In childhood, Digimon was a favorite series of MeinMMO author Max. At least, he thought so. But when he recently checked it out in a fit of nostalgia, he realized: He apparently doesn’t know 70% of it at all.
When I say that
in the introduction, I mean the first season: Digimon Adventure. The classic, where Tai, Agumon, and the whole group have to find their way in the Digiworld. And while I have of course watched some episodes, there are even a few episodes that I can literally recite word for word today.
- Like the first two episodes, where the DigiRangers first meet their partner Digimon and where Agumon digivolves into Greymon for the first time.
- Or the episodes where the DigiRangers face Devimon and Patamon becomes Angemon.
- I know episodes with Etemon, Datamon, and the fateful evolution of Skullgreymon.
- And episodes with Weregarurumon, Digitamamon, or the episode where Izzy loses his curiosity about Vademon.
If you don’t know Digimon very well, the last four bullet points probably won’t mean much to you. But if you do know it, you will recognize: These are all episodes from relatively different phases of the anime that are not directly connected. And: The ending is completely missing.
And that is the point that shocked me. I thought I knew Digimon quite well. I thought Myotismon, which appears later, was the final boss of Digimon Adventure. But far from it! He is defeated already in episode 38. And the first season simply has 54 episodes.
There is another entire arc that follows! The Masters of Darkness, of whom I had only heard in passing, take up almost half the series. And I only knew the absolute final boss of the series as a card from a board game and had never seen him in moving images.
In short: I absolutely couldn’t believe it.
Why did I think I knew Digimon so well?
This question has occupied me since I began to catch up on the series after my realization. I constantly see things now that I knew of but felt like I had never actually seen.
I have identified a few points that probably contributed to me thinking I was an expert.
- The Digimon movie:
Digimon – The Movie
was released in 2000. The VHS was almost permanently installed in our VCR; we watched it so many times. The DigiRangers against Diaboromon, the season 2 DigiRangers against Kokomon, a fever dream-like pre-movie with Angela Anaconda – you couldn’t start a weekend better. - Surprisingly, I know the second season about Davis and the new DigiRangers better than the first season, I found out. I remember my grandma always recording the episodes, and my brother and I always had something new to watch on Thursdays.
- Digimon Tamers, the third season, is a very similar case. Apparently, I know it better than season 1 as well.
- Video games: Digimon Rumble Arena and Digimon Rumble Arena 2 were absolute hits on our PS2 (yes, I know Rumble Arena was a PS1 game. It looked weak back then, but it was still a hit).
- The aforementioned board game. It was super cool, with the File Island as a map, Digivices, and lots of monsters. We never understood the rules; we just did what we wanted with it.
- Audio plays: Clearly the main culprit. Because: The episodes in the bullet points above we all had as audio cassette, one episode per side. Our parents or grandparents must have bought them for us without looking at continuity. That’s why I know those so well, without having ever really seen them.
Moreover, there are stories like Digimon: Tri or Last Evolution Kizuna. These are somewhat newer movies revolving around the characters from the first season, which I also watched with my brother as a nostalgia trip. That for our nostalgia we actually lacked the foundation – we simply didn’t know.
Also interesting: Streaming options were also missing. If we missed an episode back then, it was just gone. You couldn’t just catch up on an episode you missed. (Unless it was recorded. Thanks, Grandma!) And how many episodes such a season had, we didn’t know either – no internet.
A journey into the past: I had to close my knowledge gap, of course. So recently I went on a binge trip to catch up on everything I was missing. That’s a lot, but also a super engaging task. It’s quite fun to learn connections years later that I thought I already knew all about.
It’s also completely crazy to see how episodes were produced back then: Two minutes of intro, two minutes of recap, one minute of preview at the end of the episode, along with the same animations for attacks and transformations over and over again. How could that not stand out to a child? Nevertheless: The series is definitely fun. Do you also have shows from back then that you like to dive back into today? Let us know in the comments! And if you’re looking for something playable, our editor Jasmin has a recommendation for you that I’ve followed as well.
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