#Unless Omegamon came from another world

[happythexceed]

Agumon’s subsequent evolutions

I think the creators don’t think it would be a surprise to us. Hence they revealed all forms of Agumon’s evolutions.

[o-w-quinlan]

Digimon Adventure: (2020) Final Thoughts

Considering I stopped reviewing this series episode by episode months ago, they’re more positive thoughts than you’d expect, though still not all that positive.

To summarize, this is an entertaining series with plenty of individual good aspects and great episodes that nevertheless leaves me cold as a whole. Much as I enjoyed following it week to week, I can’t say I recommend this series to anyone but hardcore Digimon fans, or hardcore fans of the wider “monster” genre.

Action

It felt appropriate to start with this, considering a focus on action was what the initial interviews promised, and they delivered in spades. It wasn’t perfect or too consistent, there were several times when the Digimon not evolving when they could just broke any tension the fights had, but this series had some of the best fights in any Digimon anime. Anything in the first 3 episodes, Greymon/MetalGreymon vs MetalTyranomon, SkullKnightmon vs Greymon and Garurumon, Mugendramon vs DoneDevimon, Mugendramon vs WarGreymon, Millenniumon vs the dragons, Omegamon vs Abbadomon Core… all of them among the best things the franchise has to offer in terms of action scenes, which after so many series where fights were solved by having a protagonist Digimon evolve and one-shotting the enemy, comes as a breath of fresh air (to be fair, this series also had a lot of that, but it had actual great fights to compensate).

Worldbuilding

Another thing promised in interviews was the use of Digimon from all over the franchise, and not only did they deliver, but they also included plenty of references to the “null canon” to enrich the experience for the most hardcore fans. The series made sure to constantly emphasize the savage nature of the Digital World, bringing back the Tamers worldbuilding of Digimon consuming weaker Digimon in hopes of achieving evolution. Along the way we saw a lot of allies fighting back against this status-quo, from things as overt as Leomon organizing a resistance or Petaldramon protecting weaker Digimon from the all-consuming Entmon, to less dramatic stuff like weak Digimon settling down to live together, or the mere presence of a restaurant where everyone can rest for a while of the hardships of their world.

The biggest flaw here was in how the series handled its antagonists. With very few exceptions, every single enemy Digimon in the series lacked dialog, whereas nearly every single ally Digimon could speak normally, and this disparity cheapened the whole thing, because instead of coming across as “this mentality is normal for this world”, it came across as just your normal “everyone lived together in harmony until the villains attacked”, which is very much not what the series was telling us.

Characterization

That brings us to the next point: the lack of personality for most villains. I joked elsewhere that Minotaurmon from episode 19 was the most compelling villain of the series, and that’s not completely a joke. Almost every single villain of the week was flat, plenty of the “main” villains were lacking in dialog (Algomon in the first few episodes, Nidhoggmon, Millenniumon) or turned mindless halfway through (Devimon, DarkKnightmon). Negamon/Abbadomon in the final episodes managed to benefit from this by being the embodiment of an “instinct”, but in general this meant a mook-of-the-week like Minotaurmon managed to be a highlight among the villains simply by having dialog and non-trivial desires.

But what of the protagonists? The popular opinion is that everyone is far blander than they were in the original series, and I agree. But rather than comparing it with the first series, let’s look at what it had to offer to us. Where in other Digimon series, the backstories and issues of the protagonists and their reactions to what’s going on around them make for most of the drama, in this series the drama comes from the villains trying to destroy everything, and for the most part that means the protagonists only need to be distinct and charming on their own, no necessity to create conflict between them. There is an overall character arc for all of them, though: accepting and interiorizing their new duties towards the world they had ended up stranded on, getting to know and love the Digital World. Was this well done? Not really.

Taichi and Takeru, for example, were so much the embodiment of the stock shonen hero that accepting their place in this new world didn’t really reveal anything about them we hadn’t already seen from their first few appearances.

Jou got stuck as an unfunny punchline 90% of the time, to the point of damaging his few “serious” moments in some of his focus episodes. His development of becoming assertive was compelling in theory, but it got muddled with so many unfunny and uncomfortable hotsprings jokes that the impact was lost.

