I personally have always preferred Digimon over Pokemon (someone which me and my brother still debate about). I found the stories were much more compelling and I cared more for the characters. Whilst I still loved to watch Pokemon, I found I eventually got bored of the same elements being repeated over and over again.
Digimon is coming back... A new series has been announced set for 2015. It will have all 8 of the original DigiDestined. It is a project for the 15th anniversary.
Every digimon season they add something new which I think is cool. In Pokemon the only thing that was new was mega evolution unlike digimon which has armor, Burst, biomerge, spirit, fusion and DNA
+Derp Man Pokemon also added Fairy types, at the same time as mega evolutions... Yeah, most of the changes they add can only really be applied to the games.
Season 1 remains my favourite. Season 2 was good too, just not as good as season 1. I did think the whole Armour Digivolution and DNA Digivolution concept was kinda meh... Season 3 was brilliant and introduced some really interesting concepts. The idea of fusing with your Digimon to become your Mega form is genius. I loved all the stuff in the real world, but the show suffered from an almost unwatchable second act. In other words, the part where they all go to the Digital World. The pacing was awful and some of the storylines were ridiculous, even for a show like Digimon. It was only when Beelzemon starting fighting the team is when it got interesting again. The third act was awesome though, some really emotional and heartfelt moments. Though I could've done without Jeri being depressed as fuck. I know she lost her Digimon, I'd be upset too, but all I kept saying whilst watching her scenes was "Get a fucking grip!" I really didn't like her character at all, really annoying.
Pretty much why I come into a video like this with skepticism, someone who starts off their video with digimon isn't popular anymore or as he put it 'died' has lost all credibility on just that. The least a person could do when making a video like this is a small amount of bloody research. Really doesn't help that the dumbass made this with Tri being aired.
+justin canu Did you watch the video till the end? He clearly said that Digimon is not dead, it just doesn't have the same level of popularity that it used to have.
+Aura Animates it has actually became a joke :P seriously, everytime Leomon appears, it became a game for how long he'll last. I won the tri bet. I was off by 1 episode :P so far there is only 1 Leomon that hasn't die in his appearance out of the 9-10 times he appears in anime and manga. and i lost $5 for it :P
So in america if it not targeted towards children, it won't be popular, and if there isnt any direct violence for older children, teens in particular, it won't be popular, basically anything that actually provides a good story with characters that u can actually relate to, and deals with real world problems
As a passtime i always preferred pokemon (to this day i still play semi-competitively), but as an anime, Digimon was always better, id go as far to say even frontier was better than anything the main pokemon anime has put out (excluding the mega evolution specials and origins, those have actually been really good) Fusion was ok, but xros wars was pretty fantastic, it felt a bit like adventures 2 all over again in a new generation with some new twists, and the added bonus of every past hero in their prime showing up at the end to fight off "the ultimate evil" Overall id say Digimon made a fantastic anime and id love to see even more
What seemed to kill Digimon int he US was it's rights being purchased by Disney and being switched to ABC Family and Jetix when the channel was new and not everyone had the channel with their cable package. Then they don't even get the rights to the old music to add insult to injury Disney tried to bury it like they did Power Rangers and just like Power Rangers it has been revived by Nickelodeon but suffers still from odd airing times and weeks and months between new episodes airing. We did after years finally get a new Digimon game brought to the states in the form of Digimon Allstar Rumble. So Digimon isn't dead and forgotten but it far from where it was when it was part of the Fox Kids line up every Saturday morning here in the States. The imported merchandise sells pretty fast online so maybe Digimon is still just as popular but allot of the fan base is just underground. Digimon is the new dark net.
+Jason Cullum Disney did pretty good for power rangers. atleast Disney had mostly American footage made in PR then how saban fucking up their own brand, and using japan footage every time
I'd like to call myself a Digimon Enthusiast. Really, there's a lot of us. We have three full wikis, a number of active websites, some websites even collect Japanese Cards and scan them so that we have nice, big art of new digimon. What I would say happened to Digimon? Close minded viewers. People stopped watching around the fourth season, though admittedly the second season/Movie was the peak. The fourth season incorporated a lot of new elements that closed minded children didn't like. Personally? I think it had the best story of every Digimon anime so far. Digimon games come out often, but rarely leave Japan. For the 15th anniversary, Digimon is putting out a new sequel to the original series, as well as a PSVita game that may come stateside.
data squad was disgusting, I cringe knowing that that's how some kids see digimon, the first three season are the only 3 that exists imo. the first movie made me so emotional the battle between omnimon and diaboromon + that music, wow...
heavydaays I actually enjoy data squad, its not as good as previous seasons (well it does have some extremely dark moments) but I think it can hold its own but the beginning of the series was pretty bad but still not at the horrible levels of Xros wars
willie weasel But then they went back to it for Xros wars. they tried to make data squad look like a typical anime, it was weird also the way digimon worked was totality different it was like a different show all together, not digimon related. The guy punches digimon, wtf.
heavydaays I would agree if you were talking about xros wars not data squad. Frontier totally changed everything and people love it. Data squad made minimal changes and the whole Marcus punches digimon thing makes sense, its how he activates his DNA charge
In a few words: the good die young (Digimon) but assholes (everything else including Pokemon) live forever. Insults aside Digimon truly did have a superior plot, and that is the very reason why it's gone, it was story-driven and was made to be just that: a great story. Pokemon, Beyblade, Yu-Gi-Oh were all shows designed with the purpose of attracting kids to their game products, i.e. Duel Monsters cards, Beyblade toys, Pokemon trading cards and nintendo games for the gameboy. Personally though I'm not into buying trading cards or games that are designed for you to spend hours grinding through so you can lvl up a bunch of stats. I will always be drawn to shows that present a cool story, and likewise for games, provided they obviously have good gameplay features as well.
No children's show keeps going without selling some merchandise. The point remains though that Digimon was story-driven and that's what makes up the bulk of its loyal fanbase, not the merchandise.
This was a really well thought out video. As a kid I preferred pokemon as well, but the movie rocked my world so hard that I had to go back and watch the series properly. Unfortunately it lost me somewhere around season 4 where I became obsessed with dbz and reading. (literally the only 2 things I was interested in doing at 14 or so). I think I'll check out the show again, see how it ended.
Two cents from some Prinny, dood. Comparing the two series based on their animated counterparts is not very effective. The Pokemon anime is, was, and will be only an extended advertisement for the Pokemon games. The Pokemon anime is only secondary to the main body of Pokemon games, so to speak. I am unaware of how the series is perceived overseas, but in my mind, Digimon was always more grounded in a combination of their brand. There is no real medium that I can put up first and foremost to Digimon, unlike with the Pokemon games. This increased reliance on alternative mediums of entertainment meant that any hiccups with the animated series (The weird third season, and the gap) was a big blow to Digimon, since they didn't have regular smash hit video games to reel wobbling fans back in. With Pokemon, whenever a fan drifted away, there was a solid chance to get them back every three or so years. Not so with Digimon, where the only way to get a fan back is to have them stumble on something. This ability to reel a fan back in is of big importance, since a very common way for a series to loose fans is when its audience goes to high school. While all manner of Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and other stuff could be found on the grade school yard, it was hard to even hear of someone being interested in those things in high school. When those fans graduated, most of them had probably just forgotten about Digimon, while Pokemon made sure people remembered it.
Honestly, Marcus not having Goggles is fine. As for Digimon merch, there was the card game. And the Playstation games. One of which was a Playstation card game that I think came out before the Anime aired in America. However, Digimon did have plenty of games... on the Wonderswan. Because, you know, Bandai's portable device that kinda sorta had no presence in the market compared to game boy. And those games were Japanese only. So, yeah, it was more of a marketing issue, and not so much there not being any peripheral experiences to the anime. I also don't mind the digimon season taking breaks for a year or so. I mean, yearly releases leading to burnout is a thing.
pls tell me the reason why digimon failed on this? By the truth, pokemon Sword and SHield is going to be released. Even we give pokemon weapons, make them talk (actually legendaries already talked), still be loved. Make the pokemon trainers holding weapons and fusing with pokemon, still be loved. THIS IS CONFUSING!!!!! (i'm on both side)
*Watches the video* Yes, there were Digimon games: PS1, PS2, DS and PSP; unfortunately, since 2010, the games have stayed in Japan due to the ''almost dead''-fanbase here in the west. Yes, I agree, Unlike the Pokemon-anime, the Digimon-animes plot is better in every way. Cool Digimon video. Keep up the good work. Sometimes, I feel like I am the only guy in the west who knows what Digimon is :'(
TheCommentGuy8 I know what you mean.... I grew up with both, then I hear people talk about Pokémon and when I bring up Digimon, I always got the "what's that?" look.... As for the games, while it's true that they were mostly in Japan, the one on PS1 was released in the states. It just wasn't a good game. It was too difficult. You had to be a gaming prodigy just to get past the beginning. Everything was too precise. But you missed the fact that Digimon was created from a video game, just as Pokémon was. Digimon was a virtual pet game, then became a show. Pokémon was, well, a Pokémon game then became an anime.
