Digimon Anime Is Celebrating Its 25th Anniversary This Year

The official Digimon social media account posted a new promo to celebrate 25 years since the anime debuted back in 1999.

Digimon fans have a lot to remember and celebrate . With 25 years of the anime content, Digimon (known as Digimon Adventure in Japan) is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. A special video has been published to commemorate the momentous occasion. The video (below) features new animation capturing classic moments from the show, as well as Koji Wada performing “Butter-Fly”—the opening theme song for the series.

The video begins with the original main cast finding their respective Digimon: Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Mimi, Joe, T.K., and later on Kari. For those who may have forgotten the premise of the series, it revolved around on the DigiDestined (the Chosen Children) who are a group of children chosen to protect the Digital World. Each child is partnered with a Digimon and use a Digivice to help them Digivolve into stronger forms. It was a nice alternative to the Pokémon franchise, with some similarities across both separate universes.

In 2020, the Digimon franchise was rebooted, retaining and reworking some of the main cast while adding some new characters. What distinguished Digimon from Pokémon the most is probably how the characters had a little more agency. Yes, they were kids but they dealt with some more real-world issues—such as exploring how kids cope with divorced parents.

Another cool distinction was its ability to build out the DigiWorld and the Network. As many people born in the 1990s or earlier would remember would be the fear of computers and the whole Y2K scare. Digimon sort of played around that concept, as computers and the internet were still becoming more widely used. In a certain sense, it was a great gateway for learning about how computer networks and the internet worked back then before we could ask Siri or Google it all.

The series also spawned so much merchandise, games and toys. One of the coolest things to get back in the days was a personal DigiVice. This was similar to the generation before with Tamagotchis. It was a cool way to experience raising a Digimon, evolving it and battling others too. It was also a great alternative between Pokémon and Yu Gi Oh , which were leaning more heavy into the trading card game industry. Digimon eventually joined them a little while after.

But like Pokémon , Digimon also teaches certain interpersonal skills particularly through the interactions between friends. This was an important aspect at its core. Also at its core, the anime series had a very iconic opening for both the English version on 4Kids and the Japanese version. After showing some old footage, it was followed by the OG opening theme, with the original opening animation. The nostalgia of seeing this could make anyone cry.

The 2020 Digimon Adventure reboot is currently streaming on Crunchyroll ; here is a description of the story for this latest series :

“It’s the year 2020. The Network has become something humans can no longer do without in their daily lives. But what humans don’t know is that on the other side of the Network is the Digital World, a realm of light and darkness. Nor are they aware of the Digimon who live there. Fifth grader Taichi Yagami’s mother and little sister Hikari went to Shibuya, and now they’re aboard a runaway train. Taichi hurries to Shibuya to save his mother and sister, but the instant he heads toward the station platform… a strange phenomenon befalls the DigiDestined, and Taichi goes to the Digital World!”