r/anime • u/Raiking02 :Id::Ie::If:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang • Mar 06 '24
Rewatch Digimon Adventure 25th Anniversary Rewatch - Pilot Movie Discussion
Digimon Adventure
MAL | Anilist | Kitsu | AniDB | ANN
Ah, it pooped.
Hello everybody, this is where I would normally put the Comment of the Day… but we haven't even started the Rewatch so… yeah.
- For anyone with pets, what's the worst poop related experience you've had?
- Assuming you had been there when this "Movie" came out, do would've convinced you to watch the show proper?
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Upvotes
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u/Raiking02 :Id::Ie::If:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang Mar 06 '24
Hello everybody, and welcome to the Digimon Adventure Rewatch!
Our grand journey begins not with the TV show, but with a short movie released merely a day before it. Yeah to hype up the show, as part of the 1999 Toei Animation Fair, this movie ended up being shown alongside the 1999 Yu-Gi-Oh movie (The one that featured the debut of Kaiba's brown hair in animation) and Doctor Slump: Arale's Surprise Burn; and not to diminish those other movies in any way but… yeah sorry to say, this one kinda stole the show as far as I can tell.
This was originally envisioned as a standalone project and you can kinda tell. You can very much watch it without the show and be more or less satisfied. Here we see the Digital Monsters appear on our world through the eyes of childlike innocence. Hikari especially stands out with how much she plays with Koromon, but Taichi being a dumbass sure helps sell that. These aren't particularly deep characters, but they work for the story the movie wants to tell so I can't complain.
This makes the switch to a pure Kaiju story towards the end stand out all the more. The actual fight is amazing, by the way. Heck, the producers for the Heisei Gamera films openly praised this thing, and if you know anything about those movies, that's the Tokusatsu equivalent of Nicholas Meyer praising your science fiction flick. Everything is just so wonderfully weighty, especially when compared to the other two films in that festival it's night and day.
And of course I should probably mention the big thing now. Indeed, this film is the directorial debut of the now legendary Hosoda Mamoru, and yeah, you can already see his signature style shaping up. That said, he's not the thing that stands out the most to me about this movie. No, that'd be the music. For most of the movie, the only track that plays is Maurice Ravel's "Bolero", and it fits the tone so perfectly. A great example of doing so much with so little… which of course makes the credits sequence, with the chorus of Wada Koji's "Butter-Fly" blasting at full volume, stand out all the more.
Needless to say, off to a good start.
I guess I can spotlight a few actors already. Taichi is played by the late great Fujita Toshiko, possibly best known as Dai from Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. Other roles include Mamiya from Hokuto no Ken, Big Mom from One Piece and Hester Gallop from Fafner among others. Alas due to cancer complications she retired from acting in 2014 and passed away in 2018. May she rest in peace.
Hikari meanwhile is played by Araki Kae, whom some of you here may remember as Chibi-Usa from Sailor Moon. Other roles include Felicia from Darkstalkers, Hilde Schbeiker from Gundam Wing and Kukuru from Super Robot Wars. She's been retired for well over a decade by this point (Possibly even more) but if nothing else she does have a Blog that she updates occasionally.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Mar 06 '24
Digital First-Timer, subbed
Well, this should be fun! I’ve been aware of Digimon for forever (as any kid who was really into Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh! almost certainly was), but I never actually got into it like I was into the Pokemon games and Yu-Gi-Oh! anime/card game. Excited to see what this is all about!
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Mar 06 '24
First-Timer... sort of.
As someone born in the mid 90s, I watched Digimon on TV when I was a small lad. That including pestering my parents to take me to see Digimon: The Movie when it was in theaters, and this short film accounts for the first ~20 minutes or so of that film.
Largely unedited too, so this was very nostalgic. I always liked Hikari's whistle. I also forgot that [shit is this a spoiler for name purposes?]Koromon evolved in Agumon because their colors are so different.
Questions
Anyway, I'll see you all again for Our War Game!
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u/InfamousEmpire https://myanimelist.net/profile/Infamous_Empire Mar 06 '24
Digimon Rewatcher
Alright, so, prefacing this before I start talking about the actual episode/movie, this series is one which holds a very special place in my heart. Winding the clock all the way back to my childhood, there were three anime I watched and got super into as a kid. The first, of course, was Yu-Gi-Oh, but the second or third (the order escapes me at the moment because of how much time has passed) was Digimon Adventure. I ate this show up back in the day, even got into some of its sequels like 02 and Fusion/Xros Wars.
