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Note: some light spoilers in here
This cartoon was presented to me randomly on a Discord channel and was wrongly summarized as a version of Haibane Renmei with avatars, basically the afterlife, which of course was completely off. It was the same person that recommended Frieren to me as similar to Mahoutsukai no Yome, so yeah I no longer take recommendations nor summaries from that guy. What surprised me at the time was that in just two weeks of being released, the show had an insane amount of views, fan arts, porn, fakes, and a bunch of theory videos. Man I know Glitch has had plenty of fans since their early days and series and more since Murder Drones and that there is an audience for indie shows, but that level of attention with just one episode sounds crazy to me. And the thing is, early on the show only has the aesthetics and concept going on for it so I genuinely donāt know how it got that crazy so fast.
Leaving that aside, I found it to be aesthetically interesting but otherwise boring and a nothing burger show that despite causing a storm in the world for a few years, now seems to have disappeared without a trace, seemingly with no explanation whatsoever. Like yeah, it ended, but there should be more for that to happen. I also donāt understand how anyone could find these characters sexy. I read people rightfully criticize the weird proportions of anime girls, and here there are thousands of people lusting over toy-like characters that spawned kid friendly brainrot man WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? I mean fanmade content will do their thing but the originals? To quote Pomni WHAT THE @#w~4 IS GOING ON??
But anyways as far as aesthetics go, the show is clearly inspired by 90s early 3D videogames and as its name suggests, circus-like setting, despite it being underutilized (more on that later), but mostly in the beginning. Later on the artwork is a lot more polished and the designs changed a little, so the main aesthetics are a bit lost after a while, in order to gain better looks. With that said the show also implements different art styles from time to time, 2D, a sanitized prejudiced look of slice of life anime, glitched out 3D for setting reasons, old CGI for some fishes, and at the very end even live action. The designs are toy-based like I said, a jester which fits the circus setting, a rabbit reminiscing of old school cartoons, a ragdoll, a ribbon with a theater mask, a chesspiece, a mouth with eyes but no head on a suit, that also flies, and aā¦ehā¦a toybox all mashed together I guess. Very cartoony but kind of unique and as would be revealed later on, the designs would reflect the inner traumas of the characters, so thereās some kind of storytelling attached to them.
There are more characters of course and they are tied to the backgrounds, not the circus where the main cast resides obviously, but the episodic one time game adventures and worlds that the characters go to. One inspired by Mad Max and Candy Crush, so every background character, building or element is either a golosine or a dessert. Another one that mixes Luigiās Mansion with Resident Evil, so itās pretty good at comedy horror. Another one that satirizes McDonaldās, you get the deal. Motions, expressions, body language and fluidity is on point, and the special effects were done with a lot of care as well. The problem is perhaps that the main background is rather limited compared with the episodic ones, and despite the cartoony looks of the characters, the downtime moments for opening up, and their physics defining abilities, most of the time the cast is sitting down and talking, thus quite static on screen.
The music and sound effects do their job fine but are honestly kind of there most of the time, some sequences are remembered because of their songs, but they are all from previous material, not original, such as Daisy Bell or Isnāt She Lovely. Iāve watched three different versions of the series, of which I prefer the original English overall, very good voice acting. The Latin American one is very solid but I donāt like some of the voices, the performances are otherwise good, especially for Pomni and Jax. The third one I watched was Japanese, and as usual with their dubs, it feels weird to listen to them, when compared to anime, it just doesnāt hit the same way, I donāt know why but the Japanese dubs I have checked tend to do poorly. This one isnāt all that bad, but it doesnāt compare with the previous two.
The series is about six people trapped in a virtual reality after they put on some VR helmets, and having to go on games-like adventures made by an AI ringmaster. And thatās it, thatās the whole series right there. Eventually the show is more about trauma dumping than having a plot, as it utilizes a semi episodic structure and the characters visit a different (or multiple) world each episode, so thereās no real progression until the last two episodes. There are themes and messages about accepting yourself, opening up to people, confronting reality, trying to escape to the real world, hurting others unwillingly due to shutting oneself to others, body dysphoria, depression, lack of self esteem, dysfunctional families, mommy issues in specific, transgender and non-binary representation, living or existing without desiring it, suffering routine and endless torture from an evil AI due to having an immortal body, finding out your reality is not what it seems but rather an invention by and for someone else, and probably a bunch more that donāt come off the top of my head like all of these, at the moment. So as you see, the plot is simplistic in scope and premise but it is still heavily charged thematically.
In terms of execution and presentation, however, no topic gets much screentime before moving to something else, the comedic tone of the first half of the series didnāt allow for a deeper look into any of them, and most stuff is told rather than shown on screen. I assume part of the issues come from the limited amount of episodes, runtime, though the episodes are quite longer than those of an anime, for example, and the last two were even converted into a movie, but ok, and the episodic structure which didnāt allow for tighter plot continuity. It also doesnāt help that the cast remains either mysterious or amnesiac about specific things, thus they arenāt explored much until late in the series. We get to know bits about them from episode 3 onwards but still, everything is told, almost nothing is shown. And the revelation in the last episode rendered even that limited information about the characters meaningless.
The consistency and credibility of the whole thing is also questionable due to various reasons, such as Kinger not trying to do anything anytime he was in the dark before episode 8, Pomni not telling everyone about that before episode 7, Caine going through a whole character switch up in that episode. And yes there was build up of him slowly becoming mad, but nothing quite the villainous level of episode 8. Then again what exactly happened to Cain at the end of episode 8? Doesnāt matter because itās undone by the next episode, on which Caine goes back to how he was before snapping, essentially going through a character rewrite and regression. Plus itās weird that the characters couldnāt nor wouldnāt ever use their physics defying cartoon powers, or if they did they didnāt know how, right until the second to last episode, except for Jax. Also what happened to Bubbles? It is implied so Iām not going to include it as a flaw but it also came and went out of nowhere. And why do the characters abstract anyway, and why canāt the abstracted ones be reverted by the end of the show? It's a metaphor I suppose but lacks in-story reasoning.
