Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express

Digimon Tamers: Bousou Digimon Tokkuu
Also Known As: Digimon Tamers: Reckless Driving – Digimon Super-Express, Runaway Locomon, Digimon Movie 6
Genre: Action/Adventure
Format: 1 Movie
Allegiance: Toei Animation
Director: Tetsuji Nakamura
Vintage: 2002
Intelligence Agency Report by: Drake
Six months have passed since the destruction of the D-Reaper, and Takato and crew are planning a surprise birthday party for fellow Tamer, Ruki, when they receive reports of Locomon, a train digimon, having been sighted tearing through the real world. Its destination is a portal to the digital world. Will the Tamers be able to unite and stop the train, and make it back in time for Ruki’s birthday party?

Field Agent Report by: Drake
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
7.25
6.75
8.00
9.25
9.00
Overall 8.00
(not an average)
 

It seems like Toei Animation finally got a formula for making good Digimon movies, judging from The Runaway Digimon Express and its last two predecessors. My experience with the Adventures saga yielded a fifty percent rate of success amongst the movies. However, it seems this percentage has skyrocketed, with the advent of movie four, Digimon Adventures 02: Diablomon Strikes Back. However, there is still much work to be done before the formula is perfected.

Once again, the animation team for the sixth movie has done a splendid job. The animation style in the movie stayed consistent with the Tamers series, something which was rare in previous movies. Also, to add to my contentment with the movie is the OST. I absolutely loved the shinka (evolution) track in this movie. It just seemed to flow very well with the movie as a whole, and was a good song on its own merits.

The plot starts out very simple: stop the trainmon from hitting the digital portal, though it seems the idea of ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’ was never taught to the producers, as they gave a green light to add the parasimon subplot. For the record, it was a highly confusing addition. The entire subplot was highly irrelevant to the greater plot, despite the characterization Ruki received. However, the problems didn’t end with the plot. The combined effect of the short run time of the movie (approximately thirty minutes), and the lack of character returns was a poor choice. Most characters were on screen for maybe one minute or two total, and contributed nothing more than a show of the Tamers working together. However, they did succeed in showing that, months later,later; all the Tamers have been reunited with their digimon.

Overall the movie is a good movie to see if you need a break from the complex plots of other anime like Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain. So kick back, relax, and watch The Runaway Digimon Express. Eight out of ten ‘mon agree it’s prodigious.