Digimon Adventure 02 Revisited: Digimon Emperor Arc

It’s time to return to the Digital World for another deep dive into the series, this time looking at Digimon Adventure 02 (2000).

This first post will be dealing with the Digimon Emperor Arc, which takes up about the first 2/5 of the series. Even at the time of writing this, I am unsure how to split the latter chunk of the series, or if this will just being done in two parts. But that is a problem for the future. Without further ado:

The Digimon Emperor Arc runs from episodes 1-21.

(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

A kid calling himself the Digimon Emperor is taking over the Digital World, primary with the use of dark rings that force Digimon under his control.

When Agumon becomes targeted, he calls out to Tai who finds his way back into the Digital World to save his friend. The Digimon can’t digivolve, thanks to the control spires that have been put up, leaving Tai and Agumon are left no choice but to run and hide. They stumble upon a digi-egg, and touching it releases three new digivices.

While the normal digivolving is blocked by the control spires, these digi-eggs allow the new digidestined (as well as Kari and TK) to armor digivolve their partners. With this new ability, they start fight back against the Digimon Emperor.

The digidestined learn the real identity of the Digimon Emperor, but when they go to confront him in the real world, he chooses to run away from home and live in the Digital World forever. He plots to rule over it by force, creating more devastating tools to do the job.

When it comes time for a final confrontation, the digidestined vow to stay in the Digital World until they succeed. The Digimon Emperor creates a monster so powerful that the digidestined don’t stand a chance, and he loses control of it. The battle is only won when they find the golden digi-egg, and finally make the Digimon Emperor realize the pain he has been causing.

The Set Up

Digimon Adventure 02 is a sequel series to the original Digimon Adventure (1999). It is named “02” to reference this fact, as well to denote the year this show takes place, 2002, making it a nod to the time skip between the series.

The series builds itself on reference from the original (a fact that will come up throughout this whole post). It even continues to have the old digidestined play a major role, even while no longer being the main characters. The youngest of the original series’ digidestined, Kari and TK, join the new batch of kids looking to save to the Digital World.

This is the only Digimon series that acts as a direct sequel to a previous one, with each of the others working as stand-alone entities. There are also movies that continue the Adventure series, while the non-Adventure Digimon series only ever receive OVAs (Original Video Animations, which are often like short movies, and tend to be ambiguously canon).

Where Digimon Adventure (1999) was built out of four discrete arcs with clear delineations between them, this sequel series builds itself in a way where it is closer to a single continuous story. This isn’t a point for or against either series, but it does make it more difficult to break off short sections at a time.

New Kids on the Block

One of the biggest hurdles at the start of the original series was just how many characters are thrown in right from episode one. Digimon Adventure 02 learns from this and changes up the formula in a couple of ways.

First and foremost, the core group of digidestined that we are meant to follow begins at only five characters rather than the seven in the original series. Lightening the load even further, two of these five are taken from the original. The inclusion of these established characters gives the show more of an opportunity to focus on the newbies, while still having a sizable cast.

On top of this, only one of the three new characters actually go to the Digital World in the first episode. While all three characters are introduced and shown to be the new digidestined, only Davis gets to meet his Digimon partner this time around. This means more time spent on establishing the world, the conflict, and the characters, without throwing fourteen faces at the audience all at once (or twenty-one, if you want to consider how the partner Digimon all digivolved in that first episode of the original series).

With all that said, who are these characters? Davis, Yolei, and Cody are the new Digidestined created for this series, with Kari and TK joining their team. Kari and TK have gone from being the youngest of the crew, that everyone felt like they had to look out for, to working as the experienced experts this time around. The time skip makes them around the age of the older kids in the original series, and peers with most of the new kids. It is an interesting flip in their use to the series, but the fact that they have already been around leads to the others getting more attention and development than they do.

Davis is the new goggle-headed leader to the digidestined. He wants to rush into action every chance he gets, unless his friends are on the line. As early as the second episode (“The Digiteam Complete”), Davis is ready to have himself trapped by the Digimon Emperor as long as Veemon is allowed to go free. This situation is pushed to its limit in episode 8, “Ken’s Secret”, where the Digimon Emperor forces Davis to choose which of his friends get to live (while the others get eaten). Davis refuses to choose, and instead begs the Digimon Emperor to take him instead, rather than see any of his friends hurt.

