I didn’t think that this would happen but here we are. It’s finally time for my kids to show me the next hot thing. So far it’s been nothing but Glitch Productions that have kept our kids entertained and me watching the TV over their shoulders. First it was Murder Drones. Then Amazing Digital Circus, Knights of Guinevere, and now Gameoverse.
Gameoverse is a new series created and directed by Ross O’Donovan, with co-writing from Arin Hanson. I wanted to talk about it partially because it just came out a few days ago and also because I really enjoyed watching it. That and because at this point it’s only a pilot episode and depending on how well it does, the series order will either happen or wont. I’m genuinely hoping it will be greenlit. Here’s Why:
Flips Tropes on its head
Gameoverse flips a lot of familiar gaming and fantasy tropes on their head. It refuses to treat its world like a standard hero’s journey. Instead of glorifying game logic and overpowered protagonists, the show seems more interested in exposing how absurd, chaotic, and emotionally exhausting those kinds of worlds would be.
It was a little hard for me to grasp the concept at first because I’m so used to games behaving in the traditional way. You beat the game and that’s a good thing right? Well in Gameoverse it’s not actually. The hero of the game is on a mission to complete the boss battle and save the world, when in actuality by doing that they’re destroying the basic foundation on what the world was based on. If you beat the game, you lose the world.
Kit and Kaboodle along with Gobbles are on a mission from The Farcade to prevent the games heroes from beating the game. Trying to save the world of the game itself and technically making them the world’s “bad guy”. It’s the bad guys who are sent from Syntax that are the ones trying to mine the remnants of the defeated world that are helping the world’s protagonist.
The Character Inspiration Takes Me Back
I grew up watching TONS of magical girl anime while playing games like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country. So this show really hit me in the feels. At a couple points Kit and Kaboodle “power up” and have a transformation sequence that is something like you would see in a magical girl anime. That’s why when it happened my daughter was focused on my face and how I would react to it. She had watched it before she showed me for the sole purpose of gauging my reactions to the parts she thought I would like.
I also love how Kit looks so much like a Samurai Pizza Cat. At least to me anyway.
It’s kinda hilarious while also being completely serious
Another thing the series twists is tone. Most gaming-inspired animation either goes fully comedic or fully dramatic. Gameoverse blends sincerity with internet-style humor in a way that makes emotional moments hit harder because they come right after complete nonsense. One of the characters in the pilot, Flappers is utterly hilarious. The drifting eyes and the unserious nature of him mixed with the buff game winning side is one of the ways that the show portrays this most. He’s also really dumb.
Visually pleasing
What makes the release particularly notable is the animation style. While many web animations today lean heavily on digital puppeteering or simplified production techniques, Gameoverse uses traditional animation methods. This is important for people like me who grew up watching hand drawn animation on television. It was Sailor Moon, Samurai Pizza Cats, TMNT and many other shows that truly pulled in the audience with stunning hand drawn visuals. A lost art if you ask me. giving it a more hand-crafted and expressive feel. It marks GLITCH Productions’ second traditionally animated series following Knights of Guinevere, showing the studio’s continued push into more ambitious animated storytelling.
Watch the Trailer Here!
How you can support the show
There is a merch site! Of course! The biggest way that you can help Glitch Productions fund the show and see how interested people are in it is to buy merch from the website. Which you can do by following the link here: https://glitchproductions.store/collections/gameoverse. It may seem a little confident to have merch sales before the show is completed but I think that it’s a good way for them to figure out how much fans are really into the show. It’s kind of like how My Little Pony started out as a toy and then became a show I guess.
