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I love Gemmon's red line and this really points to the theory of them getting a different line for each color

Each evolution gradually moves away from the original white towards really emphasizing the red and each time, they go even more draconian

Liskmon is still half and half, but Reptilimon and Rubeusdramon are both completely dragons

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Has anyone made this comparison before?

If not, how dare, because this is adorable

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Yeah this 100% correct, Taiki absolutely the right gogglehead to partner with Xros Wars’ protagonist Shoutmon

Before i quote my own musings, i'd like to inform you i've been rewatching Xros Wars (all three parts) with two friends (one of them did not watch Hunters, so we're doing a refreshing watch bc said friend loved XW first two series but didn't get enough time for Hunters until now) and while i have a few struggles to keep it up with them sometimes, the majority of sessions and eps i rewatched made me learn new things, chat about everyone's thoughts about the series and even remind myself about stuff i believed since the first time i watched it.

Which means... I'd like to make a brief musing about Taiki and how i've always been thinking his character's traits were also his flaws and deceiving to anyone who only saw his character by its surface.

Hence, i quote myself:

the XW rewatch party continues and i keep thinking that peeps who were complaining about Taiki being "flawless" and "invincible" were too focused on the surface level to realize… … he's the epitome of the double-edged sword, in which his traits are also his flaws.

there were so many times Taiki's kindness and blind trust on others ended up causing him more harm later than him being skeptical like Kiriha. Oh, but at the same time, Taiki's kindness and traits in general were what made Kiriha, Nene, Yuu even Akari and Zenjirou find their resolutions.

and i've been on this hill since day one with this series, and why i wish we had more characters like these tbh. yet i agree they could've worked on this detail a little better, but i'm glad we at least had something like that at least once!

tldr; I think Taiki is a cool protag and i remember why i loved him SO MUCH back in 2010-to-2012 lol.

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I’m a little annoyed that this punk shows up two weeks after Mienumon so I couldn’t do what I did for for Arukenimon and Mummymon with Leviathan’s henchmen duo

To compensate, I’m including their App Fusion Warudamon in this post

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Some have theorized that Gemmon is gonna have a line for at least the six main card colors tying into the six gemstones used in the names of Lacuna’s lands: Ruby (Red), Lapis Lazuli (Blue), Amber (Yellow), Emerald (Green), Obsidian (Black) and Amethyst (Purple) and possibly a Diamond line for White hence why Gemmon isn’t itself based of Rubies like the Red line

Yukinamon is also believed to be a yuki-onna hence her ghostly feet and her Type being Ice-Snow

We have art for the new Alysion Digimon

Gemmon, Liskmon, Reptilimon, and Rubeusdramon. This is a line where I like every member a lot, but I'm not sure how I feel about them as a line. Gemmon feels out of place compared to the rest of them. Reptilimon and Rubeusdramon look a lot like feminine versions of WarGreymon and MedievalGallantmon, which I like. I think Liskmon is my favorite of the line, but I also like Rubeusdramon a lot. I am not immune to lady knight. And not to be too lesbian on main, but the belts around the muscular thigh is *chef's kiss*.

Next are the new Renamon evolutions: Tenkomon, Sekkamon, and Yukinamon. When we first saw a preview of Sekkamon, I thought that this line was going to be more masculine than the traditional Tamers evolution line, which is something we could use, as the franchise has have a few male-presenting Renamons before. Yeah, turns out I was dead wrong about that. I think an icy/arctic fox line is very cool and makes a lot of sense coming from Renamon, as a contrast to the more fire-focused Kyuubimon. I would have liked Yukinamon to have a few more fox traits, but it's still a good design. Also, whoever designed Yukinamon and Rubeusdramon clearly likes thighs.

