Summary
- The story of two brothers reuniting in the Digital World is the emotional crux of the season; Koji and Koichi's backstory is one of the darkest in the series.
- The DigiDestined use Spirit Digivolution to transform into ancient Digimon warriors, each possessing a human-type and beast-type form.
- Reliance on convoluted lore, and a revolving cast of villains results in repetitive, meandering storytelling.
the DigiDestined don't have partner Digimon, they become them through Spirit Digivolution. Headstrong Takuya, standoffish Koji, bratty Zoe, underdog J.P., and whiny Tommy are the typical ordinary children swept away to the Digital World to save it. But this time around, the kids don't like one another and must learn to get along throughout the season. Since they don't have Digimon partners to guide them, they are ed by Bokomon and his dimwitted sidekick, Neemon.
The DigiDestined eventually discover that they are there to defend the Digital World from the villainous Cherubimon and his five Legendary Warriors, who seek to awaken the ancient evil Digimon, Lucemon. The plot is meandering and relies heavily on lore surrounding a war between human-type and beast-type Digimon that happened prior to the children's arrival, and there are no connections to the previous seasons, save for a few familiar digital monsters.
Many of these concepts were divisive when Frontier premiered in 2002, and American audiences didn't give it a chance, but it has since become a cult classic. Though Frontier is a radical re-interpretation of Digimon, it boasts some of the best Digimon designs of all time, paired with an emotional core centered around Koji and his long-lost brother reconnecting, making it a worthy addition to the franchise.
Top 10 Digimon Tamers Episodes, Ranked
Digimon Tamers is a meta-narrative season that focuses on character development and introduces Biomerge digivolution, which fuses a human and Digimon.
10 "A Molehill Out of a Mountain"
Season 4, Episode 6
Evil Legendary Warrior, Grumblemon, kidnaps all the female KaratsukiNumemon from their village. Takuya, Zoe, J.P., and Tommy, having trouble adjusting to life in the Digital World, are broke, hungry, and so desperate that they agree to help the remaining villagers in exchange for food. When they arrive at the vertical town on the side of a cliff, they find Koji has already been recruited by the snail-type Digimon.
After a filling meal of magical cabbages, the DigiDestined fall asleep for the night, only to wake up restrained and dangling from the side of the cliff. The KaratsukiNumemon mistake the kids for allies of Grumblemon and try to use them as leverage to retrieve the hostages. Despite their best efforts, the DigiDestined are no match for Grumblemon's Beast Spirit Digivolution, Gigasmon, who absorbs the mountain's fractal code.
9 "Takuya and Koji's Evolution Revolution"
Season 4, Episode 35
It's an all-out war between the heroes and Cherubimon as they try to free the imprisoned guardian of love and life in the Digital World, Ophanimon. Takuya and Koji Fusion Digivolve into Aldamon and BeoWolfmon respectively, resulting from the fusion of human-type and beast-type spirits. They still can't best Cherubimon, and he absorbs their Digimon spirits, reverting them to human form, and taking their D-Tector digivices with him.
Now unable to digivolve, the kids watch on as Ophanimon frees herself and battles Cherubimon in the sky above. When she is unable to purify Cherubimon and restore love to the corrupted Digimon's soul, Ophanimon steals the D-Tectors from him and returns them to the DigiDestined. The DigiDestined transfer all the Legendary Warrior spirits to Takuya and Koji's digivices, allowing them to digivolve into EmperorGreymon and MagnaGarurumon, and face their enemy.
8 "When Knights Fall..."
Season 4, Episode 47
Lucemon's Royal Knights, Dynasmon and Crusadermon, absorb the last of the Digital World's data. With the planet completely gone, the DigiDestined hide out on the yellow moon that previously orbited it. They discover a field of hatching Digital eggs, and see that the basic forms of Guardian Digimon, Ophanimon, Cherubimon, and Seraphimon, are joyfully reunited. Hopefully, these three will remain friends and avert the kind of war that kicked off the events of this season.
Meanwhile, Lucemon directs his Royal Knights to destroy the kids, and they travel to the yellow moon for a final confrontation. Their faith in their master is shaken though, decreasing their power and allowing EmperorGreymon and MagnaGarurumon to defeat Crusadermon and Dynasmon. Lucemon arrives just in time to absorb his Royal Knights' data, transform into Chaos Mode, a one of the strongest Digimon seen in the series, so powerful that it completely destroys the yellow moon.
7 "O, Brother, Who Art Thou?"
Season 4, Episode 30
The Spirit of Darkness, Duskmon, and BeoWolfmon, the Spirit of Light, square off against one another in a brutal sword fight, the former convinced that his destiny is to destroy the latter. Patamon leads the other DigiDestined to their location and they the fight. Internally, Duskmon struggles to reconcile his human and Digimon identities, but Cherubimon's voice goads the young boy into digivolving into a Beast Spirit, Velgemon. The gigantic black and crimson bird trades Duskmon's sharp reasoning and strategic skills for raw strength and bloodlust.
A beam of brilliant light emerges from Koji's digivice and helps Velgemon access his memories of life in the real world, stopping his assault. The boy looks almost identical to Koji, raising questions about who he is and how he became one of their enemy's loyal servants. The episode ends with Velgemon retreating and Koji surviving unharmed, and in doing so continues to draw out the mystery of the two boys' connection and how it fits within the larger mission of restoring the Digital World.
6 "My Brother in Spirit"
Season 4, Episode 32
Duskmon finally re that Koji is his twin brother, and realizes that Cherubimon has been filling his mind with painful memories of their sick mother in order to manipulate him. Duskmon recalls the anger he felt towards his father for abandoning him and, in a rage, he tracks down and attacks Koji, who digivolves into BeoWolfmon. The two clash and Duskmon reveals the truth about their connection, which breaks the control Cherubimon has over him.
