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seventeenlovesthree · 1 year

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Things I loved about Kizuna, which didn’t work for me and where the jury is still out.

Since my impatience is still trying to bridge the time until the 02 movie comes out, I thought about putting my general love-dislike-relationship with Kizuna into words. Because like with every movie I love, there are usually also things I will have my issues with. Granted, this is very personal and very biased, but I’ll still try my best to explain myself.

Things I loved:

The nostalgia bait: Call it cliché, but I was one of the people on whom the nostalgia pandering absolutely worked. I had watched Digimon Adventure for the first time back in the lovely year 2000 and as someone, who did have their issues with how Tri was presented, my first time watching Kizuna gave me everything: Goosebumps, tears, screaming “I KNOW THAT REFERENCE!” out loud. Up to this day, I am STILL finding references, I am still humming along Bolero when it plays at the beginning and I have no shame in admitting all of that. I loved the sap, I loved the cheese and I did enjoy being pandered to.

The light/cinematography/animation: I will try very hard not to gush over this too much, but despite the fact that everyone seemed much paler than they’d usually be, I absolutely loved the light and colour design that was chosen for this movie. The soft, warm tone in the morning and sunset scenes, the menacing orange in cyberspace after getting through the happy, nostalgic pastel tones, the grey/dark tones as the mood changes and everyone is getting more depressed, the cold tones in Neverland... I loved it all. And the same goes for visual framings the characters got, as well as all the symbolysm. There are so many mirror/glass scenes in this movie, so many little references and angle changes that make me want to watch the movie again and again to analyze them.

The fact that the 02 gang was included again: I will be one of the first to claim that Kizuna was absolutely meant to be damage control after Tri and one of the first things they fixed was making sure that all 12 Chosen Children would appear at least ONCE on screen. Granted, unfortunately not everyone was treated equally in this, but the fact that they were actually THERE was still satisfying.

Menoa Bellucci: Even if one might argue that her conflict had been just as much of a reference to previous works/characters as mentioned in the nostalgia bait section (Hurricane Touchdown/Wallace, Tri/Maki), I love her potential (no pun intended). I say this because there could have been even more to be done with her, but in general, the genius girl and unreliable narrator of this story turning into an antagonist because of her own personal wishes and saviour complex is just... Exactly my jam. And I am really curious to see whether or not we’ll see her again.

The “fairy tale” aspect: The entirety of Neverland, alluding to Peter Pan and the idea of never becoming an adult, yet, as Digimon always does, framing this to be a bad thing, is also something I highly enjoy. Again, it may be a cliché and overdone at this point (and I do hope it will not be the central theme in the 02 movie), but I adore this kind of storytelling; an alternate realm, a parallel world that fulfills wishes... That stuff has always mattered in Digimon and it was more terrifying this time than ever before. I do love the brainwashing aspect and the horror behind it all, because watching them all break through this makes it even better. (I kinda feel like we might get some “Jack and the Beanstalk” framing in the 02 movie and if that turned out to be the case, it’d blow me away.)

Things that didn’t work for me:

The extent of the suffer porn (mainly Taichi-centric, but also in regards to Yamato and Sora): Look. I do have an affinity for works that make their main characters suffer. As long as there is a catharsis at some point. The way we had already watched six movies (and a stageplay) dealing with Taichi’s growing pains had just been... Rather painful. I love that boy, I have analyzed his arc countless times and up to this point, I could make sense of it for the most part. But the fact that his happy end was only hinted at left me incredibly dissatisfied. I am aware of what happens by the end of the movie, I am aware of the epilogue, I KNOW he will get there, so the hopeful note still remains. I mean, Digimon never shied away of writing realistic arcs for their characters, but I really just want to see Taichi happy again. The whole part of showing him being “a performative, yet lonely and unhappy adult that also gets punished for his depression”, as relatable and realistic as it was, still made it horrifying to think about that this may have been the last time we’d actually see him. Because we didn’t know there would be another movie in this timeline... I am very keen on outlining, drawing and writing about how he will get to his happy end (according to my own headcanons, that is), but I also reeeeeally want to see that happen. Especially because everything was just limited to a small main core of characters, so we didn’t even know if the other characters weren’t suffering as well. The “fate” of losing their partners still seems to be limited to Taichi, Yamato and Sora after all, as they had been the ones who had never fully come to terms with how they wanted their lives to turn out, but for the most part, we didn’t actually see a lot. Speaking of “not seeing it happen”...

Sora’s absence: The fact that “To Sora” was NOT part of the movie itself bugs me to no end. Because there are enough people who have NEVER seen that short film and thus, to them, her absence in the movie does NOT make sense at all. And it can make sense if you know about the background - maybe even intertwining it into her entire arc. It’s such a beautiful little addition to her personal development and while it is also as unfulfilling as Taichi’s route (especially because I’m currently going through a very similar situation as she does), it at least EXISTS. She deserves so much more than always getting the shortest end of the stick. SPEAKING OF WHICH...

The fact that we never got an animated version of “The Candle of Life”: Once I read that little part in the Kizuna novels, my disappointment was skyrocketing to immeasurable heights. Seriously, this passage, just like “To Sora”, did SO MUCH for Koushirou’s character as a whole, framed and foreshadowed his entire purpose in that movie flawlessly and in such an endearing and human way that it just baffles me that we might never see that on screen... I love that Koushirou is going places, following his aspirations and functions as the communicator and glue that keeps everyone together, still implied to be close with his bff and all, but I wish my boy could also catch a break at some point.

