Digimon Adventure 02 In Retrospect (Part 7, Transcript B)
Episode 49:
Let us begin with the Mind Illusion…Oh, the perils of the Mind Illusion! So BelialVamdemon traps everyone in a realm where their greatest desires become a reality. But, what is this really accomplishing in the show? This a real cheap shot, as far as all of Adventure 02 is concerned, because the audience need no longer think about what’s going on in the introspective realm of our protagonists-it’s played out before us in 3-D. Whatever depth our characters had before is lost because the show is doing all the thinking for us by giving us this simple window into the hearts and minds of the Chosen Children. Except for Daisuke of course, but that’s only because there’s no depth or reason for his character in the first place. That need not be inferred, the show practically admits that Daisuke is basically a walking, talking, hot-blooded vegetable anyway.
I won’t go into much detail about the visions themselves, but I will say that Takeru and Iori’s visions are highly unnecessary if you paid any attention to their character development throughout Adventure 02 anyway. As for Hikari…well, I believe that Hikari’s vision is too simplistic for the type of person she is. I won’t knock it because it doesn’t make sense, but then again wouldn’t that desire be a secondary desire that all the Chosen Children shared anyway? As for Miyako, well, what can I say? I mean, what can anyone say? Remember when I said that Miyako doesn’t really have a character, well this instance is somewhat the factoid that puts a lid on that point. Was there anything about Miyako’s character that would lead us to this conclusion? Miyako’s greatest desire is to be a selfish, gluttonous pig! Ken’s vision plays out like a broken record. It all makes sense, but once again it’s highly unnecessary. All in all, the writers really should have allowed the audience to figure these things out for themselves.
Hopes are renewed, willpower is strengthened, and the illusion is broken. And there’s BelielVamdemon standing in the corner of our Picasso dimension. Apparently, he’s just been standing there for the past fifteen minutes without taking advantage of the Chosen Children in any way while they were dreaming. And get used to that, folks, because BelielVamdemon’s priorities become quite idiotic as these two episodes progress.
We then learn that this Picasso dimension has special properties-apparently it transforms emotion into raw power. That sounds interesting and all until you consider that the Digital World works exactly the same way. The difference here is that this dimension seems retroactively clone Digimon in the evolution process. I don’t know how to make sense of that, but it’s pretty much what takes up whatever time the latter half of Episode 49 has to offer-one big montage of just about every evolution in Adventure 02. The dialogue is very noticeably becoming more and more robotic at this point. Nothing flows naturally anymore, rather everything sounds like it was written out word-for-word on a sheet of paper. We also get a gaping plot-hole in this sequence coming in the form of one gigantic error in logic that simply cannot be missed. I suppose if you’re caught up in the moment of things and have failed to turn you brain on, then maybe you would miss it. But, here it is:
Apparently BelielVamdemon couldn’t entrap Daisuke in the same illusion that he trapped the other Chosen Children inside because Daisuke has no worries or desires. How do we know this…do you even have to ask? (*cough* expositional dialogue *cough*) Daisuke has just admitted to having no worries or desires whatsoever, but then he says, “I have only one desire: to defeat you, BelialVamdemon!”
If that’s the case, why wasn’t that his illusion?! Maybe that was his illusion after all! Perhaps everything that’s happened so far is all just an illusion that Daisuke’s pint-sized brain conjured! If only it were…
Anyway, two of the Imperialdramons throw a combined Positron Laser blast at BelialVamdemon, ripping a hole in the Picasso dimension and into the Digital World. Umm…what…? There’s absolutely no explanation for how that happened-a gaping hole appears between this Picasso dimension and the Digital World after a double Positron Laser. Why does a double Positron Laser have the ability to cut a hole into another dimension, yet it has only grazing effects on BelailVamdemon’s body?!
