Brief Summary
This video reviews Digimon Seekers, a darker, edgier Digimon story set in the real world and the internet. The reviewer highlights the initial appeal of the series, which includes mature themes, hacker characters, and a focus on internet culture. However, the review points out significant issues with the series' format, translation quality, and pacing, leading to a decline in fan interest. The reviewer also shares a Twitter poll indicating that many followers have stopped reading the series due to these problems. Despite the interesting concepts, the reviewer cannot recommend Digimon Seekers and suggests that fans seeking similar themes should instead play Cyber Sleuth or Digimon Survive.
- Digimon Seekers is an adult-oriented Digimon story with a focus on hackers and internet culture.
- The series suffers from slow pacing, poor machine translation, and awkward formatting.
- A Twitter poll reveals that many fans have lost interest in the series.
- The reviewer recommends Cyber Sleuth and Digimon Survive as better alternatives for mature Digimon content.
The reviewer introduces Digimon Seekers as a challenging project to review, describing it as a darker, more mature Digimon story set in the real world and the internet. It appeals to adult fans with its themes of hackers, cyber cops, and contemporary internet culture, drawing on the legacy of Digimon, especially the virtual pet aspect. Despite its potential, the series is hindered by its format, rollout, and budget, causing many hardcore fans to lose interest. The review covers the first 14 chapters of the story, which is expected to last about 12 months, similar to a Digimon anime series.
The reviewer promotes Xenon TCG, the video's sponsor, as a go-to source for Digimon merchandise and collectibles. The site is run by Digimon fans and offers a variety of items, including figures, toys, and vital bracelets. They've recently launched the Digimon Asia exclusive collection, featuring items not readily available in North America, such as the toy animation cross ldcx Digimon Adventure mini plushies, sembo block Digimon Adventure Tamer series, and Digimon Adventure unique skill volume 1 blind boxes. The reviewer highlights the quality and detail of these items, providing links to the featured series in the video description.
Digimon Seekers is set in a world similar to our own, focusing on 19-year-old A.G. Nagasumi, a freelance hacker. A.G. is portrayed as an anti-social character who is mocked for being a deadbeat. At the start of the series, A.G. partners with four tyranomon, illustrating that humans can have multiple Digimon partners in this iteration. Initially, A.G. and most humans view Digimon without high regard, treating them more like digital assistants. After one of his tyranamon is killed, A.G.'s primary concern is the potential failure of his freelance contract, highlighting the status quo between humans and Digimon. A.G.'s perspective changes after meeting Ryu senji, who reveals the deeper reality of the digital world within devices. A.G. is then given a new partner, lugamon, and tasked with infiltrating the Sons of Chaos, extremist hackers, to uncover their leader, Tartarus, while avoiding the Digi Police.
The reviewer expresses concern over the slow pacing of Digimon Seekers, noting that the story's setup and character introductions, which took two months to unfold, could typically be covered in just two or three anime episodes. Many chapters are short and lack substantial information, such as one chapter dedicated to A.G.'s awkward interaction with a receptionist. The quality of the web novel is questionable, with the translation being a major issue. Despite being announced as a multinational release, the English version relies heavily on machine translation, resulting in a literal, bare-bones translation that lacks context and quality. This has led some fans to attempt to localize the chapters themselves. The reviewer argues that this situation highlights the need for localization over literal translation, as the current English version is riddled with typos, formatting issues, and oddities.
