Digimon: “Genesis of Evil”
More like the Douchebag Emperor
For over twenty episodes in the 2nd season of Digimon, the lead villain is Ken Ichijouji, a teenage prodigy calling himself the “Digimon Emperor”. He enslaves these computerized critters for his own means(which generally amount to just being the biggest jerk-face in the digital world). The only character truly on his side is his caterpillarish advisor, who takes heaps of his master’s abuse and nevertheless tries to get him to see the light.
Like many cartoon villains, he is presented as entirely sure of himself, assumes every simple weakling under his command will somehow defeat the group of spunky kids that foiled tougher plans, and even in defeat ends every episode with a smug laugh. If it weren’t for the fact that he’s also the first flesh and blood antagonist(making the fact that every other major villain in the show had to be killed a stickier solution here), there wouldn’t be a whole lot to him. In fact he’s pretty run-of-the-mill as far as cartoon bad guys go. Not much we haven’t seen before.
When civil rights come along...
Then the show pulls the rug out from under us. We see his personal life. We are shown the unenviable pressure to be the best at everything ever, from school tests to soccer. All of this comes courtesy of insufferable jackasses that constitute his fan-club. He is in the news every day, in what must be a Japan enduring the slowest news month of all time. One news exposé proudly claims: “One of his talents includes playing a single game of chess while everyone watches!” Every boy wants to be his pal, every girl wants to be his gal. His parents seem an encouraging calm in the storm, but they learn all too late that they weren’t exactly helping. This is nothing that excuses his behaviour, mind you, but it’s something to note.
Then he loses the only person who was really looking out for his best interests. For a boy leading his grade in test scores, he is genuinely shocked to learn that everything in the world he claims lordship over is a little more than just binary code. He is soundly defeated, the once high-and-mighty reduced to something whimpering and pathetic. Almost makes you feel sorry for the guy, if not for the fact that his running away from the pressures of reality came at a great cost to everyone around him.
After the initial conflict is over, we get an entire episode devoted to him, back in his home world. The episode is titled: “Genesis of Evil”. It is exactly the kind of thing children’s entertainment is normally too weak-kneed to explore. It gives us a deeper look into a damaged young man than we knew was there. By the end, we care for a personality intent on being an asshole for over 10 hours before. That’s no small feat.
Did you know that he wasn’t always the bright centre of this Japanese neighborhood’s universe? Did you know that he had an older brother, whose similar talents attracted similar adoration and attention from an entertainment-starved community? Did you know that little Ken idolized and resented his brother for being the main recipient of his parent’s affection? I was not. Years after seeing this show, I had forgotten those details. I was also unaware that there is a good reason why his brother isn’t around during the time the show takes place. Some family tragedies take longer to heal than others. What happened to his elder brother Sam left an aching canyon through Ken’s heart.
No wonder he acts out. At least he had some control over life and death in the digital world.
“Genesis of Evil” features none of the main cast, and few of the show’s namesake merchandisable monsters. There is no action. No fight scenes. No awful “rock” music. No time-wasting “digivolving” sequences. It is instead a deep-reaching peek into a severely hurt human being. It explores Ken’s early life, his youthful frustrations, his agonizing regrets, and his wind-wrenched search for what’s left of his soul. He finds a place where all things digital seem to begin, and there he faces the terrible music. It is not a happy ending, but it’s a start. And even if it is, he will always carry an impossible debt.
This is a kid’s show, I remind you. And it is a little heavy-handed, but it got to me. This episode took greater risks and reaps a greater payoff than much adult-themed programming can claim. Just two or three episodes ago, I was still hating this kid’s guts, and now here I am mourning his lot in life. Now I see he wasn’t just a 2-dimensional, cardboard cut-out. He is revealed as someone of great potential ruined by childhood tragedy, and small-minded bottom-feeders. Further, this makes a previously unseen dimension visible in older episodes. His wormly sidekick thinks of him as a gentle person, and his downfall could be attributed to him trying to go against his better nature. Now we see where he came from, and how a bright young man can turn out to be a Digimon Emperor.
“Villain” might not be the best word for Ken Ichijouji. But I can safely say the first two seasons never had a better antagonist. No, not even the Kefka-impersonator.
END OF LINE
~A.H.
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