#so happy & excited there’s gonna be a reunion ep/epilogue!!

[lilmeowmeowsagelesath]

such a perfect ending for thth2 but i’m so sad it’s over i’m gonna miss it / ryder sooo much 🥺😭😭

[keep-on-trying]

My Digimon Story

It’s still August 3rd, which is basically the last day of Odaiba Memorial, so I thought I’d write about my history with Digimon, and how I came back into it just in time for Digimon Adventure Tri. Premiere.

So, it actually starts from as early as when Digimon Adventure premiered in Finland. My parents never really let us watch the show (Honestly, considering how incredibly bad the finnish dub was before Vamdemon saga’s mid point(?), I fully understand why), but whenever the tv was on the right channel I’d manage to see couple of episodes from here and there.

Ever since childhood, I loved Mimi and Hikari specifically, Tailmon and Patamon being my absolute favourite digimon. The most memorable episodes for me specifically were the early episodes and Vamdemon saga. I don’t remember ever seeing the show’s climax until 3 years ago. I may have seen the Mugendramon episode during my childhood, but my memory is very hasty on it.

However, my biggest memory from childhood is definitely the moment when 02 was airing, and I always looked forward to seeing the Ken’s emotional episode in finnish, only to be disappointed with it being suddenly in english. (I was very biased towards english back then guys, it had literarily nothing to do with me hating dub. I didn’t even know the term back then.)

I also remember most of my digimon knowledge in childhood being from 02 anime. I was always excited to see 02 because Takeru and Hikari were older, but then got confused about Daisuke, Miyako and Iori. I honestly didn’t understand plotpoints back then at all. I was just 10 years old back then anyway. However, due to that sudden dub change from finnish to english, I never saw any episodes past that. And that’s basically all the knowledge I had of digimon back then.

From merchandise, I used to own the weird digimon related doll. I reblogged about that a while back. I also owned a few cards iirc, specifically Mimi’s shiny card. 

But that was my childhood memories. For a very long time, I forgot about the series and didn’t have any interest in it. Until about 2 years ago...

A friend of mine was drawing lots of fanart related to original Digimon, and even sold them as prints at local cons. Not a necessary detail, but it is what made me interested in the franchise again. I saw him praising the anime being better than most people think of it being, and how hyped he was for the upcoming Tri. series. It got me interested in it again. I suddenly remembered how I had watched few episodes in childhood, in finnish, and having watched few different animes during the past years, I thought I’d give it a go, this time in japanese. It’d be perfect time to get prepped for Tri. Movies as well!

Well... I couldn’t find japanese dub first at all. I only managed to find english dub, and thought that heck, let’s give it a shot. Now, people are gonna possibly hate me for saying this but...

I could not stand the english dub at all. The fact that there was almost never a silent moment, some of the jokes were incredibly lousy imho and I couldn’t exactly get behind the voices most characters had, I’m surprised I managed to actually watch the english dub all the way to ep 37. English dub managed to make me dislike Mimi and Jou, I didn’t like their voices or personality at all. Idk. But then, I managed to find japanese! The moment I found it I jumped there and oh boy. It was a huge difference. Mimi’s voice was actually still something my ears could hardly handle, but after just few episodes, I actually started liking her again. I somehow felt like she was completely a different character. I much prefered other characters’ voices thou, and that managed to make me more hooked to the series than dub did. Again, I’m sorry for saying this about dub, I know people like it, but I just have my opinion on it. I hope you’ll respect it as much as I respect other people liking it.

Anyway, I got to the end of the series and good lord... I cried like a baby. I didn’t want the show to end. I fell in love with the opening song, the ending song and I eventually learned to like even Jou. By the end of the series, Jou and Mimi redeemed themselves from the dub impression, and became my absolute favourites alongside Hikari. I actually went and started watching the show from the beginning, this time in japanese. And I immidiately liked the show even more. This time I managed to cry at Angemon’s death and Wizardmon’s death as well. I also learned to like every single character.  If it weren’t for japanese dub, I’d have just left the series be.

