Digimon isn’t quite the juggernaut it was back when us 90s kids were watching it early in the morning before school, but Toei has been gradually releasing more of it over the years. For anime fans, there was a reboot of the original Digimon Adventure season that premiered last year and whose English dub is currently in production. In addition to that anime, though, Toei also released two films that served as sequels to the original Adventure series, and now a new film is on the horizon to tie up its second season.
The next film in the Adventure series was officially titled as Digimon Adventure 02 The Beginning at DigiFes 2022. Like how the first two films returned to the original DigiDestined kids as adults and closed out their story, The Beginning is intended to serve as a capper to the show’s second season. Yumeta Company, who worked on 2020’s Adventure film, Last Evolution—Kizuna, is developing the film alongside Toei.
Set in February 2012 not long after the events of Kizuna, the film brings back the second generation of DigiDestined that made up season two. While that group was around for some of Kizuna, they’ve got this film all to themselves so fans of that particular season can see how things worked out for this particular group of heroes. The character art above shows the now 20-year-old members of the second generation of DigiDestined. Check out Daisuke/Davis (Fukujuro Katayama), Ken (Arthur Lounsbery), Yolei (Ayaka Asai), Cody (Yoshitaka Yamaya), Kari (Mao Ichimichi), and TK (Junya Enoki), complete with their Digimon. A six-minute clip was also shown at the event, where the DigiDestined meet the film’s new character, Rui Ōwada (Megumi Ogata), who they save from falling off Tokyo Tower.
Ōwada calls himself “the first in the world to become a DigiDestined,” and while he’s got a Digivice on hand, albeit one cracked to hell, he’s noticeably lacking a partner by his side. The second season introduced a range of DigiDestined guest stars for the 02 cast to spend time with, but one who claims to predate Tai and the others is certainly an interesting hook for this film. Also playing into the plot is a new Digimon called Okkomon (Rie Kugimiya), who looks kind of cute, but this being Digimon, looking cute is just a gateway to becoming something more monstrous after a Digivolution or two. Those two, you can see below, and who knows, maybe they’ll wind up being partners by the film’s end.
As previously stated, Digimon isn’t quite the heavy hitter as it was back in the day, but it’s nice to see that there’s still media coming out for it. As someone who became more attached to this batch of Adventure kids growing up, it’ll be exciting to see how their stories close. And hopefully, Toei’s planning on giving the same treatment to the Tamers and Frontier seasons when time allows it.
Digimon Adventure 02 The Beginning is due for release sometime in 2023.
[via Anime News Network]
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