SAIKAI THOUGHTS
OK wow! So many feelings~! I'm going to try not to repeat things I've seen elsewhere, and just offer my own impressions. And mind these aren't all FIRST first impressions since I wanted to watch the whole thing uninterrupted, but I DID try to capture as many of my thoughts as I could from that first viewing on Sunday, plus a few more in-depth details from a (partial) rewatch I've done already ahahaha ^^;
Let's do this!! Here be spoilers, like whoa:
THE CHARACTERS
DIGIDESTINED
Taichi: Ugh, actual Hottest Taichi, make no mistake about that <3 Taichi is... well, he's TAAAAAICHIIII, in all of his glory, and I looooved his hesitation in episode 2 and trying to look at the "bigger picture" of collateral damage and feeling the need to handle Kuwagamon by himself (his refusal to tell Hikari what was going on-- a bit of that big-brother-have-to-protect-her fear rearing its head, wasn't it? :3). He doesn't seem to be afraid for himself, and his fear is not only for his family and friends, now it includes people he doesn't even know. His uncertainty in choosing a career, how he handled inviting his friends to the soccer game and his feelings when nobody could come touches on LOTS OF THINGS I hope will keep being explored in this series, paving the way for additional development and/or reinforcing/redefining Taichi's beliefs and identity. His angst DID seem excessive later on (particularly since no one was seriously hurt, and not fighting would have resulted in MORE destruction, duh!), but I do think in the heat of the moment at least, he was really genuinely thinking someone was dead, and subsequent flashbacks to the phone on the ground were maybe just reliving that feeling and fearing immediate repercussions in regards to innocents (...is how I justify it anyway, even though it came across a bit like lazy writing and drumming up angst for angst's sake towards the end). Well, assumming that's what they were going for, and aside from the slightly sloppy execution there, I'm loving tri!Tai at this point-- so far, so good!!
Yamato: Yamato cements himself 100% as Taichi's foil-- the one who offers an opposing-but-valid viewpoint and tells him exactly what he needs to hear. Their friendship has apparently evolved beyond the need for violence (except in jest), and even though they still stubbornly stick to their guns, they're like... soulmates or something, IDK ERGH <3 Yes, there was a lot of Taito ship fodder, but it took a backseat to the freaking... I don't know, everything else these two are to each other (and Sora! Sora's role in their relationship cannot be understated!). There was a schism, absolutely, but... auuugh, I'm sorry, I still can't get over the ramen scene, it was PERFECTTTT. Somebody hold me!! Is Astronaut!Matt still a possibility? I want to see the career form that HE turned in!! Also, the name "Knife of Day" is another nail in the coffin, preventing me taking Yamato completely seriously (sorry, Yamato) but OH MY GOSH WE NEED ONE OF THEIR SONGS. WE NEED IT RIGHT NOW T^T Yamato and Takeru are perfecttttt brothersssssss and Yamato still plays the harmonica for Gabumon <3 Also, tiny headcanon confirmed: the Teen-age Wolves break up in high school. That's why they included that detail they read my blog!! XD
Sora: If Yamato is Taichi's foil, Sora is the balancing force between them. She was so boss!! She CAN do it all! Mother, sister, friend, girlfriend (I think? I didn't see anything that explicitly contradicted Sora and Yamato being an item. Maybe the writers are keeping it vague on purpose, which would be kind of annoying, but Taichi's reaction to seeing them having a conversation and waiting until the last minute to invite Sora to his game seems like he was trying to respect their space and priorities as boyfriend/girlfriend). But Sora getting angry at Taichi for waiting so long to invite her, and telling Taichi and Yamato off for fighting, and forcing them to talk through their issues AGGH YES!! This is a Brave New Sora who just rocketed to the top of my List of Awesome Characters. THANK YOU TOEI! X33333
Koushiro: Wow, Koushiro had a lot going on, didn't he? M-maybe too much? Is that possible? *hides* His complete and utter absorbtion in details and relaying information was... true to his character, certainly, but some of it seemed unnecessary since it didn't always advance the plot or his development. A long drawn-out explanation of airline fees? Continuing to talk while the others argue over him (and everyone ignoring him, DESPITE how many times they've relied on his knowledge in the past... that seemed rude and like character regression, from all involved! :C) Also, he's had the time to create a) a fashion dollmaker of himself, b) a virtual environment for the digimon, and c) goggles that actually serve some functional purpose? I can see the first two being in-work prior to the start of the first episode (maybe that virtual env. is part of his research with his American friend!) and granted he DID lose sleep over the goggles (cute!) but... eh, too much new stuff! Pace yourself, kiddo! The idea that the Chosen Children now have a secret treefort in the form of his fancy-pants office is... interesting, and fodder for many new and awful awesome fanfics XD His crush on Mimi is... confusing to me... based on how he acted around her in Revenge of Diaboromon. But it's still pretty cute, even if I don't really see it going anywhere. I guess it depends on what Mimi thinks of him! Bowtie-Koushiro, Crab-costume-Koushiro, and out-on-the-town Koushiro were all A++ though!
