Xros Wars was mediocre but enjoyable. Hunters was mostly awful
Characters:
I hate Tagiru because of his constant Character Shilling and spotlight-stealing tendencies. Gumdramon is annoying but him being a former criminal and only wanting power at first would've made for some great Character Development. Too bad nothing came out of it
Removing interesting and likable characters like Nene and Kiriha was awful. They came back eventually, but too little, too late
Taiki becoming a mentor figure was a nice and interesting new angle to explore. I also liked Shoutmon being all kingly and powerful: it felt like natural progression for both of them
Yuu's increased screentime wasn't objectively bad when he was mostly a MacGuffin before, it's just that I personally despise this Ken-wannabe and his turd-looking partner
Ryouma being a rival to Tagiru and at the same time a fan of Taiki was interesting and something I liked
I liked the Watchmaker and I actually didn't mind the plot twist about his identity, but I hated the lack of foreshadowing
Other characters were extremely forgettable
Plot:
20 episodes or so of filler followed by a tightly packed finale is awful pacing
Those Monster of the Week episodes are way too Pokemon-esque. Yes, Xros Wars was a bit Pokemon-esque too, but all digimon there were friends or at least allies. In Hunters you just beat the digimon, press a button, and someone who's been trying to kill you is now your meek follower. Characters bragging about how many digimon they caught as if they were trophies instead of sapient beings is fairly awful too. And it's not just jerkasses like Airu: even Taiki does it
Do digimon come to human world deliberately searching for power or are they kidnapped and brainwashed? Beats me. Aside from one or two exceptions, we never interact with digimon caught by hunters (they are trophies instead of characters)
Stupid new "one Xros per hunter" rule nerfs Xros Wars characters to the point they needed the heroes from other seasons to save them. Sure, seeing them all fight together was awesome, but it only highlighted the incompetence forced on Xros Wars team
And the finale: I liked that Ryouma won the duel. It was geniunely unexpected and felt like a nice conclusion to Tagiru's character arc: from a brash hothead who always tries to be the first to a person willing to step aside for the greater good. But no, of course not. Can't have something new and original. Gotta keep shilling Creator's Pet! So we got the bullshit twist with Astamon instead
To wrap it all up: it might have a few good moments, but Hunters isn't a good sequel to Xros Wars. It isn't even a good story
Bad sequel to mediocre series
Xros Wars was mediocre but enjoyable. Hunters was mostly awful
Characters:
Plot:
To wrap it all up: it might have a few good moments, but Hunters isn't a good sequel to Xros Wars. It isn't even a good story