Remembering with Rose Colored Glasses: Digimon Adventure

Remember how in the 90's everyone one was obsessed with Pokemon, the Japanese show about an 11-year-old going out into the world unsupervised to capture wild mutant animals? Well, there was also a show that was similar to Pokemon called Digimon. Instead of one protagonist, we got seven and later eight, and their monsters could talk fluently instead of repeating their names like Pokemon. I loved this show as a kid, and I remember watching it with my brother and my cousin. We would pretend to be DigidDestined and have our own Digimon.

Digimon came out in 1999, and I'm going to try and explain the season's plot as best I can, the first season is divided into three parts. The first part starts out with seven kids attending summer camp get sent into the Digital World or the Digiworld by an unknown force. Yeah, they get sent into the Internet because it was the 90's and Internet was still new to us. Anyway, the seven kids or DigiDestined, Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzi, Mimi, Joe, and T.K., wake up in the Digiworld and find out they partnered with a digital monster or a Digimon.

• Tai = Agumon
• Matt = Gabumon
• Sora = Biyomon
• Izzi = Tentomon
• Mimi = Palmon
• Joe = Gomamon
• T.K. = Patamon

These Digimon will protect them as the DigiDestined try to get home. So the first villain they face is called Devimon, a devil looking Digimon who making good Digimon bad with Black Gears. In other words, he corrupts a Digimon's program. After the heroes defeat him by getting their Digimon to evolve into more powerful versions. After that victory, they have to stop Etemon from taking over the digital world. Now in order to beat monkey-Elvis, no seriously that's what Etemon was, the DigiDestined must find crests that will allow their Digimon to evolve to an even more powerful level than before. These crests are based on a defining trait of each of the DigiDestined.

• Tai = Courage
• Matt = Friendship
• Sira = Love
• Izzi = Knowledge
• Mimi = Sincerity 
• Joe = Reliability
• T.K. = Hope

So after they collect their crests and learn something about themselves, they defeat Etemon and must face a third villain, an Interview With a Vampire looking Digimon called Myotismon. Myotismon smacks the DigiDestined around and sends them back into the human world. Then the second act of the season begins.

In the second part of the season, the DigiDestined are trying to stop Myotismon from taking over the world and look for the eighth DigiDestined. To sum it up, the eighth DigiDestined is Tai's little sister Kari and her Digimon partner is Gatomon, a Digimon who was brainwashed into serving Myotismon. The DigiDestined fight Myotismon and all the evil Digimon he brought to the human world. Also, the DigiDestined's family members try to come to terms with the fact that their loved ones are fighting monsters. When Myotismon is finally "defeated," (watch season two), and the DigiDestined find out that they need to go back to the Digiworld because it has been conquered by four dictators.

So final act is all eight DigiDestined fighting the Dark Masters. The eight lose a lot of old friends, learned even more about themselves and finally kick butt and take names. After the Dark Masters are defeated, they meet the final boss called Apocalymon. Apocalymon is a Digimon created from death, jealousy, and despair; basically a cross between Satan and the trash icon on your computer. The DigiDetined defeat them, the Digiworld is saved, and after a tearful goodbye to their Digimon, the kids return to Earth. That's the cliff notes version of season one of Digimon

Overall, I enjoyed this show as a kid and I still do. Unlike Pokemon, I didn't feel like I was watching animals fighting because the Digimon had personalities and had conversations with their partners. The human characters were likable and their Digimon had personalities that complimented them. Tai was the team's hot head who unfortunately had to step up to be the team's leader. Augumon was there to give Tai a pep talk when he was down or make Tai take a minute to think. Matt was the group's lone wolf because he came from divorced parents and felt like he had to take care of his brother T.K. first and foremost. Gabumon helped Matt break out of his shell and see he could make friends with other people. Sora was the team mom and tomboy, who felt like she was a disappointment to her mother for not being more girly. Biyomon gave Sora confidence and showed that she was loved, by her friends and her mother. Izzi is the Brain of the group who feels more comfortable being online than with people. This stems from finding out he's adopted and it is easier to lose himself in cyberspace than deal with the issue. Tentomon serves as a way for Izzi to connect with everyone else and translates Izzi's technobabble. Mimi is the spoiled girly girl and Palomon does her best to help Mimi deal with the fact she is no longer in the lap of luxury, as well as help Mimi be a better person.

Joe is the team's worry wort and a coward who needs Gomamon gives him courage. T.K. is the kid and with the help of Patamon, he grows up over the show. Kari, Tai's sister, doesn't really have any issues like the others. Instead, she is the one giving love to Gatomon, who spent most of her life alone and being physically and mentally abused.

Digimon is a great show and the second season continues the story further. Later seasons, there are a total of eight, give their own spin to Digimon but also contradicts some of the mythos. Overall I believe people should give it a try and it is on Netflix. I say check it out.

I'm Colin and these are the ramblings of a guy in his twenties.

A New Year

So the first week of 2017 has past and I spent the last couple days fighting a cold. How's that for starting off the new year. That said I'm hopeful for 2017, though I have to say 2016 was a bit rough for some. We seemed to lose so many celebrities that year, such as Alan Rickman, Prince, Mohamad Ali, and of course Carrie Fisher. Their fans shall miss them greatly. We also had an ugly presidential campaign that seemed to divide everyone, even people within the same parties. I don't know what will happen this year, but I do believe we must be hopeful that it will be a great year. Regardless of the tragedies and mistakes of the past year, we should learn from them and hope 2017 will be better. So I ask all my readers to try and make this year a better one than the last. I hope you succeed in all your New Year's resolutions, and try to help those you care about succeed with theirs.

I'm Colin and these are the ramblings of a guy in his twenties.