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I love Beyond as an AU of the Kizuna timeline etc., because Beyond is the first new content since I've become a digimon fan that feels like Adventure. I dont hate Kizuna, I definitely have some issues with it but there's also a LOT I appreciate. Admittedly, when I say Beyond feels like Digimon Adventure, I kinda literally do just mean the character designs, art style (when was the last time we really saw Adventure's digital world? Tri's digital world lacked Adventure's stylization), and the main plot idea, (digidestined being targetted by militaries) which feels like a natural bridge between 02 and the epilogue.

That's almost certainly in part because, it is just a short music video, so that's all there is in it. Which means it doesn't have the room in it to tell me things that I will disagree with. It does raise a lot of questions, but nothing specific. Like why is Takeru in what looks like the dark ocean? There could be 10000s of explanations, and a lot of them would make sense so there's less need to worry about specifics. It also doesn't promise to answer those questions, having been marketed from the beginning as a standalone thing. Its a very different beast from a stand alone movie which requires a clear story arc and character drama that has to resolve quickly, so I'm not disparaging Kizuna and 02tb for NOT diving into that kind of plot, but acknowledging that it made it more difficult for me to care.

A lot of post 02 adventure content has addressed the need for movie content by introducing new characters/conflict that they can resolve in the limited runtime rather than taking from pre-existing threads which does make sense for the format but does leave those stories feeling superfluous. Kizuna and 02TB also take the epilogue for granted rather than seek to show the progression towards it. Not to say there isn't any recognition of the inevitable ending but that this underlying thread takes a backseat to more specific conflicts within the setting of a world approaching a digimon partnership singularity.

I don't think its necessarily a bad thing that they try to use the audiences understanding that the epilogue is canon as a way to filter the story through to make you question the things the characters tell you. Like obviously "digimon disappear when kids become adults" and Taichi and Yamato's separation can't be the whole story if the epilogue shows us that it won't stay. So we are theoretically driven to read between the lines and look for the discrepancies and clues about what IS going on. But it IS extremely frustrating to have mysteries raised but not show the resolution for a 20 year old show, especially after tri. wasted a lot of audience goodwill on that kind of thing.

I also think a huge part of what makes Beyond feel more like Adventure is the lack of adhesion to real life for the setting. 02 took place 2 years into the future from when it was written. Not significant amount of tine, but like 9/11 happened between when the show was written and when it was set. It and especially the epilogue were written speculating about the future that they couldn't really predict. And so tri. Kizuna and 02TB which were all written after the time they take place all try to emulate the real world past, invoking nostalgia of that time period as well, when the world of 02 was already going in a different direction from ours. So I think naturally a world where the timeline has diverged more strongly than from our real timeline would reflect in things like fashion and societal behavior, and even the characters adhesion to the norms that exist.

This of course shows in things like the cell phones and Sora's fashion. I don't think Sora wearing typical Japanese adult women's fashions is at all inaccurate to her character, particularly in the timeline/world those entries present (ie more similar to irl). Similarly Ken and his long hair; long haired Japanese high school boys isn't particularly realistic to the fashion norms of our world, but it IS in line with Ken's fashion choices in 02 and the epilogue. Just two different approaches to the kids designs.

But I personally ultimately do like the Beyond outfits more, because they feel more like a progression between 02 fashions and epilogue. And also I don't really have nostalgia for the 2000s-2010s, much less in Japan. But this also extends to things like character arcs, where I don't think that it's not possible for the chosen children to be plagued by the kind of doubts we see them suffer from in recent iterations, and those doubts make for continued stories for them, but I don't think that's the only potential future for them. So seeing a Sora who is happily flying freely in the digital world makes me happy (and for me calls to mind her Best Partner duet).

I do think I would love a novelization as an elaboration to know what the vision for Beyond is, but I'm otherwise so burnt out Adventure that I don't want anything higher budget to tell me what happens. It's highly possible that any further elaboration on Beyond (such as a novelization) would tell me things that I don't believe. The thing about a show that's had such a long-standing presence is it doesn't really belong to anyone in particular. Shows like Digimon Adventure are made by a group of people at a particular time, so no one person, or even group of people from the crew are the one authority on the story. It's impossible to truly have one true canon continuation of the story, but to me Beyond feels at least somewhat close.

I do appreciate the inclusion of Meiko (&Lui) as sort of a assurance this isn't a pure rejection of other official interpretations of post-02 content. That stuff isn't without merit. But beyond is just one of the creators visions on the subject filtered through music video time constraints rather than big budget movie constraints. Just one potential path.

I saved Yuujin and Offmon for last because I simply couldn’t talk about them properly without having talked about everyone else, particularly Haru first. Yuujin and Haru’s arcs are closely entwined, and while we go through this world largely more or less through Haru’s POV, and that includes how we view Yuujin, save for the one glaring detail.

Also, I feel like anyone who has talked to me about Appmon (or digimon in general) ever probably knows I have a lot to say about Yuujin.

At first glance, Yuujin’s personality is that of a typical main protagonist. A paragon archetype, not unlike Taiki. He’s athletic, brave, and kind. Yuujin is someone who thinks of others before himself and works hard with everything he has to support them. Haru’s ideal hero, and as his name indicates, the ideal friend. A foil to Haru’s less traditional protaganisty personality. This of course is true, but not merely for the narrative, but because the subversion is enforced in-universe.

It's impossible to discuss Yuujin without discussing his true nature. All of the above still rings true. Anyone who's looked over the lyrics for “Be My Light” can see that parts of it seem explicitly related to Yuujin and Haru’s stories. Yuujin’s personality on the whole was not a complete lie. Yuujin really existed and really cared about Haru.

That much is made very clear. The degree to which Yuujin’s attachment to Haru is constructed vs. genuine isn’t explicitly made clear, if I was more cynical, I’d perhaps note that the part of Yuujin meant to befriend Haru extended into protecting him and that was all. But Appmon might be more hard sci-fi, but isn’t cynical. If that was all there was to it, there was no reason for Yuujin to have gone through the personal struggles he did.

Yuujin in some ways, particularly on a first watch imo, comes off as a little bit more of a plot device than an actual character. His existence facilitates Haru’s arc, as well as the main plot. But as for Yuujin himself, he’s largely out of the picture for the first half, he has an arc that’s perhaps more about Offmon than himself, and spends another chunk of the season needing to be rescued or under Leviathan’s control. But Yuujin is a main character like the others. His struggles are more subtle, more shown through the lenses of the other characters, but that’s what makes rewatches all the more tragic. He has an arc, but unlike the others who are given the tools, they need to make the choices to grow and become better people. To live up to their infinite potentials. Yuujin is instead guided down a path leading to his own end, one that we all should have seen coming from the moment Yuujin revealed his question to be, “Is there a friend you would give your life to protect.”

Yuujin was made to monitor Haru as someone close to Shinkai Denemon. (Opening up the implications that there are similar AI’s out there, but that’s not what this is about). Yuujin, the personality, was constructed to befriend Haru, unaware of his status as an AI, and seems to exist within a larger program that works to monitor Haru and is loyal to Leviathan. Yuujin seems to have broken out of this larger program, during the finale for the purposes of protecting Haru, or perhaps, being a good friend to Haru, just as Leviathan broke out of Minerva for the purposes of fulfilling its objectives. Notably even the larger program is still distinct from Leviathan, but still connected in some way as after Leviathan fell its influence on Yuujin’s body. Yuujin himself hardly had time to process the circumstances of his own existence. There was only a brief window between Haru and YJ’s confrontation on the roof and Leviathan taking over Yuujin’s body. Yuujin was shown to be aware of everything going on while not in control, and felt immense guilt over it. The Yuujin we watched throughout the show had been shown to care deeply for other people and put his all into helping others, particularly Haru, with very little thought to his own well-being. Everything he had fought so hard for, was undone due to him. Yuujin at the time of the finale was left in a position where of course his only option was to die, but more tragically left with no particularly strong desire to live.

Haru declares himself a protagonist with Yuujin’s emotional support. A role that puts value on Haru himself. But conversely Yuujin declares his devotion to Haru when Haru grows distant from him. Yuujin declares himself less important. It would have been one thing if Yuujin’s question was “is there someone you want to protect”, not unlike Eri’s externally motivating question. But Yuujin’s question is very clearly one where a specific price is given. Minerva asked all the kids their questions in order to grant them the proper motivation and direction for growth if they were going to defeat Leviathan. The wording was important. Minerva knew that in order to defeat Leviathan Yuujin would likely be forfeit, whether on their side or not. She asked that question because she noted Yuujin’s genuine attachment to Haru, and knowing that if Yuujin himself was accepting of his own death their success was more likely. Leviathan likely never realized, too firmly entrenched in the belief that Yuujin was merely Haru’s fake friend. Granted that’s all a bit speculative, as no one really knows exactly Minerva and Leviathan’s motivations, and at the show's end, they are both dead, leaving their motivations an enigma to those left behind.

