In terms of plot, “Digimon” is far more cohesive, memorable, and actually has an ending. There’s around six seasons (correct me if I’m wrong) that consist of a central villain or threat that is resolved in an epic way by the end of each season. While there’s a new batch of immature and whiny kids each season, they seem to have a very solid growth into great heroes, and you really feel that considering the villains they’re up against consist of evil puppets and clowns, vampires, the devil himself, and a city-devouring virus that looks like something out of Stephen King’s nightmares, among others. “Pokemon” feels like a long-running gag that was never funny to begin with, having to resort to pretty generic and basic formulas each episode to drag it along, including Team Rocket, who seem to think Ash’s Pikachu is the only damn one worth stealing. Like there isn’t an entire damn colony of those little yellow rodents living somewhere. Cult status or not, Team Rocket’s presence and single-minded motives hurts the show so much, it becomes repetitive, dull and frankly, extremely annoying.
Where “Pokemon” really excels at is having some truly epic battles, all that seemingly take place when Ash enters a tournament or league to compete against other trainers. You know, they’re pretty epic when Team Rocket doesn’t interfere… It’s basically what the entire show eventually builds up to, and the one reason why we watch it: seeing Pokemon beat the living **** out of each other, and yes, we get plenty of that action. However (and that’s a very big however), these tournaments are so far in-between the 500+ episodes of boring, dull, contrived, generic occurrences, that it becomes pretty hard for the show to have a solid momentum going. “Digimon”, on the other hand, has an abundance of absolutely badass action and memorable moments. When you have a battle consisting of dinosaurs wielding rocket launchers and guns against a giant wolf built out of steel and that’s not even the highlight of the show, you’ve got yourself a winner.
While I do think each show has great moments, it seems “Digimon” has more of it, therefore by default making it the obvious better show. Of course, I’m just giving my opinion here, because in the end, those who love “Pokemon” won’t be tilted by my thoughts. There’s plenty to like and dislike about each show too. Not to call “Digimon” the greatest show ever made, either, but when you have a perfect round-up of cool villains, a solid plot (especially “Digimon Tamers”. Whoa!), interesting characters with actual arcs (Looking at you, Ash), and an onslaught of monsters… with mechanical weapons… seriously, how do I disregard that? If I’m gonna give “Pokemon” props for anything, Mewtwo is one of my favorite anime villains ever and the theme song is infinitely more awesome than “Digimon”.
-from pandemineprime