Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 is one of those series that I found is really hard to review. The problem I had reviewing it was that I felt that I wasn’t really the target audience for this work. Although I enjoyed it, it was really aimed much more towards a younger audience, or for those generally interested in a easy to read story without much deep content. This meant that I really had put myself in a very different mindset, and I had to view this series through much less jaded lens. This frame of mind really helped me though to see why the Digimon series is so popular, and why this manga is so well loved by some readers. While V-Tamer 01 was not without it’s flaws, it was fun series to read. It also introduced me to the Digimon series (which I never watched as a kid), and I found that it was definitely a great manga for younger readers.
I thought the art for this manga was surprisingly good for franchise based work, however the art still wasn’t the highlight of this work. One thing that really impressed me about the artwork was how fun and exciting it was. The art design clearly prioritized entertainment over trying to have a serious artistic prowess (which is not a slight, but rather a observation). As a result the character designs had weaker expressive abilities and complexity of movement then usual, but were interesting to look at. The biggest draw of the art was clearly the creativity employed in the character design, which made the cast much more impressive then the average work of this kind. While the backgrounds are weaker then in many manga, for a shonen story they were remarkably well done. The art presented backgrounds that really gave a good sense of the environment in which the story takes place. While the artwork isn’t fantastic overall, for this sort manga it is far above the usual standard.
The biggest strength to this story is it’s relative simplicity. The series begins with the trainer Taichi Yagami being turned down from a game tournament for the battling monsters in Digimon video game. This is due to the fact that his dinosaur like monster named Zero is not recognized in the tourney as a legitimate creature. Despite being unable to compete in the tourney, Taichi is offered a chance to battle the champion Neo Saiba after the tourney is completed. He ends up tieing with with Neo, cause the self confident Neo to become frustrated. The story really begins though when he later is summoned into the games digital world by an angel monster. He soon discovers that a demon monster has found a powerfully evil egg. This demon is trying to hatch, and summon a dangerous new evil monster into the world. It’s now up to Taichi and his friend the monster Zero to find five trainer tags, and then capture them by defeating monsters, so as to be allowed access to the demon’s castle. Meanwhile the demon has also made plans to summon his own champion Neo to stop Taichi, and raise the monster in the egg when it hatches. Neo, however has special plans of his own.
Like other good children’s titles such as some of the Pokemon manga’s, or the original Dragon Ball (before Z), this series isn’t trying to tell the worlds greatest story. Instead the story is designed to be fun, creative and a exciting adventure. This means that this story is able to avoid some common shonen pitfalls, such as being soap opera like and/or acting like a deeply intellectual work, at the expense of fun or creativity. It’s focus is based upon exciting action, and the interesting monsters of the world, rather then a drawn out story filled with melodrama. Sadly this work does carry many common shonen flaws, such as overly simplistic themes of friendship and constant power ups in battles toward the end. This works relatively simplicity and the general lack of an ego, however makes these elements slightly less dull. Another great advantage this manga has over the typical shonen is that it has a story structure. V-Tamer 01 is a reasonable size, and doesn’t drag on for an immense amount of pointless chapters, unlike many other shonen works. While Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 is certainly is not perfect, it has many advantages over the typical shonen manga that makes it an ideal work for those looking for a good time.
While the characters are the weakest element and a bit predictable, they still manage to be likable, and this manga did manage to make me to care about their fates (unlike some other shonen manga’s). Taichi Yagami does a convincing job playing the heroic and kind shonen lead, remaining ever optimistic and uses his skills to help those in need. He isn’t really given many specially unique traits besides the above mentioned ones, and a interesting looking costume. His monster Zero is very much personality wise like Taichi, except that he is a bit more slow witted and is more of a comedy relief character. The best part of these two characters is their silly victory dance, which is always entertaining. Their travel partner the monster Gabo is a more cynical, but still kind hearted guide monster. The only other really important initial hero is Lord HolyAngemon and his general Leomon who both summon Taichi to the digital world, and help him fight the demon Digimon’s evil.
The main villain is a rather typical rival character. Neo is the opposite personality wise to Taichi in almost every way. Unlike Taichi he serves a evil purpose, is motivated by personal objective, is highly methodical and can’t stand to be foiled. His sister also appears in the series, and seems pointless toward the plot at first, though this changes later in the series. Neo also brings with him three allies known as the Aliases. One is a egotistical girl obsessed with her appearance with a rose based monster, another is masked loner computer expert with a magical clown, and the last is the misguided friend of Neo’s with a giant knight monster (to avoid spoiler I won’t go much into their details). The last important character worth discussing is the Demon who seeks to use his egg and Neo to take over the human and digital works. These characters are pretty simple figures with relatively common shonen style goals, while a few of them develop most of them remain pretty devoid of major change personality wise.
If you are looking for a deep or life changing work, then this clearly isn’t a manga worth reading. If you are, however seeking a story a child could enjoy that is fun and entertaining then this is a manga is worth looking into. Despite the characters being generally under developed, the story and art is better then in most Shonen works. I personally appreciated this works light atmosphere, though I felt some of the later chapters shonen cliches were sometimes tiresome. I’m not normally a big fan of most shonen works, however I thought this manga was pretty good for a shonen based work (make of that what you will). I’d recommend this work simply because it is available online for free, and isn’t that long, unlike most Shonen titles.