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To be fair, the tendency to give the goggle head a fiery reptile, the rival a canid and girls feminine Digimon can be attributed to Adventure and aside from Ken in 02 and Kiriha in Xros Wars, the first series to start breaking that trend was App Monsters (Gatchmon is neither a reptile nor fire element despite his card color being Red, the canid line went to Yujin while Rei has a draconic line, and Dokamon alongside his line as masculine though Oujamon’s App Fusion partner is feminine)

And this only really cemented with Ghost Game and Survive: the former to establish distinct relationships for Kiyoshiro/Jellymon and Ruli/Angoramon and the latter because it was using an unconventional set of partner Digimon that does technically draw from Adventure but with a slightly swapped around and one that’s a stark contrast to its Adventure foil

And then we have Liberator where our male lead gets wind element though admittedly still dragonic/knightly bird line, the rival gets a feminine reptile line and the girls get European fairy tales, ghosts and gunslingers, rock 'n' roll dragons, snow bears/jotunn, sea slugs/Japanese mythology, earthen reptiles/Egyptian and Japanese antiques/fairy tales

The Thing about the Digimon Tamers Ultimates

Something I thought about a lot on Sunday, while I was rewriting the whole Ogudomon fight for Digimon Alpha Generation, so that Shaochung would have Jougamon as the Ultimate, is something I never really fully appreciated until a couple of years ago: the Digimon Tamers ultimates and how they relate to the character arcs of our three main characters.

Takato's character arc is very much about him finding his courage. Some people will to this day call this character a coward or a crybaby, when the truth is: He is a 10 year old child. How do you think does a 10 year old act in those situations? The thng about Digimon Tamers in comparison to the other Digimon seasons was always that the character writing was more grounded in reality, rather than the hyperreality we usually see in Shonen Manga. As such: Takato is afraid of a lot of things. You would be afraid of the giant monster too, even if you had a monster of your own. But Takato overcomes this fear to protect those he cares about. So he eventually becomes a knight with a shield to protext others. It is a really nice symbolism to where his character arc goes. Especially in the conversation with Megidramon - the dragon. He basically beats the dragon that had been created of his own fear and negative emotions by becoming a knight. Beautiful.

Jianliang's storyarc is mostly about him despising violence. From the very beginning he just focuses on Terriermon as his friend, and is afraid of violence happening. We also have these two parts of backstory: a) him being bullied and responding with violence and being traumatized by his own actions, and b) Galgomon's evolution originally being unstable with Galgomon being very violent. And a lot of his arc is about him having to accept that in some situations violence is going to be necessary to protect the things and the people you care about. In some ways it is not so dissimilar to the character arc of Takato, but it is also not quite the same, because for Jianliang it is not about fear but about conviction. And when he accepts that at times violence might be the only means, whop, he gets to turn into a big ass mecha warmachine.

Ruki's character arc is almost the opposite of Jianliang meanwhile. She starts out as very violent and looking down onto the softer things, while also obviously hating on feminine things, due to her complicated relationship with her mother. She is the one who for the first bit of the show choses violence. I would argue in so far in that the first 13 episodes before the Deva show up have a story it is mostly about Ruki and her rejection of the entire "Digimon as partner/friends" idea and her wanting to solve everything through battle. And after that the entire "Ruki rejects femininity because of her mother" aspect plays into it a lot. And then we get to Sakuyamon, who once more answers both aspects of Ruki's character arc: a very feminine Digimon, who also is more a support caster type rather than an attacker type, because Ruki accepts now both her femininity and that sometimes it is better to fight in a group and with friends, rather than being the one to charge ahead.

I openly have to admit that one of the big things I really would like to change, if I could without the rewrites being too major about Digimon Alpha Generation and Battle Generation was to bring in that kind of stuff a bit more. With Shaochung I could actually see how to do it - create a bit more of a conflict for her as a child who has grown up in Japanese culture, and is alienated from Chinese culture. Then Jougamon would make a whole lot of sense. With Denrei and Shoji (who have Slayerdramon and Duftmon as their Ultimates) I have to admit it is a bit harder what to go for.

But then again, I do have to say that Tamers really was the only season where I can see much of a theme like this going into the evolutions. With Adventure Mimi and Takeru really are the only characters were the Evolutions are somewhat connected to their character themes (Mimi as in "I want a peaceful solution" with Lilymon being able to soothe Digimon, and Takeru very much with his "I want to be the one to protect people" and Holy Angemon being kinda overkill). But generally speaking Digimon usually tends to follow the context of: "The goggle boy gets a reptile that turns into some sort of dragon knight because goggle boy. The rival gets a mammal type Digimont hat turns into some tiger or wolf creature because lone wolf. And the girl will get a pretty flower thing, because girls like flowers."

Which is... somewhat sad.

I am currently plotting "Bokura no Digital Summer", where actually I have some theming in the evolutions - especially towards the Ultimates. But we will see when I get around to actually write and upload that...

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The thing about Lovecraft's work is that he did write about some genuinely fucked up critters, but he doesn't seem to have had a clear picture of which ones those are. "Dog that inhabits right angles" and "sapient colour" are treated as exactly as mind-bending as, like, "guy who looks like a fish" and "big penguin".

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I never understood the character design of Shakkoumon. With the other two Jogress Digimon, you can see aspects of the adult level Digimon that make up that Jogress Digimon in their character design. But with Shakkoumon, you don’t really see any hints of Angemon or Ankylomon

It's... complicated. I wrote up a whole thing on it for the rundown of Shakkoumon next episode, so I'm just gonna copy and paste from the not-yet-published liveblog entry here.

Preview for Episode 37!

Shakkoumon is a Perfect-stage Free-attribute Mutation Digimon. He's based on a 遮光器土偶 shakoukidogu, a type of ancient clay figurines that were produced during the Japanese stone age. This period, known as the Joumon period, left behind a wide variety of pottery, jewelry, and tools for modern archaeologists to discover. Among those were these clay dolls.

An interesting note about Shakkoumon is that most 遮光器土偶 shakoukidogu are generally agreed to be modeled after women. For Shakkoumon, the designers seem to have leaned into that. Note the tiny waist combined and big round chest. They even gave Shakkoumon a clearly defined skirt.

Iori and Takeru Jogressed into a female body type because Digimon sexual characteristics are just like that. It's not unlike how Sora's Perfect evolution, Garudamon, is pretty clearly masculine in design. Another reminder of the way gendered Digimon characteristics are purely aesthetic.

Narrator: Shakkoumon! Ankylomon and Angemon Jogress Evolved into this Mutation-type Digimon! His signature move is Nigimitama and his special attack is Aramitama.

All of Shakkoumon's attacks, including the not-mentioned Sakimitama, are rooted in the Shinto conception of 御霊 mitama. This word represents both the human soul in a literal sense, external from their body, and also the spirit of a 神 kami or god.

So, within the 御霊 mitama, there exist four 魂 tamashii. There's not really any Western equivalent to "the core component souls who combine to make up the complete soul".

和魂 Nigimitama is the harmonious spirit. 荒魂 Aramitama is the bold and rambunctious spirit. These two form a duality that's not the same but is not unlike the Chinese yin and yang.

The other two are 奇魂 kushimitama and 幸魂 sakimitama. 奇魂 Kushimitama is the intellectual spirit, acting on wisdom and understanding. 幸魂 Sakimitama is the joyful spirit, fun-loving and compassionate. There is some dispute over whether these two are actual independent 魂 tamashii or if they're merely aspects of 和魂 nigimitama.

Within the American Digimon community, there is also a lot of confusion about why Ankylomon and Angemon fuse into some sort of giant robot. What does that have to do with either of them? And the answer is quite simple! ...if you understand the Japanese concepts Shakkoumon embodies.

Armadimon is heavily aligned with the earthen element, both through his Digmon evolution and through Ankylomon being literally called the armor of the land. Thus, a doll made from clay. While Angemon's divinity is manifested through the angelic design of that doll and Shakkoumon's connection with the Shinto conception of the 御霊 mitama.

It's very clever! In a way that American kids watching the cartoon on Fox were never going to get!

