Forcing My Friends to Watch Digimon Adventure | Nova Blast # 1

0:00 Yeah, this is Billium and welcome to Nova Blast, aka I am making my closest friends watch the original Digimon anime. You guys know me. I'm Billy, but I'm joined by me, Nico, me, Lexi, I'm Savannah. We're going to be watching the first Digimon anime, which is split up evenly into like four different arcs traditionally. So, we're going to be watching this whole show, the first show in four different parts. And if you want to watch along, here's sort of how we're breaking down these episodes each time. And then I am going to make everyone sit down for my personal PowerPoint party. And here's the crazy thing. As an American, I forced them to watch both the English version and the Japanese version. I am shuffling the episodes.

0:46 But if you want to watch along and like comment on your experience, feel free to watch either version. Like you do not have to watch one or the other to get the experience. Yeah. Or watch both also. Yeah. You guys don't have to shuffle. We'll do it for you. But we're watching both. I like both for different reasons. Um but you know, the Japanese version is clearly like the original intention with the tone and the uh the drama of what's going on in every scene. And the voice of Auman. Sorry, we'll get there. The voice of Auguman, but we we'll get there. So, this show starts like I think at a pretty crazy opening episode. All these kids are chilling at summer camp and out of the blue all these weird weather events are culminating and there's a snowstorm at their summer camp and a big tidal wave comes and they get these little tiny digital electronic toys that you can buy

1:32 by the way and then they are brought to the digital world where they're greeted by all of these little friends. All seven of them get their own friend. They're called a Digimon and they've been waiting for them for a long time. And it is here where all these newfound friends and Digimon have to explore and survive on this mysterious island. You know a thing or two about mysterious islands. Oh, I do. I do. So, right off the bat, we're introduced as uh 14 different characters, and I think they do a pretty good job of like showing all of their different reactions to meeting these different Digimon. They're very personality driven. So, here's our lineup of children. I'm just going to be saying the English names even though we're watching both. So, I got we got Ty and Matt and Mimi, Joe, Sora, Izzy, and TK. It's a pretty great lineup of

2:18 characters. And what do we think, dude? Mimi, Sle, that hat the like, come on. I want that fit right now. They all have such like great designs. Like, like like each one is so unique. Whose fit are you wearing? Oh, true. Oh, whose fit? I think I feel like I'd be wrong to not say Sora. Dude, I I love Izzy's shoes. I'm going for Izzy. I would. Yeah, I would I would wear Izzy's fit, but Tai is wearing Adidas. And I'm I'm stuck between Ty and Joe for number two. For fit. For fit exclusively. But maybe also I don't know. I love I love Joe as a character. Even though he's annoying, I I think it's because I relate to him. Call him out. It's because I relate to and being annoying. Let me finish. What? What is the crime? What is the crime of relating to the annoying one? You

3:05 shouldn't just be that mean to yourself. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, we don't think you're okay. I love I love when the podcast turns into therapy immediately. It was bound to happen. We love you. So, we're not going to be like hanging out with these guys all the time. These are like their baby baby forms before they evolve into their regular forms. But this is still a pretty legendary lineup, I'd say. Is it bad that I want to eat them all? Yeah, of course. One's called Mochim. They look like Mochi. Yeah, Mo. I was about to say Mochimon looks like I could take a big bite out of him. I would definitely eat Yokoon down in the lefthand corner. Rob. Jesus. You know what I'm saying? Us wanting to eat them just speaks to how cute they are. But you don't even understand that Toon's a little freak down there. Like, right, you would not know. You see the preview with those little fangs. You don't know what's coming. Right. [ __ ] around and find out. They fight a huge Digimon in

3:52 this first episode. This is Kagamon. Good god. What do we think of him? Cool design. He's scary. Cool design. Scary. Where are his eyes at? How he see? I think he's a great first like enemy to see. And he kind of shows like, oh, this is like an insane world. Like like look at this giant beetle coming at us. What level is he? He's a champion level. Um or adult level. So he's going to kick their ass. Yeah. And and he does. His eight pack, but they have to fight. Oh, right. It's in their blood. They're built for battle. It's in their programming, bro. [ __ ] coded. They are less Right. Cuz they're digital monsters, so it's in their literal. It's not like Pokémon where they're like, "Yeah, they're just the animals in this world and we fight them." What do we

