Ah, the sweet early 2000's and their sweet, sweet animated series. I think we can all agree that animated series for kids were better before today. Sorry Paw Patrol, PJ Masks and Peppa Pig, you just can't beat our childhood heroes.

One of my favourite childhood anime is Digimon. How I wished I would have a Digimon of my own. We would have been best friends and would have saved the world together. Or maybe just napped all day, or both in the same day. Whether you grew up watching the anime and dreamed of one day becoming a DigiDestined or fought with all your heart against those who wouldn't agree to say that Digimon is just some kind of ripoff of your favourite Monster anime, you definitely have heard of it.

And if you haven't, let me ask you: Have you been living under a rock your whole life? If so that's another problem.

Oh, I can still see it so clearly: all the kids on the playground picking sides "Team Digimon" or "Team Pokémon" but you couldn't be both. If you were, like I was, you had better keeping it quiet.

Since its reboot in 2016, the Digiworld welcomed back old friends and made room for new ones to join Agumon, Tai and the other DigiSaviors on their next grand adventure to once again save the world.

Not everyone is fair when it comes to the series. You know how the internet is, cruel and heartless at times, but also damn right hilarious. From low level mockery to hidden innuendos, let's revisit some of our favourite Digimon memes.

25 Why So Cruel, Internet?

"Digi-what? You mean the anime where people capture monsters and put them in balls?"

How many have you heard that ? I know, too many. The other ‘monster’ anime cast such a shadow on Digimon that people often confuse the two. The series is complex and illustrates a number of situations in which the characters are forced to learn and change the way they apprehend things.

Contrary to other similar kids’ shows, the characters learned from their mistakes, which enables them to use their knowledge in future battles.

The newest season brought back a number of fans who grew up watch the original series simply because they wanted to know what their childhood characters had become. Having the characters grow from childhood to adulthood is unlike most of the animated series we grew up watching, and Digimon should be recognized, if only just for that.

24 It's Not The One I Wanted, Mom...

Rude. Just, rude.

Ok, the two franchises aired roughly at the same time. Both have children as main characters. Both have little monsters. But come on! They're fundamentally different!

If there’s one point in which the two series differ, it’s definitely the way the "monsters" are treated. Digisaviors befriend their Digimon have this powerful relationship that links them across worlds. And then you have Pokémon Trainers who fight the Pokémon, trap them in Pokéballs and force them to fight other creatures. And then somehow, they become friends along the way.

Can you tell which team I’m on ?

Also, if you’re a 90s kids, you have to have had one of those Tamagotchi. Remember how much you loved your Tamagotchi , how many times you rebooted it because it kept ending? Yeah, Digimon started the Tamagotchi, so we need to the series a bit more credit if only just for that.

23 Fear Me, I Am The Night!

TK and Kari are the very incarnation of goodness. Both their characters were younger than the rest of the group and despite them having the strongest Digimon, they remained the ‘little brother/little sister’ in the mind of many.

I can’t blame you if you still think them too cute to also be fierce but you need to give them some credit.

We all know that at the end of the day, everyone just expects them to fly to the rescue on the back of their awesome Angelic Digimon and save the day.

They both bring hope and light in times of darkness, and that’s a pretty heavy burden for such young shoulders. They also wish to avoid fighting and find a peaceful solution when possible and I think we need to give them some credit for that.

22 Sorry, The Ship Crashed...

I won't lie, I wanted Tai and Sora to end up together. It made so much sense for the two main characters to be together. But no, Sora had to break poor Tai's heart and fall for his best friend. Thing is, I wouldn't have minded them not being an item if there hadn't been SO MANY CLUES leading us to believe otherwise.

Hands up if you felt cheated. Just me?

The writers of the show said years later that Tai and Sora were never gonna end up together. It was always Matt and Sora, from the very beginning so that's kind of a relief to know they just didn't sudden decide to break Taikashi's young heart.

As much as it hurt me when I saw Sora and Matt together, I understood. I mean, Matt is pretty cool and handsome... for an anime character.

21 The Brainwashed Heroes

As much as we love Captain America, we can't help but feel the burn on this meme. Comparing Digimon to Hydra? We see where this is going, but also... how dare you? It's not like every meme has to automatically pit the two largest portable monster franchises against each other... or do they?