Okay, well…I guess we’re in the Digital World now. So, what are you going to do, BelialVamdemon? Well, he absorbs the residual darkness floating around that Digital World and…wait, why is there residual ‘darkness’ floating around the Digital World? Where did it come from? Why is it there? You know, those mushrooms from the Super Mario Bros. would make just as much sense now! (Keep in mind what he said about controlling the powers of darkness to his liking now that he’s in the Digital World. The writers render that little tidbit moot in the next episode.) So, now that BelialVamdemon has effectively become the most powerful thing in the universe, obviously he takes this opportunity to destroy the Chosen Children and their partner Digimon right there on the spot with those powers of darkness he just conveniently acquired!
…oh, no, wait! I’m sorry, I completely forgot-BelialVamdemon is an idiot! His first priority is to stick both arms into the air and…cover the earth in darkness…? Apparently this is all part of his plan to unite both worlds in darkness so that he can be lord over everything. Hikari says that he said the same thing three years ago and that nothing has changed since then. Except three years ago he prioritized in trying to eliminate that which threatened his progress! I’m guessing he never recovered his base intellectualism since becoming VenomVamdemon.
Episode 50:
Episode 50 is a last-ditch effort for the writers to insert something vague with the appearance of profundity as if they wanted to say, “See?! See?! This show actually had a meaningful message!” In the end, however, that message is just insulting.
We left off with BelialVamdemon shrouding the earth in darkness. So what adverse effects does this darkness have, eh? Earthquakes? Typhoons? Hurricanes? Volcanoes erupting? Human sacrifices? Dogs and cats living together? Mass hysteria? Nope, nothing of that nature! Everything is just darker, that’s all. I suppose that would be a mild inconvenience to anyone who happened to be sunbathing at the time…
Okay, okay, I do realize that if the sun stopped shining for an extended period of time the earth wouldn’t survive, but that’s the problem with this threat. It’s not immediate, which continues begs the question why BelialVamdemon made it his first priority over simplu killing the Chosen Children when he had the chance.
Anyway, remember all those children that Oikawa implanted with Milleniummon’s data? You know, those children who were sitting right there while the Chosen Children were fighting BelialVamdemon? (Kinda makes you wonder why he didn’t use them as hostages…but whatever.) They’ve awoken from their stupor and now, of course, they’re just frantic! I mean, guns are a blazing outside and BelialVamdemon is covering the earth in darkness! These kids are obviously as terrified as can be, I mean they’re witnessing things few people have ever witnessed or will ever witness again…and…oh, wait, they’re just standing there….and watching…and they don’t even care…
These aren’t children, they’re robots. You want to know how a real child would act in this situation? Watch Shiuchon’s reactions in Digimon Tamers during the Beelzebumon fight.
Daisuke’s hot blood is beginning to steam and suddenly the entire world bends at the sound of his prepubescent voice! He says that if they work together, there’s nothing they cannot accomplish. That’s debatable-but in this case, if that were true, the Chosen Children would never have gotten into this mess in the first place!
Until now, I had been saving one particularly huge complaint about continuity-another gaping plot-hole that has a lot to do with how the original Digimon Adventure relates to Adventure 02. As I address this particular complain, I realize now how many things I seemed to have overlooked in the duration of this In Retrospect. For example-the fact that the Chosen Children somehow gave up the power of their tags and crests in order to maintain balance within the Digital World when it had already been established that the true power was not in the tags and crests but within the Chosen Children themselves. Plus, Apocalymon destroyed their tags and crests anyway, so they shouldn’t even have them to being with. The reason I overlooked that was because it was just one drop of water that fell through this gaping plot hole.
Ever wonder how Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, Ken, or any of the new children who we meet during the World Tour arc ever became Chosen Children in the first place? All in all, it really has nothing to do with what the original Chosen Children were told in Episode 45 of the original Digimon Adventure. In exchange for eradicating that previous establishment, what we are left with is an explanation that is vague and confusing. What it ultimately amounts to is the fact that there really isn’t anything special at all about the Chosen Children. Seriously, nothing at all-the writers have essentially thrown the original Digimon Adventure in the trash with this one.
