#kizuna!koushiro | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

seventeenlovesthree · 9 days ago

Text

Digimon and Fairy Tales - an ongoing thought experiment

This will just be a draft, because @jamesthedigidestined and I have been discussing the idea that... Digimon's creators may or may not have been inspired by Fairy Tales a LOT while writing their plot and characters.

(As mentioned, this will be an ongoing analysis, because I am pretty sure I haven't even grasped all of it yet.)

Let's begin with the most obvious ones:

Kizuna / Peter Pan

This one is pretty on the nose, because the term "Neverland" is quite literally used within the movie - and the analogy makes perfect sense. Peter Pan is described as a "free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical island of Neverland as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland".

Menoa's plan is to lure all Chosen Children to Neverland, righteously convinced to fulfill their dream of never wanting to become adults and spend the rest of eternity with their Digimon partners... To her, this is an ideal world, an island of bliss and without pain - when in reality, it's nothing but escapism, unable to face reality and pain, forgetting about everything else and thus dooming them all to be lost in a world without change forever... Which is a fate almost as cruel as "death" itself.

On a different note, the Digital World itself - or at least File Island - may be compared to Neverland as well, as it allows the Chosen Children (= Lost Boys) to interact with all sorts of outlandish creatures as well.

Also, it may not be a coincidence that Menoa and Disney's depiction of Peter Pan share red hair...

Ken Ichijouji / The Snow Queen

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the screenshot of Ken getting "hit" by the Dark Spore, but... For the purpose of this comparison, this shall still do. In the fairytale "The Snow Queen" it is said that "the devil, in the form of a troll, has made a magic mirror that distorts the appearance of everything that it reflects. The mirror does not reflect the good and beautiful aspects of people and things but magnifies their bad and ugly aspects. The troll's minions take the mirror all over the world to distort everything, then carry it up to heaven to mock God and the angels. As they approach heaven, the mirror trembles and falls, shattering into billions of pieces. Some become windowpanes, some spectacles, and some get stuck in people's hearts and eyes, giving them a cold and bitter disposition."

A boy named Kai gets one of these shards stuck in his eye and turns, as mentioned, cold and bitter - and only his childhood friend, Gerda, after going out on a journey to find and bring him back from The Snow Queen, is capable of thawing the cold that has engulfed him.

"Ken" is already pretty close to "Kai" - and while he is somewhat becoming the Snow Queen himself by turning into the Digimon Kaiser, there are higher forces that influence him into taking on a completely different personality; namely, the Dark Spore (= the mirror shards) in his body that turns him vile and cruel in opposition to his naturally kind attitude. (One might also call Daisuke his personal Gerda in this context.)

Koushirou Izumi / The Little Mermaid

If you know my blog, you know I've been having fun with this comparison before, but let's start with the story. I'll try to summarize just the most important points:

"The Little Mermaid lives in a Utopian underwater kingdom with her widowed father, the Sea King, her paternal grandmother, and her five older sisters (...). The Little Mermaid is fascinated by the world above the sea, and human beings (...). Lonely and feeling isolated from her family, she yearns to explore the world above, and constantly asks her grandmother to tell her stories of humans. (...) The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, visits the Sea Witch who lives in a dangerous part of the ocean, surrounded by a forest of polyps, mud, and whirlpools. Although the witch warns the Little Mermaid that her attempts to win the love of the prince are doomed, she willingly helps her by selling her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her voice (her tongue)."

Thus, we have a young, curious soul that not only feels isolated from their family, but also longs to learn more about another world... This already does sound familiar, doesn't it? In episode 24 of Adventure, Koushirou is caught by Vademon and told that his "desire" will lead him straight to hell - similarly to how the Sea With tells The Little Mermaid that her own desire is doomed. Granted, Koushirou's desire mainly refers to his endless curiosity, his "inquisite heart"... However, he IS also searching for a person (and depending on your interpretation of his urgency, him looking for Gennai indirectly also means that he's looking for Taichi, who had gone lost). In the Digimon Adventure novels, Koushirou isn't just throwing away his inquisite heart for the sake of achieving blissful ignorance and not getting drawn into hell - he loses the alphabet and thus, the ability to talk. The similarities are pretty striking there...

Additionally (similarly to Menoa), most people might be familiar with Disney's redheaded version of The Little Mermaid anyway, so I feel like the comparison fits even better.

The Seven Chosen Children (Plus One) / The Seven Ravens

While trying to research whether or not "Jack and the Beanstalk" has comparable elements to The Beginning, I stumbled over this one by chance - and was absolutely flabbergasted at the fact that it actually kinda works:

"A peasant has seven sons and no daughter. Finally a daughter is born, but is sickly. The father sends his sons to fetch water for her to be baptized. In their haste, they drop the jug in the well. When they do not return, their father thinks that they have gone off to play and curses them and so they turn into ravens.

