Digimon

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[Rynnec]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, the first half of 02 was a bit lacking in execution, but was solid. The second half was just undercooked all around.

[Rynnec]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

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.

[Rynnec]

Xros Wars got the charm of the series down, while simultaneously doing something new with the franchise.

...then Young Hunters happened.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So this is a reboot?

I wouldn't mind 02 if everything outside of Ken is rewritten to be better.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Sequel like after 02 and before the epilogue? This is the first I'm hearing about this at all.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I must have missed the news.

Sounds exciting, though.