WTF is High Guardian Spice?!?! PART 2

It's a Boring Mess, that's what.
I hate you all for making me do this, but I'm a man of my word.
Chapters
0:00 - I'll take a Potato Chip
2:04 - PART 1: Who is this for?
5:56 - Cameo: Weekend Warrior
6:43 - PART 2: Pacing
11:49 - PART 3: Sound/Voice Acting
18:33 - Cameo: Espiritu
25:47 - PART 4: Characters
32:50 - Cameo: Patchwork Heart
39:18 - PART 5: Representation
46:08 - PART 6: Magic and Morals
52:40 - CONCLUSION
55:22 - End Credits
Editing helped by / waverunner5642
/ fanfickleentertainment
Weekend Warrior: / weekendwarrior1
Espiritu: / espirituotaku
Patchwork Heart: / patchworkheart
Wanna contact or support me?
Patreon: / mangakamen
Twitter: / manga_kamen
Deviantart: flairnightz.deviantart.com/
Discord: / discord
G-Mail: [e-mail]
#highguardianspice #anime #rant

[@jasondphoenix]

That trans explanation scene feels like one of those moments in a video game where you chose the wrong dialogue option and the NPC proceeds to tell you his whole life story.

[@Strykerx31]

Yeah, saw that, said NOPE!, and turned the shit off and Rewatched Trigun.

[@xolotltolox7626]

It's exactly like Mass Effect Andromeda...

[@Strykerx31]

@@xolotltolox7626 nah, The Facial stuff is at least funny to look at.

[@davidsplooge14]

@@nachgeben who?

[@raggens]

God, I’m reminded of Kaepora Gaebora from the Legend of Zelda series

[@dork7546]

I still don't get why Sage's parents would even allow her to go to a school where they only do new magic if they are supposed to be against new magic.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

The show actually explains it... kind of. The mother had a gem for new magic when she was young. That means she actually loves new magic but is just a hypocrite about it; and definitely not that something happened that made her change her opinion about it.

[@RolyatSille]

@@schwarzerritter5724 Approving of something when you were younger and not approving of it later in life doesn't make you a hypocrite or that you still love it. It means you learned something from your experience and changed your perspective. If something happened between her childhood and her adulthood that made her adamantly oppose New Magic, something they halfheartedly established as potentially being attached to the Rot being caused by the world's magic getting depleted, then it makes absolutely zero sense for her mother to send her to a primarily New Magic oriented school AND encourage her to study over socializing.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

@@RolyatSille If you put it that way, it is almost like High Guardian Spice teaches bad lessons.

[@RolyatSille]

@@schwarzerritter5724 That would require anyone in or out of the show to do some teaching.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

@@RolyatSille Teaching lessons is the whole point of the show. If it is good lessons is up for debate.

[@AHylianWarrior]

The fact the creator has you blocked is the funniest thing

[@hornetsilksong]

That's kind of pathetic actually... His review and many others isn't even personally attacking the creator, just critiquing the writing/animation in a constructive way.

[@TheUfaraV2]

Unfortunately, a lot of creative types tend to feel that attacks \ criticism to their creation are attacks\ criticism to themselves.

[@jaystone193]

Yup Some People Can't Handle The Truth, No Matter How Obvious It Is.....

[@wakkaseta8351]

Probably from a blocklist rather than any actual interaction. Twitter lefties tend to preemptively mass block all the agreed upon problematic people lest they commit the sin of associating with them in any way that another Twitter lefty can use as ammo for cancellation.

[@OriNyte]

@@jaystone193 Stop Typing Like This, You're Giving Me A Stroke

[@Richiedoesmc]

I love Slimeboy he sounds like he really doesn’t want to be their, and a guy who’s never smoked weed trying to sound like they’re high.

[@dard2240]

He have that Tommy Wiseau charm of bad acting.

[@phoebeaurum7113]

He had a micheal cera vibe to him.

[@HaHaHaHolowence]

*to be there...

[@edconn5951]

Squid boy

[@MelodyRose96]

I feel like the writers made the naive beginner writer mistake of: "They're the main characters, so people will love them automatically, so we don't need to put any effort into building them up and endearing them to the audience!" like... No. That's not how that works, actually. Just because they're the main character, it doesn't mean that everybody will care about their story or the plot.

[@dogsoldier123]

I feel that RT did the same thing with RWBY

[@ryanm.8720]

In fact, there's a lot of fictional works (such as Peter Pan, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Shark Tale, and Twelve Forever) where a large majority of the audience hate the protagonist(s) (or at least find them bland), and find the main villain(s) to be far more entertaining.

[@Frogadier_00]

@@ryanm.8720 People hate Sonic in AoSTH? I thought Sonic fans loved the sassy jokes and such lol

[@sofakingimmature]

@@Frogadier_00 Nah. During the Genesis era, Sonic was the bottom of the list. Tails and Knuckles were the favorite of game fans and most of the cartoon fans loved all the rest of the Freedom Fighters or Robonik's sidekicks over Sonic himself. Sonic didn't become popular until the Adventure series and I think that was only because his gameplay was the best . Even now, if you truly look at the fanbase, Sonic lovers are really far and in between. Most of the fanbase consists of OC or their favorite characters doing things to Sonic, but there is no real love for the hedgehog himself.

[@zhanehoyle8269]

@@sofakingimmature It's a tragedy that people actually think so little of him. Maybe it's because of the mandates sega put on the franchise and making him an mascot, but if people actually had the time and pay attention to how he is written they would be able to see why he has that many friends. I became a sonic fan after discovering sonic 06 and watching the cutscene from the game, then I went to a cutscene binge with the other "dark era" games up until generation. Safe to say, Sonic is my favorite character, still is to this day.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Snapdragon being gender dysphoric is well done... in theory. High Guardian Spice does show what he is going through and even acknowledges transitioning is not right for everyone, but it fails for 3 reasons: -Every single male character he knows is a complete toxic masculine stereotype or was born as a girl. -Transitioning in this world is barely an inconvenience and easily reversed. -The transgender teacher does not have any personality besides transgender. High Guardian Spice does the bare minimum and calls it "diversity". I do not hate it because it has trans representation, but because I think trans people deserve better. If someone showed me Music by Sia and told me this is the kind of representation I deserve... well, I would not do anything, because I can not talk when I am getting too emotional, but I would write the person an angry letter.

[@MrHeathcliff5]

Honestly, I would of found that part of the story interesting if it wasn't sandwiched between High Spice Guardian and everything else

[@thetruestar6348]

The bare minimum for diversity is basically Hollywood in a nutshell, this is literally would they give people and the people still praise them for the mediocre to bad representation they get

[@Jim87_36]

Eureka 7 did it better in all honesty. So did Gurren Lagaan. The techie in Gurren Lagaan was more than just “transgender” so much to the point that it’s brought up only once and that was because the blue haired dude was ignorant of the concept. Point being there was more to that character that made them feel like a PERSON and not an label.

[@Demonsta]

Trans people deserve better, but the sad reality is that right now they don't really GET better. I would rather see attempts that are heavyhanded and boring rather than leaving it out altogether because that's how we normalize a subject and get other writers saying "I can do this better" and then doing it better. Haven't watched the show tbh but I feel like I got the gist of the arc from the clips here and it seems pretty safe to me, which I guess is what makes it so boring but if the show is a flop anyway I would rather it be a safe attempt than a lot of the representation we do get which tries to be nuanced but just ends up super problematic and gives terfs and bigots fuel for their online propaganda.

[@worldweaver2691]

yes.

[@ryubiblossoms7363]

If Snapdragon,and Slime Boy were main characters I would enjoy it a lot more

[@icarue993]

Snapdragon feeling he doesnt fit, while Slimeboy (high as hell) tell him everything is fine and they should be whoever they want. Snap prasing SB for being a genious and a supportive friend, while SB doesnt even know to differentiate his hands from his toes.

[@3triplezero0]

Snapdragon Amaryllis and Slime Boy.

[@neaosmt1562]

@@icarue993 I pay money to watch that version of High Guardian spice

[@ThatGuyDusk]

We stan slime boy!

[@sunbeames1847]

I would say there is one win for CR, they inadvertently discovered a way to prevent piracy.

[@SetSeth-yl6ke]

They also buried our treasure in the form of money.

[@nadyanathania3847]

this looks like money laundering tbh

[@mmyr8ado.360]

@@nadyanathania3847 I wonder if Blackrock has something to do with it

[@GodSlayer-xk2er]

Fun fact there's still a pirated version of it online. It wasn't easy to find, but hey

[@otaking3582]

*Rosemary:* is raised by two dads and a mom whose best friend was trans *Also Rosemary:* needs to be explained what "transgender" means

[@TheWaverunners]

That scene is kind of crazy, since it would have been genuinely well-done if it were a kids show. Even the "New Magic" part, since it's an allegory for science and progress. Since the show seems to be aimed at teens, at the youngest, the explanation is very condescending.

[@Lesbiwolf92]

Two dads?

[@otaking3582]

@@Lesbiwolf92 Yeah, the first episode shows her with more than one dad. I'm not sure what the arrangement was between her three parents (maybe her biological dad didn't know he was gay until after Rosemary was born, maybe her mother was chosen as a surrogate, etc), but that's the truth.

