*Sorry for the long review!* I remember when Pokemon and Digimon were first broadcast in England. Pokemon came out first, at that seemed pretty cool. My brother loved it, and I liked it... But a few weeks later when I saw the adverts for Digimon I thought ''that looks like Pokemon, it must be as good''. I was wrong... IT WAS 50 BILLION TIMES BETTER!!!!!
I found Pokemon same-ish and boring after four episodes. it was literally: "Wow! A new pokemon! Lets get it! Oh no, Pikachu's been stolen by Team Rocket, Lets get him back and blow them up!" That was pretty much the story in EVERY SINGLE STINKIN' EPISODE!! In Digimon, OK I admit the animation isn't 100% and the jokes are pretty bad sometimes... and the English dub probably isn't as half as good as English Subtitled Japanese episodes but ignoring that, you have one of the most brilliant anime/TV shows on the face of the Earth! (Series 1 was the best, Series 2 was pretty cool, Series 3 I loved, Series 4 I had to watch online as it was never broadcast in the UK... And I can see why, it was just an epic fail... First three series? BEST TV SHOW EVER!!!)
My brother loved Pokemon and he claimed Digimon was rubbish. So what did I do? Made him watch an episode, and another... and another... Then he watched the whole series, with me, quite happilly. I was fascinated by the characters in Digimon and how they changed. They were so real! Tai was the leader of the group, Matt was the cool kid, Sora was like the friend to everyone, Izzy was the computer-obsessed smart kid, Joe was a bit of a geek, Mimi was the person who went shopping at the mall, TK was a little kid, Kari (Who appears later in the series)is another little kid... It's amazing how much they change in the series! Tai was a bit 'Everything has to be done my way!' Without letting the others get a word in, but as the series continued, he changed and let everyone else have their say. Matt was a loner, but he became more of a team member later. TK and Kari the little kids, while still being 8 year olds and the end of the series, grow up and become more mature (Just because you're tall it doesn't mean you've grown). Mimi, who thinks she's perfect and the world will always be perfect for her, changes as friendly Digimon die and she begins to realise that bad things happen and that you have to deal with them. (My favorite characters were Sora, Matt, Gabumon, Biyomon, Gommamon, TK, Patamon, Kari, Gatomon... OK that's a lot of favorite characters, but still)
Digimon's probably the reason I'm like I am now. When I first watched this as an 8 year old, I didn't really understand what was going on, but watching it again, so many years later, I can understand it, and I can see a lot of the characters personalities in myself... And I'm still learning from it. I had an argument with a friend, and thought they were to blame. I went home and watched an episode of Digimon 'Princess Karaoke' which was focusing on Mimi and how she treated Tai and Joe, and how her nightmares were trying to tell her she'd done something wrong, and Sora helped explain... And I realised that I was probably the one who'd done something wrong. Thanks to Digimon, I still have one of my best friends today, instead of losing them over a silly argument.
Don't dismiss this as a cheesy kid's show, it actually has a lot of meaning hidden in it. It's surprisingly WAY more than it first appears. When I was 8 and first watching this show, I wished I could go to the Digital World too... I wish I could have been part of the group with my own digimon friend...
I found Pokemon same-ish and boring after four episodes. it was literally: "Wow! A new pokemon! Lets get it! Oh no, Pikachu's been stolen by Team Rocket, Lets get him back and blow them up!" That was pretty much the story in EVERY SINGLE STINKIN' EPISODE!! In Digimon, OK I admit the animation isn't 100% and the jokes are pretty bad sometimes... and the English dub probably isn't as half as good as English Subtitled Japanese episodes but ignoring that, you have one of the most brilliant anime/TV shows on the face of the Earth! (Series 1 was the best, Series 2 was pretty cool, Series 3 I loved, Series 4 I had to watch online as it was never broadcast in the UK... And I can see why, it was just an epic fail... First three series? BEST TV SHOW EVER!!!)
My brother loved Pokemon and he claimed Digimon was rubbish. So what did I do? Made him watch an episode, and another... and another... Then he watched the whole series, with me, quite happilly. I was fascinated by the characters in Digimon and how they changed. They were so real! Tai was the leader of the group, Matt was the cool kid, Sora was like the friend to everyone, Izzy was the computer-obsessed smart kid, Joe was a bit of a geek, Mimi was the person who went shopping at the mall, TK was a little kid, Kari (Who appears later in the series)is another little kid... It's amazing how much they change in the series! Tai was a bit 'Everything has to be done my way!' Without letting the others get a word in, but as the series continued, he changed and let everyone else have their say. Matt was a loner, but he became more of a team member later. TK and Kari the little kids, while still being 8 year olds and the end of the series, grow up and become more mature (Just because you're tall it doesn't mean you've grown). Mimi, who thinks she's perfect and the world will always be perfect for her, changes as friendly Digimon die and she begins to realise that bad things happen and that you have to deal with them. (My favorite characters were Sora, Matt, Gabumon, Biyomon, Gommamon, TK, Patamon, Kari, Gatomon... OK that's a lot of favorite characters, but still)
Digimon's probably the reason I'm like I am now. When I first watched this as an 8 year old, I didn't really understand what was going on, but watching it again, so many years later, I can understand it, and I can see a lot of the characters personalities in myself... And I'm still learning from it. I had an argument with a friend, and thought they were to blame. I went home and watched an episode of Digimon 'Princess Karaoke' which was focusing on Mimi and how she treated Tai and Joe, and how her nightmares were trying to tell her she'd done something wrong, and Sora helped explain... And I realised that I was probably the one who'd done something wrong. Thanks to Digimon, I still have one of my best friends today, instead of losing them over a silly argument.
Don't dismiss this as a cheesy kid's show, it actually has a lot of meaning hidden in it. It's surprisingly WAY more than it first appears. When I was 8 and first watching this show, I wished I could go to the Digital World too... I wish I could have been part of the group with my own digimon friend...