Digimon Director is Glad New Film Will Feature Original Cast, 02 Children

Bandai will be commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Digimon franchise with a brand new film next year, and part of the major draw of Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna is that it will be taking place years after the events of the Digimon Adventure tri films. Which means fans will be reuniting with the original eight DigiDestined of the first season of the series in their 20s, but surprisingly will include the four new additions during the second season of the series.

The director of the original two seasons of the anime series, Hiroyuki Kakudo, took to Twitter to share his thoughts about the entire cast returning for the new film and is in full support of seeing even the Season 2 cast make an appearance.

Sharing his comments made during DigiFes 2019, Kakudo shared his praise for the Digimon Adventure 02 crew’s inclusion in the new film “I think that 02 is included in it to make it one series as a whole. There are many people who admire the words ‘chosen children’, but it not only meant having a partner Digimon, but also to be obliged as their duty to fight for the digital world.

Elaborating further about their updated adult looks, “The children that saw the TV series back then, even without having to go through those fights, are all adults now with a lot of things happening in their lives. It would be nice if the Digimon were of some help to each of you. May you and your Digimon partner always be together.”

Kakudo even discussed the thought process about making a sequel to the original anime series in the first place, “There wasn’t much precedent in the world for a sequel that takes place three years from now, and it was a challenge with regards to it being set in the near future from when it aired. That there are enemies in the human world, of the real world, on top of enemies of the digital world was also so the world could be expanded.”

Kakudo discussed why the second season went in a different direction too, “The end of the first series got heavy, so I began [the next] by having it viewed in a brighter perspective. It ended up getting even heavier mid-series though, since there’s no way to get away from the problems of life.”

Considering how the four new DigiDestined introduced in Season 2 were unceremoniously removed from the events of Digimon Adventure tri, Kakudo is just as excited as fans are to see these fan favorites again. And like he suggests, seeing the entire original set in one place will truly make this feel like a proper anniversary.

Currently scheduled for a release February 21, 2020 in Japan, Tomohisa Taguchi will be directing Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna for Toei Animation. Akatsuki Yamatoya returns from the original series to write the screenplay, Seiji Tachikawa will serve as chief animation director, Hiromi Seki returns from the original series to serve as supervisor, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru returns as character designer, and Kenji Watanabe returns as the Digimon designer.

via With the Will