Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Digimon: Digital Monsters - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Digimon: Season 1 is one of the most adventurous and thrilling anime series ever made. The beloved anime classic is a gem of animation – Japanese or otherwise. The series became a popular favorite in North America with the original television broadcast on Fox Kids. The series was produced by the Fuji Television Network.

Series producers include Daisuke Kawakami (Hunter X Hunter, RahXephon), Hiromi Seki (Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Lovely Complex), and Kyotaro Kimura (Fushigi Yugi, Ultimate Muscle). The Digimon series explores the world of Digimon “digital monsters” with super-power strengths and the journey the characters go on is one of intense battles and epic showdowns. One of the best anime series from the era.

Summer camp brings together seven – Tai, Matt, Sora, TK, and the rest are put to the test as summer camp leads them down a pathway none of them ever expected to go on. As the kids find themselves tossed in to a strange and mysterious new world, the group are now in a land of digital monsters: the Digimon world! Tai and the others soon discover that they are the Digi-Destined and are to train and battle with Digimon to fight a series of evil monsters!

Yet in order to excel as the Digi-Destined, each must train their Digimon and learn how to get them to Digivolve in the process. The biggest threat is the evil Devimon. As dangers pile up, the Black Gears of Fire Island and the vampire Myotismon cause even more commotion. Can the Digi-Destined rise to the challenge and defeat the villains? The stakes are high as the team fights for survival – and for the future of the digital world (and the real world, too).

The series became of my favorites on television when it first aired. The series was addictive for me as a youth and I couldn’t miss a single episode. I would tune in to the station every airing without fail. The series grabbed me more than most series and became one of my all-time favorites growing up.

Digimon was such an extraordinary series to see and one that has continued to mean the world to me. Few series have grabbed me as much as this one and it is such an imaginative thrill ride – there are so many creative components to the series and it makes it one of the most essential anime productions ever made.

The characters are certainly important to the production and the thrill ride audiences are taken on. The entire central cast of characters are important to the narrative and to the experience. The core cast of characters all exhibit their own personalities – traits and quirks – and it is fascinating to see how these characters end up interacting with their own personal Digimon. This is an element of the production that made is all the more special.

The Digimon themselves are creative fun and there is a lot to appreciate about them and the manner in which the series showcases the creativity of the program. The Digimon are reminiscent of Pokemon in some respects but the characters still feel distinctly unique and a bit different from what was found watching Pokemon. The Digimon are sometimes a bit more complex, darker, and can evolve more frequently in some respects. The digi-volve elements made Digimon even more compelling to watch unfold and the energetic aspect of the evolution sequences is outstanding.

Digimon features original character designs by Akiyoshi Hongo (Digimon Frontier, Digimon Tamers) and Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru (Digimon Tamers, Digimon Frontier). The character designs do a great job with both the human characters and the Digimon themselves. There is little doubt in my mind that the compelling designs for the human characters is something that made the series feel all the more fascinating to youth watching the program during its original broadcast airings. The Digimon also impress. The Digimon have creative designs and there are always a lot of unique shapes, sizes, and colors to these Digi-characters. The creative element is wonderful.

Under the chief animation direction of Naoki Miyahara (Dragon Ball Z), Digimon rewards with one of the most compelling animation aesthetics around. The background animation is enormously well detailed: a creative gem. The spark of the animation is felt throughout the production. The animation direction is a element that helps the series to feel more ambitious and well-produced on the whole. This is also due to the art direction of Keito Watanabe (Digimon Frontier, Digimon: Data Squad). Between the wonderful efforts of Miyahara and Watanabe, Digimon brought forth great contributions from the team of animators involved with the series.

The score composed by Takanori Arisawa (Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R) is exciting and thrilling fun. The music always plays a bit role on the program. The score helps to highlight the action sequences. This imaginative and entertaining score is something that adds a lot of energetic fun to the entire series production. The music certainly plays a vital role and without the score the series just isn’t the same. Everything in the Digimon realm is more intense and engaging with the thrilling score compositions by Arisawa. The score provides world building and character themes – highlighting both the action heavy elements of the series and the more dramatic elements as well.

Written by Satoru Nishizono (Flame of Recca, Shaman King), Digimon is a creative series that builds on its premise and makes the most of it. The scriptwriting is superb and the series excels with its great character storytelling and action- packed fun. The writing certainly highlights the key elements of Digimon and why the series was such a success – the fun of it all is rooted in both the human characters and the Digimon they collaborate with to defeat the villains. An excellent screenwriting job by Nishizono.

Under the chief direction of Hiroyuki Kakudou (Digimon Frontier, Digimon Fusion), Digimon is one of the most essential anime classics of its era. The production has great direction and Kakudou has a great knack for exploring the digital realm in a simultaneously exciting and scary way. The direction is an essential component of the series.

Digimon also benefited early on from some directing by the great filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda, who had a small early directing role on the series, before taking over the duties on the Digimon feature-films. Digimon helped to kick-start the career of Hosoda, who would go on to make some of the best anime films of all time with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Belle. Digimon has great directing – whether it be chief director Kakudou or Hosoda and the other staff filmmakers.

Digimon: Digital Monsters - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Discotek Media, Digimon: Season 1 is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The presentation is a reasonably good-looking high definition upscale. Discotek provides a modest improvement in the video quality. The release isn't a massive improvement over the standard definition DVD discs and could have been a bit better. This makes the release a bit disappointing in some respects but at the same time the release offers marginal improvement over the standard- definition material nonetheless.

While the Digimon presentation would have been even more appreciable with a native high definition encode, the presentation source was limited. This is an unfortunate drawback of many anime series that were produced during the same time period as anime productions shifted more towards the use of using computers for the animation and tech was still developing.

Digimon: Digital Monsters - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes only the English dubbed version of the production: English uncompressed PCM 2.0 stereo. The original Japanese language version will be available separately (with a different release by Discotek). The English dub sounds reasonably impressive with the lossless audio encoding. Dialogue certainly sounds clear and easy to understand. The music score sounds well integrated in to the presentation. The track fidelity seems a bit less impressive compared to some modern series. Nonetheless, Digimon sounds reasonably good on the release and fans will find it satisfactory.

Digimon: Digital Monsters - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Television Promo (SD, 00:08)

"Digi Bloop That?" Promos (SD, 3:11)

Art Galleries:

Digidestined & Partner Digimon includes 25 pages of click-through illustrations in the "Digidestined" section and 67 pages of click-through illustrations in the "Partner Digimon" section.

Enemies & Allies – Part 1 includes 49 click-through pages of illustrations.

Enemies & Allies – Part 2 includes 102 click-through pages of illustrations.

Items & More includes 27 click-through pages of illustrations divided across unique sections.

Digimon: Digital Monsters - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Digimon: Season 1 is an outstanding collection of a beloved anime classic. The series became a pop culture phenomenon worldwide and amazed audiences with great characters – the Digi-Destined alongside the Digimon themselves. The series provides exciting action- adventure and plenty of compelling elements. The storytelling is fun and the animation is beautiful.

The Blu-ray release provides a decent standard-definition upscale and a solid audio encode. While the release only offers a modest improvement over the standard definition DVDs, it is still a worthwhile upgrade for fans of the series. The release also includes a nice selection of extras with plenty of colorful illustrations in the art galleries provided on the release. Discotek put together a solid package and it will please devotees of the series. Highly recommended.