Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we're finally closing out the "Digimon Adventure tri." series. It is the sixth and final entry that came out in 2018. That movie is "Digimon Adventure tri.: Future".
Now, for those of you that are new here, let me bring you up to speed with what's going on. Way back in August, I decided that I was going to watch all six movies of the "Digimon Adventure tri." series. And the result, so far, has been incredibly polarizing. The first movie started off really good and very promising. But then almost every other entry after "Reunion" has been incredibly underwhelming with it's quality. Mind you, none of it is overly bad, but it's nowhere near as great as I thought this series was going to be. And with each entry that passed on by, I have noticed problem after problem with these movies, whether it's a problem with the writing, the acting, or the god awful CG that has plagued these movies. It really has been a very polarizing experience with me, when it comes to these particular movies.
Which now leads us to "Future", the final entry in this series. And honestly, I really have no idea if it's going to be any good. Moreover, I don't even know if this series is going to end on a positive note. I'm certainly hoping that it will end better than that horrendous fourth "Wishmaster" movie I covered several weeks ago, back when I alternated these movies with the "Wishmaster" series. But considering that these movies have been so inconsistent with it's quality, I'm not having a ton faith in that happening. But I am still interested in seeing how this series of movies is going to end, and, like I said, I'm hoping that it will end on a high note. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Digimon Adventure tri.: Future".
9 minutes later
OK, I know this is a really trivial thing to be bitching about, but I'm gonna bring it up anyway. So Sora keeps bringing up the possibility that Tai might be really gone. I wanna parenthesize that; Tai might be really "gone". But she never says that Tai might be dead. Why doesn't she just say that instead? Again, I understand it's a trivial thing to be bitching about, especially considering that I have seen anime kid shows that really tried to hide the word death because of, kinda, stupid reasons. But just hearing it mentioned without using the word "dead" in this movie comes across as really unnecessary, especially considering that you're not working with TV standards. Again, it's trivial, it's stupid, but it's something that I felt like was worth mentioning.
15 minutes later
You know, guys, I find it kinda funny how this movie was released in 2018. And somehow, between the 3 years of when the first "Digimon Adventure tri." film was released, the CG still has not changed in the slightest. I understand that I'm beating a dead horse by this point about the CG, but I just find it funny that the people in charge of the CG didn't even bother to fine tune it to make it look a little less ugly. That is just depressing on a whole host of levels, guys.
11 minutes later
Wait, so the Digimon companions got their memories back? When? Because if I recall correctly, when the Digital World got rebooted, the Digimon's memories got wiped out. So...does that mean that if the DigiDestined spent time with their Digimon some, then their memories suddenly come back with no real explanation? I'm gonna be honest, guys, I'm a little bit lost here.
14 minutes later
I swear to God, guys, every time I hear Gennai open his mouth to speak, I want someone to tear his fucking body in half. That is how much I am despising his character in this movie. And if he doesn't die by the time that this thing is over, I am going to be a little bit pissed.
17 minutes later
OK, so the Digimon companion's memories are stored away in Meicoomon and that they can possibly get re-downloaded again. All right, so I guess I was wrong into thinking that their memories were completely back by random. Fine. But it still seems weird to me that the Digimon in this movie suddenly know their partners like they've been with them before the "reboot" happened. I don't know, maybe I'm just thinking a little too deep into this.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Digimon Adventure tri.: Future". Let me shut the movie off...all right. Well...I can now officially say that I have watched all six "Digimon Adventure tri." movies. That feels like a fucking accomplishment.
I want to start with something completely different. Because normally, whenever I have to go into this series of movies, I would usually talk about writing, acting, animation, and the technical stuff, as I've done in the past two and half months covering this series. And I'm gonna be honest, a lot of what I'm gonna be mentioning about it is not really going to change, with the one lone exception being writing. But I'm gonna sorta break my usual protocol, because I need to start with something that has been on my mind since the first movie. Now, I didn't really bring it up much back then, because I felt like it wasn't really important at the time. I wanted to see if these movies were gonna answer the questions that I had kept to myself up until this point. Well, now that I have seen all 6 of these movies, I feel like now is the time to really get into what's been bothering me since the first movie. Now, I'm gonna make a clear warning to anyone reading this. What I'm gonna be talking about is me spoiling a few things from most of the "Digimon Adventure tri." films. So, if you do not want to be spoiled, you may want to hold off on reading this review, because I have a LOT to say about what I'm gonna be discussing here. And for those who don't care about spoilers, then you're not gonna be affected by what I'm going to be talking about. That, or you've already seen these movies for yourself, so spoilers are not going to affect you. But for everyone else who is interested in getting into these movies, you have been warned, because I'm now going to talk about what's been on my mind.
