Oh the late 90's. Nostalgia for this time period is so rich
it gives me a straight up nipple boner. Things were pretty good back then. 9/11 hadn't happened yet, there was an economy,
and I was a kid so I didn’t even know what an economy was. One thing I knew for sure though was that
there was a lot of cool stuff that I wanted, and it seemed like every year there was even
cooler and cooler knick-knacks for me to collect. Things were really taking off at that point,
and we witnessed some of the biggest franchises and cultural phenomena to ever exist get their
start. What helped this the most was that multimedia
companies had finally nailed down their business strategy of selling toys through tv, and tv
through toys, and video games through tv, and toys through video games and comics and
books and trading cards, and clothes and... well you get the point. Everything for young kids was being saturated
to the ultimate and we just ate it up. It was great! Now this practice wasn’t new, it had been
going on since the 80's but it really hit the ultimate stranglehold in the 90's. Obviously the biggest and best example (besides
maybe Harry Potter) was Pokémon. Originally a video game, but inevitably an
all-encompassing, bank account emptying, super fad. It took my generation by the balls and squeezed
until it was on its knees. There was no stopping Pokémon, and to this
day it's one of (if not THE) most successful franchises of all time. It had it all my dudes, the merch, the cards,
the anime, the sweet, sweet dolla bills y'all. But with great success also comes room for
emulation and innovation. Something about having a pet that you could
order into a death match not only worked in Japan, but really struck a chord in America
and across the rest of the world as well. There was room for more, and so more came. The late 90's was also a time when video games
had really established themselves for the first time as not just a young boy's plaything. With Sony now in the market it was becoming
increasingly obvious that not only were adults also playing, but girls too! (SARCASTICALLY) Who knew that their little
fragile girl thumbs could ALSO press buttons??? But once again, with the realization of new
markets come new enterprises! And since it was discovered that girls also
enjoyed some good old-fashioned video games, it was time to expand. Enter: the Tamagotchi. For those of you who may not know what these
things are, Tamagotchi were little virtual pets that shit themselves and died. That was pretty much it. However, for a time they were one of the best-selling
toys in the world and they were aimed specifically at young girls. But I didn't care, man! I had one of those cause I was woke AF as
a kid. Crossing boundaries and stuff. Too cool for my time. Early on the cultural changes. A visionary. But there was a lot of little boys who simply
couldn't sheath their fragile masculinity and enjoy a screaming beeping egg that crapped
itself in 8-bit pixels. So sad. Obviously because Bandai (who made Tamagotchi)
was making an assload of money, they wanted more! It was time to branch out to the boys...but
how? Well the answer was simple, DIGIMON. Yes, originally Digimon were little boy versions
of Tamagotchi, they were cooler, and you could battle them too. They were pretty awesome little devices, and
if you still have one you can sell it on eBay for a ton of money. So maybe think about that. These devices caught on like wildfire and
sold millions, more than enough for a second and even third run of the toys, so naturally
Digimon needed a TV show too! In late 1999 Digimon dropped on Fox Kids,
and playgrounds across the US lit up with kids fighting over which was better: Pokémon
or Digimon. But why? Why even compare the two really? And most importantly, which one was better!? Well that’s what we're here to find out. Because underneath every stupid fad there's
a little nugget of truth, and this just happens to be the truth of Digimon Vs. Pokémon. The REAL truth. I don't think it's too much to say that the
original debate over Pokémon and Digimon came from the simple fact that the titles
of both franchises ended in "mon." There's a simple reason for that: they're
Japanese! All languages tend to do a little adopting
of other languages and Japanese is no exception. I'm sure you've seen quite a few anime where
a character will say "lucky" in the Japanese audio. I dunno, I guess they like that word. Either way, putting "mon" at the end is just
an abbreviation of "monster." In fact, the entire titles of both shows are
abbreviations. "Pokémon" for pocket monsters, and "Digimon"
for digital monsters... and then there was Monster Rancher, but that might be a topic
for another video...or not? Does anyone care about Monster Rancher? Yeah...didn’t think so. Anyway, at the time America and Japan were
