News

Digimon was once one of the biggest anime and media franchises out there, but it's also remained in the shadow of Pokémon. The same also goes for the original Digimon anime, creating a sort of nostalgia trap. Thankfully, there might be a way to take the brand in a new direction, and it's already being seen in non-anime mediums.

Digimon Liberator is the newest form of the franchise's card game, but it also has an accompanying web comic and web novel. Many have noted it as a unique version of Digimon in years, though others have noted that the mediums that the story is told through are almost hampering its potential. With all of this already laid out, an anime adapting these concepts is perhaps the best way to revive the franchise for anime fans.

What Is Digimon Liberator? Digimon Liberator Began in 2024 Image via Digimon Company

Digimon Liberator was...

Most anime are not geared toward children. Many of them have themes that only teens up to adults would be mature enough to handle. As a parent who loves anime, it's hard to know what and when to share one’s passions with one’s children. Parenthood can be tough. Thankfully, Crunchyroll has many anime that families - or just parents - can enjoy.

Crunchyroll’s plethora of series ensures all demographics are covered. Some anime are shared as a family. These anime are fun and cutesy or classic adventures that families can take on together. Other anime simply show the struggles and highs of parenthood, and how being an adult surrounded by children can affect one’s life. No matter what Otaku parents are looking for, Crunchyroll is sure to have an anime to fit the bill.

Related10 Best Shonen Anime For Kids, Ranked

For many children, a shonen...

The original Digimonanime is actually considerably dark for a children's series. With several references to adult media and regular intense violence that surpassed even Pokémon in brutality. Yet, some of these facts were downplayed in the original anime or omitted altogether. Some of this cut content, like Digimon eating people, is revisited in the horror-based anime Digimon Ghost Game. The newer anime is by far the darkest entry into the Digimon franchise to date.

Digimon Adventure is potentially one of the darkest children's anime that exists. So, it's surprising the original series left out anything at all. Much of this content would probably be relatively scarring for its particularly young target demographic, like the implication of a Digimon genocide. Many of these concepts are also too nuanced for a child to understand. While still plenty dark, the original Digimon Adventures anime omits many of the franchise's darker and disturbing details.

Anime fans know how far certain networks are willing to go to censor shows, and many examples have become infamous over the years. Recently, Digimon Adventure 2020 has become another entry in the long list of series that censors have significantly altered. The Arabic dub version of the anime has digitally changed the outfit of Mimi’s partner, Rosemon.

While something similar has occurred in the past with many shows in the region, like the recent makeover that My Hero Academia’s Momo's controversial costume received, this one has been heavily criticized. Fans noticed that the censors did the bare minimum to alter the character’s outfit, making her look odd and taking away from the overall experience.

Rosemon’s Arabic Dub Version Does Not Look Good Her New Clothes Are Extremely Low-Effort

Rosemon was one of the most surprising additions to Digimon Adventure 2020, being one of Palmon...

Quick Links How Do DigiDestined Come To Be? Are The Digimon Adventure DigiDestined The First Chosen Children? Why The Next Set of DigiDestined Were Chosen? Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning Retconned Digimon tris Original DigiDestined Theory

Since the original 1999 series, the Digimon franchise has gone on to expand its horizons in multiple directions. Except for Digimon Adventure 02, no other anime series in the franchise was a direct sequel to the original story until Digimon Adventure tri. A six-part feature film series, the seventh sequel in the franchise took the fans back to its roots. It featured the original eight DigiDestined and is set some three years after the defeat of MaloMyotismon.

Before this, it was always implied that Tai and co were the first DigiDestined, but this is retconned in both Digimon Adventure 2020 and Digimon tri. Before the events of the original, there were the first DigiDestined...

