Digimon Adventure: (2020) Episode 67 [Final Impressions]

FINALLY. IT IS DONE. I no longer have to be grumpily covering this series. THANK. GOODNESS. Though to be fair, this finale wasn’t bad but it could have been so much more if the series took the time to properly build up the story and the characters. 67 episodes and I still don’t feel like I KNOW these kids so watching them fight with all of their heart just rang hollow to me. Though I guess that’s nothing new as I’ve been harping on those things for a while now.

I really wish I felt more invested in this episode… but the series gave me little to nothing to be invested in. I feel like Negamon COULD have been a really interesting villain, but we hardly got anything on him besides it just wants to turn everything into nothingness. They could have given it a better reason rather than just being a mindless monster. Though I do feel like all of the villains in this series were nothing more but mindless monsters that just craved destruction. It’s fine to have some villains like that, but not ALL of them. They could have given Negamon a reason to create nothingness, like wanting pain and fighting to stop and render everything to nothing so no one can feel painful emotions anymore. Even a small reason like that would make it a little more of a compelling villain. Just give them a reason other than just instinct!

Also, they really pulled the whole Our War Game type of scenario backwards where when Omegamon was fighting Negamon, THEN people could see what was happening but had already given them their hope. Instead of watching the fight for a while and then giving them hope to form Omegamon. The whole thing just felt really weird and backwards. Not to mention it just felt like a shallow representation of such a great plot from Our War Game. Especially when the people never really came into contact with Digimon besides the electronic devices going haywire a couple times. But I wouldn’t really count that as coming into contact with Digimon since they never actually saw them or understood just why the electronics were going crazy. So the involvement of the people felt really out of place. Especially when you compare it to the first three seasons of Digimon where people came into contact with Digimon A LOT and came to understand the threat of these creatures.

One of the positives I can say about this final episode is that they finally gave Omegamon an awesome fight scene where he actually moved around a lot more and had more interesting fighting choreography. Not to mention it was pretty epic to have him shoot Negamon with his back turned and through his cape just to land a hit. I’m always down for a great sword fight and they definitely delivered with the fight between Omegamon and Negamon. And because it was the final episode, I hoped they would go a little further with the animation for it. So I at least got one thing I wanted out of this series. Also with the amount of sparkle lights used in the final part of the fight, I had to wonder if someone from Trigger was working on the animation lol. It gave me a lot of Kill la Kill vibes in that battle.

But then they pulled out a new Omegamon form that used the other evolutions we saw with Blitzgreymon and Cresgarurumon which just made me mildly annoyed. The evolution was surprising and cool, but it also reminded me that we never got to see more of those two evolutions prior which I found frustrating. Actually, the others never acquired a different evolution aside from Mimi. Which is a shame, especially when those special evolutions only happened once and then never again. I with they used them more to add more variety to the battles. And then to top it off, this new evolution basically just did the same thing that Omegamon did when he appeared before by just swinging his arms or shooting without too much movement. So the sudden slide evolution ended up just looking more cool than what it actually ended up doing.

In the end, of course Omegamon defeats Negamon with a needlessly well animated explosion. Thus, the day was saved thanks to the Chosen kids Taichi. While it was nice to see what happened to the Digital World after the kids defeated Negamon AND THAT MY MANS LEOMON IS STILL ALIVE. HALLELUJAH! Probably one of the more positive things that happened in this series. Though it was probably because they kept him out of the fights later on while the other Leomon were always in combat. Which is kind of a bummer since I really enjoyed watching Leomon fight. But hey, kudos to this being the only Leomon to actually survive. Too bad it was in a lackluster reboot. I audibly gasped at the sight of Arbormon when it showed up since it is the slide evolution to best boy Petaldramon. So I’m wondering if that was our Petaldramon’s rebirth. If so, I’m glad to see he will continue protecting the forest~ My Frontier heart also beat a little not just because of Arbormon, but also because I spotted freaking Grumblemon in the background of the Neemon village and Ranamon swimming in the ocean. I went back to see if Mercurymon was around but sadly I couldn’t find him. I didn’t expect to see Duskmon around because… well… it’s Duskmon. But I was definitely way more happy to see all the Frontier Digimon all hanging in the background.

I also didn’t realize it until a little later that those little gear-like Digimon flying around the corpses of Guardromon and Andromon were most likely the reincarnations of the two, which warmed my heart a bit.

