Astinus

Stop watching? Heck no, I'm committed now. Especially now that you tell me all that insane stuff I had totally forgotten about Michael and his family I have to keep watching.

I think that's exactly why they gave Miyako Love and Purity, and to that, I shrug. For what it's worth, Miyako is outspoken, assertive, and self-driven in a way that flies in the face of the traditional Japanese feminine ideal, so I'm inclined to give the writers a pass for some lingering biases in how they write girls. I wish they'd thought a little harder about what the crests really mean and why their first instinct might be to give the new girl the old girls' crests, but at least they were trying (probably).

As for what Purity means for a Chosen Child in particular, I have some thoughts on this but they hinge on episodes yet to come and I want to rewatch them first to make sure I'm remembering right.

Saw you like'd my plot bunny. :) I'm trying to outline it right now. Really, really want to get it right if I go through with it.

It is with deep regret that I come to inform you that after episode 13 Digimon Adventure 02 immediately returns to being stupid. :(

Episode 14:

This episode contains the most glaring plot hole so far, which is why didn't the new Chosen Children remember about Digimon from the global disaster three years prior? Miyako even knew Diablomon's name! (Despite being a plot-hole this is also good detail-work as we first saw Miyako in Our War Game.) All that dumbness aside, the main event is Miyako getting the Digimental of Purity. This is a weird case where the dub writing honestly made more sense: Miyako got the Digimental by being sincere about an unflattering truth about herself (she doesn't trust ugly-looking folks). I guess the moral here is that sometimes Purity makes you shallow? This episode isn't making me rethink my stance that Purity and Knowledge should have been swapped between Miyako and Iori.

A few more little things: seeing Digitamamon getting shuriken'd in the eyes made me squirm. It looked way more brutal than it actually was considering Digitamamon is made of space or something? As for Michael, I'm always amused to see depictions of Americans in Japanese media. It's really something that Mimi's friends with a an American middle-schooler who can carry $87+ in cash with him and speaks fluent Japanese (I was wondering for a second if he might have Japanese parents and is just drawn like any other anime character, but his combination of name, hair, and eye color suggests he's probably supposed to be white. Analyzing ethnicity in children's anime character design is serious business). It would have been a truly inspired touch if Betamon said "digivolves to" instead of "shinka," call it a missed opportunity. Also, Digitamamon's attack should have at least broken Mimi's ribs.

Cheers, Astinus! And yay, SA emote.

I have lots of positive words to say about Lost Boys, so I'll want some time to consolidate my thoughts on it.

And huh, I didn't realize it'd been that long since I watched an episode. Card can wait; I have a lot of words to say about the Dark Ocean, too.

Episode 13:

There is so much going on in this episode that it's utterly baffling how little it has to do with the rest of the show. I'd forgotten all about the stuff with Hikari's hangups over Taichi: she feels helpless without him, and subconsciously feels that she's a disappointment to him (see also in Adventure when she apologizes to him after falling ill when she's like four). Correspondingly, there's Takeru's frustration with the fact that she's so emotionally dependent on her brother--as opposed to on him, which possibly introduces an unrequited-love angle to their relationship. To my knowledge none of this character development ever comes back. Then there's the Dark Ocean itself. Where is it? What is it? Why is it? I seem to remember that later the Dark Ocean is shown to be what corrupts Ken's digivice, but going by this episode Ken and his Digivice would seem to be foreign to the Dark Ocean, which is controlled by Dagomon. Speaking of Dagomon, what are his followers if they're not Digimon? Also, they want to mate with Hikari so that their offspring can defeat the "new god" Ken, which is the creepiest damn idea in all of Digimon, including Tamers.

