Review: Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems

This review summarizes the beginning of Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems. The crystal gems are Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl are gems of course, but on the other hand, Steven is actually half-gem and half-human. His dad, Greg, is human and his mom, Rose, is a gem. Rose gave up her gem form to birth Steven, but ultimately Greg raised him. Before Steven was born, the Crystal Gems were Rose, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, who together helped protect the Earth from corrupted Gems that would put people in danger. After they defeated the "Gem mutants" the Crystal Gems would "bubble" the mutants to prevent them from causing further harm.

Jumping ahead a little bit, we pick up when Steven is 13 years old. He is now living on the beach at a temple with the Crystal Gems. They love him completely and will do anything to protect him. His dad is still around, but Steven is with the Gems to learn more about his "Gem side." All he wants to do is to be able to join Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl on their missions to capture the corrupted Gems. Soon, he starts to show some improvement in using his gem powers, and that convinces the Crystal Gems to begin bringing him along on their missions.

One day, Steven is at home and decides to take a walk on the beach. While on his walk he notices a girl that looks around the same age as him sitting in the sand reading a book. He wants to become friends with her but is too nervous. He manages to introduce himself, and she says her name is Connie, but out of nowhere they are put in danger. Corrupted Gems appear and Steven tries to protect Connie by creating a magical bubble that shields them from the danger. Unfortunately, Steven still doesn't really know how to use his powers yet, and they become stuck in the bubble. Once they were able to break free they decide to become friends.

Right before it's time to leave on another mission, Steven learns something new about what the Crystal Gems can do. Pearl explains something called "fusion." Fusion occurs when 2 or more Gems combine into one new entity. On the mission, Garnet searches for "the Earth beetle" while Steve, Pearly, and Amethyst pursue "the Heaven beetle." During the mission Steven becomes obsessed with the idea of Pearl and Amethyst "fusing" into Opal. Pearl and Amethyst explain that they only fuse when they need to, not for unnecessary things. Secretly, there is another reason they haven't become Opal in a while: they don't really get along that well. Steven kind of knows that, but still just wants to see their fusion. They find the Heaven beetle but are attacked by a giant bird monster. Finally, Pearl and Amethyst realize that they need to fuse to defeat the monster. Once they try fusing they start to bicker at each other, and the bird uses that distraction to eat Steven whole. Steven is stuck in the bird's stomach but he ends up finding the Heaven beetle again. Finally, Pearl and Amethyst get it together, fusing into Opal, saving Steven, and defeating the giant bird monster. Back at home, Garnet asks about the beetle. Pearl and Amethyst both forgot about it and start blaming one another. Luckily, Steven shows that he was able to retrieve the Heaven beetle and the mission is accomplished. 

Later, Pearl tries teaching Steven about sword fighting with a hologram version of herself. Steven, unfortunately, does not cooperate as he should, and instead goofs off, which irritates Pearl. Pearl's irritation causes her to lose focus and get stabbed by her hologram self.  She then "poofs" away and only her gemstone is shown. Amethyst and Garnet tell Steven that when Gems get hurt badly they retreat to their Gems to regenerate. Steven tries waiting for Pearl but is impatient and tries using the hologram Pearl. After a few attempts of trying, Steven says “don't hold back” and that activates the hologram Pearl to start sword fight training. He ends up defeating the hologram Pearl, then the real Pearl returns, and Steven is happy that she's back. 

The Gems and Steven go to normal-seeming radio tower but Pearl tells Steven that it was once a communication hub for "Gem Kind." Lately it has been interfering with normal television waves, so they have to fix it by breaking the communication hub. In order to do that, Garnet and Amethyst agree to fuse into Sugilite so they can destroy it. They fuse into Sugilite and Steven is excited. Sugilite starts smashing the communication hub, but Pearl says they should go because Sugilite was being too careless. Steven ends up getting a little cut on his head from a small rock of the hub. Pearl and Steven then leave and go back home. After a while they start wondering where Garnet and Amethyst are, because they should've returned by now. Then they see that they are still fused into Sugilite, which is a problem, so Pearl has to unfuse them, which tires her out. Pearl is able to bring Garnet and Amethyst back and they are happy but also very sore. 

Connie and Steven decide to have a picnic. When Steven gets there it is obvious to Connie that he is feeling very sad. Connie asked him why we looked so sad, and explains what happened. Amethyst was messing around by a cliff and when Steven told her to be careful she ended up falling off and cracking her gemstone. The Crystal Gems and Steven try to think of a way to fix Amethyst. Pearl and Garnet remember how Rose, Steven's mother, was able to fix their gems because she had healing tears, but Rose is gone so they resolve to find another way. They decide to go to Rose’s old garden because they think that's where they can fix her, by using the fountain. When they find the fountain, it is empty and not running. Pearl and Garnet find a way to make the fountain flowing again, while Steven tries to produce healing tears to fix Amethyst. He can't produce the tears, though, and gets angry about not being able to cry. When he is finally able to cry he puts teardrops on her gem but it doesn't work. Eventually, the fountain starts running again because Pearl and Garnet were able to fix it. When Steven is done telling the story to Connie, Connie starts to get a headache from her glasses. To her surprise, when she takes them off she's able to see without them. This doesn't make any sense until they realize that she took a sip Steven's juice. Steven runs away happy because he realizes that he doesn't have healing tears but healing spit. Connie now has to hide the fact that her eyes are fixed to her parents. 

Steven is on a call with Connie and she says they can't hang out but will be able to tomorrow now that it's summer vacation. Steven asks what that is because he's never gone to school before. Steven asks Pearl to help him set up his own school but then he complains that no one can teach him. Pearl didn't understand what it was that Steven wanted, so she pulled out a "magical mirror" from her Gem. She tells Steven: "it can capture and display any event it's witnessed in all of Gem history." When they try it out it doesn't work, and Pearl thinks it's all worn down and says that that is the end of their school. Steven yells "schools out for summer vacation!" and runs away happy to play with his new mirror. Steven plays with the mirror, trying to figure out how to make it work. Finally, when Steven walks into the road the mirror tells him to watch out. He notices that the mirror actually works and starts asking how it works. Unfortunately, the mirror can only repeat things it hears. Steven and the mirror start having fun around the town, telling jokes to each other. The mirror ends up figuring out a new way to communicate. It still repeats things it hears, but eventually it is able to make a sentence out of the words it has heard. It says Steven is its new friend and he's happy to have a new friend. However, when Steven went to go show the Gems the mirror said no over and over. The Crystal Gems start getting worried about why Steven keeps saying the mirror can talk back because it's not supposed to do that and is only supposed to follow orders. The mirror wasn't saying anything to them only to Steven. The Crystal Gems finally heard the mirror talk and they decided to get it back from Steven to protect him. Steveb didn't want to give up the mirror, however, because the mirror was screaming and not wanting to go with the Gems. Steven runs away with the mirror and asks it more questions about it and the mirror says it's "away from home" and to "let it out." He wants to help it and the mirror shows him how to pull off the gemstone on the back of the mirror. Right before the Gems caught up to Steven, he pulled the gemstone off the mirror and he saw the Gem transform into someone. This Gem didn't look like one of the Corrupted Gems he's seen, instead it looked more like the Crystal Gems. The Gem was happy that Steven helped her and said her name wass Lapis Lazuli. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl show up and are ready to fight, but Lapis ends up getting away. Steven realizes that there are probably more Gems like them out there somewhere. There are much more things to come but this is only the beginning of their story, Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems.