How Digimon Universe Invokes Myth

After nearly 2 years I finally finished survive, all routes. I've had Harmony done for a long time, and finished Moral and Truthful like a year ago. Just finished wrathful. I love these kids so much, I'm just a busy person. Miyuki is probably my favorite, but considering Hikari is my Adventure favorite and Kyubimon is my favorite digimon, and I'm a huge fan of Renamon's line in general, that really shouldn't be a surprise. Miyuki's even an older sister.

Speaking of Adventure, I'm also halfway through rewatching Adventure (eng sub), got a vital hero (they're relatively cheap now it's been fun to mess around with) have restarted cyber sleuth, and am planning to get Next 0rder next time its on sale, so to say Digimon is on the brain would be an understatement.

I have new adventure thoughts AND survive thoughts. Okay some of my survive thoughts are old, but I didn't want to say anything until I had the full picture of the world and story and now I do.

In my opinion Precure is at its best when it incorporates the communities that the girls are protecting into it.

This of course stems all the way back from the original Futari wa. That shows main premise is "Ordinary days and people are important", and is by nature a normal slice of life whose drama is highlighted by the lengths Nagisa and Honoka go to protect it. As such, the girls have an extensive supporting cast, and the climatic battles often feature some level of emotional support by the supporting cast, even if they're not literally physically present. The girls are the vessels through whom humanities collective will to live is channeled. We spend our time witnessing this will within the people in the girls communities.

I've mentioned before how big a theme of community is in Fresh. There are a ton of minor side characters who make brief but frequent appearances to help flesh out this bustling city. In the end the girls reveal themselves to their community.

Princess and Heartcatch make great use of the victim of the week format to help build a strong supporting cast, understanding the motivations of these characters, who in turn help support the Cures in some way during the 11th hour.

This is part of what makes Happiness Charge and Doki Doki fall relatively flat to me. Their supporting casts aren't as fully developed. There's more one off victims. But there are still moments where this aspect shines, to me in Doki Doki in the involvement of the girl's families. The moment where Mana shouts her identity as Cure Heart is fantastic to me, I can practically see the gears turning in the family member's heads. The Oh Shit of it all.

While an identity reveal isn't a prerequisite for a strong sense of community it certainly contributes to the feelings. Both Futari wa's manage to have a strong sense of community, despite their final fights taking place when earth is reduced to a barren wasteland devoid of people, the fact they still take place on earth helps them make heavy use of the fact that despite being currently devoid of life these are places where there are meant to be life, and where life can exist again.

It's a big part of why while I love Suite, I feel it's objectively weaker than it's two predecessors despite mimicking them in so many aspects. In fact it's probably tied with the futari wa's for my favorite season. But I don't think it's nearly as good as it could be in part because of the lack of community compared to its predecessors. But what we do get of Kanon owns majority real estate in my heart. The entire town is so goddamn weird, and just down for whatever. If I could add an identity reveal to any season it'd be this one. I struggle to believe that no one in this town doesn't know (though that might be because they all are so oblivious). I'd take it away from Healin Good and Doki Doki if I had to and I love those seasons reveals.

Smile I feel is far more popular than Suite, and while I enjoy smile and think it's simplicity is to its strength it's really no surprise that the episode I care most about, more than 3/4 of the season combined, is the episode where Nao sort of kind of has an identity reveal. That's also partially because I just have a huge soft spot for kids. (Muse is my all time favorite. Go, make things worse you funky little messed up 9 year old. And I am probably one of the few people who actually LIKE the baby plotlines... which makes it honestly such an accomplishment that DeliPa got me to dislike their baby). But Smile has a lot of plots that are really self-contained to the main cast, and while I do enjoy how fleshed out the girls' families are the fact that they all turn into living rocks when the villains attack really makes them less interesting to me. Same with Tropical-Rouge, but Tropical-Rouge doesn't even fully flesh out any family that isn't Manatsu's.

Maho Tsukai and Star Twinkle both have fun main characters and worldbuilding, but the fact that, like Smile, the action and human town exist sort of separately from each other really keeps them from catching my attention. I want to like them. And I do. I just don't quite love them. I really love HiroSky's cures in particular, and adore the episodes where they are part of their communities, but do wish we had more of that.

And for what it's worth the miracle lights bring this sense of community into our reality, and they used to use the side cast to help illustrate this in the all star movies. It's great.

You know, I was kinda worried when they skipped Peach that we wouldn't see her at all. But now I just find it hilarious that they saved her cameo for for advertising an airline.

So digimon has a habit of giving their main protagonists goggles, giving them brown hair, and reptilian digimon. They also often make them heroic big brother types (and quite often literally big brothers… or at least caretakers). But digimon also has a habit of having young female characters with mysterious powers and a holy digimon partner. And sometimes, the two characters are related.

Not always directly, and never really in the same way twice, but often the two characters, when both roles exist, play complementary story roles in some way. Especially as the "Goggle boy/Taichi" archetype is consistently at the center of the story, and "Holy Girl/Hikari" archetype varies in relevance. And to be clear, I'm not trying to break down every character into the basic digimon archetypes, but they do exist and they are kind of useful to look at as a point of comparison.

Of course this all goes back to Digimon Adventure (film), where Taichi and Hikari a brother and sister, take up opposing roles in regards to the digimon situation. While Hikari was originally imagined to not be a digidestined in the future, her fear of the situation after her original acceptance (as opposed to Taichi's suspicion and later cooperation) clouding her perspective, that really isn't want happened in the final product. Hikari was innately drawn to the digital world. She never forgot. The incident is potentially because of her. And where does that leave Taichi? The (relative) normie who was called because of her, but stepped up to the plate as the one everyone turned to, independent of her. Taichi is their leader, Hikari the 8th child. Taichi (and Yamato) get ultimates. Hikari (and Takeru) have Angels that grant them that power. Hikari is innately powerful, but young, and Taichi is powerful to, but in a slower way born of being the first one to do things and push forward. Consistently the first one to evolve. The first and the last. All of that to say that this is sometimes echoed in later digimon. While nothing has quite reached the levels of original Adventure there are still plot lines and sort of story roles that echo that initial storyline.

While Chika doesn't play a major role in Savers, her role as Suguru's other child, her prodigious amounts of Digisoul, and her role welcoming Ikuto and Falcomon (a la Tailmon), clearly aligns her with Hikari. Even if in show she doesn't play a role that engages with that with the priority on her brother, the Taichi archetype, the main character with the agency that drives the plot, she still echoes Hikari with her surprising chillness with digimon, and a fateful encounter with a digiegg that ends violently.

