(Animation Play Back!! | Kizuna staff and cast comments)
The official DigiFes 2019 event (held at the Maihama Amphitheater on July 28, 2019) had a “20th Anniversary Memorial Pamphlet” sold on-site. The first section, “Animation Play Back!!”, contained comments from staff for all of the Digimon animated series released to date:
- Digimon Adventure: Hiromi Seki (producer) and Hiroyuki Kakudou (series director)
- Digimon Adventure 02: Hiromi Seki (producer) and Hiroyuki Kakudou (series director)
- Digimon Tamers: Hiromi Seki (producer) and Yukio Kaizawa (series director)
- Digimon Frontier: Hiromi Seki (producer) and Yukio Kaizawa (series director)
- Digimon Savers: Atsutoshi Umezawa (producer), Hiroaki Shibata (producer), and Naoyuki Itou (series director)
- Digimon Xros Wars: Hiroyuki Sakurada (producer), Tetsuya Endou (series director), and Yukio Kaizawa (series director)
- Digimon Universe App Monsters: Daichi Nagatomi (producer) and Gou Koga (series director)
- Digimon Adventure tri.: Yousuke Kinoshita (producer) and Keitarou Motonaga (director)
Digimon Adventure
March 1999 ~ March 2000
Taichi and his friends, seven children at summer camp, are led by a mysterious light and left wandering in another world. As they wander, they find life forms named “Digital Monsters” waiting for them. Thus begins the adventure of a single summer as they try to return home…!
The first series in our commemorative series of Digimon anime. Preceded by the Digimon Adventure movie, which screened on March 6, 1999 and came to serve as its prototype, it directly followed it as a TV series broadcast shortly after.
It is full of a number of impressionable elements that would determine the future course of future Digimon anime series, such as the relationship between the Chosen Children and their Digimon partners, and the “Digivice” gadgets.
- Taichi Yagami: Toshiko Fujita
- Sora Takenouchi: Yuuko Mizutani
- Yamato Ishida: Yuuto Kazama
- Koushirou Izumi: Umi Tenjin
- Mimi Tachikawa: Ai Maeda
- Takeru Takaishi: Hiroko Konishi
- Jou Kido: Masami Kikuchi
- Hikari Yagami: Kae Araki
- Agumon: Chika Sakamoto
- Piyomon: Atori Shigematsu
- Gabumon: Mayumi Yamaguchi
- Tentomon: Takahiro Sakurai
- Palmon: Kinoko Yamada
- Patamon: Miwa Matsumoto
- Gomamon: Junko Takeuchi
- Tailmon: Yuka Tokumitsu
Producer Hiromi Seki
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
We made it with the background of “Digimon as something for those who had outgrown a certain monster anime”, targeting a slightly older age group of 10 to 12-year-olds.
In order to have consistency with the viewing and the reading audiences, the catchphrase “Now, the legend evolves!” would also be used for the TV series next-episode previews. The story would fundamentally continue to be about the link between a child’s growth and the monster’s evolution. The monster “Agumon” was a requirement, but we were allowed to pick the other monsters freely, and I feel that being able to choose them in order to strike a balance with the human children was very much for the best.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
Episode 33, where Pumpmon and Gotsumon appear in Shibuya. Hiroyuki Kakudou-san directed that episode. I like that period of time between Yamato and Takeru, when they don’t talk. It’s a very lonely-feeling situation for them to be in, but Yoshio Urasawa-san’s script combined with Kakudou-san’s “dry production (maybe I’m the only one who thinks of it this way, though)” made a very good balance of compatibility, and so it’s an episode I love.
●Please tell us about any memories you have of the cast!
We had eight humans and eight monsters, so we had a lot of characters to start with, so I think we were able to have a strange and satisfying balance of veteran voice actors combined with beginner voice actors.
●Please leave a message for the fans!
How have all of the fans been spending their days during the last 20 years? I think about this question a lot. In the same way that the fans have been experiencing dreams, frustrations, romantic love, hope, failures, friendship, and family, many things have happened with the cast and staff over the last 20 years, too. I hope it can be something you compare with your own life, and watch over you in your future developments ahead.