The most frustrating thing about all this is that this episode is basically a blueprint for what they could and should have done with Hikari's character (so what follows is less canon and more my understanding of her character as extrapolated from this episode). Hikari is a medium, which makes her the most suitable for the nebulous and supernatural Crest of Light; but in this episode there's a flip-side to that. Her closeness to the world of Light also makes her closer to the world of Darkness, perhaps even more so than Ken is. In these sorts of stories it's never the middling, gray-toned characters who are in the most danger of becoming corrupted and powerfully evil; it's always the purest, brightest ones. This idea runs particularly deep in Western culture, where demons are commonly understood to be fallen angels. To someone like Hikari the choice between good and evil is tangible rather than abstract, and the sensation of the two sides spiritually and physically pulling her is frightening. And perhaps the new pull from Dagomon--which is similar to but distinct from the pull from the more conventional evils--is where it all starts to be too much for her. Perhaps the pull from the good side is starting to feel just as nauseating as the pull from the bad (see the negative feelings she has regarding Taichi and Takeru in this episode). Will Hikari ever truly be her own person, free from visions/being possessed/impossible expectations, or is this her fate? There's a mountain of potential here, and from what I remember they totally squander it and Hikari goes back to being a boring Mary Sue with episode 14.

I haven't even mentioned yet how tense and atmospheric this episode is compared to what came before it. Why oh why couldn't Chiaki J. Konaka have been involved with more episodes of 02 beyond this one? Just contrast this with the episode that immediately precedes it and think about what might have been. In some universe the final antagonist of 02 was the Cthulhu-stand-in Dagomon, or God-forbid Dagomon's Ultimate-level form. Now there's an apocalyptic showdown I'd be interested in seeing.

tl;dr: This is the most interesting and probably the best episode of 02. Only 37 more episodes until Konaka returns to save Digimon from itself! :D

Episode 12:

This is the wild west one. It's certainly not good, but it manages at least to be weird. There's absolutely nothing to say character- or plot-wise, so I'll just highlight some of its weirdness: 1) The animation is even cheaper and jankier than usual, but they still try for some visual humor, like Miyako and Iori sneaking into school with Poromon and Upamon stuck under their shirts (because looking like pregnant elementary schoolers is way less conspicuous than looking like they have stuffed animals). 2) Fox Kids was probably immensely relieved that for once the obvious replacement of milk for beer was present in the original Japanese cut. 3) A lot of the music is wild-west-style, and I think it was only used in this episode which would be a head-scratching use of budget for such a cheap show. 4) Episode 11's preview for this episode is cropped wide-screen to look more like an actual Spaghetti Western (Ramen Western? *gets shot*), but the episode itself is full-screen, which makes me wonder if they wanted to air it cropped but the idea got axed.

tl;dr: It's filler. Yawn.

No worries re: disappearance--you've got to put life first. And I'm hardly one to complain about people disappearing suddenly. >_>

Btw, I think I'll resume my rewatch of 02 next week. This week I'm trying to slap together a draft for the collaboration thing with Art & Design since apparently they're short on stories and needed to extend the deadline.

Hey thanks, you're a champ! :D Looking forward to your thoughts.

I am actually going to miss you. End of Asty is truly end of an era.

So I'm awful with keeping up with leaving threads these days, but I wanted to say something. I don't think we've ever spoken outside of staff chats and the like, maybe not even there. Still, I had mad respect for you as a staff member, both back when I was a moderator in the day, and after you were promoted. I feel like this is an era change, and I just wanted you to know you'll be missed perhaps more than you know. ]:

Episode 11:

This is the Lighdramon episode, and by golly is it dumb. There's a coherent idea or two in there, but everything's so clumsy in execution, starting with Taichi and Yamato being all "let 'em fight!" and claiming that their old fights were what made them friends. Were they even watching their own show? Those fights between them were an obstacle and they nearly got everyone killed. The fights were a manifestation of their competing egos, and it wasn't the fights themselves that resulted in a reduction of those egos. I get the impression that this episode was written by someone who didn't pay much attention to Adventure. Here's what they handled okay: A deficiency in Courage made Fladramon degenerate, and an expression of Friendship made Lighdramon strong enough to destroy the Evil Spiral. The bigger problem is how muddled the buildup to that is. The situation is that Daisuke doesn't want to fight MetalGreymon because he's worried about hurting him, and the writers have to somehow bend that into being the result of Daisuke lacking Friendship. To do this they try to make it look like the issue is that Daisuke's unwilling to put himself in harm's way, and it doesn't work at all. In the end the moment where Daisuke awakens the Digimental feels more like they wrote themselves into a corner than it does that Daisuke actually changed in some way to awaken it. I remember scratching my head when I was seven years old at this episode, and now I understand why.

Episode 10:

This is the first one with MetalGreymon, and a lot of little things felt off to me. It's not a big deal, but there's this one bit where Daisuke practically body-checks Hikari just so he can talk to Taichi face-to-face. More importantly, the subplot with Miyako staying behind wasn't handled well at all. The idea's a good one, which is that she's disturbed by how there's suddenly so much more at stake, but then it's resolved in ten seconds with no real impetus for it, and in the end we find out that they probably only staged it this way so that Yamato could arrive later than everyone else. This raises the question: why not have Yamato there from the beginning? That way he can challenge Taichi about holding back against MetalGreymon during the fight, and then when he punches him after the fact it will have more impact; both for the punch itself and for when Taichi admits Yamato's right. Also, I believe this is the first moral correction in 02 that's delivered via a strike to the face. I'm going to keep score since I recall this happens in 02 a lot: 1.

I'm just going to put this picture of old-school Nats Ted Williams and Curt Flood staring disapprovingly at you:

Episode 9:

Now we're talking. This is the episode where Ken decides to run away to the Digital World permanently, captures Greymon, and mistakenly evolves him to SkullGreymon. Lot of great touches in this one, like how Ken nonchalantly dusts off his shirt after the interviewer who touched him there leaves. (Unrelated: Ken gives astoundingly boring interviews.) Ken's veiled but vicious contempt for people he sees as beneath him--"insects"--ties in well with his persona as the Digimon Kaiser. He's moved from a world where he is superior but powerless (isn't even allowed to skip a grade) to one where he is superior and reigns supreme. There may be some modern allegory in a talented but disaffected youth who withdraws to a "video game" to live out a Nietzschean power fantasy. Worst part of the episode is the fight with the Meramon which inexplicably occupies the space where they should have shown Greymon resisting capture. It doesn't help that it's one of the most anemic and lame fights I've seen in the whole franchise. Skullgreymon makes up for it, though.

EDIT: Ken's note to his parents literally sent a chill up my spine. It reads as much like a suicide note as a running-away-from-home note.

Episode 8:

Sports! Every shounen action anime could use more sports. In seriousness, the writers did well in how they handled Daisuke's attitude towards Ken and soccer in this episode. The obvious thing would be to have Daisuke talk a really big game and then everyone laughs at him and he gets pissy about it (it's so obvious that it's closer to what the dub did). Instead, Daisuke's shown as a real competitor but one who has enough respect for the game to know when he's up against competition that utterly outclasses him. My picture of Daisuke is still shaped so strongly by the dub that it surprised me to learn that he sees the game as being bigger than just himself; hence admiration of the prodigy instead of anger at him. It's nice to have a look at his character beyond "Daisuke is an arrogant, hotheaded tool with an embarrassingly obvious crush." Good episode. Big plus: the shot where Ken is momentarily taken off guard at the sight of the other Chosen Children at the game. Big minus: no-budget soccer animation.

Speaking of sports, I won't be able to watch an episode on Friday because the Washington Nationals are in the playoffs and I've got a ticket! ^^

I can't say I'm looking forward to Digimon Universe, but I'll get to at least the first episode sooner than later.

Episode 7:

This is the one with Andromon, and I think it's a marginal improvement over the last few episodes if only because trapping Hikari in the city tweaks the formula a little and almost makes things tense (key word almost). I imagine this episode is pretty gag-inducing to someone who can't stand Hikari, as this is the first instance of her nebulous Light-powers coming into play in 02. The trouble with a character like Hikari is that while the other characters are defined by virtues/human qualities, Hikari is defined by something supernatural/mystical/spiritual. And because they don't really explore the supernatural side of her (only occasionally exploit it), what we're left with is someone generically virtuous, prone to facilitating Deus Ex Machina, and ultimately Sue-ish. She doesn't really bug me so much as make me wish they'd done a better job with her, as I generally like the pseudo-spiritual good-vs-evil aspect of Adventure/02. You can bet I'll have more to say about Hikari when the Dark Ocean episode rolls in (can't wait!).