In Cyber Sleuth, Erika is easily a Hikari archetype, and while her big brother is not the Taichi, she is the driving force behind the Hacker's memory plot. Her relationship with Keisuke (the main character, who you play as) in particular is the center of Hacker's Memory. While Keisuke is absolutely a goggle boy, Keisuke isn't a Taichi, he's the Daisuke to Aiba, the real Taichi. Keisuke and Daisuke are less, larger than life ambitious world changers than Taichi and Aiba. The reason I bring this up, is that even though Aiba and Erika never really meet, they are the focal points of both story halves. Aiba is situated at the focal point where Nokia and Arata, and Yuuko reunite. The focal point between the royal knights, the hackers and Kamishiro. Sure Keisuke is the hacker's memory protag, but it's noted he's not very protagy. Erika is the story's focal point, Keisuke her Daisuke, along for the ride, with his own motivations sure, but in the same way Nokia did, and Nokia was ultimately secondary (though also very important, has some Taichi in her). Aiba and Erika are both dying throughout the events of the game as the result of an accident, but also due to the accident now have some special digital skill. It's also important to note that Erika and Aiba's group are the only two groups that had digital encounters to kick this off. They're the only ones who have been to the digital world prior to this whole situation. In reality the 6 of them are this entries only true "chosen children" so to speak. But even that has its precedent, Hikari being separated from the other digidestined in the beginning. Aiba and Erika do not know each other. Their traumas and their resolutions are both different. Aiba's unremembered trauma was resolved by a rescue and reunion. Aiba's "cyberfication" is a death sentence, despite being relatively well off compared to most victims. Erika remembers her parents death and the resolution is separation from her loved ones, the loss of their memories. Her "cyberfication" is ultimately her salvation and allows her to live on when she would otherwise die.

Of course Survive is one big callback. Takuma literally has goggles, the Ta name and an Agumon. He is the groups leader, even when there are older people he's the one whose character guides the other kids, the first to evolve, the strongest. Miyuki has a holy partner and a literal power to transverse worlds, set apart by the others by her different arrival date (though in her case it was early). Now interestingly Takuma and Miyuki are not siblings. Miyuki is for once no ones little sister and is instead an older sister. (Her little brother, ironically being the Gennai archetype). But they are tied together. Takuma is the one who manages to reach Miyuki and they return to the human world, in an echo of Adventure epsiode 21. Miyuki mysteriously provides additional context to the situation, and demonstrates power (Miyuki and her song, Hikari and her references to the first film) No time has changed at all for Takuma since his departure, though unlike Hikari (who time was flowing normally for), 50 years had passed. While both Takuma and Taichi hestiate to leave the digital world, (in most paths), they ultimately do in order to return to their friends, Agumon returning anyway. In Adventure Taichi leaves Hikari behind (with the promise to the audience she'll return soon). Takuma jumps after Miyuki expecting her to be at his side when they return, but her being taken away. But more than that, Akiharu has Gabumon, and together with Takuma forms Omegamon. Now the Yamato analogue is very much Kaito (and Dracmon even has a wolf evo), though Akiharu has a little bit of Yamato in him, a brother protecting his sister, closed off to himself, having undergone a traumatizing incident as a child. But Takuma and Akiharu are the ones who form Omegamon to save Miyuki in the Moral path. Takuma is the one (granted he has different context from the other kids), who actually got to know the real Miyuki. The one who has the most invested in her due to their brief meeting, and the one most invested in saving her, when the others fear she's a lost cause. Conversely, Takuma is the one Miyuki really calls to from the other kids. Takuma is also the one who gets closest to the professor (asides from Shuuji) and gets to start piecing together things, often finding out truths about 50 years ago before the other kids. Aside from Akiharu, Garurumon, Renamon and Miyuki themselves, Takuma is the most involved in that drama. Granted a lot of this is game play, due to being a video game, as with Cyber Sleuth, but it still is worth noting.

Digimon overall as a franchise has a lot of its own archetypes that may be related to common genre archetypes but have their own sort of flavor to them. This is rather typical of franchises like digimon, but I find its still interesting to look at, whether intentional or not. It makes sense that Taichi and Hikari's characters would

Rei’s turn baby.

And by Rei’s turn, I mean, Rei and Hackmon.

but also Hajime

And Bootmon a bit too

It’s the Katsura’s turn

This ones kind of long

Backstory?

Of course the most notable thing about the Katsura brothers and their backstory is that they are orphans, and despite their young ages live alone. The second most notable thing is they are both computer geniuses. Really, this all just facilitates the plot more than anything, which leads to a lot of open ended questions about the brothers, but what we do have is interesting.

So it goes without saying that Rei and Hajime have presumably had a somewhat lonely childhood. Their mother died 2 years prior to the start of the show, and through the course of the show we never see them interact with anyone outside the Appmon friend group. There didn’t seem to be anyone else looking after them during the funeral, (if there was anyone there at all) and apparently no extended family members have been clued into the fact they are living alone, and the fact no one wanted (or could I suppose) take them both in, indicates they really weren’t close to this extended family to begin with. Then we get into their absent father. Rei claims that he doesn’t remember his father, which… he was about 6 when Hajime was born, which is old enough to remember. So either Rei does have memories, even if not clear of their father, or they have different fathers, or there’s some other family drama conspiracy going on. (I don’t speak Japanese and the two different subs I looked at are inconsistent with this, so maybe there is a clear explanation of their deal, it's just the translations are funky idk). Doesn’t really matter, the important bit is they don’t have a father in their life who matters.

Its an unconventional family structure from the get go, and a family structure, that again in my limited understanding of Japanese culture, is not exactly a very accepted one. I can see this being something that causes tension with their extended family, and potentially between the brother’s and their peers. 

We don’t know how exactly they lived their day to day lives, or how their family is officially noted in the hacked family registry, nor do we know what exactly they do about school. So, we don’t know anything about how they are perceived by others around them at all. Neither of them have been shown attending school. Rei is described as a 2nd/3rd year in Jr. High, but I find it incredibly doubtful that he attended school at all over the course of the series b/c of his obsession with finding Hajime. While it's not something that I can discount he did all together, I think it definitely makes sense if he didn’t actually go to school, at least not often enough to matter. And I’m sure he’s capable of hacking school records to keep authorities from taking note of that. School seems like a place where questions might have been asked about the boy’s living situation, especially when Hajime was younger and just entering elementary school. After all, Hajime wouldn’t have even been in 1st grade yet when their mom died.  Granted, we didn’t get a lot of school in general for any of the kids. But we did see Haru, Ai and Yuujin around school, and Astra at the beginning and in flashbacks, and Eri in school uniforms (though all prior to her idol career), as well as seeing everyone else interacting with their classmates in at least one scene. It’s still possible they are enrolled in a school, but are still isolated from their peers due to the circumstances in their family. Rei at the very least doesn’t have any friends prior to the series, and I have no reason to think Hajime does either. After all, the brothers are more alike than they appear on the surface. 

