And that's all folks. Forgive me for punching the mic with my unpredictable problematic P's, I got a new mic and I'm still figuring it out. I'd like to talk about some of my favorite anime and manga next alongside the new season of anime. Orient is looking pretty bad right now, so maybe that would make an interesting video. Thank you everyone who's watched and interreacted with these videos. See you next time! Anyway the last HGS timestamps for awhile. 00:00 Intro 01:32 Comment Reply 12:19 Episode 12 42:13 Final Words

You know if they wanted Sage cutting her hair to have ANY weight or symbolism to it, they could have gone with the old fable of the longer a witch's hair is, the more powerful she is (i.e Bayonetta), I think that's a perfect ideal that would fit within old magic, maybe they could had a thing where sage is always combing/brushing her hair because her mother told her its important for a witch to have long hair, and with new magic it doesn't matter if you have short or long hair since most of the magic comes from the orb thingies. So, when Sage cuts her hair to save Rose, it would be like her finally accepting new magic and throwing away old magic, since that's the only power source she'll have to save the day

Actually, I had a cool idea for Transition magic. Have Snapdragon turn himself into a girl with that magic for a day and then have HIM, no one else, decide if he permanently wants to become a girl. At least, that's what I got.

Snap Dragon is 14! Being told by a TEACHER that the answer to his problems is to transition? Besides the grooming aspect. Wouldn’t that just prove Sage, the bullies, and his family were right?! That he must be a girl inside, because he enjoys feminine stuff? Jesus, this show. I can’t!!! But, on the other end of the spectrum it’s completely fine if a girl (Rosemary) wants to do “boy” things. No one tells her she might really be a boy, and she should transition for liking masculine stuff?

I agree that the show should had been a comedy. Like Thyme could mentioned they were named after herbs not spices then Rosemary says High Guardian Herbs doesn't have the same ring to it.

I thought Mandrake would be revealed to be Rosemary’s secret stepbrother or something because of the hair and stuff, which honestly would have been a really compelling conflict for Rose coming to terms that her mom chose someone else/Witch Country over herself and her family. Omg the angst is right there! But no, they just kill him. There goes my only headcanon for this dumpster fire of a show. I’m half tempted just to make an au about it!

I think the problem with the magic is that it's mixed up. It's an conservative liberal analogy. But it's also a analogy of environmentalism and industrialization. It seems like they have two writers with to different goals with the magic.

“HGS feels dated, even tho it came out a few months ago” BRO THATS EXACTLY WHAT IVE BEEN SAYING THANK YOU it legit feels like it’s from some nostalgic old Sunday morning 4kids anime show that I could’ve SWORN I’ve seen before and recently got rebooted

This show really downplays the seriousness of deciding to medically transition. If I could just take a magic potion to turn into a guy just for a month, I would totally do it for fun. What would be the big deal?

My high school went on lockdown when a homeless guy with a machete appeared on the street. He didn't even get onto the premises for it to happen. High Guardian Academy not going into lockdown only happened because the writers wanted to create artificial conflict. Funny enough, if it would actually create interesting stakes for Mandrake if it did go into lockdown, since he has a ticking clock to take out the heroes before the authorities arrive, and that's not even getting into the teachers possibly chasing him down too.

Why do none of the main characters have any battle damage? Mandrake had severe bleeding and scars yet the main 4 are unscathed. That bothers me because it makes me feel like the main characters didn't struggle at all, there's no sign that they had to try hard to win yet they look completely untouched in battle. Even super overpowered characters like Goku and Kenshiro come out of battle with scars and even torn clothes yet the 4 girls have not even a bruise or scratch.

What the fuck- I just realised... 40:55 Snapdragon will become a trans woman because the writers want to force a lesbian love triagle between Sage, Rosemary and Snap ohmygod

While watching a video redesigning the characters of HGS, I found myself rewriting the show in my head. For example, the difference between guardians and regular adventurers is that guardians are officially recognized by the government and work for the royalty of the country, and always work with at least one other person. To get them used to working together, the academy partners up each student with another. Sage and Rosemary are partners, while Thyme and Parsley are. Due to being total opposites, Sage and Rosemary don't make a good team despite being friends, and this is emphasized by how well Thyme and Parsley, as well as Snap and Amaryllis work together. I would have it that the lesson they eventually learn that being good friends doesn't mean they work well together and have them partner up with other people while still retaining their friendship. I think it's a unique lesson that not a lot of shows have, since in many cases it's the power of friendship saving the day lol.

The scene of rose's reactions to seeing her mother felt so unnatural and insincere. This is not just a friend who she has not seen for a few months. This is her mother who has gone missing since who knows when, who she has personal feelings attached to. Not a shred of nuance behind any of it. As a guardian, is she incapable of accessing the situation? How is her mum suddenly in a dungeon talking to her. How can she just so easily accept this? How is she accepted into this school if she is this easily fooled. Nepotism I tell you, really shows you that she didn't earn her position here.

