Pomni
| Pomni | |
|---|---|
| The Amazing Digital Circus character | |
| First appearance | SMG4: The Very Safe & Legal SMG4 Show (cameo) (April 22, 2023) Pilot (official version) (October 13, 2023) |
| Created by | Gooseworx |
| Designed by | Gooseworx |
| Voiced by | Lizzie Freeman Elsie Lovelock (SMG4) |
| Information | |
| Species | Human Jester (avatar) |
| Gender | Female |
Search Pomni on Amazon.
Pomni is a fictional character from Australian adult independent animated web series The Amazing Digital Circus by Glitch Productions, created and designed by Gooseworx. Voiced by Lizzie Freeman, Pomni is the protagonist of the series, a woman who is the new human to be trapped in the circus-themed virtual reality game through the VR headset, becoming confused and fearful, trying to escape, but then ends up accepting and valuing only the group that is with her, who follow the adventures of the crazy artificial intelligence. She is officially introduced in the Pilot episode, which premiered on YouTube on October 13, 2023.
Development
Creation
During development in 2022, when Gooseworx was doing the visual concepts for the series, Pomni's avatar was supposed to be a frog with a blue and black striped suit instead of a jester and was supposed to be called "Frogni"[1][2]. Even though she changed the character to a court, she started to have changes in color, in the teaser where it appears for the first time, Pomni had neutral colors and a left hand with a red glove and the right hand with a blue glove, but they changed it because Kevin Temmer, who animated the entire teaser and was the main animator of the series and was a junior animator at Blue Sky Studios asked for the color of the gloves to be inverted to be the opposite of the shoes that had the same color and position (left red and right blue).[3]
In the pilot episode, the visuals had very soft colors, but despite the changes, the poster still maintained the same old color that was later updated in Glitch's own store, however the 2D Pomni that appears in the credits maintains the old design and has never been changed until the recent episode of the series.
Voices
There has never been a voice replacement for Pomni, but the character is played by Lizzie Freeman, who is one of Glitch's voice actresses and has worked on Sunset Paradise, SMG4, and Murder Drones. In her cameo in SMG4, she was voiced by Elsie Lovelock, who is also one of Glitch's voice actresses, who is known for voicing Uzi in Murder Drones, and who was later cast as The Gloink Queen in the series.
Visual and Characteristics
With the visuals created by Gooseworx, Pomni's avatar is a jester with a combination of red and blue as the entire outfit, hat, gloves and shoes, and some details are yellow.
The woman is trapped in The Amazing Digital Circus, meeting other humans trapped badly and even though she knows them, she shows herself to be shy, tense and anxious, but in the pilot episode, she ends up forgetting her name, but Caine, the circus' artificial intelligence leader, decides to help and name her "Pomni". Knowing them and understanding how the place works and at the same time focusing on trying to get out, she shows herself to be selfish and empathetic. When Ragatha ends up being bugged by Kaufmo who was abstracted and says he would promise to ask Caine for help, but she was doing it, but seeing the exit door, she ignored her help and tries to escape, but passing through several doors until she reaches the digital void that alerts Caine and rescues her from there and fixes Ragatha, who felt remorse.
In the second episode, confronted with Gummigoo who is a NPC, was in a mental crisis for seeing his model in T-Pose and not remembering his mother, Pomni who perhaps had listened to Ragatha's advice, tried to give it to him and invited him to live with the group in the Digital Circus, showing concern, even though he is not a trapped human, but she ends up being disappointed when Caine removes him from the Digital Circus map. She was invited by the group to watch Kaufmo's wake. Seeing everyone talking about how important he was, Pomni begins to smile and feel empathy as she gets used to the group and accepts to meet with them.