Series director Hiroyuki Kakudou
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
I wanted to put in all of the interesting things I’d found in the TV series, manga, books, and other things that had entertained me ever since I myself was a child, as much as I could, so I decided to construct it in such a way so that I could convey even a little of it to the children at the time.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
For the main cast members, I focused on making sure that every kid and their Digimon would get around the same amount of action. Because of that, I’m glad we could even go as far as depicting other people and things like their families, or things like Wizarmon’s involvement, so it’s a part I like very much.
●Please tell us about any memories you have of the cast!
At the closing party for the four series up to Frontier, we would say things like, “let’s meet again in 10 or 20 years,” and then, against the odds, it really did happen! Even when we aren’t able to meet each other anymore, I don’t have enough gratitude for the fact that all of you have treasured everything from back then.
Digimon Adventure 02
April 2000 ~ March 2001
Three years after the adventure of Taichi and his friends, a new enemy calling himself the “Digimon Kaiser” appears in the peaceful Digital World. Armed with “Armor Evolution” as their new weapon, new Chosen Children stand up against the crisis in the Digital World! This series was produced as the direct sequel to the previous series, Digimon Adventure, and is commonly referred to as 02 (Zero Two). Adding a wide variety of different evolutionary forms, and featuring the appearance of Chosen Children all over the world, it incorporated many elements that expanded the view of the world. In the final episode, the world of 25 years later was depicted, allowing the audience to see the “adult” Chosen Children, and their own children.
- Daisuke Motomiya: Reiko Kiuchi
- Hawkmon: Kouichi Tohchika
- Hikari Yagami: Kae Araki
- Patamon: Miwa Matsumoto
- V-mon: Junko Noda
- Iori Hida: Megumi Urawa
- Tailmon: Yuka Tokumitsu
- Ken Ichijouji: Romi Park
- Miyako Inoue: Rio Natsuki
- Armadimon: Megumi Urawa
- Takeru Takaishi: Taisuke Yamamoto
- Wormmon: Naozumi Takahashi
Producer Hiromi Seki
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
I remember being shocked by an article in a newspaper about a 9-year-old boy who skipped grades into Columbia University in America, and that was how I came up with the initial idea for 02. “What would the life of an overly intelligent boy be like…?” What would be happiness be, what would his despair be, and would he be able to make friends? I steered it in those kinds of directions.
●Was there any part you particularly focused on, in terms of “let’s change this!” from the prior series?
We were able to carry out Kakudou-san’s idea of wanting them to be able to go back and forth between the Digital World and the real world, with the feeling of a picnic.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
In general, the episodes with Miyako. We were watching and comparing with the everyday words and actions of an assistant producer from back then, which we based her character off of (laughs). I liked any part of the story that had to do with the Digimon Kaiser, but I also liked the more relieving parts with Daisuke’s brightness.
Series director Hiroyuki Kakudou
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
There wasn’t a lot of precedent for setting sequels in the same world three years later, and it was going to be in the slight future relative to the actual broadcast time, and I feel that it was a challenge for us. In regards to the Digital World’s enemy, we wanted to expand the view of the world so that the enemy would be from the human realm of the real world, so we thought about it very deeply.
●Was there any part you particularly focused on, in terms of “let’s change this!” from the prior series?
The story had gotten rather heavy by the time of Digimon Adventure, so we decided to make it come off as brighter. And then, it actually ended up getting even heavier somewhere down the line, but there was no way we could just avoid depicting important life problems.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
They’re both episodes that I was in charge of, but episode 13 and the final episode. Also, the area of Hikarigaoka, which we continually used as a location for the story, was where Toei Animation temporarily relocated for renovations a few years later, which I thought was a rather odd coincidence.
●Please leave a message for the fans!
There must be many people out there who have been looking up to those words of “Chosen Children”, but that means not only waiting for their own Digimon partners, but also waiting to accept the mission of fighting for the Digital World, and being burdened with some heavy responsibilities.