Digimon season 4 was awesome. Being able to turn into a digimon is my life dream! I thought digimon data squad took digimo downhill but the first 4 were really good. But hey thats my opinion.
+Karia curtis FINALLY, someone else who loves Digimon Frontier! Tamers and Frontier were my favorite Digimon series growing up, and to an extent, they still are.
actually digimon started as digital monsters, a mail counterpart to tamogachi, which was basicly digimon go SEE POKEMON, ARE DIGIMON GO WAS 20 YEARS AGO #digimon20aniversary
Tamers, season 3 is personally my favorite because we can relate to it. In that season Digimon is just a game, and a tv show, just like in real life. It also seems so realistic cause when a Digimon dies they DIE! They don't get to become a digi egg and wait some time for them to be reborn.( although I do like that) Also the main "villain" towards the end was basically a virus, that deleted Digimon. This season to me is the best season, I just loved it. Watch it once a year. Will never forget Beelzemon killing Leomon then pulling off a "fist of the beast King" on the D-Reaper.
thank you for looking at the this farnchies in a more critical view. but yeah i dont ever really remember any memrobelya growing up, if there were any they were to few far and just all around scarce. still remember those morals from the episodes of S2 and i still live by them today, hell even had a friend try to kill me once and the kick ass thing about is that were still friends today.
Wow, no comments on Digimon Xros Wars, any of the PS1 Digimon games, the recent "Digimon Adventure" game, designed after Digimon Adventure Anime, the Digimon World games on the NDS, and re:Digitize (for PSP and 3DS)
the reason nobody knows digimon is: 1. the dub is awful. 2. while the anime is good, great even, the games are sub-par at best. that's gonna change with cyber sleuth tho. also, this entire video SCREAMS "im an old-gen fanboy who hates everything thats not from when i was a kid!"
+Chase's Channel I agree with the poor translation/dub work but not with the games, both the Nintendo/sony games and the Wonder Swan ones were quite interesting (or at least they were to me since I like strategy games a lot).
***** Did you play the story only? Strategy is what you had to use more on the online gameplay, there's something called "DNA slides" is like the Digimon Worlds Dusk/Dawn equivalent to breeding on pokemon, I can't see the lack on strategy in both doing the DNA slide and using it on an online battle. But if you mean the Digimon world games (the V-Pet ones, the other were originally called Digimon Story) indeed there was close to no strategy involved, it was just a V-Pet turned into a game, I liked those because they were relaxing and well, you didn't had to worry about letting a pet in a device starve to death if you fell asleep or had to do anything.
I also think the concept is more complicated for younger audiences. Even people like me who had a hard time understanding what yugioh cards were or the different stages of digimon, unlike pokemon who only evolved once or twice. It's true digimon usually grow to something that looks like them but different rookies can become the same champion and they even have fusion concepts like DBZ for example which Pokemon doesn't so it's more confusing.
I say it's mainly the stigma of Digimon being called a clone of Pokemon being the reason it fell into obscurity. Many people grew up hating on things they didn't understand as kids and still do so, while clinging onto their past like its the best thing ever. Heck I used to hate Digimon because I grew up with Pokemon, but now I love Digimon.
I see a couple flaws in your analysis. First, Digimon does in fact have a TCG. Heck, the third season featured the cards a fair bit. Now, I only once saw them in stores, and it was just a binder of them, not booster packs and starter decks. So it probably wasn't marketed that well. But poorly marketed doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And speaking of the TCG, that brings me to my second quibble. Most of my friends and other internet personalities/reviewers claim the third season is the best, and the second season is relatively weak. I fell off Digimon during the third season, so I don't have the same nostalgia for it as others, but yeah... I'm just observing that your opinion of the second and third seasons deviates from the norm (or at least the norm as I understand it). Would be nice to hear more about why you think that.
Michael Drzyzga Okay so....for starters I do know they have a card game, I for one actually owned cards as well, I also only saw them once in stores xD. The cards do exist, but without good marketing there as good as nonexistent. I would ALWAYS know people that had pokémon cards, even when they didn't know how to play (including me). Now for your second topic, liking the 3rd season is completely fine, I do know people that enjoyed it the most...to be honest it's just one person but still, I know people like the 3rd season, however I see more people prefer the first 2 seasons than anything else. My personal experience doesn't defy what's true because we all find different opinions online and meet different people, so people's taste in shows can differ.
Indeed. And it sounds like we're on the same page about the card game. Strangely, before this video and comments, I wasn't finding fans of season 2. Not even on the Digimon: Your Digital Dream fan game page. Sure, people with interest in armor evolutions, but still favoring the first or third. To each their own, of course. It just feels off. I mean, the topic is why Digimon sort of faded away. Claiming a season wasn't as good implies it contributed to the decline, which the numerous Tamers fans would dispute. As for season 2, I actually did enjoy it. I just don't think it held up as well over time. It had a lot of good ideas. JO's review explained it well. Too many cooks, too many good ideas, burned out creative team, etc. It was good, but it had even more potential. Just needed more revisions to the script, to tighten up the writing.
And whether someone prefers season 2 or season 3 I think the real decline happened in season 4. I know season 4 has fans, I think every season has some sort of a fan base, but with everything that happened with season 4 and the other reasons in the video, I feel that's what really got Digimon down to where it is. On the up side, there's Adventure Tri coming out....WOOOOOOO!
***** Agreed. Very excited for Adventure Tri. And yeah, season 4 just felt wrong without partner Digimon. Although there was also something back to basics about it that I liked. Just the parallels to season 1.
In my personal opinion the reason Digimon wasn't received well in the U.S. is because of Bandai and 4kids entertainment. The script was watered down, and it had many edits from the original. If you saw a redubbing of the show like they did with Sailor Moon it would be better. Also, Digimon Fusion's (aka Xros Wars) dub gets a bit annoying as it constantly has the Digimon's name appearing on the screen. So, it not being as popular as Pokemon is due to the representative company. In Japan the Digivices adventually gained colored screens that made them more desirable. Sadly this never was done in the U.S. So, seeing it at it's original v.s. dub. I'm going to have to say the original wins due to the lack of edits, and having the better script.
I remember enjoying Digimon alot more than Pokemon as a kid. Use to play being the monsters and all that and games and toys for BOTH series. I stopped watching pokemon after 2nd season but still wanted to find that rare episode of digimon on the tv. Pokemon is repetitive and predictable. Digimon actually had a story that grew and changed over time. These days, i'm still in love with first gen pokemon (original 151) I dont know why they keep adding curved edges and new colours to old pokemon and call them new (with like over 700 now?). Digimon is just not there anymore and if anything is just trying to stay alive. Im 25 now and these shows just dont hold the same intrest as they once did
+MrMLaidlaw Your argument is only valid for the west, in Asia the Digimon franchise is still alive, in fact when the D-Power digivices came out the Korean and I think Japanese ones had some online content added to them, such as a bank like service to store digimon partners.
I watch it in 2020 . What happened to Digimon ? It is rising again , getting better , starting to hype everyone and becoming more popular , people don't think it's a pokemon rip off anymore and it is even making better old school virtual pets .
Actually there were games and merchandise before the anime was made, it actually started as a Tamagotchi spin-off. The thing is whoever was in charge of the marketing in US and EU was incompetent and thought localizing a merchandise advertising cartoon without bringing over the merchandise, at least not until it was too late, and even when they did there weren't even commercials for Digimon World which was one of the main things the cartoon was meant to advertise in japan, the only marketing it got in the west was a picture of the cover in ONE game magazine with the caption "not suited for people who suck at video games".
everyone keep saying digimon failed by their weapons and humanly designs but just think about it. Pokemon is releasing the Sword and Shield, weapons, still be loved. And if we give those POkemon trainers power and fusion with legendaries , holding weapons, still be loved. But I'm really confused about this, I can feel the reason but can't say it by words why Digimon failed. I'm on both side so pls don't point your knives in my neck.
Pokemon is more simple and child friendly compared to Digimon and also Nintendo is good at marketing.Also early Digimon games aren't that good (and too hard) compared to pokemon(Blame Bandai Namco) and unreleased outside of Japan . Also 4kids did a cheesy dub with bad puns and super censorship which made people think it's just a bad rip off of pokemon. That's why Pokemon is more successful.
