#i mean the overall tone of the movie was sad but it reeeeally felt like my boys had drifted apart

[seventeenlovesthree]

Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna Relationship Analysis: How the dramaturgy keeps telling the viewer that Taichi and Koushirou are always (and have always been) connected.

More than a year ago, I wrote my very first analysis post on Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna after having watched it for the first time - and my initial verdict regarding the relationship between Taichi and Koushirou was that there was some kind of implied drift between them. Granted, the narrative keeps hitting the viewer on the head about how it’s not easy to keep everyone together throughout adulthood and that Taichi’s situation (and mental health state) specifically is causing him to keep a distance to (the majority of) the others. Some of these points will still be part of the following analysis - however, after having watched the movie several times now and with a lot of bias pushed aside, I noticed that they’re actually more connected than the narrative makes you believe at first glance. Let’s take a look at this. (Disclaimer: There’s a lot of interpretation on my behalf of course, I’ve tried to gather as much evidence for my claims as possible, but in the end, it’s also still a fanon interpretation of their relationship.)

First of all, it’s noticable that the actual group still defending Tokyo from materializing Digimon has decreased significantly - at least at the time the movie takes place. Besides Takeru and Hikari, we only see Taichi and Yamato being involved in the first fight against Parrotmon, while Koushirou is managing the logistics from afar - not only is he the one able to open gates to the Digital World at will by now, but he is also the one who provides everyone with the technology they need for their fights to turn out successful. Smartphones, headphones, the (prototype) goggles Taichi uses... It’s easy to see how he’s basically their sponsor and Taichi the “guinea pig” to try it all out - and he does so voluntarily. Thanks to this translation here, we know that Taichi took the googles without permission. So while the others are obviously using Koushirou’s gadgets as well, Taichi seems to be particularly interested in trying them out.

As mentioned, the phones the Chosen Children are using were also made by Koushirou’s company; he’s the connector who manages the Chosen Children network, he is being on-call and has all his contacts, chats and calls ready if required. It’s his logo that continuously appears throughout the movie. And why is it notable that it’s there? Because he and Taichi keep communicating with each other through electronic means; headphones, phones, text messages. And while Koushirou also contacts Yamato and Takeru to gather them all in his office, making it appear like a rather formal “work arrangement”, meeting up like that seems to be something Taichi definitely enjoys ditching his adult obligations for. Taichi immediately shuts down Koushirou apologizing to them for calling them despite knowing how busy they are; he dryly says that it’s an emergency, implying that it should have been natural for them to come after Koushirou asked - but seeing how giddy he appears to be upon going on an “adventure” with his closest buddies again, it does give the impression that he welcomes it all.

It seems to be something that boosts his confidence, so him reassuring Koushirou that everything will be fine is a nice change of pace - especially when you take into consideration that we’ve seen him being quite gloomy in previous scenes, unsure about his future, unhappy in his part-time-job, all alone in his tiny flat. Probably dealing with a lot of insecurities, self-doubt and maybe even inferiority issues - because even if it was never outright mentioned, a (potentially) subtle little nudge towards Our War Game tells the viewer once more that Taichi Yagami (understandably) doesn’t like it when smart people around him make him feel dumb - or when Koushirou actually interacts with people he deems much smarter than himself. (Perhaps - despite it being quite a stretch - he might even feel inferior towards Koushirou himself, who, being the CEO of his own company at the age of only 21, already has his life together for the most part, whereas Taichi hasn’t. And thus, we do not see Taichi confide in Koushirou throughout the span of the movie - which doesn’t mean that they don’t talk about personal issues at all, but Taichi seems to be more inclined to - superficially - mope about his future angst with Yamato, while still keeping the majority of his doubts to himself. Again, that’s mainly interpretation.)

Back to the communication part: One of the things that has been a constant throughout all of Digimon Adventure was that Taichi is relying on Koushirou figuring things out, giving him/them the information he/they need to progress. And even during adulthood, that still seems to be a thing. Sure, the narrative always required Koushirou to be “info-dump-boy” who easily figures out what is going on (because plot), but no matter how bleak things appear to be and even if they don’t seem as close with each other as they used to be on an emotional level, these two still trust in and rely on each other.

Taichi asks him about where Menoa resides, stays on the phone with him to make sure he’ll definitely know how to get to the place Hikari is being held hostage at - because he knows he can trust Koushirou 100%. In fact, despite the implied (emotional) distance, he actually seems to know quite a lot about what is going on with him - implying that, after all, he’s still attached to him. This is not only shown by him being the one who talks about Koushirou being the owner of a company to Yamato, but generally in the way he continuously mentions or refers to him.

Looking at Koushirou’s perspective, he will go as far as to completely commit to the cause and sacrifice himself for the sake of making sure Taichi (and Yamato and everyone else) won’t lose their partners. His facial expressions throughout the movie tell you how bitter he is that he hasn’t figured anything out yet to stop the departure from happening. 

The novel-only part about “The Candle Of Life” eventually foreshadows that Koushirou is indeed willing to sacrifice himself (which is something he has always done): “Instead of taking things from people against their will, I’d rather give to them what I have before my end.” And that is exactly what he does - he manages to get the coordinates to the Digital Realm to Taichi before losing his consciousness, by typing on a pre-paid-phone behind his back like it’s the easiest thing in the world. Obviously, Taichi trusts in that information without a single shred of doubt - because it’s Koushirou it’s coming from.

And Koushirou himself? It’s not really a surprise that he - and Hikari - are the ones who latch onto Taichi while they’re being turned back into children. Because Taichi has always been among those people he’s been the closest with. My theory back then was that it may have been a subconscious action, fueled by the wish to stop Taichi from destroying this ideal world, in order to bring back old times, easier times, times in which they were much closer than they are now. But then again - is it really the case? Because the connection between them hasn’t really vanished. Koushirou - as shown above several times now - has always stayed in touch with Taichi; telling him about Digimon attacking the city, about trouble coming up, about his sister being in danger, always making sure he’d be okay and safe. (Which might also explain why he was so furious about Taichi taking the prototype goggles - since he has made goggles for him for several years now, it’s fair to assume that he wants his own creations to not be a safety hazard to his friend. Plus, Koushirou has always been worried about Taichi doing reckless things - even the stageplay picked up on this, repeatedly and with emphasis -, so this should not be surprising either.)

And in the end - as much as Taichi relies on Koushirou, Koushirou always relies on Taichi too. Hence why he sent the coordinates to him specifically. Because he’d always call/contact him first. He has done so since he was 10/11 and still does so as an adult.

And since they’ve always been plan crafting like this together, it’s actually still fair to assume that this attitude has never really changed.