Digimon Adventure 02 Revisited: Oikawa Arc - Part One
This is the second of a three part series on Digimon Adventure 02 (2000), and you can find the first part right here. And, this is also where things are going to get a little weird with how I am breaking down the series…
There are arguments to be made about the second half of the series being made up of anywhere between one and four arcs, but they are all so intrinsically tied together, with so much overlap, that it becomes difficult to fully split them up. Take the first group of episodes in this half as an example, where you could define them with BlackWarGreymon. While this section of episodes has an ending of sorts, it acts more like a pause button until he comes back.
So, because of this, the entire back half is being considered for the purpose of this writing as the Oikawa Arc, as he is the figure most central to it all.
But this also means there is a lot to cover, with twenty-nine episodes being considered in this arc. So, rather than one singular, overly massive post, it will be split into two parts. Both will be using the entire array of episodes for the topics, but this first one will put more focus on the digidestined and lore whereas the second part will be more focused on the villains and themes.
Without further ado, the Oikawa Arc runs from episodes 22-50.
(Note: all references to specific names will refer to the dub of the series. Dubs are my personal preference, and this is the version that I grew up with.)
Recap
With the Digimon Emperor defeated, the digidestined choose to continue coming to the Digital World to clean up the destruction he had caused. Bad Digimon start showing up to stop them, but they soon realize that these new Digimon are being made by Arukenimon using the left-over control spires.
Arukenimon schemes to beat the digidestined and is soon joined by Mummymon. When she tries using 100 control spires to make a single Digimon, BlackWarGreymon is born. But he’s so powerful that she can’t control him.
BlackWarGreymon begins the hunt for the seven Destiny Stones, believing that destroying them is the only way he can find a worthy opponent to fight. Even after digidestined gain the ability to DNA digivolve to get three ultimate level Digimon, they aren’t strong enough to stop him. But when he reaches the final Destiny Stone, the digidestined release Azulongmon before it is too late. After a talking to, BlackWarGreymon decides he needs some alone time to sort things out for himself.
Over Christmas the new digidestined and the old have to come together with other digidestined from around the world because control spires and gates to the Digital World have popped up all over the human world.
With the digidestined out of Japan for a while, Arukenimon and Mummymon start collecting sad children. Oikawa, tells the children that he can make them as smart and good at sports as Ken. When Oikawa is ready to get Ken and copy the dark spore inside of him, Daemon and a group of evil Digimon start to attack Japan looking for Ken’s dark spore for themselves!
Daemon’s group is destroyed, Daemon is sent to the Dark Ocean, and Oikawa gets the dark spores into the children. BlackWarGreymon shows up to confront Oikawa, but is defeated by WarGreymon and Imperialdramon, and finally agrees that maybe he can have friends. BlackWarGreymon then comes back one last time and when he sees there is someone else inside of Oikawa, he sacrifices himself to close the gate to the Digital World in Highton View Terrace.
When the dark spores are ready to bloom, Oikawa opens a gate and brings the children through, with the new digidestined chasing after them. They end up in a new dimension, one where wishes can come true. Myotismon reveals that he has been inside of Oikawa for the past three years and uses the power of the dark spores to be reborn as MaloMyotismon. The digidestined use the wish power to make their Digimon multiply to have every one of their digivolutions fighting at the same time.
The digidestined overpower MaloMyotismon in the wishing world, but knock him into the Digital World, where he begins to cover both it and the human world in darkness. It is only by every digidestined around the entire world shining the light of their digivices that MaloMyotismon is weakened, but he still isn’t destroyed until the children with the dark spores begins believing in their dreams again and become digidestined themselves.
Ken’s Origins
Ken is the very first human character we see in Digimon Adventure 02, but apart from brief glimpses toward the end of the Digimon Emperor arc, he is almost one dimensional in his pursuit of power until we catch up with him in episode 23, “Genesis of Evil”. It’s in this episode that we learn about the events that turned Ken into the Digimon Emperor in the first place and sets the stage for his development for the rest of the series.
When Ken was younger, he had an older brother named Sam. Sam seemed to be good at everything, and because of this, his parents praised him more than they ever did with Ken. Ken thought he was unloved, that even Sam only put up with him, and his parents would be happier if they only had Sam.
One day, a digivice appears out of the computer in front of Ken and Sam. Sam, being the older one, claims it as his own and tells Ken not to touch it. But Ken feels a pull to it, and when he does get his hands on it, he’s brought to the Digital World.