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In a world where AI, specifically generative AI is becoming such a big threat, I have such high hopes for digimon’s new anime. Just a year or two ago the rise of genAI wasn’t that big on many people’s radars, but now we’re here where companies use this technology to steal and make things worse. But not all AI is bad, and considering that digimon’s whole thesis is digital monsters that are your friends, it’s a message very much needed

But, in the case that Beatbreak doesn’t dabble too much in the real world ramifications of AI and the complicated nature of it in regards to humanity(which I doubt, just from the premise and teaser), at least we have Appmon which did a really fucking good job at it, in my opinion

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My vampires CAN walk into the sunlight but doing so would reveal what they would look like if they aged normally

Younger vampires don’t have much to worry about but older vamps have reason to avoid sunlight as they age. They are still immortal, but their aged, sunlit selves are significantly weaker than their non-sunlit forms. Vamps over 100 years old run the risk of crumpling over, fully immobile, but still conscious

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Some non-Appmon cards for a change, and it’s @demonoflight’s favorite duo

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Super honored to be part of this project again! Everyone involved did such an amazing work, from the illustrators to the graphic designers. Please take a look! and happy odaiba memorial day🥰

Check out the zine here!

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To be fair, the franchise was created just as personal computers were becoming mainstream so Bandai kept the terminology and mechanics simple for the sake of kids understanding it

As an article I’ve brought up before rightly note: Digimon are "monsters" and "digital" second

okay so my headcanon for Digimon is that each individual 'mon is an entire file folder with several subdirectories. In the 'mon's root directory is a config file that works like their DNA wait hold on post revised digicores are also called kernels. That means every Digimon is a whole entire operating system. Still, I imagine that Digimon are broadly designed to be platform-agnostic (at least with desktop-style computing. There's gotta be a reason ) so they probably have adaptive kernels that probably has something to do with their status as sentient digital entities. There's no way these guys are bare metal installs; that restricts their movement too much. ANYWAY

Revised idea, each Digimon is a virtualized operating system container a-la Docker or Kubernetes. In their root directory is the digicore and a config file that works like their DNA and locates files in their subfolders for the Digicore to execute. I'm assuming that, much like an OS kernel, a Digicore is a handler that coordinates the mind and body software. The configuration file also tracks their name, species, and Digivolution path if applicable.

A Digimon's mind and its physical* form each have a folder. The mind contains the sentient AGI consciousness and a folder of files that serve as a Digimon's memories. Digimon don't forget in the same way organic intelligence does. Their memory can still grow hazy because a buildup of log files and large media can make them sick, so they need to compress their memories. Depending on the Digimon, they'll compress their memories by recency, importance, or both. The haziest memories are often stored as crusty low-res JPEGs in 8-bit color, 8-bit grayscale, 1-bit monochrome, or plaintext. A Digimon forgetting via image, video, and audio compression is an autonomic response, but conversion of video, image, and audio into plaintext is a conscious choice, as is total deletion of a memory. Every time a Digimon rewrites a plaintext memory is a decision to remove information. It's not uncommon for old memories to be written as a series of variables that describe the major highlights of a memory, such as timestamps, important colors and shapes (written as hex codes and SVG vectors), booleans regarding the facts of a situation, and other basic high points that can be used to rebuild an old mostly-forgotten experience in RAM, similar to a human having an old memory jogged. A Digimon can delete a traumatic experience, but if it's recent enough, then details of the event can be reread from their trashes if they haven't had enough new experiences to overwrite it. Different Digimon store and access their memories in different ways, either with databases, other bespoke intermediary software, or their specific internal command line language.

The body directory is more complex, containing data for 3D models and textures that detail a Digimon's physical appearance, event listeners for the senses and for conscious decisions, rigging for their range of motion, and code detailing their signature attacks, equipment, abilities, and the metadata regarding the names, effects, and requirements of these functions. I conceive of them from an object-oriented programming perspective, with equipment being objects with variables and attacks and abilities being functions that trigger on events sent by the digicore. However, I understand that I'm not a supergenius hacker, and there are other code paradigms out there, like declarative programming, that any number of Digimon species could run on.

