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Sep. 26th, 2016 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alas_a_llamaOkay, so having watched Digimon Tri chapter 3 a ... few ... times now, I think I've collected my thoughts on it.
I've also collected various clips, so. That is a thing. I will try to include only the best ones.
This was a lot more plot heavy than either Reunion or Determination. Reunion was mostly a set-up ensemble piece, setting up everyone's character conflicts and the main plot (along with having a big, but kind of out of the blue, everyone vs Alphamon battle), Determination was very much a character focus piece (and it focused on Mimi and Jyou to the extent that some of the other cast members barely factored into it -- and again, we got a big, but kind of out of the blue, battle at the end, with Mimi, Jyou, and Leomon facing off against Imperialdramon) -- Confession, meanwhile, is very plot heavy.
It's also probably the darkest of the films so far? Reunion was fairly grim, while Determination was pretty light-hearted but ended on a fairly shocking note. Confession starts off as unhappy and foreboding, and it piles on the sense of speeding inevitably towards a tragic ending from there.
So, we get a lot of emotional moments? Some of which are a bit difficult to decipher on first viewing, because Digimon Adventure tends to be quite laconic in its storytelling, in that it likes to briefly imply things, especially in regards to emotional states, and then move on.
There's a great moment where Gabumon asks Yamato to play the harmonica for him (we the audience know that Gabumon's doing so because he's dying, and because he has only hours or days before he will fade and be reborn without any of his memories of Yamato -- but Yamato doesn't know that), and Yamato begins to play his iconic song from 01, which slowly turns into a different song as it plays over scenes of the other kids and their partners. It returns to Yamato and Gabumon at the end as a bookend, and Yamato makes remarks to the effect that he wonders if, over time, his memories of everything that has happened will change -- if as he grows older he'll forget, or the memories will fade -- and Gabumon tells him that they won't.
The scene kind of confused me at first, because we're meant to believe that Yamato's mood has pretty abruptly changed, despite the fact that he doesn't know what's coming. It wasn't until someone else pointed out that it was a callback to 01, where Yamato and Gabumon's goodbye was Gabumon asking Yamato to play the harmonica for him, that I realised that Yamato's completely aware in this scene that Gabumon's saying goodbye, even if he doesn't know why.
(It's also a great scene in general because one of the moments with the other kids and their partner involves the best joke in the chapter, where Jyou is telling his partner, a sea lion who doesn't wear clothes, that he should meet his girlfriend, and Gomamon kind of mockingly asks if he should wear a suit, and gets the response "Don't be silly! There's no need to be so formal! You can just wear regular clothes.")
Yamato Ref: Sad Harmonica Montage by e-ric1
So we get all this build-up, and then the fourth episode is the big (and for once not out of the blue) battle. It's everyone against Meicrackmon, who has a ridiculous name, and one by one, the partners start succumbing to their infection, until only Koushiro's partner, Tentomon, is left.
At which point Tentomon, who is easily the most retiring, almost butler-ish of the partners, proves that he is a stone cold badass by evolving to his new ultimate level (rather aptly named HeraklesKabuterimon, although for some reason Crunchyroll subbed it as HerculesKabuterimon, the Roman-loving asshats), fighting off the entire team, and then finally talking them around to fending off the infection long enough that they can die as themselves.
Tentomon is now Insect Alfred Pennyworth and I'm okay with that.
Yamato Reference: Sad Harmonica Times by e-ric1
At which point, they all die. Which is -- I mean, Digimon is sixteen years old by now, and it's had some pretty dark moments so far (I say, remembering the moment in Tamers in which we're treated to a young girl's nightmares about seeing her mother's corpse), so I wouldn't say it's the darkest moment the franchise had, but it's probably the grimmest. That -- will be interesting to play out, when it comes time to cross that bridge.
Except then we have a fifth episode! As Koushiro persuades them all around to returning to the Digital World to find their partner Digimon (now reborn, but without any of their memories) again. They do this with the help of Maki, who is -- interesting.