Hikari started as an even more blatant plot-device “mysterious character” than she was in the original series, before unconvincingly changing to cheerful little girl afterwards (the whiplash between her in episode 33 and her in episode 34 was something else), and only really managing to settle into a compelling character in her last focus episode (58, defending the Digitamas from the Bakemon and SkullBaluchimon, which to be fair is a great episode and probably the best showcase for Hikari as a character in any product or continuity).

Koushiro was mostly fine, although we all remember the several times the series seemed to promise it might do something with him (his uneasiness when his family was mentioned, or that line about having to “face the darkness of his past” in the HerakleKabuterimon episode) that ended up being nothing.

Mimi is the fan-favorite, being charming in nearly all her appearances and having some of the best focus episodes, and it’s mostly deserved. If there’s anything I criticize from her, it’s that her focus episodes don’t really add up to anything.

Yamato was fine, started out as a stock shonen rival before becoming the single most chill “lone wolf” in any Digimon series, probably because of what I said before of the conflict between the protagonists no longer being the source of drama. He gets a slow development of caring only for his brother to starting to care for other Digimon for the sake of Sora and Gabumon to caring about the Digital World just as much as everyone else.

Sora was made fun of by a certain section of the fandom for having the worst focus episodes early on, and I agreed, but having finished the series I can’t get rid of the impression that her focus episodes, while perhaps not that good on their own, when taken as a whole explore her character the best of any other. Yeah, this mostly means exploring her compassion (these are not very multi-dimensional characters), but they deepen and deepen both her impact on the Digimon she saves and how she is impacted in turn by them, moving her away from saving others through her combat prowess to saving others by empathizing with the grief of another caring soul, and by the end I honestly ended up considering her my favorite character (despite none of her episodes making it to my list of favorites).

As for the Digimon… it’s following in the footsteps of other Digimon Adventure products by not really having much of interest for the Digimon themselves except for Tailmon.

Overall, for the most part the main characters were decent, but besides Mimi and ultimately also Sora, I don’t think they’re very memorable. All of them start out promising, but never really improved from that promising start (again, except for Sora).

Pacing

And now we get to the biggest problem of the series: Pacing. I’ve seen it stated elsewhere that this series was more episodic than most (any?) other Digimon series before it, and part of the backlash it got was from not being as serialized as fans expected it to be. This isn’t exactly true. From episode 16 (Eyesmon) to episode 24 (DoneDevimon), this series was as serialized as any other Digimon series has ever been, with nonstop escalation that demanded you keep watching it week after week. Then, from 25 to 35 (Angewomon) or 36 (BlitzGreymon), it pulled slightly back from that never-ending escalation, but was still pretty serialized. It was only afterwards that it became heavily episodic, and by that point it wasn’t expectations set up by previous series that hurt it in the eyes of the fandom, it was expectations set by this series itself in its first half.

Not that the episodes themselves were bad. Honestly, I found myself significantly more entertained by the episodic later half of the series than the serialized first half. Maybe it was because they didn’t feel the need to convince me they were the most exciting, tense thing I had ever seen when they were clearly not (hello, Mamemon episode), or maybe it was that there were more than just endless fights to them, but I normally ended up those episodes entertained and satisfied, whereas with a lot of episodes from Eyesmon to BlitzGreymon, I mostly just felt frustrated after watching them. I agree with the criticism that, when seen as a whole, breaking momentum so hard for so long after months of never-ending escalation wasn’t the right choice, but when seen week after week, I can’t see this change of approach as that bad of a thing.

Conclusion

I think that sums up the series for me. On a weekly basis, it’s pretty entertaining. It’s when seen as a whole that the problems really become clear. There’s been some speculation in the past few weeks of how much the current situation in the world might have impacted the series, but ultimately, I have to judge what actually happened, and I can’t help the impression that this series ultimately left me with nothing of substance after it was all said and done. Like, I enjoyed this more than, say, Appli Monsters, but Appli Monsters have things that stick with you after it’s over. Not so much here, unless you’re a hardcore fan that loves the Omegamon lore this added (which I am, btw; love that Omegamon lore). I don’t think I can recommend this series to anyone who isn’t a hardcore Digimon fan, or at least a hardcore fan of the wider “monster” genre.