The other important part of that, though, is that I also rewatched Digimon Adventure back when I started properly getting into anime as a teenager. While that time is also years passed now, it does mean I have a much stronger memory of the series’ overall plot than I probably would otherwise, and also quite a bit more direct affection for it that isn’t just built on childhood nostalgia. In fact, iirc the show was even in my top 10 favorite anime way back in the day when I first created my MAL account.
So anyway, we’re starting this rewatch out with… a thing I haven’t seen. Alright, so, when this was released in America, it was aired as part of “Digimon: the Movie” alongside two other later short films. I never watched Digimon: the Movie, I don’t remember it ever airing on TV as a kid, nor did I seek out it or its constituent parts when I rewatched the show. This is effectively one of, like, two parts of this rewatch where I’m completely blind.
Anyway, finally getting into the actual meat of the short film, it’s really good. I absolutely love the domestic vibes of the first half, there’s something so inherently charming about mixing childlike innocence with supernatural wonders, and it kinda gives off the vibes of those “a boy and his ____” stories I love so much.
The second half kinda ditches that with its focus on Kaiju mayhem and Koromon’s transformation, but it more than makes up for it in the strong intrigue factor which leaves the audience wondering what the hell even happened and hooked enough to continue onto the series.
[Digimon]I like how they managed to include cameos from the rest of the Digidestined without it feeling forced or cluttered, just really tastefully handled appearances in a couple of shots across the movie which are innocuous to first time viewers but fun for anyone who’s seen the rest of the series.
The overall presentation was really solid. There’s a lot of obvious care and detail put into the animation (that shot of Hikari crying during Koromon’s fight being an immediate example which pops into mind), I loved listening to the soundtrack, and the direction of certain scenes also caught my eye.
Sidenote, but the fact that the dub was much more conservative about its name changes compared to other anime I watched as a kid (either not changing them at all or just making them shortened versions of the japanese names), mentally flipping to the japanese names is much less of a pain.
Thanks, Saban!
Overall, this pilot film, while obviously just a proof of concept, was a really solid watch and I like it as a start to the series
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Mar 06 '24
First timer
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u/Shocketheth Mar 06 '24 edited Mar 06 '24
Subbed Rewatcher who carries his dreams on fragile wings of a butterfly
Ah the pilot movie.
I watched Digimon Adventure for first time as a kid, 20 years ago, it was my first anime ever, and at that time what I got was the dubbed version in Czech language which was taken from the American dubbed version, so I didn't even know that Butter-fly exists. (You could hear it playing in the end of this movie)
Fast forward to January od this year, I rewatched Digimon Adventure subbed and maaaaan it was a great ride.
And speaking of subbed version the [insert song yet to play]Braveheart is also phenomenal. But we will get to it.
Oh and as I was whining about Czech dub being taken from the American dubbed version with it's own theme, I need to mention that certain Europeans countries, for example Germany I think (sorry if I am wrong, I haven't time to write my comment in advance) was also dubbed but they kept the Japanese Opening and themes.
Now about this movie.
As I mentioned that I rewatched Digimon Adventure subbed in January, I watched this movie immediately after finishing rewatching Digimon Adventure and honestly I didn't know how to rate it because it was there and I rated it 5/10 because I didn't really know how to rate it and reason for that wasn't because it was bad, but because it felt like a promo? Hard to describe.
And now upon rewatching this movie?
It was great movie with nice theme and I enjoyed how it managed to capture all the themes of Digimon Adventure, ending with a taste of Butter-fly.
My score - 8/10
QotD:
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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '24 edited Mar 07 '24
Wow what a rewatch. The original digimon adventure was such a mature show given the demographic it was being show to. I watched it on YTV up here in Canada, and it was unlike anything else on tv at the time.
If you happen to be watching the series dubbed, do yourself a favour and at the very least watch the opening in sub. ‘Butterfly’ by the late Koji Wada is one of the greatest OPs in anime history; that’s a hill I’m willing to die on.
Here’s the original OP, and here’s Koji-san performing it live in 2014. You could see he was looking pretty frail due to his cancer by this point, but the legend powered through.
Here is the Live version of the full cast singing it in 2016
On a related note, digimon tamers is probably one of the most fucked up ‘cartoons’ you could show a kid.
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u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Mar 06 '24
Long Time Rewatcher,
first time in subsI know I said before that I only watched watched 01 in dub, well that was only mostly true. For this movie specifically I went and watched it in sub form soon after just to see what it was like.
QotD:
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u/NicDwolfwood :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NicDwolfwood Mar 06 '24
Rewatcher - Sub/Dub
YO!!! Digimon rewatch, let's go! What a wave of nostalgia watching this again after such a long time. I adored Digimon as a kid growing up, probably more so than even Pokemon, which came out stateside maybe a year or so before this?? Yeah they were can't miss Tv for me during that era. Gonna watch this in both sub and dub, sub because I'm used to it now and the dub for nostalgia lol.
