High Guardian Spice Wasn't THAT Bad You Freaks

[@CakeoftheMews]

For the people who didn't actually watch the vid: 1: No, I do NOT think EVERYONE who hated the show is a sexist/racist/transphobe/whatever else. 2: The show is not perfect. I have multiple criticisms of the series which I state in this video several times. Including but not limited to: Inconsistent character writing, incomplete and confusing world building, and lack of focus. 3: I like the silly spice cartoon despite it's many flaws and can feel the heart that was put into it. Go cry about it.

[@joshuawizard2027]

@@CakeoftheMews The fact that you need to go out of your way to specify that to people is hilarious. 🤣 don't take them too seriously. Show was alright, I had fun with it. Flaws and all.

[@RealGateGuardian]

Cake, keep this one in mind: Crunchyroll raised their prices, citing "We want to buy more licenses to dub more anime." The fans were VERY happy about this news and took the hit because they thought they'd see more anime, hopefully, some lesser popular ones that could use a boost. What they got was High Guardian Spice. I can understand the disappointment. But I've definitely been let down worse, I DID play Mass Effect 3 in 2012 and I DID earn the ORIGINAL ending. Trust me, it took eight years but we found a game with a WORSE ending that Mass Effect 3. Just like how this isn't the worse show ever, me and friend blitzed out of our fucking minds, watched the first episode, and had a good time. Zero regrets, and a solid C+ in my book.

[@Zistheone2]

Regardless of how I feel about the show, I feel really bad for Raye Rodriguez. No one deserves to have their passion project destroyed online like this

[@Pukeprincess]

If it wasn't on crunchyroll I doubt people would care this much about it. I feel pretty bad for him because he's harassed daily for this even though he did nothing but make the comics, Crunchyroll were the ones who stole worker and customer money to make this crap (and sadly more originals) and the people that said all the cringe SJW stuff and wrote it in were all staff members. Raye is mostly innocent in this.

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@Pukeprincess Buddy you DO know Raye is a trans man right?

[@Pukeprincess]

@@CakeoftheMews yes? Do you think I hate trans people? I was talking about the actual cringe SJW stuff not the transgender scene. His only crime was being a shit writer.

[@Pukeprincess]

@@CakeoftheMews don't know if you got my comment the new Susan deleted it but I do know, I'm not a transphobe. I don't care that he's trans.

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@Pukeprincess What I meant is, you said that everyone ELSE on staff wrote the "cringe SJW stuff". What exactly constitutes as that? Why wouldn't a trans creator have a character that reflects their own experiences? It just seemed a bit presumptuous.

[@adzukibean2190]

I’m making a cartoon, and in one of the episodes they make a reference to high guardian spice, where the characters are watching it, so of course I had to make a little knock off to play in the background, So I reached out to Raye and asked if I was allowed to make a little joke about his work, and he said yes. I showed him the results and he was genuinely kind and supportive. I’m probably going to cut that part out of my show for story reasons, but from my personal and limited experiences, Raye is a sweetheart.

[@ultomatosouper2194]

Raye is literally the best ever, I love him 😭🙏🏻

[@DavidRamirez-se2yt]

Nice

[@soloemi3148]

It's so crazy hearing a more nuanced take on this show, it was the internet's punching bag for like a whole month Good video

[@blastocystharvest2975]

It's such a crying shame that we'll never get the true peak of the "Villain Mom" plot.

[@matt0044]

The show should be moved to, like, Disney with digital edits to any blood.

[@user-AADZ]

The Owl House: true

[@user-AADZ]

@@matt0044The Owl House: true

[@Crystalgate]

One of the critics of the show actually checked out Raye Rodriguez's blog and when talking about what he wanted to do with the show, he mentioned nothing about Lavender or for that matter anything that has anything with a plotline to do. He is just interested in having the characters fool around, he does not seem to have any interest in developing the story.

[@Pastel_Candyz]

I blame crunchyroll for how the series turned out more than the staff tbh

[@Pukeprincess]

Real

[@KelpieRider]

Yeah, the fact they held onto it for so long after it was finished and the way they marketed it, the little that was.

[@ivoneo2806]

I mean the team did it aswell though ​@@KelpieRider

[@ivoneo2806]

The staff was more involved but ok

[@KelpieRider]

@@ivoneo2806 yeah I'm not saying they went blameless in everything just that it's seems crunchy roll wanted the vitriol around the show to fall directly on staff. Just feels like bad business

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

Sarah Z's video Sacrificial Trash goes indepth how some people find something with flaws and just dedicate years to ripping it apart.

[@dramaticexit5437]

coming immediately off the premiere, great video! I love the beginning animation! yeah, the reaction to this show makes me feel very scared as a queer creator of actually bringing my stories to life... and it happens all the time too! maybe one day we'll have a world where "bad" shows made by minorities are allowed to, you know, just exist.

[@CakeoftheMews]

It really is troubling how every piece of media created by/staring someone from a minority group is almost always dogpiled. But despite that, I think it's important to create what you want anyway!

[@Pukeprincess]

My advice would be to 1. Make sure your writing is actually GOOD 2. Don't take an offer from the literal SATAN of anime streaming services to host your AMERICAN cartoon 3. If you happen to hire a good amount of tumblr SJWs and guilty white women, keep them on a LEASH, or atleast don't give all the details of your show to social media and let them rage alone You'll probably turn out fine -lesbian animator

[@runajain5773]

​@@CakeoftheMewsalso i get but corporates hire radical activist who does not lnow to write story and also got infamous one in their twittertweet for hating or even wipe out that group corporate not trying stop them instead supporting it itself shoot into your legs sadly because toxic politicalization those who really want to tell lgbtq , women lead other race story but internet user got paranoid they fear it not just another propanganda just legend of yotei where some refuse against female lead they does not get next continuous jin sakai lead artress also radical activist so people get concern whatever i do not against story

[@runajain5773]

Well most i know people mostly critize how bad writing , world building , animation and voice and we do not forget infamous dialouge you are transgender on snapdragon altought in whole series it feel he just tomgirl there is fan writen it good protray on teacher why he transgender

[@garreonlefay6703]

​@runajain5773 Which is, you know, extremely valid. I have seen a ton of people ripping it apart because of those reasons, not because it is a show with queer characters. Not to mention the fact it was financed by Crunchyroll using money that subscribers wanted to send to the industry in japan. Instead, they got a cal-arts like cartoon, with a horrible plot, extremely bad pacing, writing that sometimes makes no sense(of which I could list scene after scene).......hell, I have seen critics that ripped the show apart rewrite scenes, making them sound much much better and making me care about the characters. Not to mention Sage, god that little mysandrist speech of hers

[@TBB_productions]

I feel like the reason why it failed was because it was on Crunchyroll a streaming service that advertise to you as a way of watching anime Number two is the world building was garbage but it was only one season so I don't know if it would be approved on as the seasons would have gone on If this was an independent web series I feel like it would have been more well received

[@Lycaon1765]

100% would've been more loved if it was an independent series.

[@itznoah-live6881]

If Crunchyroll didn't stream it and this was an independent release (if we assume the same or similar amount of money used), most of the criticism would be the same. Though I do agree it wouldn't receive as much hate, I think that's because it would've received a lot less attention to begin with. Majority of people also don't care if a show is an anime or not as long as its good, so I think that's a mute point for Crunchyroll

[@TBB_productions]

@@itznoah-live6881 what do you mean mute point for Crunchyroll

[@yesandnogamerproductions5733]

I have no idea why it was on an anime streaming platform to begin with since it wasn't a Japanese cartoon, it would've probably been received a little better if it was released on Netflix or anywhere else. I feel like it would be better if: They explained what a guardian was, had better characters who were actually named after spices and not herbs, built up the world better, had an actual focus for the season instead of being mostly aimless, and kicked the problematic sexist woman out of the writing room. I do feel bad for Raye though, this was his passion project only for it to be panned by everyone and it didn't help that the writers were obviously expecting a season 2 to flesh everything out and explain more but since that isn't happening everything is going to remain unexplained and unanswered

[@professorsquid1104]

I feel like if that guy was able to make 20+ videos on the problems with this show, and the videos are pretty diverse in topics with a good amount of effort put in to try and fix some things, it says a lot more about the product than it does about him.