I think a Digimon's species isn't necessarily just a string value in their root config, it's also the entire internal file structure, coding paradigms, programming languages, and compression algorithms used to define the parameters of their mind and body. The whole Digimon is dynamic software, and the digicore is capable of reconfiguring itself on the fly. The peak of this dynamism is, of course, Digivolution, but the ever-changing data is important in allowing the Digimon to think and move in the first place. Moreover, access to a Digimon's code is restricted by several levels of security and is basically only readable to their own digicore, which is why it requires defeating a Digimon in combat to expose their Digicode in a readable barcode format.

Reversion to Digitama is essentially a hard system reboot after sufficient injury, often with a purge of the memory directory. Anubimon judging the dead is a decision whether to restore files from the trash. I think there's some kind of taboo against true deletion and overwriting, which is why I believe the Dark Area is probably more like a place to drop unused files rather than a proper trash can. Fun fact, immediate data deletion is frowned upon in database management, so it's common practice to put things in an archive table instead so you don't lose potentially-valuable information. You have to think long and hard about it before you delete certain records lest you need them later on. Learned that one in the SQL classes I've been taking!

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While it’s possible the Violet and Nyabootmon both deriving their names from Puss in Boots is happy coincidence, I have seen people suggest that Nyabootmon’s mask is reminiscent of BeelStarmon who is one of Three Musketeers, who were the first deck Violet is shown using despite not being her signature deck, as another possible nod to Vi

Mind you BeelStarmon is hardly the first Digimon to derive her mask from The Phantom of the Paradise as the film was a pretty huge hit almost exclusively in Japan and Nyabootmon’s mask may also be in reference to Don Diego de la Vega, better known as the masked hero Zorro, who has historically influenced at least one modern depiction of Puss in Boots

Rambling about Shoemon's evo line and how good it is. This probably makes no sense but here you go.

OK SO

Shoemon's line is so cool and so well thought-out it's crazy. Having it start with the shoe motif then suddenly jump to a fairy tale theme and culminating in a Cinderella inspired digimon was genius enough as it was, and then they threw in Puss in Boots too, it's so good. And the best part is all of these fairytale-inspired digimon are consistent in being specifically inspired by Charles Perrault's tale collection. I noticed that straight away with Chaperomon and Cendrillmon because of their names (based on "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge" and "Cendrillon", the french titles of their respective tales), but somehow it never occurred to me that they could add another Perrault tale to the mix that would continue the shoe theme, I almost screamed when they first revealed Nyabootmon. Y'all don't get it I was going insane.

It's also really cool how Shoemon and ShoeShoemon are both rodent-like puppet digimon with this raggedy look to them, I don't think they're supposed to take inspiration from any fairy tales (at least definitely not the Perrault ones) but it makes the eventual transition to Cendrillmon feel all the more meaningful. Of course in between those there's still Chaperomon, who kinda combines the shoe and puppet motif with the fairy tale motif. Now, Little Red Riding Hood has nothing to do with shoes, bue she is named after an item of clothing that she wears which fits pretty well with the previous theme (especially considering how Shoemon holds a sewing needle, IT'S ALL CONNECTED).

Also as an aside, I love Chaperomon's reference book lore, especially the whole thing about hunting down wolf digimon and making them into shoes. Especially considering that the wolf in this tale is meant to be an allegory for a different type of "predator", I'm always up for retellings that allow the heroine to get her revenge.

It is probably also worth noting that Perrault's version of Little Red Riding Hood is the one that ends with her being eaten by the wolf, followed by a moral in verse about how beautiful young girls shouldn't trust "wolves" that act nice to them. Chaperomon being a puppet with no actual flesh and with stitches both on her face and her hood (as well as the mouths on the wolf shoes) might be related to that tragic ending somehow. Maybe. Perhaps.