Episode 6:

Just like last episode was "Isn't Iori kind of like Jou?", this episode is "Isn't Miyako kind of like Mimi?" Not much to say there, IMO. It was occasionally pretty funny, so I put it above the last episode, but the combination of formula and low stakes is really making the show drag. They go through the gate, they take down a tower, they come back, tune in next week. It's a cliched complaint about the first arc of 02 but I think it's valid. One positive thing I want to mention is that the Digimon Kaiser's transition from being amused at his enemies to irritated with them has been mostly smooth and convincing.

Lol, I almost wrote that Iori should have gotten Purity and Miyako should have gotten Knowledge, but I was thinking I'd wait a few episodes to see how well Purity fits Miyako.

I think the blogger's explanation is a stretch. The search for inner truth I would call the pursuit of Wisdom rather than Knowledge. Also, the post sets up a false choice. The assumption that Iori would get Love if not Knowledge is peculiar. My first guess for a reassignment would be Love/Knowledge for Miyako and Sincerity/Purity for Iori. I don't think you'd have to swap their partners in that case; you'd instead have to think up 2 different evolved forms out of 4 for them. Basically, I wouldn't say these characters need a "switch" so much as a comprehensive rewrite of their arcs. It's definitely not a quick fix, but that's what happens when you have a fundamentally flawed story, heh. :P

Episode 5:

This is the first 02 episode that I straight-up don't like. The formula is starting to get repetitive, and that whole "Iori is kind of like Koushiro plus Jou!" exchange was so on-the-nose it was embarrassing. The weird thing is that so far there's been so little about his character that makes me think "Crest of Knowledge," unlike "Crest of Sincerity." Pretty much all of his characterization has been about his strict personal code, not his curiosity or intellect. Unrelated, why'd they build a sled? They didn't look so far away that they couldn't just fly to the tower from the beginning.

(Btw, I'm posting the last chapter of my Digimon fic a week from now. Still no comments, not even on FFNet. >_< )

(I've decided I'm not going to restrict myself to two sentences when I have more to say about an episode--as that just results in really tortured sentence structure--but this will still be pretty short.)

Episode 4:

The open contempt that Daisuke and Jun show for each other stands in stark contrast to the other sibling relationships in Digimon (like Taichi/Hikari, Yamato/Takeru), and it reminds me much more of the relationship I had with my siblings when I was Daisuke's age. What especially hit home was how confused and upset the closer siblings get when they see Daisuke's feelings toward Jun. Takeru of course played it cool like he does about everything (perhaps because he heard Jun badmouth Daisuke as well), but Yamato and Hikari really went off on him. Daisuke may have an attitude problem, but I think Hikari in particular was being a little pre-judgmental (she "hates" people like that) whether the writers wanted her to come across that way or not.

You got it! I've always run out of steam whenever I've tried to rewatch 02, but this should help me stay focused.

I put my thoughts on Confession in the thread (which I get the impression tends to be dominated by those two guys arguing ad nauseum about canon minutiae...). Definitely my favorite of the Tri movies so far. What'd you think?

Episode 3:

This episode has literal puppy-kicking, and I would deduct points for a lack of subtlety if it didn't segue nicely to the scene with Ken's one-spectator-animal-cruelty-coliseum (speaking purely from a stadium-design-geek standpoint, it's an interesting contrast to have a coliseum that's designed to please the emperor rather than placate the masses). I remember thinking that Nefertimon and Pegasmon were way less cool than Angewomon and Angemon, and I remembered correctly--heck, they pale in comparison to Fladramon and their attacks are visually uninspired IMO.