The children who were watching back then may not have been able to fight those kinds of things, but now that they’re adults, there must be many things happening in their lives. I hope that all of you, each and every one of you, can find the Digimon helping you in some way. So that your Digimon partner can be with you.
Digimon Tamers
April 2001 ~ March 2002
A young boy, Takato, who loves Digimon, suddenly finds himself obtaining a “Digivice”. On the screen of the Digivice was a DigiEgg, and from it, a Digimon created by Takato, “Guilmon”, was born! And the days of a new adventure, one unfolded by the Tamers and their Digimon, began!
The third anime series, depicting a world completely different from that of Digimon Adventure 02. Centering on “Digimon” living as part of daily life in the real world, and with a smaller number of main characters, the series depicts a deep range of emotions from the children in a style that makes it more true-to-life than ever.
- Takato: Makoto Tsumura
- Terriermon: Aoi Tada
- Guilmon: Masako Nozawa
- Ruki: Fumiko Orikasa
- Jianliang: Mayumi Yamaguchi
- Renamon: Yuka Imai
Producer Hiromi Seki
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
I think it was quite a challenge to develop the concept of Digimon in a more realistic world. I remember it being a lot of fun to even do things like location scouting in the Shinjuku area, or thinking up the backgrounds for the children. There were also fans who were requesting “hurry up and send them to the Digital World!”, but now that the years have passed, I think its own individual charms have gotten even deeper.
●What was the origin behind Tamers‘s direction?
A big one was Kakudou-san meeting and being introduced to the lead writer1, Chiaki Konaka-san. Working with art designer Shinji Aramaki-san was also a contributing factor. During our closing party with the staff and cast after we’d finished working on the series, the series director, Kaizawa-san, said during his speech, “I feel like I’ve now finally become a Tamer myself,” and I was getting all teary-eyed.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
The events where the kids start becoming partners to Digimon from all over the world. While we were in the middle of working on that part, Konaka-san asked me, “Seki-san, are you some kind of ruins nerd?”, so I responded, “what’s that?”, and that’s when I learned about the fact that there are people called “historic ruin nerds”2…I mean, it’s true that back when I was in high school, my favorite subject was world history, but…
Series director Yukio Kaizawa
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
Digimon as wild animals from the Digital World. When a Digimon, who lives mainly for fighting, becomes a true friend, what feelings come from it?
We created it with an image that reflected a dramatic narrative of fighting and surviving together, and bonds that transcend that of partners.
●Was there anything you paid particular attention to in the exchange between humans and Digimon?
Digimon are monsters with resilient bodies, but they also feel and have hearts with weaknesses much like those of humans. It’s one of the reasons that Digimon seek out humans, fight alongside them, and grow in ways that they wouldn’t be able to do as data alone.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
Among the episodes that I personally directed, I like episode 14, “Stand, Tamer! MegaloGrowmon’s Super-Evolution”.
It’s an episode where Takato and his friends’ true worth as Tamers comes into question, as they’re unable to see their Digimon fighting on top of the building.
Digimon Frontier
April 2002 ~ March 2003
Takuya Kanbara and four other elementary school students are guided by a mysterious message, board an underground train, and follow it to the Digital World. Upon arriving in the Digital World, Takuya and the others find themselves inheriting the “Spirits” of the “Legendary Warriors”. What are the legendary Spirits? What mission were Takuya and his friends entrusted with? An unknown adventure has begun! In the absence of Digimon partners, the children themselves evolve into Digimon, and the overall direction has changed greatly in this fourth anime series. Proceeding with a focus on adventuring through the Digital World, the otherworldly fantasy elements were stronger than ever.
- Takuya Kanbara: Junko Takeuchi
- Izumi Orimoto: Sawa Ishige
- Kouji Minamoto: Hiroshi Kamiya
- Tomoki Himi: Kumiko Watanabe
- Junpei Shibayama: Masato Amada
- Kouichi Kimura: Kenichi Suzumura
Producer Hiromi Seki
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
I had a hunch that this fourth series might be our last one, so I put my heart into thinking about how we should challenge ourselves until the end. We wanted to go full throttle into making the Digital World into a Kaizawa World, too.
