Anime / Digimon Adventure

Show me your Brave Heart.

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

Digimon Adventure (known as Season 1 of Digimon: Digital Monsters in English) is the first ever anime series in the Digimon franchise, which started off as an Alternate Universe to the first two Digimon manga, C'mon Digimon and Digimon V-Tamer 01. The story began with an animated movie that was released on March 6, 1999, then continued with a television show of the same name (the more well-known entry).

Seven ordinary kids are caught up in a strange snowstorm while attending summer camp and get sucked through a portal into the Digital World, a fantasy world populated by sentient monsters called Digimon. Armed with the mysterious "Digivices" and seven Digimon who are sworn to protect them, the kids try to survive in this new and exotic world until they can find a way home.

Over time, the kids slowly come to understand their role as the "Digidestined" (Chosen Children), fighting not only a number of hostile Digimon but their own fears, insecurities and character flaws. However, when the conflicts in the Digital World spill over into the Human World, the stakes are raised and the kids must decide what they are willing to sacrifice if they want to Save Both Worlds.

The English dub had reruns on Nicktoons, referred to by the network and Saban Brands as Digimon Adventures.^note potentially a blanket term for both Adventure and Adventure 02, as the Nicktoons site lists information for Adventure but uses images of the kids in outfits used in 02. Saban promoted Digimon Adventures through the official Digimon Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts.

The success of Digimon Adventure led to several sequels and adaptations:

Sequels

• Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! (2000): A Short Film directed by Mamoru Hosoda that takes place on the spring break after Digimon Adventure. The film was released as second part of Digimon: The Movie in North America with several edits and a rewritten story.
• Digimon Adventure 02 (2000): A direct television sequel featuring a new cast, with the original characters being Demoted to Extra.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Supreme Evolution!! The Gold Digimentals (2000): A two-part film. The film was released as third part of Digimon: The Movie in North America with several edits and a rewritten story.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: Revenge of Diaboromon (2001): A Short Film that follows plotlines introduced in Our War Game!
• Digimon Adventure tri. (2015-2018): A six-part film series released for Digimon Adventure's 15th anniversary.
• Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (2020): A film released for Digimon Adventure's 20th anniversary and a finale for the Adventure cast.
• Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning (2023): A sequel film set after 2 years after Last Evolution Kizuna, focusing on the Adventure 02 cast.

Adaptations and Spin-offs

• Digimon Adventure: A series of Japan-only novels written by the series' scriptwriters.
• Digimon Adventure (2013): A PlayStation Portable video game adaptation of the series, developed by Yuji Naka's studio, Prope,^note This is not the first time Yuji Naka has been involved in the development of a licensed game; he got his start developing the Sega Master System adaptation of Fist of the North Star, which became Black Belt upon its localization. and features the events from every episode, all eight Chosen Children as playable characters, Our War Game as an additional chapter, as well as an unlockable bonus chapter featuring the main characters of the other Digimon anime series.^note Guest stars Daisuke Motomiya (Digimon Adventure 02), Takato Matsuda (Digimon Tamers), Takuya Kanbara (Digimon Frontier), Masaru Daimon (Digimon Data Squad), Taiki Kudou (Digimon Fusion, and Tagiru Akashi (Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time) appeared, alongside their partners, and they are all playable party members.
• Digimon Adventure: (2020): A Continuity Reboot of the original 1999 television series.

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

---

Digimon Adventure provides examples of:

Tropes # - B

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: 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.
• 20 Minutes into the Future: The day the DigiDestined first end up in the Digital World is August 1st, 1999. The episode was aired in Japan on March 7th that same year. However, it ends up subverted as the episode where the date is revealed, "Home Away from Home", aired on that exact date, effectively catching the audience up with the characters in real time.
• Abandoned Hospital: In the Dark Masters arc, Tai and Izzy find one while searching for medicine for Kari.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Numemon and Sukamon are both attracted to Mimi and ask her out on dates.
• Abridged Series:
  • From the makers of Geass Twist and Bleachers, there's an entertaining one here.
  • There's one from LittleKuriboh, Dark Side Incorporated and MasakoX here, though it sort of turned into an April fool's day joke.
  • An interesting variation is the Tokyopop translations of the manga adaptation. The manga adaptation compressed the story considerably, skipping over and rushing minor and sometimes not-so-minor events. With added humor by the English adapter, the manga gave the effect of an Abridged series.
  • From the makers of Digimon Adventure tri. Abridged comes an abridged version of this.
• Actor Allusion: Sora hilariously Lampshades herself in a No Fourth Wall session in one of the drama CDs, where she complains about sounding like an "old lady." Though 34 (the age of Yuko Mizutani when she voiced Sora) doesn't seem to be that old, it certainly qualifies as Dawson Casting. In addition to this, another drama track consists of a radio show recording DJ'd by Sora, which alludes to how Yuko Mizutani ran a radio show years back.
• Adults Are Useless: Subverted. The children are generally the only ones who can save the world, but the parents are actually relatively important when the fight moves to the real world. They even trade a few blows with enemy Digimon when Myotismon holds them captive. Hiroaki Ishida gets bonus points for being more heavily involved in the plot for a few episodes.
• Aesoptinum: The Digivices and Crests activate whenever their respective holders learns a lesson corresponding to the latter.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
  • Done by the American English dub "Digimon, Digital Monsters, Digimon are the champions!"
  • The Italian dub chose to create an original song rather than use the Japanese theme.
  • South Korea also chose to create an original song for the dubbing of the series proper. However, their dub of the movie "Children's War Game" averted this by using a translation of the Japanese theme.
• 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:
  • In Episode 52, the DigiDestined and their Digimon (barring T.K., Kari, and Mimi) are turned into keychains from Piedmon. From the keychains' perspective, they see, feel and hear nothing.
  • This gets turned back at him when he is thrown into HolyAngemon's Heaven's Gate, a portal to subspace from which he can never escape. And Digimon are pretty much immortal, barring being killed outright. Not to say Piedmon didn't deserve it.
• 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.
• Anyone Can Die:
  • During the Dark Masters arc, most of the allies the Chosen Children had made throughout the series are killed on screen. Andromon and Elecmon are one of the few survivors.
  • Patamon dies in the same episode he evolves for the first time, though he is resurrected shortly after.
• 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.
• Art Shift: The real world is drawn in a different art style to the Digital World.
• Artifact of Hope: The Tags and Crests are a set of pendants made as companion pieces for the Digidestined's digivices to allow their corresponding digimon to digivolve into their Ultimate forms (or in Agumon and Gabumon's case, warp-digivolve to Mega-level). Each crest is associated with their corresponding destined's best quality (Courage, Friendship, Love, Sincerity, Knowledge, Reliability, Hope and Light), drawing power when they display these qualities.
• 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.
• Balloon Belly: It happens to Tai and Agumon whenever they gorge themselves, which is fairly often.
• Barely-Changed Dub Name: The English dub keeps the characters' names intact, however they're Only Known by Their Nickname. So Hikari is called "Kari", Taichi is "Tai", Yamato is "Matt", Takeru is "T.K.", and Koushiro is "Izzy" (his surname being "Izumi").
• Bathtub Scene: Mimi is carried off by a group of Koromon and the group runs after her. Tai finds her taking a bath and gets things thrown at his face for his trouble.
• Belly Mouth: VenomMyotismon develops a second face in his lower abdomen, and this proves to be his weak spot.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Heavily implied several times in the show, and even confirmed in the novelization, that all the villains are part of one same evil organization, with Devimon, Etemon and Vamdemon being the Co-Dragons to the Dark Masters, who themselves are Co-Dragons to Apocalymon.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: Near the end of the Vamdemon/Myotismon arc, the studio of Fuji TV, which broadcasts the series in Japan, gets trashed. In the fight against VenomVamdemon/VenomMyotismon, the globe in its construction even gets weaponized as Wargreymon kicks it against the evil Digimon's crotch like a soccer ball.
• 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, Our War Game and the next show fix this.
• Black Bug Room: Matt, and a little later, Sora, find themselves in one when they succumb to their respective despair.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • Mimi stole, among other things, an off-brand Swiss Army knife from her father.
  • Koushiro carries a Pineapple laptop.
• Bookends: The kids spend their last day in the digital world in the place where they spent their first night.
• Born from Plants: When Togemon, a giant catus, digivolves to Lilymon, a plant fairy, the Transformation Sequence shows a rose blooming and releasing Lilymon.
• Brain Monster: Vademon has a huge exposed brain, seeing that he's an alien Digimon.
• 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 sudden case of the evils with feeling like your entire body is on fire (which it is), it turns him Ax-Crazy.
• Brutal Brawl: The battle between Angewomon and LadyDevimon devolves into this, with the two rivals exchanging punches, kicks, and slaps. It culminates with LadyDevimon knocking Angewomon out of the sky with a brutal Round House Kick
• But Not Too Foreign: The German dub renames the boroughs of Tokyo in Adventure and 02, into generic German borough names such as "West End"(Odaiba) "City" (Stadtmitte)=(shinjuku) and Vorstadt (suburbs),"Unterstadt" etc.
• Butt-Monkey: Mostly Joe, although Izzy, Mimi, and T.K. have their moments.

