Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. It’s Animation Bang time. Well guys summer is around the corner kids and teens are looking forward to finishing up school and spending 2 months traveling, sleeping in, playing with friends, and not having a care in the world but for some teens their summer involves fighting villains, saving the world, and getting that last slice of pizza. I am of course talking about the Teen Titans. The Teen Titans is one of the oldest running comic book series in the DC universe. Getting started back in 60s the Teen Titans first got their start in The Brave and the Bold issue #54 when Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West), and Aqualad teamed up to defeat the villain known as Mister Twister. The story was a hit and in 1966 the Teen Titans received their own spin-off series written by Haney and drawn by Nick Cardy who also drew the first 39 issues of Aquaman. The premise of the comic was to just help out teenagers and answer calls from around the world but as years went on the premise evolved and Teen Titans spun off into a series of its own. Now I’ve never read the comics before in my life but I have heard good things about the series but we’re not here to talk about the comics (if you want a full history on the comic series check Linkara’s videos, he’s way more into this series than I am. I’m more of a manga guy) we’re here to talk about the Cartoon Network show Teen Titans. Getting started in 2003 and ending in 2005, the show was heavily focused on the stories from The New Teen Titans comic book series written by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez in the 1980s. The show was created by Glen Murakami who worked on Batman Beyond, the Ben 10 series, and was even the executive producer of Beware the Batman. While the show was mostly geared toward younger children many young adults and fanboys/fangirls found the series enjoyable and fun to watch and even if you weren’t a fan of the comics or didn’t knww a thing about the comics like me people still liked the series. But is it as good as I remember it being. Well let’s go take a look at the once popular Teen Titans.
The Story
The story of the series is pretty simple. The Teen Titans live in this city called Jump City inside a giant tower shaped like a giant T (if that building was upside down it would be very symbolic) where they protect from crime and the many super villains within the city.
The Main Characters
The Titans surprisingly don’t consist of the original Teen Titans from the comics. Instead the Titans consist of 5 teenagers Robin (who is the only original Titan on the team), Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire. One of the things they did well with this group is that they actually do make them sound and act like teenagers in fact each of them represents a stereotype of a teenager you see at school or in movies. Robin was the cool guy, Cyborg the tech jock, Beast Boy the class clown, Raven the goth girl, and Starfire the foreign exchange student. Also surprisingly the show never really dives that much into the characters backstory, they touch base on it a little but they never go too much in depth about it. I can understand them skipping Robin’s backstory because it’s the goddamn Robin, the Boy Wonder, everybody knows who he is, he’s the most well-known sidekick of all time and even if you didn’t know his backstory you at least had a good idea of who he was he was Batman’s prodigy. The other characters I can’t understand. Like I said before I’ve never read the comics of this series so all of these characters outside of Robin were a complete mystery to me, I had no idea who they were or what their origins were. I think the series would have benefitted greatly if they set aside 1 episode each season to go into the character’s backstory. Anyway it’s obvious that the Titans are the main characters so let’s take a closer look at them:
Robin voiced by Scott Menville
Despite being the only character on the team without super powers Robin is regarded as the leader of the Titans. He his highly discipline, has excellent martial art skills, agility, and an array of weapons at his disposal like the birdarangs, grenades, and a multi-purpose staff. While he has a playful and cool personality able to smile and crack a few jokes here and there he can also be quite serious, stern and strict with others as well as stubborn. He’s also quite a loner at times as he’ll go off and do his own thing without telling the other Titans or keeping things to himself. Many people including myself thought this was Tim Drake (the 3rd Robin) in the series but the creators of the show drop subtle hints in telling us that this Robin is actually Dick Grayson the original Robin. In the second season Starfire travels to the future where Robin has become Nightwing, in season 4 Raven reads his mind and we see his parents die in a circus act, and in the second season a character named Larry who is a parody of Bat-mite and comes from the 5th dimension real name is Nosyarg Kcid which is Dick Grayson spelled backwards. So yeah, it’s Dick Grayson in the show.