●Where did the idea to have the children transform into Digimon come from?
We came up with it while discussing with Bandai. I said, “I know boys want to turn into heroes, but I don’t know if kids would want to turn into beasts or monsters,” and everyone responded to me, “they do!”, so we took on the challenge.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
The first episode. The children, guided by their cell phones, go to the underground of Shibuya Station and get on a train, and set off on a journey into the Digital World. When we put out that first episode for the first time, one of our higher-ups, the producer of Galaxy Express 999 (who’s since passed) praised us a lot for it.
Series director Yukio Kaizawa
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
We put it together to have a conventional set of protagonists, and took on the challenge of having new “clad in Digimon” evolutions that hadn’t been done before.
Also, the Digital World’s flow of data follows railway lines, and so we incorporated the living trains, “Trailmon”, as part of the worldbuilding.
●In terms of depicting a new kind of relationship between Digimon and humans, what kinds of challenges did you take on?
The trains, which allowed the children to journey through the Digital World’s cities in any direction they pleased. It’s the journey of protagonists who are being pulled around by an information society.
Their own choices are what ties them to new encounters, and eventually, they and the Digimon bring about changes to the Digital World’s future together.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
Episode 22, “To My Own Home! Takuya’s Solitary Return”, the episode where Takuya momentarily returns to the human world from the Digital World.
Takuya becomes trapped in a half-beast half-human fragmentary form, and makes an important choice that gives him the determination to face the fights in the Digital World during the second half of the series.
Digimon Savers
April 2006 ~ March 2007
Masaru Daimon enjoys fighting even more than his daily meals. One day, he’s engaged in a quarrel with a strange, dinosaur-like living being named “Agumon”, and they find their spirits to be in agreement. After Masaru, alongside Agumon, defeats a rampaging Cockatrimon, he’s scouted by “DATS”, an organization specializing in Digimon investigation. From there began Masaru Daimon’s days of standing up against Digimon that threaten the human world!
The fifth TV series, beginning three years after Frontier. With the primary members of staff completely changed, including the character designer and the cast, it is devised as a very distinct work compared to prior series.
- Masaru Daimon: Souichirou Hoshi
- Lalamon: Yukana
- Gaomon: Kazuya Nakai
- Agumon: Taiki Matsuno
- Tohma H. Norstein: Hirofumi Nojima
- Yoshino Fujieda: Yui Aragaki
Producer Atsutoshi Umezawa
●What’s the story behind how Savers began?
I’d participated on the prior series as an episode director, but when the Digimon series was revived after four years, I was appointed as producer, and spent every day with the relevant companies wracking our brains on how to make this into a new Digimon entry unlike any of those before.
●Were there any particularly difficult aspects during production, or parts that you held in high importance?
We held its status as part of the Digimon series in high importance. The difficult part was making it into a “completely new Digimon series”. In particular, we were wracking our brains every day on what to do about the idea of the children doing nothing but watching while their Digimon were fighting.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
It’s not a particular episode, but I enjoyed getting to work on every single episode with the relevant staff and cast, and that’s what I loved most about it. In particular, the fact that we got to work with Yui Aragaki-san, who’s currently having great success right now3, makes me spend every day right now wracking my brain on whether it was a dream.
Producer Hiroaki Shibata
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
From the beginning, it was determined that the concept would be “showing off the relationship between the human characters and Digimon in a Savers-like way”, and from there, we conceived of the character of Masaru Daimon, and as we worked on it, all of the staff, including Director Itou and the lead writer, Ryouta Yamaguchi-san, looked into how far we could have him take his passionate activities, and there were difficult parts to it, but it was a series very worth making.
●What did you focus on in regards to the characters that appeared in the series?
