Digimon Adventure tri. / YMMV

Beware of unmarked spoilers from all six films.

Accidental Aesop: As the numerous avoidable screw-ups throughout the series (the 02 kids leaving on their own without telling their seniors or peers, no one informing about each other about the infection in Confession, Daigo not telling what happened to the 02 kids after Maki lied about their situation) have shown that resulted in majority of the tragedies, this can easily be taken as a lesson in the dangers of keeping important information to yourself and locking the people who need it out of the loop along with taking given information at face value.
Angst? What Angst?:
- Following the reappearance of the Digimon Kaiser — that is, the trauma-induced world-conquering persona taken on by one of their old friends — the Chosen take no substantial interest in the state of the missing 02 kids and Ken in particular; at most they only get around to asking the Kaiser "what's wrong?"
- In Confession, the only one who appears to show any legitimate grief over the death of Leomon is Meiko. The other chosen, and Sora in particular, seem more interested in comforting her.
- During Loss, tri. at least partly realized it had run out of wiggle room, and went through a lot of emotional developments with comparative lack of articulation. With the sole exception of Sora and Pyocomon, each of the Chosen quickly adapt to their partner Digimon's loss of identity and by the fifth film the only real hiccup is that the Chosen have to explain about the pocket dimension in Koushirou's computer when the Digimon need to be hid.
- In Our Future, Daigo pulls off a Heroic Sacrifice to save Taichi and the 02 kids. Yet the Chosen Children don't seem to mourn his death after the battle, as if treating his death as an afterthought.
Arc Fatigue: tri. takes its sweet time for the first half of its release, focusing greatly on teen angst while it dangles tantalizing plot threads that it absolutely refuses to elaborate on, stretching the audience's patience as thin as the story.
- Maki and Daigo jealously guard their information and only reveal snippets at a time, while the antagonists won't speak at all, leaving the Chosen Children and the audience completely in the dark. Every time a chance to actually talk about the plot comes up, characters indicate they don't know, dance around or change the topic, or do answer the question, but leave behind a pair of questions to do the cycle all over again. They start providing comparatively substantial information in the fourth movie.
- The first film opens with periodic cuts to the 02 children being laid low, but five movies in, the audience still doesn't know where they are or what happened; it's apparent that tri. is deliberately neglecting the second team. The films refuse to talk about the missing kids as much as possible even as they draw on 02's milieu for the sake of the main plot, like Determination using Imperialdramon for the obligatory fight scene and hiding the Mysterious Man behind the Digimon Kaiser's face, or Maki having gained possession of Ken's D-3. Even those who aren't fans of the 02 cast agree that the way that the films are treating this problem isn't very good.
- The consequence is that, entering the final film, nearly every single plot line and more is still ongoing and none have really been given a conclusion while still opening even more plot lines such as Maki being in the Dark Ocean and the identity of the Mysterious Man, meaning the last movie has a ton of plot threads to wrap up in a very short span of time. The movie ending with a Sequel Hook with many of those plot lines still open opened up even more debate.
Ass Pull:
- In Loss, when the DigiDestined are separated by the Mysterious Man and Machinedramon, they regroup by transversing through distortions suddenly occurring all over the Digital World. This is never elaborated upon and doesn't happen in anywhere else, and most distortions forbid entry after a while or lead to random places.
- The very thing that triggers Gatomon's Dark Evolution is very abrupt and bizzare, at the least. It's as simple as Taichi falling off a crevasse, nothing more. There's no search attempt and everyone just thinks he's dead, with Yamato outright announcing that he will take his place.
- Our Future was more than slightly clumsy trying to clean up its myriad plot threads.
  - How the Digimon get their memories back: "The light is inside Meicoomon" turns out to be the backup data the whole time, hidden behind an encrypted password. Outside of the quick explanation Meicoomon was absorbing powers from the Digimon, this is not elaborated on.
  - Daigo mentions that he was kept under orders not to tell Taichi's team that Daisuke, Ken, Miyako and Iori had been MIA after discovering Yggdrasil's plot, in an attempt to explain their conspicuous absence from the previous five films. No explanation is even given about where the 02 kids were being kept either; they were just being kept in comas in a conspicuous lab in the Digital World, despite that the lab should have been affected by the Reboot.
  - Hikari is able to reach out to Gatomon with a little friendly dream magic from Wizardmon. Except that there should be no reason for Wizardmon to be involved; despite his death in the Real World, Gatomon should not remember him after the Reboot.
Awesome Music: The new rendition of "Butter Fly" deserves special mention: it sounds incredible and worked in hyping up fans, but the awesomeness is only increased further with the fact that it's sung by the original singer, Kouji Wada, who died from cancer in April 2016. The guy fought off the deadly disease long enough to bring us back the iconic opening song in all its glory.
- Even more awesome is the fact that the entire main 8 cast as well as the movie plot Meiko, Braveheart singer Miyazaki Ayumu and Digimon ending theme singer AIM joining in. Although the main 8 Digimon and Meicoomon did not have singing lines, they at least contributed by calling out to their respective human partners when said human partners called out to them.
Badass Decay:
- MetalSeadramon. In the original anime, he had Nigh-Invulnerability, courtesy of the Chrome Digizoid armour that shielded him from everything except WarGreymon's Dramon Killers. He was also hailed as the ultimate aquatic Digimon, to the point that engaging him at his natural habitat was considered nothing short of suicidal. In tri. however, he squirms in agony when struck by Gabumon, and is thrashed and thrown around like a rag doll when he tries to fight WarGreymon underwater.
