Digimon Adventure tri. 6: Bokura no Mirai

Non-spoilerely short version: Digimon Tri is a "meh" series of movies that will be pretty enjoyable for those with a strong imagination, very specific shippings or a nice dose of nostalgia. If not, you may still enjoy it, but I recommend you try thinking of Tai as the real main character as opposed to the group being, and that you don't get your hopes too high about any particular idea or plot-point.




THE REVIEW BELOW IS FULL OF SPOILERS! DO NOT READ IT UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIES OR DON'T MIND SPOILERS!!!!!



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Digimon Adventure Tri is centered around it's main character, Tai, three ship-fodder characters (Mimi,Matt and Sora), two plot devices (Kari and Izzy), two filler characters to round out the stereotypes (Joe and T.K.) and one ghost (Meico), though the three later can barely be said to have anything centered on them at all, plus 9 weapons of mass destruction and a few NPCs. Whether you liked the movie or not, that may seem like an unfair assessment, but the point I'm making is that the characters were simply THAT compartimentable in terms of the narrative. My experience of digimon Tri was that of an excutive movie, always hesitant on whether to deviate or follow convention, but with a lot of technical aspects pretty well handled. The few characters that didn't pass the Chekhov's gun test were pretty much put as backdrop and much of what the story failed at to me was it's inability to fully explore it's cool ideas. While I could rant about particular scenes or movies, I think I'd rather adress more general aspects, positives and negatives alike, of my impression of the movies in general, with a special focus on part 6 due to it being the topic of this thread.

Part 1: Tai​
What better way to start this off than with the character that seems to be at the center of everything, Tai. Now, on the original show, Tai (the de-facto leader of the group) always had this sort of special attention showered onto him. He got most of the big moments and was the only one to get a mega back then, aside from Matt his rival. Screen time and presence in the plot weren't at all evenly distrbuted even between those two back then (for instance, Tai defeated two dark masters while Matt kill-stealed one), but Tri takes it to a whole other level, blanding Matt to a T while Tai had the majority of the internal conflit, themes and big moments again all laid onto him. In fact, the movie in retrospect seems like one really big contrived way to retcon Mei into the group to "justify" the end of 02, but we'll get more on that later. For now the thing I'm trying to bring attention to is that despite the large cast of supposed main characters, the writers seemed almost oddly fascinated with treating Tai as the real MC.

Now, don't misunderstand, it's perfectly fine to have an MC. However this breaks the notion that the entire group of eight children are supposed to be MCs on pretty much equal footing, which is a bit lame but also not so bad. That said, I want the odd fascination that the movie seemed to put on Tai to stay in the back the heads of anyone reading this for a bit, because it will come into play when I talk about something else.

Before that, though, let's talk about the real changes to his character. In universe, I believe at least 3-4 years have passed (6 I'm told) since the original adventure. The children then were considerably young and it's rather understandable that in the time in-between adventures they would mature and grow. In a very cleverly written sentence Tai even states that "He sees more now so he sees less now" or something along those lines, basically implying that as he grew more aware of the consequences and the world around, his determination wavers because of the loss of his naivety from when he was younger. One of digimon's great appeals was always seeing the characters grow and develop over time and even in-between seasons, feeling like you're growing alongside them rather than leaving them behind while they go on some perpetual monster hunt limbo like a certain other anime protagonist.... That said, while the changes that occurred with Tai's character were thematically appropriate and make sense intelectually, I couldn't help but experience them as them trying to slap Matt's former self onto tie to switch their dinamic around, which just seemed plain lazy, but it could have even made sense maybe Matt influenced him or something, if not for the fact that it seems this is the first time Matt is even noticing it and that somehow the personality change made Tai utterly retarded, unable to recognize that yeah, maybe the just towering monster shooting lazer beams at a small moving cat may need to be fought off...like eveyr other villain ever that he ever experienced.

The problem is with Tai's character, aside from the whole obsession with him thing, is that he doesn't seem to be developing, he seems to be constantly backtracking from a backtrack. His character "growth" is more of a regression, and that ends up being so much that they don't have time then to actually flesh out the other 17 more. For instance....

Part 2: Kari And Izzy Are Just Plot Devices, And It's Getting Worse​
When I first watched digimon as a kid, I was in one of those "cooties" phase that a lot of boys go through, so the whole time I wanted her off screen. I liked Gatomon though. As I grew up, I started viewing Kari as this character that seemes increasingly cute and increasingly a mary sue, at least as far as the first season goes. They tried fleshing her out a little more in 02 and now in Tri, however most of her cuteness from before was lost and was replaced with exposition dump and other plot-device-powers. it was pretty nice of them to give her a moment of breakdown, and to show her fragility in terms of health (a nearly forgotten fact after a brief side-plot in the original adventure), but the way they matter-of-factly gave her a dark digivolution like it's in her blood or somehting and then that dark digivolution merged with the other digimon was just so forced and barely went anywhere at all... Still, the show once again utterly failed in giving her any semblance of an actual character flaw or character arc, the only conflict she had to face at all lasted for 2 seconds and her resolution was "yes because my brother told me so".

Izzy, while he was my favorite character as a kid, always was a plot device from the beggining. Now, unlike Kari, Izzy was treated as a more than a plot device in the original character, with great interactions and character, but this guy can seriously make anything the plot needs him to, at the exact pace the movie needs for drama. HE CAN PROGRAM DIMENSIONS! His abilities are god-like and the only reason he doesn't solve the plot all by himself is probably because he wasn't actually trying or something.

However, moreso than just generally complaining about this, I want to get a look at the progression of these characters. Kair started as a cute girl too young and innocent for any flaws beyond that, with a controversial partner to complement that. In 02 Kair gets extra spotlight, is treated even more like miss perfect, and her partner is less interesting too (but still adorable to boot, gatomon). In tri, she barely exists other than when she is called upon to be possessed and her big scene of focus is when she passes out. She remains flawless and has a less than 10 seconds-long character arc that changes nothing about her.

Izzy started out as a really smart guy with a laptop given a basically magical upgrade. Sure he was smart, but a ton of the amazing things he could do were because Jennai gave his laptop an extra upgrade. His intellect was just one way of getting to certain results, and the reasons he could do this or that were at leats moderatly justifiable. In 02 he is kinda rewarded for his intelligence and is pretty much summoned as a plot device or exposition machine, but other than that he is pretty harmless and it's forgivable because he is just a complete side-character. On tri, they try focusing a bit more on him at times, and his relationship with Mimi in particular, but in return his "smart-kid powers" get blown completely out of proportion and he can basically do anything sitting in his computer, to the point where the abridged version turned him into an ego-maniac that basically runs the world and it's a running gag that he can do anything.

Overall, the biggest problem with these two is that they are becoming more and more flat, and anytime an opportunity to round them out appears it is thrown out of the window in favors of presening powers that are just purely nonsensical and could be taken up by a million other roles. However, Izzy did have a very good moment in the movie, one BIG mistake he did. And while he wasn't totally willing to admit it and in the end he was nonetheless rewarded for that mistake, it was a BIIG step forward to show him as fallible.

What was this mistake you ask? Well, that brings me to my next point.

Part 3: Homeostasis Was a Pretty Swell Villain Group​
Back when Mei was still a Meicrackmon (I think?) and the kids were all trying to push her out of the human world, each getting infected and all that, Izzy desperately tried finding a way to save them and because he is almighty, he created a magical cube that would somehow save their data and memories from the reboot. While the digimon ultimately failed to get on the cube on time, it got worse: The cube itself later came to be a source of power for Ordinemon, the final boss, which implies that, had Izzy not tried cheating the reboot with his magic cube, Ordinemon wouldn't exist to begin with. The reboot would have actually worked. Homeostasis, regardless of anything else had a clever last resort plan they put into motion after things couldn't go any other way and the only reason it failed was because the kids couldn't let go. And even after that, Homeosttasis was STILL willing to give them a chance of undoing their errors and after they refused Jesmon still aided them regardless.

Admitedly, I might be a little biased because Jesmon is my favorite digimon, but this to me seems to be a genuiley well-intended, well-managed organization that is only antagonistic because their methods are at times a bit more drastic than those of the kids, since they don't have access to magic plot devices like Izzy and Kari. Both times, the organization tries to help the heroes organize, and when they refuse and inevitably fail, Homeostasis takes matters into their own hands BEFORE it is too late, send their best digi for the job to handle and cooperate while they buy time for plans that actually would have worked, while still staying ready up to the last second to backtrack on those plans if the kids succeeed on pulling a miracle out of their asses.

I'm honestly quite impressed. Which makes it all the more of a shame that Jesmon gets no resolution, and he's far from the only one.


