Digimon: Digital Monsters

What’s the Story?

Long-running cartoon series DIGIMON: DIGITAL MONSTERS centers on a group of kids who travel to a parallel universe called DigiWorld and work alongside the digital creatures they befriend there to battle evil forces that threaten their peaceful existence. The Japanese-inspired anime 'toon has been known under a number of different titles since it began airing in 1999, including Digimon Adventures and Digimon Tamers. With each title change, the series added new characters and tweaked the original plot (in which the initial seven kids mysteriously transported to DigiWorld from their summer camp and ended up immersed in battle).

Is It Any Good?

While the general basis of relationships between the show's kids and their digital companions remained constant over the course of the series, almost everything else went through many makeovers. Some seasons feature seven human visitors to DigiWorld; others, as few as three. In early episodes, the kids can't get back home; later stories show a new cast of youngsters effortlessly journeying between the two worlds. And while in most stories each kid has his own specialized Digimon sidekick, a full season of episodes featured humans who could transform into the digital beings rather than just summon them for battles.

Youngsters will certainly find this lack of continuity confusing, and parents may be wary of introducing their kids to yet another marketing conglomerate looking to rival Pokemon. (Digimon boasts a similar assortment of tie-in video games, trading cards, virtual pets, and other toys.) And it's worth noting that although the show's violence is mostly of the flashy, fantasy variety and battles are reserved for the digital beings, those who are seriously injured dissolve into pieces that are said to regroup and reincarnate at a later date.