Listen, I Understand Why Suite Isn't A Popular Season. Generally Speaking, The Best Parts Of It Are Generally

Listen, I understand why Suite isn't a popular season. Generally speaking, the best parts of it are generally done better in the two seasons that precede it. It in many ways is just a weaker frankensteining of Fresh and Heartcatch. But Fresh and Heartcatch are fantastic, so just because it's worse than those seasons, doesn't mean its bad in my opinion. And to be fair, it does deserve many of its criticisms.

But it's also one of my favorite seasons, and I think some of it's criticisms are more a matter of taste. There's just a lot I love about Suite.

Hibiki and Kanade

I also know a lot of people aren't huge fans of the whole fighting thing Hibiki and Kanade have going on. And I agree, it's not the best executed and some things don't make sense. I also understand that many people are not fond of the vitriolic best buds trope, but I don't think that makes their relationship inherently bad just not to everyone's taste. For what it's worth, we haven't had a pair of cures like them before and since and it's a tragedy to me personally because I am quite fond of vitriolic best buds, duo cures and childhood friends. We have so many cure duos and aside from these two, none are childhood friends. The CLOSEST is the fact that Saki and Mai met once, when they were 9. Several trios of childhood friends (Fresh, Doki Doki and Happiness Charge), but they're the only true childhood friend duo. I honestly want more cures like these two. They get the learning to understand each other that the new friendships have, with the wealth of intimate knowledge about each other stemming from their childhood friendship. Despite spending a year "apart", the years they spent together still mean something, and they can't seem to stay away. They're mad at each other but there is still a comfortable familiarity in the way they aren't afraid to fight with each other. They say they aren't friends but they still call each other by first name.

Their hearts naturally fall into perfect harmony. The have like the same sense of style. Kanade likes to bake. Hibiki likes to eat. Souta refers to Hibiki as "Hibiki-Nee-san", and otherwise treats her similarly to his own sister. They have a flashlight code that they use to communicate across town at night. Neither one realized that there are two entrances with Sakura trees at their middle school or tried to talk about it for a whole year. They're both so stupid.

They take after Nagisa and Honoka a lot too. Nagisa and Hibiki are both athletic redheads who are good at sports and have black as a main color in one of their outfits (Cure for Nagisa, Civ for Hibiki), and generally use pink in their outfits. Both like to eat. Both can be prone to grumpiness and disagreements with their family members. Honoka and Kanade are both white Cures with fierce tempers and a strong sense of responsibility, able to handle domestic things like cooking. Both have more academic strengths, but are relatively graceful. There are some twists of course, Kanade has the little brother who she bickers with (their little brother's even both end their name with "ta"), Hibiki is the one with a parent who is often abroad. I really like how the two called back to the original duo without at all feeling like a copy.

To be fair not communicating is the name of the game in Suite. And so, I do 100% understand not liking this plot. I really do understand it. It's more than fair. All of the plots basically revolve around miscommunication. That is like. The entirety of Suite. Miscommunications, and the breakdown and subsequent healing of relationships. A very very valid complaint. One that I can overlook, but understand if others cannot.

Siren and Hummy

So, Precure's second heel-face turn Cure (if we don't count the Kiryuu sisters). She's a shapeshifting cat who can sing. The original one.

While normally I dislike the "Brainwashed to be evil" trope. It can be very effective. Go Princess used it to great effect in which there was a level of tragedy to the years that had been stolen away from Towa, and how her motivations had been twisted. I think it has similar effect here, where we kind of get both. She was brainwashed, and I do think that does cheapen Siren's motivations and redemption a bit, but she also had genuinely negative feelings towards Hummy, that she acted on in refusing to practice with Hummy. She still has to face Hummy head on, and as much as she tries to pretend that she's hard and strong enough to live in her bitterness. Siren isn't actually mean enough to keep facing her friend and betray her over and over again.

Hummy being better at singing than her caused her to lose a piece of her identity. The most important singer in all of Majorland. The one who sings the melody of happiness. So Siren doubles down on that identity. She becomes Minorland's singer. But she also, due to her shapeshifting, spends that time adopting different identities. Testing things out, even if she doesn't realize it. Ultimately she has to completely let go of her old identity (losing access to her original form) and everything associated with it and forge a new sense of self, in order to find happiness. But she doesn't completely lose everything.

