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commentaryvorg · 3 years ago

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Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 33 - The Last Decisive Battle! Kouki’s Ultimate Evolution!

In this episode, with the Holy Capital dragged into the human world, Masaru gets caught up fighting Kouki amidst his home city, while Kurata executes the final stage of his plan to kill ElDoradimon and all of its Digimon citizens.

Here’s an unnecessarily long recap; I told you they started happening eventually. Rather than briefly summarising the events of the episode to remind us, it feels like we’re being made to watch several of the important scenes over again, and I’m just there twiddling my thumbs waiting to get to the new stuff. It’s nearly two minutes long. Some very detailed Ultimate-level Digimon are onscreen a lot in this episode, more so than usual up until this point; this is probably why. Animation budgets.

Anyway, recap eventually over, ElDoradimon’s appearance out in the Yokohama bay caused a huge tsunami over the waterfront. I wonder if Kurata did damage control on this – since he knew what he was about to do, he could have sent word ahead to the human world telling them the Digimon were about to “invade” the city and people should evacuate. But he also could have not bothered to do that; I wouldn’t be surprised. We’ll see later this episode that at least some people haven’t evacuated yet.

Everyone on the Digimon side is staring in horror and shock at finding themselves in the human world. The Digimon citizens especially deteriorate into panic, and I don’t blame them. From their perspective, their entire home has just been forcibly dragged into an alien world full of people who want them all dead. That’s terrifying.

As a couple of wayward Gizmon: XT descend on the city, MirageGaogamon and Rosemon dispatch them easily. (Is this the first time any of the Digimon partners have stayed evolved in between episodes? I think it might be. Except for ShineGreymon at the beginning of last episode, but that shouldn’t count when he then promptly devolved for no reason.)

Baromon, at Yushima’s behest, tries to calm the citizens so that they still stand a chance of winning the battle.

Yoshino: “Besides, that muscular idiot will be here soon.”

Ah, yes. The most appropriate way to describe Masaru. (He and Ikuto and their partners have not quite yet arrived through the Gate, which is still hanging open above them.)

Baromon: “Yes! We still have Suguru’s son with us!”

Piccolomon: “Suguru’s son will take care of this somehow!”

Yes, clearly! The power of that perfect legendary hero who turned a desert into a lake just by punching it is definitely still here and able to win you the battle, somehow, even though it hasn’t done so yet. This thought actually rallies the citizens into cheers again. They are so desperately clinging to this much harder than they should, but I suppose anything makes them think there’s a chance is good.

Tohma: (But… ElDoradimon has fallen into the human world. What the hell is Kurata thinking?)

Credit to Tohma, he’s able to not let this Masaru’s Dad Is Awesome moment pull him into his jealousy and stays focused on the important strategic concerns. Kurata is also here now, having hitched a lift through the Gate on one of his Gizmon, chuckling to himself.

Just as the Digital Gate is about to close, Yatagaramon shoots out of it with his three passengers. (Somehow Masaru and Agumon are now on his back along with Ikuto, even though they were in his claws at the end of last episode.)

For some reason, Yatagaramon then flies a good ways into the human city and deposits Masaru and Agumon on a random rooftop. They immediately rush back across the roof in the direction of the sea and ElDoradimon, but are blocked by the chain-link fence that Japanese rooftops have.

Masaru: “We can’t stay here. Let’s go!”

You also could have not come here in the first place??? If getting to ElDoradimon was you guys’ highest priority, as it should be, why did Yatagaramon stop here?

The real reason for this, of course, is that this is where the writers wanted the fight with Kouki to begin. He arrives through his own (presumably space-time bomb-induced) Digital Gate on the rooftop, having somehow pinpointed Masaru’s exact location, at which point it makes sense for Masaru and Agumon to want to stay and deal with this here while they tell Ikuto and Yatagaramon to head back to the Holy Capital.

(Really, though, while having this fight with Kouki amidst the human city was important to the episode, there’s other ways this could have worked. Kouki could have led Masaru into the city on purpose after their fight began closer to ElDoradimon, especially since, from the perspective of Kurata’s grand plan, this is really just one big distraction to keep Masaru out of the way.)

Masaru and Kouki both roar and charge at each other, meeting fist-to-fist and flaring up with their respective Digisouls.

Masaru: “That bastard Kouki… There’s something different about him this time!”

Ha, Masaru can sense just from punching him that Kouki’s stronger than before. I enjoy his ability to pick up on things like this intuitively through fighting; it’s very him.

Kouki somehow levitates into the air – geez, Masaru and co. never get to do that from the power of their Digisouls, unfair – before evolving into BioDarkdramon. Masaru evolves Agumon in turn.

…I suspect that the only real reason ShineGreymon randomly devolved at the beginning of last episode was for the purposes of having a scene here where Agumon is unevolved and so Masaru and Kouki get to punch each other, human-to-human, one more time before the real fight starts. Otherwise, ShineGreymon could have stayed as ShineGreymon throughout all of last episode, he could have been the one to fly them hurriedly back to the Digital Gate, and the fight with Kouki could have started more immediately without Masaru getting awkwardly stranded on a random rooftop he had no reason to come to.

Anyway, as the two gigantic armoured Ultimate-level dragon monsters charge at each other, opening time! The very first shot of it features ShineGreymon grabbing this fancy sword, which we will be seeing in this episode. I don’t know if said sword really deserves so much importance as to be put right at the beginning of the opening, though.

Back at the Holy Capital, Rosemon and MirageGaogamon are busy dispatching any Gizmon: XT who get close – several of them at a time, as you’d expect, because evolution levels. A couple of the city’s Pumpmon (Perfect-level) are inspired to get in on the action, so they use their Trick-or-Treat attack, which involves dropping a giant pumpkin on the enemy’s head to take control of them, apparently, and using this they get two Gizmon: XT to destroy each other. I might otherwise raise an eyebrow at regular Perfect-levels being able to so easily deal with these Gizmon: XT that were supposed to be a fair bit stronger than Perfect-levels should be, but perhaps if they’re using trickery to turn the enemy’s own strength against it, that’s one way to trump the usual power levels.

Meanwhile, on a long bridge over the sea (probably a real Yokohama landmark, knowing Digimon), a military van is acting as a portable command centre for Kurata.

What’s really rich is that the tech guys working there are wearing what looks like DATS uniforms. Either Kurata had his men wear knock-offs of that uniform out of spite towards DATS, or possibly, these are actual former DATS technicians who sided with Kurata during the whole bit between episodes 25 and 26. You know, where Kurata came in claiming that Mercurimon had attacked them and the main DATS team had traitorously sided with him and all Digimon are dangerous monsters who need to be eradicated.

Technician: “Currently, the enemy suppression rate is at 37%.”

Presumably what he means by this is that they’ve currently killed 37% of the Digimon who were in the Holy Capital to begin with. Calling it a “rate” doesn’t make much sense – but upon examination (of a Japanese online dictionary), it seems that might be a subs thing; the word used for “rate” here can apparently also mean “proportion” and should probably have been translated as that in this context.

Kurata: “Throw the XT beta army at the enemy Ultimate-levels.”

Here’s an interesting little tidbit that could help explain why these Gizmon: XT have been getting progressively less threatening as they’ve grown in number. It seems he really has been mass-producing these things to the point that some of them are just beta versions that probably really aren’t as strong as the one he showed off in episode 25. Or, at least, that’s one way we could choose to interpret his use of the word “beta” here.

Kurata: “Kouki-kun will continue to keep ShineGreymon busy.”

