Super Evolution Stage "Digimon Adventure tri. ~Adventure of August 1~"

Super Evolution Stage "Digimon Adventure tri. ~Adventure of August 1~" (超進化ステージ「デジモンアドベンチャー tri. ～8月1日の冒険～」, Chō Shinka Sutēji "Dejimon Adobenchā torai. ~Hachigatsutsuitachi no Bōken~) is a live stage play companion to Digimon Adventure tri. It was performed in ten showings in August 2017.

=Summary=

Act 1
Izumi Kōshirō, Takenouchi Sora, and Tachikawa Mimi are planning a camping trip to be held on August 1, to commemorate the sixth anniversary of when they first went to the Digital World at the same campgrounds. Sora invites the partner Digimon - who overheard their arguments inside Kōshirō's server after being awakened by discomfort and an inability to move - to come with them. Yagami Hikari and Kido Jo recruit Yagami Taichi to come with them, though they and the others sense that there's something wrong with Taichi, who has spent a lot of his time alone lately and has been talking about the trip as a way to recapture his carefree childhood. Takaishi Takeru interrupts a KNIFE OF DAY rehearsal to convince Ishida Yamato, who remarks that nothing has changed since their first adventure, to come as well.

At the campgrounds, the group reflects on where they are headed in life, and Jo and Gomamon leave early to prepare for a mock exam. The rest of the group starts noticing strange occurrences: a complete lack of other campground patrons, conveniently placed tents, a campground keeper who seems strangely familiar, the same impossible times being reported by their clocks, an inability to control their own movements coming over Agumon and Gabumon, and an inability to call the outside world. Kōshirō concludes that they've become trapped in a digital area where anything that they wish for is granted to them, and that they are being preventing them from leaving. The campground keeper reveals himself as the culprit: Etemon, returned from the Dark Ocean after (from its own perspective) 100 years of imprisonment. Etemon has created the entire camping trip setting inside that digital area as a trap to get revenge on Taichi and Agumon. However, Agumon's inability to fight means that he cannot get his rematch, and he is uninterested in fighting anyone else, using his to prevent the rest of the party from evolving and attacking him.

Act 2
Etemon and his minions, the Etemon Five (a group of four different-colored Etemon), force Taichi, Hikari, Sora, Mimi and their Digimon to play out a camping barbecue role-play. This role-play goes on for days before the group snaps and demands an end to it, but Etemon gives them a deadline of the 100th hour for Agumon and Taichi to be ready to fight back, after which he has no clue what will happen. He sends the Etemon Five after the rest of the Chosen Children, who have eluded him, after catching Yamato observing them. Hikari and Sora confront Taichi on his strange behavior and his attempts to regress back to the way things were six years ago.

Meanwhile, Takeru and Kōshirō hide in an office-like area filled with machinery and work to figure out what is happening, and Yamato rejoins them. Kōshirō theorizes that the area they're in was created by Etemon's desire for revenge and that, like the Y2K problem, the impossible times occurring in the area are slowly making it more and more glitchy and unstable. Neither fixing the time bug from inside the area, nor destroying the machinery to make a way out, are possible in his opinion.

Jo and Gomamon return and, while the group is initially suspicious that they are fakes created by the area's ability to create things that fulfill their wishes, they realize that they are the real Jo and Gomamon. Kōshirō realizes that his initial theory was in error: Etemon did not create it, but instead the Chosen Children themselves willed it into existence out of their desire to go back to the way things were six years ago, and it was this desire that called Etemon into it. This is why time acts strangely: they don't want August 1 to end, so it doesn't, instead just adding more and more impossible minutes and hours to the clock. Jo is the only one who can pass through the exit because he is the only one who is looking to the future, rather than to August 1 1999.

Takeru and Kōshirō bring word of this theory to the rest of the group, each of whom reckons with their own fears about growing up and the future. Yamato wrestles with his fear that everyone will go their separate ways, and Taichi faces the loss of the decisiveness that he had when he was eleven years old. Gabumon and Agumon help them with their breakthroughs, which restore their strength and enable them to move and evolve again.

Act 3
Etemon confronts fight Taichi and Agumon, who evolves into Metal Greymon. Metal Greymon easily overpowers Etemon, who runs away. Kōshirō realizes that Etemon's obsession with Taichi is also contributing to this desire for things to not change, hence the area continues to exist and deteriorate. Etemon returns and reveals that he has attained the ability to evolve again through his 100 years of imprisonment and, after evolving into King Etemon, uses his to call on the lingering memories of evil Digimon that drift about the area and manifest them to summon apparitions of other old enemies of the Chosen Children: Devimon, the Dark Masters, and Venom Vamdemon.

The entire digital area and all of the apparitions in it are now under Etemon's absolute control. He declares that the Chosen Children will be fighting this endless August 1 forever, and he sends the other evil Digimon after the rest of the group. He fights Taichi and Metal Greymon using Venom Vamdemon Undead as his avatar, and nearly overpowers them with an attack that they cannot stop, but the two are saved by Yamato and Metal Garurumon. The two resolve to fight their way out and destroy the digital area and fuse their partners into Omegamon, who destroys the area and Etemon/Venom Vamdemon Undead with it.

The Chosen Children and their Digimon emerge from the area into the Digital World. Kōshirō observes that, while he was in there, he used Taichi's goggles and saw distortions in the area. He observes that the distortions are stll present, being caused by Meicoomon. Mimi realizes that everything that they've just been through, including Jo's mock exam, was an illusion, proven by how the children are now suddenly in their school uniforms again. The group resolves to keep going, and to find Meicoomon and Mochizuki Meiko.

=Development= Ten Digimon were portrayed using puppets: the base forms of the eight partner Digimon, as well as Metal Greymon and Metal Garurumon. Omegamon was also physically portrayed as a large bust, on which the actors portraying Taichi and Yamato could stand, augmented by visual effect projections onto the stage backdrop to suggest its movements and attacks. All other Digimon (with the exception of Etemon and his Etemon Five, who were portayed by live actors in suits) were instead portrayed by projecting footage onto the stage; Venom Vamdemon Undead was represented using a loop of original footage of it speaking, while the rest were taken from clips from Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure tri.

=Characters=

Main Characters

 * Yagami Taichi
 * Agumon > Metal Greymon > War Greymon > Omegamon


 * Ishida Yamato
 * Gabumon > Metal Garurumon > Omegamon


 * Takenouchi Sora
 * Piyomon


 * Izumi Kōshirō
 * Tentomon


 * Tachikawa Mimi
 * Palmon


 * Kido Jo
 * Gomamon


 * Takaishi Takeru
 * Patamon


 * Yagami Hikari
 * Tailmon

Enemies

 * Etemon > King Etemon


 * Venom Vamdemon Undead

=Staff=

Promo
=External links=
 * Official site
 * Twitter