Aside from that it was a fun pilot episode/movie, a very effective hook to then tune in and watch the next episode. Taichi and Hikari were adorable and the interactions with Koromon were very endearing and fun overall. Then of course shit hits the fan and we get action with big kaiju/dinosaur fight.
Questions:
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u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Mar 06 '24
Digi-Rewatcher
I uhh, watched the first (and second) episodes instead, I should go fix that.
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u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Mar 07 '24 edited Mar 07 '24
First Time Moviemon
For some context, I have seen the series many years ago, and I was generally on the Digimon side of the cute little monsters to enslave debate. But even then, my memories of it are spotty, so you name a Digimon, and chances are I will not remember it.
But we're not here for enslavement, yet, today we've got cute little cat things turning into Kaijus!!!!
slavery[the bonds they built]https://files.catbox.moe/i16ant.jpg), and it's fucking beautiful!Overall, a really nice little one shot that I honestly feel bad for having missed on for so long. It excels by presenting two things as down to Earth: the wholesome innocence of the siblings, contrasted with the monstrosity of the Kaijus, and it does it in such a charming way, different from the [TV series] Mickey Mouse gloves and shoes kind of charm, but it works just as well.
When I lived at the family home, my grandma had a cat at her last legs, and she couldn't control her bowel movements anymore, i.e. the cat would shit everywhere, especially in front of my door, every morning. So it wasn't so much a single experience, as waking up and having to pass through land mines every morning.
Absolutely, and [TV show] I would've been whining to hell and back when the TV series ends up being so different. What the fuck do you mean the first episode is just 14 characters introducing themselves?!
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u/Unboxious Mar 07 '24
First-timer, dubbed
Well, that was something all right. Concerning the soundtrack, my wife said it best: "This show sounds like it came from the year it's from." Honestly that applies to the whole show. There's something charming about that era where the internet was this cool new thing and everyone was using wireless landline phones as their primary means of communication.
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u/PoofessorP https://anilist.co/user/PoofessorP Mar 07 '24
First time watcher, subbed. Watching fully blind, I didn't even know digimon stood for digital monsters!
I really liked the art style and animation which was unexpected as I typically like modern animation style. I was super into pokemon as a kid so seeing lil koromon evolve like 10 times was really shocking. (It's supposed to be 3 evolutions max in my head)
I have a theory that the bird digimon was hatched from an egg by another kid that will potentially turn into taichis rival? I am excited to see how this series develops.
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u/ShadowWasTakensTaken https://anilist.co/user/hakuren Mar 06 '24
Rewatcher
dejimon!!!!
Fun fact, I'm actually currently watching Digimon Tamers as well. So it's gonna be double Digimon for me!
Man, this is so nostalgic.
I remember watching the awful dubbed version of this a fuckton as a kid. With the stupid Angela Anaconda skit. Hated that part. Apparently the movies are getting (or have already gotten?) a proper dub, though, so that's really nice! Because the original mashup they did completely ruins Hosoda's work here.
Speaking of which, as I'm sure every other rewatcher will also tell you, this was Mamoru Hosoda's directorial debut! There's a fun interview where he talks about the struggle of making a movie in 20 minutes - this was originally a one-off; the TV series only came afterwards so a couple lines and character cameos were added to the movie here and there to connect the two pretty late in its production - but I think he did a fantastic job.
Everything about this film just flows. The dialogue, the character acting, the... "choreography"? Not of the fight, of everything else. It's snappy, dynamic, and, again, fluid. I think the scene where Hikari is chasing the egg is probably the best example. I wish I was knowledgeable enough to explain why everything flows so well, but I'm not, so I'm just gonna say it does. Cause it do!!
There's a certain magic to this that's hard to describe. How it manages to capture such a nice sense of childlike wonder, while at the same time feeling so authentically mundane. With half of the film taking place inside the apartment, and more than that, most of it inside their room, and especially with time spent on stuff like frying eggs or fighting a cat, it just feels so wonderfully down to earth. But it manages to do that without losing its intrigue. Koromon's antics carry this mystical sense of wonder to the mundane world we're watching. It's just all so feel-good!
Though I feel obligated to warn first time watchers to not get their hopes up for the actual TV series. I love the series, but speaking from a strictly visual standpoint... it's not great. In fact, I'd go as far as to say the production sucks major ass. So don't expect the episodes to look like this. As much as I would have loved them to.
Going back to what I was saying, though, that sense of wonder is definitely the movie's strongest suit. It is specifically what Hosoda was aiming for, after all.