[@amethystimagination3332]

I really wanted to like High Guardian Spice I truly, genuinely wanted to love it. I love the art style and the designs, magical girls meets DND is a simple but fun premise, Amaryllis and Snapdragon are a fun Ryan and Sharpay style duo, Parsley is adorable. But it was just so messy I couldn’t get into it and I feel bad that I couldn’t.

[@khaliahingram1695]

Does HGS deserve hate? No. Does HGS deserve criticism? Yes. From a writing standpoint the series suffered from an identity crisis, where it could not focus on a core plot, nor could it reasonably unify the cast of characters and their motivations around that plot. It wanted to be Harry Potter, at the same time it wanted to be a D&D campaign, at the same time it wanted to be a slice of life cutesy show with magical elements. It introduced little nuggets of ideas (terraspheres possibly being the cause of The Rot, the Triumvirate being behind The Rot, the sister school of mermaids, the destruction of Thymes home in the Fairy Woods, etc) but lacked the discipline to hone in on relevant scenes and character moments, instead wasting time meandering on ideas that ultimately got dropped (the trixies in episode 1, the fall processional, the entirety of Rainy Day Memories). The only fleshed out characters were Snapdragon, Amaryllis, and Sage. Parsley was wasted on providing exposition dumps because her character isn't tied to the core plot at all and tge writers clearly didn’t know what to do with her. Rosemary only had two traits: she is a goof but she is also sad about her mom missing. Some characters were literal plot devices, namely Aster and Callum whose only roles were to make other characters (Rose and Snap respectively) look better. Matter of fact, Aster contradicts the established rule that "High Guardian Academy doesn't just accept anyone (Sage's dad, ep 1)" and how everyone at the Academy "was chosen for their exceptional qualities (the Triad, ep 2)." The show constantly tries to have it both ways, with the most egregious example being new vs old magic. Redbud gives a whole spiel about how "new magic is better" and "you can do what you want/anything", but it can't allow Carroway to maintain his transitioned state unless he drinks a potion every month and it can't heal the disemboweled Scypith? AND in the same ep with the Scypith, Redbud contradicts herself and says "the efficiency of new magic can mask how unmanageable it can be". These are only a few examples of the show tripping over itself.

[@LyenWorks]

I think they should give it another shot - not as an anime, but maybe a book series or comic book series so that they can explore everything they couldn't in the show. And once it gets traction again try a reboot for the show.

[@CharXLatte]

Thing is, HGS was initially meant to be a comic. Raye would post little comic shorts before being picked up by Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll used to have a manga section on their website so they could've just hired Raye an editor to help fully realize his project as a comic series. His project probably would've been treated better by higher ups and audiences as well. Sadly, the manga service no longer exists and you have to buy manga now but in the time HGS was in production, idk why Crunchyroll didn't utilize that instead.

[@LyenWorks]

@CharXLatte that's so sad to hear. And I can't even say he shouldn't have accepted the opportunity of making his incomplete story an anime, cause I know I would have accepted in a heartbeat.

[@guerreiroazul3230]

Raye should have just made it an indie project on webcomic

[@YourRandomCommenter]

Lmao with the amount of hate it got which it deserved for scamming people. You'll be inhaling 90000 grams of copium if you really think cr is gonna do that

[@LyenWorks]

@@YourRandomCommenter Hey, it's just a thought. Go eat a Snickers, you're not you when you're hungry.

[@sebastienholmes548]

28:26 You dont have to be a pilot to know what a plane crash is. And kate "Kill all men" leth was one of the writers for the show.

[@maninanikittycat4238]

I still find it strange how it was on Crunchyroll which is an anime streaming site. In retrospect this show looks like something I'd see on Cartoon Network

[@hikkigamer8082]

Because it was made and pitched as a kids show, went through rounds of trying to be picked up by different companies, and when signed on by Crunchyroll had executive meddling mid-production to "make it more mature." Or essentially: it feels like something that you'd see on CN because that was the original goal.

[@brandonlyon730]

@@hikkigamer8082 Course Raye didn’t have any actual world or plot to pitch to, he essentially said, “these are my OC’s, can I make a show about them?” and got rejected every time since other then that he barely had any actual pitch to convince people to invest in someone’s random OC’s.

[@Juuchan17]

I'm glad that someone is speaking out about all of the hate that this show got and actually mentioning some of the positive things about it... because I haven't watched the show, but I don't really hate HGS. I think your video made me like the attempt that it made, and it is making want to actually watch see it for myself. Yeah, I've seen a lot of the hate videos & the breakdowns of episodes from many a KZbinr, but I wish commenters would THINK before they WRITE. I'm sure a bunch were just following the "HGS hatred bandwagon" to coax the algorithm to give them views, subscribers & potential monetization, while positive videos tend to only give "negative stuff haters & commenters" a platform to bash & bully someone with their own opinions when KZbin should be a platform where every opinion deserves to be heard & respected, even if AND ESPECIALLY IF you don't agree with it. People need to remember this: Official productions ARE NOT easy to do, and us normal folks really don't understand how difficult it is to work in the cartoon industry (except what we get through tweets & social media posts from the creators that reveal a lot of dark truths to us daydreaming creators that think we could make something better... yeah, good luck with forcing companies to let you make things how YOU want it, because most likely, they'll just cancel the project & move on). When you said that it's "a miracle" that something someone thought up as a teenager became a Internet cartoon show, you're not kidding. That was pure luck... and could it have been a lot better? Yes. It just needed a lot more time, money & a so much more depth & focus for a richer story with a better ending rather than a meh cliffhanger of an end that we may never get a conclusion for. Based on the Tumblr stuff you showed, the idea really did look meant for a lot more than what we got... and still pretty cute. ...But was HGS as terrible of an attempt l for what we got? Not really. At least I don't think so. The first trailer was still pretty awful - we can all agree about that. If that were less focused on the staff diversity & more about the SHOW (and its diversity), it may have gone over a lot better, in my opinion. ...I also think the character designs are pretty damn cute. I'm glad someone else mentioned that! But yeah, thank you for making this video. I'm sure a lot of folks won't agree with you, but who cares what they think? It's your opinion & you're entitled to it! More power to you! You're awesome.

[@CakeoftheMews]

Thank you so much :3 That was really my main goal with this video. I wanted to spread some positivity about the show after it popped in my head again, and I felt I couldn't really talking about JUST the show. It isn't a perfect series but it super didn't deserve all that *gestures wildly*

[@guerreiroazul3230]

More time and money wouldn't have solved anything because the show is inherently broken due to a lack of care, Raye never wrote the bare minimum world building down despite coming up with the idea of the show when he was a teenager

[@redballoon9007]

HGS had potential. I think that if it was renewed with more time to get the plot down and maybe some smoother animation, we would have had another banger. The designs are really nice and the atmosphere is too. Some of the fight scenes are actually on par with some famous shows that HGS was based off on. I think it just needed more time to cook.

[@Pukeprincess]

@@redballoon9007 and to not be a cr original written by basement dwelling sjws and single women over 30 whose whole personalities are white guilt

[@T-mack56]

On a side note, while I'm glad that the hate for HGS has died down (at least a bit.), I think it more so has to do with the fact that the internet has all but moved on to a new hate train to ride on: Disney's Wish, which came out a two years after HGS dropped, and pretty much took it's place as being the most hated progressive/diverse cartoon right now. (Although one could argue that Wish is more deserving of it's negative reception than HGS is. But I'm too tired to discuss that now.)

[@Pukeprincess]

No one hated these because they were diverse

[@Lycaon1765]

I've never seen people complain about Wish because it's "woke" tho? Like I feel at least some of the criticism/rant videos I've watched would've made some "I want to say my piece because I don't want the anti-woke crowd to be the only voice" or something, I only see people just saying it's bad and complaining about capitalism. What really happened is after everyone made their videos (sans that one guy that's obsessed with the show, he's just weird) they just moved on to the next thing. It was other minor complaints about other stuff in media. The next big thing though was Velma, and now Rings of Power.

