Anime / Digimon Universe: App Monsters

ARE YOU A PROTAGONIST? YES/NO?

Appmon Chip, Ready! APPLIARIZE!

The 7th anime entry in the Digimon franchise, Digimon Universe: App Monsters is a 2016 anime series, and part of the franchise's App Monsters meta-series.

Everyone in the world uses smartphone applications, and for every app that exists, and living within them are mysterious creatures called App Monsters, or "Appmon" for short. AI lifeforms with the ability to think and act, Appmon come from the space between the real world and digital space called the Net Ocean, helping people and digital systems continue to function.

However, a mysterious AI called "Leviathan" has emerged, causing chaos by hacking the world's systems, and begins to attempt to control the human world by way of the internet. Amidst all this, a young boy named Haru Shinkai is given a device called the AppliDrive, which bonds him to a Search Appmon named Gatchmon. Along with idol Eri Karan and her Buddy Dokamon, and "App Tuber" named Asuka "Astra" Torajirou and his Buddy Musimon, who also receive AppliDrives, can Haru determine Leviathan's true goal, and unlock the secrets behind the world of the App Monsters? Furthermore, another AppliDriver named Rei Katsura, and his partner Hackmon, set their sights on Haru, intent on not allowing him to interfere with Leviathan.

It was later followed by Digimon Adventure: (2020).

In case you haven't noticed, Appmon changes quite a bit from past Digimon series, creating its own elements that are independent of those used in past stories. However, the same underlying themes of Mons based on digital technology and partnership still remain. Toei Animation's site for the series can be viewed here. Now also available to watch with subtitles on Crunchyroll.

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ATTENTION PLEEEEEEEEEEEEASE! Digimon Universe App Monsters provides examples of...!

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: All Appmon that are above Standard level (equivalent to the Rookie/Child level in regular Digimon) are rendered in 3D, clashing with the rest of the show's style. This is actually treated as such in-universe, as Haru comments on DoGatchmon looking like CGI. And when Leviathan finally shows his true form in episode 49, he is totally CG as well, with a random bystander pointing out the fact.
• Adults Are Useless: The heroes are all teenagers. Astra and Hajime are still at elementary school age. The only help they get from an adult is the one from Haru’s deceased grandfather.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Appmons are generally helpful AI creatures, while Leviathan is a threat to the world. Timemon reveals Leviathan originated from a part of the benign AI Minerva that rebelled against its original programming.
• All-Loving Hero: Haru and Yuujin. They both save Rei's life in different occasions. From Sakushimon and Biomon respectively. Rei, who doesn't even treat them nicely when they first meet, at least knows how to thank. He gives up all his 7-code Appmon for Haru and saves Gatchmon, Musimon, and Dokamon from Warudamon. He also joins Haru and the others to retrieve Yuujin from Knight and Ultimate 4.
  • Subverted with Yuujin. While he was just programmed to act like Haru's ideal hero, in the final episode he finally breaks free from Leviathan's control and chooses to die together with him, restoring the world back to normal. Haru while mourning over his death, feels relief for the fact Yuujin's sacrifice proves that he actually has his own heart and kindness.
• All Your Powers Combined: How the AppliDrivers and their Appmons defeat Leviathan's main body.
• Ambiguous Ending: Yuujin has to die in order for the world to be saved from Leviathan. Haru promises to find a way to bring him back. The very last scene has Yuujin step into the Home Base and greet Haru, but the dreamy atmosphere of the scene implies it's not real.
• Armor-Piercing Question: The AppliDrivers are asked one different question each when receiving their AppliDrives. These questions are connected to their respective character arcs and tend to give them pause before answering. They also get asked the questions again at certain crucial points in the story.
  • Haru Shinkai is asked "Are you a protagonist?", referring to his desire to be the hero of his own story, even though he is insecure that he's too timid to ever be one. Nonetheless his desire to rise above that leads him to answer "Yes" and sets him on his digital adventure.
  • Eri Karan is asked "Is there anyone you want to see smile?". At that point she was a lonely girl whose mother was often too busy with work to come home. Eri had developed an interest in idols and the question inspired her to become one, because idols made her smile and she too wanted to become someone who made people (including her tired mother) smile.
  • Torajiro Asuka is asked "Do you feel it?", which inspires him to follow his dream of being an AppTuber, while also fulfilling his responsibility to his family to carry on their traditions. "Do you feel it?" also becomes his catchphrase as an AppTuber.
  • Rei Katsura is asked "Are you alone?". He's an Ineffectual Loner and mistrusts his Appmon partner Hackmon, because he thinks he's working for the villains, so his initial answer is "Yes". When he learns to trust the other kids and Hackmon, his answer becomes "No", completing his arc.
