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Mar 17, 2025
Coming right off of Adventure Tri, I did have high hopes for Last Evolution Kizuna, but ultimately I was underwhelmed by its reuse of previous plot elements along with its introduction of one of the most ridiculous new additions of its own.
The animation is pretty striking. They went with a lighter and more subtle art style. I think I still preferred Tri, however this was a nice change too.
I really appreciated the continued evolution of the world of the Adventure Universe. Regular people are familiar with Digimon, the Chosen team are minor celebrities and work to keep unruly Digimon who cross over in-check
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(don't worry about the property damage), Portals to the Digital World seem to be re-stabilized, and Koshiro has even created new forms of digivices that double as smartphones. Very smart indeed.
Taichi seems to have forgotten what he wanted to do with his life, for some reason. This strikes me as odd considering his teacher gave his life to save him and inspired him on the path of international deplomacy by the end of Tri, which I felt was quite powerful. At least Agumon was not portrayed as a dummy in this one (one of my problems with Tri).
Sora wanting to stay out of things is quite out of character for her. She has long been portrayed as "the mom" of the group. She's up in people's business, wants everyone to be good, and won't hesitate to fight in order to keep the people important to her safe if danger is afoot. But here we get a little episode saying she just wants to be regular and arrange her flowers, while her friends and comrades risk their lives for the sake of everyone else...
Other characters get their moments - Yamato and Koshiro stand out as pretty consistent with their forward trajectory whereas Taichi seems to regress from time to time for plot purposes.
On the downsides for this story, overall it felt very derivitive of Our War Games. I will give it credit for a decently interesting my story plot that was happening for the middle section of the movie, but it ultimately came back around to an Our War Games final confrontation, only with a downer ending. That leads me to...
The count-down to Digimon partnership ending is my biggest problem with this movie, in total honesty. At best its a contrived platitude that does not fit with the setting. At worst, it introduces serious logical issues with the rules of the Adventure Universe. Suddenly, the bond between partners can be broken? They can be forcibly separated? Why? Because of who? Which system controls this?
Gennai comes literally out of nowhere just to confirm for the movie's sake that, yeah, that happens when you run out of potential (what?), before leaving it on a hanging 'buuuuut.....'. We don't see Gennai again, so this was his only purpose. Man, I miss old man Gennai. Young Gennai is nothing but bad news.
We know from the Epilogue of 02 that Agumon and Taichi are reunited, so I don't know what the point of introducing this was, and why it only affected Taichi & Yamato, meanwhile Jo has had the disposition of a 40 yr old since he was a kid, Oikawa received his partner as a full adult in 02), and we know because of the next movie about the 02 cast that Hikari and Takeru were not affected either. The whole thing seems like a misguided plot point message about growing up that does not make sense in the breath of the rest of the series logic.
So ultimately... I just don't know about this one. Maybe better off forgotten?
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 17, 2025
This was put forward as a send-off for the 02 cast. The problem is that this movie is not about the 02 cast - it's about the brand new characters Lui & Ukkomon whom the 02 cast ran into completely by chance. None of 02's cast get personal arcs or meaningful developments (which is something at least Last Evolution Kizuna had). It was nice at least to see Daisuke, Takeru, & Hikari working in the jobs they'd end up with by the time the 02 epilogue rolls around, but I have to say it was pretty slim pickings overall.
Animations and music were well done,
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on par with other modern entries in the series.
Lui and Ukkomon have a pretty tender story that was a little interesting, but we get too little information on who or what Ukkomon is related to, nor where it fits in relation to Homeostasis or Yggdrasill. Megumi Ogata and Rie Kugimiya give great performances.
Retconning origins of Chosen Children and the relationship with their partners is something I take a very dim view of. Digimon adventure was very specific on the origins of the original team's Digimon and how they were made in a lab specifically for each child. Tri introduced many more elements that built off questions from the first two series and left room to build or expand - I don't think Ukkomon was it.
The fighting in this movie is quite contrived - really the problem was solved by talking, which is fine, but then they had to fight a bunch of tentacles because Ukkomon couldn't just stop, despite seemingly have the power to do everything else it wanted to do.
I gave it a pass here, but there was also no explanation on how they are able to Jogress - in 02 it is explicitly stated by Gennai that Jogress Evolution was being powered by Tailmon's holy ring, which is why he waited until the end of the series to return it, stating that Jogress would not be needed anymore now that the Digital World had been cleansed of the dark powers that inhibited evolution in that series. (I haven't seen Return of Diabolomon, so forgive me if that movie introduced reasoning for this).
Finally, the dissolution of digivices. How do you come back from this? They weren't just symbolic proof of a bond between human and Digimon as this movie tries to put forth - they are direct interface points with Digimon and the Digital World. They were just getting even more interesting as Koshiro was making adjustments to them. Well, good luck to Koshiro if he needs to download or restore data in the future, get in touch or be informed of new Chosen partners in the future for is database network, etc. etc. Kizuna was bad enough for introducing a ridiculous countdown clock for partnerships ending, but now I guess that's off the board. (Maybe that's for the better actually.) Still, I really don't know how you come back from this. Digivices have been an integral, load-bearing piece of the setting for the Adventure Universe and now without them... Where are we going? How will Digimon evolve? The animation sequences alone are in total limbo now. I suppose a determined writer could find a way, but they've sure made it difficult for themselves.
The cast have all entered adulthood now, there are plenty more possible stories to tell, the casts of both 01 and 02 are beloved - seems like they are shooting themselves in the foot right as they get to new story possibilities. I do hope there's more from the Adventure universe. I want some of those teases and threads from Adventure Tri to get picked up.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 9, 2025
I struggled to get through this one, honestly. While I love the premise, the execution struggles to rise above mediocrity. Not surprisingly the final arc is interesting, getting there was quite the chore. The plot plods along at a leisurely pace and it was a little hard to get excited episode to episode.
Character designs are pretty NPC-looking, even for the main characters. The mecha overall is pretty well designed, though I never warmed up to the titular Galient. Animations and encounters lack intensity and emotional content. Very often things could feel ploddy or boring. The music was also extremely forgettable outside the OP/ED themes.
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It tries to set itself as a serial series (like Giant Gorg) but the places it chooses to end episodes are so strange and narratively off putting most of the time.
Overall, cannot see myself ever wishing to go back and rewatch this one. This series did have three OVAs (two condense the plot of the show into two parts - haven't watched them, but maybe it would feel better edited down). The third OVA is a reimaginging of the series story - I would recommend checking that one out. It fixed a lot of my problems with the series, it's only follow is its only an hour and change, so not enough time to really dig into things. Execution-wise it blows the series out of the park.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 3, 2025
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought the English re-edit of this move as part of Digimon The Movie would have made the content of this movie MORE understandable.
The art design is stellar and the animation top notch. Where this loses me completely are in the music and the story.
Throughout the movie we are treated to a bizarre mix of jazz Noir and very offbeat country music. This isn't a bad thing in concept but in execution. The music never changes to match the feeling or content of the scene. It drones on without a care. It would be a little impressive if
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it wasn't so damaging to the experience. I think the only movie specific song that works is the end credits.
As for the story, I'll just say we never actually get any idea what the root cause of the conflict is in this. In the Digimon Movie, they at least linked it into a computer virus who refused to die, but in this original version we get nothing of the sort. It's clear /something/ was the cause...
The movie plods along at a sleepy pace, and other than Wallace, none of the characters even know where they're going or what they're going to do. It's very strange an unfulfilling, contrasting with now nice it looks. Overall, this is a far cry from Our War Games.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 20, 2025
I started out with quite high hopes for this anime. I have a great passion for Japanese history - particularly for the Sengoku period, have enjoyed many of Kawamori's projects, and indeed my favorite anime, Vision of Escaflowne seemed to share a lot of DNA with Nobunaga the Fool. Unfortunately my hopes were not ultimately upheld due to pacing and a lack of character drive and presence.
It feels like the show needed much more time to let things breathe and move naturally. Things happen too fast, and important elements are frequently glossed over - things like why is this army attacking/retreating, did they just
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kill this enemy General or not? Especially by the end, I was feeling like a lot of stuff was half-baked.
Similarly - and most importantly in a mecha drama - character relationships are not given the time they need to grow and become meaningful. By the end we were making some pretty big jumps and I was rolling my eyes waiting for it to wrap things.
I will say, the setting is a very enjoyable mix of history and fantasy. If you are familiar with sengoku history you'll be able to appreciate how they've adapted it and how they've deviated from historical record and how the presence of these other historical characters throw a wrench into things (even if most are ultimately rather milquetoast).
The designs are nice, both character and mecha, though the animations can be hit or miss. Sometimes it's great and kinetic, sometimes it's really hard to follow and things just seem to reach an endpoint with missing steps inbetween.
Music is quite good when it kicks in.
Overall I daresay it would've been a good contender for a 50-episode show - I wouldn't say no if they decided to do a 50 ep remake, if such a thing existed in the anime industry anymore. Alas.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 13, 2024
While I found the first two MSG compilation movies nearly unwatchable for their pacing and cutting of the heart of the show I love so very much, Encounters in Space offers some appreciated extra bits for the ending of the story, well worth experiencing even as a series diehard.
The touched up animations, frames, and new scenes to either expand on pre-existing scenes or compensate for cut elements elsewhere are all great, and particularly with the Zeon scenes you get the sense a lot of them would have been in the show if it was not cut short.
The recent watch I did of this
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movie followed right after I had just finished rewatching the series. I was interested, 'could this movie work as an improved final arc from the show'? The last episodes of MSG are a whirlwind of excitement but you can see cracks in the paint here and there.
While there are improvements to most of the action scenes, we see the grunt suits of each faction putting up more of a fight, I still feel there are too many narrative compromises for the overall character journeys for pretty much all characters other than Char; he maintained nearly all his scenes and even got some extras from the show. I will say this is undoubtedly the best of the three compilations and can function as an actual movie, whereas the other two did not feel so. There are some absolutely gorgeous moments for sure, but most of these moments are also from the show only having what would appear to the casual viewer as minor touchups or music differences.
