Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
DigitalRio
Digimon Tamers is the third anime in the Digimon franchise, originally airing right after Adventure 02.
This season is definitely another highpoint of the franchise, with the main tamers being great, just like their partner Digimon, and with a story that becomes something truly dark and profound by the end - with the main antagonist being the most thought-provoking and sinister ever in a Digimon season.
As usual, the first arc of the story serves to introduce the setting, world and characters. It doesn't start off all that strong, but it doesn't matter, because the characters are a joy to watch, and the later arcs are really good - the last one being absolutely phenomenal.
Most of the important characters are only 10 years old, which makes the later story even more haunting. Tamers, at…
Read at the source_Bubassotto_
The Digimon with the best Digimon-human relationship.
For me, Digimon Tamers features the best relationship between Digimon and human among the first three seasons. Takato’s bond with Guilmon is phenomenal, and at many points, it is precisely what makes the season work so well. Guilmon himself has one of the most entertaining personalities I’ve seen in these early series. Much of this stems from the significant gap between seasons, which allowed the franchise to better understand what worked and to further develop the relationships between characters.
Guilmon is a prime example of this. Visually, he is one of the starter Digimon I like best. Although I’m very fond of Agumon, Guilmon has a more elaborate and striking design, with details that really make him stand out. But what I truly lo…
Read at the sourcetoxaquepex
Of all the Digimon series (including the original), Digimon Tamers is the only one I can recommend to anyone who has never watched Digimon before.
It’s not an anime that’s going to change your life, but if for some reason you’re interested in this franchise, Tamers and the OVA "Digimon Adventure Movie (1999)" are the two peaks in the Digimon catalogue.
The Digimon series in general is the typical show with a ‘monster of the week’ dynamic; therefore, the idea is usually to introduce new Digimon in every episode. However, Tamers, whilst retaining that element, also features excellent character development. The show is aimed at children, but adults aren’t left out in this instalment; it’s common for relationships within family groups to be explored.
The combination of exploring the bonds…
Read at the sourceLancelotSB
The intro song is so catchy and sets the perfect tone for the series. The voice cast is great, even though their performances could have been better. The concept is really cool, and the new Digimons bring a lot of excitement, but the pacing is a bit off.
The storyline feels a bit basic and familiar, but it's interesting to see the new characters and Digimons, especially Renamon's evolution line.
The animation quality is good, but not quite as impressive as Digimon 02. Some of the new Digimon skills are not that great, except for Renamon.
The pacing of the season is a bit all over the place, with a slow first half and a rushed ending. The sound quality is okay, and both the opening and ending themes are super catchy.
There are some good character developments, but some parts of the plot…
Read at the sourceTrendFox
Despite any shortcomings, I believe Digimon Tamers was an excellent attempt at evolving the franchise beyond its exciting start. It was like watching a franchise itself growing up from its whimsical, adventurous, and childlike story into something older, more mature, and more introspective and nuanced. Tamers wasn’t just asking the characters to grow up, it was asking the audience to do it too.
The tone, the drama, the pacing, the themes, the subtext, and the character exploration pushed the audience to think beyond what they already knew about Digimon. It brought a reality to the wish fulfilment of having your own digital monster without trying to make it gloomy or melancholic. The monsters these characters had to face could not simply be destroyed with a fireball or the power of friends…
Read at the sourceajw215799
I am someone who grew up watching Digimon Adventure, Digimon Tamers and Digimon Data Squad, so I decided to revisit this series in Japanese for my 1,300th after previously having revisited Adventure and Adventure 02. This series was way worse than I remembered. By trying to tackle more mature themes like death and government incompetence, it just drowns under that darkness from day one and can’t pick itself back up. Not to mention the fact that they mixed up their own terminology and the protagonist is frankly pathetic. If anything, the best thing about this series is that they somehow managed to get Masako Nozawa to voice a Digimon. This series lacks the decisive and well paced structure that made Adventure work so well.
Read at the sourceDigiCat
The lead writer for Digimon Tamers is Chiaki Konaka (most famous for Serial Experiments Lain)
So if you're both a fan of his works and a fan of Digimon, this season will be a real treat for you
If not, then it might not exactly be your cup of tea...
