I figured that this franchise deserved its own thread. So, yeah, discuss anything Digimon-related here. As for me, I have finished watching Tamers and don't plan to watch any further than that unless any of the other seasons are considered to be any good.
Anyways, as for me, I love Adventure and while it hasn't necessarily aged well in every regard I can't help but feel that this series has the most heart to it out of the 3 that I have seen. Adventure 02 is obviously a big drop in quality, but at the same time I have never agreed with some of the hate that it gets, granted that it had some horrendous episodes in the middle of its run and suffered the most from bad plot-holes, and lets not mention its terrible ending (which is a 3-minute segment of the series that I choose to completely ignore), but overall I found the beginning of the series up until the end of the Digimon Emperor arc to be quite enjoyable, and I loved the episodes with the Daemon Corps, and liked the actual final few episode of the series minus the actual ending. I think that it was weakest when it had quite a few pointless episodes in the middle that really did nothing for the series, and I really can't stand the dub for it. While I enjoyed Adventure season 1's dub for what it was, I felt that 02 had a really sloppy dub and even the original VAs from season 1 seemed to stop caring about their roles. Also, I think its major weakness was that none of the new characters were interesting, but I think the inclusion of the old cast and the fact that they got a bit more of an important role later on in the series helped make the show more interesting than it would have been without them. Overall, its definitely not as good as the first season, but I still found it to be entertaining in the end.
Tamers is the one that I most recently re-watched, and while I got bored out of my mind with it as a kid and stopped watching it a bit more than half-way through, I did enjoy it quite a bit more this time and found that its damn good and pretty dark for a kids series by its 2nd half. Overall, I'll say that it was certainly worth re-watching, and I do now have a positive perspective of it and find it to be a good series, but I also do still have my issues with it. Still, I'll give it extra points for having the best dub by far out of the first 3 seasons of the series.
Anyways, my favorite part of Digimon is Our War Game. I also find the English movie to be an extremely guilty pleasure, as its horrendous but I still shamelessly enjoy it.
So, uhhhh....yeah....discuss Digimon.
I'd like to know what the hell was going on with the production behind this show.
They come out with a surprise hit (kids like character development and adventure? who knew?) and even by the seat of their pants are able to make a fun story for kids on a limited budget that borders on being a mainstream hit. It has a great ending and everyone is in love with the series, even converting over the "it's a Pokemon clone!" people.
Then comes season 2 which is surprisingly both over and undercooked in a lot of ways, but it never feels as consistent as the first season in any respect. Plots frequently meander off (some don't even have conclusions), and most of it is just really boring. There is some good stuff, but as a whole it never feels right. The season ends and punches fans in the face further by having the single most retarded ending to a franchise ever closing off the story (for some reason we will never know). The epilogue is still mocked today.
The third season is a bit more insular, and not as focused on the mainstream as the last two seasons. For many fans, it makes up for season 2, but it isn't enough t keep the franchise going as big as it was in Adventure. It too ends and begins a pointless (really pointless) tradition of having ever season standalone from here on out. Though at least it means we won't ever have another epilogue situation ever again.
The fourth season is Power Rangers. The characters are all dull as dishwater. The plot is basically Adventure re-written. It is a grab bag attempt to reach mainstream audiences again, and it fails. Frontier kills the series for years.
Then eventually we get a new Digimon series that is more or less a shonen anime with Digimon in it. It brings the franchise back, but it is safe in every way. The art style is really different too. It gives the series a base to work from, but on its own it isn't anything new.
Now we're up to the current season that I don't really know anything about. I've heard good things about it, but I don't know if it can ever be as popular as it was in the first three seasons again.
The main problem with Adventure 02 is that Toei made a different team of writers from the first season handle the story....the problem is that they made them start writing it before Adventure season 1 was even half-way through its own run, so that alone leads to a lot of the plot holes and overall mess of a story that occurred in 02, since the new writers clearly had no idea of the major plot points that would be brought up later on in Adventure season 1. In fact, if you look at most of the plot-holes from 02, most of them are only inconsistent with the later parts of the story from season 1. The bottom line is that all of Adventure 02's real problems can be attributed to it being extremely rushed in its production. Its a shame, because I really felt like it had a lot of good ideas going for it and could have been great (even better than season 1) if it had gotten the proper amount of time and care put into it that it deserved.
I had heard that, and it's crazy. No wonder a lot of the weird stuff happens. "The Digiworld? What's that?"
I think they really shot themselves in the foot with Digimon and it could have been a lot bigger than it actually was.
Quote from: Desensitized on May 23, 2011, 12:47:34 PM
Now we're up to the current season that I don't really know anything about. I've heard good things about it, but I don't know if it can ever be as popular as it was in the first three seasons again.
Xros Wars is surprisingly well done. It's got that same "kids in a distant world" feel that season 1 had and season 4 tried to emulate, but it has a much smaller cast with the spotlight rotating around enough to give them all fair development, and the arcs remain really consistent and suspenseful.
I haven't really seen much aside from a few episodes, but it really sounds like quite the turn around from Data Squad and Frontier, although it still suffers from Toei's latest infatuation to give all their series soome Mini-con like gimmick meant solely to sell toys. I'd like to see it get licensed outside Japan, but some of the fanservice from certain monster designs just seems too in-your-face to make it as marketable as the first few series were.
That sounds pretty nice, actually. It would be nice to see it licensed and come over here, hopefully giving the franchise a bit of a second wind on this side of the world.
So, I decided to skip both Frontier and Savers after hearing that both seasons are pretty mediocre at best, and instead decided to jump right into Xros Wars which has gotten some pretty positive fan reception so far. I have to say, now that I'm 3 episodes in its already shaping up to be pretty good. It has the kids trapped in the Digital World for the time being with no knowledge of it and how it works much like in Adventure season 1, and on top of that it has a suitably epic set-up with the dark army and the main character Taiki having a vision of what seems to be the future in which he leads an entire army of Digimon against the dark forces in this series. It looks like its foreshadowing to a suitably epic plot later on, though at this point its still just foreshadowing so I have no idea what's really in store for later on.
This season of Digimon is clearly more shonen-esque, and Shoutmon (Taiki's main Digimon) even has a goal to become the "Digimon King" (Yeah, you can totally see that all of Toei's series now pretty much take some form of influence from One Piece), but its nice that he has an actual reason behind it in that he wants to protect his village, rather than just wanting to be the top dog....errrr, Digimon, just for the sake of being the best.
Taiki himself is a refreshing leader character (well, he's not really in a leader role yet, but he's wearing the series's trademark goggles, so its pretty obvious that he will become the big leader later on), in that he's actually not a total dunder-head like most of his predecessors and is pretty clever. He's actually a nice contrast to the rest of the shonen-esque vibe that this series is going for with how cool-headed and understanding he is. He is pretty good at coming up with strategies in the heat of the moment during intense battles, and he wisely avoids being hot-headed when his rival Tamer (well, they are called "Generals" in this series, but its basically the same thing) eggs him on and tries to challenge him, instead keeping focused on defending the village which is more important to him.
Overall, I'm definitely going to catch up with this series. I think its almost over, anyways, going by the fact that every other Digimon series is 50-something episodes long an this series is already in its 40's in the episode count. It has a lot of potential at this current point that I'm at, but it remains to be seen whether it reaches that potential or not.
Looks like they're getting their groove back. I'll add it to the list.
I had to take a break from the series when I was working at my cousin's pharmacy a few weeks ago. I finally got back into watching it now, though, and I have to say....I'm kind of disappointed. The first few episodes certainly showed some promise and the series still has potential from the point that I'm currently at, but after the first 3 or 4 episodes where I left off the show got more episodic (as opposed to building up an interesting continuing story), but didn't make the individual stories interesting since there were a lot of cliches strewn about and it just felt too predictable and formulaic. Recently the last episode I watched hinted that the series will break out of that "by the books" sort of approach that was plaguing the last few episodes that I watched, but I'll have to keep watching to find out. I hope it does turn out to be good in the end because I really do think the series started out with enough potential to be a great series. Hopefully things get more serious and less predictable pretty soon (currently I'm about 12 episodes into the series). I'll keep watching it until the 20-episode mark or so, and depending on if it still holds my interest or not by then, I may either finish it or drop it.
Either way, though, after this I think I'll take a break from watching Digimon series' in general, and when I finally come back to the franchise again I think I'll try and re-watch all of Adventure season 1 as well as Tamers in Japanese with subtitles, just to see how it compared to what I saw of the English dub tracks for both of those series.
Watching til' episode 21 would be a good way to gauge interest in the show. Since episode 21 is usually the game-changing episode in Digimon. Episodes 13 to 30 were the high points of the series for me. (Albeit, with a few lesser episodes in that group)
I think a large problem of the early episodes is that unless you're a big Digifreak (like myself) you probably wouldn't find anything of interest in them. The ocean zone episodes, for instance, featured the animated debuts of Neptunemon (albeit, with a heavily altered appearence) and Leviamon. Members of the Olympus 12 and Seven Great Demon Lords respectively. Two groups which a casual Digimon viewer most likely wouldn't know (or care) about.
The series is about to end pretty soon (that, or it's entering another season) either way, when episode 54 ends in a few weeks, I'll (try) to post my overall thoughts on Xros Wars.
This just happened. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL2_A_l4RVs)
Hell. Yes.
Okay, the animation leaves much to be desired, and they couldn't get some of the seiyuu back, but fuck it, I've been waiting years for this moment.
And now all of a sudden I need to start watching Xros Wars again (I know this is technically a new series, but since its a direct sequel to Xros Wars I count it as part of the same series). Damn, if I had seen something like this back when I was a Digimon fan (and if I had actually watched all of Tamers), I think my head would literally explode from sheer awesomeness. Of course, none of what happened in that scene could possibly canon with Adventure or Tamers (I can't speak for Frontier or Savers since I haven't seen either of them), but even so....damn....
Was that Joe in silhouette randomly?
I have to hand it to them. That was cool.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 18, 2012, 07:34:30 PM
Was that Joe in silhouette randomly?
I have to hand it to them. That was cool.
Yes it was. ;D
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on March 18, 2012, 06:23:39 PM
And now all of a sudden I need to start watching Xros Wars again (I know this is technically a new series, but since its a direct sequel to Xros Wars I count it as part of the same series). Damn, if I had seen something like this back when I was a Digimon fan (and if I had actually watched all of Tamers), I think my head would literally explode from sheer awesomeness. Of course, none of what happened in that scene could possibly canon with Adventure or Tamers (I can't speak for Frontier or Savers since I haven't seen either of them), but even so....damn....
