Ranked #3543

Digimon Xros Wars: Toki wo Kakeru Shounen Hunter-tachi

What the fuck were they thinking when they made this?
I can't ask much more of a direct inquiry than that.

Digimon Hunters is very easily the worst Digimon series, it's pretty much bile. It succeeds in nothing but destroying amazing potential, wasting a good cast of characters, tarnishing a franchise and having a catchy opening song. Never again will I ever be so excited for a series only to end up this disappointed. Let me walk you through this so you don't have to:

Digimon Hunters takes place a year after the ending of Xros Wars. Bugramon is dead, all the Digimon are back in their own world, and Taiki is back to being a baller. All of this changes when Taiki's stupid friend Tagiru gets handed a Digivice by a cryptic old man, and then bam, Tagiru now has ownership of the unruly Gumdramon and is about to face "great danger". Taiki and the newly reformed Yuu get their partners back eventually, and Shoutmon looks like goddamn Ryoma from getter Robo. The trio run around stopping evil Digimon from kidnapping and possessing people across the city while traveling to DigiQuartz, a post-apocalyptic alternate dimension that's shrouded in mystery. Then a new trio of rival Digimon Hunters appear, and our heroes must both combat and join forces with them under the watchful eye of the old "watchmaker".

And that's the first few episodes. Digimon Hunters probably starts off better than any other series besides Adventure 01, setting up a good cast of new and returning characters, a cool setting and a great premise. After that, nothing fucking happens. All of the Xros Wars cast appears again for very short, worthless cameos, the logistics of the setting crumble as Digimon just sort of run rampant and the public doesn't care, and none of the characters get any significant development whatsoever.

Like, I don't even understand. This was the thought process I had while following this show:
Episodes 1-5: Holy god this will be the best thing since Tamers, it's Xros Wars 02, omgomg the animation, the music, omg
Episode 6-10: Haha alright, this is pretty cool. Yeah. I bet the story will kick in at episode 12 or so.
Episode 11-15: Aha, nothing's happened yet, but there's so much set up...!
Episodes 16-20: What the hell is happening in this series. Why has nothing progressed at all. Why...? Wha..? That doesn't make sense, but okay...
Episode 21-25: Alright, fuck this.

Slowly, the great premise cracks, breaks, shatters, turns to dust, and then you inhale the dust and it tears your lungs up.

Taiki and Yuu are nerfed to hell and back, and are almost never present. Most episodes are just Tagiru and Gumdramon screwing around. Shoutmon's reign is Digimon king is pretty much irrelevant. Damemon's personality is mostly gone and his relationship with Yuu is flat and lifeless.

The old man who was the impetus of the whole plot isn't present for 95% of the show.

None of the enemies in the series are intimidating in the slightest, and more often than not get beaten by the hero Digimons' lowest forms.

The whole "people getting possessed and kidnapped" plot never progresses or gets more threatening. In fact, it just becomes a trivial annoyance after a while.

Akari, Zenjiro, Nene and Kiriha are all but completely non-present. Akari and Zenjiro are foreshadowed to get their own Digivices and partners in the opening, but it doesn't happen until the very end when it doesn't even matter.

The three new main characters, who have really cool Digimon and character designs, get no development. Ever. They're never successful as villains or useful as allies, and there's no reason for them to have ever been in the show at all.

It's miserable. It's garbage. And then it ends at 25 episodes.

Oh wait, I forgot the best part, the whole overarching story to this show involves the previous 5 main characters showing up: Tai, Davis, Takato, Takuya and Masaru. It's foreshowed for literally less than 15 seconds at one point, and then completely dropped, and then they show up near the end. They just... show up. Nothing they do is explained, they're just "there". For no reason. Even though it makes absolutely not even one bit of sense at all on multiple levels. And they're gone. End of show.

There's dropping the ball, and then there's filling the ball with cement and shooting it with a cannon into your own feet. This show is the latter. Fuck it. read more

Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time (Digimon Xros Wars: Toki wo Kakeru Shounen Huntertachi) is continuation of second season of Digimon Xros Wars (shocker, right?) however it feels NOTHING like its predecessor. Basically, it follows second season of Xros Wars with some time skip, it introduces a few new characters and gives slight cameo to old ones (including other Digimon series). Is that just a last resort trick to bring more viewers to terrible series or just a cherry on top of amazing anime? That’s for everyone to decide on their own and, hopefully, this review will help you with it.