Cyborg voiced by Khary Payton
The oldest member and second-in-command of the Titans. Due to an accident in the past Cyborg is half human half machine giving him super-strength and an arsenal of weapons at his disposal, the sonic cannon being his favorite out all of his weapons. Cyborg comes off as the tech wiz of the group he designs the vehicles, works the computers, and is the one responsible for creating the security system of Titan Tower as well as the training grounds for the team. While they don’t go much into his past we’re told that before his accident he was skilled athlete in school doing a number of sports such as football, basketball, almost any sport you could think of Cyborg did it. Despite having a robotic body Cyborg seems at peace with his appearance and isn’t afraid to hide it if anything it only makes him love life more than ever because he almost lost it. Throughout the series the guy is just enjoying life, he savors every minute of it from hanging with his friends to eating a slice a pizza he enjoys it. He’s outspoken, fun-loving, and the character I identify the most with in this show. I was an athlete all throughout my school life I still am but at the same time I was somewhat of a geek when it came to technology I found the whole thing interesting and even when I went to college I put IT as my minor. If my college had a bigger IT program I would have made that my major along with Marketing.
Beast Boy voiced by Greg Cipes
The comic relief character of the show. Beast Boy has the power to turn into any animal in the world even extinct animals like dinosaurs. While Beast Boy is the jokester of the group causing him to looked down upon by the others at times he proves his invaluable work with his kindness, quick-thinking, and probably being the most human out of all the members of the group. He can be quite serious at times providing useful insight and advice to many members of the team such as Cyborg when he starts to doubt himself because of his robotic parts or Raven whenever she feels alone in the world or just afraid. So while Beast Boy may be the jokester of the group he can be considered the heart of the group as well just because of his useful insight and advice that the others might overlook at times.
Raven voiced by Tara Strong
The most mysterious member of the Titans, Raven is a girl who is half-human and half-demon with mystical powers that makes her the team’s spiritual leader and the one who often sees things for what they really are sooner than the others. Even though Raven is a part of the team she alienates herself from the group only interacting with them when she needs to. She’s also quite emotionless, not really displaying any emotions of joy, sadness, or anger ever unless someone brings her to that point which is very rare and she’s also quiet, studious, and sarcastic providing some good and witty comebacks when the time comes. The reason for her closed off personality is because of her dark past which I’ll get into later on. A lot of people wanted Robin and Raven to hook up with each other since they both have tragic backstories and seem to be the most mature members in the group which yeah that wouldn’t be such a bad couple but I was rooting for her and Beast Boy to end up together. Robin and Raven both have tragic past so they need to see the hope and bright side of life which is something neither of them can give each other. Beast Boy can show Raven that bright side of life because from what we’ve seen in the show Beast Boy had a pretty good life with not a whole lot of tragedies. He’s also the one character who constantly makes an effort to reach out to Raven, he tries to get her laugh and crack a smile and he’s always there to comfort her whenever she’s really feeling lonely or scared.
Starfire voiced by Hynden Walch
The final member of the Titans and the whole reason why the group formed in the first place. Starfire is an alien princess who comes from the planet Tameran her powers include super strength, flight, and shooting green energy beams from her eyes and hands. Because she’s an alien from a distant planet she’s constantly intrigued and trying her best to fit into Earth’s society. She’s very cheerful, kind, and open befriending just about everyone she meets. The girl is just downright nice and cute in that she doesn’t understand our culture but she’s really trying so hard to fit in and that sweet smile you see on her just makes you happy. In the show she and Robin hook up together and become a couple. Not a bad couple but in all honesty I was hoping Raven and Beast Boy would hook up as well. She also has big sister named Blackfire who is evil and wants to cause Starfire misery and pain and only makes in appearance in like 2 episodes.
The Villains
Within the show the Titans had only one main villain with a number of minor who either showed up once or came back a few times.
Slade voiced by Ron Perlman
Also known as Deathstroke in the comics Slade is the main antagonist in the series. His backstory is he’s a super soldier as a result of some failed military experiment. As a result of the experiment Slade is what you might consider a superhuman the guy has incredible strength, endurance, speed, and regenerative powers not to mention a nimble fighter skilled in martial arts and amazing intelligence making him a huge threat. Throughout the show his goal is to destroy the Titans, destroy the city, and possibly take over the world. In the show Slade has this calm, composed, and mysterious personality to him always watching and coming up with master plans to destroy the Titans. Working behind the scenes watching his plans unfold but at the same time he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty and take them on himself when he needs.
