Digimon Adventure:

“This is Taichi and Agumon’s last adventure” – Toei Animation, 2019.

With that categorical catchphrase, Toei Animation lied to all of us Digimon Adventure fans two years ago. As a way to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the series that kicked off the franchise, it announced with great fanfare that it would be making one last movie -eventually called “Last Evolution Kizuna”- and that it would truly be the last adventure. The last one. This was it. No more. To say goodbye to the series and characters we’ve loved for more than two decades now. Despite the bitter taste in our mouths with the disappointing result of Tri, we were looking forward to it anyway. I, the same as many others, had a feeling that in this occasion Toei finally would get it right with an Adventure project ever since “Our War Game”. And so it was. It was a great farewell, wasn’t it? Except that, well…it never really was. In February 2020, the same month of Kizuna’s premiere, Toei announced that it would be soon releasing “Digimon Adventure:” (yes, being the “:” the only title-difference) a reboot of the initial series of the franchise that settled down to be the most iconic, financially successful and remembered of all. A new beginning, from scratch, that would this time take into account the technological and social changes (which include of course, the fact that unlike the 90s, when the idea didn’t even cross the minds of anyone, now kids own cellphones and that’s totally fine) of the last 20 years. Taichi and Agumon’s adventures were far from saying goodbye.

Naturally, many of us were surprised and some felt betrayed: Kizuna wasn’t ever going to be really the last adventure. Or technically… it was… but in a deceptive way; it was going to be the last but only the last of the first run, so that this new one “didn't count”. But to us, lifelong fans, it very well did count. These are our characters and our creatures we’ve always loved. It wasn’t going to leave us indifferent. And as such, no matter what, we were going to be part of it anyway. Personally, being the original one of my all-time favorite anime series, just moving on and ignoring it was simply not an option. We were going to watch it anyway. Which leads us to the question: but can it be said that this was for us? To “milk on nostalgia” like many suggest? What exactly was Toei trying to do here, to achieve here? What was the intention? Who was it trying to appeal to? The historical fanbase, the current children generation to introduce the series to them in hopes of building up a new fanbase, or both?

Well, after finishing the series now 1.5 years later, I can say with high degree of confidence that to us, the old fans, it definitely wasn’t.

Or to be more precise…it couldn’t be. Because it’s impossible to believe something like that. Digimon Adventure (2020) (from now on: 2020), is so deeply inferior to its 1999 counterpart both in quality and emotional resonance that there is just no way. Despite the presence of numerous narrative similarities, references and tributes it pays to its inspiring series (even some shots were pretty much identical to the ones seen in the original and some similar events took place in exactly the same episode number) that any Adventure fan would identify immediately, it’s quite hard to think that they did this with us in mind with the intention to easily cash-in nostalgia-based bucks (I find it funny to still see people around believing this). Because no way, this reboot -that dares to bear the same name of the series we love-, wasn’t the Digimon Adventure we always knew and wasn’t ever even close to it. Basically, it has or shows little to nothing of the strengths that made the original great and catapulted it to be regarded as one of the best anime series for kids that could furthermore be also enjoyed by the more grown-ups (in fact, it’s among the few anime series I can think of that can be enjoyed by pretty much all ages: from a 5-year-old toddler to a 95-year-old elder), if not the best. With the exception of animation quality and action sequences (because credit due where credit is due: this time the budget was much higher and you could notice it, with consistent great visual quality and with the digimon battles being far more dynamic, kinetic and exciting than those of 1999, consisting in much more than just one-hit and that’s all, and I’d even dare to say it’s the best looking Toei Animation modern work, so nothing to complain about here), absolutely everything else was shockingly worse, for a lack of a better expression. But how worse exactly? What exactly happened here?

To sum it up, the entire heart and soul of the original series are just gone now, leaving us only with an empty, lifeless body. While on surface it was about a group of kids and their creatures defeating evil guys with standard world-domination goals (for the most part though), at its core in reality was a story about them growing up, learning and becoming better people in the way in order to succeed with the task entrusted to them. It emphasized in relationships, bonding, life lessons, and the idea of overcoming impossible odds thanks to values and personal growth. It gave us and made us want to follow in their journey a large set of eight highly charismatic, immature kids as main characters (16 (!) if counting their pet-partners) all with distinctive personalities, backstories and interesting struggles and/or weaknesses they had to overcome, interacting with each other and receiving each a fair share of attention at some point. They felt real, relatable and we could grow to love, and all this channeled through a generally well-thought, ever-engaging narrative that knew how to build lots of well-earned powerful, unforgettable moments and was shrouded in a particular charm thanks to a careful artistic and musical direction, which in the end provided a very rewarding experience and turned it into a solid kids’ series that could also be enjoyed by adults and be appreciated forever.

2020, has nothing of that. Our beloved characters went from kids that felt real, who were insecure, flawed, had their own struggles to overcome and lessons to learn in the way and with whom we could become fond of and be interested in their journey, to these lifeless, robotic superheroes who for worse saw themselves as the superheroes of the show with the duty to save the world always making sure to show their badassery fearlessly riding on top of their creatures while they were in fighting-mode and performed risky attacks even if that implied exposing themselves to unnecessary physical danger, and in the worst way possible. On this occasion, they don’t have flaws to overcome, they are perfect, very cool, they don’t suffer, they don’t have motivations, insecurities or anxieties and you can barely feel a soul inside them. They don’t live through a maturing or learning process where they have to learn how to get along and strengthen bonds. They don’t at least feel surprise or confusion to know about the existence of another world. This time they don’t miss home, don’t feel fear, they never argue, they don’t have internal conflicts to solve and they almost never commit mistakes to take lessons from. There’s barely anything of real interest humanly speaking going on for them. 1999 had normal, ordinary kids made of flesh and bones who behaved and spoke according to their age, felt human and had to learn to be strong, overcome their fears, learn to get along, solve conflicts and grow up. 2020 has soulless, indestructible superheroes apparently made of iron, because now they can even be thrown to the ground at full speed from the skies, be crashed against giant logs at high speed, be engulfed in flames, even receive impacts of hyperbeams or other extreme situations, and survive like nothing. They just didn’t feel like real kids, and as a result it was impossible for us to connect with them and be interested in them, make us feel part of the group and making us care for anything they did or had to do or happened to them and feel empathy towards them at all. Thanks to this the series suffers from a chronic emotional weight deficiency which is shocking to notice for anyone who has seen the original and that wonderful ability it had of enabling us to project our inner kid souls into them, making us feel like kids again (one of the main adult appeals of the original) is gone now. Whatever great moments it tried to pull off were ineffective. And while this may not be a problem for a current kid, this evidently makes it significantly less valuable from the perspective of the now historical adult fan. So no, it couldn’t be for us. Because the cast we love wasn’t here, only their soulless bodies and in different clothes.

While all main characters are an inferior version of their 1999 counterparts, in relation to character-wise mistakes, there are two of them that deserve a special mention for being the definite worst particular offenders. The first one is the absolutely obscene share of attention the main of the eight kids received from the writers. One thing we all loved from the original was how, despite acknowledging that the natural-born leader and the natural-born rival would need a bit more screentime due to their more relevant positions in the group and narrative, it still always made sure to give the rest a fair share of spotlight, participation and credit. They also mattered. This helped providing a sense of variety. On multiple occasions it even let another kid different than the main one finish an important enemy. But 2020 also forgot that. The attention gap is disproportionate. Here Taichi does everything important. Here he gets all the final glory. He gets a second mega before any of the rest even gets his first, in an episode where it looked like another character would get it. He gets to do the final hit even when it looked like the story was pushing for another powerful digimon of another kid to get the honor. He is the star of the opening and he’s always the eyecatch. And they didn’t even bother to hide it, through shamelessly contrived events to separate him from the rest and make sure they won’t interfere in his demonstration of badassery with his partner digimon. Even though I like the character, this just was excessive and unfair. The situation became increasingly worse to even reaching the point in the last part where he literally teleported through the Digitalworld to guarantee his presence in every single episode; even in those where he didn’t have absolutely anything to do there, he always managed to magically pop up. “Oh, I was just passing by and thought it was a good idea to be here right where you got to be too, what a coincidence!”. Yeah right. It essentially became trolling. There was even an episode with hundreds of Taichi’s clones!