- HolyAngemon, Patamon's Ultimate/Perfect form. The original series established him as a formidable powerhouse who managed to defeat Piedmon and go toe-to-toe with BlackWarGreymon. Come tri., he struggles during his fight with Devimon and a group of Evilmon, Champion/Adult level Digimon which Patamon's evolved forms had effortlessly destroyed in the previous seasons. Although HolyAngemon ultimately triumphs over his foes, his victory happens off-screen, meaning all the viewer gets to see is him being curb-stomped by a couple of enemies he should theoretically have no trouble walking over.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Some people like Meiko as a new, cute and intriguing addition to the cast, while enjoying her Shrinking Violet tendencies and interactions with the others. Others find her to be a flat Sailor Earth character with a cliched personality who's forcibly shoved into the story and robs screen time away from other characters who deserve it more than her, with the screen time feeling forced by the fourth movie. A third group likes her, but wishes she wouldn't pull attention away from the others. Then there is another camp who believes that being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad isn't the problem, but the poor execution is the problem.
- Likewise, Meicoomon is considered endearing and interesting by some and dull by others, and it doesn't help that it mostly draws its appeal by borrowing elements from fan-favorite Gatomon (a cat-inspired champion Digimon with pre-evos similar in design to Nyaromon/Salamon). Most of the problems that originate in these movies are also due to this Digimon, leading audiences to possibly feel a little annoyed about it causing so much damage (like the original partners losing their memory) yet it's still being defended by characters like Taichi. Not to mention her screams of "MEI" get annoying in the long run. The fact that it's Apocalymon reborn makes this better or worse depending on your viewpoint.
- Taichi himself, or rather his all-new characterization in tri., which has replaced his maturing Idiot Hero personality from Adventure and ignores his Older and Wiser personality from 02 in favor of a Classical Anti-Hero who struggles with indecision not only when he's on the brink of a fight, but when he's in the middle of one. Some fans take the same tack as the show and praise him for being more self-reflective and realizing there's more to care about than the enemy right in front of him, while others accuse him of suffering obnoxious Badass Decay and playing with the Conflict Ball, and a third contingent that don't mind his worries about collateral damage so much as they despise the fact that it seems to have psychologically crippled him (he has more than half a dozen flashbacks to the same Scenery Gorn setpiece). Not helping his case are the facts that literally no one else on his team has this problem, he becomes Unintentionally Unsympathetic when he angsts about the issue for the umpteenth time even as Meiko and Meicoomon are in peril, and he angsts still more in the middle of his Theme Music Power-Up.
Better on DVD: Even before the series ended, its slow pacing and perceived filler made clear to both fans and detractors that it would be much easier to see once the viewer can watch it full at their will (and thus being able to skip the filler and compensate the pace) and not in two blocks of four episodes per year.
Broken Base:
- The new art style was divisive, to say the least. There are those people who think it's a fantastic modernization of the characters' designs and really appreciate the art style's simplicity, and others who think the art style looks absolutely hideous, that everyone looks the same, and that the characters are barely recognizable as themselves anymore.
- The fate of the 02 children in the first film. Either a mean-spirited Take That! towards how bad 02 was considered, there's something much more to it than we are being told at the moment or it's the best thing to ever happen in Digimon ''tri''. Imperialdramon's appearance on the first poster for the second part of the series will kick this into high gear and broke the base even further given Imperialdramon's role in that part. Only thing people agree on is that Ken deserved better.
- The production quality of the anime itself. There are fans who find no flaws and praise the animation (for example, the battle of Omnimon against Alphamon), while others are see the animation quality as nothing beyond standard television fare (or even worse) for what was supposed to be anniversary films. In the later films, some took issue with wonky body shapes in still-frames, and some shots' emphasis on certain characteristics like Ordinemon's ass in the final film.
- Ken being the Digimon Kaiser again and the implication that he was murdering Digieggs, on top of the already Darker and Edgier first part. Some felt the darker, more mature story fits, other felt it's trying too hard to be dark and gritty when the original series had dark elements but were overall more upbeat and completely and utterly undoes Ken's character arc from the 02, as even if he's brainwashed, his work trying to redeem himself is basically gone. Some even felt that the creators have some vendetta against 02 because of it or even have it lend credence towards the retconning ''02'' (or rather the ending) idea. Thankfully, it wasn't Ken, but whether that makes it better or worse is another example of this trope. Some feel it's an interesting twist. Others feel it just overly complicated things and the story would have made more sense if either the person behind the mask had been themselves from the start or if Ken really WAS Brainwashed and Crazy.
- The new evolution/digivolution animation. Some think it's a good update and like it, others hate it and feel it takes away the feeling of Ultimate and Mega forms transformations being special by making them too similar to the Champion transformation.
- The fight with Imperialdramon. Some like it, especially the fact Palmon and Gomamon's Megas have finally appeared, others feel not enough weight was put into the fact the Digidestined were possibly fighting and killing their Brainwashed and Crazy friend. Granted, it's likely unrelated to Daisuke and Ken and the "Digimon Kaiser" is a fake, but many feel there should've been much more reaction to and emotion to that event than there was instead of him just being treated like a Monster of the Week.
- The apparent return of the Dark Masters. Some were happy to see such well liked characters again, others felt it's trite and devalues the Digidestined's ORIGINAL trials and tribulations involving them. For that matter, their defeats. While certainly epic fights, some find that they come off as overly anti-climactic, especially considering they were a much greater threat in the first series. Others find it justified, as the old versions of the Dark Masters had much more experience and training, which was how they outclassed the protagonists before, while the new ones are more reliant on their natural power and seem to lack anything beyond infantile intelligence (as Machinedramon would fire away at reflections of his prey) thanks to their reincarnations being infants, essentially.