Well, for Adventure, it could have happened sometime after the Our War Game. And for Tamers, it could be in the same universe where the events of Runaway Locomon happened. Frontier and Savers are almost impossible to pin down though, due to Susanoomon and the fact that ShineGreymon is able to go Burst Mode (The former has the cast's Digivice's return to normal immediately after its last battle, and the events after the latter's debut would make its appearance here uncanon). Of course, we can all agree that the writers said "Screw Continuity" on the matter. :P
Out of curiousity, when did you stop on Xros Wars?
Well, the reason I can't believe it ever happened in Adventure is because it was never mentioned at all in Adventure 02, and the reason it can't be canon is because if you look at Tai, he has his Adventure season 1 character design (when he was still 12 years old), but Davis is also there and in his leader uniform, and if that's the case it couldn't be at the same time that Tai was 12 since Davis never even knew about Digimon (let along became the leader of the Digi-destined) until a few years after the events of Adventure season 1 (at which point Tai would have been older than he appeared in that scene from Xros Wars). But, having said that, as you said: "Screw continuity!" ;D
As for Xros Wars, I never got very far into it. I think the last episode I watched was either episode 15 or 16. They were in that Sky zone area, though at the point I left off at they hadn't actually found the Code Crown for that area yet.
So, I only just found out that Digimon Adventure season 1 (http://www.newvideo.com/flatiron-film-company/the-official-digimon-adventure-set-the-complete-first-season/) is getting a complete DVD release.
Honestly, I'd totally pick this up if I had the money for it. If Tamers got a release just like this as well, then that'd be perfect.
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi45.tinypic.com%2Fekgtxc.png&hash=66f3c0fa25853130a4c7dabcddb30d162d7958d4)
:swoon: :swoon: :swoon: :swoon: :swoon: :swoon:
More info on the dub came out since my last post:
http://withthewill.net/index.php?topic=17232.0 (http://withthewill.net/index.php?topic=17232.0)
Quote from: With the Will NewsbotThe dub is being done at Studiopolis. It's in the midst of casting, and the WWP pilot stuff has been tossed out (as was always the assumption.)
Rising Sun Tokusatsu noticed Ben Diskin mentioning he tried out for it.
Based on info from Diskin, it appears the names are being changed for the dub, but not the names WWP used. Taiki's name is similiar (off by one consonant apparently.) According to Diskin the term will still be DigiXros (although based on the way this stuff is done, that may be an early script.)
As for who has licensed it... that information is to come later.
Edit- Due to a few things being said less than privately...I can go ahead and say who the company is now... Saban Brands.
The first dubbed season will be 30 episodes.
Saban's longtime composer Noam Kaniel will be composing music for the series.
Edit 2- Saban Brands has confirmed they have it and it will be dubbed under the title Digimon Fusion, they've also confirmed they have the old seasons.
Edit 3- Here is the logo (thanks to BSCKids) Love that classic font...
(Click for larger)
Edit 4- Marvista put up their marketing trailer for the series
Fusion Marketing Trailer (http://www.marvista.net/programing-catalog.php?n=1&id=347&cat=1)
The marketing trailer confirms a few details including Taiki's name being changed to Mikey, the term will be kept as DigiXros, and a few inter-spliced clips of Hunters seems to confirm they have that also. Try and guess the cast in the trailer...
The logo can be seen in the link.
So, this is kind of old news by now, but being that I'm always out of date on info, I only just came to realize that Digimon Fusion (or Digimon Xros Wars, if you want to go by its Japanese title) is going to be airing on Nicktoons. That's fairly interesting to see that they are getting yet another Toei anime series (though, I don't think that they've aired DBZ Kai for a while, as I'm pretty sure that its airing on Vortexx now). I only watched about 20 episodes of Xros Wars, and I thought it was fairly decent, though not quite as enjoyable and Adventure season 1 and Tamers. That said, I should still get back around to trying to finish Xros Wars one of these days.
What's interesting about that news is that a Nickelodeon executive once stated years ago that they would never air anime on Nick. Clearly, ratings have caused the network to rethink that credo. The thing is, even back then, Nick was airing some anime, just nothing action oriented. Shows like Adventures of the Little Koala, Noozles, Litt'l Bits and Maya the Bee were aimed at a younger audience, but were no less anime.
I think it's airing on regular Nick too. Which would be welcome news if true.
It'll be interesting to see the ratings for this new Digimon show. I remember that Adventure seasons 1 and 2 were quite popular back when they aired on Fox Kids. Ironically, season 2 was the most popular season of Digimon over here in the states, despite being significantly weaker in quality than the 1st season and Tamers, whereas Tamers actually did significantly worse than either season of Adventure as far as ratings, go. To be fair, though, I was one of those kids who couldn't really get into Tamers back when it was airing, but looking back on these shows, that one easily had the most quality out of any of the Digimon series. It also had the most care put into its script and English dub, being that it was the closest to being as accurate as possible to the original Japanese version than any other dubbed season of Digimon (though, it still took quite a number of liberties of its own, but most of them were fairly reasonable in order to better market it to American kids).
Now, I wonder if Saban intends to treat the English dub of Fusion (Xros Wars) with the same level of care that they put into Tamers. If so, that'd certainly be all the more enticing to get me to watch the show as it airs on Nicktoons.
Subbed Digimon on Netflix. (http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/70283208?strkid=1546072853_0_0&trkid=222336&movieid=70283208)
Sweet! I've always wanted to watch the original version of the show with subtitles. I'll probably pass on Adventure 02, though, even though they have it up, as I'm not too keen on re-watching that one in particular. It'd be awesome (yet unlikely, I know, so nobody has to point it out to me) if they could get the sub for Tamers up as well, but I still have a lot of love for the original season of Adventure, so I may just hit that up again after I'm finished watching Buffy and Angel on Netflix.
Maybe I'll finally re-watch this show, now. The original Japanese voicework will probably be a little more pleasing to my ears (I prefer Pokemon in Japanese too, so no complaints!). :D
The VA'ing in Digimon is actually pretty decent, imo. It's the soundtrack replacements I'm (usually) not too keen on.
Yeah, it's not bad, per say. It probably is more the music that bothers me a little when I've tried to watch it recently. Still, I think watching the series with the original Japanese cast would still be more of an incentive for me to finally commit to a proper rewatch of the show, other than trying an episode on Nicktoons here and there.
Continuing from the recent threads, and since I completed Adventure, this is my ranking:
Devimon Arc - 8/10
Right off the bat this show starts out strong with technically 14(!) characters and in the span of 13 episodes gives them all enough focus and enough crazy adventures to really set this show going.
Etemon Arc - 7/10
It still continues being fun, but it's not quite as exciting as the Devimon arc with several episodes just sort of not being very exciting or having enough character moments. The best part would probably be the final confrontation with Datamon in the pyramid.
Myotismon Arc - 10/10
This was really great from start to finish. From Tai's first appearance in the real world up until every character (EVERY character! Remember when shonen did that?) took down the bad guy after leveling a chunk of the city and ended up floating back to the Digital World. A lot of character moments and fun episodes, this is still just as fun to watch nowadays.
Dark Masters Arc - 9/10
This arc is fast and quite a lot happens. I'm not really sure how they managed it. But this is the arc where the wrinkles in the dub really show. That last fight at the end is embarrassing to watch in the dub. Otherwise, this is a really good epilogue to the story and the ending is a good way to close it up. I have to say that re-watching it, it still holds up as a fun adventure show that I think kids now would enjoy.
The dub was, yeah, kind of a mixed experience. The voices were good (the cast list is impressive to look at now) as well as the direction, but the dialogue changes were totally unnecessary (The 'Digimon dungeon' thing makes no sense when in every other episode it isn't hidden at all what happens to the Digimon) and the jokes were unneeded. But if you can get past that, the actual dub is watchable. It's not quite a "hackdub", there are far worse in that field.
Ah, I totally forgot about doing something like this for Digimon. Here are my rankings:
Devimon - 7/10
Its a really nice start to the series. Its kind of standard shonen fair, but for a show that was basically made to sell toys, it was WAY better than what something of this sort normally would've been. I like how even within the first 13 episodes (which was originally all the series was planned for), we got pretty even characterization for all 7 of the original Digidestined. We got really enjoyable episodes that gave each character their dues, and the adventure aspect was always fun, with the Digimon designs being especially creative, and it was exciting to see each Digimon reach their champion level in connection to their partner's character development. Overall it was a fun season, but nothing outstanding.
Etemon - 6/10
Its easily the weakest part of the series, and is clearly just set-up for what's to come later on. Its serviceable stuff, and it does contain some really fun villains and a good sense of adventure, but on the whole it just feels like padding before stuff actually gets real.
Divided Digidestined - 8/10
I know that most people just count this as being part of the Etemon arc, but its really a completely separate arc from that, hence why it doesn't have an official title and I just had to make one up on the spot. At any rate, this is where the show really started picking up for me, and the adventure elements really began to click. This wasn't the first time that the characters had been split up, but this is where we really got some terrific chemistry between them as Tai started meeting up with the other members of the group, and attempted to reunite everyone. In this way, we got a lot of fun scenarios involving all kinds of mix-ups between groups. That said, my personal favorite episode in this bunch was Izzy's episode, which was ironically a solo character piece with Matt and TK only coming in and joining up with him at the end, but it was a really nice celebration of why Izzy's curiosity and need to learn and understand more makes him such a great character. We also get a good lead-in to the plot of the next arc in this story, so overall this was a really good arc, IMO.
Myotismon - 10/10
Hands down the best arc in the original series. Bringing the characters back into the real world and having the Digimon become a real physical threat was a brilliant idea. It was also terrific that the writers actually got the kids' parents involved, and that most of these parents were pretty well characterized themselves. This arc hands down was the high-point of the series in terms of both the overall stakes as well as on an emotional level. This really felt like everything the series had been building up to for a while, and the addition of great characters like Gatomon and Wizardmon REALLY pushed forward the level of complexity that the Digimon themselves could have as characters, and also lead to one of the most legitimately tragic moments in the show, which is hands down one of my top 3 favorite Digimon scenes ever. On the whole, if you want to get down to the core of what makes this arc great, its not so much the story, but its ALL about the characters. Its crammed to the brim with great character moments and character development for just about every member of the cast even the minor characters, and it contains the best villain in the original series to boot. So, yeah, this was the first Digimon arc that elevated the show's status to being better than just a simple kid's show.
Dark Masters - 9/10
While not quite as good as the Myotismon arc, this is an easy 2nd for the original series, and that's not a bad thing by any means. I think this arc could have potentially been the best one, but what holds it back from a 10 for me is that it ultimately comes off feeling a bit rushed. Also, by this point most of the characters had already finished their own personal character arcs, so there wasn't much left to develop for any of them. They tried to do it with Matt, but the problem was that it felt like they wer setting his character back a few notches in order to make an internal conflict for him to resolve in the first place. Despite all of that, the whole arc is still entirely engrossing and really well put-together. Having the entire Digiworld overturned by the Dark Masters upon the return of the Digidestined immediately sets the grimm and desperate tone of this story-line. In addition to that, having some of the old Digimon friends that the group made be killed off one-by-one by the Dark Masters really shows you that these guys are serious. It all comes down to a pretty well-done climax, and wraps up with an ending that's both heartwarming yet somber and bittersweet. Overall it was a great way to end the first season of the show.
