Pop Culture Panda: Digimon TRI part one Reunion episode 2

Yaaaaassss, an actual opening credits showing the Digimon companions, including Gatomon! Aww yeah, Gatomon!

There's some nice throwbacks like in the original where the Digidestined were shown hurtling from the sky towards the Digiworld but with new twists. When they were kids, they mostly looked terrified or determined, now we have casual dropping from the sky, the occasional flip and the fun posing from Mimi, then theres this guy.....

Oh Koushiro, will we ever tame your wild ways?

Jumping into it - our first introduction is of a kid being stage dived on by his mother. They flop over onto the ground and wait for a moment. No real context, until we see Kuwagamon swooping them. Their eyes look notably more mainstream anime but whatever. Kuwagamon can't fly for shit and causes insurance premiums around Odaiba to skyrocket.

Can you imagine that conversation? "Yeah hi, a giant digital creature destroyed my car and then vanished.." Sure sure, drunky.

Tai is there and is freaked out but Koushiro is still at his fancy lunch, about to eat a 'Happy anniversary marriage' cake. Joe is typing gibberish into his learning gadget and feeling the pressures of study.

This is not how you study, Joe!

Sora is waiting for a bus and has the cutest wallpaper on her phone.

There is absolutely no noise where Sora is.

Everyone in this entire town is still just standing around with their damn phones.

Tai spots Kuwagamon respawning - causing it to target him for some reason. Kuwagamon King Kongs it out for a bit before swooping Tai and causing him to get knocked off his bike. Not content with that, he charges at Tai who shoulder rolls away from the strike. Peeved, Kuwagamon leaves but not before taking out it's rage on a nearby bridge. Haha, psyche! He just turned around and came back for round two, making Tai run and dive all over the shop and causing him to drop his digivice.

At this stage, Tai is understandably shocked by the risk of casualties near him, and the outrageous property destruction of his home town. He leads Kuwagamon on a bike chase to a more deserted part of town, risking his own well being. Kuwagamon takes the bait, and almost takes Tai out, flattening his bike. It's at this point where Tai starts to panic because he knows he can't do much else by himself against this Digimon. Instinctively he reaches for his Digivice and voila! Instant Agumon!

The absolute joy in their faces at their reunion is adorable! Agumon attacks Kuwagamon, and once evolved, pushes the bug into a distortion and vanishes to the tune of 'Brave Heart'.

Unfortunately, this has caused more physical destruction to Odaiba.

The distortion comes and goes, so the two champions fight at an oceanside, and an airport and keep appearing and vanishing into some part of the Digital World. Meanwhile, it's become night time, and Tai can't find either of them. Luckily, ~~Macguffin~~ Kari calls and tells him they're at the airport.

Tai is about to call Kari into action but remembers how destructive Kuwagamon was and can't risk it.
Nishijima - Tai's teacher, appears and calls to him to get into his car. The Men in Black appear and surround Hikari as well. Passengers at the airport are unimpressed, asking what's going on, somehow not noticing the two monsters going at it on the bloody tarmac but there you go.

Tai is dropped off at the airport by Nishijima, who Tai suspects has more going on than what he's been told but has more pressing matters. Nishijima gets all official like, advising 'CODE-01, dispatched, sent under escort.' to someone. He knows Tai is one of the Digidestined.

Running up to a flattened Greymon, Tai is attacked by Kuwagamon, saved by Greymon but blown backwards violently by the force of it. Things are looking desperate when suddenly someone calls his name. Looking over, he sees Kari, Takeru, Sora, Matt and Koushiro just standing there like jerks watching him get his ass beat up.

I get this is a reunion and it's supposed to be a 'yay team!' moment but I just can't get behind it when everyone is just watching and posing, and not leaping in to help poor Tai and Greymon.
The camera even takes time to zoom in and pan over their smiling, posing faces. Is you all blind?! Why you no help?!
They all just stand there telling their life stories about how they were brought here and reunited... and NONE of this helps Greymon who is still being attacked quietly in the background.

"We'll help you!" Declares Gatomon the mighty and wise.
"We need to confront the enemy first." States the somewhat helpful Koushiro.

The rest just spout useless banter and then stop everything because oh no, Mimi and Joe aren't there!