4:37 think of these attacks? Cuz they're all pretty great. Okay, wait. Sorry. I got too excited about Baby Flame. Let's see it. Let's see it again. Baby Flame. These are all baby attacks cuz they're so petite. But four baby attacks equals one one big person attack. And so this is what they're going to look like from now on. This is like their standard walkound avatars. It's hard for me to pick a favorite, but I really think Gamon routinely comes back as my favorite. And I I have to just withdraw Augguman for being my favorite because I can't have the main the first main guy be my favorite, you know? Very hipster of you. Mostly I can't say Auguman's my favorite because of how much Lexi likes Auguman. Oh, what? I just love him. And I like I with Digimon, I like that they return to these forms when they're not

5:24 fighting or like doing something. Yes, that that's special. I really do enjoy that that aspect of it. They get to be cute forever. Yes. You know, in some of the games they can turn into different big forms, so it's like it's not just one. They they go into a bunch of different things. It's pretty neat, right? Like depending on what they're trying to do. Yeah, of course. What they're trying to do, how they're raised, what they learned. What about you, Savannah? Who do you love on this lineup? That guy opening his arms up for a hug. Gobon. I love him. shy parental being. It's him and Goan I feel like are the the caretakers of the adults of the group. Yeah, they all have their own personalities which I think is really cool. Nico, I know the answer, but who's your favorite? Well, for me it's Palmon.

6:10 Yeah, I just love her and and Mimi's dynamic and she looks so scary here actually. She's like like Palmon's about to attack. That's feral. That's a [ __ ] feral pose. So, as a kid, I watched the English version and I liked Aguman, but I I didn't think he was like a very strong mascot for the series. But like going back and watching the original Japanese version, Aguman is so much more charming in the original than the English version. Uh, I understand what they were going for, but let's just compare like this. Wow, Aguman, you're the man. A

6:58 and so it's different. The side by side is brutal, y'all. I'm sorry. It was very rudiment to do the side by side. It was especially with that cute ass giggle. That was awesome. Giggle was like to me that's just like what a dinosaur kind of like sounds like, you know? Yes, exactly. Like a little guy, a little rap scallion like Auban. And I I think Auguman shines through regardless uh with the English dub. It's not like horrible. It's not bad per se, but Auguman is just prestigious quality in the original. Like a prestigious voice performance, but there are there's uh there are new ones, right? New Agaman voice. Yeah, there there is a new Auguman voice. Um but they still bring

7:44 back Tom Fawn to do like legacy material. So stuff that's related to the original cannon, which they should, they should absolutely do that. And there's a lot of cool stuff about the Digimon dub. It was uh extremely popular. Um but we're going to talk about that a little bit more next time. Uh okay, so just a little we're going to save it a little bit for next time. That's going to be what we deep dive into. But the fact that Digimon's a franchise and like Pokemon, the anime is not the first piece of media in this franchise. Uh, something that I think is really cool as a direct comparison is the original Vet lore, which was like told in magazines and stuff, uh, talked about the setting of the anime File Island, which I think is pretty cool. And you can explore File Island, Digimon World,

8:30 the PlayStation One game. Um, but it looks way different. The aesthetics of the franchise hadn't really been nailed down yet, and I'd say they don't really have like a distinct aesthetic going from every single property that they've done. They've had a lot of different styles. I mean, you got Little Dinosaur and Full Boob Woman, so Oh, yeah. Little dinosaur right about that. The range is massive. It's a They're casting a wide net. And so, I would describe the original Digimon world as grungier than the world of the show, which is much more colorful. Yes, for sure. Love it. Love it. And so, something else cool about the show is it is an izakai. And I've seen some legacy articles saying that Digimon Adventure is one of the original izakai. And still to this day, the best izakai. Yeah, perhaps the

9:19 earlier Digimon media didn't really have this quality to it. One of the first Digimon manga to be produced is called Come on Digimon here and it's sort of like a toy come to life thing where the Digimon Vet exists in the world and it's sort of a Yu-Gi-Oh style. They create like a 3D hologram of the pet to interact with. Oh, that's cool. Okay. Yeah. So, it's like more of like a sport and like manga, I guess. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. So much way different, a little more in the world of Pokemon cuz Pokemon's all competition, right? And the second manga to be produced was called Digimon Vamer. Heck yeah. Oh, I love it. Oh lord, he coming. He's going to get you. I love he said peace sign. He looks so friendly. In the left one, that's Pooky. That's That's my We're going shopping, [ __ ] That's Angel.

