((Just an "I'm not dead" update lol. Really enjoying Digimon Story: Lost Evolution so far, despite it having the exact same issues as the other Story DS games (stupid freakin huge maps, stupid backtracking, stupid frequent random battles). Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the digiplates repairing mini game! I was skeptical at first but it's weirdly relaxing. Anyways, I'm about halfway through and I just hit a slight difficulty spike, but nothing too bad yet. Undecided if I'll play the 4th Digimon Story yet...I'll think about it))
Look at what came in the mail! 😍 One of the biggest hurdles for me playing the Digimon Story games is all of the confusing maps. Between the repetitive layouts and the frequent random battles, it can be a real slog. I bought the official strategy guide which has maps for every item/story trigger in the game. Total gold mine.
Well, the cards were stacked against me to enjoy this game, but it wasn't all bad really. On the one hand it was kinda lazy and poorly designed, but on the other it was fun to see/play as these digimon with their XBOX 360/PS3-gen models. It was especially cool to see the Fusion characters get a chance to shine since that season was pretty unpopular. I feel like if I had a fighting game buddy, versus mode has potential, but I don't. It almost feels a little unfair to review it as a solo player, because that's not the game's strength...Oh well.
Notes:
Since playing Smash Bros style battles by myself against computers feels empty and boring to me, I spent most of my time with this game in story mode. Story mode was pretty tedious and repetitive so I only went through it twice. Once with Shoutmon (to get the Fusion experience) and once with Guilmon because they unlocked the most digimon. For the plot I then watched all of the other characters' cutscenes on YouTube. Shoutout to this playlist.
I did poke around in "battle mode" (seems like it would be fun with a friend) and "training mode" (depressing cuz you just beat up another digimon as they stand still). Also, there's a "shop" for power-ups/cards but it kinda sucks cuz it's only ever selling 3 cards at a time? Didn't get much use out of that.
The plot of this game was very half-assed. There's a virus taking over digimon's bodies and whoever wins the tournament has to defeat the virus. That's it. You do get a little more plot if you play as multiple characters, but not much.
I enjoyed a lot of the sillier endings (see Guilmon's above) but I feel like they might be a little anticlimactic if that was the only character you played as. Tentomon's was about wanting prize money and Biyomon wanted to become buff. Other's were a bit more serious like Gatomon's and Dorulumon's routes (Dorulumon's ended a bit like a western film, so maybe it wasn't that serious lol).
By the way, some of the characterizations caught me off guard a bit. Like, has Tentomon always been money obsessed? Was Guilmon always viewed as a dumb baby by everyone? I feel like these are dub jokes or something...(Well, it is a Western-made game, so that would make sense).
The digimon looked decent in this game. In the opening/ending cutscenes their eyes were a bit funky. Like they got the shading wrong or something. Well, it's an improvement from some of the earlier games' CG cutscenes, that's for sure lol
There's a decent mix of series here, but it could be way better. The roster felt pretty small/limited to me. I found a fan game on YouTube that's way more impressive lol (should I look more into fan content? I'm kinda scared to...)
Guilmon vs. Shoutmon moment was cute:
I liked that there was an Impmon route, that seemed like an unexpected choice (it's probably just for Beelzebumon, let's be real). I could see the edgier/goth kids picking them
Comparing this game to past fighter games, I do like that they had more action/adventure style gameplay in-between battles instead of it just being battle after battle. That made story mode feel a bit more like a journey and it gave me a chance to enjoy the characters in an environment where I can slow down and explore a bit.
Okay, enough praise. A lot of the battles in story mode were bullshit. And I'm mostly talking about the battles in the aforementioned action/adventure segments, not the tournament battles. It wasn't a difficulty issue, but a design issue. Sometimes due to awkward camera angles or bad controls it was easy to just get stun locked and pummeled to death in a corner. And the most painful part was that if you died you had to start the entire level over from the beginning, which happened to me a lot in the final level (iykyk).
If you lose too much HP in the in between segments you're basically shit outta luck. Healing items are very sparse in this game. You also can't heal before tournament battles so you can start a battle with a really unfair handicap.
Thank God I found this handy dandy forum post from 2015 about how you can hold down R3 to fill your MP and digivolve meters https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/824720-digimon-all-star-rumble/70612386 Honestly, saved me from rage quitting the lava level. It was pretty boring mashing the button between battles though. Made my hands hurt too 😭
I appreciated the game's mercy to let you fight the final boss as many times as you need without needing to restart the level from scratch. This game is really unbalanced in difficulty, it's either really easy and forgiving or super frustrating and hard. Pick a lane!
The special attack animations were fun...it took me a little too long to realize they existed lol. Honestly, it was a little satisfying to play through story mode a 2nd time because I actually understood the controls. Not satisfying enough to entice me into playing a 3rd time though!
