#Agumon 2006 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

star-vessel1237 · 1 year

Note

About the Digimons partners for the TWST cast. Vil would definitely either have a Splashmon or Lilithmon, since both are Digimons obsessed with beauty and poison.

Adeuce would probably have Digimons that usually seen in pairs, eg Agumon & Gabumon, Black/White Pawn Chessmon or Terriermon & Lopmon.

Just for fun, a Black Tailmon Uver and Pistmon living in Ramshackle. They just send stuffs across the campus, either form Mostro Lounge or Mr S's Shop. They accept no requests from Crowley however.

Thank you Anon for this particular ask, it made me think about the AU and hopefully these satisfy your suggestions.

Warning: This post is really long and has some light swearing at the end.

(A/N: This AU is still a work in progress, for the most part anyway, so some of these answers may change as I continue writing for this AU.)

1: Vil’s digimon partner

I was going to go with Splashmon with this one, because in its wiki article it talks about how its obsession with beauty and how the drippins they create is like their own poison

But the more I think about it, Lilithmon also makes sense

Lilithmon is based on Lilith, from what I can tell from research Lilith is seen as a queen of hell which kind of fits for Vil for being based on the Evil Queen

Both are very beautiful

Lilithmon’s poison and powerful magic also fits well with Vil being a surprisingly strong mage and how he became his dorm’s leader for brewing the deadliest poison out of the whole dorm

Plus according to religious text, lust comes in the form of a great desire, let it be intimate or not, and I would say his desire to become more popular the Neige is pretty intense (*cough* Pomefiore chapter *cough*)

Also because of the backstory I gave Baal!Yuu, I imagine things may become, angsty when they and this Lilithmon met for the first time

To put it simply, Baal!Yuu had encountered a few of the Seven Demon Lords on their travel and most of the encounters were either that a demon lord tried to convince them to join their forces or a murder attempt that Baal!Yuu barely avoided, the demon lord of lust being the one they usually encounter ( to this day Baal!Yuu does not know why )

So even though this Lilithmon may not be the Lilithmon that is apart of the Great Seven Demon Lords, but Baal!Yuu may not realize that and things start off a little tense

They do make up and become fast friends, mostly bonding over the fact that they are both compared to the demon lords of their digital world and how both of them hate it

2: Ace and Deuce's partners

Yeah both of them would have Digimon that are usually paired with each other

The only thing is I can’t decide which between two ideas I had

One is where they have an Agumon and Gabumon since they are the most popularly paired digimon and also because the Braincell Duo might as well be Tai and Matt

The other option is Agumon (2006) and Gaomon because I also get reminded of Ace and Deuce when Marcus and Thomas start fighting and I like the idea of Deuce having a Gaomon since they are both good fist fighters

Also, whatever their partners are, they get along more than the Braincell Duo and often act as mediators whenever their partners end up bickering

3: The Local Delivery Duo

Pistmon Characterization: A loud digimon who comes off as the more social of the two. They love going racing around when not making deliveries, making new friends, and have a bad habit of talking so fast that no one can understand them

Black Tailmon Uver Characterization: A strong silent type yet always willing to lend a hand. They are very helpful and always willing to lend an ear to anyone's problems. (Not that Pistmon wouldn't do the same but Uver tends to notice things more easily.)

With that out of the way, here's how the two got to NRC

It happened unexpectedly nearing closing time, Sam was managing his store while Baal!Yuu was shopping for Grim’s tuna addiction until a loud crash was heard

When the two went to investigate they saw Pistmon and Black Tailmon Uver sprawled on the ground, covered in bruises, and near the tree in front of the Mystery Shop

While getting patched up, Pistmon told them that they were a courier duo that deliver across the Real and Digital world

When they were heading back to the Digital World they were attacked by some very territorial digimon, while escaping they got caught up in what they assumed to be normal fog until they found themselves in the woods

Confused, Pistmon wasn’t paying attention trying to figure out where they were and only noticed the tree when their delivery partner pointed out the tree they were heading into

Baal!Yuu is definitely curious about this since both of them would count as the 6th and 7th digimon that somehow arrived in Twisted Wonderland not counting themselves

After they get healed up, the two of them offered to pay Sam and Baal!Yuu back by delivering anything they need to across the campus and dorms

