YMMV / Ruby Gloom

• Adaptation Displacement: Most people aren't aware that Ruby Gloom and her friends were originally a line of merchandise and a few books and illustrations before they became a cartoon series. Even then, those who do know that tend to think of the animated show first.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Were the gang's silence in reaction to Misery's panic at the end of "Once in a Blue Luna" Stunned Silence over the fact that Misery claims she saw the monster and realizing it could exist? Or did they not believe her?
• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • New Zealanders don't seem to be too fond of Scaredy Bat because of equal parts his cowardice and his voice.
  • The episode "Ubergloom", while already not too well-liked internationally, was loathed by Germans, mostly because the Jerkass twins are basically a walking embodiment of German stereotypes.
• Awesome Music: Frank and Len are a good source of this - while two of the songs listed below are performed by someone else, they were still the ones who wrote at least one of these songs in-universe.
  • Stop it, stop it, stop it riii-ght now!
  • Train Wreck. What started out as a small song from episode 8 seemed to have gained quite a bit of popularity - to the point where one of the opening sketches for an episode was an entire music video with an extended version of the song.
  • There You Are.
  • Whilst.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Iris. Some find her hyperactive antics amusing and others just find them annoying. It is true that Iris' antics have caused harm before, and her reading of Ruby's diary in the first episode is something that, indirectly, led Misery to cry.
  • Boo Boo for much the same reason in regards to his scaring/pranking Scaredy Bat.
• Cult Classic: While Ruby Gloom is a relatively obscure series outside of Canada due to its short airtime and lack of distribution in the United States, the series has garnered a cult following among many in its native Canada and even outside of it for its Perky Goth aesthetic, its cute characters, its charming writing, and for just generally being a treasure trove of Sweet Dreams Fuel.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Morose. One episode was all it took for her to become popular. Perhaps her voice might have helped?
  • Heck, Misery's cousins in general are quite popular, but special mention, aside from Morose, goes out to Malady and Malaise - their popularity was probably helped by not only having had appeared in an earlier "Misery family" episode, but also for actually being rather kind to others compared to, say, Mildew or Migraine. Makes Misery's description of them being "cold" all the more ironic, huh?
• Genius Bonus:
  • In "Ruby Cubed" Poe rewrites Romeo and Juliet, making it his own. Romeo and Juliet is itself a rip-off of The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke.
  • In the ending skit of "Tooth or Dare", Misery struggles to stay awake through Poe's poetry. When he asks her opinion, she "compliments" him by saying it's "better than nine on valerian root." Valerian is an herb for which root extract is sold to promote sleep.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • For obvious reasons, Ruby Gloom is very popular in Japan. The show is also very popular in parts of Europe, especially Germany, and actually had a bit of a cult following in Russia.
  • Iris is also the most popular character in Japan despite being a Base-Breaking Character in other countries. Meanwhile, in Russia, the titular character seemed to have been much more popular than both Iris and Misery (Although that could be attributed to Ruby getting the only half-decent VA in the Russian dub...)
• Girl-Show Ghetto: Averted. The show had more focus on the female characters than the male characters, but it still managed to garner a decent male fanbase.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The fact that the main character is named Ruby, who is very close to the Cyclops in the main cast. If you watched Steven Universe, shipping Ruby and Iris makes a lot of sense. Extra hilarious for Ruby being the calm one while Iris is energetic, when in Steven Universe's Ruby and Sapphire, the opposite is true.
• Moe: Accounts for the show's popularity in Japan. It also helps that Ruby herself is dubbed in Japanese by none other than Rie Kugimiya. Moe ensues indeed.
• My Real Daddy: Most of the characters were created by illustrator Martin Hsu. And while his designs were excellent, it was the writers working for Nelvana who turned Gloomsville's residents into well-defined, fleshed-out characters. This is particularly true in the case of resident Ensemble Dark Horse Misery, whose story is defined more in-show but barely appears in any of Martin Hsu's work.
• Retroactive Recognition: In the Japanese dub, Scaredy Bat was one of Yūki Kaji's earlier roles before his Star-Making Role as Eren Yeager.
• Nightmare Retardant: Done deliberately with Boo Boo, he tries to scare people but constantly fails because he's too cute. The only one he can scare is Scaredy Bat (who's scared of everything anyway).
• Periphery Demographic: The show was designed for children and pre-teens to tie in with its stationary line. In spite of this, it receives a great deal of attention from teenage to young adult viewers and anime fans due to the gothic art style, cute characters, and sharp writing.
• Ugly Cute: Iris, who could say no to that puppy-dog eye?
  • And her worm, Squig, her venus flytrap Venus and Frank and Len, and Skullboy...
  • Misery, she's bag-eyed, pockmarked, tear-stained... and adorable.
• Wangst: Parodied with Morose.
  "Why? WHY?!"
• The Woobie:
  • Ruby, whenever she's not her usual cheery self ("Once in a Blue Luna", "Hair(less)"). She was also more consistently this in the original stationery line.
  • Misery. She's always so depressed all the time, sometimes you just wanna give her a hug.
  • Scaredy Bat is pretty sympathetic due to his shyness, how hapless he is, and how his cuteness.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In the episode "Tooth or Dare" the characters spend a portion of the first act wondering what the Tooth Fairy does with the teeth she collects, but when a tooth fairy arrives and stays over in their house they never ask her what they do with the teeth. It could have been funny if Misery was right about the tooth necklaces.
  • In a couple of episodes, it's implied that the manor is a boarding house of some sort. This could've been a good Character of the Week formula to spice up the cast, which is somewhat limited and rarely leaves the manor.
  • In "Ubergloom" Gunter and Uta are sent to Gloom Manor by their stepmother, presumably in the hopes that Ruby and friends will eat them. This is never brought up again.
  • Also in "Ubergloom", most of the episode it seems like it's going to lead to an aseop about cross-cultural understanding and not judging a book by its cover. However, neither do Ruby or her friends realize that they unintentionally frighten Gunther and Ute, nor do the twins ever learn to look past their fear, making the whole episode a rather pointless string of random misunderstandings. In the end Gunther and Ute flee Gloomsville and the main characters just look on in perplexion with nothing learned and nothing gained.
  • Gloomsville or its residents are hardly ever shown, and even then we only get brief glances of either, despite having limitless potential as a Halloween-themed City of Adventure.
  • In "Yam Ween", Scaredy Bat and Boo Boo are present for the Cold Open, but absent for the rest of the story.

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