[@KyuubiCore]

Hero Hei, among a few others, did irreparable damage to media literacy

[@drunknbard2807]

I honestly dislike Hero Hei because he thrives off of negative content

[@nananamamana3591]

How did Hero Hei effect all the content creators who DO NOT like him, who made reviews of HGS and *still* came to the same conclusion that it was poorly made?

[@DrCoeloCephalo]

​@@nananamamana3591Hero Hei is a dark sorcerer that he can make people know a show is bad even if they never watch a single Hero Hei video obviously.

[@KyuubiCore]

​​@@nananamamana3591Content farming and plagiarism paired with bigotry and cynicism

[@KyuubiCore]

@@nananamamana3591 Content farming and plagiarism paired with bigotry and cynicism

[@Jakemichels-h3x]

"A girl's friendship is as fragile as a sheet of calligraphy paper drenched in black ink" (from Asobi Asobase).

[@mtsairmass1123]

I just binged the entire show in two days and felt like it spoke to me on a uniquely human level. It's stupid and nonsensical and hilarious. All the stilted and awkward dialogue feel weirdly realistic, at least to my experiences as a strange and stiff person. It's honestly a lot like Home Movies hiding in the clothes of a magical girl anime, but you really just have to treat it like there isn't any sense of importance and more like it's a slice-of-life show between weird awkward people like myself.

[@itsthejavavoid]

after watching this, im gonna watch it myself. the full show. i love in-depth plots and things, but i also love nonsense and crappy fun. its why i play d&d with my friends. we have these intricate, beautifully made campaigns. but we also have quests to save lord poopfart's pet chihuahua from the evil overlord lady diarrhea. it's shitty, and stupid, and fun. and god dammit, we're allowed to have fun!

[@mtsairmass1123]

@ I think what’s really great about this show is how incredibly chilled out all of the characters are, some to the point of sounding straight up drunk or stoned (Slime Boy), but it really helps immerse you in this vibe that things in this universe don’t totally matter, it’s like a really fun take on optimistic nihilism

[@a_naotenhonome780]

Hate me guys, but i like the art style

[@Poyoyorin]

YES! The art style is so cute, i’ve always thought this. Makes me sad, because if HGS was allowed to fully unlock its potential it would’ve been a nice western addition to the magical girl genre! Also, Hot take (?) The redesigns for rosemary always fell absolutely flat.

[@Pukeprincess]

@@Poyoyorin her design is just a dumb madoka ripoff. Also they are only magical girls once, they hardly do any magical girl stuff

[@Poyoyorin]

@@Pukeprincess There's a difference between inspired and rip off. Rosemary falls into the prior. The only things rosemary shares with Madoka with her current design is the pink pig tails and teacup skirt, other than that she's her own character. She has a waaaay different silhouette. But your right on the magical girl part, they definitely should've leaned into that since it 100 gives western mahou shoujo vibes. I feel like the show should've just made the entire cast magic users but that's my opinion!

[@TogakisCutie-c7j]

There are a lot of characters with pink hair and pigtails.

[@YourRandomCommenter]

It looks meh and over saturated.

[@CompSomAnichi]

4:00 I felt this. I watched the series one time and it was really good background - but then shocked kidna like "oh wait it's ep 8 now wth, felt like nothing happened". Like I'm a slice of life fan, and I think it would have been alright but if you have world ending stakes, nothing happening until the last few eps does make it feel not much happened.

[@NotLunarlakes]

10:45 girlie, we don’t know a lot about anything in this show 😭

[@GTHB.]

I have been on Twitter for months looking up this show and im a part of the few people in the show's subreddit that's left (i dont think the mods are there) I can say that •there are genuine fans • for some reason the Spanish culture has taken a liking to the show for about a month this year • reddit is active of us 5 people ... • ...one of which makes KZbin videos • people still talk about this show (main reasons to note are ... in the replies) • the show was bad... but holy shit do people not let THIS go(see above point) • Raye Rodriguez's post about the show years after (made this year) revealed that people are wondering how the show got dunked on when there are worse shows out there •uhhh more points (that will have to also go in the replies if this comment gets hearted)

[@GTHB.]

Weird (bad) reasons people talk about the show: Sony's animation guidelines(3 months ago minimum) Stand with animation (a strike) (4 months min) Adulting (a show on kickstarter) (failed... reached 20% /K.S. had it as a "kickstarter we love") When people finally realized the channel "spilling the milk" was bad (cough cough 44:50, cough cough the "in memory of " clip) Shattered mentions when people are talking about how bad shows are when they promote diversity

[@GTHB.]

You know for some reasons all the clips and screenshots make the show look completely different then the actual sum of the parts

[@0rchlid]

Heya, where can i find raye rodriguez post?

[@itznoah-live6881]

It got dunked on more because this was a Crunchyroll show. It was made with the customers money and a promise from Crunchyroll to be a show made for the customers. Was there worse shows? probably. Were they made with our money? Probably not

[@aprilvaiarella435]

I watched the show going into it with a neutral headspace. It wasn't a well made show and there were a lot of technical errors, writing mistakes and I'd guess around 80% of it is filler. BUT, it was watchable. I don't hate it. I'm not mad at it. I didn't finish it feeling like I wasted life on it. It helps a lot that it didn't feel like it was made to spite any real world groups in the way shows like Velma are. Except for the Aster episode it felt like Raye just genuinely wanted to make a cute show about magic adventures in a vaguely preindustrial setting. I don't think it deserves hate, but it does have a lot to critique. It had a good concept, but amateur execution. Only some of that can be blamed on the budget because a show runner who knows what they are doing could have reduced or mitigated a lot of the problems. I do feel bad for Raye Rodriguez because he tried to handle the backlash maturely and it's clear that he was just in over his head when it came to production, which doesn't deserve hate or vitriol. The show had a lot of potential, it just needed better direction, either a fleshed story line or to just be episodic hijinks and the time to properly edit the writing. It really feels like every episode was a rushed first draft.

[@thelettucebarrel7784]

Nah, it was as bad as everyone said it was.

[@Spyrotastic141]

I honestly think after the dust has settled, HGS was very much a case of "The show WAS very flawed, absolutely, from a writing perspective. But the people behind it were clearly passionate and there were signs of some clear promise in there" Like, good example, as a trans woman, a lot of what they did with Snapdragon really resonated with me personally. Like, as much as i do think the show has writing issues, THERE IS CLEARLY POTENTIAL THERE AND CLEARLY PASSION BEHIND IT

[@Lycaon1765]

Every time I think about the show I get sad because it had so much potential!! 😭 I wish so much it was good :(

[@deezidibbs9796]

It should have been good,but then it turned to a dumpsterfire far quickly than with RWBY,i'm kinda sad about it though tbh

[@sirwoeilim9649]

Although i don't watch the actual sho but i watched abridged vers from Guardian HQ. Now i know their vids throw hates on HGS sometimes. But if u explore their YT channel long enough, u will noticed theres substance given. They don't hate just to hate, they used it as an education for storytelling. The "what to do/not to do" & what not

[@sophietwilight5051]

I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS SINCE IT CAME OUT thank you for bring enlightenment on the show. this actually is a favorite despite how bad it is actually

[@SmooChan]

this was a great video cake! as someone who's never watched the show i felt like everything was put together in a way that was easy for me to understand. i only got a small glimpse of the behind the scenes but the passion that was put behind the video was easily felt. i also definitely agree the hate was excessive and i felt it was most obvious when you brought up HGS's sister show which i had no idea existed. TLDR: great job, hope the video pops off

[@user-AADZ]

Maybe I was too harsh against it for too long, I now see it from a whole new perspective now. Subbed.

[@abby-cadabby]

I'd like to think that it could've been like Owl House where old magic is forbidden while new magic is the way to go. That while the new magic is all shiny and great, there are some consequences. That elves continue to use it in secret (which Thyme and Sage would be using without the school knowing while also using new magic).

