Movie
Digimon debuted in the US in August of 1999 on Fox Kids and became an alternative to Pokémon hype machine at that time. Season One follows the adventures of the DigiDestined, who are transported to the digital world to not only save that world but their own as well. Joining the Digidestined are their Digimon Partners who can evolve into more powerful forms with assistance from Digivices. Here is a list of the Digidestined and there Digimon Partners:
- TAI/Taichi Yagami
- Partner: Agumon
- SORA/Sora Takenouchi
- Partner: Biyomon
- MATT/Yamato Ishida
- Partner: Gabumon
- T.K./Takeru Takaishi
- Partner: Patamon
- IZZY/Koshiro Izumi
- Partner: Tentomon
- MIMI/Mimi Tachikawa
- Partner: Palmon
- JOE/Jo Kido
- Partner: Gomamon
- KARI/Hikari Yagami
- Partner: Gatomon
Video
Since this series is thirteen years old and our review copy is in DVD format, there is no need to break down the video the way we do for Blu-ray titles. I did watch the series upconverted via the PS3 and there is a definite degradation in picture quality. I did improve the picture by maintaining a 480p resolution which enhanced a lot of the bright colors used for the Digimon.
As you can see in the screen cap the image, while bright and vibrant, is slightly fuzzy and muddy. There were instances where the picture quality looked substantially better though and I started seeing that in discs two through eight.
This was a transformation from a later disc and you can see the quality is definitely a lot better.
Audio
The audio for this box set was Dolby Digital stereo but still sounded great in my 5.1 home theater. I was bummed that there was no Japanese language track. While the English dub is fine, I would have liked to view the series in its native Japanese language with English subtitles.
Extras
The extras in this box set were rather light and honestly I expected more. In the box set you will receive a character guide-book with all the Digidestined and their respective Digimon. In the final disc of the set you also will get a gallery feature that shows behind the scenes sketches of the kids and their Digimon.
My Take
While I enjoyed Digimon I feel that this release does not do the series justice. Notable flaws such as the lack of a Japanese language track as well as the varying quality of the discs hampered what should be a collector’s item for fans of the show. The lack of subtitles also was a huge oversight in my opinion because any fan of the series who is hearing impaired will not be able to enjoy it. The English dub of the show is pretty good though, so those of you that just want to experience the series again will find it remains unchanged. I only hope that New Video Group does a remastered HD release that fixes some of the flaws in this set.
Recommendation
If you are a fan of the series and can get past the issues I mentioned then you should add it to your library. If you are an anime purist and can’t handle the dub of them I would wait to see if a better version is released in high-definition.
