emotia is really fucking good

date: february 26, 2025

okay so i found this unfinished html thing in my vscode and it dated back to january 30th, when i first watched emotia. im pretty sure past me was PLANNING on making a full post on emotia at one point but got side tracked with a lot of irl stuff. okay, even until now im still pretty much super super busy, but i've got free time rn since its a holiday!! so lets get onto this.

emotia is a series published by a (somewhat infamous) korean studio called GH's, if that name rings any bells, theyre a pretty big youtube channel that often posts lots of kids content slop(?) about popular mascot horror. likewise:

lots of this. there's definitely some more popular examples, but i'm pretty sure theyre relatively familiar if you either have a younger family member or have stumbled upon it.

GH's not only makes kids slop, but surprisingly well-made kids slop, with a pleasing artstyle (we'll touch on the artist later) and no innuendos that are borderline predatory. so it's got a relatively mixed reception.

so needless to say, its pretty surprising that a slop churning youtube channel would release their own indie animated series, right? you'd think it would be in the same vein as their content farms, but not really!

this is EMOTIA, the pilot episode released on january 29, the pilot stars the main villain; nvee, corrupting a young child named noah and turning him into a monster called "PHONE HEAD". then features the main characters, a princess from a faraway planet named "EMOTIA" named glee heart on a quest to get rid of earth's negative emotions-- and her newfound friend pepper: a snarky, disinterested and all around normal teenage boy that found himself reluctantly wrangled into her shenanigans. the pilot is very fast paced, the prologue even more so, it's designed with a child audience in mind, like most of GH's work. (very piss poor synopsis, but whatever)

i was actually one of the first to view it at less than 100k views on that same day (granted, it was turning midnight). and honestly? jesus, i loved it soo much.

i can't really tell you why i was so fond of it, initially, i was super drawn in because of pepper (mostly because he was very similar to a character i had a pretty big obsession with, nicky roth). but after brainrotting over them for a couple weeks now, i've honestly become OBSESSED.

on a surface level, this series is basically SVTFOE mixed in with miraculous ladybug. glee and pepper are extremely similar to star and marco, and nvee's whole thing of corrupting humans into monsters is very similar to hawkmoth. generally speaking, it's not exactly the most creative breakthrough of a concept, since EMOTIA's concepts and characters have been done before.

however, i personally think its charm and why people are so drawn to it comes from the adorable, cutesy artstyle. let's get into the components of the series; starting with its visual aspects!!

DA VISUALS DEPARTMENT

GH's has a TON of talented artists behind it, so it's no wonder emotia has such a pleasing and well-crafted artstyle. the artstyle appeals to a good wide variety of audiences, not only young children but also teens (and tweens woah i keep forgetting im no longer a tween), not only that, but character design! the two poster children of the series: glee and nvee are both very well designed and beautiful characters. a kuromi and my melody type of vibe, theyre designed to be eachother's antithesis.

pepper, despite looking pretty basic in comparison to the two, still has an adorable bell pepper hairstyle and absolute GORGEOUS LOOKING EYELASHES and really adorable bushy brows. so he isnt shyed away from being as cute. also, he's my favorite, so im slightly biased.

the characters are drawn in a chibi style, shots are brightly colored to drawn in a viewer's attention, but can also be atmospheric when it needs to be. here are some really good shots:

SPOILER WARNING FOR THE PILOT :0!!

some gifs of shots that are really well made (aside from the SVTFOE inspo and miraculous ladybug inspo, it definitely takes inspiration from magical girl anime like sailor moon)

and the character introducts are in this scrapbook-y style, its super cool!

again, the studio never fails to impress in the visual department. such a charming, cute and colorful artstyle that also impressed my friends when i (forced) them to watch it!! a definitive example of how good the artistic direction is!

