18th Anniversary of Digimon Frontier!

[MarcFBR]

Time for another anniversary! It's April 7th in Japan, so Digimon Frontier began 18 years ago on April 7th, 2002!


(Various text below has been used in prior anniversary articles.)


Frontier was a show that both tried to go back to the anime roots of something akin to Adventure, but also trying numerous new things, including not having Digimon partners.


The show went back to the lost/trapped in the digital world adventure, and 5 kids were joined by 2 Digimon for most of the series (with other characters joining later.) Frontier did a lot of interesting things, but it's always been questions how 'well' they did them, with a sticking point for many people being that the majority of the cast never seemed to have much, if anything to do, but the show overall is still a pretty amusing watch.


Frontier was the end of the original run of the anime, but it did proudly make it thru it's product line (with some impressive releases near the end) and not burn the franchise out. Various Digimon products not only continued to come out after Frontier ended, but Frontier itself was popular enough that after it's ending, there were attempts in both the US and China to do continuations of Frontier (a cancelled manhua in China, and a new toyline in the US that would have story content.) The 2004/2005 'no affiliated show' toyline in the US used a modified version of Bandai's Digimon Frontier toyline logo and had a number of Frontier products in it.


It feels like in recent years Frontier has had more fans. During it's original run it wasn't quite as easy to watch in the US, as part of Disney's One Too block after the end of Fox Kids, and it never even aired in the UK (they only got DVDs last year.)


Frontier has been caught in the position in recent years of having relatively very little, likely because with interest being elsewhere it simply hasn't made sense to do much in the way of dedicated products. Frontier characters showed up in various 20th Anniversary brand products, recent V-Pets, and even appeared in recent games, but fans continue to hope for a fancy figure, updated D-Scanner, or something else. The Frontier Blu-ray box from last year, which included a new audio drama, was a big item.



A bit of a fun time for Frontier fans to share their thoughts on the show.



The Digimon Frontier Blu-ray box is still available to order: (Affiliate link)
Digimon Frontier Blu-ray Box



We did a full breakdown of the Digimon Frontier Blu-ray box last year, along with the new audio drama translated, like we do for many media releases, including the Tamers Blu-ray Box. If you are able to, donating or joining our Patreon can be a big help.




We also did a breakdown of the Digimon the Movies box a few years ago. This contains the Frontier movie.

The Movies Box got split apart into singles a few years ago, and everything is still available, including the full box: (Affiliate link)
Digimon the Movies Blu-ray Box
Digimon Adventure Movies Blu-ray
Digimon Adventure 02 Movies Blu-ray
Digimon Tamers Movies Blu-ray
Digimon Frontier & Digimon Savers Movies Blu-ray

 

[SparkGold]

look to the past
as we head for the future
to reclaim the Digital World!

 

[Vice]

Definitely a great series from start to finish, still remains one of my favorites.

 

[Mugenlazlo]

I own the 2013 DVD boxset of the English dub.

 

[Haralampos]

It started interesting but got pretty bad at the mid-end episodes. Also the backgrounds were...
For some strange reason I love it because, well Digimon nostalgia.

 

[AppliFang]

Reminds me of me wanting Tommy's bully group to take on the water/steel/earth/wood spirits instead of going home xD
I hope we one day get to see the other Ancient Forms in like Rearise

 

[darkbright]

I watched first three seasons plus Appli Monsters, but Frontier and others I did not. Should I watch it?

 

[Mon-Ohma]

Ahhh yes, the Underdog of the franchise.

While it did have it's shortcomings (the general treatment of Izumi for one thing), I did enjoy the show, and I'm not afraid to say I prefer it over the likes of Savers, Xros, and most of 02.
Out of all the Digimon continuities this one boasts probably the most interesting lore, plus I love the Trailmon. I only wish we could have seen more of the Ancient war.

 

[Nagatem]

To this day lucemon is personally my favorite digimon anime villain and his opening speech to the kids gives me shivers, the only thing I didn’t like is that they didn’t even give his base form a fight with them

 

[Nightwing]

This is the first I'm hearing of the US toyline continuation, all I usually hear about is the manhua. Pretty interesting.

 

[Unknown Neo]

Oh yes, this one. My best friend was pretty much JP while my favorite digimon come from this. Sure was weird. Bit I figure it's like Xros Wars/Appmon. The tried some new things, some might have worked, but it wasn't terrible. ...I think this site started around then right?

 

[Muur]

This is the first I'm hearing of the US toyline continuation, all I usually hear about is the manhua. Pretty interesting.

He's referring to Digimon force three I think.

Digimon: Force Three

Digimon: Force Three is an unreleased toyline consisting of three Digivices: Hyper, Fusion and Armor. They were exclusively developed by Bandai America during the Digimon Frontier era, but it was not officially released. According to the few available promotional material available, these...

digimon.fandom.com

 

[Nightwing]

This is the first I'm hearing of the US toyline continuation, all I usually hear about is the manhua. Pretty interesting.

He's referring to Digimon force three I think.

Digimon: Force Three

Digimon: Force Three is an unreleased toyline consisting of three Digivices: Hyper, Fusion and Armor. They were exclusively developed by Bandai America during the Digimon Frontier era, but it was not officially released. According to the few available promotional material available, these...

digimon.fandom.com

Thank you! This looks pretty interesting, really have to wonder what it would’ve been like if we got the toy line released. I’m sure there’s some speculation out there on the differences between the Hyper, Fusion, and Armor Digivices so now I have something to look into for today lol.

 

[Unknown Neo]

Oh yeah. Force 3. That's a definite what was that. Sure would have been weird if they actually did something with it.

 

[wildwing64]

Frontier skipped the UK back in the day, but even then I'll admit that the concept of kids transforming into Digimon instead of having partners was a bit off-putting at the time, and I've never cared for its designs all that much. But I eventually made myself watch it for the first time as Lost in Translationmon was covering it in 2017.

Sure, it had its moments. There were one or two episodes that I really liked, and there was that one self-aware gag that genuinely made me laugh out loud. The movie was okay too. But between the lacklustre main cast and story arcs that dragged far too long, I found Frontier very tedious to sit through and frankly, disappointing. But at least it gave me something to do while waiting for tri. Part 5.