#tamer is having a good time while digimon is about to lose his shit

[azaracyy]

love is hell

[broken-clover]

Digimon Frontier had the best digivolutions in the franchise. Its also my fav Digimon season. I barely know anyone who likes it as much as I do :D

...Rex you are unlocking my repressed weeb shit. Why would you do this to me.

Ok ok so I positively adore frontier, I haven’t exactly been counting I but I have watched and rewatched it more than any other Digimon season. I know people didn’t tend to like it compared to others because of the sentai elements or because they didn’t like the characters but I could not get enough of it. Still can’t!

Like, yeah, is it flawed? Of course it is, all the seasons had some kind of drawback or two to them. But there’s so many cool things it included!! It may not have managed such a consistent ‘computer’ theme like Adventure and Tamers but imo I think it still had some of the best worldbuilding, and I feel like it did the best job of feeling like a separate world with its own independent society that intermingles with one another. And all the setpieces felt so grand and colorful. (Breezy Village and the Village of Flame are probably my favorites) It all felt like one massive, intrepid adventure with a sense of wonder to it all. And honestly just in general I think they whipped out some really creative concepts compared to other seasons, like the giant toy castle and the Rose Morning Star. Hell, there was an episode on the frickin moon!! And the king of the moon was a star that sounded like Elvis!!

As much as people seem to dislike the season’s concept of actually turning into Digimon, I honestly thought it was a really cool idea? Maybe it’s partly because when I was a kid watching the show I really preferred the monsters over the kids themselves. Sure tamers helped, but they never did the actual fighting. Having the protagonists actually fight gave the show a lot more stakes I think because they were always directly in danger, plus there was a tangible way to show that they were growing more powerful with time, being able to defeat bigger and more dangerous enemies. 

Which brings me to another thing!! Royal Knights Arc!! Spending several episodes showing the protagonists actually lose battles but slowly altering tactics to grow better at fighting and gradually overpowering the enemy, all the while showing off more of the awesome worldbuilding and showing how Digimon society reacts to the possibility of being annihilated and everyone working together to help one another!! The tension of slowly losing more and more land and watching the world vanish but never giving up!! Callbacks to earlier in the series!! The series tone was at its peak during the whole thing

And this is just a personal thing but I think this season scared the shit out of me as a kid more than any of the others. I always hear people say Tamers was the most horrifying season but it never really creeped me out for whatever reason. But like. Ominous creepy demon child monologuing about the end times while trapped in the planet’s core. Knowing that right from the start the world is on the cusp of all-out war/total annihilation of all life following two other massive conflicts. The concept of the edge of the world vanishing and you can literally fall into the endless abyss (less openly terrifying than the others I guess but HOLY SHIT did that concept scare the hell out of me as a kid). Mercurimon’s creepy ass mirror face and the fact that he was able to murder several powerful characters without even directly attacking them. The idea of losing your mind and body to a bloodthirsty creature but also needing to take that risk otherwise the world is 100% fucked, the entire Sakkakumon arc with the combination of forcing middle schoolers to face their deep personal trauma and that horrifying fucking face, culminating with him beating the main protagonist within an inch of his life and nearly snapping his neck and only hesitating for the sake of his own sadistic enjoyment. LITERALLY EVERYTHING ABOUT DUSKMON. LITERALLY EVERYTHING. EYES DO NOT GO THERE. 

And there’s so many other things I could ramble about, like my appreciation for them flipping the basic premise of ‘light=good and dark=bad’ right from the get go by having the wielder of the spirits of light be an asocial asshole and also showing that not everything associated with darkness is inherently bad/evil/frightening, or that when I was little I wasn’t the biggest fan of Junpei but now that I’m older he’s my absolute favorite because I find his story incredibly realistic and relatable. But I think I’ve made my point and then some already. Frontier good. I like a lot. Now I want to watch it again.

Also like I said, Zephyrmon was basically my gay awakening

[ramblingguy54]

26, 29, 30, 36?

*cracks knuckles*Alright, let’s do this.

26: The late Robin Williams & Hayao Miyazaki are two particular people in my life I’ve idolized for what happiness/imagination they’ve brought into others lives. Robin Williams untimely passing still hurts for me to look back on because this man made it his mission to bring so much joy into other peoples lives through his acting on the big screen, whether it was dramatic or comedic. That’s what I found the most impressive about Robin’s range in acting. He could be an over the top funny individual, but Robin’s acting chops were in a league of their own. Whether he was behind the microphone having the time of his life as Genie on Aladdin or giving a powerful dramatic performance on Good Will Hunting as Will’s therapist, I could feel the unconditional kindness. There was something about Robin’s acting power that would usually manage to reel me in. Even if I never knew him in real life, obviously, this man just radiated with so much kindness that I felt from his entire presence on screen. It’s seriously unfortunate what became of Robin Williams in the end with his unexpected death, but his legacy has inspired me to be kinder to others in real life. As for Hayao Miyazaki, this guy is a huge factor in why I got into loving anime related stuff all the more, as his creations in storytelling and the art itself for the movies were beyond unlike anything I still have yet to seen be topped quite frankly. It’s so easy for me to get emotionally lost in his films like My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Castle In The Sky, and Spirited Away. This man never ceases to amaze me with how usually impactful and in depth his films are. They’re so full life that it’s easy to lose sight of whats happening in the actual story at times. Mayazaki understood how to breathe a ton of humanity into creating such resonating works of fiction. Have a much greater appreciation for them in my adult years. There’s a reason why they inspired companies, like Pixar, to create immersive stories of their own.

