Why I Think Ryo Is The Ken Of Survive.

Ah, Precure dance endings. A series staple. Whether you consider the First dance ED to be "You make me happy" or "Ganbalance de dance" or even the very first "Get You! Love Love?!" the point is they've been around for a while. Generally speaking nothing but a simple fun time, but rarely has had anything to do with the show proper. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the very first Precure ED was a bit more than that.

Futari wa, as opposed to every other season, only has the 1 ending. Sure, it changes visually halfway through to accommodate Pollun and the new villain team, but that's it. (Which is more than the OP which doesn't change at all, which is also unusual). But I think people often miss the relevance of the song in between all the less relevant eds, and the iconicness that is the OP.

But the ED is also iconic and a crucial piece of the Futari wa Purikyua experience.

Episode 45, the last episode before shit hits the fan, features this song heavily. This song isn't really my favorite ed, and the episode isn't a particular favorite of mine (Futari wa has so many good episodes), but it utilizes the ed effectively, and the song that you've been listening to all this time hits harder.

Nagisa immediately falls in love with the song. The song speaks to her looking at the lyrics of course its no surprise. But it's not just "song that Nagisa would like". Though I would be remiss if I did not mention the inclusion of sweets in the lyrics. Nagisa loves chocolate. It's the go to simple important part of life for her.

They have the girls sing it. Sung by a chorus, not just Nagisa and Honoka (but they do get solos), but the whole class, many of whom appear in the ED. Because of Futari wa's small main cast the side characters hold a more important role than they do in many future series, so these are characters we know, even if just from an episode. There's a weight to the music being diegetic.

Of course the episode ends sweetly, with Nagisa, Honoka, and the fairies, singing their heart out with the rest of their class. But for a moment that wasn't a guarantee. Nagisa and Honoka being unable to sing with their class highlights the toll that this fight has taken on their normal school lives. They have to fight against someone who fully intends to kill them, and then destroy their loved ones, alone while every one else is.

Made all the more poignant by the subject matter of the song.

First of all, the title "Get you! Love Love!" is in English, and a bit nonsensical in English. But "Love Love" in Japanese, means more "lovely-dovey". It's VERY much so in your face romantic. A word used to describe Mepple and Mipple. The song is about the joy of teenage romance. While I don't really want to call it frivolous, next to world saving it doesn't hold the same weight.

Now, I recognize that may seem counter to my point that the song is important to Futari wa. I mean there's no canon romantic relationship. Closest is Nagisa's crush that she never actually confesses to. But putting aside all of Futari wa's romance elements (which is an entirely different discussion), the lyrics are still very relevant to Futari wa.

The Opening holds the iconic line "even wearing school uniforms we're unbelievably tough" and features scenes of them fighting evil in their school uniforms. The opening is an ode to how badass they are in all aspects of their life.

But the ending is the other side of the coin. It tells us how frustrated they are with the villains encroaching on their everyday life. While I don't speak Japanese, and have seen it translated a couple of ways, the reoccurring "datte yatte ran'nai jan", is either "because you can't make me do this", or "because I can't do this". IDK which is right, but either way, this is in regards to fighting, stress, and trouble, which stands in stark contrast to the opening which is very much so about how much they can and do fight. "For the sake of the earth, for the sake of everyone That's fine but isn't there something that you're forgetting?! Now!" They aren't even being subtle about the Pretty Cure part about the girls lives in the song. How much that they don't want to do it. "My heart is pounding and throbbing like a dreaming teenager An original daily life is something I won't get rid of" The lines of Nagisa and Honoka's solo. The most thematically important lines in the whole song imo. While the importance of the everyday is important in most Precure seasons, it is especially emphasized with Futari wa. The main theme of the story is about how precious day to day things are, and how unfair it is for the girls to have to fight for that.

Because ultimately that is what Futari wa Pretty Cure is about more than anything. I think it's important to view Futari wa Pretty Cure through the lens of a slice of life first. It's tone a lot of the time, focusing on poor grades and unfinished homework, lacrosse, errands, sleepovers and family. A relatively grounded slice of life from the perspective of magical girls. The value of the normal events highlighted by the desperation Nagisa and Honoka have fighting to defend them. The ED highlights it by focusing on the more "frivolous" aspects of the girls lives.