10:05 Yeah. But like, you know, on the right side, he's saying we have this that rare Gabuman down there. Oh, dude. The Gobmans always be one of the rarest Gabmans. So, obviously they borrowed the manga protagonist design from VTamer for the anime. Um, and his name's Tai Chi as well in the manga, but that was a decision by Tolli Animation, I believe. And instead of being partnered with Aguman, this Tai Chi has Vmon. This is like where all Digimon protagonists have goggles come from. It comes from this manga. Um, and Tanya Yabuno, who didn't work on the anime, but worked on the manga, suggested creating the go or giving the characters goggles because he figured that it would be indispensable

10:51 in an aerial battle. Something I find funny cuz uh I I don't recall any of these characters wearing them in an aerial battle. That's so Oh my god. So, it is funny how this sort of like traditional design element got adopted into the series uh without ever really referencing its original intention, but that's that's not what we're talking about. Everyone is meeting their Digimon in episode 2 and they're getting used to the fact that they now have to survive. They're no longer at like a fun day at summer camp. This is about survival. But some kids like are taking to it better than others. Yes, absolutely. I'm not a stranger, Joe. I'm your friend for life. H. So Joe's obviously the most apprehensive here and you called him annoying. I get it. No, I get it. That's the thing. It's annoy. Like as a kid,

11:36 this would have pissed me off to no end. I'd be like, "Where's your whimsy? Just go with I would have been so pissed off." But now I was like, "Oh no, no." I probably would have been the same way. I would have been like, "Bro, I'm scared as hell. What do you mean creatures that are speaking to me? I'm scared." I watched this at such a young age that like they sold me on Joe just with the fact he has blue hair. Oh, that's pretty cool. It's like simple as um that is actually something to eat. I'm forgot about that, dude. His stomach fell out. Like that's exactly it's like it doesn't sound like Tommy Grumble. It sounds like his stomach fell out his ass but he shated poor guy. The dub adds that sound. And they also add Izzy's like obsession with

12:25 wondering if where they are has to do with aliens, right? That was a dub exclusive thing, right? Yes, it was a dub exclusive thing. He's our little like he's our little techie. He loves his computer. Uh does his catchphrase prodigious? Yeah, in the English version catchphrase is prodigious. And also in the English version, they don't call it evolve, it's digivolve. Okay. I feel like that's that. Yeah, I can I can get down with that. I feel like head anyway. I feel like that is an indirect cowardice of Pokemon. You think? Oh, maybe. Oh, absolutely. Make it their own thing or just like a like just our own thing. Whatever. They don't own the word. It's like McDonald's adding a Mc in front of whatever. Like a McNugget. Yeah. One time I asked for McNuggets at Burger King and they shot me. Oh my god.

13:12 No. Oh my god. What the [ __ ] Sorry we lost you that night. That's okay. I should have ordered the Digi Nuggets instead. Yeah, your stomach was sounding like that. Yeah, Gloopy. They don't know each other really before this. They kind of know each other, but I I feel like they're mostly strangers. Like the kids like Oh, the kids, too. Sorry. Yes. Oh, yeah. Summer camp. Well, yeah. I mean, they they they're familiar, but they're not like best friends. Yeah. They're not They're not having to survive a a new world together. They'll have to learn, though. They'll have to learn to live together or did she die alone? Did you die alone? So, in episode two, like surviving becomes a bigger concern and the show starts to fall into a format of the kids

13:57 trying to address their concerns finding their way home or looking for food while a big bad Digimon attacks them. And we'll find out not all of them are so bad. So, they end up on the beach after being attacked by Kagamon where uh they're attacked by another big Digimon. And so, oh, let's go. Auman here prior to this attack, they ate all of the food. They're trying to learn to survive and they need to share this food with people. That's the lesson of this episode. Digimon are kind of freaky. Am I right? So, this is Shelman. And so, in order to beat Shelman, guess what has to happen? They have to evolve. The light of God. Oh. the light of God

