Ever since the success of the first season of Digimon, it's clear Toei wanted to recreate that success with the same IP but without using the exact same cast—at least until more recently.

Sadly, despite the high praise for Tamers and the direct continuation with 02, none have come close to the popularity and nostalgia of the first season.

Nevertheless, Toei kept trying, and one interesting idea was to create a Digimon series without partner Digimon—opting for a Super Sentai/ Power Rangers-style approach where humans transform into Digimon to fight.

In theory, this is actually pretty cool. While Digi-evolutions were always a highlight of the series, I'd argue that Frontier has the best ones, even as early as their first transformations. In previous Digimon series, Champion forms were still kind of cool but rather basic. Meanwhile, even the earliest humanoid Digimon transformations in Frontier feel like a huge upgrade.

Outside of the transformation gimmick and lack of partners, Frontier surprisingly still follows the story formula of the first three seasons—for better or worse. It features six human characters by the end, all of whom get "isekai’d" into the Digital World. They have personal struggles to work through while being stuck there for almost the entire series, only reaching the human world near the very end, which contrasts with previous seasons.

At the end of the day, this is still a shounen kids’ show, so the emphasis is on flashy attacks and cheesy humor (especially in the English dub). However, there’s still a degree of character depth. These middle school kids have to figure out how to escape, understand the Digital World, and confront their own issues, which ultimately creates a simple yet surprisingly serious story at times.

As much as I wish I could praise the series more, there are many reasons why it’s considered one of the more forgettable, mediocre, or outright terrible Digimon entries.

The story itself is a major issue. While the goal of capturing and purifying all the spirits is decent, it just isn’t as compelling as previous seasons. With only five human characters for most of the first half, their interactions and development feel weak. They have potential depth and backstories, but they lack the charisma and chemistry of previous casts. They aren’t necessarily bad characters, but they’re not memorable, and when they’re not getting direct backstory moments, they just don’t stand out.

Even conflicts between characters, like Takuya and Koji’s natural clashes, don’t go far enough. There’s barely any leadership dynamic, and every episode just feels like an excuse for the humans to transform, fight, and get a new spirit.

Unfortunately, the only female character, Izumi/Zoe, has it rough. Unlike the others, who at least win some fights, she barely gets any victories, and many of her spirit battles don’t end in success.

The second half of the series only worsens things. When the sixth kid joins, you’d expect the group to fully bond and develop after everything they went through. Instead, Frontier copies the worst aspects of the first two seasons—making Takuya and Koji the only characters who matter in fights. The first half at least let the others have some cool moments, but in the second half, they’re reduced to handing over their powers so Takuya and Koji can get their final transformations. This makes the series more boring and repetitive than it needs to be.

It doesn’t help that the characters never return to the human world mid-series, limiting their development. They’re stuck with only each other and a few Digimon who don’t know much about the real world or their personal struggles.

To make matters worse, about ten episodes in the latter half are just a rinse-and-repeat cycle of Takuya and Koji fighting the Royal Knights. While the Knights have cool designs, every episode plays out the same way—go to a new area, fight them, get beaten, rinse and repeat—until the real final boss shows up for the last few episodes.

It’s a real shame. I legitimately like the idea of a Digimon Power Rangers-style series. There are cool designs, fights, and transformations, and sometimes even interesting character depth. But limiting the cast to six, removing partner Digimon, skipping human world development, and relying on a few comedic sidekicks ultimately hurt the series’ long-term appeal.

While it was cool that Toei experimented, and it led to some iconic designs and fights, it’s for the best that future Digimon series returned to the traditional human-partner dynamic.