The second one was the Koushirou/Izzy case, turned this time into the god of information. Look, it’s one thing to be the smart, genius kid of the group, but another completely different one to be an almost omniscient god. He always knew and discovered everything immediately and effortlessly, had access to classified information a kid his age should never have, hacked international systems and organizations, controlled ships from his laptop, came up with solutions adults with way more experience than him for some reason couldn’t come up with before, and nothing was ever an obstacle to him. Even Yamato once asked “how he knew all that?” with Taichi literally answering “because he’s so cool and knows everything”. Yes, in the original he was also the boy genius, he also had his laptop and he also eventually knew what was going on, however there it was more grounded, not only because he was an actual character that felt real, but also because you could see he obtained information through actual time and effort, with more naturalism. Here instead, he was more like a robotic know-it-all problem-solver with this constant “oh yeah since I’m the smartest one here I’ll give you all the info you need immediately because I’m here to do that” attitude. Heck, even that solve-everything robot from the movie Interstellar had more soul than him. It was sad to see how the writers overexploited his skills and made him go from a character to a hyper-convenient tool.

The digimon partners didn’t save themselves from the character-reduction either. They went from creatures who had a voice to creatures who are just there to battle whenever they were required at zero cost. They always evolve whenever they want or need or have to, never get tired and never go back to their in-training forms. This time they barely had any role or significance for the children’s growth and barely had anything of interest regarding relation-development, natural bonding or conflicts with their kid partners as it happened in 1999. You could almost listen to them internally screaming: “please, don’t treat us just like weapons!”, since they at least retained their personalities for the most part. In relation to them, the nice key concept of evolving-thanks-to-evolving (tying the creature’s power to growth as individuals of the kids) is also gone now. The digimon achieves the next stage quite cheaply, not triggered by an important event or spiritual evolution of the kid or a highly special occurrence, but instead out of random uninteresting, irrelevant circumstances which were not even framed within the true plot or character-story or just because they eventually had to appear with little to no proper buildup, so the heart and main idea of the series are lost. This was especially disappointing to see in the mega digievolutions since for them, being the final evolutionary stage, it should have been better; it’s supposed to be due to something more compelling and special, lacking the desired emotional impact and ending up being just dull show-ups. It should be noted that there are moments when it tries or remembers having to do that, but it arrives late (not even the crests were introduced when they should and didn’t play major roles here) and they don’t work because they feel highly forced and can’t feel earned or inspiring enough if the kid himself doesn’t feel relatable to begin with.

Moving to speak about narrative elements, it doesn’t do any better. The original may have had some issues you could criticize it for, but in general it had a well-thought or structured storyline, with every episode being relevant and contributing for plot progression, with moments correctly timed, without ever losing focus (and I need to be emphatic on this) and virtually zero uninteresting, skippable-like moments in a 54 episodes run, never letting you go. Little of this can be said about 2020. Badly structured with wrongly, awkwardly timed events, with parts that should have come beforehand coming afterward and vice-versa, episodes that would have worked better as introductory coming during the end, others that would have worked better in the end coming in the beginning or in the middle (like Millenniummon: which should have been the last enemy given the size and scale of the conflict, with even god-digimons appearing to participate in a Magnus, heavenly-like fight, something more appropriate and effective for endings), with endgame stages even in the first episodes (it was nice if they wanted to pay homage to Our War Game, but that was not the moment). Many light, silly episodes in both the second and third arcs when they can only work and should only be placed at the beginning to establish characters, provide background and so on. There is a noticeable lack of true tension for several episodes even when there’s a risky threat just around the corner. In the second, instead of being worried by the imminent resurrection of a legendary monster, they have time for irrelevant, random trivialities like rescuing enslaved digimon in a theme park, episodes about digimons angry because couldn’t eat french fries, water disputes among digimon we can’t care less for and even time to relax playing soccer like nothing, and for about 10 episodes in a row it forgets to actually move the plot wasting time with useless content that altogether never amounted to anything of true value for the viewer. In the third, they say they are going on a mission to investigate the mystery of the crests, yet barely end up doing things that have to do with that or that could give them clues. Instead, we have random adventuring episodes where Joe helps digimons recovering their onsen, Hikari protecting digieggs, Mimi training in a digimon school or Yamato helping random digimon villagers with a ghost samurai, and all this in the final stretch when the great calamity great, even worse than Millenniummon, would be soon happening and shit was supposed to be real. No tension, no thrill, no drama, no fun. Most of these types of episodes were entirely worthless with our kids dealing with disconnected situations that contributed nothing of real value in terms of plot progression, character growth or bringing in a new digievolution, serving little to no purpose and leaving no impact on future events.

Must be said that yes, the original did have light moments and our kids did occasionally deviate from the mission and took some time to rest (like when they went to eat burgers after coming back to the real world), however, this was minimal, always right-timed and never came at the expense of plot-progression, because these moments where framed within it and always brought in something of value, so they worked and provided tonal variety. Must be also mentioned that eventually (but lamely) it does attempt to develop a character (somehow), however, it didn’t matter much because similarly, that development wasn’t framed within a plot, limiting its potential. The original, to the contrary, cleverly made sure that the development always came hand-in-hand with progression, tying character with plot almost perfectly. Here, however, it’s like an attempt of one or the other. It comes as separated (if any development happens first of course). The idea is to bring it naturally while the story is also moving, however here it came during episodes with situations that had no relation to the stake of the arc. Another type of narrative sin was this absurd series of cyber world threats we could never care for because everything felt like a total joke with all of them coming right after the previous one, with no real sense of weight and which also felt like only secondary job assigned to Koushiro while Taichi and Yamato dealt with all the important stuff, in an attempt to create drama and tension which completely failed. That the missiles, the ships, the satellites, the NASA, whatever. Finally, the execution wasn’t as engaging; you won’t see this time the sense of mystery and feeling lost in another strange world of the Devimon arc, the sense of thrill of the Myotismon arc or the sense of drama and darkness of the Dark Masters arc of the original series, which largely helped to explain its entertainment value.

So, as it should be clear by now, all this leads us to the inevitable conclusion that this reboot was definitely not intended for us (because it’s impossible to believe they could have wanted to give us such an inferior show), but in reality for a younger new audience; the current generation of new children, in hopes to capture their fresh interest and devotion, which makes things tricky when it comes to the general judgment of this series since, despite being a shameful near-worthless work for the historical fan, this automatically means in reality it should be judged according to how well it could have satisfied these desired new ones. And while -evidently- I don’t have kid-eyes anymore to know this exactly, reasonably my own experience as a kid watching the original series would serve as a fair approximation. Given that, I would say the series, even with all its notorious issues already explained, could admittedly have passed as fine entertainment for kids who mainly just wanted to see the cool creatures in action and know what their following new cool evolutions, designs and special attacks were going to be (who do we want to fool here), if not because i) the narrative is a mess and ii) the show also fails to properly build hype for said new evolutions.

The first point was already described before. While kids may not pay much attention or care too much about the characters and their struggles, they can still notice or perceive some questionable plot developments or structures coming off as odd or get the feeling some things are not right. As for the second point, what I mean is that it fails to give value to evolutions, in terms of buildup and payoff; to make them memorable, you must first create the expectation and then after enough time has passed, deliver them in the right time. The original made sure to follow this by creating the expectations for them and once they arrived, use them for the right amount of time before the following did. However, in 2020 the ultimates just arrive too early in the story to be able to even create the hype (in the 10s, as opposed to the 20s-30s of original), one right after the other, under-using the adult forms, rendering them as only means or obstacles that the story should have to get rid of quickly and leaving little room for ultimate form-expectation. This also makes their appearances not living up to the potential emotional impact they could have enjoyed thanks to having made us wait for them for a significant amount of time. And while they did wait enough before introducing the mega forms (at least, for everyone who wasn’t Agumon), unfortunately, the way they did it wasn’t great or special anymore. They were just given too easily. They didn’t come due to situations of high emotional catharsis, high expectation or that were even at least framed into the plot, or thanks to special/unique occurrences (to not say “miracle”) that give more meaning and weight, but instead due to completely random, trivial circumstances we could never really care for, sadly devaluing their “final, special and rare stage” status. I appreciate they have decided this time to include the mega forms for everyone (though I argue the original still worked well without doing this), since that feels fairer to the rest of the cast, but now that you do, at least do it well, which unfortunately wasn’t the case. It almost felt like they brought them up just because “we have to” not caring too much (if any) about the “why”, the “when” and the “how” of their introductions. Given this, I have to even doubt it could have been an actually satisfying and effective experience to the real intended new audience. I doubt I could have been as intrigued with all these cool creatures and their hype-digievolutions watching this reboot as a kid as much as I did back then in 2000 when I was watching the original series.

