Anime / Digimon Frontier

If we're all for one world, there's a world for us all.

Takuya Kanbara is an average city kid who receives a text message from an unknown source instructing him to "board a train towards his destiny". Taking up the Call to Adventure, he finds the train in question and is whisked off to the Digital World, which is currently under threat from the malevolent Cherubimon. Cherubimon and his minions are consuming the very building blocks of the Digital World (its "Fractal Code") to increase their own power, and if nothing is done then the entire Digital World will be devoured.

All is not lost, however. Takuya and the other "chosen" children who boarded the train inherit the power of the Ten Legendary Warriors that saved the Digital World in the distant past, allowing them to transform themselves into Digimon. With their new powers, they fight to take back the stolen Fractal Code and restore the fractured Digital World to its former glory.

The fourth anime series in the Digimon franchise, following Digimon Tamers, and is, in some ways, the antithesis of its predecessor. While it does have its share of dramatic, intense, and introspective moments, it is relatively light-hearted and dynamic, more focused on battle than in any psychological theme.

It is followed by Digimon Data Squad.

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Digimon Frontier contains examples of:

Tropes A - D

• Accidental Pervert: J.P./Junpei in "A Molehill Out of a Mountain". Before climbing a rope, he does the "ladies first" bit, forgetting that Izumi/Zoe is wearing a skirt. Cue Pervert Revenge Mode.
• Actionized Sequel: Granted, the Digimon franchise has always had action, but this series is noticeably more action oriented than its immediate predecessor, Tamers, which had significant Slice of Life elements early on. And this time around, the kids themselves do the fighting, rather than having partners who fight for them, and right from the start the action set pieces are noticeably more elaborate and choreographed than many in the previous series, with more instances of Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • Cherubimon doesn't die until we've already learned that he's not responsible for what happened to him. He was corrupted by forces outside his control.
    • A minor one involving Cherubimon is when Ophanimon offers to turn him good again. You can easily tell he wants it to work, so he draws in close... and, as it turns out, not only is he too corrupted for it to work, but Ophanimon also uses the chance to steal back the D-tecters—and that's if you don't assume that she was lying just to get them.
  • Zoe/Kazemon shows some pity towards Ranamon before she defeats her because Ranamon was only nasty due to how pained and empty she was inside, so she hopes purification can heal her ("This digivice will purify your broken heart!") The dub unfortunately removes this, making Zoe/Kazemon just happy to be rid of her... which kind of goes against that particular episode's message.
  • There wasn't much to Arbormon besides being a Dumb Muscle Villainous Glutton, but his death at the hands of Duskmon did have a twinge of tragedy to it, as he seemed to genuinely believe the other Evil Warriors (including Duskmon) were his friends, being completely oblivious to the fact that none of them really cared all that much for him.
  Arbormon: A friend in need is a friend indeed, right?
  Duskmon: Wrong.
• Alien Sky: The Digital World has three moons of different colors, but that has nothing on Sakkakumon's internal environments. The skies all have a palette-swapped swirly pattern. Even the relatively normal-looking area where Zoe defeats Ranamon has clouds that form that pattern.
• Alleged Lookalikes: Being brothers, Koji and Koichi naturally have some sort of resemblance to one another, yet characters seem to marvel at them sharing an appearance. However, to the viewer, much like with Kagome and Kikyo in Inuyasha, they don't particularly resemble one another beyond the things other characters have in common due to having the same art style (in other words, one could probably give another character the same hair color as the brothers and they'd look no different.) Between their different hairstyle and distinctly different voices (in both Japanese and English) it's very easy to tell the two apart.
• All Your Powers Combined: Susanoomon is created by combining all 10 pairs of spirits with initially Takuya and Kouji, and later all five remaining kids.
• Aloof Ally: Koji, at the start, is literally a lone wolf. But it doesn't last long as he in episodes 2 and 4 helps the others before going off on his own, then unwillingly joins the group in episode 6.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
  • The English dub uses a completely new theme song, and while it's different from the Japanese version, it brings a whole different feel from the theme song that was used for the previous seasons.
  • The Italian dub composed a new theme song for its dub rather than translate the Japanese theme song.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: The Royal Knights do this on their debut. The Digidestined run around them to try to catch them off guard while the two knights stand calmly together, casually taking them down when the digidestined attack.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Zoe, Ranamon, and Ophanimon, the Smurfettes of their respective groups.
  • Zoe's Digimon forms also do this.
• Batman Gambit: Mercurymon pulls off an impressive one roughly halfway through the series, during the Sakkakumon arc. May also qualify for Xanatos Gambit, because if the kids get killed inside Sakkakumon, he wins. If they win, he still does... what he ended up doing.
• Bazaar of the Bizarre: Episode 17, from beginning to end. The dub title copies the trope name, almost verbatim.
• Beam Spam: Both Duskmon and Cherubimon are fond of using these.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Though many of the villains are part of Cherubimon's and Lucemon's armies, there are many that are independent. Snimon, IceDevimon, and Saggitarimon have no association to either of the main antagonists, outside of IceDevimon being Cherubimon's prisoner, and one of the Minomon being a spy for the Wind Factory and reporting to Grumblemon.
• Big Eater: Zoe. See episode 17, where she wins an eating contest.
• BFS: Susanoomon's Heavenly Wings Slash^note  天羽々斬, Ama no Habakiri attack (Celestial Blade in the dub) involves a MASSIVE sword-gun thing appearing in his hands, followed by an equally massive holy energy beam coming out of it, effectively becoming a humongous lightsaber that does Lucemon Chaos Mode in one swing, and in the final battle, the dragon that protects Lucemon Larva in one swing. Beowolfmon's Beo Sabre should definitely count also.
• Bishōnen Line: Deliberately invoked, at least in reverse, with the new evolution system. (Which is immediately spun into a Running Gag for Ranamon.) Takuya and Kouji in particular cross back over the line at Mega/Ultimate level.
• Bittersweet Ending: Par for the course, though this has to be the least bitter ending of the bunch, as the heroes don't have Digimon partners to have torn from them. They still have to leave the Digital World and all their friends there behind, however.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Ranamon has two great opportunities to attack the kids while they are unable to Spirit Evolve in episodes 15 and 16. Instead, she wastes half her time bragging and the other half of her time being whisked off by her own Beast Spirit's spinning attack.
• Book Ends: Though it didn't end up being the last season, Frontier appeared to be for a while. In the last episode, Susanoomon declares "AND SO, IT ENDS!" just before dealing the final blow, which parallels the dub name for the first episode of Digimon Adventure. Furthermore, the last shot of the episode has the caption "The End", rather than "To Be Continued" as it had for all the episodes of the show's US run.
  • The dub's episode naming had this as well; the first episode was entitled "All Aboard" while the final episode's name was "End of the Line".
• Botanical Abomination: Arbormon and Petaldramon, the Legendary Warriors that represent the element of Wood, resemble a wooden armour and a huge reptilian Planimal. They were both spawned from AncientTroiamon.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Most of the Digimon the Digidestined fight due to Lucemon's corrupting influences/viruses, most notably his direct corruption and mind control over Cherubimon.
  • Kouichi, as Duskmon, initially has no memory of who he used to be and willingly serves Cherubimon. Later, as he begins to remember, Cherubimon forces more darkness into him to keep him subservient.
  • Tommy/Kumamon in "Welcome to My Nightmare" is forced into a nightmare where all of his friends are against him and ends up attacking them as a result.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Episode 17 in Japanese has Arbormon telling us to always lock our entrances at night, and at a later point to wash our hands after using the toilet.
