#TAI AND AGUMON WOULD NEVER KILL AND HUMAN AND THEIR PARTNER DIGIMON

[tiredgremlintime]

I tweak the fuck out everytime I see the Tai vs Red death battle get mentioned.

[kitto-toberu-sa]

Digimon Adventure Tri – Symbiosis (Part 5) Movie Premier

Aight so I had great seats and I was sitting with a friend so it was great because we were whispering ‘what the fuck’ and crying together. We had a group of us scattered throughout the cinema, so that was cool and we debated for two-three hours after the movie, and the next two days lol.

ALSO: It’s been a few days, emotions were high, my Japanese isn’t flawless, etc etc. I may be wrong, I may accidentally write ‘it was this’ when that’s subjective and not fact etc. Take everything with a grain of salt. I’ve covered pretty much everything, and I’m pretty sure most of it is correct and have noted where I think otherwise.

General opinion: Meiko’s story has gone on too long, and while it’s finally gotten good, it’s too little too late. However, considering everything that Toei has set up so far and what they have to work with, it was a good movie. I think it was better than movie 4, which is my least favourite, but not as good as others. Some moments were stupid and others did not get what they deserved. Ai Kotoba is beautiful and it’s really refreshing and just an all round lovely song.

Let’s get down to eleven pages of business!

We start with Meiko being choked by Gennai, a direct continuation of last movie. Meikuumon goes bonkers. And ends up opening a fuck tonne of portals to the real world and Gennai’s pretty happy because there’s angry Digimon invading the real world. It happens over a while (separate scenes) but these Digimon cause chaos by invading shit and stuff. They aren’t friendly but we don’t really see them do BAD things – it’s more that they have a bad presence and are making people v v nervous. Often Digimon like Tankmon. Like, if there were 50 Tankmon in your street, it wouldn’t matter if they were actively attacking or not. Them being there is enough of an attack to terrorise people. It’s also likely it’s the infection/Mmon’s influence.

Meikuumon almost kills Meiko but Taichi saves her. This isn’t an issue – tbh we all know Meiko can’t do shit for herself. She’s been rescued before, it’s her character type. What the issue is is after her rescued her, he kept holding her. This happens a few more times. The over touching is really unnecessary and leads a heavy TaiMei vibe throughout the movie, which I don’t like, purely because Meiko hasn’t really got much of a deep character). I can ship pretty much anything if it’s written well (even in fics) but Meiko has no character to write well. And considering Taichi was so overly touchy with her, yet abandons Hikari later made me super pissed. Meikuumon disappears into the real world. Meiko’s glasses cracked when Gennai choked her.

There’s a Meikuumon flashback where Mmon comes out of a bush to find Meiko. We see a pool of blood behind it – Meiko doesn’t with feathers in it. Meiko cleans Mmon up, Meiko’s mum is concerned why she has blood on her shirt. Meiko’s like wtf I wasn’t hurt?? It’s from Mmon’s claws. Neither of them figure it out tho (or say so directly). This is from around the time Meiko found Mmon (Meikuumon).

Throughout the film we see lots of Mmon flashbacks. Mei looking after her, bathing her, Mmon being terrified by birds when she gets lost (hence the pool of blood), Mmon sneaking in Meiko’s school bag, being lonely when Mei is away etc. We also see shots of her in a lab, being very unhappy, Meiko’s dad talking about testing and researching, Hime lurking in the lab looking ready to move, Mmon in a trashed lab on a rampage and Mei calming her down, but being scared at the same time.

Hiemkawa is stumbling around calling for her partner. Why did you reject me? Where are you? She’s lost it. She’s completely gone.

The kids are in the Digi World but the Digital World doesn’t want them (Yggdrasil’s doing?). It keeps raining or using plants to attack them. At one point an entire cliff disappears beneath them, so they all fall. Later, when they’re running more from the world itself, Takeru tries to lead the way but the cliff disappears again and he’s just in the moment before he falls and he’s like ‘eh?’ and it’s a really nice bit of humour.

There’s a camp fire scene and there is such a beautiful rendition of Butter-fly playing. Easily one of my top ten moments. I don’t think it entirely matched the scene but damn. Release a stupidly priced BGM album of Tri with this on it and I’ll buy it in a heartbeat. Anyway, the scene is basically another ‘Meiko your part of our group’. One of Yamato’s lines was really cool ‘you’re not a chosen child. We’re the chosen children’. I especially like that line because it applies to ALL children, not just the original adventure kids. It isn’t about what you’ve experienced, it’s about the bond with Digimon some humans have.

Hikari is very much ‘we aren’t wanted. It doesn’t want us here. It’s telling us to leave’. And everyone doesn’t really like hearing that, but Takeru is really the only one going ‘uh, WHY do you feel that??’. Like it’s clear how the world is acting, but why does she think it’s the world attacking them more than a side effect of reboot or something. This is because they refuse to kill Mmon. The world is seeing them as a virus, something that’s unwelcome. Mmon is causing destruction and chaos – the digital world doesn’t want it, and essentially, if you don’t want Mmon dead, you’re on it’s side.

Tai’s mother is very worried about the situation. She’s worried about the world and her kids and the Digimon. She decides she can’t do anything but make sure they’ll be well fed when they get back, so she starts cooking. It might not sound good from my description, but it’s very simple and raw. She loves her kids. She knows she’s powerless. All she can do is hope and make sure they know how much she cares when they come back.

I wish we had more of these. Show me Yamato’s dad looking through footage trying to make sure the kids aren’t there getting hurt, Takeru’s mother harassing media contacts, Jyou’s family wondering about the casualities and hoping Jyou’s studies will help him if he needs it, Koushirou’s parents concerned but knowing how knowledgeable their boy is so he’s probably gonna keep himself out of trouble, Mimi’s parents worried, demanding police and whatever security agencies they can find if they know where she is, Sora’s mother glad that Sora grew up a tomboy and isn’t afraid of dirt and scary things, Meiko’s mother worried about the inner conflict her daughter must be going through.

Nishijima and Meiko’s dad talk while this is happening. MMON IS NOT EVOLVING. It is a power boost, yes, and it’s essentially very similar to the same levels of a shinka digimon, but it is NOT shinka. Mmon is abnormal and always has been. Mmon is confirmed to be related to Apoclymon in some shape – this could mean Mmon is an off shot of Amon, or got power/evil from the same source, anything really. Hackmon is very vague and unhelpful and has a difficult way of speaking. Also I found it really hard to concentrate here since Hackmon is sitting on a tv and looks very dog like, and considering it’s the movie about the cat digimon humans, I thought it was very amusing (small things, small minds?). Also, the tv is showing people debate about Digimon. One dude is very anti Digimon, another is very extra (think the shiny sparkly laser guy from BnHA, but not quite as extra) and then one dude, the closest to the screen, looks like he’s settling in for an angry nap. I love it.

Nishijima is pretty pissed and wants to know more and why Hackmon didn’t tell them anything. Hackmon is all like ‘lmao you couldn’t do shit anything anyway’ and Nishijima’s like ‘…true’. Also, Hackmon says they (Hack and Homeo) didn’t interfere with Mmon because they were trusting Meiko to keep it in line (ie Mmon was given to Meiko to be her partner, rather than them being destined for each other like the others). I mean, that seems like a bad idea, but okay sure, leave everything to the fate of a little girl. Why not. In any case, it’s now up to the Chosen to destroy Mmon.

Meiko is basically Mmon’s hope. Without Meiko, Mmon will lose it, hence why Gennai strangled her. Mmon is a toddler and Meiko is the safety blanket. Take the blanket away and you have a temper tantrum and uncontrollable actions on your hands.

The kids return to the real world with their Digimon. The fear mongering against the Digimon has reached bad levels, but we’re not really shown this so it isn’t as impactful as it could have been. (This could have been shown later with Mimi or Koushirou checking social media and getting pissed that people were talking shit about Digimon. I think they tried to a show don’t tell thing with the press conference on tv, etc, but I just don’t think it was done well, especially in some scenes where we see police/army/enforcement of some description trying to get civilians with cameras away from the Digimon infested spots, so it looks touristy rather than people being scared)

Anyway, a kid starts crying because Digimon are scary. Agumon’s like ?? let’s be friends and a police officer comes over. Obviously, Digimon are bad now so they call in support. Taichi fucking bolts and everyone follows. Digimon escape into the server. The kids are taken in by the police.

As they’re running, Taichi grabs Meiko’s hand. In the end, she’s like ‘um? I can run by myself?’. She’s polite and blushing, which you kinda do when you’re running and have your hand held by a cute boy. He lets go of her hand. There was no reason for him to do that unless he likes her or thinks she’s so weak she needs protecting. He’s never treated the other girls like that so to me it feels OOC. Her words also seem like a rejection to me. It wasn’t funny, didn’t develop anything and was oddly placed. Bad scene is bad.

The kids learn about how people view Digimon. It would have been nice to see interviews from classmates. Seeing Taichi and Yamato react again would have been interesting, plus you could have had Nishijima’s conflict of interests – Digimon dude vs teacher. What does he think of his student’s views, being so close to our chosen and being chosen himself?

