Digimon: Digital Monsters
At first glance, one might think that Digimon is simply a Pokemon knockoff. And it's a good bet that FOX picked up the rights to Digimon in response to WB's amazing success with Pokemon. But Digimon came first in Japan, at least as a game, (or at least that's what I hear). However, it took a longer time for Digimon to build up steam, and for it to prove itself as unique and interesting cartoon in it's own right.
Digimon is the story of 7 children from Earth who journey to a land called the Digital World, (an eighth child joins them later on). There they find they are the Digidestined, and they gain friends in the form of Digimon. Each child gets their own Digimon who protects them. Together, they journey around and fight against the evil Digimon who are trying to take over both worlds.
Sounds simple enough, right? Well, as simple as it may sceme, Digimon offers a rich cast of characters, and a good number of episodes over which to flesh those characters out. And while I won't get bogged down in which cartoon is better, I will say that while Ash Ketchum is still fighting Team Rocket over 100 episodes, (so far), the Digidestined fight increasingly tougher "evil" Digimon, culminating in several battles against the Dark Masters, who are the most powerful of the Evil Digimon.
Even more enlightening is how real world like this cartoon is. For instance, the kids get home for one story arc, wherein we learn that these kids don't live in typical happyland that most cartoon kids reside in. Two of the kids parents are divorced, one is adopted, and another fights with her mother constantly. A little on the depressing side? Maybe, but what this series is truly about is these kids learning to grow and cope with their problems.
That's also what the Digimon are all about in the show. As they journey through the land with their kid partners, they learn to digivolve, by which they become more powerful. In one story arc, the kids have to find certain crests, to help their digimon digivolve even further. Each crest represents an emotion which resembles their inner heart. By becoming more in tune with their heart, and with what their heart gives best, (such as love, courage, sincerity...), they become better people and digivolve in their own way.
So while on the exterior, this show is all about battling evil forces, I find that the true conflict of the series, (as with any good series), is about the emotional conflict within the characters. In short, it's all about growing up, and finding your place in the world, (a conflict anyone can identify with). And that's what makes this anime a great addition to American T.V.
On one last note, the second season starts this fall, and kicks off with a Digimon movie coming to theaters this fall. It looks like Digimon is just warming up, and though many still claim it's a Pokemon ripoff, it appears that it's going to be here for sometime to come.
***1/2 stars, (or asterixs, if you will).
LINKS!
The Official Digimon site! Has lots of information!
The Digidestiny Digimon Image Archive Has lots of great pictures! (from which a couple above come.
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