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Digimon in the Modern Era




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Hagaren Viper



Joined: 28 Apr 2011
Posts: 758
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 3:56 pm Reply with quote
It always surprises me how Appmon has basically no reputation when it does so much right. It starts out slow and monster-of-the week for sure, but to be fair, so did Adventure. It's focus on AI gets to explore themes that Digimon hasn't really explored before, each character is unique and they all have great chemistry with each other, the main character Haru is meek and confident which makes it all the more satisfying to see him grow. And Eri! Eri is the best written Digimon girl since Tamers, and the one treated with the most respect by the story since Tamers too. I'm always sad that people slept on this one, though Toei streaming it ages after the fact didn't help.

On the flip side, one of the best parts about Kizuna is not only does it make exactly one reference to Tri, but contradicts it at several times. So much love was put into that movie you could practically hear the staff saying "we're really sorry about Tri". It gives me high hopes for the 02 movie since there's a decent amount of returning staff. Hopefully Ghost Game has the character writing that was sorely missing from 2020.
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Thatguy3331



Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1789
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:45 pm Reply with quote
Applimon is a odd beast for me but one thing I can say for sure is that it's sense of humor will ABSOLUTLY make or break your experience with the show as it never goes away. On the one end I find that to be sort of admirable that they do try to continue to be funny even as darker elements come into play as it'd probably would be easier to just have a massive tone shift, on the other hand the humor is also pretty hit or miss as far as I'm concerned. At least it's 50/50 for me. That and the audio design for the early evolution/fusion sequences were super grating, I basically skipped them every time until we got to the Applidrive duos. The 3D models were certainly... a choice and I can't think of a single aesthetically cool thing in this show that aren't any of the Applimon (that's obviously a personal and minor complaint but one that kinda nags at me regardless)

Even though I can't say I cared much for Haru (Or Yujin, lord is he boring) and found episode 1, his introduction, to be unbearably irritating both times I watched it, I did like the dynamic between the 3 human casts and their respective dynamics with their partners. Perhaps a bit more could have been done with the kid's dynamics, but enough is done to make me believe that they actually like each other and my favorite bit in the final episodes were Astra and Erispoiler[ confronting Yujin about betraying Haru's trust and dismissing his feelings] and even though I didn't care about Haru and Yujin's bond as much as the show wanted me too, I did ultimately like the ending it gave the two of them at least.

Astra and Eri were easily the best parts of the show for me which is funny because I was sure Astra would be the kid I hated most from the poster, and Eri's intro episode left a lot to be desired but she did grow on me as we understood why she wanted to be an Idol and the effect she has on others. I kinda wish more was done with the duality conflict of Astra wanting to be a youtuber but also his love and admiration for his dad and family to take up the Tea school, but it still did a lot to make me care for a character who could have easily been the worst part of the show for me. This show would be nothing to me without them.

All I care enough to say about Rei is that the episode where he has to be a fake idol manager has my favorite gag in it spoiler["Hackmon, why do you know that?"] If you know you know Laughing

Tri and Adventure 2020/: are both disappointing for different reasons that, funnily enough, ultimately lead to both being boring as hell to sit through. Last evolution may have have "contradicted" 02, but not only would I not have cared as I don't even really like the epilogue 02 has and if it got blinked out of existence I wouldn't care, it also doesn't matter because the 02 movie is probably going to address that some how and I don't think it takes much away from LE itself, Tai and Matt still had to go through that arc after all.
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ninjamitsuki



Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 589
Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology)
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:11 pm Reply with quote
Could not disagree more about Appmon. Did we even watch the same show?

Yeah, the beginning is pretty lighthearted monster of the week fare but later on it gets really good and captures the spirit of classic Digimon better than anything else made recently. It also has some fairly interesting things to say about AI and our relationship with technology.

I would easily place it in third place among the best Digimon series, after Tamers and Adventure.
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YoshiChao



Joined: 22 Dec 2020
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:47 pm Reply with quote
It’s honestly insane to me that you can genuinely say Digimon Adventure 2020 has good animation.

