Digimon Project 2021 is a series of short live-action videos promoting the Vital Bracelet Digital Monster toy.
A Tamer and his Digimon, Pulsemon, spend their time training and participating in tournaments. After losing against a Tamer with an Agumon that evolved into Greymon in the middle of the fight, Pulsemon and its Tamer train hard so that Pulsemon evolves into Bulkmon. Later, Bulkmon and Greymon's rematch is suddenly interrupted when the city is attacked by a BlackWarGreymon and they have to stop it, teaming up with a female Tamer and her Palmon in the process.
Tropes:
- Another Dimension: The Digital World, seen in the second video, is a place where Tamers can go with their Digimon to train. The part of it that the protagonist is taken to is a rocky wasteland full of fiery Digimon, industrial structures, and the ruins of a modern-looking city.
- Big Damn Heroes: Bulkmon and its Tamer are knocked off a high building by BlackWarGreymon, but then Greymon evolves into RizeGreymon, giving it the ability to fly, which saves the two.
- Breaking Old Trends: In a first for the series, the regular Agumon and Greymon are used as The Rival's partner Digimon instead of The Hero's (not counting Kiriha's Greymon, which is a subspecies).
- Clip Show: Recap:Vital Bracelet is mostly cobbled together from clips from the first four videos, though the fight with BlackWarGreymon is left intact. All of the clips are set to "Vital Breath" with no other audio. The only unique event that happens is DemiMeramon evolving to Vorvomon in The Stinger.
- Draconic Humanoid: Bulkmon, Pulsemon's first evolution, is a muscular dragon-man that somewhat resembles ExVeemon.
- Dub Name Change: Inverted. Despite being Japanese commercials with no dialogue, the videos use the English names and levels when Digimon appear onscreen.
- Energy Ball: During the fourth video, BlackWarGreymon knocks Bulkmon back with a Gaia Force, sending the protagonist flying back through Synchronization.
- Experienced Protagonist: The rival tamer is enough of this to the main character to also be something of a mentor to him. All three of the tamers are this by the time Machinedramon appears in the Next Chapter: Digivice-V- video.
- Friendly Rivalry: Pulsemon and his Tamer are trying to defeat the Greymon Tamer, but he is friendly to them, giving them access to a training area where Pulsemon evolves into Bulkmon. Later they work together to defeat BlackWarGreymon.
- Hologram Projection Imperfection: The Digivice-V- trailer and Next Chapter both show Gammamon's Tamer creating holographic greenery with his Vital Bracelet, though it's nothing like the Dark World Phantom Zones from Digimon Ghost Game. The trailer also shows Angoramon and Jellymon with their own holographic environments. All of this simulated scenery is covered in small visual glitches.
- Holographic Terminal: Exaggerated. Not only is the Vital Bracelet depicted as creating portable holographic interfaces similar to an omni-tool, For a Rematch: Espimon is Here! also shows that it can project holograms of Digimon and their information over large distances.
- Homing Lasers: RizeGreymon's Rising Destroyer is depicted as a barrage of these. BlackWarGreymon dodges them all but they explode to create a smokescreen, allowing Palmon a solid hit in.
- Jet Pack: Though Espimon can fly at running speed without it, it uses one to fly at higher speeds. RizeGreymon's wings also have jets built in.
- Jump Scare: Happens in-universe to the unnamed Tamer in For a Rematch when he nearly runs headlong into a roaring Bulkmon hologram.
- Late to the Action: In For a Rematch, an unnamed seventh Tamer partnered to an Espimon shows up sometime after the Raid Boss fight against Machinedramon and find the Ghost Game Digimon marked as having lost. The Tamer starts a simulated rematch and Gammamon joins the two of them.
- Little Bit Beastly: Boutmon is a humanoid with pointed ears, clawed toes, and a tail.
- Mundane Fantastic: Digimon are shown to be a natural part of life in the city, with nobody batting an eye until a lot of hostile ones start showing up.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Greymon is shown evolving into RizeGreymon. In the proper Vital Bracelet, it can evolve only into Scorpiomon, MetalGreymon or MetalTyrannomon.
- No Name Given: None of the human characters are named.
- Plant Person: The female Tamer is partnered to Palmon, a humanoid flower. As of Next Chapter, it has evolved to Sunflowmon offscreen.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: BlackWarGreymon's attempts to enter the human world are accompanied by large amounts of visual glitches. The Vital Bracelet he leaves behind on the first attempt is still giving a few small ones off when the female Tamer finds it the next morning.
- Our Wyverns Are Different: DemiMeramon completes its evolution into Vorvomon at the end of the recap video.
- Recycled Animation / Stock Footage: A scene in the first episode showing various Digimon in a park playing with kids is recycled straight from the earlier "Welcome to Digimon World
" promotional trailer, only with the CGI Digimon models being altered to be hologram-like. - Roger Rabbit Effect: Digimon rendered in CGI are partnered with live-action humans.
- Shock and Awe: Pulsemon has lightning powers. It sticks to the "main" evolution line of Bulkmon and Boutmon, which also wield electricity.
- Silence Is Golden: There is no dialogue, which means the series can be easily appreciated and understood by Digimon fans and newcomers all over the world.
- The Stinger: After the promotional slides, the recap video ends with DemiMeramon evolving into Vorvomon and the female Tamer getting a warning on her Vital Bracelet.
- Super-Speed: Pulsemon is shown using this to dodge Agumon's attacks in the first video.
- The Swarm: In Next Chapter, Machinedramon is surrounded by a swarm of Hagurumon.
- Synchronization: In the first video, the protagonist is shown to feel all of the hits that Pulsemon takes. Their bond is shown to transfer more than just feeling in the fourth video, where an attack that knocks Bulkmon back sends the protagonist flying off the roof in an identical motion.
- Theme Music Power-Up: A song called "Vital Breath" is heavily featured and tends to play during Digimon battles.
- Time Skip: Next Chapter happens long enough after the fourth video that Palmon has evolved to Sunflowmon.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The female Tamer finds a Vital Bracelet left behind by BlackWarGreymon and later unwittingly activates the raid battle, summoning hostile Digimon all over the city.
- Wingding Eyes: Espimon's Search Mode is indicated by its eyes briefly turning into glowing crosshairs.
- Wolverine Claws: BlackWarGreymon mostly attacks with his Dramon Killers and is even shown to be able to charge them up.
- Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Pulsemon and its evolutions use a mix of yellow and green lightning.
- Zerg Rush: The Next Chapter video shows Tamers from around the world siccing their Digimon on Machinedramon.