But aah, that gradual transition is so good, and I love how Cendrillmon gets an army of lil puppet mice and birds, keeping up with the theme despite her much more human appearance. And man she has such a gorgeous design, I love how they made the glass slippers into these huge pointy thigh-high crystal boots. Speaking of boots...

AND THEN THERE'S NYABOOTMON. One interesting detail I recently found out about Puss in Boots is that in earlier variants of the tale (specifically the ones by Straparola and Basile) the cat was female. In Perrault's version it was changed to a male, and while this is clearly the one that inspired Nyabootmon (as evidenced by the attack name "Carabas Special" being a reference to the fictional Marquis de Carabas in the story), it's a curious fact considering Shoemon's other evolutions are all feminine looking. Nyabootmon's more masculine appearance may feel a little out of place at first (or not, this is Digimon after all) but when you take that into consideration it actually fits quite well! Of course, I have no idea if the people behind it were even aware of this, but it's still a fun coincidence.

And oh, I love how the line starts with a mouse-like creature and ends with a cat. Feels like there's some form of symbolism in it too, it could probably be interpreted many ways. But it's such a nice touch, especially since we start with an animal form, gradually transition to a humanoid one and then go back to animal. So, so good.

Anyway yeah sorry that's kind of a whole lot of nothing but hopefully it makes some sense. I just needed to yell about this because I've been thinking so much about this whole evolution line ever since Nyabootmon was first revealed. There's a lot more going on in my brain that I can't quite put into words and stuff that I won't get into because it would make this thing so much longer (I especially have many thoughts about Chaperomon) but this should get most of my point across hopefully. My point being that IT'S SO GOOD. Ugh.

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As far as I’m aware the fairy tale theme came about after Shoemon and ShoeShoemon were already designed, as a result of the line’s designer Fumiya Kobayashi working backwards from Cendrillmon to create a bridge between ShoeShoemon and Cendrillmon leading to the creation of Chaperomon hence why Chaperomon combines the shoe/puppet motif with the fairy tale theme

And while we have no development information on Nyabootmon currently, it was likely designed by Kobayashi as well and the basis was likely chosen because not only is Puss in Boots another fairy tale character with a prominent footwear element like Cinderella but also possibly a reference to both Violet Inboots, whom Arisa is overtly close to and whose name may also be derived from the boot wearing feline, and Toei Animation's mascot Pero from the 1969 film "The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots"

Liberator has had arguably some of the most well designed new Digimon in the franchise’s history with Shoemon and her line being easily the breakout stars alongside Elizamon and her line

Rambling about Shoemon's evo line and how good it is. This probably makes no sense but here you go.

OK SO

Shoemon's line is so cool and so well thought-out it's crazy. Having it start with the shoe motif then suddenly jump to a fairy tale theme and culminating in a Cinderella inspired digimon was genius enough as it was, and then they threw in Puss in Boots too, it's so good. And the best part is all of these fairytale-inspired digimon are consistent in being specifically inspired by Charles Perrault's tale collection. I noticed that straight away with Chaperomon and Cendrillmon because of their names (based on "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge" and "Cendrillon", the french titles of their respective tales), but somehow it never occurred to me that they could add another Perrault tale to the mix that would continue the shoe theme, I almost screamed when they first revealed Nyabootmon. Y'all don't get it I was going insane.

It's also really cool how Shoemon and ShoeShoemon are both rodent-like puppet digimon with this raggedy look to them, I don't think they're supposed to take inspiration from any fairy tales (at least definitely not the Perrault ones) but it makes the eventual transition to Cendrillmon feel all the more meaningful. Of course in between those there's still Chaperomon, who kinda combines the shoe and puppet motif with the fairy tale motif. Now, Little Red Riding Hood has nothing to do with shoes, bue she is named after an item of clothing that she wears which fits pretty well with the previous theme (especially considering how Shoemon holds a sewing needle, IT'S ALL CONNECTED).

