Digimon Universe Appli Monsters - Tumblr Posts

Sorry for the delay, I've been fighting battles in the real world (boring schoolwork-related battles, but battles nevertheless). Honestly, when I finalized the Katsura's I was tired and was just going to call it a day. Which is a shame, because I feel like I didn't do them justice, but whatever. And I was going to do the same for Haru… but Haru’s section is the one I had the most issues with, to begin with. Simply because as our main character, he’s perhaps got the most going on, but also the most straightforward which is just overall not very appealing to write honestly. So Haru involves a bit more rewatching and I just didn't have time, (Most of the Katsura’s brother’s details are confined to a few easily identifiable episodes) so I just cast it aside. And Haru's relates a lot to Yuujin which. Hoo boy. I have a lot to say about him.

Anyway, without further delay here are my thoughts on our main protagonist.

Haru is the kind of boy who watches and admires hot-headed anime protagonists, rather than the kind of boy who is a hot-headed anime protagonist. Though he admires these characters greatly for their values and beliefs, Haru himself starts the show viewing himself as a side character. This is a point that is refuted in-universe by Yuujin, and out-of-universe by well, Haru being billed as the protagonist. “Are you a protagonist?” is the question that defines Haru’s arc, and Haru spends the season proving his response of “yes” true to himself and those around him. But Haru’s assessment that he's more of a side character is not inaccurate when it comes to his personality. He can be somewhat self-centered and prone to annoyance and embarrassment. He’s not very confident, he’s a bit cowardly, likes to read, not athletic but also not shown to be particularly intelligent. He’s not shown to be dumb, or anything, just nothing is really made of his academic abilities and he’s not shown to be particularly strategic. In fact, he on multiple occasions is shown to be fairly clever, but he doesn’t exactly make up for his more mild personality with genius strategic ability. He is able to come up with applicable search terms to situations, deciding to draw Shootmon’s attention using Puzzlemon, and using Navimon to track Mienumon. But He takes hours to solve Puzzlemon’s puzzles (though he does solve them which is more than Astra or Eri can say.

Haru’s story is about becoming a protagonist. Though at the beginning of the series Haru decides for himself he’s going to be a protagonist, this is a fate that was out of his hands. Though we don’t know it at first, Haru has a very personal connection to this whole thing, as Haru’s grandfather is responsible for this whole mess, but more importantly, Haru has been monitored by super AI since he was a small child. Super AI who manipulated events throughout the entire season, for all our protagonists, but in particular have been manipulating the events in Haru’s life since he was in 4th grade at the least. He himself is an ordinary boy, but he’s part of an extraordinary situation, even if he doesn’t know it at first. A situation where knowingly or not Haru has been monitored and groomed to be an ideal protagonist. While we don’t know to what degree Haru has been influenced, if really much at all (purposefully) prior to the series start beyond monitoring, AI has unknowingly played a huge role in who Haru is.

But even so, Haru’s nature as a kind, fantasy-loving, boy is genuine. His desire to be a protagonist is real, even if potentially encouraged even indirectly, by Leviathan, the machinations behind Haru himself is the one who takes these steps to be the kind of hero he wants to be. Kind and brave.

And while I said, Haru starts the show as cowardly, that doesn’t actually mean he’s any less prone to reckless behavior later in the series. Haru’s reckless in the same way many protagonists, Digimon or otherwise are. While Haru may not have realized it, Haru’s admiration of the protagonist's values makes them his values, even if Haru initially lacks the same emotional strength to follow through on these ideals. While Haru starts out as a quiet bookworm, (and those traits don’t just disappear, although certainly overshadowed by everything else going on in his life) Haru makes a constant effort to be better. To make the right decisions. To reach out to those that are hurting and offer a helping hand. When he chooses to help save Christmas for Ai, or becomes dedicated to helping Rei with Hajime, or diving in to help Gatchmon as he drowns in the L-Virus. But these actions gradually require more and more action on Haru’s part, until we reach the end and Haru, Haru, who started the series cowering under his covers, is leaping off the top of a building on the slim chance it will help save the world. The one who has the courage to look his best friend in the eye and say I’m sorry, but I have to do this, but I will make it up to you.

