#digimon adventure ova

[slutpoppers]

Botamon meets Hikari.

Digimon Adventure OVA (1999)

[foreverfandom50-50]

A Digimon edit.

Song: Blitz

Artist: Digitalism

[digimonarchive]

Digimon in all animated media - Anime, Movies and OVA

1st pic = Digimon Adventure anime (Japan: March 7, 1999 - March 26, 2000; USA: August 14, 1999 - June 24, 2000)

2nd pic = Digimon Adenture 02 anime (Japan: April 2, 2000 - March 25, 2001; USA: August 19, 2000 - May 19, 2001)

3rd pic = Digimon Tamers anime (Japan: April 1, 2001 - March 31, 2002; USA: September 1, 2001 - June 8, 2002)

4th pic = Digimon Frontier anime (Japan: April 7, 2002 - March 30, 2003; USA: September 9, 2002 - July 14, 2003)

5th pic = Digimon Savers / Data Squad anime (Japan: April 2, 2006 – March 25, 2007; USA: October 1, 2007 - November 2, 2008)

6th pic = Digimon Xros Wars / Fusion anime (Japan: July 6, 2010 - March 25, 2012; USA: September 7, 2013 - August 16, 2015)

7th pic = Digimon Xros Wars: The Evil Death Generals and the Seven Kingdoms anime (a.k.a Digimon Xros Wars part 2) (Japan: April 3, 2011 - September 25, 2011; USA: March 8, 2015 - August 16, 2015) **

8th pic = Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time anime (a.k.a Digimon Xros Wars Hunters or Digimon Xros Wars part 3) (Japan: October 2, 2011 - March 25, 2012) ***

9th pic = Digimon Adventure Tri OVA (Japan: November 21, 2015 - May 5, 2018; USA: September 15, 2016 - September 20, 2018)

10th pic = Digimon Universe Appli Monsters anime (a.k.a Appmon) (Japan: October 1, 2016 - September 30, 2017)

11th pic = Digimon Adventure: (a.k.a Digimon Adventure 2020 or Digimon Adventure reboot) (Japan: April 5, 2020 - September 26, 2021; USA: November 19, 2022 - April 13, 2023)

12th pic = Digimon Ghost Game (Japan: October 3, 2021 - March 26, 2023)

13th pic = Digimon Adventure (Movie) short film (Japan: March 6, 1999; USA: October 6, 2000 as the first segment part of Digimon The Movie)

14th pic = Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! movie (Japan: March 4, 2000; USA: October 6 2000 as the second segment part of Digimon The Movie)

15th pic = Digimon Adventure 02: Vol. 1: Digimon Hurricane Landing!/Vol. 2: Transcendent Evolution! The Golden Digimentals movie (a.k.a Digimon Adventure 02 Vol 1 and 2) (Japan: July 8, 2000; USA: October 6, 2000 as the third segment part of Digimon The Movie) ****

16th pic = Digimon Adventure 02: Diablomon Strikes Back / Digimon: Revenge of Diaboromon movie (Japan: March 3, 2001; USA: August 5, 2005)

17th pic = Digimon Tamers: The Adventurers' Battle / Digimon: Battle of Adventurers movie (Japan: July 14, 2001; USA: October 16, 2005)

18th pic = Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express / Digimon: Runaway Locomon movie (Japan: March 2, 2002; USA: October 2, 2005)

19th pic = Digimon Frontier: Revival of the Ancient Digimon!! / Digimon: Island of Lost Digimon movie (Japan: July 20, 2002; USA: October 23, 2005)

20th pic = Digital Monster X-evolution movie (Japan: January 3, 2005; USA: August 1, 2020)

21st pic = Digimon Savers The Movie: Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!! movie (Japan: December 9, 2006)

22nd pic = Digimon Adventure 3D: Digimon Grandprix! short film OVA (Japan: July 20, 2000)

23rd pic = Digimon Savers 3D: The Digital World in Imminent Danger! short film OVA (Japan: July 8, 2006)

24th pic = Digimon Adventure 20th Anniversary Memorial Story Project OVA short films (Japan: November 22 2019 - December 25, 2020)

25th pic = Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna movie (Japan: February 21, 2020; USA: September 29, 2020)

26th pic = Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning movie (Japan: October 5, 2023; USA: November 8, 2023)

** This is the 2nd part of Digimon Xros Wars saga with Taiki, Kiriha and Nene on their adventure while Akari and Zenjirou are left out.

*** This is the 3rd part of Digimon Xros Wars saga with Tagiru, Yuu and Taiki as the protagonists. This 3rd part has the overly long title so we fans prefer to call it 'Digimon Xros Wars: Hunters' or 'Digimon Young Hunters'.

**** Yes, this movie has an overly long title. I had a hard time deciding whether to highlight it in bold or not.

Happy Digimon Day!

[remember-digimon]

Good ol' reliable Joe!

When I first watched Digimon back in the 2000s, Joe was the character I related to the least. Now, as a big grown up in my late 30s, I finally understand what Joe is all about.

At first glance, Joe is anxiety incarnate. In the dub, he gets the 'nerd' trope that Izzy avoided for the most part. Joe is always allergic to things, worried about the slightest danger, and constantly trying to be the voice of reason. His 'voice of reason' however is more 'voice of general complaints and worry.'

If I recall correctly, in the original Japanese, Joe is like this because he's the oldest, at 12 years old. He feels it's his responsibility to make sure everyone is safe since he's the upperclassmen in this situation. In the dub, he's just a worrywort.

Joe takes on responsibility that he could easily delegate to other kids. In the episode where Gomamon evolves into Ikkakumon, Joe tries to break up an argument between Tai and Matt about climbing a mountain, only managing to get drawn into the argument himself. Later, he decides that he should climb up the mountain on his own as a compromise. He doesn't even bring Gomamon with him; Gomamon tags along anyway, of course, but initially Joe intended to go by himself.

He shows initiative, that's for sure. At least when the pressure is on. Others have noted that Tai, Sora, and Joe are the action-takers while Matt and Izzy act more defensively with Mimi, Tk, and later, Kari in mind. I like this thought, especially for Joe. He is often stumbling into danger out of his need to be the 'adult' of the group, feeling responsible for everyone's safety.

One thing we should discuss is his crest. I want to go more in depth on the crests on a different post, but here I think we need to talk about Joe's crest being changed for the dub. Originally it was the crest of faith.

Honestly, I do think reliability fits Joe a lot better. It is awkward for that to be a trait of a child (Remember, their crests were developed back during the original Digimon Adventure OVA, when Greymon fights Parrotmon). But I do think he exemplifies being reliable, because it's the right thing to do.

Conversely, Joe doesn't really expect others to help him. He wants to be relied on, but doesn't want to rely on others. He saves TK from drowning in the bay without thinking of his own safety.

Joe is also the studious member of the group. At one point, while they're temporarily back in Odaiba, Joe takes a practice test and fails it. This causes him a lot of anxiety. It feeds into the situation at home, which is another point I'll get into shortly.

In Our War Game, Joe is unreachable because he's taking an entrance exam. He's in a panic the whole time, showing how important it is that he does well. No doubt he's one of those cram school kids.

As for his family, we do meet his older brother Jim, but not his parents. In fact, Joe's parents are the only ones we don't meet out of the original 8. We do hear a lot about his dad, though, who has high expectations of his sons. Mr Kido wants both of his sons to be doctors like him, and on his terms, too. Jim says he wants to go to less developed countries to practice medicine, and that their father doesn't approve.

Jim also doesn't seem to have much faith in Joe becoming a doctor due to his high anxiety, and the fact that he faints at the sight of blood. Joe seems apprehensive about it himself, even though he does eventually go into med school and become a doctor.

To me, Joe's story is one of perseverance. When he's working off his debt in the diner, he fully expects to work there until it's paid off and is genuinely surprised that Matt would offer to help. When his test scores fall, he resolves to work harder. Even though he doesn't like the idea much at first he does eventually become a doctor. I can see how the original script would give him the crest of faith with all that in mind, but I still think reliability fits him better. He doesn't just have faith that things will work out, he's proactive in making sure they work out. Even if he's a little clumsy about it.

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure: Our War Game, Part 1 of 2

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Eight children were kidnapped by an isekai and made to fight the embodiment of sore losers. Well, seven, but they swung by Earth to kidnap a spare while they were at it. After stopping a supernova from obliterating the universe through the power of self-esteem, they all said tearful goodbyes to their Digimon and returned home.

Now the gate between worlds is closed. But the thing about gates is that once shut, they can always open again....

Or you can just hop the fence. Y'know. It's a gate, not a door. The critical weakness gates have is that there's a sky above them.

Incidentally, the dub of this film is... complicated. Dub team cut the original OVA meant to start the series, Our War Game, and the first 02 movie together into "Digimon: The Movie". So for the dub portion, we're going to be looking at the middle chunk of a larger movie that actually isn't a movie because they just hot-glued three unrelated specials together back-to-back.

We open on Odaiba, late at night. Specifically, Taichi's apartment building. A giant swirling sphere made of smoke appears in the sky, with black tendrils writhing in and out of it. Y'know, the sort of thing you generally want to see in the sky. That seems fine.

Then it cracks open like a fucking egg and we move right along to next day.

While Sora passes by the building and stops to look at it, Taichi kicks us off with some of the most stilted letter-by-letter dialogue I've ever heard.

Taichi: To So Ra. Sob Ry For The O Ther Day. Cheer Up. Ya Ga Mi Ta I Chi--huh?

Moving into a sort of office room we haven't seen before, we see that he's trying to type at his computer and doing a poor job of it. In his defense, Japanese keyboards are hard.

But in his offense, he's visibly hunt-and-peck finger-typing, where you just stare at the keyboard and poke buttons with your index finger when you find them. Taichi is clearly not used to using a computer.

Also his spelling is bad. To be fair, this is an easy mistake. He tries to write わるかった warukatta, which is one of many words you can use to apologize. However, based on his narration of his finger-typing, he types わるかつた warukatsuta. Which. Is. Not a word.

This is because of the agonizingly small difference between the letter つ tsu and the letter っ which extends the consonant of the following letter. Whoever came up with these two letters should be punched.

Once he's finished, Taichi notices another error. Squinting at the computer, he sees that his name came out 鯛血 tai chi, which means "porgy blood". That's wrong, computer.

He tries again and gets 対置 taichi, which means to contrast a thing against another.

His third try gives him 大知 Taichi which is actually the name Taichi but it's not his name Taichi. It's like having autocorrect give you "Jerry" when your name is "Jeri". Yes, but no.

Then, on the fourth try, he finally lands on his name 太一 Taichi.

I told y'all Japanese keyboards are hard. Kanji makes trying to write Japanese by typing letters insanely frustrating.

But the important thing is that it's done. Taichi's finished with his email and can--

Hikari: Writing an email? Taichi: WAUGH!!!

Taichi spins around in a panic, smacking his hand on the keyboard and inadvertently adding a little heart to the end of his name. Taichi notices the heart, then panics and throws his hands over the screen to hide it from Hikari.

Taichi: D-Don't read it without permission!

Then he realizes Hikari is nicely dressed.

Taichi: Huh? Where are you going? Hikari: A friend's birthday party. And here is a gift!

Hikari holds out a small gift-wrapped box she'll be taking with her. Taichi suddenly grabs playfully for the box, doing grabby fingers, while Hikari jerks it out of his grasp each time.

Taichi: (grabs) Gimme! Hikari: Stop it. Taichi: (grabs) Gimme! Hikari: Stop it. Taichi: (grabs) Gimme! Hikari: Stop it. Taichi: Geh....

Taichi gives up, overdramatically sighing and reclining into his chair. This leaves him vulnerable to counterattack!

Hikari: To send an email, CLICK!!!

Hikari grabs the mouse and hits the Send button, delivering Taichi's bad email - with heart icon still attached - to Sora. Then she scampers off to the next room before he can realize what she's done.

Taichi: H-Hey! Don't send it yourself! Hikari: (peeks out through doorway) Who did we send it to? Taichi: None of your business! Hikari: (pouts) That's mean... And after all that trouble teaching you how to send it, too.

Siblings, amirite? XD

The dub rearranges this scene and Koushiro's first scene, so we'll talk about their take on all this in a moment. From here, Hikari prepares to go out.

Yuuko comes home to find Hikari putting on her shoes.

Yuuko: You're going out? Hikari: Mhm. Yuuko: Be careful out there. Hikari: Yes, mom.

Hikari responds with exactly the bored tone of a child being told by their parent exactly what her parent told her. Then Hikari goes out and Yuuko comes in.

Meanwhile, Taichi's email returns undeliverable.

Taichi: Huh? Email rejected?

Taichi blames Sora for this as if she, personally, prohibited him from contacting her. Which makes sense today where blocking people online is commonplace, but was kind of a wild assumption for him to make back in the day before social media.

Taichi grabs onto his desk and angrily shakes his chair while ranting.

Taichi: What is with that jerk Sora!? Oh, you don't want to receive my emails, huh!?

He furiously shakes his chair so much it falls over and topples him to the ground in a bit of instant karma.

I have no idea what he said or did the other day but I'm with Sora.

From here, we cut to what the dub uses as the first scene of this portion of their spliced together movie.

Koushiro's tooling around on his desktop when he suddenly notices a code string appearing on his screen and going haywire.

Koushiro: What the....

It's not just him, either, as we see various other people kids around the globe at their computers seeing the same bizarre code pattern happening on their screens too.

Koushiro: D... Digimon...?

Slowly, like apicture being pulled up slowly back in the day, the resolution on the image at the center of the pattern increases line by line until what is clearly a Digitama becomes visible.

Oh shit? No. We're not at "Oh shit" yet. Oh shit is when the shell suddenly cracks, revealing a single yellow eye, and popping up a text box reading "HELLO" in English.

For the dub, Kari has the unfortunate job of trying to string this together with the original OVA and Hurricane Touchdown by providing voice-over narration. Once the OVA wraps up, Kari picks this scene to start us out on.

Kari (V.O.): It was another DigiDestined, Izzy, who first noticed there was trouble. Izzy: Huh!? (Izzy notices the borked code) Izzy: Prodigious! A computer virus on the internet! Wait a minute... Wow, it's attacking something! Huh, let me see if I can get an image of its target.... (Izzy pulls up the weird grid effect and we see other kids seeing the same thing) Kari (V.O.): Izzy wasn't the only one tracking the virus. The whole world was watching! But no one was prepared for what was about to happen. Izzy: Looks like... A Digi-Egg! Where'd that come from!? Wow! The virus is causing the egg to develop abnormally fast! I think it's gonna hatch! (The egg hatches and pops up its email screen) Digitized Voice: Hello!

A lot of extra dialogue here. Barely anything is spoken in the original version of this scene, but Izzy introduces a separate, unrelated virus occurring simultaneously alongside the generation of the Digi-Egg. This virus then... fuses with the Egg or something to make it hatch into what it's about to become.