29: Favorite films range from Zootopia, Wreck It Ralph, M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, Aladdin (1992), The Secret Of NIMH, The Lion King (1994), The Incredibles, UP, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2, How To Train Your Dragon Trilogy, Toy Story 1-4, The Great Mouse Detective, Lilo & Stitch, The Emperors New Groove, A Goofy Movie, Good Will Hunting, The Fox And The Hound, The Land Before Time, The Brave Little Toaster, Frozen, Shrek 1 & 2, Coraline, Paranorman, Kubo And The Two Strings, The Muppets (2011), Princess Mononoke, Castle In The Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Summer Wars, Beauty and the Beast (1991), Winnie The Pooh (1977 & 2011 iterations.), The Peanuts Movie, The Princess And The Frog, The Jungle Book (2016), Scooby Doo On Zombie Island, Harry Potters’ 1-7, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, Wonder Woman, Sam Raimi’s Spiderman 1 & 2, The Black Panther, Thor & Thor Ragnorok, The Avengers, Avengers Infinity War & Endgame, Spiderman Into the Spiderverse, Captain America Trilogy, Iron Man Trilogy, Star Wars Episodes 4-8, and The Breakfast Club to stop this list from getting any longer. =P

30: Favorite TV shows range from Cowboy Bebop, Avatar The Last Airbender, Yu Yu Hakusho, Digimon Adventure 01 & Tamers, Teen Titans (2003), Batman The Animated Series, Ed, Edd,& Eddy, Samurai Jack, Courage The Cowardly Dog, The Powerpuff Girls (Screw that garbage reboot.), Chowder, Bojack Horseman, DuckTales (1987), DuckTales (2017), Gravity Falls, Code Geass (This series has shaky writing in a number of areas, but that ending was beautiful.), Amphibia, Steven Universe, Oban Star Racers, Made In Abyss, Stranger Things, Gargoyles, My Hero Academia, Naruto (I’ve got a soft spot for this series despite my MANY problems with its story later on.), Pokemon (Serious nostalgia overload!), Dragonball Z (My very first anime series I got into through the Toonami block. A real shocker I know. LOL!), Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, The Promised Neverland, Death Note, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, Sonic SatAM, Talespin, Darkwing Duck, The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy, Robot Chicken, A Pup Named Scooby Doo, Kim Possible, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and Fullmetal Alchemist (2003).

36: My three dream scenarios I’d like to fulfill? 

1: Become A Voice Actor

Been interested in voice acting since I was a young teen, but have been in a conflicted state over these recent passing years in my life on whether or not I’d like to approach that route. There’s a lot of commitment I’d have to put into auditioning my butt off for roles I may or not get. Then comes the consistent practicing to keep my vocal chords in shape, so I don’t get rusty whatsoever. The industry for this kind of job can be hard to get recognized in too by how many other notable well known VA’s there are already. Not to mention, from what I’ve researched up on being a voice actor doesn’t bring in the money naturally, as it’s more of a passion job which that’s terrific and all, but if I want to partake in this profession I’ll have to juggle a job along with that which putting all those factors in my head honestly makes me intimidated. Ahhh well, it’s just something I’ll have to wait and see on if I can make that idea into a reality or not. No need to rush myself, of course.

2: Taking Up The Mantle Of Reviewing Shows & Films For A Living

Fiction, just like for many people, has been a great deal of helping me in my life moments of stress, solitude, depression, and anger. I’d love nothing more than to further express that to anyone out there in reviewing in great detail certain films or shows that I’ve come to love over these years in my life so far. Mostly for animation though, as its been a gateway for finding many gems of quality films or series. It never ceases to surprise me on how creative and powerful animation can be with its inventive ways of getting me to become an emotional mess. While I do enjoy live action series and films they pale in comparison to the beauty animation has brought into my life, since my early childhood of watching shows on Cartoon Network, Toon Disney, and Nickelodeon to a smaller degree. I’d like to think I’m good enough with how I present my reasons on why I feel so strongly connected to these stories showcasing characters trying to find hope in their own hard times. I try my hardest to take moments of my own life and find ways to connect it with whatever story I’m getting into next, so it can be all the more a special experience for myself. It’s important to put whatever character resonates with you most in their shoes for why you feel their emotional journey connecting with your own life on every conceivable level possible. That will make it when you write these kinds of reviews a very empowering read for others to feel either heard in their own feelings or simply giving others a new perspective to consider on this piece of fiction you’re discussing. Seeing some of my own particular analytical posts in the past here on Tumblr garner some attention from people gives me a boost of feeling better about potentially making this choice.

