Digimon Adventure



""In the summer of that year, strange things happened all over Earth.""

Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Koushiro, Mimi, Jou, and Takeru (nicknamed Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Mimi, Joe, and T.K.) are caught in a mysterious snowfall in the middle of their summer camp. When strange devices fall from the sky, they are sent to another world and meet up with Mons that somehow know their names and are devoted to protecting them. Fighting stronger and stronger enemies to Save Both Worlds, the seven children learn why they are the "Digidestined" and how to become stronger with the power of their own hearts. Later they get a new addition to their team, Taichi's sister, Hikari (nicknamed Kari).

And giant monsters. Can't forget that.

The first anime series in the Digimon franchise, adapted from the virtual pets. What the series lacked in production values, it more than made up for with incredible writing, being one of the first 'kids' shows to have great characterization that continually developed. We came for the monsters and we stayed for the children. It was followed up by Digimon Adventure 02, and was accompanied by a pair of Short Anime Movies.

See also: the character sheet. All tropes related to a single character should be added there instead of here.

"I AM THE ULTIMATE EVIL, COMPLETE WITH HOT AND COLD RUNNING WATER."
 * Abandoned Hospital: In the Dark Masters arc, Tai and Izzy find one while searching for medicine for Kari.
 * Abridged Series: From the makers of Geass Twist and Bleachers, there's an entertaining one here.
 * And now we have one from Little Kuriboh, Dark Side Incorporated and MasakoX here
 * Actor Allusion: A very roundabout, dub-induced one. Izzy, the group's Spock is partnered with Tentomon, who's voice actor, Jeff Nimoy, is the second cousin once removed of the original Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy.
 * Adults Are Useless: Subverted. The children are generally the only ones who can save the world, but the parents are actually relatively important too. The kids revere their parents and once in a while they can help a little too.
 * Adult Fear: A good deal of them come up, mainly in the Myotismon arc where the parents find out the danger their kids have gotten into.
 * Aesoptinum: The Digivices and Crests.
 * Alternate Universe: See the main Digimon entry.
 * Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The English version uses the "Digi-Rap" as the theme song
 * All There in the Manual: A lot of side information (details about the Chosen Children, about the Digital World, who Gennai and his old comrades were, etc.) was revealed in things like drama CDs, character songs, novels and such. The dub accordingly missed out on a lot.
 * And I Must Scream: Piedmon turned the children, their partners and Andromon into keychains with the intention of keeping them like that forever as part of his "collection".
 * Animation Bump: Episode 21 was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, who made the first two Digimon films. The quality of the artwork was considered by many to be a huge improvement, but Hosoda only directed one episode due to creative differences between his style and the style of the series as a whole. This episode is in some ways comparable to the Dark Ocean episode in Adventure 02, directed by Chiaki Konaka.
 * Attack! Attack! Retreat! Retreat!: Some of Piedmon's Vilemon army eagerly chase after some Gekomon in the final battle... then are seen being chased themselves by the bigger Digimon also taking part in the battle.
 * Anyone Can Die: Mostly during the Dark Masters arc.
 * Apocalypse How: X-5 Apocalymon attempted to destroy both the digital and real worlds with an explosion which was contained by the Digivices.
 * Artistic Age: The Pilot Movie, set 4 years before the start of the series, featured a 7-year old Tai and a 4-year old Kari. Due to the drastic style difference (chubby bodies, very small hands and feet) both looked much younger. This wasn't helped by the fact that Kari was seen in a high chair and barely had any dialogue, being portrayed more like a toddler. It could be justified by the fact that the series hadn't established its characters yet, so Kari might have been intended to be a toddler in the movie before the show set her present age to 8, retroactively making her 4 in the film.
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever
 * Balloon Belly: It happens to Tai and Agumon whenever they gorge themselves, which is fairly often.
 * Battle Royale With Cheese: The final confrontation with Piedmon is a textbook example.
 * Bittersweet Ending: The kids save both of the worlds from Apocalymon and the Digital World reformats so it can start over in peace with the absence of the evil Digimon, but they have to leave the Digital World and their Digimon friends behind, seemingly forever. Fortunately, the next show fixes this.
 * Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Matt, Tai, and Izzy, respectively.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Everyone infected with a Black Gear gets this by default, but two examples stand out above the others:
 * Leomon was stuffed with multiple black gears, causing him to grow, turn grey and become even more Ax Crazy.
 * Meramon suddenly feels all the fire burning on his body when infected. When you mix a suddenly case of the evils with feeling like your entire body is on fire (which it is), it sends him into Ax Crazy.
 * Calling Your Attacks
 * Car Fu: Attempted by Mimi's father against a DarkTyrannomon... in a golf cart. It doesn't work.
 * Casual Danger Dialog: In the English version.
 * Cheerful Child: TK and Kari.
 * The Chessmaster: Myotismon is frequently one step ahead of the children, and even manages to overcome his own daytime weaknesses by plunging their home city into permanent fog.
 * Machinedramon, who uses Izzy's laptop connection to pinpoint his and Tai's location, and thus to direct his forces to them.
