When I was a little monster I was obsessed with Digimon. I was born in 1992 and came of age when the Digital World was just beginning to take form.
Digimon was released in the US in 1999. I spent every waking moment on our Windows 95 desktop computer- fighting with my family to connect to the internet when they wanted to use the telephone.
I don't remember when I first watched Digimon- it seems as if it was always there.
Like many kids I had an imaginary friend growing up...
That's right- either I was highly unimaginative or just totally and completely obsessed. Davis from Digimon was my imaginary friend.
I could talk to him through electronics- telephones, computers, electrical outlets. He and Veemon would jump from telephone pole to telephone pole as we drove along and even I was granted the power to turn INTO a Digimon- thus Auzziemon was born.
I played the trading card game
I had my very own digivice
Of course I played the Playstation game Digimon World and fell in love.
I would wake up early on Saturday mornings to watch it on Fox Kids- even waking up early at my friend's house one time to make sure I didn't miss the new episode.
And then there was the movie- MY GOD- is there anything more 2000's than Digimon the Movie? It's got Barenaked Ladies - it's got retro tech- it's got Digimon- unfortunately it had ANGELA ANACONDA.
It had seemed like the culmination of my little life had finally come to be. Digimon the Movie- and I watched it over and over and over. My grandma took me to see it in theaters... bless her heart she had no idea what was going on but she took me anyways.
So you REALLY liked Digimon- but seriously why?
Digimon attempted to take the new internet age and make it friendly- to make it tangible- to imagine that the internet I loved so much could somehow create friends and we could go on adventures and transform. It was comforting.
As I was coming of age- so was the internet. We were intertwined- interconnected.
Eventually Davis disappeared- Digimon fell out of focus and I became an adult. I pushed nostalgia away for a long time because I felt it was something that did more bad than good. Now I indulge in it. The Digimon aesthetic- the early 2000's cyber monsters in the Digital World- it just feels like me.