As heartwarming as the kids’ sentiments are for wanting to protect the Digital World… it just rings so hollow to me. I’ve said this a million times, but the build up just wasn’t there. All of the friends they developed happened in the last half of the series and while some were very cute and wholesome, it just didn’t feel like it was enough. Not to mention most of the kids do not feel any different than they were from their first appearances. The exceptions being Yamato, Hikari and Takeru. But even then, their development was like the bare minimum.
So we learn about Negamon, the Great Catastrophe… wish we could have gotten a bit more out of it BEFOREHAND. They really should have focused on why the war even happened in the first place and maybe hint that it could have been constructed from an outside force, Negamon. Whenever the war was brought up, it felt like they just kept reiterating what has already been said about it. Hardly any new information about it was given, which left it feeling kind of wasted since it was an interesting backstory to the Digital World.
Not to mention a big problem is that Negamon is just like all the other big bads in this series where it’s just causing destruction just for the sake of it. Nothing more, nothing less. It has no tangible motives and just does things because it can. If that isn’t a lackluster antagonist, I don’t know what is. While the Dark Masters and Apcalymon weren’t the best antagonists, at least they had SOME personality. Especially Puppetmon who actually had somewhat of a character arc.
Not gonna lie, this episode felt LONG. Like, unbearably long. Stuff happened… but they also took a chunk of time to just talk about the state of things. Sure, it felt important, but having ALL of this information dumped on us at the last moment just felt wasteful. Not to mention this late in the game, it just doesn’t feel like it means much. Sure, they showed some examples of what Algomon talked about through out the series, but it never felt like they were connected or even particularly drove the narrative. The only time where it really hammered home the whole rebirth type of thing was when Hikari and Angewomon were trying to protect the forest and had all of the evil Digimon be rebirthed into Digitama. But other than that, all of this information felt hastily put together at the last moment. Thus a sloppy execution.
I do like the idea of how the death and rebirth situation in Digimon is their natural cycle. However… they seldom focused on it. If they had more situations where it focused on that theme, then MAYBE this could have been executed a little better. Then at least the narrative would be a little more coherent. But alas, most of the episodes felt like they didn’t particularly connect to this theme they’re bringing up with how negative emotions are what is causing all this. There were little tidbits here and there, but as I said before, nothing felt like they connected. A good example of little things building up would be cause and effect. But the pieces in this series felt so spread out and sporadic that it feels impossible to have connected them to this. Things don’t always have to be linear, but I feel there should still be hints here and there that inevitably leads to a conclusion. Not put down a theme, pick up another and forget about the initial theme and then just randomly pick it up again later without any build up in between the time it was put down and picked up again. At least ADDRESS the themes you’re trying to build upon here and there so we don’t FORGET about it.
And again, the concept of Negamon devouring all life and rendering it nothing is pretty interesting… Though now that I think about it, wasn’t this plot line already used in Digimon Tri? Which also had terrible execution? My gosh, Toei, if you’re going to recycle plot lines, at least polish it a little more with a bit more thought into the execution and build ups???
Though I admit, I did really like the shot of where the real world’s sky glitches and suddenly there’s a crack. But that was really all of the positives I got out of this episode.
With Algomon defeated once and for all, it just leaves Negamon as the final boss of the series and I am just looking forward to finally finishing this series because I feel absolutely nothing anymore for this reboot anymore. The fight with Algomon wasn’t even that interesting. Just more laser beams and hardly any interesting shots or cinematography. This series really be out here trying to capture the feeling of the original Digimon Adventure in this final battle. However, they completely fail in that regard. I feel absolutely nothing for any of the characters. We didn’t get to see them grow or address the things they really struggled with in their normal lives. Nothing feels satisfactory about how they got here. Everything just feels so hollow and they had the audacity to have an extra episode to prolong my suffering… I’m just so over this reboot it’s not even funny.
If this is supposed to be some kind of plot twist or big revelation, I didn’t have any reaction whatsoever. I’d love it if it just skip straight to the end.
Another good thing is seeing Leomon again. He’s still alive. If they want to preserve the little good thing they have in this series, then spare Leomon until the very end, breaking the Leomon death curse.