It is harder than ever to separate the final product from the news of the development of the game. The sequel to the monster-collecting franchise was announced in July of last year and will be released in the following year. It didn't happen. There were a number of factors that combined to turn the wait into a seemingly endless one.
This is something that has been happening for a long time for Digimon fans. The franchise has been kept alive only by fan passion in America because of a lack of official releases. Every big release is a major pop culture event, but it doesn't have the same branding as Pokemon. The will of its fans is what makes Digimon strong. The fans are more than eager to see the monsters thrive.
The number of games with theDigimon logo on store shelves would decrease by the end of 2002. It was on short-lived programming blocks like Disney's Jetix and some series never even finished. Fans can find the Japanese versions of the series on streaming services.
Even though the landscape looks barren, it's the passion from fans that allows Digimon to grow. During those lean times, Monte's love ofDigimon grew. He first encountered the franchise through a DVD of the second series that he would watch during school breaks in 2006 and hundreds of children playing with different things around him. He threw himself into fan communities on Facebook and other platforms, even as the brand was dying on network TV outside of Asia.
Monte has made deep dives into the franchise's history, aided by TheDigi-Lab, a one person labor of love by its site owner. The siteTranslatingeverything from Japanese chats with artists and writers to CD liner notes allows fans to play catch up and learn the intentions of the franchise's creators Monte says that there is already so much content that fans make new fan content even when there isn't an episode ofDigimon.
Interviews aren't the only thing fans translate. In celebration of the 15th anniversary of the TV show, a game was released by the company. The game was going to be a big hit in Europe and North America. Fans created a full English translation patch for it when that didn't happen. Fans gave the same treatment to the similarly region-lockedDigimon World Re:Digiize, and though there remains a broad spectrum ofDigimon games that haven't been translated or patched, fan perseverance continues to fill in the blanks.
On unofficial platforms, theDigimon community is still strong. The With the Will forums are a popular hub for news and discussion, one can find threads almost 20 years old on Neoseeker. The latest piece of fan fiction on Fanfiction.net was updated 12 hours ago, and it was written by a fan who wanted to act out their stories of having aDigimon partner. The oldest story is from December 4, 1999 It was less than four months after the show first aired.
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