#theyre not major characters in my story (theyre involved in a monster of the week plotline)

[tart-miano]

introducing the only ocs i have currently that have a healthy, non-toxic romantic relationship 🙃

[bigmeandragonlady]

WELL IF YOU INSIST ... my turn to go a little insane with reaching. they really did layer a lot of symbolism onto the green boy - i didn't miss the little alchemical symbol for earth they worked into his design, the really big and obvious triple goddess belt buckle, the snake/8 or infinity/ouroboros theme, association w nature/plants and whats under the streets (the little tree peeking out of the sewer? or whatever it is in the bg mainly used for the street his bars on caught my eye), or the way they keep showing him in churches and how the. little white thing over his shirt makes it look a bit like a reversed clerical collar. the (maybe) ritual knife and the little knife earring with one of two red points on his design. gold and its connotations of perfection in alchemy (which is the metal he and kuras share while everyone else is silver 🤔🤔). white lilies being a funeral flower and also about faith and rebirth. just a lot of things pointing to distinct faces/masks + wisdom/knowledge + cycles/death/breaking cycles/rebirth. given one of the aspects of the triple goddess is the nymph/matron and how he seems to have a reputation for flings but everyone else important hates him in a sense/he doesnt seem to have any actual *close* relationships it seems to point to maaayyybe an aspect of his story is breaking self destructive interpersonal habits (i certainly expect a breaking of cycles in some sense, though maybe its just life+death if the idea about him being undead is right. and a lot of things seemingly point to that right now lol!)

since the game seems like it might draw a lot on alchemy, given one of the bgs, kuras, leander and mhin all are involved with it ahve have some kind of alchemical symbolism going on one way or another, other alchemy symbols might be interesting to think about irt them, especially the green lion devouring the sun for leander, which is basically a metaphor for how aqua regia dissolves gold. all of THIS bit is absolutely just my nerd ass reaching, but i think its also neat how each of the five characters could be applied to one of the major alchemical colors (green, black, white, red, gold). green is obviously leander but the rest could be fought over

his thing with vere especially interests me since it seems like something went down there that went REALLY bad. like we know leander has a savior complex (evident enough in what we see in game but also called out by name in the promo material) and thinks vere is gorgeous, he must have projected some damsel in distress shit onto him that vere didn't like but vere despite his bluster seems (at least in the day we know him) pretty bad at setting concrete boundaries (he always dances around it and keeps it vague before snapping! going 'you'll know if' 'if i didnt want you to i wouldnt let you' saying one question then letting you get multiple in before putting his foot down etc etc but i played a week ago i might be misremembering). despite it going bad leander seems to still think hes on okay terms with vere, and i think its interesting how before the twenty questions he asks you your opinion on the others, and if you're too negative he talks them all up (he apparently thinks theyre his friends after all!) and if you're too positive he warns you about how dangerous they are (makes sense given they. are. and he might feel guilty about letting you go wandering in a town known for its monsters alone). ive seen people trying to spin that as manipulative of him but currently to me it more just reads like trying to defend his friends vs trying to look out for you. but maybe i am just colorblind!

speakingof the questions though given the whole 'information is currency' thing and the fact you have an option to end the questions early i wonder if theyre a variable that will have an affect later... you ask too many questions there, you accrue some sort of debt

I DIDNT MEAN TO WRITE THIS MUCH ABOUT JUST HIM LMAO this is what i mean when i say it got me. im thinking thoughts. i want to know what his problem is so bad. anyway to end not JUST talking about him i like how ais' bracelet vaguely looks like a shimenawa, and i like how specifically its on the arm that doesnt have the tentacle 'tattoo' 🤔 also something i like about the flowers they gave them all is leander's is white lily but they gave ais the spider lily. extremely toxic, and a notorious symbol of the afterlife growing along the shores of a river that connects it to ours, but also like very associated w yanderes by anime lmao which seems to run contrary to what we've seen of him so far. i also think its fun here that part of its japanese name, higan, means the far shore. i think its connotations of the dead + remembering of the dead (since it blooms around the time of ohigan) feels like it fits with how the people who drink from the spring are technically preserved and remembered inside tha groupmind

the flower choices are very fun since only leander, ais and vere got toxic plants... kuras got a medicinal one and mhin got one with bitter but technically edible berries. alright the last thing ive wanted to mention to someone is that to treat us at the start it's obvious kuras would have had to touch our hands/arms, even if only accidentally, given we wake up without a shirt or bandages, but we never are given the chance to realize that and that he's unaffected too. actually we aren't told how we got to the clinic, are we? maybe im just forgetting. did he just happen to walk out there and see us, did another named character, was it known about or a complete accident to discover? id talk about my ideas for the curse but i didnt mean to send you five paragraphssss

OK... leaves this essay in ur inbox and runs. ty for your time, can you tell youre the first person ive been able to talk about this game to lmfao

hey Leander how about we find out what the fuck your deal is over dinner some time.