- All of the characters' partner Digimon getting to go Mega/Ultimate. While some view this as long overdue, others view it as nullifying the ability as special like it was originally.
- The fact the series ended on a Sequel Hook with very few storylines actually being resolved. Some are excited to see where it goes, while others find it lazy given how many plots that had already outstayed their welcome from throughout the entire film series were sequel bait and aren't excited at all. It really didn't help matters when Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna finally came out and answered none of them, going for a different plot thread entirely.
Contested Sequel: While the increased Character Focus on the original cast of Adventure, the exploration of the long speculated-on "original Digidestined", the climatic battle scenes for the most part, and the well-received remasters of the original soundtracks were appreciated, many criticized the series' long-winded pacing, poor handling (or lack thereof) of plot threads, making the original DigiDestined seem more incompetent and like a bunch of uncaring assholes, extremely incoherent and haphazard writing that wouldn't be out of place in the newbie's fanfic, and an inconclusive ending.
Continuity Lockout: tri. does not feel obligated to actually explain who the missing 02 kids and Gennai are, so if you haven't seen both of the previous series, you're going to be lost in places.
Crack Pairing: Taichi/Mimi, despite the lack of any canonical romantic subtext between them, has a noticeable following with some fanvids of them and they even dubbed as Michi.
Designated Hero: The DigiDestined. With the exception of Izzy, none of them put any effort in trying to stop an ongoing Digimon rampage and instead spend time doing bonding activities, moping around or doing activities while they mope. When Mimi actually tries to stop a rampaging Ogremon, it's less out of trying to stop people from getting hurt, and more out of an attempt to improve the Digimon's PR with humans. Their baffling refusal to acknowledge the 02 kids at all doesn't win them any favours, especially when they treat destroying an infected Imperialdramon ordered by a (fake) Ken as a happy victory (with no thought about where it came from). It's only at the end of the third movie that they try to do something proactive, but only so that they can find their missing partners. They fall back into their old habits in Coexistence where they sit around telling ghost stories even though a Digimon invasion is going on right outside. When it's very clear that Meicoomon is a world-wiping abomination that is beyond saving, the group is still more concerned about saving her despite the fact that even if she would be saved, the damage is done, and there is nothing that guarantees she won't infect anyone again. At one point, even Meiko herself wants the Digidestined to kill Meicoomon, but several of these like Kari flat-out say they don't care. They only decide to kill her once there's no more options, making Homeostasis look like a The Extremist Was Right because it's just trying to do what the Digidestined did at the end. All in all, the DigiDestined can come off as self-centred jerks who only try to do something if the problem concerns them, and were never thoughtful of others.
Designated Villain: The Chosen Children oppose Homeostasis in Part 5 because it wants Meicoomon killed to restore world harmony and they are intent on saving Meicoomon rather than seeing her slain. The problem is that Homeostasis's solution is actually correct. It's very clear that Meicoomon is going to devastate the world if left completely unchecked and it will happen again as long as she's left alive, and the DigiDestined are just Jerkasses over it (they outright ignore Meiko's pleas to slay her rather than keeping her alive). The DigiDestined's defense for keeping Meicoomon is also very weak, with their only argument summing up as "she should be reunited with Meiko as a partner". At the very end, they also kill Meicoomon-as-Ordinemon and do exactly what Homeostasis is trying to do, rendering their opposition against Homeostasis moot.
Epileptic Trees:
- These were being planted as far back as the announcement that there would be a new Digimon show with Taichi in it. Lots of them centered on the relevance of the 02 kids, who were very carefully excised from the advertising of the first movie especially now that the poster for the 2nd movie prominently features Imperialdramon, or 02 entirely, with at least one or two mentions of retconning the epilogue for every five theories. It doesn't help matters with the first five minutes of the first film showcasing the curbstomping that happened.
- The identity of the Mysterious Man AKA the Digimon Emperor/Dark Gennai is a source of speculation. The reveal that he's not Gennai after all plus the Sequel Hook adds more mystery to his character. A common theory is that he is Piedmon from the original series due to the similarities in their personalities. Or it's just an Yggdrasil avatar that he uses to communicate with the material world due to his Evil Plan of trying to reformat the world.
Evil Is Cool:
- Those who preferred Ken as the Digimon Kaiser are quite glad to see him again, especially with his new look.
- At least two of the Dark Masters, Metal Seadramon and Mugendramon/Machinedramon, both of whom were considered cool by fans of the first series, were confirmed to feature in the fourth installment.
Fanon Discontinuity:
- Despite a very positive initial response, tri. soon alienated much of the audience due to what can be perceived as derivative and uninspired plot threads^note, poor handling of the characters on top of their personalities and motivations^note, absolutely egregious beginner writing flaws ^note, and an excessive amount of Padding. The final film, in which several plot points are either dealt with off-screen or left unresolved, only contributed to make many watchers refuse to accept the saga as part of the main continuity.
- This also was notable in the case of the Japanese fanbase, for which invoking Fanon Discontinuity (and negative criticism against anything bar Digimon Frontier) is comparatively rare, resulting in this series getting the sole distinction of the only one to be consistently referred to as "black history" (黒歴史) on Japanese wiki and community sites. Keitaro Motonaga's infamous statement that he has not watched the original 1999 anime before and never will (which explains all the characterization and continuity issues) doesn't help matters. The fact that Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna chose to not retcon the series and instead take a Broad Strokes approach was often cited as a negative point on review site entries for the latter.
