Daniel Recommends: The Amazing Digital Circus

 By Daniel Haycox

It’s been moderately shocking that as an animator, there are very few animated shows that I rewatch anymore. That’s not always been the case. For years, studios were producing evergreen shows I’d return to over and over. Remembering a specific joke would bring me back to an episode of Gravity Falls. Regular Show was an easy pick for any late night viewing. I’ve watched Zuko’s complete redemption arc in Avatar multiple times through. And I’d catch whatever episodes of Steven Universe happened to be on Hulu’s shifting library.

That’s no longer been the case. I find myself struggling to make it through a show for the first time, much less a second or third revisitation. Maybe it’s just because I’m no longer in the target audience, or maybe it’s because less shows are being made, or maybe I’m RIGHT and these new shows are just LESS GOOD - but for whatever reason, nothing has hit the same way since the early 2020’s. Nothing, that is, except The Amazing Digital Circus.

I’ve watched this show dozens of times, but its tiny catalog of 8 episodes has held up in the face of such repeated re-viewing. Created by the (then) obscure indie studio Glitch and showrun by the (then) creator of upbeat, YouTube-friendly VGM remixes Gooseworx, The Amazing Digital Circus tells the story of a small ensemble cast of wacky characters - who are all humans trapped in a virtual reality world ruled by a whimsical and manipulative AI. While this kind of “trapped-in-a-video-game” plot is nothing new (there’s a whole genre of anime, isekai, that reuses this premise again and again), The Amazing Digital Circus’s execution and innovation of these ideas has elevated it far beyond anything else in the genre, with a rabid fanbase following its every move.

And such rabidity may be justified. Digital Circus’s visual aesthetic appeals perfectly to those raised on I-Spy books and the colorful, playful architecture of late 90’s playplaces, a new nostalgia primed and ready for us Gen Z folks. The circus has a toybox feel, reveling in simple, oversized geometry that call to mind an earlier, more optimistic era of personal computers. It’s playful and awkward in a decidedly CD-ROM way, with characters built from abstract shapes and a mishmash of material types, most of which look blatantly CGI. But that’s part of their charm. And their sense of unease. Because no matter how fun and familiar the circus appears, it’s still a prison for its inhabitants, mostly devoid of life and towering high above their heads. And none of it is “real.”

That is, except the human characters who are trapped there. And that’s what the whole story hangs around. While the fanbase has always been fixated on the lore and theories surrounding the narrative, Gooseworx, for her part, has always seemed most concerned with delivering an honest depiction of the day-to-day life of the cast, exploring how they cope, who they rely on, and what they miss from their lives before the circus. It’s a shockingly character-focused show that gets to the core of its cast quickly and doesn’t let go. The show’s brief runtime is peppered with plenty of chances for the characters to process their bleakly bizarre situation, and instead of dragging down the narrative, these moments of heartfelt sincerity are the highlights of the series. There’s certainly an oddity to watching a sentient chess piece offer timely encouragement to a little jester, but this colorful, comedic pastiche over grounded, somber drama is at the core of the show’s appeal. Most other shows in this genre are about the growing power of the characters as they break free of the simulation, but TADC is more concerned with how this group of strangers finds meaning while trapped in a stagnant, artificial world (to paraphrase the show’s creator). It’s a relatable feeling for those growing up in a world that feels increasingly out of their control and hurtling toward the digital realm, but the show doesn’t leave its cast or audience stuck in that mire. Instead, it’s surprisingly hopeful, funny, and affirming. Even the antagonist, an all-powerful AI ringmaster named Caine, is just “a silly little guy” in contrast to the dark, sadistic overlords more commonly found in man vs machine narratives. The show itself is far from stagnant, as each of its eight episodes meaningfully changes the status quo and pushes the story toward its finale.

Speaking of the finale, it’s premiering tonight in theaters, a big step up for this YouTube-first show. No matter how it goes, I’m excited to be there and experience it in the biggest way possible. It’s certainly dangerous to endorse a show before seeing its finale, especially since recent leaks seem to have taken the wind out of its sails. But over my many, many watches of this tale, I’ve come to trust its tellers as people who see past the digital noise to focus on the human element. And that’s what I’ll be there to see.

-dh