As you can probably tell, i'm part of the latter group
I'll devide my qualms about the series in 2 major parts
1) The story
Pace is pretty slow, a lot of times things feel disconected, and it feels like it's trying too hard to be dark 2) The characters
The digimon 100% carry the show, their characterization is for the most part very well done, you understand exactly why they feel, react, behave a certain way, i just wish the human characters got the same amount of attention
This is the first time in a Digimon series that i haven't managed to…
Read at the sourcePhobossus
This review is only targeted at the audience that, like me, decided to give DT a go based on that:
- it is often described as an example of a deconstruction of the monster genre with a darker approach to the subject
- it is hinted the latter part of the show explores some psychological themes and interpersonal relationships
- the MAL recommendations section contains NGE at the top
My tl;dr take would be: Remember it's first and foremost a kids show and don't expect too much.
While it is clear that Tamers took inspiration from some of NGE's elements, these are mostly visible in the setting or lore. The show arguably scratches certain psychological concepts here and there, but not only aren't they the focus of any arcs (the "darker" ones towards the end included), they are also treated in…
Read at the sourceOverlordBel
Digimon Tamers is by far the best season of the Digimon series, and as far as I am concerned, its also the best (and quite possibly only worth watching) "pet monster" anime.
If the first Digimon season was a adventure anime for kids, Tamers is the same but for teens/young adults. The writing in this season is clearly different and more mature, exploring sensitive subjects that you dont usually see in anime. Though that does not mean the story forgets about the pet monsters. They play a big part in it, and in my opinion Tamers has the coolest Digimons in the series.
Definitely worth a watch if you like this genre of anime.
Read at the sourceJustykanna
A lot of people, when asked which Digimon season they like the most, will reply with Digimon Adventure. It's a classic, it's what started it all, it's why there was an entire remake based on that season. For me? It's Tamers.
Story: Digimon Tamers tells us the story of Takato who was big into the Digimon TCG, which exists in this world and is implied has a pretty decent following. Due to his obsession with the game, he draws, and even creates the moves to, his own Digimon that he thought up on a pad of paper. Due to an "accident", this Digimon becomes reality, and this would change his life - he discovers that Digimon isn't simply some card game. They are real creatures that hail from a different world and he got mixed up into it. Takato eventually meets up with two more tamers with Rika a…
Read at the sourceOzUnOo
Have you ever rewatched a series from your childhood simply for nostalgia, but realized its actually much BETTER than you remember it was as a kid? To my surprise, Digimon Tamers managed to do that for me.
Digimon Tamers and Digimon Adventure are very different. DT features much darker and mature themes, with more realistic characters facing problems that feel very real despite its setting. It has all the power fantasy tropes you'd expect from the series, but it takes its narrative and characters to very original, unexpected directions.
There is no "chosen one" trope here. The humans and digimon are not destined for one another, they must choose each other out of their own volition and develop their bonds in order to adapt to a new life of kill or be killed, because in Tamers the digimon…
Read at the sourceFap_King
(Perspective based on viewer of the English dub)
Digimon Tamers is my favourite anime of all time. The execution of the story and character arcs is up there with some of the best for any TV show.
This show is very funny. The humour is so well written for a kid's show, In fact, most of the jokes you would have missed as a kid. However, it is also very dark. There are moments which may disturb you, make you shed a tear.
Themes of friendship, adventure, loss, grief and growth are all prevalent. I am struggling to form the words necessary to express how good Digimon Tamers is. It has been 17 years and it still has not been displaced as my number one anime.
I hope, if anything, this review will at least reach one person and convince them to watch Digimon Tamers.
Read at the sourceDemonOfJustice
So much can be said about Digimon Tamers, but not many people seem to value it outside the internet community. I actually first saw Tamers many years ago, as a pre-teen. I used to dismiss Digimon as a worst version of Pokémon, but, when Tamers was re-run in Portugal, I instantly became hooked, watching it daily. However, as a kid, there is a simple choice process - why watch Digimon, when Pokémon is the original creation, has better designs, better videogames, bigger community? While these are mostly subjective factors, people probably wouldn't argue against this. While Digimon always tried to bring more complex elements when compared to many other shounen, on the previous entries, the first series also present the same mistake that I hate about most Shounen and School anime. There are sim…
Read at the sourceAvgasblomman
Basically, Digimon Tamers is a good show trapped within a horrible show.
