Harry Situation’s 350th Review Special: High Guardian Spice Part Three: Misrepresentation
We've now come to the finale of my review of High Guardian Spice. First I want to thank you all for reading and liking my previous entries, and to thank you all for your patience. If you haven't read my previous entries to this post, feel free to read, like, and comment on those too.
My friends, I have saved the worst for last in this part of my review. But before I begin I want to make some things very clear:
1) This is part will be discussing LGBT representation, specifically trans representation and how this show chose to handle the subject.
2) This isn't a rant about transgenderism. I am not transphobic in any shape or form. Personally, I'm supportive of trans people. I have two trans friends. I feel this show misrepresents trans people and I will discuss in detail why.
3) If you view transgenderism in a negative then please leave. I will not be getting into a debate with you. This isn't the place for that kind of thing.
So going back to the topic of bad writing and lazy story development here is another big example of that. It begins in episode three. In this episode Rosemary accidentally breaks her mother's sword, after foolishly failing to slice a fly with it. She then runs into one of her professors, Professor Caraway, who instructs her to come to his office for a discussion. It is here the audience learns that Caraway was friends with Rosemary's mother, having gone on adventures together. As Rosemary is looking through old photos she notices a picture of her mother with another girl, quickly assuming that is Caraway's sister due to their resemblance. However Caraway explains that person is him and that he is transgender, *sigh* while pretty much giving Rosemary and the audience the very definition of transgenderism.
This scene has been dissected by everyone on the internet. It's been heavily made fun of and criticized for so many reasons. Here's the truth: this show handles representation poorly. It thinks it's doing a good job at representation, but the reality is it's not. This scene involving Caraway explaining what transgenderism is comes the fuck out of nowhere. What does this have to do with Rosemary? What does this have to do with her mother? What does this have to do with the sword she fucking broke? This is a lazy, ham-fisted way to explain transgenderism.
Caraway also explained that he has to take a potion once a month in order to maintain this body. So it's not even permanent. It's not even like a sex change operation. Why not make it permanent? Why not explain some of the risks of taking this potion? Why not explain how Caraway questioned if this was the right path but ultimately went along with it and he's much happier with himself? I mean this show has proven to be lazy with its expositions. I don't think this would be any different.
It's noteworthy that the series creator, Raye Rodriguez, who voices Professor Caraway, is a trans man in real life. And it's pretty clear that, judging how much alike the creator and Caraway are, this is a self insert character. Now to be clear, there's nothing wrong with that. And I get what Rodriguez was going for with his character. The issue is that we know nothing about Professor Caraway other than the fact that he's trans and that he was friends with Rosemary's mother during their childhood. He has no personality. We don't know his hobbies. We don't know his likes and dislikes. His only personality the writers pretty much established is that he's trans. If being trans is the only notable thing about this character then they didn't create a character, they created a caricature, thus making for bad representation. Not to mention the fact that the character had to explain what transgenderism is in a way that he is talking down to the character (and the audience for that matter) like they were two years old is fucking insulting. Who are you trying to preach to about this? We know about trans people. They've always been around. Why is this show acting like this is some sort of new age thing?
And this isn't the only character that's like that. From the get-go, we are also introduced to Sage's cousin Anise and her wife Aloe. Guess what? They don't have any personalities other than being gay. We don't know their likes or dislikes. We don't know what they do for a living. We don't know how they met. They're basically blank slates, just like 90% of the characters in this show.
Also, it's worth noting that there are no gay men in this series, at least none that I've noticed. For a show that's supposed to be very LGBTQ+ positive it seems to focus only on certain members of the community while neglecting others. But don't worry, the writing team is very diverse. So diverse that they're all a bunch of near-sighted white women, who look like they spend too much time on Twitter. I shit you not.
However this isn't all for nothing (although it kinda is). If there is one redeeming factor in High Guardian Spice. It is with the character of Snapdragon. So let's finally talk about Snapdragon.
Snapdragon goes through a personal arc in this series. Believe it or not this is where the show actually shines. As I mentioned in the first entry of this review Snapdragon started off as a bully character, siding with Amaryllis. Though this could be an act to make himself seem more intimidating than he actually is. When he was younger his older brother would bully him and his father would tell him to man up. Then we get to episode 8 where a Halloween festival is taking place. Snapdragon's costume of chose is a mermaid. Unfortunately, Cal mistakes him for a girl and upon realizing this he insults him. This moment lowers Snapdragon's self esteem and makes him miserable. Later in episode 11 he confides in Professor Caraway that he wants small hands and smooth skin. He wants to be a warrior like the four main leads. It leaves him questioning his gender identity.