The show has, despite limited family appearances, has shown the similarities between the kids to their families, and so, despite not knowing anything about their mother otherwise, we can probably glean a lot about what type of person she was from who her sons are. We don’t know anything about their mother for sure other than she’s dead, and her sons seemed to mourn her death. While she still could have been a neglectful mother who Rei doesn’t have great memories of and thus doesn’t bring her up, again, the show didn’t go too in depth into families and so lack of info doesn’t mean lack of care on the characters' parts. People have parents, and her absence needs to be explained for Hajime and Rei’s backstory. But I think she has a little more importance on Hajime and Rei’s character beyond “dead”.

Because, speaking of the apartment, I’d like to draw attention to the décor in their apartment. Their apartment does not look like the type of place you’d expect to find two young boys living alone. While I feel like in many stories you’d expect the place the cool edgy orphan loner boy to have lived in to be sort of edgy. Either overly techy, or at least a bit modest, the Katsura apartment is neither. It’s decorated, well, like a middle aged woman decorated it. I don’t know how else to describe it. Neutral tones, plants, and a bit minimalist in the décor. It’s kept very clean by the boys and it overall looks like a very nice apartment.

Hajime’s room in the secret base is a little more like how you’d expect a bunch of kids to decorate a room with the way the wall is painted but it still has the plants though that the Katsura apartment has and blue I think is a good color to choose to make a room feel less claustrophobic. Which implies to me that this isn’t just a we’re putting a conscientious effort into dressing nicely to keep anyone from asking questions, and just how they are.

Their clothing also matches that aesthetic. Hajime is noted to be a polite little kid, and his polo shirts and sweater vest of his normal outfits match that impression. But despite Rei wearing a kind of garish outfit as his main outfit it doesn’t seem to be his normal style. In the flashback in episode 13, it’s kind of clear that Rei and Hajime usually dress similarly too. Rei wears a lot of button downs and nicer looking pants. They both wear t-shirts, jeans and sweats too, but even then their clothes are very neat. The two are overall tend to wear clothing that falls more on the semi-formal side of things. 

I’d assume it’s at least in part because it was the way their mother raised them. This implies to me that their mother was also a very “put-together” person. And probably where her son’s got their intelligence. And like I said, by assuming that their style of dress, their apartment, and their diligence in their work, stems from her. 

While I have no real evidence, I at least headcanon that she was a computer scientist as well which is where Rei gained his hacking ability. Either way, Rei had to have had this ability prior to her death, as he used it to hack the family registry, So Rei had to have this kind of skill as an elementary schooler. Which… this is an anime so I’m probably thinking too hard on this. While Hajime’s programming ability was almost certainly nurtured by Rei, whether directly or indirectly it’s unlikely Hajime, who was around 7ish at the time of his abduction, got his programming skills from just watching Rei. (Though, that doesn’t prove anything, it’s not very likely a 7 year old is the best hacker in the world). I just have assumed that Rei and Hajime both were surrounded by computer programming from a young age.

Speaking of Hajime being the hacker chosen by Leviathan, and Leviathan also being known to be manipulative of the situation to a degree that starts with having kept an eye on Haru since mid-elementary school, also means that its very likely that there is more to the Hajime abduction than meets the eye. The Katsura brothers were ideal targets in that there was no one else to miss them. On the other hand while Hajime was the first to solve the puzzle, we do not know exactly how many people the puzzle was sent to. Not to mention it’s very likely that other people with Hajime and Rei’s skill levels have more responsibilities than those two, and thus less time dedicated to deciphering random online puzzles (though, I know it is a popular past time). 

This, in addition to the fact that they were both able to maintain this way of living (idk how expensive apartments are, but not cheap and I know good computers aren’t cheap) implies few outside obligations (say, school), and a somewhat consistent source of income. Rei does straight up say he takes jobs. It’s not out of the question for Hajime to have helped him with these.

Either way, both the Katsura boys prior to the start of the series were hardworking, intelligent, independent, tidy boys who cared deeply for each other.

Rei and Hackmon

Rei is someone who bears an immense amount of responsibility, and has high expectations (mostly for himself) for someone so young. He’s responsible for looking after his younger brother, making money for the food, cooking the food, doing laundry, and generally just managing a household on top of a job. Which is a lot for a 12 year old. And Hajime helps, the flashback shows Hajime helping out with housework, but as a 6 year old at the time of his mothers death, there was probably a lot he couldn’t yet help with. But I think it also may be fair to say Rei was dismissive of the degree to which Hajime helped him.

I don’t even think Rei was completely unaware of the extent of Hajime’s genius, though this is based on… nothing but a feeling and one line that was 95% probably just Rei being evasive. But Rei almost certainly knew that Hajime was a bright kid. Though, if they weren’t hanging around with other people their age they may have a warped sense of what is unusual. But still Rei didn’t see Hajime as someone on his level. While we see Rei and Hajime living together happily, and we do see Hajime help out with chores, we also do see Rei neglect to give Hajime attention while Rei tries to figure out the puzzle, indicating that while, yes, the boys are doing well, they perhaps aren’t thriving. That a month went by between them solving the puzzle, and it wasn’t communicated about in all that time indicates that Rei was perhaps somewhat dismissive of Hajime’s thoughts, and that he didn’t see merit in sharing the puzzle with Hajime. 

Hajime’s competence as a programmer is unknown to the audience until Hajime is awakened in episode 43. Rei never considers that Hajime’s intelligence is part of the factor that got him kidnapped, and rather places all the blame and responsibility on himself for failing to protect Hajime (and well, Leviathan for abducting him in the first place). Hajime’s own abilities and shortcomings are a nonfactor to what Rei does. Hajime’s own choices are not initially made clear as to Rei they are somewhat irrelevant. I think it's evident that to Rei, while Hajime’s help was appreciated, Hajime was viewed as a responsibility rather than a help. 

Rei’s “I am alone” is not just one of only believing himself to have one person in his life, but also believing he only has himself to depend on. It’s not that he’s heartless or isn’t overall a nice person. We do after all mostly see him in the context of Hajime’s kidnapping, something he feels immense guilt for. Even if out of all our main protagonists he’s probably one of the highest on the “ends justify the means” scale, he is not above torture and invoke fear to get what he wants, but ultimately he’s shown to care for others. He might not be the most socially competent person (if his brief stint as a manager tells us anything), but it shows us that he is willing to help people out. He leaves Dantemon Chuu Chuu Jelly, as well as offers it to Eri’s coworkers. The last ED shows him making Macarons for Haru’s bday. But Rei’s arc is about learning to trust in others to help him, not that others are worthy of care.