Davis’s need to rush into everything can at times come into conflict with his inability to see a friend hurt. This comes into play primarily in episode 11, “The Storm of Friendship”. When the Digimon Emperor takes control of MetalGreymon, Davis struggles over the concept of having to hurt a friend in order to help them. His inaction leads to Veemon getting hurt, and he finally comes to terms with what he needs to do to save Agumon.

Yolei is the resident computer nerd. Her most prominent quality is her ability to say whatever is on her mind, good or bad, which on multiple occasions leads to her insulting people she shouldn’t. In episode 14, “The Samurai of Sincerity”, Yolei comes to terms with the fact that she tends to judge people on first impressions, regardless of how they turn out later on.

Yolei is also incredibly driven. When she puts her mind to something, she doesn’t stop. In episode 18, “Run Yolei Run”, this need to succeed has her rushing in so thoughtlessly that Hawkmon is badly injured trying to save her. She wants to show how worthy she is, and so she pushes herself too hard when she worries that she isn’t going to be enough.

Cody has a similar problem, where he always needs to feel like he is pulling his own weight. He is the youngest of the new characters but hates to be treated like it. In episode 5, “Old Reliable”, Cody struggles with balancing his real-life activities, like kendo practice, with his new responsibilities as a digidestined. He tries to stay with the group even after falling in frozen water and feels terrible when he is made to stay behind. It takes a talk with Joe to teach him that he is there for a reason, and even when it feels like he isn’t doing as much as the others, he still has a purpose.

Even while being the youngest, Cody has the most grounded head on his shoulders and the strongest sense of morality, which we learn was instilled in him by his grandfather. When the group get into arguments, it is often Cody who comes up with the most mature solution, though he isn’t always taken seriously due to his age. And in episode 16, “20,000 Digi-Leagues Under the Sea”, Cody is put in a position where he must lie in order to save his friends. Having always been taught he should never lie, this is a huge deal for Cody, and one he struggles with the entire episode.

The New Partner Digimon

Davis, Yolei, and Cody each meet their partner Digimon in their respective first adventures in the Digital World. This happens in the same way in both occurrences: the new digidestined lifts one of the digi-eggs, and a light comes out from their pedestal that unleashes their Digimon.

I want to focus for a second on how Agumon describes Veemon when he is first revealed. Agumon says, “I thought he was just a legend.” Let’s look at two possible ways we can understand this line.

The first is that Veemon is legendary so much as an urban legend. We could take it similarly to how in many superhero origin movies, there will be a point where some bad guys worry about this hero showing up, but others call the hero just a myth. It is a line about denoting the status of being based off rumor.

The next option is taking Agumon’s line as calling Veemon a Digimon from legends, and therefore probably a story that has been passed on for an incredibly long time. It isn’t much of a leap to believe that if this is the case for Veemon, the same holds true for Armadillomon and Hawkmon, as they were found in similar ways.

This second reading falls in line with how the digidestined are spoken of in the original series. Prophecy plays a huge role in the Digital World. In the episode 13 of the original series (“The Legend of the Digi-Destined”), we learn about how the digidestined were foretold, and always known to come from another world to save them from darkness. The idea that these new Digimon have been waiting for prophesized children to come around, seems to fit perfectly with that idea.

But then there is another moment from the original series to think about. Episode 45, “The Ultimate Clash” is particularly interesting in this light. It is in this episode of Digimon Adventure (1999) that we learn the origin of the partner Digimon of this series. Each of the Digidestined were scanned four years prior to coming to the Digital World, and the data from those scans are what became their Digimon. In a way, the Digimon are a version of themselves, and this is why their partnerships are as strong as they are.

The reading that the new partner Digimon are creatures of legend creates an interesting difference between these Digimon and the original group. This means the Digimon are no longer tied to their humans in the same way, they are no longer literally made from the human’s data. Instead, this puts these Digimon as something closer to King Arthur’s Excalibur, the legendary sword that can only be removed when the true king comes around.

Ultimately, at least as far as what we see in this arc, the answer doesn’t really have an effect on the series. It can change how you view some moments and can be interesting to wonder about, but in the end, either way works out to be functionally the same.

And while on the subject of the partner Digimon, Gatomon has to be mentioned. Gatomon is the only one in the group who has a champion level being treated as her base form instead of rookie. This made a lot of sense in the context of the original show, because she was introduced so late, and had to be able to stand up against (or with) the others. In her early episodes working for Myotismon, she is shown to be tough enough to take on to all the digidestined’s Digimon at champion.

In Digimon Adventure 02, Gatomon continues to stay as Gatomon instead of going down to Salamon, her rookie level, but at the same time, she seems to be at about the strength level of the rookies. The way they explain this is by having her tail ring be removed in the first episode, and we’re told that this takes away most of her power.

Gatomon was almost definitely kept at this level because this is how she is most recognized, and therefore the most marketable (let’s not forget that on some level, this is still an advertisement for toys and games). But story-wise this does her such a disservice. They very easily could have had her revert to Salamon because of the control spires (as they do with Angemon in episode 7, “Guardian Angel”), or even say that she is forced down to Salamon because she lost her tail ring, if they want to keep that as an important plot point.

And while the intention behind Gatomon staying as Gatomon was most likely for marketability, it has another terrible implication. Gatomon is the only female presenting Digimon of the main group this season. Gatomon is a level above all the others, and still only about as strong as their rookie forms. While I don’t think this was a decision made on purpose with sexist intentions, it is a consequence of the choices that were made and isn’t a good look.

Digi-Armor Energize

So, let’s talk about the digi-eggs.

The Digimon Emperor has left Digimon completely unable to digivolve, thanks to his control spires and dark digivice. The new group are able to find a way around this by instead using armor digivolving, which has their Digimon essentially fuse with one of the digi-eggs to become stronger.

This is a really cool idea. And especially as a kid, this concept had me liking this series more than the original. This has the digidestined hunting down powerups to turn their Digimon into new forms, that work for different reasons rather than just a straight line of becoming more powerful. Each of the three new Digimon get two armor digivolutions, one that is more about mobility, and one that is more about fighting. This leads to some level of strategy, having the Digimon sometimes switching forms to be more affective in a given situation.

But then there is the use of the digi-eggs as a stand-in for the crests from the original series. This is made explicit by the fact that the digi-eggs use the symbols of the crests to denote their meaning. But where the crests were used to develop the characters, the digi-eggs seem used as a shorthand instead of developing the characters.

For a quick refresher on how the crests functioned in the original series, let’s take a look at Sora and how she activates her crest in Digimon Adventure (1999) episode 26, “Sora’s Crest of Love”. When Sora learns that her crest can only be activated by love, she stays away from the group for fear that she will hold them back because she doesn’t know how to love. In her mind, she believes she’s incapable of love because her mother doesn’t love her.

By the end of the episode, Sora sees her own actions with Biyomon as a reflection of how her mother treated her. Because of this she comes to realize that it was never that she wasn’t loved by her mother, but that her mother just showed her love by being overprotective. With this new outlook, she knows in her heart that she truly loves Biyomon, and when she calls out this fact, her crest activates, and Biyomon reaches ultimate level for the first time.

(This scene was also mimicked by Davis when he calls out that Veemon is his friend in episode 11, “Storm of Friendship”, but to a lesser effect)

Now, let’s contrast this with the Digi-Egg of Love and Yolei in the new series.

In Episode 2, “The Digiteam Complete”, Cody and Yolei come to the Digital World for the first time. They come upon a temple, inside of which they find the digi-eggs of knowledge and love. Izzy and Sora attempt to lift them —they have the symbols of their crests after all – but when they can’t do it, they ask the new kids to try. And it works!

Immediately after this the older kids talk to the younger ones. While Izzy questions Cody about his thoughts on he Digital World, we get a small amount of dialogue about Cody being curious. This is meant as a reasoning behind him getting his digi-egg. But with Yolei we don’t even get that much.

Yolei and Sora talk about how Yolei doesn’t want to be a fighter, and Sora compares her to Mimi. This being only the second episode, there has been no time to build her up in any way to show why she would get the symbol of love, and even in this moment we aren’t given any evidence for it.

Immediately after picking the digi-eggs up, they are told just need to say “digi-armor energize” and their Digimon take on new forms.

The crests were used to create huge character moments in the original series, only activating when the children really proved how strong their positive emotions can be. Here we are seeing that the digi-eggs are meant to convey to the viewer that the characters have these traits without the need to prove it. Yolei was able to lift the digi-egg, that must be enough to tell us she has a lot of love in her, right?

On top of this problem, is the way the digi-eggs are doled out. TK and Kari each only get one, and so of course they get the ones that correspond with their old crests, but each of the others get two. Davis gets courage and friendship, Yolei gets love and sincerity, and Cody gets knowledge and reliability.

On the surface, this division doesn’t mean much, but when you look just barely below that… Davis is the leader, and so he gets the two that belonged to the former leaders; Yolei is the girl, so she gets the two that belonged to the girls; and Cody is other boy, so he gets the two that belonged to the other boys. This doesn’t feel like characterization so much as pattern matching, and this becomes all the weirder when Yolei is explicitly shown to be big into computers and incredibly smart even in just the first episode, making it feel as though she should be the one who received the digi-egg of knowledge.