3: Starting A Family Of My Own…?

I can’t begin to tell ya how many times I’ve gone back and forth for getting married in the distant future to become a father has sped through my mind. On one hand, it scares the crap out of me to be taking up that big of a responsibility. However, on the other hand its deeply fascinated me emotionally of creating life through love for your significant other in starting your own family tree. I’d love to be able to raise kids of my own to pass on the lessons I’ve learned in life to make them become better people in the distant future, while showering them with unconditional love and affection. That would fill me up with such an indescribable joyous feeling to hear their own dreams and desires on what they want to accomplish in life. While I’d be a strict parent, I wouldn’t be a hard headed one quick to dismiss their own complaints if they had problems with how I handled things, once they start to get older. The kind of parent I’d want to be is an understanding open minded one who doesn’t judge their son or daughter for when they have an issue with me. Just because I’m a parent in that scenario doesn’t put me on a pedestal of immunity from criticism. Granted, I certainly don’t want to be a doormat for them to try taking advantage of either, but it’s also important to not let your parental role go to your head, too.

Although, I don’t plan on even trying to make this last dream of mine happen anytime soon. This is something that is MUCH later down the road that I wish to have happen. However, I won’t lie and say that I haven’t considered just staying content as a single guy for the rest of my life relying on close friends to bring me joy equivalent to this dream. While I adore the concept of creating life through love and being a father, there’s a shit ton of responsibility that comes with it. The life of a parent is not just putting your all into it. You gotta give more than just 100% when wanting to be a parent. It’s a serious test of your spiritual endurance, which I’m not sure is something I’ll ever have the courage to do, but then again things can change in life on the flip of a dime, so I’ll see how this all plays out for myself. Maybe I’ll stay happily single or I’ll happily be raising kids.

Gee, I wonder why this dream of being a parent resurfaced in my head recently this year? Oh yeah, it was thanks to this character here.

Seriously, Della Duck holds a real special place in my heart for making me feel these kind of feelings yet again. Darn you space mom! LOL.

Thanks for the ask, man.

[refractedglade]

do all of them. or the odds. or the evens. honestly just do some I'm tired and dont feel like reading through them all :/

this is honestly a lot so it gets a cut. also wow way to abuse the question ask.

1. do you have any recurring dreams? what are they?

only ever had one I think, and that was back in… probably elementary school? I had monthly nightmares thanks to one of the least frightening episodes of Courage the Cowardly Dog, god bless you young me you tried your best

2. what is your favourite kind of fruit?

im torn between grapes and apples

3. sweet or savoury?

savory

4. what is your smallest/pettiest fear? 

not even sure what the hell that means uhhhhhhhh

the fear that i am or will be mediocre at video games. it sounds dumb but at this point it’s one of the only quote-unquote skills I have that I can identify and im afraid to lose that

5. what is your least favourite vegetable?

peas

6. what is your favourite art movement?

surrealism I guess? I don’t know much about art movements tbh

7. do you drink milk?

fuck yes i do

8. what was the last line of the last book you read?

“A mob of Surly Thugs are there to greet you.

TO BE EVEN MORE CONTINUED.”

9. do you like bitter food?

not really

10. what is the most significant event in your life so far?

probably one of the several times i’ve moved since that always leads to meeting new people

12. what is your favourite breed of dog or cat?

I love labradors.

13. list your top 5 favourite turtle names.

what

uh

Leonardo

Donatello

Michelangelo

Raphael

and uhhhhhhh

Coco Jumbo

14. what job would you have if you could have it without going through all of the school or experience that is required?

if I didnt have that Id probably get fired very soon for being shit at my job, but lets say public attorney, see how far I get in that bullshit

15. are there any names that you dislike so much that you would dislike the person with the name? what are those names?

no not really

16. what is your favourite letter?

either R or T, they’re both such helpful shortcuts for web browsing

17. are there any instruments you wished you played?

I wish I had continued learning piano when I was younger. I was in the middle of lessons when we moved for the second time and we just never got another teacher.

18. list your best friends.

