Why I think Young Hunters should be a separate season from Xros Wars *Spoilers*

[Shadow Shinji]

So I have decided to make a compilation of all the reasons why Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time should be taken in my opinion as a separate season within the universe of Xros Wars, same as 02 and tri. with respect to Adventure.



1- Leader and main Digimon: Taiki & Shoutmon/Tagiru & Gumdramon. In this same regard, the main cast in Hunters consists of four new protagonists (Tagiru, Ryouma, Ren & Airu) and two returning characters (Taiki & Yuu), as you would expect from a sequel.
2- Shoutmon, main Digimon in Xros Wars, & Shoutmon (King Ver.), co protagonist-Digimon in Young Hunters, are considered different species according to the Digimon Reference Book.
3- Way of teaming up (Armies/Hunting parties), and leaders of these groups (Generals, usually chosen by a superior entity, they must possess a Xros Code in some extent/Hunters, anyone can become one, no specific requirements).
4- Main musical theme: We Are Xros Heart!/Tagiru Chikara.
5- Setting where the action takes place: Digital World where you can acess by Zone Transfer/DigiQuartz by using Time Shift.
6- Time frame. There is a marked time jump between the first two arcs and the third one. While Taiki is 13 years old in XW, he's 14 in YH. This aspect is quite noticeable when it is shown a flashback of the battle between DarknessBagramon and the Xros Heart United Army at the very beginning of Hunters.
7- Way of capturing Digimon (DigiMelody/Hunting-Collection) and requirements to materialize them. Apparently, Digimon can not be materialized under normal conditions in the Human World during most of XW, whereas in YH yes, probably because the DW and the HW are much closer towards the end of XW.
8- Core concept: Code Crown/Digimon Hunt.
9- The way of evolving is slightly different. In XW the "Chou Shinka" is considered a miraculous evolution, whereas in YH it is much more widespread; In addition the DigiXros/Xros Up are ruled by different conditions.
10- Final evolutionary form (Shoutmon X7 Superior Mode/Xros Up Arresterdramon Superior Mode). The appearance of Shoutmon X7 SM, the ultimate omnipotent evolution of Shoutmon, certainly marks a season finale.
11- Final villain (Bagramon/Quartzmon) and their background. The main enemies in XW are the Bagra Army and the team Twilight, while in YH it is quite relevant to the plot the emergence of Digimon infected by the power of human emotions through the DigiQuartz. It is also worth remembering that the dream that Taiki has at the beginning of the first episode corresponds, with slight differences, to the final battle against DarknessBagramon in the Human World, which demostrates that this was probably the planned end of the series in the first place.
12- Eyecatch in the middle and the end of each episode: Data Collection/Introduction Corner. Furthermore, the attack techniques caption design is slightly different in YH compared to XW.
13- Vital importance of the DigiMemories in the plot of XW, while they are not even mentioned during YH.
14- The existence of the Xros Heart United Army in XW, whereas in YH it doesn't reappear until the very end, when the original group from the previous season reunite again.
15- In this sense, the Old Clock Shop Man designates Taiki as one of the "saviors" of other Worlds, in this case the same as the one of Tagiru, which is why he names both of them "Legendary Heroes" along with the other leaders. Same in Digimon Xros Wars (Manga) and Digimon Adventure PSP.







16- All the rest of materials complementary to the anime (Super Digica Taisen, Digimon X Arena, Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Blue/Red, Digimon Xros Figure Series, Japanese Xros Loader, Bandai Asia Fusion Loader and the manga itself) cover the series till the end of Xros Wars (Ep. 54).
17- When Young Hunters was first announced in the V-Jump, they referred to it as "The Super Evolution of Digimon Xros Wars!", thus implying that it was planned to be a continuation or direct sequel of the original series.
18- It should also be noted that Toei itself makes a clear distinction between Xros Wars (http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/digimon_xw2010) and Young Hunters (http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/digimon_xw) on its official website; Even the DVD Japanese Rental Box makes a distinction between the two:



Not to mention the official merchandising for both the 15th Anniversary & 20th Anniversary, as well as some videogames like Digimon Fortune:









19- Some other related media of non-Japanese origin also make a clear distinction between Xros Wars and its direct sequel, such as Crunchyroll and the Malaysian Rental DVD Box set.



