Out of the blue, I suddenly got back into Digimon and decided to rewatch every season for the heck of it. Digimon Tamers was my least favorite when I was younger, but was the first one to finish downloading so I ended up watching it first.
I remember not liking it very much as a kid because I was an avid fan of Adventure and Adventure 02 and this one seemed like blasphemy to me somehow, it was just so far removed from the world the first two series created. The rules were changed, when digimon died, they died, it was like Wizardmon all over again only every single time.
Not cool man, not cool.
The basic premise is that Digimon is a popular game series within the show and the main characters happen to be big fans of it and then get digimon and help to defend both worlds. What makes that kind of interesting is that unlike the other series, when these chosen children get their digimon partners they actually know what they are right from the start and what they're capable of.
Also different from the first two Digimon incarnations, Digimon Tamers is a lot darker, and keep in mind that the originals included two digital Satans and a slavemaster kaiser with a whip. While it starts out with a fairly benign concept of real life kids getting digimon and learning to fight and be friends with them, it eventually descends into just plain weird territory later in the series.
The first thing to keep in mind is that the show was written by Konaka J. Chiaki, who also wrote Serial Experiments Lain. Yeah. Uh. Wow. That explains a lot. He brought the concept of the D-Reaper to life, which is a horrifying sort of digimon anti-virus that got out of control a la Hal from 2001 and is only acting on its programming to erase humanity because it deemed that we should not exist. Also it's powered by the depression and helplessness of a little girl who thinks that everything is fated to die.
I don't think it would have felt that eerie without the other mature elements of the series. There's a recurring theme with the two male leads that both of them having growing fear for their digimon partners as they evolve and become more powerful and frightening. This wasn't really addressed before in earlier series, and I think it's highly realistic - how would you feel if your cute pet baby dinosaur turned into this?
Not to mention the death concept from earlier. In the Adventure series we did have to deal with digimon dying and being reborn, which was often treated as a sad enough thing as it is. In Tamers, a supporting character's partner digimon is brutally murdered, never to be reborn, and her misery over it becomes the catalyst that nearly destroys the world.
So just to recap... this is Digimon ---
Ho-ly crap man, what were they doing when they thought this was a good idea?
Alright I'm kidding, I actually really like it a lot now that I'm old enough to appreciate it and have gotten over my bias. It's actually pretty freaking sweet, it's got some severely nightmarish themes that make the series a lot more broad than it was before. It deals with adult issues like fearing change, the helplessness of being just one person, and the choice between being strong or being good.
I love Digimon Adventure and Adventure 02, but I have to say that Tamers is easily my favorite after rewatching each season. All those things up there I sounded like I was complaining about? I love it.
....still refusing to watch Xros Wars though.
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