by Kroze Kresky, Media Editor

Finally Digimon: The Official First Season Vol. 2 and Digimon: The Official Second Season Season are available for the first time in their entirety on DVD!

If you happened to be a kid in the late 90s, there was one crucial choice you had to make in order to decide your place in the schoolyard. It was rivalry between two things that would continue onwards for years down the line. One so huge it would make the Sharks and Jets conflict from West Side Story look like a nice friendly sit down and get together. One that would make the “Batman or Superman?” look like a choice between two kids on the playground. No, this conflict was DEEP. This question would define you to everyone for the next several years of your life and once you made it, there was no going back: “Are you a fan of Pokemon or Digimon?”

Now most people thought of Digimon as a quick Pokemon ripoff looking to play off the success of the sudden boom of the Pokemon franchise that had just took off in America. Sadly what most people did not realize was that Digimon as a franchise creation was so removed from Pokemon, and more attached to the craze of “Virtual Pets” that was so hip and happening in the mid 90s. It even came out as an animated series a whole month before Pokemon launched in Japan. The original Digimon was a toy virtual pet companion, and many consider it the “boys” version of a Tamagatchi due to instead of just raising it and keeping it alive, you were also training it to fight and battle any other Digimon. It was a hope of the Bandai toy company that it could make lightning strike twice using the same formula as the previously mentioned Tamagatchi virtual pet line. In Japan, it became an overnight success! People were collecting these little mechanical fighting keychains and battling them out for dominance all over. So much that just like everything else in Japan that gets popular, it got its own animated series! Enter: Digimon Adventure.

Now in America, Digimon got a very late start coming in behind Pokemon. By the time the original Digimon virtual pet launched over onto these shores, the Tamagatchi craze had already died down sadly. That didn’t stop yours truly who considered himself even at the time a connoisseur of awesome toys from picking one up and sadly having no one to battle with. With the success of Pokemon now in full swing, a little company known as Saban Entertainment decided bring over the Digimon animated show over to these states in hopes that maybe possibly Digimon could have a second chance in America. Saban Entertainment might remembered for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and they had also brought over a crapton of other anime series as well such as Sailor Moon and one of my all time favorites: Samurai Pizza Cats.

Digimon (Which was short hand for “Digital Monsters”) was a boys action series (also known as a “Shonen”) focused on these little critters who were made completely out of data and the world parallel to our own that they inhabited (which was created due to our development of electronics and computers… but we’ll get to that whole crazy bit later). There were many different types and many different kinds and as they gained more data, they would “Digivolve” into newer and more powerful forms. The series followed a group of seven kids at summer camp who manage to accidentally enter the Digital World and it turns out they are actually the DigiDestined (are you starting to see a pattern with these naming schemes yet?).  The DigiDestined are a group of chosen warriors who had been prophesied that they would one day come and unite the Digital World along with their Digimon Partners, and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity throughout the land!

Digimon: The Official First Season Vol. 2 picks up during what is known as the third Digimon Adventure story arc where our intrepid heroes have been scattered and disillusioned with their ongoing fight in a plot to render them all powerless. Tai, our hero and main protagonist of the tale, has just returned from going back to the real world only to find out about Myotismon, a brand new evil force who wants to rule both the Digital and Real worlds. Tai must round up the old crew of Matt, Sora, Izzy, Mimi, Joe, and T.K, along with each of their Digimon partners, to fight this brand new threat. They also uncover the mystery of “Eighth DigiDestined Child” that Myotismon is currently after to achieve his end game goals of multi-world domination.

This new arc brings in several new additions to the plot such as the importance behind the connection between the Real and Digital worlds as well as introducing a brand new hero to the core team of kids. Which finding out the existence of a brand new member always makes things more awesome half way through the season, right Power Rangers fans? Starting to see why Saban wanted to adapt this one, eh? It turns out this mysterious new addition had ties to the team already. Kairi, who happens to be Tai’s younger sister, is in fact the “great power” that Myotismon is after. Also during this time, more and more Digimon start crossing over and attacking the real world, suddenly causing the world to find out about this “Digital World” and the entities that live over there.

This happens to be my favorite arc of all Digimon Adventure as the game changers introduced here greatly effect the entire series going forward and sets up the foundations for a bunch of cool stories going forward. Some which are still paying off in the current season Digimon Xros Wars AKA Digimon Fusion. It really sets Digimon apart from Pokemon, allowing themselves to tell a grand epic story as opposed to just singular one off adventures here and there. The plot of the show turns very serialized here and further seasons after this just continue to build on its momentum.

