Digimon Adventure: 2020

After watching more of the series, my initial fears got confirmed. Digimon was always a shounen, albeit a very character driven one. And here we have the 2020 reboot, taking the sooner to extreme limits and the latter totally out of the product. 'Digimon adventure 2020' (code named 'Digimon Adventure Psi') can be just summed up as a collection of battle episodes with an exhaustingly repetitive script. Threat arises (causing planet extinction risk from day one), absurd battle with no coherence at all ensues, deus ex machina victory happens (usually due to unexplained phenomena or the characters shouting out very loud), threat that was over reappears in a more threatening way to have an excuse for another episode. The characters that drove the story in the original run and were likeable, relatable persons with emotions and strong bond between them are plain robots with the mere function of riding their Digimons, remember us how unexplainable everything happening around them is and shouting their Digimons' (and occasionally other character's names) an average of five times per minute. Or that is the case at least for the two "main" characters of the story, the rest of the kids have been cut back to a lesser role than an extra would have in any other show.

Animation wise the new re-imagining of 1999's franchise originating title edges the original, feeling very pleasing visually during some episodes (even if the sloppiness of the sequences they had no interest on investing time on, like some digievolution sequences for "lesser" Digimons, is almost insulting) and keeping in the vibrant colour palette of its predecessor that makes it so attractive for younger kids. The soundtrack, although not in the level of the masterful score of the first 'Digimon adventure', is still pretty good and definitely up to the standards of the franchise. Little matters any of it as the script makes it an unbearable ride for anyone looking for a bit of emotion or warmth in it, or at least a coherent, thrilling story. 'Digimon adventure 2020' is, at best, a mediocre shounen enjoyable by the youngest of the family, but it's in no way an entertaining watch for a newcomer to the franchise, and it is like salt in the recent 'Digimon Tri' wound to all of us who grew up with the original and expected a tweaked, improved storyline with the humanity and emotion that glued us to the screen twenty years ago intact.

The first three episodes are the only good thing of this reboot, they show how a Digimon series should be. The rest is a original series bad copy, too slow and not interesting. Digimon fans have grown up, the series age target should not remain 10 yo.

You know, when you like the franchise, you enjoy watching some new digimons animated and some mechanics being used like digimon geting more than one evolution line. This shows explore some old things like experimenting with them but wih no too much more planning than nostalgia or fanservice (in a non sexual way). Bad news is that it uses "Adventure" name with that goal and I know is a reboot and it should be distant but one thing is being different and another one is to be somehing completely far from the original, wich is not bad at all if you call it wih another name so you have nothing to compare with. Besides that, as an individual product, music's okay, it has big argumental issues and they could have put more love in animation and character development, It lacks of spirit and cliffhangers are really poor. There are some rescueable chapters with its own plot wich work apart from the main story wich are only disturbed by a main character that needs atention all the time. If you want to see forgotten digimons animated, some pokemon-like chapters wich only work without the main story, and some forgotten evolution mechanics used again, watch it, but with no more expectations than that..

The original Digimon series started with seven kids who knew each other from summer camp. They had a past event in common to unite them. They had the time to explore the Digital World without constantly being attacked and rushed through digivolutions. They learned and grew over time like real people. New digivolutions mattered more since they didn't come as quickly. You had the time to know the children and Digimon. There were good to evil Digimon everywhere instead of just good or evil Digimon. This new show recycles and rushes through everything while doing it worse.

The start of the season was very promising and made me addicted to the anime. I grew up with the OG season and had high expectations. For today's graphics and technology ( smartphone, online possibilities and so on ) it fits perfectly.

Also I have to admit the other characters around Taichi have way more character depth than in the original series.

The animations and battle scenes are much better here than in the OG series.

There are a few nice additions for some evolutions and also new evolutions.

The plot is the main problem for me at one point it totally lose its magical touch and pace. I felt like forced to watch the series to the end. My favorite arc remains when Devimon finally shows off and encounters the group. Afterwards it's getting stretched and feels like kinda filler episodes.

It's not a bad reboot. They did a great job and made it different. If it was the same as the original series people would moan about that too.

I think it's safe to say for new generations, new crowd it's a great show. I can recommend it to them. For nostalgic people like me, we will find many differences and similarities. Although I liked the start of the season and how they introduced each character it lacks at some point for me.

I still give it a 7 rating, because it was nothing terribly bad for the show. There is even space for another season.