An Honest Review Of Digimon Seekers | The New Series For Adults 

WATCH PART TWO NOW! Seekers is complete and this new review contains my FINAL thoughts one year later: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jE26ZSx6aI4.htmlsi=Ffxrjr4FblAqMZZg

This should've been a show or video game. It doesn't work as solely a novelization.

Honestly, Cybersleuth was the closest to an adult cyberpunk themed Digimon story, I like what Seekers is doing and Commandramon has been gradually one my favorite Digimon too..

The whole machine translated thing really does show how little Bandai actually cared for fans outside of Japan. I realize that Japan is where they market Digimon the most, but man it comes off so poorly after saying "This is an international release!*" *That we will put minimal effort into

I dipped out when I realized Seekers was machine translated. That's just unacceptable. I'm either going to read it when my Japanese is good enough, or wait for fan translations. Seekers seems like a really great concept, it has so much promise. It deserves so much more than a drip-fed web novel only offered outside Japan via machine translation. This is billed as the 25th Anniversary Project, but... why does it feel like a side project that only just barely got funded?

You know it would be so cool if some company out there like the people who created Pokemon go or ingress would create a game where you can choose your Digimon and have it work works with your phone so your Digimon can sit in the back screen give you information it could be easily hooked up to it like a chat GPT allowing you to get some information and giving you reminder is about certain things it's basically your personal AI at that point and if you can it basically becomes your friend

I actually love everything about the setting of Seekers. The "Tamers" having a V-Pet feel to raising them tickles my Digimon World 1 nostalgia, The Digital World actually being a digital world is always my favorite form of it, they way humans react to the Digimon as not real until you begin looking into them deeper has me interested. This really is my perfect setting for a Digimon story... IF ONLY READING IT WAS A MASSIVE SLOG! Seriously I don't mind a novelization, I actually like that as well, but the translation is probably the biggest turn off for me as I am pretty sure I am missing context or even complete sentences while reading it.

They could've made it into short live action web series instead, kinda like how Tsuburaya is doing with a few ultraman series

they shouldve focused more on what made Cyber Sleuth so good; Hackers fighting amongst hackers, stealing information, the black market and turf wars all the while facing a major threat

Not caring about the death of a Tyrannomon!? Heinous, sinful, unforgivable! All main line Tyrannomon are good precious bois who deserve love and respect 🥰

Eveytime they do this, it baffles me anew, Bandai can't stop fumbling this franchise at any corner, for every good thing we get 10 horrible decisions. To be honest, some days I'm surprised (and a bit relieved) that Bandai didn't put Digimon to rest becuase of low sales and engagement.

Tried to read it when the first chapter dropped. The sloppy machine translation and how little we get each chapter made me decide to wait until chapters stack up and fan translations are available. Just got caught up recently and its far better when read in batches and probably best if i were to wait a year or so until its all out and go through it in one sitting. Definitely made a good choice by waiting tho and as per usual with anime, manga and light novels etc, the fan translations beat out the official releases.

Whenever a project gets MTL'd, it feels like the creator is just slapping their fans across the face. I was hyped for Seekers, even subbed to the official channel. But after the first release I decided to wait till an arc or two finishes.

I like Loogamon, the new adorable wolf Digimon.

In this case, I didn’t even give it a try 😔 The delivery method just doesn’t fit with my preferences, and listening to your experience/opinions, simply reinforces my point of view. I might actually give it a try in Japanese, not just to practice my language and see how bad they did in the translation.

I feel like if seekers released as a complete book rather than a chapter a week, the pacing problem would be less upsetting.

Thanks for tuning in! What are your thoughts on Seekers? Links to ZeninTCG are in this vid's description, and so is a link to my Angela Anaconda video! WHY did they make that short film and DID it really cause a divorce? 👀 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Qyim16E2zBY.html

I remember first hearing about this, and for a second, I assumed it was gonna be a manga. I really wish that's the way it went tbh. Getting weekly paragraphs to read through is painful. Just as each part gets interesting it ends, and the next part releases with little to no pay off. just more questions. I dropped off quite early and it's hard to say if I'd pick it up again, but you're right CS and Survive will fill in most of the blanks for anyone interested in Digimon Lore that Seekers may come out with.