I mean, it's obvious, he avoids working with the others to a point beyond simple practicality. He doesn’t trust people. He doesn’t trust Hajime to look out for himself. He doesn’t trust Hackmon to help him find his brother. He doesn’t even initially trust Haru’s group to fight Leviathan. Even in the last episode he doesn’t have 100% trust in Haru, doesn’t trust Haru to save the world over Yuujin (who he also didn’t trust). Rei’s journey to learning to trust isn’t over yet. But it’s getting there, step by step. It was slow going, Rei not properly joining the group until the final quarter. Like all of the characters, Rei had begun this journey prior to the series start when Rei trusts Hackmon. He gets further when he’s first properly introduced to the story and the others, and he trusts Haru’s group to find the Seven Code Appmon. culminating of course when he asks Eri for help to rescue Hajime, coming full circle when he and Hajime work together to write the programs that help them get Bootmon back.

That said, Rei’s seeming lack of trust in Haru in the final episode may be in part Rei projecting onto Haru. Rei warned Haru of Yuujin for what were, in all fairness, valid concerns. (But Rei didn’t do anything else, more or less trusting Haru to handle it). Haru assured him by relating Yuujin and himself to Rei and Hajime. Haru went off into a depressive state after finding out Yuujin’s true nature, not unlike Rei’s obsessiveness after Hajime’s disappearance. But that’s where Haru and Rei differ. Haru is able to pick himself up and move on in life. Understand what’s for the greater good, and that he can help Yuujin without sacrificing everyone else. He can put value on knowing that Yuujin wouldn’t want that, that Yuujin is an independent person beyond Haru’s care for him. Rei on the other hand quite likely would have hesitated more if it came down to Hajime vs. the world. While post series Rei with his wider social circle and acceptance of others (especially Hajime’s) help will ultimately lead him to becoming happier.

And that’s why Hajime learning to cook is important for Rei.

The recurring motif of food with Rei beyond that is twofold, him making eggs for his brother, turning into subsisting on Chuu Chuu Jelly’s showing how much Rei is neglecting himself in his search for Hajime. But food is also how Rei shows his care. While it’s obvious Rei cares for Hackmon just as much as the others, Rei’s support on the surface doesn’t extend beyond a bit of praise, and making Chuu Chuu. And when asked to find something for the idols, he brings in the Chuu Chuu. But the Chuu Chuu is really just Rei making do with the best he can. Rei making Macarons for Haru’s birthday, like previously said, the iconic egg dishes for his brother, and of course the Crème Brule, show Rei putting in more effort to show his affection. (A recurring theme it seems with many Appmon characters). So with Hajime learning to cook, its Rei accepting the affections and help from other that he usually gives. Hajime is taking on some more of Rei’s “responsibilities” and Rei is letting him. Them taking things on together in the future, a stark improvement of them solving the puzzle separately, and ending up alone.

While of course the smell of eggs, burnt, imperfect eggs, something that Leviathan failed to account for, a reminder of days when Rei was not as reliable a caretaker as he was later waking Hajime up is poetic all on its own. Rei’s imperfections and mess ups being just as important as his dramatic abilities and successes, Rei getting Hajime back by not only having to ask for help, but also giving his help, even for something as seemingly trivial (compared to the evil AI shenanigans) as a stage performance. It’s his “immaturity” that lets him find Hajime among the Sleepmon. Hajime is returned to Rei when Rei accepts that he’s not completely independent. When he’s not 100% driven by harsh desperation for Hajime’s return. When he grows past the belief that being cold and tough is the best thing to help Hajime. When he (almost) accepts that he at least rescued Hajime from Leviathan, even if he’s not able to return him to his old self. When he accepts his “flaws”.

Prior to the start of the series Rei seems to have been very well put together and organized. In other words. Not edgy. He still used “Ore” prior to Hajime’s abduction, but that’s not unusual or anything just that while he does give off a far more polite vibe to me prior to Hajime’s abduction, he was still a hacker and still assertive and a bit prideful. But when we first meet Rei, he’s wearing a black hoodie with zippered leggings. Edgy, indicative of the persona Rei wants to give off. But perhaps not indicative of the person Rei truly is. After Hajime’s return of course, he wears a more casual ensemble than before it all began, but it has lost its edginess. Not to be too cliché or anything, but it's a good symbolism for how Hajime’s abduction changed him but even after Hajime returns Rei has changed. 

Hackmon, like Rei is very goal oriented and plays things close. However, Hackmon is less single minded than Rei, and is less abrasive to the other Appmon than Rei is to the drivers. I think a notable moment is when Hackmon goes to accept some Gatch Monaka from Gatchmon, but Rei calls them away. Hackmon tends to act a bit as Rei’s voice of reason. Hackmon is constantly asking Rei questions, making him think through what he’s doing and why. In their image song, Hackmon notably doesn't really sing. He basically is there to dial back Rei’s edginess. Reminding him he’s not alone and that he needs to calm down sometimes and live in the moment. To not let hate fuel him. And in the end, Hackmon tells Rei to eat an actual meal. Unlike most of the Buddies, Hackmon isn’t really child-coded and Hackmon acts more as Rei’s caretaker than the other way around. Supporting and somewhat mom-friending the boy who's taken on so much responsibility for others sake. Obviously, Hackmon doesn’t really fight with the things Rei decided, with a staunch loyalty reminiscent of Adventure’s partnerships, not unlike Rei’s unflinching loyalty to Hajime. I always liked the moment where Hackmon asks “Well, am I a devil” and Rei snarkily remarks he’s not an angel. While both of them appear edgy on the surface, and neither are above a bit of force to get what they’d like, both are ultimately driven by their desire to protect.

Rei and Hackmon are characters who, despite their aloof airs, they are primarily motivated by looking after others. Even if Rei is not initially very good about accepting help from others, and Hackmon initially seems to be in the deal for strength. Rei is a kid with too much responsibility, but by the end of the series, is starting to allow himself to be a kid again.

Hajime and Onmon

Okay, so Bootmon isn’t technically Hajime’s Buddy. And we never see Onmon (at least not in the anime). But they do fulfil this sort of role. And… of course this is going to rehash some of Rei’s stuff but bear with me. This will probably be the shortest because ultimately Hajime’s role is just an extension of Rei’s… but I believe he deserves his own section.

Hajime is a child computer science genius who has been primarily raised by his older brother since he was about 5 or 6. He is polite and rather mature and clever for his age. Rei describes Hajime as his “only family” and while we don’t know too much about their prior circumstances, it’s likely that there really weren't a lot of people in Hajime’s life to begin with. And anyone who may have been involved in their life prior was probably pushed out to avoid raising any suspicions. Hajime has had very little adult support, which is probably why he is incredibly independent, Rei himself only being a young teen. So while he is incredibly close to his brother, and is likely rather dependent on Rei for both emotional and physical needs (particularly prior to the series) its not to the extent we may have assumed from the first time we met Rei.

