Narm / Digimon

Oh my god, his foot altered that puppy's gravitational pull! OH, THE HORROR!

The various Digimon animated series are generally marketed towards younger children, so one should not fully expect the show to take itself entirely seriously... except for those times when it wants to be.

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Adventure

• Some of the voice acting and dialogue really has not aged well, notably Biyomon's actress sounds rather phoned-in near the beginning of the series.
• MagnaAngemon's fight with Piedmon, especially given his voice is mostly disembodied.
  Piedmon: Chew on this!
  MagnaAngemon: I'm not hungry.
• Many instances of Filling the Silence. One scene from "Biyomon Gets Firepower" stands out, where the kids watch Meramon descend the mountain from far in the distance. Rather than simply watching on in fear, the dub has them decide to stand still on purpose for a few seconds until Tai signals for them to run, as if that could possibly help.
• A few JesuOtaku pointed out in a retrospective review:
  Gabumon: (in a dead monotone) You're right Matt is in trouble and I must help.
  Tai: (trying to emote, but not succeeding) Watch out! He's gonna get everyone! And there's nothing I can do!
  Garudamon: (screaming) SORAAA, I can FEEL your LOOOOOVE! It's making me STRONG!
• From "Sora's Crest of Love", Sora's mom forbids her from going to play in a soccer game with a wounded knee and declares her decision is final, to which Sora angrily retorts "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST UNDERSTAND ME?!" and runs off to go cry. Try to watch that scene with a straight face, you can't manage it.
• Gomamon's perpetually cheerful resting :3 face, perhaps lending to his status as the most adorkable of the Digimon, is almost always in place regardless of what's going on. Including when he or his friends are beat up pretty badly or they've just gotten bad news. In his first episode in Adventures 02, he sports this face when knocked flat on his back, despite already sustaining injury from before.
• When the gang are discussing their favourite egg recipes, Joe has an insanely over-the-top freakout because he doesn't approve of the ones the others are suggesting.
• Then there's that scene with MetalSeadramon investigating a noise, portrayed by literally sliding a static drawing of him across the screen while he's curled up like a snake.
• The dub exclusive Insert Song "Hey Digimon". It's clear what they were going for, but its upbeat nature clashing with its use in climactic battles means it always feels hilariously out of place. Making matters worse is it rarely gets past the decidedly lazy first verse into the less repetitive lyrics due to the length of fights.
• Venom Myotismon and his laser-shooting crotch beast. And he was killed when someone kicked a ball-shaped portion of a building into his groin. Ow!
  • A case of Viewers Are Geniuses. This is how Satan was depicted in medieval art — with a crotch monster face.
    • For some reason, that just makes it funnier.
  • What makes that particular scene even better is Mimi's reaction. She clearly doesn't like what she sees.
• There's the infamous original Finnish dub of the show by the now-defunct dubbing company Agapio Racing Team, which seemed to have absolutely no standards for actors. Their dub of Digimon (as well as all the other shows they got their hands on) was full of narm because of insanely bad acting. Everything related to any sort of emotional performance was... awkward. Fury, sadness and joy indeed. One can find an abundance of Agapio clips on Youtube as well as here if they wish to experience the horror that all Finnish kids had to go through for a while.
  • This is the dub that killed Agapio. It was that bad and that notorious.
• In one moment early on in the show, there's a clip of Matt running as he's trying to find T.K. While this isn't too bad on it's own, it's the fact the show reuses this clip, three times in a row while speeding it up each time that makes the clip look silly.
  • This ends up happening a second time when T.K. runs away after hearing DemiDevimon's lies about Matt as well.
• The first time Matt's Crest was activated in the first season. Screaming "FRIENDSHIP!!!" at the top of your lungs kills the drama.
• How about the first time Tentomon digivolves into Kabuterimon? You can tell his voice actor was into the role.
  • Made even funnier in the English dub in that they hadn't perfected the voice they used for Kabuterimon - he sounded completely different to how he sounds later on, and not in a good way.
• From Myotismon onwards, the dub picks up the original's habit of playing a selection of Powerup Theme Music with lyrics every time a significantly challenging enemy goes down. What song does the dub use for this purpose? "Hey Digimon." There's something silly about a powerful, intimidating villain being killed off to a chorus of camp counselors with guitars gathered around a fire. Luckily, when 02 came along, it got better.
• The death of millions of Numemon is ruined by Agumon's shrill yell of "AAAAAAH! I feel the POWER!!!"
• Not even a MASSIVE fan of Garudamon could stop laughing at the scene in the dub where she picks up Sora. To quote the top comment: Sora's crying because of how terrified she is.
  Garudamon: Sooooraaaaa! I can feeeel your looove! It's making me strooong!
• The dub turned Apocalymon into a literal joke, and yet the DigiDestined take him dead seriously when he goes on his rant ending with "Why do you all get the pizza, while I get the crust?" Even funnier is Mimi's reaction, "Aah! I can't take all these metaphors!"
  • Even better when you remember what Apocalymon does in the original Japanese version of this rant; he digs his nails into his skin to show off his regenerative ability, something that Mimi would have every right to react in horror towards. Going from outright shock at gore on a kid's show to simply being annoyed at metaphors is worth a laugh by itself.
• The oddly squishy sound that plays whenever characters' stomachs rumble in the English dub.
  Pan Pizza: I don't think spontaneous ejaculation is a symbol of hunger, though it is a symbol of thirst.
• The flashback to the Greymon Vs. Parrotmon fight in episode 29. In the pilot movie, the fight was well drawn◊, stylized with fluid animation and just overall a sight to behold for the Japanese kids that watched back in the day, or the American viewers watching the movie. In this episode, it's mainly a still image and...well, let's just say that Greymon's eyes in the pilot don't transition well into a brighter, colorful and more limited animation style. Also, it looks like Greymon and Parrotmon are holding hands instead of putting each other in a Brawler Lock.
• The scene where Myotismon executes Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon on the spot for not killing Matt and T.K. is this in the dub, thanks to it being changed to him sending them to a dungeon. While still not a good thing to happen to anyone, the fact that our DigiDestined buddies treat imprisonment like it's death is nothing short of funny, especially Matt's teary-eyed "AND YOU JUST CONDEMNED THEM FOR NO REASON AT ALL!"
• Another good Matt moment: T.K. is stuck with Puppetmon and the other DigiDestined are interrogating his Kiwimon minion, who has a butler voice in this dub. The combination of Kiwimon's laugh ("ahawhawhawhawhawhawhawhawwwwww") and Matt's following, utterly furious "ANSWER ME!" come across as gut-busting in quick succession. Perfect for out-of-context compilations.

