The third film in the Digimon Adventure Tri series of films titled Confession begins directly after the events of the second film Determination. Although Determination finished strong, the majority of the film didn’t feel like a Digimon film and was quite slow pacing wise. Thankfully here in Confession the Digimon are brought back to the forefront of the story and it contains a much more engaging and well paced narrative.
The opening of the film shows that the real world is still being terrorised by the infected Digimon. The electrical disturbances are causing planes to be grounded in the region and suspicions from the previous movies are confirmed when it is revealed that the infection has something to do with Meicoomon.
The intro scenes take some time to gives us some insight as to where the Digi-Destined are mentally and emotionally. With both Mimi and TK going out of their way to console Meiko as she isn’t handling things too well after seeing Meicoomon go berserk during the finale of Determination.
Matt also takes some time to have a slight heart to heart with Tai. Where he discusses that now that other Digi-Destined have managed to get their Digimon to Mega level it relieves some of the pressure from themselves and their own Digimon, who up to this point were relied upon because of their strength.
Tugs On The Heart Strings
These scenes are great and highlight the human side of the series and reminds us that yes the Dig-Destined may have awesome Digimon and have been on some amazing adventures together but at the end of the day they are human.
Izzy spends the majority of the movie trying to find answers about the infection and hopefully come up with a cure or work around. In the mean time he continues to keep the partner Digimon isolated in the server to prevent any of them coming into contact with the infection.
This movie is filled with emotional scenes and even though they often involve the Digimon I found myself able to empathise with both them and the human characters due to how well the scenes were portrayed.
Best Film So Far ‘Story-Wise’
Seeing TK have to come to terms with Patamon’s infection and what that could mean for their relationship together and between TK and the rest of the group was the closest I’ve come to shedding a tear watching anime in some time.
I’ve intentionally been vague about the plot outline of the film as it is something you should enjoy for yourself, I’d suggest not even reading the synopsis on the back of the box and going in blind. Just know that for me this was the best film ‘story-wise’ in the Tri series so far.
Confession is the longest film in the Tri series so far, coming in at around 100 minutes. Due to it’s more interesting story and superior pacing over the previous 2 films it actually felt shorter and had me engaged for the whole journey.
Could Have Had A Smarter Battle
There was one notable flaw that did stand out though and it takes place during the main battle sequence towards the end of the film. Our heroes and their Digimon are attempting to fight while also restraining the enemy Digimon of the movie. And it’s not going well for them, the enemy has the upper hand pretty much from the beginning of the fight until just before the climax.
For the first 5 minutes or so of the battle the partner Digimon remain in their Champion form while fighting against the Ultimate level enemy. And they continually get knocked down and seem to refuse to Digivolve further. Seeing as the battle sequence is occurring during a time sensitive scene in the movie it didn’t make sense for them not to give it their all during this fight.
As I’ve mentioned in both the review for Reunion and Determination, the animation quality in the Tri films is great. It’s definitely the best we’ve ever seen in Digimon look and it’s no different here in Confession.
The home release Blu-Ray contains both the English dub and Japanese with English subtitled version. As for the extra features, the disc contains the full Digimon Adventure Tri Confession premiere panel from AnimeExpo 2017. The panel features Joshua Seth (Tai), Colleen O’Shaughnessey (Sora) and Jeff Nimoy (Tentomon) talking about coming back to Digimon after all these years and answer crowd questions about the film and Digimon in general. The complete panel is 35 minutes and I found the topics discussed and information learned quite interesting as a Digimon fan.
Final Thoughts
Digimon Adventure Tri Confession has managed to fix the issues I had with the previous film Determination. They have gone back to putting the Digimon at the forefront of the film and by adding serious consequences with real weight and impact it has set the series up for some big changes going forward. It definitely has me eagerly awaiting the 4th film, as things have been getting better and better.
A Blu-Ray review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment for the purpose of this review. You can grab a copy here or stream the Tri series on AnimeLab
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8.5
- + Much improved story compared to the last film
- + Great pacing
- + Digimon are once again the forefront of the story
- - Decisions that don't make sense during a high stakes battle sequence