Koji and Koichi's backstory is one of the most tragic in Digimon history. Their father left their mother for another woman, and took Koji with him when the boys were too young to one another. The loss of his twin brother is why Koji has so much trouble relating to Takuya, with whom he argues like a brother, but rarely has the emotional skills necessary to repair and move on.
5 "Cherubimania"
Season 4, Episode 37
The DigiDestined decide to face off with Cherubimon and be done with him for good. EmperorGrymon and MagnaGarurumon confront the corrupted Digimon in his lair, where he's absorbing all the data he's collected from the Digital World. Despite coordinated attacks and strong communication between the DigiDestined, Cherubimon is seemingly invincible now and regenerates any damage his body takes.
Cherubimon is finally defeated when MagnaGarurumon identifies a weak spot and sets up EmperorGreymon to take the final shot. It's great to see Takuya and Koji working together so well, after spending the season at each other's throats. However, with the evil Cherubimon now purified, the collected data he stole seeps into the core of the Digital World, and awakens the dormant Lucemon. His first act is to revive two ominous-looking Royal Knight Digimon, setting up the next major obstacle for the heroes.
4 "Lucemon on the Loose"
Season 4, Episode 49
Takuya and Koji finally achieve their greatest Digimon form, Susanoomon, and suddenly Lucemon Chaos Mode is not as invincible as he once was. Their Celestial Blade attack slices through Lucemon and the DigiDestined scan the resulting good data, but the evil data remaining forms a dark digi-egg, which absorbs the code of the Dark Area and creates Lucemon Shadowlord Mode. The gigantic purple dragon flies off to the real world, prompting the heroes to digivolve once more and give chase.
The penultimate episode ends on a hopeless note, as Lucemon Shadowlord Mode ascends to the real world and wreaks havoc on the city's power grid. He gives humans an ultimatum, submit or die, and easily disposes of the DigiDestined's with one hit. Every Digimon series prior reserves the finale for tearful goodbyes, but Frontier subverts that expectation and saves Lucemon's fate for the final episode.
3 "Darkest Before Duskmon"
Season 4, Episode 21
Legendary Warrior of Darkness, Duskmon, appears and slays one of his allies, Arbormon, in front of the DigiDestined. He then sets his sights on the heroes and easily outmatches them. The kids barely escape, confronting Takuya about his recklessness and lack of strategy on their way to safety. This disagreement widens the rift between him and Koji, who is more patient and strategic than the self-appointed leader. Takuya and Tommy devise a plan to defeat Duskmon by attacking all at once, but Koji is skeptical.
When the Warrior of Darkness ambushes the DigiDestined, their plan fails and Duskmon easily absorbs their attacks in a flash of rainbow light. KendoGarurumon is seriously injured taking a hit meant for Agunimon, and upon seeing him de-digivolve to Koji, Duskmon lets out a scream and envelopes his surroundings in darkness. In the dark void, guilt-ridden Takuya suddenly finds himself alone on a train platform and boards it for the real world.
2 "The Brothers Yin and Yang"
Season 4, Episode 48
At the end of the previous episode, Chaos Mode Lucemon destroyed the yellow moon, and now the heroes are floating in space on a chunk of rock. They strategize about how to defeat Lucemon, and deduce that Koji and Koichi's powers of light and darkness must be the key. In addition to worrying about how to defeat their foe, Koichi is also preoccupied with the mystery surrounding his arrival in the Digital World and why he doesn't have the same fractal code his friends do.
Lucemon starts to open a portal from the Digital World to the real world, which will cause the destruction of both worlds. The DigiDestined intervene and Koichi sacrifices himself to protect the others from the Chaos Digimon's dark attack. Koji receives his brother's Spirits of Darkness before he is absorbed by Lucemon. As he mourns his brother, Koji combines Legendary Warrior Spirits to merge with Takuya into the ultra-powerful Susanoomon.
1 "End of the Line"
Season 4, Episode 50
The DigiDestined lose faith in themselves as the invulnerable Lucemon Shadowlord Mode rampages through Shibuya. When Takuya's tears fall on his digivice, the spirits of the Legendary Warriors appear to the kids and remind them of all they have overcome on their journey. This restores their faith and allows them to use Ancient Spirit Evolution to become Susanoomon once more and slice Lucemon in half. A larvae form emerges and stings Susanoomon, who releases all twenty spirits within him to execute a brutal final assault.
The stolen data restores the Digital World and Takuya, Koji, Zoe, J.P., and Tommy return to the real world to discover that no time has ed while they were on their adventure. They rush to the hospital to find Koichi in the Emergency Room after his accident at the subway station, and their digivices revive Koji's brother before reverting to cell phones. It's the most rushed, abrupt finale of the series, but the final vignettes of each DigiDestined's final fate and dreams of the future reflect the season's themes of growing up and accepting responsibility.
Digimon Adventure
- Release Date
- 1999 - 2007-00-00
- Network
- Fuji TV
- Directors
- Hiroyuki Kakudou
Cast
Kae ArakiHikari Yagami (voice)-
Miwa MatsumotoPatamon (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
Digimon Adventure (Digimon: Digital Monsters) follows seven children at summer camp who are transported to a digital world. There, they befriend creatures known as Digimon, who are destined to protect their world from various malevolent forces.
- Writers
- Satoru Nishizono, Chiaki J. Konaka, Reiko Yoshida, Akatsuki Yamatoya, Atsushi Maekawa, Hiro Masaki
- Franchise(s)
- Digimon
- Creator(s)
- Akiyoshi Hongo
- Seasons
- 2
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