[@lou9635]

High Guardian Spice is a passion project with big good vibe cartoon which had been crushed by a network who only wanted to cash on social points and didn't give the creators any good tools to work, letting newbies on their own.

[@noctisastrum7495]

Yeah i agree i do feel like the hate for the show was blown out of proportion and some people definitely weird. But i would be lying if i said i like this show. I didn't really had a great time watching this there were moments that i felt were a bit boring and a lot of the characters to me felt like they were just there. Well besides snapdragon, nappy cat, parnell, olive, mandrake and amaryllis they were amazing. As mean as it sounds high guardian spice just feels like a dollar store version of the owl house.

[@YourRandomCommenter]

No we hated it because crunchyroll put more money into it than they were giving to the studios and it should've been a disney or cartoon network show.

[@brandonlyon730]

@@YourRandomCommenter Raye apparently did pitch his show to those networks, but they kept rejecting him every time , since the most he had for a pitch was, “these are my OC’s, can I make a show about them?”, no main plot or world building or anything,

[@mariahs6]

In an ocean of people who didn’t like this show, it is refreshing to hear about someone who did! While I myself had some problems with HGS here and there, there are parts I like such as a lot of the scenes with Snapdragon and Amaryllis and some action scenes. In retrospect it is also commendable that Raye was able to get his vision out and how it changed over the years.

[@_knshoujo]

i feel like the "im transgender:" scene falls flat because rosemary maybe wasnt the person to be told about it. we have a similar scene with snapdragon in ep11 where caraway doesnt /say/ hes transgender ; he aludes to it. but he couldve very well had the conversation he had with rosemary, with snapdragon instead.

[@CakeoftheMews]

That doesn't make sense. Rosemary explicitly asked "you used to be a girl?" and Caraway explained. It seemed pretty simple to me. Not to mention, again, there is nothing wrong with a trans character explaining that they are trans. Having to dance around those topics and only ever elude to the identity of a character is still thinking in Hays Code logic.

[@sophitiaofhyrule]

@@CakeoftheMews This. Many people want LGBT rep to be so subtle you can easily ignore it, which isn't the way to go in my opinion

[@guerreiroazul3230]

​@@CakeoftheMewsRosemary should know that he is transgender because Caraway is a very close friend of her mother, also because Rosemary isn't 12, she should know what a transgender is.

[@tiagoferreira1169]

@@sophitiaofhyrule so whats the right way to go without looking like propaganda

[@Adriana-ie3jo]

​@@guerreiroazul3230 No todos tienen las mismas experiencias, y menos si eres una persona cis la cual su circulo social es de demás gente cis. Digo, yo sabía de niña el concepto de transgénero, pero pensaba que era como una transformación "mágica" que le sucedia a ciertas personas cuando crecían 😔

[@MarvusLoveBites]

I love the Starfy ost! I’m so happy someone knows that game!

[@joshuawizard2027]

Respect for Starfy fans. Nintendo needs to translate the first 3.

[@invadercat3505]

Your point about how the budget affects the writing was really eye-opening! While I don't think the show as a whole is good (though the basis for a good story is there), this video was able to make me appreciate the show, or at least the vision, a lot more. I honestly think Raye Rodriguez lost a lot with the project, since he not only got his name dragged through the mud, but these characters and world that have lived rent-free in his head for years now no longer belong to him since the studio owns the rights to them. So he can't even salvage his own passion project by releasing a comic webseries or anything like that independent of the show. The only thing I really disagree with in this video is that the character designs are great - the fact that the characters's clothes all make them look like they belong to different historical periods is really distracting when the setting is leaning hard into a medieval European vibe and it breaks the immersion, making the setting feel like an afterthought and making the writers and designers look lazy. Plus I'm personally bothered by Amaryllis's hair which looks as stiff as cardboard and the fact that Rosemary's bangs aren't poofy like the rest of her hair. Besides that, it's nice to see a fellow Sagedragon supporter!!

[@RANima71498]

I think my main issue with High Guardian Spice is that the potiental there is so buried under a litany of other problems that it gets overshadowed. Let’s take the “I’m transgender.” line and by extension Caraway’s relationship with Rosemary and Lavender. Okay. So I’m supposed to believe in a world where Rosemary and Sage live with Sage’s lesbian cousins, Rose has somehow never heard of a transgender person? And on top of that, the very transgender person she is talking to was her mom’s BF in school, is a legendary guardian on the same level as her, and Rose never even heard of him?! No pictures of them as kids or even a mention from her mom that Rosemary herself offhandedly mentions? And I need to mention Sage for a quite a bit because there is a surprising section of the fandom who hate her with a fiery passion and I am one of those people. I would recommend C-Puff’s super long 5+ hour discussion on the series but to cut it down short, a lot of the fandom’s hate of Sage comes down to how the story tries to make her come off as a neurotic and anxious but ultimately well meaning friend to Rosemary, but unfortunately, the voice acting, animation and writing actually do the opposite, making her come off as a gaslighter who emotionally abuses Rosemary into staying as her friend, withholding affection whenever Rose tries to assert her independence and then giving it back only when it suits her and after she justifies her actions as “my anxiety”, using her mental health as a shield so that only Rosemary bears the brunt of the responsibility while Sage washes her hands clean of it. The show wants her to seem like a good person but accidentally does a good job of showing her as a really bad one, which is made worse when you contrast her with Amaryllis, a character who is supposed to be an antagonist but like with Sage, was accidentally made into a much stronger and better character who comes off as the opposite of her intentions. While Sage emotionally abuses Rose who is also too oblivious to realize how toxic Sage is to her, Amaryllis is right by Snapdragon’s side even when she doesn’t know what Snap is going through. She just wants to help however she can. Sage also comes off as too real for victims of abusive relationships. Even though the show doesn’t put her into a romance with Rose despite the heavy hints, as C-Puff put it, you don’t need to be in a romance for abuse to happen, nor does it need be physical for it to be insidious.

[@tessmcgrath1443]

When talking about sexual content, I remember there being a scene where Olive reads Rosemary's diary, and finds drawings of swords and she mistakes them for dongs.

[@kyokugenryudisciple9349]

14:49 Yeah, I agree…this shot in the intro right here always…ALWAYS ticked me off of how Robbed we were. I am such fanatic of either Background Characters or Ensemble Casts. PS 118, Rogue’s Galleries, Classes 1A & B & Much of MLP Gen 4/EQG Spoiled me with this notion 6 of them (7 if you count the kid who accidentally tried to snipe Caraway) actually had voice lines or interaction of some kind. You can make SO MUCH HEADCANONS in this shot, you can totally gauge their personalities with this shot here…and it’s a crying shame that we can only make headcanons with envy here. I know Raye has a show bible somewhere…if I were to meet Him one day…I want him to just..tell me about everyone in. this. shot. here. And that’s all I need! Tangent aside…good observations!

[@halo_gen]

In defense of Guardian HQ, at least in his case he criticized the writing of the show itself, he never really brought up any of the "woke SJW" arguments like some of these other guys (cough cough, LobsterHero-) Love this video by the way, I really like your analysis of the story and plotlines! I feel like that's the closest anyone's gotten to what the original vision for the show was gonna be.

[@veebot75]

Well, I don’t think Lobsterhero brings those points up because he’s a homophone and transphobe or anything. I think those points are brought up because the show genuinely does seem to be pushing an agenda (hence why Snapdragon’s arc of self respect and discovery ended with him just running away from his problems and choosing to take the transition magic, rather than him learning to accept himself as he was and improve, that honestly feeling like the direction the arc should’ve gone in). And no, I’m not transphobic or homophobic either, I am saying this as a HIGHLY apolitical person who just wants to see people write for their stories rather than for *real world* politics and as someone who has been writing a story for 10+ years. My main problems with the show do come with the fact that the writing is just really really bad, certain aspects of it being contradicted and confusing continuously.

