Digimon

[Avaitor]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

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.

[Avaitor]

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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[Dr. Insomniac]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Joshua Seth is returning!

[Daikun]

How did they do that? I thought he retired from voice acting.

[Spark Of Spirit]

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.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Joe's original voice actor said that nobody contacted him about it until recordings were done. And it's implied that was the same case with Matt's actor too.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's odd that they would ask some of the original cast to return but not others.

[Spark Of Spirit]

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.

[Avaitor]

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.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Lisa Loud will show up soon.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Actually, the director refuted this claim and said the first season was always meant to last around a year. Not exactly sure how that rumor even started.