[barnstenchfartface]

I've finally gotten the chance to start watching AppliMonsters recently...well over a month after it started. Probably better this way. Still have one episode to catch up on, but what the hell, I have Opinions.

I feel like this could be a perfectly halfway decent show if only it wasn't so horribly directed. Unfortunately, it is so horribly directed. So, so horribly directed. I mean...it's not like it would be impressive, with how it's been so far, but the horridly sloppy way it's all put together is a major detracting factor. It makes everything, even the good things, come out through a weird filter and it's just...eh. I don't like it. Maybe I'm just crazy and making it out to be more than it is, but I don't like it at all. The director doesn't seem to have any sense of timing or understanding of how to do scene transitions. It's just...really distracting and thus not great.

So far it mostly feels like Hunters redux, minus the "following up on a far superior series" part, though unfortunately also without the consistent art quality and competent production parts. Like...seriously, it's just Hunters. Everything about the structure of the show is literally just Hunters. Even the whole AR field thing is just DigiQuartz, and the way the monsters are just beaten to be collected for kicks is also lifted from Hunters. Not that Hunters invented these concepts, but considering it was the last installment into the series the fact that it feels so similar isn't ideal. Especially because Hunters wasn't even good.

Our protagonist is pretty much the polar opposite of Tagiru, however. Which is not necessarily a good thing, despite Tagiru being kinda generic. Haru is just...kinda milquetoast. He's mostly unexciting and lacks any real endearing or interesting qualities. The show tells us he's a nice guy and I guess we're taking it at its word. He seriously has just been sort of there and occasionally acting as the story demands. And Gatchmon is, well...pretty standard as main partner Digimon go. Nothing we haven't seen before. Also unexciting. I do have to say I like the path his voice actress has gone through with this franchise though. She's gone from the mc's little sister in Savers, to a supporting General's partner Digimon in Xros Wars, to now being the main partner mon in this show. Pretty cool.

One good thing about the show, however, is that Haru is not the only main character. Or...at least he shouldn't be? For all I know it could take another page from Hunters and only focus on the mc while leaving everyone else on the sidelines, but eh, I can hope. They're taking their time to introduce the other characters, which I don't really mind. Eri's debut episode wasn't all too different from the rest in overall structure, but it's obvious that the show won't really come together until the main characters do. It was a lot more entertaining than the first four solo Haru episodes were, so we'll see.

And I've only seen her in one episode but I actually really like Eri. She's not at all what I was expecting, neither a cliched tsundere or straightforward tomboy, or a typical smiles and sunshine idol character. She's got a few elements of all that (mostly the last one) but the way she's portrayed is as just a bit of a weirdo, and a bit of a weirdo is just about the perfect amount of weirdo to be. She's rather entertaining. Dokamon is...not bad? He's not bad, but I am kinda disappointed that his debut fight was upstaged by "let's give Gatchmon an upgrade!" The only redeeming part is I think they only did that as a "they can do this! buy our toys!" thing and we'll never seen them to that again. Eri and Dokamon will hopefully be allowed to actually act on their own next time.

Kinda curious where the show will go forward with these two, actually...she's the second to be properly introduced, and the Blue One, to boot. Her partner mon is even clearly at least partly based on V-mon. Which should mean, the way Digimon usually goes, that she should be a big main character like Haru. On the other hand, she's The Girl, and The Girls have historically rarely been treated that well by this franchise. But eh, we've got a meek main character and the girl is the blue one. From what I hear there's also a good chance all the main four could reach the final forms. So, hey, shit, let's be Tamers, I don't mind! Prove me wrong, Applimonsters!

I'm kinda like 90% betting on it being a more traditional two-person focus show and Rei being the true deuteragonist though.

Anyway, an aside, but: not sure how to feel about the fact that they're apparently using CG for everything above the standard Appmon. It looks fine for the armored looking guys, like DoGatchmon and Scorpmon (Scopemon?) but the human looking ones are weird. Just...no thanks, buddy.

...Anyway. That's me rambling as I tend to do.

So yeah. This show. Pretty average at best so far. But hopefully it gets better.

The songs are pretty good, so that's something.

But! Oh yeah I almost forgot about this but.

I don't know if it has affected my perception of the show at all, but by god, CakeSUB is shit. I appreciate that there's a dedicated group working on this, it's better than nothing, technically speaking, but it's frankly almost too awful for words. That's hyperbole, but still, it's really bad. It's the most bizarre combination of "we're gonna take massive liberites with the dialogue," "we're gonna flat out get a lot of translation wrong," and, just for the shit of it, "when the characters say "de gozaru," we're gonna fucking include that in the subs. And what do you mean "no" indicates possession in Japanese?!? NO JITSU""

These subs hurt my soul. They are so bad. When I start feeling like I could do a better job, even with my own shit understanding of Japanese, is when I just have to call it quits. Guess I'm gonna be adding Applimonsters to the number of series I have to watch raw.