Anime Review: Digimon: Digital Monsters

Seven kids are transported to the Digital World, a strange place where digital creatures called "Digimon" reside. A group of Digimon soon befriend them and keep the kids out of harm's way. The children then discover they are the Chosen Children, which protect the Digital World from evil Digimon like Devimon and Vamdemon.

Digimon: Digital Monsters Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy

Digimon: Digital Monsters Synonyms: Digimon Adventure 01

Digimon: Digital Monsters Studios: Toei Animation, Yomiko Advertising, Fuji TV,

Digimon: Digital Monsters Review

It's like Pok�mon, but with balls (and not the kind for catching things). Also, actual character development.

I'm sure this is a nostalgia trip for a lot of people. Me? I never saw, played, or knew anything about Digimon until recently, but part of me wishes I'd discovered it a long time ago. True, it's not a fantastic show on its own merits, and I'm not going to pretend that it is... but in the world of toyetic children's series like Pok�mon, Beyblade, and Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Digimon series does have a certain special quality to it, despite falling victim to the same monster of incredibly edited dubs that claims so many others.

__Story:__ The plot, as a whole, ranges from arbitrary and childish at worst to confusing and convoluted at best. I don't know how else to describe a story in which God himself ([no joke](http://digimon.wikia.com/wiki/God)) is an involved character. You can't spin a simpler "good vs. evil" yarn than that. What's really unusual is how drastically the series changes from beginning to end, starting off in an incredibly generic and formulaic villain-of-the-week format and expanding into a rather intricate narrative. So intricate, in fact, that I don't think the writers themselves knew what they were doing. The plot jumps from one extreme to the other over the course of the series, which is a crazy move in terms of narrative. Maybe that's why I'm just a little bit drawn to it; I like things a little crazy. That said, the last thing you'll hear me call the storyline is thoughtful. As I've said, it's unique, but not much else... and it does sadly suffer from an abundance of plotholes and loose ends. While the actual plot doesn't change much from Japanese to English, the style of writing most certainly does. The English version makes damned sure to insert a bad joke or two anytime things start to get too tense so as to maintain the "cartoony" air of the localization... mind you, even with this fact, the story does approach some topics that any other toyetic series would avoid like the plague. While these scenes are more serious/powerful in the Japanese version, I have to say that it's beautiful to see this new ground covered at all in either version. Ash never got smacked upside the head by his mother for nearly killing someone in Pok�mon, I can guarantee you that.

__Art:__ Despite all the competition out there in the "monster training" subgenre (remember Monster Rancher?), Digimon actually manages to have a fairly distinct style to its artwork, and not an unattractive one at that. You won't find beautifully immersive character models, photorealistic backdrops or jaw-dropping special effects, of course; I'm just saying the art style is unique and recognizable, and with a series that boasts 50+ episodes to a season, that's not a bad feat. The animation itself ranges from subpar to average, but usually sticks closer to the latter, and isn't uncomfortable to watch.

__Sound:__ I'll confess, the last version I watched was the English, edits and all. By acting alone, it's nothing extraordinary, but it's not particularly bad, either... unless you mind hearing the same actor play fifty roles, in what I call The Sabat Effect. Me, I find it hilarious. But I digress. The Japanese dub is fairly standard and the English passable in terms of voice acting. Despite some localization, the English dub manages to be surprisingly faithful by toyetic standards--hardly any name changes and almost no visual edits. One thing I do have to complain about, however, is the music. As cheesy as the English theme song is, it's nowhere near as bad as the goofy insert songs scattered throughout the dub. Those, sadly, sorely hurt the experience, but are thankfully not present in the Japanese version (which again, I personally recommend in this case).

To put it simply, this is one of those series that I find myself conflicted on. As much fun as I have watching it, either for abstract reasons or just because it's so bad it's good, my analysis must remain objective. Simply put, Digimon is not a good show. But it's a bad show that I can't help but have fun watching. Who knows? Maybe the same will be true for you.