User Reviews

Digimon Tamers is the first reboot in the Digimon franchise, which came with the obvious intention of taking things in an entirely new direction. Some liked it and others were resistant, a rather typical reaction for a project of this nature. However, time has proved favorable towards this series, currently hailed as at least one of the franchise's finest products. Admittedly, I too have experienced an increased appreciation for it. While I would not go so far as to call it the best that Digimon has to offer, there is much about it that is exemplary.

"Tamers" is not really an adventure story so much as it is a tale of technology on the loose. That it is not driven by its characters leaves it a little short of its predecessor, but it can definitely be seen as the boldest in its own line. In such things as government agencies and true artificial intelligence, a different perspective is evident. The final act is largely responsible for this, representing some of the finest work that has been seen in Digimon, with plenty of apocalyptic scenery and tense moments that befit the building resolution. Such elements as the origins of Calumon and the purposes of the Devas receive welcome exploration here, yielding the most complete exposition on the history of the Digital World. Not to mention, the most interesting subplots, such as those of Impmon and the Monster Makers, finally pay-off. The rest of the series, in contrast, has a discernably rough time finding its footing, since many details are choppy in their presentation, brushed to the side in favor of the drawn out antics of the kids. Even as a person familiar with the details, I found various developments somewhat difficult to follow or, for that matter, care about, which seriously hurts the momentum. Truth be told, "Tamers" feels quite stagnant for the majority of its first half, and even after the group travels to the Digital World with an actual objective, a sense of meandering perseveres.

I suppose I was initially somewhat harsh towards the characters, but I had my reasons. One can definitely see the realism that the writers were aiming for; the characters here watch the digimon series, play the card game and are treated like misfits for it…not unlike real fans. But despite this approach the Tamers themselves are strangely distant. They lack the charisma of the original cast and are plagued by unsubstantial minors. Consider Kazu, Kenta, Suzie and Ryo, all of which could have been erased from the series with no real consequence, whether it be for the narrative or for the other key players. One would think the central trio would fare better, but I cannot say I was terribly enthusiastic because, despite their considerable screen time, the development is quite deliberate or murky. With the exception of Rika, there is a scarcity of truly pivotal moments in the history of these guys, making their growth more mechanical than earned. For example, Takato's mostly goes through the routine process of becoming braver by taking part in more fights, not experiencing any crucial ramifications until about 34 episodes into the series. Rika is the most fascinating lead to watch because she is dynamic and proactive, a person of action, a sharp contrast to most of her acquaintances, particularly Jeri.

Interestingly, the supporting cast of adults and digimon actually outclasses the main one. The digimon partners themselves benefit from distinct, likable personalities. In fact, a good case can be made that much of the investment made in the tamers actually stems from their connection with their digimon. The same goes for the adult characters, which actually come across as mature, competent individuals, even if the parents' part of the story never receives enough focus to be fully capitalized on; repetition does not equate with progress. Janyu is more intriguing than Henry, and even Jeri's father makes a greater impact than her with only a small fraction of the screen time. The standouts, though, are Impmon and Yamaki. Theirs are stories of mistakes, consequences and resolution, stories with true poignancy and arguably what brings most of the humanity to this series.

The principle asset of Tamers lies in its visuals. To date, nothing else in its own line has found the correct synergy between a traditional style and the distinct style of this franchise. The grim atmosphere that pervades many of the episodes is exceedingly appropriate and bolstered well by the shades of color, while the reduction of recycled footage increases the excitement of the monster battles. By and large, this is the most well-animated of the seasons. The writing is more mixed. I don't refer to the dialogue and humor, which have become more refined; I refer to the major themes. Sure, there are many classic sci-fi themes present, such as the nature of A.I. and evolution, but these have been done much better in past works. There aren't any new insights concerning the ramifications of A.I., and any time questions of this affect the kids it feels tacked on and unnecessary. None of this reveals any convincing, unsettling aspects of humanity; even the D-Reaper's claims of humanity are too tethered to Jeri's history to be taken seriously. Does it bolster the mechanics of this world? Yes. Does it work as a set of applicable ideas? Not really.

