A Post-Mortem of Digimon Ghost Game

0:00 Digimon ghost game began airing on the 3rd of October 2021 and concluded on March 26th 2023 meaning this spooktober spectacula is 2 years since Digimon ghost game first aired and 7 months since it finished over the course of Digimon ghost game airing and now with the show over I would say that generally it was divisive some people proclaiming it as the best Digimon season in over a decade and some thinking it was a complete waste of over a year of their lives and then you have people like me in the middle who enjoy a lot about ghost game but also found a lot of it just didn't work so given the fact that a digimon ghost game dub is now in production on today's video I want to talk about it this isn't a takedown of Digimon ghost game nor is it an in-depth video essay of every fault and victory

0:45 of the Season more so this is my emotional response and thoughts that I never really gave about ghost game during its airing as you may have noticed after Halloween of 2021 my videos on ghost game kind of dried up so grab a warm drink put on the spooky lighting and of course massive spoiler warning for the entirety of Digimon ghost game because it's Carman spook Tober spectacular what is up digital companions welcome back to K spooktober spectacular make sure you subscribed especially if you want to see more videos like this one a little bit more personal than my what if silliness and I do want to say before the second half of the video which is very much the negatives there was a lot I loved about Digimon ghost

1:33 game first off having characters and scenarios designed by Tenya yabano and hoshia hour was huge they are the goats of the Digimon franchise makers of Digimon V A beloved manga even if it also has plenty of faults and people who have contributed to the entire franchise for most of its duration having these two on board for ghost game was a great sign and made me very excited the idea of ghost game was also a really cool thing a much darker tone a spooky Halloween season was something Digimon had never done before sure Digimon had explored darkness and even Halloween but not as an entire Seasons Focus then just prior to the show airing and once it started we had the gulus mystery we have of course had dark dig evolution in Digimon before aguman becoming Greymon and then skull Greymon and also virus

2:19 Metal Greymon in 02 megidramon of course in Tamers the dark Spirits in Frontier on and on and on shine Greymon ruin mode but we' never had a digimon partner a goggle head partner although hero is not really a goggle head apart from once or twice had a dark side to him an innate darkness that you would fear not just in one episode but throughout the entire season every time gamon dig evolve you were flipping the coin on where the gulus would reappear the closest we have to this is Tamers where Gilman's Evolutions were always a little bit Rowdy and Reckless because of the digital Hazard but it was really War gron to megidramon in that one isolated incident before they went out to kind of purify gilmon with biom merge into gallantmon that presented a threat it wasn't like MC was showing up every 10 episodes you know that's such an incredible setup for a season and such a

3:05 unique idea for a main character partner something we've truly never seen in the anime before and there were other mysteries from the start like what happened to Hero Dad hako where has he gone into the digital world is he alive is he dead is this all a ruse from some other dark master what is the origin of the Digivice fee how did hako make it or find it and throughout the season we had things like the black digitron Digimon showing up whenever Gulu scam did becoming one of the main things that a lot of people excited for The overarching Narrative of ghost game were hoping to see more of and even little things like black Gaton U there were lots of hints to something more episodes like Boon's murder at the hands of seals Dramon and gamon's rageful transformation to Gulu scammon were some of the best episodes in digimon's entire history but a thing a lot of people are

3:51 forgetting when they defend episodes like this in the entire season is that they also demonstrate one of the core arguments as to why people who say you shouldn't criticize ghost gamer kind of wrong episodic adjective one containing or consisting of a series of separate parts or events an episodic narrative two of a program or story broadcast or published as a series of installments I want to acknowledge off the bat the creators of ghost game did specifically say that the show was going to be episodic that it was designed for the Tik Tok generation of people who only watch small amounts of content and don't stick around for long form content or over arching narratives but people who love the show ghost game have taken that kind of feeling from the creators and the term episodic and ran with it