And then they show the Digimon are back in the human world with their kid partners… which felt, odd. Especially since like I said before, no one in the human world had ever come into contact with Digimon and the fact it ended with the kids having their Digimon partners with them but trying to hide them just didn’t fit. Not to mention the original had the kids say goodbye to their partners at the end which just punched everyone in the heart because we actually got to see just how much of them meant to each other and helped them grow. Here… again, the kids didn’t really have proper development aside from maybe Joe and Mimi. Their happy ending just felt so hollow and unearned. Though I will admit, I was way more happy than I should have been seeing Koshiro and Mimi working together for… reasons. Anyways… Overall, the finale episode actually wasn’t bad. It was fine, but it just lacked so much heart and build up that I wasn’t emotionally invested in it. I wish I was considering how epic the final battle was, but this series is just hollow nostalgia bait and it failed to leave a big impact. It was a fun battle to watch, but that was about all it was. Just a fun hollow watch without much meaning in the long run. Which is so unfortunate considering how strong the original was. They definitely opened up the ending to possibly continue with Koshiro I’m assuming trying to figure out a way to go to and from the Digital World. Please… have mercy.

Final Impressions:

Where do I even start… This reboot was a complete MESS. At the very start, I felt like this series was promising and I did enjoy it a lot initially. But then it started getting repetitive and even started recycling its own premises. There were probably only a handful of episodes that I really enjoyed, such as the Donedevimon, Petaldramon, Angemon and Angewomon episodes to name a few. The pacing was absolutely dreadful with just way too many filler episodes slowing down the pace unnecessarily despite certain situations being dire and required immediate action. I was hoping some of the fillers would be important to the plot, but in the end, it didn’t really matter too much. I was hoping more Digimon would end up playing a bigger part for the finale or at least helping out. But no, I put too much hope into the series.

I was also a bit miffed at how the evolutions were handled a lot of the times. I understood what they were trying to go for most of the time, but they always ended up feeling underwhelming. Especially the mega evolutions. Literally all of them didn’t feel earned and instead of being excited for them, my reactions were always: Oh…

Though my problem with the evolutions directly ties into the character development of the kids. Or lack there of. The characters were probably the biggest problem with the series because how they were portrayed in this reboot was just abysmal. We never got to see what their home lives were or how they grew up to make them a certain way. And because we didn’t really have a basis as to what kind of things they were dealing with, they never grew beyond the character types they were. None of them besides Joe and Mimi really changed during their journeys or grew to be better people. They just felt the same as the start of the series. And because they didn’t go through any personal growth, the evolutions for their Digimon partners ended up feeling unearned and had lackluster reasons for them.

And don’t even get me started on the crests. They were SO important in the original series, but here… I don’t even know what the point of them were. They came so late in the game and mostly felt like a reason to get the kids to explore more of the world.

The antagonists were literally all the same with just wanting destruction without rhyme or reason. Devimon COULD have been interesting if they explored more of what he was doing with his researching on Digimon and his whole connection to Angemon. However, his character was ultimately wasted and relegated to a mindless monster for the most part. After a while, they all just felt like the same thing, just trying to destroy the world because they could. All of them were just so devoid of personality, making the confrontations boring since there was never really a back and forth between them and the kids. There was potential there, they just didn’t execute them to their fullest capacity.

And then the animation… Do even have to talk about this? I’ve complained about it so much over the course of my coverage and after a while I just couldn’t care anymore. When they want to animate, THEY ANIMATE THE HECK OUT OF SCENES. Just watch the first episode, they went above and beyond for it. But when they don’t seem to care, everything looks wonky and off model, still frames and animation are reused several times in the same episode and there were times where the animation just looked downright lazy.

This series ended up feeling like a big waste of time after a while. Which breaks my heart to say since there was so much potential for this reboot but everything was just wasted in the end. I stuck it out for the long run but I’m not sure if I can say it was worth it. Especially when the episodes started feeling like a slog to get through. At least I can say I finished it… at the cost of my patience and sanity. This series has drained all my energy that I can’t even find it in me to be angry. I just feel absolutely nothing for this series and it’s a shame because there were moments where they showed me they could write good episodes. The negatives just outweigh the positives way too much where I just can’t suggest anyone to watch this. Just go watch the original series even if it’s older. Its character writing is so much better and the villains have a lot more personality.

This reboot had so much potential, but it lacked so much heart and creativity that it felt just like a shadow of the original. They constantly re-used their own ideas to the point of it feeling so lazy and repetitive. Not to mention this literally was just Taichi Adventures as they had to make it a point to include him into every episode for some odd reason where I just ended up getting sick of him. I am not going to miss this series and will most likely go and watch the original to remind myself why this series is so nostalgic to me. I gave you the benefit of the doubt, but in the end, I was just betrayed. So 4/10 for this series. And with that, I am finally free. FREEDOM AT LAST.