[@otaking3582]

@@TheWaverunners No, it would've still been condescending even if it was for kids. Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling handles both transgenderism and themes of old vs new much better than this, and while one could argue that the movie was mainly intended towards fans of the original show, there's nothing to prevent kids from enjoying it (well aside from some risque humor, but that kinda comes with the territory).

[@sayer4148]

@@otaking3582 Huh, I thought one of them was her brother or something.

[@justsomeguywholovesberserk6375]

That Trans explaination scene physically hurt me in a way that not even a beating could, High Guardian Spice: The Cringe is Unbearable

[@jakew6162]

Don't forget the teacher is a self-insert of the creator

[@Zorovee]

@@jakew6162 I hate how similar I look to the character. Time to shave my head and run away to Guatemala

[@AlmightySmorg]

The worst type of bad, Cringey Bad

[@Zorovee]

@@AlmightySmorg The type that makes you wanna die

[@whatstodayemotion6504]

Nooo, please nooo!!! No worry I can censor the character, you can be your own self! >,

[@DuneStone6816]

Totally with you on the Callum rant. Why on earth would he be so bent out of shape over Snapdragon’s costume? It’s not even a queer thing. Straight guys in real life will just dress up as women sometimes. And Callum is the ONLY person who cares. No one else even acknowledges the oddity of the costume.

[@PatchworkHeart]

It's a reflection of a lot of real experiences. Often times IRL when a cisgender hetero man, usually young men, realize that they are trracted to a trans girl, or have confusing feelings about men in drag, they *lash out*. As I covered in my section, Callum's reaction is meant to distract from the fact he was attracted to Snap in drag. He's angry, and confused about being attracted to someone who, at the time, is a boy. In real life, this panicked rage has ended in trans women and nonbinary femmes being murdered- I'm glad the show decided not to go that dark.

[@RainyStast]

@@PatchworkHeart I think this goes back to how every other AMAB person in the show is a caricature of masculinity, so Callum getting extremely bent out of shape about Snap wearing a COSTUME at a COSTUME party seems very odd. I think that scene could be fixed if Snap dressed more effeminately at school or not in class. Then Callum's reaction and the teasing after the event had happened would make more sense.

[@PatchworkHeart]

@@RainyStast I don't disagree that the cis men on this show are all shoddily written, but this is a lived experience many transfeminine people have.

[@marukouga135]

@@PatchworkHeart If it did go that route then the warning at the beginning of every episode would've been warranted

[@noirtreize2713]

Not to mention that the fricking professor Caraway is trans! Is that a secret? Does HGS society prosecute transgender people? If not, why he raise such a big fuss when his own in universe Prof. Dumbledore is trans person himself. Also, I didn't watch the series but is there any punishment for Callum? Dude is being a massive prick to his peer and clearly have no respect for other person identity, and does Caraway do anything to address this issue?

[@AkemiTheSunbro]

“Apparently it’s okay to solve all your problems with Violence.” My murder-hobo necromancer: *YES.*

[@dudemcguy8949]

Chaotic Neutral Warlock: *MY TIME HAS COME*

[@aredjayc2858]

@@dudemcguy8949My Chaotic Evil Pyromancer: *Yes*

[@nathanjereb9944]

You know, a murderous necromancer makes sense logically. The more you kill, the more of the dead you can summon to your army, means more kill, more army, more kill, more army... You get it

[@man3son1]

@@nathanjereb9944 One more corpse, one step closer to world domination.

[@Ididitlikethis2079]

Mangakarmen: Do you find my pain funny? His Audience: Yes.

[@Strykerx31]

He got the booze to numb the pain....$700.....worth of booze....

[@BlazeHeartPanther]

"Wow, son, we need to have a word"

[@MarkyVigoroth]

No.

[@redkarnationaprettymuchany1325]

>No torrents If that isn’t the most indirect, hurtful disrespect of a show of the entire history then good god. That hurts, even ex arm has a torrent.

[@watchface6836]

Says a lot that no one gives enough of a shit to steal the show.

[@PrakashaTheTree]

I hope it stays that way

[@RetroRulzMyTown]

Got some bad news, guys

[@lpfan4491]

@@RetroRulzMyTown Sad.

[@Seri-Chama]

lol this show is available on youtube if you search for episode one.. someone mentioned it before

[@Necroxion]

I love how this show prides itself on representation, while Komi Can't Communicate does it better without bragging about it

[@titang6173]

Any series that's competent in their writing can give excellent representation without needing to brag

[@genzhours9466]

Komi Can't Communicate: the anime where everybody becomes attracted to girls

[@naromaster9796]

@@genzhours9466 there’s also najimi....whatever najimi is who gets asked by a guy and even when najimi said it was guy it didn’t effect him

[@deanfernandes7604]

@@naromaster9796 Najimi is Najimi

[@nithshithhith4398]

@@deanfernandes7604 Except Najimi is male because Tadano wouldn't let him change in the girls swimming pool changing rooms, and the previous year Najimi was wearing male school uniform. He's a boy crossdressing and the school seemingly allows it.

[@MoostachedSaiyanPrince]

Gotta love this Ghuruzilla person, and all the others that donated on Patreon. That collective $1000 has brought so much joy to this community, and so much misery to MangaKamen. It's things like this that make me love the internet.

[@MangoMagica]

Generosity on the internet just so someone can suffer through a bad show is the gift that keeps on giving

[@degeneratemale5386]

I am so proud of this community

[@ghuruzilla]

What is love? A miserable pile of secrets?

[@stephenconstantinou6975]

And fortunately for us (unfortunately for manga), this love does hurt him. Does hurt him. Some more.

[@Webshooters1]

Just goes to show that if you set a goal for the internet to see you suffer more it will be met. Even more so when it comes to reviewing something that causes the reviewer misery.

[@plasticlance9418]

The "I'm transgender scene" would've been leagues better if it involved snapdragon instead of rosemary, snap's character has stake in what's being said but with rose it's just "oh, okay" and then we move on, making it feel like just filler

[@TheWaverunners]

They could have casually revealed it while he was talking with Rose, either by just showing the picture, or having Rose ask "Is that your sister?" before having him mention it quickly with a quick "No, I transitioned with New Magic when I was young". It would have served more as a setup to his role in Snap's conflict later-on, and wouldn't have felt as condescending.

[@nicolebrown1874]

The trans explanation was the one thing that made me wonder who the show was ACTUALLY aimed towards. Like you said, if teens and adults were the target audience, wouldn't they already know what being trans is?

[@hornetsilksong]

Right lol, they explained it like the audience was watching Sesame Street (tho even Sesame Street would do it ten times better).

[@whiteglovian]

as a trans person, the way they described being trans, at least the way cahill did, is extremely offensive being trans ranges from "idk i feel better like this" to "if i have to see myself naked one more fucking time im going to hang myself," so snapdragon panicking over not having the right body was probably the way they should have done the trans reveal for cahill, tbh.

[@davidsplooge14]

they're having an Indentity crisis, they don't know what their show is supposed to be so they just went back and fourth, ultimately being tone deaf to their own show

[@PatchworkHeart]

Actually, you'd be surprised how many adults grossly misunderstand how gender identity and transition works. Many peopl think that trans children are given HRT at the age of like, 11. Or think that being transgender is a kink. There are a rather large number of adults in this world who have never met a trans person or know what they're like. I had to explain what intersex and nonbinary people are to a server full of men in their 20s-50s last year. That being said- the show's dialogue is clunky as hell and their pacing is even worse. so it makes the scene feel INCREDIBLY crunch and a bit condescending. So I understand where you're coming from here.

[@davidsplooge14]

@@SergioLeonardoCornejo damn that's a great point

[@shinkaiatsuya950]

Behold the star of the anime: 🍞

[@juuchanIRL]

that and squidboy.

[@bunnyconcubus8468]

Squidboy is still mvp

[@pascaleelliott63]

I agree with what people said on Twitter about Snapdragon and his talk about "transition magic". The fact that it comes off more as "You're a feminine guy therefore you must be trans" is how I felt about that scene too. I mean, there are plenty of tonboy women of all ages in the world who are straight, and there are plenty of straight men of all ages in the world who enjoy cross-dressing as women or who are more effeminate in general. It comes off more as forced projection at this point, being that this show deliberately labels any and all straight male characters as irredeamable a-holes, and making the only likeable straight male character in this show trans, just because he's not macho and/or likes things that happen to lean towards femininity. Basically the majority if not all characters are just walking labels.

[@MugenEclipse]

One of my biggest sources of confusion is how it says "representation" yet every AMAB character is a complete "toxically masculine" stereotype, more oblivious than a slowbro or are trans while all the AFAB characters are damn near flawless, have a backstory I've seen a million times and rarely ever even breathe near a consequence

[@taidakun_ig]

Just gonna take a moment to tell you to think about this. The creator is trans male, but his own creation bashes all straight males.

[@mattbrody3565]

19:03 actually, it turns out Thyme's technique here isn't _horribly_ unrealistic. In fact, Comanche archers were known to do something similar, it's part of what made them so widely feared in battle, and Lars Andersen has been a bit of an online celebrity archer for rapid-firing arrows in a similar manner. ... The animation's still shit, and the scene still seems to suck, but that's already discussed in the video.

[@CruelestChris]

Lars Anderson is showing off trickshooting techniques with short draws on a low-poundage bow that's about as good as throwing the arrows at people in combat terms. You couldn't do a single thing he does with a bow that's strong enough to actually hurt someone. And there's not much in the way of evidence that Comanche archers fired bows that way, outside of ambiguous depictions in a handful of paintings: rapid-fire is just a good way of wasting arrows.

