The Steven Universe episode "Mindful Education" is the first episode that features the collaboration between the staff of Steven Universe, and Studio TRIGGER. That is not exactly true as others as hyped it for. For one, Studio TRIGGER, the team behind Kill la Kill, Space Patrol Luluco, and Little Witch Academia, wasn't involved in the making of this episode. Instead, it features just one of their members, Key Animator and Animation Director Takafumi Hori, who works on the episode as a guest animator, and as co-writer and co-storyboarder. It is not like in the case of how Studio 4C handled the anime portion of the Gumball episode "The Fury", or when Tatami Galaxy's director Masaaki Yuasa and his staff did the episode "Food Chain" in Adventure Time from story to animation.
Besides working for TRIGGER, Hori also did a number of Anime works not from TRIGGER, such as Season 2 of Space Dancy, Samurai Champloo, the modern classic movie Summer Wars, and even episodes of Naruto: Shippuden.
In Mindful Education, Steven and Connie start their latest round of training, this time as Stevonnie. However, Connie isn't in her best, and it greatly disrupts their training. Apparently, Connie instinctively Judo flips a kid in school when the latter accidentally bumps into her. It is here that Garnet, in a musical number, provides insight on how Fusion actually works and how to maintain it for a longer period of time.
Connie later apologizes to the kid and is in a much better mood that she's eager to train some more. However, Steven still struggles with his own issues after not able to help Bismuth, Jasper, Eyeball, and learning the truth about his mother, and results with Stevonnie falling off the Training Ruins and splitting off. Connie consoles a distraught Steven and they fuse in time to use the latter's floating ability to land safely to the ground, ending the episode. However, if you're lucky to get to the end credits, you will notice the ending theme is replaced with a dark, ominous background music, almost as though it's a foreshadowing that Steven and the gang may be facing an even darker circumstance than what they've been so far.
Basically, Mindful Education is what the "Know Your Fusion" episode regarding Smoky Quartz is supposed to be - a deeper look as to how Fusion works. Though, for the most part, it's what fans have already figured out for quite some time. For Fusion to work and to maintain for a long period of time, the two must be in synch with one another. If ever one of them has any doubts, the Fusion breaks. We've seen this time and time again with Stevonnie. So the whole number by Garnet and Stevonnie is pretty much meant for those who haven't learned how Fusion works at this point.
That being said, it does question how Malachite was able to maintain her form for so long when Lapis never wanted to fuse in the first place. We know that part of why Lapis agreed to it is to imprison Jasper in the ocean, but also, as per Jasper, that she is "a monster". So not only is Lapis perhaps the most powerful of all the Gems we know so far, but she may also potentially have this destructive nature inside of her. So this subdued nature of Lapis, and Jasper's pride for power, is likely one factor how Malachite maintained her form for a very long time.
And then there's the time when Jasper forced a fusion with a corrupted Gem in "Earthlings", and was able to stay in that form until Smoky Quartz beat her down to break the fusion. This leads me to believe that not only is a Forced Fusion between Gems possible, but also, the fusion, forced or not, can be maintained if one of the participants is the dominant one and has the iron grip on that dominance.
So pros for Mindful Education - strong character development for Steven, Connie, AND Stevonnie; a good musical number by Estelle featuring Stevonnie's Voice Actress AJ Michalka; great animation by Hori (IF you have a good eye to notice it); and a foreshadowing in the end credits.
Cons? Well, nothing really other than the that we already know how Fusion works and the episode just lays it out. And perhaps that Studio TRIGGER didn't really worked on this episode the way Studio 4C did with Gumball in "The Fury", or Masaaki Yuasa with Adventure Time in "Food Chain". But these are just so minor and I do hope that one day, TRIGGER would do an entire episode of Steven Universe (and maybe Gumball, too), and not just Hori.
Besides working for TRIGGER, Hori also did a number of Anime works not from TRIGGER, such as Season 2 of Space Dancy, Samurai Champloo, the modern classic movie Summer Wars, and even episodes of Naruto: Shippuden.
In Mindful Education, Steven and Connie start their latest round of training, this time as Stevonnie. However, Connie isn't in her best, and it greatly disrupts their training. Apparently, Connie instinctively Judo flips a kid in school when the latter accidentally bumps into her. It is here that Garnet, in a musical number, provides insight on how Fusion actually works and how to maintain it for a longer period of time.
Connie later apologizes to the kid and is in a much better mood that she's eager to train some more. However, Steven still struggles with his own issues after not able to help Bismuth, Jasper, Eyeball, and learning the truth about his mother, and results with Stevonnie falling off the Training Ruins and splitting off. Connie consoles a distraught Steven and they fuse in time to use the latter's floating ability to land safely to the ground, ending the episode. However, if you're lucky to get to the end credits, you will notice the ending theme is replaced with a dark, ominous background music, almost as though it's a foreshadowing that Steven and the gang may be facing an even darker circumstance than what they've been so far.
Basically, Mindful Education is what the "Know Your Fusion" episode regarding Smoky Quartz is supposed to be - a deeper look as to how Fusion works. Though, for the most part, it's what fans have already figured out for quite some time. For Fusion to work and to maintain for a long period of time, the two must be in synch with one another. If ever one of them has any doubts, the Fusion breaks. We've seen this time and time again with Stevonnie. So the whole number by Garnet and Stevonnie is pretty much meant for those who haven't learned how Fusion works at this point.
That being said, it does question how Malachite was able to maintain her form for so long when Lapis never wanted to fuse in the first place. We know that part of why Lapis agreed to it is to imprison Jasper in the ocean, but also, as per Jasper, that she is "a monster". So not only is Lapis perhaps the most powerful of all the Gems we know so far, but she may also potentially have this destructive nature inside of her. So this subdued nature of Lapis, and Jasper's pride for power, is likely one factor how Malachite maintained her form for a very long time.
And then there's the time when Jasper forced a fusion with a corrupted Gem in "Earthlings", and was able to stay in that form until Smoky Quartz beat her down to break the fusion. This leads me to believe that not only is a Forced Fusion between Gems possible, but also, the fusion, forced or not, can be maintained if one of the participants is the dominant one and has the iron grip on that dominance.
So pros for Mindful Education - strong character development for Steven, Connie, AND Stevonnie; a good musical number by Estelle featuring Stevonnie's Voice Actress AJ Michalka; great animation by Hori (IF you have a good eye to notice it); and a foreshadowing in the end credits.
Cons? Well, nothing really other than the that we already know how Fusion works and the episode just lays it out. And perhaps that Studio TRIGGER didn't really worked on this episode the way Studio 4C did with Gumball in "The Fury", or Masaaki Yuasa with Adventure Time in "Food Chain". But these are just so minor and I do hope that one day, TRIGGER would do an entire episode of Steven Universe (and maybe Gumball, too), and not just Hori.
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