Here is every single Digimon anime and movie in the order they were released—and the best way to watch each of them! The Digimon anime has been around since the franchise’s initial series debuted in 1999, but non-anime materials date back even further. Naturally, there’s a lot to keep track of as a result, and much of what is available is spread across multiple streaming platforms and forms of digital media.
Digimon, much like its most notable contemporary, Pokémon, started as a gaming franchise before spinning off into other forms of media, most notably an animated adaptation. While both series have children as their target audience, Digimon is known to have more instances of trying to appeal to an older audience through its themes and imagery, although that mostly shows up in the video games. Not only that, but while the Pokémon anime is a continuous story following Ash, Pikachu, and whoever they’re traveling with in each region, there are multiple different Digimon anime, each one focusing on a new story and a new cast of characters, which also allows for a wide variety of themes to be explored.
The Digimon anime are numerous and varied in story, and these are all of them in release order, including their movies and the best way to watch them. There are a few video games and manga that tie into some of the anime, but none of them are necessary for understanding the anime, so they won’t be discussed. Also, while most of the anime are standalone stories, some of them do exist within the same continuity, and those connections will be discussed when appropriate.
Digimon Adventure
Digimon Adventure is the first Digimon anime, written by Reiko Yoshida of Netflix’s Violet Evergarden fame. Originally released in 1999, Adventure follows seven children known as the “DigiDestined” who were called to the Digital World to protect it from evil with help from their Digimon partners. As the first Digimon anime, Digimon Adventure is the most iconic of them all, and not only has it been expanded on the most, but its basic plot has also been the basis for many Digimon anime to follow.
Digimon Adventure 02
Digimon Adventure 02 is the second Digimon anime, and, as the name implies, an immediate sequel to Digimon Adventure. Released in 2000, 02 followed a new cast of children, in addition to two of the younger characters in Adventure, being tasked with protecting both Earth and the Digital World from the Digimon Kaiser, voiced by Romi Park of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime, and other threats. 02 made changes to the original formula that other Digimon anime would also utilize such as splitting time between the two worlds and giving characters other than the main characters Digimon partners.
Digimon Tamers
Digimon Tamers was released in 2001 and was the first anime to exist outside of the Adventure continuity. In a major contrast to its predecessors, Tamers takes place in a world similar to the real world where Digimon exists as a multimedia franchise, with much of the conflict centered around the kids dealing with Digimon being real, in addition to them having to deal with a government organization tasked with fighting Digimon. Tamers is noted for being much darker than other Digimon anime series through its use of Lovecraftian horror themes and how it deconstructs the series in various ways such as the government getting involved in the story and how unlike in previous anime, death is permanent for Digimon.
Digimon Frontier
After Digimon Tamers deconstructed the series, 2002’s Digimon Frontier went back to basics by being another show about children being brought to the Digital World to protect it from evil. In a major departure from the norm, however, the children didn’t have Digimon partners, instead drawing on the power of ancient Digimon to transform into Digimon, themselves. The entire premise drew similarities to the Power Rangers franchise and the sentai genre in general, and that, among other reasons, has made it a rather divisive entry into the franchise.
Digimon Data Squad
Following Digimon Frontier, there wouldn’t be another Digimon anime until 2006’s Digimon Data Squad, also known as Digimon Savers in the original Japanese. Similar to Digimon Tamers, Data Squad features a government organization tasked with keeping Digimon at bay, but rather than be at odds with them, the main characters in Data Squad are part of said organization. With Digimon being about ten years old at that point, Data Squad did various things to try an appeal to an older audience such as making most of the main characters teenagers and young adults, having callbacks to previous Digimon anime, and having more instances of physical violence and character-driven drama; all in all, Data Squad, directed by Naoyuki Ito of Studio Madhouse’s Overlord, was the franchise’s biggest attempt at creating a typical shonen anime. Data Squad is also noteworthy for being the first mainstream appearance of Yggdrasil, the god of the Digital World.
Digimon Fusion
The next Digimon anime was Digimon Fusion in 2010, also known as Digimon Xros Wars in the original Japanese. Fusion returned to the basic premise of children being brought to the Digital World to protect it from evil, but with the addition of the DigiFuse gimmick used to combine Digimon into different forms. Fusion also did away with the traditional level system used in Digimon to focus on the DigiFuse system. After the first two seasons of Digimon Fusion, directed by Tetsuya Endo, who was the assistant director for My Neighbor Totoro, the anime was rebranded as Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time, changed its format to a monster-of-the-week series, and even had characters from the previous anime appear in the final arc to fight the main villain. Having aired from 2010 to 2012 and lasting 79 episodes, Digimon Fusion stands out as the longest Digimon anime, to date.