Nishijima bails them out but can’t take them home. (Himekawa is missing, so he’s essentially doing her job as well) I guess the police chase was shown on the news or leaked or something, since people are in front of the Chosen’s house. Media too. It isn’t safe for them to go home. I wish they’d played up more of ‘but are our families ok?’. Especially Yamato’s and Takeru’s parents since they’re in the media!! Like, make them feel worried about how it will impact their jobs, or if they can even go to work or whatever.

He shows them a photo of Meikuumon blowing up the power plant. Meiko has new glasses as well as her old cracked ones (maybe she had a same pair of the same style at home that Nishi got for her, but considering he said it was too dangerous for them to go back home, idk. I guess people wouldn’t know who he is, but if the media is there you can bet they want interviews from the neighbours and anyone entering/leaving the building).

Anyway, Nishijima makes them hang out at school in the Calligraphy Club room. Apparently the school is shut for the summer, but mine never shut so… It’s possible this could be Obon, which my schools did shut for and a lot of businesses take a few days off for.

In a throw back to the stage play, now it’s night Mimi decides it’s time to gossip. My group was discussing whether the play took ideas from the movie, or perhaps they purposely tied it in, or new writers or what. A few other things were similar from the play that we hadn’t seen in Tri before, so it’s likely the creative teams spoke at one point.

Takeru says it’s only natural that they do ghost stories since it’s summer. Yamato is overly against it, which calls attention to him. Takeru enjoys mocking how scared he is. Yamato tries to deny it. The girls all gossip about him and he’s desperately trying to be cool. The DIGIMON start to talk shit and he’s even worse.

Jyou makes a lame attempt at telling a story. Yama’s slightly spoked still. Takeru starts (of course, with a torch light on his face). Yamato’s getting more freaked out. But the way Takeru starts just makes Mimi and Sora laugh so he passes the torch to Meiko (who ALL of the Digimon want to hear from :/ - whether you like Meiko or not, the fact that everyone hangs on her word is a little OTT at times).

So she starts. And this is something she actually is good at. Everyone’s freaking out. (It’s pretty generic, in a school hear the ringing of a bike bell blah blah) Yamato is fucking paranoid. “And on the other side of the door-”

Door opens.

SCREAMING

It’s just Nishijima. Nishijima is so confused why they’re all sitting in a dark room. Yamato looks like he had a heart attack ;;;;;; Honestly I can’t do justice to this scene. Everyone was great here and Yamato’s nervous twitching was PERFECT.

Anyway Nishijima buys them food and reminds them that it’s late. He asks if they want to stay the night. Yamato’s NO is perhaps a little too fast and loud lmao More shit talking ensures. Someone makes a snark about him being scared and Nishijima has also suggested a hotel, but Yamato has to gain back his image and says it’s fine to stay there. Jou wants the hotel but if it’s just him, he’d rather stay with everyone than being alone.

They call their families. Mimi is crying (not sobs, just tears, while she’s talking to her parents) and Sora hugs her while she’s also on the phone. We don’t hear most of the conversations, so this is very touching. Jou talks alone on the stair case, Koushirou is happily chatting away. Yamato and Takeru call their respective guardians and Yamato chooses not to talk to his mother. Hikari finishes talking to their mother and passes the phone to Taichi.

“How is she (Hikari)?” “Not gonna ask about your son?” (said in a joking way) “I know you’ll be ok. I’m entrusting the two Digimon and Hikari to you, ok?” “Yeah yeah”

We see their mum has made a huge amount of food to welcome them back because she was so worried about them. She’s relieved their back home, but you can see in her expression she’s still a bit worried.

Taichi is wandering around and finds Meiko on the phone to her dad. She’s very clearly not ok but her dad doesn’t seem to be giving two shits. Like, we don’t hear him talk, but judging by what we’ve seen he isn’t the most emotional man and she didn’t seem to be like ‘thanks for the pep talk. Im still depressed but thanks for trying’. Even when he was talking to Nishijima and they were saying as long as Meiko is safe Mmon is ok – he was like ‘hm, damn, hope she’s alright then because this thing is fucking shit up. So she’s probably not ok. Hm’. Yes, I realise more than Meiko is at stake. But decent parents would show more concern – nobody in the room (Hackmon and Nishi) are his superiors, he wouldn’t lose face, etc. There was no reason for him to be distant except he is distant. So fuck him to be honest. I’m all about good family relationships and I think Digimon has shown enough ‘oh they have family issues’ (Koushirou, Yamato and Takeru, Sora etc) that Meiko didn’t need it in her sob story either.

Taichi approaches Meiko and she is way too real. It’s great she is finally having deep thoughts, but she’s pretty dark and worries about her self worth (I’m someone who can’t do anything). She worries about if it’s ok for everyone to help her and put her in danger to help her rescue her partner. Taichi starts to go back to his leader roots. I wish I understood more of the conversation/could convey it clearer. Meiko really needed this development. This scene was important for her, and I really wish it had come a lot sooner.

The Digimon are all anxiously watching. “Should I tell Sora?” “Maybe I should tell Hikari!” “Yamato would want to know about this!”

Agumon wonders over to Meiko shortly after Taichi leaves. The Digimon do the same thing.

It’s honestly really cute. This is probably the shippiest thing ever. You can see it as friendship, but if Mimi and Jyou were talking I doubt the Digimon would bat an eyelid. Part of it comes with how new Meiko is and part of it is Toei being Toei. All the Digimon are curious to how their humans will react to this one on one time.

Agumon asks if she’s hungry. She mentions she’s fine, but her heart is a little empty. I can’t remember the wording, but he basically said that can be fixed because everyone likes her. It’s very naïve and childish, but it’s innocent and I felt like these incidents cemented her place in the group and made her more willing to trust everyone. She cries and hugs him.

(So I know a lot of people have issues with Tri’s humour. Mostly Agumon and his stupid food obsessed nature. The ghost story scene was done very well, and even Agumon’s scene here was done really well, despite me being bad at describing it. The humour fits the movie, doesn’t feel out of place and has done more to make Meiko a part of the group than so many other scenes combined have. It’s definitely one of the best scenes of the movie (ghosts) and in the Tri franchise)

The next day Mmon appears so everyone runs out to fight it. This fight is very long and the last 1/4? Maybe more of the movie is pure action (from here until the end). Surprisingly the streets are still ok. Everyone gets screen time but nobody really gets a shining moment. Everyone goes perfect and then mega (except Angewoman). Jesmon appears to eliminate Mmon who powers up to Raguelmon.

Maki is still stumbling around, wondering what the fuck she did because she caused the world to be shit and her partner doesn’t even remember her so what’s the point?

Hikari ends up being possessed by homeo again and fights it off. It’s saying they need to kill Mmon and Hikari ain’t about that life. THIS is the Hikari I’ve been waiting for. She doesn’t take shit despite her kind personality. If something was possessing you, would you sit idly by? It was a short scene, and you kinda see the real Hikari as a shadow/ghost, shouting to her body/homeo telling it to fuck off.

There is a pic of Takeru holding Hikari with Meiko in the bg. “I guess this takes place after Hikari breaks free from homeostasis” – yes. I have a lot of issues with this scene. It happens in the free for all fight and Taichi basically runs off to keep fighting. Considering this happens after the call where his mother specifically asked him to look after her, where he is the leader, where he is her brother!!!!, I’m pissed at this decision. Yes, the fight is important, but the digimon can do it by themselves? Humans get in the way? He should have been there for Hikari more instead of letting other people carry her (she’s fatigued and needs two people to support her). It also would have made his disappearance have more of an impact.

They enter the Digital World. (At one point Mmon protects Meiko and everyone is like? Is it because they’re partners or because Mmon wanted to fight Jesmon? The kids were divided on this and weren’t in clearly chosen camps. I personally didn’t see a whole lot of protecting Meiko in this scene – even Meiko wasn’t entirely sure).

Alphamon (Team Ygg) comes to fight Jesmon (Team Homeo). Everyone gets destroyed to baby forms. Omegamon has to fight/protect Raguelmon who is trying to fight Omegamon (from Jesmon). Jesmon charges a massive attack and tries to shoot Raguelmon (I’ll probably use Mmon since it’s easier sorry – also Raguelmon is never called that by name due to no evolution sequence, it never doing anything but screaming unlike every other Digimon, and Koushirou doesn’t look it up even though he looks Jesmon up? etc). Alphamon attacks Jesmon as it’s about to fire and it goes off course, causing the ground to shatter. I wouldn’t say Alphamon is on Omegamon’s side but they aren’t enemies..? As mentioned by Jay on WtW, even Miyazaki Ayumi (side note: AiM was very cute the whole thing, Hikari kept looking to Taichi to help her answer because MAO is kinda spacy and Meiko’s VA is  v v v cute) felt some confusion in this fight. Jesmon and Alphamon are nowhere to be seen after this happens and by the time the dust has cleared everyone is back to their baby form bar Mmon.

