Animated Series Review: Teen Titans Season Two

Studio: Warner Home Video
Release Date: February 7, 2006
Availability: on DVD, buy here, buy on Amazon here

Teen Titans season two continues the adventures of the teenaged superheroes.  From a trip to an abysmally bad future for Starfire, to a monster run amok in Titans Tower after they watch a horror movie, to the homeless super-powered girl named Terra.  Even though she would make a great addition to the team, her insecurity and unstable powers make her a target for Slade, who wants another apprentice.

 Onto the main plot, it’s based off the Judas Contract storyline by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by George Perez.   I have not read the Judas Contract storyline so I can’t say exactly what story aspects they changed, other than the fact that Terra is a psychopath who wants to kill the Titans in the comic, who also had an illicit romance with Slade.  In the animated series, she’s a troubled girl who can’t control her powers, and does not want to kill them.  Her illicit romantic relationship with Slade is also gone (Though the fans of the show learned about it and ran with it and her psychotic personality in fanfic). 

But anyway, the plot is very well done and I enjoyed the second season storyline.  I’m not going to say much about the five voice actors because I’d be repeating what I said in my Teen Titans season One Review.  They’re all terrific so I’ll talk about guest star Ashley Johnson, who voice Terra in the second season.

Ashley Johnson’s performance as Terra is very memorable for a lot of fans, mainly because the dialogue during the season finale was very narmy and awkward because due to standards and practices for children’s shows, the words “die” and “kill” are not supposed to be uttered in a children’s show, forcing the writers to use every other euphemism in the book.  Her performance of this stilted dialogue has the emotion that negates how awkward writing, although it’s still painfully obvious that the characters aren’t speaking in a natural manner, considering the fact that the scene has to do with requesting to be killed.

The animation for the show has definitely improved and the fight scenes are much, much better.  The writing for the main plot is very good and this season also contains some of my favorite episodes, “Betrayal” is definitely my favorite episode of this season. 

If you enjoy good superhero shows that aren’t too serious, this is definitely wroth the money.  This is a must-buy for fans of Teen Titans, although fans of the original comics might not like all the changes, it’s still my favorite cartoon series that I’ve watched, since it got me into comic books, anime, comics and a lot of other things.  It’s just a fun show, and it’s nice to pop into my DVD player when I want something to watch.  And unlike a lot of Cartoon Network DVD releases, it doesn’t come split up into volumes, instead it comes in a two disc set and the fact that the series is completely out on DVD in season sets makes it easier to pick up, and it saves shelf space, unlike volumes of Ben 10: Alien Force, even though I like that show too, the way they released those is annoying.

If you enjoy animation and superheroes, you owe it to yourself to pick up this show.  It’s a lot of fun and has a huge fandom even after it was canceled in 2006.