All in all, I think at this point it’s needless to say that, being the original series one of my all-time favorites, I’m more than just disappointed with the sole existence of this modern reboot. I won’t lie by claiming I wasn’t initially interested and enthusiastic about it, because as a fan of the original that couldn’t be the case, however, with a final outcome as poor as this one, in the end you cannot help but end up questioning what was even the point. The Toei team clearly wanted to reach the current kids' generation and introduce them to the Adventure universe, but what comes as incomprehensible is how could it be possible that they had come up with something so noticeably inferior when they already counted with a great original work serving as a basis or benchmark. Given its reboot nature, the bare minimum here was taking the original series and crafting a new work on par or at least close to its quality, and even taking advantage of the opportunity to improve on past flaws (because as much as we love the original series, it’s not like it was exactly free of them and for everything there is always room for improvement), but what happened here was the complete opposite; instead of improving or at least keeping the same quality levels, they only worsened them. Did they even notice what they were doing? Were they even truly caring? In the end, if they were going to deliver something this inferior, it would have been better doing so with other characters and another universe, so that the Adventure name and brand didn’t bear the reputational costs. The truth is, personally I don’t really care much about 2020 since the vastly superior original 1999 series will always be there, but what does bother me is that it’s a shame to realize how your beloved title, characters and creatures were used and humiliated in something so lame with none of the charm and strengths that characterized the original series and allowed it to earn its position as one of the best kids’ TV anime ever.

And no, as a reboot, nobody expected an exact 1:1 copy of the first series, but what 2020 did was just unacceptable. Like everything else in life, doing things for the second time and doing them so significantly worse even when in the first time you already succeeded and you had all the tools in your hands (and even more than the first time) to succeed again, should never be accepted, because that can only happen when you deliberately reduce the efforts. 2020 is quite possibly the worst Digimon entry of the franchise and, as it isn’t already long enough, is yet another addition to the list of Toei Animation’s classics revival failures of the past decade. It only served to deteriorate the value of the Adventure name and didn’t work for any type of audience; for the old, historical fans that could have felt an interest in checking out a new version of the show, it pretty much felt like a bad joke, especially right after having experimented an already great conclusion to it with “Last Evolution Kizuna”, and for the new generations of kids this series was intended for, I can’t help but feel sorry for them for having been born in times where current Digimon producers thought they didn’t deserve better and had to grow up watching both uninspired and messy kids-oriented productions like this one. Even with all their huge flaws, at least the previous Adventure installments like 02 and Tri had a soul. 2020, didn’t even have one. 02 and Tri may have failed, but at least they tried. 2020 not only failed, it didn’t even try! And even though I’ve always insisted that you cannot treat and judge a kids-oriented series in the exact same way and with the exact same bars you would do it with a more teen and/or adult-oriented/designed one, and that it pains me having to give a low score to a class of series which on essence just want to bring entertainment (and hopefully, values) to the youngest of all audiences (since it is pretty much the equivalent of grabbing an innocent child who misbehaved and slamming him against the wall), the heart and care put into this series were so unbelievably low that this time I cannot give much of that benefit. Digimon Adventure (2020) is such a terrible involution (no pun intended) of the classic series whose name, success and legacy it miserably tried to capitalize on, that unfortunately, it leaves me with no other option. 3.5/10.

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I am writing this review to compare Digimon Adventure (2020) with the original Digimon Adventure. I do not see this as a new anime, and I will be harsh for an obvious reason; when you recreate such a classic work of fiction, with the same characters and main concept, you know your job must not disappoint. It seems that most Digimon Adventure fans - like me - are not satisfied with this reboot. The reasons are simple, so let’s examine them carefully. But before I begin, I must make a wish:

I wish the next generations will know watching the reboot is the wrong choice.

Another point to be made before I start my analysis is that Toei Animation, after a bad comeback with the Tri. movies, managed to create a masterpiece of a film to bid the old fans a tear-jerking farewell and end the Digimon Adventure. The nostalgia was there, we felt that, the movie was amazing in all aspects too, so let's make it clear from now; Digimon Adventure 2020's target audience is not the '90s fans. These fans had enough and loved their completed journey.

So, since the target audience is mainly kids of the new generation, there were some things concerning Koushiro (the genius child) and the world which obviously showed that this anime is newer. And these are the evolution of computer science and technology. Unluckily for Toei, they didn't think that making Koushiro hack big companies or take over ships in seconds from his laptop would seem extremely unrealistic. Back in 1999, he may have had hacking skills but they actually seemed more magical and all took place in the digital world, showing he is charismatic and that he can do great things from a laptop; he is the future of humanity in his own way. This time, it didn't feel like this at all, he was just a plot convenience for surreal things to happen. As a result, the use of modern technology to suit today's younger audience better was a failure and it was negative for the character writing as well.

Digimon Adventure was not just a TV show with cute or cool-looking monsters; it was far more than that. It was the journey of a group of "chosen" children and the road to maturity, where everyone had a digital partner of their own, the famous Digimon. Unlike the reboot, the original anime focused on all characters. Everyone had their flaws and immature behaviours, so the Digimon helped them grow up and see the world differently. The reboot does not focus as much on the characters and their development, while Taichi gets most of the credits and still, his character development is not even close to the good old Taichi we knew. This is because he feels more than a superhero, rather than a child who makes both mistakes and good deeds to mature.

Even if the reboot lacks in character, it is definitely more impressive in terms of fights, action and animation. The Digimon are mostly used as war tools, the interactions between Digimon and Chosen Children are far less and unimportant, and from episode 1 the real world is in panic due to a continuous huge catastrophe caused by the Digital World. If you're here for some supernatural action, pick the reboot but trust me, it will be a forgettable and shallow experience, giving you or your young friends/family only temporary pleasure.

The Digimon Evolutions were originally triggered by the children's character development and it was beautiful to see them surpass any borders by powering up mentally and psychologically. In the reboot, this is not the case. The Digivolutions are far easier to happen, and their flashiness is a big part of the series' selling point. Sometimes, they just evolve out of nowhere, as if there is no sense of fatigue. The Digimon are undoubtedly more powerful and more in numbers; a mix of Digimon found in Adventure, Tamers and other spin-offs. But all the magic of progressing and maturing allegorically by Digivolving seems lost, and this is one of the biggest turn-offs for old fans - and one of the reasons this version is forgettable.

Another big minus here is the use of the Chosen Children's crests. In the 1999 version, the crests were awarded to them as they faced and overcame many hardships, and each crest had a unique characteristic (courage, love etc.) that suited its owner as a result of their character development. It did not feel the same in the 2020 version; it felt forced, since the character development was clearly inferior as the anime mainly focused on showing off well-animated fights between Digital Monsters. It is actually funny because the episodes were more this time, but we still didn't get to know well some characters.

Another thing to take into account is that the villain writing and what surrounded it was uncanny. For example, Milleniummon seemed like he would be the last Digimon the children would have to face, and insanely powerful Digimon fought him and as a result, it looked like a climax. But it was not like that, the last episodes introduced us other Digimon and an anticlimatic way to end the series. The most bizarre thing Digimon Adventure 2020 did was to introduce the legendary Omegamon in one of the first episodes, to beat a powerful virus type Digimon. I guess there was a metaphor behind that which was not clear and did not work. Or maybe it was made to give us old fans nostalgia from "Bokura no War Game" movie, which is nonsensical because the reboot wasn't even made for this purpose.

The soundtrack follows the regular Digimon pattern; there's an opening song, an evolution insert song and an ending song in every episode. The only difference, here, is that the ending songs change every 12 episodes and there are some great artists like Reol performing them. In my opinion, the opening and insert songs are decent, but cannot compare to the legendary "Butter-Fly" and "Brave Heart". Wada Koji's absence hurts a lot and Digimon Adventure could never be the same without him.

To sum up, Digimon Adventure 2020 is one of the biggest question marks in anime history. It is a forgettable, chaotic hypefest with shallow character writing and almost no significance for kids, made to visually impress them and show off powerful Digimon fights. If you want your kid or young sibling to watch a cool looking kids show with monsters and action, here you are. If you want them to watch a meaningful story which includes both, and one that they can remember for the rest of his life, you should definitely show them the classic, original, beloved version of Digimon Adventure. In my opinion, the best kids shows are the ones who combine good visuals with morals and understandable life lessons.

Thank you for reading!

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(incomplete review based on the first 13 episodes)

While I was expecting a remake of the original Digimon, Toei makes a reboot with a completely different story. I feel like this version of the original Digimon has been made with the intention of being a classic for this generation of kids/teenagers, just like the original one was, so the topics it touches are things common in this modern age (intercontinental nuclear missiles, smartphones, etc).

