Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning Review: A Dark And Engrossing Chapter In The Popular Franchise
"Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning" begins, like all good "Digimon" stories should, with Maurice Ravel's "Boléro." The track starts playing as a giant Digi-egg appears floating above Tokyo Tower. It quickly starts emitting an electromagnetic pulse that impacts every screen on the planet and declares "May everyone in the world have friends. May they each have a Digimon," in several languages. When the egg hatches, it spells chaos around the world, and it is up to the second-generation DigiDestined to stop it.
Except, there's not much in terms of fighting. There are no Dark Masters threatening to destroy the world. Compared to other "Digimon" movies, the action is barely there, but the film still offers a dark and engrossing story that brings "Digimon" to psychological and even body horror territory. It may not be the big "Digimon" event that fans of the emotionally devastating "Last Evolution Kizuna" may be expecting, but it does what "Digimon" always does best. It adds interesting if messy things to the lore, and explores complex and dark themes for a kids' franchise.
"Last Evolution Kizuna" offered a "Toy Story 3"-style story supercharged with emotions and a sense of finality, which saw the DigiDestined grow up and grow out of the franchise. "Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning" takes a very different approach, showing that some stories don't end but simply evolve. We still see the second-generation DigiDestined grown up and having jobs and adult lives, and some of the best scenes are simply them and their Digimon partners hanging out at Davis' ramen shop, or having a big snowball fight at the end.
But they are not the focus. That honor belongs to Lui Ohwada, a kid who reveals he is the first ever DigiDestined, and the first to kill his Digimon partner.
Cronenberg meets Digimon
Ever since the "Digimon: The Movie" (though technically a segment from a later short film), each "Digimon" movie has introduced a new DigiDestined unrelated to the main characters who become the focus of the story. Lui is the best of these since Willis from the first movie — and has a brief cameo here!
Keeping in line with the franchise's tradition of tackling how loneliness and isolation in kids can have rather ominous repercussions later in life, we see that Lui's childhood was one of neglect and abuse. Granted, he is no Ken Ichijouji who tries to conquer the DigiWorld as an emperor, but it still messes him up. So when Lui gets his DigiEgg, he doesn't set out to save the world or go on a grand adventure but is instead just beyond excited to have a friend who cares for him and protects him. Even in the present, Lui makes for a complex and interesting counterpart to the other DigiDestined. For his part, Ukkomon wants nothing more than to see his partner happy, and that's where things go wrong.
Though not strictly a horror movie, there is some effective psychological horror at play here, and even some body horror that answers the question, what if Cronenberg made a "Digimon"? The result is pure nightmare fuel.
More than anything, Lui's story presents an important and nuanced exploration of the importance of communication. The film interrogates the relationship between DigiDestined and their Digimon partners, and what always distinguished this franchise from, say, "Pokémon" when it came to its dog fighting. The film has an important message about how making assumptions about others' feelings rather than asking for others' intentions sets up a series of horrific tragedies.
The adventure continues
The downside to focusing on Lui's story is that "Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning" kind of pushes its main cast aside. Most of the movie is just Lui telling his backstory while the others sit down and listen to him. They barely have anything to do, and when they do, they mostly act as a unit rather than have individual roles. So those expecting a "Digimon tri" or "Last Evolution Kizuna" in terms of character development for the legacy characters might be disappointed.
Also, a small but still noticeable negative about the movie is its localization. The subbed version keeps not only the Japanese names for the characters, but doesn't translate terms like Digi-egg or DNA Evolution. The characters don't even shout "digivolves to..." when evolving, for no reason at all. It is not the biggest thing to be disappointed about, but it is still noticeable and annoying if you grew up with the localization for these terms.
Still, the original group is fun to watch, even in smaller doses. Returning director Tomohisa Taguchi competently stages action, balancing 2D and 3D animation without making it jarring, and taking advantage of the Digimons' huge sizes to make the action epic in scale.
"Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning" also takes some rather bold swings when it comes to additions to its lore. This is a franchise that has never let continuity or "canon" get in the way of a cool idea, and this is not the exception. Though not used for an emotional gut-punch like "Last Evolution Kizuna," it still marks a game-changing moment that recontextualizes the entire franchise and makes for some effective drama.
This may not be the film fans expected, but it is still a worthy addition to the "Digimon" franchise.
/Film Rating: 8 out of 10