Yukio Oikawa

Yukio Oikawa is a fictional character in the anime series Digimon Adventure 02. He is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa in the original version and by Jamieson Price in the English dub version.

Oikawa is considered to be one of the most tragic characters in Digimon by fans of the series. He is one of the few human adults to have a knowledge of the Digital World.

Pre-Digimon and between Digimon Adventure & 02
Yukio Oikawa was born around 1969. As a child, he was an extremely lonely person, frequently subjected to mocking and bullying, and he was shunned by classmates. A boy around the same age, Hiroki Hida, became his only friend.

When both Hiroki and Yukio were were still young, they somehow managed to tap into the Digital World through a video game, and became obsessed with the fact they could talk to the creatures within it. They both ended up communicating with the Digital World for hours and hours on end through their video games.

Hiroki's father, Chikara, became very worried about the obsession the two boys seemed to have. When he felt that things had gone far enough, he forbade his son from playing video games and tried to separate Hiroki from Oikawa, fearing that they were spending too much time together and would "rot their minds" with nonsense. The two were heartbroken but remained close friends; they made the promise to each other that, one day, they would go to the Digital World together. The two continued to fantasize and share their dreams about the Digital World together, never telling anyone else.

In adulthood, Oikawa worked with Ken Ichijouji's father as a computer programmer, while Hiroki became a police officer and started a family. Evidently, the two continued to study the Digital World; in 1995, when the Highton View Terrace (Hikarigaoka in the original) incident occurred, Oikawa went to investigate and worked alongside Nancy Takaishi (Natsuko), T.K. Takaishi's mother. There, Oikawa learned that Highton View Terrace served as a gateway to the Digital World.

In 1999, Hiroki took a bullet for an important political figure and died from his wounds. Oikawa was utterly devastated by the death of Hiroki, and became embittered that Hiroki had in a sense "broken" their promise by no longer being there to fulfill it. He still continued his investigation of the Digital World, however.

On August 3, 1999, Oikawa was present in Tokyo Harbor when the DigiDestined defeated Myotismon. He saw the Digital World in the sky and the DigiDestined returning to the Digital World. He had held up a framed picture of Hiroki to the sky, crying that he wanted Hiroki to see their dream realized. In his moment of grief and weakness, Oikawa was soon possessed by the disembodied spirit of Myotismon after it promised to make his wish to go to the Digital World come true. Following the possession, he became even darker in demeanor, his skin became sallow and his obsession with the Digital World grew increasingly unhealthy. Despite not being consciously aware of the evil entity he was hosting in his body and influencing his actions, Oikawa gained from Myotismon the idea and knowledge of how to create Digimon to serve him. Combining data with his own DNA, Arukenimon and Mummymon were created with the purpose of doing his bidding and in some way sending a part of himself to the Digital World. But while they could travel to the Digital World, he still could not, and seeing his creations freely wandering the Digital World only made him yearn to be there even more. He soon came to the conclusion that he would have to weaken the boundaries between the worlds to accomplish this. When he saw Ken Ichijouji at the funeral of the boy's older brother and sensed the Dark Spore (Dark Seed) residing in his neck, he manipulated Ken into becoming the Digimon Emperor (Digimon Kaiser).

Digimon Adventure 02
As the Digimon Emperor, Ken constructed Control Spires which began to weaken the boundaries and upset the balance of the many worlds. But when the DigiDestined defeated the Digimon Emperor and Ken was reverted to his old self, they began demolishing the towers. Oikawa then knew he would have to take action. He sent Arukenimon and Mummymon to battle against the DigiDestined and complete the Emperor's work. Arukenimon and Mummymon's plan of having BlackWarGreymon, one of Arukenimon's creations, destroy the Destiny Stones almost succeeded, but was thwarted at the last minute by Azulongmon. Following this, Oikawa decided it would be easier to weaken the barrier from his own side.