Eventually word got around school about the duo and now they both run a delivery service that delivers from the Mostro Lounge and the Mystery Shop to anywhere on campus

Both of them have taken residence at Ramshackle, however it seems Black Tailmon Uver has taken to staying at a certain introverts room when their last delivery is at their dorm

The two have a grudge against Crowley after they hear about Baal!Yuu’s situation and why some of the students are a bit... troubled to say the least

Especially after the Scarabia event

Crowley now has to ask one of the other staff to order for him or continue submitting anonymous letters with his delivery request until he actually helps improve their roommates’ home and find way to get all the digimon home damn’it

Both also start thinking about making disguises to go around making paid deliveries around Sage’s Island to help pay for a counselor since it seems to be lacking one, Crowley

That’s all for now, hope you enjoy!

32 notes · View notes

penny-the-pissed-poltergeist · 10 months

Text

Giving RWBY characters digimon partners part 1: Ruby and Weiss

if your wondering why I'm doing this, I am hyper fixating on digimon RN and i just really like crossovers

Ruby Rose

ROOKIE/CHILD STAGE: shoutmon

So i went with Shoutmon because it's red digimon that's been used by the main character of a digimon series before and it leads well into the evos i want, but i imagine him and Ruby having a fun dynamic, with shoutmon being hot blooded and kinda egotistical and Ruby having to rain him in a bit.

also shoutmon is associated with music and listening to music is the first thing we see Ruby doing the show proper.

(honorable mentions Guilmon, Agumon, Hackmon/Huckmon, Agumon Black 2006)

CHAMPION/ADULT STAGE: GROWMON

i chose him because it's a big red dino dragon, but i also like the juxtaposition between the digital hazard and the sliver eyes, one being this holy gift from the gods the other being a unstable power of destruction.

(honorable mentions Black Growmon, Red Vdramon, Tyranomon)

ULTIMATE/PERFECT STAGE: WARGROWMON/MEGALOGROWMON

bigger growmon with blades and guns, two thing Ruby loves, it leads well into the megas/ultimates, moving on.

(honorable mentions Metal Fantomon, Metal Tyranomon)

MEGA/ULTIMATE STAGE NO.1: CHAOSDRAMON

so here we have a giant red death robot, that has several weapons, is constantly upgrading itself (just like Ruby upgrading crescent rose) and uses guns to maneuver itself in the air just like Ruby. it even has skull kneepads for the edgyness factor, it's perfect!

MEGA/ULTIMATE STAGE NO.2: BLITZGREYMON

yeah I'm giving all the MC's split megas, why because it's common among digi-destined and felt like it. but look at this guy, blood red, made out of guns, he also moves around in the air using his back guns and said back gun look like draconic crescent roses. another perfect mega.

(honorable mentions Rosemon, Dukemon, medieval Dukemon, Rust Tyranomon, Bryweludramon)

Weiss schnee

ROOKIE/CHILD STAGE: HACKMON/HUCKMON

yes i gave the digimon with a literal red hooded cape to someone who isn't Ruby, but this meant to be reference to Nicholas Schee's red cape, and as Weiss aspires to be like her grampa, hackmon aspires to be one of the royal knights, and both the royal knights and Nicholas can morally dubious to say the least. Also both him and Weiss were trained from birth for combat. i see hackmon acting like a armored talking dog and Weiss loving her for it.

And with hackmon kinda looking and kinda acting like Ruby and shoutmon acting like a more cartoonish Weiss, and both Weiss and shoutmon being singers, Ruby and Weiss when they first meet wonder "did our partners get accidentally switched at some point? did something happen?"

(honorable mentions Spadamon, Blucomon, Gammamon)

CHAMPION/ADULT STAGE: BAO HACKMON

just the next stage of hackmon, i forgot to mention that her name hackmon, and we know Weiss has some hacking skills because of the DC movie, so that's worth bringing up i guess

(honorably mentions: Paledramon, Betel Gammamon)

ULTIMATE/PERFECT STAGE: SAVIORHACKMON

yep just the next stage of hackmon... the gem on her chest can represent Dust i guess

(honorable mentions: canoweissmon, Crys Paledramon )

MEGA/ULTIMATE STAGE NO.1: JES-MON

hackmon's final form, a knight just like Weiss's main summon, who has her own summons (their names are Atho, René and Por BTW) and she literally walks around on circular glyphs.

