While this web series doesn't share the same problems as the infamous and heavily panned "The Emoji Movie", that doesn't necessarily mean that Emojitown is a great (or even passable) show. It definitely has a lot of wasted potential; it could have been a great slice-of-life series but that's just not the case here.
Cons:
1. The main problem with Emojitown is that it does not execute its kind of premise well. It's supposed to be about the characters having struggles and relatable situations but the writing and the lore (including the logic) is too random, nonsensical, and unbefitting of what the creators are trying to do. While some of the randomness makes sense for emoji characters (such as the creative way the characters emote by making their heads different emojis), the idea of making the stories and the situations overly twisted and illogical doesn't work.
2. The second biggest problem is the characterization; most of the characters lack traits people can relate to and their personalities and development range from mediocre to subpar. Not even the main 5 girls are likable enough to make them sympathetic as they're all Mary-Sues:
* Jo is a just a very so-so main protagonist; the series tries to paint her as relatable when she gets away from her problems too easily in unrealistic ways. She's not the worst but she's pretty bland and unrealistic.
* Joanie, despite being intelligent, is very one-dimensional and has virtually no personality whatsoever. Additionally, she's too identical to Jo, only more short-tempered.
* Julia is selfish, vindictive, and annoyingly irritable. The series describes her as sweet and wholesome but from what was shown in the actual series, she seems to be very cruel deep inside.
* Joanie is the WORST, most unlikable, and most mean-spirited out of the girls; she's a sociopathic, malicious, and sadistic goth who finds fun through threatening and torturing others for no good reason. She also gets away with all the bad things she does.
*Jess, despite being the most tolerable and least unlikable out the girls, can at times be immature and childish (and not in a good way).
* Mr. And Mrs. Poophead are dumb, toxic, obnoxious, and pestering comic reliefs, with the former being worse.
* Juniper (Jess' cat) is an infuriatingly sneaky, sadistic, and self-absorbed Mary-Sue who is more mean-spirited than anything cool.
* {A lot of the male characters are purposely made poorly-written to make them look inferior to the 5 main girls (who aren't even relatable overall) and to shoehorn in "Women Empowerment". While there are some male characters who are dumb and weak, it's clearly just done on purpose to make guys look inferior to girls. Plus, there are even some male characters who are actually nice but they are treated as punching bags and butt-monkeys to make them look like losers; there are even times where they are painted as the bad guys in their episodes even though they never actually did anything inherently wrong. Because of the way Emojitown portrays a lot of the guys, it makes the show come off as sexist}
3. In general, the humor is dry and most of it is just so-so at best. Plus, some of it comes off as more off-putting than anything else.
4. Most of the episodes aren't great and the storytelling can range from average to poor.
5. There a fair amount of needlessly mean-spirited moments, mainly from weak story writing and mostly lackluster characterization
6. False Advertising:
* Despite being advertised as one of the main characters, Jay barely appears in the show and he hardly gets any proper screentime or character development.
* When the show stopped making new episodes, the creators have a bad habit of making new titles and thumbnails to make it seem like they made new videos when they're really just reuploading old episodes.
7. Quantity Over Quality: After 52 episodes, the creators (for a sudden and unknown reason) refuse to upload new episodes and keep reuploading compilations of their old ones with the video titles and thumbnails being different. This is a very bad idea and it feels like a blatant way of having more videos and getting more views.
Pros:
1. The premise of the Emoji characters experiencing struggles and relatable situations is good, just poorly executed.
2. Undoubtedly, the animation is adorable, original, and visually appealing. Furthermore, the character designs and the visuals look good.
3. Despite being annoying at times, Jon is the only well-written and truly relatable one out of the main characters as he has proper character development and his struggles actually feel real. You know, it feels wrong when the punching bag is better written than any of the 5 main girls.
*Additionally, there are other good characters like the Unicorn family (who are nice and have a healthy relationship), Baby Poophead (the one good character in the Poophead family), Jeremy (the cutest character in the series), and even Jess for the most part (She can be immature at times but she is mostly tolerable and her perky nature is somewhat cute).
