Digimon Looks Back on 25 Years of Anime With Special Promo

Digimon has recently crossed over its 25th anniversary milestone, and the franchise is celebrating with a special promo looking back on how far it’s come thus far. Digimon is one of the most influential anime franchises of the last few decades. Although many of a certain generation might equate it to one of the many series that tried their hands at the Pokemon craze in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Digimon really has carved out its own identity in the time since so that it no longer even looks close to whatever Pokemon might be doing at the same time.

Digimon looks much different than it did when it first began its own anime franchise 25 years ago, and now is the perfect time to look back on it all as part of the 25th anniversary celebration. With eyes to the future of where the franchise might be coming next in the pipeline, Digimon has shared a special trailer showing off a fun look at its long past. You can check out the special Digimon “Beyond Evolution” promo in the video above.

Digimon Celebrates 25 Years of the Anime

Digimon might have started out life as a series of virtual pet games with Bandai, but kicked off its anime with the debut of Digimon Adventure back in Japan in 1999, and then grew even further when it officially debuted its English language release in North America and other territories later that year. This first season of the series immediately set it apart from Pokemon as it introduced eight different protagonists, known as the DigiDestined, and their Digimon partners. Unlike Ash in Pokemon, those in Digimon had a single Digimon partner that they traveled and grew with together. It really was a different vibe altogether with an entirely different kind of journey ahead of them.

Digimon Adventure proved to be such a hit that it continued with an official sequel, Digimon Adventure 02, and then new series followed that fully rebooted what had come before. Series such as Digimon Tamers, Digimon Frontier, Digimon Data Squad, Digimon Fusion, Digimon Ghost Game, and even a full rebooted TV series for Digimon Adventure: that brought back the eight original DigiDestined for a brand new take on their original journey through the Digital World. It’s been a long journey for the franchise, and it’s nowhere near over.

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What’s Next for Digimon?

Digimon has big plans for the anime’s future as it prepares for its next major era. Along wiht the release of this special trailer, and the debut of the Digimon Adventure: Beyond anime short, Toei Animation has also announced the next major anime in the Digimon franchise. Titled Digimon Beatbreak, there is unfortunately little known about what to expect from this new entry in the series outside of the fact that it’s already teasing a dark new Digimon with all sorts of potentially terrifying monsters in store in the episodes to come.

Digimon Beatbreak will be officially releasing some time this October as part of the Fall 2025 anime schedule, but a concrete release date or international release plans have yet to be announced as of the time of this publication. As the anime prepares for its release together with a packed Fall 2025 anime schedule, there is going to be a lot to look forward to for the franchise’s future. Perhaps even 25 more years of anime releases are on deck.

But what are you hoping to see from Digimon‘s future? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments!