This week on the show, the Nicks take a look at the fate that's befallen Digimon & its fans! Is it always doomed to trail in the shadow of Pokemon or is it underappreciate genius ahead of its time??
### Fandom Facts
* Digimon has spawned 7 anime series, 16 movies, 8 manga series, 43 video games, and a collectible card game.
* There was a point in history where Digimon was more popular that Pokemon… [in North America at least](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2001-02-19/fox-kids-wins-broadcast-ratings). In February of 2001, it took the number two rating slot among kids 6-11 (Pokemon was third). Similar, but unconfirmed: Digimon was Fox's most popular kids show (even more than Power Rangers)
* The series was only expected to last 13 episodes: "Digimon was just supposed to be a series of half-hour commercials for the toys. Specifically, the Digimon cartoon was to be released in tandem with the PlayStation game Digimon World. But when the show became unexpectedly and wildly popular on its own, more episodes were quickly ordered. In a twist, the Digimon device faded into history, the games did okay, and the show ended up [being the franchise's legacy](https://www.thegamer.com/25-crazy-things-you-never-knew-about-digimon/)."
### First Impressions
#### Z:
I remember watching a bit of the initial Digimon anime alongside Pokemon and Monster Rancher. I got into Pokemon because of the games, I enjoyed Monster Rancher because of how the story seemed to resemble a lot of what I'd seen of that era's JRPGs' stories. But Digimon always struck me as being somehow more episodic than either of those shows, despite having episodes-long, standalone arcs. I think I just didn't appreciate the ensemble-style show that Digimon was.
What little I saw of the games I inevitably compared to Pokemon. Which was pretty much all I could do since I never had a Playstation back in the day, and so never could play the Digimon games to begin with.
Overall, my impression then (and now) is that Digimon was the result of a rival company seeing Pokemon's success and wanting to copy it.
#### T:
I don't think that I'd thought that Digimon was a knock-off until I got older, and even then, it was mostly ironically. I remember watching the first season or two when it aired, and even coming home on a Friday after school to see it and other anime premiere on YTV's "The Zone". I definitely saw some of the third season and of Digimon Frontier, but at that point I wasn't watching the show with any regularity so I couldn't follow it at all: It was a lot harder to follow than Pokemon,especially if you didn't catch the episodes in order.
I don't think I was as attached to the franchise because all of the monsters were so different, and there wasn't anything to latch on to (no types, no memorable names with lots of Japanese references, no stats)... the characters I could get a lot more, and I definitely remember having a crush on Mimi, Sora, and Kari (Season 2… actually, most of their Season 2 incarnations). I want to say that I felt like I could relate to Tai and Matt's relationship (reminded me of a friend and I's)… but I think more realistically I could relate to Izzy.
I might have had a friend that had a digimon in elementary school at the end of the Tamagotchi craze.
### Famous Last Words
What did we have to say about an upcoming episode's topic, Vaporwave with only our first impressions? \
**G: **Is vaporwave a joke?_ \
_
**T: **What is vaporwave, and why do any of us know about it?_ \
_
**Z: **Are there currently any artists working in the vaporwave space that explicitly state that? Many subgenres exist around it, and I'm curious if anyone specifically calls out the association.
## Where can you find us?
Pretty much everything we do is `something/thenickscast`, but in specific...
* If you're looking for this podcast (Fanthropological), you can find it at [Fanthropological.com](https://fanthropological.com) or on different podcatchers including [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/2IVp8MBIUyCqlKyZn79iHn), [Apple Podcasts](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fanthropological/id1163621210?mt=2), [Google Podcasts](https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLnBvZGlhbnQuY28vZmFudGhyb3BvbG9naWNhbC9yc3MueG1s) and many others!
* Keep up-to-date with our latest goings-on on [Facebook](https://facebook.com/thenickscast), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/thenickscast), or [Instagram](https://instagram.com/thenickscast), all `@thenickscast`
* We also occasionally create extra content about fandom including convention coverage and interviews on [YouTube.com/thenickscast](https://youtube.com/thenickscast)
* We have some fine merchandise available at [shop.thenickscast.com](https://shop.thenickscast.com) (and we'd love your support!)
* If all else fails, you can email us: [
[email protected]](mailto:
[email protected])
## What is "Fanthropological"?
Every week, Fanthropological delivers over an hour of fandom-related "fanalysis" covering a different fandom every week and giving you hard data, history, special guests, and, of course, speculation!
We cover topics spanning the gamut of anime, manga, comics, video games, comics, movies, books, television, and, in general, geek culture.
## Credits
* ["](http://google.ca)The Metal Emperor" by Chernabogue, AngelCityOutlaw & Furilas [OCRemix] used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) - http://ocremix.org/album/72/badass-boss-themes-volume-iii
* All other music and sound for this week's episode were provided by Nick Green!
