Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning

I for the life of me cannot figure out who this film is for. With sweeping retcons which contradict the previous materials and yet characters and a plot which assumes that you have watched up to the most recent content in the Adventure timeline, 02 the Beginning is just a confusing mess when you lay it out. Last Evolution was very clearly for adult superfans and handled it with grace, this very much feels like a solid stand-alone Digimon film which had the 02 cast thrown in slapdash. There's deep cut references yet a total ignorance to major plot points throughout the rest of theseries. I just don't get why they couldn't have made this a Saviors (Data Squad), Xros Wars, or Ghost Game movie, it would've made infinitely more sense. Even ignoring everything besides 02, Hurricane Touchdown, and Diablomon's Revenge (the 3 materials directly referenced), you're still missing out on screentime for some of the core 02 cast. Iori (Cody) in particular has very little to say throughout the movie and pretty much everyone besides Daisuke (Davis) and Ken are not much better off outside of some fun banter. Last Evolution suffered from this a as well with characters like Jo and Mimi, but it's particularly more noticeable since this film A) advertised itself as the big film for the 02 cast instead of the former which was always advertised as a Taichi focused film and B) the 02 cast in particular is much smaller than the Adventure cast, following 6 characters instead of 8. As it is it's like a 6/10 and exclusively saved by the excellent psychological horror vibes and 02 cast bantering. But I feel like especially if it was a Ghost Game movie it could've been like an 8/10 or better and required very minimal rewrites.