Okay, I ain’t good at writing but let me give a try at re-writing Mandrake as a character. Mandrake is introduced early in the series alongside Olive. At this point we just see him in the background as a lavender color cat watching over her. During the series we sometimes see in the background someone with lavender hair just as an easter egg to say that he was always watching since the beginning. Could even have the kid that “accidently” shot an arrow at the principal have lavender hair indicating that even though at first it can be taken as just have been an accident it was actually a disguised Mandrake trying to assassinate the principal During the festival episode, we have a disguised Mandrake following Rosemary and the others, but he’s stopped when he bumps into someone, they have a little fight but he uses his charisma to bails himself out of the situation but he also leads the person to follow him into an isolated place for some “fun” The episode goes the same until the end where there is a scene of Olive entering a hideout with a figure with lavender hair with the moonlight coming through the window hiding ‘em in darkness, he’s sitting on a bed by the corpse of that person we saw previously, with a dagger still embed in them. We have a small back and forth of Olive and the figure with her being disgusted and alarmed that he killed someone and that he might’ve compromised the mission while he simply states “I couldn’t resist” It goes for a bit more until she calms down a little and say that Rosemary is the daughter of Lavender. He’s taken a back a little and then say something along the lines of “This throws a wrench into our plans” The rest of the episodes follows the same (If I were to re-write the entire show I would be here for a long time) until the “Attack at Guardian High Episode” Smoke face appears to talk with Olive and it’s revealed (gasp) that the lavender cat was Mandrake all along and he’s given the all clear for him to kill the girls. While sneakily following along Rosemary almost spots him, she follows him into a room and Mandrake disguises as Lavender. We have the conversation go more or less the same but in this version when Rosemary says “I missed you” he visibly hesitates and gives up on killing her even though he had a lot of chance of ending her right then and there. When they battle Mandrake later he’s no pushover, he’s mostly goes for the kill with his attacks against the girls except for Rosemary, he has a chance to kill her again but he doesn’t take it. After the broom fight instead of going after Olive he goes after Rosemary, he binds her in magical chains and is getting ready to take her away when he gets defeated by Sage. In the after-credit scene we have Mandrake inside a cell held by chains to the wall, Lavender comes into the room and grabs him by the throat pushing him against the wall “Such failure…” She kicks him full force in general region of his wound from when Olive stabbed him and pull his face up by his hair. This is one of the few scenes where we see him actually scared while Lavender stares him down. “Mandrake… your failure here could’ve jeopardized the entirety of the mission, however you’re still useful to us, but… next time you fail at such important mission like this one…” She grinds her first against his still healing wound to accentuate her point and cause him pain. “I won’t be so merciful” She lets go of him and walks out. And the season ends right about there. If there was a second season it would be revealed that Mandrake is the result of an affair that Lavender had a long time ago. Lavender felt guilty of what she'd done but she still raised Mandrake, however instead of being kind like she was to Rosemary she was harsh (and maybe if you want to go there maybe even abuse at times). He was raised in Witch Country since a child to be an assassin and Lavender’s right-hand man and that is one of the reasons why he has a lust for killing. But he draws the line at killing family, that’s the reason why he didn’t kill Rosemary when he had the chance. Maybe if Rosemary got kidnapped and taken to Witch Country in a future episode have him be uncharacteristicaly kind to her instead of his usual psychopathic attitude. Could even have a throwaway line of him being proud of his hair (leading back to why every time he didn’t transform into anyone specific he always choose to have lavender hair) The re-write was based on some guy’s reaction to clips on KZfaq without all that much context and misunderstanding parts of the plot, thinking Mandrake was related to Lavender because of the hair colors. I wanted to keep Mandrake as a psychopathic killing machine with a thirst for blood but while still giving him a little more depth and making him a little more interesting than just “assassin that likes to kill because he’s evil uwu” also give more room for conflict whitin the story. (Also, sorry if it wasn't good, as I said, I ain't a good writer)

I think what I dislike the most about Carroway's character is that he's basically the only male character to be consistently nice. It's almost like the creators don't view trans men as real/proper men, since he acts like a decent person (which in this show = feminine)

I know that this show is bad in all fronts, but I just cannot get over how terrible the characterization and development for the characters were, especially Snapdragon. the lack of choice of exploration for Snapdragon + the further "reaffirmation" that all cis men are bad by having Snapdragon be a girl is just so infuriating to me. I cannot believe that these people were allowed to make a show. I could've done better at this point, and I'm an 18 year old dumbass who just likes writing short stories :( If you do rewrite it, I'll absolutely be there to indulge in it. I wish you luck with it, considering how... little you're gonna be able to work with. And I'm excited to see with what you upload next!

I find it completely dumb they introduce mandrake and then kill him off so soon. why not just have him demoted it'll give him a motive to get revenge. If he's a recurring villain it can add more more conflict and explore the characters I mean it the story didn't really explore his character at all it just seems like the needed a big bad but didn't want to commit to anything. Which leads to it being boring because now we only really have lavender on the villain team who's even more bland. Maybe the writers just wanted the satisfaction of killing a toxic man and didn't think of how it narratively affects the story. Also if the story continued I'd bet that in some way they would redeem lavender in a probably undeserved way as well.

We going to ignore that Sage had some damn bricks falling on her only to be on top of the pile and get up like it only did 10 HP out of like 500?

Why does that shot of Parsley's legs running look so weird? Also it didn't make sense to me that the evil council wants to kill or punish Mandrake for failing his task when he was betrayed and his plan sabotaged by Olive yet Olive wasn't immediately taken in and killed or punished when she failed her mission?

Carroway: A highly dangerous shape-shifter! *sits right down* Wow, just wow! Also, Mandrake as Lavender could have just told rosemary to not tell anyone because there is some extreme danger if anyone knows "she" is there, something that would outweigh loose lips that can't keep secrets. So disappointing...

1 child with an unloyal sidekick takes on an entire school, bruises half the teachers, and burns the school to the ground. Villains: I see you are a worthless failure. I did better at half your age. Huhu.

Mandrake got stabbed in the chest AND got an arrow to pierce through his entire leg. How is he still alive? How is he still standing even? It's not like he showed that he has healing magic or incredible stamina or pain resistance. Even a "how's he still fighting, we have hit him so much!' line could show that he's exceptional in how he can still do magic just fine even when he should be dead by all his brutal injuries (Also he should be screaming out of pain judging by all the shit they did to him, a simple "AUGH" isn't enough)

I hate the fact I kinda like Mandrake. Lazy asf in naming him MANdrake though, it's as obvious as naming an everyday guy Norman Joe Smith in hopes it will seem clever. His first interaction with anyone is with his own partner in a fairly extreme and hostile way that doesn't go overboard (by actually hurting the cat) and demonstrates that he is willing to betray his own partners if he chooses or the situation calls for it. That is interesting! That's something dynamic that draws me in to see if he ever decides to do such a thing! Everything else about the show and villains suck though!

