Digimon Adventure tri. 2: Ketsui

Infected Digimon—digital monsters who have begun acting in a berserk manner and experiencing a bizarre increase in power—are invading the real world. While Maki Himekawa and Daigo Nishijima, agents of the mysterious Incorporated Administrative Agency, attempt to learn more about these disruptive appearances, most of the Chosen Children are busy preparing for Tsukishima General High School's summer festival.

Mimi Tachikawa, having recently returned to Japan after living in the United States for years, struggles to find her footing among her classmates and fellow Chosen Children. Meanwhile, by throwing himself into his studies, Jou Kido has been deliberately avoiding all issues related to Digimon, causing his partner Gomamon to run away. Mimi and Jou's individual actions cause friction within the group even as the threat of infected Digimon still looms over them. Will the two resolve their personal conflicts in time to help their friends fight off the latest threat?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yagami, Taichi Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Ishida, Yamato Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Yagami, Hikari Main

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Takaishi, Takeru Main

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Agumon Main

Sakamoto, Chika Japanese

Izumi, Koushirou Main

Tamura, Mutsumi Japanese

Tachikawa, Mimi Main

Yoshida, Hitomi Japanese

Tailmon Main

Tokumitsu, Yuka Japanese

Takenouchi, Sora Main

Mimori, Suzuko Japanese

Patamon Main

Matsumoto, Miwa Japanese

Motokawa, Kouhei Producer

Arai, Shuuhei Producer

Motonaga, Keitarou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Ebina, Yasunori Sound Director

Reviews

Mar 11, 2016

SoupReaper

Recommended

After months of waiting, part 2 is finally out! Though I still think they should have revamped the show like they did with Sailor Moon at least this is something. Watching part 2 seriously kept me anticipating for more though. It definitely brought back a factor that allowed me to reminiscence this nostalgic series.

Story: The last episode had me bawling, I'm not going to lie. I didn't even expect it but it caught me by the feels! Lots of mysteries are left unsolved due to how the Ketsui opened up and finished, especially with all the enigma towards the end which will hopefully piece ... together.

Art: Much like the previous part, I'm not a fan of the art. I feel like they should have modernized the style of the original series instead of going with a totally different concept that gave them all small pupils and similar faces. The "fashion taste" the Digidestines individually developed is somewhat odd/interesting but I'm not a fashion expert so who knows. Personally, this part is just me being bitter and too hung up on the old series. But to be fair, the art itself flows very smoothly and depicts what is supposed to happen so all is well.

Sound: The producers did the terrific job tying in the old and the new sounds which gave me the chills and made me oh so emotional. Probably why I also cried. Ahem, anyways, the build up of the audio, in addition to the sound effects, and the action scenes or even sad scenes were enough to have me on edge. I'd probably buy the OST and jog to the soundtrack, it's that epic.

Character: I don't know if it's just me (I watched the original series in English and Japanese) but the Digimons seem to have regressed to a very childlike state, which can be seen in the first part of the Tri series. They are very immature and get swayed by the idea of food and games ... The DigiDestined, too, on the other hand are dealing with way too much internal conflict which should have been resolved in the original saga when they earned their crests ... To me, it's completely unnecessary and creates pointless conflict and drama instead of more action.

Overall, I'm enjoying it so far and there was even some fanservice for the ladies which I found pretty awkward. I mean we watched these kids growing up and now they're ... You'll see. Anyways, it's something for new and veteran fans, so enjoy it since it's probably the only thing we'll see again from the original series ... So once this ends, I'll probably go back to moping over how my childhood has ended.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Mar 12, 2016

Cyberjin7

Mixed Feelings

SPOILERS! Just saying.

This time around, the focus shifts from Taichi and Yamato to Joe and Mimi (Mei as well I guess). And I have to say, I always find myself surprised on how on point the character development is in Digimon.

~Characters~
Joe got the most out of Ketsui. Being older than the rest of the crew, he finds himself in a lot more of a difficult situation than the others; he has university entrance exams right around the corner, so he never really goes out to help.

What Joe goes through in Ketsui is something I believe many highschoolers especially in Asia have to go ... through: becoming an adult. In Joe's case, rather than being forced to become an adult, it seems more like he feels the responsibility to become an adult. Clashing with this responsibility is his responsibility as a DigiDestined and his friends. To continue studying to become an adult or be a reliable pillar of support like he used to be for his friends.

His self-felt responsibility to become an adult roots him in place, making him unable to support his friends and digimon (as pointed out by Taichi), he needs (well more like he wants) a reason to fight again. Ultimately, he is using this responsiblity as an excuse for running away even if his true desires lie somewhere completely else.

On the other hand, Mimi has quite the opposite problem. Being an overly bright person, people label her as Jikochu or something meaning self-centered and annoying. This is portrayed in the overly stereotypical and much too overused cultural festival in highschool.

Of course both Joe and Mimi get over their problems in one way or another. Seeing their conflicts directly clash when they met and how the other Digidestined still had complete trust in them (example Taichi in Joe) or gave them slight pushes to confront their conflicts and solve them was very welcome in my opinion.

So the Digidestined are growing up, that's all nice and dandy but what about their digimon? I feel like they regressed back in time? They are absolute babies in Ketsui. Considering what they went through in Adventure and just how much time has passed since then, you'd reckon they would have also matured mentally. It's obvious they were trying to make them all cutesy and stuff but it was a bit of a turn off.