While we don’t learn about this until later (specifically, episode 43, “Invasion of the Daemon Corps”), Ken spent weeks in the Digital World at this point. He traveled around with Wormmon and Ryo, with Ryo being just a quick cameo character who (at this point at least) was exclusive to tie in video games for the WonderSwan. At some point during these travels, a dark spore flies toward Ryo but Ken saves him. Because of Ken’s heroics the dark spore implants itself into the back of Ken’s neck, and Wormmon spends weeks nursing him to health before Ken eventually returns to the human world.
Much like in the original series, Ken’s first trip to the Digital World only took seconds in the human world. When he comes back, Sam hits Ken for going through his stuff and touching the digivice. There is an extent to which it tries to play as an older brother being worried about his sibling. It tries to add nuance enough that Ken could remember this as proof Sam hates him, while a viewer could see it being out of a kind of brotherly love. But while the latter explanation is there, especially because of how it is shown so closely to Ken’s point of view, it leans far more on the former. And it is rough.
In this moment, between Sam’s hair and the way his eyes are hidden behind his glasses, this intimidating look is what inspires the way Ken will eventually look as the Digimon Emperor. Presumably, because this was his strongest memory of someone scaring him with the power they had over him.
Ken’s feelings of inadequacy only get worse at this point, and he continues to wish Sam would disappear, and this time, he gets his wish… Sam dies.
Sometime after Sam’s funeral, Ken is on Sam’s computer and sees an email that we will eventually learn was from Oikawa. This email tells Ken that now that Sam is gone, Ken will be expected to live up to both his and Sam’s destinies to not disappoint their parents, but that there is another world that he can escape to if that is too much pressure for him. Ken grabs the digivice out of the drawer and is sucked into another world, but this time it isn’t the Digital World, it is the Dark Ocean, and Ken’s dark feelings change his digivice into the first D3, the dark digivice. And at this point, he basically becomes the Digimon Emperor, and is consumed with a need to get smarter and more powerful.
Ken’s descent into darkness is contrasted by a single memory that keeps popping up in his head. The only purely positive memory we see between Ken and Sam, in which Sam is helping Ken blow bubbles. At first, Ken only remembers this as Sam being smarter than him, being the only one able to cut the straw right and mix the soap. But as the episode progresses, we get something else from Sam. Ken asks Sam to blow bubbles too, and Sam tries, but he struggles with it. He explains that he blows too hard and the the bubbles pop, but Ken is so gentle and kind that he’s great at it.
Ken’s gentle kindness was his biggest strength, to the point that he is given the crest of kindness, but his feelings of inadequacy, of having to live up to a terrible pressure, pushed him away from that. This is a part of Ken’s story that will become a repeated theme within the second half of this series that is about the choice between power and friendship.
There is a degree to which Ken’s actions as the Digimon Emperor can be waved away as being caused by the dark spore and not his own desires, but that isn’t quite right. And then in episode 48, “Oikawa’s Shame” Ken believes the dark spore stops growing inside of him because he finally accepted the love his parents were trying to give him. And in episode 50, “A Million Points of Light”, Ken adds to this that the dark spores are powerless as long as the person with them believes in themselves and their dreams. The dark
When we take this all into account, the dark spore wasn’t entirely responsible for the Digimon Emperor, but instead just pushing Ken more toward feelings that were already there, and making it harder for him to feel the more positive ones. Before Ken ever steps foot in the Digital World, we see his first wish for Sam to disappear, to get some of his parents’ attention himself. He was a child who already felt isolated, who already felt like he wasn’t enough, and the dark spore took these existing feelings and made them worse.
Ken spends the entire second half of the series trying to not only atone for his actions in the first half, but to learn to forgive himself. His origins are heartbreaking, and he doesn’t overcome any of this by being good, but by letting people in. He isn’t truly Ken again until he connects with Wormmon and his parents, and eventually makes friends with the digidestined. While not being evil anymore is a major part of his redemption, it is only through not being alone that really achieves it.
DNA Digivolving – The Ultimate Sign of Friendship?
One major way that Digimon Adventure 02 tried to set itself apart from the original series is by utilizing new ways for digivolving to work. We see this in the Digimon Emperor arc through the use of armor digivolving, and in this one, through DNA digivolving (which was in Digimon: The Movie, but never in Digimon Adventure (1999)). The basic idea of changing the formula makes a lot of sense, but the actual way these things were implemented have mixed results.
With armor digivolving acting as a stand in for champion level Digimon for so long, the regular champion forms of each of the new Digimon are given very little attention. Each of these are incredible rushed, with ExVeemon first appearing in episode 22, “Davis Cries Wolfmon”, Stingmon and Ankylomon appearing in episode 24, “If I had a Tail Hammer”, and Aquilamon appearing in episode 25, “Spirit Needle”. While it is true that the champions in the original series also came within a similar range of episodes, the difference here is that DNA digivolving, the stand in for reaching ultimate, first happens in the very next episode.