I think the writers of this show should stay away from children

High Guardian Spice will serve as a 'what not to do' on... everything.

I know I am most likely super late on this, but you missed the final "kill all men" theme in the show with Mandrake. Mandrake being a poison and all I expected him to be evil, but then again you can't use the name- personality theme since Rosemary (which only grow in very specific soil and lands) is wild, Sage (which is a certain mint) has her morality questioned, Parsley has a large family yes, but her family is no different from the others; seeing that Parsley was introduced to European soil, thus foreign-- the background of her city is also as European inspired as anywhere else, Thyme is somewhat used properly until you see they made Thyme a bitch, which is odd since Thyme is an allergen rarely and is supposedly fit fore every diet, part of the intensively large mint family and is just as common product in cooking as Rosemary and Sage; why is she a bitch toward them if Thyme is so closely related to them? Olive which is considered sacred in literally most parts of the world is a villain. It is extremely confusing 'cause the only person that acts accordingly to this convention is Mandrake, if you are using this and the main cast also can easily fall into this convention then what is makes them so different to be exempt? Unless he is so comically evil 'cause he is man. Which maybe the case, Olive had ample time to get her job done (and apparently it has to do with stopping Thyme from getting the means to prevent the rot). She takes months to take action, allow them to get the means, screw up the abduction, fail in her mission (this makes it twice), reveal her employer's name, and fail to destroy the school. When we meet her employer, it is literally -- I don't f'ing care as long as you destroy the damn school and stop them from figuring a plan to stop the rot. Mandrake not only uncover information, but he destroys the school along with everything Thyme and Calloway wrote down about the Healing water and rot. And they don't know where he comes from. Mandrake ACTUALLY did his job, but they are going to kill him 'cause "lolz he menz". How did he fail if they wanted the School destroyed with any evidence of clearing the rot, when he did just that? Is it because he failed to kill them? Then how come Olive wasn't executed months ago when she allowed them to figure out a way, told them of their name and failed to kill/ kidnap them and steal their only means to stopping the rot. Olive failed to a much larger degree and got nothing of her plan get off the ground. Mandrake at least accomplished his main goal; killing was them was never the main mission-- he just wanted to it 'cause it makes his job easier. The final episode is a microcosm of the series: The themes are horribly misunderstood and use half haphazardly, the cast talk past each other and not with each other, the animation cut corners, the plot is nonsensical, and there is an underline bias enforcing itself on the writing.

10 seconds with Mandrake and I already like him more than any of the main characters

I will never understand why the final boss of this season isn't a character that was build up trough out the season. It just further go's to show that nothing was planned out from the start.

And yes, it's clear that these writers are the type of women who are always competing with each other, to look 'better' than the others around her. I mean, if Sage and Rosemary were the bestest of friends, then the conflict during the Festival wouldn't have happened, they'd know each other well enough to know what each other liked. And don't bother rewriting this, you can't save it.

If the "writers " really want to do the Trope where the evil guy kills their comrade because they're evil. They still could have done it but off of subverted manDrake and Olive earlier and showing off their relationship to where he saw her as friend or something

1. 24:02 If New and Old Magic can used together, why is this the first time that we're hearing about this, why has no one told Sage about this prior to the final episode? 2. 33:50 If there were other students that specialize in Old Magic why was Sage treated like the only student that used it, why couldn't she just reach out to those students, why were they primarily teaching with New Magic if Old Magic was always an option? All of this pretty much made majority of Sage's conflict a waste of time, (flips tables) I'm out!!!

19:00 they literally talk about her mom being in witch country so the little cliffhanger on the season finale where they reveal her mom being with the bad guys in witch country isn’t a shock to the audience at all, way to fuck up your own cliffhanger well done 👍

The fact that you, commenters below, and other reviewers have mentioned that Mandrake, Olive, and the purple haired girl (I can't be bothered to remember her name or look it up) are more liked than the protagonists should raise an eyebrow. Here's my hypothesis: I follow lots of comic book, movie, and video game channels, and they cover the crappy, poorly received media written by people like Kate Leth (hashtag you know the rest because YT is censor happy in the comments). One common theme I've seen is their inability to write their main characters, the people we're supposed to root for, as heroic or virtuous. Instead, they come across as some combination of shallow, one dimensional, a Mary Sue, mean, spiteful, or a little too eager to use violence. They're simply "heroes" and must be respected because they're the protagonists, not knowing what makes a hero a hero. While some of their antagonists are also written to be flat pieces of paper (often being strawmen to issues they disagree with), their villains tend to be more fleshed out with personality, motive, hidden depths, and flair. It's also common they're only villains because they're using questionable means to do what they believe is morally right, or they were only being controlled/blackmailed by the evil pieces of paper mentioned before. It's as if the writers are more familiar with what drives a villain, making it easier to create them (see also "write what you know"). There's also the argument that the morals of a writer like Kate Leth (hashtag she needs a break from social media for a few years) are skewed to the point where what she views as good and evil are inverted from society's norms that cause the audience to want the protagonist to fail and root for the villain, but I don't think it applies to this show...yet. We'll see what happens in Season 2...assuming there even _is_ a Season 2. tl;dr - The writers of this show are better at making villains than heroes.

Rose sees her mom for the first time in years I'm assuming and just starts telling her information. Doesn't ask where she's been or what happened I get she's supposed to be naive, or kinda stupid, but at least have her say "where you been? What happened?!" And have fake lavender explain she had to go into hiding cause enemies from witch country wanted to hurt her family. She's back cause they want to infaltrate the school, thinking the triad has information about something called "the rot" that they want to use it for personal gain, so she needs to know everything about something called 'the rot' So Rosemary can go "I KNOW ALL ABOUT THAT MOMMY I CAN HELP YOU" AND THEN she spills everything It shows her naivety and how desperate she wants her mom and her approval especially since she's back, and you can give her a bit of credit cause she did ask, it was believing her so easily that Rosemary showed how naive and hurt she is from her mom leaving

The entire time I thought Mandrake was Lavender's son/Rosemary's brother. I was sure that it would be revealed that he's Lavender's secret son, and that she's been evil since before Rosemary was even born.

