Well, I've just finished rewatching the first two seasons of Digimon. All 104 episodes. It took me three weeks (yes, I was a bit addicted), but I did it. Now that I'm finished, I want to leave proof of my accomplishment as well as share the good, bad, and awful about my favorite childhood show ever. EVAR!
First off, this is not a review. I'm writing this more in the style of Yahtzee, where I assume that you've already seen (most) of the two seasons and understand much of what I'm saying. If you haven't seen Digimon, I suggest that you do but you have no obligation to stick around here.
Also, I'm going to refer to the seasons, not as season one and two but Adventure and Adventure 02, their proper names. Adventure has 54 episodes, while 02 has 50.
So here goes.
Plot
Once you get past the inherent cuteness of the digital monsters, you will find there is an immensly elaborate story that, at times, is difficult to comprehend, even for a university-level student like myself. The "there are bad guys, let's defeat them" story is blantantly simple but beyond that, several mechanics are thrown in that make the series unique.
First, the dual-world aspect. The Digital World holds its roots in the real world, originating as data before becoming a separate place with the Digimon becoming sentient. This is better fleshed out in season 3, Tamers, but what little we learn of it in the Adventures creates potential for a huge origin story.
Second, the time mechanic. When the main characters of Adventure are in the Digital World, a time distortion exists that speeds up the flow of time in the Digital World. For every month that passes in the Digital World, a minute passes in the real world. This occurs up until the "ultimate evil" appears at the end of Adventure, which inadvertently nullifies the time distortion, bringing the flow of time to the same for both worlds (1 minute = 1 minute). This becomes important in Adventure 02 when the characters travel to the Digital World in real time, meaning spending a night there means being absent from home.
Third, including a "real world" much like our own. This is in comparison to Pokemon and Dragonball Z, Digimon's competitors, who both had worlds were magical incredible things are commonplace, like rats that generate lighting, or men spontaneously growing long blond hair on cue. The real world of Digimon is just like ours: average, boring, a place where nothing ordinary happens. This gives the story more effect when the Digimon cross over to the real world and start shit up. Seeing the impact of evil Digimon on their families also provides a stronger motivation for the heroes, as opposed to "you're evil, you must be defeated". Watching a group of monsters round up your neighbors to do evil things to them would certainly motivate someone more than the trodden-to-death "take over the world" scheme.
Which sadly, brings me to the faults of the plot and there are many. Yes, it is a children's show so some issues can be resolved by taking this into account but even so, some things can't be so easily forgiven.
First thing that comes to mind is pacing. Because Digimon is kept within the constraints of a year-long showing (50-54 episodes) per season, they have less freedom over pacing than with Pokemon (500+ episodes and counting). Even so, Digimon was given Sonic's running shoes, 12 cans of Red Bull, and told to run a mile in under two minutes, and it shows. The first villian, Devimon, appears in episode seven and is defeated in episode 13, a record time for an evil villian to be defeated. This is partly due to the original plan of 13 episodes before its popularity skyrocketed, but the final five viliians, the Dark Masters and Apocalymon were dispatched in 14 episodes. That's three episodes for each Dark Master and two for the eccentic yet dull finale against the ultimate evil. The pacing is only sped up further by the English dub studio's unrelenting decision to cram as much dialogue as possible into each episode, giving little time for reflection, or even a quiet, peaceful scene.
I would also mention the tendency for enemies to be outright evil ("My evil plans will not fail, AHAHAHAHA!!!) and not sorta bad, but it is a kids' show and morals of good vs. evil are quite effective at a young age.
That said, the morality aspect of Digimon is irritating. I've already mentioned that it's a kids' show but still, extoling the virtues of friendship and kindness gets old after the 20th friggin' episode! It even gets to the point where enemies are defeated by the power of friendship and kindness, and not by giant monster kicking the shit out of them. Adventure 02 did this twice, once with BlackWarGreymon and once with the final boss, who was defeated by kids' self-esteem! If that doesn't seem ridiculous than nothing will.
Also, why is it that the Digivolution scene needs to be shown, in full, every single episode?! As well, the Digidestined (main heroes) have an annoying habit of always digivolving their Digimon partner to the level exactly one below what they need to defeat their opponent. They then decide "He's too strong, why need to digivolve again!" I always wonder why they don't go straight to their highest level and kick their ass that way.
Art
The art in Digimon is amazing. The settings in the Digital World are unique enough that you might mistake them for the real world, but then realize that there's no way they could exist there. Signposts in trees, traincars on islands, the Empire State Building, Roman Coliseum, and Arc de Trimuph all in the same city, it holds a sense of realism and at the same time, a sense of fantasy as well.
The real world gets the opposite treatment. Being set in Japan, Tokyo in particular, the story makes use of the train tunnels, several famous buildings (Tokyo Tower), and is as close to the real city as anime would allow. The art uses grays and realistic colors to add to the real world feel, and is a distinct place from the Digital World. Also, the art style uses a technique that results in small colored blotches being spread across the backgrounds of both worlds and surprisingly, it works well.
Voice Acting
I'll start by saying that I've never seen the Japanese original and thus, will only be mentioning the English Fox Kids version.
First off, the voice actors are among some of the best in the business and it shows. Adventure has some of the best voice acting of any show on at the time. The Digidestined have the perfect voices to match the characters (the brainic, the ditz, the hothead) and the timing is spot on. Even the enemies are voiced with enough variety and flair that it seems that the voice actors were enjoying themselves.
There are a few standout performances. Etemon, the second villian of Adventure, tends to rock on his guitar and sing so the dub gave him an Elvis voice, taking care to even include his vocal habits (I'm gonna destroy those kids, uh huh huh.). Another Digimon has an Igor-like voice while one of the Dark Masters has a surfer-meets-rocker style accent that is difficult to describe and awesome to listen to. They performances of much of the cast seems effortless.
That said, there are a few instances where the dub actor missed his mark. Agumon often sounds awkward in the delivery of his lines (What are we gonna do.....Tai?) and the Digidestined of 02 say this ridiculous phrase "DigiArmor Ener...gize!" with a pause in the middle of energize. I do realize that dubbing is difficult but these problems seem easy to fix.
Also, I noticed a few times in 02 that dubbingdidn't always match the actions onscreen. More than twice did I catch a character almost offscreen moving his lips but not saying snything, as if the dub actors missed the line or outright ignored it.. It tends to throw you off just a bit.
Script
The script is the only place where I start marking down the series. As I mentioned before, the dub has an irritating habit of placing inane dialogue, cutesy jokes, or needless conversation wherever there is a moment of silence. Occasionly the jokes are both funny and appropriate and don't feel forced (I don't wanna play Go Fish! How about we play strip po-*RING*) but rarely is this the case. One moment in particular is especially irritating, where the parents of one 02 Digidestined are lamenting the disappearance of their son. They watch the TV for news only to hear "In medical news, doctors have found the cure for the monkey flu!" This pointless joke is awful in itself (Monkey flu? WTF?) but also ruins the mood that was constructed. Often is the case where a needless joke ruins a relaxing moment, or a somber scene.
Censorship
The Fox Kids version did more than dub over the Japanese version, they also edited out certain parts of the series. As the series was aired after 9/11, any references to the event, even unintentional, where edited out. This includes: any dialogue involving terrorists, any scenes of Digimon firing projectiles at highrise buildings or, in the most pointless move, removing any scenes of the good guys destroying the Dark Spires by firing missiles at them.
This is not to say all the censorship was bad. In 02, a scene where a Mexican police officer points a gun at two of the Digidestined was cut, as well as a scene where a Digimon takes a leak(!). Even so, some scenes seem needlessly edited, like two female Digimon slapping each other.
That pretty much covers my critique of Digimon Adventure and Adventure 02. I know this is (really!) long-winded but critiquing TV shows requires a lot of detail. Also, as a side note, any generalizations I make about Digimon applies to both seasons unless otherwise stated.