The characters begin as stereotypes, even pointed out by one of them. Pomni is the clueless protagonist thatās nice to people and thus gets them to open up to her, Gangle is depressed, Zooble is grumpy, Ragatha is friendly to everyone, Kinger is seen as insane due to lack of memory, and Jax, probably the most popular character of the show, describes himself as the funny one, yet I would label him as the annoying trickster one, as would lots of people that watched the show.
Yet as the series progresses, hints of backdrops and character relationships are told to us (remember, not shown) that expands on them beyond their stereotype. Pomni is not afraid to speak her mind and even throw hands if needed, Gangle slowly becomes happier alongside Zooble, and is shown to literally have put on a mask before, and sheās also a frustrated artist. Zooble has had a couple of jobs and despite presenting themselves as strong willed and uncaring for the adventures, is one of the characters that desires to leave the most, and also becomes happier alongside Gangle. Ragatha turns out to be a peopleās pleaser with a lot of mommy issues on her back, Kinger is not crazy as he has memory issues, result of his mind being sabotaged, and Jax is mean as a way of coping with the endless reality of the digital circus, and also tries to push people away in order to protect her backdrop and identity and to not feel the despair after someone dear abstracts, also has mommy issues on her back. Thereās a lot more that could and was analyzed about these characters, but that exceeds the intention of the review.
As far as dynamics go, Pomni befriends everyone over time and tries to give Jax her wake up call. Zooble and Gangle support each other, and likely some more stuff, Kinger is like a stepdad to everyone else, but mostly Ragatha, being the oldest and all, but again, how and why did he not do anything for all the time he has been on the circus, and throughout the episodes, despite having been in the dark at points, Ragatha does get to be a genuine friend of Pomni, and Jaxā¦well, watch the latest episode. I have to criticize the way Jax was handled in the last episode, as Gooseworx the author intended and has posted on social media, that Jax is basically a warning about how someone, after a hurtful rejection and mockery by a loved one, shuts themselves closed and keeps developing toxic relationships from there in order to not let themselves be vulnerable and get pushed away due to their identity again. The character is also a statement, trans people might have had a bad past due to their families, but that does not excuse them from victimizing themselves and being bad people. Yet the scene showing the consequences of how she destroyed her life and everyoneās around her has a song that says Isnāt She Looovelyy? And like, no? Is that not the point? Also the other characters, and sometimes Gooseworx themselves, refer to Jax as a he.
You would probably think that getting to know more about the cast means that it develops, but thatās not true, as they donāt really go through major changes organically, whatever information is known about them is told instead of shown, and the revelation at the end renders everything pointless, as it turned everything knew about the characters thus far into a lie and itās even convenient that the people shown at the end all know each other. Also there are details about the setting, both the virtual and the real world, that are yet to be known. And all the staff Jax goes through? Mostly unimportant all things considered. Itās not a bad revelation, by itself could be a big plot twist and lead to some interesting developments and existential crisis for the characters, but thereās no follow up to that afterwards because the show is about to be over. For the same reason, thereās no real catharsis nor ending either.
Itās not like there isnāt room to continue the show, some comment on YouTube came up with different concepts to deal with after the finale of the season, and they all sounded like interesting ideas, but would require the show to become far more serious and losing part of its identity, and seeing how Gooseworx got fed up with their childish, toxic and spoiled fandom, I donāt see that happening.
At the end of the day this show is not something to watch because of the plot, which despite its themes, it is simplistic, semi episodic, rushed at the end, and lacks a proper conclusion. You are not watching it for the characters either, as whatever is known about them is revealed to be a lie at the end. At best you are watching this for the aesthetics, but I still think that the circus itself ends up being underutilized and has boring looks. So at the end this series came out, shook the world, but now is gone and most likely forgotten and thereās really like no legacy behind it.
I personally didnāt like it, but enjoyed the phenomenon happening around it, the reactions, the VN fan games by allhailthequeen, the cast streaming stuff together, that kinda deal, the show itself I didnāt like at all, and I donāt see any reason for revisit it nor recommend it to others. Not bad but not something I consider worth watching nor recommending.
Now for some excused scoring
VISUALS 8/10
Artwork 2/2 (Polished)
Character designs 2/2 (Original and well done)
Backgrounds 1/2 (Well made but underutilized)
Animation 1/2 (Well made but underutilized)
Special effects 2/2 (Well done)
AUDIO 7/10
Sound effects 3/4 (Good)
Music 2/4 (Ok)
Voice acting 2/2 (Well done)
STORY 3/10
Premise 1/2 (Semi interesting)
Pacing 0/2 (Goes nowhere for most of its duration and when it goes somewhere itās hella rushed)
Complexity 2/2 (Lots of themes)
Credibility 0/2 (None)
Conclusion 0/2 (Everything is pointless)
CHARACTERS 4/10
Presence 2/2 (Memorable archetypes)
Personality 2/2 (Well founded and deconstructed archetypes)
Backdrops 0/2 (Ruined by the ending)
Development 0/2 (Non-existent)
Catharsis 0/2 (Non-existent)
VALUE 6/10
Fame 3/3 (Became mainstream almost immediately)
Memorability 2/4 (Thereās some memorable moments and stuff in it)
Rewatchability 1/4 (Some to see how stuff is building up, but the lack of progression and the ending takes away a lot of it)
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT 4/10
VERDICT:
5/10