Maki's an odd one. She's one of two adult characters introduced for Tri, both members of the Incorporated Administrative Bureau, a government agency that researches Digimon. The other one, Nishijima Daigo, is presented as being pretty above board, and ultimately well-meaning. Maki, however, has moments: Fans have been pretty wary of her ever since the end of Determination, where as Leomon gets pretty violently murdered, the camera cuts to everyone looking shocked, and then to Maki smiling.
This chapter ups the creepiness, as Maki is seen grinning to herself after telling the Digimon partners they'll all die soon, and later, after eagerly helping the kids go to the Digital World, she shows up there, confronting a man who's watching them from afar (as they meet their partners again, all of whom don't remember them) -- who is then revealed to be Gennai, the Chosen Children's -- handler? Servant? Dude who sometimes helps them out? Eh.
Also, just to make the 'tendency to evilly grin' thing entirely clear, this is her eating a doughnut:
So a lot of people are speculating right now that Maki was one of the Original Chosen. They're mentioned very briefly in 01, as five children who were summoned to face Apocalymon, but who failed in their task in an unspecified fashion. That would seem to match up with what little we know of Maki, since Daigo mentions that one day she changed, deciding that she must grow up, and his language suggests that her change was pretty abrupt -- which it would be, if it was caused by her being dragged to a place which, at the time, had a one day = one minute time differential. She also knows about things like Homeostasis, the Reboot, etc.
There's also a decent amount of speculation about Meicoomon, the partner of new group member Meiko, especially as we get a flashback suggesting that Meicoomon isn't really her species name -- which is interesting if only because it raises the question of why the writers would want to conceal said species name.
Anyway, Chapter four is scheduled for late February. It's titled Soushitsu ('loss [that occurs as a result of crimes or mistakes]' or 'becoming distracted from one's path in life' -- I think they're going with just 'Loss' as the translated subtitle) and will apparently focus on Sora, Yamato, and Taichi.
Aaand one last clip, because after two long, sad clips, a short, happy one is in order:
Yamato Ref: Going to the Digital World. by e-ric1
I've also collected various clips, so. That is a thing. I will try to include only the best ones.
This was a lot more plot heavy than either Reunion or Determination. Reunion was mostly a set-up ensemble piece, setting up everyone's character conflicts and the main plot (along with having a big, but kind of out of the blue, everyone vs Alphamon battle), Determination was very much a character focus piece (and it focused on Mimi and Jyou to the extent that some of the other cast members barely factored into it -- and again, we got a big, but kind of out of the blue, battle at the end, with Mimi, Jyou, and Leomon facing off against Imperialdramon) -- Confession, meanwhile, is very plot heavy.
It's also probably the darkest of the films so far? Reunion was fairly grim, while Determination was pretty light-hearted but ended on a fairly shocking note. Confession starts off as unhappy and foreboding, and it piles on the sense of speeding inevitably towards a tragic ending from there.
So, we get a lot of emotional moments? Some of which are a bit difficult to decipher on first viewing, because Digimon Adventure tends to be quite laconic in its storytelling, in that it likes to briefly imply things, especially in regards to emotional states, and then move on.
There's a great moment where Gabumon asks Yamato to play the harmonica for him (we the audience know that Gabumon's doing so because he's dying, and because he has only hours or days before he will fade and be reborn without any of his memories of Yamato -- but Yamato doesn't know that), and Yamato begins to play his iconic song from 01, which slowly turns into a different song as it plays over scenes of the other kids and their partners. It returns to Yamato and Gabumon at the end as a bookend, and Yamato makes remarks to the effect that he wonders if, over time, his memories of everything that has happened will change -- if as he grows older he'll forget, or the memories will fade -- and Gabumon tells him that they won't.
The scene kind of confused me at first, because we're meant to believe that Yamato's mood has pretty abruptly changed, despite the fact that he doesn't know what's coming. It wasn't until someone else pointed out that it was a callback to 01, where Yamato and Gabumon's goodbye was Gabumon asking Yamato to play the harmonica for him, that I realised that Yamato's completely aware in this scene that Gabumon's saying goodbye, even if he doesn't know why.