Weiss also has a lot of angelic imagery associated with her (i will leave my opinion on said imagery out of this post) and JESmon is kinda sorta... literally based on Jesus, yes digimon Jesus is very pointy dragon knight who has familiars named after the 3 musketeers... god i fucking LOVE digimon

MEGA/ULTIMATE STAGE NO.2: CRESGARURUMON

if Ruby has a Greymon, Weiss must have a Garurumon, this does feel like a natural evo for savior Hackmon, with cape splitting in half and the gem changing color, and Weiss does love dogs, but we both know the real reason i gave her this digimon...

(honorable mentions: Durandamon, Armaon, Siriusmon, Hexablaumon)

JOGRESS: OMNIMON ALTER S/ OMEGAMON ALTER S

it's the main character and her lancer, you kinda have to give them an Omnimon, and this is the best Omnimon! this also makes up for cres Garurumon being gold by having the entire main body be white.

also jogress digievolution in some continuities involves the tamers hearts beating as one... whiterose shippers take as will.

(honorable mentions: Ragnalordmon)

I'm doing Blake and Yang next... bye

#rwby #ruby rose #weiss schnee #digimon #digimon partner #digimon lines #had a lot of fun with this #hope the images don't look shitty #hope the read more works #if you have good idea for a chaosdramon and JESmon jogress tell me

8 notes · View notes

digimonpolls · 1 year

Text

Digimon Best Child/Rookie Contest

All Rookies according to wikimon. Vote for for your favorite, doesn't have to be the strongest!

Round one starts March 2nd

Each poll is a week long (everything's in PST)

Brackets 1-6: Mar. 2, 5pm - Mar. 9, 5pm

Brackets 7-12: Mar. 2, 6pm - Mar 9, 6pm

Brackets 13-18: Mar. 2, 7pm - Mar.9, 7pm

Brackets 19-24: Mar. 2, 8pm - Mar. 9, 8pm

Brackets 25-30: Mar. 2, 9pm - Mar. 9, 9pm

Brackets 31-36: Mar. 2, 10pm - Mar. 9, 10pm

Brackets 37-42: Mar. 2, 11pm - Mar. 9, 11pm

Brackets 43-48: Mar. 3, 12am - Mar. 10, 12am

Brackets 49-54: Mar. 3, 1am - Mar. 10, 1am

Brackets 55-60: Mar. 3, 2am - Mar. 10, 2am

Brackets 60-64: Mar. 3, 3am - Mar. 10 3am

If the win is under 50% the top 2 digimon in the bracket will have a rematch; Rematch round will start on Mar. 11

Matchups:

Bracket 1: Agumon vs. BlackAgumon vs. YukiAgumon/SnowAgumon

Bracket 2: Agumon(2006) vs. BlackAgumon(2006) vs. YukiAgumon/SnowAgumon(2006)

Bracket 3: Shakomon/Syakomon vs. Blucomon/Bulucomon vs. Horusmon/Halsemon

Bracket 4: Kumamon/Bearmon vs. Morphomon

Bracket 5: TerriermonAssistant vs. Goburimon/Goblimon vs. SnowGoburimon/SnowGoblimon

