#also realizing i don't like a lot of digimon designs lol...

[traitimdoithay]

working to create a team of lesbians in digimon dusk rn lol... so far i have dianamon, lilithmon and lotosmon and now i’m trying to see what other digimon i think are neat as i digivolve them

[otakween]

Digimon Frontier (Manhua) - Volume 2

I wonder if anyone on tumblr has read this manhua in its physical form since it was only released in Australia. Also, how many manhua/manga are the Aussies hiding from us?? lol

Ch. 8

Oh okay, so in this version of the story digicode is called a "digital password" (for some...reason)

I do like how this artist draws Junpei. He looked cute with his hair all tousled in this chapter.

Ch. 9

Huh. They completely cut out all of the comedy from this "episode." Nothing about Calmaramon being ugly and her fanboys abandoning her and nothing about her spinning out of control and defeating herself...womp womp.

I'm attempting to read this on my Boox ereader to enhance my experience. Maybe it will motivate me to read quicker lol. I'd be curious to hear my mutuals' preferred format/app for reading emanga. I use a big mix of stuff but in this case it's Tachiyomi + eink

Ch. 10

Yikes, that was so disjointed and weird! They went from the fight with Duskmon back to the Calmaramon fight. I thought that the scans were uploaded in the wrong order or something, but nope!

The transition to the real world was so clunky and confusing.

I did like Duskmon's chapter art, that was pretty badass. His mask looks a little funky though (the fangs are more gnarly)

Ch. 11

More cut scenes messing things up: Takuya expresses his guilt for Koji's predicament, but they never bothered to go over Takuya's reckless plan to fight Duskmon, so it's totally unclear why he's guilty in the first place. Also, we see Takuya go to the real world, but we never see his epiphany for why he should go back to the digital world, he just kinda appears in the next fight scene. -sigh- Who needs character motivations or emotions amirite?

At least they cut out the tickle torture scene. Grateful for that decision...

I think this is the most expressive I've ever seen Mercuremon lol. I hope we see more of him in the franchise, his design is so original.

Ch. 12

I'm still not over how unimpressive the Frontier digivolutions are in some cases. Wolfmon and BeoWolfmon are basically the same thing. I think they straight up got Koji's digivolution name wrong here (called BeoWolfmon Garummon), so that made things extra confusing and anti-climactic lol.

A lot of things were so unclear in this chapter: it wasn't clear that Seraphimon was lending his strength, it wasn't clear how Koji realized that Koichi was a human, and the flashbacks were poorly integrated as well. Also, how did the kids end up inside Sephirothmon and not Bokomon and Neemon? Unclear.

I do appreciate how easy it is to tell Koichi and Koji apart. I feel like they did a good job making them very distinct yet still keeping it clear that they're twins.

Ch. 13

Damn, just terrible translation. They kept calling Seraphimon Ophanimon over and over again. At one point they had the wrong name right next to the correct name on the same page!! How is it possible to be THAT careless!? (I noticed that the scanner acknowledged this in their between chapters' note lol).

It was good to get another look at BlackSeraphimon's design. I already said this in my anime commentary, but it would have been way cooler if we got more of these combo designs from villains using heroes powers...

Ch. 14

I don't have many complaints for this chapter, it was done relatively well. I feel like Koichi's grandma was more explicitly negative when explaining what Koichi's father did to him ("abandoned").

The scene where Takuya is like "are you crazy? You should fight him because he's your brother" also felt weird to me. Like, what if they hurt him badly by mistake? Maybe humans can only be killed if you scan their digicode so there's no risk?

[heartlurch]

if u had to define it, what is it that u try most to bring out or represent in what u make, both aesthetically and narratively? I get a lot of the feeling if weird childhood feelings intersecting with like, adult feelings we don't quite understand yet- a kind of innocent puppy love that leads to a very sado-masochistic but equally innocent frame of mind. the idea that you want someone to be completely part of you, in every sense, in the most innocent- but not necessarily nice- way possible. like, when you're little, anything makes sense because nothing makes sense. (and also something something the inherent closeness of siblings...)

A real thinker. Hmm, how do I word this...

Aesthetically, I've always been drawn to 'cute' things. Little anime mascots, pretty creatures with bright eyes and long flowing hair. I'm inspired by things like Hamtaro, early Pokemon/Neopets design sense, a couple aspects of Digimon... My Little Pony! All things that have been dear to me since I was a lil kid. :3

I was also an edgy kid, though, so the kind of narratives I was inclined towards making were full of, er, murder, kidnapping, rape, slavery, cannibalism, torture... debauchery. Le weird age gap relationships, le interspecies, le forbidden love. (Funnily enough, I was late to the game with incest, it didn't really 'click' until I was about 17...) But yes, sado-maso, that was the core fixation. I wanted to see raw emotions! Misery! Scary situations! Dire romances!! And, I wanted all of these things to be inflicted to the pokemon, the my little ponies. I wanted to see those designs, that I was so attracted to, be put through this. Being honest, I don't think it was about contrasting something from my 'childhood' with something 'adult'... Well ah, real animals experience violence, death, rape, subjugation... *taps chin* I'm not sure if it feels like an 'adult' concept, because it's not as if it's exclusive to adults... Anything can experience intense circumstance, right? At that point, it's a matter of wanting to apply a sense of 'reality' to these creatures... Beyond that, it's also as simple as mashing up my favorite things together in a big pile. At that point, it's just incidental I wasn't like, idk, into detective dramas and putting the pokemon in that. (Not to nitpick too much... I'm just reflecting on my perspective. I'll circle back to this.)