[@ryuspiritvtuber]

Honestly if Raye made High Guardian Spice as an indie animated with rich writing, character development and a butt load of merchandise there’s a 97% the show would be good

[@sammysandy]

After a few years, we have one of these videos 🎉🎉🎉

[@Ergonomicsdesk]

This isn’t super relevant, but the reveal of Snapdragon actually being trans feels odd, considering that their(?) main conflict is their current identity as a guy, and everyone else’s reaction to that. The bully character going “You’re a guy, but you act like a girl” and Sage dismissing the possibility that Snapdragon could be empathetic as a man. So the reveal just feels like it just reaffirms the other characters’ ideas of who they should be. Like a Chihiro case. I don’t mind Snapdragon being trans, but their conflict could’ve been different, or given to another character. (Edit) Admittedly, I’m saying this as a guy who’s only exposure to HGS is through small clips, so I’m probably missing some context.

[@GTHB.]

I made an super irrelevant spreadsheet of the show It was about the 3 background characters that had way too much screen time for being background characters... even found out that one of thier names was zinnia and it was revealed in episode 2, forging class rollcall

[@boxjoker7553]

There is no way this drops the same time my yearly hyper fixation off this show was about to end

[@tonberry2670]

I had no interest in watching Guardian Spice just because it didn't seem like the kind of thing I'd care to watch. I knew immediately from the response that the backlash would have been 85-99% less severe of it wasn't for queerphobia.

[@Pukeprincess]

It's because of the fact that it's the first Crunchyroll original, a thing created out of scamming people, and the fact it's writing and animation are SHIT. Many of its critics are LGBTQ themselves (One of the most popular videos on the subject is literally called "trans people laugh at high guardian spice" Blacklightjack is bi, the spilling the milk members are mostly gay or bi, there are probably thousands of videos on it by LGBT people) Also you know what's a similar show people love? THE OWL HOUSE! It has gay and trans characters but people LIKE it because it has good art and writing. Half of the comments on the High guardian spice trailer are telling you to just watch the owl house! Or little witch academia which happens to have a lesbian protagonist!

[@guerreiroazul3230]

No, the show is still objectively bad, very few people actually talked about the queer stuff when criticizing the show, in fact the queer stuff is the only thing that was praised about the show

[@aprilvaiarella435]

No one was mad about the queer aspects of the show. Being put off by Raye's self insert character's clunky, PSA dialogue about being trans was the only complaint viewers had that was slightly related to queer rep and that wasn't being phobic, that was wanting the issue to be handled better. The people who watched the show were fine with the diversity. The vast majority of the negative comments were solely about the technical failures found in the animation, how amateur the writing was and the poorly handled marketing. All of which are valid complaints.

[@Whatisthisgremlin]

Bro the show had some queerphobic *moments* in itself, wdym?

[@oden-sama_]

Its always people discriminating, but never about the writing. Literally hardly anyone is hating on the show because of queerphobia

[@namelesscreature8843]

I feel like the main reasons people hate the show is because: 1. Crunchyroll poorly advertised this show. It’s a streaming service for anime, and an original western-animated series is the last thing you’d expect. Me personally, I feel this series would’ve done better as an indie series than any streaming service (cuz there would be more creative freedom and less likely to be cancelled). 2. One of the writers on the show was a man-hating misandrist who wanted all men to die. And while, I don’t believe that’s a valid criticism towards the show, I do feel it factors into writing some of the male characters. (In a "woman good man bad" sorta way) 3. This might be a bit of an unwarranted reason. But some people are annoyed by SJWs because of the way they try to censor media and content-creators, all because they find something slightly offensive. And they decide to shit on something like this, as payback. Such people probably haven’t even watched the show. 4. Another unwarranted reason is that while Troubled-production is tragic, it can only get you some appreciation. It happened with Chicken Little and Brave. And now, it’s happening with this.

[@insectostrich4407]

The show definitely had potential. Hell, there’s been several rewrite videos on KZbin showing how the story’s concepts could’ve been executed better.

[@Crystalgate]

The show is not as bad as people like LobsterHero makes it out to be, but it is at the same time worse than you make it out to be. I'll give some examples of why the latter is true. Rosemary: Her mom is a good hook for a storyline, but they did next to nothing with said hook other than trying to use it again as a hook for a never coming season 2. Further, most of what we get is Rosemary reminding us that her mom is missing and that she's sad about it. Sage: Sage is unintentionally portrayed as manipulative and possessive of Rosemary as well as (maybe not unintentional) a misandrist. She is by many critics considered by far the worst character and seen as a horrible person. All her grief with new vs old magic is also her own doing, she is not by any means ostracized for it. Guardians: We are given no information about what a guardian is or does. The characters wants to become guardians, but that tells us nothing except for the name. Serious analysis indicated that it is some sort of a cult, but that is also just like with Sage's portrayal unintentional.

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@Crystalgate That’s fair tbh. I think I’m so lenient on it because I can see what it was going for. Sage, for instance, absolutely has her problems. But I don’t think she’s a bad person, necessarily. Just a little snippity is all. Something that would probably be addressed as the show went on, given time and resources. As for the guardian thing, I felt like it was self explanatory? Like, guardians go on adventures and protect people. A direct explanation would be nice yes, but I don’t think the whole thing is as confusing as people make it out to be. My main issues come with people extrapolating the whole “cult” thing. Or Caraway being a “groomer” or calling Sage a mega bitch. All of that is just so out of line and feels so bad faith to me. It’s very possible my positive feelings towards the show are in reaction to the hate it garnered, but I also genuinely do enjoy it and the characters.

[@Crystalgate]

@@CakeoftheMews The problem with Sage just being snippety is that the show seems to take her side when she is the problem. Examples being when Thyme had to apologize for saying "Yeah" when in reality saying yeah was perfectly warranted as Amaryllis was on the money and the axe throwing vs pumpkin carving debacle during the festival. Guardians protecting people and going on adventure is really vague (how do they protect people and what kind of adventure) and doesn't even begin to explain the pottery and ballet classes guardians may choose to specialize in. The cult thing is unintentional by the writers, but it did work out as an explanation for the students returning to class after a teacher poisoned them and their behaving prior to entering the Cave as a trial. We know Sage is not supposed to be an awful person and that High Guardian Academy isn't supposed to be a cult, but the writers weren't good at their job and a lot of things weren't what was intended.

[@CosmicPersephone]

The "I'm transgender" line is really infamous but I'll be hoenst I don't really know how people think you explain being transgender to a literal child who isn't familiar with the concept. Was it hamfisted? Yes. Obviously. He was speaking to a kid...... Maybe that could have been written better sure but again, the production was troubled.

[@Pukeprincess]

I actually agree with this. That was just a dry scene and definitely wasn't the worst part of the show. The way they handled the redhead character... another story.

[@sincitty3323]

I think my problem with it was always how can Rosemary not know who Caraway is when he was her mother's childhood friend, who she clearly stayed friends with into adulthood. I get that the whole plot twist with her at the end throws her morals into question, but it's weird that Caraway didn't find it odd that Rosemary didn't know anything about him.

[@jack_stone]

@@CosmicPersephone Rosemary was a teenager so it's a bit hard to believe she doesn't know what trans means

[@guerreiroazul3230]

Rosemary isn't a little kid, she is 14 at the bare minimum

[@redrasegarden]

The main problem with this line is that it’s hard to believe rosemary has never, in her whole life, heard of a trans person or learned what that is. She’s 14, she must have heard it once.

[@RegalPixelKing]

The biggest issue that a lot of people had with this show is that it was produced by Cruchyroll, you know, the biggest anime distribution company around. It goes without saying if you market something this badly and make something that clearly isn't anime, then people will automatically hate it regardless of whether or not it's deserved. If this just popped up on Netflix or something with zero involvement from Cruchyroll then it might have done much better in terms of reception.

[@namelesscreature8843]

Yeah, and then Netflix would fucking cancel it after 2 seasons.

[@Space-Bunny-Bel]

I'm honestly so sad that people did not give this show a bit more time to grow because it could have been really good

[@fanofcutzombiz]

its only a Madoka rip off

[@moonlightmeridian790]

High Guardian Spice is my biggest guilty pleasure series. I know that it is flawed, but I unironically had a lot of fun watching it. I ended up growing attached to the characters(especially Amaryllis!), became invested in the overarching plot, and even enjoyed a lot of the action sequences. I'm glad to see that I am not alone in enjoying it.

