Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna Producer Yosuke Kinoshita

Tai is now a university student, living alone, working hard at school, and working every day, but with his future still undecided. Meanwhile, Matt and others continue to work on Digimon incidents and activities that help people with partner Digimon. An unprecedented phenomenon occurs and the DigiDestined discovers that when you grow up, your relationship with your partner Digimon will come closer to an end. As a countdown timer activates on the Digivice, they realize that the more you fight with their Partner Digimon, the faster their bond breaks. Will you fight for others and lose your partner? The time to choose and decide is approaching fast. There is a short time before “chosen children” will become adults. This is the last adventure of Tai and Agumon.

Film producer Yōsuke Kinoshita spoke to Anime News Network about the messages of maturity in the Kizuna film, the bonds that make a chosen family, and what it means to grow up.

The following interview was done in April but due to the effects of COVID-19 delaying the release of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna in North America, it was not published until now.

When did the idea to tell this story come about and how did it change over the course of production?

The project itself started about three years ago, in the middle of the development of Digimon Adventure tri. The ideas that formed the basis of the storyline were solidified with the participation of director Taguchi. The "final adventure, the final evolution" is what we decided then.

Was Last Evolution's production prompted by the success of Digimon Adventure tri., or had Toei already hoped to make a "last adventure" film about the Adventure children accepting adulthood, independent of Tri?

I think the driving force behind this film was the reaction of fans to Digimon Adventure tri. the sequel to Digimon Adventure after a long time. It was once again recognized as the most popular of the Digimon series. When we thought of this as the culmination of the 20th anniversary of the series, and facing the Digimon IP as a whole, we felt it was necessary to indicate closure.

There are so many different story concepts and character arcs in the many episodes and movies that make up Digimon Adventure. How did you decide on what to focus on most in the "last adventure" for these characters?

Each one of them has a story to tell, and in that story, they have to overcome their own barriers and grown. At the root of this is the "kizuna (bond)." Partners, friends, and family come in all shapes and sizes, but what's important remains the same. I think it's the same in our own lives. I think this movie focuses more on that.

We see some new Digimon and new evolutions in this film. What was the design process like for creating Eosmon and the new Ultimate-level forms we see in the film's climax?

They are all Digimon created for this film. The design is also based on the story. Why this design? I want everyone to feel it when they see the film.

Last Evolution marks the first time we get to see teenage versions of the children from Zero Two. What was the thinking behind the different styles they all grew into?

We have the same mindset on Tai and the other characters from Digimon Adventure 02. The fans are waiting for them to grow into who they are. They were heroes who saved the world, of course, but they were not special boys and girls. It's natural that they are growing up physically as they age, but it's also a kind of wish for their mental growth as well, to be as level-headed as possible. It's like Davis is the same as he was when he was a boy, straightforward and simple, and I want him to be a character that everyone loves.

The world has changed so much since Digimon Adventure in terms of how people interact with technology. How has the proliferation of smartphones and social media affected the writing process for stories like Digimon Tri and Last Evolution?

In Digimon Adventure tri. which depicts 2005, it was a bi-fold cell phone, and now in 2010, it's a smartphone. One of important elements of Digimon Adventure is the reality that it reflects the technology and the world at that time. From there, we think about the difference between this world we actually live in and their world where we are in contact with Digimon.

A short video released before the film shows us that Sora will step away from the Digimon-based conflict in this movie to live as a normal girl. What was the reasoning behind this choice?

I would like to ask everyone to look back at your own life, is there anyone who has been living with the same people and doing the same things all the time? We're all adults and we're all living our own lives. If they were friends, they wouldn't deny it, and they would support it. Sora, Tai and other characters are also portrayed as ordinary, independent people.