Digimon Adventure

It's time for me to share my experience with another one of my favorite cartoons of all time. This time, it's Digimon. Pokemon may have been an awesome cartoon at the time, but this is a show that I enjoyed a lot more. The 90's were about to close when this masterpiece hit the world of television and found a special place in my heart. My only real memories with Digimon lay in the show's first season, known as "Digimon Adventure", which to me was the best and most memorable season ever.

So, what is Digimon about? Well, we have these seven tween kids who have been chosen to be the Digidestend. Along with their Digimon companions, they are attempting to save the Digital World and also their own world from evil Digimon.

Main Characters:

Tai is the leader of the Digidestend. He's the guy who holds the whole team together and always encourages everyone to succeed in their tasks. He's often stubborn, but the other Digidestend still look up to him regardless. Tai's special crest is the Crest of Courage.
Tai's Digimon is Agumon, a generous Digimon with a lot of strength and a big heart. He's not a very good fighter, but he never gives up, and he gets much stronger when he Digivolves. Agumon also tends to get hungry at unexpected times.

Sora is the tomboy of the group. Like Tai, she's very encouraging; she and Tai also have similar interests, which has lead to a rumor that they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Sora's crest is the Crest of Love.
Sora's Digimon is Biyomon. Biyomon is a fun-loving bird who always seems to be perky and active. While she is rather important to the team, a lot of fans are annoyed by her because of her annoying voice, and she often acts like a jerk to the other Digimon.

Matt is supposedly the second in command of the team. Most of the time, he's a rebel and wants to do things his own way, which leads him to often get into big arguments with Tai. He's also overprotective of his little brother, T.K. Matt holds the Crest of Friendship, which is actually quite unusual judging by his personality throughout the adventure.
Matt's Digimon is Gabumon, a very loyal Digimon with a kind heart. Gabumon has this fur coat that he wears over his body; he's sort of like Double-D on "Ed, Edd n Eddy", as he has a hidden identity that he never reveals and is too embarrassed to show it. He also gets a lot of enjoyment out of hearing Matt play his harmonica.

Izzy is the group's computer expert. He's really good at analyzing stuff that he uses with his computer, and he often comes up with theories that may help the Digidestend on their way. Because of his superior brain, the other Digidestend find him to be a useful and important member of the team. Appropriately, Izzy's crest is the Crest of Knowledge.
Izzy's Digimon is Tentomon. Tentomon is the type who would always make sure that Izzy is aware of what's going on around him. Some of the stuff he says and does would cause him to be sort of a comic relief.

Mimi I would call the quote/unquote "princess" of the team. She's the most feminine member of the team, she's very selfish, she doesn't like getting dirty, she likes pink things, and she never goes anywhere without her hat. Most of the time, when she doesn't get her way, she whines, and eventually, she'll cry. Mimi's crest is the Crest of Sincerity.
Mimi's Digimon is Palmon. Palmon holds a lot of similarities to Mimi, although she's not quite as spoiled. Palmon's probably the most underrated Digimon in the entire series, which is strange as she gets just about as much spotlight as the others do. Being a plant, whenever she talks about herself, she usually says a pun on being a plant like "My stem is brused" or "I'm wilting". She can also be a comic relief at times.

Joe is the oldest of the Digidestend. He's often a coward and would usually worry about anything even before it happens. Joe is studying to become a doctor, which is why he often concerns about the others and their health. Joe holds the Crest of Reliability.
To even out his serious personality, Joe has the most playful Digimon, Gommamon. Gommamon is cute and cuddly, and he always likes to make funny jokes to cheer up his friends whenever they're down. Gommamon loves to play in the water, which is why he's usually in the water whenever the Digidestend are having some down time.

T.K. is the youngest of the Digidestend and Matt's little brother. He may be small, but he's tougher than most people (including his brother) think. Like Mimi, T.K. can also be a crybaby but not as often, and he's really the only other Digidestend who seems to get along with Mimi quite well. T.K. holds the most special crest of all, the Crest of Hope.
T.K. has Patamon as his Digimon, another cute Digimon. Patamon is pretty immature and gets surprised easily. He may seem useless, but his Digivolutions are the most powerful compared to the other Digimon.

Sagas:
Now, for this next section, I'm going to briefly discuss what happens in each of the sagas in this season. Each season of Digimon was divided into different sagas, and each saga had a different main villain and a different plot. I'll try not to give away any spoilers, but this is all based on my knowledge of how the series went.

Saga 1 - The Black Gears

The story begins with the seven kids who have just started summer camp. Suddenly, a snow storm hits. The kids each find these weird devices and they suddenly get transported into this strange new world. They all wake up and meet their Digimon who somehow already know their names. After an intense battle, the Digidestend get to know a little more about their Digimon, but all the Digidestend want to do right now is go back home.

Throughout their time together, they encounter bigger Digimon who want to attack them. Each Digimon one by one Digivolves into another bigger Digimon and takes out the monsters. Most of these monsters are supposed to be friendly, but they are all evil as they are being controlled by black gears.

At this point in the story, all Digimon have had a chance to Digivolve except for Patamon. They will eventually meet the main villain of this saga, Devimon. Devimon is the one responsible for all the black gears, and he then breaks up File Island and seperates the Digidestend.

The Digidestend will eventually reunite to take on Devimon, but all are powerless against him. At this point, Patamon will finally Digivolve into his champion level, Angemon. However, Angemon uses so much power to defeat Devimon that he ends up sacrificing himself, but then he gets reborn to a Digiegg. The Digidestend will then meet their mentor, Gennai, who will send them on their next journey.

