#speedsketchrambles

APRIL 11: Favorite Main Character (Digimon/Digimon form)

Hmm… 

I wonder…

who…

…could it be?

Why am I like this

APRIL 25: Any headcanons or AUs you’d like to share?

My time to shine here! This will probs be long so I will post a break

APRIL 10: Favorite Main Character (Human)

Okay this is a hard one. I love the cast for different reasons. IF I had to pick- It’s between the Twins and Takuya, though it’s probably gonna go to Takuya if I’m honest. It’s Takuya’s solo outing that got me into Digimon in the first place and despite him being exceptionally idiotic at times (example, Pushing the Moon with their attacks) you have to remember he’s canonically 10- ten-year-olds aren’t always mature/smart/articulate. 

The problem with Takuya is once you start to dig a little deeper, his character is actually somewhat shallow. As a viewer, you don’t get to see where Takuya’s weaknesses come from. His biggest flashbacks reflect on a standard brotherly feud and don’t really go much beyond that. I would have liked to see his school life, or more of his personal life. What are his interests? What’s he afraid of? Etc. He does serve the other characters as a grounding force but he needs a bit more.

The case for Kouji is he’s just not quick to trust people. And maybe back when I first got into the show I wouldn’t say this but I feel like I can relate to him more. He’s guarded and his trust needs to be earned.

Kouichi is that redemption character type I like a lot. They’re usually pretty deep and well thought out characters overall. Personally, he and Kouji have some of the strongest characterizations in the entire show. I like some depth to my favorites. 

APRIL 21: Favorite detail from the Blu-Ray Drama CD (“A Train Named Hope”)

Honestly I didn't listen to it/read the translation in depth, but if i’m recalling correctly, Agnimon performs Kabuki theater so that’s neat.

Slight edit- Agnimon claims to have been a Digimon called Okunimon, named for Okuni no Izumo, the woman credited as the creator of Kabuki theater. Okunimon was a shrine maiden, or Miko, and during this Agnimon uses a more feminine voice. I need to find this to listen to.

APRIL 22: Favorite relationship in the series

Kouji and Takuya. While I hate that the show decides to focus so much on them, I love their relationship going from “I can’t stand your presence” to “I'll be a human shield for you.” Watching them grow to respect and lean on each other is just so amazing.

APRIL 23: Any (romantic) ships?

I have a weird stance on the ships in this fandom particularly. Canonically, there’s WAY too much pushing Zoe towards all the boys for some reason or another. Makes me uncomfortable. Especially the wedding scene, that’s borderline creepy. They’re all 9-12 ish depending on the version.

That being said, I support almost all ships within the fandom. They all mesh nicely with each other for one reason or another. No hate here, love is love, especially in fandom spaces.

My first memory of Frontier is one of me actually not paying too much attention but slowly getting drawn in. I feel like I need to preface that growing up, I was a Pokemon kid from a Pokemon elementary school- so much so we had pokemon cards banned from the school yard ‘n such. So Digimon was never something I watched or even knew much about.

So fast forward to sometime between 2004-2007, I can only guess the timing from a few drawings I bothered to date back then. I was over at my grandparents house playing on my aunt’s computer afterschool, probably the Sims 2 or Zoo Tycoon. Tv was going in the background and since we didn’t have it at home, I would put on Jetix and let it go in the background.

I’m playing whatever game and Frontier is playing in the background. If I recall correctly, it was two episodes back-to-back as a part of a block or something. The first episode is playing away, I’m not particularly paying attention. It climaxes and I’m checking in more. Next episode starts and my gods I was engrossed.

The episodes in question were 21 and 22, Duskmon’s confrontation and subsequent thrashing of the team, leaving Takuya alone in the dark. Then Takuya is sent back to try and stop himself from ever boarding the train.

More backstory; I loved Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Static Shock, Danny Phantom- See the theme? The heroes had special abilities to become stronger and fight back against their adversaries. I fell in love with Frontier out of the gate. It checks so many boxes for me.

From there, I dove head first into Frontier. I remember visiting fan sites and reading fanfiction- which also tracks given the timing of things, I joined FFN in 2005 and Deviantart in 2007. Some of my first posts to Deviantart were Frontier/Danny Phantom Crossover. (They’re ghastly, don’t look at them lol).

APRIL 20: Favorite supplemental media 

Long Post Under the Cut

APRIL 24: What aspect of the series would you like to have been more developed?

I’m not writing a full scale reboot for nothing. The Short list would be this;

Not removing the spirits from the kids at all. Zoe gets needlessly handicapped for too long.

Not leaning so hard on Takuya and Kouji towards the end-let them form the Zetas with the extra four spirits (Steel, earth, water and wood) and let the other kids keep theirs. Honestly wouldn’t have changed much considering how often they got wrecked.

Seriously taking away any agency from the cast is detrimental and frustrating- They could easily pull a Ben10 moment where they time out early or get the beast spirit instead of the human spirit and vice versa. Think Avengers Infinity War when the Hulk is just like FUCK THAT, I AIN’T PLAYING. It’s seriously implied that the Beast Spirits in particular are hard to control, keep that up and make the kids work for it for longer.

The last 10 episodes are just hard to watch for me. IT’s so hard to watch Takuya and Kouji lose again and again. Like this group ultimately fails overall. The world they fought to sabe is obliterated and reborn. Everyone they tried to save is gone. It’s just... awful

Kouichi needed to show up WAY sooner in my opinion. Purified Kouichi. But no, we get silly filler preventing him from having any lasting impact, which sucks. He had so much potential.

The whole “We’re Digimon now, our senses and connections to nature are stronger” is used for like a few episodes and dropped. SUCH A GOOD IDEA, KEEP USING IT

There are just so many opportunities for great character driven/developmental moments and the show gets the ball, looks at it and shrugs and moves onto the next thing, Ya know this meme:

I personally want more artwork/development stuff. Frontier has an interesting idea that ended up being scrapped ultimately in favor of the adventure story we got. Honestly, the original concept reminds me of Megaman NT Warrior- Particularly the Crossfusion aspect with Humans and their Digimon partners merging to compete in a Battle Royale type contest. Cool Idea, kinda glad they didn’t go that route.

As an avid collector of art books and making off books, I want more about the development, the sketches and rough drafts. 

The rough drafts are LIT. Highly Recommended- Wikimon has a lot of them under Gallery:miscellaneous on some of the different characters.

Links and Pictures under the cut