Could entirely be possible. Though I know a lot of animators actually do work from home and their work isn't always inhibited in terms of that.
If not the animation, the environments at least look really pretty. Love how the world looks so far.
Could entirely be possible. Though I know a lot of animators actually do work from home and their work isn't always inhibited in terms of that.
If not the animation, the environments at least look really pretty. Love how the world looks so far.
Those episodes were scheduled to air three months ago so they were likely, unless the production is a Dragon Ball Super/Black Clover-tier wreck, already in the can. I think if we'll see any coronavirus-related disruptions, not just for Digimon but for any of the ongoing anime airing right now, it'll be within the next month or so.
Both episodes 4 and 5 were outsourced so to speak, FYI. 4 was actually entirely key animated by a single person while 5 was handled by Gallop, the studio that used to handle the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise until this year.
Mimi may be my least favorite out the original 7 but she has her good points. Still it was my least favorite episode. Togemon deserves better.
In hindsight, Mimi is probably one of my favourites because she starts out as this kind of spoiled kid, but toughens up as the story goes on.
This newest episode really highlighted what bothers me about this series. So far it seems to kind of skip over the character arcs.
This was the most obvious with Mimi so far. She is a little bit of a queenly character, but that's it. Tai is already this headstrong, brave leader. Izzy was originally a little bit of an awkward nerd, but he's extremely competent already. Sora was originally a little distant towards Biyomon.
The banter as the characters explored the island helped develop their characters in the original and there's very little of it there in the newest episodes. It was good with Tai and Izzy in the first few eps, but kind of tapered off.
It could be that they are getting the basics out of the way, so they could explore these characters in new ways, but they already kind of feel like the perfect versions of themselves.
Think we're being a bit too presumptuous on a series that's only 6 episodes long? How deep and fleshed out were the characters in Adventure by then? Yes there was a lot of little banter that added things here and there but that's because they needed time to fill since the original story was clearly being made up as it went along and had no clear plan or direction. I'm not trying to bring down the original series, I love that anime, my point is the reboot should not be compared to the original because it's clearly trying to do new things and is structured completely differently. Just the fact that we got a giant exposition dump so early shows that the writers have a game plan for the whole season where they have to make the best use of time for each episode. Like if we're gonna get organic presentation of all 8 Digimon and their champion, perfect and ultimate forms, not to mention Omegamon Merciful mode and the potential addition of the Royal Knights, Celestials and the Seven Demon Lords…We got Omegamon by episode 3, that's some serious promise that we're gonna surpass all your expectations.
Okay, I'm not saying we skimp characterization for lore, that's dumb. My point is that the intent is to completely reinvent the story to be more timeless and grand, think Breath of the Wild. The characters are written in a way to reflect that. They're no longer a bunch of dumb kids trying to escape a mystery island, they're warriors putting themselves on the line to save both worlds. They're a lot more mature and proactive. Given the premise, having them act like bratty, immature kids wouldn't make sense. Imagine if we took the complete characters from Adventure and built up from that (an Evolution if you will haha). How exciting would it be when we start fleshing out those characters instead of starting them from zero like in Adventure. Personally I'm already finding the initial characters to be super cool and badass, fighting with their Digimon and not sitting on the sidelines? Focusing on their goals and acting on initaitve without any hesitation? Of course, this is all based on assumptions and my faith in the storytelling of this show that we're going to get more than this, I'll be the first to cry disappointment if the characters never grow beyond their static precursor forms and we never delve into their histories (especially the parents). But given how much nuanced characterization we've gotten already, I think we're in good hands.
Also on an aside, this show has the best Digimon combat we've ever seen. Digimon actually fight with all their body parts and don't just grapple and exchange special attacks.
It is hasty to really fully judge, but it's something that I'm also wary about.
It's a pretty different story in some aspects, so it's logical to assume it's going to develop it's characters in a different way, too.
There is an advantage to not dumping the whole cast on the viewers, but I hope it won't just stick with the most basic versions of the characters.
@TLC:
Also on an aside, this show has the best Digimon combat we've ever seen. Digimon actually fight with all their body parts and don't just grapple and exchange special attacks.
One thing I noticed is that they are apparently using those secondary moves the Digimon had according to their cards, but that are mostly just glorified punches. Most of the time they don't announce their attacks and I didn't really check to see if they match, but I am under the impression that's what we are saying and I really liked it.
I think we can safely say now that Coronavirus definitely did screw up their plans for more elaborate digivolution animations.