[@mattbrody3565]

@@CruelestChris fair point. Makes sense he’d be showing off on easy mode. And now that I think about it, a weak bow explains some documented firsthand accounts from cowboys and rangers about Comanche combat demonstrations. They said you could dodge the first arrow a Comanche fired, but in doing so you’d end up in the path of their 2nd, 3rd and 4th shot. If you’re dodging an arrow, it’s a slow arrow. The technique would, however, explain an actual known Comanche tactic: hanging sideways off a running horse and firing over its back. No point fumbling around arrows in a quiver if you can just have them on-hand to begin with. Dumb, dangerous, and the fire rate would be closer to traditional archery, but historically plausible nonetheless. Still, thanks for bringing up the catch to Lars’s technique.

[@CruelestChris]

@@mattbrody3565 I believe he's been pretty heavily criticised by historians because he tends to claim he's found some forgotten technique as a framing device for archery tricks that have been common among stage trickshooters for decades (though he is very good at them). For an excellent comparison, look up the promotional video Tom Knapp did for the Benelli shotgun company: it's absolutely phenomal skill, but has no real relevance to combat shooting. As far as the historians are concerned, what Lars does is like taking that kind of shooting and saying you're demonstrating secret techniques that GIs used in the trenches in WWI and that it's the real reason the Germans feared the shotgun so much.

[@TheeOK1]

You forgot the scene where they bring a dragon to life with the magical goo water fully knowing the accelerated aging and death it would have in mere seconds if not minutes, arguably knowing the damn thing would also be sentient; where they don't even thank or mourn it's death by *turning* into fireworks(???). "These are the good guys btw"

[@kaiosamatlj4031]

"I'm okay."

[@TheeOK1]

@@kaiosamatlj4031 *proceeds to get Vegeta'd*

[@TheCrimsonElite666]

Next thing they'll do is that HGS introduces necromancy just for them to make a circlejerk about it being evil because necromancy. After that, they then proceed to make the magic equivalent of white phosphorus, and they don't bat an eye on that being objectively evil.

[@3rebella]

the dragon's voice acting 😂

[@Balmungofsky]

So she's allowed to drop a hammer on his foot and it gets laughed off, but he calls them stuck up and he needs a talking to? Why are characters allowed to just hurt people with no consequences in series like this?

[@bgaming2297]

Easy. "wAmeN gOOd aLWaYs rIGht"

[@johnkiezulas7439]

What makes the dropping the hammer on his foot even worse is that if he dosent have boots that protect his toes (which he probably dosent due to the cry of pain he had) he risks broken bones or an infection to occur in his toes. As some one who had to get toenail surgery due to an infection, I assure you it's not fun, and if left untreated he could potentially lose his leg or worse.

[@justadudewholikestotalk]

Misandry

[@bunnybutt5664]

I always had a huge problem with that scene when the teacher asks Snapdragon if they've heard of transition magic, because it made it seem like it was just something that could magically be fixed; it's almost dehumanizing. Look, I'm not trans -I'm a straight white girl- so I may not completely understand, but I at least know that struggles with your identity can NOT just automatically be fixed like that; it doesn't tackle the main source of Snapdragon's issues! That's how the scene made that feel, and it's honestly pretty freaking horrible..

[@leostellations4914]

Another thing that really bothered me about that scene was that they immediately jumped to transition magic, because as you said, discovering your identity is not something so simple nor black and white. Putting aside what has been said outside the show, Snap feelings don't immediately translate to 'he's trans'; he could be a more feminine guy, he could like crossdressing, he could be non binary, he could be trans or many more. But instead of using that scene as an opportunity to discuss about the huge spectrum of gender identity, how discovering who you are, and the road to that answer can be long and complicated but incredibly rewarding in the end, they jumped at the potion option a bit too fast. I'll admit that yeah it kinda get a bit fixed at the end, but it stills rubbed me the wrong way And I'm going to ignore the whole potion because that's another personal problem

[@PatchworkHeart]

Transition Magic in the show is no different than HRT IRL. It's basically a horomone therapy potion you take once a month to help your body align with your gender. It **isn;t** a magical fix all. HRT in real life comes in several forms. For transfeminine folks (Transgender women and femme leaning AMAB nonbinary people), the options for Estrogen are daily pills, weekly injections, alcohol based topical gels, and special horomone patches that need to be taken monthly to twice-monthy depending on dose. For transmasculine folks (Transgender men and masculine leaning AFAB enbies) There are testoserone injections, daily androgel, horomone patches- but no pills, as stomach aids neutralize Testosterone, what with it being a less potent and less durable molecule. The idea of drinking a potion once a month to treat dysphoria?? No needles, no pills to forget, no lifelong infertility caused by the side effects of HRT?? Just a simple potion easy to obtain???? To a LOT of transgender people? That's a dream come true. And more importantly, as I showed in my section, Caroway merely told Snap that it exists. That you CAN change your body. It doesn;t need to fix all Snapdragon;s problems, that is what therapy, counseling, and safety net people are for. In that moment, the important thing was making Snap feel okay about his gender envy, making him feel seen, and telling him what his options are. I think a lot of people think that Caroway is trying to push Snap to transition when I showed a clip clearly stating he isn't. That snap has plenty of time- PLENTY of time, to figure out who he wants to be. 37:27 is where the clip is. Please watch it again.

[@bunnybutt5664]

@@PatchworkHeart I understand I never meant to offend, it was just that was how it felt at the start, and I completely forgot about the ending. Like I said, I'm not well versed in terms of what trans people go through, and I apologize if I did.. Edit: Sorry, I'm writing this comment while I'm at work. Edit 2: However, I will say that I'm not sure if comparing HRT to a magic potion is not the right comparison to go with, since a magic potion can fade away with no complications (or maybe it does, I'm not sure because magic.) To chemicals that even after you stop taking can have long term effects that can't be reversed.

[@LunaAndPals]

I don’t think that was the original posters main point. I think it was more so how the proffesor immediatly brought up the idea of transitioning without exploring the other options. It’s not the fact that they brought up the potion. It’s how they immediatly jumped to that conclusion

[@icarue993]

Talking from experience (as I know/play games that makes instant trangender transformations and socialize with transpeople), the trans people that I know of find this sort of stuf empowering. I imagine it would be better if it was instant and permanent. The thing with this sort of "power trip" is that, similar to male power fantasies (where He Man gets the sword and instantly gets power). Sometimes the small gradual (painful) transition brings them bad memories. BUUUT that's just from a relatively small sample size of 5-6 trans people, maybe more (transfemale specifically), and might be misremembering.

[@Ymryrth]

I love all the guests giving their own opinions on different aspects of the show

[@Ticking.TimeBomb]

Fun fact: The kids I babysit absolutely despise this show. Here are some of the things I’ve heard them say while watching the show. Side note, the kids are no older that 9 “How do we know what that means but she doesn’t?” (Talking about Trans) “Isn’t she supposed to be smart?” “She’s kinda annoying.” “Olive is gonna be a good guy at some point isn’t she?” “Is that a Pokémon?” “Ugh! Everyone here is so annoying!” “Im confused.” “Can we go back to watching Adventure Time?”

[@kaiosamatlj4031]

“Can we go back to watching Adventure Time?” My favorite one.

[@Chitchatgowolf]

Says a lot when even children hate the show that's supposed to be meant for mature audiences

[@TheeOK1]

My favorite is the olive part. Kids are either smarter than we give credit for or things are so poorly written they can see these sorta things with ease.

[@meanncat3050]

@@TheeOK1 Both. Kids aren't dumb just ignorant to a lot of things and naive, until their teachers and parents teach them otherwise they will question and learn about everything around them. Watch other kid shows from the past, still had lessons but it was nothing like this "mature" show now. Only toddlers need their hand held.

[@sushigivesmelife2131]

Omg ur kids sound like jaded movie critics already 😂 What did you do to them?! 🤣🤣🤣

[@zacharyzwickl5860]

Espiritu's theory is not too far off. Like for one thing High Guardian Spice wasn't in development for the past two years. It was finished two years ago and was placed on hold cause Crunchyroll knew that people were going react to the series exactly like they are now. And yes this series was released because Sony bought Crunchyroll. During this time of between the acquisition finalizing and Sony taking control is the only opportunity to release this series sine Sony would definitely had given it the Old Yeller treatment and never let the corpse see the daylight.

[@otaking3582]

Or considering that Sony is run by SJW's these days (Ghostbusters 2016, constant video game censorship, Last of Us 2, etc), they would've paid for season 2 on their own dime.

[@lukebytes5366]

It saddens me that many people still don't realize shit like this was intentional. If sony was really radical leftist, they wouldn't have made a new Ghostbusters thats, at the very least, an actual sequel. I can't look at these repeated sins of political promotion and see it as legit. The worst part is that many of these "SJW" shows etc. Are so uninteresting that they wouldn't get off the ground on their own. The only reason HGS is even being talked about right now is because it's ran by radical feminists, you can't tell me otherwise. It sucks how these pieces of media aren't often made for art...

[@shrimpyalfredo3933]

@@lukebytes5366 hmmm, weirdo feminists who cant write to save their life, yes, but rad fems? Dont think a trans guy like raye is gonna be a radfem when rads hate all trans people 😅 maybe that kath leth asshole though.

