As Good As It Gets

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Let me say this to start. I used to like this show as a kid, but now I absolutely hate this show. I found the story boring and repetitive with the monster of the week formula. I hate the villains because they have no good motivations for their goals. I hate the characters because they are kids. I rather watch anime with teenagers or adults rather than these brats. The protagonists in Hunter x Hunter are way more fleshed out than these kids. The artwork is horrendous. I hate the character designs because they look so god ugly. Go skip this anime and watch better anime like Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal, Lupin III, Fate/Zero, A Certain Scientific Railgun, Marchen Awakens Romance, Detective Conan, After War Gundam X,Ushio to Tora, Hunter x Hunter and Chilvary of a Failed Knight.

*Sorry for the long review!* I remember when Pokemon and Digimon were first broadcast in England. Pokemon came out first, at that seemed pretty cool. My brother loved it, and I liked it... But a few weeks later when I saw the adverts for Digimon I thought ''that looks like Pokemon, it must be as good''. I was wrong... IT WAS 50 BILLION TIMES BETTER!!!!!I found Pokemon same-ish and boring after four episodes. it was literally: "Wow! A new pokemon! Lets get it! Oh no, Pikachu's been stolen by Team Rocket, Lets get him back and blow them up!" That was pretty much the story in EVERY SINGLE STINKIN' EPISODE!! In Digimon, OK I admit the animation isn't 100% and the jokes are pretty bad sometimes... and the English dub probably isn't as half as good as English Subtitled Japanese episodes but ignoring that, you have one of the most brilliant anime/TV shows on the face of the Earth! (Series 1 was the best, Series 2 was pretty cool, Series 3 I loved, Series 4 I had to watch online as it was never broadcast in the UK... And I can see why, it was just an epic fail... First three series? BEST TV SHOW EVER!!!)My brother loved Pokemon and he claimed Digimon was rubbish. So what did I do? Made him watch an episode, and another... and another... Then he watched the whole series, with me, quite happilly. I was fascinated by the characters in Digimon and how they changed. They were so real! Tai was the leader of the group, Matt was the cool kid, Sora was like the friend to everyone, Izzy was the computer-obsessed smart kid, Joe was a bit of a geek, Mimi was the person who went shopping at the mall, TK was a little kid, Kari (Who appears later in the series)is another little kid... It's amazing how much they change in the series! Tai was a bit 'Everything has to be done my way!' Without letting the others get a word in, but as the series continued, he changed and let everyone else have their say. Matt was a loner, but he became more of a team member later. TK and Kari the little kids, while still being 8 year olds and the end of the series, grow up and become more mature (Just because you're tall it doesn't mean you've grown). Mimi, who thinks she's perfect and the world will always be perfect for her, changes as friendly Digimon die and she begins to realise that bad things happen and that you have to deal with them. (My favorite characters were Sora, Matt, Gabumon, Biyomon, Gommamon, TK, Patamon, Kari, Gatomon... OK that's a lot of favorite characters, but still)Digimon's probably the reason I'm like I am now. When I first watched this as an 8 year old, I didn't really understand what was going on, but watching it again, so many years later, I can understand it, and I can see a lot of the characters personalities in myself... And I'm still learning from it. I had an argument with a friend, and thought they were to blame. I went home and watched an episode of Digimon 'Princess Karaoke' which was focusing on Mimi and how she treated Tai and Joe, and how her nightmares were trying to tell her she'd done something wrong, and Sora helped explain... And I realised that I was probably the one who'd done something wrong. Thanks to Digimon, I still have one of my best friends today, instead of losing them over a silly argument.Don't dismiss this as a cheesy kid's show, it actually has a lot of meaning hidden in it. It's surprisingly WAY more than it first appears. When I was 8 and first watching this show, I wished I could go to the Digital World too... I wish I could have been part of the group with my own digimon friend...

This anime hides a huge value behind of what it appears to be: a show to sell in the children's market. Indeed, unlike Pokemon and BeyBlade, Digimon presents a surprisingly interesting story, which meets perfectly the dreams of any child (and even of some adults). The heroes of this story do not live a life of futile pokemons capture and collection or fighting to see who has the most powerful spinning-top. Instead, they have a normal life like any ordinary child, but they were chosen to save the Digital World – a parallel world that has resulted from a mysterious expression data. To do so, they will find their digimons, with which they will create an everlasting friendship and that will help them to defeat the Evil that has taken this world.The drawings are extremely beautiful and the plot is unusually interesting, with a brilliant mixture of reality and fantasy. The soundtrack is one of the best ever (if not the best!), presenting themes ranging from well-done Japanese music to very powerful melodies like the Bolero of Ravel. The only flaw of this show is the fact that the story is not always told with the quality that was intended.Children, and anyone who wants to relive the wonders of childhood, will find a fantastic world in this anime to fill their imagination and they will learn or recall important values such as friendship, sincerity, trust in others and hope.Score: 9/10PS: This review only refers to the first season. My ratings for the other seasons are: Season 2 – 6/10; Season 3 – 7/10; Season 4 – 4/10; Season 5 – 4/10. Overall score: 9/10 (watch the first season and ignore the others)

Right to start off with the usual, "Digimon ain't no Pokemon" rant. I saw the first episodes of Pokemon and thought it was an interesting idea but that was all, there is not plot minus the "Ash wants to be PokeMaster!" which I don't think they are going to resolve anytime soon. Decent enough for kids but not something you would call brilliant. Digimon sucked me in from the first episode; its plot is pretty clear from the off and has to be resolved- seven kids get sucked into another world and meet Digimon but really all they want to do is go home so thats what they try and do. I grant you the dub especially can be annoying- there are lines where you think, "they did not just say that, was that meant to be funny?" but some of it is a big laugh. For example when Tai tries to draw a map of the Island and its terrible, then they get attacked and Agumon accidentally sets it on fire and apoligises to which Tai replies, "thats OK, at least it didn't land into the hands of the enemy!". Still corny but quite funny. Also the digivolving sequences get annoying after the first few times until they get to the point of ridiculousness where it literally spends 5 minutes of the episode showing all the Digimon digivolving. Really annoying but we can bypass. If you look beneath all the corny jokes and pointless digivolving there is something really special there. The characters are really quite realistic. Tai makes mistakes but admits it and tries to fix them. Izzy is obsessed with his computer due to knowing secretly that he is adopted and its the only way he can deal with it. Even the comedic Joe has issues with his parents wanting him to be a Doctor when he doesn't really want to be one. Thats what is good about the show, the digidestined shine beyond most cartoon characters. The plot line is pretty good, especially the Myotismon arc but its pretty much, "defeat bad guy,". Season 2 has a better plot line in my opinion but the digidestined are handled really badly. Davis and Yolei appear to have no issues whatsoever, Cody's only become important near the end, Kari and T.K are just there and Ken remains the only one who comes up to par with the Season 1 cast. Season 3 is great; if you really couldn't stand the jokes in the last 2 then this one will be more your style. The digidestined are up to par again but the Digimon are as well (where before only Gatomon had any interesting development)it's a class season, but does get a bit slow at times where Season 1 is always pretty well paced. Season 4 is best left alone, I didn't enjoy it and wouldn't recommend it. So yes- don't judge Digimon off its name because you are missing out if you do. It might be childish and corny at times but at other times it matures way beyond the maturity of other children programs and into the realm of wondering who it was really aimed at. In my opinion its something I would show my children, it teaches great lessons about friendship and is colourful and fun for them- plus I don't think I'd get bored watching it if they were ^ ^.