This is a recap of all six Digimon Adventure tri. movies, since I felt it would be impractical and difficult to go through every issue brought up on a separate post rather than just pointing them out throughout the entire thing.
Please note that this is a personal review, done entirely for vent purposes as someone who’s spent too much time with this franchise to be able to accept this kind of thing lying down. It’s not here to attempt persuading anyone of anything, and if reading this is bringing up a particular amount of negative feelings I ask you to please stop reading (and go off and consider me an idiot, if you want, too).
Transcripts and quotations are largely derived from translations by Ryuu-Rogue (Adventure), PositronCannon (02), Crunchyroll and Shout! Factory (tri.), and L Subs (stage play), although some modifications may be made to smooth over differences in terminology translations between them, as well as to clarify some mistakes/unclear wording in the CR/S!F translations.
This document serves as an organized compilation of discussions that were held over several months with multiple people, and should not be taken as the sole opinions of one person.
Bonus for compare/contrast: The stage play, and how it avoided all of these problems
Color key
- Red: Canon contradiction. Direct contradiction with canon fact, established timeline event, or lore point from the original Adventure or 02 anime. (For the sake of fairness, this will mostly be limited only to the actual anime episodes, and things relevant to the drama CDs, novel, movies, etc. will be considered relevant only if tri. itself forces it to be relevant, or if said extracanonical material bolsters an existing anime point further.)
- Pink: Vague, unfocused, or conspicuously inaccurate depiction of canon concept. Basically a “lighter” version of the above, where the contradiction is not as “clear”, but something relevant to Adventure or 02 is suspiciously glossed over in relative importance, has too uncomfortably vague of a reference, is omitted when it has glaring relevance to the current situation, or has misinterpreted context to the extent that it seems odd to make this kind of mistake without some serious lack of awareness of what went on in canon.
- Orange: Character assassination. Character development backpedal/severe misinterpretation of character beyond reasonable expectations from observing them in Adventure or 02; distortion of relationship between characters as established by Adventure or 02; contradictory portrayal of core personality or behavior compared to Adventure or 02; severe flanderization/reduction of core character aspects to a shadow of their original self in Adventure or 02; destruction of character integrity for the sake of pandering to anime tropes or unwarranted humor.
- Green: Self-contradiction. Event outright contradicts prior logic or facts established earlier in this very series.
- Purple: Other writing problems. General miscellaneous issues with writing that don't have to do with prior series' canon (suspiciously convenient setup, plot point never followed up on, thematic inconsistency, obviously forced drama, pointlessly introduced plotline).