[@otaking3582]

@@shrimpyalfredo3933 Or they're actually transphobic and don't see him as male (it would certainly explain why Professor Caraway is the the only competent male character).

[@shrimpyalfredo3933]

@@otaking3582 possibly! I doubt he had much control on who was hired for the team.

[@LuigiLonLon]

Hoo boy, in regards of Snapdragon. I really truly appreciate Caraways bit that saying that there are many paths of becoming your true self, and THAT was HIS path and Snapdragon needs to find his, i honestly loved that. I am a huge advocate that you need to let kids be kids. They'll find out what they want in due time and if they don't, it's our responsibility as ADULTS to help them find ways they feel happy, comfortable and realized. That bit of dialogue was good. Snapdragon is a teenager, who are notoriously famous for not knowing what they want in a world where there's almost infinite possibilities open to them. Let a teenager, hell adults too, learn and try a bit of everything and then AFTER they grew up and experiment, decide what to do in every regard of their life. HOWEVER When Snapdragon talked to Caraway the whole thing immediately jumped into a "WALL MAH BOI, you are transgender" AND NOT BY THE SHOW ITSELF mind you, but by the creators by confirming out of the series that Snapdragon is indeed trans. THAT'S the part that irked me. It's the same issue that you pointed out about Teacher of the Year instantly changing weapons because it turns out that "OH SURPRISE, Snap is actually good with the rapier!", instead of trying to teach Snapdragon how to maybe deal in the axe in a way it works. Who's to say Snapdragon wouldn't find a way to use the Axe in a way that's comfortable or that adapts in a way that he likes? They turned out to be right sure, but wouldn't be more satisfying that Snapdragon found by himself that the weapon prefered to use is the rapier instead of being told to? Same issue with this previous shebang. I feel it's rather ironic and a bit hypocritical how most of these people who worked on this project often rant about "breaking standards" and not complying to do what those on power or above who think they know better for them say what or how they should be, and yet they're the ones who are doing it here instead. A youtuber named Dimitri Monroe expressed this feeling best. He likes dressing up, he likes cute things, he likes styling himself as femenine as possible.... but that's what he likes, and he's damn sure of his sexuality and yet trans people and advocates are still trying to push that that he's an "egg" waiting to crack, when he damn well knows what and who he likes. What if Snapdragon it's only a boy who doesn't like doing macho things and prefers a more subtle/delicate way? What if Snapdragon just likes cute things? What if Snapdragon is just gay and not transgender? We don't know because we don't see the HOW he came to the answer, it was confirmed right out of the gate from the creators. People and characters are more complex and nuanced than that or are we really gonna just accept just "because I the creator said so"? i want to see the HOW Snapdragon came to that conclusion. That's the appeal pf the characters in my opinion, to see their journey and see how far they've come up from point A to B

[@emeryltekutsu4357]

Considering that Cowboy Bebop has been a topic recently, people can go watch the ORIGINAL Cowboy Bebop to see a nuanced, sympathetic take to a character going through gender dysphoria with Gren.

[@Mariusweeddeath]

@@emeryltekutsu4357 would you really call what Gren goes through 'gender dysphoria though? Its not so much a problem with himself but what he was forced to go through and the people who did it too him.

[@emeryltekutsu4357]

@@Mariusweeddeath It's fairly close. It's not an exact situation, but I think it's close enough that someone with gender dysphoria could easily relate to the feelings.

[@MrAuthor3DS]

True. The fact that Julia just said that Snapdragon is going to transition, probably even before the show was finally aired...just feels like spoiling an otherwise unexpected but interesting present LONG before we reach the day we can open it.

[@Lockz1111]

@@MrAuthor3DS in my mind Snapdragon is not Trans, we can't say that, for sure because it's left ambiguous and if he is trans then any of the lessons associated with guys can understand that too are thrown out because Snap was a girl all along. On top of that I refuse to accept the assertions of creators outside of the actual media they're making about who characters are if you want a character to be a certain way show it in your content not in meaningless social media posts. Otherwise you're getting awfully close to J.K. Rowling levels of cringe (Also if they really wanted to be diverse they'd take the opportunity of Snapdragon to have a character who's not just trans because they already did that with one of their characters and we saw how well that went)

[@IncorrectHB]

It just takes me all the way out when they have people literally changing species but changing gender is unthinkable. They were literally in a class where they drank some tea and started changing

[@aredjayc2858]

Yup

[@miticaBEP07]

That’s just Harry Potter you described. (Joke)

[@SuperCaptureDevice]

From AnimeAmerica (reviewed by a woman): Let me tell you about my sword It’s my mom, she’s my dad and IDGAF Let me show you all my blacksmith skills And my parents they’re insane cause IDGAF And my mom says “Old Magic only” And my cousins are lesbians and IDGAF And my feelings here My feelings there and I D G A F

[@michaelknox3715]

Best part of her review

[@Demolitiondude]

Agreed.

[@socksinsoda9517]

I hope that "son we need to have a word" becomes a meme on the channel 😆

[@BlazeHeartPanther]

"Wow, son, we need to have a word (glides on water towards the problematic boy swimming away) XD

[@hornetsilksong]

**Scribbles down notes to learn for my own writing** : "Yes, tell me more." Also damn, the patron whales are the real mvp to support our favorite content creators, the intro killed me. The voice acting falling flat even with great names also shows the importance of voice direction too.

[@Strykerx31]

Tbh, somebody took it as a Dare.

[@Cybermoonmage]

Even pinhead would be like " this is too much torture for one soul

[@tazzreviews1578]

“Open the box back up! We’re leaving!”

[@MetaGiga]

“I came... And I wish I didn’t.”

[@meleemastermaa1449]

People talk so much about "male power fantasy", but they only seen to enjoy a show if there's a literal self-insert of themselves on it. Representation.

[@ascrassin]

I think in a way for some that exactly what is happening that they are so concentrated on themselves and their struggle that they can't relate to a character that isn't them. I don't say that there is no need for representation because "lol you can just relate to a good character" representation(if done well) is a good thing. Just that in a way for some people there is also other more internal problems. And then there is the fact that most character created by these people are either bland, one dimensional, stereotype or a combination of all tree and ironically that don't make them relatable even by people that share characteristic with them.

[@jasonmacmillan6429]

"And we'll fight mermaids." Bruh, these girls want to abuse my favourite fantasy creature, I don't need to watch anymore to say its a 0.1/10

[@megasoniczxx]

I get that they probably wanted to do a narrative on the struggles of wanting to be a different gender but considering in this world, it's a pretty common thing for people change shape, physiology, gender, etc. through the use of magic, it comes off as being a bit shoehorned in.

[@l.a.wlostsoul339]

High Guardian "spice: would you still like me if I painted my nails?" JoJo's Bizarre Adventure steal ball run: (gyro zeppeli the straightest man on the face of the Earth the Man who just can't stop Fuckin) "yeah me and my boy Johnny wear lipstick and paint our nails what of it?"

[@TheeOK1]

All of Jojo after part 4: "man they really don't know what the hell they doing huh?" * Reapplies eyeliner and straightens garbage bag top.

[@PatchworkHeart]

@Arachebae Dysphoria isn't rational. That's the point.

[@TheBoozeHound]

Can I just say that the transgender teacher character feels - in a way - forced? Like, obviously, it's great that they're trying to add representation, but they don't naturally imply/explain it. We just kind of are whiplashed into it and then afterward the plot is continued as if nothing happened. Like, if I were to suggest a far better idea; they could have totally made an episode where we see the struggles the teacher faces by being a trans man and go from there. Because then we'd get more awareness and representation all in one sitting.

[@user-un2pf4ht9l]

The problem is that forced lgbt character its like saying "LOOK I MADE A LGBT CHARACTER LOVE ME PLZZZ". A good lgbt character is like other characters, being gay made nothing special, so have to made something for him like the other people in the show hate him or a gay ship (not too much forced tho). That is a good lgbt character

[@bananasinfrench]

@@user-un2pf4ht9l YES like honestly with any representation the best way to do it is to let them be people. Honestly sometimes the solution is to make a basic character first and slap some identities on lol

[@badasscrusader]

@@user-un2pf4ht9l true equality is not giving a fuck

[@TheBoozeHound]

@@user-un2pf4ht9l Exactly my point. He seems very forced in and doesn't at all feel like a natural person. More like a text book that just read off what transgender was. As a Bisexual/Pangender, I LOVE seeing any form of rep, but in this case it feels like they were just trying to say, "We're being progressive" while not realizing how uncomfortably awkward that scene was. Then again, the character dialogue in this show is the equivalent of two brooms that gained sentience trying to hold a conversation.

[@daltonrussell3357]

Or hell If you don't want to explicitly do transphobia, just have it be revealed when the Snap Dragon starts having questions about their identity. It would be a much more natural way for the reveal. I haven't watched the show, but this seems like a much better and realistic way for a persona to reveal their trans. Especially in a magic world where they can pass basically unabated.

[@onyx6774]

"People didnt even want to pirate it" THAT GOT ME BRUH LMAO

[@marvalice3455]

Thanks for mentioning that tanking the pink pull wouldn't solve all of snap's problems. The most important part of my transition was coming to terms with myself and who I am, even not considering girlifying myself

[@otakutoongamer5616]

You’re beautiful and at least 3 times a better option for a writer even if you don’t have experience

[@marvalice3455]

@@otakutoongamer5616 aww! thank you!