4:38 thinking it means the entire show was never supposed to have overarching narratives and that people who didn't enjoy ghost game because it was lacking in narrative hey are far wrong don't understand what episodic means but actually it's those Defenders that don't know what episodic means episodic in television means just that it is a series of episodes that yet should be consumable to someone with no familiarity with the show but that does not mean that an episodic show does not have overarching plots or a strong desire to wrap up plot lines cohesively in a satisfying manner you know what other shows are episodic the office X Files and How I Met Your Mother among hundreds of others all very popular shows you can watch one episode of in isolation just fine and be drawn in and enjoy it but it also have overarching

5:23 narrative designed to keep repeat viewers interested and wanting to see more so they're rewarded for watching the whole season will and Pam get together will Moulder and Scully get together or will Moulder finally believe Scully that aliens exist or in the case of How I Met Your Mother The overarching Narrative of the entire show who is the mother is the show is the narrative despite it being an episodic sitcom and every episode of How I Met Your Mother is ultimately leading to the resolution of that question damn I never thought I'd actually get to talk about How I Met Your Mother in a digimon video but I'm living right now Digimon partner for Barney Stinson when the bemon episode is actually a great example of how episodic television can also have overarching narratives in isolation if you never watched another episode of ghost game just from what you see in this one episode you would understand bamon is a friend of gamon his death is significant

6:09 and Gulu gamon is not something you want to come out but with the overarching story when you watch the whole season you know just how significant bamon is you know what bkon was helping hero and Friends achieve you've seen Gulu scammon before so you know just how terrifying it is that he's showing up here and what it could mean for future episodes especially when gamon is in this trauma State all of that context is the antithesis to the idea that people report that ghost game is supposed to be individual self-contained episodes and an overarching narrative was never the intent because it very clearly was from day one it was a Continuing Story it was just told in an episodic manner there are a ton more examples of this though and I really encourage you to go watch my friend Corey from the Digos videos on ghost game that he made as they were airing each week Cory's media literacy

6:55 is very strong and he has similar thoughts on the Digimon franchise to me so you'll get get a real deep dive on the season as it unfolded through him which I couldn't provide because I didn't make those weekly videos all of my thoughts that I have now are in reflection looking back Digimon ghost game lost me on a lot of factors and it was a very slow fall to apathy I went from really enjoying it hoping that it would have more things that I found interesting to over the weeks holding on to the things that I still enjoyed until eventually those things that I did enjoy weren't enough to keep me invested in the show I regularly fell off and would kind of batch catch up with episodes or I'll be honest with you occasionally I have now watched the whole season some weeks I was just watching Cory's video that shouldn't have happened the black digitron Digimon teasers feeling more and more like they weren't leading

7:41 anywhere was one of the first symptoms to me there was something that I wasn't enjoying about ghost game this idea of these mysterious strangers pairing from the Shadows every time gulus appeared was fascinating but it just ultimately turned out to be Quantum on sending some friends to go watch Gulu like okay it's a reason but it's not a good one I think in a lot of fandom circles when someone has a criticism of something that occurs in a show or piece of media people will say oh well there was a reason for that often overlooking that a reason doesn't necessarily mean a good reason if I stab your nan and my reason was that I wanted to find out how good I am at stabbing nans you wouldn't go oh yeah well fair enough off you go that's obviously hyperbole but it demonstrates my point while ghost game doesn't have too many actual abandoned threads once the show is over a common criticism I see is it

8:26 having plot holes or abandoned story lines which generally it doesn't they are wrapped up they're just not wrapped up very well those carrots being dangled throughout the season were in almost every instance not rewarding or consistent another part that lost me was the evolutions had very minor pivotal moments often feeling like they should have had more depth than they do but ultimately just occurring in Random episodes now this isn't a ghost game exclusive problem and every season has its we're just dig evolving because we are segments but I think one of the biggest strengths of Digimon is when Tamers and their partners and Friends overcome adversity personal Strife Etc and that triggers a positive dig Evolution it is there in ghost game but specifically the Kano vion debut always comes to mind I thought it felt very shoehorned in and less paced out especially I would like some kind of internal dialogue with gulus allowing