Thanks for reading!
Pump
First off, this is not a review. I'm writing this more in the style of Yahtzee, where I assume that you've already seen (most) of the two seasons and understand much of what I'm saying. If you haven't seen Digimon, I suggest that you do but you have no obligation to stick around here.
Also, I'm going to refer to the seasons, not as season one and two but Adventure and Adventure 02, their proper names. Adventure has 54 episodes, while 02 has 50.
So here goes.
Plot
Once you get past the inherent cuteness of the digital monsters, you will find there is an immensly elaborate story that, at times, is difficult to comprehend, even for a university-level student like myself. The "there are bad guys, let's defeat them" story is blantantly simple but beyond that, several mechanics are thrown in that make the series unique.
First, the dual-world aspect. The Digital World holds its roots in the real world, originating as data before becoming a separate place with the Digimon becoming sentient. This is better fleshed out in season 3, Tamers, but what little we learn of it in the Adventures creates potential for a huge origin story.
Second, the time mechanic. When the main characters of Adventure are in the Digital World, a time distortion exists that speeds up the flow of time in the Digital World. For every month that passes in the Digital World, a minute passes in the real world. This occurs up until the "ultimate evil" appears at the end of Adventure, which inadvertently nullifies the time distortion, bringing the flow of time to the same for both worlds (1 minute = 1 minute). This becomes important in Adventure 02 when the characters travel to the Digital World in real time, meaning spending a night there means being absent from home.
Third, including a "real world" much like our own. This is in comparison to Pokemon and Dragonball Z, Digimon's competitors, who both had worlds were magical incredible things are commonplace, like rats that generate lighting, or men spontaneously growing long blond hair on cue. The real world of Digimon is just like ours: average, boring, a place where nothing ordinary happens. This gives the story more effect when the Digimon cross over to the real world and start shit up. Seeing the impact of evil Digimon on their families also provides a stronger motivation for the heroes, as opposed to "you're evil, you must be defeated". Watching a group of monsters round up your neighbors to do evil things to them would certainly motivate someone more than the trodden-to-death "take over the world" scheme.
Which sadly, brings me to the faults of the plot and there are many. Yes, it is a children's show so some issues can be resolved by taking this into account but even so, some things can't be so easily forgiven.
First thing that comes to mind is pacing. Because Digimon is kept within the constraints of a year-long showing (50-54 episodes) per season, they have less freedom over pacing than with Pokemon (500+ episodes and counting). Even so, Digimon was given Sonic's running shoes, 12 cans of Red Bull, and told to run a mile in under two minutes, and it shows. The first villian, Devimon, appears in episode seven and is defeated in episode 13, a record time for an evil villian to be defeated. This is partly due to the original plan of 13 episodes before its popularity skyrocketed, but the final five viliians, the Dark Masters and Apocalymon were dispatched in 14 episodes. That's three episodes for each Dark Master and two for the eccentic yet dull finale against the ultimate evil. The pacing is only sped up further by the English dub studio's unrelenting decision to cram as much dialogue as possible into each episode, giving little time for reflection, or even a quiet, peaceful scene.
I would also mention the tendency for enemies to be outright evil ("My evil plans will not fail, AHAHAHAHA!!!) and not sorta bad, but it is a kids' show and morals of good vs. evil are quite effective at a young age.
That said, the morality aspect of Digimon is irritating. I've already mentioned that it's a kids' show but still, extoling the virtues of friendship and kindness gets old after the 20th friggin' episode! It even gets to the point where enemies are defeated by the power of friendship and kindness, and not by giant monster kicking the shit out of them. Adventure 02 did this twice, once with BlackWarGreymon and once with the final boss, who was defeated by kids' self-esteem! If that doesn't seem ridiculous than nothing will.
