Gloria Sato is a supporting character from the Disney Channel animated series Big City Greens. She is a local café girl who becomes friends and co-workers with Cricket Green (and, to a certain extent, his sister, Tilly). After losing both her job and her money to pay rent, she is forced to stay with the Green family (as of "Chipocalypse Now").
Background[]
Personality[]
Gloria is a short tempered, overworked, and longing employee at Big Coffee. Much of her frustration stems from Cricket's (and by extension the rest of the Green family's) constant activities as they are situated next to her place of work. Gloria does not have time for fun and games and puts work before most other things that matter to her. Unlike Bill Green's more optimistic view of responsibility, Gloria is much more accepting of its harsher reality implying that she is something of a downer. Many unfortunate things befall her, and she apparently has a string of bad luck.
On the upside, Gloria does possess an artistic side as shown in "Paint Misbehavin'" and tends to take her negative aspects and express them on canvas. Over time, she has also shown to appreciate Cricket's company and seems to act like a big sister to him at times. Deep down she simply wants people to understand and respect her as it is implied that she does not have very many friends.
Physical appearance[]
Gloria is very young, presumably in her 20s. She is somewhat tall, thin, and slender, with light lilac skin and cerulean hair. She wears a pink T-shirt, purple pants, gray slip-on shoes, and wears her hair in a ponytail (which she kept down in Season 3).
When she works at Big Coffee, she dons a plain brown cap and apron, just like every other employee.
Role in the series[]
Prior to the beginning of the series, Gloria Sato grew up in the suburbs with her well-to-do parents. She made it her mission to go to art school, get a degree, move to Big City so that she can earn enough and travel to Paris, France to make her dreams come true. While she managed to graduate art school, she suddenly hit a road block in Big City. Somehow, she ended up in a cheap apartment and got a job at a coffee place, simply called Big Coffee, working minimum wage and situated next door to the rowdiest neighbors she had ever met: the Greens. Gloria's view on life suddenly dimmed, but she still held out hope for making it to Paris. Her life was thrown into a spiral when she met Cricket and Tilly Green who both proceeded to cause damage to the café. A fight broke out with balls and animals, but quickly ended when Gloria's boss, Ms. Miriam Cho, saw the damage and threatened to fire her. To Gloria's surprise, Cricket stood up for her and employed himself to make up for the damages. Since then, Gloria came to slightly respect Cricket for taking responsibility.
Over time, Gloria would find, to her amusement, that Cricket would go out of his way to make her happy, though this was not always the case and sometimes she would be at war with him. However, she did become more accepting of him when she realized that her life would be boring without him and was happy to see him continuing to work at Big Coffee. Gloria at one point nearly left Big City as her life was not going the way she had planned, but was coaxed back by the Greens who tell her that they will be there to support her. When Chip Whistler bought Big Coffee from Ms. Cho, Gloria was thrown out onto the street and was forced to get employment at Wholesome Foods, Whistler's business. While initially happy, she turned on her employer when she learned that he intended to kick Cricket out of Big City. Afterwards, she forcefully moved in with the Greens and proceeded to live in their basement after being unable to afford her apartment.
Following this change in scenery, Gloria overcame several hurdles. She finally spoke to her crush and even though got turned down was happy that she did it and manage to speak with her parents and confront them on the fact that they had unrealistic expectations for her. Her relationship with them as since improved. She has gone through a couple of jobs and manage to secure one at an animation studio, though due to union rules, she is an unpaid intern and has to take a community college courses in order to be employed stating, "I'm actually paying to work there." She finally, with the help of the Greens, purchases the former building where Big Coffee stood and reopens it as a Parisian themed restaurant called Gloria + Green Café, somewhat getting closer to her dream of going to Paris.
Relationships[]
Cricket Green[]
When Gloria first met Cricket Green, she immediately despised him due to his rambunctious nature. She viewed him as a nuisance and a hindrance to her work and her future goals. However, upon seeing Cricket take responsibility for his actions, and even suggesting that he work at Big Coffee to help her out, Gloria became more accepting of him. She has since shown a warmer side and has even become slightly saddened at the prospect of not having him around. She has developed an older sister like attitude towards him; annoyed at many of his antics, but willing to stick up for him.
Other episodes show that she can still be easily angered by his selfish actions, but deep down knows that he means well. She has in some ways become something of a close confidant to Cricket and will occasionally try to give him some advice, that is if he is willing to take it. In "Animation Abomination", she reluctantly admits that Cricket, as well as Tilly, are her best friends.
The Greens in general[]
Gloria seemed slightly indifferent to Cricket's family, but as the series progressed, she was shown to think of them as being just as disruptive as him. While she can tolerate Bill, she finds Tilly a bit too strange and Gramma Alice destructive. By "Elevator Action", she has grown to accept them as a surrogate family and realizes that they can be the most reliable people in her corner as they genuinely care about her.
