Digimon Series Seven Announced!

[Ryoutarou]

Digimon Xros Wars: The Hunting Boys Running Through Time
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Larger version​

Following the finale of Digimon Xros Wars (Episode 54) comes the next chapter in the franchise . . . Digimon Xros Wars! This is basically Xros Wars' 02 and so far seems that Taiki and Yuu will be the only returning human characters. The new characters from right to left are Ren Tobari with Dracmon, Tagiru Akashi with Gamudramon, Isle Suzaki with an unknown Digimon, and Ryouma Saijou with Psychemon.

The series begins October 2nd, Riku Sanjou will stay on as head script writer.

 

[Mew~]

Oh woah, I think this is great. We haven't seen a continued series since season 2. But yeah, I have been enjoying Xros Wars so this should be good. But do they have to keep scrapping Taiki's companions? I mean, I'd rather scrap Taiki. Yuu looks weird older.

 

[icomeanon6]

I, for one, am sorely disappointed.

When Xros Wars started, I defended it. I thought the first few episodes, though not satisfactory story-wise, were fun and benefited from modern animation techniques and improved production values. And then it just kept going. The characters were still shallow and annoying, the villains were still boring, and I just didn't care about its dull excuse for a plot. I had to stop watching because I was so disinterested. This has never happened to me with any Digimon series ever. And I know this isn't just because I watched the earlier ones when I was much younger: I watched Savers and Frontier only three years ago at age 15, and I still thought they had well developed characters and an interesting story for kids' shows. With Xros Wars, not in the least.

I felt that the human element was largely missing from Xros Wars. There were a lot of quiet moments about the characters and their interactions with each other and the Digimon. And in some of the series they really demonstrated a number of thoughtful moral issues (for kids' shows, mind you) without diminishing the suspense. Xros Wars, on the other hand, was just loud. That's what it was to me: a bunch of noise and bright images designed to distract the kids from the fact that there's no story. That's what my friends and I in first grade loved about Digimon when it first came out: In addition to all the awesome monsters fighting, this was a show about ordinary kids with families, problems, personalities, and quirks. We all had our favorites, and we were genuinely happy when they overcame their problems, saved the day, or did both at once. We cheered when Ken repented for his wrong-doings and joined the good guys, and we cried or came close to crying when Wizardmon sacrificed himself to save Kari. Even when I watched Savers as a cynical teenager, it made my lower lip quiver to see Ikuto (Keenan in dub) save the human mother he never knew.

tl;dr: I thought Xros Wars was shallow, flashy, and hollow compared to previous Digimon series, and I'm not happy to see that it's continuing.

 

[Fuyu]

Maybe it's just the die-hard fan of this show in me, but I really want to see this. All shows have their flaws, sure but I do like the fact that even though Taiki is reckless like goggleheads are, a majority of the time he isn't a moron about it. He's a good strategist and still fits the gogglehead mold by being as determined and fierce as all the other leaders in the series.

I agree, there isn't much of a human factor but in the other series, there wasn't much of a Digimon factor, if you're going to take it that way. They pointed out ideas about the Digital Worlds, brought up origin in the case of Frontier, but we mostly saw little peace moments and then everything exploding into heck. Then it got restored or we just flat out never saw it again. We're seeing groups with their problems (Cutemon and his parents) too.

The Digimon team isn't great at keeping consistent with focusing on humans and Digimon both yet, though they may get better with this new series.

Since I haven't seen the end, because it isn't out, I can't say that we've seen the end of Zenjirou and Akari (?) because you know, this is Digimon. Friendship power works! And sure, it gets preached a lot but hey, it made X7 so I won't complain. And yes, the series is loud, but that's probably because they're taking reference from mecha anime.

I think they keep leaving Taiki in because he seems like he's in the middle. He's not to extreme or careful; he always seems to be mediating everything and he keeps people with their heads in the game (mostly). They probably keep dropping characters because they're running out of ways to develop them, and think that they've changed enough. I don't know. My other idea is.... this is a franchise, part of a business. They want to make money.

Regardless, my inner fan says to give it four episodes so I will. Forgive my odd post ;)

 

[icomeanon6]

I agree, there isn't much of a human factor but in the other series, there wasn't much of a Digimon factor, if you're going to take it that way. They pointed out ideas about the Digital Worlds, brought up origin in the case of Frontier, but we mostly saw little peace moments and then everything exploding into heck. Then it got restored or we just flat out never saw it again. We're seeing groups with their problems (Cutemon and his parents) too.