Yep, Kouki really is doing nothing but playing distraction. Not that Kouki minds, I’m sure, since he’s been champing at the bit to get a rematch with Masaru for several episodes now.

As the enemy suppression percentage reaches 40, Kurata takes this as his cue to begin implementing the next stages of his plan, which involve something called the DHS, and the Javelin’s Core. The latter is an absolutely massive metal javelin, which begins to be lifted into the air by four large helicopters. Along with that, some military ships move out into the water, carrying unusual-looking cannons on their decks.

Back in the human city, ShineGreymon and BioDarkdramon are wrestling each other in midair. As BioDarkdramon manages to kick his opponent away for a moment, he takes the opportunity to round on Masaru, tiny and fragile and an easy target, back on the rooftop. ShineGreymon tackles him away before he can get close, and then, for Masaru’s safety, offers him his hand to climb up on. Riding on your giant Digimon partner, not for the sake of transport, but for the sake of fighting! (Though, actually, Tohma did this first.)

Reporter: “The monsters who are threatening us have suddenly intruded into the gulf coast!”

Ah, yes, those terrible monstrous Digimon are invading us again! That’s legitimately how this development must look to the human civilians who don’t know why ElDoradimon really ended up here. This isn’t really the main point of Kurata’s move to drag the Holy Capital over here, but it’s certainly helping with his propaganda that Digimon are horrible dangerous threats to humanity’s safety.

Reporter: “Right now, a weapon designed by Professor Kurata to protect us is on its way. […]”

Miki: “They’re making it sound like Kurata is a defender of justice.”

They sure are. Kurata, humanity’s hero, here to save us all from these vicious scary Digimon with his brilliant inventions!

Megumi: “Shh. We’re still wanted criminals.”

Also, hey, it’s Miki and Megumi! We haven’t seen them since they stayed behind in the human world in episode 27, but they’re still here, having apparently been dodging arrest from Kurata’s people all this time. (Though, really, Megumi, you might not want to say you’re wanted criminals out loud like that, not when you’re here amongst a crowd of people watching the news report.)

Reporter: “The government has declared their full support to Professor Kurata in his efforts to resolve this problem.”

Just in case anyone was ever wondering how Kurata got enough money and resources to create this ridiculously many Gizmon, not to mention some of his other toys he uses this episode: looks like he’s getting a lot of government funding and help from the Japanese military. This is a lot of the reason why he dragged ElDoradimon over here – in the human world, his home turf, he has access to a lot more stuff than he could reasonably bring to the middle of nowhere in the Digital World.

Chika and Sayuri are in their living room, watching this report, wondering if this means Masaru is back in the human world, hoping he’s okay. Sayuri must have been feeling so helpless this whole time; at least now that Masaru’s here again, within her reach, it’s something.

Out in the city, a bunch of human civilians (who are hopefully busy evacuating if they have any sense) watch the two giant armoured dragon monsters chase each other through the sky overhead.

Masaru is surfing on ShineGreymon’s shoulder now. That’s definitely not a very precarious position that should really put him at huge risk of falling off; it’s fine because anime physics.

ShineGreymon, the one being pursued, circles all the way around a skyscraper in order to get himself behind BioDarkdramon instead. He begins charging a Glorious Burst (telegraphing your location by calling your attacks, guys!), but turning to him upon hearing this, BioDarkdramon casually hangs there, making no attempt to dodge.

BioDarkdramon: “Go ahead and shoot! Do it if you’ve got the guts.”

He’s hovering in front of a skyscraper full of civilians who haven’t evacuated yet. If ShineGreymon used a ranged attack here, it’d slam BioDarkdramon back through the building, killing hundreds of innocent people.

Masaru: “That’s dirty, Kouki!”

BioDarkdramon: “Dumbass! There’s nothing clean or dirty in a fight!”

Oh, but there is. Masaru’s street fights are very anything-goes, but only insofar as that involves the people who have chosen to fight. He has always had very strong principles about not harming those weaker than you, those who aren’t involved and therefore haven’t made the choice to risk getting hurt. Bringing unrelated innocents into this and putting them at risk is disgusting tactics according to Masaru’s standards. That is Not What A Man Does.

Kouki doesn’t give a damn, though. He’s perfectly happy to get a few hundred innocents – innocent humans – hurt or killed if it’ll let him win.

There’s been a lot of obvious similarities between Masaru and Kouki, in how they’re both reckless hotheads eager to fight any opponent and who refuse to take losing lying down. But here’s their big contrast, made even clearer here than it already was from all of Kouki’s assholery in previous episodes. Masaru, despite his fighty nature, is a fundamentally good person with a strong moral code – his concept of manliness! – that he adheres to no matter what. Kouki doesn’t frickin’ care about any of that and only enjoys selfishly exerting power over others.

If anyone ever imagined, upon hearing that Masaru is a notorious street fighter, that this means he’s nothing but a violent thug who only cares about beating people up, they’re wrong. That’s what Kouki is, and Masaru’s nothing like Kouki in the ways that really count.

BioDarkdramon: “Also, let me tell you something else. You aren’t able to attack me, but I can attack you as much as I want!”

At this, BioDarkdramon charges at ShineGreymon with an attack. ShineGreymon dodges at first, but then, seeing BioDarkdramon continuing on right towards another skyscraper, has no choice but to put himself back in the way and absorb his momentum, just barely saving the building from destruction.

Not only is Kouki completely chill with potentially getting a few hundred innocents killed, he’s also totally willing to use that, and the fact that Masaru has actual standards where he doesn’t, in order to get himself an advantage. Those are some really horrifically dirty tactics, risking innocents just for his own gain. Masaru must be fuming.

(It’s this that makes me think things would have worked fine if their fight had started out by the bay, instead of Yatagaramon randomly bringing them far away from where they wanted to be. Kouki would have wanted to lead Masaru and ShineGreymon into the city during the fight anyway, precisely so that he could use this dirty tactic to stand a better chance of winning.)

…Well, I say Masaru’s probably fuming, but actually, after ShineGreymon blocks the hit, BioDarkdramon flings him to the ground and Masaru implicitly passes out from the impact for a little bit while we cut to other things.

Back at ElDoradimon, where Rosemon and MirageGaogamon are still working together to take down Gizmon, and Yatagaramon approaches overhead, four military ships have surrounded the city.

At Kurata’s order to initiate the Digital Hazard System – the DHS mentioned earlier – they fire their cannon things, which turn out to be a strange kind of solidified energy that works something like ropes, lashing onto each of ElDoradimon’s feet. Not that ElDoradimon was going anywhere anyway, but Kurata really wants to make sure it stays put.

The energy-ropes apparently also hurt, because the poor city turtle roars like it’s in huge pain. Baromon, horrified at seeing his beloved living city suffering, throws aside all sense of self-preservation and desperately climbs up onto the ramparts to try and appeal to his foes.

Baromon: “STOP! Don’t put ElDoradimon through any more pain!”

The humans driving the ships probably can’t even see him from this distance. Kurata certainly can’t. Even if they did, they wouldn’t care. Digimon are just vicious monsters, right?

All Baromon actually succeeded in doing with this is to expose himself to attack and forget to watch his back. One of the Gizmon: XT still skulking around the city takes the opportunity to shoot a laser at him from behind, piercing right through him.

Baromon: “T-Tell Suguru’s son… to take care… of ElDoradimon…”

As Yushima and some of the city’s warriors watch in horror, the last thought Baromon clings to is still the notion that their heroic saviour’s son will be able to somehow miraculously turn things around.

