Digimon Universe App Monsters: Ending 1

In this episode, we celebrate finishing the first quarter of Appmon by… slacking off for the weekend and not doing much of anything.


Not going to lie here, I’m kind of liking the idea of having four different ending themes. Based on the precedent set all the way back when we covered Adventure in 2011, we use changes in the ending or opening themes to take a break and maybe catch up on our overall impressions so far. So hey, more breaks!

To be honest, it’s hard to have an overall impression so far. There are a lot of great ideas in the show, with a ton of energy and humor. It simultaneously manages to feel completely detached from Digimon while honoring so many of its traditions. Unfortunately, one of those traditions is that it takes forever to get going. So far we’ve gotten a basic introduction to the four kids, a tiny hint at future complexities to their characters, and a perfectly satisfactory mini-arc where Haru fights and defeats Sakusimon. We really shouldn’t expect much more.

Yet at the same time, we’re still looking back and wondering if anything was accomplished. Just because we’ve met Eri, Tora, and Rei doesn’t mean we like them yet. Their annoying mannerisms and Rei’s outright hostility might be up there with Frontier in terms of hard sell introductions. The Appmon provide a lot of personality and there’s no shortage of clever things to do with them, but so much of the stakes are driven by accepting and even laughing at the over-exaggerated reliance humanity has on digital technology. You see the potential to go somewhere great, but you also aren’t convinced the show is willing to take it there.

Anyway, this is the usual plea to support the site with a Ko-Fi donation or Amazon purchase. While you’re at it, check out Neverworld and Nexusworld, the latter with a new chapter Friday. If you want to stay up on all the latest Digimon news, I cohost the With the Will podcast with episodes every few weeks diving into everything going on in the franchise.

Digimon Universe App Monsters Ending 1: Aoi Honoo Syndrome
Really feeling the AiM vibes on this one. Not sure that’s a good thing. It’s simple and sweet and good background music for the watercolor shots of Haru taking a more exciting journey than he’s had so far, but it’s not a jam for your car. At least there’s lots of fun stuff to pick out in the final long pan.


Enjoying Digimon: System Restore? Support the site by buying me a Coffee!