Afterwards, Pomni ends up changing her personality a little, becoming cynical and still shy. In episode three, she shows her dislike for Caine's adventures. When they go to Mildenhall Manor, Kinger ends up pulling her into the adult-rated section of the game, embarking on a mission to return there, following the recorded messages and trying to get rid of a scary creature that, after being shot, turns out to be an angel, and is condemned to be dragged to hell. Pomni, angry and anxious, tries to run through the corridor where thousands of spirits were passing by. As she passes by, she ends up being sucked in and becoming demonic, but thanks to Kinger, he saves her by punching her with a shotgun. Pomni, frightened and nervous, genuinely complains about living in the circus and cries, but Kinger confronts her and reminds her of his wife's absent-mindedness and advises her to value the people and memories in the circus, which influenced Pomni to thank him, leave the place together and thank and apologize to Ragatha for worrying too much about her.
In episode four, Pomni, being one of the employees at Spudsy's, seemed to be working normally, but with the appearance of Gummigoo, she try to leave work to interact, but he appears as an NPC with no memory. Being warned by Gangle, she tries to prove that the job was not even real. After Gangle becomes the shift manager, showing her manic behavior to the group and disguising her depression, Pomni ends up recognizing and genuinely worried, asking if there was anyone to confront her and tell her about her problems, but realizing even more, asks to take her place to watch the restaurant close, which this time Pomni shows genuine concern. A post on Glitch's Twitter shows an art from the series that represents a drawing in Gangle's notebook in anime style where she was herself, Pomni and Zooble, demonstrating that she only drew for those who cared about her.
Pomni is shown to listen to her friends' advice and is also used to swearing like the others, she also shows that she enjoys helping them like she did for the Gangle, but she takes their side when everyone is bullied by Jax and agrees that Caine's adventures are bad for them.
Appearances
Main Series
Pomni is the newest human to enter the Digital Circus, joining five other trapped humans: Jax, Ragatha, Gangle, Kinger, and Zooble. Under the direction of the AI ringmaster Caine, she participates in surreal and often traumatic adventures designed to distract the group from their predicament. At the same time, she is thinking that she is hallucinating (or dreaming) and trying to escape, which she ends up failing to do, as she goes to the digital void and is rescued by Caine, and is traumatized at the special dinner held by Bubble.
SMG4
She appears as a cameo in the 2018 episode of SMG4 also produced by Glitch Productions titled "SMG4: The Very Safe & Legal SMG4 Show", Pomni appears when SMG4 does an abracadabra that was actually a mistake and meant to point out to SMG3 for a circus-themed performance. Despite being a cameo, it was the only appearance that the character was not voiced by Lizzie Freeman but by Elsie Lovelock, as Freeman stopped voicing Meggy Spletzer from Sunset Paradise and also from SMG4 since 2022.
Reception
Merchandise
After the series' release, Glitch Productions has a store that sells clothing, accessories, and toys (such as plushies and commercialized figurines), Pomni owns almost all of these types.
With the success of the series, especially in Japan, they opened a store and a cafe themed around the series, which has a large figurine of Pomni in the store, as well as a standee of the rendered pose that has not yet been made available on the internet, and a hamburger with the symbol of the Pomni plush's face.
Cultural impact
Following the premiere of The Amazing Digital Circus, Pomni quickly transcended the series itself to become a widespread internet phenomenon. One of the most notable memes is the "Pomni Dread Zoom‑In" meme: the final scene of the pilot, in which the camera zooms into Pomni's increasingly panicked expression, rapidly became a viral caption‑meme format across social media.
Pomni is often likened to Kobeni Higashiyama, a character from Chainsaw Man, due to perceived similarities in their anxious and distressed personalities. This parallel has led to a notable amount of crossover fan art featuring the two characters together.
References
- ↑ Gooseworx [@GooseworxMusic] (16 October 2023). "Believe it or not, that was a concept for Pomni" (Tweet). Retrieved 6 April 2025 – via Twitter.
- ↑ Gooseworx [@GooseworxMusic] (7 May 2024). "I posted this to Tumblr ages ago, but here's a full drawing of Frogni, the original Pomni concept before I put her in the jester evolution chamber" (Tweet). Retrieved 6 April 2025 – via Twitter.
- ↑ Temmer, Kevin (22 October 2023). Secrets I Snuck into Digital Circus. Kevin Temmer Tunes (Video). Retrieved 6 April 2025 – via YouTube.
This article "Pomni" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Pomni. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
