having a blast with the (explicit) demands that Appmon makes of its protagonists
the questions posed by the kids’ AppDrives and how they connect with the narrative is genuinely exciting to me—it’s strongly implied that a specific entity is responsible for giving the kids their AppDrives (and we may discover their identity later in the show), which means this individual is the one asking the questions and looking for specific types of people worthy of getting a buddy appmon. Throughout the show we see that the narrative demands these kids to prove that they can live up to their answers, and i trust it’ll continue asking these questions.
(i kidna wish there were more serious consequences for choosing the ‘wrong’ answer initially, like Rei did, but ultimately it makes sense that the the entity responsible for distributing the Drives allow the chosen bearers to contemplate what’s being demanded of them, and get a second chance to commit even if they failed to do so the first time—people can always choose to develop in new directions at any time, and different people are ready for that growth at different rates.)
welcome to appmon ep 27, aka “the single gayest episode of digimon so far”
for one, we get gay people existing in the background:
(i believe the caption mentions a partner, which the English sub omitted for the sake for brevity? something like “a long-awaited offline meeting❤️ with my partner❤️❤️❤️” while in the next pic she complains about her partner being late)
and then we get a romantically-coded outing between Haru and Yuujin, with Gatchmon literally lampshading it:
when Haru inevitably has to go deal with the monster of the week, the trope of the protagonist having to keep secrets from loved ones comes up, with Haru ultimately deciding—like he did in episode 18—to not tell Yuujin about appmons, lest Yuujin be dragged into danger:
i think it’s worth noting that this type of narrative tension never happened with Ai, the girl Haru supposedly has a crush on—but it’s the second time that it had came up in the relationship between Haru and Yuujin. the pacing of the scene—the beat of Haru looking pensive under the sakura trees as the camera zooms out—adds weight to the moment.
Also, while the cherry blossoms serve as an indication for when this episode takes place, it’s could also be seen as romantically-coded (esp. pink blossoms). While romance is far from the only thing that sakura blossoms symbolize, I think it’s fair to say that the creators are conscious of the romantic symbolism.
(i’ll get to Yuujin’s declaration of protection in another post, as i think that ties back into appmon’s thesis of “what makes a great protagonist” and the Haru-Yuujin dynamic regarding that question.
also, for reactions that are more off-the-cuff, feel free to check out my appmon livetweets here)
hi sorry but i’m still going insane from the fact that the Big Good AI basically said “hey kid, you wanna be your best self and prove worthy of the AppDrive? your best possible self is the one who dies for your friend”
the other kids get questions like:
“are you a protagonist?” (your best self is the one who step ups and takes control of your life, while centering your resolve on compassion for others)
“do you want to make someone smile?” (your best self is the one who works to spread joy to others)
“ride the groove?” (your best self is the one who follows your own heart and passions)
and “are you alone?” (your best self is the one who is willing to accept help and trust in others)
...all of them are a far cry from “dying for your friend is the culmination of your positive personal development” in terms of permanent, irrevocable sacrifice
which begs the question—Minerva is established as the “good” super AI in contrast to the “evil” Leviathan, but is Minerva truly ‘benevolent’ or ‘compassionate’? or is it only good in the sense that it’s on the side of humanity?
(again, i’m only on ep 30 as of writing this post; we’ll surely be getting new info surrounding this situation, because it’s kinda shocking that the Big Good essentially demands the death of one of its chosen and frames the death as the best result of his character development yes i know that minerva can ask him to die only bc it’s heavily implied he’s not human + his hinted association with Leviathan; it never would (or could) have demanded the same from a human, bc it’s constrained by human laws (and this is a children’s show, so idk if it’ll fly for the Big Good to demand a human child to die for their pals, while framing it as the best outcome for said child’s character development))
i like Appmon but I hate the rival set-up between Eri and Beautymon.
Beautymon is such a boring take on the beautician app concept, and it’s clear that her theme is beauty bc she’s a girl instead of any nuanced insights about what the beauty industry does to people. Unlike her male colleagues, Beautymon’s special attack is a huge joke about making Oujamon handsome (and not having any real effect), and the whole time she’s just jealous about Eri’s youthful skin or whatever
It was kinda annoying when Mienumon halted genuinely threatening plans just to go after Eri’s popularity (it’s significant that she never went after Astra’s popularity after ep 8 or whatever), but Beautymon is just insulting—especially after they’ve shown us the depth in Eri’s character and her motivations to become an idol, letting us see how hard she works and how much she cares about her work. Having her rival be a “beauty-obsessed older woman” archetype is so lazy, and Eri deserved better :/
imo, a meaningful rival for Eri challenges her ideology, not just her looks (pressures to conform to beauty standards had never been a part of Eri’s character arc). Eri is so passionate about supporting the people who support her, and to bring joy to her fans—she appreciates her fans’ encouragement, and works hard to give something worthwhile back to them. it’d be cool if Beautymon is a gatcha-type appmon that only ‘takes’ from her supporters but doesn’t care about giving back: her only drive is to see how much she can lure her followers into giving up for her or w/e, and sees them as fools who’s willing to ruin their own lives for her when confronted by Eri.