Bracket 6: Sparrowmon vs. Guilmon vs. BlackGuilmon

Bracket 7: Lunamon vs. Tinkermon vs. Rinkmon

Bracket 8: Espimon vs. Tailmon/Gatomon vs. BlackTailmon/BlackGatomon

Bracket 9: Gottsumon/Gotsumon vs. Icemon vs. Insekimon/Meteormon

Bracket 10: Zenimon vs. Bun vs. Gaossmon

Bracket 11: Dracomon vs. Zubamon vs. Tocanmon/Toucanmon

Bracket 12: Algomon/Argomon vs. PetiMeramon/DemiMeramon vs. Chikurimon

Bracket 13: Commandramon vs. Betamon vs. ModokiBetamon

Bracket 14: Jellymon vs. Sunarizamon vs. V-mon/Veemon

Bracket 15: Strabimon vs. Wolfmon/Lobomon vs. Cutemon

Bracket 16: Plotmon/Salamon vs. Gizamon vs. Huckmon/Hackmon

Bracket 17: Pipismon vs. Minidekachimon vs. Swimmon

Bracket 18: FunBeemon/FanBeemon vs. PicoDevimon/DemiDevimon vs. Ludomon

Bracket 19: SantaAgumon vs. Flybeemon vs. Piyomon/Biyomon

Bracket 20: Floramon vs. Dorumon vs. Junkmon

Bracket 21: Pillomon/Pillowmon vs. Lucemon vs. Wormmon

Bracket 22: Pomumon vs. Gaomon vs. DotGaomon

Bracket 23: Starmon vs. Monitamon vs. Arkadimon/Arcadiamon

Bracket 24: Penmon/Penguinmon vs. Shurimon vs. Lighdramon/Raidramon

Bracket 25: Tyumon/Chuumon vs. CardmonC1 vs. CardmonC2

Bracket 26: DotAgumon vs. Solarmon vs. Loogamon

Bracket 27: Dondokomon vs. Ghostmon vs. Angoramon

Bracket 28: Spadamon vs. Fladramon/Flamedramon vs. Shamamon/Shamanmon

Bracket 29: Tentomon vs. Soundbirdmon

Bracket 30: Ryudamon vs. Yanmamon vs. SandYanmamon

Bracket 31: Sepikmon vs. Ekakimon vs. Alraumon/Aruraumon

Bracket 32: Armadimon/Armadillomon vs. Kokabuterimon vs. Tukaimon/Tsukaimon

Bracket 33: Tyutyumon vs. Neamon/Neemon vs. Monodramon

Bracket 34: Gabumon vs. BlackGabumon vs. Hyokomon

Bracket 35: Phascomon vs. Sangomon vs. Digmon

Bracket 36: Dracumon/Dracmon vs. ProtoGizmon/Gizumon

Bracket 37: PetitMamon vs. Kotemon vs. Ganimon/Crabmon

Bracket 38: Gomamon vs. Iguneetmon/Ignitemon vs. Yaksamon/Yasyamon

Bracket 39: Psychemon vs. Impmon vs. Bacomon/Bakomon

Bracket 40: Falcomon vs. Falcomon(2006) vs. DotFalcomon

Bracket 41: Koemon/Monmon vs. Agumon Hakase/Expert vs. Medabots

Bracket 42: Flamon/Flamemon vs. Agnimon/Agunimon vs. Keramon

Bracket 43: Meicoomon's Child Form vs. Candmon/Candlemon vs. Kokuwamon

Bracket 44: Shoutmon vs. DoruluCannon vs. JetSparrow vs. StarSword

Bracket 45: Gazimon vs. Gumdramon vs. Vorvomon

Bracket 46: NiseAgumonHakase/FakeExpert vs. Terriermon vs. Hawkmon

Bracket 47: Kodokugumon(Baby) vs. Kodokugumon(Child) vs. Renamon

Bracket 48: Culumon/Calumon vs. Liollmon vs. BEMmon/Vemmon

Bracket 49: Kudamon vs. Kudamon(2006) DotKudamon

Bracket 50: Allomon vs. Coronamon vs. Drimogemon

Bracket 51: Luxmon vs. Elecmon vs. VioletElecmon

Bracket 52: SistermonBlanc vs. SistermonBlanc(Awake) vs. Palmon

Bracket 53: ToyAgumon vs. BlackToyAgumon/ShadowToyAgumon vs. ClearAgumon

Bracket 54: Kongoumon vs. Lalamon vs. DotLalamon

Bracket 55: Labramon vs. Kamemon vs. DotKamemon

Bracket 56: WhitePawnChessmon vs. BlackPawnChessmon vs. Bokomon

Bracket 57: Lopmon vs. WhiteLopmon vs. Mushmon/Mushroomon

Bracket 58: Pegasmon/Pegasusmon vs. Kunemon vs. Dokunemon

Bracket 59: BushiAgumon vs. Otamamon vs. RedOtamamon

Bracket 60: Duskmon vs. Pulsemon vs. Hagurumon

Bracket 61: Gammamon vs. Herissmon

Bracket 62: Jazamon vs. Gargomon/Gargoylemon vs. Bakumon/Tapirmon

Bracket 63: FlareLizardmon/FlareLizamon vs. DarkLizamon/DarkLizardmon vs. Patamon

Bracket 64: Burgamon/Burgermon vs. EbiBurgamon/EbiBurgermon vs. Muchomon

#digimon #best rookie #*edited the rematch round use to say the 4th

15 notes · View notes

translationandbetrayals · 6 months

Text

A totally normal look into some of Mamoru Hosoda's Early Work

It would no overstatement to call Mamoru Hosoda a household name in the current landscape of anime. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time(2006), Summer Wars(2009), Wolf Children(2012); The Boy and The Beast(2015); his film catalogue should say enough. The first two films in that list helped consolidate Madhouse as a safe-haven for creative anime projects & creators.

