Digimon

[Kari Kamiya]

Marc has done a review of the movie. Copy-pasting everything here because it keeps more people from giving him more clicks.

Spoiler

It's time for a review of Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning!

I had the opportunity see it early, and did (and shall again frankly.)


I wrote this last night, and wrote far too much, but keeping most of it (including the pomposity.) A lot of it is stream of consciousness style from after I saw the movie.

Spoilers ahoy, lots of them.

All of them even.


Most of the review will be quoteboxed to make scrolling easier.

They are not there for spoiler protection, as you can still see plenty. The boxes stop after going over the plot in detail (with some commentary), with a more abridged review and closeup after those.

Last warning if you don't want to know...

The world is full of possibilities.

A lofty bit of text to start off being typed, possibly a promise. Sometimes for a franchise it's a threat.

And it's the first line of text we see in the movie as it starts off with opening text being typed, telling us a number of things about hope, adventures, and the ongoing journey.

We also get a nice play with part of the opening text, as it vanishes, leaving a 1, which changes to a 2, which changes to √02


The Beginning:

Then we get the swell of Bolero as we've heard before with an egg spinning in the sky up above Tokyo Tower.


Tomohisa Taguchi know how to do subtle, we've seen him do it. The opening here is not subtle, and he surely knows exactly what comes to mind.

It's February 21st, 2012. It's important to know that date, as while the movie was framed as taking place in winter, that had to be where the movie begins.

People take selfies and gawk at the egg. The scene is reminiscent of ones we've seen before, especially in Revenge of Diaboromon with everyone watching the battle. Again, not subtle, but it's solid imagery that fans of Zero-Two would know.

The egg makes noises and pulses. It shoots out energy that is, perhaps, related to the aurora that harbored the events of Kizuna. No direct connection is made in dialogue, but plot elements certainly suggest a specific connection.

We move on to another favorite of the franchise, screens displaying things... "May everyone in the world have friends. May they each have a Digimon." Said in different languages, places, to people everywhere.

Bolero gets louder.

Davis and Veemon appear, working at a ramen shop, cleaning up at the end of a day. TK, Kari, Patamon, and Gatomon also get the message elsewhere. Cody has been practicing kendo, Armadillomon sits there. We see Yolei and Hawkmon at a computer, both looking concerned at the message. Ken and Wormmon watch the egg more directly.

Then we get a bit of continuity fanservice as it jumps around to various international Digidestined from the world tour arc of season 2.

Davis' D-3 sits in a drawer. It's an interesting callback to a number of places. Kizuna with Tai's in a drawer, us seeing Tai's at the beginning of tri., even the first time we see Kari's back when Tai gets shunted back to the real world for a few hours.

It also says the message. Abridged you might say... Friends and Digimon for all.

It's a good dream. A great wish. But fiction loves nothing more than twist a wish.

As the pulses quake the sky with light, a boy watches. Not happy. With a broken Digivice.

Bolero cuts off, the egg pulses and the boy says just one thing. "Ukkomon."


We jump into a stylized bit of D-3 lineart, and Target begins to play. The original version as used in Zero-Two, as sung by Wada Kouji.,

Davis and Veemon run off to work, Ken studies as girls hit on him, and Wormmon isn't pleased. And the day goes on for everyone. Until they arrive at the ramen shop. It's a day when the boss lets Davis run it as his own.

Zero-Two:

Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning has begun.

And a week has passed. It's February 28th.


The movie starts off with the promise of seeing these characters interact once again, something which we've had little of since the rebirth of the franchise almost 10 years ago.

It was reborn with the return of Adventure for the first new animation it got since Zero-Two itself ended over a decade prior.

And a reintroduction had no room for so many extra characters, so the ones specific to Zero-Two were quickly curb-stomped to get them off the chessboard. tri. would be filled with various references to Season 2, some more direct than others, but outside of those, and the mention at the end that the kids were found ok, that was it.

We found out the plan was roughly similar for Kizuna, before it was requested to find 'something' for them to do, so the 02 gang played at being a mock-Scooby gang, and it worked well, and people wanted more.

Kizuna ends with the end of the adventure, in theory. We know it isn't. We know where it ends up. It's taken us a long time to get there but we're actually a short few years away to catching up with the epilogue. Feels strange to see it coming when it felt impossibly far so long ago. (You could argue the end narration here is saying it doesn't necessarily matter, which is true to some degree, although now that we've been getting new material, the fun is seeing in how we get there. Which it feels like tri., Kizuna, and now The Beginning, have all made very solid steps to make that epilogue that at times felt strange years ago, feel more solid.)

With the Adventure kids sidelined with real life, and the future they want to find, the 02 kids return as the main characters.

And it begins as 02 promised, with Davis making ramen and everyone eating it.

They quickly get sidetracked as the boy in the avant is seen climbing up Tokyo Tower, desperately trying to get the egg, and they notice he has a Digivice. A bit different, battered, broken, but obviously a Digivice no matter how you look at it (and we get a very good look at it.)


The story moves a bit quicker as they save him from doing his best Jackson Pollack impression after he slips from the tower.

He claims to be the first person who had a Digimon partner, the first Digidestined. Something he himself scoffs at. His Digimon is long since gone, he says killed him.

Lui is introduced to us being very weary, negative enough he almost slips into smarmy comedy as he feels like such an attempt to do the edgy teen boy protagonist, it's hard to take him seriously at first with his black coat, eyepatch, looking like he wants to fight Donald Duck and Final Fantasy characters. I nearly laughed him off at first honestly.

Lui isn't happy, he doesn't like the idea of partner Digimon, he suggests it's all fake, something forced on the Digimon, the kids, all of it. Davis, Hawkmon, plenty of others disagree.

Lui becomes even more edgy when his eyepatch comes off, and you see.... a giant goofy Digimon eye. Big, green, doesn't fit in his head properly. A bit of weirdo body horror, but we'll get back to that.

Police start to show up. It isn't clarified what the relationship we see here is. It doesn't seem to be the MiB-style of tri. chasing Digimon down. But the kids are concerned. After all, Digimon are public now, and giant Digimon just saved a kid who was seen on TV climbing up a tower on his own. There will be questions.