So you're suggesting we'd have to be brainwashed to like Digimon over Pokémon?

We know that's what happens in Avengers, and I don't think we take kindly to the implication. Cap totally knew what he was doing! And he totally made the right choice when he chose Hydra. Right? Ok, it really can't be just me here.

20 Painted With The Same Brush

So we see what the internet thinks. They're just determined to throw up the comparisons to Pokémon, and that's just plain rude. Both series have their merits, guys.

But if we're referring to the characters' designs, I can sort of see why you would poke fun at the similarities. 

As the later Pokémon generations came out, they started to look a little... familiar. Is it just me? Or is the almighty Pokémon taking inspiration from our beloved Digimon to further its own cause? Because that's super ironic and I'm loving it.

Perfect. More please.

19 Digi-ception

Despite the implications, we really like this comic style! It's quite funny to imagine the Digimon characters playing Pokémon Go, since the game was so popular in the last couple of years. It's true that Digimon hasn't come up with something as groundbreaking as the interactive augmented reality game.

Does this meme suggest that Pokémon and Digimon exist in the same universe? That they know each other?

Maybe Digimon needs to (literally) up their game to stay relevant. The reboot might not be enough to establish that, especially if Matt and the Digimon are actually playing Pokémon Go themselves...

18 I Know, I Know: "Not This Again"

Before we get into the whole Digimon VS Pokémon debate, can we take a moment to appreciate just how gorgeous this art piece is.

There's a number of creature from various animes in this picture. Can you spot the Digimon?

Honestly, I don't see why any of these creatures would want to be part of the generation of Pokémon. I mean, one of the new Pokémon of the 5th generation is a literal garbage bag. And I mean that literally, it's a bag full of garbage. Don't want to part of that team, I'm telling you.

I also doubt Pikachu would ever appear so condescending and full of himself. He may be strong, but he's not actually that rude.

Art by ogawaburukku.

17 Fear The Blob Attack

You laugh... but have you seen Tokomon’s fangs ? That thing looks dangerous with its mouth open so maybe don’t mock it too loudly if you want to keep all your fingers.

Is Tokomon just a face with legs, or just a body with a face? It's not clear.

Tokomon is an In-Training Digimon which makes him pretty weak, however, it needs to be remembered that this little potato eventually turns into freaking Angemon, and that’s pretty darn cool.

It’s easy to underestimate such a cute looking thing, but Tokomon is actually one of the bravest In-Training Digimon. Like its next form Patamon, Tokomon always runs head first into battle when his friends are in danger gives everything it has to save them regardless of how much stronger the other Digimon is. That, my friend, is what I call awesome.

16 Dino-mon

It hurts. It hurts too much.

Don't get me wrong, I love the relation between Digimon and Jurassic Park, because it totally confirms the coolness of Digimon. Except we can totally feel the burn with this, cause I feel like it's ironic.

The redesign in the meme is actually kind of cool. Maybe Universal needs to consider an Digimon-inspired Jurassic Park animated show! This would totally be a great show to watch on Saturday mornings, maybe almost as cool as the original Digimon show... if y'know what I mean.

15 Possibly The Worst Pun In Existence

I'm torn between laughing at how ridiculous this meme is and just walking away pretending I never laid eyes on it.

If you've gone so far in the depth of Internet and know that term is, you're probably laughing at the bad pun. If you haven't gone so far in the depth of Internet to know what that is, then you might want to remain clueless forever.

Apart from sharing a terrible pun, this meme is one of those you can never unsee. My brain will make this connection every time I see Tai, until the end of time. Thank you Internet!

14 I Feel Like This Is Uncalled For

For those of you who don't know who M. Night Shyamalan is, he's a film maker and script writer who's notorious for ending his movies with sometimes strange plot twists (no spoilers, I promise). He's known for making Sixth Sense, and more recently The Split. If you've seen any of his, movies then you'll get what the meme means more than I could ever explain.

A gentle surprise is fine. A slap in the face; not so much.

Now that I come to think about it, I see something familiar with how Matt and Sora's couple was revealed in the series and the crazy ending of M Night Shyamalan's movies.