The visuals of the ED are pretty simple, but effective. They showcase the different circles the girls interact with. Their families, their classmates, their clubs and of course the villains. Because of Futari wa's focus on their community, the presence of these characters in the ED is deserved. A fun lighthearted focus on their day to day lives to contrast the OP.

Also, I'd like to point out the ED visuals humanizing the villains. While Futari wa's villains are easily among some of the franchises worst, having the unforgivable flaw of being forgettable, the show doesn't do a completely terrible job of humanizing them. And the ED contributes to that. The dancing of the villains, just being the goofy people that some of them are when not, trying to destroy the world. While I wouldn't call the behavior canonical, it really isn't off base for characters like Gekidrago and Regine. The villains, for all that they are generic, are primarily motivated by their desire to continue existing: the same motivation that drives the Cures. (Gotta love their goofy dance).

Also a guy screams at the end of it. If I have to hear it now so do you.

Mimi notably never directly refers to Yamato over the course of both adventure and 02. However there IS an implication of interactions in the first half of the show.

Mimi is one of the youngest in the group. Though she and Koshiro are the same age, Koshiro's quiet serious nature and computer skills often lead him to be treated more seriously while Mimi's penchant for complaining (no matter how justified), makes her treated a little more like a junior. There's a hierarchy of protection, that Mimi sits only above Takeru for. Mimi, being on the younger side, is more free to complain about her situation. Sora clearly looks after Mimi as the senior girl, as does Joe as the oldest over all, but Yamato also seems to look after her, at least in the first half of the season, as an extension of looking after Takeru. For instance, very early in the series, Yamato advocated for taking a break, presumably on behalf of Takeru, but it was both Takeru and Mimi who were struggling. And in episodes 5, 7, and 19 Yamato seems to be tasked with looking after the younger kids, Takeru and Mimi, Koshiro sometimes, even if I don't think it was necessarily purposeful in 5.

As such while we don't see much of Yamato and Mimi directly interacting it does stand to reason that they get along and do work well together. Yamato is generally rather considerate of people's negative emotions, such as with how he treated Sora's breakdown in episode 26 and how he handled Mimi's graves early in the dark masters arc. I would imagine that Yamato is relatively tolerant of Mimi's complaining. Conversely I would imagine Yamato is someone who Mimi holds a lot of respect for.

As a side note, the fact Taichi leaves Hikari in Yamato's care I think also speaks to Yamato's unspoken role of "babysitter", the complimentary shield to the role of sword Taichi plays. Yamato's tendency to prioritize the group's well being, over Taichi's tendency to take initiative and confront enemies. It also of course makes sense in the context of their crests, Taichi is courage (to do things), and Yamato's is friendship (to look after people).

And of course on the other side we get Joe Taichi and Sora as a group, the initiative takers, the ones who are more likely to do a dangerous job. Joe who went out in episode 7, Taichi and Sora who went to find him. Those three were the ones dealing with Andromon while the others looked around the factory, and the ones who went in for Sora's crest. Koshiro goes either way depending on if his skills are necessary or not.

There is something in the fact that instead of Hikari, Tailmon found Vamdemon, dwelling in the very castle that the chosen digimon originated in.

Because of course Nyaromon should have grown up with the others. She should have grown up playing together and waiting for Hikari with others who knew what she was waiting for in why. Tailmon shouldn't have had to grow up to be an adult while the others were still babies.

But if we're going with what ifs and should haves, then all 8 of them should have been at that castle, but with the Agents to teach them about what they were meant to do. With their tags and crests, and knowledge of their meanings. With knowing not just who they were waiting for but why.

In the end, Plotmon found where she was supposed to be, but none of the people who were supposed to be there, were there.

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.

