Alternative TitlesEnglish: Digimon Synonyms: Digimon: Digital Monsters 03 Japanese: デジモンテイマーズ
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 51
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 1, 2001 to Mar 31, 2002
Duration:
25 min. per episode Rating:
PG - Children
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.441 (scored by 19414 users)
Ranked: #15072
Popularity: #393
Members: 29,263
Favorites: 280 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action adventure comedy shounen |
SynopsisTakato Matsuda, Ruki Matsuno, and Lee Jenrya are children who have, by fate, recieved real Digimon, unlike the imaginary ones in the card game they play. Each of the children, or "Digimon Tamers", have their different views on how Digimon should be treated. But when other Digimon begin to appear around Japan, they must put aside their differences to fend off the digital intruders; even though Yamaki, who is the head of a secret organization called Hypnos is trying to eliminate all of the Digimon himself.
(Source: ANN) |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Digimon Tamers
Side story: Digimon Tamers: The Adventurers' Battle, Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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Rotom
38 of 51 people found this review helpful
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51 of 51 episodes seen
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
I liked the first two seasons of Digimon as a kid, they were the only ones they aired here in Finland. After some years I matured and began looking down on them.
Let's face it, the idea that ENIAC, the world's second computer, was capable of twisting space-time and created parallel dimension where computer data took physical form and gained sentience on its own, and then interacted with human kids' emotions to reconfigure the data to combat monsters, was quite silly, and the show mostly served only commercial purposes. (This creation of the Digital World is explained in the Wonder Swan games relating to Digimon Adventure 02.) The plot of the first season also was quite nonexistent, fighting one big bad with world-domination fantasies after another.
Then, after many years they decided to air Digimon Tamers in the kids' weekday morning program slot. I hadn't seen it back on the good old years because I didn't know Japanese, didn't want to watch English dub and subs were not available, which was quite surprising, considering Digimon is, or once was, very popular franchise around the world. I started to watch it mostly for nostalgy. Digimon Tamers however turned out to be much more actual cyberpunk than kids' show.
Digimon Tamers' plot is built upon the concept of unintentionally created artificial intelligence. It is, too, a bit strange idea, especially given that it's creation is timed in 1984. But then again, Digimon Tamers officially is stated to take place in different universe, so we can assume some technology had advanced asynchronously. Or perhaps the same quantum phenomena that affected the creation of the Digital World played a role here. Anyway, the backstory is not fully explained in the show, there's a novel called Digimon Tamers 1984 which would be a good companion to watching it, but it hasn't been translated either to my knowledge.
Tamers is loyal to the original ideas of Digimon however, and the fact they made them believable, even if eccentric, is one of the things that make it so good. The childrens' ability to interact with the Digimon in unique ways and the fact the main character actually CREATES his own Digimon are justified with the concept of DigiGnomes - programs that were originally intended as a part of a children's toy, designed by a group of programmer students at University of Palo Alto in the 80's, until the project was cancelled.
The art of the physical world is decent, but when we get to the Digital World it's amazing, acidic. We have packets of garbage data running around deserts in coils, our physical world's information networks manifested in the sky as a huge shining globe with greatest data streams arranging around it like debris rings of a planet, and all your classical Digimon weirdness - mansions inside glass bubbles underwater and completely monochromatic old-skool town etc. The CGI and normal animation in this show are in perfect balance. Some evolution scenes (basically those from adult stage to perfect stage) aren't very cool, they could be much better, and that's about the only actual complaint.
I've always considered all incarnations of Digimon to have excellent soundtracks, and Tamers is not an exception. The second ending theme 'Days ~aijou to nichijou~' is so sweet and dreamy I have on many mornings after not sleeping the night (like was the case at the time when Tamers aired here on kids' mornings) listened to it on loop about ten times and got a really good feeling. After that it temporarily loses it's charm, but on the next morning it's restored. The opening 'The Biggest Dreamer' is really groovy too. Tamers has more futuristic and/or digital sounding BGM's than the other seasons, fitting it's themes and atmosphere perfectly. The first evolution sequence music, 'Evo' is probably the coolest Digimon evolution music ever, but the others send chills to the spine too. Try listening those in Youtube even if you don't plan to watch the series.
Characters are better developed than in any other Digimon incarnation, and some have relatively dark backgrounds. Our main hero is way far from typical shounen hothead with big ego and exaggerated goals and bad manners. He's what you'd call an artistic soul, and his development into a sort of knight on a white (though it's really red here...) horse is interesting. The Digimon also have distinquishable personalities that aren't paired with their owners' personalities in any typical - balancing opposites nor overly similar - fashion. We have serious adventuring group drama here where half of the 'people' just happen to be artificial intelligences gained physical creature-ish manifestation via quantum physics.
Also, the Digimon aren't initially friends by default. Wouldn't you be surprised, confused if you just happened to encounter a talking battling mutating video game creature? Their slowly developing bonds are quite serious. And we get to explore the differences and similarities of humans and Digimon. At the beginning, most Digimon are guided by their basic instinct to battle, absorb the opponents data, convert it into utilizable form for self, and evolve, bestowed upon them by humans themselves. Neither is there any over-the-top world-saving premise - the characters become involved with it through pure chance, bit by bit, through their own choices.
Our main villain is, unlike the Digimon, an emotionless program. Originally created to keep the numbers of copies of data files in given limits, in order to prevent viruses from spreading themselves that way and collapsing the budding 80's Internet, he has now gained physical form too, and become what you could call an 'eco-fascist', calmly launching plans to reduce the numbers of humans after calculating there're too many of them for the planet to withstand. This is an interesting, thought-provoking concept really.