Anyhoo... His little pea was thinking of such things at age like, 8, or something. Though I think I was closer to 11-13 when I was trying to actually write and draw these thoughts. None of this is so unique really; you can find tons of dA galleries from kids who want to see pikachu be fucked up and evil. As a result, I didn't feel like I was weird for what was doing, tbh. If anything, discovering fanfic dot net and dA made me feel validated — lots of people want to see this stuff! It was euphoric for a moment. Ah, so lots of people think like me... Cool!

I was mostly self-conscious at my own feeble skills. I'd have in my mind all these complex, winding narratives... Envisioning demon rituals where a kid needs to crush a live mouse between his teeth, swallow it whole, to complete it — but I couldn't remotely illustrate my thoughts. I'd barely be able to make some chicken scratch scribble of the design, and it'd be some feeble chibi lol. I felt a dissonance between my art and my desires. And it felt incompetent of me...

(You wouldn't know this girlie is a despondent sex slave, would you-??)

How do I improve drawing things that are pretty, cute, and appealing to me... but also, how do I create atmosphere? How do I convey all they are going through? This is where it's difficult, because there's not much to teach you how to... draw your cutesy little critter, writhing in agony. Expressive faces and posing are such a hill to conquer. And then beyond that, I have to realize there's other art that inspires me... I really love moeblob anime girls! Frilly shoujo styles! Expressive toons and furries... The simplicity of something like Adventure Time. What do I take away from these things? How do I integrate them-? I was honestly so clueless about it for years. Kind of at a loss of how to convey everything.

By now, I realize I want things to be mm... fluid, fantastical, a bit boneless... But not TOO boneless, it needs to be! Grounded! It needs volume, weight, I don't want things to get too loose, too flat, too 'shapes'. There's a lot of beauty to organic form... Grit to the living body. I want to imbue my favorite designs with that! A mascot is often designed with no intention to see it twist, flex, roll around, writhe... I want to look at a design like pichu and give it muscle and organs. It has a skeletal structure! It breathes! It exists. With all the dreamy, unreal smoothness of a real mouse. :3

Beyond that, I had much to hone about what I value in narratives. Getting it down to a science... What do I really want? At first, I think I over-emphasized wanting 'bad things' to happen. Harm happened, but too much for the sake of it. There was not enough meaning behind it. What imbues it with meaning...? I've found that the answer is: characters being obsessively, madly in love. A love that consumes everything, a love that drives you to act in a way you can't understand. This is where you get into the 'want to be completely intertwined, want all of you, no matter what '. That mentality. The kidnapping should happen because of love! The cannibalism should happen because of love! The rape should happen because of love! Love, love, love. It's always out of love! Love is the only thing that matters.

As for your bit about "adult feelings we don't quite understand yet", I do ponder this sort of thing quite a lot. I feel like... a lot of your experience as a child is that people underestimate what you are capable of. It's kind of frustrating! You see how children are depicted in things... and it makes you feel microaggressed, almost, haha. I'm not so gormless... I have an inner world, I have desires. One can develop an arrogance about this even... I think kids are pretty arrogant, often. Since they know they're being underestimated?

But... you... don't know everything yet! You can be in over your head. That's the tricky thing; there's a lot you haven't experienced before and cannot put to words yet. There are feelings that you have, that you chase, but you don't even know why. Sometimes it's fully unconscious... or sometimes, you're half-aware of it, but you struggle to confront it. Maybe you'll let yourself 'get away' with what you're doing, by not looking at it head on... Ah, and then, I think about all the memories I have of being pointlessly scared or confused about something that was so simple in reality. There are so many anecdotes people share from childhood that I really dwell on. An innocuous post like this really sums up how you can have a very inexplicable but real fear, that gets overturned by something very arbitrary. DON'T YOU HAVE A 100 MEMORIES LIKE THIS...?? It's the comical aspect of it all.

I really like the respective 'flavors' of specific ages as well. So it's fun to get into the head of a 15 yo, a 13 yo, a 12 yo, a 9yo, a 6yo... And the intersection of different personalities and ages! What about a distinctly 'slow' or immature kid, paired with someone younger yet more mature? Or perfectly on their level? Or... [goes on and on...] How do they encourage one another, who instigates what, what do they incidentally stumble into? I love accidents. I love not planning to do something... not intending to do anything more than an innocuous game. Or a mish-mash of, one of you is more clueless, the other knows they're doing something underhanded... Indeed, it's not always nice. It's often selfish. Love makes you selfish, love makes you impulsive and reckless. But it also makes you covet, find things precious. You end up feeling protective, as much as you feel destructive. How contradictory it all is!! Hehe. As you can probably tell, by now, I could spend all day thinking about this stuff...