So they go off, and talk to Lui. The egg is the same as the egg from his Digimon. His Digimon might not be dead, and he wants to know what is up.

Davis and Veemon are happy that a self realized kid has spirit, and they are gonna help him. Ken begins to argue quite pragmatically, they don't know him.

TK and Kari roll their eyes at the continued way Davis and Ken are friends who can argue and get along swimmingly.

The adventure is new, but Zero-Two is still Zero-Two.

Who is Lui?:

Veemon digivolves, as does Stingmon. Gorgeous recreations of their sequences with the smartphone Digivices.

Then they jogress into Paildramon (either EXVeemon or Stingmon could have carried him to the egg on their own, but we all want to see Paildramon if we're honest.)

The jogress sequence is new, but still feels delightfully classic right as the NA, NA NA... of the beginning of Beat Hit starts for it. It's so good. Interestingly, we get some integration of the hexagon theme that Digimon has liked using since tri. began.

Paildramon brings Davis, Ken, and Lui to the egg.

Yolei is watching impressed, Hawkmon and Gatomon less so.

They look cool, until they fall off.

Into the egg they fall.

And so they appear in Hikarigaoka many years ago. Wait, hold on... we have a scripting error, or something that wasn't noticed, or something that someone changed...

I should mention, I'm watching the dub. And they used Hikarigaoka instead of Highton View Terrace, a number of times.

They find themselves in 1996. After the first Digimon Adventure movie, but before Tai and Kari moved away from there. We know because we see flashes of them, looking a tiny bit older than they were in that first movie. As mentioned before, Taguchi really is good with his imagery and knowing what to show us.

They also see a young Lui, who never quite crosses paths with Tai and Kari. He's chasing after his mom as fast as a 4 year older can go. She doesn't seem to notice, and he struggles to keep up.

A well positioned calendar tells us this day is February 29th, 1996.

The movie itself never makes it clear if this is time travel, the memories of the egg, or where Lui sees because it's an important day on his mind.

It doesn't actually matter, although it'll probably be debated by fans for years. Or at least until a future movie clarifies it.

Lui's mom is fixing his favorite dinner, Lui goes into a dark room where his father is horribly ill, being kept alive by machines.

His mom freaks her shit, and tells him to sit down and watch TV, be quiet, don't move. He can't touch the machines, his dad could die.


He watches TV, refusing to move. We see him looking uncomfortable as his mom kindly calls him for dinner.

He starts to hide and his mom freaks out again. He didn't move, like he was told, and wet himself. As she grabs his wet clothes we see welts all over him, and he's locked outside on the balcony, in the cold.

Harsher imagery than we are often used to in Digimon. There is nothing fantastical. Just people.

We see older Lui watching with Ken and Davis. Ken wants to console him, Davis starts to yell, upset, and is about to rush in before Ken grabs him. The movie is exceptionally good at reminding you why Davis worked so well. He's an interesting type of one dimensional character. They write him very strictly as someone who isn't quite willing to bend and knows who he is, which 02 excelled at.

Lui also points out, he didn't ask them to try and help with what they are saying.

Little Lui is crying, it's his birthday, he's cold.

An egg appears. Older Lui gets up and runs for the egg, reaching for the egg, or maybe Lui? An eye from the egg sees him and things reverse until they're back to falling.

They get saved by the other Digimon.

Ken points out they were in that egg for two hours. They're told it was at most a few seconds, as the film itself goes out of it's way to not clarify 'where' exactly they were. Back in time, the egg? As said before, it doesn't matter to the story if it's real. But it does to the characters.

The cops show up again. They weren't probably going to miss the giant angel and so forth.

A bit old for this aren't they?:

Scene change, a familiar scene. Someone knocks on the door to a computer club...

Digi-Digi... Mon-Mon.

The best password returns.

The kids have dumped the phones and are using their D-3s. It isn't really clear why, but we wanna see the D-3s.

Cody comments it's a bit embarrassing to be sneaking around computer clubs at their age.

They go over what Lui has said, if it's real or not, that he's the first Digidestined, and that his partner apparently 'created' the connection between kids and Digimon.

And why has Ukkomon returns after Lui says he killed him.

Ukkomon is special. He makes wishes comes true. Yolei says it's nuts.

It sounds so. Lui mentions that Ukkomon mentioned he was connected to a... great being.

Some kind of god? Kari wonders if it's Homeostasis. The movie asks the question and moves on. One thing tri. and Kizuna both excelled at, it knew when to suggest a question and answer, but leave it open enough that it could slot right into the continuity we know, or bend it a bit, or break it. It's how you look at it.

Lui explains where they left off. The egg hatches.

Lui wants friends. Ukkomon introduces himself. He's going to be his friend, forever.

Ukkomon is a weirdly ugly Digimon. It's like someone beat MarineAngemon with a bat until his head flattened a bit.

He grabs some snow and makes Lui a cake out of snow. It falls apart to reveal a Digivice. It's their bond.

Happy Birthday to you, Lui. Ukkomon sings the song, they're happy.

Lui's mom comes out wondering why Lui can't keep his promises. Why is he so noisy? Why can't he keep his promises? It's a bit curdling to see Lui rush to cover and protect himself out of habit.

Snow falls. Nothing happens. She pats his head and now she's warm and friendly. She forgives him.

All is not right. But she's happy to let Ukkomon in first. She'll go heat them up milk.

You can pretty solidly figure out what happened. Ukkomon let's Lui know he will protect him, be his friend, find him more friends. Make sure he's happy. It's what everyone wants. Most of all Lui, who has stayed positive despite struggling.

Lui will have plenty of friends by his next birthday, Ukkomon promises it. He will make sure of it.

Lui points out his birthday is a bit different. It's February 29th. His 'real' birthday won't be for another 4 years.

It's ok though, Ukkomon just has to make sure the presents are extra special. Ukkomon isn't a visually appealing character, but he cares so much he grows on you.