Besides the Rebelimon episode’s final action sequence, the animation ranges from garbage to non existent majority of the time. Did you not watch the MetalTyrannomon episode where things basically stop animating after a while? Did you not watch the second time Omnimon appeared, where he lazily animated slapped away two beams with his cape and then one shot the boss with the most dull of sword slashes?

Adventure 2020 is trash to me because it’s plot is absolutely worthless and anytime it would progress in a way the older better series’ would, it would deal with that in one episode so it could get back to doing nothing again. And you can tell this crap anime is made for kids exclusively because they make sure to put no effort in the animation to match its plot.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4771
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:05 pm Reply with quote
Most of the article I agree with but I disagree with the criticisms of Appmon, especially with regards to the characters, as I think Appmon has some of the strongest character writing of the franchise. Haru has been one of my favorite Digimon protags since Takato, mainly because he reminds me so much of Takato with his more gentle personality that I always like when shonen protags do that over the more typical hotheaded shonen leads. I also loved Haru's relationship with Yujin which comes about as close to being canonically gay for Digimon without spelling it out loud, and Yujin has had one of the strongest character arcs in Digimon to me. I loved how Astra eventually grew on me which I didn't expect at all at the beginning and Eri is just a lot of fun and one of my favorite Digimon girls and I love all the Appmon artners. I do think the humor is hit or miss but that's true with a lot of kids anime humor. I didn't care for the CGI Appmon but pretty much all the seasons of Digimon have had cringy CGI at some point including the fan favorite Tamers. I can see Appmon being more of a slog if you just really don't vibe with it's sense of humors or connect to the characters any, but I think there's certainly worse Digimon seasons than Appmon. I also think spoiler[Agumon's cameo was better nostalgia fanservice than all of Tri.] I'm excited for Ghost Game but I'm also keeping my hype in check that Digimon is still a kid's show in spite of everyone already over hyping Ghost Game as being super dark and edgy so it's probably going to have some typical kid anime tropes in it that I hope fans are prepared for when it eventually slips up on something once.
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Yugi12



Joined: 15 Mar 2011
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 6:51 am Reply with quote
I liked Digimon Adventure Tri. I don't really understand all of the hate that it gets. It's wayyy better than Adventure 02. Tamers is still the best season of Digimon.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5286
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:37 am Reply with quote
Yugi12 wrote:
I liked Digimon Adventure Tri. I don't really understand all of the hate that it gets. It's wayyy better than Adventure 02. Tamers is still the best season of Digimon.
Digimon 02 was the first time I ever watched an Anime that i didn't like, which must mean something as I liked nearly anything back then. The cast was a huge step down from the first one.
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Everlasting Coconut



Joined: 22 Jul 2019
Posts: 290
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:54 pm Reply with quote
I actually agree with everything in the article except the part about Kizuna. It's a movie that warns about the dangers of nostalgia yet uses that same nostalgia as its main selling point, so everything it's trying to say feels disingenous.

I can't talk about the current quality of the franchise overall since I don't keep up with the games, but when it comes to the anime, all I can say is that being a Digimon fan has been a pretty disappointing experience for a while.
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bleachj0j



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 923
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 10:52 am Reply with quote
I'll have to watch Kizuna again sometime because I really don't get the love for that movie. The message didn't land for me like the previous post said. I may have just been fatigued from the melo-drama that continued from Tri.

Also, Xros-Wars is the best looking Digimon show.
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Fakerman



Joined: 05 Feb 2020
Posts: 42
Location: Mac Anu
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 12:47 pm Reply with quote
>Praises the reboot
>Dislikes Appmon

Yeah, no.
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gedata



Joined: 04 May 2013
Posts: 615
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:29 pm Reply with quote
The irony of Toei releasing Last Evolution Kizuna, a film that's about as unambiguous in it's message regarding the need to let go of of nostalgia just two months before baiting old fans with a soulless remake of Adventure is so thick in the air it irritates my eyes.

Kizuna is what it is, it doesn't try to sell you a try-hard plot with Homeostasis, Yggdrasil, original 5 children, and a lot of elements that are completely thrown on your face just to suggest it's a complex plot. It's a closing chapter even though it doesn't end the story, because the epilogue is canon and we know all the digimon will come back in a few years in Digimon Adventure original series. It's just a story to bring some nostalgia, to show how old you've became, and to give the original characters some rest.