! It makes no sense for Greymon and Garurumon to get shiny new animations while Metal Greymon gets nothing.
I'm not sure about the next level evolutions being introduced already.
This does not automatically mean Skullgreymon and thus much of Tai's development (and if the others get them straight away, theirs too) is being skipped, but it does raise the possibility and I would not like that.
We've also barely had any time to breathe, which I think the story needs at this point, just for the cast to be developed beyond just the very basic beats. I think considering the setup for the next episodes, we might actually get that.
My optimism over the first episodes kinda died in the last 5 episodes or so when it became evident the idea of not introducing every kid at the same time would not equal a change in the "kid/digimon/evolution of the week" formula. At the end, having each kid appear at a different time ended in nothing changing, and, worse, somehow we are actually sticking to this to an even greater extent than at the original series, since instead of settling down now all the Champions are here, we are immediately starting it again with the Perfect stage - and, it only looks worse if you compare how this played out to how Agumon's Perfect evolution was handled before.
Also, despite the Holy Digimon flashback suggesting every digimon will get to their Mega this time, the evolution sequences are not even trying to hide the Agumon and Gabumon favoritism, so it's clear those two will still be special.
New Digimon series is hit or miss for some. I seemed to enjoy the anime. But it may be some's cup of tea.
I love the fight against Metaltyranomon, but I do understand if people think it was too easy for Tai and Agumon compared to the original with Skull Graymon and Tai being overconfident. But, that would be hard to play out that story line here because there's a clear understanding these are the kids' actual bodies (and not digital code or something) and they can die.
@.access:
My optimism over the first episodes kinda died in the last 5 episodes or so when it became evident the idea of not introducing every kid at the same time would not equal a change in the "kid/digimon/evolution of the week" formula. At the end, having each kid appear at a different time ended in nothing changing, and, worse, somehow we are actually sticking to this to an even greater extent than at the original series, since instead of settling down now all the Champions are here, we are immediately starting it again with the Perfect stage - and, it only looks worse if you compare how this played out to how Agumon's Perfect evolution was handled before.
Also, despite the Holy Digimon flashback suggesting every digimon will get to their Mega this time, the evolution sequences are not even trying to hide the Agumon and Gabumon favoritism, so it's clear those two will still be special.
I'm fine with the kids getting to the Ultimates now as long as there's a good reason for it. One, being they already have their crests. The other I hope is there's a LOT of story that needs to be told and the show runners want to get to it quickly.
As for the kids' development, there's still a chance it will come later in different ways (maybe going for a child soldier-ish angle). I can see a lot of emotional stuff going down once evil Digimon invade Earth and their families are in danger.
They already pulled out the final movie fusion evolution in like, episode 3. they're not being shy about jumping to the later forms, they're not pretending the franchise hasn't existed before now, there's no point. They're not even radically changing the designs or anything, so…
To what degree and what point they end up taking that rush to show off the later forms this early, I dunno.
I think a lot of people are setting themselves up for disappointment expecting Digimon: to follow the same beaten path as the original. What's the point of having Tai go through the same journey, screwing up with Skullgreymon leading to Metalgreymon. We got Omegamon in episode 3, the writers aren't stupid, they are aware the new series doesn't exist in a vacuum and there's no point in trying to go overboard hyping up Ultimates. We need to get to Megas goddammit!
I thought how they handled the evolution is fine, persisting against a far stronger foe, pushing yourself to the limits until the evolution was forced is a fresh take and more emotionally satisfying than we got to find the mcguffin that magically lets us do the thing. Animation of the episode was admittedly wonky but the metalgreymon bit was pure sakuga.
Also for all the complaints I hear about the characters being too static, I'm personally much more enticed and invested in the character dynamics of the new group. For example, Sora is an actual important member of the team now serving a function as a mediator of the group, the rock which fits her mom-like personality, she's not just tough girl. Mimi and Joe are wonderful balances of comic relief. Izzy is the brains as usual and there's a lot more tension between Matt and Tai since Matt is struggling with trust issues and Tai is optimistic to a fault. And even the digimon feel like actual characters and not just default aprtners. They actually interact with the other characters on a regular basis and feel like they're as emotionally invested in the stakes as much as the human partners. Like I really felt Agumon's regret at Orgemon's death and his desire to avenge him.
This could all collapse in our faces but the fact that we're getting Ultimates in 10/66 episodes is actually encouraging. It indicates a bold direction and the promise of some crazy shit for the climax. Royal Knights? Seven Demon Lords maybe?