None of this is to say that armor digivolving is a bad addition to the series. In fact, in most ways it is a great concept. But the need to include the crests warps the idea from being something fresh and interesting, to feeling like a wasted opportunity at best, and lazy character building at worst.

A Possible Queer Reading of Yolei

First off, let’s define a term. I’m using “queer” here as meaning not heterosexual and/or not cisgender. Basically, a blanket term to cover a lot of bases, as I don’t believe there is enough evidence to fully support any more specific representation being created by Yolei.

There is a scene in episode 6, “Family Picnic”, in which Yolei fantasies about being Mimi’s sister, but the way this scene is portrayed almost begs for something else to be read into it. The two are holding hands, telling each other how beautiful they are. While they are calling each other “sister”, there was a while where I was convinced it was changed for the dub in the way Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were changed to “cousins” in the Sailor Moon dub. Though some Googling quickly proved this first thought wrong.

Then there is the art style to this fantasy scene, which features an unreal kind of light across the whole image, and a colourful sparkling background as they swirl in this void that consists of nothing but the two of them staring into each other’s eyes. The dresses, the way they seem aged up, so much of it stands in stark contrast to the rest of the series art.

There are some who call out the style as a nod to Revolutionary Girl Utena. While I can’t say that I feel it’s obvious enough to say it is definitely intentional, it isn’t hard to see it as possible (but toss in a border and some roses in the corners and it would probably feel like it fits in with that series). If this is meant to be alluding to this other series, that has interesting implications of its own. Revolutionary Girl Utena is a manga and anime in which a teenage girl wishes to be a prince, and falls in love with a girl.

In the end, this is just a single scene in a single episode. We can possibly read into how Yolei is shown to be blushing when the others find her with Mimi, but that still doesn’t add up to much in terms of the whole series.

But once you start down this line of thinking, Hawkmon starts to stand out. Hawkmon is the only partner Digimon with the opposite gender identity as their human. Hawkmon has an obviously male voice, and everyone uses he/him pronouns in reference to him. On its own, this fact doesn’t need to mean anything, but again, let’s jump back to Digimon Adventure (1999).

While I’ve already brought up the point that these new partner Digimon at least have the possibility of not being created in the same way as the originals, there is still the chance they have been. And how were those Digimon created? By using the data of their human partners. In a sense, they are a version of their human partners.

Looking at Hawkmon in this way, having a male identity could be incredibly meaningful for Yolei’s own identity. This isn’t trying to go as far as to say that having a male Digimon means Yolei must be trans, but opens the door to many queer readings.

Unfortunately, the show never goes any further with this (at least, not in this first arc, and I don’t recall anything happening further along, though I could be wrong). As mentioned, the fantasy sequence with Mimi occurs in episode 6. But then by episode 8, “Ken’s Secret”, Yolei’s character has made a change to coming off more explicitly “boy crazy”, where she wants nothing more than to meet Ken because he is cute. This stands in contrast to episode 3, “A New Digitude”, where upon seeing Ken on the news, Yolei is not infatuated by him but instead arguing that they don’t need a child genius helping them because she knows the Digital World better than this kid possibly could.

I may not remember every detail of the latter half of this series, but I do remember the epilogue, and I am sure there are some who would use that as evidence that everything written here is pointless, because she ends up with a man. But, to that I’ll just say that that doesn’t need to mean anything else is disproven (things like bisexuality exist, after all).

Regardless of if this goes anywhere, it is interesting to think about the ways these little details can build to something, and how looking at Yolei in this light can change how you understand some of her characterization.

His Master’s Voice

Episode 13, “His Master’s Voice”, is probably the most divisive episode of the series, and one that is often speculated about. So, obviously I have to talk about it. But, while conversations about this episode can often include commentary on the production side of thing, I will instead be keeping the scope smaller, only using what we see within this show, and the original series.

This episode stands out in part because of how different it is tonally. Right from the start, something is wrong with Kari, but it is all too internal to understand. She is scared, she’s not sleeping, and she seems to be disappearing into another world. Importantly, this isn’t the Digital World.

When Kari does finally get to this new world, we come to know it as the Dark Ocean. She is on a beach; everything is completely desaturated and dark. There is a lighthouse, but the light emanating from it is black. She finds her way into a tunnel, hoping it will lead her somewhere helpful, and inside she finds a group of Scubamon with dark spirals on their arms.

