You know, contrary to popular belief; this hasn't always been as easy as others might think. Granted, I do love the fact that I can write about my hobbies in a manner that helps me not only prepare for one day getting a job in my field after I get my degree; but even if you love what you do, there's no guarantee you'll be able to please everyone all the time. That said, I've never really been shy about going against the grain when the opportunity arrives. Today is another one of those times; so here is another entry in my Honest Thoughts series; in what I consider to be the missteps and blunders of the attempted Digimon "resurgence." Granted, this is a franchise that's admittedly had no shortage of divisive outings (Frontier, for example); but although I appreciate the gesture on paper, this is a shortlist of a few issues that I feel are keeping this revival from being a full-blown resurgence. Let's get started.
5. Underselling the TCG reboot
This is admittedly the smallest issue on this list; since the trading card game reboot itself is admittedly pretty well-constructed; both as a game and in terms of its art direction. That said, the people in charge really should have learned from how the game fared in the past to better handle it this time around. Granted, those who have gotten their hands on the game did have plenty of nice things to say about it; but there's the flip side to the coin: in my area; where even common cards can be snatched up by younger players and enthusiasts alike, actually finding the blasted cards has been roughly in the same ballpark of difficulty of finding a Playstation 5 in the wild (side note: deliberately waiting to get one till Horizon Forbidden West comes out at the earliest); and my closest business that sell trading cards (and weren't impacted by closures for safety concerns) didn't think to order enough stock to meet demand. Admittedly, I don't buy into the "artificial scarcity" argument (especially given what I learned about it in economics); but given the quality of the new cards, I'm admittedly concerned about the quantity making Bandai repeat past mistakes; which will be a recurring issue throughout this list.
4. Delaying Digimon Survive past the 20th anniversary
This is a twofold issue here: though I haven't played that many of the video games in the series (I only fairly recently beat the PS1 Smash Bros. clone Digimon Rumble Arena in quarantine, for the first time since I was 9), they've apparently vastly improved in quality. As such, when I first heard about this title (a combination of survival and tactical RPGs); it admittedly showed promise. Then it got delayed past its 2018 release date, and again past 2019. Then after the publisher denied them delaying the game again; Namco Bandai admitted they would have to delay this and their other 2020 titles because of coronavirus impacting development across the board. The current release date is slated for this spring, but at this point; it wouldn't surprise me if they had to delay the game again. That's not even getting into development being halted at one point and essentially having to start over from scratch. I will admit that's one of the realities of even games I've been playing and enjoying as of late: Ninjala, Cyberpunk 2077 and the HD remaster of Star Wars Racer to name a few; but at least those titles did come out and I knew about the contingencies they had before that. Needless to say, the fact this game got delayed past the 20th anniversary of the franchise when it was originally meant to part of the celebration wasn't exactly a good look. Even with the infamy of titles such as Duke Nukem Forever in mind; there's a point where you need to make a judgment call that's never ideal: either finish and release what you have, or kill the project. There's also some admittedly familiar aspects that will be key to not just the next bullet points; but the rest of this shortlist.
3. Coasting on the goodwill of Digimon Adventure and its fans
Having too much of anything, even something you enjoy is never as good as it sounds. We all have our limits; and I think that maybe Bandai and Toei have been pumping the well of Digimon Adventure quite a bit as of late. Admittedly, I liked the Adventure seasons fine growing up; but my favorite season was Tamers; and I do have some retroactive appreciation for Savers/Data Squad. Yet, between how much the merchandise and newer stories (including the next two slots on the list) have been milking the goat of Adventure; part of me wishes that they would do more experiments. Fusion/Xros Wars was a good effort that managed to be a solid enough take on the tropes and character types of Adventure; only for Young Hunters Leaping Through Time to squander the characters of past seasons by basically being glorified assist trophies in the final moments. It's pretty telling that season hasn't gotten an English dub. The Tri movies also did take some creative license that I appreciated; but that still doesn't change the fact that it's yet another adaptation of Adventure. I also don't think including the cast of the second season is enough, but I shall come back to that. I'm not saying that revisiting an older story is a bad idea in general: Lupin III The First was a splendid CGI remake of Lupin's first major caper, but that was presented in a way that still felt faithful to the tone of the original source. It's just that despite the claims otherwise; the overall handling of Adventure as of late seems like it's coasting on the goodwill of the series and its fans. Refuting the claims elsewhere, it's less of growing with the audience and more pandering to them; which brings me to my next point.
