I think this was "doomed to failure from the very beggining" a few seconds into the first episode the moment Tagiru was introduced. Yeah, I know that lack of development and too much screentime was the major problems with him, but he is such a worn-out cliche of the Idiot Hero archetype with nothing beyond that, and that makes him an empty tool. Plus, his design sucks and his voice was grating. Why'd they trade out Taiki as the main protagonist for him? And his God Mode Sue moment in the last episode made him even worse, if that was even possible for the end of the show. So yeah, Tagiru's the biggest fail of a Digimon character ever.
He's worse than Yolei? Now that's Beyond The Impossible
As for the background thing,Davis didn't have one either and he was kinda Flat,but I guess that was taken care of by the subtle hints every now and then he might not be flat,and two Butt Monkey status. I guess Tagiru isn't enough of a Butt Monkey
But worse than Yolei? I can't imagine it
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter
Yolei is supposed to be a flawed individual. She's more original and has more personality than Tagiru so yeah. Also Yolei doesn't have any Shonen Idiot Hero powers to win fights in a few seconds, etc
^ Agreed. Why Yolei gets so much dislike around here baffles me, really. She was one of the more original and entertaining female characters in the franchise. And frankly, the idea that TAGIRU can't be worse than her, let alone that it's going Beyond The Impossible to be worse than her, offends me. Alot.
She's so damn flat,arguably just as flat as Davis,except even more Smug and without the Butt Monkey thing going on for any sympathy,not to mention the really annoying Tsundere tendencies. She doesn't develop and never gets called out,and her stance on killing real Digimon breaks all suspension of disbelief,she doesn't even have the Black And White Morality defense or humility like C Ody either
Tagiru just sounds Davis without the Butt Monkey,or Marcus without the supra-punch and ideals,I'm sorry but ultimately I'll take the guy who knows what he's gotta do over the person who whines about making hard choices
Of course she never had those powers,she'd complain about that kinda stuff,...unless the Digimon had no heart so it didn't count.
That said I haven't seen anything past Savers,so who knows,maybe it is like when Toph invented metalbending,or when M. Night made a film worse than The Village.
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter
She's so damn flat,arguably just as flat as Davis,except even more Smug and without the Butt Monkey thing going on for any sympathy
Without the Butt Monkey thing? I can recall lots of times things blew up in Yolei's face due to her own flaws. And I personally saw her personality as more rounded out that Davis or Cody's, just not as much as TK, Kari, or Ken.
not to mention the really annoying Tsundere tendencies.
Yeah yeah, you're a "Tsundres are annoying" person.
She doesn't develop and never gets called out,
She had some development in there. And she was called out for her faults plenty of times, whether it be by Hawkmon or Kari.
and her stance on killing real Digimon breaks all suspension of disbelief,she doesn't even have the Black And White Morality defense or humility like C Ody either
Okay, that was dumb. I'll give you that.
but ultimately I'll take the guy who knows what he's gotta do over the person who whines about making hard choices
Except "knowing what you gotta do" often doesn't make for as interesting a character conflict as someone who "whines about making hard choices". I suppose you must have hated Mimi and Joe, too?
Half the time Taigeru doesnt know what to do either. He just runs forward and wins because hes a Shonen idiot hero, and if its the end of the episode Shonen Idiot Heros never lose when they brainlessly charge forward, they just get a magic aura around them that makes things work.
Well Joe never was like that, and Mimi I actually did hate until Character Development kicked in,it was better handled. I did hat Sora for being like that. (Watch Episode 46 if you don't believe me)
I don't hate all Tsunderes,I mean Keiko Yukimura is a Tsundere,it's just how much of the Tsun and how much of the Dere,Yolie was almost all Tsun
You're right there was that one episode,with the F-you to the Dark Ocean when the DNA digivolution happens,but after that it just hit a reset button. Not to mention her incredibly selfish Lotus Eater Machine dream.