When the fans of Digimon Adventure watched the return of the series eight years ago in the Tri movie series and later in Last Evolution Kizuna, they felt something not minor was largely missing: the members of the second generation of chosen children and protagonists of the second season of the series 02. Where were they? How could they be ignored just like that? Not only by the writers, but also by the 01 members themselves? If they had already been introduced, were part of the universe and had already achieved enough relevance after having enjoyed an entire series dedicated to them? Was the classof questions everyone was asking themselves. Having ignored them as if they had never existed or had never been important characters was never something well-received, and this regardless of how much each fan may have ever liked them. Even though the 02 children were never as popular as those of the original series came to be and always remained rather in their shadows, just for plot-decency reasons they still existed and deserved to be remembered and participate significantly in the return. The announcement and arrival of this film, “Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning”, was thus understood as a way to correct this mistake with a story this time around dedicated completely only to them and created excitement among fans since finally they were going to be able to see their beloved characters return rightfully so and have their moment to shine, even if that was for a limited time. However, it didn’t turn out to be exactly what was expected. To have been promoted as a new story about the members of 02, this new installment is in reality essentially a story whose focus is a whole new character: the mysterious Lui and his complicated relationship with his special digimon Ukkomon. The cast of 02 here only acts as satellite characters orbiting around this newly introduced character and the conflict caused by his digimon, limiting their participation as mere witnesses and circumstantial assistants to the new event related to the Digitalworld. Beyond revealing “where are they now and what are they doing now in their young adult lives” at the beginning of the film, it doesn’t do much else with them that is both meaningful and interesting about them. They were the ones who happened to be there to help save the day and that’s all. Introducing new characters doesn’t need to be something wrong of course, but if doing so will be to the detriment of the characters that are actually the main ones making everything focus on the new and barely anything on the main from whom we expect to see more or if their introduction and their conflicts do not really have strong narrative ties to them that make their participation indispensable (this is: they and no other than they could have participated and allowed this new story), then we are certainly before a disappointment, especially considering that this was supposedly going to be an opportunity to develop a meaningful story about them after having been previously put aside. This becomes even more problematic when remembering that already in their own mother series Digimon Adventure 02 and its related movies that followed it not much meaningful was done with them with the exception of Ken. This was the chance to fill those development holes and treat the rest of the members with greater attention, something that unfortunately wasn’t achieved once again. On the other hand, it’s not good news as well that this new addition to the Adventure universe introduces plot elements that necessarily enter in conflict with previously established elements. The new character Lui presents himself as yet another character claiming to be the first chosen child or the first human being with a digimon partner as if the contenders for that position weren’t already enough, whose extraordinarily powerful and mysterious digimon called Ukkomon with a wish-granting divine-like ability apparently is the real reason behind the existence of the digivices and the metaphysical relationships/connections between humans and digimons after having unintentionally misunderstood one of the wishes of his partner. Although this theory is initially presented as mere speculation on the part of Lui and that it is possible that nothing he claims is effective, the truth is that what happens towards the end of this short story seems to confirm it, which if understood as true necessarily and in an immensely unfortunate way would contradict or invalidate much, if not all, of the entire Adventure universe shown before and would come off as very disappointing because this seeks to make us digest the idea that all the story we knew until now was, in reality, the result of mere chance and not something with more meaning as we always believed and understood. Even in the best of the cases where we try to reconcile in a far-fetched way what is brought up here with all the previous knowledge, the truth at the end of the day is that this only contributes to unnecessarily convolute the universe and create unnecessary confusion. And even having ideas or story concepts previously introduced and left unfinished in the original series, such as the Black Sea and its nature for example, it seems even more absurd to have developed this instead of having used the opportunity to take up and explore what for a long time has been pending. They also didn’t even use this opportunity to introduce new digievolution levels for both Sylphimon and Shakkoumon, as is usual with each new installment. It would appear that the movie is then useless and a waste of time, but, counterintuitively, it’s not the case either. Strictly from an internal perspective, things do not look as bad, and in fact it becomes something that ranges from acceptable to satisfying, working even much better than the standard “cash-grab” shounen typical movie. For one thing, regardless of whether or not he is the first chosen child as he claims to be, the truth is that Lui, his difficult past marked by child abuse, his complex relationship with Ukkomon and the consequences derived from it turn out to be quite interesting, and certainly much more than what previous new-character cases like the ones of Meiko or Menoa ever were. Thanks to a good characterization, presentation and a very human and surprisingly dark and disturbing execution even for the usual standards of the franchise, the movie makes him someone with whom we can connect and empathize, making him memorable. For another thing, that it hadn’t focused on them, doesn’t take away the fact that anyway it was more than a pleasure to see the 02 members on screen again interacting altogether this time as grown-ups. Led by the contagious and explosive personality of Daisuke that remains intact, the 02 team always stood out for how close to each other they were compared to the 01 one, and the movie knew very well how to reflect that through scenes, notable dialogues, inside jokes and references to the past which was quite wholesome to see. The animation is also stunning and likely one of the best the franchise has ever seen, the usage of the classic 02 themes like Target, Break Up! and Beat Hit! is exciting, the story flows very well considering the short runtime, and it is welcome that the conflict this time didn’t have as its basis a standard fight between good guys and bad guys but rather a complex situation to solve, which helped the attention to be put on the human aspects and the messages to communicate instead of the action sequences that here are rather few and short, just like it was in Last Evolution Kizuna before. For all these factors, forgetting for a while where the expectations were placed and how detrimental it is for the continuity of the universe, the film still works quite well and is quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, as much as the aforementioned qualities are certainly appreciated, it’s clear we cannot just ignore and overlook the issues explained earlier, being them structural problems that weigh much more for reviewing purposes, so it is hard to give it a pass without qualms. To have been ignored so much in previous returns, that they have now missed the opportunity to offer the meaningful story about the main characters the fans were expecting and make up for snubbing them before can only be seen as a disappointment, especially if this movie was understood as their turn to shine. Having everything revolved around Lui, the 02 chosen children ended up virtually in the backseat of their own comeback movie, and this film ultimately ends up feeling more like a sort of mere consolation prize to them for not having actively participated in the previous returns, which doesn’t make them justice. This, in addition to how unfortunate it is that the movie messes around with the whole Adventure universe in such an unnecessary way with new information related to the origin of the relationships between humans and digimons that contradicts or invalidates the previous knowledge and that it is hard to try to make it compatible or make it fit with it without the use of mental gymnastics, giving the impression that those who wrote this seemed not to remember or not even ever having watched all of Adventure’s previous installments. Instead of being something like the Last Evolution Kizuna's equivalent to the 02 team, or perhaps having performed as a bridge that convincingly and consistently reconciled what was shown in that movie with the epilogue of the main series (which no one has said yet is no longer valid), the movie thought of itself as something that had to come to provide an answer to a question that never existed in the first place or something that sought to shock everyone with a twist that instead of providing sense only ended up confusing more rather than clarifying anything at all. It’s only natural to see that it’s hard to see this movie as something satisfying and recommendable taking all this context into account. In the end, all in all, how much it may be will depend on how much weight each fan places on each side. It will depend on which factors are given the most importance by them, whether the external ones in terms of expectations or the internal ones in terms of functionality independent of them. If you belong to the type of fan who cares a lot for the story, the universe and its logic, it would be better to forget that this movie even exists. But if at this point all you are interested in is watching the 02 gang and their digimon partners back in action again and chill out for a while seeing them participate, interact with each other and save the day, you should give it a try, even more when remembering the humiliating treatment they received before. Personally, this was the attitude I watched it with and for the same reason I felt satisfied overall even though what it proposed didn’t convince me, but I can understand those who expected something more or better. Either way, the potential is still there, the possibilities of having a new (and I hope, really final) film that integrates and involves all of our chosen children in a meaningful story about them that also hopefully ties convincingly the story so far with 02’s epilogue clearing out all traces of confusion, are still there, and as long as they do, there is no reason to get pessimistic yet. 5.5/10

To me, this movie is just something necessary, mostly, to clear the mess they made in DA:LEK, but not great on it's own. And no, it doesn't have anything to do about the characters, there's nothing wrong about them. The main story is a bit depressing but good, although it feels like it was a bit forced and rushed. On that part, everything seems good, although I do have a huge problem on the fact that they made the evolution scenes like the old series. Let me put it like this, back then, its common for an anime to use a template scene, especially when it'sa long series... Rurouni Kenshin did it, Gundam Seed did it, so obviously it's not weird if digimon does it, and weirdly but understandably, they still do it 'till now. Now, since it's a template, it was made to fit all kind of situations and locations within the story. NOW, doing such thing in this movie, where the place is different, with an obvious different situation, not only is it cringy for a grown up to watch (since most likely the people who watch this movie would be a grown up being at least about 25), it also feels weird. Some might argue, "but that's the nostalgic parts" or so, but, how about the movies before this, I.E. DA Tri? they made a new one, which is simpler, and makes more sense when it comes to something someone might see randomly at random places: the digimon turns into an egg, and emerged as a new digimon. IT MAKES SENSE. Now, where will you find a castle to shoot at, and why does imperialdramon have to shoot at a castle every time it digivolves to it? That doesn't make any sense, and no matter how much I love digimon, I hate the fact that I did get hyped by it back then, since it doesn't make any sense...AND THEY CHOSE TO USE IT HERE? SERIOUSLY?

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