Overview

90's anime is always very fun to watch, as it takes me back to the days of watching shows like Gundam Wing and Outlaw Star on late night TV as a kid when my parents had already gone to bed.

The anime they knew I watched (when they were awake, anyway) were things like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, DBZ and, of course, Digimon Adventure. After watching this again for the first time in decades, this show is definitely not the greatest, but as a kids show, it does its job well.

The Main Points

Digimon Adventure is the first ever season of the Digimon TV show, a franchise that is still publishing new content to this day. The show follows a group of kids known as the Digi-destined; Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Joe, Mimi and TK, that are thrown into the Digi-world whilst at summer camp. With the help of their Digimon compatriots, the gang attempt to get back to their world, all whilst stopping all of the evil Digimon from taking over their cuddly friends' planet.

!The digidestined with their digi-mates

Clocking in at 54 episodes (a number I haven't seen often in other shows), Digimon Adventure explores a good number of different arcs, character introductions and storylines, all whilst ensuring the core characters i.e. the Digi-destined and their partners, are at the forefront of the show's climaxes. Doing this with a large cast can be quite difficult but Digimon Adventure actually does this really well. Every member of the Digi-destined have their own personalities, albeit quite basic, but enough to differentiate them in a kids show. They also have their own character arcs and fun interactions with each other without taking away from the group. Of course, there are more prominent characters than others (for example, Tai is written into the show more prominently than Joe), but generally, there's a really refreshing balance here.

A show like Digimon could have easily fallen into focusing far too much on the Digimon themselves and their evolutions (sorry, DIGI-volutions - wouldn't want to ruin the branding), but Digimon Adventure made us care about the characters. What I truly like about this is that they act like kids at the worst of times; they squabble, they get on each other's nerves, they throw tantrums, and they fight in believable ways. Kids shows like to make their characters a little too perfect at times, but Digimon made the kids relatable, which is far more impressive.

The Digimon themselves are also a great foil to the show. Acting as both the character partners and the main villains of the show, many of the Digimon have their own personality, although it isn't as strongly written as the human characters of the show. The designs are great too - it's always cool to see the creativity of different enemies and transformations. Not only this, but the Digimon are typically the conduit of consequence - they're the ones fighting, they're the ones who get tired, they're the ones who get mind controlled, and they're the ones that die. They're also the ones improving, getting stronger, learning about relationships. This is done alongside the human characters, which makes it all the more endearing and enjoyable. I think this is where Digimon, as a kids show, was really impressive.

!Agumon and Gabumon enjoying a little snicky-snack together

Digimon does touch on storylines and themes that, as a kid, you may not appreciate. But as an adult, recognising that a kids show that highlights the confusion of adoption, the complications of divorce, manipulation, dealing with death - this is heavy stuff, and Digimon write it in a very accessible and understanding way.

Unfortunately, I did watch the dub of Digimon Adventure. Hoo boy, it can certainly be an experience. The re-use of animations and weird inserts of CGI is borderline laughable, and the soundtrack is grating - if I ever have to listen to "Hey Digimon, hey Digimon, monster friends to the boys and girls" again, it'll be too soon. The dubbed voice acting is too much at times - multiple Digimon having vague accents, one of them being an Elvis Presley impersonator, the generally awkward delivery of 50% of the script. It's magical, truly, but I can't judge the show too harshly on a poor dub. What I can judge it on is the fight sequences.

The villains of Digimon Adventure are great; the designs are great, the chase to the villain is great, the build-up is great. The fights are truly dreadful. They're poorly animated, they have zero ramifications 90% of the time, and the majority last for maybe 2 or 3 moves post-Digivolution. It just didn't feel dynamic whatsoever, and the poor fight scenes do dampen the impact and conclusion of many of the story arcs.

There are a few questionable parts of the story too, which I won't go into as this is intended to be as spoiler-free as possible (even though the show came out decades ago). There are certainly instances when our main cast make a decision, and you can't help but question if anyone would do that, regardless of whether they're a young kid. The final third of the season also felt very rushed due to the amount of new characters that were introduced in such a short time, so the story did fall flat that side of the coin. The initial episodes of the show very much functioned as a "monster of the day" situation, similar to something like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, with some reference to a more evil mastermind in the background. As the show progressed, the latter idea was more and more prominent, but the team didn't really give themselves enough time to explore this due to the amount of time spent on earlier "monster of the day" stuff. A frustrating situation as a writer, and one where a viewer may be wanting more.

!Greymon and Garurumon chillin

How to improve - 3 steps

One thing I'd like to do in my anime reviews is to suggest three (3) improvements I would've liked to see in the show. I'm not an animator or writer, so do take this all with a pinch of salt!

• The animation: I have to acknowledge that the budget for Digimon's animation was very, very limited. That being said, it's just not very good in this department. Multiple still frames, lots of re-use, clunky fight scenes - Digimon Adventure really did not pave the way, unfortunately. It's a shame; if this had as much money thrown at it as something like Dragon Ball or Pokemon did, I feel the show would've aged considerably better.

• The final arc: to keep as spoiler-free as possible, the final arc introduced a number of new characters that the show simply did not have enough time to write around. Had these characters been present from the start, I think the world-view of their development would've been much better, but unfortunately, it felt very rushed.

• The English dub: I mean, what is there to say here? I grew up with this so I can definitely cope, but I can only pray for those who want to watch this for the first time out of curiosity. The Saban dubbing is awkward at the best of times, and hilariously average in other instances. Sometimes it's a good thing. Sometimes... not so much.

Final Thoughts

Can I be honest? I think I kinda love Digimon Adventure. For all its flaws in animation and the cursed English dub, this show wrote a better story and held stronger themes than its competitors. It's a shame Digimon Adventure doesn't get the recognition it deserves, because it is truly a heartwarming watch - to the point where I'm considering watching subsequent or newer seasons of the show. I can certainly see myself watching this again in the future.