SIDE NOTE: despite one of their key animators (and the person behind the iconic GH'S style), @fullybbang quitting the studio back in june of 2024 to pursue their own personal projects, leaving the studio to no longer be able to create any new videos with their artstyle, they've held up surprisingl well--especially with EMOTIA. there are a handful of very talented artists and creators behind EMOTIA, a lot going behind the visual aspects; even 3d models being made of the EMOTIA characters, and their art is just as talented and beautiful! one of the artists i regularly check on my EMOTIA fan account is @anbishake, whose worked on EMOTIA and is actively behind animating shots and making original artwork. i love their artstyle and their other work! also, they have BEAUTIFUL personal art of pepper and glee, i am NOT going to be sharing them here because i am unsure if the artist would want that, but pls check it out theyre so cute!!! T0T

aside from their pleasing artstyle, lets also get into the characters + writing! i already did say my piece about the original concept, having been done already and a tried-and-true format, but i have VERY different (positive) opinions on the characters >:3

CHARACTERS!!!!! AND WHY THEY, DESPITE THEIR SURFACE SIMPLICITY, WORK WELL

GLEE HEART

glee heart is the main protagonist and POSTER CHILD of the series; as i stated previously, she is an alien born from joy from a planet known as emotia, she's both the youngest and the PRINCESS of emotia. glee causes a lot of trouble for her family (specifically her father) and other emotians, being the center of trouble and havoc, and even stealing a royal heirloom (beam heart). her antics cause her to warp into earth, meet pepper, and purify a corrupted human named "phone head". she has the basic characteristics you'd see in any character like her: a ditzy, cheerful yet troublemaking girl with a constant air of positvity to her, her excitable and overly energetic demeanor makes her prone to unpredictable and often dangerous antics, she rarely sees any consequence to her actions and is often oblivious to danger (like how she wants to ask phone head for an autograph in the pilot). you can definitely, DEFINITELY see the resemblance between her and star butterfly from SVTFOE. troublemakers who are constantly (albeit, sometimes unbearingly) energetic and positive, maybe even a bit of a pushover, and causes nothing but trouble for their royal families. that is who glee is, she's definitely on the more "simplistic" side when it comes to her personality. i mean, she's LITERALLY the embodiment of joy, there isn't much room for complexity to her (though, there are some key standouts, like her troubles, flaws and motivations).

which, in my personal opinion? makes her all the more interesting as a character. for one, like i said, she is the EMBODIMENT of joy, she is born from it and is constantly feeling and expressing joy. she is a girl who is affectionate and loving for the love of the game and i think thats very interesting conceptually!!! think about her constant positive demeanor, how it would affect the people aorund her, i know i said that there isn't any complexity needed for her, but im saying that on a more surface-level type of basis. what if glee's positvity is capable of getting out of hand at times? toxic positivity, even! which i think is a REAAALLLY interesting road to her character development. glee also has herself some daddy issues (woag), she comments off handedly about wanting her father's acknowledgement in the pilot, which, first of all, crazy thing to say outright? and second of all, shows that she definitely has her issues too and isnt completely a one dimensional cheerful cardboard cutout of a character, her father in the prologue is this big, burly soldier who is outright very cold towards her. glee is most likely a child of (emotional) neglect, similar to pepper, and i reaallyy wanna see how that plays into her character in the future!

NVEE

nvee is the second poster child and the main villain of the series, she serves the role as glee's opposite, mirrored version. her relationship with glee is unknown, but its clear that nvee is somewhat fond of her and is trying to find her. nvee is the anti-emotian of jealousy, she has the powers of umbrakinesis and uses it to travel and spy on people. as well as, probably mind control, seeing that she corrupts noah--the child that turns into phone head by exploiting his negative emotions. it clear she NEEDS them for something. she's the hawk moth stand-in

not much is known about her, but she's very well liked in the fandom, both due to her design and mysterious allure. she's also frequently shipped with glee, mainly in the tiktok fandom. nvee and glee ARE NOT related, glee doesnt even know her (NOT to deter or throw hate on their ship, just kinda an objective fact so far), but nvee is very very fond of her, NOT hateful. nvee definitely wants something from glee, its a mystery as to what! both her and glee give off that homura and madoka vibes, those kuromi and my melo vibes. yknow the ones!