Tropes C - D

• 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.
• Cactus Cushion: Palmon's Champion form is Togemon, a giant walking cactus with boxing gloves. Her first attack demonstrated in the anime is Needle Spray, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Cat Fight: Both the original series at its sequel features famous cat fights between Angewomon and LadyDevimon. Although both are among the most powerful Ultimate Digimon in the series whose signature moves are ranged attacks that blasts enemies with their respective holy and dark powers, their fights take the form of a slapping, hair-pulling cat fights. Ordinary type advantages also seem suspended for these fights, with LadyDevimon narrowly but consistently overpowering Angewomon, forcing Angewomon's allies to save her. The boys are infatuated with the fight, while Hikari cheers on Angewomon like a soccer mom.
  Angewomon: (slapping LadyDevimon) "It's on, bitch!"
  LadyDevimon: (slapping Angewomon back) "What's wrong with you?"
• Calling Your Attacks: Every Digimon does this, in Gratuitous English even. Becomes ridiculous when they somehow manage to pronounce the attacks' names and spit out a projectile at the same time.
• Campfire Character Exploration: Played with. Because they're in such a large group, characters tend to wander away from the campfire to get their character development — Matt to play his harmonica, Joe to climb a mountain, etc.
• Capture and Replicate: Datamon captures Sora and soon afterwards makes a copy of her to use against Etemon thinking Biyomon will fight for him.
• Car Fu: Attempted by Mimi's father against a DarkTyrannomon... in a golf cart. It doesn't work.
• Cassandra Truth: DemiDevimon's influence causes this with T.K. and Tokomon, and later, Joe and Matt.
• Central Theme: Each crest is governed by these. The most obscure are Knowledge (wisdom, curiosity, knowledge, critical thinking, awareness of and engagement in immediate surroundings, using the aforementioned to help others) and Light (the advancement of all that is good and right).
• Chariot Pulled by Cats:
  • Etemon, the Big Bad of the second arc, goes around in a trailer pulled by a styracosaur-like Monochromon.
  • Myotismon, the third arc's Big Bad, rides in a carriage pulled by a Devidramon, a demonic dragon.
• 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.
• Clip Its Wings: Angewomon gets impaled on the wall by her wings, courtesy of Piedmon. Puppetization followed soon after.
• Cold Open:
  • The original version of the finale holds the title card until after Apocalymon's death.
  • The dub's last two episodes premiered in America as a pair; Fox Kids bridged them by skipping the intro to the finale. VenomMyotismon's episodes got the same treatment, so "The Battle for Earth" also has a cold open.
• Colour-Coded Characters: All the Digidestined have colors that correspond to them, based on their Crests.
• Cool Big Sis: Patamon thinks of Biyomon like this, asking himself "What would Biyomon do?" when he and T.K. are stranded. Her solution, of course, wouldn't have done Patamon any good at the time.
• Crapsaccharine World: Toy Town under Black Gear Monzaemon, and Machinedramon's domain.
• Cue the Sun: After defeating Piedmon, the sun shines over his bleak domain... for about a minute. Then Apocalymon shows up, and the skies turn grey again.
• 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.
  • The first episode of the Dark Masters arc has the Digidestined's Digimons getting utterly curb-stomped by the Dark Masters themselves. It takes two heroic sacrifices from two of their allies in the past that they managed to even escape with their lives.
  • Pretty much every battle, really. Just about every episode has the protagonists' Digimon hopelessly outmatched against the Monster of the Week until they Digivolve fully, at which point they effortlessly obliterate the bad guys.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Towards the end, Gennai makes a point about how Virus-attribute Digimon aren't necessarily evil. It's seen most prominently in the Gekomon and Otamamon and later Ogremon.
• 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: T.K. witnesses Angemon's death, but Angemon later comes back to life.
• Demonic Vampires: Myotismon is a vampire-like Digimon whose Mega form is a giant red and black winged demon. Fittingly, his Japanese name, Vamdemon, is a combination of the words vampire and demon.
• Deus ex Machina: The Digivices and Crests. 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, the digivices 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 Crests 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.
  • Mimi's Crest glowing breaks Demidevimon's hypnotism attack.
  • 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.
• 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.
• Didn't Want an Adventure: A good chunk of both Mimi and Joe's complaints are about being stuck with this responsibility.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: 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.
• 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.
• Disaster Democracy: Taichi is voted leader at Vamdemon's castle and slowly grows into this role.
• Disco Sucks: In the English dub, when Myotismon is chewing out DemiDevimon for screwing up yet again, the minion replies "Everybody makes mistakes! Remember disco?"