Now that I have my ultimate best friend forever and ever, my wifey, it's all I want to think about. :3 I feel like being with her specifically, is what helped me fully understand the appeal of sibling characters. I've kind of dabbled in it before but, it's really being with Avvy that makes me crave the fantasy of wanting to be born together, grow up together... Never be apart. We're inseparable and spend every second with one another, so it's very natural to translate our dynamic into something like the Yugi twins. How warm and cozy! Let's play forever!

Bit of a tangent, but it's all relevant, I promise.

So hm... going over my art journey and all... As an adult, I've reached a point where I can reflect on everything I've been drawn to, and why, and I can understand what I want to make of it all. I felt more aimless before, and helpless about how to make everything harmonize. It all kind of felt like a big soup of disparate things I was trying to mash together, with mixed results. Now I feel more exact. And I can reflect on my own experiences and memories and use that to connect and explore characters. I like this... it's like my entire life becomes a reference point, something to pull from. A moment, a feeling, a tactile experience... It can be plucked and made into art. Which is lovely. At this point, it makes me a little excited when I experience stressful things, because it can be something I use later. Physical illness is fodder for a sickly character. When I'm bedridden and my wife is bringing me water, it's like some weird kinnie euphoria lol. My twin is here for meeee... kaff kaff

I keep trying to think of how to succinctly summarize this all... Maybe I can't. The last thing I want to say is I put a lot of reverence in my personal art, now. And I'm pretty severe about this, I don't want to draw something out of any other reason than adoration. It needs to matter to me. I have to love it. A lot of my old art is embarrassing, but as long as I was trying my best, it's not so bad. The stuff I truly hate was when I faffed off and drew some meaningless meme, just cuz my friends were doing it. And drawing things purposefully ugly. Making fun of my interests, out of shame, or something... I resent this. I won't ever do this again! If I draw Tsukasa... I need to make sure I'm conveying how I love him and how he is beautiful! At most, if I'm drawing something silly, it still needs to be cute. Appealing. A silly little comic. It's no fun of me, I know, but I hate meme-y art as a result. Useless to me. It's easy to be irreverent. Try praying to something next time you draw, if you want a challenge... *insane person voice*

Something something... oh, the reason I feel 'weird' and 'crazy' nowadays, is because I think a lot of people outgrow the edgelord, drawing pikachu crying blood phase. Or, it developed into something more... *squints* 'respectable'...? But I feel as though my raw desires haven't changed. If anything, I'm leaning into it allharder into it than I ever did when I was young.

I hope any of this was interesting. 🙇‍♀️

[miodiodavinci]

3, 4, 10, 11, and 29 for the ask game?

these are fun questions!! sorry if i chose too many lol

ohhh thank you ! ! ! ! ! ! ;; o ;; i'll put these under a read more because oh no these are so long askjfdhklf

3. What ideas come from when you were little

well Very Little Me ala elementary school exclusively drew cats and dragons and digimon and neopets and i feel like a lot of that no longer exists in my art outside of very vague plans to one day get back into just making funky technicolor animals for the hell of it

but like in terms of character and story concepts funnily enough, i feel like what i enjoy and really want to achieve now is essentially what Middle School Little Me deeply wanted to draw but adamantly refused themself on principle due to a lot of internalized ideas about what makes "good" and "bad" characters

like little me loved reading cheap mangas and watching cruddy AMVs and reading edgy over-dramatic short stories and looking at people's neon winged scene cat OCs on devianart but also refused to let themself publicly acknowledge liking any of these things, much less allowed themself to draw them, and thus existed in this sort of tense "ohhhh i hate you so much you're So Cool and Look So Fun but that's because you're Bad and Terrible and therefore my stuff is So Much Better™ because it's Boring and not you" phase for years until i got into VOCALOID and realized "wait drawing anime crap fucks" and never looked back ADKJHAKL

like my typical pre-VOCALOID OC would have been Some Guy™ with an Exceptionally Normal Life™ who had a Weird Science Thing™ happen to him that i'd then have to explain for 30 pages before i lost interest and dropped like a rock, but my typical post-VOCALOID OC is literally like

"okay so basically they're a cassette tape who's been animated by this hell facility and is maybe magic but is also maybe just the secondary protagonist projecting herself onto the tape as she's done with the other 7 junk people here but ALSO they're special because they can see alternate timelines and they don't speak but people understand them because they talk through implied second person narration like an RPG protagonist. this is a canon, in-meta aspect of their character. do not steal."

ww that aside, art style-wise at least, i can Definitely Say™ that while a lot of my middle school art style has kind of disappeared over the years, that thing where i draw the hips forward and the legs pointed back a bit with the whole body kind of forming an acute angle that is absolutely something middle school me discovered that i have yet to figure out how to break AKDJHALDKJ

like

dig through my artwork and you will find a million and ten examples of this Exact™ leg placement, ranging from subtle to extreme w