Between 1999 and 2000, the amount of internet users around the world more than doubled from roughly 150 million to 407 million . It was a momentous leap — it meant a lot not only for professionals that were finding their workplace activities to be inextricably tied to the online sphere, but for young people as well. The social media boom had not yet occurred, but the use of forums, chat-based communities, and even simple comments sections flourished. For years, connecting and making friends on the internet had been seen as a relatively singular practice, the kind of thing done only for devotees of very niche interests. Now, it was uniform amongst the millennial generation. Though it would take years for mainstream culture to accept the idea that online relationships could hold emotional weight like real-life relationships, the turn was already occurring. Related: Digimon Adventure 02 Anime Film Reveals New Trailer, Premiere Date 1999 was the year Digimon Adventure premiered,...

Digimon, as a franchise, has always had the perception of being Pokémon‘s less successful younger brother. That’s bound to happen when two Japanese media franchises choose to name themselves after the pneumonic of “Adjective + Monster,” with Pokémon meaning “Pocket Monsters” and Digimon meaning “Digital Monsters.” That perception, however, isn’t entirely fair. Digimon never reached the cultural heights that Pokémon did because truthfully: very few franchises do. But that doesn’t mean that Digimon didn’t have plenty going for it back during the dawn of the 21st century.

First starting as a series of virtual pet toys before moving on to video games, card games, other merchandizing, manga, and ultimately a moderately successful anime, the Digimon franchise was genuinely successful in the late ’90s and early ’00s. So much so that the digital powers-that-be must have felt they had everything they needed to compete with Pokémon. There...

Over 20 years ago, the Digimon franchise predicted the modern information society that has given rise to the metaverse, an emerging technology that some of the biggest companies in the world are investing billions of dollars in creating and building out.

Debuting in 1999 as the animated adaptation of Bandai's digital toy by the same name, Digimon Adventure tells the story of Taichi Kamiya and a couple of his friends at summer camp who are transported to the "Digital World" and made to defend that world and the real world from evil forces bent on conquering both. To help in their duties, the kids are assisted by Digimon - digital monsters that they train and take care of until they become powerful enough to take on the villainous Digimon such as Devimon. Later series like Digimon Tamers would introduce new groups of children who can use their Digivices to spawn Digimon in the real world.

While "Pokémon" continues to be an incredibly popular franchise after what feels like a bazillion movies and seasons of TV, "Digimon" never quite achieved the legendary status it deserved.

Yet those who grew up watching "Digimon Adventure" know this show to be a great gateway anime and an effective introduction to serialized storytelling. As a kid, realizing that I either had to tune in every week or miss a key part of the story was a terrifying yet thrilling realization. You could skip several episodes of "Pokémon" and be completely fine, but miss the broadcast of the new "Digimon" and suddenly the kids are in another continent, there is a brand new character, a major lore reveal, and a new big bad.

And this is not to mention the complex character arcs, and relatable problems and themes tackled by the show, including a couple of devastating deaths.

Sadly, the franchise...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "Belle"

Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max

The Pitch: Mamoru Hosoda, the Academy Award-nominated director of films like "Mirai," "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time," "Wolf Children," and the single best episode of "Digimon Adventure," wowed audiences at Cannes with his latest film, "Belle" — which received a 14-minute standing ovation. The sci-fi musical takes place in a world where the internet has grown to become a massive virtual reality called...

The post The Daily Stream: Belle Makes the Internet a Place of Good (and Rocks Out While Doing So) appeared first on /Film.

Earlier this year Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna was going to be released for a one night screening in the United States on March 25th. The film had already come out in Japanese theaters and American fans were excited to experience what is set to be the final adventure in the original Digimon continuity.

That sadly didn’t happen thanks to the coronavirus pandemic but now American fans will finally get a chance to see the film when it’s released to home media (Blu-ray/DVD) on July 7, 2020 thanks to Shout! Factory and Toei Animation. The film will not only include the original film in Japanese with English subtitles but also an English dub featuring original Digimon dub voice actor Joshua Seth reprising his role as Tai. The press release for the film mentions he will appear alongside “an exciting team of voice talent” but there’s no confirmation on...