How Digital Circus Episode 9 Was ALMOST Perfect... (review)

[00:00:00]So, Digital Circus Episode 9 is finally fully released. After weeks of waiting and half the fandom trying to dodge spoilers because of the leaks in the theater release, it's finally here and there are some mixed opinions on it. So, I figured I'd throw my opinion out there and briefly go over the episode, talked about what I liked, and what could have been done better. This is the last Digital Circus review I will ever make for an episode at least. So, let's make it a good one. The episode starts off right where episode 8 left us and Jax immediately starts tweaking out and directing all of his anger towards Kinger. We realize that they're all just brain scans. The Soma theory is canon and their real selves are still living normally outside the circus completely unaware of their circus selves existing.

[00:00:40]Everyone upon realizing this kind of goes off to cry by themselves and Pomny goes to Kinger. Of course, being the father figure that he is, Kinger comforts Pomny and gradually everyone starts to come back together because Kinger's so awesome, despite the circus being, we see Jax try to talk to Pomny and then immediately jump cut to after Jax is abstracted. This completely threw me off guard. So, Jax is dead and now they need to find a way to contain him.

[00:01:03]Before doing this, Pomny gives Ragatha a muchneeded hug to solidify their friendship. Anyway, Pomny then goes to the dorm hallway and shoots all the lights to calm down Funtime Abstracted Jax and then decides to hug the abstracted thing. In doing this, she's transported into Jax's subconscious mind. She goes through Jax's intrusive thoughts, once again, intrusive thoughts, and even though he doesn't want to let her into his memories at first, he eventually chills out and gives her the key. Here, we can see how he ended up causing kind of both Ribbit and Kofmo to abstract. We then realize that from the very beginning of the pilot, Jax was already losing his mind in guilt. We just couldn't tell. Anyway, then Pomney confronts Jax directly, continuing to run towards him despite his pleas for her to let him go. Pomny, being the amazing digital person that she is, doesn't listen, and they finally hug, finally before Jax involuntarily decides it's time to go. The others help Pomni get away from abstracted Jax and they eventually build a pillow fort through teamwork to keep him calm. We then realize that Kane has returned because when he was deleted, he was simply cast out into the void. Not actually deleted. Not entirely sure how this works. But we see him realize what he did was wrong. And he gets rid of the blue AI that he had consumed. And apparently the blue AI was actually what was making him evil in the first place, apparently. He uses unsecured coffee shop Wi-Fi to download information on the circus members real selves from the internet. He comes back, apologizes, and shows them a slideshow narrated by Pomni for some reason. Turns out they all got happy endings in the real world. It would have been very awkward if they didn't. And we even get to see their real life selves at a bus stop in the postredit scene, unaware as to how their digital selves are all trapped together.

[00:02:38]And yeah, that's it. I'm going to go over what I liked now. And personally, as always with these episodes, this was the best animated one yet by far. Glitch just keeps improving and improving with every episode. The colors, especially for the abstracted bits, were just beautiful. So well done on that, just like the beautiful subscribe button. I'm not sorry. And it's really cool to see how the circus goes from desaturated to colorful once more after Kane's return.

[00:03:01]Just absolutely phenomenal work. The particle effects during the more intense scenes like Pomny's confrontation of Jax were also top-notch. Amazing work from Glitch on this one as well. Same thing with the music. Very cool indeed. Some fans didn't like the use of the song, Isn't She Lovely? But I think it makes sense if you ascribe to the theory that Jax is a closeted transwoman. I'll have to make a separate video about all that, but there's so much to go over there.

[00:03:22]There is so much lore. It is genuinely insane. I love it. The overall narrative, while it certainly gave me goosebumps and almost made me cry, this is where we get to the criticism part, could have used a bit of work in my opinion. First of all, I think it's a bit jarring how Jack simply abstracts with a jump cut, and it takes away a lot of the impact for me. I know it defies the expectation that the abstraction scene would have a big emotional buildup, but I think this is an example of where defying expectations isn't necessarily a good thing in every case.

[00:03:47]Sometimes it's good to be able to somewhat predict what's going to happen.

[00:03:50]I think they did make up for it in the scene later with Pomni and Jax hugging for like the first time ever because that one did feel pretty impactful. But anyway, it was also a little awkward, a different situation when Pomney and Ragatha suddenly got so close in the course of this one scene. Their previous interactions had always felt kind of awkward and I don't think this episode completely bridges the gap between their previously awkward relationship and the fact that they are besties now. I guess I do think Gangal and Zubel were handled pretty well, but a lot of this show suffers from the problem of just not making it clear enough that the other characters weren't going to be getting as much development. I think the arc between Gangal and Jax was really cool as well. It was really cool to see Gangal trying to grapple with her lack of guilt towards Jax and feeling guilty for that lack of guilt, but it simply wasn't explored as much as it could have been. I think if these characters were elaborated on in a more in-depth way, it would be even more awesome. I will say there was definitely a point where the show switched to being focused on Jackson Pomney more than the other characters and I think it started around episode 5. The other characters definitely got development but not as much as I would have personally liked.

[00:04:50]It's also a little odd how they just forgave Kane so quickly after what he did. I know they said that they weren't going to forgive him that quickly. But I mean, let's be honest, they they forgave him pretty quickly. And it also doesn't make a lot of sense that Kane just returned with very little explanation.

[00:05:03]We also sadly didn't get much of an explanation on CNA either. how the computer is still running after all these years, the meaning behind intermission time, if there ever was one to begin with, or how Kane was able to connect to a random Wi-Fi network, or why Kane randomly spawned Scratch. Like, I know that was probably meant to represent the first time that Kane had ever spawned a human, but it looks a little unclear with how the narrative is told visually. Now, this isn't necessarily anyone's fault. I do think Digital Circus could have done with more episodes, though. And this is a problem that Glitch shows have faced before. not enough episodes and not enough time to comfortably tell a completed story.

[00:05:36]There are definitely some crumbs in this whole thing that we just weren't told enough about. But honestly, the ending is not horrible. It's it's pretty decent. All in all, pretty good finale.

[00:05:45]It wasn't perfect, but it was a nice little book end to a franchise that honestly has changed my life, as dramatic as that might sound. I love Digital Circus, and the finale doesn't change that at all. Despite my criticisms maybe being harsh, they are just being made out of love for this show cuz I really do love this show.

[00:05:59]It's my favorite one. But yeah, there it is guys. That's my review. Those are my thoughts on this episode. I'm going to go to sleep now. Bye-bye.