• Breather Episode: The Man in the Moon is You, which comes right after the defeat of Cherubimon and the first battle with the Royal Knights and right before the last arc of the series. This episode mostly consists of comic antics as the Digidestined try to escape the moon and get back to the digital world. Notable events include Metalkabuterimon shooting Agunimon out of the cannon on his head.
• Call-Back: The series has its own completely unique soundtrack and doesn't reuse from previous series... except for one or two instances which fall under this trope. When Patamon is born, they play "Victory ~Theme of Good #2~", a lighthearted track from the Digimon Adventure soundtrack as an obvious callback to Patamon's role back then.
  • It also repurposes Locomon's theme from the second Tamers movie, Runaway Digimon Express, for the various Trailmon in the series.
  • The dub version will also use a snatch of music or two from Tamers when appropriate, just as Tamers borrowed the "Digi-armor, energize!" music from 02 now and again.
  • In the dub, during Gallantmon's cameo appearance, he is voiced by Brian Beacock and Steve Blum in the Fusion Voice they used in Tamers, even referring to himself in plural, as a nod to the previous series (Dukemon doesn't speak in the original).
• Call to Adventure: Literally. Ophanimon calls the kids on their cellphones.
• Casting Gag: Some of the English dub actors in Frontier had appeared in some of the older entries of the series.
  • From the main children, Steve Blum (Guilmon, Kenta, and Yamaki in Digimon Tamers) is J.P., Steve Staley (Ryo in Tamers) is Kouji, and Michael Reisz (Matt in Digimon Adventure) is Takuya (however, he isn't voicing EmprerorGreymon, whose duty was given to Dave Wittenberg, Henry in Tamers^note Wittenberg voices Takuya in the movie, too, and serves as the sub/stand in VA in the series as Takuya in some episodes.).
  • The extra four kids with Angemon are voiced by Joshua "Tai" Seth as Teppei, Brad "Kazu" MacDonald as Katsuharu, Tifanie "Yolei" Christun as Chiaki, and Brian "Davis" Donovan as Teruo. Dave Mallow reprises his voice role from Digimon Adventure as (a different) Angemon.
  • Mona Marshall (Izzy) is the Big Bad, and not for the last time either!
  • Mary Elizabeth McGlynn was given the opportunity to play a larger role than just a digivice shouting "Digivolution" (or "Matrix Digivolution") like she did in Tamers, leading her to voice Ophanimon.
  • There's an interesting case related to Cherubimon's voice actors. Paul St. Peter voiced Diaboromon in Digimon: The Movie, and by extension, the Diaboromon-infected (at least in America) Kokomon, and Cherubimon (Kokomon's highest form), and he is later casted as the first Frontier Big Bad, Cherubimon. When he returns to Lopmon, St. Peter is taken over by Michelle Ruff, who was Tamers' Lopmon, in a similar "former agent of darkness reverted to friendly" setting.
  • Several other Digimon are voiced by the same actors as their counterparts in the earlier series, including Tifanie Christun as Biyomon, Kirk Thornton as Tsunomon/Gabumon, Dave Mallow as Gekomon, Michael Sorich as Elecmon, Steve Blum and Brian Beacock as Gallantmon, Dave Guerrie as SkullSatamon, and Peter Spellos as Whamon. Similarly, Paul St. Peter voices IceLeomon, a Palette Swap of Leomon, whom he voiced in both Adventure and Tamers.
  • And much like the aforementioned Brian Donovan did in Tamers, Melissa Fahn does the narration in Frontier in her Rika voice from Tamers. When she leaves, Brian Beacock continues the narration as Bokomon.
  • In the dub, SuperStarmon is an Elvis Impersonator and is voiced by Richard Epcar, using the same voice he used for Etemon in Adventure, who was also an Elvis Impersonator.
• Cavalry Betrayal: A villainous variation. When Duskmon appears during a battle, Arbormon thinks he's there to lend him support. He's wrong.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: ShadowWereGarurumon and Doggymon in episode 18. Unusually, they cheat quite openly and yet never get disqualified for it, but their dirty cheating habits annoy Takuya to the point where he ends up fighting them fist-to-fist on top of the Trailmon in a Traintop Battle.
• Combat Tentacles: Korikakumon and Petaldramon can both use these to attack and restrain enemies. Korikakumon uses his braids while Petaldramon uses roots/vines that extend through the ground from his tail.
• Combination Attack: How the team beats Sakakkumon. the kids pair up, combine attacks, and attacking together. Since Sakakkumon can only duplicate their attacks individually, they're able to overpower him.
• Conservation of Competence: Most Digimon series have this to an extent, but in Frontier it becomes so strong in the back half of the series that four of the six main characters are rendered completely useless in combat until the climax of the final episode.
• Contemplate Our Navels: Almost every episode has at least one scene where the Chosen Children contemplate their Digivices.
• Continuity Cameo: Dub only. Takato and Guilmon's voices can be heard coming from a Gallantmon at one point.
  • The Autumn Leaf Fair has several, but special mention goes to Gallantmon. He even has the same dual voice and refers to himself as "we."
  • Arukenimon and Mummymon can also be glimpsed. In human form.
• Cooking Duel: "You Want Fries With That?" leads to a literal one, including Onion Tears. Tommy/Tomoki wins. This quickly turns into a Lower-Deck Episode; Takuya and Kouji keep going while the others enter battle.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Tickle torture in episode 23.
• Cool Train: The Trailmon are living trains with unique personalities and appearances.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Snimon in episode 5, who tries to kill Agunimon and his friends because they destroyed part of his factory.
• The Corruption: A pervasive dark force emanating from Cherubimon causes otherwise good Digimon to become mischievous at best, positively evil at worst.
• The Corrupter: Cherubimon to most of the antagonistic Digimon. Ironically, he himself has been corrupted by Lucemon.
• Crack Pairing: An In-Universe example: LordKnightmon openly ships Kouji and Koichi. J.P. rightfully calls him a freak for this.
• Cross Counter: Episode 7 has Takuya and Kouji defeat a group of ShadowToyAgumon by making them do this after they've combined into a pair of Humongous Mecha.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • The Royal Knights arc can be described as follows: 1) The Royal Knights target an area to absorb its data. 2) The heroes try to stop them. 3) The heroes lose. Badly. 4) Wash, rinse, repeat until Lucemon is freed.
  • Lucemon against EmperorGreymon and MagnaGarurumon, they don't have a chance. Every time Susanoomon shows up however, Lucemon is the one that gets beaten very badly, usually by 1 single attack on each form (the final form has two separate Digimon, so two attacks there).
  • The first couple of encounters with Duskmon go like this. The first time was because the heroes didn't know what to expect and the second was because Takuya just charged in recklessly.
• Cyberspace: The Digital World, as in the other iterations of Digimon, is a world made up of internet data.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Kouichi is the Warrior of Darkness, and post-Heel–Face Turn, he's just as solidly on the side of good as the other kids are.
• Dead to Begin With: Kouichi. He had an accident while following Kouji down Shibuya Station, which caused only his soul to ever reach the digital world. His body was never there.
• Department of Redundancy Department: One of Beetlemon's attacks is called Lightning Blitz, 'blitz' being the German word for 'lightning.'
• Designated Girl Fight: Zoe and Ranamon have an entire episode dedicated to their final battle against each other. Notably, it's the only fight Zoe won by herself.
• Devour the Dragon: Lucemon does this to Crusadermon and Dynasmon.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Cherubimon is presented as the show's main antagonist. Though a formidable opponent, he is revealed to be a mere pawn to the real Big Bad, Lucemon.
• Dogged Nice Guy: J.P. to Zoe, as he constantly tries to impress her due to his crush on her.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The dub adds some lines that say that Koji has problems getting along with his stepmother because "it hurt so much when Mom died", with the distinct implication that he was there to see it. As later episodes prove, this is clearly incorrect because not only is she not dead, but also if he had been around to ever see his biological mother he would have remembered Koichi, and it's clearly established that each of the two did not know the other existed. Particularly egregious about this is that the living proof of this contradiction (Koichi) appears in the very same episode.
• Dub Name Change: While every dub of Digimon has this happen, this show's dub's use of the trope was just plain ridiculous in how much was changed. An example of this is that almost all of the children's Digimon forms name were changed, sometimes pointlessly so (Wolfmon became Lobomon in the dub, for instance).
  • The dub also changes "DigiCode" to "Fractal Code". It's possible that this was changed in order to differentiate it from the Digimon franchise's Cypher Language known as DigiCode, which in Japanese is デジ文字 (literally translated as Digi-Letters) rather than デジコード ("DigiCode" written phonetically).