Sorry for the delay, I've been fighting battles in the real world (boring schoolwork-related battles, but battles nevertheless). Honestly, when I finalized the Katsura's I was tired and was just going to call it a day. Which is a shame, because I feel like I didn't do them justice, but whatever. And I was going to do the same for Haru… but Haru’s section is the one I had the most issues with, to begin with. Simply because as our main character, he’s perhaps got the most going on, but also the most straightforward which is just overall not very appealing to write honestly. So Haru involves a bit more rewatching and I just didn't have time, (Most of the Katsura’s brother’s details are confined to a few easily identifiable episodes) so I just cast it aside. And Haru's relates a lot to Yuujin which. Hoo boy. I have a lot to say about him.

Anyway, without further delay here are my thoughts on our main protagonist.

Haru is the kind of boy who watches and admires hot-headed anime protagonists, rather than the kind of boy who is a hot-headed anime protagonist. Though he admires these characters greatly for their values and beliefs, Haru himself starts the show viewing himself as a side character. This is a point that is refuted in-universe by Yuujin, and out-of-universe by well, Haru being billed as the protagonist. “Are you a protagonist?” is the question that defines Haru’s arc, and Haru spends the season proving his response of “yes” true to himself and those around him. But Haru’s assessment that he's more of a side character is not inaccurate when it comes to his personality. He can be somewhat self-centered and prone to annoyance and embarrassment. He’s not very confident, he’s a bit cowardly, likes to read, not athletic but also not shown to be particularly intelligent. He’s not shown to be dumb, or anything, just nothing is really made of his academic abilities and he’s not shown to be particularly strategic. In fact, he on multiple occasions is shown to be fairly clever, but he doesn’t exactly make up for his more mild personality with genius strategic ability. He is able to come up with applicable search terms to situations, deciding to draw Shootmon’s attention using Puzzlemon, and using Navimon to track Mienumon. But He takes hours to solve Puzzlemon’s puzzles (though he does solve them which is more than Astra or Eri can say.

Haru’s story is about becoming a protagonist. Though at the beginning of the series Haru decides for himself he’s going to be a protagonist, this is a fate that was out of his hands. Though we don’t know it at first, Haru has a very personal connection to this whole thing, as Haru’s grandfather is responsible for this whole mess, but more importantly, Haru has been monitored by super AI since he was a small child. Super AI who manipulated events throughout the entire season, for all our protagonists, but in particular have been manipulating the events in Haru’s life since he was in 4th grade at the least. He himself is an ordinary boy, but he’s part of an extraordinary situation, even if he doesn’t know it at first. A situation where knowingly or not Haru has been monitored and groomed to be an ideal protagonist. While we don’t know to what degree Haru has been influenced, if really much at all (purposefully) prior to the series start beyond monitoring, AI has unknowingly played a huge role in who Haru is.

But even so, Haru’s nature as a kind, fantasy-loving, boy is genuine. His desire to be a protagonist is real, even if potentially encouraged even indirectly, by Leviathan, the machinations behind Haru himself is the one who takes these steps to be the kind of hero he wants to be. Kind and brave.

And while I said, Haru starts the show as cowardly, that doesn’t actually mean he’s any less prone to reckless behavior later in the series. Haru’s reckless in the same way many protagonists, Digimon or otherwise are. While Haru may not have realized it, Haru’s admiration of the protagonist's values makes them his values, even if Haru initially lacks the same emotional strength to follow through on these ideals. While Haru starts out as a quiet bookworm, (and those traits don’t just disappear, although certainly overshadowed by everything else going on in his life) Haru makes a constant effort to be better. To make the right decisions. To reach out to those that are hurting and offer a helping hand. When he chooses to help save Christmas for Ai, or becomes dedicated to helping Rei with Hajime, or diving in to help Gatchmon as he drowns in the L-Virus. But these actions gradually require more and more action on Haru’s part, until we reach the end and Haru, Haru, who started the series cowering under his covers, is leaping off the top of a building on the slim chance it will help save the world. The one who has the courage to look his best friend in the eye and say I’m sorry, but I have to do this, but I will make it up to you.