Story: 5/10
No story until about episode 22 but, instead, we get random Digimon of the week action. They are over average, thus the rating, but for anime series that always has been going for an interesting story this feels like a huge let down. Maybe they tried to aim this at younger kinds but the fact is that they lost majority of long-time Digimon fans. Every episode follows this pattern: A wild Digimon appears, brainwashes a kid to do bad things, the main gang find it out and (nearly all the time) Tagiru hunts it. That’s it. Episode over. Plot itself is exactly the same thing but with more characters.

Art: 8/10
Art looks interesting, nothing amazing but overall very good. Not many problems (animation or fluency) and character design is loyal to previous Xros Wars seasons. Although characters of the week are usually dull, there are exceptions to this.

Sound: 7/10
Nothing memorable but nothing terrible either. I had no problems with this but the fact that I can hardly recall any interesting songs from this season lets me down.

Characters: 5/10
Aside from characters of the week (which appear again only if they are hunters!) the 6 main characters are quite interesting. Tagiru, the current lead character, is seriously annoying and, for some strange reason, everyone lets him hunt all Digimon they encounter. Not to mention he seems to be interested solely in the hunt and nothing else (and becoming digiworld superstar, as stupid as it sounds). Then there’s Taiki and Yuu, both from previous seasons of Xros Wars, they didn’t change much from the end of previous season season. Last but not least we have the rival trio that have both interesting characters and design, although after first few episodes they get a slight cameo here and there. Characters from previous seasons appeared in a few episodes but they were there more for a marketing than anything else because their role in the story was nearly equal zero.

Enjoyment: 4/10
I find this season rather boring and unlike first 2 Xros Wars seasons when I could hardly wait a week for new episode, sometimes I forget to watch this (although I’m a huge Digimon fan). I really dislike the no-story setting it has and the fact that the creators force Tagiru to be the star. Everyone does nothing and watches Tagiru beat and hunt the Digimon of the week. Ratio of others hunting on screen to Tagiru is about 1 to 10. Not to mention that the plot in the last few episodes was as cliche as can get.

Overall: 5/10
This anime is no good unless you specifically love episodic anime. Even in that case it's watchable when you’re bored but hardly otherwise. I recommend it for you only if you are a hardcore Digimon fan. read more

okay first review let's go

first and foremost, before watching digimon hunters, i had never seen a full digimon episode before, or at least that i can recall. my friend is an active member in the digimon fandom and suggested that i watch this, and it was the season that was airing at the time so i decided to give it a shot. recently, this season of digimon ended. to say the least, i wasn't very pleased, mainly because a very good idea for a plot had gone to waste. before you go on i'll give a mild spoiler warning -- i'm not sure if i'll actually include any but i'll try not to. additionally, it's late, and my memories are kind of vague, and i did not watch most filler, so i apologize for any missing or incorrect details.

STORY
the plot idea was pretty good. i liked it a lot, and as i said before i was very sad to see it just sort of get thrown in the trash like it did.
it definitely is a proper sequel of sorts -- you have a new goggle boy, tagiru, who is soon introduced to digiquartz, which he can access by time shifting, which is only possible because of his xros loader. his partner is gumdramon. you also have the goggle boy from the original xros wars, taiki, and another original xros wars member, yuu. together, tagiru, taiki and yuu explore digiquartz.
at first it starts off sort of slow; the viewer is mainly just watching filler, with some plot development every few episodes. it definitely starts to pick up at some point, but some of it is kind of confusing; it only really starts getting interesting when the old clock maker gathers all the hunters to defeat and capture a powerful, destructive digimon.
it calms down a little after that, but then picks up again, but then it actually became very rushed, ESPECIALLY during the final two episodes. i feel like the entire thing was just sort of an excuse to try and gather all the leaders together, maybe make some fans scream (i am one of those fans; i sounded like i was getting murdered) -- i don't want to call it a bad fanfiction, but it might as well have been that. if you want nostalgia, then go for this series, but if you're new to digimon, definitely do not watch this as your first season like i did.
as for the art and music: the art is pretty okay, quite a few derpy shots in the background if you're paying attention to the right episodes (which aren't exactly a flaw; anime wouldn't as be good without those). the opening is one of my favourites out of all of the seasons i've watched as of now, definitely one of my favourite anime opening songs in general. the rest of the OST is also very enjoyable.
overall 4/10 for story.