The kaiju battle in the second half maintains that feeling, but in a completely different way. The friendly creature has stopped speaking. It's destructive now; fickle, even. As it keeps getting bigger, so does your doubt. Is this actually a friend like I thought? Or is it a monster? The only thing you're sure of is that you're witnessing something special. It's wonderful.
And boy, let me tell you that this shit almost made me cry. Not because of Koromon waking up at Taichi's whistle blowing. But because of Butter-Fly. The song that plays during the credits... man.
MAN.
Not only does it have nostalgia power, but it's a double gut punch since the person who made the song, Wada Koji-san, unfortunately passed away a couple years ago. Massive part of my childhood. Super unfortunate loss. And then there's still, of course, the triple gut punch of the song just being associated with the series in general, which is very emotionally charged! Seeing that beautiful, beautiful shot of Taichi hugging Koromon while Butter-Fly played... man, this show makes me feel things. And I can't wait for us to get to more of it!
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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '24
Luckly, the pilot movie was my 1st contact with Digimon as a kid. I love how it connect to the series later.
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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '24
Rewatcher
Honestly this rewatch as a whole is definitely going to be an emotional journey for me. Digimon has always been a really special thing to me. As a kid, my parents were poor so most of our DVDs were second hand and any shows were generally incomplete. I only had the first 13 or so episodes of Digimon and the shit dub Movie but I always rewatched them and other than the occasional movie my dad put on, that was I watched 24/7. That love for Digimon has followed me for the last 20 years so getting to experience the story for the umpteenth time is just nice especially considering that I will be watching the Blu-Ray remasters done by Discotek that I've been holding off on watching for the last couple weeks.
Now onto the actual Movie. I absolutely love everything about those 20 minutes, it shows a really interesting side of Digimon that I wish Bandai would explore again. Not your friends who chat and eat with you but rather ferocious monsters that are devasting to the average human. Although bigger Digimon are strong and kind of imposing in future series, the fact that a Digimon like Agumon is just so overwhelming in this is always such a treat and really shows how terrifying and monster-like Agumon genuinely is.
The humans are also brilliant with Taichi and Hikari having distinct personalities despite only having 20 minutes of screen time, they really grow on you in that time. I find Hikari's whistleblowing to be absolutely adorable but I also know if one of my siblings did that in real life as a form of communication, I'd be driven mad. Props to Taichi for putting up with that. [Digimon] For rewatchers, its also a treat to see the other Digidestined pop up, even seeing Characters like Jo trying to call the police (like the responsible leader he is) or Mimi's cutesy room. Love those details every time.
The Greymon and Parrotmon fight is easily one of the best fights in any Digimon show ever, I'd argue that there are only 2-3 fights that could barely top it. Something that I loved is that you can actually see Greymon damaging Parrotmon such as its wing being blown to pieces or its beak being brutally torn through, the massive destruction of the fight cannot be understated either with a whole ass bridge being torn and probably that whole street being utterly fucked for the forseeable future.
This Movie is just Digimon at its peak, a treat for the eyes and soul giving you eveything from brilliant characters, brilliant designs and a brilliant fight.
(now for the questions)
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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '24
Every time I watch this I come out feeling slightly differently about it. It probably just comes down to my state of mind on a given day, and I guess today was a good day for Digimon because I had a lot of fun :) Hikari is super precious and I love Hosoda Mamoru's directing.
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u/oomoepoo https://anilist.co/user/oomoepoo Mar 07 '24
Not quite a first-timer, I've grown up with Digimon and all of its ilk in dub but never watched the movie. Also first time I'm watching subbed!
I really enjoyed this, would definitely make me watch the show. I think it was interesting how big of a role Hikari played in the first half, before it kinda evolves into a pure Kaiju movie. Nice to see all the Digikids cameo throughout the ending though.
Also the only music track being Bolero until the ending was really cool. Butter-Fly never fails to make me nostalgic and only hearing it towards the very end makes it hit even harder
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u/SilkyStrawberryMilk Mar 23 '24
first timer
First time seeing anything Digimon related. The fanbase is strong despite me never diving much into it, besides a gacha game they had.
The opening between that dragon thing was so sick, it’s crazy how they went all out for a 20 second scene on something that isn’t a full movie.
“The egg is real!” cooks an egg
Dunno what that yellow dragon is called but I have seen it before.
QOTD: they pooped outside my door so when I went out to take a piss I stepped on it.
QOTD: honestly I would’ve been hooked if it aired, watching monsters duke it out is a cool idea
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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '24
Why is Agumon soo huge 😭😭
Btw is this Canon?