Digimon Adventure 02 In Retrospect (Part 7, Transcript A)
If I know anything about the finale and the epilogue of Adventure 02, it is that they are both generally hated or majorly disliked by Digimon fans of all shapes and sizes. And for good reason too! Whether you were a shipper who’s coupling details were eradicated by canonical material or and eager fan who wanted to see whether or not a possible Adventure 03 was around the corner, Adventure 02 manages to step on just about everyone’s toes as it concludes.
We need a little backtracking into our train-wreck, so I will begin with…
Episode 46:
The title of this episode, “BlackWarGreymon Versus WarGreymon” is a big let-down, and I’ll get around to telling you why very soon. The Chosen Children are currently searching for Oikawa and the children he had kidnapped, using leads given by Ken’s father and Takeru’s mother. Meanwhile, the implanted children have begun to show signs of change. They’ve begun to act in almost the exact same way Ken was acting when he was the Kaiser, I mean the parents even compare their children with Ken (as if it weren’t already obvious.) The Chosen Children find the names and addresses of the implanted children. But, what exactly were they planning to do once they found the children? They’re just going to talk? Well, I suppose I cannot fault that tactic anymore, being that Daisuke is running on hot blood and everything. Actually, talking does not work in this case, so we’re left to turn to Plan B. The problem with Plan B, however, is that there is no Plan B!
What?! So, if talking doesn’t work then you just leave them alone?! No, no, no! There ten to twenty little Kaisers in the making here, so I say it is time to beat down the doors and get the kids’ parents in on this! If the parents don’t believe the Chosen Children, then at least they have their Digimon partners as proof they’re telling the truth! And so what if you reveal your true identities or the existence of their Digimon partners?! The parents of these “mini-Kaisers” are already involved because of what Oikawa did to their children! So, by all means, telling the parents should have been the next logical step! Sadly, logic seems to have taken the last ride out of town. Instead of warning the parents about the impending doom their children face, the Chosen Children just decide to spy on the kids from afar being that they cannot find a way to remove Milleniummon’s data from them. Because stalking these children is a much better plan than revealing themselves to their parents?
Meanwhile, Oikawa is hiding up in the mountains when a meteor comes crashing down in the forest nearby. Only, it’s not a meteor-it’s BlackWarGreymon. He’s still searching for a world that will accept him, and I understand completely. Of course, I dealt with that issue by making videos and blogs on the internet. Considering he doesn’t have those luxuries, I wonder if he has ever thought of trying out for talk-radio or network television. Come to thing of it, I don’t have the luxury of being over nine feet tall nor do I have the ability to conjure and throw gigantic balls of destructive energy with my hands. It is sad to think that with all his philosophy, BlackWarGreymon has no imagination whatsoever!
By the way you’re not going to believe the explanation as to why BlackWarGreymon is even there in the first place. For the situation they’re trying to contrive for this episode, it’s as bogus an explanation as any. Apparently the amount of power Qinglongmon gave back to the original Chosen Children-power that Agumon admits was very small-was power enough to throw the entire Digital World out of balance after it was given away! Well, if that’s the way the Sovereign Digimon want to govern their realm, I guess I won’t question it-it is their realm after all. But, wow, it takes that much to throw the entire world out of whack?! And only to be brought back to normal when…well, I’ll get around to that particular detail when the time comes.
Also apparently Agumon still has some residual power leftover from when Qinglongmon returned the power of the tags and crests to the original Chosen Children. So, does that mean that Agumon didn’t hand over his power to Imperialdramon in Episode 43 along with the other partner Digimon? No, that detail is thrown into the fire because, after all, everyone wants to see this epic fight between two WarGreymons, right? I mean, forget making sense, I suppose now it is all about who can defeat who…
Agumon evolves into WarGreymon and fights BlackWarGreymon while Hikari chases Oikawa. The fight and the chase are both very enjoyable to watch in and of themselves, even if they are short lived sequences. However, the fight comes to a moot point when Daisuke decides to send Imperialdramon in to deal with BlackWarGreymon personally. So, in all reality, the episode should have been entitled “BlackWarGreymon Versus WarGreymon and Imperialdramon.” In the aftermath, we get a very…odd (?) scene. I say “odd” because apparently BlackWarGreymon has been defeated, but he is just lying on the ground looking a bit winded while Agumon, Wormmon, and V-Mon have all returned to their Child forms. Now, I do realize they’ve just defeated BlackWarGreymon, but couldn’t they at least make him look a little more beat-up or wounded? I’m guessing the animation department is getting about as lazy as the writers are.
