Essays

As we have previously established, the Dark Ocean is not: the Net Ocean, the Dark Web, or the Dark Area, even though the names may suggest a relationship. There is, however, a connection between the Dark Ocean and the Dark Area, as we know from 02 episode 19. The little information seems to suggest that the Dark Area is nebulously located at the deepest part of the Dark Ocean, but it may be a foolish endeavor to tie it to specific notions of "location" for reasons we'll get into.

The Dark Ocean clearly draws inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft; Dagomon's name is derived from "Dagon" and his appearance is obviously inspired by Cthulhu. The strange creatures found in the Dark Ocean, which appear at first to be a group of Scubamon, aren't actually Digimon at all, but some kind of unnamed shadowy creatures that serve Dagomon. We aren't given a name for these creatures, but I always just referred to them as the Deep Ones, from the H.P. Lovecraft story The Shadow Over Innsmouth. In fact, a sign in Digimoji that Hikari passes when she first enters the Dark Ocean reads "Innsmouth".

The Dark Ocean's connection to other dimensions appears to be transient, wildly fluctuating, and generally unstable. Hikari begins to phase through the dimensions to the Dark Ocean early in episode 13, where she sees a hallucination or vision of dark water all around her while she's just sitting at her desk at school. The actual boundary between the Real World and the Dark Ocean is somewhat ill-defined and it goes both ways - in episode 13, Hikari catches sight of a Deep One at school in broad daylight.

We know from a cryptic remark by Oikawa in episode 48 that the Dark Towers originate from the Dark Ocean. This is supported by the fact that Ken's ability to create them as the Kaiser is tied to his fortress, which is powered by a conduit to the Dark Ocean down in its core. However, despite this, it doesn't make Ken an "ally" of the Dark Ocean or of Dagomon, and in fact in episode 13 the Deep Ones are attacked by an Evil Ring-controlled Digimon. It's this that is the impetus for the dark creatures to ask Hikari to become their "bride"; to breed with her to produce an army for a fight against Ken, who is ultimately an interloper in Dagomon's realm. So it's left a bit unclear exactly how the Towers materialized or why, especially given that Arachnemon creates them all on her own later on, without any reference to the Dark Ocean.

And recall how in episode 45, it was a reasonable strategy to banish Demon to the Dark Ocean precisely because it is separate from the dimensions Demon is capable of easily teleporting through. This is in spite of the fact that all of the children who end up in the Dark Ocean manage to get out from force of will; clearly the rules work differently for humans, but regardless, someone can be in contact with the Dark Ocean but not fully transported there. Feeling the waters against their skin, but they're still in the Real World, their feet on dry land all the same.