  • Yujin Ozora is asked "Is there someone you'd give up your life to protect?". Yujin felt inadequate due to not being able to help his best friend Haru in his adventures, so he was happy to receive his own Appmon, as that meant he'd finally be of use to Haru. Becomes even more meaningful when it turns out he's an Unwitting Pawn of the Big Bad, but Haru has come to mean so much to him, Yujin sacrifices his own life to protect him.
• Art Shift: For some reason, Coachmon is drawn in 2D in Episode 21 rather than in 3D like all his previous appearances. His appearance in Episode 36 also has him drawn in 2D.
• Artificial Human: It is revealed near the end of the series that Yuujin is an android built by Leviathan.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • Cometmon. Dantemon who fights against it can also count as one.
  • All God Grades Appmons, and Leviathan's main body.
• Big Damn Heroes: Yuujin makes his debut as an AppliDriver by heroically showing up when Haru and co. are in trouble against Sateramon. Yuujin comes to the rescue again when Haru and the others are defeated by the Ultimate Four.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • A variation using logos; several of the "app" symbols shown in the logo for this series resemble those of real apps used by Android and iOS applications.
  • There are also services called "AppTube" and "AppTer", which are pretty blatantly YouTube and Twitter respectively.
  • Waffle Corp is a combination of Google and Apple, with its operating system Waffle OS, which is a combination of Android OS (which are traditionally named after sweets) and iOS. It even has their waffle logo having a bite mark in the same spot as the Apple logo
  • Sugar, the robot from the mall, is likely one for Pepper Robots.
• Bloodless Carnage: When Shutmon goes berserk, he ends up scratching Haru and biting Yuujin. Fortunately enough, the boys do not seem to lose any blood. Instead, their injured body parts spill somekind of blue scrambled data. Presumably, this happens because they are in AR Field, where everything that enters it will turn into data.
  • Still by Shutmon. When Satellamon gets ripped by Shutmon’s blade arms, instead of blue, he spills red data.
• Bond Creature: The AppliDrivers and their Appmon buddies.
• Bookcase Passage: Ai's father's bookstore has one. When this is discovered, the AppliDrivers use it as their secret base.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: The dynamics between Haru, Yuujin, and Offmon pretty much revolve in this trope.
  • Haru hides the fact that he's an AppliDriver from Yuujin to avoid him getting into danger, and as the consequence, spending less time with him.
  • Offmon also does the similar things. He locks himself up and runs away from home, after accidentally hurt Yuujin, as he’s afraid he will hurt him again later.
  • Yuujin chooses to kill himself along with Leviathan, rather than to let Haru be burdened for sacrificing his own friend to save the world.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Haru's grandfather Den-emon, was excitable and had No Indoor Voice, but was a scholar of mathematics and computer science and created his own AI, Minerva.
• Butt-Monkey: When there is an Appmon running havoc thanks to the L-virus, the guy in an afro will always be shown to be affected by it, followed by a cry of "NOOOOO!"
• By the Power of Grayskull!: "Appmon chip, ready!"
  • After gaining AppliDrive DUO, they added "Insertion: me" for Haru ^note Boku, chuunyuu and Yuujin ^note Ore, chuunyuu. "Explosive insertion" ^note Dokkan, chuunyuu for Eri. "Rhythmic insertion" ^note Nori, chuunyuu for Astra. And "Insertion" ^note Chuunyuu for Rei.
• Christmas Episode: Episode 13. A calendar Appmon removes Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
• Chromatic Arrangement: The main Appmons and their partners, with Gatchmon being red, Dokamon being blue, and Musimon being yellow. Hackmon and his partner seem to favor dark colors. The Sixth Ranger Yuujin and Offmon take the powerful purple.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Driven by strong determination to save everyone, Haru and Yuujin have their own moment when they use Overdrive function which renders them exhausted.
• Came Back Strong: The 4 main Appmon, after their buddies get hold of AppliDrive DUO.
• Color-Coded Characters: The main heroes tend to be associated with one particular color, reflected in their clothes, AppliDrives and Appmons. For Haru it's red, Eri blue, Astra yellow, Rei black and Yuujin purple.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Haru to most of the previous Digimon protagonists, being more quiet, subdued, and unsure of himself than many of the previous protagonists. The creators have stated that this was intentional, as they wanted to break out of the mold set by many of the previous protagonists, which they felt were based on the same archetype as Taichi being more like Takato.
  • To drive this home, in the first episode, he's literally hit in the face with a soccer ball, in reference to the fact that most of the previous protagonists were athletic boys who played sports or do other kinds of physical activities.