This being said, I cannot say anyone should skip the Series version, or even skip just the last 10 episodes or so in favor of this film, it is still well worth experiencing as a cherry on top of the OG MSG cake, but it's still missing many of the spices and flavours that made the original characters so endearing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 10, 2024
A welcome surprise - the fact that this movie is here at all is a great delight.
It looks great while still keeping the style of the original show. The sound mix is very nice, and gives the space battles a sense of impact. This movie resolves the series and provides an ending, which is most important, in my opinion.
Now, my praises aside, things are not perfect. There is a 10 year time skip from the end of the second season, however this 10 years appears to have no impact on anyone. There are some new cadets, new machines, but character relationships seem to have stagnated.
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There seems to be no reason this had to be 10 years later, they could have gotten away with 2 years, probably.
What's more, the show had some very interesting character relationships, not the least of which was the Hoshijiro, Izana, Tsumugi, Yuhata love square around Tanikaze. Unfortunately, this is dropped or streamlined immediately and characters just lock themselves into their apparently final pairings. Some of the final pairings seem to come straight out of left field. Several mysteries are dropped or given a quick explanation to resolve them. Certain big things are not really explored, like "what are the Gauna". And the ending feels quite abrupt, when all's said and done.
I attributed this to perhaps necessity of fitting everything into a single movie rather than another full season of a show, but as I understand, the manga was this way as well, so I guess it isn't a fault of the movie. Ultimately it does give off the feeling of a writer being tired of his story and just wanting to wrap it up.
All in all though, its a fine movie and if you enjoyed the show that came before it, it's a no brainer. Watch it. It's fun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 10, 2024
Nice little show, though it feels like it had enough steam to go at least for a 25 episode run, if not a full 50. I don't know why it wasn't longer... Amazingly, it does manage to wrap the story up well enough in a two-parter which is quite impressive. I wish there were more, though, and as a result there isn't as much to dig into and love as there might have been if it were longer.
It is very competent in just about everything it tries, though it does not break new ground anywhere really. If you've ever enjoyed a Sunrise mecha anime
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in the past, you'll likely enjoy this one too.
The Japanese performances are excellent as you'd expect, the music is good - especially the opening theme. The strongest element in this show for me was the character designs. There's something about them I find really appealing, something like a cross between Cross Ange and Eureka 7.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 9, 2024
Not amazing, and that's me being generous. Supposedly set two years after the fight with Gargoyle, this is the story of a Neo-Atlantis remnant group trying to start a world war, with Nadia getting caught up in it by coincidence.
The animation quality is worse than the main series, but better than the worst of the Island Arc. It comes off as a direct-to-video sequel to a highly polished animated feature film.
Roughly 30 minutes at the beginning of this movie is filler/clips from the plot of the TV series. I guess budget constraints did not allow for them to actually animate 1.5 hours of new material...
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It would explain the animation quality too.
Many characters are missing without explanation. Of the main cast, King & Marie are never mentioned or referred to, nor any surviving members of the Nautilus (you'd think at least some of them might be interested in stopping Neo-Atlantis remnants). Of the returning characters, Jean and Nadia are more or less in-tact (though Nadia has decided to live apart from Jean until she can support herself - kind of weak motivation, but it's something). The real problem I had was with the Gratan gang who acted like it was episode 1-5 of the original show; completely out of character for what they evolved into over the course of the original show. It left a very bad taste in my mouth.
Actors do an okay job, but there isn't much to work with. The villain is trite and forgettable (yet has the gall to call Gargoyle the loser...). Shuichi Ikeda (best known as the voice of Char Aznable) shows up in a bit part. I'm not sure if it's because he's very expensive to hire, or what because he rarely seems to show up in anything for any large roles outside of Gundam... I'd say it's a shame, more of him might have improved the movie, but then again I don't think there was enough substance to do anything with.
Overall, this movie isn't worth the time it takes to sit through. The original show ending is a far superior conclusion and you shouldn't bother muddying the waters with this. I'll just pretend it does not exist...
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 10, 2024
As far as anime movie continuations to a full series (yeah, I know this is supposed to follow the movie versions of Code Geass, but come on now...) I was both impressed and surprised at how much I enjoyed it. While not a perfect continuation - there simply isnt time to address all the aspects you might be interested in with the rest of the plot happening - the amount of history that was addressed was great.
The plot may be confusing to some at first, deals heavily with C's World and the repercussions of actions taken in the series, but on re-watches I felt it
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is more manageable. The antagonists are interesting and the challenge to the main characters is significant. Many of the included characters get their moments to shine. Highly recommended for the fans of Code Geass.
As for the TV Series vs Movie Trilogy - I will just say Shirley has less than 2 minutes of screen time and might as well be dead with her role in the plot in this movie given to Jerimiah. As such, this more or less works as a fine continuation to the series if you finish it and want more Code Geass. I also recommend you check out some of the Japanese Audio Drama CDs which have been fan-translated online.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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