Happythexceed の Corner

Daisuke: While attending culinary school, he has already begun to training at a ramen ship. On days when the store is closed, he is allowed to use the store as it is and serves family-style ramen as the owner. He spends his days researching ramen with V-mon, even though he lives alone at home. (Living alone, huh. Just like your senpai, huh. You better not spiral into depression too, boy.)

Ken: As the winter of his sophmore year of college approaches, the brilliant & talented Ken is gradually beginning to look more to his future, and he continues to study for the police officer’s exam. On campus, he continues to be the object of heated attention from those around him, but not one can get in the way of his leasurely reading time with Wormmon. (Everyone is still swooning over Ken, pass it on.)

Miyako: After completing her studies in Spain, Miyako is now studying programming in India. Because Koushiro is extrmeley busy, the ‘Digimon Connected’ community is mainly run by her. She still likes to wear brightly colored clothing. (SHE’S TAKING AFTER MIMI SO MUCH, I AM SO PROUD. Also Koushirou being “extremely busy”, so she has to take over the Chosen Children network, huh… Now I’m even more curious than before, thanks a lot, Toei, if my boy is taking over the world, you need to let us know.)

Iori: Iori, the youngest member of the group, has already decided to go to law school and has started working part-time at a lawyer’s office, although doing simple tasks. He continues to practice kendo, which he learned from his grandfather, and while he has a serious side, he values the relaxed time he can spend with the cheerful and optimistic Armadimon. (The boy is so committed and straightforward, but he’s learning to relax too, I am so proud.)

Takeru: He is a sophomore in the department of literature. He enjoys spending days with everyone, male and female alike, but when it comes time to get to his computer, he’s serious about his writing. However, when it comes time to play with Patamon, he thinks nothing of it. (BISEXUAL!TAKERU CONFIRMED.)

Digimon Adventures ~ Japanese version + IMPORTANT MOMENTS / DIALOGUES / QUOTES + PARALLELS / REFERENCES to other past Adventures media + THEORIES / {POSSIBLE} POTENTIAL / FUTURE CALLBACKS?

Ryo Akiyama:

Hey, Agumon? Why am I here? You said something about help?

Agumon: It was supposed to be all over! Mugendramon {MACHINEDRAMON (in US)} {Adventure} and Chimeramon {02} became one! The Digital World’s time axis slipped and revived the defeated Devimon and Etemon [into the current timeline]! […] Agumon: So… The Network’s time axis went screwy and made another world and Chimeramon and Mugendramon… […]

Ryo: This is a computer world, right? Something’s making it go strange and Agumon and his friends’ venture, which was supposed to have ended, began again? Agumon (happy): That’s it, you got it.

Gennai: Agumon did not explain to satisfaction. I’ll have to explain. (full screen of SEASON 1 VILLAINS)

Gennai: Once, evil digimon such as Devimon and Etemon were trying to take over the world. However, from the world of humans came the Chosen Children who, together with the power of Agumon, Gabumon, Patamon, and others, brought peace back to the world. But that defeat would not last. (full screen of MILLENNIUMON)

Gennai: Chimeramon and Mugendramon. Originally, these two accidentally created an unnatural FUSION digimon. After being defeated by Taichi and the others, they {Chimeramon and Mugendramon} fused in order to survive and were reborn into something new and ABNORMAL *: *Two things: Gennai uses the masculine {form of Japanese} to refer to them, and it’s implied that the fusion was mutually done. It’s also implied that the result of the fusion is distinct from Chimeramon and Mugendramon. Ryo: That means they turned into a terrible digimon, right? Gennai: His name is Millenniumon! He is the root of all evil. Millenniumon’s dark power is incomparable. His disruption of time is destroying this world!

Agumon: So, the evil digimon truly should have been defeated and it was all over, but now our battles have to restart! Gennai: By all rights, those Digimon who were defeated in battles should have stayed defeated. Taichi and the others are trapped. The only one I could warp here was Agumon. Agumon: In the hopes of finding someone, I used Taichi’s name to access the human world. I needed someone with enough faith to touch the digivice. Ryo. What will you do?

Ryo: I see. I’m the substitute. Chimeramon and Mugendramon fused into Millenniumon, who remains undefeated and trapped Taichi-kun and the others, who need to be saved. Agumon asked for my help for this. Agumon (begging): Ryo! You’re our only hope! Please! Help us!

Gennai: In the summer of 1999, Taichi, Yamato, and the others, along with Agumon and others, came to save the Digital World. The Digital World became peaceful AFTER the defeat of Apocalymon.

However, Mugendramon and Chimeramon, barely surviving, became a new Digimon. They became Millenniumon.