(I can’t remember at exactly what point it happens, but later on, we Himekawa in the DARK OCEAN!!! She sees the demony things, and has a gun but doesn’t use it. She’s still loony af. She drowns. Her scenes are short but really strong. Nishijima ends up kinda feeling that something happens to her (red string of fate www). He’s also wondering why he was chosen as a child (he did in the Hackmon talk as well – it’s really nice to see him be very human instead of a goof who happens to be a secret agent) and remembers him and Hime with their Digimon as kids.)

Meiko had been running toward Mmon at this point (she decided that it would be best for everyone if Mmon was killed – Taichi accepted this decision, though Yamato was initially against it. Yamato gave in – I believe it was partly because it’s logical – Mmon is causing hell, infecting everyone etc. Part of it is his crest – he doesn’t want his friends hurt (also why he fought the choice) or disrespect them when they’re serious (this seemed to be Taichi’s main motivation). Meiko has finally gotten serious and her choice is the most logical, and she’s the one that hurts the most from it. Disrespecting this would be pretty rude, and there is nobody else who can fight apart from Omegamon.)

Meiko running toward Mmon is partly due to her low feeling of self worth. On top of that, I think she was hoping to get hurt and to give Omegamon a chance to get Mmon. Meiko didn’t make this choice easily. She’s my least fave Tri character, but I really felt for her here. TaiYama had been following her (Yamato first – despite agreeing to Mmon being killed, I don’t think he would let this one slide. Again, she doesn’t need to be hurt, she’s hurting enough, it’s not logical for her to be physically hurt, his crest etc).

The ground shatters, Yama saves Meiko. This could be seen as shippy since he’s saved her more than once (she shouldn’t need to be saved as often as she has been…). But I don’t think so. He has the crest of friendship. He’s seen enough friends die. Again, I don’t think it felt particularly shippy so I think it was Toei being weird when they made him hold her longer than necessary.

Taichi nods to Omegamon in a very short but powerful scene. He’s so far away from the other two. Omon saves Yamato and Meiko as a result. Theres a few shouts as Taichi starts to fall. Nishijima tries to save him but they both fall. This was a really well done scene. I don’t think Digimon has ever filled me with so much dread. Yamato called for Taichi and that hurt. Shipper or not, these two have a strong bond. They don’t always agree or get along, and in Tri they’ve been weird, but they were shot by angels together. Taichi just gave up his life for these two. That’s a bond and a half.

Everyone thinks Taichi’s dead. That’s stupid, but they don’t know they’re anime ;p We don’t see them once they fall, but we don’t need to to know they’re alive. The reactions are lame in my opinion (and I discuss this shortly – the ones as he was falling were fine, but afterwards, I get everyone is in shock, but I don’t think it’s what it should have been). I think Yamato and Meiko will get a bit of time to open up more next movie due to how close they were to being in same boat.

After the dust settles, Hikari realises Taichi isn’t there. Oniichan doushite… Oniichan… Oniichan… Nobody can get close to her and the ‘distortion’ started. She wasn’t possessed or infected from my knowledge (and her eyes do the red glowy thing – kinda like homoe but less rainbow, more red/dark) (I don’t believe it was made clear what it was tho. It could be Yggdrasil influencing her in a moment of weakness, infection, whatever. This is how I see it). Earlier, it was mentioned that those who are the softest and most kind hearted are the easiest to break (Hackmon). Essentially it is the same as Tai going dark – she lost her light and kinda went blank. They really needed to show her breaking a little more instead of just going numb. If they didn’t show her darkness in the previews it would have been so much more effective. Even showing her Digivice cracking, being corrupted or something would have done something. Static noise. This scene wasn’t as good as it could have been.

Takeru tries to call out to her once but nada.

The darkness kind of left Hikari (and left her with a static barrier? So nobody could really get close to her) and it infected her partner (the darkness kind of swallows it??) and we got OFDM. Unfortunately no dark evolution sequence which would have been hella rad. OFDM and Mmon fuse – it doesn’t look like Mmon WANTS to (so it is NOT Jogress). (There was little to no reaction from Meiko – understandable. She almost died, her Digimon is causing terror and hurting people and almost hurt, how is she meant to feel???) OFDM darkness kinda sucks it up? The merge and it’s fucking terrifying.

If you’ve seen Evangelion, the angel that’s pinned to the cross underground?? THINK A GIANT WINGED TERRIFYING VERSION OF THAT IT’S NIGHTMARE FUEL Y’ALL

Big and white, creepy eyes (multiple, I remember them being black), massive butt (I’m sorry but it does), female. It’s creepy and gross and demonic. No hands or legs, like claw things.

So basically, Nmon is forced to evolve into OFDM (I don’t see Hikari’s darkness as attacking Nmon – it’s more like the darkness in Hikari can’t DO anything in Hikari, so it merges with her partner which is able to change forms (evolve) so it can let it’s rage be known – think of it as Hikari’s heart/emotions needing to let go of it’s anger and frustration but obvs, humans have limited ways of doing it, so by going to a creature which can fuck shit up, she can release her emotions better – idk if that’s the official explanation, but that’s how I saw it, especially as the humans and partners are meant to have such strong bonds it makes sense one influences the other, and it’d be a nice throwback to 01 Hikari when she used her inner light against the Numemon or whatever), it sucks Mmon into a portal (it’s darkness kind of leaks down to Mmon, smothers it, drags it up to the portal iirc) and the fusion comes down, Hikari tells it to fucking murder everything, and it goes back into the portal, to our world, and darkness starts to spread over the planet.

Yamato grabs Tai’s goggles and puts them on (!!!!!!!!!). (I cried. They’re my OTP of OTP’s) He basically tells everyone they have to get it together – he’s right. You may not like him as the leader, but someone needs to lead now. Who else will? Jyou who has spent half the series trying to balance two massive tasks? (I love him and would love to see him lead, but I don’t think Tri has really set him up to do that well – and Yamato has always been Taichi’s foil when it came to leadership) Koushirou, who already had a leader role after the reboot? Takeru, who’s focussed on the very numb and out of it Hikari? (Keep in mind Hikari fought homeo which is exhausting, she just lost her brother, she’s been running and fighting all day, her Digimon is now dark and fused with a Digimon that’s been bonkers from the almost start – from what I remember people were essentially helping her do everything, even stand up – it looks very PTSD to me.) Mimi, who’s crying? Meiko, who doesn’t really know anyone because Toei still forces the ‘no Meiko, you ARE our friend’ instead of her already being a friend/integrated group member (validating ur friends is cool – constantly going ‘we're friends’ tho kinda makes it look like they need convincing and it just doesn’t feel right). Sora? Maybe, yeah, I wouldn’t mind it, and tbh she deserves it since she had such a shit movie, but c’mon. We’re not looking at a perfect series and some of the moves made by Toei regarding Digimon as a whole lately have been bad (yes I’m looking at you Fes).

Yamato isn’t claiming to be the new leader or taking over. The WORLD is about to get destroyed by TWO OF THEIR OWN DIGIMON. They’ve essentially lost a mentor (Nishijima, two if you count Gennai) and TWO MEMBERS (Hikari is useless rn, Tai’s gone, three if you count Meiko without Mmon). They need to MOVE. Everyone’s in shock (I guess – I found their reactions pretty piss poor tbh) but he’s the one realising the urgency of the situation and doing something about it. Comparing his leaderships skills now to 01 Yamato’s is honestly stupid. You aren’t the same as you were a few years ago, so why hold that standard to him, especially when Tri (and the stage play) has often emphasised how time and situations make people change.

(In saying that, I’m looking forward to when he gives the goggles back!!! I don’t think there will be time for him to fuck up (though I wouldn’t say no to it), unless the movie is longer than any other. Also, this could well be a coping method for him too – keeping the goggles could mean that he’s ready to give them back, a way of keeping Taichi with them, that he doesn’t want to believe Taichi is gone and is waiting for him to show up aka a coping mechanism)

Koromon is looking down to where Taichi fell. He has such a small voice. “I couldn’t save him…”

It’s heart breaking. I don’t like that they don’t have their original memories, but this is so innocent and pure and the new relationships with their humans aren’t any less valid than the old ones. Yamato is encouraging in his own gruff way to him and leads the way back to everyone else.

Ai Kotoba is a beautiful song. Their voices match beautifully, the lyrics are wonderful and it fits the melancholy feel of the end. Please support them and buy a copy of the CD if you can. I’ll always love Wada-san’s works, but this is honestly a beautiful beautiful song and I’m so upset I can’t go to Miyazaki’s next concert (it’s highly speculated that AiM will be making a guest appearance).

Discussion/Ramblings (Some of this from the With the Will forum. People asked Jay some questions. I sat next to Jay during the movie. Afterwards the group I was with went to dinner – Jay was absent)

No 02 kids. But Gennai was doing a Ken every now and then? No reason for that, I guess he likes changing forms??

People are saying Taichi and Nishijima are dead which is fucking stupid. Tri hasn’t taken many major risks, they aren’t going to up and kill two characters, especially the main. C’mon y’all, really? There are no bodies. General rule = body means dead. No body = alive. They disappeared when the ground was cracking up – there’s plenty of hope. Nobody who saw the movie believes they’re dead.