Back to the 02 kids, talking to Lui. Ukkomon wished for friends. Davis admits he was worried what happened to Lui from their trip. But everyone else realizes, Lui's story doesn't quite fit where things are now. There is more.

Everything quickly got better for Lui. His dad got better. Ukkomon protected him from bullies at school. Protected him. Helped him make friends.

Ukkomon gave Lui everything he every wanted. And he never asked anything in return. He really didn't want anything. He just wants him to be happy.

It's sweet. Unfortunately, heyo... fiction again, so it isn't going to stay that way.

It's Lui's 'real' birthday again, he's 8. It's February 29th.

Happy Birthday to you. It's February 29th, 2000.

Ukkmon is a bit sad. Something happened so the real friends he intended Lui to meet can't. Lui isn't really disappointed, he has friends, parents, they're there, presents, he has Ukkomon. It's all good.

He can meet the other friends next time...

Friends from all over the world.

Ukkomon will always be his friend.

The 02 kids contemplate the relationship between Ukkomon and the connections with their Digimon.

Not all the Digivices appeared out of thing air. Their connections to their Digimon certainly didn't. Kari points out her and Gatomon.

Lui admits he doesn't know. The bond. Is it made by the Digivice? A chance meeting? Did Ukkomon really make it? Was it just finding something that was there? Yolei muses on what this power means if real.

Davis gets upset at the suggestion their connection is suggested to be fake. Ken tries to calm him down. Yolei, both the most energetic at times, the most logical at others, points out that regardless, they need to know more, as whether it's real or not, it related to their situation.

Veemon doesn't care. Davis doesn't need to brood over their friendship. They are friends. He grabs his hand. They always will be. The Digivice connected them, but it isn't what made them friends. None of it matters in the end to him. Gotta love Veemon. He was the most outspoken and perhaps, honest, of the partner Digimon, long before that became slightly more common as the years went by.

Ken parts Wormmon and poitns out to Lui, these relationships between them and Digimon, they weren't magical things that happened. It coming to Ken, and Wormmon agreeing adds depth of meaning that wouldn't quite have fit coming from anyone else honestly. Kari also agrees, adding a bit more layering.

Lui points out you never know what a person is really thinking, even if it's a friend. Ukkmon misunderstood him, and what would make him happy...

Revenge and Striking Back:

Flashback once again, to Lui and Ukkmon watching TV.

Monsters are fighting on TV. Well, were. These are talking heads talking about something that happened shortly ago.

A giant monster, one we've seen before, but the talking heads haven't, is fighting a giant white knight.

Armageddemon vs. Omegamon, the Revenge of Diaboromon.

Ukkomon is happy. The Digimon fight the battles so the kids don't. It's so good isn't it? Isn't it?

They'd sacrifice themselves.

Ukkomon did it for Lui, it's what he wanted. Friends who will protect him.

Lui sucks in air as he realizes what's happening, has happened. This isn't what he meant.

Dad comes home at that moment. Dad and Mom both pass out at the entryway.

They aren't breathing, they won't answer.

No worries, Ukkomon is here. Mom and Dad have to try harder... or else Lui will be said.

Tendrils shoot out of Ukkomon to recharge them. move them through the air as it refills them with life.

Purple light everywhere, the parents talk as they float, almost like puppets.

Daddy's home from work, Lui. Your favorite is for dinner. All better.

Ukkomon will make sure everything is good.

Lui tells Ukkomon to stop. But why, it makes him happy.

Lui begins to choke Ukkomon. The screen goes red. Ukkomon isn't bothered, Lui can do this until he feels better, Ukkomon doesn't want him to be sad. Lui is best when he smiles.

He wants him to be happy.

They do something really cool with the music here. You can't tell if the song that starts to swirl is a new song that sounds like it, or is a twisted remix of Requiem, the song from when Omegamon was born, from the dreams and hopes... and wishes, of children.

We see Omegamon on the TV damaged, as he was in the movie.

Digimon fight because of Ukkomon. The children are like Luimon now. People will protect him.

Ukkomon is there for Lui to be happy.

Lui walks to the door, and there sits a... bat.

Silly Lui, dad says you can't go out and play this late at night.

WHAM! WHAM! Lui starts to smash the Digivice as hard as he can. Now we know how that happened.

And it goes flying from a hit into his face, smashing his eye.

Ukkmon is scared, Lui is hurt.,

Ukkomon tears out his own as Lui screams and cries, gives him his eye.

He just wants Lui to be happy. He will be fine now. With his giant green eye, scar, blood still dripping.

The whole scene here does a very specific type of horror/body horror quite well. Minus the blood at the end, it's all relatively basic visuals that tell the story and let you deal with it.

As it intersplices with footage on the TV of Omegamon battling, Lui begins to scream at Ukkomon about how would any of this make him happy.

It's fake. It's a show of horrors. It's all superficial. Ukkomon doesn't know him.

Ukkomon looks horrified, sad, scared, at the same time. It's actually rather skillful to show that design emoting so well.

Ukkmon is sad. He didn't know. He begins to melt and splatter into goo as he cries. Lui is horrified.

Ukkomon dies. Or so Lui things. We see his digiegg reform and vanish. Lui does notice, but is so horrified it doesn't quite dawn on him the egg was there and vanished.

Goodbye Ukkomon. And his parents fall. Lui, still bleeding, but with the eye, sobs.

We find out from current Lui that he went to stay with family as Yolei and Kari comment on the sad story of Lui and Ukkomon.

Kari points out, Ukkomon made many mistakes, but it was all truly him trying to help a friend. Lui points out this is horrifying to consider. It's ok because he was thinking of someone else? It wasn't, but that isn't quite the point she was trying to make.

They talk more, and more, and more.

Davis is about to ask something... but the clock strikes midnight.

The egg begins to hatch. They see the waves of power.

Everyone was distracted.

Friends and Digimon.

The egg hatches into a giant Ukkomon, as giant proper monster music plays, mixed in with softer music box chimes.

Lui doesn't understand any of this. His eye shines.

Ukkomon begins to open up. Happy Birthday to you...

It's February 29th, 2012. The anniversary of the day they met. Lui's rare real birthday.