02

• There was a Narmy scene in the Japanese version which was cut from the dub. Before his Defeat Means Friendship, Ken kicks a puppy in the middle of the street. If the kick was more violent or stronger, then the scene wouldn't be so narmy. But not only does the kick look pretty non-violent, but also, in the background, villainous music starts playing, and Ken gives us a villainous grin alongside a villainous sound effect. Villainous, indeed... We may never know if the scene was cut for puppy-kicking or for accidental sarcasm.
  • He didn't even Kick the Dog - he tossed it with his foot, and the puppy just flies away in this slow, perfectly controlled, fake-looking arc, not helped by the fact that the puppy's drawing is recycled in every frame it does so. It looks like Ken was giving it a levitation lesson!
  • That, after the things he'd already done, the writers tried to demonstrate his evil with a dog kick is amusing from some perspectives. Those perspectives aren't quite in the mainstream, though. (We call the trope Kick the Dog for a reason.)

  • If you watched the episode on Nick Toons, the scene wasn't only edited to censor the kick itself.
• The episode where they find the Digi-Egg of Friendship. While the others are busy getting stomped around by the Monster of the Day, he is thinking to himself about how friendship is so powerful. He ends it by screaming, "Veemon, I'm your frieeeeeeend!" A Moment of Awesome follows, but it's still a ridiculously corny scene.
  • As compared to the Japanese version. "Dammit... I'm so pathetic!!!!"
• In one of the final episodes, we have the puppet guy gather all of the Dark Spore kids. They then go into a little world-between-worlds kind of thing. How do they get there? By chanting "Boys and girls, boys and girls, let's all go to the Digital World" in a creepy singsong voice.
  • Particularly funny is one kid who says "I WANTED to be a comic book artist but all the other kids laughed at me so I gave up on it." And THAT makes Myotismon break apart and scream in pain some more even though it's a negative comment about a broken dream!
    • The implication was that he was now admitting his dream and was willing to come back for it - but the terrible delivery, as it often does, made the narmification.
• The dub ended up with the kids calling the Armor Evolution incantation as "DIGI ARMOR ENERRRRRR-GIZE!" for the sake of lip sync.
  • To be honest, it's not like "DEJIMENTAAAAAL UUUUUUUUPPU!" really sounded any better.
• A classic one (that, back at the time, was a frequent joke among the fandom): when listing Chimeramon/Kimeramon's body parts, the Digimon Emperor notes pretty badass and probably useful parts of equally badass Digimon: Angemon's wings, SkullGreymon's arm, Garurumon's legs... and MetalGreymon's hair. There's absolutely no real use for it other than aesthetics, especially considering on how much useful other parts of MetalGreymon would've been. Oh, and Ken lists that part last, giving a really funny Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking feel to the scene. And since the first time isn't funny enough, the parts are re-listed by the older Chosen Children later, in the same order, again, highlighting such an important part of the villain's plan.
  • Not to mention his gloating about creating an original digimon, when all he did was create a Sailor Earth.
• In Episode 40, when we learn that Michael's father is an actor, a poster◊ for one of his movies is briefly shown. It's an obvious parody of Indiana Jones, but the tile? 「闇を撃て：地獄のターゲット」 "Yami wo Ute: Jigoku no Tāgetto," which literally translates to "Shoot the Darkness: Hell's Target."
• Aquilamon's dub voice. Hawkmon starts off with a shrill, posh voice befitting his nature, and Halsemon and Shurimon are both given smooth, dignified voices. Aquilamon, on the other hand, sounds like Cookie Monster, plain and simple. Say what you will about the other Champion voices, but at least they fit the designs to some degree. It gets even worse with Silphymon, who combines that with Gatomon's higher-pitched feminine voice.

