Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna Producer Talks Aging the DigiDestined, Franchise Future

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna is finally going to hit digital and home video beginning later this month, and producer for the film Yosuke Kinoshita opened up about some of the inner workings and thoughts going into this film. This film serves as a 20th Anniversary celebration of the original Digimon anime franchise that began in 1999, and also serves as a conclusion to the original DigiDestined’s story. Initially scheduled to release in the United States earlier this year, the planned theatrical release unfortunately had to be canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Now that the new film is gearing up for its digital release on September 29th, and on Blu-ray and DVD on October 6th, ComicBook.com had the chance for an email correspondence with producer for the film Yosuke Kinoshita about the plans to end the original story for the film while preparing for the future.

When asked whether the plan was always to continue Digimon Adventure tri.‘s film releases with another film of some kind, Kinoshita revealed that the fans played a major role, “While developing Digimon Adventure tri, which was the revival of the Digimon series after a long time, we felt the passionate voices of Digimon fans all over the world and concluded that ‘Digimon will continue.’ I’ve been involved with Digimon Adventure tri since Chapter 5, but at that time, planning had already started for LAST EVOLUTION. There were many different reactions to Digimon Adventure tri, but it was very nice to hear all of them and think about what to present in our new film.”

When asked about the decision to age the original DigiDestined into their adulthood years, Kinoshita explained that they wanted a cast to grow up with the fans, “It can be said that a primary characteristic of Digimon Adventure is characters getting older. In this commemorative 20th year, we wanted to thank those who watched and grew up with Digimon since when they were children. We thought characters who ‘grew up’ or reached adulthood would best connect with our fans.”

Speaking of the original fans, we asked Kinoshita what he wanted fans of the original series to know going into the 20th anniversary film, “In this film, there are a lot of homages to various scenes and moments from the series as we know it today. I want fans to watch it with the same excitement as they did with the series 20 years ago. In order to capture that feeling, we watched both the movie and TV series again and again, prompting many discussions with the director and other staff members.”

The second season of the original anime famously ends with a flash forward look into the future, so we were wondering whether or not there was a pressure to fit into this timeline. Kinoshita revealed that the team thought about this as well, “Per the last episode of Digimon Adventure 02, being that the year 2028 is specified, it should be maintained for this new story. However, a major component of the overall premise is that anything can and could happen, given that everything up to this point had yet to be drawn to life.”

Elaborating further, Kinoshita explained how they decided to incorporate a fluid kind of timeline, “Digimon Adventure triwas set in 2005, then we set the film in 2010. The characters are what connect everything together, therefore we believe that the same nuance of Digimon Adventure can be captured regardless of the time or generation.”

Although there is currently a new reboot anime in the works, Last Evolution Kizuna feels like an ending, so we asked whether or not the film will have any kind of long lasting impact on the new work in any way, “Thanks to the support of our fans, we can celebrate the 20th anniversary. I think this is a turning point to further extend the world of Digimon IP. We want new young fans to enjoy watching Digimon just as much as the old fans.”

But while there is going to be a push into the future, Kinoshita wants fans to rest easy knowing the spirit of the franchise will not be changed, “We must expand the ways people can get into Digimon, and we may need to create new adventures and characters in order to do so. When that time comes, I believe there are certain characteristics and nuances of Digimon which we must keep indefinitely, those of course being lots of battle and action, bonds with partner and friends, and mental/spiritual growth.”

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna will be releasing digitally on September 29th, and on Blu-ray and DVD October 6th. You can check out ComicBook.com’s review of the film here, and let us know if you’re excited for it in the comments!