9:12 Kano vison to assimilate some of its power as visually to me and many others Kano vison looked like a merging of not just beatle cow Invasion gamon but also its darkness in official art hinted at an element of Gulu too in fact Kano vison and Proxima mon to me feel very linked with serious and oism feeling more like a diverging of light and darkness in the middle the other reason it lost me was length 67 episodes is just too much I like being able to take my time over weeks to enjoy something but 60 episodes is insane it honestly got repetitive while each horror visual was unique a lot of episodes were just what if a kid had a bad time with a digimon there wasn't a lot That Shook Up the status quo and that seeming aversion to add any element that would shake up the status quo he added Espeon for instance which felt like something fresh

9:58 But ultimately didn't achieve much and myself and many others wanted something of a Sixth Ranger a new Digi destined new Tamer to join the team espon rimon basically any Digimon we saw in that season would have been a good opportunity to do that others have said that's a ridiculous idea adding a new character would mean the show is an episodic which again not true remotely literally every sitcom adds new characters and loses old ones all that matters is that each individual episode is 95% completely watchable to someone who has never seen an episode but with enough Intrigue to hook them in to watch episodes The Mystery of hako in the digital world is set up like it's the biggest thing ever something strange is going down perhaps something sinister with hoko himself with these random letters being delivered perhaps he's been dead the whole time and nah it really doesn't amount to anything he

10:43 just is in the digital world he also got a sthe of new gamon dig Evolutions that never appeared in the show I'm actually fine with not seeing gilled humon fumon and bamon they definitely feel more like VP exclusive forms but why did they design regulus Monon and Arcturus Monon and only show as regular Monon why make this phenomenall looking seeming jogress of arism and Serius Monon in Proxima Mon and then only use it in the card game and vital bracelets it just feels like an abandoned plot point to me and given something we're going to talk about a little bit later with the Hiatus and the towy hack perhaps it was abandoned the gamon and Gulu personalities do somewhat merge or at least coexist at the end of the season that surely would have been a good opportunity to either merge them as proxim Aon and save the digital and human worlds from the big threat from space or perhaps show that proxim Amon

11:29 is the big threat from space either way it would be more rewarding payoff than the deflated ending we got but that begs the question of How could an almost 70 episode season not have time to introduce all these elements but could spend multiple one-offs on very similar episodes just rotating in a different Digimon and a different school kid the budget was clearly there for that many episodes also espon yeah shows up gets one Evo refuses to elaborate okay we actually did a custom art video giving it a full line if you want to check it out it was a ghost game video who of course it underperformed uh much shorter perhaps this is the Britain me but so many of my favorite shows are able to do amazing stuff in less than 20 episodes sometimes less than 10 even specifically Japanese shows like my favorite anime of all time

12:15 anohana is only 12 episodes and one movie and it emotionally ruined me my personal opinion is that ghost game should have been a Halloween and winter only anime starting in October and ending in say February giving it about 20 episodes rather than the 67 it ended up with though there were some production issues during ghost game due to a hack of toi funny how ghost game went on hate it's because of a hack and digim Adventure 2020 went on hate is because of Co maybe part of the reason why they haven't made a new Digimon anime is just because they're sick of production issues I don't know the hack likely had knock on effects to the show so I would be willing to extend it to say 30 or 35 episodes ending during the late spring I can't help shake the feeling things did change with ghost game as a result of the hack and Hiatus but we'll probably never know just how much of the plot of the show was settled on prior to that but it did to me Mark a decided turning point in the show and so

13:02 I really do suspect there is correlation there but that is 100% not toe's fault they didn't anticipate being hacked and that's not something I would or could blame them for however being afforded more time to work on something usually doesn't harm a product so kind of 50/50 there it's also clear ghost game didn't generate as much sales or hype as they were perhaps expecting not that Digimon is doing badly financially but definitely ghost game didn't really add a ton if we look at the vital bracelet it went from very regular releases to very stagnant very spaced out be Memory releases over 2023 perhaps if the Digis jeul V was a more successful product that wouldn't be the case so I think 20 episodes of Scooby-Doo with a good plot start something in the middle and the end would have hit the perfect balance there's also a larger problem with Digimon marketing where every branch of Digimon seems totally out of sync with

13:47 each other Digimon survive comes out the same year as ghost game with a gilon first month bonus I guess it was perceived Tamers was the most popular season imagine if that was gamon or if gilmon and gamon were first month bonuses they release sets of the card game in a better time frame to coincide with other pieces of media but with the Japanese and English release difference that does mean we're like just getting a big Digimon ghost game focus in the more recent sets after ghost game already finished on crunchy roll and way before a dub comes out I will say a lot of the time Pokémon comparisons are largely unhelpful but in this instance Digimon really could learn from Pokémon the generations idea I think would be too restrictive for Digimon but I really do think some more Synergy would do wonders for the brand when a new game comes out a new season of the anime is not far to follow in Pokémon the card game usually lines up with the anime and the video

14:33 games things like Terror raid battles or things like the paradocx suun and verian almost certainly hinting to the games that are going to get announced in February would all be things that Digimon could really benefit from survive and ghost game both coming out in a similar time frame and both being a much more darker take on Digimon seemed like a no-brainer for Synergy adding recruitable gamon Ang Goron and jyon as first month bonuses maybe having the master show up in ghost game as a monster of the weak or small overarching sub boss simple stuff to implement that could be done towards the end of development that wouldn't require Digimon survive be completely recoded from the ground up to add a bunch of ghost game stuff there would be recruitable Digimon with no story elements so they'd basically just be Sprites that you'd have to add currently Digimon products seem to release in largely isolation from each other the only real links currently being the JP card game having a set themed around

15:18 Digimon Adventure 02 the beginning which is definitely good but then like the super complete selection animation d3s got revealed much earlier this year than 02 the beginning and come out way after the movie comes out due to the way Pete Bandai works and tying back to my idea about 20 30 episode Seasons if they had the budget for 67 episodes of an anime anyway a 20 to 30 episode season of ghost game would mean presumably there's budget for 30ish more episodes to me that would then give us room for a brand new Digimon season could be anything could be similar to Ghost game could be completely different something in a whole new direction would be really cool and then because people would be wanting more ghost game perhaps a TV movie could release the following October hell make it a crossover with the show that followed ghost game why not I have have absolutely no love for tokatsu anymore but the fact that sen and Ryder now run all year round with only a few gaps and

16:05 lean heavily into gimmicks to sell toys I think is something Digimon could really learn I think it's Why adventure 02 and Tamers still have such a hold on people their toy lines function very similarly to toku shows you get the Digivice then the tags and crests in adventure you get the digivices and the armad digi eggs and the jogress forms with unique digivices in 02 and in tame as you get the digivices the cards and the upgraded Digivice for tato much like a final per form for a rider and yes Ghost Games technically did the same thing having the Digivice V version of the vital bracelet then the upgraded Digivice Jewel V based on the vital bracelet be and dim cards released throughout for some of the main characters but I feel like a lot of people couldn't really tell the difference what the point was of getting a Digivice dual V to this day I still get comments on my videos asking what

16:50 the difference is between a vital bracelet a vital bracelet be a Digivice v a Digivice Jewel V and so on ghost game tried to ape that success particularly t there is a lot of parallels to Tamers in ghost game but I think not effectively enough in show to drive people towards buying more merch still did a fine enough job just not an excellent job you know Digimon is in a very very weird spot as a franchise right now its primary audience appears to have shifted and is no longer children and it seems less and less interested in curating a new younger audience a large amount of digimon's output is member berries for Japanese and international fans who grew up with Digimon and even new products like the vital bracelet are more marketed at teens and older adults in Japan and with B memory specifically igniting Nostalgia but is marketed at kids in the US