EDIT: Beautymon showed a glimmer of promise—veiled critique of beauty standards? hell yeah sign me up!—before the narrative veered back to “teehee local vain woman throwing a fit bc the heroine is prettier than her”
Now that we’ve reached ep 32, here are some of my observations so far regarding Yuujin, Haru, and what it means to be a protagonist. Please note that there will be spoilers up until ep 32 (and that I have not watched beyond that at this point).
it’s clear that Appmon is interested in exploring what makes a great protagonist: throughout the show, Haru is asked to prove himself worthy as a protagonist by both Minerva (as the initial condition for him to use the AppDrive and to partner with Gatchmon) and the narrative itself.
Haru starts off feeling like a side-character; he admires the heroes in his story books, as well as his popular “protagonist-like” best friend, Yuujin. We’ve quickly introduced to Yuujin as an athletic boy who is confident without being arrogant (playful quips aside), and someone who is very supportive of the people around him:
Haru looks up to Yuujin a lot, thanks to his admirable heroic qualities. People comment on how different Haru and Yuujin are, and tend to assume that Yuujin is the stronger, more admirable one in their relationship.
Yuujin’s heroic role is further emphasized in ep 27: here, our cast is on the verge of defeat. Sateramon and Tubumon had gotten the better of our heroes, and they gloat about the AppDrivers’ inevitable demise... before being interrupted by Yuujin, who emerges through the flames with the declaration to protect Haru.
Yuujin and Offmon then proceeds to save the day by blowing Tubumon up, prompting Sateramon to retreat. When Haru asks what Yuujin—the important friend that he had decided twice over to keep the appmon stuff a secret from, for the sake of Yuujin’s safety—is doing in an AR Field, Yuujin reaffirms his motivation to protect Haru.
This setup clearly portrays Yuujin as a classic protagonist, who is strong and dependable, acting as a protector for their teammates, right?
Well, i think it’s a little less straightforward than that. In ep 28, we see that Yuujin’s AppDrive question—the thing that Minerva demands of him—is his willingness to give up his life for a friend. The narrative continuously asks the AppDrivers to uphold their vow/answers, which implies that Yuujin will have to perform a self-sacrifice to save Haru down the line. Note that he’s the only AppDriver whose affirmation of their best self involves death—Haru must step up and take agency in his own life to protect his ideals, Eri must work hard and share joy with others, Astra must follow his heart, Rei must learn to work with others and ask for help. Here it is decreed that Yuujin must die, and his death is the proof of him successfully performing his function in Minerva’s plan (and mostly likely his function in the narrative).
That’s, uh. That’s not really the character development for a shounen protagonist. While self-sacrifice can be heroic, it’s rare for a protagonist’s character development to end in death. (Not to say it never happens, but it’s not a super common trope imo.)
There’s also some bumps with characterizing Yuujin only as the classic protagonist that Haru and others characters see him as, since we know that Yuujin is not as confident as he seems, and relies on Haru for emotional strength:
There’s also the fact that Haru, for all he calls himself a side-character, is consistently shown to be willing to take action, to protect and uphold his values; while he’s hesitant to claim the title of a protagonist in episode 1, imo it’s because he puts the notion of a “main character” on a pedestal, not because he doesn’t have those qualities. And even before he commits to being a protagonist, thus fulfilling Minerva’s demands of him, Yuujin comments that he’s already protagonist-like. He also specifically highlights Haru’s kindness is why he’s a worthy protagonist:
Throughout the series, we see Haru stepping up as a hero because of his compassion for others, and his kindness is also challenged by the narrative: his desire to understand Rei’s motivations—who had been nothing be antagonistic to the other AppDrivers at that point—paid off, but the same trait is also taken advantage of by Drawmon in Cyber Kowloon to set the stage of betrayal. I’d be very surprised if Haru doesn’t experience something harrowing (a crushing betrayal?), but still manages to have compassion for his enemy in the endgame.