Also as an aside, I love Chaperomon's reference book lore, especially the whole thing about hunting down wolf digimon and making them into shoes. Especially considering that the wolf in this tale is meant to be an allegory for a different type of "predator", I'm always up for retellings that allow the heroine to get her revenge.

It is probably also worth noting that Perrault's version of Little Red Riding Hood is the one that ends with her being eaten by the wolf, followed by a moral in verse about how beautiful young girls shouldn't trust "wolves" that act nice to them. Chaperomon being a puppet with no actual flesh and with stitches both on her face and her hood (as well as the mouths on the wolf shoes) might be related to that tragic ending somehow. Maybe. Perhaps.

But aah, that gradual transition is so good, and I love how Cendrillmon gets an army of lil puppet mice and birds, keeping up with the theme despite her much more human appearance. And man she has such a gorgeous design, I love how they made the glass slippers into these huge pointy thigh-high crystal boots. Speaking of boots...

AND THEN THERE'S NYABOOTMON. One interesting detail I recently found out about Puss in Boots is that in earlier variants of the tale (specifically the ones by Straparola and Basile) the cat was female. In Perrault's version it was changed to a male, and while this is clearly the one that inspired Nyabootmon (as evidenced by the attack name "Carabas Special" being a reference to the fictional Marquis de Carabas in the story), it's a curious fact considering Shoemon's other evolutions are all feminine looking. Nyabootmon's more masculine appearance may feel a little out of place at first (or not, this is Digimon after all) but when you take that into consideration it actually fits quite well! Of course, I have no idea if the people behind it were even aware of this, but it's still a fun coincidence.

And oh, I love how the line starts with a mouse-like creature and ends with a cat. Feels like there's some form of symbolism in it too, it could probably be interpreted many ways. But it's such a nice touch, especially since we start with an animal form, gradually transition to a humanoid one and then go back to animal. So, so good.

Anyway yeah sorry that's kind of a whole lot of nothing but hopefully it makes some sense. I just needed to yell about this because I've been thinking so much about this whole evolution line ever since Nyabootmon was first revealed. There's a lot more going on in my brain that I can't quite put into words and stuff that I won't get into because it would make this thing so much longer (I especially have many thoughts about Chaperomon) but this should get most of my point across hopefully. My point being that IT'S SO GOOD. Ugh.

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And there’s the girl, arguably one of Leviathan’s most memorable underlings!

Mienumon and Copipemon are even the first cards to possess the [Leviathan] trait

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Yuujin is alive and here's all the reasons why I think so

This is a post I've been wanting to make for a while (and a topic I've been thinking about for a few years now) since I still see a lot of debate over whether Yuujin is really back at the end of Appmon or that whole final scene is just a dream/hallucination that Haru's having, and I just wanted to write down a list of all the reasons why I'm like, 99% sure he is in fact alive and well. I don't know if anyone else has written something similar before, but I just wanted to share my own personal thoughts.

When I first watched the show I was a little divided myself, but the more I've thought about it throughout the years and ran into other people's theories and seen certain details pointed out, the more I believe that scene was always meant to be real. So here are my main points:

1- The final scene's POV

One of the arguments I see people use when claiming the final scene is a dream is how the lighting and overall atmosphere just feel very unreal and dreamlike, and I do agree that it feels that way. It might be done on purpose to make you feel unsure of whether or not that's truly happening, or it might just be a way to make the moment feel more emotional and ideal, like the perfect happy ending. But something that I think is more important than the atmosphere is the perspective from which this scene is shown. It starts with Haru studying inside their secret base at the bookstore, which makes sense, but then it shifts to the outside of the building, where we see Yuujin's feet walking into the scene as he arrives and stops at the entrance. If this is Haru's dream, why are we seeing something he's not? I mean sure, dreams are weird and realistically he could be viewing it from an omniscient third person's POV, but from a storytelling perspective it just doesn't make much sense. It seems to imply that Yuujin truly is there and other people can see him too. Us included.

