Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 3; Confession: Still not going to put any real effort into finding out what happened to the 02 Team? No?

It should be said right at the outset that this is one of the hardest chapters to watch. Not because of quality, but for the story, it's trying to tell. You know how I brought up the Death of Leomon and the D-Reaper arc in Digimon Tamers last week? Well, this is probably up with it. It's brutal if you've grown up with these characters. If you don't want to be spoiled, turn away now. What I can say about it though is that this is a far better chapter then Chapter 2 was, at least overall. If you want to know why, then read on.

With Meicuumon, now Meicrackmon (not Vicious Mode, my mistake from last time) on the loose, the team are trying to figure out what to do next, to try and stop the virus from infecting other Digimon. By the team, I mean mostly Izzy, who is dedicating every minute he can to trying to solve the problem. Sora and Mimi are trying to look after Meiko, who's fallen into something like a depression after what had happened during the school festival, and T.K and Kari spend about 30 seconds trying to find out what happened to the rest of the 02 team. Unfortunately, though, time is not on the side of the Digi Destined as the next wave of infected Digimon are revealed to be... their partners... with the first to be revealed being Patamon, who would later fully fall to it in a battle against Meicrackmon, who turns into the Vicious mode in this film. With Angemon, Birdramon, Garurumon, Togemon, Angewomon and Ikakumon falling victim to Meicrackmon's virus, due to her being "patient zero", Agent Himikawa, a side character who's going to quickly become more important soon, activates a reboot program for the Digital World, restoring it to what it was like before the virus, and before the events of Adventure. While the day is saved, the team lose their partners, made all the worse when HerculesKabuterimon, Tentomon's Mega form, is the last one not infected, choosing to sacrifice himself in the reboot to keep all the infected Digimon, including a now infected WarGreymon, in the distortion, so that they all get rebooted together.

One week after the battle, the team try to return to the Digital World, with the aid of Himekawa, who is somehow in the possession of a D3, the Digivice model the 02 team use, and why T.K and Kari have different looking Digivices. While it is a blink and you'll miss it moment, the D3 strongly resembles Ken's D3, further adding to the confusion as to what happened to the team. The original 8Digidestined return to the Digital World, and not only find that Alphamon is still around, but that their partners have returned to their In-Training forms, the only thing they have as any connection to their human partners, is Nyaromon's whistle. Their memories, all gone.

This movie is brutal in terms of emotions, paced perfectly to make sure you as a viewer feel the weight of the situation, the consequences of the reboot. Unfortunately. there is one problem with it, though it's not tri's fault, more so Adventure's. The Digimon themselves aren't very fleshed out characters, with the only three that do stand out as characters being Patamon (thanks to 02), Gatomon thanks to the Myotismon arc in Adventure, and Tentomon thanks to this movie. The others? They compliment their child partners, but that's all they are, compliments. As such it's hard to feel sad for the Digimon when most of the emotional connection is with the kids. You do genuinely feel for the two leads in the film being T.K and Izzy as the two go through the hardships of what to do, T.K being too afraid to admit that Patamon's infected, and Izzy working night and day to figure out what's going on, what's causing the virus, the distortions, everything... Except what happened to the 02 team, all that gets is T.K and Kari going to Ken's house, not getting texts from Davis, Cody, Youli or Ken, and Himekawa hiding the truth that they and every other Digidestined around the world is missing. Why do I keep bringing up their state in these reviews? Because I can't help but feel like they would be a stronger connection to bring the original team back into action other than just the Infected Digimon, it would add a more personal stake as the four of them are still a part of the team, they are their friends. It comes off as a missed opportunity.

We are at least past the halfway point and, at least for now, three-quarters of the way through this mini-marathon. I haven't found a copy of Chapter 5, and Chapter 6 isn't out yet. So, next week we'll travel to the Digital World, see what it has in store for our heroes, but on Sunday, let's take a look at the one toy thing I can review that's somewhat close to Digimon. See you then.