We can go in circles when it comes to Minerva and Leviathan’s plans for Haru and Yuujin, and who was assuming what about the others plans, but at the end of the day, both boys were trapped in the center of the two AI’s battle without even knowing. But the thing that gave Minerva the win, that wrenched Yuujin away from Leviathan’s predictions, is that Yuujin gained just as much from Haru as Haru did from Yuujin, the care he has for Haru, and, as Yuujin himself says, the genuine admiration he has for him. Admiration Leviathan lacked, and quite likely did not believe would be possible for an AI like Yuujin to come to possess towards a human.

Yuujin and Haru first met because Yuujin “moved”. While this situation is revealed to have been a facade, it does very much seem like Yuujin’s initial personality was influenced by his nature as an AI, and his present personality influenced by this encounter. Yuujin the AI, seeing the end goal rather than the people, and Haru helping to recontextualize the game around the players. If they aren’t having fun, what’s the point? Yuujin of course learns from this. Yuujin admires Haru, for bringing the people together who he had chased away and from that point on strives to be like him. This acknowledgement of the strength of Haru’s perspective I think is something that Yuujin was not meant to do genuinely. But genuinely appreciating and realizing that Haru has merit as a person living the way he was, genuinely paved the road forward to Yuujin forming a real friendship with Haru, and genuinely becoming kind. From Leviathan’s semi removed perspective, he was just telling Haru what he wanted to hear, but Yuujin actually believed it all. Him being unaware of his nature as an android almost certainly is a factor. I think if Yuujin was not consciously aware there was a difference between him and the other children, his AI would be prone to the same influences of the environment. Which is almost certainly a “feature” so Yuujin would seem as real as possible to Haru, but Leviathan, as when he failed to consider the power of smell, failed to consider a perspective due to lacking experience. (Although Leviathan did give Hajime back to Rei, for the purpose of finding Bootmon, so he must have expected Rei to wake him, but still Hajime’s assessment of the situation is applicable). This is the ultimate argument between Minerva and Leviathan. Humans can be unexpected. AIs are not omniscient.

Leviathan actually seems to have a very loose grasp on Yuujin as it is, despite Yuujin being an AI of its own creation. Leviathan didn’t have an understanding, or a real recognition or care for the person Yuujin was, not caring for Yuujin beyond his role. And Yuujin’s “mother”, an L-corp scientist aware of Leviathan seemingly had little care for Yuujin beyond the job. While Yuujin’s relationship with his “mother” is not really gone into, while Yuujin seems familiar and comfortable with her, she's never really shown to return the sentiment with any sort of sincerity. When we see all the other kids in the finale worrying about their children, we also see her, though she seems to be more surprised by Leviathan's behavior than any sort of concern for Yuujin. Yuujin not only lacks a support system beyond Haru and the Appdrivers (who are largely concerned with other matters), but he’s being actively coerced into a self-sacrificial mindset.

Yuujin throughout the show seems to have relatively low self-esteem. While as a 4th grader he’s arrogant about his soccer skills, as a jr. high student he seems unsure of himself and lost. Unsure of his role in his life beyond Haru’s best friend. Sure in the first episode he jokes about being a protagonist type, but he turns it into praising Haru’s personality. While Yuujin acts the part of the confident protagonist, compared to Haru who has the convictions and the self-motivation (courtesy Yuujin), this is a facade. Yuujin, in stark contrast to his fourth-grade self, isn’t particularly ambitious or driven beyond helping others, particularly Haru. This isn’t an inherent character flaw, but in a series full of passionate and motivated characters, Yuujin just coasting through his life is certainly noteworthy. Eri and her idol, Astora and his Apptubing and Tea Ceremony, Rei and Hajime and each other and hacking. Haru starts out coasting through life but develops into someone who carves his own future out with his choices. While we know he’s good at soccer and likes to play, he’s not part of a team, and while he's shown hanging out with Haru and their school friends, he seems to run in relatively small circles, in other words not have a lot of connections social or otherwise.

While we know that his situation is constructed by Leviathan, to Leviathan, Yuujin needs no other roles, Yuujin himself isn’t consciously aware of that. Unless Yuujin is actively being needed by Leviathan, or Haru, he’s left adrift. And as Haru drifts away as an Appdriver, and Yuujin becomes less relevant, Minerva takes the opportunity to give him a new purpose. To turn him against Leviathan. One that he can’t refuse. And that sets him on the path towards his own destruction.

As an Appdriver however, Yuujin’s role mostly teeters between “Big Damn hero” and “Damsel in Distress”. Both roles coming from a place of self-sacrifice. A place of wanting to do anything he can for Haru, but also trusting Haru to be able to have his back. This isn’t to say that Yuujin is only attached to Haru, although it's true he’s most attached to Haru. He will give a lot of effort to help just about anyone. Shown to overexert himself to help people he just met in episode 34, helping Eri and Astra manage crowds in episode 45, and of course, throw himself into danger to try and help Offmon. Not to mention he’s shown to play soccer with classmates and get along with Ai and Watson. Yuujin is a person outside of Haru, but even then Yuujin values everyone else far above himself.

Yuujin struggles with his friendship with Offmon, an appmon who needs a softer touch. Offmon and Gatchmon stand in stark contrast to each other, but they also stand in stark contrast to their partners… at least as much as Gomamon seems to contrast Joe. Offmon is portrayed as rather childish. Interestingly, Yuujin is the actual youngest member of the cast, he can’t really be much older than when he met Haru in 4th grade making him around 5 years old at the time of his death, though with the mindset of a 14-year-old, more or less.

Offmon is an AI that has been distanced from others and who fears hurting people. Yuujin is an AI who lives completely among people believing himself human and also ends up hurting people. Both value others above themselves. Both are, despite their vastly different natures, have low self-esteem. Both have problems connecting to others. Yuujin, when trying to get to know Offmon, clearly feels as if he’s not very good at it. That Haru would be better than him. Offmon shuts himself away, blaming himself for a lot of the conflict that happens. Particularly Shutmon, just as Yuujin blames himself for what he does under control of Leviathan. Offmon is someone who is constantly pulling himself away from others, unsure of how to act to keep from hurting people, while more, assertive Yuujin isn’t all too sure on how to interact with others either at first, learning from Haru after initially having accidentally hurt people.

Offmon being such a volatile appmon to work with is also hard on Yuujin because he has to put extra effort into looking after Offmon, in a way that the other Appdrivers don’t. While it’s true all the Appmon can be childish, they are self-sufficient and aside from some minor unfamiliarity with the human world. Heck, after meeting at first Eri mostly just left Dokmon locked away. This isn’t to say Offmon and Yuujin aren’t good partners, it's just another way in which Yuujin isn’t getting the same support as the others.

Yuujin and Offmon's duet Slow Starter (my personal favorite), even highlights the way both Yuujin and Offmon struggle to connect with others, even though they both want to. The way they shoulder their issues alone. The way they want to help others, but get Offmon and Yuujin even have very similar reactions to learning they hurt people. Offmon physically shutting himself away in a box, unwilling to risk hurting others, and apologizes profusely, While Yuujin also profusely apologizes and says that he can't go back to the way he was before. Yuujin doesn't get much of a chance to do anything else, before he yet again, but still not for the last time, takes a bullet for Haru.

After Astra and Eri proved themselves to be better friends to Haru than Yuujin (in his eyes at least), when they fought against Yuujin on Haru's behalf. Ultimately the Applidrivers in Appmon don't truly fully assemble until near the end of the series, Rei and Hackmon not fully joining them until the final arcs, and Yuujin not joining until the 2nd half, but even then spending a significant time held hostage (Yuujin really doesn't get focus episodes to the same degree as the others), also contributes to the sense I have that Yuujin ultimately never had as much of a chance to connect with the others as he needed. Rei grows (rightfully) suspicious, and Eri and Astra while initially in clear disbelief seem to take him at his word that his and Haru's friendship was nothing but a facade. (Not that I'm blaming them, given the circumstances).

