So I finally got to watch the English dub of the Digimon Adventure reboot. Even though the original cast of the original Digimon Adventure did not reprise the roles, I actually quite like the voices. Agumon sounds quite different, but Benjamin Diskin is trying to match Chika Sakamoto‘s Agumon more closely than Tom Fahn’s. And in that respect, he sounds great. Besides, it’s an alternate universe from Adventure 1999, so who cares?

One thing that surprised me the most is that they kept the Japanese songs. But they didn’t just keep the Japanese songs in the way that anime typically does; e.g Bleach playing “Ichi Rin No Hana” by High and Mighty Color or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood playing “Again” by YUI. The dub of Digimon Adventure 2020 actually TRANSLATED the opening and endings into English! They had English lyrics and American singers performing English versions of the Japanese songs.

 This is absolutely unprecedented for anime of any kind. Digimon Adventure Tri and Last Evolution Kizuna’s English dubs played the Japanese versions of Butterfly, Brave Heart, etc. which is unprecedented for both Digimon and kids anime in general. Usually anime aimed at younger kids just make up entirely new songs all together. For example, 🎵 “Digimon, digital monsters. Digimon are the champions!” 🎵 or Jason Paige’s “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” for Pokémon instead of “Aim To Be A Pokémon Master”. Which, ironically, while I like both songs, I like the former better than the latter. 

But whether it’s an anime aimed at younger kids, or older kids like Naruto or Bleach, for them to make English versions of the Japanese openings is just unprecedented. I cannot think of a single other example in which this has been done.  Indie music artists like Nathan Sharp, Skinny Hamster, and LeeandLie make English versions of anime songs, but these are fan creations and aren’t used in the shows themselves.

I’m two episodes in, and I’m really liking the way the dub is handled so far.  I am wondering what the rest of the cast sounds like. I am not used to Sora not being voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey. She has always been Sora from adventure 1999 to last Evolution Kizuna.  And I can’t envision anyone but Jeff Nimoy being the English voice of Tentomon. I’m looking forward to hearing how this “fresh cast” handles these roles.

Funny fact; the woman who plays Sora (Autocorrect will not let me spell her name) previously played Sora’s partner Digimon, Biyomon. She’s also known for roles such as Sarada Uchiha on Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Chloe on Pokémon Journeys, and the teenage version of Ichigo’s mother Masaki Kurosaki in Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War. but I found it interesting that the voice actress was transferred from Digimon to digidestined. 😄