Digimon: The Adventurers’ Battle Review

This is a movie that I thought I would like (keyword: THOUGHT)

Release date:

Jp) July 14, 2001

Na) October 16, 2005

Studio: Toei Animation

Let me be honest: I was never interested in the Digimon series when I was young. At the same time, I was interested  in Pokemon. Even so, that did not necessarily meant I considered Digimon (or any other monster/card collecting series) a PKMN ripoff. I was fully aware that Digimon had it’s differences: the talking monsters, the digital world, the super robot/sentai structure of the plot and characters, and etc. But even so, it just didn’t interest me enough.

Now years later after maturing, and realizing that the Pokemon anime was pretty much using the same-old plot/season structure, I started to take an interest in Digimon more (mostly around seasons 1-3). Digimon Tamers was a series that I decided to watch due to it’s departure from the more light-hearted seasons before and that it was written by Chiaki J. Konaka; the same man who worked on Birdy the Mighty, Hellsing, and Serial Experiemnts Lain. I still haven’t finished watching it yet but I have seen both movies. One of them being what I am about to review today.

Oh! I must note that I am basing this around the Japanese sub version of the movie so some things MAY differ from the dub.

I must also note that I am focusing this anime movie like as if it was any other. In other words, don’t expect me to say “OH, GU1M0N IZ Teh Best digimOn Evah!” or something similar to that level of thought.

Story

Takato, Kai, and Kai's grandfather exercising on the beaches of Okinawa

Takato Matsuda (Known as Takato Matsuki in the dub) is taking a summer vacation trip to Okinawa and visit one of his relatives named Kai. It’s also revealed that both Li Jianliang/Rii Jenrya (Henry Wong in the dub) and Ruki Makino (Rika Nonaka in the du-ok seriously, it’s getting annoying how they slightly change the names; excluding Henry that is.) are also taking a vacation: Li going to investigate an underwater meteor (even thou later in the film, it appears he is at Yonaguni Jima; the home of the underwater pyramid) and Ruki is…just staying in the city in case a Digimon attacks the city (Now why does this part sound so familiar?). Takato, along with the others, take their digimon with them.

Unknown to the main protagonists, a Digimon named Mephistomon plots to disturb world-wide communication via a virus and allowing the digimon to transfere to the real world. As the movie goes on we are introduced to a girl who lost his pet during a storm, a Tamagotchi-esque craze going around Japan, and a bunch of digimon who are causing havoc.

Animation

Just like the other Digimon series, their movies are one step above when it comes to animation. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s as great as Akira’s but at least it’s animated better than the series itself. There’s really nothing stunning for me to talk about here except I thought the moments when Gargomon was in the air with his revolver-like machine gun was quite “awesome”.

Music

The OST for the movie (Note Renamon in the background)

The music in this movie is pretty average. From what I remember, it’s at least better than the series’ ost (Original SoundTrack) yet it’s not something you’ll be humming to while in the shower or at work (save for the scene where all three digimon are fighting for the first time. Not to mention the ones with the vocals). It’s also not orchestrated for those who’ve seen the dub.

The movie also adds two songs that are quite new (back then, that is). It’s not my absolute favorite but at least it achieves on giving the viewer a positive and optimistic view on life and/or just setting your mind on summer.

Sample:

A few things…

V-Pets: Lil' bastards who'll stab you in the back when not looking.

One of my main gripes about the movie is the ending. I will try not to spoil it so I’ll describe it in this way:

Do you know how once you defeat Ganondorf for the first time in Ocarina of Time (Or Majora from, well, Majora’s Mask), you would expect to be finished with him? But then he comes back to life so you would have to defeat him and do some final moves and etc (SLASH!  SLASH! STAB TO THE HEAD!)?  that’s what kind of happens at the end. HOWEVER, unlike OoT where after doing so you get this scene that appears to look like as if it was thought out, you just…get nothing. Not exactly nothing but let’s just say that after watching a conflict finally being resolved,  I’d thought we would get to know what happened to some of the characters who ended up getting their asses handed to them (not the antagonist, btw) or at least some final scene that had a couple of words or something.

Maybe this is just me. While Digimon fans would either like the “finale” or debate about how such a thing would occur using foreign definitions, I’m here concluding that the creators just wanted an excuse to waste time and not work on a conclusion. Maybe I’m just being to picky (But that’s what a review is about, right?).

Besides that, I wish Kai’s grandfather appeared more in the movie; he could of became the next Master Roshi if they allowed him to fight Digimon and NOT lose. Oh wait, this is Digimon; where only digital monsters are allowed to fight.

Final

What will result after Digimon fans read this review.

This movie is great to show for someone around 7 to 12 if you want to introduce them to anime at a young age. The story isn’t the greatist around and  I would suggest renting it (or downloading it illegually of the interwebz, YAYZ (SHUT UP! I know it’s about manga but it can also apply to animu, too).

It’s a movie I would mostly suggest for Digimon Tamer fans (just Digimon fans in general). For non-fans, I would suggest watching this, too, but don’t expect anything great.

If you want to see mentally unstable pilots fighting aliens with ironic names or officers bitch-slapping boys who reply “MY FATHER WOULD NEVER DO THAT”…

Then look somewhere else.