just starting to do a little cultural cross pollination. There really wasn’t a wide standard knowledge
of Japan at the time, I mean, there still isn't, but if someone said something was "kawaii"
you'd probably know what they mean now. It means cute. Regardless, back then a lot of people thought
Digimon was just a stupid rip off of Pokémon because of the name, and because the shows
were focused around kids with pets that spit fire and crap and evolved into other pets
that breathed more fire. Adults really didn’t get the intricacies
of either franchise, let's be real. Another reason for the confusion was due to
the fact that Pokémon had already had a serious foothold in the worldwide market by the time
the Digimon anime came out (which was literally at the peak of the Pokémon craze). At the time, fans of Pokémon were so die
hard that they weren't about to let some other pretender "mon" show come in and take away
from the Poké lifestyle. No way dog. But I wasn’t one of those kids, I watched
the crap out of some Digimon! I never played the games, but I was a huge
fan of the show for the first three seasons or so, but we'll get into that in a bit. Either way I liked both quite a lot and for
very different reasons. First, the Pokémon games are amazing and
were one of my earliest "true" gaming experiences. Also, the fact that it was so popular at the
time meant making friends was easy. EVERYONE loved Pokémon, so almost everyone
had common ground. But if we're being real, the Pokémon anime...
well it doesn’t suck, but it's formulaic to the max. Many of the episodes are totally pointless
or feature a Pokémon that’s been featured a million times. There's very little story, and some would
say there's really none at all. I mean, how often does Ash reflect on his
past - maybe twice a series? The Pokémon anime is snack time TV. Each episode is basically a stand-alone piece,
like Spongebob or something. Sure, Pokémon was addicting as hell, but
Digimon had story. Honestly, if this was simply an anime debate,
Digimon would win hands down. It’s just got more layers. And besides the ‘mon’ titles and the fact
that there are little monster pets that evolve, there are few other similarities between the
two franchises. For those of you who don’t know, the first
Digimon series followed seven kids who got sucked out of their summer camp and into the
digital world, which is essentially a materialization of the internet mixed with that island Tom
Hanks ended up on in Cast Away. But instead of a volleyball the kids got Digimon,
which are little monsters that inhabit that world . The kids are known as "digidestined"
and they and their digital friends have to fight evil to save the real and the digital
world. Unlike Pokémon each kid gets 1 Digimon, and
that’s it (some of them lucked out more than the others). Also instead of evolving permanently at a
certain experience level like Pokémon, Digimon 'DIGIVOLVE". Its DIFFERENT okay? They also digivolve through the digivice,
from simply being upset, or from other tools the kids pick up in the digital world. However, after the need for their digivolved
form passes they revert to their base form. Also Digimon are mostly intelligent creatures
that actually speak a language instead of just repeating their name over and over like
a yellow electric Hodor. What makes Pokémon "Pokémon" is the themes
behind it. Not necessarily the fact that there's little
animals that have special powers. Pokémon is about living in a world with humans
and Pokémon side by side. The games focus primarily on catching them,
training them, trading them, and battling them to win cash or gym battles, or to defeat
the elite four. But there's also breeding, research, travel
and adventure. It's just a part of life in the Pokémon world. Not only that but you have options: there's
Pokémon types. Team building is important, and then what
you do with them is up to you. Digimon is literally nothing like that. Only the digidestined (at least in the first
couple series) have digimon, which only exist (for the most part) in the digital world. The digital world is a completely different
place than the real world, although they are connected. The reason the digidestined have digimon is
simply to protect the balance between the two worlds. There's no collecting, theres no trading,
theres no mastering, there's no being the best there ever was. It's simply a mission, save the world from
evil. Where Pokémon created a universe, Digimon
created a story, or at least a series of stories. They also may have created furries... and
at least a couple of fetishes I mean... LOOK at some of these things! Dayumm. The anime's themselves were also polar opposites. When the Pokémon anime came out I thought