(He doesn’t even seem to realise that Suguru’s son is currently nowhere near the Holy Capital, busy settling a personal score and dealing with a diversion that’s threatening his own city. Masaru is just one person, not some kind of perfect legendary hero.)

With that, Baromon dies. They actually remember to show his egg disintegrating, for once, I guess because he’s a reasonably important character and they want to hammer it home that he’s really gone.

Gawappamon furiously fires off an attack at the offending Gizmon. The shot direction keeps managing to make it ambiguous as to whether any of Gawappamon’s attacks actually defeat a Gizmon: XT, which is good, because I’d be complaining about evolution level violation if they did. Gawappamon is only Adult. Given how dire things are getting, I’m really surprised Yushima hasn’t pulled out a stronger evolution. I’d expect him to be capable of it; Satsuma was.

Along with the ships chaining ElDoradimon down, Tohma and Yoshino notice the helicopters overhead carrying the javelin’s core. Out on that long bridge across the bay, there’s way more than just the one military truck Kurata’s using as a base. He’s got rows and rows of them filling the whole bridge, all of which open up to reveal countless Gizmon: XT. The swarm of Gizmon begin to fly towards the javelin’s core, which is now hanging directly above ElDoradimon.

Both of these fancy weapons of Kurata look Very Bad, so Tohma orders MirageGaogamon to deal with the Gizmon and Rosemon to go for the ships.

Back in the human city, Masaru regains consciousness, clutched protectively to ShineGreymon’s chest. (Aww, look at him protecting his comparatively small and fragile aniki.)

BioDarkdramon: “What’s wrong, Daimon Masaru? You finished already?”

Masaru: “Don’t look down on me! Come down! I’ll kick your ass!”

I love the sheer Masaru-level audacity. It very much comes across like he personally will kick the giant dragon-monster’s ass, because ShineGreymon is currently lying on his back, not seeming ready to get back into the fight just yet.

Kouki responds by attacking the building ShineGreymon protected earlier, attempting to collapse the entire thing onto Masaru. (Geez, I hope the people in it evacuated during the interim while Masaru was out; it is very possible they all just got killed.) We get a very rare heroic instance of the “Did I get him?” *smoke clears* NOPE trope, as it turns out ShineGreymon got up just in time to shield Masaru from the whole-ass building falling onto him, while barely seeming hurt from the impact. Because, you know, that’s just a thing Ultimate-levels can do with their utterly ridiculous levels of power.

ShineGreymon: “Aniki, are you okay?”

Masaru: “Thanks!”

BioDarkdramon: “Hey hey, being all chumly, are we? You make me puke!”

Shush, Kouki, this is a shounen anime, being adorable friends is a requirement. Also it’s nice to see a rare moment of ShineGreymon feeling like a character in his evolved form, caring about protecting his (tiny and fragile!) aniki.

Apparently no longer even trying to hide that this whole thing is just a diversion, Kouki goes on to taunt that Masaru shouldn’t even have the time to waste around here anyway because of what’s happening to ElDoradimon.

Masaru looks over towards the sea to see the javelin hanging above the turtle’s back, as the swarm of Gizmon: XT begin to wrap around the comparatively gigantic core, coating it with a layer of thousands of Gizmon.

Masaru: “Wh-What is that?”

Kurata: “A weapon that’s made specifically against ElDoradimon. The Gizmon Javelin.”

The writers are using that narrative trick of switching between two scenes at once for the sake of some more dynamic exposition. But though it sounds like Kurata is answering Masaru’s question, in reality, he’s nowhere near him at all. He apparently just felt like gloating at an audience of two technicians who must already know full well what the Gizmon Javelin is. Continuing to be very full of himself and his genius inventions, this Kurata.

(The fact that he designed this weapon specially for ElDoradimon also lends some amount of credence to my theory I mentioned a few episodes ago, that his assassinations of SaberLeomon and Mercurimon required preparation and special honing of the Gizmon to destroy their data specifically. Killing an Ultimate-level is not as easy as just shooting it with the regular old death laser without any planning, it would seem – and especially not an Ultimate-level this huge.)

BioDarkdramon: “Once that’s completed, ElDoradimon is dead meat. Wha’cha gonna do?”

Kouki is having a great time taunting Masaru about how he can’t be in two places at once, both defending the Holy Capital from Kurata and his own home city from Kouki’s wanton destruction. The latter is even more tricky right now, given that ShineGreymon’s usual ranged attacks will also do a number on the city if he tries to use them.

BioDarkdramon fires off a shockwave at the pair just to punctuate his point. ShineGreymon is unharmed, but Masaru goes flying out of his grasp and ShineGreymon has to reach out and catch him. Again: so tiny and fragile! ShineGreymon working so hard to protect his aniki!

BioDarkdramon: “Daimon Masaru, you are powerless. Bite your nails while you watch ElDoradimon disappear! After that, I’ll savour my time beating y—”

Masaru: “No thanks! I’ve got no plans to stand by and watch this happen!”

I love how, despite Kouki’s attempt at evil gloating, just full-on being a huge asshole and trying to enjoy watching his enemy suffer and squirm, Masaru shuts him right down and is having none of it.

Masaru: “No matter how many times I’ve fallen, I’ll stand right back up again! Again and again! As long as there’s still a possibility, I’ll never give up! You are going down!”

Like hell he’s ever going to let himself just sit there and be powerless, no matter how bad things get!

(And really, despite how dire things look and the way Kouki’s trying to taunt him about this, Masaru and ShineGreymon are both still standing, able to fight. This really isn’t necessarily a situation in which he feels powerless as much as some of the other things he’s been through.)

From the strength of Masaru’s sheer stubborn determination, and as the intro to Believer starts up, his Digivice begins to glow in his pocket. This honestly isn’t any particularly interesting or unique kind of emotion from Masaru here that’s triggering a new power, but also this new power isn’t especially strong or useful either compared to a full-on evolution level, so I don’t really mind.

Glowing with the same power, ShineGreymon punches the ground and summons up a fancy double-ended sword out of a ring of flame. (It’s a cool animation, so don’t think too hard about the fact that it makes it look like he just pulled it out of the tarmac of this ordinary human street.) This is the GeoGrey Sword. Not sure why it gets named after his Adult-level and isn’t, like, the ShineGrey Sword, but hey.

Now that he has a melee weapon, it’s a lot easier for ShineGreymon to safely fight without risking levelling the city every time he attacks. In this particular instance, summoning up a giant sword is pretty useful and exactly what he needs to turn the tides!

(It… really won’t be the rest of the time, though. Get ready for me to poke fun at that.)

This time, Masaru stays on the ground instead of riding on ShineGreymon’s shoulder, which is less Friends but probably a lot more practical, considering the way ShineGreymon’s spinning and dancing around with his sword moves.

One of his swipes manages to slice into the… I hesitate to call it “skin”; leathery fabric? …the non-armoured part in BioDarkdramon’s midriff, and Kouki is furious. How dare Masaru and his partner injure him! What do you mean this fight isn’t just a one-sided beatdown in which Kouki taunts Masaru about his powerlessness and savours his suffering as revenge for the defeats in previous episodes.

BioDarkdramon: “All of you will die!”

I really want to take note of the specific Japanese phrasing here, for reasons. Kouki doesn’t directly use the word “die” – what he says literally means “disappear” – but apparently the subbers felt like it was appropriate to sub it as this anyway. Someone like Kouki is entirely the sort of person who wouldn’t beat around the bush and would get very rough and direct about death when he’s furious like this, so I’m going to assume that, despite the literal wording, this is a turn of phrase that is nonetheless frequently used to mean death in Japanese, enough that it might as well be what he’s literally saying. I want to trust that the subbers used their judgement and knowledge of Japanese connotations to sub it that way to give us the correct and most accurate effect.

