Directed by Mamoru Hosoda, Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!, the second Digimon film and a direct sequel to the original TV anime, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year—a milestone surely etched into the memories of countless fans.
Recently, the official YouTube channel dropped the movie for a two-week limited-time viewing (Japan-only, sorry!). The announcement on the official X (formerly Twitter) account immediately blew up, but amidst the chatter, a truly hilarious question popped up: "Hey, can people in Shimane even watch this?!" Why the sudden concern for Shimane, you ask? Well, there's a legendary meme behind it all.
In "Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!", Yamato (Matt Ishida) and Takeru (T.K. Takaishi) are visiting their grandma in Shimane. Despite having their trusty Digivices for evolutions, internet access wasn't exactly widespread back then. They desperately needed a computer to help out but couldn't find one anywhere. That's when Taichi dropped the iconic line: "Of course Shimane wouldn't have any computers!"
This line didn't just become a running gag; it exploded into a full-blown meme! It even got a self-referential shout-out in the sequel, "Digimon Adventure tri.", and has been homaged in other anime too.
▼ You can even find an entry for this line on Pixiv Encyclopedia!
While Shimane Prefecture is considered a more rural part of Japan by many, and household PC penetration was only around 40% back then, it wasn't entirely unreasonable for a grandma's house to lack a computer. However, Taichi's "How could Shimane possibly have computers?!" line definitely didn't sit well with the locals at the time. Especially since the Ruby programming language was developed with Shimane as its hub, it's no wonder residents were fuming when they heard that jab!
▼ When it previously aired on Niconico, the comments section was flooded with remarks about "Shimane's reputation being ruined."
Given this history, when the movie hit YouTube for free, netizens couldn't resist joking again: "Can Shimane watch it now?" But according to the comments, replies quickly poured in like, "I'm in Shimane, and I'm watching it perfectly on my computer!" and "Our fiber optics are super fast now!" Looks like internet speed is definitely not an issue anymore!
It just goes to show, this 25-year-old gag has left a lasting impression on many Japanese people, and especially on Shimane residents. No wonder it's still brought up all the time, even today!