Digimon Savers: the halfway mark review

I just finished watching episode 25 of Digimon Savers, and even though I’m not exactly sure how many episodes the series is going to have, I’m calling this the halfway mark review since all the other Digimon series’ ended up having about 50 episodes and this one probably will too. Now I’m not a major Digimon fan(Pokemon on the other hand…), but it is one of the first animes I got into back in my early days of anime fandom. I used to watch the dub all the time when it aired on Fox Kids and then I eventually began to watch some of the fansubs. Since then I’ve watched all the episodes of all the Digimon series’, so I decided to stick with that record and watch Digimon Savers as well. But although I like Savers, I honestly think it can’t hold a candle to the old Digimon series’.

All of the Digimon series’ take at least 10 to 15 episodes before they start to get good. And they don’t get really good until the last 10 to 15 episodes or so. Savers seems to be no different, but even though the Savers story has gotten a lot better these past few episodes compared to the “digimon-of-the-week” formula that plagued the early episodes, one major fault I can find in it is that, although the background and plot are interesting, the characters just aren’t as well developed and sympathetic as in the other Digimon series’.

I think the main reason Savers feels like a bit of a let down is because I really can’t find anything appealing or unique about the main character, Masaru. Each Digimon series has its main shounen character, but in my opinion, Masaru falls short compared to the others. Now Taichi(Digimon Adventure) and Daisuke(Digimon Adventure02) were a bit hot-headed, but Masaru is so obnoxiously hot-headed and eager to fight, it turns me off(he freakin’ punches digimon himself!) Taichi was also hot-tempered and eager to fight sometimes, but he eventually learned that that was the wrong way to be, for example, when he got too full of himself and forced Agumon to evolve into SkullGreymon. He actually learned from his mistakes and became a more appealing character. He also had other interesting and sympathetic qualities too, like his devotion to Hikari and his strained relationships with Yamato and Sora. Daisuke was also a bit of a jerk sometimes, but he had a lot more personality and a funny and friendly side to him too. And Takato(Digimon Tamers) and Takuya(Digimon Frontier) weren’t obnoxious or hot-headed. They were just nice and fairly normal kids. They were a bit naive and unsure of themselves, but that made them more sympathetic.

Masaru’s one-sided fighter instinct wouldn’t be so bad if he had any other unique qualities or even a good reason for being so prone to violence, but so far he’s just way too “yakuza”(gangster)-ish for my taste. Sure, he has his stereotypical care for his friends and family, but that’s all he has going for him. We’re about halfway through the series now, and he’s still the same one-track-minded, violent jerk he was in episode 1. I’ve tried, but I just can’t find anything sympathetic about him. When he tries to be “macho” and gets pounded in battle, I can’t help but feel like he deserves it. He seems to advocate violence as a means to solve conflicts, and with Digimon being a show aimed at children, that’s a bit strange ~_^

Touma and Yoshino are more appealing characters compared to Masaru, but still, their development pales in comparison to the development of old Digimon characters such as Yamato, Ken, and Juri for example. Although recent episodes have revealed their pasts, they’re still pretty much the same as they were in the early episodes. As of this point in the series, I think the only character that has the same quality of development as in the old series’ is Ikuto(he should’ve been the main character dammit! XP) But although most of the human characters aren’t as good as the old ones, the digimon in Digimon Savers are still enjoyable to watch. I’m much more of a Pokemon person, but I can’t ignore the variety of cute and cool digimon too. But still, the character development of the digimon in Savers hasn’t reached the level of the old digimon such as Tailmon, BlackWarGreymon, and Impmon. I don’t know whether or not it’ll get to that level, but for the most part, the main digimon in Savers are still appealing and have a good variety of personalities.

Although Savers lacks character development, as far as the plot goes, at this point in the series, it’s as good as the old series’. Ikuto’s past, the DATS exploration team, Suguru and Merucurimon’s promise to unite the digimon and human worlds, Kurata’s plan of “digimon genocide”…all of these subplots are interesting and they make you want to keep watching, even if they did just come up within the last few episodes.

Another thing that Savers, as well as the other four Digimon series’ have, is good opening and ending songs. For the other Digimon series’ besides Savers, only two singers were used for all the opening and endings songs; Koji Wada sang all the openings and Ai Maeda(AiM) sang all the endings(Digimon Frontier was a bit of an exception; Koji Wada sang the opening and first ending song, and both Koji Wada and AiM sang the last ending song.) Savers breaks away from this by using different singers for the opening and ending songs. But the songs are still great nonetheless. The first opening “Gouing! Going! My Soul!!” is an awesome song, as is the first ending song “One Star.” And from what I’ve heard from the TV size versions of the newest opening and ending songs, they sound pretty cool too. Each Digimon series also has its own unique insert song that’s played when a digimon evolves or goes into battle. The Savers evolution theme, “Believer” is probably my favorite of the insert songs =)

Well, that’s pretty much all I have to say about Digimon Savers so far. If my opinion of it changes as I watch more episodes, maybe I’ll write another review. Perhaps its still a bit too early for me to criticize the show’s lack of character development…all of the other Digimon series’ had some of the best character development for a “kiddy” series I’ve ever seen, so I’ll give Digimon Savers the benefit of the doubt for now and say that maybe it’s just a bit slow in that department. But to sum up my review, although I highly doubt that Savers will be as good as the old Digimon series’, if you liked the other Digimon series’, then definitely give Savers a try. Actually, I think nobody but Digimon fans or fans of monster/”children’s” anime are watching the fansubs of it, which is to be expected I guess, since I doubt it would appeal to most other anime fans. Anyway, the first 25 episodes did good at developing the show’s plot, so let’s hope that the next 25+ episodes of the series will see a rise in the development of the characters as well ^^