One thing I’m grateful to this series for, though, it’s the commercial boost it has given the rest of the franchise. I’m not going to credit it for all the successes it currently has, after all the Card Game would have fell off by now if it wasn’t genuinely well-done and the Vital Bracelet happened because of years of the virtual pet division progressively building up its audience after it had nearly died off, but it’s undeniable they wouldn’t have sold as well without this anime advertising the franchise week after week. Next week, we’ll have the first episode of Digimon Ghost Game, the first time since 2001 that we have a Digimon series being immediately succeeded by another. If that isn’t a sign of how well the franchise is doing right now, I don’t know what is.

Favorite Episodes: 1 (Tokyo Digital Crisis), 6 (The Targeted Kingdom), 12 (Lilimon Blooms), 20 (The Seventh One Awakens), 32 (Soaring Hope), 42 (King of Inventors, Gerbemon), 49 (The God of Evil Descends, Millenniummon), 56 (The Gold Wolf of the Crescent Moon), 58 (Hikari, New Life)

[fizzingwizard]

I fell asleep as soon as I got home and didn’t get to write about Kizuna. xP So belatedly, here are my thoughts.

Warning: Spoilers for Digimon: Kizuna Last Evolution

So to start with, some context: I had a bad day at work. Not gonna go into details, but it was the sort of thing to put you out of the mood for seeing a movie, even one that’s a childhood treasure. I almost didn’t go.

In addition, because of what happened at work, I had to stay an extra hour, which meant I missed the first 25 minutes of the movie. I’m not sure how much story I actually missed - probably there was 10 min or so of trailers - but it’s possible I missed some framing. Usually the cute, fun, get-to-know-the-character moments happen in those beginning scenes, and I didn’t get to see those. When I walked in, Taichi and Yamato were having a meal together and talking about how their lives were all changing, but the Digimon stayed the same. So that’s where I’m starting from.

One more thing - I haven’t read the Kizuna novel. It sounds like if you did, you already know everything that happens. (Possibly reading the novel is more interesting than seeing the movie.) Sorry if I’m surprised by things y’all already knew!

For those who don’t like reading my long-winded posts:

Kizuna is what I would have expected from a Digimon sequel before Tri came out. That is, it’s predictable.

The art is quite good, except when it’s not.

There’s not enough of characters who aren’t named Taichi or Yamato.

Yamato is extremely COOL.

Koushirou has some good moments.

Tri is actually still canon, which I didn’t know - Meiko appears briefly in Kizuna.

It was fun to see the 02 kids, but they didn’t do anything special, although they did more than some Adventure kids.

It ends with the partner Digimon disappearing ‘forever,’ but also with Taichi putting in I think his thesis in politics specifically between the human world and the digital world. So everything seems geared to reach the 02 ending, where we know they were with their partners. So I guess at least we can headcanon that they find a way to reunite :/

OK so.

The art is really nice in this movie. Very smooth, very anime movie-like. I preferred Uki Atsuya’s designs and it did feel a little weird to go back to a more wide-eyed, innocent style now that the kids are older, but it was so lovely that I didn’t mind. Tri really lacked smoothness in the animation, so this was refreshing.

There are some times where the animations falters or some error happens - at least twice I noticed characters’ mouths moving without them saying anything, and there’s a scene where Taichi gets blown back by Eosmon’s attack and when he sits up his, um, backside is quite pronounced, like on-the-cover-of-Playboy-pronounced x’D Who knew Taichi was so thicc?

I liked in the beginning when they fly through cyberspace to take on Eosmon and it’s just like the cyberspace in Our War Game and Diablomon Strikes Back. The beginning was a bit promising. Omegamon is called on to help but his evolution breaks down, and fortunately Menoa knows all about why. There were some strong emotional moments when Taichi seizes the chance to help with a Digimon situation, and even stronger when they find out their partner Digimon are going to leave when they become adults and commit to a path (since apparently becoming an adult means you no longer have the endless possibilities of childhood). Digivolving speeds up the process.

