General Edits

There are some changes made throughout the dubs of the various Digimon series that occur in just about every episode.  Since it would be redundant to mention these in every single comparison, I'll compile the major edits on this page for easy reference.

The edits listed on this page only applies to the main TV series.  The movies are often edited under different standards.


Show Title

The Japanese version of the show & all merchandise go by whatever the name of the series for that year is. In America the show & all merchandise go by the name Digimon: Digital Monsters except for Digimon Savers which is called Digimon: Data Squad.

Cold Openings

In the Japanese version the way an episode is presented is Opening theme then the Recap followed by the first part of the episode. After a commercial break the second part of the episode would play followed by another break then the ending theme plays.

The dub on the other hand usually goes Recap-Opening-First 5 minutes-commercial-Rest of Part A-commercial-Part B-Ending with the exception of the first episodes of Digimon Adventure, Digimon Tamers & Digimon Frontier.

The Japanese version doesn't start using a consistent cold opening until Digimon Savers. The first episode of Digimon Adventure 02  has a cold opening though.

Opening Themes

Unlike with most other dubs of Japanese cartoons, the companies responsible for the English version of Digimon do not create English versions of the original Japanese themes.  Instead, all-new songs are created.  Video from the Japanese openings is rearranged and mixed with recycled footage from the episodes in the season for the new, shorter English openings.  A lot of the footage from the Japanese openings is removed, and most of the footage that is used is shortened and/or sped up.

Below is a list of the opening themes used in the dub and the sources for the footage used in the American opening.

English Song                                                              Clips Used

"Digimon Theme (Version 1)"                                      Butter-Fly

"Digimon Theme (Version 2)"                                      Butter-Fly, Episode clips

"Digimon Theme (Version 3)"                                      Butter-Fly, Target ~Akai Shougeki~, Episode clips

"Digimon Theme (Version 4)"                                      The Biggest Dreamer, My Tomorrow, Episode clips

"A World For Us All"                                                   Fire!, Innocent -Mujaki Na Mama De-, Episode Clips

"Digimon Data Squad"                                                Gou-ing, Going, My Soul, episode clips


The Japanese opening themes contain credits while the English versions do not.

Recaps
In the dub they throw out the original recaps and create their own. This is the case for the first 4 series.

Background Music

The companies responsible for the English dub of Digimon have replaced all of the original background music with their own music.

While the practice of replacing all of the music was common back in the 1990's and early 2000's it is rarely done now. Shows that have replaced all the music include Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, The BLT dub of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z (Prior to 2007), The FUNimation dub of Dragon Ball GT (Prior to 2008), Castle In The Sky (Prior to 2010), Monster Farm, The 4Kids dub of One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Sonic X.

Sound Effects
When Saban dubbed the show the replaced all of the sound effects. Once Disney took over the sound effects are the same as the Japanese version.

Title Cards
Every Episode in the Japanese version has a unique title card for every episode. The dub removes these and puts their titles on the first scene of each episode.

Japanese title screen for Adventure Episode 01

Dub title screen for Adventure Episode 01

Added Footage Commercial Breaks

Whenever the dub goes to commercial commercials play and whatnot. when the show returns from commercial they replay the last few seconds of footage before the break. This applies to the first 3 series.

Digimon Analyzer Screens
Whenever a new Digimon is introduced they have an analyzer screen with information about the Digimon. Strangely enough Saban didn't bother to translate the information in the dubs of the first 2 series.

Japanese Koromon analyzer screen

American Koromon analyzer screen

Eyecatches

The English dub of Digimon has no eyecatches period.

Eyecatch for Digimon Adventure

Ending Credits

The dub's ending credits consist of half credits and half footage. The footage can come from episode clips, Japanese opening themes and/or Japanese ending themes. Whenever the show aired on Fox Kids the footage would be replaced with commercials for other Fox Kids shows.

When Fox Kids closed up shop in 2002 when the dub of Digimon Tamers completed Digimon Frontier went into syndication and the credits played like normal. Whenever the show played on Toon Disney the credits played normally there as well.

This is in contrast to the Japanese version where for the first 5 series there were songs that played in the ending credits with their own unique animations. As with all Japanese cartoons the credits list the voice actors and the character(s) he or she played while the dub's credits only credit the voice actors by name.

Ending scene from Innocent -Mujaki Na Mama De-, the first ending theme to Digimon Frontier.

There have been 11 different ending themes throughout the first five series.

Next Episode Preview

After the ending credits finish the Japanese audience sees a preview of events that are going to happen in the next episode.

The preview screen used in Digimon Tamers.

The dub however has no next episode previews though sometimes when the show aired on Fox Kids the network made previews for upcoming episodes.