I got into the Digimon fandom just recently because I’m a sucker for monster catching and converting type genre’s (Pokémon and Shin Megami Tensei). But to see how much potential this franchise has but having little to no effort put into it saddens me. 😭

Agree with every word you said. Fortunately, there's a fan translated project to my language (spanish) that brings quickly the chapters, so the monday i read it while i listen the japanese audio version. I'm enjoying it a lot, and is a waste that they took so many bad decisions, that won't let this story to reach a massive audience.

I like the concepts of this story, I think it should've been a movie or next Story series game.

More specifically, it's 14 parts (now 15) of Chapter 1. It's been nearly 2 months and we're still not past the first chapter yet. What bothers me is waiting weekly for so little content that right now to me it doesn't feel like it's worth waiting for. And the fact nothing of interest happening also doesn't help. Honestly, Cyber Sleuth does what this does but better and you can actually finish it as of now. I really wanted this to be good, but I'm starting to have doubts. At least Loogamon is cool.

This just in: Digimon's other modern series DIGIMON DREAMERS is finally leaving Japan! But there's a major catch: the same issue that's plaguing Digimon Seekers' international release. More info here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_pAhPdkvdJ0.html

It felt like a scam when they say they'll get it in english when they don't even payed actual translators. It was a clearly dishonest advertisement that needs to be addressed by them. MTL it's just a tool for translators

Also, also, it's interesting that they are tying this into the Digimon TCG with lots of the cards from the upcoming Japanese set featuring the Digimon and Tamers from Seekers.

This video already has more views in 5 hours than every narrated chapter (excluding the first 5) of seekers has on youtube in the last month....

Seekers pacing and translation really hold it back. Then again I've seen enough localization gaffs in current year to make people prefer Babelfish from 2002.

Definitely Cyber sleuth influenced Digimon seekers with how humans view Digimons as Programs and mistreatment of their Partners.

The last Digimon product I consider consistently good is Appmon. After that, it has been many ups and downs in my opinion.

I’m not giving up on it I really love reading the chapters

I'm a fan that only really "discovered" Digimon as an adult when I watched Digimon Tamers in Japanese, so I might have a bit of an unusual perspective. Atop that, I work in information security, and I just recently finished CyberSleuth and am starting on Hacker's Memory (100+ hours so far), I love it. But Seekers sounds grossly mis-aimed, as do most modern Digimon projects. If I'm an outlier here, please let me know, but... Even as an adult, I got into the series because I appreciated the sense of wonder and the "coming of age" storylines afforded by the fact that the main cast were kids. It's not that Digimon can't have young-adult/late-teen characters, I think that's great, but why is this the new normal for a show that endeared itself to many with original series starring kid characters back in the 90s/2000s when most of the audience were themselves kids? After all, it's also not the case that you can't have younger characters and a serious/mature storyline. I can't get into it in a youtube comment, but having the protagonists being adults changes things up immensely. A 19yo university educated "freelance hacker" (ok) has vastly more avenues to tackle a problem than a kid, especially if they're aligned with the status-quo authorities. It's much harder to justify them as the "fish out of water" character, leading to awkward ways of communicating information to the viewer (like verbal exposition dumps). Importantly, it's hard to bring in new fans, since something like Digimon is so obviously keyed for younger audiences that you're going to have a hard time convincing a 30 year old that this series with cute digital monsters is actually worth their time. They could just go back to kid characters, but write them well and with respect for both people that age and the target audience (which can be whatever age). They're zeroing in on this very specific fandom of adults who grew up with Digimon, but can't/won't relate to kid characters - remember you can have young characters and yet be as dark/gritty/serious as you want, even still have an adult target audience, and possibly even attract new young fans - and that's a small, ageing population. I won't touch on the issues I have with the portrayal of "hacking" in this or CyberSleuth, and I don't just mean technical mistakes or technobabble. Also, as with Cybersleuth, the fact that these Digimon aren't sentient and completely not "like Siri" is so obvious that it's ridiculous any "hacker" wouldn't know it. It's just a lazy way to declare that the main character "gets along with" Digimon in some special way. That they have some special relationship to it. These settings where Digimon are ubiquitous and somehow a staple part of cybersecurity just don't work. I'd be the best hacker in the world because I'm a damn sap who cried when my Tamagotchi died because my teacher confiscated it. That's Pokemon-level dumbness, and before anyone says it: yeah, Pokemon is still insanely popular! ... It still has kid protagonists and markets to a young, fresh audience every release, while still exploiting the nostalgia of older players. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The problem with Digimon is that it is such a simple and marketable ip, yet somehow they over do it to the point it misses.

