Rainbow High

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**Rainbow High** is an animated series which features characters from the doll franchise attending school at Rainbow High. This programs blocks on Every Saturday Morning on Fox Kids and Canada on YTV.

There are currently 38 episodes released overall: 26 episodes released of Season 1, 26 of Season 2, and 26 of Season 3.

## Background

The existence of the series was first teased by the official Rainbow High Instagram account, replying to comments from fans wondering if a cartoon was in preparation since the commercial videos of Series 1]] feature CGI-animated scenes. It was said that the cartoon would be coming in fall, without further information. On August 31st, a trailer was published on YouTube and Instagram, with the caption *"The first day of school is almost here. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 COMING SOON!".* Later, they changed the name of the trailer on their YouTube Channel to showcase the premiere date of October 3rd, 2020 on Fox Kids.

On February 24th, Netflix announced that the first season would arrive on Netflix on March 29th.

## Characters

### Main Characters

* Ruby Anderson
* Poppy Rowan
* Sunny Madison
* Jade Hunter
* Skyler Bradshaw
* Violet Willow
* Bella Parker
* Amaya Raine

### Supporting Characters

* Avery Styles
* Aidan Russell
* Ainsley Slater
* Ms. Wright
* Ms. Morton
* Colin
* Stella Monroe
* Karma Nichols
* River Kendall
* Krystal Bailey
* Kia Hart
* Laurel De'Vious
* Holly De'Vious
* Jett Dawson
* Sheryl Meyer
* Daria Roselyn
* Georgia Bloom
* Daphne Minton
* Gabriella Icely
* Emi Vanda
* Brianna Dulce
* Marisa Golding
* Robin Sterling
* Vanessa Tempo
* Lyric Lucas
* Carmen Major

### Background Characters

* Emerald McNabb
* Purple Bob Girl
* Tangerine Girl
* Feisty Fuchsia Girl
* Maroon Boy
* Pink Boy
* Blonde Girl
* Beige Boy
* Orange and Green Girl
* Emerald Green Boy
* Pale Yellow Boy

## Controversies

### Queerbaiting

Many fans believe that Rainbow High is queerbaiting with their excessive hints on the relationship between Jade Hunter and Bella Parker. Queerbaiting is defined as "a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation". Rainbow High participates in this by continuously hinting at Jade and Bella dating through their interactions in the show and the official Instagram account. For example, their ship name "Jella" has appeared twice in episodes of The Vi Life, and the Instagram often likes and responds to comments about the two with rainbow emojis. The show itself also has many references, with the two of them generally being closer than the others, holding hands, and even going on what seems like a date in *Bella's Night Out*. Fans hope to see the pair confirmed soon, but until then it remains queerbaiting.

### Diversity

Rainbow High has also been criticized for their lack of racial diversity, especially in Series 1. While Sunny is black and Skyler is racially-ambiguous (non-white), both still have lighter skintones considering the full spectrum of color, and they are often whitewashed in their art or stock photos. The other four girls all have the same white skin with minor variation. Series 2 addressed this problem by adding Karma Nichols (whose skintone is somewhere between Skyler's and Sunny's) and Krystal Bailey, who has the darkest skintone so far. Kia Hart, a special edition doll, also has a skintone in the Skyler/Karma range. However, Kia is yet to be seen on more scenes in the animated series, and Karma has only made minor appearances thus far.