i am extremely disappointed in GH'S
after uploading their pilot for their new indie-animated series, EMOTIA, the future of the previously mind-numbing content farm channel GH's seemed to shine brighter than ever with its new spin on an indie, self-funded series.
the pilot was a fast-paced, very kid audience directed episode that critiqued the state of social media trends and content farms with the main antagonist being a dopamine-alterning "PHONE HEAD", and it was released on january 29th to massive positive reception, getting big off of platforms like tiktok. i remember some content creators i followed for other fandoms were starting to post about the series, with GH's actively reposting and engaging with the artwork and fan content.
i watched the pilot when barely a day had passed since it's release, and to tell you i was interested was an understatement. i was completely smitten.
so i participated a lot in some usual fandom activity, i remember drawing pepper for the first ever time right after the day of the pilot, i posted a handful of artwork on my (mostly ia) EMOTIA twitter account, wrote an EMOTIA fanfic, subscribed to GH's membership. i was (and still am) a REALLY big fan of the series for my own personal reasons, i really connect with and enjoy the characters of EMOTIA, and i love love LOVE the two main characters: glee and pepper, especially. there is so much i could go on about how much i adore and see the potential in a series of this nature.
which makes it incredibly depressing to say that i do not know what the hell GH's is doing right now.
it seems that after the initial boom of the pilot and positive reception of both EMOTIA episodes and after the character cards were all posted, GH's just... continued to go on as always, posting the usual poppy playtime adjacent youtube shorts. it started once, and then sprinkled in some EMOTIA, and then it just became completely overrun by poppy playtime.
yeah, yeah. it isn't really much of a surprise. GH's is a kid-centered channel, after all. that is how it makes revenue, it would be too hopeful to assume a channel that gains from grabbing the attention spans of little children on the internet would stop their cheap tactics in order to focus on a genuinely really good series that people showed real interest in.
but the issue is, i really did assume all of that. i'd assume they'd cut off on making that kind of cheap content to become a genuinely respected studio that creates some good content, but no, it just devolved into the same nonsense once again.
what's even worse? GH's has seem to fully dedicated themselves on pushing out and churning the same slop, just as it had always been. the public twitter and tiktok accounts are barely active aside from crossposting their mindless poppy playtime content, and the GH's membership that was dedicated to the support of EMOTIA? it is completely gone, the entire membership, it's tiers, videos, posts, they're all lost to the dust now. i purchased the 500 pesos tier, which was treat glee to crazy candy, i don't know if that money had refunded to me or what, but what im wondering is why? why was it removed? there is no authenticity or communication, just more content.
let's be clear, i do not think GH'S posts content SLOP, i believe it is a content FARM, as they employ numerous animators to create and distribute content at a rapid rate in order to maximize the popularity of a given media, but it does not post mindless ai-generated low quality content, whis is what slop constitutes.
i firmly believe every artist and animators at GH's are extremely talented people, the content itself is a LOT better than most other content farm channels out there, and is animated by real, talented artists who know their craft, and im sure they enjoy what they do. but i really do wish that this talent was honed and used for something more productive and less oversaturated, like say, their own INDIE SERIES, perhaps???? >:/
and it's not that they are truly doing it because they don't have enough funds, they MADE an entire youtube membership system for the sole purpose of funding their project, but they've chosen to throw that in the trash in favor of posting mind-numbing content. they have become part of the exact issue that was addressed in the pilot.
not only is it hypocritical, it's just downright disappointing. i really expected this channel to turn a new leaf and start pushing for their series more, but it seems they have others motives.
who knows, maybe the membership was not sufficient enough to keep running the project, which is why they've chosen to turn the ship around and keep posting content farm- pop culture hybrid content. but we will never know because they did not say anything, this studio just one day drop the promotion of EMOTIA and go back to churning out the next poppy playtime daycare youtube shorts, it's sickening.
i am definitely going to be tuning in to any more EMOTIA content published by the studio or any of its active staff in the near future, i'm sure that this isn't the end, im just a little disappointed. i know i am probably the only person alive who cares about this, but it's because i really do love this series and what it has to offer.
GH's, do better. please :(