This matters to me a lot; you’ll find out why in a couple of episodes.

BioDarkdramon happens to have placed himself above ShineGreymon in the air, which you’d think would instantly solve the ranged-attacks-would-wreck-the-city problem. ShineGreymon can fire a Glorious Burst at him from here and it’d dissipate harmlessly into the sky. Maybe we can pretend this is a sign of Kouki being so furious that he’s getting careless, but in practice it’s meaningless, because now that he has his new sword, ShineGreymon isn’t even thinking about the ranged attacks any more.

BioDarkdramon fires off an orb of dark energy at ShineGreymon (and the city), but ShineGreymon uses his new sword like a baseball bat to deflect it and send it into the ocean instead. Actually another pretty useful application for the sword! that we will never be seeing again.

(Also, the animators have already forgotten to keep drawing the wound on BioDarkdramon’s stomach, whoops.)

ShineGreymon: “This is the end!”

BioDarkdramon: “Cut the bullshit! This won’t end. It’ll never end! Not until I beat you!”

Kouki: the world’s sorest loser ever, as you’d expect from an asshole like him.

They charge at each other in midair with their respective blades, and ShineGreymon remains unharmed as he runs BioDarkdramon through, defeating him. He catches the unconscious Kouki and the egg and places them on the street, then he and Masaru rush off to try and help ElDoradimon. No way Masaru’s going to sit around having a conversation with his defeated Bio-Hybrid rival like the other two did; he’s got better things to do right now, besides which he wouldn’t even care about anything Kouki had to say.

Kurata hears that BioDarkdramon has lost, but he barely cares, because Kouki did his job and provided ample distraction; the Gizmon Javelin has finished forming. We never even saw any of MirageGaogamon and Rosemon’s attempts to take out these weapons, but we can assume they were largely fruitless against the sheer size and scale of them. Even Ultimate-levels have their limits when Kurata’s basically levied the entire Japanese military and spiced it up with his own anti-Digimon tech.

Just to give you a sense of how huge this thing is: it’s really freaking huge. I do not blame MirageGaogamon for not being able to take that down. Exponential increase in power from a higher evolution level only goes so far; there must be thousands of Gizmon: XT in there.

Masaru: “ShineGreymon, we’ve gotta destroy that thing!”

Oh, Masaru. He and ShineGreymon are rushing to make it there as fast as they can, determined to feel like they can do something about this. In the urgency of the moment (and perhaps the still-lingering idea that he’s the saviour’s son and the whole city’s counting on him specifically), it doesn’t seem to occur to him that obviously Tohma and Yoshino and Ikuto must have been working on destroying that thing the entire time and getting nowhere, in which case he’d be no different. He just doesn’t want it to not be possible.

(As they fly towards the bay, they happen to pass directly over the news crew. Chika, watching on TV, realises her brother really is here – I doubt she could see Masaru directly, and she’s not seen ShineGreymon before, but it’s a fair guess that he might be the next evolution for Agumon, so, sure.)

But even if ShineGreymon taking out the javelin were somehow miraculously possible, it’s too late. Before he can even get close, Kurata gives the order, and the javelin begins to drop.

MirageGaogamon and Rosemon, seeing this, immediately switch tacks from trying to take out the Gizmon to just getting their partners the hell out of there. Tohma and Yoshino are still there in the capital, and the capital is screwed. Gawappamon and Yushima also implicitly manage to abandon ship, along with a small scattering of the city’s warriors, but most of them probably weren’t so lucky.

The poor city turtle roars in agony one last time as the javelin pierces through it, turning the city to rubble in an instant, disintegrating ElDoradimon into data and a soon-to-be-lost egg just a moment later. It’s pretty stark and horrifying, all of the onlookers watching in horror as this gigantic, beautiful creature is torn apart, all while Kurata chuckles to himself like it’s the best day ever. All the Digimon who were still inside the city must have been killed too (all the baby Digimon who were sheltering inside from the battle!), hundreds if not thousands of lives wiped out in an instant.

As debris floats past, Masaru stands on ShineGreymon’s shoulder, staring at the gigantic empty space where an entire city just was, having been powerless to get there in time, to stop it, to fulfil his promise of protecting the city (and living up to his dad’s reputation)… and with no other way to express it, he just roars in desperate anguish.

The remaining Gizmon are sucking up all the life energy from this, of course. This was the big haul that Kurata wanted, to get him enough energy to fulfil his other goal. We get another glimpse of that thing in the tank, just to remind us what he was working towards.

Not long after, the DATS group – the usual four, plus Yushima – are standing at the waterfront with their (surprisingly still evolved!) partners, looking out at where ElDoradimon no longer is, trying to process their overwhelming loss.

Ikuto: “We couldn’t stop it in the end.”

Yoshino: “We were useless.”

Oh, Yoshino. I’m sure everyone’s feeling that way, but it’s very heartbreakingly her to be the one to voice it.

Masaru: “Not yet!”

Yoshino: “Masaru!”

Masaru: “The battle’s not over yet! There’s gotta be those in the Holy Capital who survived! We have to save as many as we can!”

Oh, Masaru. Everyone else was ready to lick their metaphorical wounds and feel sorry for themselves, but no. Masaru will not feel powerless; he will not accept that they just lost and there’s nothing they can do. There has to be something they can still be doing to make a difference. Even if it’s only working to save the scant handfuls of surviving Digimon who might have made it out in time, that’s something they can work on that means they aren’t just giving up. He is so stubbornly, utterly incapable of letting himself fully acknowledge the terribleness of a situation and I love him for it.

(And I mean, it’s fair that of course they should try to focus on doing that! But it is very very Masaru to refuse to even think about how much they lost and grieve for those who just died before turning to that.)

As the group head out on their partners (oh, that’s why the writers kept them evolved) to go look for survivors, a couple of men in suits are observing Tohma through binoculars and noting that he’s the one they’re looking for. Before Tohma can climb onto MirageGaogamon’s hand to head off too, the men approach him.

Man: “Master Tohma. We’ve come for you.”

Given the respectful way they’re referring to him, this doesn’t seem like a sinister kidnapping sort of thing; rather, they simply require his presence for some reason. Despite the better things Tohma has to be doing right now, this is evidently something he can’t refuse, as next we see he and Gaomon are in a helicopter heading away from the site of the battle.

Masaru notices Tohma isn’t following them, sees him in the helicopter, and calls out to him in vain. He has no idea that Tohma was called away; all he knows is that he’s leaving. Why would Tohma be abandoning the fight at a time like this?!

Overall thoughts

For a Masaru-focused episode, which are usually my favourite things, this one isn’t massively interesting or issuey, but it’s fine and solid enough. (And, hey, unlike with Yoshino, at least we have plenty of other excellent Masaru episodes to choose from, so I can hardly complain.)

On an objective scale, Kouki is arguably the least interesting of the Bio-Hybrids, because he doesn’t have any kind of issues that are the root of him doing this. Thanks to Ivan being terrible, though, Kouki comes in the middle of my personal rankings of the trio anyway. He may not have any issues, but he is a solid foil to Masaru, very similar to him in a lot of superficial ways but completely the opposite in the ways that really matter. He serves that purpose well, and this episode in particular does a great job of highlighting it.

