(Link leads to download links, script file, and translation notes)

Here’s some context for why we did this: the official English subtitles for this movie are dubtitles, or in other words, the English dub script with names and terms swapped out and pasted on as subtitles. There are a few lines changed here and there, but almost all of the lines are a dub transcript in practice. Dubs are a very different form of adaptation that have their own unique requirements, so doing something like this is really bad translation praxis, and to be honest, it’s disappointing to see yet another major piece of Digimon media be stuck with subpar translation standards, again.

Since I figured that it would be helpful to have a more precisely done translation out there, if at least for reference, I went ahead and retranslated the entire thing from scratch.

As far as casual viewing goes, I’ll fully admit that there are a lot of places where the official version is punchier and has better flow than mine, since they had license to adapt things more freely than a fan translator like me would. But once you go beyond that, the official subs have the following issues:

Originally, I was only planning to release a script file to be used with Blu-ray footage, but it seems that all of the official English subbed/dubbed releases have animation errors that were corrected only in the Japanese Blu-ray, so I went ahead and put together my own encode based on the latter. I’ll take the encode down if they somehow decide to put out an updated release that fixes all of these problems, but…seriously? In 2024? And after the disaster that was LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna‘s official release, too? Come on.

A translation of a series of articles posted on the Digimon Partners website between February 2022 and October 2023, detailing information about Digimon animation production and planning, especially in regards to Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, and Digimon Adventure 02 THE BEGINNING. All of them were written by Eri Shimomura, producer for THE BEGINNING.

As of this writing, updates for the series seem to have stalled, so I have posted all of the available parts released up until now and may update the post retroactively if more appear.

A translation of this Anime! Anime! article from October 31, 2023, featuring an interview with director Tomohisa Taguchi of Digimon Adventure 02 THE BEGINNING.

A translation of the three audio dramas that were distributed during the first three weeks of Digimon Adventure 02 THE BEGINNING‘s theater run (October 27-November 16, 2023), featuring short stories with the movie’s characters.

Future subbing plans

When I first put Hurricane Touchdown out three years ago (goodness, has it really been that long already?!), I wasn't really planning to make fansubbing a regular thing, but after having worked on the Saint Tail project enough, I've started getting a little more used to it, so I decided to put a little more proper thought on what I want to do with it. This post will only be here, so my Tumblr followers can consider this to be an exclusive scoop ☺️

Regarding Hurricane Touchdown: As probably many of you know, Discotek Media recently announced an upcoming release of the first three Digimon movies, which, naturally, will include the Japanese version of Hurricane Touchdown. As is etiquette for fansubbers, I will be removing the download links for the Hudie release once that drops. However, I will be leaving the translation script file accessible to preserve the hard work done on it, and to leave it accessible for anyone who can't use the Discotek version for any reason (importation issues, region locks, etc.).

Raw script files can still be used with videos by putting them in the same folder as the video and giving them the same name, and the transcript is very easy to open with any standard text editor, so I think this will be a good compromise to keep the translation accessible and easy to reference. This is a workflow I started using with Saint Tail due to the unusual nature of its localization situation, but it's something I think I want to consider making use of going forward as well.

Regarding Saint Tail: Nothing really special to report here; I'll be releasing and revising sub scripts as usual until I've finished the series (I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the year). I haven't made a firm decision as to what will happen after that, but since it is a fact that the official release still has serious translation problems, I do think I want to do something to address that a little more aggressively once it's done.

Regarding Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning: Based on the US screenings of the movie, it seems that the official English subtitles for the Japanese version are actually a transcript of the English dub, but with Japanese names swapped in. Surprisingly, this isn't as much as a detriment to the translation as you'd think it might be (the English dub script seems to be surprisingly close to the Japanese script, rather unusually for Digimon standards), but nevertheless, this is extremely bad translation practice and offends me on a personal level. As such, if future releases turn out to still be using this translation, I am considering making my own subtitled script for it.

For the record, because of how close the English dub script is to the Japanese script, I don't think this is actually that much of a detriment to understanding the movie; in fact, I would argue that LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna's official English subtitles are far worse and mistranslated in a more dangerous way. A theoretical The Beginning fansub would be, at most, something that would be done to satisfy a personal pet peeve and to address some minor loss in nuance that isn't reflected in the dub script, especially in regards to the Chosen Child partnership lore it presents (something that I know can be quite a serious issue to a lot of Digimon fans). So I'm not going to make guarantees about whether I'm going to do it in the end, and I wouldn't get your hopes up if I were you, but I do at least want people to know that this is an issue and that I currently have this idea on the table. As with Hurricane Touchdown, if I do put this out, it probably would be in script-only form.

As a side note, I do plan on translating The Beginning-related material (interviews, etc.), but I would rather put them up at a time when a sufficiently large percentage of fans has actually seen the movie. If you're from a non-American country and your country will be having a screening in the near future, please reply to this post with the date so I can get a good idea of when people will be watching it ☺️

A translation of the information and cast/staff comments from the Digimon Partners announcement posted on March 25, 2023, revealing the release date for Digimon Adventure 02 THE BEGINNING and other related info. The article includes comments from voice cast members Fukujuurou Katayama (Daisuke Motomiya) and Junko Noda (V-mon), as well as director Tomohisa Taguchi.

The official DigiFes 2022 event (held at the Tachikawa Stage Garden on July 30, 2022) had a pamphlet sold on-site, containing comments from various members of Digimon Frontier and Digimon Adventure 02 -THE BEGINNING- cast and staff: