I Did Not Care For The Amazing Digital Circus

06.20.26 // 4:31pm

As of writing this blog, it is June 20th. The Amazing Digital Circus finale premiered yesterday online and about two weeks ago in theaters. I did see it in theaters, but on the 24th—and yes, I was spoiled before going. Of course I was!

I’ve vaguely circled the sphere of TADC since it originally came out. I watched the first couple episodes as they released…. and they gave me a headache. Yes, I know that I, of all people, shouldn’t be complaining about eyestrain. It wasn’t exactly eyestrain, but the combination of overly-fluid animation styles with bright colors and harsh lighting made my brain go, “Augh. Ourgh. I’m too old for this.”

This episode in particular was rough. The animation got better as the show went on, though.

But as the years went by, I passively dabbled in the show. I of course was exposed to it on social media, but since the 2024 election, I haven’t been online that much aside from Instagram—which provides a sanitized version of fandom since you will simply never see any posts that the algorithm doesn’t deem as acceptable. I’ve watched some episodes, skipped others. I saw the theories and headcanons and ships… but I wouldn’t say I was a fan.

In the months leading up to the finale, I did give the show a proper watch, start to end. And then I watched it again—high, with my friends. The second time was much more enjoyable. The pacing issues blur into mush when your sense of time is nonexistent.

So, here’s the thing about TADC. It does seem, on paper, custom-made for me in a lab. It’s a character-driven, ensemble-cast show with overly-saturated colors, found family, queer characters, and pretty good humor. My issue with it boils down to thus: it is not a good ensemble-cast show.

There are sevenish main characters in TADC: the humans stuck in the Circus and Caine, the AI. The initial pilot and first couple of episodes imply that, while Pomni is the main character, the show will focus on her burgeoning relationship with all of the other cast members: Ragatha, Gangle, Kinger, Zooble, and Jax.

Jax. That goddamned rabbit. We’ll get to you.

This happens, vaguely. There is a Gangle episode. There’s half of a Ragatha episode. The issue primarily is that Pomni… is a little bit, what’s the word. Mean? To everyone?

Take the softball scene in the minisode episode. Ragatha is trying very, very hard to connect with Pomni by being vulnerable about something she loves, which is softball. Pomni regularly shuts down her attempts to get close to her, subtly suggesting that she thinks Ragatha is being fake in an attempt to be liked by everyone—and also, Pomni hates softball, so why should she like this adventure? This adventure sucks. Screw you, Ragatha, for wanting to introduce your “friends” to something you like.

Ragatha is the only nice character in this entire show. My favorite is probably Gangle, though.

Adventure. That’s another thing about the Circus: not only are the characters all stuck there, they’re paraded around on these little episodic adventures by Caine. We see, like, one actual adventure throughout the course of the series, and then a bunch of mini-adventures. The characters have nothing positive to say throughout the course of any of them.

“Well, yeah! They don’t like being tortured by a malevolent, sapient AI!” That’s not what I mean. Because the characters are grumpy on these adventures, they’re mean to each other. They’re at each others’ throats, they whine, they complain. When they get back to the Circus, they whine and complain about being in the Circus. They are never happy. Even in the episode where Caine listens to their suggestions and gives them adventures of their own design, not one character has anything nice to say—and when they do, they’re immediately shut down by another character, thus squandering the positive moment.

If this were a dark-comedy torture flick alone, I wouldn’t have an issue with that. The problem is that TADC wants to be more than Happy Tree Friends. It wants to explore themes of hopelessness, of finding and changing yourself even when all hope seems lost. It wants to explore themes of queerness, of how not accepting your queerness can lead you to become a horrible person and drive others away. It wants to explore themes of found family, and how accepting everyone despite their flaws is the only way for you to be happy in your unchanging, hopeless life.

Do you see how these themes contradict each other?

Point number one is that none of these characters like each other. I simply do not believe for an instant that they are any sort of found family.

Pomni and Kinger grow closer, yes, and I think this is one of the only interesting relationships in the series: Kinger is a father figure who’s lost his mind being alone for so long, but through his relationship with Pomni, he’s able to come back into himself. This is great.

Pomni is regularly mean to Ragatha and thinks she’s fake—only for her to say, in the last episode, that she was wrong… and she gives Ragatha a hug. When did we ever see Pomni change her mind? Off-screen, during an adventure we’re not allowed access to, probably.

Pomni simply does not talk to Gangle and Zooble. They do not have any sort of relationship. Gangle and Zooble talk to each other, kind of—hell, they’re even canonically boning by the end of the show—but beyond Gangle’s episode about masking, where her psychotic episode ending in her throwing herself in front of a car is treated as a joke, Gangle is always reduced to a background gag character where the gag is “she’s sad”. Zooble is also one-dimensional in that their one character trait is “they complain”. Oh, and they’re nonbinary.

All of these characters have incredibly interesting designs and pitches. Ragatha destroys herself to seem appealing to others: she’s a ragdoll. Gangle has to mask in order to fit in: she wears theater masks. Zooble’s sense of self is fluid: they’re a popbead Mr. Potato Head. The problem is that these pitches start and end as pitches: the show never explores any of these internal character dilemmas. Beyond like, two lines of dialogue, some of them aren’t even addressed. Zooble is probably the most egregious—they have this incredibly compelling concept of wanting to express their gender but being trapped in the body of a toy, but they don’t say that. All they say is, “Caine, we don’t want to go on your stupid adventures.” And it just makes Zooble seem like a bigass whiner.

Oh my god, all the characters do is WHINE.

GET A GRIP!!!

They hate the Circus! They hate each other! They hate everything! Why on EARTH would they want to accept their stagnant life surrounded by things and people they HATE? “Well, they have no choice. If they don’t accept it, they die.” That SUCKS, man! TADC says no, actually, you’re stuck in your shitty life and there’s nothing you can do to change it, so better make your peace! Dude.

Instead of going for a “hell is other people” theme, TADC goes hard into “gotta make the best of this crappy situation!” But there’s never really a moment where the characters decide that they like each other. Pomni stares at the screen and says, “We have to abandon the idea of leaving the Circus.” Why. What prompted this. The adventure where they try to leave and fail? And then all yell at each other? Because they’re all so miserable? Your instinct is to just accept this?

“Well, what else are they supposed to do?”

That’s the issue, isn’t it. I honestly understand and agree with the theme of “sometimes you just gotta make do.” I empathize with Pomni’s viewpoint. My problem is that none of the other characters in her so-called “found family” other than Kinger have demonstrated, at any point in this nine-episode long show, that they’re capable of happiness or satisfaction or simply tolerating each other. There’s nothing there to build off of. There’s no hidden sparks of kindness or amusement in the Circus if you squint, no—every time a character starts to enjoy something, like the fast food episode, it’s thrown back in their face, i.e. being driven to jump in front of a car. Every time characters start to like each other, they get into an argument—like the gun episode with Pomni and Jax.

Jax. God, I hate that rabbit.

The Tumblr sexyman to end all sexymen. Though I think Caine fits that trope better...

At some point during the show’s run-time, TADC kind of abandons the ensemble cast pitch and starts focusing solely on the duality between Pomni and Jax. The two are intrinsic opposites: while Pomni accepts herself and this new life in the Circus, Jax constantly fights against it. He never feels comfortable in his own skin, and so he lashes out and is cruel to others. This fits well into a queer metaphor, which later evolves from metaphor into straight-up canon, wherein Jax is confirmed to be transfem in episode nine.

“Confirmed” is a bit of a strong word, though. The creator has come out and said that the character is trans, as have voice actors and production staff. The show doesn’t say it, though. Implies it, sure, in a convenient “this insecurity is vaguely defined and can be replaced with any sort of divergent personality trait, perfect for our conservative audiences” way, but it doesn’t say it. It doesn’t have the balls. My god, in a show where one of the other characters is canonically nonbinary and is literally a fluid pop-and-play toy who’s constantly shifting their appearance, you don’t have the balls to just use the word trans?

