It’s 2020, and not only is Digimon back, it’s also… good? Strange times, indeed.

So fun fact: I used to be quite the Digimon fan, back in the day. Not, like, a fangirl per se, but I had (and still do have) a decent amount of respect for an anime that was a) better than Pokemon (objective fact, guys, suck it up) and b) way more sophisticated than I think a lot of people gave it credit for. Sure, it was a kid’s title, and you can bet there were plenty of cringy moments scattered throughout the show, but beneath the more obvious moral-of-the-story-type themes lay some genuinely nuanced ideas and complex character relationships.

This first episode of the 2020 remake promises to bring all that back and more, from the subtle and brilliantly unspoken flashes of characterisation to the comically large shoes. I honestly don’t remember many of the details of the late 90s Digimon, especially from the first handful of episodes, so I couldn’t say whether or not this is a faithful adaptation in terms of shot comparison (aside from the obviously now more technology-advanced setting, of course). However, the storytelling itself sure felt pretty familiar, and I felt the pacing in particular was strong – very deliberate, yet I was surprised to see the end credits and realise that twenty-odd minutes had indeed already passed.

I won’t say there’s not plenty of room for Digimon 2020 to stumble, and with who knows how many episodes in the works, the production values may not always be this consistent. To me though, it both looked and sounded fine, and budget aside, I’m more than happy to give the series a real shot to prove its worth. This was a solid start.

Rating: 7/10