Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers

Battle of Adventurers is the 5th film in the Digimon franchise (3rd film in North America). It was first shown in theaters in Japan on July 14, 2001, and in the United States, it was released in an English-dubbed form in 2006 for Disney's Jetix.

Plot
Omnimon confronts Mephistomon (who was formed from Apocalymon's data) in a dark corner of the Digital World over Mephistomon's attempt to destroy both the Digital World and the Real World and incorporate the data in order to become truly invincible. They fight, but then Mephistomon sees a chance and slips into the Real World.

Meanwhile, Takato Matsuki is packing his things in preparation to head to the airport for his summer trip to Okinawa with Guilmon and Calumon; Henry and Terriermon come along since Henry is visiting the underwater ruins offshore. Upon arrival, Takato and Henry part ways, and Takato goes looking for his cousin Kai Urazoe in the main terminal. His search is interrupted when members of the local TV station run for an interview with Tamashiro, the be-spectacled inventor of the V-Pet, who goes into an explanation of the capabilities of the V-Pet. Takato's attention is caught when he hears the voice of his cousin Kai, who interrupts the live interview to ask the whereabouts of Takato. While Kai is being hauled away by the security, Takato runs toward the scene and meets with Kai. The policemen threaten to take them "downtown", but then Tamashiro interrupts them, and excuses them for having interrupted the interview, and explains that the two could be "potential customers". They are placed on TV, which Takato's mother notices and goes to tell her husband but they miss it.

After the incident, Takato, Guilmon (who, since being loaded onto the plane, has been in a large suitcase for concealment), Calumon and Kai ride on a boat to a smaller island where Kai and his grandfather live. When Takato and Guilmon disembark, Takato pushes the suitcase with Guilmon inside along the dirt road, but then Takato falls asleep from the hot tropical sun. Guilmon then gets out and pushes the suitcase (With Takato asleep on top of the suitcase) further down the road, at which point Kai, who had already jumped off the boat to swim to the beach, is initially frightened by the sight of the Digimon. By the time that Takato wakes up, the sun is setting, and he is resting at Kai's residence, with his grandfather playing the shamisen. Takato then notices Kai coming back from the beach, along with (to Takato's horror) Guilmon not far behind with a small pink fish he had caught; Kai apparently is already familiar with the Digimon card game, but was unknowledgeable of the existence of real Digimon until he had met Guilmon. Kai's grandfather, however, mistakes Guilmon for a large dog (to which Kai retorts), and mentions that the protector of the island is Seasarmon before seeing Calumon flying into view to ask Guilmon to come play. After Kai makes a smart remark about Calumon being a "flying dog", Grandpa then walks into the kitchen to make dinner.

Meanwhile in Tokyo with Rika
Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, Rika walks in on her grandmother checking her email; Rika's mother is currently in Paris for a fashion-related engagement. Rika's grandmother is delighted by the playing V-Pet dog on the desktop computer screen. Rika, who is uninterested in the V-Pet fad, heads to her room; however, Renamon appears to inform her that a Digimon had just appeared. They arrive at a local oil plant at night, and Renamon commences to fight against the Digimon ( a Pteramon) and absorb its data. However, following the fight, Renamon then informs Rika of her suspicions of this particular Pteramon's motives for attack.

Meeting Minami
The next morning, Takato, his cousin, Guilmon and Calumon are eating barbecued fish on the beach for breakfast, and while talking, Kai mentions that he wants to become a fisherman when he comes of age, and asks if Takato wants to inherit his mom-and-pop's bakery; Takato is uncertain about that prospect, but is then surprised by a fast approaching speedboat that is being chased by a Tylomon in the water. The group goes to rescue the young girl who's riding the speedboat and confront the Tylomon that is chasing her. Following the fight, the group heads back with the girl in tow, who is obviously exhausted by the ordeal. Kai runs to pull his grandfather from fishing for the day, and Takato watches over the girl as she rests. He goes to look in her bag for her name and origin, and pulls out a plastic-wrapped laptop, only to be tripped up by Calumon and Guilmon playing. The laptop flies open, and shows the V-Pet application open.