Kurata’s approach to this battle continues to be impressive even as it’s horrifying. Again, I enjoy the way this mini-arc progresses – how the previous two episodes’ developments were all leading towards this one, in which Kurata had ElDoradimon in such a hopeless position that there was really nothing anyone could do to save it. It’s neat how, though each of these three episodes may have felt on the surface like victories in that the Bio-Hybrids were defeated, our heroes kept losing ground each time in the actual battle that mattered and ultimately utterly failed.

---

[Dub comparison]

#digimon #digimon savers #masaru daimon #agumon #kouki #akihiro kurata #baromon #the digivice old man

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radroller · 3 years ago

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Baromon more like Reviewmon

#stephen watches digimon frontier

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firstagent · 4 years ago

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Aside from the Armor forms of the 02 partners, which other Armor Digimon have appeared in any of the subsequent seasons?

More than I can name, actually! This is just going off memory so it’s probably totally incomplete, but here’s the ones I can recall:

V-mon Lines

Sethmon: Xros Wars Yasyamon: Hunters Honeybeemon: Frontier, Xros Wars Depthmon: Tamers (Movie) Sagittarimon: Frontier Gargomon: Xros Wars

Hawkmon Lines

Allomon: Tamers, Hunters Harpymon: Tamers, Hunters Toucanmon: Frontier

Armadimon Lines

Boarmon: Savers Sepikmon: Frontier (and at least one other thing IIRC) Pteranomon: Savers, Xros Wars Chamelemon: Frontier

Patamon Lines

Baromon: Frontier, Savers Stegomon: Adventure: Pipismon: Savers (Movie) Ponchomon: Tamers (Movie) Mantaraymon: Adventure: Prairiemon: Xros Wars

Tailmon Lines

Swanmon; Frontier Tylomon: Tamers (Movie), Adventure: Goatmon: Frontier Opossummon: Hunters Maildramon: Tamers, Adventure: (Dark)

Wormmon Lines

Flawizarmon: Hunters Nohemon: I know I’ve seen them, just don’t remember the season Archelomon: Xros Wars Bullmon: Xros Wars, Adventure: Kongoumon: Xros Wars

Once again, don’t take this as comprehensive. I’m sure I’m missing several appearances (please don’t @ me; I’m not adding addenda!). But it shows that they definitely aren’t shy about working other Armor forms into the other series!

#digimon

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digijosify · 7 years ago

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Episode Recap: The gang notices that the Digital World’s code is still getting eaten. Baromon appears and rehashes the backstory thus far, with the added info that Lucemon was responsible for corrupting Cherubimon in order to bring about his revival. Dynasmon and LordKnightmon introduce themselves and proceed to lay the smackdown on Takuya and Kouji, killing Baromon and bringing the sideliners to the brink of death (signified by their Digicode appearing, except Kouichi). Dynasmon decides to send them to the blue moon.

<< >>

#digimon frontier #438 #digimon liveblog

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jolteonjordansh · 8 years ago

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Thoughts on Kurata Arc

We got a doozy, guys. I have no idea how to start this other than oh God. Lots of changes to talk about, lots of characters, and lots of opinions. But in one sentence: Digimon Savers did but also didn’t go in some of the directions I expected it to and I’m kind of blindsided by it.

Let’s deal with this below the break.

I can’t believe how many risks Digimon Savers took in a single arc that it could have screwed up so easily. I was so ready to get so irritated with this series if they screwed up so many specific and particular things, but they managed to nail it in a way that made things work miraculously.

So there's a second opening in this arc! Digimon has never done a second opening before, but it's a Koji Wada opening! And I'm so torn because both the first opening and this one, Hirari, are super catchy and great. Seriously, I don't think I can pick between the two. But regardless, go listen to Hirari. Any Koji Wada song is worth your time.

Anyway, I'm ready to tear Kurata apart, but let me try to keep some order in this post. I do like how this series goes between the Digital World and Real World, but it's not as convenient as it was in Digimon Adventure 02 and there is some danger to it. This is especially an issue when Kurata destroys the DATS headquarters and the only Digital Gate the cast had there. Thankfully, there is a Digital Gate in the leftover basement of Keenan's parents. Naturally, they're against seeing Keenan go to the Digital World with the rest of the cast after finally seeing him again, but they eventually agree to let him go. Unfortunately like Adventure 02, this show felt the need to do a set of comedy antagonists. While I do think Arukinemon and Mummymon had some merit and humor, Savers' comedy trio... doesn't quite catch my interest.

Kouki, Nanami and Ivan are examples of people Kurata takes advantage of, and I can say I like that much of their characters. Nanami is vain and wanted more in her life and knowledge, and Ivan worked with Kurata to get money for his siblings. But this is about as much depth as they get. Nanami is mostly fanservice with boob jiggle physics, and Ivan is a really annoying comic relief character who wants to bone every girl he sees. There's also Kouki, who basically serves as Marcus' rival in that they both want to punch the shit out of each other, but that's it. There's no reason for him to offer himself for Kurata's research other than he wants to fight things and feel powerful. I guess you could argue this was part of the reason Marcus joined DATS, but he also joined them to be Agumon's partner, so there is some depth for him. I can't help but admit that these three being humans fused with Digimon is actually Frontier done right to an extent. Silly nonetheless, but there's some sick cruelty behind it that characterizes it as part of Kurata's insanity and sadist nature. If not Frontier done better, it certainly feels like a Take That to Digimon Frontier. The trio of dumb does prove to be strong adversaries if anything, supposedly killing Richard as the main cast escapes to the Digital World, but I don't think Richard's dead yet. I just don't think he would die that easily and to such loser characters. Plus, they can't get rid of my adorable Kudamon that Digivolves to this badass!

The main three characters also manage to achieve Mega level almost simultaneously. They have to train with BanchoLeomon who I know is going to die too, and this somehow fixes their Digivices after breaking them from a sudden surge of power in their last fight with the trio of dumb. I do appreciate how Marcus' achievement to Digivolution to Mega with Agumon was done since he fought hard the entire time in BanchoLeomon's dojo, but Thomas and Yoshino's felt sort of sudden. Hell, Yoshino didn't even fight the wooden dolls that BanchoLeomon had. They just made it work. I'm glad they do all achieve Mega level at least, but I will agree what does bother me a little bit is that the development of characters doesn't quite feel balanced. It's not to a point that it ruins any of the characters, but I do feel the lack of balance. You can really feel this for Keenan and Falcomon a bit in this arc, who don't achieve Mega level until the very end of the arc because they leave to do their own things in the Digital World and don't get the same experience as the other three. Even then, their excuse to leave was kind of flimsy at best. But again, not enough to ruin any of these characters for me.

I am glad we get to know the mysterious old man more--Homer Yushima. The main group ends up running into him and he does provide a funny supportive role, and his partner Kamemon is a funny partner with his odd shyness. I would classify him as a badass old man, but he doesn't really do anything really kickass. He's just there to be a cool old guy and be quirky. The supporting cast, in general, is pretty good, like Miki and Megumi actually participating (even if they are mostly back-up) and Marcus' mother and sister. There's a couple of Digimon on the "holy capital", ElDoradimon, but most of them really don't mean or do anything and one of them, Baromon, has about as dumb of a death as Seraphimon's in Frontier. But other than the supporting cast, some big changes happen in the main cast within this arc, and the writers could have totally screwed this up so easily.