Man, Digimon Adventure really was a great show. I know 02 wasn't nearly as good, but I still have a lot of nostalgia for that series so its impossible for me to hate it. Also, while Tamers is definitely the superior show, looking back on it, Adventure still has a lot of merit and can still stand up in comparison to Tamers with its own set of unique strengths to contribute.
Also, speaking of Tamers, I'll probably go ahead and give my ratings on the story arcs for that series, sometime tomorrow.
I technically counted the Divided arc with the Myotismon arc since it was mainly Demi-Devimon who was trying to separate them, but yeah, I guess I could see it as a separate arc. It's a good one, though.
But for a kids show I still rather enjoyed watching it even though I forgot about things like Metal-Etemon and the isolated city of Machinedramon, it kept things consistently entertaining the whole way through. It's easy to see why it's still rather well-liked, and it would be nice if this was the standard for Japanese kid shows (I wish it was), but it's still just a fun show to sit down and watch.
I suppose that you could go either way with whether it was one complete arc or two separate ones. For me, the differing environments between the Digiworld and the real world, as well as the complete change in tone from the portion with the divided group compared to the parts where the characters are in the real world make me think of that segment of the story as two separate story arcs, but I suppose it doesn't matter too much in the long run since they are both of really good quality.
Devimon Arc - 6.5/10
I really want to like this arc, I really do but last I watched it... the whole "Hi Devimon.. bye Devimon?!" junk (when they got split up) in the middle threw my entertainment off and dampened my enjoyment of it all.
Etemon Arc - 8/10
"Spark of Spirit" summed up what's amusingly my exact thoughts on the arc.
I added a point for the episode with Tai in the real world, though; Mamoru Hosoda ftw!
Myotismon Arc - 10/10
I adore this arc; I mean, to me, it definitely feels like the point when Adventure finally gets off the treadmill and begins sprinting on the track field. While the 8th Child identity was rather obvious (even down to the 2nd Japanese ED spoiling it outright), there's just so much cool stuff during the arc that I don't feel it hinders it all the much.
Dark Masters Arc - 8.5/10
I like this arc; the Dark Masters are an amusing group and the fight against Pie(d)mon is fun to watch however though, if we're including Apocalymon in this then I can't go and outright give this a "10" with how much I disliked the whole ordeal.
Like okay, a villain made up of other villains' data is is usually a cool move but going "Oh hey, there's this villain coming out of some random-butt firewall and he whines a heckton!"? Yeah, no thanks.
The final fight in the dub is really hard to watch, too. I managed to get through the rest of it by brushing off the comments, but the jokes coming out of Apocalymon were so terribly bad and atmosphere shattering that I really didn't enjoy watching it.
"Why do you get the pizza, WHILE I GET THE CRUST!?"
:lol:
Alright, here are my ratings for the Digimon Tamers arcs; which as far as I know don't have any official titles, so I just made them up:
Hypnos - 9/10
I did complain about this arc being slow on my first viewing, but it is really MUCH better in retrospect, on re-watches. I actually really appreciate the initial set-up of just having the kids start to learn and discover things about their Digimon, and how their relationships and bonds grow as this arc progresses, all the while being quite oblivious to what's really going on around them. That's of course where Hypnos comes in, with Yamaki running the show behind the scenes. Its nice that he doesn't even clash with the Tamers until a good way into the arc, so that you've had plenty of time to see them individually from beforehand. In general its just great to have the story start out in the real world for once, which creates and unique and interesting way for the Tamers to interact with their Digimon partners and vice versa, and also creates a fun dilemma in which they have to keep these creatures hidden from any adults (and the general public), especially their parents. There's a lot of standard fair stuff that happens in this arc, including the mandatory Digivolutions to Champion level for each Tamer, one at a time, but the way this is all executed feels completely fresh and thoroughly entertaining, and all the while there is a lot of foreshadowing to later events to come, with plenty of good plotting going on in the background. Its not the most exciting on your first ever viewing of the show, but when you understand everything that's really going on, I think you would appreciate it more, especially in relation to Calumon, who is of crucial importance to the entire series.
The Devas - 9/10
This is another really strong arc, and its where things get real. Now we get Ultimate level Digimon breaking through and bio-emerging into the real world, and what I like the most about this arc is that it forces the Tamers to finally come together as a team. It was smart to mostly have these characters function independently at first, with only passing interactions with one another on occasion, so that when stuff got much more serious and dangerous like it did in this arc, you could feel the weight of the situation in how these characters were finally forced to work together on a regular basis, and it made it feel like a more rewarding experience to see them form a team. The plot here is as its most basic, but it makes up for relatively simple plotting with excellent characterization, and the writers really do a good job of making the various members of the cast play off each other in very interesting ways. This is where I realized just how good of a chemistry the characters in this series had with each other. And of course, Calumon being kidnapped at the end left this arc off on a really exciting cliffhanger that made you want to keep watching right into the next arc.
Rescuing Calumon - 10/10
It's the half-way point of the series and the Tamers FINALLY make it into the Digital world, and it was totally worth the wait. This series had already established by this point that it was a bit darker in tone than the typical Digimon series, and this show's version of the Digital World certainly does not disappoint in continuing this trend. Right off the bat it is made clear that this is a very different Digital World than the one that we knew of in Adventure, as it is not in the best of shape, and it is also not a fully developed world, which leads to more potentially dangerous aspects of this world, including plenty of strange occurrences and odd phenomena. As usual, we get plenty of great character moments as well, but the real star of this arc is Impmon/Beelzemon, who serves as a fantastic villain for the arc, and of course leads to the truly dark and tragic turning point of this series. The fight between Gallantmon/Dukemon and Beelzemon is also hands down the best fight in any Digimon series ever. And finally the encounter with the Sovereign and the introduction to the D-Reaper which is literally tearing about the Digital World from its very core makes for a very high-stakes conclusion to this arc as well as a huge way to start things off for the final part of the story.
D-Reaper - 10/10
Hands down the best arc in the series, and any Digimon series, for that matter. The weight of the situation is heavier than it has ever been, and the entire thing just feels like a culmination of everything that the previous arcs were building up to, as it should. This arc has everything, from great character moments to great battles, and the best part about it is that ALL of the kids and ALL of the adults get involved. Nobody is left out, and of course Beelzemon gets his redemption here, and he certainly earns it by going through all sorts of hardships before he can finally receive Jeri's forgiveness. In that regard, I should point out that the scene in which Beelzemon uses the power which he had acquired from absorbing Leomon's data to use the Fist Of The Beast King to punch open a whole in the core and extend his arm out to save Jeri, only for her to throw his resolve back into his face by uttering the words "You're not Leomon," is my favorite scene in any Digimon series ever. Its the most heart-wrenching thing in the entire franchise, and is a tough but important lesson to kids that sometimes you just can't be forgiven for what you've done wrong in the past, no matter how hard you try (though of course, being a kids show, he still does get forgiven at the very end). On the whole, this arc is just full of intense moment after intense moment. Its one really long climax that never lets up until the very end and it truly transcends the Digimon label (which is a complement to the franchise in general) in just how well-written and well-executed it all is.
Tamers really feels like the next logical step up from Adventure, and I'm really glad it was made. Though it's a bit darker, it also has a lot going on and still manages to keep the feel of adventure the first season had. I really don't think they'll make a season that tops Tamers any time soon, but it would be nice to see them try.
Do you have any intentions of seeing Frontier? I haven't seen that one in even longer than Tamers, but some people really like it. I don't recall caring for it very much.
I'm still going to see Frontier, and Savers, and I need to finish Xros Wars, but I haven't gotten around to those, yet.
From what I can tell, after Tamers, the rest of the Digimon series sort of devolve into really standard shonen series with all of the tropes you'd expect, and they also focus much less on the connection to the real world, as well as the lives the kids have and how the relate to their parents and families. I think that's a shame, because that's the very thing that separated the first 3 seasons from any other shonen or toy-line type of show out there. Even Adventure 02, with all of its numerous problems, still had that element going for it, which is probably what still made it an interesting watch in the end (at least for me).
Boy that episode where Ken runs away has a lot of really awkward jokes. Why are his parents making jokes when their son might have run away?
I really don't know what they were thinking on that one.
Since I have only watched the dub for Adventure 02, I am assuming that it was just done there. If they actually did that in the original Japanese version, however....then yeah, what the fuck were those writers smoking at the time?
On the whole, I do still like Adventure 02 despite it's faults, but one gripe that I've always had with the series was that they just didn't do ENOUGH with the Digi-eggs. That was SUCH a cool fucking idea, and it was nice to see the Digivolutions that we got out of those, but JO was right about where they should've gone with it. I mean, how awesome would it have been to see the kids and their Digimon partners mix-and-match the different Digi-eggs with each other. We could've gotten some kick-ass new Digivolutions out of that.
The beginning of 02 has a lot more jokes than even Adventure had at its beginning. I'm not really sure why, they frequently don't have much of anything to do with the scene. Like pizza crust.
But it's probably a dub thing. I'll see if it improves later on, as it probably does.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on August 22, 2013, 11:49:40 PM
Since I have only watched the dub for Adventure 02, I am assuming that it was just done there. If they actually did that in the original Japanese version, however....then yeah, what the fuck were those writers smoking at the time?
On the whole, I do still like Adventure 02 despite it's faults, but one gripe that I've always had with the series was that they just didn't do ENOUGH with the Digi-eggs. That was SUCH a cool fucking idea, and it was nice to see the Digivolutions that we got out of those, but JO was right about where they should've gone with it. I mean, how awesome would it have been to see the kids and their Digimon partners mix-and-match the different Digi-eggs with each other. We could've gotten some kick-ass new Digivolutions out of that.
IIRC, we actually
do have some different Digivolutions out of that. And I think a few of them are even used in one of the Drama CD's.
I myself was actually aware of those other Digivolutions because of the card game (which I never actually played, but I used to collect the different cards for a time), which is why I found it even more frustrating that Adventure 02 never used them. Though, to be fair, maybe those cards were released only after Adventure 02 had aired. I'm pretty bad with my general knowledge of the Digimon Universe lore, so it could just be something along those lines.
Here comes 02, folks...
Now before I get to it, here are a few things I have to mention. First, 02 is basically one long story (that later ties in to the last two arcs from Adventure) with several stops and breaks. As a result, some plots stop and start and are abandoned, some characters are underused, and certain plots only get resolved later. As a whole, the 50 episodes of 02 are a bit bloated in that though there are 4 episodes less than Adventure, much less actually happens as a result. That said, my ratings will be on the core stories attempted to be told through the entire series, and not so much on episode count.
