>>53558042It's funny when you compare Adventure with Pokémon. In the final episode of Adventure, the characters believe they'll be able to spend the final month of their summer vacation in the time dilated Digital World, which would let them spend over 100 years there in the span of a month. But when they learn that this is now fixed because of defeating the source of the distortions, they realize they have to leave or risk being truly stuck in the Digital World after the gate closes. So they choose to return home, and subsequent stories involving these characters take place in years like 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2028, etc. Time passes and they grow. Meanwhile Ash remains 10 forever and the status quo never truly changes. I think the anime's ending is fitting because it's not really an ending, it's an affirmation that the status quo will continue.
You have Digimon Adventure - Last Evolution Kizuna, a movie where the final boss is a woman who wishes to regress everyone into their idyllic childhoods forever in a world she calls Neverland, with her Digimon being a soulless artificial recreation of her original partner symbolized as a butterfly. This is Adventure's most nostalgic imagery, Butter-Fly is its iconic opening. Meanwhile Pokémon continues to bring back Charizard, it continues to wank Kanto, since 2013 it has continued to indulge in empty nostalgia. It's there because it's marketable to people desperate to reclaim their childhood, not because it serves a thematic purpose. Digimon Adventure may have its ups and downs, but at least it changes and grows. That is evolution, that is how a butterfly is created.