In episode nine, there’s a flashback where Jax has a heart-to-heart with Ribbit. Jax says he comes from a hard home life with an absent father. He says that he told his mom “something personal”, and when he did, she laughed at him—whereupon he pushed her over, may have killed her, and ran away. Ribbit then puts her bowtie on Jax’s head, says “your secret is safe with me,” and Jax blushes.

I think the implication is pretty strong. However, it is still only an implication. The “secret” is obviously referring to the “almost killing his mom” thing, and the “personal” anecdote could have been anything. The bowtie… doesn’t even read as gender euphoria to me—if anything, it reads as flirting, or even like, intimate sexuality between this frog and rabbit. Ribbit is laying back on her bed in a dark room lit only by fireflies, her eyes half-lidded, and then takes off her one article of clothing to plop on his head. She is then butt-ass naked.

Am I just furry-brained and horny???? No, right??? The frog is giving him the fuck eyes!! She’s naked!!!! They gave her an ASS and TITS and she’s NAKED and he’s BLUSHING!!! How am I supposed to take this supposedly intimate gender euphoria lens seriously when there’s a NAKED FROG giving this BLUSHING PURPLE RABBIT hardcore BEDROOM EYES??? HELLO??

LOOK AT HER BRO???

Now. If Ribbit had said something like “I accept you,” or “It looks beautiful on you,” or even—and I’d prefer this—something completely void of subtlety, like “You’re the loveliest woman I’ve ever seen,” then yes, it is no longer subtext. It is text. But the sexy frog didn’t say that. Instead, it’s left up to interpretation.

“But the creator said on Twitter—” I don’t care. TADC episode nine has 35 million views as of writing. All 35 million of those people are not going to look at the creator’s Twitter to glean additional context about the characters. I’m interpreting the text exactly as it was written, and as it is, there is no canonical evidence to Jax’s transness.

“But they played Isn’t She Lovely during the Jax montage!” Yeah. That’s also evidence for the implication, but it remains an implication.

“But implication is important! Surely you don’t want the story to spoonfeed you the meaning LIKE A WITTLE BABY, do you?”

This is more complicated. I’d normally agree with this stance. When it comes to matters of queerness, though, I just can’t help but feel frustrated when media won’t come out and say the word queer. They feel the need to play coy, to dangle, to prolong the conversations and internet arguments. It feels disrespectful to not only the fans, but the concept of queerness itself. It’s queerbaiting.

TADC doesn’t even have an excuse: they’re an independent animation production. Who are they trying to appeal to with this gutless choice—an international audience? No way. I can only presume that they did it solely to further the conversation, right? That Gooseworx was sick and tired of her fanbase, so she snuffed out the fire of her own franchise just as the fans did to her passion?

I can empathize with this. But, by golly, does it affect the quality of the show.

That isn’t even my biggest issue with Jax. My issue with Jax is Jax. He’s an asshole. He’s a chud. He regularly assaults people (shoves them, shoots them, abuses them—but he’s a cartoon, so it’s fine), sexually harasses people (makes fun of Zooble’s gender, comes onto Gangle, etc.). He emotionally ostracized two people to the point where they “abstracted”, which, in the context of the show, essentially means they committed suicide. And while he might feel bad about it on the inside, he never once apologizes, never once admits he was in the wrong. Even when he abstracts himself and Pomni nearly sacrifices herself to appeal to his humanity again… he pushes her away.

Pomni is standoffish to every character in this show except for Kinger and this jackass jackrabbit.

Jax challenges the show’s theme of “you have to love people despite themselves”. TADC posits that, in certain circumstances, you have to accept the people you’re saddled with and love them for who they are: only then will you ever be happy in your nightmare torment nexus.

Even Jax? the show asks of you. Is Pomni expected to accept Jax, even with all of his cruelty? And it answers: yes. Jax is deserving of love even if he does not want it. He is deserving of love even if nobody can cry for him. He—everyone—warrants respect and love.

I think this sucks, actually.

Listen. I don’t care if Jax is trans. The show and fandom paint his transness as an explanation for why he is the way he is. He’s dealing with internalized misogyny, and that’s why he’s cruel to women. He’s jealous of people who are comfortable in their own skin, and that’s why he’s actively queerphobic. And yet, he’s worthy of love anyway—the characters learn to accept him. Gangle learns to cry over him. They’re all part of the same family.