• Distress Ball: WarGreymon participates in every fight with the Dark Masters. He spends portions of some fights firmly clenched between teeth, manipulated by an opponent, paralyzed by hunger or transmogrified into a key-chain. His allies have to rush to his rescue due to his rushing into fights, sometimes with a tragic outcome.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Dark Caves don't really connect to much else in the plot or enable the characters trapped in them to connect with many others (particularly in Sora's case, as with Matt, there was at least a clearer cause and effect, and Gabumon was there to keep him company and talk him through things), but they work very well as a general metaphor for depression, which often doesn't, have a clear cause and effect. Not to mention that apart from being dark, the caves are scary, lonely places which each seem to not have an exit at one point.
• A Dog Named "Perro": Gatomon in the English dub is an example of this, as Gato means cat in Spanish. Likewise many other Digimon, including Kabuterimon (kabuto is beetle in Japanese), Angemon (angel), Tyrannomon (Tyrannosaurus rex), Andromon (android), and Leomon (leo being lion in Latin). The mon part in all Digimon names just means monster.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Arguably applies to Patamon in particular; Angemon and MagnaAngemon are each so powerful that they basically turned the tide single-handedly against the major villains of Devimon and Piedmon, so Angemon's first victory reduced him to Tokomon and Angemon kept getting knocked out during later fights so that he wouldn't be able to reach that stage again and turn the tables too soon.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Devimon and his Distaff Counterpart LadyDevimon dress in a latex black costume adorned with belts and chains. The latter is a more obvious example than the former, as it's also torn in strategic places.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Many ally Digimon in the Dark Masters arc, sacrificing themselves to give the children a chance.
• Dub Name Change: Many. Some notable ones:
  • Chosen Children -> DigiDestined
  • The Spanish Latin American dub keeps the term Chosen Children intact.
  • Evolve -> Digivolve (Enforced Trope to avoid confusion with Pokémon)
  • The names of the evolution steps: Baby I, Baby II, Child, Adult, Perfect, Ultimate > Baby, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, Mega.
  • Piyomon -> Biyomon
  • Plotmon -> Salamon
  • Tailmon -> Gatomon
  • Vamdemon -> Myotismon (and by extension, VenomVamdemon and BelialVamdemon-> VenomMyotismon and MaloMyotismon)
  • AtlurKabuterimon -> MegaKabuterimon
  • Pinocchimon -> Puppetmon
  • Mugendramon -> Machinedramon
  • Death Meramon -> Skull Meramon
  • HolyAngemon -> MagnaAngemon
  • Piemon. In the dub he's spelled "Piedmon" Pied is Old English for 'of Two Colours', like the black and white split of Piedmon's face. However the dub change is most likely a reference to The Pied Piper of Hamelin,
  • From the Movie we have.
    • Diablomon -> Diaboromon
    • Omegamon -> Omnimon
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole:
  • Izzy knowing what a Digivice is before Centarumon telling him about it. 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.
  • Sora explains what each crest symbolizes to the Digidestined after overhearing DemiDevimon. Tai acts surprised to hear he has the Crest of Courage, despite referring to that crest as such multiple times in many episodes. It's clear the writers intended this to be a big reveal but forgot they'd already mentioned the names of the crests before.
  • The Digimon Adventure pilot movie was released in Japan before the first episode of the series was ever broadcast, but that wasn't the case with the English version, so English-speaking audiences didn't have the same timely access to information provided by the movie, such as when the kids got their first look at Digimon or the fact that Tai has a little sister.
  • That one strange time when Tai briefly goes back to the real world and gets a message from Izzy back in the Digital World. A later episode repeats this same scene from Izzy's perspective — but the English dub made no effort to keep Izzy's dialogue consistent, meaning it plays out like a completely different scene. There's also some confusion as to who called who, as the dub makes it seem that Izzy's laptop called Tai on its own, somehow.
• Dub Pronunciation Change: In the original Japanese dub, Angemon's name is pronounced "ain-jeh-mon", but in the English dub, his name either has the original pronunciation or is said like "ahn-jeh-mon" depending on the episode. And in the German dub, his name is pronounced "ahn-geh-mon".
• Dub Text: Matt and T.K. being half brothers. Hmm, no wonder the parents divorced and their mom kept T.K.. The dub later abandoned this and reverted them to being proper brothers.
  • In the Latin-American Spanish dub, they refer to each other as brothers but their parents are divorced, and the mother keeps T.K., but calling your half brother 'brother' in Spanish is a sign of fraternity.
• Dull Surprise: The Finnish dub, during the first half of the series. Everybody sounds terrible. So terrible in fact, that parents filed complaints to the channel that aired it. It was the final nail on the company's coffin, and it shut down soon afterwards. Observe. Fortunately, it got a proper dub later down the line. The opening demonstrates the change dramatically. Compare with the previous one.
• Dung Fu: The original had Numemon tossing its own feces as an attack, but the creators changed it to "sludge" in the English dub.

