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It's July 8th in Japan, which is the release date of Digimon Adventure 02: Hurricane Touchdown/Transcendent Evolution! The Golden Digimentals.
[Various bits have been used in the past.]
The movie premiered as part of the 2000 Summer Toei Anime Fair.
The film was used as the last of 3 parts for the American composite Digimon the Movie, and is the one that had the most alterations (mostly from footage wholesale being cut, which based on who you ask may in fact make the movie better.)
Directed by Shigeuasu Yamauchi, it focuses on the 02 kids in a sort of pseudo road trip movie in the US.
The movie is one of the more argued about quality wise, in nearly every aspect.
Various aspects of the film act different than a number of other Digimon films at the time, which often ends up being unappealing to some, while others see it as fresh and exciting.
Elements like the BGM are done in ways that feel significantly different. While the story itself finds a way to tell a story where the 02 kids are active (in separate groups), while the Adventure kids have been captured in a story relevant way, which unfortunately peters out by the end.
The film had some interesting and unique battle scenes, which still look quite nice today, but the film overall will probably be remembered for Wallace, and more notably, Terriermon, who went on to be one of the more popular Digimon.
It's also noticeable for the heavy amount of 'America' used in the film (nearly the entire film is takes place in the US), imagery, and it's promotion, with the poster even including the flag, likely being aware of the popularity the franchise had gained in the US and wanting material that could be used for export to the US later. (The US release of Digimon the Movie being less than 3 months after Hurricane Touchdown opened in Japan being reasonably unique for that era on top of it.)
While it will continue to be one of the more argued about films, in nearly every way. It was also unique in being the longest of the original batch of Digimon films, over an hour, which was somewhat of a rarity in those type of road show film fairs, showing the interest in having that kind of Digimon content (and being the only full theatrical Digimon film in Japan to run over an hour until Kizuna earlier this year.)
It is also one we gained a decent bit of behind the scenes details on from Hiromi Seki at the first Digimon Con.
And then we also have a bit of a Savers anniversary!
July 8th was when Digimon Savers 3D: The Digital World in Imminent Danger! was first run at Sanrio Puroland. Run as a motion ride in 'The Machine of Dreams' (a theater with seats that could tilt and shake to emulate a ride, etc.) for 2 years.
It features the Digimon from Savers (along with Culumon) having an adventure in a theme park in the digital world.
It was later used as a standalone film in the 3d Toei Anime Festival (and later DVD), and even made it's way to Blu-ray in the Digimon the Movies Blu-ray Box. The Blu-ray even properly reproduced the 3d from both the ride and festival (I think the DVD skipped 3d entirely... or went with the red/blue glasses? Not sure.), since proper 3d was supported in Blu-ray.
While it doesn't allow the motion aspects from the original ride to be reproduced (which actually is a feature that can be reproduced, to some degree, on home video), it at least allows fans with the proper equipment to be able to view the footage based on how it was originally produced.
A few different fun anniversaries for wildly different Digimon content.
We did a breakdown of the Digimon the Movies box a few years ago. This contains both the 02 movie and the Savers short.
The Movies Box got split apart into singles a few years ago, and the 02 movie disc is available, as is the movie full box: (Affiliate links)
Digimon the Movies Blu-ray Box
Digimon Adventure 02 Movies Blu-ray
The Savers short is not available on Blu-ray outside of the box.
