Digimon Digivolves into a Brand New Season

It's been four long years since the last new episode of Digimon: Digital Monsters, the Japanese anime series that took the world by storm back at the turn of the century, graced US airwaves. Now in the year 2007, Disney is pumping up digi-fans a brand spanking new Digimon series: Digimon Data Squad. Let's delve into the history of this new series.

In Japan, the series is called Digimon Savers. It premiered April 2nd, 2006, a full three years after the previous series, Digimon Frontier (known as Digimon: Digital Monsters season 4 in America). The series took on a distincively more mature animation style as opposed to the more child-like style of the previous seasons. Still, the series retained its themes of friendship, action, and rising above the odds.

Once again, the creative team at Toei Animation delivers a fresh Digimon-centric story. Masaru Daimon, the self-proclaimed number one street fighter in Japan, comes into contact with a strange reptilian creature named Agumon, who's on the run from a mysterious government organization. The two "hit it off," so to speak, and quickly become good friends. Unfortunately, the government organization DATS (Digital Accident Tactics Squad) isn't going let Agumon get away. Don't get the wrong idea; this organization is far from bad, and when Masaru and Agumon get sucked into working for them, the adventure of a lifetime begins.

The series finished up in Japan on March 25th of 2007, with no sign of an English adaptation in sight. Fans were concerned, as they were used to seeing previous Digimon series brought to the US while they were still running in Japan. However, the fandom breathed a collective sigh of relief when Toei Animation's website featured a strange new show entitled Digimon Data Squad. Fans squealed with joy as they discovered this series was the English adaptation of Digimon Savers. A while later, Jeff Nimoy, director and head writer of the majority of the American dub of seasons 1 and 2, announced that he was brought onboard to direct Data Squad. He also announced a number of the English names for the characters, including Marcus for Masaru, Yoshi for Yoshino, and Thomas for Tohma. Fans were also treated to learning a number of the cast members, including fan-favorites Quinton Flynn, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, and Crispin Freeman as the three main protagonists. The premiere date was set a short while later: October 1st, 2007 on Toon Disney's Jetix action block.

Thus, here we are, waiting in fevered anticipation for said premiere. Reactions to the news of the English dub have been varied: many fans of the Japanese version say that the English version won't live up to the high quality of the original, whereas other fans are extremely excited as to how their favorite characters have been translated to English. Still others know nothing about this new series, and are ready for a treat when it premieres this coming Monday at 8:30PM EST on Toon Disney. Hope to see you there!