Tropes E - F

• 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 rag-doll, 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. They each have a bond with one of the Digidestined, and their power to Digivolve comes from sharing their partners' emotional energy.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • We're first introduced to the main characters at summer camp and their reactions to the sudden snow sets up their personalities - Tai excitedly runs out first and wanting a tobagan race, T.K. happily running out to build a snowman, Matt urging his little brother to be careful, Sora lamenting that she didn't bring a jacket, Joe worrying about what ailment he'll pick up, Mimi cheerily mentioning that she should have brought her pink furry socks and Izzy staying inside with his computer.
  • Etemon is introduced as a Laughably Evil yet Not-So-Harmless Villain. He is revealed as an adult-size monkey puppet with a very goofy popstar personality and it's hard to take him seriously. Then later in the same episode, he is able to De-Power the Chosen Children's Digimon Partners with The Power of Rock and destroys a village, and he does both things while being several kilometres away from them. And at the end of the episode, it is shown that his network cables are spread over the entire Server Continent, showing that he has much more power and control over the continent than you would have imagined.
• Everybody Cries: During the final part of the final episode, we see the Digi-destined and their Digimon cry, one scene at a time, as they both say farewell and the children return to the real world.
• 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 2000?!
• Evil Brit: The 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 Tim Curry impression.
• Evil Versus Evil: MetalEtemon vs. Puppetmon in the Dark Masters Arc, notable in that it's among the few times two Big Bads fought each other.
• 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.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Thanks to Day Inside, Minute Outside, even though the Digi-Destined feel like they've been adventuring for months, the whole series actually only takes place over a few days in real time.
• Execution by Exposure: In "The Crest of Sincerity", Cockatorimon captures most of the Digidestined and places them on netting under the harsh desert sun.
• Eye Catch: Features scenes of the Digimon appearing and digivolving which make it mildly spoileriffic for the first arc.
• Face, Nod, Action: After seeing Myotismon negate MetalGreymon's attack, then four more at once, T.K. and Patamon jointly agree to enter the battle (and have Patamon digivolve to Angemon for only the third time).
  • A couple of the boys do this when they decide Piximon's home dimension is worth entering.
• 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. Given that she's 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 is just tugging on Kari's hair.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: In the dub, Pinocchimon/Puppetmon's gun is removed. This goes so far that when he reaches for bullets to reload, the shot cuts off and he says (from offscreen) that he's itching his legs.
• Field Power Effect: Gomamon's "Marching Fishes" attack can't do anything if he's not near water, but when he's in or near it, it can help him to transport his friends.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In episode 21, immediately after Tai enters his home, he takes his shoes off. Next to them are two larger pairs, and a smaller pair of pink sandals. It's only a few minutes later we're introduced to Kari.
• Flashback: Brief flashbacks are used to show events that help explain the kids' behavior in the present. Episode 45 has a longer one that lasts a few scenes and kids light on how they and their Digimon came to be a team.
• The Final Temptation: This hits Tai pretty hard when he and Koromon birefly go to Tokyo. The poor kid first goes all Schrödinger's Butterfly and then remembers the comforts of home, not to mention he's actually a kid who has a kid's life ahead of him and his family's company. The icing in the cake is Kari holding his hand when he gets the chance of going back.
• Food Porn: The Digidestined are constantly discussing food. They either mention times when they wish they could have something and bring up how amazing it would be. Or if they have a chance to feast on food you can expect to hear how satisfying the experience is.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the episode "Evil Shows His Face" the kids walk into a mansion and T.K. comments on the beauty of an angel painting. Patamon asks what an angel is, which T.K. 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. There are also 8 beds in the mansion, foreshadowing the 8th child long before she was even hinted at.
  • At the end of Episode 1, the narrator in the Japanese version says: "it was the beginning of the longest, and shortest, summer vacation they had ever had", foreshadowing the fact that time flows differently in the Digimon world.
  • In Episode 2, "Garurumon", when they encounter the trolley car Tai suggests that it might be their way home.
  • Once the Digital World appears in the sky, there are reaction shots from New York City, Paris, and Moscow. Each city is featured in an episode of the Digimon World Tour.
  • Each of the original seven Digidestined are seen displaying their respective crest qualities when their partner digimon first take on their champion forms. Almost all of their crests represent a trait that, in battle, lend themselves to courage in some form, so it's easy to miss if you're not looking for it, but going down the list...
    • Tai went right up to Shellmon and jabbed at his foot with an improvised javelin, proving how much Courage he had as early as just the second episode of the show.
    • Matt dove into the lake from shore to get to the other kids on the island, showing the early developments of his Friendship towards them (mostly for T.K.'s sake, but still).
    • Sora herded the many Yokomon down into the old ship, making sure they were all safe before following. This showed her care and Love for the Digimon of which her own Biyomon originally was.
    • Izzy hacked into Tentomon's digital DNA and even used this to jumpstart his first Digivolution to Kabuterimon, proving how much Knowledge of the Digimon's world the boy gained in a relatively short amount of time.
    • Mimi got tired of hiding her bad mood and showed more of how Sincere she could truly be with her feelings.
    • Joe leaped right onto Unimon to try and save the younger kids by pulling out the black gear manually. This was all a part of his desire to be a more trustworthy and Reliable member of the team.
    • T.K. was a kid who didn't really have the sense to run when he should've, but may have been holding out Hope and it worked in his favor that one time.
  • In the end of episode 17 a cactus saves the team by shielding them from Kokatorimon's ship. After he blew up with it, the the top of the cactus starts glowing. When the glow fades, the cactus grows a beautiful pink lily. Inside it, lies the Crest of Sincerity. This foreshadows that Palmon's ultimate Digivolution may not be in that bad taste.
• Friendlessness Insult: T.K. uses this as a tactic against Puppetmon to escape his castle, claiming he is bored because he hasn't seen any friends of his Puppetmon's around, which likely means the Dark Master doesn't have any.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Instances of tricking a Digimon to drink alcoholic beverages by changing it to Soda Pop in the English dub.
• 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.

