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INTEREST: Digimon Fans Alter Atsuya Uki's tri Character Designs to Match Original Style

I must say, I like the altered version better. And yeah, was also hoping for TV series rather than movies. I hope BDs will come out early next year...

Poor Atsuya Uki, first the Gatchaman fans (from Gatchaman Crowds), now the Digimon fans... seriously though, would you rather have the Gatchaman all in birdsuits again... or in Digimon's case, bringing back those two stupid hats (the helmet shaped one, and the huge cowboy hat... though admittedly, I have no Idea which one is Mimi without the cowboy hat)

But really, say what you will about the designs from the original Digimon series, at least they had some sort of uniqueness and individuality. Dressing all the characters in identical school uniforms is the epitome of creative bankruptcy. There's not much you could do that would be worse.

I dunno. I think this is true to contemporary Japanese kids their age, while still making it pretty clear who is who (mostly through hair style).

It should also be noted, of course, that "dressing all the characters in identical school uniforms" is exactly what 02 did with the kids who were old enough to wear them, and is even an aesthetic that these fan redesigns stick to.

The character designs don't use the old style because the old style was to appeal to a specific demographic that has changed;

I don't really accept the premise that Japanese kids pretty much live in their school uniforms even when not in school. I think that's just an invention of lazy anime designers.

But really, even if so, you're watching a show about teenagers traveling to a parallel computer world to fight digital monsters with other monsters. Who cares in the slightest what's true of contemporary Japanese kids?

For starters, I'm once again not sure this is entirely true. My memory of 02 is foggy but I'm pretty sure on the couple occasions that they actually went to the digital world they changed out of their uniforms.

Which is fine. As I said, I have no great attachment to the old style. I just wish that new demographic wasn't "boring people". Change is fine but only if it's for the better, and as corny as the old designs were, the new designs are still managing to be worse somehow.

We've just seen a few teaser images. And I would argue that using uniforms (as opposed to something more outlandish) in the teasers serves a very distinct purpose, because uniforms are a big symbol of growing up in Japanese media. Showing the cast in uniform not only communicates that they've gotten older (as well as a few other mundane things - Tai, Matt, Mimi, Izzy, and Sora are all at the same school, for instance, while Joe isn't), but also perhaps that this growth might be part of the show's focus. The teaser's drawing attention to that.

At the end of it all, I wouldn't call it bad. Lazier than past iterations at worst, if they do remain in school uniform for the entire run time, but not BAD. Bad would have them unrecognizable (which they aren't - visual cues exist that make it instantly possible to tell who is who) or deformed in some way.

If it's your supposition that this is just how the promos look for various reasons and the actual show will look significantly different, that's fine. That just seems like idle speculation though ... just empty semantics, defining "bad" in an obtuse way to make it inapplicable without actually addressing the criticism. Yeah, it's not as bad as it conceivably could be. But again, that's an extremely low standard. It's also not even close to as good as it could be. And frankly it's miles closer to bad than good.

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ikillchicken wrote:

I don't really accept the premise that Japanese kids pretty much live in their school uniforms even when not in school. I think that's just an invention of lazy anime designers.

They spend more time in them than you might think, partly because they're in school for much more of their waking lives, between club activities (which often take up huge chunks of their evenings and weekends) and cram schools. Students are lazy too, and in my experience won't go casual unless the whole day is school-free. It's not at all uncommon to see students around town in-uniform even when they aren't in classes (I've even see them wear them to night time events like festivals). There are exceptions, of course; most aren't gonna wear them while hanging out with friends at an event unrelated to school, and definitely not while on vacation or over a holiday period or something. So while anime designers have almost certainly taken it as a design short-cut, it's a short-cut that has real-world precedence. It's no worse than having characters wear the same outfit every day - arguably less creative, but more true to life.

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But really, even if so, you're watching a show about teenagers traveling to a parallel computer world to fight digital monsters with other monsters. Who cares in the slightest what's true of contemporary Japanese kids?

Fair enough, and indeed, the original show didn't care about that (Japanese elementary school kids don't run around in gloves, pink cowboy hats, and weird helmets). Kid's shows rarely do. But a couple points: we haven't seen the Tri cast dressed down, nor have we seen them go to the Digital World. We've just seen a few teaser images. And I would argue that using uniforms (as opposed to something more outlandish) in the teasers serves a very distinct purpose, because uniforms are a big symbol of growing up in Japanese media. Showing the cast in uniform not only communicates that they've gotten older (as well as a few other mundane things - Tai, Matt, Mimi, Izzy, and Sora are all at the same school, for instance, while Joe isn't), but also perhaps that this growth might be part of the show's focus. The teaser's drawing attention to that.

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For starters, I'm once again not sure this is entirely true. My memory of 02 is foggy but I'm pretty sure on the couple occasions that they actually went to the digital world they changed out of their uniforms.

They definitely wore their uniforms to the Digital world - for reference, here's some shots of Tai and Matt and Izzy and Sora during visits to the Digital World. All official artwork and promo images show them in-uniform as well.

Now, despite the uniforms featuring heavily both in the show and outside it, it's important to note that they're often shown wearing more casual clothes throughout the series. But that just kinda makes me think that we should wait to see more than just promo materials before calling the Tri designers lazy for only dressing the older cast members in their school uniforms.

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Which is fine. As I said, I have no great attachment to the old style. I just wish that new demographic wasn't "boring people". Change is fine but only if it's for the better, and as corny as the old designs were, the new designs are still managing to be worse somehow.

At the end of it all, I wouldn't call it bad. Lazier than past iterations at worst, if they do remain in school uniform for the entire run time, but not BAD. Bad would have them unrecognizable (which they aren't - visual cues exist that make it instantly possible to tell who is who) or deformed in some way.

(Also of note - the only difference in visual distinctions given to them here versus what was given to them in official 02 art is the style itself. Otherwise, they're equally differentiated, with the exception of Mimi, who was in America and had casual clothes).]