Yeah, IDK...this one is only for the super fans I think. There are better fighting games out there. Heck, there are better Digimon fighting games out there. Sadly, this one seems to be the most recent official release? Maybe we'll get another one some day (or just play that fan game lol).
((I was reviewing what Digimon stuff I want to get to next and I realize I almost completely skipped a Story game! The fact that it's called "Lost Evolution" felt ironic lol. I'll play that before the Xros Wars game especially since it has an English translation ❤️
Still working on Digimon: All Star Rumble but I'm almost done with it...glad it's short.))
Howdy! I hope your doing well! just wanted to say thanks for making your blog, I guess. I found your blog scrolling the digimon tag back in 2021, while procrastinating on my English work, and I've been hooked ever since. The way you write your reviews is super enjoyable, and I always learn a couple of fun facts even I didn't know about. Even though I originally came for Digimon, I eventually started reading up on some of your other reviews, and you've introduced me quite a few series I've really come to enjoy!
That is to say, I really appreciate your blog. Now I'm in my first year of college, and I'm still reading your digimon reviews to procrastinate on my English work, lolol. In all seriousness, your reviews helped distract me from a lot of not-so-fun things over the past couple of years. Sooo...thanks again for that, Chief (ᵕ ´ ∇ ˋ ˶)>
What the heck, this is like the sweetest ask I've ever received? 😭I can't believe someone's been following my ramblings for that long. I really appreciate your thoughtful note. It makes me feel less alone on my nerd journey haha ❤️
Even if I get 0 notes on my posts sometimes, I'm really having fun on this blog. Just getting all my thoughts out has really helped me to better digest and remember the stuff I consume. Of course, it makes my day when I get a reaction/feedback from others. It's especially fun going from tourist to expert in various fandoms and hearing from veterans in those fandoms along the way. Hopefully I can continue to post for a long, long time (I think I'd only stop if Tumblr died haha).
This manga adaptation was fun! I liked how different it was from the anime and there was a lot of fanservice (Easter egg kind, not sexy kind). The variety of background digimon was impressive. I only wish it had had an official translation because the fan one got pretty dicey at times (I'm still grateful it exists).
With all of the lore the manga adds I think it's definitely worth a read, probably more so than some of the other anime-to-manga adaptations which are more shot-for-shot recreations. There were a lot of manga-exclusive digivolutions and digimon as well!
Ch. 16
This chapter was kinda boring, not gonna lie. They spent more time talking about the final battle than actually battling. The best bits were seeing some not-often-seen digimon (like Duftmon) and getting Sparrowmon's human form! (And Monimon as a capybara? lol)
I can't help but feel they introduced Kotone only to give her zero presence. She barely says anything and is always making the same pose/expression. Lame :/
I feel like they could have used more villains from the anime to flesh out the Bagra army. As it is, it seems a bit puny/underwhelming.
All of the sudden they said that the Bagra army started the war because of the prophecy of the two dragons!? Huh? That seemed to come out of thin air since before they were like "the war and the prophecy might be related or not, we don't know!"
Ch. 17
Still a little too much yapping, but the action was improved from the previous chapter. It must be hard to write/draw a 3-way battle...
Ballistamon, Dorulumon, and Sparrowmon get digivolutions! That was pretty hype and their designs/names were decent. Their digivolutions also gave something for the background human characters to do, which is always welcome.
Sacrificing Starmon is pretty weaksauce, you might as well sacrifice one of the Pickmon.
Still a head scratcher as to what makes AxeKnightmon and Bagramon brothers. Did they have a childhood together? Do they have parents? (shrug)
Ch. 18
Another battle-villain monologue-battle kinda chapter. Nene was extra naked in this chapter which grossed me out. I also noticed she's wearing pumps? What the hell...
We get both a digivolution/digixros moment and a fusion moment? All these different types of evolution are really confusing lol. Anyways, it was kind of nice that Starmon got more spotlight in the manga with their fusion with the Pickmon (Shooting Starmon). I guess you might as well give more attention to the little guys if we're using this to expand on the anime.
Digimon loves to recycle its villains. Seeing Millenniummon again was just kind of an eye roll...I guess it's kinda cool to see them in manga form.
Ch. 19
Nearing the end now. They make some weird excuse about needing less data to cut Akari, Zenjirou and all of the Royal Knights out of the final battle? But Kotone, the 7 year old is fine I guess -_- (I know she's a general, whatever)
Despite not being that interesting to me as a villain, Bagramon does have a really nice design. I guess he has a nihilistic, Thanos vibe to him...
I liked the chapter art with the 3 Bagra army generals. I guess it was nice to see them posed cuz they're always in fast-paced action scenes.