@verbalmoonwalking and honestly even though we haven’t talked much in forever @wombathills

19. would you rather be a skeleton or a ghost?

a ghost, way more opportunities and less of a hassle (imagine trying to navigate through the world as reanimated bones)

also there’s already some people i’ve promised to haunt

20. do you prefer fish or lizards/snakes? (as pets)

i dont have much experience with lizards or snakes (although I did have an anole for a year or so). i guess fish, they’re just so incredibly low-maintenance

21. art or music?

weird way to phrase that considering music is art but music

22. what is your favourite type of flower?

unfortunately Ive never learned much about flowers, but I do really like when they’re blue

23. soup or salad?

souuuuup

24. are you good at keeping plants alive?

surprisingly yes! I’ve had two plants growing since late winter/early spring I think

25. do animals tend to like you?

heck yeaaaah

26. what is the worst book you’ve ever read?

the Book of Leviticus

there’s not really a good answer to this, if a book is terrible I either never got far enough to remember or read it for a school assignment and promptly forgot about it

27. do you collect anything?

too many thing, and most of them only for short periods of time. the only consistent collection i have is my Halley Labs music collection

28. how many pillows do you sleep with?

right now just two, used to be three

29. whats the latest you’ve ever woken up?

5 in the evening i think? I forget details since its been a few years, but after an all-nighter I pulled during my first finals of college I passed out at around 6 pm and woke up almost a full day later

no wait addendum: i think like 1-3 in the morning because of falling asleep around 8-11 am.

30. how many pictures are on your walls?

my room has… a painting and a poster

31. what age did you stop keeping stuffed animals on your bed?

honestly? i didn’t

32. what is your favourite candy?

Butterfinger, or if in moderation Twizzlers

33. what is your favourite baked good?

its not the real answer but a vivid image of a steaming baked potato keeps appearing in my head

actually the more i think about it the better that sounds, like its plain but theres a lot of room for customization there

34. do you have a camera? if so, what kind?

yeah, i actually sort of inherited it recently from my late grandfather, though I haven’t actually,,, used it yet.

35. do you wear jewelry?

nope, used to wear a fidget ring a lot but who knows where that went. if i ever find a really cool necklace I’ll probably start wearing that all the time though.

36. sunrise or sunset?

sunset, sunrises are pretty but its a pain in the ass waking up the early

also seeing something like that in the evening is just a better state of mind imo

37. do you like to listen to music with headphones or no headphones?

depends on both the music and my mood, generally at this point no headphones though just because when i listen to music its while driving

38. what was your favourite show as a child?

I had a weird sense of almost reverence for Digimon as a kid. My mom had forbidden me from watching Pokemon, and I only ever saw like 3 episode of DIgimon once by accident because a day care had their cassette tape. I barely saw any of it but I loved it.

Season 3 aka DIgimon Tamers is still a solid series, and I still vividly remember watching season 4 on TV when I was slightly older and finding it weird but cool (4 was where they could actually like combine with their digimon)

39. describe your favourite spot in your house.

im the basement goblin so the couch down there is for all intents and purposes mine. also its right next to the room with the heater so hell yeah.

40. do you like to be warm or cold?

I like to be in slightly cold environments so I can be the kind of warm that isn’t just warm but warmed up, like the feeling of being warm when things are cold is very good.

41. the best joke you have.

i think the best jokes i ever did done was editing like 20 different photos of a friend of mine into dumb joke images

one was his face on a tube of laundry soap with some dumb caption along the lines of “ah, this is my life now”

42. whats the weirdest thing that you’ve seen happen in a public place?

first thing that comes to mind is a futon frame on the side of a highway. now let me clarify:

-it was sitting upright, not like it had been tossed aside

-it was on the INSIDE side, not the outside

-no mattress in sight

just… there.

43. CD or digital?

CD, I’ve been conditioned to love owning physical copies of stuff. On that note, also cassette.

44. who do you miss right now?

good friends, my dog, my will to live….

45. if you could combine two places in the world, which two places would you choose?

if by world you meant universe, lets combine earth with some other planet and see what the fuck happens

if you meant earth then Michigan and Ohio, that’d make some shit way more convenient for me

46. describe the worst substitute teacher you’ve ever had.

one of my high school english teachers went on maternity leave, and so we had a sub for about ¾ of the school year. i forget a lot of why the class hated her but a lot of it just came down to she was not good at teaching, and we had to deal with that for almost a whole year.

47. do you believe horoscopes?

short answer is no. less short answer is that while I don’t really believe anything like that, i still enjoy looking at and considering them, especially when they’re in shitpost format.

my sister came back from a mission trip to Africa a while ago and brought me back a small gift she got overseas, a pair of small handmade dice. i’ve developed a habit where on some mornings I’ll roll them before my day starts to see how high I roll, and sometimes interpret that as what the day might be like. do i believe it? not especially. but I almost sort of pretend to believe it. that’s sort of how i treat horoscopes, except even a little less than that.