  • Furthermore, Haru's best friend, Yuujin, is good at the sport and closer to classical Digimon heroes in terms of personality, with Haru himself talking about how Yuujin is more of the main character type.
• The Corruption: Leviathan produces viruses that infect Appmon, causing them to run haywire and disrupt the network along with people's lives.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Gatchmon is initially on the receiving end of one when he fights Cameramon for the first time. After Gatchmon fuses with Navimon to become Dogatchmon, Cameramon finds himself on the receiving end.
  • Also, the first fight against Ultimate 4.
  • Actually, unlike its predecessors, Appmon ends up inflicting this to the bad guys more, rather than to the good ones. When a main Appmon reaches higher level, the first opponent tasting their new power is usually one level below them. After gaining access to Ultimate level Appmon, Haru and others prefer to fight with them, even just to beat much weaker Super Appmon. AppliDrive Duo makes them hit poor Standard Appmon much harder.
• Cuteness Proximity: Offmon makes everyone go crazy over how adorable he is in Episode 29.
• Damsel out of Distress: Eri in episode 36.
• Designated Girl Fight: Beautymon vs Eri and Dokamon. Sorta. Both Eri and Beautymon are the Smurfettes of their respective teams, but it's technically Dokamon who's fighting.
• Dark World: The AR Fields, which are described as a place where the "network and real world intersect". It roughly mimics real world locations, without the presence of humans. They are also based on aspects of the Appmon who created it.
  • It's later revealed by Hackmon that the AR Fields are like that as it's what Leviathan will do when it is in charge.
• Decoy Damsel: Ultimate 4 seem to like this method. Charismon, Fakemon and Biomon use Yuujin, fake Eri, and fake Hajime's voice to lure Haru, Astra, and Rei respectively into their traps.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Once an Appmon is defeated, they become a chip that is retrieved by the AppliDriver who defeated it. Justified since most of them are being antagonistic because they're under the influence of the L-Virus.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • The Super Grade Appmon as a whole once the Ultimate Grades are unlocked. So much so that DoGatchmon, Dosukomon, Mediamon, and Raidramon NEVER appear again once their respective Ultimates^note Globemon, Oujamon, Entermon, and Revivemon take the stage. Super Appmon are so demoted that we never actually learn what Shutmon's Super form is!
  • The various AppliGattai Partners show up far less in the second half of the series, though some of them do pop back up every now and then. This goes double for the partners used to reach the Ultimate Grade, as Timemon, Dreamon, and Dezipmon do not appear again once they become the property of Haru and the others. Coachmon slightly subverts this, as he does appear sometimes and has a prominent role in one of the ending theme sequences.
• Disappeared Dad: Eri and Yuujin are both raised by single mothers. Haru's father is never mentioned or seen, though he would seem to be Den'emon's son. Rei and Hajime were left by their father before finally losing their mother too.
• Disney Death: After seemingly killed by Ultimate 4 and getting their AppliDrives destroyed, it is revealed that the four main Appmon just lose their connection to their buddies, thus they can't make appearance in front of the kids, nor have any memories about them.
• Do Androids Dream?: The second to the last episode of the show is titled "The Dreams that A.I.s see". Before the revelation that Yuujin is an android, the AppliDrivers promise that after they beat Leviathan, they will fulfill their own dreams, except Yuujin who ponders that he doesn't have one. In Appmon Data Lab segment, he finally confesses to Offmon that he just wants to watch over Haru, his hero.
• Elite Four: The Ultimate Four, recruited by the L Corp to hunt down Bootmon.
• Embarrassing Damp Sheets: A virus causes an old bedwetting photo of Haru's to appear in public in Episode 1. This same image is shown in one of the openings.
• Embarrassing Ringtone: Gatchmon changes the ringtone and alarm on Haru's phone to one that constantly repeats "Gatchi Gatchi Gatchi!" Gatchmon seems to think he did Haru a favor. On a more serious usage though, Hackmon does a similar fake 'ringtone' to distract a L Corp security guard for Rei by repeating "Hacku Hacku Hacku".
• Enemy Scan: Gatchmon's ability, given he's capable of searching for an enemy's information. This allows him to fulfill the same function as previous series' Digimon Analyzer. For Gatchmon and the other protagonists, the analyzer role is fulfilled by the AppliDrives themselves.
• Epigraph: Instead of the usual intro with Haru and Gatchmon, the final two episodes open with a famous quote about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, one from Stephen Hawking and the other from Clive Sinclair. Both quotes are read out loud by Haru.
