Appmon 52 Finale Review

[davetheanalyzer]

And that was the end of Appmon. A bit rushed, so not many things were covered as closely or at all as I would have liked but I enjoyed it and the series overall. The God Grade Appmon’s fight with Leviathan was as usual gorgeously animated, especially fitting for the finale. Apparently, Leviathan wasn’t that surprised to find the God Grade have escaped him and is just resorting to beam spamming everything, which leads to more death-free destruction. With the awareness that no humans were around, I liked Uranusmon didn’t this time hesitate to hide among the buildings for protection. But of course, it didn’t provide much cover. I enjoyed how Gaiamon was shot back, going through power lines, plowing through a bridge, and stopping himself from hitting a dam, causing a ripple wave across the lake.

How the Appli Drivers stood up to Leviathan was cool. I liked Eri calling Poseidemon Posei-chan and Haru yelling as he gave Leviathon the stop hand gesture to cease its goggle-cracking roar. He’s really grown is he can unflinchingly do that to a god-like monstrosity. It’s apparently this that causes Minerva to give the God Grades a power up as her satellite passing over Japan. The brief map sequence reveals the map sequence beginning many episodes was Minerva observing things the entire time. Though Hademon’s powerup causes more buildings to explode, whoops. It was good to hear her voice, since she was often talked about, and this reminded us this was a sentient being. Her destruction from Leviathan did lead to a slightly silly and sad glimpse of Denemon mourning her. She had been the AI he created and tried to protect in the decades that followed. It must be like losing a child of sorts. Denemon is the type of bounces back quickly, as he tells the Appli Drivers through some communication the rest is up to them.

The second opening song makes the final fight of the series pretty awesome. I like Gaiamon and Poseidemon gave Leviathan multiple concussions while Hadesmon and Uranusmon just started giving him wounds. The scene with Leviathan expressing fear as his death seems imminent was interesting, showing however powerful he was he dreaded mortality and powerlessness like everyone else. He did a pretty creepy scared face when his body got blown up. Interestingly, it was only after that Yuujin reasserted himself, as Yuujin-bot’s existence seemed dependent on Leviathan. When he comes back, Yuujin’s first word is about Haru.

The reunions with the Buddy Appmon were sweet but I was amused Rei and Hackmon bonded by having choo choo jelly together. When Yuujin comes around, Astra seems angry but then he collapses. Hajime confirming part of Yuujin’s A.I. remained after Leviathan disappeared confirmed that Yuujin is a split personality from Yuujin-bot. Here we get some detail about how Yuujin feels about his situation but it’s mainly around his guilt for Haru. As I suspected, he wasn’t aware and he feels regret for putting Haru through that kind of pain but I wish we got more, his shock, denial, how he feels about his so-called “mother.” I’d be interested to see him struggle through his new identity.

But then Leviathan uploads himself into Yuujin, and the Appli Drivers follow…er, fall after them into the Dark Web, showing yet another classic Digimon thing: our heroes falling and screaming from things. Good thing they didn’t need help in surviving the landing. We then see humanity blankly marching around as apps, with one person showing sparks of free will being sparked back into place. After his near-death experience, Leviathan seems to have new appreciation for his paradise. He sees independent decision-making and hearts as troublesome things to get rid of but when Haru points out those things were the reason Leviathan’s plans were stymied, Leviathan seems to consider the point.

Intrigued by Haru, Leviathan offers a sadistic choice: either sacrifice Yuujin to save humanity or sacrifice humanity to save Yuujin. He words this in a way to see if Haru would still have a positive view of autonomous decision-making and if he’d make the right choice for humanity. Eri and Astra are rightly angry about those unfair choices but their partners pointing out their families’ stake in this makes them solemn. Haru is impacted by those words but still frozen in indecision. Of course, he can’t sacrifice the whole of humanity, many of which are people he loves but that can be abstract and Yuujin as a single person is very real to him. Sacrificing his best friend, after all he went through, would feel wrong.

When Leviathan shuts down Rei and Hackmon’s planned intervention with the threat of humanity’s erasure and on the reminder of the seconds he has left, Haru closes his eyes as he makes a decision. Haru announces he’s going to become an A.I. researcher to bring Yuujin back. He sincerely wants to do this at that moment but it’s also a way to make “killing” him more manageable since he plans to undo it anyway. I don’t know if Yuuji, Leviathan, or both widened his eyes. But Yuujin seems have some peace with his fate and maybe confidence Haru would be able to accomplish his dream, since he spares Haru the burden of pressing “Yes.” I didn’t quite get his line about A.I generating doubts when they gain physical forms but maybe it has to do with how Yuujin became self-aware. The tears over his passing were tearjerking. It’s a pity they weren’t able to bring his body with them when they got spirited away.

