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bookofholsety
i've had this thing sitting in my drafts since february, and i'm only getting back to it within 12 goddamn hours of part 5's release. i'm a self-parody at this point, i swear
obligatory major spoiler warning! if you're worried about being hit with spoilers, i strongly recommend closing this window, sitting down and watching the thing. go on, do it. it's pretty good.
Honestly, i'm not surprised to find i'm not anywhere near as enamoured of part 4 as i was with part 3. After all, part 3 was something special. i have absolutely no hesitation in declaring part 3 to be among the absolute best "episodes" of Digimon ever produced, up there with the finest moments of Adventure and Tamers: it took a dicey premise and executed it phenomenally, refusing to compromise even when it would've been so easy to cop out. Going in i figured that part 4 was always going to struggle to look anywhere near as good as its predecessor; that it would be the Return of the Jedi to part 3's Empire Strikes Back, because what else could it be? i'm not sure it's even possible to follow up on and resolve a gamechanging turn of events from a predecessor without looking the worse for wear in comparison. But even with that knowledge and preparation... Ehh.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that i dislike part 4 at all. Trust me, you'd know if i did; when have i ever been shy about proclaiming my disapproval of a thing? On the whole i still very much enjoyed it and think quite highly of a lot of what it did, but it's easily the most disappointing and flawed part of Tri so far.
First, though, i ought to talk about the parts that i actually did like. At this point in writing, given my habit of constantly jumping back and forth to do different pieces of a written thing at a time, i've already written basically all of the stuff about what i didn't like, so it's probably for the best that i remind myself that it's not all bad by any means.
The opening, appropriately enough, is a really good place to start when it comes to praising what Tri part 4 does right. Honestly, i adore the entire thing. They did an absolutely phenomenal job of picking up obscure backstory/worldbuilding threads (not only from Adventure and 02 but even, apparently, an obscure spinoff novel), tying them together to not only be relevant to Tri's overarching plot but actually shed light on why it is the way it is, and for good measure even using it as an excuse for a little bit of obscure Digimon nerdery. (holy shit Orochimon! holy shit Hippogriffomon! holy shit this is the first time LoaderLeomon has ever appeared in an animu! HOLY SHIT THEY'RE ALL THE FOUR FUCKING HOLY BEASTS) While the presentation of the sequence isn't the most original fare there is - silent movie style, a flickering film grain look, dialogue as captions interspersed into the action - it's stylishly done, and on the whole it's a very satisfying sequence and easily the strongest opening sequence of any Tri film so far. At the very least it's a nice change from its tendency toward ominous metaphoric narration accompanied by ominous metaphoric animation.
It's too bad that the Crunchyroll release runs its usual Tri opening sequence right before it, because i get the feeling that seeing this first-thing as a cold open would've been amazing.
i greatly appreciate the relative restraint they showed throughout all of this, and that they didn't waste time in the opening, or in the later flashback from when the two were at uni, beating us around the head like, HEY DO YOU GET IT YET IT'S A YOUNG HIMEKAWA AND NISHIJIMA. They did a fine job of just taking these facts for granted and moving on without any further ado. It's a silly thing but so many narratives (read: 99.9% of all pre-existing Digimon media) have a bad habit of trying to make absolutely sure that you understand who is who in situations like this, so i'm glad they just kept the sequences minimalistic. The revelation that Himekawa and Nishijima are those former chosen children briefly mentioned in Adventure could easily have come across as hokey and a pointless attempt at shoehorning canon where it doesn't fit, but they played it quite nicely to shed some much-needed light on Himekawa's stake in Tri's events.
Admittedly, i'm not entirely clear on why it's the Dark Masters they're fighting in this flashback, rather than Apocalymon. i could've sworn it's long since been established that it was Apocalymon that this group sealed away, not the Dark Masters, who are all very much the lesser threat between the two. Sure, that could've still happened after the battle shown here, but iunno... Creating the Four Holy Beasts feels like the sort of thing that'd narratively be reserved for the really big climactic battle against this group's ultimate foe, to say nothing of the fact that Himekawa sure as shit isn't fighting anyone at any point after Bakumon goes boom. It's possible they picked the Dark Masters for this for the sake of recognisability and their role later in the film, but even then, i'm not sure any villains from Adventure have any recognisability problems at all in the context of the Tri audience. It's a nitpick, i admit, but it's a hell of a nit.
As a side note/additional nitpick, i'm also more than a little disappointed that they didn't do the obvious and really embrace Nishijima basically being the Taichi of the era - goggles, making his partner a dinosaur/dragon (hello, Qinglongmon!), etc. He's literally got the ideal name for it; Daigo is a perfect match for the traditional main-protagonist slot! i mean, come on, Toei.
On writing this, i'm rapidly beginning to realise that the Himekawa subplot might be the strongest part of part 4's narrative by a significant margin. Certainly, the more i think about it, the more i suspect it might actually be my favourite part of Tri as a whole. The weird thing is, i honestly hadn't thought about it much before now. Ever since part 2 and that very suspicious smile at the end, the million-dollar question for just about everyone else has been What Is Himekawa's Deal? But honestly, at the time and through to part 3, i didn't pay her much mind. Sure, there was obviously something going on, but at that point i wasn't all that intrigued, i guess. The question didn't do it for me, but i am very, very okay with the answer.