Great review, I think I'll give this a look once it's finished and then read it all in one go. However, I think if people want to experience something similar to the themes and setting of Seekers, just play Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and its expansion Hacker's Memory. The game is multiplatform as well and probably even now very cheap to buy (and then get yourselves Digimon World: Next Order which finally became multiplatform a few months ago). And yes, would also recommend Digimon Survive but only if you're someone that likes the idea of visual novels. Speaking of Digimon World: Next Order, are you planning to play it or have already? I definately recommend it.

I'm still reading every chapter so far and I'm liking it. I do try to fix the wording that's being made in the chapter from time to time

I haven't had a lot of time to continue working on it, but for a while after episode 50 of Digimon Ghost Game I was writing my own episodes of Ghost Game that goes in a whole different direction than the actual series went and I have so far seven completed episodes or I guess parts/ chapters to it that has enough content to fit a Digimon episode in them in Fanfiction net that I called Digimon Ghost Game Alternate Universe. Because of work I barely had much time to continue with what I was doing and I am never really decisive on end goal and progression. However, I do have an idea on how I want to conclude it. With that said, while I went a different direction with the characters such as the relationship between Hiro and Gammamon falling about, I still enjoy quite a few concepts from Ghost Game that I intend to draw from in my own way.

Second comment here, but I heard that you're playing through Tears of the Kingdom. I hope you're enjoying the game! In all seriousness, I don't think Digimon is gonna die. There's a new video game being produced that'll be released in the future (however vague that future is), the 02 movie is coming up, the recent card game is still doing well as well as a lot of other merchandise, and there will always be fan content. And to be honest, fan content is where it's at because fan translations for Seekers are more polished, plus fanfiction has actually explored things that _most_ Digimon shows don't explore. Also, there's even modding communities for official games (ex: there's a Dawn/Dusk 2.0 fan mod being worked on). I don't wanna be entirely pessimistic because there's still hope

i think the best that comeout from seekers are the new commandramon evo, and then loogamon, and the fact that they made it immediately into the TCG. playability aside, the artworks were sick, man!

I actually finally got around to reading this last night actually (seeing Looga's mega gave me the push to continue). I had seen the machine translation of chapter 1 a long time ago and that's why I put it down for so long. However, this time I'm reading the fan translation. Fans have to do a lot of heavy lifting here, but it ends up making it actually readable and the underlying story and characters are pretty good so far. The way Bandai treats Digimon is both confusing and inexcusable though.. Digimon does better with game, merch, and card sales in the US than Japan, and yet all of their stuff is always so poorly translated. You'd think they'd put more care into it. I mean for the card game they hire superfans as the artists, why not hire superfans for translations too? I mean.. just as an example of how out of touch these translations are, let's look to set EX3 (Draconic Roar). Fans translated this set months before the official release and they already made sure to future proof potential localization errors such as including ceratopsian and etc into several cards. The blueprint and solution was already there. Bandai literally had a cheatsheet available for months. Then Bandai finally releases the official cards, and, of course, they got so much wrong. Over a third of the set was errata'd. It was the biggest embarrassment I've ever seen for an established card game. Bandai just doesn't give Digimon any budget and it's honestly infuriating. They're too busy giving budget to their third party Pokemon games I guess? Sigh. Digimon will always be a red headed step child to Bandai..

It has strong core world-building, and develops the character interactions to sell each personality fast without feeling forced. Eiji is a bum who is phenomenally adaptable and hard to hate, letting him get away with far more than most would allow a quasi-legal individual. Both of these are notably stronger than Cyber Sleuth, which focused more on the style and visual impact. Did we need TWO netrunner digimon universes? Not really, but we also have appmon so it's actually three anyway.

I watched that live action trailer when it was released, and I completely forgot about it immediately.

