Having seen multiple episodes, it's a kinda middling anime-esque story. Like, I don't dislike it but it's not exciting me either. I saw the episode with the really foppish pirate, the episode with Entrapta, and the one after it which was all about
gaslighting and Adora's abusive mom.
The last one was the best, it's moral was kinda neat and the "everybody is misunderstanding the protag" narrative works because of what happened in the Entrapta episode. The writing in that episode and the imagery used was really neat, plus the fact that the writers used two episodes to flip the empowerment narrative to focus on the main character's faults and vulnerabilities was done in a really creative way. The show is all about how how Adora is empowered by various things(her social standing that comes from being a Princess of Power, her power to become SheRa, her military training from her time serving the Horde, and her friends), and through the course of that two episode arc I saw, the writers stripped her of that to sorta expose all the things about Adora that make her vulnerable. Adora has to get over some of her trauma just to set things right, and in the process there's some really cool imagery that I won't spoil.
Also for such a serious topic, they manage to handle it with a surprising amount of class. It strikes a nice balance between being okay for kids to watch while also being something adults who have gone through a similar situation might be able to relate to. It's nuanced in a way I didn't expect from a children's show on Neflix.
All and all, it could use some improvements on the writing front though, because it has a ton of crutches that it uses. It suffers from a "we're just a kid's show" level of predictability at times, and Bow sorta feels like Sokka more than anything else. It's about a 5.8/10, but if you're watching it with someone else I think it could go up to about a 6 or 6.5. My biggest complaint is that the "Princess of the Week" concept feels like a writing gimmick rather than a naturalistic writing choice. It feels a bit too much like people trying to mash up Western cartoons and magical girl animes. Then again, its source material is a gobshite 80s cartoon, so what we're getting is better than that.
AdoraXCatra is a great ship, and I'm 100% sure we're gonna get a reformed villain out of her, so I'll be hype when they kiss in some future episode.
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