DigiMon, who else is watching?

[JustJack]

Today, I had nothing better to do, Digimon was on, & I havent watched Season 3 yet. I've seen a few eps, from those I quickly decided Season3 is a lot better than the originals, but I simply haven't had time to watch it..

Anyway, I saw it today(which is a re-run, I know), & I gotta say...

This is a friggin good show!

It's a heck of a lot more mature, for one. While the animation is the same, the humor isn't. And I didn't like the idea of "cartoon/game suddenly becomes real?". Ack! But, they explained that in todays episode:
Digimon were originally digitally designed war-machines, built off data(so it wouldn't take any enginering, just programming. & if one was destroyed, just scan a new one into the battle). But, the project was proven to be too dangerous, most data was destroyed, while the government decides to bank something off of it, so they make it a kids mini-vid game, cartoon, & whole franchise. But eventually the data pieced itself together again, & now the Data is breaking through into our world. And thus, why the organization is trying to delete them. They're untamed War Machines.
Dude, I loved that explanation!! For now on, I'll be watching Digimon as much as possible! I love this show! Who else is watching?

[Scythemantis]

I saw that episode today too...it was a pretty good explanation...the writing in digimon is GREAT,so many people think it`s some sort of pokemon ripoff...more than half of the first season didnt have much going on,but by the end of season 1 there was major character development and some COMPLEX stuff tying in with all the minor odd details of the previous episodes...really well done for a dubbed anime! Some of the dialogue went a little absurd in the translation though and still does...

I prefer the villains and characters from the first two seasons (Especially Tentomon,Puppetmon and Arukenimon/Mummymon) but season 3 is still pretty good...

[Squall]

I know absolutely nothing about Digimon. And yeah, I was one of the masses that thought that Digimon was to Pokemon as Go-Bots were to Transformers.

It's a good show though, eh?

[Naraht]

Originally posted by squall
I know absolutely nothing about Digimon. And yeah, I was one of the masses that thought that Digimon was to Pokemon as Go-Bots were to Transformers.

It's a good show though, eh?

Of course, technically...Digimon came first.

Season 3 Digimon is really the show Digimon Tamers. Seasons 1 & 2 were Digimon Adventures....Diffrent shows entirely...sorta like Gundam Wing vs. Gundam 8080. Same Elements, Diffrent Shows.

[don Jaime]

I think I won some enemies at the big Digimon board over this, but I don't think Tamers is that well written. It has an almost identical plot to the one that was recycled so shamelessly in the last two seasons; the pacing is slower is the big difference. There are a lot of episodes that hammer the same points that have already been covered. I don't mind that Tamers is trying to take its time and not rush things the way Adventures 01 and 02 did, but they go too slow, and then ram all the plot points into a single rushed Adventure-ish episode. And important stuff like what happened to the programmer Shibumi and just what in the heck relevence Culumon/Calumon is supposed to have are largely ignored.

The characters are mostly good (Li Jenrya/Henry Wong is dull). There's one episode where an Ice Devimon wants to be tamed that is the best episode ever, bar none, and last Saturday's was also great as the kids finally got around to discussing the whole Digimon situation with their parents. But most of Tamers is like watching paint dry. Adventures probably wasn't as well written, but it was a lot more fun.

[Scythemantis]

Originally posted by squall
I know absolutely nothing about Digimon. And yeah, I was one of the masses that thought that Digimon was to Pokemon as Go-Bots were to Transformers.

It's a good show though, eh?

It`s kinda the other way around...pokemon is repetitive,shallow,simplistic,endless and utterly pointless (and I say this as someone who actually likes pokemon a bit) whereas digimon actually tries pretty hard to have an "epic" kind of plot with a pre-planned course,a fair amount of emotion (for a monster-anime) and even death (cute,and I mean REALLY cute characters have actually been killed without ever being "ressurrected" or "turning up ok" like one would expect from such a show) It also differs from pokemon (and monster rancher,and yu-gi-oh,ect) in that it has nothing to do with "collecting" or "capturing" monsters to battle in any kind of arena,tournament or spectacle sport...it`s just your typical cliched (nutn wrong with that :P) "fighting against evil" plot where the monsters are sentient characters rather than pets

[Jowy Blight]

I watched season 1 and half of season 2 before I felt that it was going the same way that Pokemon is going (same thing over and over again). But I've been hearing good things about season 3, is it really that much better then 1 and 2?

[Scythemantis]

So far,3 is written much better,but I still liked the previous seasons out of personal preference for the monsters :P

[Squall]

I had no idea there were so many Digimon and Pokemon fans among us! ;) But OK, I'll admit it, I have no interest in either franchise whatsoever.

My favorite franchises (as far as cartoons with toy and/or video game tie-ins are concerned) are Transformers (1984-1987 version only), G.I. Joe (1982-1987 version only), and of course, the four Dini/Timm DC Universe TV shows, Batman: TAS, Batman/Superman, Batman Beyond, and Justice League. :cool:

Do any of you guys like the original Transformers or G.I. Joe? :confused:

[Naraht]

Originally posted by squall
I had no idea there were so many Digimon and Pokemon fans among us! ;) But OK, I'll admit it, I have no interest in either franchise whatsoever.