This seems like a random detail they suddenly invented, but it... kind of fits in with what's really happening here? It's not correct. The Digitama is not being attacked by a virus. But I see where they were coming from, and we'll get into that in a bit when Koushiro gives us more detail on what he found.

From there, we go to the first scene with Tai.

Kari (V.O.): Across town, Tai and another DigiDestined, Sora, were facing their own problem. Tai: (narrating his typing) Dear Sora. I'm sorry about what happened. I haven't felt this bad since the time I accidentally threw up in your hat and didn't tell you about it before you put it on. I know our relationship has been a little stormy lately. You say you love thunder showers so what's a few raindrops between friends? Love, Tai. Tai: Love!? I mean 'From'! I mean... ugh.... Kari: Who are you writing to, Tai?

Tai's email is way more verbose and competently written than Taichi's. While also having him confess to something a lot worse than yelling rudely about her.

The dub cuts the bit with Taichi repeatedly having to correct the spelling of his name. Makes sense; That moment requires the audience to be able to read Kanji, which is a tall order for American 10-year-olds.

When he suddenly whips around, they add an edited shot of an English email where his finger accidentally changes the "From" back to "Love". I guess he accidentally hit Ctrl-Z.

Tai: (frantically covers his screen) I-It's just an email joke! What are you doing in here anyway, Kari? Kari: I wanted to show you my new dress! I'm going to a birthday party! (shows Tai the present) I got my friend a pink Power Ranger! Tai: Gimme! Kari (V.O.): My brother and I had a give and take relationship. I would give and he would take. Tai: (gives up after three tries) Eh, who cares? Kari: If you want to send an email, you have to click this! CLICK! (Kari clicks the Send button and runs for it) Tai: AUGH!!! I WASN'T GONNA SEND THAT LETTER!!! Kari: (teasing) Then what did you write it for? Tai: Oh, go to your party! Kari: (pout) Okay.

Not sure why Tai was writing an email he had no intention of sending, but this bit is pretty close to the original.

From here, the dub cuts out the scene if Hikari saying goodbye to Yuuko and we go straight to Tai angrily vibrating himself to the floor.

Tai: (Message being sent) I can't believe Sora's gonna read my letter! (Message returns undeliverable) Tai: Wait a minute. Unable to deliver? (furious) I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE'S NOT GONNA READ MY LETTER!!! YOU TRY AND TELL A GIRL YOU'RE SORRY AND YOUR COMPUTER SHUTS YOU DOWN--WAUGH!!!

Here, the dub changes the angle of Tai's frustration. Taichi inexplicably blames Sora and yells at her for the message bouncing back, while Tai more accurately blames the computer for his troubles.

This would make Tai come off looking a lot better than Taichi but... he did throw up in her hat without telling her. So.

I can't do a "Sora will remember this" bit about Taichi yelling at her because she is not present for it. But she most definitely will remember the puke hat incident.

Now the two versions are synched up and it's time for ONE LAST "BUTTERFLY" before 02 changes out the opening credits!

This movie inexplicably has two titles on its title card. The Japanese text here is ぼくらのウォーゲーム Bokura no Uou Geemu!" Those last two words are "War Game"; That's, uh, that's just what happens when an English word gets localized into Katakana and then literally translated back into English.

The first word, in Hirogana, is ぼくら Bokura which is a pluralization of ぼく Boku, a first-person pronoun. So the title is literally "Our War Game". But for some reason the title card also contains the English title "Children's War Game". No idea why.

While the credits play, we get our first hint of what all the Chosen Children are up to these days. Sora's still out for her walk. She passes a row of TV screens showing a flowery meadow and stops to check her hair in the mirror next to them. Then she continues on her way, oblivious to the newly hatched Digimon which has now taken over the screens.

Jou's waiting on a train platform for his ride. It pulls into the station and he gets ready to board, but the doors never open. He exchanges a momentary look of WTF with an adult man onboard, as eager to get off as Jou is to get on, before the train takes off once more.

Mimi's apartment is abandoned, and has been for quite some time. The mail slot is overstuffed with mail and the family's heart-shaped nameplate falls off the wall.

Someone on the dub team takes this opportunity to insert their ship into the movie. The big heart-shaped pink thing on the wall is the family nameplate. It has the name Tachikawa in big bold print, then each of the family member's individual names in smaller print underneath.

The dub drew their own version of the nameplate, but theirs reads: To: Mimi From: Joe

The sound you hear is the sound of me throwing things. IT'S THE FAMILY FUCKING NAMEPLATE. IT IS NOT A LOVE LETTER.

Koushiro puts those soccer legs to work and sprints full-tilt to Taichi's apartment, laptop under his arm.

Yamato and Takeru are away together, presumably at their grandmother's. Takeru's traded out his green helmet cap thing for the white hat that will form part of his new look next series.

Lastly, Hikari shows up to her friend's party with present in hand.

The dub's in kind of a sticky spot here because this is an opening credits sequence and very much shot like one but we are 20 minutes into a "feature-length movie" so it would be weird for an opening credit sequence to suddenly happen now.

Their solution? FLASH MOB MOTHERFUCKERS. The plot is being put on hold so that we can spontaneously throw a music video. Specifically, One Week by the Barenaked Ladies, presumably as a reflection of Tai's emotional state..

That's fun. At the end of the day, OPs are just precisely contextual music videos anyway. The song is very 90's and, far more importantly, is not Hey Digimon. I'll take it.

Once the OP's over, we rejoin Taichi in the kitchen. He opens the fridge to see various containers and then, like the child he literally is, complains to his mother who is actively unpacking groceries that it's empty.

Taichi: Hey... There's nothing to eat.... Yuuko: Hm? Taichi: (sighs, whines) Hikari~ is going to a birthday party where she gets to eat cake.... Yuuko: I can bake you a cake. Taichi: Yeah? Yuuko: Yes, really. Take out some eggs.

Both "That jerk Sora" earlier and this "Hikari~" are translations of adding の奴 no yatsu to the end of someone's name. Yatsu is a third-person pronoun that basically means they/them but in a condescending or disrespectful tone.

"That guy", but not like "Who is that guy?" but rather "What's with that guy?"

So, like, a literal translation would be "What is with that Sora person!?" and "That Hikari person gets to have cake". Calling Sora a jerk and adding a jealous little sneer to Hikari's name is the best translation equivalent I can come up with.

Taichi takes a single egg out of the fridge, but then the doorbell rings. Distracted, he leaves the kitchen, taking the single egg with him.

Yuuko: Let's see, I bought some wheat flour....

Taichi reaches the door just before Koushiro loses patience and yanks the door open himself. Which really goes to show how freaked out he is because this is Izumi "Infinite Decorum" Koushiro just ripping someone else's door open.

Taichi: Hey, Koushiro. Come on in. Koushiro: T-The egg! Taichi: Huh? Koushiro: THE EGG HATCHED!!!

Confusion printed on his face, Taichi's eyes ever so slowly wander down to the egg in his hand.

Koushiro: NO!!! THE DIGITAMA!!!

Finally, one more credit slide saves them from having to animate Koushiro entering the apartment, and we merely get to hear Yuuko notice him.

Yuuko: Oh, welcome, Koushiro-kun. Koushiro: Thank you.

It's left unclear whether Taichi ever finished taking the eggs out of the fridge like his mother told him to, but we'll give him the benefit of doubt. He wanted that cake.

In the dub:

Tai: Ugh... Mom? Yuuko: Hmm? Tai: Can I make a complaint? Yuuko: Hm? Tai: Well, Kari's eating birthday cake right now and all we have is leftover tofu. Yuuko: I can make you a cake, Tai. Hand me an egg, please. Tai: (distraught) NO!!! Yuuko: I needed to use up the rest of the wheat germ anyway. Tai: (disturbed) Ngggh.... (dingdong; Tai retrieves an egg) Yuuko: You get the door and I'll start on that cake! (Tai goes to the door; Izzy yanks it open) Tai: Izzy, you're all sweaty. What's wrong? Izzy: (breathing heavily) Well it's... about the egg.... Tai: Huh? Izzy: The egg has already hatched! (Tai slowly looks at the egg in his hand) Izzy: NO, NOT THAT EGG!!! A DIGI-EGG!!!

Because it happens over a credits slide, Yuuko's greeting to Koushiro gets cut.

Izzy does a good job with the egg gag. I admit, I was kinda hoping the much more rude Izzy would call Tai an idiot here. But I still like what we got.

Tai's reaction to Yuuko baking a cake is part of a running gag in the dub film, where Yuuko's culinary practices... leave something to be desired, let's say. Yuuko is planning to bake a cake using only one egg and "the rest of the wheat germ", however much that is.

Which is funny because in the original series, it's the Tachikawa family that has a running gag of culinary horror. Mimi's mother Satoe routinely inflicts whatever random kitchen experiments strike her brain on Keisuke and Mimi, both of whom adore her concoctions and devour them regardless of what comes out. The result is that Mimi herself has let's say esoteric opinions about how to properly prepare tasty food.

Taichi and Koushiro move into Taichi and Hikari's bedroom to check out the newborn Digimon.

Koushiro uses Netscape as his web browser. Oh my god, do you remember Netscape!? God, I'm old. In any case, Taichi and Koushiro discuss the new Digimon while munching on popsicles.

Taichi: Ha! What's that thing? It looks like a jellyfish. Koushiro: It's a new kind of Digimon that we've never seen before. Taichi: It's pretty cute! So, what about it? Koushiro: It looks like computer bugs from everywhere have gathered together in one place and formed the Digitama.

This, I think, is where the dub got "A virus is attacking the Digitama and it's causing it to develop abnormally fast." A shitton of computer bugs (bugs, not viruses) happened at once all across the internet and merged together to form this... eerie computer bug Digitama, which has now hatched into our jellyfish 'mon.

Taichi: How do you know that? Koushiro: One of my email nakama who lives in Russia analyzed the data structure from the eggshell. They're still in elementary school, but they already have a seat reserved for them at university. Taichi: (grumpy) I'm in elementary school too, but I only go to elementary school.

Yeah, and that's probably not changing any time soon, my guy.

We're not getting any rundowns on this creature, so now would be a good time to talk shop. Officially, this creature is called Kuramon. The name comes from the word 海月 kurage which means jellyfish. Taichi basically named it a moment ago.

Like Apocalymon, it's not really a Digimon in the typical sense. It has no attribute or classification. It's not a vaccine, a virus, or data, but a secret fourth thing. As Koushiro said, it's made of bugs.

In Pokemon terms, this is MissingNo. And yes, you should be very concerned about that.

In what was most certainly a promotional decision, this creature's debut is split between the card game and the film. Some of its forms were released in a booster from February 2000, then the film came out in March 2000, and then the rest of its forms were released in another booster in April 2000.

The dub explains it like this:

Izzy: My Digimon Analyzer doesn't even recognize it. Tai: It looks like a cross between a jellyfish and a contact lens. Izzy: I think it's part-Digimon, part-virus. Tai: A Digimon with a virus. So? Izzy: Are you kidding!? If it stays on the internet, it could wipe out all technology as we know it! Tai: If it just hatched, how do you know about all this stuff? Izzy: This kid I met on the internet emailed me. His name is Willis and he lives in Colorado. I don't know where he gets his information. He's smart, though. He's only in elementary school but he's already taking classes at Colorado State! Tai: (bitterly) ...so what? I'm in junior high school and I take classes at junior high school!

Koushiro's email colleague in Russia's been rewritten to be an American named Willis. This is to better fit it into the feature-length film mold that they glued these three OVAs into. "Willis" is a character from Hurricane Touchdown, and so they're name-dropping him here in order to set up his appearance further in the "film".

As for Kuramon? In the dub's continuity it is... (heavy sigh) ...half-Digimon, half-virus.

VIRUSES ARE A TYPE OF DIGIMON OH MY GOD (sound of throwing things) This is like introducing a new evolution for Dratini and calling it "half-Pokemon and half-dragon". What are we doing here.

I do, however, appreciate Izzy calling out that the Digimon Analyzer has no idea what this is. All Koushiro says is "we haven't seen this before". But. Like. That's hardly conclusive. It's not like they saw every Digimon in the entire Digital World during their Chosen Children drafting, right?

Izzy cuts the ambiguity and says "I checked the Wiki and it just had a shrug emoji, so there's that."

Suddenly, Kuramon's screen beeps and it changes form.

Taichi: It evolved!

Now in its Baby II form, the creature is Tsumemon. Named for the word 爪 tsume, which means claw or talon.

Tsumemon sends Koushiro an email. The subject line reads オナカスイタ onakasuita which means absolutely nothing because it's in Katakana, and Katakana letters are just context-free sounds. However, in Hirogana and Kanji, お腹すいた Onaka suita means "I'm hungry."

(Hahahaha it's become Koushiro's involuntary Virtual Pet! Hahahahahahaha! Have fun with your new Tamagotchi, my guy!)

Koushiro: This... It's an email from the jellyfish! (reading) Onaka suita.... Taichi: Huh!? It's hungry!? Koushiro: It grows by eating data! And it has a huge appetite... It's only at Baby stage, but if it keeps evolving like this, it could devour all the data on the network! Taichi: ...what happens after the data gets corrupted? Koushiro: All of the computers will go haywire!

While the boys talk, Tsumemon chews its way through a visual representation of the internet. We cut to the convenience store FactoryMark to show a young woman ringing up a purchase.

Checker: (bored tone) Welcome. That will be 125 yen--Ah!

She does a double take at the register screen, then reads off the "correct" amount.

Checker: (counting zeroes) One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand. (to customer) That will be 1,000,125 yen.

The man, very reasonably, freezes in place and drops his money out of shock. For conversion's sake, an $0.80 purchase just jacked up to about $6,400. So either Martin Shkreli just hit Japan or something is way the fuck wrong.

It's okay. You don't have to get it. Sometimes you write jokes for you.

Other supermarkets encounter similar errors, with all their products suddenly being priced at a million yen. We see checkout lines held up by furious customers.

Customer: Why should I have to pay so much!?

Back in the Yagami home, the unbelievably fast news reports on the event.

News: Systems are malfunctioning in supermarkets and convenience stores all across the country.

In the dub:

Izzy: Look! The jellyfish Digivolved! Tai: He's sending an email! It says "I'm hungry!" What, am I supposed to call for a pizza?

The dub rewrites the email to read "I'm Hungry!" in English.

Izzy: Oh, no! He's eating computer data! And when he's done in this buffet line, he's gonna look for a database with more food! Tai: More food!? What does he expect to find, a grocery store!? (Cut to FactoryMark convenience store) Checker: Okay, that's one box of chocolate. Your total comes to one million, one hundred--HUH!? Yeah, that's what it says. That must be really good chocolate. Paper or plastic? Customer: What, it was supposed to, whuh... (drops money in shock)

They snip out the shots of other stores from here and go straight home to the Kamiya residence.