 * Cold Open: The original version of the finale holds the title card until after Apocalymon's death. Since the dub didn't really have a title card, it didn't bother.
 * Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All the Digidestined have colors that correspond to them, based on their Crests.
 * Combined Energy Attack: Three times!
 * Cool Big Sis: Patamon thinks of Biyomon like this, asking himself "What would Biyomon do?" when he and TK are stranded. Her solution, of course, wouldn't have done Patamon any good at the time.
 * Conspicuous CG: Greymon and Garurumon's evolutions to Perfect level, as well as their warp-evolutions, use 3D animation. It looks... rather out of place, given that every other Digimon use traditional hand-drawn animation in their Perfect evolution sequences. This would later be repeated in Adventure 02, Tamers and Savers, with Paildramon/Imperialdramon, Guilmon and Terriermon's lines, and ShineGreymon and MirageGaogamon's Burst Modes respectively.
 * Crap Saccharine World: Toy Town under Black Gear!Monzaemon
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Omnimon vs. a million Diaboromon. And it's not Omnimon who's on the losing end.
 * Garudamon and Garurumon were on the receiving end of one when they first fought Snimon and Tuskmon.
 * Cyberspace
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: Infermon in Our War Game, for tricking them into thinking he was just an Adult, then when they figured it out and tried to match him, brutally averting Transformation Is a Free Action. Tai actually complains about the unfairness in the original. To top it all off, he RUNS OFF GIGGLING RIGHT AFTERWARDS, before the smoke even clears. That's right, he knew it worked even before Tai and Izzy could see the results. He just gets even more so from there. Now that he's aware they're keeping track of him through the internet? Disrupt the phone network to disable their ability to access the internet. They use a military satellite uplink to get around that? Stop fucking around and use that same uplink to hack the military and Nuke'Em. They're coming to kill you before the nuke hits? Multiply like hell and crush them with sheer numbers.
 * Machinedramon as well. Every previous villain has let the children live long enough for their Evil Gloating. Machinedramon has no interest in gloating, preferring to just shoot them... with immediate, overwhelming, and tactically-deployed firepower.
 * Apocalymon in the final battle was surprisingly cunning as well. He directly attacked the children, thus forcing the digimon to become human shields and leave themselves defenseless to his attacks. The kids in turn got Genre Savvy right back at him and rode on their Digimon for the second battle, rendering this tactic useless.
 * Angewomon has had this on two occasions. She cuts off her opponent midsentence during Calling Your Attacks by calling hers faster. In both cases it resulted in her victory.
 * Deadly Upgrade: When Greymon was pressured into evolving by Taichi, he changed into the dark SkullGreymon, a mindless monster. When it evolved "naturally", he became his true Perfect form, MetalGreymon.
 * Dead Sidekick: TK witnesses Angemon's death. Although he later comes back to life.
 * Devour the Dragon: Devimon to Ogremon temporarily, and VenomMyotismon to DemiDevimon permanently.
 * Deus Ex Machina: The Digivices. They're supposed to make the digimon be able to digivolve but they come with a load more nifty tricks that are never elaborated on.
 * Against Devimon, they served to give more power to Angemon even though he was established later on as being a very powerful digimon. One would think he could get the job done by himself.
 * Against Venommyotismon, when the chosen children were defeated, the digivices suddenly acted up and physically restrained the giant when their own digimon couldn't do that...
 * Against Apocalymon, he threatened both worlds with some suicide attack, the digivices ended up forming some barrier to contain him.
 * There is also the episode where Kari gains some power that releases a light to give Digimon more strength. Agumon used this light to warp digivolve and defeat Machinedramon.
 * Diabolical Mastermind: Devimon, Myotismon, and Piedmon. In the film, Diaborumon [Diablomon] - appropriately enough - trumps them all.
 * Didn't Want an Adventure: A good chunk of both Mimi and Joe's complaints.
 * Dinosaurs Are Dragons: The Agumon line, though none of the forms had the "dra" syllable that marks it having some aspect of dragons.
 * Ironically, WarGreymon, his Mega form, has a pair of claws called the Dramon Destroyers that are extremely effective at destroying Dramon.
 * Dropped a Bridge on Him: Many ally Digimon in the Dark Masters arc.
 * Also, Phantomon. He was killed by being too close to an attack aimed at somebody else.
 * Dub Name Change: Many. Some notable ones:
 * Chosen Children -> DigiDestined
 * Evolve -> Digivolve
 * Plotmon -> Salamon
 * Tailmon -> Gatomon
 * Vamdemon -> Myotismon (and by extension, VenomVamdemon and BelialVamdemon-> VenomMyotismon and MaloMyotismon)
 * Pinocchimon -> Puppetmon
 * Mugendramon -> Machinedramon
 * Technically the dub kept the kids' Japanese names (as shown in the first episode), but we only ever hear their more American nicknames. Tai and Kari's surname's changed from 'Yagami' to 'Kamiya' though.
 * Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Matt's father knowing who Gabumon was, during the Real World Arc, which lead to many speculations that Matt's dad was a Digidestined. There's also Mimi's throwaway comment about her little brother early on in the series, prior to the clarification that she's actually an only child. The important ones are corrected or ignored when the situation arises.
 * Dub Text: Matt and TK being half brothers. Hmm, no wonder the parents divorced and their mom kept TK. The dub later abandoned this and reverted them to being proper brothers.
 * Elite Mooks: Snimon and Tuskmon. Snimon is able to take down Garudamon despite only being an adult level while Tuskmon throws Garurumon around like a ragdoll, forcing Kari to give herself up to Vamdemon. The second time they clash with three of the Chosen Children who engage the two as a distraction. WereGarurumon opens with a sucker punch to both digimon, which they both shrug off. This time around, Garudamon handles Tuskmon on her own, leaving Zudomon and WereGarurumon to fight the more powerful Snimon. Even after being outnumbered by three Digimon each an evolution level higher, they still manage to keep the three Digimon and their children tied down long enough for the other children to climb to the top of the Fuji TV Station before they are incapacitated.
 * Empathic Weapon: The Mons themselves.
 * Everything's Better With Etemon: Or worse, depending on whether you were in the show or not.
 * Everything Is Online: Justified in that the Digital World arises from the Earth's various communications systems, so Digimon could theoretically affect all electronic systems (the Pilot Movie shows strong interference with electronics whenever a Digimon evolves or emerges). On the other hand, there's Our War Game. Diablomon was explicitly stated to exist on the Internet... so what are Ferris wheels, nuclear missiles, and supermarket scanners doing hooked up to the Internet? In 2001?!
 * Evil Brit: Ther only character to speak with a non-American accent is the Big Bad of the fourth arc, Piedmon, who appears to spend most of his time doing a whimsical Michael Crawford impression.
 * Evil vs. Evil: MetalEtemon vs. Puppetmon in the Dark Masters Arc. Probably not the only time, but notable in that it's the only time two Big Bads fought each other.
 * Etemon vs. Datamon on more then one occasion.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: WarGreymon's Dramon Killer claws are extremely effective at...well, destroying Dramon type Digimon.
 * The Hiding Tree from the first episode. It's used for hiding.
 * Eyecatch: Mildly spoileriffic for the first arc.
 * Fake Kill Scare: When Kari surrenders to Myotismon, he asks the already-captured Gatomon if she really is the eighth DigiDestined so he can kill her. Being Kari's partner, Gatomon tries to protect Kari by pretending she's never met her before. With a snap of Myotismon's fingers, Kari screams and Gatomon blurts out her name in horror, only to find DemiDevimon was just tugging on Kari's hair.
 * Faux Symbolism: VenomMyotismon and his prophecy's use of the Number of the Beast. Also qualifies as Getting Crap Past the Radar for the dub; see below.
 * The fact that Devimon, a Devil Digimon, curb-stomped six Digimon his own level, and was defeated by Angemon, an Angel Digimon. This happens again later, with Angewomon defeating LadyDevimon.
 * Field Power Effect
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero: Tai & Agumon
 * The Lancer: Matt; Gabumon acts as something of a Lancer to Matt himself
 * The Smart Guy: Izzy & Tentomon
 * The Chick: Mimi & Palmon
 * The Heart / Team Mom: Sora & Biyomon
 * The Medic / Team Dad: Joe & Gomamon
 * Kid Appeal Character / Tagalong Kid: TK & Patamon
 * Eighth Ranger: Kari & Gatomon
 * Matt's dad is the Ninth Ranger, according to JesuOtaku
 * Flash Back
 * Foreshadowing: In the episode "Evil Shows His Face" the kids walk into a mansion and TK comments on the beauty of an angel painting. Patamon asks what an angel is, which TK then explains. Guess who later evolves into an angel. This also references something explained in expanded universe materials about Devimon - he's a fallen Angemon.
 * In Episode 2, "Garurumon", when they encounter the trolley car Tai suggests that it might be their way home.
 * Fur Against Fang: WereGarurumon vs. Myotismon in episode 33. Notably, WereGarurumon was shown to be the only partner Digimon able to evenly handle Myotismon in single combat at the time, a further nod to this trope.
 * Gag Dub / Woolseyism: The Saban dub is overall something of a hybrid in this regard, there were times when it acted silly - but it did definitely know how to be heartbreakingly serious when it had to be, not to mention its general aversion of Never Say "Die".
 * The dub was dubbed by the same company who worked on Samurai Pizza Cats so all the added humor in the dub shouldn't come off as very surprising.
 * Frothy Mugs of Water: Instances of tricking a Digimon to drink alcoholic beverages by changing it to Soda Pop in the English dub.
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Gabumon does this to Matt near the end by biting him.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: The dub did this beautifully, to the point where one must wonder how it was even broadcast. See also: the franchise's overall Getting Crap Past the Radar page.
 * Izzy's parents actually imply that his mother had a miscarriage or a stillborn shortly before they adopted him.
 * In one example literally. For the most part the dub avoided poop jokes by changing it to sludge (ex: the Numemon threw numesludge at the kids, not poop as in the original). However, in one episode when Koromon poops in a guys car, the dub doesn't hide the fact that he did.
 * In another possible example of Getting Crap Past the Radar, the dub doesn't change a plot-critical reference to the Number of the Beast.
 * They don't hide the concept of death like most 90s dubs did either.
 * Of course this only applies if resurrection follows. The scene where Wizardmon kicks the bucket is deleted in the dub.
 * They were still explicitly clear that Wizardmon was killed though. However the final episode tries to lighten it up by suggesting that he will be reborn, of course next season we find out that it wasn't the case.
 * I'm sure they were just sent to the dungeon.
 * Somehow, Matt even made a drugs joke, suggesting that Myotismon evolution to VenomMyotismon involved him being on steroids.
 * The dub got away with the fact that Matt's father smoked either like they normally would do.
 * The dub didn't cut an instance where Izzy and Tai walk in on Mimi bathing.
 * Know that episode where Sora's cousin shows up and gives the Destined a ride? Yeah, in the actual version, they were hitchhiking, and he was just a random motorist who seemed to have some, ahem, indecent thoughts towards them. Possibly a wise decision on the part of the dub writers.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere Subverted and played with In the case of Apocalymon
 * Diabolus Ex Nihilo: Apocalymon. Absolutely no hint that he even existed until the last three episodes, then bam they're fighting him. This was partially induced by Executive Meddling; the plan was to have a proper lead-up to him and explain his connection to the Dark Masters.
 * Gondor Calls for Aid: What Mimi and Joe end up deciding to do throughout the Dark Masters arc. Come the final battle with Piedmon, almost all of the children's surviving allies show up to participate in taking down Piedmon's army of Vilemon.
 * Gratuitous English: Adventure set the trend for the franchise absolutely loving this trope. Almost every attack name seen, and all of them for the main character Digimon and Big Bads. Adventure also set the trend for spurts of English sporadically appearing throughout the opening, closing, insert and evolution themes throughout the franchise, and most song names are also Gratuitous English.
 * Hachiko: In episode 33, Patamon is lost and overhears that Hachiko is a popular meeting spot. The English dub just refers to a generic park, but the statue is still shown.
 * Heel Face Turn: Gatomon and Ogremon.
 * Heroic BSOD: This happens with pretty much all of the kids, Matt and Sora probably taking it the worst.
 * Another very noteworthy one being near the end of the Etemon arc, when Tai He gets over it eventually, and awesome ensues when his crest awakens after an emotional 180 degree turn.
 * Heroic Resolve: Happens a lot, but probably the most noteworthy is in the final fight with
 * Heroic Sacrifice: A LOT of Digimon during the Dark Masters arc end up performing these for the children.
 * Hot Springs Episode: In episode 8. It turns out to be an illusion of Devimon's creation.
 * Idiot Hero: Tai. He soon overcomes it.
 * Ill Girl: Kari, who is the page image.
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: A few: Ogremon during the Devimon arc (he later does a Heel Face Turn), Etemon whenever he lost, and DemiDevimon who kept falling foul of Myotismon's displeasure. Puppetmon also has shades of this owing to his Loners Are Freaks and I Just Want to Have Friends problems, but it's overriden by how frequently he decides to Kick the Dog for the most pathetic of reasons.
 * I Let Gwen Stacy Die:.
 * Just Eat Him: MetalSeadramon attempts to do this to WarGreymon. He would have succeeded, had it not been for Whamon
 * Kansai Regional Accent: Tentomon in the original; in the dub his accent was vaguely British, instead of the usual Texan substitution.
 * Kick the Dog: Myotismon has a lot of these moments, especially in the Eighth Child arc. When he's taken an entire district of Tokyo captive, he decides to separate the children from the adults in order to locate the eighth child, relishing the mere thought of their cries.
 * Etemon and the Dark Masters have their moments; Etemon keeps hitting and bullying his Gazimon followers; the Dark Masters attack the Gekomon and Otamamon 'for the fun of it'.
 * Kill Steal: Happens to MegaKabuterimon while fighting Puppetmon. MegaKabuterimon had already freed WarGreymon from Puppetmon's control, blown away his bullet hammer and injured him to a fair degree; all with a single well placed bolt of lightning. Puppetmon's forced to animate his mansion as a distraction and run away, until he runs into MetalGarurumon and Matt, whom he finds he's no longer capable of manipulating. He's promptly shot by the the duo after trying to charge them while injured with only an improvised weapon.
 * Large Ham: Apocalymon. Especially in the dub.
 * Kill Steal: Happens to MegaKabuterimon while fighting Puppetmon. MegaKabuterimon had already freed WarGreymon from Puppetmon's control, blown away his bullet hammer and injured him to a fair degree; all with a single well placed bolt of lightning. Puppetmon's forced to animate his mansion as a distraction and run away, until he runs into MetalGarurumon and Matt, whom he finds he's no longer capable of manipulating. He's promptly shot by the the duo after trying to charge them while injured with only an improvised weapon.
 * Large Ham: Apocalymon. Especially in the dub.