Taichi and Yamato react very strongly. Other Chosen don’t seem in danger yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Takeru breathes a sigh of relief when he checks his digivice and realizes there’s no countdown, but Yamato’s and Taichi’s digivices are glowing with a countdown clock. Yamato screams and runs off to do anything he can to stop this. Taichi tries to deny it, but then Gennai appears in his apartment (which I think he cannot afford because we never see him turn on the lights :P) and tells him it’s all true and there’s nothing we can do about it. Then it’s bye-bye Gennai.

Oh, but before Gennai shows up Taichi is showing Agumon his apartment, and Agumon immediately finds his porn stash. I mean, that’s what you get for having magazines and DVDs instead of just using the Internet, Taichi, you moron. Teehee.

So Menoa and Imura convince the Adventure kids to “help” them, saying they’re trying to save the Chosen’s trapped consciousness. Yamato immediately figured out something’s not right, but pegs Imura as the likely suspect. However, he’s suspicious of Menoa too. Remember in Tri, when he sneaks after Nishijima and Himkawa, and gets them to talk? This is that only More. He lurks in stairwells, he goes without sleep, he researches online databases, he gets the 02 kids looking up details on Menoa, he follows Imura to some secret hideout covered in the typical secret agent decor of Papers Pinned To Walls With Illegible Writing.

As fun as it is to watch Yamato be all Men In Black, shouldn’t it... be... Ken? X’D Or are there many secret agents in space?

When Imura confronts Yamato, Hikari and Takeru have been taken prisoner. Somehow. They’re tied to chairs and Koushirou gets sent a message from Hikari’s phone saying in many different languages “Which one will be next?” So Taichi and Yamato hurry to the scene. At this point, Mimi has already had her consciousness abducted, and we now find out Jou’s KO’d too off screen.

Yamato sees Imura sitting on the stairs holding a gun. He lifts the gun and says “Takeru is already -” and I as like OMG THEY KILLED TAKERU!? but the gun is just... for show x’D Takeru has had his consciousness trapped. So has Hikari. Yamato makes good with Imura and they realize they need to go after Menoa, that she’s the one behind it all. Uh, too late though, because Menoa’s already moved against Koushirou, I think because she wants his information on Chosen Children around the world, and traps his consciousness as well. But not before Koushirou is able to track the location of Eosmon and leave the coordinates in a message for Taichi.

I don’t like Menoa. First of all, she’s a foreigner who likes to insert random English words where they’re not needed, and her accent is one of the worst I’ve ever heard x’D If you’re gonna cast someone who can’t speak a language as a speaker of that language, how about not have them actually speak it? But also, she’s not interesting. She had a Digimon partner - surprise! - who was a butterfly - surprise! - and who disappeared when she entered the path to adulthood - surprise! - and who she’s been grieving for ever since, so her big master plan is to somehow trap the consciousness of all Chosen Children around the world in another dimension where they can live inside their memories and never have to grow up. (The Digimon too.) She refers to it as her “Neverland.” None of this interests me. Yawn.

She is able to trap all the Adventure kids except Taichi, Yamato, and Sora. But don’t get excited about Sora not being trapped - Sora has decided not to fight anymore, and she sticks her decision the whole movie long. Sora is almost completely absent.

So now almost all the Adventure Chosen have been abducted and most of them didn’t even get to do anything, unless they were all being super awesome in those first ten-fifteen minutes that I missed. The 02 kids do not get trapped and when Eosmon copies start raining down around the world, they run around trying to stop them. Daisuke is adorable. Pretty much just what you’d expect. Iori is Iori. Miyako is her exuberant self. Ken is forgettable X’D I’m so sorry, Ken. Someone give him a hairstyle. My problem with the 02 kids is because, as much as it sucked that they never turned up after their inauspicious start in Tri, having them around isn’t really improving anything. Nostalgia, sure. But they’re too busy doing research and fighting to have those nice character moments we’d like to see. They do the shonen anime thing of Stating the Obvious and Promising to Unite As One and that’s it for their dialogue. They’re polite and take turns letting each other say the predictable line. At least we know Stingmon still calls his partner “Ken-chan.” <3

Taichi and Yamato use Koushirou’s coordinates to go after Menoa in her world. But not before Yamato reacts with irrational strength when Taichi suggests they save their trapped friends. Because saving them means digivolving, which means the process of losing their partners forever will speed up. “Taichi!! Are you okay with that??” Taichi’s like, “Um... no, but people are trapped and need to be rescued.” And Yamato’s like “Oh right.”