You can play a game with this show where you take a shot everytime you see orange haired twin tail girl (the girl to the right of blond girl in the cave episode) in the background. When you start paying more attention to her you notice all sorts of weird stuff in the animation like in the cave episode where she lifts her left leg despite the axe being thrown at her right.

There are no bad ideas in storytelling, only bad execution. I uphold to the idea that there is room for stories and shows that are just start to finish edgeless fluff, if that's what someone wants. Clearly that's not what this show ended up trying to do, though. Regarding Mandrake, here's a way some details about him could have been written. Frame it that he's in higher ranking than Olive, so the tendency is to go with what he says rather than what Olive says even when it'd probably be better to listen to Olive, and the reason he's a higher rank than Olive is because of a bureaucratic snafu relating to the fact that he's a murderous psychopath and really efficient at any missions that involve killing with minimal regard for collateral damage while being lackluster at best at anything requiring more discretion than that, so early on this was determined and his superiors simply stopped assigning him to do anything he'd be liable to screw up, leading to a track record with a streak of successes, in turn leading to him getting put into a position he's not actually qualified for in the absolute slightest since exclusively being deployed on hits resulted in his ability to manage literally anything else being severely held back. Of course, that'd also require framing his higher-ups as being capable of committing a massive error like that, and that'd hamper the intimidation factor, so ya'know. I guess you could frame that those three are just clowns who think way too highly of themselves, believing they're in control with Lavender just playing them like the suckers they are for some end of her own. Have Mandrake skip execution day by actually having to use his head to save his own skin, then he chases the four plus Olive around as an independent threat because he sees it as being their faults that he lost his good standing, while Lavender has to balance what she's been doing and trying to find them time to hunt him down and cut his head clean in half or something. What is it about this show that makes people want to redo it?

Mandrake traps them in the forge, oh whatever could they do to get out of there, and to present more of the world building naturally at the same time? Oh no, what if parsley (the least important main character of the four) is trapped in there too, what could she have done to help in that situation? Hmm, didn't she know about the hidden passage in the forge during ep3? Toss some secrets in there, like maybe a hidden magical defence system of old magic deep underground the academy, locked behind a door. She may have discovered this door in ep3 but left it because it's not the right time to explore it yet. Now she finds it and opens the door, gets into defence room. With the help of snap and amaryllis, they help to reactivate the defence system and there, destroys all the new dark magic mandrake casted on the school. But no, because she is the main character, of course she has to join in the final battle. because the four of them have to be in the same scene together to be considered as main characters. This could easily be a 3-4 part episode, but they have to rush it because you know, filler for the first 6 episodes.

Mandrake is such a great villain. I honestly love antagonists and I'm glad there is no season 2 since I don't have to witness his "execution".

You know, even low budget is kind of a hard to justify excuse. The early animated shorts by Vivziepop and the Daicon IV short film show this. If you love the material you're working on, you pour your heart into it. They are entertaining, unique and made by people who weren't being funded by major studios. In fact they can be considered "basement projects" but the point still stands.

I had a bit of a thought experiment with the old/new magic system.because outside of the *the message* there is no reason for why people in that show would be traditional about something that is a literal upgrade in every way. What I came up is a blue eyes red eyes type of system in wich new magic represents potential,it is easier to use and has the ability to make spells being able to be used in variants however the spells will never be more powerful as the ammount of mana the mage spends on them . Thats what old magic excels at,Power. This type of magic is more complex to use and very strict with how you must perform spells.however in exchange of a sacrifice you can make the power output of your spells exceed that of the mana spend to perform them. An example for both would be a personal bubble shield spell. With new magic, you can make a shield for multiple people, a shield that moves on its own, a shield that heals you,etc, but the shield can only withstand one attack. With old magic, you can only make one shield for you.you cannot use it on someone else, it doesnt heal you, it doesnt grow, you cant even change the color, however that shield will be able to withstand so much damage that the opponent will need to use high level magic to be able to damage it. It is not that creative I do admit.but is far better than what the show has done, it explains why people would be divided between old and new magic, why people that use old magic cant do as much as those of new magic, and most importantly, It doesnt turn new magic into a deus ex machina factory

Since 'transition magic' seems to be pretty accessible in this world I expected the toxic masculinity guy to be also using it, coz he's so vain. He uses it to turn into a girl, then ogles himself in the mirror, something like that.

I tried to find the budget for hgs. They hid the numbers. Going at a roundabout way. So take with a grain of a salt. In comparison to Steven universe, the budget theoretically $300k to $600k per season. Judging from the short cuts like leaving in errors, png images, and lack of background animation, my guess $400k. Not to mention this series is probably the best evidence for money laundering since crunchyroll said they would support the anime industry, instead pocketed money to make the series. Probably the team on the show pocketed the budget with the myriad of errors, and png images.

That is something that bothers me a lot with the political side of the trans movement. It pushes boys who like girl things and vice versa into being trans. A boy can like pink, playing with dolls, girl styles, ext and still be a boy. Now though, people would just call them an "egg" and push them to alter their body. It's frustrating Trans has moved from physical body dysphoria to enforcing gender norms.

This is the first time I've seen a KZfaqr use a series of pictures of themselves to go along with their audio. I like that.

