Welcome to the second part of DigiMonth, a seven-part Rerun Review series looking back at all of the past seasons of Digimon in anticipation of the six-part movie Digimon Adventure Tri. In this part we look back at the second season, Digimon Adventure 02, sequel to the first season. But what a mess it is. It is a very mixed bag of good parts and mostly bad parts. Uninteresting characters, plot holes so big you could lose a submarine in it, dreadful writing decisions, and a few episodes that are either extremely stupid or a stroke of genius. The dubbing process was so troublesome for Jeff Nimoy that he left the series. I have a lot to say about Adventure 02, so let’s not waste anymore time. As with all of these reviews, there are spoilers for the series.
The ongoing story of this season is both complicated and repetitive, usually falling into routines you’d see in a Pokémon episode. Set four years after the first season, the Digital World is under threat from an evil human named the Digimon Emperor who enslaves the Digimon using brainwashing Dark Rings and prevents digivolving used the monolithic Control Spires. The second generation of Digidestined, which includes veterans T.K. and Kari (Doug Erholtz and Lara Jill Miller), bull-headed, obnoxious Davis Motomiya (Brian Donovan), peppy tinkerer Yolei Inoue (Tifanie Christun), and quiet, serious Cody Hida (Philece Sampler), must combat the Emperor and save the Digital World alongside their Digimon partners.
It is rather quickly revealed that the Emperor is child genius Ken Ichijoji (Derek Stephen Prince), and no attempt was made to disguise this fact. Ken plots to fully conquer the Digital World with the destructive Kimeramon, but his actual partner Wormmon (Paul St. Peter) sacrifices his life to allow Kimeramon to be destroyed by Magnamon. The whole reason of Ken’s evil is slowly revealed throughout the series: neglected as a kid, older dead brother who he envied then got hit by a car, corrupted by outside influences and his own issues, big guilt complex, etc.. Yikes, Ken has got to be one of the most tragic characters in fiction. Thankfully Wormmon’s death is short-lived or poor Ken might’ve jumped in front of a train.
Eventually, it is revealed that Ken was a mere pawn for the evil Arukenimon (Mari Devon), Mummymon (Kirk Thornton), and their creator Yukio Oikawa (Jamieson Price), who have a long drawn out plan to break down the barriers between Earth and the Digital World so Oikawa can go to the latter. There is a lot of dark material here, and all of the villains drive the plot rather than the heroes. There is also the rather pointless BlackWarGreymon (Steven Blum), a clone of Agumon’s “Mega” form, who spends the whole show moping and trying to figure out his purpose in life, and then sacrifices himself to completely seal off the Digital World. Though, this is rendered completely moot by the end of the season.
In the final arc, it is revealed that the entire scheme – the Digimon Emperor, the Control Spires, breaking down the barriers of dimensions, the Dark Spores used to corrupt Ken and other kids, was all planned out by the Digimon secretly possessing and controlling Oikawa from within: Myotismon. Yes, the bad guy from Digimon Adventure.
The Digidestined and Oikawa’s group end up in a strange dimension that can grant wishes where Myotismon absorbs the Dark Spores and becomes MaloMyotismon. He then rather cruelly murders Arukenimon and Mummymon, then proceeds to cover both worlds in darkness. All of the Digidestined of the world band together to destroy him, and the ending could be seen as cheesy but makes sense if you think about it. More on that later.
I’ll go a bit more into certain elements of the plot, but let’s talk about the characters. In comparison to the cast of Adventure, the Digidestined here are a bit of a disappointment. Aside from Ken, possibly Cody, and the occasional moment for T.K., none of the heroes really go through proper character arcs or change. Davis is a replica of Tai minus the brains. He’s a friendly goofball who easily makes friends and believes there is good in everyone, being the only person who immediately forgives Ken. His stubbornness and refusal to give up are both pros and cons to his character, but in all honesty, Davis doesn’t really have any flaws. He seems proud to be a moron and has plenty of positive traits.
This comes to irk me a lot in the last episodes – MaloMyotismon uses an illusion to trap the kids in their perfect wishes, but Davis is apparently so content with life he is unaffected by it. That’s a load of digi-poo! Davis has plenty of wishes like marrying Kari, impressing Tai, becoming a great football player, opening a world famous noodle cart, etc. What a load of rubbish. His partner Veemon (also Derek Stephen Prince) is virtually identical to Davis, but maybe a little more obnoxious.
Yolei is hard to describe as a character because there isn’t really much to her. She is supposed to be a fusion of Sora and Mimi, has a crush on Ken, and is a bit of peppy tinkerer. Beyond that, I can’t really say much about her. She doesn’t really get any major development let alone attention, though she provides a lot of humour and the occasional episode in the spotlight. We learn her biggest wish is to be a lonely child since she apparently has issues having so many siblings, which is never mentioned or commented on at all in the show. Yolei’s partner is Hawkmon (Neil Kaplan), a somewhat pompous but friendly bird who has a British accent despite having a Native American theme.
Cody is the most developed character after Ken, but he isn’t exactly the most interesting of characters. He is always quiet and serious, but mature and wise for his age. His dad Hiroki was a cop but died taking a bullet for a politician. Because of this, Cody misses the time he spent with his father, and thus is always on edge and has a hard time trusting people. This becomes clear when Ken joins the group as a good guy, and it takes him a long time to trust him. He also has issues with T.K. when it comes to performing a DNA Digivolution with him. I’ll explain that gimmick a little later. Cody gets some good development in the later episodes when it turns out Oikawa was best friends with his dad when they were younger. His partner is Armadillomon (Robert Axelrod), a laidback, gluttonous guy who acts as a foil to Cody like Gomamon is to Joe.
T.K. and Patamon haven’t really changed much apart from the former; he’s grown up, acts as the voice of reason, hates Digimon lives being wasted, and is often quick to condemn evil. This comes to light in a particularly awesome seen where T.K. witnesses the creation of Kimeramon who is made out of a composite of numerous Digimon parts, including the data of the not-so-dead Devimon, the first antagonist of the original Digidestined, who was destroyed by Angemon but at the cost of Patamon’s life. Patamon later came back from the dead, but the trauma was apparently still there even if T.K. didn’t express it. Enraged that Ken will use Devimon’s data to create an evil Digimon, T.K. goes off alone and beats the crud out of Ken in the season’s most epic moment. Not much happens after that for T.K., but I’m glad he is here.
The same goes for Kari. She doesn’t really get much to do, and her strange light-based powers seem to be affected by darkness. Unfortunately, her biggest potential is cut short in the infamous “Dark Ocean” subplot that has several key connections to the story, but its true purpose is outright abandoned. In one episode, Kari is transported to the eerie Silent Hill-like beach where dark creatures called Scubamon try to force her to meet their evil master Dragomon, who is basically the Cthulhu of the Digimon universe. T.K. and Angewomon save Kari, but the Scubamon vanish into the sea promising to return for Kari. Too bad they never do.
We later learn the Dark Ocean is what corrupted Ken, and the brief appearance of the demon lord Daemon is connected to the strange world. But apart from that, the whole thing is outright abandoned. Perhaps the Dark Ocean story will be covered in the movies Digimon Adventure Tri but we’ll have to wait and see. And going back to Kari, poor Gatomon is reduced to making nothing but cat puns.
I’ve already talked about Ken but he is the show’s best character. He makes a fantastic villain as the Digimon Emperor, slowly going nuttier with each episode, and when he loses, he doesn’t take it well. It is then revealed Ken always assumed the Digimon were just part of a giant video game world, and when he realises they are in fact real, he has one hell of a breakdown. And if you are an observant viewer, you’ll notice looking back that the Emperor’s appearance is very similar to that of Ken’s late brother Sam. Ken goes through some pretty dark stuff and even after getting redemption, his greatest wish is revealed to be punished for his crimes. He still believes he is the Digimon Emperor, but after Wormmon snaps him out of it, Ken finally stops beating himself up. Ken’s genius was caused by the Dark Spore, which has a very complicated origin I can’t be bothered to describe, but when he turns good, his intelligent diminishes so he becomes more normal.
The original Digidestined appear in supporting roles but are prevented from helping out more due to another plot point explained midway through the series. Another point of rage for long-time fans is what happens towards the end of the series. See, in the first season, there was huge romantic chemistry between Tai and Sora, but then here, out of literally nowhere, Sora reveals she has developed a crush on Matt! WHAT!? There has been not one trace of romantic hints between Sora and Matt throughout the first or second seasons, and then suddenly Sora has feelings for Matt, and they get together, and get married! Was that like a big middle finger to the fans or something? People wanted Tai and Sora together, or even paired Tai with Matt, but the writers made the choice to pair the couple nobody wanted. I hope Digimon Adventure Tri resolves this or someone will burn!