13 Would He Though?

I'm not even gonna try to deny it: yes, Tai is one of the most stubborn and reckless characters in the history of animes. That will not change!

BUT! He's not stupidly reckless. He has a whole issue with asking for help, but he knows where his limits are and he would never go beyond them unless he knew he could count of the other DigiDestined to be there to back him up.

He also rarely fights for no reason. I can't imagine him just deciding to get into fights for no reason, and especially not to just provoke a Digimon that looks too strong for him. On top of all that, we know Matt would catch him red-handed before Tai got a chance to escape the others, so...

12 Those Kids Are More Complex Than We Think

What bugs be with this memes is how uni-centric it is. It's not untrue; apart from Kari who's just a ray of sunshine on a stormy day, all the other characters have major flaws that seem to clash with the Crest they received.

The characters have layers, like onions.

But that's the beauty of this show! The characters are young and complex, and they have everything to learn. They need to learn to put their pride aside, how to find the balance between intense and outspoken, and learn how to have faith in themselves.

And that's exactly what they do, and why they are assigned their crests. They learned how to embody their crests and it allowed them to activate their power and grow into better people.

11 Oh Dear, What Have You Done?

This is a great meme in favor of Digimon, since it once again proves how much more intense they are compared to Pokémon! Who needs anatomically correct fantasy creatures? Not Digimon fans!

No one is gonna mess with that intense-looking monster. That's as it should be!

Look how much cooler the Digimon looks compared to that boring Mudkip! Even if the Digimon itself isn't technically a real one... This is so much better anyway. Grab all the weapons you have within reach, nab that duct tape and go to town!

Presto, a super cool and efficient Digimon. Next!

10 Mild Party Accepted

As it often is the case in kids' cartoons, there are little to no adults present. No adults, and more importantly, no parents!

The kids are barely preteens and they're left to not only figure life out on their own, but also save everybody else's skin.

No wonder they need to unwind from time to time. Considering how very little they are taught about life and social interactions before they are released in the wide world (or worlds in this case), it is close to a miracle that firstly, none of them disappeared during a battle and none of them fell ill from the lack of an adult cooking decent meals for them.

I say we let them party, in moderation, of course.

9 Forever Misunderstood

Remember when Tai and Matt got into that crazy fight and finally addressed all the sacrifices they had to make? This is yet another opportunity for Digimon to show the world how developed their characters!

The friendship between Matt and Tai is a very strong one, as are the other bonds between all the DigiSaviors. 

Even with all the terrible fights and efforts the team goes through together, they always have each other's backs. This meme pokes fun at this, since Matt clearly represents his "friendship" abilities.

8 Oh Please, Stop Hurting My Eyes (And My Memories)

When people don't compare Digimon Fans with Pokémon Fans, they often think Digimon is just another anime for kids. Because we watch anime, people just assume we refuse to grow up and face adult life, but really, we're just trying to make it a little better than it is.

Let's face it, paying your bills, going to work, cooking your own meals, doing laundry... that's no fun at all.

So what if we watch anime and wish we could get sucked into our computers to explore the Digiworld? You'll beg us to come with the day we find how to get there and just might leave you behind for being so close-minded.

7 Still A Better Love Story Than Twilight

This is actually pretty funny, and likely the only time fans of both monster franchises will every agree. Twilight was a true blight on the world, changing the face of memes and internet jokes.

Renamon might look serious, but he'll never crack that classic "Stewart Blue Steel".

How about we collectively elect to delete the whole decade of Twilight movies? Would anyone really object to this? I think the world would honestly be much better off without them... and probably without any terrible, stiff acting. Not naming any names, or are we?

6 That's A Whole Lot Of...

You know what, Numemon is actually not that bad.

Yes, it will throw something at you if you get too close. Yes, it looks like a giant questionable blob and hangs out weirdly. Like, literally, Sakumon is an oddly-shaped Digimon. But they're just not that bad.

I'm sure they could be really friendly if people stopped judging them on their appearances rather than their personalities. Put you in their metaphorical shoes for a minutes and think about how you would feel if people constantly seemed disgusted around you. I'm sure you would want to throw poop at them too. Or maybe just a small rock, because that is kinda gross.