Running to the Fittest!

#digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #digimon tamers #digimon frontier #digimon meta

If you put the Blu-ray box covers side by side, you might notice a mid-afternoon (Adventure) → sunset (02) → night (Tamers) → dawn (Frontier) progression! I don’t think this was necessarily a clear association made back when each series aired, but I figure most fans of each series would agree they fit; on top of nicely going in order, the symbolic attachment to each series is strong (Adventure’s “summer blue sky”, 02′s sunset after the kids finish their work in the Digital World or reflect on things, Tamers involving a lot of secret operations during the night and sneaking out after dark, and Frontier quite literally being “the dawn of a new frontier” in entering new territory and possibilities).

Also, they’re all running. (The Adventure and 02 character art is by Itou Tomoko, who was a regular animation director for all four series, and the Tamers and Frontier art is by original character designer Nakatsuru Katsuyoshi.)

The Adventure and 02 combined box set that released afterwards (art by original background artist and art director Iijima Yukiko) continues using the blue sky/sunset imagery for their respective series, so it’s possible this might keep being A Thing later.

uzukun reblogged

#digimon #digimon meta #original vs dub #q&a #tommorows2top #shihalyfie

tomorrows2top asked:

Hmmm... We've talked a lot about the differences and changes between the original version (Japanese) and dubs for 02 and Adv'99. In the light of the announcement of the reboot/Adv 2020's US dub, can you talk a little more about the American dubs in general?

My only exposure to them were material dubbed from the US dub (Digimon the Movie, and Digimon Fusion), so i'm curious about more details 👀

I haven't seen the American English dub as recently as I've seen the Japanese versions, but I did originally get into Digimon with it and therefore I do know it pretty well. As I've said before, the fandom myth that "the dub was a very loyal one for its time" is a complete lie or at least willful ignorance (only the "for its time" part might be true, and even then not as much as people think). Also, as I've said before, I don't think enough people realize that there's actually a difference between different series' dubs. There are some things in common between each, like changed names and added jokes, but the degree of how much they did it and how much it impacted the story varies a lot, both because the approach to dubbing changed per series and because each series' own writing style interacts differently with seemingly minor changes.

The short answer is: Adventure got fairly significant changes but the plot mostly held up, 02 got the highest number of significant changes to the point it actually took serious damage in terms of story and characterization, Tamers changes mostly are tonal, Frontier and Savers (Data Squad) are where they chilled a bit, Xros Wars (Fusion) was overkill, and tri./Kizuna were about what you'd expect from modern adults' anime dubs. The long answer (with a brief history of said dubs) is below the cut. (Also, hopefully this is interesting info for those who’ve never had contact with the American English dub at all!)

uzukun reblogged

When are people in the Digimon fandom going to accept the 2000s English dubs are not canon. I keep seeing ppl writing Impmon or Renamon like in the English dub when they’re canonically nothing like the dub version, making fic written by most native English speakers really unaligned with how international fans see and write the characters.

ironbloodaika

That’s how dubs are though. Lot of little differences.

Yeah that’s the case often with dubs but this time I have good reason to feel this way. In the English dub of Digimon Tamers they straight up changed Renamon’s personality tho, in ENG she’s sassy, sarcastic, very chatty and makes cheesy one liners and quips.

But in the original Japanese, Renamon is a very quiet, calm, loyal ninja type, analytical, very curious and with a lot of compassion for other people. It’s two completely different characters at this point.

demonoflight

Everyone in the English dub suffers from this. They’re all made sassy, sarcastic and extra chatty for the sake of what the localization team thought of as humor. A friend who watched only the original version and a dub translated directly from it watched a part of the dub for the first time recently, and said that kind of writing made the characters feel less individualistic and that they sort of blended together as a result.

The Tamers dub was after they toned it down, even, the Adventure dub and especially the 02 dub were a lot worse about inappropriate tonal shifts and changing characters’ dispositions. The biggest example is Daisuke and English dub Davis, who are essentially polar opposites. I’ve seen so many people who disliked Davis watch the subbed version for the first time and had their attitude change completely when they realized what a purehearted and positive person Daisuke is.

Yeah Daisuke is actually very sweet in the Japanese and international versions that translate the JP script. Many of the characters were affected and I can see this heavy split in fan works and fic from North American fans and most everybody else as result.

