High Guardian Spice will soon be.... given a release date at Virtual Crunchyroll Expo 2021. The series is a rather divisive one in recent memory, but what many people don't know is how long Raye has been developing High Guardian Spice. Join me today as we piece together the origins of High Guardian Spice.
PREFACE: Many of Raye's Tumblr posts were made before he transitioned. I am not trying to erase his trans identity by discussing his older work. If it sounds like I am, please let me know so I can edit this article. Thank you.
High Guardian Spice can be traced all the way back to the early 2010s. During 2011 to 2014, Raye Rodriguez (creator of HGS) was a student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, studying to get his B.A. in Fine Arts (more specifically, a degree in Film & TV). In his university days, he posted art on his Tumblr page. Sifting through it, the RayeToons Tumblr page is a time capsule of early 2010's media, with fanart from cartoons and movies such as Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and ParaNorman. Besides fanart, Raye also experiment with slice of life comics and multiple original characters for his animation projects.
Although Raye created his Tumblr page in May 2011, it wasn't until July 15th, 2013 where Raye would post the very first drawing of soon to be High Guardian Spice protagonist Rosemary.
Original caption:
Oh heeeeeey guys, long time no post.
This is my new character Rosemary! She’s a mother f***ing kawaii magical girl who’s here to kick some butt!
The style of this picture was heavily inspired by one of my new favorite artists Gashi-gashi :3
On
August 30th, 2013, Raye would post art featuring the four main girls of
High Guardian Spice. This is one of, if not the earliest artwork featuring the main cast with their original designs. While Parsley kept their design for the most part, Rosemary, Sage and Thyme (the witch and the archer respectively) would receive major redesigns later on.
Original caption:
So here’s my characters of a thing I’ve been working on for a while. My magical girls Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme! ((But not featured in that order!)) Yay!
On March 24th, 2015, Raye would post the four girls again, this time with designs that closely resemble the final designs that would be seen three years later when the show was officially announced. Sage, Rosemary, Thyme and Parsley!
There are plenty of other images and posts related to HGS. For the sake of brevity, I won't be posting them individually outside of a few details. Here's a mostly complete list of HGS related posts on Raye's Tumblr pre-2018:
March 13th, 2014 - A drawing of Rosemary and Sage thanking Raye's followers is posted.
July 5th, 2014 - Raye announces he will be posting his short film,
Treasure Hunt in a week.
July 11th, 2014 - Raye announces that in 1 day, he will release his short film,
Treasure Hunt.
July 12th, 2014 - Raye Rodriguez releases his short film,
Treasure Hunt, on YouTube and Newgrounds. The short is possibly the earliest rendition of Rosemary in animated form.
July 14th, 2014 - Post with a doodle GIF of Rosemary. Raye also advertises his short film again.
July 6th, 2017 - A comic featuring the
HGS girls. A spoof of a page from the manga
Tokyo MewMew.
NOTE: I mentioned a few times Raye's short film. I plan on covering it in the future, so be on the look out for that.
2017 is a good stopping point to this, because according to co-developer of
High Guardian Spice Claire Stenger's resume, the series was picked up by Crunchyroll in September 2017. On a final note, it is interesting to see Raye's style evolve, going from a cartooney art style to slowly drifting into a more anime infuenced style.
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