So Hajime is an incredibly mature child who likely had to grow up way too fast and become rather independent from a young age. While Rei prefers to think of himself as someone who takes care of Hajime, Rei ultimately could not take care of everything, on his own, and as seen when Rei dismisses Hajime’s desire to go out to complete the puzzle, Hajime must have spent a lot of time by himself, both playing by himself, and probably learning by himself, meaning Hajime is actually way more self sufficient than the initial reveal of his existence might have you believe. Way more self-sufficient than Rei seems to know (or at least acknowledge).

This isn’t to say that Rei’s assessment of Hajime of a scared innocent little boy is completely wrong. There isn’t anything to suggest that all of the video Rei found of Hajime was fake. Hajime really did cry and call out to his brother, scared because he didn’t know what was happening. Hajime really did ask when his mother was coming back at her grave, despite probably being old enough to know better. Hajime really is a kid. And he really is dependent primarily on Rei. Hajime had to have grown up while kidnapped by Leviathan of course. Being enslaved and then “operated” on by Biomon and put in a coma is… probably going to result in some sort of trauma character development. But even so, throughout his ordeal, Hajime shows a courage and self sufficiency that isn’t solely from his abduction.

Bootmon is an Appmon Hajime made himself. But Bootmon is also incredibly childish. While it is in part because Bootmon is a young appmon, there’s probably a narrative parallel to Hajime. Though the Appmon are in general rather childish, Bootmon seems particularly young compared to the others (well, Offmon maybe). We see old apps, and we see apps “die” and Appmon go to school. But Bootmon is portrayed as innocent and easily frightened, not unlike how Hajime initially appeared to be. 

Hajime, despite his young age, has fallen into the caretaker role to Bootmon more so than any of the other relationships between Buddies. Their relationship may parallel Rei and Hajime’s, particularly in those early days when Hajime was still a bit naïve. We see a lot of Rei taking care of Hajime, yes, such as cooking, but we also see Hajime taking his share of chores. Both Bootmon and Hajime, despite their young ages, play a key role in Leviathan’s plan, both dealing with facing against Leviathan alone, leaving them both in vulnerable situations, left with responsibilities beyond their youth. For Hajime it’s being kidnapped, held hostage while being forced to work on a project and being operated on against his will and put into a coma. For Bootmon it’s being left to hide alone in a world he’s unfamiliar with. Bootmon and Hajime both are very loyal to their guardian Hajime and Rei respectively, and have a lot of trust in them.

Hajime is just a kid, albeit an incredibly capable one, in a world out to get him with the world on his shoulders. But fortunately an older brother (and now friends) to carry it with.

The Katsura brothers were just both incredibly capable kids, though ultimately still just kids who had no one to turn to but each other. But even if they had each other, that wasn’t enough, Rei grew overly self-sufficient to the point of not recognizing Hajime’s abilities. But at the end of the series they now have a more extensive support system, as well as being better able to rely on each other. Rei no longer going it alone.

So while I was working on my… analysis I suppose, on why Digimon Adventure: does not work as a show, it occurred to me that despite claims that Taichi in Adventure: is inspired by V-Tamer Taichi, his partner is an Agumon whose final evolution is Omegamon, and why that doesn’t work. But I realized that it is a point that I could expand on, and so I have separated it out here. Consider it a preview.

The protagonists of Digimon V-Tamer are Yagami Taichi and his partner Zero, a Veedramon. The story is carried by these two alone. While others help and hinder them on their way, their mission is theirs, and the responsibility of defeating Daemon belongs to no one else. It is with that power that they reach their highest form, UlforceVeedramon Future Mode While Taichi is the main protagonist, Zero is just as much a protagonist. Their names, even reference binary. While there are other characters who impact the plot, the role of protagonist belongs to these two. 

This is echoed in the themes of Digimon Adventure:, the digivice in the title supposedly representing the bonds between human and digimon. And, while I don’t think it particularly succeeds, I can see clear attempts to be made to make the digimon partners their own characters, equals to their human partners. 

But yet, Digimon Adventure: uses Omegamon as Taichi and Agumon’s final evolution. And that is a bit of a problem. Digimon Partners are not interchangeable. Well, okay, the species are a bit arbitrary, all things considered, (after all, Zero’s rookie form is also Agumon) but the problem is what UlforceVeedramon represents vs. Omegamon. 

In Digimon Adventure, Omegamon is not Taichi’s power alone. Not by a long shot. Taichi is not the solo human protagonist of Digimon Adventure. Even in the first film, before Hikari was even meant to play a key role in the series, she shared the series debut. Regardless, the burden of defeating Apocalymon is not his alone to bear. And Agumon’s evolutions reflect that. WarGreymon is reached through borrowing Hikari’s power. Omegamon is literally formed by WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon (who was formed by borrowing Takeru’s power), but in reality is born from the power of hundreds of people reaching out from across the world. And perhaps even Taichi’s crest of Courage is not something that belongs to him alone. As Yamato puts it, “It’s everyone's Friendship”. Though Taichi best embodies courage, the courage he wields is not his alone. Even tri. which I usually avoid using as an example, has Omegamon Merciful Mode, which very explicitly draws from the other children’s partners. Adventure’s Taichi’s not strong because he himself is powerful. Really compared to Hikari he seems rather unimpressive on his own. He’s strong because he is able to easily act as a receiver to others powers, a trait that is fitting for a leader. Because that’s what sets Adventure Taichi apart from his peers, he’s a leader.

Note, that I didn’t really bring up the partners in regards to the discussion of Adventure, not that they aren’t important, but that they aren’t a driving factor. Digimon partners are something vastly different in Digimon Adventure. They are reflections of the children’s inner selves. For straightforward characters, like Taichi, his partner Agumon is very much like him, and for characters like Sora, Piyomon seems very different. This isn’t to say that the digimon are simply their partners, Tailmon went through quite a bit on her own. But nevertheless, Tailmon is the way she is, because Hikari is the way she is. 

Digimon Partners and their evolutions are not things that are just assigned, and given. They are things that arise from the circumstances. Omegamon is there because the themes and circumstances make Omegamon the most appropriate "Ultra”. This is true both in and out of universe, who can forget SkullGreymon? SkullGreymon isn’t wrong. It’s just not the evolution that fits Taichi and Agumon’s situation.

And here’s the thing. Digimon has done the whole focus on “Bonds with Partner’s” before. That’s Tamers. And in Tamers, the final evolution was born from a human and a digimon literally coming together as one. The final episodes all appear somewhat humanoid as a result, particularly notable from WarGrowmon to Gallentmon. Because that was what evolutions were needed narratively and thematically. Otherwise, we have Megidramon. And guess what, the Adventure timeline also has a movie in which the focus is on the bonds between human and friendship, and lo and behold. In Digimon Adventure Kizuna, Agumon (Bond of Courage) and Gabumon (Bond of Friendship) were born. Born from the bond between human and digimon. They even use the “looking like humans” idea from Tamers.