That's some nice-ass animation:

Digieggs appears everywhere from tendrils around the giant Ukkomon.

Everyone shall have a Digimon. At once. Everyone can be like Lui. The ultimate birthday present.

The world isn't ready. Seven billion partner Digimon being born at once.

The number doubles everywhere, but it's only up to 60k now, after years and years of them doing what they could.

Takeru points out... if Ukkomon really did create the connections. What will them beat him him do?

Kari points out people need help, the world does. They made their bonds, not Ukkomon.

Ken wonders if they can beat Ukkomon without severing the bonds, if it's true.

But they have to beat him, there is no choice. Yolei points out they can think, Ken is right, there is a better way. It's great for it to be Ken who has the idea, and someone else to remind him he is right.

Daisuke looks at Ukkomon.

He talks with Veemon. We get shots of kids looking at screens all over the world. A common shot. Not all are PCs, many are mobile devices. It's interesting to see as the timeline is closer and closer to our own.

Him and Veemon have ramen to make tomorrow, together. No matter what happens today.

Ken doesn't understand why they went to the past. Why that day?

It was Ukkomon, trying to talk to Lui. Wanting to talk to Lui. Wanting to understand.

As 02 was very good at often, sometimes there isn't a villain. Sometimes there is someone who doesn't understand and needs a talking to.

Davis tells Lui he needs to talk to Ukkomon. Lui doesn't want to. Ukkomon doesn't understand him. But it was Lui's wish. Does Lui know Ukkomon properly? What he likes? Ukkomon cares about him, even if he was wrong.

This is about them. They need to talk.

Ken points out a partnership with Digimon isn't one sided. They are alive, they have feelings, they are like us. You have to meet in the middle and understand each other. Wormmon explains Ken and him see who each other really are. Using Ken and Wormmon for this calls back to 02 in a unique and special way.

Lui has to reach out to Ukkomon, he wants to talk.

Davis will take him, if he will try. He wants to see Ukkomon.

The D-3s come out, and everyone digivolves up to Champion. Minus Gatomon, who goes to Ultimate. New versions of the animations for everyone, styled to really feel classic. And on a splitscreen to avoid the waiting. Feels like we can guess at a Blu-ray extra.

Then we get the jogress to Paildramon again, this time with the classic D-3s, instead of the smartphones.

And then IMMEDIATELY, before you realize what's happening you see a dragon whip around.

Paildramon is evolving.

IMPERIALDRAMON!

And he blows up the castle. As we all wanted.

Time to get to Ukkomon.

Davis, Ken, and Lui take off in the air, the others go by TKs car.

The movie has been gorgeous throughout, but without much in the way of action set pieces.

You might wonder where the big theatrical budget went. With them talking about going overboard on the action.

And they fucking did, right here.

TK drives them, while Imperialdramon whips around the city with insanely dynamic action. Someone was a fan of the original Michael Keaton Batman movie, cause Imperialdramon definitely goes up then down on the moon.

This all happens with a new version of Target. It's just so fucking lush and gorgeous. I'll be upset if they don't do a 4K disc so I can see this with HDR.

Tendils shoot out to stop them, and knocks down Angewomon who goes back to Gatomon.

Aquilamon grabs her.

Takeru and Cody grab D-3s, first up... Shakkoumon. The big steaming teapot himself. I love seeing him.

Yolei and Kari are up next. Silphymon! It feels like we get a bit of extra flair in the energy beams flying around their evolution.

The dynamic animation goes a bit nuts as Imperialdramon flies around the tendrils.

Mode Change! Fighter Mode!

BOOOOOOMM!

The flying continues as Fighter Mode battles the tendrils with Shakkoumon and Silphymon assisting.

Lui is ready and runs and jumps out of the Imperialdramon mock cockpit we've seen since 02. Right into Ukkomon.

He sees the timeline of him and Ukkomon.

Davis is calm, he believes in Lui. Ken is impressed. Ramen has taught Davis well, it takes patience.

Yolei asks them to stop flirting. Davis gets upset at her for the joke.

Lui has to resolve this with talking.

The kids are ready if it doesn't work. Davis is ready. But he has faith.

Lui sees himself chasing after his mom, the same as before. No Ken, him, or Davis watching.

Someone grabs his mom's hand.

It's Lui. He tells her to listen. He knows she's in pain now. It's hard. It seems hopeless. He knows. He does.
But she needs to listen harder to Lui. He loves her, he cares for her.

She looks back, past him, and sees Lui chasing after her and struggling. Her face changes.

This is a good dramatic scene. And it isn't unrealistic. But a few words said to her at random feels like it's to easy to 'fix' that.

Of course, it's never clear if this is real or not. Or just what Lui wishes had happened. What Ukkomon wishes had happened.

Lui & Ukkomon:

This time, Lui is inside with his mom.

No one should be there if the egg appears. Older Lui is waiting though.

Hi Ukkomon. I don't need anything. No wishes. Nothing.

Ukkomon suspected Lui would say that. Lui isn't little anymore. He doesn't need his help like that.

Ukkomon thought he was making him happy, he did what he thought he was supposed to do, for Lui. He understands he was wrong. Over time he forgot that just smiling sometimes isn't enough. He didn't really understand him.

Lui and Ukkomon sit and talk, they learn about eachother. It's very... human. It's why we all tend to be enamored with this franchise about monsters in its animated form. The characters talking, having depth, becoming people.

They shake hands (hearkening back to a specific scene in 02.) They will meet again, once again. They can start over whenever they want.

But right now, Lui has something to do... Lui falls out of the giant Ukkomon, caught by Imperialdramon.

They have to defeat Ukkomon? It didn't work? It did. The conclusion they reached for them to meet again, properly, needs Ukkomon to be defeated right here, right now.

So they do. We're back to the amazing animation of Fighter Mode, SIlphymon, and Shakkoumon fighting around town.

Fighter Mode, with Davis, Lui, and Ken, uses Giga Death, and blows a hole right through the giant squid Ukkomon thing.

And it burns to nothing. The digieggs vanish.