Nah, man. I’m sorry. Jax had EVERY opportunity to become a kinder person. Ribbit, Kaufmo, Ragatha, and Pomni were all nothing but kind to him, but he refused to change. He drove two people to suicide, then abstracted himself. He says, “You’re not supposed to feel bad for me. This isn’t how this is supposed to go.” And Pomni hugs him anyway.

I guess it’s a hot take, but if somebody in my brightly-colored circus dystopia continued to be a raging asshole and made two people legitimately kill themselves out of melancholy, I’d take them out back, man.

Jax is not only contrasted with Pomni, but with Caine, the AI. Caine is also an asshole. But in the finale, when he’s at his lowest moment, he decides to learn and change—and through that, he becomes a better person and winds up as part of the group. There’s like, four minutes devoted to Caine’s shift of character versus the fifty minutes devoted to how Jax can’t change. And still, Pomni loves Jax anyway, and all of the characters grow to love his weird abstracted monster form—probably because it’s a lot easier to forgive someone and rationalize their flaws when they’re dead and you no longer have to live with their cruelty. It’s like how people romanticize abusive parents or partners after they’ve died.

It insists upon itself, Lois.

This sucks so deeply, dude. I do, of course, believe that everyone is deserving of love… but I think that only extends so far. You can’t keep giving yourself to these voids of people with nothing but cruelty in return. You’ll lose yourself to them. They’ll drain everything from you and leave you with nothing. And then they’ll die, and you’ll tell yourself that they were their own nuanced person and you can’t hold a dead person accountable for their actions, that’s awful, you have to let it go, and—

No, wait. TADC doesn’t care about that. It doesn’t care about Gangle’s turmoil—it’s played as a joke. It doesn’t care about Ribbit’s turmoil—she’s dead too, after all. It only cares about Jax, how we should care about Jax. And as someone who has also given too much of themselves to vindictive, spiteful people who will never once deign so much as an apology for the trauma they’ve inflicted upon me: that sucks.

TADC is trying so hard to be more than it actually is. It is, at its core, a dark horror comedy masquerading as a children’s show, ala Happy Tree Friends, Drawn Together, etc. However, it has such a rudimentary grasp on characterization that despite its swearing, sexual references, and adult themes, it seems much more aligned to a Steven Universe understanding of morality than a Hugo award winner’s. Steven Universe is allowed to have morals of accepting everyone for who they are, because Steven does love everyone. He shows more empathy and kindness in any given five minute clip of his show than Pomni or Jax do in the entirety of theirs. Somehow, TADC is more emotionally immature than any given power of friendship children’s show despite trying so keenly hard to be distinctly not for children.

And that’s the reason why it’s at Hot Topic and why it’s my 12-year-old cousin’s favorite thing in the world. Children like it because it’s childish: it’s simple, colorful, easy to digest, and has afterschool themes of you should love everyone. These themes work in a children’s show. They don’t work in a show that also wants to have a respectful depiction of abuse, gender dysphoria, and psychological torment.

I also wrote a blog post about Hazbin Hotel where I came to the conclusion that I do actually like it. Hazbin Hotel, I think, isn’t trying to be more than it is. It understands that it’s a cringey edgy comedy for theater kids. It’s bad, sure, and the worst parts are when it tries to be more serious, but I at the very least respect Hazbin for understanding what it is. TADC doesn’t have any modicum of understanding of what it wants to be.

At its core, The Amazing Digital Circus never feels comfortable in its own skin. It never knows what it wants to be, and the results are a mean-spirited, confused abstraction of a narrative. It hates its fans. It doesn’t want to be loved—it begs for you not to love it—but people do anyway. People read into it nuances and niceties that are simply not there. Perhaps it wants to be more, yearns to be more, but it lacks the bravery to pursue anything beyond its realm of comfort. It is nothing more than the sum of its parts: confused, cruel, and childish.

Just like that goddamned rabbit.

Not the blog post I was expecting to make this month, but hey! Better than none, right?