Digimon Adventure Tri: The Movie – Part 3 collects all the Digimon Adventure Tri episodes from the Confession segment of the series.
Confession is the mid-point for the series, and it shows. Much of the run time is devoted to dealing with the fallout of the way that Part 2: Determination and setting up the situation that the DigiDestined will find themselves in Part 4: Lost.
This highlights the most frustrating aspect of Digimon Adventure Tri so far: its pacing. Individually each part so far has had a reason to focus largely on the human drama of the characters, but as a whole the result is a Digimon series that doesn’t seem particularly focused on Digimon at times. This problem is particularly true of Part 3: Confession. Despite the movie ostensibly being about them, the digimon barely feature in this movie. This does not mean that this movie is lacking in action. The action scene it does get is fast paced, and well animated. There continues to be not set music for digivolutions in this series. This means that the transformations always fit the mood of the scene in which they take place.
To its credit, Part 3 does have make up for its flaws with some strong characterisation. For a long time, this iteration of Digimon has managed to be almost entirely free of genuine, negative consequence. This movie provides a welcome change to that.
The titular confession most likely refers to the problem faced by T.K. and the way that he deals with it. T.K.’s dilemma is a sympathetic one, and it exemplifies how well Digimon Adventure Tri succeeds in terms of its emotional stakes.
Furthermore, as frustrating as it is that the plot has not progressed further by this point, it does progress over the course of the movie. The problems in pacing come from the structure of each movie. Each part of Digimon Adventure Tri has the same number of episodes, and this part in particular really did not the run time it got in order to tell its story.
Each part of this series has had a little something extra when it comes to special features, and part 3 is no different. This time the special feature on offer is a recording of a Digimon Q&A panel from Anime Expo 2017. The cast of Digimon Adventure Tri are in their element for this panel. Everyone involved seems to be having a blast talking about their experiences working with the franchise, and what working on Digimon means to them.
Digimon Adventure Tri – The Movie – Part 3 takes some time to focus on questions raised by the series so far, and to show the emotional impact of its events on the main characters. If long-time fans can look past the pacing issues they will be rewarded with a worthy addition to the long running franchise. When this is combined with the energetic, heartfelt Q&A the result is an installment that is worth checking out.
Extras: Anime Expo 2017 Premiere Panel
DIGIMON ADVENTURE TRI: THE MOVIE- PART 3 / CERT: PG / DIRECTORS & SCREENPLAY: WRITERS: VARIOUS / STARRING: JOSHUA SETH, VIC MIGNOGNA, COLLEEN O’SHAUGHNESSEY, MONA MARSHALL, PHILECE SAMPLER, ROBBIE DAYMOND, JOHHNY YONG BOSCH, TARA SANDS, CRISTINA VEE / RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 26TH