All is well. We see the other kids look up. It's over. Mission Complete.

A goodbye of a different sort:

They look up at Tokto Tower. Lui looks at his Digivice.

The entire time was Ukkomon trying to find a way to fix what he had done. The Digivice shines gold.

Ukkomon's Digiegg has returned. He always thinks of Lui.

Davis wonders if anything happens between the bonds of Digidestined and Digimon, nothing has changed.

They all see a gold light from Lui's Digivice.

It's burning into a point of light, straight up into the sky.

So are the D-3s.

So are the Digivices of the Digidestined around the world. Many we saw at different points in Zero-Two.

It happened once before. So it happens here, just... different.

A million points of light.

Everywhere around the earth. The light shines as the Digivices shine away.

Lui wished for nothing. It isn't clear that time travel ever 'really' happened. Maybe it was just memories. What happened, what he wanted to happen. But regardless. He didn't wish, so the devices that created the bonds burn.

Time hasn't changed, everyone remembers, they watch them go away.

Lui comments... they knew. Everything would be ok even without them.

Davis and V-mon hug. Their friendship is invincible. It isn't defined by those.

Kari muses on what the Digivices actually are. Gatomon says they connected them, forged the bonds.

Then Cody points out... maybe they did. At first. They maybe haven't needed them for a long time.

They were things. Things didn't connect them. Relationships did, bonds did.

We've actually seen this before with the crests. Sometimes you just need a push to know. They need to talk.

Yolei says goodbye to the D-3.

Cody says now begins... and he gets hit with a snowball by Davis.

He flips out as a snowball fight begins.

The fun of 02 was always... the fun.

Yolei and Ken muse on them finding solutions as they need to.

Yolei muses that they can do it together. Ken gets flustered before she hits him with a snowball.

Snowballs fly. they all smile and laugh.

Lui gets his in the face with a snowball as he truly laughs.

The End:

A VERY familiar narrator speaks as we see shots of people with Digimon. Well, familiar in the Japanese version that is. Not 100% sure who it is in the dub, but it they really should have gotten a cameo of... we'll say English Zenigata here.

Some we don't know, perhaps we will some day.
Others we've seen before, and get to see close up for the first time in a long time, getting to say hello to once again.

Things change with time. Sometimes things seem right. Things might change.
A grip loosened on a story. There was an end that was predetermined.

It's over. Those shackles are cut. The world takes a step into a world of new possibilities as a new day dawns.

Credits roll.

New song from AiM called Various Colors. Very interesting energy from AiM in this one. It sounds both classic and fresh at the same time. It lifted me as I sat there.

The credits end and the movie is... not over. Yet.

Or Not:

Lui stands in the snow. It's a new day. He's happy.

He gasps and looks at the egg in his hand. You can see the emotion in his face as he's about to cry.

He says the egg shake as it cuts to black. (We've seen similar endings before, they tend to work well because, as the movie itself points out a few times sometimes the infinite possibilities and not knowing aren't a bad thing.

The movie itself is an interesting thing.

It's very much an 02 film in the best ways, but to a large degree it's meant to serve the story of Lui.

Lui is an early, the first, Digidestined. A Digidestined 'before' the first set is one we've seen a number of times, going back to the end of Adventure itself (with the continuity bending Willis being another that fits in the timeline in a somewhat broken way at best.)

They don't all necessarily fit well together, but they all serve the purpose of the story well.

Lui does. He plays the center of an odd psychologically dark tale, that perhaps had no choice to be used because, the 02 kids overall were remarkably well balanced as people, if a bit light and fluffy.

Having evil Ken again, or their depressing might not click well, because their issues felt like they were different, and ones they talked about as 02 reached it's end.

Having a different important character makes sense, if perhaps it's a bit tripping over other stories, including Taguchi's own in the prior Digimon film.

I think it works.

I think the movie has definite faults, including the sometimes whiplash inducing differences between having Davis talking and Lui's story.

Even before the epilogue we were told Davis would be OK, and he is. His mood is infectious to such a degree it helps drag Lui into finding a solution to his problems.

The film acts as a proper sequel to Last Evolution, following up on it's ending with the vanishing of Agumon, Gabumon, and the assumed vanishing of more.

The Adventure kids have their part to play here, as you'd expect, and it's minor. It should be. You get a couple visual cameos, and some mentions of character in minimal ways when relevant, but this is Zero-Two.

Everything from Zero-Two is here, or at least makes a cameo, minus armor digivolving.

There wasn't really space for it honestly. We get minimal battle use of anyone below jogress, which fits into the minimal battle style of the movie.

It saves the money and energy because like I said above, those battles are fucking amazing.

The actual 'what actually happened' both in regards to the flashbacks/time travel/whatever and how that affects the real world/present, we'll see many arguments about.

In the context of the film itself, nothing seems to change as far as history goes. Everyone remembers what happens, remembers the Digivice.

The world has simply changed and they aren't needed anymore.

Theoretically... the film very expertly had the characters slyly dump the smartphone Digivices Izzy made, and no specific mention of what happened to those, so will wee those new generation Digivices again? Maybe. Digivices are something they can sell, but for the story now, they are beholden as things.

We'll see where future material goes.

Because as I said, there is no evidence anything has changed. The burning of the Digivices doesn't clarify if that special bond can still burn out or not, nor is there any suggestion the vanished Digimon returned.

As the film said... it is a new day.

What dawn might we see for the adventure?

I went with the dub, although I checked the Japanese version plenty, which I'll comment on for the future... (outside of various comments I made about it above.)

For now... some dub thoughts... (Actors credited as they are named in the credits)

Most actors from Kizuna returns, plus Brian Donovan back as Davis. One massive loss though...

Brian Donovan as Davis- The rock of season 2. He was missed in Kizuna, and he anchors the film solidly. His Davis is a bit deeper sounding, but ever the friendly guy he always was.

Steve Prince as Ken- Adult Ken is as odd as he was in Kizuna. He's disconnected from the confused sometimes angry and sad kid he was. He sounds as solid as ever.