Aside from the connections between humanity and AI, Appmon has another big theme of choice. Haru has to make a choice. The first choice Haru makes is to assert that he is a protagonist. The last choice is to do his duty as a protagonist and make the choice. Generally speaking, a good protagonist is one who actively pushes the direction of a story, actively makes choices that have consequences. It’s why we associate many protagonists as leaders, while being the leader and the main protagonist aren’t mutually exclusive they overlap in the way that they make decisions that affect the story and their teammates. I’m sure we all remember that moment in Digimon Adventure where it’s Taichi who has to make the choice of which card to use to take them home. The choice Taiki made to rescue Shoutmon. The moment where Takuya makes that choice to go home (another series about choice). Choices are important. While the choices Haru and the others make are certainly influenced by the AI, Denemon notes that Minerva likely gave the questions as a prompt in the right direction rather than as the deciding factor in choosing them, but ultimately they are the ones making the decisions. Leviathan gives Haru the choice between Yuujin and humanity under the mistaken belief of being able to predict Haru’s choice. (And is proven wrong yet again when it's Yuujin who pulls the plug). But Haru proves humanity, life, as fully capable of defining their own lives with their decisions. Haru growing into a protagonist involves him growing more proactive, which is the detail Yuujin comments on in episode 2.

But it’s not Haru’s growing courage and confidence that marks him as the main protagonist of Appmon. It’s his kindness, the trait that he had from the very beginning that facilitates his growth, and the Appdriver’s successes. His kindness is what Yuujin uses to label Haru as the protagonist. Haru is the one who gathered the Appdrivers together, who reached out to Rei. Who reached out to someone who was once, and possibly still, his enemy once he had been betrayed. Haru’s kindness is what won him Yuujin’s genuine admiration, to the point where Yuujin was willing to die for him. This is a kindness that he’s had since elementary school. In a story about the questions of the dangers of AI, and the growing connections between humanity and AI’s, Haru’s kindness is the answer Appmon gives. It’s this charisma that makes him the natural foil to Charismon. It’s this genuine kindness that brings others to his side and inspires actions to protect others. Not to mention that beyond Haru’s kindness, Haru wasn’t the type to be easily discouraged even prior to meeting Yuujin, learning soccer even though he wasn’t very good at it. It’s this determination that pulls him through difficult RPGs, and spending hours on puzzles.

Haru isn’t a total nice guy. He’s capable of selfishness at times. He’s capable of being annoyed with others, (often Gatchmon). Particularly earlier in the series before he realized his capability for helping others. For the first couple episodes, Haru regularly has moments where he expresses annoyance at his situation. Focused on his own embarrassment, and having to be prompted into action by Gatchmon. He’s a bit of a coward, to the point of actively trying to escape the fight, and rather pitifully insists he’s not fit for the situation. Similarly, while Gatchmon goes to find Haru to fight Leviathan, Gatchmon also starts with some somewhat cowardly behavior, being afraid to even say Leviathan’s name. The kind of behaviors that make you go “Hey, why would an AI choose him”. But Haru quickly grows into the role of the protagonist, out of a genuine desire to help others, Gatchman and Ai in particular. And when I say quickly I mean quickly (again growth as soon as episode 2). He still demonstrates some more selfish tendencies in those early episodes (wanting to read instead of taking a cooped up Gatchmon trick or treating in episode 4) but as others join Haru’s team they become less prominent. The moment he declares himself a protagonist he starts to live up to the kind of protagonist he wants to be, even if takes a little bit for him to fully grow into the role, demonstrating the power this subtle guidance had on Haru and the others.

Haru’s family, despite its plot relevance, is pushed to the background, which is kind of odd for a Digimon series, especially one set in the real world. For Haru early on we meet his mom and see his home. His mother is apparently a housewife who runs a blog. She seems to care about Haru a lot and is shown to be rather attentive, noticing odd sounds coming from his room on numerous occasions, including recognizing Denemon’s voice. She also seemed to be on good terms with Denemon, and was willing and able to tell Haru about him. That doesn’t really tell us a lot about Haru however, it does tell us that Haru grew up in a loving household and that Haru seemed to inherit his mild, but observant nature from her.

Denemon, while plot-relevant, died when Haru was very small, and so while he has everything to do with the situation Haru is in now, he doesn’t seem to have a whole lot to do with the way Haru is. And really they are opposites in a lot of ways, Denemon being a passionate and ambitious person while Haru is more reserved and at the start of the series significantly less ambitious. That said, Denemon and Haru do have a few similarities. Both are somewhat forward-thinking and curious people. Haru’s Buddy is a search Appmon. To search for answers, to find something you want to know. Denemon built Minerva to help solve problems, which serves a similar function to a search app if you think about it. Furthermore, both Haru and Denemon are very open-minded and put a lot of hope in the future of humanity to live alongside AI. Of course, by the end of the series, Haru comes to share in his grandfather’s interest in AI as well as his more hard-working nature.