Story: 5
It tries to be more "mature" than the original Digimon using topics like weapons of massive destruction (nuclear bombs), I like that.
What I dislike about this is the way the story is developed, too rushed and mediocre. Matt and Taichi just met and they already know how to create Omegamon all of a sudden. When the kids find their Digimons, they don't even bother so much about what they are or why they are with them, they just accept them easily without further curiosity. Episode 9 and full evolved Digimons are already shown. Something that bothers me so much is the fact that Izumi can literally do anything he wants with his laptop, he even has contacts inside foreigner national security agencies, like bruh, even if he is a genius, he is an elementary school student, so unrealistic.

Animation, character design and scenarios: 5
The animation for the first episodes is bad. It's not fluent or smooth, the fights sometimes remind me of puppet shows where there's a scenario and behind there's a puppet being controlled by a person. The evolution sequences are good tho, all the money goes there.
I understand that the forced quarantine in Japan affected the creation of the anime, so I won't blame Toei for the first episodes. Episode 5 had decent animation tho, idk if the quality will stay the same from now.
The character designs are clearly meant to be similar to the first Digimon, maybe trying to get some nostalgic feelings.
Scenarios are ok for the public this anime wants to reach.

Characters: 4
Some of the characters are kinda unrealistic, sometimes even plain robots. Not much character development given to us from their introduction chapters, it feels mediocre.
I want to think that Taichi won't be the only relevant character throughout the story and the rest of the kids will have enough screentime.

1) Sora: I feel her plain sometimes, like a robot or a cliché School/Action/Comedy/Harem male main character. She's supposed to be an elementary school girl.
2) Taichi: He keeps the same personality he had in the original Digimon, so it's ok for me. He's the leader and the main character of this new Digimon Adventure.
3) Izumi: Nothing changed about him, he's the same genius kid. The fact that he has contacts with even nacional security agencies of other countries is kinda ridiculous tbh, more if we ad that he can actually hack nuclear missiles.
4) Matt : He acts like if he was some kind of "badass" main character, just like Tatsuya from Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, which I find unrealistic because he is an elementary school boy. His old personality was more realistic and less plain.
5) Mimi: She's not a crybaby anymore and I like that, but her original personality is way more realistic, after all she is a 10 years old girl.
6) Joe: I don't remember him being that careless at the beginning, he's in a brand new world and only thinks about studying, not even surviving in first place. At least he realized about it and decided to go with the other kids very fast.
7) Digimons in general: Talking about the irrelevant Digimons, some look like actual dinosaurs instead of monsters or fantastic creatures.
I miss the basic Digimons having different personalities, but i bet this will happen later, this is only the beginning after all.

Sound: 7
Background music is ok, opening an ending are cool. I wish it had the old opening, but the one it has is cool either. Personally, I never liked the old endings, so the new one gives extra points to the show because I like it.
Voice acting is nothing out of the world, but its not bad.

Enjoyment: 5
I'm not enjoying it enough, nothing compared with the old one and I'm not saying this because of the nostalgic feelings.
I'm still positive about the future of the show, I want to believe that it will get way better.

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--- SHORT VERSION ---

Pros:

+ character designs
+ nice visuals

Cons:

- pacing of the story is trash
- character development no longer required for evolution
- the story itself is a "reimagining" and not a very good one (Omegamon appears before the Dark Masters do, that is *IF* the Dark Masters even exist in this reboot)
- the songs used during key moments consist of generic & uninspired J-rock shouting that funnily enough sound like something Etemon would sing

--- LONG VERSION ---

Let me first say that I'm a huge (classic) Digimon fan. I love the first four seasons and I look forward to rewatching them whenever I have time. This is a franchise I LITERALLY grew up with, so you'd think this would be a 10/10 review, right? Well... no. Far from it. This all new Digimon Adventure 2020 takes everything that made the original such a highly valued classic among the Digimon fandom and spits on it before throwing it all out of the window in an attempt to reboot/revitalize/reinvent the series for the next generation of (what I assume Toei intended to be) new Digimon fans. I'll never understand why the companies/people in charge of certain brands think that this is necessary. If anything, reboots almost invariably result in something inferior and mediocre, and this never-ending cancer inducing trend can sadly be observed across all sorts of different media from TV series, movies, to video games. I'm literally trying to challenge myself here as I'm writing this and think of one reboot that has actually managed to surpass the original work and guess what.... I can't think of any! The only medium people haven't started rebooting yet are books. Can you imagine a 'reboot' (for modern generations) of 'The Great Gatsby' or 'The Catcher in the Rye'? I know I can't possibly compare Digimon to classic works of literature with a straight face, but that's exactly why the sole idea of a reboot triggers an unpleasant taste in my mouth because my philosophy is: if the original work is great, future generations will connect with it sooner or later. Reboots are only necessary if the original is shitty to begin with, which Digimon Adventure NINETEEN-NINETY-NINE is not. This is like Sailor Moon all over again. Leave the classics alone and create new ORIGINAL material.

Next, a small history lesson for the uninitiated among us (feel free to skip this long ass paragraph if you're familiar with the last 20 years of Digimon's existence): The Digimon anime is no stranger to reboots... the fandom has experienced (and/or suffered through) several of them (in a way all the seasons after Adventure 02 are their own 'self-contained universes' so reboot may not be the right word to use, but hopefully you get the point). Only the first and second season are set in the same universe, while the third (Tamers) was a fresh new beginning that introduced not only brand new protagonists, but also a brand new concept & form of evolution and the Digital World (there is a certain character that has existed in both Adventure and Tamers timelines, Akiyama Ryo, but he's a huge exception). This first departure from the original storyline was received well & was most likely a blessing for the writers working on the Digimon anime as it provided them with the opportunity to experiment with fresh new ideas and plot. In spite of the favorable reception, 2002 saw the release of Digimon Frontier -- another "reboot" of sorts that, once again, like Tamers did before -- reinvented the concept and story behind the Digital World while completely abandoning the tamer X Digimon partner dynamic as the new protagonists actually evolved into Digimon themselves. This made the protagonists feel more involved and the battles a bit more personal. In spite of that, this new plot was received less favorably and it greatly polarized the fandom. You'll either find people who loved the idea of humans turning into Digimon, or those that hated it with passion. Those falling in the latter category also often tend to wish Toei had continued fleshing out and building upon the world introduced in Digimon Tamers as opposed to having a new Digital World again. After Frontier finished airing, it took three long years for the next season to arrive and when it finally did, Digimon underwent major overhaul for the THIRD time. However, while Digimon Savers (2006) distanced itself from its predecessors even further by (you guessed it) introducing brand new characters and Digital World, it also employed an entirely new art style quite different from the one used in the previous four seasons -- regardless, Digimon Savers also saw the return of many familiar elements: humans were partnered with Digimon once more and the way the story was paced was still quite Digimon-esque in nature. Savers is additionally often cited as being one of the most mature seasons (which, imo, is debatable -- although, yes, the fact that the three main protagonists are in their teens lends itself to a much darker tone than ever before, although that's not to say that the previous seasons lacked darker themes – e.g. Ken's character arc in Adventure 02 or Juri's and Impon's in Tamers). The reception to Savers was ultimately lukewarm, and little did Digimon fans know that Savers would be the last Digimon season for a while, as it took Toei record-breaking FOUR years to produce the next season -- Xros Wars (2010). Xros Wars and its many seasons were, in my honest opinion, a DISASTER (and I know this might sound controversial given how it tends to be praised for "making Digimon feel like Digimon again" and whatnot). Everything from the bland one dimensional protagonists with ZERO depth to them to the boring plot that drags on forever and never develops into anything noteworthy, a complete disregard for the power hierarchy among Digimon previously established in the card games & the TV series, mediocre OST, and sloppy looking art style and animation – to me, Digimon had hit ROCK BOTTOM.

The paragraph above was a setup for me stating the obvious: in an attempt to keep up with the times, and owing to multiple resets of the series instead of sticking to one continuity -- Toei have completely lost sight of what made Digimon so great and admired in the first place, and their recent attempts at resurrecting the television series seem to be one major disappointment after another. Just look at the abysmal travesty that was Adventure tri. masquerading itself as some sort of a sequel to the Adventure seasons while partially retconning certain events of 02, reducing the entire 02 cast to an afterthought, never touching upon Ryo or Millenniumon (as well as Millenniumon's relation to the dark seeds Demon was after and Dagomon's ocean) + the art style is so different and simplistic looking that it's almost like watching a different anime entirely. And the few good things about it -- namely, grown up versions of Taichi and the rest of the Adventure cast, as well as the intriguing subplot involving the original five chosen children and the aftermath of their battle with the Dark Masters-- were not enough to save it because the majority of screen time was wasted on a new character that nobody asked for and nobody wanted as opposed to developing the good stuff. Seriously, where have all the good writers gone....? Because they are no longer working on Digimon, that's for sure.

Believe it or not -- I was, never the less, quite excited at the thought of Digimon Adventure possibly having a new chance at extending its life span. Sadly, the more episodes that I have seen, the more I'm starting to think this series is just a soulless reimagining that preys on the nostalgic factor of the original audience. Digimon Adventure (2020) is, similarly to Adventure tri, a ginormous slap in the face to all Digimon fans who've been following the franchise since day one. The only thing I find to be an improvement over the trainwreck that was Adventure tri. is the art style and character designs which are faithful to the original this time around and look very nice. Besides that, it's all downhill from here. Part of the charm of the first four seasons of Digimon lies in the great score by Takanori Arisawa (also known for composing music for the original Sailor Moon). The music in Adventure (2020) is mostly unmemorable and not nearly as iconic as Arisawa's. The pacing of the story is all over the place and there's no real sense of progression and growth. I don't mind the fact that the storyline isn't exactly like the original, but if you're going to introduce new plot twists at least make sure they're actually BETTER than the original material. It used to be that the kids and their Digimon had to work hard to earn their evolutions and do some serious self-reflection, confront their fears, and resolve whatever struggles they had which provided a lot of great emotional moments (entire FEATURE FILMS were produced back in the day centering around some powerful evolution) and yet, few episodes in, and Taichi and Yamato are already warp evolving like it's nothing. Subsequently, evolution is no longer an "event" – a rare occurrence only the strongest can achieve – now it's just like downloading a new cool app. The Digital World has also been boredified. In the original series, the Digital World actually felt like this mysterious, campy, and fairy-tale-like place with some creepy horror-ish elements (e.g. the iconic telephone booths, the abandoned ruins or factories), you'd not only feel worried for the kids, but you'd react with the exact same sense of wonder and disbelief to the things in the Digital World as they do. One could also sense an underlying depth to it, it was this vast unexplored place alien to the main characters who only knew the little info they learned from the Digimon they encountered. All I kept asking myself while watching Adventure (2020) was where has all that great sense of mystery/wonder disappeared? This, once again, highlights how poor the writing is. This all new Digimon Adventure 2020 is rumored to have about 60 episodes. I'm really curious where they plan to go with this mess when they've already managed to pack mega evolutions and jogress into the first nine episodes. I guess we can """"look forward"""" to a time jump and have the reboot butcher the entire Zero Two season as well? Or they'll devote the second half of the season to one of the blandest and most atrocious characters to ever grace the Digimon anime -- Meiko and the overdesigned atrocity she has the audacity to call a Digimon, Meicoomon. Also, can't wait to find out all the things they'll retcon with this one for absolutely NO reason.

To sum it up, Digimon Adventure (2020) is a WASTED opportunity. Instead of recreating the already near-perfect original, this could've been a great addition to the original two seasons which could greatly benefit from a WELL-made third season that would extend the lore of the Adventure universe and (potentially) tie up some loose ends and plot holes (of which there is an abundance of for the writers to deal with). It could've also covered the material from the WonderSwan games and/or CD dramas. Instead, there's long been a secret agenda to RUIN the Digimon franchise through the systematic production of underwhelming sequels that all suffer from atrocious writing, awful designs, and a lack of good direction. Oh well, I get the impression Toei no longer cares and frankly neither do I after the crimes against humanity that were Xros Wars, Adventure tri. and now this abomination.

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In my opinion this reboot is as great as the 1999 season. Some points that I really appreciate are: The introduction of the characters along the episodes, this is good because they have their own episode to shine. The soundtrack is great, all the songs are really good, we can still listen the old ones, but these new are very good too. One thing that really bothers me is the fact that only Gabumon and Agumon have the digievolution sequence, I guess everyone wants to see the others. This season has the opportunity to be even better then the old one, because the Digimon`s lore has been uptaded over the years. We can`t forget that the target audience are the kids, so as we are adutls now there will be some others points, episodes or even characters that will bother us. But we can have a great enjoyment watching this; ^^

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"Hello? Oh hi... yeah yeah, it's me. Hold on, don't hang up! I know that when I told you to watch Tri I didn't deliver but this time will be different, promise. I have just finished and I think you'll like it. What do you say?"
"..."
"Great. Now imagine something that has never been done before in the franchise, something unheard of, something like... a reboot of Adventure. Big time classic, huh?"
"..."
"No no, not a movie but a full fledged anime with 50 episodes. Actually more even. It has a story, characters, digievolutions. Sounds great, right?"
"..."
"Don't worry, it won't take time for it to get exciting. Let's just say that some digievolutions may come earlier than expected hurr hurr."
"..."
"Yes, they added more than in the original since they actually care about the franchise, not because of marketing and whatnot. It's nice to pay some respect to the rest of the products as well. Say, how many digievolutions do you think Greymon should have? I think there weren't enough in the original series."
"..."
"Ah, that's easy. To fit the digievolutions in time they did something genius: have some episodes with barely any character development. Random acts of heroism and lines of dialogue from here and there do that instead and the best part is that you can't develop them yourself in your headcanon. Fun, right?"
"..."
"Now now, there's no need to worry about Taichi, Mimi and Joe. They do have their proper time in the spotlight."
"..."
"Who are those? Sora? Ah, that one. Yeah, she's also there sometimes. But you know, I feel like not enough time was devoted to Taichi in the original run so this time he at least makes up for it. I don't remember the other 2 you mentioned though."
"..."
"The animation? Ohhh yes, you just have to see the new digievolution sequences. You're gonna love the ones for Taichi and Yamato, they are gorgeous."
"..."
"Hmmm they probably needed to make some cuts on those, but at least there are not rough drawing or copis frames... not that I've noticed at least."
"..."
"Hmmm, actually no, Bolero or Butterfly are not there. Buuuut there are still pretty memorable songs like Break the Chain and uhhh... and... Anyway, we were talking about the pacing, right?"
"..."
"Hmmm, I don't know much about climaxes, but get this: every episode feels like the end of the world. Hence people are bound to stick around. Sounds reasonable, right?"
"..."
"Crests? What do you mean? Those weird symbols that appear sometimes around the Digimon? No clue what those symbolise. Maybe it's a code for some behind the scenes content. That sounds exciting."
"..."
"The digivices? Ah yes, I don't think in the original run they gave them enough capabilities so now they can do all sorts of stuff. What exactly you may ask? You'll have to watch the series to find out hehehe"
"..."
"Nah, it will be fine. If you're not yet convinced let me ask you the following: what's your take on Shogungekomon hitting on Gomamo-"
"Uhh hello? Helloooooo? Hmmm, maybe I should have used the Ponchomon card."

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Hello everyone, it is my first time reviewing an anime series. Growing with Digimon Adventure as my childhood weekend show, I highly set my expectation in this new series to be good as the OG or even better.

After following the story until the end, I can genuinely say that this new series is failing me. But it's unfair to say that the series is trash without looking up on the good side. Therefore to balance the review, I decided to make some pros and cons fair and equally. Here you go,

Pros :
1) Battle movements are improved and slightly more varied at some point
2) There is a lot of new and old Digimon who makes their debut on the series
3) The animation of evolution sequences are so much better compared to the OG
4) Those villains appearance is felt to be the more dangerous with some massive size
5) The art and also the animation that they put in the credits are all fun and catchy to watch with 5 different ending songs too.
6) They've got three decent insert songs for each Digimon evolution level (Adult, Perfect, and Ultimate)

Cons :
1) The storyline is totally trash. Unclear plot and goal most of the time
2) The digital world environment feels tedious compared to OG
3) The Digi-Analyzer is not as informative as the OG version
4) Those villains are mostly unspoken and they're trying too hard to stir up emotions and a sense of danger while never putting actual danger in any of the episodes
5) Relied too much on people being familiar with the 90s anime and the personalities and backstories given to the kids
6) Lack of BGM variation, some of them are sounds similar but with a different arrangement

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I enjoy reboots and I believe that Digimon Adventure has potential to be something entertaining. However, currently (6 episodes in) it hasn't lived up to my expectations and that's because of the characters.

To start of with something positive; I enjoyed the story so far because it opens up a wider scale of importance compared to the original show. It creates an essential, longlasting goal that the protagonists need to accomplish while also delivering engaging lore about the digiworld. I love lore, especially the lore that's given to me in this show.

