Dot Monster Re:Volution (Part 6 - The Love Letter)
Hello, all. Welcome back.
This is the sixth and final part of my review of Dot Monster Re:Volution. My analysis of this book’s objective qualities was covered in Parts 1 through 5, which you can find here. In this part, I am going to indulge in praising this book’s subjective qualities as a love letter to Digimon. Feel free to check those previous parts if you want some context, but otherwise, let’s dive in.
STATS
Title: Dot Monster Re:Volution
Series: N/A
Author(s): CJ Van
Genre: Science Fiction
First Printing: December 2024
Publisher: Self-published through Amazon
Rating: 2/10
SPOILER WARNING
I tried to minimize audience exposure to spoilers for Dot Monster Re:Volution in previous parts. There’s going to be none of that here. Heavy, unmarked spoilers will be included throughout. If you care about that, I recommend reading through the previous parts or looking into the book for yourself first.
Additionally, it will be necessary to discuss the Digimon franchise at multiple points throughout this review. You can expect heavy, unmarked spoilers for any Digimon media released prior to October 2025. Regarding Digimon Beatbreak (which released its sixth episode today), I will not be providing any spoilers from the anime itself, though I may provide mild spoilers based upon information that is available in promotional materials.
STRUCTURE
To better illustrate my point, I am going to engage in a little thought exercise. Rather that pointing to elements in this book and saying, “This is what this is meant to reference,” I am going to treat this book as a story treatment for a Digimon anime. This will involve me changing names of things into forms that would fit the Digimon franchise.
Dot Monster Re:Volution is, to my knowledge, a legally distinct piece of intellectual property from Digimon. Van himself elaborated on that point while sharing art associated with this book on Twitter. My describing the book in terms relevant to Digimon is not meant to claim otherwise. Rather, I am merely streamlining the process of spelling out how someone with evidence love for a particular IP has demonstrated his love for that IP through fiction while also putting his own spin of things, thereby making his love letter into more than just an homage.
LORE
The Digital World
Let’s start where the Digimon come from … and it’s not a digital world.
In this setting, the Digimon actually originated as what I can only describe as a faerie creatures from an alternative dimension (which I’ll just call “Fae” for simplicity’s sake). Throughout human history, children and Fae have been able to open gateways between their worlds and meet each other. With the advent of digital networks, though, the veil between worlds broke down even further, making it easier for humans and Fae to bridge the gap.
While all Digimon are Fae, not all Fae are Digimon. The Digimon were originally a group of warrior Fae who were the guardians of their realm. However, an entity known of Greed wished to claim the realm for herself. She therefore coordinated with human collaborators to set a trap: the 202X Cyber Attack. The warrior Fae dove into the Internet to neutralize the threat, only to have most of their power stripped away when the i2’s controls kicked in. This transformed the warrior Fae into Digimon and devolved them from their original forms (the equivalent of Perfect / Ultimate stage Digimon) to Child / Rookie stage. It also put them into a trance, leaving them as little more than drones. Greed’s human collaborators then put the Digimon to work as AI assistants.
I really like this origin for the Digimon. In most entries of the franchise, these creatures are explicitly digital entities. Sometimes the Digital World comes first, emerging from the interactions of digital networks with the quantum foam, and the Digimon come into being naturally within it; other times, they are experiments in AI or mutations spawned by computer viruses. This origin taps into any idea proposed in Digimon Adventure 02, where one of the elder Kido brothers proposed that the reason Digimon took forms associated with human cultures (in particular, the Digimon Sovereigns resembling Kyoto’s Four Holy Beasts) is because Digimon are actually supernatural creatures. It’s a fun callback that also feels fresh.
(The book also has a reference to a virtual pet project that spawned powerful AIs, with is a clear nod to Digimon Tamers, but it’s never explicitly confirmed within the book what role this played in the creation of the Digimon. My guess is that this program was either helping the future Digimon enter the Internet or was laying groundwork with the software needed to subdue them.)
Awakening and Digivolution
The subdued Digimon were attached to i2 accounts as various forms of digital assistants, forced to obey their account holders. However, they weren’t completely caged. Each held the potential for restoration.
When a Digimon is exposed to the first Internet, the routines that inhibit its intelligence are disabled. The Digimon regains its sapience, though it is still shackled to the user account.
From there, it is possible for a Digimon to Digivolve to Adult / Champion stage. The initial Digivolution typically requires a catalyst, such as exposure to certain data streams or with the application of certain programs. However, because they function as programs within the Internet, Digivolution can only take place (and the new form can only be maintained) if there is adequate computing power for it. Digivolving is easy within portions of the network dedicated to cloud-based computing, as the Digimon can piggyback off of that. Otherwise, a Digimon runs a real risk of overtaxing and burning out whatever computer its user is accessing the Internet from.
Upon returning to the world of the Fae, all restrictions are lifted. A Digimon can easily Digivolve back into Perfect / Ultimate stage and maintain that form indefinitely.
I really like the introduction of both software and hardware restrictions for Digivolving. Digimon series sometimes toy with the limitations of these digital beings - Adventure had many hero Digimon forced into lower stages when they entered the real world, and Tamers had it so Biomerge Digivolution was initially impossible outside of the Digital World - but I can’t name an example where the heroes had to go shopping for computer parts in order to sustain more powerful forms.
