#mabbly

well it's been QUITE some time since i've seen the show but i liked how they found a new and interesting way to show character progression in the RPG elements of frontier other than rookie ==> champion ==> ultimate ==> mega as before with the different spirits THOUGH I didn't like that because it's a shonen anime it has to have only the main two heroes be the most powerful--I remember by the ending the other characters had to give their power to the main two guys just for them to unlock the final form.

But that aside it was interesting how they showcased a lot of old favorite characters and in the dub they re-used voices (and they'd be so moronic if they don't do that in the original) like patamon came back for an episode--they'd be different characters entirely but it'd be a cool nod for the fans.

It was interesting how the digimon were more primal because a major theme of the show was reclaiming the digital world's (in this continuity--it's seperate from the first two continuities) past so that they could save it in the present and so the digimon were more primal and the enemies they fought were embodiments of a different spirit like 'water' or 'metal' which had cool symbolism. the metal guy's ultimate form was the sephirot which was super rad now but i didn't get then.   (i'm pretty sure an andromon there which was fucking awesome for nerd reasons)

Though I stopped watching once the first storyarc was resolved but i managed to see the ending and it's about angellic digimon revolting and gatomon/tailmon and patamon's megan forms were major characters towards the end or maybe not? and the theme of them exploring the digital world with the railmon was really cool because it showed the industrialization of the digital world but it was to a minimal effect which I like for a lot of reasons and I yearn to live in a place with good mass transportation.  

interesting anecdote: the children were chosen because they received a text or phone call (I forget which) on their cell phones telling them to go to a train station and they explored what each kid did that day that lead them to be some of the few who actually answered the Call To Adventure which is a stable of heroic journey fiction but they managed to put in a lot of pathos into it which was great! And obviously digimon as a franchise leads more to this--you do one episode with each new character getting their digimon and they finish that storyarc and then they do an episode getting each new step/form and finish that arc and it builds, but they also explore relationships and frontier is a good halfway point between adventure which had 8 heroes and 8^8 relationships/dynamics were explored and tamers which for a good part only had 3 heroes and 3^3 pairings/groups of dynamics to explore until halfway through with having 5 and then 6 heroes.  It wasn't AS depressing as tamers and the dub was handled by disney so I'm guessing a lot of it (especially with kouichi whose backstory involves him being in a coma) was toned down.

But anyway I was upset as a kid because cell phones were more prominent among youth in japan at the time than america and I wouldn't have been able to answer that call to adventure (literal) so :/