Our group kinda talked about it and wonder if the 02 kids are in the DOcean or not, and also whether that’s where Taichi and Nishijima would go (02 maybe, not so much the other two).

However, we did think that Wizardmon could be coming back still. He isn’t a Digimon, and if he’s able to travel worlds/realms, if Tai/Nishi aren’t in the DOcean (no reason for them to be), but somewhere else, it’s possible we could see him. Plus, he could serve as a trigger to bring back Tailmon’s (everyones) memories/make her/Hikari come back to the light, especially if he brings the humans with him. I can’t remember the exact discussion, but it sounds more plausible than how I’m writing it lmao.

Attack names aren’t called out either for the most part. Evo scenes were merged, cut etc to cut down screen time, thank god. Taichi has a lot of screen time (more so than Hikari), and I like how they’re showing him becoming more of the diplomat the epilogue showed him to be. Whether the epilogue ends up being canon or not (I don’t care either way tbh), it shows a lot of growth and I enjoy and appreciate it.

DARK OCEAN DARK OCEAN DARK OCEAN

Some thoughts after our discussion: now that Meikuumon is known to be made of something similar to Apocalypmon, why (…I don’t know where I was going with this. I was typing at 2am after the movie after about four hours of discussion… went to bed without finishing the thought… maybe I’ll remember one day)

We’re curious as to what crest Meiko would have. Ken has one, so Meiko should definitely have one. With everyone else, we can kinda look at their actions through the context of their crests, but with Meiko, we have little to work with (no matter how I may sound, I don’t hate her – she is simply there for me. I WANT to like her, but I don’t have a lot of good reasons to…). Giving her a crest could help us understand/like her more, make her actions make more sense etc. I think it’s important for her as a member of the Adventure franchise tbh. The 02 kids had their attributes, so if she doesn’t get one, she’ll be left out in a bad way imo.

Some people seem to think Hikari and Meiko will get more focus in the next movie. Obvs to an extent they will since their partners are the Big Bad now (sure, people behind the scenes (Ygg, Homeo etc), but this is the immediate big bad). But this is the last movie – they can’t afford to spend too much time on these two unless it’s longer than usual. Don’t hold your breath for anything special. However, what can they do? They’ve lost their partner. They’re Chosen but have no partners. Where do they fit on the team? Interesting discussions could be had here.

The TaiMei moments are teasing and tbh, I don’t think either character likes the other in a romantic sense. I just think Toei was trying to be teasing but they failed. I haven’t seen anyone go “oh! Yes thanks I love it!”. Everyone was like “Thanks! I hate it!”. Why? Because it was done weirdly (mostly just by holding Meiko for an awkwardly long time) and it’s OOC on both ends. Meiko is constantly having everyone say ‘yea you’re our friend you’re in the group’ and then suddenly romance teasing? Doesn’t make sense.

Neither Hikari nor OFDM got the time they deserved. OFDM was in the movie for maybe a minute before fusing. I honestly feel bad for Hikari fans. This franchise (Tri) has been mostly Meiko. This was meant to be a movie about both of them (though Meiko honestly shouldn’t get one since they should have established her history etc well before now and she’s had ample screen time in every movie for that to happen with) and Meiko took over. Mmon also has the same issue. OFDM was placed on the poster, and yeah, it created hype, but unless we see more OFDM next movie, or the pure version, it’s honestly shit tbh.

I have a lot of hopes for the last movie, but I don’t have high expectations. Movie 4 is the worst in Tri imo, and 5 was maybe the 2nd or 3rd worse. Not good for this late in the franchise. I believe it will focus mainly on Taichi and Yamato (one needs to get back to the group, the other is de facto leader) and Meiko (because when isn’t Tri focused on her? Plus she lost her partner) and Hikari (many reasons). However, I believe Hikari may get shafted pretty quick a la Sora and once Yamato hands over the leadership again (which essentially means Tai shows up) theres no need to focus on him either. I do hope they punch each other tho. Is it really Adventure if they don’t hit each other??

I don’t think part six can answer all plot holes and questions, or give everyone ample and fair screen time and do well with the plot. I’m looking forward to it, but, I don’t think it can do everything I want it to or everything I need it too or everything it should do (tie up loose ends etc). All in all, enjoyable movie considering how everything has been set up, though it has it’s weird moments.

[recentanimenews]

How Digimon Created One Of Anime's Most Memorable Rivalries

  When Digimon Adventure begins, none of the members of the DigiDestined seem at odds with each other. Sure, some wish that Joe would be a little braver or Mimi would be a little less vain, but no one seems to display any outright aggression toward their fellow companions. It's such a reasonably easygoing group that Tai becomes the defacto leader pretty quickly because there's the underlying assumption that everyone is doing their best for everyone else. But a few episodes in, tensions start bubbling. And when they find themselves separated from the rest of the group by Devimon, Matt and Tai confront one another in a way that will set the stage for the majority of their relationship to come.

  Rivalries are a major staple of anime, as they often reflect real-life wishes to improve yourself and filter them through the lens of battle stories. While relatively few of us will ever be in a position where we both get along with someone but also want to fight them all the time like, say, Goku and Vegeta, we can relate to their drives to want to keep up with others. These rivalries also show off the different and often conflicting ideologies of characters. At the end of Goku's first battle with Vegeta, he wants Vegeta to stay alive so that they can fight again one day and get stronger. However, if it was Vegeta looking at Goku's borderline comatose body, it would be about three seconds before Vegeta finished the job because Vegeta's notion of strength at the time lies in complete domination and victory over his opponent.

    Now Matt and Tai don't physically fight very often, mainly because the show is about their partner monsters eviscerating other monsters and not humans fighting humans. But the conflicting ideologies are there, though they're a little more subtle than "I'd be okay with killing everyone, but you're a little more chill about it." See, at the root of Tai and Matt's rivalry lies a deep-rooted difference in the way they think their group should be led.

  On one hand, you have Tai, who can be impulsive and sometimes careless. He loves his friends, but he often gets caught up in the thrill of the adventure. I wrote about how he forced Agumon to transform into SkullGreymon simply because he wanted to rush into a higher level of power and he almost got the DigiDestined destroyed because of it. Later in the same arc, Sora gets kidnapped by Datamon because Tai never truly processes the stakes of their journey and so they hit him all at once when she needs him most. Mistakes happen with Tai not because he isn't a smart character, but because when he's in the heat of the moment, his usual ability to see the bigger picture becomes clouded.

  And then you have Matt, who ... also loves his friends and is especially protective of TK, his younger brother. Unlike Tai, who can almost shirk his responsibilities of being an older brother because Kari, his little sister, didn't originally go to the Digital World with him, Matt feels the burden of taking care of others immediately. Matt isn't cold because he's emotionless, he's cold because in times of stress, he has to be the one with the level head. Otherwise, his brother (and his friends) might get hurt. He doesn't want to endanger the group, thus why he finally explodes with frustration in an isolated setting with Tai.

    This is a great dynamic because neither is wrong, really. They both make some big mistakes, but the group needs Tai to push them forward and needs Matt to keep them in check. In fact, it's usually when these two purposes become disrupted that the rivalry re-emerges in full force. Later in Adventure, Matt feels like he's lost his place in taking care of TK and the group and that's when he's most easily manipulated by evil Digimon to challenge Tai to a fight. And in Digimon Adventure Tri, when Tai is unable to get a good grasp on what is going on and is thus unable to be the leader he wants to be, he's the most outwardly antagonistic back toward Matt. 

    It's pretty easy to see ourselves in Matt and Tai's desires and insecurities. We've all at one point wondered why a person leading us was doing their job a certain way. We've all wanted to excitedly try something new, only to be told that maybe we should hold off on it. And often, these people "holding us back" can be those that are close to us. That's why Matt and Tai's rivalry is so memorable. It isn't the most dramatic one in anime, but rather, it's one that shows us many of the nuances of real-life friendships. At one point or another, we've all been a Matt or a Tai.

  Who is your favorite member of the DigiDestined? Are you a bigger fan of Matt or Tai? Let me know in the comments!

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

        By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[jolteonjordansh]

Thoughts on Digimon Adventure tri.: “Coexistence”

Alright, I kept telling myself I was going to give a day to let my thoughts on “Symbiosis”/”Coexistence” (I'll go with Coexistence generally just to clarify) sink in, but I cannot get my mind to shift on anything else so let's just get to it. If I miss anything, I’ll make an additional thoughts post or something, but I feel like I’ve covered everything here for the most part. So, how did this go as we’re nearing the end of Digimon Adventure tri?

Oh boy, where do I even begin?

Let me lay this down straight: “Coexistence” isn't absolute garbage and is not the worst thing I've ever seen. I still think other series like Digimon Frontier are far worse than tri as a whole so far, but... “Coexistence” pretty much puts a lot of tri's flaws all in one big package.