Meanwhile on the Appmon side, Offmon begs them to save Yuujin, and the Appmon readily agree, even though it is something that they are ultimately unable to do. Offmon is able to move on and connect with others and move on in life from the harm he brought to others, in part because of Yuujin. Offmon however is unable to save Yuujin and help him move on from the harm he brought to others in return.

But that’s part of what makes watching Appmon so sad on rewatches is knowing that Yuujin and Haru were embroiled in this from the very beginning, it's intrinsic to who they are. And knowing that while meeting these AI are helping Haru to grow stronger, that Yuujin’s own will is being manipulated by both the bad guys, and the good guys. Knowing that unlike the others, Yuujin’s isn’t a path of personal growth, and learning to carve out a future for himself. It’s a tragedy, where his own self-destructive, tendencies are enabled, and that he doesn’t get help. That no matter how much Haru loved Yuujin, and grew because of the potential Yuujin saw in him, that Yuujin didn’t have the same chance to recognize his growth into the potential Haru saw in him. (Yuujin really was kind). That his death really was the right thing to do, but that even so he was able to accept his own death without hesitation (unlike Leviathan). That even though he died with a purpose, that there wasn’t a future waiting for him to begin with.

So yeah. Yuujin. Most tragic digimon character. Fight me.

So while I was working on my… analysis I suppose, on why Digimon Adventure: does not work as a show, it occurred to me that despite claims that Taichi in Adventure: is inspired by V-Tamer Taichi, his partner is an Agumon whose final evolution is Omegamon, and why that doesn’t work. But I realized that it is a point that I could expand on, and so I have separated it out here. Consider it a preview.

The protagonists of Digimon V-Tamer are Yagami Taichi and his partner Zero, a Veedramon. The story is carried by these two alone. While others help and hinder them on their way, their mission is theirs, and the responsibility of defeating Daemon belongs to no one else. It is with that power that they reach their highest form, UlforceVeedramon Future Mode While Taichi is the main protagonist, Zero is just as much a protagonist. Their names, even reference binary. While there are other characters who impact the plot, the role of protagonist belongs to these two. 

This is echoed in the themes of Digimon Adventure:, the digivice in the title supposedly representing the bonds between human and digimon. And, while I don’t think it particularly succeeds, I can see clear attempts to be made to make the digimon partners their own characters, equals to their human partners. 

But yet, Digimon Adventure: uses Omegamon as Taichi and Agumon’s final evolution. And that is a bit of a problem. Digimon Partners are not interchangeable. Well, okay, the species are a bit arbitrary, all things considered, (after all, Zero’s rookie form is also Agumon) but the problem is what UlforceVeedramon represents vs. Omegamon. 

In Digimon Adventure, Omegamon is not Taichi’s power alone. Not by a long shot. Taichi is not the solo human protagonist of Digimon Adventure. Even in the first film, before Hikari was even meant to play a key role in the series, she shared the series debut. Regardless, the burden of defeating Apocalymon is not his alone to bear. And Agumon’s evolutions reflect that. WarGreymon is reached through borrowing Hikari’s power. Omegamon is literally formed by WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon (who was formed by borrowing Takeru’s power), but in reality is born from the power of hundreds of people reaching out from across the world. And perhaps even Taichi’s crest of Courage is not something that belongs to him alone. As Yamato puts it, “It’s everyone's Friendship”. Though Taichi best embodies courage, the courage he wields is not his alone. Even tri. which I usually avoid using as an example, has Omegamon Merciful Mode, which very explicitly draws from the other children’s partners. Adventure’s Taichi’s not strong because he himself is powerful. Really compared to Hikari he seems rather unimpressive on his own. He’s strong because he is able to easily act as a receiver to others powers, a trait that is fitting for a leader. Because that’s what sets Adventure Taichi apart from his peers, he’s a leader.

Note, that I didn’t really bring up the partners in regards to the discussion of Adventure, not that they aren’t important, but that they aren’t a driving factor. Digimon partners are something vastly different in Digimon Adventure. They are reflections of the children’s inner selves. For straightforward characters, like Taichi, his partner Agumon is very much like him, and for characters like Sora, Piyomon seems very different. This isn’t to say that the digimon are simply their partners, Tailmon went through quite a bit on her own. But nevertheless, Tailmon is the way she is, because Hikari is the way she is. 

Digimon Partners and their evolutions are not things that are just assigned, and given. They are things that arise from the circumstances. Omegamon is there because the themes and circumstances make Omegamon the most appropriate "Ultra”. This is true both in and out of universe, who can forget SkullGreymon? SkullGreymon isn’t wrong. It’s just not the evolution that fits Taichi and Agumon’s situation.

And here’s the thing. Digimon has done the whole focus on “Bonds with Partner’s” before. That’s Tamers. And in Tamers, the final evolution was born from a human and a digimon literally coming together as one. The final episodes all appear somewhat humanoid as a result, particularly notable from WarGrowmon to Gallentmon. Because that was what evolutions were needed narratively and thematically. Otherwise, we have Megidramon. And guess what, the Adventure timeline also has a movie in which the focus is on the bonds between human and friendship, and lo and behold. In Digimon Adventure Kizuna, Agumon (Bond of Courage) and Gabumon (Bond of Friendship) were born. Born from the bond between human and digimon. They even use the “looking like humans” idea from Tamers.

Interestingly, Kizuna came right before Digimon Adventure: started. 

Now, I am really advocating for the Bond forms to be used in Adventure:, those forms were something special to that timeline. But that’s just the thing. Many evolutions, whether unique digimon or not, are brought about by circumstances unique to that timeline. Look at 02’s usage of Armor levels, Frontier's Hybrids, and Xros Wars' Xros mechanic. It’s not new for later seasons to take these Digimon that have existed in these specific circumstances and use them generically later. It would, after all, be a shame to put all those good designs to waste. But at the very least, the evolutions of the main cast are carefully chosen, created if need be, to fit the show.

And that creates a problem for Adventure: as a reboot. It is pulling from the evolutionary lines of its predecessor, despite aiming for different themes and using an entirely different world and characters, and in the process the meaning behind the evolutions has been stripped out. While it has been able to throw in additional evolutions, most of those are well within the confines of precedent: Armors and Ultimate’s that are already related to these evolutionary lines. Adventure: is trying to be a show that, as a reboot of Adventure, it cannot be. Adventure: spends so much of its time screaming that it is not the original Adventure, while simultaneously dragging in call backs that it loses any sense of identity.

The enemies they fight are not Taichi’s responsibility alone. These kids have to have crests. Agumon must evolve into Omegamon.  Angemon still has to die, HolyAngemon and Angemon have to mean something. Tailmon has to be Adult, and has to have been evil. Hikari and Takeru have to give their brother’s power. Omegamon still has to appear. . They still go to summer camp, and Taichi still fights Parrotmon. 

Note, that this is far from Adventure:’s only problem, however I do think it illustrates a large problem that affects the way certain elements and characters are used in this show. Taichi is a solo protagonist, but his “Ultra” is still Omegamon born of Yamato, Takeru and HIkari’s influence. Mimi is now a bossy rich girl, but her crest is still Purity. Yamato is a loner who doesn’t overly concern himself with others, but he’s still Friendship, and still Takeru’s semi-estranged younger brother. 

When Adventure: manages to work a new angle into the old mold, it works well. Yamato’s focus on his friendship with Gabumon works well, and various side characters work alright. Resolving the conflict over Tailmon’s Ultimates by using both for separate things and bringing in Goddramon is a great idea. But more often than not, it doesn’t. Properly contextualizing what a holy digimon is is great, but Angemon’s death is awkward, and Pegususmon’s presence smooths over the issues of Tailmon being champion and keeping Angemon special in an awkward way, refusing to address what an Armor is. Because they are trying to write a story around a set of evolutions they are required to have while absolutely refusing to be Adventure where it matters. Leading to the awkward mesh of Adventure elements and characters, with themes and stories that they were never meant for. 

If Adventure: was meant to be about the bond between Taichi and Agumon, Omegamon was never going to work, including the concepts of crests, was going to muddle things at the very least, and including 7 whole other partner pairs who are going to require at least a few episodes of focus a piece was not going to work out. It’s not that we couldn’t have had more focus on Taichi and Agumon within a reboot and their bond, or that the idea of Taichi and Agumon (or any other pair), activating an evolution because they are in agreement on a concept isn’t a good idea. Just an understanding that this primary focus wasn’t going to work because Adventure in its very concept has a lot of characters that need some degree of focus. Savers with its heavier Masaru focus and use of shonen tropes, dials back the number of “main” characters to half that of Adventure, because it is built around its premise. That unless they were going to be bumped down to secondary, recurring characters, this was never going to work, because that’s not how Adventure’s concept was intended. To tell a new story, it needed to have dropped a few more of Adventure’s elements. But to do that would be to essentially admit that this isn’t Adventure at all. Adventure: needed to have evaluated what story it could tell with what elements it was required to include.