Tropes E - H

• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Happens to the three moons, with remains of the yellow one obliterating the other two.
• Elemental Embodiment: More than just having Elemental Powers, the Ten Legendary Warriors represent the essence of their respective elements.
• Elemental Powers: The 10 Legendary Warriors each command one element: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Metal, Thunder, Ice, Wood, Darkness, and Light.
• Expy:
  • Takuya is an obvious Taichi/Tai expy, being the impulsive, extroverted leader, who wears goggles as his trademark accessory. His evolutions are fire-based and visually similar to Greymon, including EmperorGreymon, who is basically a WarGreymon on roids.
  • Kouji is an expy of Yamato/Matt, being the stoic lancer. His evolutions resemble Garurumon's (especially Garmmon/KendoGarurumon and MagnaGarurumon).
  • Koichi's arc is pretty much identical to Ken's, as he starts out as a major antagonist before being purified and becoming the Sixth Ranger. Their personalities also match, as they are kind-hearted, introverted boys who initially have trouble fitting with the rest of the team.
  • Susanoomon is an obvious Omegamon/Omnimon expy, as he is a god-like warrior, fights with both a sword and a cannon, is formed from a Fusion Dance, and single-handedly turns the tide of the battle against the Final Boss.
• Facial Markings: Agunimon (and by extension, Aldamon), Flamemon, Kazemon, Grumblemon, Kumamon, Korikakumon and Lucemon all have them. Susanoomon has Agunimon's Facial Markings on his helmet.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: While Tamers really started the push to start bringing mythology in, incorporating the Four Gods and the Chinese Zodiac, Frontier turned west for its Digimon. Takuya's various Hybrids are derived from Hindu mythology; Garmmon is Garmr, the guardian of Hel alongside Hrelsvelgr (who you might know as Velgrmon); Shutumon is based on a Sumerian god of wind (and illness and pestilence); Blizzarmon is very likely a Norse Berserker (short version: legendary bear-coat warriors); and Bolgmon is named for the proto-Celtic god of lightning, though the Digimon's actually associated with Ancient Egypt and scarabs.
  • Gigasmon is derived from ancient greek giants, Sephirotmon is one huge shout out to the Kabbalah (see Rule of Symbolism below). Koichi, post-reformation adds a lot of Ancient Sphinx derivations, and then there's Susanoomon, named for Susanoo no Mikoto, the ocean god who slew the Orochi. Orochimon doesn't make a significant appearance, however; Susanoomon instead wields a weapon called the "ZERO ARMS: Orochi".
• Faux Action Girl: Downplayed with Zoe. She has some initial success when she first uses both of her spirits, but fails to follow through when the Difficulty Spikes^note When she achieves Kazemon's form she's able to defeat three Mushroomon but loses when they combine into a Woodmon. Unlocking Zephyrmon allows her to deal with Ranamon, but she can't deal with Calmaramon immediately after and usually has to be bailed out by one or more of her teammates. The only enemy she defeats on her own is her Arch-Enemy Ranamon in a Designated Girl Fight. That being said, a positive step in her development is when she acquires her Beast Spirit and gets upgraded to Zephyrmon while not losing control, unlike her teammates.
• Faux Affably Evil: IceDevimon chats enthusiastically with his victims, to the point where you wonder if he is Obliviously Evil or Obfuscating Insanity. The things he says are pretty psycho. "It would be so joyous, all the pain and the suffering!" (Quote from dub.)
• Filler Villain: ShadowWereGarurumon and Doggymon serve the antagonist role for the mostly-filler episode "Trailmon vs. Trailmon" and don't have any effect on the plot beyond that.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: When the 10 Ancient Warrior entrusted their spirits to the Three Great Angels, Orphanimon was entrusted with three of them under these elements.
• Forgot I Could Fly: Zoe in "A Molehill Out of a Mountain". She is as scared of falling as any of the others, when she could just turn into Kazemon and fly up.
  • Similarly, in "The Swiss Family Digimon", Zoe was the only member of the crew who still had her Digivice. Everybody else had their Digivices stolen, and the (non-dangerous) thieves flew to a (non-dangerous) nearby island that's specifically stated to be inaccessible by sea. Rather than just have Zoe fly over to collect the Digivices herself, the crew fusses over trying to find a flying Digimon for a while, then opts to just build a raft.
  • In the fight against IceDevimon, you have Kouji and Takuya's digivices frozen. Would have been really useful if one of their teammates had the elemental affinity for ice and could have unfrozen them, huh?
• Foreshadowing: When Kouichi talks about how he ended up in the Digital World, he states that he at first thought he had ended up in the afterlife and was a wandering spirit. He may not have ended up in the afterlife...but he wasn't far off.
  • In the original Japanese, Wolfmon's attacks are all in Gratuitous German. So, interestingly enough, are Duskmon's. Guess why.
  • In the dub: "I'd rather die than betray my brother!"
  • The opening also has a more subtle one: Right at the end there is clearly some glowing winged figure in the circle of all the symbols of the Legendary Warriors, with a minimum of 6 fluffy wings (but likely 8 in the silhouette with the last pair getting lost in the white circle behind it) and too short to be Ophanimon or Seraphimon. Yup that was Lucemon right there, in the middle of the warriors who sealed him away.
  • At one point after Kouichi joins the team the entire group gets hit with an attack so hard it reveals the fractal code of their Spirits, except for Kouichi who, although as hurt as the others, never has his Spirits exposed. Guess who is the only person there not fully in the Digital World?
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: In one episode, Takuya learns that being a legendary warrior also gives him the power to control/predict the weather which he can use to increase his attack strength. After that one episode, it never comes up again.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Lucemon's message plays on every screen in the world... and finally, on yours.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: In episode 15, Koji is briefly tickled by Takuya and J.P.
• Fusion Dance: The Advanced Hybrids are combinations of the Human and Beast spirits, while Susanoomon is the combination of KaiserGreymon, MagnaGarurumon and two or more of the Chosen themselves.
• Fusion Dissonance: The forms achieved through Fusion Spirit Evolution are normally created by mixing and matching parts from the earlier Human and Beast Spirit Evolution forms (which, in the toy line, also have an alternate combination representing the ancient Digimon who created them). However, supplemental material includes Fusion forms for the supporting cast which couldn't possibly be replicated by a toy — e.g. the Ice fusion combining a snowman and a yeti into a penguin.
• Gender Bender: In The Movie, the male Beast Digimon Hippogriffomon can slide evolve to the female Human Digimon Darcmon. His true form is Murmukusmon (male), who speaks with both their voices at first.
• Genre Savvy: J.P. invokes this (via the use of Horror Tropes) to prevent Takuya stupidly running after Kouji, complete with American-esque comic Art Shift.
• The Gimmick: The lore (and movie) of this particular generation of Digimon is premised on two, neither of which really occurs in the rest of franchise.
  • The first is what basically amounts to a race war between "Human" and "Beast" digimon; there are human, beast, and fusion hybrids for each element.
  • The second is a system of Elemental Powers—Fire, Light, Wind, Thunder, Ice, Water, Earth, Wood, Steel, and Darkness—that inform the ancient digimon and the hybrid digimon created by their totems.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Downplayed. Takuya uses his goggles in a few occasions in the show, but they are otherwise aesthetic.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Many of the Digimon in this season had names in Gratuitous English, but were changed for the English dub (presumably to preserve their exotic flavor). The most notable instances were Fairymon becoming Kazemon, Wolfmon becoming Lobomon, and Grottomon becoming Grumblemon.
  • However, the dub did keep the Gratuitous Italian provided by Zoe.
  • Gratuitous German: This time around, the original loved to use this for attack names. Zwei Händer! Geist-o Abend! Even the dub gets in on it, with Kaiser Leomon becoming Jäger Lowemon.
  • Duskmon used German attack names in the original while Velgemon's attacks were Gratuitous English.
• Ground Punch:
  • Beetlemon occasionally did this when using his Thunder Fist attack, while other times, he would just use it directly against an enemy.
  • Gigasmon also did this to try to attack Agunimon. The resulting shockwave didn't have quite enough range to land a hit.
• Heel–Face Turn: The four Dark Legendary Warriors' spirits after they have been defeated and purified, as well as Kouichi.
  • And then Cherubimon, when the same is done with him, and he hatches into Lopmon.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Kouichi dies a Disney Death so the other five can defeat the Big Bad.
• Hero of Another Story: The first act of the story reveals that Ophanimon punched a massive hole in the barrier between Earth and Digiworld in the hopes that someone might get through to awaken Seraphimon. This proves to be a giant mistake, as it let in more than just the main cast, but dozens of other children. We get to meet a few of them, Katsuharu, Teppei, Chiaki, Teruo, and the Angemon assigned to watch over them.
• Holy Hand Grenade: This seems to be Susanoomon's element. Ophanimon and Seraphimon, being angelic Digimon, use this as well.

