Digimon Celebrates 20th Anniversary With Virtual Pet Rerelease

It's no secret that Pokemon had a rather wonderful year in 2016, but the Pocket Monsters are about to face an ominous threat this year. 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of Digimon, and the acclaimed anime is ready to take on its ever-popular contemporary with some nostalgic punches. To celebrate the milestone, Bandai is getting ready to bring back a very popular toy from its Digimon vaults, and it is going to have anime fans reliving their Tamagotchi-loving days.

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Not long ago, Bandai announced that it was bringing back Digimon's Virtual Pet devices which first debuted back in 1997. The little toys were very similar to the Tamagotchi toys, but the Digimon tech allowed users to battle each other one-on-one with their digital monsters. Now, fans can revisit those childhood days and nab one of these upcoming rereleases.

Of course, the Virtual Pet is very much like how fans will remember. The rectangular clip-on toys have some upgrades regarding speed, but most of its features are still the same. Owners will be able to battle others even if their opponents are using other Virtual Pet models. They will also be able to feed and play with their adorable Digimon, but the toy has gotten one notable upgrade. The single-player arena mode will now let you take on a horde of Digimon by yourself, so you don't have to necessarily have another player to do battle.

The rerelease will roll out the DigiVices in two colors, so you can rock a grey or brown toy on your keys if you'd like. However, you should be warned that each color will come with an exclusive Digimon. Gabumon will come with the brown edition while Agumon comes exclusively with the gray.

These DigiVices aren't the only way the beloved franchise is celebrating its 20th year. Toei Animation is also in the midst of reviving the original Digimon series with a six-part film series called Digimon Adventure tri. The on-going films follow Taichi Yagami and the DigiDestined friends during high school after they discover the real and digital worlds are being eyed by their biggest threat yet.

You can check out the below recap and synopsis for the Digimon Adventure tri. series before its fourth film premieres next month:

"Following Meicoomon's rampage and the Reboot, Tai (Taichi) and the others leave behind a distressed Meiko and head to the Digital World. But the partner Digimon that they've reunited with have lost their memories. They once again try to forge new connections, but only Biyomon is wary, telling her partner Sora that she doesn't know anything about the past. While Sora normally thinks of others even before herself, she now has distrust in her heart. As Sora stands heartbroken, Tai and Matt (Yamato) cannot find the words to help her.

A tearful Meicoomon appears and disappears again. For some reason, she has retained past memories, and is searching for Meiko. Upon seeing Meicoomon, the kids resolve to journey through the Digital World to save her, but a man with the Dark Masters at his command stands in their way.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Nishijima receives a notice that Himekawa has disappeared. When he investigates, he learns that she has had a hidden goal behind all her actions thus far."

[H/T] Crunchyroll