We never meet Haru’s father, despite being Denemon’s son, and presumably still around in some capacity, due to being mentioned neutrally when discussing Haru’s relationship to Denemon, but there really isn’t enough there to extrapolate from. But Appmon’s finale, and Yuujin’s revelation give us the implication that Haru was not the only one being monitored by Leviathan, which may suggest there are others like Yuujn to monitor other people in Denemon’s life. After all, Yuujin seems pretty geared to monitoring Haru specifically. Even if there aren’t other androids, Haru is not the only person from Denemon’s life who Leviathan paid attention to. Haru’s father, Denemon’s son, is a likely candidate as well. But of course, we don’t see any of that, so that’s left to the realm of theories and fanfics.

If I were to wager a guess, part of the reason Haru grew so entrenched in the Appmon situation is in part due to his age. As Denemon’s grandson, Haru was probably by far the youngest of those who Leviathan deemed important enough to monitor. Which also made it difficult to monitor. If Yuujin is the only android, he probably is an android because it's difficult to recruit children to befriend a target the way an adult would. And if he’s not the only android, Yuujin still would have involved the most upkeep and attention due to the fact Yuujin had to age. Either way monitoring Haru was probably a bit more of an endeavor than any other character. On top of that his youthful open-mindedness (and free time) was definitely an asset for him bridging the gap between humans and AI, with both Yuujin and the Appmon. Though, all of that is just speculative.

Gatchmon is very aggressive when compared to Haru, which while an uncommon Goggle Boy/Partner pairing, isn’t really new either. Gatchmon assertive "ore". While Yuujin is definitely who Haru imagines as a protagonist type, Gatchmon is more in line with a typical shonen protagonist with his recklessness and aggressive nature. This is a role swap that has been done before, notably in Xros Wars where you could consider Shoutmon to be the real main protagonist. But it’s still somewhat refreshing (and done much differently than in Xros Wars anyway). Gatchmon isn't always the most sensitive or the most selfless, as he gets irritated by Offmon and is a general nuisance to Haru in some of the early episodes. Gatchmon is the one who gives Haru the strength to take action to protect and become the person Haru wanted to be. Gatchmon also shows a desire to get involved, his investigation leading him to Leviathan and eventually to Haru, the way Haru desires to be a protagonist. They share the same desire (that all of our main trio does really), to be people who make a difference. Gatchmon’s thematic connection to Haru is highlighted in the finale, where they are tied by their search for something.

“It was a destined encounter, arranged by a greater power” Those are among the first words Haru speaks in the series, referring to his encounter with Gatchmon. But Appmon is unique among Digimon series in that we see no hide or hair of a power that could be what we consider a god. We know who arranged this meeting, and it is perhaps fair to refer to Minerva and/or Leviathan as a higher power. But that’s the thing about Appmon. The grand forces that rock the earth, with their perfect schemes and subtle influence are ultimately man-made. The final form of Appmon are “God Grades”, and mostly derive their names from human gods. But they too are man-made. While I could probably say a lot about Appmon’s discussion on how humanity's greatest influencing factor, the one force closest to a real god, is something we made ourselves. But nevertheless, Haru as the grandson of the creator of these “higher powers” proves humans worth. A war of ideals battled out between Denemon’s children, children who have grown past him. In Greek mythology, the gods are repeatedly overthrown by their children. Zeus overthrew Cronus, who overthrew Uranus. The God Grades just so happen to be largely named for Greek deities.

But unlike those stories in which the gods do everything they can to prevent being overthrown by their own children, Denemon does not begrudge the AI the chance to grow and surpass him. He and Haru, and all of the Applidrivers, put their trust into building connections and putting their trust in the AI, helping them to grow stronger. While Leviathan does take advantage of this, allowing the children to grow stronger to then consume the god grades, the god grades come about because the kids weren’t afraid of the AI having more power than them. They were perfectly content with living together. Unlike many of your more conventional protagonists, Haru isn’t exactly the most aggressive kid. Haru’s not a leader in the traditional sense. Haru is far more inclined to follow the leader, which makes him exactly the kind of person who is fine with not being the most powerful or important person in the room. Appmon’s big central question is of the singularity, the fear of being overtaken by the AI we created. So it's fitting that Appmon's protagonist, is a character who solves their issues through conflict, but through reaching out. Who breaks the trope of the self-fulfilling prophecy that's repeated over and over again throughout the history of storytelling of trying to destroy those who are predicted to destroy you. Who better as a Digimon protaganist?