Opinion: Digimon's 1st theme song (the dub version) cut Digimon's legs off

I understand that many factors caused Digimon to be nowhere near as successful as Pokemon, but I feel that the opening theme song is highly important. It is usually the first thing that audiences see and hear before watching a show.

Digimon Are The Champions was catchy, but gets annoying when you play it on repeat.

On the other hand, 4Kids understood the assignment and released the iconic pop rock anthem for dubbed Pokemons first theme. It was catchy, but it also had a powerful meaning in the lyrics, and it didnt get annoying if you played it for several years after listening to it. It was revolutionary for its time.

Its a pity because the Digimon anime had good storylines and was deeper and more mature than the Pokemon anime. I would dare say that it was better too.

I think Digimon could have fared better for Western audiences if they kept the Japanese openings (or at least a translated version of them) like Butter-Fly, Target and The Biggest Dreamer. (RIP Koji Wada).

no

Butterfly > Digimon are the Champions
Gotta Catch 'em All > Aim to be a Pokemon Master

Rob_the_Ninja posted...

Butterfly > Digimon are the Champions
Gotta Catch 'em All > Aim to be a Pokemon Master

Exactly

Nah the song is catchy as fuck. Not as good as Butterfly, but damn fun to listen to on repeat.

i dont recall a pokemon song named butterfly

I can almost guarantee you, if you did a focus test with children, the opening theme songs would do nothing to change their opinions.

Digimon had a lot of problems with its early marketing, and still does to this day, but the choice to do a different opening in one small corner of the market (NA) was not one of them lol.

Rob_the_Ninja posted...

Butterfly > Digimon are the Champions
Gotta Catch 'em All > Aim to be a Pokemon Master

Gotta Catch Em All is one of the few instances where other foreign dubs translate the English opening, and not the Japanese one.

I don't know if a better intro would have saved Digimon but I can definitely agree the Pokemon intro was an absolute fucking banger, pulls you in instantly and hypes you right up for whatever's about to go down.

This topic made me look up Butterfly, it never occurred to me to look up other intros before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB7ecG_12x8

It's a pretty catchy song but I'm not entirely convinced that it conveys the tone of the show better than Digimon Are The Champions

That's a silly take. I think Pokemon was more popular cuz it had the games first.