Digimon 2

Rating:
Summary: Digimon #2
Review: Digimon Manga #2, the story continues in my alltime favorite series. It begins with Episode 8 - Evil Shows it's Face, where the kids encounter Devimon for the first time, who takes control of noble Leomon with his Touch of Evil, and recruits Ogremon to destroy the kids. Also the first occasion we hear the word "DigiDestined." Devimon lures the children into a trap and then scatters them. The rest of the book details their exciting individual adventures.

I would've given 4 stars, but it's missing a crucial and one of my favorite episodes - "Subzero Ice-Punch" or the story of Matt and Tai with Frigimon and Mojyamon. The first fight between the two of them, and an important character profile segment. Later in the book when the kids are reunited, Tai simply alludes to their adventure.

One good point I noticed however - finally proof positive it is not simply an adaption of the dubbed cartoon show. In the episode, "the Dancing Digimon" in the show Joe claimed he was using a "mind over matter" chant against the Bakamon. Here, it is properly translated as a Buddhist chant. Who knows what other goodies we'll discover in future volumes! As well as fixing many other bad dub snafoos, (such as in the dub, when Angemon appears for the first time saying, "I'll stop you!" it is changed here to "Hand of Fate!")

Matt, Gabumon, and Garurumon are on the cover of this manga. It covers as far as "The Dark Network of Etemon" the first part of the next story arc, as the children must search for the powerful Crests in order to combat an even more powerful enemy than Devimon. But will they discover their purpose in time? The preview picture for the next volume shows Sora with Garudamon, which can only mean the next installment will take us toward the story arc after Etemon, the 8th DigiDestined Child search in the human world. Stay tuned!

I can't wait to collect them all! The whole story in one place!

Rating:
Summary: the animated version is better
Review: If you've seen the animated version of Digimon, you might recognize some of the events in this book. The kids in the digiworld battle Leomon, Bakemon, Whamon, and other digimon. For some reason, the animated versions of these stories felt less disjointed - in the manga it just feels like too much is happening too fast, with digimon of the moment appearing every few seconds. The battles are also a lot better in animated form. The artwork just doesn't seem to capture those or digivolving (the transformation of a digimon into a more powerful form) very well.