History YMMV / DigimonFrontier

* DesignatedHero: Ophanimon is the BigGood, but she's surprisingly incompetent at her job. Her solution to the Cherubimon and Lucemon problem boils down to sending strange SNS messages to random children. Furthermore, her talking down Cherubimon almost works, but she effectively makes dealign with him worse by revealing that she was distracting him so she could get the kids' Digivices. Also, she expects the children to reach the Spirits while leaving those who don't at risk, sends an Angemon to defend those who get stranded and never boots them out by force, and leaves her Fractal Key right inside her castle, allowing the Royal Knights to freely pillage it.

* AntiClimaxBoss: There are many interesting fights in ''Frontier'', but [[spoiler:Mercurymon]]'s duel with Takuya, although quite artsy and interesting in its own right, ends up unfortunately being a little too one-sided. While he does dominate in the first minutes, [[spoiler:[=ShadowSeraphimon=]]] gets utterly humiliated at the moment Takuya unlocks Aldamon, first by failing to make him even flinch and then by being taken down with a single, weak-looking attack, and his next round as [[spoiler:Mercurymon]] ends just as quickly, with more power being spent on the battlefield itself than on him. Fortunately, he later gets a more climatic showdown with the protagonists as [[spoiler:Sephirotmon/Sakkakumon.]]

* ArcFatigue: Arcs in ''Frontier'' tend to drag, as the writers often aimed to reduce the PlotArmor trope to the thinnest and create the most drama with what material they had, and it is commonly felt that they sometimes went just ''too far'' and made the entire series a borderline FailureHero show as a result. The Velgemon and Cherubimon arcs are long, but by the time the Royal Knights come around and curbstomp the leads episode after episode without much progress, some fans just put their foot down or skip to the ending.

** Related to the previous, there's diversity on opinions about the show's storytelling. While one side praised it for doing an excellent job at making the villains a credible threat, especially compared to previous seasons, the other side criticizes it because it went too far and had the side effect of spawning potentially endless {{Filler}} arcs where the heroes would fail at achieving anything decisive, including Izumi being infamously defeated in her own power-up episode or the "Transcendent" [=MagnaGarurumon=] and [=EmperorGreymon=] being defeated '''seven episodes in a row''' before they were soundly floored by Lucemon and never seen again (the latter which earned their status as free game for ridicule in the Japanese fandom like ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'', where even ''Anime/DigimonXrosWarsTheYoungHuntersWhoLeaptThroughTime'' is otherwise considered just SoOkayItsAverage at most).

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Katsuharu's group is relatively popular because they make for good FanficFuel in fics where they inherit the Legendary Spirits of Earth, Wood, Water and Steel.

* GeniusBonus: The fight between Korikakumon and Asuramon is framed not only in their respective elements, but also in the inspirations for their forms, that of the Yeti and an asura respectively. In Tibetan Buddhism, asuras are demons, while Yetis are animals, yet animals human enough that some currents consider them capable to actually follow Dharma (an example of this being the famous Pangboche Hand, a relic that supposedly belonged to a Yeti that served Lama Sangwa Dorje), and some of them even act as guardians against demons.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Ironically, despite the general TheyChangedItNowItSucks reaction to the HenshinHero concept, many viewers criticize this series for trying too hard to invoke nostalgia for ''Adventure'' from other directions, to the point that the characters comes off as compressed copies of the original cast. This is only exacerbated by the two lead characters being the SpotlightStealingSquad just like their predecessors Taichi and Yamato, with the names for the Transcendent Forms and English names for most of the heroes' Beast Spirits not helping matters. This could be considered a FranchiseOriginalSin though, as it was also a complaint that was directed towards ''Tamers''.

* MisBlamed: This series is thought by many people to have been the cause of the ''Digimon'' franchise's decline in popularity and the long hiatus until ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad''. In actuality, it was the end of the virtual pets fad (and thus the base for the ''Digimon'' franchise itself), poor merchandising attempts both in Japan and abroad, and in America's case, Disney's apathetic treatment.

* PresumedFlop: The fact that ''Digimon'' fell out of fad more or less at the time ''Frontier'' ended has caused the popular belief that the latter was a complete failure in ratings and sales, but it is not really the case. While the series did fail at making noise, this was (and sadly still is) the usual for the franchise in Japan after the ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' continuity was closed. In reality, ''Frontier'' did not do much worse than ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' in any field, and still attracted almost twice the ratings later received by ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad'', which was the series that finally got the franchise out of its traditional broadcaster Fuji TV.
* QuestionableCasting: Occasionally, the dub can get weird with this, likely as an aftereffect of Saban's demise and Disney's treatment of the franchise as a burden. Snimon sounds like Myotismon from ''Adventure'', Cherubimon like Leomon from the same, and a Toucanmon and Mushroomon sound like they're channeling Kazu from ''Tamers'' and Davis from ''Adventure 02'', respectively. Then there's Lucemon sounding like Izzy/Koushiro's dub voice.

