If you were a 90s kid, the battle between Pokemon and Digimon was unavoidable. Like the Seahawks and the 49ers, or cats and dogs, you just had to pick a side. These two franchises about monsters -- one pocket sized, the other digital -- were in such frenzied competition, that there are whole blogs devoted to which franchise ripped off the other. In reality, they debuted in two consecutive years, so it was just a coincidence. Nonetheless, the debate of which anime franchise is better is what's on today's chopping block, so let's dive into the ultimate anime showdown.
First up, the Pokemon anime. The series' plot centered around eternally ten-year-old Ash Ketchum and his quest to become the world's greatest Pokemon trainer. With the help of his trusty Pikachu, and an ever changing roster of friends, Ash goes to various cities and gyms to train his Pokemon and battle opponents of varying difficulty. And that's about it. Yes, they will occasionally have to save the world in their films, but those are few and far between. Ash's problems are pretty much limited to catching the Pokemon of the week and beating the Gym Leader of the week. The biggest problem Ash ever faced in the series was when creepy Gym Leader Sabrina turned Brock and Misty into dolls and wouldn't surrender them until Ash defeated her Alakazam. Yeah, some of these Gym Leaders were psychotic. As a result, it's hard to care about Ash's journeys, until the occasional episode when he has to say goodbye to a beloved Pokemon.
Now on the Digimon turf, things get interesting. Every season was a save the world plot that was an epic adventure spanning the entire season. The characters would fight evil forces and advance their Digimon one at a time, so that each victory felt like, well, a victory. There was also serious character development, such as delving into the characters' personal lives and their relationships. You really got to know these people and came to care about their plight.
Digimon clearly cared about character development, whereas Pokemon was pretty much a commercial for whatever the week's theme was. Ash is a blank slate and very rarely learns a lesson. In the case of The First Movie, he learned a lesson and then had his memory erased. The characters in Digimon were more well rounded and had unique problems they had to solve, like Izzy having overheard that he was adopted. Heavy stuff, right? Pokemon can tell a cool story when they want to- watch "Pokemon Heroes" for a prime example- but Digimon's story was more compelling and they had more time to advance their story. That's not to say that Pokemon is a slump by any means; it's still enjoyable. But when it comes to telling an engaging story, Digimon takes the cake here.