It’s a format that seems to be more popular for a Japanese audience but they tried to market it for an international audience. To make it more appealing to an international audience, this needed to be a full on localized novel. Exactly how Star Wars has a ton of novels and how Avatar has the Avatar Kyoshi novels. If they were going for a weekly release schedule, the international audience would have been more receptive to a manga. If they really wanted to appeal to the international audience, then make it an anime or videogame. Seekers is an add for the Vital bracelet and as such it’s something made for the Japanese audience primarily. So, I don’t know why they wanted to pretend this was made with the international audience in mind.

So far i like it. But the Translation is difficult because its from a Machine and makes it even harder to read if youre from a different Country. The Ideas and Story seem interesting especially with SoC and Loogamons Past. Especially when we get Chaosdramon and other Digimon from the Crack Team. And we seem to have many Digimon from the D-Brigade too. I hope for it to become a Show would make it easier to watch and translate too.

One thing I'd like to say is Loogamon has an awesome line. Yes, it has all been revealed.

As someone who is just getting back into the world of Digimon slowly recently. I don't care on how bad the translation is. I would give any translation job on storytelling a chance. Story and plot so far has sounding very interesting.

Decent story Possibly the worst possible medium they could have released it in

Where can I find these fan translations? The machine translations is awful. I tried reading it and couldn't get very far.

I've still not even read the first part... that's how out of it I am with this

I have not paid any attention to this project as I had thought that it would be a new video game. I thought that it would happen immediately after hacker's memory and cyber-sleuth. What I understand of the story at the moment, in the Digimon Seekers story is that it is set after these 2 previous games.

I wasn't even aware this was a thing. May have to remind myself to check it out.

Hadn't even heard of this till now. Grew up loving digimon and watching the show, and was sad to see it basically disappear from the west, but have been gobbling up all the new games and tcg releases lately (and a little bit of the shows). I read a lot of online webcomics and manga, so I'll give it a shot.

So right now, other than the translation being bad, my main issue is that the pacing is kinda irky. As expected of chapter one, it's full of exposition which is fine for the most part? But when chapter one is split into parts, and split in a way that doesn't work for this release format, and most of it is exposition on various areas and things that won't possibly matter in the long run, it feels slower than it should be. They really should've just done it in chunks, maybe every few weeks, instead of a small part every week.

I'm still looking forward for digimon seeker and see how it goes.

I think I'll wait for everything to come out and then read the fan translation. Unlike an anime where I can tolerate getting one episode a week getting a couple pages every week reading a novel sounds pretty awful. So I think I'll just wait. Honestly if the idea wasn't strong enough to warrant an anime OVA at the very least I'm kind of curious how good it can actually be. Something tells me they're just putting this out to pass time between Ghost Game and the next anime. For the time being I am enjoying Run for the Money the Great Mission which took Ghost Game's time slot and has a some Digimon pedigree behind it. It's not amazing, but it is quite a bit of fun.

I listened to a fan read every chapter well at work with an ear piece in. Besides some typos or translation error most like, it was a decent story that I enjoyed. I would have loved if they made it a live action or even a dubbed anime for sure.

Waiting for the reveal that it was all written by AI. Jokes aside, I really liked the cybersleuth vibes at the beginning and a digimon light novel sounded uncomplicated enough but I couldn't get past the machine translations. As some other commenter put it, they clearly don't care so why should we? I rather check out Survive when I have the time.

Any recommended fan translations? Ones I find with a google search seem to be only slightly less awkward than the "official" robot translation.

Honestly, my recommendation? Wait on superior fan translations, and binge read when it's finished.

The concept of Seekers was super interesting to me. But like many others, after reading the first 3 or 4 chapters (releases?) I dropped it. Between the awkward machine-translated texts and very slow moving pace, I was just not enjoying it. Will definitely give it a full go probably once the whole thing is out, especially if there is better translations or maybe even an English reading of the story. Seekers strikes me as a similar project to Digimon: Survive. A cool concept that just misses the mark of what a lot of Digimon fans want from the franchise. A online web novel is cool but fans clearly want more animated shows/movies. Similarly, Survive, while I enjoyed my one playthrough of it, is not for everyone and a Visual Novel game doesn't do much for fans expecting more traditional Digimon video games.

When I saw the Digimon Seekers trailer, I just assumed it was gonna be a phone app so I tuned out immediately. I spent a few minutes trying to parse this videos title because of that

I’m more excited about the card adaptations of characters/Digimon coming to the TCG.

Also, whilst I don't think this needed to be an anime, it would have been a really good one-shot film.