All I have to say is WATCH THE SUB!!! The Dub is ruining Digimon and it's true fun,people forgot about Digimon because the Pokemon dub was better but the Digimon Sub is better than the Pokemon sub! The whole show itself is better than Pokémon,I hate the dub so much!
It's unfortunately in Xros war, one of the final episodes where all of the Tai characters get summoned to the Xros world to fight together super sentai style.
Won't the series be helped out a bit more with the release of the cyber sleuth game coming to us on vita even if only on digital. if we get it popular enough wouldn't it also help get more games coming in to America if it sells well or more just international in general.
well with us being older, i think if japan tries to market their games/shows to the older western audience it would be a hit imo. The games were some of the best i've played it was very unique, a fuse of tamagotchi and pokemon. There are games that i want to play that aren't in english for eg: digimon redigitize decode, the latest digimon world next order. Hope with the new Digimon Cyber Sleuth, it'll make them consider catering to western audience as well.
Don't forget about the horrible 3 arc Season 6. The Digimon didn't even Digivolve anymore, they just had an "incredibly rare" single stage increase called Super Evolution. Instead of Digivolving, they would just Fuse with more and more Digimon to become stronger. And the third arc was the worse. The DigiDestined began capturing Digimon as if they were Pokemon and having them do battle. WTF? Season 1 and 2 was definitely the peak of popularity. But Season 3 was definitely the best. Most people that didn't watch it didn't because of how different it was or heard it would be, but nearly everyone that did watch it claims that it was the best Season of them all, and I agree.
Subbed. If you were to do more research and backed up your theories with some facts or at least more detail then your channel could become something like Game Theory, but different. I was watching your Master Hand theory and Andross. Gonna watch a couple of more. Intriguing so far, but I feel like a 13 year old is giving me a power point on his favorite games. Like it could be better, but still good.
Digimon wasn't as popular in the english speaking markets because of marketing. Nintendo backed the cash cow Pokemon for the same reasons Bandai still backs Sentai/Power Rangers. It's a cash mountain. Digimon was always meant to make you think and was obvious by it's themes (death, loss, regret, etc...). Digimon also suffered from the Saban treatment, meaning it started off with a strong budget and some success (like Power Rangers) but then they gave up on the brand when they brought in other licenses. Eventually they sold it off to Disney, who cared even less about the brand, before selling it again. This time it is in Nickelodeon's hands with 'Fusion' or whatever they called it. There were also numerous movies we never got thanks to poor marketing and Saban and Disney not giving a damn about the brand. The games, I will admit are almost always terrible and for that I blame Bandai and Konami. A lot of toy manufacturers and suppliers (like Toys r us) also didn't want to touch the toys because of the levels of perceived violence and how little Bandai was willing to change them for the market. So there you have it. The perfect storm of why Digimon seems to have faded from american markets and become a lost relic of the time, when in fact it still holds a small niche within the realm of our culture. Mostly I blame Saban for the initial failure but we are seeing a small uptick in popularity thanks to nostalgia and the wide availability of the foreign market to us.
Digimon is now making a comeback in japan. it in season 6.3 I saw we are going back in time. Xross wars is the first in the timeline because in data squad the words digimon war is spoken a fair amount. the column at the end serves as a start of digimon frontier which was partly ruined in the battle at the end which still allowed both human a digimon to cross. digimon tamers. the d-repear only left gates which we didn't know until the finale of digimon adventure 01 and the last is adventure 02
The problem i think is the advertisment, becuse i havent seen or can remember the last time i seen the something about Digimon in any Stores at least over 13 years If we look at Pokémon, i seen it alot of diffrent Stores, like either toys, games, movies, candy, drinks and/or cards since it started and Still going today
I disagree, Digimon 02 was awful, most people didn't care about the new digidestined, they wanted to see the old ones. 02 is the reason most people stop caring about digimon itself, that's why Digimon Tamers wasn't so popular event when had a great story and was a fresh take in the franchise. Digimon Frontier had a very good story, but lost the bond between Digidestined and their digimon, and that was really bad. Digimon 5 and 6 just suck.
Acrab ok i don´t really like these "most people" arguements but i also didn´t liked 02 that much... the most of the new chracters felt like there personality was sonic the hedgehog and some old characters like kari and tk had very few similarities to the 01 versions. the best parts in the plot were when they just made fanservice for the 01 fans but concepts like black wargreymon just sound like bad fanart even when they were written well. tamers is better imo. especially the characters were more likeable... frontier wasalso pretty good, even when like 50% of the main characters sucked but it got much better, when there were only 2 fighting in the second half... barely remember data squad so i wn´t judge it but i remember it wasn´t as good as the others
PlayGamePlayGamer data squad was the first ever season i watched of digimon The reason it gets so much hate is cause they made it darker, more serious, had the world involved amd the new art style People whined about Goggles though and whined that Marcus agumon was a ripoff Come on Metalgreymon from Xros looks way more flight worthy than Metalgreymon from 01
well what your now saying maybe true but the change that they can use an come back strike if they can succes with the 8 season of digimon hope that it will come back to the nederland.
the biggest problem of digimon in US was: Music! in germany they took the original music gave it a german text and u fealt every digivolution, while in the english version u had 1song for 3 seasons and it was used for digivolve AND intro. imagine pokemon would still have only one song and not even a good one, just a meh rap to appear cool...
I kind of agree but there is some flaws in my opinion. 1.Digimon season 1 introduced the beginning of digimon and was made made popular but that's really it. And 02 was often hated as many people didn't care about the new casts and digimon, it only really was made popular because of new evoulution methods and the old cast being older. (Though I do love the 02 characters). and from then on digimon only got better 2.Digimon is the most relatable show, whats more realistic, a show where it shows you that you matter and are important and how to deal with being bullied or what it's like to be divorced or a kid with a charizard that wont listen to him Other than that , your reasons do make sense.
So yeah, I'm going to dispel my age real fast here. I remember when Seasons 1 and 2 and 3 were on Fox Kids which was normally 2 hours afterschool on Monday - Friday and then ran all Saturday morning. New episodes were normally aired on Saturday mornings. When season 4 came, Fox Kids was gone entirely and Digimon moved over to other stations like ABC Family or WB (CW by today's standard). With that happening, it just became very hard to watch the show because of network change and time slot change. Now, I really enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 that I have every episode from those seasons recorded on VHS. I think the storyline is very simple and basic but it dose make you recall back to past episodes. I had a very hard time getting into Season 3 mostly because the Digidestined were just annoying plus they got rid of the English and Japanese name spelling moving around in the background before and after digivolution. I tried to watch season 4 but I stopped watching after a few episodes because it just became hard to understand.
I always liked digimon more than pokemon, but when i saw season 4...i just quit because that stuff is not digimon anymore thats digiarmored humans and thats not what i want to see in digimon. then on the 5th season i really enjoyed it until i realized this dude here needs no digimon to kick another digimons ass so i kinda went back to the trauma season 4 gave me. i kept watching it tho but it got to a point where it was just ridiculous...
I've watched the first 5 seasons within the past month after becoming morbidly curious about the series. And you know what? I like 'em! I think 02 fumbled some stuff, and Frontier went the wrong way, but besides that, what killed the fanbase here in the west was the lack of foundation. Yu-Gi-Oh had the card game, Pokemon had the video games, but Digimon's foundation WAS the anime. And since that wasn't consistent, it ultimately fell off.
Nice review. You really covered all the seasons. One thing that really annoyed me (and I'm sure annoyed many others) about the show was the lack of constancy. In Pokemon (bad exemple, I know) Charmander will always evolve to Charmeleon. That didn't seem to be the case with Digimon and both names and characteristics were changed along the seasons so much it was impossible to keep track. About the so called 'best' season thought...honestly, to me, it was season 4, exactly because they got rid of the digimon-partner thing. I know, I know people will hate me for writing this but what can I say? I always thought the 'go fight while I cheer on the sidelines' kindda boring. Season 2 for me was the worse. The new digidestined added nothing except for crying when a digimon died, thing the original digidestined never cared much about and rightfully so. But, anyway, awersome vid. Who knows? Maybe a new season will come around and make we all fall in love with Digimon again. One thing is for sure, it will happen way before Ash becames a Pokemon master.
+Netsuki Amamya Thanks man, I appreciate you for not ranting for your love of season 4 :P. I know that season has it's fan base but I think it would have been better to make it a secondary anime while still having the original concept as a different show, then everyone would win :D
+Netsuki Amamya Well in season 3 they did try and help by using their cards [although they seemed to have lost them once they got to the digital world, because they used them only to digivolve once they got there] and they had the Bio Merge.
+Netsuki Amamya That's partially why I liked the Savers season, I was tired of the "go cheer or just look at everything while your digimon partner does all the job and you get credit for it without gaining any kind of knowledge or strength to make you grow as a person" thing on the first 2 seasons (specially crapventure 01 since the digimon evolved just to save their child, not because they actually could evolve). In the mangas there were more interesting character developments and interactions (kinda like savers but not as raw/stupid like Masaru, I liked the idea of him punching a digimon, thus battling at his partner's side but I dunno, his character felt like an idiot to me).
Thanks for this Video, you really explained why Digimon died out while pokemon Lived. I remember watching the latest Digimon and go... wtf? Why is it so different than the first 2 awesome seasons? They really messed it up
I like season 1 better then 2 and I love season 3 and 4 equally but data squad was terrible I hope the franchise will be redeemed. And I want to see a renewal of digimon tames that expands on it's concept with the original caracters and a love triangle between tacato jerry and Rica would workout great for me
What happen was that Pokemon is owned by Nintendo and Digimon was on the PSX. they kinda screwed themselves with the newer and weirder episodes ( simular to .hack ) and made things that made no sense and had no story
didint they release new season this year with all the originals ? sad but true digimon is a better Anime while pokemon are better games . I remember as a kid I always get up early ar saturdays just to watch digimons :) FTW
In terms of story, character developing and even fights, this goes like this: From best to worst: 1-Tamers 2-Xross Wars 3-Savers 4-Frontier 5-Adventure 6-02 7-Hunters (Xross wars 2) Adventure and 02 are just bad. Even the guionists admitted that they did adventure knowing nothing, NOTHING, about digimon except the basic concepts like evolution. it's ok to think that the first ones where nice bcuz of childhood and stuff, but they weren't the best.
+Olmo Moreno did you really place Xross and frontier above adventure and 02? I swear those two season were like writer dangling key in front of a baby. throwing explosion, fan service, fights and jokes at the audience, hoping they don;t notice the lack of effort they place in the character and story.
Yea they're probably fine if you watch them first. The problem is how they diverged from an already established premise and weren't true to what Digimon was. It was a cool idea I just wished season 4 had that bond the original digi destined shared with their mons.
for me personally it was all about the games, pokemon games are good solid games. I really liked digimon world 1, but that's the only Digimon game I actually liked.
I always far preferred the Digimon anime to Pokemon. It was more mature--especially from the 3rd season on--and had a lot more 'cool' looking guys than Pokemon did. I also preferred the Digimon card game--although it was rather short lived. The games are what really, really killed Digimon compared to Pokemon for lasting success, though. Not only were the not the original focus--but more of an after thought to keep the show going--but they were clunky and overly difficult. I can't help but feel that the games were the ultimate deciding factor in all this. Good video!
hope they bring the new season of digimon to the US eventually..... hell when I was a kid I was way more into Digimon than I was with Pokemon, so it would he nice to see it updated a little....even if it is just another bad dub like DBZ Kai >_>
i feel like nitpicking as a digimon fan even tho its 2 years after this video, i think my name on here is still ashmon... anyway i think digimon is still at its prime, just it takes a different type of person to watch and enjoy the aspect of it. It is more an anime made for the older kind of person as i noticed during the first and 2nd lot of digidestined i loved watching it but my younger siblings hated it, they didn't get it. Also digimon seems to be a show that tried something new, something different at least every episode, I have a theory due to season 1 that being a digidestined all it takes is the will to want something different, after all it said that 8 digidestined was chosen from many different area because they didn't expect the ones we saw be able to cover the country. So if it wasn't set in the city it was set in, we wouldn't have the digidestined we did have in season 1.
I think the complicated uber digimon are the killing point of digimon tho. Its all memorable and fun till you get to those fugly super fusions and the like.
i hate pokemon but what i hate about digimon being on Netflix. there is only like.. 3 seasons... im on season 2 in digimon fusion so i had to jump over and got some spoilers.. >:(
they got to many damage to fix, the inconstancys are to great but i think the show had SO MUCH potential they should scrap it all and revamp back to the first season. Whit a decent hand held game they would have gold in there hands.
Sorry but... "With digimon, the games came way after" - do your research mister... It was first Tamagochi - but that was popular among girls. So the producers of Tamagochi came with the idea of V-pets - the first digimon, where you could have your own V-pet (virtual pet) a.k.a. Digimon and make him digivolve and battle others. This is actually also mentioned in the Tamers movie. After the development of V-pet the rival company came with Pokémon. And after that, the first producers came with Digimon Adventure TV show... So Digimon games came way before Digimon series and actually even before Pokémon in general
Season 3 is personally my favorite, it starts off slow the first 10 episodes, but the rest of the season makes up for it. And as for Season 01 and 02 I agree it's kind of harsh watching it, now that we're older.
Digimon was first they had games on GameBoy Gameube DS Playstation and Xbox the digimon could talk and they even had they're own cards for trading and battling
Right; the thing is, though, that you may compare them but Digimon is much closer to Transformers or Power Rangers then Pokemon. They actually are virtual pets with elements of the abkve mentioned series
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Tamers is my favorite season personally.
Also I wouldn't say Digimon is dead, just not as popular as it once was.
Matthew Smith well adventure tri is coming out and that might elevate it.
willie weasel
Yeah, bring back some old fans.
Matthew Smith I think digimon is trying a different approach to pokemon or yughioh. Its trying to grow up with its fans instead of staying the same
willie weasel
Which is pretty cool in my opinion, but probably not the best in a business sense to attract new consumers.
Matthew Smith I think it could work. Make it a franchise for older audiences, so when the poke fans grow up they can move on to digimon
3rd was my favorite season, it was tense and dramatic.
I personally have always preferred Digimon over Pokemon (someone which me and my brother still debate about). I found the stories were much more compelling and I cared more for the characters. Whilst I still loved to watch Pokemon, I found I eventually got bored of the same elements being repeated over and over again.
Digimon is coming back... A new series has been announced set for 2015. It will have all 8 of the original DigiDestined. It is a project for the 15th anniversary.
Yea and I'm totally stoked!
***** is it true that the original VAs may be reprising their roles?
The original Japanese voice actors for the partners are the only thing that was confirmed. I'm not sure about the rest
monsterbattlingfan I cant wait till it comes out, I only liked seasons 1 and 2
monsterbattlingfan but sadly it will be a 6 part move
Every digimon season they add something new which I think is cool. In Pokemon the only thing that was new was mega evolution unlike digimon which has armor, Burst, biomerge, spirit, fusion and DNA
+Derp Man Pokemon also added Fairy types, at the same time as mega evolutions... Yeah, most of the changes they add can only really be applied to the games.
+Derp Man Mega Evolution and the jogress-like way to obtain certain pokemon (pokemon Black and White 2/ X&Y).
+Derp Man abilities, shinnies, hidden abilities, forms and reshiram and zekrom can fuse with kyurem
+ShyGuy N64 Meh...
Natures, EVs, IVs, breeding, Dark, Steel and Fairy types. Must I go on?
Season 1 remains my favourite. Season 2 was good too, just not as good as season 1. I did think the whole Armour Digivolution and DNA Digivolution concept was kinda meh...
Season 3 was brilliant and introduced some really interesting concepts. The idea of fusing with your Digimon to become your Mega form is genius. I loved all the stuff in the real world, but the show suffered from an almost unwatchable second act. In other words, the part where they all go to the Digital World. The pacing was awful and some of the storylines were ridiculous, even for a show like Digimon. It was only when Beelzemon starting fighting the team is when it got interesting again. The third act was awesome though, some really emotional and heartfelt moments. Though I could've done without Jeri being depressed as fuck. I know she lost her Digimon, I'd be upset too, but all I kept saying whilst watching her scenes was "Get a fucking grip!" I really didn't like her character at all, really annoying.
digmon is still very much around in fact several games are coming to the us
Pretty much why I come into a video like this with skepticism, someone who starts off their video with digimon isn't popular anymore or as he put it 'died' has lost all credibility on just that.
The least a person could do when making a video like this is a small amount of bloody research.
Really doesn't help that the dumbass made this with Tri being aired.
+justin canu Did you watch the video till the end? He clearly said that Digimon is not dead, it just doesn't have the same level of popularity that it used to have.
+Dark Jedi lol thanks for paying attention xD , and a lot of people clearly don't realize this was made before Digimon Tri
The only thing I hate about Digimon is that they keep killing off Leomon or his evolutions in any season he is in.
+Aura Animates it has actually became a joke :P seriously, everytime Leomon appears, it became a game for how long he'll last. I won the tri bet. I was off by 1 episode :P so far there is only 1 Leomon that hasn't die in his appearance out of the 9-10 times he appears in anime and manga. and i lost $5 for it :P
So in america if it not targeted towards children, it won't be popular, and if there isnt any direct violence for older children, teens in particular, it won't be popular, basically anything that actually provides a good story with characters that u can actually relate to, and deals with real world problems
As a passtime i always preferred pokemon (to this day i still play semi-competitively), but as an anime, Digimon was always better, id go as far to say even frontier was better than anything the main pokemon anime has put out (excluding the mega evolution specials and origins, those have actually been really good)
Fusion was ok, but xros wars was pretty fantastic, it felt a bit like adventures 2 all over again in a new generation with some new twists, and the added bonus of every past hero in their prime showing up at the end to fight off "the ultimate evil"
Overall id say Digimon made a fantastic anime and id love to see even more
Watching this while playing Cyber Sleuth
No one gives a fuck.
What seemed to kill Digimon int he US was it's rights being purchased by Disney and being switched to ABC Family and Jetix when the channel was new and not everyone had the channel with their cable package. Then they don't even get the rights to the old music to add insult to injury Disney tried to bury it like they did Power Rangers and just like Power Rangers it has been revived by Nickelodeon but suffers still from odd airing times and weeks and months between new episodes airing. We did after years finally get a new Digimon game brought to the states in the form of Digimon Allstar Rumble. So Digimon isn't dead and forgotten but it far from where it was when it was part of the Fox Kids line up every Saturday morning here in the States. The imported merchandise sells pretty fast online so maybe Digimon is still just as popular but allot of the fan base is just underground. Digimon is the new dark net.
Jason Cullum Very good points!
+Jason Cullum Disney did pretty good for power rangers. atleast Disney had mostly American footage made in PR then how saban fucking up their own brand, and using japan footage every time
I'd like to call myself a Digimon Enthusiast. Really, there's a lot of us. We have three full wikis, a number of active websites, some websites even collect Japanese Cards and scan them so that we have nice, big art of new digimon. What I would say happened to Digimon?
Close minded viewers. People stopped watching around the fourth season, though admittedly the second season/Movie was the peak. The fourth season incorporated a lot of new elements that closed minded children didn't like. Personally? I think it had the best story of every Digimon anime so far.
Digimon games come out often, but rarely leave Japan. For the 15th anniversary, Digimon is putting out a new sequel to the original series, as well as a PSVita game that may come stateside.
data squad was disgusting, I cringe knowing that that's how some kids see digimon, the first three season are the only 3 that exists imo. the first movie made me so emotional the battle between omnimon and diaboromon + that music, wow...
heavydaays I actually enjoy data squad, its not as good as previous seasons (well it does have some extremely dark moments) but I think it can hold its own but the beginning of the series was pretty bad but still not at the horrible levels of Xros wars
willie weasel but the animation wasn't even the same style.
heavydaays Of course they arent going to keep the same style after 7 years!
willie weasel But then they went back to it for Xros wars. they tried to make data squad look like a typical anime, it was weird also the way digimon worked was totality different it was like a different show all together, not digimon related. The guy punches digimon, wtf.
heavydaays I would agree if you were talking about xros wars not data squad. Frontier totally changed everything and people love it. Data squad made minimal changes and the whole Marcus punches digimon thing makes sense, its how he activates his DNA charge
In a few words: the good die young (Digimon) but assholes (everything else including Pokemon) live forever.
Insults aside Digimon truly did have a superior plot, and that is the very reason why it's gone, it was story-driven and was made to be just that: a great story. Pokemon, Beyblade, Yu-Gi-Oh were all shows designed with the purpose of attracting kids to their game products, i.e. Duel Monsters cards, Beyblade toys, Pokemon trading cards and nintendo games for the gameboy. Personally though I'm not into buying trading cards or games that are designed for you to spend hours grinding through so you can lvl up a bunch of stats. I will always be drawn to shows that present a cool story, and likewise for games, provided they obviously have good gameplay features as well.
catastrophucked actually digimon was marketing its own tomocatchis with the shows digivises
No children's show keeps going without selling some merchandise. The point remains though that Digimon was story-driven and that's what makes up the bulk of its loyal fanbase, not the merchandise.
catastrophucked i agree so stop trying to make a argument i was stating facts
This was a really well thought out video. As a kid I preferred pokemon as well, but the movie rocked my world so hard that I had to go back and watch the series properly. Unfortunately it lost me somewhere around season 4 where I became obsessed with dbz and reading. (literally the only 2 things I was interested in doing at 14 or so). I think I'll check out the show again, see how it ended.
Two cents from some Prinny, dood.
Comparing the two series based on their animated counterparts is not very effective. The Pokemon anime is, was, and will be only an extended advertisement for the Pokemon games. The Pokemon anime is only secondary to the main body of Pokemon games, so to speak.
I am unaware of how the series is perceived overseas, but in my mind, Digimon was always more grounded in a combination of their brand. There is no real medium that I can put up first and foremost to Digimon, unlike with the Pokemon games.
This increased reliance on alternative mediums of entertainment meant that any hiccups with the animated series (The weird third season, and the gap) was a big blow to Digimon, since they didn't have regular smash hit video games to reel wobbling fans back in. With Pokemon, whenever a fan drifted away, there was a solid chance to get them back every three or so years. Not so with Digimon, where the only way to get a fan back is to have them stumble on something.
This ability to reel a fan back in is of big importance, since a very common way for a series to loose fans is when its audience goes to high school. While all manner of Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and other stuff could be found on the grade school yard, it was hard to even hear of someone being interested in those things in high school. When those fans graduated, most of them had probably just forgotten about Digimon, while Pokemon made sure people remembered it.
Honestly, Marcus not having Goggles is fine.
As for Digimon merch, there was the card game. And the Playstation games. One of which was a Playstation card game that I think came out before the Anime aired in America.
However, Digimon did have plenty of games... on the Wonderswan. Because, you know, Bandai's portable device that kinda sorta had no presence in the market compared to game boy. And those games were Japanese only.
So, yeah, it was more of a marketing issue, and not so much there not being any peripheral experiences to the anime.
I also don't mind the digimon season taking breaks for a year or so. I mean, yearly releases leading to burnout is a thing.
pls tell me the reason why digimon failed on this?
By the truth, pokemon Sword and SHield is going to be released. Even we give pokemon weapons, make them talk (actually legendaries already talked), still be loved. Make the pokemon trainers holding weapons and fusing with pokemon, still be loved. THIS IS CONFUSING!!!!! (i'm on both side)
I know there are way more stronger digimon but Wargreymon will forever be the ultimate badass! He's like the Goku of Digimon
Hell yeah, all bow to Wargreymon
I thought Dukemon is the Goku
*Watches the video* Yes, there were Digimon games: PS1, PS2, DS and PSP; unfortunately, since 2010, the games have stayed in Japan due to the ''almost dead''-fanbase here in the west.
Yes, I agree, Unlike the Pokemon-anime, the Digimon-animes plot is better in every way.
Cool Digimon video. Keep up the good work.
Sometimes, I feel like I am the only guy in the west who knows what Digimon is :'(
TheCommentGuy8 I know what you mean.... I grew up with both, then I hear people talk about Pokémon and when I bring up Digimon, I always got the "what's that?" look.... As for the games, while it's true that they were mostly in Japan, the one on PS1 was released in the states. It just wasn't a good game. It was too difficult. You had to be a gaming prodigy just to get past the beginning. Everything was too precise. But you missed the fact that Digimon was created from a video game, just as Pokémon was. Digimon was a virtual pet game, then became a show. Pokémon was, well, a Pokémon game then became an anime.
hear of digimon rumble that came out in america late 2014
Roared To Life It wasn't released here in Europe :'(
that's too bad but hopefully all other western games will come out in your area
+TheCommentGuy8 Digimon World DS was a great game, sadly no one ever talks about it
Digimon season 4 was awesome. Being able to turn into a digimon is my life dream! I thought digimon data squad took digimo downhill but the first 4 were really good. But hey thats my opinion.
i fully agree
+Karia curtis FINALLY, someone else who loves Digimon Frontier! Tamers and Frontier were my favorite Digimon series growing up, and to an extent, they still are.
Dark Jedi Sweetness!
I miss this show so badly my kids one day will never be able to experience this the way we felt when we were younger
actually digimon started as digital monsters, a mail counterpart to tamogachi, which was basicly digimon go
SEE POKEMON, ARE DIGIMON GO WAS 20 YEARS AGO #digimon20aniversary
Tamers, season 3 is personally my favorite because we can relate to it. In that season Digimon is just a game, and a tv show, just like in real life. It also seems so realistic cause when a Digimon dies they DIE! They don't get to become a digi egg and wait some time for them to be reborn.( although I do like that) Also the main "villain" towards the end was basically a virus, that deleted Digimon. This season to me is the best season, I just loved it. Watch it once a year. Will never forget Beelzemon killing Leomon then pulling off a "fist of the beast King" on the D-Reaper.