In the midst of the Digital World part of this arc, Thomas gets pointed out ways he may be inferior to Marcus or even similar to him but not as good. This starts to set up the potential rival mini-arc, kind of like with Tai and Matt in Digimon Adventure, and this really started to irk me. I did not want to see Digimon Savers copy this plot point of Digimon Adventure, especially since Marcus and Thomas already had their fight in the beginning of the show and generally recovered from it. It definitely comes across this way, especially when Thomas decides to "join forces" with Kurata and fights Marcus for the sake of his surprise younger sister's health. It really frustrated me, but thankfully Digimon Savers somehow managed to land right on its feet and make this whole elaborate plot that shows just how clever Thomas really is, when initially it made him look really stupid.

The whole thing comes across as Thomas letting his emotions take over his intellect, between his supposed "grudge" against Marcus and his love for his younger sister, but no. Kurata is just a really clever asshole who put Thomas in a terrible position by having a bomb on Relena and having Thomas figure it out, so he knows fighting against Kurata would only end up getting Relena hurt. But he also makes his whole non-existent grudge against Marcus all the more convincing. And it's convincing all the way to the very end, down to Thomas creating a faulty device for Kurata to control Belphemon and to agree to Relena's surgery to do a human to Digimon fusion until the very end and utilizing his actual doctor title. It's here we also see Thomas kind of has an asshole dad because he was neglectful of him and his mother, but still loves Relena. It's still a little confusing and I'm hoping we get some depth on that.

This whole "betrayal" also leads to the inevitable Dark Digivolution of the series, which I had honestly forgotten about because I was becoming so immersed into it. It's all triggered by Marcus' anger towards Thomas for seeming to betray him, and the raw anger of his DigiSoul transforms ShineGreymon to his Dark Digivolution, ShineGreymon Ruin Mode. It actually works really well with the whole theme of the soul in Digimon Savers and Marcus' negative emotions are personified really well into ShineGreymon Ruin Mode, who is overcome with so much of Marcus' negative emotions that he just continues to rampage until he will destroy himself. Marcus is thankfully able to stop this... but at the cost of ShineGreymon reducing to an egg once more. This does lead to a good character arc of Marcus having to understand how to control his raw emotions and deal with the despair of losing Agumon--especially since it's speculated that all Digimon who are reduced to DigiEggs lose their memories. Lucky for Marcus, this doesn't happen, but they do a kind of funny fake-out with it that just fits Marcus' relationship with Agumon. Their reunion is honestly pretty emotional, as silly of moments as it has, and it just really solidifies how much more I like Marcus and his Agumon. Also, the way Marcus carries around the egg towards the final fight is weirdly adorable.

And now, I can finally talk about Kurata. Ho. Ly. Fuck. I hate this guy. Everyone hates this guy. He's the actual definition of a douchebag. No, seriously, if you look it up in the dictionary, you'll see his picture there. He's despicable in every way possible. He's a spineless coward. He takes advantage of people's emotions and fears. He's a liar who claims he's out to do one thing like destroy the Digital World for the safety of the Real World (even though that was wrong to begin with), then he decides "Fuck it, let me rule both worlds!". He kills hundreds of Digimon for their life energy, all to revive one of the Seven Great Demon Lords, Belphemon, without a care in the world for Digimon or even people. Seriously, he's despicable in every way and is just an awful human being. Thankfully Thomas was smart enough to sabotage part of this plan, but ironically Kurata tries to force this to work by transforming himself into data and basically fuses with Belphemon to turn him into the destructive beast he wanted to control. This eventually bites him in the ass as Belphemon's consciousness takes over Kurata's... only for Kurata to come back and create this ugly abomination. Thankfully, he does get his just desserts when he gets exactly what I wanted--Marcus and ShineGreymon punching him straight in the fucking face.

During the fight with Belphemon, Falcomon does get to achieve his Mega level--Ravemon, who's honestly a neat looking bird samurai. On that note, I should talk about the other Mega level Digimon. ShineGreymon is a neat take on the Greymon line, and I think I prefer it over WarGreymon. He's definitely not Gallantmon, but pretty neat. MirageGaogamon is probably my favorite of the Mega levels here, having a sort of knight theme to him, maybe mixed with a ninja theme considering how fast he is. As for Rosemon, she's... well, Rosemon. She's about the same as I would say about Rosemon when watching Digimon Adventure tri. I'll give credit that generally they've avoided doing jiggle physics with her (though they did some with Lotusmon, but Evil is Sexy). There's a couple of bits of fanservice like ass shots, but nowhere near as bad as... Ugh... Fairymon. There's also an advanced form called the Burst Mode, and ShineGreymon manages to achieve ShineGreymon Burst Mode, and it looks even better. Again, it's a really awesome design for the Greymon line. I just hope that the other three Megas get Burst Modes too, but I won't be surprised if they don't necessarily.

Still, the final fight in this arc is so freaking satisfying. Again, Kurata getting his punch to the face was something I was clamoring for since the end of the Worlds Conflict arc. It feels like a truly challenging fight with high stakes, and it's probably my favorite fight in Savers so far. While Kurata's fate isn't made clear in the very end, my mind tells me he's either dead or stuck in limbo in space-time. So either way, he suffers. And that's good. Because Kurata sucks. I can say without a doubt in my mind that he's the worst Digimon villain--not from a writing standpoint, but as a human being. He's the cruelest, most manipulative, jerkish villain I've seen in these series. And if the next arc somehow changes that, I'll be shocked.

This arc overall was really good. Once again, Digimon Savers continues the trend of getting better as it goes just like Digimon Tamers. I don't know how it can get better in 10 episodes, but I'm willing to let Digimon Savers try to convince me if they can execute things as well as they did in this arc where they could have screwed up so easily. It looks like with this whole rip in space-time that's colliding the worlds, traveling between the Real World and Digital World might have more freedom? I'm curious to see how it goes.

But before I can close this out and move on to the last arc of Digimon Savers... Surprise! Digimon Savers has a movie! Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!!. This movie isn't canon, and you should only watch it until after this arc because it spoils ShineGreymon Burst Mode. You may be wondering why I don't have a separate final thoughts post on this movie. Well... That's because this movie kind of sucks. In fact, it's probably the worst Digimon movie of them all. Yes, worse than Hurricane Landing!!/Transcendent Evolution!! after all of the hell I've given that movie. Not to mention, this movie is only a mere 20 minutes long. So yeah, it doesn't deserve its own post.

One of the worst parts of this movie is that the human characters are barely even in this movie. There's just Marcus. No Thomas. No Yoshino. Not even any Keenan or even Falcomon. The movie just focuses on the three main Digimon--Agumon, Gaomon and Lalamon. But even then, Gaomon seems kind of out of character as apparently the humans are trapped in these weird cocoons, but he tells Agumon to give up hope on them ever waking up. Seriously Gaomon? Aren't you the loyal one in this group? Why would you not have faith in Thomas or even try to help him? It just comes off as really out of character.

But then the movie spends five minutes--a quarter of its runtime--on a really clumsy fight scene that doesn't do anything for the "plot" as the three Digimon try to save this little girl. But she's not a little girl! She's actually a Digimon named... Rhythm, and not something like Rhythmmon? Yeah, okay, I get it Digimon. You wanted your loli bait for the movie. Fine. Do whatever Japan. You're just trying to beat around the bush with the "B-B-But she's actually a Digimon!!!!!" excuse like with Fairymon, but whatever. They don't do anything fanservice-y with her at least, but the problem with Rhythm is she’s just... really boring. With the 20 minutes this movie has, they do nothing to really give her a character or give us a reason to care for her other than she got in trouble and the Digimon want to help her. She's just being chased by the Digimon in charge of all of the destruction in this movie, Argomon, for... reasons. They don't really explain. But Argomon's motives to dominate the world is... he's mad at humans for destroying the environment. Oh come the fuck on! A freaking environmental message!? Even the Pokémon Shaymin movie wasn't this transparent about the message! The West always sucked with environmental movies like Ferngully and Once Upon a Forest! Why are you trying this in 2006!?

So yes, this is a dumb movie with a dumb premise, dumb plot, and does nothing interesting. The Digimon are basically just running away constantly being unable to Digivolve due to not having their human partners, making it really boring until Marcus comes in last minute and Digivolves Agumon to ShineGreymon Burst Mode, but that's it. Even main antagonist Argomon is boring because his designs are very reminiscent of Diablomon and he lacks any originality. It's just a bland waste of time. Honestly, this movie has just two redeeming factors.

One is the animation. It's really, really good. Nothing quite as revolutionary and timeless as Our War Game!, but it's still really nice to look at. The fight scenes look great and there's some really fluid animation with nice shading. But what sucks is that it was wasted on this movie and not something better. There aren't any Digivolution animations (though I'm glad they didn't do the shitty cropping from Runaway Locomon), but I gotta say that ShineGreymon and the effects on him just look awesome. I really loved looking at it. But again, it's just a shame this budget was wasted on this. I wish they had just done a special episode with this, but even this movie is basically just a bad episode of the show. It's just bland and a waste of time. The other redeeming factor, which is related to animation, is that this movie has bloopers in the credits oddly enough. It's silly, but it's funny and I like it. I don't see a lot of 2D animated films do bloopers so I can appreciate Digimon doing something fun and lighthearted here. I just wish I didn't find the bloopers better than this whole 20 minute movie. It's just a waste of time, and I can't recommend watching it unless you really like Digimon and want to see some pretty animation.

So yeah, the Kurata arc was great. The Digimon Savers movie sucked. But despite that, I really hope to see that the final arc of Digimon Savers is great and that it makes watching this show all the more worth it. Ten episodes left, let's see how much they can do in that time.

#Shut Up JJ #JJ DigiWatches #final thoughts

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dailydosedigimon · 10 years ago

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Baromon

#Baromon #digimon #armor #crest of courage

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higuchimon · 11 years ago

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[fanfic] Options

Beams of shadow lashed among the Chosen Children and their partners, sending everyone scattering in every direction possible. He managed to get on his feet and looked around for Takeru. Given how dark the area was, he considered himself lucky to have found his feet in the first place.

“Takeru! Takeru!” He stumbled over something, finding himself face-first on the ground. The something felt a little familiar, and patting it with one paw told him it was a D-Terminal. He wasn’t sure whose it was, but at the moment, he wasn’t concerned with ownership, just finding out where everyone was and getting this whole mess straightened out.

“Patamon?” Takeru’s voice came from far closer to him than he’d expected, and a familiar warm hand brushed against him. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine! I’ve got a D-Terminal here! Maybe we can Armor Evolve and stop this!” Exactly what, or who, caused this no one knew, only that they couldn’t see where they were or who stood against them. Evolving normally wasn’t an option; whoever this was seemed to have somehow blocked that off from them. It was Armor or nothing.

He could hear Takeru patting at his shirt. “It might be mine, I can’t say for sure. Mine’s not here, anyway. Let’s give it a try. Where is it?”

“Right under me!”

Patamon flapped his wings until he lifted high enough so Takeru could get to it. Faint light shone as he opened the D-Terminal. “Daisuke, this is yours!” No answer came. “Daisuke?”

“He’s unconscious.” Ken’s worried voice drifted through the shadows. “I think he hit his head on something.”

Takeru winced; that wasn’t good. Patamon moved closer to his partner. “Then let’s do this!”

Patamon had never evolved with any Digimental other than Hope before. He didn’t even know if he could. They’d never tried this before. They had no choice at the moment. Takeru lifted the D-Terminal and as he did so, a new sort of energy shot through the small Digimon.

Fire and fierceness, passion that never wavered no matter what, the courage to plunge ahead with all of one’s heart…

“Patamon, armor evolve to…Baromon!” He stood on two feet, aware of everything in a strange and fascinating new manner. He flexed his hands, then focused all three of his eyes. One of them glittered in the shadows, showing him something he realized hadn’t happened yet. But it would, and he knew how to make it happen. “Meteor Dance!”

With a swipe of his cape and swift movements of his feet, meteors began to flash through the sky, wiping away the shadows. He could hear sharp cries of pain coming from not that far away and he moved in that direction, knowing he’d find their enemy there. The battle wouldn’t take long; he knew that, and Daisuke would be all right. He knew that, too.

Patamon loved being Angemon, loved being Takeru’s guardian. But he couldn’t help but wonder a little what the other Digimentals could do.

The End

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #digimon adventure 02 #patamon #baromon #takaishi takeru

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literallygoth · 12 years ago

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baromon replied to your post: Ben

Hello

i miss u marry me

#baromon

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magpiejay1234 · 5 months ago

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Episode 30.

****

OP2 starts here.

Masaru-Thoma are paired up, and Yoshino-Ikuto are paired up, with Ravmon showcased.

Ikuto's Digivice Burst is showcased indirectly.

Royal Knights are also showcased. Particular emphasis is showcased in the former main characters, and Lord Knightmon.

Masaru's dad, and Bancho Leomon are showcased.

Shine Greymon: Burst Mode is showcased.

Final shot does not have the former Chief Yushima, and Kamemon, but the rest of the cast are in their new clothes.

****

Kurata's gang is being upgraded. OP2 already showcased that Kurata is not the final boss, though it is fair to presume not everyone is excited about Royal Knights.

Baromon reveals they also captured Yushima.

Kamemon saves the Digimon Partners, and Baromon realises Masaru is Suguru's son.

Ikuto, with the help of Igamon, destroy the fourth Gizmon.

Kurata decides to destroy El Doradimon, as it is the last remaining fortress of Digimon (well, the common ones, at least).

****

El Doradimon showcased here will later become the Jogress partner of Saber Leomon to form Tlalocmon, as discussed before.

Most of the Digimon showcased here are either from OG Adventure, or Frontier.

Though this episode is important for Kurata's arc, it is overshadowed by the fact that him not being the final boss is already spoiled by OP2.

#digimonstrosities #shitposting

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commentaryvorg · 3 years ago

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Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 31 - The Showdown Between Geniuses! Tohma VS Nanami

In this episode, as the battle to defend the Holy Capital begins, Tohma goes alone to protect the one weak spot in their defences and finds himself facing fellow genius Nanami, who insists that the two of them have a lot in common.

After a quick recap, we open with the Holy Capital’s preparations to fend off attack from Kurata’s forces. ElDoradimon has moved into the centre of a huge lake, implicitly upon Tohma’s suggestion. The DATS crew and Baromon are standing at the top of one of the city’s tallest towers as Tohma explains that this is a vantage point from which they can see all around, so any Gizmon who come close enough over the lake to attack will expose themselves to a counterattack.

Baromon: “Yes.” [he turns to Masaru] “You chose a good place. It truly is impenetrable.”

This whole strategy was clearly all from Tohma, but Baromon gives all the credit to Masaru anyway, like Tohma’s just some lackey who answers to him. I don’t think he’s doing this to purposely be malicious towards Tohma; I think he and the rest of the citizens are still so hooked on Masaru being their beloved saviour’s son that they don’t realise he’s not the only important member of this little band of humans who showed up to help.

Masaru: “Dad protected this place, so I’ll do all I can to do the same!”

Baromon: “That’s our saviour’s son! I’m entrusting our friend to you.”

