The older I get, the more I become disappointed by animated series. It’s not because these series aren’t necessarily good – usually they are beyond spectacular for the 4-10 year-old audiences they were written to be watched by. This might actually be a sign I’m maturing (I refuse to believe this though, given my weekend binges of Ninja Turtles). But every now and then, a series comes along that’s just too good not to watch though (see previous posts about Ducktales, Gravity Falls). Star Vs. The Forces of Evil is another such series. 

Currently in the middle of its third season, Star is about a young princess from the Mewni dimension, Star Butterfly (Eden Sher), who is sent to Earth as a foreign exchange student. Here she meets Marco Diaz (Adam McArthur), whose family she stays with. Star isn’t an ordinary Disney princess though. She fights monsters, uses magic, and couldn’t care less about what the world thinks about her. She isn’t a princess – she’s Star. Meanwhile, Marco is a karate-loving, rule-following geeky student who is the complete opposite of Star, yet stands by her side in battle.

While the show can be found on Disney XD, its animation is more reminiscent of 90s anime like Sailor Moon, adding in a more modern punk-rock style. Where else but anime would you find cotton candy clouds used as vehicles to fight alongside the prince of the Underworld and a teenage flying pony head against a diplomatic lizard man? Looking back to the original Japanese Sailor Moon that didn’t care what people thought about the characters (which helped the series in Japan before its adaptation in America), this series shows that you can be whatever you want. A princess doesn’t have to be Belle or Cinderella, female, or even human(like). They just need to be able to have fun and care about their friends. Given the current state of politics in America, why not follow a monarch who cares about the world.