Digimon: Data Squad Review

Natti Temmuz 08, 2022

In my review of Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links I said Yu-Gi-Oh was an anime that stuck with me, but another franchise that defined my childhood just as much was Digimon. The show was Fox Kid’s juggernaut back when it was around, almost like what Teen Titans Go is to Cartoon Network today. In direct contast to Teen Titans Go, however, it was a well-written character-focused adventure with a lot of heart that many people, including myself, still love to this day.

The first two seasons are the ones the most people remember since they’re within the same continuity and hooked everyone to begin with. Like some people, I lost interest in Digimon around the time Tamers came along because of the unfamiliar characters and tonal shift. Then I missed out on the fourth season, Digimon Fronteir thanks in part to airing on a new channel. I did catch up with the ones I missed on Disney channel re-runs and appreciated them on their own merits, but I still preferred the original adventure. When I got to Digimon: Data Squad, the fifth series, I wasn’t able to catch every single episode, but what I did watch was interesting and possibly even darker than Tamers. Fusion, the most recent one, I was able to watch in its entirety. It was pretty fun, but certainly not my favorite.

For a long time Digimon was unlocky when it comes to home releases. It was a very TV-only affair for a long time. Some of the seasons got a few episodes on VHS or DVD if it was lucky. You could only really watch the series outside of TV through recordings of the TV airings, which weren’t the optimum quality. After over a decade of this, things changed around the 2010s when New Video Group released them all in DVD box sets for relatively cheap prices. Crunchyroll also streamed the Japanese versions of the earlier series and Netflix added Digimon Fusion to their lineup. Since it’s one of the more controversial Digimon seasons not enough people have seen, I thought it best to take advantage of this and get the box set for the season I don’t think enough people have seen: Digimon: Data Squad.