Part 4: Many Characters, Few Resolutions​
For all the characters that populate this movie, few seem to have character arcs and even those that do don't all finish them. Tai finishes a character arc, even Kari has a ridiculously small character arc and many of the character have a pseudo-character arc when their digimon get rebooted. However, and especially among the antagonists, barely anyone seems to get anything resembling a resolution. We get to see Maki (the traitor woman who wanted the reboot) finding her digimon partner with the lost memories but we don't know what happens to her after that. Does she go back? Does she befriend the digimon again? Does she use her gun to put herself out of her misery now that her digimon has no idea who she is?

Picking from my previous topic, the last thing we see is Jesmon just going through the portal and we're told they confronted Yggdrasil and Alphamon. Like, seriously, that's THREE resolutions to character arcs we don't get to see. How they did change, have their views or positions altered at all? I mean Yggdrasil didn't since he is a computer but then again...he is a computer. Who the F MADE Yggdrasil? How were they not in on this whole action? How did Izzy not immediately track them down and hack them with his god-like abilities?

What happened with Jenai? Why is he suddenly an insane sadistic prick and how did he get back to being so young? Why does he shapeshift, why does he keep taking the form of the digimon emperor? There are so many questions and things that went unresolved that it seems like sequel bait, and it probably is. On top of that, it's also trying to be a prequel to the ending of the previous season, as it tries to retcon Meico into the story.

Part 5: is Meico Even Really a character?​
Digimon movies have always had this sort of issue where instead of exploring established characters better they tend to side-track to focus on newly invented characters for the movie specifically. This has helped bring many fun concepts into the potential pseudo-cannon of digimon, but it also tends to come at the expense of the old characters and part of the audience's supposed investment. Digimon Tri, on the other hand, tries to have it's cake and eat it too, in the process spilling said cake on the fllor and the trying to lick it directly off there.

This is because Meico does consume time that could dedicated to other members of the actual team we follow from before, but she also gets...nothing. Her existence in the movie is resumed to two things: Meicomon's partner (oh that naming is cringy...) and Tai's future romantic interest. Nothing else. She barely has a personality and her backstory is she's from out of town and her faster works on secret government project #375. Honestly, with Tai's changes, his breakup with Sora, the ressurection of characters like Leomon (only to be killed again) and the flat-out-disappearance of the 02 characters, I think Tri could easily have been just some delusional fever dream Tai is having. Meico acts and feels like she's Tai's imaginary friend to quope with the shock from the break-up and the only time when she is even useful she is just a magnet for Meicoomon/Ordinemon.

The cold hand of corporate executives is easily felt on this project and that is probably the origin of the greatest issue of all with Digimon Adventure Tri:

Part 6: Digimon Adventure Tri HAS NO BALLS​
Remember what I said earlier about the weird fascination the show had with Tai? Don't get me wrong, I like Tai, but this is the kind of sudden out of nowhere character development a death flag character has. And then they killd Tai, or at least they really wanted us to believe they did. They had emotional moments, Kari breaking down, and even a symbolic goggle passage to Matt with him struggling to become team leader and all that. It was a nearly perfect set up, that they just didn't go through with , as instead they felt the need to bring him back. if I may, let me help you envision a digimon Tri in which Tai actually dies.

Fans of Tai are understandably upset, but if his death scene was made a little less sudden and a bit more epic, I think even them could have enjoyed it, and it would feel more appropriate for his character. Tis would in a sense, wrap up his character arcs and prove he is still the brave leader willing to gamble and put everything on the line for his friends. With it, charcters like Kari (say, forcing her to be more independent) and Agumon could have gotten a shit ton more development and even been brought to the forefront. All the emotional scenes we got about it would not be pointless and Matt becoming the new leader would show how far Tri was willing to go and how great the stakes could actually be, after all if they killed TAI of all people, then anyone could perish. So, the whole time, my fingers were crossed for this to be the case, even though I already knew it wasn't going to happen.

This is hardly the only time, especially in the last movie, when the destruction of narrative stakes and consequences just wrecked what could have been really brave and frankly fantastic moves. A permanent deletion of the digimon's memories instead of them being restored seemed like a great way to show that the characters can in fact fail and that it means something for them to fail. Homeostasis going through with their second plan could lead to some interesting post-credit exploration. The 02 kids being dead would kill Davis. The conflict between yggdrasil and homeostasis and the kids having to pick a side, or homeostais teaming up with the adults, making the kids have to go rogue....