[@Pukeprincess]

Those two are the characters that are actually likable

[@seancarroll136]

Christ. This is exactly why I hate feelings changing over time about the most despised topics.😤

[@T-mack56]

I binged watched HGS during my winter break in 2022 out on a whim. And I'd say the main thing I remembered enjoying about it was Thyme and Parsley's friendship. I'd say out of the main relationships in the show, their dynamic was honestly the most engaging IMO. And I honestly think they would've been better choices for main leads (Nothing against Rosemary and Sage. But they just didn't really click with me the same way Parsley and Thyme did.). But overall, while I can understand the criticisms around the show, and I personally believe that the negative reception isn't completely undeserved, I'm honestly just annoyed at the fact that we can't just let queer/queer adjacent media be bad or flawed without getting culture war BS involved. And the fact that CrunchyRoll screwed over this show and the creators pretty badly really says a lot about them more than the series.

[@guerreiroazul3230]

Bruh, Crunchyroll didn't make Ray never write the bare minimum pitch bible for the show, don't get me wrong here, i despise Crunchyroll, but most of the flaws in HG wouldn't have been solved if they had a bigger budget and 5-6 months extra time

[@T-mack56]

@@guerreiroazul3230 But I never said that it would though. All I'm saying is that it sucked that it got treated the way it did by CrunchyRoll. And I disagree. Maybe not every flaw in HGS would've been fixed under those circumstances, but I like to think that the animation would've at least looked better. And the writers would've had more time to iron out the story.

[@guerreiroazul3230]

@@T-mack56 The reason I say that more time and money would hardly fix much is because a KZbinr called "C-puff person" pointed that High guardian spice had way to many animators and board artists working for them, meaning that the problem with money was due to a lack of good management

[@T-mack56]

​@@guerreiroazul3230 Either way, Bad management or not, I still blame CrunchyRoll the most here. Ray may have wrote the story. But CR is the one who greenlit the series. They could've easily turned it down if they wanted to. But they chose to go forward with the production anyway. So let's not act like they're completely blameless here. (Especially since Ray originally pitched the series to Frederator. But they turned it down. )

[@guerreiroazul3230]

@@T-mack56 They aren't blameless, but I would argue that CR is 35 to 40% at fault here at most

[@CharXLatte]

I remember watching the show when it first came out, I cringed at some parts, thought that the pacing was kinda... and some of the characters just made me supper annoyed, but it was still fun to watch nonetheless and I even wanted a season 2 (still do). I guess it was the potential the show had that made me most disappointed. Btw, I haven't watched the full video yet, I have to go somewhere really soon at the time I'm discovering it but so far, agreeing with the title. Edit: Finished the video. Yeah, I agree with you. Was over hated and while I did dislike the show (still enjoyed it), seeing the creators tweet made me realize that they were simply dealt a bad hand. If this show was treated better by higher ups, I could see it being treated like any other modern cartoon. There should be some sort of hashtag like JusticeForHGS or smth, because it does deserve it. Mandrake should've been a TSM. I also love my edgy fictional men and wish we were given more. 😔😔 Watch me make a HGS OC and ship the 2.

[@mrskatty9747]

It was bad then and it's still bad now

[@homzanimation6237]

I love how all the main characters name are reference to my fav song-

[@piratebones9641]

I been obsessed with this show purely out of the vibes it has and finally i feel vindicated that yes this show is actually pretty cool, thank you for the positive representation

[@autumnwinter-ix4dh]

It didn't matter if it was bad or good the problem with the show was that it was money that could have went to Japanese animators etc

[@joshuawizard2027]

I don’t get it, didn’t the money went to, the animators that worked on it, why is that any different? I’m not picking a fight, just want to understand your piece.

[@BRUH-fe9kl]

​@@joshuawizard2027 Crunchyroll's main appeal for people to pay their subscription is "the Japanese animators will get support". Animators who notoriously get abused and earn cents for their work. That's why people watched Crunchyroll instead of pirating, but then they took said money to develop their *own* projects, which ended up being quite asinine on top of it.

[@joshuawizard2027]

@@BRUH-fe9kl okay that’s a point, but, all animators deserve to be paid, no matter the country. I don’t think they picking a western studio is objectively bad.

[@joshuawizard2027]

@@autumnwinter-ix4dh I usually just buy the manga to support the artist directly. Or light novel.

[@nsbcgr2fan360]

​@@joshuawizard2027 one thing you're not factoring about picking a Western animation studio compared to an Eastern one is the work conditions. In the West animators are protected by Unions and work laws, for the Eastern animators they're worked pretty much to death and payed very little compared to the West and i mean per every dollar a Westerner earns a Easterner would get pennies

[@AABowser]

phenomenal video! thank you so much for this! high guardian spice was done so dirty

[@floydthibodeaux1844]

The way I see it this show suffered from 3 things. Nearly nonexistent budget, short time to produce, and trying to pack too much into a short run time.

[@joshuawizard2027]

This show was a guilty pleasure of mine. I watched it thinking it was gonna be terrible and… I had fun, people are over exaggerating 😂

[@paigemaige4886]

Ive been waiting ever since this show came out for a video like this, i fucking KNEW everyone was being jerks for reasons that had nothing to do with the show itself.

[@galaxxisdionysus7149]

OH MY GOD YESSSSSS so glad to be a CakeoftheMews fan because OH MY GOD YOU VOICED MY FEELINGS ON HGS AND ITS DETRACTORS SO WELL 😭 I have personally never watched it, (I thought the premise and designs were cute but I wasn’t entirely interested enough to give it an actual shot), but it was so and I mean, SO TIRING, seeing so much negativity towards this show. Because while there is nothing wrong with critiquing media with your own opinions and I’m a sucker for long 2+ hour videos about “why this show is so bad”, I only enjoy those videos when they have MERIT and genuine critique about what they are looking at, and also are able to mention what they LIKE about the media and what it could’ve used to improve. But everything I saw about HGS was just so….poor. Videos that left a bitter taste in my mouth from how unnecessarily horrible or overly critical over something that had a lot of heart but not a lot of budget to get it across as I’d get video upon video of those “clip” shitposts where they point out how “””bad””” HGS was. And as a Black + Bisexual trans man, it’s so irritating seeing ‘bad’ shows that just so happen to be diverse (HGS, Velma, most remake/reboots who end up changing a characters race, etc) get essentially lampooned for having diversity in it, and then when anyone calls out that sort of behavior, it’s pathetically shielded with “well Im just critiquing the show cuz it’s bad!” Because yea! The show can be objectively bad, but it’s obvious the people who are “critiquing” it are only doing it so they can get away with being bigoted towards anything that dares to have a queer person or minority 🤷 Thank you for blessing our feeds with another well-thought out and wonderful video Queen, it literally brightens my day when I see these amazing uploads when they drop and your one of my biggest inspirations 🙏 ❤

[@CakeoftheMews]

This actually means so much to hear that thank you ;o;

[@jack_stone]

I don't even think Velma wanted to be diverse. It seemed to me it just wanted to get as much of a knee jerk reaction as possible and everybody fell for it hook line and sinker. It's the most apolitical cartoon that had no beliefs or values beyond disgusting the audience at least once.

[@Cheesegoddess]

@@jack_stoneTo be fair to Velma, it was suppose to be an original idea parody based off of Scooby Doo and not actually BE Scooby Doo. I don’t know who pushed it to finally be what it was, though I did hear higher ups insisted it should be the actual gang instead not sure if that’s true or not. I think people would have actually really liked it if it just stayed an original idea, but because the Scooby gang got shoe horned in it just wasn’t good. Maybe they thought adding the Scooby stuff would have made people like it more than being its own thing.

[@IsabelleChiming]

Amazing video!!!!!!! Agree wholeheartedly with everything you said and I'll be buying those stickers!!

