#FEATURE: Why The Digimon Adventure Reboot's Identity Crisis Is Wonderful

“#FEATURE: Why The Digimon Adventure Reboot's Identity Crisis Is Wonderful”

Over the last few episodes of Digimon Adventure:, we've seen Mimi basically become a labor union boss, Digimon soccer, Gabumon be crucified and offered up as a ritual sacrifice to a Digimon named after a servant of the devil from German folklore, a Digimon go on a rampage because its favorite restaurant ran out of french fries, a not-so-veiled parody of Disney World, Etemon engaging in a rap battle, and a racing episode. On one hand, this has been kind of a fun diversion — not really a filler arc as much as a chance to throw the main cast into a bunch of different wild scenarios and play with what happens.

However, it's also been, like, the fourth diversion Digimon Adventure: has taken. To say the show has "evolved" would be disingenuous. Instead, it feels like a series trying on different hats, each one seemingly comfortable for different reasons. The initial trilogy of episodes that saw Tai meet Agumon/Greymon and climaxed with the birth of Omnimon was steeped in both homage and fresh energy, honoring the legacy of such films as Mamoru Hosoda's Digimon Adventure: Our War Game while also throwing audiences into the Digi-deep end. This was a show that could only exist after 20 prior years of Digimon history.

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The next chunk of the show felt almost like a speed run of the original, with evolutions coming left and right as we cycled through all of the classic Champion and Ultimate forms Digimon Adventure fans grew to love back in 1999. It went through these at a breakneck pace, with a highlight being the show's stellar evolution sequences. But this transformation also made it clear that 2020's Digimon Adventure: was not 1999's. The latter show was full of Digimon and their partners hanging out, eating, and joking. The reboot, on the other hand, was concerned with action set pieces and the constant upheaval of villains.

Phase three concerned itself with plentiful talks about destiny and fate and world-ending scenarios (mostly involving a bunch of boats going out of control). This wasn't a surprising turn — the show's endgame seems to involve reuniting the "Holy Digimon," so of course it would go bananas making it clear how important someone like Angemon is, — but it did offer up a bunch of neat little aspects among its heavy lore build-up. For instance, I love the idea that Leomon is the leader of a team of Digimon freedom fighters. Perfectly fits his ridiculously noble character.

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And finally, we hit the current incarnation which is about as slice-of-life as a show predicated on so much giant monster action can get. Even the end credits seem to reflect this, with the first and second ED's being about angsty Yamato and fun adventures, respectively, and the third and fourth devoting their imagery to showing the kids and Digimon chilling, playing, and dancing. Without the show making this final (as of this writing) adjustment, the third and fourth EDs would appear to be advertising a completely different series, but now they work well together.

So what does this mean for Digimon Adventure:? As I said, the first three episodes seemed tremendously confident, especially since the reboot was coming right off the end of the original series with Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna. It honored the series' roots while also blazing through Digimon iconography. I even wrote about how it was what an anime reboot "needs to be." But it's not that show anymore.

etemon, digimon

Over the past year, it's shown that maybe it didn't need to be for very long. So much of the original Digimon Adventure is wrapped up in my nostalgia for it and how its meaning has changed for me as I've grown up. Just as the role the Digimon played in the lives of the main characters changed as they grew up too. Comparisons between the original series and the 2020 reboot would become inevitable and likely constant if the series had stayed on some kind of set course. We'd compare their climaxes, their storytelling methods, their character arcs. By the end, we'd come to a firm conclusion about which one we liked more.

But by constantly changing the outlook of the show and giving it breathing room to be a variety of things, I find comparing them happens less and less. Digimon Adventure: became its own thing by being a variety of things. It's not the development I expected but it's a development I enjoy. Digimon has a long history and a wide array of monsters to pull from. Seeing its flagship anime playing around with what it wants to be makes me optimistic for the future of the franchise.

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

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