My favorite franchises (as far as cartoons with toy and/or video game tie-ins are concerned) are Transformers (1984-1987 version only), G.I. Joe (1982-1987 version only), and of course, the four Dini/Timm DC Universe TV shows, Batman: TAS, Batman/Superman, Batman Beyond, and Justice League. :cool:

Do any of you guys like the original Transformers or G.I. Joe? :confused:

I used to like transformers, but for the life of me, I can't remember any of the episodes. I did like Beast Wars...Beast Machines...I dunno

I also when I was a kid, liked He-Man and had to have had 90% of the action figures. I had a shi..er, that is to say a sleepingbag box full of them.

Then it was onto Thundercats & Silver Hawks. Then Nintendo came out. Thank goodness.

[Nightflower]

Don't forget Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Bah.....I'm tired of that "Digimon came first" pooh-pooh. Pokemon was known to the general public first, so it's always Pokemon to me. Although I don't watch either of them. (Mind you, I did like Pokemon before it became too merchandised, and all you could find were the crappy rubber/plastic toys with Japanese titles at Chinatown).

[Naraht]

Originally posted by Nightflower
Don't forget Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Bah.....I'm tired of that "Digimon came first" pooh-pooh. Pokemon was known to the general public first, so it's always Pokemon to me. Although I don't watch either of them. (Mind you, I did like Pokemon before it became too merchandised, and all you could find were the crappy rubber/plastic toys with Japanese titles at Chinatown).

Bleh! I never like TMNT that much.

[HellCat]

Originally posted by naraht


Of course, technically...Digimon came first.

Season 3 Digimon is really the show Digimon Tamers. Seasons 1 & 2 were Digimon Adventures....Diffrent shows entirely...sorta like Gundam Wing vs. Gundam 8080. Same Elements, Diffrent Shows.

I think you mean Gundam 0080

I've only seen a few eps of Digimon (all from series 1) and from what I've seen, it looks ok. It seems to more mature then Pokemon has now become

[Scythemantis]

My earliest cartoon+toy obsession was Ghostbusters,then Turtles (continued to love ghostbusters though) then just collected a lot of things/watched a lot of shows that had nothing to do with eachother.Now I`m buying those tiny tiny little digimon figures and pokemon.Just the ones I like :P

[RockItShipper]

Originally posted by Nightflower
Don't forget Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Bah.....I'm tired of that "Digimon came first" pooh-pooh. Pokemon was known to the general public first, so it's always Pokemon to me. Although I don't watch either of them. (Mind you, I did like Pokemon before it became too merchandised, and all you could find were the crappy rubber/plastic toys with Japanese titles at Chinatown).

I've heard so many conflicting accounts of "what came first" with Digimon and Pokemon, so I'm not even going there. It's really a different approaches-kinda thing, anyway. I'd say Genshi the time dick is a ripoff, except for the fact that TV Tokyo did that as well... it's a retread... Having a crude version of Columbus won't change that...

[DR. BELCH]

--for me to get into the third season. I miss Yolei. :o But I'm pretty sure the voice of the teacher is one of the girls from season two...the headstrong blonde who, I think, became a teacher herself. But it's not the same character, I take it....

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by Blight Man


I think you mean Gundam 0080

I've only seen a few eps of Digimon (all from series 1) and from what I've seen, it looks ok. It seems to more mature then Pokemon has now become

Pokemon has always targeted younger kids, but it doesn't have any pretensions about itself. It doesn't try to be serious, and it just strives to be lightweight fun.

For some reason, I keep running into a brick wall with Digimon. Every time I try to get into it, it throws me out. ;)

I can dig a more "mature" storyline, but somehow I think the talking monsters prevents me from taking it seriously. I don't know if it's because of the wacky voices, but it's like a kid's show and a teen show trying to coincide...with mixed results.

I did enjoy the first season in some spurts, and attempted the 2nd season numerous times (I know it got better later on, but I have to weather through the first few mediocre ones first), but I couldn't get hooked on it.

[Naraht]

Originally posted by DR. BELCH
--for me to get into the third season. I miss Yolei. :o But I'm pretty sure the voice of the teacher is one of the girls from season two...the headstrong blonde who, I think, became a teacher herself. But it's not the same character, I take it....

Yeah, the voice of Kari is doing the voice of the teacher...

No it's not the same character, check imdb for more info.

[JustJack]

I gotta say it...I do like some of these DigiMon toys. While I like to think I have a more...refined toy taste...I just look at the Digimon toys..and...well, they have a new-aged, but childish quality that I like. hehe. Plus, with names like "wargreymon"...I like ems!

[Squall]

As far as actual toy collecting goes, the only toys I ever actually collected were the Transformers. I have almost all (and all the important ones that were common on the TV show & movie) of the 1984, 1985, and 1986 toy lines. Those are the only three toy lines I ever wanted, and indeed, the only toys I ever really wanted, period.