48. are you spiritual?

eh

49. describe your pets ( or family if you dont have pets )

we had an extremely good dog named Zeus for a long time. yellow lab, energetic as hell in his youth and even in his old age. started having pain in his legs as he got older and eventually we had to put him down a year or so back.

he’s honestly part of the reason im not sure about getting pets in the future, i dont know if I want to go through that again.

50. are you good at getting over mistakes?

I guess? I mean I’m good at getting over that post-”I fucked up” anxiety for sure, that’s a skill I learned in college within like a year. After a bad test or something I just started forcing myself to say “fuck it it’s over can’t change anything now.”

[jolteonjordansh]

Thoughts on Tamers Introduction Arc

Yeah... I have no idea what to call this arc since Digimon Tamers is structured so differently from the Digimon Adventure series. It’s definitely a new beast compared to its predecessors, which is probably why it has this arc to set up how this whole new world works. This consists of the first 12 episodes (and kinda sorta episode 13 since it’s sort of an arc transition episode), so basically my initial thoughts of the series. So how is it?

I probably shouldn’t be writing when I’m in the middle of finals week but here we go.

This arc is actually super short compared to what I’m used to (or maybe that’s because Adventure 02′s arcs were really long, but whatever) and it honestly doesn’t have a ton of substance, at least in terms of being super eventful. In 13 episodes of Digimon Adventure, the seven DigiDestined all got their Digimon to evolve to Champion forms, conquer File Island and confront several big baddies--including defeating Devimon. For Tamers? The three main tamers get their Digimon to evolve to Champion form a couple of time at most and typically just deal with a few rogue Digimon “realizing” in the real world.

But that doesn’t make Tamers first arc bad at all. I’m actually glad that the story, for the most part, took its time. It’s far more emotionally driven and focused on writing and developing its characters than it is throwing a bunch of action-packed battles. That could change in later arcs and this also isn’t to say any of the battles were bad here either. 

Since there were so few battles, it’s easy to talk about those first. Probably the most interesting ones are the ones where each main Digimon achieves Champion form for the first time--Growlmon’s probably being my favorite. Like 02, Digimon have multiple attacks, which I really liked about that series as an improvement over Adventure. But along with that, Tamers’ “Card Slash” addition adds a good chunk of new variety to the battles. There’s mostly stat boosting cards, but the ones that give new abilities like White Wings on Guilmon are my favorite so far, so I really hope they keep being creative with it later on. Plus it also adds an extra bit of variety for how Digivolution isn’t really necessary to turn a battle around. It keeps things interesting and at times less predictable than what the Adventures series had to struggle with.

What I also really like about this arc and series so far is the characters--they’re honestly pretty unique and mostly don’t fall into major stereotypes. There’s obviously character tropes here and there, but they’re done with enough of a unique spin that I wouldn’t call any of them stereotypes. But what I like the most between all three of them is that they have their own strengths and flaws, but none of them are higher on the rung nor is there one character who is typically right about everything while there’s a bonehead who’s looked down on as the group idiot. I’ll try to explain.

Rika seems like the typical “cold-hearted bitch” and while she does fall into a few tropes, she is right about a few things. She’s very logical and her mentality reflects that, making her a better fighter and helping characters like Takato realize the flaws in his own strategies. But it’s because of her logical mindset that she’s cruel to Renamon and finds herself struggling internally. At the same time though, she has logical fears. She realizes she’s playing a dangerous game and she keeps a brave face on, but it’s when she’s directly facing that danger (such as when she’s been directly targetted by Digimon) that she feels a sense of helplessness.

Takato kind of falls into the “weird kid at school” archetype, but it’s honestly refreshing to have that character as the main protagonist for Digimon. After having the outgoing, courageous hothead Tai and... Davis I guess, Takato is honestly a more fun and (to me) more realistic character. Our previous leads were good characters in their own rights but despite the whole “average Joe” archetype the writers were going for with Davis, Takato feels like the most relatable lead so far. He’s weird, his imagination is running wild with ideas, he’s passionate about his interests to the point that it distracts him from school, he has friends but he also gets in fights with them, he gets in trouble with his parents for being a tad rebellious but he isn’t out to get in serious trouble... But guess what? That’s a kid! Kids are weird! They get in trouble! They get all sorts of ideas all of the time! And I commend the writers for nailing it with Takato.

But he’s not perfect. He doesn’t think his Digimon battles through and he gets cocky when he thinks he has it all figured out (but it’s not a running theme with him like many standard hothead protagonists). He’s extremely emotionally invested in and attached to Guilmon, to the point that he can’t possibly stand the very idea of losing him. But he’s a big dreamer (no pun intended on the theme song) that sometimes doesn’t realize how ambitious his dreams can be. When he first meets Guilmon and comes across his evolved Growlmon, he’s scared of the potential monster he’s created. He’s not the bravest kid around when faced with harsh realities, but he does overcome them and he does realize when he’s made a mistake. He’s actual a pretty big crybaby for a main protagonist, but that’s part of what makes him so human.