• Equivalent Exchange: Overdrive function from AppliDrive Duo drains lots of AppliDriver's energy in exchange for maximizing their Appmon's power.
• Evolutionary Levels: Simplified compared to the mainline. It's just simply Standard (Equal to Child/Rookie), Super (Adult/Champion), Ultimate (Perfect/Ultimate), and God (Ultimate/Mega). It's also much easier to spot higher level Appmon as Super and Ultimate are always rendered in CGI.
• Female Gaze:
  • Yuujin has his own shower scene which shows his nude silhouette from head to toe.
  • Haru is depicted as being shirtless when using DUO's Overdrive function on Globemon.
• Final Boss: Leviathan is referred to as a "Final Boss AI."
• Foreshadowing: In the flashback detailing the events that lead up to Hajime's kidnapping, Rei is given a challenge by Leviathan to find someone with unique, superior intelligence. Yet when he solves it and reaches the place, the monitor congratulates Hajime as Number One, knowing the intent of the challenge, indirectly hinting at the true reason for his kidnapping
• Fusion Dance: If an AppliDriver has an appmon's chip, he can fuse it to his buddy Appmon. However, except for certain combinations, the two don't actually change forms.
• Geek: Haru. He is constantly spending his time reading fantasy novels and is absolutely ecstatic to romp through an AR Field that is essentially a fantasy dungeon crawler.
• Genre Savvy: Haru. In addition to his desire to be a protagonist being the crux of his character, he correctly deduces the connection between the App Drive and Gatchmon during their first meeting, saying that's "how these stories usually work".
• Gentle Giant: Dantemon. Poseidomon, Uranusmon, and Hadesmon protect the citizen with their bodies while fighting Deusmon.
• Gold-Colored Superiority:
  • Haru, Eri, Astra, and Rei’s AppliDrive DUO have gold as secondary color.
  • God Grade Appmons are also dominated by gold color or white color.
• Gratuitous English: All data given from a digital perspective, mostly location data, first appears in English before being translated into Japanese characters.
• Great Escape: Episode 46, in which Astra is taken by his uncle to a temple/prison combo (called Alcatraz) for intense training, ostensibly so Astra will be ready to take over his family's business. Musimon begs the rest of the team for help busting him out and that's just what they do.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Episode 36 has a security guard for L Corp get distracted by Hackmon calling him (complete with him repeating part of his name) on his phone before he can stop Rei from entering. This is even lampshaded by Rei himself.
• Halloween Episode: Episode 4.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Eri and Astra are respectively an idol and an Apptuber with rather bombastic personalities, and because of that they butt heads whenever they're around each other. The more mild-mannered Haru often doesn't know what to make of it.
• Heroic BSoD: Haru, Eri, Astra, and Rei go through this, after The Ultimate Four destroy their Appmon buddies, together with AppliDrives.
• Hidden Purpose Test: After their AppliDrives get destroyed by Ultimate 4, Haru, Eri, Astra, and Rei are made to climb a snowy mountain in order to reach the phone box that can put them in touch with Minerva. But, a suddenly appeared ice titan hinders them so they fail to reach it. Nevertheless, Minerva still deems them worthy for new AppliDrives, since they have proven their growth and strength, even without their Appmon buddies' presence.
• High School AU: The third ending has some elements of this during the first half, with Coachmon as a teacher and Gatchmon as a late student who tries to sneak his way in the classroom by crawling.
• Home Base: Haru, Eri and Astra discover the basement of Kashinoki Books in episode 13 and, with Ai's permission, adopt it as their secret headquarters where they can bring out their Appmon freely. Ai's father, the bookstore's owner, somehow has no clue about the basement (it takes a secret switch to get to it), so it works out.
• Hot Springs Episode: Episode 31.
• Hour of Power: Ultimate forms are limited to only 60 seconds of use. This restriction gets lifted when all the kids upgrade the Appli Drives to Appli Drive Duos.
• Ideal Hero: Is what Haru thinks of his best friend, Yuujin.
• Idol Singer: Eri, the final member of a group of 470 idols who each represent a type of App. Hers is action game apps.
• Inconsistent Spelling: In his debut episode, Scopemon's name is spelled "Scorpmon" on-screen, Roleplaymon's name is spelled as "Ropuremon" and Satellamon's name is spelled as "Sateramon".
• Internal Reveal: Leviathan being L Corp's true founder is explicit to the audience since early on, but the heroes don't learn this until episode 36, when Rei discovers it by hacking into L Corp's system. Haru and Astra learn it from him. At the same time, Eri discovers it because Knight Unryuuji tells her in confidence and tries to recruit her to be Leviathan's messiah after she places high in the Appliyama 470 popularity contest.