News: In supermarkets all over the city, computer systems are failing causing congestion at the registers. And now for the weather.

As usual, Izzy's not great with the exposition. "Tsumemon will go looking for a larger database" is cut from the same cloth, but doesn't quite capture the same sense of urgency as "Tsumemon will evolve and grow and devour more and more until it's eaten the entire network."

Though I do love the checker shrugging off the upcharge like, "Hm, seems legit." XD

Yuuko, carrying a tray with two glasses of indeterminate brown liquid on it, pays the report a little bit of mind before returning her attention to the door in front of her.

Yuuko: Taichi, I'm coming in.

She steps inside just in time for Taichi to nearly bowl her over on his way out the door.

Yuuko: AH!!! Taichi: Excuse me! Yuuko: What's this all of a sudden? Taichi: We're using Dad's PC!

Koushiro bolts past her next.

Yuuko: (holding out the tray) Well, at least take these with you.

Koushiro stops, doubles back, and snatches a glass from the tray. He chugs it right there on the spot, then returns the empty glass to the tray.

(That's not what she asked you to do, Koushiro.)

Yuuko: Oh my, you were thirsty! Koushiro: Thank you!

When Koushiro enters the office, he finds Taichi inspecting the computer's monitor and trying to figure out how to turn it on.

Taichi: Let's see... How does.... Koushiro: I'll handle it. Taichi: Please. I have no idea....

Koushiro lifts the monitor off Susumu's desk and sets it on the floor, then does the same with the tower.

Koushiro: This is connected to the phone line, right? Taichi: Oh, yeah. With ISDN or something like that.

That's all Koushiro needs to hear. He switches on the tower, and both it and the modem come to life.

In the dub, we start with more of Yuuko's culinary experiments.

Yuuko: Tai! I made beef jerky shakes! (Yuuko enters; Tai exits) Tai: No thanks, mom! Yuuko: Where are you going? Tai: We need to use Dad's computer! (Izzy goes past her) Yuuko: Don't you want your shake!? Izzy: Ooh! (Izzy doubles back and chugs a glass) Yuuko: I'm glad someone appreciates my recipes. Izzy: Thanks, Mrs. Kamiya! (Izzy enters the office to find Tai trying to turn the computer on) Tai: We gotta be careful with my dad's stuff. Izzy: (bluntly) Get out of my way! (Izzy lifts the computer stuff off the desk) Izzy: A Digimon is eating the internet and you're worried about a few books!? Tai: But my dad likes his mess where it is. Izzy: (ignoring him) We'll have more capabilities if we network our computers together.

But at least Izzy appreciates her jerky shakes. And then immediately gets to show off how rude and thoughtless he is in this version when him tearing the computer stuff off the desk gets recontextualized.

Once Koushiro's done setting up the desktop, he takes out his laptop. Taichi has questions.

Taichi: Could we just delete that jellyfish thing off the internet? Koushiro: Delete it? How? Taichi: We tell the phone company or some computer experts about the jellyfish and-- Koushiro: That's pointless. My email colleague in Russia told a lot of people about it, but they wouldn't listen.

I dunno, Koushiro. I feel like people might be more inclined to listen in goddamn Odaiba, which was laid to waste by a colossal Dracula kaiju last summer. Might just be me, though.

As the boys reconnect to the internet, they find their jellyfish has evolved once again. This next stage is called Keramon, named for the onomatopoeia for wicked cackling, kerakera. This is fine.

They also, side note, find Keramon at what appears to be the official website for FactoryMark, having devoured everything and left the page blank but for Keramon's own rotating visage. This poor company.

Taichi: It's already evolved again! Koushiro: This must be its Child-stage. Taichi: That's bad... This is bad, Koushiro! Koushiro: Unless we defeat it now.... Taichi: How!? Koushiro: Well... Uh.... Taichi: Are we just going to sit here and watch while this thing keeps evolving!?

Koushiro has no answer. The boys sit in silence, thinking.

In the dub:

Tai: Hey, Izzy! Why don't we just call up the Digimon on the screen and then hit delete? Izzy: Don't you think I tried that!? Tai: If this thing is so dangerous, maybe we should call someone important like the principal or Bill Gates or someone-- Izzy: They won't listen! That kid Willis warned his internet carrier about the new Digimon. They said, "Great! Let's sign him up and give him fifty free hours!" (Izzy connects and brings up Keramon) Izzy: Alright! We're online! Tai: He's Digivolved again! Keramon: My name is Keramon. Izzy: I think he's at the Rookie level. Tai: This soon!? He's Digivolving too quickly! Izzy: He's probably at a fast food website.

Convenience store but I'm sure he's still finding great consumable products all the same. Oh shit, I bet that's why the cheddarwurst is always gone already whenever I walk down there. Fucking Keramon.

Tai: Now what!? Izzy: Nothing now. Tai: You mean we have to sit here and watch that thing eat the world out of house and home page!?

They say a lot of the same things in this bit, but jokier. I desperately want to know what Tai expects the school principal to do about Keramon.

Also they gave Keramon a line for some reason.

There is one odd translation choice. In the original, Koushiro stammers and stutters when Taichi asks what they can actually do about this. He doesn't know, and he struggles to find an answer.

Izzy confidently asserts that they should do nothing. Uh. That. Seems like a bad idea, Izzy. Why are we even scoping Keramon out if the plan is inaction? Academic interest?

While the boys sit in silence, an air raid siren blares in the background. They don't seem to notice. Eventually, Taichi speaks up.

Taichi: If only Agumon were here right now.... Agumon: Taichi. Taichi: (whine) Aaaaaagumoooooon! Agumon: Taichi! Taichi: If only you were here! Agumon: TAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICHI!!!

Taichi finally hears him on the third try. He jumps to his feet, frantically looking around the office.

Taichi: Agumon!? Is that you!? Hey! Where are you!? Koushiro: Taichi-san, here!

Koushiro calls Taichi's attention to the laptop.

Taichi: AGUMON!!!

A window pops up with the cute title "デジモンさんのかくれが Digimon-san no kakure ka" or Digimon-san's Hideout. We see Gennai's bonsai garden from his secret estate beneath the lake, where a cute little chibi Agumon is standing with Gennai.

Agumon: (jumps for joy) TAICHIIIIIIIIIIII!!! (Taichi and Koushiro breathe sighs of relief) Taichi: Agumon! Koushiro: Gennai-san.... Gennai: It's been a long time, hasn't it? Tentomon: (appears in a puff of pink smoke) Koushiro-han, have you been well? Koushiro: Tentomon!

The door opens and the remaining six Partner Digimon all spill out into the bonsai garden. Taichi tries to count them off as they enter but gives up partway.

Taichi: Piyomon! Gabumon! Palmon! ...everyone's here!

In a cute little visual reference, five of the remaining six Partners enter the garden in single file. However, there's about a second's delay before Tailmon, separate from the others, finally enters as well.

In the dub, there's no long silence or air raid siren. Tai cuts straight from his previous rambling to:

Tai: I wish Agumon was here to help us! Agumon: Tai! Tai: I can almost hear him now. Agumon: You can hear me now! Tai: It's like he was here. Agumon: I am here. Tai: Huh!? (Tai jumps up and looks around) Agumon! I can barely hear you! Take me off speaker phone! Izzy: It's a transmission! Tai: Huh!? Izzy: From the Digital World. (Izzy pulls up the Digimon's Hideout screen) Agumon: (jumping for joy) Tai! Tai! (Taichi and Izzy breathe sighs of relief) Tai: Agumon! Izzy: And he's with Gennai! Gennai: It's been a long time! Tentomon: (appears in a puff of pink smoke) Don't forget me! Izzy: Tentomon! Tai: Who else is there? (The other Digimon enter) Biyomon: Biyomon! Gabumon: Gabumon! Palmon: Palmon! Patamon: Patamon! Gomamon: Gomamon! Gatomon: Gatomon!

Solid. No notes.

Now that the Digi-gang's all here, let's talk shop.

Gennai: So, do you know about this guy? Koushiro: Yes. It's a new kind of Digimon on the net, right? Gennai: Ohohohoho! Just as I expected. Agumon: Listen, Taichi. That is a tremendously evil Digimon. Tentomon: We can't just leave it alone! Koushiro: Yeah, but how do we defeat this thing? Agumon: Taichi. We'll fight. Taichi: Agumon? But.... Gabumon: We'll go inside the internet.... Patamon: ...just like how you guys saved the Digital World.... Tentomon: ...now it's our turn to help you! Koushiro: Tentomon....

Taichi and Koushiro are both silent for a moment while they mull over the Digimon's suggestion. Then Taichi snaps into leadership mode.

Taichi: Got it. We're counting on you guys. You're the only ones who can do this! Koushiro, your Digivice? Koushiro: (holds up Digivice) I brought it, of course.

Ready to go to work, Taichi dramatically pulls up his Goggles of Leadership from around his neck and snaps them onto his forehead.

Taichi: Great! We'll evolve you with our Digivices! Digimon: Okay! Gennai: Great! I'll start sending our friends into the network now, so hold off for a moment.

Gennai conjures up columns of light that the Digimon can enter, transporting them into the internet.

Taichi: Yes! This is great. I'll go let everyone else know.

While the Digimon get into position, Taichi heads off to the phone to start making some calls.

In the dub:

Gennai: We need to talk! Something's threatening the internet! Izzy: We know! The Digimon's already caused some major problems in our world. Gennai: I'm not sure it is a Digimon. Agumon: But it is dangerous. The evil Dark Masters were cupcakes compared to this guy! Tai: That's it, then! Let's do it! Gabumon: We found a way to enter the internet. Patamon: We'll help you guys because you were the best friends we ever had! Tentomon: What better way to express friendship than to save your world? Izzy: Tentomon.... Tentomon: (tearing up) Please don't get so emotional! Tai: Thanks a lot, guys. You won't be alone! We'll be right here on the computer. Izzy, Digivice! Izzy: (holds up his Digivice) I'm one step ahead of you, Tai! Tai: (dramatically puts on goggles) Our Digivices will help you Digivolve and together we'll squash that bug! Digimon: (miscellaneous cheering) Gennai: It will take a minute for Agumon and Tentomon to get on the net. My modem's older than I am! Tai: I'll call the other DigiDestined so their Digimon can help too!

A subtle switch, but in the original, the Digimon were going to help to repay the favor from the children saving their world. In the dub, it's to repay their friendship.

Also, Dub Agumon brings up the Dark Masters in order to use them as a yardstick for how much more ultra-mega-terrible Keramon is than they were. In the original, there is no escalatory threat-measuring contest here. Agumon simply calls Keramon 巨悪 kyoaku, a great evil.

Lastly, Gennai suggests that Keramon may not even be a Digimon. This is probably because Dub Keramon is "half-virus, half-Digimon" so its nature is weird. Its nature is weird in the original too, but that's because it's made of bugs instead of vaccine, virus, or data.

Time for Taichi to start making calls, beginning with Jou-senpai.

Taichi: (on the phone) Ah, moshi moshi! This is Yagami. Is Jou there? ...eh? Entrance exams? Entrance exams for... middle school...? Yes, I understand. (hangs up)

Moshi moshi is a Japanese phone greeting. We've talked about it before, but it's just a thing you say when talking to someone on the phone, specifically. It start out basically meaning something like "Sound check, 1, 2, 3," to make sure you were clearly audible and then evolved into a context-free social tradition.

Yeah. All that studying for entrance exams that was so important to Jou? Today is the fucking day. This is where Jou was going when Tsumemon made him miss his train. These tests will play a pivotal role in deciding the entire course of his future.

We see Jou sprinting for dear life, barely making it into the school when all other students are already seated and taking their tests. He races for dear life to his seat, frantically whipping out his pencil case so he can try his best.

In the dub:

Tai: Hi, this is Tai Kamiya! Can I speak to Joe, please? Other Person: (unintelligible gibberish) Tai: A test!? He's the only kid I know who volunteers for summer school! (hangs up)

The shots of Jou frantically sprinting into the school and trying to get to his seat are cut out, but the part where he opens his pencil case and accidentally sprays pencils everywhere is kept. They also add an anguished wail from Joe.

So, in this version, Joe's out-of-reach because he likes to do extra schooling for funsies. He's not panicking because the train made him late for a life-changing event he cannot afford to miss; He just spilled his pencils 'cause he's a clumsy goober.

This meshes with how the original anime portrayed his studying for the entrance exams, but drastically undercuts how important these tests are for him.

With Jou out of reach, Taichi tries Yamato next.

Taichi: Eh? Yamato is out? He's with Takeru? Where? ...eh!? SHIMANE!?!?

Yeah, they're way the fuck across Japan. Shimane is out on the west side of the island nation. It would take them about ten hours to get back to Odaiba by train.

Koushiro: Shimane.... Taichi: I'm sorry, do you have a phone number I can reach them at? Yuuko: Koushiro-kun, would you like some Oolong tea? Koushiro: Ah, yes, please.

Taichi gets the number and punches it in.

Taichi: (muttering) Pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up pick up Yuuko: (background) Here you go. Koushiro: (background) Thank you. (The line picks up) Taichi: AH!!! MOSHI MOSHI!!!

Unfortunately for Taichi, it's the old woman - presumably the boys' grandma - who picked up.

Grandma: (slowly) Who is calling? Taichi: It's Yagami from Tokyo! Sorry to bother you-- Grandma: (slowly) Could you please repeat that? Taichi: Um, could you please put Yamato and Takeru on? Grandma: Ah! Those are my grandsons. They're such good boys. Yamato: (noticing) Who is it? Taichi: Excuse me, but there's something very important I need to tell them! Grandma: I see.

Finally getting the message, Grandma hangs the phone back up on the receiver and turns to the boys.

Grandma: Yamato!

Meanwhile, on the other end of the line, Taichi is frozen in appalled silence for five straight seconds.

Taichi: (hissing furiously) ...she hung up....

This is not going well. XD

In the dub:

Tai: Hi! Is Matt or T.K. there? Other Person: (unintelligible gibberish) Tai: They're visiting their grandmother in the country? Other Person: (unintelligible gibberish) Izzy: HEY TAI!!! Any luck yet? Yuuko: Would you like a glass of potato juice, Izzy? Izzy: Great! I'd love some!

I don't know which home Tai thought he was calling where he could ask for "Matt or T.K.".

Also, Izzy suddenly yelling "HEY TAI" while Tai's on a phone call. Rude. I love how Tai just ignores him and then Yuuko makes him drink potatoes. The Yuuko gag is quickly turning into well-deserved karma for Izzy's rudeness.