(It's also a great scene in general because one of the moments with the other kids and their partner involves the best joke in the chapter, where Jyou is telling his partner, a sea lion who doesn't wear clothes, that he should meet his girlfriend, and Gomamon kind of mockingly asks if he should wear a suit, and gets the response "Don't be silly! There's no need to be so formal! You can just wear regular clothes.")
Yamato Ref: Sad Harmonica Montage by e-ric1
So we get all this build-up, and then the fourth episode is the big (and for once not out of the blue) battle. It's everyone against Meicrackmon, who has a ridiculous name, and one by one, the partners start succumbing to their infection, until only Koushiro's partner, Tentomon, is left.
At which point Tentomon, who is easily the most retiring, almost butler-ish of the partners, proves that he is a stone cold badass by evolving to his new ultimate level (rather aptly named HeraklesKabuterimon, although for some reason Crunchyroll subbed it as HerculesKabuterimon, the Roman-loving asshats), fighting off the entire team, and then finally talking them around to fending off the infection long enough that they can die as themselves.
Tentomon is now Insect Alfred Pennyworth and I'm okay with that.
Yamato Reference: Sad Harmonica Times by e-ric1
At which point, they all die. Which is -- I mean, Digimon is sixteen years old by now, and it's had some pretty dark moments so far (I say, remembering the moment in Tamers in which we're treated to a young girl's nightmares about seeing her mother's corpse), so I wouldn't say it's the darkest moment the franchise had, but it's probably the grimmest. That -- will be interesting to play out, when it comes time to cross that bridge.
Except then we have a fifth episode! As Koushiro persuades them all around to returning to the Digital World to find their partner Digimon (now reborn, but without any of their memories) again. They do this with the help of Maki, who is -- interesting.
Maki's an odd one. She's one of two adult characters introduced for Tri, both members of the Incorporated Administrative Bureau, a government agency that researches Digimon. The other one, Nishijima Daigo, is presented as being pretty above board, and ultimately well-meaning. Maki, however, has moments: Fans have been pretty wary of her ever since the end of Determination, where as Leomon gets pretty violently murdered, the camera cuts to everyone looking shocked, and then to Maki smiling.
This chapter ups the creepiness, as Maki is seen grinning to herself after telling the Digimon partners they'll all die soon, and later, after eagerly helping the kids go to the Digital World, she shows up there, confronting a man who's watching them from afar (as they meet their partners again, all of whom don't remember them) -- who is then revealed to be Gennai, the Chosen Children's -- handler? Servant? Dude who sometimes helps them out? Eh.
Also, just to make the 'tendency to evilly grin' thing entirely clear, this is her eating a doughnut:
So a lot of people are speculating right now that Maki was one of the Original Chosen. They're mentioned very briefly in 01, as five children who were summoned to face Apocalymon, but who failed in their task in an unspecified fashion. That would seem to match up with what little we know of Maki, since Daigo mentions that one day she changed, deciding that she must grow up, and his language suggests that her change was pretty abrupt -- which it would be, if it was caused by her being dragged to a place which, at the time, had a one day = one minute time differential. She also knows about things like Homeostasis, the Reboot, etc.
There's also a decent amount of speculation about Meicoomon, the partner of new group member Meiko, especially as we get a flashback suggesting that Meicoomon isn't really her species name -- which is interesting if only because it raises the question of why the writers would want to conceal said species name.
Anyway, Chapter four is scheduled for late February. It's titled Soushitsu ('loss [that occurs as a result of crimes or mistakes]' or 'becoming distracted from one's path in life' -- I think they're going with just 'Loss' as the translated subtitle) and will apparently focus on Sora, Yamato, and Taichi.
Aaand one last clip, because after two long, sad clips, a short, happy one is in order:
Yamato Ref: Going to the Digital World. by e-ric1