Saga 2 - Etemon's Dark Network

T.K.'s Digiegg hatches, and he manages to Digivolve into Tokomon, but unfortunately, his in training stage is as high as he'll go for this saga.

The main villain in this saga is Etemon, a giant monkey Digimon who looks and acts like Elvis Presley. Etemon has launched a dark network all over the island the heroes are on, and they have to stop the dark network so that the Digimon on that island can be in peace.

While on the island, the Digidestend are searching for their special crests. These crests are to allow their Digimon to Digivolve to their ultimate level. Tai is the first one to find his crest, and being stubborn, he comes up with a way to force Agumon to Digivolve to his ultimate stage, which turned out to be a huge mistake. Izzy then came up with a theory that the true power of the crests came from having them all. When they do, Agumon Digivolves into his true ultimate stage and gets rid of Etemon and his dark network. However, Tai is now mysteriously missing.

Saga 3 - Reuniting/Returning Home

Tai and Koromon (Agumon's in training stage) have found themselves in what appears to be Tai's hometown. While there, he meets his little sister, Kari, who seems to know all about the Digimon and the Digital World. Tai and Agumon then return to the Digital World so that they could reunite with their friends.

While Tai was gone, the other Digidestend went all over DigiWorld looking for him. Eventually, everyone reunited, and during this period, Gabumon, Tentomon and Biyomon all unveil their ultimate forms, plus they all learn more about their crests.

Gennai tells the Digidestend about their new enemy, Myotismon. He also tells the Digidestend that an eighth child will be joining their team. All he says about the child is he/she lives in Japan and that Myotismon has assembled a brigade of evil Digimon out to destroy the eighth child, which would cause an apocalypse.

Saga 4 - The Search for the Eighth Digidestend

The Digidestend have just returned to Earth and are somewhat happy. Their Digimon are all with them, although they try to keep them hidden from the public by either hiding them, disguising them, or making them pretend to be stuffed animals.

As it turned out, the kids have returned to summer camp at the very moment when the snow storm hit, and a camp counselor announced that camp was canceled.

Myotismon and his minions continue to search for the eighth child as the Digidestend are. He has two little sidekicks: Demidevimon and Gatomon. Gatomon is a smart-alec cat Digimon who is very charming and has a very cat-like personality. She's also a vicious fighter, yet she has quite a depressing background story.

After numerous episodes, it is finally revealed that the eighth child is Tai's little sister, Kari. Most viewers of the series already knew this as a hint was given earlier in the series, so it wasn't too big of a surprise. Gatomon also finds out that she is Kari's Digimon.

We then find out that Gatomon is actually a champion level Digimon, which is odd being that she's smaller than all the other rookies (well, except for Patamon). Her ultimate stage is Angewoman, which is a female version of Angemon. This would make Gatomon a perfect companion for Patamon.

Later on in this saga, Palmon and Gommamon reach their ultimate stages, and then the Digimon get rid of Myotismon for good...or so they think. He actually comes back as Venommyotismon, who is at a level even higher then the ultimate level known as the Mega level. At this point, Agumon and Gabumon are shot with arrows of hope and light and are given the ability to Warp-Digivolve to their mega levels. Sadly, they are the only Digimon in this season who will be able to do this.

Saga 5 - The Dark Masters

After defeating Venommyotismon, the Digidestend return to the Digital World along with Kari and Gatomon but only to discover that it has been taken over by the Dark Masters. While they were gone from DigiWorld, the Dark Masters have reformed all of the Digital World into a large mountain known as Spiral Mountain.

The Dark Masters are four mega level Digimon who have taken control over the Digital World, and the Digidestend must stop them one by one.

The first Dark Master they come to is Metalseadramon. He's a quite serious sea dragon, but it doesn't take them long to take him out.

The second Dark Master is Puppetmon, a Digimon who wants to play games and fool around with everyone. It takes them a while to take this guy out since a big breakup occurs in the group in the midst of it, plus there is a part where everyone learns a little more about the Digimon's backstory.

The third Dark Master is Machinedramon. He seemed pretty tough when they first met him, but they managed to take him out with ease.

The final Dark Master is Piedmon, where all the Digidestend and their Digimon finally reunite for this final showdown. Patamon also gets to his ultimate level and sends Piedmon back to the place he belongs. Spiral Mountain is finally gone, but this is not where it ends.

After all this, the Digidestend come across Apocalomon, a mega Digimon with powers stronger than all the Dark Masters combined! He ends up sending our heroes to some weird data world where the Digimon talk to their respective Digidestends about past experiences and how much they've grown. Even though Apocalomon took all their crests, they all find out that the true powers of Digivolution is in their hearts, and they all find a way to get back to Apocalomon, take him out and bring peace back to the Digital World.

After all that, the Digidestend decide to stay in the Digital World since they find out that they have four weeks of summer vacation left and the Digital World's time is much longer than their's on Earth meaning that in the Digital World, they have over 100 years of summer vacation left.

However, Gennai informs them that a special gate is opening that will send the Digidestend home, and once it closes, it will never open again. This means that the kids were all forced to leave the Digital World and never see their Digimon friends ever again.

At first, I thought this was the end of the series entirely, but little did I know, this is just until the next season.


Overall, Digimon is definately a show that will always have a special place in my heart. If the first season is available on DVD, I wouldn't mind having it. I know, most of you are thinking this is not retro, but it's almost ten years old. This is definately a show I would want to cherrish and send down to my children. Also, other fans are welcome to share their thoughts with me.