High Guardian Spice - Tumblr: The CalArt Anime

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

but I’m not about to get myself or my sources doxed by showing them.

Then don't talk about it if you can't post receipts. Now you sound even more jealous.

 

[Yamma Damma]

They were not posted, but I have read them. I’ve said it in other threads years ago, but through my work I have had access to a literal database of materials that never made out it publicly. Tons of pitch bibles for shows released, sides for casting, art work etc.
but I’m not about to get myself or my sources doxed by showing them. I have no “good” job in the animation industry, but I’m just adjacent to it to have a first hand knowledge of it

I see. i'm not asking you for your powerlevel but your honest opinion here: What did Raye have that got her project greenlit? Was it really the repREEsentation checkboxing or something more?

And you’re right, they aren’t married. For some reason I thought they were

No problem. The personal lives of artists is not that interesting (but they can be worth a laugh).

 

[LiquidKid]

What did Raye have that got her project greenlit? Was it really the repREEsentation checkboxing or something more?

You know, this question is the weirdest part for me because while I have never spoken to Raye or anyone involved in HGS, I have met and directly interacted with people adjacent to it and I still don’t have a very clear answer.

I can only speculate, but she first went to Frederator in 2018 and they rejected her. I had a lot of communication with the people at Frederator during that time and I have a decent understanding of what they were looking for and how they operated.(they’ve since folded into two companies and what was once Frederator is now Fred Films). At that time, they were hot off the heels Castlevania season 1 and were in production of Bee and Puppycat season 2. They wanted more adult sitcoms, the family guys and Rick and Morty type stuff. HGS would have been far too much like Adventure Time meets Puppy Cat for their liking, which is probably why they gave the hard pass. Frederator is a somewhat unique studio in that they will allow literally anyone to pitch to them, but they accept nearly nothing. And because they have open submissions, they are extra vigilant about originality. So HGS would have never worked for them, especially not in 2018. However, 2018 Frederator had a tranny working in their development branch, and said tranny did give a lot of deals to other trannies through things like cartoon saloon(a shorts program they had). I met this tranny multiple times, in fact they were the first real tranny I encountered offline.

If I had to honestly guess, just knowing this person, they probably got Raye in contact with someone who could get her in contact with crunchy roll.
2018 Frederator had literal stacks of women in animation business cards on every surface in their office, and the connection was so strong that it wouldn’t be unheard of for them to be able to set you up with one of their heads. The VP of WIA at the time was a woman who attended every possible industry event and introduced herself to everyone. Even I got an email from her because of the six degrees of separation despite me being a dude with zero credibility.

For all the people who want to make their own show, very very very few of them actually have the proper materials to sell one. Raye probably did have that, on top of being a biological woman, on top of being a ftm, on top of having a fairly solid art style for western animation, on top of being Latina. So she probably got the fast lane pass up the ladder, and with crunchy roll looking to shit out a bunch of cartoons super quickly to make themselves more attractive for the Sony buy out, Raye was probably just the right person at the right time.

(Pics are kinda related but not really. Just photos of walls of Frederator’s office that I took in 2018. These aren’t identifying in any way, and to my knowledge no one has really posted photos of them. If anything they just prove that I have indeed been inside that building.)

 

[Cave Fisher]

I'm late because I REALLY do not think about this show that often, but I honestly kinda feel for Raye. Despite what a complete mess HGS was, he seems like a pretty regular, if unqualified person (from the little I've heard) who in spite of its failure just wanted to rush headfirst into making a cartoon of his OCs but only noticed a reality check in regards to it way, WAY, too late.

 

[Space Police]

I discovered something about this show that kind of makes me feel sad.

0:38-0:45 of the OP is a great Obari-style sequence, probably because muh Rayearth (this sequence seems to be a mixture of Rayearth and Weiss Kreuz) -- but nonetheless, it indicates that there were some talented people behind this. If they storyboarded half of each episode's runtime like those few seconds, it would have probably been received a lot better. This is an anime-style cartoon for anime fans -- all you need for a good 12-episode anime is for the plot to move forward in a meaningful way every episode, an interesting plot twist somewhere in the middle as the stakes heighten, and a decent yet unique ending; those two things alone would have made HGS a gem among Crunchyroll's offerings. The other big issue with HGS is that its worldbuilding is so generic it may as well be an isekai harem anime. Don't give us the same D&D-infused high fantasy setting every anime fan has seen time and time again. You can have unique worldbuilding in a fantasy anime -- to go back to another Obari example, Prism Ark is by no stretch of the imagination good, but at least it has somewhat interesting and unique worldbuilding, mainly because it bothers to show evil armies and kingdoms in a unique aesthetic, plus it has neat architectural designs and armours (the latter points will immediately make any show interesting to anyone because they're more concrete elements). There is a literal formula to this any creative should be able to notice, yet Raye, in all her hubris, ignored it. Also it's funny that Raye thinks she's a dood when she's responsible for a cartoon so painfully girly that even the token male character wants to be a girl. I wish her well regardless; she's a lolcow but she's not evil, dishonest, or perverted and she does have actual artistic skills, and that puts her above most lolcows.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

or perverted

She's a fujoshi, all fujos are perverts.

