Digimon Adventures

**Digimon** is a Japanese anime series that first started in 1999 and still airs today. It is based off of a series of virtual

    pets created in 1997. The series encompasses virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on Digimon creatures, which are monsters living in a "Digital World", a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication networks. In many incarnations, Digimon are raised by humans called "Digidestined" or "Tamers" ("Chosen Children" in the Japanese version), and they team up to defeat evil Digimon and human villains who are trying to destroy the fabric of the Digital world.

## Plot

On August 1, 1999, Taichi "Tai" Kamiya, Sora Takenouchi, Yamato "Matt" Ishida, Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi, Mimi Tachikawa, Joe Kido and Takeru "T.K." Takaishi are gathered together, during the summer camp. As they discover the petals of snow falling in the middle of summer, they suddenly receive a small gadget resembling a sort of gaming device. The children are transported through a portal, and into a strange digital dimension known as the "Digital World". After regaining consciousness, they each befriend an inhabitant, known as Digimon (short for Digital Monsters). And, when faced with a certain threat, the children soon discover that, with the help of their newly obtained devices, soon known as a Digivice, they can help their Digital Partners digitally evolve, or Digivolve, into stronger, more powerful forms to combat the new threat.

As they travel through the Digital World's File Island[3], wanting to find a way home, the children then learn that they are, what the Digital World calls them, the DigiDestined, or chosen children who are compatible with Digimon. They were brought to the Digital World to help combat the evil Devimon, who wishes to take over the island. The children overcome his many obstacles, and with their Digimon partners they manage to defeat him. However; they learn that he is only the first of several threats to the Digital World. A mysterious Gennai contacts the children and informs them that they should travel to the Server continent in order to retrieve the artifacts known as Crests, which will further empower their Digimon partners, from the evil Etemon and his minions. After more trials and tribulations, the DigiDestined each retrieve their destined Crest and they defeat Etemon when Tai gets his partner Agumon to Digivolve to a new level of power. After Etemon's defeat, Tai and Agumon (as the weaker Koromon) return to the human world, where Tai is reunited with his younger sister Kari, who could not join them at summer camp, and discover that barely minutes have passed since they disappeared. When Tai receives a message from Izzy saying the Digital World is in chaos, Tai realizes he must return, and says goodbye to his sister, both unaware that another Digivice is in their home.

Tai and Agumon return to the Digital World, and find out they disappeared for weeks, and tries to round up his friends, who have been scattered again and tormented by the diabolical Myotismon and his minion DemiDevimon in an attempt to have them fail to unlock their Crests' powers. Once Tai reunites the group, Matt, Sora and Izzy manage to unlock their Crests' powers and learn from Gennai that Myotismon is searching for the eighth DigiDestined at the human world. After returning to the human world, the group rallies in defense of Tokyo against Myotismon and his minions, with Joe and Mimi invaluably gaining their Crests' powers in the midst of the battle, and learns that the eighth child is Kari, who is partnered with Myotismon's former minion Gatomon. However, even with the power of all eight children, after Kari gains the power of her Crest, they find they are no match for Myotismon when he becomes VenomMyotismon, at least until Tai and Matt unlock a new power that causes Agumon and Gabumon to Digivolve into their Mega forms.

With Myotismon defeated, the children learn that years and years have passed in the Digital World and a new evil threatens it, which could cause the destruction of both the human and Digital Worlds. With all eight DigiDestined in the Digital World, they learn that the Dark Masters, four elite villainous Digimon comprising MetalSeadramon, Puppetmon, Machinedramon and Piedmon, have been the orchestrators of all of the evil that had come before. The DigiDestined continue to face off against the Dark Masters and their minions, slowly freeing the Digital World from their grasp after they turned it into the single Spiral Mountain. During their journey, they learn that they were chosen to become the DigiDestined after they were all witnesses to a fight between two Digimon that entered the human world while they were much younger. Tensions rise among the group during its battles, with Matt deciding to go off on his own, and Mimi and Joe leaving the group together as well, and also encountering MetalEtemon and defeat him. The remaining members are miraculously able to continue the fight against the Dark Masters, and eventually come back together during the fight against the strongest Dark Master, Piedmon. Once T.K. finally unleashes his Crests' power, the last Dark Master, Piedmon is finally defeated, only to reveal the nihilistic and twisted Apocalymon standing in their way. Apocalymon intends to destroy both worlds, and after the DigiDestined defeat him, he sets up a massive suicide attack to destroy all existence, only to be stopped by the powers of the DigiDestined. With their worlds restored, Gennai sends the children back home, warning them that they will not return and see their Digimon friends again. However, Tai is sure that this is false, and the link between the two worlds will be open forever.

## Why It Rocks

1. A ton of likable characters.
2. Awesome designs, for both the tamers and the Digimon themselves.
3. The Digimon themselves have 5 stages (In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega; Rookie being the default), and they can digivolve whenever they want.
4. Rotates their protagonists per season (Starting with Taichi "Tai" Yagami "Kamiya"), and still retain likable ones at that.
5. Stays true to the original theme of Digital Monsters.
6. Spawned pretty videos, which happened to be pretty decent.
7. Epic soundtrack.
8. A good balance between humor and serious moments.

## Reception

On its initial release,[14] the series found a rather large success in the United States. There was some initial suspicion among American viewers that *Digimon* was a *Pokémon* rip-off that was meant to cash in on that show's success. However, audiences eventually noticed some notable differences with the *Pokémon* TV series: characters that grew up and aged during the course of the story, a more real-world setting, realistic character interaction and development, and more complicated stories with distinct science fiction and societal themes. The English dub gradually improved as well, making fewer and fewer alterations to the Japanese original by later episodes. As a result, many young viewers who quickly outgrew the simplistic *Pokémon* TV series, with its never-aging characters and repetitive story structures, migrated to *Digimon* instead.[15]

On Anime News Network, Luke Carroll gave the Digimon: Digital Monsters - Collection 2 DVD an overall grade of D+.[16]