Meanwhile in Tokyo with Suzie and the Ryukyus with Henry
Meanwhile, at Henry's house in Tokyo, Suzie is playing on the computer with the V-Pet, but finds it annoying because of glitches in the application which make the V-Pet give the obviously wrong answer to, say, an equation like "6 x 4". She walks to bed, and wonders why Henry is gone for the whole summer (since she misses playing with Terriermon aka "Princess Prettypants"). She then reluctantly walks back to the computer to play with it some more.

Also, Henry and Terriermon are enjoying their exploration of the undersea ruins in the Ryukyus; Henry takes as many photographs of the site as possible. They then agree to visit Takato the next day.

Back to Takato and Kai
The girl, Minami, dreams of the time that she lost her puppy, Mei, in a storm off the coast. She was the winner of a local boogie board contest, and had boogied out to the sea to rescue her puppy, only to lose him in the waves. She wakes up, and finds that she's in a neighbor's daughter's clothes because her own clothes were soaked from the earlier confrontation. They then head to dinner, at which point she is introduced to Calumon and Guilmon. However, she begins to cry at the table all of a sudden, since she is depressed from recent issues.

Back in Tokyo and the Ryukyus
In Tokyo, a computer virus is attacking the city's information-related systems, causing such things as traffic accidents and random shutdowns of personal desktop computers. Janyu is on the phone with Henry to tell him of the issue while Terriermon is in the shower, then the phone cuts off mid-conversation. Janyu then sees the V-Pet "eating" the live video feed that he is watching.

Also, Rika, who is bored from having nothing to do while her mother is gone, tells Renamon to come with her to find something to do on the town; Rika comments that mothers aren't around when one needs them, but are not as desirable when they are around. However, Renamon snickers to that remark, considering that Rika is not mentioning the exact reason for her anxiety.

The V-Pet's origins
While sitting on the beach, Takato asks to use Minami's laptop to play with the V-Pet, which is in a similar form as Mei, her late pet puppy. Minami then explains that the V-Pet was created by her father as a replacement following Mei's drowning; however, she was told by her father to flee with the laptop, which contains the original prototype V-Pet because of how they were being hounded by an enemy that wanted a grasp on the rights to the V-Pet. To that end, Digimon were being hired to capture Mei and the laptop.

Minami, however, sees the V-Pet as mere "data" that doesn't replace a flesh-and-blood companion, an assumption that Takato rejects because of his friendship with Guilmon, who, like all Digimon, is composed of a fusion of composited data and false proteins, but was born from Takato's imagination.

They head to the house to sleep for the night, but are awakened from sleep by the onslaught of at least two Digimon who try to capture Minami. Takato, Guilmon and Kai's grandfather resist Scorpiomon and Divermon, but Minami, who is fleeing with Kai on the beach, is captured by the smaller, but large-sized Digimon. However, the screen on the laptop, which is dropped by Minami in the capture, shines brightly as Seasarmon leaps forth from the screen to challenge the Divermon that has captured Minami. After having vanquished the Digimon, Seasarmon turns to Minami and sniffs at her feet; Minami is surprised as Seasarmon mentions her name. A Mantaraymon then leaps from the sea and captures Minami, injuring Seasarmon and Guilmon in the process; Minami disappears from view, and Seasarmon is held back by the lapping waters as he looks on in anguish.

Troubles half a world away
The technical controls on the plane that is taking a number of passenger from Paris to Tokyo, including Rika's mother, are hijacked by the virus that has caused problems for Tokyo's infrastructure. The city's water system goes haywire as the V-Pet avatar "chews up" the water pressure data. It then morphs into an Imp-like creature that takes over the entire computing system. Rika and Renamon (who digivolves into Kyuubimon) battle BlueMeramon, who is erupting the water from the sewers, while Henry and Terriermon (who Digivolves into Gargomon) face Ebidramon, who's attacking a yacht on the beach. When they emerge from the confrontations victorious, the two duos are informed from the heavens by Omnimon (and, strangely enough, by Calumon, who has found his way back to Tokyo) that their help is needed, and they are teleported from view.

