You know, growing isn't easy, but it can be exciting. But it can also be terrifying.
Because you never know what's on the other side waiting for you. But you'll never find out if
you don't even take the first step. And on today's episode, we're looking at an anime movie that
tackles the idea of growing up and moving into new seasons of our lives while also showing the
difficulties that come with it. And that movie is Digimon Adventure Final Evolution Kizuna.
Hey, what's going on guys? My name is Nate. You're listening to the Otaku Liberation,
a show where we help you break the chains that hold you back in your life by connecting biblical
principles with themes from your favorite anime. And without further ado, let's get right on into
it. In today's verse that honestly, can you just explain it way better than I can is 1st Corinthians
chapter 13 verse 11. And it says, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I put aside childish things. Now,
when I first read this verse, you know, many years ago when I was a child, right? I thought that
means, you know, oh, man, when I'm an adult, I can't play video games anymore. I can't watch
cartoons. I can't watch anime anymore. No, but in all this years, what it really means is that
there is a time and a place for certain things in our lives, right? And is really what this
verse is really saying is that, you know, we're living, we live in seasons, there's a season to
be a child, there's a season to be a man or woman. And there's a season to be, you know, a parent
to be a season to be a spouse, you know, all these things, a leader, whatever it is, they're, they
come in, these things come and go in seasons. And what this verse is really saying is that once you
move on to the next season, you put away the things from the previous one, right? The things
that you don't need anymore, the things that will no longer help you in this upcoming season, the
upcoming battle, upcoming transformation that you're going to experience. This speaks to this
movie in such a way that it's honestly like, if I can't convince you to go watch this movie at the
end of this episode, then I failed you. I'm sorry. But even if you, even if I have, don't convince
you, just go watch it. You know, it's pretty awesome. Nobody's intended anyway. So to kind of
give you a little background story, Digimon Adventure, the original series started back in
the early 2000s, I think, you know, 2000, 2001, something like that. And as a matter of time when,
you know, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, all those, all those cartoons, all those animes came out around
the same time. And this movie is basically putting a nice bow on that original group story.
So the Digimon Adventure kids, the protagonists are called, you know, the Digi Destin, you know,
they're the kids who partner up with the monsters called Digimon and, you know, their task was saving
the world because anime. And at that time, I think the majority of the characters were,
I don't know, I had a guess between 10 and 11 at the time. That's how old they were. And here in
this movie, they're in their early 20s. Like they're going to college, you know, trying to
figure out what they want to do with their lives and things like that. So for me as a watcher,
someone who watched the original series back when it first came out, you know, and who has grown up
literally with these characters, because I'm in my mid 20s now. And when this movie came out,
I was in my early 20s. It really, it spoke to me on a deeper level than what even when I realized.
And it really breaks down the, it's the three phases we all go through when it comes to facing
a new season, facing a new, a new beginning in our lives. And the first point is the phase of
uncertainty. So the two, I guess, leaders of the group of kids called Ty and Matt. Now at all the
thing is like eight, nine of them, I believe out of the eight or nine kids, Ty and Matt are the
only ones who are really uncertain about their futures. You know, what are they going to do
after they graduate college and things like that? And like, what does that mean? Are they always
going to be fighting Digimon or are they going to get, you know, adult jobs? What, what is it that
they're going to do? And they don't know. All of their friends knew exactly what they wanted to do,
except for them two. Cause one guy, one guy, he's already CEO of a company because he's just a
whiz like that. Matt's brother, TK is writing a novel. So one of their friends started her
own online business. Another one wants school to be a doctor. So all, all the people who they shared
these incredible journey, just stories and just lifelong friends that they've had, they're all
figuring out what they want to do in this next, is next season. But these two essentially just stuck,
stuck in the current season. They don't, they haven't even really thought about it. Not even
sure what direction they want to go. And honestly, just kind of really hit home for me because I
said, okay, Hey, we're all on different walks in our lives. It may look similar. Like where we've
been may look similar, but ultimately someone else's walk isn't going to be the same as ours.