Ch. 20
This was a lore dump chapter, which I usually enjoy, but it was really hard to follow due to clunky translation. From what I can understand, Bagramon is mad about how the DIgital World works (where digimon can be born good or evil) and wants to essentially mercy kill it? This doesn't seem like the plans of other Digimon villains where they want to rebuild the world, I think they just want to wipe everything out?
The detail that Bagramon's horns and arm are made out of parts from Yggdrasil was pretty cool. I don't remember that being in the anime?
Homeostasis gets mentioned a lot in this chapter. Weirdly, "Homeostasis" is an actual recurring Digimon franchise character according to this wiki: https://wikimon.net/Homeostasis I guess it's just not always called that.
Speaking of inconsistency, the same wiki's page on the concept of "God" in the Digimon franchise, is hilariously convoluted: https://wikimon.net/God The manga mentions Bagramon being angry with "God," but I thought Yggdrasil was God? Apparently not this time...
The manga made a reference to Masaru's battle against Yggdrasil in Digimon Savers. Unlike the Xros Wars anime (minus season 3), the manga is very invested in bringing all of the timelines together. Normally I like continuity nods, but in Digimon you can really only do a multiverse thing and it often ends up being kinda awkward and unsatisfying.
Kiriha putting the moves on Nene felt a little out of character and weird. Especially since they've barely had any "screen time" together for their romance to develop...
Ch. 21
Kind of a cheesy ending where Bagramon is redeemed by the POWER OF HUMAN LOVE AND HOPE! And all the digimon digivolve and the big bad (what's left of Zeed Millenniumon) is defeated in two seconds by Shoutmon x7 Superior Mode
The whole Shademon/Luminamon and the good/evil versions of Bagramon are giving big Cherubimon vibes.
Bagramon realized they were wrong way too quickly/easily in my opinion, it made them look dumb.
I enjoyed that they had to fight a swarm of Megidramon, nice Tamers callback!
Butterfly "plays" over the ending. I don't think there will ever be a more iconic Digimon song tbh.
I was gonna make fun, but honestly, I think Taiki's conclusion being "I don't really know what I want to do with my life but I'm excited to live it!" is an age appropriate message. He is too young to have things figured out.
Bonus Chapter
We get a bonus chapter where it is revealed that Wizarmon was responsible for bringing Taiki and Shoutmon together in the Digital World and for giving Taiki his Xros Loader. Little Lion King 1 1/2 moment lol. The art in this chapter was nice, I liked how they drew Wizarmon's eyes with more detail.
Lol @ Tagiru only getting a 2 panel cameo in the manga. I wonder if that had to do with the unpopularity of that season...I think it would have to be a separate manga if they did the Hunters story.
A lot of focus on the Wizarmon/Tailmon relationship at the end there. Felt a bit random to me, but I guess it's for the long time fans.
Who is this wheelchair child on the cover of this volume? Probably not Yuu, right? Guess we'll find out! Yay disability representation?
Ch. 11
Whoa, time skip! I did wonder how they would handle the anime's time skips. It felt a bit jarring, but in the end I liked how they handled it. Kotone's out of her coma now and part of the gang (she has a fun, bratty personality). Kiriha has his cooler design but Nene has been whisked away by DarkKnightmon and is still nakey...
Plot aside, this chapter was so much fun from an Easter egg perspective! So many background digimon from previous seasons (Tamers, Savers, Frontier, etc.) and a Tailmon & Wizarmon duo play a big role? I guess it's not the Tailmon and Wizarmon from Adventure, but like an AU version of that pair? Whatever, they're cute so I don't mind haha
Wizarmon gets all deep and existential about "what is the digital world really?" and "maybe the human world was just another zone in the digital world all along?" Woah...really makes you think.
Side note, but PuchiMeramon acting as the gang's campfire was a cute touch.
Akari and Zenjrou get something to do. Zenjirou has become Kotone's babysitter and Akari does assistant stuff like taking care of supplies and logging the journey. I still think they're pointless characters, but I'm glad we at least got a nod to what they're up to.
Nene being all tied up with vines (Blossomon's to be exact) felt very Stranger Things Vecna-esque lol. Creepy af
So the gang decides to go to the human world to "collect evidence about why the digital world is going through war." Huh? I'm not sure what logic there is to that, but sure. In the anime they were forced to go back or something, right? I don't really remember, but it definitely wasn't to "look for clues." The manga made a good point about them also checking on the state of the human world.
Wait are we not ditching Zenjirou and Akari this time around...?
Putting the insert song lyrics in the background was cheesy but I enjoyed it. I went ahead and pulled up the song on YouTube so I could play along :)
Ch. 12
Wow, this chapter was so fun! Mostly just visually lol. The characters make it to the human world but the digimon can't roam freely without causing panic, so the manga gives them all human versions! Basically gijinka. So fun, I loved all of the designs, especially Shoutmon and Tailmon's.