This actually leads to a good heart to heart moment where Caraway explains his own struggles and tells Snapdragon that he has time to figure things out. It could mean that Snapdragon is trans but it could also mean he likes crossdressing. It's not a hundred percent clear and it doesn't have to be. Snapdragon is the only character who grows in this series and the show actually does a good job representing his growth. It is also here where Caraway explains how his transition helped give himself peace and is happy with who he is. This conversation is played out very well and it helps Snapdragon come to terms with his own identity. Now that is how do you do representation correctly.
SO WHY THE FUCK DID THEY WASTE THIS IN THE THIRD FUCKING EPISODE?!?!?!?!?
They have this conversation twice in the series. The difference at least with Snapdragon it holds gravity to his character. Again, how does this affect Rosemary? It doesn't! What does Rosemary do with this information? Nothing! So why have this Wikipedia definition of transgenderism between Caraway and Rosemary? Because this show is nothing more than a poorly written, unstructured mess. In recent years we've gotten amazing shows with great representation such as The Legend of Korra, The Loud House, Craig of the Creek, Steven Universe, The Owl House, and Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. Hell even fucking Arthur did representation better. So why can't High Guardian Spice sit with the cool kids? Once again, it goes back to lazy writing and terrible character development. The difference is with all those shows I listed and High Guardian Spice is that those characters that are part of the LGBT community are far better developed and don't rely on their orientation as their personality. Take lesson from those shows, not High Guardian Spice.
Now I know what you're all thinking by this point of my review: who is this made for? Who is the target audience? To tell the truth not even this show knows who is its target audience. Was it made for kids? The animation and tone certainly makes it look like it's for kids. Apparently not because each episode literally starts off with a mature content warning, recommending that kids should not watch this series. Seriously, this content warning is at the start of each episode. I cannot make this up. Trust me when I say that I've sat and watch each episode and can guarantee that content warning is a fucking joke. There is nothing really here that's considered inappropriate for kids. At least until we get to episode 7 where there's suddenly a ton of blood for no reason. Not to mention there are a few incidents where the characters drop a curse word or two, but it's nothing big. The worse you ever hear is 'shit'.
So clearly it's for adults, right? Again, there's not really "mature" about this series. Aside from the aforementioned bloody moments and the very few curse words they use this is, at best, a pretty clean PG-13.
What about anime fans? I mean the show was released on a widely distributed streaming service for anime. Clearly it's for them, right? Nope. It's not anime. Not even close. Anime inspired perhaps, but not an anime. For the LGBT+ community? From what I've gathered they don't really like this show either. I've watched YouTube videos of trans-people and they criticize the whole Professor Caraway is trans conversation.
Again, who is the target audience? Nobody knows. Not the writers, the creators, or even Crunchyroll itself. And that's what's most frustrating about this show. It has no identity. It's not sure if it wants to be for kids or adults. It's not sure if it wants to be a slice of life kind of show or be an epic fantasy adventure with a deeper plot. The bottom line is nobody wanted to watch this show to begin with and nobody is going to enjoy this show.
For a show that apparently has 50% women working as creators and cast members and a 100% writing team consisting of women, not a damn one of them is competent. High Guardian Spice is not a train wreck, but a Chernobyl explosion of a disaster. I didn't want to come off as being too harsh or brutal as other reviews I've seen on YouTube. But the more I watched each episode, the more I got frustrated with this series. I tried watching each episode more than once, but in doing so I constantly find more problems and animation errors that I didn't noticed during the first viewing.
What's sad is that I could see a ton of potential with this series. I get what the crew were trying to do. I get what creator Raye Rodriguez wanted to present. Unfortunately this show was plagued with bad writing, bad animation, bad voice acting, bland and unlikeable protagonists (except for Parsley, Amaryllis, and Snapdragon), one-dimensional male stereotypes, poor LGBT+ representation, poor worldbuilding, little to no story, and overall has no identity. I've seen far better animated shorts on YouTube that are way more competent than this show. This show had no business being on an anime streaming service. I don't believe that High Guardian Spice will be greenlit for a second season, and honestly I don't think it deserves one. Let this show be a lesson on what not to do when creating... anything.
Positives:
-Side characters
-Snapdragon's arc
-Character designs
Negatives:
-Bad animation
-Bad voice acting
-Terrible writing & structure
-Inconsistencies
-Lackluster worldbuilding
-Bland and generic main characters
-Bad LGBT representation
-Explains too much and too little
-Portrayal of male characters
-No identity
Final Grade: F
So those are my thoughts on High Guardian Spice, my 350th review. Thank you all again for reading and liking my content. If you like what you see here please be kind and check out my other reviews here on Prose. Until then, in case you don't hear from me in a while, have a happy holidays and a happy new year.
Old Triad: "Clearly writing isn't one of your strengths."
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