Digimon

1999–2003. TV. (205 X 30 min.) Science fiction/children’s adventure. dir Hiroyuki Kakudo, Yukio Kaizawa. scr Akiyoshi Hongo, Chiaki J. Konaka, Sukehiro Tomita. des Akiyoshi Hongo. -bc

Despite its similarities to Pokémon, Digimon stood out as an innovative children’s sci-fi series about a group of chosen youngsters who travel to an alternate digital world, bond with the title creatures, and have all sorts of surprisingly complex and original adventures.

At summer camp in Japan, a group of seven children of varying ages are suddenly transported to a parallel dimension called the Digital World, made up of discarded data from the real world. Five boys, Matt, Joe, Tai, T.K., and Izzy, and two girls, Sora and Mimi, find themselves with personal gadgets called “digivices” and soon find partners among the “digital monsters,” or “Digimon,” of the Digital World: talking, animal-like creatures who have the ability to evolve into more powerful versions of themselves in conjunction with the kids and their digivices. The kids soon find themselves in opposition to the Dark Masters who control the digital world and make life miserable for the Digimon. When the villainous Myotismon sends his minions into the real world, the children have to return home to Tokyo to fight on their own turf with the help of their Digimon. But first they have to find the eighth “Digi-destined” child to join them.

The second season takes place three years later and introduces new kids Yolei, Davis, and Cody to the group, joining T.K. and Kari, Tai’s sister and the eighth Digi-destined child from the first season, while the older ones continue to offer guidance and support when needed. The digital world is threatened by a mad power grab by the Digi-Emperor, who is secretly none other than a high-achieving boy from the kids’ own neighborhood, Ken Ichijouji, a computer whiz and soccer champ who has become bored with all the news reports about his “genius” and sought new challenges in the digital world, where his cruelty to other Digimon shocks the Digi-destined. After many battles they learn his true identity and convince him to join them. But then, an even greater menace from the digital world appears and soon enters the real world for a battle involving the Digi-destined from all over the globe.

Season 3 introduces an entirely new cast of adolescents, Takato, Rika, and Henry, who live in Tokyo and watch the Digimon TV show and play the Digimon card game, proud of their status as “Digimon Tamers.” Through some quirk in their personal computers they each find themselves with actual Digimon partners and are soon engaged in real-world battles with “wild Digimon” who have crossed over from the digital world. The kids’ activities attract the attention of the enigmatic Mr. Yamaki and the secret government agency, Hypnos, which has been established to counter any threats from the digital world. When Calumon, a friendly Digimon, is abducted and taken to the digital world, the Digimon Tamers decide to follow and rescue it. They gradually learn how to “bio-merge” with their Digimon to become even more powerful warriors. The battle eventually returns to the real world, where even stronger Digimon are wreaking havoc.

Season 4, Digimon Frontier, offers another completely new cast, as well as a whole new premise. Here, five children of different ages, all strangers to each other, find themselves on trains that take them to the digital world. These children are given “D-Tectors,” devices which enable them to engage in “Spirit Evolution” and become Digimon themselves. With two small Digimon, Bokomon and Neemon, as their guides, the four boys, Kouji, Takuya, J.P., and Tommy, and one girl, Zoe, trudge off to find the source of all the trouble in the Digital World and the conflicts between human Digimon and beast Digimon. They come up against Cherubimon, who once reigned peacefully alongside his fellow Angel Digimon, Seraphimon and Ophanimon, but then imprisoned them in order to rule the Digital World himself. Eventually, the kids are drawn into a battle that will decide the fate not only of the digital world, but their world as well.

Digimon Adventure (1999–2000, TV, 54 eps.)

Digimon Adventure 02 (2000–1, TV, 50 eps.)

Digimon Tamers (2001–2, TV, 51 eps.)

Digimon Frontier (2002–3, TV, 50 eps.)

Digimon Savers (aka Digimon: Data Squad, 2006–7, TV)

Digimon Adventure (1999, movie, season 1)

Digimon Adventure: Bokura no War Game (Our War Game) (1999, movie, season 1)

Digimon: The Golden Digimentals (2000, movie, season 2)

Digimon: The Movie (2000, movie, English-dubbed compilation of first three Digimon movies)

Digimon Movie 4: Revenge of Diaboromon (2001, movie, season 2)

Digimon Movie 5: Battle of the Adventurers (2001, movie, season 3)

Digimon Movie 6: Runaway Locomon (2002, movie, season 3)

Digimon Movie 7: Island of the Lost Digimon (2002, movie, season 4)

Digimon Savers the Movie: Kyuukyoku Power! Burst Mode Hatsudou!! (2006, movie, season 5)

Digimon became more interesting stylistically with each season. The digital world is drab and gray in the first season, suffering from obvious computer-created digital paint work and a lack of real imagination. The child characters and their Digimon are all too cartoonish, particularly when saddled with the exaggerated English dubbing (which improved greatly as the series progressed). When the characters go back to Tokyo, however, it gets a lot more exciting. The Tokyo streets, neighborhoods, parks, and subway stations are vivid and realistic, representing quite a dramatic contrast with the digital world. When two of the bad Digimon run wild through the streets and interact with modern teenagers, experiencing a sense of freedom for the first time in their short digital lives, it creates a highly amusing collision of cultures.