Tropes G - H

• Gag Dub:
  • The Saban dub is this, 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", and it generally took itself more seriously as the show went on. 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.
  • Played straight with the dub of the first OVA: even aside from it being accompanied with OVAs for later seasons, already causing info overlap ("Why is the show about kids that were in high school at the end of the movie?"), the somber, quiet tone inspired by the original Godzilla movies is completely removed, making it feel more like an extended battle for the actual series, complete with Digimon calling their attacks.
• Game-Breaker: In-universe. That's basically what happens whenever someone with advanced tech knowledge enters the digital world. Izzy isn't able to enter full god mode on the Digiworld, but this allows him to use some shortcuts like access some hidden information about towns, analyze Digimon and use a loophole to make his digimon evolve.
• 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.
• Gravity Screw: Spiral Mountain. It's not commented upon, but the kids are clearly walking along the side the whole way up, without ever noticing it. As the Dark Masters die, the entire mountain manages to hold itself up despite large chunks disappearing.
• Groin Attack: Believe it or not, one of the Big Bads is killed by one of these. To be more fair to Vamdemon, the attack was at a imp creature representing his real form that happened to be located in his crotch.
• Guilt-Induced Nightmare: In "Princess Karaoke", Mimi has become stuck-up as a result of all the praise she's been given for her Beautiful Singing Voice, alienating her friends as a result. She has a nightmare that she's being stalked by Devimon and Etemon and her friends abandon her for her actions. Even Palmon refuses to help her. Sora (in her Dream Within a Dream) lampshades this, saying that her dream was trying to teach her the error of her ways. When Mimi wakes up for real, she realizes how much of a spoiled brat she's become.
• Handing Over the Crap Sack: In a metaphorical sense, Apocalymon. He states that he was created from the discarded data of digimon who couldn't digivolve and simply vanished. He even states this trope in his own words.
  Apocalymon: "Why do you get to laugh while I'm forced to cry? Why do you get to taste the best life has to offer while all I do is choke on its leftovers!? Answer me this: why do you all get the pizza, while I get the crust?!!"
  Mimi: Oooh, I can't take all the metaphors!!!"
• 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 learns that he is not invincible, simply because he exists in that world as a digital proxy of himself. 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 Apocalymon. He digitizes the children and their Digimon after destroying their crests. Their combined Heroic Resolve allows them to use the traits the crests represent without needing the physical representation.
• Heroic Sacrifice: A LOT of Digimon during the Dark Masters arc end up performing these for the children.
  • In Digimon: The Movie, the Greymon Tai and Kari met sacrifices himself to destroy Parrotmon and save them
• Hot Springs Episode: In episode 8. It turns out to be an illusion of Devimon's creation.

Tropes I - L

• I Choose to Stay: Subverted. Once the adventure is over, the kids don't want to go. However, they are ultimately forced to, because either they return to their homes or the digital world will see them as an anomaly and delete them.
• Idiot Hero: Tai. He soon learns to not be so brash and hard-headed.
• Immortality Field: This continuity established that Digimon that died in the DigiWorld would eventually resurrect in the "Village of Beginnings" as Digi-Eggs. If a Digimon dies in the real world, however, they stay dead, like Gotsumon, Pumpkinmon, and Wizardmon.
  • Somehow, this is apparently inverted for Myotismon, who died in the real world and came back. Then died again, and came back again in the next series. In fact, he's only Killed Off for Real in the Digital World.
  • By the time of Digimon Adventure tri., Leomon had returned after dying in the first series, only for him to die in the real world. However, the Reboot of the DigiWorld allowed permanently deceased Digimon to be reborn.
• Indignant Slap: During a flashback in "My Sister's Keeper", a younger Tai brings Kari (who has a cold) to the park to play soccer with him. She ends being hospitalized when this cold turns out to be pneumonia, and his mother slaps him across the face for being so reckless.^note The English dub gets rid of the slapping scene, but still implies she's done it because there's still a big red hand mark on his cheek.
• 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 overridden by how frequently he decides to Kick the Dog for the most pathetic of reasons.
• Just Eat Him: MetalSeadramon attempts to do this to WarGreymon. He would have succeeded, had it not been for Whamon.
• 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. And prior to all that, he enslaves and torments the puppy-like Salamon.
  • 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'.
• Killed Off for Real: Since when Digimon die their data merely gets reconfigured and they start life over again, they technically can't really die. However this only applies to when they're in the Digital World, so any Digimon who dies in the Real World, most notably Gostumon, Pumpkinmon, and Wizardmon, stay dead.
  • Though apparently this rule doesn't apply to Myotismon, who dies in the real world and comes back. Then dies again, and comes back again in the next series. In fact, he's only killed off for good in the Digital World.
• 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 taken out by the the duo after furiously charging at them while injured with only the wooden cross on his back as an improvised weapon, better known as the Puppet Pummel/Flying Cross Cutter which is only effective when thrown like a boomerang.
• Large Ham: Apocalymon. Especially in the dub.
  I AM THE ULTIMATE EVIL, COMPLETE WITH HOT AND COLD RUNNING WATER.
  • And let's not forget Etemon, who in the dub has an awesomely hammy Elvis-voice provided by Richard Epcar. The German voice actor for Etemon, Tom Deininger, is yelling almost every single line.
• Last Breath Bullet: Saber Leomon does this to finish off Metal Etemon after taking a fatal blow for Mimi.
• Light/Fire Juxtaposition: Downplayed in this continuity. Those related to the Crest of Courage are leaders who tend to have fire-powered Digimon partners (Tai, Davis/Daisuke), while the Crest of Light and Digimon with light-related powers are separate. Most notably, Courage-wielder Tai and Light-wielder Kari/Hikari are siblings, and their crest designs look remarkably similar.
• 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.
• Losing the Team Spirit: Tai's disappearance after the defeat of Etemon has this effect on the Chosen Children. The heroes eventually go their separate ways and fail to accomplish anything significant for almost three months.

