It's the 15th Anniversary of the Digimon Savers movie!

[MarcFBR]

It's December 9th, which is the release date of the Digimon Savers movie, Digimon Savers the Movie: Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!!

Prior bits below may have been used before in prior anniversary articles...


The Toei Anime Fair, where previous Digimon movies had premiered ended a few years prior. The final fair had the Frontier movie, which was the last theatrically released Digimon movie prior to the Savers film.

Because of this, the Digimon Savers movie premiered as part of a double feature with Pretty Cure Splash Star Tic-Tock Critical Moment.


The movie is only 20 minutes, but has a different mood to it with the human characters missing for much of it, with the only main character evolving being Agumon towards the end of the film, also allowing viewers to see ShineGreymon: Burst Mode roughly a month before he would appear in the show.


It's shortness makes it an easy watch as an 'extra episode' of Savers. And the movie had some relevance to the franchise at large recently, with the main villain Algomon repurposed and reused in Digimon Adventure: in a number of episodes.




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

The Movies Box got split apart into singles a few years ago, and the Savers movie (with the Frontier movie) disc is available, as is the movie full box: (Affiliate links)
Digimon the Movies Blu-ray Box
Digimon Frontier & Savers Movies Blu-ray

 

[Mattman324]

with the main villain Algomon repurposed and reused in Digimon Adventure: in a number of episodes.

Rhythm was absent though, which is a shame because it means they lost the pun.

 

[Renegade_Productions]

It was a fun film, and the ending blooper reel was a nice touch.

 

[Idiysar Almond]

Wish Rhythm would appear again someday in any Digimon media.

 

[TMS]

Hey, after Luminamon-Nene, maybe she'll get a Reference Book entry.

 

[Yamato-san]

Hey, after Luminamon-Nene, maybe she'll get a Reference Book entry.

Rythm is certainly one of the more unusual "Digimon" in the franchise. She doesn't even have "mon" in her name, yet still claims to be one (as opposed to just a digital lifeform).

It was a fun film, and the ending blooper reel was a nice touch.

Agreed. Also, it kinda adds to the film's rather sudden setting, implying that it was all an in-universe work of fiction.

 

[Muur]

Hey, after Luminamon-Nene, maybe she'll get a Reference Book entry.

Rythm is certainly one of the more unusual "Digimon" in the franchise. She doesn't even have "mon" in her name, yet still claims to be one (as opposed to just a digital lifeform).

Well her name might be Rythmmon and she just dropped the mon as a nickname like Leo the Leomon

 

[Ricardolindo]

@shynely said at https://withthewill.net/threads/if-you-could-rewrite-any-digimon-series.26340/post-408828 that it seems this movie only happened because it was together with a Precure movie. Do you agree?

 

[Mattman324]

Hey, after Luminamon-Nene, maybe she'll get a Reference Book entry.

Not like she'd be the first non-Digimon in there, Yggdrasil 7d6 and Neo are also in, so I could see it.

 

[TMS]

According to her, at least, she is a Digimon, though there’s no evidence for or against it otherwise. Once Next Order came out I started thinking maybe she was in Luche’s position.

 

[Unknown Neo]

Yay. Huh. ...Did I see this before? So this is when Algomon first showed up.

 

[Theigno]

Out of all Digimon movies... this one did not leave a strong impression on me, even as someone who adored the rest of Savers.

The movie felt like it was the second half, or maybe just a proof of concept of a longer, better film. But on its own it never really came together.
The better Digimon movies all had something to add to their respective seasons. Take Diablomon's unstoppable growth as an inversion Apocalymon's denial of evolution and progress, Revival of the Ancient Digimon further expanding Frontier's Human vs Beast conflict, or even just Runaway Locomon acknowledging Ruki's father.
The Savers movie added... not much at all. Algomon doesn't have anything to set himself apart from the other Savers antagonists. Rythm's existence was too enigmatic to have any sort of wider implication for the setting. The titular unlocking of the Burst Mode would be something that the Series would present less than a month later in a much more impactful context.
I guess the one thing we didn't see before was Lalamon showing off some actual combat skills and the fight against the Goburimon and Ogremon was a highlight in terms of choreography overall. So I guess it still works as something fast and flashy.
(It's also the only Digimon movie that my wife hasn't seen yet, so maybe this anniversary could be a good chance to catch up.)

Also, it kinda adds to the film's rather sudden setting, implying that it was all an in-universe work of fiction.

I've heard that argument before, but to me assuming it to be a weirdly rushed inexplicable in-universe movie instead a weirdly rushed inexplicable normal movie never really seemed to shift anything into the film's favor.

Well her name might be Rythmmon and she just dropped the mon as a nickname like Leo the Leomon

The only way this would be a reasonable assumption would be if there was any evidence of Digimon nicknames existing in the Savers continuity... and there isn't.

 

[Yamato-san]

The titular unlocking of the Burst Mode would be something that the Series would present less than a month later in a much more impactful context.

Well, the movie did pretty much just serve as an early teaser of that. I've seen a few movies, specials, and OVAs of other anime that only existed for no other reason than to promote something or other, and didn't even try to tie into canon. For instance, I recall a Yu-gi-oh! 5D's special that premiered during a tour. Yusei and Jack are competing in some tournament with seemingly no build-up, it's just happening for the hell of it, and they both end up with some upgrade to their dragons which never appear again in the series. There've also been a number of One Piece shorts, only existing to show off 3D or to tie into a sports event or something.