Tai: (muttering) Be there be there be there be there be there be there be there be there be there be there (gasp) Ooh! Hello there! This is Tai! Grandmother: You're selling ties? Tai: No, my name is Tai. I'm looking for Matt or T.K. Grandmother: That's a coincidence! Those are my grandkids' names. Tai: That's great! Are they there? Grandmother: Mhm. Tai: Right now!? Grandmother: Mhm. Tai: Can I talk to them!? Grandmother: Oh, I'd love to talk to them too. They're here visiting me. Tai: Please, I need to speak to them right away! Grandmother: Okay, I'll tell them. (Grandma hangs up) Grandmother: KIIIIIDS!!! ... Tai: (hissing furiously) ...I can't take this....

Dub Grandma has an even harder time grasping this conversation than the original.

Moving on down the list.

Yuuko: Koushiro-kun, aren't you going anywhere for spring break? Koushiro: No, nowhere in particular. Yuuko: There isn't anywhere you want to go?

A familiar conversation for anyone who's ever been an introverted kid.

This brief exchange sets our timeframe, in case Jou's entrance exams didn't already give it away; In Japan, the ending of one school year and beginning of the next is framed around spring break, rather than summer vacation as it is in the U.S.

We've moved forward about eight or nine months from the original series.

Taichi places his next call. However, as we've already seen, nobody's at the Tachikawa residence to collect the mail or pick up the phone, nor have they been in days.

Taichi: Alright, next up! (dials) Ah, moshi moshi! Mimi: (recording) This is Mimi! I can't take your call right now! (beep) Taichi: Mimi-chan! It's Taichi! Call me back as soon as you can! (hangs up) Man, every one of them....

An interesting note is that Mimi's iconic pink cowboy hat is hanging up in her bedroom. Not only did she not take it with her, but... Like... She has it. Last we saw that hat, the wind whipped it off her head and sent it tumbling across File Island. It never left the Digital World.

So I guess she must have got a new one.

In the dub:

Yuuko: You know, Izzy, I can never get Tai to try any of my recipes. Izzy: I think they taste great. Yuuko: (excited) Wanna try my spinach cookies? Tai: (excited) I GOT MIMI'S MACHINE!!! Mimi: (recording) Hi, it's Mimi! I'm so glad you called. Let's get together for lunch! Leave a very short message after the beep! (beep) Tai: MIMI I-- (beep) (Tai hangs up) Tai: (growl) Rrrrrgh. That girl loves to talk!

"Leave a very short message after the beep" might be the funniest joke in dub history thus far. XD What the fuck, Mimi. Why. Who does that. Why. Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Little confused by Tai's punchline, though. The intent is clearly "Teen girls be yappin' on their phones" boomer-humor, which was all over the place in the 80's and 90's. But I don't see how that connects to the setup of Mimi's absurdly short answering machine window.

Taichi's running out of options at this point. With one obvious and glaring omission he hasn't yet tried, and still won't. Time to keep going down the list. Meanwhile, over in the kitchen, Koushiro's sifting flour while Yuuko works on whipping her cake batter.

Yuuko: (cheerfully) Sorry you had to pitch in! Taichi: Hey! Do you know the phone number to the house Hikari went to for the birthday party? Koushiro: (sifting) Like this? Yuuko: That's right. Don't let it get lumpy. Taichi: COME ON, MOM!!! Yuuko: Right, yes... There should be a note over there. Uri-san's house. Taichi: (rifles through phone desk, grumbling) What is wrong with everyone....

At the birthday girl's house, everyone's gathered around a giant cake, clapping and celebrating.

Girls: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

The birthday girl takes a deep breath, then stops when she realizes one of them is missing. Hikari is over on the phone.

One of the Girls: (hissing) Hikari-chan! Hikari: (to phone) I can't come home yet. We haven't even blown out the candles on the birthday cake yet. Taichi: I see. Then come home right after the candles are blown out!

But her social life!

How about you learn how to do the white glowy trick where you can evolve everyone's Digimon and not just your own?

In the dub:

Yuuko: (to Izzy) You're a real natural in the kitchen. Just like me. Ha! Tai: Mom, I need to get a hold of Kari right away! Did she take your cellphone with her? Izzy: So, do I have enough of this stuff? Yuuko: Beats me. It's the first time I've used flour to bake a cake! Tai: MOM!!! Yuuko: Of course she's got it in case of emergency. Tai: (rifles through phone desk, grumbling) Emergency...? What does she think this is!? (Tai makes the call) Girls: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! (clapclapclap) Make a wish! Blow 'em out!

The dub adds the sound of a phone interrupting the candle-blowing. In the original, it's the birthday girl's landline so there's an implication that someone came and told her that there was a call for her. She probably didn't answer the phone herself.

But since they rewrote the phone Kari's on to be Yuuko's personal cell phone, they can have Kari rudely answer it during the candle-blowing for comedic effect.

Girl: (hissing) Call them back! Kari: I can't come home! You don't understand. The magician's coming over later and I've already volunteered to be sawed in half. Tai: Whatever! Just tell the half with feet to run home soon!

This flows pretty well. The shot of Kari on the phone only shows the receiver, so the animation doesn't contradict the rewritten context. And the "half with feet" bit is another pretty good joke.

Dub team is also having a lot of fun with the "Izzy and Yuuko in the kitchen" shots.

Well, that's it. There's only one last call to make. The one Taichi can't make. This is the big one.

Taichi: KOUSHIRO!!! Koushiro: Eh? Taichi: Uh, you see... Could you please call Sora's home? Koushiro: Sora-san? Shouldn't you do that? Taichi: Just do it! Here!

Taichi flings the phone directly at Koushiro's face. Koushiro yelps, catches it, and slowly exhales. Then, very confused, he starts punching in the number.

Taichi lumbers over and grumpily takes a seat at the table.

Yuuko: Oh? Are you inviting any more friends? Taichi: I want an Oolong tea too! Yuuko: You won't even answer me?

Oh boy, I do not like the way this boy talks to his mother in this special. So far, we've seen him push past her in the doorway, ignore her questions, and yell at her for not answering him. Now he slumps down in his chair, doesn't even look at her, blows off her question, and demands tea.

All while she's trying to bake a cake because Taichi was complaining that Hikari got to go have one today.

Taichi is a child, so I won't fault him too much for behaving childishly. But this all raises uncomfortable questions about what he's learning from Susumu, since children emulate their role models and all that.

Koushiro makes the call, which Sora's mother Toshiko answers.

Toshiko: Okay, I just have to let her know to call the Yagami residence, right? (Sora comes in the front door) Toshiko: Oh, one moment. She just got back.

Cutting back to Koushiro, he can clearly hear Sora on the other end of the line.

Sora: Who is it? Toshiko: It's from the Yagami residence. Sora: Hm.... (beat) Sora: Tell them I'm not home. Toshiko: But-- Sora: Just do it!

Sora storms into her room and slams the door.

Toshiko: (returning to phone) Uh... She asked me to tell you that she isn't home.

Back in the Yagami apartment, Koushiro ends the call and tries to get Taichi to explain what's going on, while Yuuko continues mixing her cake batter in the kitchen.

Koushiro: Did something happen? Taichi: Not really.... Koushiro: Something must have happened. Taichi: Nothing happened. Koushiro: At a time like this, could you please stop bickering.

Taichi blushes hard and snaps at Koushiro for that remark.

Taichi: WE'RE NOT BICKERING!!! Koushiro: (to himself) Definitely bickering. (Taichi stands up suddenly, nervously shaking) Taichi: A-Anyways, uh... Hey, isn't it about time?

The implication Koushiro's making is that Taichi and Sora are having a lovers' spat. An implication that Taichi catches, which causes him to react the way he does.

Meanwhile, in her room, Sora pops open her own little tablet computer. She fidgets nervously, twirling a hairclip in her hand, until her computer tells her that no emails have been received.

Sora: (angrily) Stupid Taichi!

Sora slams the tablet shut, clenching her fist around the hairpin.

Whatever happened between them, Sora's pretty upset about it too. I'm not sure if Taichi's misspelled and extremely brief email ending in "Cheer up" would actually help, but Kuramon eating it certainly didn't.

Deliberate sabotage. Kuramon ships Taichi/Yamato, clearly.

In the dub:

Tai: Hey! Izzy! Izzy: Huh? Tai: I can't get anybody on the phone! I want you to call Sora for me! Izzy: But you and she are really good friends. It makes more sense for you to call. Tai: JUST DO IT!!! (throws the phone) (Tai marches over and slumps into his chair) Yuuko: (excited) Are more friends coming over? I'll make three-bean salad! Tai: Nobody's coming over, Mom! Yuuko: Oh. That's alright, I only have two beans anyway.

Honestly, I was kinda WTF about this Bad Cook Yuuko bit but it keeps making me laugh. It helps that Yuuko gets to be the one delivering the punchlines most of the time. They let the absurdity of her bit stand by itself and get the laugh, rather than trying to have an over-the-top reaction be the laugh line.

(Izzy makes the call) Toshiko: I'm sorry Sora's not home, but I'll tell her to call Tai's house as soon as she gets back. (Sora returns) Toshiko: Oh, hold on! She just walked in! I'll put her right on. (Cut to Izzy listening) Toshiko: Sora, I think Tai wants to speak to you. Sora: I'M NOT HOME!!! Toshiko: But I already told him you're here. Sora: THEN MAKE SOMETHING UP!!! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU TELL HIM!!! Toshiko: But Sora, I-- (Sora goes in her room and slams the door) Toshiko: ...I'm sorry, but you have the wrong number. Goodbye! (hangs up quickly)

XD That is the worst possible way you could have ended that conversation. Dub Toshiko, you absolute madwoman. Hahahahaha.

Izzy: ...Sora said she's not home. Tai: Hmph. Izzy: Did you two have an argument? Tai: None of your business. Izzy: You must have been a real jerk if she doesn't even want to talk to ya. Tai: HUH!?!? I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!!! Izzy: Uh, I meant that in a good way.... Tai: I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE'S STILL MAD AT ME!!! THIS WHOLE THING STARTED OVER A LOUSY HAIRCLIP!!! Sora: (thinking) He'd better have written me! Tablet: Greetings! You have no new mail. Okay? Sora: No, it's not okay! (affectionately) Stupid Tai....

Specifically, that hairclip she's twirling while checking her computer. The clip is subtle foreshadowing for the true nature of their argument, but the dub goes ahead and spells it out for the audience.

I like how they got over the hurdle of Japanese text by installing text-to-speech accessibility software on Sora's computer.

A note about Yuuko: Both versions are playing the disconnect between Yuuko's jovial attitude and Taichi's panic for comedy. Yuuko has no idea what's going on. So far as she knows, Koushiro came over to play with Taichi and now they're trying to get some other friends together.

This isn't intentional; They aren't deliberately misleading her. There's no reason to. She already knows about the Digimon stuff. It's just that nobody's bothered to tell her, "Hey mom, some serious Digimon shit is going down."

While all this has been happening, Keramon has been a hungry little bugbear.

We cut to Odaiba landmark the Daikanransha, one of the world's largest Ferris Wheels until it was closed down in 2022. Its name means "Big Ferris Wheel". See, this is the downside of learning languages. Everything sounds so cool until you know what they're saying.

We see from the perspective of two boys and a girl. The girl, visibly the youngest, is having the time of her life but the boys look bored as shit.

Girl: So scary! Older Boy: This is lame. Younger Boy: No kidding. Older Boy: Huh? Wait, is it going faster?

Going haywire, the ferris wheel accelerates to dangerous speeds, whipping its passengers around.

Younger Boy: THIS IS SCARY!!! Girl: ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )

Hahahaha they are going to die.

On the landing in front of the apartment, Yuuko watches the giant Ferris Wheel whip around like that.

Yuuko: Taichi? Is it spinning faster than usual today?

Taichi and Koushiro sprint into the office, with Koushiro carrying their drinks on a tray. There, Hikari's cat Meeko has been watching Keramon on the screen. She scampers off as soon as the boys enter.

Agumon and Tentomon appear on the screen, ready to roll.

Koushiro: Transfer complete. Taichi: Agumon!

Inside the internet, Agumon and Tentomon soar through the dataspace on their way to Keramon. Taichi and Koushiro appear like billboards in their path.

Agumon: Taichi! Koushiro! We're here! Taichi: We're counting on you, Agumon! Koushiro: Tentomon, this is a pre-emptive strike. It hasn't noticed us yet.

No idea where the other six got off to. Tailmon's an Adult. She could probably wreck Keramon's shit even without Hikari on-hand.

The dub cuts the ferris wheel bits and jumps straight to Meeko at the computer. She seems to be surfing the kitty web.

Computer Voice: Thank you for visiting Cat Voice: MEOW Computer Voice: .com. Tai: Meeko, get down from there! (Tai and Izzy sprint to the computer) Tai: Agumon and Tentomon should be on the internet by now! (Cut to internet interior) Tentomon: Does this information superhighway have a rest stop!? I've gotta go potty! Agumon: You should have gone before we left! Just hold it! Tai: You're gonna need a password! Izzy: You can use mine to get on the internet: Prodigious! Agumon & Tentomon: PRODIGIOUS!!! Tai: THEY'RE IN!!! Agumon: So this is what the internet looks like. They need new wallpaper. Tentomon: I hope this doesn't take too long. It's my bath night!

The bit about the password is referencing another set of screens they pass, which shows a password being entered and then suddenly reads "ENTER". The original never references or explains what that's about, so the dub filled the gap.

So, so many quips.

Izzy's password would be incredibly easy to crack if you knew him personally. Which basically means that only his friends can access his stuff without his knowledge. That feels like a personal choice more than a mistake.

Arriving in the internet, it doesn't take long to find Keramon hungrily devouring a stream of data.

Oh wow. Look at it go.

Tentomon: Shall we go!? Agumon: Huh!?

Before Agumon realizes this has started, Tentomon takes the first shot. His Petit Thunder hits Keramon dead-on, electrocing it and announcing their presence. Agumon follows up with multiple shots of Baby Flame, which all seem to hit home.

Taichi: YES!!!

Keramon, recovering, sends another enigmatic email to Koushiro. This one reads simply アソブ asobu. Again, because it's in Katakana, these are just sounds. But 遊ぶ asobu is a verb that means "to play". Keramon thinks Koushiro's playing with it.

(We know that well. It was one of Pinocchimon's favorite words. Also I'm kinda starting to feel bad for Keramon. I'm not sure that it actually knows better. I think it might just... be a kid.)

Taichi: What do you mean, 'play'!? Let's just defeat it quickly. Koushiro: Tentomon, evolve! Tentomon: Right!

While Agumon and Tentomon undergo their Magical Girl transformation sequences, we once again cut to various children around the world at computers. The other kids who witnessed the Digitama's creation, who are now watching this happen in real-time.

