Review: Unicorn: Warriors Eternal “The Awakening” ; “The Awakening, Part 2”

Get a blender. Add in Steven Universe, a dash of Primal, a few helpings of My Hero Academia, and set it against a steampunk setting featuring Max Fleischer characters, and what you get is Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, a brand-new ten-episode series from Genndy Tartakovsky. The first-two episodes, like any anime, really are for world-building, Genndy attempting to open up this new world that features a robot by the name of Copernicus, acting as a sort of Nick Fury in building a super hero team tasked with defending 1890 wherever the hell this show is. Not unlike the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the heroes are embodying the spirits of a team of yesteryear that also used to use the team name of Unicorn, tasked with defending us from ghostly terrors sent to us from some sort of fox-lady. Melinda, a powerful sorceress, Seng, a cosmic monk, and Edred, a warrior elf, have to reveal more about their past so that they can create for themselves a path to feature the incoming threats.

As if 2022/2023 didn’t Unicorn the hell out of you already with the likes of Unicorn Boy, Unicorn Wars, and now this, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal took 20 years to finally get on the air, and to be fair to the producers, I get it. The premise is probably too confusing for kids, but features characters that may not be interesting to anybody that is an adult. In fact, it’s most likely a play by Adult Swim for the TV-Y7 fans of Netflix that enjoyed the likes of the She-Ra remake or stayed up late for the Disney prime-time franchises of yesteryear like Gravity Falls. Unfortunately, I don’t know if the franchise sticks or landing. There’s very little action so far, and the premise borrows from every Tom, Dick, and Harry that has come before it. The aesthetic is pretty cool, and I love the Copernicus character, but everybody else I have no vested interest in…so far.

The lack of originality in Unicorn: Warriors Eternal is only buoyed by the fact that the cast is pretty good, featuring the likes of Grey Griffin, Hazel Doupe, Demari Hunte, and Tom Milligan who do their best to deliver mundane dialogue. The only interesting dynamic, whether or not the anti-hero Emma can somehow reconcile her dual personalities which may slant the potential love of her life, has already been done to death in much better avenues by the likes of Jean Grey/Scott Summers, Peter Parker/Mary Jane, and Bruce Wayne/any human relationship.