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

(hands clenched and trembling) i have this one character i've been working on for two years now that i have a Very Specific Design In Mind For™ but he's so non-descript that it's Impossible to narrow down What™ that design is so he's looked different every single time i've drawn or tried to design him It's Hell™

rest in fucking pieces, virgil

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

m m m m i know i definitely love drawing big baggy clothes that obscure the form underneath because heehee easy to take shortcuts, and y'all Know™ i like drawing cool boots because i have my own boots to reference 24/7 and thus it's second nature at this point, but i don't know if i have a favorite piece of clothing specifically??

i like scarves, i like hoodies, i like boots, i like oversized jackets, i like gloves, i like front-brimmed hats , , , , ,

still haven't figured out how to make dresses that make sense though and that kills me every day 😭

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what?

i do ! ! ! and more often than not it is one of two massive playlists i have that each contain upwards of 1500 vocalo works because i physically cannot get enough of these funky little vocal synths AKDJHADLKJ

admittedly nowadays it's moved on from being exclusively VOCALOID/UTAU + some nostalgic touhou classics and has been peppered more and more with non-vocal synth works ala syudou's non-vocalo things, su lee, bill wurtz, woodkid, sigur rós, and a small smattering of other artists (though again the playlist is 99.9% vocal synth www)

i really, truly need to get into other artists though because every time someone asks what sort of music i'm into i feel death approach me like a dark horse on an open moor OTL

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

this one i had to think about for. a really long time askdjsdjf

it might be kind of a simple answer, but i'd probably have to say OFF? which is to say that i adore the game with all my heart and love replaying it every couple of years, but it's the kind of game i enjoy just experiencing and reminiscing about rather than pulling it apart and emulating in my own works w

either way, thank you for asking ! ! ! ! a a a a ! ! ! !

[otakween]

Digimon Frontier - Episode 48

Lol, I'm so done with this show, the writing in this episode was so stupid. Everything felt like an ass pull. I'm also very underwhelmed by them using the same weak-ass digivolutions they've been using since the first dozen of episodes on the final boss (especially Chackmon and Fairymon, sorry, but no). Then again, Digimon is always doing nonsense like that. The only thing I'm looking forward to now is the epilogue, the final battle just feels like something I gotta get through.

Notes:

So Lucemon FD Mode just destroyed everything so he could rebuild (including all the moons), but now he's like "jk lol I'm aiming for the human world instead." I can't tell if he's going for both or just realize the human world was a better prize.

The kids barely reacted at all when Bokomon told them what LordKnightmon said about Koichi. I guess it's underwhelming news after you've just witnessed the apocalypse, but I expected an "oh no!" at least lol

Some deus ex machina nonsense going on left and right. A fireball conveniently strikes Bokomon's lore book at the perfect time to reveal hidden text about the consequences of digimon entering the human world. Then Patamon, Plotmon, and Lopmon are like "light and dark gotta combine if you want to defeat Lucemon, duh!" as if that's common knowledge they knew all along. Why didn't they say something sooner!?

I don't remember there being anything about digimon causing distortions in the human world in Adventure, but that was definitely a thing in Tamers. I'm not sure which I prefer. The drama is kinda better in the latter but I miss digimon hanging out in the real world without consequences ;w;

What is Lucemon's "Dead or Alive" lol sexy volleyball game supposed to represent? It looks like a 3D cypher or something. Wondering what that has to do with "light and dark combined"

Again...seeing them use super weak "beginning of the season" attacks was painful. We're on episode 48 of 50 gdi! >:/

Lots of "dramatic anime nudity" (when nudity is used to make people look ethereal) in this one. It was hard to take seriously ngl (I'll just assume they didn't see Koichi's junk cuz he was too shiny lol). I noticed they censored Koichi a bit in the dub which was funny.

Uh...the name of the episode is "light and dark combined," Lucemon monologues about combining light and darkness...and then Takuya and Koji combine (fire and light) -_- I know that Koichi was somewhere in the mix too but...it doesn't show up in Susanoomon's design, so it felt awkward and anticlimactic

Speaking of Susanoomon. I do like his design, it seems like a really even mix of Takuya and Koji's digivolution elements. I think the ornament on his back (is it a sun?) really brings things together. I don't really like his tiny head though.

RIP to Koichi I guess? I bet he'll come back in some form or another

Edit: hilarious comment on MAL (credit: ETHEREALEVIL): "Tbh Koichi was cursed to die from the start his slide evolution is KaiserLeomon"

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 1

Dear God...the vibes are immaculate. THIS WAS SO GOOD! So cinematic! So atmospheric! What a fabulous pilot episode. I'm definitely hooked. I'm trying not to overhype this show because the internet has sung its praises to the high heavens and I don't want to be let down. Let's take it one episode at a time and see how it goes :) (so far, so good).

Notes:

-So many thoughts, so many questions. Firstly, I'm getting the vibe that this is a parallel universe to the worlds of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. In those worlds digimon weren't a fictional concept (as far as I know) before they became real. In this world Takato knows digimon from video games and TCG before he meets one in person. Also. the world isn't aware that digimon are real, so this wouldn't be in the 02 world post-epilogue.