The "padding" of this movie wasn't so unbearable that I wanted to shut the thing off, but I can certainly say that for 3/4ths of the movie, I was so bored. Not ready to die bored, but questioning "When the hell does all of the material this movie kept pressing so hard before release supposed to show up? Where's Kari's development? Where's Ophanimon Falldown Mode? Any answers to all of the plot threads you've left open? Are the Digimon going to regain their memories? The 02 cast? Anything?" There were cute moments here and there, but I felt that the payoff wasn't good enough to sit through so much of this. This isn't to say that the payoff wasn't good at all--I'll get to that towards the end. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. Other than the music anyway; that was as good as always.

The animation, while mostly okay, had some weird moments. I know it's happened throughout tri, but the size inconsistencies of the Digimon were especially obvious in “Coexistence”. Maybe I just never noticed it until now, but there were so many moments where I was thinking things like "Agumon isn't that small," or "Why did Patamon suddenly shrink from one frame to the next?" Also, there were a good number of stills used here for some reason. Why? I have no idea, but it looked bad. There was also this one shot of Piyomon flying that was really choppy, yet Patamon's flying animations looked as fluid as usual just a few seconds later. Are they trying to save all their budget for the last movie? Come on guys, this isn't “The Scuffle of Legends” for crying out loud. The animation was at least good where it was supposed to be, especially towards the end (the scene where the ground was falling apart were super quick and fluid? I'm not sure if it was just me, but it stuck out to me as looking really well-animated and flowing compared to the rest of the film).

There's sadly not much fighting to talk about animation-wise either. It looks good when it happens--I personally thought watching Alphamon and Jesmon duke it out was awesome. The Digimon from the DigiDestined, other than Tai and Matt who manage to bring together Omegamon, sadly don't get to do much. But hey, the animators learned to put all of the Digivolution animations together in one shot instead of making us watch ten minutes of Digivolution animations! I mean, I love watching them and all, but sometimes you have to cut to the chase, and this was one of those cases. I just found it funny that the one Ultimate Digivolution we hadn't seen, WereGarurumon, gets boxed. But I was sad to see MetalGarurumon's boxed. I mean, his pose and everything looked awesome so I would have really liked to see it in full! Hopefully, we'll get to see it in full in the next film. I mean, come on! I demand to see my metal puppy with some shiny awesome Digivolution animation! Omegamon also got a... sort of Digivolution animation, but it still looked neat! I just wish it was even flashier since, you know, this is a Mega/Ultra level Jogress Digivolution. It deserves to be insanely flashy!

I know I've been saying "towards the end" a lot in these thoughts so far, but...  that’s because, sadly, you don’t really need to watch the first three episodes except for like, some exposition about Meicoomon. You know what the rest is? Meiko wondering and whining and mulling over what to do with Meicoomon. Over. And over. And over. If you weren't tired of it the last couple of movies, you will be absolutely sick of it by the end of “Coexistence”. I cannot stress how I tried so hard to give Meiko a chance. I tried to look at things from a sympathetic viewpoint. So many times, I was ready to just give up on her character, but I came into this movie thinking, "Okay, I'm going to try one more time. This might be where Meiko gets interesting. Maybe after all of this 'development', it will actually pay off into something really great."

That didn't happen. We got the same kind of thing with Meiko as we did with the rest of tri. The self-doubt, the crying, the blush stickers, the "Why was I chosen!?" subplot which was already done so much better with Joe, the pity party, attempting to take responsibility for things only to rinse and repeat everything I just mentioned--anything you have seen of Meiko in the last four movies of tri, you will see here (except maybe blatant fanservice) but it is done for three full episodes. It was tiring, it was frustrating, and I just wanted to see the movie focus on something besides Meiko for five minutes. I mean, we get some nice bits with the DigiDestined like them reaching out to their parents as they're unable to go home--but of course, most of these are silent and the one that gets the most attention is Meiko's.

I hate to go on and on and on about Meiko as much as I am, as I understand some people like her. However, I wouldn't be going on as much about Meiko as I am if tri wasn't focusing on her so much in the first place. My biggest issue with all of this focus on Meiko is that these attempts to "develop" her and make her more likable are far too little, too late. These are things that we should have been seeing in “Determination” and “Confession” for us to understand and connect with Meiko as a character. Instead, they wasted time with her being unrealistically socially awkward and fanservice-y, and then being outright whiny and insufferable in “Confession”. And the writers expect us, more than half-way into this series, to truly invest in her and care. This might have been doable at this point if it was in small increments with balance with the rest of the DigiDestined rather than focusing so hard on her because the writers realized they were running out of time, but that's not what they did.

There were things they could have done to make her more likable and human throughout this series. There was the potential of her father being an abusive asshole father to at least explain how shy and scared and shut-in she was, except he... wasn't really that terrible. He was just a workaholic who asked Meiko to let Meicoomon be experimented on, and... that was about it. Suddenly he started caring about her in this film like he woke up one morning and said "Oh shit, I'm a bad father." It was more like a parody of the asshole dad than an actual use of the trope, with little execution applied. There's also this tick Meiko has of having a Tottori accent, which was only used a record time of once in “Determination” to show she had this quirk and for the cast to giggle about. Suddenly, after a phone call with her father and crying about Meicoomon again, Meiko starts speaking with this accent, likely forgetting her habit of speaking so formally around everyone. This is honestly a minor thing, but it did give more flavor to her character and had she grown more comfortable to use it more often around the DigiDestined cast, I would find her character to be more believable. She just shifts around from being uptight and formal to suddenly open and willing to cry her whole heart out to them. There's no gradual development. What was also weird to me is that, with all of flashbacks Meiko had, we don't really hear her using this accent she supposedly has in her childhood (at least as far as I could tell?), so yeah... we also have inconsistency issues! Yay!

I also simply cannot bring myself to like Meicoomon either. I get it, I'm supposed to sympathize for this poor Digimon who was basically born as an outcast and technically did nothing wrong. But... She barely has a personality other than "Mei! Mei! Mei!" and how am I supposed to care about a Digimon who serves as nothing more than a plot device and flipflops from being a cutesy kitty to a devastating killing machine? This was something Digital Monster X-Evolution did infinitely better with Dorumon. Now, we do at least finally get an explanation as to why Meicoomon freaks out so much without Meiko and why she's so uncontrollable in the first place. And... it's one of the dumbest asspulls this series has had.

Meicoomon was basically born from a fragment of Apocalymon's data. I've seen some people point out some things foreshadowing this, but they're super filmsy to me and nowhere near convincing enough for me to really follow as something the writers really thought through. It feels like some lazy excuse the writers came up with to try to connect Meiko and Meicoomon back to the original Adventure series in some way, when really it just makes their whole existence feel all the more hamfisted. I've tried to avoid the "blatant self-insert Mary Sue OC" label with Meiko as much as I could with how overused it's been applied to her by so many people who watch tri, but if anything made her fall under this label, it would be this. She has a Digimon formed from a fragment of the original Big Bad's data? Seriously? Let that sink in. Did that really sound like a good idea on paper to someone? If that's not enough, this is literally recycling the plot of Ryo and Monodramon from the Tamer games on the Wonderswan, where Monodramon Jogress Digivolved with the Big Bad Millenniummon and ultimately became his partner after being reborn, which led to the Ryo we know with his berserk Cyberdramon from Digimon Tamers. Hell, Battle of Adventurers did the whole "leftover fragment of Apocalymon" thing a lot better. It's just shameful how lazy this whole thing is put together when the writers have been building up the plot for, what, five movies over the course of three years? I guess this also explains how Meicoomon was the special snowflake who wasn't affected by the Reboot at all, but... whatever. I barely even care at this point. Meicoomon and Meiko are special snowflakes and that's just how the writers are going to treat them.

What makes this special treatment of Meiko all the more frustrating is when you look at the DigiDestined constantly comforting her and acting like she's been with them for years, saying things like "We're with you because we're all DigiDestined!" and were even willing to depart from their own moral compasses (referring to Tai's willingness to kill Meicoomon as Meiko wishes when he just said in the previous episode that he didn't want to kill a friend) when... they're completely ignoring the Adventure 02 cast. I get it, some people are tired about people questioning where they are, but when the writers have been waving teases at the audience like showing them being "killed off" in the beginning, Gennai taking on the Digimon Kaiser disguise, Kari and T.K. being concerned for their whereabouts a record one time and bringing back the freaking Dark Ocean (because, you know, that went so well in Adventure 02!), you have to question the cast's lack of concern. Adventure 02 has not been de-canonized, or these little things wouldn't exist. So I hate how the Adventure cast is constantly catering towards Meiko's needs when they've maybe known her for a couple of months at best, but don't even show a wink of concern for the Adventure 02 cast who they have probably known for years (I imagine they kept some contact over time) and both T.K. and Kari went through a whole series of adventures with them. It really does make it feel like the cast are written in a sort of bad self-insert fanfic whenever Meiko has any sort of presence as if the world revolves around her.