Last time I checked, there was only 2 seasons on Netflix. But that was about 3 years ago :3
thats weird i was just watching digimon digital monsters 10 minutes ago
How to know your opinion on the series is invalid, you said Adventure 02 was good....
Although, I agree with you on the latter half of the video.
Nin Shade What Ken and Oikawa? Because that's it. Myotismon was crap in 02.
I want to date you lol.... ummm anyways love digimon...
thank you for looking at the this farnchies in a more critical view.
but yeah i dont ever really remember any memrobelya growing up, if there were any they were to few far and just all around scarce. still remember those morals from the episodes of S2 and i still live by them today, hell even had a friend try to kill me once and the kick ass thing about is that were still friends today.
Guardian Znex thank you for watching :)
np thanks for making it
***** did anyone notess that in the digimon movie picture they replaced gatomon with a bunny ._.
Nin Shade Why is there 2 Terriermons on the cover?
Nin Shade ohhh ok
Digimon 01 is the best digimon ever.
+Jafni Adli *sigh* Adventuretards
So I'm guessing you've never seen Tamers. 😑
Wow, no comments on Digimon Xros Wars, any of the PS1 Digimon games, the recent "Digimon Adventure" game, designed after Digimon Adventure Anime, the Digimon World games on the NDS, and re:Digitize (for PSP and 3DS)
the reason nobody knows digimon is:
1. the dub is awful.
2. while the anime is good, great even, the games are sub-par at best. that's gonna change with cyber sleuth tho.
also, this entire video SCREAMS "im an old-gen fanboy who hates everything thats not from when i was a kid!"
+Chase's Channel I agree with the poor translation/dub work but not with the games, both the Nintendo/sony games and the Wonder Swan ones were quite interesting (or at least they were to me since I like strategy games a lot).
most digimon games lacked strategy.
***** Did you play the story only? Strategy is what you had to use more on the online gameplay, there's something called "DNA slides" is like the Digimon Worlds Dusk/Dawn equivalent to breeding on pokemon, I can't see the lack on strategy in both doing the DNA slide and using it on an online battle. But if you mean the Digimon world games (the V-Pet ones, the other were originally called Digimon Story) indeed there was close to no strategy involved, it was just a V-Pet turned into a game, I liked those because they were relaxing and well, you didn't had to worry about letting a pet in a device starve to death if you fell asleep or had to do anything.
getting moves takes for-fucking-ever. longer than any rpg i've played.
***** It doesn't lol depending on how you do it. Besides, I always found that kind of battles more interesting than the pokemon ones for some reason.
I also think the concept is more complicated for younger audiences. Even people like me who had a hard time understanding what yugioh cards were or the different stages of digimon, unlike pokemon who only evolved once or twice. It's true digimon usually grow to something that looks like them but different rookies can become the same champion and they even have fusion concepts like DBZ for example which Pokemon doesn't so it's more confusing.
I say it's mainly the stigma of Digimon being called a clone of Pokemon being the reason it fell into obscurity. Many people grew up hating on things they didn't understand as kids and still do so, while clinging onto their past like its the best thing ever. Heck I used to hate Digimon because I grew up with Pokemon, but now I love Digimon.
Digimon Needs To Be Remembered...
I see a couple flaws in your analysis. First, Digimon does in fact have a TCG. Heck, the third season featured the cards a fair bit. Now, I only once saw them in stores, and it was just a binder of them, not booster packs and starter decks. So it probably wasn't marketed that well. But poorly marketed doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And speaking of the TCG, that brings me to my second quibble. Most of my friends and other internet personalities/reviewers claim the third season is the best, and the second season is relatively weak. I fell off Digimon during the third season, so I don't have the same nostalgia for it as others, but yeah... I'm just observing that your opinion of the second and third seasons deviates from the norm (or at least the norm as I understand it). Would be nice to hear more about why you think that.
Michael Drzyzga Okay so....for starters I do know they have a card game, I for one actually owned cards as well, I also only saw them once in stores xD. The cards do exist, but without good marketing there as good as nonexistent. I would ALWAYS know people that had pokémon cards, even when they didn't know how to play (including me). Now for your second topic, liking the 3rd season is completely fine, I do know people that enjoyed it the most...to be honest it's just one person but still, I know people like the 3rd season, however I see more people prefer the first 2 seasons than anything else. My personal experience doesn't defy what's true because we all find different opinions online and meet different people, so people's taste in shows can differ.
Indeed. And it sounds like we're on the same page about the card game. Strangely, before this video and comments, I wasn't finding fans of season 2. Not even on the Digimon: Your Digital Dream fan game page. Sure, people with interest in armor evolutions, but still favoring the first or third. To each their own, of course. It just feels off. I mean, the topic is why Digimon sort of faded away. Claiming a season wasn't as good implies it contributed to the decline, which the numerous Tamers fans would dispute.
As for season 2, I actually did enjoy it. I just don't think it held up as well over time. It had a lot of good ideas. JO's review explained it well. Too many cooks, too many good ideas, burned out creative team, etc. It was good, but it had even more potential. Just needed more revisions to the script, to tighten up the writing.
And whether someone prefers season 2 or season 3 I think the real decline happened in season 4. I know season 4 has fans, I think every season has some sort of a fan base, but with everything that happened with season 4 and the other reasons in the video, I feel that's what really got Digimon down to where it is. On the up side, there's Adventure Tri coming out....WOOOOOOO!
***** Agreed. Very excited for Adventure Tri. And yeah, season 4 just felt wrong without partner Digimon. Although there was also something back to basics about it that I liked. Just the parallels to season 1.
+Apex Ashan From what I hear, Xros Wars is good. Except for I believe the final season?
In my personal opinion the reason Digimon wasn't received well in the U.S. is because of Bandai and 4kids entertainment. The script was watered down, and it had many edits from the original. If you saw a redubbing of the show like they did with Sailor Moon it would be better. Also, Digimon Fusion's (aka Xros Wars) dub gets a bit annoying as it constantly has the Digimon's name appearing on the screen. So, it not being as popular as Pokemon is due to the representative company. In Japan the Digivices adventually gained colored screens that made them more desirable. Sadly this never was done in the U.S. So, seeing it at it's original v.s. dub. I'm going to have to say the original wins due to the lack of edits, and having the better script.
I remember enjoying Digimon alot more than Pokemon as a kid. Use to play being the monsters and all that and games and toys for BOTH series. I stopped watching pokemon after 2nd season but still wanted to find that rare episode of digimon on the tv. Pokemon is repetitive and predictable. Digimon actually had a story that grew and changed over time.
These days, i'm still in love with first gen pokemon (original 151) I dont know why they keep adding curved edges and new colours to old pokemon and call them new (with like over 700 now?). Digimon is just not there anymore and if anything is just trying to stay alive. Im 25 now and these shows just dont hold the same intrest as they once did
+MrMLaidlaw New colours? Do you mean shinies? If so, they're not new pokemon just altered colours of pokemon.
+MrMLaidlaw Your argument is only valid for the west, in Asia the Digimon franchise is still alive, in fact when the D-Power digivices came out the Korean and I think Japanese ones had some online content added to them, such as a bank like service to store digimon partners.
I watch it in 2020 . What happened to Digimon ? It is rising again , getting better , starting to hype everyone and becoming more popular , people don't think it's a pokemon rip off anymore and it is even making better old school virtual pets .
Digimon is coming back though!
And its looking awesome B-)
Actually there were games and merchandise before the anime was made, it actually started as a Tamagotchi spin-off. The thing is whoever was in charge of the marketing in US and EU was incompetent and thought localizing a merchandise advertising cartoon without bringing over the merchandise, at least not until it was too late, and even when they did there weren't even commercials for Digimon World which was one of the main things the cartoon was meant to advertise in japan, the only marketing it got in the west was a picture of the cover in ONE game magazine with the caption "not suited for people who suck at video games".
4 good seasons and then...I dont know what they were thinking with data squad. But one series came out recently that was good I hear. Appmon
everyone keep saying digimon failed by their weapons and humanly designs but just think about it.
Pokemon is releasing the Sword and Shield, weapons, still be loved. And if we give those POkemon trainers power and fusion with legendaries , holding weapons, still be loved.
But I'm really confused about this, I can feel the reason but can't say it by words why Digimon failed. I'm on both side so pls don't point your knives in my neck.
