Final two days of waiting!
After the cliffhanging twist ending of Confession (Gennai? Maki’s evil? Rebooted Digital World?), fans anxiously awaiting the release of Digimon Adventure Tri Chapter 4.
The reveal of the poster and the appearance of Mugendramon, potential Taiorato (TaiXSoraXYamato) moments, and a Bakumon only added more questions in the minds of fans: If Mugendramon is back does that mean all previous bad guys are back for the Chosen to fight? Is Bakumon the key to the Digimon reclaiming their memories? Will we finally learn why Sora married Yamato or what the current state of relationship is? Why does Yamato become an astronaut?
However, the movie didn’t answer any of those questions (except for Bakumon, he was in the movie for five minutes and was strangled by Maki in an absolutely painful moment).
As expected, Loss was a pretty dark and depressing movie for the most part – Gennai was creepy, the Digimon had no memories, Sora and Piyomon had reversed roles almost from their original meeting, Meiko was basically told her best friend has to die, and, to top it off, we’re watching Maki’s mental state deteriorate.
While I didn’t enjoy Chapter 4 as much as the previous two chapters, there was a moment where I reacted stronger than any other moment in any of the previous movies; the ‘Original Chosen’ scene.
This moment was a scene that even Toei was holding close to their chest until the movie’s release – they didn’t even include it in the ‘first ten minutes’ clip that was shown at the Tokuban prior to the movie’s release.
This scene stands out from the rest of the movie as it shows the audience something that many fans had been curious about since it was mentioned once by Gennai in Adventure.
We discover that the four of the five Original Chosen’s partner Digimon became the four Holy Beasts, something that had previously only been discussed in the Digimon Adventure novelisation. Maki’s Digimon, the Bakumon on the poster, is sacrificed in order to evolve the other four Digimon to Ultimate and to defeat the Dark Masters and seal them away until they come back in Adventure.
In addition to finding out that Maki and Daigo were two of the Original Chosen, we also find out that Maki, like Hikari, has been taken over by Homeostasis. This explains Maki’s reaction when she sees Homeostasis talk through Hikari in the previous movie.
The scene is set to beautiful background music and set up as a silent movie, adding to the atmosphere of a nostalgia triggering, heart breaking moment.
While this scene may not mean as much to those who didn’t watch Digimon Adventure as a child, it appeases and is of intrigue to those who have been always curious.
However, it would be nice to know more about the Original Chosen – was Yamato’s Dad the ‘Jyou’ of the group? What about Iori’s father?
What was your favourite moment in Loss? Did the Original Chosen scene mean anything to you?
I agree that the strongest part of Loss was probably the opening flashback to the first group of DigiDestined from the ‘80s. The other part I really enjoyed was the scaryness of Mugendramon in Loss. I think may people feel Mugendramon kind of got short changed in his episodes of the Dark Masters arc in Adventure. And it seems Tri made up for it here by making Mugendramon much more dynamic and threatening. Though his eventual defeat did play out a bit weak.
I liked the short time the kids were paired with other Digimon while they were searching for each other. I would have liked that part to be longer. I think the big turn off for me here was the licking Gennai. I could have lived without that angle to his character. We get that he’s a bad guy. I hope we get some resolution with Maki and her Bakumon. I don’t want her to just be lost to the Dark Ocean. If only for Daigo’s sake, I need some Maki resolution.
The Piyomon/Sora character swap I felt was a bit forced. I would definitely like to know why Sora ended up marrying Yamato when she had Taichi!! I actually begrudge her quite a bit on that. Yamato!?! Really??? I mean if it were Takeru we could at least consider it, but Taichi would still win… but Yamato!? He’s kind of meh. Stupid Sora….
I don’t know if I’d call Loss my favourite entry, but I’d say it ranks up there just for giving me my Sora fix. I realise that’s a somewhat shallow and oddly specific reason, but whatevs 😀
That aside; I can see why some may feel the Sora/Piyomon role reversal seems forced, but I disagree because this highlights one of the issues Sora has, something that’s even foreshadowed in Confession; she’s selfless, putting everyone else’s needs before her own, which is arguably a good trait to have. But perhaps because of this she has a harder time dealing with her own wants and needs – which is, admittedly, something I can relate to – such as when she’s told her Crest won’t glow in Adventure, or in this case when she’s being outright rejected by her own partner.
Anyway, for as much as they like to keep ‘poking the bear’ (using Marc’s words from the WtW podcast), it was nice to see some development for her beyond the ‘Taiorato’ love triangle for once. Come to think of it, I think her ending up with Yamato in the epilogue is why I dislike shipping in the first place XD;