Once again, I get that a lot of my problems surround Meiko and Meicoomon, but the problem with this movie is how freaking heavily it focuses on them. A lot of this movie before the last episode is simple padding like the cast trying to get back to the real world, telling ghost stories and having other cutesy moments. I didn't hate all of these, but when we're getting so close to the end... I want this time being spent on the writers finally tying up loose ends. There's one movie left, and yet here they are continuing to add even more questions to the plot and not enough answers and then otherwise wasting time with things that do not answer these issues. I am not against filler--I was fine with most of “Determination”'s because it was the beginning of the series, things were still rolling in, and there were still increments of development happening here and there (Mimi's narcissism and Joe's questioning of his identity as a DigiDestined). But this late in the series, it's time to cut that down and focus on ending the story. Instead, “Coexistence” does a whole lot of nothing with terrible pacing issues, retreading on things we already know/are tired of hearing about, and just adding more instead of answering more. The writers have dug themselves in a big hole and bit off more than they could chew, and it is the most apparent in this movie.

So I must hate this movie then, right? Actually, no. Even though I think three of the four episodes are tough to sit through, with only cute moments to salvage them, the fourth episode was good and finally gave me what I was hoping for in this movie.

Because it's a minor thing, yes, Himekawa had some of her insanity breakdown. Not as much as I wanted, but I still ate up the nonsense she was saying and... she got a gun out of nowhere? What? When? How? I don't know, but it's hilarious. I swear, she's ready to kill someone who speaks a word to her. What's even weirder is that the guns she has changes between scenes. One moment, she as a BFG or some sort of grenade launcher, the next she had a handgun. What, did she find some Weapon Shop in a village somewhere? I have no idea where she's going or what she's going to do since she ended up in the Dark Ocean, but I hope if she shows up, she's just off the walls laughing like a maniac bonkers when we see her next. Insane Himekawa is the best Himekawa.

We also get a little bit of the OG!DigiDestined, like a shot with Nishijima's partner Bearmon. Dawwwwww!

But the best parts are when this movie finally decides to get to the focus I was personally waiting for in this movie--Kari Kamiya. While unfortunately it got nowhere near as much focus as I wanted (because apparently a certain other character really needed it more for some reason...), what we got was damn good. I love that Kari, with all of the times she's been possessed by Homeostasis, finally stood up to a fucking deity of worlds. She wasn't taking any of that shit, and she stood up for it. And I love that if tri has done anything, it's given Kari far more character than Adventure or Adventure 02 ever did. While she isn't forceful or rude, she does not take shit when people spew things she can't possibly bring herself to agree with. She has a firm ground, and she's willing to stand on it. Much like the scene where she talked some sense into Joe in "Determination", it was damn good to see.

And then there was her breakdown. Man, what a breakdown. While we all know Tai isn't really dead (if the Adventure 02 epilogue doesn't count to you, he's on the freaking poster of the next tri movie--he's not dead guys), there was no better way to break her. We've seen that Tai and Kari are close like in some bits of the Dark Masters arc in the original Digimon Adventure, so what else could they take from her but what's most important to her? And the way she just breaks is incredible to watch. Dead silence. Disbelief. Broken sentences. She is in such despair of Tai being gone that she just wants the rest of the world gone. While I wish Gatomon had been a little more involved, with the Dark Digivolution just sort of... happening, it was still a damn good lead-up. But man, is it a terrifying one.

While my personal favorite Dark Digivolution moments still go to Takato and Guilmon and Marcus and his Agumon, Gatomon to Ophanimon Falldown Mode and then Jogress Digivolving with Raguelmon to... whatever terrifying Evangelion experiment they combined into, was just horrifying, down to the body horror. It gives the whole "Coexistence" title double meaning (along with the whole coexistence of the Real and Digital Worlds), and just... seriously, look at that thing! If that's not a destroyer of worlds, I don't know what is! And it's basically a living embodiment of Kari's will and feelings after seeing her dear brother "die" before her eyes. Even after this whole thing happens, she's just a living shell just sitting there. You can really see just how broken she is after that.

While I still want to see more of Kari breaking, like how she'll deal with this whole situation and cope with her brother's "death" until he returns, it was still just good to see her develop in some way. And I will say, yeah, the cliffhanger is pretty dirty when the whole movie felt like a set-up for the last one while still doing a lot of nothing until the end. "Confession"'s cliffhanger, while absolutely painful, still felt more genuine than "Coexistence"'s just being there for the sake of set-up. And I think part of the reason it's so frustrating is because that... again, this movie didn't do a lot, so leaving it at that just when it was starting to finally get moving is aggravating.

This is still easily the weakest entry in the Digimon Adventure tri series though. And while it was frustrating at many moments, I would still call it... okay. I think it could have been even worse. The last episode did make it worth a watch, but the rest did make me want to bash my head into a wall at times. At this point, there's no way tri will be able to possibly tie all of its loose ends in a satisfying way. Hell, we may never even get an answer for things like the Digimon's memories or the Adventure 02 cast (though I certainly hope we do). But there is some good set-up here... So if we can at least get some answers, some awesome fights, and good character development and interaction, I am going to look forward to seeing Our Future, though with some optimistic skepticism. Here's hoping, to what little tri has left and how much going against it... that it pleasantly surprises us somehow.

[jolteonjordansh]

Thoughts on Kurata Arc

We got a doozy, guys. I have no idea how to start this other than oh God. Lots of changes to talk about, lots of characters, and lots of opinions. But in one sentence: Digimon Savers did but also didn’t go in some of the directions I expected it to and I’m kind of blindsided by it. 

Let’s deal with this below the break.

I can’t believe how many risks Digimon Savers took in a single arc that it could have screwed up so easily. I was so ready to get so irritated with this series if they screwed up so many specific and particular things, but they managed to nail it in a way that made things work miraculously.

So there's a second opening in this arc! Digimon has never done a second opening before, but it's a Koji Wada opening! And I'm so torn because both the first opening and this one, Hirari, are super catchy and great. Seriously, I don't think I can pick between the two. But regardless, go listen to Hirari. Any Koji Wada song is worth your time.

Anyway, I'm ready to tear Kurata apart, but let me try to keep some order in this post. I do like how this series goes between the Digital World and Real World, but it's not as convenient as it was in Digimon Adventure 02 and there is some danger to it. This is especially an issue when Kurata destroys the DATS headquarters and the only Digital Gate the cast had there. Thankfully, there is a Digital Gate in the leftover basement of Keenan's parents. Naturally, they're against seeing Keenan go to the Digital World with the rest of the cast after finally seeing him again, but they eventually agree to let him go. Unfortunately like Adventure 02, this show felt the need to do a set of comedy antagonists. While I do think Arukinemon and Mummymon had some merit and humor, Savers' comedy trio... doesn't quite catch my interest.

Kouki, Nanami and Ivan are examples of people Kurata takes advantage of, and I can say I like that much of their characters. Nanami is vain and wanted more in her life and knowledge, and Ivan worked with Kurata to get money for his siblings. But this is about as much depth as they get. Nanami is mostly fanservice with boob jiggle physics, and Ivan is a really annoying comic relief character who wants to bone every girl he sees. There's also Kouki, who basically serves as Marcus' rival in that they both want to punch the shit out of each other, but that's it. There's no reason for him to offer himself for Kurata's research other than he wants to fight things and feel powerful. I guess you could argue this was part of the reason Marcus joined DATS, but he also joined them to be Agumon's partner, so there is some depth for him. I can't help but admit that these three being humans fused with Digimon is actually Frontier done right to an extent. Silly nonetheless, but there's some sick cruelty behind it that characterizes it as part of Kurata's insanity and sadist nature. If not Frontier done better, it certainly feels like a Take That to Digimon Frontier. The trio of dumb does prove to be strong adversaries if anything, supposedly killing Richard as the main cast escapes to the Digital World, but I don't think Richard's dead yet. I just don't think he would die that easily and to such loser characters. Plus, they can't get rid of my adorable Kudamon that Digivolves to this badass!

The main three characters also manage to achieve Mega level almost simultaneously. They have to train with BanchoLeomon who I know is going to die too, and this somehow fixes their Digivices after breaking them from a sudden surge of power in their last fight with the trio of dumb. I do appreciate how Marcus' achievement to Digivolution to Mega with Agumon was done since he fought hard the entire time in BanchoLeomon's dojo, but Thomas and Yoshino's felt sort of sudden. Hell, Yoshino didn't even fight the wooden dolls that BanchoLeomon had. They just made it work. I'm glad they do all achieve Mega level at least, but I will agree what does bother me a little bit is that the development of characters doesn't quite feel balanced. It's not to a point that it ruins any of the characters, but I do feel the lack of balance. You can really feel this for Keenan and Falcomon a bit in this arc, who don't achieve Mega level until the very end of the arc because they leave to do their own things in the Digital World and don't get the same experience as the other three. Even then, their excuse to leave was kind of flimsy at best. But again, not enough to ruin any of these characters for me.

I am glad we get to know the mysterious old man more--Homer Yushima. The main group ends up running into him and he does provide a funny supportive role, and his partner Kamemon is a funny partner with his odd shyness. I would classify him as a badass old man, but he doesn't really do anything really kickass. He's just there to be a cool old guy and be quirky. The supporting cast, in general, is pretty good, like Miki and Megumi actually participating (even if they are mostly back-up) and Marcus' mother and sister. There's a couple of Digimon on the "holy capital", ElDoradimon, but most of them really don't mean or do anything and one of them, Baromon, has about as dumb of a death as Seraphimon's in Frontier. But other than the supporting cast, some big changes happen in the main cast within this arc, and the writers could have totally screwed this up so easily.

