Amphibia opens with three thirteen-year-olds getting pulled into a world of talking frogs, and for a while it plays as a gentle fish-out-of-water comedy. Then Matt Braly's show reveals it's actually about friendship going wrong, and how much work it takes to fix.
Anne Boonchuy is the centre of it, and the choice to make her flawed from the start is what gives the series room to move. She arrives selfish and a bit thoughtless, gets adopted by a family of frogs who don't let her stay that way, and spends three seasons becoming someone she'd have found unrecognisable in episode one.
The Plantars carry a lot of that. Sprig's boundless enthusiasm, Polly's tadpole aggression, and Hop Pop's grumbling decency add up to the found family the show is really about. Meanwhile Sasha and Marcy pull the plot in directions that get considerably darker than the frog puns suggest.
This collection covers the main cast plus Captain Grime and King Andrias, drawn in the show's bright, rounded style.
If the finale did something to you, you're not alone. Keep a little of Wartwood on your screen.