"Kari: No! Myotismon: That's not a request!"
 * And let's not forget Etemon, who in the dub has an awesomely hammy Elvis-voice provided by Richard Epcar.
 * Last Breath Impalement: Saber Leomon does this to finish off Metal Etemon after taking a fatal blow for Mimi
 * Lightning Bruiser: Gatomon is incredibly agile and strong, which lets her take on 5 of the partner Digimon at once with little effort, despite being about ten times smaller than any of them. She's a Champion-level Digimon and the ring on her tail is an Amplifier Artifact.
 * It's worth noting that none of the digimon she struck were incapacitated by her; They all were strong enough to fight off the several Devidramon that were sent to fight the chosen children after the fact.
 * She loses this status after her Heel Face Turn.
 * Limited Wardrobe: Justified at first since they're stuck in another world. Not so justified when they temporarily return to earth for about three days and don't ever change clothes aside from pajamas (and even then Mimi is the only one shown to be in different clothes for any adequate amount of time.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: MetalGarurumon's Grace Cross Freezer attack fires every single missile it has from countless hidden stashes across his body.
 * Manipulative Bastard: DemiDevimon and Cherrymon. And Myotismon too, though unfortunately most of his manipulations had to be carried out by DemiDevimon; while he did do a decent job at first, he was too inept to make his machinations last long.
 * Meaningful Name: Sora means "sky", and Sora's partner is a bird-like Digimon. Hikari[Kari] means "light" and she has the Crest of Light.
 * Mentors: A metric ton of them. Ironically, only The Obi-Wan (Gennai) survives the series.
 * Metaphorgotten: Episode 50's dub: "The bases are loaded, two out, and we need a slam dunk."
 * A Million Is a Statistic: Our War Game.
 * Monster of the Week: Literally.
 * Mood Whiplash: The Etemon arc. Etemon, a monkey-like Digimon who acts like an Elvis Impersonator, is sandwiched between the demonic Devimon and the Complete Monster Myotismon. Yes, he was no doubt dangerous, but he wasn't nearly as terrifying as the villain before or after him. This also happens a lot during the Dark Masters arc.
 * More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: Tokomon
 * Is there a trope for being a demonic hamster?
 * More Than Mind Control: Matt, especially after talking to Cherrymon.
 * What Vademon does to Izzy.
 * Musical Pastiche: In the the Japanese version, it reused a musical piece from Sailor Moon, another Toei production; the music composer for both shows was none other than the late Takanori Arisawa. Compare the two: at 2:35 for the Sailor Moon version and click here for the Digimon version. They're almost exactly the same.
 * The dub version uses the soundtrack from Saban's Masked Rider.
 * Mysterious Waif: Kari has aspects of this in her first appearance.
 * Name's the Same: Hikari Yagami [Kari Kamiya], the Chosen Child of Light? OK, maybe not, but never confuse the two.
 * Names to Know in Anime: Kaneto Shiozawa as Devimon.
 * Narrator: For part of the English dub at least, the main cast in the role of "Previously On...".
 * Never Say "Die": Completely averted in the original. In the dub, it's inconsistant depending on the episode; in general it did a decent job at averting it, with a few glaring exceptions:
 * The most memorable instance of playing it straight was when Myotismon claimed to "banish Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon to a dungeon in the Digital World" for disobedience. Riiiight.
 * But also averted in a sense. Digimon get killed--although they do get reborn--in the English dub, and one villain even says 'die' at one point (Ironically, it's Myotismon, the one who was the source of the death edit above. "When you find the eighth child, then he must DIE!")
 * Tai said Kari would have died during the first Machinedramon episode.
 * And in the following Machinedramon episode, there's Izzy's line "Sure, just let our Digimon DIE!"
 * Izzy also let's Tai know that while the Digimon may be reborn in the Digital World when they die. Humans can't.
 * Also the dub didn't shy away from what happened to Wizardmon, or the other digimon that died to protect the digidestined in the Dark Masters arc.
 * There is also this line of T.K.'s when being told that in order to make a miracle to happen, Angemon and Angewomon must shoot arrows at Tai and Matt. "But what if you like...die or something."
 * Nice Hat: Sora gets a fair bit of ribbing for her unusual headgear, which switches between being a helmet and being just a sort of toque. Mimi's pink satellite dish, meanwhile, goes unremarked upon.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Regarding Myotismon's revival. Joe brings it up.
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Nice job bringing Gatomon to her chosen partner and giving her the motivation to evolve into the one digimon predestined to kill you, Myotismon.
 * Nobody Poops: Averted with the Digimon, in spectacular fashion. Numemon, Sukamon, and Garbagemon use their poop as their main attack.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: A vast majority of the non-main Digimon's English voices are based off of actors from the heyday of the voice actors' various childhoods, so this doubles as a Parental Bonus.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Agumon is the victim of one of these from two Gazimon when the gang visits a Koromon village and finds the real villagers.
 * All four Dark Masters do this to the group in their first appearance. Later, Piedmon dishes an even nastier beatdown to WarGreymon before reinforcements arrive.