2- They have all the resources needed

There are literally SO many ways they could've brought Yuujin back, when you really think about it. I'm not sure exactly who was involved or what it was that they did, but it was likely a combined effort between the following:

Yuujin's "mother": Many people have already pointed this out, but it's very likely that the scientist posing as Yuujin's mother had a backup (probably several backups) of his memories, not to mention his next robotic body was already fully built and ready to go. They'd just have to track her down and gain access to all of those things. Which should be easy enough considering who they have on their team. Which brings me to the next point:

Rei, Hajime and Den'emon: Between Rei's hacking expertise, Hajime's Big Brain™ and Den'emon's AI knowledge and experience, I'm sure those three could easily figure out how to salvage and restore Yuujin's body and memories. It's worth noting that Yuujin developed his own consciousness outside of Leviathan's programming, so even with the deletion of all Leviathan programs, the real Yuujin should still exist somewhere. Rei might not be Yuujin's biggest fan (yet) but he'll sure do whatever it takes to make Haru happy. They all will. Everyone loves Haru.

The God Appmon: And of course let's not forget who these humans have on their side!! As far as we know the appmon should still be able to fuse and evolve as normal (even if they couldn't, I'm sure Hajime would figure out a way for them to do so), and Hadesmon and Rebootmon alone have all the power they could possibly need to bring Yuujin back. Their specific powers come incredibly handy in this situation.

3- It all builds up to that

Appmon's epilogue does this fun clever thing where it first tricks you into believing that everyone gets separated at the end, only to then gradually reveal that this is not the case, and things are actually way better than they seemed at first. And it's one of my favorite endings in the franchise because of that. First it shows you all the AppliDrivers as they're back to their normal lives, each doing their own thing, with no sign of their Buddy Appmon anywhere. And then bam, surprise! The appmon are all still here! And look, Offmon is alive and well! And so is Bootmon! And would you look at that, Haru's grandpa has been miraculously brought back to life by apprealizing his digital consciousness (another interesting thing to take into account regarding possible methods to bring Yuujin back)! Everyone is here, and they're all still hanging out together. It only makes sense that after all this they reveal that Yuujin, too, is alive and well just like everyone else. Which is exactly what they do. That's the whole point! Besides, it's been such a short time and they all look so happy, it sure doesn't look like they're still mourning the loss of their friend. There's no heaviness to it, just pure joy coming from everyone. A little suspicious if you ask me.

4- Haru's goal

When Haru is forced by Leviathan to choose between saving Yuujin or all of humanity, and he chooses the latter, he declares that he's going to become an AI researcher with the goal of bringing his friend back. And sure enough, in the epilogue we are shown that he's still focused on following that career path, but you might notice that his goal is no longer the exact same. He says he's studying AI so that they can be ready in case another entity like Leviathan shows up. He never says anything about bringing Yuujin back, even though that was supposed to be his main motivation to do this. And well... that's because he no longer has to, because Yuujin is already back. They did it. And now Haru has a new reason for wanting to become an AI researcher that makes just as much sense. I've seen people say that Yuujin being brought back so soon would make Haru's whole life resolution pointless but like, it clearly doesn't. He states this himself. Haru has a new goal that he's working towards.

And yeah, I think after taking all of those things into consideration it only makes sense for Yuujin to be alive. There is no logical reason for why he shouldn't be unless you just want to be sad on purpose (which is perfectly valid, but it's just not for me). At the end of the day I do think they kinda left that intentionally open-ended, so everyone could decide for themselves what they think is the truth. Because we're all protagonists in our own lives and we get to choose how we want the story to end... or something like that. It's definitely very fitting for Appmon.

But still, the clues are all there, everything points to that conclusion. And so I choose to believe in the perfect happy ending presented to us in that pretty dreamlike atmosphere. Because I think it's what everyone deserves. It's what Haru deserves. And just like everyone else I want Haru to be happy. That, more than anything, is my ultimate reasoning.

ALRIGHT, that's all I wanted to say ok thanks bye