-A very small cast in this one! Only 3 kids (so far). I think this could be a very good thing. Tighter writing and more developed characters. These kids have barely said anything but they already feel more 3 dimensional than the 02 kids lol. Also, their designs are a lot more subdued which I think helps with the realistic feel.

-Culumon was...a little annoying, but cute at the same time. I love his retractable ears and that he asks a zillion questions like a toddler. Just wish he didn't say "culu" ever 2 seconds lol. He looks like a magical girl companion.

-We're still in Tokyo, Shinjuku this time around. Will we ever get a Digimon MC who's a country bumpkin? That could be fun.

-The gamer in me shudders at all of the new digimon that are about to be introduced. Good thing I'm not a "raise them all" kind of completionist.

-Digimon TCG anime debut! When they were like "Option card!" I was like "omg! I know that! I know the rules!" I wonder if the TCG will show up again or if they just used it to kickstart the plot?

-Takato's school DOESN'T have uniforms!? What kind of anime school is this!? (No seriously, I thought that was more of a rural school thing).

-I can relate to Takato designing his own digimon during class. I totally did that in elementary school too (with Pokemon as my inspo tho)

-I'm not in love with the new digivice design (a little bulky), but I like that it has a keychain strap. How practical!

-I'm not sure where Takato is getting the "tamers" vocab from. I don't think that would be referenced too much in the TCG, so he must be getting it from the video games.

-Love that Takato lives above his family's bakery. Give me ALL the anime food!

-I just googled this, but apparently the "guil" in "Guilmon" comes from "guilty." Didn't see that coming. I thought it might be Gila monster lol. Of course we get another stinkin' dinosaur-like digimon for the MC. Oh well. I guess that's what the little boys like. He's kinda cute, I suppose

-I don't know the main girl's name yet, but damn, what a badass! I feel like we haven't gotten this kind of female character yet. Closest would be maybe Hikari in her edgier moments, but she's more on the sweet side. I know that the furries like her partner digimon lol (Renamon, I believe?) To be honest, I'm not sold on her design yet. I think it's a little weird looking. Maybe she'll grow on me.

-When Guilmon's egg hatched I thought he died lol. I forgot that an egg cracked in half can be a good thing too.

-I was kind of giggling when they kept showing the scientists in their cyberpunk chairs and wearing VR headsets. Very 2000s sci-fi vibes (still looks cool, don't get me wrong). When they kept saying "wild one" I was just thinking "hey I heard you were a wild one oooooh~"

-When Jianliang's sister dropped Terriermon on his face I died lol. Why was that so funny? I'm so making a gif later...

-My guy (Takato) really saw a rat infested tunnel and just crawled right through it. I hope you have a good immune system because Jesus...

-The concept of Takato meeting a digimon and then immediately realizing "oh wait, a fire breathing dinosaur IRL is maybe not a good thing" was great. And of course they had to use it as a cliff hanger! I'm wondering if Guilmon will be able to speak or if he'll be more baby-like.

-Guilmon's existence raises many questions. I guess we technically already knew that people can create digimon, we've seen that happen. However, we haven't seen it happen so casually/easily. Does Takato have some sort of special power or can multiple people do this? Also, if Guilmon was born at child level, what happened to the previous 2 levels. Did Takato draw those in his notebook so they're just coded in there?

(My questions are all rhetorical...I shall wait for the show to answer them, so no spoilers please).

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 17

This episode was kinda meh on an emotional level, but it felt productive because a lot happened, so it was good in a different way. It's early to be saying this, but I'm really wondering when the "dark" part of this series begins. Everyone talks about how edgy this season is, but I'm guessing that comes towards the end. Guess I'll find out! As usual, no spoilers please. I truly have no clue where this is going.

Notes:

So a creepy mystery man (thought it might be Yamaki but his hair is darker) is disseminating sketchy digimon cards to random children. What could it mean?? Since he gave it to some rando and not to the main trio is he trying to create more tamers? Don't really know what he'd get outta that tho...

Nice to get another Jian episode. As I predicted when I first started Tamers, it's a lot easier to keep things balanced with only 3 main characters.

Jian has a computer drive...for Digimon cards!? That's so cool! I wish that was a thing irl lol. I feel like that's basically what amiibo cards are, but we never got a CD-like drive for them.

Nice to throw some Chinese cultural things in there like Jian's dad doing tai chi. It's also cool that his Dad calls him his full name (Jianliang). I realized that I've been pronouncing it wrong to myself. I thought it was like "John" but it actually sounds more like "Jenn."

Jian's dad actually reminds me of my Dad. Similar appearance and a big computer nerd. (I guess that's probably many dads...)

Who is Shibumi?? They kinda set that mystery up in this episode. Former coworker/friend of Jian's dad?

Wait a minute...

What is this dessert-looking thing? Pavlova or something? Why are there ice cubes on top of it? I don't know what I'm looking at, but it still made me hungry lol.

I was keenly paying attention during the Akihabara scenes cuz I know that that area has changed a lot since the early 2000s. Definitely was more about the hardware back then.

Finally a Devas design I like! I thought that Pajiramon and Vajiramon looked great. It helps that I really like centaur-like creatures.