However, with all the attention and acclaim rightfully surrounding those works, its easy to overlook how this all got started. What was he up to before his big break-out hits? And most importantly, what other gems can we find there?

Hosoda started working in Toei Animation, where for a solid decade, he cut his teeth as key animator for various shows, starting with Crying Freeman(1988), and working on series like Slam DunkSailor Moon, Slam Dunk, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Dragon Ball Z, where he worked on the massively succesful Broly OVA. Somehow, in-between all of that, he found time to do storyboarding for seven episodes for J.C. Staff's Revolutionary Girl Utena.

By the second-half of the 90s, he even nabbed a few directing credits for episodes of shows like GeGeGe no Kitarou(1996) and Himitsu no Akko-chan(1998), a mahou shoujo show. Even back then, it seemed like Toei knew the kind of talent they had on their hands, as little over a year after his work on Akko-chan, the studio put him in charge of his first major motion picture.

It was the centerpiece of an ambitious media-mixing initiative, with videogame tie-ins, an ongoing TV show, CD-Dramas. Toei was pulling out all the stops, and they had to, because they were about to step into the ring with a cultural phenomenon. A show that had exploded in popularity in the 90s and was on its way to become the highest-grossing media franchise of all time. They wanted to compete with Pokemon.

THAT'S RIGHT, THIS POST IS ABOUT DIGIMON

You read that right, Mamoru Hosoda's first major motion picture was the Digimon OVA. In fact, the man is a hugely important part of the series' history, being in charge of directing its two most iconic films, and what is considered by many as the best episode in the entire franchise. And now that I've succesfully conned you into reading this far, its high time we dive into these three landmark productions in the filmmaker's career and see what parts of his style we can identify from them.

Despite being only 20 minutes long, Digimon Adventure Movie(not to be confused with Digimon: The Movie) is probably the most important piece of media in the franchise. Despite having only directed less than ten full episodes of television at the time, Hosoda was asked to create a blueprint for the anime to follow, while also connecting the already existing videogame franchise to it.

However, the biggest hurdle it had to overcome was its timing. It had been three years since Pokemon Red had hit store shelves, and less than two since its own anime had started airing. The similarities of the names alone would draw comparisons. If Toei and Hosoda wanted to get in on the monster-collecting craze, they'd have to set themselves apart from the biggest game in town. So how did they achieve this? Easy, they made a Kaiju film.

Taichi and Hikari are two toddlers being raised by their single mom, when one night, an egg suddenly burst out from their parent's computer screen. Out of it bursts a small, adorable little creature. A digital monster. While they quickly begin to bond and play together, this being begins to transform, both inwards and outwards. With each change, its personality changes, first to the friendly and talkative Koromon, and then into the silent and more animalistic Agumon.

Rather than a story about building up a group of friendly monsters with fairly static traits, Digimon opted for the polar opposite approach as a starting point. .

For most of the film, we follow one of the titular Digital Monsters, Agumon, and unlike a Pikachu or a Butterfree, he is not subservient, or even entirely friendly to our human protagonists, Taichi and Hikari.

As Hosoda himself puts it:

"I didn’t want to take the easy shortcut where the Digimon = kids’ friends. At this stage, I wanted to keep some tension about whether the Digimon is a friend or an enemy. After all the film takes place before the protagonist becomes friends with Digimon, with all that implies in both good and bad ways. If he just looks up at it, it would just seem like they’re friends. I’d rather frame it more objectively, in order to question what that Kaiju is for them."