No, but i dig the amount of symbolism the team has put in these characters. Gives stuff to chew on while waiting and im a slut for symbolism.

I can see why Leander is like this with Vere, everyone seems to have issues with the Senobium and Vere is literally and metaphorically tied to their will. having such an old and powerful (dangerous) being would pull at his savior complex imo, regardless of what may have happened between them. (can you imagine leander saying/trying to break the enchantment on vere's collar, failling, and vere holding a grudge b/c he seems like the type)

Leander has some odd relationships imo, even compared to the others. he's got a real friends with everyone but is emotionally distant + avoid conflict (as seen repeatedly in the bar) vibe. he's one of the cast who's been around the city the longest (after vere and kuras) and i've been wondering why he targets Ais specifically with murder attempts. is it just 'i hate your vibe, you wanna make out after i poison you a few times?' is it really just the groupmind? In the oracle bg you can feel/hear something under the earth as you near the seaspring and i wonder if leader's thing (plants growing out of the grates + the silent crypt that keeps getting mentioned + 'as above so below' on the hound flyers) isn't kind of competing with it, creating a rivalry in that way. i'm dying to know what the fuck their deal is.

Which kind of leads into why i think Mhin is so so hostile with Ais: we know Mhin has some weird curse of their own involving a fucked up bird thing and i wonder if that entity is causing friction with Ocdeus. b/c mhin and vere's dynamic is pretty different, meaning it's not just a monster thing.

then again Ais might be lying to us about the whole 'for no reason' thing and we have no idea what happened between the five of them before we got there.

I always kind of assumed Kuras had gloves on while dealing with us since he's a (hopefully, maybe) a responsible doctor. but initially when he finds us? does he know more then he's pretending to with our curse? does it effect divine beings??? i need to know

thank you for the asks! you are also the first person I've talked to about this game lol

[thefloatingstone]

In 2012 I did not think I’d be able to make this list as I was convinced anime was on a permanent decline towards nothing but trash, but I am so happy that has changed! And so I give you a quick list of;

Favourite Anime made in the last 4 years!

Mob Psycho 100 (2016)

A no brainer, really. With a 2nd Season having JUST premiered earlier this week, MP100 is easily one of not only best LOOKING animes in a very very long time, but also one with an extremely strong empathetic message that’s completely opposite to most shounen anime. The theme of “having outrageous powers doesn’t make you any more or less special and important than any other human being” and how all the villains in the show are people, either super powered or not, who believe themselves “more important” than others is at the heart of its story. And our protagonist who is a person with horrifically strong powers, but who is trying to develop as a human being, and finds himself to be a rather emotionally brittle person who relies very heavily on others for emotional support. As well as focusing on the people willing to grant him that. It’s got some strong influential roots in the Earthbound and Mother 3 games and despite never saying anything along those lines, I can bet you anything the original Mangaka, ONE, drew heavy inspiration from their tone and presentation, as well as emotional core despite the oftentimes wacky setting.

The anime should also not be overlooked for its incredible Sakuga sequences, as well as using mixed media in its animation from pencil drawings, to paint of glass, to charcoal to sand, cementing it as easily one of the most visually interesting and ambitious shows in the last decade or so

Made in Abyss (2017)

An anime that understands concepts of Scope and Scale and manages to bring what is normally reserved for feature films to an episodic storyline. Made in Abyss’ entire theme and story is that of exploration of the unknown and everything in this anime’s power is honed to bring across that feeling. Its art direction headed by Osamu Masuyama whose previous work include working on the background art for both Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, is painstakingly rendered to bring as much gravitas to the setting as possible, aided by the soundtrack written by Kevin Penkin which is just as much atmospheric as it is musical in nature. Every ounce of talent is focused on making Made in Abyss’ world, culture and characters feel solid and real. And unlike other anime with cutesy art styles but dark subject matter, Made in Abyss’ darker tone is established right in the first episode and gradually builds to its first season’s climax, rather than blindside its audience out of nowhere.

I sincerely cannot sing this show’s praises enough.

It also doesn’t hurt that the animation itself is fluid and lively.

Re:Creators (2017)

When I gave this to an animator friend of mine, one who is NOT as big a weeb as I am, he referred to it as “if Ready Player One actually knew what it was doing.” Re:Creators is one of a trend of some anime where the narrative is extremely meta in nature, but rather than use this as a form of parody, Re:Creators instead focuses itself on using its meta storytelling to shine a light on Japanese popular media as a whole, both from the side of the creators who MAKE such things, as well as the side of the fans and not only their response to media, but their interpretation and addition to popular media. And unlike the more critical approach several horror anime have taken in the past, Re:Creators also shows the positive effect stories in the form of anime, video games, manga etc both on those who read it as well as those who create it. And show how fan creations and their responses and reaction to media are just as important and enriching to works like this as the very people who create them.

It’s also one of the first shows from any country that correctly portrays what online fan culture is like. Both good AND bad.

Erased (2016)

HOO BOY. The Big Guns. Most mainstream anime set in a modern setting inevitably seem to involve high school or at least characters who are high school aged. Erased, however, deals with a protagonist who is 28 years old. Due to time travel shenanigans, he is transported back to 1989 when he was 11 years old growing up in Hokaido. So already, this anime is complete skewing the generic setting for stories of its type, further hammered in by the fact that the show has no romantic subplot in it. There might be a smidge of something like “preteen romantic feelings” among the children but as far as “female hero the protag is going to fall in love with at the end” goes? Yeah there’s none of that.

Erased is an extremely dark anime, but not in the way Made in Abyss is dark. Whereas Abyss’ dark tone comes from things like getting eaten by monsters and body horror caused by the Abyss’ curse, the dark theme of Erased on the other hand is much more horrifying as it comes from “reality”. And it’s because of this I WILL have to warn people about its plot points because it WILL and DOES get uncomfortable.

The plot of Erased is our 28 year old protagonist gets hurled back in time to when he was 11 years old in Hokaido, as I said. In the winter of 1989 there were a string of child abductions and murders, and it’s up to our main character, again in his 11 year old body, to solve these crimes to prevent a tragedy in modern day. Not only does the show deal with the very uncomfortable topic of child abduction and murder, but a MASSIVE part of the plot revolves around the would be murder victim, Hinazaki Kayo, who is living with her physically abusive mother. And unlike shows like “Magical Girl SITE”, the abuse is not shown as “suffer porn” and blown up to be so over the top in how bad it is, ut is instead extremely grounded and feels waaaay to real to the point of being very upsetting. However, the abuse is not there to make the audience sad. The abuse is in the plot to further press upon the audience the borderline helpless state our main character is in. As a child, he has to rely on his experience and ability to think like an adult to try and prevent the serial murders, as WELL as try and get Hanazaki out of her abusive situation. It also serves as a learning experience for our main character, and him figuring out how he hasn’t changed at all since he really was a child, and how his own stagnation in life itself needs to change and be redirected. The show is bursting with tension and every episode exists to turn the stakes up just a little bit higher.

I’ve heard some people are extreme disappointed by the show’s ending which I will not spoil, but personally going into it completely blind, I didn’t find any of it to be a let down and its very quickly become one of my favourite anime of all time.

The Ancient Magus Bride (2017)

(I actually don’t like the intro to Ancient Magus Bride so it only gets a link since I can only embed 5 videos)

https://youtu.be/KuZbmLLv1vM

Based on a manga by Kore Yamazaki, who has stated that her reason for writing the story was out of frustration that in “Beauty and the Beast” type stories, the beast always turns back into a human at the end. However this anime is far more than just a monsterfucker’s romance novel (although it... DOES follow a LOT of those tropes but hear me out.)

Set in the English countryside (although our female MC, Rise, is herself Japanese) the show makes heavy use of english folklore. Faeries are a constant presence throughout the show, and these are not the “nice” kind of faeries you’d see in Disney. Despite theyr good nature and honest want to help, these are the kinds of faeries that will kidnap you to their realm if you so much as let your guard down. We also have excellent portrayals of Titania, the queen of the faeries, and her heated relationship with her husband Oberon. Several other creatures from folklore make an appearance too, as well as old traditions such as faerie rings, seeing stones and the magical properties of herbs and flowers.