For a second there I thought that Vajiramon's bottom half looked weirdly lewd until I realized I was looking at his chest and not his crotch lol

One scene that made no sense to me was when Jian was like "I'm gonna slash this blue card but I have no idea what it does!" and then while he's slashing it he goes "MATRIX EVOLUTION!" Did he just assume he could make the card do what he wanted or...?

Rapidmon...I don't hate it, but I don't really like it either. I guess I just don't like mecha lol. Definitely prefer him to MegaloGrowmon though.

I really thought Jian's dad would admit that he knew Terriermon was a digimon all along, but nope. Still not buying that he just believed he was a plushie though...

I keep seeing ads everywhere for a belt/pouch that looks suspiciously like Ruki's. The algorithm knows...honestly I'm surprised that those didn't catch on. If I routinely played TCG I'd so get one haha.

Mysterious ending with Renamon and Vajiramon is mysterious. Pretty weird for them to just not defeat a digimon for once...

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 8

Hmm this episode was just okay. There were some really nice animation moments, but it kinda felt like there was a lot of drawn out fluff. I still enjoyed myself, but I spaced out a couple times so I guess it didn't have me super gripped.

Notes:

Impmon was a fun little asshole in this episode. It's funny how he doesn't ever really get the reactions he wants. Renamon just kinda ignored him and Guilmon is too innocent to realize he's being trolled. Love a goofy villain who's bad at being evil. (I'm sure he'll get something darker to do eventually tho)

Terriermon has such an interesting personality. You would think such a cute little guy would be nice and affectionate but instead he's very blunt and says whatever's on his mind without much care for other's feelings. The way he inappropriately reacts to things yet seems to have a sort of wisdom...neurodivergent digi? (he does kinda look like autism creature lol)

The fact that Guilmon has a hobby of burying and digging up his food makes me think of enrichment for a caged zoo animal...at least he can technically leave

This episode did a really good job of making big digimon actually big! Adventure struggled with that at times (Greymon's size in the movie vs. the anime for example). I feel like showing off the hugeness of digimon and making them feel intimidating is all about the angles/perspectives they're "shot" at. Devidramon and Growmon felt properly intimidating in this.

Asanuma-sensei's JP voice is very monotone. She kinda sounds dead inside. She also barely reacted to a giant goth dragon flying inches from her head lol. I'd be screaming and peeing my pants and she was just like "what was that...?"

It's hard for me to not read "Grow" as grow...I get that it's from "growl," but that romanization is confusing out of context...

Takato being sucky at strategizing with his cards felt relatable to me lol. I'm bad at strategy games...

Seeing Guilmon digivolve for the first time was exciting and I look forward to seeing more Growmon in the next episode. I'm not super bothered that his design didn't change much. It's just annoying that digivolution is so inconsistent and sometimes they look completely different and other times its more gradual. Also, wait...when he was born Takato's digivice had to scan the drawing of Guilmon but this time it just kinda happened. Hope we get an explanation for all this eventually...

Speaking of unexplained mysteries, Culumon randomly shows up right as Guilmon is digivolving and his head lights up. The timing was suspicious, but I have no idea what the connection is yet.

I don't really get why Renamon and Terriermon couldn't have helped Guilmon with his fight. Renamon was like "that's Guilmon's prey..." which sure, makes sense with Ruki and Renamon's style of battling for power, but what was holding Jian and Terriermon back exactly?

[otakween]

Digimon World: Digital Card Battle (1999) - 27/55 battles in

Yeah, I have no way of telling how many hours I've put into this game (doesn't feel like much), so I'm going by battles now. I'm about halfway done with the game if the guide I'm following is accurate. This is a really relaxing and fun game! It's not that difficult, but there's just enough challenge to make me feel accomplished.

(...they shouldn't have made the weird holocaust joke. And that's all I'll say about that because other people have already talked about it).

Notes:

-The gameplay loop here is pretty basic, but it's not mind numbing like Digimon World 2 because you're constantly getting to see new settings (from DW1) and story beats. All the battles have felt pretty similar and it doesn't really feel like there have been any bosses yet. Me vs. Vamdemon, for example, didn't feel too different from me vs. Patamon.

-The story in this game is really silly and the stakes feel pretty low. The digimon are all mad at each other for petty reasons like stealing toilet paper or breaking toilets (a lot of toilet stuff). Also, there aren't really any villains because any dark/mean digimon becomes a goofy ally the instant you beat them at a card game lol.

-They wrote Etemon's dialogue like a homophobic stereotype. You know the kind in anime where the weird muscular dude kinda comes onto the protagonist and then the protagonist is like "ewww gross" ?Yeah...they did that. I don't remember anime Etemon being like that, so wtf.

-What's with all these digimon with stitches on their mouth (Babamon and Brachimon). How do they eat?? Very Tim Burton-esque design choice.

-That was pretty funny when the solution to the "find the bug cards" fetch quest was to just have Etemon create counterfeit cards lol. I enjoyed Mameo's little asides to himself when he was worrying that his ruse had been found out.

-All the digimon continue to have a ton of personality thanks to the well written dialogue. I hope this carries over to the localization when I play the sequel.