When the sister is grown, she sets out in search of her brothers. She attempts to get help first from the sun, which is too hot, then the moon, which craves human flesh, and then the morning star. The star helps her by giving her a chicken bone and tells her she will need it to save her brothers. She finds them on the Glass Mountain but has lost the bone, and chops off a finger to use as a key. She goes into the mountain, where a dwarf tells her that her brothers will return. She takes some of their food and drink and leaves, in the last cup, a ring from home.

When her brothers return, she hides. They turn back into human form and ask who has been at their food. The youngest brother finds the ring, and hopes it is their sister, in which case they are saved. She emerges, and they return home."

Granted, we are talking about Seven Sons and not Seven Children in general - but the fact that the eighth sibling is a daughter and sickly already stuck out to me. Then of course there is the fact that the seven brothers disappear - and get turned into ravens, the equivalent of getting sent into another world, a MOUNTAIN (Infinity Mountain? Spiral Mountain???) of all places... And instead of them looking for the eighth child, the sister - our resident Hikari - is the one looking for them, with a ring being a key to finding them. (Also, the youngest brother HOPING to be found by the sister? Takeru? Is that you???)

The Beginning / Jack and the Beanstalk

I initally came up with this idea even before the movie came out - simply by looking at the poster and the giant golden tentacles that kinda reminded me of a beanstalk... Especially because eggs seemed to play a role again. The story itself doesn't share that many similarities, however, one could loosely relate them to one another:

Both Jack and Rui come from a - assumably - poor family and gain the chagrin of their respective mothers. Some magic beans that Jack received turned into a giant beanstalk - similar to how Rui's wish towards Ukkomon caused it to turn into a giant version of itself, containing thousands if not millions of digieggs.

Jack climbing up the beanstalk and turning towards an unfriendly giant's wife to wish for food is also reminiscent of the wish fulfillment aspect - his continuous wishing does get him in trouble with the unfriendly giant though, ending in a fight... But eventually, he gets a golden egg (!!!), gets out of trouble thanks to his wits, defeats the giant and will live happily ever after.

... Like I said, it's very loose, but I couldn't help but think about this.

Mimi Tachikawa / The Princess and the Pea

This one is also very loose in comparison to the previous ones - but the theme still fits: "The story tells of a prince who wants to marry a princess but is having difficulty finding a suitable wife. He meets many princesses, but is never sure that they are real princesses—until one stormy night, when a mysterious young woman drenched with rain seeks shelter in the prince's castle. She claims to be a princess, but the prince's mother, the queen, has doubts. She decides to test their unexpected guest by placing a hard uncooked pea in the bed she is offered for the night, covered by twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds. In the morning, the mysterious woman tells her hosts that she endured a rather restless night, kept awake by something in the bed that made her feel uncomfortable. The prince's family realizes that she is a princess after all, since only a true princess could be so delicate."

Episode 25 of Adventure tells the story of Mimi getting welcomed into ShogunGekomon's castle, getting treated "like a princess" by the Gekomon and Otamamon, as they hope that her singing will wake their lord from his slumber. However, all the luxury is getting to Mimi's head, so she actually acts like a spoilt princess to the point of even throwing her friends into jail - until Sora reminds her of what's right and that she's actually a good, pure and delicate girl. Realizing her wrongdoings, Mimi's Crest of Sincerity (!) finally starts to glow. However, instead of marrying a prince, Mimi has to fight against ShogunGekkomon alongside Taichi and Jyou in the end...

43 notes · View notes

deramonfaqs · 4 months ago

Text

Knowledge Wave

45 notes · View notes

hikaritakaishi · 8 months ago

Text

Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning [My Movie Review]

♡ ! SPOILER ALERT! ♡

This review will contain spoilers of the movie, continue reading if you already saw the movie, or just don’t mind the spoiler! Enjoy & comment something if you want to share an opinion! ♡

After what seemed ages of waiting, Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning finally aired in Portugal, on May 16, 2024, several months after it’s national premiere in Japan, on October 27, 2023. I was worried that it wouldn't come to my country, but perhaps due to the huge acceptance of Digimon Adventure: LAST EVOLUTION KIZUNA, the distributor made the hearts of the DigiDestined from the most hidden corner of Europe warm again and brought us the sequel. Thank you remembering us once again! ♡

I really tried to keep my expectations as neutral as possible until the day I went to see the movie, which was pretty difficult, due to the fact that I was constantly being bombarded with online information about it, whether on Tumblr or Twitter, or through video recommendations on Youtube. I was so excited for the movie, that I had to control myself immensely not to go see the spoilers.

Initial considerations? I like it. In general. But let's go in parts!

This will be an analysis of what I consider to be the most important points of the movie and what caught my attention the most. A personal analysis, so don't take it too seriously if I don't talk about a certain point or a certain specific topic, I probably just missed that.

Firstly, I would like to comment on the initial dynamics of the movie.