Digimon Tamers, to me, heralded the twilight of the franchise as the last worthy outing before things simply lost direction. It was a bold move giving it this style, and all seasons since have not exhibited the guts to attempt anything comparable. All in all, Digimon Tamers is an entertaining and versatile series that demands a bit of patience, but ultimately delivers and has its place as the second best of the franchise.

but it never be regarded as the original. The first season was an excellent anime even in spite of it's glaring dub-related flaws. With the 3rd season we definitely got something much darker, more interesting, and overall much more effective by comparison to the first season. This time around the kids aren't referred to as digidestined but rather tamers (there is a considerable difference but the sad truth is both terms are used interchangeably) so there is no absolutes about Takato, Henry, and Rika saving the digital world with their digimon partners. The antagonists this time around are actually much more complex by comparison to the original in that they're not necessarily evil or out to rule world (human or digital) but all them are actually misguided (especially so with the final villain which I dare not spoil). Truth be told this season broke away from a few conventions of the series present in the 1st and 2nd season but more or less for the better. Of all the 5 seasons Digimon I've watched this is best of them (with only season 1 and 4 being very very close). Go check it if you deem yourself a fan of Mon series.

Hey, this is Blackguilmon here. You may know me from such forums as With The Will, The Digiport, and DATS. Now that I have watched the first four seasons, and some of the fifth season with subtitles, I feel I can now truly review this season to compare it to the rest.

First of all, the ending was the best out of all seasons because it was sad but had a silver lining that suggested that Takato got to keep his promise to Guilmon, the one he made saying that he would come play with him again. I was crying during Takato's ending monologue, the voice actor did a wonderful job sounding depressed.

Compared to the other season endings...

Season one is the only ending that comes close to Tamers heart-felt ending. They had to leave their friends behind, and you didn't know if they would ever see each other again. It was sad, but not as sad as Tamers. Why? Because, Tamers not only developed the children, it actually developed the digimon as well as the adults for once.

Season two ended and I was really disappointed with it. It was a really happy ending, but I could have done without them all being grown up. I also didn't like the fact that all the children had digimon, it made the original eight kids seem less special, as if just about anyone could have saved the digital world. They also didn't really develop the characters or digimon real well.

Season Four... I'm indifferent. It wasn't really happy or sad. They developed a bond with their spirits, but the bond didn't really carry through the screen and into my heart like season three and one. I just... Can't decide what I think about this ending...

All in all, Tamers had a darker, more realistic plot. I'm watching the Japanese version now and I'm liking it more and more with each episode. So much was cut out when it was dubbed into the American version, things that are, granted, sometimes not good for children to see. It was, after all, a children's show in America.

My favorite character was Guilmon. Guilmon first won my heart over when he digivolved to Growlmon and defeated Devidramon. Then, afterwords, Takato became scared of Growlmon. You know what Growlmon did? He started crying. A gigantic dinosaur the size of a small condo is crying because he scared a little boy. I also loved his childish personality. So far, my favorite part of the show is in the Japanese version, Guilmon and Renamon are together and Terriermon walks up and sings a Japanese equivalent of "Guilmon and Renamon, sittin' in a tree" or something, and they both beat the stuffing out of him. It was taken out of the American version of course.

Overall, Tamers was the best season in my opinion, and I'm glad that the newly made forums, DATS, is subbing the Japanese version for all to enjoy.

An absolutely brilliant story disguised as a kid's show. If you are an adult, I highly recommend watching this show. It will remind you of what it was like to be a kid.

Digimon Tamers is a show with far too many overarching themes to be shoehorned as a particular type of show. It is a coming of age story; it shows the beauty of child-like innocence and the loss of it; it is a story about loss and grief; it is a story which raises environmental awareness; it is a story which poses extremely difficult questions such as what life matters and who decides the fate of those lives; and it is a story about destiny. There are too many themes prevalent in the show to name in this short review. I could write for hours about how good this show is. I will only talk about one important question raised from watching this show. I hope you can come up with more on your own after viewing.

What is life, how should life be respected, and who chooses which life deserves positive treatment? Tamers poses a very difficult question straight out of the gate. We are presented with these life forms and are told they are beneath humans. As the show progresses, we learn that they have intelligent thoughts and they can be our friends. However, because they are not made of physical matter, does it mean their pain is inconsequential? Yamaki, one of the first human characters we meet, uses this logic as reasoning to spread the belief that his actions are just. It relates a lot to how we treat animals. We convince ourselves they do not have personalities and feelings to justify our cruel actions towards them. Who decided that only cats and dogs deserve to live happy lives? It is the same with Digimon. They have the potential to be both friend and foe, but one bad egg shouldn't decide the fate of an entire species. This is but one philosophical question Digimon Tamers poses.