High guardian spice is a prime example why it took me so long to decide if i wanted to introduce magic into the story ive been planning. It can too easily be used as a crutch that ruins any chance of suspense. I do thing magic can be very fun and interesting in a story, but it takes planning and care (that they clearly did not have) to have it in a way where it can work in the world naturally but not be over powered. Thats why i always prefer to write magic in a more hard manner than soft, though i have seen soft magic used in great ways.

mandrake "you're gonna die." me: don't you lecture me with your 20 dollar hair cut. also i remember watching a movie called for those that want to kill me. and it was refreshing to have smart villains. that movie had some of smartest villains for any piece of recent media. also the major from hellsing ultimate. if you seen you know if you haven't i just say watch it cause that dude did some 4d chass power moves.

I really don't understand, how hard can it be, to write a high fantasy show. You can just put whole lot of lore and worldbuilding into it, you don't even need characters.

When rewriting the show. Take care with other details about Transition magic section. Because you have to also include other races of people. This is a world that has characters like the devil lady teacher and the giant in the pilot. These would have also been issues in this world, at some point. But became a norm. So it makes it harder and harder to believe Snapdragon's conflict. Him having feminine traits is horrible. But everyone is okay if you're dating a 40 foot lady? You'd have to remove these characters for it to make sense towards their argument. Or Snap has to have no conflict. Besides choosing to stay or go back. Hell, it make more sense with this world. That there be a human population problem. I'd see people wanting to become devil's or giant's. Why be a boring human. That be a more realistic problem they would face. That's the problem with this series. Things that could be talked about, aren't. The "rot" could have been more of gathering of negative energy. Done by the bad guys. Healing water wouldn't be a plot hole. It be a normal RPG item. The world and families would be torn apart of people using magic in negative ways. Where's the people who could transform into one of the teachers. Murders a student. You than can finally define what is High Guardian Spice. Protect the world of people misusing magic. This would actually use the TV-MA rating properly. Carraway letting Mandrake escape sums up this show perfectly. Magic can do anything. And no one simply ties him down by using a spell. If you don't want me to ask this question. Than have the attack blast him a mile away. He survived glass and probably a 50 foot fall. He can survive a mile long throw. Or have him transform at the last second to a bird. Dodging magic attacks. Probably just made a bad fight. So they wouldn't have to animate a lot. Like the show dodging good world building.

Crunchyroll sacrificed any potential the show had by hiring an incompetent and inadequate production crew for the sake of ticking a bunch of checkboxes!

Oh yes! On that mention of characters lacking movement to express their emotion on what they're saying or discussing; I knew something felt missing when looking through some of these scenes. You see this a LOT in most anime, one of my favorite anime, K-On, does this amazingly well. And it gives more depth to the characters personalities too, like you'll often see Yui, who's an air headed klutz, get easily distracted in doing menial tasks, as well as constantly hugging Azusa or teasing her, while they're having many of their discussions. It gives off she's a very carefree character, on top of her airheaded and klutzy self; and many of these characters in the show share varied dynamics and interactions between each other that make it feel real and believable. That's why a vital writing tip I've always heard is to never have your characters be static in any scene, whether they're expositing, or casually talking; you need to keep the viewers engaged. Explains why no one likes that infamous "lets talk at a diner/cafe/restaurant table for X amount of time", it's boring, uncreative, and down right lazy. As well as mentioning the world building; yeah, they really never keep it grounded in this show. So many things are added, or put in that make no coherent sense, and just raises more questions than answers. The most notable ones being that Squid mech, and the VR/AR goggles Snap and Purple Hair were using. Before then, the only idea of where this world's technology was set in was thanks to the Industrial looking train on Episode 1. They even have a trolley being man powered by Orcs, so that makes me question WHY is that a thing when the could easily create some a mechanism to do the job? And sure, we could debate that in that town, or country, that they're not as advanced as other countries, but still I find that hard to believe that technological advancements like the mech and goggles couldn't be traded amongst all sorts of cultures; when we in our world, have even 3rd world countries using smartphones and the internet to a degree. It's random stuff that like that distract me from watching a show, call it nitpicking or whatever, but when you're trying to craft a world that's believable, no matter the setting or genre; it needs to make sense. That's like going through Lord of the Rings, and someone pops out with a Assault Rifle to fight back the horde. How immersion breaking is that? If HGS can put in here, that virtual games exist in this world, as well as controllable mechanical monsters; I don't see why they're not learning how to make that more than magic. ALSO ALSO, what's the point of having these different races in a this fantasy world, when the school seems to be mainly filled with just humans? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Thyme and Parsley the ONLY races in the school(aside from that one demon, and centaur teacher), that aren't human? What the hell? We should be seeing Orcs, more of that Catgirl/Animal-people hybrid race, maybe giants, etc. What's the point in showcasing these races if you're not going to even bother using them in your school setting? Hell, even MLP:FiM got this right on their Academy arc. ONE MORE THING! How they hell they gonna write a character like Mandrake who has such a boner for murdering people, but have him leave the teachers ALIVE while they're asleep? I mean, I KNOW why, but come on! Could've killed ANY of these girls easily if he wasn't restrained by characters having plot armor. I hate that kind of writing the most.

A relatively crutial error I saw is that the key to victory is information. The shapeshifter knew that the "correct" answer and didnt do anything with it. A fix to show that Thyme has grown to trust more people is to show what Rosemary trully feals vs what was written on her diary. Imagine a Rose, Rose, Thyme scenerio, where the SS is disguised as Rose. The SS knows that the asnwer is "Aster" since that is what is written. The original Rose would be hesitant to call Aster her crush (specially in retrospective). So Thyme knows who to hit. Its very very clishe, but still better than just throwing out that you know key information. Alternatively, its Thyme, Thyme, Rose with the same explanation as above, but Rose has to choose witch Thyme to trust. I like the first one better since it shws Thyme growth more than teh second one.

I really enjoyed this little review series. I like how it’s really in depth for how characters are utilized and how the villains don’t get introduced until much later making the stakes really low.

There is an easy fix concerning the sword being enchanted and the pommel stone having broken: have Aster say the blade is enchanted. That's it. Just one word swap and it now makes sense. The blade itself cannot be damaged and doesn't need to be taken to a whetstone every so often, but the hilt and pommel can still be broken (or modified).

When i was a kid, that sakura hair cutting part was something i remember, because the long hair is a vanity fir her, but she lets it go for power and no more wanting to keep catching up to them Also, its a part where she slowly becoming friends back with ino. The start of the end of their rivalry

How i would have handled the magic Old magic: The caster manually draws out elements from their surroundings and/or their own body to configure into a spell. Meaning that old magic is harder to cast, is limited by the caster's ability and can even fatigue the user, the upsides being that elements in nature replenish over time and it makes the user more keen to the handling of them. New magic: Is basically taking a lot of elemental components and turning them into an object that can be carried around (The terraspheres). This makes it way more convenient than old magic with less practical drawbacks, but it sort of "corrodes" the enviorment, additionally because the magic has been simplified and processed it can be harder to fine tune spells for certain things. You can also make new magic analog to things like firearms and say that making them available to everyone means there's more people using it for crimes or using it irresponsibly, etc. (also terraspheres just... run out of juice? With no battery warning apparently? That's pretty bad if you're using it to defend yourself) i think this could easily fit into a small section of an episode (we had various scenes with the magic teacher and all she gave us was a biased opinion on how new magic is easier so it's better) and although it's far from complex and unpredictable i feel like it would have been useful to the audience to have a comparative between the two, especially because with that you could explain the use of both types of magic at the same time. Maybe new magic is great for immediate offensive spells? while old magic can create more intricate spells accurately once the caster has enough skill. I'm not a writer by any means so ofc i'm not a monolith for how magic should be written, i just think it's odd to leave CORE aspects of it ambiguous, the characters and us need to at least know the basics of what power they're wielding you know?

I'm reminded of Harry Potter; as we know, it was set in a magical school up until the final book. We see many magical and non-normal things within the school and all the stuff we see builds onto Hogwarts and gives it additional life and more often than not, the characters interact with it and it helps move the plot forward. For example, the Grand Staircase, stairs that are always moving and the characters make it a point that they don't stay stationary for long, so if you want to go somewhere, you have to go before the stairs change positions. Not to mention there are loads of hidden rooms and secret passageways that teachers and students (that know where to look) can take advantage of. Like taking a secret passage to avoid someone or get someone faster. And there's the magic; which is kept open enough for people to make assumptions, but with enough rules to make sense of it. Spells have limits and specific uses. It's not just an excuse for characters to do whatever; there are certain rules to follow. Like most spells are spoken and non-verbal spells are highly advanced. Wizards can also use spells without a wand, but it's very dangerous and only highly advanced wizards can do it. As far as I know, Harry Potter seems to be the gold standard of magical schools. And Little Witch Academia, but I haven't seen enough of that show to draw a conclusion on it and how they use magic. A good amount of the first book of Harry Potter was learning about the magical world and how things function; what wizards use and do in place of technology; how they get from place to place, how they multitask, etc. Of course, there's the fact that Harry is an outsider, so he needs things explained, but there are times you can see what something does without it being explained. And there was this one series, I can't remember if it was Final Fantasy or not, but a character is taught to use fire magic by thinking of things associated with fire: heat, burning, fire itself, imagining the object on fire, etc.

I don't think I've seen a show that wants to be taken seriously and gloats about being so good yet has so many issues dealing with the basics of storytelling, tone and character/world building, etc. I mean in twelve episodes we never got a concrete answer on what a Guardian does or what's their role in their world despite it being on the title. We know more about what being transgender is than what Guardians do, if that doesn't prove where the show's priorities were then I don't know what to tell you.

As Jontron once said "Sky's the limit when you don't give a sh[]t!"

29:18 This is legit the best line in the entire show

I felt a pang in my heart when you said spoilers but that was just heartburn

That Naruto example is PERFECT. I haven’t even seen the show but I can immediately get a sense of the character’s struggle and empathize with her.

funny how the useless Sakura has more character arc than this whole series of a show... A USELESS CHARACTER IS WAY MORE INTERESTING THAN A SHOW!!!!

I think it's a general rule of thumb that you need a concrete magic system to make a good magic show or comic. If you have a good magic system but bad characters, at least the world is somewhat believable and it's evident there's some effort put in.

The creator says that the show has the budget of an CN series. But it still doesn't justify the terrible writing, he phrases it like the budget is the REASON because of a writing. He says that they just pushed through with the budget they had. This could be slightly justified if TON of different shows that have little budget did just as terrible, but that's not the case even the most popular shows depend on every penny.

Mandrake should've been in the series much longer even if not revealed yet Like he should've been undercover within the school doing his own assignment, perhaps keeping tabs on Caraway since Lavender knows him and probably knows that Caraway can be dangerous to their plans because he is intelligent, capable and nosy There should've been a scene in the beginning where one random student is introduced by name, even if it was just their friend calling them out, a few episodes later said student starts acting completely unlike themselves and everybody thinks it's due to the stress from the academy work and then it would be revealed that they were Mandrake all along Yes, it is very much a cliche but at this point, pumping cliches into this show would still improve it since they were failing even at them

An easy fix for old magic vs. new is establishing the costs within the first episode. Rituals for Old Magic can be portrayed as time-consuming, complicated, and need materials to project the cost of the spell. A good example is using the materials of a wand to cast a fireball, with the runes needed for the spell carved into the handle rather than an enchantment. Naturally, preparedness and organization would be required to make old magic into practical art. New magic can be portrayed as a mana or vim vitae-like system that needs grit and determination to build up without the seemingly insane prep work. The natural cost is that it drains stamina like running at full speed for a 100 meter dash. A decent writer can easily make Rose at the start of the season the 'muscle' that needs Sage to handle the magic stuff but her time at the school can have her 'working out' her vitae and making her adept at New Magic, driving a wedge between Rose and Sage since their relationship can easily be seen as inter-dependent.

