（原文标题是Digimon— My Childhood. My Presence. My future 发在Medium上，这里是复制粘贴过来，有兴趣的话可以看看，文笔不好，轻喷。)
It was 1 a.m., May 5, a post Friday night as usual. I never went to sleep earlier than 2 or 3 a.m. on a post Friday night. Accidentally, I checked the calendar and realized that the final chapter of Digimon Adventure Tri. had been released. I had long been waiting for this final chapter to come out, but in the end, my first thought after finishing it was “What a disappointing ending chapter!”
I always remember that when I was a kid, I used to watch Digimon Adventure right in front of TV when it was first released. It was almost 15 years ago. I remember that summer, how the seven DigiDestined fall into a brand new world and start their adventurous journey (no wonder it is called Digimon Adventure) with their partners respectively, and later, one more DigiDestined joins the big family.
I always remember how thrilled I was when I first saw Agumon digivolve to Greymon, how anxious I was when it dark-digivolves to Skullgreymon, how relieved I was when Greymon finally ultimate-digivolves to Metalgreymon, and how emotional and galvanized when Agumon first warp-digivolves to Wargreymon — one of my two favorite digimons (the other, of course being Omegamon). I like Taichi so much, simply because he is the captain of the team and he always leads his team to overcome adversity. He is the kind of guy that you know would always come back no matter what kind of trouble he is facing. I admire Taichi’s crest of courage. And it was his crest of courage that encouraged me to confess my low test scores to my mom every time back then. God knows how much courage I needed to hand out the exam paper instead of lying about my score which was too horrible to even look at.
On the other side, I hated Yamato because he is being the“rebellious” bitch in the team and always seeks trouble for his friends instead of solutions to solve the problem, especially during the episodes where they fight against Pinochimon. This is what I thought when I was a kid. Ironically, as I grow up, I gradually become the self that I used to hate, the “anti-social”and “obnoxious” guy who always does not fit in the group. I also hated Mimi because she is nothing but useless, crying and capricious. I used to question how she deserves that crest of sincerity. Is it because she never hides her flaws as being so-called “sincere?” Nevertheless, the most touching scene to me is the end of the last episode of Digimon Adventure, when the train is leaving, Palmon waves to the kids, and is tripped, Mimi’s cowgirl hat flies, and it is at that moment where Butter-fly comes in and ignites all my emotions again. I cried years later when I rewatched that part.
No existent words or phrases could precisely depict my feeling for Digimon and how it has shaped my perception since I was a kid. I have never seen a stronger bond than the ones between the digimons and the kids — how they trust each other and how they would turn their back against the world for each other. I have never seen a stronger faith in them to believe in future even after they and their partners are erased from the digiworld. I have seen the responsibility that comes from an older brother to protect his younger sister, the responsibilty that everybody is willing to go back to the digiworld again at such a young age to save the world. I ask myself if I were one of them at their age, would I be courageous enough to take up the responsibility to save the world after witnessing all the deaths and losses? Not everything this anime conveys is positive — I have also seen the dark sides from the kids. Taichi’s self-righteous thought and attitude which eventually leads to the dark-digivolution of Greymon, Sora’s excessive love and over protection that creates misunderstandings between her and Piyomon and etc. Even though this is an anime, an unreal childish cartoon, it tells me far more than what I could learn from textbooks. Asides from all the eight great qualities embedded in the eight different crests, it conveys me this most critical idea — where there is a dream, there is a future. Yes, dream. Kids should have dreams, while pathetically, as I grow up, I have gradually lost my dreams. What is a dream? I could better answer this question as a kid than a grownup. My dream back then was to wish I could become one of the DigiDestined and enjoy the adventure with my digimon, but I know it was merely a dream, an impossible dream. A more feasible version would be to have a wonderful and uncommon life rather than an ordinary one. However, most of us are common people after all. I don’t know if my life would be called common or not, but I believe Digimon definitely has an impact on my choices in life more or less, otherwise I wouldn’t be ending up here attending a university in the United States, given the background that I was born in a peasant family in remote countryside back in China.
Announcement Trailer
So much for the sentimental stuff. Now back to the Digimon Adventure Tri. I was first aware of the plan to start this new series back in 2014, at the 15th anniversary of Digimon where they made the announcement. God knows how excited I was after hearing the voice from Taichi and Agumon in the announcement trailer. I felt like all those bygone childhood memories were back.
Official Trailer
I couldn’t wait to see it. Meanwhile, a new PSP game called Digimon Adventure was also launched to celebrate the anniversary. I immediately downloaded this game after the release in order to recollect the past and to kill time before the new series came out. It seemed that it was the only time that I feel so close to the digiworld as I personally experienced through the original story plot again. When the digivolution BGM Brave Heart rang again in the game, it seemed as if I digivolved along with the digimon.