Nevertheless that's as far as the upsides go. So far we're not given any actual progression, especially when it comes to character-progression. Something I remember from the original show is that the characters all had flaws that they struggled with to overcome. But in this reboot they all feel...perfect. The characters show no personal obstacles nor any problems in general. I'll attempt to explain what I mean by giving a general description of two of the characters:

Taichi is an 11 year old martial arts master who demonstrates his prowess by battling digimon on his own. He can 1v1 digimon and they show him doing just that.

Izumi on the other hand, who's also 11 years old is a genuis (and that's putting it lightly). He manages to reprogram his normal laptop to compensate for the difference in the flow of time between the digiworld and the real world. Essentially, he can hack in to time itself with his laptop.

Leading to the conclusion that we've not been given any actual character progression. Rather, and I believe this describes the current 6 episodes more accurately, we've been given introductions. We've been given an introduction on some of the characters and, frankly, their far too unrealistic abilities. We've also been given an introduction on what they need to fulfill but we haven't been given any content that shows progression towards that goal because the show is too busy introducing overpowered characters.

And the fact that we've yet to have seen all the protagonists, leaves the impression that this progression-empty way of telling the story is going to continue in the upcoming episodes. Yet, I still believe that this reboot has potential and that's because of the lore that they've been introducing. I feel like the writer's have managed to make the lore more appealing compared to the original Digimon series and if they manage to emphasize on that more while simultaneously creating some form av struggle that keeps us hooked, we might yet get an entertaining story. But so far, it's mediocre experience at best.

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I have so many issues with this reboot. Apart from the updated artstyle (though not the animation) I don't feel like it beats the original in any way or form. The pacing is all over the place, the characters and their growth (which was by far the most important aspect in the original for me) are lacking, the classic soundtracks got completely replaced with rather generic ones and the story is only meh even if we ignore the original.

I went in without any expectations and still got massively disappointed. Really, unless you can't stomach the older artstyle at all, I recommend just watching the original instead.

I can understand if people disagree and actually like it for one reason or another, but please ignore the reviews giving this show a straight 9 or 8. That kind of rating is insulting to many other great anime out there and is obviously just a protest review to "counter" the low rating reviews.

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Having just watched the original, I'm severely disappointed by this reboot. The lovable cast, has been reduced to mere expressionless shells, with no personality or motivations.
The sound and especially the animation are better than the original. There's a variety of pretty good tracks, and the evolution sequences are spectacular. Sadly, that sums up almost all the positives of this show.
The first ~12 episodes were ok, but after that, it divebombed into endless catastrophic events and ludicrous amount of fighting. Our protagonists also realised they are not kids, but robot soldiers that can only grunt, shout eachothers' names, and telepathicaly communicate stupid plans that somehow work. The worst offender is probably Koushiro who became expressionless hacker know-it-all problem solver and information dumper. Essentialy just a plot device.
The digimon also suffer from the above issues. Instead of digital monsters, they act more like digital war machines. They have no personality (with a few exceptions) and fight tirelessly. Exhaustion occurs only when the writers want it.
Despite all the fanservice and mega "epic" battles, this show, like our protagonists, lacks the soul that the original had.

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Let me go ahead and preface that I'll use the original Digimon Adventure series as my main comparison. Despite me really liking the Digimon franchise, I don't feel any attachment to Adventure 1 or 2 since I was too young at the time to even understand it and my Digimon introduction was basically left to Tamers and Frontier. Having finally watched the original series only about 2 years ago, I don't think nostalgia should really play a role in my opinion of Digimon Adventure:. Also, I'll not judge this anime as I would most other anime since I think it would be unfair to compare an anime intended for younger kids as I would one intended for older kids and adults. So with that out of the way let's get right into it.

The Good:
1. Adventurous - Okay, yes Digimon Adventure: is Adventurous *ba dum tss* in the sense that they weren't afraid to explore concepts that weren't explored that much in the original Digimon Adventure series like digimon eating other digimon in order to digivolve or them breaking the mold and creating new ways to digivolve.
2. More digimon - To be fair, the original Digimon Adventure series only had so many digimon it could use and they created some specifically for the anime. But I'll have this as a positive because it had diversity which is something that lacked in series like Digimon Adventure Tri. I always thought it was weird how, in a world that is supposedly inhabited by digimon there were forests, jungles and deserts without any digimon and when there were it was always the same ones. That's not how an ecosystem works.

The Bad:
3. Character Development or, may I say it , the lack of it - The character development is basically non existent, that is, for everyone except Tai. I'll talk more about it in the next point but Tai is the only character in this series that seems to get some attention. Not that I was expecting them to give the same amount of attention to every character but it seems crazy to me that even Yamato has been relegated from rival/counterpart to sidekick. Not even the digidestined digimon seem to be getting that much attention. It's like it expects you to have an entry level knowledge of the characters, it gives little to no backstory and their personalities has been boiled down to MC, Cool "Rival", Brains, Main Girl, Brat Girl and Scaredy-Cat.
4. Writing - "Our expectations for you were low but holyfuck". I know this is a kids show and knowing how low the bar for kids shows has been lowered in the past years I wasn't expecting anything great, but goddamit this was worst than hot garbage. This anime makes the original series feel like One Piece, that's the level of depth were dealing with this shit. Don't know what to do with a character? Just say they're occupied with idk being in a hot spring or collecting gems and now you can just ignore them until you need their digimons to evolve into the next form to catch up to Tai and Agumon so that Agumon can finally digivolve again to Omnimon to defeat this enemy that only Omnimon can defeat.
5. Art - Again, I understand this is a kids show and that they were trying to recreat the original artstyle but that doesn't mean you can just regurgitate the same animation 21 years later. First of all, it doesn't work because you're using different techniques. The original kinda worked because it was still mostly hand drawn, but computer animations simply can't achieve the same effect. The way the skies and the background used to be colored gave a otherworldly feeling that made sense in an isekai like Digimon Adventure (yes Digimon Adventure was an isekai, let's go mai boissss). Now, you look at the background of Digimon Adventure: and what you get is blue sky with no feature, just blue and boring. Second, the animation is trash. Apart from the first 3 or so episodes and some "boss fights" episodes, the animations is just still images with lip flops and movement shots with very few FPS going on for half a minute each. How is your animtion still the same as it was back when the original series came out. If you're using computer animation then get a proper animation right. A good example of how you can achieve the same feeling as an older kids show without putting the animation in jeopardy is Dragon Quest (2020). Does every episode have top tier animation? No. But is it consistently good? Yes. Did it sacrifice the artstyle? Nope. A media franchise as big a Digimon shouldn't be struggling to make a decent anime, let alone one at the level of Dragon Quest (no offence meant to DQ).

The Stupid:
6. Koushiro is a hacker - If I remember well, Koushiro is supposed to be 10 yo right? Then please explain to me how the hell is he hacking missiles and satellites. It makes no fucking sense. As ridiculous as the original series was, it never made Koushiro out to be some super genius that can hack into any computer system. Also this combined with the lack of character development has made him just some kid behind the computer while Tai, Yamato and Sora solve the problems.
7. WHY DO THEY RIDE THE DIGIMON WHILE FIGHTING? - I swear every episode I get this much close of just quitting for how stupid this is. I can get behind Yamato riding Garurumon while fighting bu why does Tai need to ride Greymon every damn episode while fighting. It only puts him in danger while making Greymon having to worry about him while battling. What's even more ridiculous is that the digimon do backflips at high speed with their digidestined on top of them without them falling. It makes no sense. It's stupid and I hate it. This didn't happen in the original and I don't remember it happening in any of the series.

In summary, Digimon Adventure: is a reboot that makes promises to achieve a lot while delivering nothing. Please don't waste your time watching this husk of a show and just go watch the original.

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I don't normally write reviews of things, but after seeing this anime getting a score of 7 (For some reason) I felt like I needed to say something.

First off, I can say I was very excited when I heard they were making a reboot. I know a lot of people have bad experiences with reboots or remakes, but personally I have watched quite a few remakes which were amazing, sometimes better than the original. Some examples I can give are HunterXHunter, Fruits Basket, and Full Metal Alchemist.
I had lots of nostalgia with Digimon, so as soon as this new reboot came out, I watched the first episode without hesitation.

The first thing I can say is I like how the characters looked more their age, and the art was great. That's... The only thing good about it in my opinion.
I understand the changed story, and some aspects I could put up with if it was just some of the minor things. However they not only changed way too much with the characters and story, but it was MUCH too fast paced!

