Anime Bad sequel to mediocre series
Xros Wars was mediocre but enjoyable. Hunters was mostly awful
Characters:
- I hate Tagiru because of his constant Character Shilling and spotlight-stealing tendencies. Gumdramon is annoying but him being a former criminal and only wanting power at first would've made for some great Character Development. Too bad nothing came out of it
- Removing interesting and likable characters like Nene and Kiriha was awful. They came back eventually, but too little, too late
- Taiki becoming a mentor figure was a nice and interesting new angle to explore. I also liked Shoutmon being all kingly and powerful: it felt like natural progression for both of them
- Yuu's increased screentime wasn't objectively bad when he was mostly a MacGuffin before, it's just that I personally despise this Ken-wannabe and his turd-looking partner
- Ryouma being a rival to Tagiru and at the same time a fan of Taiki was interesting and something I liked
- I liked the Watchmaker and I actually didn't mind the plot twist about his identity, but I hated the lack of foreshadowing
- Other characters were extremely forgettable
Plot:
- 20 episodes or so of filler followed by a tightly packed finale is awful pacing
- Those Monster of the Week episodes are way too Pokemon-esque. Yes, Xros Wars was a bit Pokemon-esque too, but all digimon there were friends or at least allies. In Hunters you just beat the digimon, press a button, and someone who's been trying to kill you is now your meek follower. Characters bragging about how many digimon they caught as if they were trophies instead of sapient beings is fairly awful too. And it's not just jerkasses like Airu: even Taiki does it
- Do digimon come to human world deliberately searching for power or are they kidnapped and brainwashed? Beats me. Aside from one or two exceptions, we never interact with digimon caught by hunters (they are trophies instead of characters)
- Stupid new "one Xros per hunter" rule nerfs Xros Wars characters to the point they needed the heroes from other seasons to save them. Sure, seeing them all fight together was awesome, but it only highlighted the incompetence forced on Xros Wars team
- And the finale: I liked that Ryouma won the duel. It was geniunely unexpected and felt like a nice conclusion to Tagiru's character arc: from a brash hothead who always tries to be the first to a person willing to step aside for the greater good. But no, of course not. Can't have something new and original. Gotta keep shilling Creator's Pet! So we got the bullshit twist with Astamon instead
To wrap it all up: it might have a few good moments, but Hunters isn't a good sequel to Xros Wars. It isn't even a good story
Anime Mediocre
Young Hunters is the shortest Digimon series, having ~20 episodes. While considered the worst series, I decided to take a look again and see if the hate was warranted. On its own, it is bad, but as lone episodes, it's fine. Confused? That's the issue: the series is episodic. Other series had this bigger narrative or enemy in the background, YH doesn't. You can watch any episode before the final few and you wouldn't miss anything. The actual "plot" doesn't start until the final episodes. It fails as a season, it does fine as lone episodes. The main plot is nothing to write home about. Quartzmon is a Generic Doomsday Villain with a confusing plan. The Clockmaker is confusing, especially The Reveal he's Bagramon reincarnated, with no explanation for Clockmon. The previous leaders returning is just fanservice and largely just a powerup for Tagiru.
Characters:
- People call Tagiru the worst main character, and I agree. He's not bad, but has the weakest writing and is static.
- Ren is just the Token Evil Teammate, and while Mizuki, Hideaki and Kiichi are likable, they're rather minor overall.
- Ryoma and Airu are the best:
- Airu actually develops, going from a plain bitch who would steal others Digimon to somewhat kinder thanks to Yuu.
- Ryoma at first seems like the generic aloof rival, but him being a secret fanboy of Taiki's and wanting to stand alongside him and Tagiru, it's endearing. Add on his partner just using him but being Defiant to the End, Ryoma was my fav.
- Gumdramon is selfish and bratty. He has a neat design, especially as Arresterdramon, but embodies the series' wasted potential, his backstory implying big things that is never followed up on.
- Opposumon, Submarimon, Dobermon, and Locomon are satellite characters, and Dracmon doesn't have a character.
- Astamon sucks. A cool design isn't enough. He's largely silent, and the one time he speaks more than a sentence, its revealing he's Quartzmon. Now he's lumped in with that nonsense, it creates a Plot Hole, since he and Arresterdramon digixrossed, yet neither Arresterdramon nor Tagiru notice anything off. Ryoma can be Hand Wave as brainwashed, but it doesn't explain the others.
Young Hunters would normally be written off as a mediocre Post-Script Season. So why the hate? Probably cause:
- This was an anniversary season and Tagiru being Taiki's Replacement Scrappy. Taiki is not the deepest leader, but he is nice & likable. Contrast Tagiru, who is selfish & generic and steal the focus, and it can wear on people's nerves.
I understand why people hate this series, it's just overblown. Don't misinterpret. As a season, it's bad, with a lack of focus and wasted potential, but the episodes on their own are serviceable. Plus, I think we can all agree on one thing: Tagiru Chikara
by Psychic Lover is amazing.
