Show Review: Amphibia
September 27, 2023
I laughed, I cried, I loved the whole thing.
Last year, my husband and I started watching a cozy animated show in the autumn and it was something we really enjoyed. We chose Gravity Falls last year, and loved it, so this year we wanted to jump on that wagon again and pick a spooky, cozy, animated show to binge during the season. Turns out, we picked too good of one, because we were staying up late and waking up early so that we could watch another episode. Unfortunately, we have finished the show before the season has hardly begun.
This has to be one of my new favorite shows. It was, honestly, everything I could dream of in a show. It was cute, it was wholesome, it was coming-of-age, it had friendship and a dash of romance and a lot of adventure.
Amphibia starts with our lead protagonist, Anne Boonchuy, falling into another world: Amphibia. Rather than humans, everyone here is, you guessed it, amphibian. She happens upon a small town called Wartwood and somehow convinces a family to take her in, even if just for a short while. Little does she know, this family would become her family. Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly Planter are a sweet family of gardeners and Anne very quickly becomes very close to all three of them. Hop Pop is a lovable, traditional, grandfather who only wants the best for his grandchildren. Sprig is a playful young boy who Anne instantly has a connection with. Polly is a too-smart-for-her-own-good tadpole with a lot of angst.
She had fallen into this world with two of her best friends, Marcy and Sasha, but she has no idea where they are or if they are okay. Marcy is the brainy, clumsy friend who Anne and Sasha always has to look out for. Sasha is the bossy, confident friend who Anne and Marcy often followed the guidance of, even when it wasn’t the best choice. Anne is the compassionate goofball who didn’t take anything too seriously.
The first season does not have much, of Anne’s friends, but we get to know Anne and see how she wins over the whole town. The second season, we get to see her friends a little bit more and get to know where they ended up and how they have been doing over the course of the last few months. The last season explores the depths of the friendships that they have built over time and what they can withstand.
Throughput the course of the show, there is a lot of adventure and excitement, but there are also a lot of lessons that Anne learns. She learns to become responsible and respectful of others space and belongings. She learns about friendship and that family doesn’t have to be blood, but can be a whole town that you fall in love with. She learns about the ways that friendships can change, for better and for worse, and what it means to forgive.
In the end, everything changes, and the friendships that they had in the beginning, that they were so desperately trying to preserve, changed. This made the three girls fall apart as they went into high school, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t share very important memories together.
The ending of this show was beautifully written and exactly what I needed. I have a hard time letting go of friendships when it is time for them to change. This is something I have struggled with for a long time, and have written many blogs about, so it was really beautiful to watch their friendship grow and change and that did not mean that it was ending, it just meant that it was different. Just like her relationship with Sprig, Anne may never have seen Sprig again, but that didn’t make him any less important to her. He would always hold a place in her heart.
I cannot write enough good things about this show, and am honestly getting a little choked up writing this because I know it is over. Please, if you get a chance, watch this show. You will not be disappointed. Even with all of the spoilers I have given you in this post, it does not come close to covering the heart that this show has.