So apparently this Tailmon IS the Tailmon from Adventure and 02...okaaaay? I have timeline questions...
The Starmons all get turned into ducks...because somehow it's not suspicious to wander around the human world with ducks in sunglasses I guess?
Lilithmon getting tortured and enjoying it (in a masochistic kinda way) at the beginning of the chapter just felt creepy and fetishy to me.
Ch. 13
Random homophobic joke where Kiriha calls Taiki his "beloved" and everyone looks shocked/freaked out -_- (sigh).
Kiriha's digimon get human forms too, I really like the beefy dude standing in for Greymon
Big lore dump chapter, first we get the manga version of Taiki's "tragic" backstory and then a little more info regarding the war going on in the digital world.
I think I prefer how they handled the origins of Taiki's selfless personality here than in the anime. There's slightly more of a reason for Taiki to feel guilty...but only slightly. Encouraging someone to join a sport and them getting injured isn't really anyone's "fault." I guess maybe he pushed Tatsuya too hard, but Tatsuya could have refused so (shrug)
We get another scene where Taiki has to pretend a digimon is his totally normal pet. Spadamon pretending to be a dog was cute.
We meet a royal knight stuck in the human world in this chapter, the art for them was really nice. I kinda wish we could get a series or a movie just focused on the Royal Knights...I feel like it would have a super sentai vibe.
Ch. 14
Lol Tatsuya basically spells out to Taiki what I said about the previous chapter. It wasn't really Taiki's fault that he got injured, Tatsuya pushed himself because he wanted to.
Kiriha's speech about how he hates "modern" humans (as opposed to what? Cavemen?) was just annoying, edge lord nonsense. Luckily, Akari was around to be the voice of reason. I feel like she's had more of a presence in the manga than the anime?
Ch. 15
The random addition of an apocalyptic prophecy that is implied to be maybe separate from the war with the Bagra army is such a weird plot point. Maybe they thought the stakes weren't high enough in the anime or something? IDK, this whole human world arc has been pretty clunky if I'm honest.
When UlforceVeedramon was talking about the limitations of the prophecy, it sounded like he got his info from ChatGPT lol
Taiki not wanting to be Kiriha's friend OR rival is pretty funny. Dude just wants to be left alone. Too bad Taiki, if you wear goggles, you gotta have a rival. I don't make the rules.
Shoutmon x6 was a hideous abomination. It turns out these convoluted fusions look even worse in black and white where you don't have color to distinguish all the fused bits...It's also kinda funny that they tried to mix things up by introducing x6 when the anime skipped that number. As if x6 is gonna be so different from x7...
I appreciated all of the double page spreads in this chapter. They were fun to look at and it made it go by very quick.
Ch. 15.1 (Special Chapter 1)
A random gag chapter that surprisingly went pre-time skip all of the sudden? It was a fun, non-canon episode of the gang competing against each other and the Bagra generals in a field day style obstacle course.
I've just finished reading the Azumanga Daioh omnibus and I think that was the only other series where I saw the "stick your face in flour" obstacle/game. We would never do that in America on account of allergies...I'm really curious to see someone do it IRL now though!
Ch 15.2 (Special Chapter 2)
Another gag chapter, very similar to the previous only the setting changes to the classroom and the Bagra generals are teachers. All of the gags about the good guy digimon being completely uneducated were pretty funny. Not something I would have considered, but makes total sense.
Shoutmon and Kiriha sing insert songs in "music class." This manga has a lot of appreciation for the anime's music and rightly so. I was a little disappointed to look up the song Kiriha sang and see that it's not sung by his voice actor. I guess Xros Wars wasn't popular enough to get image songs? :'( (Actually, it probably has more to do with the era it was released in).
Cutemon's drawing of Blastmon was adorable.
Omake (4koma)
Once again, the translation was unintelligble. I still appreciated the gag of Nene falling for bad boy!Cutemon though 😂
((By the way, the sudden month-long gap in posts from me is cuz I was in Japan for two weeks 😊 I did look around for Digimon merch with little success. I saw some doujinshi at Mandarake and some teeny tiny plushies at Anibirth. The only thing I was almost tempted to buy were these Terriermon/Lopmon scarves, but they were like $60 each 🫠
I did not find the Terriermon plush of my dreams (the big, huggable one). I saw them at Anime Boston but it was literally $500 😭))
Manga adaptations of anime (instead of the other way around) always have the weirdest vibes. This series hasn't been as bad as some in the past (like the ones with terrible pacing), but the constant switching up of plot details feels so random. I wonder if it came out before the anime had wrapped or something? (shrug)
Ch. 6
Okay, this mangaka team clearly enjoys the female characters. I'm not complaining! They're drawn well and could always use more screen time (Lilithmon especially looked great). I just wish they hadn't made Nene so creepy...