Despite not liking to be called Siren anymore, she still lets Hummy call her that. She turned her old identity of Siren into something bitter, so she had to cast it off to redefine herself. But Hummy is the only one who ever saw the real Siren through everything Siren tried to become. Hummy may have been the one who took her sense of worth, but she's also the one who always saw Siren's value as Siren. Hummy gets to use Siren because her relationship with Hummy is the only thing that survived Siren's evolution. The two have to forge a new relationship to a certain extent. But it's built on what came before.

I also just think it's fun that the bulk of this emotional arc is on Hummy. It's cat drama. Fairy drama. Usually this is the kinda of stuff that happens between the pink and the heel-face cure. But not this time. This time it's the cat fairy, and the pink is dealing with her own friendship drama. I think it also ties right back into Suites continued echo of healing relationships, actually listening to people in order to harmonize with them. Hibiki and Kanade have to resolve their bitter feelings from their estrangement. Siren has to get over her jealousy to let Hummy back into her life. And Mephisto and Aphrodite have to stop fighting a war against each other.

Major Land's Royal Family

I mean really, no one bothered to tell Hibiki and Kanade at any point that Mephisto was the brainwashed former King of Major Land and that Major Land had a princess who was in hiding? Just locked out of the loop. Both Kanon and Majorland are entirely made up of people who can't communicate.

Anyway, Ako is my all time favorite cure. I rather unpopular choice, I know. But she fits right in with many of my other favorites, characters such as Hikari Yagami, Takeru Takaishi, King Clawthorne, King Ezran, Anya Forger etc. I love kid characters. I especially love messed up traumatized kids who don't always deal with it in great ways. And kid characters with heaps of responsibility on their shoulders. Like chosen ones and royalty.

So Ako is the epitome of what I look for in my favorite characters. She's a 9 year old with high future expectations, that she can't even begin to try and live up to because she's been sent away from everything she's known and loved. Not just moving to a new town, but a new world, where the rules of what is and isn't normal are different. In addition she was forced into physically altering her appearance, wearing unfamiliar clothes, and cutting her long hair. Not only that, she now has to keep everything about her secret. Her hometown, whatever music magic she has, her real future career plans, everything that made her her, has to be suppressed and kept secret. And she was like. Six. That's tiny. And she has to construct a whole new fake identity?

No wonder she's grumpy and keeps to herself? Her alternative is just trying to keep up a bunch of lies all the time. And keeping to herself, means few friends, and trying to keep people away, because this is supposed to be temporary to some degree. She has back home eventually, she's their future queen. She really has no choice BUT to be a grumpy brat. To keep from getting found out and to keep from getting attached. Like sure she doesn't have to be a brat to Hibiki and Kanade, but she's kinda right half the time, and honestly her tempering that brattiness into being just unpleasant enough to be left alone without being so obnoxious she draws people's ire involves way more socio-emotional intelligence than should ever be expected from a nine year old. And at a certain point, after years of it, it became part of her real personality. The sweet optimistic little princess is still there. But it's under a layer of cynicism.

Ako wants her family back. So she gets the power to do that. And things still don't go her way.

I've joked to people before that Ako is one of 4 cures with divorced parents. Her parents are effectively divorced, but extra. They're not just trying to fight over a house and custody of her, but over not just an entire kingdom, but the fate of the world. And her father doesn't even know who she is anymore. Her parents are actively at war, and her mother honestly shows no qualms about letting her husband be potentially killed, not bothering to tell the people she's sent after him about their relationship and his true nature. (And then her mom asks Mephisto to kill her to protect their kingdom, Ako can't catch a break).

This ties back to a fact that is kind of brushed over in the show. Ako is the princess. In the show she's honestly just the princess because it puts her in between Mephisto and Aphrodite's drama. But we see in show that Mephisto and Aphrodite are constantly putting their kingdom's needs above their own. A- monarchs (points deducted for getting brainwashed), but like. B- parents tbh. They love Ako so, so much, but simply can't raise her themselves. In fact, Ako's parents won't look after themselves, so Ako has to look out for them instead of the other way around. We see this a lot with Mephisto.