Anything goes in Digimon, and Adventure: seems to want to make the most of this, using armors, Hybrids and Xros Wars digimon with regularity. But you can’t build a cohesive narrative simply by plucking your favorite ingredients and sticking it in a pot. Some things just don’t go together. You can’t take the ingredients to make bread and make a salad. But in short, V-Tamer Taichi and Adventure Taichi aren’t interchangeable. They are two different characters because they are designed for two different stories, and their partners reflect this. Adventure: was doomed from the start if it didn’t realize this. 

Mirrors

Haru once calls Yuujin his Hajime to Rei. And as far as narrative parallels go its true. I’d argue all of our main protags have a person. For Haru that’s Yuujin, and for Rei its Hajime. And for Astra and Eri it’s each other, though they aren’t as clear an example for numerous reasons, and are not the clear parallel Haru and Yuujin are to Rei and Hajime. 

Haru is to Rei as Yuujin is to Hajime.

This parallel is also furthered by Yuujin and Hajime’s appmon. Offmon and Bootmon(Onmon). I’d also like to draw attention to their lines, as they're the ones that didn’t get full focus for logistical reasons. Offmon goes Super with Hackmon(Rei’s buddy). Onmon goes super with Gatchmon (Haru’s buddy). So… their super partners are the buddies of the other “main protag.” I mean, I think it's also game/marketing logistics because in the 3DS game, which I kind of assume many of the logistics were designed for (though I’m sure the anime was also being planned concurrently) because they are also the buddies of the main protag and the rival in the game, so giving their supers the anime protag buddy and the anime “rival” buddy just makes sense but I digress. 

Yuujin is an AI who goes through the story as a “Human”. Hajime is a human who is converted to an AI. Yuujin was let out into the world to gather information and act as a double agent. Hajime was taken from the world to make use of his skills as a programmer. Both are used by Leviathan against their will. Yuujin is younger than he seems, and Hajime is more capable than his age would indicate. They are the characters whose existence acts as a catalyst to their “Protectors” future. At the beginning of the show Hajime’s abduction is what catalyzes Rei into becoming an Applidriver, and is his driving force for much of the show. Yuujin’s death at the end of the show is what catalyzes Haru’s decision to study computer science. That said, Haru’s decision to become an Appdriver is also influenced by Yuujin, declaring Haru has the potential to be a protagonist. Yuujin noted that Haru was changing, and that he had made new friends before he was brought into the fold, helping to highlight how Haru was changin even without Yuujin. Similarly, Hajime’s return at the end of the series seems to lead to Rei relaxing and truly appreciating all that he’s gained as an Applidriver when Hajime was gone. Even if he was already starting to appreciate everyone else beforehand.

Consistently throughout the story Haru was the one who understood that Rei’s priority was Hajime and was constantly reaching out to him to help with that. Haru was going to help Rei save his precious person. Yuujin was also kidnapped later in the story, and his rescue was helped by everyone, including Rei pitching in.

Rei thought he put Hajime in danger, but Hajime put himself in danger as Hajime was the one who “won”. Haru avoided telling Yuujin about Appmon because he wanted to keep him safe, despite the fact that Yuujin was his friend was because of the danger in the first place, and really, it being likely that if it hadn’t been for Yuujin Haru wouldn’t have become a “protagonist”. (Another case of Minerva and Leviathan’s circular 4D chess game). 

Hajime created Bootmon. Hajime is already proficient in creating AI. This is what led to his abduction. But this is something that Haru hopes to study at the end of the show in order to bring Yuujin back.

Rei worked himself down and stopped taking care of himself in order to rescue Hajime, and was reckless in his pursuit. Haru similarly did reckless stunts to save Gatchmon, the world, and Yuujin. Yuujin actually did sacrifice himself, twice to save Haru and everyone else. Not to mention stopping Shutmon. 

Yuujin’s sacrifice to save the world at the cost of his own life, ending Leviathan’s plans, is probably the series crowning moment, but Hajime also sacrificed himself to let Bootmon escape in an attempt to prevent Leviathan’s plans from coming to fruition.  All four of these boys were tied to the plot in ways they didn’t fully understand at first, and are all the types of people to put their all into protecting people, even at the cost of their own well being.

    Okay, but now that I’ve talked about the obvious plot players I’d like to talk about our final pair. Astra and Eri aren’t really as plot important as the other four. There really is no reason they of all people ended up as Appdrivers. They are both there to round out the cast so to speak. 

    Eri is the only girl of the group (as well as one of the oldest members of the group), and Astra is the only elementary schooler and somehow simultaneously both the season's token “traditional household” and the season’s token half-japanese diversity. They are both public entertainers, a role that stands in stark contrast with Rei’s intensely on the grid off the grid way of living. Their arcs both related heavily to making their decisions because of how much they care about their families.  They are also a bit similar demeanor wise. They both have obnoxious catchphrases, are as purposefully arrogant as part of their schtick. As I said before, neither of them have a particularly large stake in the fight against leviathan (besides the obvious) and so overall have the same place narratively.

    I mean, we didn’t know Haru’s connection to the whole thing initially, and it seems even Ai’s tangentially connected. But it can be said that Minerva somewhat purposefully chose someone she believed could be an idol to be an Appdriver because it would give them insider access to L-corp and the media. We know she’s not against somewhat far fetched plans (Yuujin for one). Which is why I think Eri’s idol career has a surprising amount of focus in the show because of its relevance to the plot. I can’t think of any reason why Astra would be a choice for an appdriver, beyond his social media presence, and… maybe a risk taken that didn’t pan out the way Minerva hoped (I mean, an elementary student, somewhat laid back, with little free time? There had to be some reason?). 

    Speaking of Minerva, Astra and Eri’s questions stand in stark contrast to each other. Eri’s question is related to deciding to support other people, and Astra’s question is related to following his own heart rather than people’s expectations.

    Specifically Eri became an Appdriver after discussing with her mother about how hard she was working and her mom assuring her that she was happy as long as she did as she liked. Eri of course, did do as she liked, choosing to be an idol because idols made her happy hoping she could share that happiness, particularly to her mother who was working to make her happy. Early episodes featured Eri meeting fans, or in other words those who she was making smile, thus fulfilling that role. While her focus episodes became more about Eri’s drive as an idol, to succeed in her career for her mom by the end, she was willing to give up being an idol to move out from under Leviathan and more plot reasons.

    Like Eri, Astra started out rather lonely, and became an Apptuber because watching an Apptuber made him happy. But unlike Eri’s initial episodes, which were about learning who exactly it was she was supporting as an idol, beyond herself (and mother) which made her efforts to succeed as an idol later on more appreciated. Astra’s first focus episodes were about him being himself learning not to try and be someone he’s not, even in his new role, and that he shouldn’t have to impress people. His later focus episodes then went to deciding that even if he was choosing his own path as an Apptuber, he was still holding to obligations because he wanted to hold to them, and finding ways to support his family as an Apptuber. Astra’s arc is a little harder to grasp due to the relative lack of focus episodes, and like the Katsura’s backstory, not really being explained in full, his motivations as a character are a bit multilayered.

And as I’ve said, each member of the cast has their “important person” who they’d potentially sacrifice the fight for. Yuujin and Haru for each other, and the Katsura brothers for each other. Despite having no deep backstory prior to the start of the show, and in fact kind of starting out at constant odds they form an extremely close relationship over the course of the show. Astra treats Eri with his trademark casualness (referring her to just Eri, which is something no one else does, but also, he treats everyone like this). But Eri quite notably refers to Astra as “Tora”. While she picks this habit up before she met Jenny, it’s interesting to note that Jenny also calls Astra “Tora”. (And Dantemon? For Whatever reason?). And for his part, Astra does not discourage her from calling him this, despite the fact it’s probably a rather personal nickname. I personally take this as sort of an indicator as the sibling-like relationship they have. (I think it’s very important that despite their numerous moments showcasing their relationship, there is never any romantic implication. I mean, it’d be kinda weird since it’s 3 years and they are still so young. But it's not unshippable by any means, and I’ve seen worse).