So they go and are attacked by Adventure-age versions of their trapped friends and also random Digimon. There’s quite a lot of blood?? Someone, I think Yamato, has a freaking Drimogemeon attacking him. He doesn’t get gored though lmao. Eosmon has a billion copies and they’re around the world going for Chosen Children. They bring out Omegamon and he gets his leg chopped off, whee. But both Digimon are physically intact when the evolution is broken.

Menoa is completely mentally unstable and fuses with Eosmon to become their “goddess.” Taichi sticks his hand out zombie-like under the pile of Digimon attacking him and yells at his Adventure-age friends “We must move on!” (ie, grow up). He is able to crawl to Hikari and blow her whistle with a huge breath.

This snaps everyone out of it. At this point I think “Okay! Big battle all together!” But nope. It’s still just Taichi and Yamato, who get new evolutions that look like Thundercats, and go after Menoa. While some song plays making it difficult to hear dialogue, they defeat Eosmon which makes the copies around the world disappear, and then they find Menoa trapped within her own memories of her partner, Morphomon, and rescue her as well. Menoa’s last scene is being handcuffed by Imura.

Then Taichi and Yamato go out separately with their partners and have a last conversation with them as the countdown clock is about to expire. Yamato plays his harmonica. Agumon tries to ply Taichi for food. We get Agumon’s vantage point looking up at Taichi and it’s like “wow you’re huge now.” Agumon and Gabumon both ask their partners what they’ll do tomorrow. Just as Taichi and Yamato think of an answer, they look and their partners are gone. Taichi and Yamato do some pretty impressive sobbing. Then we see them some time later hurrying on with their lives under symbolic cherry blossoms. The end!

The credits show scenes of the Chosen living their adult lives, the younger ones still with their partners, the older without. It ends with a peek at Taichi’s thesis, representing step one towards becoming a diplomat between the human and digital worlds. Like I said before, since we know they still have their partners in the 02 epilogue, it’s strange to me that they kept everything the same except that. So let’s headcanon that they’ll meet again o.O I guess

So if you read this far, you probably got the vibe that I wasn’t super impressed by Kizuna. But it’s not a bad movie. Tri pretty much spoiled me. I get that there are people who really don’t like Tri for various reasons, but to be honest, I think that even if you dislike it, you have to acknowledge what a gift it was. Six movies that gave every character something to do and mostly avoided the predictable stuff, not entirely, but much better than would be expected from an anime movie. Tri did so many interesting things. It’s got its flaws, a couple big ones, but I can never get past how it built everything up and what it resulted in.

But Tri’s number one strength comes from having six movies to tell the story. Kizuna has just one. If Tri had been condensed into a single movie - say we meet Meiko, the infection happens, she’s the origin, before the partners lose their memories Meiko asks the kids to kill Meicoomon, Daigo dies saving Taichi and then Taichi kills Meicoomon, the end - Idk if I would have liked that. It wouldn’t have gotten the build up it needed. I wouldn’t have learned to love Meiko. Stories need pacing, they need development, and more of each the more characters there are. Tri had the time to give us that.

I wasn’t expecting Kizuna to be like Tri - both the art style and all the info about it said otherwise - so I have to say that all in all, Kizuna is the movie I originally would have expected a Digimon sequel to be. It’s got That Plot that every fan read or wrote on fanfiction.net back in the day, where the kids lose their partners as a result of becoming an adult. I always hated that plotline because it was so predictable. If everyone can think of it, how can you call it creative?

But it is quite Japanese in a way, the appreciation for “the transience of things,” what they call 物の哀れ. Sora’s final ikebana display includes what I assume were cherry blossoms rising above a field of colorful flowers. Cherry blossoms represent this ephemerality in Japanese culture because of their short flowering time and how their appearance marks the beginning of spring. So in that way it’s all very striking and real. But I just personally don’t like it and never have. Also I think that for me, because I was so moved by Kokuhaku, there wasn’t much chance for this plot to have the same effect: Kokuhaku simply did it better.

I do think Kizuna is appreciable on its own and that if Tri weren’t a thing I’d have liked it better. I am not sure if I’m gonna go see it again. I might! I got a Koushirou clear file for going this week. (... The postcards we got for going to Tri were way better, though xP) So could at least go and collect more maybe.

But Kizuna has a big downside, which is that it’s just as obsessed with Taichi and Yamato as Tri was, but it’s even more felt due to the time constraints. At least with Tri, we got to see everyone do something at some point. In Kizuna, they don’t even try. Mimi, Jou, and Hikari are barely around and get their consciousness trapped early on. Takeru at least gets to join the initial fight with Eosmon, but I think that’s due to wanting to give a nod to Our War Game and maybe just because fans like Angemon. Then Takeru’s gone. Koushirou gets to be his brainiac self, I don’t really have a complaint about his treatment, except in the final battle where he’s just there. And Sora simply isn’t around period. Tri didn’t have the 02 kids, ok, that’s too bad... Kizuna has them but they’re boring and most of the Adventure cast doesn’t get to do much either. Is this really better, guys?

When you’ve got a cast this big, I don’t think you can do things the typical way. I’m an X-men fan, I should know. Lol.

That’s it for Kizuna! I’m still happy it exists, and have to admit that I might have had a slightly more positive take if I hadn’t been in such a bad mood from my day, so I hope that on a second viewing, whether I go to the theaters or wait to find it online, I will find more bits to appreciate.

[adventure-hearts]

tri. Chapter 5 - Recap, Review, Analysis [part four]

(part one ) (part two ) (part three)

Phew! This took way longer than I expected and my thoughts are still convoluted, but this movie was packed. I don’t think it was perfect by any means, but the themes are given a lot of depth, pacing was good, the plot is advancing, and the characters (especially Taichi) had some memorable moments. Above all, it worked far better after a (close) rewatch.

I think it’s up there with Kokuhaku in terms of quality. My faith in tri. continues to be justified!

We have months of speculation ahead of us, so I won’t bother you with a lot of predictions for what’s coming next. I’m sure I’ll come back to some of these ideas until the summer :)

Raguelmon and Jesmon fight each other, and at one moment Raguelmon protects Meiko. This only reinforces the Chosen Children’s belief that there's still a connection between the Meiko and her partner, further strenghtehing their resolve to protect Meicoomon against Jesmon, even if it means going against Homeostasis.

Of course, Homeostasis isn't happy about this, so it takes over Hikari and tells them to stop interfering.

At this point, Homeostasis straight-up threatens the Chosen Children. Moreover, it’s essentially telling them they failed. Homeostasis picks human children to fight its battles to keep balance, but it has no qualms in pushing them aside if they don’t serve its purpose.

No more Mr nice guy! Daigo is done with Homeostasis, and he knows he has been played as well. When he was a Chosen Child, he had to make a sacrifice that resulted in Maki’s partners death, and it destroyed Maki in the process - and (if you believe Hackmon’s words) this was seen as a failure by Homeostasis. This time, Daigo decides to protect his friends. He has been fond of the Chosen Children from the start, and he’s firmly on their side now.

As Homeostasis goes on about how it can do what it wants and how sacrifices are needed, the Chosen Children fight back -- including, significantly, Hikari: the ONE kid who's literally been used by Homeostasis. This is a tremendous character moment for Hikari -- she’s standing up for herself and for her beliefs, and against a supernatural entity at that! We know that behind her sweet, passive attitude Hikari has plenty of courage (surrendering herself to Vamdemon was another defining moments), but it’s so rare for her to actually show that this tiny scene ends up being really significant.

To be fair, this is a pretty weird line, considering their past history. You’d think the Chosen Children are aware that sometimes sacrifices are needed, since it has happened a million times before.

Hikari then accuses Homeostasis of being selfish, which has to be unfair. Homeostasis is hardly doing this for its own benefit, but only to keep the stability between the worlds. Sure, it’s a cruel, impersonal decision, but human morality and concepts of “good”, “evil”, and “justice” clearly do not concern Homeostasis.