The H.I.V.E Academy
Short for the Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination Academy, H.I.V.E was a school for training young and up-coming villains showing them the ropes and how’s to becoming a great super villain. We unfortunately don’t get to meet many of the students going there, the only notable students we see the most are Gizmo a tech genius, Mammoth a super strength metahuman, and Jinx some kind of sorceress. Next to Slade these were the villains we saw the most in the series.
Control Freak voiced by Alexander Polinsky
While technically a minor villain this was probably my favorite villain in show. He’s an out of shape overweight movie fanatic who has this powerful remote control which allows him to warp reality to suit his movie inspired images. The guy is just a huge geek who the Titans easily dismiss in fact he actually comes across as a fan of the Titans rather than a villain.
The Seasons
The show had 5 seasons and each one was focused on one of the members of the Titans with a major 2 part story to finish the season off with a bang. Except for Starfire who never got a season where she was the main focus which is a shame we could had a major space arc. I’ve heard Murakami was a huge Star Wars fan so it’s really a shock he didn’t do a space arc with Starfire as the character of focus. Oh, we go into a space a few times but the only real space episode I really liked was when they went to Starfire’s home planet because she’s getting into an arranged marriage set up by Blackfire who escaped prison and became the ruler of Tameran and she forces Starfire to marry this huge Jabba the Hut looking green alien. The episode was alright but it honestly could have been better.
Season 1
Season 1 seemed to be an introduction season into who the Titans were, how they interacted and helped each other out, facing a few minor villains, and how they fought as a team. The main highlight is Robin and Slade. Robin becomes obsessed with trying to find and capture Slade and bring him to justice as a rite of passage to prove to himself and everyone that he is ready to go solo and become a superhero in his own rite. Because of his obsession with Slade he does just about anything to get to him even going so far as creating this alternate personality called Red X and attacking the other Titans just to fool Slade and draw him out into the opening betraying the trust of his friends in process. When the two finally meet face to face we find out that Slade is just as obsessed with Robin as Robin is with him (oh boy, Robin needs an adult) and forces Robin to be his apprentice or he’ll kill the other Titans with a virus he injected into them. At the end of the season the Titans figure out what Slade has done, come to Robin’s aid and give Slade the beating of his life forcing him to retreat. At the end they remove the virus from their bodies and Robin acknowledges his mistakes and obsession and vows not to become like Slade.
If I had to name my favorite episode this season it would have to be the episode “Switched”. In the episode a villain called the Puppet King traps the souls of Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy into dolls and takes over their bodies. He tries to do the same thing to Raven and Starfire but instead their souls get switch in they wind up in each other’s bodies. Now the two must overcome their differences and work together to save the others. What makes me like this episode so much is that it centers on two people who are the exact opposite of each other but share one common trait that brings them together, their powers. Both Raven and Starfire’s powers are based entirely off their emotions if there’s any hint of doubt or confusion in their emotions their powers will either go berserk or they can’t use them so in order to fully control each other’s powers they have to open up to each other about their past and accept each other. What makes this episode nice for me is seeing two people who are the exact opposite come together and talking with each other to become friends and earn the respect of each other showing that even the most opposite of people can become friends. That and it’s kinda funny to hear Starfire’s voice come out of Raven’s body and Raven’s voice come out of Starfire’s body.
Season 2
The main focus of season 2 is the newcomer to the show Terra, a traveler who has the ability to control the earth but she can’t really control her powers all that well. Because of this she’s somewhat afraid of what she’ll do if she loses control of her powers. The first time we see her we see that she and Beast Boy develop a romantic relationship with each other but once Robin finds out she can’t control her powers she runs away out of fear. Now there’s a bit of difference between her animated self and her comic book self. In the series she’s kind, care-free, tomboyish, and fun to be around. Her comic book personality is the opposite, I mean good God the girl is downright evil incarnated. I call her a bitch but I feel that’s not insulting enough. Anyway, after leaving she comes back and has complete control over her powers but little do the Titans know Terra has become Slade’s new apprentice and is plotting to stab them in the back when they least expect it. Once her cover is blown, Terra leaves the Titans and comes back beating each of them in a one on one match but the Titans come back not holding back in fighting her and they manage to put her on the ropes until she runs away out of the fear of losing. Slade becomes disappointed in her and she decides to rebel against Slade, Slade brings her under his control and forces her to fight Beast Boy again where she’s about to kill him but Terra fights back and accidently sets off a volcano where Slade falls in and dies. In order to stop the volcano Terra gives her life to stop the volcano and gets incased in stone with no way of saving her. The season ends on a sad note with the Titans going to see her and building a memorial for her.
