Is Steven Universe An Anime

Is Steven Universe An Anime
Here's an idea: is Steven Universe an Anime?
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Alternate phrasing: should Steven Universe Be considered an anime?
The question boils down to what is more important to a genre: the values, beliefs, and motifs it characteristically portrays, or an aspect (in this case visual/national) which is central to it's generalized image.
I feel like he's already kind of answered you question with this video. Except in that case he is talking about Avatar: The Last Air Bender. Although, I've always felt like the whole idea of what actually constitues anime is up for discussion.
Anime is neither a style, a medium, or "from Japan". For Japanese people, even The Simpsons and Family Guy are anime, western anime, but anime nonetheless. Anime means cartoon show.
While that is fair to say and true, I'd still argue that the word "anime" in western context (i.e. non-Japanese speaking countries) is used to refer to Japanese animation. The word doesn't mean the same thing to us, as a loan word, as it means to them. I'm not sure you could find a single native English speaker (speaking to an audience in English) who would use "anime" while referring to something like The Simpsons. And even if you did, that's still going to be an outlier.
Yeah, what do people even mean by "medium" what techniques does anime use that begs such a distinction ?
Anime is more of a medium than a genre.
More than that, all "anime" actually means is "animation from Japan." It's as simple as that. (Well, designed/directed/written in Japan, probably. I think they outsource plenty of animation to Korea in the way the USA or Europe does.)
So is Steven Universe an anime? Nope. Does it take some ideas from "traditional" anime? (Like Sentai Rangers, or Magical Girl transformations?) Yeah sure.
dang, I would like to see a Steven Universe episode but I think there's a lot more interesting stuff to talk about than whether it's anime.
There might something interesting to talk about in it's influences and genre. It makes some direct homage to the magical girl and shounen anime. As a super hero, action adventure story with a predominantly female cast, it's still an outlier in American cartoons.
The casting and character design is diverse and inclusive. There's some complex world building and sophisticated topics that are balanced by the protagonist's childish point of view.

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Why Are Anime Fans Obsessed with Steven Universe?

by Jacob Chapman, Jul 31st 2015

Sep 1, 02:10

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If you've been to an anime convention in the past year, you've probably seen colorful, gem-studded cosplay like this filling the hallways.

No, these aren't some new evolved breed of Homestucks. They're characters from Steven Universe, a show that began airing on Cartoon Network in fall of 2013 and exploded in popularity this past spring. Steven Universe fans come from all walks of life, but the show's crossover appeal with anime fandom stands out for many reasons. Similar to the Avatar The Last Airbender franchise , Steven Universe was influenced heavily by the style and content of Japanese animation. But while Avatar cribbed a visual style and some tone choices from anime in service of a more "Lord of the Rings by way of Hong Kong cinema" plot, Steven Universe is in love with its anime influences on a truly sublime level.

Our story revolves around a "magical boy" named Steven coming into his heroic destiny as a half-human-half-"Gem." Gems are an alien race responsible for all that body paint in the pictures above. They're sentient rocks (fabulous ones like quartzes and crystals!) with hard-light projection bodies, and their history with earth is complicated. As the world's first magical boy of his kind, Steven undergoes magical training with his three superheroine Gem mother figures (Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl) in the sleepy boardwalk town of Beach City.

Things quickly become extremely anime.

From simple sight gags to sparkly transformation sequences to an episode titled "An Indirect Kiss," the number of anime homages packed into Steven Universe is staggering, and some are more obvious than others, so I went on a quest to catch 'em all (okay, some ) and talk a little bit about what makes this show so special. Don't worry, I'm not interested in spoiling the series for the uninitiated, so any references that can't be shared without explicit spoilers will be left out. (I also had to limit this editorial to anime references specifically because the number of nods to Japanese games, fandom memes, and other pop culture references is equally staggering and could fill many more articles. I could do a piece on Pokémon jokes alone.)

This series is a unique, genre-shattering experience packed with love, care, and anime, so I highly encourage everyone to check it out for themselves. Here are some of the otaku -friendly moments you can expect from Steven's universe!

It should come as no surprise that the majority of Steven Universe's tributes are shojo or mahou shojo -related, and while the screenshot comparison above might be pure coincidence, Steven could also have picked up the pose from one of his favorite manga.

Yes, Steven reads Sailor Moon . On top of that, his swordfighting fellow Gem, Pearl, has apparently seen Revolutionary Girl Utena . Just check out those moves!

Steven bears his own curious similarities to the revolutionary heroine, with rose-themed powers inherited from an inspirational figure, and a very special girlfriend of Indian descent, Connie Maheswaran, who trains by his side. Of course, you don't have to take my word for it.

Sailor Moon and Utena are the show's strongest influences, not only visually, but structurally as well. The show's predominantly playful tone, interrupted by crushing drama at key moments, is comparable to many successful anime series, but feels closest to Sailor Moon in its glorification of the strengths of femininity, dilution of gender barriers, and emphasis on a wide variety of relationships between women, aimed at a family audience. Story-wise, Steven Universe uses its episodic format to develop complex ideas, symbols, and worldbuilding details into innocuous and sometimes silly stories, just like Utena . The laundry list of references might be longer in the categories beneath this one, but on a deeper level, Steven Universe's heart is closest to these 90s shojo classics in its visual language and emotional appeal.

Of course, sometimes it's just a good excuse for a sight gag.

Anime and American cartoons both share a long, proud tradition of traumatizing their audiences without warning. (What do you have against deer moms and lion dads, Disney?) So before you assume Steven Universe is all pink and flowery warm-fuzzies, enjoy this handful of darker callbacks to more adult-aimed anime and manga.

Sure, this monster's resemblance to Unit 01 and Steven's reaction to LCL could be pure coincidence, but the clip below proves that there's some strong Evangelion love within the SU crew.

Yup, right down to the piano rendition of the show's opening theme. Like Shinji Ikari, Steven arrives at a personal epiphany in this scene, although in true Evangelion fashion, the results of his journey are much different from what he expected them to be.

Can't be any worse than that time Steven turned into Tetsuo, though.

It's just like Akira ! Except with fuzzy-wuzzy kitty-cats instead of oozing flesh pustules.

Once again, this eerie homage might be a coincidence, if not for the far more blatant Akira imagery in the scene where the Gems visit "The Geode," an ominous relic of still-unknown power.

We may not know what the Geode is capable of just yet, but given its anime inspiration, it's definitely Bad News. Still, nothing else quite compares to the moment Steven Universe references a Junji Ito story. Which one? Well, even if you don't know the title, you're probably familiar with its most iconic imagery.

Yup, it's the deeply upsetting one-shot manga about people cramming themselves into specially made holes and tunneling to deep unknown horrors through a cliffside, now in colorful cartoon form. The Enigma of Amigara Fault is fun for the whole family!

At the end of the day, you can't beat the classics. Amethyst has her very own flying nimbus in this episode (and in true Goku fashion, decides to try eating it), but that's not the only Dragon Ball Z reference in the show.

Perhaps because they're from such well-known sources, the mainstream anime references are some of the baldest in the show. (Sorry, Garnet.) Steven Universe doesn't bury the lede, and Cartoon Network 's official clip from this ep
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