Franchise Original Sin: One of the major cases of Broken Base for the fandom revolves around Meiko and Meicoomon's inclusion, and whether or not they are a Spotlight-Stealing Squad. Meiko and Meicoomon are not the first case of this, though, rather they are preceded by Hikari^note, Wallace^note, Ryo^note, and Koichi^noteSixth Ranger for Digimon Frontier. All five of them come into their respective entries well after the initial cast is already established^note, gain focus for themselves for a substantial portion of the series while there^note, suffer grief over incidents pertaining to their Digimon that are beyond their control^note, and are welcomed into the group with open arms^note. Reasons for this vary from considering Meiko to be a Spotlight-Stealing Squad for the main cast, considering Meiko to be a Spotlight-Stealing Squad for the 02 cast, or considering Meiko's character arc to be underwhelming.
Ho Yay:
- The large focus on the ongoing rocky friendship between Taichi and Yamato almost plays out like a pair of lovers trying to straighten out their relationship, to the point where Sora traps them alone together in a Ferris wheel car in order to force them to talk it out. Mimi even takes a picture of the two as they get on the different car.
  - Taichi and Yamato even stealing glances while being in sauna wearing nothing but a towel in Determination, and Yamato confronting Taichi while doing Wall Pin of Love on him later.
  - Yamato blushed and acted like a tsundere when he talks to Taichi in Confession when he said that it would be easier on Taichi now that they did not need to rely on Omegamon as much with more Digimon unlocked their Ultimate evolution.
  - In Loss, they were drowning in a lake and swimming upward with their arms linked to each other.
  - A good several minutes of Our Future are taken up with Yamato having a crying breakdown after Taichi's apparent death, talking about how much he misses him, and relies on him... as a friend.
- Some of Takeru's dialogue involves him affectionately expressing his love for Yamato, referring to him as his "number one" (although Takeru is surely just teasing Yamato).
- The second movie has a lot of interaction between Mimi and Meiko that plays like this. Lots of blushing from Meiko, Mimi keeps hugging her and even calls her Mei Mei. Then the two dance together in their festival outfits, and we get lots of excited reactions from other students, both male and female.
  - A magazine spread promoting Determination features Mimi and Meiko in their cheerleader uniforms, with Mimi giving a back hug to a blushing Meiko.
  - In the third movie, Mimi gives her a kiss on the cheek and hugs her when they reunite after a long time.
I Knew It!:
- A dark example. As early as the series was announced, fans began speculating that Leomon would show up in some form, and be killed off, continuing the Running Gag of killing one incarnation of the character per continuity. After early previews confirmed the character's appearance, this preview went the extra mile, as he gets injured - and while it's not outright depicted, the Darker and Edgier tone heavily implies his death. He did, though not immediately after this fight.
- Fans who knew about the Digimon Adventure (PSP) game have always speculated that if tri allowed the rest of the Digi-Destined's Digimon to reach their Ultimate levels, then they'd use the ones established from that game. Determination's poster, which revealed Rosemon and Vikemon for Palmon and Gomamon, shows this is looking to be the case, with Gatomon being a possible exception^spoilers A promotional poster for the third installment shows HerculesKabuterimon and the fourth installment shows Hououmon.
- The two government agents being part of the original briefly-mentioned Digi-Destined team that predated Adventure. Although granted, the fanbase tends to guess this about every adult character. Sooner or later they were bound to be right.
Incest Yay:
- Taichi/Hikari still has backers, especially with one of the interviews with the creators stating that the latter would take the most intimate and careful time crafting the former's Valentine chocolate, while Daisuke and Takeru get "obligation" chocolates. Fans found out in an old movie interview that the director of that movie and episode 21 of the main anime compared Hikari and Taichi to a married couple where Koromon is the lover who wants to steal Taichi in ep. 21 of Digimon Adventure. Although these comments in the interview are mainly a joke.
- Some of Takeru's dialogue involves him affectionately expressing his love for Yamato, referring to him as his "number one" (although Takeru is surely just teasing Yamato).
Informed Wrongness:
- In Determination, Mimi's overbearing personality when suggesting her idea for the school festival was meant to show her in the wrong for constantly pushing aside others while only prioritizing her own opinion. The problem was that in the context of the scene itself, only Mimi suggested ideas while the rest of the class stayed silent. When she pushed her idea, no one disagreed with her or even try to voice an opinion until the decision was made. This made the classmates' argument against her afterwards hollow as the context of the scene made it as if they were more interested in scolding her for her overbearing personality to get things done by itself while they themselves had no idea what to do until she came along.
- Homeostasis's proposal to kill Meicoomon because it will destroy the Digital World is shot down by the DigiDestined in Coexistence, causing it to briefly turn on them. We're supposed to believe that Homeostasis is wrong, but Meicoomon spreads the infection to other Digimon just by going near them (with no permanent solution to the problem in sight), is a rampaging Omnicidal Maniac who devastates both worlds, kills Leomon and is treated like the abomination of mass destruction she is, all of which are completely glossed over by the DigiDestined. They also don't have any valid reasons to justify it bar she's Meiko's partner, and flat-out didn't care and ignore Meiko's pleas to slay her. Even worse is the DigiDestined end up doing the very thing they opposed in Our Future, further proving its point.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: tri. drew some criticism because the main plot is remarkably similar to the first Digimon Adventure 02 film, Hurricane Touchdown. Both focus on a new Chosen Child whose Digimon is corrupted and turned into a destructive monster, with the climax revolving around the child coming to terms with the fact that their partner must be put out of their misery.
Just Here for Godzilla:
- Due to the issues with the series, there are many who only stayed with it or watched it to see the other digidestined's partners finally get their Mega forms or if they would finally mention the 02 cast. Or, with the release of Loss, if they would unveil the rest of the five original Chosen Children and tell their entire story.
- Even with the issues, several people were excited for the majority of the English voice cast from Adventure and 02 reprising their roles, including Tai's English VA, Joshua Seth, who came out of retirement to do the series.
