All spoilers for Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
To our future! The secret of the Digimon and the Digidestined is now uncovered.
Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning is an anime film taking place in the Digimon Adventure continuity, set 2 years after the events of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna. It was released in Japan in October 27, 2023.
In February 29 2012, a gigantic Digi-Egg appears on the sky, sending a message to the world; "May everyone in the world have friends. May they each have a Digimon". As the world watches, a young man named Lui Ohwada appears before Davis and his friends. Strangely enough, this man then claims to be the world's first Digidestined, and the egg to be his partner, Ukkomon! What follows is the revelation of the sad, but tender truth behind the birth of the Digidestined; a reveal that will put to test the relationship between them and their Digimon.
Faced with this dilemma, what path will the 02 Digidestined choose? And will they be able to put their differences with Lui aside to prevent the upcoming crisis?
View the Japanese trailer here
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Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning contains examples of the following:
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The film takes place in 2012, despite being released in 2023.
- Abuse Discretion Shot: The movie avoids showing the brunt of it, but it becomes quite clear what's happening when the young Lui is shown shirtless, revealing bruises all over his body.
- Abusive Parents: Lui's mother is not only verbally and emotionally abusive, but is also indicated to be physically abusive, seeing as how young Lui is covered in bruises.
- Artifact Title: The film retains the 02 from the series. However, in the series, the number referred to it taking place in 2002 (which was Next Sunday A.D. at the time of release). The film on the other hand takes place ten years later in 2012.
- Call-Back: The dub has the password for entering the computer lab be "Digi, Digi". "Mon, Mon".
- Continuity Cameo:
- The foreign DigiDestined, and their Digimon partners, who appeared in the ''02'' Digimon World Tour make multiple cameos.
- Tai and Izzy make brief cameos on the TV.
- Armageddemon and Omnimon are shown as still-images on TV during the 2003 flashback, with multiple shots showing their fight as part of the news.
- Willis, Terriermon and Lopmon are shown briefly near the end of the movie.
- Continuity Nod: The first few Digivolution sequences are shown using the same smartphone-like Digivice replacements that Izzy invented and handed out in the previous movie. The cast switch back to using their original Digivices, however.
- Casting Gag: Wormmon is voiced in the English dub by Christopher Swindle, who voiced another Digidestined's insect Digimon partner.
- Cover Version: Three songs were covered for the movie; "Target", "Brave Heart" and "Beat Hit", used respectively on the opening segment, the Digivolution sequences and the DNA Digivolution sequences.
- Darker and Edgier: The Digimon franchise has never been scared to show the darker side of things. E.g. Ken and Cody from 02, Jeri from Tamers, and many others have had the death of relatives as a part of their character arc or backstory. Lui, by contrast, takes the darkness a step further. He lives in a run down building, with an abusive mother and bedridden father. His Digimon partner, while genuinely trying to help, does so by brainwashing those around him into being better people, and unlike other backstories in the past, blood is actually shown amongst the tragedies when the young Lui's eye is damaged while he's breaking his Digivice.
- Decon-Recon Switch: Of the relationship between Digimon and their partners, as established in Digimon Adventure. Lui realistically acts with horror at the notion that his wish led to the creation of an entire race of sentient beings born into what he describes as "slavery", which is similar to a common criticism aimed to the Mons genre. It takes a talk with Davis to make him understand that it was his relationship with Ukkomon alone that could be described in this way, with the rest of the Digidestined treating their partners as beings worth of respect and love, and not extensions of themselves.
- Dissonant Serenity: With Lui's discovery that Ukkomon has been essentially puppeteering his parent's corpses for years, brainwashing random children to be his friends, and created what Lui believes to be a species of slave monsters that exist solely to obey child masters, he snaps and violently pins Ukkomon to the ground, seemingly on the verge of beating him. Ukkomon simply smiles back and says Lui can hurt him all he wants until he feels better, causing Lui to let him go as the abject hopelessness of the situation sinks in.
- Ditching the Dub Names: The English dub refers to Hikarigaoka by its original name, as opposed to Highton View Terrace like in the earlier dubs.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Lui undergoes multiple style changes throughout his life, starting at 4 years old his messy, unkempt hair shows his parental neglect. After Ukkomon enters his life his hairstyle changes to a neatly combed short cut, and after Ukkomon replaces his eye he changes to the Hiding Behind Your Bangs style he's known most for.
