The inventive Digimon franchise has kept its audience entertained for nearly 25 years and it’s experienced some creative changes since its debut. Digimon frequently lives in the shadow of Pokémon, but it’s one of the biggest monster hunting properties. There are nine distinct series in the franchise after the release of the most recent Digimon Ghost Game.
The third entry in the series, Digimon Tamers, came out in 2001 immediately after the conclusion of Digimon Adventure 02. Digimon Tamers sets itself in a unique Digimon canon and the ambitious risks that the series takes have made it one of the most memorable Digimon seasons.
10 Digimon Tamers Has A Smaller Cast With No Wasted Characters
Less can frequently be more, but there’s a compulsion for many anime series to feature a bloated cast of characters where many individuals can feel redundant. The initial Digimon Adventure series have a cast of seven Digidestined, which sets the tone for many future Digimon iterations.
Digimon Tamers simplifies things to three Digidestined, Takato, Henry, and Rika, as well as their respective Digimon, Guilmon, Terriermon, and Renamon. Calumon and Impmon, two sources of comic relief, are also fully realized Digimon without Tamers. This smaller cast allows everyone to feel essential and for significant character development to occur.
9 There’s Better Pacing
A major hurdle that many anime series face is that poor pacing can cause an audience to jump ship early on in favor of the hundreds of other anime series that are out there. Digimon Tamers is 51 episodes, which is far from exhaustive, but it finds the proper balance to get the most out of these few-dozen installments.
Digimon Tamers begins a little slower, but it’s essential time that’s spent on establishing the series’ world and its characters. There’s nuance to when Digimon Tamers turns to “Digimon of the Week” episodes and it effectively weaves these styles into the grander narrative.
8 Digimon Tamers Has A More Mature Tone
The most significant detail about Digimon Tamers and why it’s endured over time is that it’s one of the most mature Digimon series from the entire franchise and a major change of pace from what audiences previously experienced.
Digimon Tamers still features a colorful world and playful characters, but it’s a series that contains permanent deaths and the ensuing grief and depression that consumes its characters as a result. Digimon Tamers also ditches the preachy atmosphere of past series and even its ending, while positive, it’s bittersweet and steeped in sadness.
7 The Writing In General Improved
The majority of the Digimon series are a lot of fun, but they’re guilty of dropping storylines and cheap resolutions that expect a younger audience to be more forgiving over such concessions. Digimon Tamers is written by Chiaki J. Konaka, who’s perhaps most famous for his work on Serial Experiments Lain, a high-minded and nihilistic series that’s far from kid-friendly.
The same themes that fascinate Konaka in Lain are also present in Digimon Tamers and he holds the series to a higher standard that doesn’t let itself off the hook when it comes to its storytelling.
6 The Digimon Feel Like Their Own Characters And Not Extensions Of Their Tamers
Whether intentional or not, it’s very easy for Digimon to function more as adorable mascots and ciphers for their partners as opposed to distinct characters. A lot of Digimon have one-note personalities where they operate like extensions of their partners.
Digimon Tamers works hard to make Guilmon, Terriermon, and Renamon all feel unique from their tamers, but they also experience character arcs that treat them like their own entities. The smaller cast in Digimon Tamers helps facilitate this and less time spent on other humans can be better focused on Digimon.
5 Digimon Tamers Presents More Complicated Villains
An effective villain can make or break an anime series and programs like Digimon frequently deal in absolutes where the ultimate Digimon evil is some exaggerated take on a devil or a demonic presence. Digimon Tamers is not to be outdone in this sense and its final threat, the D-Reaper, feels truly malevolent and destructive.
However, the true strength of Digimon Tamers is that there are multiple Digimon who are technically designated as villainous forces, but they’re not considered evil, and the series allows them to have nuance behind their motivations. Digimon Tamers emphasizes that people live in shades of grey and villains in real life aren’t purely evil.
4 The Final Stage Of Digivolution Involves Digimon And Tamer Becoming One
Part of the fun of each Digimon series is the inventive and extravagant variations on Digivolution that have led to increasingly bold spectacles. Digivolutions have incorporated fusions and complex mechanics, but Digimon Tamers‘ final form of perfection involves a concept called Matrix Digivolution as well as Biomerging.
This battle climax involves Digimon and Digidestined merging as one, which is really the perfect representation of the series’ themes of friendship and unity. These characters understand that they’re stronger together than they are apart, but this apex of Digivolution makes that idea become literal.
3 It’s More Serialized Over Episodic
There’s an ongoing battle in series like Digimon and Pokémon on whether self-contained episodic stories are better than a heavily serialized narrative that’s continually building upon itself. Digimon series typically culminate into some momentous showdown, but they’re typically episodic and content to showcase different Digimon and their powers more than anything else.
Digimon Tamers isn’t so impossibly dense that missing a single episode will leave the audience lost in confusion, but it proves that serialization can not only work for Digimon, but actively get the most out of its universe.
2 There Are Extremely Inventive Digimon Designs
The initial Digimon series benefit from having infinite freedom when it comes to the designs of the many Digimon that fill the Digital World. So many iconic designs grow out of Digimon Adventure and its sequel that have since returned to the franchise in major ways.
Digimon Tamers feels like the franchise is really hitting its stride when it comes to some of the more unconventional and detailed Digimon designs in this third iteration of the series. Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru is the character designer for Digimon Tamers and there’s a distinct quality that emphasizes the primitive nature of Digimon.
1 Digimon Tamers Deconstructs The Monster Fantasy Genre
Chiaki J. Konaka, the writer behind Digimon Tamers, has a flair for subversive and esoteric narratives that are interested in holding a mirror up to themselves. Most Digimon series concentrate on how to be an entertaining monster fantasy adventure, but Digimon Tamers is just as interested in how to deconstruct this growing genre and push it to new places.
For instance, Digimon Tamers reiterates that Digimon, at their core, are monsters and not child-friendly creatures. It’s their partners that are essential to these creatures’ humanization.
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