Eventually, TK, Angewomon, and Pegasusmon are all there to help. Kari frees the Scubamon from their dark spirals, but then they transform. They no longer look like they have a real physical form, but instead are more like shadows. They tell Kari they have summoned her there to make her their queen, so that they may overthrow their master. In the end, Kari refuses and they retreat. This ends with a single look at the silhouette of their master.

First and foremost, this episode is a love story to H.P. Lovecraft. From the unknowable god-like monster in the ocean, to the entire dark mystery-horror kind of tone that the episode sets. Many people refer to this as an arc that begins with this episode but is entirely dropped, but this idea of dropping it before the Dark Ocean’s Master really comes into focus does fit the work with the homage it is creating.

But let’s look into if this really is a brought up just for this episode by hopping back to Digimon Adventure (1999).

There are two key episodes I want to bring up from the original series, but because I have already written on them in prior posts, I’m going to make this brief.

First up is the Myotismon arc, episode 28, “It’s All in the Cards”. This is the episode where Gennai explains to the digidestined that they need to place cards on a pedestal to open a gate to the human world. If they place the cards in the wrong positions, they could end up in another world all together. This seems to hint at the existence of over three million different worlds. And so, given this episode, we know more worlds exist (and this is going to go on to be an important point later on!).

Then there is the Dark Masters arc, episode 51, “The Crest of Friendship”. This episode has Matt, and eventually Sora, feeling so much despair that they end up first in a cave, and eventually in deep, dark water as the feelings get worse. Back in the original post, I did make a reference to this water looking like a dark ocean. I still feel like this is highly likely, but I will admit that there is no concrete evidence for (or against) this idea. The concept is coming from the similar imagery (deep water), the muted colour palette inside of the water, and the feelings of inadequacy and sadness that bring characters to this place.

But let’s dwell on that last point for a second. What brought each character to this place? Matt stopped believing friendship was real and so he had to close himself off to the world. Sora felt the like she wasn’t good enough and keeping a brave face when she was so unsure of herself was becoming too much pressure. Kari was afraid she wasn’t as strong as Tai, and therefore somehow less worthy. All three cases come from similar feelings, and it is these feelings that brought them to a new world.

So, if we take both of these two episodes from Digimon Adventure (1999) into account (and if you believe Matt and Sora went to the Dark Ocean from the Cave of Darkness), then this episode is no longer a random occurrence completely out of nowhere, but a callback to elements set up in the previous series. And while only individual taste can really decide if this is a positive or not, Digimon Adventure 02 does rely heavily on elements from the past series either as imagery to try to add weight to a moment, or as lore to expand upon.

Now let’s move on to what this episode does that is new for this series.

It’s worth mentioning that with the darker tone of this episode, it is also the first time in this series where the digidestined kill an enemy Digimon. Up until this point they have only ever destroyed dark rings and dark spirals to get the Digimon to be good again, but in this episode Angewoman kills an Airdramon (this only happens one other time in this arc, and it is against Kimeramon). And, this is a topic that will come to be important in the future of the series.

But what about these Scubamon? Are they really Digimon? We are never given a definite answer, but I think the implication is meant to be, no, they aren’t. They hold onto their Scubamon forms only until Kari proves her power and frees them. They also don’t behave like other Digimon with the Dark Spirals. Take MetalGreymon, he was 100% under the control of the Digimon Emperor, but these Digimon seem to have complete control over themselves (although they say they are made weaker by the spirals). This seems to imply that there is something different about them from normal Digimon.

Along these same lines, is their transformation into shadowy figures. The way these forms are shown, seem to be telling us that these are their true selves. And although the silhouette we see at the end is a Dragomon, based on what we see from the Scubamon, this might not be his true form either.

A key element of the H.P. Lovecraft’s Old Ones (ancient gods) is how unknowable they are. To even lay your eyes on something like Cthulhu is to lose your mind. And what do we have in the episode that is clearly alluding to him? Beings that take on the appearance of Digimon to really be seen, but then reveal themselves to have forms that don’t truly make sense to the eyes. They are walking shadows; they are shaped but without real bodies. While Dragomon makes the most sense as a silhouette for a Cthulhu based creature, it makes even more sense if this is a similarly “disguised” kind of form. Now I will fully admit that this disguise point might be a bit of a logical leap, but even if the silhouette is in fact its true form and it looks like Dragomon, doesn’t mean it is a Digimon. If we’re believing that there are over three million possible worlds, it makes the most sense that there would be monsters in them that aren’t Digimon.