Jeannie Tirado as Yolei- Her Yolei has improved heavily since Kizuna. The voice has changed a bit and sounds less like an impression of 02 Yolei. A lot of the time I still feel like the energy isn't quite there. Although it feels like the mood of the movie makes that feit more.

Tara Sands as Kari- Tara Sands Kari sounds different here to me. Not bad, just different. Maybe it's just playing her a bit older.

Johnny Bosch as TK- A slightly less energetic performance than we've seen from his TK before. A bit more emotional at the right time. Hitting the energy he hit in tri. Part 3 I'd say.

Bryce Papenbrook as Cody- Solid overall, although it feels like without sounding scratchy as young Cody did, it doesn't stand out that he's the one actually talking at times.

Steve Prince as Veemon- Veemon is Veemon, how you doing Davish! I could have used a bit more of that sort of Veemon slurring his speech a bit, but this ia bit of a refined Veemon perhaps.

Kate Higgins as Gatomon- Higgins has played Gatomon plenty before in tri. and Kizuna, but honestly, I kind of wasn't feeling it. Gatomon felt a bit too bubbly and sweet.

Neil Kaplan as Hawkmon- I love Neil Kaplan as Hawkmon. It's just the right amount of... it's almost like a British Frasier.

Laura Summer as Patamon- Patamon is that sweet floating potato. It feels like the voice has changed a bit, a bit higher, but it still feels like Patamon.

Chris Swindle as Wormmon- So we've heard Swindle in Digimon before. People liked his Tentomon and evos, along with various Garurumon evos in 2020, and his Hawkmon in Kizuna wasn't half bad. But Wormmon is such a distinctive Paul St. Peter voice that not having St. Peter makes it nearly impossible to live up to it. It just doesn't feel right with the sound.

Robbie D as Armadillomon- Daymond returns as Armadillomon. The voice feels like it's trying to emulate the cartoony 'hi yall!' style of dub of Armadillomon, but just ends up being a very cartoony voice that doesn't feel like it fits this version of the character.

Erin Yvette as Angewomon- She played Angewomon in 2020, but she has so few lines here, and more important lines that we'll get into in a moment, it's not clear why this was done, as Higgins was here as Gatomon, and has played this version of Angewomon in tri. and Kizuna. The voice is fine, but it's only a couple lines.

AJ Beckles at Lui- I'm a bit torn here. At various times it feels like Lui as a character is purposely 'trying' to sound unfriendly, and at various times Beckles is almost doing a sort of mock Batman voice. I'm not completely sure it works, as it sounds artificial. Other times Beckles feels like he slips into a more natural tone, which fits Lui well. It feels like there was an attempt to give Lui a 'young guy trying to be strong when he doesn't know how' voice that didn't click with me. Loved when that voice evened out though.

Erin Yvette as Young Lui- I like this voice, but it feels like it doesn't quite match well with Beckles. I think I would have liked to see either of them try both versions of the character, maybe with a bit of post production pitching if necessary. I think we needed the same actor for Lui in both roles, but they contrast against eachother so much that it does still parse as the same character, which is enough.

Giselle Fernandez as Ukkomon- Perfectly sweet. You never really doubt Ukkomon is saying everything and being honest, even when it dives into the horror aspect of what exactly Ukkomon is 'really' doing. It works well.

Kate Higgins and Chris Swindle are credited as Lui's Mother and Father- Both are pretty solid in these small roles. Higgins does the emotion swings well for the mom, while the few lines the dub has, post Ukkomon mindfuck, feels like he's throwing in a bit of 'old sitcom dad' in in a way that feels suitably creepy.

The dub credits are a bit odd on this one, and may be incomplete.

Update- The screener had Jamie Simone listed as dub director, that is indeed incorrect and I was sent the correct directors, which has been plugged in below.

Update- Jeff Nimoy has confirmed he did not write the movie, his name was seemingly included by accident. We will add the correct writer name once we are sure who it is.

Production by Studiopolis
Voice Directors - Ryan Johnston, Suzanne Goldish
Lead ADR Engineer- Suzanne Goldish
Executive Producer- Jamie Simone
Producer- Rita Majkut
ADR Script Writer- ???
Post Production Supervisor- James Lafferty
Re-Recording Mixer- Ernie Sheesley
Video Editor- Sean Kelley
Production Manager- Rachel Blumberg

The dub overall felt mostly solid. The energy generally felt appropriate, maybe a bit low at times.

The scripting was as solid as you'd expect when Nimoy does a mostly straight Digimon dub, minus a few hiccups, which isn't clear if it was something missed in scripting, or changed later.

Jogress was properly said in the dub as DNA Digivolve. Dub names were properly used for characters.

Highton View Terrace using the Japanese Hikarigaoka a number of times felt like something that was honestly missed.

I also didn't catch Yolei sticking in any 'perfecto's (although it isn't impossible I just missed it). There was a 'bingo', which often would be swapped to perfecto in the dub, but it wouldn't have fit the moment, so maybe it just never clicked.

The highest loss for the dub was the lack of Paul St. Peter as Wormmon. Wormmon isn't dialogue heavy, but hearing that voice was legitimately a heavy down point. Swindle does a mostly decent attempt at a St. Peter style Wormmon.

The movie requires a bit more thinking and swishing around in the mind. I feel like it clicked in easier than I expected with some of the ideas at play.

Early on I wasn't necessarily feeling the Lui stuff, as it feels wildly tonally different from what you kind of want from this, which is the triumphant return of 02. But I can also see that triumphant return for a big movie might not have worked if it didn't try and be bold.

And like the series proper, 02 ends with elements that will for sure have people arguing at 'what' exactly it means, what actually happened, and what it means for continuity.

My answers are... it means if they do more they can try things, what actually happened I think I gave my opinion above a number of times, and for continuity... they've been pretty clear since Adventure returned with tri. nearly 10 years ago, they will play with continuity, they will do things for the story, but we all know where the road is heading. Could it change in the future? They could change it. But for now, the road contines on.

The film comes out in Japan in a little more than a day. And about a week and a half after that in the US, for a limited engagement.

