Web Animation / CRiTORA

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CRiTORA follows an assembled cast of virtual creatures called CRiTORA, residing in a peaceful utopia city of CRiTOPiA, and they often encounter and fight the ViRUSES led by Queen Creatophage^note originally known as Queen ViRUS in the pilot season, who wants her ViRUS army to infect the entirety of CRiTOPiA to heed her demands.

Adapted from a Webcomic inspired by Mixels in 2016, the series has continued to develop over several years, with the pilot season spanning 6 episodes debuting on July 29, 2020, on YouTube, with the first season spanning 6 more episodes later debuting on August 6, 2021. These were declared non-canon in Spring 2024, while the second season, which had premiered on September 20, 2023, became the main series.

A side story novel called CRiTORA: Abnormal (co-written by DDB and LastyGhost) focuses on a group of CRiOTRA who wind up in the unstable Abnormal District and embark on a quest to escape. The first chapter was released on April 9, 2023 and the last was released on November 10 that same year. An animated adaptation of the story is currently in production and premiered on March 11, 2024.

The current series can be watched here, while the early seasons can be watched here and here. The novel version of Abnormal can be read here or here while the animated adaptation can be watched here.

CRiTORA provides the following:

• Angry, Angry Hippos: Me Him is a hippopotamus CRiTORA and, being a member of the CRiViRUS Gang, serves as an antagonist.
• Animal-Vehicle Hybrid: A few of these pop up- Brent Tanky is a tank combined with an army ant, while Lifty Crancrab is a crab mixed with an (despite his name suggesting a crane) excavator.
• Animate Inanimate Object: A decent amount of CRiTORA are based on various objects- notable ones include Coneboy Golliday (traffic cone; one of the main protagonists), Bobbie Tubevision (old-style television), Turbo Synthboard (synthesizer keyboard), and Dizzy Spiralaxy (satellite), Tito Jackshammer (jackhammer), and Diesel Magnishock (gas pump).
• Anthropomorphic Food: Plenty of CRiTORA look like this, most of them from the Food District. Caroline Cakepod, for example, looks like a whale-themed cake.
• Author Avatar: A few CRiTORA serve as self-inserts of sorts for some of the crew members. These include Gary Doodlett, Cawfee Jinks and Charr Bein (who represent Garrett Eulett, CoffeeJinx and Charbeanss respectively).
• The Baby of the Bunch: Eggy, Yolky, Ribbon and Pop & Pip Singolon seem to be the youngest CRiTORA, with all of them being four years old. Justified for Eggy and Yolky, as they were the first two CRiTORA that OS had ever created.
• Badass Adorable: Some of the GUARDiANS, such as Roxey Robowoof, have sweet-looking designs, and they were able to put an end to the Infestation Invasion.
• Bad Boss: Queen Creatophage, who berates her ViRUSES on a regular basis.
• Be the Ball: Spottie has the ability to roll up into a ball and bounce around.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Eggy is normally outgoing, but he will go absolutely berserk around ViRUSES, and will not stop until they are down.
• Big Bad: Queen Creatophage.
  • Chapter 8 of CRiTORA: Abnormal reveals VS, the twin sister and evil counterpart of OS, as well as the creator of the Abnormal District.
• Big Good: OS, the creator of the CRiTORA.
• Bilingual Bonus: Gardien Luniere's name is derived from French, and it roughly translates to "moon guardian", which is about as on-the-nose as you can get for the GUARDiAN of the Moon district.
• Boxing Battler: Coneboy and Nuzzie both have the ability to turn their hands into boxing gloves for use in combat.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": Practically all of the ViRUS-associated major characters (such as the CRiViRUS Gang) have accessories bearing a "V" insignia.
  • Several other CRiTORA have accessories with letters on them as well. To name a few, Spottie Leonard and Dashie Speedenburg each have their respective first initials on their collar tags, Cuckoo Clocsteam has a "C" attached to their head by a spring, and Amelia Resco has an "M" on her belt (which stands for "Meetup", as she lives in the Meetup District). As a rule of thumb, if a CRiTORA who isn't affiliated with the ViRUSES fits this trope and gets infected by a ViRUS, expect whatever letter they have on their accessories to turn into a "V".
• Cain and Abel: OS' Evil Counterpart and nemesis VS is also their twin sister.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Every single one of the CRiTORA has its own form of body and design.
• The Chase: A highlighter in "Beware the ViRUSES!," "Sky-Flying Frenzy," and the scrapped second part of "Meetup Mayhem."
• Cloudcuckoolander: A few CRiTORA fit this category, particularly Rizzo "Nonsense" Wackoland and Sneakers Downsideup.