I guess overall, stuff like this doesn't add much to their respective series. But if you aren't expecting anything especially great, and you just take them for what they are at face value, they can still be just a fun little romp.

 

[Ricardolindo]

Do you consider this movie canon?

 

[Mattman324]

Do you consider this movie canon?

It's blatantly not, there's essentially no time that the cast is in the human world and together and has access to the Geogrey Sword before Burst Mode - it's pretty much right as Masaru unlocks the Geogrey Sword that Touma fakes defection, during the fight where Eldoradimon dies. Also, pretty soon after that, Agumon's too dead to be there.

 

[TMS]

While it’s not canon, if I had to include it in a timeline I would put it between the defeat of Yggdrasill and the partner Digimon’s return to the Digital World.

 

[Ricardolindo]

Do you consider this movie canon?

It's blatantly not, there's essentially no time that the cast is in the human world and together and has access to the Geogrey Sword before Burst Mode - it's pretty much right as Masaru unlocks the Geogrey Sword that Touma fakes defection, during the fight where Eldoradimon dies. Also, pretty soon after that, Agumon's too dead to be there.

Couldn't it take place between Yggdrasil's defeat and the return of Masaru and the Digimon to the Digital World?

 

[Theigno]

Couldn't it take place between Yggdrasil's defeat and the return of Masaru and the Digimon to the Digital World?

That wouldn't make sense for a number of reasons.

The major one being that during episode 48 all the partner Digimon unlocked the ability to evolve all the way up to Ultimate without the need for a human Digisoul, simply from their desire to protect. That makes the situation where everyone is stuck at Child Level literally impossible and also completely negates the whole point the film made about Agumon's dependency issues at the start.

There'd also be less reason for conflict in the first place. Algomon's attitude towards human as selfish pricks who'd "involve the digital world in their mess", even if it's pretty lame, is a at least somewhat believable in a time-frame where the most notable acts of human involvement with the Digital World were the attacks by Kurata and his goons.
But right after the combined Digisoul of the human race played a pretty big role in saving the Digital World and the Royal Knights themselves were won over by them... not so much.

Then there's the Burst Mode scene itself; Masaru's Digisoul didn't seem to actually be enough to trigger the Burst Mode, only when Rhythm joined him and seemed to amplify the energy did the evolution happen. But why? Post-series Masaru should be able to activate it on its own very easily. In fact there would be no point to bother with the Geogrey Sword, or even ShineGreymon himself in the first place because Agumon Burst mode could just headbutt a hole into Argomon like he did with Yggdrasil. The implication in the movie clearly was that the Geogrey sword was the best the protagonists could muster at the time and the Burst Mode was something new and groundbreaking.

 

[Ricardolindo]

Couldn't it take place between Yggdrasil's defeat and the return of Masaru and the Digimon to the Digital World?

That wouldn't make sense for a number of reasons.

The major one being that during episode 48 all the partner Digimon unlocked the ability to evolve all the way up to Ultimate without the need for a human Digisoul, simply from their desire to protect. That makes the situation where everyone is stuck at Child Level literally impossible and also completely negates the whole point the film made about Agumon's dependency issues at the start.

There'd also be less reason for conflict in the first place. Algomon's attitude towards human as selfish pricks who'd "involve the digital world in their mess", even if it's pretty lame, is a at least somewhat believable in a time-frame where the most notable acts of human involvement with the Digital World were the attacks by Kurata and his goons.
But right after the combined Digisoul of the human race played a pretty big role in saving the Digital World and the Royal Knights themselves were won over by them... not so much.

Then there's the Burst Mode scene itself; Masaru's Digisoul didn't seem to actually be enough to trigger the Burst Mode, only when Rhythm joined him and seemed to amplify the energy did the evolution happen. But why? Post-series Masaru should be able to activate it on its own very easily. In fact there would be no point to bother with the Geogrey Sword, or even ShineGreymon himself in the first place because Agumon Burst mode could just headbutt a hole into Argomon like he did with Yggdrasil. The implication in the movie clearly was that the Geogrey sword was the best the protagonists could muster at the time and the Burst Mode was something new and groundbreaking.

Thanks for the explanation. I had also been told at https://www.reddit.com/r/digimon/comments/gkcouw/are_all_of_the_digimon_movies_canon_to_the/g0uexhh/ "Theoretically. But another problem with it's status is that Falcomon and the other Digimon aren't present. And Rhythms final parting words too. Basically, it's missing too much too be canon". What do you think of that?

 

[Mattman324]

Thanks for the explanation. I had also been told at https://www.reddit.com/r/digimon/comments/gkcouw/are_all_of_the_digimon_movies_canon_to_the/g0uexhh/ "Theoretically. But another problem with it's status is that Falcomon and the other Digimon aren't present. And Rhythms final parting words too. Basically, it's missing too much too be canon". What do you think of that?

There's a ton of reasons Falcomon could have been missing, Ikuto was only with the cast some of the time until the Eldoradimon fight. It's just that the timeline itself makes no real sense given the events of the series.

Which is fine, because it's not like it was really meant to be some super serious supplement to canon.