But beyond all of that, and even beyond the romance tropes or monster protector who is also a threat and powerful lead female who also needs protecting, the core theme of the show is on life. Or more specifically, death. Rise is a girl who is suicidal. And despite her not making any kind of suicide attempt in the show, this is a fact. The majority of the show is focused on Rise learning to “be alive” again, as well as process what life is, as well as what death is in its many forms. The show is a slow build of Rise reclaiming her will to live, not because of a romantic partner, but for herself. Reclaiming her own importance as a person removed from who she could be useful towards, and a slow coming to terms with a truly terrible event in her past and letting go of a traumatic past.

The show has some pacing issues here and there, but I still qualify it as one of the better modern anime shows to have come out in years, and can only praise its life-affirming message it’s trying to tell.

Osomatsu-San (2015)

I am.... not entirely sure how to explain Osomatsu-San.

Based on a manga published in the 1960s by Doraemon Creator Fujio Fujiko about 6 identical sextuplet brothers and their friends... the current and newest anime adaptation has borderline nothing to do with its original incarnation which was more your typical Showa era “hi-jinx” type gag manga. I think the very first episode of Osomatsu-San (which is not available for official purchase last I checked due to copyright issues) sets up the entire show perfectly, as the 6 boys and their friends learn they have a new anime adaptation coming up and realise that nobody in the modern age will want or even understand Showa era manga. So, instead, in an effort to be like “a real anime” they go about parodying literally every popular trope and show that’s out at the time. From yaoi-incest baiting to Jpop boy band to Attack on Titan to Sailor Moon, they keep cranking up the “modern anime” aesthetic until it literally explodes and collapses in on itself. And after realising they don’t have what it takes to compete in a modern anime word, the characters resign themselves to being losers who will never achieve anything in life.... and that’s where the show starts.

I can only refer to the show as “Millennial humour: the anime.”. 90% of it is just comedy with our 6 main characters who are, at their core, pretty terrible people. However, their issues and struggles of trying to be adults make them some of the most relateable anime characters out there. The show bounces from parodying popular culture both in anime as well as in movies to outlining the problems of trying to be a late 20-something year old in modern society to actual hard hitting drama that actually makes you angry because how DARE this stupid show actually make you FEEL things???

It’s borderline impossible to try and explain this show because, just like its 6 protagonists, it doesn’t seem to have any direction in its life. Which is exactly the point.

[steviesays]

In depth analysis of Solo: a Star Wars Story

wow that title makes it look like this wasn’t just me rambling for 4 whole ass pages on word, but I wanted to give you guys all of my thoughts and reactions on the movie. All of the spoilers are going to be under the cut and I’ll continue to tag spoilers for solo for the next two weeks, so until JUNE 8TH so none of you are allowed to yell at me for spoiling the movie. 

alright yall here we go im going to start with the plot and move into the characters the same way I did for tlj.

After coming out of this movie, it took me the entire ride home to process and think about whether I even liked it or not. When I got home, I had a two hour long conversation with my brother on the purpose of all of these movies rather than on what the movie is about because hes a fake fan and didn’t go see it last night. But anyway, after giving a brief synopsis with as little spoilers as possible, we kind of came to the consensus that this movie didn’t really matter, plot wise. It was kind of just made to sell tickets (even though they didn’t even sell tickets because there was no promo). Literally the whole movie was just an adventure that Han Solo went on, there was no real character arc, Han was the same person he was at the end as he was at the beginning, the only real development was him meeting chewie and lando and getting the millennium falcon. Did we really HAVE to see the kessel run, like yeah it was cool, but having the whole movie based around that? I feel like we were all kind of expecting more of a backstory, which is what it was kind of advertised as, and I think it would have been more effective, at least from a fan perspective, to have seen what Han’s life was when he was a child on Correlia. We still have no information on his parents, except for his dad was apparently a mechanic that wanted to be a pilot. We don’t know how he became orphaned or how he ended up with that fucking lizard monster thing, how he met Qi’ra, or how any of this affected him. I think they just started the movie at a bad spot, but that decision was made to maximize profit. I guess no casual movie goer would want to see han solo roughing it through some angst, but for people that are fully invested in star wars? It was just kind of a pointless action movie.

