Now imagine Steven Universe, Little Witch Academia, My Hero Academia, and She Ra, were blended together with D&D and Madoka Magica but instead of being something cool, IT FALLS FLAT ON ITS FACE.
When it was first advertised, High Guardian Spice tried to be a D&D version of Little Witch Academia. But it was advertised for its diversity instead of its plot. I'm all for women being in charge of a show, but you can't make that your main marketing point. If we know nothing about the plot we're most likely going to assume it will be bad. And guess what? It was that bad.
First the voice acting and sound mixing, most of the time the voice acting was done by amateurs and the could only hire 5 professional actors. Yes only 5 voice actors I can literally count the professionals hired for this show on one hand. Heck most of the people in the show aren't even voiced by actors they're voiced by artists, cartoonists, and illustrators for comics and webtoons. Even the character, Slime Boy talks with a bad microphone you can literally hear it every time he talks. And the sound quality of the show is so bad you can barely hear what's being said.
Then there's the animation while it may look very cute and nice to look at, there are so many animation errors it's like watching an Ed Wood movie. You can even see that items used in the show were found on google images like food on the table. And when objects move you can see the frames glitch constantly. But that's not the worst part of it. The worst part of HGS is the writing.
Yes representation for LGBTQA+ people does matter but it breaks the biggest cardinal rule of writing, SHOW DON'T TELL! We're constantly being told oh look this character is a lesbian, oh look at the transgender character, blah blah blah, it's shoved in our faces so much that we don't even know what these characters do or their personalities. Being LGBTQ is considered a personallity in this show which is not how representation is done. Instead you need to give these characters personalities of their own and they just happen to be LGBTQ.
Speaking of characters, many of these characters are as bland as stale white bread and as cliche as the oldest trick in the book. The male characters are written as straw misogynists, and the female characters are so poorly done that the bully character, Amaryllis is actually likable. One of the worst written characters in the entire show believe it or not is Sage. Throughout the entire show she just complains and cries when things don't go her way rather than talk about them in a civil manner.
In one episode, when Sage is in a group project with Amaryllis and Thyme but when Amaryllis speeds up the project Sage gets offended because old magic isn't being used. All she says about old magic is that it's sacred. But it's never explained why. However, it's shown that old magic takes a lot of time to master and uses lengthy rituals. While new Magic is instant. All Amaryllis did was use new magic because she and Thyme wanted to go to lunch and were tired of being stuck in class. Then she treats Thyme like the bad guy and cries out of the room for agreeing with Amaryllis on one thing. Later on, Sage still demands an apology from her for "siding with the school bully" even though she didn't. Then in the Fall Festival episode, Sage gets dramatic over Rosemary signing up to do a different activity and almost ruins her friendship. In the same episode, when most of the crowd is turned into statues, and the cat girl, Olive threatens to shatter them, she tells Rosemary don't go after Olive. You're seriously telling her not to defeat the bad guy when one of your friends needs help? What are you even thinking Sage?
Oh and the main bad guy, Mandrake is extremely poorly written possibly the laziest written antagonist ever. The biggest problem with Mandrake in the show, HE'S AN IDIOT! Mandrake can shapeshift into anyone and is assigned to kill anyone who knew too much information about his side. He even disguises himself as Lavender, (Rosemary's missing mom who is assumed to be dead, Steven Universe Rip off anyone?) in an attempt to kill Rosemary. He literally has her in his arms and was about to kill her but as soon as professor Caraway is mentioned, he runs away to his office. What was stopping him from killing her? He could've killed her and hid the body and then gone to Caraway's office. What the hell is stopping him from killing her? And then when Olive offers to kill Thyme for him, he somehow trusts her to do it despite knowing that she has mixed feelings about killing. And in a not so surprising twist she stabs Mandrake instead. How can you write a bad guy who's this dumb?
And not to mention the plot holes, let us talk about the plot holes.
In one episode the students have to get a magic healing potion from a cave only to find that the wells are dried up but they find a well at the bottom of the caverns and get stuck, but after making an exit thanks to a dragon friend, the big hole is still there and there's no implication that it closed up again. So when Olive breaks their only vial of potion, Thyme acts like it's the end of the world. The cave was still there and not closed off, and Sage can fly on a broom, why couldn't they just go back into the cave and get some more? It makes no sense.
But is there any positive in the show? Yes, one character and one only, Snapdragon. When we first meet her (Yes she/her pronouns) she comes off as a boy who's a bully because she was raised by a very masculine father who expects his sons to be tough. But instead, Snapdragon goes through emotional rollercoasters and confesses after beating up another student that she wants to be a girl. Her story is relatable for young transgender teenagers and it's very emotional. But even the writers managed to mess it up.
When they first mention a trans character it comes from the creator's self insert character, Professor Caraway. When he and Rosemary are talking about Lavender, he goes through this 30 second dialogue with her about how he's trans. Plot hole: In a world of magic, how does Rosemary not know what trans people are? Sage's cousins are lesbians and she's okay with it. So how would she not know what trans people are? Also, what can she do with this information if she had almost no interactions with Snapdragon after she beat up another student? The trans conversation should've been saved for Snapdragon and Snapdragon alone. Which brings me back to the cardinal rule of writing that was broken in the first trans scene, SHOW DON'T TELL! Nearly every LGBTQ+ scene is telling and not showing.
Steven Universe did it a lot better in terms of representation because everything was SHOWN not told. Ruby and Sapphire didn't constantly say that they were a lesbian couple, they showed it and their characters were not defined by being lesbians. They were defined by how despite being opposites in personality, they can still make Garnet. Even in a more recent online show called HelIuva boss, we see so many LGBTQ characters in the show but it's not shoved in our faces that they're LGBTQ through dialogue it's shown the entire time and it's subtle.
TBH if you want a decent show to watch with LGBTQA+ representation just go watch Steven Universe, the Owl house, HelIuva Boss (for adults only) or She Ra. If you want a good anime with a similar plot check out little witch Academia, or my Hero Academia. Because High Guardian Spice is now in its first, last, and only season.
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