- Eye Scream: When Lui smashes his Digivice with a baseball bat, one of the shards ends up hitting his eye, leaving it scarred. Ukkomon then gives him one of his own eyes.
- Innocently Insensitive: It's clear Ukkomon truly does want to make Lui happy. Unfortunately, Ukkomon doesn't recognize what exactly is wrong with brainwashing and controlling Lui's parents or why Lui would react horribly to that truth, leading to the string of events that end with Lui smashing the Digivice.
- Literal Genie: Ukkomon is one, making any wish of Lui come true. However, he does so without regard to the free will of others, which eventually led to a breakdown on Lui's part when he believes that his wish for friends led to the creation of an entire race of subservient, freedomless sentient beings.
- Magical Eye: Lui's eye covered by his hair and an eyepatch turn out to be a distinctive green Digimon eye, transplanted by Ukkomon after Lui had attempted to smash his digivice in a fit of rage and the shattering glass from the screen damaged his.
- People Puppets: Lui's fears about the Partner Digimon being slaves don’t come from nowhere as it's made quite clear that Ukkomon has been using his powers to force Lui's abusive mother and comatose father into acting like ideal and loving guardians. When Ukkomon vanishes his parents collapse into husks like marionettes with strings cut.
- Poor Communication Kills: A huge part of the movie's conflict comes from Lui and Ukkomon's inability to properly communicate and be friends with one another, instead acting as Victim and Savior to one another leading to an imbalanced and toxic relationship based solely on one lavishing the other with gifts. Davis sparks this realization in Lui when he realizes he can't name a single thing Ukkomon likes or dislikes due to never having gotten to really know him. Likewise, when they reunite later and begin to really talk for the first time Ukkomon knows nothing about Lui's dislikes, and is misinformed on his likes.
- Saved by Canon: When discussing stopping Ukkomon, it's questioned whether or not doing so will cause the crew's bonds with their Digimon to break. Given that the epilogue of 02 is still canon, it's safe to say that those fears weren't realized.
- Series Continuity Error: Ukkomon transplanting his eye into Lui. It's been explicitly stated that Digimon are not flesh and blood life forms, even in the real world, so this should have no chance of actually working.
- Significant Birth Date: Lui's birthday is on February 29, which technically means he only celebrates his birthday every 4 years. He originally got his Digivice on February 29, 1996, the birthday of a four-year-old Lui. Ukkomon makes a point of giving him a birthday gift on each date, the latest of which is on 2012.
- Soap Opera Disease: Lui's father is comatose and hooked up to a life support system at their family home, and his mother is paranoid that Lui even being in the same room could lead to his death if it were tampered with in any way. Lui's father appears to undergo a miraculous recovery thanks to Lui's wish to Ukkomon but his body is actually just being puppeteered around to please Lui.
- Tagline:
- "To our future!"
- "In the Beginning, there was a single wish."
- Time Travel: Davis and Ken follow Lui back to the past, allowing them to witness Lui's childhood and the circumstances behind his first meeting with Ukkomon. Davis attempts to intervene the first time but is stopped by Ken, concerned about the possible consequences of changing history. Later in the movie the memory is revisited and Lui himself intervenes to plead with his mother that his child self loves her despite everything, leading her to soften up on him in the flashback. It isn't made clear if this actually changed Lui's past or was simply Ukkomon letting him enjoy a moment of catharsis his young self never got.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Lui's abusive mother says multiple times throughout the movie that Lui's favorite food is hamburger steak. He doesn't actually like it that much, and the fact that Ukkomon doesn't know this and takes the mother's word for it is part of the proof that he doesn't really know Lui at all.
- Unwanted Assistance: After the reveals that go down on his 12th birthday, Lui is disgusted and horrified by Ukkomon's continued obsession with making him happy regardless of the consequences, including leaving Lui with a permanent reminder of the Digimon he hated so much in the form of transplanting one of his own eyes in his head.
- The Worf Effect: Angewomon and Silphymon are both Ultimate level Digimon (albeit Silphymon is a DNA Digivolution kind of Ultimate) and should be similar in terms of strength, yet Angewomon is featured in the same Digivolution sequence where everyone else is only going to the lower Champion level, and she is the only Digimon to have trouble fighting Ukkomon's tentacles. Gatomon appears to have Digivolved to Angewomon specifically to be defeated and have to revert back and only then DNA Digivolve with Aquilamon into Silphymon.