Oikawa instructed Arukenimon to open the Digital Gates in the entire world. During Christmas day, the Japanese DigiDestined traveled around the world and helped close the gates, Arukenimon and Mummymon drove around Tokyo in a truck and kidnapped twenty children. The following day, they kidnapped Ken as well, so that Oikawa could scan his Dark Spore and pass it on to the children. After this, Oikawa, Arukenimon and Mummymon ran off to hide in a vacation house in the mountains, but BlackWarGreymon came from the Digital World to destroy them. BlackWarGreymon sensed that Arukenimon and Mummymon were not natural Digimon, which Oikawa confirmed. He also sensed that Oikawa belonged to neither world, due to Myotismon's spirit. Oikawa received unlikely help from the Chosen Children, as they knew they might need him to take the Dark Spores out of the children. As BlackWarGreymon battled WarGreymon and Imperialdramon Fighter Mode Oikawa and his henchmen fled and returned to Oikawa's run-down apartment in Tokyo.

The next day, he confronted Cody Hida, knowing he was a DigiDestined, but unaware that he was Hiroki's son. However, when he saw the name Hida on Cody's bag, he realized that the boy was related to his best friend and fled. That night, he visited Hiroki's grave, plagued by memories and guilt. He didn't let this stop him, however, and went on to absorb the power of the Dark Spore of Noriko Kawada, whose Spore blossomed earlier than expected. He succeeded in this despite the DigiDestined's attempts to stop him. Unexpectedly, Chikara, Cody's grandfather and kendo instructor, happened upon them. Remembering Oikawa as his late son's childhood friend, Chikara tried to reason with Oikawa, explaining that they both missed Hiroki and he needn't be alone in his grief. Chikara almost succeeded in emotionally reaching the anguishing Oikawa, however, Myotismon interfered, using the power he absorbed from the flower to gain brief control over Oikawa's body, and tried to kill the old man. BlackWarGreymon intercepted the attack, but in the process was mortally injured, catching a glimpse of, to his horror, the shadow of Myotismon. While everyone stood shocked by BlackWarGreymon's actions, Arukenimon and Mummymon took the chance to pull Oikawa away from the scene. BlackWarGreymon, now aware that Oikawa was being used as a puppet, flew into the sky and used the last of his power to seal the Highton View Terrace gate to the Digital World.

After the other Dark Spores had grown strong enough to bloom into flowers, Oikawa gathered all of the children together in Highton View Terrace and used the Dark Spores to try and open a gate to the Digital World. However, he did not know that BlackWarGreymon had sealed the gate with the last of his power. Myotismon sensed this, and made Oikawa open up a portal to an entirely different world, the world of dreams. He entered the portal along with the Dark Spore children, his henchmen and the younger DigiDestined, who made it through the portal at the last second. Oikawa was confused when he realized he didn't reach the Digital World, and Myotismon's spirit used the powers of the dream world to remind Oikawa that he had possessed him. Following this, Oikawa fell to his knees in pain and the spirit of Myotismon separated from his body and assumed his appearance before absorbing the Dark Spores of the children to complete his rebirth as MaloMyotismon.

The depature of Myotismon from his body left Oikawa with barely any life for himself, but he was able to witness the final battle between all of the DigiDestined from around the world against MaloMyotismon. After the battle was over, Cody went back to the world of dreams through a rip that was created in the barrier between the worlds, and tried to bring Oikawa to the Digital World. Thanks to his best friend's son, he finally got an actual glimpse Digital World, and met the Digimon he had seen so long ago in the video game he once played with Hiroki, Datirimon, who joyfully announced that he was Oikawa's partner Digimon. Unfortunately Oikawa's body was so badly weakened that despite being only inches away, he was unable to enter the world that he so badly aspired to reach. Knowing that he had little time left to live, Oikawa sincerely apologized to the DigiDestined for what he had done, and expressed regret that he'd never allowed himself to open up to others, as it was part of the reason he'd become such a miserable person and was so easily exploited. He then proceeded to use the power of the world of dreams to repair the damaged Digital World with his own being, changing his dying body and soul into data (shown in the form of a swarm of glowing iridescent butterflies). His spirit lives on as a part of the Digital World itself. This makes Oikawa the only known Digidestined (as he has a partner Digimon) to die and never revive.