Honest Thoughts- An English Dub Won't Save Digimon Adventure 2020.

For those up in arms about the gap between the English dub of Generation VIII- first, imagine being a One Piece fan. Next, imagine a reboot that fails to live up to the legacy of its source material or move it forward. Now, imagine that reboot getting dubbed without much fanfare and getting dumped on the Microsoft Store. Despite a talented cast, an English dub won’t save the 2020 reboot of Digimon Adventure. Here are my honest thoughts on why.

Before I get too down on this anime again; there are some good things about it. The EN version of the intro theme, "Take the Lead" does a decent job of translating the JP version. Aside from Ben Diskin's take on Agumon (which sounds a bit too guttural for my taste and being used to prior portrayals), most of the voice cast fits quite well. I had a feeling that would be the case as multiple alumni from the original dub have retired and passed on. There is a wide range of talent with numerous anime and video game credits to their name; with my personal favorite being Zeno Robinson as Tai (whose other roles include Hunter in The Owl House, Omar/Green Poncho in Craig of the Creek and, of course, the "research fellow" Goh). If anyone had to take on the role (since Joshua Seth didn't want to do it from what I understand), I'm glad it's him. The script is faithful to a fault, a few quips sprinkled aside.

Courtesy: Toei/Bandai Namco/Akiyoshi Hongo

That's not to say that the issues from before are all alleviated. Far from it- though some lines are changed to sound less awkward in the dub; the story is more or less a direct translation of the original. Normally, I'm all for retaining as much of the original as possible. In this case, though; it just serves as evidence that the story failed to live up to its legacy and didn't bring much of its own merit either.

The characters, though all voice-acted reasonably well; still feel like lesser versions of their original counterparts. This isn't helped by the reboot being less of an ensemble like past seasons and more of "Tai and Agumon's Bogus Journey, featuring the cast of Digimon Adventure." The tone is still all over the place, and the show still never clearly establishes whether it wants to appeal to newcomers or fans of the original. It takes creative liberties with the original source material as a reboot, but contains references to the material only fans would understand. It treats newcomers like it's their first Digimon anime while also requiring them to have knowledge of the franchise and how it functions. One of the few things improved is that many of the off-model scenes in the first airings had their animation errors fixed for this dub (likely using copies for the JP home releases). All the same, I totally understand why this just got put on Microsoft Store without fanfare (though it's at least going over better than Redfall).

I have no plans to formally review this anime, and this isn't the only Digimon post I have in mind for this year. I do have my full look at Generation IX ready to publish on May 18, just as I had hoped to. In the meantime, go see Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3; which actually justified its existence and is worth watching. That's all for now- later.