Today in my lunch break i watched the last episode of Digimon Frontier, the fourth season in the saga of digital monsters. Although i was more or less familiar with the story, the characters and everything else from the time i was running Digimon Backup, i hadn’t watched the series itself until this week. Not so long ago i watched Digimon Savers, the fifth season, after that i simply had to watch Frontier too.

Frontier first aired eight years ago, in 2002, and for a painfully long time (until Savers came out in 2006) it was the last. I still recall how everyone was mourning Digimon already, with only a few fansites harboring some hope… (Go TK!)

Frontier was very different from the previous seasons in that the kid heroes didn’t have digimon companions—they themselves turned into digimon. They are invited to the Digital World by Ophanimon, for no less goal than to save it of course. It turns out this is once again a different DigiWorld from the previous series: this one is a planet with three moons, and lots of rails from Trailmons.

Since the creators of the series cut the digimon partners, the focus is much more on the interactions of the kids themselves. The only digimon accompanying them are Bokomon and Neemon, two ditzy digimon who are more of a source of comic relief than of any actual help to the characters.

The graphics are of course good, and the hybrid digivolutions are simply awesome. The character designs, dialogs and filler stories are oriented at the elementary school student audience, which is also often made fun of by Arbormon. (Wash your hands before eating!) It was also interesting when i realised that Takuya, the fiery leader boy has the same voice actor as Naruto.

Frontier is not the best Digimon series, but still it’s good. Check it out, if you’re over 15, for nostalgia, if you’re younger than that, then for many hours of true and exciting entertainment.