#raye rodriguez

[cleoinspace]

Recalling Faith Schaffer's wonderful art of Aloe and Anise's wedding photo [original title when posted on Reddit on Apr. 26, 2025: "Recalling Raye's wonderful art of Aloe and Anise's wedding photo for Lesbian Visibility Day (which is today)"]

[dinoraye]

Exciting news! I'm now taking commissions 😄✨

You can get one at my Ko-fi today!

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[historyhermann]

Spicing It Up: "High Guardian Spice" is A Cute and Magical Coming-of-Age Story [Part 2]

Sage boops Rose on the nose in episode 1

Continued from Part 1.

The supervising director of High Guardian Spice, Audu Paden, has worked on series such as Monster High, Ever After High, Animaniacs, and Polly Pocket, during his 20+ year career. Although some have criticized Leth in the past, with the issues being brought together in a 46-page Google Doc reportedly outlining her past problematic actions and words, it is important to remember she is only one of the show's many writers. As such, even if you are critical of Leth or dislike her for some other reason, no one in their right mind should dismiss an entire show because of what one writer has said in the past, just as no one should dismiss Twelve Forever because the creator, Julia Vickerman, may have been fostering a hostile work environment.

Reprinted from The Geekiary, Wayback Machine, and my History Hermann WordPress blog. This was the eleventh article I wrote for The Geekiary. This post was originally published on October 30, 2021.

There has been a negative response to High Guardian Spice, primarily from reactionary videos on YouTube and outrage over a "focus on diversity and LGBTQ+ creators," following the release of a trailer a few years ago. This has reached over into the comments on the episodes themselves, which is worrisome. The response is somewhat similar to how people reacted to the release of Kelsey Stephanides' six-episode mature animated comedy series, Magical Girl Friendship Squad, which parodied the magical girl genre and included various LGBTQ characters and themes.

SYFY originally released episodes on YouTube, but due to negative response from a vocal minority who review bombed episodes, the episodes were pulled from YouTube, and were put behind a paywall. Currently, Magical Girl Friendship Squad can only be watched on an obscure streaming platform, Peacock, while the show was left to die, with SYFY not even attempting to renew it.

The backlash to High Guardian Spice from stick-in-the-mud anime fans is a likely cause for the series, which ended production in November 2019, to miss release dates in 2019 and 2020. This means that Crunchyroll sat on the series for two years! Hopefully, High Guardian Spice does not suffer the same fate as Magical Girl Friendship Squad, or Crunchyroll Originals like Onyx Equinox, which has not yet been renewed for a second season. As one fan put it, "the immature audiences have already declared that they aren't watching."

Despite this, there has been a positive response to the show from character designers, artists, reviewers, writers, storyboarders, illustrators, cartoonists, YouTubers, cleanup artists, animators, animation directors, and show creators. Although you could say that the show isn't for everyone, this doesn't mean that anyone should hate on it. A lot of the hate toward the show is from misogynist and queerphobic anime fans, even though anime often features LGBTQ+ stereotypes up to the wazoo, with good representation sometimes hard to come by. Hopefully, this minority of hate-watchers of High Guardian Spice will be drowned out over time by new LGBTQ+ fans who love the show, even as Crunchyroll barely promotes it, leaving the promotional work to current viewers and the show's cast and crew.

If High Guardian Spice receives a second season, it will continue the story of the show's four protagonists, which Rose dubs "High Guardian Spice" in the show's final episode. In possible future episodes, Olive, who worked with Smoke Face, her intermediary to the Triumverate, may continue to be a threat, even though she has said that she doesn't want to kill anyone. As Olive stated in one episode to the show's protagonist, the Triumverate will keep sending enemies, like Mandrake, to fight the protagonists, attempting to cause them, and those at the school grievous harm.

Another season would see more of "cute witches fall[ing] in love with each other," as one fan described it, and episodes that hopefully push the boundaries of LGBTQ+ and gender diversity in media. Some fans would probably hope that characters like Sage and Rose could "run off and elope and travel the world as a power couple," as Amber Vanich, an openly lesbian storyboarder for Tangled: The Series once said about the popular ship of Cassandra and Rapunzel in the series, known as "Cassunzel," or have Sage and Snap do the same, due to their feelings toward each other. There are many possible ships in this show.

If another season of High Guardian Spice does happen, there would be more of what Romero described as an "incredibly inclusive" fun and magical adventure. Such a season is possible despite the fact that Rodriguez is developing a new mature animated drama for Legendary TV and another based on DC animated character for Warner Bros. Animation. If the show was to be renewed by Crunchyroll, new episodes would need to be developed, meaning the show may be on hiatus for some time. As Rodriguez put it recently, on an account which has gone private to avoid harassment from trolls, it's up to Crunchyroll if a second season is greenlit, adding that he'd "love to make a season 2" because he wanted to have the story following "the girls through all 3 years at High Guardian Academy."