I was only able to watch 1 episode. Reason? Well, let's put it this way.
The original series, storyline aside, spend many episodes developing the characters, where they learned to grow, develop, overcame challenges with each other and you got to connect with all the characters and learn each of their stories. It took several episodes for them to gain the strength and determination to push past something, enemies were actually challenging, and you could feel the effort and bond the humans had with their digimon.
In the reboot, however, just in the first episode they defeat the enemy, and they are already able to digivolve without any effort. There's no sense of bond, character development; everything is just so rushed and it hardly makes you empathetic to their situation.

Out of curiosity, I checked into the series after a few episodes had aired, thinking well, it was only one episode, maybe I jumped the gun.
NOPE.
By episode 3, they're already able to do a fusion, a certain fusion that took them originally the entire series to achieve, lots of trials, bonds, learning about each other. It's like all this effort it took for them to achieve these forms was just tossed and left up to everyone's imagination. There's no connecting with the characters and learning about how they react in certain circumstances, how they react to those around them, it's just fight fight fight and forget character arcs and having people connect with the characters.

I'm sure looking at it from the perspective of someone who didn't watch the original series it's not as bad, I understand that. It seems like it's aimed for younger generations who haven't seen the original, and I can see a lot of younger people like seeing all these digimon and don't care about connecting with the characters. However, from the perspective of an older person, and someone who watched the original, I can say the original is far superior and would recommend watching that over this reboot any day, including to younger generations.

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When I was a kid I used to think "damn Digimon is so good, you know what would make it even better? if instead of story and character development we had epic Digimon battles every episode". Someone must have read my thoughts and now all I can say is you shouldn't make an anime based on what an 8yo kid found cool, specially when you can't keep up the animation quality of these battles, become less and less imaginative and force all your episodes to have the same predictable structure where the minimum of plot and character exposition feels like a breeze of fresh air, a very small one by the way, and then you're throwed back into a tropical forest full of Kuwagamon and start crying and questioning why someone would do something so cruel.

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(Review after watching episodes 01-41).

We are almost at 2/3 of the whole series and... things are not looking good.

As a fan of the original Adventure series this one is a must watch for me. But, I feel that this only works as a nostalgic series. If you look at it as a new series, by ignoring the original, this remake is terrible. The story is terrible. It has no development and the characters lack that deep connection that we all loved. But... let's go in parts.

Taichi is by far the one with most character development. Which is super annoying because they skipped the best parts from the original. The first time he got scared to death while trying to pass the electrified fence to save Sora. And all his relationship with Hikari. He is the most developed, but at the same time, not remotely enough.

Yamato is lacking so much it's sad to even watch him. In the original he was this lone wolf. Which fits with his Digimon. And in this one he was introduced like that but that never stuck. He never had moments with his Harmonica or alone to think.

Sora never got her moment with her overprotective mother. As a matter of a fact they've barely shown the character's families. Basically only Yamato's and Takeru's, due to the divorce.

Kouchiro is the one that is annoying me the most. In the remake he is a super genius which doesn't even make any sense. They never explained that his notebook doesn't lose battery in the Digital World (at least I don't remember wearing it) and he can hack NASA, he knows exactly what is going on with the ISS and where is it falling and the trajectory without any explanation. They never mentioned Genai as a matter of a fact. Which to me just sucks. He was one of those characters that could explain a lot to the Digi-chosen and help them understand the whole Digital World.

As for the remaining characters they are just shells of their original selfs. It's so annoying to see Mimi as this Queen of every little place she sets foot in and basically making subjects. She used to be this spoiled brat and with kinda mean ideas of friendship and beauty. Joe is nothing. He had his moment to shine two episodes back, but even that was so much boring and pointless. He used to be called the leader because everyone could depend on him, they could trust him. And now... he is just there for humor. Takeru and Hikari as just there for the ride. They pretty much add nothing and, there is no point in having them in this. Without them the series would be, pretty much, the same thing. Only their partner Digimon are useful and if you take Frontier's approach their partners are not even required.

Now... a couple more things that are really bothering me.

1) For some reason the kids have this idea that they should be fighting on top of their partner. And, why? The fights are crazy dangerous. Their partner Digimon gets tossed on the ground from high altitudes and the kids just stay there. It's like there is this magnetic force keeping them in place. This is bothering me so... so much. Specially when AtlurKabuterimon used a spin attack while Koushiro was on top of him. No nausea no nothing. Would be so much better if he stood on the ground or the spin never happened.

2) The villains are boring. Basically we've only had one major villain, Devimon. And he was so pointless that if you skip his fighting episodes you can keep watching the series without a problem. No Etemon, no Datamon, no Myotismon, no Dark Masters, nothing. I mean... what is the point of having a series with 66 episodes if you are not going to use them in a useful way? I know the original series had problems too, but come on... at least use the good parts.

3) Tailmon is a Champion for no reason what so ever... Not using Myotismon and the way he was scared of the 8th Digi-Destined and how he tortured Tailmon explains why Tailmon is a Champion Level Digimon all the time in the original. And this is completely lacking in the new series. They just ignored it and never explained it. I don't think they will, to be honest. And with this, they won't have the Human World Part of the original series with the Digimon invasion.

4) No Tags. Something that is lacking in a lot of series actually. A way for their digimons to evolve that doesn't relay too much on the moment. This is something that is only explained in the Adventure, Adventure 02 and Tamers. Adventure 2020 just makes it so that they can evolve when the plot requires it. And this is super annoying because it removes their search for more power and gadgets and just rely on the relationship with their Digimon. Can you honestly say that in the episode 41 Yamato shouldn't be able to evolve Weregarurumon to Metalgarurumon? I mean... Taichi and Agumon are on that level. Why not them? So is Taichi and Agumon closer than Gabumon and Yamato? I don't think so!! And the way they reach Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon in the original is so much better because they rely on their brotherly connection to their angel Digimons.

5) No Warp-Shinka. Again... why? The whole point of Warp was to bypass the Shinka and Shou-Shinka sequences. They have removed the Shinka sequences for everyone except for Agumon and Gabumon, but now even the Warp ones? Why? I see no point in doing this. This means the last episodes will be super slow in pace and they will reach their Mega after a ton of sequences. Which is a problem in the original too. But, if they all reached Mega (as it was hinted in this new series) and they had Warp it would be an amazing moment for the series.

6) Armor-Shinka Pegasusmon. I mean... we can already say that Adventure 02 won't be having a remake like this. At least not in the same way. Which is just sad. One of the best series by far. Why not just have Patamon evolve to Angemon? This wouldn't be a problem at all. And the episode would work the same way.

But, not everything is terrible. The level of detail in the animation and during fights is breathtaking all the time. I don't think I saw a single fight scene that was lacking. I can see that the animators, producers and directors of this are fans of Digimon Adventure. I just wish the writers were too. And as a fan of the original it is just sad to see this level of animation in a story as terrible as this one. And the songs are slowly growing on me. I feel they could be better or they should have more insert songs, maybe one for each character, but... they are pretty good. The way they showed the Digi-Destined getting into the Digital World was another thing that I really liked. It was something that the original was seriously lacking. But, since they all came from different locations in the Digital World there was no reason for Takeru and Hikari to stay behind. I guess this is a positive and a negative for the remake.

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Disclaimer: my viewpoint is not base on my childhood nostalgia for Digimon, but as someone who rewatched Digimon Adventure as an adult a few years back, as well as someone who finished most of the recent great series like Digimon Universe App Monster. So my viewpoint is base on the actual quality of story-telling and characterization for this Digimon reboot.

Unlike most people, I can actually easily get pass all of the "childish element" of Digimon series (which would bother a lot of teenagers/ adolescent audience and they'd rate it down because of that ) and go straight into the core theme, the storytelling, and the characterization of Digimon series. What it means is the childish element will not diminish my value and viewpoint toward a Digimon serie.

First off, the pacing of this reboot is way too fast for us to get any emotional investment out of the characters. Compare to the original which the children spend a lot of time going through different scenario of adventure, be it joy, be it sorrow, or even fight and get mad at each other, the bond between the new children seem very weak/ shallow/ forced. The only bond done right so far is the bond between Taichi and Koshirou, which they spent 3 full episodes developing friendship.

Secondly , which is my biggest gripe for the serie so far, the catalyst for the digimon partner to shinka is way too weak compare to the old serie, especially for the important iconic shinka of Complete form on the 2 main mcs for the lastest 2 episodes.
The complete form shinka is a representation of chosen children's mental development throughout the serie, so without enough emotional investment , the shinka itself feels soulless. In the past serie the children went through way more serie of event, as well as revealing more of their mental growth to achieve all those complete form shinka.

However, this reboot just feel like they're giving out shinka like candy, like every episode need to have 1 shinka so you don't get bored. However, all I get from this is a soulless shinka on top of cheap character development.