Digimon Emperor - 7/10
It's no secret that Ken is the best character in 02. He has his demons throughout the whole show, most of which come into play here. What keeps me from rating this higher you might ask, and that's pretty simple. Filler, filler, filler, filler, and filler. Most episodes have a bunch of characters get together to take down a single dark spire and that's usually it. There are moments of character focus, (the old guard get little to none, however) but compared to what they get later it's quite shallow and compared to Adventure it's a drop in the bucket. There's also the fact that most of the episodes concern someone getting a DigiEgg then digivolving to stop the threat. It hurts any rating I could give this arc.
I enjoyed the usage of Devimon (the only villain of Adventure who never got to really live out his words- he does here when he forms with Kimeramon), the dark ocean (even if it is only really used twice after this arc) and the armor concept is interesting. There are some good parts of this arc I simply can't knock.
That said, when it focuses on Ken (which happens surprisingly little, but is welcome when it happens) the audience is given glimpses of what made Adventure so good and 02's potential. Poor Wormmon really gets thrown under the bus, but in the end he comes through for Ken who discovers he has the Crest Of Kindness (Ouch) despite it all.
All in all, filler aside, it's solid stuff.
BlackWarGreymon & The Destiny Stones - 6/10
This is probably the worst part of both the original Digimon series. Arukenimon and Mummymon are basically the main enemies here, but they do very little outside of creating black spire monsters to attack our heroes. After episodic moments of taking on one at a time, they make BlackWarGreymon out of 100 control spires which makes... the most boring villain in the show. They try to fight him, they lose, he destroys a destiny stone. Rinse and repeat.
But my least favorite aspect of this arc has always been that the older kids never show up to help. I understand the staff wanted to focus on the newer kids, but there's a crucial problem with how they did it. That being, there isn't really any reason for them to not show up. The spires no longer prevent the Digimon from digivolving (which was a good plot related element for why they couldn't help in the first arc) which is the main reason for this arc being the Digimon discovering their non-armor forms. So then why does no one (outside of Izzy in one episode and Mimi in another) ever show up to help? Ken doesn't even have armor to digivolve with just like the older kids don't but he's still always there helping and never being hindered for it.
It feels more than a bit cheap, and seeing that if Tai would have just visited once with Agumon to digivolve to WarGreymon, BlackWarGreymon would have been stopped easily (as it is what happened later in the last arc) which thereby makes this whole arc not have much sense to it. The arc suffers from very weak plotting not typical of the series and is easily the weakest part of 02.
There's also the typical repetitiveness issue from the first arc that carries over here. These issues really hurt the arc, but being that there are still fun character based episodes, it's not a total loss or throwaway. It's just really disappointing.
World Tour - 7/10
This picks it up again with many fun episodes and adventures with kids all over the world dealing with the control spire problem that extends to the final episode. And outside of one detour (I'll get to that), the whole theme appears to be the world Vs the dark spires. Of the new characters, I find Cody is the best one in how he tries to deal with most situations. He's stubborn, but he tries to have a calm head, and he really takes off in this arc especially when we meet Oikawa. Oikawa is the first human enemy (technically) in the Digimon series and has a very understandable motivation that is fully thought out, even if he doesn't realize it. There's so much going on in this arc that it could be considered the best part of 02 if one or two things didn't hold it back.
The first being that it's 12 episodes long. Yes, that includes the actual World Tour, the kidnapped kids, the end of Ken's arc, the Daemon nonsense (it's coming!), the villain twist, the million points of light, and Oikawa and Cody's development. It's rushed.
The second is the pacing that is cut off because of Daemon. This is where I literally thought two teams were making this show. For no discernible reason, two different sets of villains come into the picture and one is not given any motivation or back-story where most of his followers are beaten (really sloppily, I'm sad to say) and he is randomly banished to the dark ocean (and says "I'll return!"... except that he doesn't) and that's basically the end of that. What was the point of this plot that doesn't go anywhere? Was this a lead-in to the next arc we never got? Another series? We'll never know because it comes in and interrupts an already fast moving plot to have no pay-off.
This leads to the ending of the series where we find out who the true villain is (even if it's rushed, it has been hinted at so it doesn't come out of nowhere) and just about everyone joins together in the entire world to finally defeat him for good. It's an excellent ending to a lopsided series with quite a few warts, but as a whole it was an enjoyable watch. I would definitely recommend watching it, as it is still better than most kids anime from Japan despite not being as good as the season before or after it.
...
Okay, for fun then.
Epilogue - 1/10
Davis got his noodle cart. There you go. The end.
I would give my ratings for each arc, but in this case I pretty much agree with all of yours completely. Digimon Adventure 02 is certainly far from a bad series, and it has it's great moments that justify it's existence in the first place, but on the whole it's a big step down from the first season, and while it had a lot of potential to it, the obvious fact that it's production was rushed and that it had multiple teams of writers working on it without any real coordination between them basically caused the story to be all over the place, and the quality of the series suffered for it. Still, from what I've heard, it's still apparently not nearly as bad as at least one of the seasons that came after Tamers.
Speaking of which, if you get a chance to re-watch Tamers, I'd love to hear your opinions on each of its arcs, as well.
We unfortunately only have the first two seasons on Netflix as of now, but hopefully we'll get Tamers (and maybe Frontier?) sooner or later. When we get it, I'll definitely watch it. Re-watching 02 gave me some mixed reactions. First, it was better than I remembered in that there was a lot of good stuff to it that was fun to watch and better than I remember. Second was that it simply couldn't escape that fact that Adventure was better and I wanted to dislike it for that, but I couldn't.
Looking back, it's merely a good season between a great and an excellent one, but it still has a lot to offer for fans of the series. I definitely wouldn't skip it.
... But I might stop watching after Oikawa dies.
You know, we don't have Tamers on Netflix over here, either. But, of course, there are other means to watch it if you really want. Just say'n....:humhumhum:
As for Adventure 02, I just like to pretend that the epilogue is non-canon.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on August 26, 2013, 04:17:38 PM
You know, we don't have Tamers on Netflix over here, either. But, of course, there are other means to watch it if you really want. Just say'n....:humhumhum:
True, but I prefer the normal means. :sweat:
QuoteAs for Adventure 02, I just like to pretend that the epilogue is non-canon.
There has to be a story for this because it makes no sense and probably soured 02 for a lot of people in retrospect. The ending was really good until that part.
If you ever watched JesuOtaku's Digimon retrospective, according to her research she explained that Adventure 02 had 7 different directors (at least, I think it was 7) being juggled around throughout the course of the season, and it had just about as many teams of writers being switched between one another, so the entire project was entirely uncoordinated, and it showed with the really off-pacing of the season. The stuff with the Dark Ocean and the Daemon Corps were directed by the same guy who directed Tamers, so that's why that stuff felt incredibly out of place with both the tone and story of the rest of the Adventure 02 season.
BlackWarGreymon probably would've been a better character had he made his Face Turn sooner. Really did not like that he died the very next episode after becoming a good guy.
Likewise, the idea of two sets of villains battling each other could've really added some tension if it were done correctly. Daemon should've gotten a better showing than he did. Something like the old guard battling Daemon while Davis and his team deal with Oikawa would've worked.
QuoteThere has to be a story for this because it makes no sense and probably soured 02 for a lot of people in retrospect. The ending was really good until that part.
It was probably to put the Adventure universe to rest.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on August 26, 2013, 04:26:03 PM
If you ever watched JesuOtaku's Digimon retrospective, according to her research she explained that Adventure 02 had 7 different directors (at least, I think it was 7) being juggled around throughout the course of the season, and it had just about as many teams of writers being switched between one another, so the entire project was entirely uncoordinated, and it showed with the really off-pacing of the season. The stuff with the Dark Ocean and the Daemon Corps were directed by the same guy who directed Tamers, so that's why that stuff felt incredibly out of place with both the tone and story of the rest of the Adventure 02 season.
I saw the retrospective a while back, but I didn't remember that. I guess I'll have to re-watch it. It certainly explains why everything feels messy and the lack of coherence, but by the same token it's remarkable that it isn't unwatchable dreck despite it all.
Quote from: Rynnec on August 26, 2013, 04:26:43 PMQuoteThere has to be a story for this because it makes no sense and probably soured 02 for a lot of people in retrospect. The ending was really good until that part.
It was probably to put the Adventure universe to rest.
Probably, but none of what happens to them really makes a lot of sense. Being that it's a character-based show, that's quite a heavy flaw.
One of my many thoughts as a kid the first time that I watched that epilogue:
"WHY THE FUCK IS MATT AN ASTRONAUT?! HOW DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIS CHARACTER?!"
Remember all those stories TK wrote and how he always talked about how he liked to write? Or how about Sora's love of fashion that she brought up never.
The problem with epilogues like that is that they are either things we can already guess at (Davis and the noodle cart or Kari as a teacher) which makes them pointless or totally off the wall (like Matt being... an astronaut) which makes it degrading to the characters.
So either way, they're just not needed and that's probably why they've never done another one.
Well, Savers kinda had a similar epilogue, but it was more of a "life goes on" kinda thing. That, and what the characters ended up doing with their lives actually made sense.
Was it a 27 years later thing or just a 'this happened a bit later' thing?
I haven't seen Savers yet.
I think Tamers has the best epilogue, in how it leaves everything open to the viewer's interpretation.
Those, IMO, are the best kinds of endings. It's also why I really like Monster's ending, as well.
It was a "this happened a bit later" thing, the timeskip only fastforwarded by 5 years or so.
I really liked Adventure, 02 (before the epilogue), and Tamers' endings. They wrap everything up, but leave it open for something later
maybe which are fun endings for kid shows.
Quote from: Rynnec on August 26, 2013, 05:21:17 PM
It was a "this happened a bit later" thing, the timeskip only fastforwarded by 5 years or so.
Oh, well then that's fine to me. I'm not a fan of 'generation skips' because it always feels like we're missing out on a lot of stuff and thereby skipping story.
I got back to watching this today. I'm only a few episodes in, but it's been pretty consistent so far. I'm waiting to see how "dark" it gets.
I assume you are specifically watching Tamers. In terms of it getting dark, that doesn't happen until around the 2nd half of the show, but it still has a lot of interesting plot points and character development up to that point. All I'll say is that each Digimon series has a tradition of killing off a certain incarnation of a certain character, and in the case of this series, that's about when shit starts to hit the fan.
Also, you should keep in mind that Tamers is kind of the black sheep of the Digimon franchise, in that it's the only specific series that doesn't pretty much start out with the kids going to the digital world, and instead is grounded in the real world until a good length into the story. I actually like that change of pace, myself, but it might not make a difference to you if this is your first ever Digimon series.
