#redone because the original post disappeared for some reason wtf

[pyrokinesis]

So I lost the patience and watched Kizuna

! Major spoilers ahead !

Listen, I know I said I will wait until the Blu-Ray comes out, but I was impatient little bitch and I found a working Sample 3 link with English dub, so I said, fuck it! My brother joined me 20 minutes in, lol. Anyways, onto the movie.

I don't really know what to say, Digimon Last Evolution Kizuna was exactly what I expected from the movie of such name, a movie that promotes end of relationship between Digimons and their human partners.

I kinda didn't have my hope up, mostly because I rewatched Adventure & Adventure 02 last week and finally watched Tri, and the whole point of Digimon has always been, no matter what happens, Digimons and their humans will always stick and stay together, I think the quote goes "humans and Digimons forever" (?). I kinda was hyped up though, partly because of art style (it was much better than Tri, less dark and more symmetrical when it comes to faces and bodies, Tri was annoying at times with weird asymmetrical faces; also Yamato!!!! Yamato is so hot and pretty in Kizuna, wtf Toei leave this poor lesbian alone), partly because of Adventure 02 kids (my brother is so annoyed with me, but I'm a huge 02 fan, Wormmon is my baby and I can rewatch 02ep25 anytime, Stigmon's first appearance is fucking iconic).

Adventure 02 kids got much more screentime than I expected, especially Iori/Cody because he is sometimes really put aside. I love how they were staying in touch with Original Six/Eight through Yamato, and how Hikari and Takeru stayed part of their team (Tri lacked this so much, it was so weird to have Hikari and TK not knowing what happened to their friends when they were supposedly a new team/best friends). Also my baby Ken's hair (*le cries*), I miss his long hair. Both my brother and I expected Paildramon to appear near the end, but there were no DNA/Jogress evolutions besides Omegamon/Omnimon.

Yamato was so fucking hot it's unbelievable, he's become top Digi-destined to me, 2D character or not. He was so smart, so persistent, so consistent, so selfless, so cute, itty-bitty blind (those cute glasses that appeared on his face for a mili-moment during him being in uni classroom panel, all of my uwus gone), still has one of the best relationships with Gabumon (he plays harmonica for Gabumon, even after all these years, he keeps Gabumon by his side, and they both tried to find that bad-guy-turned-FBI-agent-guy sneakily, so so cute). Overall, Yamato is a emotionally much more main character than Taich is, probably because emotionally, Taichi was the main character of Tri.

Now onto our second main, Taichi. Honestly, technicall, both Yamato and Taichi are Kizuna's main guys, but emotionally, Yamato left much bigger impact. Taichi was the main character in the beginning, but as the story progressed, I could feel Yamato much better. Still, Taichi isn't left aside (like all other Original Eight kidz/people). He is a struggling university student who has no idea what to do with his life (my brother sorta compared him to me, LMAO). This is very consistent with Tri's Taichi, who is full of self dubts, abstract ideas of future, and melancholy when he thinks about his future self. Toei nicely showed it when they let us know Tai earns for his future by working part-time as a waiter (?) in an automat casino. He is kinda really down all the time when he starts realising he has to make huge choices about the future, even though he has no bloody idea or genuine thought what to do (also his porn stash, LMAO what was that Taichi, who even uses porn magazine after the age of 14).

Thinking back about it now, it's kinda underwhelming with how it actually, emotionally, focuses on the whole "Digimons have to leave their partners" philosophy. Like, it barely shows interactions between humans and Digimons (which Tri did at least, with I think all characters, so I would expect at least some focus on Yamato and Taichi). There were some interactions between Taichi and Agumon, and Yamato and Gabumon at the end, but it just felt uncomplete and unfullifying. Also whole concept is bullshit (did I mention it? Because if I didn't I will, because this whole thing really is). It all started with Tri, which felt like it was produced by random people who watched Adventure & 02 after fifteen years and decided to make their own spin on it, without actual respects for stories and characters Adventure & Adventure 02 were trying to make us feel and understand (though feelings of OOC-ness Tri had at the times were minimal in Kizuna, thank goodness for that).

Then, Kizuna continued it with the concept of "when Digi-destined grow up, their Digimon partners disappear because they are not on the same mental wavelengths anymore" which is the complete opposite of one of like three main Digimon philosophies, "Digimon and Digi-destined, together and forever"; like while I disliked 02 epilogue, it showed us that after all hardships, Digi-destined and their Digimons get their happy endings, together. Both my brother and I (we watched it together) groaned at the whole concept (along with predictive bullshit plot and plotholes).

While I understand the reason behind this (I read some spoilers on here afterwards, to broaden my post-Kizuna horizons), that humans/Digi-destined grow up, and Digimons kinda don't, it still makes me really dissatisfied. Tri showed us in flashes that, when given time spent with their and other humans, Digimons can grow and become mentally wise adults (cue to the cutest scene when Patamon closes his one eye because he understands the tension between Hikari and Takeru, as in, that they like each other and they might need some time "alone"), so Kizuna kinda fucked up all previous Adventure works by telling us everything is in vain, Digimons leave, their connection to humans they had will become meaningless and humans will have to move on. Bullshit plot(hole), but whatever.