In the dub:

Izzy: There he is! Go get him! Tentomon: (whispering) He doesn't know we're here yet. Agumon: (whispering) Let's sneak up on him quietly. Tentomon: SUPER SHOCKER!!! Agumon: That's quietly!? PEPPER BREATH!!! (Their shots land) Tai: Huh!? That should have worked but it didn't! (Keramon recovers) Tai: Hey! Keramon's sending us an email! It says "So you like to play games, huh?" I've got a bad feeling about this, Agumon. Agumon: Mhm! Izzy: Better Digivolve, both of you, now.

Like the "I'm hungry" email, the dub rewrote this one in English too.

There's a tonal shift here. Taichi and Koushiro are going super-aggro and picking this fight. They are unambiguously the aggressors here. As Koushiro said, this is a pre-emptive strike. This isn't a thing yet; We're going hard and trying to kill Keramon before this can become a thing.

Strangling a potential future problem in its crib. It's pretty morally dubious the more you think about it. Are we the baddies?

The dub makes Keramon's response email more threatening and ominous. That way, when Tai and Izzy escalate to Adult forms, it's because they're on the backfoot and freaked out by the message.

In any case, the fight is on.

The area of the internet they're in seems to be, like, the programming for an amusement park based on all the amusement park imagery. Probably Pallet Town, the entertainment center where the Daikanransha can be found.

Since the dub skipped the ferris wheel, this just looks like random psychedelic imagery in that version. But there's ferris wheels and carousels and stuff floating in the void because Keramon's eating an amusement park.

In a goofy moment, Greymon and Kabuterimon both land on the ring of horses and carriages spinning around the exterior of the void and use it as a springboard. When they land on the ring, the flat images of horses whinny in protest.

Greymon and Kabuterimon chase down Keramon. Keramon fires off energy shots from its mouth. Kabuterimon returns fire with three shots of his Mega Blaster, which Keramon swerves around - Only to take Greymon's Mega Flame dead-on. Exploding in fire, Keramon lets out a pitiful shriek.

Kabuterimon: Nice! Taichi: It's so weak! Koushiro: Hang on.

On the computer screen, a data stream of 66666666666666 flows into Keramon. The image of Keramon suddenly evolves once more into a new form.

The dub keeps the bits where Greymon and Kabuterimon spring off the carousel ring. However, as usual, the sound effects get lost. No comical whinny protests. With the gag removed, it just seems like an unusually slow bit of action choreography.

They also take out Keramon's pathetic wail when hit by Nova Blast.

Keramon calls his attack Bug Blaster in the dub. It has no name in the original. In fact, nobody's calling attacks in the original; Not even the Partner Digimon. Additionally, Keramon only communicates by email in the original. It has no voiced lines.

Tai: You guys make this stuff look easy! Izzy: Um, hold that thought! Tai: Huh? Keramon: Keramon, Digivolve to: Infermon!

As the dub notes, its new form is called Infermon, named for the Inferno. Y'know. Hell. It's Hellmon.

If you've played one of the games that came out after this film and realized what's wrong here, shhhhhhh, spoilers. The boys haven't noticed yet. :P

Visibly, Infermon leaves its jellyfish shape behind and more resembles an insect, like an ant or cockroach. Y'know. Because bug.

Taichi: It evolved! Koushiro: That's okay. It's in the Adult stage now, same as ours.

Infermon's little feetsies work as suction cups to adhere it to a surface. We know that because it makes little suction cup sounds every time it steps or jumps.

Taking the offensive, it lunges and uses its bulk to try and crush Greymon and Kabuterimon. The pair dodge, floating in the internet's antigravity, and return fire with their own shots.

Though Greymon and Kabuterimon's shots hit home, there's no telltale shriek this time.

Greymon: Did we get it?

Greymon's question is answered when Infermon, unimpeded by their attacks, lunges through the smoke cloud their shots made. Pulling its limbs and head into itself, Infermon becomes a single aerodynamic bullet hurtling their direction.

Greymon and Kabuterimon fire off shot after shot into Infermon, but their attacks glance harmlessly off its impenetrable exoskeleton. They're forced to dodge aside just before its colossal size rips past them.

Kabuterimon: We can't even scratch it! What is going on here!?

Before anyone can answer, Infermon opens its mouth and fires multiple shots form a cannon inside. Greymon dodges the first volley but Kabuterimon takes a hit.

Kabuterimon: AUGH!!! Greymon: KABUTERIMON--HUAGH!!!

While Greymon's distracted, the second volley hits him, starting with a direct hit to the side of his face.

Taichi: GREYMON!!!

This is going bad.

In the dub:

Infermon: Nyegh! Tai: No way! He Digivolved again! Izzy: I've never seen this before. Now he's at the Champion level like Greymon and Kabuterimon! Infemon: Hmhmhmhmhm....

Yeah, Infermon's a chuckler now.

(Greymon and Kabuterimon take shots) Greymon: Yeah! Kabuterimon: Alright! (Infermon lunges) Greymon: What!? Infermon: Hehehehehehe.... (Infermon coasts right through their attacks) Greymon: He's stronger than a Champion! Infermon: SPIDER SHOOTER!!! (Infermon shoots Kabuterimon) Greymon: KABUTERIMO-- WHOA!!! (Infermon shoots Greymon) Tai: Greymon, no!

There's not a lot of actual words in this sequence and yet it still feels so different due to the decision to give Infermon a voice.

It's at that moment that Koushiro realizes the truth.

Koushiro: Taichi-san, I figured it out. Taichi: Huh? Koushiro: It's at Perfect-stage! Taichi: Then, a moment ago.... Koushiro: It evolved two stages. Taichi: Why...?

Yeah, that's what fans of the games that came later probably noticed. Keramon evolves into the Adult-stage Chrysalimon before going to Infermon as its Perfect form. Because of this sudden jump, Chrysalimon will not be appearing in this film.

Taichi: Then we'll evolve to Ultimate-stage too!

Good plan, but no. As Greymon and Kabuterimon begin Super-Evolving, Infermon lunges suddenly.

Taichi: (gasp) Koushiro: It's attacking while we're evolving!

Taking potshots from its mouth cannon, Infermon obliterates MetalGreymon and AtlurKabuterimon before they can even emerge from their Super-Evolutions.

After erasing its Perfect competition before they could even power up, Infermon lands. It begins vibrating and letting out this high-pitched cackle that sounds as much like a siren as a laugh.

Infermon: Yahahahahahaha! Yahahahahahaha! Yahahahahahaha!

THAT'S RIGHT THE DUB WAS CORRECT. Infermon is a chuckler.

A little button marked EXIT appears next to Infermon. It presses the button to open a passage back into the open internet. Then, blip-blopping on its suction cups, it spider-crawls its goofy ass away into the passage.

(Good thing we were just playing. I'd hate to see what would have happened if it knew we were trying to kill it! :P)

In the dub:

Izzy: I think I've got it figured out now! Tai: Huh? Izzy: He's bypassed the Champion level and Digivolved straight into the Ultimate level! He's too strong for our Digimon now! Tai: Then they're just gonna have to Digivolve again! (Digivolutions begin) Infermon: Not. So. Fast. Rrrrargh! (lunge) (as the Digimon Digivolve, Infermon comes in swiftly) Izzy: He's gotta Digivolve faster! (Infermon takes them both out) Infermon: Hehehahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!

Pretty much the same. Though the dub doesn't have Infermon's goofy blip-blop suction cup sounds. Instead, it goes for this writhing insect sound, like a million bugs crawling over something at once.

With Infermon gone, Taichi and Koushiro are left to lick their wounds.

Pay no attention to the fact that all Taichi can see from this angle is a whole lotta butthole.

Taichi: Are you okay, Agumon? Agumon: Sorry, Taichi.... Koushiro: Tentomon! Tentomon: That thing is monstrous....

Relieved that their Partners survived, Taichi and Koushiro take a moment to sit in silence and breathe. Then, quietly, Koushiro speaks up.

Koushiro: We'll need to let them rest for a while. Taichi: (punches floor) Fuck! Isn't it cheating to mess with someone's evolution!?

(Somewhere in the Digital World, the reincarnated Etemon sneezes.)

Koushiro: Taichi-san, we got an email from someone in Australia.

The message reads, "Earlier. Was that what's called a Digital Monster? This is my first time seeing one. ~Toma"

Koushiro: He said it's his first time seeing a Digital Monster. Taichi: He was watching the fight just now? Koushiro: Ah, this one is from Singapore.

Koushiro opens up another email. This one reads, "There were two bodies against one body so how did they lose? Are they just weak? -Jane"

If that sounds like it was run through Google Translate, it's because it was. The email actually comes through in English first, then Koushiro's email software converts it line-by-line into Japanese. The actual message Jane wrote was, in all-caps, "THEY ARE NOTHING, KOZ THEY LOST IN SPITE OF DOUBLE FIGURES. -JANE"

That's much more rude.

Koushiro: "How were you weak enough to lose despite it being 2-on-1?" Taichi: Shut up! Koushiro: (scrolling through a long list of emails) What else do we--Oh! It's an email from the jellyfish.

Koushiro clicks on Infermon's email, revealing a profile pic of the creature's new face and the message moshi moshi moshi moshi moshi moshi moshi moshi moshi moshi just... repeating over and over and over again, line by line.

I don't think it knows how to use that phrase. To be fair, its age can be measured in hours.

Taichi: Moshi moshi moshi moshi... What the heck? Koushiro: This is really bad! Taichi: Huh?

Koushiro points at the email's From line. Infermon sent it from "@@@@@@djm.ntt.co.jp/sys/switchboard". That's gibberish to Taichi but it's making Koushiro piss himself.

Koushiro: Look at the email address! That thing is now inside the NTT system! Taichi: NTT? Koushiro: We need to contact everyone quickly!

Koushiro doesn't explain the urgency, but NTT or Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Company is one of the largest telecommunications companies on Earth. A closeup on the phone jack shows that NTT is, in fact, providing the Yagami home's service.

So. Uh. Yeah. That's bad.

In the dub:

Tai: Agumon, say something! Agumon: (woozy) Don't take me out, coach.... Izzy: Tentomon! Tentomon: I'm fine! Just one question... Who's Tentomon? Izzy: They'll be okay, Tai. They just need to rest for a while. Tai: (sigh) I can't believe that two Digimon at the champion level weren't enough. (punches floor) We're NEVER gonna be able to defeat this thing! Izzy: Check this out, Tai! We're getting emails from all over the world. Here's one from that kid Willis in America. It says "Izzy, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. Find a way to slow him down."

The dub once again draws new art to create Willis's email, slotting it in over Toma's. It says exactly what Izzy read off, but contains no signature.

Then they cut the footage from Jane's email and go straight to Infermon.

Izzy: Hey, Infermon is emailing us too!

Don't know why Izzy knows that name. Keramon was excused because he said "My name is Keramon" right after Digivolving, but this is the first mention of the name Infermon out-loud.

Infermon's email is also rewritten to read "Hello!Hello!Hello!Hello!Hello!Hello!" for many lines.

Tai: Why's he saying "Hello" over and over again? Izzy: Look at the address! Tai: Huh? Izzy: He's at the telephone company taking over all the phone lines! If we lose our phone connection, we're finished! That's the only way we have access to the internet!

Izzy spells out the implication since American children can't be expected to recognize the NTT by brand.

Taichi's first call is Hikari, which makes sense since she's the only one he actually reached the first time.

At the party, the girls are playing Old Maid. Birthday girl does not seem to be doing well but she's got a big smile on her face nonetheless. The girl on the far right, the one who hissed at Hikari for being on the phone, draws the Joker from the girl next to her. All the girls have a good laugh about it.

Girl 2: Did you get the Old Maid? Girl 1: Be honest, Noriko-chan!

Noriko-chan shakes her lying head like a liar, and they all giggle.

Suddenly, Birthday Girl stops laughing and glares at Hikari, who is once again on the phone. Given her vacant spot across from birthday girl and next to Noriko, it's probably Hikari's turn.

Noriko-chan: (hisses) Hikari-chan.... Hikari: (on phone, holding only one card) No, I can't just leave when I'm about to win first place. Taichi: It's fine! Just get out of the game and come home! (hangs up)

In Hikari's defense, she does have a solid shot at winning. It's her and the girl to her left that have one card left apiece. If she can match this card, she wins.

But also, Old Maid isn't exactly a game you can just drop out of easily. If she can't match the card, then she'll have two cards and be in for at least two more rounds. This is basically a more complicated version of Go Fish. If she has cards in hand and leaves... what happens with her cards? It might just ruin the game. And at a birthday party!

Devastating consequences for her social life.

(This is, of course, nowhere near as important as stopping Infermon from eating the global internet. But Taichi hasn't exactly been forthcoming with context to... basically anyone in this special. All she knows is that her domineering brother keeps calling and yelling at her to stop having fun.)

The dub cuts this whole scene. There is no second call to Kari at the birthday party.

Taichi moves along down the list.

Taichi: Next. (dials) Phone: Beep. Beep. Beep. Taichi: Busy signal!? Damn. (hangs up, dials) Phone: Beep. Beep. Beep. Taichi: Another busy signal! (hangs up, dials) Phone: Beep. Beep. Beep. Taichi: Jou's place too!? (hangs up, dials) Phone: Beep. Beep. Beep. Taichi: (distraught) Even Yamato's house!? Taichi: It's busy everywhere. Koushiro: What about Sora's place? Taichi: But we already tried there!

A subtle note: After Hikari, Taichi makes four calls. He identifies the third as Jou and the fourth as Yamato. It's unclear if he tried Sora in the first two, then tried Yamato and Takeru's grandma for the last, or if he didn't call Sora and instead called Yamato and Takeru separately despite knowing they're at their grandma's.

"We already tried Sora" could mean that she was one of the busy signals, or it could mean "We called her earlier and she told me to go fuck myself off a cliff."

But either way, one of those calls he made was to Mimi's explicitly vacant house. Where he got a busy signal. That shouldn't happen.

A subtle but early warning of what's really happening.

Suddenly, Taichi's phone rings. He answers to the most flagrantly computer-generated text-to-speech voice ever.

Taichi: Moshi moshi! Text-to-Speech: Moshi moshi/Moshi moshi/Moshi moshi/Moshi moshi Taichi: (gasps, freaked out) ...not good....

Really selling Infermon's text-to-speech, each set of moshi moshi has an audible jump, like a static break that inorganically bleeds the end of the second moshi into the beginning of the first as the audio sample loops.

In the dub:

Tai: I've gotta warn everyone! (dials) Operator: All circuits are busy. Try again later. Tai: Oh, great! It's busy! ...Mimi! (dials) Operator: All circuits are busy. Try again later. Tai: Come on! How could that be busy too!? (dials) Operator: All circuits are still busy. Tai: Don't tell me.... (dials) Operator: Did you hear me!? Tai: What? Operator: IT'S BUSY!!! Tai: I'm sorry, lady.... (hangs up) All the phones are dead! Izzy: That Digimon did it! Tai: Not a single call can get through! (phone rings, Tai answers) Tai: Hello, this is Tai. Infermon: Hello! Did you program me? Hehehahahahahaha! Tai: It's Infermon!