Interestingly, Kizuna came right before Digimon Adventure: started. 

Now, I am really advocating for the Bond forms to be used in Adventure:, those forms were something special to that timeline. But that’s just the thing. Many evolutions, whether unique digimon or not, are brought about by circumstances unique to that timeline. Look at 02’s usage of Armor levels, Frontier's Hybrids, and Xros Wars' Xros mechanic. It’s not new for later seasons to take these Digimon that have existed in these specific circumstances and use them generically later. It would, after all, be a shame to put all those good designs to waste. But at the very least, the evolutions of the main cast are carefully chosen, created if need be, to fit the show.

And that creates a problem for Adventure: as a reboot. It is pulling from the evolutionary lines of its predecessor, despite aiming for different themes and using an entirely different world and characters, and in the process the meaning behind the evolutions has been stripped out. While it has been able to throw in additional evolutions, most of those are well within the confines of precedent: Armors and Ultimate’s that are already related to these evolutionary lines. Adventure: is trying to be a show that, as a reboot of Adventure, it cannot be. Adventure: spends so much of its time screaming that it is not the original Adventure, while simultaneously dragging in call backs that it loses any sense of identity.

The enemies they fight are not Taichi’s responsibility alone. These kids have to have crests. Agumon must evolve into Omegamon.  Angemon still has to die, HolyAngemon and Angemon have to mean something. Tailmon has to be Adult, and has to have been evil. Hikari and Takeru have to give their brother’s power. Omegamon still has to appear. . They still go to summer camp, and Taichi still fights Parrotmon. 

Note, that this is far from Adventure:’s only problem, however I do think it illustrates a large problem that affects the way certain elements and characters are used in this show. Taichi is a solo protagonist, but his “Ultra” is still Omegamon born of Yamato, Takeru and HIkari’s influence. Mimi is now a bossy rich girl, but her crest is still Purity. Yamato is a loner who doesn’t overly concern himself with others, but he’s still Friendship, and still Takeru’s semi-estranged younger brother. 

When Adventure: manages to work a new angle into the old mold, it works well. Yamato’s focus on his friendship with Gabumon works well, and various side characters work alright. Resolving the conflict over Tailmon’s Ultimates by using both for separate things and bringing in Goddramon is a great idea. But more often than not, it doesn’t. Properly contextualizing what a holy digimon is is great, but Angemon’s death is awkward, and Pegususmon’s presence smooths over the issues of Tailmon being champion and keeping Angemon special in an awkward way, refusing to address what an Armor is. Because they are trying to write a story around a set of evolutions they are required to have while absolutely refusing to be Adventure where it matters. Leading to the awkward mesh of Adventure elements and characters, with themes and stories that they were never meant for. 

If Adventure: was meant to be about the bond between Taichi and Agumon, Omegamon was never going to work, including the concepts of crests, was going to muddle things at the very least, and including 7 whole other partner pairs who are going to require at least a few episodes of focus a piece was not going to work out. It’s not that we couldn’t have had more focus on Taichi and Agumon within a reboot and their bond, or that the idea of Taichi and Agumon (or any other pair), activating an evolution because they are in agreement on a concept isn’t a good idea. Just an understanding that this primary focus wasn’t going to work because Adventure in its very concept has a lot of characters that need some degree of focus. Savers with its heavier Masaru focus and use of shonen tropes, dials back the number of “main” characters to half that of Adventure, because it is built around its premise. That unless they were going to be bumped down to secondary, recurring characters, this was never going to work, because that’s not how Adventure’s concept was intended. To tell a new story, it needed to have dropped a few more of Adventure’s elements. But to do that would be to essentially admit that this isn’t Adventure at all. Adventure: needed to have evaluated what story it could tell with what elements it was required to include.

Anything goes in Digimon, and Adventure: seems to want to make the most of this, using armors, Hybrids and Xros Wars digimon with regularity. But you can’t build a cohesive narrative simply by plucking your favorite ingredients and sticking it in a pot. Some things just don’t go together. You can’t take the ingredients to make bread and make a salad. But in short, V-Tamer Taichi and Adventure Taichi aren’t interchangeable. They are two different characters because they are designed for two different stories, and their partners reflect this. Adventure: was doomed from the start if it didn’t realize this. 

Listen, I understand why Suite isn't a popular season. Generally speaking, the best parts of it are generally done better in the two seasons that precede it. It in many ways is just a weaker frankensteining of Fresh and Heartcatch. But Fresh and Heartcatch are fantastic, so just because it's worse than those seasons, doesn't mean its bad in my opinion. And to be fair, it does deserve many of its criticisms.

But it's also one of my favorite seasons, and I think some of it's criticisms are more a matter of taste. There's just a lot I love about Suite.

Hibiki and Kanade

I also know a lot of people aren't huge fans of the whole fighting thing Hibiki and Kanade have going on. And I agree, it's not the best executed and some things don't make sense. I also understand that many people are not fond of the vitriolic best buds trope, but I don't think that makes their relationship inherently bad just not to everyone's taste. For what it's worth, we haven't had a pair of cures like them before and since and it's a tragedy to me personally because I am quite fond of vitriolic best buds, duo cures and childhood friends. We have so many cure duos and aside from these two, none are childhood friends. The CLOSEST is the fact that Saki and Mai met once, when they were 9. Several trios of childhood friends (Fresh, Doki Doki and Happiness Charge), but they're the only true childhood friend duo. I honestly want more cures like these two. They get the learning to understand each other that the new friendships have, with the wealth of intimate knowledge about each other stemming from their childhood friendship. Despite spending a year "apart", the years they spent together still mean something, and they can't seem to stay away. They're mad at each other but there is still a comfortable familiarity in the way they aren't afraid to fight with each other. They say they aren't friends but they still call each other by first name.

Their hearts naturally fall into perfect harmony. The have like the same sense of style. Kanade likes to bake. Hibiki likes to eat. Souta refers to Hibiki as "Hibiki-Nee-san", and otherwise treats her similarly to his own sister. They have a flashlight code that they use to communicate across town at night. Neither one realized that there are two entrances with Sakura trees at their middle school or tried to talk about it for a whole year. They're both so stupid.

They take after Nagisa and Honoka a lot too. Nagisa and Hibiki are both athletic redheads who are good at sports and have black as a main color in one of their outfits (Cure for Nagisa, Civ for Hibiki), and generally use pink in their outfits. Both like to eat. Both can be prone to grumpiness and disagreements with their family members. Honoka and Kanade are both white Cures with fierce tempers and a strong sense of responsibility, able to handle domestic things like cooking. Both have more academic strengths, but are relatively graceful. There are some twists of course, Kanade has the little brother who she bickers with (their little brother's even both end their name with "ta"), Hibiki is the one with a parent who is often abroad. I really like how the two called back to the original duo without at all feeling like a copy.

