Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna

image for Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna

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Not suitable under 12; parental guidance to 14 (violence, themes, complex plot)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna
  • a review of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 22 September 2020.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 12 Not suitable due to themes, violence and complex plot lines.
Children aged 12–14 Parental guidance recommended due to themes and violence.
Children over the age of 14 Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and animated violence
Length: 95 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

This film is part of the Digimon Adventure franchise, which originated with a short film and television series in 1999 and grew to include several television series, computer games and films spinning off from the original. The basic premise follows a gang of seven children (the digidestined) who have stumbled into a digital alternate reality where they make friends with some ‘Digimon’ (digital monsters). They learn that their Digimon sidekicks can transform into fighting beasts that can combat other Digimon. This film, Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, takes us right up to when the gang are on the cusp of leaving their childhood behind them. Tai (voice of Joshua Seth) is now at university, but still feeling lost about what he is going to do with his future. The rest of the gang are starting out in different directions, but they still get together when needed to deal with rogue digi-monsters that infiltrate the real world. When a strange phenomenon occurs, with aurora borealis appearing in the skies and people falling into comas around the world, the gang get together to see what needs to be done. An enigmatic professor, Menoa Bellucci (voice of Erica Harlatcher), from the US arrives with her assistant and tells them about a new Digimon called Eosmon, who is apparently stealing consciousness from digidestined children around the world. Tai and his friends are enlisted to help fight Eosman and save the digidestined from this fate. The adventure takes a darker turn when they realise that as they age and enter adulthood, their ties with their Digimon are gradually weakened until they will no longer be connected. The more they battle Eosmon with their Digimon, the weaker and weaker their connection becomes. Not only is the world in peril, but Tai and his friends struggle to come to terms with growing up and losing their Digimon.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Loss of innocence; Childhood; Fantasy creatures; Japanese Anime; Epic battles; Alternate realities; Friendship.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is frequent violence in this movie including:

  • There are frequent scenes of monsters battling monsters which include explosions, lasers and combat.
  • Someone sends a video file that shows two people kidnapped and tied up to chairs.
  • Someone is shown tied up on the floor.
  • Someone is shown holding a gun.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • The Digimon are very cute, small creatures but they can transform (dig-evolve) into giant battle creatures which are often very fierce and violent.
  • There are some emotional scenes of people losing their connection to their digital pets. They cry and there is sad music.
  • Sometimes the characters find themselves suddenly floating in strange alternative digital realities. Sometimes these are quite beautiful, but sometimes they are big, empty, black spaces with echoes and strange sounds.
  • For children with sensory sensitivity, this movie has many fast-paced scenes with flashes of light and loud sound. This is amplified when the movie is watched on a big screen in the cinema.
  • Children under five are unlikely to find this film interesting as the plot is very complex.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Children in this age group may also find the above-mentioned scenes disturbing.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Children in this age group are likely to be most affected by the themes in this film. For example, the struggle to keep your friendships as you turn from a child into an adult and the inevitable loss of innocence. The young adults are devastated when they learn that they will lose their connection to their Digimon. They are also embarrassed to expose their new adult awakenings, such as when Tai’s Digimon discovers his collection of pornographic magazines and wonders why Tai is so defensive. A strong theme of loss of innocence and the sadness that it can bring.
  • The scene where there is a live video stream of two kidnapped people strapped to chairs is fairly sinister.
  • Menoa’s assistant is a fairly sinister character who seems dangerous and at one point is shown holding a gun in his hand.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Smart phones that look like iPhones are used.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • One character is embarrassed when his ‘Digimon’ pet discovers his collection of pornography. You can see that there are naked women on the front of the pile of magazines.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • The two main characters drink beer together in a tavern.

Coarse language

  • None noted.

In a nutshell

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna is a complex story that will appeal to fans of the Digimon world – In particular, those who may have grown up as fans of the original 1999 television series. The film jumps straight into the Digimon world without much explanation so it’s a bit difficult to follow if you haven’t watched any of the previous chapters. Although there is not a great deal that will scare children, there are a lot of monster vs monster fighting scenes and some elements and themes which are a little too mature for children under the age of 12. If your child is an avid Digimon fan, they are likely to find this film enjoyable as well as moving, portraying the inevitable loss of childhood innocence.

The main messages from this movie are that you cannot stay in childhood forever and that when you become an adult there are things you must leave behind.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Bravery
  • Maturity
  • Compassion
  • Teamwork.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Sometimes people’s motives are not what they seem. In this film, it is hard for the team to know who to trust and who has their best interests in mind. How can we decide this for ourselves in real life?
  • Is the digital world safe? When we become teenagers and are allowed more access to the internet, how can we keep ourselves safe?