Ryouta-san was the one who suggested that Masaru be a street fighter, but the character designer, Sayo Aoi-san, worked on his design without having heard the words “street fighter”, and I think it managed to increase the scale of Masaru as a character. I think the fact that Masaru had that kind of design even managed to have a huge influence on the story creation afterwards.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
The climax of the Kurata arc, as well as the final episode, where Masaru and Agumon fight together against their enemy, and I particularly like the scene where they hit the enemy at the same time. Savers‘s concept is extremely straightforward, and it’s a scene that brings up catharsis that hits just the right spot. And to the all of the members of staff who did a magnificent job following through on that, I have nothing but gratitude.
Series director Naoyuki Itou
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
I was contacted by Producer Shibata, and decided to participate. I’d had an interest in the Digimon series since before, but since there was a gap of time after the prior series, I ended up spending my days fussing over “what kind of new innovations do we want?” “what’s the identity of the Digimon series?” During all of that, we got all kinds of new ideas from various people, including the scriptwriter, Ryouta Yamaguchi-san, and we managed to pull it together into something cohesive.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
Pretty much any part of the story sticks in my mind, but, during the episode where the heroine, Yoshino, and Lalamon are the main characters, after Yui Aragaki-san’s recording had finished, Lalamon’s voice actress, Yukana-san, got a request to do additional post-recordings, and so their performances in the story made you want to cry, and the voice actresses’ abilities managing to stir the emotions so much is a good memory I have even to this day.
Digimon Xros Wars
Digimon Xros Wars
Digimon Xros Wars: The Evil Death Generals and the Seven Kingdoms
Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time
July 2010 ~ March 2012
One day, Taiki Kudou calls out to a voice seeking his help, and is brought to the Digital World. When Taiki’s heart connects with Shoutmon after their encounter, a war for conquest over the Digital World gradually begins to circulate, and he’s pulled into a fierce conflict.
The first new anime series after Savers, for the first time in four years. It added on the new element of “DigiXros”, which had Digimon allies combine together. Starting with the third part of the series, new protagonists, “the young hunters who leapt through time”, made their appearance, and in the final episodes, the successive series protagonists gathered together in a passionate sequence of events that unfolded.
- Taiki Kudou: Minami Takayama
- Akari Hinomoto: Ryouko Shiraishi
- Nene Amano: Houko Kuwashima
- Gumdramon: Kumiko Watanabe
- Shoutmon: Chika Sakamoto
- Kiriha Aonuma: Takeshi Kusao
- Cutemon: Houko Kuwashima
- Zenjirou Tsurugi: Daisuke Kishio
- Ballistamon: Takeshi Kusao
- Tagiru Akashi: Marina Inoue
Producer Hiroyuki Sakurada
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
The timeslot had changed4, and it had been four years since the last series, so we put our efforts into producing it in a way so that it would feel new and fresh. I think we also managed to treasure the origin point of the link between Digimon and boys and girls.
●Were there any particularly difficult aspects during production, or parts that you held in high importance?
During our preliminary meetings with Bandai, we came up with the new direction for Digimon evolution, “DigiXros”. In regards to the name, “DigiXros”, I remember fussing over it with the lead writer, Riku Sanjou-san, on how to make a new and cool name for it, and that was the result.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
It’s not exactly an episode, but I think “Monitamon” is particularly amusing.
Series director Tetsuya Endou
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
Since the concept was based off taking the Digimon that had existed up until now and combining them, we placed particular importance on “simplicity”. I’m the one who named “Shoutmon”, but it does leave an impression on me that he’s such a small Digimon, and yet he pushes on and, in the end, really does become the King, and you feel that he really did push on with all he had. We stuffed all of our spirit into making episode 1, and we made the atmosphere at the beginning, with the evil Digimon in Taiki’s dream, all too scary to the point it scared off the little kids, to the point where our musician, Kousuke Yamashita-san, got mad at us.
●In terms of making a new Digimon anime series for the first time in four years, was there anything you particularly kept in mind?