We're going to branch off and go in different directions. And I think, I think it's just
hilarious that they decided to do this for 20 somethings. Right. Because I know most of us
probably really don't figure out what we want to do until we are right at the beginning of our
thirties or even into our thirties. Some people even older than that. And, but typically it starts
back here. Like starts when you're, you're going to school, you're in college, or maybe you're
already working something like that. You're in the phase where I'm not, I'm out from underneath
my parents. Like they don't have a direct say or control on what I do now. And then it's first time
having this type of freedom and responsibility, but now I don't know what to do with it. I really
don't know what it is I want to do, or you had an idea about what you wanted to do. And then you
started doing it. And now you're like, maybe this isn't it. Maybe this isn't what I thought it would
be. And now you have to make that pivot, but you don't know what to pivot to. And Hey, you guys,
let me know if you've just ever felt like that, or if you're currently feeling like that right now,
you just, you just have your hands up like, God, I don't know what it is I'm going to do. I don't
even know what I'm doing now. And to make it, I'll make this even worse for Ty and Matt and Ozzy,
all the Digi Destiny is that they are faced with this harsh reality that, that they will eventually
lose their Digimon partners. So again, I kind of touched on in the beginning that again, the kids
partner with these Digimon in order to combat evil and things like that. Well, in the movie,
it's explained why Digimon choose kids. And that's because kids have basically unlimited potential
because they can be anything that they want to be. Right. They can grow to be lawyers, doctors,
police officers, teachers, professional athletes. They have an abundance of opportunity and choices,
right? Because they haven't, they haven't selected a defined path. But as kids grow up, as we get
older and we become more hardened to the ways of life, we started getting narrowed down into
certain aspects, certain paths. And that potential starts to get used up. And once you're out of
potential, at least in the terms of this scenario, then your bond with your Digimon partner is broken.
It's broken forever. Like you don't, they, they just vanish. They go away. You don't, you don't
ever get to see them again. And that's really harsh for them. Cause again, these guys were,
I again, I could say at around 10 or 11, when they first met their partners, they're in their early
twenties now. So that's over 10 years of, of a best friend. Like they, they are best friends
with their partners. They, they go everywhere. They eat together, they sleep together, they,
you know, bathe, all the things like this, this is their best friend. And just to be told that one
day you're going to lose them just like that up in the puff of smoke. And understandably, they're
very, very, very upset about that. But I like to, like to look at it in the way for us, right? Is
that when we're faced with the end of a season, oftentimes going to the next one is very scary,
especially when you can't bring along something that is so dear to you, something that, or someone
that has gotten you through the previous season, but now it's time to, to let go, but we don't want
to be mainly because we don't know what the future holds. So we were clinging to the comfortable,
we're clinging to the, to what we know, what we know has worked before. So why wouldn't it work
again? Right. But unfortunately that's not how God works. That's not how life works because we have
to leave our comfort zone. We have to leave our comfort behind in order to gain what is promised
to us. Right. Cause again, God answers all prayers. He really does. He answers them in his own timing,
which doesn't always line up with ours, but they will be answered. They can be a yes, no, or not
yet. Right. But regardless there, they will be answered. And we just have to be willing to trust
in that and to just walk into the uncertainty with the faith that he's going to answer it.
And that's super hard. Trust me. I, I, man, do I know that a lot of people listening and know that
too, that it's, it's hard, it's hard to do that. And that's why it leads to this next phase. So
you're going from uncertainty to holding on, right? You just hold on for dear life to what you have,
you hold on to what you've already been blessed with in this current season, because you are
afraid to move on to the next one and in Tai and Matt's case, they're literally, they're literally
holding on. They are trying to figure out any possible way that they can prevent their partner,
Digimon from disappearing. Despite the grim situation, despite the cold hard facts, like
this is happening, it's going to happen. There's nothing you can do to prevent it. No mythical
scientific way that this is just how it is. This is how it always is. This is how it's always going
to be. But they, they just want to take no for an answer. And understandably, they reacted very
angrily at the aspect that their best friends are just going to be taken from them for no reason,
for no fault of their own. This thing is happening to them. And man, again, I could just rethinking,
thinking about this movie and watching just the emotion behind it. Just like, man, you thought,
you think you're doing everything that you're supposed to do. You're doing everything right,
doing everything that you need to do. But this still happens to you. Like bad things happen to
good people. And sometimes the bad things aren't bad in the long run, they're bad in the moment.
