I actually grew up with both. I appreciated Pokémon because it made me feel like I could do great, awesome things even though I was just a 10 year old. But I also appreciated digimon because of its more mature and darker themes and how it explored the evolution of technology. I can't really make it a this vs. that situation. I love the both of them for different reasons!
I don't really care. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and I have enjoyed both for different reasons. I don't think they're particularly comparable any more, really - Digimon offers a completely different style of gameplay compared to Pokémon, and the anime series aren't even remotely comparable in setting or tone. Literally all they have in common is that they both have kids with monster partners in them, and those monsters can evolve into different forms. That's it. They're completely different things and, if you've spent more than five minutes with either franchise, you'd see how silly the comparison is. If you want to be pedantic about it, they both ripped off Dragon Quest V. That did monster capturing before either of them.
I like them both. As a teen, I leaned towards digimon because of the maturer themes it explored.. I still like it because of those themes, but I do sometimes turn to Pokémon because of it’s general light heartedness or nostalgia. I’ve also been watching the digimon tri series.
Pokémon definitely. But that's mostly due to the games. Digimon is also fun in its own way but I'm just a bigger fan of Pokémon games in general. That being said, Digimon has a much better anime because the story is actually progressing. Meanwhile, Ash is still a 10-year-old boy who resets to being a total noob every time he goes to a new region. Plus, every episode seems to always follow the same formula it had when it started.
I've always been a fan of both. When it comes to the anime, Digimon is definitely better than Pokémon, with more mature plot-lines, better characterization and not just following the same ten-year-old for 20+ years. In terms of the games, I prefer Pokémon but I also haven't played very many Digimon games. And for those of you wondering, Digimon is definitely still around. They have two ongoing video game series, an anime movie series and an anime spin-off series called Appli Monsters. The franchise is not as strong or popular as it was back in its heyday, but its slowly been finding a new place for itself by trying to appeal to adult fans who grew up with the franchise rather than kids (except for Appli Monsters, which is apparently for kids. I don't watch it).
In terms of games, Pokémon is definitely better. The closest I've seen to Digimon outdoing a Pokémon game is Cyber Sleuth, the only game that feels like a season of the anime. (And also contains some surprisingly mature language for a Digimon game) The anime, however, has better story/characters. Honestly, though, I still can't believe this fan war is still going on. When I heard of Digimon, I thought it was awesome that Pokémon wasn't the only pet monster show airing at the time. I didn't care that both names sounded the same. I gave Digimon a fair shot and have loved it since. And to answer an earlier question, it's still going. Aside from the Adventure Tri movies, in which the last one is set for release this year, Digimon Universe, aka, Appmon ended not too long ago and recently, Cyber Sleuth got a sequel. It's just not given nearly as much attention as Pokémon anymore.
I wished I’d played more of the Digimon games so I could compare them easier, haha. However, I have watched both anime, so let’s see... I grew up with Pokémon more than I did Digimon. However, I loved both, and it’s still hard to compare them. So I guess I don’t care, as long as I like them.
I was involved with Pokémon before I ever heard of Digimon, so I never was able to get into it or have any interest since it just seemed like a knock off version. The only times I'd even hear about Digimon were when it was being compared to Pokémon lol.
Pokémon has the games balanced out while Digimon has the anime/movies perfected compared to Pokémon. I love both series as they're comparatively different if you really dig into it.
I've had my fair share of both and while Digimon definitely had a slight upper hand in the anime department early on, Pokémon managed to keep its momentum and rolled into the massive franchise it is (taking me with it hahah). Then there is the case of video games in which Pokémon swept me away from the very beginning and I didn't pay any thought to Digimon for years. Both are awesome, but Pokémon wins my vote.
I pretty much never knew anything about Digimon, but decided recently to check out the anime just to see what it's like. Wow does it seem bad. Maybe it gets better later on, maybe I could have watched more than 1 episode, but just an episode of a sea of hot chocolate flooding (or something), it's snowy and cloudy in July do we need sunscreen, and the digimon saying their names more often than some Pokémon in spite of being able to talk (I guess the show creators really want to make sure you remember their names), all of that was kind of testing my patience. The cast is pretty stereotypical for an anime of this genre, except that there's an older and younger brother who actually seem to have a good dynamic. Yeah, I think I might try to stick with it and watch a little more, but I definitely know which I prefer just comparing the first episodes.
Yeah, looking back, the first episode of Adventure 01 wasn't exactly a good representation of the series. (It also doesn't help that back then, the dialog in the dub wasn't all that great. Now they know teens and adults are the ones watching this, so the recent Tri films are uncut) I'd say Tamers probably had the best first episode out of all of them, but then again, that was my favorite Digimon series overall. Though yeah, the story definitely gets a lot better as it goes along. That's kind of typical for Digimon. First string of episodes are mostly just there to show off the main characters' abilities and then the real meat of the story comes along somewhere between 5 and 15 episodes in. (Though thankfully, the wait isn't nearly that long for a standard Digimon series until Data Squad, which took 12 episodes to get to the main plot)
Yeah Adventure 01 has that 'We're just starting and don't know how to set up the plot yet so have a lot of information on the main characters instead' issue pretty bad. I second Tamers as one of the best anime adaptations, it quickly delves into the story and gets super dark in the end <3 I cry my eyes out at Tamers' ending.
Dark ending? Okay, now I'm interested. Although after watching a couple more episodes, I'm starting to wonder whether these kids, who have been together at summer camp for a while now, have ever actually spoken to each other. Like, ever. Convenient way to introduce characters to the audience, I guess.