I do listen to it on DigiTubers and it does seem good as an audiobook.

I don't mind the premise or having to read it, it's just how slow it is keeping up with it. I'll be happy to read through when it's done though, and I like the digimon and tamer designs if nothing else.

Seekers might give it a go. Hmm might give me some inspiration for my WB. Thanks for making this.

That website doesn’t have it but where can I a Digimon crest necklace ??

Bandai Namco needs to expand the Vital Bracelet some more. It's price point definitely commands at least bluetooth functionality for a more reliable connection.

Gotta give it love i need it animated

I'm surprised how much they advertised it in EN and how hard it is to find the offcial release. I cant even find it when I Google it.

I do like idea of seeker, and new technology idea, like mind link, but I can see the bad translate in web chapters, and rush the story a bit. I will keep eye on story, and hope when they release as novel, they fix story. Have you watch, digimon adventure 2020 dub?

Where do I read the good translation?

I actually really love Seekers, despite it's issues. I particularly like listening to the Japanese audiobook while I read the translation. Helps give it life and characterization when there's a voice. Also like watching a sub with no visuals. Also, it's better than Survive lol

I always need n want more Digimon

Such a shame that the translation wasn’t more polished lol

Now this should've been a game... Or a movie. But I'm just glad that we have Loogamon now. And that he's coming to the TCG.

The digimon IP is as well managed as overwatch. Coherent thought-out marketing plans and great scheduling. 🙃

I never knew this series was out there

In before the Seekers character's cards in the TCG are more satisfying and interesting than Seekers itself

Despite the errors I'm actually pretty invested in seekers right know but ya it is slow with how little it releases each week. I just read all the current chapters and in my opinion they managed to keep my interest but then I realized that they aren't that long and that only once a week makes it really slow.

Wait this was a series? I thought it was a new game, well shit there goes my smile ;(. Honestly give me a remake of Digimon World 1, i'd be happy.

Im gonna let most of it run its course, hopefully get a proper translation, then give it a shot!

To mee what makes me not keep up with seekers is the chapters audio narration files aren’t in English and makes it harder for me to stay on track , also the chapters are super short

I was already feeling that this project was just to advertize vital braclet and putting just one new exclusive digimon doesnt help either. Even the project itself was mishandled telling was both of the styles but in the end was ai generated translated with no parent effort by an real human being. What they are showing is like an concept art for an potential anime / game that probaly never came.

Ok, am I crazy, in the way I'm reading this? On the website each piece of the novel is title Chap.1-1 up to Chap.1-15 at this point, as far as I can tell these are NOT individual chapters, but are parts of Chapter 1, in which case Chapter one has not even finished yet. As far as I can tell from what I've noticed reading Light Novels and Web Novels, many of these types get published either Chapter by Chapter or parts of a chapter at a time, online or magazine, before later being compiled to a book, in the case of Light Novels.

Does anyone have the links to the fan-translated versions of Digimon Seekers?

Maybe if they had released it as an actual book, or i dont know how light novels are released, but maybe use that model instead?

Great timing a chapter just dropped lol

i found out of it from the d-bigrade witch caught my interests

Seeing how digimon is gaining momentum. They should probably make a sequel to tamers, that world was already kinda cyber punky.

I was interested back when they first announced it. Then I forgot about it... Then remembered of it after seeing all of the criticism... I am yet to read any of it

Although I do love the v-watch design

This is why I still watch season 1 and 2 primarily to this day. Even though it lacks in comparison in regards to recent animation still there was so much substance. Whoever is in charge is flopping.

With what is going on...not shocked at the translation trouble

I legitimately did not know this series even started. I saw the first trailer and felt like it was a "more information to come" type of trailer

If we all read it though probably make a miniseries or something, also got a sweet dim out of it

I tried reading it, but the translation was so bad I had trouble understanding what was happening.

I dislike how slow it is, the chapters being released only weekly and being short doesn't help at all

Novels probably could sell well in Japan and novels are very popular there in general if you look at examples like sword art online or re zero. It sucks more for the western fans though

Miyuki Sawashiro Is a blessing

Does the light novel medium work for any modern stories other than isekai? I think I would genuinely enjoy Seekers as a manga/webcomic on a monthly release

to note: translation is fixed and i believe the story is moving into part/chapter 4