Like You Would Really Do It: The final moments of Coexistence. Taichi falls into an abyss, and not only is it so blatantly obvious to the audience that he's going to be fine (which incidentally undercuts the impact of Hikari's subsequent madness), he also happens to be right smack dab in the spotlight on the next poster.
Love to Hate: The Mysterious Man. He is an absolutely deplorable monster who gets off scot free from his horrific actions over the course of the series. Yet fans can't help but enjoy him for how over the top and hammy he is.
Memetic Molester: The Mysterious Man becomes this come Loss, due to the infamous scene where he licks Sora and gets touchy-feely with Meiko.
Moral Event Horizon: See here.
Narm:
- Tai's flashback to ruined buildings and a crushed cell phone. Gets annoying by the third time and downright funny by the eighth.
- Leomon's death. It would have been a genuinely shocking scene had it not been a staple for each season that makes it come off as unintentionally hilarious. Not helping matters is the absurd lack of reaction (except Meiko and Hikari) from the DigiDestined, as if they are not surprised by the Leomon always dies Running Gag.
- There are basically two ways to respond to the Mystery Man licking Sora in the fourth movie. Either you can cringe at how depraved he is, or you can laugh at him and how he tries WAY too hard.
- The Plotmon vs Machinedramon fight. In theory, it would make for an incredible display of Plotmon's strength, as she manages to incapacitate an Ultimate-level Digimon without evolving. In practice though, it's a hilarious scene where a giant mechanical dragon stops attacking the heroes because a puppy barked at it.
- A revived Machinedramon slams Sora against a glacier. What makes it come across as unintentionally hilarious is that she comes off none the worse for wear despite being squashed between several tons of metal and solid ice without getting herself reduced to a blood splatter on the wall.
- Koromon's voice in the English dub is so ridiculous and funny sounding, not to mention sounding nothing like it did in the original series, that any scene meant to be taken seriously where he talks, including Tai's Disney Death, is completely mitigated.
No Yay: Gennai's interactions with Sora and Meiko in Part 4. He pins the former down and licks her on the cheek, before holding the latter up by her neck - and in both cases, his behavior is disturbingly reminiscent of a sexual predator. And he sports a horrifying grin on his face the whole time.
Older Than They Think:
- This isn't the first official work to give the other Digi-Destined's Digimon Mega evolutions: Tailmon and Patamon's Megas originally premiered in the 02's Non-Serial Movie, while all the team's Digimon were able to reach Mega in both the Digimon Wonderswan Series games and various V-pet handhelds. Following that, Digimon Battle Spirit 1.5 swapped in Ophanimon for Holydramon as Tailmon's Mega and the PSP video game adaptation of Digimon Adventure likewise replaced Gomamon's original Mega, Plesiomon, with Vikemon. tri. follows the model of the PSP Game, apparently keeping Ophanimon and Vikemon; for the curious, the digivolutions from the PSP game can be viewed here.
- This is not the first official work where Alphamon undergoes Adaptational Villainy and becomes an antagonist of sorts. The first time this happened, it was in Digimon World DS (Digimon Story) where it was the Big Bad.
Padding:
- A major problem the series has. Outside of the Evolution sequences and fights, much of the movies' time is taken up by the characters angsting, engaging in mundane activities and, in the fifth installment, telling scary stories while so many plot threads remain unaddressed.
- The Digimon in this instalment cannot immediately warp evolve from Child level to Ultimate. Instead, each evolution sequence focuses on the Digimon as they transform first into their Adult form, then Perfect form, and finally into Ultimate. As a result, each evolution scene takes about 2 minutes per Digimon involved.
Pandering to the Base: Detractors of the series have accused it of being as a cheap way to hook in an audience, primarily fans of the original two series. Fan-favourite elements such as the Original DigiDestined, the reappearance of the Dark Ocean and the apparent return of the Dark Masters, are all never touched upon or really integrated into the main plot. The treatment of the 02 kids plus the sheer amount of Fanservice of the original eight in promotional material did not help matters at all.
The Scrappy: tri's incarnation of Yggdrasil/King Drasil is considered by many to be the worst Big Bad of the franchise. Fans were already tired of Yggdrasil's prevalent involvement as an antagonist by the time Loss came out, so he had the cards stacked against him from the very second of his reveal. Many feel that he stole the main villain thunder away from the better established Maki Himekawa or Mysterious Man (the latter of which turned out to be serving Yggdrasil at least for that time being), as well from the long anticipated Dagomon and Daemon from Digimon Adventure 02. While his Savers counterpart has a somewhat more understandable animosity towards humanity (anyone would be a little on edge after seeing Kurata in action), in tri. his motivation to protect the Digital World from humans rings hollow given how many times the DigiDestined saved the Digital World from threats, all of which were caused by evil Digimon, which Yggdrasil even has the brilliant idea of reviving. Drasil also never appears at all and ends up being defeated by Homeostasis offscreen. As a result, we know nothing of his personality and instead feel that he could be removed from the plot entirely without any consequence. This can be proven even further as this Yggdrasil doesn't even have series accuracy going for him. His Royal Knights that serve and occasionally stand against him when he's Jumping Off the Slippery Slope are nowhere in sight, with Omnimon already being on the heroes' side and Jesmon being on Homeostasis', and the only one who is working for him is Alphamon who's going through a major case of Adaptational Villainy, making him an even more pointless addition due to losing all of his established lore in favor of becoming a Generic Doomsday Villain.^note While his previous incarnations were divisive, it's likely no one is going to debate that tri.'s incarnation is the worst of them.