Other than that, it was a decent movie overall. I didn’t walk out of it pissed like I did with tlj, it kind of just made me feel nothing. Like I knew all this shit before, I didn’t need to see it in a two hour film. Him meeting chewie and lando, getting the falcon and doing the kessel run in 12 parsecs were things that were already established. There was nothing really spectacular about this movie it kind of just exists as a plot extender, rather than something that moves the plot forward or gives us major insights. I guess they can get away with it being useful to plot by the scene at the end that establishes to everyone that Darth Maul is still alive and fucking up the galaxy, but they could have just made their own damn darth maul movie, which is probably coming anyway based on that scene.

 But now that I’ve dragged the movie enough, lets get into the characters because I have a lot to say. There were characters that I really liked, characters that had a lot of potential, and characters that I hated.

Lets start with han. I really liked him in this movie and I like the actor they got for him, I think he did a really great job showing han’s snark and egoism while also keeping his inner goodness and making sure the audience was sympathetic. As I said before, he didn’t really develop much as a character, he was born a scoundrel and stayed that way. His quest to do whatever he could to get home so he could save Qi’ra was something we all would have expected out of him. I did like that we were able to see his street smarts and ability to strategize more than we have in other movies. I guess we have a bit of development, in that he learns to be even less trusting than he already was at the beginning through all of the betrayals in the movie, but like …. He was already distrustful in the beginning from the life he had already lived. Also, this has nothing to do with what I was just saying but I just remembered, this is during the time of the empire. Didn’t the empire use cloned Stormtroopers as their infantry and navy with humans only being officers …………………… like correct me if im wrong, but im like 90% sure that’s right. Because the first order were the ones that used human Stormtroopers. And even so like, what are these infantry men even doing. Aren’t Stormtroopers the ones that have always invaded planets for the empire, these people weren’t wearing any type of armor or cohesive uniforms and I just remember being confused as fuck during this whole sequence. In a ‘this is a major plot hole’ kind of way. Were they running out of clones ?????? like just make more ???????????? like the whole reason they used clones was because using actual humans to do grunt work was barbaric and clones aren’t really seen as people. Also now that I’m thinking about it what happened to all of the clones once the war ended. I haven’t watched or read many of the side stories or books, so I don’t know if it’s just me that’s missing something, but idk having han join the empire as an infantryman just didn’t make sense to me. Also having an imperial officer be the one to give him his last name was just kind of yikes. Like they couldn’t have just had him come up with one himself in that moment. Whatever.

Now lets talk about Qi’ra aka fake bitch. I fucking hated her so much through this entire movie and not just because I called her fake leia in the lead up to it coming out (tell me han doesn’t have a type). Like what the hell honestly. She was the WORST. And its kind of sad because she really had the potential to be a better character, but it just did not happen. Like she was gone for three years and just happened to appear back at some sketch party? And the only explanation for it was “yeah ive been through some shit don’t ask.” And what killed me is that she just never fucking explained!!! Like han asked her multiple times to tell him what happened in the in-between time and they have this whole ass history, he was doing all this shit FOR YOU, and he doesn’t even get an explanation ???? at the very least give the viewers an explanation. Like I guess it was implied that she did some dark shit, slept her way to the top, killed a few people on the way there, but HOW ??? WHY ??? WHEN ???? how long has she been involved in this shit to be at the position she has and to be so changed by it? Her character was the one that changed the most, from being careful of people other than the one she trusted (han), but still having hope for a better life, to just being like fuck everyone, I’m here for me and I don’t care how many people I have to kill or betray to survive. But we never got that character development in the film so she just came off as a terrible human being. We never got the chance to be sympathetic for her, and tbh im about to get even more angry because this whole film was centered around M E N yes I said it im being that bitch right now because the women in this movie were paid DUST.

And on that note lets talk about fucking Val. Another character with so much potential that was just …………………. hnjdklsbckdsbcbsdlv. She was the literal embodiment of the angry black woman trope and it pissed me the fuck off. She was the one that refused to bend on bringing han into the group and continued to antagonize him the whole mission, which the audience obviously took as a damn joke because duh its han fucking solo. We all know that she’s wrong, but when everyone else jumped on board with han she stayed adamant in her position, making her the odd one out of the group. Every time she opened her damn mouth I got mad because she just kept putting han and chewie down and it was just so cringey because I knew that this would make her either a hated or a forgotten character. AND THEN SHE JUST FUCKING DIED. I was like oh ok, 20 minutes in and the whole squad is dead already god damn. Which brings me into my analysis of tobias.