[@TengokuEXE]

That "Wow. Son." actually makes a pretty good meme. "High Guardian Spice is a 10/10 anime!" "Wow. Son, we need to have a word."

[@aurathenun7264]

Heck the blacksmith parts of the school can go in depth on enhancement or enchantment for weapons and armor. The teacher can show them how to dispell cursed weapons and armor as well. Maybe I will sound cruel but, having someone badly injure Rosemary during the train section would be a good idea. When they cut the line A criminal (who is some dude wearing patched up clothes with a hood covering his face) asks them: Are you going to train to be guardians? Rosemary:Yeah! W- Criminal:* gets and stabs her many times * You'll be bad for business Sage at this time would be terrified at this. She's going to be a guardian too. The criminal asks sage: Are you going to train to be a guardian? They're close and Rosemary is in pain unable to fight. The one who hurt Rosemary is staring at Sage. Sage: No. Criminal walks off. Sage uses old magic (runes) to heal Rosemary This implies early that there are criminal agencies. Guardians are cops at the very least. Because of cast time Old magic is hard to use in a 1v1 scenario.

[@amaterasu697]

31:58 MK: "God, I really need to make a Metal Gear Rising video sometime" Me: *"Now there's a pretty meme! Exquisite!"*

[@HectorCotto97]

The moment I learned about Snapdragon's backstory I couldn't help but compare his character with another similar character I like from another series, Chihiro Fujisaki from Danganronpa. Both of them are similar characters but they both take different approaches to dealing with their insecurities. Chihiro Fujisaki who is a timid frail boy was bullied and looked down on most of his life because of it, when he had had enough he decided to bury himself deeper into his insecurities and let everyone believe he was a girl until he reached a point in his life in which he and everyone around him were in danger and he decided to muster up his inner strength to work harder to improve himself. Snapdragon is also someone who was born a feminine boy who was looked down on by his brother and was criticized by his own father. He doesn't conform to the same standards as his family and as a boy people tend to expect a lot of stereotypical masculine traits from him that he just doesn't have. Both Fujisaki and Snapdragon are very similar but the thing that sets them apart from each other is how they deal with their issues, Fujisaki being physically weak still managed to find the strength and resolve to improve himself, Snapdragon may not be masculine but he is clearly strong enough to defend himself but is lost and doesn't know what to make of himself. I'm not saying one is better than the other, I just find it interesting to compare the two.

[@worldweaver2691]

or assassination classroom's Nagisa Shiota

[@ghuruzilla]

Finally, I can view my commission

[@ghuruzilla]

Also the discord link is dead

[@lostandfound6958]

Literally anything happens: Wow, son. We need to have a talk.

[@dad5draco]

The good guys are summoning demons to destroy them.

[@Nitosa]

They also reported nothing to the teachers about rot, the villains, or their problems. Which could all be easily solved or avoided since they inhibit great magic of which can literally solve the problems.

[@WoeUponThee]

If there’s one thing I respect this show for it’s got to be how everyone is named after herbs and stuff, consistent naming schemes or names with meaning behind them are always something I respect in a show. My favourite example of it has to be JoJo part 5.

[@someonethatisntfunny1622]

The show is named high guardian spice, not high guardian herbs or something like that.

[@ShadowWolfRising]

Except they are all named after Herbs and not Spices. :| There's a reason why the KFC recipe refers to them as 11 Herbs AND Spices.

[@craigime]

so why is it called high guardian spice?

[@diersteinjulien6773]

Naming the main characters Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme ruined the Scarborough Fair song for me though.

[@miticaBEP07]

I like the Simon and Garfunkel reference. For a magical girl show it’s a cute hook. I’m not a JoJo fan but I like some music references. I prefer it more subtle, like I could name a character “Lopez” or “Hudson” (Katy Perry’s actual surname) but I’d avoid Germanotta, Ciccone, Fenty, Lambrini Diamandis or Aguilera.

[@djinsanity3575]

Things can always be worse my dude. Never forget that. Thanks for your suffering it was delicious

[@susankornas2613]

"Mom, can we have The Owl House?" "But we have The Owl House at home" The Owl House at home:

[@juuchanIRL]

the colors are too strong, they look like a kid's coloring book that they filled in randomly. it hurts my eyes.

[@graveyardshift2100]

I still have no clue how old these characters are supposed to be.

[@ddm_gamer]

Thats one thing they took right from anime

[@craigime]

@@ddm_gamer which anime?

[@javonyounger5107]

Good fucking point. Some of them look like they could be in high school and others in grade school despite being in the same class.

[@MrAuthor3DS]

The students may be around 14 years old - though I only have one of the suspiciously praise-heavy 5-star reviews to cite on that...

[@DragoonBB]

Oh...Snapdragon does eventually become Trans...That really doesn't make the scene where Caroline could be seen as grooming Snapdragon Trans any better now.

[@galvanizeddreamer2051]

So I'm not the only one who thought that was weird.

[@blueskylark9965]

Except ( and I can’t believe I’m about to defend this show) that Caroway said that transitioning was the right path for him, but it may not be the right path for Snapdragon, and that Snapdragon has time to figure it out for themselves. Also you don’t “become trans” you realize that you *are* trans.

[@DragoonBB]

@@blueskylark9965 Well we don't see Snapdragons journey to "realizing" anything so that's a mute point. Nor does Caroway bring up the other options as far as we can tell. So by default unless they are told otherwise some would try whatever they've been told the most about about first. Also your other point just sounds like you're arguing Symantec's. As if that was the true all the time. We wouldn't have cases where kids were told(not realized) they were trans. Had surgery, and only after then realized they weren't. Which tends to end with them detranstioning at best. I assume you already know the worse outcome.

[@blueskylark9965]

@@DragoonBB I’d argue that what Snapdragon says to Carroway is a (poorly executed) start on that journey of realization, experiencing gender envy to the point of it being a genuine concern isn’t exactly typical cisgender behavior, especially in a show with as hamfisted messaging as HGS. And you are correct that is semantics, as the idea that you can be “groomed trans” is incredibly flawed and misinformed. While I’m sure that cases exist were people have detransitioned because they realize they weren’t trans exist, however, in a 2021 study done on that topic (“factors leading to “detransitioned” among transgender and gender diverse people in the United States: a mixed method analysis”)out of 2242 people who had detransitioned, 82% reported at least one external factor, like discrimination and stigma, while only 15.9% reported internal factors. And if your referring to concepts such as “rapid onset gender dysphoria” that concept was proposed by one woman, whose study didn’t directly involve actual trans kids, but rather, just those kids parents. Further studies have been done that debunk the theory (including one “ do clinical data from transgender adolescents support the phenomenon of “rapid onset gender dysphoria?”) that show no link between mental health issues, or external influences and ‘rapid onset gender dysphoria’. Using the term ‘grooming’ implies that that a child can be groomed trans, which if there is any data that suggests that can even happen, I haven’t found it, and I’ve done quite a bit of research. ‘Grooming’ implies a sinister agenda on the part of caraway, which absolutely rubs me the wrong way. The idea that all these kids are somehow willing to go through the grueling and ostracizing process of medical transitioning because they’ve been convinced to do so, is an incredibly misinformed view. Not to mention in places like the US at the very least, kids can’t even truly medically transition (puberty blockers are not the same thing), and for adults there is already an incredible amount of failsafes to prevent the scenario you describe from happening.

[@nb8817]

I think it’s the fact that those two characters had never really had any meaningful interactions so when snapdragon tries to talk to Cal about what happened and how they were harassed by their father and brother growing up for “not being manly enough” Cals just like “you were being bullied? Well you shouldn’t have punched that known homophobe, so we’ve decided to punish you by not letting you go back be a mermaid with the rest of your friends, something that you had explicitly shown interest in early in the episode. Also your trans and that is your only option lol.” Like there’s literally no reason why snapdragon couldn’t be gender fluid or non-binary or anything else. There’s nothing about what they said to Cal that would suggest that they could only be trans. It’s just that the director is trans and the voice actor is trans so the character has to be trans because the writing sucks and no one can act. When you make writing and story decisions just so your voice actors can act less, that’s a problem and your a terrible writer.

[@Nazo-kage]

The funny thing is, out of all of the stuff talked about with the show. The thing that actually gets me pretty angry, is the whole “new magic is better in old magic is…well old.” In all the clips I’ve seen. (I refuse to watch it on Crunchyroll) They keep talking about how new MAGIC is so much better. They even have some bull crap of the mom used to like new MAGIC but as she got older she insists on old magic. From what I’ve heard, The issue with old magic is that it’s difficult because you’re trying to use your own body as a medium. And new Magic is better because with those magic stones you can more easily get magic to do what you want. So I don’t have they have the one magician character, come up with the idea of combining them both, use the special stone while at the same time attempting the old ways essentially using two mediums to accomplish the same task. But the main thing that seems to really irked me about it, is it comes with a connotation of forget the old because it doesn’t matter. If you go to film school they don’t just teach you how to use CGI, they teach you about the old classics the cinematography from the greats that came before we don’t just teach you how to be Michael bay they try to teach you to be Spielberg or Hitchcock.