@TLC:
What's the point of having Tai go through the same journey, screwing up with Skullgreymon leading to Metalgreymon.
Heck, not only has it been done, but they did it again in Tamers when Guilmon to Megidramon before getting to Gallantmon.
There really isn't a lot of reason to repeat that beat again, even if its been a while.
Matt being Matt. I love how worried he is about T.K. compared to Tai who's spent all his Sibling Care Points in their first episodes, heh. But, yeah, Matt and Gabumon have this cool vibe I love seeing when on screen together. You can tell they had many adventures together before meeting up with the others.
Weregarurumon was great. Been said before but I love seeing the chosen digimon actually fight instead of spamming their super move. And, we finally get a Leomon name drop. Why wait? Let's just raise his death flag to half mast now.
They mentioned Leomon's name and I just sighed. Not looking forward to seeing him die for the…
Adventure, Tamers, Frontier, Savers, Xros Wars, Tri, X-Evolution....
8th time.
Heck, some of those even killed MULTIPLE variants of Leomon in them.
They mentioned Leomon's name and I just sighed. Not looking forward to seeing him die for the…
Adventure, Tamers, Frontier, Savers, Xros Wars, Tri, X-Evolution....
8th time.
Heck, some of those even killed MULTIPLE variants of Leomon in them.
Maybe we'll get lucky and one of the kids will get his egg as their second partner.
It would be a neat twist and a good way to eventually introduce Jogressing.
They mentioned Leomon's name and I just sighed. Not looking forward to seeing him die for the…
Adventure, Tamers, Frontier, Savers, Xros Wars, Tri, X-Evolution....
8th time.
Heck, some of those even killed MULTIPLE variants of Leomon in them.
Since Ogremon already fulfilled the Leomon role to some degree, maybe they'll surprise us this time and Leomon won't die.
Leomon: Hang on kids! I'm comin' to rescue alotta ya. I'll- gets axed in the back AAAAAAGHHH! Ugh, I'm bad at this falls over dead
That episode wasn't bad…
! but a random Guardromon now has more character development than any of the kids or their partners.
Also, was it just me or did Metal Greymon look a lot like Machinedramon in that one shot?
Ep 13: Its kinda funny that Birdamon finally got it's stock evolution on Garudamon debut episode (which was a good one) lol.
Ep 14 : I like how tentomon get's more extra the more he digivolves ( the giant beetle doing hand to hand combat was hilarious and badass at the same time).
Also Palmon,tentomon and gomamon have so much personality in this reboot agumon and gabumon feel somewhat the same while piyomon… lol , I love it.
I may be biased, but this was easily the best episode of the series yet.
A few weeks ago people were saying that MetalGreymon episode was not bad because it was either that or repeating the same SkullGreymon route of the original series. Well, this episode is a good example of how false that dichotomy is. This episode managed to do something interesting with it without having to do a repetition of what we had before.
Also, of all the Ultimate episodes, it is the only one I think focused on depicting the kid and the digimon as actual partners. The others so far had the Digimon pretty much acting as just a weapon, just doing the fighting while all the focus went to the kid. Tentomon played a big part on Izzy unlocking the evolution and I love that at the end when he asked what Izzy's plan for the fight was, the reply was basically "no plan, this is your fight" (basically making it the Digimon's moment of glory and not the kid's moment "through their Digimon").
They even managed to make me excited with AtlurKabuterimon, the only stage of the evolution line that I never cared about.
Hopefully Gomamon gets the same treatment.
They mentioned Leomon's name
even killed MULTIPLE variants of Leomon in them.
@TLC:
fulfilled the Leomon role
and Leomon won't die.
Leomon: Hang on kids
You see Leomon a few times in a row it starts to look like Lemon :wassat:. Actually after seeing his name the first time, after that it just looked like everyone was talking about lemons
I've been bored with this series for a long time but episode 24 was surprisingly awesome.
MY BOY WARGREYMON ENTERED THE ARENA
THAT WAS SO FUCKING HYPE
@TLC:
MY BOY WARGREYMON ENTERED THE ARENA
THAT WAS SO FUCKING HYPE
His Dramon Destroyers are ridiculously huge in this version.
So uh…
! Agumon now has a third mega evolution (fourth if you include Omnimon), while the others are all still stuck at ultimate level.
I'm changing the thread title to reflect the series' new focus.
Hey, Patamon has managed to get Angemon and his season 2 horse form!
But yeah, it's become clear that there's a reason Tai and Agumon are the only one in the opening credits for the enitire first minute. Even when they do an exact recreation of the falling from the opening of the original show.
