Okayyy huge delay thanks to being bounced between different interests, but here’s everyone together and some scattered thoughts about this crossover AU under the cut! Obviously spoilers for Digimon Frontier and The World Ends With You (2007):
There’s really only two flimsy reasons why this AU occurred to me:
If I had a nickel for every time someone who died in Shibuya underwent a supernatural journey to come back to life, I’d have…three nickels, actually. But let’s put aside that third one for now.
If you do the math, the Frontier cast (who were 11 in 2002-2003) and the TWEWY cast (who were 15 in 2007) are roughly similar in age! Weird to think about. (Ignoring the timeline shift introduced by the TWEWY anime and NEO.)
…I said I wanted to share my AU thoughts, but I don’t really have anything concrete. 😅 Part of why it took me so long to post lol. It’s been over a decade since I played OG TWEWY and I don’t remember much of the lore, especially from Secret Reports. I couldn’t tell you what the plot of a crossover would be. Should it be a regular Reaper’s Game without any proxies or other shenanigans from the higher-ups?
But I’ll share my random ideas anyway:
Reaper’s Game Format
I can’t decide whether Frontier x TWEWY should follow the original partner format of OG TWEWY or the team format of NEO. I’m inclined towards partners, but it’s difficult to figure out a full Week 1 pair order for the initially odd-numbered Frontier cast.
With Takuya as the protagonist, I figured it would go something like:
Week 1: Tomoki
Week 2: Kouichi (deferring Reaper status like Beat did)
Week 3: Kouji
Incidentally, this setup would mean the twins would never be partners…It’s not really a big deal tho imo
Kouichi
Predictably, I've been thinking mostly of Kouichi’s place as a Reaper in this AU lmao
Kouichi died before everyone else and played a different Reaper’s Game, which he won. He became a Reaper in exchange for the complete erasure of any memory of his existence. From his POV, this meant less of a burden for his mom and no unsolved mysteries for the twin he doesn’t even know. Of course, he would check in on them from time to time from the UG.
Initially, I was imagining he died at 11 in 2002, same as in Frontier, and has been a Reaper ever since. This would theoretically let him have a higher position and a Noise form. I dropped this idea when I realized that…Reapers don't age. Still, here's Velgrmon as Noise:
(Although…we already have a black lion-themed boss Noise. It's kind of funny that Sho’s aesthetic suits Kouichi the most lol)
I was also playing with the idea of him being the one who killed Takuya and/or Kouji as the Composer's proxies, but that's a little fucked up LMAO also not really necessary. The Composer should do their own dirty work smh my head
Other stray thoughts
Considering it’s basically how Frontier was written anyway, would the entrance fee for Week 3 be everyone else, leaving only Takuya and Kouji in the game? (Which is also what happened in TWEWY tbf)
Imagine if Tomoki died (again) and got turned into a cute little (bear) Noise like Rhyme did 😭
I thought Kouichi’s Week 2 entrance fee might be Kouji, but that would put Kouji out of the game for a little too long, narratively. Would it be his mom, then? Is that even allowed?