Anyway, the villains are pretty fun and a little bit more developed beyond the bad guys in the first season. Arukenimon and Mummymon are the Team Rocket of the series, both menacing but also comical. Mummymon has a crush on Arukenimon and just wants to impress her. They are commanded by Oikawa, a fantastic character who is sinister, mysterious but really likeable. He is a tragic figure like Ken, having lost his only friend Hiroki, Cody’s father, and made plans to go to the Digital World on his friend’s behalf. He is actually oblivious to Myotismon’s control over him, and it is nice to see his more humane side when in Cody’s presence. Myotismon is a welcome return, but the biggest disappointment is the frankly pointless BlackWarGreymon – he does nothing of value in the series and even his selfless sacrifice is completely shattered in the finale.
Let’s talk about the new types of digivolving in the season. In the first season, it was simply digivolving to the next level of power, but it becomes more complicated here. By the sixth season, Digimon Fusion, the rules are completely thrown out the window. First, there is Armor Digivolving, essentially a new version of the “Champion” level based on the power of Digieggs connected to the Crests the original Digidestined owned. Then the Digimon gain actual Champion forms which makes the Armor forms redundant.
And then comes the DNA Digivolution, where two Digimon fuse together into one. The trigger is when two Digidestined form a certain bond, in this case Davis/Ken, Yolei/Kari, and Cody/T.K. If you’ve seen Digimon the Movie, Tai and Matt achieved this first with Omnimon, something which is nodded to in the series. The DNA Digivolution concept is cool, though by the time we get to Digimon Fusion, the whole thing is one big mess.
Speaking of mess, now I have to discuss the biggest complaint I have with the season which I saved for the end of this review – the ending of Digimon Adventure 02. The last episode culminates in MaloMyotismon’s destruction, via children openly declaring their wishes and dreams. Yeah, the big bad is talked to death. Every Digimon in the series has come together to kick his ass and don’t get to do anything. Okay, it can be explained that because MaloMyotismon’s power draws from the negative energy of the Dark Spores and because the infected kids start to get hope his power is broken. But it is just so cheap seeing the mastermind behind the whole story randomly disintegrating, then getting blown up by Imperialdramon. Oikawa is dying, but uses the wish-granting world’s power to transform into butterflies to protect the Digital World from evil. His death is quite sad but also heroic.
And then comes the epilogue. Oh my stars and garters, does the epilogue suck. I know the writers were in a hurry to wrap up the show to start work on Tamers, but it felt like the epilogue was picked out of a hat or written in a hurry. This three minute segment is a complete and utter dump on the series. All of the main Digidestined are married, have children who look like them, are successful mega stars, and there is peace and harmony everywhere. Okay, that last bit isn’t so bad. But how on Earth did the writers come up with these futures for the characters? It’s like if J.K. Rowling wrote a half-arsed epilogue for Harry Potter. She didn’t, by the way.
Some make sense like Joe is a doctor, Izzy is a computer specialist, Kari is a teacher, and Cody became a defence attorney. But every other Digidestined’s job makes no sense, is completely absurd, or is the complete opposite of these wonderful characters. Matt and Gabumon are astronauts and made it to Mars!? What the heck? Kari and T.K. didn’t get together, even though they had even more romantic teases than Tai and Sora – and Sora. Sora! Poor Sora! In a complete insult to her character, Sora has become a successful fashion designer and we see her wearing a kimono and resembling her own mother. Didn’t the writers even watch the first season. Sora is an athletic tomboy who had an estranged relationship with her own mother who didn’t listen and wanted her to run the family flower shop. This fashion designer job would better suit Mimi.
I really don’t want to fly into a white hot nerd rage, but the utter lack of interest and respect for Digimon Adventure‘s characters in this season has been dreadful. And that is how a majority of Digimon Adventure 02 has felt. A shambling, drawn out mess of a season with dull characters, a meandering plot, unresolved character relationships and subplots, and cheesy gimmicks. The season has some good points and I can enjoy it for what it is worth, but I hope that when Digimon Adventure Tri arrives, they retcon that horrendous epilogue. Thank goodness that Digimon Tamers is next on the list.
What are your thoughts on Digimon Adventure 02? Should the first season have had a better sequel or just ended where it did? Sound off in the comments below or on our Twitter feed.