^Teaser Trailer
On Friday, August 1st an event was held in Japan in honor of Digimon’s 15th anniversary. At this event a new Digimon anime series was announced which will feature Tai (and probably the entire main cast) from Adventure in high school. It is a sequel to the Adventure line of anime which featured Adventure and 02.
Brief history lesson time: The first 2 seasons of Digimon (at its height of popularity) were set in the same continuity with the cast from Adventure a bit older and mentoring the cast from 02. After that, the series moved to a new format of doing one and done seasons set in alternate worlds (Tamers being the first to do that). Tamers was different in its far darker tone, and real world setting as well as its much more story driven approach. The original series existed in Tamers, but only as TV shows, card games, and video games until it was later found to be real. Next we have Frontier which was a drastic shift in its own right for not having Digimon partners, but having the kids transform into Digimon through spirit evolution. Its plot was also noticeably darker than the Adventure series, but not as dark as Tamers. Moving on we have Data Squad (titled Savers in Japan) which had a drastic art style change to more match the modern shounen style of the time. It also had another big change; before, the series’ protagonists were kids dragged into an adventure unwittingly. This series’ protagonists were part of a secret task force known as D.A.T.S. which protected the human world from rogue Digimon. Once again, the plot was darker. It was probably the only season that was arguably as dark as Tamers. Next we have Fusion (or Xros Wars in Japan). This series once again had kids falling into adventure as well as switching back into the usual quirkier Digimon art style. Its big hook was doing away with classic digivolution and moving to having the Digimon fuse together to form more powerful forms or even weapons.
What is interesting about this series is it could conceivably mark a soft reboot of the franchise. With a return to Adventure, the overall most popular of the various seasons, they could be trying to start over and build off of the first two seasons to finally have a continuity. Now, this is just speculation. But if it does well, I could certainly see them doing this. Honestly, I think it would be great. Finally building off the world they had built and not just starting over every time. My favorite season is Tamers and I have been dreaming of a sequel to it for years. But if they are using this to finally create consistency in Digimon, I will not complain. This could finally be Digimon’s chance to shine and I could not be happier. So bring it on!
When it comes out in Japan in spring of 2015 I know I will be watching and I hope enough people will watch to turn this into a hit.
Digidestined of the world unite! This is our moment, the one we have been waiting for. Let us not waste it.
