After finishing (and loving) Digimon Tamers, I went on the hunt for more Digimon content; and a lot of people recommended trying the original series, Adventure. It seemed intriguing, and I figured I may as well watch it so I can check out the sequel shows like 02 and Tri later on. Unlike most series that have 2-3 "main" characters max, Adventure has a whopping 8. Tai is the leader of the group, but he very much shares the spotlight with the other characters: Matt, Joe, Izzy, TK, Sora, Mimi and (later on) Kari, who all get several moments to shine and develop significantly by the end. I was skeptical about how well such a large cast would work, but the series does a fantastic job giving them each a unique role and ensuring everyone gets a roughly equal amount of focus. The group splits up a few times, which is often used as an opportunity to have stretches of episodes that focus on just 1-2 of them until they reunite. It's a writing trick that becomes pretty transparent after the 2nd or 3rd time, but the episodes that result from these fractures are among my favorite in the series. There's a cost to the large cast though, and it's the depth of the digimon themselves. I wouldn't quite call them extensions of their partners, they have distinct personalities and often help nudge the kids they're paired with in the right direction. But they have virtually no development and are pretty much identical at the end to how they were at the start. My favorite was probably Gomamon, most of the other digimon have a similar disposition to their partners; but there's a nice dynamic where Gomamon is headstrong while Joe is very cautious / nervous.
One of the weakest aspects of the series for me were the fights, I liked how they didn't take up quite as much time as they did in Tamers; but that improvement was cancelled out by them being lower quality. During big fights where everyone digivolves, the digivolution animations often take a solid 2-3 minutes out of a 20 minute episode as it slowly goes through the exact same animation every. single. time. With the best CGI a network show could scrounge up circa 1999 if Agumon or Gabumon were in the fight as well. It honestly removed the excitement factor from the (quite good) animations since they're used and reused within an inch of their lives. The actual action isn't too great either, stock attack animations are used extremely often and most fights are won by evolving to a higher level and overwhelming the enemy with sheer force rather than by outwitting them. In addition, the "Hey, Digimon" song used when the tide turns in the kids favor is extremely overused and completely kills the mood in some of the more tense fights. In general, the animation is underwhelming, even for 1999. There are multiple instances where characters are running and the show just reuses the same clip but speeds it up, and movement is often kept to an absolute minimum. Everyone is still pretty expressive though, so I can excuse some of that if it allowed the budget to be put towards more important stuff.
Feeding into the underwhelming fights, most of the villains were also pretty meh; the one-off evil digimons in most episodes typically weren't too bad. They're usually fairly simple of course, but they serve their purpose of being an obstacle for the kids perfectly fine. The primary issue is with the "main" villains, Devimon being the stereotypical evil-for-the-sake-of-being-evil type is fine enough considering he's fought in the first arc while the world's still being established; and Etemon is a fun follow-up that's enjoyable to watch. But Myotismon feels too similar to Devimon, the Dark Masters have the personality and depth of plexiglass, and Apocalymon is introduced in literally the second-to-last episode. I didn't actively despise them or anything, but I wish some of the later villains had some semblance of a motivation apart from just being evil. In comparison, I loved how the show explored the kids home lives and personal issues; it made them feel more realistic, and it's nice how everything isn't just wrapped up with a neat bow by the end. Things improve for sure, but Matt and TK's parents are still separated, Joe's still going to have to confront his dad about not wanting to be a doctor, and Sora and her mother are still going to have to learn how to understand each other better. It's more realistic for not everything to have been resolved by the time they get on the trolley, and I really respect the writing staff for leaving it open-ended like that.
Another thing I liked was the Digital World itself, it had sort of a Narnia-like quality to it; being both inviting but also dangerous. I felt that it was at its best in the early episodes where the kids often encountered real-life objects like phone booths or convenience stores, but it's a fun place to be for the entire series with a nice variety of climates / environments.
Overall, it was a solid time. I didn't find it quite as good as Tamers; but I don't regret the time I spent watching it at all, it's a great combination of compelling characters thrown into an interesting world with lovable companions. I'm definitely interested in seeing where these characters go next!