The amount of screentime non-Taichi&Yamato characters can be underwhelming, especially if you don't read spoilers like I did. The movie starts with Takeru and Hikari as important as Yamato and Taichi, but as the movie progresses, they just fade in the background. Kinda happens to everyone else except Koushiro/Izzy, who kinda has a really leading role, considering how much screentime Taichi and Yamato have (I feel like wordcount apps will find Yamato&Taichi as my most used words in this rant review), and he is probably third most important role, until he undramatically disappears because of psycho main lady.

Now towards real ranting. I'll try to keep it short because I have no real emotions behind it and I feel some other rants might articulate it better. Anyways, the plot of the whole movie is so goddamn predictable. It starts so weirdly, with Taichi, Hikari and Takeru fighting Parrotmon (what the fuck was that even, btw???). Like, Parrotmon, again? It feels just very reused, and that feeling that doesn't leave even during the credits. Soundtrack—while nice, nostalgic, and very fitting—is also just reused Adventure 01 soundtrack, and it just brings kudos from my memory lane road nostalgia. Deja Vu is the feeling that sticks to your skin and bones, if you like me, watched Adventure 1-3 just before Kizuna, and understand how so many scenes are just reused wanna-be old seasons references.

From two older adults (I honestly thought there will be two goverment agents, again, and mentally groaned) sticking up into Digi-destineds' business like some omni-knows creature, same as agents from Tri, fucked up (female) main antagonist who pretends to be a good guy (lady?) for the sake of gathering intel and trust, who is a complete nutjob (full-time pyscho in Kizuna lady's case) because of the loss of her Digimon partner, to bullshit powered-up Digimon created from human coding (my brother pointed this one to me, and honestly, half of this movie is both Diaboromon movies rehashed/redone in 2020 shine), Omnimon fighting in some weird Digital World room powered-up creature (first Diaboromon movie straight up scene for scene), even that first scene with Parrotmon and this time completely unexplainable appearance of a Digimon in the real world, and Digi-destined having to fight it, and of course, bullshit new unexplained Digi-evolution with new (human???) mega forms of Agumon and Gabumon. All in all, it just feels very forced and all very already seen.

Now onto the less main, even less supporting characters. 02 teens are amazing, considering they have barely any lines and some little fighting moments. I love them, and I'm happy they got this, considering how they were blatantly forgotten in Tri, and how obviously nobody in the production of Tri even cared to hide that. Wormmon and Stigmon are my babies and I'm happy to see them have some screentime.

Original Six/Eight (excluding Taichi and Yamato) are kinda disappointing, though. I read some spoilers, so I knew Sora wouldn't appear much, but damn, even that was much compared to her actual screentime in Kizuna. She is almost as forgotten as 02 kids were in Tri. I get that she is shown to have moved on faster than other Original Eight kids, but still, they didn't even show her losing Piyomon (which did happen, and it was emotionally, overwhelming, in a fucked up sense when you realised Piyomon wasn't by her side). Jou, Mimi, Takeru, and Hikari were shown at the beginning of movie with so much potential screentime, but in the end they mostly were there for the dramatic cliffhangers (I didn't understand at the beginning what happened to Mimi and Jou, and I thought Hikari was murdered and that the FBI agent straight up shot Takeru), during that mini battle scene sometime in the Neverland, and of course, during the end credits. It was kinda really both overwhelming and underwhelming to see them during the credits when they could've had much more moments during the movie (I sorta had some hope because the movie is almost 2 hours long, and usually movies are like 20, 30 minutes long, but even during those one-episode-length movies there is more of main-supporting characters shown).

As mentioned, the ending is bullshit (my brother ended up crying and I had to put Adventure OST on to calm him down), Agumon and Gabumon dying is literally the most senseless thing ever since both Taichi and Yamato love their partners so much, and even among all the adulting and hassles in their lives, they try to make time for their Digimon partners (during their time in the restuarant, Yamato and Taichi literally talk how they don't have time for even their closest friends, hell Hikari even mentions Taichi should give their mother a visit, but Taichi still finds time for Agumon), so in the end both Taichi and Yamato were among the last people to lose their Digimons and I'm really disappointed in this concept, especially how they didn't show Gabumon and Agumon disappearing, Taichi and Yamato deserved explicit goodbyes.

Uh, I don't think I have anything much to add anymore. I read spoilers and some are pretty much novels from how much people put their thoughts in, this is just my ranting review, tbh. I dived into this hoping to get my heart mended from Tri (say what you want about Tri but it was too bad for six hour and half movies, especially general Adventure constistency-wise), but not with high expectations, having seen the trailer and having some spoilers read. All in all film wasn't too bad, but it wasn't too good, solid 6/10 rating from me, mostly for the animation and nostalgic soundtrack, but the whole plot was shit as fuck and the philoshophy behind it.

(Random, but I noticed straight people/shippers liked the movie better than gay people/shippers, is there any correlations between that)

ALL IN ALL, Digimon: Last Evolution Kizuna wasn't the best nor the worst Digimon movie/work, but it probably isn't something I will rewatch or recommend anytime soon (also wtf were those humanoid mega forms, like W T F).

#Petra talks #Petra rants #digimon #digimon adventure #digimon last evolution kizuna spoiler #digimon last evolution kizuna #digimom spoilers #and ranting #too many mentions of taichi and yamato #tw swearing #taichi yagami #yamato ishida