If you pay close attention to a lot of Kizuna advertising material, it refers to the 02 epilogue as taking place in 2028, which is very unusual when it’s said to be “25 years” after 02, and thus most people had assumed that it would be 2027 (since 02 takes place in 2002). But this is consistently reiterated throughout said promotional material, and – more importantly – actually has precedent!
25 years after 02. 28 years after Adventure. We calculated that very precisely. In 1999, there was Taichi’s group of eight, and there were also eight other people who didn’t appear in Adventure. Before that there were only eight total, and before that only four, and before that only two, and at the beginning, only one. If they were to double every year, then it would be 28 years until everyone in the world would be able to live alongside a Digimon.
So it doesn’t actually matter how many years after 02 it took place in per se (even if “25″ sounds like a nice number) as much as it matters when the global population will have Digimon partners, counting from 1995. Let’s do a count!
1995: 1
1996: 2
1997: 4 (including Menoa Bellucci)
1998: 8
1999: 16 (including Taichi’s group)
2002: 128 (including Daisuke’s group and various other international Chosen Children)
2028: 8,589,934,592 (larger than the global population of 7.8 billion)
Notice that, by the calculation given above, it takes until 2028 to reach the global population number and not the initially expected 2027. Given how “very precisely” this calculation was done back during Adventure and 02′s development, and the fact that Kizuna had Adventure/02 staff heavily involved on it, it’s likely someone actually remembered this and made sure that publicity supplied the “correct” date rather than the one that’s easier to infer from 02′s text. This is especially because, as stated above, Kizuna’s To Sora short making sure to match this principle heavily suggests that this concept was still on the table even during its planning.
This raises a few questions, of course. Why did 02′s epilogue say “25 years later” when it was actually in 2028? And does Kizuna’s concept of partners disappearing throw a nail into this? The answer to the first question is probably simple leeway; 02′s finale took place on December 31, so you could comfortably say that something taking place “25 years later” would be in late 2027 or early 2028, give or take – and besides, the above figures are probably approximate, since it’s a gradual increase of Chosen Children, not a set-in-stone doubling checkpoint every December 31. As for the second, Kizuna’s themes and narrative indicate that a partner isn’t truly gone just because they’ve disappeared for a while, so it would probably be safe to say that those without manifested partners due to the phenomenon depicted in Kizuna still count as those “partnered to a Digimon”, even if not necessarily for the time being.
Adventure and 02 talking about the normal lives of some Japanese kids means that a lot of food comes up. Not all of these are explicitly identified or given real context in the text (and a lot of them went through localization processes in various dubs), so let’s go through some of the food that comes up in the story!
Finally got a chance to watch Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna. It’s been a long time since I’ve draw Digimon. And any long time followers know how much I love the Ange- evolution line. So I had to do a piece for old time’s sake. I kept closer to the original design than I used to in my younger days, but still added my own touches (°◡°♡)
My thoughts about the Kizuna/Adventure 01:
Over 20 years later and I still find Digimon to be one of those series that I never quite grow out of. That’s a good thing, of course. Digimon Adventure 01 was, like many others my age, a foundational experience with a non-episodic show. It was my introduction into characters with internal struggles and real growth and change. Even as a kid I had that sense that these characters were different from the rest of the characters that populated those old later 90s tube TVs.
Looking back in retrospect, there’s a lot of powerful ideas in Digimon- from the characters to the (criminally underutilized) lore. Somewhere along the way I ended up conceptualizing Digimon as my generation’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. As ridiculous as that sounds on premise, there’s a lot to be said about a coming of age story featuring kids living on the precipice of a new era. Being thrown into another world, forced to survive and sacrifice. And in the end gain the essential virtues they need to return back into their world and prosper in this new (Digital) age.
The kids struggled with real problems that required virtue, not power, to overcome. Taichi had to learn the balance between courage and foolhardiness, Yamato had to deal with the anger of his parents’ divorce, Koushiro had to allow himself to be vulnerable and accept his adopted parent’s love as genuine love, etc. Each kid had their personal challenges and they grew in spite of them
And that’s the rub, really. The cast of Digimon not only grew older, they grew up. Which is why I’m so glad this final movie was made. I largely ignored Tri due to its poor story and animation, but this movie more than made up for it in my mind. It was the goodbye I wanted to see- the closure I needed for these childhood heroes.
It’s not a perfect movie- but neither was the original series. Yet it has heart and it hit me in all the right places. I was thankful for the emotional value it gave me. Emotional value that enhances the foundation Adventure 01 gave me. While I wish we got more time with the other kids, or at least got some shorts afterwards about Koushiro, Sora, Jou, Mimi, Takeru & Hikari’s final goodbye- I’m thankful we got to be there for Taichi and Yamato’s.
In the end, I can’t say ‘goodbye’ to Digimon. Instead, it’s better to just say…
is this mimi lockscreen is a cute picture of her and Taichi, and of course she was the one who added the little ears!!!
now that I’m here if you are a michi fan please take a look at pied blog and ao3 profile , pied is a very talented writter and have been in the fandom many years. I’m sure you are going to enjoy her works!!!
friends listend. I can’t believe its over. Writting is hard.
this little comics are part of a story this is like a “chapter one” but not really…
WELL a little bit of context. Takeru and Hikari are both terrible, but since Hikari is smarter, Taichi remains ignorant of what his little sister is capable of (Hikari was with Takeru in all those scenarios) I wanted that either if you are someone who ship Takari or don´t you be able to enjoy their interaction since to me they are both agents of chaos. Hikari here reminds me of my sister who is not really interested in a personal romance,but have consumed every single k-drama (lol) Well and one last thing is there ir any typos or something Im sorry, english is not my first language, I’m triying my best, thanks for hanging with me. (also they both have kizuna age here) (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ
Kizuna arrived to my Third World Country™️ and I went to the cinema yesterday to watch it and cry and laugh and get this special edition ticket, which is super adorable.
This week, month, year has been HARD so this helped me feel a little bit better in the midst of chaos.
Anyway, sorry I’ve been MIA, I hope everyone’s hanging in there.
Screencaps taken from Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna. Free to use and free to edit, use with or without credit. Any likes, reblogs and links back are always appreciated. Please don’t claim as your own. DOWNLOAD HERE
