Digimon Adventure tri. 4: Soushitsu


The 4th Digimon tri film appropriately titled 'Loss' continues where the 3rd film left off. The DigiDestined are now back in the Digital world, but with a new twist. The previous movie ended with a reboot of almost every Digimon, resulting in the Digimon partners' loss of memories. This is what this movie focuses on. The loss of the Digimons' memories and to an extension, the loss of their bond with the DigiDestined.

FULL SPOILERS AHEAD

Primarily, the movie centers around Sora, as Biyomon goes full-on tsun-tsun and essentially treats Sora like trash for pretty much the entire move. I find this slightly forced in that Biyomon was never on edge when it came to building a relationship with Sora in Digimon Adventure. So I find it hard to believe that by resetting her personality, she could do an almost 180 despite the fact that all the other Digimon partners seem to bond with the DigiDestined straight off the bat. But I suppose Sora, as a character, required some growth and to do that, they needed to remove Biyomon from play.


Sora and Biyomon aside, while the others do bond immediately with each other, the movie spends most of its time reinforcing the fact that their bonding is similar to a re-introduction. Having spent a good portion of their lives with Digimon, the DigiDestined are accustomed to them and thus, with their guard let down and their enthusiasm out, it's not hard to believe that the overly friendly Digimon will find it easier to bond with them.

The movie touches on both sides of the picture. At one point in the movie, Hikari states that the reboot may not be a bad thing as she stares at Salamon sleeping in her arms. While the loss of memories due to the reboot is painful, the fact remains that with the reboot, the Digimons are free of corruption and are in a state of blissful ignorance. This may be a better life, and a more deserved life, rather than the problems they had before. If they can re-forge a relationship with their Digimon partners without all the extra problems, this may be the best case scenario.

Of course, as with all stories, the problems never truly disappear and we get to see Himekawa and a young Gennai go yandere mode. We also get a proper explanation of the plot (sort of) and we find out that Meicoomon is the key to the destruction of the human world. Basically, if Meicoomon gets upset, the corruption hiding within it can be let loose and it can bring about chaos. And what's the best way to do it? To threaten the life of Meiko. You know, the still useless 9th DigiDestined that I can't accept until she actually does something more than play the role of a damsel in distress.

Anyways, the movie's theme of loss ends with the understanding that even without memories, their desires to be with one another can re-forge their bonds and the Digimons are able to Digivolve again. Biyomon Digivolves into her Mega form, Hououmon and for some reason or another, they threw 4 other Megas into the mix including Seraphimon. Patamon is my favourite Digimon and I wanted Seraphimon to be on the cover of the next movie but it seems shoehorning him into this one made more sense even when the previous movie would have been PERFECT for that moment. Damn it Toei!


Overall, I enjoyed the movie and while the whole Sora-Biyomon thing felt a little tacked on, I could see what they were getting at.

Upon searching, I've also discovered a leaked image of the 5th Digimon tri film poster. While I won't link it here to avoid issues, I will disclose who's on it. The 5th poster reveals Meicoomon's Mega form and Gatomon's new Mega form, albeit slightly different from vanilla. See, most people still believe that Gatomon's Mega is Magnadramon because it appeared in a movie and a game. Sadly, most people don't seem to want to change their opinion when the idea of Ophanimon being her Mega seems more likely and makes much more sense. Well, too bad, because Ophanimon is officially Gatomon's anime canon Mega form but in the poster, she appears in her Fallen Angel form. Why this is the case, I have no idea. But if anything, we know that the next movie will focus on Meiko and Hikari.

Here's to a happy conclusion for TK/Hikari and for me to actually be convinced that I should be cheering for Meiko.

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