Scrappy Mechanic: Nade-nade, from the digi-egg hatching minigame on the series' website. Despite promising to release information on the then-forthcoming tri. series when an egg was hatched with enough clicks from users, in order to prevent the eggs from hatching too quickly (and thereby disrupting Toei's precious marketing schedule), the minigame would deploy enemy digimon Scumon and Demidevimon to jack the lowering count back up again, effectively breaking the game's word and punishing fans for being too enthusiastic.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: Immediately after tri. was announced, tensions between Taichi/Sora fans and Yamato/Sora fans heightened as if it were 2001 again both in international and Japanese fandoms. What doesn't help is Toei Animation continuing to throw Ship Tease for both pairings in spite of this — the first film shows Sora blushing when Mimi comments on both Taichi and Yamato being cool. As the films go on however, Tai and Sora seem to have the most interactions, with Yamato barely speaking to her. It's not addressed if Sora and Yamato had broken up or were never even officially in a relationship in 02, either.
Shocking Moments: Deliberately invoked with both the promotional posters and finales of every movie. Omegamon vs. Alphamon! Rosemon and Vikemon vs. Imperialdramon! HeraklesKabuterimon vs. Meicrackmon (and everyone else)! Hououmon vs. Mugendramon! Ophanimon Falldown Mode and Raguelmon! Special note for the end of Coexistence, where it goes through the roof, opens a sky portal to the Digital World and keeps going up.
Suspiciously Similar Song: For the English dub, rights issues led to the creation of “Digimon are Back (Again)”, a successor to Saban’s “Digimon Are the Champions” with the record scratching and mild rap elements from the Digirap. However, a multitude of factors ^note led to the song being overlooked compared to ”Butterfly” and “Brave Heart”, which were surprisingly retained for tri’s English dub.
Tainted by the Preview: The previews revealing that Magnadramon/Holydramon will be used for Gatomon's Mega rather than Ophanimon is a bit divisive. Some fans feel that it gives Gatomon more uniqueness rather than being a Distaff Counterpart to Seraphimon, and harken's back to the original three movies. Others feel that Ophanimon's fallen mode appearing only helps to foreshadow its good counterpart, especially since Ophanimon is shown in the silhouette for the previous movies endings with the other's Megas, leaving the sudden switch to come off as a hasty last minute change.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This effectively became the reaction for much of the fanbase with almost every announcement spanning from the movie format to the art style. Some fans have even taken to rendering the cast in the older art style themselves, although the reception towards the character designs was slighty more positive after the first film premiered with many finding fault in the original posters not really capturing the new style well.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- While Meiko is billed as a main character alongside the other digidestined, she is mostly portrayed as a victim of the week rather than a proper party member. She barely appears in the first movie, and while the second and third movies explore more of her character, she does not do any fighting by herself at all unlike the rest, and is essentially a Damsel in Distress with a rabies-infected cat struggling to decide if it should be euthanized. The second half of the series attempts to give a major moral dilemma in the need to kill Meicoomon, but while Meiko does gather the resolve to come to the (correct) conclusion that there is no saving her Digimon, it's largely ignored or bluntly shot down by the other digidestined sans Tai in favor of trying to get Meicoomon out alive for no justificable reason whatsoever. She doesn't do anything else aside from angst over Meicoomon's pain, serve as bait to attract her, be comforted by the other digidestined, or have her digivice serve as the catalyst for Omegamon: Merciful Mode. As a result, her portrayal is very underwhelming for what could be otherwise a new regular.
- Despite being the Big Bad of Reunion and a major antagonist throughout the series, Alphamon has little characterization outside of serving Yggdrasil. He's The Voiceless, so no reason is ever given for his Adaptational Villainy, and anything involving him is left up in the air, namely his battle with the 02 kids. His sudden disappearance once Ordinemon shows up without any idea about him leaves him feeling less like a character and more like an obstacle.
- You'd think that the ImperialDramon in Determination would've left a stronger emotional impact upon appearing, given how that was Davis and Ken's partner. Instead, he's little more than a Monster of the Week, and the fact that it was an ImperialDramon that may or may not belong to their friends are entirely glossed over.
- Seraphimon's first appearance is kind of a let-down. Where Vikemon, Rosemon, and Phoenixmon all appear as part of an epic moment of Taking a Level in Badass, or at the very least after their Rookie form being in focus for that movie, Seraphimon just digivolves after a short moment of conflict resolution.
- Ophanimon Falldown Mode seemed like it'd be a horrifying moment like SkullGreymon, Megidramon, and ShineGreymon Ruin Mode in the past. She literally only has about a minute most of screentime before merging with Meicoomon's final form and doesn't do anything outside of that, despite being featured heavily in promotional materials.
- The original Digidestined can feel like this, as many agree, even those who hate tri., that they're some of best parts about the entire thing... but they're not really utilized at all and Maki is relegated to a side antagonist at best. Some feel a prequel focused on them would've been a much better use of the concept or Maki should've been the outright Big Bad rather than a side antagonist, as her motivations are far more interesting than Yggdrasil desiring to destroy humanity. What's worse is that Daigo gets killed off in the finale while Maki faces an Uncertain Doom.
- Yggdrasil, the God of the Digital World who wants to Kill All Humans...exists and wants to kill all humans. He never appears onscreen and is defeated by Homeostasis without even having one line of dialog. Especially after his much more compelling and sympathetic portrayal in Savers, many feel he could've been used either much more creatively and interestingly, or replaced by another villain, of which the Adventure continuity had no shortage of.