17:37 however they basically Dro most of the Digimon branding the vital hero is not a Digimon toy which is kind of true with the vital bracelet be in Japan now too but even when they sell Digimon dim cards for the vital hero it's like they don't want to acknowledge it's Digimon calling them only Digital Monsters and really downplaying that connection even ghost game while definitely four kids took a more horror lean which would appeal to the analog horror pilled Millennials who grew up with skull Greymon and other dark dig Evolutions perhaps more than little Timmy who has yet to comprehend the horrors of the universe the problem with memberberries though is that you can only milk them for so long before the fandom's metaphorical tee dries up before people either age out or get sick of the things that you're trying to milk them about probably shouldn't talk about milking so much Bandai and toei are good at doing this with their other franchises Dragon Ball makes memberberry media but also

18:23 makes new anime forges forward even if that forging forward sometimes is also kind of member Dragon Ball di looks wild Senti Ryder both regularly have anniversary events CSM releases of older devices but also make a new season every year primarily for kids if it happens to appeal to adults that's great but it's not the main reason even Precure or like one piece a big earn for to and Bandai know how to strike that balance between Nostalgia pandering and making new things so why is Digimon struggling to follow their heels Digimon Seekers is actually a really good example of what a digimon anime that appeals to existing and new fans could be it has the vital bracelet but it also has the OG Digimon VP which could be used to sell the version 20th or the color it has Digimon axels Please Release a color Axel Bandai and it has a cool blend of that cyber sluth VI mixed in with other familiar

19:09 and new elements of franchise but to many it's inaccessible due to its mid-tier translation and its release method of one part per week on a website ghost game actually had this problem too where because it was called ghost gam some people thought it was a video game that's on them that's not Bandai or to's fault people have just done but Digimon Seekers every video I see talking about Digimon Seekers or every time I see a post about it or a tweet there is at least one person asking what is this is this a manga is this an anime and then they find out it's a book on a website and they're like what I don't think the marketing of seekers successfully demonstrated well enough that it was a web only novel with some auxiliary toys and promotional videos and whenever those promotional videos that are run as ads on YouTube hit people's recommended or hit their pre-rolls they think that's what Digimon Seekers is this cool liveaction show only to find out that no it's a book I love books but I think we

19:56 can all recognize it's often only very engaging of sometimes well written literature that hits the cultural Zeitgeist and it's become much less common in the digital era for a book to hit the heady height of early or pre- Internet times even a song of ice and Fire's popularity only went to another Stratosphere once it was adapted for TV as Game of Thrones as a big and active fan of Digimon I don't personally need an anime right now we've gone years without anime before and I can find joy in the older manga rewatching old Seasons playing the TCG checking out new vpats or toys or my specific case thinking of fun Whata ifs and scenarios for my videos but the bottom line for corporations is money and unfortunately a popular anime is what people want and remember about big franchises and I can't lie I like it when we have an

20:42 anime ering it keeps people in and more importantly out of the franchise talking about Digimon week after week a large chunk of One Piece Dragon Ball Demon Slayer attack on Titan jut to kaon etc etc etc fans are fans because of the anime they hyped during the season fees the franchise his presence and the wait for season 2 3 Etc has regular supplemental media like video games movies like jiutu K zero Etc that keep the properties relevant culturally not just within their fandom looking to older stuff Naruto Death Note Full Metal Alchemist bleach they became household names off their anime even if their manga were hugely popular too and I don't want to downplay the success of their pre- anime media but it's undeniable that to many a Layman a normi an anime legitimizes a manga or at least makes it so it's the most easy

