Pop Culture Panda: Digimon TRI part one Saikai/Reunion episode 4

If your entrance in an episode starts with this - you're sulking. You're sulking Matt, and your little bro called you out on it.

Speaking of, Takeru is using this website to warn others. So... 02 must have definitely happened, right? Are there still Digidestined from other parts of the world that remember the Digimon or have partners? Still iffy on why Takeru and the others haven't mentioned or wondered about the other kids near them (or neighbours to certain people)

Koushiro has spent all night making magic ~~Matrix~~ goggles for Tai so he can see the distortions in the ~~Force~~ world.

They find one distortion, alright. It's sneeze girl.

Sora and Mimi forcibly kidnap her in the guise of helping her and the others watch on in fear.

They keep walking around town looking for distortions and decide to go somewhere higher to extend the range.

They drop off Mei and pick up another moocher, Matt.

Sora jumps into the rest of the group's ferris wheel cabin at the last second, making Matt and Tai share one together to work out their issues.

The others find this hilarious, Mimi even takes photos of the two caged lions.

Matt backhandedly apologises to Tai and they hash out their issues, sort of. Matt still thinks Tai is running away and Tai is still not sure of the best process. In all the testosterone, Tai forgets to check through the goggles for the whole reason they're up on the ferris wheel.

This is probably nothing to worry about..

They get off the ferris wheel in record time and run for the distortion. Unfortunately, all the girls run like Nancies down stairs. No offence to anyone called Nancy, but damn.

Turns out Mei is here too, blindly missing her cat like object, who is running from her or from the distortion. She hides behind a bin, but not very well as Hackmon is right behind her and Alphamon (the one who kicked the 02 kid's butts) in front and sort of above.

Koushiro somehow scans the tail end of Alphamon's cape and determines that's it's name. Boooo.
Mei runs in to the building to find Meicoomon, and Meicoomon runs from her hiding place to meet Mei in the open space. They hug, and say things like You're safe now! but then it's all sucked in guys, your lack of tactical skill and your application of stupidity has lead to Alphamon finding you (not exactly a hard thing to do but you could at least make it a challenge) and it is now pointing a laser thing at you.

Matt runs to save Mei who can't run for shit. Meicoomon managed to sort of teleport them a few metres, but then they both stacked it so they're pretty useless.
Tai freezes, so Matt gives him a good old fashioned 'tch' and then goes obvious hero mode.

Which is easy for him to do now, I guess, and look down on Tai but hey, let's not forget this is the douche who left his like, preschool age brother alone in the Digital World for emo reasons.

Birdramon flies in to attack with a well placed freaky eye attack, while Kabuterimon tries a sneaky rear wedgie strike.

Neither are very effective.

Birdramon bounces pretty well though.
Unfortunately, she bounces into the Ferris Wheel.

Garurumon goes for a well placed web shooter...

which is blocked, so he tries some aerial manoeuvres...

that backfire spectacularly.

We skip most of the evolution's, but Palmon gets a turn because she missed out in the last sortie.
Matt makes a run for Tai to start an Omegamon evolution but stacks it hard.
The teamwork Angemon and Gatomon used last time has no effect here, and Togemon is thrown through a glass window, and onto an escalator.

Tai agrees he must fight, but gets bowled over before he can do anything. Matt - also bowled over - makes a grumpy "Well if *you* won't do anything.." speech. They bro hug and say a lot more through their eyes then I ever could on a blog. The rest of the team grit their teeth. The rest of the Digimon are shown knocked out or on a downer, apart from Gatomon who's probably buried in rubble or something. Mei - who had run outside screaming ~~"You'll never take me alive, coppers!"~~ "I'll never let you take Meichan!" decides the best way to do this is to stop running and look back at the giant Digimon, who will probably only need a few steps to catch up to her. What an idiot.

You best check yo'self before you wreck yo'self.

Tai reflects on the destruction he's witnessed, and flashes back to when he and Matt held hands a lot.

They share more intense looks, and then a nod.

Perhaps realising how little screen time is left, the main Digimon run through their evolution's off screen and attack once before moving onto the next one.

It's cool to see them again but I'm sooo glad they skipped the individual evolution's.

None of their attacks seem to be landing any solid blows though.

"It's probably just a strong breeze!"

Meanwhile, Mei shields Meicoomon from the blasts and decides that in the face of all this firepower, her absolute BEST move.... is to stay where she is. Mei, you are useless and full of snot.

Fortunately for her, Omegamon appears in a trail of Disney-esque magic and prepares for a cape showdown with Aphamon.

They have a pretty good standoff for a while, both capes blowing beautifully in the breeze.

Then Alphamon brings a spear out of butt freaking nowhere, and grows feathers and puts in the kind of contact lenses you buy at comic conventions to make it look like you're evil or have pink eye. Or evil pink eye.

They destroy a bunch of buildings,and then Omegamon seems to have Alphamon dead to rights when.. a) Tai has doubts, weakening Omegamon and b) Alphamon is like, I'm outta here guys! Have fun with the clean up!

Verdict

Okay, we're getting there. It's still really tough going but we seem to have solved for the most part Matt and Tai's beef. Mei feels like just the obligatory additional character you have to add when you remake a series (Evangelion) or make a new season/game (Persona) but it feels like her only personality traits are being stupid and awkward. I could watch any old high school anime if I wanted that! I came here to watch Digimon, damnit!

It's a good thing Alphamon buggered off because otherwise this could have been a very short reunion indeed. Jury still out on whether he's possessed/corrupted, or sent here as a Knight to fix an issue.

No-one even tries to talk to him. He doesn't seem evil, he could have easily squashed the kids at any time but most of his moves were defensive and once the kids were down, he turned his back on them.

Everyone is keeping quiet on both the damage to civilian property angle and also that of the 02 kids situation.

Gallery