Tropes M - O

• MacGuffin Super-Person: Hikari / Kari. Hunted by Myotismon because she's the eighth digidestined and the holder of the Crest of Light. Heck, one of her image songs is even called "Holy Light."
• 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.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: While the Digimon are more akin to Energy Beings, being made up of data, this trope is briefly discussed in the second episode, when Izzy asks why they're called "Digital Monsters".
  Izzy: I only ask because your composition isn't at all machine-like.
  Tentomon: Oh, really? *charges Super Shocker*
• Mentors: A metric ton of them. Ironically, only 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. Around a million Diaborumon, and the last one standing after Omnimon demolished them all just happens to be the actual target.
• Missed Him by That Much: As the kids are eating in a restaurant, Joe and Izzy are outside and rush towards it, just narrowly avoiding getting seen by SkullMeramon thanks to two people moving a painting that blocks its view.
• Mons as Characterization: The Chosen Children are partnered with a type of Digimon. Some of them are the exact opposite of their personalities, but others are pretty much the same as their human counterparts. One example: Matt/Yamato's partner is Gabumon, who digivolves into Garurumon, a large blue furred wolf. This represents Matt's lone wolf nature.
• Mon Tech: Digivices are used by the Digidestined to channel their emotions so their Digimon partners can Digivolve. They can evolve to Champion independently, but being supported by their Crests and the bond with the Digimon allows them to Digivole to Ultimate and then Mega.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The Etemon arc. Etemon, a monkey-like Digimon who acts like an Elvis Impersonator, is sandwiched between the demonic Devimon and the even more demonic 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, mainly because it's the show at its darkest and thus occasional bouts of comic relief become something of a necessity. For example, the first episode after their introduction, which ends with Piximon sacrificing himself to save them, has them dealing with Scorpiomon, who is a complete schmuck of a goon paid in clams.
• More than Mind Control: Matt, especially after talking to Cherrymon. He doesn't so much take control of his mind as much as manipulate him emotionally.
  • Vademon doesn't brainwash Izzy, but he takes his curiosity, convincing Izzy to just accept information presented to him and not seek answers for himself. It basically makes him into a doormat, as he doesn't question Vademon when he tells him to give up his digivice and crest.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: A digimon's power is based more heavily on its evolution stage than anything else, which doesn't necessarily correspond to size. Ultimate-level digimon like Etemon can toss around multiple larger champion-level digimon without issue.
• Musicalis Interruptus: Everywhere. A notable example is during Vamdemon's debut. When Ikkakumon launched his Harpoon Vulcan at Vamdemon, Brave Heart stops abruptly as Vamdemon gets covered in smoke, then reappears unharmed.
• 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.
• Named by the Dub: In the episode where the kids hitchhike to get across Tokyo, the guy who picks them up originally went unnamed. In the dub, due to him now being Sora’s cousin rather than a random stranger, she can be heard saying “Hi Duane” after he stops.
• Narrator:
  • Hiroaki Hirata narrates the original Japanese version.
  • For part of the English dub at least, the main cast in the role of Previously on….
• Nasal Weapon: One of the attacks of Puppetmon is Drill Nose. It should be noted that it was used just once, during the most ridiculous fight involving this character...and he got a fart to the face as a result.
• Natural Disaster Cascade: The main human characters' transportation to Digimon Island was preceded by freak climate shifts which caused the rainforest to dry out, murky waters to flood other areas, and normally-sweltering cities to experience freezing temperatures in the summer; and finally, a massive blizzard strikes the camp where the kids are staying (again, in the summer) before they're transported.
• Never Say "Die": In the dub, it's inconsistent depending on the episode; in general it did a decent job at averting it, with a few glaring exceptions:
  • When Myotismon claimed to "banish Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon to a dungeon in the Digital World" for disobedience.
  • He also claimed to have "sent the Darktyrannomon back to the Digital World" after Lilymon managed to pacify the Digimon.
  • When Machinedramon destroys WaruMonzaemon for failing, the dub gives WaruMonzaemon the line "You blasted my paw!" as we see the paw disintegrate — implying that Machinedramon only vaporized one limb and not the whole Digimon.
• 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.
• Nighttime Bathroom Phobia: In episode 8, Agumon has Tai walk with him to the bathroom shortly after they're supposed to go to bed, and Tai is rather annoyed by this. The English dub changes the dialogue between them, however, and Agumon joins Tai just in case something dangerous happens, but Tai accuses him of being the one who's afraid to use the bathroom in the dark after he enters a stall.
• Nobody Poops: Averted with the Digimon, in spectacular fashion. Numemon, Sukamon, and Garbagemon use their poop as their main attack. However the dub changes this to sludge. The only exception is they keep Koromon pooping in a car in one episode, though they didn't really have a choice since it was kind of a plot point.
• 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 More Holding Back" Speech: A few of them, but the most notable is at the finale. The Digidestined and their Digimon, all left powerless after being digitized by Apocalymon, refuse to quit and manage to activate the power of their Crests that they had inside them the entire time. They give a group one of these before digivolving their Digimon, reassembling themselves, and taking Apocalymon apart.
• No Ontological Inertia: Applied to the Digimon Taken for Granite in episode 17 of Digimon Adventure, even though the character was not even dead.
  • Subverted by Devimon's black gears, which the kids incorrectly assume all disappear after Devimon's defeat.
• No Power, No Color: Lillymon, whose body is normally colored different shades of pink and green, is struck by Vamdemon' Dead Scream attack, which turns her grey and causes her to fall to the ground unconscious.
• 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.
  • Artistic License – Nuclear Physics was also averted here. After Diablomon is defeated, 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.
• Once More, with Clarity: Episode 45 revisits The Greymon-Parrotmon battle from the Pilot Movie, placing it in the context of why the DigiDestined were chosen for their task and how were equipped for it.
• One Last Field Trip: After the final battle, the Digimon and their partners have a couple of hours to spend together. Gabumon asks to hear Matt play his harmonica, while Tentomon spends time with Izzy and his computer.
• "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: "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 pay phones 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."
• Our Vampires Are Different: Myotismon, though he also carries several stereotypical traits like coming back from the dead.
• 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 and howling at the moon in his digivolution sequence.

Tropes P - R

• Performer Guise: One episode had Agumon and Palmon infiltrate Etemon's base, posing as PunkAgumon and RaggaePalmon respectively.
• 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, so the dub's debut didn't come until partway through the dub broadcast of Digimon Adventure 02.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Mimi's princess dress.
• Portal Slam: Episode 27 ends with Tai pounding on a portal door after it was literally slammed in his face.
• Post-Episode Trailer: done with episodes of the original Japanese version of the show, with the tagline "Now the adventure evolves".
• Potty Emergency: Izzy gets this in the movie, and Agumon has to go in the episode when they were in the illusion mansion.
• Potty Failure: When T.K. and Patamon were in Primary Village, one of the baby Digimon has an accident. In one episode Koromon is in the car and poops himself, and in another episode he eats too many eggs and has an accident offscreen.
• The Power of Friendship: Matt's crest was even called Friendship, so it's very specifically fueled 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.
• Power of Trust: Joe's crest of reliability/honesty. Since Joe's crest in Japanese translates more to "faith", then it counts.
• Precision F-Strike: In the Swedish dub, Mat's father swears.
• Previously on…: Rotated between characters in the American dub; separate 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.
• 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.
• Really 700 Years Old: Possibly, as time is much slower in the Digital World than the Real one. This has led to some dispute to over how old the Partner Digimon really are - They could be years to centuries old.
• 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).
• Reincarnation: Although Angemon sacrifices himself to defeat Devimon, since destroyed Digimon turn back into eggs, he gets reborn.
• The Reveal: The second-to-last episode mentions that the kids aren't the first Digidestined.
• Rewatch Bonus: Watching the Search for the Eighth Child Arc the first time is very different than watching it after learning in 02 that there are (or at least soon will be) actually thousands of Chosen Children around the world, including 4 in Japan and one of them right under Vamdemon's nose. After watching 02, we know that Vamdemon is completely unaware just how futile his quest to prevent the Chosen Children from growing stronger and expanding their team actually is, and it's ironic how much energy the heroes put into finding one more member because they're unaware of just how many future teammates are around them. This adds a layer of irony and even humor to both sides' goals and missions that wasn't there the first time around.
• The Mole: Wizardmon — a good guy posing as an evil servant of Vamdemon/Myotismon.
• Right Makes Might: Justified by the DigiDestined's Crests — doing the right thing or exhibiting virtues makes you mightier.
• Robotic Assembly Lines: Early on in their adventure, the children happen upon a factory with a robotic assembly line constructing unusual looking metal apparatuses. The weird thing is, later on down the line, the machines disassemble the things they had just built.
• Running Gag: When the girls burst into Berserker Tears, the guys don't know how to handle it.