[@39peevedturtles19]

Watching this video made me remember how well recieved Steven Universe was by the queer community How happy we were to have a mainstream show with lesbian main characters. I know there was a ton of drama surrounding the show/fandom, but it was and still is something special. I truly believe crunchyroll screwed over HGS. In another world, where it was picked up by a different studio that gave it the resources it deserved, it would've been cherished like Steven Universe was.

[@CompSomAnichi]

Pretty good vid. it's been a while since CPuff that I've found a vid on HGS that I've liked

[@CompSomAnichi]

wth why are you like the only one that brings up Terrrasphere = magic from the Terra (earth) EVEN TEHS HOW DOESN'T BRING THAT UP,T HAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE

[@MsFluffyninja7]

I'll be honest I still don't care for this show. But I think it was severely overhated and the cast and crew didn't deserve the hate and vemon the internet gave them. Even if there's a show I utterly hate I would never wish harm to them.

[@DistantCircusMusic]

It wasn’t any worse than any other show of its kind. I remember when I still wanted to get into writing shows the first trailer hurt me, because it seemed like the writers were just hired for being women, and that any company that hired me would just see me as the “Woman hire. We don’t think her writing is good so we will barely share the plot in the trailer but she’s a woman so that’s her worth to us.” I’m not going for that path anymore, and while this wasn’t the reason, I don’t see how anyone could see the writers as anything but victims from the first trailer. It seems like even their promo team didn’t care for the story they wanted to tell.

[@klc9807]

YES!!! AA AANJJIKDKD VINDICATION!!!!!!!!!!!! I've actually wanted to do a video on this topic aswell. People went way too hard on High Guardian Spice, it isn't the GREATEST but when I gave it a shot I had fun. THABK YOU CAKE YOU ARE SO EPIC AND COOL AND AWESOME.

[@rocktoo7603]

And to think I was tricked into hating it years ago. A shame

[@anonyshinki]

Great video! I don't know whether it was editing magic, but the scenes actually made me want to check out the full series, it seems much better than I imagined it to be. I've seen and enjoyed my share of Märchen Mädchens, this is certainly no worse production-wise. Most of the fault in stirring up the controversy IMHO lies with how Crunchyroll tried to market the show. They knew their audience purposefully comes for Japanese anime, and that indeed a share of it is rather toxic about the fact. Yet they pushed the message that the anime service is now giving the subscribers' money to fund things that are emphatically not Japanese anime, which ruffled quite a number of feathers. The anti-woke mob latched on in the process, but had Ellation just put it on any other streaming service (such as their own VRV), those types wouldn't have cared or even known about it in the first place.

[@CakeoftheMews]

Yes exactly! There was just a whole lot surrounding the series that doomed it from the start. I super recommend it if you think you'll enjoy it though!

[@Dking1998]

Delusional and cringe take, high guardian spice was unwatchable trash. The writing was godawful, having trash dialog that was incredibly offensive, and the main characters were so unlikeable that the side characters were more liked by people.

[@guerreiroazul3230]

"I don't care what guardian HQ has to say". Proceeds to dedicate portion of your video to winching about him.

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@guerreiroazul3230 I talked about him for literally less than a minute how is that “dedicating”

[@guerreiroazul3230]

@@CakeoftheMews because you still mention him, if you didn't care about him wouldn't have even mentioned the guy

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@guerreiroazul3230 I care because he very much did have an impact on public perception of HGS (as shown in Sarah Z’s video) but I couldn’t comment on much of his videos because I got bored. You’re being a little semantic my dude.

[@guerreiroazul3230]

​@@CakeoftheMewsAlso, before you started moaning about people that you don't like you talked about how High guardian spice wasn't good because it didn't have enough time, but it did have time because Raye himself said that he first got the idea for High guardian spice when he was a teen, meaning that he had time to work out how on things like: World building, how he wanted characters to begin, how he wanted them to end, and the basic skeleton of the story. but he didn't, his idea began and ended with "girls at a magical school". Compare that to cartoons like Owl House and Gravity Falls, or to anime like Iruma-kun and Mushoku Tensei, all stories that clearly have a well established world because their creator has been refining that world for a long time.

[@guerreiroazul3230]

​@@CakeoftheMewsAnd do you know what had a much bigger impact on the show's on public perception? The fact that it's bad, the entire thing is on KZbin, people watched it by themselves and came to their own conclusions, to say that "most people didn't like it because of (insert person or people here)" is pure copium, Owl House is queer, so how come it didn't get affect by "cooooooonservaaaaatives"? Did you ever step back and thought that maybe you are wrong?

[@kingbash6466]

Oh God, we really are getting to that point where people are this closeto making videos about High Guardian Spice being an "underrated gem."

[@Pukeprincess]

Please god no

[@Kimmie268-f7x]

While *High Guardian Spice* isn't the worst animated series out there, it ultimately falls into mediocrity. The show had a lot of potential, but unfortunately, much of it went unrealized.

[@namelesscreature8843]

This video made me believe that *Velma’s* actually worse.

[@Kimmie268-f7x]

@namelesscreature8843 oh, it definitely is

[@Mokuse]

thanks to do this, hig guardians deserved at last a little care after all the stpid dumb hate it got

[@neroatlas9121]

It was, cause the plot was shit, characters unlikeable and in animation filled with stock. Then there was the fact that money couldve gone to actual japanese studios. I have been noticing a trend where things get so bad, people believe old bad things are good due to how low we have fallen. And I say: No, I DEMAND quality from my shows and film.

[@itsthejavavoid]

20:51 .... IS THAT A PUN?! 😭

[@haveagoodday7021]

High Guardian Spice is in the area where a show is pretty mediocre, but isn't really anything atrocious, but internet discourse makes it seem like the show is a travesty. Shows in this area typically would never be as notorious and would've just stayed forgotten and passed over if people didn't blow things out of proportion. More shows in this area are Oye Primos and Velma off the top of my head. On the topic of HGS specifically, I feel like it was something that needed a better company to distribute and fund it rather than Crunchyroll. I feel like if they didn't advertise it as an anime people wouldn't have gotten so pissed off. This show imo has good concepts and potential, but lack of funding and rushed development doomed it. Then the hate watch campaign just doomed it. This show is the definition of wasted potential and middling, but the internet made it out to be this unwatchable garbage. Also people just wanting to hate on something "woke." And before you say anything, no that wasn't all the criticism, but it was a big part.

[@Zentron]

You should check out LobsterHero's nearly 12hr breakdown and critique of the show!

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@Zentron considering one of his videos is titled “the creator of high guardian spice is spineless and soulless” I’m gonna say no to that one

[@Zentron]

​@@CakeoftheMewsI understand the concern, but when it comes to a comprehensive breakdown of HGS, it's a must watch! Also is it any worse than calling those who didn't like the show "freaks"? 😅

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@Zentron I’m referring to a subsection of people who made it their live’s goal to tear apart every aspect of a show that faced backlash from the very beginning. A majority of that backlash being blatant homophobia, transphobia, racism, and sexism. I make it very clear in the video that this is NOT an attack on everyone who disliked the show, and criticized it myself multiple times. Lobsterhero, on the other hand, personally insulted the creator of a cartoon he thought was cringe. There is a difference between using inflammatory language for the purpose of parody/hyperbole/making a point, and just being mean.

[@Zentron]

Though that's nearly everyone who has a Crunchyroll account 😁 Also rather than doing some self-reflection Raye blamed everything and everyone for his show's failure, that's actual toxic behaviour. That said, the biggest mistake was Crunchyroll's, there was a very obvious reason as to why all those studio's, including them, said no to his show's idea, it was simply atrocious! From the title down, it was atrocious! It needed at least another 10 years of development before it should have been pitched, then finding someone who knew what they were doing to put in charge, Raye, regardless of it being his idea, was not suitable for the role of Showrunner in the slightest.... also that said, I don't think an experienced Showrunner could have saved the show!

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@Zentron I think you’re just finding every excuse to be mean, dude.