 

[Cave Fisher]

I discovered something about this show that kind of makes me feel sad.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=bmUWmqzhgnw
0:38-0:45 of the OP is a great Obari-style sequence, probably because muh Rayearth (this sequence seems to be a mixture of Rayearth and Weiss Kreuz) -- but nonetheless, it indicates that there were some talented people behind this. If they storyboarded half of each episode's runtime like those few seconds, it would have probably been received a lot better. This is an anime-style cartoon for anime fans -- all you need for a good 12-episode anime is for the plot to move forward in a meaningful way every episode, an interesting plot twist somewhere in the middle as the stakes heighten, and a decent yet unique ending; those two things alone would have made HGS a gem among Crunchyroll's offerings. The other big issue with HGS is that its worldbuilding is so generic it may as well be an isekai harem anime. Don't give us the same D&D-infused high fantasy setting every anime fan has seen time and time again. You can have unique worldbuilding in a fantasy anime -- to go back to another Obari example, Prism Ark is by no stretch of the imagination good, but at least it has somewhat interesting and unique worldbuilding, mainly because it bothers to show evil armies and kingdoms in a unique aesthetic, plus it has neat architectural designs and armours (the latter points will immediately make any show interesting to anyone because they're more concrete elements). There is a literal formula to this any creative should be able to notice, yet Raye, in all her hubris, ignored it. Also it's funny that Raye thinks she's a dood when she's responsible for a cartoon so painfully girly that even the token male character wants to be a girl. I wish her well regardless; she's a lolcow but she's not evil, dishonest, or perverted and she does have actual artistic skills, and that puts her above most lolcows.

I WANNA focus on the Obari reference, but mother of god, this show's intro song is so bad. I think the reason the series was forgotten so easily was primarily because of the complete lack of worldbuilding or anything mildly iconic or unique.
There's just nothing for potential fans to sink their teeth in beyond the immediate few characters, no world to explore, no actual visual identity in its character designs that makes you think "Oh hey, they're from High Guardian Spice" without the school uniform, the only named locations are Lyngarth and Witch Country. What represents HGS? The main four characters? They can be charming under the right circumstances, but ultimately they're nothing special. The Grogs? Fuckin stupid. The guardian academy? It's just another fantasy high school with a more honest mortality rate. Terraspheres? Ehhh.
The main reason Slime Boy's so popular is that his broken-ass mic and constantly half-asleep voice actually stand out.

Also it's funny that Raye thinks she's a dood when she's responsible for a cartoon so painfully girly that even the token male character wants to be a girl

Less of an observation on the show, but I swear, I see a lot of FTM troons being the most feminine fuckers around.

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

I think the reason the series was forgotten so easily was primarily because of the complete lack of worldbuilding or anything mildly iconic or unique.

You've hit the nail on the head, this show feels like one of those shows from twenty years ago that would air for like a season or two on some second string channel like Jetix or something.

Less of an observation on the show, but I swear, I see a lot of FTM troons being the most feminine fuckers around.

That because they're just lesbians.

 

[Kiwisee]

Raye has once again made a very cryptic doom post. But this time with more details.

I'm not going to lie, I low key feel a bit bad for Raye. HGS getting greenlit at all is what I'd like to call a “curse in disguise”. Its like the opposite of “blessing in disguise”.

 

[Cave Fisher]

You've hit the nail on the head, this show feels like one of those shows from twenty years ago that would air for like a season or two on some second string channel like Jetix or something.

Exactly, right down to the one Youtube playlist with all the episodes nobody cares enough to do anything about.

That actually reminds me, pretty much all the fanwork is just rewriting, redesigning, or trying to fix the series, because how do you expand on anything from the show or fill in the gaps of stuff you don't see without accidentally just writing an entirely different thing? The show bothers me every time I remember it, because I can generally get a good feel of what it's trying to do, but it does it so poorly at every turn.

