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alas_a_llamaOkay, so there's a problem I've been struggling with a bit as far as Tri goes, and I thiiink I'm just going to go Full Millicanon on it.
Okay, so Tri is the third series of Adventure, and it focuses on the eight kids from 01, right? Which is great, and what people wanted, except 02 introduced four extra kids, who weren't Crest bearers (bar one), Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken. They then teamed up with Takeru and Hikari to make their own team of six, while the remaining 01 kids acted in mentor roles.
So far, Tri has kind of darted around talking about them. We see them in the opening scene of the first episode, getting kind of brutally defeated by Alphamon, and then they've factored into the series in a small way: A bad guy (? Tri is very confusing on the matter of who is a villain) pretended to be Ken briefly, and when they go to the Digital World in episode thirteen, they do it using Ken's digivice, which is special for reasons that aren't relevant to this post.
This is all fine.
The problem is that the kids have barely acknowledged that these four kids are missing. Takeru and Hikari briefly try to visit Ken's house in episode nine (it's empty, without even his parents at home, and they mention how Daisuke's, Miyako's, and Iori's houses were also all empty), and in the same episode Yamato goes to the Shady Spy People and goes "Eeeeyyyyy, what's up with Ken, we saw him being -- being all evil, it was a whole thing," and they're like "Nah, he's good, we're keeping an eye on all of them."
They are then not mentioned again. Not even when Maki shows up with Ken's digivice -- which they would all recognise as his, because it has a unique design that doesn't resemble any of the others.
This is the problem.
A) These kids are all friends, and all part of one pretty small and tight-knit group. It honestly does not make sense that they wouldn't turn up for a crisis. Their absence would cut down their roster of available fighters by a third, and you can bet everyone would notice that.
B) All of these kids live on Odaiba. Odaiba is, at most, a couple of kilometres in size. It is not a big place, and since large swathes of it are taken up with its commercial district and with various businesses, it's also not hugely populated. It is not easy to lose track of someone you know on Odaiba.
C) Takeru and Hikari go to school with the rest of them -- they must, because Odaiba only has one school (which doesn't even include a high school -- Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Koushiro, Mimi, and Jyou all attend school on the mainland). They would notice these people being absent.
D) Miyako's parents own a supermarket. It is most likely one of the only supermarkets on Odaiba. Who is running this supermarket.
E) Iori's father is a deceased national hero, a police officer who was shot protecting a politician from a gunman -- it's the kind of crime that's almost unheard of in Japan, and it's fairly firmly established that Iori's father is known nationwide. The media, including Yamato's parents, would notice if he was gone. Similarly, Ken is a genius who is widely hailed in news reports for being both an intellectual and athletic prodigy. The media would notice if he was missing.
The reason the writers have done this is pretty clear: Tri is focused on the 01 kids, and it already has a very, very large cast, and adding four more kids (potentially plus their partners) would only make things more tangled and confusing. But they also can't have any of the characters realise something's wrong, because if they do, then the Infection storyline no longer works -- because it would automatically start playing second fiddle to finding their friends.
SO.
Here is what I'm going to Millicanon:
In the three years between 02 and Tri, Miyako's parents have been drastically promoted. No longer are they running one branch of this supermarket chain, oh no, they have both taken on senior managerial positions within the entire company, and put in charge of establishing the chain's international branches.
To that end, they've had to go on a business trip to Germany, and since they cannot rightly leave their fourteen year old daughter and many other, much younger children at home, they decide to take the whole family along -- because, look, it's not permanent, alright? It's going to be two, three months, tops.
Miyako excitably persuades them to take Iori and Ken along too. This would not be difficult: Miyako's parents could honestly use the extra hands to help with the kids, since they'll be very busy, Iori's the orphaned son of a national hero and it would be really poor form to refuse, and Ken probably speaks fluent German.
Daisuke also tags along. For some reason. I guess.