But before we get to the DNA digivolving, let’s get into why it is important. All through the first arc, armor digivolving was what made the new digidestined more valuable than the old ones, because the control spires made normal digivolving impossible. This makes a lot of sense; it is giving a real reason why the older digidestined can’t just come in and use all the power they gained through their earlier adventure.
With the control spires no longer an issue, there needed to be a reason why the new digidestined remained the focus of the show, and so to keep this true, they created a reason why the old digidestined have lost the ability to reach ultimate. In episode 27, “Fusion Confusion”, Izzy gives the new kids a rundown of how the original eight digidestined gave up the power of their crests sometime between the two series, to try to shield the Digital World from darkness.
I’m not going to dwell on this, because in the end it is really just a quick excuse why the new digidestined are more important for this series, but it is worth acknowledging how weird this reasoning is. The crests were explicitly described in Digimon Adventure (1999)’s episode 45, “The Ultimate Clash” as devices to help the digidestined share their own power with their Digimon, rather than having any power themselves. The thing that allowed their Digimon to digivolve to ultimate was the strength of their own positive emotions. And so, giving up that power, kind of feels like it is making a claim that, say, Tai gave up his ability to show courage, or Matt gave up his ability to have friends… But I digress, it’s fine, it’s a minor speedbump to get this show’s narrative to play out.
Jumping way ahead, in episode 37, “Kyoto Dragon”, Azulongmon explains that DNA digivolving came out of how close the digidestined became after coming together against this new evil. This concept feels like it is on equal ground with what the crests represented. But unfortunately, this acts as almost a “tell don’t show” kind of set up for most of the actual occurrences.
To the series credit, this plays out beautifully with Kari and Yolei in episode 31, “Opposites Attract”. With the dark ocean functioning as essentially a symbol for depression (more on this soon), this episode acts as Kari finding someone she can turn to when she is suffering from it. This is made all the more powerful by the fact that even by the very end of the series, the only others to learn about this side of her are TK (presumably her oldest friend) and Ken (a person who she knows deals with the same thing).
Right before Gatomon and Aquillamon DNA digivolve, Yolei tells Kari she is strong, and vows to help her fight this darkness. Kari calls Yolei a true friend, and a light shines down on them, leading to their Digimon coming together as one. This feels like exactly the thing Azulongmon is talking about.
Then there are the other two occurrences. The first time DNA digivolving happens in this series is in episode 26, “United We Stand”. ExVeemon and Stingmon come together as Paildramon, but there is never a sense that it is because Davis and Ken have reached any level of closeness. Davis had been spending a few episodes trying to convince Ken to join up with them, and both he and ExVeemon try to convince Ken and Stingmon that they could be stronger working together, and that they don’t have to go it alone. When they do combine, it doesn’t feel like Davis and Ken are closer, it feels like it happens to make Davis argument for him. It is presented as evidence, that they are literally stronger together, so Ken should be their friend.
Cody and TK have almost an entire mini-arc to build up to their Digimon coming together. Cody starts off as worried because he doesn’t feel like he knows TK at all, because TK seems so happy most of the time, but turns so angry and aggressive when the powers of darkness come up. In episode 34, “Destiny in Doubt”, Cody and TK learn that BlackWarGreymon has a heart, and this makes Cody feel like they can’t destroy him, but TK is still all for it, making Cody essentially doubt whether TK is a good person.
In episode 35, “Cody Takes a Stand”, Cody goes behind TK’s back to talk to Matt about what is going on with TK. Later in the episode, he stands up to BlackWarGreymon himself, putting his life on the line to give BlackWarGreymon a real chance to be good. It is only after learning about TK’s experience losing Angemon, and having BlackWarGreymon try to kill Cody, that Cody can see where TK is coming from. If they DNA digivolved at this point, it could have been perfect, but they don’t…
Ankylomon and Angemon finally DNA digivolve in episode 36, “Stone Soup”. This doesn’t come out of any big moment. The characters don’t have any more development in their relationship since the previous episode. The actual event happens with Cody and TK just saying that they are ready. There was so much build up to a moment that felt anticlimactic and flat in the end.
While Silphymon’s first appearance is a great character moment for the relationship between Yolei and Kari, both Paildramon and Shakkoumon have their moments come so close to really being what Azulongmon describes but not really managing to stick the landing. Everything after these moments feels right, the pairs end up closer because of what they experience together, but the event itself just doesn’t quite work in the way it is explained.