Scarborough Fair is one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs. Still love it, but I hate that this show will now come up every time I hear it.

I don't understand how anybody thought this show was any good while it was in production. I mean, even the most generous reviews of this (that I'm aware of) have described it as mediocre at best. The lack of any overall plot or actual antagonists for most of the show, the fact that what little world building they try to establish actually ends up rendering parts of the plot meaningless, and the very poor character writing, good God, the list of red flags that they ignored just goes on. Seriously, if you've seen/read almost any other magical school or fantasy story in general, then odds are you've probably seen everything this show tries to do already done elsewhere, but better. The fact that the people who made this ironically had the balls to say they were doing things that either hadn't been done before, or other studios had forgotten how to do, and then turned around and outsourced parts of the project and even used ACTUAL stock images is the biggest load of bullsh*t you'll come across outside a cattle ranch. At this point, I'm convinced that this show was nothing more than some kind of cash embezzlement scheme by one or more Crunchyroll execs.

High Guardian Spice seems like a "we have Arcane at home" type of series tbh.

Haha, it was surreal seeing my comment on the video but I'm glad you found it worthwhile :) In additional to all the problems you brought up with Mandrake, it's always bothered me that a professional murder-hobo like him who was sent to kill peeps that olive refused to and has had his assassination attempts messed with by her (substituting poison with sleeping potion and the like) just randomly trusts olive when she suddenly goes "I suddenly want to kill them now" :P Not only does his personality type not exactly lead to trusting others easily, but he's already seen evidence that she's willing to undermine him when it comes to causing actual harm. Also, not sure what part of 'not drawing attention' they were working with by burning the entire school down and attempting to murder all the faculty... those kinds of things would tend to invite investigation, no? :o

"What about Olive, why can she only change herself into a cat" Everybody wants to be a cat, because a cat is a cat, who knows where it's at...

I’m a biased bitch TBH. But when I saw and heard Mandrake I was a simp for him. He’s powerful, clever, and funny ASF. I can’t believe they didn’t use him more. Oh wait I can’t-he’s a man. We can’t have that

So here's a question: what's up with the connection with this show and the song Scarborough Fair? Like for real, they hammer the references to it constantly. Not only are the names of the main characters herbs from the song, but there's also a place called Scarborough Kingdom, an orchestrated version can be heard in the first episode as Rose and Sage leave. Hell when Olive first reveals herself to them she says their names in the order of the song, even doing slowly like this was secretly a Dora: The Explora episode and the audience was supposed to be toddlers. The show writers desperately want you to know that the show and the song are very connected. But like...why? What actual meaning do the show and song share that make it so important for the two to be compared? The song (from what I got from it anyway so take it with a grain of salt) is about lost and impossible love. With lyrics like "Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine". Describing that if they can perform the tasks set up for the then they'll be a true love of theirs, only the tasks are all impossible, "Tell her to make me a cambric shirt...without no seams, no needlework, then she'll be a true love of mine." or "Tell her to find me an acre of land...between the saltwater and the seastrand..." etc. Like what does any of it have to do with HGS? At all? Romance is a part of it yeah but it's very shallow and uninteresting romance with nothing implying that any of them will never happen or will end in some form of tragedy. Maybe Snap and Sage getting together while Amaryllis has her love (if that's what it is anyway) unrequited, but frankly no one really wants or cares if the two get together since no one wants or cares for this show to get a second season. The connection just seems to be there...just to be there. Like good song taste but there's really no point for it to even be referenced past the names.

This show was extremely bad, however, there are a few things I kind of appreciated: mandrake had a lot of potential (despite his edgy lines), olive and amaryllis weren't too bad, aster's voice actor was nice to hear, thyme's hairstyle looks cool, and those water gloves were creative. Also, it would have been cool if snapdragon's character wasn't focused on transition and instead stayed as a boy who liked feminine things but I guess that'll never happen.

I despise incompetent villains. One of the 2 agents you sent betrayed your organization, botched the mission and joined the enemy? Execute the other one who is still loyal and was trying to complete the objective, its the best way to ensure no loyalty in your organization and set up everyone to stab you in the back. This series had the laziest writing I've seen in a while, there are almost no scenes the wouldn't have actually been good if the writers gave a shit about the plot above surface level stuff, this is bellow even children cartoons since in those you at least have a moral at the end that makes at least some sense, enough for a 7 year old to comprehend. I bet that if by some miracle this dumpster fire gets a season 2 the mother turns out to be mind controlled as the big "twist" at the end. This whole series has been a glorified fanfiction where every writer has a self insert they try their best to live their fantasy through at the detriment of each other. A writer's battle royal where the one who ruins the plot the most wins.

"Now that's thematic!" A lot of good it did though, all things considering. Kishimoto never made Sakura into her own character, gave her Tsunade's power set as Tsunade was hokage and couldn't fight, and ultimately Sakura was hated as the fanbase focused on shipping more and wanted Naruto to be with Hinata, which happened strictly due to his new editor and the higher ups liking Hinata more than Sakura. (the fact that Kishimoto can't decide when he intended to pair Naruto with Hinata, giving multiple different answers as to when he decided shows it was less his choice and more a business choice.) I apologize for the tangent there, but it's hard to see that actually being thematic when it didn't go anywhere in Naruto either. So it seemed more like HGS copied it to match the scene, without the "emotional impact" that Naruto had... Until again Kishimoto didn't do anything with Sakura...

Working on a book right now & even with the flaws apparent in its current state, I've put infinitely more care in to the story than the creators of this show

Honestly HGS is even worse when The Owl House now exists, a Cartoon with a similar magical premise and LGBT Characters except ones written by hacks and the other by a team with skills and a brain behind them.