"So are we just going to yell across the tarmac or what guys?"

Through distortions, two more Kuwagamons appear, and because none of these assholes helped, poor Greymon shrinks down to Agumon because again, NO ONE IS HELPING HIM. I cannot stress this enough. These people are useless! Especially Matt who runs over and shouts Tai's name, so Tai can watch Gabumon sloooowwwwllyy Diiiiiigivollllve....

"Yeah, no thanks to you, assface!"

Then the rest finally decide to join in and we get to sit through all the new Digivolving sequences.

It kinda sucks because it doesn't really add anything, and the new figures are animated weirdly, pose strangely, and while Garurumon here looks okay, his eyes are way too puppy and not enough wolf.

Koushiro sends Tentomon into the fray and Sora is unimpressed with him taking her screen time and ruining her love of the destruction that Birdramon provides so beautifully.

So fabulous.

Then Takeru and Kari come in and their Digimon team up - Gatomon rides on the fabulous Angemon's shoulder to deliver a screw you punch to a Kawagamon, and to silence anyone who forgets that's she's actually a champion level Digimon.

Palmon and Gomamon feel useless so Gomamon suggests he'll go find Joe. As if he has any idea where he is. Heck, Gomamon probably doesn't even know where Gomamon is right now. Palmon just frets in her adorable Japanese voice while Mimi is introduced to our mysterious woman and taken to the scene. Judging by what she's wearing, Mimi either loves those Gladiator hooker boots or she literally jumped on a plane the second she was asked to.

Birdramon glows in the night, which is pretty cool for a fire bird. Her face used to terrify me but now I actually own birds, scenes like this are seen in my home every single day. It's like their default parrot of terror face.

Kabuterimon and Birdramon vanquish the other Kawagamon ... and also half of the airport but... I'm sure no one will miss that. I love how proud Sora is of her Digimon messing stuff up. Mimi seems to be asking about her Digimon and how many of her friends are there for a good reason, but then it's revealed she wants to hand out souvenirs.

A cat kick does as much damage as a punch from a full grown male Digimon. Ha ha, love it.

Meanwhile Garurumon is failing. See, no so easy by yourself, is it? Maybe if you'd helped out Greymon earlier, this wouldn't even be a damn problem.

Matt only now seems to pick up that Tai isn't himself, and the entire gang is now a bit oh yes, there is a bit of damage, oh yeah, who are these mysterious FBI guys?

Mimi arrives and is an absolute, bubbly ray of sunshine but Matt only has eyes for Tai.

The Digimon happily pig out on gummi snacks and Koushiro asks how they're going to get home.

Very wide pan out as no one but the wind answers him.

Outcome:

Overall, a bit more action and some character development with Tai in this episode. I may have mentioned it a few times here but I am very disappointed in the other Digidestined for failing Tai and Greymon in this episode. I feel like they may have been standing there for a lot longer than what the show showed us, and that's disturbing.

Heck, even a last minute rescue, or an already digivolved champion swooping in would have been a much more effective reveal. The Digidestined have gotten soft in their old (er) age it seems, as the child versions would not have hesitated as much when clearly action was called for.

I was a bit disappointed in Sora as well. She was one of my favourite characters because she always had the right headset to restrain herself and others if it wasn't the right time to jump in recklessly or do something silly. Here, it seems they've lobotomised her somewhat. I don't care if she's more 'feminine' or anything like that, but she's gone from a fairly confident child to a wishy washy panic-y babbler and seemingly reduced to 'the love interest'. Which everyone knows is slang for a boring character that the dudes can fight over and save from things.

Tai is a bit wishy washy and hesitant in this episode too, but it makes sense. He's literally been running for his life for half of the episode and his best buddy almost killed. As well as that, he's seen effects of the attacks on innocent civilians and innocent buildings and property. Now he's older and more mature, he can't act the same way he used to - what he does and doesn't do will have an effect and he's terrified it could be the wrong one.

This is shown when he's reluctant to tell Kari about the Digimon attack because he doesn't want her to get hurt.

I don't know what drama has gone on between Matt and Tai but the looks Matt gives Tai are really annoying, like he thinks he's better than Tai. Mimi was delightful to watch and ti was good seeing all the companions again, even though apart from Agumon there was bugger all explanation for their arrival.