** The spirits themselves could qualify. They are not shown to be {{Empty Shell}}s for the children to simply transform into, but rather unconventional partner Digimon that have to stay in the Digivices due to their fragile state as ghosts. In fact, the Lrgendary Warriors are actually built up to be important characters, and are frequently featured in ''Frontier''-related content. However, instead of playing the role of SpiritAdvisor (no pun intended) for their human partners, the spirts are reduced to silent {{Plot Coupon}}s, likely to keep it from resembling too much like Biomerge Digivolutions from ''Tamers'', while the Legendary Warriors get relegated to expository purposes and only appear briefly for one episode at the end (and the NonSerialMovie, where [=AncientGreymon=] and [=AncientGarurumon=] get to revive for a brief time). This resulted in one of the main criticisms of the show being a HumanFocusedAdaptation, even more so than usual.

* HoYay: Several moments, like its predecessors do, but Episode 41 takes the crown. After Kouji saved Kouichi from [=LordKnightmon=], they started talking very romantically. Complete with the LoveBubbles. Granted, that's just [=LordKnightmon=]'s imagination, but that scene probably is the most slash-shippy scene in the anime. And yeah, that scene was one of the reason why the {{Twincest}} pair is one of the most popular ship in the fandom. [[MemeticMutation Come on, even [=LordKnightmon=] ships Koukoucest.]]

* HollywoodHomely: Calmaramon. From the characters' viewpoint, she's much less attractive than Ranamon and causes her Toucanmon entourage to ditch her. In reality, barring her squidlike bottom half, she's ''really'' not that hideous. In fact, she looks like a much more slimmed down version of [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ursula]]. [[https://wikimon.net/images/0/0b/Calamaramon_collectors.jpg Her EX card]] in ''Digimon Collectors'' even emphasizes that she can be just as cute as Ranamon is.

* ValuesDissonance: The entire reasoning for Calamaramon being uglier than Ranamon is essentially the Japanese equivalent of the OldMaid concept, usually called "Christmas cake" (that is to say, an unmarried woman over 25 is probably going to stay that way for the rest of her life), with youthful traits being idealized and traditionally mature traits being shunned. Hence, the cutesy, IdolSinger-like water sprite turning into a mature-looking woman with sharper features (well, and a squid for a lower body) causes her fanbase to abandon her for the hero. This idea is far from universal in Japan, and indeed, later shows would simply treat Calamaramon as [[CuteMonsterGirl attractive if a bit unconventional and weird]], but it's very unlikely that a series made outside of it would feature an apparently wholehearted ''endorsement'' of the concept.

** In Spain, you will get only confused looks if you talk about Dynasmon, but they will instantly recognize him if you call him Dinocumon (or Dinokumon, or Dynokumon, or whatever, as it was never revealed how was it supposed to be written, or why was it changed to begin with given that [=LordKnightmon=] got to retain his name, but people seemed to like it).
* WTHCastingAgency: Occasionally, the dub can get weird with this, likely as an aftereffect of Saban's demise and Disney's treatment of the franchise as a burden. Snimon sounds like Myotismon from ''Adventure'', Cherubimon like Leomon from the same, and a Toucanmon and Mushroomon sound like they're channeling Kazu from ''Tamers'' and Davis from ''Adventure 02'', respectively. Then there's Lucemon sounding like Izzy/Koushiro's dub voice.

** It's a commonly held belief amongst fans that the other group of children Ophanimon tasked an Angemon with protecting, Katsuharu, Teppei, Teruo and Chiaki, were the ones originally intended to wield the Spirits that became the four evil Legendary Warriors. It is all but confirmed that it is the case, most clearly seen in their gender ratio matching up perfectly (three males and one female) and [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience their clothes colors also matching the Digimons]] (purple, brown, blue and green, with the blue being the female), but it's never outwardly stated and no official word has ever come out about it. Considering how much the series was rushed towards the second half and [[WhatCouldHaveBeen how many ideas were left on the cutting room floor]], it is likely this was going to be a plot point or at least to receive a mention before it got axed.

** Sakkakumon, known as Sephirotmon in Japan, is shaped like the ten aspects of God in UsefulNotes/{{Kabbalah}}, the [[MeaningfulName Sephirot]]. Fittingly, that's the same number as legendary warrior spirits; and each orb contains one enemy corresponding with one of the ten elements. One of these orbs contains Mercurymon. Yes. Mercurymon exists inside ''himself''.

** The spirits themselves could qualify. They are not shown to be {{Empty Shell}}s for the children to simply transform into, but rather unconventional partner Digimon that have to stay in the digivice due to their fragile state as ghosts. In fact, the Warrior Ten are actually built up to be important characters, and are frequently featured in ''Frontier''-related franchise. However, instead of playing the role of SpiritAdvisor (no pun intended) for their human partners, the spirts are reduced to silent {{Plot Coupon}}s, likely to keep it from resembling too much Biomerge from ''Tamers'', while the Warrior Ten get relegated to expository purposes and only appear briefly for one episode at the end (and the NonSerialMovie, where [=AncientGreymon=] and [=AncientGarurumon=] do revive). This resulted in one of the main criticisms of the show being a HumanFocusedAdaptation, even more so than usual.

** The Royal Knights. The group is far larger than the two Lucemon sent out to claim data. Baromon hints that they were well known, but this is never brought up again.

** The conflict between the Human-type and Beast-type Digimon which effectively ''started'' the show's plot, according to Cherubimon's backstory, is never elaborated on aside from the [[NonSerialMovie non-serial]] movie.