TLDR;
This video reviews and discusses the Digimon Frontier movie, "Island of Lost Digimon," also known as "Digimon Frontier: Ancient Digimon Revival." The reviewer shares their fondness for the Digimon Frontier concept, despite its divisive changes to the traditional Digimon formula. The review covers the movie's plot, its themes of conflict and innocence, and its place within the broader Digimon franchise. Additionally, the video explores the real-world impact of the movie's poor performance, which contributed to a hiatus in the Digimon series and the end of the Toei Anime Fairs.
- The movie takes place during the Frontier series, featuring the kids in a conflict between humanoid and beast Digimon.
- The film explores themes of innocence, prejudice, and the cyclical nature of hatred.
- The movie's box office failure led to a three-year hiatus for the Digimon franchise and the end of Toei Anime Fairs.
Intro [0:00]
The video introduces a review and discussion of the Digimon Frontier movie, "Island of Lost Digimon" or "Digimon Frontier: Ancient Digimon Revival." The author expresses his fondness for the Digimon Frontier concept, despite knowing it's divisive due to its unique approach of making the human kids the Digimon and removing traditional partners. He admits to never having seen the movie until recently and was compelled to discuss it after learning about its original Japanese release, box office performance, and its role in the end of the Toei Anime Fairs, which led to Toei giving up on Digimon for a period.
The Review [1:08]
The Digimon Frontier film, released in the summer of 2002, occurs at an unspecified time during the series. The Frontier team finds themselves in a "Mad Max Fury Road"-like setting, where they are absorbed into a floating island inhabited by warring humanoid and beast Digimon factions. The conflict's origins are unclear, but it revolves around the worship of Orison, an ancient guardian and ancestor of AncientGreymon and AncientGarurumon. The division between human and beast Digimon is a key theme, mirroring the series' exploration of similar dynamics. The heroes are separated, with Takuya, JP, and Tommy aligning with the human faction, while Koji and Zoe join the beast faction. The children defend their respective Digimon friends, highlighting a child's perspective on the conflict. This is further emphasized by the friendship between young Digimon, Bokomon and Neemon, who belong to opposing factions. During battle sequences, Takuya becomes Agunimon to reason with the human Digimon, and Koji transforms into KendoGarurumon to calm the beasts. The other kids work to repair a mural to uncover the complete story of Orison. The faction leaders, Darkmon and Hippogriffomon, are revealed to be the same Digimon using slide evolution to manipulate both sides and revive the evil Orison through conflict, fear, and anger. With enough fear and anger, Orison is revived, but AncientGreymon and AncientGarurumon also awaken when Bokomon sacrifices himself. Agunimon and Lobomon fight alongside the ancient Digimon, but the battle ends quickly. The human and beast Digimon acknowledge the kids' ability to see past their anger, leading to coexistence. The author says that the movie is not his favorite Digimon film, but he likes the idea of it.
The Failure [6:26]
Digimon Frontier marked the end of the original run of consecutive Digimon series, leading to a three-year hiatus until Digimon Savers in 2006. Frontier's TV ratings were lower compared to previous series, charting in Japan's top 10 anime TV charts only seven times during its run, while its movie was an even bigger failure. The 2002 summer anime fair, featuring Digimon Frontier, Kinnikuman, and Crash Gear Turbo, earned only $470,000 USD, a significant drop from the 2002 spring anime fair's $1.9 million USD. This box office failure led to the cancellation of the 2003 Toei Anime Fair, ending the biannual film tradition. While Digimon Frontier wasn't solely responsible, the lack of a popular series like Dragon Ball or One Piece contributed to the bomb. The failure of the Digimon Frontier film, along with low TV ratings, put Digimon on hold for three years and ended the Toei spring and summer anime fairs. Digimon Savers, which arrived in 2006, performed better in TV ratings and received a short film ahead of a Pretty Cure movie. The author found this information fascinating, as the Toei spring and summer anime fairs presented opportunities for Digimon films to be produced, which ended with Frontier.