One of the things that got me interested in checking these movies out has to do with the timeline. Now, as I made mentioned way back during my review of the first movie, I mentioned that these movies are suppose to be a sequel to the first two "Digimon Adventure" seasons. And when I first heard about that, I thought it sounded amazing, because we would get to see how the DigiDestined from both seasons are doing, now that they have grown up. Well, we get to see the first season's DigiDestined in these movies. But what about the season 2 cast? Where are they? What happened to Davis, Ken, Yolei, and Cody? Well, we get a prologue at the beginning of "Reunion", and it shows the entire season 2 cast being killed off in the Digital World. Well...sort of. According to this movie, they're in suspended animation. I'll get more into that a bit. But anyway, we're just suppose to assume that most of the season 2 cast are dead, because of what happened to them in the prologue. And guess what? They don't get mentioned again, until the very last movie. So basically, everything involving them from between "Reunion" and "Future" are completely non-existent. Hell, even before this movie, Kari and T.K. don't even mention the season 2 cast by name. Which makes no fucking sense at ALL, because they were both part of the season 2 cast. You would assume at one point that they would bring up their names. Well..."Ken" does get mentioned. I'm gonna get to him in a second. But everyone else, no. They don't get mentioned by Kari or T.K. because I guess these movies, for some reason, wanted to omit the fact that they were associated with the season 2 cast. One argument could be made that the season 2 cast were not as popular as the cast from season 1 of Digimon. And I call bullshit on that, because I know that a lot of people loved season 2 of Digimon, myself included. So there is no reason for these movies to basically just ignore them up until the very end of this series of movies. And for a series that was suppose to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Digimon, the season 2 cast are just basically an afterthought. Especially in this movie, because, and I'm gonna be bringing up a little bit of the writing for this movie, once they're back in the Digital World, they get mentioned that they're resting at the hospital, and towards the very end of the movie, they're basically doing fine. Now, we don't get to actually SEE them at all, no. No, we're just suppose to assume that they're doing fine, even though they have been completely ignored throughout this entire series because fuck you, that's why.
Now, I brought up "Ken" earlier. Well, he's the only one that actually gets to show up in these movies. Because throughout most of these movies, he's seen wearing his Digimon Emperor attire back when he was a villain in the first half of season 2. And you get to see him in most of these movies, with, maybe, the two exceptions being "Reunion" and "Coexistence". But as I made mention before, Ken was seen "killed" off in the prologue of "Reunion", so why is this "Ken" roaming around in the real world at will? Well, at the end of "Confession", it turns out that the "Ken" we see throughout these movies turns out to be Gennai as "Ken" in disguise. Which was what made me want to ask a ton of questions on why that twist made no fucking sense. However, seeing as how I have seen all 6 of these movies, my issues with that slowly became irrelevant. I don't know why he was still disguising himself as "Ken" after we get to learn this reveal at the end of the 3rd movie, but oh well. Now shockingly, Kari and T.K. actually do go check up on the real Ken, after the events of "Determination", where "Ken" was responsible for causing Meicoomon to get infected. Now with T.K. and Kari, they go check up on Ken at one point during "Confession", just to see if he's doing OK and to see if he's at home. So they go to his apartment, and he's not answering his door. And neither does his parents. Now, I will admit, it has been a long time since I've seen season 2, but I could've sworn that Ken had parents that were living with him. I could be totally wrong on that, but let's just assume that they did live with him. Now if they did, that means either they left the home for reasons, or the writers completely forgot about them. However, I'm not going to delve into that issue too much. But here's where my issues with the disappearance of the season 2 cast makes no sense. So, as I just stated, T.K. and Kari get no answer after they try to check up on Ken. Now, that should raise alarms right there, because if he's not at home, why didn't they think of contacting Davis, Cody, or Yolei as to whether or not they have heard from Ken? Because THEN, it would've lead to a series of events where those two figure out that with Ken's disappearance, they would begin to realize that if they had contacted the rest of the season 2 cast and not have gotten answers from them, then they would've realized that something might be wrong here, and then they would get together with the rest of the DigiDestined and told them that their other friends might be gone too, and they would ask questions as to what happened with the season 2 cast. And I was just thinking about something, too. Don't the cast of season 2 go to the same school with the season 1 cast? Because if they do, then they, that being the season 1 cast, would've realized that Davis and the others are not showing up at school. Then that would've lead to even MORE questions as to why they haven't shown up in these movies. It would've helped cleared up some of these issues that were on my mind as I was watching these movies, but no. T.K. and Kari only go to check up on Ken, and once they realize that he's not answering his door, they just end that subplot there. Nothing happens beyond that, and we get no checkup on the rest of the season 2 cast up towards the final movie.
