'Digimon' Anime Revs Up For Its 25th Anniversary

Will there be more Adventure? Or will there be new ventures for all audiences to explore?

It’s almost 2024, which means Digimon will be celebrating 25 years as an animated franchise, starting with Adventure in 1999. It’s very much a realm of the franchise that has been dwelled in for the previous 15th and 20th anniversaries, so it leads fans wondering what this next milestone could bring.

Just before Christmas, Toei Animation took to their social media accounts to unveil the anniversary logo and that DigimonCon 2024 will be held in a manner that kicks off festivities globally. More info will follow. While they mention the specific anniversary date of March 6, it’s not quite clear whether that’s when the convention will start. It will likely be streamed on YouTube at the very least, and Toei Animation does have a Twitch channel

Digimon’s 15th anniversary was primarily marked by the Digimon Adventure tri. films, a series of six films following the original DigiDestined some time after Revenge of Diaboromon released from 2015 to 2018, announced on Odaiba Day 2014, marking the 15th anniversary of the date the DigiDestined sans Kari were brought to the Digital World. They were set three years after Adventure 02. The 20th anniversary was marked both by a 67-episode reboot series that ran from April 2020 to September 2021 in Japan and the movie that served as the story finale for the elder six DigiDestined. Both releases were COVID-affected. American audiences didn’t get the series, starring Zeno Robinson as Tai Kamiya, until April 2023 on the Microsoft Store and July on Hulu. It is not one of the series available as part of the beta stage integration into Disney+. Kizuna’s follow-up movie, Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning, was released this fall to Japanese and American audiences. It should also be noted that the anime is currently between series. Digimon Ghost Game, which succeeded the Adventure reboot, ended this past March, so it’s likely the next iteration could be announced in these festivities.

While there are no specifics of what to expect as far as announcements there, fans of the English dub do have the uncut components of Digimon: The Movie to look forward to with the new dub, as well as the remastering of Digimon: The Movie itself. Both come from Discotek Media in “Digimon The Movies: Movie Collection 1” as announced at the end of July. Whether it will be included for updates at DigimonCon is unlikely but unclear. While no release date has been announced in these five months, but especially as of mid-November, there’s all of 2024 for it to happen.

Sources: ComicBook, Toei Animation