And if there's ever a dub? I want them to explicitly state that (one of) the Americans Izzy is working with is Willis. Now, here's where you get to tell me to shut up about Willis because he's not that great, but c'mon, it would be the ultimate dub callback!! DEAR SABAN HIRE ME TO WORK ON THE DUB SCRIPT I SWEAR YOU WON'T REGRET IT XDDDD;
Mimi: Yeah, it's hard to tell what Mimi thinks. I liked that she apparently knew she was transferring back to Japan but didn't bother telling anyone about it, and still insisted Taichi cover her airfare. Business class rotfl. YOU GO, GIRL <3 What other secrets is she hiding...? o_o The souveniers she brought everyone... were those based on the real-life Haribo brand? :O I loved Mimi though. Mimi was SO Mimi! X3
Joe: Jooooooe! <3 Even if he didn't do much, I enjoyed his screentime. I'm really hoping he's going to start blowing off his studies more to hang with the other kids. But continuing to put his studies first like this, to the point of basically ignoring the mysterious MIB who had come to collect him? Jooooooe! You are the #1 most relatable to me, I swear! I'm a little confused about how Gomamon left the airport to go find him (how?? And how did he know where he was??) but now I'm envisioning Gomamon sweet-talking one of the MIB (Nishijima-sensei?) to give him a ride and I wanna write fanfiction of ittttt :| Also, lelen's theory that Meiko is Joe's secret girlfriend: yes, I'm so down.
Takeru: Takeruuuuuu! Oh no, the fangirl is really starting to take over on these character discussions-- stop that! XD Ahem. I don't want to brag, but I TOTALLY CALLED TAKERU'S FEDORA BACK IN LIKE... MARCH. Er, kinda. I was intending to make a comic about moody Takeru completely embracing his goth side (er, wait, I think "emo" was The Thing back in 2005) via a sparkly transformation sequence and yes, it did involve a fedora (even though... fedoras were not such A Thing 10 years ago, I don't think. STILL!) But Takeru sure did look a little emo/hipster at Yamato's concert, didn't he? H-he looked like... HE HAD THE SAME COLOR PALATTE AS GOTH TK. I SWEAR TO GOD, IF THAT WAS AT ALL INTENTIONAL... O_o (ergh, I'm sorry! Goth TK is very important to my fandom roots I just adsdjkghsakl RAGING TOKOMON). Ahem again. Seriously though, Takeru was sweet. He's just really comfortable with his brother and with Hikari and I'm happy he has a girlfriend (who is not Hikari!). And that shopping scene with Kousiro AAAAA <3 His "summer camp" shirt and backwards hat-- OMG Koushiro, are you SURE you want advice from this kid?? XDDD
Also, did his blog look too modern? I feel like it should have looked more like Blogspot or something, but whatever, it's all good (Takeru's blog in 2005 looked more modern than the blog I'm using to this day! Haha er ah... well) :)
Hikari: Hikari was an awesome teasing little-sister and sweetly sassy to Takeru. Yaaaay! I kind of wish she had done a little more though? Like, had more of a reaction/"sixth sense" about Kuwagamon. I kind of miss sensitive-to-everything, slightly-mystic Hikari. I loved the Bokura no War Game callback of her going to a friend's birthday party instead of Taichi's soccer game. Yup, Hikari's popular, no doubt about it! Hopefully we'll get to see some of her photography skills and more obsession with sweets later XD
THE PARTNER DIGIMON
Maybe the digis just understand and compliment their humans so perfectly that this is unnecessary, but I would have liked to see more human/digimon interaction-- like, how about seeing everyone ELSE'S reunion with their digimon, huh? Not just Taichi and Joe :| Yes, yes, time constraints, but some more build-up and excitement for the return of the digimon would have been preferrable to... well, Koushiro going on about airfare way too long, IMO ^^; Or what about when Alphamon was knocking all the champions around? Why did we get Taichi and Yamato drama when we could have had reactions from the other Chosen Children about their PRECIOUS PARTNERS? Would THAT have motivated you a little more, Taichi?? The digivolutions were definitely too reminiscent of Tamers-- not bad, just unoriginal-- and were too long. I don't want to look at this same boring white circle 7 times! Pick it up pick it upppp! Gabumon and Agumon's progression through Ultimate and Mega to Omnimon was certainly quick (and probably an cost-cutting measure since they didn't have CGI sequences) but I'm not complaining-- though I'm not sure they should have been able to evolve all the way?? (Was the thing Azulongmon did during the World Tour a permanent fix to the problem? I guess so, in which case it works). Anyway. I liked the digimon (PALMON/BIYOMON/GATOMON, OMG XD) but there could have been more of them!