 * No Ontological Inertia: Applied to the Digimon Taken for Granite in episode 17 of Digimon Adventure, even though the character was not even dead.
 * Not-So-Harmless Villain: Etemon, Monzaemon, sometimes DemiDevimon, and maybe Digitamamon and Datamon depending on how harmless you thought they looked anyway.
 * Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Averted in Our War Game, where the main battle is a race against the clock to keep a nuke from detonating in Tokyo Bay.
 * You Fail Nuclear Physics Forever was also averted in the same movie. After, the ICBM he launched harmlessly crashed into Tokyo Bay. In his Fanatic's Guide to Digimon Chris McFeely was puzzled why the nuke doesn't go off. Latter, a fan cleared it up, stating that nuclear bombs don't blow up because of impact.
 * SkullGreymon's Ground Zero (dubbed as Dark Shot), when he fires his missile and creates widespread devastation.
 * The Obi-Wan: Gennai. Check out that flashback!
 * "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase: "Now the adventure evolves" in the original, and "...on the next Digimon: Digital Monsters" in the dub.
 * The Operators Must Be Crazy: In one of the movies, when Tai is desperate to reach any of the other kids, but the phone lines have all been tied up by Infermon, a computer virus, he reaches a phone operator over and over who keeps telling him that the lines are busy in an increasingly frazzled tone until finally screaming at him "Did you hear me?! IT'S BUSY!!!!!"
 * After the kids first reached the Digital World, they ran into a bunch of payphones and, overjoyed, desperately tried to call their homes. Unfortunately, when they tried, all they got were a variety of non-sequiturs from the operators up to and including a weather forecast that included "a slight chance of ice cream." The operators in the Digital World must be either crazy or stoned.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Myotismon, though he also carries several stereotypical traits.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: WereGarurumon, though he doesn't really display any of the attributes commonly associated with werewolves, other than being a humanoid wolf.
 * Parental Abandonment: Averted, which is a bit unusual for a show centered around children.
 * Pilot Movie: It was also called Digimon Adventure. Oddly enough, it was released the day before the first episode aired. It was dubbed as part one of Digimon: The Movie.
 * Post Episode Trailer
 * "Previously On...": Rotated between characters in the American dub; seperate narrator elsewhere.
 * Princesses Prefer Pink: Mimi (and Palmon) wears a pink dress when she is posing as a princess for a Gekomon kingdom. She generally wears a pink hat anyways.
 * The Power of Friendship: Matt's crest was even called Friendship, so it's very specifically fuelled by this. In a more general instance, it's part of what fuels the evolution of the partner Digimon.
 * The Power of Love: Sora's crest.
 * The Power of Trust: Joe's crest of reliability/honesty. Since Joe's crest in Japanese translates more to "faith", then it counts.
 * The Promise
 * Psychological Torment Zone
 * Public Domain Soundtrack: The Adventure movies prominently feature Maurice Ravel's Bolero.
 * Rapid-Fire Comedy: The dub movie (especially the "Our War Game" segment) had loads and loads of surprisingly clever tongue-in-cheek and audio/visual gags. The dub of the main series also tended to do this.
 * Recycled Soundtrack: The Saban dub reused the score from Masked Rider.
 * Redemption Demotion: That Lightning Bruiser status that Gatomon enjoyed as a villain? Disappears rather quickly once she turns good. Then again, by that point, Champion-level opponents were increasingly rare, aside from the Bakemon during the end of the Myotismon arc (who were so weak as to serve as mass Cannon Fodder).
 * To be fair, Gatomon's attack against the other Digidestined's digimon didn't exactly incapacitate them; They still had the strength to fight off the horde of Devidramon that was sent after them in Myotismon's castle after all.
 * Reincarnation: Although Angemon sacrifices himself to defeat Devimon, since destroyed Digimon turn back into eggs, he gets reborn.
 * Reverse Mole: Wizardmon -- good guy posing as a bad guy.
 * Richard Epcar: The voice of Myotismon and Etemon in the dub
 * Road Apples
 * Save Both Worlds
 * Schmuck Banquet: An odd version, in the form of a cruise ship sailing through a desert (It Makes Sense in Context).
 * Short Anime Movie
 * Shout-Out: Myotismon is a humanoid, suave vampire with a exceedingly bizarre castle, legions of dark minions (including a Grim Reaper expy as a lieutenant) and a second, much more monstrous form he assumes after being beaten at first. Sound Familiar?
 * Our War Game has two kids fighting against a killer digimon against the clock because the said mon, which is essentially a sentient computer program, is planning to fire nukes that it got access to by hacking the military. Even the name gives a clue to a certain 80's movie.
 * Ship Tease: Tai/Sora, and to a lesser extent, TK/Kari.
 * Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: Moreso in the movie than the series (and much more so in the dub than the original, though it had its moments), it gets particularly jarring when an extremely emotional or suspense scene occurs, and one of the characters makes a joke that a fifth grader would think of.
 * Which makes sense because everyone except T.K. and Kari are in the fifth Grade.
 * Solomon Divorce: Matt and TK's family.