The Dark Ocean and Depression Return
As promised, the Dark Ocean comes back for the second half of Digimon Adventure 02. While it was brought into the series through Kari, and it continues to be something she is deals with throughout, it is Ken who has the biggest connection to it.
We first learn about Ken’s connection to the Dark Ocean in episode 23, “Genesis of Evil”. Soon after his older brother died (a while after the dark spore was implanted in him), Ken reaches the Dark Ocean and uses it to transform his digivice into the more powerful D3.
After this, it appears that a lot of the power he accumulates as the Digimon Emperor originates from the Dark Ocean. The control spires are explicitly said to be from there, and his moving base is shown to be powered in part by a gateway between the Digital World and the Dark Ocean.
One of the most interesting moments for the Dark Ocean is in episode 31, “Opposites Attract”. In this episode, Kari, Ken, and Yolei end up in a “phase shift” where they are caught between the Digital World and the Dark Ocean. Basically, they appear to be ghosts who can’t be seen by the others in the Digital World, but are still partially there. While it is a relationship that never gets developed any more than this, it is in this episode that Kari and Ken learn that they have been suffering from the same thing. They can relate to each other over this in a way none of the others can.
More than this, the Dark Ocean is presented as an invisible force that Kari and Ken each suffer with on their own. In this episode, where Yolei is in the same position as the two of them, she can’t see the Dark Ocean at first. She sees two of her fellow digidestined struggling with the sight of something, but to her, there is nothing there… Until there is.
Things are a little muddy with this point. Reading the Dark Ocean as a symbol for something like depression, the fact that Yolei can’t see at first, even while people are suffering right beside her, feels apt. But then, what makes her able to see it, is just yelling about how she can’t. It seems to be saying something like those who suffer from it can see it easily, but those who don’t need to be shown where to look, but it is just such a weirdly sudden shift.
But let’s stick with this metaphor. In the earlier post about Digimon Adventure 02, I made the argument that the Dark Ocean could be the same place as the Cave of Darkness from Digimon Adventure (1999). They both feel like they use similar versions of this depression metaphor. These similarities are only highlighted when Kari says that she envies Yolei, because of how Yolei can always say what she is thinking, while Kari keeps everything inside so that she is the only one who gets hurt. This lines up perfectly with how it was Matt and Sora who were the ones who were affected by the Cave of Darkness, the digidestined possessing the crests of friendship and love. These are two that are most based around how they make others feel, and now we’re seeing the Dark Ocean play out with the digidestined possessing the crests of light and kindness, with kindness falling into a similar vein as friendship and love, and light being this beacon for those around them.
Given all of what the Dark Ocean is, it does come off like a weird choice to seemingly have the dark spore inside of Ken originate in the Digital World rather than the Dark Ocean itself. We see it implant itself in Ken’s neck in episode 43, “Invasion of the Daemon Corps”, when we get another flashback to his short time in the Digital World with Ryo. Oikawa explains in episode 48, “Oikawa’s Shame”, that the dark spore feeds off of innocence, and we see throughout that it pushes those implanted with it toward isolation and anger. With how much of the darker things throughout the series are shown to have originated in the Dark Ocean, it is surprising that this wouldn’t be as well.
Aside from occasional moments of exposition, explaining how the Dark Ocean ties to the greater plot of the series, we don’t see any of the digidestined go there again. What we do get is a climactic moment for Ken’s struggles with the Dark Ocean, where he must open a portal to it in order to seal away an evil that is too strong for them to fight.
In this scene (in episode 45, “The Dark Gate”), Ken uses his dark D3, coupled with him own emotions, to open the portal. We’re shown how thinking back to those negative emotions that brought him to the Dark Ocean are giving him physical pain. But then, one by one, his friends come to help. While he has to focus on the worst parts of his life, his friends reach out to tell him that they are there for him, that he isn’t the Digimon Emperor anymore, that he isn’t alone. It’s like it is showing that the Dark Ocean is a part of him, and it always will be, but with friends around he can handle it.
The Digimon World Tour
The Digimon World Tour mini arc is the most fun this series gets. They manage to take a story involving worldwide stakes, and yet, put the focus on such small moments that it never feels very drastic. Setting it around Christmas even brings in that extra bit of cheer.
But let’s start with what this is. Primarily, it is the start of the Digidestined spending almost the entire rest of the series in the human world. It begins with episode 38, “A Very Digi-Christmas”, where the new digidestined decide to bring all the old digidestined their Digimon as Christmas gifts. On its own, this is already so sweet, and gives us a chance to really spend some time with the older digidestined, who have been barely around since the passing of the torch at the end of the Digimon Emperor arc.
