So I went on a bit of a bingen watching more 25 episodes of Digimon in a row.
Which isn't so bad in itself but it makes reviewing the episodes kind of difficult.
Originally I was going to go through the first six episodes when the show started to get really weird. But then I just kept watching and now I've gone through like three different Ark so this might be broken up into chunks.
Ep. 21: Starting out with a bang we look at what might be the most popular episode of all of Digimon.
That might seem like a boastful statement but this is the episode so many people claims to be their introduction into Digimon. Or at the very least is what got them hooked into the show.
Personally it was episode 19 that got me hooked.
I thought that's when the pacing and story started to really pick up but this is a really good episode too.
It has this strange kind of mellow art design to it. The colours are desaturated and everything has this wavy hot look to it and just the way everyone's animated as well.
It's a huge contrast to be overly colourful and creative world of the Digimon. Everything here is just so basic, the music is played down and everything seems strangely alien despite being back in the real world.
You throw that on top of an already confused Taichi and he's equally baffled Koromon and you end to put the story of comprehension and relaxation.
And it's here that we finally get an introduction to the final character of the show. Taichi's sister Hikari.
Her introduction create even more confusion. Not only do we have two characters returning to the real world with no idea of how to get back or even how they got there, but now they have to contend with Taichi sister who already knows what about digimon and is able to point out that she's been seeing monsters for years. Popping up all over the world (She sees them on T.V. most of the time) and causing mischief while the rest of humanity was blind to them.
Now Taichi sees them as well and realizes that his problems are far from over.
But even with all of that on his back he can still sit down for a couple of minutes and relax within air-conditioned room, eat some food that isn't just wildberries pick from the ground and is able to hug his sister. Who he hasn't seen in several months.
Although to her it's only been half of a day as time in the digital world seems to move super fast as compared to that on Earth. Essentially if you spend one day in the real world a year has passed in the digital.Which creates problems later on for other episodes on the other characters can't find Taichi and then have to go on looking for him.
But here's the thing, none of this matters in this episode.
Most of the episode is just are three characters spending time with each other and I do try to figure out what's going on but it's honestly just about their interaction with one another being happy to finally enjoy each other's company and being free of the threat of monsters. There is a battle towards the end which causes this strange portal thing to open up in the world which sucks Taichi and is Digimon back into the digital world in what is one of the more heartfelt scenes of the entire series. He tearfully tells his sister not to worry and that he'll be back home. One day.
Ep: 22-28: Moving on from the sweet home-sick story of Taichi and his little sister. We return to the Digital world in what is now 2nd separation Arc.
Tai was gone but for a couple of hours. That couple of hours was several months in the digital world.
Now all the children of separated in a vain search to find him amongst other things.
And during this time we encounter what I must confess is the oddest of the Digimon Adventures.
Not necessarily the most interesting and certainly not the most important but you can't deny some of the strange and kooky stories that come up here.
Such as Joe and Matt continuously working in a restaurant to try and pay off some debt which leads to a giant fight between the two as Matt wants to return to his brother who he thinks is stranded out in the middle of nowhere with no protection.
Joe and Gomamon head into a restaurant to get a bite to eat. Joe being the most sensible of characters actually tries to pay for his meal in this world. But all he has on him is Japanese Yen. Which apparently are completely useless in the digital world. Now you'd think they'd use their own unique currency, but not. It's straight up U.S. currency.
This leads to Joe working in the back of the restaurant to attempt to pay off his debt. But it turns out he's a massive clouts and constantly keeps breaking restaurant supplies and the lake.
To such an extent that he ends up several weeks in debt.
Now I don't know how things work in the digital world but at a certain point I would just kick the guy out of my establishment and bar him from ever coming back. If I was a really vindictive guy maybe I'd have one of the Digimon beat him up. But I wouldn't keep him around be just kept costing my restaurant money.
It makes sense later on when you discover that this other Digimon (Demidevimon) was purposely paying the restaurant owner to keep Joe and Matt in the restaurant continuously paying off their debt as an distraction.