• The Internet Is an Ocean: While the Net Ocean has always been a location in the wider Digimon multiverse, it's most prominent in Applimonsters, where it makes up the vast majority of the Internet. The Big Bad is even called Leviathan, after the Biblical sea serpent, and it lurks in the Dark Web in the depths of Net Ocean.
• Invisible to Normals: Only someone with an AppliDrive can see Appmon in the real world, unless the Appmon is Realized and made solid.
• Irony: In Digimon Adventure 02, V-Mon uses the DigiMental of Friendship to become Lightdramon, who had his name changed to Raidramon in the English dub. In this series, Hackmon, an Appmon mostly associated with darkness, is able to AppliGattai into an entirely separate Appmon also Raidramon.
• Is It Something You Eat?: In Episode 45, when Gatchmon asks Agumon about the Big Bad Leviathan, Agumon asks if he eats that. Gatchmon angrily tells him that's not what it is.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • In the first episode, Yuujin insists that Haru's goggles and red jacket mean he's "main character" material.
  • The CGI used for high-grade Appmon is visible in-universe, as Haru remarks the first time DoGatchmon appears.
  • Roleplaymon's official profile mentions the RPG trope of invading people's houses and pretty much stealing treasure from them without any kind of punishment, by mentioning that he's strangely charismatic enough that people don't seem to care when he does it.
  • And many more... The show is pretty self-aware and meta.
• Large Ham: The AppliDrive, courtesy of Den'emon Shinkai.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Whether or not Haru is the "main character"-type or not is mention enough in the first episode to qualify for this. Whoever is handing out the AppliDrives is also specifically looking for "protagonist candidates".
• Limited Wardrobe: All the characters wear the same clothes daily, with them receiving slightly modified outfits to match real-time season. Eri has several costumes, due to her being an idol star.
• The Little Detecto: Seven Code band.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Haru and Yuujin heavily being this to each other.
• Lost in Translation: The fact that the main characters don't catch on to how L Corp is connected to Leviathan until quite late in the series might seem stupid, even without taking in account that this fact was never hidden from the viewers, but it makes much more sense when you realize that the Japanese-speaking characters didn't fail to connect a MegaCorp named L Corp with their Big Bad Leviathan... they failed to connect Eru (L) Corp and Rivaiasan (Leviathan).
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Does this twice in episode 47. One is played for laugh, while the other one is implied.
  • Eri tries to surprise Bootmon by revealing that she is actually his sister, which is obviously a lie.
  • Yuujin's revelation that he's actually an android created by Leviathan, implies that he can be considered as Leviathan's son, thus Haru's cousin, as Leviathan itself was made by Haru's grandfather.
  • Yuujin himself wasn't aware about this until the revelation, making this trope is played pretty much straight for him.
• MacGuffin: The heroes need to find the Seven Code Appmon in order to defeat Leviathan. However, no one knows which Appmon hold the seven codes.
• Magic Countdown: Episode 37 is roughly a one minute countdown in a 22 minute episode.
• Magical Database: The internet, as far as Gatchmon is concerned. Using his "Deep Search" ability, he can locate the key to defeating the Appmon of the week. Justified by the fact that the solutions he finds are often Logical Weaknesses based on how a particular application functions.
• Male Gaze: The second ending theme which features Eri. There is also the hot spring episode featuring her and other male team members, except Rei. She also has been depicted in swimsuit and cute outfits.
• Meaningful Echo: Throughout the series, the intro to each episode has Haru quote how in 2045, artificial intelligence will overtake humanity's intelligence, which seems to reflect Leviathan. The closing of the final episode repeats the same quote, but with a far more hopeful tone to it.
• The Men in Black: The Halloween Episode has one of these as Leviathan's lackeys trying to steal Haru's Appli Drive. Once Gatchmon foils them, they answer to Cameramon. They later appear as Knight's lackeys trying to prevent Eri from escaping his cruise ship.
• Mind-Control Eyes:
  • Appmon infected by L virus has their eyes turned red.
  • Yuujin, whenever YJ program or Leviathan takes control of him. His eyes are remained green, but they are turned dark and blank, with a red spot glows within them.
• Missing Mom: Rei and Hajime's mother died two years before the series began. Ai's mother is never mentioned or seen.
• Mon Tech: App Drives are given to chosen human, which can materialize their Appmon through their Appmon Chip. It can perform Applink, where two Appmon can fuse to become stronger. It can also be used in App Fusion, where it takes two compatible Appmons to fuse into a higher Grade Appmon.
  • App Drive Duo is the upgrade from the original, which has all the functions but can increase an Appmon's power by 50%. It also has an Overdrive function that can burst energy to perform stronger versions of their attacks.