Everything seems to happen much faster here than it did in Kizuna. Despite being two movies with practically the same time span, this one seemed to go by much faster. But it might just be me. [LAST EVOLUTION KIZUNA have 94 minutes, and The Beginning have 87 minutes total].

We're introduced to the key plot problem pretty quickly too.

People's digital devices are glitching, and the same message is repeating itself on all of them, not just on the phones and televisions, but on computers and large digital screens in cities all around the world. And this all around the world is very important, because it not only brings us closer to what will be the future of humanity and it’s increasing contact with the Digimon and the Digital World, but it opens the path we take since 2012 [time of the movie] until to the epilogue of 02 (which the production team and Toei animation seem to insist on wanting to keep canon, despite all the script inconsistencies it can cause, or how different from the initial profile of each character it may be).

“May everyone have friends, may everyone have a partner Digimon”

It's the message. Meanwhile, we are told that a suspicious and unknown Digitama appeared in the sky of Tokyo, right above the Tokyo Tower, and it’s been there for a while. Taichi and Koushiro are showned to be trying to help resolve this issue as professionals in the field of diplomacy and technology respectively, but without major progress.

I think it's important to highlight that they are the only two characters from the first season of Adventure who appear in this movie, and even so, without any direct speech or great relevance, beyond contextualization, and later Taichi as well again for the context of “space- time”, in that frame we see in the trailer of the movie with Hikari, which we later discover is located in Hikarigaoka, where Rui also lived when he had his first contact with Ukkomon.

The focus is on the characters from 02, or at least, it should have been. But as in Digimon Adventure Tri, this focus is overshadowed by the introduction of another new character in the story: Rui Owhada [or Lui, in Japanese pronunciation].

Rui [or Lui] is a much more charismatic character than Meiko was in Digimon Adventure Tri. There is no doubt about that.

Meiko was a somewhat empty character. A static character without great charisma. The only pleasant scenes she had were driven by the other characters around her (namely Mimi).

Rui doesn't. Rui is a character on his own. With a much more aggressive personality and a much more interesting past. The only issue here is the length of the movie: This movie is too short; too short for us to get attached to this character and actually be able feel empathy for everything we are shown about him. So short, that it's difficult to develop both this new character and the others around him, which, by the way, is a shame.

I mostly went to see the movie in hopes to see more from the 02 cast, and not because, again, of a random character they created for this new script. Just like what happened in Tri.

And this is important because notice that one of the most complex and best-built characters in the Adventure universe is literally the character with the most screen time: Takeru.

Analyzing Takeru's character as a whole is extremely time-consuming, because he was in every season, and practically involved in all the main events of the plot, either by himself or through the relationships he establishes throughout the plot, which feed the character's emotional charge. Which makes him a very complex character.

There's no time for that here. There is no time to establish a relationship between Rui and the other characters, nor to establish a relationship between Rui… and the audience.

Rui's childhood is very shocking and once again, Digimon brings a very strong narrative based on a complex and deep family plot.

We had already had examples in Adventure of family issues with Takeru and Yamato, Koushiro, and in 02 with Iori and also Ken. To a certain extent, even with Miyako. But here we reach a higher level of complexity... and violence (remember that the age to see the movie is over 12 years old. I can totally understand why).

Rui is physically abused and neglected by his mother, who leaves him out in the cold, starving when he makes a childish mistake or does something she doesn't like... when he is only four years old. His father has a very serious illness and depends on his wife to survive. Rui is then shown as a sorrowful child, lonely and without any support network. We've never had anything in the Digimon Adventure series so… raw. The aura of the movie is deeply heavy and dark.

The evolutions and battles in this movie are far from being the focus, which probably frustrated many people who went to see the movie for this more dynamic side of the anime.

It is a film with a moral content and even touches on the philosophical, about the bonds we create with others and their nature, about how we should relate to others and learn about them every day we have them in our lives.

It's about healthy communication, and how it's okay to correct the people around us, as long as it's made based with pure intentions. Because love is not omissive. Love corrects, love draws the other's attention for what really matters, in the form of love. In the form of companionship. Nothing physical or superficial is worth the price of a real bond.

The movie really grew with it’s audience. It is not, at all, a movie targeted for new fans of the franchise, or for those who know little about the Adventure series universe. It's for those who know the characters, for those who grew up with them. If you don't know the characters, you will miss details and conversations that are important to really understand the plot as a whole.

Daisuke and Ken look on Rui’s past with him. They see the arrival of Ukkomon in his life, who should’ve bring peace and comfort, but it is only the beginning of all his problems.

Let's take a break from the movie's plot to talk about the characters of 02.

I'm going to divide them into groups, because it seems like they individually… don't have much progress or very memorable scenes, honestly. It doesn't even make sense to separate them, in my opinion, and you'll understand why.

♡ Daisuke & Iori

There is not much to talk about them here. Daisuke and Iori are the flattest characters in the movie. Iori much more than Daisuke, let's be honest. Iori barely speaks, and has very few relevant scenes.