In what I can only describe as an attempt at disunity so the kids wouldn't work with each other anymore and would then be easier pray for his boss this big vampire guy who comes up as the big baddy at the end of the arc.
Originally when I was watching this I didn't like Demidevimon at all. I thought he was this really annoying little side character who is getting in the way of a grander adventure.
But he was proving to be more enjoyable over time as you realise he has much more of a personality than his boss and just comes off as a general incompetent fool who can still be a real danger if given the right opportunity.
Perhaps the most enjoyable time we had with Demidevimon is when he starts interacting with Izzy (our little computer wizard kid) who gets trapped in this awkward planetary Dimension by this Digimon Vademon. Who literally steals his curiosity and wants to sell it so he can buy literal poop.
To consume of course.
Because it wasn't weird enough to begin with.
Is he ends up practically brainwashed reading up on this pseudo-spiritual religious book filled with nothing, where he purposely does a bunch of weird chance and just floats around the void of space which become so problematic and so distrustful to the Digimon that he devolves all the way back to his baby form and only at this point dose Izzy finally clue in and attempt to get his conscious back. Which also leads to him trapping the other two Digimon in the dimension once he escapes.
While that's happening Tai returns to the digital world, finds TJ and goes on looking for Matt. They have their own weird little run-in with Demidemimon and eventually find themselves at this weird castle where Mimi is staying; Having lived a life of luxury for the past couple of weeks as all the local Digimon treat her as a princess as her singing voice has the ability to wake up their God.
It's also here that we discover Mimi's the one who sings at the end of the credits (supposedly).
They have to spend most of their episode trying to get Mimi to sing the song so they can move on with their Quest.
She doesn't want to do as she's become accustomed to luxury living. Especially in a world where she was scratching by to survive previously.
But luckily her good common-sense wins over along with the help of Sora. The one character who keeps running around all of the different stories making sure that everybody stays on their path.
As she's the only one that seems to know what's going on.
She was lucky enough to encounter DemiDevimon and his boss Myotismon at the beginning of the story to which she was manipulated into believing that her trait wasn't important and that she never understood what love was.
All because of some weird relationship she has with her oddly cold mother.
Did I mention that this part of the story got weird.
Yeah in this particular Arc everybody has to learn their one unique special ability that connects themselves to their crests.
Tia has courage, Matt has friendship and Sora has love.
And she finds it an incredibly difficult thing to try and understand. Luckily with the help of her friends and more common sense, she is able to get over that and can finally achieve her own story arc by super evolving her Digimon and bringing about the reunification of the entire Digi-Squad. Now we get to the point where all the kids head to this castle where the big baddy is holding up with plans to invade the human world.
Which of course has all the kids on edge as well they live there.
It's like in that show The Tick when somebody asks if he can destroy the Earth and it responds with: ''Egat! I hope not. That's where i keep all of my stuff.''
I suspect that's how the kids feel. That is a big baddie wants to kill the 8th magic child who was supposed to come with them from the beginning.
They set it up like it's this big mystery but it's just tai's sister. It was made pretty obvious from an earlier episode that she would be the main person.
So I don't get the whole mystery angle here.
Maybe it's different in the English version.
In that version all the kids are wandering around looking for each other and using their digivices which can locate where a person is assuming they have their device with them.
But it only shows a possible person it doesn't tell you which one. But in the English version if flat-out tells him which one is it is. I don't know.
Am I getting too much into this?
There's a whole whack of other stuff that happens involving this puzzle with power levels of Digimon and rightful placement so that the kids can get back home and his other weird Digimon that looks like something out of an old X-Men comic getting drunk off of sake.
There's also Tailmon, who's this kind of antagonistic kitty cat who can beat the ever-living crap out of all the adult level Digimon the kids have but later on won't be able to hold their own against far weaker opponents when she becomes an official member of the team.
To the best of my knowledge she kept at Holy ring the whole time so she should still have her power.
Oh why am I complaining about power in a cartoon of this type. It's always inconsistent, it doesn't matter if it's Dragon Ball or Sailor Moon the powers flip flop constantly to work better with the story. Honestly it's actually kind of consistent with this show but occasionally you get weird characters like Tailmon here.
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