There was a Sweets Zone in the anime but it was completely different from the one in the manga. I really enjoyed the designs of Weddinmon and Shortmon! A strawberry shortcake unicorn with the strawberry as the horn? Genius. It also felt kind of clever to have a former zone leader sucking up to the Bagra army. It makes sense that not everyone would have air tight morals.
This might just be translation weirdness but they said something like "an absorption fusion isn't as powerful a digi xros" and I was like "a what now?" You can't just make up new stuff like that >:/ (Edit: in retrospect did they maybe mean a forced digixros?)
Ch. 7
So Yuu (Nene's brother) randomly got replaced by Kotone (Nene's sister) for the manga. I feel like the mangaka just wanted to draw more cute girls lol. I'm not sure what the deal is with manga adaptations screwing around with plot/character details like this. I guess it could be to give the manga a sense of exclusivity for people who've already watched the show? IDK.
I didn't find Taiki's "everyone thinks they're fighting for the right reason" speech very convincing. We don't need to redeem every villain of the week...I was more on Nene's side with the "once a traitor always a traitor" viewpoint. Guess I'm a cynical adult 😅
Ch. 8
Nene does her "villainous, but not really" schtick in this chapter. Using magical handcuffs on Taiki is a new one...
Kotone's design is really cute, not gonna lie. She kind of seems to be dressed for winter and summer at the same time lol.
Ch. 9
Greymon calling Kiriha tsundere lol...finally someone said it. Kiriha's basically textbook tsundere.
This was like the monologue chapter. Nene monologuing, DarkKnightmon monologuing...
The plot line with Nene doing evil stuff for the sake of her sick sibling is so anime. I feel like I've seen this same plot line a million times (and in Digimon too, Savers anyone?)
They're making up weird new stuff again, like Nene's shadow having an evil digimon growing inside of it, Kotone having a powerful xros code inside her. What is a xros code? I don't really know lol. It's probably something like life force...
Ch. 10
An action chapter, volume 2 ends on an action note with Shoutmon and Greymon getting their golden digivolutions
Nene digixrosses with Shademon (and the manga makes a Tamers reference to Dukemon). Of course xrossed!Nene has to be pretty much naked -_- There was also a scene were she hugs Akari that gave off weird vibes (like Akari was way too embarrassed about it).
It was nice to get a text-based explanation of how the Darkness Loader works, I feel like I got kind of confused about that in the anime. I understood the forced fusion, but there's also an emphasis on a loss of consciousness for those being fused I guess. Maybe more of a permanence too?
Omake
Damn, I really don't know who they got to translate the 4koma at the end of volume 2, but it's gotta be the worst English translation I've ever seen! Unintelligible word salad at best...A raw scan would have been better for me but I'm too lazy to find one lol.
It's always kind of funny reading these immediately after finishing the series. It's like resetting back to zero. Let's see how faithful or not the manga is. I feel like there was plenty of fat to trim in the anime, so maybe it's a good candidate for adaptation?
Chapter 1
The art style seems decent, a little sketchy at times. There are a lot of double page panels, so it looks nice on my big tablet.
There are pros and cons to the manga format. A con is that it's sometimes hard to tell what the heck is going on in action scenes. A pro is that I can take in the designs of digimon for as long as I like because they're not zooming around all the time.
When Kiriha sees Taiki he says "Another human with a xros loader other than me?" but doesn't Kiriha know about Nene? Does Nene not count to you, Kiriha!? >:(
I've already mentioned this before, but the whole "digi-melody" thing is so random and never really explained. I can say now having watched all 3 seasons that the concept never amounts to anything.
Chapter 2
Oh, I think some elements in this chapter were slightly different from the anime. The Mushmon and MadLeomon's Drimogemon are new. Pretty random things to change.
It's pretty questionable that Taiki just fuses everyone without asking them beforehand. This was emphasized by Dorulumon's complete bewilderment in the background lol
I feel like they made Nene more flirtatious and talkative than she was in the anime. Maybe this will correct some of the anime's mistakes (taking forever to establish Nene as a character)?
Chapter 3
Ayo, what!? Random bisexual moment from Nene 👀 She did not show those leanings in the anime at all? I support it, but the way they wrote her to be super forward is out of character...
Sunflowmon and Lilamon having a "girls' moment" with Akari when they realized she has a crush on Taiki was pretty cute. Didn't like the focus on Akari being jealous of Nene though (sigh)
Each page is full of speech bubbles and almost cluttered. The anime was kind of the same, with nonstop yapping. At least it's faithful!
