4th Anniversary of Digimon Universe: AppliMonsters!

[MarcFBR]

It's October 1st in Japan, so time for another anniversary! Digimon Universe: AppliMonsters began 4 years ago on October 1st, 2020.

(Various text below has been used in prior anniversary articles.)


Appmon premiered partway thru tri., which means it was the first time (and thus far only time) we had completely different pieces of Digimon animation running concurrently/ongoing. (Not to mention Appmon having 2 manga running during the run of the anime. In fact, Appmon Academy, the second Appmon manga, began the same day as the anime.)


Since tri. was bringing back older characters, Appmon went and did something new, which was not only start over entirely, but have the monsters be fresh, with only a handful of more direct appearances (a new version of Hackmon being a major character, and a late cameo from Agumon, among a handful of monsters with familiar appearances.)

Appmon more directly than most of Digimon had the idea of AI front and forward from beginning to end, along with a range of interesting characters that people quickly grew to like. It also did a pretty good job at making sure all the main characters got decent weighting for their own stories.

On top of that we got a selection of new music that fit in with the franchise well, while not always being what was expected.



After a decent wait, Appmon finally began streaming officially on Crunchyroll with subtitles almost a year ago.

The Appmon still make occasional cameos on the official Digimon Web Twitter, but fans look forward to when they might see them used a bit more.



We went over all 4 Appmon DVD-Boxes as they came out, and our breakdowns can be found:
Box 1 Breakdown
Box 2 Breakdown
Box 3 Breakdown
Box 4 Breakdown


All 4 DVD-Boxes for Digimon Universe: AppliMonsters are still available to order. (Affiliate links.)
Digimon Universe: AppliMonsters DVD Box 1
Digimon Universe: AppliMonsters DVD Box 2
Digimon Universe: AppliMonsters DVD Box 3
Digimon Universe: AppliMonsters DVD Box 4

 

[Rohan]

I really need to get back to watching Appmon. I only got like five or so episodes in when the series first got licenced.

 

[Deep Saver]

One of my favorite Digimon shows, with great characters, fights, humor, and some wonderful thought provoking moments. I know a lot of people still haven’t tried this show since it is in a very unique universe and a lot of people perceive it as a spinoff, so I hope more people discover its charms!

 

[McGann]

Rewatched it recently. Still a great series.
With how many Anime were poorly implementing CGI models at the time, Appmon's 3D animation remains incredibly stylish.

 

[Digiforlife]

I almost gave up watching it by Ep20 but I kept on and never regretted it

 

[Mattman324]

I'm on Episode 40 of my watchthrough. Only get to about 2 episodes a week at most (because it's sitting next to the entire rest of my frontlog trying to get watched, and my frontlog is an eternal gaping maw for, uh, obvious reasons), but it's been fun so far.

 

[kingofgames]

I tried it when it came out and dropped it after a few episodes, but revisited it this year and really got into it after the first 10 or so, think it has my favorite Digimon series finale.
No Musimon, No life!

 

[AppliFang]

I really loved this series....good music and very dramatic scenes half way through the series!!

Also...there were some lgbt love in that twitter episode ^^

 

[DragonicEmperor]

My shared second favorite Digimon series. Great characters, neat storyline, good partner synergy and nice animation.

A shame it doesn't get more/love respect. The center of the universe Karan Eri-sama should Dokkan Punch all those who do not give it the respect it deserves!

 

[Strontium]

Saying "I loved this series" doesn't encapsulate my absolute passion for this series. But I'll share something else on this Appmon Anniversary - the story of how I fell in love with Appmon.

The first Appmon episode premiered when I was on a vacation in Scandinavia. It was our last night, sitting in a hotel in Bergen, Norway, that I tried to watch the raw first episode. But I've never really watched a non-dubbed anime before so I had no idea what the characters were saying. Still, I was intrigued by the show and I discovered by reading the discussion threads here on WtW that I could get a better idea of what was going on.

When the fourth episode aired, I was again traveling, this time to my cousin's Bar Mitzvah. If you've never been to a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, a key feature of the event is a big party for friends and family. I can't stand loud noises, and the cavernous room in the museum where my cousin's party would be held was awfully loud. I couldn't be in that room. So someone from the museum stuck me on a bench in a dark exhibit close by to the party. And there I sat.

