As a child of the nineties, I was partially swept up in the late decade's anime boom. While I didn’t watch Dragonball Z until the Buu Saga, I was enamoured by Pokemon, Medabots, and Mon-Coli Knights. Of the Saturday Morning Dubs, Digimon was my favourite. Even if my family had weekend plans, I had to watch the show if a new episode aired. Live or taped, I tuned. While I fell off the fan wagon following Frontier—a show lag tends to do that—my interest was raised when Digimon Tri was announced. While catering to nostalgia, Tri promised to continue the story of the original group of DigiDestined. If episode one is any indication, Tri is delivering on that promise.
Picking up several years later, the audience is reintroduced to the DigiDestined on an average day: Tai plays soccer, Matt rocks out, and Joe worries about academics. The tranquillity is soon interrupted by the appearance of Wild Digimon. Unlike last time, the monsters are glitching in and out of existence. The government is aware of the problem—partially in thanks to Genai—and enlist the group's aid by the end, but something seems off. Could they know more? Is Genai the one holding out?
In addition to familiar faces, we get two new ones in the form of Meiko and her partner, Meicoomon. While only seen sporadically in the first two acts, by the third their presence becomes important, as the film’s main antagonist is after them. Without giving away spoilers, the gang saves them and the pair become friends. I wonder if we’ll see a new Digivolution in the next film.
One complaint I’ve read about Reunion is that it’s paced slow. After watching the film, I concur, but it isn’t a problem for me. While Tri is marketed as a film series, Reunion is written and paced like an opening arc, only the focus is on re-introducing familiar character’s and updating the stories premise. While slow, it succeeds as an opening salvo.
One thing that has me perplexed is Adventure 02’s canon status. I’ve read mixed reports online before and since the film’s release, and one viewing hasn’t cleared anything up. If two is still canon, why weren’t Davis, Ken and the other’s reference by name? Omnimon’s appearance could throw another monkey wrench into the equation, but his appearance in Revenge of Diaboromon balances things out. If anything it makes one wonder when Gabumon reachieved Mega. The only plot indication that any of season two happened is Kari and T.K’s D3’s. Perhaps a later episode will clear this element up. If not, this is bad form on Toei’s part.
The animation is beautiful. Anime films are allocated higher budgets than network shows, and this is evident on screen. While stylistically similar to Adventure’s previous films—although my knowledge of this mainly stems from the American hybridization—the art is updated, allowing Tri’s art design to stand alone. Tai’s protagonist hair is reigned in as a result.
The voice work was excellent. Most of the original cast returned for the dub, which helped further my enjoyment. I was smiling off and on constantly as the film played. Joshua Seth, Tai’s actor, even came out of retirement for the project, as he enjoyed the role. That is fandom dedication. Kari and TK’s new voices will take several viewings to get used to, but since the latter is dubbed by Johnny Yong Bosch it’s not all bad.
All things considered, Reunion is a decent reintroduction to the Adventure timeline. It looks and sounds great, and while slow, the story has me drawn in. Hopefully, I’ll be able to watch two and three sometime soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment