been watching the first digimon adventure lately. I feel so bad i looked down on this show for so long, it does such a good job with the "Having a Monster as a Friend" childhood fantasy for what it is.

I'm amazed it didn't catch my interest more when i was young, but the Americanization might have had a hand, and i don't remember any of these episodes in the real world at all.

Digimon are huge and heavy and brutish but move so gently with the kids, its right out of my imagination when i was in grade school.

And their personalities are so excellent, it's great to see them acting like children themselves, interacting at the same level as their human partners. It's perfect.

There's an expectation that the digimon need to protect the kids, and that pressure actually weighs on the monsters as it would on children. The humans actually serve a role in the partnership by providing emotional support and encouragement. Young viewers learn to socialize.

Its such a more engaging dynamic than "weird animals you keep as pets and subject to dogfighting but it's ok they like it" as in pokemon, which digimon obv was marketed to ape.

I never really wanted to Own a dinosaur, i wanted to be Friends with one.

Esp with the catch em all tagline they loved in the states. No idea if that was such a thing back in japan but it just makes the whole adventure one big commercial, and it certainly addicted me.

can't help but wish i had gotten more of this other message.

Tho hell maybe pokemon was just much better in japan too, the way digimon adventure is so overtly life and death in japanese is perfect and i'm living for it.

It's def got a ton of problems, most of all that they just hate to leave digimon in their monsterous adult forms for even one second longer than they need to, but at least it serves a purpose making them relatable as children themselves.

But fuck man, you just can't feel that it's really Special that this huge furry beast likes and protects you unless a bunch of adults scream as soon as they show up.

Pokemon being normal in the setting of pokemon just commodifies the fantasy.

Earth shakes under their weight, walls crumble under their strength, they're covered in claws and natural weapons, and these kids just look at them and grin.

I love watching children's cartoons but nothing has reminded me of what it felt like to be young like watching this.

Kids have very mature desires, they want trust, they want safety in a dangerous world, they want to meet something wildly different from themselves and talk to it and understand it.

Stupid shit like this chokes me up dude, ive never stopped wanting to be friends with monsters but the reasons used to be so pure and real. Gotta regain that perspective. Innocence is adaptable, embrace something that people reject out of hand and find out why its special.

This thread is gettin weird and went way off topic. Im sure this show's gonna go downhill but i'm gonna be grateful forever to the time i spent with it this quarantine because it reminded me why i love the stuff i love.

We could all use a dinosaur to walk with us to the store, or a huge cactus to punch creeps.

we could all use a big flaming bird with fucked up teeth to catch us when we fall.