I won't belabor the point, but I was in an awful mood all alone in that dark room, away from my family while they were having fun. But I did have free wi-fi. And I went and watched the raw for Episode 4, the one with the Halloween story. Watching that episode, my spirits lifted. I felt a true connection to the characters, especially Gatchmon, who comforted me in that moment of loneliness and disappointment. And after that day I became a fervent Appmon fan. It wasn't long after that I ordered a very large Gatchmon plushie and began to tune in every Saturday to watch the episodes raw, then waiting for them to get subbed so I could watch them again.

That's why Appmon means so much to me - it was there for me when I was feeling very, very low. I hope that every Digimon fan gives this show a try.

 

[TMS]

Appmon... was probably my least favorite Digimon series, I’m sorry to say. When it was good, it was really good, but I think it could have benefited from being about half the length it was. Too many episodes were inconsequential, and there was too much unrelenting silliness for my taste, compared to the other series. It made it kind of a drag to follow at times. But a lot of people really liked it, so that was good, and I’m glad it exists. I really need to look through the manga one of these days.

 

[Santaskid]

Applimon was a great series, it could of been fine as a proper digimon season I feel heck I honestly look at it as Xros Wars done right. Or at least look at linking and Gattai as Xros done right since it does distinguish between- a simple power up and a whole new form. The fact that they included stages in the form of Grades allows us to at least get an idea for how powerful they are relatively while in XW i felt as if Shoutmon(or any of his particualr forms) were only ever exactly as powerful as the plot needed. It didn't matter if two episodes earlier that same form took out something that by our knowledge of digimon was way stronger. In a way I have simialr feelings about early Frontier, Agnimon was able to take down Cerberumon a perfect level but struggled vs Raremon, I'm sure there was probably some sort of story reason that I can't recall but it was certainly an odd choice.

The 3D animation fit well, I love how each Grade seemed to have its own style, Standard and Super Grade digis were animatedin a pretty simialr style while the both Ultimate and God Grades got incredibly unique visual styles which I rather enjoyed. In fact I wouldn't be opposed to the powers that be Revisiting the Appli world every now and then. Maybe instead of the dreaded gap years use Applimon to take a break from digi. I mean as much as I'm enjoying the new Adventure the back of my mind will forever be dreading a Fourth 3-4 year gap between Digi shows... at least if we got some Applimon in the middle it would be less painful if it does happen.

 

[Unknown Neo]

I liked it. Some fun characters, needed a girl Appmon partner, the only important non-partner human that was important was Ai, then we all know about Yujin and how it's very Tai/Matt. Or Davis/Ken. Still think it could have got a dub. Just put it on Disney XD when they still had Pokemon and people actually cared about Yokai Watch. It would have been fun.

 

[HawkG]

Appmon was great. I personally haven't seen characters grown and change like that in digimon in a long time. Also to it's credit, it has the best 3D animation in the whole series. Those last battles are really something special.

 

[e105zeta]

My only real complaint about the franchise is that out of 180 Appmon 80 are Child level and then there’s only 7 or 8 Ultimates. It must’ve made the tcg and games really boring to play. That’s also one of the many reasons I think Appmon need to be absorbed into Digimon.

 

[Mattman324]

My only real complaint about the franchise is that out of 180 Appmon 80 are Child level and then there’s only 7 or 8 Ultimates. It must’ve made the tcg and games really boring to play. That’s also one of the many reasons I think Appmon need to be absorbed into Digimon.

As opposed to normal Digimon, which has twice as many Ultimates as it does Child levels, and a larger percent of the Child levels are variants?

The TCG was DOA for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the product and I'm not certain they even had the equivalent to Ultimate yet, and the games were fine as far as I've heard.

 

[Guilmon]

Hackmon (Appmon) > Hackmon

Gatchmon is kinda cute.

And that's about everything I liked about Appmon. Sadly, it just didn't click with me, and honestly I can't remember most of it. What I do remember is being bothered by its unwillingness to comment on the inherent toxicity of the idol industry. Oh, and who could forget about Astra, one of the most insufferable characters of anything ever.

And yet with all that said, I still sometimes feel tempted to give it a rewatch. Hmmm...

 

[Mattman324]

Oh, and who could forget about Astra, one of the most insufferable characters of anything ever.

This man clearly doesn't feel it.

 

[e105zeta]

Astra and Musimon are my favorite pair in the meta franchise.

 

[TMS]

Astra was pretty annoying, yeah. Unlike Eri, he never really expanded into anything much more than a catchphrase. Reading this thread, I've also been surprised by the number of people complimenting the show's use of CGI. The CG Appmon always looked really blurry and ugly to me. I would very much have preferred the normal animation for them.