Digimon Adventure: and how not to approach a reboot

Two nerd rants in one month? I'm not quite sure what this says about me.

Today I wanted to discuss why the original Digimon Adventure anime worked so well and became so beloved and nostalgic for the first generation of Digimon fans, why the 2020 reboot Digimon Adventure: (often colloquially referred to as Digimon 2020 by fans because the colon is not pronounced, so in speech it's impossible to tell the two titles apart) failed to recapture Adventure's success, and why you really need to think long and hard before rebooting anything (aside from a frozen PC).

I'll start with my personal background with Digimon to give a feel for why this means so much to me. At the risk of sounding very very old, I remember when the first Digimon virtual pets came out. I thought they were awesome because I liked the idea of Tamagotchi, but I found the Digimon designs so much more interesting than Tamagotchi’s semi-abstract blobs—Digimon had dinosaurs and robots and slugs and basically everything a geeky tween could ask for in a franchise.

I got myself one of the original V-pet keychains, and I loved that thing. I didn’t know anybody else who had one, so I never really used the battle feature, but I was just enchanted by the exercise of raising my own cool monster I could carry around in my pocket (I’m not sure I ever actually managed to get MetalGreymon, though).

I can’t remember exactly how I learned about the existence of a Digimon anime – it might actually have been mentioned in an unofficial Pokémon magazine I was reading at the time – but I decided to tune in and see what it was all about. The first episode I ever watched happened to be the one where the kids rescue Sora from Datamon inside the pyramid… and I was hooked. Digimon Adventure delivered a supremely satisfying experience in ways that, quite frankly, the first few seasons of the Pokémon anime didn’t. I had been watching the Pokémon anime for a while before this, and even as a junior high student, I could tell the difference like night and day.

Pokémon relied on slapstick humor, Team Rocket trying and failing the exact same thing every episode, and lots and lots (and lots…) of Ash and his dysfunctional friends taking several episodes at a time to reach the next interesting plot point. When I first started watching the anime I enjoyed it mostly because of the novelty factor, but as the seasons wore on, the formula began to grow very stale indeed. And it didn’t help that the characters were, well, pretty unrealistic and unrelatable, from one-track-mind Ash, to Misty who seemed to always be looking for an excuse to get in a fight, to Brock who clearly had developed some psychological issues from his abnormal family situation. I definitely wasn’t watching the show out of any sort of emotional investment in them.

I guess that’s what made Digimon Adventure such a breath of fresh air. The pacing was a lot tighter—something to advance the plot happened in just about every episode. The stakes were way higher—I found it much easier to care about the Digital World and real world in peril than about whether or not Ash got all the Gym Badges. And the character development was really above par for its time, and totally left Pokemon in the dust.

First off, there were seven (later eight) main human characters, each with not only their own distinct personality, but their own struggles that they had to face and overcome over the course of 52 episodes. Getting stuck in the Digital World together brought out sides of their psyches and underlying stresses that made sense and also felt really relatable for me, and probably every other kid who watched the show.

I think every viewer had a Digidestined or two who really resonated with them, because the characters were all so different from each other and didn’t settle for the usual stereotypes, instead digging deeper and examining why the characters acted the way they did. Tai’s insecurities about being a good big brother, Matt’s difficulties with emotional intimacy, Sora’s self-doubt, Izzy’s social awkwardness and overreliance on technology, Mimi’s sense of entitlement, Joe’s anxiety, T.K.’s overreliance on others, Kari’s self-sacrificial tendencies—all of these were explored throughout the season in a very validating and empowering way. Digimon Adventure was a remarkably emotionally intelligent show for the time. (And I totally dug the fact that there were three whole girls in the cast – six if you count their Digimon partners – which was a real rarity for an action-adventure cartoon in the 90’s.)

Overall, Digimon Adventure left a very favorable impression on me. Unfortunately, its reboot just completely misses the mark and fails to comprehend what made Adventure so special and memorable in the first place.

While Adventure was, despite the monster-fight trappings, a very character-driven show, Adventure 2020 seems to just want to focus on the fights and see how little character development it can get away with. The producer of Adventure 2020 was also the producer of Dragon Ball Super, which is a bit discomfiting because the Dragon Ball franchise is basically a testosterone fest that has eschewed any semblance of emotional or intellectual sophistication. (I remember in high school, I tried so hard to like Dragon Ball Z when it was airing on Toonami. After like five straight episodes of waiting for the characters’ attacks to charge up, I was done.)

And, no surprise, Adventure 2020 has that same vibe. It places so much emphasis on flashy battles and including all the Digivolutions that it just fails to pay attention to its characters, as if the humans have become mere vehicles for allowing their Digimon to Digivolve. There are no character arcs or a sense of growth for any of them—they just exist to be caught in the middle of the action. It’s ironic that Adventure 2020 was allegedly created so that a new generation of kids could enjoy the story of Adventure, but the characters are treated like throwback fanservice for nostalgic fans who watched Adventure instead of taking the time to get modern kids introduced and invested in them.