Tropes I - L

• Idiot Ball:
  • Ranamon grabbed it early on and never let it go:
    • When she has three of the Chosen Children at her mercy, she decides to torture them for information... by tickling them. Not only is J.P. unfazed, but Tommy and Zoe are too busy laughing to be of any use to her. By the time she chooses a far more effective torture method, Kouji and later Takuya manage to launch an offensive and rescue them.
    • And then there are the times when she is shown fighting. Whenever she is not getting in Mercurymon's way with her reckless attacks, she is knocking herself out as she does not know how to properly control her Beast form's attacks.
  • All of the children grab this when they have to figure out a way to make it back to the Digital World after being stuck on the Moon. The entire episode is one ridiculous plan after the other until they make the obvious decision to convince the local Digimon to help them build a prototype rocket.
• I Know What You Fear: Sakakkumon's ploy near the end of his arc is to torment the heroes with their own fears.
• I'm Not Afraid of You: When Takuya (as Flamemon) confronts his hallucinations of Duskmon in the real world.
• Infinity +1 Element: Suggested by Susanoomon's design. It uses the Kanji for heaven/sky the same way that the warriors' designs use the kanji for their respective elements.
• Incest Subtext: Played for Laughs in episode 41 when LordKnightmon imagines Koichi and Koiji thanking each other while surrounded by Love Bubbles. He calls it "beautiful" while the other chosen children call him a weirdo.
• Inconsistent Dub: Frontier marks the point where Bandai of America simply stopped caring about keeping Digimon consistent. None of the dub supporting material's information about attacks is even remotely consistent with the dub itself for Digimon introduced in Frontier, and even several names are way off!^note most egregiously Cherubimon/Kerpymon, Ranamon/Lanamon, Sakkakumon/Sephirothmon, Crusadermon/LordKnightmon The dubbed show itself certainly isn't devoid of problems - it had a chronic habit of mismatching attack names with the correct attack, though it at least had the decency to keep names straight. It's also worth noting that the first episode of the dub had "spirit evolution" called "digivolution", which is the only time the series calls it that.
  • Taken to ridiculous levels in the manga ^note technically manhua, as it was originally published in Hong Kong, not Japan adaptation; Takuya and Koji's Fusion forms are called by their Beast Hybrids' names (in Koji's case, interchangeably by the English and Japanese ones), MagnaGarurumon is called KendoGarurumon, and their attacks are horribly misnamed...it's pretty obvious the translators and adaptors hadn't watched the dub. For a particularly egregious example, Baromon is referred to as "Baolongshou", a literal transliteration of his name from Chinese.
• Informed Flaw: A setting-wide example that is one of the biggest main complaints among the viewers. Excluding a Non-Serial Movie, the Human-Beast conflict was never shown outside of flashbacks, despite it being responsible for the main plot.
• In Medias Res: The first episode is this. At the start, we see Takuya desperately running towards something. When he's almost hit by a truck, the clock winds back to show how he got his Call to Adventure.
• Internal Homage: A number of minor characters are references to Digimon from previous series. Most apparent in a episode in which the heroes visit a school, consisting of the baby-forms of many main character Digimon from previous series, plus a Tsunomon who can evolve to Gabumon. The dub played this up by having most of the homage characters use their previous voice actors - including one who was a Fusion Dance originally. Gallantmon the store owner - originally a non-speaking role - brought back Steve Blum and Brian Beacock to say "Wish we could help" in the simultaneous voice of Guilmon and Takato.
  • One non-speaking cameo featured a Gatomon who was accompanied by a Wizardmon. Thanks for opening up old wounds, Frontier!
  • Oddly enough, when a pack of Gomamon made an appearance, the one obvious reference wasn't made: having R. Martin Klein (who voiced Gomamon in Adventure) reprise the role. Klein had already done a large number of roles in Frontier before the episode, notably a Toucanmon in the same episode that sounded exactly like Gomamon.
  • Episode 39 of the dub has the gang encounter a SuperStarmon who can basically be summed up as a heroic version of Etemon from Adventure. Notably, both Digimon possess a similar orange color scheme and a pair of Cool Shades.
• Invincible Villain:
  • Duskmon, the last of the elemental warriors introduced, takes no damage from the heroes' attacks and is only mildly inconvenienced. He's only matched when Koji reaches his fusion spirit, Beowulfmon.
  • The Royal Knights could very well be the poster child for this trope. During their nine episodes long arc, they spend all of their appearances beating the tar out of the heroes and succeeding with their plans, without any real setback. They are only defeated after reaching their final goal.
• Jerkass: Zoe. J.P. and Koji also display bouts of this in the initial episodes, the former often calling Tommy names like "pipsqueak".
• Kiai: Everything involved shitloads of yelling, especially later forms of Spirit Evolution (giving the impression that the process was in fact quite painful). It got to the point where so much yelling was required that Michael Reisz (Takuya) point-blank refused to voice EmperorGreymon for fear of permanently damaging his voice; Dave Wittenberg instead filled in there - where, ironically, almost no shouting was involved.
• Kid Hero: The heroes are pre-teens, with the oldest being 12 years old.
• Killed Off for Real: In an aversion of All Deaths Final, most Digimon are reborn as Digieggs after death, however, this does not apply to Lucemon (the second time), Golemon ^note Though in his case, he appeared to be artificially created , Mercurymon's minions ^note who also may not have been real, apparently the Royal Knights, and, tragically, Oryxmon and Sorcerymon.
• Knight of Cerebus: Duskmon's appearance signifies a huge tonal shift, as he's the first major defeat the kids have ever really experienced.
• Lancer vs. Dragon: Koji is the lancer and Duskmon is the dragon to Cherubimon. The two fight twice before Koji discovers Duskmon is his twin brother Koichi who is brainwashed by Cherubimon and teams up with Takuya to free him from Cherubimon's control.
• Large Ham:
  • IceDevimon seems to fall under this quite nicely. Justified as his seiyuu is none other than Norio Wakamoto. The dub does this as well by having the VA emulate Christopher Walken.
  • Superstarmon falls under it much better.
  • Lucemon gets hammier with each form.
• Leitmotif: All of the human characters have one in the Japanese version, titled "Theme of (character's representative element)". They're actually re-arranged instrumental versions of the characters' respective Image Songs (with the exception of Kouichi, whose Theme of Darkness is a rearrange of Kouji's Theme of Light).
• Lethal Chef: Takuya and Koji in the Kitchen Battle episode, whose burgers range from stacking every kind of meat imaginable into a patty, to piling seafood up inside the same bun, to, well, basically anything that makes everyone at the restaurant feel sick.
• Light/Fire Juxtaposition: The Digimon Spirits of fire and light are wielded by Takuya and Koji respectively. Takuya is Hot-Blooded, impulsive and approachable while Koji is aloof, reserved and prefers solitude.
• Light Is Not Good:
  • Lucemon who, in his initial form, looks like a teenage angel.
  • And the Royal Knights.
• Lighter and Softer: The series certainly wasn't complete sunshine and rainbows and did have very dark and introspective moments (especially around Kouichi), but considering that its immediate predecessor was Digimon Tamers and its successor was Digimon Data Squad... yeah, this was inevitable.
• Love Triangle: Zoe is at the center of what amounts to a love-polygon involving her peers. Officially, J.P. has a blatant crush on her and she comes very close to confessing an attraction to Takuya^note In turn, he mentions he likes her, though his reaction to his own statement creates ambiguity over whether he meant it in a romantic context or just flubbed a statement. He later has a dream involving them on a date, though..
• Lower-Deck Episode: By the time Takuya and Koji get so overpowered and even gain powers that take the others' powers away, it really felt like this the times the main two were absent or disabled so that the others got to do something.
• Luminescent Blush: Various, particularly Takuya, Zoe, and J.P.
• Lyrical Dissonance: Kouichi's image song is an upbeat, catchy rock song... but it's titled "With Broken Wings" and its lyrics contain things such as "a stray dog without a collar is laughing at me."
  • To an extent, Blader, the Villain Song from his Duskmon persona. Also catchy and upbeat, among what's featured in the lyrics are doing nothing but fighting and not forgiving anyone.

Tropes M - R

• Magical Sensory Effect: In the CD drama "A Train Called Hope", Zoe says that she was able to see the different winds' colors and hear their tunes when she was Kazemon, and that she still has a bit of that ability left.
• May the Farce Be with You: Not a parody exactly, but Koichi's story has many parallels with Anakin's in Revenge of the Sith, such as being manipulated by a powerful politician who meddled in the Dark Side, having a new identity alongside a black intimidating armor, and his one relative (who we found via a surprising reveal) being the one who brings him towards the "light".
• Meaningful Echo: A three-parter involving Kouji and Kouichi in the original Japanese version.
  • Episode 46:
  Kouji: "I'm happy I came to this world. I got to meet you and all."
  • Two episodes after, Kouichi's Famous Last Words as he sacrifices himself to Lucemon and entrusts Kouji with the Spirits of Darkness:
  Kouichi: "I'm glad I came to the Digital World. I'm glad I could meet you."
  • And finally, as Kouji returns to the Real World and brings Kouichi back to his body via miracle:
  Kouji: "Can you hear me? It's Kouji! I came back to meet you, Kouichi!"
  Kouichi: Kouji...I also wanted to meet you.
• Merchandise-Driven: Some criticized the series for appearing notably more so than the previous series. Aldamon and Beowolfmon are almost blatantly toy-manufacturer-friendly forms (take the Human Spirit, add the Beast Spirit as an extra layer of armor, and done)^note So too with AncientGreymon and AncientGarurumon, having inverted designs of the two Digimon mentioned. The combined form of the Spirits of Darkness, Reichmon, would also count, but he never actually appeared in-series. Susanoomon, the final hero, was also a visible amalgamation of EmperorGreymon and MagnaGarurumon (much like Omegamon, WarGreymon, and MetalGarurumon). It probably isn't a coincidence that Takuya, Koji, and occasionally Kouichi were the only characters who mattered after a certain point.
• Missed the Call: A group of four kids, including two who bullied Tommy. They were explicitly told to turn around and go home after the real Chosen were picked out of the masses, but instead of going home, they decided to wander the Digital World and an Angemon had to be sent to protect them.
• Mistaken for Spies: KaratsukiNumemon, upon hearing that the children are Legendary Warriors in episode 6, confuse them with Grumblemon's lot, and dangle them over a cliff, trying to persuade Grumblemon into returning his hostages in exchange for "his". Naturally, the bad guy totally didn't care if the good guys got thrown off a cliff, and they had to escape on their own to fight him and save... the guys who were dangling them off a cliff a minute ago.
• Mon: Subverted. In a clear departure from franchise tradition, the human cast transforms into Digimon, rather than having partners fight on their behalf, lending the show a Henshin Hero aesthetic.
  • Zigzagged late in the show when it introduces four children being protected by an Angemon. These kids are brats and treat him like their Mon.
• Mon Mode: the Tamers use their D-Tectors with one of their Spirits to transform into one of the Legendary Warriors Digimon.
• Mon Tech: the D-Tector as the season’s resident Digivice. This model is used by the cast to transform into Digimon for their battles, and also is able to purify the spirits of powerful Digimon.
• Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Notably played within the series. Initially, Beast Spirits were shown to be vastly more powerful than their humanoid counterparts, but the exchanges would flip-flop constantly, especially with Duskmon/Velgremon and Lucemon both providing examples of humanoid and monstrous forms dominating the other archetype.
• More than Mind Control: Cherubimon->Kouichi, but most notably Lucemon->Cherubimon and many others, directly or indirectly.
• Morphic Resonance: In addition to EmperorGreymon and MagnaGarurumon, Susanoomon has a couple of Agunimon's traits. It has Agunimon's Facial Markings and his belt buckle, albeit with a different symbol, incorporated into its armor.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Zoe is the franchise's first female lead created specifically with fanservice in mind. Her clothes are more revealing than her predecessors', her Spirit Forms are clad in what amounts to some rather complex lingerie, her Transformation Sequence has a Freeze-Frame Bonus Panty Shot, and the Beach Episode has a few Imagine Spots consisting of her in poses that would be more appropriate to a gravure idol than a prepubescent girl.
  • The fanservice extends to Kazemon's fighting style, as her moveset incorporates both Ass Kicks You and a Hurricane Kick, which is performed upside-down and with a split!
  • Ranamon is another example, given that her design is a blend of Cute Monster Girl and Walking Swimsuit Scene. She uses her sex-appeal to turn her adoring fans into minions, as it happens.
• My God, What Have I Done?: This is done in episode 12. After Takuya grabs Tommy as BurningGreymon, Tommy cries on his eye, and then Takuya notices he was about to hurt him. He then throws a tantrum, destroying rocks before turning back into Takuya, crying. He becomes lost in thought about how his actions could have destroyed everyone and that he shouldn't have been declared a Digidstined.
• Mythology Gag: Towards the end of the series, The Hero and The Lancer are able to obtain a Greymon form that uses the Kill It with Fire approach and a Garurumon form that's loaded with enough weapons for a Macross Missile Massacre, respectively. This is taken to its logical conclusion in the last couple episodes, where they combine into a single Digimon that has the Greymon head on its left wrist, and the Garurumon head on its right wrist. Totally a Mythology Gag to Digimon Adventure.
  • In the dub of the penultimate episode, as the Spirits go to Takuya and Kouji for Susanoomon to form, a whistling sound echoes in the scene. It's the same whistling noise used in the dub for the Adventure seasons for the Digivolution sequences.
• Named by the Dub: Tommy's older brother is unnamed in the original Japanese, but the English version gave him the name Yutaka. This is an actual Japanese name and also an anagram of main character's name Takuya, symbolizing how Takuya is Tommy's honorary brother.
• Naughty Tentacles: Sakkakumon uses bizarre, jelly-looking tentacles to push J.P. away from the group and most notoriously to harass Zoe's bottom in episode 24.
• Near-Villain Victory: They're able to completely destroy the world and its three moons before they are stopped. The world gets better.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: All ten Legendary Warriors show up to fight the Royal Knights in one episode and fire their attacks simultaneously... all that does is to drive the villains away.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: In all fairness, this is a Digimon series and a shounen series.
  • In an amusing case, one episode had Takuya realise he could draw strength from the weather... then never used this ability again. Although it isn't weather, he later uses heat/fire to make his attacks stronger.
  • Koji uses Eye Beams while fighting Karatenmon, which he had never done before or since while Tommy and Zoe used abilities that they never had used before in their Beast Spirit forms while fighting IceDevimon.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Bokomon, Neemon, Patamon, Salamon and Lopmon.
• No Social Skills: The Digimon Analyzer says that Datamon is "good with machines, but not so good with people."
• Oddball in the Series: Frontier is distinct for being the only Digimon anime where the protagonists don't have Digimon partners to play off of and fight for them. Instead the kids are given the power to transform into Digimon and do battle themselves.
• Older Alter Ego: With the exception of Tommy's, all of the kids' Human Spirit Digimon forms, along with Takuya and Kouji's Hybrid Spirit Digimon forms, have this effect.
• One-Way Visor: Both Kazemon and Susanoomon have them. Seraphimon, Ophanimon and Crusadermon have one-way helmets.
• Out-of-Clothes Experience: The transformation sequences involve characters' clothing instantly dissolving, though conveniently reappearing upon turning back. We also get Tamers-esque naked spirit scenes once the kids all become Susanoomon near the end. Barbie Doll Anatomy is thankfully in full play.
• Out of Focus / Overshadowed by Awesome: Everyone who isn't Takuya and Kouji in the final arc of the series. Even the previously important Kouichi can do nothing but a Heroic Sacrifice that gives them a power-up needed to fight the Big Bad!
  • The manhua adaptation, being much shorter, was even worse about this. J.P. didn't do anything after getting his Beast Spirit, Zoe was shown getting her Human Spirit in a flashback and Zoe and Tommy get their Beast Spirits at the same time. Ranamon also gets this treatment. Her second battle with Zoe simply isn't shown. Koichi also never uses his Beast Spirit.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Chameleomon in episode 19 and Petaldramon in episode 20 both use their tongues to pull Kazemon and Zephyrmon, repectively.
• The Power of Friendship: Emphasized heavily throughout the series, most notably during the Sakakkumon arc as part of the tests.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: In "Home Again, Takuya Returns", Sepikmon uses a boomerang to guide Takuya to the others.
• Previously on…: Rika in the dub, until Melissa Fahn left to join the cast of Wicked. Bokomon took over, and wasn't nearly as good at it.
• Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: Takuya and Koji are the worst offenders in the franchise until Taiki and Kiriha come along.
• The Psycho Rangers: The Dark Legendary Warriors, at least until they're purified and freed of Cherubimon/Lucemon's control, and ultimately end up going on to be instrumental in defeating Lucemon. Their overall Big Bad is Cherubimon. The Dragon is Duskmon, a corrupted relative of one of the heroes and the most powerful and mature member. The Evil Genius is Mercurymon, who talks in Purple Prose as he plots to take over the team himself. The Brutes are Arbormon and Grumblemon who are both pretty much Dumb Muscle. Grumblemon also acted as the Wake-Up Call Boss to let you know things are getting serious. Ranamon is the token girl who is vain and belittling, and develops a rivalry with Zoe over her beauty.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: In the Frontier movie, Zoe hums the famous Italian song Funiculì Funiculà in the beginning. This was kept in the dub!
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Tamers's dub established it, but Frontier averts it completely. Different universes allows for different interpretation.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: See The Psycho Rangers.
• Railroad to Horizon: There's a lot of railroad imagery (namely in posters and both the opening and the first ending sequence) to symbolize the long journey the heroes have to go on to save the Digital World. Trains are their main means of transport in the Digital World, and also how they enter it in the first place.
• Redemption Demotion: Downplayed with Kouichi. After being freed of Cherubimon's mind control and given a pair of proper spirits, Kouichi lacks the raw power he had as Duskmon. This is justified as his victories took place on the continent of Darkness which gave him a field power bonus and his later fights were in a place of great light.
• Redemption Earns Life: The Dark Legendary Warriors are purified upon being destroyed, their spirits help to defeat Lucemon and are promptly resurrected afterward, along with the heroic Legendary Warriors.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Takuya and Kouji, who of course are associated with red and blue respectively.
• Reset Button: The Digital World gets restored after Susanoomon finishes royally pwning Lucemon Satan Mode (the dragon and the Lucemon Larva it's protecting). Also, Kouichi's death (see Dead to Begin With above) also gets reversed when the rest of the Digidestined get sent back to the time when they left, and they hurry to the hospital where Kouichi is dying, before they save him and their digivices turn back into mobile phones. This is part of the Digivices. Returning the data taken by the Monster of the Week and seeing the area restored stops happening really early on, but after their final victory, the entire world gets the treatment.
• Residual Evil Entity: In the penultimate battle, the Digidestined battle Lucemon, The Dragon of the series. When he is defeated, the Digidestined absorb his Digicode/Fractal Code, but only the light half. The dark half, now unfettered by the light, grows and forms into the purely-evil Lucemon Shadowlord Mode.
• Rich Sibling, Poor Sibling: This is subtly shown to be the case with Separated at Birth twins Koji and Koichi. While Koji isn't necessarily spoiled, he does enjoy a comfortable life living with his father and stepmother in a large house. Meanwhile, Koichi lives with his Struggling Single Mother and their apartment is shown to be quite shabby. This difference feeds into Koichi's initial envy and hatred of Koji.
• Rule of Symbolism: There's a lot of pretty clever symbolism present in Sakakkumon, pointed out by this blog. It works pretty well with Mercurymon's Smug Snake hamminess. He's a pretty smart guy and he likes to rub your face in it at every opportunity, and what better way than religious motifs to make him seem deeper than he really is.
  • The Metal Area where Mercurymon first fights Takuya is in the head, or Keter. Not only is it the obvious home for Mercurymon, the many mirrors strewn about and the tough time Takuya had finding his bearings works well in a world symbolizing things beyond man's comprehension.
  • The creepy church is Chokhmah, symbolizing divine wisdom, intuitiveness and insight. The church and Seraphimon's presence fit into this picture.
  • The Darkness Area where Koji and Duskmon duke it out is Tiferet. It means "adornment" and represents balance. Light and dark, giving and receiving, wisdom and emotion all come together here, the sphere that connects to all but one of the others. That could explain its "light on the outside, dark on the inside" portrayal.
  • The Ice Area where Takuya battles IceLeomon is Gevurah, meaning Strength. It's the judgment sphere, where even a usual good guy like Leomon has to face Takuya's wrath.
  • The Earth Area J.P. finds himself in is called Yesod, meaning "foundation". Basically, it does the dirty work of collecting the energies from other spheres and making something tangible out of them. J.P. having to balance himself and his shadow in order to discern reality would be the symbolism here, as does making earth the dominant element.
  • The Flame Area is Binah, which represents understanding. While the top right sphere is a sort of divine wisdom, the top left here is rationality and common sense. Tommy figuring out what his brother has been trying to tell him fits well here.
  • Koji goes to the Wind Area Hod. It represents majesty and, to borrow a page from the landscape, seeing the forest from the trees. In order to get stronger, Koji needs to learn to rely on his friends. Someone has to tell him that first.
  • Zoe's epic final battle with Ranamon takes place in Netzach, the victory sphere. It's about having the tenacity to overcome obstacles and achieve your goals. Pretty self-explanatory.
  • Takuya and J.P.'s pit stops are in the Chesed and Malchut sphere, representing kindness and the physical world respectively. Um... also self-explanatory!

Tropes S - Y

• The Sacred Darkness: The element of darkness enjoys the same sanctity and importance as the other nine. Kouichi's purified spirits resemble a heroic Black Knight instead of a demonic one.
• Sacrificial Lion: Even if he isn't a Leomon, Kouichi's forms are lions and thus he is still considered to carry on the tradition. In Japan, JagerLowemon's name is KaiserLeomon; while he was not in this form when he died, this is typically counted as yet another victim claimed by the Leomon curse. Also, IceLeomon, a Monster of the Week; Agunimon suspected that he was being controlled by Sakkakumon and thus had to destroy him. However, as no digi-egg was left behind, it seems likely that he was not a real Digimon to begin with ( much like the Mercurymon they fought at the end of that arc proved to be, as the real Mercurymon was himself Sakkakumon and had a lot of fight left in him).
• Sailor Earth: Most of the time, they are created to either fill in the roles of the keepers of the remaining four spirits, or give the series more girls so Zoe isn't alone.
• Save Both Worlds: The finale of the series has the kids racing to stop Lucemon before he can destroy the human world after actually destroying the Digital World (which gets better).
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Lucemon, who was sealed in the Dark Area millenia ago. Also Icedevimon, who was imprisoned for destroying several Digimon towns sometime in the past, according to Bokomon.
• Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Tommy's eyecatch in the Japanese version has Kumamon pointing his snowball cannon at the viewer.
• Separated at Birth: Kouji and Kouichi, not quite birth but a very young age.
• Sentai: This season is essentially a Digimon based adaptation of Super Sentai. The main characters are a Five-Man Band of color coded characters, they have only a single female on the team, they have their own transformations that give them unique elemental powers, their own enemy team of Psycho Rangers, and they even have a Sixth Ranger who joins about halfway through.
• She's a Man in Japan:
  • Inverted for Bokomon, he's a girl in the original Japanese, but is a boy in the English dub.
  • Camp Gay LordKnightmon became the dub's female Crusadermon. Some actually like that.
  • In the German Dub, Seraphimon, Cherubimon and Lucemon became all female like Ophanimon. Oddly enough, since Ophanimon, Cherubimon and Seraphimon's Rookie level forms got voice actors from previous seasons who played the same Digimon, Patamon is male.
• Ship Tease: Takuya/Zoe, Kouji/Zoe, and J.P./Zoe all have their moments.
• The Smurfette Principle: Zoe is the only girl in a Five-Man Band of mostly guys. Ranamon is her counterpart amongst the evil legendary warriors.
• Solomon Divorce: Kouji and Kouichi were split apart by their parents' divorce. They were so young that neither even remembers the other.
• Spectacular Spinning: Vritramon, Shutumon, Bolgmon, Calmaramon, Gigasmon, Arbormon, and Sakkakumon all have attacks with spinning.
• Spoiler Opening:
  • The series' second Japanese ending is one of the franchise's most notable examples. It began playing at the end of the episode revealing Duskmon is a human, and showed Kouichi as a member of the group, his natural Darkness Human and Beast forms AND Takuya and Kouji's new D-Scan designs that were not introduced for another 8 episodes!
  • Ironically, another opening averts this; most Digimon series had openings that, once a new member of the core cast was introduced, would change to show the new member, but Frontier's opening never changes even after Kouichi joins.
• Stock Footage: The spirit evolution sequences, which are reused and almost never edited down; par for the course with Digimon. Another use of Stock Footage also caused continuity problems in the last episode. When the children are about to Spirit Evolve together into Susanoomon, all of them raise their D-Tectors, and the screens glow. This was reused footage from an earlier episode. It wouldn't be a problem or even a noticeable issue if it weren't for the fact that the reused footage contained Kouichi's raised D-Tector as well, making the total of raised Digivices into 6 rather than 5, and the fact that Kouichi was "killed off" two episodes ago. Though one could argue that Kouichi was still with them "in spirit" so to speak.
  • Several variations of a montage of the four other children contributing their spirits so Kouji and Takuya could Hyper Spirit Evolve was reused for a couple of episodes during the Royal Knights arc.
  • The footage of KendoGarurumon howling after his Beast Spirit Evolution was re-used a few times. The clip even used different audio for the howl once.
• Stolen Good, Returned Better: In episode 15, most of the Digidestined's D-tectors are stolen by Toucanmon. Two episodes later, they find them in the hands of a Datamon on the Autumn Leaf Fair. Tommy is able to win them back from the Datamon by winning a game for him, and upon doing so learns that Datamon added the Beast Spirit of Ice to his D-Tector.
• Technicolor Blade: Duskmon has a pair of red swords, which he uses when utilizing his Lunar Plasma attack.
• Theme Twin Naming: Kouichi and Kouji - literally "Light First" and "Light Second".
• Those Were Only Their Scouts: When the team finally faces off with Cherubimon. He throws off their best attacks easily, and after giving each member of the team the opportunity to throw The Worf Barrage at him so he can laugh it off, he smashes everyone with a single attack. Kouichi then gets his Digimon forms back, redesigned and stronger, and manages to defeat Cherubimon... only for the voice of Cherubimon to taunt him. That was just a much-weaker projection the real Cherubimon whipped up in order to try and talk Kouichi back to the Dark Side. The real thing will be waiting for them when they reach his lair.
• Threshold Guardians: Dark Trailmon and an illusion of Duskmon are this for a despairing Takuya after the team's defeat by the latter.
  • The Sakkakumon mini-arc has these for the rest of the characters, each using a given character's flaws against them.
    • Volcamon, who later becomes a shadow version of Beetlemon, calls out J.P. for trying to bribe his way into friendships and shows the latter just how alone he was.
    • Karatenmon picks apart Koji's loner tendencies and tells him not to reject allies.
    • Asuramon shows Tommy the flaws of expecting others to help him constantly by turning that exact attitude against him.
    • Ranamon forces Zoe to confront her guilt at lashing out at her Only Friend at camp.
• Tickle Torture: Ranamon uses this against Zoe and Tommy, before eventually giving up and switching to a more potentially deadly torture.
• Tongue Twister: When the kids encounter some Pipismon who keep echoing what they say, they try to confuse them by speaking in tongue twisters.
• Transformation Exhilaration: When Ranamon finally digivolves into her beast spirit form Calmaramon, she's screaming in joy and laughing maniacally. Ironically said form is a Gonk squid woman that even her own servants get repulsed by.
• Transformation Sequence: Fairly impressive ones that get used as Stock Footage.
• Transformation Trinket: D-tectors and Spirits, such that when Gigasmon steals the Kazemon and Kumamon spirits, or the Toucanmon steal their D-Tectors, the kids concerned (which at one point is everyone except Zoe) swiftly become The Load to their comrades and worry about it.
• Trapped in Another World: Much less action occurs on Earth than in any other animated season.
• Trash the Set: More like Trash The Planet and Its Three Moons. The final battle literally occurs in the void of space.
• Twin Switch: In the CD drama "A Train Called Hope", Kouji suggests that Kouichi could impersonate him for Kouji's stepmother's sake while Kouji goes backpacking, and makes Kouichi practice a little. Kouichi doesn't think it's such a great idea, especially since Kouji has a dog who'd be able to tell the difference.
• Unwitting Pawn: A lot of characters turn out to be this during the Sakkakumon and Cherubimon arc. It's implied during Agunimon's fight with IceLeomon that even the enemies the kids face in Sakkakumon are being controlled or manipulated by Mercurymon.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: How the Royal Knights were eventually defeated.
• Voice of the Legion: Susanoomon has this due to being a combination of all ten Warriors, though it sounds more like multiple people talking at once than some kind of audio effect.
• Wacky Racing: "Trailmon vs. Trailmon". The villains of the episode are a cheater and his cackling cartoon dog. The dub even referenced the Trope Namer by giving Doggymon a fair approximation of Muttley's laugh.
• We Can Rule Together: Cherubimon and Duskmon. In fact, Cherubimon was merely using him as an Unwitting Pawn and subjecting him to The Corruption.
• Weirdness Censor: Demonstrated with this rather brilliant quote from the final episode:
  News Announcer: The disturbance was apparently the result of an electrical discharge. When asked why an electrical discharge looked like a giant dragon, the city spokesperson said "That's what electrical discharges do."
• What You Are in the Dark: When the heroes are trapped inside Sakkakumon, each one has to confront something like this. The most extreme example is J.P., who is tormented by his darker self and is willing to destroy himself along with it, just to get it to shut up.
• White Is Pure: the main antagonist is a digimon named Lucemon: an angelic-looking, blue-eyed blonde boy who wears a white toga. Again, he evokes the imagery of purity associated with angels in popular culture (white robes, golden hair).
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: After the group acquire the beast spirits. Takuya, Kouji, J.P., and Tommy initially go berserk when they first Beast spirit evolve, unable to control their new power. Zoe averts this as she was somehow able to control her power when she first Beast spirit evolves.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Arbormon loses his beast spirit to Wolfmon. According to Duskmon, that makes him useless to the evil legendary warriors. Duskmon then disposes of him, giving the horrified kids a taste of what to expect in the following Wham Episode.
• You Must Be Cold: At the beginning of Episode 17, Koji offers his jacket to Zoe for her to wear when she's feeling cold, which leaves J.P. feeling rather jealous.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Sorcermon in episode 13, to hold off the Dark Legendary Warriors and buy the kids time to escape.

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