Score: A

Here we are once again. Digimon Tri has returned with its second movie. Similarly to last time I’ll be breaking down my thoughts within the 4 episodes that the movie was released in within the post itself. So it may turn into a long read, but I appreciate anyone who gets through it to the end.

Episode 5
We started off pretty calm, in a lot of ways the same as last time. There was a bit of action, but it didn’t actually involve the main cast. Instead we had Leomon trying to stop Ogremon. Now normally I’d say there was nothing unusual in that. These two have had a long-standing rivalry. But clearly…that’s not the case. Ogremon is definitely infected like the other digimon we’ve seen this far, making him stronger and also more feral. The first sign of him was smashing digi-eggs….probably one of the more horrific acts you can really commit in the digital world. As we know, when a digimon ‘dies’ they return to data and eventually a digi-egg. Smashing those…I don’t even know what the consequences of that would be, but it’s not good.

The thing that worries me after the first episode is Leomon. Aside from the fact that they didn’t give him any lines (come on show, they can talk) is that wound he took early on. If this is a literal infection that could lead to him becoming a threat as the movie goes along. Bad enough with Ogremon, he actually turned into a nice guy by the end of the original show. But if Leomon also has to be stopped that’s just tragedy on top of tragedy. Something is very much wrong with the digital world right now.

It does seem a safe bet that Meicoomon is at the core of all of this. That weird scene where he was lost without Meiko and things got very…unsettling. It does seem like Meicoomon is related to what is going on and may be causing it somehow. Hard to say, but it definitely isn’t a good thing. Regardless of what is going on, it appears this pair won’t just be tagging along for the ride here. And with the habit Meicoomon has of getting lost…this could get messy.

Another messy element though is the appearance of Ken Ichijouji as we knew him from early season 2 “The Digimon Emperor.” It is the first real appearance of a season 2 character since those early flashes. Definitely seems in an evil mode, but possibly he’s infected too? There’s no telling if Digimon are the only ones that can be impacted by whatever is going on. Which is a somewhat scary idea since anyone turning evil could possibly happen.

The other noteworthy part of the episode was that Joe is being very much….Joe. He’s still battling his studies like a madman. I know it’s easy to tell him to step back and perhaps reassess what he really wants to do and what he can do…it’s what he needs to do here. It doesn’t seem like just studying more is going to solve his problem of not having good enough results. He may just not be as smart as he’d like to be. His journey will be something to see.

Nothing really new with Tai so far. He’s still struggling as one could expect. Certainly Kari is right that they had to fight and if they didn’t things would be worse. But the result is that things were still pretty bad. Tai is trying to figure out what they can and should do here. What is the right course of action? Never easy.

Episode 6
Well if the previous episode was light and fun…this was all the feels. It really was a tough episode. Joe and Mimi both hitting walls this time around, having to face their weaknesses. It was pretty emotional near the end with Mimi and Joe both in the rain and feeling the weight of their situations. Though I’m all for it. This really does allow the characters to go through some arcs and grow which is never a bad thing. Also I appreciate that the show realizes that people can often hit the same kinds of walls. Jumping over a hurdle, doesn’t mean it’s easy to jump over the next one.

Mimi has a lot of good qualities. Being upfront about her feelings, how purely she cares about things, and wants to take actions for the sake of that. It allows her to do a lot of things most wouldn’t. Meiko is right that many first year students would be hesitant about volunteering for a leadership position and taking on a job like that. Her lack of being overly considerate allows her to take action. Of course…it also can lead to trouble. So straight forward on what she wants that she can become a bit self-centered and not think about what others might be feeling. That can be an ok thing sometimes, and other times it can lead to trouble.

That trouble hitting Mimi square on this time around. Her desire to show how the digimon aren’t bad, ended up hurting their reputation even further. She didn’t consider that Palmon might not be the best choice for fighting Ogremon in that kind of situation. Togemon’s attacks being a wide range type and thus…problematic. Of course it was mostly the fault of the news crew. If you see a gun fight between cops and criminals do you walk into the middle of the street to interview the cops? No, that would be stupid and suicidal. I get why Izzy was bothered, but he’s not exactly doing a good job getting on Mimi’s good side either.

The school problems just added onto that. Mimi so focused on what she wanted to do. Of course it wasn’t just her fault though. No one else in the class volunteered. No one stood up at that point. People grumbled about it, but they waited until later to really complain. Putting all the blame on Mimi for not asking their opinions instead of on themselves for never volunteering different ideas. In the end at least Mimi is making efforts. Though I agree she does have to learn something about cooperating. Working with others even if they don’t make that easy.