Is this another example of how the Chosen Children’s idealism sometimes blinds them to the harshness reality? Are the kids forgetting the lessons from past, or are they just being obtuse? It’s one of the moments where tri.’s ambiguous position to what came before (what its critics describe as cherry-picking) can make it difficult to interpret what the characters are thinking.

However, I think the point here is that there’s a clear difference between choosing to sacrifice yourself (like Wizarmon, Oikawa and so many others) and being sacrificed for the sake of the “Greater Good”, which is Homeostasis’ MO. One is selfless; the other a forceful, unilateral decision. Clearly, the Chosen Children are willing to risk the worlds collapsing in order to protect their friend, Meicoomon, from being sacrificed by Homeostasis, whatever the reasons that may justify this execution. You have to admire the strength of the Chosen Children’s principles – they aren’t willing to watch a friend get destroyed to keep the balance of the world, and are ready to go against Homeostasis to uphold that principle. This isn’t just a moral standpoint -- they choose the team (i.e. love) over The Bigger Picture.

But again, it’s hard to argue that Homeostasis is being evil or even irrational. Taichi and the others being so surprised and conflicted shows how their deep-set beliefs can fail when confronted with though choices.

Generally speaking, I think this is a very important theme in this Chapter: idealism vs. pragmatism in the Chosen Children’s decisions.

*

Once they get to the Digital World, though, Taichi's mind is made – they will protect their friends no matter what, regardless of right or wrong. This hits a cord with Daigo, who's reminded of his own partner, Maki and Bakumon, and how he used to be a goggle boy. He knows what it’s like to be unwillingly sacrificed for the Bigger Picture.

Alphamon shows up again (apparently, he's aligned with Ygrasil) and proceeds to fight Jesmon. A four-way battle of conflicting loyalties ensues between Raguelmon, Omegamon, Alphamon, and Jesmon, which if anything illustrates how complicated the plot of this series is, and how it’s characterised by the lack of a clear, single antagonist.

*

And then it comes the moment half the fandom expected. The Dark Ocean’s comeback!

Somehow, in her despair and a less than balanced mental state, Maki found her way to the Dark World and is looking for Bakumon there. I don't know if she went there through a distortion (as in 02) or if Dagomon's minions called her there - remember, like Hikari, Maki was also a vessel for Homeostasis. Depending on how we read this, parallels with Ken or Hikari become apparent.

(And Maki holding a DARK D3 back in Chapter 3 suddenly becomes even more intriguing!)

Maki is swallowed by the dark ocean, Daigo somehow senses something is wrong. maki drowns further.

*

Hikari's words seem to have an unecpected effect because it's Meiko who hears them. Meiko decides she can't make Meicoomon suffer anymore.

So Meiko makes the bravest, toughest, and probably more logical decision - she realises that destroying Meicoomon would not only stop the problem at hand, but it would ALSO stop her partners suffering. meiko realises there's nothing left to do. The Chosen Children's strategy has failed. She can't handle this anymore, and she wants to put an end to it.

As Sora realises, this isn't a coward's way out: this is a brave, necessary decision. The alternative is for Meicoomon to kill more people, be killed anyway, or end up destroying the world. Ultimately, destroying Meicoomon can also be seen as an act of mercy. Meiko is her partner’s only hope - she makes the “rational choice”, but her decision is made out of love for Meicoomon.

Taichi remembers her words at the school, and he understands that Meiko’s decision is the right one. Remember, Taichi is the only one who knows what is like to have his partner gone bad, and he’s had to face a similar choice before. tri. never references the events in 02 where Agumon was controlled by the Kaiser and Taichi allowed his friends to fight against him, but the parallels are there. 

However, the other Chosen Children don’t get it yet. They're all too blinded by idealism and afraid to hurt one of them, even if it's the only way. They contest Taichi’s decision, but he’s calm and determined.

THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS A TRUE LEADER.

Like Meiko, Taichi realises that if they end Meicoomon themselves, they'll put an end to this and neither Homeostasis nor Ygdrasil will win. In this context, killing Meicoomon (with Meiko’s blessing) means protecting Meicoomon.