In the original, as we're about to see, this call isn't unique to Tai. People all across Japan are about to receive these text-to-speech calls. So the dub changing it to Infermon directly taunting Tai is a bit more of a change than it appears at first glance and continues the trend of this Digimon being a lot more verbose in the dub.

Across Japan, phones begin ringing off the hook. Landlines, cell phones, every kind of phone.

Taichi: What is going on!? Koushiro: It's inside the phone switch server and making calls everywhere. It's trying to crash the lines. Taichi: Oh, that's bad. Without the phone lines, we can't contact the others, not to mention the internet-- Koushiro: AH!!! Taichi: Huh? Koushiro: (horrified) ...it disconnected.

Well. That's that. After winning the fistfight, Infermon has nuked our ability to even try that shit again. Its hunger will not be denied.

Out front, Yuuko's cake is baking in the microwave while she watches the news, blissfully unaware of what's happening on the internet.

News: Breaking news, the phones in the Tokyo metropolitan area are temporarily out of service. Yuuko: A lot of things happening today.... News: According to NTT, this is due to heavy phone traffic and some areas have stopped working due to the call volume.

Koushiro explodes out of Susumu's office and sprints for the front door.

Yuuko: Oh, leaving already, Koushiro-kun? Koushiro: I'll be right back!

As Koushiro hurries out the door, Taichi drags his feet to the couch and flops headfirst over it.

Taichi: (wailing) Mooooom.... Yuuko: What's wrong, Taichi? Taichi: It's hopeless! Yuuko: What are you talking about?

No idea what Koushiro's planning, but clearly he's more convinced there's still a chance than Taichi is.

In the dub, this is completely changed.

Kari (V.O.): Talk about speed-dialing! Infermon was looking for someone. He was calling every phone number in the world. Tai: His long-distance bill will be enormous! Izzy: (gasp) Tai: What? Izzy: (horrified) Connection... terminated.... Tai: (horrified) What... next.... (Cut to the cake) Yuuko: KIDS!!! Cake's almost ready!

It is not. Yuuko is lying. The cake still has 30 minutes left to go.

News: Phones have gone dead worldwide. If your telephone is dead, please call your phone company. Yuuko: Well, at least my sister can't call me three times a day. (Izzy explodes from the office and races for the door) Izzy: See ya! Yuuko: Are you leaving so soon? Izzy: Don't worry! I'll be back! Save me a piece of cake! Tai: (emerges, groaning) Yuuko: What's the matter with you? Tai: (groans louder) Yuuko: Hey, have you heard? The phones are out!

Original Infermon crashes the Tokyo metro area's phone network so the children can no longer mess with it. Dub Infermon crashes the entire globe's phone network because he's looking for someone; Presumably Willis, given his dub-exclusive email.

A lot of the dialogue here is just quipping, but Yuuko's salt-in-the-wound final line is solid gold. XD

From here, we go to Yamato and Takeru's grandma's home. Takeru is giving Grandma a back massage.

News: Currently, technicians are working to restore the downed switches and are urging consumers to refrain from using the phone or cell phone services. Grandma: Ahhh... A little more....

Takeru glances over to Yamato, who's receiving a busy signal from the phone.

Yamato: That Taichi... What could he want?

It's Taichi's turn to be 太一の奴 Taichi no yatsu. Yamato clearly isn't happy about having his vacation at grandma's interrupted for unspecified reasons.

We move back to the Yagami residence as the news continues.

News: However, if it is necessary to get in touch with someone, you may use the emergency voice mail system by dialing 171. Taichi: Huh? News: With the emergency mail system, your message will be stored even when the system is down or busy. Created in 1995.... Taichi: That's... That's it!

Taichi has a new plan! Stop that, Infermon!

...nobody tell Infermon or it might eat the emergency voice mail system.

In the dub:

News: The stock market is in chaos and people are rioting in the streets. Grandma: Ahhhh, that's nice. (Matt's getting a busy signal) Matt: Huh!? Tai says call, then he won't get off the phone! News: We interrupt this programming for a special bulletin. T.K.: Huh? Grandma: Goody! I bet it's one of those high-speed chases! (Cut back to Kamiya household) News: The phone company has set up an emergency voicemail system. Simply dial 171 for easy instructions. Tai: Huh!? Kari (V.O.): Believe me, it wasn't so easy. First you had to leave a message, then call back to pick up a message. Basically, it was just playing phone tag. Tai: Perfect! Voice mail!

The U.S. doesn't have any sort of equivalent to Japan's Disaster Emergency Message system, so the dub has to invent it as a brand new thing the phone companies are doing in this extreme global phone blackout.

With Narrator Kari stepping in to explain how such a thing even works.

I love that Matt gets snippy with Tai here, assuming the reason he can't get through is because Tai won't get off the phone. After Tai attacked Mimi for that same thing earlier, it's well-deserved. :P

Now armed with this new tool, Taichi once again tries to make calls.

Recording: This is the emergency voice mail system. To record a message, press one. Phone: (beep) Taichi: Moshimoshi, Yamato! As soon as you get this call, send a reply! It's important! Phone: (beep) Taichi: Jou! As soon as you get this call, send a reply! Phone: (beep) Taichi: Hikari! I told you to come home! Phone: (beep) Taichi: Sora! I'll apologize for the other day. So if you get this call, please respond right away!

Meanwhile, directly outside Taichi's front door, Sora hesitates with her finger over the doorbell button. After a moment's hesitation, she withdraws her finger and walks away.

Sora: Stupid Taichi.

...I don't think she's going to get this call any time soon, Taichi. Sorry.

In the dub:

Recording: To leave a message, press one. To retrieve a message, press two. (beep) Please leave your message at the tone. (beep) Tai: Matt! T.K.! This is an emergency! Call me right away! Oh, by the way, this is Tai! (beep) Tai: (angrily) Kari, if you want to see any of your toys again, get home right away! (beep) Tai: Sora! Sora, listen, I'm sorry about the hairpin but I need to talk to you right away! Call me! Or just come over! (Meanwhile, outside) Sora: ...ugh... Stupid Tai. (turns around and leaves) Hmph!

The call to Jou gets cut from the dub. Probably for time, since they're trying to trim three different OVAs down for this movie. I like that Tai remembers T.K. is with Matt, though.

With that, Taichi has one more call to make.

Taichi: Mimi-chan! As soon as you get this call, send a reply! Yuuko: Oh, I forgot! Taichi: Huh? What is it?

Leaving the kitchen, Yuuko pulls a card out of her pocket and gives it to Taichi.

Yuuko: Mimi-chan sent us this postcard. Taichi: Eh!? Mimi-chan!? W... Where is she?

Taichi snatches the postcard out of Yuuko's hand.

Taichi: HAWAIII!?!?

Cut to Mimi on a sunny beach, stretching and yawning.

Mimi: HAWAII IS SO NICE!!!

Somehow, she seems even less likely to answer Taichi's message than Sora.

In the dub:

Tai: Hi, Mimi! It's Tai. Please come over to my house as soon as you get this message! Goodbye! Yuuko: Oh, that reminds me. Tai: Huh? Yuuko: You got this postcard in the mail from Mimi. Tai: WHAT!?!? (Tai snatches the postcard) Tai: She's on vacation!? In Hawaii!? Ugh... Mimi.... (Cut to Mimi in Hawaii) Mimi: Hawaii is paradise! I don't have a care in the world! And I'm wishing you were HERE!!! Hahahahahahahahaha!

What a lovely place to leave off part 1, on this moment of pure jubilation and bliss. No, don't look at image 3, this is a happy moment. Everything is wonderful here.

[seventeenlovesthree]

Quick thoughts on the "January 5th 2025" announcement...

"Taichi, see you again."

Now, this is a quote we have heard in several contexts before. Taichi and Agumon were - similarly to the majority of the older Chosen Children - separated from each other quite a few times after all. Between 1999 and 2002, again between 2003 and 2005... And finally in 2010, with their current status being unknown... So what does that announcement mean?

Will we get something 02 related? Since this scene above literally functions as a bridge between the events of 1999 and 2002... A re-animation/a remake? Something that'd make The Beginning fit into the timeline better, mayhaps? Personally, I don't think that'd be the best/most likely choice for a direction to go into for the franchise (especially since Kizuna and The Beginning did tell us to finally move forward and not back again), but it IS a possibility to consider. I believe there are enough iterations of the Adventure story (anime, manhua, PSP game, novel), and every version has its own little spin on the universe, but who knows.

The screenshot chosen for the announcement were Oikawa's butterflies - which appeared right at the end of 02, leading right into the epilogue, 25 years in the future... Does that mean we will get something (pre) epilogue-related? Something to bridge the time between Kizuna (2010) and said epilogue (2028)? Will Taichi and Agumon actually see each other again for good?

Since January 5th is a Sunday - and the anime episodes for Digimon usually aired on Sundays -, it does seem like it could be some sort of animation. An anime, a special/OVA/movie, a mini-series... But Toei has thrown us for a loop before. The Beginning was supposed to be a mini-series too after all... So it may also turn out to be something completely different, a manga, an audio drama...

[alpaca-clouds]

Digimon Adventure 02 THE BEGINNING | Some thoughts on the retcons

It is still kinda magical to me. Today is the official release of Digimon Adventure 02 The Beginning and me, in Germany, actually could see it on releaseday in cinema, instead of waiting like a year for it to make its way to either BluRay or ovr to Germany in general.

So, yeah, I just came back from Cinema and... I sure have thoughts.

Like in general: It was a very fine movie. Not great. But good enough. Felt more like an OVA, to be honest, and be it just because of the very short runtime. But... It was the first time since 2001 that I saw a Digimon movie in cinema. And did I start crying on the opening credits? You bet I did.

But... That's not what I wanna talk about. I wanna talk about the retcons.

Because boy, did the movie retcon a lot of stuff. I mean, technically it retconned basically the entire Adventure-verse base lore, the reason for the Chosen Children and of course the epilogue.

Also it completely retconned Digimon Adventure tri. - which, let's be honest, was probably the best call on their end.

Let me talk under the cut, just to make sure nobody gets spoiled who does not want to get spoiled.

So, the movie basically retcons the entire thing about the first chosen children (aka the stuff that tri. basically is build around), by... mostly ignoring they existed or at least moving them much, much closer to the events of Digimon Adventure, than what tri. had imagined.

Now the entire reason for the chosen children existing is, that one child made a wish in 1996, the wish leading to the events of the very first movie - and that of course leading to everything else within the timeline.

The child of course is the "first chosen child" the movie is about, Rui. This child per chance - or maybe in an attempt of the universe to create balance (more about that in a moment) - got partnered with Ukkumon, a Digimon that is at least implied to be linked to the Homeostasis. At least Ukkumon can make strong wishes into a reality. And Rui wishes to have friends who are like him. And because he is partnered with a Digimon, Ukkumon makes it that other children get partnered with Digimon, so that there are more children like Rui.

And, yeah, that one wish leads to everything else, to more and more children being paired with Digimon partners - until eventually every person on the world has a Digimon partner (which is what the epilogue said after all).

Now, I find the story with Rui interesting under the idea of balance.

Because... Well, the homeostasis is always kinda ill defined and runs into the same problems like Star Wars (like, yeah, Anakin brought balance to the force, just not in the way the Jedi expected). The show itself barely explains it, the novels go a bit more into it, then tri. is very chaotic about it and... that was it.

But in a way the situation with Rui seems to be very much about balance. Because you have this child, who is poor, whose father is comatose, who gets beaten and abused by a clearly overworked mother. And this child, who really has anything imaginable thrown at him, he gets his wishes fulfilled. Which weirdly enough brings a bit more balance into the world, right?

It is an interesting concept to use the homeostasis for. Way more interesting than "dark vs light".

Weirdly enough it also kinda fits very well with the idea behind the Adventure children, who were back then created around the idea of "children struggling with real world problems". While nobody is abused like Rui, they are mostly very much struggling. So, yeah, they are a lot like Rui in that regard.

It is also kinda funny. Digimon Adventure 02 went very strong originally (especially in the finale) on the "the digital world as a vehicle to fulfill wishes", which this again also takes up. And in a weird way the epilogue also took up in a ridiculous way. With the kids not only fulfilling their dreams, but doing it to a frankly stupid amount. Like, they do not only do what they wanted to do as kids, they are literally the most successful at it (except Miyako, who does not get a dream, she just gets to produce babies, ugh).

This also gets toned down here. While for the most part the chosen career paths are still mostly the same (with the big exception of Miyako) to what we saw in the epilogue, they are no longer "the best" in it. Daisuke just makes ramen, he does not need to have a worldwide ramen franchise, you know?

But yeah. There is of course the big one. In the epilogue every human has a Digimon partner. And... Well, Digimon Adventure 02 released in Germany in 2001. While I already knew the ending from the Japanese run (because I got first access to the internet, just two weeks before Digimon Tamers released in Japan), I do very much remember coming home from school on 9/11, wanting to watch Digimon and... well, 9/11 being on every single TV channel. So, one of my first thoughts even as a child was: "Wait, everyone gets a Digimon? Even the terrorists?" And I also wondered about the people, who do not want a Digimon.

Which very much is what this movie lands on, when they face the possibility of every person getting a Digimon partner.

Weirdly enough my adult self, 20 years later, is a lot less world weary, than my 12yo self. Because as an adult seeing this part of the epilogue retconned, I cannot help but wonder: "But maybe it would have been good, if everyone had a partner? Maybe it would have helped heal people?" But that might just be my idealism talking there.

So, yeah. It is a bit bittersweet to see this ending, that very much feels like a definite ending. (And really, I hope it is. Like, I know Digimon Adventure prints money, but maybe... just... let's move on?)

I don't know. I have a lot of complicated feelings right now about this, I have to say.

Just needed to ramble about this, I feel.

[love-for-yamato-and-sora]

This matter was very hotly discussed on Japanese Twitter at the time, and almost everyone said that the final evolution was written about Sorato. What happened? Of these two scenes, one is from the OVA and the other is from the movie version. In other words, it is very possible that Mimi told Yamato and Sora what happened, but Mimi has contact with Taichi, so why not tell Taichi? And Taichi really doesn’t know about Sora, because it’s very simple, Mimi knows about Yamato and Sora. In fact, these two scenes were discussed by Japanese fans on Japanese Twitter at the time, saying that the last evolution was officially written as Yamato and Sora. I remember what they wrote was something like this. Sora didn’t contact anyone and was always at home until Mimi contacted Yamato and learned about the situation. Mimi contacted Yamato and told Yamato about Sora and asked Yamato to contact Sora. Later Yamato found out about Sora. After the situation, the most likely thing is that they will break up, because Sora wants to be an ordinary woman, Yamato does not want to break up, and told Sora: "He will continue to wait for Sora, no matter how many years, he will wait for her to think about it." During this period, Yamato had been waiting for Sora. Although there were other women around him who confessed to him, they had not dated him (because at that time, the official had said that Yamato was not allowed to have other female friends.) Then they kept waiting until they grew up. Others also found their boyfriends and girlfriends and got the jobs they wanted. Sora also successfully became a kimono fashion designer, and Yamato also became an astronaut. Yamato also tried during this period. He dated other women, but failed, because the only one he loved in his heart was Sora. Yamato went to find Sora again, and the two came together again. The ending is the finale on digimon adventure 02.