I sold all my non-Transformers toys long ago, with one minor exception. I have six G.I. Joe figures that I kept -- Cobra Commander (w/ silver mask, like he usually wore on the TV show & movie), Destro (w/ silver mask, not the later gold mask), Serpentor (w/ Air Chariot), Golobulus, Nemesis Enforcer, and Royal Guard. I just thought that the leaders of Cobra & Cobra La were really cool, that's all. :D

Other than my Transformers and my six little G.I. Joe figures, I don't really own anything "material", besides movies & video games on cartriges, VHS, and DVD. ;)

[HellCat]

Originally posted by Leaping Larry Jojo


Pokemon has always targeted younger kids, but it doesn't have any pretensions about itself. It doesn't try to be serious, and it just strives to be lightweight fun.



The thing Ihate most about it is how much of an advertisment it's become. Sure, from the very begining it was made to get kids to buy the games, cards, etc. But at least in the begining, it had good stories. I said in an earlier thread one of my fave things about the early episodes was the cliffhangers. They no longer exist. One of the best examples of cliffhangers was the Saint Anne arc. That kept me waiting to see what would happen next. But now it's the same story every ep: Ash and friends find a Pokemon> Find the Pokemon is causing a trainer problems> TR show up> Ash's Pokemon and the Pokemon Of The Day beat them, thus solving the Pokemon's problem>Ash and friends leave. It's gotten that boring. They really need to try something else. I heard there's a Lugia arc coming up, which involves a large group of TR elites trying to capture the legendary bird. Wonder if that can save the show.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Like I said, it's more of a comedy than a drama. It's like one of those old Inspector Gadget cartoons or such. That may not appeal to everyone, but it's a good haven for visual gags and obscure references.

That said, I don't watch it as much as I used to because yes, it is somewhat formulaic. Still, I don't think I could ever take a pet monster show as a drama. The whole thing just looks so silly to me, so a comedy is better suited for this type of gimmick, in my opinion. Mecha and superheroes I can take as drama--pet monsters I can't. Hence my inability to hang with Digimon. It can't even be called "campy" either. I like camp, but Digimon feels like a show that wants to be taken seriously, but is hindered by its own gimmick.

[don Jaime]

I have the opposite problem. I can't take mecha seriously. I know from the start that any walking robot is going to suck as a war machine because it's too easy to trip. Give me something with treads, then I'll believe it's an armored vehicle.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by don Jaime
I have the opposite problem. I can't take mecha seriously. I know from the start that any walking robot is going to suck as a war machine because it's too easy to trip. Give me something with treads, then I'll believe it's an armored vehicle.

Rollerblading mecha are the best.

[RockItShipper]

Originally posted by Blight Man
I heard there's a Lugia arc coming up, which involves a large group of TR elites trying to capture the legendary bird. Wonder if that can save the show.

That's a year off from airing on KWB though... (I'm going to see if it's in at my place tomorrow)...

Personally, I think Digimon's more blatantly commercial than Pokemon- particularly since I follow the Japanese versions of both. I wouldn't mind it so much, if it wasn't for that WRETCHED season finale. A Christmas CD is fine. But to have Ken and "Davis" calling eachother 'baby' on it and not have the decency to make a vague ending to the season.... It makes sense only if you want to believe the kids didn't learn anything...
:(

[Naraht]

The Digimon Adventures (season 2) Series Finale...yeah, that was dumb. Digimon for everybody? where's the fun in that?

[HellCat]

Originally posted by don Jaime
I have the opposite problem. I can't take mecha seriously. I know from the start that any walking robot is going to suck as a war machine because it's too easy to trip. Give me something with treads, then I'll believe it's an armored vehicle.

The Guntank from Mobile Suit Gundam? http://www.gundamproject.com/mecha/gundam_guntank.html

[RockItShipper]

Originally posted by naraht
The Digimon Adventures (season 2) Series Finale...yeah, that was dumb. Digimon for everybody? where's the fun in that?

That didn't bother me as much... What got to me was how the kids didn't seem to learn anything. Jyou caved into pressure to be a doctor, Ken to breed grandchildren... And the girls? Fashion designer, cooking show host, kindergarten teacher, housewife... Could you imagine seeing, say, the PPGs all going that route, including Buttercup? :mad:

[don Jaime]

Originally posted by Blight Man


The Guntank from Mobile Suit Gundam? http://www.gundamproject.com/mecha/gundam_guntank.html

Yes! Yes! This is what I was talking about! This is a weapon of war! None of this AT-AT Zord nonsense here! TREADS, baby! Rolling through barricades and rough terrain in no time!

And they call it a "crude" Gundam. Huh? This is about the only mech I've seen that can't be dropped by running an Altima into its instep. Crude. Phsssh!

But I think you get my point. Sure, any rational opponent could knock most mecha down in no time and corral the kiddies to defang their pets. But we can accept for a given show that it won't happen.

And never mention the Digidestined in 2027 final episode fiasco to true fans. It was wrong, character destroying wrong, as RockItShipper says. 90% of all fan fiction since then specifically denies this rubbish.