When I said human element, I was including the Digimon as characters too. And to be honest, I'm going to have to say that the earlier seasons had better Digimon characterization too. Just look at the way Impmon/Beelzemon was handled in Tamers and compare that to the version of the character in Xros Wars. In Tamers, he had a brilliant character arc from his beginning as a bitter troublemaker to tragic villain to finally a redeemed hero. The character in Xros Wars (and I watched up to episode 20 or so) was just a stereotypical mysterious type until he transformed into an equally bland imitation of Beelzemon the good guy. The problem with Xros Wars is that its best developed characters--human or Digimon--don't hold a candle to the best developed characters--again, human or Digimon--of the previous series. Baalmon is no Impmon, Nene is no Rika/Ruki, Dorulumon is no Ogremon, Taiki is a Gary Stu, and none of the villains even come close to Ken or Oikawa.

And yes, the series is loud, but that's probably because they're taking reference from mecha anime.

I don't have a problem with it being loud. Digimon's always been kind of loud. The problem is that the loudness and the fighting is all it has. To make a lame campfire metaphor, it's all kindling and no fuel.

Regardless, my inner fan says to give it four episodes so I will. Forgive my odd post ;)

My inner fan gave Xros Wars twenty. Believe me, I wanted to like it.

 

[Ryoutarou]

This post probably has a few spoilers for Xros Wars, but...

tl;dr: I thought Xros Wars was shallow, flashy, and hollow compared to previous Digimon series, and I'm not happy to see that it's continuing.

I've got to ask: how many episodes did you watch? Because, while this series focuses more on the Digimon than any other before it, the humans do have their moments and have plenty of depth. For as much as people claim Taiki's a bland super-nice-guy, there's actually a reason in the series that explains his personality being this way and that's . . . because he was scarred by the death of a lonely little boy when he was much younger and had a difficult time understanding the concept of death. He also couldn't quite understand why no on stopped to help this dying kid on the streets out and why he didn't do anything himself. In essence, Taiki's entire character is a form of his guilt for standing around while a kid died in front of him.Then you have Nene and Yuu, pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to who they are. Nene's played as a carefree enigmatic girl at first, but then we find out she's being blackmailed by her partner Digimon into working for him so he won't harm her little brother . . . who turns out to be one of the greatest threats in the entire series. Yuu's a bit of a twisted kid who doesn't see value in anything that isn't human life and even then he has no problems trying to kill his sister. Bugramon encouraging Yuu to do these things when he already has a pretty warped sense of right and wrong doesn't help matters.

I've also come to love the fact that Nene didn't meander about on and on about having to defeat her own brother. This seems like the sort of story arc that would have a character fighting it out with their conflicting emotions for way too long as is usually the case, but Nene only needed a couple of episodes to realize the kind and caring little brother she loved is pretty much gone. Though how he goes from a sadistic little kid to being a main character in the sequel is anyone's guess since he's the first evil human child in Digimon whose actions are of his own volition and not some form of mind control.

I wasn't particularly a fan of Savers and while I sat through that, I had a much more difficult time with it. The filler episodes in Xros Wars are fun because it takes a unique spin and gives focus to Digimon in a way that hasn't really been done before. While I was one of the biggest complainers about its pace in the first 20 episodes or so, the show has moved at such a refreshing speed since the Heaven Zone episodes that hasn't relented.

Sooo while Xros Wars started to bore me in the initial episodes, I've come to love it and would rank it up there as one of my favorite series. Doesn't hurt that one of my favorite script writers is the head of the series. I'm definitely looking forward to Hunter Boys. (and it's got to say something that an anime series airing at 6:30 AM could get ratings that merit a sequel . . . or the arcade games have just been doing really well since they basically ditched the toys to focus on that)

EDIT - So it seems like you gave the series 20 episodes. That's around the time I started to find myself enthralled with it. I've got a habit of wanting to watch any Digimon series all the way through, no matter how bad it is, so that's why I was able to sit through some of the early episodes that were honestly pretty boring.

 

[Kenshin5]

I stopped watching around the time Gravimon/Canyon Land Arc.