In the second season, we actually see the characters from the first season age. They’re now three years older—and they look it! We get a sense of children growing up and maturing, especially when they start to reveal crushes on each other. They seem more real and lifelike here. They dress in ways that reflect their age groups and individuality, and begin to look like credible contemporary young people. There are slight improvements in the digital world as well, including a trip to ancient “Edo,” patterned after Japan’s traditional capital, and some imaginative design touches in the digital cities that serve as backdrop to some of the Digimon battles. But the best work is found in the episodes in the real world, first in Tokyo, where we get to see the kids in school and Ken in his awkward home life and the glare of media coverage as a “boy genius,” and later in the rest of the world, where the kids travel to rein in stray Digimon in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Australia, Mexico, and Moscow.

The third season enters terrain that is more deliberately realistic in terms of real-world settings, but also more surrealistic in terms of the digital world. The characters of Takato, Rika, and Henry are older and more realistic in design than the “Digi-destined” in the first two seasons. There is a lot more dramatic imagery, particularly in scenes where wild Digimon, including a ravenous red blob, break through the barrier between the two worlds and ravage the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, leading to apocalyptic-style shots of empty, devastated streets under piercing red skies. The digital world offers much more abstract imagery than in the first two seasons as characters find themselves in limbo or awash in “data streams,” all of which make striking use of color.

The fourth season is set mostly in a different version of the digital world, one with a long history, and contains the most bizarre and surreal designs of any season. The child characters themselves become the Digimon here and fight a whole new range of more elaborate and powerful Digimon with roots in ancient legends and archetypes. The characters, four boys and one girl, are, as in the first season, a mix of ages, but they are calmer and less exaggerated than the earlier group.

The Digimon themselves are all over the map in terms of design and inspiration. Some draw on figures from ancient mythology, including gods, heroic warriors, and fantastic creatures of legend, while others are modeled on dinosaurs and animals (bear, wolf, tiger, lion, and walrus, to name a few). Like Pokémon, they evolve into bigger, more advanced versions of themselves. Unlike Pokémon, they can talk and express themselves quite cogently and are much more complex in construction. In later seasons, the designs get more intricate and elaborate, with added armor and accessories, and fancier costumes. Some Digimon are human-looking, such as warrior woman Angewomon and leather-clad biker Beelzemon. Some are quite beautiful, like Rika’s Digimon, the sleek yellow fox-woman, Renamon, or majestic, like the winged horse, Pegasusmon, and the Egyptian-inspired human-cat hybrid, Nefertimon.

Some American fans who tuned into Digimon during its first season may have assumed it was a Pokémon rip-off designed to cash in on the sudden popularity for all things “mon.” The timing was certainly suspect and it did seem to have a lot in common with the earlier series, given its premise of little kids with cute animal-style pet “monsters” (digital this time, not “pocket”) who “evolved” into more advanced versions for fighting purposes. And there were so many more kids this time, although each, thankfully, came with only one Digimon. But fans who stuck with the series were rewarded by discovering some notable differences. For one thing, the characters actually aged and grew up during the course of the first two seasons, unlike Pokémon, where Ash remains a ten-year-old forever, and new characters and concepts were introduced in later seasons. Digimon also had more of a real-world setting, with frequent trips back to the kids’ hometown, a remarkably detailed Tokyo, and glimpses into a set of contemporary middle-class homes.

In later seasons, the stories became more complicated, with more distinct science fiction themes emerging, and questions regarding the needs of digital life and the implications for human society. The third season even included an X-Files–like secret agency/government conspiracy backdrop. The scripting of the English dub improved, too, dropping all the forced wisecracks and grating puns that littered the first season, and adopting a much more serious approach. The third and fourth seasons were darker and surprisingly intense and, for some reason, underwent fewer and fewer cuts and alterations in the American TV edits. It’s no surprise, then, that so many young viewers outgrew Pokémon fairly quickly and then gravitated to Digimon, which presented a set of characters and dramatic situations that challenged and engaged their young, developing imaginations.

One of the refreshing things about Digimon is its attention to the ways its child characters interact with each other, particularly the manner in which the older kids regard the younger ones, and vice versa. One touching moment in season 1 has Matt agonizing over the way he has dealt with little brother T.K., who looks up more to Tai, who is Matt’s age but has always treated T.K. with respect. Equal attention is given to the kids’ relationships with their Digimon, who tend to be treated as partners rather than possessions and have a high degree of sensitivity. Parent-child relationships come into play via the contrasts in the kids’ home situations, from Matt and T.K. split between divorced parents and Izzy learning that he is adopted, to Rika’s neglectful supermodel single mom and the startling revelation (in season 3) that Henry’s father was actually one of the inventors of Digimon. For the most part, the parents (and the occasional grandparent) are supportive of the children’s efforts and turn up to offer crucial help at key moments.

As the kids get older, the boys and girls start to like each other. Late in the second season, we get wind of Tai’s crush on Sora and Sora’s crush on Matt. Earlier, we’d seen that T.K., who likes Kari, has a rival for her affections in Davis, a new kid in the second season. In season 3, the boys can’t help but notice how pretty Rika is, and in season 4, the stocky J.P. takes an immediate liking to the petite Zoe and loudly appoints himself her protector, much to her discomfort. These moments are all handled matter-of-factly, with an honest awareness of how boys and girls of those ages react to the opposite sex (as opposed to the smarmy way such interactions are generally treated on American television).

The Digimon movies (seven in all during the first four seasons) were essentially glorified bigger-budgeted versions of standard TV episodes, with lengths that ranged from twenty to sixty-five minutes, most of them on the shorter side. The first movie, all of twenty minutes, is significant because it dramatizes the key incident in the lives of the first eight Digi-destined kids that set the stage for everything that followed (at least in the first two seasons.) The second movie, Our War Game, also from season 1, pitted two of the kids, Tai and Izzy, against a ravenous computer virus called Diaboromon that tries to eat all the data on the Internet, forcing the boys to call for help from kids on their computers all over the world. A third movie, The Golden Digimentals, follows the kids to America to meet Izzy’s Digi-destined e-mail buddy, Willis. (The first three movies were compressed and slapped together to create Digimon: The Movie for theatrical release in the U.S., but are best experienced separately, in their uncut original forms.)

Even when the stories were less eventful, the animation in the movies was more polished and filled with greater detail than on TV and offered more in the way of spectacle, such as the large-scale battle between “human Digimon” and “beast Digimon” waged in the sole season 4 movie, Island of Lost Digimon, and the climax of the fourth movie, Revenge of Diaboromon, from season 2, where hundreds of young people gather on the waterfront of Tokyo Bay to hold up their cell phone screens in order to send thousands of virus Digimon back to the digital world.

Hiroyuki Kakudo, the director of seasons 1 and 2, also worked on Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro, One Piece, Zatch Bell, Transformers Cybertron, the Japanese version of Cartoon Network’s Powerpuff Girls, and Super Robot Wars Original Generation. Two veteran anime writers, Chiaki J. Konaka (Armitage III, Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, Serial Experiments Lain, Devil Lady) and Sukehiro Tomita (Macross, Kimagure Orange Road, Sailor Moon, Wedding Peach), were recruited to inject imaginative sci-fi plotting into Digimon seasons 2, 3, and 4.

The first season episode, “Out on the Town,” gives American viewers a fun guided tour of downtown Tokyo after Patomon, T.K.’s Digimon, flies out of a subway car when T.K. yells at it, and they spend the rest of the episode looking for each other, all while having to keep on the lookout for two of Myotismon’s mischievous minions, who are having the time of their lives running around the Shibuya district, stealing ice cream and playing in Pachinko parlors.

The three-part “Digimon World Tour,” from the second season, allowed the Japanese Digi-destined to meet their counterparts from all over the world, as separate groups headed for different spots, including New York, where the kids pass through Times Square and Rockefeller Center before a climax in Central Park; Paris, where Tai and T.K. have the run of the Palace of Versailles and rescue a cute Digi-destined French girl named Catherine; and Hong Kong, where Kari meets the Foy brothers and travels with them to the China-India border for a tense encounter with the Chinese Army.

In a memorable moment in season 4, Zoe discounts the possibility of her Digimon alter ego, Kazemon, going out of control, by declaring, “I’ll always be a cool and beautiful girl Digimon . . .
’cause I’m a girl and girls know how to handle power when they need to.” Kazemon happens to be a voluptuous female warrior in a sexy armored pink bikini, making her appearances among the definitive highlights of the entire series for a certain segment of the audience.

Digimon originally premiered in the U.S. on broadcast TV on Fox Kids, then moved over to UPN, and eventually to the cable networks ABC Family Channel and its digital sister channel, Toon Disney, where the series still runs as of this writing. Each season was shown in the U.S. within months of its Japan premiere.

Digimon first appeared as a toy within months of Pokémon’s 1997 TV premiere in Japan, but its creation had been in the works for two years. Digimon became a manga series and then a video game before premiering as an animated TV series in Japan on March 7, 1999.

The 2000 U.S. theatrical release, Digimon: The Movie, consisted of the first three Digimon movies which were edited together by Saban Entertainment (the company producing the English dub for the first three seasons), cutting out parts and adding narration to try and tie three completely unrelated stories together. The later movies all went straight to cable showings on Toon Disney and the ABC Family Network beginning in 2005, although the first three have yet to be seen by American audiences in their original forms.

A fifth TV season, Digimon Savers, premiered on Japanese television in April 2006, with a U.S. premiere planned for the autumn of 2007.

violence Warrior Digimon fight with swords, spears, guns, and energy blasts. nudity In the fourth season, the kid characters appear nude (not explicitly) when they “spirit evolve” into Digimon, in shots that were unaltered when shown on American television.