Just as problematic, Adventure 2020 places a lot of focus on Tai and Agumon, while minimizing the other seven Digidestined and their Digimon. In Adventure, Tai was definitely the figurehead for the series and the de facto leader, but the other characters were just as important and just as fleshed-out. They each got their turn to shine and save the day. Adventure 2020 very obviously just wants to be all about Tai, which is rather discrediting to everybody out there who doesn’t have Tai as their spirit animal. (I personally really connected with Izzy and how he’s much more in his element around computers than around people.)

One of the creators of Digimon Adventure once said that with the characters, the production team was trying to convey the idea that the kids at the back of the classroom are still part of the classroom. Digimon Adventure has its share of cool kids, athletic kids—but it’s also got awkward kids, nerdy kids, immature kids. And just as the cool kids actually have weaknesses they’ve been trying to hide, the awkward kids end up having strengths that make all the difference. Just like in real life. The cast of Adventure is so remarkably balanced and thought-out, that their Adventure 2020 counterparts seem like paper dolls in comparison.

So in lieu of actual character development, Adventure 2020 seems to just want to highlight Digimon, battles, and Digivolutions. And it does so at such a breakneck pace that the viewer never has time to catch their breath. Adventure did a really fine job dividing episode time between battles and the characters simply interacting with each other and their setting—funny moments, insightful moments, and lore-building moments were all to be had in abundance. Adventure 2020 has no patience for this because nearly all its airtime is devoted to monsters beating the tar out of each other.

And yes, it is fun to see an expanded range of Digimon species and Digivolutions in Adventure 2020, but by the end of the series the whole thing starts to feel oversaturated. New Digimon and Digivolutions are introduced at an accelerated pace compared to Adventure, so viewers barely have time to enjoy the Digimon characters’ current highest stages before getting the next level thrown at them. In Adventure, Digivolving to a new level meant something special and was usually reserved for important plot moments—in Adventure 2020, Digivolution is flung out like excess Halloween candy.

For example, Tai’s angsting over Agumon’s inability to reach Ultimate level in Adventure, to the point of overfeeding him and causing him to Digivolve into the malevolent SkullGreymon, made it all the more satisfying when Tai and Agumon were finally able, in the 20^th episode, to figure out what triggered a better Digivolution and reach Ultimate level. In Adventure 2020, MetalGreymon makes his debut in the 10^th episode, under no better pretense than the power of determination!!!! against a strong enemy.

So by the time you get to the last episodes of the series, you find the plot juggling Mega-level Digimon and form changes to the point where the whole thing starts to feel like a toy commercial more than a story trying to tell itself efficiently and with maximum impact. I had this same problem with Digimon Frontier (among the many other problems I had with Digimon Frontier)—the series kept introducing one new Digivolution after another, many of them extremely similar-looking (can you tell Aldamon apart from BurningGreymon? me neither), and the series finale was an absolute mess of unnecessary new Digivolutions and fusions that came out of nowhere (and of course ultimately just made Takuya and Koji look good at the expense of the other four protagonists).

On the other hand, at the end of Digimon Adventure, Apocalymon was not defeated by some super crazy new Digivolution level, or a heretofore-unseen ultra-powerful group attack. He was defeated by the kids themselves, using the power inside of them to turn his own attack back on him. It was a really masterful way to end the last battle, by reinforcing what the show had been trying to tell kids all along: you have the power in you to do amazing things

Digimon Adventure doesn’t feel like a cartoon meant to sell toys—it feels like a storyline that’s an organic extension of everything the toys had established by that point. Contrast with Adventure 2020, which 99% of the time feels like fanservice that goes over the heads of its target audience. And to make matters worse, that fanservice is not handled in a way that older fans appreciate; it fails to capture or even try to understand the underlying spirit of the original show. I think I can speak for most Digimon fans when I say that we came to Digimon Adventure for the monsters, but stayed for the compelling story and lovable, relatable characters. Adventure 2020 just stops at the monsters and as a result falls flat on its single dimension.

I think it’s a cautionary tale to anyone putting together a reboot. When rebooting, it’s so extremely important to understand and respect what drew fans to the original, and to repackage the core material in a way that does justice to the original. And it’s not enough to rely on nostalgia alone—you have to make sure you’re creating something that can be enjoyed and understood in its own right by any generation.

I’d like to see an entertainment industry where reboots happen not to milk more money out of a franchise, not because the studio is desperate for ideas, but because someone put enough thought into a reboot to make it work well. In fact, I’d like to see more reboots of things that didn’t do well the first time around. They’re what really need reboots, because a lot of TV shows and movies had really good core ideas that weren’t executed well, but the ideas themselves are definitely worth revisiting. I think reboots of things that were already good to begin with are completely unnecessary—and, as Adventure 2020 has shown, you then run the risk of a reboot that’s worse than the original, which doesn’t benefit anybody.