Chapter 4
Back to pre-character development Kiriha. I feel like his behavior is kinda chunibyo in retrospect. I guess that would make sense with the characters' ages...
They gave us a little more insight on Dorulumon's past in the Bagramon army than they did in the anime. We even get to meet another former Bagra soldier, OchiMusyamon who is able to recall why Dorulumon deserted.
Dorulumon apparently led a team of in training digimon. I guess they're just drawn towards cute little guys ❤️
Chapter 5
Okay, we've got some more deviations from the anime here. There's two manga-only fusions (Ballistamon SL and Shoutmon SW) that show up for like two panels. Also, AxeKnightmon asks Nene which boy (Taiki or Kiriha) she wants as her bridegroom (wtf?) Gonna be honest, I completely forgot about AxeKnightmon, Xros Wars has a lot of forgettable villains.
The art is very expressive and anime-accurate so far. I really enjoyed all of Dorulumon's reactions in this chapter especially. My eyes definitely glaze over during the action scenes though.
Omake
If you end up reading the scanlations like me, make sure you don't miss the bonus chapters! The first website I was using didn't have them.
There was a collection of 4koma at the end of this volume, the jokes were mostly pretty dumb, but I liked the sketches of the characters in different outfits, especially goth!Nene and tofu seller!Lilithmon lol.
The mangaka having their own digimon OC was pretty cute.
Omg I'm done with Fusion YEEHAAAAAAW! Well....except the manga, and the video game...anything else? I don't think there are any movies or drama CDs. Anyways, 79 episodes is no small feat! And it's the longest show too, so I'm kinda over the hump you could say. Adding up all of the previous shows that's 332 episodes, hot damn!
This was kind of a standard Digimon finale, which is to say: hype, fun, formulaic, and predictable. THEN AGAIN, it wasn't totally unpredictable because there random plot twists that came outta left field. And not really in a good way...Full thoughts below.
Notes:
So the episode wastes zero time in pulling the rug out from under us and going "Ha HA! You thought it was Ryouma who was evil but it was actually Astamon controlling him ALL ALONG!" That was the most rapid fire twist/reverse twist/redemption ever lol. Also, this kinda feels like it came out of nowhere because Astamon barely had any dialogue at all this season. I guess maybe they tried to foreshadow it with Ryouma's somewhat inconsistent characterization, but he too had so little screen time that I didn't really know much about him anyways. Eh, oh well. Nothing lost, nothing gained here.
Oh also, twist number two is that Astamon was Quartzmon all along. I feel like that was actually pretty upsetting. Digimon-human partnerships are supposed to be really strong bonds built on trust so Ryouma should be pretty wrecked post-finale. Someone write a fic where he gets a new partner stat!
Not only did this episode look nice, but I can now say that the entire season looked nice! That's gotta count for something :) This episode in particular had some cool lighting/color palettes for added drama.
Quartzmon's various forms in this felt pretty Evangelion. The scene with all of the human data reminded me of Devilman as well (that creepy turtle with the faces on its back). My heebies were effectively jeebied.
Clockmon stopping time after not doing much all season, was very cool. I like the idea of a special attack that's so powerful it can only be used in apocalyptic situations.
Of course they strategically wrote it so that Tagiru and Arresterdramon would have to go it alone for the final battle. I'm okay with it. In some other seasons it was the lead/rival pair taking on the big boss, but Ryouma is underdeveloped and partner-less lol (too soon). It's kind of funny that they implied that Taiki would have done it if he had the strength...
Okay, to be fair Tagiru did use "the strength of the legendary heroes" or whatever. Who, BY THE WAY, had very little dialogue this episode. I get it, but it felt kinda awkward.
Trailer one-liner:
(insert epic music here)
All the hallmarks are here: the fake out defeat, the friends combining their strength, the sudden goodbye and the reunion in the epilogue. I didn't feel too many feels, but Tagiru shaking Gumdramon's paw was sweet. (Wish Gumdramon had more merch btw)
Notably there was no epilogue for the rival characters or anyone aside from the main trio. I guess they're off being normal humans now. It would have been nice to at least see Ryouma again after all he was put through.
So the final dumb twist was that the Clock Maker was...Bagramon reincarnated I guess? And he's atoning for his sins or something? Huuuh?? Talk about a twist that wasn't foreshadowed at all (except for in this episode with his glowy eye lol). I'm pretty sure, given how humans age, this makes no sense. I guess it could be like an isekai where you can reincarnate into an existing human and take over their body. I could ask a million more questions, but I feel like there's no actual answers here so I'll stop lol
So at the end I guess the hunt is continuing because "there are still digimon remaining in the real world." Makes sense. IDK wtf the point of hunting is without Quartzmon to defeat but oh well. Maybe it's a "catch-and-release-in-the-digital-world" situation.