By going back in time, Millenniumon would throw the adventure of Taichi and the others into chaos. That you prevented.

Gennai: Millenniumon was destroyed by your power, but he revived again and again. However, through the efforts of you and the Digimon, he has been obstructed every time. That’s right. You fought together with the Digimon Kaiser– rather, Ichijouji Ken.

However, during the last battle, you and Millenniumon were blown away in an explosion. You to the world of the past, him to the world of the FUTURE.

{“TAG TAMERS” ENDING}:

(Millenniumon revives and a Dark Seed shoots forth. Ken shouts:) Ken: Watch out!

(Ken runs up and gets hit by the Dark Seed and collapses. Wormmon races to his side.) Wormmon: Ken!

(Everyone else rushes to Ken’s side) Wormmon: Aaah! Ken! KEN!!

Millenniumon: Hahhahha… I cannot die… Your {*Ryo’s} holy power may persist. I too… my dark power too is eternal… Absorbed… spirit…

(Millenniumon disintegrates. There is a fade-out and the scene cuts to Gennai’s house, where everyone surrounds a sleeping Ken. Wormmon monologues.) Wormmon: Ken… Ken… In order to save us, he… in order to save… Ohhh… Ken… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry… Ken…

(Ken wakes up) Ken: Nn…

(Everyone is happy he’s awake) Wormmon: Ken!

(Scene fades out to a series of full-screen images and Wormmon monologues again.) Wormmon: Thus our adventure was over. Through the courage and efforts of Ryo and Ken, all evil vanished. Taichi and Ryo went back to the real world. If something happens to the Digital World, they’ll come back. Ken stayed in this world to rest until the wound he received healed. After a while it healed. However, Ken has changed a bit. The black mass that hit him that time… Ken became cold. But I believe, surely Ken will become gentle again someday. Ken was injured for our sake. Now I… I will protect Ken. I believe someday the three of us might go on an adventure again. I believe…

(The credits roll and then comes an epilogue. The only epilogue in the 4-game Ryo vs Millenniumon cycle. The scene: the Kaiser and Wormmon walk up to a cliff overlooking what’s probably the Dark Ocean.) Digimon Kaiser: I have returned to show this world… I am different from Millenniumon. I am… I am… I am the Digimon Kaiser!

(The screen scrolls up to a starry sky and “The End” in English. *This is, however, only the second game in four.)

{Ken begins to hear DEVIMONS’ echoing evil laughter}

{Ken begins to scream in his terror after he looks}

It’s said that Millenniumon ALREADY DOMINATES THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE.

{translation of Wonderswan games via site “Yesterday”}

{various cards depicting the various forms of MILLENNIUMMON. Note the middle cards showing him in the same form of a being with two heads and glowing red eyes encased inside a Crystal.}

But for complete dominance, the source of the Digital World, the ENIAC, must be completely destroyed so that he may remake history to his liking and achieve total domination.

“But… we shall wait for”

“THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY” “THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY” “The next opportunity” “The next opportunity.”

(Interviewer): –Incidentally, is Ryou Akiyama {Tamers} THE SAME as the Ryou from 02…? Hiromi Seki: Of course he is (laughs). Hiroyuki Kakudou: I’ve said this before in some other interview, but I was really shocked. Like, wait, really? (laughs) Kaizawa: He appeared in 02 based on what was going on at the time, right? Seki: He did, he did. Kaizawa: We cast (Junichi) Kanemaru-san as Ryou Akiyama’s voice actor. He had a really bright and refreshing voice, so as soon as we’d casted him, we ended up deciding to give him that kind of personality. Like, “oh, that refreshing guy” (laughs). Seki: If Ryou-kun had actually been in the 2000 summer movie, {*Hurricane Touchdown/The Golden Digimentals, as they had once originally planned for Ryo[u]} he might not have ended up with that kind of refreshing personality. Kaizawa: We had some kind of trouble with voice acting when it came to Ryou Akiyama. Cyberdramon was voiced by (Ikkei) Seta-san, so normally, when Cyberdramon evolves into Justimon, Seta-san should be the one to do the voice. But in actuality, Ryou Akiyama’s voice actor, Kanemaru-san, was the one to do it. The reason for this is that when Justimon shows up, he’s a really “cool” character, and he’s kind of like some kind of transforming hero…so we thought, if he’s going to greet them with that refreshing “hey guys!”, that’s more of a thing suited to Kanemaru-san’s voice. Seta-san was like, “why not me?…” It’s a pretty funny story.