While we never see the Dark Ocean’s Master again, we do see this the world. This will return in the second half of the series and have a decent amount of importance at that, even while only appearing in a couple episodes.

The perception of the episode isn’t helped by the dub’s final narration asking who this mysterious Master is, and to tune in next time to find out. This implies we will someday find out. But I think the point was always that we were never meant to really know.

This wasn’t an episode about a new big bad Digimon on the horizon. It was smaller than that. It’s focus on Kari and TK almost exclusively shows that it was trying to a smaller, more intimate, moment for the series. It is an episode about Kari’s fears of inadequacy, about the general idea that the new Digidestined might not live up to the old. And how does this arc end? With Tai and Izzy talking about how the torch has been passed and saying that the new Digidestined are ready. And in this respect, this episode isn’t dropped at all, but finds resolution to those fears.

SkullGreymon’s Return

All the way back in Digimon Adventure (1999)’s Etemon arc, the idea of someone else causing one of the partner Digimon to digivolve to ultimate came up. Back then, Datamon was creating a digital clone of Sora to equip with Sora’s real digivice, tag, and crest, in the hopes of having Biyomon reach ultimate and defeat Etemon for him.

We never see this plan get far enough to see if it could work, but I speculated that at least in theory it could work, though Biyomon would most likely dark digivolve in the same way Greymon turned to SkullGreymon previously in that same arc.

And, in this first arc of Digimon Adventure 02, we basically see this concept come to fruition.

In episode 9, “The Emperor’s New Home”, the Digimon Emperor decides he needs to find a stronger Digimon to finally take down the digidestined once and for all. So, he captures Greymon and forces him to digivolve, and he does in fact dark digivolve to SkullGreymon.

One important thing to note here is that the situation is definitely different than the Datamon one. Ken does not possess Tai’s digivice or try to make a copy of Tai. He simply is able to use his own digivice and does it himself. While this seems to contradict a moment from the beginning of Digimon Adventure (1999), I think it is fair to say that the combination of his dark digivice and its connection to Digimon being controlled by the dark rings is enough to have this make sense.

Just like when Tai caused the dark digivolution back in the original show, the Digimon Emperor retains no control over SkullGremon, even with the dark ring. But this is where this whole idea takes a turn.

The Digimon Emperor is so convinced that Agumon is the key to winning that he begins experimenting on him with the dark ring and ends up inventing the dark spiral. This dark spiral gives him a far stronger hold than the dark rings ever could, and according to him, will let him control ultimate level Digimon.

In episode 10, “The Captive Digimon”, the Digimon Emperor puts a dark spiral on Agumon and forces him to digivolve again, but this time he doesn’t dark digivolve to SkullGreymon, he successfully turns into MetalGreymon (Blue). In the end, a human who is not Agumon’s partner, and doesn’t have the right digivice, is able to give Agumon the power to properly digivolve.

So, what does this mean for the original Datamon theory?

Well, much like what was said before, Datamon’s plan probably could have worked. It would all come down to if his digital clone of Sora could have given Biyomon enough power by properly activating the crest.

The Dead Among Us

Digimon don’t usually stay dead but are instead turned to data and reborn as eggs. This is something we are told in the original series, and for the most part stays true here (we have the fact that Chuumon is back as evidence of this). But, as it turns out, this isn’t always the case.

Ken spends a good chunk of the latter half of his arc building the perfect Frankenstein’s monster of a Digimon, Kimeramon. He is hunting down all the most powerful pieces of Digimon to put them together in one unbeatable form (plus MetalGreymon’s hair, presumably just for style). In episode 19, “An Old Enemy Returns”, this search takes him to a dark whirlpool, where he believes he will find the final thing he is missing.

All the Digimon can’t help but feel what Armadillomon calls a “chill of evil” as they get closer to the dark whirlpool. Something is wrong with this place, and all of them can feel it. And strangely enough, so can TK. When the Digimon Emperor makes his way into the dark whirlpool himself, we see the face of the evil inside: Devimon.

What Devimon is in this moment is incredibly ambiguous. He doesn’t make any move to attack, which seems different for him, but he does continue to haunt the Digimon Emperor over the next few episodes, seeming to be corrupting him with even more evil. Devimon comes off like an embodiment of evil, the concept just taking shape, more than a life of his own in this episode.

TK is the most troubled by seeing Devimon again. Devimon is a reminder of the death of his own Digimon, because Angemon sacrificed himself when the two fought. Devimon is also the first truly evil Digimon that the Digidestined had ever known.

