KONSHUU | Volume 58, Issue 1
THE END OF RAHM JETHANI
Editor-In-Chief
2nd Year, English & Japanese
“We may not be able to change our fate, but our lives aren’t preordained!”
SPOILERS FOR DIGIMON ADVENTURE: LAST EVOLUTION KIZUNA! The Digimon anime series’ strongest aspect is, and always has been, its strong focus on character growth and thematic evolution. This is especially the case in the many “Adventure” series, which mainly follow a constant set of characters, as opposed to the wide variety of one-off groups featured in other Digimon series. The first Digimon Adventure series was released back in 1999, and it was praised for its creative exploration of what it meant to grow up. Not only this, but ideas of true friendship, destiny, sacrifice, and other heavy subject matters were talked about in a more mature way than many localized shows of the time. This respect for the audience, the admittedly marketable and “cool” Digimon, and the simple yet charming storyline helped propel the following Digimon anime series to new heights. However, most likely due to the other series being so self-contained, the Digimon Adventure series kept receiving new outings, such as the multiple movies and Digimon Adventure Tri series. Despite their hit-or-miss nature though, each new installment aimed to further the relationship dynamics between the characters in a meaningful way. While the sentiment of this was largely appreciated, its execution was received very poorly due to structural problems, as seen especially with the Tri series. The reception towards Tri prompted the writers to ask themselves a challenging question. Should they be content to end the Adventure series with this failed product, or would they try to redeem themselves with a risky last project that risked further alienating the entire fanbase? After much time, the team did pick the latter option, and a few years later, released Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna. In order to understand what the Kizuna movie sought to do, we first need to take a look back at two essential “bad” moments that defined the identity of the Digimon Adventure series leading up to the movie. Firstly, there’s the famous ending of Digimon Adventure 02, which shows all of the main characters as adults. The main character Taichi ends up being a diplomat with his partner Digimon, Agumon. The rival character Yamato is seen as an astronaut on the moon with his partner Gabumon. Similar futures are shown for all the original cast which, in isolation, works as a hopeful sendoff. The problem with this is its recontextualization
in the secondary “bad” moment in the Digimon Adventure series: Digimon Adventure Tri. Tri struggles with many aspects, but in particular it fails to give any hints towards the characters’ futures. The series shows different sides to the cast that, while undoubtedly good in terms of evolving their characters, conflict with the future version of them. We wonder how Yamato goes from being in a rock band to studying astrophysics instead of Koushiro, we wonder how Taichi’s new sense of uncertainty leads him to becoming a diplomat, we wonder how Mimi becomes a celebrity chef when she’s better suited to Sora’s job of fashion design. At the end of Tri, these questions are no closer to being answered than in the beginning, as if the writers forgot that Digimon Adventure has always been about the characters’ lives rather than them fighting a specific dangerous Digimon. This ends up making an unsatisfying conclusion to a series that was supposed to be a thematic close to the Digimon Adventure series.
Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna is the perfect end to the series. It takes what made the original series so special, and pairs it with a refined message that caters to its core audience who have now also grown up. Furthermore, one of its boldest decisions is one that I think should have been done a long time ago: the writers disregard the ending of Adventure 02. I personally don’t care about “canon” as long as the story being told is a good one, so whether or not Kizuna is now the true “canon” doesn’t matter. What does matter about this movie’s choice to stray from an already-decided future is that it not only allows for better storytelling potential, but it also lines up with Kizuna’s plot so much that this decision actually increased the enjoyment and thematic fulfillment. It embraced the new characterization the Tri films brought, and rather than only half-committing, it leaned into the personality traits that the characters had begun to exhibit. This not only created more believable character moments throughout the movie, but also continued the sense of forward momentum the series was famous for. In addition, role reversals between characters like Taichi and Yamato were displayed intentionally to