But ultimately it may be necessary for your growth later on. Because throughout the movie,
I see both Matt and Tai and eventually the rest of the DigiDestined grow even more because of this
situation. Because of the fact that now is a, hey, we're not, I'm not going to have my partner
for very much longer. So how can I, you know, capitalize on how can I maximize that? How can I
get the most out of it? And then what I'm going to do after it, right? That mindset is, it's a hard
one to be in, but it's kind of, kind of, it's like how we got to look at things in real life.
Because, Hey, none of us are going to be here forever. Some of us are going to get called home
sooner than others. And we don't know that, right? I mean, we don't have this glowing little circle
of time. It tells us how much time we have left with our best friends, you know, whether it's a
pet for some people or like an actual human, but we just don't know, right? They can be,
they can be called up at any given moment. We can be called up in any given moment. We don't know.
And then it kind of goes back into the uncertainty aspect of it. We just, we just don't, right?
We don't know what tomorrow holds. We don't even know what today holds. Just cause I woke up today,
doesn't mean I'm going to be alive at the end of it. And those are the thoughts that we don't want
to think about, understandably so, but it's something that we should be conscious of, something
that we should be aware of that, Hey, we don't, we're not, we don't live forever. So how can we
just maximize the time we have here with the people that we want to spend the most time with?
And honestly, man, again, this, this movie gets me choked up every time to watching it. Cause again,
it hits, it hits really hard for me, partly for the nostalgia, but also because of the message
that is trying to convey and me right now being in the current change of seasons is I'm trying to
move, move past these phases as quickly as I can know, now that I know what they are, but it's still
hard. So I just want to ask you, you know, what are you holding onto from a previous season?
The thing about where you are now, what's gotten you there. And I may now, maybe you feel like God's
pulling you into a different direction. You know, maybe he's trying to lead you into something even
greater, but you're hesitant. You feel like, no, I'm good here. Everything is, everything's good.
I'm okay. But he's trying to move you from being an okay to being blessed, but you're not willing
to take that first step. And oftentimes because the hardest things to let go of are the good things
because they felt it out before. Right. I'm not saying, it's not like, you know, if you have,
you know, I don't know, something that's hurting, you have a thorn in your side, right.
It's nothing for you to just say, Hey, take this out of me. I don't want this anymore. I don't need
this to, to go where I'm going. Right. Cause it's hurting you something bad, but you're not
that, but if it's, I don't know that new video game, I'm sorry, these analogies are terrible,
but maybe it was a gaming system or even this nice house that you got, you know, God tells you to,
Hey, you need to sell it and move to this place. Cause I need you here. We're like,
I don't want to do that because I'm good here. And I'm good where I am. I love the location. I
love the area. I love my neighbors. The house is awesome. Thank you so much. And God's like,
yeah, I know, but I need you over here. So the good things are the hardest things for us to let go.
But again, in order for us to grow, we have to keep moving forward and not become stagnant,
not become complacent, not become content and content to the point where we're just lulled,
lulled to a false sense of security. Right. And we have to be willing to move forward. Now,
one character who did not understand this was Manawa Belushi. And she's the main antagonist
of this whole movie and tragic, you want to know one of these tragic villain stories, but so she
is a former Digi Destin herself. And as a matter of fact, she's the one who told Matt and Ty and
the rest of the guys about their part in Digimon being taken from them because it happened to her.
And once that happened, she made a vow that it was going to be her mission to quote unquote,
save the other Digi Destin from going through the same pain that she went through. And that was
basically by she created this Digimon to digitize their consciousness. They're basically robbing
people of their consciousness. They go into comas and it takes their Digimon partners with them and
puts them in this, you know, dream world place where they're back to being kids again with their
digital partners. And that way they don't, they never grow up. So they never get separated. So
they get to not really live, but they get to be with their Digimon partner forever. And
it's so twisted because honestly, you can't be saved by holding on to the past or the present.