Chapter 1 Poster Reunion
The most fantastic scene of Chapter 1 would be the last episode where after all other digimons of the DigiDestined are defeated by Alphamon effortlessly, after all the hesitation and holding back from reality, Taichi makes up his mind to fight with Yamato against Alphamon. The two mega form digimons merge to Omegamon again. Omegamon vs Alphamon! Are you kidding me? Is it a dream? The most epidemic fighting scene I have ever seen! The BGM became the piano version of Brave Heart, which had been striking my heart throughout the whole fight as if I had entered the battle myself instead of watching the scene on a screen.
Chapter 4 Poster Loss
Chapter 1 left so many puzzles waiting to be unveiled as the plot progressed forward. However, it took almost more than half a year for the new chapter to come out, and each time, it added more puzzles. Contrary to my expectation, the later chapters were quite mediocre and less touching and electrifying than the first one. It did not not bring back those passionate memories until Chapter 4, Loss, when the digiworld is rebooted and all the DigiDestined’s digimons have to go back to the digiworld with completely reset memory. Knowing this, the DigiDestined still choose to come back to the digiworld without any hesitation, hoping to re-encounter their old partners to invoke their memory. During this chapter, when the DigiDestined face with Metalseadramon again and when their digimons are all defeated and fall into the sea, and when Hikari is targeted by Metalseadramon and almost hit by the latter, the memory-lost digimons, especially Agumon and Gabumon, are invoked and warp-digivolve again accompanied by the BGM of Brave Heart. What a familiar scene! How Metalseadramon is defeated is quite similar — after Metalgarurumon’s Ice Wolf Claw and Giga Missile freeze him, Wargreymon finishes him off with his Great Tornado piercing right through his body and turns him into frozen pieces. I burst into laughs when I saw Metalseadramon dies from Great Tornado, twice, once in 1999, and once in 2017.
Even with the accumulating puzzles, I had been looking forward to the final chapter all along, hoping everything would come to a fine ending. During the previous trailer, I learned that the new mode of Omegamon would appear. It was almost killing me! And finally, here came the ending Chapter, Our Future.
Chapter 6 Poster Our Future
The whole chapter is such a disappointment, with only partial and unreasonable explanation to the previous puzzles and with still unsolved puzzles even till the end. The time-wasting digivolution scenes almost took up to 1/3 of the plot, plus a great amount of motionless frames which made the anime look like an “unanimated” powerpoint but merely with a slightly faster forward speed. It was a disaster. My long-expected Omegamon Merciful Mode just shows up for approximately 2 minutes and ironically, mercilessly kills Ordinemon with several hits and a huge slash right in her face. How ironic! Merciful Mode? He truly does show up to his name. I appreciated that there were still two scenes by which I was moved. One was when the injured Taichi’s teacher sacrifices himself to send Taichi back to the human world and passes his dream to Taichi and asks Taichi never to give up no matter how hard reality is up ahead. And to dream big. The other scene is the critical momemnt when Meiko and Agumon are nearly hit by the tentacle of Ordinemon, Taichi flashes out, sound muted, picture still, and several seconds later, here comes the Butter-fly. It nearly triggered my tears again, but not that touching enough. I knew I was affected by the purely individualistic heroism exhibited by the captain Taichi. Yes, I was. After all, I was still that young naive kid sitting in front of the screen watching the childish anime Digimon and admiring Taichi. I particularly like the part where Taichi tells Hikari to keep being who she is, and to blame him if she wants to when she begs him not to kill Ordinemon and hopes to find another peaceful way to bring Ordinemon back. It was that specific moment that I feel Taichi has indeed grown up — especially after witnessing all the chaos and deaths caused by Ordinemon. He used to believe in that he can solve this in his way, a peaceful way, but he has realized that it has come to the point where he has to choose the future instead of being chosen by someone else. No matter how hard reality is up ahead, he has to choose his own future, that is, to kill their friend Meicoomon who digivolves to Ordinemon. Cruel, yet for the sake of a brighter future. Maybe that is the cost of growing up, to witness and face and eventually accept cruel reality.
So this is it. Time to say goodbye to Agumon and Taichi. Despite a frustrated final chapter which ended my childhood, I still finished the whole series. I felt deeply privileged and grateful that I was born in an era with company of Digimon. 15 years ago, yes, 15 years later, still yes. It is a medium where I could place myself in when I need some mental masturbation, as well as an enlightening treasure box where I could feel in resonance with real life. It has become an essential part of my childhood and continues to influence me in the future. I would always remember that summer where all of the adventures begin. As I watched till the very end, when everything is over, on a black screen, I heard the familiar, heart-trembling digital clock sound again, which corresponds to the ending scene of the Digimon Adventure. I know, this can never be the end by the moment. Dream will continue. Adventure will evolve again soon…
New Project Confirmed
The end of the end, 無限大な夢のあとの何もない世の中じゃ。
Plus my personal favorite picture.
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