Furthermore, the contrived vibe muddies the waters of Yuujin’s heroic rescue. His involvement with the appmons seems very deliberate—almost as if someone if engineering situations in which Yuujin would take “protagonist-like” actions. Thus far Yuujin does feel genuinely like a good kid with admirable qualities (uh, aside from the sinister glowy red eyes he sports at times), but there’s also the concern that someone is taking advantage of his protagonist-like qualities to stage a show.
Like... Yuujin arriving to save the others just in time, carrying an upgraded AppDrive with him, rubs me the wrong way because it feels off. The trope of ‘hero saving the day in the nick of time’ is common, but there’s a degree of blatant machination here—as if someone specifically timed Yuujin’s heroic rescue of the other kids, to make the greatest impact.
It’s also interesting to see Minerva change its mind about someone: Haru and co. were labelled blue right from the start (implying that Minerva had its eye on them since the beginning), but it’s clear that Yuujin is a late addition. (There’s no way the color coding here isn’t significant, I’m just saying.) The fact that Minerva immediately recruited Yuujin just in time for the rescue suggests that both of the super AIs introduced in the show have a HUGE amount of control over the events happening—it’s not too farfetched to think that Minerva realizes it needs to bring Yuujin into the fold because it foresees the kids’ defeat at the hands of Sateramon.
The slight artificial feeling of Yuujin’s involvement intensifies after we learn how, exactly, Yuujin received his AppDrive Duo. While the AppDrives were all given to the children to some extent, Yuujin literally got his AppDrive (and his buddy appmon) delivered to him on a platter. Haru and Eri were led to theirs—they took the initiative to investigate the weird stuff happening, and made a choice to take the AppDrives back home with them. Astra and Rei’s cases were closer to Yuujin’s, in that their AppDrives were dropped into their laps—literally in Astra’s case, but at least their buddy appmons had to attempt communication with them. Yuujin was just given Offmon on a plate, which seems a little odd for a character who’s supposed to be “protagonist-like.”
So, in short, despite Yuujin and Haru’s dynamic being set up as “Yuujin is a Classic Shounen Protagonist, and Haru is a Modern Protagonist”, I wonder if Yuujin's role or archetype in the narrative isn’t to embody the Classic Protagonist after all (remember, it’s heavily implied that his character development into his best self—his ultimate role in the narrative—leads to his death).
okay, so RL has gotten a little hectic; I haven’t had time yet to rewatch ep 52 to do the write-up, and at this point i’m probably gonna save it for when i rewatch the series at a later date. However, i did make some shitposts :V
so it turns out tumblr ate the concluding arguments of my reaction post, soooooo here’s part 2. i am NOT OKAY.
we left off with a nice rooftop affirmation of Haru and Yuujin’s lifelong bond in the last reaction post, knowing that something is going to happen, since the episode title is... somewhat ominous. I mean, they’d probably pick a different title than “The Truth about Yuujin” if it’s just gonna be an ep about finally catching Bootmon, right?
Yup, here it is: the moment of betrayal.
to be fair, this isn’t a exactly surprise. the creators took care to let us know something is off about Yuujin since episode 1; they make him a likable character that you want to root for, but there are hints throughout the show that there’s something sinister about him. After all, there’s a reason why Minerva initially labelled him in Leviathan-red:
however, I believe that Minerva can only recruit agents who have a certain threshold of agency and autonomy—it’s the reason why Minerva can only ask them questions, and it’s up to her chosen agents to answer however they deem fit. While there is a ‘correct’ answer (Rei’s initial answer wasn’t what Minerva’s looking for), it’s up to the AppDrivers to find it and commit to upholding it of their own volition.
And Yuujin is no different from the other AppDrivers in this respect. It’s implied that Minerva could only pose a question to Yuujin, and must wait for his answer before finalizing his recruitment, because Yuujin satisfies Minerva’s threshold of autonomy/agency like the other (human) children—even though I also believe his non-human status is the reason why she’s able to ask that specific question of him. Even if Leviathan had stripped away his personhood, reducing him to a mere thing to be used, I want to believe there’s some part of Yuujin that is recognized by the other characters, by the narrative, and by the audience as a person.
He may not be human, but it’s doesn’t mean he wasn’t—or didn’t become—a person. I mean, Minerva had also labelled him as 有人 (occupied or operated by a person) for a split-second, before she identifies him by his name and decides to recruit him.
so yeah. i might be clinging to straws, but i still have hope for our robot son. a lot of things could happen in 5 episodes, right?