-At the beginning of the game I was playing with an auto-made deck and then I realized I could just set up my own deck with only good cards and the game has been a breeze since then. I've been using the same deck for the past like 15 battles without issue and haven't really felt a need to experiment yet. Kinda hoping the difficulty level goes up slightly so I get more of a chance to try different combinations of cards. I've barely been spending my money at all because I haven't had a reason to.

-Unfortunately, I did miss out on a miss-able battle with Piximon/Piccolomon. I hate it when they do that in games. Not the end of the world, but hurts my completionist heart.

-When you win a battle with Kunemon he shakes his butt at the screen and it's really cute. Hoping to get a gif of that eventually lol

-I'm using a guide for this game that just tells you about each opponent, but it's not really a walkthrough. Luckily, the game has a built-in walkthrough. If you visit Babamon she just tells you where to go next. Thanks game!

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 - Volume 1

I'm doing things slightly out of order here, but I'd like to get to all the side stuff that came out prior to Tamers before I move on from Adventure. This is the first Digimon manga that came out (aside from C'mon Digimon which is contained within this release) so it'll be interesting to see those humble beginnings.

Ch.1

-So I guess this is some alternate universe version of season 1? (Or maybe like a beta version?) The plot feels a little similar to Digimon World where digimon are a battling v-pet IRL and the main character gets sucked into the digital world solo.

-In this version of the story, Taichi has a V-dramon. Unclear so far what level digivolution a V-dramon is or if it's related to Veemon. Zeromaru is a dumb name...

-Goggles AND a cape? That's a bit much Taichi...

-I like how doofy Gabumon looks in this. The digimon are way more cartoony and expressive so far.

-Full color and actual, red blood!? This manga looks fabulous on my tablet <3

Ch. 2

-More Digimon World vibes. The Holy Angel Castle looks a lot like the ice castle that you can only enter if you have a vaccine digimon in the PSX game...

-There's a "should digimon have human partners?" element here that we haven't really seen in the show yet. I feel like this question is inevitable for most mon series.

Ch. 3

-Okay, I'll admit, I didn't see the pun in "Zeromaru" (maru is another way to say zero) until this chapter. I hate the name slightly less now.

-A Tonosama Gekomon and a HolyAngemon are a pretty bizarre combo lol

-I really love the art style in this actually. Chibi-mode Taichi was adorable in this chapter and the colors are really nice as well. I wish we got more full-color manga releases like this one!

-So Demon is gonna be the big bad in this? That's kinda nice actually cuz he got majorly short shrifted in 02. Seems like his design is completely different here. Kinda looks like Ogremon...

Ch. 4

-I kinda like how the wild digimon get names in this. Since every digimon from the same species seems to be pretty much identical, giving them names allows me to become more attached to them.

-Only just realized that I don't really know why Etemon is called Etemon. I tried googling it and the Digimon wiki's explanation didn't really help...

-Pretty wild that Gabo said "God is gone" lol. Also, Digi-world creation myth confirmed.

-The manga's McGuffin was introduced: V-tags. I'm guessing the "V" is for "Virtual," but if you're going to call everything "digi" that seems to go against the branding a bit...

Ch. 5

-Okay Gabo's incessant "You guys need to act more concerned!!" gag is getting really annoying. He says it like every 3 pages!

-I had no memory of Deltamon so I thought he was new, but I guess he appeared in an 02 episode? He's really ugly. Also, how many samey dino digimon designs do we need!?

Ch. 6

-These chapters are super short and since a lot of them are battles, they take like 2 minutes to read. Perfect for young kids I guess!

-That triceratops with pecs was pretty cursed.

Ch. 7

-When the digimon are hurt their skin cracks like they're made of plastic or something. Kind of a weird choice...

-Another thing that differs between the manga and anime is that we see Taichi perform first-aid care after fights. The anime doesn't really show a lot of wounds in the first place and usually the digimon just rest to heal.

Ch. 8

-I was surprised to see MarineDevimon who doesn't appear in the anime until 02. I wish I knew more about which chapters of this came out when because it apparently came out over the course of 5 years (1998-2003) -- Edit: this info is thankfully on the wiki

-In this chapter Gomamon says that Triceramon being a data-type means he's a "good" digimon. In the anime they said that even virus-types can be good. So maybe that's more of a prejudice than a fact? (Or it's just different in the manga).

-Gomamon is so baby in this!

Ch. 9

-This manga reminds me of Yu-Gi-Oh! season 0 where everything is just slightly off.

-The digimon are more blatantly programs and apparently if you go inside them it's just a neon void? Also, I guess the 01 in the manga's title is a reference to binary.

-Let's see how much random stuff the digivice can do in the manga. So far it allows you to scan digimon for their HP and to communicate telepathically.

Ch. 10

-Already 2 out of 5 tags collected which means that this tag collecting thing is probably just one out of many arcs.

-For some reason the official release goes up to chapter 10 for volume 1 but the fan scans go beyond that? I'm going to stick to the official release because 10 is a nice clean end point.