[@backpug1228]

What I even find kinda funny is... Under a different (maybe competent) writer, new magic would turn out to be a bad thing. Doing ANYTHING you want without a drawback? There can never be such a thing. There must be something about new magic that makes it really bad. Old magic? Its hard to learn. Has to be conjured through the own body. To me it reads like old magic is the morally right magic. Since you must have some state of harmony with natures magic and control of your own body to use that magic. Old magic is more of unison of people with natures magic, while new magic is above that, seeming more controlling without the care.

[@icecreamhero2375]

I love Hitchcock.

[@Nazo-kage]

@@backpug1228 I agree. There could either be some dark secret to where the gems actually come from. Or if they wanted to go a different route have something happen to them. Like the big villain cast a spell that makes all of the gems inert. And then because nobody who uses new magic seem to learn about old magic they’re all defenseless now. Now this would be an interesting thing if they focused more on people using magic then on magic and weapons.

[@thechugg4372]

@@Nazo-kage Yes they could do so much more with the concept, it's simple but effective. But I'm pretty sure they didn't even notice the potential behind the storytelling of the duality of a magic system and focused more on making everyone gay or trans.

[@Nazo-kage]

@@thechugg4372 That was one other thing. The story about Snapdragon (?) was obviously the thing they wanted to focus on, more than the actual story because it seem to get a lot of nuance. And was handled a lot better than any other character. But I think the animation and character design really screwed that character over. If the uniforms were a little more blocky or baggie and they gave him some stubble. Than his cross dressing might’ve held more of an impact. With the stubble now removed and the costume revealing his more slight form. Instead he already looked androgynous enough that dressing as a girl is really no big surprise.

[@hannahwishon9958]

Imagine a _High Guardian Spice_ Re-animated... but it's made out of spite.

[@Red-qq6ut]

“Did you listen to Marnie’s theme?? Or even Hop’s????” *Google-product ad starts playing.* Ah yes, I too remember when Hop started advertising google in each battle! I’m enjoying this video, i just wanted to pause the video to say that before resuming/forgetting this happened.

[@AlmightySmorg]

Wait a minute, slice of life at an academy where the protagonist becomes friends with the bully character and plot doesn’t happen till the season is almost over? No wonder you didn’t like this, it really is just Yugioh GX

[@ChiefMedicPururu]

Except GX has a lot of good shit. This? Bah.

[@RoronoaZoro-ur6hr]

@@ChiefMedicPururu , I still think that Yu-Gi-Oh Season 0 is objectively the best anime series out of all of the Yu-Gi-Oh franchises.

[@ChiefMedicPururu]

@@RoronoaZoro-ur6hr Even despite the shoehorning of one minor character and Green Kaiba?

[@RoronoaZoro-ur6hr]

@@ChiefMedicPururu , Miho was a character in the manga, but she got slightly more screen time in the anime than the manga, and it makes much more logical sense for Kaiba to have Green hair than brown hair because he’s supposed to be like Zoro from One Piece except not nearly as badass as Zoro from One Piece.

[@ChiefMedicPururu]

@@RoronoaZoro-ur6hr "because he’s supposed to be like Zoro from One Piece except not nearly as badass as Zoro from One Piece." wut.

[@Amadeo790]

The writers have clearly never held a weapon before. Axes are not heavier then Rapiers and even if they are their not by much. The point of balance is focused in the head wile the point of balance in a rapier is focused in the basket hilt and handle. It will be like swinging a 3 pound weight around give or take how intricate the basket hilt is. Also rapiers are dueling weapons, they are the worst against enemies with armor so now Snap dragon now sucks against anyone but wearing decent protection. Axes in the other hand hit hard because the weight is in the head.

[@bowserjr55]

From an outside perspective, I've seen Trans characters done better in three other shows. Shangri-la had two friends that acted as mentors for the MC and got their own development as caretakers for the kids they watch. Knights of Sidonia had an actual explanation for not being born male OR female and changing that based on how the person you like accepts you. And Vandread had a character that did it as a covert op, though that's as far as I'll go for spoiler reasons. Point is, yes, Trans characters can work, and these are examples of it being very well done. But this show did not develop any of their characters well enough for me to care that they were trans. EDIT: The original comment I made also mentioned Ouran High School Host Club, but a reply reminded me that they weren't Trans, just cross dressers working in a "tranny bar" as they put it.

[@charminsi]

Haruhi’s dad is gender non conforming and a cross dresser but he still identifies as a man, so he’s not transgender. (Unless you define trans as any form of being genderqueer then yes he would be trans). His friend Misuzu Sonoda is also a cross dresser who identifies as a man. It’s kinda like how not every drag queen is a trans woman. I haven’t watched the other shows you mentioned, but just wanted to clarify on Ouran. (Also I think Haruhi is basically nb, agender or libragender based on what she said about not really caring about her gender label, even if it’s not stated outright)

[@diersteinjulien6773]

@@charminsi That's reading too far into Haruhi's character. She's just indifferent to it because her father's example got her used to not care about labels, to the point that wearing a boy's uniform is no big deal to her (but it's pointed she doesn't do it by choice, but because getting a girl uniform would be a waste of money). Considering her lack of interest in romance, she could be aromantic or asexual... or just a late bloomer, since she just entered high school after all.

[@Saltedroastedcaramel]

@@diersteinjulien6773 She's a late boomer, she falls in love with Tamaki.

[@charminsi]

@@diersteinjulien6773 She’s not aromantic cuz she does fall for Tamaki (later in the manga). I do get how it’s a bit counterintuitive to put a queer label on Haruhi when she says she doesn’t care at all. I guess the better phrasing would be “she COULD be headcanoned as nb” based on her dialogue.

[@davidjonas9874]

Wow, In all my years of watching anime, this is the first time someone has mentioned Shangri-la or Vandread, much less both in the same comment...

[@samuelbattershell3413]

Damn... your fans are sadistic. Well atleast you're not doing this alone. As they say, misery loves company. Gonna be honest I half tempted to watch it just to see how I could compose at least a better bullet point plot outline.

[@ImfernusRizen]

This is partially my fault this video is so long

[@synbest9300]

can we just whipe the entire main cast away and make snap dragon and the purple girl the protagonist they are waaaaay more likeable

[@Xylospring]

I swear I will rewrite and enhance this series even if it kills me.

[@jameskatz7832]

Good soldier! *Salute*

[@Strykerx31]

Get rid of the Self insert, and make it a Stan Lee Cameo.

[@Xylospring]

@@MiniLinlin So far I have a rough Draft of a Pre Chapter one Piece. No comments at all about it so far... even from the amino. Something about filling in the Gaps and having a test before getting accepted. Next to that, playing around with designs and the Characters because someone did great Redesigns.

[@yamnbam4346]

You’re better off just making your own thing Edit: But if you do rewrite it, post it on KZbin or sormthing. I’ll be tuning in.

[@seventeen1056]

Imagine you're talking to a person and in the middle of a conversation he would like: "You know, I'm actually a trans." Awkward silence...

[@Strykerx31]

Me: .....ok bye.

[@galvanizeddreamer2051]

"Trans you say, interesting. Did you know I'm in to *crossfit?"*

[@yamnbam4346]

“…deadass?”

[@BlazeHeartPanther]

Rosemary: (Face bluescreens) Dun!

[@CelticLuna]

Does anyone remember Baby LooneyTunes? There was an episode where Sylvester didn't want to play sports with the rest of the boys instead he wanted to play tea parties and dolls with the girls and Lola wanted to play sports with the boys. That episode showed kids that boys can like feminine things and a girl can like sports.

[@JetblackJay]

Manga Kamens editor did a good job fantastic even I forgot their pronouns but they could have added a few things like the fact that people less experienced on Trans issues have done better than High Guardian Spice example Kanojo Ni Naru Hi and it's creator wanted to talk about trans people in a positive light and did a good job talking about the effects on the trans people those around them friends and family as well with tact mind you the creator had limited knowledge in 2013 and did it better

[@GamingWarlord64]

This show could have been good. If it had better art direrction, story, magic system, world design, writing,....goes on for 56 minutes

[@craigime]

lol

[@YinYangAngel55]

Naruto wants to be Hokage; Hokage is basically the leader of the town. Luffy wants to find One Piece; One Piece is a mythical treasure WHAT IS A GUARDIAN!?! cause I can say it's a training regiment that only the strong can perform and no one can disprove it.

[@silverscorpio24]

This show is exclusively for the show's creators to shove themselves into a fantasy world so they themselves can stroke their egos with how inclusive and diverse and cool they are

[@mediawatcher9225]

1 hour of you talking about high guardian spice, holy shit dude you put yourself through so much.

[@MidoriKyun]

I TRULY hope I don't sound rude. Please, it's NOT my intention, but the fact that Snap is trans, I find it a lost opportunity. He's sensitive, he likes to be more feminine, look beautiful, etc. WHY can the they show that boys can want to be like this, and just be boys? The way HGS put it, it's like "boys can only be ONE way (and them of course you suck because you're a boy)", which I think it's really toxic. Why can't this freaking stupid show have ONE positive and show that boys CAN be sensitive, delicate, even more feminine, AND STILL BE BOYS?! If they show both possibilities, being trans AND a feminine boy, this could be great and give people something positive. Again, I don't want so sound rude, and I truly hope I'm not shitting with trans people. If you really, really relieve you're trans, and just want to be happy, I'm honestly praying for your happiness. Everyone deserves to be happy and live however they want, just: 1. Mind to give others the same and let them choose their way; 2. Don't be an asshole.