14:44 blessing Agnumova. Oh my god. Nova Blast Mitch. Did you Nova Blast? And so they [ __ ] him. He's done. Oh, and this is just sort of what every episode's like. And in the next episode, Matt gets really moody as they come across an abandoned cable car. And part of the reason why Matt gets moody is because, fun fact here, being mean to Gabuman's a sin. And in this episode, some people are um mean to Gabuman, unfortunately. Tai specifically, and maybe even Matt. Matt's a little mean to Gabon. But yeah, that's neither a little harsh with them. They find this little train car on a lake, which is this recurring thing that's happening to them where they keep coming across these like relics of the human world. I think is a

15:31 really cool world design piece that makes it feel modern, kind of dreamike. And it spooked me out a little bit. I was like, what's going on? What's happening to their world? Is it falling into this world? I don't know. It made me question a lot of things. That's kind of spicy. I I like it. It makes it more mysterious, you know? Yeah. Like it's not just an island. Matt is Takaroo's older brother. I don't think we've talked about that yet. Yeah. There's like dynamics in the group here, which is really sweet. Like he can't just say, "Keep my little brother warm." Yeah, but he clocks him immediately. Yeah, of course. Like, do you see those allseeing eyes? That's dad. That's That is the father figure. This is so sweet. this. Oh my god, he loves both of them. Yeah, he's like, I'll protect the brothers. Matt plays the harmonica and love how

16:17 the kids feel their feelings. I think that's something that's very um that's very different between this and uh other similar shows targeted towards children. Uh yeah, it's they wear it on their sleeve and even if uh they're not honest about it, you can tell what they're feeling. But in this episode, we start to talk about like the kids' lives outside of the digital world because uh tells Tai that the reason he's so protective over TK is cuz their parents got a divorce and they don't live together and so he values their time together a lot, which also that sucks. Like you separate the brothers. There's something that happened there. They probably don't know exactly. So another bad Digimon. They're on a lake and Cedraman smells children of divorce and

17:03 he tries to attack and look at this grimace. Oh god. Like that's a terrifying creature. It's definitely a formulaic show with the monsters attacking and the Digimon evolving, but they don't do that every episode. It's kind of loaded at the front here. Um and so in the next episode, another kid shifts into focus being Sora. And Matt kind of gets moody in the last episode and you know Sora's moody in this episode. True. All these kids got to feel their feelings. They're stuck in this mysterious world. It's scary. And Sora misses her mom. They need to process. Do need to process. And so the group travels to a village of Digimon, a village of Yokoon, who of course turns into Sora's Boman. Here, you wear my hat

17:49 for a while. You need it more than I do. Thank you, Mimi. That's awesome. Oh, that's awesome. That is incredible. I Oh my god, that's so quickly they become friends is so good cuz they they they feel the love with their Digimon. They like That's true. They unironically do. They just And they compliment each other. They compliment each other and like contradict each other so well. Yes, absolutely. They are foils to each other's characters. Sora cares but doesn't know how to like say she does but man cares and is very open about it and it's sort of uh it contradicts each other a little bit and forcing to come out a little bit which I think is sweet and so the bad Digimon

18:36 attacking the bro look at the look at the grippers on this [ __ ] we got Maramon he's just a fireman there's a manif on this guy though so we we can take him something else we're seeing here is that Digimon just don't attack randomly Some of these Digimon, they're good Digimon. But yes, virus is infecting them. It was a gear. What is it? It made them crazy. I suppose if you had a big black gear stuck inside of you, you'd act a little crazy, too. The poor guy. Dude, Matt's Matt's logic here is pretty good. I mean, he's not wrong. Look how happy he is with himself after saying that, too. He's like, I figured it out. Maybe I'm the smart one. So, we got episode six, Electric Shock Kabuto Teribion. So once again, they're wandering. They're traveling along File

19:21 Island and they stumble across a factory. Izzumi Izzy takes the focus this episode as he notices all this strange code on the wall. And these black gears are going to be a problem for a while cuz Androman has been infected. Yes. And this is episode five, not six. Oh, episode five. That font. That's a rough one. Yeah, it's a rough one on the Izzy's really interested in the mystery of this world. He discovers when he changes the code on the wall, it changes the world itself. It's like a digital world. Digital happenings. See, now he's a friend. Freaky guy, though. He's a little bit of He's a zombie. He's very like Frankensteinesque to me. Yes. Then we get we focus on Mimi