We don't have big bad guys who are bad just for the sake of it here. Sans the few rogue monsters in the beginning that serve only as ways to initiate character conflict, every villain has understandable motives for whatever they do, and most turn out good after some serious misunderstandings and political or religious differences crossing the border of two different worlds have been cleared. The question whether or not we are gods and masters of our creations is also explored in many episodes - even if our creations believe in gods completely of their own.
And the final battle is on par with Gurren Lagann's. No, I'm not kidding. They have many things in common in fact, as one Digimon's final form is like giant green dog-faced mecha, and both involve quantum physics you actually have to think a bit for them to make sense.
Overall, it's weird, trippy, cool and enjoyable to both children and adult science fiction fans. Not everyone is going to like it of course, mostly probably because it has lots of monster battles, the beginning is slow, and because some things of the backstory are left a bit obscure. Also some have called it Evangelion's child, which in turn has pissed off some fans of Evangelion, which I think is completely justified - indeed it doesn't go to same depths over same subjects. Some have called it a bad Evangelion-wannabe, but I don't think they have much in common. Both are good though, so let's not start an argument over this one.
If you watch Tamers expecting it to be like Evangelion, you're going to be disappointed and probably hate it. So don't do that. Tamers is worth liking it. It doesn't try to be a ripoff of ANYTHING, it's honestly completely its own kind of work.
There simply isn't anything like Digimon Tamers out there.
read more
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-FlameHaze-
40 of 77 people found this review helpful
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51 of 51 episodes seen
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Okay for all you who watched the first series of Digimon, you may have not enjoyed it, well...neither did I. Until Digimon Tamers I always thought of Digimon as a fairly...boring and plain anime...Digimon the tamers...has a plot that to me...kind of resembled evangelion where angels come to conquer and they have to be stopped... But in the form of massive Digimon...all the characters are different so you can see where their views clash.
Riku was more of a lean mean ass kicking machine who was relentless and gave no mercy, she thought of Digital Monsters as nothing but pieces of data.
The other characters beleive in the power of digimon and them as real creatures. This becomes obvious very early on in the anime.
There are three main digimon / heros of this unlike the other series where there we're countless. Basically these evil things coming to try destroy all Digimon, these have to be stopped.
Through out the series you follow the paths of these three main character who are very well animated for their personalities...Their look reflects their attitudes greatly. I really liked the art and sometimes there was some really nice visuals and the sound make this quite an emotional trip through the characters eyes you may feel sad...angry...and overall amazing...
Just watching the journey these people come on is a great experience by itself, especially following th path of Riku.
This is my first review so I hope it made sence lol...hope you enjoy the anime too..I really enjoyed this anime and think it has a really high rewatch value... read more
Recommendations
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Well the psychological themes are very similiar. Also, the final enemies in Digimon Tamers, the D-Reapers are VERY-VERY similiar to Angels in Evangelion. The last D-Reaper even has a mask like Lilith did and it's face evolved to a human's one just like Lilith's .. While Digimon Tamers isn't that sad, psychological and fucked up and is targeted more at kids than Evangelion then it's still clearly influenced by it. Also, in both series there is a company that is related to the D-Reapers/Angels. And some of the digimons in this series are based off the Evangelion mechas. (one of them even had that big wire thing coming out of it's back)
Neon Genesis Evangelion is known as a very abstract, philosophic and psychological anime. Digimon Tamers also has these elements, as it deals with psychological character dissections and the meaning of life, among others.
Note that in Digimon Tamers, these elements are presented in a very shonen way, more as underlying elements of the story than the focus, where in Evangelion this IS the case.
Nevertheless, Digimon Tamers DOES have substance, you'll notice it when you're watching. If you've already watched Tamers and liked how that anime kept you thinking while watching it, Evangelion might be your thing.
In a sense, both series tend to explore on the same themes. Some might even go as far as to say that Tamers is a lighter version of Evangelion.
Both explore on themes which deal mainly with the psychological nature of man and its surroundings. As such, terms related to psychology and studies centered on man are portrayed in the show. Such terms present in both series are not limited to:
-Exploring the theory of humans evolving into a higher form of existence.
-Interpersonal relationships of human beings with one another (hedgehog's dilemma, Separation anxiety disorder, etc.)
Tamers is a definite recommend for those who want to watch something that will have the mind thinking. Also recommended for those who want to watch something that will induce feelings of nausea and whatnot.
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I have no idea Why havent this recommendatin made. These are the most similare shows. They fight whit monsters and use cards to power up the monsters. Story and characters are different but in these kind if shows its no big deal.
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Opening Theme"The Biggest Dreamer" by Kouji Wada
Ending Theme#01: "My Tomorrow" by AiM
#02: "Days~Aijou to Nichijou~" by AiM
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Related ClubsInto Another World Anime & Manga, ~Hiroki Takahashi~, Digimon Are Real Belivers Club~D.A.R.B.C~, Renamon Fanclub, The Kid Hero Club, Goggles!, ~ONII-SAN... Big Brothers club~, The Sibling Spectrum, Anime Recommendation and Help Center, Digimon Adventure 02: New Begining (Role Playing), Guilmon Fanclub, Claim a digidestined, Digimon Club, Battle Arena, Actores y actrices de doblaje de Latinoamérica / Latin spanish seiyuu, The AWF club, The Noble Heroines, Kanshin, Zoki land. (CHECK THE FORUM HERE), Claim a DigimonOtaku no Namida * Otaku's Tears, Blood Stained Fangs, MAL's Official Sun_Princess Fanclub, The defiled "Classics" club, Digimon Tamers Club, The Tamago Troop, The Digi Club!, Anime/Manga Club, The Digimon Fanclub, Anime Land, Game and Battle Monster Anime, Shota Island, Ruki Makino Fanclub, A.S.A (Adiktus sa Anime), Fumiko Orikasa FC see all
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