Then you have Henry, who’s sort of the in-between for Rika and Takato and the pacifist. He has the ability to fight, but he’s too scared to fight because of a past experience with his Terriermon digivolving to Gargomon and being out of his control. He cares a lot about Terriermon, but he realizes that he’s a creature that isn’t meant to exist in the “real world”. He has a balance of rationale and emotions, though it’s clear that his emotions tend to win over certain situations--he typically takes Takato’s side and stays out of fights because of his attachment to Terriermon. He’s a middle ground in the cast, but not to the point that he’s boring.

As for the Digimon, I like pretty much all three. Guilmon’s easily my favorite--he’s just so gosh darn adorable and his relationship with Takato has been really good so far. Renamon is the stoic and “cool” one, and I do like her. Nothing has really happened that has made me say “Oh my God, I love this character!”, but she’s interesting enough and I like some of her dedication to Rika, even though she has been pushed aside by her. I do also admittedly really like Kyubimon’s design too. Terriermon is just... sort of there for me. I wasn’t really fond of him when I first started watching, and I don’t particularly care for Terriermon or Gargomon’s designs. But I have warmed up to him at least though, and I do like that he’s a bit of a subtle smart aleck. 

To briefly mention one other Digimon, Calumon is a white ball of pure adorableness. I never thought there was a Digimon that could rival Patamon as the pure cinnamon roll but my gosh, Calumon’s very existence is the embodiment of pure. There’s no other way to describe him. I can see he’s kind of a walking plot device, but dammit, they made this plot device too cute for me to possibly be mad about!

Oh, and there’s Impmon I guess. Yeah, he’s a little shit. I literally have nothing else to say about him (though I do wonder how much fun the dub writers had tweaking his script).

Normally I would talk about the antagonist here too, but there’s so little we know at this point of the show that I really don’t know how to comment. Just, “Ooh, government conspiracies!”. I’d complain about how overdone that is, but at the same time there comes a point where you watch so much Digimon that you wonder where the hell the government is. I mean, Adventure 02 briefly touched on this, but just had Gennai screw them over anyway. The main baddie’s lighter clicking kind of has my attention for some reason though. A nervous tick perhaps? Maybe I’ve just played too much Ace Attorney.

Yet despite all of the “cover-up” going on with the Digimon, I have to say that it’s borderline completely unnecessary considering how freaking stupid the pedestrians in the Tamers world are. Seriously, I thought it was bad in the Adventure series for how few recognized the whole Digimon thing and how shocked they were when it happened for the third time in tri, yet they acted like it was a totally new thing. But the people in the Tamers world are either blind, coincidentally not around when something happens, or just really, really stupid. No one ever notices a Digital Field, Hypnos tries to cover up all of the totally clear as day kaiju fights by shutting down any technology, yet no one reports it? Not once does anyone question whether or not Guilmon is more than just a kid in a really realistic looking costume? I mean, I can accept passing off Terriermon as a plushie, but there are moments he talks right in front of people and no one raises a fuss. There is one scene where Henry scolds him for potentially drawing attention, but this is just one of many, many times where people conveniently do not notice. You can only stretch one’s suspension of disbelief so far. The subplot where Impmon pulls a ton of pranks in a park is about as close as it gets, but I can kinda believe people mistaking him for a kid in a costume. You can only get so far with a walking, talking dinosaur running around in public. But hey, if We’re Back! could pull it off for about 30 minutes, why the hell not!

It’s a nitpick at best, but it seriously starts to become questionable three series in, especially when the Adventure series always tried to cover up the partner Digimon when they could, but then you have Tamers with kids just casually walking around with their Digimon. I mean, I wish that was the world we were living in!

I guess if I had to nitpick about another thing, the animation towards to the beginning is kind of laughable. I know just about any show is like that in its first few episodes, and maybe this is because I’m not watching the show on an old low-resolution CRT TV as it was meant to back in the early 2000′s, but there’s definitely some bad, wonky and very simplified frames and cycles of animation. There’s also a couple of cheap digital animation tricks being overused, like just moving single frames of animation with zooms or moving them around like little puppets. I do think the animation does improve within the first arc, but I’m pretty sure plenty of the animation budget went into the Digivolution animations. And honestly, they are still pretty impressive to look at to this day and are very stylistic. Granted, they look kind of... painful for the Digimon, but it’s still more impressive than having the Digimon just... spin into Champion form.

