Digimon Celebrates the Year of the Snake (With Paildramon)

Multiple anime and manga companies are celebrating the new year with happy celebrations and new promo images. The Digimon franchise is celebrating a very important anniversary in 2025, plus the Year of the Snake. The Lunar New Year is an annual tradition in East Asian countries that typically takes place several weeks after New Year’s Eve. Each Lunar New Year is connected to one of the Chinese Zodiacs, with 2025 being represented as the Year of the Snake. Digimon has played around with the Chinese Zodiacs in Digimon Tamers, where the twelve evil Devas are based on the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Sandiramon was the snake Deva that the tamers fought against in the show.

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Bandai is celebrating the Year of the Snake with a new colorful image with Sandiramon, Coatlmon, and Paildramon. Coatlmon is another snake Digimon, being one of the armor digivolutions for the Digi-Egg of Light. Paildramon, who takes center stage in the new promo, is noticeably not a snake. He is a dragon-type Digimon with machine guns on his waist. Paildramon’s appearance is a reference to the fact that Digimon Adventure 02 will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025. While it is unknown what the franchise has planned for the Adventure 02 anniversary, the series is getting a leg up with the celebration with the New Year’s promo.

Digimon Adventure 02 is Turning 25 for Year of the Snake

Digimon was riding high at the turn of the century. The franchise’s digital pet toys and the original anime were colossal successes, which led to the first sequel show for the anime. Digimon Adventure 02 was a direct continuation of the original Adventure series, focusing on a new group of characters with the original cast serving as mentors and side characters. Adventure 02 has endured among fans for the last 25 years, serving as one of the most well-known seasons in the franchise. The show introduces many iconic moments, including armor digivolutions, Digi-Eggs, fusion digivolutions, and memorable antagonists like Black Wargreymon.

Paildramon is often viewed as one of the mascots of Adventure 02, being one of the major points for the marketing of the Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning film. Paildramon was the first Digimon fusion introduced in Adventure 02. The concept of Digimon fusing together was first revealed in Digimon: The Movie with Omnimon (aka Omegamon), but Paildramon was the first to firmly establish it as a concept that any Digimon can do.

Paildramon was a fusion between ExVeemon and Stingmon, acting as the main muscle for the main characters in the later half of Adventure 02. Paildramon can further evolve into Imperialdramon, which has two modes – Dragon and Fighter. Dragon mode is more a monstrous version of Imperialdramon, whereas Fighter mode is more of a knight with a sword.

What’s in Store for Digimon in 2025?

Unfortunately, there’s currently no long-term anime announced for Digimon for 2025. Nonetheless, the franchise continues to go strong thanks to strong merchandising, specifically its card. The Digimon TGC continues to be popular among card collectors and hardcore fans. Bandai has been releasing an ongoing Webtoon comic series titled Digimon Liberator based on the cards. Liberator is releasing two ongoing stories, the main comic on Webtoon and a light novel side story. Liberator has revealed multiple new popular Digimon, including Cendrillmon, Punkmon, and Pteromon.

Bandai plans to reveal new information about the franchise with Digimon Con 2025. Digimon Con is a yearly event Bandai hosts that focuses exclusively on the franchise and is streamed for international viewers. The 2025 event will host the premier for Digimon Adventure -BEYOND-, a music video focusing on Tai and Matt from Digimon Adventure. The brand has also hinted that more news will hit on January 5th, 2025.