Joe’s troubles continued and I’m glad to see him struggling. His parents are….well not great. Basically saying “Well our son is stupid, but I hope he keeps trying.” If they know Joe is struggling then freaking sit down and support him. Don’t talk about him when he’s in the house! Don’t act like it’s pitiful that he’s not some genius. Sit down with Joe and figure out what he wants to do with his life, not what you want him to do with his life. Help Joe find interests that he enjoys and he can actually attain. All Joe is doing is smacking his head into a brick wall and getting bloodier as time goes along.

You can see how Joe is just stuck and currently hating himself even more than Mimi is. He hates that he is stuck in terms of his grades and that on top of that emotional strain all the digimon stuff has come back. His plate was already full beyond his ability to handle and now someone just dropped another helping on top. Of course Joe knows that what he is doing (or not doing) is wrong. There are lives on the line and he can do something. He also is too afraid to just step forward. He can already see what would happen (since it was happening even without him). Tai was defending Joe since he can relate to being mixed about these events while Matt is remaining as pure as he has been and is pissed at Joe for not getting involved.

It is fair to ask how long they will have to keep fighting. But…right now they do have to keep fighting. Gomamon is really suffering right now. He cares about Joe and understands he’s pressured. But at the same time Gomamon wants to help his friends, he wants to be involved. All he can do is sit there stuck while Joe suffers through this dilemma. Joe feeling like a coward. Knowing that he has to find a way to adulthood which is a huge thing, but also that his friends are fighting by themselves while he sits back and complains about his problems.

It was nice to see Leomon again, and actually get some dialogue! He did help bring a lot of information to the mix though. That the infection started and then the distortions. Something is infecting the digimon and they have to find the source fast. Whether it’s a person or a creature, the results aren’t good. They can’t keep doing this. The fighting in the real world is just going to increase the hate against the digimon and continue pushing for anti-digimon weaponry. Though whether they can create something truly effective I’m not sure. But I’d like to try something before we attempt to nuke the digital world.

Episode 7
An episode that is definitely setting up for a pretty epic conclusion for the second movie. Everyone and the digimon are gathering at the school festival and without a doubt…trouble is about to emerge. You can’t have everyone together like this and not have something bad happen. Though I’m kind of for it since this was another swap to the fun, so it makes sense to have some serious action to wrap things up.

It was another tough episode on Joe, though it wasn’t a major focus. Gomamon likely feeling that his presence was causing Joe pain deciding to run off. Though he wasn’t completely irresponsible…he did leave a message and just went to spend time at Izzy’s place. Still, not telling Joe where he was going was a problem. Instead of helping Joe calm down or focus on his studies…it just stressed him out even more. After all Joe isn’t an idiot, he knows why Gomamon would run off like that. Having his friend run off because he was causing Gomamon to worry wouldn’t help anything. At least Joe was reaching out for the first time in a while to try and find him. Though he was mostly just sitting in his room worrying. Joe very much is struggling with his issues and the next episode should be critical for him to find an answer.

At least things worked out pretty smoothly for Mimi. Thanks to Meiko and her gathering some courage. Deciding to go ahead and wear Mimi’s design even though she was more embarrassed than the people actively complaining. In the end she did find the design a cute one, she did want to spread some happiness, and frankly I think she did want to cheer Mimi up. It wasn’t just done for Mimi’s sake though, but also for her own. Mimi’s feelings of doing what you feel good about being validated meant more than anything. That someone would agree with her and stand with her was a huge boost. Something that Mimi needed and something that would allow her to cut loose again.

It did make for a fun festival and café. Meiko and Mimi making a big impact not only on the customers but also their coworkers at this café. Meiko pushing herself being appreciated by those around them. Also I have to give major props to Himekawa. Sending that photo to Izzy was hilarious. Get the youth running a bit XD. I love both the reaction and the fact that he basically ran over the moment he got the mail. It’s like “yes Izzy, this is what you are missing by sitting there pondering over cryptic messages.” I figure that mail though has to be from Gennai. Only he would send such complicated mail. Though I suppose Ken might be related to it.

Kind of funny that it’s Himekawa who is the first person to mention Ken. I get that the government knows more than they are letting on here. Though I still don’t get why the main cast hasn’t even thought about the season 2 cast all this time. Maybe the next episode will help answer that. It does seem like Meicoomon is at the core of everything though and is being suppressed from doing anything negative by Meiko’s influence. It doesn’t tell us what is going on with Ken, but it’s worth noting. The fact that she was surprised to see Ken for an instant though definitely confirms that something happened to the season 2 crew.

I did like the moment with Tai and Kari and then later Matt. He’s struggling and Kari makes some astute observations. Tai doesn’t want to face his doubts right now. The doubts that as we could see in episode 4 lead to Omnimon breaking up. The unison didn’t break because of a lack of energy, but because Tai was worried about the damage. Tai has to figure out his feelings about this soon, they don’t have much time. Matt of course needs to take the consequences more seriously and look at things from both sides, but Tai needs to stand up. Make a firm stance on what they should be doing right now and then take action.

Episode 8
Well…that didn’t end well for anybody. Especially Leomon who basically returns to being the show’s punching bag. There’s no doubt that being Leomon equals suffering as this episode showed. Getting annihilated by a berserk Meicoomon was pretty rough. Goes to show that nothing good ends up happening when he gets involved with these kids. Not even as awesome a death as he got against Metal Etemon in the original series. Instead he makes great efforts to help rescue Meicoomon and gets killed for his trouble. Another utter tragedy as they both lose Leomon and Meicoomon and are left having to pick up the pieces for the next movie.

Now why Meicoomon freaked out was less of a mystery. Leomon might have overcome the brainwashing/infection but it was for long enough that he still scared the heck out of Meicoomon. Meicoomon then freaking out over its own imagination and thus…it ends up like this. No shock really that Meicoomon is at the source of all this trouble. Although the reason that Meicoomon has these powers and what the end game is here I’m not sure. There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of malice with Meicoomon, at least not before going feral. To be sure there was the usual level of selfishness that young digimon have, though it did seem like Meicoomon has a good habit of getting into trouble and wandering off.

Not everything was resolved this time around. Joe’s overall issues remain mostly intact. He is still struggling with adulthood, struggling with his grades not being where he wants etc. But at least…at least he managed to pull it together. Just be a bit selfish and do what you think is right. Whatever the deeper meaning of being a digi-destined or being asked to fight entails…he is still Gomamon’s partner. He still cares what happens to Gomamon. For the time being that itself is enough. His friend needed his help and that connection doesn’t change no matter how old Joe gets.

A good bit of shouting was somewhat needed. Though it was Kari who in the end got Joe moving. Joe and Gomamon just venting. A lot of it made sense though. Gomamon frustrated and feeling like Joe was rejecting his very presence. It’s not like Gomamon wants to go around looking for fights, but he is Joe’s partner. Joe of course being very stuck right now in his life and not having an easy time dealing with any of this. Being the oldest of the group he feels the strain of being stuck between adulthood and childhood the most out of anyone there.

In the end the fight itself was pretty darn good. It was great to see Gomamon and Palmon finally attain their Mega forms. Rosemon and Vikemon bringing the fight against Imperialdramon in a big way. Both of them impressed quite a bit I thought. For two new Megas they did a nice job holding their own. It did require some Leomon backup, but they did win out in the end. It was a very entertaining fight. Though I will say some of the digivolutions final posing….looks a bit rough. You’d think with the time they spend on these movies that they could get all the visuals done perfectly, but oh well.

As much as anything though is the question of what the heck is going on with Ken and the season 2 crew. That is my biggest issue with the movies so far. I’m not a huge fan of Adventure 02, personally I’d be ok if it never happened. But clearly it did and things are getting weird with the cast not asking the right questions or mentioning that group. If something happened and they know….then freaking tell us! If they don’t know what happened then explain why they haven’t even tried to make contact. Kari and TK seemed as much shocked as anything to see Ken there and doing that, but they didn’t really say why they were surprised. Heck we just had Rosemon and Vikemon kill Imperialdramon. The main Mega of Season 02 without much commenting. No “oh my god Veemon and Wormmon” just….nothing. I can at least tell they aren’t huge fans of season 02 with how they have been handling this, but hopefully it all will make sense later. For the time being it just feels rather awkward.

Anyways I’m still really enjoying the episodes so far. I do wish their aired weekly, but oh well. This one ended on a pretty massive moment there. Leomon is dead, Imperialdramon is gone, Meicoomon has gone feral and run off….nothing makes sense for the main cast. They’ve got to make some choices though. If they keep sitting around then nothing good is going to happen. At least though we have some idea where to go here. The other digi-destined helping their partners reach the Mega level is likely to happen. The key being facing the darkness and going past it. Joe and Mimi faced the dark this time around and they gained a great deal of power through it. Now it is up to the rest to face their own demons and prepare for what is coming next. The only thing certain is that Himekawa is suspicious as hell if not confirmed evil. Smiling for an instant before Leomon was wiped out certainly shows that she has more to do with events than she’s giving on. Thus it makes it uncertain that Meicoomon is even the source or evil. Possible that Himekawa somehow corrupted Meiko’s digivice and caused this. At the very least she’s not someone to be trusted from here on out.

Will just have to wait until later in the year in order to see how things turn out. At the very least this was a pretty busy movie. It moved the plot forward a bit, but mostly was about the character drama around Mimi and Joe. In the end they’ve both accepted themselves a bit better and can move ahead. Though it’s going to be tough. I mean Meiko is probably in total panic here. Meicoomon has run off and on top of that killed a digimon that the group was close to. There will be some strain from guilt and also worry. Not sure how the group will respond to her and how they will choose to tackle the Meicoomon issue. This movie did give us more questions than answers, but we are still in the first half of it. I’m looking forward to whatever happens going forward.