Let’s jump back a little bit to episode 17, “Ghost of a Chance”, where all the Digidestined new and old get together to celebrate the anniversary of defeating Myotismon. It is actually the date of them first going to the Digital World, but knowing where this show goes, this small error feels like a purposeful choice they made to remind us of Myotismon.

Throughout this episode, Matt and TK’s Dad is dealing with sightings of a ghost at the TV station he works at. Eventually the digidestined make their way over, and they discover the ghost is repeating Gatomon’s name. When Gatomon steps forward, the ghost takes shape to reveal that they are Wizardmon. Wizardmon was Gatomon’s first friend and sacrificed himself to save both Gatomon and Kari when the two were first united. And here he is, haunting the same building on which he died on the roof.

The fact that Wizardmon is a ghost and not a reborn Digimon brings up some interesting questions about the afterlife with Digimon. Or could it be as simple as dying in the human world meant his data couldn’t be collected in Primary Village (the place where all Digimon are born)?

Whatever the reason for Wizardmon not being reborn, he has pulled himself together enough to bring Gatomon a message. He tells her of a great evil that cannot be defeated by strength alone, and that they must return the one wrapped in darkness to his true self.

This is another moment interesting for its ambiguity. There is a definite reading of this that says Wizardmon is warning the group about Kimeramon, who cannot be controlled by the Digimon Emperor, and is presumably instead controlled by a great darkness. This could check out given the way the Digimon Emperor hears Devimon’s voice so often after leaving the dark whirlpool. Wizardmon also brings up the golden radiance, and it is Magnamon who defeats Kimeramon. So, this could all line up. Given the proximity between Wizardmon’s message, and the arrival of Devimon and Kimeramon, it stands to reason that most people will read it this way.

While I don’t like to jump ahead too much in these, the appearance of Wizardmon as a ghost warning of a greater evil does seem to point toward another possibility. Like Wizardmon says, the enemy is not just the Digimon Emperor, but a greater darkness. The very fact of Wizardmon being a ghost in the human world tells us that this is a possibility of what could happen when a Digimon is killed. Might be worth remembering for later.

Between these two episodes we see the dead return in two very different ways. One is definitely a ghost and seems to use the last of their strength for this message, while the other might be fully alive again, although he does haunt the Digimon Emperor. But regardless of their form, these episodes are here to tell us that the dead don’t stay dead in Digimon, not even the past evils the Digidestined have already defeated.

The Digimon Emperor’s Game

Toward the end of the first episode, the Digimon Emperor comments on Davis’s ability to have a Digimon armor digivolve by saying that he finally found a worthy foe. In the very next episode, the two come face to face for the first time. Davis is shocked to find that the Digimon Emperor is just a kid like him, but the Digimon Emperor hates the comparison, believing they are nothing alike.

These two sightings of the Digimon Emperor already begin to build a villain unlike any we’ve seen before in Digimon. For one, he is human. In fact, he’s a digidestined, complete with his own digivice and partner Digimon, Wormmon. Given the target audience for the show, this pretty much rules out killing the big bad like they did in every arc the original series.

Then there is the Digimon Emperor’s attitude. His enjoyment over finding a foe, while refusing to let any comparison be made between himself and the boy he calls worthy. But let’s put this idea aside for a moment.

In episode 3, “A New Digitude”, we see Ken for the first time (the Digimon Emperor’s identity in the human world). A news report tells us that Ken is a prodigy. He acts incredibly sweet and humble when interviewed on the news, but we’re shown immediately after this that he has a darkness inside of him (he literally kicks a puppy). Continuing this abuse, Ken heads into the Digital World where he finds Digimon to fight each other for his amusement, including a group of Gotsumon that were friends until the dark rings were put on them.

It isn’t until episode 8, “Ken’s Secret”, that the Digidestined learn Ken’s identity. It comes after Ken’s soccer team plays against Davis’s. And while Davis’s team loses horribly, Davis does manage to trip Ken and make him miss one shot. It is here that Ken once again calls Davis his worthy adversary. For a similar call back, Kari yells from the stands that Ken is a kid just like Davis, to try to give Davis some confidence. Ken hears this, and runs circles around Davis’s entire team, seeming to need to prove extra hard that Kari is wrong to compare them.

So, this idea of Ken calling Davis “worthy” comes up a few times but is often in close proximity to someone making a direct comparison between the two of them (a comparison Ken refuses to believe). In Ken’s eyes, he is above everyone. When he says “worthy” it doesn’t mean “equal”, it means “not boring”.