it was really cool, and I always watched it when I saw that it was on. But Digimon... I got STOKED for digimon! Mostly because as a show it was really good,
as long as you can get over how the english dub wrecked the culture out of it worse than
Brock and his jelly donuts. It was on every Saturday morning on Fox Kids
and I'd actually wake my ass up on the weekend to watch it. Specifically because it was a continuous story
that dealt with the characters really well. Just like Dragon Ball Z, if you missed an
episode of Digimon you may never see it again. And that mattered because each episode played
into the next. The battles were epic and on going, so it
was important not to miss it. Pokémon you could just watch whenever because
that didn’t matter as much. The only real episodes that were important
were gym battle ones, which were spread really far apart. There was a lot of darkness to Digimon as
well that Pokémon never touched on. It handled concepts like fear, death, loneliness,
loss, and other adult emotions really well. Which was a lot to handle for a kid, but it
also made it incredibly interesting. I mean, I guess Pokémon had that butterfree
episode... But, most importantly, unlike Pokémon, Digimon
ended. Then the second series passed the torch to
the next generation so they could have their own adventures. the series had a unique story to tell which
spawned off little itty bitty 8-bit pocket pets. It told it, told it WELL, and then it moved
on to the next. Pokémon on the other hand just went ON and
ON and ON, and is still going. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan but you
can't deny we're still watching the same main character, the same Pikachu, the same goal. After the initial wave of the Digimon toys
died down it was really the anime that continued to carry the franchise. They've put out quite a few movies and games,
as well as card games that all had varying degrees of success. Every once and a while I'll hear about a "good
Digimon game", but what I hear far more often is the subject of Digimon being brought up,
and somebody saying its stupid, or a bad rip off of Pokémon. Which, you’re entitled to your decision,
but it's really not. It's more or less entirely its own thing. The title was ill conceived and the franchise
premiered at a bad time (at least when the idea of longevity is involved) but besides
that looking back now I can honestly say that at one point Digimon was my favorite show
on TV. It was that good. But comparing it to Pokémon is a lot like
comparing apples and oranges. You can still compare fruit (don’t give
me that apples to oranges bullshit), but there are just so many differences that make each
one unique. I think Pokémon was an amazing game series
that has a good TV show spin off; and Digimon was a toy fad that had a GREAT anime spin
off. And if we're being real, both of them were
designed to prey on children and their parent's wallets so who cares? What it really comes down to is that it bums
me out when I see people pass up on a good thing because of something as stupid as "brand
dedication". You will only watch treesicle you will only
watch treesicle you will only watch treesicle Or just out of plain ignorance. There's a lot of good things out there you
might be missing out on because you were being stubborn, or just didn’t want to take the
time to see if it was for you. Maybe there was a lot more we could've gotten
out of Digimon, but it didn't happen because so many people decided it was a stupid franchise. Simply because it shared a couple similarities
with a far more popular franchise. Do you know how many anime are similar??? Do you know how dead anime would be if everyone
thought like that? It’s ridiculous! Simply put Digimon vs. Pokémon is a moot
argument. They're both good children's (CHILDRENS) franchises
that have a lot to offer in varying departments of entertainment. They have similarities, but not enough to
consider Digimon even close to a rip-off. And if you want to get a decent view of what
it was like to be a kid back then you should watch both, ya derp! And that’s the Real Truth. Hopefully this gave those of you 20 years
on the fence the little push that you needed to check out some of that digi action. Obviously at this point the anime is dated
all to hell but there's a lot of things that are still enjoyable within it. And for those of you who've heard of this
controversy I hope this gave you a little historical perspective on some playground
balony that just never died. Either way, I'm Ryan and if you liked this
video why don’t you check out my shows here on Treesicle? I like to cover things that are a little farther
outside the box here so you'll probably find something you enjoy. But for now, thanks for watching everyone,
and I'll see you all next time. Toodles!
Decent enough video, though I hate his voice