Also, why is it that the Digivolution scene needs to be shown, in full, every single episode?! As well, the Digidestined (main heroes) have an annoying habit of always digivolving their Digimon partner to the level exactly one below what they need to defeat their opponent. They then decide "He's too strong, why need to digivolve again!" I always wonder why they don't go straight to their highest level and kick their ass that way.
Art
The art in Digimon is amazing. The settings in the Digital World are unique enough that you might mistake them for the real world, but then realize that there's no way they could exist there. Signposts in trees, traincars on islands, the Empire State Building, Roman Coliseum, and Arc de Trimuph all in the same city, it holds a sense of realism and at the same time, a sense of fantasy as well.
The real world gets the opposite treatment. Being set in Japan, Tokyo in particular, the story makes use of the train tunnels, several famous buildings (Tokyo Tower), and is as close to the real city as anime would allow. The art uses grays and realistic colors to add to the real world feel, and is a distinct place from the Digital World. Also, the art style uses a technique that results in small colored blotches being spread across the backgrounds of both worlds and surprisingly, it works well.
Voice Acting
I'll start by saying that I've never seen the Japanese original and thus, will only be mentioning the English Fox Kids version.
First off, the voice actors are among some of the best in the business and it shows. Adventure has some of the best voice acting of any show on at the time. The Digidestined have the perfect voices to match the characters (the brainic, the ditz, the hothead) and the timing is spot on. Even the enemies are voiced with enough variety and flair that it seems that the voice actors were enjoying themselves.
There are a few standout performances. Etemon, the second villian of Adventure, tends to rock on his guitar and sing so the dub gave him an Elvis voice, taking care to even include his vocal habits (I'm gonna destroy those kids, uh huh huh.). Another Digimon has an Igor-like voice while one of the Dark Masters has a surfer-meets-rocker style accent that is difficult to describe and awesome to listen to. They performances of much of the cast seems effortless.
That said, there are a few instances where the dub actor missed his mark. Agumon often sounds awkward in the delivery of his lines (What are we gonna do.....Tai?) and the Digidestined of 02 say this ridiculous phrase "DigiArmor Ener...gize!" with a pause in the middle of energize. I do realize that dubbing is difficult but these problems seem easy to fix.
Also, I noticed a few times in 02 that dubbingdidn't always match the actions onscreen. More than twice did I catch a character almost offscreen moving his lips but not saying snything, as if the dub actors missed the line or outright ignored it.. It tends to throw you off just a bit.
Script
The script is the only place where I start marking down the series. As I mentioned before, the dub has an irritating habit of placing inane dialogue, cutesy jokes, or needless conversation wherever there is a moment of silence. Occasionly the jokes are both funny and appropriate and don't feel forced (I don't wanna play Go Fish! How about we play strip po-*RING*) but rarely is this the case. One moment in particular is especially irritating, where the parents of one 02 Digidestined are lamenting the disappearance of their son. They watch the TV for news only to hear "In medical news, doctors have found the cure for the monkey flu!" This pointless joke is awful in itself (Monkey flu? WTF?) but also ruins the mood that was constructed. Often is the case where a needless joke ruins a relaxing moment, or a somber scene.
Censorship
The Fox Kids version did more than dub over the Japanese version, they also edited out certain parts of the series. As the series was aired after 9/11, any references to the event, even unintentional, where edited out. This includes: any dialogue involving terrorists, any scenes of Digimon firing projectiles at highrise buildings or, in the most pointless move, removing any scenes of the good guys destroying the Dark Spires by firing missiles at them.
This is not to say all the censorship was bad. In 02, a scene where a Mexican police officer points a gun at two of the Digidestined was cut, as well as a scene where a Digimon takes a leak(!). Even so, some scenes seem needlessly edited, like two female Digimon slapping each other.
That pretty much covers my critique of Digimon Adventure and Adventure 02. I know this is (really!) long-winded but critiquing TV shows requires a lot of detail. Also, as a side note, any generalizations I make about Digimon applies to both seasons unless otherwise stated.
Thanks for reading!
Pump