I even got berated once for writing Renamon “wrong” because she was “too quiet” when that’s just how she is in the original source material… bruh moment.

tillythemagpie

Probably really unpopular opinion, but I better release it- I wonder if the dub’s insistence on making Renamon sarcastic and sultry lead to uuuh that side of the fandom rampantly sexualizing her. Bc based on her dialogue and characterization in the original dub, she just feels very asexual/agender to me- she lacks any of the typical “male gaze” traits often attributed to “sexy” female characters in Western cartoons or even other anime (closeups of hips or boobs, given “female traits” like eyelashes or lipstick, flirty dialogue, etc etc)

Nsfw was always going to happen a lot due to the nature of the furry fandom and the fixation on fox type characters the fandom is notorious for, but I believe what you pointed out definitely made things a 100x times worse than it would’ve been otherwise.

#digimon #digimon tamers #digimon meta

Renamon is extremely popular among Japanese kemono porn artists in the exact same way, so it’s definitely not because of the American English dub. I think the only major difference is that there’s slightly stronger awareness of Renamon being gender-neutral in all non-Sakuyamon forms (due to the lack of overtly gendered language, lack of necessity for third-person gendered pronouns in Japanese, multiple official statements that Tamers!Renamon was deliberately meant to come off as particularly “genderless” in contrast to other Digimon, and a Renamon with a male voice actor in a Savers game), so there are significant camps that want to use a more gender-neutral or masculine reading. But it is true that even the Tamers text did occasionally lean on “feminine”, and either way, as you might expect when people enthusiastic to sexualize are involved, "feminine" is the overwhelmingly more popular reading even in Japan. I think when you get to that point, what was or wasn’t in the original text stops being as much of an object when you’re, uh, determined enough.

(Please don’t ask me how I know this. I also apologize to anyone who reads this post and didn’t want to know this.)

uzukun reblogged

#digimon #digimon meta #q&a #shihalyfie

demonoflight asked:

In what ways does the Japanese fandom differ from the "western" one (for lack of a better word)? I'm assuming there are a lot of similarities too, but something must be a little different for all sorts of reasons.

shihalyfie answered:

I'm hardly an expert on the Japanese Digimon fanbase, but I would say they're pretty similar for the most part. Humans are the same everywhere, really. Of course, once you start narrowing things down to individual series and individual questions about characterization and all that, yeah, you start having more discernible differences, but if I had to just broadly answer the question of if the Japanese and Western fandoms for Digimon come off as that different in the long run, my answer would probably be that they’re more alike than different. The reputation for Digimon fans never agreeing on anything happens on that end, too.

Of course, as you say, there’s got to be some differences, so here are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. (Mind you: this is not based on any kind of empirical research whatsoever, this is purely my observation as one person who hangs out on social media and reads lots of fansites, so take the biggest grain of salt you can with this.)