In the midst of the Digital World part of this arc, Thomas gets pointed out ways he may be inferior to Marcus or even similar to him but not as good. This starts to set up the potential rival mini-arc, kind of like with Tai and Matt in Digimon Adventure, and this really started to irk me. I did not want to see Digimon Savers copy this plot point of Digimon Adventure, especially since Marcus and Thomas already had their fight in the beginning of the show and generally recovered from it. It definitely comes across this way, especially when Thomas decides to "join forces" with Kurata and fights Marcus for the sake of his surprise younger sister's health. It really frustrated me, but thankfully Digimon Savers somehow managed to land right on its feet and make this whole elaborate plot that shows just how clever Thomas really is, when initially it made him look really stupid.

The whole thing comes across as Thomas letting his emotions take over his intellect, between his supposed "grudge" against Marcus and his love for his younger sister, but no. Kurata is just a really clever asshole who put Thomas in a terrible position by having a bomb on Relena and having Thomas figure it out, so he knows fighting against Kurata would only end up getting Relena hurt. But he also makes his whole non-existent grudge against Marcus all the more convincing. And it's convincing all the way to the very end, down to Thomas creating a faulty device for Kurata to control Belphemon and to agree to Relena's surgery to do a human to Digimon fusion until the very end and utilizing his actual doctor title. It's here we also see Thomas kind of has an asshole dad because he was neglectful of him and his mother, but still loves Relena. It's still a little confusing and I'm hoping we get some depth on that.

This whole "betrayal" also leads to the inevitable Dark Digivolution of the series, which I had honestly forgotten about because I was becoming so immersed into it. It's all triggered by Marcus' anger towards Thomas for seeming to betray him, and the raw anger of his DigiSoul transforms ShineGreymon to his Dark Digivolution, ShineGreymon Ruin Mode. It actually works really well with the whole theme of the soul in Digimon Savers and Marcus' negative emotions are personified really well into ShineGreymon Ruin Mode, who is overcome with so much of Marcus' negative emotions that he just continues to rampage until he will destroy himself. Marcus is thankfully able to stop this... but at the cost of ShineGreymon reducing to an egg once more. This does lead to a good character arc of Marcus having to understand how to control his raw emotions and deal with the despair of losing Agumon--especially since it's speculated that all Digimon who are reduced to DigiEggs lose their memories. Lucky for Marcus, this doesn't happen, but they do a kind of funny fake-out with it that just fits Marcus' relationship with Agumon. Their reunion is honestly pretty emotional, as silly of moments as it has, and it just really solidifies how much more I like Marcus and his Agumon. Also, the way Marcus carries around the egg towards the final fight is weirdly adorable.

And now, I can finally talk about Kurata. Ho. Ly. Fuck. I hate this guy. Everyone hates this guy. He's the actual definition of a douchebag. No, seriously, if you look it up in the dictionary, you'll see his picture there. He's despicable in every way possible. He's a spineless coward. He takes advantage of people's emotions and fears. He's a liar who claims he's out to do one thing like destroy the Digital World for the safety of the Real World (even though that was wrong to begin with), then he decides "Fuck it, let me rule both worlds!". He kills hundreds of Digimon for their life energy, all to revive one of the Seven Great Demon Lords, Belphemon, without a care in the world for Digimon or even people. Seriously, he's despicable in every way and is just an awful human being. Thankfully Thomas was smart enough to sabotage part of this plan, but ironically Kurata tries to force this to work by transforming himself into data and basically fuses with Belphemon to turn him into the destructive beast he wanted to control. This eventually bites him in the ass as Belphemon's consciousness takes over Kurata's... only for Kurata to come back and create this ugly abomination. Thankfully, he does get his just desserts when he gets exactly what I wanted--Marcus and ShineGreymon punching him straight in the fucking face.

During the fight with Belphemon, Falcomon does get to achieve his Mega level--Ravemon, who's honestly a neat looking bird samurai. On that note, I should talk about the other Mega level Digimon. ShineGreymon is a neat take on the Greymon line, and I think I prefer it over WarGreymon. He's definitely not Gallantmon, but pretty neat. MirageGaogamon is probably my favorite of the Mega levels here, having a sort of knight theme to him, maybe mixed with a ninja theme considering how fast he is. As for Rosemon, she's... well, Rosemon. She's about the same as I would say about Rosemon when watching Digimon Adventure tri. I'll give credit that generally they've avoided doing jiggle physics with her (though they did some with Lotusmon, but Evil is Sexy). There's a couple of bits of fanservice like ass shots, but nowhere near as bad as... Ugh... Fairymon. There's also an advanced form called the Burst Mode, and ShineGreymon manages to achieve ShineGreymon Burst Mode, and it looks even better. Again, it's a really awesome design for the Greymon line. I just hope that the other three Megas get Burst Modes too, but I won't be surprised if they don't necessarily.

Still, the final fight in this arc is so freaking satisfying. Again, Kurata getting his punch to the face was something I was clamoring for since the end of the Worlds Conflict arc. It feels like a truly challenging fight with high stakes, and it's probably my favorite fight in Savers so far. While Kurata's fate isn't made clear in the very end, my mind tells me he's either dead or stuck in limbo in space-time. So either way, he suffers. And that's good. Because Kurata sucks. I can say without a doubt in my mind that he's the worst Digimon villain--not from a writing standpoint, but as a human being. He's the cruelest, most manipulative, jerkish villain I've seen in these series. And if the next arc somehow changes that, I'll be shocked.

This arc overall was really good. Once again, Digimon Savers continues the trend of getting better as it goes just like Digimon Tamers. I don't know how it can get better in 10 episodes, but I'm willing to let Digimon Savers try to convince me if they can execute things as well as they did in this arc where they could have screwed up so easily. It looks like with this whole rip in space-time that's colliding the worlds, traveling between the Real World and Digital World might have more freedom? I'm curious to see how it goes.

But before I can close this out and move on to the last arc of Digimon Savers... Surprise! Digimon Savers has a movie! Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!!. This movie isn't canon, and you should only watch it until after this arc because it spoils ShineGreymon Burst Mode. You may be wondering why I don't have a separate final thoughts post on this movie. Well... That's because this movie kind of sucks. In fact, it's probably the worst Digimon movie of them all. Yes, worse than Hurricane Landing!!/Transcendent Evolution!! after all of the hell I've given that movie. Not to mention, this movie is only a mere 20 minutes long. So yeah, it doesn't deserve its own post.

One of the worst parts of this movie is that the human characters are barely even in this movie. There's just Marcus. No Thomas. No Yoshino. Not even any Keenan or even Falcomon. The movie just focuses on the three main Digimon--Agumon, Gaomon and Lalamon. But even then, Gaomon seems kind of out of character as apparently the humans are trapped in these weird cocoons, but he tells Agumon to give up hope on them ever waking up. Seriously Gaomon? Aren't you the loyal one in this group? Why would you not have faith in Thomas or even try to help him? It just comes off as really out of character.

But then the movie spends five minutes--a quarter of its runtime--on a really clumsy fight scene that doesn't do anything for the "plot" as the three Digimon try to save this little girl. But she's not a little girl! She's actually a Digimon named... Rhythm, and not something like Rhythmmon? Yeah, okay, I get it Digimon. You wanted your loli bait for the movie. Fine. Do whatever Japan. You're just trying to beat around the bush with the "B-B-But she's actually a Digimon!!!!!" excuse like with Fairymon, but whatever. They don't do anything fanservice-y with her at least, but the problem with Rhythm is she’s just... really boring. With the 20 minutes this movie has, they do nothing to really give her a character or give us a reason to care for her other than she got in trouble and the Digimon want to help her. She's just being chased by the Digimon in charge of all of the destruction in this movie, Argomon, for... reasons. They don't really explain. But Argomon's motives to dominate the world is... he's mad at humans for destroying the environment. Oh come the fuck on! A freaking environmental message!? Even the Pokémon Shaymin movie wasn't this transparent about the message! The West always sucked with environmental movies like Ferngully and Once Upon a Forest! Why are you trying this in 2006!?

So yes, this is a dumb movie with a dumb premise, dumb plot, and does nothing interesting. The Digimon are basically just running away constantly being unable to Digivolve due to not having their human partners, making it really boring until Marcus comes in last minute and Digivolves Agumon to ShineGreymon Burst Mode, but that's it. Even main antagonist Argomon is boring because his designs are very reminiscent of Diablomon and he lacks any originality. It's just a bland waste of time. Honestly, this movie has just two redeeming factors.

