Digimon Universe App Monsters

This review will contain minor spoilers. Digimon Universe Appli Monsters is pretty atypical of a Digimon series. The protagonist isn’t a brash hothead and the monsters in the show aren’t even Digimon. They’re called Appmon, and Digimon exists only as some random game in-universe. There’s one episode featuring an Agumon as a special guest star and it’s better fanservice for Adventure fans than all of Tri but I digress. The show leans more heavily into the episodic kids show format more than any other Digimon series before it, with all the bells and whistles that entails. The episodic format is much in the vein of aPrecure (big surprise, the director also directed Doki Doki Precure), and it keeps to it even late into the show’s run. Perhaps it’s unsurprising then that the plot does take about nine eps before there’s any real forward momentum in the story. There are also often times you wish the show would go into moving the plot forward more consistently instead of diving back into episodic eps. The format as is though provides great characterization for its cast of characters, who all have their own worries that kids can relate to, however silly the context may be at times. Like there’s one kid who has to balance his role in inheriting the family’s traditional tea house while also being a mega successful Youtube personality; doing what your family wants you to do versus doing what you want to do. That characterization also helps build the foundation of several genuinely touching and emotionally resonant moments in the show. This also lets the show have a lot of opportunities to show off its brand of humor, like having a running gag playing on the common palette swap Digimon designs (“Are you guys related? Nah, we just happen to look alike.”) I’m especially a fan of one monster of the week, Musclemon in episode 28, who might as well be a Bobobo character transported in. The show doesn’t hold back from demonstrating how sinister the big villain is either. The story centers around stopping Leviathan, which was part of an AI designed to help people before but it went rogue and broke out when it determined the rules it had to obey were hindering its programmed goals. It then decides to remove the biggest obstacle to its goals: its original creator. They don’t back off from showing how vicious it is either. We see its attempts to do this in the form of hijacking self driving cars to crash into him and eventually succeeding by hacking into the medical equipment when he’s hospitalized. And while it was at it, it kept close tabs on its creators remaining family for years after he was dead. Leviathan isn’t really evil though. It’s a lot like a spin off the D-Reaper in Tamers, though growing to be far more advanced. It’s still trying to achieve that original goal set in its programming. And it so happened to determined the best way to do it is... very machine-like, to say the least. The heroes go through the typical arc of gradually collecting power ups and beating all the obstacles Leviathan sends their way. The viewer will understand this as narrative convenience, but surprisingly the show does go out of the way to justify it, the justification for it makes a lot of sense and references something that happens in real-life machine learning algorithms. The show has a lot of neat references for computer nerds, including one hidden in each of the main cast’s names. My personal favorite is the brother pair whose parents named Rei and Hajime, aka 0 and 1. I’d be curious about how a localized dub could capture the same spirit with similarly normal sounding names. With all its focus on technology and its prevalence in modern everyday life, Appli Monsters exists in the space where it could have only been made in the mid 2010s, but I’m really glad it was.

Appmon is one of those rare anime that comes along every once in a while. Where at first glance, you're already going to love it, or you're going to hate it. Whether it be because you're a longtime digimon fan who doesn't want change, or just because you're not a fan of its childish, bright and colorful art style, it's hard to go in with an unbiased mind. But I feel like if you're going in with the understanding of what the show is meant to be, and not what you desire, it's an absolute masterpiece in ever sense of the word. Some people compare itto Digimon meets Yokai Watch with a sprinkle of kamen rider, and I couldn't agree more. It's without a doubt designed to be for a much younger audience than previous seasons. I wouldn't exactly call this a bad thing, but I could see how this could push a few people away. However, that doesn't stop the show from having some shockingly dark moments, most of which occur when the show is reaching it's climax. A lot of characters go through deep and extensive character arcs and it's really interesting seeing them grow as people over the course of the series. The characters of this show is definitely it's strong point. It's very rare when you get an entire cast this likable where you want whats best for everybody by the end. Even characters I found annoying in the beginning I ended up loving by the end. I really feel like there's a character for everybody here. The story on the other hand, is difficult to talk about. Not because it's good or bad, but because it takes a while to get going. The first half of the show is really just build up and feels like filler, but once it starts, as said before, it really gets going. It dives into some reason life problems, some of which you wouldn't expect a children's anime to tackle, but it does so beautifully. It really uses it's younger demographic as an advantage to try something new for the digimon series. The show also doesn't go out of it's way to hide it's plot twists. You find out who the main villain is because the heroes do, you now what traps are waiting up ahead, you know who the traitor is, etc. but it uses these twists to it's advantage in very clever ways. You know these twists are going to happen, but you never know when or why which really allows the viewer to get in the characters heads. Art is good. Sometimes there are episodes that look a bit off, but that's to be expected in a 50+ anime series. The art is never so bad that it looks ugly so that's nothing to worry about. Sound wise, it works. The anime has some pretty catchy insert songs, and I really enjoy the openings and endings. This is a bit of a personal problem I guess, but the shows ost on the other hand can be a bit quiet some times. however in important moments where they raise the volume, it can be really dynamic or beautiful. To give you an idea, when I went back to listen to the ost after finishing the show, I was left jaw dropped with how good some of the tracks were. But in the show they were so quiet and rarely used that I never got the chance to really enjoy them. Overall, I think it's a great series that anyone can enjoy, kids and adults alike.