Japanese fandom seems to treat the issue of whether you’re lore-compliant as life and death (part of it might have to do with the fact it seems to be fandom tradition to be extremely good with recordkeeping). Might also partially be due to the fact that media mixes are taken a lot more seriously over there. If you bring up obscure material like drama CDs or novels over here, you’re likely to be considered pedantic, but the expectation you know or should care about all the Deepest Lore is a lot tighter on that end. Amusingly, both Japanese and Western fandoms tend to fight about Hurricane Touchdown’s canonicity, but the reasoning is completely different (the former cares more about issues with Wallace’s placement in Chosen Child timeline, the latter cares more about evolutionary mechanics). Also, a lot of false production rumors never circulated there because of how good documentation is (although there are still a few here and there).
Obviously, there are differences when they’re major ones related to American English dub changes. Biggest ones usually have to do with Adventure and 02, of course, and with certain characters more than others (Mimi, Daisuke, Wallace) or dub-induced plot holes/unanswered questions becoming a Big Deal to Anglosphere fandom when they were nonexistent (the theory about Yamato’s dad being a former Chosen, everything to do with 02 episode 13′s supposed cliffhanger ending), et cetera. Naturally, big ones like Hurricane Touchdown. That said, I don’t think the difference in fandom impressions due to dub-related changes is as huge as you might think at first -- remember that even if the American English dub has a tendency to eat up discourse in Anglosphere fandom, more accurate-to-the-source dubs do exist and have some influence, as well as the increasing number of people watching it in Japanese. That, and also -- on both sides of the Pacific -- a lot of people don’t really remember the series well, or only remember the series based on face value they remembered as a kid and never bothered to correct their opinions later, so that kind of roughly evens out everything between both sides of the fandom. This happens a lot with Adventure and 02, and for instance you’ll still see people having the same really reductive takes about the characters because the characters really are too nuanced for their own good.
02 is still controversial on both ends, but it’s significantly more well-liked or at least more respected over there. A retcon movement like there was on this end would be treated as ludicrous. (Well, I mean, it was here too, but it got way more momentum here than it would there.) Yes, that includes the epilogue. Japanese 02 fanwork also tends to be more consistent, probably because American English dub 02 contradicts itself a lot, so discourse around the series is very confusing in every direction. But also I think the main reason is just that 02 was a very profitable series with tons of merch, so people have good memories of it either way.
On that note, there’s obviously memories and nostalgia concerning merchandise and product lines that were never consistently localized (ranging from WonderSwan games to how well people can remember V-mon eating chocolate). The usage of Hyper Colosseum cards has a very different nuance to a Japanese fan who actually remembers that card game (probably fondly) than to an American one who probably only remembers that really awful one we got.
Tamers still is well-liked, but “being too depressing” is taken seriously as a reason it didn’t financially do well or a reason someone might not like it. In general, “too depressing” is more likely to have a negative connotation there, whereas “being dark” is more likely to be propped up on a pedestal here. (This is in both productive and unproductive ways; you’re just as likely to see a Japanese fan declare something depressing to be “bad” even if it’s meaningful as you are a Western edgelord saying that something “dark” is “good” even if it’s meaningless.) Part of this may have to do with the fact that the American English dub is much tonally lighter than the Japanese version, so the whiplash isn’t as strong, but personally I don’t think that’s the only main factor. Also, I’ve seen at least one person commenting that Tamers doesn’t come off as female audience-friendly as Adventure and 02, and I’m still thinking about that.
That said, not a lot of Japanese fans realize what happened with DigiFes 2021 or why it was such a problem, since it’s so relevant to Western politics specifically. There was one person who realized what it was and freaked out, but most people were just disappointed because it wasn’t really written all that well in regards to characterization.
Ryou/Ruki is a really popular ship. Takeru/Daisuke is...still not overwhelmingly popular per se, but it’s proportionally more popular among book-publishing doujin artists than it is here. There are various reasons for both. Meanwhile, Jou/Mimi and Yamato/Mimi are treated as rarepair, while Koushirou/Mimi is the single most popular ship with either character by knockout.
Japanese fans really, really, really like X-Evolution. Due to a botched history of translation and other surrounding factors, it’s not liked nearly as well in the Western fanbase. Hurricane Touchdown is considered a really weird movie on both ends, but the reception is definitely worse on this end because not only was it the most altered part of Digimon the Movie, even its fansubs were very poor quality until as recently as two years ago.
Due to a combination of disastrous PR and other things relevant to how the series was handled, plus the high pedestal put on lore compliance, tri. is disliked with much more of a violent passion, to the point there is actually a retcon movement, or at least a significant camp calling it a franchise disgrace. (This has been improving ever so slightly since the time I wrote that analysis.) At the very least, it’s understood that it’s a series with a severe negative reputation attached to it that goes beyond the level of the other series. Because lore documentation is so good, it’s a common theory that the staff didn’t even watch the original Adventure and 02 and basically just SparkNotes-ed it, because all of the apparently obscure/niche references made in the series are easy to find on Japanese Wikipedia.
Appmon reception seems to be a bit more lukewarm. In the West it’s either treated condescendingly (mostly by people who haven’t even watched it) for being too kiddy or adored on a critical level as the best anime ever, but over there, because Digimon lore and creature design is so well-liked, the fact Appmon tossed that all away means a lot more people have mixed feelings or even disgust about its sheer existence, regardless of how well the actual anime is written. (That said, it’s still a critical darling among doujin artists, much like how fanfic writers and other creatives usually like it here too.)
This is a cultural thing overall more than just Digimon, but keeping the same voice actor is a lot more likely to be Serious Business, and I've seen people boycott tri. and Kizuna just because the voice actors weren't retained when possible.

Again, huge grain of salt! But this is just what I’ve personally observed.

uzukun reblogged

(full prompt list available here / see other prompt walkthroughs)

[prompt walkthrough] Day 2: Sports Day (Relationship)

event date: Wednesday, 27 July 2022 sub-prompts:

Tell us about a Digimon x DigiDestined partnership.
Tell us a relationship in Digimon (romantic, friendship, family, rivalries, ot3/4/etc).

Sports Day, also known as undokai in Japanese, is the day when the class is competing in various interesting games. Aside from the competition, what is also important is teamwork with your classmates to tackle the challenges.

Connection is the key, so we want you to tell us about a relationship. You can tell about the dynamic between a DigiDestined with their Digimon because we believe the kids treat their partner accordingly. For example, while they both have Agumon as their partner, the way Taichi and Masaru connect to their partner is quite different, right?

It doesn’t even have to be their actual partner, by the way. Do you want to write about Iori’s relationship with Blackwargreymon? That’ll be awesome!