Tamers

• Typically, a Digimon's voice becomes more adult-sounding and then more bestial-sounding as he or she advances through the five (six if the tamer is lucky) Evolutionary Levels. Sometimes, different forms of the same character have different voice actors (for instance, Agumon was voiced by Tom Fahn while his evolutionary levels were voiced by Michael Lindsay, Lex Lang, and in Digimon Adventure tri., Kyle Hebert). Not so in the third season. The voices remain the same as their childlike "rookie" forms throughout. For Renamon, whose voice is that of an adult woman, it's perfectly fine. But for the high-pitched Guilmon and Terriermon, it's hard to take their voices seriously when they're coming from cyborg dinosaurs and rabbits. It's also the only Digimon dub to do this, and it's especially noticeable since Digimon: The Movie already gave Gargomon and Rapidmon lower-pitched voices than Terriermon. Thankfully, this tends to grow on the viewer quite a bit.
  • The highest levels are formed when the Digimon and the human partner merge together, resulting in a form that looks impressive but still has the standard rookie voice and the standard kid voice talking at once. But their lines are written for a warrior. It's hard to keep taking the scene seriously when a pip-squeak dual voice yells stuff like "There is no excuse for your actions! I will see that justice is SERRRRRRRVED!" or "Your judgment day is at hand! For the horrible things you've done, you must pay the ultimate price!" at the top of its lungs. Of course, since Evil Is Cool, Megidramon and Beelzemon don't sound too much like their rookie forms. Neither does Ax-Crazy good guy Cyberdramon, whose human partner is more the Kid with the Leash.
  • This happened in the Japanese version as well. It was to point out how their personalities were the same regardless of Digivolution; in Digimon Adventure, they supposedly became different people. Ryo's Cyberdramon was different for All There in the Manual reasons. But yes, the voices do sound weird, and it was still confusing. And as much of a Living Legend as she is, Masako Nozawa's higher-pitched voice coming out of Dukemon/Gallantmon tends to be this for the same reasons it was when it came out of Son Goku as an adult, at least for English viewers.
• Takato's crying scenes. In the first few episodes, Takato had a weird tendency towards crying over the most redundant things, especially ones related to Guilmon. Some could say that this was a way for the writers to portray Takato as the 10 year-old he is contrasting with his (and the other children's) maturity later in this season; but it's still hard to take seriously.
• The scene in Digimon Tamers in which Takato is about to get shot by Beelzemon. The other Tamers all shout his name, trying to warn him... And you hear their voices slowed down. This troper almost cracked up. Granted, it's followed by a Moment of Awesome, but still... Slowed down voices are hilarious.
  • It's narmy in both the original Japanese and the English dub.
• That incident in Digimon Tamers episode 20, when Takato successfully used a hilariously-bad copy of the Blue Card (done by Hirokazu) to evolve Growlmon to WarGrowlmon. It was supposed to be serious, and It Makes Sense in Context, but the way that bad artwork that is the Faux Blue Card is shown during the card slash sequence and the subsequent successful evolution of Growlmon (which we could not have predicted would work) was hilarious.
• Another incident in Tamers occurs in episode 23: With Takato and company's Digimon losing Takato just screams and it works. That wouldn't be so narmy enough, except Rika and Henry join in on the screaming and Takato keeps screaming while the Digimon are fighting. This might have been cool if it had happened in Dragon Ball Z, but here it comes of looking silly. Which is a shame as that was a great episode until that moment.