“But wait,” You say, “The Chosen Children have Digimon partners, right? That’s really what makes them special, right?”
Wrong!
Refer back to I what Ken said about his parents’ love in Episode 48. That never comes up again in Episode 50. As far as Daisuke is concerned, it’s all about how the children relate to themselves. That’s right! Forget about your parents, children, it’s how you feel about yourself that truly matters! But, does that mean if Ken felt good about being the Digimon Kaiser it would therefore give that status and the things he did legitimacy? Not at all! But, let’s not mention that because it makes too much sense!
Daisuke then says something that actually made my jaw drop! It is, hands down, the stupidest line ever to be uttered by anyone in Adventure 02. He tells the implanted children, that there’s nothing special about being a Chosen Child or about having a Digimon partner! I have to say that Daisuke takes the cake with that one! This would be like Satoshi from the Pokemon anime telling everyone that you don’t need Pokemon in order to become a great Pokemon trainer!
To add more idiocy to the scene, Takeru now wants to tell these children that the Digital World is based on dream fulfillment! If you just believe in something and feel really good about it-then you’ll receive it! Wait, wait, wait! Just stop this, stop this right now! Since when does the Digital World work this way?! The answer is, it never did, but now it needs to work this way so that writers can make an apt and rather sleazy comparison to dreams coming true if you believe in them. Indeed-Digimon Adventure has just adopted Jiminy Cricket’s motto, and I guess the Digital World is now subject to the whimsical nature of childhood dreams because…the real world works that way?!
No, the real world does not work that way! In the real world, you can’t just believe in something and expect good things will always happen-you actually have to work at something, and work hard and long at it in order to achieve anything. And there’s always a chance that even if you do work hard and long, you still might not ever achieve that which you’ve been dreaming of. What’s more, supposed you were fortunately enough to achieve a childhood dream-then you’d be expected to work even harder to sustain it. You know, maybe that’s why Daisuke set his standards so low.
The real world is not like YouTube, where you can search for something and are then rewards withh instant gratification. In many cases even the internet is limited in that potential. But does Adventure 02 elaborate on any of that? Well, barely...very insignificantly do they mention “hard work.”
Of course, nobody asks what “hard work” entails in this case. After all, we really need an excuse to turn these kids into happy blissful ignoramuses in order to defeat BelialVamdemon. Why this defeats BelialVamdemon is anyone’s guess, because after all didn’t he say that he was no longer subject to that kind of powers now that he was in the Digital World?
Tiny Digimon spontaneously generate in front of all the children because…I guess the Digital World works that way now. Oh, and third-degree Digivices magically materialize as well, even though we learned that manufacturing them and matching them to their respective humans takes time and effort based on their…ahh, screw it! And before you can say, “Deus ex Machina,” BelialVamdemon dies, eradicated by a Giga Death cannon that creates a pretty rainbow-colored ring in its wake. No new dimensional rips are created as a result of the explosion, just in case you were wondering.
Gennai arrives at the last minute and hands Tailmon back her Tail ring. How he came by it and why he never returned it sooner? I’m not even going to try to figure that one out. Gennai also explains how the Picasso dimension worked and why it was there in the first place (Gennai always withholds valuable information at the last minute, doesn’t he?) Basically the Picasso dimension is the reason why the Digital World exists in the first place. The Digital World came about as a result of human emotion and digital information crossing the barrier of the Picasso dimension and creating a new world and creatures within it...
I really don’t know what to say, especially when we discover that the Dark Ocean is basically a big coalescence of negative emotions. Essentially, that would mean that Demon now has access to the jackpot of all dark power, thanks to Ken banishing him into the Dark Ocean. And what are the repercussions for having now torn the barrier between the Picasso dimension and the Digital World? You see once you break it down to the science of how all this is supposed to work, you actually lose something in the process. All the magic in and of the Digital World has been sucked out, and at this point, they’re just asking for a gaping plot hole.