The reviewer shares the results of a Twitter poll asking followers if they are still reading Digimon Seekers. The results showed that a significant percentage of respondents had either stopped reading or were unaware of the series. Feedback from the poll indicated that the slow release of content, the machine translation, and the series' association with the metaverse were major turn-offs for fans. While some were willing to give the series a chance, the poor packaging and slow pace were ultimately detrimental. The reviewer acknowledges the interesting concepts within Digimon Seekers, such as older teens involved in cybercrime, but notes that Cyber Sleuth and Hacker's Memory already explore similar themes effectively. The reviewer cannot recommend Digimon Seekers and suggests that those interested in darker, more mature Digimon stories should instead play Cyber Sleuth or Digimon Survive. The reviewer anticipates making another video about Seekers in a few months.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “An Honest Review Of Digimon Seekers | The New Series For Adults”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 Seekers is probably the hardest Digimon thing I've ever had to review on one hand Seekers the latest Digimon project is the adult fans dream a darker edgier Digimon story set in the real world and the internet featuring Young Adult characters hackers and cyber cops and tapping into very contemporary Concepts engaging with the way that people today interact with the internet for good and bad not to mention a clear love of the legacy of Digimon particularly the legacy of the virtual pet on paper there's a lot to love but Seekers format its rollout and budget appear to be significantly hindering the Project's success keeping it from taking off and sadly causing many hardcore Digimon fans that I've spoken with to rapidly lose interest in what should be a dream Digimon story today I'm reviewing Digimon Seekers so far two months into
0:46 the series and 14 chapters into the overall story which we've been told is going to last about 12 months not unlike an average Digimon anime series before we do that though I want to show off some Digimon goodies that just came in the mail this morning courtesy of my friends and the sponsor of this video Xenon TCG Zen in TCG is a One-Stop shop for merchandise and collectibles from Digimon and tons of other anime the site is run by true Digimon fans who really legitimately care about the series Zen and TCG is my first choice whenever I'm in the market for new Digimon figures toys vital bracelets they sold me my vinyl bracelet b a few months ago helping my dream of having veeamon as a partner become a reality they've recently launched the Digimon Asia exclusive collection items you aren't going to find in North America like the toy animation cross ldcx Digimon Adventure mini plushies blind box more of a blind tin I got your boy gabumon
1:31 and mine sembo block Digimon Adventure Tamer series I've got the TK padamon one here all the parts and instructions are super easy to understand regardless of the language you speak and read but my favorite in the pack are Digimon Adventure unique skill volume 1 blind boxes I got tentomon in mine and its size and the detail quality is unreal and since Izzy is the Avatar of this channel it just felt so fitting and this is only the start for Xenon tcg's Asia exclusive collection they're planning to carry any and all future Asia exclusive Digimon figures toys plush and more I've got links to the three series of items I showed off just now in the description of this video do yourself a favor and check out their site and if you're not in the market now keep them in mind for the next time you are shopping for Digimon and other anime Collectibles thanks so much for sponsoring the videos nntcg Seekers is said in a world that is not unlike our current one 19 year old
2:17 AJ nagasumi is the hero of Digimon Seekers and his basic character description tells you a ton about what exactly Seekers wants to be he's a freshly graduated freelance hacker but what I appreciate so far is that he's not this effortlessly cool hacker despite the fancy clothes the key art has him dressed in he's kind of an anti-social goof we catch high schoolers a few years younger than him making fun of him for being a deadbeat in the first chapter we hear about his failures in the real world and on the internet as it relates to freelance assignments at the start of the series A.G is the proud partner of four tyrannomon which tells the audience that in this iteration of Digimon humans can have more than one monster partner it's a nice Change-Up morikin to games like cyber sleuth and Anime like Adventure also noteworthy is that at the start of the series Ag and seemingly the majority of humans who know about Digimon do not hold them in
3:03 high regard and treat their relationship more like how you would treat Siri one of his tyranamon is killed in a mission and rather than mourn the loss of a digimon partner AEG is more concerned about potentially having failed his freelance contract this does make him sound like a bit of a scumbag on face value but it illustrates the current status quo relationship between humans and Digimon at the start of this new series Aegis view of Digimon and the digital world is forever changed though where an introduction with Ryu senji and esteems researcher and founder of one of this world's Tech Giants abaddin Electronics takes place A.G learns that the digital world he's been observing through his Digimon Linker through his smartphone his laptop Etc are only the surface on interpretation of the true digital world that most humans have yet to realize is they are inside their devices he's given a new partner lugamon and a new Mission as an apolitical hacker he's tasked with infiltrating the
3:50 sons of chaos who are described as extremist hackers willing to use cyber terrorism to achieve their goals it's aeg's goal to gain trust within the organization to uncover the identity of their mysterious leader only known currently as Tartarus AEG needs to do this while also avoiding the digi police since he's made himself a member of the sons of chaos who the digi police are constantly after that's essentially the story delivered across 14 entries into Digimon seeker's chapter style story and this is where the first major issue of Digimon Seekers Begins for me what I describe to you just now feels like the amount of information you would normally receive after two or three episodes of an anime tops we have a basic setup some key characters and a major goal that we can see will guide us for the next little while but it took Digimon Seekers about two months to get to this point of