20:07 in episode 6. Togeimon goes to Toy to Toy Town, which is the dub title, and all the Digimon are singing in the sewers cuz they miss home and they talk about having warm baths. In fact, Palmon and Mimi slay in this episode. Yes. Oh, yeah, they do. Here's just a little dub moment. Hey, come on. I had singing lessons for 3 years. Well, you did. Did it help? Damn. Oh, did her. Damn. Absolutely flamed. that kind of one two punchlines like the kind of humor they have in the English dub which I I really love. It's charming. It's charming. It is very charming. They really do come from another world. That is why they are depressed. [Laughter] I love this frame of these three. Dude,

20:53 Gabon realizes you're depressed. So, this episode focuses on Mimi and everyone else becomes childlike cuz they're under the spell of Monzan here in Toy Town. But something that I love about Mimi and Palmon is they're very like they're very self I don't want to say self-centered, I would say. So, a little Dulu. Yeah, they're Yeah, they're my like they're my Dulu queens, but they always make friends and they do care about their friends. Oh, yeah. You can be Dulu with a heart of gold. Capital of Digimon. Oh my god, she's got the cowgirl fit from Mimi. Yes, she has the cowgirl fit in everything. Mimi looks just like her. So, they get attacked by these shitthrowing Digimon

21:40 Numan. Dumpling a kiss for your hero. No, that's an Alzheimer. Actually, it's she that literally is no heart. That's exactly what that is. Like, no. We should go sim forever. And so next we get to a Joe focused episode. Joe feels responsible for everyone since he is the oldest. Meanwhile, his Digimon is Gomanon who just like obviously he takes things seriously, but he takes everything with a little bit of a joke, you know. Yes. So totally opposite personalities these two, which is it's perfect. They're I love I adore their dynamic. And this episode has one of like my childhood memories of just wanting to eat food on screen sequences,

22:26 which is like cook eggs. Got you with eggs. They're looking for food. Look how sweet his little face is. Look at him. He's so hungry. Give him something. He's like your pet when you open the fridge and they got to look in. It's so cute. My showing my pet things they've never seen before. The Joe's just concerned about food and they find a fridge full of eggs. So, it's like it is sus. It's like the world's gaslighting him, though, you know? They're like, "We need to be responsible. We need to be concerned about food." And then just a fridge full of eggs. See, I would eat the eggs. You would? Yes. Would you guys? Yeah. Yeah. I'd be hungry. Hungry? Yeah. If I was hungry as hell, I would I would look around first to see if anybody was going to attack us for taking them, then I would have something. That's so true. That's exactly what Joe is saying here.

23:12 Oh, yeah. Then they try to go to Infinity. Infinity Mountain is what it's called. Yeah. He's going to climb Infinity Mountain because that's what the group is arguing over whether or not they're going to do that the next day. Matt thinks it's too dangerous, but Tai has a spirit of adventure and so Joe decides to protect everyone. He is going to go by himself so no one else has to. But Gamon, of course, has to come along. The character work in this episode is really excellent. This is a standout episode for sure. Oh, I love little Gamon. And like the the writing and the dialogue in this episode is really excellent. Yeah, my favorite piece of dialogue right here. [Music] Like starting up your car. Oh my god. Oh yeah, this is very sweet.

23:57 And I like seeing him warm up to go too. Yes, exactly. It's like you are my friend. They meet another nice Digimon who's feeling a little itchy. Who's got t who's got tetas? Yeah. Oh my god, he does. What a Whoa. What did Yeah. Every Digimon has horc. Hell yeah. So, all these episodes go through this format of having the Digimon evolve. Uh, and we're going to move on from that. But like before we do, who do you guys like? What What big boys? Oh, big boys. Oh, what champions are Togeon? I love the cactus. Yeah, Togeon is a good one. Like the attacks being straight up punches. Like that's so And then needle spray. Yeah, I think it is to Pokemon for me