I've been waiting and waiting for them to drop the rest of the cast into those shots but it just doesn't happen.
Joe has just been stuck in a hot springs for like 10 episodes contributing literally nothing. And I don' even remember where Mimi went.
Overall this show isn't doing it for me. The original had a much much better balance of characters and story beats. Here they've clearly just picked out the handful of favorites and the rest are just there because they're obligated to be.
Though maybe, MAYBE if they're dishing out brand new forms they'll start doing that for some of the others and that's why they've been holding off. The final evolutions were no secret in the franchise, but if you mix them up to be something new there can be SOME surprise? Not expecting that though.
It's still all miles better than Tri. Ugh.
I just want BanchoLilymon to be an actual thing.
Hey, Patamon has managed to get Angemon and his season 2 horse form!
But yeah, it's become clear that there's a reason Tai and Agumon are the only one in the opening credits for the enitire first minute. Even when they do an exact recreation of the falling from the opening of the original show.
I've been waiting and waiting for them to drop the rest of the cast into those shots but it just doesn't happen.
Joe has just been stuck in a hot springs for like 10 episodes contributing literally nothing. And I don' even remember where Mimi went.
Overall this show isn't doing it for me. The original had a much much better balance of characters and story beats. Here they've clearly just picked out the handful of favorites and the rest are just there because they're obligated to be.
Though maybe, MAYBE if they're dishing out brand new forms they'll start doing that for some of the others and that's why they've been holding off. The final evolutions were no secret in the franchise, but if you mix them up to be something new there can be SOME surprise? Not expecting that though.
It's still all miles better than Tri. Ugh.
The real dealbreaker for me is the critical lack of meaningful interaction between the kids and their partners.
In this latest episode Izzy has a minute and a half long nonsense monologue about how he's dependable and he can handle saving the world by himself because he's always been alone, but wait, he's not actually alone at all even though none of the people he's crediting with helping him are there!
Meanwhile Atlurkabuterimon is completely silent the entire time, not attempting to reassure Izzy that he's not alone or even take credit for his own sizeable contribution to saving Tokyo from being utterly destroyed by a relatively tiny chunk of space debris (the whole ISS plot thread made no sense).
The dialogue is just so un-Digimon that it hurts.
Hey, Patamon has managed to get Angemon and his season 2 horse form!
But yeah, it's become clear that there's a reason Tai and Agumon are the only one in the opening credits for the enitire first minute. Even when they do an exact recreation of the falling from the opening of the original show.
I've been waiting and waiting for them to drop the rest of the cast into those shots but it just doesn't happen.
Joe has just been stuck in a hot springs for like 10 episodes contributing literally nothing. And I don' even remember where Mimi went.
Overall this show isn't doing it for me. The original had a much much better balance of characters and story beats. Here they've clearly just picked out the handful of favorites and the rest are just there because they're obligated to be.
Though maybe, MAYBE if they're dishing out brand new forms they'll start doing that for some of the others and that's why they've been holding off. The final evolutions were no secret in the franchise, but if you mix them up to be something new there can be SOME surprise? Not expecting that though.
It's still all miles better than Tri. Ugh.
I still enjoy the show as a fun nostalgia trip. The action is excellent and it's fun seeing my childhood characters in new scenarios. It actually gave Hikari active agency which was more than she ever got in Adventure.
I might be a lot less harsh because I recently bingewatched tri though….urghhhhhh
Its not hard for anything to be better than Tri.
Its not hard for anything to be better than Tri.
I really liked the first half hour of Kizuna until the stupid plot reveal happened and it all went to shit.
As a disappointment I think this is worse than Tri.
Tri went off in a weird (bad) direction but we didn't have clear, detailed expectations for that series.
Someone obviously cared and tried to make Tri good, they just didn't know what they were doing.
With this series, it's a remake so we knew exactly what to expect and most of those expectations were completely ignored.
Omnimon showed up in episode 2, breaking the power scaling completely, so he had to be shelved for absolutely no reason except when he wasn't.
Devimon was made the main villain of the first season and the story was stretched out horribly for… what reason exactly?
Etamon was cut to make room for all the not-Devimon filler.
Vamdemon was cut to make room for all the not-Devimon filler.
The chosen children never fought Devimon, they fought his ugly, far less iconic evolution Neodevimon instead, who got his ass kicked immediately. (What was the point of this?)