Aside from the connections between humanity and AI, Appmon has another big theme of choice. Haru has to make a choice. The first choice Haru makes is to assert that he is a protagonist. The last choice is to do his duty as a protagonist and make the choice. Generally speaking, a good protagonist is one who actively pushes the direction of a story, actively makes choices that have consequences. It’s why we associate many protagonists as leaders, while being the leader and the main protagonist aren’t mutually exclusive they overlap in the way that they make decisions that affect the story and their teammates. I’m sure we all remember that moment in Digimon Adventure where it’s Taichi who has to make the choice of which card to use to take them home. The choice Taiki made to rescue Shoutmon. The moment where Takuya makes that choice to go home (another series about choice). Choices are important. While the choices Haru and the others make are certainly influenced by the AI, Denemon notes that Minerva likely gave the questions as a prompt in the right direction rather than as the deciding factor in choosing them, but ultimately they are the ones making the decisions. Leviathan gives Haru the choice between Yuujin and humanity under the mistaken belief of being able to predict Haru’s choice. (And is proven wrong yet again when it's Yuujin who pulls the plug). But Haru proves humanity, life, as fully capable of defining their own lives with their decisions. Haru growing into a protagonist involves him growing more proactive, which is the detail Yuujin comments on in episode 2.

But it’s not Haru’s growing courage and confidence that marks him as the main protagonist of Appmon. It’s his kindness, the trait that he had from the very beginning that facilitates his growth, and the Appdriver’s successes. His kindness is what Yuujin uses to label Haru as the protagonist. Haru is the one who gathered the Appdrivers together, who reached out to Rei. Who reached out to someone who was once, and possibly still, his enemy once he had been betrayed. Haru’s kindness is what won him Yuujin’s genuine admiration, to the point where Yuujin was willing to die for him. This is a kindness that he’s had since elementary school. In a story about the questions of the dangers of AI, and the growing connections between humanity and AI’s, Haru’s kindness is the answer Appmon gives. It’s this charisma that makes him the natural foil to Charismon. It’s this genuine kindness that brings others to his side and inspires actions to protect others. Not to mention that beyond Haru’s kindness, Haru wasn’t the type to be easily discouraged even prior to meeting Yuujin, learning soccer even though he wasn’t very good at it. It’s this determination that pulls him through difficult RPGs, and spending hours on puzzles.

Haru isn’t a total nice guy. He’s capable of selfishness at times. He’s capable of being annoyed with others, (often Gatchmon). Particularly earlier in the series before he realized his capability for helping others. For the first couple episodes, Haru regularly has moments where he expresses annoyance at his situation. Focused on his own embarrassment, and having to be prompted into action by Gatchmon. He’s a bit of a coward, to the point of actively trying to escape the fight, and rather pitifully insists he’s not fit for the situation. Similarly, while Gatchmon goes to find Haru to fight Leviathan, Gatchmon also starts with some somewhat cowardly behavior, being afraid to even say Leviathan’s name. The kind of behaviors that make you go “Hey, why would an AI choose him”. But Haru quickly grows into the role of the protagonist, out of a genuine desire to help others, Gatchman and Ai in particular. And when I say quickly I mean quickly (again growth as soon as episode 2). He still demonstrates some more selfish tendencies in those early episodes (wanting to read instead of taking a cooped up Gatchmon trick or treating in episode 4) but as others join Haru’s team they become less prominent. The moment he declares himself a protagonist he starts to live up to the kind of protagonist he wants to be, even if takes a little bit for him to fully grow into the role, demonstrating the power this subtle guidance had on Haru and the others.

Haru’s family, despite its plot relevance, is pushed to the background, which is kind of odd for a Digimon series, especially one set in the real world. For Haru early on we meet his mom and see his home. His mother is apparently a housewife who runs a blog. She seems to care about Haru a lot and is shown to be rather attentive, noticing odd sounds coming from his room on numerous occasions, including recognizing Denemon’s voice. She also seemed to be on good terms with Denemon, and was willing and able to tell Haru about him. That doesn’t really tell us a lot about Haru however, it does tell us that Haru grew up in a loving household and that Haru seemed to inherit his mild, but observant nature from her.

