Digimon Tri, Movie 2: Determination
(Nearly two months late, I know...)
Well, that was kinda messy. Digimon Tri tries to pull off the mystery regarding the whole virus and Meicoomon and what happened to the 02 kids over several movies released over the span of two or three years, and very little is revealed to us in this movie. Enough to make us question and speculate, but honestly not really enough to satiate the curiousity we had ever since the first movie. Really, this second movie ended up raising more questions than answering it, and while I don't doubt that the writing team is competent enough to save some things for movie four or five, it's still honestly quite grating when they're wasting time doing random anime school festival and hot bath tropes instead of addressing some of the big questions we have about what's going on.
This particular movie focuses on two of the original kids in particular -- Mimi and Joe, as if the poster didn't already tell you. And it does a good job on that front! It also integrated newcomer Meiko into the group quite seamlessly, and on those two fronts the movie serves a very adequate job. Joe's frustrations about choosing between being a Chosen Child and fighting for the safety of the world versus, well his own problems with his studies and his future is extremely palpable for anyone in the 18-20 age category. His conflict with Gomamon, thinking that he drove his partner out with his constant anti-social tendencies, while Gomamon himself is just going away to keep out of Joe's business, and the raw confrontation between the two, is spectacular. Joe's one of the more unsung heroes of the original Digimon series, and I do love that the movies expanded on it.
Mimi trying to fit in to the school and being ostracized for being so weird and bringing all kinds of gaijin Western philosophy into Japan and talking/acting first before she thinks is also portrayed well. Over the course of the original series Mimi grew from being the load of the team into, well, someone who ends up finding her niche pretty well. And, after facing off against evil psycho-clowns and demonic abominations, something like a class-event concert certainly won't faze Mimi. This all comes to a head when both as a Chosen Child and as a student, Mimi kinda fucks up. Charging in to fight Ogremon without waiting for backup (and despite being told to wait for everyone to arrive) just to give the 'good guys' some good PR ends up backfiring so bad, and she gets confronted by a bunch of her fellow students. Mimi is forced to think about herself, whether she's selfish and thoughtless, and ends up finding a happy medium between the two.
Meiko, I think, is one of the catalysts for Mimi's character growth. Mimi's the most outgoing of the group and integrates Meiko almost immediately and keeps finding ways to drag her along and get her to loosen up and have fun. And both Meiko and Meicoomon have enough personalities as far as the screentime they're allotted allows them -- Meiko's shy but ultimately loyal to her friends, while Meicoomon is just a childish, pampered fellow, right until the sudden plot twist that, hey, the Mary-Sue-looking Digimon ends up being a plot device.
But honestly this movie just doesn't have enough meat to stand on its own. Even taking it as a second installment, there is just so much filler going on in this movie that it's hard to pay attention. We get a very long sequence in the hot springs, which is fun! Having the digimon get more scenes is great. We get Biyomon and Meicoomon caught in some hijinks. But it just went on for way too long and I think some of the overtly fanservicey moments in the hot springs (both for the boys and girls) end up just being padding. Add that to the extended school festival bit at the end, and it just becomes tiresome. I mean, I get that it works to display Mimi being reckless in both combat and civilian life, but any moment in that school festival without Mimi just feels like stupid padding. All the long, extended sequences with the cheerleader outfit and all that bullshit could've been cut to one-third of their length and still have the same impact.
While we get another classic first-season Digimon supporting character as Leomon (who apparently came back to life off-screen) shows up, helping the Chosen Children to subdue a berserk Ogremon -- we don't find out, ever, what happened to Ogremon and if Leomon keeps him chained up somewhere. Leomon shows up and talks a bit about the virus but ultimately other than some cryptic email sent to Koushiro we don't learn much.
Near the end, Ken in full Digimon Kaiser outfit shows up for no reason (and it even appears that he's just like a hologram or something) to kidnap Meicoomon and the original Chosen Children are just being quiet about what happened to the Zero Two cast. Leomon, Gomamon and Palmon get trapped in this trippy dimension and are forced to fight a shadowy version Imperialdramon... okay, the fanboy in me can't help but just be happy at seeing this, including Gomamon and Palmon finally being allowed to reach their final forms (Rosemon, I think, actually goes into Digimon Savers' Burst Modef or a second)... but fanboyism and great visuals aside, nothing ultimately gets answered by that fight. Meicoomon kills Leomon just because she can, before buggering off.
The other characters don't end up doing much. Koushiro has some funny moments being easily screwed with the mysterious Maki (who's totally evil, or pretending to be evil) sending him fanservice photos of Mimi, and we get some obligatory Taichi/Yamato still having friction with each other thanks to Omegamon splitting last movie, and Hikari gets a short moment with Joe and Taichi asking all the hard questions. Sora is there to bounce dialogue off, and Takeru barely did anything. Ultimately, it's still watchable despite the filler and probably would stand up better once we can watch Digimon Tri in one fall swoop, but as it is, they really need to pick things up if they want Digimon Tri to revitalize the franchise and be remembered as a good series.
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