I’ve grown up enjoying both Pokemon and Digimon. But though Pokemon is the bigger and more popular
franchise, I’ve always held the belief that – at least with regards to anime
series – Digimon is better than Pokemon (but with regards to games and
other products, I have no say on the matter since I’ve only got the chance to
play Pokemon video games and card
games and never with any Digimon
games, though I’m familiar with the gameplay of Digimon World 2).
As far as premise is concerned,
there is more substance in Digimon’s
than Pokemon’s. Both shows involve humans directing
“monsters” to battle. However, in Pokemon, the whole battling is primarily
intended for human amusement. It’s
basically a reinvented form of cockfighting.
On the other hand, in Digimon,
the battling has a nobler purpose – usually, to protect the world or humanity
from evil threats. Moreover, a Digimon
acts more of a partner to the human in battle rather than just being a pawn as
with the relationship of a Pokemon and its owner/trainer.
Pokemon tells the story of a boy named Ash Ketchum who left home to
travel the world to find and collect as much Pokemon as he can, then oblige
them to battle with other people’s Pokemon, so that he can be the greatest
Pokemon master ever. The charm of
Pokemon is hinged on the appeal of collecting, and as a collector of stuff
myself (comics, books, toys, etc.), I understand the thrill of
collecting things. But, seriously, even if all
these Pokemon don’t mind or even fancy being collected and used by humans for
sport, there’s something selfish and petty about Ash’s motivation as well as the
concept of Pokemon collecting and battling.
Actually, I disdain Ash
Ketchum. Though he has some likable
qualities, like genuinely loving his Pokemon and sincerity in offering friendship
to everyone (even his antagonists), he is, nevertheless, an incompetent, dumb,
bland, and annoying character. It’s so
frustrating how he is easily gullible and lacks some form of tactical talent as
a Pokemon trainer (especially when you get to play his doppelganger, Red, in
the games. Red is a more interesting
character and makes much smarter decision than Ash – primarily because Red is
your virtual avatar. Also, the
characters in the manga – including Red, who happens to also star on a Pokemon
manga series – have more personality and more interesting Pokemon lineups). And there hasn’t been much character
development with Ash either. He’s basically
what he is now as he was about eighteen year ago.
And that’s another thing. Ash – unappealing of a character that he is –
has been the central character of Pokemon
all this time. That’s 18 seasons being
stuck with this character. And his
characterization and purpose is basically intact all this time: travel the
world, collect Pokemon, have mediocre adventures, battle with other trainers,
so that he “can be the very best.” Yada,
yada.
In Digimon, there are diverse protagonists, so you have the option of
choosing which character you want to root for or relate to. In the first series of Digimon, there were seven (which became eight later on) main
protagonists. And that’s just the first
series, there have been more series after that, hence, more characters. Moreover, actual character developments are
happening with these characters. They
are not stagnant, but dynamic. These
characters grow up. These characters
change. New characters are introduced. It’s just like the character pool of Power Rangers.
As what was already mentioned in
the previous paragraph, Digimon also
has the advantage of having different series like the Gundam franchise. With each Digimon incarnation, there is a different
set of characters and premises and rules.
Again, just like Gundam. It keeps everything fresh and exciting.
In terms of strorytelling, Pokemon is dumber, goofier, and more
light-hearted, which is actually not a problem, but it makes the extent of its
storytelling limited. It doesn’t help
either that the writing on Pokemon is
just plain bad a significant amount of time.
On the other hand, Digimon’s
storytelling is smarter and purposeful. Yes,
there is some amount of campiness on Digimon,
of course, but that’s just for the sake of creating humor (it’s still a kid’s
show after all). Nonetheless, because of
its more substantial premise, Digimon
is able to have much more depth and stakes (i.e. death and tragedy happens) in its storytelling.
And because there is more
maturity in its storytelling,
Digimon’s
villains are often more interesting.
Digimon’s villains are more ambitious
and ruthless. Most
Digimon villains are consistently in “global menace” level. In
Pokemon,
though Ash encounters some serious threats once in a while (especially in the
movies), the campy Team Rocket serves as the regular antagonists. Now, I like their trademark chant and member
Meowth (since I have an
affinity to cats), but Team Rocket is just a
pesky group of antagonists that we just can’t take seriously.
Speaking of Meowth, he is one of
the rare Pokemon that can communicate by human language. Almost all other Pokemon merely utter their
names (or syllables from their names).
But all Digimon can talk! The ability to talk does not only give
Digimon more personality and appearance of intelligence and independence, but
also establishes better relationship between the Digimon and his human (again,
they are partners).
The nature of evolution is also
more interesting with Digimon than Pokemon.
A Pokemon evolves in a ladderized manner, and once it gets to the next
level, it permanently stays at that form.
On the other hand, a Digimon’s evolution to a higher form isn’t
permanent. It can always go back to its
status quo. Moreover, aside from evolving into a higher form, there are other varieties
of Digimon evolution. For example, Digimon
can combine (temporarily, of course) with another Digimon to form a new Digimon
form. Also, humans can even
(temporarily) combine with or transform into Digimon. Evolution is definitely more exciting and
complex in Digimon.
Simply put, Digimon has the superiority in plot, premise, characters, and even in
some other small details – like, Digivices and tags and crests are aesthetically
cooler, more personalized, and has much more utility than Pokedexes and gym
badges. So those who say that Digimon is just an inferior imitation of
Pokemon don’t really know what they
are saying – either they haven’t watched enough episodes of both shows or they
simply lack good taste. Pokemon might have come first, but Digimon is objectively better.
