Digimon Adventure 02: Ending 1

In this episode, Zero Two's first ending “Ashita wa Atashi no Kaze ga Fuku.” Yes, it's a day off, but we have site announcements and thoughts on the big crossover in Hunters. Besides, it's an awesome song!

The downside to incorporating season one's first ending into an actual episode was that it sets a precedent I was never intending to follow. In reality, the first ending was always meant to be the halftime entertainment, according to the schematics developed as part of the intense and rigorous application process necessary to get a blog on the internet.

In other words, if you're wondering why there's no episode today, it's Mimi's fault for singing I Wish in episode 25. But more on her in a second...

First off, it's a good place to take care of some site news and announcements. You may have already noticed the big development. That's right, that bar below the banner with pages for all seven seasons! Once a series is completed, that season's page will include links to every episode and movie, along with these opening and ending pages (which until now have included thoughts on each season as a whole). You can also get a rundown of every episode's grade and the season's overall GPA. Adventure's page is active, but for the current season, you'll have to stick with the Book of Knowledge section on the right side, under those ads that occasionally sell Pokémon games.

The other big news is that I had previously stated that I would only cover the X-Evolution movie “if you ask really, really nicely.” Nobody asked really, really nicely, but at the Digimon panel at Anime Milwaukee I was surprised at the number of people who were quite fond of this movie. It didn't get me all that excited the first time I watched it, but the support it received convinced me to give it another go. I'll review it after we finish Frontier. Incidentally, I'll be running Digimon panels at Kitsune Kon in Appleton, Wisc. at the end of the month and No Brand Con in Eau Claire, Wisc. in early May. While I won't be running Digimon panels at these, I'll also be at Anime Central in Chicago, CONvergence in Minneapolis and Geek.Kon in Madison. Let me know if you want to talk shop, or just find the guy wearing the Crest of Knowledge.

As fate would have it, I happened to be idle on my computer when last week's Hunters episode aired in Japan. Along with the awesome people commenting on the episode, it was cool seeing the event live as it happened. In case you hadn't heard, the new season is getting the band back together. Considering my magnum opus in fanfiction begins with Takato meeting the post-epilogue digidestined, this interests me greatly.

We had seen glimpses of Tai and Marcus previously, along with silhouettes of Davis, Takato and Takuya. This time we got to see Tai and Marcus in action as they rode WarGreymon and ShineGreymon into battle, totally upstaging the new group... until Tagiru decided to step up and play with the big kids. Elsewhere, in a total surprise, Kiriha and Nene (neither of whom had been seen all that much either) find themselves face to face with Rika and Mimi, both with their original digivices.

Nobody knows what it means and there's been no explanation for it in the series but so far it's just been fun. There's a renewed interest in the show as people enjoy seeing old favorites in action and speculate on just who else will be dropping by. I'll wait until we get to Hunters to watch it with subtitles and pass proper judgment on the episode as a whole, but I can't complain about anything that gets me to cheat and occasionally dabble into the new material, even when I had promised to go into Xros Wars blind.

Although seriously, Rika and Mimi? How did those two end up together and what kind of conversation will they have the first time Renamon heartlessly obliterates another Digimon?

Digimon Adventure Ending 1: Ashita wa Atashi no Kaze ga Fuku

Now we're talking! This is one of my favorite ending songs in all anime and could very easily work as an opening instead. The animation... yeah... lots of spinning stills, zero actual animation.