Strawberry Flapjacks

I haven’t thought too deeply about this, but I wouldn’t call tri. a complete deconstruction. 

After all, the main “patterns” we’ve come to expect from a Digimon (and, specifically, a Digimon Adventure) story are all there: a group of chosen children who evolve their partner monsters in order to save the world from darkness and destruction, while exploring themes such as friendship, courage, hope, personal growth, and becoming an adult. The essential elements that made the original series stand out are also mostly preserved: a bildungsroman against a background of fantasy/sci-fi/action-adventure, with references to other works of fiction, mythology, technology, and philosophy. Even the more “external” characteristics of the show (music, colour, visual gags, callbacks to the other series, the relatively “static” roles of the characters within the team) were very recognisable.

However, in my opinion tri. did go beyond following the old formula and avoided being a by-the-book sequel, by bringing new ideas to the table.

Specifically, there are two big aspects than, in my opinion, make tri. feel slightly “different” from the previous series; even  “darker”, as you put it.

First, it has to do the writing and the storytelling decisions that were at the basis of this story. I’ve been writing about this for a while, but tri. is deliberately hermetic and ambiguous. It doesn’t even attempt to provide the audience with direct answers to everything. It eschews a typical three-part story structure and the hero’s journey. It tells a detailed, complex story using suggestion and winks, and expects the audience to unite the dots and come up with their own reasons for what is happening. Moreover, it is a show that seems to ask people to rewatch it multiple times, to reinterpret everything that happens continually, and to reflect deeply about what we are seeing. In other words, it requires the viewer to engage with the story on a deep level, wanting us focusing more in matters of feeling and themes than (it often feels that way) plot intricacies, brushing aside whatever it doesn’t consider “important”. 

This means that watching tri. can often be a frustrating and confusing experience. Unsettling, even. As a result, it is no wonder that this approach is unpopular with many viewers, because not everyone is going to be satisfied with a show that doesn’t provide direct answers and tells a story in an ambiguous way. The line between “subtle” and “lazy” is very thin, as is the line between “ambitious and profound” and “convoluted mess”.

However, the way I see it, this approach was deliberate, not only to mark a contrast to the relative “straightforwardness” of Adventure, but also to confront the adult audience’s expectations.

In other words, the fact that tri. is “messy and confusing” reinforces some of the larger themes in tri., namely the fact that adulthood itself is messy and confusing, and doesn’t give you all the right answers. There isn’t a single Big Baddie to defeat; instead, the Chosen Children are caught in the middle of a powerplay between multiple agents, feeling lost and lacking easy solutions. When Taichi says “I see more and understand less”, that ends up being very applicable to what the audience experiences when they watch tri. unfold for the first time.

I think the second point is related to how. tri. presents a somewhat bleak vision of what happened post-02. In other words, the answers it gives to the question “What happened in those three years?” aren’t exactly what most of the audience expected or wanted to hear, nor did it correspond to what many of us had imagined.

Maybe Taichi did not grow up to be a confident and fearless leader. Maybe the 02 kids did not stay best friends forever. Maybe Takeru and Hikari are bad friends. Maybe Yamato and Sora did not start dating at 14 and stayed together all their lives. Maybe Jou’s doubts about his future and his priorities weren’t completely resolved when he was 12. Maybe the Chosen Children go back and forth in their development and continue to be imperfect and forget what they learnt. Maybe being an adult Chosen Child isn’t all sunshine and roses. Maybe Homeostasis is actually not a friend. Maybe the human world doesn’t embrace the digimon. Maybe sometimes you have to kill a partner, and it won’t be reborn. Maybe humans can die even though you never really did anything truly wrong. Maybe the kids’ troubles are never going to end completely.

Again, I think this may have been a calculated choice, in order to emphasise the themes of the series, and the rough path to adulthood. You can’t always get what you want. It doesn’t make tri. a “dark” show, but it does show that they aren’t interested in only giving viewers happy moments sprinkled with a few sad moments, to maximise nostalgia and be exactly like Adventure. Instead, they throw the audience uncomfortable ideas about the world and the characters they love. (Another reason why so many people react negatively to tri. and feel angry.)

Finally, all the megas evolutions

The Yagami Residence - The bedrooms of Taichi and Hikari

(A Short Analysis and opinions)

In the first movie, The family is staying in Hikarigaoka and the siblings have a double deck bed, Taichi taking the top bed because it’s dangerous for Hikari to stay on the top. They also have a pencil shaped hanger where they hang the small (baby) bags. After the incident with Koromon, the family moved to Odaiba.

Later on (Digimon 01), Taichi gives up his spot for his younger sister. Hikari probably asked if she can stay on the top part. I also felt that Taichi had a hard time accepting that Hikari was to take the top bed because ‘she might fall off’ then he goes into a ‘overprotective brother mode’ and kept on waking up in the middle of the night, in case Hikari did ‘fall off’. Another reason can be that Taichi did not like going up and down the ladder because it’s tiring.

In Digimon 02, Taichi and Hikari are given separate rooms. I felt that their father’s ‘study/work’ room became a room for Hikari, while Taichi takes the original room. Maybe it was a parent/s decision, or Taichi’s decision but I watched through the series and I felt that Hikari took some time to adjust to this change (especially in episode 13), Hikari’s bed is similar to the double deck bed since it is elevated a bit, it is where she used to sleep on the top part when she used to share rooms with her brother.

Me, an intellectual: Jou got new glasses!