 * Spoiled Brat: Mimi in ep.25, less so in other episodes. She gets better though after this.
 * Spoiler Opening: Depending which station you were watching it on, the dub ending credits gave away the Ultimate level Digivolutions and the fact there was going to be another kid. Also, the champion/adult digivolutions, though all things considered only Angemon was really ever intended as much of a mystery or surprise.
 * It was worse in the original. The very episode that established the existence of the eighth child also happened to be the episode which started using the second ending credits theme, which prominently displayed the names and pictures of the eighth child, her digimon and its entire evolution line.
 * Partly justified since when Hikari was first introduced 6 episodes before the 8th child arc starts, it shows her Digivice, and expliticly states her destiny to join the chosen. There was also the fact that the Pilot Movie featuring Hikari was released before the show started, so it wasn't exactly a ruined surprise. Not so justified with Gatomon being her Digimon which could have been a surprise, but was ruined by the closing.
 * Not to mention that all of the champion forms were shown in the Japanese version three times every single episode: in the opening, in the back-from-commercials segment and in the closing credits. No form was really a surprise.
 * Spoiled Sweet: Mimi was always pretty sweet on the inside but due to growing up spoiled and sheltered, it took awhile for her to become able to show this to others.
 * The Short Guy with Glasses: Izzy, only without the glasses. Ironically, the one with the glasses is actually the tallest member of the group (Joe).
 * Shorttank: Sora.
 * Shipper on Deck: In the dub, Piedmon apparently ships TK and Kari even though they're only 8. "Looks like you two are falling for each other"
 * Story Arc: There are neatly four 13-episode arcs in the show:
 * The File Island/Digivice Arc (1-13) featuring Devimon.
 * The Server Continent/Crests Arc (14-26) featuring Etemon, his aftermath, and the rise of Myotisdemon.
 * The Real World/Eight Child Arc (27-39) featuring Myotismon's campaign in the real world.
 * The Spiral Mountain/Dark Masters Arc (40-52) featuring the Dark Masters.
 * Afterwards, there's a two-part finale with the children facing Apocalymon.
 * Alternately, the season can be divided according to which villain dominated which part, such as the Devimon arc, Etemon arc, Myotismon arc, Dark Masters arc and Apocalymon arc, all [aside from last] in 13 parts.
 * Strapped to An Operating Table: Sora when she's a captive of Datamon. Piyomon is bolted to a wall in a Crucified Hero Shot.
 * Super Empowering: Humans are this to their partner Digimon, which is the entire point of the partnership. Kari occasionally becomes a more generalized version of this, occasionally exuding sufficiently powerful light to strengthen weakened Digimon and allow the team's Digimon to evolve to their strongest forms at the time. Of course, she only uses it in one episode.
 * Super Powered Mook: Snimon, an Champion digimon, is able to bring down Garudamon, an Ultimate, with a single swipe. To elaborate, Garudamon had already defeated Mammothmon and held off Myotismon himself when he was without the benefit of his fog barrier, making her one of the most competent partner Digimon at the Ultimate level. He also shrugs off blows from Were Garurumon with little ill effect and is able to hold a much larger and further evolved Zudomon for a considerable period of time.
 * Take My Hand: TK saves Sora from falling into a huge hole by grabbing her arm.
 * Taken for Granite: Kokatorimon does this to five of the ally Digimon.
 * Taking You with Me:
 * Also, Datamon tries this with Etemon.
 * Team Dad: Jou. His Establishing Character Moments revolve around him protecting or taking care of the other members of the group, or otherwise taking on some greater responsibility.
 * Team Mom: Sora
 * Team Spirit
 * Technology Marches On: The movie made a plot point out of Infermon taking over the phone system, forcing Izzy to get a wireless satellite uplink. This doesn't mean as much now that wired connections and phone modems have become obsolete.
 * That Wasn't a Request: In the English dub, Myotismon tells Kari to hand over her newly acquired Applied Phlebotinum:


 * The Call Knows Where You Live: Tai didn't exactly go out of his way to get back to the digital world after beating Etemon at first.
 * Theme Music Power-Up: The Japanese version plays this in reverse--if there's a powerup going on and "Brave Heart" is not playing, something is about to go wrong. The Transformation Sequence becomes almost eerie without the music, especially when Our War Game did it.
 * Theme Naming: Brothers Yamato and Takeru[Matt and TK] are, in combination, a reference to Yamato Takeru, a legendary Japanese prince.
 * The Tomboy and Girly Girl duo's names might be a reference to "Soramimi."
 * Theme Tune Cameo: The song Mimi sung to wake ShogunGekomon in the original was the first ending theme, "I Wish". Mimi was also voiced by Ai Maeda, the song's artist, so they just had to use the prerecorded audio until he woke up.
 * The Team Normal: WereGarurumon is this compared to the other Ultimate level digimon allied to the Digi Destined. While the other Chosen's digimon have impressive displays of firepower, large size and/or magical powers to fall back on, WereGarurumon prefers to use mundane martial prowess. He starts to fall behind the rest in the real world after having been bested by Myotismon, and failing to inflict any real harm on Snimon and Tuskmon. However, his evolution to MetalGarurumon helps him catch up power wise.