Rewatching Adventure 02 on Nicktoons reaffirms my opinion that the second half of the show really did have good ideas in concept, but were handled very poorly.
Yeah, the first half of 02 was a bit lacking in execution, but was solid. The second half was just undercooked all around.
The fact that Omnimon didn't show up in the series proper still dissapoints me (hell, I don't think even Metalgarurumon appeared in 02 at all). Seriously, he would've been the perfect choice to fight Daemon.
I re-watched season 3 on Netflix.
I'll just give the whole thing a 10/10.
I truly believe the first three seasons (specifically 1 and 3) are the reason the show still has the clout it does. They're well done shonen stories that happen to tie into a video game series, but that didn't prevent the staff from doing everything they could with the concept and delivering some well told stories. Season 3 was just tight from end to end and I really do wish the show could regain that spark it used to have. As far as kid cartoons go, Digimon is still one of the best, and the early stuff still retains its charm, but season 3 remains the peak and is still the season to beat.
Xros Wars got the charm of the series down, while simultaneously doing something new with the franchise.
...then Young Hunters happened. :srs:
I need to get back to watching Xros Wars, of which I saw the first 20 episodes of. What I saw was alright, and it had the adventure aspect down, but the characters didn't feel quite as fleshed out as in the early seasons. I think the lack of parental figures honestly makes a big difference in this franchise. The kids from Adventure and Gamers felt more relatable in that regard, whereas most modern shounen seem to want to ignore the fact that childhood is even a thing, despite writing for child characters.
Anyways, that's just an observation that I made. Xros Wars is still far better than most shounen from the past 2 years. It also has a pretty cool version of Beelzemon (my favorite Digimon), though Tamers still has the best one by far, IMO.
Impmon/Beelzemon was one of the best characters in Tamers. Which says a lot since just about every character was good.
I still haven't gotten into Xros. Wars, so I'm fairly far behind. And I have no idea what Young Hunters is. I'm just slowly making my way forward one step at a time.
I'm cautiously optimistic about this. The last time we had older versions of the characters, we got Adventure 02, and they took a major back seat to the new characters (except for TK and Kari). It'd be awesome if this made Adventure 02's ending non-canon somehow, but I doubt it. At the very least, they better include the parents in this. The last few Digimon seasons grew more distant from what made the older ones great, and featuring the parents and family dilemmas is one thing that needs to return.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-10-17/new-digimon-anime-older-hikari-previewed-in-silhouette/.80032
It looks like they are going with a more mature look for the series. I mean I know that those are just silhouettes, but it's still really cool to see the older designs for the cast of Adventure season 1 as opposed to how lackluster they looked in Adventure 02 by comparison. Also, since I haven't heard anything about the Adventure 02 cast appearing in this series, I'm just wondering if maybe somehow they've been written out of canon. It's probably unlikely, but that'd be awesome if it were the case. I mean, don't get me wrong, I actually did enjoy Adventure 02 despite its numerous problems, but that ending was just a travesty. I'd rather have the entire season written out of existence than have to deal with that shitty ending being canon.
So this is a reboot?
I wouldn't mind 02 if everything outside of Ken is rewritten to be better.
Sequel.
I'd say that 02 had more good elements than just Ken's character arc, but it had a painful amount of filler dragging it down, with the world tour arc being atrocious in particular. And then of course there is that ending which we shall never speak of again.
Sequel like after 02 and before the epilogue? This is the first I'm hearing about this at all.
Really? It was announced a few months ago.
As for whether it includes 02 or not, I'm not sure, hence why I thought it would be cool if it makes the epilogue from that season non-canon. That said, the only thing that's been confirmed is that it will be focusing on the original cast from Digimon Adventure season 1, which I'm excited about. It reminds me that I really should re-watch that series again.
I must have missed the news.
Sounds exciting, though.
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/11/08/digimon-adventure-cast-aged-in-latest-teaser-visual
This is making me really want to re-watch Digimon Adventure.
I recommend watching it. Even the dub, puns aside, is still a fun watch now.
I'm sharing this episode of Did You Know Anime? mainly because it's narrated by Joshua Seth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C6VYxIhqcQ&feature=em-subs_digest) (aka the voice of Tai in the dub), which was pretty cool.
I'be started re-watching the first season on Netflix, but this time in Japanese with English subtitles, in preparation for the new anime coming out. While I have a nostalgic attachment to the Saban dub from my childhood, I have to say that the superior soundtrack alone makes the sub so much better.
I don't know who was responsible for music in the dub version, but while the originally composed music itself wasn't so bad, the constant inappropriate use of it was atrocious.
No one posted it yet? The new series is called Digimon Adventure Tri.
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn01.animenewsnetwork.com%2Fthumbnails%2Fmax1000x1500%2Fcms%2Fnews%2F82117%2Fdigimon15key.jpg&hash=d8e07ffc1d322069927cdab60cbbfc81cd7658ec)
The director did School Days and the writer did Heaven's Lost Property. I'm not particularly enthused.
Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on December 26, 2014, 08:46:33 PM
The director did School Days and the writer did Heaven's Lost Property. I'm not particularly enthused.
Now that is dour news.
Well, that's one way to dash my childhood against the wall.
For what it's worth, I actually like the new character designs, but it doesn't seem like the staff working on this anime will have any particular understanding or even care about what made the original Digimon Adventure so successful and above average for a children's television program.
There's also the fact that the head director had a hand in making one of the worst anime of all time.
I've also been re-watching Digimon Adventure in the original language. The music and scripting are definitely far superior.
But despite some fans' opinions, I still don't consider it a hackdub.
It's a hack dub in that the script legitimately hacks up the original dialogue and repackages it into corny one-liners and bad jokes. That said, the actual DUB part of it still holds up thanks to some surprisingly good voice-acting from talented VA's that were a rare find in the early days if subbing anime. The voice-acting alone is what saves the dub from becoming what would have just been the equivalent of a 4-Kids style butchering of the source material. Though, to be fair, the Americanized script does still manage to keep the emotional weight in some key scenes.
Digimon Tamers did a much better job with Americanaizing the script without totally killing the original intent of the dialogue compared to either season of Digimon Adventure, IMO. Interestingly enough, a good chunk of the writing came from Steve Blum himself, who also voiced the beloved Guillmon.
I finished off Adventure subbed.
Yes, the subbed version is better. Better scripting and better music by far. That said, if you watch the dubbed version now, you're not really missing anything critical. It's the same story just with better scripts and music to go with it. Compared to something like the back half of Robotech, this is not a hackdub. It's serviceable. That said, if you've seen the dub years ago and want to watch it again, you might as well watch the sub.
The final battle is actually tolerable now!
Tri is not going to be a tv anime, but a six part film series. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-05-06/digimon-adventure-tri-is-6-part-theatrical-anime-with-new-cast/.87876) The first installment, titled "Reunion," is slated to come out on November 21st. In addition, the original voice cast for the digi-destined have all been replaced by new actors.
Well that's....unexpected. I honestly have no idea what to say, either positive or negative.
I will say that replacing the original cast really doesn't bother me as much as it will fanboys, since I never grew up with or had a special attachment to the Japanese VAs of this show.
I thought this meant the English VAs. Then I don't give a shit.
Quote from: Cartoon X on May 06, 2015, 09:32:32 AM
Tri is not going to be a tv anime, but a six part film series. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-05-06/digimon-adventure-tri-is-6-part-theatrical-anime-with-new-cast/.87876) The first installment, titled "Reunion," is slated to come out on November 21st. In addition, the original voice cast for the digi-destined have all been replaced by new actors.
This must have been a last minute decision. Though I wonder why?
Toei is working on a lot of different series and movies right now. They probably felt that doing Tri as a tv anime would be unfeasible after they decided to make Dragon Ball Super. I always took the original april premiere date with a grain of salt anyway. Sailor Moon Crystal came out like a year and a half late, after all.
I think the big issue now is how we're going to get it since Saban isn't known for grabbing anime movies for overseas releases. Not to mention six films means a long wait to see the whole story and that's if it's done well enough for audiences to stick around.
I'm still not sure how to think of this.
...Saban's still around?
http://www.sabanbrands.com/ (http://www.sabanbrands.com/)
Yep.
:SHOCK:
Well, if this ever even does make it overseas, anyone who's attached to the Saban dub voice actors will be glad to know that Joshua Seth, who has been retired from voice acting for. Years, has stated that he would be willing to come back to reprise his role as Tai if Saban licenses Tri and asks him to play his old part.
Oh, it'll make it overseas. Digimon is too big here to ignore. The question is how it'll be handled.
Dat Alphamon tho.
I forgot to mention that I watched 02 subbed, and it was definitely an improvement for the most part. The only theme I really cared for was the second ED, though. The rest wasn't as good as the first one.
That said, it was fun watching the first two series over again. Guess I'll have to add Tamers to that sooner than later.
So Crunchyroll has the first four series (and Xros Wars) meaning that I finally was able to give Frontier a full viewing.
First, the positives. I get what they were going for here. Tamers got pretty dark and serious, so they wanted something more light and fairy-tale like. The atmosphere succeeds and leads to a lot of fun episodic moments early in the series (one battle on a cliffside village is pretty cool) while making it different from the last series.
The story is basic chosen warriors sent to battle the darkness. This is old school at its very core, which they were obviously going for. But the story (at least for the most part) isn't hampered by this. The main villains have motivations and the kids come from pretty typical backgrounds of Digimon characters. Frontier, for the most part, feels like a new attempt at Adventure.
Standalone episodes are probably the best since Adventure. They were very dull and formulaic in 02, and there weren't really any in Tamers, but they're all entertaining here.
The cast is also the smallest of any Digimon series. There are only five main kids and a handful of other characters. That's it. Everyone else is only seen in flashback form. But this is both a good thing (as I'm sure some people felt previous casts could be unwieldy) and a bad thing. More on that later.
On the negative side, I still think it's the weakest of the original four series just not to the extent I originally thought it was.
The first half of the series is better than the second half. The first reason for this is that the base character conflicts from the first half of the series are all but forgotten by the end. The second reason is that literally three things happen in the last fifteen episodes. And finally, the most interesting episode (21, which is a theme with Digimon) brings up a weird concept that is never brought up again.
The conflicts are never resolved because the main characters never return to the real world to deal with these conflicts. At the end of the series we're just told that they will get over it. But in Digimon, we usually get to see it happen. We're not just told what will happen outside of 02's crappy epilogue that will probably be non-canon by November. What this does (inadvertently, I think the writers were trying something different here but it doesn't work) is flatten the characters instead of make them deeper. We don't get to see how Takuya and his brother's relationship changes because they never meet while he grows. The same with Zoe and her awkwardness around the other kids. Tommy and his brother was a relationship that would have been far more satisfying had they met after he became a warrior. JP showing off how much he changed to the other kids in his class would have been a great character moment. But we don't see any of that happen.