Like, if it gave us SOMETHING. A world map, locations that aren't just caves, a high school and a stock isekai city (I'm still mad nothing from the end credits was an actual episode, because they honestly look kinda fun), a dive into how the guardian system works and what it entails, which a show about becoming guardians ignores all the time, ANYTHING, it probably would have been remembered more fondly around niche groups, but even the most sycophantic of fans' highest praises are "It's poorly made, but cute." The entire first episode was about them heading to Lyngarth, but all their "journey" really entailed was taking a train, meeting two people they'd just meet again at the school, and walking around an extremely generic city before finding the academy. It's a REALLY bad idea to make a 12 episode show's first episode basically filler that could realistically be condensed into like 5 minutes, absolutely nothing would change if the second episode, the one with them at the school, was actually the first episode, and we just got some dialogue here and there about who they are and how they got there, you'd have a whole extra episode to work with if you just did that.

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

Exactly, right down to the one Youtube playlist with all the episodes nobody cares enough to do anything about.

Wait, real talk?
Holy cow it does exist!

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

That actually reminds me, pretty much all the fanwork is just rewriting, redesigning, or trying to fix the series, because how do you expand on anything from the show or fill in the gaps of stuff you don't see without accidentally just writing an entirely different thing? The show bothers me every time I remember it, because I can generally get a good feel of what it's trying to do, but it does it so poorly at every turn.

So this is basically just a slightly worse Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss is what you're saying? On that note:

For all of Vivienne's faults (and trust me, she has quite a few), she actually created something that people enjoyed, enough to want to see it continue.

Problematic, Unwoke Vivienne: Thanks so much to the people who've helped me get this far! You guys are the best!
Stronk Trans Queen Raye: IT'S NOT MY FAULT HGS SUCKED, IT WAS THE BUDGET, IT WAS CRUNCHYROLL, YOU GUYS ARE ALL NAZIS, REEEEEEEEEEEE

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

So this is basically just a slightly worse Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss is what you're saying? On that note:

No it's basically RWBY but a far less interesting train wreck.

 

[Cave Fisher]

So this is basically just a slightly worse Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss is what you're saying? On that note:

Oh hell no, I've seen HH and HB and I assure you that HGS did not actively annoy me while watching it to anywhere near the extent those two did or get way too popular in spite of it like Viv's shows did.
Like in terms of hot messes, you're comparing some soda or even wine spilled on a carpet to an oil spill at a public beach.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

The word you're looking for is identity. This show has no identity.

The characters look like they were created by different people cuz the author is probably just fanficking several characters she likes and adapting them to her own story that's not as important as having her own OC don't steal.

 

[Audit]

Oh hell no, I've seen HH and HB and I assure you that HGS did not actively annoy me while watching it to anywhere near the extent those two did or get way too popular in spite of it like Viv's shows did.
Like in terms of hot messes, you're comparing some soda or even wine spilled on a carpet to an oil spill at a public beach.

Going to have to disagree with you there. HH and HB started off as something people wanted to see more of and then got progressively worse as time went. HGS was never something people wanted. We can point and laugh at how terrible HH and HB became because there was something to ruin. Who ever gave a shit about HGS? It came and went without fanfare.

 

[BScCollateral]

Going to have to disagree with you there. HH and HB started off as something people wanted to see more of and then got progressively worse as time went.

Yes, exactly. The first episodes of HB are a violent comedy about horrible people being horrible to one another. HH should be about a nice person tryuing to make Hell nicer and failing miserably.
How HB turned into a love story, I don't know.

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

then got progressively worse

No it was always shit, it just took some people more than fifteen minutes to realize it.

How HB turned into a love story, I don't know.

Because shippers are a metastasising cancer and any cartoon nowadays has a fanbase made up of a vocal core of shippers.

 

[Fatsuit Shinji]

Because shippers are a metastasising cancer and any cartoon nowadays has a fanbase made up of a vocal core of shippers.

Shippers have been cancer in the West since the original Star Trek aired. Prior to the late 80ies they had been mostly contained. As the late 80ies came, they broke all containment and started metastasising. To where it became almost impossible to not know of them and their effects on everything they "shipped" in the mid 00ies.

 

[Sleazy Car Salesman]

Shippers have been cancer in the West since the original Star Trek aired. Prior to the late 80ies they had been mostly contained. As the late 80ies came, they broke all containment and started metastasising. To where it became almost impossible to not know of them and their effects on everything they "shipped" in the mid 00ies.

I'm not old enough to where I remember that. I remember the early aughts and the shipping that happened there (particularly in the anime community) but I never really realized how pervasive it was until about the past ten or fifteen years or so.