[@tomw.1507]

43:38 I am screaming at the bottom comment, YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS. Like it's fine if you wanna be trans, but dont fucking PUSH people who act like the opposite gender to BE trans. If a boy wants to be feminine LET HIM BE FEMININE. I was hoping they were going that route with Snap but they didn't and, eh it's fine as his rant with Carraway while on lookout for the girls seems legit dysphoria. but frack I HATED how I'm pretty much a Tomboy chick and suddenly all my damn acquaintances thought I was Lesbian and/or a Trans. LIKE NO IM HAPPY AS I AM LET ME BE BOYISH DAMN IT. Sorry had to vent that, heh.

[@hikaruk.981]

This doesn't take into account fathers who will threaten, or actually get violent, with their sons if they want to be feminine...

[@noctemcat_]

Like, what even happened to good old destroying gender norms thing?

[@tomw.1507]

@@noctemcat_ omg right? I say that all the time xD

[@riotkitty]

The old lady is probably the best voice in this show. She is legitimately entertaining and her dialogue is snappy.

[@emectric1455]

The funny thing about the mature content warning, is I haven't seen any other show on crunchyroll get one. I checked to see if berserk 2016 has one but nope, and that had a r*pe seen in it, and didn't get a mature content warning.

[@mattwo7]

9:38 I mean the main character's name is Rose and she's going to a magic school to follow in the footsteps of her warrior mother who we know _nothing_ about (seriously, Steven Universe handled the dead mother's legacy thing _so_ much better than RWBY has so far). So many comparisons to Steven Universe and not nearly enough to RWBY.

[@ChiefMedicPururu]

16:07 "Iconic villains" *shows Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates*

[@Danganraptor]

"One of..." The guy on the left is Liquid Snake, who is VERY important to the overall plot of MGS.

[@ChiefMedicPururu]

@@Danganraptor Yes, but the juxtaposition was too funny to not notice.

[@Danganraptor]

@@ChiefMedicPururu Fair enough XD

[@TheArtSozosha]

"how do you do a worse job than 4kids?!" the bar has officially been lowered.

[@mistahjenkins4826]

Just something weird I'd like to mention? You know that fancy little disclaimer at the start of EVERY episode?... It only ever appears on this show. On Crunchyroll. Which has shows like Made in Abyss, which, by the way, DOESN'T HAVE A DISCLAIMER. Also, really quick, that's the first time I ever saw that clip of the purple haired girl chopping up the dummy, and that is the first time I ever laughed at this horrendous trashfire. Who is that character, who is their voice actor, and can we get more of her?

[@AtelierGod]

I think there is one on Goblin slayer, which begs the question why the hell is HGS considered to be so bad that it’s considered on par with GS!

[@DylJax]

Purple hair girl is named amaryllis

[@TheWaverunners]

I don't think Jojo ever had any such warnings on Crunchyroll. Also, Amaryllis' (Axe Girl's) VA is Katie McVay, who hasn't been in much prior. I agree, she gives easily one of the best performances of the series. Her relationship with Snap also feels much more genuine than Rose and Sage.

[@man3son1]

Violence gremlins are my favourite character archetype

[@goroakechi6126]

Oh god… When you hear the Death Note track over insane laughter, you know this is going to be majestic.

[@darkdwarf007]

gotta give it to the man for putting in a video an opinion that many wouldn't find appealing, the part with the editor, I mean. I disagreed with half her points, but it was still very good to hear different opinions. Subscribed

[@Nomadman903]

Man, this video editing really does wonders when it has high budget. I'm having a blast every second and maybe I should donate myself for this kind of quality content. Keep the good times rolling.

[@gyroxd2077]

@@Mangakamen #Freeslimeboy

[@danielferrieri7434]

What If High Guardian Spice was Produced by Netflix?

[@ragnaricstudios5888]

Well one thing is we wouldn’t be as mad that our money for underpaid anime workers wouldn’t be going into this trash heap

[@juuchanIRL]

can you take a shit on a shit? does it double stink? this requires testing.

[@dudemcguy8949]

@@juuchanIRL This is a highly researched topic by my self. Stinky does not compound on itself, but the radius of stank does increase

[@CTheng]

It might still be cringy but the quality of animation would probably be better. Say what you want about bad Netflix original show, but none of them are as bad as HGS.

[@Nitosa]

Probably still just as bad, but with a lot less backlash. Since they are known to make original shows, not always good tho. And don't fake us out of money which we thought helped the anime industry. And that was from what i have seen, is that the majority of reasonable backlash is that money wasted on something they didn't pay for.

[@sky-trevishere9638]

Being trans myself, dear god, writers, I beg of you, *show don’t tell*. Please. Stop putting us as displays for your ✨diversity✨ medal

[@sky-trevishere9638]

Don’t get me wrong, I do like a trans masc being shown here is cool but what bothers me is more of how they express it, while there’s nothing wrong with being totally open about being trans, there’s a difference between openness and using a trans character for exposition and outside viewers. Make it flow better, or like I said, show don’t tell, as someoen else said in another video, I don’t remember who but they explained how you can silently tell how an open trans character is trans through the scrapbook showing how they transitioned instead of being all “hI iM tRaNs” as a clear ploy to play with the whole “diversity” thing

[@ShadowWolfRising]

"The Culture of this world makes no sense!" One of the biggest pitfalls of writing a setting in Fantasy or Sci-Fi that isn't on Earth, is writing aspects of Earth Cultures into it that the existence of makes no sense in context of said world. Some can be excused given certain cultural aspects are shared by multiple in the real world (Warrior Code: Samurai from Japan, Knights in Europe, Vikingers Scandinavian, Braves from at least 1 Native American tribe, etc. Not hard to imagine Warrior Cultures outside of Earth.), but then some just straight up don't work due to hyper specific things leading to said cultural norms (Gender Dynamics: Males having more rights than Women in many cultures, alot of this is linked to things that happened on Earth. A example that bucks this being Suikoden 5's 'Queendom of Falena' where the Daughters inherit the Throne and Sons are Married off and the like, because that's Falena's cultural norm. It has fucking QUEENDOM in the title instead of Kingdom to emphasize it.) Anime and JRPGs ironically enough actually tend to suffer from this pitfall alot. But yeah, just shifting Earth Cultures into a new setting that isn't Earth WITHOUT EARTH EXISTING IN SAID SETTING doesn't make any sense and is usually the sign of lazy writing. This setting sharing so many Cultural norms or aspects with ANY of Earth's cultures doesn't make sense. Ignoring the regular stuff, there are various hostile creatures both magical and not that threaten lives that don't exist on Earth. There are Sapient Species other than humans here that share a world, THAT WOULD CHANGE CULTURES ALOT! Different Food, THE FUCKING EXISTENCE OF MAGIC! And that's without getting into crops, economics, Religion (There is no way this world has no Religions at all, in fact As long as there are sapient races and species, that will never go away entirely.). Even Gender norms were the result of many things happening in the various cultures and nations that led to those being established. So many small things can and have changed a culture in small to extraordinary ways, when multiple Sapient Species and Magic thrown into the mix this world shouldn't even REMOTELY resemble Any Earth Culture. 'Looks above' Well that was a rant, but that particular commonality REALLY bothers me for some reason. Possibly the OCD. And the Autism (As in ACTUALLY Autism, I'm Autistic.) fueling it.......I dunno, but the point is that people taking shortcuts with that bothers me.

[@wakkaseta8351]

That's because fantasy and Sci-Fi, especially when in the form of anime/JRPGs, tend to prioritize spectacle over substance, and the fans who complain about there not being enough meaningless bells and whistles when a setting tries to do the reverese just encourages it. Why waste time developing cultures or making a believable world when you can just copy/paste irl cultures and then go "Look! Pretty magic/glowy tech make big explosion!!", "Look! Big fantasy armies throwing themselves at each other head first!", "Look! Fanservice tween girl!"?

[@ShadowWolfRising]

@@wakkaseta8351 As a Fan of JRPGs and Anime........you are not wrong. And it actually bothers my OCD alot.

[@lukebytes5366]

Tbf, science fiction in particular can be used as a commentary on the real world. Fiction and reality aren't always mutually exclusive things. That being said, have it make sense in the world ffs.

[@icecreamhero2375]

Actually caring about world-building is good. It makes the world more interesting. Like MHA some people resent heroes and want more freedom to use their quirks however they want. It makes sense.

[@ShadowWolfRising]

@@icecreamhero2375 MHA does do that really nice. Really wish we knew how quirks affected Global Politics and Border Lines.

[@AtelierGod]

Representation is so over saturated that it’s become pointless, they’re just inserted as representation nothing more. Rather than making “Good characters that just happens to be trans” instead its always “We made a trans character. Like them!” People should really start want quality not quantity. But what do I know I stopped caring to watch western shows made post 2010 long ago.

[@Nitosa]

Sometimes a good character can relate and feel more personal to a someone without being anything like them, like inspiration, being relatable, fun, or interesting all of those make me veel good and like i can do more to be like them.