OTHER HUMANS
The 02 kids: Ohhh yes, tri has got some explaining to do here. Are they dead? Evil? Evil and dead? Erased from everyone's memory? The elephant in the room that none of the other Chosen Children want to talk about AT ALL? Who knows!! Hopefully we'll find out in a timely manner. Also, I get the impression that the Digimon World Tour still happened in this continuity, but the Dark Spore children who got digimon partners after BelialVamdemon was defeated have been retconned away. Sad, but for the best, I suppose :/
New Characters: Meiko Mochizuki, Daigo Nishijima, and Maki Himikawa-- I write these down for my own benefit and to use as reference later, new names are hard to learn XD So, I liked them!! I want to know more about all of them, and I wasn't expecting to be able to say that! I liked Daigo a lot-- secret-agent teacher, that's fun. More of these characters. More, I say!!
"The Walk-In Gennai": Ooh, this is really interesting to me! Like, he was manifesting as some sort of mysterious stranger and giving all of this information to the government in the hope that it will indirectly aid the Chosen Children? I kind of want to write fanfic about this too XD I just hope these government people can be trusted!!
Parents: Yup, gotta give props for including my favorite parental units-- Mrs. Kamiya and the Izumis! <3
ANIMATION & EFFECTS
Well, I'll tell you this-- it's leagues better than Sailor Moon Crystal. Digimon clearly has a bigger budget to work with, and I'm soooo relieved by that! Everyone looked really gooood, and while there are a few weaker/off-model shots, I can't really complain at all. And faces! The Chosen Children are allowed to have a few silly reaction shots, and those were great! I don't mind the incongruous CGI, maybe because the original series had it as well. And the cell-shaded effect always looks cool. The battle effects were really distinct and stylized (that smoke! <3) and the pixelly effects on Kuwagamon before it fully materialized was neat. And I LOVED the fact that Birdramon like... lit up in the dark. Being a big firebird and all. So cooool... *swoons*
STORY AND WORLDBUILDING
Pretty basic, really. I mean, hopefully we're just getting warmed up, and will get a lot more neat surprises and good character moments. I also wonder if subsequent movies will still mostly focus on Taichi or if others will get their chance to take the spotlight (I feel like Taichi's arc isn't over, but I also don't want 5 movies of him having arguments with Yamato. That wouldn't happen, right??) The original Adventure was such a delicate balance of characters, and while it wasn't perfect, it was darn impressive, and I hope tri keeps the spirit of that in tact. But I'm cautiously optimistic, based on what we've seen so far. Everyone has had a little chance to shine so far-- keep it up, tri!!
Themes and Motifs that I hope will continue through the series: Eggs, the thread from Bokura No War Game about the gang drifting apart/only getting together in a big emergency, growing up, changing (evolving) vs. staying the same.
Whoa Yeah It's 2005: CD player, flip phones, dedicated mp3 player (all from Epiode 1, maybe there are more scattered elsewhere). I can't tell if the fashion was very 2005, but I liked the outfits quite a bit!
