Odaiba Memorial

Odaiba Memorial (お台場メモリアル Odaiba Memoriaru) refers to the calendar date. This date is significant within the Digimon franchise because of Digimon Adventure, in which it is the date of the Chosen Children's first entry to the Digital World. It is often treated as a major annual event by Bandai, who also refer to the occasion as Digimon Day (デジモンの日 Dejimon no hi).

=Appearances=

Sunday August 1, 1999 is the date on which the Chosen Children—Yagami Taichi, Ishida Yamato, Takaishi Takeru, Izumi Kōshirō, Takenouchi Sora, Tachikawa Mimi, and Kido Jo—were first transported to the Digital World from their summer camp.

When a dimensional rift that opens when Etemon is destroyed sends Taichi and Agumon back to the Real World, Taichi eventually learns from the calendar in his apartment that the date in the Real World is still August 1, 1999, despite how he had been in the Digital World for "days or even months". Although he is at first reluctant to be separated from his home again, he and Koromon return to the Digital World through another dimensional rift later that afternoon.

By the year 2002, the eight Chosen Children have taken to celebrating the August 1 anniversary in what they call the August 1 Plan. They use it as a rare opportunity to get together and reminisce about the events of August 1999, and to revisit familiar sites in Tokyo that were the setting of events in Vamdemon's invasion of Tokyo.

The August 1 Plan of 2002 is the first time that Motomiya Daisuke, Inoue Miyako, and Hida Iori participate, and the elder Chosen Children tell them stories of their previous adventure. Tachikawa Mimi also returns from the United States to join the others. Their commemoration takes place from August 1 to August 3.

On August 2, Izumi Kōshirō also shares his discovery that the ability to open Digital Gates is linked to the D-3s, not to the computer in the school's computer lab that they had previously been using, and that they were not actually limited to that computer to access the Digital World. Taichi laments that they did not know sooner, since he would have liked to have been able to visit the Digital World on August 1.

On August 3, the group visits the station, following a series of reports of paranormal activity at the station, they enccounter the spirit of Wizarmon, who has a cryptic warning for Tailmon.

On August 1, 2005, their sixth anniversary, the Chosen Children go on a commemorative camping trip on the same grounds where their summer camp was held. Yagami Taichi in particular talks about the trip as an opportunity to recapture his carefree childhood.

Etemon exploits their event as part of a revenge plot against Taichi. He is responsible for creating a digital space, in which he has replicated the campgrounds, in which to trap them. Since the digital space responds to meeting the Chosen Children's wishes, and the Chosen Children are almost all looking back at August 1, time in the digital space responds in a buggy manner where the date August 1 never ends, but the hours and minutes keep counting to produce impossible times. Their latent desire for August 1 to never end also prevents them from leaving the digital space; only Kido Jo is immune to this and able to come and go as he pleases, as he is focused on his own future aspirations rather than his past.

Once Omegamon defeats Etemon and breaks the Chosen Children out of the digital space, they discover that it was all an illusion and that, the entire time, they had been on their expedition into the Digital World searching for Mochizuki Meiko and Meicoomon.

Production

 * Main article: List of August Events

The first Digimon Adventure episode to establish the significance of the August 1, 1999 date,, also first aired in Japan on August 1, 1999.

In order to capitalize on the significance of the Odaiba Memorial date within the franchise and within the consciousness of fans, it is common for Bandai to schedule major events and announcements to occur on, or near, August 1 of each year. Early events on this date were focused on Digimon Adventure itself, while the latter events have trended toward the entire franchise.

The following major events' dates fall within the proximity of the Odaiba Memorial observance. Events which were held on August 1 itself are listed in bold.


 * Digimon Adventure 15th Anniversary Event (2014)
 * Digimon Adventure Fes. 2015 (2015)
 * Digimon Adventure Fes. 2016 (2016)
 * Digimon Adventure Fes. 2017 (2017)
 * Digimon Thanksgiving 2018 (2018)
 * DigiFes 2019 (2019)
 * DigiFes 2020 Online (2020)
 * DigiFes 2021 (2021)
 * DigiFes 2022 (2022)

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