When Digimon kicked off in 1999, it was dismissed by many as being a rip-off of the already massively successful Pokemon franchise. But people who glossed over it missed out on a franchise that was so much more than just another cartoon for children.

What started as a simple virtual “Digital Monster” pet toy, similar to the popular Tamagotchi of the mid-1990s, turned into a multi-series media franchise with nine films, several manga spin-offs, a trading card game, video games, and more.

The plot and characters vary wildly between each season of the television show, but the core is largely the same. School-age children get sucked into the Digital World, where they meet their partner Digimon and work to combat the threats that world faces before they spill into the real world. Each of these stories is largely a coming-of-age tale; as the Digimon evolve (or “Digivolve”) and become stronger, so do the children. While the Pokemon series has always maintained an easy, light, monster-of-the-week format, Digimon instead tackled subjects other children’s shows weren’t willing to address, such as divorce, loss, grief, rejection, and even death.

The first three Digimon series (Adventure, Adventure 02, and Tamers) are currently available to view in both its original Japanese and Americanized format on Netflix. As part of the 15th anniversary celebration, it was announced earlier this year that a new sequel to the fan-favorite first season would debut in Spring 2015. Figure collectors were also glad to hear that Megahouse will release figures of four of the main characters later in 2014.