Sometimes Ako makes absolutely stupid decisions, like releasing notes, because she doesn't want to go against her dad, even if he isn't himself right now. Because she's a child whose parents are fighting, seemingly to the death, and if she can spread out the fight, she can hopefully drag out the arrival of consequences.

Ako does eventually learn to use the power as a cure, so she can balance the needs of the many over the needs of her loved ones. So she can do both. But she has to learn to make the hard choices and be willing to stand against her loved ones.

Also Ako also gets the miscommunication based friendship breakdown with her and Suzu, and to a lesser extent her and Souta in the movie. Suite really goes hard on the whole healing relationships thing.

Ako is really a direct foil to Yuri who precedes her. Missing evil brainwashed dads. Present throughout the whole show, but only join the team in the last quarter (the latest of any Cures). Semi-awkward friendship with one of the other cure's siblings in part because their friend doesn't know about all their magical girl trauma. Already looped into the magical girl stuff before any of the other cures, so has a preexisting relationship of some sort with the grandparent mentor. Ako is pretty much just a baby Yuri, but who has just now gained the power to try and fight after years of inability to do anything, instead of having just lost her power, and having to face down her own failure and keep going. So she's an angry elementary kid rather than a depressed high schooler. How can I not love her?

After nearly 2 years I finally finished survive, all routes. I've had Harmony done for a long time, and finished Moral and Truthful like a year ago. Just finished wrathful. I love these kids so much, I'm just a busy person. Miyuki is probably my favorite, but considering Hikari is my Adventure favorite and Kyubimon is my favorite digimon, and I'm a huge fan of Renamon's line in general, that really shouldn't be a surprise. Miyuki's even an older sister.

Speaking of Adventure, I'm also halfway through rewatching Adventure (eng sub), got a vital hero (they're relatively cheap now it's been fun to mess around with) have restarted cyber sleuth, and am planning to get Next 0rder next time its on sale, so to say Digimon is on the brain would be an understatement.

I have new adventure thoughts AND survive thoughts. Okay some of my survive thoughts are old, but I didn't want to say anything until I had the full picture of the world and story and now I do.

So you loved Kira Kira Precure a la Mode, and/or some of the other seasons of the past 10 or so years. So you go to watch the season that started it all, and its probably not what your expecting. And there's a good chance you don't like it. That's fair. The two could not be more different. Now, Kira Kira Precure A la Mode is not a bad magical girl anime. Not by any stretch of the imagination. It has charming characters and creative battles. But is it a good Precure show? It is Futari wa Precure's antithesis. At least as much of an antithesis as it can possibly be while still being a show targeted towards young girls. Kira Kira Precure A La Mode is a colorful show, with 6-8 larger than life characters as they battle against hatred. They fight in confection themed outfits while wearing heels and being unabashedly cutesy. It's main protagonist always saving the day with an energetic "Whip Step Jump" or a "Bright Idea". To be fair, many modern Precure series are more similar to Kira Kira. Girls who are role models. Girls who chase after their dreams with everything they have. Who even without being Precure live extraordinary lives. There is only one Whip, there are many like her. There is no Cure like Black.

Now excuse me while I get really emotional and overdramatic about Futari wa Precure.

Futari wa Precure is not modern Precure, Modern Precure wouldn't really start until Fresh. Splash Star took the first steps, and Precure continues to evolve, but the first seasons of Precure, particularly the first 3 are not the Modern Cure. Futari wa Precure is not a story about Extraordinary girls, doing extraordinary things. It's not loud, nor bright spectacle. A show is not wrong for being these things. But these things are not Futari wa. It is a story about ordinary girls, who live ordinary lives, who fight against eternal forces that seek to destroy the normal things they hold dear, with only each other to count on. There are two sides to Nagisa and Honoka's lives. Their day to day lives, filled with people they love. Takoyaki and Chocolate and Dogs and Lacrosse and a million other simple things. Slice of life filled with unapologetically ordinary vibes. The world they seek to protect. And the things they do to protect it. The lonely brutal battles. The interruptions to their day to day. The threats on those they love. The villains dismissal of their important feelings and things in a battle that feels bigger than them. There are only the two of them. And 2 fairies who, themselves, only have each other, desperate refugees stuck in a world that makes them so tired that they cannot navigate it on their own.