One is the animation. It's really, really good. Nothing quite as revolutionary and timeless as Our War Game!, but it's still really nice to look at. The fight scenes look great and there's some really fluid animation with nice shading. But what sucks is that it was wasted on this movie and not something better. There aren't any Digivolution animations (though I'm glad they didn't do the shitty cropping from Runaway Locomon), but I gotta say that ShineGreymon and the effects on him just look awesome. I really loved looking at it. But again, it's just a shame this budget was wasted on this. I wish they had just done a special episode with this, but even this movie is basically just a bad episode of the show. It's just bland and a waste of time. The other redeeming factor, which is related to animation, is that this movie has bloopers in the credits oddly enough. It's silly, but it's funny and I like it. I don't see a lot of 2D animated films do bloopers so I can appreciate Digimon doing something fun and lighthearted here. I just wish I didn't find the bloopers better than this whole 20 minute movie. It's just a waste of time, and I can't recommend watching it unless you really like Digimon and want to see some pretty animation.

So yeah, the Kurata arc was great. The Digimon Savers movie sucked. But despite that, I really hope to see that the final arc of Digimon Savers is great and that it makes watching this show all the more worth it. Ten episodes left, let's see how much they can do in that time.

[jolteonjordansh]

Thoughts on Battle of Adventurers

So Digimon Tamers had a movie! I mean, all of the series so far have had a movie. Adventure just had one at the end of its run, while Adventure 02 had a non-canon one smack in the middle and an actual canon movie at the end. Tamers has its own neat little side story smack in the middle of it, so I went ahead and watched it.

If anyone’s wondering: I watched this movie after reaching episode 21. So the reason I’m writing about this before writing my thoughts on the second arc is because... I’m not done with the second arc yet. But I’ll be done with it pretty soon after. So how is this movie?

I remember when I wrote about my thoughts on Hurricane Landing/Transcendent Evolution that while it wasn’t an awful film, it was definitely questionable in its existence. But one of the things I did commend the film for was its sense of scale and how it really felt like a big adventure.

Battle of Adventurers also manages to capture this atmosphere as well, though in its own way and while also managing to be an interesting, fun, coherent film. It kind of feels like it takes some of the aspects of what made the other Digimon films good and turned it into its own thing--a similar set-up of Our War Game!, the grand adventure of Hurricane Landing/Transcendent Evolution and the teamwork of Diablomon Strikes Back. Maybe that sounds like a forced metaphor, but hear me out.

From what I can tell, Battle of Adventurers is the first material to establish the multiverse in Digimon, with Omegamon (yes, our favorite Omegamon consisting of Tai’s Agumon and Matt’s Gabumon) confronting a manifestation of the remnants of Apocalymon known as Mephistomon. Mephistomon escapes to the Tamers’ universe, and Omegamon cannot pursue him and only travel through digital space. Whether that means there’s separate Digital Worlds in these universes or that they’re one universe, or that Omegamon can universe-hop through Digital Worlds but not “real worlds”, I’m not sure. They don’t really clarify, but it’s not a particularly big deal.

Now, this could have been really cool if Tai and Matt were fighting along Omegamon (ala Our War Game!) and could have actually universe-hopped to help the tamers confront Mephistomon and defeat him. But that unfortunately didn’t happen and again, the whole multiverse thing wasn’t the focus here. Then again, Xros Wars/Fusion tried to do this kind of thing too and from what I understand that didn’t go too well, so...

But onto the main plot. The whole big adventure feel I was going on about goes to mostly Takato going on a summer trip, while Henry goes on his own adventure to some ruins. Rika... stays in Tokyo, because I guess someone had to. It’s been pretty clear in the times Rika has been with her mother that she’s not quite the fond traveler, at least that’s the impression I get. Unfortunately, we really don’t get to see much of what Henry does--which is odd since they’re kinda specific as to what kind of place he goes to. The biggest adventure element comes from Takato and Guilmon, who visit an island with Takato’s cousin Kai.

Maybe it’s not quite as big as the Adventure 02 DigiDestined traveling across America and I could totally be having a personal aesthetic preference here, but I really liked the time Takato ended up spending on the island with Guilmon. The scenery looked really nice and I loved some of the swimming and underwater sequences, which comes with an honestly really nice insert song to boot. Maybe some people found the beginning boring, but I honestly found it really nice, calming and just a good way to ease into the movie by not forcing our protagonists into a fight immediately and just have the Tamers, friends and Digimon having a nice time.

When the fights do start though, they really go by fast. At times, I almost felt they were a tad too fast. There were actually quite a few neat looking Digimon throughout the movie--like Tylomon, Pteramon, Archelomon and Baromon (hello Ganon)--but most of if not all don’t even get scanned or name dropped. It left me thinking “Ooh, what’s this Digimon? What is it capable of--HEY! WAIT! Don’t kill it! You didn’t even tell me what it was called!”. With how many fights there were, I guess some of them did require fast-pacing, and that didn’t even make them bad either. They still looked good and were fun to watch. I think my only grievance is when a Divermon fell through the hut roof and Kai’s grandpa challenged it, he didn’t wipe the floor with it downright Rafiki style. Come on, you know that would have been hilarious!

In regards to the animation, I found it mostly pretty standard. It wasn’t bad, but nothing that wowed me like Our War Game!. There were still some scenes that looked nice (the aforementioned swimming scene and some of the scenes in Digital Space), and honestly one of the oddest things was how well animated the V-Pet was. Granted, it also wasn’t anything mindblowing, but it was still surprisingly smooth for something that’s basically a BonziBUDDY clone. It was certainly a few levels over the actual show, being in widescreen, having nice pastel colors and shading. Still, one weird animation moment was having the Digimon Digivolve split screen, but only having WarGrowlmon’s in his usual CG while Rapidmon and Taomon were traditionally animated. And then the animators decided to cut and paste Rapidmon and Taomon with CG WarGrowlmon--it just really sticks out like a sore thumb.

The plot of the film was pretty nice, not only setting out to be an adventure but also a pretty good story about loss. I’ll be straightforward: as someone who lost her best four-legged friend six months ago, this one was a hard film to watch that hit really close to home. It made relating to Minami effective without feeling cheap, especially with the theme of irreplaceable companions. That alone worked pretty well with Takato, as a sensitive young boy who fears the idea of ever losing his Digimon partner. 

I think something I wish they could have done was had Minami with Seasarmon de-Digivolved to Labramon, considering Labramon’s striking similar appearance to her dog Mei (and I mean, how can you not adore a Digimon this cute!?). It would have been interesting to continue the theme of Mei being an irreplaceable friend to Minami, who she felt responsible for, and having to struggle with Labramon for looking so much like Mei yet--in Minami’s eyes--was not Mei. This could have also fleshed out Labramon/Seasarmon a bit more for dealing with the hardships of being rejected despite his loyalty. But hey, his sheer loyalty was really strong and touching. I can say it was downright cruel of the writers to make poor Minami lose her dog not once, but twice. Again, this hit a pretty personal spot for me that put me in tears yet again.

I still wish the movie could have done a little more with tying into the Adventure universe, but it’s nothing I’d knock it for. Even if it made Omegamon kind of a plot device to help bring Henry and Rika in to help defeat Mephistomon. Regarding Mephistomon, while he isn’t the most interesting Digimon antagonist, his origins were neat (though not really fleshed out) and he could be pretty cunning. I certainly wasn’t expecting him to be able to disguise himself as a human being to get his way, and his Digivolution to Gulfmon did give a sense of helplessness. One thing I couldn’t help but find kind of funny was his reaction to hearing Omegamon when he helped bring in Henry, Rika and their Digimon. His “oh shit it’s Omegamon!” reaction was just priceless to me, but I enjoy villains who think they’ve won only to have the one person or thing they fear come in and completely change their tune... even if it was rather brief. Still, his utilization of ordering around other Digimon, even willing to fire freaking laser beams at Minami to threaten her father was pretty diabolical.

I will say the movie actually did stress me out with some of its sense of danger, having technology shut down and fail. It is similar to Our War Game! in that way as to how Diablomon took control of things like nuclear missiles. Still, just showing me any potential of a plane being in danger of crashing or getting destroyed with passengers inside absolutely strains me. It’s a personal and psychological thing, but still showed how threatening the infection of the V-Pets was.

I do think this movie definitely had one of my favorite battles of the series so far with Mephistomon/Gulfmon towards the end. Not my absolute favorite yet, but pretty high up there--especially with the combined Trinity Burst attack. I won’t deny that I’m a huge sucker for combo attacks (you can probably blame Tales of Symphonia’s Unison Attack mechanic for that). I’m only sad to know that Trinity Burst is never utilized in the series ever again. Seriously, it’s a powerful combo attack, why wouldn’t you use that more!?

Other than that, the movie ends kind of abruptly. Even though I have a couple of minor complaints about it, they are still minor at best and most of them don’t distract from the fun, joy and painful feels I got out of this movie. As I said, it takes a lot of elements of what made the past Digimon films good and did its own thing. And I really appreciate it as a fun side story. I’m not sure if I have a favorite Digimon film so far (I’m torn between Our War Game!, Diablomon Strikes Back and this one), but I think of all of them, Battle of Adventurers is the most balanced in every aspect. For all of the little problems it has, all of the good is just really pleasant and so worth watching. And hey, even if the ending was abrupt, it had a nice ending song by AiM!

So honestly, this was a great Digimon film for all of the good stuff it has, and I could definitely see myself watching it again for how nice it was. It’s a great side story for the Digimon Tamers series.