Other callbacks to the series: Koushiro ordered oolong tea at the restaurant. Fuji TV station was shown a couple of times. While Greymon and Kuwagamon were fighting, a cliff was cleaved in two and fell into the water in a manner very reminiscent of the first episode of Adventure <3
Memorable scenes and other details: I loved the opening; it really took its time and we got to see all of Taichi's stuff (ilu Taichi, and I love ur STUFF XD). RAMEN SCENE. Greymon and Kuwagamon going all multicolored when they were fighting in weird digital limbo. Takeru holding up Patamon like he's an awesome fedora-wearing falconer with the batpig as his mighty bird of prey. ALL OF KOUSHIRO'S OUTFITS HOLY CRAP!
Nitpicks that bothered me: Mimi texting back immediately from New York (UM TIME DIFFERENCE???), the seemingly-instantaneous darkness that happened during the battle with the first Kuwagamon as the fight transitioned to Haneda Airport.
VOICES AND MUSIC
The voices are kind of... amazing? Like, really similar in spirit to the original seiyuu. Yamato sounds basically identical O_o Maybe it's because I'm not as familiar with the originals (except via character songs), but it wasn't jarring at all (I couldn't help thinking of dub voices too though, and how certain lines would sound with the original English VAs! XD;). I'm really glad the digimon sounded exactly the same though. I really liked a lot of the BGM (the ramen scene, Taichi staring at the water), and while some of it was not necessarily memorable, it all really "fit." NGL, I teared up a little bit when I first heard Brave Heart, and the instrumental version at the end was great too. New Butter-fly and I Wish are nice. The ONE thing that bothered me about the ED was that the small- and medium-sized pixellated sprites of the Chosen Children didn't use their Adventure and Adventure 02 outfits. Come on, guys! *eye roll* (sorry, that's a nitpick, but still!).
CONCLUSIONS
So was "Saikai" EVERYTHING I ever could have wanted and more?! Well... no. But it was close. It was DAMN close, and pretty much all I could *realistically* hope for :3 My fears still apply to subsequent installments; there is still time to mess this up. But I'm optimistic. I think our beloved Chosen Children and beloved Adventure universe are in pretty good hands.
Phew! Now begins the wait until April. But you know? We weathered this wait pretty well. I think this next one will be fine. And in the meantime... well, there may or may not be fanfic to write :)
Let's do this!! Here be spoilers, like whoa:
THE CHARACTERS
DIGIDESTINED
Taichi: Ugh, actual Hottest Taichi, make no mistake about that <3 Taichi is... well, he's TAAAAAICHIIII, in all of his glory, and I looooved his hesitation in episode 2 and trying to look at the "bigger picture" of collateral damage and feeling the need to handle Kuwagamon by himself (his refusal to tell Hikari what was going on-- a bit of that big-brother-have-to-protect-her fear rearing its head, wasn't it? :3). He doesn't seem to be afraid for himself, and his fear is not only for his family and friends, now it includes people he doesn't even know. His uncertainty in choosing a career, how he handled inviting his friends to the soccer game and his feelings when nobody could come touches on LOTS OF THINGS I hope will keep being explored in this series, paving the way for additional development and/or reinforcing/redefining Taichi's beliefs and identity. His angst DID seem excessive later on (particularly since no one was seriously hurt, and not fighting would have resulted in MORE destruction, duh!), but I do think in the heat of the moment at least, he was really genuinely thinking someone was dead, and subsequent flashbacks to the phone on the ground were maybe just reliving that feeling and fearing immediate repercussions in regards to innocents (...is how I justify it anyway, even though it came across a bit like lazy writing and drumming up angst for angst's sake towards the end). Well, assumming that's what they were going for, and aside from the slightly sloppy execution there, I'm loving tri!Tai at this point-- so far, so good!!