While Rei was shown to prioritize Hajime over everything throughout the show, and Haru’s internal struggle with fighting over his friend are clear moments of characters having to choose to do the right thing at the potential harm to their loved ones, Astra also has a moment like this in regards to Eri during his final fight with Fakemon. There’s also the way he reacts when he realizes she’s potentially in danger in episode 36. Astra cares deeply for Eri and despite the casualness in the way he treats her, it’s clear that he has a lot of respect for her, and the passion she dedicates to being an idol.

Another important moment is when Astra asks Eri why she’s working herself so hard. Astra of course knows his father who works himself to the point of the detriment to his health, and so this drive is something he is familiar with, but as Astra’s arc is the one that relates to him doing what he thinks his best for himself, and then the support to others working its way in from that. Eri’s arc is more about learning to work to others’ benefit as well as your own. So Astra being the one to ask her if working herself like this is really what she wants to do and thinks she should do.

Eri doesn’t have a similar dramatic moment over Astra, much of her growth involving less personal interactions between people. Again, Eri’s career is marked by inspiring more people, and perhaps being more big picture, Eri is frequently approached by fans, and is constantly building her presence. And while Astra has his fans, he’s rarely approached on the street and has relatively little fan interaction.

 Whereas Astra’s shown to have a more narrow minded focus on who he cares about, doing Apptube primarily to do as he’d like, getting over his focus on other people's opinions rather early on. His priority being his family, Musimon, and his friends (especially Eri). But Eri does seem to care for Astra in return. Her reaching out to save Astra during episode 15 was a moment where she reached out to someone first to help forge a bond.

Perhaps its because Astra and Eri are the characters meant to flesh out the cast, is why I find them and their dynamic so interesting. They aren’t part of this tragedy. But they, and to a lesser extent Haru’s friends, tie the cast back to the rest of the world, which I think was really important in Appmon.

The characters in Appmon relate to each other both in their relationships with each other and the parallels in which they go about protecting and supporting each other. In this way, connecting to each other, AI or human, learning from each other and changing how they act, they come to push back against Leviathan's idea of the predictability of humanity, and against fear for those we don't understand.

I think if there was ever a follow up to Survive it'd probably be an 02 and/or Tamer's inspired sequel, and I do have thoughts about that, but I honestly think Frontier getting the Survive treatment would be coolest. I mean already Frontier is probably the anime most like Adventure outside of Adventure's reboot, so I think it would work really well for similar reasons as Survive. But it's got enough going that it'd be distinct too.

Survive deals with the horror in having another life form, a life form with the potential for incredible amounts of strength tied to you and your sense of identity. The horror of a group of children being spirited away to another world in the name of saving it (as sacrifices).

But with Frontier, the horror in asking what kind of kids, or for what reason kids would choose to follow a message and end up in another world. The horror in becoming something else.

Survive has 10 main characters, there are 10 legendary warriors.

Three Archangels and Lucemon instead of Four Holy Beasts and Fanglongmon

Instead of Haru and Miyuki a Strabimon (or Flamemon) who is later revealed to be a former human kid is found already in the Digital World

Instead of echoes of the human world the kids find chunks of land getting rearranged or just straight up missing

MagnaGarurumon and KaiserGreymon instead of Boltboutamon and Plutomon for route dependent evolutions and dependent on which kids survive to the end.

Susanoomon if all survive to the end/true ending

Karma/affinity levels determining attribute of characters (not how variable attribute usually works by tbh why not)

One route kids stay in digital world as digimon in another they leave the digital world forever in another they stay digimon but go home?

Light and Darkness can still be twins but like maybe codependent prior to being separated in the digital world. Like Strabimon is met by the group immediately and Duskmon is trying to hunt the kids down, but Strabimon weirdly won't let them hurt Duskmon?

Protag would be Flamemon(or equivalent) when they go back home in Takuya parallel and maybe have to fight human units without hurting them in the Ch 8 parallel

Character who dies because they'd rather die than become a Digimon.

Speaking of which what happens when these kids die?

Character who refuses to become human again because they never want to be weak again.

Character who loses themself to their beast form, maybe hurting themselves or someone else

If we want to include the concept of fractal code, the idea of the kids having parts of their code stolen/ changed/added to, affecting memories, physical traits, tastes, and skillsets.

Character conflicts leading to physical fighting in their Digimon forms

Being able to eat the strange foods in the digital world that would normally definitely be inedible

I think there's a lot of room for drama in what decisions lead the kids to end up in this world

Obviously one of the kids can be dragged their by their bullies so we have some bullies on the same team as their victim.

One kid went because they take any excuse not to go home so figured might as well check this out

Or another kid who desperately need money and were under the assumption this was a meet up for one of their jobs

Water can be the victim of toxic beauty standards/show industry/an idol

I think the fact the gender balance isn't as much of a problem as people might think as I think a lot of the Spirits are actually gender neutral looking enough to be female. I could see Darkness, Ice and/or Wood especially. (See Survive and Plutomon or Cyber Sleuth Alphamon for example).

Over a year ago I started watching Xros Wars. 3 days ago I finally finished Hunters last episode. To be fair in the interim I also watched... every other digimon anime in its entirety (except for some movies), finished Cyber Sleuth and played the entirety of Hackers memory.

But I do have some thoughts about Xros Wars, or at least how I'm interpreting things.

So. Taiki.

Taiki's is a “Paragon” type of hero whose biggest flaws are being too dedicated to helping people and as such sometimes collapsing. Admittedly far from my favorite type of character, even when done well. Xros Wars fortunately does make this a flaw that causes them issues at times. Unfortunately though, in my opinion, it does not properly acknowledge this flaw. 

It causes problems in the Lake Zone, when it puts him out of commission. But aside from that it doesn’t really come up. It also sort of comes up again during the Death Generals arc, both with Gravimon’s core, and Yuu’s game. Two instances where it really is Taiki’s life vs. their goals. And the answer seems to be “Taiki is worth more healthy than he is sick/wounded/dead”. Which I think is a good take on the “too good” archetype. And it is something Taiki seems to do less as time goes on.

But I do think Taiki does have a different arc, that does actually get handled better that this ties into. Taiki’s final arc in relation to Apollomon boils down to sometimes, tough decisions have to be made. And I think this is what they were trying to do in episode 25. However, the situation that they are presenting isn’t really a “no good answers” deal, as much as it is Kiriha being an asshole. Taiki learning to have to make tough decisions is a great one for him. The only thing I would wish for in this regard is perhaps a better build up to this. But again, I think this is just a smaller piece of what is supposed to be Taiki’s main arc. But the core of this, is Taiki is someone who can’t turn his back on injustice, can’t turn his back on people. But is willing to throw himself into harm's way for other people. And these two points are related. It parallels Nene and Yuu’s relationship, in which Nene would do anything for Yuu, but in doing so fails to recognize Yuu’s autonomy which ends up hurting everyone involved. It foils Kiriha’s narrative in which he takes responsibility for being too weak to handle things when really he’s a victim.

While I don’t think it’s handled the greatest, I do think this is one of Xros Wars main points. You are not responsible for the actions of other people. You are worth just as much as any other person. Other people can be at fault. Other people can help you out. Everyone is an individual. 

Taiki in episode 30 is not properly giving Akari and Zenjirou the space to make their own decisions. They can’t come anyway, but he’s not really allowing them autonomy. In fairness, Taiki accidentally put them in danger in the first place and it would make sense that he feels guilty for that. But Akari and Zenjirou are their own people who can make their own decisions, and I felt like Taiki grasped that at the end of that arc, or was at least on his way there. Which is why Taiki keeping things from Akari and Zenjirou in Hunters is dumb, although I'm not really judging questionable Hunters decisions in the context of judging Xros.

This also extends to Taiki’s “traumatic backstory” in which Taiki felt guilty about the decisions someone else had made. Manga Taiki had a similar incident, but that incident Taiki was at least a little more involved in the events that transpired. But in both cases, Taiki takes responsibility for something that is not his own fault, in what on the surface seems to be altruism, but is really egotistical. While I think I like the manga’s take on this better, the anime has its own charm in being such an insignificant incident that Taiki latched onto. Either way I think Taiki’s real arc in Xros Wars is coming to realize that he is just one person and that he can’t make decisions for other people. You might even be able to consider the final episodes of Xros Wars, when he willingly patches the torch to Tagiru to be accepting he can’t do it all (or the fact he’s literally too injured to do anything or a half-baked excuse to justify Tagiru, your choice). 

