New Digimon Anime Series, Movie Announced

Bandai is planning even more return trips to the digital world, as the company has announced two new Digimon anime projects.

According to Anime Intelligence and Research, the first of the new Digimon projects will be an anime TV series entitled Digimon Ghost Game. The series will feature a new cast of characters and digital monsters, though it's currently unknown if this show is set in the same continuity as Digimon Adventure, or if it takes place in a separate universe, similar to Digimon Tamers. The new show will air sometime before the end of 2021. A poster showcasing the trio of new characters was released on Twitter.

The second new Digimon project is a new movie based on the second season of the Digimon Adventures anime. The teaser trailer features the Digi-destined Daisuke (known as Davis in the English localization,) discussing his meeting with a new Digimon trainer who has a Digivice but no partner Digimon to go along with it. The second generation of Digi-destined played minor roles in the Digimon Adventure continuation series Digimon Adventure Tri and the series' tear-jerking finale movie Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, but this new movie will reportedly give the second season's cast the spotlight. No other details, including what other characters will appear and what time period the movie is set in, have been announced.

The Digimon franchise began in 1997 with the release of a line of virtual pet toys, which were a spinoff of the popular Tamagotchi line, also created by Bandai. The first anime based on the toy, Digimon Adventure, aired in 1999. Despite early comparisons to Nintendo's Pokemon series, Digimon Adventure differentiated itself with an on-going, serialized story that earned the series a dedicated fanbase. Mamoru Hosoda, the acclaimed director of anime films such as Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and the upcoming Belle, worked on the series and directed the animated shorts that would be re-edited together and released as Digimon: The Movie internationally. A remake of the original anime series aired in 2020. In addition to the anime, the franchise has also continued through regular video game releases across multiple generations of consoles, the latest of which will be Digimon Survive, which was initially announced in 2018 but was recently delayed into 2022 due to development complications stemming from the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

The original 1999 Digimon Adventure series, as well as its second season, which features the new generation of characters that will be featured in the upcoming movie, are available for streaming on Hulu. The 2020 reboot of the series is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Source: Twitter, YouTube