I'm a hobbyist in writing. I noticed that the world build is very messed up. If new magic is so powerful why are there no phone-like items? And with my very limited knowledge of world-building isn't communication a very important factor, in world-building? And the writers don't have any details in the time it's a straight line aka point A to point B there is nothing in-between. Plus, with my (very) limited knowledge of magic systems it wanted to but a mix of a hard magic system, and a soft magic aka a mild magic system. Villains like Deo (JoJo's bizarre adventures) made makes the story works. I'm studying game art and I want to be a character concept artist. The art style looks like Cal arts style done wrong I have seen other shows made in that style. Plus if they had a more talented writer working on this and better storyboarding. I have seen some storyboarding on DVDs with behind the scenes stuff. By the looks of the story or lack of, the storyboarding was equil to negative 100.

4:40 The healing water in HGS reminds of a character from My Hero Academia who has the power to heal injuries. Except in MHA it comes at a cost because it would cause anyone who gets their injuries repaired use up a lot of their stamina because it accelerates the time it would take to heal those injuries and it can't heal permanent injuries like a severed arm. There's careful consideration in how this power works, something that HGS's healing water fails at.

Rose: Are consequences a food?

I am here to learn from the mistake of others.

"mandrak junior?" Giving what I know about the makers of this show and the stuff they have said I am pretty sure the answer is yes he did. Actually wait why is he here? If the goal was to get all of them to come to the evil land why send someone that will just kill them all first? What was he hoping for? if he did kill them all the only think that would happen is he gets exacuted for not doing his job and the flame guy would be sealed or destroyed. And the cat girl them just not caring to do anything about because as far as i know she was a normal everyday cat they just turned into a human.

Mandrake looks like Rosemary's brother. I'm not kidding go back to episode 1 and look at him, they look alike except one is a psycho

I feel like the cat was in a perfect position to betray Mandrake in a creature way where he thinks he's won, about to kill the protagonist and bam. Hes stunned. Paralyzed by his own ally who betrays him calling out for pushing her around and being the one to save the group. It would have been a great way to make the cat which a redeemable character even if she ended on bad terms cause it would give the audience a sense that she has her own plans and that as long as the protagonists don't get in her way, she won't be a antagonist.

deadass its so bad i want a season 2

Seriously is no one going to talk about how Mulan themed that scene was where Sage cuts her hair off and the sudden transitional music in the background.

this show is what happens when your first draft of fan fiction is given a budget.

Does anyone else see the resemblance between Lavender and Voltron's Shiro?

I've been excited for this I love hearing you're critique as I can use it to better my own projects

Im not animator but I work with art, and what I can say about the poses - they are VERY, aggressively stiff. Nothing looks even slightly professional, they are walking, sitting, moving like a wooden things, here is NO fluid movements or gestures. Even when you draw a chibi characters, they are does have an anatomy anyway. So even when they are staying, they are does have a weight, fluid movement, poses, any professional artist would keep they anatomy in mind (for example a movememnt from a Panty Stocking anime or Samurai Jack). For example: they are sitting on chair, relaxing - so one arm go lower, a whole body goes to this side, means legs should compensate it, etc... and a real people do the extra moving while waiting (literally any Little witch academy frame). This is a very-very basic drawing skills to understand such a things, its not even a very professinal level - and they are cant do even this. I can say thats some good animation like a catgirl fight is a outsourced one. - Where do I live (in Russia) animation students should know an anatomy. Not a "basic" anatomy, THE anatomy. Bones, mescules, etc. And its easy to see in animation if a person know it or not.

I saw clips of Sage with with shorter hair and thought she had cut it for a powerboost (like in Howl's Moving Castle) when she mixed the two styles of magic. Especially since it was mentioned how old magic involves sacrifices. Disappointed it wasn't nearly as cool. Also, Sage wasn't the only old magic user?? Since when were there others?

Actually, in Mandrake's case with his Lavender disguise, I think they were consistent. Remember, it was Olive who wanted to lure Rosemary to Witch Country. Drake was keen to get to the murdering as that's what the big boss smokey thing hired him to take over from Olive was for. Finding out Lavender was Rosemary's mom didn't seem to alter his objective at all.

I have to say, some of the people in those screencaps who "informed" you did a half-ass job of it. That comment about minors not being allowed to transition in permanent ways is a half-truth/ lie of omission. No, minors are not allowed to surgically alter their bodies before adulthood but hormone therapy during your formative years before your body is fully matured does permanently alter your body. Hormone blockers that halt puberty will ruin your bones because both men and women grow and get denser bones in puberty. There's a reason doctors don't like people using those for years and years. You're basically arresting your body's ability to grow until 16 when you can take cross-sex hormone therapy to transition. NHS straight-up admits that not only are a lot of the changes these hormones induce permanent/ irreversible but no one even knows what the long-term side effects of these therapies are. NHS, again, admits that there aren't any studies for that. So anyone telling you, with certainty, that hormone therapy isn't permanent, is completely reversibly, and totally harmless is likely a mouthpiece. So the problem is that we need more research before we let children chemically alter their bodies permanently, especially with detransition numbers so high. With health and safety, I firmly believe that problems should be understood before human lives are used as sounding boards for troubleshooting.

Since Mandrake's hair is the exact same colour as Lavender's, is that supposed to be a hint they're related?

I honestly believe Rose Sage Thyme and Parsley are heavily inspired by the crystal gems too the point that ever time i see them i think of the character they resemble i mean on episode 10 Rose and Sage have almost the same conflict as Rose Quartz and Pearl and do a side by side comparison with the crystal gems replacing Steven With his mom how kuch of a difference do u really see

I think that's what this show will be used for. In film classes a decade from now, shows like this will be presented to students, and they'll be tasked with rewriting the show for their professors to grade.

It has that school essay quality, the one with no editorial oversight