Denemon, while plot-relevant, died when Haru was very small, and so while he has everything to do with the situation Haru is in now, he doesn’t seem to have a whole lot to do with the way Haru is. And really they are opposites in a lot of ways, Denemon being a passionate and ambitious person while Haru is more reserved and at the start of the series significantly less ambitious. That said, Denemon and Haru do have a few similarities. Both are somewhat forward-thinking and curious people. Haru’s Buddy is a search Appmon. To search for answers, to find something you want to know. Denemon built Minerva to help solve problems, which serves a similar function to a search app if you think about it. Furthermore, both Haru and Denemon are very open-minded and put a lot of hope in the future of humanity to live alongside AI. Of course, by the end of the series, Haru comes to share in his grandfather’s interest in AI as well as his more hard-working nature.

We never meet Haru’s father, despite being Denemon’s son, and presumably still around in some capacity, due to being mentioned neutrally when discussing Haru’s relationship to Denemon, but there really isn’t enough there to extrapolate from. But Appmon’s finale, and Yuujin’s revelation give us the implication that Haru was not the only one being monitored by Leviathan, which may suggest there are others like Yuujn to monitor other people in Denemon’s life. After all, Yuujin seems pretty geared to monitoring Haru specifically. Even if there aren’t other androids, Haru is not the only person from Denemon’s life who Leviathan paid attention to. Haru’s father, Denemon’s son, is a likely candidate as well. But of course, we don’t see any of that, so that’s left to the realm of theories and fanfics.

If I were to wager a guess, part of the reason Haru grew so entrenched in the Appmon situation is in part due to his age. As Denemon’s grandson, Haru was probably by far the youngest of those who Leviathan deemed important enough to monitor. Which also made it difficult to monitor. If Yuujin is the only android, he probably is an android because it's difficult to recruit children to befriend a target the way an adult would. And if he’s not the only android, Yuujin still would have involved the most upkeep and attention due to the fact Yuujin had to age. Either way monitoring Haru was probably a bit more of an endeavor than any other character. On top of that his youthful open-mindedness (and free time) was definitely an asset for him bridging the gap between humans and AI, with both Yuujin and the Appmon. Though, all of that is just speculative.

Gatchmon is very aggressive when compared to Haru, which while an uncommon Goggle Boy/Partner pairing, isn’t really new either. Gatchmon assertive "ore". While Yuujin is definitely who Haru imagines as a protagonist type, Gatchmon is more in line with a typical shonen protagonist with his recklessness and aggressive nature. This is a role swap that has been done before, notably in Xros Wars where you could consider Shoutmon to be the real main protagonist. But it’s still somewhat refreshing (and done much differently than in Xros Wars anyway). Gatchmon isn't always the most sensitive or the most selfless, as he gets irritated by Offmon and is a general nuisance to Haru in some of the early episodes. Gatchmon is the one who gives Haru the strength to take action to protect and become the person Haru wanted to be. Gatchmon also shows a desire to get involved, his investigation leading him to Leviathan and eventually to Haru, the way Haru desires to be a protagonist. They share the same desire (that all of our main trio does really), to be people who make a difference. Gatchmon’s thematic connection to Haru is highlighted in the finale, where they are tied by their search for something.

“It was a destined encounter, arranged by a greater power” Those are among the first words Haru speaks in the series, referring to his encounter with Gatchmon. But Appmon is unique among Digimon series in that we see no hide or hair of a power that could be what we consider a god. We know who arranged this meeting, and it is perhaps fair to refer to Minerva and/or Leviathan as a higher power. But that’s the thing about Appmon. The grand forces that rock the earth, with their perfect schemes and subtle influence are ultimately man-made. The final form of Appmon are “God Grades”, and mostly derive their names from human gods. But they too are man-made. While I could probably say a lot about Appmon’s discussion on how humanity's greatest influencing factor, the one force closest to a real god, is something we made ourselves. But nevertheless, Haru as the grandson of the creator of these “higher powers” proves humans worth. A war of ideals battled out between Denemon’s children, children who have grown past him. In Greek mythology, the gods are repeatedly overthrown by their children. Zeus overthrew Cronus, who overthrew Uranus. The God Grades just so happen to be largely named for Greek deities.