24:43 cuz I I just I just like I just like Palmon into Togeon into I'm not going to say it yet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That botanical theme. I love soy. Yeah. The stripes so cute. Yeah. The stripes are so cute. I don't know. I feel like it's it's hard for me not to say just because of this episode, because of that evolution. It's just like that's my friend. I don't know. So, is this everyone's favorite episode of the first batch? I think so. Well, yeah. I don't know of of all of them, you know. We get a a backtoback is so good with the Mimi and Palmon episode right into this one cuz that one that one's good cuz it's like funny. This one is like it's like it's funny but in a more like heartwarming like emotional way. Yeah,

25:29 exactly. It makes a difference cuz you've also seen the character be, you know, annoying this whole time. And that leads us into episode 8. Devimon, the emissary of darkness. So Devimon comes out of nowhere as Liam and Ogremon are fighting and saying, "Stop. They have to work together to stop the children. The children threaten Devimon cuz they are apparently the chosen children." Uh, so he tries to trap them in a little mansion that is an illusion of a safe haven for the children, but it's a trap laid by Deviman. And Liam's actually a pretty chill guy, but you know, you know what happens to Liam? Except your baptism into evil is a crazy line. Like that goes so hard from

26:15 behind. Damn. Yeah. Our first major villain in the show. Yes. He's the devil. literally the devil right at the start. And of course, he's got this little underling Ogremon who's like, you know, he's kind of he's like a gremlin. A genuine gremlin. He's a he's an ogre, like a foot soldier. You know, I see those feet. I know about him. Pushing. Dude, an ogre can't take that stench. Ogreman is waiting to ambush until Auguman farts too much and then he busts out and said, "All right, that's enough. All right, I'm kicking your ass. That's my best friend right there. Me and Awan. Oh my god, that's my bestie. Sending the poop selfies. Yes. Agamon and I would take take pictures of the bowl after

27:01 we're done. Be like, "Yo, check this one out." No way. So, we end on a cliffhanger with the kids being separated and Deimon having Liam captive as his slave. So, Bandai came to both V Jump and Tolli to produce a manga and anime based off of Digimon. And originally, they wanted Akira Toriyama to do the character designs, but obviously he's a busy guy. So instead they went with uh another Dragon Ball character designer, Katsu Yoshi Nakatsuru, who worked a lot with Akira Toriyama, and his biggest contribution to the Dragon Ball franchise is arguably designing Super

27:47 Saiyan 4. I I think Digimon has some Super Saiyan 4 DNA in it. Yeah, literally Loman. Yeah. No, exactly. He looks like a Digimon. And so Digimon series producer Heromi Seki said in an interview with CBR that Digimon's production was a bit unique at Tollway at the time since most of their popular works were all manga adaptations and Digimon was it was obviously based off a franchise but it was more original in terms of its story. They had to create something new. And so when they were thinking about Digimon and File Island, the classic Jules Vern novel 2 Years Vacation served as loose uh inspiration. It's a pre-Lord of the Flies story about a group of children stranded on a deserted island and you know they have to learn how to survive altogether which

28:33 is sort of the dramatic uh necessity of every episode of Digimon is their survival even though they want to find a way home. And funny enough tolli made their own version of uh their own adaptation of the story in the 1980s. So I thought that was kind of cute. Looking like Ben over there. Tai Chi looks like Ben. Why is he ripped? So, Tai Chichi here, he's the most anime protagonist, anime protagonist you've ever seen. Correct. Like, yeah. With the anime Hiroyuki Kakoto, the director said that something they wanted to do was make sure that the entire ensemble played an important role and got the focus like taking turns occasionally so they'd all get the spotlight in both a cool way and like in an emotional focus kind of way. Yeah, they succeeded with

29:18 that. I think so, too. The choice to have seven characters came to challenge the typical makeup of an ensemble having five characters with four boys and one girl. So, they chose to have five boys. Uh, which was they chose five based off of this boy band called Smap. Um, and so we have a picture of Smap here on screen. And could you guess which one of these is Yamo bottom right corner? Yeah, that's totally the Yam map. Like without a doubt. It's just something cool about this ensemble, too, is there's a lot of deliberate choices to differentiate the characters. Um, they're all not the same age. So, TK is the youngest, then Mimi and Izzy, then Yamo, Tai Chi, and Sora are all in the same class, and finally Joe Senpai is in grade six, which is why