As for the whole "knows what's he gotta do" that can work great,often does if you give off a type III Anti-Hero characterization. Overall writing is usually key,and well the "do anything type" is a lot easier to not fumble on. Look at Ken,he was that kind on both sides,and he's still the best written of them all. I agree good writing can make angsters interesting,but it's easier to screw up. In the cases of Cody,Mimi,Jeri,and Yoshi,it worked,in the cases of Sora,Yolei it missed hard.
There wasn't any Ken expy was there?
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter
Not to mention her incredibly selfish Lotus Eater Machine dream.
Another thing I'll agree was stupid, but alot of things in those last episodes were.
There wasn't any Ken expy was there?
In where? Xros Wars? Yuu is totally a Ken Expy.
Can't deny that,but that was the stupidest of all of them. I mean TK's has been foreshadowed,Kari's makes sense,considering she's all about selflessness, Cody's and Ken's veer into Tear Jerker territory,and likewise both were nicely foreshadowed,and Davis' is his character. Even in the stupidest Arc of the Digi-verses,they managed to do well with the other characters. So that's kind of a null argument
Is this Yuu a good Ken expy (ala Henry Wong),or a kinda shoddy one?
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter
^ Even so, that doesn't erase all the other stuff I liked about Yolei for the past 48 episodes for me.
Yuu's...okay. When he's evil, he's not as good at being so as the Digimon Emperor, and when he's good, he barely gets attention or development due to Tagiru being the Spotlight Stealing Squad. I like him, but he's not as good as Ken, obviously.
Well Davis was the Spotlight Stealing Squad in Adventure 02,that didn't stop Ken from being awesome.
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter
^ Ken was just as important as Davis, actually. Yuu and Tagiru is a completely different matter entirely.
I was going to write a review for Young Hunters, but then this post said everything that I was going to say. The entire series feels devoid of any heart. The only things I enjoyed about Young Hunters were the shoutouts and cameos. I mean, Young Hunters had its cool moments (I insist that Hideaki is an awesome character), but overall there was nothing to make it memorable. Such a let down.
Taigiru usually succeeds because Taiki, Yuu or a Digimon manage to salvage things, not because of an aura of invincibility on his part, though he usually gets a questionable amount of credit. Most of his "accomplishments" do not add up to much in the end so it would not be so bad if only Yuu got more focus, what with him being established as a strategist equal to Taiki, Nene and Kiria, only having one teammate left from the previous arc and having much more explorable depth. From what little focus Yuu did get he at least proves to be less static than Taigiru.
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Doomed to failure from the very beginning
Okay, Hunters is being labeled by many as the weakest season Digimon ever had. After watching it I can't deny said statement, it is so empty it hurts.
It had a good start bringing a new setting and new concepts, but then the following episodes failed to exploit it. The show got stuck in a boring repetitive formula, featuring no lasting plot-key elements (barring episode 14), no significant character development for the main character and no changes to the status quo until the very end. After some weeks you eventually catch the formula and start watching it with indifference because you alrealy know there's nothing to expect.
The other problem is having a generic static character as the main lead. I'm not asking Tagiru to be the last survivor of a royal lineage of protectors of the galaxy or anything like that, it is okay for a character to have no fancy background or direct connections to the bigger plot. Takato and Takuya didn't have one either. But he still needs something to make him worth watching, Tagiru has no interesting character traits and never got any significant character development, he is a dull character thrown in a Mo TW based season and it makes him stick like a sore thumb. To add insult to the injury he is the main lead and many of the already boring enough episodes are focused on him. It resulted in many of the other characters getting Demoted To Extra, some of the new ones like Ren never got an actual chance to shine.
But why it happened? Because Hunters was most likely not in the original plans. If I remember correctly Xros Wars was originally supposed to run for 52 episodes, then modified into 54. I don't know why they suddely decided to stuff more 25 episodes in the continuity, but it is said Toei was needing more time to fill the timeslot until Seiya was ready and demanded more episodes. Or So I Heard. You just don't make a good sequel from scratch in a few weeks, it recquires planning and they had no time to do so. The final result was that, a succession of one-off stories with no depth, featuring a void character as a protagonist and the return of characters from previous seasons as a cheap gimmick to hold the audience.