2. Mishandling the 2020 anime reboot
I've mentioned before that rebooting any work is often a crapshoot; both on and off this blog. Admittedly, when the plans for the 2020 reboot were unveiled; they showed promise. Then the anime actually started airing; and the trouble began. Though some changes from the original I do appreciate (the new, yet familiar art style; the threats of the Digital World causing real-world havoc more openly, and Kari showing no signs of the illness that left her unable to attend camp with the others in the original); the reboot unfortunately stumbles in the areas that were the strongest in the original: the story and characters. Over the course of the 1999 version, there was both a clear sense of escalation of threat combined with smaller, more personal conflict. In the second episode of the reboot; they decided to adapt the "Our War Game" storyline when the main cast hadn't been fully introduced yet. While I do believe the show handled that plot line better than the 2000 film did; it also had the unfortunate side effect of tipping their hand way too early. I'm currently on the fourth episode (stacking them so I can binge the whole season at my pleasure); but based on other testimonials and what I've gleaned so far, this reboot has been the show that many of us worried the original would be.
Despite the fact the show is running longer than the original (1999 had 54 episodes, this one has 66 planned); past the halfway point, there is a growing consensus that the new version has taken longer to tell the same story as the original in a less interesting way. One complaint has the other Digimon being reduced to damsels-in-distress for the main characters to rescue; though that might be too generous in my view. That would imply the side characters were actually written like characters: often times both the real world and digital world have their extras written like props, glorified set dressings for the action. Even bigger moments from its senior involving Kari and TK have less impact this time around. The character dynamic was easily my favorite part of the original, and that's something I don't think later versions of Adventure have ever fully nailed. This is in stark contrast to series such as One Piece and newer ones like My Hero Academia; both of which have been able to clearly define and balance their casts with unique personalities and goals that are planned out as much as years in advance. Yet, it's not even the biggest example of how the series can't seem to get out of its own way to make a mere revival into a full-on "resurgence." My top point should explain why I keep putting that term in quotes.
1. Last Evolution Kizuna ends (?) original story by dividing the fanbase (and its creators)
I really wanted this to be the finale the story deserved. Part of me really wanted to like this movie as much as other fans did. Unfortunately, I can't compromise my integrity as a fan; let alone a critic if I didn't write what I actually thought about this movie. I reaffirm that I do not plan to give the movie a full review; and this would be a better way to express my feelings on the matter. The movie does have plenty of things I liked: the animation is very good overall, the opening fight set to "Bolero" in particular is quite impressive. Yet, while the movie is for the most part a decent film and a good standalone Digimon story; and at least a better finale than the 02 epilogue (with this film even seemingly retconning if not outright contradicting it despite the inclusion of their cast); it makes its own controversial decisions with the story and characters that I absolutely don't support. A lot of the "adult" parts of the movie just feel forced, less like natural progression and more like a checklist of items to show the audience. The drinking at the soba parlor, the cast of the movie acting like they got lost on their way to "Reality Bites," the whole movie just telegraphs things so hard that it not only undermines the mystery behind the digital threats; but comes off less like growing with the audience and instead growing to resent the audience. I did kind of laugh at the part where Agumon found the stash of girlie movies in Tai's mattress; since I guess a folder on his computer full of risqué art of Renamon, Ninetales and Kyubi from Yo-Kai Watch would have been too on the nose. That, and jokes like that have been on YouTube spoofs for years now.
That aside, it felt less like a wrap-up to decades of storytelling and more like "Matt and Tai Face the Music, featuring the cast of Digimon Adventure." Even that comparison might be too generous, since even Bill and Ted had a more satisfying and emotionally-powerful finale than this film to me. It's not like it would have been impossible; but part of me still feels like it would have been better to do this as an OVA series rather than just one movie. Dragon Ball Super managed to pull this off well: even if not everyone was onboard, I personally felt the tone was the ideal balance of the fun, wondrous style of the original and the more serious storytelling of DBZ. Heck, some people took issue with how they handled Goku; but I think his and others' words and actions were still on-point for their characters. I also know this isn't a fair comparison, but to bring up one of the best animated films I've seen in recent memory: Into the Spider-Verse managed to earn its emotional moments and carve out its own place in the many versions of Spider-Man that have come before.
This film, however; feels less like a finale to 20 years of stories and more like a glorified monster of the week episode at feature length. The idea was there for a good finale, but they only went halfway. As I've said before, half a finale is hardly a finale at all. Not helping matters is that one of the original directors was initially involved and even used as a selling point; but he left the project on the grounds the movie strayed too far from the concepts established from the original setting. It's one thing to leave the fans mixed about an ending; but it's another to drive a wedge between the creators. I can only hope that the director might be allowed to tell his story in another format; if only to see what his take on the finale could have been.
I will say that if you're going to have this kind of story in your movie, you need to give every character a proper send-off; not just your leads, and you need to go all-in on drama for both humans and monsters alike. Most of all, if you are going to go forward with a reboot; maybe give a little bit more room before you announce it and start airing it, so it doesn't seem so opportunistic and risk further undermining the message you're trying to send. I just hope that if Toei and Bandai want to do a "20 years after" version of Tamers, they don't just do Lain with a Tamers skin on it. I know they share the same writer; but at this point, I'm just glad I finally got all this out of my system. Whatever shape the series takes next; hopefully the people in charge can learn from their mistakes. That will be all for now, take care.
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