Digimon Season 1 Review

Fate. Destiny. And digital monsters. You'll find all of this and more in the animated series "Digimon".

Origins

Digimon virtual pet toy

Digimon began as a virtual pet released by Bandai in Japan, 1997. The Digimon came inside a small device with a small black and white screen and three buttons lettered A, B and C, that are used to interact with your Digimon. As an owner of a Digimon your responsibilities are to feed, train, heal and even clean up after your Digimon. You could also connect two devices together and battle against your friends. Eventually, after a while of taking care of your Digimon it would digivolve into its next form.


Sound familiar? That's because Tamagotchi (which, ironically enough, was also released by Bandai) was also a virtual pet toy that you probably played with, or at the very least knew somebody that had one when you were younger. Roughly two years after the Digimon pet toy was launched it was given it's own anime in Japan. Later that same year, an English dub made it's way to North America. Hooray for the USA!

What is a Digimon?

Agumon (Rookie) digivolves into Greymon (Champion)

The first season of Digimon introduces us to the concept of what a Digimon is. Digimon are, as the name implies, digital monsters that come from a digital world which shares a connection to the real world through Earth's communication devices like computers and cellphones. All Digimon start off as a Digi-Egg and can go through several stages of transformation called "Digivolution". After every Digivolution, the Digimon will change in appearance and increase in power. These stages differ in name and complexity throughout each season. In season 1, the different levels of Digivolution are: Digi-Egg, Fresh, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate and Mega.

As you'll eventually learn from the series, when a human has a partner Digimon, the Digimon can even digivolve into different forms under certain circumstances. When this occurs, it's name changes to match their new form. Although their name changes, they are still the same individual Digimon from before. After expending a lot of energy or being badly defeated, Digimon may De-Digivolve to a lower level. If enough force is used, a Digimon can even be killed. Digimon that die dissolve into little bits of data that is reconfigured into their Digi-Egg form, ready to go through it's life cycle once again.

Season 1

This season of Digimon takes place in Japan. In the first episode we learn that the world has been experiencing major climate changes for no apparent reason. We're then introduced to a group of seven children: Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Mimi, Joe, and T.K. While at summer camp, a huge blizzard hits the campers in the middle of July. The children gather outside to check out the snow only to be surprised to see an aurora in the sky. Izzy quickly determines that it would be impossible for an aurora to appear based on their geographical location. Suddenly, a portal in the aurora beams down Digivices, a small electronic device, in front of each child. The children grab their Digivices and are promptly transported into the digital world by a massive wall of water that opens up from within the lake. Upon landing in the digital world, each child is greeted by their own In-Training Digimon partner. Having only just arrived in the digital world, Tai and Izzy along with their respective Digimon, Koromon and Motimon, are attacked by a much stronger Digimon called Kuwagamon. They manage to hide from Kuwagamon inside a secret hologram tree until the Kuwagamon leaves. Tai and Izzy regroup with Sora, T.K., Matt and Joe along with their new Digimon partners, Yokomon, Tokomon, Tsunomon and Bukamon. As they wonder where Mimi has gone, they hear her screaming and see her with her partner, Tanemon, running away from Kuwagamon. It chases the group to the edge of a cliff, and the Digimon decide to fight back. However, the In-Training Digimon can only blow bubbles and are knocked back by the Champion-level Kuwagamon. The children try to stop their Digimon from fighting but the Digivices start to glow and the Digimon suddenly digivolve to their Rookie level. Koromon becomes Agumon, Yokomon becomes Biyomon, Motimon becomes Tentomon, Tsunomon becomes Gabumon, Tokomon becomes Patamon, Bukamon becomes Gomamon, and Tanemon becomes Palmon. The Rookie Digimon begin attacking Kuwagamon and manage to knock it out for a short while. Kuwagamon comes back and slams into the cliff causing it to break off the chunk the children and Digimon are on, falling into the river. And so begins the journey of the Digi-Destined.

Humans from left to right: T.K., Matt, Sora, Tai, Izzy, Mimi and Joe.

Digimon from left to right: Patamon, Gabumon (bottom), Biyomon (top), Agumon, Tentomon (top), Palmon (bottom) and Gomamon

The Digi-Destined all share a couple of things in common. First, each Digi-Destined has their own Digivice and partner Digimon. As the series goes on, they discover that they were all chosen to become Digi-Destined because they were all witness to a certain event that involved Digimon appearing in the real world that happened years ago. Each Digi-Destined holds a particular trait that is made clear to them throughout their journey. They also learn that each trait is associated with a crest (an ancient symbol) that appears on items that typically give the Digimon more power or the ability to Digivolve further. The children all throughout their adventure are constantly being put through hardships and challenges that test their strengths and weaknesses, but the children overcome these challenges by believing in their crest's trait that makes them special.

Impressions

The story itself is obviously targeting a very young audience about the same age as the Digi-Destined. With that being said, it's no surprise I found myself annoyed during the childish and mushy parts. Now, I don't want to discredit the creators because again, I'm certainly not their target audience, but if you do plan on watching this series then don't be afraid to hit that fast forward button. The story can get pretty complex and just when you think you've gotten some answers more questions pop up. Also, watching the kids make decisions that kids their age normally never will is all the more interesting. Kudos to the character development!

I think some of the most popular anime around the late 90's and early 2000's shared a very similar mechanism: in times of dire need, the good guys always got a boost to overcome the bad guys. And Digimon is certainly no different. After all, that is how the Digimon manage to Digivolve to defend their partners throughout the whole series. Knowing that, it might be easy to figure out which episodes the Digimon will achieve their next form. However, not all Digimon reach the same number of levels, so I felt really disappointed and clueless as to why they made that decision. Another similarity would be how the "bad guys" are introduced. Once a bad guy is defeated another one that's been in hiding shows up to take its place.

Overall, the season had a great start but can get repetitive really fast just like I mentioned, when you think you've finally beaten the big bad boss, an even worse one appears in its place. It's almost as if the writers use this mechanism to elongate the series no real reason. I did however enjoy the little recap they give at the beginning of each episode so you can easily finish an episode and pick up on the next one without wondering why the characters are in a certain place. The opening song is extremely catchy but I wish the opening animation would change and feature new characters as they are introduced along the series. If you're like me, then I'm sure you won't help but feel like watching the show just to watch the Digimon reach their Ultimate/Mega levels. If you've never seen it in your childhood, I definitely recommend you to spend the time to watch this series. You won't regret it.

Check out my next review for Season 2 coming up soon!