It is the return of 02, which a lot of people, myself included, have wanted for a long time. It is different, at times uncomfortable honestly, but very good.

It's interesting. Is it bold? Maybe. It's hard to tell. It depends if they do anything with it. The change may matter, it may be superficial with the phone digivices.

Although...

The world is full of possibilities. And this is The Beginning. Perhaps a very literal statement. We will see.

Go see it. I would hope we get more some day.

I enjoyed it a ton, even if the beginning elements with Lui felt a bit shakier, but it stabilized pretty quickly. I think I'll probably enjoy it more than Kizuna after it sits a bit, as the story in and of itself has a more solid beginning and ending.

I need to see it more, and let it sit, to decide how much I like it, as it really did try and be bold and ambitious. Zero-Two as a TV show often went slightly smoother and easier than Adventure. The characters themselves even comment a few times that the 02 kids haven't had to make those hard decisions yet. The movie folds in tons of little character elements from throughout the show, so it slots in perfectly well as a follow-up to both Kizuna and 02.

I really need a nice disc of it as soon as possible. When a Japanese home video release is out, I expect I'll pre-order the nicest version possible, hopefully in 4K with HDR. And ditto for any nice release in Englishin the future.



Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning is out in theaters in Japan on October 27th, with theatrical screenings in the US on November 8th & 9th.

A special pre-movie stream is this Thursday (tomorrow), the day before the movie is out.



Our forum section for Kizuna & the new movie can be found here.

Spoilers can be posted here or in our dedicated spoiler thread.



General disclosure time!
I was given screeners for the dub and sub. No one gets to see what I was writing before I posted it unless I chose to show them (no one involved with PR for the movie has.)
I've produced Digimon Blu-rays and upcoming Digimon movie releases, some featuring some of these same actors (and numerous actors who are not.) I have no professional involvement with this film in any way, shape, or form, nor do I expect I ever will.
There were no prequisite conditions given to me to get screeners, although I was asked to link copies of my coverage to the PR who shared it. I believe they were unaware I was affiliated with the brand, both as a fan and professionally at the time the conversation of me getting a screener originally came up (I used to run an anime review site, and was contacted at that old email address.)
I believe that covers all of those, but if anyone has questions, they are welcome to ask.

 

[Johnny Salami]

It is the return of 02, which a lot of people, myself included, have wanted for a long time. It is different, at times uncomfortable honestly, but very good.

The fat fuck banned people for asking this during tri

 

[cactus]

This sounds retarded. Considering Ken's popularity among the fan base, they should have just done something centering on him (or something with Ryo since they knew each other). I'll still go see it dubbed because I want to hear Derek Stephen Prince as Ken again.

 

[SnowBall]

I knew this movie was going to be a train wreck the minute they revealed yet another super special movie exclusive OC being shoved into canon for unnecessary and badly written drama.

Also they didn’t even bother giving the main cast any new forms or have Silphymon and Shakkakoumon reach mega. Though considering the ugly bond forms from Kizuna maybe we were spared the former .

 

[Johnny Salami]

Apparently the 02 movie won the weekend box office. It's had the best opening of any of the Digimon movies.

Expect more shitty sequels with new OCs more special then the last.

 

[TVB]

Apparently the 02 movie won the weekend box office. It's had the best opening of any of the Digimon movies.
View attachment 5448727
Expect more shitty sequels with new OCs more special then the last.

Digimon fantards rn:

 

[UCT]

Digimon fantards rn:

I laugh but I’d be clapping like a seal consoomer if Bandai announced a remake of Digimon World 1 or finally giving us a English release and remaster of Re: Digitize. But honestly I can say I just don’t give a single fuck about the Adventure pandering anymore, I just want these faggots to move up and actually do the barest minimum effort of trying something new with the franchise. Like I was hopeful when they announced Seekers for like a second before I realized what it was and again Bandai doing retarded things with a franchise that could be so much more……….. Whatever you jap niggers keep jerking Adventure off for all the retards at WiththeWill I guess lol.

 

[Johnny Salami]

I laugh but I’d be clapping like a seal consoomer if Bandai announced a remake of Digimon World 1 or finally giving us a English release and remaster of Re: Digitize. But honestly I can say I just don’t give a single fuck about the Adventure pandering anymore, I just want these faggots to move up and actually do the barest minimum effort of trying something new with the franchise. Like I was hopeful when they announced Seekers for like a second before I realized what it was and again Bandai doing retarded things with a franchise that could be so much more……….. Whatever you jap niggers keep jerking Adventure off for all the retards at WiththeWill I guess lol.

Seekers is decent, unfortunately they kept it in back of shitty machine translation. But apparently the Adventure movie only opened up in 75 theaters in Japland, and beat out the new Ben Assflect movie that opened in 300. The funny part is that Advenure fans have some standards, as they slowly walked away from tri every new release. They just love the melodrama and they love super special awesome MCs as long as they don't interfere with their ships (Meiko)

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I just stick with what I know, personally, and ignore Tri and other snowflake OCs (like I can't remember the name of the villain chick from Kizuna lol), and poke fun of Toei's bullshit in fanfiction.

 

[TVB]

I laugh but I’d be clapping like a seal consoomer if Bandai announced a remake of Digimon World 1 or finally giving us a English release and remaster of Re: Digitize. But honestly I can say I just don’t give a single fuck about the Adventure pandering anymore, I just want these faggots to move up and actually do the barest minimum effort of trying something new with the franchise. Like I was hopeful when they announced Seekers for like a second before I realized what it was and again Bandai doing retarded things with a franchise that could be so much more……….. Whatever you jap niggers keep jerking Adventure off for all the retards at WiththeWill I guess lol.

It's sad because I was trying to get back into Digimon, and I just can't because of bullshit such as this. Bandai is creatively bankrupt with handling the Digimon IP and the movies are not any better

 

[RX-78]

There was an app that thought the basics but I forgot the name. There is a board on it on Reddit and 4chan

https://boards.4channel.org/tg/thread/90661771

usually these generals are a good way to get into these smaller card games. Or at cons and if they have Digimon events there's usually people there that teach you

I'll give it a shot sometime, but for now I'll keep collecting my favorites. It sucks that 02's movie is a dud and a financially successful dud at that, but hopefully the series will get a budget increase out of it if nothing else.