And when I say there's no Cure like Black, I'm not exaggerating. There aren't many sporty lead cures anymore. But even when there were. There was no one like black. Melody, Rouge and Bloom are closest. But even then. Cure Black is not an optimist. She is not confident. Nagisa does not want to be a Cure. She does not want things to change. She bullies her little brother, she argues with her fairy. She is irresponsible and struggles to do things she dislikes. She hates fighting. But she fights anyway. She is not hope. She is courage. Because if she's going to die, she will die fighting. Bitterly.

When I say there hardly any Cures like Black, I mean there are also no Cures like White. We have cures into Science, though even now not many. And when we do, they are mostly into biology. (Doctors, Nurses, Marine Biologists, Botany). The closest we have is Himari, and her way of connecting sweets to science. We do have two cures who want to be astronauts (Tsubomi and Hikaru), but even then their primary interests are Botany and Cryptids respectively. Not that these are bad goals. But they are not White's more nebulous interest in science, that extends beyond the life sciences. Beyond domesticity. She loves learning, pure and simple. Honoka is well off, but gets her hands dirty. She is a woman of science, but takes the supernatural in stride. She is kind, but does things her way. She is graceful and polite, but temperamental and bold. In this way, Rhythm and Egret perhaps resemble her though not each other. Egret shares her independent nature, and mild obliviousness. Rhythm shares her temper and hands-onness. Honoka is hope. But she is not the loud Hope, like so many pinks, burning towards a dream. Burning with the possibilities. She is the quiet hope. The stubborn hope. She is the hope born of sorrow and things that cannot be. The hope that hears "This is the way it is" and says "No".

Cure Black and Cure White are not merciful. They do not redeem their enemies. A general hurts Black's brother and laughs. She kills him in rage. He was desperate. But she was vengeful. The enemies they fight are not all encompassing evil. They are darkness, and a threat that needs to be eliminated. But for many they merely want to survive. But so do Black and White. Cure Black and White fight, pitting the survival of their world against the survival of their enemies. It's them or her, and she chooses her and she loses. Her brother is vengeful and angry, and its him or them. And he chooses them. They lose a friend to this pointless struggle. But they continue on. The battle continues on. Honoka cries and cries for him. Did it have to be this way? It doesn't matter because it is. And there is no one she can talk to aside from Nagisa, and Mipple.

There is no one shouting to cheer on the Precure, no miracle lights. Those wouldn't come until Yes 5! They are merely rumors. A half seen fight. A figure seemingly out of a dream. Are they even real? Their imitators on the playground are more real than they are. Bring more smiles than they do. The universe is more vast than any of them could comprehend. There are entire other worlds with people who laugh and cry.

And there is no setting quite like Futari wa's setting. The setting in Futari wa, which I don't believe is named in show, is based on the Tokyo area. Not a made up city. A real one. Sure their school is fictional, as are the stores they visit. But the amusement park they visit is directly inspired by a real one. Nagisa lives in an Apartment building I believe to be modeled off a real one. They travel busy trains. Honoka's grandmother lived through war and tells stories of bombings. This is the Tokyo of a world not quite unlike our own. And perhaps most notably, this world is melancholic. Not bright.

Nagisa does not have pink hair. She does not have blond hair. She has orange hair. Not bright orange. Orangish brown. Though not one common in Japan, a real color. Honoka has black hair. Some might say blue. Although with its darkness its otherwise indistinguishable. It might as well be black. Shiho has red hair. And later Hikari will have blond. Kirya's will be green, but like Honoka so green it might as well be black. These may not be real hair colors, exactly. But they're close. Their muted. In the same way this is Tokyo but not.

With all of this said, there is still one core tenant Kira Kira holds to. It is still a story about girls, different kinds of girls, protecting the things they love. In Kira Kira, it is sweets. In Futari wa... its sweets.

Sweets. Precure was always about sweets go home.

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.

