, transphobic, fascist, whatever. But I will not lie to myself about things just to make happy to people that is not with my attention.
If there really care about diversity, they will work hard in doing a good story with good characters, with no political statement whatsoever. I said it once, I said it again. If a writer, screenwriter, comic book writer or poet want to include LGBT characters, that is beautiful, that is the most beautiful thing that person can do. But they must treat these LGBT characters, as well as their straight counterparts, as equals.
And most importantly… Entertain your readers or your audience, allowing them to have a good time, teaching good, uniting morals. But if you are going to rub in our faces that your LGBT characters are perfect, and that straight, white community are crap, using animations of thirty minutes for that, with no substance, all what you are doing is a disservice, a disservice to a media, a disservice to genders, and a disservice to people who is paying you to get entertained with many stories, written by different visions of the world, from men to women, from straight to LGBT, from Asia to West, from genre to genre, from realism to escapism.
And I ask… Is there any better way to represent diversity than that?
Probably yes. But NOT what Kate Leth thinks.
I hope aspiring artists do not follow her example, because things like that are what are dividing us.
I know we will do the right thing, because fans are not stupid. They are smarter than Kate Leth thinks, and her pamphlet points out.
Because, from my perspective, they brought that to themselves, and all that infamy will always be represented by High Guardian Spice.
I leave it clear now. Along with Ex-Arm and Masters of the Universe: Revelation, High Guardian Spice is one of the worst series of all 2021.
Jainituos Presents 