20- Unlike the previous ones, this three last arguments are kind of subjective: the title itself (Digimon Xros Wars), couldn't be applied per se to the main theme of YH in the full sense of the word, and the path is really different between the two: while in XW there is not a single filler episode, YH is mainly about that. Moreover, the brief introduction to the second season of Xros Wars (The Death Generals and the Seven Kingdom) feels more like a mid-season recap, quite common in this kind of animes, unlike the first minutes of The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time which consist more of a flashback in order to introduce the new season.

My Conclusion: Xros Wars and Young Hunters are two different seasons or generations within the same series.

Anyways, I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic guys

 

[MarcFBR]

I've changed the topic name to be more honest to what the initial post is.


And frankly, you ignore or skip over a number of things, so it's hard to take such an argument seriously when you pick and choose what to discuss (down to and including the DVDs and soundtracks.)


Like that we've long since known that Toei's internal catalog doesn't make a distinction between Xros and Hunters.


Regardless of production reasons, what we believe, why we believe it, etc. Toei treats it as a single entity in their own listings.


So it's basically a case of, regardless of what may even be right, Toei says there is 'Xros Wars'

 

[ShikaSS]

This reminds me of the typical "What is a Gundam" discussion. Hunters is part of Xros Wars because the creators say so, as pointed by Marc.

This is quite simple, really. Xros Wars is a single series with 3 unique and well distinguishable arcs.

 

[MasterOfTartarus]

i only seperate them when it come to rating them in terms of quality, since XW is quite ok and YH is cancer.

 

[Pizza Splitter]

Generally the same as Tatarus myself. Although I liked Xros Wars I didn't care for Hunters. I do usually call hunters it's own season when people ask which seasons to watch when they ask about Digimon just to make it clear Xros Wars itself is fine without hunters.

 

[Vaioumon]

I also make the distinction between Xros Wars and Hunters, but it makes sense that Toei doesn't. It's a shame Hunters couldn't really separate itself more, I actually think it's fine, it's just it being part of Xros Wars that brings it down, since it takes the series that already had its rules thrown out for new ones and throws those out too.

 

[Unknown Neo]

I'd count it as a 3 part series. Because we need Yuu to get his Digimon back. That's one thing I really liked about it. ...And how The other two humans got Digivices near the end too.

 

[Muur]

I felt like killing Bagramon was a good ending. The third season was... okay for what it was but it was really just 20 episodes of filler and then 2 episodes of fan service

and nah it's defo the same show. We can't just pretend it's not just cuz nearly everyone hated season 3. It's not how it works. It's like when people pretend the second half of Death Note or SAO is a "different series"

 

[Unknown Neo]

Weird. Death Note is a different arc while I'm not sure I can say what I think of the arcs in SAO.

 

[Jay Ukyou]

I think a lot of the arguments calling Hunters part of the same 'season' as Xros Wars can be applied to 02...

Apart from what Marc said about Toei's internal numbering, I honestly think Hunters seems more like Xros Wars 02 than a simple continuation. The time skip and the new protagonist being the biggest parallels to 02.

 

[Unknown Neo]

And how people might call Tagiru Taiki's Daisuke. Or maybe a "worse Daisuke".

 

[wildwing64]

I feel that Hunters made enough changes, like the tweaked artstyle, the timeskip, the entirely new protagonist, blatantly nerfing the previous protagonist and altering the Digixros mechanics, to warrant being counted as its own series... albeit, the shortest in franchise history.

Then again, unlike Adventure 02 there's nothing in the title indicating that it's anything more than Act 3 of Xros Wars. Tagiru doesn't even get a unique or upgraded version of the Digivice, in fact they call his Xros Loader "crimson" but it's basically identical to Taiki's. There wasn't even an accompanying toyline or anything like that, and regardless of our own opinions of Young Hunters it seemingly only existed to fill a timeslot.

If Toei says it's Part 3 of Xros Wars, then, whatever I guess. I'm not particularly bothered either way at this point. But for simplicity's sake, let's just accept that Xros Wars is the unique entry in the franchise with 79 episodes and two main protagonists.