Yamato: Yamato cements himself 100% as Taichi's foil-- the one who offers an opposing-but-valid viewpoint and tells him exactly what he needs to hear. Their friendship has apparently evolved beyond the need for violence (except in jest), and even though they still stubbornly stick to their guns, they're like... soulmates or something, IDK ERGH <3 Yes, there was a lot of Taito ship fodder, but it took a backseat to the freaking... I don't know, everything else these two are to each other (and Sora! Sora's role in their relationship cannot be understated!). There was a schism, absolutely, but... auuugh, I'm sorry, I still can't get over the ramen scene, it was PERFECTTTT. Somebody hold me!! Is Astronaut!Matt still a possibility? I want to see the career form that HE turned in!! Also, the name "Knife of Day" is another nail in the coffin, preventing me taking Yamato completely seriously (sorry, Yamato) but OH MY GOSH WE NEED ONE OF THEIR SONGS. WE NEED IT RIGHT NOW T^T Yamato and Takeru are perfecttttt brothersssssss and Yamato still plays the harmonica for Gabumon <3 Also, tiny headcanon confirmed: the Teen-age Wolves break up in high school. That's why they included that detail they read my blog!! XD
Sora: If Yamato is Taichi's foil, Sora is the balancing force between them. She was so boss!! She CAN do it all! Mother, sister, friend, girlfriend (I think? I didn't see anything that explicitly contradicted Sora and Yamato being an item. Maybe the writers are keeping it vague on purpose, which would be kind of annoying, but Taichi's reaction to seeing them having a conversation and waiting until the last minute to invite Sora to his game seems like he was trying to respect their space and priorities as boyfriend/girlfriend). But Sora getting angry at Taichi for waiting so long to invite her, and telling Taichi and Yamato off for fighting, and forcing them to talk through their issues AGGH YES!! This is a Brave New Sora who just rocketed to the top of my List of Awesome Characters. THANK YOU TOEI! X33333
Koushiro: Wow, Koushiro had a lot going on, didn't he? M-maybe too much? Is that possible? *hides* His complete and utter absorbtion in details and relaying information was... true to his character, certainly, but some of it seemed unnecessary since it didn't always advance the plot or his development. A long drawn-out explanation of airline fees? Continuing to talk while the others argue over him (and everyone ignoring him, DESPITE how many times they've relied on his knowledge in the past... that seemed rude and like character regression, from all involved! :C) Also, he's had the time to create a) a fashion dollmaker of himself, b) a virtual environment for the digimon, and c) goggles that actually serve some functional purpose? I can see the first two being in-work prior to the start of the first episode (maybe that virtual env. is part of his research with his American friend!) and granted he DID lose sleep over the goggles (cute!) but... eh, too much new stuff! Pace yourself, kiddo! The idea that the Chosen Children now have a secret treefort in the form of his fancy-pants office is... interesting, and fodder for many new and awful awesome fanfics XD His crush on Mimi is... confusing to me... based on how he acted around her in Revenge of Diaboromon. But it's still pretty cute, even if I don't really see it going anywhere. I guess it depends on what Mimi thinks of him! Bowtie-Koushiro, Crab-costume-Koushiro, and out-on-the-town Koushiro were all A++ though!
And if there's ever a dub? I want them to explicitly state that (one of) the Americans Izzy is working with is Willis. Now, here's where you get to tell me to shut up about Willis because he's not that great, but c'mon, it would be the ultimate dub callback!! DEAR SABAN HIRE ME TO WORK ON THE DUB SCRIPT I SWEAR YOU WON'T REGRET IT XDDDD;
Mimi: Yeah, it's hard to tell what Mimi thinks. I liked that she apparently knew she was transferring back to Japan but didn't bother telling anyone about it, and still insisted Taichi cover her airfare. Business class rotfl. YOU GO, GIRL <3 What other secrets is she hiding...? o_o The souveniers she brought everyone... were those based on the real-life Haribo brand? :O I loved Mimi though. Mimi was SO Mimi! X3
Joe: Jooooooe! <3 Even if he didn't do much, I enjoyed his screentime. I'm really hoping he's going to start blowing off his studies more to hang with the other kids. But continuing to put his studies first like this, to the point of basically ignoring the mysterious MIB who had come to collect him? Jooooooe! You are the #1 most relatable to me, I swear! I'm a little confused about how Gomamon left the airport to go find him (how?? And how did he know where he was??) but now I'm envisioning Gomamon sweet-talking one of the MIB (Nishijima-sensei?) to give him a ride and I wanna write fanfiction of ittttt :| Also, lelen's theory that Meiko is Joe's secret girlfriend: yes, I'm so down.
