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Digimon: Digital Monsters - The Official First Season

Score: 88%
Rating: Not Rated
Publisher: Flatiron Film Company
Region: 1
Media: DVD/8
Running Time: 19 Hrs.
Genre: Anime/TV Series/Box Set
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo

Features:

  • 36 Page Character Guide Booklet Featuring the Seven Original Characters Plus Kari
  • Gallery Featuring Over 40 Behind-the-Scenes Sketches

Digimon: Digital Monsters - The Official First Season covers the entire first series. In case you are wondering just how long that is, it starts off with the original seven DigiDestined being brought to the Digital World and goes all the way to the end of the Dark Masters storyline. That includes the storyarcs that have Devimon, Etemon and Myotismon as the main enemies. That's a whopping 54 episodes and is everything before the series that has the two younger DigiDestined growing up a little and joining a new group of kids in the Digital World.

For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll back up a bit. Digimon follows seven kids who are sucked into a parallel world while they are away at summer camp. Upon landing in this strange place, they meet little creatures that claim to have been waiting for them for a very long time. Each kid is paired with one of these creatures called Digimon, and as the story progresses, the kids and their new friends have to face tougher and tougher enemies. To help accommodate for the stronger bad guys, the Digimon learn how to Digivolve and become stronger Digimon.

Tai, the group's leader, is paired with Agumon, a Digimon that looks like a small dinosaur that has a tendency to Digivolve into bigger, more powerful dinosaurs. Meanwhile, Matt is the cool kid and his Digimon is Gabumon. This character Digivolves into a wolf-like creature and gets more powerful from there.

Matt's little brother is T.K. who has a little guy named Patamon. As one of the characters seen in the second season of the show, Patamon doesn't Digivolve quite as much or as fast as the others since a lot of his powers come out when the group needs him the most, plus he gains a lot of interesting powers in the second season.

Sora and Mimi are the two girls in the group. Sora's Digimon is Biyomon, a bird-like Digimon while Mimi has the plant-type Digimon, Palmon who Digivolves into a giant cactus with boxing gloves and then later into a fairy with some serious firepower.

The last two characters in the original seven include Joe, a worrywart who partners with Gomamon, and Izzy the computer geek in the group that partners with the bug-type Tentomon. Izzy is also the character that realizes they all have been sucked into a parallel world that is based on all of the data that humans have produced since the start of the digital age. He even realizes fairly early on in the series that the two worlds are connected and events that drastically affect one world can cause ripples in the other.

At first, the seven kids just want a way back home, but it isn't long before they are told about a prophecy involving the kids and their Digimon partners. Their first real mission as the DigiDestined is to stop the evil Devimon who is trying to control all of File Island. Their adventure is far from over after this foe is defeated though. The group meets a strange character named Gennai. This old man tells them that there is a bigger threat on the continent of Server and the kids must travel there to stop this new evil. Along the way, they must also help their Digimon Digivolve even more than they had to in order to stop Devimon.

You can kind of see a pattern here where the kids have to face bigger and badder enemies and learn how to make themselves stronger in order to succeed. On the surface, the show might seem shallow, but it isn't long before each of the characters learn that they have a specific trait that makes them stand apart. These are things like Tai's courage, Sora's love, Joe's reliability and Mimi's Sincerity. In order for each of their Digimon to get stronger, the kids have to learn exactly what their particular traits mean. As a result, there are quite a few good messages doled out in Digimon: Digital Monsters - The Official First Season, not just a lot of action and monster-on-monster violence.

There aren't a lot of special features with the Digimon: Digital Monsters - The Official First Season DVD. There is a booklet that goes into detail on all eight DigiDestined as well as their Digimon and each of the forms they become. There is also a concept art gallery on the disc that shows over 40 images for those viewers that are interested.

Personally, even if there weren't really any special features in this boxed set, I would have to recommend Digimon: Digital Monsters - The Official First Season. It is a great anime that is family-friendly and has a ton of episodes. For those looking to buy this set though, I will warn you that I've seen several bootleg copies on Amazon, especially for the second season of the show with the next wave of DigiDestined.



-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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