This episode is filled with adorable moments, especially with the older kids and how they react to having their Digimon around. Then there is Ken struggling to work up the courage to ask the others to his Christmas party, and both him and Cody getting scared over how the other feels about them at this point. And of course, there needs to be a quick shoutout to Kari’s Digimon version of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”, which is unbelievably cute. This entire episode just has so many good feelings tied to it.
On the more serious side, this episode introduces the idea that control spires are popping up all over Earth, accompanied by gates to the Digital World letting random Digimon through. For the most part, these are presented as good Digimon being put into situations where they are only hostile because they are in unfamiliar environments.
With the next episode, (“Dramon Power”), we get Gennai showing up with a digi-core from Azulongmon, returning the power to reach ultimate to the older Digimon partners, while also giving Paildramon the ability to mega digivolve to Imperialdramon. By the end of the episode, the digidestined and Gennai come up with the plan to split up and go to six locations around the world to meet up with other digidestined and open gates to send the Digimon home.
This is where we hit the Digimon World Tour proper, with episodes 40-42 (all titled “Digimon World Tour” Part 1-3). These three episodes all follow the simple formula of half of each episode following a different pair of digidestined (one original, and one new), as they meet up with digidestined from around the world and solve a small problem before sending the Digimon back home.
What we get here are:
Davis and Mimi in New York, where they have to stop a Cherrymon who goes on a rampage after thinking a Christmas tree is an enemy.
Kari and Izzy in Hong Kong, where they have to help Digimon cross the border between India and China without causing an international incident with the Chinese military.
Cody and Joe in Sydney, where they have to fight ocean Digimon.
TK and Tai in Paris, where they have to save a kidnapped digidestined.
Ken and Matt in Mexico City, where they have to stop Digimon from destroying a Mayan temple.
And finally, Yolei and Sora in Moscow, where they are forced to find a way to team up with digidestined who don’t speak the same language as them.
When described as their most basic plots, the Kari and Izzy story kind of stands out as far more intense than any of the others, but it is handled in such a jokey way that it never really plays out as overly serious at all.
On top of all of this, we have the inclusion of different version of Gennai. While a full explanation is never given, it seems that whatever made Gennai look so young again also split him into a bunch of what appear to be clones. Gennai has been spending his time deleting all information that governments have collected on the Digital World since the whole Myotismon incident in Odaiba three years ago, in hopes of preventing them from ever actually opening a gate themselves. It is implied that this job is the explanation as to why Gennai has a bunch of copies now, though it doesn’t say how it happened. In the end, the Gennai clones are mainly just played as jokes in a similar way to all the Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys in Pokemon. Although, in this case, each Gennai does get their own name: Benjamin in New York, Jackie in Hong Kong, Hogan in Sydney, Jose in Mexico City, and Ilya in Moscow.
Strangely, TK and Tai never meet up with a Gennai copy in Paris, and instead go on an adventure with TK’s grandfather.
In this end, this mostly plays as a fun escape before the much more serious final episodes of the series. But even still, it does come to be important by the very end. Part of the concept of the finale is the way that every digidestined from around the world unites to shine their light at MaloMyotismon (episode 50, “A Million Points of Light”). While this all could have happened without the Digimon World Tour episodes, they do help give the moment more weight by showing us familiar faces from around the world.
The Healthiest Take on a Love Triangle
Late into the series Tai, Matt, and Sora find themselves in a situation that is super common for television, a love triangle. But it doesn’t play out the way that would be expected. This is such a small thing, that gets only two incredibly short scenes, but feels worth drawing attention to.
This all starts in episode 38, “A Very Digi-Christmas”, where the older digidestined are planning to attend Matt’s concert. Tai asks Sora if they could go together, but Sora wants to stay available in case Matt wants to do anything after the concert. It is abundantly clear to both of them that Sora is into Matt, but also doesn’t want to upset Tai. And what does Tai do? He literally pushes her into the building to find Matt, telling her to say hi for him. Even Agumon comments about how much Tai has grown up.
Later on, in episode 48, “Oikawa’s Shame”, this idea comes up again, but this time from Matt’s side of things. Most of the digidestined, new and old, are together and scouting out the bridge where the dark spore children are meeting, but Tai and Sora are off watching the one child who had the spore harvested from her already. Izzy asks Matt if he is bothered by Sora and Tai being together for this, but Matt waves it off. He tells Izzy that Tai is his best friend, and he completely trusts Sora, he has no reason to worry.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a love triangle play out in such a healthy way before. Two best friends both with feelings for the same woman, and when she decides she has feelings for one, they drop any possible competition or jealousy that would usually play out. It’s actually really nice to see this kind of trust between friends and respect for the character who chooses between them.