(Translated by NohAcro of WaveMotionCannon.com)

In a way, the story applies a bit of an urban fantasy twist to both the monster catcher and the kaiju genres. One could even call it an early example of the "Sekai-kei" genre. It takes place in this apartment complex, adding a backdrop of mundanity and "realism" to this otherwise fantastical story of a critter emerging out of your parents' old computer. This proves to be a staple in Hosoda's works, because, as he puts it in that same interview: (His) goal is to depict unrealistic things in a realistic way."

The choice of only using children also proves to be an astute one. It adds this air of whimsy at the start, with how adorable Kairi and Taichi are when meeting Koromon and reacting to the start. On the flipside, when the movie begins to shift into its second half and the newly-evolved Agumon begins raising hell across town, it ratchets up the tension to have these kids caught up in between giants. Hosoda, for his part, also adds that:

"I also wanted to only have children characters, to have that secretive sense of waking up at night, peeking outside, being the only one to see a monster walking, and feeling special about it."

It really feels like the movie captures both the hopes and the fears for the then nascent internet. A place that could bring about a never-before-seen avenue for creativity and unlimited creativity and wonder, but one that could also be destructive, unpredictable, everchanging, and even dangerous.

If nothing else, at 20 minutes, the film is an breeze and a treat to the senses. It has a certain vibe that is, for the most part, lacking in the rest of the franchise and even the genre. A feast for the eyes, everything from Botamon's blur-like movements to the sheer weight and scale behind Greymon's fight scene. Also, as a sweet bonus, there's a scene where they animate Toei's offices getting destroyed(sadly, I couldn't find footage of this, but the director talks about it in the aforementioned interview).

Since the movie was made in parallel with the anime, Hosoda and crew's film proved foundational to the franchise. Most of the things that set it apart from Pokemon were first showcased here. The more involved nature of humans in fights, the monsters' everchanging personality, and most importantly, the fact these could talk. All of that and more had its start here.

The short film released in March of 1999, and while I have no data regarding how well it did box-office wise, its said that Toei was pleasantly surprised with Hosoda's work. So much so, that they put him to work on a second one right away, but that story would have to wait, because in less than 24 hours, the Digimon Adventure anime would premiere.

Home Away from Home

I would love to sit here and tell you that Digimon Adventure was this ground-breaking avant-garde piece of television. That it was everything Pokemon should've been and the much more mature show some fans paint it out to be. The reality is that for most of its runtime, Digimon Adventure is... alright.

Despite the novelty of it being one of an isekai anime decades before SAO's release, Adventure is a standard fare monster catcher series. A bunch of kids get transported to a new world, they meet their new monster friends, now completely divorced from Hosoda's ambiguity, and they travel, discovering new evolutions as their bonds grow deeper. Fairly standard stuff.

In the way of visuals, its main selling point was, of course, the design of their brand of collectable gremlins. Since Pokemon had a chokehold on certain demographics, Digimon opted to aim for an older audience, but not that much older. From looking at the monsters alone, one can feel Toei trying to attract a shonen audience, whether it be through skimpier girls or extremely edgy designs which may or may not border on parody.

Save for the banging opening and evolution themes, there wasn't much to write home about, or at least, that was until episode 21, known in English as "Home Away from Home." And guess who directed it? Yup, its your boy, Hosoda.

To call this episode a change of pace is nothing short of an understatement. After defeating the previous arc's villain, Etemon(who in the English dub is changed to an Elvis impersonator), Tai and Agumon are sucked into a black hole. Instead of dying, the pair somehow find themselves in the real world. However, something is wrong...

I don't just mean "there's some funny business with digital monsters", either. The entire episode has an unnerving atmosphere to it. The backgrounds are all of these extremely saturated greys and whites and there's this unique sense of ennui that permeates throughout the runtime. Its as if the whole dream were some sort of dream, when in reality, it is anything but.

That leads me to another point, the quality of the animation is off the charts, at least in comparison to the rest of the show. It looks better than anything the anime had done before or since. Not only is the real world realized in such an eery way, but the fights themselves are a treat, featuring complex choreography and even some traces of sakuga in it.

At the center of this is Hikari, Taichi's sister, who for some reason, seems to remember Koromon from a previous encounter. Keep in mind that, at the time, there was no word on the OVA's canonicity, so the episode served to link the series and the short film, while adding a fresh mystery into the mix, "if Hikari can remember Koromon, then why don't Taichi and the other digidestined remember the Kaiju fight?"

