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.