I have two favorite episodes this season. The first is “Date with Destiny”. In this episode a villain named Killer Moth forces Robin to take his spoiled daughter Kitten to her prom or he’ll destroy the city and what we get is one of most funniest and entertaining proms of all time. Kitten is just a spoiled brat who’s just using Robin as a means to make her boyfriend jealous who happens to be a super villain as well and Robin can’t stand the girl in fact he finds being near her unsettling. But the funniest part of this entire episode is on Starfire’s part. She is jealous like no other girl, it’s funny to see the always calm and peaceful Starfire get mad with jealousy at someone dating the boy she likes, the stuff they do with facial expressions is just priceless, and I love the cat fight she has with Kitten near the end of the episode. The other episode I liked this season is “Winner Takes All”. Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy are teleported to another dimension along with Speedy, Aqualad, Hot Spot, Wildebeest, and Gizmo by a being called the Master of Games who invites them to participate in a tournament to decide who the best hero is. Throughout the episode we get a bunch of well-done fight scenes from all the characters and the episode has a nice twist at the end. It’s something you’ll see coming but you’ll still like it.
Season 3
This season focuses on Cyborg and his archenemy Brother Blood the headmaster of the H.I.V.E Academy who uses mind control powers to control the students. His mind control powers work on everyone except for Cyborg and another student named Bumblebee who becomes a Titan later on in the season. Brother Blood becomes obsessed with trying to figure out how Cyborg was able to escape his mind control going as far as turning himself into a cyborg to figure out how Cyborg overcame him. In the 2 part finale of the season Cyborg goes to help out Titans East a second group of honorary Titans composed of Speedy, Aqualad, Bumblebee, and the fast Mexican twins Mas and Menos (a little racist there). The group is unorganized but with the help of Cyborg they become a team and invite Cyborg to stay as their leader which he accepts. But all is not well because Brother Blood attacks them with an army of cyborgs and in the process brainwashes Bumblebee, Speedy, Aqualad, Mas and Menos. The original Titans come and help out Cyborg to save the others and give him the strength to beat Brother Blood once and for all. Cyborg decides to rejoin the original Titans and Bumblebee is named the new leader of Titans East.
I unfortunately don’t have a favorite episode this season.
Season 4
This was probably the best and darkest season in my opinion. This season focuses on Raven where we find out that she’s the daughter of this powerful demon Trigon and that it is her destiny to bring her father to Earth where he will destroy it and rule it. We get a lot of dark imagery this season such as Raven having constant dreams about her father destroying the world and killing everyone she cares about and Trigon continually speaks to her subconsciously telling her of what’s to come. And to make things worse for the gang Trigon resurrects Slade from the dead making him immortal, giving him the power to control fire, and gives him an army of demons at his command (as if the guy wasn’t dangerous enough). Trigon comes and pretty much turns Earth into a barren waste land for him to rule and killing Raven in the process. After Trigon betrays Slade and leaves him as a demon instead of returning him back into a human, he tells the Titans that Raven is still alive and the only one who can stop Trigon so Robin and Slade team up together and journey down into the depths of what I assume to be Hell to find Raven and bring her back while the other Titans distract Trigon. Robin finds Raven and brings her back where Raven unleashes her true powers and defeats Trigon restoring Earth back to its original form and Slade becomes a mortal again.
My favorite episode this season is an episode called “The Quest”. After losing to a villain in martial arts Robin travels to Asia to seek out this skilled martial artist known as the Master but in order to get to the master Robin must face 3 challenges testing his determination and skills. While that’s going on the other Titans miss Robin so much that they decide to fill the gap of him being gone by dressing up as Robin and pretending to be him. I find it funny that the super-powered characters want to be the non-superpower character in the show. That’s pretty funny, it just goes to show that just like we as normal people wish to have superpowers, metahumans wish to be like us instead.
