After finishing the disappointing Tri movies, I found myself in a bit of a digi-dilemma. Watching 6 movies back-to-back had kinda burned me out on the series, and Tri was the last part of the Adventure continuity I got around to, so there wasn’t anything obvious for me to watch next. As mentioned in my final Tri review, I considered taking a break from the franchise, but I ultimately decided to just jump straight into Savers (or “Data Squad” as it was called here in the US, and just to clarify I watched the English dub) since I figured the new universe / characters would break my fatigue. Was that a correct assumption on my part? Well… let’s get into it!
Data Squad uses a slightly different format compared to previous Digimon shows, instead of the main characters being rouges who tackle the villains as they see fit, they’re members of an organization called “DATS,” with our main protagonist Marcus being recruited into it after meeting Agumon and managing to Digivolve. I appreciate the attempt at originality; however, I felt it was pretty underutilized. For instance, they allude to different branches being present across the world near the start, with one of the main characters, Thomas, being from Austria, however nobody outside the Japanese branch does anything relevant except evacuate civilians when things hit the fan later on. We also don’t see many members aside from a handful of reoccurring side-characters alongside the occasional interjection from the higher ups, which makes DATS feel more like a private club with a cool PC setup than the serious institution it’s portrayed as.
On the characters, they’re held back immensely by poor dialogue writing and disjointed development. I got the impression that the writers thought everyone watching was a complete idiot; characters painstakingly spell out the most obvious observations, important ones are assigned episodes where they’re decreed to DevelopTM, which usually consists of them reviewing an overly sentimental flashback before they get over it and GrowTM, with said events never being mentioned again, and each one seems to consist of only 1 or 2 personality traits that defines their whole being. Marcus tries to fight anything that moves, Thomas makes plans, Yoshi can drive, Sampson is serious, etc. The main group is fine for the most part, barring Keenan, whose incorrect grammar I found insufferable, but it’s disappointing how simplistic they are when there are hints of much better characters. For instance, we find out Thomas wasn’t fully accepted into his rich family by his grandmother due to his mother being from outside the family, which could’ve set up an interesting dynamic with his sister where he cares for her, but is also somewhat resentful of her more secure position. Instead, this whole situation is addressed in a single flashback near the end of the series and is resolved within the very same episode. That sort of thing repeats a lot throughout the series, it feels like they wrote a show for 12-14-year-olds, but had to dumb down the characters to accommodate the 7-10-year-olds as well, which leads to it not being a great fit for either group (much less 18-year-olds like myself)
The villains are somewhat better, Merukimon is a decent foe for the first leg of the series, and it’s a nice touch that it manages to come around before being defeated instead of just being evil for the sake of being evil. The mustache twirling role is filled by Kurata, who I found by far the best. I really liked the balance he struck between being a vicious cutthroat and using strategy to get his way, he actually feels like a genius professor with how he adapts to obstacles and plans ahead to take advantage of the group’s weak points, waiting patiently to play his cards instead of going all gung-ho Marcus-style. In comparison, King Drasil, the final boss, absolutely sucks. He’s unbelievably stubborn about wanting to destroy the human world even when all the Digimon are united in wanting to save it, and he turns out to be a literal computer program at the end. The group doesn’t even beat it! Drasil just decides to allow humans and Digimon to live together after speaking with Marcus, eliminating the stakes of his father dying a few episodes prior by bringing him back as an added treat.
Despite the relatively underwhelming characters and two out of three villains not being much to write home about, the general plot is quite solid. Everything flows in a natural way, and the twists were surprising without being out of left field. On an episode-to-episode basis, the series was generally fun to watch, the main group has a nice dynamic, even if they’re all pretty simple, and I was curious to see where the plot was going. The animation was passable, although the series uses the typical Digimon tricks of extended transformation sequences and panning shots to cut costs, but I didn’t mind much since it gave me more time to appreciate the legitimately steller soundtrack. It uses rock-based tracks for the battles, which was an excellent choice that gave the fights a ton of energy that fit Marcus’ aggressive personality.
In the end, Data Squad did manage to break my Digimon fatigue, though I watched the series slower than previous ones and took a few weeks off in the second half due to burn-out and being very busy at the time. That half-and-half dynamic sort of encapsulates the series for me. The characters are fun to watch with hints of depth… but they’re mostly very simple and said depth is hardly explored. Kurata is an amazing villain who made me worried for the group every time he was on screen… but he’s followed by the underwhelming Drasil. I don’t regret watching it at all, and I’ll always associate Marcus’ burning hot passion with the boiling hot days working in the sun during my internship this summer, but it’s essentially the epitome of “good but not great.” I’ve already started watching Digimon Frontier, which I’ve liked so far despite its poor reception among the fanbase, but we’ll see whether that stays true as I get further in.