That doesn't really mean anything. Appearance is irrelevant to evolution level. Piccolomon is Perfect and MarineAngemon is Ultimate, and those monsters are super old. Digimon simply don't inherently "look" like any level. The only thing it has in common with Tailmon is they were both introduced after the original seven, requiring it to skip an evolution level, and yes, he sure is a cat. I really don't think that's such a big deal though. Maybe they should have used one of these.

My memory of Saikai is pretty bad by this point, but didn't the characters spend part of that movie looking for Meicoomon? Like, Alphamon was targeting it from the beginning. So that's kind of introducing it as a special deal from the beginning.

It's The New Digimon, and established Big Deal. While I think calling his performance against Ogremon a better fight is a stretch, even if it was, they literally always do that. It's an established trope of most shounen action series, and Digimon fits it to a T: New Digimon and new forms are always shown as being stronger than what has come before in one way or another, pretty much without exception. That Meicoomon actually wasn't shown being particularly effective against Ogremon already shows plenty of restraint. Tailmon was kicking all kinds of ass back when she was first introduced, comparatively late in the game.

And with Leomon, again, it's a case of "new, plot-significant Digimon being shown doing things" which is...like, how plot and things happen. It's a character Leomon hasn't met before, thus, it leads to a new type of interaction, which ends up being some tacky cat eyes thing. Offing him later doesn't really mean much, besides establishing some Whorf Effect thing and indicating "look, evulz." I'm not saying these are the best written, best developments and interactions in all of Digimon history (i find tri's treatment of Leomon pretty weaksauce) but I don't think it's that big a deal either.

The story seems to be deliberately ignoring or obfuscating something about 02. That's true. And they have spent some time focusing on MeiMei and Mei-chan, that is also true. But, I don't really see how these two things are related.

I still really don't get it. I mean, I'm not even particularly fond of Meicoomon as a character, but narratively speaking I really don't see how it's being treated any differently from other cases of add-ons to the main cast. The way I see it, it's as much an oc character as Tailmon (being the first one to be child-looking-but-asskicking-adult, with its own op angel form) and Hikari (secret eight ultra important chosen child) were. Which may still be a significant amount, I dunno. The only thing it has over them is that it's a main driver for the main plot, but they haven't been coy about that fact.

Didn't they establish there were 8 children that viewed the Greymon event, which basically set up Kari rather early on?

Also, why do you refer to Meicoomon as male? I know that basically everyone is voiced by a woman in Japanese, but they're having a lot of pointers to Meicoomon being female.

I think its funny and cool that everyone associates genders with Digimon, even though it is rather obvious they have them by appearance and tone of voice. But in Digimon Tamers Renamon stated that Digimon didn't have genders. Granted it was a different season/verse, but it still finny that they would address it.

Maybe. That's not really the point. 02 established there could be and are a lot more chosen children than the originals. These things just mean, yeah these characters do or could exist. I don't think that's what's in dispute though, as much as how they're being treated by the narrative. I think Adventure made a bigger deal out of Hikari than they're making out of Mei now, though I may be wrong about that. We're getting close to like 4 years since I last saw Adventure, lol...

And yeah...at this point I'm basically using whatever pronouns whoever I'm talking to is using, because I really don't know. I tried to use "it" mostly, but some "he"'s slipped out...I mean yeah, probably it is female, since most partner Digimon are the same gender as the human, but then, not all are.

Then there's what's probably Meicoomon's Perfect level in the Kokuhaku poster, which notably does not seem to be sporting either titties or ass, which as we all know, are the definitive mark of a high-level female Digimon...And man, I wish I were joking about that. But no seriously, the fact that apparently it didn't evolve into SexyBoobsmon is legitimately why I am doubtful that it is a female Digimon. It just seems unrealistic. Then again, we have only gotten a blurry back shot...

I know, in the world of Digimon, the Digimon themselves are, for all intents and purposes, genderless.
However, when gender based adjectives are brought up, a division is created that states you associate [Blank] Digimon with [Blank] gender.
Also, Tamers is only very, very, very tenuously connected to Adventure, so what happens in Tamers doesn't necessarily apply to Adventure (Like the complete retconning of Digimon and the Digital World being common knowledge).

I never associated Tamers with Adventure. I always thought it was a different world/dimension/verse. I mean they talk about the Digimon Cartoons, Card games, and one passerby says that Rika reminds them of a "punk Kari".

But the flipside is that 02 showcased a world full of humans with Digimon partners (And I don't mean the epilogue), but with Tri now reverting the status back to "The general populous don't know about Digimon, and no one remembers seeing Imperialdramon Dragon Mode openly flying around the world to actively help other humans and their Digimon partners fight global menaces).

The changes they're making is why it's hard to accept Meicoomon and Mei.
I sound like a complete hypocrite since I said I'm not against basically deleting 02, but it's hard to accept 02's canon of multiple "Chosen children" while then acting as if Digimon are relative unknowns to the general public and Mei having a Digivice and partner is a shocking revelation...
I'm just conflicted on what to think, since it establishes that 02 clearly happened, but then it's acting like the last 10 or so episodes of 02 didn't occur...

As for Meicoomon not being Boobsdramon, keep in mind that Biyomon's final form is Houohmon, a giant bird, so even though they're changing Gatomon's Ultimate from Magnadramon to Ophanimon, not every "Female" Digimon is going to just be a stacked anime chick in stupid armor.

Ryo's Cyberdramon is a ravaging beast that needs to be kept on a leash because it forced a fusion with ZeedMillenniummon, a game only threat that featured Ken Ichijouji as a main character.

It's a very weak connection that requires the game to be canon with 02 (Since the game is kind of canon to Tamers to explain why Cyberdramon is literally leashed to keep him in check) to be connected to Adventure. It could very well be AU, though. I dunno...

That game is canon to both series, but the point of it is that Ryo traveled from the Adventure universe to the Tamers one. They're connected, in that the worlds can interact in some way, but only as alternate universes. The canon movie for Tamers also featured a connection, with Omegamon communicating with the Tamers cast in some way, though it was established he was from a different version as well from what I remember...which is not a lot.

Then there's Xros Wars just bringing everyone back for shits and giggles, I don't know what's up with that though.

Though Tamers treating the original Adventure series as fictional is a dub-exclusive thing, and thus not even remotely relevant to tri or anything.

There's definitely something weird regarding 02 events, which is probably something that will be addressed later. Probably. It's not a very good excuse, and I'm not trying to defend it, exactly, but eh.

And yeah, Hououmon (and Garudamon) exist, but that's one female mon from 16 years ago. As far as I can see, they've only ever gotten worse when it comes to female mons over time. I don't expect a lot out of Digimon in this area anymore.

Yeah, we know that Ken had a friend with him in 02 as a child before the Dark Ocean ordeal. Bit this friend is never seen again or ever really revealed in the anime. I remember Ken tackling him out of the way when ZeedMillenniumon unleashed the Dark Spores, which I'm turn infected him instead of his friend.

All of us saw him and then saw Ryo in Tamers and automatically make the connection. I know I did. But in the backstory to this event, and art shown, gives this other boy a Veemon partner. Not the Monodromon that Ryo's Cyberdramon dedigivolves too.

Note: I'm not trying to be argumentative. That is far from my intention. Just putting my opinions, observations, and connections out there.