This manga seems pretty typical for a game/anime-tie in for young boys. The chapters are very easily digestible and nothing too deep happens. The magazine it was serialized in, V-Jump was also home to things like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest, so the demographic is pretty clear. I'm really enjoying the artwork mostly. I wish there were more character moments but the reoccurring cast is pretty dinky at the moment. Let's see where this goes!

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure (Blind Watch) - Episode 23

FRIENDSHIP! Frankly, as an antisocial, I'm sick of anime shoving nakama down my throat like having friends is the meaning of existence. Sometimes I'm just too tired to put in the effort, okay?

Anyway, this was another edgy Yamato episode. It seems like he gets all the darker ones. (Dark by Digimon's kiddie standards). I found him getting tricked by PicoDevimon to be a lot more believable than Takeru because he was emotionally/physically exhausted due to the abuse from Veggiemon (lol) and Digitamamon. He did also snap out of it very quickly though.

Digimon introduced: Veggiemon, Digitamamon, WereGarurumon

Notes:

-We get to see Garurumon's ultimate form and he kinda just looks like someone's fursona. He might as well be a Final Fantasy character with all the belts strapped to him.

-This episode made me realize that there aren't a lot of werewolves in anime! Vampires, sure, but werewolves...? I can't think of any. (Maybe Wolf's Rain). I was surprised to see "were" is written like "wa-" I thought it was "WarGarurumon" at first

-Lots of gaslighting in this episode. It was actually kind of upsetting to watch. Joe already gets dunked on by his friends enough as it is.

-Veggiemon has a weird design. His intro said that he has a poop attack because of course he does. Is that just the attack they give to every annoying digimon?

-Apparently the Digimon world uses dollars for currency or at least this part does. It's kind of weird that they have money in general. The consistency of whether digimon are human-like or animal-like in their behavior is non-existent.

-I really thought there would be more to Digitamamon's "Nightmare Syndrome" attack. He just kind of sucked Garurumon and Ikkakumon into a void and then spat them back out. What exactly was that supposed to do? (Reminded me of Raven from Teen TItans)

-I felt like the digimon did kind of a crappy job defending their human counterparts this episode. Joe was being squeezed to death by Veggiemon for a little too long.

-I guess it will be explained, but it's pretty weird how Sora is helping out from the shadows. It always feels like they just don't know what to do with her character lol.

-Yamato yelling "FRIENDSHIP" during battle made me laugh. It was so out of the blue and then that ending scene was really awkward "Will we meet again? Of course we will, because we're friends!" lolwut. What does that even mean?

-When they showed Tsunomon I was kind of like "who's that?" for a second lol. I forgot what he looked like. I guess everyone's just accepted that digimon go back to babies after their ultimate evolution at this point.

-Next episode looks really interesting cuz it's a Koushiro one. Koushiro really gets the job done with moving the plot forward so I like him.

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure (Blind Watch) - Episode 7

And now Jyou/Gomamon get their day in the spotlight. Their dynamic is pretty cute and I like Gomamon's design. Ikkakumon is pretty neat too, I like the natural evolution from seal-like thing to wooly walrus-like thing. I thought we were going to get a reveal for where the gears are coming from, but that didn't really happen. Instead we got a reveal that they're on an island...which I thought we already knew? (Maybe it's dramatic irony).

Digimon introduced this episode: Ikkakumon and Unimon

Notes:

-The dialogue in this episode felt kinda ramble-y like it was improv. They discussed snowball fights, igloos, how to eat eggs. Pretty random stuff.

-Whenever there's an emotional conflict in this show it really lacks subtlety. Like Jyou had to to be over the top about how overly serious he was and constantly repeated "I'm the oldest!" Like, gee, I wonder who this episode is about? Of course, it's for kids, so that's only natural. It's just kind of funny watching it as an adult.

-The fact that they didn't even question what kind of eggs were in the mystery fridge was kinda weird. I don't think this world has chickens...

-Gomamon's VA apparently also voices Naruto, which probably explains the feeling of familiarity I got listening to him. I really like Junko Takeuchi's voice. So versatile!

-Somehow they managed to make a alicorn ugly. That's real talent. (This is why I prefer Pokemon).

-I appreciated it when Jyou was able to predict that the "kind and gentle" Unimon would go bad. Always refreshing when characters learn from the formulaic plot.

-Jyou's name is written with the kanji "jou" from "daijoubu!" (based on the memo he wrote in the dirt). Talk about an easy name to write.

-Birdramon saving the day on the mountain felt very Lord of the Rings lol.

-Greymon spoke at one point (more than shouting an attack name) it made me realize that the evolved Digimon can talk. Since they're always fighting, I never thought of them as speaking characters. I wonder if they'll ever stick around long enough to have a full conversation?

-After the battle Taichi says to Jyou "I've changed my opinion of you." (As in, he's impressed). I've heard this line said a lot in anime and it's a pretty shitty thing to say to someone lol. Imagine someone being like "you know what, you're not as terrible as I thought you were!" Also, Jyou gets rewarded for reckless behavior which is also pretty bad.

-Gomamon with the tsundere blush was pretty cute <3