This is the tip of the iceberg of the cool ideas that digimon tri half-asses, and that makes it come off as a really pointless. If you want to be a light-hearted flick that goes nowhere at least don't try pretending like you are more than that, and have the consistency to not pull random plot devices at least. And if you want to bring new and innovative ideas and maybe you need a new plot device for it, that's fine, but at least explore the idea to it's fullest extent and don't backtrack on all forms of consequences, specially if the character genuinely made a terrible mistake for purely selfish reasons.

Part 7: Themes, Art, Sound and Animation​
Now, I do have to give Tri credit for being rather clever about it's themes, and ultimately having a resolution that is more unexpected thematically than a typical digimon series (to kill a foe for mercy, instead of trying to rescue them like a shonen protagonist). Even as it butchered it's own consequence it explored themes of consequences, the need to act BEFORE shit goes down, order vs peace, growing up, letting go and many others... If tri had actually went full-out with it's ideas,I think these themes would really have stoof out a lot more and made it a pretty amazing movie. But even if they didn't, at least the seeds were definitely there.

Apart from some awful constantly re-used 3D for evolutions that just made otherwise badass digimon look like flacid cartoonishly silly plastic figures, and a few overly generic sound effects, digimon's shiny art style was actually pretty great, the animation was fluid enough and the sound track was well-timed, even if a lot of it were just remixes at most.

Part 8: Theorizing about Ordinemon and Jenai​
Now, this isn't so much in trms of review, but I do want to bring up a couple controversial topics and kinda try to justify one while the other I will just provide a personal theory that while likely wrong, I think would be cool.

First, that ass shot, I mean that angel ass, I mean Ordinemon. Yes, I know, that sentence probably made me come off as an asshole ( :P ) but jokes aside I don't think it was made for fanservice. I mean it would be just weird for this monster that mixes basically two cats and turns into a grey angel with spiky teeth for be meant for fanservice. If they wanted fanservice that badly I doubt they would need much of an excuse to Rip Sora's clothes off or something and Mimi is probably changing half the time. Rather I think it ws just a poorly planned consequence of the digimon's design being seemingly based of renaissance-styled paintings, which often showed extremely slender, almost marble naked angels like that. In fact if not for some church censoring the sistine chapel would be a collection of nudes. So I think the animators were just viticms of an unlucky accident where I guess the story-boarders and the original designers didn't meet to discuss their work or something or nobody realized how it looked until it was too late.

Now, as for Jenai going psycho evil, I can't justify that, however, i do have one theory which would be cool if it were true, but most likely isn't. I hope that Jenai is playing the kids, as in, his goal is actually to wipe out all these evil digimon which he knows will eventually threaten the digital world. What he wants is to hurry and do it before every kid becomes like Tai was becoming in this movie's beggining, so he plays the bad guy to create an incentive for the kids to, on their own, push forward with all their might against these incoming threats.

Part 9: Overall Thoughts​
There is a lot more I could talk about, but I think this should suffice for now as my hands are killing me.

In any case overall, Tri had some great foreshadowing, themes, art sound and ideas, but it failed to take advantage of any of what it had by trying to be too tied to prior convention. It was a "meh" movie, but a nice nostalgia trip back to the world of digimon for me :)



Hope you liked reading this review!

An interesting but unnecessary Digimon story. (A review of all the Tri stories)

I understand that for the 15th anniversary of Digimon, the studio wanted to do something fun and interesting. This story however feels like it could have been better suited to one of the other Digimon properties. I think a story taking place 3 years after the event in Tamers might have worked better with a more developed digital world. But alas, we returned to the original characters.

Story:
There really isn't much to say regarding the overall story of the Tri series. There seemed to be more loose ends than answers. The characters ... struggled to really find their ground here. It seemed like the producers wanted to have the original characters but in their more grown up state. It made the story unbalanced.

Art:
The art was actually pretty good. It had a Voltron feel to it, and for the most part, the characters did resemble their original designs (with Mimi being the major exception). There could have been a little more effort to differentiate them, but aside from that, the designs for the digital world and several locations around Japan were amazing.

Major pet peeve:
If there is one thing that drove me to the point of nearly abandoning the whole series of movies it was Meicoomon. I swear if I had to hear that little f***er say "Mei" in that whiny voice one more time, I would have put my fist through the TV. As a character, it takes the number one spot of most annoying. A spot I used to hold for Hikari. Meicoomon was designed and voiced to be "cute" but is just absolutely insufferable. I had kinda hoped they would have killed Meicoomon off.