Neodevimon was then resurrected as the much cooler Dandevimon by the power of Millenniummon, making Neodevimon extra pointless as a form (they really should've just fought and overpowered, but not killed, the original Devimon, forcing him to use Millenniummon's power to evolve into the unstable Dandevimon).
Throughout the Devimon saga, he almost never spoke, and I'm convinced that the writers of the series originally intended for him to be mute because his mouth never moves. For an iconic villain known as a taunter and manipulator who loved flexing his power on the chosen children in the original series this was a horrible move.
Since Devimon was defeated (in the first cool fight of the series), the chosen children split up and half of them have been off doing nothing for the last ten episodes. They had a water episode where Joe and Gomamon could've shined and gotten a new evolution, but he was stuck in a hot spring so Kari and Gatomon were weirdly given that moment instead.
Izzy randomly reunited with Tai in the last episode so it's not as if they couldn't have just run into Joe on their way to FAGA.
It seems like the rest of the arc is going to be them randomly reuniting with the others and fighting more filler enemies until they eventually take down Millenniummon somewhere around episode 52, and then the last 14 episodes will be them fighting the reborn Diablomon.
I've been bored watching Digimon before, but the sense of "I know exactly what's going to happen next, can we just get it over with?" that plagues this series is something new and uniquely awful.
I'm still waiting for Leomon to show back up so he can die for the seventh or eighth time.
Just cause that's on the checklist.
I'm still waiting for Leomon to show back up so he can die for the seventh or eighth time.
Just cause that's on the checklist.
I think Ogremon might've gotten that role this time but who knows.
At least this anime has fun action sequences and some degree of levity. Even if the writing is bad, I at least care about the characters. Tri was nothing but bland Styrofoam for 6 movies combined with a misguided we gotta adult now theme. Visually alone, I'd watch 2020 a hundred times than subject myself to Tri's awful character designs.
I just got Crunchyroll again and was going to start this series. I guess I'm not, now. I was kind of annoyed with the overuse of Greymon and Garrurumon in the original series.
I just got Crunchyroll again and was going to start this series. I guess I'm not, now. I was kind of annoyed with the overuse of Greymon and Garrurumon in the original series.
I recommend watching episode 24 because it's one of the best fights in all of Digimon, otherwise check out Dai instead.
It's at 19 episodes so far and they've done a really good job.
I recommend watching episode 24 because it's one of the best fights in all of Digimon, otherwise check out Dai instead.
It's at 19 episodes so far and they've done a really good job.
I hadn't even considered watching that, but I'll check it out. Is it like the games where the main character will end up with a party by the end?
As a disappointment I think this is worse than Tri.
Tri went off in a weird (bad) direction but we didn't have clear, detailed expectations for that series.
Someone obviously cared and tried to make Tri good, they just didn't know what they were doing.With this series, it's a remake so we knew exactly what to expect and most of those expectations were completely ignored.
Omnimon showed up in episode 2, breaking the power scaling completely, so he had to be shelved for absolutely no reason except when he wasn't.
Devimon was made the main villain of the first season and the story was stretched out horribly for… what reason exactly?
Etamon was cut to make room for all the not-Devimon filler.
Vamdemon was cut to make room for all the not-Devimon filler.
The chosen children never fought Devimon, they fought his ugly, far less iconic evolution Neodevimon instead, who got his ass kicked immediately. (What was the point of this?)
Neodevimon was then resurrected as the much cooler Dandevimon by the power of Millenniummon, making Neodevimon extra pointless as a form (they really should've just fought and overpowered, but not killed, the original Devimon, forcing him to use Millenniummon's power to evolve into the unstable Dandevimon).
Throughout the Devimon saga, he almost never spoke, and I'm convinced that the writers of the series originally intended for him to be mute because his mouth never moves. For an iconic villain known as a taunter and manipulator who loved flexing his power on the chosen children in the original series this was a horrible move.Since Devimon was defeated (in the first cool fight of the series), the chosen children split up and half of them have been off doing nothing for the last ten episodes. They had a water episode where Joe and Gomamon could've shined and gotten a new evolution, but he was stuck in a hot spring so Kari and Gatomon were weirdly given that moment instead.
Izzy randomly reunited with Tai in the last episode so it's not as if they couldn't have just run into Joe on their way to FAGA.It seems like the rest of the arc is going to be them randomly reuniting with the others and fighting more filler enemies until they eventually take down Millenniummon somewhere around episode 52, and then the last 14 episodes will be them fighting the reborn Diablomon.
