Should I continue removing old, to be rewritten fics from Tumblr, or edit them all to say "please don't like/reblog right now because I'm rewriting this story & it will be reposted in the future"? Or put that in the tags?
It's been awhile since I've read a digimon manga that didn't have an anime attached to it. This one came out around the same time as Digimon Data Squad/Savers. Manga is definitely not this franchise's strength, but I always enjoy reading them nonetheless. Since they're aimed at kids they tend to be pretty cozy and lighthearted (even if they're talking about world destruction haha).
This one seems derivative as heck, but hey, digimon loves repetition.
Ch. 1
Damn, this has almost exactly the same premise as the V-Tamer manga. Tsurugi is into digimon battling (v-pet style) but, oh snap, he has a super special digimon that no one else has ever seen before in the game! Deja vu much?
To be fair, this manga is the reverse of V-Tamer in that the digimon get sucked into the real world instead of Tsurugi being isekai'd into the digital world. (Edit: Nope. That is not what happens). That's kinda fun. I think I prefer this option because I've always found the digital world to be pretty lame tbh (sometimes they get creative but a lot of the time it's just barren emptiness).
Aggressively generic character designs so far. I kinda liked how they referenced goggles making Tsurugi "look like an anime hero" and how they were a choice he made for his video game avatar.
Tsurugi giving major Daisuke vibes with the soccer and being kinda dumb.
Interesting that the in-game partner digimon were non-speaking (like in Digimon World) but then started talking in the real world. Not sure what the logic is there...
So this has nothing to do with Savers other than coming out around the same era and using digimon introduced in Savers (as seen in the cover art above). I'm intrigued to see what manga-exclusive shenanigans we get up to here.
Love the horror-esque panel of the Kuwagamon. Didn't expect something with that vibe here.
Ch. 2
Ah yes, the Digimon human character archetypes of "rival" and "girl."
Ami calling Digimon babyish but then specifying it's the battle part she objects to was pretty funny (yet then she's excited to watch battles?) Very 5th grade behavior.
Why is everyone so desperate to get their friends to play arcade-style digimon in this world? lol. They're like "STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING, DIGIMON SHOULD BE YOUR NUMBER 1 PRIORITY AT ALL TIMES!" Again...5th graders. It's no wonder they're demolishing 20-somethings with all this free time.
Shou is (was?) Tsurugi's childhood friend but is a total asshole towards him. Not sure if we're just supposed to accept that as his dark persona or if they're actually not friends and had a falling out...
I guess focusing on raising digimon is a valid play style, but it's kinda funny because all of the parameters you get from raising digimon are for battling. Like they even tell Ami, "you don't have to battle, you can also shop at the equipment store!" Like...what do they think the equipment is for?
Ch. 3
Wait, so the train station wasn't the real world? I'm kinda disoriented now. I guess there's the real world, the VR world, and the digital world. But also...the VR world and digital world are connected.
The writing is so cheesy. The "reveal" that Knight was Shou all along was so underwhelming. They haven't even told us a single thing about Shou, so why should we care? They just keep saying "Tsurugi's childhood friend" over and over. At least give us a flashback or something to get more emotionally invested in.
It feels kind of weird to call something that can naturally occur in a game "illegal." Also, were there no admins trying to stop the hacker? I guess this is one of those "adults don't really exist" worlds
Ch. 4
Some weird tonal whiplash going from peepee poopoo humor to Piccolomon getting violently stabbed (complete with blood!)
Jesus...is EVERY digimon villain going to have the same motive? Guess what the motive is this time? Barbamon wants to restart the digital world and awaken some mysterious digimon 😑😑😑 Groundbreaking stuff.
On the plus side for originality, for once the villain isn't a sexy effeminate dude but an ugly goblin man instead. I actually really like his design. It feels like some thought went into it at least. I like his poncho and giant beard.
Of course we gotta collect the MacGuffins (digimemories) to save and/or destroy the world. What else is new? I was interested to see if the digimon types lined up with the Digimon Story games and I think they mostly do (except for maybe mutant?)
Piccolomon said "Trailmon don't work like real trains, they go where they want" but then he said "Trailmon move based on the will of the rider." Which are kinda contradictory ideas, but okay. Maybe it's like, they go where they want if the rider is weak willed...
Ch. 5
It's been awhile since there's been a "little brother" (I was gonna say shota but that feels creepy) character in this franchise. I guess Tomoki in Frontier would be the most recent. (Ikuto feels too independent to count). I like Yuu's oversize outfit, but why is it kinda giving Chinese military uniform?
All the minions in this manga are butt ugly. Also, why are they called "commandments?" I thought maybe it was just a mispelling of "commandant" at first, but I guess not.
Being able to manifest food out of a digivice is new I think...reminds me of Spy Kids food lol.
Pretty weird that they neglected to draw GeoGreymon's bracers in his intro panel, considering that's what I use to tell GeoGreymon and Greymon apart lol.
The deaths in this are pretty violent! Seeing a crying Wormmon being torn in two made me sad :<
Ch. 6
I rolled my eyes a bit when Ami was like "I can't believe they got sucked into the game!" and then there was immediately a panel of her booting the game up. GIRL! I can't tell if she's dumb or did that on purpose to save them.
I wasn't crazy about Waspmon's design but CannonBeemon is amazing (kinda looks like something out of Evangelion or something).
In this chapter they reveal that there are "natural" digimon and "artificial" digimon. Not a new concept really. In the past we've seen synthetic digimon and digimon springing from human imagination like Guilmon. I don't think they've ever been called "artificial" before though. That feels a little mean lol.
So I guess Yuu is sickly IRL but not in the digital world. Have we ever seen the digital world "heal" people like that before? Closest I can think of is Koichi but that was different.
This is a month-long event for the Digimon-Fandom, each day offering a question for non-creatively inclined fans to answer - and one prompt to create any sort of fanwork for. Any sort of fanwork is fine: fanart, fanfic, pixelart, aesthetics, screenshots, gifs... Just tag the blog and tag it as #DigiMemorialAugust or #digimemorial25.
Today's question: Which is your favorite Digimon Manga?