After reading it, what do you think? You should be lucky that I still remember the stories they told. ​

[chaifootsteps]

You’ve mentioned Wolf Children before, Chai, and I don’t think I ever asked you about Hosoda’s other movies before. Have you seen any others and if you have, what do you like about them? Did you know he directed the Digimon Adventure OVAs?

I did not know that! The only other thing of his I've seen is Summer Wars, and I fell asleep halfway through it because I was jet lagged.

[abysscronica]

What do you think of the one piece movies?

Oh boi, that's a loaded question. 😭 I will reply honestly but please remember this is my personal opinion, whatever you like it's all legit!

In general, I don't particularly care for the OP movies too much. I did see them, almost all, even enjoy some or part of them, but I'm grateful that they're non-canon. I don't hate them and I'm always happy when a new one is announced (more OP content!), but that's about it. Same goes for the special/OVAs, although they kinda stopped with those. I will only go through the movies in this post.

Movie 1 (One Piece: the Movie) and 2 (Clockwork Island Adventure) are basically like filler arcs in the early days of the anime. They are not bad, nor good. I haven't seen them in a long while but I remember being pretty neutral towards them.

Movie 3 (Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals) and 5 (The Cursed Holy Sword) actually SUCK. They suck so much I could hardly get to the end. The Chopper one is just a total bore with a super predictable plot, while the Zoro one is actually painful. Zoro and the crew are totally OOC, and the poorly-thought magic lore introduced in the movie just doesn't fit with the OP universe.

You'll noticed I skipped movie 4 (Dead End Adventure). And that's because this one I like. It's also like a filler arc, but it fits perfectly in the plot (love the quick reference to Navarone), it flows well, it's dynamic and engaging, and the original characters are actually good. Shout out to Shuraiya Bascùd, whose design is basically Ace in a different color palette, but has a complex personality.

Movie 6 (Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island) is a unique One Piece product, quite distant from what we're used to, and therefore I consider it a must-see. Not really for the plot, which doesn't make much sense, but for the art and the direction. In fact, it was directed by Hosoda, a very notable anime movie director (Wolf Children, The Girl who Leapt through Time, Summer Wars, Digimon...).

Movie 7 (The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle)... I remember absolutely nothing of this movie except Nami's bouncing boobs.

Movie 8 (Episode of Alabasta) and 9 (Episode of Chopper plus) are revised re-tellings of the Alabasta and Drum saga. They aren't bad, especially Chopper's, some dramatic sequences are very touching. They made a great use of the soundtrack, or lacking thereof.

I will place Movie 11 (One Piece 3D: Straw Hat Chase) here because it doesn't fit with the remaining ones. This may as well be a special: it's only 30 minutes long, most of the Strawhats barely appear, it doesn't feature a villain-based adventure, and it's in a graphic format never used again. Take it as a slice-of-life episode, and it's enjoyable.

Movie 10 (Strong World) is a turning point, because this is when OP movies became "films", Oda started to get involved, some original canon elements were dropped in, and there were theatrical releases. The difference in quality (at least plot-wise) is immediately clear. Strong World is the last movie set before the timeskip (excluding movie 11), and it may well be my favorite.

Movie 12 (Z) is probably close second. The villain is a great character, and I LOVED the inclusion of Aokiji and Kizaru, how different they were, the implications they brought to the plot.

Movie 13 (Gold) is okay. Enjoyable. Once again, good villain, nice setting, good animation.

Movie 14 (Stampede) has a special place in my heart because it included the Kid Pirates, and Kid & Killer have a few scenes. Buuuut if I have to be honest, the plot is quite weak and, if you take off the (scarce) screen time of my beloved, it's a little boring.

And finally! The most recent, movie 15, Red. I haven't had the chance to watch it yet because it didn't get a theatrical release where I live, so I'm waiting for the DVD to be out. What I can say is that I've watched reviews from my two favorite OP youtubers (Tekking101 and Sawyer7mage), and they were not particularly impressed with it. My best friend also watched it and found it incredibly boring, so my hopes aren't really too high. I think they went waaaay too hard on the marketing for this one, they pushed Shanks and Uta SO MUCH. (Also it doesn't help that I'm one of the very few people that don't really care about Shanks, huh). I heard the songs and they were amazing, Ado is a masterclass singer. I read about the plot and I do think some details are quite interesting, like Uta's whole psychology and possibly the ending (?). I guess I'll have to update my opinion when I actually watch the movie.

That's all for now. Feel free to ask for more details if you want.

[slutpoppers]

Taichi vs Botamon, leads to beautiful scenery.

Digimon Adventure OVA (1999)

[cerealforkart]

The two greatest movies in the world are Digimon: The Movie and Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna. This is not a joke. I Love these movies.

Digimon: The Movie is the crowning jewel of classic anime dubs, if you think dubs like these are the reason dubs are bad you’re wrong and also probably boring, it’s unhinged from the story very obviously being three OVAs/movies haphazardly stitched together into a half-coherent plot to the buckwild soundtrack, I’ve never shown this movie to someone who hasn’t been Sent by the abrupt cut to One Week by the Barenaked Ladies they truly don’t make them like this anymore it’s such a treat every single time. 

Last Evolution Kizuna is the most gut-punching coming of age movie for people who are adults but don’t feel like “real” adults and “idk, maybe I’ll go for a master’s degree just because I have no other ideas for what to do with my life,” it’s the closest any media’s gotten to making me cry in years, no sound cue has Bodied me harder than when Matt plays the harmonica at the end of the movie, I know series aging with the audience doesn’t always work but good lord that movie looked me in the eye and saw into my heart.

I just love Digimon man...

[scientistservant]

Thanks for tagging me @ladystormcrow!

10 comfort movies, in no particular order:

Nightmare Before Christmas

Secret of NIMH

Jungle Book (1967)

Sonic The Hedgehog OVA

The Dark Crystal

Digimon: Our War Game (and all the other Digimon OVAs that made up the english dub movie)

Anastasia

Adventures in Babysitting (1987)

9 (2009)

Princess Bride

I tag: @worldssilliestserpent @chaifootsteps @s3tok41b4 @profictiontheatre

[translationandbetrayals]

A totally normal look into some of Mamoru Hosoda's Early Work

It would no overstatement to call Mamoru Hosoda a household name in the current landscape of anime. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time(2006), Summer Wars(2009), Wolf Children(2012); The Boy and The Beast(2015); his film catalogue should say enough. The first two films in that list helped consolidate Madhouse as a safe-haven for creative anime projects & creators.

However, with all the attention and acclaim rightfully surrounding those works, its easy to overlook how this all got started. What was he up to before his big break-out hits? And most importantly, what other gems can we find there?

Hosoda started working in Toei Animation, where for a solid decade, he cut his teeth as key animator for various shows, starting with Crying Freeman(1988), and working on series like Slam DunkSailor Moon, Slam Dunk, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Dragon Ball Z, where he worked on the massively succesful Broly OVA. Somehow, in-between all of that, he found time to do storyboarding for seven episodes for J.C. Staff's Revolutionary Girl Utena. 

By the second-half of the 90s, he even nabbed a few directing credits for episodes of shows like GeGeGe no Kitarou(1996) and Himitsu no Akko-chan(1998), a mahou shoujo show. Even back then, it seemed like Toei knew the kind of talent they had on their hands, as little over a year after his work on Akko-chan, the studio put him in charge of his first major motion picture.

It was the centerpiece of an ambitious media-mixing initiative, with videogame tie-ins, an ongoing TV show, CD-Dramas. Toei was pulling out all the stops, and they had to, because they were about to step into the ring with a cultural phenomenon. A show that had exploded in popularity in the 90s and was on its way to become the highest-grossing media franchise of all time. They wanted to compete with Pokemon.

THAT'S RIGHT, THIS POST IS ABOUT DIGIMON

You read that right, Mamoru Hosoda's first major motion picture was the Digimon OVA. In fact, the man is a hugely important part of the series' history, being in charge of directing its two most iconic films, and what is considered by many as the best episode in the entire franchise. And now that I've succesfully conned you into reading this far, its high time we dive into these three landmark productions in the filmmaker's career and see what parts of his style we can identify from them.

Despite being only 20 minutes long, Digimon Adventure Movie(not to be confused with Digimon: The Movie) is probably the most important piece of media in the franchise. Despite having only directed less than ten full episodes of television at the time, Hosoda was asked to create a blueprint for the anime to follow, while also connecting the already existing videogame franchise to it.

However, the biggest hurdle it had to overcome was its timing. It had been three years since Pokemon Red had hit store shelves, and less than two since its own anime had started airing. The similarities of the names alone would draw comparisons. If Toei and Hosoda wanted to get in on the monster-collecting craze, they'd have to set themselves apart from the biggest game in town. So how did they achieve this? Easy, they made a Kaiju film.

Taichi and Hikari are two toddlers being raised by their single mom, when one night, an egg suddenly burst out from their parent's computer screen. Out of it bursts a small, adorable little creature. A digital monster. While they quickly begin to bond and play together, this being begins to transform, both inwards and outwards. With each change, its personality changes, first to the friendly and talkative Koromon, and then into the silent and more animalistic Agumon.

Rather than a story about building up a group of friendly monsters with fairly static traits, Digimon opted for the polar opposite approach as a starting point. .

For most of the film, we follow one of the titular Digital Monsters, Agumon, and unlike a Pikachu or a Butterfree, he is not subservient, or even entirely friendly to our human protagonists, Taichi and Hikari.

As Hosoda himself puts it:

"I didn’t want to take the easy shortcut where the Digimon = kids’ friends. At this stage, I wanted to keep some tension about whether the Digimon is a friend or an enemy. After all the film takes place before the protagonist becomes friends with Digimon, with all that implies in both good and bad ways. If he just looks up at it, it would just seem like they’re friends. I’d rather frame it more objectively, in order to question what that Kaiju is for them."

(Translated by NohAcro of WaveMotionCannon.com)

In a way, the story applies a bit of an urban fantasy twist to both the monster catcher and the kaiju genres. One could even call it an early example of the "Sekai-kei" genre. It takes place in this apartment complex, adding a backdrop of mundanity and "realism" to this otherwise fantastical story of a critter emerging out of your parents' old computer. This proves to be a staple in Hosoda's works, because, as he puts it in that same interview: (His) goal is to depict unrealistic things in a realistic way."

The choice of only using children also proves to be an astute one. It adds this air of whimsy at the start, with how adorable Kairi and Taichi are when meeting Koromon and reacting to the start. On the flipside, when the movie begins to shift into its second half and the newly-evolved Agumon begins raising hell across town, it ratchets up the tension to have these kids caught up in between giants. Hosoda, for his part, also adds that:

"I also wanted to only have children characters, to have that secretive sense of waking up at night, peeking outside, being the only one to see a monster walking, and feeling special about it."

It really feels like the movie captures both the hopes and the fears for the then nascent internet. A place that could bring about a never-before-seen avenue for creativity and unlimited creativity and wonder, but one that could also be destructive, unpredictable, everchanging, and even dangerous.

If nothing else, at 20 minutes, the film is an breeze and a treat to the senses. It has a certain vibe that is, for the most part, lacking in the rest of the franchise and even the genre. A feast for the eyes, everything from Botamon's blur-like movements to the sheer weight and scale behind Greymon's fight scene. Also, as a sweet bonus, there's a scene where they animate Toei's offices getting destroyed(sadly, I couldn't find footage of this, but the director talks about it in the aforementioned interview).

Since the movie was made in parallel with the anime, Hosoda and crew's film proved foundational to the franchise. Most of the things that set it apart from Pokemon were first showcased here. The more involved nature of humans in fights, the monsters' everchanging personality, and most importantly, the fact these could talk. All of that and more had its start here.

The short film released in March of 1999, and while I have no data regarding how well it did box-office wise, its said that Toei was pleasantly surprised with Hosoda's work. So much so, that they put him to work on a second one right away, but that story would have to wait, because in less than 24 hours, the Digimon Adventure anime would premiere.

Home Away from Home

I would love to sit here and tell you that Digimon Adventure was this ground-breaking avant-garde piece of television. That it was everything Pokemon should've been and the much more mature show some fans paint it out to be. The reality is that for most of its runtime, Digimon Adventure is... alright.

Despite the novelty of it being one of an isekai anime decades before SAO's release, Adventure is a standard fare monster catcher series. A bunch of kids get transported to a new world, they meet their new monster friends, now completely divorced from Hosoda's ambiguity, and they travel, discovering new evolutions as their bonds grow deeper. Fairly standard stuff.

In the way of visuals, its main selling point was, of course, the design of their brand of collectable gremlins. Since Pokemon had a chokehold on certain demographics, Digimon opted to aim for an older audience, but not that much older. From looking at the monsters alone, one can feel Toei trying to attract a shonen audience, whether it be through skimpier girls or extremely edgy designs which may or may not border on parody.

Save for the banging opening and evolution themes, there wasn't much to write home about, or at least, that was until episode 21, known in English as "Home Away from Home." And guess who directed it? Yup, its your boy, Hosoda.

To call this episode a change of pace is nothing short of an understatement. After defeating the previous arc's villain, Etemon(who in the English dub is changed to an Elvis impersonator), Tai and Agumon are sucked into a black hole. Instead of dying, the pair somehow find themselves in the real world. However, something is wrong...

I don't just mean "there's some funny business with digital monsters", either. The entire episode has an unnerving atmosphere to it. The backgrounds are all of these extremely saturated greys and whites and there's this unique sense of ennui that permeates throughout the runtime. Its as if the whole dream were some sort of dream, when in reality, it is anything but.

That leads me to another point, the quality of the animation is off the charts, at least in comparison to the rest of the show. It looks better than anything the anime had done before or since. Not only is the real world realized in such an eery way, but the fights themselves are a treat, featuring complex choreography and even some traces of sakuga in it.

At the center of this is Hikari, Taichi's sister, who for some reason, seems to remember Koromon from a previous encounter. Keep in mind that, at the time, there was no word on the OVA's canonicity, so the episode served to link the series and the short film, while adding a fresh mystery into the mix, "if Hikari can remember Koromon, then why don't Taichi and the other digidestined remember the Kaiju fight?"