Tropes S - T

• Save Both Worlds: The goal of the heroes; the phrase was used in just about every commercial when the show first aired in the U.S.
• Scared of What's Behind You: A group of Numemon attack Mimi and Palmon, then when Palmon turns to fight, the Numamon run away. Unfortunately, the pair soon realize the Numemon were actually afraid the Monzaemon behind them.
• Schmuck Banquet: An odd version, in the form of a cruise ship sailing through a desert (It Makes Sense in Context).
• Ship Tease: The Japanese version is largely devoid of any romance with the exception of some Joe/Mimi due to Word of God thinking the characters were too young to focus on something like that. The English dub puts in quite a lot of Tai/Sora, Joe/Mimi and to a lesser extent, T.K./Kari. There's even a little Matt/Mimi.
• Shipper on Deck: In the dub, Piedmon apparently ships T.K. and Kari even though they're only 8. "Looks like you two are falling for each other".
• The Short Guy with Glasses: Izzy, only without the glasses. Although concept art for Izzy showed that his design was originally going to have glasses. Ironically, the one with the glasses is actually the tallest member of the group (Joe).
• 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.
  • A large smog-based Digimon rising from the bay and attacking a night club? Sounds rather familiar.
  • One dub title is called "Princess Karaoke," a reference to Princess Mononoke.
  • In the dub, Piedmon is voiced in the style of Tim Curry. It's a reference to another monster clown, played by Curry in an television adaption.
  • The three Gerbemon/Garbagemon who attack the crew in Puppetmon's forest do a Jet Stream Atttack, complete with Lilimon using one as a springboard.
• Shower Shy: In episode 8, when the Digidestined visit a hotel and take a bath (was it the first bath they'd had since summer camp!?), Joe is too shy to join the other boys. In the uncensored original, Matt and Tai try to force him to come in.
• Single-Stroke Battle:
  • An awful lot of battles usually end the minute a partner reaches the Ultimate level.
  • Wargreymon vs. Machinedramon. Wargreymon depowers back into Koromon, with a cut appearing on his face. Machinedramon turns around to gloat, then falls apart into cleanly cut thirds before disintegrating.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: More so 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.
• Solomon Divorce: Matt and T.K.'s parents divorced, with Matt going with their father and T.K. going with their mother.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The kids never meet an enemy who is more than one evolutionary level above the highest-evolved Digimon in the party.
• 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.
  • A rather curious one in the second Finnish dub opening; the lyrics go along the lines "We don't feel fear at all, since our bravery took down The Dark Masters afterall." despite it starting when the kids are still dealing with Vamdemon/Myotismon.
• Spoiler Title: Every episode that has an evolution in it will announce who is evolving in what right from the title. If not, it announces which enemy will appear. The only exceptions are WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, but even those are spoiled by the second ending.
• Story Arc: There are neatly four 13-episode arcs (also categorized by their locations) in the show followed by a 2-episode finale.
  • The File Island/Digivice Arc (1-13) featuring Devimon.
  • The Server Continent/Crests Arc (14-26) featuring Etemon, his aftermath, and the rise of Myotismon.
  • 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.
  • Final Boss, New Dimension/Two-part Finale (53-54) with the children facing Apocalymon.
• Story-Breaker Power: Patamon's ability to evolve to his Perfect form is only unlocked in the third to last episode, for a very good reason: HolyAngemon's Signature Move opens a portal that sucks in any malicious Digimon in the vicinity and traps them in another dimension, from which there is no escape.
• 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 Mooks: Snimon, a Champion-level Digimon, is able to bring down Garudamon, an Ultimate, with a single swipe. He also shrugs off blows from WereGarurumon with little ill effect and is able to hold a much larger and further evolved Zudomon for a considerable period of time.
• Sword and Gun: Omnimon. On his left WarGreymon-shaped arm, he has the Transcendent Sword. On his right MetalGarurumon-shaped arm, he has the Supreme Cannon.
• Take My Hand!: Taichi saves Sora from falling into a huge hole by grabbing her arm.
• Taken for Granite: Kokatorimon's Signature Move is the "Petra Fire", which transforms its victims into statues. He does this to defeat all ally Digimon, except Palmon and Piyomon.
• Taking You with Me:
  • Apocalymon was willing to kill himself and destroy everything and everyone in the process.
  • Datamon tries this with Etemon. It works, but Etemon binds with the imploding data and is reborn as MetalEtemon.
• That Wasn't a Request: In the English dub, Myotismon tells Kari to hand over her newly acquired Applied Phlebotinum:
  Kari: No!
  Myotismon: That's not a request!
• Theme Music Powerup: The Japanese version plays this in reverse—if there's a power up 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 T.K.] 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."
• Through A Face Fullof Fur: In the episode, "Ogremon's Honor" (or in the original dub, "Oh Wind! Oh Light! Saber Leomon"), Puppetmon becomes blue from being blasted by the chill of Metal Garurumon's Metal Wolf Claw attack.
• 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 is the tomboy and Mimi is the girly girl.
• Too Injured to Save: In one episode MetalEtemon attacks Mimi directly, but she is saved by Leomon who takes the hit, he survives and they defeat MetalEtemon. But then Joe tries to bandage and heal him, only to admit that is useless. Leomon has enough time to wish the kids good luck, and to apologize to Ogremon, his old "enemy", that they cannot settle who is stronger.
• 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!"
• Toy Disguise: When the kids where on a train, a baby started bothering on Yokomon and she yelled at the baby. Sora then tried to pass it off as ventriloquism, so everyone simply assumed she was a doll.
• Train-Station Goodbye: The season finale. Though, it's more of a train crossing goodbye.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Harshly averted in Our War Game, where Greymon and Kabuterimon started Digivolving when Izzy realized that Infermon had skipped the Champion Level when it evolved. Before they could become MetalGreymon and MegaKabuterimon, they were attacked and turned back into Agumon and Tentomon.
• 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 vocalization 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.