I've been bored watching Digimon before, but the sense of "I know exactly what's going to happen next, can we just get it over with?" that plagues this series is something new and uniquely awful.
It's hard to not agree with all of this, as I'm already fast-watching the series since six or five episodes before the Devimon final battle.
I grew up as a near Digimon-fag, utterly prefering it to Pokémon and other alike series. I indeed watched this whole remake as an unncecessary deviation from the original so-much-good pact, with a lot of useless contents added in the middle. Omnimon in ep.2 is the biggest error of the series but not the last by far. As a 2019 series, I expected a lot of differences with the original saga, as for narratively speaking a lot of more focus on secundary characters instead of Tai & Matt + siblings. We got the worst instead: a whole series just for them to be always in the middle of the action, making me guess why do we have EIGHT digi-chosen to begin with.
The series has been able to get worse and worse, making me watch it just for the sake of know where this whole mess will lead to. Useless to say, they had to cover the Omnimon gap fast and we got the whole Evolute stadium roster in a blink, soon reached by both MVP's Megas. When Hikari got in the game, I hoped for something different, but we just got the TK+Patamon 2.0. Only good note so far is Patamon disengaged by his Angemon form as "the only on who matters" and driving along some secondary lineage.
Last point, I really can't feel any empathy for the whole "Earth is endangered by some virus messing with trains/missiles/whatelse" subplot so far, finding it even annoying here and there.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
I just got Crunchyroll again and was going to start this series. I guess I'm not, now. I was kind of annoyed with the overuse of Greymon and Garrurumon in the original series.
This series basically put the original series focus on Greymon and Gerurumon to shame. It's like they were some sort of underlings in comparison.
I think they really would have cut it down to just Tai and Matt, and maybe the siblings if they thought they could get away with it. But they HAVE to have the other 4 and their partners exist, even if they only show up for one episode out of ten.
Like if you're going to deviate this wildly, and not do an actual "retelling but modern spin" just go whole hog and really reinvent it somehow. Do something drastic that really makes it crazy. Have the badguys recruit half the kids and make them antagonists. Kill one of them. Switch their personalities around. Give them brand new evolutions from the getgo. SOMETHING.
But then, Tamers was always my favorite series of the bunch and I don't have a huge soft spot for the original cast like most do, so maybe my opinion doesn't matter in this regard.
This is all a big shame to hear. I've been holding out for a dubbing company to pick it up and see how they handle a modern digimon dub (I was pretty satisfied with the Digimon Tri dub's product, but doubtful 2020 will get the same level of care put in). I wanted to see big changes to the story, but sounds like they went in the wrong direction with that.
If someone ever does finally pick it up and start dubbing it, I'll probably give it my time, but otherwise don't know if I'll ever bother with it then.
Oh it'll no doubt get picked up, its too big a property not to… the real question is will they keep the dub cast that's been doing it for 20 years or let the movie be their farewell and take this opportunity to recast a bit?
I don't see a lot of reason to change the cast out, they all still sound the same unlike the Inu Yasha cast who all aged vocally quite a bit. But if they want to move away from the sarcastic almost gag-dub nature of it, a fresh cast might not be a terrible idea.
I hadn't even considered watching that, but I'll check it out. Is it like the games where the main character will end up with a party by the end?
Yeah, that does happen.
Oh it'll no doubt get picked up, its too big a property not to… the real question is will they keep the dub cast that's been doing it for 20 years or let the movie be their farewell and take this opportunity to recast a bit?
I don't see a lot of reason to change the cast out, they all still sound the same unlike the Inu Yasha cast who all aged vocally quite a bit. But if they want to move away from the sarcastic almost gag-dub nature of it, a fresh cast might now be a terrible idea.
It would be nice if they dubbed Appmon instead. That series turned out way better than I expected, and the premise is probably a lot more interesting to today's kids.
I think they really would have cut it down to just Tai and Matt, and maybe the siblings if they thought they could get away with it. But they HAVE to have the other 4 and their partners exist, even if they only show up for one episode out of ten.
They HAD to cause they're just milking some nostalgy from old fans with those characters. They could've easily gone for some new series with brand anew charas as they did before, but they HAD to rely on some known face to bring nostalgy over it. I can't see any other reason.
So this finally happened:
The last few episodes have been fairly decent slice of life, monster of the week fare.
It's been frustrating having to wait so long for the next mega evolution though.
The last batch of episodes were everything I wanted the season to be and I wish they were like this opposed to constant balls to the wall action.
I don't know what they were smoking when writing the etemon episode but I want some