Daisuke works at a ramen restaurant, as he always wanted, where he gathers his friends to talk about the problems they are facing right at the beginning of the movie.

His personality is practically the same, Daisuke from 02 is the same Daisuke from The Beginning, and even the same character as in Kizuna, he is just taller here and wears different clothes. He still aspires to have his own ramen business and is extremely focused on his career goals. Which was predictable, given the way he talks about his dream in 02.

Daisuke's only two relevant scenes are seconds long: the first when he convinces Rui that the bond of friendship he and his Digimon partner share is much more than something superficial; it's something that comes from the heart, and that no object makes a difference between them, namely the Digivice, (something we also expected to hear from Daisuke in 02, which justifies my opinion that in the meantime... he remains the same).

The other is a scene that had enormous potential, but is cut short by a comical moment in which Miyako pops up.

Daisuke is talking to Ken seriously about Rui, and how he and his Digimon could understand each other better if they just communicate more effectively and directly, and Ken comments that Daisuke's more serious side is very pleasant and rarely appears. However, Miyako speaks up and dismisses the subject. Sadly.

We could have had a conversation here that could tell us more about Daisuke’s presente self and way he sees life now.

*sigh* Anyway.

Iori, again, doesn't speak much. Seems to only have intermediary interventions, and serves as a “pair” for Daisuke and Rui in the snowball fight that we see at the end of the movie. A very beautiful scene, don't get me wrong, but only if we see it from the perspective of Ken and Miyako, and Hikari and Takeru. I'll talk about that now.

♡ Ken & Miyako

Ken and Miyako are two characters who seem to grow more together than apart within the movie's plot. Which is natural, given that we know at the end of 02 that they become in fact a couple, and that they build a family together in the future. Here we see the first steps towards their future as a couple.

As expected, nothing explicit or direct is given to us about the nature of their relationship, but we can understand that there is progress, especially by the end of the movie, before the snowball fight, when Miyako tells Ken something that seems extremely vague, but actually means something.

“Let's do it together! " What? I don't think they are aware yet. Ken also seemed very confused about it.

“ Keep thinking Ken, we have to find another solution. “ We also see Miyako trying to support Ken at that moment when they have to make a decision about the future of Ukkomon and the world.

Here comes what I said above: Love cannot be omissive. We cannot expect the least from those we love. If we know the potential of the person we have by our side, we have to support them. If we see that they are trying to go further, we must support their journey and be a source of advice and rest. Alone we can go faster, but with the right company we can certainly go further.

And I think this is where the movie touches on something really important.

It is in these small moments that we see that they really want to tell the audience something beyond, but we need to have a fine power of perception.

No conversation or comment is random, everything contributes to the story. Digimon Adventure has always been made up of metaphors and subjectivities, it is necessary to know how to interpret and be attentive.

In the midst of that dilemma of whether or not to defeat Ukkomon that we talked about a moment ago in relation to Ken and Miyako, we have another moment that I consider important between Takeru and Hikari, which for those who don't know the characters, can take it as a normal conversation of two people who know each other well. Too well, even.

♡ Takeru & Hikari

Keeping in mind their journey, and everything they went through together, is the key to understand the nature of the relationship they share now. But before that:

Much like Ken and Miyako, Takeru and Hikari do not exist separately in the plot. It's ridiculously difficult to separate them. If you talk about one, you have to talk about the other.

At the beginning we see them together in the city when the electronic devices break down, and this dynamic continues throughout the entire movie.

They practically always walk side by side, Hikari takes the front seat in Takeru's car, and even when they are talking to Rui and trying to understand what happened to him in his past, they were a nucleus apart from the others. Nothing new, really. More of the same. But it's in that conversation I spoke about earlier that we understand something that is even part of the main moral of the movie: the way they now communicate with each other now, is different.

Anyone who has followed Takeru and Hikari throughout the series knows that the main “problem” in their relationship has always been direct communication.

Exposing things to others as they are is scary. And none of them were good at doing that.

Deliberating about feelings, exposing what disturbs us, what distresses us, what we think of a certain attitude of the other person. That was always Takeru and Hikari's problem and what hindered the possible evolution of their friendship, into a real love relationship.

In Tri we discover that Hikari starts to look at Takeru differently. And we know that Takeru has concrete feelings for Hikari (Said by the actor who plays Takeru's voice) And then? It's done? Things… are much more complicated than that.

They first need to accept the situation in question (And I tell you this as someone who also developed a romantic relationship with a childhood friend. It's not easy. Trust me. It's far from easy!)

And far from being quick.

It requires a lot of deliberation mostly. Just accepting the fact that we see that person we grew up with differently, someone who has always been part of our life, and we can lose them. Just because we developed feelings. Is scary. There's a lot to lose. It's all or nothing. Especially when one side has trauma associated with romantic relationships. (remembering that Takeru's parents are divorced) it's even worse.