Needless to say, Himekawa's motives aren't quite the freshest basis for an antagonist, but part 4 puts it to excellent use to present a contrast with the current chosen children in general, and with Sora in particular. It does a fine job of painting her basic motives as ultimately sympathetic while clearly establishing by both her actions and those of the chosen children that she is absolutely not handling it the right way. Her reunion with post-reboot Bakumon is a chilling mirror of the predicament Sora finds herself in with Piyomon, and i am very partial to it.
As a side note, a while back i read a theory on Tumblr tying into all of this, based on the fact that her Bakumon's (a holy beast sort of digimon) perfect form is Megadramon (a virusy asshole evil dragon, basically) and drawing a parallel between that and the likes of SkullGreymon. This could be taken as a suggestion that frankly, Himekawa was never a particularly good tamer; that the obsessive rashness and unravelling when things don't work out as she planned that we see in her adult self were well and truly there as a child, causing Bakumon to evolve the wrong way compared to both her contemporaries and the current chosen children. This could be off base and i'm not expecting the narrative to ever really get into it, but it's a very interesting idea.
For the most part i'm very partial to the approach they took to the amnesiac digimon. Before the part came out i assumed that actively restoring the memories would be the the primary point of part 4, taking Bakumon's appearance on the poster as a suggestion of how it'd be achieved - Bakumon's powers relate to capturing and releasing dreams, so my thinking was that it could potentially use the dreams of the partner digimon pre-reboot to restore memories or something. Nonetheless, i have absolutely no problem with being wrong on this count. One of the standout sequences in my opinion was Hikari's discussion of how Plotmon is finally free of all that shit Vamdemon put her through and is likely happier for it. They also did a fine job of exploring the different ways each chosen went about trying to re-establish their relationship with their digimon, and of how it wasn't a one-size-fits-all exercise; for most of the film, the same goes for Piyomon's outright hostility and how she slowly softens up.
Now that i think about it, i'm starting to realise that wow, Toei really likes this whole digimon-lose-their-memories-after-a-heroic-sacrifice plot thread. They just did the exact same thing in Appmon, albeit on a smaller, more shortlived scale without quite the same consequences as the reboot. Hell, you could even look at that one Savers episode where the DATS team have their minds wiped as a precursor to it. i'm pretty satisfied with all of these executions (though for my money, Tri definitely pulled it off the best), but i wonder what led them to be so stuck on the idea?
As a side note, when the poster - featuring Sora, Taichi and Yamato - first came out, i had a very bad feeling that they'd try to play up that godawful love triangle as part of Sora's arc here. i've never even encountered the supposedly legendary shipping wars and the very prospect was still bad enough to churn the stomach, even with my general confidence in Tri's writers. Thankfully that didn't happen at all.
Then we get to what Crunchyroll packages as the fourth episode of this part, and suddenly the emperor is a bit short on clothes.
i can't shake the feeling that Toei left the Tri team with a thinner budget for part 4, and that a fair bit of scrambling to compensate ensued. It's noticeably got a shorter runtime than part 3, which results in Crunchyroll's episodic packaging noticeably padding things out a fair bit. They picked up an irritating habit of concluding an episode with a certain sequence, then repeating the exact same sequence at the beginning of the next episode for minutes at a time; this has only happened once before, in part 1, and even then much less footage was repeated.
This would be theoretically fine in and of itself, were it not for the repercussions it has on the narrative. The first 50 minutes or so of the film come out of it fairly well, but the climactic battle and the resolution of Sora and Piyomon's issues feel seriously rushed and with little real breathing room compared to how part 3 played out. i recall having the same issue with part 2, except it's much more pronounced here.
The battle suffers from trying to pack too much into an already tight runtime. i mean, was there any important reason at all for Seraphimon or HerakleKabuterimon to show up to fight Mugendramon? The issue is exacerbated by the decision to run all of their evolution sequences back-to-back. For a moment there, i dreaded that they were about to drag Rosemon and Vikemon into it as well and accordingly run a solid wall of evolution sequences all the way to the end credits. Unlike the prior parts, they didn't even have the decency of having the intermediary forms briefly do something to justify the decision to not have them warp-evolve straight to ultimate like Agumon and Gabumon did back in the day.
That said, i'd be lying if i claimed there wasn't some nice, visceral fun to be had from the spectacle. As a friend succinctly put it:
But even then, once the evolution sequences have taken their bite out of the runtime, we're left with just thirty-ish seconds for the smackdown and its thrill is all too brief. It's quite disappointing, especially given that the other climactic fights in earlier parts went on for a reasonably satisfying amount of time. Also - and this is purely subjective - but the way the final blast attacks from all three of them were portrayed felt... kinda weak and unsatisfying. It's strange, and i can't quite put my finger on it, but given that the preceding beatup of Mugendramon was solidly done, the feeling that the killing blows had no real oomph to them is a letdown on top of a letdown.