The rescue
Takato, Guilmon, Kai follow the trail (sniffed by Seasarmon) to the island where Minami is being held. During a battle aginst Mantaraymon and a Depthmon, Guilmon digivoloves to Growlmon, then destroys Mantaraymon and Seasarmon destroys Depthmon. They enter the compound on the island, a Archelomon attacks them, but is easily finished by Growlmon. Inside there, Minami's father (Takehito), who is being held captive by the enemy Digimon, is joined by a recently captured Tameshiro (the head of the company that manufactures the V-Pet). Baronmon, the leader of the wayward group (Sepikmon, Pipismon and Ponchomon) demands the vaccine to the V-Pet, a "kill-switch" algorithm created by Takehito for the V-Pet in the case that the program malfunctions. Takehito refuses to give them the vaccine, and fights back, only to be beaten back by the leader of the hostage takers. Takato's group soon breaks into the lab, and a fight ensues between the two sides. Takato's group emerges victorious from the fight and flees the rising waters, and Minami takes a particular notice of Seasarmon, who Takato thinks came from her laptop, or more specifically, the V-Pet prototype on the laptop.

Takehito thinks this hypothesis through, and states that, in the development of the V-Pet, a set of extremely malicious code was found in every copy of the program; hence, the programmer wrote a vaccine to counter this virus and implanted the vaccine code into the V-Pet prototype, which made him a target. However, Tameshiro then come into the room and, much to the horror of the group, transforms into Mephistomon before their eyes; Seasarmon rises up to fight him, but is then severely beaten by the adversary, so much that he de-digivolves into Labramon, who much more resembles Minami's late pet puppy Mei. Mephistomon captures Labramon, while V-Pets and wayward Kokuwamon are wreaking havoc throughout the world, but Takato and Guilmon are joined by the other two duos; Mephistomon then raises up a digital world in which an entire city is submerged underwater. Growlmon drops a ship on Mephistomon, seemingly deleting him. Minami cries over Labramon and calls him Mei, activating the vaccine, taking out all evil Digimon and V-Pets, restoring control of technologies to humans, especially the plane Rika's mother is on.

Unfortunately, Mephistomon digivolves to Gulfmon and proves too powerful. Luckily, Calumon enables the Champion-level Digimon to Digivolve to Ultimate, using Trinity Burst to defeat Gulfmon. His digital world disappears, as the humans and Digimon return to the Real World in the middle of the sea, overjoyed that they've saved the world. But Takato comments he needs a vacation from his vacation.

Digivolutions
(Number indicates order of occurrence.)

Trivia

 * Early mistranslated promo information cemented the idea that this movie was out of continuity with the series, but in the finished movie, there is very little to suggest that this could be true. Given that Kai goes on to appear later in the series itself, and knows who Guilmon is at the time, would suggest that the movie is in continuity. On the other hand, in order for it to be in continuity, it would have to take place after the Tamers had reached Ultimate for the first time, but before Calumon was kidnapped, meaning that it has a window of opportunity only three episodes wide.
 * In the Kai's island, Takato is shown always barefoot. But in a few scenes, Takato has shoes.
 * This is the first and only time the Tamers are referred to as Digidestined although Takato wonders if he is one when he first recieves his Digivice.
 * In the English dub, Gargomon's attack is Gargo Pellet, as opposed to Gargo Laser as it was in the series.
 * This is the last voice acting of Ginzo Matsuo in the Digimon series.
 * In the English dub, the instrumental score in the opening credits is the theme tune for Digimon Frontier.
 * Continuity Error: Renamon uploads Pteramon's data, but this takes place after episode 12 where she and the others stopped doing that as she realized she doesn't need vanquished Digimon's data to become stronger.