#1. "Guilmon Comes Alive"
Takato discovers the Blue Card, and his card reader is
transformed into a D-Power Digivice. It scans the drawings and
specs Takato has created for his self-made Digimon, Guilmon, and
Takato sees Rika and Renamon in a dream - could he be a
"Digimon Tamer" like her? The answer comes soon, as
Guilmon Bio-Emerges into the real world!
It's the beginning of a whole new adventure, with all-new
characters, writers, directors and voice actors this season. This
episode is, without question, the best premiere any of the three
seasons of the show have had. It's paced well, and isn't
attempting to cram everything in at once - instead of a rushed
beginning, as was the case with previous seasons, were being led
in slowly, with minor introductions to characters like Kazu,
Kenta and Jeri, not to mention the Hypnos crew, which all become
important as the season moves on. Despite this, Takato's
acceptance of the fact that "Digimon are real" is a
little TOO quick for my tastes.
The animation quality is markedly improved from past seasons -
but while it's still not up to the quality of the top-notch team
who produced eps like "Invasion of the Daemon Corps,"
there's a very fluid quality about it, which is comparable to the
animation in the movie. The amount of CGI in use is also quite
notable - it's everywhere! And not in strange places where it
looks different to everything around it (like, say, Myotismon and
LadyDevimon's bats were) - it's blended in very nicely.
For the dub, I'm *very* pleased to see/hear that we have assorted
new background themes at work. Digimon's got a vast amount of
background music, but I know them all off by heart now, so
continuously over-played were they in the first two seasons. It's
great to get some new tunes, and it's a bonus that they AREN'T
just a different rendering of the theme. Also, the show gets new
talent in this ep, primarily in the form of Brian Beacock as
Takato, as well as Brad MacDonald as Kazu. Also, Philece Sampler
and Kirk Thornton are using voices which are very different from
their past Digimon roles in the parts of Takato's parents, which
distinguishes them clearly. Steve Blum also gets to move out of
type this episode - in the past, his voices have been much of a
muchness (Flamedramon, BlackWarGreymon, etc), but in this
episode, his Kenta and Guilmon voices are so radically different
from anything he's done on the show before that it's just great
to listen to. Maybe Brian Donovan's Davis wasn't the best choice
for a narrator, though.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
#2. "Digimon, Digimon Everywhere"
He might have a Digimon now, but Takato still has to go to school
- problem is, Guilmon decides to come along too! And just when it
looks like things are safe, Takato and Guilmon must face their
first Digimon battle - and Rika and Renamon!
To start with, Takato's willingness to accept everything, and his
reactions to these amazing events, are really starting to bug me.
I suppose it's the rabid fanboy side of him coming out, but even
Kenta and Kazu don't buy it. Also, Takato's fond of making snap
judgements - he listens to Terriermon talk for ten seconds, and
automatically assumes that he and Henry have a great friendship?
There's something iffy about that.
On the other hand, however, I really like the fact that he broke
down and cried - he IS only ten (or twelve in the dub) - he
SHOULD be breaking down and crying. The kids in the past two
seasons never acted their ages as much as this ('cept T.K. in
01). Heck, the most of them didn't even LOOK their ages (I'm
supposed to believe 01 Mimi was ten?) - that's another good thing
about the Tamers animation, it makes the characters look the way
they should.
For the dub, this episode was written by Seth Walther, who
started on Digimon close to the beginning of 02 and wrote various
episodes of it. This influence creeps through, with a few
needless jokes popping up, specifically in the cafeteria (using
chocolate cake to re-shingle the roof, etc). The scene with
Guilmon and the principal almost had me on the floor, though (Tom
Wyner's performance as the Principal was most enjoyable) and the
short scene where the couple are kissing, and then we just pan
out to see Calumon staring up at them curiously with a big grin
on his face was also well done.
Rating 3 out of 5
#3. "To Fight or Not to Fight"
#4. "It Came From the Other Side"
#5. "Dream a Little Dream"
#6. "O Partner, Where Art Thou?"
#7. "Now You See It, Now You Don't"
#8. "A Question of Trust"
#9. "Not as Seen on TV"
#10. "The Icemon Cometh"
#11. "Much Ado About Musyamon"
#12. "Divided They Stand"
#13. "Juggernaut"
#14. "Grow Mon Grow"
#15. "Snakes, Trains and Digimon"
#16. "Back to Nature, Back to Battle"
#17. "Duel with the Deva"
#18. "Digital Beauty"
#19. "Impmon's Last Stand"
#20. "Out of the Blue"
#21. "Jeri's Quest"
#22. "The Boar Wars"
#23. "A World Apart"
#24. "The Journey Begins"
#25. "Brave New Digital World"
#26. "Kazu and Kenta's Excellent Adventure"
#27. "Motorcycle Madness"
#28. "Blame it on Ryo"
#29. "Goliath"
#30. "The Imperfect Storm"
#31. "Kazu's Upgrade"
#32. "Rabbit Transit"
#33. "Shibumi Speaks"
#34. "Lionheart"
#35. "Give a Little Bit"
#36. "The Battle Within"
#37. "No Mon is an Island"
#38. "Azulongmon Explains It All"
#39. "Song of Sakuyamon"
#40. "Janyu's Ark"
#41. "Homeward Bound"
#42. "Reunion"
#43. "Beelzemon's Big Day"
#44. "The Messenger"
#45. "The D-Reaper's Disguise"
#46. "When Is A Mon Justimon?"
#47. "His Kingdom for a Horse"
#48. "Shadow of the Beast King"
#49. "D-Reaper's Feast"
#50. "Jeri Fights Back"
#51. "Such Sweet Sorrow"