4. Some of the humor is fine and there are some good episodes too.
Cons:
1. The main problem with Emojitown is that it does not execute its kind of premise well. It's supposed to be about the characters having struggles and relatable situations but the writing and the lore (including the logic) is too random, nonsensical, and unbefitting of what the creators are trying to do. While some of the randomness makes sense for emoji characters (such as the creative way the characters emote by making their heads different emojis), the idea of making the stories and the situations overly twisted and illogical doesn't work.
2. The second biggest problem is the characterization; most of the characters lack traits people can relate to and their personalities and development range from mediocre to subpar. Not even the main 5 girls are likable enough to make them sympathetic as they're all Mary-Sues:
* Jo is a just a very so-so main protagonist; the series tries to paint her as relatable when she gets away from her problems too easily in unrealistic ways. She's not the worst but she's pretty bland and unrealistic.
* Joanie, despite being intelligent, is very one-dimensional and has virtually no personality whatsoever. Additionally, she's too identical to Jo, only more short-tempered.
* Julia is selfish, vindictive, and annoyingly irritable. The series describes her as sweet and wholesome but from what was shown in the actual series, she seems to be very cruel deep inside.
* Joanie is the WORST, most unlikable, and most mean-spirited out of the girls; she's a sociopathic, malicious, and sadistic goth who finds fun through threatening and torturing others for no good reason. She also gets away with all the bad things she does.
*Jess, despite being the most tolerable and least unlikable out the girls, can at times be immature and childish (and not in a good way).
* Mr. And Mrs. Poophead are dumb, toxic, obnoxious, and pestering comic reliefs, with the former being worse.
* Juniper (Jess' cat) is an infuriatingly sneaky, sadistic, and self-absorbed Mary-Sue who is more mean-spirited than anything cool.
* {A lot of the male characters are purposely made poorly-written to make them look inferior to the 5 main girls (who aren't even relatable overall) and to shoehorn in "Women Empowerment". While there are some male characters who are dumb and weak, it's clearly just done on purpose to make guys look inferior to girls. Plus, there are even some male characters who are actually nice but they are treated as punching bags and butt-monkeys to make them look like losers; there are even times where they are painted as the bad guys in their episodes even though they never actually did anything inherently wrong. Because of the way Emojitown portrays a lot of the guys, it makes the show come off as sexist}
3. In general, the humor is dry and most of it is just so-so at best. Plus, some of it comes off as more off-putting than anything else.
4. Most of the episodes aren't great and the storytelling can range from average to poor.
5. There a fair amount of needlessly mean-spirited moments, mainly from weak story writing and mostly lackluster characterization
6. False Advertising:
* Despite being advertised as one of the main characters, Jay barely appears in the show and he hardly gets any proper screentime or character development.
* When the show stopped making new episodes, the creators have a bad habit of making new titles and thumbnails to make it seem like they made new videos when they're really just reuploading old episodes.
7. Quantity Over Quality: After 52 episodes, the creators (for a sudden and unknown reason) refuse to upload new episodes and keep reuploading compilations of their old ones with the video titles and thumbnails being different. This is a very bad idea and it feels like a blatant way of having more videos and getting more views.
Pros:
1. The premise of the Emoji characters experiencing struggles and relatable situations is good, just poorly executed.
2. Undoubtedly, the animation is adorable, original, and visually appealing. Furthermore, the character designs and the visuals look good.
3. Despite being annoying at times, Jon is the only well-written and truly relatable one out of the main characters as he has proper character development and his struggles actually feel real. You know, it feels wrong when the punching bag is better written than any of the 5 main girls.
*Additionally, there are other good characters like the Unicorn family (who are nice and have a healthy relationship), Baby Poophead (the one good character in the Poophead family), Jeremy (the cutest character in the series), and even Jess for the most part (She can be immature at times but she is mostly tolerable and her perky nature is somewhat cute).
4. Some of the humor is fine and there are some good episodes too.
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