[@dadadadeadgirl5602]

Tbh I don't think High Gaurdian Spice should be representative of animation around this time, especially that even most of the cartoon community agreed that it's shit. I suggest trying to look more shows that are the exception to the rule, afterall Helluva Boss from what I heard has decent representation but doesn't make it a priority but use it to make more nuance on the characters relationship, Glitch Techs have racially diverse characters but it focuses on the story and characters while their identity is just part of what they are only, Ghost and Molly Mcgee is basically reminiscent of 2000s cartoons, Peepoodoo is cool, and I heard Arcane was pretty spectacular. I don't think it's a good idea to give up anything west related tbh.

[@AtelierGod]

@@dadadadeadgirl5602 individual creators don’t have diversity quotas to fill.

[@dadadadeadgirl5602]

@@AtelierGod Ya true, but if we're talking about stories that so happens to have decent representation, usually it's when it's not attached by a corporation. Like Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, and Peepoodoo are good examples. Look what I'm trying to say that western entertainment isn't completely dead and not beyond saving, and there are ones that arent politically forced or have shoehorned diversity as a selling point. And I'm not saying I'm supporting forced representation, I'm just giving out examples of shows that so happened to have that but priorities the story.

[@maddiemcnugget1076]

52:24 wait is that real? Like I know the new magic teacher (the one in the purple dress) is unethical because she almost killed everybody but that guy too? Bro you’re a TEACHER. Even if that guy is an ass, you are his GUARDIAN. Take him to a nurse and you have to reprimand Parsley for intentionally injuring someone. But this show never explained what a guardian is. What does guardian mean in this show? Caraway too. Idk caraway is a little better..? Whatever I’m gonna stop before I explode

[@TheWaverunners]

It's worse in context. Parsley did that mainly so Parnelle, her partner in the trial, could get first place in a competition they worked together on. The teacher specifically stated that nothing could bump Parsley down unless she "gravely hurt" someone. This is also after "Wow, son, we need to have a word". So he not only was ok with Parsley breaking that assholes foot, but seemed to approve of it instead of just bumping down Parsley like she wanted and giving the trophy to Parnelle like a normal teacher would have done.

[@jamesbond3w]

Knowing the context for Snapdragon's outrage and stuff is pretty enlightening. I've only seen clips and stuff so my mindset was all "Oh great. Its the 'all men are evil douches' nonsense again" which I'm pretty sure was their intent but I can see where some trans people see this as decent representation. The bullying and self discovering. All common pick up notions. Honestly if they focused on Snap and Axe girl I probably would've picked up this series and given it a chance

[@NekoBoyOfficial]

39:50 Nobody called themselves "non-binary" until the 2010's. Different gender dynamics were always explored in sci-fi (for example, in Star Trek: Enterprise an alien race had a third gender necessary for procreation).

[@admiralfang8714]

This show truly represents the unhinged and the crazy thank you crunchy roll for thinking about them

[@Thespokenone]

The main issue that I have with new animation/stories is that they try to create strong female/feminine characters just by creating horrible male/masculine characters, instead of actually developing good characters. It almost always seems like the character's personality is just their sexual identity and little to nothing else.

[@darkhorseman90]

All I can say is what HGS tried to include and do, One Piece has/had done in spades, and that the Snapdragon/Carraway scene was basically an "oasis in a desert" moment

[@thechugg4372]

Ah yes, a video so well done that the cameos contradict the main points, truly this is manga kamen at it's peak...

[@JSHADOWM]

Real talk, how do you FAIL to make Carroway intresting? ESPECIALLY WITH WHATS IMPLIED?! just make him the INVENTOR of transition magic! just do it, coward! at least then Rosemary and Snapdragon's ignorance of that transformation subschool makes SENSE. Carroway literally invented it, making it too new to be prolific enough or to have a grimmoire entry in the libraries.

[@PatchworkHeart]

YES OHMYGOD THAT WOULD BE SO COOL

[@moltrescompany]

16:07 My favorite villain from fire emblem: Corn

[@RetroRulzMyTown]

16:21 The worst part about this is that when you consider the shady background of the show, it begs the question of why they signed up in the first place. Money? Malice? Ignorance? The crew barring Kate Leth actually not being as horrible as they seem? Who even knows?

[@Polychi1998]

I stopped at the egg part. Massive stop.

[@abeestosruinsageneration3725]

Patchwork Heart's speech about trans identity in High Guardian Spice reminds me a lot about Hello Future Me's speech on suicide in Life is Strange. While both works were far from perfect, both people found something that resonated with them.

[@TheWaverunners]

Honestly, how they handle Kate in LiS is one of the few things I feel like they did fairly well, just like with Snapdragon here (everything else is shit though).

[@ThatguycalledJoe]

I feel like they're trying to straddle a line between giving their characters what they're written to want, and keeping them reasonably easy to identify with. Like, if Carroway just had a one dose permanent change-over with no upkeep or side effects, then there's not much in the way of internal weight to it which I think the writers believed would break relatability. Real trans-people, real people in general who aren't satisfied with their bodies in one or more ways that can't be "fixed" with positive thinking and gumption, they don't get an out like that. If you're not born with a uterus, you will never be able to carry a pregnancy, and that street goes the other way too. For some people this doesn't matter to them, but for others it can be pretty crushing. There's also the matter that in a setting that does have a perfect solution, having characters that identify as trans will be jarring because the identity of being trans ultimately boils down to wanting something that you can't "just" have. If Carroway can stroll into the apothecary and say "I'll have one potion to turn me into do a dude indefinitely, please.", and the guy at the stand says "Coming right up, that'll be some amount that isn't prohibitively expense.", then the problem is solved and it'd be weird for him to make a big deal of it because he doesn't even have to think about it anymore. Having there be an upkeep means that it's something that makes sense for him to keep somewhere in his mind. Effectively, at the point that he is permanently changed to the dude, he is no longer trans and goes to just being a dude, and if he still called himself trans then inherently the word could not have the same meaning as it does in the real world because it would refer to the fact that he did a thing once, not that it's a persistent element in who he is. Alright, time to cancel myself. Truthfully I find the fixation on labels that people tend to exhibit to be at high risk of being unhealthy. It's alright to want to live up to personal expectations of how you should be, but I feel that, for example, asserting one-self as being "non-binary" is less of a matter of gender, which in this case I'll define as being "a categorization of traits traditionally expected to divided based on the biological sex of the party exhibiting them", and more a matter of feeling uncomfortable with labels, and I have the hunch that the true root cause of this discomfort is that there actually isn't much of any gendered language at all, what people called gendered language is more akin to sexed language. Feminine still carries the baggage of "female", and the only word that jumps to mind that is used with any frequency to describe someone of the male sex who expresses a feminine gender without actually having any interest in being of the female sex (and thus is arguably not trans in any respect) is commonly interpreted as a slur due to having an extremely muddy use-case and its etymology relating to the idea of something (usually some kind of contraption or manufactured circumstance) that is generally not seen as something one would want to willingly interact with, thus giving it an inherent negative connotation on some level. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to solve this for two main reasons. One, there's always going to be people who want everything to stay the way it is and also people who are just going to not get the memo, and two it's incredibly difficult to intentionally spur a change in language. Any new word that one or more people actively try to create to define something is just about certain to end up sounding awkward or silly, and that'll prevent it from catching on so therefore it's not really practical to try to develop language befitting everyone. I think that people should on the whole let go of trying to conform to societal labels, and focus on just being who they are irrespective if who they are can be easily described or not.

[@lukebytes5366]

Yeah, no matter how natural you implant a minority, some people will be too uncomfortable with the concept to see it as anything other than out of place, and you can't change a mind like that without experience. I wish much of the left would stop forcing people to accept them because that's not doing anything, and it's better for them to move on with their own lives, because that's gonna make far more of a difference than anything.

[@ROXASOWEN]

doesn't really have much to do with the video but something i would like to see be explored "why is it important (or not important) to have characters that look like us for the sake of being relatable"

[@charminsi]

I will say that a character does not have to be like me (Asian-American, cis female, petite body) to be relatable. However if no characters in all of media looked like me (though that’s pretty impossible ngl), then I’d feel ignored. Tbh I’ve related to so many white cis male main characters. And my personal preference is to have no representation in American media than a flawed, stereotyped one (but that’s just my opinion - I know some people would rather have something than nothing). Ofc, I have the privilege of going to Korean media to get some of the “representation” I’m looking for. There’s probably demographics who don’t have that.

[@ROXASOWEN]

@@charminsi I'll admit maybe I don't get it cause I'm a white guy but I think it's kinda an insult to think that an audience can't/won't be grabbed or relate to a character that doesn't look like them rather than have a good story to tell. A lot of people relate to zuko from Atla but I'm willing to bet about half look nothing like him

[@charminsi]

@@ROXASOWEN I definitely agree. I will also say that representation shouldn’t be about making characters relatable but about making audience demographics feel seen and heard (and not as a caricature). And ofc the matter of feeling seen is subjective. Like in this video, Patchwork says they say they felt seen, but I’ve also seen many trans youtubers angry about the low quality in the “representation” in HGS. I’ll also add that white guys can experience the joy of representation, too. A bit off-topic, but I remember a KZbin video where the KZbinr (a cis, white male) realized the feeling of being “represented” when he saw a shy, awkward person on a reality TV show. And here’s where we go full circle: representation doesn’t have to be just about surface things like skin color or gender presentation. It could be about a personality trait or a behavior or a belief. And I guess that’s where the ideas of representation and relatability kinda overlap.