Im sure this is a nostalgia trip for a lot of people. Me? I never saw played or knew anything about Digimon until recently but part of me wishes Id discovered it a long time ago. True its not a fantastic show on its own merits and Im not going to pretend that it is... but in the world of toyetic childrens series like Pokmon Beyblade and YuGiOh the Digimon series does have a certain special quality to it despite falling victim to the same monster of incredibly edited dubs that claims so many others. Story: The plot as a whole ranges from arbitrary and childish at worst to confusing and convoluted at best. I dont know how else to describe a story in which God himself no jokehttp://digimon.wikia.com/wiki/God is an involved character. You cant spin a simpler good vs. evil yarn than that. Whats really unusual is how drastically the series changes from beginning to end starting off in an incredibly generic and formulaic villainoftheweek format and expanding into a rather intricate narrative. So intricate in fact that I dont think the writers themselves knew what they were doing. The plot jumps from one extreme to the other over the course of the series which is a crazy move in terms of narrative. Maybe thats why Im just a little bit drawn to it I like things a little crazy. That said the last thing youll hear me call the storyline is thoughtful. As Ive said its unique but not much else... and it does sadly suffer from an abundance of plotholes and loose ends. While the actual plot doesnt change much from Japanese to English the style of writing most certainly does. The English version makes damned sure to insert a bad joke or two anytime things start to get too tense so as to maintain the cartoony air of the localization... mind you even with this fact the story does approach some topics that any other toyetic series would avoid like the plague. While these scenes are more serious/powerful in the Japanese version I have to say that its beautiful to see this new ground covered at all in either version. Ash never got smacked upside the head by his mother for nearly killing someone in Pokmon I can guarantee you that. Art: Despite all the competition out there in the monster training subgenre remember Monster Rancher? Digimon actually manages to have a fairly distinct style to its artwork and not an unattractive one at that. You wont find beautifully immersive character models photorealistic backdrops or jawdropping special effects of course Im just saying the art style is unique and recognizable and with a series that boasts 50+ episodes to a season thats not a bad feat. The animation itself ranges from subpar to average but usually sticks closer to the latter and isnt uncomfortable to watch. Sound: Ill confess the last version I watched was the English edits and all. By acting alone its nothing extraordinary but its not particularly bad either... unless you mind hearing the same actor play fifty roles in what I call The Sabat Effect. Me I find it hilarious. But I digress. The Japanese dub is fairly standard and the English passable in terms of voice acting. Despite some localization the English dub manages to be surprisingly faithful by toyetic standardshardly any name changes and almost no visual edits. One thing I do have to complain about however is the music. As cheesy as the English theme song is its nowhere near as bad as the goofy insert songs scattered throughout the dub. Those sadly sorely hurt the experience but are thankfully not present in the Japanese version which again I personally recommend in this case. To put it simply this is one of those series that I find myself conflicted on. As much fun as I have watching it either for abstract reasons or just because its so bad its good my analysis must remain objective. Simply put Digimon is not a good show. But its a bad show that I cant help but have fun watching. Who knows? Maybe the same will be true for you.