21:28 consumable and Visually engaging version of that property Naruto Dragon Ball are international household names because of the way they add as anime it would still be successful as manga but I can guarantee you not to the same degree if they were just books oh boy ghost game was a really wonderful idea and I would rather Digimon take risks like ghost game and do something new than just do Nostalgia content or nothing at all but ultimately it evidently did not land how it should have anecdotally my ghost game videos do not hit like my videos in other Digimon series regularly underperforming in comparison to even like Adventure 2020 Frontier or Data Squad content so I can't help but feel it didn't hit the Zeitgeist like perhaps it should have there is so much to love about Digimon ghost game from its setting to its horror its characters and even its individual episodes but I think its two main failures were not picking a

22:13 lane between oneoff or narrative content and not having enough merch that connected to key moments of the show for people who just wanted Digimon Scooby-Do the show definitely has its place monster of the week horror is very much enjoyable but for 67 episodes well even most actual Scooby-Doo season never came that close to that kind of inflated episode count perhaps the intent was to ape gigo kitar which had an insane 97 episode run a show that heavily inspired ghost game and had staff from its 2018 version work on ghost game 2 but perhaps following Gago kit with Digimon g noit wasn't the smartest move G noit has huge affection in Japan it being a story from the 60s originally but Digimon doing that same stick perhaps wouldn't attract the same love from Japanese audiences even if they love gigo Kitaro after 97 episodes very recently the prospect of

23:00 67 more episodes of a very similar show but this time with a digimon Co of paint might not appeal and given that even the new version of Gago kit has between a 60 and 75% approval rating online it's not like those 97 episodes with 10 out of 10 content that everyone was craving more of so I'm not sure why toi thought the same formula would produce a 10 out of 10 show for Digimon it also clearly didn't work with most sites Landing at about a 65% definitely above mid but not lighting the world on fire and for the overarching story well I think it's clear it was unsatisfactory to a large percentage of viewers the last minute rug pull of the great impending threat being years away the complete fizzling out of the black digitron Digimon who were teased for literally an entire season it all felt a little bit lackluster the major win of the endgame of ghost game really was the gulus versus hero and gamon characterization

23:45 which was some of the strongest in the whole show perhaps the strongest in the history of Digimon but couldn't make up for the other things teased for over a year of programming but in the end actually didn't matter I guess my final thought is this Digimon ghost game was fun and spooky and the most excited I had been about Digimon season in a while I was pretty un optimistic about Digimon Adventure 2020 from the start whereas ghost game I felt real excitement for but for me there was only so many times it could do the same trick before I got bored it's like jump scares in horror movies or games the first time I got jump scared 20 years ago it had never happened to me it genuinely shocked and surprised me but now most jump scares are telegraphed to the extreme when they happen and so even if they get me I feel immense disappointment at their mere existence and kind of cringe and I think ghost game doing that weekly trick of Digimon doing a spooky thing with humans

24:30 and maybe Gulu scammon will show up exhausted my personal desire to see it long before the show finished I am fascinated by narrative enthralled by twists and turns enraptured by satisfying payoff and to me ghost game just wasn't that sure and maybe that's okay not everything has to be for me and not everything has to be for you maybe in 10 20 years a whole new crop of kids by then grown up will have huge Nostalgia for it and that will refeed the machine but for me me I can't help but dream of the Season we could have had the episodic but still rewarding horror anime with a great payoff paced well throughout the season but also in the finale and I'm always going to be a little sad I didn't get that because despite all of the talk of it was always supposed to be episodic to me the show itself very clearly wanted us to crave more of the mystery it deliberately set

25:16 up and so while I can appreciate tons of elements of ghost game I also mourn what ghost game could have been so that's see it my emotional response my postmortem of Digimon ghost game what did you think of Digimon ghost game remember I am just about my opinion here I've tried to State throughout the whole video this is just what I think it's not objective and also address things that I liked about the show to get those comments respectful if you could please consider becoming a channel member to get early access to videos like this one I do less sponsored videos in 2024 but I need to have a lot of channel members for that to be viable with custom art just like my sovereign zk14 jmon and Mickey d343 as well as my digid Destin my con Club my Tamers everyone for holding it down thank you so much for watching I really hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next time when we go spooky bye-bye