Speaking of Hikari, her introduction to show-only watchers(and people outside of Japan) added an uneasy tension to the episode. This was not only due to her unnerving demeanor as the classic trope of "creepy child who knows more than she lets on", but also through a sort of competition she has for her brother's attention.

The central conflict of the episode dealing less with the specific monster fight of the week, and more with both ends of the protagonist's life tugging at him from opposite sides. On one side, there's Hikari, who has lost her brother to this unknown world, clinging to him in hopes of making him stay with her; on the other, there's Agumon, his connection to the digital world and the rest of the cast, who need his help. They both want his attention, competing for it, but with neither being "in the wrong", as it were.

The episode ends in a shockingly clean fight scene(seriously, the jump in animation quality from this episode is insane) and a heart-wrenching ending where Taichi leaves his sister behind to return to the digital world.

"Home Away from Home" is a turning point, both for the show and the franchise. It serves as a pallette cleanser after the decent but unimpressive couple of arcs that preceedes it, making it perfect as a stand-alone watch; it serves to connect Hosoda's directorial debut with the series, which becomes hugely important for the plot, and it kicks off the Myotismon arc, which is by far and away, Adventure's strongest run of episodes.

However, its most important for another trend that it started, one that would define the series to this day. It began to see the show's focus moving away from the idyllic vistas and fantastical fights of the digital world and into the all-too-relatable real life issues of its cast. More so than the edgy designs or the talking monsters, this is what I would say sets the show apart from its much more succesful competitor. And that all started with Episode 21 of Digimon Adventure.

Summer Wars Zero.

While directing an all-time great episode, Hosoda had something else cooking up in the backburner. I'm of course talking about that second OVA, one that would push the bar for Digimon's animation, while serve as the blueprint for one of his later works.

Almost a year to the day of the release of that first OVA, Toei would release Digimon: Bokura War Game. "Our War Game", as its known in the west, is a movie so good they had to make it four times.

It picks up some time after the end of the show, with our characters back in their home world and dealing with the struggles of adolescence. However, during a summer vacation, a new virus-type Digimon emerges, penetrating every computer and eating through data like nobody's business.

As our heroes contact this new monster, it begins to evolve at an unprecedented rate, as it evades, outsmarts, and eventually beats Agumon and company at their strongest. Not only that, but the gang's meddling has caused the Virus to target them with a nuclear missile. So, with the clock ticking down to annihilation, Taichi and his co-lead Yamato must chase the now fully-evolved Diaboromon to the ends of the Internet before it ends humanity as a whole.

If that synopsis seemed familiar to you in some way, shape or form, its because its also the plot to Hosoda's Summer Wars. It's also the plot to the second episode of the Digimon Adventure remake/reboot, titled "War Game". Like I said, this stuff is so good that both the studio and the director wanted another crack at it.

The similarities with Summer Wars don't end with the plot synopsis. The way the virtual world of the internet is animated in one film is analogous to the other. The way the backgrounds are animated, the outlines to the characters, and even some of the themes. In a lot of ways, watching Our War Game is like watching a battle shonen prototype for Hosoda's later work, both visually and narratively.

And while we're at it. I want to take a moment to gush about the animation, because it is at an all-time high for the franchise. The hilarious expressions of the digi-destined in the real-world, the tense editing, and the design of Diaboromon, they're all top-notch stuff. However, the movie's depiction of the world-wide-web takes the cake. I still remember being blown away by just how cool the internet looked in this movie, and even on rewatch, I still can't believe something this pretty was ever in Digimon. The best part, of course, being the fights.

https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/cf2e56e1394581e8c4be3f7d79c76402.mp4

Look at the missile rain, the fast-paced dodges, the impact on that punch. It's all so clean. Or look at this other example from 2/3rds into the film. Its so gorgeous, I don't even need to go into more detail here.

https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/e1b33b7085da91e11c415bf152c71586.mp4

Some other aspects of Hosoda's writing begin to peek through as well, with the director's style and core themes beginning to take form here, before blossoming in his work at Madhouse and Studio Chizu. Trends begin to form, starting with the first OVA in 1999, being fleshed out by his second film and continuing to this day.

