Opening Analysis: or, why the SNCApost?
Because I am an animationigger, and I'm passionate about the medium. I think animation can be amazing, and when done well can be just as interesting as film, TV, etc. However, the "Indie Animation" boom I don't think is all it's cracked up to be, and I think it's worth being critical of things even if you're passionate about them. Otherwise, you end up being like the fan/anti-fan troonconglomerate on assorted niggerhells such as Xitter, Blusky, Discord, etc where those troglodytes congregate. yelling at each other and creators in between gooning to brimstone R34 of the characters.
No one reasonable wants that. I went into this show knowing next to nothing, other than what little actually reliable information can be glommed from the Soyjak Wiki aritcle. What I knew prior to watching TADC was:
- Gooseworx is a troon, and that xhe has a fetish for putting powerdrills in his ears.
That's it. No concept for the lore, or the basic idea of the show other than that it's an "isekai" according to the title of this thread. I went into this with an open mind, and now that you're in SNCAhell with me, you're going to read all of it.
Aesthetics and visuals
Starting off, this is where the show has both its greatest strengths, as well as its greatest weaknesses. I love the overall look, of a 3D circus digital clownworld that at first blush looks like visual vomit; but there is a clarity and an intention to it. What I mean by that is as abstract/thrown together as everything looks there is a reason for things being there. Similar to the visuals of the game Cruelty Squad, it at looks ugly, like ADHD troonvomit (not saying CS looks like that, but that they're both visually 'busy') the logic of the world still makes sense. There's the main area where everyone congregates, the hallway with their bedrooms, the loft/upstairs lounge area they hang out in the later episodes. It all makes sense even though we're in a WAaAaAaAacky cuhrayzy place. Simply put, I love how the show looks. It's distinct, and works with the right amount of cartoon logic working with the principals of squash and stretch, without being too abstract to understand what the fuck is going on. The character design on the other hand, is a bit of a mixed bag.
The Good
The best looking character by far to me, is Caine:

I love the red jacket, top hat, and cane (har). The heterochromia eyeballs at first were a bit too on the nose in reference to the anime influences of the show, but I think it works with his overall "madman ringmaster" aesthetic. The white gloves are a nice touch too. His silhouette is distinct, and from any angle, even if his render was blacked out, you would know it's Caine. He also reminds me of the art collective
The Residents, and a lot of their imagery:

Is that intentional? I'm not sure if Gooseworx is well-cultured enough to be aware of The Residents, so I'll give it a "maybe", either way, great designwork
Second best to me is Pomni:

Her simple color pallet of red, yellow, and blue work really well, accented by white skin (ARYAN?) and black/dark hair. Similar with Caine, you can identify Pomni from her silhouette alone. That's helped by not just her jester hat, but also her lanky, scrawny limbs and diminutive frame.
She visually reminds me of the character from
Silhouette Mirage speaking of silhouettes. Mostly the red/blue contrasting colors and her petite stature. Is this just a coincidence? Maybe, but troons do love 5th gen gaming. I also see a bit of NiGHTS from Nights Into Dreams, but that could also be a stretch.
Third place goes to Kinger:

The the purple robe fits the royal aesthetic, especially since he was one of if not the very first people transported to digital clownworldniggerhell, and the chess motif fits that too. Especially since the main area of the circus is a chessboard. No complaints other than it's a bit simple, and his name isn't as creative as Pomni or even Caine's, but it works for me.
The Bad
The rest of the cast I'm either ambivalent to or actively dislike how they look.
Jax is just lazy. I think the easiest comparison would probably be Bugs Bunny given his disposition, but visually I see more Roger Rabbit:


And looking at them directly, I'm more led to believe Troonworx was ripping off RR rather than simply being inspired by him. The big feet (ew), lanky tall shape, yellow gloves, red overalls with yellow buttons. That's taking a lot of "creative" liberties, and I just don't think Jax differentiates himself enough for me to not think of Roger Rabbit. Not the worst design, just lazy and aping from other IPs a bit too directly for my liking.
Gangle to me is just boring. I think her comedy/tragedy mask design was done either post-hoc knowing what her character would be as the sadsack of the group, and that's the best they could come up with. The red-ribbon gives her a bit more visual flair, but to me her best design ironically was as the fast food manager because her mask there was a bit more distinct. Again, not the worst but I'm "meh" on Gangle altogether.
Zooble to me has the opposite problem of Jax. She's so busy looking because of her being an amalgamation of disparate parts that in my mind's eye she just because this vague blob to me. I get that's part of her character is that she's supposed to be "more than the sum of her parts" but she fails at that in my opinion and where that starts for me is how she's designed.
And Ragatha...

Come the fuck on. This is just Raggedy Anne. Maybe for zoomytroons they have no idea who Raggedy Anne is, but this is just an anthropomorphized version of Anne as an adult. And the cartoons of RA already anthropomorphized her. F-.
But the worst to me has to be Bubble. And I know everyone will say it's just Chain Chomp but white, but to me the dead ringer for what Bubble is based off of is the tutorial character from
Sin & Punishment:

They're both amorphas spheres, have dumb toothy smiles, and high-pitched annoying voices. Maybe this is a schizo take but I'm convinced troonworx aped this.
The Problem with Pronouns
Something I nooticed and cringed at in the early episodes was referring to Zooble as "they". Not only is this really fucking gay and immediately dates the show as being a product of the 2020s, it's also clunky grammatically. When Caine refers to Zooble as 'they', altough the VA for him gives an incredible performance through out the entire show, it just doesn't good. I think it's pandering for Zooble to be the special troon/nonbinary self-insert, which is funny because as a character, she sucks. I think Glitch realized this themselves, because referring to Zooble by pronouns stops altogether later on in the show, with Jax even referring to her as "damsel" much to her chagrin.
I also want to layout my issues with the overall writing of the show, as that's my biggest sticking point with it:
The cast is mostly one note or predictable
- I could see Jax's arc from a fucking mile away. "ooh I'm the dickhead mischievous faggot character who hides his emotions because he's a pussy because my original friends were abstracted and sucked into the void and that means I can't get close to nobaldi anymore" Nigga, FUCK YOU. I thought Glitch might subvert that when we got to the guns episode, but nope, I'm completely right.
- I hate that for most of the show, Bubble is used to make gross and/or unnecessary sex jokes. I understand that TADC is not a kids show. However, you can write adult jokes that are more subtle and funnier than licking up vomit like in episode 1 or insisting on being called "Daddy Bubble" in episode 5. Also the pivot in episode 8 where Bubble works as a tormentor of Caine in some form feels rushed and half-baked and I doubt it will payoff in the film.
- Zooble's 'arc' goes no where. Zooble sucks. I don't give a fuck you used to work at a combo bar/tattoo parlor in Willamsburg.
- But by far, my #1 opp is Ragatha. This bitch STINKS. She does the fake "be nice to everyone, everyone is going to be okay! everything is fine uwu!" shit, meanwhile she's a BPD hoe that tries to manipulate Pomni into feeling bad for her because Pomni volunteered to pair up with Jax. ...But Ragatha fucking said "we should keep him and Kinger separate" and now you're sad because she followed your suggestion? GTFO. I hate Ragatha. I hate her voice, I hate her stealing Raggedy Anne valor. 0/10, nothing redeemable about her.
The structure of the show is bifurcated (

) and disjointed. Initially, I went into it thinking "okay, this is going to be a monster-of-the-week going on adventures show". Cool, I'm down for that, and I like how Glitch set the rules from the pilot that
THERE IS NO ESCAPE. That's interesting to me, and as Caine/the adventures get more trecherous, the crew slowly try to poke around looking for ways to get out.
But instead? They're cut down right in the middle. The first four episodes are adventures of the week, latter four is melodrama and exposition dump. And that FUCKING sucks. To me it feels like once they got an audience, they baited them into telling the story Troonworx actually wanted to tell from the beginning. Clearly it's worked, But I think that's bad writing for this kind of show. We get one episode dedicated entirely to character development that just feels like filler to me, and the overall arc to close out the season is Caine becoming an AI demiurge GANGTSER COMPUTERGOD akin to A.M. (we'll get to why that comparison sucks later), with him being deleted by Kinger, ending on a cliffhanger, which is where we sit now.
Speaking of Kinger, he's the best character, full stop. He's been in this hellscape the longest, enduring the hardship of Queenie whos is his IRL wife that he comes to realize
is his wife even though they can't remember their names. Has watched her be abstracted not knowing what her fate is, and yet he persists and helps BPD bitch Ragatha cope with her new life in the circus.
As a coping mechanism for himself, he's forgetfult and dissociative unless it's dark, which to me makes sense if you've been digitized and soultrapped into a computer alongside your wife. But no, Jax has it the hardest and has to be a sadclown faggot. Yawn.
I've seen in troonslop essay video thumbnails that I refuse to click on that compares this to Harlan Ellison's
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. On the surface, I see what they're getting at, and Caine even makes I direct reference to the short story. In IHNMAIMS, the humans are explicitly A.M.'s playthings. But the key difference, is that they can die. All the characters except Ted kill each other, and thus are released from A.M.'s prison. AFAICT, I don't think any of the characters in TADC
can die. You might say, "we'll what about abstraction and being thrown in the hole?" Do we know that Queenie and the others are dead? I don't think they are. Like I said, I think everyone is soultrapped inside the computer, in some ways a fate even worse than I Have No Mouth And I Must Sneed.
Audio, voicework, and music
So how the show is mixed, I have no issues with, sounds fine. The music in general I find to be mostly forgettable. It's background music. It's serves it function, but doesn't elevate the show in any way to me. The musical numbers? They're fucking fantastic, and I wish there were more of them. The duet between Jax and Pomni's VAs rendition of
Daisy Bell is really good, and they harmonize off each other perfectly. Caine's original song in episode 8 is also a highlight, not just musically but for the show, as there's a lot of visual flair and energy in that scene.
Clearly, these VAs have a lot of talent, not just in voice acting, but in singing too. So why not utilize them more? I find that frustrating. Kinger's VA is also really good, but Gangle, Zooble, and Ragatha's VAs all meld together in my head as vocal-fry affectations.
Gooning & fetishbait
In watching the show, I have actively avoided engaging with the fandom. I hate fandoms as a concept, they function more like cults where anyone (including the creators of said thing) can be deemed heretics, and excommunicated. However, I don't think Glitch does themselves any favors by including fetishbait in the show. Such as: The characters in bikinis/swimwear, Jax in a French maid outfit in the softball game, Bubble being Bubble, etc. Any of these in a vacuum wouldn't be an issue, and having your characters in swimwear doesn't inherently count as fetishbait to me. However, knowing Gooseworx's Internet footprint and xhem being a troon, I don't trust xhem not to have it be disguised fetishcoal.
This is a minor point admittedly, I have no interest in seeking out or seeing TADC fetish fanart, but knowing these two factors, I don't doubt a plethora of it exists online and Troonworx is partly culpable in facilitating it.