Finally, the music is really good too. “The Biggest Dreamer” is another awesome Digimon opening provided by the late Koji Wada, “EVO” is a great Digivolution theme that I really like the lyrics for, “Card Slash!” is catchy as hell, and “My Tomorrow” is a nice ending theme, probably one of my more favorite ones. There’s also “3 Primary Colors” as an insert song, but I didn’t really get enough of an impression of it just hearing it once. I also really like the instrumentals for these songs, like the piano version of “The Biggest Dreamer” (OW MY HEART) and that jazzy version of “Card Slash!” is pretty swell too. The other BGM is nice as well, and I think I may have heard a few songs reused from the Adventure series, but I’m not 100% sure on that. If there’s any complaint I have about the music, it’s that so far the fights have been so short that the songs don’t really get a chance to play in full--even at TV size. I don’t really mind moments where songs like Card Slash! transition into EVO, but I do hope we get more fleshed out fight scenes to give some of these songs the treatment they deserve.

There really isn’t much plot for me to talk about since this arc is spent establishing the world and characters, but I don’t particularly mind that! I like that the show takes its time to introduce its audience to the world it has, but not to a point that it drags or bores the audience. It still has enough good characters, good action and new Digimon elements as well as enough mystery to keep me invested. Characters with good enough chemistry and development that I’ve already cried at least three times. Because Digimon enjoys doing that to me, and I keep watching it anyway.

Which is exactly why I wrote this as fast as possible so I could go watch more. That’s it! See you guys after another 10+ episodes!

[jolteonjordansh]

Thoughts on Battle of Adventurers

So Digimon Tamers had a movie! I mean, all of the series so far have had a movie. Adventure just had one at the end of its run, while Adventure 02 had a non-canon one smack in the middle and an actual canon movie at the end. Tamers has its own neat little side story smack in the middle of it, so I went ahead and watched it.

If anyone’s wondering: I watched this movie after reaching episode 21. So the reason I’m writing about this before writing my thoughts on the second arc is because... I’m not done with the second arc yet. But I’ll be done with it pretty soon after. So how is this movie?

I remember when I wrote about my thoughts on Hurricane Landing/Transcendent Evolution that while it wasn’t an awful film, it was definitely questionable in its existence. But one of the things I did commend the film for was its sense of scale and how it really felt like a big adventure.

Battle of Adventurers also manages to capture this atmosphere as well, though in its own way and while also managing to be an interesting, fun, coherent film. It kind of feels like it takes some of the aspects of what made the other Digimon films good and turned it into its own thing--a similar set-up of Our War Game!, the grand adventure of Hurricane Landing/Transcendent Evolution and the teamwork of Diablomon Strikes Back. Maybe that sounds like a forced metaphor, but hear me out.

From what I can tell, Battle of Adventurers is the first material to establish the multiverse in Digimon, with Omegamon (yes, our favorite Omegamon consisting of Tai’s Agumon and Matt’s Gabumon) confronting a manifestation of the remnants of Apocalymon known as Mephistomon. Mephistomon escapes to the Tamers’ universe, and Omegamon cannot pursue him and only travel through digital space. Whether that means there’s separate Digital Worlds in these universes or that they’re one universe, or that Omegamon can universe-hop through Digital Worlds but not “real worlds”, I’m not sure. They don’t really clarify, but it’s not a particularly big deal.

Now, this could have been really cool if Tai and Matt were fighting along Omegamon (ala Our War Game!) and could have actually universe-hopped to help the tamers confront Mephistomon and defeat him. But that unfortunately didn’t happen and again, the whole multiverse thing wasn’t the focus here. Then again, Xros Wars/Fusion tried to do this kind of thing too and from what I understand that didn’t go too well, so...

But onto the main plot. The whole big adventure feel I was going on about goes to mostly Takato going on a summer trip, while Henry goes on his own adventure to some ruins. Rika... stays in Tokyo, because I guess someone had to. It’s been pretty clear in the times Rika has been with her mother that she’s not quite the fond traveler, at least that’s the impression I get. Unfortunately, we really don’t get to see much of what Henry does--which is odd since they’re kinda specific as to what kind of place he goes to. The biggest adventure element comes from Takato and Guilmon, who visit an island with Takato’s cousin Kai.

Maybe it’s not quite as big as the Adventure 02 DigiDestined traveling across America and I could totally be having a personal aesthetic preference here, but I really liked the time Takato ended up spending on the island with Guilmon. The scenery looked really nice and I loved some of the swimming and underwater sequences, which comes with an honestly really nice insert song to boot. Maybe some people found the beginning boring, but I honestly found it really nice, calming and just a good way to ease into the movie by not forcing our protagonists into a fight immediately and just have the Tamers, friends and Digimon having a nice time.

When the fights do start though, they really go by fast. At times, I almost felt they were a tad too fast. There were actually quite a few neat looking Digimon throughout the movie--like Tylomon, Pteramon, Archelomon and Baromon (hello Ganon)--but most of if not all don’t even get scanned or name dropped. It left me thinking “Ooh, what’s this Digimon? What is it capable of--HEY! WAIT! Don’t kill it! You didn’t even tell me what it was called!”. With how many fights there were, I guess some of them did require fast-pacing, and that didn’t even make them bad either. They still looked good and were fun to watch. I think my only grievance is when a Divermon fell through the hut roof and Kai’s grandpa challenged it, he didn’t wipe the floor with it downright Rafiki style. Come on, you know that would have been hilarious!