- Meicoomon being a reborn Apocalymon, given it has no actual impact on her characterization and seems to only be there for the sake of wanton shock value (likely to point out saving Meicoomon is a lost cause, not that the DigiDestined won't stop trying under the expense of everyone else). Since the only person who was told about it is Daigo and this fact (presumably) died with him, it could easily have been removed with absolutely no change to her role in the plot whatsoever.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- The disappearance of the 02 kids. There's plenty of room for emotion involving it and the 01 kids worrying for their friends who haven't been seen in months... but the first two films don't address this at all, even when one of them shows up in their face with a Brainwashed and Crazy version of his Digimon (it isn't actually them, but an impostor... which makes you wonder why they'd even bother with the disguise). It takes until the third movie, halfway through, for the Adventure kids to make some effort... but not much. Even many who didn't like them find this a waste.
- The largely speculated original five Chosen Children and the origin of the four Digimon Sovereigns were concepts not few fans had been decades waiting for, and as such, they were considered one of the main draws of the anime, as well as the reason why many of its detractors followed the series despite its faults. However, those plotlines eventually attacted the opposite reaction when their execution turned out to leave much to be desired, highlighting all the other flaws of the format and making people lament how big of a wasted chance for the franchise it was.
- The defeat of BelialVamdemon in the climax of 02 being canon due to Word of God meant that the barrier between the worlds are gone. One viewer stated that tri. could have been the Interquel to 02's Distant Finale that would answer how humans and Digimon could coexist through the efforts of the Digidestined. Their involvement in current human history throughout the years would had been a bigger deconstruction than canon since it involves the whole world and explores the possible interactions and relations between other humans and Digimon. Instead, the main plot boils down to: Yggdrasil is a villain (again), save the unknowing human world from the Monsters of the Digital World (again) while the ending of ''02'' seemingly went back to the same kind of status quo seen at the beginning of ''01'' and ''02'' where the two worlds were segregated (again).
- Yggdrasil's involvement in the Adventure continuity counts as this. Even if you're not absolutely sick of Yggdrasil's involvement in recent Digimon plots, his existence also makes Maki and Dark Gennai take the backseat while he reenacts his Savers incarnation's role of exterminating humanity. Even then, he doesn't have his Royal Knights aside from Alphamon, whose Adaptational Villainy could have been an interesting plot point. He could have simply been an independent Anti-Villain or a role reversal of his Digimon X-Evolution counterpart; anything would have been better than being a voiceless, personalityless minion of Yggdrasil's that disappears from the plot entirely once Ordinemon enters the picture.
- Meiko and Meicoomon don't get much screentime as DigiDestined and Partner. The only time where they ever spent time together is in "Determination" which is mostly a Slice of Life episode that unwittingly results in her infecting all of the other DigiDestined's Digimon, and for the most part she's treated like a standard Eldritch Abomination-type boss Digimon that had to be got rid of as quick as possible rather than a proper partner. The potential could be easily used to introduce Meicoomon and Meiko as a temporary (or permanent) ally against more dangerous threats like Yggdrasil and the Mysterious Man instead of Homeostasis shutting Drasil down, but it's all wasted on portraying Meicoomon as an episodic antagonist and Meiko being a victim of the week that's sandwiched between what should otherwise be a traumatic situation worsened by a group of Designated Heroes that couldn't care less if the world ends.
Too Cool to Live: Daigo Nishijima. A member of the Original Chosen Children, a cool mentor to Taichi, and one of the few people other than Izzy who actually tries doing something. Thus the writers feel the need to kill him off via Heroic Sacrifice so he won't overshadow the incompetent lead heroes.
Unexpected Character:
- No one expected Hackmon to appear, even with his ties to the original Adventure via a PSP game. And his ultimate form Jesmon was even more unexpected.
- When Alphamon appeared in the first trailer, no one was expecting it.
- In the second movie, we get the returns of the Digimon Kaiser and Leomon.
- Mugendramon/Machinedramon and MetalSeadramon fight the Digidestined in the fourth movie.
- The fifth tri. poster shows Ophanimon—in her Falldown Mode. Likewise, no one expected Apocalymon's name to get dropped, let alone Meicoomon to be Apocalymon-incarnate.
- The final tri. poster from a glance wouldn't fit here until you look closer: What looks to be Wizardmon's hat could be seen.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- Taichi's endless angsting about collateral damage even when people are in danger causes him to lose points with the audience.
- tri. has a bad habit of focusing on the personal problems and activities of the main characters to the exclusion of other, rightfully more important considerations. Digimon everywhere are dying or losing their minds? tri. focuses on Mimi and Jou angsting about fitting in with society's expectations.
- In Determination, many people felt uncomfortable at the Chosen Children simply choosing to kill the fake Imperialdramon. This because they think the fake Digimon Emperor as Ken, and show no indication of knowing that the Imperialdramon is fake too (or even the fact that the audience was even aware that the Imperialdramon was fake and not just Brainwashed and Crazy), making it for many to seem that celebratings its defeat was them celebrating having killed Veemon and Wormmon.
- In Loss, we see Sora's angst when a rebooted Biyomon rejects her, and we're meant to sympathise with her. However, Sora's actions don't warrant her much sympathy. She constantly acts invasive trying to bond with Biyomon even when the latter constantly makes it clear that she doesn't remember Sora.
- In Coexistance, after Meiko admits Meicoomon is beyond saving and resolves to kill her, Taichi finally decides to make an actual decision for once and resolves to honor Meiko's wishes and put Meicoomon down. The others however, start giving him a hard time over it. Except he's clearly not okay with doing it, and he's only doing it because Meiko herself realized Meicoomon is beyond saving and needs to be killed to save the world. The others however are more content with wanting to save Meicoomon, something at this point being a futile idea. Yet they continue to try in vain throughout "Our Future" until Taichi returns and reiterates his decision.
