Amphibia Eases Us into New Normal With S3 Premiere

Amphibia Season 3, Episode 1 Review

It’s only been five months since the season two finale of Amphibia, “True Colors,” broke the Internet. It may as well have been a lifetime for the fans, though, given all that happened. Anne has magic superpowers now. Her, Sasha, and Marcy’s friendship is worse than ever. Anne and the Plantars are on Earth. Did I mention that Anne has superpowers now? It’s crazy! How does top something that monumental? If you’re Amphibia, then you don’t. You ease the viewers into the new status quo, the new normal.

Welcome Home, Anne Boonchuy

Picking up where the previous episode left off, Anne and the Plantars let the realization that they’re on Earth sink in, with Anne being more…enthusiastic than you would expect.

Some people might have an issue with Anne’s initial reaction to being back on Earth. Some would think that she would be more unhappy about it. After all, Sasha and Marcy remain in Amphibia; the latter stabbed through the chest. Worse, Andrias’ poised to conquer Earth, and Anne can’t get back to Amphibia to stop him. However, Anne tries not to bring her recent experiences up.

I think Anne’s reaction is understandable. As tough as she’s gotten, she just went through several traumatic experiences at once. If she dealt with it all at once, she’d likely have a mental breakdown. For now, her priority is to adjust to the new normal that is her life.

That means making sure her parents and foster family adjust to each other.

Meet the Boonchuy-Plantar Family

Considering everything they’ve been through, Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy take the revelation of where their daughter’s been…rather well. Granted, Anne and the Plantar’s don’t tell them the darker aspects of what happened, but that’s beside the point. Anne does point out that if they don’t take them in, the government will capture the Plantars and likely kill them. So, they all become one big family!

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It’s pretty hilarious to watch. But it also brings attention to a major problem that Anne’s facing now that she’s back: her parents being super-protective. They won’t let Anne or the Plantars out of the house, which is understandable. They don’t know how much Anne’s matured in her time in Amphibia. However, Anne demonstrates this to them when they let her and the others go to the market.

Too bad that Andrias hasn’t forgotten about her.

Assassination Frobo & Anne’s Calamity Powers

Having learned that Anne remains connected to her Calamity Gem, Andrias will stop at nothing to kill her and keep Earth from learning of his invasion. Thus, he sends the Amphibian version of the Terminator to eliminate her, proving to be extremely dangerous. It’s only when the Plantar’s lives are threatened that Anne can use her power. As a result, the assassin robot retreats, with Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy none the wiser.

By the end of the episode, the Boonchuy’s agree to give the gang more freedom, but how long will it last?

Further Revelations

Thanks to the events of the episode, we confirm that Anne can use her powers when she taps into her innate heart. In this case, when her loved ones are in danger. However, doing so drains a lot out of her and leaves her feeling very uncomfortable. She’ll likely spend part of the season learning how to control them, as she’ll need them to stop Andrias and his robot assassin.

However, there’s a more immediate problem: Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy can’t be kept in the dark about what really happened in Amphibia forever. Sooner or later, Anne will have to come clean and tell them the truth. Hopefully, they’ll be able to understand that this is something their daughter needs to do.

As far as season premieres go, this was a slow but important episode. It doesn’t try to top the high that we experienced in “True Colors” because it knows that’s impossible. Instead, it focuses on adjusting us to the new normal for the show’s final season. I thought Anne’s homecoming could’ve been more emotional, but that’s just my preference. It was a good start to the season.

And, the new outro is SO ANIME!!!!

I Give “New Normal” a 4.5/5

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Stray Observations

• Marcy is still alive, as we already knew. Andrias’ keeping her alive for undisclosed reasons

• Andrias’ goofiness isn’t entirely an act. He does like one of the books Marcy got him into.

• The events of the first two seasons took place over the course of five months. Which is how long the break between seasons was!
• Are we going to see Sasha and Marcy’s parents, and find out how they reacted to their daughter’s disappearance?
• Does Anne still have to go to school, or is it summer vacation?