[@joshuakrumholtz]

Just saying that the people who keep going back to the "WELL WELL WOLL OUR REAL ISSUE IS that Crunchyroll is about Japanese anime!!1" are the same ones that aren't saying anything about Sin: The Movie. Happy Tree Friends. The spate of live action East Asian dramas they used to have. RWBY. The non-anime content like interviews with the aforementioned non-Japanese, East Asian performers and industry folk. The manhwa adaptations. The webtoon adaptations. The "I only care because Crunchyroll is an anime platform" is the same fucking noises the "I care about ethics in games journalism" people make.

[@revenantravings]

Honestly, just seeing the unending waves of hate for this series made me suspicious of how bad it actually could be. It might not be perfect, but it's far from the worst thing out there. I still find it weird there were people upset over how the trans character came out when... that's how some people DO explain it? Especially if they're terminally online and used to acceptance in their corner, which a world as openly queer as HGS is would be more accepting towards. The backlash against this show is just nothing I've ever seen before or since

[@jack_stone]

The only thing I really had a grudge about Spice was one of the writers seems like an unpleasant person, and I can't agree with crunchyroll spending funding that should have gone to support Japanese studios on the project. Otherwise HGS was about as offensive as any direct to DVD kids cartoon.

[@premierk]

I mean when I looked at the show, I was like oh I’m so happy for this and then as I watched it I was like OK. It wasn’t bad but I can see where they could you know tighten up on some things and stuff like that but you wouldn’t expect Crunchyroll to you know be on top of this but no they were not. But I did look at it again and I like the art style. It’s fun it’s fresh which drew my attention and yeah, the magic and all that stuff that goes with it those were interesting. Just tighten up just a little bit but I would always look out for the show if they ever give it Some time to like you know what what what can work for it otherwise I love your channel. P.S. I feel like this would’ve done better on Netflix or just anywhere else in general than where it was. The creator thanks for creating this sorry it went like this you deserve better so much better.

[@trolledfordrip]

Idc if it was good or bad it is most likely fraud

[@Pukeprincess]

It's scamming money out of people in the Japanese animation industry and Crunchyroll subscribers

[@YourRandomCommenter]

Exactly, this is just a worse owl house lmao

[@jimbatter5246]

50:58 Girl ,who left all these children behind ? 😭

[@dannygar]

I'm going to be honest, i watched it, it was kinda boring. Still, I don't understand why people hate it so much. They acted like the show murdered your family.

[@MagicalMaster]

High Guardian Spice is middling at both best and worst I will state. The reason it got such a huge backlash is that the funds used to produce it were supposed to go elsewhere which brought enormous negative attention to it before it could start.

[@Kekepierre]

Though yes budget will impact writing that still doesn't answer why things like character weren't covered and thought out before the show was even pitched .Sage is going to an academy that seemingly only teaches new magic yet she comes from a home that forbids it , or basic dialogue choices which even a second of thought would've seen the flaw in such as the first scene of episode where Rose and sage announce their motivations ,relationship , and goal directly despite most likely walking together to that point ,or why are there family member hanging around some random field instead of just walking the girls to the spot where they'd be picked up When it comes to the animation most of the issue are found in the story boarding such as objects disappearing or characters being off model , also don't pretend as if there aren't many shows that had low budgets but are well loved like RWBY which despite it's early volumes having low budget (the Red trailer was made by one man) are well loved with the later volumes despite having higher budgets being more widely disliked with animation that is almost universally seen as worse . You also blame some right wing conspiracy for the show getting so much hate which yes there was harassment which is bad ,but majority of talk about the show from people with any sort of clout was for it's horrible writing such as c-puff person and asexual women , MysteriousMrEnter who is also asexual (he even discussed his own history of gender questioning and how the show did it badly) , queen Serafina a trans women , and Black Light Jack who you literary bring up in this video is bisexual .it's also not like a conservative piece of m media has ever been criticized unplanned ,gods not dead , the new norm , Mr birchum ,the Dailey wire's bluey rip off (you also ignore one piece who one of their most well respected characters is Bon Clay who is canonically gender non conforming ) also seem to pretend that Kate Leth has never done anything wrong despite her saying "Kill All Men " expressing that people should be killed on their gender , now what do you call that ?(also Ex-arm and bat woman have lesbian relationship in them so your point there falls apart ) You bring up may of the criticism being nit picks but if an issue is present throughout the entire series it's not a nitpick it's consistent flaw in the product . When praising the show you do the writing for writers and tend to ignore good chunks of the show such as you call Rosemary killing the dragon you compliment right after showing footage from a previous episode of her killing monsters who where also stated to be transformed because of the rot without a second thought ,or Your explanation of the magic system you say specific runes can change a spell despite that never being stated . also critical towards woman ? Though yes she apologizes for she never retracts the statement ,nearly every negative personality trait Aster has the main girls show off being incompetent : Rose Mary nearly kills thyme in episode 1 , a jerk who can't understand why people dislike them :Rose Mary thinks Thyme to be in the wrong for her being mad at nearly dying and mocking Rose for breaking her weapon trying to kill a bug. Snap Dragons dad is supposed to be a toxic male figure despite telling their child to stand up for themselves the only problem you could find in his parenting was not criticizing his older son being a sociopath ,but then have Amaryllis who continually bullies others ,threatens to turn parnell into frogs , or killing a bird despite one the main tennets of the guardians being to value life . Also you mention that the comment on Hero Hei's video is invalid because they never made a show themselves ,even though using your same logic this video you worked on is also invalid since I haven't seen a twelve episode series with your name on it .

[@swordtax]

Then why did japanese people just mock and shitting on the show because no one ever talked about it? And I'm not sure if this video of Hero rei is showing the truth?: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y3i7n6yEgp2Srq8si=ybTppgW2SJpv33xn And can we also mention that Kate leth, who was also involved in high guardian spice production, that Tweeted something sexist to the male gender?

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@swordtax Why would I care if Japanese people didn’t like the show? Also I literally couldn’t find anything on Kate Leth outside of tweet collages made by people who clearly have a bone to pick. They made some off color jokes. Who cares?

[@ponikoTV]

I don't think you understand the Word "mock" ​@@CakeoftheMews

[@swordtax]

@@CakeoftheMews because those japanese people on Twitter might have an opinion on why they didn't like it. Just check on it, and then you might understand why? And for Kate leth, I don't think it's funny to make hate tweet on men because it was insulting and a bad joke

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@swordtax that video said literally nothing at all. Again, why do I care what some random people think about a cartoon? What does them being Japanese add to the discussion? My problem is not with criticism of the show. My problem comes from the people who use “criticism” to mask their bigotry. Again, I don’t care about Kate Leth. They’re a single person who worked on the show. Get over it.

[@mysmallnoman]

​@@CakeoftheMews" I don't care that someone was saying that men should get killed " Mask off moment

[@Cward5656]

So i didn't think the art wasn't bad. Compared to other shows this was decent. I will say the writing was terrible though and i hate that the creator blamed CR for it.

[@CakeoftheMews]

@@Cward5656 It didn’t seem like Raye was blaming EVERYTHING on Crunchyroll. But like I said, the plot holes and writing flaws are very much a budget thing as well.

[@jack_stone]

The animation itself was terrible and included stock images for some ungodly reason. But discussing the art style itself as still images it's cute and probably would've done well in a comic book.

[@Cward5656]

@CakeoftheMews every first season has plot holes. I'm talking about the little things. No clear definition of what a guardian is. A better explanation and the pros and cons of new and old magic Less girls rule boys drool story More competent male characters Snap dragon being ok being a boy who likes girly things. All that don't need a budget to change. Also this could work as a comic

[@Pukeprincess]

CR is to blame for a lot of it

[@guerreiroazul3230]

​@@Pukeprincessno, they aren't, Raye should have had a better story bible considering that he came up with the show when he was a teenager.

[@EdwardMcAlmont]

am I the only one who wants a remake of hgs❤❤❤❤❤

[@vitamins2]

You really don’t have to be an amazing writer to critique something…

[@vitamins2]

And the “they werent given enough resources” bullshit that is used every time a production goes wrong as an excuse is honestly infuriating.