Animation has always been part of my media world. As far back as I can remember, there has always been some form of ‘cartoon’ that I was watching. They were classified or cataloged or somehow figured as a child’s demographic for a very long time. Then, somewhere along the way a bright person realized they’d never really been for kids, or at least not exclusively so and started to market things as ‘adult animation’.
There have been any number of shows I’ve become a big fan of that are stashed into that category.
Lately, it feels like the creators of animated shows have been abusing that demographic box. Putting in the kind of gore, violence or ludicrous situations that would never make the cut if there were actors that needed to create a physical display of those things.
Then there are things like Digital Circus.
The company behind this animated series says they create animated shows that are fun, colorful with occasional violence and existential breakdowns. What they should have included is a story with some kind of plot line to keep me interested.
Is Digital Circus colorful? Yes, absolutely. It is bright and filled with primary colors almost constantly. Is it fun? That’s debatable. I don’t think so really – and that’s all based on the ‘existential breakdowns’ part.
The main character in the 4 episode series I watched on Netflix is named Pomni. She’s a jester like person who is dropped into an insane place with other oddly compiled characters. None of them know what’s going on. None of them can explain why they’re there. Nobody has any sense of where things are going or why. Not even the person watching the show, and that’s a problem for me. There’s got to be something if you want me to stay interested. Do we know there’s a secret lurking? Is there something in common between all the oddball personalities roaming this circus tent? Anything?
Each of the four episodes had a loose storyline of what the characters did, but it wasn’t compelling. It took me a month to get through these short episodes because I kept nodding off. By the end I was starting to feel a little manic, like Gangle in the Food Masquerade (and that episode isn’t existential, it’s an indictment of the fast food business).
In all, I’m going to put the digital circus down as ‘the bad’ that will be used in comparison to other, better shows. There are better things to watch out there.
Side note: This site has information about the series. There are things they say there that make sense upon reading it, but were in absolutely no way clear by simply watching the show.