Anime Doomed to failure from the very beginning
Okay, Hunters is being labeled by many as the weakest season Digimon ever had. After watching it I can't deny said statement, it is so empty it hurts.
It had a good start bringing a new setting and new concepts, but then the following episodes failed to exploit it. The show got stuck in a boring repetitive formula, featuring no lasting plot-key elements (barring episode 14), no significant character development for the main character and no changes to the status quo until the very end. After some weeks you eventually catch the formula and start watching it with indifference because you alrealy know there's nothing to expect.
The other problem is having a generic static character as the main lead. I'm not asking Tagiru to be the last survivor of a royal lineage of protectors of the galaxy or anything like that, it is okay for a character to have no fancy background or direct connections to the bigger plot. Takato and Takuya didn't have one either. But he still needs something to make him worth watching, Tagiru has no interesting character traits and never got any significant character development, he is a dull character thrown in a Mo TW based season and it makes him stick like a sore thumb. To add insult to the injury he is the main lead and many of the already boring enough episodes are focused on him. It resulted in many of the other characters getting Demoted To Extra, some of the new ones like Ren never got an actual chance to shine.
But why it happened? Because Hunters was most likely not in the original plans. If I remember correctly Xros Wars was originally supposed to run for 52 episodes, then modified into 54. I don't know why they suddely decided to stuff more 25 episodes in the continuity, but it is said Toei was needing more time to fill the timeslot until Seiya was ready and demanded more episodes. Or So I Heard. You just don't make a good sequel from scratch in a few weeks, it recquires planning and they had no time to do so. The final result was that, a succession of one-off stories with no depth, featuring a void character as a protagonist and the return of characters from previous seasons as a cheap gimmick to hold the audience.
Anime Childish, generic, Anvilicious and with a non existent plot. Just about watchable
After the last season bucked trends with a mostly serious atmosphere and a lead who wasn't an idiot, Digimon Xros Wars goes back to a generic Shonen idiot, the kind of who can rush into something blindly and with minimal thought then pull through of Shonen idiot power or something. Ok sometimes he has to use some basic Shonen Hero cunning, often he can simply rush and beat the bad guy in a couple of seconds, even say a demon powered up from a bunch of brainwashed kids.
Most of the series is composed of generic and bland filler which is pretty much just a kid with a simple personal problem like needing to make friends, build a robot or win at children's card games, the victim of the weak will feel hes unable to do this on his own or can't be bothered, a Digimon of the week will offer to do it for him, but oh no! Hes evil and just using the kid! Generic idiot hero will blunder around for a bit, make an attempt on capturing the evil digimon and fail, tell the victim of the week he needs to work for what ever it is rather than letting a digimon solve all his problems (space whale Aesop away!), then after some wandering around will beat up the evil digimon in a fight that will probably last less than 30 seconds. Yes not only has the story been cut down, but the fights are (with a few notable exceptions like the card game ep) also extremely short and anticlimatic. And don't think the weak plot and weak action scenes means more time for characterisation, Tagiru is as bland and generic a Shonen hero as you could hope for, only having the obligatory "be slightly less of an idiot who rushes in and save teh world." character development. A few of the other characters do get the odd episode devoted to their development, and those tend to be the shining gems in an otherwise extremely forgettable show.
The "plot" eventually shows itself, and just amounts to defeating a big bad even more generic and dull than the last one (who doesn't do much beyond sending out minions and ripping a hole in reality) and has 0 personality and screen time. And.. thats about it.
The Finale is quite honestly complete crap. Preceding it is some mildly enjoyable but pointless fanservice (the non sexual kind), then two idiotic Shocking Swerves. Then the idiot hero wins easily. The end.
Overall it... watchable, in a junk food fashion. Just don't expect much from it
Anime Digimon Xros Wars: Zero Three
I take back every single thing I ever said about Zero Two and Frontier, for this season manages to be so bad, but so horrifyingly, painfully bad that it makes Frontier and Zero Two seem like masterpieces in comparison.
Zero Two and Frontier at least had redeeming qualities, like good soundtracks and a horribly slow-paced plot-holey story... but at least it did have a story, and an actual source of conflict. Xros Wars The Ultra Long Title I Don't Care About is just plain awful in every single aspect.
Here's the entire season summed up: Some new digital dimension was born for no reason, some new characters who totally were friends with Taiki and Shoutmon before show up as the new protags, Evil Digimons cause trouble, so the human "Hunters" have to capture them and they suddenly lose their evilness. THAT'S IT!! That's what happens every single episode.
Forget all Character Development Digimon is known for, add in tons of Character Derailment, create a million plot holes and have a complete disrespect for the previous established canon, nerf every single character who showed up before to favor your extremely unlikable protags and you have this weird Pokémon knockoff.
I have to ask myself if this show was somebody's fanfic turned to life, because there is no excuse to how painfully awful watching this season was. Frontier and Zero Two were bad, but they were watchable, and that's something I can't even give this season.