 * Thirteen Episode Anime: Since the anime series is a spin off of the Digimon Adventure movie (The first part of the Digimon: The Movie was shown in North America), but the series did well to give it the rest of the 54 total episodes. It shows, considering how self-contained the File Island arc was.
 * This Is Iron Drill Spin
 * Throwing Your Hammer Always Works: Zudomon to MetalEtemon with a hammer.
 * Toilet Humor: Everywhere in the original, and cutting back on it was one of the things the dub really improved, if not carried out the best way. Can't be helped when there's golden poop Digimon, can it? Also, poor Koromon justified his level's English name "In-Training" at least twice.
 * Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Justified in the case of Myotismon's invasion, since he was aware that that's where the eighth child was likely to be.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Sora and Mimi.
 * Totally Radical: Numerous utterances of "Dude" and the like are sprinkled throughout the dub; understandable given when it was dubbed. In the fifth episode, for example, Greymon tells Tai that he's okay after being slammed into a canyon wall with "I'm stylin', dude!"
 * Train Station Goodbye: The season finale. Though, it's more of a train crossing goodbye.
 * Trapped in Another World
 * Trash the Set: By the end of the Myotismon arc a good portion of Tokyo is in ruins, especially the iconic Fuji TV station which broadcast the series in Japan.
 * Tree Buchet: Episode 17 sports a particularly surreal example featuring a cruise liner and a giant cactus.
 * Troll: Arguably Diaborumon in the original. He didn't seem to have any real motive beyond feeding himself, and seems to have just been doing it all for shits and giggles; it doesn't help that the only vocalisation he makes in the entire film is a high-pitched giggle. The dub instead opts to give him something of a Freudian Excuse.
 * TV Genius: Izzy got this in the dub; in the original, it was more along the lines of him being merely very good at solving puzzles and handling computers.
 * Upgrade Artifact: The childrens' Crests, which allow their Digimon to evolve to the Ultimate level.
 * Villain Forgot to Level Grind: All four Dark Masters show that each one is extremely dangerous in their first appearance, with Piedmon alone taking out the combined forces of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, both also of the Mega level. But later on, the Digidestined had gotten stronger and more experienced through fighting their forces and while the Dark Masters are still a huge threat, they're not as big a one that they used to be and three of them are dispatched by WarGreymon or MetalGarurumon, both now very experienced. This is particularly clear with Piedmon, who they couldn't even touch in their first fight. Fast forward to when they meet him again, and most of the partner Digimon - including those only able to evolve as far as Ultimate - are able to put up a good fight with Piedmon, and he had to resort to turning them into keychains to avoid losing. Once they bypass that trick, he's gone.
 * Another notable example is Shellmon. When he is first faced it takes Greymon to eventually beat him, but during the Dark Masters arc when he's faced again the Digimon soundly defeat him without evolving.
 * "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Most first appearances of the new Big Bad serve for this, normally because they're a stage above the heroes at the time. Special mention goes to Enter The Dark Masters, which is pretty much an entire episode devoted to the Dark Masters beating the stuffing out of the Digidestined.
 * Wendee Lee: TK and additional voices in the dub.
 * What Could Have Been: Word of God states that Kari originally wasn't supposed to be a Digi Destined, and was only supposed to be a Mysterious Waif side character. Come the middle of the series, when the staff wanted to add a new character to the seven, they decided to expand Kari's character by tossing her onto the team. This kind of explains her Canon Sue tendencies, if you think about it.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Tai in Episode 16. Force feeding Agumon to the point of almost fainting just to was definitely a low point for Tai.
 * White Gloves: Five of the chosen wear gloves, but only Tai's are white.
 * World Gone Mad: The Digital World was a screwed up place before it became Spiral Mountain.
 * World of Cardboard Speech: A few of them, but the most notable is at the finale.
 * Would Hurt a Child: Most evil Digimon have no qualms about hurting the heroes, despite them being children. However, some get a LOT more kicks out of this than others...
 * Year Inside, Hour Outside:, a day in the digital world is equal to a minute in the real world.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Myotismon. Very frequently.
 * Machinedramon and especially Puppetmon are also guilty, the latter often doing it for entirely selfish reasons and especially where it's downright inconvenient for him.
 * MetalSeadramon drops Scorpiomon from a great height for letting the kids escape right under his nose.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: An instance of this involving an electrified gate causes Tai to suffer from a Heroic BSOD over the possibility of dying, with horrible timing.
 * You Shall Not Pass: Piximon tries to hold back the Dark Masters to let the kids escape.
 * After Piedmon turns WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon into keychains, the fight against him become one long series of ineffectual YouShallNotPasses, with everyone trying to hold him off to let TK and Kari escape.
 * Biyomon gets a far more successful one against Meramon in the fourth episode to let the Yokomon and her friends get to safety. While she doesn't fare too well, her determination results in her successfully evolving to Birdramon for the first time to defeat him.