Mamoru Hosoda's "Digimon Adventure" depicts childhood through the characters' "walking style.

This September, the theatrical anime "Digimon Adventure tri. The first animated film in the Digimon series was "Digimon Adventure," released in 1999, which was also Mamoru Hosoda's theatrical animation debut. Although it is only a 20-minute short film, it is a carefully detailed and highly entertaining work.

There is much to say about this work, but this time I would like to focus on the "walking style" of the main characters.

Dangerous gait unique to children

The main characters include only the main character Taichi, his younger sister Hikari, and a monster named Koromon.

Taichi is seven years old and Hikari is four. The first thing you notice is that the parents' faces are not shown in the production. Because the camera is positioned at the child's eye level, both the mother and father are seen only up to their chests. This camera angle suggests that this is a story about a secret world of children and monsters alone, without the presence of adults.

Now, in the middle of the night, Taichi witnesses Hikari getting a Koromon egg. Taichi tries to climb down from the top bunk of the bunk bed with a ladder, but he loses his footing. The next morning, from the exact same angle, Taichi climbs down from the bunk bed, but again, he steps off the ladder. This repetition may have been staged to add tempo to the film, but it also shows that Taichi's motor skills are not fully developed.

Taichi makes Hikari a fried egg for breakfast, but he can't reach the kitchen, so he sits on a chair to cook. By continuing the scenes of "not being able to get off the bunk bed properly" and "not being able to reach the kitchen," do you feel that this emphasizes Taichi's immaturity in proportion to his age?

While Taichi cooks, Hikari sits in the infant chair and waits. However, the colomon egg she was holding in her chest starts to roll by itself. Hikari gets out of her chair and chases after it, but the egg rolls all over the place and she can't catch up with it. Taichi almost steps on the egg with his foot and loses his posture. This scene shows that Koromon's eggs, which move freely, outstrip the athleticism of the younger siblings.

The immaturity of the waddling Koromon

After emerging from its egg, Koromon is a pitch-black speck with only eyes and ears, but it is able to move around quickly. The more evolved Koromon has a mouth and can talk, but its movements are so slow that it is outmatched by the cat.

At midnight, Koromon evolves into a bipedal dinosaur about two meters long. Hikari rides on Koromon's back and jumps off the balcony into the apartment complex at night. Koromon takes only a few steps after a running car and stops, walking like a toddler. His waddling walk skillfully expresses Koromon's infantile nature. Taichi, on the other hand, runs through the apartment complex, sweating, in search of Koromon and Hikari. But he can never catch up with them. This is because Koromon, who is two meters taller than Taichi, has a wider stride than him.

In terms of size and strength, Koromon outruns Taichi. At the same time, he no longer speaks and reflexively tries to attack cars and helicopters; even four-year-old Hikari tries to stop him as he moves around on instinct.

Later, after being attacked by an enemy Digimon, Koromon evolves into a large dinosaur that looks like a Tyrannosaurus with horns and sprints on two legs with a ground-shaking sound. Its majestic running performance is a clear indication that Koromon has overtaken its siblings and has fully grown up. But even so, Colomon is still an ally of Taichi and Hikari. This is because the enemy Digimon have large, bird-like wings and appear from the sky. Through running and chasing together, Colomon and Taichi share the "ground" field. Digimon, which appear from the sky and rarely touch the ground, come from outside their shared experience. Therefore, they are enemies.

For Taichi, Hikari, and Colomon, the "ground" is an irreplaceable place where they spent their childhood together.

(Text by Keisuke Hirota)
(C) Akiyoshi Hongo, Toei Animation