8 Reasons Digimon Was A Better Show Than Pokemon

5. The Villains Weren't Treated As A Joke

Is there any more pathetic "villain" than The Team Rocket Trio of Jessie, James and Meowth? When they're not being blasted into the sky, they're being made to look like fools in a plethora of other different ways. Whether it's being soundly beaten by Ash and Pikachu, cross-dressing for no reason, or having their commands ignored by their own Pokemon, Team Rocket are clearly buffoons that aren't to be taken seriously. But even the Gym Leaders that Ash faces aren't really much of a threat, seeing as Ash has a tendency to do the same thing that Goku from 'Dragon Ball Z' does and befriend his enemies. As such, his Rogues Gallery is nothing more than a list of people he hasn't become friends with yet. And that lack of a proper villain makes everything seem superfluous in the long run. 'Digimon' on the other hand had a lot of proper villains, all of which were more than capable of being evil and tormenting The DigiDestined in interesting ways. Sure, they had a few "joke villains" like Etemon and DemiDevimon, but they were still treated as legitimate threats and caused numerous problems for our heroes. Plus, as The DigiDestined grew wiser and their Digimon became capable of digivolving to more powerful forms, the new crop of villains they wound up facing also became tougher to beat. The Dark Masters and Myotismon were all worthy adversaries, which made their eventual defeat all the more rewarding and overall satisfying.