What I liked:
The Digimon design were as good as ever. I was happy to see Patamon > Angemon > MagnaAngemon (can you tell my favorite?). As mentioned before, the locations were great. I did enjoy at some of the new characters introduced and the idea that the world didn't just forget about Digimon. I did enjoy some of the backstory as well about the "first" digidestined.

Overall:
Its a good time-waster, but doesn't really add anything to the series as a whole. If nothing else its an average story.

Part 1 English
Part 2 Bahasa Indonesia

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Ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to talk about an anime that takes us on a trip down memory lane. That's right, I'm talking about Digimon Adventure tri. 6: Bokura no Mirai, the final installment in the six-part series that continues the adventures of our favorite digital monsters.

Set three years after the events of the original series, Digimon Adventure tri. 6: Bokura no Mirai sees the return of the beloved characters we grew up with, as they face their greatest challenge yet. With the fate of both the digital and real worlds at stake, our heroes must band together once ... again to save the day.

Now, if you're a fan of the original series, this anime is an absolute treat. It's got everything you loved about the original – the lovable characters, the epic battles, and the emotional moments that tug at your heartstrings. But it's also got a modern twist, with updated animation and a storyline that's both nostalgic and fresh.

Overall, I'd give Digimon Adventure tri. 6 a solid 9/10. It's a fitting conclusion to the series that will have you cheering, crying, and feeling all the feels. So strap in, folks, and get ready for a blast from the past with our favorite digital companions."

I might say something like, "Well, I don't know about you, but watching Digimon Adventure tri. 6 made me feel like a kid again. It's got all the hallmarks of a classic anime – cool monsters, heroic characters, and a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat. So if you're feeling nostalgic for the good old days, this anime is definitely worth a watch.

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Hadirin sekalian, hari ini kita akan membicarakan tentang sebuah anime yang membawa kita ke masa lalu. Ya, saya bicara tentang Digimon Adventure tri. 6: Bokura no Mirai, bagian terakhir dari seri enam bagian yang melanjutkan petualangan monster digital favorit kita.

Berlatar tiga tahun setelah acara seri asli, Digimon Adventure tri. 6: Bokura no Mirai menghadirkan kembali karakter-karakter yang kita cintai, saat mereka menghadapi tantangan terbesar mereka. Dengan nasib dunia digital dan nyata berada di atas meja, pahlawan kita harus bergabung sekali lagi untuk menyelamatkan hari.

Jika Anda penggemar seri asli, anime ini pasti menyenangkan. Ini memiliki semua yang Anda sukai dari aslinya - karakter yang menyenangkan, pertempuran epik, dan momen emosional yang mengharu biru hati. Tapi anime ini juga memiliki sentuhan modern, dengan animasi yang diperbarui dan alur cerita yang nostalgic dan segar.

Secara keseluruhan, saya akan memberikan nilai 9/10 untuk Digimon Adventure tri. 6. Ini adalah sebuah kesimpulan yang pantas untuk seri yang akan membuat Anda bersorak, menangis, dan merasakan segala hal yang ada. Jadi siapkan diri, dan nikmati kembali petualangan dengan teman digital favorit kita."

Saya mungkin berkata seperti, "Nah, saya tidak tahu tentang kalian, tapi menonton Digimon Adventure tri. 6 membuat saya merasa seperti anak kecil lagi. Ini memiliki semua ciri khas anime klasik - monster keren, karakter heroik, dan alur cerita yang membuat Anda tertarik. Jadi jika Anda merindukan masa lalu yang indah, anime ini pasti layak untuk ditonton.

If there was a manual on how to monetize nostalgia, "Digimon adventure tri" should be the prime example of that (learn Toriyama, with your disappointing "DB Super"). I do not say it as something negative, but quite the opposite, it is what makes this long-awaited continuation so special after about two decades (yes, all the spin offs never existed for me).
This may not be an anime that is going to change your life or your perception of the world, but if there is a message that leaves us for those of us who have already passed or are almost 30 years old, it is that ... sometimes there are decisions that we must make, for More difficult or mean the loss of something that we really appreciate.
Lastly, for all of you trying to do a "technical analysis" of this, I am truly sorry that you have forgotten what it feels like to be a chosen child.

*I clarify that I saw all the episodes after it was finished, so the "movie by episode" format was not a problem for me.