What seems to exist between them in The Beginning was the result of a long process. But effective, it seems to me. Whatever decision they made, it went… pretty well.

Takeru is completely against defeating Ukkomon, from the moment he realizes that this could also imply the disappearance of his Digimon partner.

He probably saw the suffering Taichi and Yamato went through when Agumon and Gabumon disappeared and the suffering he would go through if he lose Patamon... again. And he is extremely vocal and firm in what he says and what he thinks about all of that. Impulsive really.

Until Hikari intervenes. Which cuts through his catastrophic reasoning. She asks him to think, opening up a new perspective on the situation.

Here we have a conversation between them that is quite lengthy (compared to the fast action standard of the rest of the movie) in which Hikari tries her best to make Takeru use reason and not emotion in his deliberation on the situation.

Takeru who, remember, whenever “darkness” or “sacrifice” is mentioned, leaves his rationality aside, becomes blind with pain because of his past traumas.

Hikari's role here is almost the same as Miyako’s in Ken's case: calling to earth and calming Takeru, always in an understanding way, because you can see that she knows where that feeling comes from and that position initially adopted by him (and it is something which she can almost predict would happen, by the speed with which she responds) but she knows that he is better than those triggers that make him impulsively speak based on emotion and neglect reason.

It's about getting to know each other. Knowing how to talk to our person about the most difficult topics. Because it is necessary to strengthen your union. Predict reactions, and be there to calm them down, because you may even know that the person is not to blame for the feelings and traumas they carry, but believe that they are bigger than them. And expect the same from the other side.

The way Miyako knew that Ken could find a solution, he just needed to think a little more. Hikari understood perfectly where Takeru's impulsive reaction came from, but she knew that if she appeal to his racional side he would be able to think of a better alternative to the problem, which he thought would be the end of the world.

That's why I separated this analysis into groups (although the first one isn't... substantial) and decided to analyze the characters together, because that's what this movie is about.

It's about who you are with your people, and the bond you share with them. In a world so individualized, so selfish and so distant (largely because of technology, which distances us from each other), I found it a very necessary message.

And the role of adults? With children and more painful lives?

It is to understand that children are also humans. Who also think, and feel, and understand things. Just like them. Adults tend to forget that they were once children themselves.

We already saw this topic being developed in Adventure 02, but seeing Rui as an adult, reaching to his mother in the past, and drawing her attention to the fact that she neglects her son, is something very touching. Sometimes, we just need a wake-up call, and we can change the future. Ours, and our future with others.

The DigiDestined of 02 encouraged Rui not to give up on someone he loved, Ukkomon, because after all, he only acted the way he acted because he thought it would make Rui happier, even though he failed. Several times.

Ukkomon basically gave Rui everything he thought he needed, everything he wanted. But this is not always ideal.

He acted with his partner's happiness in mind, and this blinded him to the risks he was putting him into. He idealized their entire relationship, and everyone's relationship with him. Instead of being, real. And real things are never perfect.

Rui wanted friends? He gave him friends. He even reprogrammed his parents. They became manufactured humans. And the movie is about reality and accepting it as imperfect as it is.

Do you know what that reminded me of? That whole fantasy created by Ukkomon of “perfect world where Rui is never sad and everything is wonderful?” The fantasies in which the characters from 02 cast were trapped in at the end of the series. That world created with the characters’ deepest desires.

Takeru wanted his family united. Iori wanted his father back and to be able to show him the Digital Word. Miyako wanted attention. Ken… wanted to redeem himself. Hikari wanted peace. It's exactly the same thing.

Think about it with me: For example, Takeru's parents could’ve stay together, they could never have divorced, but they would still have problems. They would argue, and there would be conflicts. Which doesn't mean that this wouldn't traumatize their children even more. Maybe the divorce was in fact the best option for all four of them.

Ken felt he deserved the same suffering he inflicted on others. Would that really be the answer to appease his soul?

But none of it was real.

Not even Hikari's utopia of a world constantly at peace is real. Not even the absence of siblings in Miyako's life would solve anything. Things are not black and white and really, what we want is not always what we need.

Rui just needed to talk to Ukkomon and be sincere.

Where is Mimi tho?!

I will end with a few quick notes that I think are worth highlighting: First, the music and animation in general. As expected, they are excellent.

Very well done visually, appealing scenes, and the last snowball fight scene is so simple… but so delightful.

Life is made up of beautiful moments as well as tragic moments, light and darkness.

Did you notice that part of the movie takes place in a much dark environment, and when the main action is resolved, the movie gains light? I believe that is not just because!

Visually it can be very strong because there is blood, there is violence, there are physical wounds, it conveys the affliction in a very literal way.

Another thing that was expected to happen, but that probably wasn't even thought of properly when the Epilogue of 02 was made, was the problematic of whether or not everyone deserves, has enough morals and ethics, to have a Digimon partner.