Which leads me, now, into talking about what REALLY happened to the season 2 cast. So, in this movie, we get an explanation from Nishijima that the season 2 cast went missing for a long time. Why? Well, it turns out their disappearances were kept a secret by the order of Agent Himekawa. Why did she did keep their disappearances a secret? Well, she was working with King Drasil, and they basically worked together to destroy the season 2 cast. Now why she wanted to do all this, I kinda spoiled back in my review of "Coexistence". So if you want to know the answer to that, you can go and read my review for that movie. But basically, that's what happened to them. Now...I have a ton of questions about this. The one big question I have is why in the hell did Nishijima have to keep this a secret for so long?! I ask this, because he found out about Agent Himekawa's true motives back during the fourth movie. Why didn't he tell the DigiDestined about this back during "Coexistence" when they were hiding out at the high school? Why the fuck did he still keep this a secret AFTER he found out about Agent Himekawa's true motives? And if the reason is because he works for a government agency, and he is sworn to secrecy to all Intel, then it still makes no fucking sense, because, as I said, he already knows about Agent Himekawa's true motives. So there's no reason for him to keep it a secret anymore! Plus also, who the fuck is gonna rat him out because he would be giving away important information about the season 2 cast? Hackmon? I don't think he fucking cares, because he only cares about bringing some perfect balance, or some such shit. So again, what the fuck is stopping Nishijima from getting this info out to the DigiDestined? Oh my God...guys, this is one of the reasons why I've had so many issues with the writing in these movies. And I held off on talking about this one towards the very end, because I wanted to give these movies a chance to see if they would answer that question. Well...I barely got a reason. And it's not even a halfway decent reason, at that.
One other thing I want to mention, before I move on to the actual writing of this movie, and this just came to me, what happened to the rest of the season 2 cast's Digimon? Like, I have an idea what happened to them, what with Nishijima's explanation, but what about after the final showdown with Meicoomon? Were they also affected by the "reboot", too? Because we don't get to see them at ALL during these movies. And you would think that because of the "reboot", we would actually get to see them in the Digital World in some form. But no. We don't get anything like that. Oh, but the season 2 cast are doing fine. Not their Digimon, though. They're pretty much dead. And if that IS the case, then this might actually retcon the ending of season 2. A bit of a spoiler, not that I've spoiled enough about this series, but oh well. On the final episode of season 2, right towards the very END of the series, it shows the DigiDestined, both seasons 1 and 2, having children of their own, and taking them to the Digital World to meet their Digimon companions. But if the season 2's cast Digimon were killed off at the beginning of the first movie, then what makes of the ending of season 2? Was that just an alternate ending I watched as a kid, and was this movie telling me that this is what REALLY happened? I have no idea. And I understand that I'm probably thinking WAY too deep into this, but this genuinely pisses me off. Because if we're just suppose to assume that the season 2 cast are doing fine, then this movie would've at least showed us that they are doing fine. They would've showed that, yes, the season 2 cast are acting like normal again after being away from the real world after so long. Better yet, this movie could've shown that the season 2 Digimon are doing fine, as well. But again, none of that fucking happens. And I do NOT want to hear that these movies take place in an alternate timeline. Because unless these movies are suppose to say otherwise, then that is nothing more than a cop-out excuse. And these movies, at least to me, do a piss poor job of trying to claim that they are suppose to be a sequel to season's 1 and 2 of Digimon.
