Digimon Digital Monsters Season 2
Released By: Manga Entertainment
Rating: PG
Running Time: 1300 Mins
Audio: English DD 5.1 Japanese DD 2.0
Release Date: Out Now!
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
Last series was about establishing the characters and watching how they handle their new foes as being the Digidestined. This time around, they have a new enemy, the Digimon Emperor who threatens their very survival, so to give the other Digidestined a breather, a new team is set up to take on the Digimon Emperor's evil might.
Set two years after the first team saved the Digiworld from the bad guys, the new team are getting used to the new kid in class, while the Digiworld is now close to being destroyed by a new Dark Master who wants to take over, trapping Digimon in his black rings of power. His intention is to prevent the Digimon evolving into greater creatures. With no one to stop him where he his, the new Digidestined get a message through about the Digiworld being in peril, and have to go through to the Digiworld to save them; Davis, Yolei and Cody are the new characters who have to show the evil Digimon Emperor the error of his ways.
Davis takes on the mantle of being the new leader, his friendship with Kari makes him a target for T.K.'s wrath during comical moments in the series, but he is a strong leader who understands what he must do in a crisis situation. We get to see T.K. at the start as he is an original Digidestined member who is prone to outbursts and gets jealous of anyone who thinks they have a friendship with Kari. Kari's character has progressed as she is now more confident and outgoing than she was before but sounds like she would be no good on her own. Cody might be the youngest of the members, but he has a level head in most situations and can think things through with a very adult mentality. Yolei is a new Digidestined member who has great computer skills with a technical knowledge that is second to none.
In the episodes that follow, Miyako, Daisuke, Iori are three of the new characters introduced and in case younger viewers are unsure of what their names are, they are spelled out on the screen in a bubble above their respective character. This is helpful for them as parents who are watching this anime with them can help them out with any spelling problems.
I can imagine so that all the episodes could be on 8 discs to keep the quality top notch, this is the reason there is no bonus material on any of these discs - understandable as Toei want to make this release their best. What we have instead on the menu is a simple play all or episodes option with the main theme in the background.
As an improvement on the first series, it is seen as the original team have to help the new team progress to be as good as they were the first time around. Each character has their own strengths and each has one or two Digi-Eggs that give them their power to evolve. After the success of the Pokémon franchise, something else was bound to come onto the Japanese animation scene, and this was the result of all the frantic activity. The similarities viewers and critics get out of this series will go on forever, but Digimon does have its own appeal and characters that are more than they might look the first time.
Bonus Material: Original Japanese Opening, English, no subtitles.
Davis takes on the mantle of being the new leader, his friendship with Kari makes him a target for T.K.'s wrath during comical moments in the series, but he is a strong leader who understands what he must do in a crisis situation. We get to see T.K. at the start as he is an original Digidestined member who is prone to outbursts and gets jealous of anyone who thinks they have a friendship with Kari. Kari's character has progressed as she is now more confident and outgoing than she was before but sounds like she would be no good on her own. Cody might be the youngest of the members, but he has a level head in most situations and can think things through with a very adult mentality. Yolei is a new Digidestined member who has great computer skills with a technical knowledge that is second to none.
In the episodes that follow, Miyako, Daisuke, Iori are three of the new characters introduced and in case younger viewers are unsure of what their names are, they are spelled out on the screen in a bubble above their respective character. This is helpful for them as parents who are watching this anime with them can help them out with any spelling problems.
I can imagine so that all the episodes could be on 8 discs to keep the quality top notch, this is the reason there is no bonus material on any of these discs - understandable as Toei want to make this release their best. What we have instead on the menu is a simple play all or episodes option with the main theme in the background.
As an improvement on the first series, it is seen as the original team have to help the new team progress to be as good as they were the first time around. Each character has their own strengths and each has one or two Digi-Eggs that give them their power to evolve. After the success of the Pokémon franchise, something else was bound to come onto the Japanese animation scene, and this was the result of all the frantic activity. The similarities viewers and critics get out of this series will go on forever, but Digimon does have its own appeal and characters that are more than they might look the first time.
Bonus Material: Original Japanese Opening, English, no subtitles.
Summary: Enjoyable, fun and full of interesting characters.