In regards to the animation, I found it mostly pretty standard. It wasn’t bad, but nothing that wowed me like Our War Game!. There were still some scenes that looked nice (the aforementioned swimming scene and some of the scenes in Digital Space), and honestly one of the oddest things was how well animated the V-Pet was. Granted, it also wasn’t anything mindblowing, but it was still surprisingly smooth for something that’s basically a BonziBUDDY clone. It was certainly a few levels over the actual show, being in widescreen, having nice pastel colors and shading. Still, one weird animation moment was having the Digimon Digivolve split screen, but only having WarGrowlmon’s in his usual CG while Rapidmon and Taomon were traditionally animated. And then the animators decided to cut and paste Rapidmon and Taomon with CG WarGrowlmon--it just really sticks out like a sore thumb.

The plot of the film was pretty nice, not only setting out to be an adventure but also a pretty good story about loss. I’ll be straightforward: as someone who lost her best four-legged friend six months ago, this one was a hard film to watch that hit really close to home. It made relating to Minami effective without feeling cheap, especially with the theme of irreplaceable companions. That alone worked pretty well with Takato, as a sensitive young boy who fears the idea of ever losing his Digimon partner. 

I think something I wish they could have done was had Minami with Seasarmon de-Digivolved to Labramon, considering Labramon’s striking similar appearance to her dog Mei (and I mean, how can you not adore a Digimon this cute!?). It would have been interesting to continue the theme of Mei being an irreplaceable friend to Minami, who she felt responsible for, and having to struggle with Labramon for looking so much like Mei yet--in Minami’s eyes--was not Mei. This could have also fleshed out Labramon/Seasarmon a bit more for dealing with the hardships of being rejected despite his loyalty. But hey, his sheer loyalty was really strong and touching. I can say it was downright cruel of the writers to make poor Minami lose her dog not once, but twice. Again, this hit a pretty personal spot for me that put me in tears yet again.

I still wish the movie could have done a little more with tying into the Adventure universe, but it’s nothing I’d knock it for. Even if it made Omegamon kind of a plot device to help bring Henry and Rika in to help defeat Mephistomon. Regarding Mephistomon, while he isn’t the most interesting Digimon antagonist, his origins were neat (though not really fleshed out) and he could be pretty cunning. I certainly wasn’t expecting him to be able to disguise himself as a human being to get his way, and his Digivolution to Gulfmon did give a sense of helplessness. One thing I couldn’t help but find kind of funny was his reaction to hearing Omegamon when he helped bring in Henry, Rika and their Digimon. His “oh shit it’s Omegamon!” reaction was just priceless to me, but I enjoy villains who think they’ve won only to have the one person or thing they fear come in and completely change their tune... even if it was rather brief. Still, his utilization of ordering around other Digimon, even willing to fire freaking laser beams at Minami to threaten her father was pretty diabolical.

I will say the movie actually did stress me out with some of its sense of danger, having technology shut down and fail. It is similar to Our War Game! in that way as to how Diablomon took control of things like nuclear missiles. Still, just showing me any potential of a plane being in danger of crashing or getting destroyed with passengers inside absolutely strains me. It’s a personal and psychological thing, but still showed how threatening the infection of the V-Pets was.

I do think this movie definitely had one of my favorite battles of the series so far with Mephistomon/Gulfmon towards the end. Not my absolute favorite yet, but pretty high up there--especially with the combined Trinity Burst attack. I won’t deny that I’m a huge sucker for combo attacks (you can probably blame Tales of Symphonia’s Unison Attack mechanic for that). I’m only sad to know that Trinity Burst is never utilized in the series ever again. Seriously, it’s a powerful combo attack, why wouldn’t you use that more!?

Other than that, the movie ends kind of abruptly. Even though I have a couple of minor complaints about it, they are still minor at best and most of them don’t distract from the fun, joy and painful feels I got out of this movie. As I said, it takes a lot of elements of what made the past Digimon films good and did its own thing. And I really appreciate it as a fun side story. I’m not sure if I have a favorite Digimon film so far (I’m torn between Our War Game!, Diablomon Strikes Back and this one), but I think of all of them, Battle of Adventurers is the most balanced in every aspect. For all of the little problems it has, all of the good is just really pleasant and so worth watching. And hey, even if the ending was abrupt, it had a nice ending song by AiM!

So honestly, this was a great Digimon film for all of the good stuff it has, and I could definitely see myself watching it again for how nice it was. It’s a great side story for the Digimon Tamers series.