From what I saw from the first part of Xros Wars Akari and Zanjirou got shafted. They helped here and there but once Nene and Kiriha came around they became obsolete. I was hoping maybe they got X-Loaders themselves so they would be a bit more usefully but not. I don't care that it doesn't focus much on the humans, but it seems kind of rushed going from one world to the next.

As for the second series Shoutmon looks so badass, I hope he keeps the scarf through out the series, and the little bluemon looks like a fusion between Shoutmon and Veemon.

 

[Game Over1375]

Let's see... I have watched seasons one through four of Digimon. Stopped at the fifth, but Xros War interested me. How much? Not a whole lot to be perfectly honest, but it had it... Maybe this is the year I become a Digimon fanatic again.

 

[marcc5m]

I liked series one, two and three, then four ruined it for me. I'd never even heard of this Xros stuff until now, so yeah maybe I'll try it.

 

[parallelzero]

I... really wish they'd gone in a completely new direction instead of continuing with Xros Wars. I didn't like the fusion element back in 02, so this definitely still doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Skip Class]

I'm pretty excited for this! Though after watching Inazuma Eleven it took me off watching Xros Wars so I have a bit to catch up on

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

I'm pretty excited for this! Though after watching Inazuma Eleven it took me off watching Xros Wars so I have a bit to catch up on

Digimon Xros Wars is just getting better and better!

 

[~Kian~]

Disappointed in Xros Wars, sort of like power rangers to me, Which I hate by the way.
I have seen all the seasons except for 4 Frontier or whatever it was called, didn't like the human 'fusion' element.
My fave seasons were Data squad and Season 1.
They should of just made more Digimon, and take em' to the digital world for some reason.

~Kian

 

[Milk]

This is getting kinda depressing OTL.
Its like pokemon. Continuing on when it shouldn't :C

 

[~Ryukaa]

I really liked Xros Wars. Really liked it.
But this idea. Ugh. Just why?
Did they really need to put Taiki back in the main cast? Even Adventure 02 didn't do that, and it was a sequel to Season 1.
This really looks like more of the same stuff. I'm just really disappointed.

 

[Ryoutarou]

I... really wish they'd gone in a completely new direction instead of continuing with Xros Wars. I didn't like the fusion element back in 02, so this definitely still doesn't appeal to me.

It's not like the series is all about fusions. The Digixros stuff is the show gimmick, but there's a pretty grand story the stands just fine on its own as well. Plus, there are traditional evolutions, though the whole concept is a little different here even with basic evolutions.

This is getting kinda depressing OTL.
Its like pokemon. Continuing on when it shouldn't :C

I'm not quite sure how this is really applicable to Digimon when there have only been two series in the last five years. And who's to say when it shouldn't continue? I wasn't the biggest Savers fan, but it was neat to see a new series and know the franchise wasn't dead. Xros Wars took some time to get used to, but it's become a pretty awesome series. As of the Gravimon arc, I'm not sure how anyone can really say there's no depth to the characters. There's also that awesome Apollomon arc that gives us a pretty major confrontation between Taiki and Yuu without any Digimon jumping in at all.

The one thing I really hope this new show improves upon is the animation. While Xros Wars has some really beautiful animation at times, they let like three different animation directors play around with taking the lead every couple of episodes so it leads to some really different looks. (it's basically like that episode of Adventure that Hosoda directed, but on a wider scale) I'm pretty partial to the style that the Apollomon arc gave it (specifically episode 46 that has Yoshihiro Takeda as the animation director), it's got its share of unique artistic style, but nothing so wildly experimental that it clashes horribly with the the inbetween animation.

 

[Kura]

!! I need to catch up with my digimon watching :3 I'm pretty excited for this! (Don't shoot me but I've always found digimon to be a more entertaining show than pokemon <3 )

My fav besides Guilmon..

 

[Ryoutarou]

So this was totally unexpected news. It's going to be really great to see the older characters return, especially interesting if they get anyone from Savers just to see how they cope with the difference in animation style.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

I like Dracumon, he's going to be in this series. And Shoutmon looks more mature! I wonder how much time is between the two seasons of Xros Wars?

 

[war rock exe]

man i wish digimon would come back to america, then i can keep up with all the digimon!!!!!!!!!!