It’s safe to say that, over its multiple year run, Digimon Adventure Tri has set a pretty high bar for itself. What could have so easily been a simple nostalgic cash-in has instead been a deep and meaningful story, detailing how exactly our child heroes grew up and what what obstacles each of them had to overcome to do so.
The final film in the series, Future, ties it all together as the worlds of innocent child and jaded adult clash within our heroes one final time–even as their Digimon battle for the fate of the world.
Future begins directly after the previous films cliffhanger ending. Tai, finally coming to peace with the idea that happy endings for everyone rarely come to pass, sacrifices himself to save Matt and Meiko. Much of Future’s plot is spent focusing on the ramifications of this action.
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Matt finds himself thrust into the position of leader. After constantly fighting Tai about his obsession with the moral and ethical repercussions of their actions, he suddenly is forced to deal with the same crushing responsibility that Tai has been over the course of the series.
The expected route of such a story is for Matt to struggle with his new position, and in the process, come to understand the internal dilemma that plagued Tai for much of the series. However, this isn’t what happens. Instead, Matt shoulders the responsibility flawlessly.
Picking up just where Tai’s character arc left off, Matt chooses to blaze his own path: neither the stagnant harmony of Homeostasis nor the destructive rebirth of King Drasil. As the other’s break down one by one, he is the one that keeps the group focused on saving the world. And this isn’t through rousing speeches, it’s by simply leading by action. He doesn’t back down or give up. He is a rock standing against a storm.
Of course, this isn’t to say he isn’t struggling on the inside. After all, he, just like all the others is dealing with the death of his best friend. In private with Gabumon, he can reveal that vulnerability. But to everyone else, he has decided to become the unflappable leader he idealized Tai to be.
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Unfortunately, others aren’t handling the situation nearly as well–namely Kari. Kari is simply devastated. Not only has she lost her brother, but due to her grief immediately following that, has lost Gatomon as well. In her mind, her brother has been a nearly invincible, unshakable presence. With him gone along with her Digimon support, the stress is too much for her.
As responsible as she is, especially compared to her brother, it’s easy to forget that she (along with T.K.) is much younger than the rest of the DigiDestined. In Tri, they are both still middle schoolers while the rest are in high school.
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Over the series, each of the older DigiDestined has been forced to grow up in some way. Tai learns about necessary sacrifice; Matt comes to understand leadership; Joe learns to pave his own future; Mimi discovers that intentions matter less than actions; Sora learns that selflessness needs limits; and Izzy finds that there are some problems even his massive intelligence can’t solve. Even young T.K. is forced to learn the hard lesson that all the hope in the world doesn’t mean that things will work out.
So logically, you’d think that this would be the time for Kari to grow up, too. You’d expect that, as her crest is “light,” she’d overcome the darkness inside of her caused by her brother’s loss and resolve to fight on, even without her Digimon.
However, this isn’t what happens. Instead she has a deus ex machina vision that is the key to winning. In the end, she gets her brother back, her Digimon back, and is given the key to restoring all their Digimon’s lost memories.
This works solely because of the thematic core of the film: the dichotomy of children and adults–and how we craft stories about each.
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As children, the DigiDestined saved the world though nothing but the drive to not give up. Their childhood innocence granted them a clarity of vision that let them press on to the end.
Then, there is the more metatextual angle. In a show starring kids and aimed at kids–like the original Digimon–we get a sense as the children fight on that they deserve to win and get their happy ending–and so they do. But as we’ve seen in Tri, the rest of the DigiDestined have lost this childhood clarity and thus they are treated as adults in an adult story–i.e., they exist in a story aimed at adults where bad things happen and no happy ending is guaranteed.
Kari, unlike the rest of the main cast, however, is still a kid. And because of that, the story still treats her like a child in a work aimed at kids. She alone is still able to draw out the happy ending the others have given up on as they stepped into adulthood. In a children’s story, her brother suddenly dying seems impossible–so he is found alive. Likewise, the tragedy of losing both Gatomon and all the partner Digimon’s memories is also too dark for her tale–so both are returned.
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The real climax of the film is not the final battle between Digimon, it’s when her brother announces that it’s his intention to kill Meicoomon. His pragmatic adult viewpoint sees that as the minimum sacrifice needed to save the world. He has come to believe that some losses can’t be prevented, no matter how much he wants them to be. Of course to Kari, this is an unforgivable choice–directly clashing with her innocent (and recently rewarded) view of the world. What we’re witnessing is the light of childhood optimism shining against the pessimistic adult world.
In a story fully aimed at children, Kari would be right and her view would triumph. But Tri, as a whole, is about the DigiDestined growing up and entering the world of adults. Outside of Kari, Tri is an adult story. Tai, just like any of us, can’t re-enter the realm of childhood innocence–but he can appreciate it and strive to protect it.
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And in the end, Tai does what any good adult would do: he makes a painful sacrifice himself–taking full responsibility for the dark choice of killing Meicoomon and thus allowing his sister to continue living in the sheltered world of children just a little longer. With this scene, Tri shows that while we all have to grow up, the purity of childhood still deserves to be protected–even if the world itself is not as perfect as children see it.
And honestly, that’s a damn good moral to wrap up on.
Digimon Adventure Tri: Future was released in Japanese theaters on May 5, 2018. It can be viewed with English subtitles in the US at Crunchyroll.
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