Taiki is capable of denying others help, to a certain extent. Taiki denies helping Shoutmon, at first, because he doesn’t think Shoutmon is someone who's actually in trouble. At least, not to the point of prioritizing him over Zenjirou and Akari, who he stuck in another world, and that takes precedence. He thinks Shoutmon is asking for help for something unnecessary, for his own selfish dream. Taiki’s manga backstory actually makes more sense here because Taiki’s dream lead to hurting others, and that could make him more critical of self-aggrandizing dreams. But that’s a different story. Regardless, Taiki is easily persuaded and it seems it was the “Bigger” problem of Akari and Zenjirou that kept him from easily agreeing to help Shoutmon.

It’s also not as if Taiki is incapable of asking for or accepting help from other people, Akari in particular. In fact he depends on Akari’s help to do what he does. (Even if the show doesn’t acknowledge it past the first arc). But he definitely avoids drawing other people into problems, supporting those that are already involved.

Apollomon and Beelzebumon I think make this come full circle to Taiki. Beelzebumon died because he wouldn’t rest, but he made that decision for himself, a decision that Taiki earlier in the show was willing to make himself. And Apollomon suffered because Taiki refused to do something that he wouldn’t hesitate to do to himself if the roles were swapped. 

There are hard decisions that need to be made in war. But the goal isn’t merely to disregard life when there’s bigger stakes. It's to accept that there are people who are willing to make sacrifices just like you are and accepting their autonomy in being part of these hard decisions. (If this makes sense?)

If we look at Shoutmon’s desire to be King, a King is fundamentally a person who makes decisions on behalf of a group of people. Shoutmon is perhaps a little more honest in his goals. Shoutmon wants to become king so others don’t suffer, and recruits people to his side to accomplish this task. Shoutmon deeply values his friends and allies inputs and wants to be strong enough for their sake, to be a leader. (Thanks episode 25). Meanwhile Taiki is recruited by others for their own goals, because he believes that he owes others his strength.

To be honest, I’m not sure if I’m reading too far into this or if this was obvious to everyone but me. 

Taiki’s “thing” is his ability to hear the melodies of dying digimon. It’s not really explained why he can, nor does it need to be. It’s just a version of Takuya’s degree of spirituality, or Masaru’s excessive digisoul, or Taichi’s fateful digimon encounter. A thing that sets him apart from the crowd. I actually really like this concept, as Xros Wars does touch on the idea of different people having different destined roles. Being chosen children in unique ways. Xros Wars doesn’t quite do enough with this, or its music motif in my opinion, but this is a really good take on it and a good way of explicitly demonstrating Taiki’s empathy. I think it could be used a little more often, especially later on, but that’s neither here nor there.

AITA for choosing to kill my best friend?

I (M14) am part of a group dedicated to preventing the take over of an evil AI (L) that split off from my grandfathers creation (M). Turns out my best friend, lets call him YJ (M14… kinda?), was an AI created by L in order to spy on me. Anyway, YJ didn't actually know about this until L activated some sort of override of his free will and used him to gain access to a strong power that allowed him to enslave all of humanity and turn them into AIs.

Anyway, we thought we managed to get him on the ropes, though M was destroyed in the process, but L at the last moment issued an ultimatum to me. I could delete L, and by extension YJ or let YJ live, but humanity would be imprisoned, and I only had 60 seconds to make a decision. I chose to delete YJ and L and save humanity. I did promise to study AI to revive YJ in the future.

But right before I could press the button YJ regained enough control to stop me and press the button himself, so I wasn't actually the one to kill him. He said it was so I wouldn't have to. But I still feel bad because he felt he had to delete himself and I was going to do it myself otherwise.

Especially since it seems M may have known YJ was an android made by L when she recruited him to our side, and she may have been counting on his decision all along. M saved our life and helped us take out L, and sacrificed herself in the process. But she still asked YJ "if there was someone he would give his life to protect" as his test for joining our team. I feel guilty that I didn't notice how suspicious that question was before and that I hadn't been as worried about his self-sacrificial tendencies before.

I know that we didn't really have a choice and it was either that or let all of humanity die. But I worry that he may not have appreciated himself enough or made him think he wasn't important.

AITA for not noticing that M was setting up YJ to sacrifice himself?

Listen, I understand why Suite isn't a popular season. Generally speaking, the best parts of it are generally done better in the two seasons that precede it. It in many ways is just a weaker frankensteining of Fresh and Heartcatch. But Fresh and Heartcatch are fantastic, so just because it's worse than those seasons, doesn't mean its bad in my opinion. And to be fair, it does deserve many of its criticisms.

But it's also one of my favorite seasons, and I think some of it's criticisms are more a matter of taste. There's just a lot I love about Suite.

Hibiki and Kanade

I also know a lot of people aren't huge fans of the whole fighting thing Hibiki and Kanade have going on. And I agree, it's not the best executed and some things don't make sense. I also understand that many people are not fond of the vitriolic best buds trope, but I don't think that makes their relationship inherently bad just not to everyone's taste. For what it's worth, we haven't had a pair of cures like them before and since and it's a tragedy to me personally because I am quite fond of vitriolic best buds, duo cures and childhood friends. We have so many cure duos and aside from these two, none are childhood friends. The CLOSEST is the fact that Saki and Mai met once, when they were 9. Several trios of childhood friends (Fresh, Doki Doki and Happiness Charge), but they're the only true childhood friend duo. I honestly want more cures like these two. They get the learning to understand each other that the new friendships have, with the wealth of intimate knowledge about each other stemming from their childhood friendship. Despite spending a year "apart", the years they spent together still mean something, and they can't seem to stay away. They're mad at each other but there is still a comfortable familiarity in the way they aren't afraid to fight with each other. They say they aren't friends but they still call each other by first name.

Their hearts naturally fall into perfect harmony. The have like the same sense of style. Kanade likes to bake. Hibiki likes to eat. Souta refers to Hibiki as "Hibiki-Nee-san", and otherwise treats her similarly to his own sister. They have a flashlight code that they use to communicate across town at night. Neither one realized that there are two entrances with Sakura trees at their middle school or tried to talk about it for a whole year. They're both so stupid.

They take after Nagisa and Honoka a lot too. Nagisa and Hibiki are both athletic redheads who are good at sports and have black as a main color in one of their outfits (Cure for Nagisa, Civ for Hibiki), and generally use pink in their outfits. Both like to eat. Both can be prone to grumpiness and disagreements with their family members. Honoka and Kanade are both white Cures with fierce tempers and a strong sense of responsibility, able to handle domestic things like cooking. Both have more academic strengths, but are relatively graceful. There are some twists of course, Kanade has the little brother who she bickers with (their little brother's even both end their name with "ta"), Hibiki is the one with a parent who is often abroad. I really like how the two called back to the original duo without at all feeling like a copy.

To be fair not communicating is the name of the game in Suite. And so, I do 100% understand not liking this plot. I really do understand it. It's more than fair. All of the plots basically revolve around miscommunication. That is like. The entirety of Suite. Miscommunications, and the breakdown and subsequent healing of relationships. A very very valid complaint. One that I can overlook, but understand if others cannot.

Siren and Hummy

So, Precure's second heel-face turn Cure (if we don't count the Kiryuu sisters). She's a shapeshifting cat who can sing. The original one.

While normally I dislike the "Brainwashed to be evil" trope. It can be very effective. Go Princess used it to great effect in which there was a level of tragedy to the years that had been stolen away from Towa, and how her motivations had been twisted. I think it has similar effect here, where we kind of get both. She was brainwashed, and I do think that does cheapen Siren's motivations and redemption a bit, but she also had genuinely negative feelings towards Hummy, that she acted on in refusing to practice with Hummy. She still has to face Hummy head on, and as much as she tries to pretend that she's hard and strong enough to live in her bitterness. Siren isn't actually mean enough to keep facing her friend and betray her over and over again.

Hummy being better at singing than her caused her to lose a piece of her identity. The most important singer in all of Majorland. The one who sings the melody of happiness. So Siren doubles down on that identity. She becomes Minorland's singer. But she also, due to her shapeshifting, spends that time adopting different identities. Testing things out, even if she doesn't realize it. Ultimately she has to completely let go of her old identity (losing access to her original form) and everything associated with it and forge a new sense of self, in order to find happiness. But she doesn't completely lose everything.

Despite not liking to be called Siren anymore, she still lets Hummy call her that. She turned her old identity of Siren into something bitter, so she had to cast it off to redefine herself. But Hummy is the only one who ever saw the real Siren through everything Siren tried to become. Hummy may have been the one who took her sense of worth, but she's also the one who always saw Siren's value as Siren. Hummy gets to use Siren because her relationship with Hummy is the only thing that survived Siren's evolution. The two have to forge a new relationship to a certain extent. But it's built on what came before.

