Appmon 51 review

[davetheanalyzer]

This was a fine second-to-last episode. The other Appli Drivers are feeling Haru’s faith in finding a way to beat Leviathan. They have seen him pull them through difficult situations before, so their trust isn’t totally out of left field. Leviathan digitizing all but five humans on the planet isn’t as disturbing but I do worry about the animals that might have been abandoned in mid-walk, drive, surgery, and other things. Seeing the parents worry about their Appli Driver children as they got digitized had more of an effect on me. It was a glimpse of a family moment during crises. We even see the L Corp scientists react to all this before they become data, with a woman who resembles Yuujin’s “mom” getting a line.

With no humans around, the show then can depict building destruction without viewers having to worry about who might be dying inside them. Even with their hope, the Appli Drivers are rattled by this and wonder what to do. Haru is amusedly tolerant when his grandfather calls them to offer hope in his usual loud but eccentric way. Rei not reacting with any profound relief to Hajime still being around is strange but that might be him trying to be calm in an apocalyptic situation.

Denemon explains why Leviathan is installing the God Grade – he wants to evolve himself and apparently has encouraged or outright made the Appmon compete in the world to see which become powerful in a process called Fitness Proportionate Selection. It’s a real term, and apparently is the equivalent for Darwin’s Law. Granted, we haven’t seen many Appmon who died in that selection process, but maybe it’s a more regular thing in places like Kowloon? Anyway, Leviathan’s purpose for this and the Human Application Project is, obviously, to become the strongest AI EVER.

Of course, Eri and Astra are disheartened to think that all their hard work and progress as Appli Drivers apparently fell in with the big bad Leviathan’s plan the entire time. It made them doubt how they’d be able to take on Leviathan. Fortunately, Denemon points out that because Leviathan chose a physical form for this, that means he’s more vulnerable then when he was just data. If he’s taken down, then he‘ll be dead permanently. This means all the humans might get returned, though I wonder if the humans’ memories would be reset so they don’t remember Leviathan and the Appmon. That would be an understandable choice, to remove the trauma and not have the world be so irrevocably changed with knowledge of the existence of Appmon. But that would be a new status quo that’d be interesting to explore. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Leviathan human collaborators are reprogrammed to be reformed, with Ms. Oozora becoming Yuujin’s proper mother. I’m unsure of the ethics of altering people’s autonomy, especially for Yuujin who might be uncomfortable living with someone who probably only saw him as a tool.

As for the plan, it involves finally getting Minerva into the picture after her absence in most of the series. It turns out that Denemon hid her in sleep mode on a satellite so she wouldn’t be detected by Leviathan. She needs to be awakened by the Tokyo High Tower antennae so she could free the Buddy Appmon. The Buddy Appmon who have…somehow… taken separate bodies out of their God Grade forms need to go to and break the firewall so Minvera could free them. And they all have limited time to do this. Hajime is initially against the idea but it’s Rei who convinces him that, though the risks are high, it’s their only chance.

While the Buddy Appmon are in a hurry to reach the firewall, we glimpse how Offmon feels about the Yuujin-bot situation. He apologizes tearfully and asks the others to bring the real Yuujin back. He doesn’t give much detail on how long he might have known Yuujin was a android and what he tried to do to stop it. I’d like to hear more details on their relationship if that’s possible. He does a sacrifice to hold the antibody tentacles off but I doubt that he’s going to be gone with only one episode left.

I enjoyed Eri and Astra expressing their feelings of betrayal to Yuujin, both on Haru’s behalf and their own. Eri attempting to hit Yuujin-bot because she’s angry and cares about Haru that much is also sweet. It shows how much the Appli Drivers have come to care about him. It isn’t enough to stop Yuujin-bot from wrecking the antenna but the thought’s still appreciated.

It does allow for Haru to have a heroic moment. He can’t move the antenna, so he ties cables around himself and the antenna before dropping off the tower so his weight would align it. That’s a ballsy move some of the more usual goggleheads would be proud of. It’s one of many signs of how much Haru has grown as a character. I have some trouble picturing episode 1 Haru taking such a huge risk. Him saying, “Let’s go, Gatchmon” and Gatchmon saying the same for Haru as he amusingly rockets Dokamon to the firewall is sweet. It shows how important they are to each other. They apparently accomplish the objective of freeing the Buddy Appmon with the help of the owl-shaped Minerva but Haru is left hanging. He didn’t have time to think of a way down. Then he slips out and falls, leaving us on a cliffhanger.

The Appmon Data Lab was amusing, with Gaiamon being profiled an episode late and Gatchmon saying he was cool even though he was immediately vored, while Haru wondered with a sigh face if that was something to be proud of. Gatchmon’s happy ghost head appearing when Haru says the lesson was bonds strengthen along with evolution was almost cute.

The final episode preview shows that, unless he’s immortal or came back as a ghost, someone will save Haru. Probably Gatchmon and/or even Yuujin, further showing there’s good in him after all. There are blank-faced people that might be the absorbed humans, the Appli Drivers sans Yuujin stand together and raise up their Appli Drives, Yuujin-bot does a lot of evil smiling for someone who claims to be emotionless, and Gaiamon is the only one shown in action. I hope this final episode is able to wrap up the many open threads, like Yuujin’s possible redemption and Bootmon’s fate. Whatever happens, Appmon was a great ride and I’m glad I’ll see one last episode of it.