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She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Season 1 Review

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a fantasy animated television series that premiered its first season on Netflix in 2018. It’s a very good show.

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“I am going to be the best friend I can be“

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This is a reboot of a previous She-Ra show that was itself a spin-off of ‘He-Man’. I love the original and ultimately I really liked this spin-off, so I would say that they are of similar quality, but are mostly vastly different with only slight similarities here and there. The major similarity is the whole transformation from Adora to the titular She-Ra, which I absolutely adored, no pun intended. The music there is awesome and so are the visuals. It’s such a cool scene every time I see it.

The animation overall is excellent here, in particular the character designs are gorgeous and the series looks polished with very well realized fantastical elements. The music is terrific as well. The problem I’ve had with the show is the humor, which is rather childish at times, and the dialogue, which to me also felt very simple and at times quite literal. Those aspects make it a show more intended toward children, but other aspects make it universally appealing, especially the cool action scenes and some interesting darker moments with the villains also being more complex than one-note.

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I like Adora a lot. She is cool and badass as She-Ra, but also genuinely relatable and flawed as a human. I loved her friendship with others and how loyal she is toward them. Catra is particularly interesting and their arc to me was the finest of the bunch. Previously they were friends, but now they are somewhat of an enemy to one another, and the complexities to their relationship are so well explored. I also really liked that in the beginning alone we get a very sophisticated storyline of a girl getting to leave her home and realize that they were the bad guys all along, that was unexpected and quite interesting.

Glimmer and Bow are just awesome. This trio to me is so cool that they at times even reminded me of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Yes, they were that amazing. Their dynamic is superb and so are their personalities. Glimmer is very realistic in her constant need of approval and attention while Bow is at his most endearing when he’s gushing over somebody or something. Both are lovable geeks.

Shadow Weaver is menacing and cool, but other characters are for now underdeveloped, though solid. Mermista is particularly funny as this constantly negative, bored person. And Sea Hawk is too silly and cartoony, but he works for the most part. The voice acting is quite good across the board.

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She-Ra and the Princess of Power has thirteen episodes in its first season and the mid section to me was the weakest and most childish, but the beginning was very intriguing and the ending was suitably spectacular and epic in its action scenes. I love the horse now speaking and he is so funny in his hilarious one-liners and I cannot wait to see more of Hordak later down the line. For now, the show has a lot of potential, but I do expect the next seasons to be even more mature and engaging.