Lot's of different opinions, which is great. It's boring when everyone agrees with the same thing, or disagrees with the same thing. I need to watch the other seasons, and it seems like I need to watch the third season a third time to see if it's better than I remember. I might try to watch all the seasons in Japanese, since it's a bit better, but I feel that the cheesiness adds to the charm of it.
I'm going to list my problems with season three. It's based on the dubbed version, and some of the things can be a bit nitpicky, and others I have major problems with. Keep in mind I actually liked it when I watched it as a kid, but when watching it as a freshman in college, I didn't like it. Spoilers abound
I'm going to list my problems with season three. It's based on the dubbed version, and some of the things can be a bit nitpicky, and others I have major problems with. Keep in mind I actually liked it when I watched it as a kid, but when watching it as a freshman in college, I didn't like it. Spoilers abound
I will first start with a little bit of what I liked. It was nice having it mostly in the real world, because the other two seasons focused a lot in the Digiworld. The card battle system had potential, and worked for a little bit. The animation was much nicer as well. Now on to the problems.
I did not like any of the three main tamers, and the only digimon I liked of those three was Terriormon (He was funny and entertaining). Takato was bland and while being the clueless and less active character isn't a bad thing, he just didn't do much. I know they are kids, so you can't expect them to know what to do in all situations, but it would've been nice to see him try to do more to comfort Jerry, and actually do stuff. Henry was not very memorable, and he had an hilarious scene where he's crying over a computer programed monster in a game being hurt. That would be like watching a kid play Pokémon and crying that his Pikachu was hit and has a booboo. Rika was the worst. She does a complete 180 in a span of two episodes. She went from being cruel and not caring about what happens to the others, to suddenly feeling sorry for all the Digimon. Season 2 did a much better job with this, and the whole sequence was jarring. It's even worse when apparently she's told her crest is about compassion, despite being a jerk to almost everyone. Maybe I was down on the Ice Devimon sequence to much to notice the subtleties.
The card system was a wasted potential, and became pointless for the most part once the Ultimates came in. We got some glimpses of how the cards could be used early on, but it was used a few times, and later it was never used. There was a lot of potential to use cards to cover for weaknesses, or to take out stronger opponents before needing to go to a new stage, but that almost never happened. Heck, maybe the evolutions could've been based on the types of cards the tamers used. Guilemons ultimate is a mecha, so maybe Takato used lots of weapon cards. Another problem was we see Rika use a card to for Rinemon to Digivolve, but never saw her try to use it before when complaining about Rinemon not being able to. I know one can Imply it wouldn't have worked, but it would've been nice to see her or one of the others try to use it in desperation and show that it doesn't work. Speaking of cards...
Let's talk about the Blue card, that allowed them to go to their ultimate forms. I call this the Deus Ex Machina card, which appears when needed. One thing that irks me is the first time they use it, they all have no idea what it is, but then when using the card, Takato says Matrix Digivolution activate, because he had a really lucky guess? It would've been easy to either just say Blue Card activate the first time to find out, or just swipe the card dramatically and see the results. They also spend an episode trying to find out about a random card, and then the blue card appears, which they question what it is, despite Takato shouting it out to the world. Later they find a guy that rambles on techno babble about how it works, but at that point, it's just trying to explain a stupid plot point. Like I said, maybe after using a number of cards and other things it could happen, but a blue card just appearing is stupid.
Lets talk about the enemy for the majority of the series. You have all these Digimon appearing that are destroying the world, and trying to take back the plot device that allows Digimon to Digivolve. Problem is that there is a virus that is capable of destroying all of the Digimon, and can get to the real world and destroy it as well. So instead of sending a diplomat, especially after a number of Digimon have been killed, you try to wipe out the Digimon in the real world, which is costing valuable resources to combat a bigger threat. Worse yet is that the Digimon that was doing this wasn't convinced by the power that destroyed all his minions, nor the power that was able to take him on. No, it was Takato jumping down and Digivolving to save a friend that convinced him. That's like me not asking for help after seeing someone have the power of leveling cities, but when they do a backflip I'm convinced that they can be helpful. Worse yet is that three other equally powerful Deities were sitting on their ass allowing this to happen instead of slapping him in the back of the head and telling him what a stupid idea this is.
The whole stuff with Terry after Leomon was killed seemed poorly done. Takato leaves the two dumbest kids in the group to watch an emotionally destroyed girl, and Henry's little sister who can't sit still for two seconds. I know they are kids but they should know better. She comes back very different, but instead of noticing how crazy she looks and acts, they just ignore her because that's the best thing to do when someone is emotionally damaged. Worse is when they get back to the real world, and let Takato take Jerry back home himself, without an adult to maybe tell the terrible parents that she's emotionally destroyed, and that they could decide whether or not someone else should look after her after something happened. Death of a close one can be especially tramatic for kids.
I want to touch on the secret government organization a little bit. My big problem is that they keep trying to stop the kids from fighting. Yes, you guys are trying to stop the monsters and feel that it should be up to the adults, but maybe instead of trying to stop the kids that have been successful, especially more than you, you should have them help you. When the scientists tell you that you shouldn't use the program that will 100% for sure cause problems, don't use it. Later he tries to make the parents feel better about the kids leaving, when the guy says that it's okay, they outsmarted me. It would be one thing if they outsmarted you in legitimate ways, but you just made stupid decisions that even the kids knew not to do. It's like saying they are smarter than a lobotomized worm, it's really not that impressive.