I love woody harrelson and he did a great job but there were a few scenes that just annoyed me, one of them being after his squad dies. Like hes sad for like 5 seconds, punches han which is an understandable reaction considering the fact that it was his fault everyone died for no reason, and then hes just fine again? Like it was never brought up again that two people he was obviously very close to, especially Val, just died pointless deaths. Even the night before the mission he was like ‘yeah you got to get someone you can trust I got my girl val’ and then they kiss and im like oh ok theyre in love that’s cute we love representation of interracial couples, but then she dies and he never mentions her name again. He doesn’t even grieve for longer than 2 minutes ??? he gives han another chance even though this was 100000% his fault and everyone knows it ??? it was kind of like oh, ok why the fuck did we even do that, why did I have to watch all of this happen if there are no consequences. His character didn’t change at all throughout the movie either. He’s just as distrustful and self-centered as he was, he just has less friends now and he’s dead. He was a good fatherly/mentor-y figure for han throughout the movie, but that’s about it.

I don’t really have much to say about Lando other than the fact that Donald glover did a great job, but I really didn’t expect much else. B U T last week I reblogged a post about him confirming that lando was pan and in the tags I was like lol watch him still be in a het relationship and GUESS FUCKING WHAT. Like its as if they thought making him be in love with a robot that has a female voice, a female build, and people that address her with she/her pronouns would be enough for people to be like come on it’s a fucking robot they don’t have gender …. hsdakbckdsla and while we’re on this subject lets talk about L3 because her (it? I don’t even know) character probably made me the most angry while watching the movie.

L3 being like an advocate for droids was an obvious parallel to other civil rights movements like womens rights or even African American rights and the way it was handled made me so fucking angry. Everything the droid said was used as comic relief or made to be received as a joke because obviously shes talking about fucking robots. But honestly, let me get deep for a moment here, droids in the star wars universe ARE sentient. They have minds of their own and are put into the story like characters, but theyre treated as lesser because theyre not made of flesh and blood. I understand and identify with the things L3 was saying because she’s right, but through the whole movie it was made to be a joke, because you know droids don’t need rights theyre droids. But that was the same thing people in the fucking 60s were saying about black people we’re ‘just n******’ (im sorry I cant even type the word it makes me uncomfortable). And her revolutionary spirit mirrors that of women’s rights revolutionaries today. Being a black woman that’s involved in social justice in America, the characterization of L3 just made me upset because everyone was treating everything she said as a joke, and there was no rectification of it. After L3 died, there was no ‘hmmm maybe she was right maybe we should start thinking of droids more as people’ she was another wasted character whose only use was her navigation system when they could have taken a completely different route and addressed something that was actually wrong with the star wars universe rather than just enforcing it. And when she started to give the droids a mind of their own in the control room I knew it was going to dissolve into chaos and make a horrible situation because it was such a predictable moment that completely undermined social justice actions and it pissed me off.

I guess the plot twist that effys nest (is that how you spell her name? probably not it doesn’t really matter) and her squad were working with the revolution was cute. I deadass thought for a second she was gonna be like ‘what up tobias or should I call you DAD’ cause that would have been a 100% star wars thing to do. The bad guy was a generic bad guy so I really don’t have much to say about him. I loved the scenes between han and chewie which showed why they became so close.

This is really all I have to say about solo for know, nothing huge is coming to mind. Overall, it was a good movie if you’re not a fan, but kind of a wasted opportunity for everyone else. This movie had a lot of potential to deliver and im pretty disappointed that it didn’t. If you don't agree on anything I’ve said or you just want to talk about the movie with me PLEASE dont hesitate to slide into my dms I love discourse

[50cyg]

how do you like the movie so far? most people's reviews arent satisfied at all (the animation quality), but imo the story from tri are well thought and connected with the first series. also people keep asking for 02 casts. in my view, when they show the 02 kids are defeated, it's pretty clear theyre not bringing them back like until really late. it's like the writer's "harsh" way of getting rid of 02 cast but it's all about the first kid anyway so i dont realy mind this is more like rant tho lol

If you are asking about my thoughts on Kyosei, see here.