But what do I mean by that? Well, Ken doesn’t outright kill, he abuses, he dominates. His dark rings and eventual dark spirals are meant to make everyone subservient to him, so they can entertain him. In both episode 2 and episode 8, the Digimon Emperor puts Davis in positions where, if he wanted it, Davis would be dead. But instead, he toys with Davis. In episode 2 it is about making Davis watch as a dark ring slowly flies toward Veemon. And in episode 8, it is about psychologically torturing Davis by making him choose between his friends, and eventually having Davis grovel and beg. To Ken, Davis being “worthy” does not mean he believes Davis has any kind of chance against him, but that he requires even a modicum of effort, making him more interesting that the Digimon he just throws dark rings onto.

And now let’s jump all the way to the end of the Digimon Emperor’s reign, with episode 21, “The Crest of Kindness”. The Digimon Emperor’s most powerful creation is defeated, and he can’t deal with this realization. He claims he is going to go home and delete the Digital World from his computer and create a new program that doesn’t cheat. It is in this moment we learn that Ken believes that everything he has been doing in the Digital World has been a game, and therefore none of it is real. But then he sees the in-training level Digimon partners of the digidestined and recognizes them from the soccer game in episode 8. That’s the proof Ken needs, if they’ve been in the human world, this all must be real.

Between Ken’s realization that the Digimon are living things, and the death of Wormmon, Ken believes he’s been a monster. He is in tears, ripping off the costume he wore as the Digimon Emperor and becoming himself again.

What we get with Ken is a kid who appeared evil, but believed he was just playing a video game. This is actually pretty interesting to read into. Who hasn’t done things in a video game for their own amusement that would look incredibly evil if the beings inside the game were living creatures?

As a quick aside, while the internet was a very different place than it is today, it’s even possible to read into it like he’s an anonymous internet troll. He is messing with everyone for fun, but only while he is costumed and using another name. The anonymity and the feeling that it isn’t real keeps him from feeling guilty. It’s kind of too bad that this show wasn’t made more recently, because the troll metaphor might be a bit more interesting than the video game connection (in my opinion, at least).

But is it this simple?

Remember what was mentioned from back in episode 3, the way Ken kicked a puppy in the human world? There was no disassociation there, there was no belief the puppy wasn’t real. He knew what he was doing when he did it. And then there is episode 9, where Ken decides to run away from home to be the Digimon Emperor full time. When he makes his decision, he is standing on the roof of his apartment building, looking down on the people of the city. He starts yelling:

“Look at those fools out there, dreaming away their meaningless lives, running around like rats in a maze. Not one of them is worth half of what I’m worth. Nothing but fools!”

Again, we’re in the human world here, he is talking about real living humans, and screaming about how much better he is than them. But just moments before we this scene we see another, and once again he acts so kind and humble when he is in these public situations.

These moments in the human world make it impossible to fully be on board with Ken’s belief that what he was doing was entirely because he thought he was just playing a game. Or at the very least, we can’t believe that he thought the situation being a game meant he didn’t believe it was real, because he seems to live his human world life as if it is a similar game. This darkness is inside of him, and he was looking for any place he could vent it.

But because Ken is a human, when he is finally defeated by the Digidestined he is still alive. And this means there is more to learn about his story coming up in the future. We get some quick references to Ken losing his brother and using the Digital World as an escape, and that is enough to tease what is to come. Can Ken be fully forgiven, or will he succumb to this darkness once more? We will soon find out.

Conclusion

Digimon Adventure 02, for better or for worse, is a series built on continuing its predecessor. It uses the prior show to give more emotional weight to nearly everything it does, but where this is best demonstrated is in the places where it contrasts with the original rather than repeating it.

From characters to lore, this first arc fleshes itself out far more successfully than the first arc of the original series. But it becomes like comparing apples to oranges because of the reliance on the original series, as well as the fact that this arc alone is already longer than any single arc from Digimon Adventure (1999).

There is also the huge difference that this was impossible to write without throwing in a fair amount of reference to what is to come. Where the original series primarily called back to the past rather than hint at the future (with Izzy’s homelife being the biggest exception to this), this series is built more as a singular piece and builds begins setting up an ending in these earlier episodes. Much of where we are going now is based off what has already happened, digging deeper into the current world rather than diverting to a new path.

So, let’s see where the rest of this goes. Next up: the Oikawa Arc.

If you’re looking for more Digimon, check out the full list of posts here.