Digimon Data Squad

Production

Digimon Savers was first announced during the December 2005 Jump Festa convention in Japan with advertisements showing a remolded Agumon as the lead Digimon. The name of the series was later revealed in January 2005 with the character designs coming a month later. Savers was the first Digimon series to be produced in nearly four years, but the second Digimon production since 2005, coming off the heels of Digital Monster X-Evolution, where staff had mentioned early on that a new series might be possible depending on its performance. Unlike previous series which all featured human character designs by Akihiro Asanuma, Savers went with designs by Sayo Aoi that featured designs more typical of anime than the staple style of shows past. The series was aired as a family program rather than a children's program in an attempt to capture a wider audience, including those who might have watched the earlier shows but grown older. Because of this new market, this series also contains the oldest cast of main characters, ranging from late teens to early twenties.

Rather than the typical eight-month wait between the Japanese airing and the English dub, there was a full eighteen months between the dub and the Japanese airing. Not long after the discovery of an entry for the show on Toei's website, which featured anglicized names for some of the characters and the show's new English title, chosen by Toei, on April 25, 2007, Disney's ABC Network announced that it had signed an agreement with Toei Animation to license the show. Much of the staff that worked on Digimon Adventure, including director Jeff Nimoy, returned to work on Data Squad. Because Disney had the rights to the show outside of Asia, it was aired in different channels throughout the world than past incarnations.

Bandai, in order to grab the older Digimon fans, wanted the reappearance of a Digimon from the old series, which was chosen to be the original main Digimon, Agumon.

Plot summary

A 14-year-old boy, Marcus Damon, an undefeated ultimate fighter (street fighter in the original Japanese version), meets Agumon, who has escaped from the Digital Accident Tactics Squad (DATS), a secret government organization set up to defend the human world from invading wild Digimon. After fighting each other, the two quickly become friends, and through a series of events, are inducted into DATS, where they hope to grow in strength.

Marcus' team-mates include the 14-year-old Thomas H. Norstein, a young prodigy, with his partner Gaomon, and 18-year-old Yoshino "Yoshi" Fujieda who has Lalamon for her partner. As the series progresses, Thomas discovers that Digimon respond to the "darkness" in humans, putting them at odds with monsters who seek to use humanity's own vices to bolster their own power.

The plot thickens with the introduction of Merukimon, one of the rulers (as a member of the Olympus Twelve, Merukimon has deity status in the Digital World), of the Digital World who rules the eastern Digital World and lives in the Infinite Ice Ridge, Biyomon and the human boy Keenan Crier, who serves him along with his partner Falcomon. The DATS team tries to unfold the reason for their hatred of humankind, until it is revealed that the real enemy was Akihiro Kurata, a scientist who led an attack on the Digital World years before that resulted in the death of many Digimon, including Keenan's adoptive mother, Frigimon.

Kurata gained the support of the Japanese government and important businessmen like Thomas' father on his plan to destroy all Digimon in the Digital World, claiming they were a threat to mankind. But this was only a facade to occult his main objective. He harnesses the energy of the Digimon he destroyed to power-up Belphemon, one of the Seven Deadly Digimon/Seven Great Demon Lords, and uses it in his attempt to rule the Human World (and eventually the Digital World), but his ambitions were shattered by the efforts of Marcus and his allies. Kurata merges with Belphemon and gets revenge on Marcus for constantly foiling his plans, but Marcus and ShineGreymon managed to defeat Belphemon, thanks to their friendship efforts.

After Belphemon's defeat, Kurata's last act was triggering a bomb which collapsed the frontier between the Human and Digital Worlds, putting both en route on collision, which could have led to the destruction of both realms, and the evil scientist was vaporized by the light, killing him. The collision was halted by the desperate efforts of BanchoLeomon who ordered Marcus to search for Yggdrasil/King Drasil, the Supreme Ruler and God of the Digital World. When the DATS team finally met King Drasil, they discovered that his decision to deal with the crisis unfolded, was to protect the Digital World by destroying the Human World, as the two worlds could not coexist in the same dimension. To perform this task, he assembled his elite guard, the Royal Knights.

Marcus was confused at first because King Drasil somehow had the appearance of his father, Dr. Spencer Damon, who disappeared in the Digital World years before. But it was revealed that King Drasil took his father's body, and his soul was somehow preserved by BanchoLeomon, who was revealed to be Spencer's partner Digimon. After defeating some of the Royal Knights, the DATS team decided to confront King Drasil himself, who after being expelled from Spencer's body, transformed himself into an all-powerful robotic form determined to destroy the Human World by itself.

However, even when the Royal Knights rebel against King Drasil, it won't give up its goal, attempting to destroy both worlds and create a new world. Using their emotions, Marcus and Agumon finally defeat King Drasil, and the two worlds cease their collision course. Before disappearing, King Drasil brings Spencer back to life and he returns to his family, but the Digimon decide to return to the Digital World to help restore it, and in the end Marcus decides to not part with Agumon and goes with them.

5 years later, Keenan and Kristy, Marcus' sister, go to the same school together. Thomas finally managed to find a cure for his sister's illness and became the youngest scientist to win the Nobel Prize at age 19. Yoshi has joined the police with the remaining DATS members, and Marcus and Agumon have become peacekeepers in the Digital World, breaking up fighting between rival Digimon factions as seen when stopping an argument between a group of Goblimon and Shamanmon.

Digimon and Digital Entities

Villains

Anime

Digimon Savers aired 48 episodes on Fuji TV in Japan from April 2, 2006 to March 25, 2007.

In Germany, the series first aired on RTL 2 from November 30, 2007 to February 14, 2008.

Digimon Data Squad finished airing in the US on Jetix on November 1, 2008, 13 months after premiering on the October 1, 2007.

In Brazil, twenty episodes have aired on Rede Globo, since August 10, 2009. After that, the series was no longer broadcast.

In Latin America (including Brazil), the anime premiered on Disney XD on February 22, 2010. Since Monday March 15, Digimon Data Squad finally began airing in the United Kingdom on Kix! (Only on Sky and FreeSat).

Since then, it continually airs every day at 7am, 1pm and 4pm throughout the day, however since Pinky and the Brain premiered it is only shown at 7am, 09:30am, 11:30am and 3:30pm.

It was announced on February 12, 2009 that Toei Animation has signed Well Go USA instead of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment with the DVD rights to Digimon Data Squad, and the first thirteen US sub and dub episodes has been made available on May 26, 2009.

The first DVD showed the North American edited TV version as seen on Disney XD.

The second DVD set was available on May 25, 2010, this set will also feature promo videos for the series.

There are no uncut DVDs (outside Japan and Brazil). The release of the third DVD set is canceled.

Madman Entertainment have released all 48 episodes across four sets on Region 4 DVD in Australia and New Zealand with only the US English Edited TV dub by Studiopolis. Brazil had released several DVDS of the show.

In 2014, Cinedigm Entertainment obtained the rights to the release of the season. A Complete collection released on March 11, 2014 in the US.

Theme songs

Video games

As it is part of a resurgence of the Digimon franchise, Digimon Data Squad has a number of related video games associated with it.