Season 5
This was the last season and probably the weakest out of all the seasons. This season can be considered Beast Boy’s season. We find out that before joining the Titans Beast Boy belonged to another group called the Doom Patrol a group of superheroes dedicated to stopping the evil organization called the Brotherhood of Evil led by The Brain. After receiving a stress signal about the Doom Patrol being in trouble the Titans come to their rescue and stop The Brain from destroying the world but he as well as the Brotherhood of Evil escape. The Brain comes to realize that there are a number of young superheroes in the world and decides the only way he’ll rule the world is to eliminate all the world’s up and coming superheroes. For the rest of the season all we have is the Titans finding other young superheroes and making them honorary Titans while also warning them about the Brotherhood of Evil I guess this season was trying to be like Justice League Unlimited where they introduced all new superheroes and help increase their popularity. A good idea but the problem is we never get a chance to know these new superheroes, they appear in one episode and are never seen until the end of the season. In the two part finale The Brain steals one of the Titan’s communicators and uses it to track all of the Titans in the world and have all the world’s super villains find and capture them. Luckily, Beast Boy and a rag tag team of Titans escape and come up with a plan to sneak into the Brotherhood of Evil’s base where they save the others and we get one awesome major fight to end the series on a high note where the Titans defeat the Brotherhood of Evil once and for all. During this season we finally get an origin episode explaining how the original Titans met and became a team. It’s a good episode as well as a good backstory into how it all began.
My favorite episode this season was “Lightspeed” where we focus on Kid Flash and Jinx. Kid Flash develops a crush on Jinx and tries to convince her to leave the H.I.V.E and join him. Throughout the episode we see that Jinx didn’t turn to evil by choice it was because there was no other option for her. Her whole life she was told her powers were evil and bad so she began to believe what people said and turned to evil but Kid Flash comes and tells her that she doesn’t have to be evil she can be good and thus we see Jinx struggle with herself mentally deciding what she wants to do. In the end Jinx listens to Kid Flash and becomes good even joining the Titans in the series finale against the Brotherhood of Evil. And as long as we’re talking about episodes you can’t talk about this series without talking about the final episode “Things Change”. Yeah, you’ve all heard of this episode, fans of the show are split down the middle on this one you either like it or you don’t like. In the episode Beast Boy sees a girl who apparently looks like Terra but she has no recollection of her past or her time with the Titans. Throughout the episode Beast Boy tries desperately to remind Terra of who she is and their time together but it all falls on death’s ears and Beast Boy is forced to move on and accept that the Terra he once loved is gone. The reason why so many people don’t like this episode is for a number of reasons. First off, we’re not really sure if the girl Beast Boy is talking to is in fact Terra. Second, if it is Terra how did she escape her stone prison? Third, how did she lose her memories? They never explain any of this and keep us in the dark throughout the episode they make no attempt at explaining anything to us. But the biggest reason why a lot of people didn’t like this episode is because it ended on a sad note instead of good note there’s no conclusion the series just ends. When I first watched this episode I didn’t like it for the same reasons everyone else didn’t like. But once I watched the episode again as an adult I was able to fully appreciate this episode for what it was and came around to liking it. While I admit the season ended on a sad note I thought the message was good and powerful. The message throughout the episode is things change whether we like it or not nothing stays the same forever. We can’t control change nor can we predict it we have to accept it and learn to adapt to it and that’s what this episode is trying to teach us. Beast Boy has to accept this change in Terra and realize she wants nothing to do with him anymore. No matter how much he tries to fight the change or approach her he has to come to terms with it and move on which is what he does at the end. The lesson may be tough but it’s a lesson we all have to learn in life and I felt this episode handled that lesson well.