You can also tell about any other of your (favorite) relationships—be it romantic, friendship, family, or even rivalries! And yes, the relationship doesn’t have to be between humans (although shippers can really shine on this day), but it may also be between the mons! Want to do something out of Bokomon and Neamon’s relationship that’s so good you won’t get a Rubberband Slap?

uzukun reblogged

[prompt walkthrough] Day 1: First Day (Beginning)

event date: Tuesday, 26 July 2022 sub-prompts:

Tell us about a character; a character you love, a character you created.
Tell us about your favorite Digimon series.

We’re ringing the bell now! Everyone take your seat—school is starting!

Do you remember your first day of school? Most of us were trying to grasp the new atmosphere, perhaps making an attempt to make friends. The teacher would then ask you to come in front of the class, and even though you’re nervous, at least you got the opportunity to introduce yourself and ramble about things you love.

On this day, we want you to introduce yourself to the fandom. You can start by telling us who is your favorite character, be it the Digimon or the humans. We noticed that this year, the Digimon fandom is blessed with many specific character weeks (check out @digievents to see them all!), but of course it will be hard holding an appreciation week for all the figures in the fandom (we have too many kids and more than 1.4k mons, do you know that?!). That’s why this is a great chance to appreciate each and every single character.

To those who have original characters, you can introduce us to your dearest creation. The Digimon fandom is also blessed to have so many talents who have their own DigiDestineds and Fakemons!

Too hard to pick one character? You can tell us about your favorite Digimon universe, be it the anime, the game, the book, or any other media. What makes you love this particular series?

(full prompt list available here / see other prompt walkthroughs)

uzukun reblogged

Prompt List

This year, we will have one big theme, which is Back To School, in hope that this will be a very cool Digi-school for all the participants—not the scary one! The big theme helps the mods to curate this year’s prompts, but this doesn’t mean every submission should be school-themed. (But of course if you want to draw Hiro Amanokawa in his school uniform, or write a fic about Jyou Kido taking the university entrance exam, we will welcome them too!)

In relation to the big theme, we will have 2 main prompts each day. One of them is a school-related prompt, which we connect to a more general prompt. The general prompts will then generate some optional sub-prompts.

In conclusion, always remember that you can either:

Interpret each (or both) main prompt as you like, or;
Choose one (or all) of the sub-prompts available, or;
Make your own sub-prompts as long as it is in line with one of the main prompts.

Day 1: First Day (Beginning)

sub-prompts:

Tell us about a character; a character you love, a character you created.
Tell us about your favorite Digimon series.

Day 2: Sports Day (Relationship)

sub-prompts:

Tell us about a Digimon x DigiDestined partnership.
Tell us a relationship in Digimon (romantic, friendship, family, rivalries, ot3/4/etc).

Day 3: Recess (Humor)

sub-prompts:

Tell us anything funny about Digimon (funny scenes, funny moments, funny memories).
Make a meme about Digimon.
Just do funny/cute stuff. You know we love it.

Day 4: School's Play (Drama)

sub-prompts:

Tell us anything sad about Digimon (sad episodes, sad moments, sad memories).
Just do angst/dark stuff. We know you love it.

Day 5: Festival (Crossover)

sub-prompts:

Build your own Digimon Multiverse by combining characters from different Digimon series.
Do a crossover of Digimon with other fandoms.

Day 6: Exam (Challenge)

sub-prompts:

Do something out of your comfort zone.

Day 7: Graduation (Free Day)

The prompts will also be available on this page.

We will post some walkthroughs of the prompts as scheduled in our main page's sidebar to give you food for thought. You can also check out the amazing submissions from last year through the #digiweek2021 tag. Who knows it may allow you to explore some ideas and help you to prepare for the event?

uzukun reblogged

Rules & FAQ

Rules

Any form of creation is welcome: fanart, fanfics, edits/graphics, gifs, moodboards, fanvideo, playlist, metas, headcanons, cosplay, etc.
Please do not repost content created by others and only post your own work.
If you wish to tag us on your old work for a specific day or prompt, please feel free to do so! Retagging an old creation will be acceptable as long as you didn’t submit it for Digiweek 2021.
Submissions will be accepted!
OCs are welcome!
Character bashing will not be tolerated.
Ship content will be accepted and will be tagged accordingly. However, we will not tolerate ship hate/negativity of any kind and we will kindly request everyone to maintain decorum in the notes/replies.
We won’t tolerate hate/harassment against our participants or the mods.
Incest/pedophilia/rape/non-consensual content will NOT be accepted.
NSFW works will NOT be reblogged, since the event is open for minors.
We strongly encourage you to properly tag triggered content.
We won’t accept submissions with political backgrounds/statements.
Please include #digimon and #digiweek2022 in the first five tags. We will track the #digiweek2022 tag, but you can also tag us in the post or message us, especially if we haven’t reblogged your post.

