News

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna Film Earns 1.2 Billion Yen in China in 5 Days

The Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna anime film opened in China on October 30, and it has sold 2.45 million tickets to earn the equivalent of 1.2 billion yen (about US$11.42 million) after five days at the Chinese box office. The anime is the highest-earning Japanese film to open in China this year so far.

The film opened in Japan on February 21 and ranked at #6 in its opening weekend. Fathom Events and Toei Animation had planned to screen the film with English subtitles in select theaters in the United States on March 25, but postponed the screening due to health and safety concerns related to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Shout! Factory initially planned to release the DVD and Blu-ray Disc combo pack on July 7, but delayed it "due to a production delay." Toei Animation released the film digitally on iTunes, Microsoft, and Sony PlayStation Network on September 29. Shout! Factory then shipped the anime on DVD and Blu-ray Disc combo pack on October 6. Both releases include English subtitles and an English dub.

Shout! Factory describes the film's story:

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.

Tomohisa Taguchi (four-part Persona 3 the Movie film series, Kino's Journey - the Beautiful World-, Twin Star Exorcists) directed the film at Yumeta Company. Akatsuki Yamatoya (Digimon Adventure, Digimon Frontier, Digimon: Data Squad) wrote the screenplay, and Seiji Tachikawa (Kino's Journey - the Beautiful World-, Blue Spring Ride) was the chief animation director. Toei Animation is credited for production.

Hiromi Seki, Toei Animation's original producer for the Digimon anime projects, served as the supervisor of the new film project. Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru also returned from the first Digimon anime projects as the new film project's character designer. Kenji Watanabe designed the Digimon monsters for the new project, as he did for the previous Digimon projects.

The film's opening theme song is the "Butter-Fly" opening by the late singer Kouji Wada from the first Digimon Adventure anime. The film uses the original 1999 version of the song without a new arrangement. Two more veteran Digimon singers, Ayumi Miyazaki and AiM (Ai Maeda), contributed a new insert song and the new ending theme song, respectively. Harumi Fuuki (Birthday Wonderland, Forest of Piano, Miss Hokusai) composed the soundtrack.

Source: The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web