Guilty Pleasure: Digimon

Everyone of us has at least one "guilty pleasure", a secret joice you are too ashamed of to actually talk about. Well, here is mine. This often as childish and boring described japanese series was my first anime EVER. Loving this kind of show resulted in the fact that I easily get addicted to shows like this, even nowadays.

Back in 2001, when the first season of "Digimon (Adventure)" started, I didn't even had a CLUE about Animes, I didn't even know that "Heidi" or "Ohayō! Supanku" were one of them. I fell in love with the art of drawing, the storytelling, the superb score (good music is the key to magic) and the great plot! Yes, it was great. Maybe not deep, but it was great and entertaining as hell. I absolutely loved it and watched this season a hundred times since then. It never gets boring if you love it like I did and always will. ^_^

The best about season one were the great Seadramon, its ultimate form Metalseadramon, Garudamon and Angemon, the Angel. I've always been keen on the Nessie myth and Seadramon reminded me of this beloved lake monster. His ultimate evolution , Metalseadramonm, became one of my favorite Digimon of all time. (Right, the plural form is not DigimonS, it's Digimon. Digital Monsters. Please keep that in mind. ^^) I think it was just a creative idea to make Nessie look like a mechanic creature that actually has no problem to swim and dive through seas and lakes. Garudamon on the other hand evolved because of her will to survive and the heart of Sora, her human passenger. It inspired me and made my heart melt. Angemon on the other hand resembled pure power and undestroyable magic coming from heaven. It was just beautiful to watch when he showed up to rescue the humans from evil.

I love Season One. It was the best season of Digimon and will forever be. None of the seasons that followed came close to the magic of season one, but I liked almost all of them. It's Digimon, you know? :)

Season Two, or: "Digimon Adventure Zero Two", was great. I wasn't keen on the new digivolution mode and was happy that the old evolution mode came back after a while. But still, this season didn't really FLASH me and I wasn't really addicted to it. I didn't love the way they ended it and the last two episodes were kinda torture. Who wanted to see all digivolutions in a row... twice? It was nothing but useless and time-consuming. Still, the season had its moments (Sylphimon was my favourite, a fusion of Aquilamon and Gatomon) and was nice to watch.

Season Three, or "Digimon Tamers", was my second favorite. It had a nice and entirely new concept that reminded me of a TCG (Trading Card Game) just like Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh, but this time even better. The way this new method was put into the story was just mind blowing. For the first (and only) time ever, humans had to use cards to make their digimon evolve to a higher level or become stronger. They created a new insert song (background music that is used in a special moment, like evolution or the use of power-ups) for both the evolution and card using method. I think the drawing was better than it was back in season two, but still, it couldn't surpass the magic of season one. My favorite was Maringeangemon.

Season Four, or "Digimon Frontier" was just not my cup of tea. All I can say is that it reminded me of Power Rangers, because humans evolved into digital monsters, and I simply hated that. It was the only season I didn't watch from start to finish, because it annoyed me at some point. I had almost no favorites, the story was cheap and the drawing became even worse after it was certain that this season should end earlier than the previous ones. The only good thing about this season was the music.

Season Five, or "Digimon Savers" / "Digimon Data Squad" was my favorite after season 1 and 3. I loved the more mature look of the characters (they almost looked like young adults), the "back-to-the-roots" evolution system and the inspiring music that just got better and better. I had a lot of favorites, just like Shinegreymon Burst Mode, Gaomon and his entire evolution family, Merukimon, Yattagaramon and Ravemon. This season was full of moments that I will never forget, for example the final battle against Belphemon or the bio hybrids. I loved this season!

Season Six, or "Digimon Xros Wars" (picture on the right), is one of two seasons that I haven't watched already. It is one of the newest seasons and premiered in 2010, with an entirely new evolution system and the digimon looking like animal transformers (holy...). I'm about to order this season via ebay and should be able to review it in early 2012. Season Seven, or "Digimon Xros Wars II: Time Traveling Hunter Boys" (picture on the left) is the sequel to "Digimon Xros Wars" and premiered right after the end of season six in October 2011. It is still running and I will not be able to watch it unless I've watched season six. But I'm convinced that both seasons won't be as great as I want them to be...