Anime Overview: Digimon, Digimon Adventure 1

Digimon Adventure is often viewed as the best season of the franchise and it is easy to see why. The first season of any show doesn't exist to be anything more than what it is and this season relied more on simplicity and character. It felt very much like the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon or Monster Rancher in the idea that it is about a group of kids who end up in a strange world and with time uncovers the mystery of why they are there. One difference between those series and this one is that the story is told on two fronts with their adventures leading them to and from the Digital World and the real world. As a whole this season introduces key ideas and themes that will be somewhat of a mainstay throughout the entirety of the series: Digivices, Digivolution, Digidestined, themes of unity, friendship, and personal growth. Looking at it as a whole it is easy to see that Power Rangers plays a big role which makes sense since Saban owns both properties and this is best shown in these popular themes:

1. Young teens - preteens chosen to save the world

2. Animal themes.

3. Mysterious new member is discovered/hinted at 

4. Old mysterious figure who  imparts information and is revealed to have played a big role in what is happening

5. New powers (in the form of crest tags to further Digivolution and in later series Digi-Eggs, Blue Cards, and Spirits) to enhance powers

6. Teammate turning evil temporarily

7. Expanded mythology of the world and how it connects to our heroes

When people think of what makes Digimon better than Pokemon one of the big talking points is the characters in that not only does Digimon offer more fleshed out characters but that it offers more of them as a whole. This true to an extent but also what I think hurts Digimon in the long run as with Ash, Pokemon has a consistent presence every time they do something new where later seasons of Digimon often feel so different from one another that even the title isn't enough for some people to remember. However, this is only true when we look at the entire series as a hole and I would argue that the Indigo arc of Pokemon and the first season of Digimon do pretty much the same. The difference is that Digimon used the adventure to deal with a variety of problems, revealing them with time. A good example is in how different Matt and Tai's relationship with their siblings makes them both similar yet different in ways in not just how they treat their siblings but also in how that relationship impacts themselves. Other things involve Izzy finding out he was adopted or Joe finding his own courage and Mimi........... finding a will to fight.

 The Digidestined and their Digimon have a sort of relationship that seems almost symbiotic as the Digimon help the kids grow as people and through that emotional growth, the Digimon themselves get stronger. Digivolution isn't something that occurs naturally and we later find out that these specific Digimon were chosen for these specific kids. This is another difference from Pokemon as the concept of evolution is not directly tied to the relationship they have with their trainers. In a lot of ways you could view the Digimon as Gusteau in the movie Ratatouille in that the Digimon themselves really only help them come to conclusions I think the kids already knew deep down. The Digimon seek to encourage and listen, almost like surrogate parents/children as the kids often have to explain how things in their world work and it should be noted that each Digimon thinks the world of their specific partner and have a rather straightforward view of how how things work. This is different from Pokemon where the creatures often vary from simplistic to complex and it usually goes back to their relationship with other trainers. A good example I think would be in how the Crests and their owner can allow the Digimon to Digivolve further. I think a rather simplistic version of this is Sora and Biyomon as it is only when Sora comes to terms that she and Biyomon are like her and her own mother is she able to understand her feelings and her relationship with her mother improves later on. 

The story formula was I think best here because even though it was always a "fight the bad guy" kind of story, there was always something else going on that explained it. The first adventure on File Island was just the kids trying to get home as Devimon tries to destroy them and during the adventure there they find out more about the world and why they are here. On Server, Etemon doesn't progress the story but through the battle with him the kids find their crest tags and again learn more about the Digital World and Digivolution as a concept. With Myotismon (which I think was the most popular arc) the mystery of the eight child is also a sort of race as Myotismon seeks to destroy the child as the kids try to find him. Finally we get to the Dark Masters arc where in trying even just even survive the Dark Masters they find out more about what is going on, the mystery of darkness, the significance of their journey, and who the real enemy was the whole time. Throughout all of this we get plenty of great character moments. There is rarely a "monster of the week" only episode, the story keeps moving at a decent pace, stopping only to deal with developing our characters and even then the story doesn't flat out stop. There is a big idea that the team needs to be together to save the Digital World but that isn't it, there is a lot of things they all have to learn, issues with themselves that they have to come to terms with. Whether it is Sora dealing with the pressure that they have to save the world or T.K. becoming more independent and Matt learning to accept it, the episodes and stories have a purpose within the narrative, as the destination is the journey.

If there was one thing that really hurt this season it was definitely the final battle and honestly this is something that a lot of seasons of the series will have. You have to understand one important thing about Digimon: it exists to promote a video game and that was it's primary design and it's ending always tries to follow the ending of "beat the final boss" and Apocalymon is the definition of that. Apocalymon tries to be a great enemy but at the same time there isn't much substance to him as a character. There is also the problem of the cast Out of the eight kids, I would honestly say that five of them really got time to shine whereas characters like Mimi and Kari seemed to get lost in the story or their story had very little to work with though Mimi's crest and Kari's personality get fleshed out much better in the next season.

Digimon Adventure 01 was a flagship of anime in the U.S. as something that was sort of a tribute to the cartoons of the 80's and 90's and that's kind of what the series has always been. It was possibly the most like Power Ranger in that it balanced out the comedy with the action and drama and while the comedy wasn't always on target it did feel unique.Like the Mighty Morphin era going in to Turbo we saw a group of kids go through and adventure and were shaped by it. The word that really sums up what makes this series better than Pokemon was the sense of growth. Throughout the entire franchise we will see growth, the growth of characters, the growth of stakes, and the growth of a world so similar to our own but different in so many ways we never even thought possible. It's an experience in the form of an adventure.