CHARACTER
okay... this was one of my biggest problems with hunters.
i feel like taiki, yuu and... everyone, pretty much, except for, like, tagiru, gumdramon, and ryouma, were there just to look pretty. -especially- ren.
pretty much no one in the entire show got any character development. tagiru and gumdramon had some good development; their partnership got its own episode, which i was very pleased with. respectively, tagiru and gumdramon in themselves were very enjoyable -- while they didn't receive the most development ever, i still liked them a lot.
ryouma was also a very interesting and enjoyable character despite being shrouded in mystery for a good portion of the show, though again, he didn't have the most development. i was very disappointed when astamon only really even played a role in the final two episodes, and even more disappointed by the fact that ren hardly served a purpose. he was such a good character, but he basically got one or two episodes, then was trashed immediately.
many of the characters seemed useless because of their significant lack of development, and in fact, they pretty much were. what kind of upsets me a little bit is that they gave them all very interesting personalities but hardly did anything with their actual character.
overall 3/10 for character.

so overall, i give digimon hunters a 4/10.
if you're currently watching digimon (all the seasons, like i am): i would make this one of your last priorities.
also, a note: you do NOT have to watch xros wars at all to get a good grasp of what's going on. it isn't like adventure 02 in which certain things make more sense if you watch 01 first. read more

Digimon Xros wars: The young hunters leap through time is basically the 2nd sequel to Xros wars. It does a bit better with the digimon considering in xors wars they were all robots, there reusing old digimon and adding some new ones( most of them have a stupid design )
Story 8/10: Its pretty bad, it has no plot there pretty much like pokemon, as in there really really repetitive and they all feel the same, digimon comes abducts a person, hunters come to defeat it, they capture him, the end
But the reason i gave it a 8 is because its the ultimate fanfic fantasy for old fans
there gonna reunite all the leaders from the previous seasons
Masuru and Tai were seen for a minute in a episode and the others will appear soon enough
Art 7/10: Its good, but i preferred the art style in Savers
Sound 6/10: Ill say this its good but compared to the other seasons it has the worst music track yet
Character 7/10: We have
Taiki: I never understood why they made him return in this season when he wasant a good character to begin with
Shoutmon: He acts like a grumpy old man, mainly because his king.
Tagiru: Worst main character ever! Hes like Davis but double the annoyance
Gamudramon: He would be good if he didnt have ignorant idiot for a tamer
Yu: Hes probably the best out of the three, hes likable
Damemon: WHy did we need a metalsukamon, oh god why?
And we have the 3 rival hunters i dont know there names mainly because they just get about 5 minutes of screen time
There basically team rocket ver digimon. They appear to capture a digimon they fail miserably but they act like they meant to do that
These guys have potential but stupid writers decide to give more time to tagiru
Main reason for 7/10 same as for story mainly because of the old leaders
Enyoyment 7/10: Even tho the episodes are repetitive they can be good and the ultimate fanfic will guarantee enjoyment to old fans of the anime
Overall 8/10: Its good but i wont recommend it since the only way youll enjoy this season is if your an old fan looking for the ultimate crossover
read more

This series is pretty much like Digimon Adventure 02. It's a sequel with a time skip where the previous protagonists are older, and introduces newer and younger main characters. The story is pretty simple. It appears to be Pokemon-like "gotta catch 'em all," but of course with a bit of twist in the last couple episodes. The evolution system has been reworked with limitations, thus creates interesting combos when the characters are sharing their digimons so they can digi-cross effectively. A neat twist from the previous formula. It works, and it keeps the fan service going.