Once again, BlackWarGreymon starts complaining about how useless he is and that he would have been better off killed. The other Digimon give him some “friendly” advice which, roughly translated, amounts to, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." I find it ironic the in the same breath that they tell BlackWarGreymon that while life is meaningless without pain and suffering, they also tell him to live carefree. To answer a fool according this his folly, living a carefree life would also entail not caring about the pain and suffering that comes with it. Thus, a carefree life would be just as-if not more-meaningless as the state in which BlackWarGreymon is already in. How can one truly live carefree if pain and suffering exist in world anyway? And how do these Digimon, after everything they’ve been through, come to this inane conclusion? Really, what they should have told him was that he should just join their cause and help them in the fight against evil. The Digimon just seem to want him to be all about sunshine and flowers, when its obvious that BlackWarGreymon isn’t interested in that-it’s not in his nature. Therefore, why not focus his sense of “fair play” into something reasonable and meaningful?
Episode 47:
Milleniummon’s data has begun to “sprout” from the children Oikawa kidnapped. (This begs the question why that never happened to Ken, but whatever. I think its best I don’t ask those kinds of questions now, as the writers seem to be making stuff up on the fly.) So, Oikawa goes flower-picking and encounters Iori in the street. I actually like what Iori has to say to him in this encounter, it runs with what I believe should have been told BlackWarGreymon. What’s more I can believe everything that is coming from Iori’s mouth because of the influence of his late father coupled with wisdom of his grandfather. This is where good character development actually pays off. Iori acts like unto his father at this point, he takes a stand for what’s good against that which is evil. That moment is enough for Oikawa to realize who Iori is: the son of the late Hiroki.
Now, while I can take solace in the fact that Iori’s character development pays off, we then cut to a long string of exposition from Oikawa. Umm…why are we suddenly interested in Oikawa? This exposition mostly amounts to Oikawa talking to…his laptop computer about the relationship he had with Hiroki. One of the most ridiculous aspects about Oikawa’s character is that Adventure 02 was trying to set up Oikawa as a tragic figure.
I’m sorry, but do we really have time for this? Are the writers really going to set up another tragic figure when we have three episodes remaining in this show?! I guess there’s no wonder the exposition is so elaborate and ridiculously played out. We can’t waste any time in trying to pull the audience’s heartstring about Oikawa, can we?
On a side-note, Archnemon and Mummymon start questioning their own existence. But that won’t amount to anything anyway because they’ll be dead in the next episode!
Anyway, as one of the flowers starts to bloom Everybody gets into position for a short standoff, with Oikawa grabbing the implanted girl and the Chosen Children trying to fight through Archnemon and Mummymon. After the standoff, Oikawa manages to completely absorb the dark energy from the sprouted flower before he throws the girl back at the Chosen Children. Iori then appeals to Oikawa’s better nature, reminding Oikawa of his past relationship with Hiroki. The next few scenes are mix of confusing and useless as they play out, but here’s the summary:
BlackWarGreymon suddenly arrives because…some stuff did something to something else. They all talk (yadda, yadda, yadda), Iori’s grandfather arrives (yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda)…Oikawa = good, then Oikawa = bad, then Oikawa kills BlackWarGreymon!
Episode 48:
The Chosen Children are still spying on the implanted Children. Hikari says something about thing becoming worse and worse. Is she talking about what’s going on in the episode, or is she referring to Adventure 02? Oh, and Koushirou’s mother also comes along and suggests that she go notify the parents of the implanted children about what’s going on. What’s more, Ken explains that plan might actually work because his seed stopped sprouting when he realized his parents loved him…
Is information being handed to us on a need-to-know basis? The writers wanted the plot to go somewhere, yet they couldn’t find some way to work around the fact that this information was never relevant to the previous episode when the Chosen Children were going door-door trying to talk with the “mini-Kaiser” kids? Oh, keep what Ken said in mind when we get around to Episode 50.