~Setting~
Additionally the setting of Ketsui wasn't too great in my opinion. Cultural festival? Bathhouse? The things that happened there, felt just so absolutely unnecessary. If it was to build up the connection between Mei and Meikoomon with the other Digidestined, I am sure they didn't need 80% of the movie's time to do that, or it could've at least been done better rather than in such a stereotypical way. And the cultural festival was purely there to portray Mimi's conflict, which isn't bad but so much of it could have been cut out cause it was just absolutely nonsense.

~Animation~
Talking about things that could've been cut out of the movie, all those still frames and motion tweeks in the movie could've also been taken out. Heck I was surprised at how blatantly they are using still frames and motion tweeks. This isn't using technology to make things better, this is being lazy.

And the animation, what the hell. In Saikai, it was still somewhat passable but man, Toei really outdid themselves for shitty animations this time around. If they are using so many still frames it means they must be saving up for SOMETHING right? Well I for sure didn't see WHAT they were saving up for in Ketsui. Was the animation smooth during fighting sequences? Absolutely NOT. In fact, the animation quality was so shitty I couldn't even ENJOY the fight sequences, not like the cinematography and choreography was any good anyways during these sequences.

Now to the drawings/character designs. Last time I said it is something you get used to if you give it a chance but I take that back now. MAN it just looks HORRIBLE sometimes. Leomon makes an appearance and I swear he doesn't look majestic AT ALL in some frames, he looks stupid if anything. During the evolution sequences, Ikkakumon's pose was just plain stupid and Rosemon just looked soooo awkward at times. At least, this time around they showed the evolution sequences from champion to ultra and to mega unlike Saikai. Buuuut the evolution from ultra to mega wasn't that exciting although I guess if the evolution sequence is too long, it would take away from the fighting sequence. Did I already mention that their reuse of particle effects is made painfully obvious in Ketsui? The particle effects are pretty shitty/childish to begin with but now the reuse them? Big blow in the animation department.

Furthermore, due to the poor animation quality and drawing, facial expressions were SEVERELY lackinng, no impact at all, the Digidestined are horrified? Well not even a close up to their faces really convey that very strongly. Get it right Toei, first you say you'd make an anime series, then you suddenly change it to a 6 part movie series, then you delay it etc. They must be having some reaaally heavy budget and planning problems if they need half a year to make this sort of crap animation. And the next one is coming out in november! Well I am no expert in the animation industry so I wouldn't know but man... the future for tri isn't looking very good production wise.

~The End...~
Story wise, there wasn't progress other than the first and last 5 minutes of the movie, it was more concentrated on the Digidestined, which is fair enough I guess, it's Digimon, character development was always a big thing. Reference to Plato's theory of form was present, albeit little and very vague but at least they are sticking through with it.

Music was ok, nothing STELLAR compared to Saikai. I think I heard some of the bgm from Adventure but I may be just confusing it with the music from Saikai.

In conclusion... the movie itself felt very lackluster this time around, very slow and the fighting sequences didn't make up for it. But the character development was on point such as you'd expect from Digimon and that part was quite welcome.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 12, 2016

therandomviewer

Not Recommended

Today was aired the second part of Digimon Tri and I have some bad things to say about it.

While I didn't make a review about the first part, I can say I was left unsatisfied and afraid of what could become this sequel. To our bad luck, my fears came true.

The story is easily the weakest point of this show. It focuses more on banal situations as the typical visit to the thermal baths or the thousand times seen school festival rather than developing the plot itself turning out what should be action and adventure in a generic slice of life. The pace is still ... anticlimactic and crucial moments as the appearance of Rosemon and Vikemon end up as forgettable. And even though it makes interesting approaches through the characters, instead of deepening on them in an analytical way, they end up more dramatized than a Mexican novel. To all this, at least was good to see again to the charming Lillymon even for a few seconds.

The characters aren’t much better than the story. While is interesting to see the different ways of thinking of the now grown 'Chosen Child' most of these are too dramatized (As I stated before) and makes it annoying to watch. The group lacks the chemistry of the original series and Meiko is just a shy girl that fails to add something new. Until now none of them has had an important development or a revealing backstory and the entire repertoire falls flat.

I consider that there has been an improvement in the visuals, with a much more vivid colors and more defined design of characters. Unfortunately, the animation is still deficient and tends to look slow and forced which makes the action scenes unexciting and dull. The sound section is worse with generic instrumental tracks and only being saved by the nostalgic OP. The voice actors are average at best with nothing remarkable.

Toei is ruining our childhood which is really irritating, but most of us will continue to see what's next by pure nostalgia. However, if you're not an early fan of the series, I recommend you not to waste your precious time on this hot mess.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Digimon Adventure tri. 2: Ketsui Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Mar 11, 2016	141 replies	by nando3d1 »» Nov 12, 5:46 AM
	Is it really okay that they're ignoring 02's cast so much? oversevethousand - Apr 11, 2016	13 replies	by Aardwolf94 »» Jan 21, 2018 11:00 PM
	Thoughts on the new characters Lillinettix - Mar 28, 2016	6 replies	by argentino_kek »» May 24, 2017 12:31 PM
	I love the original digimon but lord23 - Mar 11, 2016	35 replies	by argentino_kek »» May 24, 2017 12:19 PM
	The 02 chosen children in Digimon Adventure Tri KingArti - Mar 29, 2016	1 replies	by argentino_kek »» May 24, 2017 12:03 PM