Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna will be available on Digital on Sept. 29 Blu-ray on Oct. 6. It will debut in both English dub and original Japanese with English subtitles and will be available for download on iTunes, Microsoft, and Sony PlayStation Network.
Digimon the Movie is a miraculous kind of movie that only happens every so often. The mix-and-match project brought together a few of Digimon's seasonal OVAs and made a box office hit. To this day, fans look back on the wacky venture with incredible fondness, and many netizens are doing so today. After all, today marks the film's 20th anniversary, and Digimon the Movie deserves to be celebrated.
Popular animated characters have a tendency to stay ageless, but not in Digimon Adventures, a series that has long been concerned with ongoing maturity, approaching each new step in the lives of its protagonist with thoughtfulness. The series has come a long way from being (unfairly) branded a Pokémon knock-off, maintaining a distinct visual sensibility and willingness to change that sets it apart from that other franchise, which has contently remained in stasis even this year with the release of the CG remake, Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution. Digimon, to its benefit, has consistently evolved with each story arc, changing in ways that are permanent and meaningful rather than simply superficial. Characters move on with their lives, relationships change -- and end. It’s all approached with a refreshing air of finality, too rarely seen in franchises as long-running and as popular as this one.
Set five years after 2015’s six-part film series Digimon Adventure tri., now taking place in 2010, Digimon Adventure: Final Evolution Kizuna finds the series’ longtime protagonist Taichi (Natsuki Hanae, returning along with the majority of the cast of Digimon Adventure tri.) as a university student, living alone with an undecided future before him. The more insular, carefree joys of childhood are long behind him, with worries about his future, his career, and his thesis consuming his focus. The rest of his “DigiDestined” friends are still working together to solve Digimon incidents and help others with their partner Digimon. With these characters now on the cusp of adulthood, the time has come for the most painful part of franchises so squarely focused on friendship like this one: accepting that things can’t always stay the same.
Tai and his friends soon discover that when they grow up, their partnership with their Digimon will end and they will be forever separated, the approaching end of this bond indicated by a countdown timer that expires quicker the more they fight together. This news all comes at a time where they’re needed to save the world once more, recruited by Digimon researcher Menoa (Mayu Matsuoka of the Palme d’Or winning Shoplifters) and her partner Kyōtarō (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s Daisuke Ono) to help stop a powerful Digimon called Eosmon, robbing other DigiDestined of their consciousness in an adventure billed as Taichi and Agumon’s last.
Can you believe it has been this long since it released? Does the first Digimon movie still stack up? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.
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