Trouble in Tokyo
The series finally came to an end with a TV movie called Trouble in Tokyo which I wouldn’t recommend watching it’s not a bad movie but at the same time it’s not a good movie. In the movie the Titans get attacked by this legendary Japanese criminal called Saico-Tek who has the power to bring his paintings to life. Hoping to capture this criminal the Titans go to Tokyo to find him but everyone in Tokyo believes that Saico-Tek is just an urban myth so the mystery is on in finding out if Saico-Tek is a myth or if he’s actually a real person and if he isn’t a real person than who’s pulling the strings and why did he attack the Titans? While the movie has a good mystery that’s honestly not the main focus of this movie. The main focus of this movie is Robin and Starfire finally getting together. If anything this whole trip to Tokyo just served as a romantic getaway for them and the others are just there to take in the sites and have fun. In fact here, //youtu.be/Qe3-W3JVk_0, that’s the whole movie right there, I just saved you an hour and a half the whole point of this movie was just for that scene nothing else special really happens in this movie. Well there is one funny moment in this movie that got a good laugh out of me. In the movie Beast Boy goes to a karaoke bar where he does a literal translation of the Teen Titan’s theme song from Japanese to English. The theme song for this show is sung by the two girl rock group Puffy AmiYumi who throughout the whole song are just saying random words in Japanese but when the show aired in America we gave the song our own lyrics to make it sound like an actual song. In the movie Beast Boy does a real translation of the song and sings it and by God is it funny, scene here: //youtu.be/V0Xjmdotzkc.
Morals and Themes
Just like the comics the showed had many morals themes to help teenagers such as be yourself, don’t be afraid of change, care for your friends etc. Probably the biggest moral they had in the show was an episode on racism. In the episode titled “Troq” which aired during the 4th season an alien mercenary enlist the help of the Titans to destroy these vicious fighting machines. At first he seems like a nice guy, he’s nice to all the Titans and respects their powers and abilities but we quickly find out he has a deep hatred for Starfire because she is a Tamaran calling her a Troq which in alien language means nothing/worthless in other words the alien mercenary is calling Starfire worthless. And the sad thing about all of this is that even in the end of the episode when Starfire saved him and the others confront the mercenary on this issue he still remains prejudice to Starfire not thinking any highly of her or thanking her for saving him. This episode was a hard hit at racism and showed us that there are just some people who are ignorant that they’ll never change.
The Animation
The animation is one of the things that stood out the most in the show. It was good animation but the animators added in traits that you see in animes such as the big head on the tiny body whenever the character was mad and yelling at others, the big sweat drop on the forehead, and the classic characters going into chibi form in some scenes. For those of who don’t know Murakami is from Japanese descent so I guess this was his way of introducing the anime culture to a young audience. A nice effort and one I can get behind but did he really have to use the funny nonsensical stuff, couldn’t he have shown the cool sides of anime like the amazing fight scenes, excellent shadows, backgrounds or fluent animation we see in animes? I wish he would have shown stuff like that first that way you could get their interest into anime and then down the road show the funny chibi stuff. It’s like creating an AI, you start off by showing something intelligent and mind-blowing (in my case Isis) and then down the road you show something that’s more on the fun and cute side (like Chibi Isis).
Was it a good show?
Yes, it was a good show. The show had good characters and served in helping me learn more about other superheroes I didn’t know about until watching the series, the action was good, the main villain being Slade was awesome in this show I honestly wished they used him more. The show was also quite funny at times but it had it’s serious moments to make you think and feel sad for the characters. The morals were worked in well, they didn’t try to force them down our throats they came out naturally. Music was decent and while I complain a little about the animation I still think it was good. While the series probably should have ended after season 4 I’m still glad the show got 5 seasons and I’m glad I watch it.
Does it deserve another season
I say yes. I would like to see another season of the Teen Titans and no don’t get me started on that Teen Titans Go crap. How they went from a good show to this is mind-boggling. I say we do a reboot of the show with the animation style they used in Young Justice, showing the Titans in a more serious light, but still having that humor only in a more mature sense.
Final Score
Teen Titans gets a 6.5/10. It’s still a good show that holds up to this day and if you’re fan of the Titan comics or looking to get into the comics I say the show is worth watching and good way to get introduced into the series. If you wanna learn more about the series I highly recommend checking out Linkara’s videos as he goes way more in-depth than I did. Again, good series and if you haven’t checked it out yet I say go out and find it. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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