Digimon Adventure tri.
In celebration of Digimon Adventure’s fifteenth anniversary, a six-part movie sequel ran from 2015 to 2018 called Digimon Adventure tri. The series took place three years after the defeat of MaloMyotismon in Digimon Adventure 02 and followed the original cast of Adventure as teenagers going through the pains of adolescence coupled with another adventure with their Digimon. It was the first Adventure project to not be directed by original creator Hiroyuki Kakudo, who was also a storyboard artist for Dragon Ball Super. This was also the first time that a Digimon series was simulcast in territories outside of Japan, although most Western territories aired each movie of tri. as episodes of an anime instead of as just a movie.
Digimon Universe: App Monsters
While Digimon Adventure tri. didn’t finish until 2018, a new anime premiered in 2016 called Digimon Universe: App Monsters. App Monsters was a major departure from the series for focusing not on Digimon, but Appmon, digital lifeforms from the Net Ocean derived from phone apps. This is because the anime technically wasn’t based on Digimon, but on the App Monsters spinoff franchise, which has long since been defunct.
Digimon Adventure:
The next Digimon anime was 2020’s Digimon Adventure:, a full reboot of the original Digimon Adventure anime scored by Toshihiko Sahashi of original Hunter x Hunter fame. Adventure: followed the basic premise of the original series, with the major differences being that Adventure: took place in 2020 instead of 1999 and that there was a larger focus on some of the lore elements of the franchise. Adventure: ended in a way that could set up a potential sequel, but as of now, it’s unknown if that will ever be followed up on.
Digimon Ghost Game
The newest, and current, Digimon anime is Digimon Ghost Game. Ghost Game is another series where the main characters have to deal with Digimon causing trouble in their world, but the hook in Ghost Game is that the Digimon are causing incidents labeled as supernatural phenomena. At the time of writing, Ghost Game, which features the voice talents of Akira Ishida of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame, is also notable for not having an overarching villain and instead focusing on the episodic adventures of the cast.
Every Digimon Movie So Far
In addition to anime, Digimon has also spawned a variety of animated movies based on said anime. Digimon: The Movie was released in 2000, although that was actually a compilation of three different movies for Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02: a short film also titled Digimon Adventure, Our War Game!, and Hurricane Touchdown!! A sequel to Our War Game!, Revenge of Diaboromon, was released in 2001; Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers was released in the same year, and it was followed by Runaway Locomon and Digimon Frontier: Island of Lost Digimon in 2002.
2005 saw the release of Digimon X-Evolution, a fully CG movie not connected to any of the anime that was written by Ghost in the Shell‘s Kazunori Ito and saw the debut of Yggdrasil, which was then followed by 2006’s Digimon Savers: Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!! Digimon Adventure tri. was then released from 2015 to 2018, which was then followed up in 2020 by Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna. Kizuna was framed as the grand finale of the Adventure series, but a new movie focused on 02 is currently in development.
Where To Watch Every Digimon Anime & Movie
Despite the franchise being as big as it is, many Digimon anime and movies are hard to watch. The first four anime can be streamed on Hulu, but only in English, and every anime from Digimon Fusion onward is available on Crunchyroll, but only in Japanese with English subtitles. Digimon Data Squad currently can’t be viewed by any legal means. As for the movies, Digimon Adventure tri. is available on Crunchyroll, and Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, can be purchased for most physical and digital media.
Digimon: The Movie had been out of print for years, until July 29, 2023, when it was announced that Discotek Media would be releasing not only the edited version of Digimon: The Movie, but also dubbing and releasing the three movies that make it up, giving fans the chance to finally watch these in English, with as much of the original cast returning as possible. That means Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!, and Digimon Adventure 02: Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! will be available for the first time on Bluray.
Unfortunately, none of the other movies are available in physical or digital formats, and Digimon X-Evolution and Digimon Savers: Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!! have never even been released outside of Japan. A surprising number of Digimon anime and movies are some manner of lost media, but at least fans now have hope that they might someday be released.