If you are asking for my thoughts on Digimon Adventure Tri as a whole then my thoughts are that I’m pretty satisfied with it. 

First off, I have virtually no issues with the animation. I actually like the style and designs for the characters a lot. Regarding the animation quality in certain scenes, I know that animators in Japan are really overworked, and Toei doesn’t have a massive budget like movies such as Your Name, so I don’t expect perfection. It’s unfortunate and sometimes a bit annoying but not something I would ever complain about. Overall the animation is really nice. Plus, I don’t care as much about animation as I do about story. Something can look beautiful but if the story doesn’t interest me then I don’t care. For example, the movie Avatar. It’s aesthetically pleasing but the story is generic and dull. So, it doesn’t matter how pretty the environment is, I’m not going to like it. I’m actually surprised that animation is something Digimon fans are complaining about. The original series animation was pretty poor, the characters were constantly off model, they always had to reuse animation, and the Digimon barely moved during fight scenes and when they did their movement are kind of stiff. It’s not bad but it’s certainly not great by any means. We didn’t watch the show for it’s animation, we watched it for the story.

I think the ideas that Tri has are actually really good and you can see that many things were planned out. I think these writers really understand the characters and it really feels like a direct sequel to 01. But they do have an issue with execution. Pacing is a little off sometimes, certain scenes drag and others go way too fast. How they go about revealing information isn’t great either. On the overall it’s good though. 

I think Tri does, however, have two major faults. 

The first is Meiko. Her inclusion is in direct conflict with the nostalgia factor of these movies. We came to see characters we grew up with and love, not to see a brand new character’s story. In addition, she isn’t handled very well. 

Many Meiko supporters think the only reason people dislike her is because she’s new, but that’s not true. Daigo and Maki are also new characters and you see few people complaining about their inclusion. In fact, many people think Maki is one of the best things to come out of this season. The reason people dislike Meiko but not Daigo and Maki is because A. Neither of them steal nearly as much screen time, and B. Maki and Daigo have far more compelling stories and are much better handled. They are interesting and active characters. Meiko on the other hand does steel a ton of screen time and is not an active character. She is pushed along by the plot and almost never does anything. She is way too passive of a character. People complained about Jyou in Saikai and Ketsui for similar reasons. Anyway, I’ll go into more detail about my thoughts on Meiko at a later date.

The other issue is the handling of 02. The way I see it, we are sitting in this weird realm where 02 is both canon and not canon. Certain aspects really don’t seem to line up. Plus, how the 02 kids are being handled could definitely be better. The fact that the kids put so much focus on Meiko and yet seem to have more or less severed their relationship with Ken and the others is weird. Then you have the fact that they just straight up kill Imperialdramon like it’s another monster of the week. Now I actually won’t complain about the kids facial expressions and response to seeing Ken because the way the kids respond to Taichi’s death is more or less the same. Tri sometimes has very underwhelming reactions to things. Like watch Sora’s reaction to Taichi’s death in Kyosei and compare it to her reaction to his death in episode 20. There is a pretty big difference. She screams his name in episode 20 but only quietly speaks his name in Kyosei. 

However, I’m not expecting to see the 02 kids, nor will I complain if they only appear in a non speaking cameo at the end of Bokura no Mirai. The more I see people complain about the absence of the 02 kids, the less I want to see them. Everything about the promotional material indicated that the 02 kids would not be involved and that Tri was going to focus on the original 8. They have never appeared in any of the promotional material. It was so much so that people began to think that 02 was going to be retconned entirely. I don’t know where 02 fans got the idea that they would have any major role in this story. Though I do understand wanting to get an answer as to where they’ve been and why they were attacked. I also want to know this, but I’m expecting to get an answer to this nearing the end of the final movie just like how we have had to wait a long time for the answer to all our other questions. 

I also think it doesn’t help that Tri has to get their story out within the limit of 6 movies. I think it should have been 12 movies. Or even better, it should have been the length of a normal Digimon season, as in 50 or so episodes 24 minutes in length. So basically I think it should have been around 1200 minutes long. With each movie being around 90 minutes long so far, plus the extra length of Kokuhaku and assuming Bokura no Mirai will be the longest, we are going to get max 600 minutes. Though, they could have probably done a much better job in even 9 movies. 

Anyway, that is a summary of my thoughts on Tri as a whole so far.