It might be worth getting into possible reasons why this plays out the way that it does though.
It’s important to note that it goes on with the older kids rather than the younger ones who the show is focused on. Having a love story at all feels like a way to differentiate the ages of the characters. Where we can see the new kids have crushes, we only see the older kids have actual relationships.
But the other reason is that the older digidestined just aren’t the focus of this show. The fact that they exist in this more tertiary capacity, especially in the second half of this series, gives them the freedom to have moments play out less dramatically. Because this story plays out with characters who don’t get a lot of screen time, there is no space to force in extra drama and conflict. It is the lack of focus that allows them to keep it all more subdued.
I don’t think the latter fact takes anything away from what is happening here, it is still so refreshing to see these dynamics and relationships, but it does start to show why it might be that they were able to write the relationships this way when most other media doesn’t.
Does this mean that this kind of story can’t be told with the main characters? Not really, but story is about conflict, to remove it entirely can sometimes feel like wasted opportunities, even if what you are getting in return is a healthier look at how characters can interact.
Harmonious Ones and the Scope of the Digital World
Far more so than the original series Digimon Adventure 02 seems to be aiming to deepen the lore of the Digital World itself.
Let’s start with digivolving for an example of this. When the digidestined speak with Azulongmon in episode 37, “Kyoto Dragon”, he explains to them that the digi-eggs were part of an ancient form of digivolving. This short explanation begins to hint at this kind of history for the world, where it seems that armor digivolving may have been the predominant or even only form of digivolving at a time, before more regular means came into being. The fact that most Digimon aren’t even capable of it anymore speaks to how long ago this must date back to.
Speaking of Azulongmon, even his existence on its own has meaning to the world as a whole. Just four episodes before his appearance, in episode 33, “A Chance Encounter”, Yolei is introduced to the concept of what Sora’s dad refers to as the Four Gods around Kyoto. This is based off real-world mythology that seems to have originated in China but came to be recognised across much of Asia. These are the Black Tortoise (called a turtle in Digimon, at least in the dub) to the North, the Azure Dragon to the East, the Vermillion Bird (or phoenix) to the South, and the White Tiger to the West.
Jumping back to episode 37, Azulongmon explains the existence of the Digital World’s Harmonious Ones, of which he is apart of, and it so happens that they are the same kinds of beings as the Four Gods being described around Kyoto in the earlier episode.
These two episodes end up working together to essentially build out a hypothesis and (very quickly) prove it correct. When Sora’s dad is talking about the Digimon he talks like they are magical creatures, and when questioned about it, he explains that he doesn’t think they are just data, they are legends that have been spoken of for hundreds of years, and over time become reality. By having the legend around Kyoto be proven to be real for the Digital World just four episodes later, it is saying, yes, legends in the human world become the reality in the Digital World. And more than this, by using a real legend, it adds an extra layer to it all (a layer I got into in my discussion on the Myotismon Arc of Digimon Adventure (1999)…).
This further comes into play with Izzy’s talk with Ken (also in episode 33). Izzy believes that the Digital World has some level of power to turn unconscious desires into reality, and he uses the outfits that the new digidestined get when they enter the Digital World as his evidence. While these kinds of desires are not the same thing as legends that get told and retold over the years, there is a connection in that they are human thought turned into reality.
What isn’t explained is just as important as what is explained as they get deeper how the Digital World works, because it can lead to us asking interesting questions. Azulongmon is one of the four Harmonious Ones, and his seven Destiny Stones being destroyed begin to crack the barriers between the worlds. But this leaves us wondering about the other three quadrants. Presumably, they must have something similar, right?
Because of the way the Destiny Stones are presented to us, it almost feels like the Digital World is a small place. Like the digidestined have been travelling all over the world to try to save them, but the fact that they are all Azulongmon’s proves that that isn’t true.
Let’s remember Digimon Adventure (1999)’s episode 19, “The Prisoner of the Pyramid”, Izzy shows the digidestined that the Digital World and the human world correspond to each other in a one-for-one ratio – in terms of size, though not necessarily in layout – with all the lines of the digital networks matching up perfectly between the two. Keeping this in mind while looking at everything going on with Azulongmon, the digidestined have probably remained in the Digital World equivalent of Asia (if not just Japan) the entire time they have been travelling.
As we get further into this series, and see the digidestined from around the world, this all comes together to paint the image of them all coming to incredibly different places within the Digital World, and while the events of the Japanese digidestined are presented as the most important (because they are the ones we follow), it stands to reason that the other parts of the Digital World have been hit with equivalent reasons to need digidestined.
