I've always thought the Teen Titans were a really cool team, and it has some of my favorite superheroes (Raven, in particular), yet I've never actually seen the series that popularized the team to begin with (I'm not watching Go, don't worry). So far, I'd say it's alright, but it still has a lot of room to grow.
Teen Titans is a show about the titular superhero team, with this season being about their battle with Deathstroke (known in this show as Slade because they won't say the word "die" for some reason). I really like Slade, he's a cool and intimidating villain with a pretty interesting plan in the season finale. However, the fact that we don't learn what Slade's plan is until the end of the season makes it feels a bit aimless at times, especially in the mostly episodic first half. The first few episodes pretty much just has the central team fight a random villain without much meat to the story. And while the latter half does have some pretty good episodes along with a few more episodes dealing with the Slade arc and a strong finale, even it had some pretty weak standalones like Deep Six and Car Trouble. Teen Titans has its strong points, particularly when it focuses on its characters like in Nevermore or when it focuses on its central arc like in Masks, but that's about half of the season. The rest is pretty standard villain-of-the-week fare.
The thing that definitely got me to stick with the show even in its rough start was definitely the characters. I really like the whole cast of Teen Titans, each member of the team has their own cool powers and enjoyable personalities, along with some great chemistry right from the start. Raven has always been my favorite of the team, partially because of her cool design and powers and partially because I like edgy and aloof characters, but I do like everyone. Cyborg and Beast Boy also get a lot of great material, but I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed Starfire. It made me realize how much I enjoy alien/robot characters adjusting to humanity (Penny from RWBY is another good example), and her dialogue was easily the most consistently funny out of the team. The animation was also pretty good, especially the energetic and expressive characters. It's not perfect, I think the characters and background don't mesh together the best, but it's also stylish and fun to watch. And between the painted backgrounds, the FLCL-like characters, and the eclectic music, I get some serious early 2000s vibes from this show's presentation that I quite like.
Despite the rough start, there are some pretty good episodes in this season especially in the second half:
Switched: I'm not a big fan of body swap episodes, but this was a lot of fun, especially since it focused on two of my favorite characters. Raven and Starfire struggling to use each other's powers was neat, especially with how they had to learn to understand each other despite their polar opposite personalities, and it was cool to see some of the Teen Titans be antagonists this time.
Mad Mod: The animation in this show is weird sometimes. Actually, it's weird a lot of the time, but doubly so in this episode. There's no character work here nor any Slade progress, but this bizarre episode was just a joy to watch from the inventive illusions to the bonkers chase scene to the random Japanese vocal track by Puffy AmiYumi?! Seriously, could this show get more early 2000s? Anyway, this episode was just so random and strange, but it ended up being the most memorable episode of the season for me.
Apprentice: While most of the season felt a bit aimless, this finale put all of the pieces into place. The reveal that Slade wanted Robin to be his apprentice put his actions into context, and the higher stakes and intensity really made this two-parter feel like the climactic ending the season deserved. The final battle with Slade was great, the moody atmosphere was chilling, and everything was resolved in a satisfying manner. Also, the Batman references left me stunned.
Overall, Teen Titans has a likable main cast, a stylish animation style, and a solid central arc, but its abundance of dull and basic villain-of-the-week episodes drag down a large portion of the season.
2/5 Stars
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