I also just think it's fun that the bulk of this emotional arc is on Hummy. It's cat drama. Fairy drama. Usually this is the kinda of stuff that happens between the pink and the heel-face cure. But not this time. This time it's the cat fairy, and the pink is dealing with her own friendship drama. I think it also ties right back into Suites continued echo of healing relationships, actually listening to people in order to harmonize with them. Hibiki and Kanade have to resolve their bitter feelings from their estrangement. Siren has to get over her jealousy to let Hummy back into her life. And Mephisto and Aphrodite have to stop fighting a war against each other.

Major Land's Royal Family

I mean really, no one bothered to tell Hibiki and Kanade at any point that Mephisto was the brainwashed former King of Major Land and that Major Land had a princess who was in hiding? Just locked out of the loop. Both Kanon and Majorland are entirely made up of people who can't communicate.

Anyway, Ako is my all time favorite cure. I rather unpopular choice, I know. But she fits right in with many of my other favorites, characters such as Hikari Yagami, Takeru Takaishi, King Clawthorne, King Ezran, Anya Forger etc. I love kid characters. I especially love messed up traumatized kids who don't always deal with it in great ways. And kid characters with heaps of responsibility on their shoulders. Like chosen ones and royalty.

So Ako is the epitome of what I look for in my favorite characters. She's a 9 year old with high future expectations, that she can't even begin to try and live up to because she's been sent away from everything she's known and loved. Not just moving to a new town, but a new world, where the rules of what is and isn't normal are different. In addition she was forced into physically altering her appearance, wearing unfamiliar clothes, and cutting her long hair. Not only that, she now has to keep everything about her secret. Her hometown, whatever music magic she has, her real future career plans, everything that made her her, has to be suppressed and kept secret. And she was like. Six. That's tiny. And she has to construct a whole new fake identity?

No wonder she's grumpy and keeps to herself? Her alternative is just trying to keep up a bunch of lies all the time. And keeping to herself, means few friends, and trying to keep people away, because this is supposed to be temporary to some degree. She has back home eventually, she's their future queen. She really has no choice BUT to be a grumpy brat. To keep from getting found out and to keep from getting attached. Like sure she doesn't have to be a brat to Hibiki and Kanade, but she's kinda right half the time, and honestly her tempering that brattiness into being just unpleasant enough to be left alone without being so obnoxious she draws people's ire involves way more socio-emotional intelligence than should ever be expected from a nine year old. And at a certain point, after years of it, it became part of her real personality. The sweet optimistic little princess is still there. But it's under a layer of cynicism.

Ako wants her family back. So she gets the power to do that. And things still don't go her way.

I've joked to people before that Ako is one of 4 cures with divorced parents. Her parents are effectively divorced, but extra. They're not just trying to fight over a house and custody of her, but over not just an entire kingdom, but the fate of the world. And her father doesn't even know who she is anymore. Her parents are actively at war, and her mother honestly shows no qualms about letting her husband be potentially killed, not bothering to tell the people she's sent after him about their relationship and his true nature. (And then her mom asks Mephisto to kill her to protect their kingdom, Ako can't catch a break).

This ties back to a fact that is kind of brushed over in the show. Ako is the princess. In the show she's honestly just the princess because it puts her in between Mephisto and Aphrodite's drama. But we see in show that Mephisto and Aphrodite are constantly putting their kingdom's needs above their own. A- monarchs (points deducted for getting brainwashed), but like. B- parents tbh. They love Ako so, so much, but simply can't raise her themselves. In fact, Ako's parents won't look after themselves, so Ako has to look out for them instead of the other way around. We see this a lot with Mephisto.

Sometimes Ako makes absolutely stupid decisions, like releasing notes, because she doesn't want to go against her dad, even if he isn't himself right now. Because she's a child whose parents are fighting, seemingly to the death, and if she can spread out the fight, she can hopefully drag out the arrival of consequences.

Ako does eventually learn to use the power as a cure, so she can balance the needs of the many over the needs of her loved ones. So she can do both. But she has to learn to make the hard choices and be willing to stand against her loved ones.

Also Ako also gets the miscommunication based friendship breakdown with her and Suzu, and to a lesser extent her and Souta in the movie. Suite really goes hard on the whole healing relationships thing.

Ako is really a direct foil to Yuri who precedes her. Missing evil brainwashed dads. Present throughout the whole show, but only join the team in the last quarter (the latest of any Cures). Semi-awkward friendship with one of the other cure's siblings in part because their friend doesn't know about all their magical girl trauma. Already looped into the magical girl stuff before any of the other cures, so has a preexisting relationship of some sort with the grandparent mentor. Ako is pretty much just a baby Yuri, but who has just now gained the power to try and fight after years of inability to do anything, instead of having just lost her power, and having to face down her own failure and keep going. So she's an angry elementary kid rather than a depressed high schooler. How can I not love her?

Why I think Appmon is the Best Digimon to Start With

Digimon Universe: Applimonsters, better known as Appmon, is the forgotten digimon series, because it quite frankly barely counts as a digimon series. In fact digimon only appear in one episode. And that is exactly why it is the perfect season to start with when getting into Digimon.

Appmon is just a show I'd recommend on its own, even if it wasn't a digimon show. It's got a lot going for it. It's character's are fun, both larger than life and compelling. The characters start immature and flawed, before growing into themselves. Their character dynamics are honestly also unique and fascinating. The plot is well constructed with regular progression, ample foreshadowing and well-earned twists. It's one of the best shows in the franchise.

A lot of the best things about Appmon, are the reoccurring elements that I love about digimon to begin with. The human/monster relationships where the monster evolutions reflecting human growth, themes about humanities future and cross-cultural interactions, strong sibling relationships, and normal kids growing into heroes. Appmon is very much everything I love about Digimon, and thus showcases some of the best the franchise has to offer. But without, the baggage of being a digimon season.

Digimon can be intensely metatextual. While individual digimon stories may be complete unto themselves, its very common for digimon stories to make reference to other lore and themes. Glossing over them for the older fans. Things like Yggdrasil, Royal Knights, Jogress, File Island, Homeostasis as they appear. They are explained when relevant, sure, and often are excluded more than included but any given entry (Cyber Sleuth for example) may throw a whole heck of a lot of them at you without a whole lot of elaboration on the idea. Appmon almost completely strips out the metatext. It strips out the recognizable monsters and by extension, the virtual pet elements (thus the two baby levels and eggs), the character archetype shorthand's, and general digimon reference book references. No Leomon or Wizarmon variants to wave death flags. No virus, data, vaccine types nor armor or hybrid levels or x-antibodies potentially randomly dropped in without context. Because it's not that context is ever really needed: they'll explain if they are, but there is still the decades long, exceedingly over-complicated metalore cooking in the background of any given digimon series. Instead the Appmon being Apps means that any context on the creatures are rather self evident, their app type. The simple act of living in our modern society provides enough context. There are a lot of references to IRL AI culture, such as all the protagonists being seemingly named after AI, and the Dartmouth Workshop of 1956 being a plot point. Appmon has plenty of references and lore, it's just not overly all about Digimon. It doesn't completely strip out metatextual references to digimon, but it is kept subtle and unobtrusive. Haru has goggles because they make him more protag like, the kids find a phone booth, the kids are called "chosen children" once, and episode 44 does bring in Agumon as a video game but its non intrusive and isn't really used as any sort of shorthand. You can know that goggles that do nothing is a very extra character design element denoting protag status without knowing its a digimon thing. Old fashioned technology and modern kids is always funny. The kids were in fact chosen. And one episode out of 52 being a cute and heartfelt crossover is nothing. In short, Appmon doesn't have any of the baggage that might make a traditional Digimon season difficult to get into.

Which is probably the reason they made Appmon, well Appmon to begin with. Why they decided to start the franchise fresh so to speak to target the child (new) demographic while tri. targeted the older demographic. Appmon's come and gone, and they've abandoned that strategy, so newer entries of digimon still try to capture a new demographic while building on the old, so Appmon still remains as most stand alone entry of the anime.

But it is still very digimon in the ways that matter, meaning that if you DO like Appmon, you're very likely going to find at least one other season worth looking into. Logistically the season is a lot like Hunters and Ghost Game, with how evolution and the digital field works, the characters vaguely (with heavy emphasis on vaugely) resemble the Tamer's cast, the way the human digimon relationship's function resembles Savers imo. It's themes of humanities future and chosen one narratives are very Adventure. In other words it feels like a digimon season, because it works a lot like what came before it. Really, digimon seasons vary a lot. For the most part no two seasons are alike, there are very few things consistent in Digimon. Just a lot of things that reoccur frequently. So in the end, Appmon feels like a Digimon season, because it's just like a Digimon season in every way EXCEPT for the actual monsters.

