Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters

A quick note: Digimon fan since I was 7 years old... I'm 28 now and I've watched all Digimon media to this point and also played a few Digimon videogames.

Warning to everyone planning to watch this because it's related to Digimon: it isn't. The name is there to create buzz and bring viewers because there's absolutely nothing Digimon in this series. The monsters are mainly based on smartphone apps and I would have no issues with this if the show didn't try to leech off Digimon (or any other series). Oh and what are they called? AppliMonsters. As I said, the only Digimon here ... is in the tittle.

We have a main character that wears goggles like 90% of Digimon stuff but that's all the similarities. Why is there no creativity for character design when it comes to DigiKids?

Another thing is that most episodes (specially in the beginning) feel like this show exists with the sole purpose of parodying Digimon, rather than a story set in the Digiverse: a couple of monsters are basically old Digimon with new names and colours, whether humans can see and/or hear the AppliMonsters is completely random, AppliFusions visually look lazy because usually we can only see one of the monsters' design, ... If this show didn't try to leech off Digimon as a series but came up on its own it would've been way better because some ideas were really cool but the execution is lacking most of the time, specially when it comes to the plot.

There's no solid pace and everything that happens seems to be random. Every several episodes the story moved forward, only to be paused for no good reason at all a few more episodes in. It's like the characters forget what the heck is going on and we get more stupid slice of life stuff. The series is 52 episodes but wrapping the story in 30 would be enough. Another thing about the bad pacing, is how many recaps throughout each episode. I'm not talking about the usual recap in the beginning of each episode or the same AppliFusions every episode. I'm talking about story/character development flashbacks that were shoved down on my laptop screen every 20 minutes. It's too much.

Now, on to characters: I didn't find any particulary annoying (despite Offmon) and the Noreru Norenai Cho Noreru slogan. That thing got old after 3 seconds. I was really disappointed when Eri and Dokamon were introduced because they were fused straight away with Gatchamon, which left me to wonder what was the point of having more main characters if everyone is just going to be cannon fodder for the Goggles-Boy. Fortunally I was proven wrong because throughout the show, every single main character gets to show off in equal amounts of time and the monsters are well-balanced. This was actually the first time that I saw this happen and I'm pleasantly surprised.


Extra things that don't make sense:
1) Hidden bookshelf's switch changes location depending on the episode
2) the NO! joke that happens every episode is a copy of Excel Saga and Nabeshin. A 1-time reference would've been good. Every episode is just ridiculous.
3) SPOILERS: once the kids reach Deep Web World for the first time, Rei leaves with Hackmon to search for his missing brother. This makes no sense whatsoever because everyone is after Leviathan and everyone knows it was Leviathan that kidnapped him. Not to mention that it's unbelievable that no one would offer to search for the little kid as well.
4) for an anime that recaps in the beginning of each episode, what's the logic behind having a full 24 minute episode of only recaps? Honestly, feel free to skip episode 26 because it's just flashbacks.
5) SPOILERS: Drawmon is an enemy from the start (although the kids are unaware) but still decides to warn them of their fate if they die in the Dark Web World. Even if this monster was an ally, there's been so many battles up to that point that it's mighty clear that death means death.
6) Episode 37 is so dragged out with nonsense. Only the first 3 and last 3 minutes are watchable without yawning.
7) SPOILERS: episode 40 - Astra and Musimon know for a fact that Fakemon is a lying, cunning and manipulative creature. However, Astra is still easily tricked.
8) Everytime a new character is introduced of gets AppRealized, their power levels show up. Dokamon has an higher power level than Gatchamon and this doesn't change after their power levels increased. However, Dokamon's punches do less damage than a soft push from Gatchamon. Also, a stronger version of Musimon still got beaten after a single weak bomb attack.
9) Knight's horrible laughter is intentional but it's just cringe
10) Knight's backstory and reasoning for being a villain is one of the most pathetic plot-devices I've ever watched in an Anime
11) SPOILERS: Hajime just got back his human form out of nowhere. I get, the scent of burnt eggs woke him up. And? Where's the transformation????
12) Agumon and WarGreymon are the only "Digimon" that show up. Why "Digimon"? Because in this show, they're regular videogame characters and not Digimon. I appreciate the original kick-ass Digivolution soundtrack but this cameo just makes the entire thing look terrible. If Digimon are no longer Digimon, then how can anyone claim that this series happen in the same Digiverse?
13) The final battle between all the Godly AppliMonsters was the worst final battle I've ever seen. There's no sense of speed or power, no momentum, everything moves so slow and there's nothing spectacular going on.
14) SPOILERS: the whole Yuujin-Haru thing was so uninteresting and cringe
15) the last 2 episodes begin with quotes about how Artificial Intelligence will drive humanity to extinction. This is a very interesting idea to explore but the way that this show explores it is just plain terrible.


I think the soundtrack is flawless and the animation is pretty good for the most part. I just hated every time they used CGI.

All things considered, this show gets a 4/10 from me.