• Musical Assassin: Musimon, naturally.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The series' premise is similar to the background given for the original Digimon species back when the franchise started, where the Digimon were based on various computer programs and concepts. This time, the Appmons are based on smartphone applications.
  • The App Driver's method of materializing Appmons into the real world is referred to as "Appliarize", which is based on the term "realize", which was used in Digimon Tamers and Digimon Data Squad to indicate a Digimon manifesting in tangible form in the real world.
  • The Net Ocean takes its name from the location of the same name in the background information created for Digimon's "null canon". However, here it's more Void Between the Worlds, while the Net Ocean was previously mentioned to be an actual ocean in the Digital World.
  • The AR field where Appmon battles take place is similar to DigiQuartz, which is from Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time.
  • In episode 49, Leviathan calls the Appli Drivers "The Chosen Children"
• Nice Guy: Haru. Eri is also a friendly girl.
• Not So Stoic: Astra's father Ryuutarou is normally wise and calm, but when Astra's uncle Ryuujirou wants to take him to train at an Alcatraz-esque temple, Ryuutarou desperately begs his brother not to do so, to no avail.
• Obviously Evil: L-Corp? That corporation with the big, ominous 'L' logo that looks suspiciously similar to the logo of the evil AI that's trying to destroy the world? Only Rei ends up connecting the dots by himself.
• Out-of-Character Alert: In episode 40, Fakemon tries to lure Astra into a corridor full of bombs by showing him a fake video feed of an Eri about to die. The fake Eri keeps spouting stuff supposed to make her look pitiful and make Astra feel guilty, but at the last second the fake expresses regret about becoming an AppliDriver, something the real Eri would never do. This ends up making Astra realize that it was a ruse all along.
• Painting the Fourth Wall: The first ending theme depicts Haru's smartphone, with the time set at 7:28 AM... the time whereabouts the episode would actually be getting to, as it starts at 7:00 in the morning on TV Tokyo.
• Palette Swap: Played for Laughs in Episode 9, where Musimon and MCmon seems to be reunited. When Eri asked how the two are related, they then revealed they they're not more than recolors of each other. Future pairs would do the same thing in later episodes.
• Phantom Zone: The final few episodes feature a horrifying inversion. Leviathan has already trapped humanity in his World of Silence, leaving the Appmon free to Trash the Set as they please during their final battle.
• Playful Hacker: Hackmon's attribute is Hacking, and he has an appropriately shady-looking appearance. He's not evil though. Rei and Hajime were also both this before the latter's disappearance.
• Pun: In the opening, "DiVE!!", the first lyrics are officially romanized as "AI just want to dive into the future...", with AI replacing the more typical "I" as a pun on Artificial Intelligence as "Ai" and "I" are pronounced the same way when sounded out in Japanese and English respectively.
  • Appliarize can be undestood as either "Appli Arise" or "App Realise" (see Mythology Gag).
• Race Against the Clock:
  • Globemon’s first fight against 929,431,937 Viramons’ virus attack around the world, while he can only maintain his ultimate form for just one minute.
  • Yuujin Rescue Arc is this. Haru and co are forced to play game initiated by Cloud, named “Find Yuujin! An Exciting Ultimate Tour for 60 Minutes!”. They must go through Biomon’s Kingdom, Beautymon’s Palace, and Fakemon’s Sham Mansion, before finally reach Charismon’s Castle where Yuujin and Offmon are being held captive. All must be done before the 60 minutes are up. Or else.
  • To free Gatchmon and the others from Leviathan’s body, the AppliDrivers must climb Tokyo High Tower and launch a signal to wake Minerva up. They only have 10 minutes before Minerva’s satellite passes them.
• Recap Episode: Episode 26.
• Recurring Extra: The Afro Man who is constantly a victim of whatever the Monster of the Week is causing, always yelling "No!!" in response.
• Rescue Reversal: Sure, Yuujin doesn't make it to be Dude out of Distress, but he snaps Haru out of his Heroic BSoD, something that even Gatchmon and the others have hard time to do, while he himself is being strictly captured by Leviathan's control. Later, he also takes over the burden of Heroic Sacrifice to save all of humanity, right after Haru promises him that he's the one that will rescue him someday.
• Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Haru and Knight Unryuuji when they discuss their views on human/AI relations. Knight (Enlightenment) is convinced that Humans Are Bastards and that AI is inherently superior due to its unfailing logic, so a future where humanity submits to AI is ideal for him. Haru (Romanticism) believes that humanity and AI can live in harmony and tries telling Knight that he should think with his heart, which is disparaged by Knight as a sentimental argument.
