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.