Values Dissonance:
- Similar to the reaction towards Sora's Girliness Upgrade in 02, Western fans had mixed opinions about the character descriptions for tri. Some of them released prior to its airing have mildly sexist overtones, such as suggesting that Sora playing soccer is "[not] befitting a woman." Meanwhile, Hikari was given more stereotypically feminine traits, such as developing a Sweet Tooth. Japanese fans would embrace Sora's femininity as a sign of maturity, while Western fans were a bit perturbed at the implication Sora and soccer don't go together simply because she is a girl. This is a continuation of the attitude that contributed to Sora's character arc and the jobs the female characters received in the Distant Finale (although there's nothing that says she didn't revitalize her athletic career in the 25 years between, then take on a more feminine side after retiring).
- Joe choosing to focus on his studies instead of helping his friends with the current Digimon crisis would seem selfish to most Western viewers, until you realize just how much pressure is put on Japanese students to excel, make the best grades and graduate at the top of their classes (made worse when one remembers that both Joe and his parents want him to be a doctor, and to be accepted into the medical course of any public university top grades are required). Notably, Joe does seem to be heavily conflicted himself (having rejected going to fight with the other Digi-Destined, only to be visibly depressed about it and later breaks down crying when Gomamon shows up to his house), and the other characters are all sympathetic and supportive.
Viewer Gender Confusion: Some people still didn't get that Meicoomon was female until Meicrackmon: Vicious Mode's design was revealed, despite her nickname ("Mei-chan") and Leomon's crush on her being big giveaways.
Wangst:
- Tai's Heroic BSoD can come off as this to some people, especially when he mentions that he worries about if he'll kill someone without bringing any mention of the Digimon he and his friends deleted or worrying about causing collateral damage when it's made pretty clear that hesitating is just gonna cause more damage and even casualties.
- Meiko's reaction to everything going wrong in Confession starts off understandably (if not exasperating anyway) when she starts blaming herself for Meicoomon's Sanity Slippage, but then it starts to slide more and more into this, even going as far as her saying "I should never have been born!" Even the characters start to think this, giving Mimi's "oh no, not again!" and Taichi's own Big "SHUT UP!" to her.
Win Back the Crowd:
- Despite the numerous cases of Broken Base mentioned above, things were shaping up nicely when the first movie itself was released. It received the overall positive reaction from fans of the original series, complimenting the animation in battle scenes as well as the blending between Revisiting the Roots atmosphere with a Darker and Edgier story.
- After a less-than-stellar second movie Determination, the third movie Confession manages to deliver an engaging and emotional plot that actually moves the story forward, several well-executed Tear Jerker scenes, and a memorable final battle scene that's a massive improvement over Determination's battle that several considered to be mediocre at best.
- The movies balanced Ship Tease between Taichi/Sora and Yamato/Sora despite 02's controversial ending and won back fans nostalgic for the Taichi/Sora pairing. However, on the flip side, it also brought back some Ship-to-Ship Combat, some as vicious as it was when 02 was first ending.
- Coexistence, while still having padding issues, had an amazing climax that delivered several of the biggest plot twists so far.
- Our Future also turned around fans at the very end with its dynamic fight scenes, cameos by Devimon and Wizardmon, at the very least a concise explanation of the disappearance of Daisuke and company, some sequel bait at the end that shows Toei is willing to keep going and possibly give the 02 leads the spotlight they deserve, and a fantastic memorial version of "Butterfly" playing through the end credits.
The Woobie:
- Tentomon ends up learning that he's going to succumb to a virus that will make him a psychopathic murderer, and that the only way out is to have him and his Digimon allies be almost entirely erased from existence, losing their memories and experiences and being rebooted as a new Digimon with no hope of being the same person they were. That being said, he spends his last moments comforting Koshiro while keeping his infection a secret. Eventually, during the battle, Tentomon chooses to prevent the infected from endangering the world, and as a result, he becomes the only one left standing between the world and his crazed, violent allies from killing everyone, and fully aware that the virus will eventually brainwash him to. He achieves his Mega form and manages to prevent the virus from escaping after a passionate cry for his friends to "open their eyes", never once even throwing an attack in self defense. Afterward, all he got for this noble sacrifice was a temporary moment of safety for his human friends.
- Every Digimon partner qualifies: After realizing that they're all slowly becoming infected and will finally succumb and start hurting others, and the only way to fix is to wait for the 'Reboot' process to take place that will effectively wipe out all their memories, or to catch Meicoomon before they all succumb to the infection, which is highly unlikely, and so they prepared for the worst...by all becoming stepford smilers in front of their human partners to hide this terrible truth from them, spending time doing happy and nostalgic things with them and trying to make them as happy as they could with what little time they have left, and even some of them are less successful than others. When the reboot takes place, everything the Digimon have ever done, every memories they shared with their partners over Adventure and 02 seasons, all gone in the blink of an eye.
Woolseyism:
- The German dub kept the word "dandan" ("thank you") and left it untranslated. While the characters do explain that it's a vocabulary from Meiko's regional dialect, it blends well with the German language, as "dandan" could be viewed as a corruption of the word "Danke" which means "thank you". It's also used to replace Meicoomon's "dagan", which often makes her appear cute or when she's in her Vicious Mode just plain crazy.
- Quite a few people thought that Filling the Silence in the English dub for part 4 was actually for the better, and made the widely derided long, quiet slideshow scenes more interesting, as it created banter between characters that normally don't get to interact much.
- Meiko goes through a few cases of Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping when emotional. In the original, she speaks with a different dialect due to coming from the Tottori Prefecture, an area in Japan to the southwest of the setting Odaiba. For the dub, Meiko is given a Southern Belle accent to keep the aspect of her being from the South.

YMMV / Digimon Adventure tri.

Edit Locked