Takeru: Takeruuuuuu! Oh no, the fangirl is really starting to take over on these character discussions-- stop that! XD Ahem. I don't want to brag, but I TOTALLY CALLED TAKERU'S FEDORA BACK IN LIKE... MARCH. Er, kinda. I was intending to make a comic about moody Takeru completely embracing his goth side (er, wait, I think "emo" was The Thing back in 2005) via a sparkly transformation sequence and yes, it did involve a fedora (even though... fedoras were not such A Thing 10 years ago, I don't think. STILL!) But Takeru sure did look a little emo/hipster at Yamato's concert, didn't he? H-he looked like... HE HAD THE SAME COLOR PALATTE AS GOTH TK. I SWEAR TO GOD, IF THAT WAS AT ALL INTENTIONAL... O_o (ergh, I'm sorry! Goth TK is very important to my fandom roots I just adsdjkghsakl RAGING TOKOMON). Ahem again. Seriously though, Takeru was sweet. He's just really comfortable with his brother and with Hikari and I'm happy he has a girlfriend (who is not Hikari!). And that shopping scene with Kousiro AAAAA <3 His "summer camp" shirt and backwards hat-- OMG Koushiro, are you SURE you want advice from this kid?? XDDD
Also, did his blog look too modern? I feel like it should have looked more like Blogspot or something, but whatever, it's all good (Takeru's blog in 2005 looked more modern than the blog I'm using to this day! Haha er ah... well) :)
Hikari: Hikari was an awesome teasing little-sister and sweetly sassy to Takeru. Yaaaay! I kind of wish she had done a little more though? Like, had more of a reaction/"sixth sense" about Kuwagamon. I kind of miss sensitive-to-everything, slightly-mystic Hikari. I loved the Bokura no War Game callback of her going to a friend's birthday party instead of Taichi's soccer game. Yup, Hikari's popular, no doubt about it! Hopefully we'll get to see some of her photography skills and more obsession with sweets later XD
THE PARTNER DIGIMON
Maybe the digis just understand and compliment their humans so perfectly that this is unnecessary, but I would have liked to see more human/digimon interaction-- like, how about seeing everyone ELSE'S reunion with their digimon, huh? Not just Taichi and Joe :| Yes, yes, time constraints, but some more build-up and excitement for the return of the digimon would have been preferrable to... well, Koushiro going on about airfare way too long, IMO ^^; Or what about when Alphamon was knocking all the champions around? Why did we get Taichi and Yamato drama when we could have had reactions from the other Chosen Children about their PRECIOUS PARTNERS? Would THAT have motivated you a little more, Taichi?? The digivolutions were definitely too reminiscent of Tamers-- not bad, just unoriginal-- and were too long. I don't want to look at this same boring white circle 7 times! Pick it up pick it upppp! Gabumon and Agumon's progression through Ultimate and Mega to Omnimon was certainly quick (and probably an cost-cutting measure since they didn't have CGI sequences) but I'm not complaining-- though I'm not sure they should have been able to evolve all the way?? (Was the thing Azulongmon did during the World Tour a permanent fix to the problem? I guess so, in which case it works). Anyway. I liked the digimon (PALMON/BIYOMON/GATOMON, OMG XD) but there could have been more of them!
OTHER HUMANS
The 02 kids: Ohhh yes, tri has got some explaining to do here. Are they dead? Evil? Evil and dead? Erased from everyone's memory? The elephant in the room that none of the other Chosen Children want to talk about AT ALL? Who knows!! Hopefully we'll find out in a timely manner. Also, I get the impression that the Digimon World Tour still happened in this continuity, but the Dark Spore children who got digimon partners after BelialVamdemon was defeated have been retconned away. Sad, but for the best, I suppose :/
New Characters: Meiko Mochizuki, Daigo Nishijima, and Maki Himikawa-- I write these down for my own benefit and to use as reference later, new names are hard to learn XD So, I liked them!! I want to know more about all of them, and I wasn't expecting to be able to say that! I liked Daigo a lot-- secret-agent teacher, that's fun. More of these characters. More, I say!!
"The Walk-In Gennai": Ooh, this is really interesting to me! Like, he was manifesting as some sort of mysterious stranger and giving all of this information to the government in the hope that it will indirectly aid the Chosen Children? I kind of want to write fanfic about this too XD I just hope these government people can be trusted!!