Pokemon is more simple and child friendly compared to Digimon and also Nintendo is good at marketing.Also early Digimon games aren't that good (and too hard) compared to pokemon(Blame Bandai Namco) and unreleased outside of Japan . Also 4kids did a cheesy dub with bad puns and super censorship which made people think it's just a bad rip off of pokemon.
That's why Pokemon is more successful.
All I have to say is WATCH THE SUB!!! The Dub is ruining Digimon and it's true fun,people forgot about Digimon because the Pokemon dub was better but the Digimon Sub is better than the Pokemon sub! The whole show itself is better than Pokémon,I hate the dub so much!
Dont tell me Digimon Frontier was bad.. for me Frontier was the best one...
What is the special that has everyone team up? I'm curious now.
It's unfortunately in Xros war, one of the final episodes where all of the Tai characters get summoned to the Xros world to fight together super sentai style.
Won't the series be helped out a bit more with the release of the cyber sleuth game coming to us on vita even if only on digital. if we get it popular enough wouldn't it also help get more games coming in to America if it sells well or more just international in general.
well with us being older, i think if japan tries to market their games/shows to the older western audience it would be a hit imo. The games were some of the best i've played it was very unique, a fuse of tamagotchi and pokemon. There are games that i want to play that aren't in english for eg: digimon redigitize decode, the latest digimon world next order. Hope with the new Digimon Cyber Sleuth, it'll make them consider catering to western audience as well.
Don't forget about the horrible 3 arc Season 6. The Digimon didn't even Digivolve anymore, they just had an "incredibly rare" single stage increase called Super Evolution. Instead of Digivolving, they would just Fuse with more and more Digimon to become stronger. And the third arc was the worse. The DigiDestined began capturing Digimon as if they were Pokemon and having them do battle. WTF?
Season 1 and 2 was definitely the peak of popularity. But Season 3 was definitely the best. Most people that didn't watch it didn't because of how different it was or heard it would be, but nearly everyone that did watch it claims that it was the best Season of them all, and I agree.
what I the special you talk about at the end about the team up called? I need to know!!
+john clifford I think it's an episode from the second season of the latest series Marcus punches out venomiyotismon to kick the ball rolling.
Subbed. If you were to do more research and backed up your theories with some facts or at least more detail then your channel could become something like Game Theory, but different. I was watching your Master Hand theory and Andross. Gonna watch a couple of more. Intriguing so far, but I feel like a 13 year old is giving me a power point on his favorite games. Like it could be better, but still good.
Digimon wasn't as popular in the english speaking markets because of marketing. Nintendo backed the cash cow Pokemon for the same reasons Bandai still backs Sentai/Power Rangers. It's a cash mountain. Digimon was always meant to make you think and was obvious by it's themes (death, loss, regret, etc...). Digimon also suffered from the Saban treatment, meaning it started off with a strong budget and some success (like Power Rangers) but then they gave up on the brand when they brought in other licenses. Eventually they sold it off to Disney, who cared even less about the brand, before selling it again. This time it is in Nickelodeon's hands with 'Fusion' or whatever they called it. There were also numerous movies we never got thanks to poor marketing and Saban and Disney not giving a damn about the brand. The games, I will admit are almost always terrible and for that I blame Bandai and Konami. A lot of toy manufacturers and suppliers (like Toys r us) also didn't want to touch the toys because of the levels of perceived violence and how little Bandai was willing to change them for the market.
So there you have it. The perfect storm of why Digimon seems to have faded from american markets and become a lost relic of the time, when in fact it still holds a small niche within the realm of our culture. Mostly I blame Saban for the initial failure but we are seeing a small uptick in popularity thanks to nostalgia and the wide availability of the foreign market to us.
Digimon is now making a comeback in japan. it in season 6.3
I saw we are going back in time. Xross wars is the first in the timeline because in data squad the words digimon war is spoken a fair amount. the column at the end serves as a start of digimon frontier which was partly ruined in the battle at the end which still allowed both human a digimon to cross. digimon tamers. the d-repear only left gates which we didn't know until the finale of digimon adventure 01 and the last is adventure 02
The problem i think is the advertisment, becuse i havent seen or can remember the last time i seen the something about Digimon in any Stores at least over 13 years
If we look at Pokémon, i seen it alot of diffrent Stores, like either toys, games, movies, candy, drinks and/or cards since it started and Still going today
I disagree, Digimon 02 was awful, most people didn't care about the new digidestined, they wanted to see the old ones. 02 is the reason most people stop caring about digimon itself, that's why Digimon Tamers wasn't so popular event when had a great story and was a fresh take in the franchise. Digimon Frontier had a very good story, but lost the bond between Digidestined and their digimon, and that was really bad. Digimon 5 and 6 just suck.
All I know of they had used Tai and the others all the time Digimon would truly be a ripoff of Pokémon
Acrab ok i don´t really like these "most people" arguements but i also didn´t liked 02 that much... the most of the new chracters felt like there personality was sonic the hedgehog and some old characters like kari and tk had very few similarities to the 01 versions. the best parts in the plot were when they just made fanservice for the 01 fans but concepts like black wargreymon just sound like bad fanart even when they were written well. tamers is better imo. especially the characters were more likeable... frontier wasalso pretty good, even when like 50% of the main characters sucked but it got much better, when there were only 2 fighting in the second half... barely remember data squad so i wn´t judge it but i remember it wasn´t as good as the others
PlayGamePlayGamer data squad was the first ever season i watched of digimon
The reason it gets so much hate is cause they made it darker, more serious, had the world involved amd the new art style
People whined about Goggles though and whined that Marcus agumon was a ripoff
Come on Metalgreymon from Xros looks way more flight worthy than Metalgreymon from 01
jackie perez digimon could never rip off something that came after it
A&A Science exactly what i was saying to these people that don't do their research
digimon would have probably done much better now then it did back then.
Also it doesn't help that xros wars technically isn't cannon.
What was the "special" you mention with the original digi destin
+Josh Armstrong It was one of the final (If not final) episodes of Digimon Xros Wars/Fusion.
well what your now saying maybe true but the change that they can use an come back strike if they can succes with the 8 season of digimon hope that it will come back to the nederland.
nice video, very in depth review.
+blandantey thank you!
digimon
is
better
+Apex Ashan Tri is coming out eventually. I think...
the biggest problem of digimon in US was: Music!
in germany they took the original music gave it a german text and u fealt every digivolution, while in the english version u had 1song for 3 seasons and it was used for digivolve AND intro.
imagine pokemon would still have only one song and not even a good one, just a meh rap to appear cool...
I kind of agree but there is some flaws in my opinion.
1.Digimon season 1 introduced the beginning of digimon and was made made popular but that's really it. And 02 was often hated as many people didn't care about the new casts and digimon, it only really was made popular because of new evoulution methods and the old cast being older. (Though I do love the 02 characters). and from then on digimon only got better
2.Digimon is the most relatable show, whats more realistic, a show where it shows you that you matter and are important and how to deal with being bullied or what it's like to be divorced or a kid with a charizard that wont listen to him
Other than that , your reasons do make sense.
I have been a fan since a few month ago and it is a great show
hold on a movement here digimon isn't dead!!!!!😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬
digimon is on its way back though. next year a new game is comng out for ps4 and ps vita :D not to mention digimon adventure tri coming out soon
i too pretended that random items like walkie-talkies.
when you ask? yesterday of corse
+Sinister Squirrel lol nice! :P
It is fun to pretend
+Sinister Squirrel it's funny how the Digimon are said to become your partner through you believing something impossible is possible
So yeah, I'm going to dispel my age real fast here. I remember when Seasons 1 and 2 and 3 were on Fox Kids which was normally 2 hours afterschool on Monday - Friday and then ran all Saturday morning. New episodes were normally aired on Saturday mornings. When season 4 came, Fox Kids was gone entirely and Digimon moved over to other stations like ABC Family or WB (CW by today's standard). With that happening, it just became very hard to watch the show because of network change and time slot change. Now, I really enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 that I have every episode from those seasons recorded on VHS. I think the storyline is very simple and basic but it dose make you recall back to past episodes. I had a very hard time getting into Season 3 mostly because the Digidestined were just annoying plus they got rid of the English and Japanese name spelling moving around in the background before and after digivolution. I tried to watch season 4 but I stopped watching after a few episodes because it just became hard to understand.
have you seen tentomon digivolvs to his insanely strong
I always liked digimon more than pokemon, but when i saw season 4...i just quit because that stuff is not digimon anymore thats digiarmored humans and thats not what i want to see in digimon. then on the 5th season i really enjoyed it until i realized this dude here needs no digimon to kick another digimons ass so i kinda went back to the trauma season 4 gave me. i kept watching it tho but it got to a point where it was just ridiculous...
OMG I LOVE SONIC! “IN HIS WORLD“ where one is all!