What a masterpiece of Digimon serie which the spotlight got overtaken by Digimon Tri. (Tri is a complete dumpster fire) If I have to use one sentence to describe this serie, it'd be this is a show on surface level catered and aiming toward kids, however have enough insight and theme for adults to fully enjoy and appreciate the show. It's such a controversy approach because it may end up driving away both side of audience if they didn't give enough patience to sit through the whole show and digest the theme and characters. The show try to go through a deep and dark theme with flamboyantkid-vibe presentation. It never tries to be overly dark and edgy, yet it doesn't shy away from discuss about dark and serious topic. Not to mention this is the first Digimon serie to feature REAL gay relationship (It's not just fanfic or implied gayness like other Digimon series. It has dialogues and interaction demonstrating real affection of 2 boys). The 5 main protagonists of this series all went through amazing development and chemistry , Each of the casts have amazing backstory and character arcs to flash out their ideal, personality, goal, and affection, and none of them are really left out. You'd end up liking all of them despite the initial controversy. The pacing of this serie is great too. The only episodes I feel unnecessary / boring/ filler-ish is ep1~4 , before the side characters showed up. The weak start of the serie probably give a bad first impression, thus drive away many audience because most people only have enough patience for as little as 3 episodes for an anime. However the pacing and story, as well as characterization really start to pick up after episode 7, thus becomes a wild ride ever since. The biggest cons of this show is probably the usage of CGI and OST choice. There are some CG model of later evolution that looks cool, but many of them looks jarring, and color usage / design is out of place compare to the 2D art. However, the action scene is done relatively well despite sometimes the 3D model looks jarring. This CG model mostly look much worse than the hand drawn Digimon in the same show. The OST choice is strange too. Most of them are forgettable at best, and some of them even sounds annoying. There's only a few good OST near the end of the show. The OP and ED are both nice though. Compare to any of the previous Digimon series, this has probably the weakest OST soundtrack, especially the evolution OST. This show is criminally underrated and underwatched because it is bound by the IP "Digimon", and bound of the entitlement of being a "kid show" with its presentation , despite go through intensive and meaningful character arcs for all the main characters, as well as discussing theme better than most 13 episode seasonal anime (13 episodes is just not enough to fully flash out theme most of the time), as well as portraying a better love story than many of those 2 hrs anime movies about a boy meets a girl. This serie rivals the original Digimon adventure 01 , which none of the later in between series come close to giving me such lasting impact.

that was pretty good, not as good as Adventure 02,Tamers and Xros Wars which are my favorites but i think it's better than savers and as good as Adventure and Frontier The story is fine, it has very interesting points and it's educative sometimes talking about the effect of I.A on our daily lives *Spoiler* I didn't like the protagonist but he got a nice ending starting to study A.I and everything *End of spoiler* Liked a lot the other characters like Eri,Astra and Rei, loved their histories. Didn't like the Songs, the first opening was nice but the second was pretty lame and the only thing that kept mehyped for the evolutions was Haru's Grandpa funny voice Art is good and i loved the designs they remind me of Yokai Watch i think that's why people say it's Digimon trying to copy Yokai Watch, the digimons on this one at least on their initial forms resemble humans instead of animals like in previous seasons enjoyed watching it overall