Parents: Yup, gotta give props for including my favorite parental units-- Mrs. Kamiya and the Izumis! <3
ANIMATION & EFFECTS
Well, I'll tell you this-- it's leagues better than Sailor Moon Crystal. Digimon clearly has a bigger budget to work with, and I'm soooo relieved by that! Everyone looked really gooood, and while there are a few weaker/off-model shots, I can't really complain at all. And faces! The Chosen Children are allowed to have a few silly reaction shots, and those were great! I don't mind the incongruous CGI, maybe because the original series had it as well. And the cell-shaded effect always looks cool. The battle effects were really distinct and stylized (that smoke! <3) and the pixelly effects on Kuwagamon before it fully materialized was neat. And I LOVED the fact that Birdramon like... lit up in the dark. Being a big firebird and all. So cooool... *swoons*
STORY AND WORLDBUILDING
Pretty basic, really. I mean, hopefully we're just getting warmed up, and will get a lot more neat surprises and good character moments. I also wonder if subsequent movies will still mostly focus on Taichi or if others will get their chance to take the spotlight (I feel like Taichi's arc isn't over, but I also don't want 5 movies of him having arguments with Yamato. That wouldn't happen, right??) The original Adventure was such a delicate balance of characters, and while it wasn't perfect, it was darn impressive, and I hope tri keeps the spirit of that in tact. But I'm cautiously optimistic, based on what we've seen so far. Everyone has had a little chance to shine so far-- keep it up, tri!!
Themes and Motifs that I hope will continue through the series: Eggs, the thread from Bokura No War Game about the gang drifting apart/only getting together in a big emergency, growing up, changing (evolving) vs. staying the same.
Whoa Yeah It's 2005: CD player, flip phones, dedicated mp3 player (all from Epiode 1, maybe there are more scattered elsewhere). I can't tell if the fashion was very 2005, but I liked the outfits quite a bit!
Other callbacks to the series: Koushiro ordered oolong tea at the restaurant. Fuji TV station was shown a couple of times. While Greymon and Kuwagamon were fighting, a cliff was cleaved in two and fell into the water in a manner very reminiscent of the first episode of Adventure <3
Memorable scenes and other details: I loved the opening; it really took its time and we got to see all of Taichi's stuff (ilu Taichi, and I love ur STUFF XD). RAMEN SCENE. Greymon and Kuwagamon going all multicolored when they were fighting in weird digital limbo. Takeru holding up Patamon like he's an awesome fedora-wearing falconer with the batpig as his mighty bird of prey. ALL OF KOUSHIRO'S OUTFITS HOLY CRAP!
Nitpicks that bothered me: Mimi texting back immediately from New York (UM TIME DIFFERENCE???), the seemingly-instantaneous darkness that happened during the battle with the first Kuwagamon as the fight transitioned to Haneda Airport.
VOICES AND MUSIC
The voices are kind of... amazing? Like, really similar in spirit to the original seiyuu. Yamato sounds basically identical O_o Maybe it's because I'm not as familiar with the originals (except via character songs), but it wasn't jarring at all (I couldn't help thinking of dub voices too though, and how certain lines would sound with the original English VAs! XD;). I'm really glad the digimon sounded exactly the same though. I really liked a lot of the BGM (the ramen scene, Taichi staring at the water), and while some of it was not necessarily memorable, it all really "fit." NGL, I teared up a little bit when I first heard Brave Heart, and the instrumental version at the end was great too. New Butter-fly and I Wish are nice. The ONE thing that bothered me about the ED was that the small- and medium-sized pixellated sprites of the Chosen Children didn't use their Adventure and Adventure 02 outfits. Come on, guys! *eye roll* (sorry, that's a nitpick, but still!).
CONCLUSIONS
So was "Saikai" EVERYTHING I ever could have wanted and more?! Well... no. But it was close. It was DAMN close, and pretty much all I could *realistically* hope for :3 My fears still apply to subsequent installments; there is still time to mess this up. But I'm optimistic. I think our beloved Chosen Children and beloved Adventure universe are in pretty good hands.
Phew! Now begins the wait until April. But you know? We weathered this wait pretty well. I think this next one will be fine. And in the meantime... well, there may or may not be fanfic to write :)