Spanning 6 series, not all tales and characters are the same. The key principle here is that a group of kids team up with Digital Monsters (Digimon), one assigned to a human each. From then on, they are partners as they battle threats to both the Digital World as well as the real world. To help their partners, each human partner carries a "digivice", an article that assists their monster partners in battle, mainly "Digivolving", the evolution of a Digimon. However, at the end, they can return to base form. Feelings play a strong part in this process, and the stronger the feelings, the more powerful they become when digivolving (CORNY, I know, but I call them as it's shown.)
Like I said, this franchise spans 6 series as of now, so it's quite lengthy. Furthermore, as it progresses, the purposes of the digivices, the ways Digivolving happens, and the cast and story changes. As follows, we have:
- Digimon Adventures: Simply called Digimon here in America, it premiered in 1999, a year after Pokemon debuted. Naturally, people thought Digimon was trying to be a knockoff of Pokemon, though this is obviously untrue. Even though it was considered merely a cartoon by some, for an anime it had a unique trait about it at the time (see below). The plot dealt with seven kids who enter the digital world while at summer camp. From that day, they become the DigiDestined, thrown into battle to save both the Digital World and theirs from evil. Assigned a digital beast (Digimon), they fight against the evil forces lurking about, assisted by Gennai and the digivices, which are essential (with their feelings) to invoke Digivolution.
[Unlike that of others released at the time, Digimon happened to be one of the very few anime that not much alteration, or "Americanizing" happened in terms of characters. While some titles undergone complete name changes in others, Digimon more or less retained the character names, despite that most of them were shortened. An example of this would be the sibling characters Taichi and Hikari, and Takeru. In the American version, they are shortened respectively to Tai, Kari, and T.K. However, common to the way anime was shown in the states, the title was simplified, and had its own set of soundtrack music that played in the title, ending, and inserts. Even the opening/ending tracks were different completely from the overseas counterpart.]
- Digimon Adventures 02: The successor to the first series, the plot had little difference, but the timeline is three years after the 1st series/season. Unlike how it was certain Digimon serving the antagonist role in the first series, the enemy is actually human, dubbed the Digimon Emperor, who enslaves and controls Digimon with black rings and Control Spires. This also makes Digivolving quite impossible by normal means. Though most of the previous team help out occasionally, their new lives in junior high prompts a new team to be formed. And it happens when three new characters, Davis, Yolei, and Cody, team up with DigiDestined veterans Kari and T.K. to make up a new generation of the team, armed with a new digivice known as D3.
- Digimon Tamers: Much like how it's received here, Digimon Tamers featured the namesake franchise as a card game, toy and anime franchise. However, when the monsters become real, three fans of the card game tame real Digimon themselves to combat them. Again, Digivolving is changed, and even abilities can be enhanced using the Card Swipe, known as Digimodify in the U.S. It even grew to the point where they could merge with their partners in one version of Digivolution, called Biomerge Digivolution. The show featured 3 main protagonists, while the main enemy is an AWOL program called D-Reaper. The series is darker in theme in comparison to the other two.
- Digimon Frontier: Another series significally different from others, Digimon Frontier also deals with the digital world, with 5 protagonists using Digimon Spirits, leading them to become Digimon themselves with use of their D-Tectors. The enemies this time are other legendary spirits led by Cherubimon, who plans to conquer the Digital World, and are after the heroes' spirits in the process! The series discards the Card Swipe aspect, showing off a new feature called Fractal Code Digitize, used as a means of purification against possessed Digimon.
- Digimon Savers/Digimon Data Squad: Called Digimon Data Squad in the U.S., it's the 5th series of the franchise, and a fresh take after a nearly four year haitus as a series. However, it bears no connection to the other four, making a different title in theme and art style. Another trait is that unlike the formers, it was aimed for more of family view as opposed to just children, aside from featuring, to date, the oldest set of main characters, the age range of them between teens to early 20s. This time around, they try to keep the Digital and the Real worlds separated, preventing others from knowing about its existence. However, there are still Digimon that cross over into the real world unofficially. To this end, the D.A.T.S. was formed, and escapee Agumon meets with 14 year old Marcus Damon, the undefeated ultimate fighter. After going at each other, they become on good terms with one another, and after many events, join up as part of DATS. Antagonists appear to be Digimon of God status, but there maybe yet another reason as to who may be behind it, which connects to Falcomon and his partner Keenan...
- Digimon Xros: The current series active right now, Digimon Xros is the only series not dubbed as of yet, even though via Crunchyroll, this series has seen airtime outside of Japan. Moreover, the series has 3 titles under its belt. The plot dealt with the Xros Wars, hence the title. The protagonists are known as Team Xros Heart, who are a considerable threat to Emperor Bagramon and his Bagra Army. Though, other problems follow soon after, leading to the current issue at hand where they must stop rampart Digimon and face off against rival hunters. The main head for all 3 titles is Taiki Kudo, who as with the majority of Digimon mains, have a partner and some form of a Digivice. In this instance, the device is called the Xros Loader, and his partner is Shoutmon.
Movies and games were also made under this name, though US diudn't see much in that aspect. The only well-known one would be 2000's Digimon: The Movie. Sadly, despite that it blended scenes from different movies released in Japan, it received negative responses. In addition, this essentially blended the heroes of Digimon Adventures and Digimon Adventures 02. The plot is made of 3 different scenarios: Eight Years Ago (before Digimon Adventure, in which Agumon first appears to a younger Tai and Kari), Four Years ago (when the team is formed, and it takes some time after their departure from the Digital World), and Present Day (following through the events of the new DigiDestined of Digimon Adventure 02.) It was composed of the three movies Digimon Adventure, Our War Game, and Hurricane Touchdown. Moreover, the movie introduces various other Digimon, at least two of which would appear in the animated series. The two in question would be Cherubimon and Omnimon, who would be seen in series 4 and 6 respectively.
Digimon is mainstream, and it's not necessarily a miss, but it's something I'm not crazy over. In its entirety, I say a 6 or 7 of 10 does it justice.
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