I worked on it while being told all sorts of things about Digimon, but on the other hand, this was supposed to have a different setting from prior Digimon works, so I intended to make it come off as feeling like an alternate world. That’s not just for the Digimon; their relations with the human side that Taiki represents moved the story around greatly, and maintaining that balance was difficult.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
Episode 54, which was fundamentally planned to be the ending, so we put everything we had into it, and the number of drawings we had for it exceeded 8000, and we even got the higher-ups mad at us. I get nostalgic thinking about how, in the end, we put in a “The End”, but then once it turned out it’d be continuing on after that, we put in another little comment about “it’ll be going on for a bit more”.
Series director Yukio Kaizawa
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
The third part, The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time, had the background lore of the Digimon and humans entering the “DigiQuartz”, where Digimon who couldn’t appear in the real world coming through the “DigiQuartz”, and time flows differently. It’s the same series as Xros Wars, but we gave it a completely different setting.
●In terms of the appearance of the new protagonist “Tagiru”, was there anything you particularly kept in mind?
Tagiru enjoys Hunting Digimon, and he’s not “playing around and doing it halfway”, but rather has a Digimon mania-level passionate soul towards “playing around 100%”, and our story writer, Riku Sanjou-san, brought plenty of that out of him for us.
It was fun depicting Tagiru running around through space-time.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
The first episode of the series, “We’re Digimon Hunters!”, was the entrance to the story, “noticing something that doesn’t seem to be ordinary, taking interest in it, and walking in on a completely new world that unfolds within sight”, and it’s one I really love. It really makes you look up towards Tagiru, who runs around with a huge level of excitement in a new world.
Digimon Universe App Monsters
October 2016 ~ September 2017
One day, Haru Shinkai, who longs to become the “protagonist” of a story, meets a search application monster, “Gatchmon”. According to Gatchmon, inside the Net Ocean that spreads within smartphones, a villainous artificial intelligence, Leviathan, seems to be planning something unthinkable. Along with Gatchmon, Haru throws himself into the battle circulating around the Appmon.
- Haru Shinkai: Yumi Uchiyama
- Dokamon: Motoko Kumai
- Rei Katsura: Toshiyuki Toyonaga
- Offmon: Yuu Shimamura
- Gatchmon: Kokoro Kikuchi
- Torajirou Asuka: Shiho Kokido
- Hackmon: Daisuke Sakaguchi
- Eri Karan: Umeka Shouji
- Musimon: Nao Tamura
- Yuujin Oozora: Makoto Furukawa
Producer Daichi Nagatomi
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
Back in 1999, when Digimon Adventure first began, the stimulating keywords were ones like “digital”, “server”, “file”, “gate”, “network”. In 2016, when App Monsters aired, the buzzwords were ones like “smartphone”, “apps”, “AI”, “IoT”, and “singularity”.
Both the generations and the technology are changing. So how do we humans, who are taking that in, and especially young boys and girls, change? We put in the feelings of “we want you to live as the protagonists of your own lives.”
Almost 20 years had passed since the first anime series, and so we decided to take on a new challenge, and make a new series for the children living in the present, or, in other words, Appmon, and I remember that being our initial concept.
●Were there any particularly difficult aspects during production, or parts that you held in high importance?
How do we excite the children who watched the Digimon anime series with excitement…In the end, we focused on pursuing both cores, the “Digimon-ness” from the past series, and the “new aspects of Appmon in 2016/17”. I don’t know whether we really did pull it off, though (awkward laugh).
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
There’s no end to the ones I’d pick, but episode 1, where Haru and Gatchmon first meet and begin their story, episode 19, where DoGatchmon evolves into Globemon, episode 45, where Agumon appears and gets involved with Gatchmon, and episode 52, the final episode, “Our Singularity”, leave a particularly strong impression on me.
Series director Gou Koga
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
It was to be an attempt to bring questions about AI and singularity to our target audience of elementary school children, strictly in the form of entertainment. We made it so that it would discuss the problems they would eventually come to face with particularly deep significance, and we did it with excitement and a sense of the future.
●Were there any parts you made with particular awareness of the past Digimon series?
With the theme of “digital”, we wanted to send the message of learning to always face forward to the children of “now”. I think it’s the core of this entire series.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
They go into a digital world every episode, but we had to make it interesting without sacrificing the theme, and it was difficult coming up with ideas for that, but I enjoyed it. In particular, I have a liking for “Cyber Kowloon”, which appeared starting from episode 25.
