Review: The Amazing Digital Circus Episodes 1-3

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

A woman puts on a VR headset and finds herself trapped in a digital world surrounded by kooky characters, so she tries navigating it and makes new friends in the process.

OUR TAKE

I’m a huge fan of indie shows and seeing productions that can stand out from the usual sources, especially when it comes to animation, which can take even longer to fully complete. The Amazing Digital Circus took the internet by storm last year when the pilot dropped on the Glitch Productions Youtube channel just about a year ago, October 13th, with many instantly taking to the art style, fluid animation, and tragic comedy of its main cast. I didn’t really gravitate towards it like most and am only just now seeing its three episodes, but I do remember fanart and memes being just about everywhere as people waited for more. And being made by a completely independent animation studio, the time between the first and second episodes, a little over six months, was naturally a bit more spaced out than typical productions, but it also gave everyone who liked that pilot a LOT of time to form opinions about how these characters were supposed to be and what this mysterious world was possibly hiding. Then the second episode came out and people either liked it or thought it was a massive betrayal of their expectations. And lord knows what people will think of this third one, which is being released simultaneously on both Youtube and Netflix, perhaps to judge how many people will watch it on Netflix if it were to properly release a proper batch for a full season.

As for what I think of these three? Well, the pilot is a good at its job of introducing Pomni, the protagonist, to this new video game-like world, establishing her dynamics with its residents (including fellow human prisoners like her), and laying some mysteries to be explored later. The second episode, “Candy Carrier Chaos!”, expands on this by having Pomni fall off the digital map with an NPC during a seemingly routine mission and that NPC basically facing the fakeness of his own existence, which is both kinda sad but pretty engaging. And the newly released “The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor”, gives Pomni some quality time with fellow resident Kinger while on a spooky adventure. All three lean into the tragic comedy that the show is going for while trying keep things both fun and hinting at larger things to flesh out in future episodes, but personally I think the over detailed designs and animation style are a bit of a turn off for me. Maybe I’ll binge it when the whole seasons out, whenever that happens. Still, I can’t help but admire the efforts of Glitch Studios that got a fully independent production up on Netflix, where it will hopefully get more people to watch it and see this talent out there beyond the regular companies. If nothing else, I’d consider that a win.