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Digimon: Digital Monsters (anime)

(Redirected from Digimon (anime)
Digimon series logo
Digimon: Digital Monsters (the United States title of the Japanese Digimon anime) is a popular animated series that is a part of the Digimon franchise.

Digimon initially was dubbed by Saban Entertainment (later by BVS Entertainment, after Disney bought out Saban in 2001), and was initially broadcasted through the Fox Network's Fox Kids programming block, but after Disney's acquisition of Saban during the third season, the first three seasons stayed on ABC Family and the fourth premiered on UPN, farmed out as part of a deal between Disney and UPN, which concluded with Frontier's end, leading to the season being re-run on ABC Family. Reruns are shown on the U.S. JETIX block daily on ABC Family and Toon Disney.

The US series is made up of four seasons, with the first two making up one whole storyline, and the latter two (Tamers and Frontier, respectively) having unrelated plots. The third season makes reference to the television and commercial enterprises of the first two.

Digimon, which premiered in the US in August 1999 on the Fox Network, introduced the whole franchise to a US audience for the very first time, almost one year after Pokémon did the same thing with their animated show in September 1998 during syndication, and later on the Kids WB progamming block.

In Canada, the show was broadcast on YTV.

In the United Kingdom, Digimon aired on the U.K. Fox Kids (now JETIX) block.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Table of contents

Digimon Adventure (First Season)

The premise of Digimon Adventure (1999) is a group of young pre-teens (who for reason of apparent 'propriety' are usually a little older in the English dub) while at summer camp, become the "DigiDestined" and are unwillingly forced to save both the Digital and real worlds from evil. Each child was given a "Digivice" which selected them to be "transported" to the Digital World. The digivices help their digimon allies to "digivolve" into stronger creatures in times of need. The digimon usually reach higher forms after they see their human partners in a dangerous situation.

The children have no idea of what's really going on after they meet their Digimon partners, yet they still have to fight to protect themselves. However, as time passes and the series starts to evolve, new subjects and concepts are presented. It covered such difficulties the children face when growing up, such as making friends, being courageous and taking a stand against evil, lending a supportive hand to others even though they may be different, saying goodbye to the ones you love, and much more. This has been displayed best by the collection of "crests" the children collect in the first season to make their Digimon partners evolve into stronger digimon and help them stop the evil forces. They embody virtues such as Courage, Friendship, Love, Sincerity, Knowledge, Reliability, and Hope. The crests won't work unless their bearers exhibit the quality their crest represents. This has lead the children to express the traits they didn't know they had, which sometimes comes with interesting emotional and dramatic results.

The children realized that the world they were in was not a game, and that the creatures there had feelings and could feel pain. Digimon express every quality that humans do; only they aren't human. They decided without much thought that they had to defend the noble creatures in the Digital World because they didn't want them to suffer, and they were the only ones that could help. The DigiDestined made efforts on not having to destroy any Digimon, unless they were perverse (usually of the "virus" kind) and gave them no other choice.

Later in the season, the gang went back to Odaiba, where Tai's little sister Kari joins the crew. Her involvement expanded the scope of the show as a new dark world was introduced, and a description on how the Digital World was besieged by the "Dark Masters" was added. There was even a reference to the first movie, showing the events that preceded the happenings of the story and the way every Digi-Destined entered in contact with Digimon for the first time. In the next season there was more information provided on the dark universe, but there was still a visible gap in detail, suggesting that what we have witnessed in the series is just a small story out of a much larger one.

Characters

The English dub of Digimon was somewhat unique at the time, since most human characters kept their proper Japanese name, but were still usually referred to by an 'Americanized' nickname. Some Digimon names were modified to English equivalents, and (rarely) into Japanese equivalents. The eight children are listed first, followed by their Digimon partners. Names used in Japan are listed first. That is followed by the English manga/anime name, if any.

Digimon Zero Two (Second Season)

Digimon Zero Two (2000), also commonly written as Digimon 02, involves the main enemy the Digi-destined thought they had destroyed in the previous season, but has been putting in practice his evil schemes even after his defeat. In this season, the original Digi-destined grew up into jr. high school students (except for Kari and T.K.) and could no longer watch over the Digital World and be with their Digimon friends. All of a sudden, a young kid who called himself "The Digimon Emperor" rampaged through the Digital World attacking Digimon, putting them under mind control, and making them fight, with the help of the "Evil Rings," "Control Spires", and later "Evil Spirals".

A new generation of Digi-Destined, composed of three new children, as well as Kari and T.K., are given a new kind of digivice known as D3, which allows them to be transported to the Digital World through computers. Another adventage was Armor Evolution, using a device called a Digi-egg (no related to the Digi-egg, which means the youngest stage of a Digimon) so their Digimon can evolve in the presence of Control Spires. They eventually stop the Digimon Emperor, Ken Ichijouji, thanks to the sacrifice of Wormmon, Ken's partner.

After his defeat, Ken repented his evil deeds and joined the Digi-destined as they fought two evil digimon named Archnemon and Mummymon. Archnemon had a unique power to turn the Control Spires into super-strong, artifical Digimon in her control. To fight this new threat, the gang learn of DNA Digivolution, enabling their Digimon to fuse with eachother for more power. Eventallly, when the battle was brought to the real world, the true mastermind, Yuiko Oikawa, makes himself known. This man extracts the Dark Spore inside Ken and implants it into other children who wished for the greatness Ken once had. Those spores develop into flowers that harvest the infected children's energy. Eventually, the Digi-Destined confront Oikawa, only to learn he's an extreme loner whose only friend in the world was Hiroki Hida, Cody's father. Hiroki and Oikawa always used to play old video games when they were young, eventually becoming obsessed with the Digital World and always dreaming of going there. In the end, an entity springs from this man's body, none other than the 'real' mastermind, Myotismon, now reborn as MaloMyotismon.

This season ended with the help of the other Digi-Destined from all over the world, using the light that existed inside each one of them and their wishes to transform the Digital World into a nice place again. Oikawa, who is too weak to enter the digital world, becomes its guardian as he passes away. After peace is restored, the boundary between the Digital and the Real World is broken down, giving every human a chance of having their very own Digimon companion.

New characters

A list of the new characters and Digimon partners, which are featured in this season:

Digimon Tamers (Third Season)

Digimon Tamers (2001) changed the very nature of the series. Set in the year 200X (between 2000–2009), it takes place in the REAL real world, where Digimon was just a franchise, composed of video games, a collectible card game, and a cartoon series. However, a group of 12-year-olds (10-year olds in the Japanese version), Takato, Henry and Rika (fans of the Digimon card game) meet their own digimon friends and start to duel "bio-emerging" digimon who cross the barrier between the information network, synthesizing proteins and becoming real. Most of it set in the modern Tokyo district of Shinjuku and only changes scenario to the Digital World for a short time.

The tone of this season has many elements from head writer Chiaki J. Konaka's other works, especially Serial Experiments Lain, and is naturally more dark in nature. Persistent rumors existed among fans that because the entire Fox Kids line up — where Digimon had primarily been syndicated — was going to be dissolved anyway by the end of the this season in the US, censorship became more lax as time went on.

Takato creates his digimon partner Guilmon when he slips a mysterious blue card he found in his deck through his hand-held card reading device, changing it into a "D-Arc", the Tamers version of a digivice. The appearance and powers of this digimon come from Takato's sketches that were scanned into the device. Guilmon "realizes" from the Digital World and is found later by Takato. Henry meets his digimon Terriermon when he rises from the screen of a computer game, while Rika's digimon Renamon approached her to ask to be made stronger, since Rika was famous for her skills on the Digimon card game. Other Tamers are introduced later in the series.

Along the way, the kids learn to be responsible for those creatures as a mysterious man known as Yamaki tries to stop wild digimon from coming to the real world. From the secret government agency called Hypnos, Yamaki was in charge of monitoring all digimon activity around the globe. Later, the new Tamers are forced to fight a series of evil digimon calling themselves the Devas, who, serving the Digimon Sovereign, believe that true digimon shouldn't pair up with humans (it is later revealed they were actually misguided). After traveling to the Digital World to rescue Calumon, who has fallen into the Devas' hands, the Tamers meet (and fight with) one of the four Digital Gods, but finally agree to work together in order to prevent the D-Reaper, a computer program initially designed to keep digital life and artificial intelligence programs from getting out of control, from destroying both the digital and real worlds.

Several new characteristics are introduced in this season, like the use of game cards in conjunction with the digivices to give different powers to the digimon and the presence of Calumon, a lone digimon responsible for the digimon evolutions in the real world.

Digimon Tamers was considered the as the 'fall' of Digimon. After Leomon was destroyed, the ratings for Digimon in Japan dropped.

Characters

Digimon Frontier (Fourth Season)

Digimon Frontier (2002) is the final TV series. After receiving strange phone messages, five children go to the subway and take a train to the Digital World. Once there, they meet Bokomon and Neemon (who act as guides) and learn that the DigiWorld is in danger. They must fight the evil Cherubimon and his Evil Legendary Warrior servants before they destroy the world. In the typical Digimon fashion, it's up to the kids to save the world.

The biggest feature introduced in this season is "spirit evolution," where the Digi-destined themselves evolve into digimon to become Legendary Warriors. For this special kind of evolution, they use "spirits," artifacts created by the Ancient Warriors that were hidden in certain areas of the Digital World. The two types of spirits are the "human spirits" and the "beast spirits." Another interesting detail lies in the way the children travel within the regions of the DigiWorld. Unlike the previous seasons, most areas are connected by railroads, where train digimon called "Trailmon" act as a means of transport.

After defeating the four Legendary Warriors that serve Cherubimon, Kouji discovers that Duskmon, the fifth evil Legendary Warrior, is really his long-lost brother Kouichi. With Takuya's help, Kouji is able to free his brother from the spirit. Afterwards the Spirits of Darkness regain their true form, and Kouichi can now become the true Warrior of Darkness, Löwemon, and joins the group. After they defeat Cherubimon, the Digi-Destined learn that Lucemon, an ancient, evil, angel digimon whom the Anicent Warriors sealed away, was the one who was really behind it all. So now the Six Digi-Destined must defeat him and his two Royal Knights before they scan away all of the Digital World, which would allow Lucemon to be free.

Characters

See also

External link

English

Japanese







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