One of the running ideas in Hosoda's version of Digimon is a conscious move away from the classic "Good vs Evil" narrative that everyone knows and loves. Its present in the first OVA, as the "villain" is merely another creature acting on self-preservation after being attacked, which the director described as akin to watching a lion and an antelope fight. In "Home Away from Home", the main conflict revolves around Hikari and Koromon's battle for Taichi's attention, one where no one really is at fault. Hikari is not evil for wanting to stay with her older brother, and neither is Koromon for wanting to get back with the rest of the gang.

However, nowhere is this running theme better embodied than in Diaboromon(or Diablomon in Japanese). As Hosoda puts it:

"Right, since the Net Digimon is more like some kind of bug, it’s closer to a natural catastrophe in that sense. That’s why we cannot consider it as a straight up evil, and Taichi doesn’t have any hatred toward Diablomon. He just wants to avoid a threat. The generation before us have grown only with stories about moral justice, so they cannot help but look for an antagonist, but that’s their problem (laugh). And I think people of the next generation are aware of the fact that they don’t live in that kind of world anymore. It’s not worth holding a grudge against the world, instead it’s more important to think about realistic ways to deal with it."

The Western Butchering of Hosoda's Digimon OVAs(or why you shouldn't watch Digimon: The Movie)

Now, despite this being a academically convenient excuse to gush about some of the best Digimon episodes every produced, I am not entirely being facetious by calling these "hidden gems". I'm aware that, some of you may have already watched these films in some way, shape, or form before. Probably without even knowing who directed it. It is part of a massive international media franchise, and it was distributed internationally. Hell, it was even shown in Theaters. The problem is... how they were distributed.

Enter Digimon: The Movie.

If you've watched either of the OVAs, chances are you watched it as part of the infamous feature-length film. See, by 2000, Pokemon had already turned the box-office into a money printer twice over with their first two films, and FOX, who had the licensing rights for Digimon, wanted to replicate their success.

What was their problem? Well, all they had were a bunch of seasonal OVAs, the ones Hosoda made, and a two-part film based on the second series. "Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Transcendent Evolution! The Golden Digimentals", which, I must say, are both terrible names.

In contrast to Hosoda's earlier efforts, these were directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi(the director for the first Broly OVA), had an entirely different cast of characters, and were god awful. For time reasons, I won't go into too much detail, but just know that these two movies barely make any sense on their own and would otherwise only be worth mentioning for the decent animation and the on-screen debut of Terriermon.

So there were these three Digimon stories that had nothing to do with each other, with one of them not even using the same characters, so what does FOX do? Well, of course, they go up to the dubs' writers and ask them to smush all of these into a 97 minute runtime, oh, and also, they added a woefully unfunny Angela Anaconda short to the start for... reasons that I cannot fathom.

The plots of the Digimon Adventure OVA and Our War Game are mangled to fit Hurricane Touchdown's uninteresting mystery plot. New connections are established straight out of nowhere and given the vastly different animation styles of each part, the visuals clash with each other, especially as parts of one story as chopped up to fit into another. Not only that, but the pacing of the movie is all over the place, climaxing halfway through the runtime with Our War Game's buzzer-beating final fight, and then it just keeps going for the final third.

Worst of all, in the process of making this Frankenstein's Monster of a film, over 40 cumulative minutes had to be cut for time.

The resulting film was so catastrophically bad it veers on "so bad its good" territory. The writers try to inject it with the same kind of unhinged energy that lands the English Digimon dub into a lot of funny compilations, and for some parts, like Hosoda's comedy-filled Our War Game, it works. However, other scenes, well...(that clip was not altered in any way, shape or form).

It is an ideal movie for groupwatches, especially if one's judgment is impaired by the use of certain substances(not that I'm encouraging such behaviors). However, it also ends up ruining two otherwise excellent pieces of media that are foundational to one of anime's best and most acclaimed creatives. For many years, western fans only had the FOX cut of Our War Game, and for most people, that may be the only versions of these films that they'll ever get to watch. And that is a damn shame.

However, I hope that, if you're still reading, that this post has inspired you into at least giving these three very special works a shot. Even if you're just a fan of Hosoda's other works, its still interesting to see some of his later ideas beginning to form with his work on Digimon.

Nicolás Izaguirre Gallardo.

#Anime #Manga #essay #Sci-Fi #submission

3 notes · View notes