Digimon Adventure tri.
Part 1: November 2015
Part 4: February 2017
Part 2: March 2016
Part 5: September 2017
Part 3: September 2016
Part 6: May 2018
It’s been six years since Taichi and his friends went on an adventure in the Digital World. In front of the high-schooler Taichi appears an infected Kuwagamon, who rampages in the streets of the city. He pushes it back with Agumon, whom he’d reunited with after a long while, but those were nothing compared to the threats of the “infected Digimon” or the “mysterious man”…
A limited-screening theatrical series in six parts. Character designs were done by Atsuya Uki, and Keitarou Motonaga was appointed as director, with a complete change in story style. The new Chosen Child “Meiko Mochizuki” and her Digimon partner “Meicoomon” also appear, and the series depicts the inner workings of the heart as they “fight” during the emotional period of their high school days.
- Taichi Yagami: Natsuki Hanae
- Piyomon: Atori Shigematsu
- Koushirou Izumi: Mutsumi Tamura
- Palmon: Kinoko Yamada
- Jou Kido: Junya Ikeda
- Tailmon: Yuka Tokumitsu
- Agumon: Chika Sakamoto
- Yamato Ishida: Yoshimasa Hosoya
- Tentomon: Takahiro Sakurai
- Takeru Takaishi: Junya Enoki
- Gomamon: Junko Takeuchi
- Meiko Mochizuki: Miho Arakawa
- Sora Takenouchi: Suzuko Mimori
- Gabumon: Mayumi Yamaguchi
- Mimi Tachikawa: Hitomi Yoshida
- Patamon: Miwa Matsumoto
- Hikari Yagami: M・A・O
- Meicoomon: Yukiko Morishita
Producer Yousuke Kinoshita
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
A big theme of it was “making a new Digimon series for everyone who’s become adults”, and I think it was a challenge. I think it was very nice to have a theme of “the children, who had only been chosen in the past, growing, and choosing their own future this time”.
●In making a sequel to Digimon Adventure, was there anything in particular that was held in high importance?
Every main character getting to have a major role in their own movie and showing off their own individuality was “very much like Digimon”! Of course, there was the main story and the poster art, but I think it was also expressed well in, for instance, the collaboration cafe elements, or the merchandise.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
I only joined midway through at Part 5, so I didn’t participate in the creation of the story, but reading the script for Part 3 got my heart. You could feel the bond of partnership between Takeru and Patamon, and HerakleKabuterimon really conveyed the bonds between the Digimon. He felt overwhelmingly like a warm uncle, and it made me cry.
Director Keitarou Motonaga
●What concepts did you focus on during production, or what feelings did you fill it with at the time?
“Getting more mature”. That not everything will have a happy ending, and that there will be unreasonably bad ones, and that you’ll see and feel things that you didn’t see when you were a child, and still continue to have your own strong will and continue to walk on forward.
●Were there any parts you made with particular awareness of the past Digimon series?
It was only natural that we made it so that you could easily see the ties to the TV series. In particular, the bonds between the Digimon and the children.
●Is there a part of the story that you particularly like?
Part 3, when Taichi decides to push on forward, and takes another step.
Translator's notes
- In literal terms, the role referred to here is series kousei (シリーズ構成, lit. “series composition”). [↩]
- The term Konaka first refers to Seki with is “iseota” (イセオタ), a shortening of “iseki otaku” (遺跡オタク), or in effect someone with an obsessive fixation on historic ruins. [↩]
- After her work on Savers, Yui Aragaki went on to have a flourishing career as a live-action actress, with her role as Yoshino ultimately being one of her very few voice acting roles from very early in her career. [↩]
- Xros Wars was the first Digimon anime series to not be on Fuji TV’s Sunday morning 9 AM timeslot, instead airing on TV Asahi’s Tuesday 7:30 PM timeslot for its first part and Sunday 6:30 AM for its second and third. [↩]