This never happens, because the real world is never brought into the story. This ties in with my last point from before. Episode 21 has Takuya failing and nearly getting everyone killed. Out of despair he goes back to the real world, but it doesn't work out how he thinks it will. He changes into a weird human/digimon combo and comes back at the very moment he left the real world. What he does is sees things from a different angle which reveals a very important character that shows up later and teaches Takuya how expansive and wide the world is even from his tiny perspective. He eventually goes back to the Digiworld after learning more about how complex, yet intricate, the world really is. It also becomes a big plot point for how they turn the tide against their enemies.
The problem with that is that it is literally the only time the real world comes into the current story. It's the most interesting episode in Frontier, but the series never really grabs onto it again.
This ties into my second issue which is that only three things happen in the last fifteen episodes. The first is an extended (and boring) battle with the main villain from the first half of the series lead by two characters because everyone gives their powers to them. Not only is this a battle that lasts far too long, but it also grabs on to one of my least favorite shonen tropes of everyone else getting left behind and stranded on the sidelines. That never happened in Tamers, or even both the Adventure series (even with clear strongest members, everyone else still did things), but outside of the last episode only Takuya and Koji do anything in the last fifteen episodes and no one else does anything at all. The second thing that happens is literally a repeat of the Destiny Stones arc from 02: yes, the worst part of 02. For about six episodes the same thing happens over and over, there is no character development, and nothing of value occurs. The last thing that happens is the final battle, which is the best part of the second half of the series as everyone else gets to participate again and characters have moments once more. Still, not much happens in 15 episodes which makes it the weaker half of the series.
At the end of the day, I will say that Frontier is a good series with a lot of good ideas and good intentions. It's just not great.
But I am glad I finally gave it a real shot. Now I can say without reservation that Tamers is the best, and Adventure is the second best. But at least they tried here.
It has a limited theatrical release on November 21, and the official release is December 18th. I'm still curious as to who will license this, because someone definitely will.
We also have information about the story now:
QuoteDigimon Adventure tri. Chapter 1, "Reunion"
It's been 6 years since Yagami Taichi and the Chosen Children went to the other world, the Digital World, in that summer adventure,
and 3 years since Yagami Hikari and the others' last battle against BelialVamdemon.
As peaceful days continue, the gate to the Digital World closes at one point. Time passes without even the Chosen Children knowing why it has closed...
Then, one day, a Kuwagamon suddenly appears in Odaiba. The town is destroyed and people flee in panic from its rampage. Taichi, who happens to see the Kuwagamon by chance, chases after it alone in order to stop it. But Taichi is powerless to do anything against the Kuwagamon by himself.
"It's no good... I can't do anything on my own..."
As Kuwagamon closes in on Taichi with a roar, his Digivice suddenly begins to glow bright–
"Taichi, you sure got big!"
At the sound of that familiar voice, the story turns largely once again.
Yagami Taichi, 17-years-old, high school.
The adventure evolves once again...
At the very least we can finally get rid of the silly assumption that 02 is no longer canon. It very obviously still is. The question is whether it disregards the epilogue, which I very much hope it does.
I'm assuming that Digimon will do the same thing as Dragon Ball has with its recent movies and Super in regard to GT, and just tiptoe around the whole thing by focusing on a time between the end of the main story and the epilogue. In that regard, they can pretend like the epilogue doesn't exist without outright calling it non-canon.
Personally, I'd be OK with Toei just downright admitting their fuck-up and telling people to disregard the epilogue (much like FOX did for some of the later Alien franchise movies), but for some reason Japan doesn't seem to like officially clarifying continuity concerns with any of their big franchises.
Battle of Gods and Resurrection of F basically render GT completely and utterly uncanon though.
Technically they don't. While neither the SSG transformation nor Beerus or Whis are ever even mentioned in GT, that still doesn't make the events of GT impossible to occur within the same continuity. It'd be contradictory as hell, of course, but the fact remains that neither Akira Toriyama nor Toei have made any official statement to declare GT non-canon. For the record, Toriyama did state that the pre-Battle of Gods films took place in an alternate dimension, so he would have said something similar to that for GT if he wanted you to know that it was non-canon, but obviously he wouldn't just throw Toei under the bus like that.
That said, most fans (including myself), don't consider GT canon, anyways. It's basically "The Goliath Chronicles" of the Dragon Ball franchise.
So, this is unexpected. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-11-19/crunchyroll-to-stream-digimon-adventure-tri-anime-on-friday/.95592)
Color me impressed. Four episodes in and it started off pretty strong.
I'm glad it got the budget the series has always deserved, but the four episodes didn't really feel like a movie but four actual episodes. Given that there are going to be six of them, I'm definitely good with 24 episodes of Tri. Despite the worries about the staff, they've managed to keep the core of what people liked about the original series both with the action and with the characters. The first four episodes don't really solve anything except finally letting us see Omegamon again, but the set up is pretty strong for the next five movies. Although, I do hope we find out what happened to the 02 cast. The teaser in the first episode hinted at something but it was never followed up on in these four episodes. It's a good start and I'm already eager to see more.
Also, the epilogue is basically non-canon now. It doesn't look like any of that is even going to slightly happen after this.
Really liked the new OP and EDs using remakes from Adventure.
I need to catch up on Digimon.
Holy shit! That was excellent! Better than I could have hoped!
When I heard that this was being done by the director of School Days, I cringed and immediately lowered my expectations. It didn't help that Toei's track record in recent years left me decidedly less enthusiastic about this series than I would've been. As I've said before, though, I don't actually want anything to be bad, and would love to be proven wrong. Usually I'm not. This time? I was dead wrong to doubt Digimon Adventure Tri. It absolutely blew me away, and is already on track to become my favorite Digimon series, even surpassing Tamers, if it can maintain this level of quality.
What I especially love is how the writers have been REALLY smart about how they handle the characters. It would be easy enough to take the nostalgia-catering route and just make them exact carbon copies of what they were in the original series. But the writers kept in line with the realistic nature of the original show's character development, and guess what, kids don't just stop developing between childhood and high school. The characters are definitely the same ones that we grew up watching and loved from the original series, but they are also older now and manage to act their age. And in these four episodes alone they are still continuing to grow and develop. That's why callbacks to the first series like Tai and Matt having it out in an argument and splitting up for a couple of days before making up feels all the more rewarding for a fan. It does pay tribute to the original series, but it doesn't come off as pandering since the characters don't exactly follow all of the same beats in other aspects.
I also want to compare this to the recent Dragon Ball Z movies. I truly do enjoy those films for what they are, and they are loving tributes to fans that capture the essence of what the series was at its best. But it hasn't changed or grown up with the fans, which Super really needs to do in order to stay relevant. That's not to say that it needs to completely change its identity. Not at all. It just needs to adapt a little and not stick so much to basic formula, while still retaining the spirit of the original series, which itself changed drastically in scope and tone over its own run, but still always managed to feel like the same series. Digimon Adventure Tri does just this. It presents a slightly more grown-up version of the show that we loved when we were younger, and that's the best way to do a series of this nature. In that regard, it's a better example of what I'd like to see from Dragon Ball in the future.
At any rate, I may be overhyping the series, and not everyone may agree with me, but I really do genuinely love what I've seen. I haven't been so thoroughly engrossed in and excited by an anime series as I'm watching it in a long time. The staff behind this show have really nailed it so far with a loving sequel and tribute to the original Digimon cast, and I couldn't be happier to be a Digimon Adventure fan at this time.
On the subject of the plot:
Spoiler
Clearly Adventure 02 is canon (perhaps minus the epilogue), since we see that TK and Kari have their updated Digivice models, but it's strange that literally none of the other 02 cast are anywhere in sight. I'm not complaining since this series is meant to focus on the original cast, anyways, but the fan in me would at least like to know what the other Digidestined members are up to while all this shit is going down in the city. Also, seeing as how the new girl (I can't recall her name at the moment) has an old-school Digivice model, how does she factor into this story? It was made pretty clear in the first series that Kari completed the group of the original 8 Digidestined. There was a hint that there may have been Digidestined from before the main group were chosen, though, so could this girl be one of the orignals? She seems a bit too young to fit the bill, though, since she's around the same age as Tai, Matt, and Sora.
Also, I like how this series acknowledges that the government would be involved in this stuff. It always bugged me how 02 seemed to completely forget that the existence of the Digital World literally came out in the open when the sky opened up tears to that dimension at the end of the Myotismon arc. It makes perfect sense that the government would be all over that shit. Also it reminds me of Digimon Tamers, which is a good thing.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on November 20, 2015, 04:01:00 PM
Spoiler
Clearly Adventure 02 is canon (perhaps minus the epilogue), since we see that TK and Kari have their updated Digivice models, but it's strange that literally none of the other 02 cast are anywhere in sight. I'm not complaining since this series is meant to focus on the original cast, anyways, but the fan in me would at least like to know what the other Digidestined members are up to while all this shit is going down in the city. Also, seeing as how the new girl (I can't recall her name at the moment) has an old-school Digivice model, how does she factor into this story? It was made pretty clear in the first series that Kari completed the group of the original 8 Digidestined. There was a hint that there may have been Digidestined from before the main group were chosen, though, so could this girl be one of the orignals? She seems a bit too young to fit the bill, though, since she's around the same age as Tai, Matt, and Sora.
Also, I like how this series acknowledges that the government would be involved in this stuff. It always bugged me how 02 seemed to completely forget that the existence of the Digital World literally came out in the open when the sky opened up tears to that dimension at the end of the Myotismon arc. It makes perfect sense that the government would be all over that shit. Also it reminds me of Digimon Tamers, which is a good thing.
Spoiler
Whatever happened to the 02 Digidestined was shown in the first five minutes as Tai got up and left for school. It wasn't elaborated on at all what happened to them, but it doesn't look like it was anything good. And since the gate to the Digital World was closed, it makes it doubly confusing as to their current location. But there was a scene later on where Himekawa (the female agent) was on her computer that listed all the Digidestined's locations on a map. Ken Ichijoji is right in the center of the screen and says "Unknown".
So, I think that's a plot point that will be explored later.
I like that they took a cue from Tamers and got more government people involved in the Digimon shenanigans since 02 made fairly certain that they were well known by the World Tour arc. The people are also, quite rightfully, scared of them since they probably see them as something like alien invaders. That made Tai's moral dilemma about property damage and hurting innocents go over much better to me. It was weird to see Tai as the level-headed one and Matt as the firebrand, but the staff kept it as it should be and made them both have good points. Only this time, it was Matt who ended up being right at the end.
Shit, you're right! I noticed that but somehow completely forgot about that scene. :D
Still, it is a bit odd that nobody ever questions where the other kids are when all of this is going on, especially TK and Kari.