How do you maintain peace between humans when you give them free access to machines of war and mass destruction? How do we build the world we see bz the end of 02 where everyone lives in peace even under these circumstances? Which is the the role of the government?

We'll probably need one more movie to find out.

Honestly, I hope you enjoyed this short (not... that short in fact) and sincere review. If I were to give stars, I would give the film 4/5 stars.

It could’ve been better, sure, if there was at least another half hour of animation.

But I don't complain. Despite that, I liked it. I cried, I laughed, just like I cried and laughed when I saw Digimon in my childhood, and that's everything for me. I was surprised by the message of the movie and the way they chose to visually convey it to us. Either way, I hope there's one more movie. To finally conclude the arc of all these characters, and finally, reach the epilogue of 02 (but in a dignified way please).

♡ Thank you once again Digimon ♡

74 notes · View notes

rockthistowninsideout · 6 months ago

Text

Taichi the Intern

After having completed strenuous and highly-anticipated peace negotiations, the UN have granted Taichi six months of much-needed holidays. He spends the first month lounging at beautiful beaches but then his need for activity kicks in and he decides to tag along with his friends in their every-day-jobs.

Happy Odaiba Day!

This fic is inpired by this year's prompts from @taichiyagamiweek. I didn't get around to write for the event so I thought, why not post it on our national holiday😄

I hope you enjoy the story and thank you all so much for being part of this awesome fandom.

(Click the picture to find the fic on Ao3.)

#odaiba day #digimon adventure #digimon adventure tri #last evolution kizuna #taichi yagami #yamato ishida #sora takenouchi #koushiro izumi #jou kido #mimi tachikawa #takeru takaishi #hikari yagami #my stories #digimon

37 notes · View notes

ahiddenpath · 6 months ago

Text

Cover art commissioned from kbondoxxxxav

HAPPY ODAIBA DAY! I just published a new chapter of my digimon fanfic, Infinite Possibilities! Read it on AO3 or FFN!

In today's chapter, Koushiro gives Eimi background info on the relationship between the Chosen and the Bureau, and we see the lingering damage from the events of Tri. I was so interested in thinking up what happened to the 02 kids afterward, I hope I can expand those ideas into a full fic someday.

I'm so excited, because things really start to pick up next chapter, when Hikari and Miyako tell the villages of baby digimon what happened to their missing friends.

Fic Summary:

As more people meet their digimon partners, the challenges of digimon and humans coexisting on earth cannot be ignored. College student Anami Eimi begins her career in digimon research, hoping to help digimon and humans understand one another. When she discovers caged digimon in her new lab, she contacts the Japanese Chosen, setting off a chain of events that force the Chosen and their digimon to reevaluate the dynamics of their partnership.

This fic is set pre and post Kizuna, and is a mostly canon compliant expansion. It's a three phase story, the first starring OC Anami Eimi, then Izumi Koushiro, then Yagami Hikari. It explores the realities, challenges, and politics of digimon living on earth, and the nature of the Chosen/digimon partnership.

Can the Chosen and their digimon find the infinite possibilities that will sustain their partnerships into adulthood?

There are mentions of couples in this fic, but it's action/world expansion/plot driven, not a romance.

47 notes · View notes

izzyizumi · 4 months ago

Text

{D I G I M O N} Adventure (F r a n c h i s e) ~ Adventure, 02, tri., tri. S t a g e-p l a y, L a s t E v o l u t i o n: Kizuna, & Adventure: [2020 R e b o o t] + KOUSHIRO I z u m i + {F R A M E D In} S U N S E T {S}/{C O L O R S} + {KOUTAI} / {Taishiro} / {TaiKou} (Koushiro{u} I z u m i & Taichi Y a g a m i) {As Ship} + Koushiro & M e n o a Bellucci

+ {L O O K I N G}/A i m i n g Towards the F U T U R E {F O R W A R D}

Originally I wanted to make this for @taikouvember 2 k 2 4! (It could have fit for "L i g h t"!) {Though I made it a bit e a r l y!}

#izumi koushirou #koushiro izumi #koushirou izumi #taishiro #taikouvember #koutai #koushiro x taichi #taishirou #menoa bellucci #koushiro and menoa #platonic koumeno #bokura no mirai #tri koushiro #kizuna koushiro #digistage koushiro #2020 koushiro #adventure koushiro #02 koushiro #bnm spoilers #bokura no mirai spoilers #kizuna spoilers #digiadv 2020 spoilers #adventure: spoilers #(I T is a bit e A R L Y B U T)#({I m IGHT be b U S Y})#(Usin S p a c e s to k EEPO U T of S e a r c h)#(This can fit B O T H {L i g h t} and even m AYBE {S i n c e r i t y} a.k.a in J.P.N ver. {P u r i t y} {t h e m e s} yU P)#(Digi-S t a g e and Kizuna were a bit of a S t r e t c h but I do t HINK these {M O M E N T S} c OUNT)#(In K i z u n a its more like very {e a r l y} {s u n s e t} but still w ORKS)#(In Digi-S t a g e most of it is the {l i g h t i n g} but it may have been {M e a n t} to f EEL {s u n s e t}esque!?)