The jury is still out to decide.

The character designs: I have a huuuuge love-hate relationship with the character designs to be honest, because again, there is so much potential that seemed to go unused with it. They did try to merge the adult style the OG 01 and 02 seasons had with something modern and fresh - and I am thankful that they gave several characters parts of their uniqueness back which Tri’s designs partly took away (such as Koushirou and Jyou having pitch black eyes). And - who wouldn’t be happy to finally see the babies all grown up, pretty and proper!!! It IS a very pretty style. But it was/is still clear that they haven’t perfected it yet. The artbook implies that the characters had been even more expressive than they were IN the movie, but I assume that is also due to the fact that the story didn’t allow for many comic relief scenes. But if there were any, it was amazing (and I really liked the more light-hearted moments a lot!). But this way, the emotional range of Yamato and Koushirou, for example, was heavily unter-utilized and that is a shame. Instead, we sometimes got severe cases of same-face-syndrome and stiffness and you can tell that there is so much more this style is capable of - it just needs a little more polishing. (Also EVERYONE was really slender in the art style - which was also present in the original style and may and may not have played a role in the character development as well, like we can assume in Taichi’s case, since he has quit football and all... But still, differences in body types could have been nice!)

Design wise, we have basically three categories: 1.) I love it/It fits, 2.) It’s okay, but could have been better and 3.) WHY?.

Category 1 goes to Sora, Yamato, Ken, Miyako, Hikari and Takeru. Sora changed her bangs for the third time and she’s finally wearing pants again, she’s gorgeous. Yamato is nicely toned, even wears glasses and got back to his signature hairstyle that still fits. Funnily enough, I think I am one of the few who thought the short hair Ken got was nice - I understand why people would mourn his original hairstyle, but I appreciated that they did something daring for the first time. Miyako’s colourful attire is absolutely her (even though I have yet to understand what exactly she is wearing in the 02 movie). Hikari’s design may appear simple, but it does give her a very sophisticated aura - even more so in the 02 movie, in which her hair has actually grown a bit. Also adding the fact that the designers knew exactly what they were doing by giving her a lot of see-through pieces of clothing. Takeru giving off all “You can support my writings on Patreon, I also listen to K-Pop, gotta head to Starbucks quickly” energy in the world couldn’t have turned out any better.

Category 2 goes to Taichi, Daisuke, Jyou and Iori. I do understand why they went with a slimmed down version of Taichi, indicating that he hasn’t done much sport in a while, but that and his lack of tan made him appear like an entirely different person. The same goes for Daisuke - and I know for a fact that I wasn’t the only one who thought his hair was very similar to Koushirou’s in the first scene he appeared in. Jyou and Iori were just very... Safe, to say the least. I understand why people mourn Jyou’s hair and cooler glasses, but at least Iori seems to appear more buff in the 02 movie thanks to his Kendo training.

Category 3 goes to Mimi and Koushirou. Mimi is a very difficult case for me, because I get why she is restraining her hair like that, as it is more practical - however, there was no reason why she didn’t wear the outfit they showed in the credits for the movie. Whenever people said her main outfit felt like “kindergarden teacher”, I had to agree... And when it comes to Koushirou, I feel like sighing constantly. It’s understandable that we haven’t seen him outside of business attire in a while now (and I’m happy that he’s still rocking his associated colour orange as consistently as he does), but the fact that they gave him his 10-year-old haircut back is just... Not okay. Give that boy the company boss aura he deserves, he already looks way too slender for the clothes he is wearing, and he deserves to finally have his arc of “finding his style” resolved at some point.

The ambiguity: I absolutely LOVE theorizing about what the TRUE origin of why the partnerships have been vanishing - whether it was actually due to the “becoming adults = losing potential” theory Menoa had (which was disproven by several characters in universe, such as Jyou and Daisuke) or because of the various theories the fandom came up with, such as “the neglect theory” or, even more importantly, “the stagnation theory”. I do love the fan theories more, because if you take the idea presented in the movie, it CAN be read as rather disheartening (and there’s a reason why many interpreted it as trying to tell the viewer “Stop being so nostalgic for this series and move on already!”, even though the end implied that a balance of cherishing your past experiences and use them to move forward in a constructive way is still the best approach). My gut tells me that we miiiiight get an official version once the 02 movie comes out, but up until then and as much as I love speculating, it’s a shame that a lot of people are very hard pressed on what the actual reason is. Others say it’s a huge plothole - and really, that could absolutely also be the case.

The fact that there wasn’t/isn’t “more”: I am still torn between wanting to give the OG timeline some rest and wanting to see the babies I grew up with still going on adventures. The 02 movie coming out this year proves that the franchise - and this timeline in particular - is still profitable. And the little shorts we got besides “To Sora” were just so lovely that a part of me still wishes there was more of this, a little Slice of Life series about the Chosen Children dealing with their everyday lives as adults... So we’ll see if there will be any more content in the future, depending on how the 02 movie will do.

#digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #digimon adventure kizuna #digimon adventure last evolution #my two cents #meta

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