Also, I just realized that Digimon handled the destruction of the city aspect with a lot more care than the movie Man of Steel did. Just thought I'd point out how a well-written kids show has better sense than a big-budget Zack Snyder movie. :sly:
I'm really liking what I'm seeing. This is how you make a mature continuation and sequel/reboot of a show the right way, and I only wish Toei had put as much effort into Super. I probably don't share quite as much enthusiasm for the show as others here; Digimon wasn't a very important part of my childhood as I was only a casual viewer of it as best and haven't revisit it much, so I don't really have that much nostalgia or emotional attachment to it. But as a casual viewer, this was still very appealing and hit all the right beats with me, and I'm very interested in seeing how it'll play out. And I especially want to know what the heck happened to the 02 kids, because based on that sequence at the beginning it looks like they got into some serious shit...
You can only imagine how ESPECIALLY pleasing it is for those of us who do have a ton of nostalgia for the original show. :joy:
Though, I do still hold the opinion that Adventure season one is a legitimately great kids show with lots of effort put into the writing and mythology, and surprisingly mature themes in the later arcs. And Tamers is just a great anime in general, transcending just being a good Digimon series or a great shonen series. It's not one of my personal favorite anime out of blind nostalgia.
But yeah, whether or not you were a big fan of the original show is almost irrelevant with this sequel so far, because the writers made it superior to its source material, in a way that makes it stand out as great in general, and not just as a Digimon series, much like Tamers, but possibly even better if it keeps this level of quality throughout the rest of the series, which is saying a lot.
Please Toei, you've been slowly improving it, but it would be amazing if you could bring this level of care and talent to Dragon Ball Super.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on November 20, 2015, 10:13:29 PMIt's not one of my personal favorite anime out of blind nostalgia.
This is true as the poster in question didn't like Tamers a few years ago. That he watched it without any nostalgia and still thought it great says a lot about how it holds up nowadays.
But Tamers is legit great. A lot of influence from that seems to be in this one so far, which is a very good thing. Tamers had very strong writing, characterization, story, and themes. Digimon hasn't been able to surpass Tamers for almost fifteen years, though this movie series has the potential to do it. It depends on where they go from here.
Adventure is a fun adventure show that is still a lot of fun to watch nowadays. Of the monster shows of the late '90s it was by far the best one. The animation might be typical Toei, but the characters and story are very engaging. I still think anyone with a younger sibling or family member wouldn't be hurt letting them see the show. I don't think there are many kid shows better than it. Mamoru Hasoda and Chiaki J. Konaka got their start in this series, and it shows in their work.
I would only recommend 02 and Frontier to fans, though. They just don't hit the same level as the above two.
Yeah, Tamers was actually my LEAST favorite as a kid. Re-watching it about five years ago completely changed my mind. I had a newfound appreciation for it and how it was really ballsy in subverting many of the tropes set up by the first two seasons. On top of that, the characters were great, and the writing and directing by Chiaki J. Konaka was of a much more subtle and crafty nature than one would expect from a children's show (the same could be said of the episode and animated features of Digimon Adventure which were directed by Mamoru Hosoda). Yes, it has marketing plugs like you would expect from a show made to sell merchandise, but that's clearly not the focus of the story or its themes, which are really just a brilliant allegory for childhood, and the various real-life problems that one faces as they experience life and grow up.
If we're talking about what holds up vs. nostalgia, then I'd say that Adventure 02 is the weak link. I liked it as a kid, and nostalgia keeps me from flat-out disliking it these days, but it really suffers from many writing flaws, despite some great moments and nice ideas (Ken's character arc was brilliant, for example, but unfortunately it was one of the few legitimate highlights of the season). And of course there's that universally detested epilogue.
Comparatively, Digimon Adventure season one is a great show for kids. It has timeless moral lessons and tackles very relatable issues. It's entertaining for children, and while it doesn't outright blow my mind when I watch it now, it's still a fun adventure series for me as an adult. The characters are really what make it stick out, and that's why I'm so glad that it's this very aspect that Tri has been focusing on, so far.
And as Desensitized and I already elaborated, Tamers doesn't merely just hold up, and isn't merely just a great series for Digimon fans. It's a great anime in its own right.
One of the best things in 02 is the second ED (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JedEfKj83W4) which always randomly gets stuck in my head.
But yeah, it's only worth watching if you really liked Adventure and want to see more of the characters. Other than Ken's arc, though, nothing is as strong as anything in the original series.
Another Tamers reference that I noticed was the booklet on Tai's desk titled ONE VISION. And yes, I'm 100% positive that it's an Easter Egg and not just a mere coincidence.
I'm also speculating that future movies/episodes will bring them to the Digital World (it wouldn't really be a Digimon series without them going there at some point), on a rescue mission of sorts to retrieve the 02 cast, who I believe fell there.
And no, I don't think that the 02 cast are dead. I've seen a surprising number of people claim this, and it's just beyond stupid. Clearly they were incapacitated, but like hell Toei would let them actually kill off any main characters from a Digimon series, and especially not out of context at that.
This has really gotten me interested in the circumstances of the 02 cast, though, which is saying a lot considering how boring I found them (except for TK and Kari) in the actual show. I actually want to see them again and what they were up to, so that's another big plus for Tri, in my book.
The 2nd film will be out on March 12th. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2015-11-22/digimon-adventure-tri.s-2nd-film-to-open-on-march-12/.95659)
Yeah, it looks like we won't have to wait a year for each new movie to release; though like many people, I do expect the waits to get longer in-between films/episodes (however you want to classify them).
I really am eager to see where the story goes, though, so I can see these gaps in-between releases driving me a little nuts. :D
Movie 2 (and 3) preview. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-01-15/digimon-adventure-tri.s-2nd-film-promo-video-lists-3rd-film-title-date/.97612)
Looks like we'll get to see some big stuff going down.
New trailer for the second film. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCPpnmYGvaU)
It's out tomorrow. (http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-943149/digimon-adventure-tri-chapter-2-will-be-available-this-friday)
Didn't expect it that soon!
:shakeshakeshake: :swoon:
So, I can see a lot of people being turned off by the latest movie not really progressing the plot too much, and instead focusing on the character arcs, but I personally enjoyed it for what it was. Granted, I am disappointed that we still haven't learned anything new about the fate of the 02 cast other than Ken mysteriously walking around the real world and causing havoc in his Digimon Emperor wardrobe, but what's weirder is how the group reacts to him. TK seems to regard him with disdain (referring to him with the line: "him again?"). It's as if they only remember his villain status, and the fact that they haven't even brought up David and the others yet leads me to believe one of two things: either there's something going on in the plot messing with G1's memories of the 02 group, or this is just a really annoying plot-hole by the writers, but I'm going to assume the former for now, since it kind of makes sense with all of the weird stuff going on in general.
The general theme of this movie seemed to be coming of age. Several characters come to terms with their childish flaws that they've had since the original series, and realize that they aren't children anymore. Joe seems to think of fighting evil or infected Digimon as a symbolic representation of still being stuck in his childhood, and wants to reject it in order to finally pursue his adult life. He also has a problem with being chosen as a Digidestined against his will in the first place, which is a callback to the original series in which he felt pressured because he was studying to be a doctor because he was forced to. However, just like with his previous character arc, he realizes that it's nonsense to think of fighting with his friends and partner as a burden, and just like how he decided that he does want to be a doctor after all, but of his own accord rather than having had his fate chosen for him, in this case he has a similar realization about his status as a DigiDestined.
A few other observations:
Spoiler
-We finally got to see Mega Evolutions unlocked by Joe and Mimi, with Vikemon and Rosemon respectively. It's likely that the rest of the crew aside from Tai and Matt will also get to unlock their Megas as the series progresses. :swoon:
-It appears that Tai was actually responsible for Omegamon de-fusing early in the last movie. Also, he and Matt are still having their little "lover's spat."
-This series officially carried forward Digimon tradition by killing off Leomon (again).
-Dark Digivolution makes its triumphantly sinister return. :joy:
Overall, not quite as good as the first movie, but it still fully has my interest, personally. It's still easily the best thing that Toei is currently producing, which may not be saying much, but I do really enjoy it.
Finally got around to the second movie.
Spoiler
I liked that this movie focused on Joe and Mimi since they are two of the least utilized of the original seven (especially in 02) and gave them some good moments in the process. It was nice that they were the ones to solve the issue. Voice acting, directing, and animation are still really well done. The staff must be getting a good budget to be able to put this out looking so good for a TOEI production. I liked the new ED song, too. Very catchy.
On the other hand, I really want to know what is up with the 02 cast already. The next movie needs some explanation as to what is going on. That woman knows more than she is letting on and we still have no idea who the main villain might be.
Last complaint, I'd like to see Keep On back as one of the EDs. I'm glad they brought back I Wish and still use the new Butterfly, but I really want to see the other Adventure ED make a return next.
Oh, and Leomon is dead for good now. He died just like Wizardmon. Unless they write around that, that's the end of that tradition.
All in all, I liked it. Definitely feels like about the point in the other series just before things start to go off the rails.
EDIT: The visual for movie 3 is out! Looks like this one centers on TK and Izzy. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2016-04-01/digimon-adventure-tri-anime-3rd-film-reveals-visual/.100569)
Kouji Wada has died. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-04-08/digimon-theme-song-singer-kouji-wada-passes-away/.100820)
RIP.
That's sad to hear. :( He was a wonderful singer and responsible for most of Digimon's most iconic sings. R.I.P
I am deeply saddened to hear this, but also not surprised since he had been battling cancer for quite some time.
It's equally sad when you consider that just less than a year ago he recorded a beautiful alternate rendition of his original song for Digimon Adventure in correspondence with Tri's release. You couldn't even tell that he had throat cancer from how well he sings it, unless you already knew about it beforehand.
Tri is getting a dub, and Jeff Nimoy will be in it. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-06-29/digimon-adventure-tri-anime-gets-english-dub-with-jeff-nimoy-reprising-role/.103740) But he won't be directing it.
The English dub of the first movie is getting a theatrical release. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-06-29/1st-digimon-adventure-tri-film-gets-english-language-theatrical-release-in-us/.103758)
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on June 29, 2016, 10:38:29 AM
Tri is getting a dub, and Jeff Nimoy will be in it. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-06-29/digimon-adventure-tri-anime-gets-english-dub-with-jeff-nimoy-reprising-role/.103740) But he won't be directing it.
Interesting. At AniMinneapolis Jeff said that R. Martin Klein was reprising Tentomon and that he had no involvement in the
Tri dub. Guess things must have changed since then and he was asked to come back after all.
I'm always up for seeing anime movies in theaters, so I'll definitely hit up a screening I'm free on September 15th and there's a showing nearby.
