Greetings from Design Blox Studios!
I’m here to talk about a scary-esque IP, but with character design! As that’s my role and enjoyment as I love characters, character concepts, character design, character interactions, character history and let me cut that short before I ramble on there, haha.
I aim to talk about The Amazing Digital Circus! But you’re probably thinking “That’s already been talked about on CrazyPopMedia.” and to that I say, no worries! I can still point out a few interesting things from the character design alone!
Let’s start with my handful of favorites.
Jax
[2D Art of Jax, image gotten from TADC Wiki]
Jax is a purple toned rabbit with yellow and black eyes and yellow teeth. He wears pale red overalls and
yellow gloves.
Jax likely gets his name from Jacks, a game where you bounce a ball, and as it’s in the air, you collect the other items present. That and he’s likely a rabbit due to the bouncing element of the game. That and “Jumping Jacks”.
Now Jax is an interesting character as he’s at a point of contention with fans. In the Pilot, he was thought to be a “Jerk with a Heart of Gold” to quote Tvtropes a bit on a term. This is likely due to his voice actor being Michael Kovach, who was previously well known for his role as Angel Dust from Hazbin Hotel who sooner fits that trope. The Pilot being a pilot left room for people to wonder about many character’s backstories just waiting to be told
and such.
While Jax, much like the rest of the main characters, are not keen on anyone abstracting (and showed visible upset when Kaufmo abstracted and his funeral), Jax still isn’t above putting others in danger and bullying the cast either, aka being a jerk.
People believed he was kinder than he let on but Episode 2 revealed that was not the case. Which led to some fans believing Jax’s personality in Ep 2 was purposely written to erase his kinder personality. This theory is incorrect, as the creator, Gooseworx, said the first 3 episode scripts were written before the Pilot debuted. Basically, people believed their headcanons were actual facts in the show.
So Jax being mean? Sounds like his name has another meaning as well. That he’s a jack@$$.
In my opinion, as someone who only recently watched the first 3 available episodes, I knew about the controversy about his character coming into it and how do I feel about Jax? I find him entertaining. I tend to like snarky, sarcastic characters and such. I love how at that time he says “Ha!” how his face distorts similarly to a Rayman character,
it’s so much fun.
That and I enjoy when Jax gets karma.
Jax has been compared to Bugs Bunny, and if ya know, I’m glad ya know a classic. But I feel describing Jax as “Imagine Bugs Bunny with little to no redeeming qualities.” I think it fits. While Bugs Bunny can be an entertaining jerk, oftentimes, Bugs doesn’t cause problems first and usually retaliates to those who instigate first. Jax on the other hand, wakes up and chooses violence as an option and if he can’t, he’ll pick the closest option to it. I guess the red in his design reflects that.
Apparently Jax is going to get worse as time goes on, so buckle up those who dislike his character. I’m curious to see how he does and can’t wait for karma to follow him as a result.
Now onto our next character of discussion…
Zooble
[2D Art of Zooble, image gotten from Tvtropes]
Zooble is someone with a mix and match toy body.
Episode by episode, the parts beyond their head
and body change.
Zooble takes no crap from anyone, and even if shown as moody, telling the others to f#(k off if they need them in the pilot, they do have a soft side. They help set up Kaufmo’s funeral, spoke at his funeral, are observant of the other member’s personalities and such.
Zooble is disinterested in doing the adventures Caine sets up for the crew to experience. And it isn’t until Episode 3 we find out why. Zooble hates their body and even if Caine tries to help by giving them different parts to try on, nothing feels “good” to Zooble even as they keep trying to find something that does.
The entire scene with Zooble voicing their issue very much feels like they’re experiencing body dysmorphia.
Even if for now there isn’t a resolution for that with them, it’s still interesting to learn that about Zooble.
It’s very possible Zooble is still figuring themselves out, which reflects in their Digital Avatar chosen for them.
I quite like Zooble, yeah, they’re sarcastic and snarky as well but they’re not bad, just dealing with a lot. If anything you can sooner trust them to leave you alone, compared to Jax. I feel like the “Jerk with a Heart of Gold” was there since Day 1 and fans missed who it was, going after another character due to believing Type Casting was a thing at play. Yeah, Zooble is low energy and moody but
can be kind to others.
That’s it for some Design Blox Stuido Character Analysis on the Amazing Digital Circus!
Thank you for your time and I hope you had fun~!