• Computer Virus: The ViRUSES are essentially this, since the CRiTORA universe takes place in a digital world that's in a super computer.
• Content Warnings: Occasionally used in episodes with mild language and flashing lights.
• Creature of Habit: Kepler Solarowl doesn't like to diverge from their routine and find anything unfamiliar rather daunting. In Abnormal, becoming more open to deviating from the norm is a big part of Kepler's Character Development.
• Cute Little Fangs: Some of the CRiTORA have pointy teeth that make them more endearing.
• Darker and Edgier: CRiTORA: Abnormal has a darker tone compared to the main series. This is especially true for the now-scrapped initial version, which involved a permanent V-CRiTORA (who would later be known as V-Yolky) slashing through and deleting anything (and anyone) in its path. However, this idea was ultimately abandoned for being too dark. While the rebooted version is Lighter and Softer compared to that, it's still noticeably darker than the main series, with the usual wacky hijinks largely absent in favor of a higher-stakes narrative with a greater emphasis on character drama.
• Drives Like Crazy: Avery tends to go a little too fast when piloting airships, as seen in "Airship Joyride" and the novelization.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Basically ANYTHING before the current season 1 or the current draft of Abnormal is this. If we tried to list it all, we'd be here for a while, so let's just say that the current iteration of the show is almost completely different from the previous ones.
• Ear Notch: A few animal CRiTORA have notches in their ears. One notable example is Spottie Leonard, who got hers when she crashed into a vase while still in her capsule.
• Eldritch Location: The Abnormal District, created by VS.
• Elemental Nation: Each of the fourteen districts of CRiTOPiA have motifs that invoke their specific elements/themes.
• Elemental Powers: The Serververse has an element system that consists of eighteen elements, each with their own strengths and weaknesses against other elements. Every entity in the Serververse is assigned one or two of these elements, and CRiTOPiA is no different. These elements include Normal, Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Nature, Metal, Thunder, Ice, Sound, Light, Dark, Poison, Undead, Brawn, Insect, Magic and Unknown.
• Enfant Terrible: Ne & Ko Felipom, who are stated to be the youngest villain CRiTORA, both being only six years old.
• Ensemble Cast: While the show does have a main cast, it lacks a singular main character, with various CRiTORA getting their time as focus depending on the episodes. However, the ViRUSES and the CRiViRUS Gang are constantly cemented as antagonists.
• Expy: Nicky Theodore, being a sneaker-clad rodent with Super-Speed, is one for Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Offistar Murphy is basically just RoboCop with a police uniform.
  • The lesser ViRUSES ape the Nixels, being obnoxious little troublemakers with limited vocabularies who are easily dealt with alone but very dangerous in great numbers.
• Fate Worse than Death: Chapter 9 of CRiTORA: Abnormal reveals that being a V-CRiTORA is one. They only act vicious if there are other CRiTORA around to infect. If there aren't, they'll come back to their senses. This implies that all V-CRiTORA are aware of their condition on some level, but unless they find the means to cure themselves, they're out of luck. Also, CRiTORA can't die under normal circumstances, not even while infected, which pushes this into And I Must Scream territory.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Bitz twins— Bunsen's the foolish one, Nuzzie's the responsible one.
• Forced into Evil: As the bonus chapter of Abnormal reveals, Queen Creatophage was essentially strong-armed by VS into aiding her in her plan to destroy CRiTOPiA.
• Firehouse Dalmatian: Parodied with Daniel Hydrain, who’s a dalmatian in a permanent fireman uniform with built-in hoses.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Coneboy Golliday and Erniejoe Freckler have that trope.
• Funny Animal: Most CRiTORA are basically either anthropomorphic or bipedal animals.
• Giant Food: A common sight in the Food District, natch.
• Harmless Freezing: In "Imagination Skiing", Dashie Speedenburg bumps into Diana Guarda, who angrily freezes her solid. The next time we see Dashie, she's thawed out and totally fine.
• Hope Spot: The ViRUSES invading the Bitz twins' house in "An Update is Available!" get one such moment. When they arrived, they tried to attack Bunsen while he was in the midst of an update, but he didn't even react no matter what they threw at him. When Bunsen finishes updating and is left vulnerable, the invaders think luck is finally on their side... and then everyone in the room finds out that the update gave Bunsen the ability to fly. The ViRUSES have just enough time to regret their choices before Bunsen zaps them to kingdom come.