So yeah, I don't think anyone would say this season was their fave unless they have mega nostalgia for it or something, but it wasn't so bad. It gets a 6 out of 10 from me :)
I take it back, the cameos are awesome lol. Totally Avengers End Game vibes (or that Disney Princess slumber party from Wreck it Ralph 2 lol). Just legendary digimon after legendary digimon popping up. Of course there's stuff that is kinda funky if you think about it too hard, but it's fine. This is in the "dumb fun" category.
Notes:
I was right about them repurposing previous season's bosses to an extent. I guess they can't do all of them.
So the new lore revealed is that the final battle with Bagramon gave birth to Quartzmon (somehow) and Quartzmon created DigiQuartz and the digixros restrictions (somehow) and then brought a bunch of digimon to DigiQuartz to absorb their power. The Clock maker paired up kids with digimon for the reason I stated in my previous post (to "raise" hunters) but also to keep the digimon safe from being absorbed. I guess that's a fine backstory, some of it feels a little convenient. I'm glad they explained how DIgiQuartz came to be because it felt pretty random that they introduced a not-DigiWorld for this season.
Zenjirou and Akari FINALLY get xros loaders. Damn, that took way too long. I like the colors (light blue and orange). Also Cutemon and Dorulumon being paired with Akari just feels right.
Random Beelzebumon/Mervamon ship moment was cute. I thought Mervamon looked nice this episode. Sometimes they overdo her assets and she looks janky.
We got some rapid fire new fusions and most of them looked kinda dumb tbh (especially poor Dorulumon). Beelzebumon and Mervamon fuse looked badass.
"Brave Snatcher" is a very dumb name for a weapon. This reminds me of the time they named a digimon "Snatchmon" in Digimon World 3. Take the word "snatch" away from these writers!
The moment Ryouma was selected as the strongest hunter it was like "okay yeah, he evil." Again, not much of a twist since he's kind of been antagonistic this whole season (except when he had temporary truces with Tagiru).
In a previous episode Ryouma said something about collecting data from his friends' digimon. I guess he was doing that for Quartzmon. I feel like this isn't the first time an evil digimon was like "I want to make humanity extinct" and a human was like "great! I'm gonna work for that guy!" Like...huh? What exactly does Ryouma get outta this bargain? (something vague like "power" I'm sure).
I love that Masaru is just an honorary digimon. He's not called Daimon for nothing! He got kind of annoying in his own season, but I still really like him as a character and I love how his arc ended.
Everyone being stunned by all the different versions of digivolution was hilarious
(and Tentomon randomly showing up to info dump was great too 😂)
Takuya starting off as Agunimon while the other characters' digimon started off with their close-to-strongest forms kinda annoyed me, but they course corrected quick enough.
Secondary characters only showed up if needed for a digivolution it seems. Fair enough, you can only shove so many characters into one episode! (Didn't see Grani coming lol)
Why did they randomly show Jou and Gomamon in silhouette? They're 100% recognizable so what's the point? Did they just want to cheap out on animation for that scene?
Seeing how ridiculously tall Imperialdramon was in comparison to everyone else was wild. It's hard to judge these things when you usually see these digimon in isolation.
Lowkey looked like Ryouma had the infinity gauntlet lol.
Couldn't get a subtitle-free screenshot but Quartzmon's next form is revealed!
(I think it's an improvement! Basically a fancy globe with an Illuminati eye.)
This episode ended very abruptly. Excited to watch the finale but it will have to wait 'til tomorrow!
Ooh yeah, it's big bad time. Where the heck did the cameo characters go? Guess they're waiting for things to get desperate again...in the shadows.
This episode had a decent lore/action balance. The lore is pretty bland though, not gonna lie.
Notes:
The gag where the Clock maker kept lying and acting nonchalant made me laugh. I think the bit was kinda cathartic too because he's been cryptic for far too long! Glad they poked fun at it.
Tagiru has PARENTS!? Why did they wait so long to show them? I love Digimon parents!
(Another cute mom. Can someone make a Digimon moms zine? Also, apparently his red streak is genetic lol. Love anime logic).
The Diaboromon digivolution line felt like a rehash, but at least: 1. it was well animated 2. It wasn't the big bad's "true form." Unfortunately, the true form is kinda boring. Knowing digimon there's gonna be a truer form though loi.
I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I feel like Gumdramon gets smacked around more than any other main partner digimon. They have a really great scream, so maybe it just stands out more to me?
Tagiru lives in a HOUSE!? Okay, RICH.
(I'm not seething with jealousy or anything...)
Everyone was way too casual about humanity seemingly going extinct (aside from the hunters). The viewer knows everything will be fine, but these kids don't!! Wait...I think they only took over one city, not the world. They should still be freaking out more though.