Following her losing her job at Big Coffee and then immediately afterwards at Wholesome Foods, Gloria proceeds to move in with the Greens, showing that while she despises how they affected her life, she does want their help. In "Sellouts", she is shown to willingly want to work with the Greens and is offended when they assume that she is not a right fit to be selling produce with them. This changes when she uses social media to help sell it for them and she aids them in improving their brand. In "Gloria's Café", she tells the Greens that they are like family to her and that Bill and Nancy are like her surrogate parents. She also comes to respect Alice who in turn admires her determination.
In Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation, Gloria outright says that Nancy is the cool one of the Greens and views her as the mom she wished she had. When hanging out with her, she dubs themselves the "dream team".
Miriam Cho[]
Gloria worked for Ms. Cho for much of her time in Big City and thus had a very submissive relationship to her. It is implied that not only was she compliant, but also slightly afraid of her. Nevertheless, she was able to negotiate and work with her to the point that she was actually able to understand much of her grunts and mumblings. It was also implied that Gloria found her weird, but not curious enough to know more about her. Following the events of "Chipwrecked", Ms. Cho abandoned Big Coffee to Chip Whistler, somewhat leaving Gloria dumbfounded.
Chip Whistler[]
Gloria first met Chip in "Coffee Quest" and immediately took a dislike to him for his rude and immature behavior. Even when he offered her the chance to come work for him with a higher salary, she turned it down as she was unwilling to work with someone who would hurt Cricket. However, this changed in "Chipocalypse Now" where after losing her job at Big Coffee, Gloria had no choice but to work for him at Wholesome Foods. While satisfied with the outcome, her better judgment came through when she realized that she still cared about Cricket more than her job and found herself turning against her evil employer. Although even if she hadn't, she probably would have still lost it anyways following Chip's defeat and him getting banned from the city.
Ed Sato and Asuka Sato[]
Gloria first mentioned her parents in "Coffee Quest" where she revealed that her main goal has been to make them proud of how she turned out, because of this, she has been lying to them about her situation. In "'Rent Control", Gloria manages to fool her parents into thinking that she has become a major success; owning two houses and selling her artwork. However, she ends up coming to the terrible conclusion that her parents' biggest concern has always been bragging about their daughter's well-being, rather than whether she is actually doing well. This results in Gloria, somewhat proudly, declaring that she is broke and a failure. She finally manages to make her parents realize that their high aspirations for her have mostly been for selfish reasons and have damaged her mental health. By the end, Gloria has made up with her parents and they reveal that they are still proud of her regardless of her social situation.
Kevin[]
Kevin is a boy whom Gloria has had a long fascination with. It is heavily implied that she has never directly interacted with him, but has been close in proximity to him on more than one occasion. Her main goal has been to ask him out, but is too nervous to do so. In "Big Resolution", she is finally forced to confront him head on, with Cricket and Tilly's help of course. Her main fear had been rejection, but she ultimately sums up the courage to ask him out. He politely declines, as he is "not looking for anything at the moment", but Gloria instead feels rejuvenated by the experience and feels prepared to conquer the world.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Gloria came from the suburbs, similar to how Cricket came from the country.
- Gloria has a parakeet that does not love her and has a habit of repeating very personal things she says such as the fact that she is always eating tubs of ice cream in one go due to stress.
- Concept art implied that Gloria was going to be more stuck up and conservative, based on her clothing (a long sleeve sweater and her hair done up in a bun). She also had a much more stick-like stance and figure which made her look older. This was most likely changed to make the character more relatable and likable.
- Gloria dreams about going to Paris due to its culture's fascination with art and love. Her obsession with it implies that she suffers from a form of Paris Syndrome, or is simply a Francophile.
- Gloria is well versed in Tae Kwon Do and is shown to be capable of handling herself as seen in "Coffee Quest". However, her Tae Kwon Do is shown to be ineffective when she is up against a much larger opponent as seen in "Chipocalypse Now".
- Gloria moved to Big City when she graduated from college, and she's lived there for three years. This would mean that she is at least 23 or 24 years old.
- Gloria's voice actress, Anna Akana, does the role of Sasha from another Disney Channel animated series Amphibia.
- Ironically Gloria's situation after "Chipocalypse Now" (having to live in the basement of the house of a family of farmers due to having nowhere else to go), is quite similar to that of Sasha's friend-turned-enemy, Anne Boonchuy.
- Gloria's personality is somewhat similar to that of Candace Flynn from another Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb.
- Interestingly, in Portugal, both Candace and Gloria share the same voice actress: Carla Garcia.
- Chris Houghton described Gloria as the personification of the phrase "wherever you go, there you are," as her love of Paris can only be possible based on how she views Big City: a large and loud place full of weird people.[1]
- Gloria is a 2nd-generation Japanese-American.
- Gloria is the first Asian/Pacific character to appear on the show.
References[]
- ↑ "Tumblr Gloria Post". Tumblr (December 21, 2019).
External links[]
