Beach City Drift is the episode I was looking forward to, because it pays homage to "Initial D", a popular street-racing anime that came out in the 2000s. Others would see this episode as being something taken out of the Fast and Furious franchise, but that's ok. This is also the 2nd episode in the series that focuses primarily on Stevonnie.
In Beach City Drift, Greg still has some money leftover from the $10 million he got from Marty and bought a used car called the 'Dondai Supremo', which he's been wanting to have for several years.
Later, Kevin arrives in his sports car, the Himitsu X-12, to be cleaned by Greg in preparation for the local street race, and Steven completely lashes out. When Greg learns on what happened between Stevonnie and Kevin, he advises to not put too much on Kevin as he's totally not worth it. This advice from Greg not only plays a major part of this episode, but probably from behind the scenes as well, which I will explain later.
Still can't get over Kevin, Steven and Connie fused into Stevonnie and challenged Kevin to the street race using Greg's new 'used' car. Kevin recognizes Stevonnie, but thinks of it as Steven and Connie standing on top of each other while wearing a trenchcoat. Yeah, it's weird thinking coming from him as it's nothing like that at all. But whatever.....
At the race, Kevin continuously throws insults at Stevonnie as he easily takes the lead. It makes no sense that two drivers have a conversation while in the middle of race - with lots of tight cornering. In any case, Stevonnie got the best of Kevin and spun out. Following Greg's advice, Stevonnie finishes the race on her own terms, taking the time to enjoy the view of Beach City as Kevin wins the race. Kevin is confused as to Stevonnie's reaction to her loss and got a taste of his own medicine, as Stevonnie drives home and ends the episode.
As I said earlier, Beach City Drift is an homage to the Initial D anime series, and there's plenty of references to it. The Dondai Supremo is based off the iconic Toyota Trueno AE86 from the anime, while Kevin's X-12 is based off the Mazda RX-7 FC3S also from the series. The downhill race off the mountain pass is also from the anime as well.
While I do enjoy the references to Initial D, and seeing more of Stevonnie, Beach City Drift wasn't as entertaining as I thought it would. For one, the execution of the race itself is poor, in my opinion. I can understand that the Steven Universe staff aren't exactly well known for action sequences, even in scenes like in Initial D. Still they should've made more effort in making the race itself more interesting visually. And I just don't get the part where Kevin and Stevonnie have a conversation WHILE they're racing.
Second problem is the soundtrack itself. Being an Initial D homage, I expected Aivi & Surasshu, who performed much of the Steven Universe soundtrack, to do a Eurobeat-style track for the race scenes, just like in Initial D. Instead, they went for a generic techno track that just doesn't suit well. It's so disappointing that I can take that entire race and slap in one of the Eurobeat tracks from Initial D and it actually makes it look better.
The one thing I do enjoy about this episode, other than more Stevonnie, is the moral lesson Greg gave to Steven and Connie earlier, which is the primary focus of the episode. Simply put, don't let trolls get the best of you, as they're not worth it. It's great advice, but hard to follow when you get ridiculed, mocked, and insulted by several people and groups all the time for whatever the reason. We all get that a lot, and we have to learn to deal with it while not letting pride get in the way.
Greg's advice in the episode may likely be the show's response to the Zamii incident several months back. This may also be a reflection of rumors that Rebecca Sugar was recovering from suicidal depression after receiving verbal abuse by groups belonging to the LGBT and/or the Feminist community over her being a bisexual, which she herself revealed to be as such at this year's San Diego Comic-con, to the cheer of the audience and others. I personally cannot confirm if that is true or not, but if it does, I really do feel bad for Sugar for being a victim of such vitriol while the accused hides under the banner of political correctness and civil rights for protection from any, and all sorts of criticism, while having the priviledge of attacking everyone else with virtually no consequences.
As for the Beach City Drift episode, it's not as bad as The New Lars, but it is underwhelming compared to the other episodes this week, despite Stevonnie and the Initial D reference. All in all, not bad for the first week of the Summer of Steven event.
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