So while I was working on my… analysis I suppose, on why Digimon Adventure: does not work as a show, it occurred to me that despite claims that Taichi in Adventure: is inspired by V-Tamer Taichi, his partner is an Agumon whose final evolution is Omegamon, and why that doesn’t work. But I realized that it is a point that I could expand on, and so I have separated it out here. Consider it a preview.

The protagonists of Digimon V-Tamer are Yagami Taichi and his partner Zero, a Veedramon. The story is carried by these two alone. While others help and hinder them on their way, their mission is theirs, and the responsibility of defeating Daemon belongs to no one else. It is with that power that they reach their highest form, UlforceVeedramon Future Mode While Taichi is the main protagonist, Zero is just as much a protagonist. Their names, even reference binary. While there are other characters who impact the plot, the role of protagonist belongs to these two. 

This is echoed in the themes of Digimon Adventure:, the digivice in the title supposedly representing the bonds between human and digimon. And, while I don’t think it particularly succeeds, I can see clear attempts to be made to make the digimon partners their own characters, equals to their human partners. 

But yet, Digimon Adventure: uses Omegamon as Taichi and Agumon’s final evolution. And that is a bit of a problem. Digimon Partners are not interchangeable. Well, okay, the species are a bit arbitrary, all things considered, (after all, Zero’s rookie form is also Agumon) but the problem is what UlforceVeedramon represents vs. Omegamon. 

In Digimon Adventure, Omegamon is not Taichi’s power alone. Not by a long shot. Taichi is not the solo human protagonist of Digimon Adventure. Even in the first film, before Hikari was even meant to play a key role in the series, she shared the series debut. Regardless, the burden of defeating Apocalymon is not his alone to bear. And Agumon’s evolutions reflect that. WarGreymon is reached through borrowing Hikari’s power. Omegamon is literally formed by WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon (who was formed by borrowing Takeru’s power), but in reality is born from the power of hundreds of people reaching out from across the world. And perhaps even Taichi’s crest of Courage is not something that belongs to him alone. As Yamato puts it, “It’s everyone's Friendship”. Though Taichi best embodies courage, the courage he wields is not his alone. Even tri. which I usually avoid using as an example, has Omegamon Merciful Mode, which very explicitly draws from the other children’s partners. Adventure’s Taichi’s not strong because he himself is powerful. Really compared to Hikari he seems rather unimpressive on his own. He’s strong because he is able to easily act as a receiver to others powers, a trait that is fitting for a leader. Because that’s what sets Adventure Taichi apart from his peers, he’s a leader.

Note, that I didn’t really bring up the partners in regards to the discussion of Adventure, not that they aren’t important, but that they aren’t a driving factor. Digimon partners are something vastly different in Digimon Adventure. They are reflections of the children’s inner selves. For straightforward characters, like Taichi, his partner Agumon is very much like him, and for characters like Sora, Piyomon seems very different. This isn’t to say that the digimon are simply their partners, Tailmon went through quite a bit on her own. But nevertheless, Tailmon is the way she is, because Hikari is the way she is. 

Digimon Partners and their evolutions are not things that are just assigned, and given. They are things that arise from the circumstances. Omegamon is there because the themes and circumstances make Omegamon the most appropriate "Ultra”. This is true both in and out of universe, who can forget SkullGreymon? SkullGreymon isn’t wrong. It’s just not the evolution that fits Taichi and Agumon’s situation.

And here’s the thing. Digimon has done the whole focus on “Bonds with Partner’s” before. That’s Tamers. And in Tamers, the final evolution was born from a human and a digimon literally coming together as one. The final episodes all appear somewhat humanoid as a result, particularly notable from WarGrowmon to Gallentmon. Because that was what evolutions were needed narratively and thematically. Otherwise, we have Megidramon. And guess what, the Adventure timeline also has a movie in which the focus is on the bonds between human and friendship, and lo and behold. In Digimon Adventure Kizuna, Agumon (Bond of Courage) and Gabumon (Bond of Friendship) were born. Born from the bond between human and digimon. They even use the “looking like humans” idea from Tamers.

Interestingly, Kizuna came right before Digimon Adventure: started. 