• Run Away Train: In episode 18, Resshamon gets infected by L-Virus, causing a monorail nearly gets derailed while being boarded by hundreds of passengers, including Eri and Yuujin.
• Running Gag:
  • Whenever there are two Appmon with similar appearance, they will go into a tearful, heartwarming reunion until Eri asked how they are related, to which they bluntly reply that they just look similar.
  • Usually whenever an Appmon is causing trouble in the real world, one of them is a man with a funny afro and a passing resemblance to Mr. Satan will show up with a cry of "NOOOOO!".
• Sacrificial Lion: Subverted. All Buddy Appmon except Offmon died after protecting their human Buddies, with their AppliDrives and the Appmon chips destroyed. Incidentally, Oujamon looks like a lion. However, he "died" as Dokamon and not Oujamon, and they are all revived in the next episode.
• Sadistic Choice: Dreamon does this to Astra in a Nightmare Sequence. Of course, this is later revealed to be a Secret Test of Character. In the final episode Leviathan gives Haru a choice between saving humanity from his World of Silence or saving Yuujin's life. Haru chooses humanity, but Yuujin is the one to press the button.
• Saving Christmas: Episode 13 has a corrupted Calendamon eliminate December 24 and 25 from the world's calendars. Haru and co. wax lyrical about the importance of Christmas and go defeat it so the festivities can happen.
• Shirtless Scene: Overdrive on Globemon is depicted as Haru, while shirtless, fighting along inside his Appmon buddy, which is rather similar to Biomerge ^note Though instead of literally merging one's body with the Mon, Overdrive only injects one's energy into their Appmon buddy) . Contrast to Takato, Haru is seen to keep wearing his goggles inside Globemon.
• Shout-Out:
  • Haru gets his AppliDrive from a vending machine. That sounds familiar, doesn't it?^note There's a reason for this; Yoichi Kato did series composition for both App Monsters and Yokai Watch.
  • Haru is a fan of a book series called Terry and the Magical World, an obvious homage to Harry Potter.
  • The Golem that appears in Episode 3 is a clear reference to Creepers, while the booby traps and mimics from the same episode are typical fantasy devices.
  • Episode 21 has Eri Karan doing a Full Metal Jacket-like jog.
  • In episode 24, the gate to the Deep Web has a talking three-headed dog ornament guarding it. The ornament's name? Fluffy.
  • When Den'emon appears to guide Haru and his friends after they've lost their Appmon, he does so as a sprite reminiscent of old Super Mario Bros. games. Both Haru and Astra comment that he looks like he came out of "Hyper Mari-" (they get interrupted before they can say "o").
  • In episode 49, Eri strikes the Gainax Pose.
  • In Episode 45, has a double Shout-Out, one for Fairy Tail with an Erza Scarlet lookalike, and one for Dragon Ball with a Mr. Popo lookalike.
  • Shinkai Den'emon. An old scientist who’s important to the plot of the series he’s in, has a grandchild who’s very important to the plot of the series, and his voice is recorded in the Transformation Trinkets. Does this not seem familiar to you?
  • Satellamon boasting that his GPS abilities are superior to Globemon's by whistling, wagging his finger chidingly, and tipping up the brim of his hat before pointing at himself with his thumb and grinning is a reference to the "best trumpet-player in Japan" scene from Kaiketsu Zubat.
• Shower Scene: Yuujin’s shower scene in episode 32, is... full of teasing, as if it was showing an adult woman, and not just a fourteen-year-old boy. Not only it is a nude, full-body Sexy Silhouette, the scene's also followed by a reflection of his shadow on the floor when he's out from the shower (probably still nude and wet). When the camera finally focuses on him, only his wet hair, face, shoulders, and neck are shown. His chest is unseen.
• Shown Their Work: The flashbacks of Den-emon's history reveal he very likely attended the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, the real event that brought up the definition of AI, which indeed happened in 1956. The characters John McCarthy and Marty Minsky whom inspired Den-emon to work on artificial intelligence with are indeed some of the real life participants of the project.
• Sigil Spam: Each Appmon has an icon pertaining to the app they inhabit. Likewise, Leviathan has a symbol consisting of a fancy-looking letter "L" with a dragon's head on the top.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the manga, both Leviathan and Minerva, and also Yuujin (for being a normal human with no connection to Leviathan) survive the last fight.
• Spoiler Opening: The second opening and official previews spoil who the Sixth Ranger is, yet the next episode preview tries to make it a mystery.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Yuujin and Offmon, sometimes after they become the Sixth Ranger.
• Stock Footage: Appliarise and Applink sequence.