Now...on the off chance that any of you bypassed all of that, let me give you the short version. These movies did a half-ass job in trying to bridge what happened with the season 2 cast, and it just ends up with a mountain of questions that, if you really think about them for too long, then it's going to potentially ruin these movies for you. I'm just gonna leave it at that and move on. Now, what about this movie's writing? Well...in real honesty, it's not too bad. Again, barring the piss poor attempt to try and explain what happened to the season 2 cast's DigiDestined. The writing here is certainly miles better than what was shown in, say, "Confession", and "Coexistence". I would even, almost, say that this movie is just as good, if not better, than what was shown in "Loss". Because, for the most part, we have quite a decent mixture of both action and character development. And unlike "Coexistence", it actually manages to balance out the tone for this movie. That being said, I don't feel like this is a true ending to this series. And the reason why I say that is because...well, it ends a little bit anti-climatically. Not the final battle itself, because that in of itself was done fine. I'm talking about what happens after that. Now, I could bring up the season 2 cast again, but I've said plenty about it as is. But it really has to do with Gennai. Because, and I'm gonna give out one more spoiler here, he suffers NO repercussions at all. And he ends up going back to the Digital World, where he can probably cause more damage to the Digital World, or even the real world, at his own will. So yeah, even though the DigiDestined finally stopped Meicoomon from swallowing the real world with the Digital World, Gennai is still an issue. But hey, I guess it's perfectly fine for him to do whatever he wants, so who cares about him, right? And honestly, I really feel like that this series does not feel finished. Gennai is still out on the loose, and we're just going to assume the DigiDestined from season 2 are perfectly fine, even though we don't get to see them, physically, at all. And I know that there is some sort of a sequel that came out a couple of years after this movie. However, I really don't know if I even want to watch that movie right now. Because I've had my fill of these movies as is, and I'm not sure if that movie is even going to do a decent follow up with what I watched from these movies.
But anyway, the writing, at least for this movie, is not too bad. It's not great, but it could've been a hell of a lot worse. As for the acting, well, as I said, all of this is still the same kind of acting that you've gotten from the previous 5 movies. So, if you've gotten use to the acting from those movies, then this one is going to offer more of the same. No one here really phones it in, as far as I could tell. I will say, however, that whoever is voicing Gennai REALLY sounds like he's trying to ham up his performance. And in most cases, I would say that it kinda works. However, all it really did was make me hate the character of Gennai even more. So, aside from his questionable acting, the rest of it is fine.
Animation here is also really well done. The art style has continued to remain consistent with these movies, so I can honestly say that it still looks beautiful to look at. CG, well, at this point, if it hasn't been made clear enough, it's fucking terrible. But again, I have been beating that particular horse throughout most of these movies. So, it is what it is. It's shitty CG that you're gonna have to get use to seeing. Sound-mix is good, as is the music.
Ultimately, guys, am I able to recommend "Digimon Adventure tri.: Future"? If you have been following these movies up to this point, then yes. I can recommend it on that end. Like I said, it's almost as good, if not better, than "Loss". It's still nowhere as good as "Reunion" was, but it's still good for what it is. Now...the one remaining question I have left for these movies is can I recommend the "Digimon Adventure tri." series, as an entire package? I am willing to say yes, provided, and this is BIG provided mind you, that you go into these movies, and not treat them as cannon. Basically, if you can ignore the idea that this is suppose to be a sequel to season's 1 and 2 of Digimon, then I think you're going to enjoy these movies. Because, even though I have had a ton of issues with these movies, I was still able to find some enjoyment out of every one of them. So, I personally can't say that these movie wasted my time. However...if you do go into these movies, and you're going to think that they serve as a good sequel to the first two seasons of Digimon, then no. These movies, at least when it comes to being a sequel, kinda sucks at it. Because of what I had discussed earlier, it's really hard for me to say that you'll enjoy these movies if you think about all of the issues that I had with them. But if you're able to ignore a lot of what I just said, and enjoy these movies for what they are, then hey, you're probably going to have a blast with these movies. And if you're curious, I was able to watch all 6 of these movies on Shout Factory's website. Because they're the company that, I'm going to assume, put out these movies on DVD and Blu-ray. So if you want to watch these films, they're all on Shout Factory's website, so you don't have to worry about spending X amount of money, and not being sure if you're going to get a bang for your buck. And if you liked these movies enough, then go ahead and buy them somewhere. As for myself...I'm just happy that I'm able to put these particular movies behind me and move on to something else. Mind you, I did enjoy watching these movies once. However, I don't think it's something that I would rush out and buy on DVD. If I wanted to experience Digimon all over again, I would just watch the entire 1st season I have on DVD. And as much as I would like to do that again, I'm kinda burnt out on Digimon, thanks to these movies, so I'm just gonna go ahead and get some rest.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reacton & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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