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I'm so excited! I just downloaded the 1st episode yesterday and I love it! well i'd love any Digimon related series XD

This one is called Digimon Xross Wars, its main digimon character has music based attacks and the fact that i'm an art major makes me love it even more! what about you guys?

Trailer--> [x]

doth mine eyes decieve me? a new Digimon season? (god, this feels like Pokemon, they just won't end! =p then again, Digimon's better so NYAH!) i wish i could look more into it (and watch the rest of savers though i wasn't too fond of it.)

Digimon Xros Wars... well, here are my thoughts.

If I had to be perfectly honest, the first few episodes kind of underwhelming and far too formulaic for me, but there weren't any deal breakers. The 10th-11th episode block was what really hooked me, since stuff seemed to be getting serious and they were starting to break the formula. The characters are pretty fun for the most part and there are some genuinely funny moments. One of my personal favorites was the first half of Ep. 18 and Ep. 21 where Trailmon freaking falls on Zenjirou.

The theme song, I'm sorry to say, is the weakest one so far, but that's not to say that it's bad. It just took a while to grow on me, and I do have to give it credit for being one of the only songs I know to use autotune well. The rest of the music is just flat out phenominal, but it's Wada Kouji, so what did you expect? I also like the fact that, unlike Adventure 02 and the Digimentals, they're actually taking advantage of what they have and making a bunch of different Digixros combinations (there's one in Ep. 23 that simply must be seen to be believed). The animation, despite being a downgrade from Savers, is pretty damn cool and well-done, actually making me forget that it's in Chibi style sometimes. All in all, there's a lot of very good stuff to like in this series.

That said...

There are a number of things that really bug me too. The one thing that really gets to me is how it just flat out turns its back on a lot of the mythos. I'm not just talking about the lack of levels, though that does irk at me a bit. I'm more talking about how things that have been established since the beginning are being completely ignored. One instance is the whole bit about Digimon having parents, and since it's been a long term rule that the lifetime of a Digimon is cyclical and evolutionary in nature (not to mention the fact that Digimon aren't supposed to have sexes), this one just raises a huge eyebrow. Not to mention the fact that it's not that important, since the plot seems to have completely forgotten about Cutemon's parents, so I have to wonder why they even did it in the first place. The biggest one, though, is the big revelation that the Digital World came way before humans developed digital technology. I'm sorry, but I call massive bullcrap. There is absolutely no way that makes sense and since I don't think it's going to come into play later, I really have to wonder: why would you ever change a meta origin that has been consistent from the beginning? (Note that Tamers played with it, rather than changing it outright.) On top of that, the villains just aren't threatening; a lot of it has been cut down for comic relief to, I feel, appeal to a younger audience. At no point, until a certain Episode 10, did I feel like the characters were in any danger and interest kind of waned until then. Lilithmon in particular is a huge letdown, partially because I've been waiting so long to see another Demon Lord. But instead of being manipulative, cunning and sly (which she does once, maybe twice), she's a tempermental Digimon version of Jessie from Team Rocket, playing up the comic relief side really hard (granted, she's getting better). I'm ignoring the fact that Digimon that were legendary in other seasons have been shunted down into bit parts because it's an alternate universe, but all in all, it feels like it's Digimon in name only. It wasn't until Episode 21 that I really accepted it as part of the canon. Granted, Episode 21 was amazing and probably the growing the beard moment of the series, but when a series takes that long to captivate you, it's not a good sign.

Also, I know I said the characters are fun, but at times they can be really bland. I admire Taiki's altruistic nature, but at times his reason for helping seems really forced. That, and the other humans in Xros Heart kind of do jack. The thing I liked about Savers was that the humans were just as important as the Digimon. Here, you have a universe where a human can grab a Digixrosed weapon and stand up to a Digimon twice his size... and he's barely used. Also, Akari's just there. She does something every five episodes if she's lucky, but she's just a cheerleader/disapproving nanny the other times. Plus, there's the fact that the villains' motivations are absolutely nonexistent as of yet. Okay, they want to take over the world... why? Yeah, I know that the villains in Adventure didn't have a lot of motivation, but the series had grown past that in 02 and onward. Even in Savers, which I'm going to say off the bat I think is way better than Xros Wars, the villains had motivation and decent reasoning behind them. The Royal Knights in particular were good because it became a fight between two sides who wanted to save the world, but had very different and conflicting methods of doing it. We don't get that in Xros Wars. They're just... well, evil for the evuls. There's something in online supplements about how Bagramon is rebelling against God because of his own personal view of justice, but that hasn't been brought up in the show yet, if ever, and it just comes off as your average "out to conquer the world" villains.

But there's one thing that really bugs me about all this. Throughout all the franchise, it's been said again and again that the Digital World is a real place, not a video game. But in this series, it all feels, well, like a video game. There are different zones everywhere and macguffin pieces that give control over to whoever wins them. Ignoring the fact that it feels like the generals are building up a score of some kind, isn't that kind of like annexing someone's land by force? Yes, I know that Xros Heart wins over the populace's hearts time and time again, but it just seems like a really weird mechanic. Why do the Code Crowns exist? Who designated how they work? Why do they work that way? Never explained, or if it was, it was kind of a fleeting thing and didn't stick. Quite honestly, it hacks so much familiarity and mythos away that it should have just been its own original story. But so much of the clever things about the world have been removed for a more simplified version and it really seems to alienate the older fans in favor of newcomers. And that's never a good way to handle a franchise.

However, despite all of my criticisms, I do really like this series. If I were to balance out all of the criticisms with all of the good points, I would honestly say that this is just as good as the original Adventure series. I like Tamers and Savers a whole lot better, but those are both a tough act to follow, and in its own right, it has my approval. biggrin

You know, the way things were explained in 02 has always kind of made me think of the Digital World as a sort of evolution of the spirit world, having been derived from numerous facets of world mythology and spirituality that assimilated itself into a digital framework. It kind of makes sense when you consider that, by and large, most people couldn't even see digimon unless they were a chosen, unless those digimon actually passed through a proper gate.

So, in that sense, it would stand to reason that the Digital World has existed for a long, long time, just not in its present form. And it really kind of makes sense because the Digital World, itself, is always changing.

Drastic mayhaps, but i like the take on it more. The humans tapping in and accessing the Digital World with all their technologies just is more fun, now we're the invaders rather than the creators.

I feel in Frontier and Savers, the Digital World has existed long before the modern digital age...which is good. I do think Wisemon is now my favorite Xros Heart character though... the dude lived in a book and was just funny

Perhaps, or what if the Digital World is the source of all digital technology in the entire universe and civilizations simply tap into their power?

Clearly it's the other way around--aliens taught humans to build pyramids so they could sit on their butts doing nothing while we did all the work.

Still, the concept that maybe the digital technology developed in our world has synched up with a pre-existing parallel world is an extremely cool idea. And, like I said before, it wouldn't be too far off to suggest that the human concept of some kind of spirit world might have been the prototype for the existence of the Digital World.

Ah yes, I've heard of that documentary. Though since documentaries aren't really my thing, I think I'll skip it. :p Those pyramids must have been a mess to clean up, though.