Yamato’s negative reaction here is very interesting. Apparently, his refusal to kill Meicoomon seems to contradict a lot of his previous actions. 

After all, back in 02, it was Yamato who convinced Taichi that “Agumon would rather die than to become a slave”, and was willing to fight him. Moreover, since the beging of tri., he’s been chastising Taichi for running away and for refusing to take a stand. In Chapter 3, he was even the one who pragmatically stated that if one of the digimon partners became infected, they would have to fight them, much to Takeru’s horror.

I don’t quite understand this development, unless they just want to inject the mandatory opposition between Taichi and Yamato. I suppose you could read it this way: Yamato didn’t really mean what he said earlier, or at least he was fooling himself about his ability to go through with this though decision. 

 Although for most of tri. Taichi and Yamato’s roles have often been inverted (more on this later), we know that Taichi is actually the more pragmatic of the two, while Yamato is a very emotional person who makes decisions based on feelings. When Taichi suggests killing a friend, it goes against Yamato’s most important values -- friendship and loyalty – and he’s so emotionally upset by the idea he can’t stop to reflect that this is actually a mercy-killing, and lashes out at Taichi, which is usually a symptom that his feelings are in turmoil. Koushirou intervenes and tells that he should already know it. Yamato seems to see the other side of the issue, but the conclusion is so painful that it causes him to howl in frustration. 

Meiko thanks them for doing something so difficult... And then she makes a terribly stupid decision and runs off to the middle of the battle, after Meicoomon. We’ve seen some indication that Meiko’s will to live (and her belief that “she shoudn’t have been born) are pretty strong, and now it seems she intends to share her partners fate. Yamato, Taichi, and Daigo go after her.

Jesmon's attack fails somehow and the ground starts crumbling, opening a chasm that separates Taichi from Yamato and Meiko. In a selfless move, Taichi orders Omegamon to protect Yamato and Meiko and faces the danger on his own.

Taichi and Daigo disappear into the crumbling rock, and Jesmon and Alphamon are gone as well, leaving behind a battered Raguelmon and Taichi’s goggles.

*

Hikari watches the loss of her brother and enters a sort of catatonic state. Her powers start acting up, and Nyaromon becomes Ophanimon FallDown mode. When prophecy spoke of going through darkness to reach power, I’m not sure if this was included. Anyway, it’s hard to argue that this is Hikari’s normal Ultimate evolution in any way - it’s clearly powered by sorrow and pain, that is, (metaphorically) darkness. This darkness now causes the world to go crazy and envolves a battered Raguelmon.

Mystery Man’s words seem to echo that old line: “The brighter the light, the darker the shadow”. Inflicting this sort of trauma on Hikari has consequences that are beyond normal. Was this the plan all along, or happy collateral damage? Either way, I don’t think it’s coincidental that we keep seeing Mystery Man’s reactions to everything that’s happening.

When Hikari gives the order “Take Over”, Ophanimon FM and Raguelmon fuse into a monstruous being with dark wings. The parallels between Tailmon and Meicoomon finally mean something. As Mystery Man talks about destruction, Hikari speaks cryptic words.

The being disappears into a hole in the sky and emerges in the real world. The harmony between the worlds is in collapse. As Ygdrasil planned, the human world will be swallowed by the Digital World.

*

Yamato picks up Taichi's goggles and remembers his words.

He understands that Taichi was willing to sacrifice himself for his friends. I don't know if this is what Yamato meant when he said he “expected too much of him”, but I like to think that it is. Yamato accepts and supports Taichi’s decision. 

In Taichi's absence, the group needs a leader, and this time Yamato realises there’s no time for crying. He’s gone, but the group still has work to do: they can lick their wounds later. Yamato   steps up to the responsibility: he gives an inspiring speech, proving what he has learnt from Taichi as well.  Yamato’s got tough words for his friends, but they are willing to follow him. 

So we have come full circle. Taichi has finally decided to stop running away and has sacrificed himself for his friends. Yamato has decided to honour Taichi’s sacrifice, and lead the others as Taichi would have done. As he puts on the goggles, Yamato symbolically takes over as leader and they get ready to fight on.