Reviews

So much can be said about Digimon Tamers, but not many people seem to value it outside the internet community. I actually first saw Tamers many years ago, as a pre-teen. I used to dismiss Digimon as a worst version of Pokémon, but, when Tamers was re-run in Portugal, I instantly became hooked, watching it daily. However, as a kid, there is a simple choice process - why watch Digimon, when Pokémon is the original creation, has better designs, better videogames, bigger community? While these are mostly subjective factors, people probably wouldn't argue against this. While Digimon always tried to bring more complex elements when compared to many other shounen, on the previous entries, the first series also present the same mistake that I hate about most Shounen and School anime. There are simply too many characters. Even though, all of the characters eventually get the spotlight, it only lasts for a maximum of 5 episodes. This isn't a bad thing by itself, as it provides more progress than most anime. However, the character development was directed towards story or plot progress, which means that the characters remained static once they had their time to shine. There are other methods that are conventionally used to surpass this problem. You could focus entirely on one character alone, like Pokémon does with Ash. You could also have an anime like Beyblade, which presents you with Tyson, the overpowered protagonist who you know will always be better than every other main character or villain, simply because he is more of a protagonist than everyone else and, therefore, even his defeats are just seen as a small and insignificant fluke in the long run. If you put it this way, the first two series already provide you with a more rich set of characters than most shounen do and it actually presents you with characters you won't forget by the end of the series, unlike many of the series that attempt to provide a diverse cast of characters.

Digimon Tamers is special in all these regards. With a reduced number of main characters, compared to the rest of the franchise, there is no continuous moment where one character establishes himself as the most powerful one or overlaps the others. Just by looking at the number of favorites votes on MAL, you can quickly check that Impmon, a Digimon who starts out as a secondary character, has roughly the same amount of favorites as the protagonist Takato. I personally don't think that this means that Takato is a bad protagonist - the way I see it is that there is appeal in every single character. It is only by the end of the series, that pointless characters are added (Kai, Johnny and Alice), but, until that point, I can't say I have seen a shounen do better than Tamers regarding the characters. Everyone has a clear personality, drive and story, which really helps Digimon Tamers feel alive and feel like it's truly set on a real world. Curiously, on one of the last episodes, Takato says that no one has changed throughout the journey. He also compares life without Guilmon, his partner. This hits right on the spot - people like to use the term 'character development' a lot when referring to changes. Digimon Tamers is not about change, it is about growth and the experiences behind it. It is about co-existing with yourself, with your inner demons, with your losses, with your ego. It is about learning how to grief about your older self and how to handle that grief. There are few anime that touches these complex matters is such a way that even a child could understand it. Most anime that attempt this feat, usually stay on a completely superficial and pointless level. Digimon Tamers takes its well made simplicity to achieve more than most can and more than most will ever do. On this regard, it is a shame that Tamers isn't a reference in shounen genre. Nowadays, I see people drooling all over Boku no Hero Academia, One Piece or Naruto (which got popular outside Japan way after the golden days of Pokémon and Digimon), but, quite honestly, where Tamers revolves around overcoming internal and external conflicts, the most popular shounen around try to overcome the level of power exhibited in the previous episode or by the flavor of the month character. While Tamers does this to a certain extent, it isn't cyclical and the focus is put on what there was to gain from the experience or what internal obstacle was surpassed. While most of the the other anime I've been mentioning so far is not even close to being bad in my opinion, it doesn't come close to Tamers when it comes to morality and introspection.

Fortunately, I had the privilege of being able to watch the Portuguese dub of Digimon Tamers, which is sincerely one of the best I have heard from my country. I recommend it to anyone who speaks Portuguese, as it is one of the few dubs who isn't treated like a joke or voiced by complete amateurs. It also sounded more convincing than the Japanese and English versions and take into account that I like to watch subbed anime. The opening and endings are also infinitely better than in other languages, both musically and lyrically. While the first two seasons had more emblematic openings, the Portuguese Digimon Tamers opening still does a good job. The ending themes is where the big difference is and Digimon Tamers really delivered some of the most beloved ending themes here in Portugal. The rest of the soundtrack is shared with the Japanese version and I think that the most important songs are memorable enough, especially the Digivolution and Card Slash ones. The other songs are good and manage not to get stale throughout the 51 episodes.

Animation is really what Digimon Tamers could have done better. This is one of the biggest reasons why Pokémon was always favored, back in the day. Many of the Digimon are over-elaborate or don't fit the general theme, when meshing with Guilmon, Terriormon or Renamon, whether because they were returning Digimon from other seasons (Gekomon, for example) or because they were simply too weird (like most of the Deva that appear in the real world). On one hand, the Digimon that are featured in Tamers are in improvement on the previous installments, on the other hand it doesn't really matter if you still include other Digimon that won't thematically fit with your new ones. Many people make fun about the digivolution CGI cutscenes (and it does look a bit dated and goofy), but to be honest it was 2001 and it was an improvement when comparing to the first seasons. Between the kinda meh landscapes that are presented throughout the series and the human characters that are actually fittingly animated, there is nothing else at all to say about the animation.

Overall, Digimon Tamers is one of the best shounens I've watched and one I would recommend to everyone who likes the genre and would like to binge watch a truly enjoyable anime, which Digimon Tamers certainly is. I wish other shows or franchises had the guts to try to reinvent themselves the way Digimon Tamers did, bringing an immersive and fantastic new feeling to the formulas that viewers have loved for years.

Soundtrack - 8
Animation - 6
Story - 9
Characters - 10
Enjoyment - 10

Overall: 8.6