FAQ

Q: What is Digiweek? A: Digiweek is a general Digimon Tumblr event that is not bound to a specific universe or pairing. We want to give space to those who love a certain universe of a Digimon (be it anime, video game, or comic) but do not have a specific event due to the small fanbase. Or for those who have a favorite pair but cannot hold an OTP week due to the lack of participants. Or for those with ot3/ot4/etc. Or those who don’t even ship but just wanna have some fun.

Q: Ah I see. This is just another Adventure-centric event, right? A: ~~No, we’re not Toei.~~ This event is open to any Digimon universe. While we understand that Adventure has a big fanbase and there may be a lot of content about them, we want to see more variations and that’s why we hope the fans from non-Adventure universe can participate with contents related to them.

Q: When will Digiweek 2022 be held? A: From July 26th to August 1st.

Q: Do I have to participate EVERY DAY to be a part of Digiweek 2022? A: Although we would love to see your submissions each day, we know sometimes life gets in the way, or inspiration leaves and we can’t do what we wanted to. So if you only can or want to join a day, it’s okay!

Q: When will you share the prompts for Digiweek 2022? A: May 29th, 00:00 GMT. Mark your calendar!

Q: Will you share the sub prompts and walkthroughs on the same day? A: No. We’ll share the walkthroughs in the following weeks, to give you all enough time to prepare your submissions without overwhelming you.

Q: What kind of content do you accept? A: Any kind of content, as long as it follows our rules and is properly tagged. Do you want to do an animation? Do it! Do you want to write an original song? We want to hear it! Do you want to share your headcanons? We can’t wait to read them!

Q: I’m not a writer nor a digital artist. Can I still participate? A: Yes!

Q: I’m not great at fiction, can I write metas instead? A: Yes! Even when you don’t feel like writing a wall of text, there are sub-prompts in the form of questions that you can just answer shortly and concisely.

Q: Can we adopt last year’s sub-prompts? A: Yes you can, if you feel like the sub-prompts can still fit. After all, we allow you to create your own sub-prompts as long as they’re in line with the main prompts. For example, last year we have a sub-prompt “If this is your first day in the Digital World, how will it be?” and it could still fit this year’s Day 1 prompt.

Q: Is there a limit on the number of submissions you’ll receive? Can I submit different works per day? A: There is no submission limit: please, share all you want! We want to see all your amazing works!

Q: Can we reblog our old works? A: We strongly encourage the creation of new content, but you can reblog your old works as long as you didn't submit them for Digiweek 2021.

Q: Can I do requests? A: The Digiweek blog doesn’t take requests, but you can check the amazing work of our participants and reach out to any of them.

Q: Do I have to publish every day at the same hour? A: No. Publish at any time of the day.

Q: If I live in Alaska, do I have to publish my submissions when the day starts in New Zealand? A: No. You can post at any point of the day, regardless of the time zone you live in.

Q: I want to participate, but some of the days are difficult for me. Do you accept late submissions? A: Yes! We will reblog late submissions and tag them properly, according to the prompt they refer to.

Q: Can I submit contents that include romantic shipping? A: Yes, you can! After all, what is the world without some love?

Q: Okay, but I can still submit content without any kind of shipping, right? A: Yes, you can too!

Q: I have an OC in the Digimon-verse: Can I write about it? A: Yes! We would love to know about YOUR own characters. All OCs are welcome!

Q: This is the first time I’ll participate in Digiweek, where can I get answers to all my questions? A: If you have any question regarding Digiweek that hasn’t been answered so far through our #q&a tag, please don’t hesitate and send us an ask! We’ll reply as soon as possible.

Q: I don’t love the prompts so much. Do you have an alternative prompts list? A: Unfortunately no. We have tried our best to curate some prompts according to Digiweek 2021's results and surveys. We tried to make them attractive for everyone, but we understand that there will be participants who don't feel comfortable about them. You can just skip the day and jump in when you feel okay with the prompt.

Q: Okay, but really... who's the mascot you've been talking about? A: You've seen our mascot all this time! Look at our profile picture—it’s Agumon Hakase a.k.a Agu-Doc! You will probably see Agu-Doc a few times during Digiweek 2022. But don't make Agu-Doc mad, or you'll get a shot of Baby Flame!

For any other questions, please feel free to send us a message. The rules and FAQ will also be available on this page.

Stay tune for the prompts announcement next week!