To be fair not communicating is the name of the game in Suite. And so, I do 100% understand not liking this plot. I really do understand it. It's more than fair. All of the plots basically revolve around miscommunication. That is like. The entirety of Suite. Miscommunications, and the breakdown and subsequent healing of relationships. A very very valid complaint. One that I can overlook, but understand if others cannot.

Siren and Hummy

So, Precure's second heel-face turn Cure (if we don't count the Kiryuu sisters). She's a shapeshifting cat who can sing. The original one.

While normally I dislike the "Brainwashed to be evil" trope. It can be very effective. Go Princess used it to great effect in which there was a level of tragedy to the years that had been stolen away from Towa, and how her motivations had been twisted. I think it has similar effect here, where we kind of get both. She was brainwashed, and I do think that does cheapen Siren's motivations and redemption a bit, but she also had genuinely negative feelings towards Hummy, that she acted on in refusing to practice with Hummy. She still has to face Hummy head on, and as much as she tries to pretend that she's hard and strong enough to live in her bitterness. Siren isn't actually mean enough to keep facing her friend and betray her over and over again.

Hummy being better at singing than her caused her to lose a piece of her identity. The most important singer in all of Majorland. The one who sings the melody of happiness. So Siren doubles down on that identity. She becomes Minorland's singer. But she also, due to her shapeshifting, spends that time adopting different identities. Testing things out, even if she doesn't realize it. Ultimately she has to completely let go of her old identity (losing access to her original form) and everything associated with it and forge a new sense of self, in order to find happiness. But she doesn't completely lose everything.

Despite not liking to be called Siren anymore, she still lets Hummy call her that. She turned her old identity of Siren into something bitter, so she had to cast it off to redefine herself. But Hummy is the only one who ever saw the real Siren through everything Siren tried to become. Hummy may have been the one who took her sense of worth, but she's also the one who always saw Siren's value as Siren. Hummy gets to use Siren because her relationship with Hummy is the only thing that survived Siren's evolution. The two have to forge a new relationship to a certain extent. But it's built on what came before.

I also just think it's fun that the bulk of this emotional arc is on Hummy. It's cat drama. Fairy drama. Usually this is the kinda of stuff that happens between the pink and the heel-face cure. But not this time. This time it's the cat fairy, and the pink is dealing with her own friendship drama. I think it also ties right back into Suites continued echo of healing relationships, actually listening to people in order to harmonize with them. Hibiki and Kanade have to resolve their bitter feelings from their estrangement. Siren has to get over her jealousy to let Hummy back into her life. And Mephisto and Aphrodite have to stop fighting a war against each other.

Major Land's Royal Family

I mean really, no one bothered to tell Hibiki and Kanade at any point that Mephisto was the brainwashed former King of Major Land and that Major Land had a princess who was in hiding? Just locked out of the loop. Both Kanon and Majorland are entirely made up of people who can't communicate.

Anyway, Ako is my all time favorite cure. I rather unpopular choice, I know. But she fits right in with many of my other favorites, characters such as Hikari Yagami, Takeru Takaishi, King Clawthorne, King Ezran, Anya Forger etc. I love kid characters. I especially love messed up traumatized kids who don't always deal with it in great ways. And kid characters with heaps of responsibility on their shoulders. Like chosen ones and royalty.

So Ako is the epitome of what I look for in my favorite characters. She's a 9 year old with high future expectations, that she can't even begin to try and live up to because she's been sent away from everything she's known and loved. Not just moving to a new town, but a new world, where the rules of what is and isn't normal are different. In addition she was forced into physically altering her appearance, wearing unfamiliar clothes, and cutting her long hair. Not only that, she now has to keep everything about her secret. Her hometown, whatever music magic she has, her real future career plans, everything that made her her, has to be suppressed and kept secret. And she was like. Six. That's tiny. And she has to construct a whole new fake identity?

No wonder she's grumpy and keeps to herself? Her alternative is just trying to keep up a bunch of lies all the time. And keeping to herself, means few friends, and trying to keep people away, because this is supposed to be temporary to some degree. She has back home eventually, she's their future queen. She really has no choice BUT to be a grumpy brat. To keep from getting found out and to keep from getting attached. Like sure she doesn't have to be a brat to Hibiki and Kanade, but she's kinda right half the time, and honestly her tempering that brattiness into being just unpleasant enough to be left alone without being so obnoxious she draws people's ire involves way more socio-emotional intelligence than should ever be expected from a nine year old. And at a certain point, after years of it, it became part of her real personality. The sweet optimistic little princess is still there. But it's under a layer of cynicism.

Ako wants her family back. So she gets the power to do that. And things still don't go her way.

I've joked to people before that Ako is one of 4 cures with divorced parents. Her parents are effectively divorced, but extra. They're not just trying to fight over a house and custody of her, but over not just an entire kingdom, but the fate of the world. And her father doesn't even know who she is anymore. Her parents are actively at war, and her mother honestly shows no qualms about letting her husband be potentially killed, not bothering to tell the people she's sent after him about their relationship and his true nature. (And then her mom asks Mephisto to kill her to protect their kingdom, Ako can't catch a break).

This ties back to a fact that is kind of brushed over in the show. Ako is the princess. In the show she's honestly just the princess because it puts her in between Mephisto and Aphrodite's drama. But we see in show that Mephisto and Aphrodite are constantly putting their kingdom's needs above their own. A- monarchs (points deducted for getting brainwashed), but like. B- parents tbh. They love Ako so, so much, but simply can't raise her themselves. In fact, Ako's parents won't look after themselves, so Ako has to look out for them instead of the other way around. We see this a lot with Mephisto.

Sometimes Ako makes absolutely stupid decisions, like releasing notes, because she doesn't want to go against her dad, even if he isn't himself right now. Because she's a child whose parents are fighting, seemingly to the death, and if she can spread out the fight, she can hopefully drag out the arrival of consequences.

Ako does eventually learn to use the power as a cure, so she can balance the needs of the many over the needs of her loved ones. So she can do both. But she has to learn to make the hard choices and be willing to stand against her loved ones.

Also Ako also gets the miscommunication based friendship breakdown with her and Suzu, and to a lesser extent her and Souta in the movie. Suite really goes hard on the whole healing relationships thing.