I've watched the first 5 seasons within the past month after becoming morbidly curious about the series. And you know what? I like 'em! I think 02 fumbled some stuff, and Frontier went the wrong way, but besides that, what killed the fanbase here in the west was the lack of foundation. Yu-Gi-Oh had the card game, Pokemon had the video games, but Digimon's foundation WAS the anime. And since that wasn't consistent, it ultimately fell off.
Digimon are best now I will try to make it popular I wish digimon popular whoever likes digimon try your best to make it popular plzzz....
It will NEVER be popular again
Nice review. You really covered all the seasons. One thing that really annoyed me (and I'm sure annoyed many others) about the show was the lack of constancy. In Pokemon (bad exemple, I know) Charmander will always evolve to Charmeleon. That didn't seem to be the case with Digimon and both names and characteristics were changed along the seasons so much it was impossible to keep track. About the so called 'best' season thought...honestly, to me, it was season 4, exactly because they got rid of the digimon-partner thing. I know, I know people will hate me for writing this but what can I say? I always thought the 'go fight while I cheer on the sidelines' kindda boring. Season 2 for me was the worse. The new digidestined added nothing except for crying when a digimon died, thing the original digidestined never cared much about and rightfully so. But, anyway, awersome vid. Who knows? Maybe a new season will come around and make we all fall in love with Digimon again. One thing is for sure, it will happen way before Ash becames a Pokemon master.
+Netsuki Amamya Thanks man, I appreciate you for not ranting for your love of season 4 :P. I know that season has it's fan base but I think it would have been better to make it a secondary anime while still having the original concept as a different show, then everyone would win :D
Guess that would have worked for both sides. ^^
+Netsuki Amamya Well in season 3 they did try and help by using their cards [although they seemed to have lost them once they got to the digital world, because they used them only to digivolve once they got there] and they had the Bio Merge.
I know. In my opinion that made the partnership between human and digimon much better and real, because they were finally fighting together. ^^
+Netsuki Amamya That's partially why I liked the Savers season, I was tired of the "go cheer or just look at everything while your digimon partner does all the job and you get credit for it without gaining any kind of knowledge or strength to make you grow as a person" thing on the first 2 seasons (specially crapventure 01 since the digimon evolved just to save their child, not because they actually could evolve). In the mangas there were more interesting character developments and interactions (kinda like savers but not as raw/stupid like Masaru, I liked the idea of him punching a digimon, thus battling at his partner's side but I dunno, his character felt like an idiot to me).
Hang in there, Digimon.
Thanks for this Video, you really explained why Digimon died out while pokemon Lived. I remember watching the latest Digimon and go... wtf? Why is it so different than the first 2 awesome seasons? They really messed it up
Thanks for watching! I'm glad you liked it.
Digimon started failing at season 4 because that's when Disney started getting their hands in it.
im a girl and 8 yeas old and wach digimon evrey day
I like season 1 better then 2 and I love season 3 and 4 equally but data squad was terrible I hope the franchise will be redeemed.
And I want to see a renewal of digimon tames that expands on it's concept with the original caracters and a love triangle between tacato jerry and Rica would workout great for me
What happen was that Pokemon is owned by Nintendo and Digimon was on the PSX. they kinda screwed themselves with the newer and weirder episodes ( simular to .hack ) and made things that made no sense and had no story
Digimon is still awesome. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just hating.
Kuli Kevl You are so correct
Kuli Kevl U agree too!
didint they release new season this year with all the originals ? sad but true digimon is a better Anime while pokemon are better games . I remember as a kid I always get up early ar saturdays just to watch digimons :) FTW
In terms of story, character developing and even fights, this goes like this:
From best to worst:
1-Tamers
2-Xross Wars
3-Savers
4-Frontier
5-Adventure
6-02
7-Hunters (Xross wars 2)
Adventure and 02 are just bad. Even the guionists admitted that they did adventure knowing nothing, NOTHING, about digimon except the basic concepts like evolution. it's ok to think that the first ones where nice bcuz of childhood and stuff, but they weren't the best.
+Olmo Moreno did you really place Xross and frontier above adventure and 02? I swear those two season were like writer dangling key in front of a baby. throwing explosion, fan service, fights and jokes at the audience, hoping they don;t notice the lack of effort they place in the character and story.
I actually loved season 4 and 5 because I watch them first. If you watch them unbiased you will love those seasons
Yea they're probably fine if you watch them first. The problem is how they diverged from an already established premise and weren't true to what Digimon was. It was a cool idea I just wished season 4 had that bond the original digi destined shared with their mons.
for me personally it was all about the games, pokemon games are good solid games.
I really liked digimon world 1, but that's the only Digimon game I actually liked.
Digimon will always live on
digimon is making a comeback with a movie and a video game digimon cybersleuth for ps4 and vita in 2016 in us and eu
I always far preferred the Digimon anime to Pokemon. It was more mature--especially from the 3rd season on--and had a lot more 'cool' looking guys than Pokemon did. I also preferred the Digimon card game--although it was rather short lived. The games are what really, really killed Digimon compared to Pokemon for lasting success, though. Not only were the not the original focus--but more of an after thought to keep the show going--but they were clunky and overly difficult. I can't help but feel that the games were the ultimate deciding factor in all this.
Good video!
Thanks man! I really appreciate your comment on this video and my Zelda Wii U info :)
digimon adventure tri
Cyber sleuth
+Abde-Ali Emadi in Canada i always watched Digimon on Teletoon
Dio Brando what
88 expert
i wasnt complaining you tasted something that anyone knows by using watch it online so i just said obviously cause i felt like it : /
hope they bring the new season of digimon to the US eventually..... hell when I was a kid I was way more into Digimon than I was with Pokemon, so it would he nice to see it updated a little....even if it is just another bad dub like DBZ Kai >_>
i feel like nitpicking as a digimon fan even tho its 2 years after this video, i think my name on here is still ashmon... anyway i think digimon is still at its prime, just it takes a different type of person to watch and enjoy the aspect of it.
It is more an anime made for the older kind of person as i noticed during the first and 2nd lot of digidestined i loved watching it but my younger siblings hated it, they didn't get it.
Also digimon seems to be a show that tried something new, something different at least every episode, I have a theory due to season 1 that being a digidestined all it takes is the will to want something different, after all it said that 8 digidestined was chosen from many different area because they didn't expect the ones we saw be able to cover the country. So if it wasn't set in the city it was set in, we wouldn't have the digidestined we did have in season 1.
I think the complicated uber digimon are the killing point of digimon tho. Its all memorable and fun till you get to those fugly super fusions and the like.
i hate pokemon but what i hate about digimon being on Netflix. there is only like.. 3 seasons...
im on season 2 in digimon fusion so i had to jump over and got some spoilers.. >:(
Crunchyroll has them all aside from Savers
they got to many damage to fix, the inconstancys are to great but i think the show had SO MUCH potential they should scrap it all and revamp back to the first season. Whit a decent hand held game they would have gold in there hands.
Sorry but... "With digimon, the games came way after" - do your research mister... It was first Tamagochi - but that was popular among girls. So the producers of Tamagochi came with the idea of V-pets - the first digimon, where you could have your own V-pet (virtual pet) a.k.a. Digimon and make him digivolve and battle others. This is actually also mentioned in the Tamers movie.
After the development of V-pet the rival company came with Pokémon. And after that, the first producers came with Digimon Adventure TV show...
So Digimon games came way before Digimon series and actually even before Pokémon in general
Make way for ..............Adventure Tri!!!! It's gonna b indeed awesome.
Loved didigom season 1 and 2 as a kid. dropped off on season 3 unfortunately
You dropped off on the best season.
It was not really grabbing me. loved season 1 the most. Though watching it as a adult is kinda painful.
Season 3 is personally my favorite, it starts off slow the first 10 episodes, but the rest of the season makes up for it. And as for Season 01 and 02 I agree it's kind of harsh watching it, now that we're older.
seriously i actually love digimon frontier
Digimon was first they had games on GameBoy Gameube DS Playstation and Xbox the digimon could talk and they even had they're own cards for trading and battling
Right; the thing is, though, that you may compare them but Digimon is much closer to Transformers or Power Rangers then Pokemon. They actually are virtual pets with elements of the abkve mentioned series
For fuck sakes, don't put the background music on infinite 3 second loop, and sure as fuck don't speed up the tempo over time!
+Nyrufa The background music wasn't edited at all...
***** I suppose I haven't listened to that song all the way through. Or was it somebody's remix?
Nyrufa Yea it's the full normal version.
+Nyrufa lel.tard
Unfortunately, welcome to a popular nineties song.
Pokemon and Digimon are made by the same company under different names.