Though, the Japanese digidestined are explicitly kept as the most important through a few means. For one, we’re told that the majority of these digidestined from around the world only came into being digidestined because they saw Digimon three years ago (during the Myotismon and Dark Masters arcs). Because of this, the original digidestined are kept in this position of relative authority on the matter. There is also how the Dark Masters are now being said to have locked away all four Harmonious Ones, which means that while Okawa’s plans in this series have been more focused on this quadrant of the Digital World, the previous series did still have villains going after the entire world (and this series gets that way too, by the very end).
The Other Worlds of Digimon
The deepening lore of the Digimon universe doesn’t stop with the Digital World itself, in Digimon Adventure 02 we get a glimpse into just how much more there could be.
Digimon Adventure (1999)’s episodes 27 and 28 introduce us to a gateway between the worlds. A pedestal acts as the control panel for this gateway, and the way it is activated is by placing nine of the ten possible cards into specific positions on the pedestal. In an almost throwaway line from those episodes, it is brought up that placing down the cards into the wrong places will open the gateway, but there is no telling which world it will lead to. And in this moment, the first series creates the idea of millions of possible worlds existing in Digimon rather than just the human and Digital one.
In episode 48 of Digimon Adventure 02, “Oikawa’s Shame”, these cards return, this time inside of a laptop that Oikawa is using to open the gateway from the human world side. There is a dramatic irony to the moment, where the digidestined know the gateway to the Digital World has been locked because of BlackWarGreymon’s sacrifice, but Oikawa has no idea. They wait to see what will happen, hoping it will cause him to get distracted and give them an edge, but the gateway opens…
In what might just be the coolest, most subtle, use of continuity between the two series, Oikawa places the wrong card in the final position. In those original episodes of the prior series, it all came down to two possible cards, Gomamon, and Agumon. Tai picks one at random, Gomamon, and happens to be right. Here, we see Agumon take that final position. It is a shot that lasts about a second, with no flashback to the old series, and no attention drawn to it in any way. It is a moment of pure “if you know, you know” energy, and even passes by so quickly, even if you know, you might not notice.
This call back to the previous series acts as the explanation of how the gateway opens at all. And the fact that it is Myotismon who is revealed to be controlling Oikawa, and Myotismon is the one who opened to the gateway originally in the previous series, it is very possible to read it as him doing this on purpose. And the way Myotismon talks upon entering this world only seems to further the evidence in this direction. He says Oikawa will never make it to the Digital World, and seems to use the power of this world to give himself form before he sucks up the power of the dark spores to get his real body back.
But what is this world?
Whether or not it has any kind of proper name, this world is described to us as the wishing world. It is a world in which your wishes can come true. Davis is able to tap into this power when he wishes ExVeemon were strong enough to fight MaloMyotismon, making ExVeemon suddenly become more powerful. This is pushed to a further degree as this same power allows all the partner Digimon to become all of their digivolutions at once, as kind of clones of themselves, all with this power boost.
This is the second world outside of the Digital and human worlds to be introduced, but what is interesting is how they all collide with each other. The wishing world is explicitly a world in which wishes come true, and the Digital World is shown in to have a similar kind of effect, even if not as powerful. It’s been mentioned before in this post, but in episode 33, “A Chance Encounter”, Izzy brings up his theory of the Digital World bringing unconscious desires to life.
Similarly, the other world we see, the Dark Ocean, also seems to have an affect on the Digital World. For one, there is the dark whirlpool in which Devimon is found in episode 19, “An Old Enemy Returns” which Patamon and TK describe as having the same dark feeling as the Dark Ocean a few episodes later when they see the gateway giving energy to the Ken’s now ruined and abandoned base. There is also the existence of the dark spores.
The dark spores effects are shown to drive the children implanted with them closer to the feelings that the Dark Ocean comes to represent, but it doesn’t actually originate there. When we see the dark spore get implanted into Ken’s neck as a child, it is when he is in the Digital World the first time.
Between these two new worlds we get opposing concepts of wishes and depression both being presented as tools for power. Much like the use of the Harmonious Ones, this continues to build out the lore of the universe in a way that invites more questions and more possibilities than simply explaining everything to the point of losing the mystery. While the Dark Ocean is present for nearly the entire series, we know almost nothing about it, and the wishing world is in only a couple episodes and barely explored at all. They are adding fuel to the concept of there being millions of worlds out there yet to be explored.