–Ken’s recollection scene had a certain character named Ryou appear in it. Seki: I think it had some kind of relation to one of the second series’s movies. When we were working on the second series’s summer movie with (Director) Yamauchi-san, we actually had a lot of different proposals for the plot. One of the first proposals we came up with had Ryou-kun appear in it, and I’m certain the theme of the movie even had some slogan like “there’s a Digimon waiting for you.” Think of it like some kind of imaginary plot that’s since vanished. So we were planning to go with this until the beginning of February {2000}, but then it all eventually fell through. We figured, okay, this is probably too sad for a summer movie. Somewhere along the line there it must have ended up picking up a really sad aura…

[…] Terriermon’s popularity was incredible. I said earlier that “the plot with Ryou-kun fell through~”, but Terriermon was actually still planned to be in that one too. So Ryou-kun’s partner Digimon might have actually been Terriermon…

- above interview text from Digimon Official Super Encyclopedia — Interview with Hiromi Seki, Hiroyuki Kakudou, and Yukio Kaizawa {translation via and with credit to Digi-Lab Blog} (check comments for link!)

“Early morning in the small mountains of Turkey. Ryo is typing into his laptop while a native boy looks on.”

- Digimon Adventure: Childrens’ War Game Storyboards Book {translation via and with credit to Onkei of website Digital Scratch} (check comments for link!)

{from the Tag Tamers summary by site “Yesterday”}: At the end of New Year’s Eve of 1999, two chimera-type digimon fused together to survive. The resulting digimon, Millenniumon, then generated a time slip that resurrected many of the evil digimon deleted in the summer of 1999 and captured the Chosen Children. In a last-ditch effort to rescue the Chosen Children and defeat Millenniumon, a young boy with no digivice or digimon partner of his own was summoned into the Digital World. With the aid of Agumon and the other Chosen Childrens’ digimon, he defeated Millenniumon and released the Chosen. He was then sent back. Several months later, the game begins anew as he and his friend, Ken, watch the Omegamon vs. Diablomon battle of the Bokura no War Game movie. Once Diablomon is defeated, however, Ryo and Ken are called to the Digital World to take out a Diablomon clone. It soon proves to be a trap laid by Millenniumon to lure Ryo back into the Digital World, then the world splits in two and Ryo and Ken must tag team to defeat Millenniumon on both halves of the world. (Yes, in games, 02!Ryo was involved in “Our War Game” canon. Seki confirms he’s the same Ryo as the one in the games and Tamers.)

gifs by @izzyizumi, {DO NOT REPOST} {DO NOT REMOVE CAPTION}

{Additional note: this post is mainly intended SPECIFIC CHARACTER[s] SUPPORT / INFORMATIVE & also ADVENTURES CANON POSITIVITY-FOCUSED. please remember + RESPECT this when interacting (Failure to acknowledge interacting rules WILL result in a block)}

ʟᴀɴ ᴡᴀɴɢᴊɪ ✩ ʜᴀɴɢᴜᴀɴɢ-ᴊᴜɴ ❀ (ᴊᴀɴᴜᴀʀʏ 23) ♥

K ~ 10th Anniversary Project ~

From March 2022 to February 2023 you’ll be able to read K stories on the new website. Stories will be updated 3 times a month. Similar to K Fan Clan.

Depending on the number of subscriptions, they may look into adding audio dramas

Series’ will include:

Ground Zero Fragments - stories from the Ground Zero time period

The Red Clan’s Las Vegas stories

K ONE YEAR LATER - stories about characters during the one year after the end of season 2

K SIDE:GOLD - events which occured after Kokujouji brought the slate to Japan

New Novels Announcements

Novelisation of the movie, K Missing Kings, written by Rairaku Rei (GoRA Pink), tentative release date June 2022

Novelisation of the second season, K Return of Kings, written by Suzuki Suzu (GoRA Orange), tentative release date August 2022

K ALL MEMORIES Event

Around April 2022 there will be online event discussing K All Memories, which was a collection of all the stories written for K over the years.

During the event a small number copies of the regular and special edition of the book will be available for sale.

Hurricane Touchdown sure is one of the Digimon entries that’s really difficult to describe. Often said to be “confusing” and “like an acid trip” (for pretty good reason, honestly), it somehow also manages to have a lot of hold in public memory, partially due to being one of the three movies that got widespread international distribution via Digimon: The Movie. Moreover, its relevance has started to re-emerge thanks to Kizuna, the director of which has stated Hurricane Touchdown to be his favorite movie (multiple times). Rather recently, there was even an editorial written by a journalist who had been covering Kizuna, professing that he had watched Hurricane Touchdown as a kid and hated it, only to rewatch it as an adult and appreciate it much better.

With all that, plus the fact that the movie recently got a new translation, it’s probably a good time to go back over the movie and analyze it! Despite what popular sentiment may have you believe, the plot of the movie isn’t that fundamentally incomprehensible, just buried under some rather unusual production and execution decisions. But there’s a lot to be said about the themes and story of the movie, so let’s dig in!

