25 Years Ago Today, Digimon Kicked Off Its Darkest & Coolest Era With Major Shake Up

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But the tone of the franchise changed significantly with a major shake up coming during its third iteration. Debuting in Japan on April 1, 2001, Digimon Tamers was an entirely different version of the Digimon anime than had seen before. Not only did it introduce a brand new trio of DigiDestined who didn’t have any ties to what had come in the franchise before (sparking a new tradition of reinvention that Digimon would continue to use to this day), but it took the wider story in a much darker direction than seen before too.

Digimon Tamers Premiered in Japan 25 Years Ago Today

Courtesy of Toei Animation

Digimon Tamers is the third iteration of the long running animated franchise, and takes place in an entirely different timeline and canon compared to the connected adventures of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. It’s a bit more modern than the other two iterations of the series as it begins to incorporate elements from the real life trading card game that was getting popular at the time. These became a core mechanic for this new generation of DigiDestined as they were able to boost their Digimon partners with certain card abilities.

Digimon Tamers introduced fans to Takato, who finds a strange trading card that gives him a special Digivice. But unlike previous protagonists Tai and Davis, Takato did not get whisked away to a different world. Remaining on Earth, he actually created his own Digimon partner through some art imagining what his own cool Digimon could be. This lead to the debut of Guilmon, and Takato somehow needs to keep Guilmon hidden from everyone else while Earth faces off against Digimon that have broken through from the Digital World. This change in setting and stakes ultimately changed the tone of the wider franchise as well.

Rather than being children brought in a much grander battle in the digital world, DigiDestined are instead “Tamers” who use their Digimon to defeat escaped monsters and absorb their data. But eventually the whole lid is blown off the operation as it’s soon revealed that this hunting practice led to the awakening of 12 deity like Digimon, and sparked a much bigger war ahead. By bringing the danger to the real world, every battle was more “real” in scope. There was a very intense danger that Takato and the others had faced, and darker beings than ever seen brought about world ending cataclysms.

Digimon Tamers Made Digimon Real

Courtesy of Toei Animation

While the idea of Digimon breaking through to the real world has been around since the very first season of the series, Digimon Tamers was the first in the franchise to make that the central conceit of its series. The addition of the card mechanic to the Digivices also lent itself an air of tangibility than the other two series had before it. It was surprisingly less of a fantasy, and that was felt with the tone of the series that took everything much more seriously than the threats in the past.

Digimon Tamers didn’t get rid of the kind of light hearted material that made the Digimon anime as family friendly as it was before (especially in the English dub release of the series), but these changes were gradual over the course of its run. By altering so much of the franchise’s core DNA right at the start, it allowed the series extra room to experiment even more with the formula. It wasn’t too concerned with maintaining the canon or connections to the prior releases, so the series was able to take risks with a darker tone to its story.

You had full on possessions, a digital incarnation of Satan and the Grim Reaper, characters died, and much more. It was the start of a new era for Digimon not only in terms of this single show, but opened up the rest of the franchise to reinventing itself with new stories and timelines in every iteration to come since. Digimon has never felt cooler than with Digimon Tamers, and arguably hasn’t been as cool in the years since. 25 years later, that’s still very much the case.

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