Illusions of the Digidestined
In the final episodes of Digimon Adventure (1999), the digidestined face off against Apocalymon and are nearly defeated when he sends them spiraling into hopelessness. They become pure data, and the entire world around them seems to stop existing until they can find their positive energy again and fight back. This series has similar final test for the digidestined but coming at them from the opposite direction.
In episode 49, “The Last Temptation of the Digidestined”. MaloMyotismon looks inside the digidestined for what he describes as their insecurities or unhappiness and uses them to create illusions that tempt them into submission.
For the most part, these gives an incredibly interesting look into the minds of the digidestined, so, let’s take a look at what they are tempted with.
TK is the first we see, and his is as simple as coming home for dinner to find his whole family there. His parents’ separation has been something he has been seen struggling with since early on in the original series, and so it feels right that he wants so badly to believe this, and how angry he is when he learns this isn’t real.
Yolei’s is almost the opposite from TK’s, and kind of comes off like more of a joke than all the rest. Her illusion has her home with just her mother and just a table full of desert. It has her siblings no longer existing and so all the desert is just for her! In the end, she admits that while she sometimes wishes her siblings weren’t around, she would miss them. This could have been really interesting, but we don’t really see enough built between her and her siblings to feel much for this moment, and the inclusion of all the desert just undercuts it that much more.
Cody sees himself in the Digital World, showing it off to his no-longer-dead father. This is right back to being serious, with a child just wanting to see his father again, and wanting to share this major part of himself with him. When he learns the truth, it is hard for him, but it helps him come to terms with wanting to tell his mother the truth about this world.
Kari’s is the most selfless, which fits so perfectly with her character. In her illusion, it doesn’t seem like anything has changed for her at all, but instead, the whole world around her has changed. Digimon and humans are all together, and all the kids in the park have their own Digimon to play with. Going along with this, her illusion is also the only one that has her partner Digimon there in the illusion with her right from the start.
And then there is Ken. His illusion starts off as a nightmare before it shifts into something else entirely. He sees another version of himself, still as the Digimon Emperor, being stoned to death by the Digimon he hurt when he was bad. He watches this version of himself be killed and turned to data. After this, Sam shows up, telling Ken that they can stay in this world together and never think about the past again.
Wormmon shows up to help Ken, just like the rest of the Digimon partners do for their digidestined. But while most of the others simply talked about how these aren’t real, Wormmon explains to Ken how he can’t change his past, only his future. This is the end of Ken’s arc. He has sought redemption all this time, looking to forget his past, but here he comes to terms with the fact that he can’t. The other digidestined all come into his illusion to tell him that they are there for him, and he is able to break free.
This is such a nice ending for Ken, but it does feel a bit too close to his actions in episode 45, “The Dark Gate”. In that episode he has to use the emotions of his past to open the dark gate, and it is only when his friends show they are there for him that he is able to handle it. It is almost a more subdued version of this same moment.
Davis never gets an illusion. When MaloMyotismon questions how this could be possible, Davis says he has his friends, family, and Digimon, what else does he need. Basically, Davis couldn’t be tempted because he is totally content with his life as it is. Not only was Davis never tempted, but he was the only one who didn’t succumb to the despair that MaloMyotismon brought out in the rest of them, and was the first one to tap into the power of the wishing world to fight back.
Davis’s character hasn’t really had a major struggle with what to do since episode 19, “Storm of Friendship”. He is the only one who doesn’t question that sometimes you need to kill bad Digimon, he instantly forgave Ken, and now he is shown as having no internal struggles. It’s an interesting position for a character, but with how he is portrayed as the protagonist because he is the leader of the group, it is hard to build on or relate to a character with no conflict at all.
This made be a side effect of how the show committed more to lore than character. We can see here that TK and Kari both have things that can tempt them, but these are things that could have been just as true in the prior series. Cody is still struggling with the loss of his father, but much of this feels like it has only come out because of how he connects to Oikawa. And then Ken, he is the character to get the most characterization out of any of them. Yolei and Davis? Well, they kind of get to be a joke and a purely content perfect good guy respectively. (I’m being a little harsh calling Yolei’s a joke, but it the moment doesn’t feel earned enough to be serious)
Conclusion
This brings the first half of the topics for the Oikawa arc to a close, and with the villains still left to be talked about, there is still so much left to say.
It’s probably obvious because of how many of these topics touch on it, but Ken really feels like the most important character for this series. The first half has him as the bad guy, so that the entire second half can be spent trying to redeem him. Not only that, but much of the lore comes out because of his connection to things like the Dark Ocean and the control spires, and even Oikawa.
Be sure to comment what you think about any or all of these topics, and come back for the next half!