Digimon: The Offical Second Season changes everything up from the first run of episodes. Known as Digimon Adventure 02 in Japan, we are introduced to a (mostly) entirely brand new group of DigiDestined kids which takes place a few years later after the first season/series.  This is very much notable as every other Digimon season/series after this point becomes self contained and doesn’t refer back to Digimon Adventure or 02 at all. The Digital World it turns out did not get its everlasting peace and prosperity after the DigiDestined defeated the Dark Masters, who had been controlling everything since the beginning. Due to the Real World finding out about the Digital World, as well as the creatures with many powers that it contains, a new human has found his way into the Digital World. Dubbing himself the “Digimon Emperor,” he wastes no time turning the Digital World into his own personal empire.

The first thing this jerk does is construct Dark Control Spires all over the lands making it so no Digimon at all can Digivolve to fight back against him. He conquers the Digital World with ease thanks to that move. Kairi and T.K. from the first series, who are now all grown up, find out about this new threat and they receive new Digivices (known as D3s AKA THE COOLEST TOY A KID COULD HAVE EVER ahem… sorry, my inner fanboy came out a bit there). They discover three brand new people (Davis, Yolei and Cody) have also been chosen with new Digimon partners to form a brand new group of DigiDestined to fight this new human threat to both the Digital and Real worlds.

In order to circumvent the nullification against Digivolving their Digimon, the group goes on a search through the Digital World to find ancient relics known as Digi-Eggs that allows them to use Armor-Digivolve to fight back. Armor-Digivolving is perhaps the coolest thing the show has done (besides the epicness that is season 3 AKA Digimon Tamers) giving birth to kickass new forms of previous Digimon as a side form of Digivolution. When you first see Veemon use that first Digi-Egg, you WILL get hype! The other thing this series does insanely well is build upon the history and plot already set in motion by season 1 and its characters. We get to see the complete group of original DigiDestined as the season progresses, and we get a look into their lives of what they have done since the original Adventure. It’s a cool and interesting take to revisit these characters and seeing them once again. Granted, this also is the point where Digimon Adventure 02 gets a lot of fans a BIT angry.

You see at the end of Digimon Adventure, it gave all the characters a nice happy ever after…including having our main character Tai look like he was gonna get together with the girl both he and his best friend Matt had a crush on through the series, Sora. As we encounter them during “Zero Two” (as fans affectionately sputter out the name of while cursing it at the same time), we find out Tai is no longer with Sora. Instead it seems that MATT of all people stole Sora from Tai, and up until this point Matt and Tai were total bros to the end. Making it even MORE of a bad move, Matt’s original power that he had control over as a DigiDestined is called the “Crest of Friendship.”   EPIC BRO CODE VIOLATION RIGHT THERE MATT! This, along with several other changes to Adventures “happily ever after” to other characters is a huge point of contention in the Digimon fanbase (and may have caused this reviewer to nerd rage on more than one occasion). It makes them want to write off this season completely, ignoring all of the things it does right; which, to be fair, it does a lot of cool things.

The video and audio quality on these sets are pretty solid for a show that hasn’t seen a full series release in 15 years. The video is of course in 4:3, but the visuals and animations look clean and bright. The audio may make a few die hards rage as neither comes with an original Japanese track that is just subtitled. This is mainly in due part to the way Saban Entertainment handled localizing the show when it was brought over originally. Instead of just dubbing the show and putting it out, they cut up the show a bunch from its original format, removing full scenes and rearranging footage at various points in order to better suit the US kids demographic. Because of this, just throwing the original Japanese audio on top wouldn’t fit at all. Hardcore Japanese Digimon fans, this is not the set for you. Sorry. The original America dub audio is crisp and clear, if you can put up with horrible voice acting at times. Sadly Steve Blum is not in either of these sets…you will have to wait for the release of Digimon Season 3 for that.

Another thing to mention about the sound is the theme song. It is classic. It is awesome. It is super repetitive. If it doesn’t become stuck it your head by the 6th episode then you sir have no soul and are dead inside, and there is no hope for you whatsoever.

Overall

Those who love Digimon and remember it fondly will love these two releases. As mentioned before, this is the first time we are seeing a release in over 15 years of the full complete series thanks to Flatiron Film Company. And while the presentation may not be much, it is nice to have such a nostalgic part of my childhood growing up within your DVD collection. While Pokemon may have gotten all the fame and glory over the years, I stand by that decision I made on the schoolyard all those years ago. Digimon is a fun and epic adventure story that strives to do so much more than the singular story format of normal Pokemon episodes, and really gives you the feeling of this group of kids going on a grand epic journey to save two worlds from chaos and destruction. Digimon forever!

Rating:

ComicsOnline gives Digimon: The Offical First Season Vol. 2 DVD 3 Digivolutions out of 5

Rating:

ComicsOnline gives Digimon: The Official Second Season DVD 4 Armor-Digivolves out of 5

P.S. Here’s a fun game to all of you readers! Go back and count how many times the prefix Digi was used in this review! 🙂