Also: free advanced version of 3DS game to launch September 21

The October issue of Shueisha's V-Jump magazine announced on Saturday that a Digimon Universe Appli Monsters manga series will begin in the next issue on September 21. Naoki Akamine is drawing the series and Akiyoshi Hongō is credited as the original creator.

The magazine also announced that "Digimon Universe Appli Monsters Cyber Arena," the free advanced version of Bandai Namco Entertainment's upcoming Digimon Universe Appli Monsters game for the Nintendo 3DS, will launch digitally for the 3DS on September 21. The free advanced version will allow for save data transfer to the main game, and can be played online or offline.

The game itself will feature a different story than the upcoming anime, and will have the option of a male or female protagonist. The game's official website streamed its first promotional video earlier this month.

The anime's site describes the story:

Everyone in the world uses smartphone apps. But inside them lurks unknown creatures called "Appli Monsters," or "Appmon." The Appmon are AI lifeforms with the ability to think and act, and exist in the boundary between the human world and digital space to allow people and the system to interface and function. But in the vast sea of the internet, the "last boss AI" Leviathan takes control of the Appmon with a virus and begins hacking every system, thus starting to control the human world from the world of the net. The protagonist, Haru Shinkai, is led to acquire the Appli Drive, and uses it to materialize Gacchimon, a search app monster. What is the secret hidden within the Appli Drive? What is the mysterious field that exists between net world where the Appmon exist, and the real world? What is the "App Combine" that can combine two Appmons? What is Leviathan's true goal?

The Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters anime will premiere on TV Tokyo and its affiliated networks on October 1.