But unlike those stories in which the gods do everything they can to prevent being overthrown by their own children, Denemon does not begrudge the AI the chance to grow and surpass him. He and Haru, and all of the Applidrivers, put their trust into building connections and putting their trust in the AI, helping them to grow stronger. While Leviathan does take advantage of this, allowing the children to grow stronger to then consume the god grades, the god grades come about because the kids weren’t afraid of the AI having more power than them. They were perfectly content with living together. Unlike many of your more conventional protagonists, Haru isn’t exactly the most aggressive kid. Haru’s not a leader in the traditional sense. Haru is far more inclined to follow the leader, which makes him exactly the kind of person who is fine with not being the most powerful or important person in the room. Appmon’s big central question is of the singularity, the fear of being overtaken by the AI we created. So it's fitting that Appmon's protagonist, is a character who solves their issues through conflict, but through reaching out. Who breaks the trope of the self-fulfilling prophecy that's repeated over and over again throughout the history of storytelling of trying to destroy those who are predicted to destroy you. Who better as a Digimon protaganist?

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.

Fresh Precure is about community, and how community forms support systems beyond the family unit.

Many heel face turns focus on the characters growth. How they come to understand differently, and how they grow into a new person. Setsuna, once freed from Labyrinth actually changes her personality rather quickly, she doesn't spend much time struggling with everything all things considered. Now, I think Setsuna's arc is top tier: her denying her true wants because its different from what she's been told she wants all her life, wanting to be useful to her community but her community not serving her, finding people who care about her and give to Setsuna rather than only take, her guilt for taking the happiness away from others that people have been giving her. But ultimately, it's not so much about Setsuna's personal growth, so much as about how this community rehabilitates an abused girl.

Unlike many other seasons where her living situation would be a bit of an afterthought its front and center here. We get to see all the little things that the Momozono's do for Setsuna, all the little things they get for her.

It's why the toothbrush scene is so important. A toothbrush is such a little thing, but the Momozono's are going out of their way to remember she needs one, to get one for her. And they ask her what kind she wants. The Momozono's are giving her freedom, are allowing her to embrace her own decisions, rather than in Labyrinth where she was manipulated into doing what others wanted of her.

It's not just the Momozono's. It's Kaoru giving her a donut simply because she hadn't had one before. Lucky and Takeshi playing with Setsuna. Miyuki helping support Setsuna when she was feeling pressured to dance. Of course the whole town does this for everyone.

The Cures go and support a little girl in the hospital, both as themselves and as their cure selves. Kaoru looks after the girls and tries to get them to eat when they're overworking themselves. Miyuki helping the girls balance their lives. This is the first iteration where Cure's are truly celebrities rather than their occasional public appearance in Fresh and the public cheers them on accordingly, and even helps in more tangible ways (like offering an expensive training facility).

This is contrasted against Labyrinth who erases individuality in the name of the collective, but where the collective is suffering. Who has no art, no family, no socialization. Where no one offers help unless ordered to. Where everything is for Moebius. And so, the smallest acts of kindness (a donut) have far reaching effects. Because the people of Labyrinth believe they're doing right. That this is the best for everyone. They don't know what happiness is, so when faced against actual it for the first time, as well as actual community for the first time, it crumbles.

But even the individuals in Labyrinth aren't always heartless. Westar has even more of a sense of community than Eas. A desire to give back. However, is loyalty to Labyrinth is stronger. Westar takes Eas leaving personally. He's often cast aside, underestimated. Westar's a goofy sort of villain, but more than that he's a victim just like Eas and Soular. He thrives once he gets to leave. He thrives in a community that gives him the support he gives others.

I think it's no coincidence that this season has the first cure with divorced parents. We never see her father, but we know he's not completely absent from her life. She still has a close relationship with her brother. This nontraditional family dynamic I think sets the stage for Setsuna later on, who is welcomed into the Momozono family. She's family even without blood.

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