Digivice
The Digivice in this setting is an app called the d.VICE. This automatically downloads itself onto the devices of any i2 user whose Digimon partner awakens. As far as I can tell, the d.VICE in this setting doesn’t actually influence Digivolution. Instead, it serves as a means of communication for everyone with awakened Digimon and as encryption software that allowed these individuals and their Digimon to access secure network locations without being traced.
I’m more mixed on the handling of this element. I think it makes perfect sense within the world that’s been laid out here. It’s just that Digivices, in their various forms, have typically had fairly important roles within Digimon narratives. Even the Sapotamas in Beatbreak have a vital role in Digivolution, and within that continuity, Sapotamas aren’t unique to the humans who have Digimon partners. The fact this one’s utility is so limited makes it feel like a memberberry, and the only reason I’m not including it in the section on memberberries down below is because of how important Digivices usually are to this franchise.
This isn’t such a huge issue that I’d say it harms the narrative. it’s fine for what it is. It is simply my personal preference that the Digivice analog play a larger role. Even if it had simply been something created by the human characters (like those Digivice smartphones Koushiro made in the later Adventure films), that would have at least tied these to a character.
Chosen Ones versus Tamers
I think that humans in this setting would be classified as Tamers, rather than Chosen One or Digidestined or whatever else they’re called. There’s no evidence of a higher power influencing who gets bonded with a Digimon, nor is there any clear indication that a person couldn’t bond with other Digimon or even with multiple Digimon at once. I have no opinions on this one either way - it’s just semantics.
STORY
This is a story that begins as humans and Digimon versus humans but evolves into a Digimon versus Digimon (well, Digimon versus Fae) conflict. The awakened Digimon don’t remember their home world, only having a general understanding that the systems of the i2 keep them from their full potential. Part of the motivation for Aki and the other humans to oppose the iCC is to find more data on the origins of the Digimon and thus help them restore their full potential.
I certainly had my criticisms of this concept when discussing both Plot and Theme. If this story were told out across a TV show rather than compressed into a single novel, I feel like these issues could be redeemed. With time taken for character-based episodes and theme-exploring side quests, the human heroes and their Digimon could interrogate whether unraveling i2 is worthwhile just to recover the truth behind the Digimon. The darker side of a free and open Internet could be examined, and the heroes could actually consider the danger of the Reapers and take charge of dealing with them so that the iCC will no longer be necessary.
MEMBERBERRIES
There are a few references in this love letter that I don’t think contribute anything. I don’t think thay they devalue finished product. I just feel they were a tad forced.
Goggle-Head
The iconic goggles that crown the foreheads of so many Digimon protagonists appear in this story. Aki receives a VR interface rig from Rena and starts wearing it. This is presented in the narrative as a passing of the torch, but the significance of the goggles within the narrative itself was never addressed, so that torch doesn't actually mean anything. Instead of being a reverent moment, it feels like a weak joke that only Digimon fans will understand.
The Eighth Child
Upon entering the world of the Fae, the first Fae that Aki encounters is a bipedal white cat. While dumping exposition, this cat says that she once had a human friend who called her “Shironeko”. Shironeko refers to this human friend as her “light.”
Yes, this is a ham-fisted reference to Tailmon and Hikari from Digimon Adventure. No, it does not go anywhere.
This reference has the same issue as a virtue signal: it damages immersion. If you club an audience this hard in the fact with a reference that doesn’t actually search a role in the narrative, it just drags audience attention out of the narrative and to the thing bring referenced.
The Four Sovereigns (?)
In this continuity, the Digimon Sovereigns work for Greed. At least most of them do.
Greed is served by four Fae knowns as the Darknesses, each one of which is named after a vice. Three of the four are described in a manner that make them dead ringers for Sovereigns:
Envy, a molten bird = Zhuqiaomon
Ego, a white tiger = Baihumon
Sloth, a two-headed tortoise = Xuanwumon
The last of the four is Wrath. One would think it would be a a dragon, to reference Qinglongmon, but no - it’s a bug. Couple this with the fact that Wrath is the first one the audience sees, and this is a clear reference to Kuwagamon and its evolved forms.
At first, I did like the Kuwagamon homage. However, the more I thought about it, the less it made sense. First, the Reapers are described as bugs, so they are already a Kuwagamon reference. Second, why bother setting up the Sovereigns reference, only to drop one member (the member most fans would know about)?
Much like with the Digivice, I don’t feel this one harms the narrative, but I do feel Van should have committed one way of another. If he wanted a Sovereigns reference, Wrath should have been a dragon. If he wanted to reference mini-bosses from Digimon Adventure, he should have changed the three other Darknesses.
BOTTOM LINE
Dot Monster Re:Volution is a book written with evident love and understanding for that which it pays homage to. While not every element in this love letter is executed effectively or needed to be included, the whole is not only functional but also refreshing. I would love to see a story like this fleshed out into a 52-episode anime series.
Mr. Van, if you have read all the way through this review series (or even just read this one part), please understand that I respect the effort you made here. Dot Monster Re:Volution may not be a good book, but unlike certain other writers I’ve reviewed, I have no trouble believing that you genuinely care about understand the story you’ve created and the things you reference. If you have more ideas for stories like this (either set in the same world or in a new continuity), I would be interesting in reading them. Keep honing your skills as a writer, and I’m sure you can product something that is not only great as a love letter but also great as a story in general.