30:05 he's studying for middle school exams all the time. There were a lot of choices made to make their dynamics unique. Like, Joe's the oldest, but he's kind of an unreliable leader. And Izzy's one of the youngest, but he's one of the smartest as well. This quote here from Mr. Kakudo is a really great encapsulation of what I think like the drama between the characters works in this show. He says, "We wanted to put things in that would be interesting to anyone, whether it were a children's story or a movie. So, we scattered the children's personality traits all over the place. We didn't want to end up in the situation where one character drags everything down. So, we made sure not to let them fall into conventional patterns. We wanted to make it so that everyone had their own unique strengths so that whenever some crisis came about, they would be able to overcome it. And so Pokemon was a few years old when this

30:50 anime came out. And obviously, I think Digimon puts more effort into its human characters than Pokemon does. Absolutely. And this was absolutely intentional. They were thinking about trying to appeal to kids who had felt like they had grown out of Pokemon or quote the graduates of Pokémon. Um, it's like once you've turned five, you're no longer three, it's time to grow up from Pokemon, move on to digital. So true. And so now all the kids are separated and we get this really cool opportunity where we're going to start pairing up characters to see how they interact individually, which I think is kind of fun. And in episode 9, which the subtitle is Subzero Ice Punch, we meet up with Ty and Matt as everyone has been

31:36 separated and they argue how to regroup and what to do next because Ty and Matt always argue. They're always battling over who the leader is going to be. And Tai on his way to meet up with Matt obviously runs into one of the best English dub performances in the Subzero. Goblin takes off his fur and we Oh my god. naked goblin on his outfit silhouette. I like that he has little ears. Yeah, he does have little ears. The little pointy reptile. He's so cute. And he'll only take this off his like little fur off. He'll never take it off. But for Matt, if he's got to warm up his buddy, he'll do it. Then I'll have to make a raft out of some of these trees. Ohion. Matt, calm down. What's eating you, dude? I'm on your side. I'll help you get off this island if we have to build surfions. Look, the others will be

32:23 fine without us for now. Oh my god. What? God damn it. That's so funny. I did some work about Lost, some long form pieces about the show Lost. And I see a lot of parallels between these two shows. I think I'm so obsessed with Lost because of Digimon. I just totally think that. And like obviously this character dynamic echoes in the other show. How [ __ ] dare you compare Tai Chi to [ __ ] Jack Shepard. No, it's No, the dynamic is the same. Look at this [ __ ] So, this guy shows up after Fujiman. This is Mojiman. He's kind of like a a yeti. Yeah, he looks like a troll. Yeah, he's running as fast as he can, guys. Oh. Oh, no. No. Speeding up. They ran

33:10 out of budget for the animators on the episode. So, now we have episode 10, A Clue from the Digi Past, which features Izzy and Mimi going on a little adventure together. Uh, Izzy finds some new code to study and he's very interested in computers and code and Mimi cries because Izzy won't like focus on the fact that they need to find their friends. All of the poop Digimon love Mimi. Maybe you give us a big thank you, huh? Oh, please tell me they're kidding. She's being harassed by literal [ __ ] Don't you think that like Don't you think guys like this deserve a chance? No. They need to respect boundaries. Get a cup of decorum. Chuman's just a little mouse. A little [ __ ] up mouse. He is [ __ ] up though. That's why he loves me. He looked like he ate like 10 Sour

33:57 Patch Kids when they were sour. What the Izzy and Mimi split up, but they're Digimon goes with the other kid instead. And so Palmon advocates for Mimi to Izzy. And Tentamon advocates for Izzy to Mimi. Uh which I think is it's just super sweet. It's super nice. Inside the labyrinth, they're attacked by a previously nice Digimon who has been infected by a black gear. This is Centauruman. As you see that piercing. Do you think that purple flap comes up and it's like just going through the purple? This episode is insane. Yeah, this is the crazy one. This episode is [ __ ] crazy. So Joe, Goman, Sora, and Biaman stumble upon a church where a festival is taking place. There appears to be people there, but are they really? These little stickers of the of the two