27 notes · View notes

geneenart · 10 months ago

Text

Commission DigiPokemon [#5 2024]

#digimon adventure tri #digimon #sora takenouchi #taichi yagami #taiora #yagami taichi #sora #digimon kizuna #joe kido #koushiro izumi #Taishiro #izzyizumi #pokemon #pikachu #togepi #best ship ever #mimi tachikawa

48 notes · View notes

froggie-bolt · 1 year ago

Text

Post-kizuna

The writing is so messy sorry about that lol

This is AU stuff to scratch my brain, and I needed some angst

Anyway, throwing this into the tumblr void :)

#digimon #digimon adventure #taishiro #taichi x koushiro #taichi yagami #koushiro izumi #taikou #koutai #digimon adventure kizuna #digimon last evolution #digimon kizuna last evolution

40 notes · View notes

ashxketchum · 6 months ago

Text

TAICHI YAGAMI WEEK 2024

154 notes · View notes

digimonarchive · 2 years ago

Text

The Six Chosen Children/Digidestined through the years

1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th pics = Taichi Yagami / Tai Kamiya

5th, 6th, 7th and 8th pics = Yamato Ishida / Matt Ishida

9th, 10th, 11th and 12th pics = Sora Takenouchi

13th, 14th, 15th and 16th pics = Koushiro Izumi / Izzy

17th, 18th, 19th and 20th pics = Mimi Tachikawa

21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th pics = Jou Kido/Joe Kido

1st, 5th, 9th, 13th, 17th and 21st pics = Digimon Adventure

2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, 18th and 22nd pics = Digimon Adventure 02

3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, 19th and 23rd pics = Digimon Adventure Tri

4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, 20th and 24th pics = Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna

(Note: I couldn't put Takeru/TK and Hikari/Kari in this picspam because there isn't enough room for them since this tumblr post has a limit of up to 30 images. )

308 notes · View notes

seventeenlovesthree · 27 days ago

Text

What it means to be "chosen" - burden, fate, acceptance

This is not going to be a full analysis on the whereabouts of why and how "The Chosen One" trope is being executed in the Digimon Adventure series, because frankly... The lines have pretty much been blurred throughout the different iterations. Even the question of why some children in particular were chosen has been answered differently depending on which source material and which person you'll ask - and thus, there are different interpretations out there. Whether it's because of their potential (in regards to certain attributes, the subject of friendship or in general) shall not be discussed in full, but let's say... The very first Chosen Ones were chosen out of necessity, even if chance may have been involved.

If you ask me personally, the main premise one can and should take away from all of it actually boils down to a cheesy quote from the dub version of the first Pokémon movie: "I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are."

Replace "birth" and "life" with "Chosen Child status" and it fits again - regardless of what characters you apply it to. The only difference here is - that they may not refer to it as a "gift". Because this is something they all handle differently, depending on what version you look at, once more. So I wanted to make a little, very inoffical ranking on how the status is being perceived by all of them. Keep in mind that, by the end of 02, you could say that ALL of them have accepted it as a part of their lives, some more willingly than others, but the general tone is the same:

"Being chosen is nothing special and yet we all understand that there is a necessity, that we have a duty to fulfill."

After characters like Sora or Yamato had already questioned being chosen in Adventure, Ken was the first character that challenged the idea of it being a "burden created by chance".

"It could have been anyone but me, so why was I chosen, why did I have to suffer and get punished?"

This theme is being explored in similar yet different ways through the protagonists of the later movies - Meiko (and Maki), Menoa and Rui all represent tragic figures in a somewhat twisted "game of chance", used by higher forces. We know that the number of Chosen Children doubled each year - whether due to Homeostasis meddling mingled with Rui's wish shall not be subject of this post, but overall, we can say: They all received the "gift" of partnerships. However, neither of them were meant to last, due to different circumstances. Which includes Ken as well - because once corrupted or unable to fulfill a certain "duty" any longer, all these partnerships were (sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently) ripped apart.

Long story short, for the sake of the following ranking, I will include Tri onwards for completion sake - however, it's just a temporary state, because "Adventure Beyond" may fix some of these views.

Rejects it as a burden (temporarily): Sora

This one is, sadly, quite self-explanatory due to the current state of Sora being "out of the loop". She had been among those who initially (Adventure) fell into despair due to the burden of having to save the world - and while she temporarily accepted it (02), it all played into her trauma of not knowing who she was and how to define herself outside of "labels that were externally assigned to her". So yes, despite her clearly loving her partner... We shall wait and see how she will deal with this in the future.

