'Bokuro no Mirai' Is Incapable of Redeeming the Utterly Disappointing 'Digimon Adventure tri.'

My (almost) three-year Digimon Adventure tri. journey:

1. Saikai (“Reunion”)
2. Ketsui (“Determination”)
3. Kokuhaku (“Confession”)
4. Sōshitsu (“Loss”)
5. Kyōsei (“Symbiosis”)

Finally, Digimon Adventure tri. movie series concludes with its sixth and final chapter: Bokuro no Mirai (“Our Future” in English).  And just as what the previous movie had made all but certain, it implodes under the weight of all the problems that accumulated from the first five installments.

Early in the movie, my hopes were slightly raised.  The pace didn’t drag as usual, which had been a perpetual flaw of this series.  It almost had a sense of urgency and tension at play.  Yamato and Gabumon had a cool, poignant scene, and I liked Agumon’s adorable optimism while the possibility of Taichi being dead hanged above everyone.  Then, it was revealed where the 02 DigiDestined had been all this time.  It was explained by dumb writing, but at least, they were finally being put into play, right?  Despite all my frustrations with Digimon Adventure tri., I thought that an awesome scene – even a  brief one –  of the original eight DigiDestined and their Digimon fighting alongside Davis, Yolei, Cody, and Ken and their Digimon would significantly appease me.  At that point, the chance of the finale redeeming the series was slim.  But, at least, a chance was put in place.

But that tiny flicker of excitement in me eventually turned to anger.  The 02 DigiDestined didn’t get to back up the OG DigiDestined at all.  They were completely sidelined.  In fact, we didn’t get to really see them apart from their silhouettes.  The manner they were inserted to the story was so infuriating.  It was like, “Hey, here’s a reluctant nod to the 02 kids.  We’ll even throw in a meaningless Wizardmon cameo as a bonus.  Happy?  Now, let’s cast them aside unceremoniously.”

On top of that, Bokuro no Mirai has a generally unremarkable narrative, and is unable to clean up the series’ messy overarching plot (to be fair, that was already made impossible by the previous movie).  It leaves a lot of dangling questions and unresolved plot threads.  Thus, as a whole, Digimon Adventure tri. comes off as pretentious and disjointed.  It’s as if the writers have no clear vision and have just been winging it all this time; thus, when the finale came around, they really had no endgame.  Their lazy solution?  End it with a let’s-figure-this-out-later cliffhanger.  Ugh.

Digimon Adventure tri. is, unfortunately, an utter disappointment.  There are parts to be enjoyed for sure, but it never came close to matching the fantastic quality of the original anime series.  It can even be argued that it has been a pointless follow-up.