  Takato: MAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
  • What's even sillier is that in-context, this could've worked. A Digimon's strength is tied to their partner, and it's likely Takato and the others were trying to concentrate their own determination into their respective Digimon by way of Kiai (as evidenced by Takato doing a similar thing after Leomon's death, this time taken far more seriously). The way it's presented here, however, ended up turning this into a narmy moment.
  • In the English Dub, at least, Rapidmon even lampshades this, saying, "What's with all the yelling!?"
• When Vajiramon and Pajiramon appear in Tokyo, they need to power themselves up by consuming digital data. They accomplish this by breaking a shop window and swallowing hundreds of CD-s. The way it's animated is even more ridiculous than it sounds.
• Majiramon's appearance. He's the Dragon Deva, one of the twelve warriors who serves the Digimon Sovereign (specifically, under Azulongmon, the Big Good of Digimon Adventure 02). So in essence, he's a bodyguard for the Digital World's god. Despite this, he looks like an old moose-headed skink wearing a sweater. Even Kumbhiramon had a less narmy design than him!
  • Not to mention his role in the series is simply to ferry Makuramon around the Digital World in search of Calumon, and his ultimate fate is becoming Cyberdramon fodder.
• Andromon's voice. Thankfully, he's in his Guardromon form more often.
• Henry suffering an emotional breakdown over a computer game.
  • He's a pacifist, so...
    • For a pacifist, he happens to use his Digimon to kill a LOT of other Digimon throughout the series.
• The possessed owl warning Takato and Henry of "THE DEVA!", in a voice that can only be compared to that of a television evangelist. Then again, the scene is very clearly played for laughs.
  • On that note, Sinduramon itself. It's not the fact that it's an electric chicken that makes it narm; it's the fact that it's an electric chicken who somehow possesses an owl to speak to them. At least the dubbers were making the best of an already weird situation.

Frontier

• When the kids collected Spirits, they sometimes yelled, "SPIRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Also, sometimes they would dramatize/narmitize their attacks:
  "I call upon the power of (insert whatever here)!"
  "I summon the (insert whatever here)!"
• From Island of Lost Digimon, the Human Digimon's Super Funky Disco Neon Tank.
• Koichi and Tommy trying to fend off the Royal Knights with a catapult that launches big snowballs.

Savers/Data Squad

• Just about every instance of This Is Unforgivable! is kept. It won't take you long to realize why most translations change it. It just does not sound badass in English.
• Kurata has his elements of this in Digimon Data Squad. The fact that they're usually followed by him showing off what a monster he is goes to show that even this trope has its merits.
• The fact that Keenan in Digimon Data Squad speaks in You No Take Candle is bad enough, but the fact that he refers to humans as hu-mons sounds both stupid and irritating. He wasn't Raised by Wolves, the Digimon could all speak articulately! Why is he even talking like that, anyway?

Xros Wars/Fusion

• Shakkoumon ruins any dramatic line he delivers, thanks to his ridiculous voice. Both in Japanese and in English.
  • Shakkoumon's character design itself is narm incarnate. That the two forms which combine to make him are a dinosaur and an angel doesn't help matters.
• Marcus punching out a group of VenomMyotismon. Obviously intended to be awesome, it was so stupidly over the top that it wound up being this instead.

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