honestly, i know we dont really see all that much of her so far, and she's definitely going to leave a mark, but tbh i dont.. really care about her? i guess i just dont bode well with characters like nvee in general, which by extension, doesn't make me a super huge fan about her ship with glee either (i really just DONT like madohomu for some very personal reasons im sorry.), but she's definitely SOMEONE'S fav out there and i like that! nvee's character design is also just soooo good, it hits all the marks and i love that!! i think as the series progresses i'll be more fond of her and her ship with glee, but as of now, it's mostly tentative. :p

PEPPER

siiigh. okay, this is ABSOLUTELY 100% BIASED. i really, really love this guy.

pepper is a regular human living a regular life, of course, until he meets glee and is wrangled into her adventures unwillingly. he's a snarky, pessismistic and stand-offish teenager. definitely going through a phase of his own whilst also going through some internal problems. the marco diaz to glee's star butterfly. by all accounts, he is the normal-guy you mostly would ignore for more interesting characters, a guy who's just.. there. but, for some strange reason, he just.. works. and he's genuinely a pretty interesting character that i am so so SOOO DEEPLY enamoured by!!

unlike nvee, he is more of glee's complementary character rather than polar opposite. the serious, more grounded guy that gets glee out of trouble. according to his profile, he's actually very altruistic in nature; a rough, cold exterior, but a big softie internally. pepper is also rather intelligent! i don't know why they hadn't highlighted that in the pilot, but he's a genius that enjoys inventing.

on all accounts, pepper is an average joe amidst the two more interesting opposite emotian characters, but for SOME reason, i just!!! i love him to death!! maybe it is because i relate to him in a form, or that he already fits a pre-established character trope (brunette somewhat scrawny teen) i already really like, but he JUST WORKS! and i love him to death because of it. pepper, like glee, has issues of his own, to contrast with her daddy issues--pepper has mommy issues! he was abandoned by her and has MYSTERIOUSLY gone missing, and, not to be a tin foil hat wearer or anything; but i definitely think her disappearance is going to affect pepper in the coming episodes. (maybe even hint of his corruption? a wink wink..)

also, for all intensive purposes; yes i headcanon him to be autistic. maybe having some abandonment issues too. does that count as self projection? mMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

those three are the only important characters of note so far, there's still noah (aka phone head) and his mom, but they're definitely more of side characters. im sure there will be more notable characters in the forseeable future (like the emotians introduced in the prologue, and glee's father: victory heart.) but so far theyre the three thats ALL DA RAGE!

so, after briefly summarizing the characters; lets get into the REAL zziz-insanity topic of the post.

PEPGLEE SECTION (AKA LOVEMAIL AND MAYBE EVEN FANFICTION OOPS)

pepglee is the ship between pepper and glee heart, the protagonists. of course the whole MC boy and girl thing and immediately being shipped comes into play; which, don't get me wrong, is ABSOLUTELY what pepglee is. but holy guac, i think their dynamic is really REALLY cute.

i've been drawing up alot of comparisons between the two of them and starco (star butterfly x marco) but the truth is, they couldnt be any different from them dynamic-wise. conceptually, yeah, alien-princess blonde girl with upbeat attitude and brunette guy who initially wants her out of his life but warms up to her eventually fall in love, that IS pepglee! but personality wise brings in a WHOLE new perspective.

DYNAMICS

pepper is a huge pessimist, a boy who maintains a facade of stoicism and snarkiness from--what i can probably determine is-- his deeply rooted fear of abandonment, being left by his mom at some point (either willing or unwillingly, that isnt clear). pepper has mixed feelings about her, resenting her (see his dislikes in his introduction) but also desperately wanting her back (see pilot, his room has a board dedicated to trying to find his mom again). its clear he is the way that he is now because of what happened to him. which is interesting, because in his introduction card it states that he's an altruistic and relatively soft person at heart. it's just that being abandoned by one of his caretakers who he depended on has left him emotionally wounded enough to have a jaded exterior; either as a defensive mechanism to drive people away, or because he can't properly cope with his emotions enough.

pepper is evidently not a child who is doing well, not at all. in his introduction, he has messy papers scattered all over his desk, his windows are boarded up, he still has a photo of him and his mom and he has an entire BOARD that is--like stated previously, full of missing posters and articles relating to her. he isn't doing okay.