These whole issus all come back to super rushed pacing and plot , which failed to give characters enough screen time to highlight their development. Especially considering how Yamato's crest is about "friendship", they didn't give him enough screen time to justify his friendship shinka.

As someone who's a big fan of the buildup done by the original Digimon serie and Digimon Universe App monster, can't say I wasn't disappointed by this Digimon adventure reboot.

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its hard to not compare the latest digimon 2020 with the original (digimon adventure). However, I tried my best to give my review from a new view point.

Firstly, the story. tbh the plot of digimon 2020 is not that good, its quite mediocre and even a bit weak, its like u can see the reason behind most of the fight, maybe this is due to the length of the anime, but it quite ruin the mood.

moreover, the character seems always full energy even after several fights they can just keep going without rest which makes me feel quite unrealistic. not only that, when they get hit by attack from other stronger enemy, the most damage done to them r just some bruise or the digimon devolve. which is also quite unrealistic. (in other digimon series when the mc's digimon get hurt badly they also risk get killed) however, in digimon 2020 the plot armor is thicc as hell.

the last downside of this series that i would like to mention is the relationship between the kids and the digimon. unlike the other series that the kids and digimon slowly form a bond between them, in digimon 2020 the digimons r just simp for the kids for no reason (not sure is simp is the right terms but it just be too friendly and too protective which feel kinda weird since they were just met)

lets talk about some good side of this series. the animation and music for the evolution is just top notch. its been a while that i get hype when digivolve, especially wargreymon evolution. it is so hype.

furthermore, i can sense the effort of the team that try to make this a nice reboot. they really tried their best of creating new plot and new direction.

However as i said the plot is still weak. So, its a 7/10.

Is it worth to watch? yes! but dont have too much expectation for it. just take it as a nice reboot and you will enjoy it.

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When I heard that there would be a remake of the original Digimon Adventure series, I was apprehensive. Like many others who had stuck it through the Tri movies, Toei's lackluster attempts to create compelling characters and a coherent story had me wondering if they could even manage it. Unfortunately, going by the first three episode rule, they failed. Horribly. From here on out, spoilers.

Episode 1:

It opens on a note-for-note "re-imagining" of "Our War Game" (a movie which came second in their Digimon movie catalogue and acted as the second act for the American Dub's movie). Okay, that's fine. The issue is, they rush through establishing character dynamics before the second episode. Koshiro is the tech guy/info-dump guy. Taichi is the brave, headstrong guy. Also, it seems like they saw Project Mouthwash's Tri Abridged series, because they have Taichi utilize Digimon as an improvised weapon multiple times. Yikes.

Episode 2:

The fight animations are great in these first couple episodes. Unfortunately, having blown their load on establishing the status quo, there is no longer anything for the kids to do aside slog along towards the end of Our War Game. Yamato is the lone-wolf (another dynamic established). Toei decides to up the ante by giving us an unwinnable situation, and then throws Omegamon at the situation. Two episodes in, and we're already at the endgame evolution. Not looking good.

Episode 3:

We're going to summer camp and then... back home. In a move that only JJ Abrams would be proud of, our expectations for the story to mimic the original series is wholly subverted. Rather, the story forces the kids to head to the digital world when a blackout starts spreading in Tokyo.

Episode 4:

The opening shot is a recreation of when everyone arrives on the island in Jurassic Park. I shit you not. This is what peak anime performance has become.

Episode 5:

Piyomon learns to FLY LIKE AN EEEAAAGLE! Also, inconsistencies in size ratios and animation. Also, also, Taichi is apparently a fully-fledged carpenter. A student of the Tom Paris School of Savants, I see.

Episode 6:

If you made it this far, stop. Some shit about destiny. I guess Homeostasis is speaking, but we're never given any real indication who it might be. We get a "mysterious" Digimon at the end of the episode who gives orders to Ogremon. Except we know who it is, even if you haven't seen the original series. At the very least, he looks like he learned from what happened in the original series and decided to put some hours in at the gym. Dude looks swoll af.

The problems with the remake series aren't just at pacing, although that is one of the most egregious ones. No, the issue is that, even putting aside the issues with pacing, there is absolutely no redeeming factor. The digivolutions get an absolutely generic rock composition meant to hype the viewer, but it fails where Brave Heart worked. Brave Heart was an escalation of emotion coupled with the sensation of feeling like we were watching the power of courage push through adversity. This generic rock shit is just lots of yelling into microphone and some bad instrumentation.

Honestly, if you want your fill of a GOOD Digimon series, go back and watch Adventure and Tamers. Maybe watch Xros Wars, but don't because that's a mistake nobody should make twice. Either way, give this remake a skip.

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This anime is like being an adult and returning to McDonalds as an adult after not being for over a decade - Just to find out the taste isn't how you remembered it to be.

Now, with a situation like that, there's plenty of thoughts one could have, but there are three I think would be the most common.

1) "I guess I just didn't remember the taste after all."
2) "Some things taste better when you're a child."
and most importantly,
3) "It's not me that's changed, these just taste different now! I miss the old McDonalds!"

And then you might put it aside and finish your drink, deciding whether or not you should finish the food you just spent your money on - and, inevitably, throw it away. You don't know why, but you just don't like it anymore.

"Shut up about McDonalds Dakota" Okay okay fair enough, but!

That segment is how I approached the new rendition of Digimon Adventure. I hadn't watched the original Digimon since I was in my early teen years. I LOVED the original movie (War Game) when I was a child to the point of rewatching it dozens of times.

So when I heard about a Digimon reboot, aside from the obvious skepticism, I was excited. And then I watched it and it was... off? Like it was out of order.

I mean, sure, that's probably what happens when you show off the STRONGEST DIGIMON in the first TWO episodes, but, hey, it's fine!

The rest of it.. feels like a drag. Like a really, really slow build up. But I eventually, sadly, lost the will to continue watching, and I haven't picked it up since. 34 episodes was all I managed.

Maybe it's down to how repetitive the transformations are. Were they always so repetitive? Are they worse? Maybe the standards nowadays are higher, and as adults, we expect the show to grow with us.

It's hard to put my tongue on what's bad about it, but what I do know is that this new one is truly a bitch to get into.

Truly a shame, but often, a reboot isn't worth it.

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Watched 3 episodes, had to drop it.
Maybe because I watched the original, maybe because its actual shit.
Seriously, rushed as all hell, not giving a single damn about the original content, clearly written for a generation with the attention span of a fruit fly.
Very disappointing in execution, only thing passable are the sound effects and the animation, was very pleased to not see any 3D cheap CGI a la berserk, shame that it was for no reason, because its boring as all hell, rushed, no character development at all, fucking third episode fusion.. At first I was pissed that he found agumon in the first episode. Then Graymon, again, first episode.. At that point I was like: Hey, they cant fuck this up even more, right?
Fuck you, said the third episode throwing a fucking fusion at me.
Do not watch. 1/10

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I watched all Digimon from Adventure to Data Squad, watched Digimon adventure in Brazil when I was little kid and ten years later I re-watched with my younger brother. I saw all the movies, I cried with Last Evolution. But I was never so disgusted and disappointed than with this 2020 garbage, what the hell was that episode 25? Did the giant tortoise suddenly become a falling airplane? There is no sense? What a bad script, what a bad direction without depth, without timing, without emotion, badly animated.
The plot has no time to delve into anything, one problem ends and another begins immediately, all the plots poorly elaborated and patched up like a badly made puzzle. Solutions without logic and pathetic even for children. Horrible climax timing.
I'm really lucky to have grown up seeing the original version, I'm sorry for anyone who watches the 2020 version before the 1999 version. Sorry for the bad english, I'm really sad to translate ir properly.
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Assisti todos os Digimons desde o Adventure ao Data Squad, assisti Digimon adventure no Brasil quando eu era pequeno e dez anos depois reassisti com meu irmão mais novo. Vi todos os filmes, chorei com o Last Evolution. Mas nunca fiquei tão revoltado e despontado quanto com esse lixo de 2020, que porcaria foi aquela de episódio 25? A tartaruga gigante repentinamente virou um avião caindo? Qual o nexo? Que roteiro mal feito, que direção ruim sem profundidade sem timing, sem emoção, mal animada.
A trama não tem tempo pra aprofundar em nada, acaba um problema entra em outro, todas as tramas mal elaboradas e remendadas como um quebra-cabeças mal feito. Soluções sem lógica e patética até para o público infantil. Timing de climax horrível.
Eu realmente tenho muita sorte de ter crescido vendo a versão original, lamento por qualquer pessoa que assista a versão 2020 antes da versão de 1999.

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