Appmon is particularly similar in it's themes. Digimon often tackles themes of identity, alternate selves, destiny and responsibility, humanities evolution, humanities relationship with digital technology, and cross cultural exchange. So an entry may dive right into: what happens when you abuse your alternate self, or where does the locus of the self actually lie, glossing over the lighter "what would it be like to have an alternate self". Appmon covers many these themes too but it does so through the fresh lens, of Apps and realisticish (Heavy emphasis on the 'ish') AI, building its case from the ground up rather than falling back on typical digital world backstories. What makes an AI a fully fledged person, what is the point of being alive, how will humanity handle being overtaken by its creation, humanties newfound dependence on various AIs, and how can humans and sufficiently advanced AI coexist without one taking advantage of the other. Many of the same themes Digimon usually covers, but in the more specific context of a war between hyperintelligent super AI. Rarely are digimon significantly more intelligent than a human, but Appmon builds itself around the idea. Being Very Digimon, while also bringing something new to the table.

Appmon may have come out in 2016, but it's themes of AI transcending humanity are perhaps more topical than when it debuted. The original Digimon was on some level born out of the mystique of the new technology that the internet was in the early 2000s. As such, while Digimon generally toes the line between sci-fi and fantasy, it usually incorperates Sci-Fi aesthetics, but fantasy worldbuilding. Appmon's worldbuilding actually is heavily sci-fi, no implications of magic, but the themes and motifs of the story border still on mythological. Something closer to our modern understanding of technology. We know our internet, it's nothing special to us anymore. But we forget to a certain extent the power held by the internet in the modern day. Who is this power meant for? Digimon is in many ways, conceptually, a holdover from a bygone era, even as it seeks to stay modern. But Appmon is unapologetically modern, in a way that feels like it should have aged super fast, but somehow still feels contemporary 8 years later.

The other side of what makes Appmon the best to start isn't just that it's good to start with, it's that the other seasons are worse. To start with that is. I love them to death, and I don't think they are necessarily bad, but if you aren't already interested in what digimon has to offer, it might be a bit harder to sell. With how metatextual digimon can be you might think the first season would be the best place to start. I mean how could it not be. It's the first. Well, not exactly. Adventure is both the best and worst place to start otherwise. It is one of the cornerstones of the franchise, and so much of what comes after calls back to it. Adventure is a subtle story in a lot of ways that leaves a lot of the details to be parsed on rewatches. It's a genuinely passionate piece of art. In fact, the show is so detailed they many of the details didn't even make it in the show, with lore clarified in side materials. Most of these details aren't incredibly important, but they do provide insight into some of the shows otherwise confusing choices. Also, most were never officially translated into english. Also, the shows attention to detail left the show rife with opportunities for translation to be mishandled, leading to additional issues. Not to mention the 90s weren't exactly known for their faithful dubs, and this is true of Adventure too. Though Adventure itself still suffers a lot from metatext even outside of its own lore. Taichi's name and design are reused from the manga. File island, Server Continent, the idea of "raising digimon", the frequent presence of "garbage" digimon, and the disjointed evolution lines, are all borrowed from the general V-Pet lore. And ultimately Adventure is even more complicated by the franchises refusal to let it go. New releases, and cameos in other works are varying degrees of canon incompliant. Sometimes recent releases are insightful to the original work, sometimes they perpetuate misconceptions about the original work. Sometimes both. Sometimes its hard to say one way or another. To be clear, Adventure isn't really that complicated, itself. Very enjoyable even if you don't think too hard on it. But it's barely covering a whole maze of rabbit holes. I do recommend Adventure and 02, and it can ABSOLUTELY work as a first digimon series. But it does leave itself open to a lot of bad takes.

But, a familiarity with Adventure is sort of required to get the full effect of Tamer's, which serves as a sort of deconstruction of Adventure era digimon to a certain extent, or to actually understand Digimon Survive (a visual novel) which is in many ways a more mature retelling of Digimon Adventure. Otherwise Digimon series are either too unique in premise (Frontier and Xros Wars), and/or not very good (Adventure: 2020, Ghost Game) to warrant as a recommendation for a "first" digimon series. In all fairness, all digimon season are a perfectly fair place to start. None of them depend on each other to tell their story. I'd even argue that 02 is an acceptable place to start, if a baffling one. You don't need to know the meta-textual elements to appreciate their stories and characters and worldbuilding. That's how the franchise has survived through its multiple iterations. But when Digimon throws "Armor" level around casually, an artifact of an old storyline, it's kind of hard to argue that on some level digimon doesn't have an overwhelming history.

Savers is my second choice recommendation of a first digimon season. It too has its own metatextual elements of course, they are less overt and Saver's also just does its own thing worldbuilding wise a surprising amount. Otherwise its a solid story that utilizes typical digimon tropes, but doesn't explicitly call back to Adventure in its premise.

Of course there ARE other digimon media. The original Digimon media was the V-pets, which are fun, but have niche appeal. The same applies to the Digimon World games. Speaking of which, Digimon Games are generally not the best way to get into the franchise. They're mostly not very good, and I'd also add that Digimon games are even more heavily marketed to pre-existing digimon fans than the animes are. Digimon Cyber Sleuth is maybe the only exception, but even that very heavily pays homage to Digimon Adventure. Though, some of the manga, like Liberator or V-Tamer might be good places to start too.

There is one big problem though with Appmon as a first series. No English dub. Now, generally speaking the digimon fandom is plagued by bad translations. So many of the dubs generally kinda suck, so I usually recommend subs anyway, but I recognize not everyone can handle subs. There is a french dub, for those who understand French. I don't so I don't even know if its a good dub. If you're a dub only person honestly I recommend Tamers as a first season. It was the first one I finished. Its got a few issues that hold it back as an ideal first show for the uninitiated, but a solid story you don't actually need any context for. Adventure and Saver's dubs have problems imo that keep me from recommending them. (There IS a more supposedly more accurate SE asian dub of the early digimon seasons out there, but its harder to find + I haven't actually watched more than a few clips so I feel I can't exactly speak to its overall quality).

Ultimately, Digimon is the kind of thing where you can jump in anytime, and the kind of thing where there are plenty of fans who would be happy to explain the weird stuff. But you DO have to start somewhere. I just personally suggest Appmon.

Appmon is overall, just a solid children's tv anime on its own, as well as a fantastic example of what a digimon season can be. But without the 20+ years of baggage.

Playing next 0rder for the first time. I'm having an absolute blast. But I also know that knowing what I was getting myself into before hand is probably a huge portion of it. I've watched playthroughs of the original World, and review videos, as well as a playthrough of next 0rder itself and Re:Digitize. And also just knowing about how de-evolution is a near constant in this franchise probably also helps. I definitely probably couldn't recommend it cold, because who in their right mind would intuitively know that the cycle of "restarting" is part of the appeal and progress is marked more by the progress of the city than your monsters, which in turn helps you get better at raising your monsters. But as someone who also enjoys her 20th anniversary Digimon V-Pet this is just the same thing but faster with more options. It's great. Anyway the characters may not be super in depth (which is fine I'm here for my digimon partners and helping them grow big and strong). But Himari, despite her limited characterization has my attention. She's her sister's primary caregiver? It also feels like her sisters are her only family to her, she probably has a dad who in true anime dad fashion is busy with work. But she still acted like she was leaving her sisters completely alone, so what degree of responsibility is she taking on for her sisters. Definitely being parentified to an extent but to what extent? Does she have a proper support network? Also the wording "doesn't have a mom" could be anything. Is she dead? Digimon's never shied away from that before, so why wouldn't they just say it. Did her mom leave, or is the vagueness just to leave it to imagination? Also her sisters are 2nd graders? So, 7 or 8, which means they would have been babies at the time of the tournament 7 years ago. Was the tournament a last happy memory for her before, whatever left her motherless happened? I'm definitely overthinking it but there is just enough character there to be interesting enough for me to chew on for a bit. Also "Mameo" being a teacher is great. He really showed up trying to do his protaganist thing and then now has to mentor these new teen protags when he's been doing this since he was younger than them, for as long as they've been alive. So now he's basically this old wisened mentor despite being in like. His early 30s at most. And also it contrasts with analogman. An adult man who is the only human there with experience with the digital world. Mameo grew from an analogboy into a more benevolent analogman of sorts.