Apparently Ryouma was there for the finale of the previous season. Kay. He didn't show any signs of evilness this episode despite his smirk at the end of 22? Maybe he just likes smirking lol
We got the side characters AND the hunters/tamers/whatever from previous Xros seasons showing up. Including the bug kid?? I didn't see him get a xros loader but sure. I do appreciate the continuity. Makes me laugh that train conductor kid just wears his conductor outfit at all times. (Maybe he can befriend bug kid and they can info dump at each other haha).
I gotta say, they've really done NOTHING with Ren's character. Ironically I remember his name more than the other two rival characters, maybe cuz it's short. All I know about him is he's kinda callous.
What the heck was that goo they pinned the clock maker down with? Was that just a really lazy way to animate a bunch of Zenimon swarming?
Arresterdramon's "Xros Up" with Astamon made me smile. A dragon in a gangster outfit? I think we've hit peak digimon design.
Shoutmon x7 returns to kick ass. I was kinda glad that they got the "killing" shot of the episode. Timeline-wise it would only make sense that they're stronger than any digimon Tagiru can pull out. I bet they'll let Tagiru take the final big bad though. (Or it will be some chaotic Avengers End Game attack lol)
Quartzmon huh...I'm so tempted to google to see if there are other forms, but I'll hold back. The "big eldritch blob" vibe reminds me of Tamers. I wonder if they'll take on the form of other previous season's big bads. That could be kinda fun.
So the Clock maker's grand plan was to build a child army to fight Quartzmon I guess? He honestly could have led with that. Remember in Frontier the kids were called upon to save the DigiWorld from the start? It sorta feels like the subterfuge is more for the benefit of stringing along the audience with a mystery than it is for in-universe strategy.
Hi just wanted to say that (even though i dont necessarily agree with all of your comments) i really love that you’re actually critiquing hunters in a way that feels both constructive and like a genuine critique of it as a show, most of the criticism ive seen for it has been very surface level so its nice to see you going into detail about what does or doesn’t work well within each episode
Hey thanks! These are just my raw reactions off the dome, so I'm glad you're enjoying them :) (also, feel free to object to my takes haha, I won't be offended).
Ehhh I'm conflicted. I was looking forward to the cameos, but they feel pretty forced. I kind of wish the show could stand on its own merits. That being said, maybe they'll go deeper in the next episodes, we only got quick glimpses of the older characters so far. (Watch each character get like 10 seconds of screen time lol).
Notes:
That Kaneda character reminded me of one of those Pokemon trainer NPCs you can fight in the games (I'm pretty sure there's a bug freak one, right?) Also, most likely autistic.
I'm actually not sure why we needed the Kaneda character when we already had Hideaki coming back and also interested in hunting bugs. I guess they just wanted a neutral non-hunter guy.
MetallifeKuwagamon, cool design, dumb name. To be fair, I guess it's based on a real beetle's name according to the Digimon wiki. Why did I get kind of invested in their relationship with Kaneda? (Only for them to die two seconds later 😭) For a second there I thought we were witnessing the start of a new partnership.
So apparently Jokermon was a contest winner too!? They really DID shove a ton of them into one episode! (Actually, maybe that's for the best).
(Aw, the original art is cute. It also says something about Jokermon eating people's dreams to gain power? Seems on brand...)
I feel like they keep almost hinting that digimon hunting is slightly unethical but then they change the subject lol. I know they won't go deep into it, but I could see someone making a darker and edgier fan work out of this concept...
The villain in this was....one of those floating islands from James Cameron's smash hit Avatar (2009)!? I couldn't take its angry emoji face seriously lol
Somehow the battle didn't feel epic enough to warrant saving by Taichi and Masaru...Maybe it just needed to be longer or something.
Even though they have different art styles I thought the older characters looked...fine. Again, they didn't show much so it's hard to judge yet. I think my favorite part was when Mimi and Ruki pulled out their digivices at the same time. Those were just cool to see side by side like that.
Nene's new design still bugs me...they made her way too One Piece-esque if you know what I mean.
I kind of rolled my eyes when Tagiru was like "Arresterdramon is digivolving...? No!!" Their new form is apparently not a digivolution even though they look different and have a new name? It's like...an enhanced form. I guess we've seen this before with digimon like Imperialdramon having multiple "modes." It's just so infrequent and such a vague distinction that I'm not sure what to make of it...Did they design the digivolution and then go "eh, it doesn't look different enough..."
Ryoma (whose name I had to Google AGAIN because he's so damn forgettable) is like evil now I guess? Or maybe possessed? He was already kind of an antagonist anyways. If he does become a big bad I hope he gets a more intimidating form -_- I can't take him seriously