Tropes U - Z

• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: *giant Digimon fighting in Japan* Passerby: must be film.
• Upgrade Artifact: The children's' Crests, which allow their Digimon to evolve to the Ultimate level.
• Vampires Sleep in Coffins: Myotismon/Vamdemon, a vampire Digimon Arc Villain, sleeps in a coffin in his castle. After his forces have invaded Tokyo, it's shown that he's taken his coffin along with him for the ride.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey:
  • DemiDevimon fills this role for Myotismon. While he keeps the Chosen Children/Digidestined separated while Tai is away, as soon as he comes back, DemiDevimon begins comically failing and getting punished by Myotismon for his failings.
  • The two Hagurumon working for Machinedramon fit this bill too; Machinedramon has incredible firepower and is willing to devastate his own city to get to the heroes. His gear-like minions cower before that plan, even though they aren't even the targets!
• 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.
• Walking Away Shot: in "Subzero Ice Punch" with Gabumon out looking for T.K.
• Wham Episode: Quite a few:
  • Episode 8: Devimon reveals himself to the cast, splitting them across multiple islands after luring them into a mansion.
  • Episode 13: Patamon evolves into Angemon in the nick of time, defeating Devimon, but at the cost of his own life and his data is reconfigured back into a Digiegg.
  • Episode 20: After defeating Etemon (and achieving the heroes' first Perfect/Ultimate evolution), Tai and Koromon are warped through a portal back to Tokyo.
  • Episode 21 and 22: Tai enjoys his time in Tokyo but finds out the distortion caused by their last fight is influencing their world and causing multiple disasters all over the planet he then returns. After which, he finds out he's been gone for almost two months in the digital world and the others split up to find him, and during which the new Big Bad has been in the process of stealing their crest and deceiving them to keep them from using said crest.
  • Episode 27: The kids discover that there is an 8th child, Myotismon opens a portal to Earth, moving through with his forces, and the heroes are too late to get to him before the portal closes.
  • Episode 34: Tai discovers his sister is the eight Digidestined, while Myotismon finds out that Gatomon is the destined Digimon, kidnapping her and (temporarily) killing Wizardmon.
  • Episode 40: The cast finds out that the Digital World has been taken over by four extremely powerful, malevolent Digimon, who easily defeat the heroes, causing Piximon to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save them.
• Wham Shot: At the end of episode 21, after Tai and Agumon return to the Digital World, the scene changes to the Kamiya household, where another Digivice is sitting on the coffee table.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Dub only. Myotismon condemns Gotsumon and Pumpkin to his dungeon. Not kill, condemn. T.K. and Matt never think twice of trying to save them when they get back to the Digital World. In the original version, they weren't so lucky, but for the dub, it comes off as this trope.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Tai in Episode 19. After Izzy comes up with the idea they are all just data in the Digital World, Tai mistakenly assumes that this makes him unkillable in the Digital World and decides to treat it more like some game. Everyone is displeased with this display, the most noticeable of them being Sora who questions his every reckless action during the episode. Thankfully he snaps out of it, unfortunately this comes after a brief Heroic BSoD when he realizes he could have easily died due to this recklessness.
  • An even bigger example of this for Tai is a few episodes earlier where he get cocky being the only one that has a crest and forces Agumon to eat a lot of food and pushes him around threatening to find a new Digimon and being generally rude to the other kids. And then putting himself in danger in an attempt to induce Greymon's digivolution to Ultimate. Fortunately he learns some humility when his actions corrupt Greymon's Digivolution, resulting in the rogue and destructive Skullgreymon and Tai gets some character development in learning the real meaning of courage.
• White Gloves: Five of the Digidestined (Tai, Matt, Izzy, Sora and Mimi) wear gloves, but only Tai's are white.
• Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: In "Evil Shows His Face", the guys are spending the night in a mansion. Agumon wakes Tai up shortly after he's fallen asleep to take him to the men's room. Tai's a bit grumpy, especially since Agumon's taking a long time in there.
• Word-Salad Humor: Mishearings of the lyrics of "I Wish" during the karaoke scene in the Japanese version of episode 25, special mention goes to Joe's, which translates to "When I wish on eels in China, with fried potatoes in the wind, I can see no other option but to cool my sweat off".
• World Gone Mad: The Digital World was a screwed up place before it became Spiral Mountain.
• Would Hurt a Child: Most evil Digimon have no qualms about hurting the heroes, despite the fact that they're children. However, some evil Digimon get a LOT more kicks out of this than others...
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Until the finale, a day in the digital world is equal to a minute in the real world.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Myotismon executes Pumpkinmon, Gotsumon and DarkTyrannomon for failing to kill the DigiDestined.
  • MetalSeadramon drops Scorpiomon from a great height for letting the kids escape right under his nose.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Myotismon does this to DemiDevimon just to gain an extra bit of power as VenomMyotismon.
  • Machinedramon and especially Puppetmon are guilty, the latter often doing it for entirely selfish reasons and especially where it's downright inconvenient for him. In the end, that's what does him in.
• 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. He dies.
  • 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 T.K. and Kari escape. Then MagnaAngemon turns up.
  • 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 at first, her determination results in her successfully evolving to Birdramon for the first time to defeat him.
• Your Size May Vary: Although pretty much every Digimon, and especially all of the main Digimon, experience these issues from time to time, the worst offender is probably Greymon and his evolutions, which could be anywhere from 20ft tall to the size of a skyscraper.
  • MegaKabuterimon could be a pretty big offender too. He's one of the Digidestined's biggest Digimon, bigger even than MetalGreymon and usually looking to be at least 40-50 feet tall. Then in some scenes, he's only about 2-3 times the size of Angewomon, who's just a bit taller than a human.

---