But le gasp! While they are in Germany, which conveniently has no Chosen thus removing the possibility of any of them informing the 01 kids that these guys have gone missing, they are abruptly dragged into the Digital World. The battle with Alphamon ensues. They don't come back.
Maki and Nishijima's spy agency moves in -- Maki even makes reference to the fact that one of their jobs is keeping the 01 kids from worrying about the 02 kids, so covering up for their disappearance makes perfect sense. Not to mention the media circus that would result if it got out that Iori and Ken were missing.
They can't mimic their voices, so calls to them never get through due to ~terrible cellphone interference in Germany oh no~, but all four kids maintain an active online presence, with agents playing their parts. The 01 kids tell them about the crisis, and they're like "Oh no. We wish we could come and help, but we are here, in the Germany, and also definitely not missing in mysterious circumstances." They influence German police and media to keep it quiet (and maybe manufacture some news stories about ~all the terrible cellphone interference~), and take their families into protective custody.
This, then, makes the 01 kids' actions make a lot more sense. Until 'Ken' shows up being evil, they have no reason to believe there's anything wrong, because all four kids have been updating their Twitter feeds with things like "What a lovely day to not have been brutalised by a giant robot knight #NotMissing' and "Man, that cellphone interference, though! #DoNotEverCallUs" and "Enjoying this currywurst and sauerkraut probably I guess #JustTotallySafeInGermanyThings"
It means when Takeru and Hikari check their houses and nobody's home, that's not necessarily that surprising to them -- they're not expecting any of them to be home, Miyako's parents are in Germany, and Daisuke and Ken's parents both work full time jobs. Iori's grandfather and mother are a little more of a problem, but since Iori's grandfather works as a self-defense teacher for police forces around the country (and abroad, possibly?) it's not even that weird for them not to be in.
It also means that when Yamato calls Ken and gets no response, Maki telling him "No, he's fine, we're keeping an eye on him," probably would calm him down, because he knows there's cellphone interference, and at this point he does trust Nishijima and Maki.
So, yeah.
Millicanon to work with on that confusing front.
Okay, so Tri is the third series of Adventure, and it focuses on the eight kids from 01, right? Which is great, and what people wanted, except 02 introduced four extra kids, who weren't Crest bearers (bar one), Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken. They then teamed up with Takeru and Hikari to make their own team of six, while the remaining 01 kids acted in mentor roles.
So far, Tri has kind of darted around talking about them. We see them in the opening scene of the first episode, getting kind of brutally defeated by Alphamon, and then they've factored into the series in a small way: A bad guy (? Tri is very confusing on the matter of who is a villain) pretended to be Ken briefly, and when they go to the Digital World in episode thirteen, they do it using Ken's digivice, which is special for reasons that aren't relevant to this post.
This is all fine.
The problem is that the kids have barely acknowledged that these four kids are missing. Takeru and Hikari briefly try to visit Ken's house in episode nine (it's empty, without even his parents at home, and they mention how Daisuke's, Miyako's, and Iori's houses were also all empty), and in the same episode Yamato goes to the Shady Spy People and goes "Eeeeyyyyy, what's up with Ken, we saw him being -- being all evil, it was a whole thing," and they're like "Nah, he's good, we're keeping an eye on all of them."
They are then not mentioned again. Not even when Maki shows up with Ken's digivice -- which they would all recognise as his, because it has a unique design that doesn't resemble any of the others.
This is the problem.
A) These kids are all friends, and all part of one pretty small and tight-knit group. It honestly does not make sense that they wouldn't turn up for a crisis. Their absence would cut down their roster of available fighters by a third, and you can bet everyone would notice that.
B) All of these kids live on Odaiba. Odaiba is, at most, a couple of kilometres in size. It is not a big place, and since large swathes of it are taken up with its commercial district and with various businesses, it's also not hugely populated. It is not easy to lose track of someone you know on Odaiba.
C) Takeru and Hikari go to school with the rest of them -- they must, because Odaiba only has one school (which doesn't even include a high school -- Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Koushiro, Mimi, and Jyou all attend school on the mainland). They would notice these people being absent.
D) Miyako's parents own a supermarket. It is most likely one of the only supermarkets on Odaiba. Who is running this supermarket.
E) Iori's father is a deceased national hero, a police officer who was shot protecting a politician from a gunman -- it's the kind of crime that's almost unheard of in Japan, and it's fairly firmly established that Iori's father is known nationwide. The media, including Yamato's parents, would notice if he was gone. Similarly, Ken is a genius who is widely hailed in news reports for being both an intellectual and athletic prodigy. The media would notice if he was missing.
The reason the writers have done this is pretty clear: Tri is focused on the 01 kids, and it already has a very, very large cast, and adding four more kids (potentially plus their partners) would only make things more tangled and confusing. But they also can't have any of the characters realise something's wrong, because if they do, then the Infection storyline no longer works -- because it would automatically start playing second fiddle to finding their friends.
SO.
Here is what I'm going to Millicanon:
In the three years between 02 and Tri, Miyako's parents have been drastically promoted. No longer are they running one branch of this supermarket chain, oh no, they have both taken on senior managerial positions within the entire company, and put in charge of establishing the chain's international branches.
To that end, they've had to go on a business trip to Germany, and since they cannot rightly leave their fourteen year old daughter and many other, much younger children at home, they decide to take the whole family along -- because, look, it's not permanent, alright? It's going to be two, three months, tops.
Miyako excitably persuades them to take Iori and Ken along too. This would not be difficult: Miyako's parents could honestly use the extra hands to help with the kids, since they'll be very busy, Iori's the orphaned son of a national hero and it would be really poor form to refuse, and Ken probably speaks fluent German.
Daisuke also tags along. For some reason. I guess.
But le gasp! While they are in Germany, which conveniently has no Chosen thus removing the possibility of any of them informing the 01 kids that these guys have gone missing, they are abruptly dragged into the Digital World. The battle with Alphamon ensues. They don't come back.
Maki and Nishijima's spy agency moves in -- Maki even makes reference to the fact that one of their jobs is keeping the 01 kids from worrying about the 02 kids, so covering up for their disappearance makes perfect sense. Not to mention the media circus that would result if it got out that Iori and Ken were missing.
They can't mimic their voices, so calls to them never get through due to ~terrible cellphone interference in Germany oh no~, but all four kids maintain an active online presence, with agents playing their parts. The 01 kids tell them about the crisis, and they're like "Oh no. We wish we could come and help, but we are here, in the Germany, and also definitely not missing in mysterious circumstances." They influence German police and media to keep it quiet (and maybe manufacture some news stories about ~all the terrible cellphone interference~), and take their families into protective custody.
This, then, makes the 01 kids' actions make a lot more sense. Until 'Ken' shows up being evil, they have no reason to believe there's anything wrong, because all four kids have been updating their Twitter feeds with things like "What a lovely day to not have been brutalised by a giant robot knight #NotMissing' and "Man, that cellphone interference, though! #DoNotEverCallUs" and "Enjoying this currywurst and sauerkraut probably I guess #JustTotallySafeInGermanyThings"
It means when Takeru and Hikari check their houses and nobody's home, that's not necessarily that surprising to them -- they're not expecting any of them to be home, Miyako's parents are in Germany, and Daisuke and Ken's parents both work full time jobs. Iori's grandfather and mother are a little more of a problem, but since Iori's grandfather works as a self-defense teacher for police forces around the country (and abroad, possibly?) it's not even that weird for them not to be in.
It also means that when Yamato calls Ken and gets no response, Maki telling him "No, he's fine, we're keeping an eye on him," probably would calm him down, because he knows there's cellphone interference, and at this point he does trust Nishijima and Maki.
So, yeah.
Millicanon to work with on that confusing front.