The biggest problem I have is with the final enemy and how things came to be. It has no face or personality, and isn't that interesting. So basically a bunch of college student made a program, but then had a falling out that caused them to stop, but one guy was somehow able to make a program for it to evolve constantly, even after deleted, and data somehow evolved into another world with real creatures. Not only that, the program had a system in place to make sure things didn't get out of control, and that evolved into massive blob that not could only destroy the Digiworld, but could go into the real world and destroy everything. Yeah, no, that seems really stupid, and because it's in the real world using real world logic, it's just stupid. I'm not going to say how well it follows evolution logic, because there are still debates out there about how the exact process works, but the fact a digital world became real because of a computer program you made is way to much.
I did not like any of the three main tamers, and the only digimon I liked of those three was Terriormon (He was funny and entertaining). Takato was bland and while being the clueless and less active character isn't a bad thing, he just didn't do much. I know they are kids, so you can't expect them to know what to do in all situations, but it would've been nice to see him try to do more to comfort Jerry, and actually do stuff. Henry was not very memorable, and he had an hilarious scene where he's crying over a computer programed monster in a game being hurt. That would be like watching a kid play Pokémon and crying that his Pikachu was hit and has a booboo. Rika was the worst. She does a complete 180 in a span of two episodes. She went from being cruel and not caring about what happens to the others, to suddenly feeling sorry for all the Digimon. Season 2 did a much better job with this, and the whole sequence was jarring. It's even worse when apparently she's told her crest is about compassion, despite being a jerk to almost everyone. Maybe I was down on the Ice Devimon sequence to much to notice the subtleties.
The card system was a wasted potential, and became pointless for the most part once the Ultimates came in. We got some glimpses of how the cards could be used early on, but it was used a few times, and later it was never used. There was a lot of potential to use cards to cover for weaknesses, or to take out stronger opponents before needing to go to a new stage, but that almost never happened. Heck, maybe the evolutions could've been based on the types of cards the tamers used. Guilemons ultimate is a mecha, so maybe Takato used lots of weapon cards. Another problem was we see Rika use a card to for Rinemon to Digivolve, but never saw her try to use it before when complaining about Rinemon not being able to. I know one can Imply it wouldn't have worked, but it would've been nice to see her or one of the others try to use it in desperation and show that it doesn't work. Speaking of cards...
Let's talk about the Blue card, that allowed them to go to their ultimate forms. I call this the Deus Ex Machina card, which appears when needed. One thing that irks me is the first time they use it, they all have no idea what it is, but then when using the card, Takato says Matrix Digivolution activate, because he had a really lucky guess? It would've been easy to either just say Blue Card activate the first time to find out, or just swipe the card dramatically and see the results. They also spend an episode trying to find out about a random card, and then the blue card appears, which they question what it is, despite Takato shouting it out to the world. Later they find a guy that rambles on techno babble about how it works, but at that point, it's just trying to explain a stupid plot point. Like I said, maybe after using a number of cards and other things it could happen, but a blue card just appearing is stupid.
Lets talk about the enemy for the majority of the series. You have all these Digimon appearing that are destroying the world, and trying to take back the plot device that allows Digimon to Digivolve. Problem is that there is a virus that is capable of destroying all of the Digimon, and can get to the real world and destroy it as well. So instead of sending a diplomat, especially after a number of Digimon have been killed, you try to wipe out the Digimon in the real world, which is costing valuable resources to combat a bigger threat. Worse yet is that the Digimon that was doing this wasn't convinced by the power that destroyed all his minions, nor the power that was able to take him on. No, it was Takato jumping down and Digivolving to save a friend that convinced him. That's like me not asking for help after seeing someone have the power of leveling cities, but when they do a backflip I'm convinced that they can be helpful. Worse yet is that three other equally powerful Deities were sitting on their ass allowing this to happen instead of slapping him in the back of the head and telling him what a stupid idea this is.
The whole stuff with Terry after Leomon was killed seemed poorly done. Takato leaves the two dumbest kids in the group to watch an emotionally destroyed girl, and Henry's little sister who can't sit still for two seconds. I know they are kids but they should know better. She comes back very different, but instead of noticing how crazy she looks and acts, they just ignore her because that's the best thing to do when someone is emotionally damaged. Worse is when they get back to the real world, and let Takato take Jerry back home himself, without an adult to maybe tell the terrible parents that she's emotionally destroyed, and that they could decide whether or not someone else should look after her after something happened. Death of a close one can be especially tramatic for kids.
I want to touch on the secret government organization a little bit. My big problem is that they keep trying to stop the kids from fighting. Yes, you guys are trying to stop the monsters and feel that it should be up to the adults, but maybe instead of trying to stop the kids that have been successful, especially more than you, you should have them help you. When the scientists tell you that you shouldn't use the program that will 100% for sure cause problems, don't use it. Later he tries to make the parents feel better about the kids leaving, when the guy says that it's okay, they outsmarted me. It would be one thing if they outsmarted you in legitimate ways, but you just made stupid decisions that even the kids knew not to do. It's like saying they are smarter than a lobotomized worm, it's really not that impressive.
The biggest problem I have is with the final enemy and how things came to be. It has no face or personality, and isn't that interesting. So basically a bunch of college student made a program, but then had a falling out that caused them to stop, but one guy was somehow able to make a program for it to evolve constantly, even after deleted, and data somehow evolved into another world with real creatures. Not only that, the program had a system in place to make sure things didn't get out of control, and that evolved into massive blob that not could only destroy the Digiworld, but could go into the real world and destroy everything. Yeah, no, that seems really stupid, and because it's in the real world using real world logic, it's just stupid. I'm not going to say how well it follows evolution logic, because there are still debates out there about how the exact process works, but the fact a digital world became real because of a computer program you made is way to much.