34:43 of them is exactly correct. Yes, I felt watching this episode. Toro, Biaman, and uh Gomanan all come together to tell Joe he's the leader so he can gain faith in himself, which I think is a very sweet little story line. And of course, all those people turn out to be ghost Digimon Bakaman. And that's the thing, too. This isn't even like a black a black gear situation. This is just like an evil spirit. Like, we're going to kill these children and eat them. They exercise, though. Yeah. Literally. Literally. Dessert. And so in the next episode, we get TK and Padamon who are alone. But this one is so cute. The smallest in the group come across a Digimon nursery. So the babies get to meet babies and they meet this little

35:28 guy. Find more babies. Oh, but that's cool about the relationship is they connect with that. They're both kind of like, you know, put to the side because they're so little. Yeah. Yeah. This one gives like a filler kind of feel, but like in a good way. But I love it. Right. a comfort filler episode because we're expecting him to change here. We're not ready. No, he can't he can't evolve to fight babies. Yeah, you meet this little guy, Electmon. He's pretty cute. I love him. So sweet. Like this [ __ ] for sure. But he sees these other little guys and he gets really territorial. Oh, for sure. As he should. Those babies. And so Padamon is the only Digimon who hasn't evolved. Oh, and so TK and Padamon talk about what he might turn into. I love this scene.

36:14 I love that Taku is like, "By the way, the way I see you, you're a little pig." He's the little farm animal. He's so sweet. He hates it, though. Yeah, he does. It's time. So, finally, we have the end of this arc. Episode 13. The legend of the Digi Destined, as the dub calls it. All the kids meet back up. They all get their islands moving and they reconnect to form File Island again. Pat him on this episode. He's the star. He's going to be the star. We don't know what he's going to turn into. They use their digivic to make Dark Loman regular again. And Liam sits them down. He sits them down to have a little talking to. They've been brought here to defeat Devimon. So, they're going to do an allout assault on the devil himself. It's the children verse the devil. Also, doesn't the shot give you Fantasia

37:00 vibes? No, for sure. It's absolutely Devimon's been told that the smallest child of all will defeat him. Devimon's gonna kill TK, but guess what happens? His Digimon Digimon's Padamon finally the last one to do it. Microwave. Microwave. Pop that guy up. Human man. Beautiful human man. I'll get him. Relax. Oh my god. Quiet child. I'll get him. Relax. TK. I'll come back again if you want me to. If you'll have me with Devon out of the way, I can take over now. Sure. Hello. You forgotten about me.

37:46 Oh my god. Run as fast as he can. Line read was awesome. And now an old man. I've heard of you kids. I must say I'm pleased. Excuse me, sir. Tell us. Who are you and what do you want? That's where it ends. And that's the craziest cliffhanger of all. So, that's the end of the arc, dude. What do you guys think of Digimon? It's good. There's a lot of lovable things. There's a lot of lovable characters. There's a lot of lovable moments. All the character writing is like really solid. The Digimon, they pair well and they all have really great different dynamics like with whoever their partner is. They're all so different, but they complement each other so well. I really like the episodes where it focuses on like two characters and two Digimon. So like when

38:32 Tai and Matt are together and they kind of settle their differences, having like Palamon advocate for Mimi, you know, to to Izzy, like stuff like that I think is really good. It brings a lot of depth to the characters. I feel like you know how they all interact with each other, which is something really cool. Oh, and one thing I don't think we mentioned was um this is a stunning anime. Like the backgrounds are stupid good. Yeah, my jaw is on the floor. It's so good to look at, so good to listen to. This is a great anime. It is probably one of the best isekai. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. The music stunning. I'm sorry. It's so good. I The soundtrack bangs, bro. It absolutely does. It just feels so good. I think it's so uh it's tonally so strong. It knows what it's doing all the time. Yes,

39:19 absolutely right. I'm so excited to watch the next arc. Yeah. So, next time we're getting in to the next arc of Digimon Adventure. And if you want to watch along with us, feel free to. And Please uh please share your Digimon thoughts down below. Maybe we'll read them in the next episode. I'm so excited to be doing this. Yeah, this was a great time. Yeah, it's fun to It's fun to get back into this. Yeah. Thank you guys for joining me. I've been Billy. I've been Nico. I've been Lexi. And I've been Savannah. And thank you so much to Cascoft for creating our adorable 3D avatars. We're so excited to keep watching Digimon. Thank you so much for watching. See you.