The butterfly motif was very strong.The first opening is called Butter-Fly and it fits as a butterfly stands for evolution, maturation and growth, which is the founding principle of the Adventure series. It's a fantastic song in its own right too. It's very obvious, and I don't think anyone missed that all the way up to tri. In Kizuna, the butterfly serves its prior meaning while gaining new meaning. Morphomon has a butterfly motif, named after the genus of butterfly. A butterfly's life is beautiful but brief. It's not meant to be held onto. Eosmon is an artificial butterfly, much like tri. It's an attempt to hold onto the past when you felt that childlike joy. But in that obsession with holding on to the past, opportunities for growth and connection in the present are severed

That's all fine and good, but Toei has muddied the waters with two series productions starring different versions of the original cast. Can you imagine how much more impactful it could have been if it was the only revisit to the Adventure cast we had since 02? My reaction to this film's announcement was "oh brother here we go again" instead of the collective excitement I joined in on when Tri appeared on the radar.
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Everlasting Coconut



Joined: 22 Jul 2019
Posts: 290
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:50 pm Reply with quote
Fakerman wrote:
>Praises the reboot
>Dislikes Appmon

Yeah, no.


He described watching the reboot as "one of the most hollow experiences" he's had all year. I wouldn't consider that praise Laughing
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eliram



Joined: 04 May 2013
Posts: 14
PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:28 pm Reply with quote
I went to see the first Tri movie with friends when it first came out, and it was a really fun nostalgia bomb. However every subsequent entry had diminishing returns and in the end it amounted to nothing. Having felt burned by Tri and it coming out around the time covid started spreading I opted out of Last Evolution but I'll make sure to check it out.

Edit:
It is also worth noting that on the game front Digimon is going through a bit of a renaissance. With Digimon World Next Order and the Digimon Story series being family well received and Digimon Survive, which was scheduled for this year but got delayed, looking like a fresh entry.
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JoelBurger





PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 8:40 pm Reply with quote
Yugi12 wrote:
I liked Digimon Adventure Tri. I don't really understand all of the hate that it gets. It's wayyy better than Adventure 02. Tamers is still the best season of Digimon.


As others noted, Tri basically just throws a bunch of references at you and expects you to clap and cheer at them, regardless of substance. Yggdrasil is probably the perfect example of that. It's just a name thrown out to elicit a "Hey I remember that" response, only for the films to then make Yggdrasil a one-dimensional non-entity who gets taken care of entirely off-screen. In conjunction with Maki being unceremoniously ejected out of the last movie, this also demonstrates another problem: Tri tried to do too much, and collapsed under its own weight without being able to tackle any one of its elements with sufficient grace. Meiko is another example of that - while ultimately inoffensive IMO, she still felt like an addition to an already bloated script that added little compared to if the time was spent on fleshing out some of the other chosen children further.

Also, just wanna put it out there that they handled the reboot in the lamest, most cowardly way they could have, with basically no lasting consequences (something that could have really salvaged the second half).
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5500
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:12 am Reply with quote
Surprised by the mention of Adventure 2020 without bringing up what i consider perhaps its second biggest flaw, aka The Taichi problem, which i also think is at the root of the greatest flaw, the aforementioned hollowness in character and story development. The fact that they force Taichi to be at the center of every important moment and be the forefront of every battle with the rest of the squad acting as cheerleaders at best. The Milleniumon plot that was literally driving the whole series for 3/4 of its run ended with Taichi pmuch soloing that fight, the holy dragons providing him with support only and everyone else completely sidelined. Then the emblem storyline of the last quarter has had all the kids get their mega evolutions, but whilst each of them goes their separate ways, Taichi gets to insert himself in every single episode and take away some of the spotlight for the already underrepresented kid-digimon duo of the week. And i'm pretty sure if Omegamon didn't exist, Yamato would also be sidelined on the final fight taking place for the last two episodes. I don't really understand, from a marketing point of view, why you'd waste away your opportunity of selling more toys by making all the kids likable and important and instead focusing on one single character for the entire run of the series and it's been massively disappointing.
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