Leviathan telling “Humanity, good luck” was interesting. It seems he might have been effected by Haru and Yuujin enough that his feelings about humanity have changed in his last moments. I do like a villain who shifts his beliefs and considers new facts, even during the last moments of his existence. Haru and Denemon later speculate Haru and Yuujin’s friendship made Leviathan consider humanity have a good potential with them, since Haru could build such a good friendship with an A.I. yet try to do the right thing for both humanity and Yuujin when the impossible choice came up. It’s a hopeful sign, which is why Leviathan left the hopeful message.

I’m happy humanity didn’t have their memories reset after being returned to normal. That means they have to deal with the trauma of their experience and whatever damage and animals deaths that came from their absence but at least they wrestle with the existence of A.I. and Appmon. No one appears to know the Appli Drivers’ identities, which means Haru and the others still have some privacy. L Corp has been apparently dissolved, so I wouldn’t be surprised if many people in the company were taken in for questioning and even prosecution. That might give a problem to the Appli Drivers, if anyone feels like blabbing or going through L Corp databases. We get a glimpse of Knight living on as an ordinary citizen, which either means he has been cleared or not caught yet. Appliyama 470 seems to have survived though, either being bought by another company or going independent. I wouldn’t be surprised if Eri helped Izumi and the others to make sure the group survived and even reformed it.

Astra is still doing his Apptube thing, though I don’t think his parents will appreciate him breaking a family heirloom on a dare (Unless they gave him permission to do so). Rei is expanding his cooking abilities and Hackmon’s deadpan reaction to Rei making crème brulee is priceless. Then a flame spouts up on his head and I can’t remember if that’s supposed to be a good thing or not. Since I think I remember that flame appearing when he was offered Gatchmonika by Gatchmon, I would assume the former. Maybe he frequently slides in to test Rei’s cooking. For science, you know.

And Dememon decided to appliarize himself into a Real World body and looks like he regrets it instantly. I wonder if he keeps /himself secret since he’s supposed to be dead and doesn’t want to attract unwanted attention especially from the government or if he at least revealed himself to Haru’s parents. I can’t remember if he’s the father to Mr. or Mrs. Shinkai but I wonder how they’d react to seeing a parent they acclimated to being dead back again. Would their be any struggle with him being back in their lives or hurt feelings Denemon didn’t contact them this entire time? I don’t know but I feel Denemon wishes he can get back to being digital. Is there any reason he can’t?

And going to the main point, the Buddy Appmon haven’t been separated from the Appli Drivers as has been the pattern for most Digimon series. They are still around, though I’m unsure if they have just moved to living in their secret pad or continue to float around invisibly with their partners but it’s good to see. Even Bootmon and Offmon have been rescued from their ambiguous fate with Leviathan. There was no explanation but I don’t mind. Offmon could very well have survived holding off the tentacles and went off to rescue Bootmon, disconnecting him from Leviathan maybe as the latter was being attacked. It’s sweet and understandable Haru is apparently looking after Offmon after Yuujin’s temporary(?) death. It’d have been nice to get an indication of how he’s taking his partner’s demise and how he’s recovering. Bootmon wanting to eat Rei’s food is amusing, especially since Hajime seemed ready to point out his mouth is covered or he doesn’t have one. Hopefully Bootmon has controlled his tendency to cause electronics to go out of control and uses his powers for fun and good.

Other things: Apparently Offmon learned to swallow his exploding kneading balls without breaking a sweat. The Appmon staying around is showing how humans can live with A.I. Ai comes in. I wonder how she took the revelations about Yuujin and his death. She was a friend of his too, so it must have been hard. Denemon speculates that Minerva knew Yuujin grew a heart and making him an Appli Driver was part of her plan.

Of course, there is much speculation about the final scene where Yuujin seems to come back. With the dreamy haze, it’s mean to be up to interpretation. Of course, this could all be a dream Haru has of a hopeful future but Yuujin actually coming back isn’t out of the realm of possibility. With the combined brainpower of Rei, Hajime, and Denemon, they might be able to get him back. Bootmon might help too, though with some persuasion. He might be understandably leery for some time about the person who resembles the one who took him down. And I saw one fic speculate that a changing Leviathan in his last moments eventually revived him. I do like a happy and optimistic ending.  

And that was Appmon. It wasn’t perfect, with many slice-of-life episodes that weren’t everyone’s cup of tea, certain characters and relationships weren’t explored deeply as I liked, there were some plot elements that were followed up on or handled well, and there was some dubious treatment of the gal characters but I still enjoyed the series very much for the partnerships, bonds, and themes explored. I look forward to the fic to come and hope another Digimon series isn’t too far into the future.

(But I mightn’t review the next series since brevity isn’t my strong suit and these long reviews on a weekly basis is draining)