Classic Anime Review #3: How Lapis Lazuli Told the Story Wormmon Couldn’t

When I was 10 years old, I stole a candy bar from the grocery down the street from my house. As I sprinted out the front door, men in suits came in and for half an hour you couldn’t tell me the fuzz weren’t on my behind. I felt so bad I immediately came clean to my mom and she told me it was okay, good people do things they shouldn’t sometimes (and I probably shouldn’t steal things). I’ve been in a sordid love affair with nuance ever since. Later that year, Digimon (Adventure 01) debuted on Fox Kids. This show, a hail Mary to compete with the Pokémon juggernaut building steam at the time, did something regularly that its rival anime has done a handful of times in over two decades: it told a human story and not one about its monsters.

For instance: HUMANS AGE. (Image via Toei)

For the uninitiated, Digimon tells the story of 8 children whose lives intersect at a summer camp where they are transported to a faraway land of data and corruption. The story plays like a bizarre cross of the aforementioned Pokemon and Lord of the Flies, the children left to fend for themselves in a brave and dangerous new world. Along the way, the characters grapple with issues like divorce (with Matt and TK being brothers each under the custody of one parent), illness (Tai nearly killing his sister Kari by trying to play with her when she had pneumonia), guilt, the immutability of family, and the nature of love, sincerity, and courage.

And reliability, friendship, hope, light, knowledge, and kin…