Digimon Vol. 1 (1999, VHS)

(This VHS contains the first three episodes of Digimon - Digital Monsters: "And So it Begins," "The Birth of Greymon," and "Garurumon."

Everyone says that Digimon is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the Pokémon franchise. They may be right, but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable. :) Digimon chronicles the adventures of eight (the Eighth Child is revealed later in the series) children and their monster companions, called Digimon, as they struggle to protect Earth and the Digital World against various enemies. In these early episodes, the kids become acquainted with their Digimon after being sucked into the Digital World at summer camp. They learn that Digimon are intelligent creatures that can speak, and also that they can 'Digivolve' into higher forms (unlike Pokémon, Digimon revert to their lower stages after their Digivolved forms aren't needed anymore). Not too much action happens; after all, the creators needed to set up the conflict the children had to face. That's not much a problem, actually, since the children's personalities and the colorful world they're sent to keeps up viewer interest. There's also plently of jokes made at the children's plight (when one of the children begins to wonder about his parents, his Digimon partner asks, "Parents? What's a parents?"). Overall, this volume makes for a fun watch, though if you want to see a lot of battles, you may want to hold out for the later issues in this series...