Ambilvalent, had to get through several stages of contemplation, but overall knows it's part of who they are (still ongoing): Yamato & Taichi, Miyako & Iori

These two "groups" are here for different reasons. The entirety of the Adventure-verse spends a lot of time telling us how torn Taichi and Yamato are basically all the time - they're more than willing to save the world whenever it's required, but struggle with the "Chosen Child identity" and what it means for them as "normal people". Because as strongest fighters, they know they shoulder a lot of responsibility, for themselves, their friends and families, but also for the worlds out there. Fighting yet causing sacrifices when they themselves still have to deal with heavy childhood trauma not only causes them to clash, but also to (subconsciously) reject their duties, hence causing their partnerships to (temporarily) vanish. Which is very similar to the tragic figures talked above - which is also why they all suffer from depression, fear of abandonment and identity crises. They're perfectly aware of the duty and see it as a necessity they HAVE TOO choose for themselves in order to succeed. But the latter is a lesson they had to learn the hard way first - while also remembering how important their partners (and this kind of life) really are to them, because it's literally all there inside themselves. They just have to discover it again.

Miyako and Iori are a bit harder to decipher - they used to struggle strongly with the idea of having to make sacrifices due to their Chosen Child status and I would argue that this is still something that, if they think about it for too long, keeps them up at night. But I would still put them on the outer part of this scale - for the simple fact that they were able to integrate their partnerships into their daily lives. There may absolutely be times when they see it as a chore and annoying - but begrudgingly accept it due to the bond they share with their partners and friends.

Accepts it after coming to terms with it, transforms it positively: Hikari & Takeru, Jyou, Mimi & Ken

The viewer doesn't spend as much time with these two when it comes to how they define themselves. Hikari and Takeru, similarly to their brothers, can be assumed to be aware of their special status among the group. They're the enabling angels - and know that's why they could never quit. On the other hand, despite suffering from childhood and family-related trauma that causes them to fear darkness and separation, they seem to learn not to see it as a "burden" in itself. Unlike their siblings, they have an easier time integrating their partners into their daily lives - maybe because they hadn't been separated for as long, maybe it's because they perceive it differently due to their ages and being surrounded by people who also make it look easy. They are aware of the responsibility - and despite their strong opinions on injustice, they're still able to see the gift in it all.

Jyou, Mimi and Ken are purposefully separated from everyone, due to the fact that they were all at a point in their lives at least ONCE where they were about to quit it all for good - but eventually learned that it was something about themselves they couldn't change. Something they had to live with, if they wanted or not, even if they were ALL heavily affected by watching beloved people/mons die. Mimi loathed the idea of fighting and causing unnecessary death, Jyou repeatedly asked himself why he couldn't just live a normal life aside from outside expectations - but unlike Sora or Taichi, they actively embraced the idea that there were things only they were capable of that nobody else could. This seems to be in contrast to the idea that "being chosen is nothing special" - but these two were capable of making it work in a more casual, less spectacular way and, just like the likes of Miyako, Iori, Takeru and Hikari, were able to keep their partners as active parts of their private and/or career lives all around.

And so was Ken! Ken's journey is that of repentance, wanting to make up for what he did in the past, even if it meant sacrificing himself for that. He could easily have collapsed under that burden - if he hadn't had the right people to surround himself with, showing him that he was valuable despite his wrongdoings. And it feels like - Ken learned that lesson so thoroughly that, even though one can be sure that he still suffers from nightmares as an adult, he's also capable of helping others (just like Rui) to understand that message.

These three chose to embrace it eventually, even if there were temporary doubts.

Embraces it as part of their lives without question: Daisuke & Koushirou

I'm not saying that Daisuke WASN'T having temporary doubts of whether or not he was worthy enough to carry a digivice or even the goggles at first - but he also turned out to be the one who just "winged it" all eventually, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. For him, having a partner, being chosen, meant just that - it didn't make him any more or less special than any other person on the planet with aspirations, goals or all the various life paths. Sure, he may have been flabbergasted and in awe at first, but in the end, meeting V-mon was nothing more than getting another brother AND having the ability to be badass and doing the best he could while saving the world. Despite his mask of self-importance, who knows him also knows that he's down to earth like that and just accepts it all how it is as a side gig to getting his Ramen business going.

Koushirou may be a little bit less casual about it, but for him, being chosen isn't a burden or fate or any magically connected miracle - it is a part of his identity. Yes, he may have been just as irritated by File Island and being surrounded by weird monsters as everyone else was - but he was basically the first one who just questioned it all because he simply wanted to figure it out, NOT because it was a chore. Yes, he may look exasperated at times after having helped to support saving the world(s) countless times, but for him, that is his life. He has committed himself to researching the whereabouts of the Digital World, his tech company is primarily aimed at creating gadgets to support his friends and that serve the initial cause - and his partner is basically with him 24/7 anyway.

51 notes · View notes