Speaking of Hikari, her introduction to show-only watchers(and people outside of Japan) added an uneasy tension to the episode. This was not only due to her unnerving demeanor as the classic trope of "creepy child who knows more than she lets on", but also through a sort of competition she has for her brother's attention.

The central conflict of the episode dealing less with the specific monster fight of the week, and more with both ends of the protagonist's life tugging at him from opposite sides. On one side, there's Hikari, who has lost her brother to this unknown world, clinging to him in hopes of making him stay with her; on the other, there's Agumon, his connection to the digital world and the rest of the cast, who need his help. They both want his attention, competing for it, but with neither being "in the wrong", as it were.

The episode ends in a shockingly clean fight scene(seriously, the jump in animation quality from this episode is insane) and a heart-wrenching ending where Taichi leaves his sister behind to return to the digital world.

"Home Away from Home" is a turning point, both for the show and the franchise. It serves as a pallette cleanser after the decent but unimpressive couple of arcs that preceedes it, making it perfect as a stand-alone watch; it serves to connect Hosoda's directorial debut with the series, which becomes hugely important for the plot, and it kicks off the Myotismon arc, which is by far and away, Adventure's strongest run of episodes.

However, its most important for another trend that it started, one that would define the series to this day. It began to see the show's focus moving away from the idyllic vistas and fantastical fights of the digital world and into the all-too-relatable real life issues of its cast. More so than the edgy designs or the talking monsters, this is what I would say sets the show apart from its much more succesful competitor. And that all started with Episode 21 of Digimon Adventure.

Summer Wars Zero.

While directing an all-time great episode, Hosoda had something else cooking up in the backburner. I'm of course talking about that second OVA, one that would push the bar for Digimon's animation, while serve as the blueprint for one of his later works.

Almost a year to the day of the release of that first OVA, Toei would release Digimon: Bokura War Game. "Our War Game", as its known in the west, is a movie so good they had to make it four times. 

It picks up some time after the end of the show, with our characters back in their home world and dealing with the struggles of adolescence. However, during a summer vacation, a new virus-type Digimon emerges, penetrating every computer and eating through data like nobody's business.

As our heroes contact this new monster, it begins to evolve at an unprecedented rate, as it evades, outsmarts, and eventually beats Agumon and company at their strongest. Not only that, but the gang's meddling has caused the Virus to target them with a nuclear missile. So, with the clock ticking down to annihilation, Taichi and his co-lead Yamato must chase the now fully-evolved  Diaboromon to the ends of the Internet before it ends humanity as a whole.

If that synopsis seemed familiar to you in some way, shape or form, its because its also the plot to Hosoda's Summer Wars. It's also the plot to the second episode of the Digimon Adventure remake/reboot, titled "War Game". Like I said, this stuff is so good that both the studio and the director wanted another crack at it.

The similarities with Summer Wars don't end with the plot synopsis. The way the virtual world of the internet is animated in one film is analogous to the other. The way the backgrounds are animated, the outlines to the characters, and even some of the themes. In a lot of ways, watching Our War Game is like watching a battle shonen prototype for Hosoda's later work, both visually and narratively.

And while we're at it. I want to take a moment to gush about the animation, because it is at an all-time high for the franchise. The hilarious expressions of the digi-destined in the real-world, the tense editing, and the design of Diaboromon, they're all top-notch stuff. However, the movie's depiction of the world-wide-web takes the cake. I still remember being blown away by just how cool the internet looked in this movie, and even on rewatch, I still can't believe something this pretty was ever in Digimon. The best part, of course, being the fights.

https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/cf2e56e1394581e8c4be3f7d79c76402.mp4

Look at the missile rain, the fast-paced dodges, the impact on that punch. It's all so clean. Or look at this other example from 2/3rds into the film. Its so gorgeous, I don't even need to go into more detail here.

https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/e1b33b7085da91e11c415bf152c71586.mp4

Some other aspects of Hosoda's writing begin to peek through as well, with the director's style and core themes beginning to take form here, before blossoming in his work at Madhouse and Studio Chizu. Trends begin to form, starting with the first OVA in 1999, being fleshed out by his second film and continuing to this day.

One of the running ideas in Hosoda's version of Digimon is a conscious move away from the classic "Good vs Evil" narrative that everyone knows and loves. Its present in the first OVA, as the "villain" is merely another creature acting on self-preservation after being attacked, which the director described as akin to watching a lion and an antelope fight. In "Home Away from Home", the main conflict revolves around Hikari and Koromon's battle for Taichi's attention, one where no one really is at fault. Hikari is not evil for wanting to stay with her older brother, and neither is Koromon for wanting to get back with the rest of the gang.

However, nowhere is this running theme better embodied than in Diaboromon(or Diablomon in Japanese). As Hosoda puts it:

"Right, since the Net Digimon is more like some kind of bug, it’s closer to a natural catastrophe in that sense. That’s why we cannot consider it as a straight up evil, and Taichi doesn’t have any hatred toward Diablomon. He just wants to avoid a threat. The generation before us have grown only with stories about moral justice, so they cannot help but look for an antagonist, but that’s their problem (laugh). And I think people of the next generation are aware of the fact that they don’t live in that kind of world anymore. It’s not worth holding a grudge against the world, instead it’s more important to think about realistic ways to deal with it."

The Western Butchering of Hosoda's Digimon OVAs(or why you shouldn't watch Digimon: The Movie)

Now, despite this being a academically convenient excuse to gush about some of the best Digimon episodes every produced, I am not entirely being facetious by calling these "hidden gems". I'm aware that, some of you may have already watched these films in some way, shape, or form before. Probably without even knowing who directed it. It is part of a massive international media franchise, and it was distributed internationally. Hell, it was even shown in Theaters. The problem is... how they were distributed.

Enter Digimon: The Movie.

If you've watched either of the OVAs, chances are you watched it as part of the infamous feature-length film. See, by 2000, Pokemon had already turned the box-office into a money printer twice over with their first two films, and FOX, who had the licensing rights for Digimon, wanted to replicate their success.

What was their problem? Well, all they had were a bunch of seasonal OVAs, the ones Hosoda made, and a two-part film based on the second series. "Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Transcendent Evolution! The Golden Digimentals", which, I must say, are both terrible names.

In contrast to Hosoda's earlier efforts, these were directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi(the director for the first Broly OVA), had an entirely different cast of characters, and were god awful. For time reasons, I won't go into too much detail, but just know that these two movies barely make any sense on their own and would otherwise only be worth mentioning for the decent animation and the on-screen debut of Terriermon.

So there were these three Digimon stories that had nothing to do with each other, with one of them not even using the same characters, so what does FOX do? Well, of course, they go up to the dubs' writers and ask them to smush all of these into a 97 minute runtime, oh, and also, they added a woefully unfunny Angela Anaconda short to the start for... reasons that I cannot fathom.

The plots of the Digimon Adventure OVA and Our War Game are mangled to fit Hurricane Touchdown's uninteresting mystery plot.  New connections are established straight out of nowhere and given the vastly different animation styles of each part, the visuals clash with each other, especially as parts of one story as chopped up to fit into another. Not only that, but the pacing of the movie is all over the place, climaxing halfway through the runtime with Our War Game's buzzer-beating final fight, and then it just keeps going for the final third.

Worst of all, in the process of making this Frankenstein's Monster of a film, over 40 cumulative minutes had to be cut for time.

The resulting film was so catastrophically bad it veers on "so bad its good" territory. The writers try to inject it with the same kind of unhinged energy that lands the English Digimon dub into a lot of funny compilations, and for some parts, like Hosoda's comedy-filled Our War Game, it works. However, other scenes, well...(that clip was not altered in any way, shape or form). 

It is an ideal movie for groupwatches, especially if one's judgment is impaired by the use of certain substances(not that I'm encouraging such behaviors). However, it also ends up ruining two otherwise excellent pieces of media that are foundational to one of anime's best and most acclaimed creatives. For many years, western fans only had the FOX cut of Our War Game, and for most people, that may be the only versions of these films that they'll ever get to watch. And that is a damn shame.

However, I hope that, if you're still reading, that this post has inspired you into at least giving these three very special works a shot. Even if you're just a fan of Hosoda's other works, its still interesting to see some of his later ideas beginning to form with his work on Digimon.

Nicolás Izaguirre Gallardo.

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure: Our War Game, epilogue

Well, we finished the movie but I wanted to take a moment to go over these epilogue slides. Especially for those fans who only know the OVA from its appearance in Digimon: The Movie, where the slides are skipped over so it can move on to adapt Hurricane Touchdown.

So, in the wake of near-nuclear annihilation how is everybody doing?

We close out Takeru and Yamato's story at the barbershop. It seems Sho has convinced Yamato to fucking do something about his scraggly-ass hair.

This somewhat bridges the gap between Our War Game and 02, where Yamato's hair is still a bit unkempt but no longer looks like a porcupine died on his head and he kept it as a hat.

Jou finished his entrance exams and looks like he's about to drop dead on the spot. Diablomon really fucked up this kid's day, and he still doesn't even know any of that even happened.

Speaking of people who have no idea what happened, Mimi is home from her Hawaii trip and everybody's got suntans. The Tachikawa family is as close as ever.

Hikari is still at that birthday party despite Taichi screaming at her multiple times to drop everything and come home. She has elected to invoke the rule of Go Fuck Yourself, a popular choice among women who've been treated rudely by domineering men.

She, too, remains blissfully unaware of the horrifying fate that nearly befell Tokyo today.

Yamato's grandma seems to be enjoying the peace and quiet since Yamato and Takeru ran off.

Nobody ate any of Yuuko's destroyed cake. Diablomon truly did get the last laugh in the end.

Koushiro finally gets to go home after what must have felt like ten years in Susumu's office.

The Digimon return to Gennai's secret mansion to continue... Whatever they're doing with their lives.

And this is the big one. Sora types out an email to Taichi that reads: "Dear Taichi. I'm sorry. Thank you for the present. Sora." Then we close on the true final shot of the film: A picture of Sora, smiling and wearing the hairclip that Taichi gave her.

As with Yamato's haircut, this also serves to bridge the gap between series as 02 will see Sora no longer covering her hair with headgear. The emotional landmine Taichi stepped on has finally been cleaned up.

So. How we feeling about this film.

Assessment: My biggest complaint is that not one of the show's three female characters got to actually do anything.

Half of the cast was written out, with only Taichi, Yamato, Koushiro, and Takeru having any significant roles - and Takeru's really stretching the definition of "significant" there. That's fine, but it does bug me that not one of the show's women apparently warranted any serious inclusion.

I think that's why they gave Yuuko so much screentime. To compensate for the fact that all three of the Chosen Children girls were excluded.

Diablomon is... pretty straightforward. It's a buggy Digimon made of bugs who eats data, and its eating of data causes more bugs. There's something simple and childlike about its demeanor right up to the end, but any sympathy I may have had for it vanished instantly with the reveal of the nuke.

That the nuke was not a reaction to Taichi and Koushiro but rather something it did right at the start of the film really gives it a lot of added menace that didn't seem present in its earlier stages. And yet it's not super clear if Diablomon even grasps the severity of what it's doing.

But it's unambiguously both aware of and complicit in the nuclear threat. That didn't just happen by accident as a result of a bug. The whole thing with the clock shows that Diablomon knows it launched a nuke and is making a horrifying game out of it.

Which is... All it really does. It doesn't feel like it's trying to destroy the world on purpose. It would have fired more than one nuke if that was what it wanted. It just feels like it's playing games. With extremely high stakes.

What an odd creature.

The stuff in Shimane with Yamato and Takeru was a lot of fun. XD More than I expected it to be. I kinda love the barbershop randos.

Sora and Taichi's drama seems like it's meant to be the emotional center of the film. This is what we open on, and it's what we close on. It's something we keep coming back to as the OVA progresses.

But it's also kinda flat due to Sora basically being a glorified cameo like Jou and the other girls. Without giving Sora any kind of active presence, there's not really anywhere it can go. All we can do is listen to Taichi wring his hands and complain about the drama they're having until his email arrives and it suddenly stops happening.

It's hard to do interesting interpersonal drama as a solo act.

I think the missile itself is the breakout star of this OVA. If there's one thing Our War Game is remembered for, it's... Well, actually, it's the debut of Omegamon. But if there's two things, then it's being the one where an evil Digimon tried to nuke Japan.

All in all... still a fun OVA. Now, there's nothing left between us and Adventure 02. The old guard are retiring to middle school. It's time for a new generation to take over.

[seventeenlovesthree]

I havent watched the videos yet (i need more braincells for that than i have currently available) but the bit about the thing preventing evolution being on the moon and Yamato being chosen for that really rocked my boat! I always thought that in retrospect Yamato had enjoyed his adventures in the digital world and the exploring and wanted more of this explorer life style. So the next step was to became austronauts with Gabumon. And more on meta sphere i found it funny that they send the guy with the friendship crest out in space so he can make friends with potential extraterrastial life forms.

But this is why the adventure continuity is so precious to me. I know people are somewhat tired of it but the world of adventure has so much potential for many different stories, from a detective series with Ken and Iori, to political dramas with Taichi, to scifi with Yamato and Koushiro! Especially since they allowed the characters to age with its audience already, they easily make ovas about every character, their digimon and their struggle in this new half digital world. Maybe its a blessing in disguise they didnt make something like that, but damn... i would give a leg and an arm for a detective series with the 02 cast akin to the Cyber Sleuth games.

No worries, I haven't watched all of these videos either, but they're really fun for referencing, so please take all the time you need!

The interesting part with Yamato is that the writers of Tri onwards seemingly did not have these notes and tried their best to SOMEHOW make his career choices make sense. And while the course of the series STILL didn't really make it more plausible (at least in my eyes), we at least got a glimpse of his more investigative nature. And thus, what you described above could really have made for a super interesting third season of the Adventure verse. But for now, it's fun to think about all these headcanons and what they may lead to for each respective character.

I also agree, I would really love to see more of how the others would have developed. Who knows me also knows how much I dig Takeru's fanfic writing skills revolving around putting Taichi, Yamato and Koushirou in sci-fi related scenarios (because ever since Our War Game, they are basically predestined for that and Takeru KNOWS it). And yes, detective stories with Ken and Iori, political and investigative stuff with the three mentioned above could be super intriguing. I would obviously also REALLY know more about the girls, because they have been heavily underutilized (and I cannot die before I have seen Sora getting back on track again, similarly to how I physically and emotionally need to see Taichi finding happiness again). With Kakudou's notes, there are so many stories you could tell (Jyou working with Doctors Without Borders, hello???), all the struggles, growing pains, achievements and learnings, basically... Infinite potential so to speak.

We may really have to watch this as another timeline split in case it won't be congruent with the stories Tri, Kizuna and The Beginning have told, but I, just like you, really love how much variety Adventure offers. March is still so far away, but I am already feeling giddy about this PV.