Save the World
Savers has begun and now that his fangs are sired with the still dripping sustenance of TAP, Darkangemon, the violence loving Vampire writer, seeks more sustenance in Savers and - believe it or not - finds it.
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In case anyone didn’t figure it out the anime express just ran me over while I was milling about the station with my posse watching Interstella 5555 when I realised that Savers released that week. In a vain attempt to catch up I read every review I could and viewed the sub as soon as I got home the next week to completely integrate myself with all the other Otakus either whooping with joy or like a certain someone I know *coughMaccough* ripping a good beginning into little shreds.
Firstly lets state this categorically THIS IS MY OPINION, PEOPLE CAN DISAGREE WITH ME. This does not mean that these people are wrong, perish the thought, it just means you’re an idiot.
Oscar Wilde once said “To lose one parent is a tragedy, to lose two
is just plain carelessness” if this is true of digimon then Savers must
be adopted because it managed to show some original Digi-spirit I have long
yearned for in recent times. Like Tamers it’s a single parent series
(The missing parent being the 1st 2 season’s familiarity to one another)
and it appears to be soldiering ahead quite well in what makes a good digimon
series; Character development.
You could argue that frontier also had character development but it’s
not to the same grand scale of the 1st three seasons as it fell back on using
generic staple characters (Name one Frontier DD that wasn’t a carbon
copy of an earlier Digidestined and you get a Noddy badge). Savers on the other
hand, has already upped the ante in originality. For the 1st time in Digi history
the goggles have been removed, the primary protagonist is not from a dual parent
home, the loner actually does know better and the token girl while so far proving
to be a sideline player has actually done some fighting. (Lets face the facts;
aside from Rika the female stars of digimon have made no major contribution
in the past at all).
On one issue I am sad to see the old kaijyu theme passing out of Savers so quickly. For example, Takato had to hide Guilmon in a shed for almost half the season for fear of his parent’s reactions to quote Konaka’s own words “When I saw the first design sketches, I thought that Guilmon would be about the same size as Agumon from the first season of Digimon. However, when compared to humans, Guilmon was about the size of an adult. He was nowhere near small enough for a child to hide in his room.” Considering that I find the way Masaru’s family accept Agumon in my opinion a digimon “Gangsta” (This primarily relates to him and Masaru using Japanese Gang terms for one another) with almost no “Shock and horror” typical of digimon discovery by family members. (A personal favourite is Sora’s mother’s “I thought you were a stuffed doll” line). The fact that the Digivice can act like a pokéball takes away some of the more questionable situations.
On the subject of Masaru let us take a closer look at his character as out
of our 3 main protagonists he is probably the best developed so far.
As a brickhead (see Anime express) he stands alone on two fronts, firstly he
seems to have taken over the overtly physical aggression that is usually attributed
to loners in previous seasons. Sure people will attribute this to his greater
age and say that it is simply an extension of the old style Gogglehead character,
I argue differently. In fact aside from his fiery temper I find more and more
that the line between Gogglehead and Loner is blurred a lot in Savers. While
Masaru shared the overblown ego and outlandish hairstyle of his begoggled forebears
he also shows nearly as many self centred, egotistical and antisocial tendency’s
to put him down for a loner.
Like all the previous Goggleheads, Masaru has brown hair, brown eyes and a
distinctive overbearing way of talking. However unlike other goggleheads who
were often all talk and seldom even raised their fists except to defend against
an unwarranted loner attack. Masaru lives by the fist and quite honestly is
a disturbing development for the season. Even more disturbing is Masaru’s
glorification of his own violent nature (Referring to himself as Daimon Masaru-sama)
as it goes against the old Digimon code of fighting only when you need to.
Tohma too seems to have not entirely fitted the traditional “Loner” groove. His clear cut ability to strategise and to actively communicate planning is decidedly different from the conventions on lonerhood. In other words how his character developes is anybody's guess.
Yoshino is the complete opposite. She’s sarcastic and more than a little flaky when things go wrong for her. This is obvious when she allows Masaru to essentially order her around despite being both older and more qualified to handle the threat posed by Raptor 1. Her perpetual tendency to say “This is the worst” is beginning to get annoying to say the least, I hope that develop her better soon or else there will be a reckoning… Small creatures run for cover as Darkangemon brandishes his reclamated frying pans.
Another interesting addition to the cast ideas is Satsuma. He's the first adult Digidestined almost building a homage to the "anyone can be a DD" mould of Tamers, that and the ever present Kudamon has an eerie watching effect on almost everyone I've spoken to (Except Hikaizer and he's well... Tatsu obsessed).
On the whole Savers is still a work in progress and unless I see a "monster an episode plotline" past epidsode 10 I am still willing to withold judgement on the series as a whole.
Back upon the anime express at last Darkangemon puts his poisoned quill to rest for the time being. Savers has seized his appetite but he is unsure whether it is to his taste yet. only time will tell whether it evokes love or hate. For your sake I hope its love. Mac tastes like bile.