Don't get me wrong. After the hell they were put through in part 3, it's nice that Takeru, Koushiro and their digimon were given a much less tragic climax. Even so, they do a hell of a job of diluting what the entire film was working toward. This was Sora and Piyomon's film, and everything was building to the final confrontation with Mugendramon as the resolution of their differences and movement beyond that prophecised darkness to kick some fucking ass. Sure, it still happened, but squeezing two more ultimates into the fight squeezed a hell of a lot of time that should've been theirs out of the film. Christ, Hououmon didn't even get to land the finishing blow! It's an uncomfortable reminder of early Savers, where Yoshino and Lalamon got KO'd in their debut fight and had to leave actually finishing off the thing to Masaru and Agumon. That's not a part of Savers that anything should want to resemble.
And i mean, there's like a 99% chance that all nine of them are going to evolve to ultimate in the final film for the last battle against whoever. (Yggdrasil? Himekawa? Alphamon? Evil Gennai? At this point, who knows?) That right there would be HerakleKabuterimon and Seraphimon getting a nice, badass, happy ending. Frankly, i was betting on them following through on That Patamon Tradition and saving him for being the last partner digimon to reach the ultimate level. Too bad that they didn't find a satsifying way of breaking that tradition here.
It's such a shame, too. i like Seraphimon. i really like Seraphimon. i certainly didn't want to be complaining about Seraphimon.
Frankly, i'm just glad they didn't make us suffer through the same thing when WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon showed up; one could also accuse their inclusion of being unnecessary, but it's more forgivable being that a) no endless evolution sequence hell, b) their engagement against MetalSeadramon was basically kept separate from Sora vs Mugendramon, and c) unlike Takeru or Koushiro, Taichi and Yamato are actually on part 4's goddamn poster. And hey, as far as set piece fights go, that one was really fun; the shot of WarGreymon flinging MetalSeadramon out of the ocean was quite striking.
The use of the Dark Masters doesn't sit right with me, either. On one hand i was dreading that they'd be a 1:1 rehash of their original roles in Adventure, which turned out to decidedly not be the case, but on the other hand what they got instead isn't all that much better. Even if they're likely not meant to be the same individuals as the original Dark Masters, being that the reboot happened and all, seeing Mugendramon go from a shrewd, heartless strategist (with an obscene amount of power) to a mindless tamed animal used by Evil Gennai (with an obscene amount of power) strikes me as downright disrespectful to the original.
Granted, it's for the best that he and MetalSeadramon aren't really stealing the antagonist spotlight from Evil Gennai and Himekawa, and if you're looking for candidates to fill the "terrifying mindless ultimate-level digimon who the chosen have fought before" slot - considering that the impact of the sequences with Mugendramon and MetalSeadramon would be lost if they didn't recognise the opponents - you're shit out of luck. There's VenomVamdemon, maybe, but he doesn't really work without original-recipe Vamdemon coming first, and at that point we'd be right back at square one.
And at the very least, the absence of Piemon and Pinocchimon (opening flashback aside) means they didn't fuck up the interesting members of the Dark Masters.
Also, i just have to say: the Plotmon->Tailmon evolution sequence is really ugly. Like, holy living fuck. None of the child->adult evolutions are animated particularly well (except maybe Greymon because of course they'd put effort into his) but poor Plotmon had it even worse than usual. That 3D style did not flatter her at all. The sad part is, it's part of an otherwise lovely moment and not even having Butter-Fly as its accompaniment could make that animation less excruciating.
There's one particular frustration i've had with Tri as a whole that i've been mulling over for a while, and it's with the soundtrack. A strange thing to say, no question, given how amazing the soundtrack has been as a whole, - the uncontested best part of Tri, hands down, it is. Even so, the problem is Ai Maeda, specifically the part where they're completely wasting her talents. So far she's done her obligatory two Original Adventure Standards, but unlike the originals, they've both got the same goddamn cloying super-peppy J-pop texture to them. Which would be fine in and of itself if it were just one of them, since Maeda does do that pretty well and all, but the problem is that's a tiny fraction of her range. Sure, she can be saccharine and upbeat and tooth-rotting with the best of them, but her work's always varied from that to more bold, adventure-y sounding tracks, to her strongest point: dramatic ballads. Her magnum opus, near as i'm concerned, is the magnificently downbeat "Days: Love and the Ordinary" from Tamers:
Hell, even the original versions of both songs were vastly less saccharine than this; the original "I wish" was basically a dramatic ballad, and despite its J-poppy nature, the original "Keep on" had something of an undercurrent of grim determination to, well, keep on that's completely absent here. It's utterly criminal that they seem to have completely forgotten about the full extent of her abilities. And don't get me started on those fucking music videos they released for the songs.
For fuck's sake, Toei, the woman is in her forties. Consider having her do something other than hop around like a teen idol. Let her have a little dignity! At least she's got that duet with Ayumi Miyazaki coming up in Part 5. Maybe they'll actually remember Maeda can do more than one thing there? Christ.
So that's part 4, i guess: a strong start hamstrung by a rushed and cluttered ending. Shame, really.