Savers is kind of an “awkward middle child” in terms of the Digimon franchise, being Digimon’s first attempt at shattering a ton of precedents set by Adventure through Frontier but also not being quite as unconventional as later entries would be, and being in the unfortunate position where most childhood Digimon fans had outgrown the target age range but weren’t adults yet. It’s also got a lot of factors that make it difficult to market, since it’s relatively restrained and not particularly in-your-face with a lot of its elements compared to following entries like Xros Wars or Appmon, meaning that it tends to slip under the radar and not be discussed in that much extensive detail even among the hardcore Digimon fanbase. Because of that, I personally feel like any intimate discussion of its themes and characters tends to be woefully oversimplified – it’s generally understood by most to be somewhat about xenophobia, but beyond that most of it involves memes about Masaru punching things because he’s apparently superhuman (which is absolutely not how the series actually portrays him in context), so I’d like to do something about that!

Savers is probably the most overtly political of all the Digimon series released to date – while it’s hardly unusual for a Digimon series to have social commentary elements, they’re usually more aimed at more personal social issues and especially those that impact children, whereas Savers just goes ahead and rips into the problems with political systems and power structures, how they enable conflict at the expense of ordinary people, how “preconceived notions” come from those power structures instead of being based off actual truth, and how – most importantly – people willing to understand each other through their differences leads to greater things.

Given that, what are the main points brought up in Savers from a theme perspective?

Of the many changes made from the Japanese version of Adventure and 02 to the American English dub, Daisuke sticks out as the one character who got the most severe alterations by landslide, to the point a very large number of American English dub Davis’s major dialogue lines say the complete opposite of what Daisuke was originally saying.

Even among those who do acknowledge the changes, I still find that the amount of impact these changes had is often underestimated – a lot of these changes are often played off as “exaggerations of his existing behavior”, and not changing so many things to the degree where it really is reasonable to make a case they shouldn’t be considered the same character at all, outside of sharing a few base outline points.

I think a big reason for the spread of the fallacy that “the American English dub didn’t change very much” is that there weren’t that many aggressive changes to the background plot, but in a series like Adventure and 02 where the story lives and breathes by its characterization, repeatedly making dialogue changes across the entire series can mean a major change to the whole series. And, of course, because Daisuke is the lead protagonist of 02, whose way of life and thinking is key to the series themes, changes this aggressive naturally lead to major changes in the series itself.

Yagami Taichi: Enter the Taichiverse

Detail spotting from 02 episode 50:

Of course, it’s not that Adventure or 02 had ever been shy about depicting its characters getting emotional catharsis in less-than-pretty ways, but you can see that witnessing what happened with Oikawa hit the 02 group very emotionally hard and intimately to the point that goes beyond a lot of what they’d experienced in the series (even though these shots come in at a very breakneck pace because of how quickly the epilogue comes in after it):

Miyako, being her emotionally extreme self, just goes ahead and outwardly openly weeps;

The ever-so-slightly more put together (but still very emotionally sensitive) Daisuke and Ken are clearly depicted in the animation as having very wet eyes;

Hikari and Takeru immediately go into mourning and pay their respects, with Takeru outright taking off his hat for it (a pretty open emotional gesture, given Takeru’s penchant for not usually doing such things).

And, Iori, well…

We’re thankfully in an era where Digimon is getting official localizations again, and with much better quality than we used to, but, unfortunately, Kizuna’s official English subtitles have problems that are detrimental to the movie. (Even worse, the official English dub is obviously based off the same mistranslated script, so a lot of its issues are carried over.) It’s not to say that the movie can’t still be enjoyed well enough or understood with it, but this is a fast-paced 90-minute movie that relies on a lot of nuance in key lines, and it’s not like we haven’t already had issues with things with a more oblique storytelling style getting accused of being “difficult to understand” or “incomprehensible” due to the impact of a less-than-ideal translation (hi, Hurricane Touchdown and X-Evolution).

In this post, I’m going to point out some of the more glaring translation issues in said official release and why they pose a problem. Note that I still endorse supporting the official localized release if you can – it’s very important that we still show our support for Digimon products having demand outside Japan, especially subtitled, and I also feel we’ve still come a long way from the time when official Digimon subtitles used to be borderline bootleg tier – but I’m writing this post as important reference so people are aware of the translation issues if they need to do deeper analysis of the movie’s dialogue. Note that the Dash X Bunko edition of the novel has the movie’s dialogue transcribed effectively word-for-word, so I suggest referring to this translation of it if you would like to reference a more accurately translated version of the dialogue.