As Georden Whitman, creator of Nomad of Nowhere and the upcoming animated series, Port by the Sea, stated, "it seems a lot of people are enjoying it so I hope that hate crowd is nullified." I hope for the same. As for Rodriguez, he has been drawing characters from High Guardian Spice, beginning with Rose, since 2013, even putting Rose in an animation he made in 2014. As a result, it is clear that he would definitely be interested in continuing the series if he is able to do so as he is invested in the characters, even likely basing the name of the catgirl on his cat, Olive, featured on his Tumblr blog along with early illustrations of the show's characters.

It is significant that Rodriguez described Princess Tutu as his favorite anime and Duck as his favorite character, saying she is "put through hardship after hardship, but she always makes it through smiling, she never gives up hope." The series has some similarities to High Guardian Spice in that it has magical girl elements and effective emotional appeal, with emotional honesty from characters. However, Princess Tutu is said to be a "fairy tale set to ballet" with the use of dance in lieu of violence, which makes me think more of the fusion dances in Steven Universe than anything in High Guardian Spice. As one reviewer put it, "the show draws from magical girl series like Sailor Moon and Princess Tutu." While I can't speak more to the influence of Princess Tutu, the sequences in the episode where the girls become mermaids is definitely inspired by the magical girl transformations in anime such as Cardcaptor Sakura, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sailor Moon, and the like.

High Guardian Spice is, as Marisa Balkus, an animation manager at Netflix, put it, a "very special show that was intended to connect with audiences outside of its main platform." I hope, like she does, that people "find fun, comfort, and... a best girl in it." Certain YouTubers who complain about the show to get clicks and money flowing into their pockets or the hostile people in the Crunchyroll comments don't represent those who actually watch the show. Such people also did not represent those who watched Magical Girl Friendship Squad. The same can be said for the latter show's hard-to-find pilot series, Magical Girl Friendship Squad: Origins, stuck behind innumerable paywalls, written by Diana McCorry, the same person who created the little-known animated comedy web series, Human Kind Of, in 2018.

In a possible Season 2, it would be wonderful to see more magic, wholesome girls from this charming and cute series which has the feel of a Toonami or Ghibli anime but the fluidity and expressiveness that a modern cartoon can offer. Due to the fact it has four female protagonists at the helm, it not only shares some similarities with anime series like Princess Connect! Re: Dive, but with Western animations like Middle School Moguls, the Tales of Arcadia anthology, and Welcome to the Wayne, although each of those series are different in their own ways.

The show's last episodes, where the catgirl, Olive, turns people into stone, reminded me of the ending of the first season of Disenchantment when Dreamland is turned into stone except for the King, making it appear abandoned. In this case, however, the spell is lifted, while in Disenchantment everyone is still encased in stone, and that hasn't been reversed even in the most recent episodes.

The first season of High Guardian Spice makes me think of the four-episode prelude series by Yssa Badiola, entitled Recorded By Arizal. Like that series, I see these 12 episodes as introducing viewers to the show's characters and getting viewers invested in them, and setting a foundation for a future season. Another season would allow the characters to shine even more, and add more characters, perhaps those who are non-binary for instance. Even so, due to review bombing by some anime fans, it is possible that Crunchyroll will not see renewing such a series worth their while. Hopefully, they decide to renew it anyway and let the story continue, as the end of Season 1 left viewers with an unexpected cliffhanger!

I would highly recommend High Guardian Space. It is a harmless, cute, wonderful magical fantasy, and a queer magical girl show all in one.  I hope Crunchyroll will take the dive and keep this series alive. In the end, I hope that readers of this review help give High Guardian Spice a chance by watching it, whether on Crunchyroll or VRV.

© 2021-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[anunimportantduck]

New Lock Screen and background.

[weirdnwild91]

After much procrastination, the third of my “High Guardian Spice” bookmarks is complete! I like this one in particular, because Parsley is my favorite of the group~<3

Make sure to check out work like this and more from the creator of this character, dinoraye!

Here is the original sketch of the bookmark.

[cleoinspace]

Why watch anime, when you can watch these girls rock out? [original art by Raye Rodriguez, @dinoraye]. Note: This was originally posted on Reddit.

[cleoinspace]

⭐️Raye Rodriguez🌙 (@dinoraye.bsky.social)

Making a #meettheartist pic in 2025?? It's more likely than you think 🤔 Me and some of my favorite things :-3

Love that @dinoraye says in this recent meet the artist pic on Bluesky that one of his favorite things are HGS fans. Thanks Raye!

[dinoraye]

Here are a handful of commissions I've completed so far! ^^ Slots are still available at my Ko-fi below <3

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