#my MC kinda cringes about it as an adult years later

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure (Blind watch) - Episode 1

Oh snap, my first long haul series! I've decided that when I get to these mega-franchises I will watch them simultaneously with other shows so I don't get stuck on one series for an eternity (lol). In other words, I'll still be working on I'm Standing on a Million Lives as my "main" series, but Digimon will be my secondary...probably for years considering how long it is (gulp).

I have never, ever seen/played/done anything with Digimon. My history with the series is that I watched one episode at a friend's house in elementary school and was totally lost. I remember there was a cocoon lol. Excited to dive in head first!

I watched this first episode twice, first in dub-format and then sub. The dub was very cringe and the whole time watching it I was hyper aware of the fact that a ton of the dialogue was not in the original script. I see the nostalgic appeal, but I'll be sticking with the sub. The sub has better music, a better script, better sound effects, etc. (I got really excited that there was an insert song already haha). Anyway, my thoughts about episode 1 below the cut!

Notes:

-This show only appears to be available legally as a dub, so I guess there's not a lot of demand for the sub? Either way, you gotta watch it in the 4:3 aspect ratio, which is totally fine, just a pain in the butt when I want nicely cropped screenshots.

-One thing I liked better about the dub is that they have MC dude narrating the episode, in the Japanese it's some random adult man, which just feels kinda like clumsy exposition. The narration in the dub also had more personality (although the line "she's pretty cool...for a GIRL" was pretty cringe).

-Very nice, although kinda low-budget watercolor backgrounds are fun to look at. I think the character designs of the humans are pretty good too, definitely memorable (although there's a ton of characters to learn at once, which I found overwhelming).

-Watched the opening twice and it still makes zero sense. The weather is wacky and then they get sucked into the digital world via a wave? What does weather have to do with anything and why is there a wave when they're in the snow?? I just don't see how weather phenomenon ties into the digital theme, but maybe they'll explain later.

-Joe/Jyo is totally 90s Iida loool. Calls everyone "kun" and just has Iida vibes in general.

-Despite all of the Americanization, it's interesting how they mostly kept everyone's Japanese names, especially the mons? Props for not dumbing it down, I guess. Definitely sets it apart from Pokemon a bit.

-Don't really like the cutaways to each mon's stats. It's like they're inserting a wiki page directly into the show and it kinda breaks immersion.

-The digimon are kinda stupid-looking as babies, but if you consider that like "level 0" of their evolution chart, it makes sense that they would look as simple as possible. I don't really like how the evolutions don't always make sense like they do in Pokemon though. Like Koromon looks like a bunny but Agumon looks like a dinosaur. What? Who came up with these random ass designs?

-If I had to pick a fave mon from this episode, I think Patamon is pretty cute. Tokomon was hideous though so I'm conflicted haha.

-In the dub Kuwagamon had this really obnoxious roar that was not in the original episode. In the sub he makes this clicky beetle noise which makes so much more sense. Reminds me of how they made the shark roar in one of the Jaws movies.

-Weirdest line in the dub was when Koromon said "we're not just Digimon we're also...kinda cute!" haha so scuffed.

-The fact that the kids are instantly emotionally bonded to these blobs that they met 2 seconds ago really annoyed me. Taichi is all like "Koromon! Don't be a hero!!" and I'm like, you should still be in the "WTF" stage not the "BFFs" stage.

-Weirdly nostalgic for the Japanese Digimon opening because it was in the Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga song remix back in the day. Can't wait to finally learn the lyrics!

#digimon #digimon adventure #anime #longhaul