4:35 course Digimon Seekers is not an anime television series and so bringing up two or three episodes is not an entirely fair comparison but since it follows the weekly release Cadence that Digimon anime historically have used it feels bizarre to have covered so little ground after so many weeks many of the series chapters have also been incredibly short and lacking in information one whole chapter was devoted to ages time in the first floor Lobby of Rio sanji's company's building where he poorly flirts with the receptionist at least it seems he was flirting or maybe she thought he was flirting or the narrator joked that he was flirting I couldn't really tell and this is the next massive issue with Digimon Seekers is that this online web novel is either very difficult to understand or so simple that it lacks the sort of quality and human touch you would hope for from a good story not just Digimon story when
5:22 it was announced during Digimon Khan Seekers was proudly described as going to be a multinational multilingual release quote we plan to release it in Japanese English and Chinese so I hope Digimon fans everywhere will be excited it sounded great but fans quickly learned in the first chapter that the official English release was little more than Digimon Webb's built-in translation which is either entirely machine translated which it seems to be or has only been slightly touched by a real human doing the most bare bone literal translation of the Japanese text this was a devastating Revelation and a bit of a deal breaker for some fans that I have spoken to some Digimon enthusiasts who really want to love Seekers have taken it upon themselves to essentially localize the chapters themselves adding a bit more context and quality to the skeletal translation but since the Digimon web version is the version of
6:08 the story that Digimon felt comfortable and confident presenting to the world my review is based on that version Digimon seeker's English translation is frankly the best argument I've ever seen for localization versus literal translation in the favor of localization why you can't just Port something from one language to another directly when you just literally translate something there are going to be hiccups and Oddities that simply can't be translated Digimon Seekers is full of these in addition to typos and very silly formatting though Digimon Seekers is a web novel at its core there are two video components to the project worth covering one is the live action trailers that it seems Bandai and Digimon will release after major milestones in the story one aside I can't stop thinking about is how Bandai seems to have ran the Digimon Seekers First trailer as a pre-roll ad online earning 16 million views in three months and potentially confusing several million people into thinking a real
6:55 live-action Digimon project was in production when what they would find if they followed through on the links in this description was that Digimon Seekers is not a live action show or movie but a machine translated web novel there's one other video component of Digimon Seekers that's slightly cooler but something fans who don't speak Japanese will not be able to enjoy it's more of an audio product technically but on the Digimon Partners YouTube page whenever they drop a chapter online they also drop a 10 to 20 minute audio version that is read by the voice actor for gamamon there is some really fun sound design happening here and I appreciate the effort unfortunately very few Japanese fans appear to be consuming these although the first entry has 34 000 views the last few have only 1.5 K to 2.3 K views each we don't get to see numbers on how many people read the Digimon web version like the text version but the YouTube numbers aren't
7:40 painting an incredibly optimistic picture for how much interest there is in Digimon Seekers I'm not giving up on Digimon Seekers but I am going to let it build up again and then read a bunch I don't know in a few months and I'm not the only one who sort of gave up or took a break from Digimon Seekers I pulled my followers on Twitter and got a few shocking results keep in mind there's nothing scientific about a Twitter poll but if you follow me there you probably a digimon fan and you found me through my coverage of modern Digimon stories so at the very least I'm polling people who are interested in Digimon currently I asked a pretty straightforward question are you still reading Digimon Seekers with 270 votes 28.5 said yes 46.7 said no and 24.8 percent said what's Digimon Seekers this surprised me quite a bit at first but some of the replies provide some explanations and I'll let these speak for themselves it lost my interest
8:26 to be honest the drip feeding paragraphs really killed it for me the second it turned into digital world equals metaverse I lost immediate interest as soon as I found out it was being machine translated I lost all interest they clearly don't care so why should I care I jump on occasionally but the formatting and translations are painfully awkward to read only read it because it was so badly translated it became comedy gold more power to people who like it though but not me I think the real tragedy here is that while many many people were always going to be turned off by the fact this was a text-based novel project there were some people who were willing to give it a chance fans who are devoted enough to give try were then presented as poorly packaged machine translated slow as a snail series that really is just here to add World building to the vital bracelet series of products I think the World building of Digimon Seekers is sounding interesting so far in the concept of
9:13 slightly older teens adventuring with Digimon while committing and or stopping cyber crime sounds like a ton of fun but I also know digimon's story cyber sleuth and Hacker's memory kind of already do this and they do it really well I can't currently recommend Digimon Seekers to really anybody but for anyone interested in the ideas and themes that have been discussed the Cyber sleuth games Rule and so does Digimon survive which although having very little to do with the internet and hacking does present a slightly older cast and much darker themes than most Digimon stories if you want darker more mature Digimon just fall back on Cyber sleuth and Digimon survive if you haven't played those yet I think you can probably expect at least one more Seekers video from me but not anytime soon not for several months thank you for listening in on this review so far check out last week's video all about the Angela Anaconda short before Digimon the movie where I
9:59 just just why the short got made why it's there and if it really caused a couple to divorce like the internet claims it did thanks for watching have a great week and I'll see you in the next video [Music]