"But now, he's okay, because Glee is by his side!" --GH'S

enter in glee heart, an excitable, upbeat and impossibly positive girl from emotia. she wrangles him into her adventures against his best efforts, and contiously pesters him quite often--believing that theyre friends. glee is endlessly positive and open about her emotions, the antithesis of pepper; who's much more jaded and snarky. yet, she isn't pushed away by his demeanor, in fact, she pushes against it, pressing forward and trying to talk to him and involve him in her shenanigans. a troublemaker by heart.

glee herself isn't shyed away from having her own issues, her father, victory heart, rarely acknowledges her or gives her the emotional recognition that she needs. glee wants to prove herself to her father, but it often ends with her getting in trouble or angering her father. glee can often be a pushover, she isn't easily deterred.

in the pilot, when glee and pepper first meet, pepper does NOT want her around, kicking her out of his home after she crashes into his living room. but he unexpectedly gets dragged by her to fight phone head regardless. during the fight, pepper not only saves her a good amount of times, but shows worry and concern for her wellbeing. you'd expect the regular "jaded" type of character to be immediately be unsympathetic for glee's situation, but pepper isn't really that. instead, he stays with her, helps her regain her emotions and then two defeat phone head. throughout that, his facade of snarky stoicism is completely faded into the action; wanting to help glee. which, yes, is definitely just convenient writing, but also shows that he's definitely more caring than he lets on.

however, once all of the episode's conflict is resolved, pepper reverts back to his snarky demeanor once again. responding to her questions with coldness. this doesn't deter glee at all, who's already taken a liking to him.

the pilot carefully shows their dynamic; pepper is cold, but glee isn't deterred and continues pushing him because pepper has helped her, which makes him a good person in her eyes. when they're walking into the sunset at the end, he doesn't PUSH push her aways, but is more passive towards her presence.

obviously, you can see where their relationship is going from a mile away; pepper warms up to her eventually, he may even catch the feels (which is basically moreso implied, but i'll get onto that later). but what i like so much about them is their POTENTIAL!

on a pepper-focused POV: pepper is a troubled child that struggles with his emotions, glee is the manifestation of joy, not being deterred by his attempts at pushing her away, and continuing to be his friend. slowly, as time passes, he comes out of his shell and softens up. it could be like, some sort of journey to recovery, in a way, slowly accepting himself and loving the world around him as he is around such a positive force like glee. a sweet, wholesome type of friendship. i mean, who else would want their emotional wounds patched up by the literal EMBODIMENT OF JOY? glee makes his days brighter, in ways that he doesnt realize! a lovely, beautiful story about a pessimistic boy whose worldview changes into something brighter.

that is what i love about pepglee the most! it has so much potential, and is so, so deeply sweet. like yes the sad autistic motherless depressed boy needs the literaly embodiment of joy to fix him FUCK YOU!!! i just!! they make me so endlessly happy. if it isnt obvious enough, pepglee is my comfort ship, both as bestfriends and as crushy crushes!! and i REALLY hope GH's continues to write them in that positive light. OBVIOUSLY i do have more "potential" angst in mind for them, but that is for another day because this part is already so so very long!!!

one last thing before i end this section:

its fucking canon

thats all i have to say on the matter.

FINAL THOUGHTS

EMOTIA is a fantastic series with a lot of potential, its not everyones cup of tea--being the run of the mill children's animated series, but GOD i love the characters so so SOOOO MUCH! it has so much charm visually and im so excited to see where this cute series is headed and i will continue to support it for the forseeable future!!!!

if you've ACTUALLY read all of this incoherent nonsense, i'd like to thank you for your time :D! this wasnt really written with a proper outline or anything of the sort, and is more so me word dumping about something i like. this took rougly 2 days and many an hour finishing. and honestly? this is just scratching the SURFACE on my thoughts on emotia, so i'll probably make seperate posts about individual characters soon <3 siiigh. why did it have to be made by a brainrot channel

see you!!