After the quick rewatch of Adventure, I jumped to 02. Althought this time, again, I couldn’t find japanese and had to watch in dub til ep 21. The dub managed to make me loathe all 3 new chosen children, and I got super annoyed by Davis not remembering T.K’s name. Once I found japanese dub thou.... oh boy. Daisuke became my favourite! It’s amazing how a different dub manages to make me hate a character I love in another dub. 02 story is pretty much the same as Adventure. But y’know, this time I watched the whole thing. I got confused at times, but really liked Jogress and god damn the songs! They became my favourites real quickly. I didn’t like the epilogue thou lol. I got over it thou.

But y’know, this opened me whole lot of other doors as well. After finishing with 02, in time I got myself to watch other digimon series as well. Of course, I started with Digimon Tamers. This time, I found japanese all the way from the start, so I have no opinions on these dubs. I actually had hard time getting into all Tamers, Frontier and Savers, because imo they all had very slow starts. I even put my Tamers watch on hold once they got to their Digital World. But when I got back...

The Matrix Evolution is my favourite thing in Tamers, and Sakuyamon became my favourite evolution. Her animation was so god damn gorgeus, and the song that plays in the background is absolutely beautiful. I shed tears during few scenes again, esp. the ending. However, I was kinda not liking the whole D. reaper thing. I’m not sure why. It could be because the whole arc was handling depression and back then I didn’t like anything that depressing. Still don’t, but now it’s for different reasons. However, at the end I ended up liking Tamers a lot.

After Tamers, I checked Digimon Savers. Yes, I skipped Frontier, I had only read bad reviews of that show so I decided to jump into Savers instead. I wasn’t thrilled about the whole human becoming a digimon concept either, but later about that.

Even thou Savers had a slow start, I was surprised how much I ended up liking it. Masaru was way different from our gogglehead protagonists, and this new agumon... idk. :D I was about to give up on this show at around ep 14 or so, but then stuck through and didn’t regret it. I didn’t really like the ending tho. :’) But eh.

Then, I decided to give Digimon Frontier a go. Honestly, it remains my least favourite, but it had it’s moments and the fact that I managed to finish it tells something about the show. Oddly thou, I didn’t pick up any favourite characters. If I had to pick one, it’d probably be Kouji. Takuya was fine as well. But I didn’t grow attached to other characters at all, thou I do remember shedding few tears at the end for Kouichi.

Now, still at the moment the only digimon series I haven’t managed to watch past first 10 or so episodes...

Yup. I watched about 10 episodes of Digimon Xros Wars and left it there. I didn’t like the setting, didn’t like the lack of evolutions and it just didn’t feel as engaging to me. But since I didn’t get past first 10 episodes I don’t feel like I’m qualified to talk about it. So, let’s leave it at that.

So, then it was November, 2015. The premiere for Digimon Adventure Tri. Reunion. I liked how the trailers looked, and was pretty hooked. Back then, Crunchyroll didn’t provide license to Finland, so I was left tryhing to find it from elsewhere. And oh boy ;-;

I loved every freaking second of it. I was crying when Taichi and Agumon reunited, and I was utterly happy to see my favourite chosen children all grown. Everyone looked absolutely amazing.

I never was bothered with the lack of battles like lots of people seemed to have. To me, digimon was always about the story, and I was actually happy to see the movies focus more on story than having battles every 30 mins. Digimon Tri was exactly what I hoped to see of a sequal.

Til this day, I have watched every movie during their premiere nights, and after Determination, watched all from Crunchyroll. Each movie has made me emotional, and I have no doubt the last two movies will do the same as well. I’m so glad to have come back to Digimon, and I’m glad to have finally joined the fandom on Tumblr earlier this year. It’s a journey I’ll never forget.

Now, I’ll go back to eagerly away the September 30th, and prepare to cry once again. Thank you for reading this long ass text of my Digimon Story. Hope you enjoyed!