You have to face your future. You have to go into the next season. You have to go into the next step
of life. And that was something that Menoa just did not get. She did not understand.
And she went about it the wrong way. I mean, again, the goal was noble. She wanted to save
the people from the pain that she went through, but ultimately that's a pain that they're going
to have to go through anyway. Just like it's literally growing pains. Growing pains is the
only turn that could fit this situation right here, because they're going to have to grow up.
They're going to have to become adults and grow into that new phase of life. And unfortunately,
that also means that they're going to be separated from the digital partners forever. And that's
as much as that sucks. That's just his life. There's certain things that we just can't bring
into the next season anymore. And once you understand that reality, it hits you like a ton
of bricks. At least it did me. I was in here crying the first time I saw this movie,
because it just hits so hard. But once you get past that and accept it, then you're able to
to move forward, which is the third phase, right? Growing up and just moving forward.
So to end the story, Ty and Matt, knowing what this means, they digital follow their partners
one last time, using up basically the last of their potential to basically end Menoa's evil plan.
Right. They had this big, beautiful battle against her evil Digimon. And then Ty and Matt's partners,
DigiFall, have these new forms that is only possible at the end of their friendship,
at the end of their partnership. And basically, they're able to save everyone and everyone's
consciousness is returned. But after the final battle, Ty and Matt lose their partners.
Yeah. And it's a heartbreaking moment, because one of those things that you when you know something's
coming doesn't really make it better. It doesn't make it better more often than not. And then when
it finally happens, even if you've prepared for it, even if you've done what you can to try to
prepare for it, it still just hits you like a ton of bricks. And especially when it comes to losing
a person, losing a partner like that, it leaves this hole in you. But they decide to wear smiles
on their face because they're looking towards the next season in their lives. They decided they're
not going to look back at what was and look forward to what could be and what is like what
they're doing right now. And they believe in their hearts that eventually they're going to
see their partners again. Now, I mean, I don't know, I would like to I would like to because, again,
this series means so much to me. I would love to see their partners come back. But if they don't,
then I have already mentally prepared myself for it. But I digress. Essentially going into a new
season, it is daunting. And we want to fight it as much as possible as much as we physically can
to not take that next that next step, because we're uncertain of it. We want to hold on to things
that give us comfort, things that have helped us out in the past. But we all have to grow up
and leave things behind and no longer fit our current lives. And that's OK. It's not always bad
things. There's nothing to leave behind a job. You can leave behind relationships. I think those
are the toughest ones for people. And oftentimes it's not even bad things, right? Like no one
you didn't have a fallen out. You didn't, you know, you didn't call each other out of each other's
name. You know, by the betrayed each other is just that sometimes you grow up and you grow apart
because your lives are going in two different directions. Now, it doesn't mean any love is
lost. No. And to me, you can't reach out and still have a conversation. No. But what it does
me is that that relationship had its place. It had its purpose. But now it's not needed anymore.
And I need you over here and you have to pivot. So I just want to end this off by just encouraging
you to thank God for the memories and blessings he sent your way before and just look forward to
him doing them again. All right. Don't let's not get so caught up in what we have in what we had
and what we want to do and all this different things. Let's just take a moment, take a breather
and just just thank God for what he's already done and what he will do and then take that to
heart as we step forward into this new season of our lives, as we grow into the people that
he's called us to be and be a little more like Matt and Ty, man. Just let's face the future with
a smile on her face because I mean, in the end, that's all we really can do. Right.
So that's all I got. I got for you guys today. Maybe you like what you heard today and you want
to take a deeper look and then head on over to the attack liberation.net where you find a blog
article that covers today's episode in more detail. And you also find a link to our YouTube
channel where I post even more content like this. And don't forget to come back next week because
I'm really excited for this season because we're going to look at a season or a series that is one
of my favorites of all time. And technically it isn't an anime, but I do think plenty of fans
will agree that it should be. And we claim it as one. And that is the mythical world of Avatar,
the last airbender. So until then, always remember guys, you are the main character of your story.
And that story doesn't end until he says so. All right. Be blessed.