Digimon Frontier

ThatAnimeSnob May 13, 2012

4.5

This is the fourth Digimon season and its second spin-off. Most of its elements have remained the same so please read my review on the earlier seasons before reading this one. I will only be mentioning the differences amongst them.The production values are of the same quality as the third, although they are far more bright and cheery, thus missing a lot in imposing atmosphere. I also didn’t like the new music score much. So once again we have a whole new cast of heroes. The scriptwriters tried to go back to the basics by trying to repeat the overall plot of the first season instead of going for another dark version like the third. The reason is that they received rather negative feedback by the target audience who found dark and tragic stories to be out of their league. As much as I liked Tamers, I must admit that it was not for the average little kid who wants cool action and monsters. And so we get a slight variation of the original arc, with the kids roaming alone the Digiworld. The thing is, the scriptwriters didn’t only try to tribute the original but also to simplify it even further. This is apparent early on by the fact the kids are actively aware that they have a destiny to fulfill and a bunch of legendary monsters to gather in order to do that. They are not very scared of being stranded on an alien world since they have a reassurance of sorts. This also holds back a lot from an emotional conflict that could have led to some interesting character development. Meaning, they remain as nothing but boring stereotypes in an already stereotypical scenario that was further dumbed down to the point you don’t care. To understand how bad it felt, imagine that most allied Digimons are treated as nothing but spirits that appear only in battle. Not only they don’t have a personality but also don’t even travel alongside the kids to further help us sympathize with them. And it’s not like the kids needed all the spirits in order to win; most of them were of the same strength regardless of how hard it was to find them. They just waste most of the episodes looking for them just because a stupid prophesy said so and for only purpose to further weaken the importance of the initial Digimons. As for those who are alongside them all the time, they can be quite annoying. Especially the bookworm Digimon and its stupid friend were amongst the ugliest and lamest choices for supporting characters. As for the way they travel from one area to another, they always use ugly looking trains to get there, which is a stupid idea after awhile. Why don’t the villains just blow up the railways to stomp their progress? Why don’t they ambush them in the train stops if they know trains follow linear routes? This was not an issue in the earlier seasons where the journey was done mostly by walking or flying. They also went overboard with the Judeo-Christian references, since the Digimons are now modeled mostly out of lame manihaistic angels and demons. And the plot twist is supposed to be the major villain being able to use both light and darkness techniques; owwww how interesting… not.In all, a very passable season altogether and the weakest one up to the time it came out.

SwordsManIV Nov 17, 2015

9.3

As Digimon Frontier being the fourth instalment of the digimon franchise, I would have to presonally place it as my favorite of the franchise. Alot of you are wondering why I choose this season over the first. And I shall explain why I do perfer it over the rest. Characters: I feel like unlike the first Digimon it didn't overwhelm you with too many characters. It didn't trail too far off from the main characters, nor did it focus too much on the main Two Protagonists. The chracterization and development flowed with the story nice and evenly. I really enjoyed the fact that each of the characters had to not just physically ready for the next level, but also psychologically and emotionally ready for the next stage. Because that was the purpouse throught the story. It touched base on how the spirit had to be ready for the next stage of enlightment. I may not be a pshycologist, but I do know that it meant this to the vewier. Animation: As far as the animation was back in the early 2000's, it wasn't that bad as most of the younger generations. Even there were times it was a bit choppy and slow paced for a few of the action battle scenes, it did well and tried to keep the pacing as well as the studio could pull off at the time. I feel like there is not much that pops out, nor does the animation just blend into the background. It felt passable for the anime. Sound: If you have ever watched the show in english, you might not notice the terrible lip syncing. Until you watch it subbed, you will never look back on how english develpoment teams can't sync worth jack shit. I would perfer you the viewer to watch it subbed over dubbed. The music from Japan studios is much more realistic than that of the American version. Besides the vast difference and more superior between the different cultures, there is no other way to put the sound from my opinion. Story:

BLAM4Lyfe Dec 16, 2019

8

Out of all the digimon shows I watched, I do remember this one being my favorite. Designs were great, characters were amusing, and backstory for some of the characters were great too.