 

[Cheeseknife]

It's sad because I was trying to get back into Digimon, and I just can't because of bullshit such as this. Bandai is creatively bankrupt with handling the Digimon IP and the movies are not any better

I feel the same way. I kinda ran this down a year ago while Ghost Game was making its course and I realized Bandai had basically settled for mediocrity. Ghost Game isn't a bad show, but it's no where near what was being produced back in the early 2000s.

Spoiler

My video on the subject.

 

[Michael Wade]

What are the best newer adventure movies? I'm a little nostalgic now as I saw the original series back in the day.

 

[TVB]

Spoiler

My video on the subject.

brb gonna sub to you

 

[Johnny Salami]

newer adventure movies

none. Nu-Adventure has been the worst thing to happen to Digimon. At least with Hunters the season was a last minute deal that wasn't supposed to happen. Tri was planned, delayed, then released over 3 years and did everything wrong a show could do. Kizuna was released 2 years later and relied on cheap drama and a shitty retcon to tell a story. The Begining does an even shittier retcon and doesn't actually focus on the characters the audience wants to see. And Rui is easily worst than Meiko. Wallace's story was the best and every cheap copy (Summer of Adventure, tri, Begining) have been terrible.

 

[Anonitolia]

none. Nu-Adventure has been the worst thing to happen to Digimon. At least with Hunters the season was a last minute deal that wasn't supposed to happen. Tri was planned, delayed, then released over 3 years and did everything wrong a show could do. Kizuna was released 2 years later and relied on cheap drama and a shitty retcon to tell a story. The Begining does an even shittier retcon and doesn't actually focus on the characters the audience wants to see. And Rui is easily worst than Meiko. Wallace's story was the best and every cheap copy (Summer of Adventure, tri, Begining) have been terrible.
View attachment 5491948

casual (fake) fan here
who's Walrus?

 

[Johnny Salami]

casual (fake) fan here
who's Walrus?

Wallace from the third Digimon movie/Willis from the 3rd part of Digimon the Movie. It's Walrus because japs

 

[Cheeseknife]

What are the best newer adventure movies? I'm a little nostalgic now as I saw the original series back in the day.

None. There's some cool moments here and there, but ultimately they're all rather milquetoast.

The elephant in the room for all the movies right now is the fact that all their Digimon partners have reached ultimate level or beyond and are basically invincible. The only thing left to do is just add more tiers to evolutions which just turns the entire ordeal into an escalation problem (meaning the only way to make your franchise interesting is to forever increase the power levels of your characters).

Early Digimon worked because the children were coming of age. Now that they're all adults, they should be encountering a lot of adult problems. They only barely scratch the surface on that which means they're not fully committed to an adult story. For instance, Agumon finds Taichi's porno stash under his bed. It's a really forced moment that's supposed to make you think that Taichi's an adult and he likes given the snake a yank every so often. But the movie doesn't go any father than that. There's nothing introspective about Taichi most likely being extremely lonely and having trouble with women. Digimon evolution to whatever levels won't solve that issue for him.

Tri, on the other hand, has some commentary about illegal immigration. Sounds strange, but it's been a theme in all the Digimon shows. Mimi is a bit of a breakout character from her earlier incarnation. She's outgoing to a fault in Tri as she really pushes for this idea that humans and Digimon can coexist and everyone will be happy. Koushiro (Izzy) starts crushing on Mimi, but he also opposes her flowery ideals because he knows the dangers. They have an argument at some point in the show and it's interesting because it's interpersonal drama that--once again--arises completely distinct from Digimon evolving and blasting each other in heated battle.

But then Tri loses itself in the mire of some stupid plot involving Homeostasis hitting the rest button on the Digital World and causing all the Digimon to lose their memories. It just didn't work for me because somewhere in the back of my mind I realized they weren't going to commit to it. And they don't.

The real problem with all these new films is that the series really didn't have anywhere to go after Adventure 02. The entire point of the original show was to have the kids overcome a bunch of personal drama in their own lives and their adventure in the Digital World was basically their going off to war and fighting both their inner and outer demons along the way.

Taichi learns about humility.
Yamato (Matt) relinquishes old grudges.
Sora reconciles herself with her mother.
Koushiro (Izzy) fully embraces his adoptive parents.
Mimi considers others before herself.
Joe becomes far more confident of himself.
Takeru (T.K.) matures into a far more responsible person.

The original show had the perfect ending. Adventure 02 was welcome (at the time) but in retrospect it was unnecessary. The only part that made Adventure 02 interesting was Ken, but that story didn't necessarily need to be told using the Adventure series.

 

[cactus]

none. Nu-Adventure has been the worst thing to happen to Digimon. At least with Hunters the season was a last minute deal that wasn't supposed to happen. Tri was planned, delayed, then released over 3 years and did everything wrong a show could do. Kizuna was released 2 years later and relied on cheap drama and a shitty retcon to tell a story. The Begining does an even shittier retcon and doesn't actually focus on the characters the audience wants to see. And Rui is easily worst than Meiko. Wallace's story was the best and every cheap copy (Summer of Adventure, tri, Begining) have been terrible.
View attachment 5491948

It needed more Ken.

I love how they didn't mention anything of Ken killing Wormmon. I was mad that Ken didn't react much to anything since he could have related to the Gary Stu, who's main problem was he didn't communicate with his Digimon, like a damn moron. Also ignoring the WonderSwan games.

 

[Johnny Salami]

It needed more Ken.

I love how they didn't mention anything of Ken killing Wormmon. I was mad that Ken didn't react much to anything since he could have related to the Gary Stu, who's main problem was he didn't communicate with his Digimon, like a damn moron. Also ignoring the WonderSwan games.

Yeah. At this point they've had to do this a few times so the plot was repetitive at this point. But Ken knew what it was like and instead of going there the story strictly focuses on the new guy in a way worst than Meiko[/ispoiler)