Appendix: Last Evolution Kizuna

While we’re on the subject of weird turns the Digimon franchise has taken lately, I wanted to rant for a moment about the film Last Evolution Kizuna (or “LEK” for short). In a nutshell, it’s about the Digidestined’s Digimon disappearing once they go to college. It’s supposed to be a deep and emotional film about letting go and the transition to adulthood… but actually I find it just gets so much wrong.

First off, the idea that Digimon disappear once their partners reach a certain age/academic level does not square at all with the ending of Digimon 02, which shows a permanent connection between the real world and Digital World, with Digimon fully integrating into human society—including the partners of the Digidestined. LEK doesn’t explain this past Tai and Matt vaguely stating they think they’ll see Agumon and Gabumon again someday. The producers of the film explicitly stated LEK takes place in the same continuity as 02, yet they didn’t do enough to properly tie the two together. The ending of 02 might have been on the corny side (and very clearly just trying to wrap things up quickly before Tamers started airing), but at least it wasn’t downright melancholy like the end of LEK.

I also totally disagree with the film’s message, which seems to be that once you reach college you’re “locked in” to a career and you’re not allowed to enjoy life anymore. The Digimon disappearing are symbolic of the supposed necessity of abandoning one’s childhood in order to fully embrace adult responsibilities. So basically the film is telling you “hey, Digimon is for kids, so grow up already and focus on your mind-numbing office job”.

I find this idea so appalling and abhorrent. Growing up isn’t about leaving behind everything that used to make you happy and feel empowered—it’s about expanding your horizons and finding even more to enjoy about life. Yes, you take on more responsibility, but you never stop needing to have fun and decompress. LEK feels like an ode to the Japanese work ethic of putting your nose to the grindstone, figuring out where you fit into the system and committing yourself to staying there until retirement. I love Japan, but that cultural expectation has led to a lot of really depressed and stressed salarymen and women, who are absolutely miserable but don’t feel like they can do anything about it.

In reality, most people definitely don’t have their careers figured out when they get to college, and a lot of people don’t have their careers figured out even after they graduate. And a good proportion of adults end up switching careers at some point in their lives. I hate LEK’s portrayal of adulthood as something deadening and stifling. Brains are supposed to keep learning and growing—that’s what keeps them healthy.

I feel like the messages behind LEK about childhood, growing up, and where passions fit into adult life were just not handled well, and I can’t be the only one who sees the irony in an anime/video game franchise with a lot of adult fans making a film that essentially says “okay, you’re adult now so it’s time to put the anime and video games away”.

And another thing—the human characters’ Digimon partners aren’t just colorful monsters that keep saving the day. They’re people with their own personalities, and a big part of the Adventure continuity is the bonds of friendship that form between the human kids and their Digimon. You can’t just throw away those important and deep relationships. Adventure and 02 make it clear and obvious that the brotherhood and sisterhood between the Digidestined and their Digimon was never meant to go away—it was meant to last a lifetime.

And in real life, saying goodbye to a loved one is hard, but as a Christian I believe we will see those loved ones again someday, and the bonds we share are eternal. Other things may be transient, but the deep and meaningful and supremely satisfying connections we have with our family and friends last forever.

So that’s why I did not find LEK a fitting send-off for the Adventure continuity. I also don’t think franchises ever really need a send-off. I don’t like writers to keep aging up my beloved characters and eventually having them reach a point where their adventures are done. Digimon Adventure was wonderful the way it was, and there’s nothing wrong with things always staying that way in fans’ minds. It’s a great happy place to not only return to ourselves, but to introduce new generations to.

Something I’ve come to realize as I’ve grown older – and something LEK completely gets wrong – is that as you grow up and grow into new stages of life, you’re still you. Your roles and responsibilities may change, but the things that make you you at your core are eternal. And that includes your passions. Growing up isn’t about leaving behind the things that make you happy—it’s about finding new ways to enjoy them. For example, I’ve always loved dinosaurs, but as an adult, I can do more than just love them—I can engage with paleontologists and create paleoart that, with my art education, is way better than anything I drew as a kid.

So that’s why I don’t consider LEK part of my headcanon Adventure continuity. Also, I think it’s ridiculous that LEK tries so hard to play up the emotional drama of the kids being separated from their Digimon for what looks like forever, when the last episode of 02 very clearly shows that they’re reunited at some point. I can’t stand unnecessary melodrama.

You can totally make a well-written and engaging Digimon film without having to resort to “oh noes adult drama”. Our War Game proves this point quite well—it’s an entirely self-contained narrative that has nothing to do with addressing major life changes or trying to wrap anything up. It’s just a riveting half-hour ride through virtual warfare as brilliant and determined kids save the world under the noses of the oblivious adults.

… Yeah, Our War Game will always be the best Digimon movie in my book.