Ken then reassures us that no flowers will ever sprout from the heads of the implanted children ever again, as long as they believe in such and such. Oh, it’s that easy, huh? Not one of these kids is going to lapse back into his or her depression? The funny thing about that is, the answer is actually no, begging the legitimacy of the original depression if it is so easily overcome and done away with.
Now… what’s Iori doing while all this is going on…? Oh, right! Oikawa was still in the Picasso dimension. Apparently, he’s on the verge of death because BelialVamdemon sapped all his strength from him-but that’s okay because apparently he gets to see his Digimon partner who’s spent the last…oh, boy how many years has it been…? Waiting for him? Upon seeing the Digital World for the first time, Oikawa realizes that the Digital World has seen better days…so he decides to turn his body into butterflies that…I won’t even finish the sentence. Deus ex Machina once again everyone, and a Happy New Digital World.
And now for the epilogue…Oh, the perils of the epilogue! This is yet another reason I hold such disdain for Adventure 02. Remember when the original Digimon Adventure left itself open for a possible sequel. Well, we aren’t left with an avenue for an Adventure 03-the epilogue for Adventure 02 basically kills that hope in a heartbeat. All of the children are now adults, completely removing any mystery or intrigue about what happened to them after the events of Adventure 02. The writers once again fill in the blanks for us, without any thought as to what could have been inferred or surmised based on what we had already seen. So there’s nothing to talk about and nothing to look forward to. Long story short, we should never have been allowed to see the children as adults.
I won’t go into major detail about what everyone becomes in the end, it’s all nonsense and I honestly don’t care for the most part. I’ll make a few exceptions, like Ken and Iori, only because I find their careers rather humorous when you think about a world where every person young and old now has a Digimon partner. With Ken as a police detective and Iori as an attorney, one wonders what new kinds of crimes are being committed in a world coexisting with Digital Monsters. I also wonder if Ken still carries around that corrupt Digivice of his, and whether or not he’d ever be tempted to use it again.
Also, apparently Ken married Miyako. Most likely she slapped him into accepting the proposal. Need I say I noticed no chemistry between them? It’s funny that the epilogue just tell us they were married without any details about a budding relationship or anything like that.
I’ve stated time and again I have no interest in shipping any of the characters, but that’s not to say that I don’t realize why shipping exists. It exists because…well it goes hand-in-hand with the fact that fans wanted to determine their own happy endings-which is ironic because the epilogue even tells us to go realize our dreams. So, without a doubt, Ken and Miyako’s marriage was a really gutsy and downright despicable move by the writers. They might as well have hung up a sign during the epilogue saying, “Haha, suckers!” For all this is worth!
Oh, and Daisuke made the cover of Time magazine, which will apparently still be a successful magazine in the year 2027. What’s funny about the picture is that while Daisuke is apparently world famous because of his Ramen business, V-Mon is actually standing in front of him on the cover of the magazine. Based on this, I question whether or not Daisuke would actually have been as successful without V-Mon or his involvement in destroying BelialVamdemon. Do I have a problem with that? Nah, but it makes you wonder whether or not Daisuke truly would have been able to realize his dreams if V-Mon had never fallen into his lap in the first place. After all, Daisuke did say that there was nothing special about himself or the fact that he had a Digimon partner.
In closing this In Retrosepct, I’d like to quote YouTube user magicalboredom on the epilogue:
“The epilogue can go die in a fire. The whole world getting Digimon partners is a recipe for massive chaos and death, the Chosen Children's professions came out of nowhere, and the ships should not have been touched on at all. . . the feminist in me also hates the fact that the women all get "feminine" jobs.”
Adventure 02 ends by telling us to live our dreams and create our own future. In a way, I am realizing one such a dream. I made this video series entitled Digimon Adventure 02 “In Retrospect” and while that has now become a reality as this video closes, that which I desired in retrospect has yet to become a reality. And it probably never will. But I can always hope.
END PART SEVEN