I don't really make serious posts often, but, man, I need to braindump how much this show bums me out. I don't actually really like it anymore, it's fine I guess, but what I DO like is the pilot. Look at this:

This shit looks awesome. The character designs are so unique and I love the use of darker colours. Cartoon Network has never had a show with this kind of aesthetic before and, because things were changed up, it never will (probably).

Obviously, not everything can stay from a pilot, but I still wonder why things were changed so drastically. Surely they could've made it work, at least to a degree? The art style the show ended up going with is just a bit too standard, whilst the pilot feels like Rebecca Sugar's untouched vision. That's not even to say what they ended up going with was bad, I just think the pilot was way better. If you haven't already, pick up the Steven Universe art books. Even if you haven't seen the show, the art books are worthwhile, especially if you're already into that kind of thing.

Doesn't really help that the animation in the final show isn't very good either. Ignoring shot composition for a second, the actual motions are all very still and it really began to crash hard in later seasons. It also doesn't help that they didn't bother using set model sheets, so nothing is consistent and looks bad a lot of the time because they're essentially animating base sketches.

Anyway, those are my thoughts because whyyy not. I used to really love this show, but the problems with the visuals have always bugged me. And the loss of the pilot's style is very disappointing in hindsight. There's a ton of fanart out there, where people re-drew shots from the show in the style of the pilot. And lemme tell you, even if it's not official, they come very close to realizing what the show could've looked like had they stuck with it and it looks great. I don't blame any of the crew for the change and I'm sure at the end of the day, everyone was happy changing things up to save time and money, as well as make it easier to animate the characters.

Still bums me out. 22 year old man is now done talking about Steven Universe, thank you.