Amphibia Review: Anne or Beast? / Best Fronds

"Guys! I just had the craziest dream where I was trapped in a world of frog pe— Oh. Right."

Amphibia is a show that I've been patiently awaiting for the past year, which is something of a rarity for me. Although I'm someone who generally likes to think that he keeps his tabs on animation, there's not a lot of projects that have filled me with as much excitement as this one.

We're in what I feel like is a very transitional era in cartoons. This is a point where it's becoming clear which shows in the past few years were the true trend-setters, and a point where animation is becoming increasingly serialized, more intent on telling a longer narrative with dramatic twists and turns that allows for deeper character investment as opposed to the zanier, episodic antics of cartoon's past. There's also been more pushes for diversity in the voices of those creating animated programming, and Amphibia is no exception. It's culled from the mind of Matt Braly, a half-Thai former storyboard artist for Gravity Falls and Steven Universe, basing the show off of his childhood experiences of visiting Bangkok.

Although the influence of the show off of his childhood is currently more subdued (it'll play more of a hand in the show as the season progresses), that sense of being a fish out of a water in a strange world is retained, and the creation of animation's first Thai-American protagonist, Anne Boonchuy (voiced by Brenda Song), is an exciting development: as a person of half-Asian descent myself, let alone also being named Matt, Amphibia had me sold from the start. It helps, too, that if the first two episodes are any indication, we're in for the start of a wonderful new show.

There's nothing too breathtaking about the first few episodes, but there's an immediate sense that this is a show that knows what it's doing and how to accomplish it. It starts with a familiar formula—Anne accidentally gets sucked into a new world and makes it her quest to find out how to get home—but the peculiarities of said world and the vibrant cast of characters that make up the episodes, allow it to soar.

For starters, "Anne or Beast?" is pretty much all preliminary material, with the main objectives of welcoming us to Amphibia, a lush, forested land inhabited by frog people, and introducing us to the show's two charismatic leads, Anne and Sprig Plantar, a frog boy who discovers her in the woods. It's an episode led off by a fun chain reaction: the town scaredy cat stumbles upon Anne at night, and his ensuing freak-out leads the townsfolk to antagonize her as a beast and set out to slay her. When Sprig discovers her, though, they form a surprisingly effective team, sharing the same adventurous spirit and, as the next episode reveals, a need for friendship, and after proving her worth to the townsfolk by helping defend them from a giant praying mantis, they ultimately (though reluctantly) accept her presence.

Each supporting character has their own niche that allows them to maintain a foothold in the show's narrative, too, though the one that leaves the biggest impact is Hopadiah Plantar, Sprig's father. Although he accepts Anne per Sprig's bequest, and (more than less) welcomes her into the Plantar household, he's well aware of the more conservative views of the townsfolk about her presence. More than being a disciplinary figure, he's looking out for Sprig and Anne's best interests, and in the case of the second episode, "Best Fronds," that means trying to stop the two of them from visiting the lake out of fear that the townsfolk would be provoked.

While I would've liked to see more of that facet of the show explored in the episode, it ended up becoming more of a primer on the sort of wacky adventures that await Anne and Sprig over the next two months of her stay, with the cornerstones of the episode being all about Anne and Sprig's budding friendship and getting used to the absence of her old friends. That's where the episode finds its emotional core, with one particularly breathtaking line from Anne revealing some of the intricacies at play to her character:

"This is what friends do, remember? They help each other get the things they want. Look, if a friend wants a pencil case, you get it for them. If your friend likes your new shoes, you give them to her. And if a friend wants you to steal a crazy music box from a thrift store, even if you really don't want to, you do it, okay? Because if you don't, they might not want to be your friend anymore."

While "Best Fronds" never really lingers on the moment, instead letting it hang in the air over the two characters before becoming a means of rallying Sprig onto Anne's side when he objects to her going into the lake on account of a warning sign, it's a crushing bit of foreshadowing. Anne didn't have true friends back on Earth, with their friendship being based out of manipulation and toxicity, but she doesn't realize it, and it's unclear when she will. (The reveal that one of her "friends," Sasha, was transported to Amphibia, too, though, suggests that revelation will come sooner than later.)

At the end of the day, though, at least one thing is clear: Anne has found her first true friend in Sprig.

FINAL GRADES: 
"Anne or Beast?": B+.
"Best Fronds": A-.

Also, to those not familiar with what I do: Hello, fellow Interweb adventurers! I'm Matt, and write reviews of the shows I love so you don't have to. I'm hoping to start doing coverage of Amphibia over the next season, so if you're interested in keeping up to date with the stuff I write, you can follow me on Twitter @Matt_a_la_mode. I hope to see you around here again sometime!