What Could Have Been

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Firstly, I'd just like to mention that I recently noticed that LiveJournal and deviantART are by far the least memory intensive websites I visit with any regularity.  The rest of the Internet could stand to learn from their example and cut back on being so gosh darn Flash heavy.  Me and my old computer would really appreciate it.

Secondly, Digimon Xros Wars: Boy Hunters Who Leap Through Time! is set to finish toward the end of the month and I have set to really say anything comprehensive about how I feel about it.  That's because there really hasn't been much to speculate on.  The "Hunters Arc" as I call it has been almost nothing but filler since it started, with most episodes focusing almost exclusively on Tagiru as he goes about attempting to capture the monster of the week often leaving his own teammates out of the loop.  Moreover, the Rival Hunters who feature prominently in the opening have received very little actual screen time leaving almost no room for character development, let alone back story.  Airu, being the only recurring female Hunter, has fared somewhat better than her teammates, Ryouma and Ren, although not by much since the episodes she features in typically focus more on Yuu, but it at least removes the spotlight from Tagiru who really just isn't pulling his weight as the main character.  Some episodes introduce other Hunters outside of the main cast who have their own reasons for accepting Xros Loaders from the mysterious old man, making his intentions even more ambiguous since apparently not just anyone who comes into contact with a digimon is worthy of receiving one.

Meanwhile, Taiki has been given a multitude of handicaps to prevent him from stealing the spotlight back from Tagiru.  Not only do the restrictions on the Xros Loader limiting him to the use of one digimon at a time and only being able to Digi Xros that digimon with one other digimon prevent him from using his old army effectively, but it also makes using any digimon other than Shoutmon almost pointless since he's the only one able to evolve by Taiki's power.  This means the old digimon, much like the rest of the cast, get very little actual screen time.  And newly introduced digimon who are captured only feature prominently in the episode in which they are introduced before being reduced to mere satellite characters belonging to the Hunter who caught them.  One episode demonstrated that Taiki could still utilize Shoutmon X4 by giving Ballistamon and Dorulumon to Yuu and performing a Double Xros, but this mechanic was deemed too exhausting and hasn't been used again since.

Personally, I would have preferred to see the Double Xros mechanic used to bring about new Digi Xros variants instead of exploiting loopholes to just to bring back one of the classics.  Why can't Yuu and Tagiru perform a Double Xros between Arresterdramon and Tsuwamon, for instance?  Making Shoutmon X4 was only exhausting for Taiki, not Yuu.  Tagiru has more energy than he knows what to do with.  And, like Shoutmon DX being formed from Omega Shoutmon and Zeek Greymon, it would be a Digi Xros between two super evolved digimon to make a new powerful combination.  Hell, the opening sequence is highly suggestive that there should eventually be a Triple Xros between the three main digimon, but that probably won't actually be happening.

Now, from the onset, Taiki wasn't interested in the Digimon Hunt except as far as it concerned him that digimon were being displaced from the digital world, becoming corrupted in Digi Quartz, and occasionally capturing humans to siphon off the power of various emotions.  He has no motivation for hunting digimon, but he does want to know what the hell is going on because the situation itself does concern him given that he risked his life to save both worlds a year ago and it's fairly obvious that something has gone terribly wrong since then.  But the focus of the current season has been on the Digimon Hunt, so any major developments have happened largely in the background.  And the mysterious old man has refused to comment on the subject.

In episode 14 (68 in the full episode count for Xros Wars) we were treated to a brief cameo from Taichi, Masaru and their respective Agumonz from Adventure and Savers respectively.  Even though the rest of them didn't appear on screen, several other silhouettes suggest that Daisuke, V-mon, Takato, Guilmon, and Takuya were also present.  And it has been strongly hinted at in translations of various interviews and magazine articles that the leaders from previous seasons would be appearing later this season.  The preview for episode 22 (76 in the full episode count for Xros Wars) shows that Taichi and Masaru will be appearing again, this time accompanied by War Greymon and Shine Greymon respectively do so some actual fighting on screen.  Of course, with the final battle coming up and the season set to end in the 25th episode, that doesn't leave much time for a major story arc to emerge from this.

To put it simply, the Hunters Arc is filled with wasted potential.  When I found out that the leaders from previous seasons would be making an appearance, I thought it might result in some kind of tournament arc since the Digimon Hunt was already being regulated like a game to begin with.  An exhibition match between the leaders (if not other characters) from past seasons would have been kinda cool.  Sadly, that doesn't seem likely to happen either.

Now, despite my ranting, I don't really dislike the Hunters Arc.  Even without an ongoing plot linking the episodes together in a meaningful way, the self-contained adventures have been entertaining to watch.  I quite like many of the digimon that were selected as monsters of the week as well as the surprising range of voice talents that were brought in to bring them to life, with many digimon receiving their first ever anime appearance.

What I dislike is that Tagiru keeps getting handed the weirdness magnet while Taiki and Yuu are left on the bench when Yuu was probably the first human ever to be brought to the digital world last season and while he and Taiki both possess the innate ability to hear the melodies of the digimon even before encountering them in Digi Quartz or the human world became commonplace.  And yet, even though their investigative potential in matters related to digimon should be fairly high, they keep getting left in the dust while Tagiru keeps getting by on sheer dumb luck.  It's one thing when the rules get changed from one season to another set in a different reality and quite another when these changes are taking place in the same reality.

But no matter.  Little things like that don't stop me from enjoying the series.  After all, I love the franchise because of the digimon.  The fact that Xros Wars introduced Taiki was just a nice bonus.  And anything I don't like can and will be purposefully rewritten once I reach that point in the series in my own fanon continuity.  That's one of the perks of writing fanfiction.
© 2012 - 2024 CrystalMizuka
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rakashael's avatar
It is really nice to hear from you. I've been watching the first season of Digimon lately. It feels so nostalgic. ^^