The main character, Tagiru, is akin to Daisuke from 02. Even his digimon, Gumdramon, is similar in appearance to V-mon. Well, now you realize where the writers got their idea. One of the problems with sequels having new protagonist while the previous protagonist is still in it, is that the old protagonist might overshadow the new. It's happening here. Tagiru's personality is too simplistic to replace Taiki, and Taiki himself is still in the show and play a part in it. Then of course, there Shoutmon with his cross X whatever. To make things worse for Tagiru, the previous protagonists from all previous Digimon series were brought over. Sure, they're only there for a short time, but it feels unnecessary. It's like they want to sell more toys and merchandise by re-kindling nostalgia, at the expense of the new main character. This doesn't work well for Tagiru's digimon, Gumdramon, either. Sure, he got to digi-cross with many different digimons, but many of them are just one timers, and his main evolution doesn't go much further (compared to Shoutmon's multiple crosses). Oh well, at least Gumdramon is cute. Forget about the supporting characters. They don't get much development either, nothing like Kiriha's and Nene's in the previous series.

Overall, the series seem to be tuned down a notch from the previous Xross Wars. Just like 02, there are too many characters around, too many hunters. Add on the cameos of all previous main protagonists from previous Digimon series, it feels mismashed. At the end, they pretty much step Tagiru up by default. There's no sense of achievement compared to Taiki's own struggle on the previous series.

Overall, it's a meh. I actually was more interested in seeing the cameos (it's good to see Guilmon again, Masaru punching a big digimon, and the old evolutions). This 3rd season felt more like a filler season, just to extend the Xros Wars franchise a bit longer. read more

This season of Digimon is so bad I am quite simply enraged.

The worst part was that the show doesn't betray it's true terrible nature until the final 3 episodes.

You can watch the first 22 episodes and find nothing too wrong with the season on a whole. It's not interesting and nothing happens, but it's not overtly painful, just boring and unimaginative.

This season continues the original Xros Wars tradition of Super Evolution and DigiXros, something I was never too big a fan of because it's different and I don't like things that are different...
I kid I kid. I may not be a fan of DigiXros and how it meshes with the established Digimon levels, but hey it's not my place to judge on that.

The new protagonist Tagiru takes the reigns from Taiki, in a move I suspect was meant to pay homage to the way Adventure handed the reigns off in 02. Only one problem, the show begins a trend of not understanding the most important parts of the things it tries to pay tribute to (COMPLETELY RIP OFF), and getting them completely wrong. For you see, the reigns aren't actually handed over. No. Taiki soon is back with Shoutmon, leaving Tagiru as some sort of crony.

Ever wanted a show to focus on and follow the life of a henchmen? Don't care about the established boss or superior leader? Want to see how a run of the mill day goes, but with Digimon?
What's that? You said no? You want kickass action, a topnotch protagonist and a deep engaging story?
Well then you might see why the first 23 episodes are painfully boring and banal.

The formula for episodes 1-23 go something like this:
Evil Digimon shows up and starts wreaking havoc and kidnapping humans, no one cares or makes a fuss, Tagiru bumbles around with his partner Gumdramon, they finally manage to subdue the baddie, roll credits.

Now there are 3 opposing hunters and Taiki and Yuu are there, but the show does nothing to develop their characters at all so I won't even bother describing them.

Now let's begin the PAINFUL BETRAYAL THAT IS THE LAST 3 EPISODES my lovelies...
You see, in these last three episodes, the season realizes they have no bug baddie, and need to set something up QUICK!
So what do you think they do?
What's that? You said they pulled something out of their ass?
Ooooh if only!
Nope!
They pulled something so far out of their ass, they pulled it right out of Tamers!
I could only sit there and seethe with impotentent rage as the Quartzmon plot unfolded in some parody of the masterful D-Reaper final showdown. From the digitization of the human world, to using a loved one as a power source, to so much of it but without any of what made Tamers so amazing.

Oh but it get's worse.

This season has no lovable or memorable protagonist, so guess what?
That's right they start spewing the protagonists of each season prior into the show, even taking some of the most loved characters from Adventure and Tamers and throwing them in as half minute cameos too.

To understand how bad this season is, you should just go watch the Redlettermedia reviews of the Starwars Prequels.

The way they compare the garbage that is the prequels to the original trilogy, showing how the prequels had to try and steal whatever imagery you hold dear from the originals is a fair comparison to how this show sucks in anything you might have loved about Tamers, Adventure, 02, Frontier, and Savers and tries to make you think it's as cool as those seasons.
Except by trying to rip them off it only exposes how little creativity or depth it has.

I wept a little when I finally realized what this season had done.

I don't know how they intend to salvage the franchise from something like this, because this was a horrible blow... read more