Michael Reisz hasn't heard anything, but would be interested. (https://twitter.com/TheRealReisz/status/749003920014340096)
It would be nice if they could get back the original cast. I know Joshua Seth said he'd return to do it.
I'm merging all the VA news into one post here. There have also been some new reveals which I'll put at the bottom.
Mona Marshall as Izzy
Jeff Nimoy as Tentomon, Kabuterimon
Cristina Vee as Meiko Mochizuki
Kate Higgins as Meicoomon
Robbie Daymond as Joe
R. Martin Klein as Gomamon
Philece Sampler as Mimi
Anna Garduno as Palmon
Mari Devon as Togemon
Doug Erholtz as Nishijima
Johnny Yong Bosch as T.K.
Laura Summer as Patamon
Dave Mallow as Angemon
Tara Sands as Kari
Kate Higgins as Gatomon and Himekawa
Vic Mignogna as Matt
Kirk Thornton as Gabumon, Garurumon
Joshua Seth as Tai
Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Sora
Cherami Leigh as Biyomon
Melodee M. Spevack as Birdramon
Tom Fahn as Agumon
Kyle Hebert as Greymon
I just found the theaters that will be screening the first movie. (http://www.fathomevents.com/event/digimon)
Awesome, mine is! I should probably rewatch the first Adventure beforehand, but even if I can't in time, I want to go for the sake of nostalgia alone.
Quote from: Avaitor on July 30, 2016, 12:25:11 AM
I just found the theaters that will be screening the first movie. (http://www.fathomevents.com/event/digimon)
Awesome, mine is! I should probably rewatch the first Adventure beforehand, but even if I can't in time, I want to go for the sake of nostalgia alone.
I found
Reunion to be a genuinely good feature in its own right. It's clearly made with an older audience in mind, since despite being age appropriate for kids, it takes on a more serious tone like Tamers did. Clearly the staff behind this knew that it was older Digimon fans who this project would resonate with the most.
So today's August 1st!
And I think that I'm going to skip my previous viewing plans for now, and watch Adventure next. I'll get to Tamers and Adventure 2 later, but I mainly want to catch up for the Reunion screening, and what I saw for the Greatest Anime Episode game really whet my appetite to go at the show for the first time since childhood.
I suggest watching it subbed at least once. It's mostly for the original music and the lack of some atmosphere-killing jokes. I would otherwise recommend the dub. The English VAs get really good as the series goes on, which is as it should be, since they are all pretty well known now to anime fans.
I've actually been alternating between the dub and sub, and I think it's a good experience so far. The dub does get a little joke-heavy, especially when a decent amount of said jokes don't really make sense, but I do still like the voice acting. It really makes me nostalgic. The sub is sort of a better experience, especially with the music, but I'm glad that I'm able to do both.
The voice acting in the dub is actually really good thanks to a talented cast. It's the script itself that's pretty wonky. That's why I'm a little disappointed to see many of the original English VAs replaced. While I'm sure that the new talent will be great, I'd love to hear the voice actors that I grew up with working with better material, just like with the FUNimation DBZ cast returning for Kai and the recent movies.
Sucks that Matt, Kari, and Joe have been replaced. From what I heard, since some of the cast are already union to begin with, they probably could have gotten Lara Jill Miller back if they asked.
Joshua Seth is returning! (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-08-09/joshua-seth-colleen-oshaughnessey-more-return-for-digimon-adventure-tri-film-english-dub/.105186)
How did they do that? I thought he retired from voice acting.
He did, but said he would come back for this if he was asked. Thankfully, they asked.
Shame they couldn't get the actors for Matt, Kari, Joe, and TK, but at least they got just about everyone else. TK has already had multiple voices at this point, so he probably won't stick out much.
Joe's original voice actor said that nobody contacted him about it until recordings were done. (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1572839273011607&id=1408975902731279) And it's implied that was the same case with Matt's actor too. (https://twitter.com/TheRealReisz/status/762652823926386690)
It's odd that they would ask some of the original cast to return but not others.
It is odd. Though I would imagine the door is open for them to return in later movies. It's still a better average than the Japanese version which replaced all of the kids VAs.
At this point the only main VAs left (for when we get to them) of concern for me would be for Davis and Ken. Brian Donovan and Derek Stephen Prince are pretty hard voices to replace.
I haven't had as much time to watch Digimon lately, but I've been picking up the slack over the past couple of days, and just hit the episode where Patamon finally turns to Angemon. It feels like such a triumphant moment, and the gang almost feels complete now.
Almost. We're missing one more piece of the original group.
Lisa Loud will show up soon.
The interesting thing about the end of the first arc is that it was originally meant to be the end of the series. Digimon was originally only ordered for 13 episodes in order to promote some Tomogachi-style digital pet devices. But it's a testament to how much skill, talent, care, and effort the writers put into this series that not only did Adventure quadruple its length and score a full-fledged sequel, but also managed to kick-start an entire franchise that is still going today. It's no surprise to see it get revisited all these years later, because its memorable cast of characters still hold up.
It's also very telling of how much work the writers put into the series' lore and mythology that they were so readily able to expand on its story after the Devimon arc, which you can tell was supposed to be the original ending given how much closure it had, despite the fact that prolonging the show's run was a last minute decision.
Actually, the director refuted this claim and said the first season was always meant to last around a year. (http://jippy-kandi.tumblr.com/post/54258966735/digimon-adventure-planned-13-episodes-rumour) Not exactly sure how that rumor even started.
First clip featuring Joshua Seth. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-09-13/digimon-adventure-tri-english-dub-clip-previews-joshua-seth-as-tai/.106426)
It's really hard imagining anyone else in the role (the movies sounded totally off because of it), so it's great to hear him again.
I don't care what anime he's in--it's just so refreshing to hear his voice again.
More voices. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-09-14/digimon-adventure-tri-english-dub-clip-previews-female-characters/.106454)
The dub sounds really good. The newer voices fit in just fine with the veterans.
From the clips, it sounds like everything I wanted in a Digimon dub. Still wish they would've brought back all the original voices, but there's always the future movies.
For the people who were able to see it, how was the experience.
I got distracted, and missed it. Which is fine, since I didn't get to finish Adventure yet, anyway.
I didn't get a chance to see it either. Still, the sub is great and available for free on Crunchyroll, and I'm hopeful that the dub will find its way onto a reasonably priced DVD.
TK and Kari clip. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-09-16/digimon-adventure-tri-english-dub-clip-features-t.k-kari/.106520)
Tara Sands actually sounds a lot like Lara Jill Miller here, and JYB fits TK rather well. Really eager to see how this turns out.
One thing I learned is that apparently only the opening music was changed. The rest of the music is exactly the same as the sub version.
Part 3 is up today! (http://www.crunchyroll.com/digimon-adventure-tri)
Well, that was heavy.
Spoiler
So it wasn't Ken at all? It was Gennai? And Himekawa was in on it the whole time?
The 02 kids haven't been reported missing, so what happened to them? It's still not clear. Where did they even go in order to disappear?
I like the plot structure here of starting in the real world and ending up in the digital world like Tamers used. The stakes feel higher, especially since the heroes didn't win at all here, and now they're going up against a complete unknown. Something's off with the digital world, some digimon are there that shouldn't be, and Meikoomon still has all her memories, which means this reboot is probably designed for a particular purpose.
13 episodes in, and we're halfway to the end. Since we're going to be in the digital world from now on, I'm assuming the plot will really start moving from here on. I'm really curious to see where this all going.
So far I'd say it's definitely better than 02. But we're only halfway through, so that's hard to say for now.
Well, it only took you guys half the fucking series to get us back to the Digital World. But, hey, I'll still take it!
In all seriousness, though, that has to be the darkest and most depressing the series has ever got, as these words so perfectly describe it:
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on September 23, 2016, 03:55:08 PM
Well, that was heavy.
Spoiler
I really liked how the Digimon wanted to spend their final days with their human partners, just enjoying the pleasure of their comoany and reminiscing about old times, knowing full well that they would be sacrificing themselves in the coming battle with Meicoomon, with the Reboot effectively wiping away their memories for good. It was a really heartfelt yet somber moment when Tentamon refused to get himself to safety and told Koushiro/Izzy that he deeply cherished their bond and memories, but couldn't stop fighting when all of the other Digimon were still giving it their all. That mega evolution is something that I had wanted to see ever since that concept was first introduced in adventure, and Koushiro/Izzy and Tentamon were my favorite character and Digimon, respectively. Needless to say, it was well earned here. The moment where they all reunite with their Digimon in the Digital World, with their partners' memories completely wiped, was really bittersweet, and an effectively touching place to leave the story off on for the halfway point of this series.
But, you know, it wouldn't hurt to lighten up the tone a bit with the next movie. Digimon should still be a fun series, at the end of the day.
Still, with this and Dragon Ball Super's current arc (and apparently Sailor Moon Crystal's most recent season as well), it looks like Toei Animation has really been stepping up their game when it comes to handling their 90's franchises with more care and effort.
QuoteSpoiler
So it wasn't Ken at all? It was Gennai? And Himekawa was in on it the whole time?
The 02 kids haven't been reported missing, so what happened to them? It's still not clear. Where did they even go in order to disappear?
Spoiler
I had totally forgotten about Gennai before they revealed him at the end. I'm really curious about what he's up to, and why exactly was he walking around disguised as Ken in his Digimon Emperor get-up?
The fourth poster has been officially revealed. (http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2016/10/14-1/poster-visual-for-digimon-adventure-tri-4th-part-posted-for-february-25-2017-screening)
The official title is Soushitsu (Loss) and looks to be focused on Sora, Matt, and Tai. The question is if Machinedramon being there hints at the Dark Masters' return. But then all the last movie left us with was questions so who knows?
It's a long wait until February.
Edit: Oh yeah, and it's time for Keep On to show up as the ED. It's due!
Next trailer is out! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2nD0fhEbWQ)
After that cliffhanger it's going to be quite the wait for this one.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C87P80SVwAAG4v0.png:large)
Toei Exec 1: ...
Toei Exec 2: ...
Toei Exec 1: So...
Toei Exec 2: Fuck it, let's reboot Adventure. (https://withthewill.net/threads/22870-Digimon-Adventure-Poster-Details-amp-V-Jump-Images)
At long last, they've re-dubbed the first 3 Digimon short films. (https://withthewill.net/threads/discotek-has-digimon-the-movies-digimon-adventure-our-war-game-hurricane-touchdown-digimon-the-movie-coming-to-blu-ray.29795/) And they brought back Matt, Kari, and Davis' old VAs after their initial recasting in Tri/Kizuna.
Now it reminds me of how Tai was absolutely going to be recast for Tri, with JYB according to a con video I saw, before Joshua Seth had to go out of his way to tell the studio he was available and ready to go to the booth whenever.