Of course, it would be foolish to write a review about an anime without mentioning the animation. The artwork itself is nice to look at. However, even taking into account the time it was produced (2001), the animation is not great. They clearly cut a lot of corners when it came to animating shots. Still, it is serviceable and you will get used to it after a while.

Despite this, the story is so well crafted it heavily outweighs any negatives present in the show - meaning I can only give it a 10/10. It is up there with shows such as 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' and 'Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood' in the way it makes you think critically about important issues and events we will deal with in our lives. On top of that, the show is very funny. Just watch out for those surprise feels attacks. Oh, and *spoiler* (only reason I had to tick the spoiler box) this show has one of the best redemption arcs in modern storytelling. Not quite Zuko from ATLA good, but not too far off. Keep an eye on the red scarf! *end spoiler*

I hope this review encourages at least one person to watch Digimon Tamers. You won't regret it.

This will contain spoilers! So some people writing reviews have got this mixed up! In relation to the the previous Digimon series' Digimon Tamers is set in the real world. With the previous two series taking place as a TV series within Digimon Tamers (YES, a TV series within a TV series) Tamers is set in the real world. This is the single greatest series of ANYTHING I have ever watched. Yes, admittedly it starts off a bit slow, but that is perfect, it doesn't give everything away from the start. The underlying darkness that surfaces as the series progresses, coming to an ultimatum through the character of Jeri Katou in particular, is something many would not have been used to (especially those who have watched Pokémon their entire lives!!!!) but I found it simply amazing. The story line may at first seem like something you've seen before(considering when this was made however, it is truly original) it develops further into such an amazing and glorious series. The characters are developed astonishingly well, I just couldn't help becoming attached. I don't want to give too much away, but, when it came to the ending, I felt so sad. From what I've read this 'depressing ending' received some criticism, BUT, I think it was perfect! Finally this was not just a typical happy ending, there is such a mix of emotions it left me feeling strange for days. I cannot praise the ending enough for being nothing short of amazing and if I could get the chance to personally thank its creators I would do so! WHAT A SERIES, SO SO SO MUCH BETTER THAN ANY SERIES I'VE SEEN EVER! An absolute YUGOTH BLAST!!!! to other series' such as Pokemon, YuGiOh and the rest!

The first and only time i saw it was around 2006, i wasn't too found of it since they changed all the characters and the Universe it's settled in, since in the least 2 seasons i got used to the previous characters it was difficult to adjust, after watching it with every episode i started liking allot and warmed up to the characters, and it's a more much more dramatic and tone heavy season comparing to the other ones, i didn't really pay much notice to it back than but after re-watching it in for the first time in years in Jan 2021 has a 25 year old i noticed it, still even back than i cried when something sad happened like Leomon's death (again) and when Growmon couldn't revert back to Guilmon and Takato had a broke down in tears afraid of losing his Digimon friend, i still cried in those parts again, it just shows how well done this season was i guess much more realistic, i mean the Digimons even had wild instincts and the Digital world was much more hostile, in the other seasons they had cities and restaurants almost liek in the real world, in this season the Digital world felt more like a dangerous wild place to not mess aroudn on your own. 100% recommend this season and don't watch the english version.

Ah, Digimon Tamers. Often considered the best of the Digimon series by a large part of the fandom, I remember it got a mixed reception in my country during its release; mostly due being completely unrelated with the previous two Digimon seasons.

But more importantly, due the very slow-pace of the first episodes, taking a very long time before the main characters venture into the Digital world.

The mundane setting, combined with the apparent lack of a villain in the first episodes (The proper antagonists are introduced much later in the series) caused some of my schoolmates to consider the series "boring" and refuse to give it a chance.

I remember that as the moment when many of them stopped watching Digimon, but personally, I found Tamers to be an interesting series, due its a mysterious atmosphere and new characters.

Sure, I was bothered a bit by the lack of villains (And also the lack of action of some of the first episodes) but as the series progresses, the plot also became more complex, with some brilliantly written moments.

The dub (The Latin American dub, not the english dub) was still pretty solid, and fortunately, kept all the excellent original soundtrack (Only the opening and the ending were translated) I always liked the awesome opening the series had; it's a very sad thing Chiaki Konaka, the main writer of this series had became a loony conspiracy theorist.

Something something "you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain". (See also: J. K. Rowling, or all the artists that started being involved in the nft scam)