• Storming the Castle:
  • In order to retrieve the captured Yuujin and Offmon, Haru and the others must go to Appmon cemetary which happens to be the gate toward Ultimate 4's lairs.
  • Later, Haru and the others also manage to infiltrate L-Corp main building, following Rei's action posing as Appliyama 470 new manager in order to rescue his little brother, Hajime who has been changed into an Appmon.
• Super Mode:
  • AppliDrive Duo. Every Appmon it Appliarises, will have 1.5 x power than normal, by fusing the AppliDriver's life energy into it. The AppliDriver can also use 'Overdrive' function to maximize their Appmon's power. Nevertheless, this function will very much tire the AppliDriver.
  • The Ultimate Four get stronger than they already are with Knight activating the L-code.
  • In the manga, Minerva grants a winged super-mode to all of the God-grade Appmon except for Deusmon for the final battle. This also increases their power by half.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands: This is Cameramon's deal, spying on people using security cameras.
• Take My Hand!: Haru to Dogatchmon when they both fall into sea of Viramon’s virus.
• Team Power Walk: The start of the opening has Haru, Eri, Astra, and Rei's silhouettes walking side-by-side toward the screen.
• This Is Reality: In episode 12, when Haru, Eri and Astra are discussing going to help Rei against Sakusimon, Haru argues that a hero in a story would surely go help. Dokamon argues back that they aren't in a story. Right...
• Three Plus Two: Haru, Eri and Astra feature as a team throughout most of the series. Rei is aloof and doesn't properly join until well into the second half, while Yuujin doesn't even get an Appmon until episode 27, well after everyone else, and even then the plot finds ways of keeping him away from the main action in some way or another. However, unlike in past seasons, the entire team does manage to evolve their mons to the maximum level, for better or worse.
• Took a Level in Badass: Every Appmon when they reach their kiwami grade.
• Visual Pun: In episode 11, when the characters are heading to the Net Ocean, Eri imagines some sort of abstract virtual reality world. When they do arrive there... it's just a regular beach. What prevents this from being a Literal Metaphor is that the Net Ocean only looks like that on the surface: the "water" is made of data and inside it's exactly like she imagined.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: As much as Eri and Astra butt heads and sass each other, they're also shown to be quite close. For instance, Astra had the most emotional yet uncharacteristically understated reaction when Eri placed high in the Appliyama 470 popularity contest.
• Void Between the Worlds: The Net Ocean, a space that Appmon can travel through, but don't live in.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Raidramon, Hackmon's app fusion, absolutely destroys DoGatchmon and the other super Appmon with no issue. The lesson of the day at the end of the episode is even "There is always someone better than you."
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 16 reveals the one whom gave the AppliDrivers their AppliDrives was Minerva, the AI Den-emon (Haru's grandfather) created, and the same AI that gave rise to Leviathan.
  • Episode 37 has the heroes going against the Ultimate Four, only to be not only defeated, but also have their AppliDrives destroyed by them, causing their Buddy Appmons to disappear too. Oh, and Yujin and Shutmon stay behind in the AR field so Haru and the others get to safety.
  • Episode 47 The last few minutes turned what was a funny and heartwarming episode into a complete tearjerker. Bootmon lands at Haru and Yuujin's school rooftop as part of a plan to capture him, when suddenly Yuujin Ultimate Applirises Shutmon, and orders him to cut down Bootmon to take his Appmon chip. Then, Yuujin reveals he is an android known as YJ-14 created by Leviathan.
• Wham Shot: The end of episode 28, 31 and 46.
• What Are Records?: The Appli Drivers have no idea what phone booths are in episode 38.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Episode 22 shows how Rei and Hackmon first met.
• Wicked Stepmother: Subverted with Yuujin’s foster mother. Despite her suspicious debut, she doesn’t treat Yuujin badly. Presumably, because she has to make Yuujin feel like a normal kid living with his own mother. But she in fact works for Leviathan and Yuujin himself is an android made for spying on his own best friend, without his knowing.
• World of Silence: Leviathan's end goal is to trap humanity one of these. He succeeds, converting all of humanity into data and trapping them in a simulated city in the Dark Web. He so thoroughly removes their sense of self that they're not even aware of the state they're in and just march around in perfect uniformity. Leviathan ultimately gives Haru a Sadistic Choice between saving humanity from this state and saving Yuujin's life. Both Haru and Yuujin choose humanity.
• Would Hurt a Child: Leviathan and his underlings don't beat around the bush in how they want the AppliDrivers dead.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: While Haru thinks that Yuujin is an ideal hero, Yuujin assures that Haru is the real hero.

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