Ako is really a direct foil to Yuri who precedes her. Missing evil brainwashed dads. Present throughout the whole show, but only join the team in the last quarter (the latest of any Cures). Semi-awkward friendship with one of the other cure's siblings in part because their friend doesn't know about all their magical girl trauma. Already looped into the magical girl stuff before any of the other cures, so has a preexisting relationship of some sort with the grandparent mentor. Ako is pretty much just a baby Yuri, but who has just now gained the power to try and fight after years of inability to do anything, instead of having just lost her power, and having to face down her own failure and keep going. So she's an angry elementary kid rather than a depressed high schooler. How can I not love her?

AITA for choosing to kill my best friend?

I (M14) am part of a group dedicated to preventing the take over of an evil AI (L) that split off from my grandfathers creation (M). Turns out my best friend, lets call him YJ (M14… kinda?), was an AI created by L in order to spy on me. Anyway, YJ didn't actually know about this until L activated some sort of override of his free will and used him to gain access to a strong power that allowed him to enslave all of humanity and turn them into AIs.

Anyway, we thought we managed to get him on the ropes, though M was destroyed in the process, but L at the last moment issued an ultimatum to me. I could delete L, and by extension YJ or let YJ live, but humanity would be imprisoned, and I only had 60 seconds to make a decision. I chose to delete YJ and L and save humanity. I did promise to study AI to revive YJ in the future.

But right before I could press the button YJ regained enough control to stop me and press the button himself, so I wasn't actually the one to kill him. He said it was so I wouldn't have to. But I still feel bad because he felt he had to delete himself and I was going to do it myself otherwise.

Especially since it seems M may have known YJ was an android made by L when she recruited him to our side, and she may have been counting on his decision all along. M saved our life and helped us take out L, and sacrificed herself in the process. But she still asked YJ "if there was someone he would give his life to protect" as his test for joining our team. I feel guilty that I didn't notice how suspicious that question was before and that I hadn't been as worried about his self-sacrificial tendencies before.

I know that we didn't really have a choice and it was either that or let all of humanity die. But I worry that he may not have appreciated himself enough or made him think he wasn't important.

AITA for not noticing that M was setting up YJ to sacrifice himself?

I love Beyond as an AU of the Kizuna timeline etc., because Beyond is the first new content since I've become a digimon fan that feels like Adventure. I dont hate Kizuna, I definitely have some issues with it but there's also a LOT I appreciate. Admittedly, when I say Beyond feels like Digimon Adventure, I kinda literally do just mean the character designs, art style (when was the last time we really saw Adventure's digital world? Tri's digital world lacked Adventure's stylization), and the main plot idea, (digidestined being targetted by militaries) which feels like a natural bridge between 02 and the epilogue.

That's almost certainly in part because, it is just a short music video, so that's all there is in it. Which means it doesn't have the room in it to tell me things that I will disagree with. It does raise a lot of questions, but nothing specific. Like why is Takeru in what looks like the dark ocean? There could be 10000s of explanations, and a lot of them would make sense so there's less need to worry about specifics. It also doesn't promise to answer those questions, having been marketed from the beginning as a standalone thing. Its a very different beast from a stand alone movie which requires a clear story arc and character drama that has to resolve quickly, so I'm not disparaging Kizuna and 02tb for NOT diving into that kind of plot, but acknowledging that it made it more difficult for me to care.

A lot of post 02 adventure content has addressed the need for movie content by introducing new characters/conflict that they can resolve in the limited runtime rather than taking from pre-existing threads which does make sense for the format but does leave those stories feeling superfluous. Kizuna and 02TB also take the epilogue for granted rather than seek to show the progression towards it. Not to say there isn't any recognition of the inevitable ending but that this underlying thread takes a backseat to more specific conflicts within the setting of a world approaching a digimon partnership singularity.

I don't think its necessarily a bad thing that they try to use the audiences understanding that the epilogue is canon as a way to filter the story through to make you question the things the characters tell you. Like obviously "digimon disappear when kids become adults" and Taichi and Yamato's separation can't be the whole story if the epilogue shows us that it won't stay. So we are theoretically driven to read between the lines and look for the discrepancies and clues about what IS going on. But it IS extremely frustrating to have mysteries raised but not show the resolution for a 20 year old show, especially after tri. wasted a lot of audience goodwill on that kind of thing.

I also think a huge part of what makes Beyond feel more like Adventure is the lack of adhesion to real life for the setting. 02 took place 2 years into the future from when it was written. Not significant amount of tine, but like 9/11 happened between when the show was written and when it was set. It and especially the epilogue were written speculating about the future that they couldn't really predict. And so tri. Kizuna and 02TB which were all written after the time they take place all try to emulate the real world past, invoking nostalgia of that time period as well, when the world of 02 was already going in a different direction from ours. So I think naturally a world where the timeline has diverged more strongly than from our real timeline would reflect in things like fashion and societal behavior, and even the characters adhesion to the norms that exist.

This of course shows in things like the cell phones and Sora's fashion. I don't think Sora wearing typical Japanese adult women's fashions is at all inaccurate to her character, particularly in the timeline/world those entries present (ie more similar to irl). Similarly Ken and his long hair; long haired Japanese high school boys isn't particularly realistic to the fashion norms of our world, but it IS in line with Ken's fashion choices in 02 and the epilogue. Just two different approaches to the kids designs.

But I personally ultimately do like the Beyond outfits more, because they feel more like a progression between 02 fashions and epilogue. And also I don't really have nostalgia for the 2000s-2010s, much less in Japan. But this also extends to things like character arcs, where I don't think that it's not possible for the chosen children to be plagued by the kind of doubts we see them suffer from in recent iterations, and those doubts make for continued stories for them, but I don't think that's the only potential future for them. So seeing a Sora who is happily flying freely in the digital world makes me happy (and for me calls to mind her Best Partner duet).

I do think I would love a novelization as an elaboration to know what the vision for Beyond is, but I'm otherwise so burnt out Adventure that I don't want anything higher budget to tell me what happens. It's highly possible that any further elaboration on Beyond (such as a novelization) would tell me things that I don't believe. The thing about a show that's had such a long-standing presence is it doesn't really belong to anyone in particular. Shows like Digimon Adventure are made by a group of people at a particular time, so no one person, or even group of people from the crew are the one authority on the story. It's impossible to truly have one true canon continuation of the story, but to me Beyond feels at least somewhat close.

I do appreciate the inclusion of Meiko (&Lui) as sort of a assurance this isn't a pure rejection of other official interpretations of post-02 content. That stuff isn't without merit. But beyond is just one of the creators visions on the subject filtered through music video time constraints rather than big budget movie constraints. Just one potential path.

I wonder if we still would have gotten a cure cameo of peach if she hadn't been one of the lead cures. How much were they willing to invest in that bit?

You know, I was kinda worried when they skipped Peach that we wouldn't see her at all. But now I just find it hilarious that they saved her cameo for for advertising an airline.