• I Am Not Weasel: A running gag for Jubee McCarnive. Whenever someone first meets her, they mistake her for a unicorn because she wears a party hat that makes her look like one. This annoys Jubee, who insists that she is not a unicorn. This also applies to Saturday Tanglewood, as they have to constantly correct other CRiTORA about their bird not being a LiFEFORM. They are not as aggressive as Jubee, but they still get irritated.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: Spottie can literally imagine things into existence.
• Instrumental Theme Tune: The opening and ending themes.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Eggy and Yolky only speak in high-pitched squeaks, but everyone else understands them just fine. The same applies to Cloud (who only whistles), Stella Twirlwindy (who speaks with cartoon sound effects), and BONUS (who uses Pokémon Speak).
  • Contradicted in Meetup Mayhem (Part 1), in which Eggy's panicked worry about an encounter with a ViRUS isn't grasped upon Coneboy because he could not understand his squeaks... or anything. So much so, that Eggy looks over his script and further demonstrates to Coneboy what he just said with a bush and some props before running away.^note This might have just been a panic-induced failure to enunciate on Eggy's part— and besides, this episode isn't canon anymore, so it doesn't count either way.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After the Infestation Invasion was resolved, OS erased every CRiTORA's memories of the event. The memory wipe unfortunately failed on seven CRiTORA with particularly rough lives, who went on to form the CRiViRUS Gang.
• Leeroy Jenkins: A running gag for Isaac X-Beetle, until his Character Development. The Mighty trio carefully try to lay out their strategy, but when they look to Isaac, they discover he has already zipped off, preferring to charge full-tilt into the fray and immediately toward their objective.
• Limited Animation: Zig-Zagged. In the pilot season. Starting with the non-canon first season, the animation becomes much more fluid. It switched back to a more limited style starting with the third episode of the main series— according to Word of God, this was done to make animating for the show easier and less stressful. After the third short, the main series switched back to smoother animation. CRiTORA: Abnormal followed suit starting with Episode 7.
• Living Program: While all of the CRiTORA are supposed to be this, only a few of them look the part- such as Dundun Qwerty (based on error messages), his sister Poppy (based on dialog boxes), Quick Autocode (based on a QR code) and Derek Stingler (essentially, a jellyfish with cursor tentacles).
• Living Toys: Most if not all CRiTORA from the Toy District fit this trope.
• Mad Eye: An uncommon design quirk for some of the characters. It's a lot more common for ViRUSES and V-CRiTORA.
• The Man Behind the Man: As revealed in Abnormal, VS fills this role for Queen Creatophage.
• Mega-Microbes: Queen Bianca Creatophage, leader of the ViRUSES looks, rather fittingly, like a giant bacteriophage.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In Piñata Panic, V-Jubee, after seeing the damage she did to the garden, feels nothing but remorse and sadly stops fighting. This is one of the few times a V-CRiTORA seems to snap out of it without being cured.
• Near-Villain Victory: The Infestation Invasion, in which the ViRUSES managed to infect every CRiTORA in CRiTOPiA. If OS hadn't created the GUARDiANS, it would have been game over right then and there.
• NO INDOOR VOICE: Designless often shouts at others to let them know he is there because he lacks a proper design.
• Not So Invincible After All: It's implied that VS' scheme in Abnormal is meant to invoke this. She knows that CRiTORA can't die by normal means, so she drops nineteen randomly-selected CRiTORA into the Abnormal District specifically so they can fall into oblivion with it, proving to OS that his creations aren't as unkillable as he thinks. Since her prisoners escape, it doesn't work, but the idea's still there.
• Once an Episode: Throughout the first season: A [no name] sighting^note sans the first part of Meetup Mayhem and a V-CRiTORA.
• Physical, Mystical, Technological: The main trio is this: Coneboy Golliday (physical), Spottie Leonard (mystical), and Avery Darling (technological).
• Pokémon Speak: The ViRUSES only say the last part of their names.
  • BONUS, the BONUS CRiTORA, only says his name.
• Power Incontinence: Supplemental material reveals Spottie suffers from this with her Imagination-Based Superpower. For example, in one official comic strip, she offhandedly mentions that she hates waking up to the alarm clocks she keeps dreaming up.
• Queer Colors: Some CRiTORA are designed after pride flags. For example, Script McSoft, who is themed after the aroace pride flag.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The CRiViRUS Gang, a group of CRiTORA aligned with the ViRUSES.
• Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: In Chapter 10 of Abnormal, the destruction of the Abnormal District gives Kepler and Galileo the opportunity to reconcile and resolve their rivalry.
• Running Gag: Harold the Blue Cactus is a frequent prop throughout the show.
• Sailor Earth: Many of its fans have created their own CRiTORA based on different themes.
• Sapient Tank: Brent Tanky; oddly, his gun barrel is also his mouth.
• Sentient Vehicle: There are a fair few vehicle CRiTORA, ranging from cars (Honk Beepenbop) to boats (Robin Bobbinboat), to weirder things like hot air balloons (Varin Bloon).
• Shout-Out:
  • At one point, in "Error 404", scribbles of Cookie Run characters can be seen on the walls.
  • A few of Coneboy's accessories in "The Trash Can" reference Littlest Pet Shop, Angry Birds, Peanuts and Wonder Pets!.
  • A few CRiTORA are shout-outs by design. For example, Isaac X-Beetle, Miyamoto Blockinjump, and Paratchet Stataplay each reference one of the "Big Three" of gaming companies (Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony respectively).
  • In "Airship Joyride", Buttons Chopchop briefly flips upside down while the text "Dinnerbone" appears above her, referencing a certain Easter Egg from Minecraft.
  • “Piñata Panic” has the unexpected appearance of the Zeeky H. Bomb, Stylistic Suck and all.
• Sizable Snowflakes: One CRiTORA is a giant snowflake named Diana Guarda.
• Spin-Off: Of the creator's old Mixels OCs and a little-known webcomic published on Smack Jeeves called Avey.
• Stock Scream: "Beware the ViRUSES!" has Big G scream like a goat when he got touched by an infected Eggy.
  • The Wilhelm scream is uttered on multiple occasions, such as:
    • By Grinny Hackel in "How CRiTORA are Created", when Avery plows through a branch he's sitting on.
    • By Coneboy in "Statue Contest", when he's flung backwards while trying to wield a hammer that's too heavy for him.
    • By Lumpty Bumpty in "Airship Joyride", when Avery's airship knocks him off the wall he's seated on.
• Sugar Apocalypse: Played for Drama with the Infestation Invasion, an event in which CRiTOPiA was swarmed and overrun by the ViRUSES.
• Sugar Bowl: The bright, colorful setting of CRiTOPiA the series takes place in.
• Super Team: The CRiTORA Squad is a team of CRiTORA who fight ViRUSES and V-CRiTORA.
  • There's also the GUARDiANS, a group of fourteen especially powerful CRiTORA (one for each district of CRiTOPiA) who OS created as a last-ditch effort to stop the Infestation Invasion.
• Support Party Member: Big G, in spite of his herculean strength, is a pacifist who avoids fighting. However, he has the ability to magically enhance the abilities of other CRiTORA.
• Thick-Line Animation: Starting with "Superstore Sweep".
  • Starting in Season 2, the outlines of the characters become even thicker and more stylized.
• Thinking Up Portals: In "Imagination Skiing", Spottie displays the ability to generate portals by shooting them from her mouth. She can't control where they lead, though.
• Toothy Bird: The bird CRiTORA are shown to have visible teeth.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Spottie really likes ice cream, and Moonbeam "especially" adores cookies.
• Trapped in Villainy: In the bonus chapter of CRiTORA: Abnormal, it's revealed that this is Queen Creatophage's situation. She ended up in the Abnormal District, and then ran into VS, with whom she made a deal to save her own life. That deal just happened to entail aiding VS in her quest to destroy CRiTOPiA.
• Trash the Set: In CRiTORA: Abnormal, the titular Abnormal District, where most of the main plot takes place, is destroyed during the climax.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Infestation Invasion began while Eggy and Yolky were trying to play a game of catch. Eggy threw the ball a little too far and Yolky ran off to get it... unaware that a ViRUS was hidden in the bush it had landed next to. Needless to say, she subsequently became the invasion's first victim.
• Victim of the Week: After the pilot season. While CRiTOPiA is peaceful, it can be chaotic when an unsuspecting CRiTORA gets infected by a ViRUS.
• The Virus: A ViRUS infection mutates a CRiTORA into a V-CRiTORA, corrupting their appearance and causing them to attack and infect other CRiTORA on sight.
• Wham Episode: The bonus chapter of CRiTORA: Abnormal. It serves as Queen Creatophage's Origins Episode, in which it's revealed that not only is she a CRiTORA, but she was Good All Along and is only antagonistic because she was Forced into Evil by VS.
• Would Hurt a Child: The ViRUSES are not above infecting any CRiTORA that are children. Most especially evident with the start of the Infestation Invasion, in which the first two CRiTORA to get infected were Yolky and Eggy, both of them only four years old.
• You Dirty Rat!: The V-RT ViRUS is based on a rat and, like all ViRUSES, is antagonistic.
• Zerg Rush: What the attack strategy of the ViRUSES amounted to during the Infestation Invasion. It proved to be distressingly effective.