Oikawa arrives…again. Somehow, he completely avoided detection from the Chosen Children until he happened to be standing right in the midst of the implanted children! How in the world did you miss him?! Anyway, that’s everyone’s queue to move into their respective positions…again…and our train wreck continues…
Oikawa reveals his master plan-he wants to go to the Digital World. And apparently, he can do that because…he has a laptop computer that somehow utilizes the same cards Taichi had used to open a door into the Real World in Episode 28 of the original Digimon Adventure. Where did he get those cards? What’s funny is that he actually tells the Chosen Children that now that he’s leaving he will answer any question they have. Personally, I’d like to know how he came by those cards-but more importantly, why is Oikawa obliged to answer any questions these children have anyway? Of course, Oikawa isn’t really answering their questions; he’s answering the audience’s questions. While I don’t mind having some questions answered, why are the writers just dumping all this information on us in one go and in this manner? Perhaps it was because they spent little-to-no time explaining things in the show itself, now was as good a time as any?
So, Oikawa succeeds in opening a gate into the Digital World…or so he had believed! In reality, the Digital Gate sends him into…a Picasso painting…? When Chosen Children arrive in this…Picasso dimension, it is revealed that apparently Vamdemon had been possessing Oikawa’s body the entire time. (Dun, dun, dun!) More exposition follows, and here’s another summary:
Vamdemon died in the original Digimon Adventure, but he didn’t really die (?) because he possessed Oikawa because Oikawa was sad but Oikawa wasn’t really sad because he hated Hiroki (?). Finally, he let Vamdemon posses his body so that he could fulfill his lifelong dream to enter the Digital World. Oh, and Vamdemon also mentions that he created the Evil Rings by inverting the data of Tailmon’s Holy Ring. I don’t know why he added that part, as it really doesn’t matter now because Digimon Kaiser is no longer using the Evil Rings anyway!
So, Oikawa barfs up a clone of himself, only that clone is actually Vamdemon partially reinarnate. Then Oikawa then he collapses, leaving Vamdemon to absorb the rest of the flowers from the implanted children, ordering Archnemon and Mummymon to hold off the Chosen Children once again. I’d ask why Archnemon and Mummymon are following Vamdemon’s orders considering all that’s just happened, but I really don’t care. Say “hello” to BelialVamdemon, and say “goodbye” to Archnemon and Mummymon.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m drawing line in the sand at this point. As I watch Takeru, Hikari, Miyako, Iori, and even Ken tremble in fear while Daisuke charges into battle, I can’t help but wonder once again, “What happened to this show? Why did everything have to turn out this way? How could this happen?”
Those questions come in a very different light than when I began the Adventure 02 “In Retrospect”. I know some have remarked on how they believe these videos are useless. Many choose not to give a care about those questions, much less desire to know the answers to them. Yet, I do take solace in the fact that I have inspired others to think about things in a different light-to look at Digimon Adventure in an entirely new lens.
Despite its humble origins with the plastic toys and the miniature electronics, I’ve always firmly believed that Digimon Adventure shaped up to be quite an amazing show altogether. And I, like so many other fans of that show wanted Adventure 02 to be just as good. There are some shows that leave their audiences greatly unsatisfied because of a poor ending, but for Adventure 02 I wasn’t left sitting simply unsatisfied. I felt like I had been manipulated and robbed! And I’m not just speaking from the standpoint as an adult who recently saw the original dub, I had the very same feeling ten years ago when I watched Adventure 02 on Fox Kids. Ten years ago, I hadn’t the words to describe that feeling, but now that I am older and more learned, I can!
I find it ironic that Adventure 02 established that the candidates for Milleniummon’s data were children who felt like they had an emptiness inside that needed to be filled. Because Adventure 02 left a small sense of “emptiness” within me, and I’m still waiting for it to be filled. (Thank God for Digimon Tamers.)
Much of what I have to say after this point in the review will most likely come across as nitpicking the show in general, but that’s pretty much all the finale and the epilogue are fit for because there’s just so much wrong with them.
CONTINUED IN TRANSCRIPT B