The Good: The characters are quite well-realized and their growth is interesting, especially Ruki and the ties between her character arc and Renamon's powerset. Impmon was surprisingly engaging as well, and I enjoyed tracking the subtle development Culumon underwent.
Beyond that most characters, except the one-off monster-of-the-week baddies were fairly likeable; the adults were surprisingly well individualized and the side-kicks did not feel like they were wasting my time that often.
The overall themes present are ones I sympathize with, and they were explored with some nuance.
The general art direction was hit or miss; I liked the backgrounds, but the digimon designs range from pretty good to awfully overdesigne…
Read at the source88expert
*This review may contain some spoiler*
Before we start let me say this. Wow the series went dark fast.
Story: This is different compare to the first 2 seasons. Unlike the first 2 seasons instead of not exiting, It become an anime inside an anime. Get it?? To make it simple, The kids in digimon tamers watches digimon on TV (never shown in the anime), play the card games and know the existence of digimon. Now here is the main difference between the first 2 seasons of the series and this season. The kids didn't went to the digital world to meet their digimon. It started out in the real world until they have to go to the digital world to save one of their friend, culumon and to meet the real enemy the D-reaper. Which I pee my pants went I was 5 years old. The D-reaper uses a girl katou juri a…
Read at the sourcelisyaoran2009
For me, Tamers is the most excellent digimon series out there. It has solid and understandable story background and the story doesn't focus just for one person.
Story : The story is interesting, it’s about tamers and its digimon. In this world, they have game call digimon card game where they can fight with other digimon by using cards to power up. Although it seems just okay for the story, i give 10/10 because later on you will learn many things from this anime such as how to let go someone you love, parent’s love, and how not to judge something from it’s cover. I love the idea of combining human and digimon in one body and evolve to the next level.
Art: the animation is good, i really love the animation when they evolve and the music is just perfect with the animation. I give 9/10
S…
Read at the sourceTheBrainintheJar
It boggles the mind why so much anime try to prove their maturity by using bleak colors, adult characters and realistic design. Digimon Tamers has none of that. On the surface, it’s a child-friendly battle shounen about kids and their cool pets.
A surface is easy to copy, though. Putting things beneath the appearance is harder. Like Medabots, Digimon Tamers is a subversive, original and challenging work that doesn’t think children are stupid. This is not the dull Adventure, which was just about beating bad guys. Evil is not being fought here. It’s an anime that imbues its adventure with ideas and emotions, rather than just telling us the bad guy is powerful. It constantly raises questions and it stares suicide, depression and death in the face.
A truly meaningful and engrossing journey w…
Read at the sourceCosmicblaze454
Tamers isn’t perfect by any means. But being ambitious enough is what makes it good.
Tamers isn’t also your ordinary kids anime. Written by Serial Experiments Lain’s writer who drove inspiration from NGE. Tamers is one hell of ride.
The story of the Tamers begins like a generic Digimon anime. DigiDestined meets their digimon, for exception that they are not transported into the DigiWorld. Tamers start slowly, building it’s characters and the setting around them. The appearance of the Devas made it seem like it was a generic Digimon anime. Not necessarily a bad thing. They are only setups for the last stage. Tamers shines when it’s nearing its closing. DigiDestined especially Jeri Katou, learned what despair means. The final episodes are focused on Jeri’s development until her realization…
Read at the sourceKing_Savage
There are people who say the first two seasons of Digimon were the best ever, but then there are people like like me that would MUCH rather this season.
I accidentally watched this season before the others so that might contribute to my bias but compared to ALL the other seasons id much rather the dark turns in this story.
And for some reason i feel like the animation was different from the other ones too (different studio? i didnt check..)
Read at the sourceStephenPatamon
(This review is based off of the English Dubbed version of the series)
I've been a digimon fan for as long as I can remember, and the first series, digimon adventure, has always been my favourite due to the nostalgia. That is until I watched this series.This series has so much depth and character development to it that just makes it an extremely enjoyable anime for digimon fans and general anime fans alike.
Compared to the first two series, this one has a much darker plot, but still retains that air of light-heartedness in the comedic moments. The plot is very well developed and progresses very well once it's really kicked off around episode 12. It has several layers of character development to explore, so you can look into it as a kid would, and just scratch the surface, or you can thin…
Read at the source