Now, I am really advocating for the Bond forms to be used in Adventure:, those forms were something special to that timeline. But that’s just the thing. Many evolutions, whether unique digimon or not, are brought about by circumstances unique to that timeline. Look at 02’s usage of Armor levels, Frontier's Hybrids, and Xros Wars' Xros mechanic. It’s not new for later seasons to take these Digimon that have existed in these specific circumstances and use them generically later. It would, after all, be a shame to put all those good designs to waste. But at the very least, the evolutions of the main cast are carefully chosen, created if need be, to fit the show.

And that creates a problem for Adventure: as a reboot. It is pulling from the evolutionary lines of its predecessor, despite aiming for different themes and using an entirely different world and characters, and in the process the meaning behind the evolutions has been stripped out. While it has been able to throw in additional evolutions, most of those are well within the confines of precedent: Armors and Ultimate’s that are already related to these evolutionary lines. Adventure: is trying to be a show that, as a reboot of Adventure, it cannot be. Adventure: spends so much of its time screaming that it is not the original Adventure, while simultaneously dragging in call backs that it loses any sense of identity.

The enemies they fight are not Taichi’s responsibility alone. These kids have to have crests. Agumon must evolve into Omegamon.  Angemon still has to die, HolyAngemon and Angemon have to mean something. Tailmon has to be Adult, and has to have been evil. Hikari and Takeru have to give their brother’s power. Omegamon still has to appear. . They still go to summer camp, and Taichi still fights Parrotmon. 

Note, that this is far from Adventure:’s only problem, however I do think it illustrates a large problem that affects the way certain elements and characters are used in this show. Taichi is a solo protagonist, but his “Ultra” is still Omegamon born of Yamato, Takeru and HIkari’s influence. Mimi is now a bossy rich girl, but her crest is still Purity. Yamato is a loner who doesn’t overly concern himself with others, but he’s still Friendship, and still Takeru’s semi-estranged younger brother. 

When Adventure: manages to work a new angle into the old mold, it works well. Yamato’s focus on his friendship with Gabumon works well, and various side characters work alright. Resolving the conflict over Tailmon’s Ultimates by using both for separate things and bringing in Goddramon is a great idea. But more often than not, it doesn’t. Properly contextualizing what a holy digimon is is great, but Angemon’s death is awkward, and Pegususmon’s presence smooths over the issues of Tailmon being champion and keeping Angemon special in an awkward way, refusing to address what an Armor is. Because they are trying to write a story around a set of evolutions they are required to have while absolutely refusing to be Adventure where it matters. Leading to the awkward mesh of Adventure elements and characters, with themes and stories that they were never meant for. 

If Adventure: was meant to be about the bond between Taichi and Agumon, Omegamon was never going to work, including the concepts of crests, was going to muddle things at the very least, and including 7 whole other partner pairs who are going to require at least a few episodes of focus a piece was not going to work out. It’s not that we couldn’t have had more focus on Taichi and Agumon within a reboot and their bond, or that the idea of Taichi and Agumon (or any other pair), activating an evolution because they are in agreement on a concept isn’t a good idea. Just an understanding that this primary focus wasn’t going to work because Adventure in its very concept has a lot of characters that need some degree of focus. Savers with its heavier Masaru focus and use of shonen tropes, dials back the number of “main” characters to half that of Adventure, because it is built around its premise. That unless they were going to be bumped down to secondary, recurring characters, this was never going to work, because that’s not how Adventure’s concept was intended. To tell a new story, it needed to have dropped a few more of Adventure’s elements. But to do that would be to essentially admit that this isn’t Adventure at all. Adventure: needed to have evaluated what story it could tell with what elements it was required to include.

Anything goes in Digimon, and Adventure: seems to want to make the most of this, using armors, Hybrids and Xros Wars digimon with regularity. But you can’t build a cohesive narrative simply by plucking your favorite ingredients and sticking it in a pot. Some things just don’t go together. You can’t take the ingredients to make bread and make a salad. But in short, V-Tamer Taichi and Adventure Taichi aren’t interchangeable. They are two different characters because they are designed for two different stories, and their partners reflect this. Adventure: was doomed from the start if it didn’t realize this. 

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