Still Ready

I still remember crying at the scene where Tai and the kids are riding the train back from the digital world. Just fully crying, like a child. Something about the ride home felt more final than the entire adventure, and it broke something in me.

Digimon was never Pokémon. Even as a kid I could tell it was the cooler, high-tech knockoff—all chrome and sharp angles where Pikachu worked through pure charm. But it didn’t have to win. It had something else.

Then came the sequels no one watched. The bad ones. Everyone remembers the one with Rika in it because we were all into Rika, which is a pretty clear signal about where we were developmentally. After that, nothing. Fifteen years of nothing.

Digimon Tri brings back the original kids, older now, reunited with their digital partners. It’s nostalgia marketing, the kind of thing that should feel cynical but somehow doesn’t. The opening theme is still exactly where it’s been since 1997. Live your dream, because it will come true. It’s burned in. Walk your path, face the danger—you’ll understand what matters when the time has come. Be ready. Yeah. I’m ready.