The Digimon franchise has a major history of reinventing itself with each iteration of the franchise, but that can also be one of its major weaknesses. While the first two outings of the series told a centralized story, each of the following releases featured brand new settings, characters, and their own serialized narratives. This means that some of the following seasons have been more well received than others, and experimental takes on the franchise found less of a footing with fans than ever. So where does that leave Bandai and Toei Animation? Going back to the original Digimon Adventure well once more.
New details for the next Digimon anime have reportedly made their way online, and like the revisits to the original eight DigiDestined with Digimon Adventure tri and the upcoming 20th Anniversary movie, Last Evolution Kizuna, this next anime will reportedly (as noted by Ryokuta2089 and @AIR_News01 on Twitter) follow the original DigiDestined as fifth graders.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Reportedly titled “Digimon Adventure: ฮจ” (or Digimon Adventure: Psi as this article will refer to it for the remainder of it), this newest series will follow the fifth grade age Tai and his adventures with Agumon alongside younger versions of the DigiDestined. For a reported release later this April, there’s currently no details as to how long this new series will be let alone a full confirmation.
If it’s meant to be a totally serious new entry in the anime franchise, then it opens up a whole host of new questions about the timeline of the canon thus far. Although the DigiDestined were all introduced to the idea of Digimon as toddlers, the fifth grade age in particular has never quite been explored. It would also throw off all of their first adventures in the Digital World in Digimon Adventure.
But as Digimon Adventure tri and Last Evolution Kizuna will introduce a new canon ending for this original team, perhaps this new series will introduce a new beginning for all of them? This following of the original eight might be a little tiresome for fans hoping for revisits to Digimon Adventure 02 or Tamers instead, but maybe this will be just a slice of life type of anime not meant to be totally taken as the next entry in the franchise.
What do you think? Want to follow the original DigiDestined once more? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!
Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizunais currently scheduled for a release February 21st in Japan. Tomohisa Taguchi will be directing for Toei Animation, Akatsuki Yamatoya returns from the original series to write the screenplay, Seiji Tachikawa will serve as chief animation director, Hiromi Seki returns from the original series to serve as supervisor, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru returns as character designer, and Kenji Watanabe returns as the Digimon designer.