Agumon: “You’ve got a lot of responsibility on your hands, Aniki.”

Masaru doesn’t pick up on the fact that Tohma wasn’t given the credit he deserved, but I think that’s also not out of any kind of malice towards Tohma and is instead because of him being wrapped up in his own feelings about this. His dad came here and saved this city and is their legendary beloved hero; Masaru simply has to do everything he can to live up to that, and that’s all he can think about right now.

Gaomon: “It was Master who came up with the strategy!”

Tohma: “A saviour…”

Tohma was watching bitterly from the moment Baromon heaped all the praise onto Masaru, but it’s Gaomon who actually voices that Tohma really deserved the credit. It seems that Tohma’s also still kind of wrapped up in his own kind of dad issues. Because Masaru has the unquestionably awesome father, apparently that means he gets to be the one who’s praised for everything, even things he didn’t do, and that’s just how having an awesome dad works…?

(It really isn’t, Tohma; Masaru needs to stand on his own merits, and Gaomon is right to point out that you deserved the credit here.)

Meanwhile, at Kurata’s camp on a nearby hill, Nanami is observing ElDoradimon’s location through a telescope.

Nanami: “That’s the best strategy that can be made out of their current condition.”

This begins to highlight the issue with Tohma’s “perfect strategies”. They’re not unconventional or unpredictable in any way; they’re the single most optimal thing that can be thought up. Which means that anybody else who has a similarly good head for strategy can look at the situation Tohma is in and predict the exact strategy he will use before he even uses it.

Nanami remarks that someone smart must have come up with this, and Kurata tells her it’s got to be Tohma.

Kurata: “By merely judging from his IQ, you can tell that Tohma-kun’s intelligence is beyond that of an ordinary person’s.”

This might just be a subs thing, but the “merely judging from his IQ” bit always bugged me. What do you mean merely; judging someone’s intelligence is the entire point of an IQ. You can also judge Tohma’s intelligence from, I don’t know, his PhD and medical license at the age of fourteen, it’s not hard.

It's notable how Kurata refers to Tohma with -kun, which, considering Tohma is much younger, is probably a looking-down-on-him thing, despite having addressed him as “Doctor Tohma” to his face a few times prior to this.

Kurata: “He is most commonly categorised as a genius. Yes… Just like you.”

Nanami: “Hm? That sounds interesting.”

And here we finally get told about the obvious parallel between these two. Nanami has, on more than one occasion, made a point of going after Tohma during their fights, so I strongly suspect she’d already picked up on Tohma’s intelligence before.

She plays it off here like she’s only just realising it, but that could be because she doesn’t care enough about Kurata’s opinion of her to bother explaining that she’d already figured that out herself. Being a genius, she’s bound to be very used to having other people assume she hadn’t figured out something that was obvious to her from the start.

Kouki: “It doesn’t matter what they come up with. I’ll crush them with my own hands!”

Much like Masaru, Kouki doesn’t give a damn about strategy and insists he’ll win through raw power alone. He crushes an empty packet of potato chips as he says this to drive the point home (having been munching on them earlier in the conversation; again, the most disgustingly casual approach to genocide).

Ivan: “Garbage… must be properly disposed of. Those are the rules.”

This might have been a neat continuation of Kouki’s metaphorical chip-packet treatment, except for the fact that Ivan isn’t really the kind of person who would think of his enemies in this situation as garbage like Kouki basically does. And also except for the fact that Ivan then explains that he totally made a good metaphor but definitely isn’t saying this out loud oh my god please stop with this one-dimensional unfunny joke. I am so ready to be done with Ivan soon.

Kurata: “Anyway, there’s no need to rush. Don’t you think it’s boring to simply win? Since they took the trouble to defend themselves, let’s play with them for a bit first.”

Kurata is beginning to show signs of getting rather power-crazy. He started this because he’d genuinely convinced himself that he must destroy all of these horrible vicious terrifying Digimon for the safety of humanity. But now he’s not feeling like it’s urgent at all. He knows he has enough power to be able to achieve his goal in the end, and he’s started to enjoy the thrill of having that power over his enemies in and of itself.

As he speaks, we see an Igamon – one of Ikuto’s ninja friends he brought here last episode – floating silently and unseen over the camp.

Later, back in the Holy Capital, this Igamon has reported back about having found the enemy’s base camp, where all the Gizmon are assembled as well.

He also drew a definitely-very-helpful sketch of the human who was their leader. Masaru, Tohma and Yoshino stare at it in bewildered exasperation.

Igamon: “The saviour’s face is marked with sweat!”

Baromon: “Is the enemy that formidable?!”

I love that Igamon (and Baromon, apparently) have such faith in his drawing skills that they think the humans’ reaction is clearly one of great fear, and not anything else.

Tohma: “Igamon, was this man wearing a white robe and glasses?”

Igamon: “Yes. He was.”

Tohma tactfully finds a way to confirm whether this human was Kurata without insulting the poor Igamon’s artistic ability. He tried, bless him.

We cut to the humans and their partners gathered in front of a crowd of Digimon to give a speech about the upcoming battle. They’re all sitting in kinda throne-like seats, with Masaru’s being the biggest and fanciest because he’s the saviour’s son.

Baromon: “Everyone! As of now, we have an announcement from our saviour. Quiet down and listen closely.”

Baromon makes a point of grandly introducing the words Masaru is about to say. He (and Igamon just earlier) have also shifted from calling Masaru “the saviour’s son” to simply calling him “the saviour”. All of this can only be adding to the pressure Masaru feels to live up to his dad’s reputation here.

As Masaru stands up and clears his throat to begin the speech, he actually seems kind of nervous. Though he’s really good at speeches about his manly principles, those things are always very spontaneous in the heat of the moment. Doing this thing that is supposed to be a speech, in front of a huge crowd, a crowd who admired his dad and is expecting him to be just as awesome, is quite a different matter. It’s a little daunting to him, as much as he’s trying his best to hide it.

(Though, to be fair, all of them are blushing, even Agumon, Yoshino and Tohma. They’re all clearly feeling kind of awkward about being put in this position of such revered importance when they’re just here trying to help.)

Yoshino: “Don’t slip up, saviour.”

Since we know Yoshino doesn’t actually see Masaru as some grand saviour the way the citizens do, she clearly means this not as further pressure but as a light-hearted little tease at the ridiculousness of the situation, to maybe help Masaru feel a bit more relaxed.

Masaru: “We know where the enemy is located! Now we’ll march right in and bring Kurata down!”

This is… the entirety of Masaru’s “speech”. Really wasn’t something that needed so much hyping up from Baromon, and of course Masaru’s opinion would be as simple and straightforward as “we should charge in there and fight the thing”.

This elicits some confused mumbling from the crowd, as even Baromon questions that they’re going to make the first move. (Though I wonder whether Baromon is questioning the recklessness of it, or whether he’s only confused because he’d got it into his head earlier that it was “Masaru’s” plan to stay put and defend themselves.)

Ikuto and Falcomon, who are also here but standing off to the side for some reason (I guess Baromon didn’t have enough fancy seats), speak up to agree with Masaru’s approach.

Falcomon: “We’ve had enough of Digimon getting hurt!”

Ikuto: “Also for Mercurimon and Yukidarumon… We’ll end this fight quickly!”

At this, the crowd’s mood quickly shifts into cheering and agreeing. It’s pretty interesting how Masaru alone couldn’t inspire this attitude from them; it’s hearing Ikuto and Falcomon talking about it from a Digimon perspective, avenging fallen friends and preventing more deaths, that really gets the crowd on-side.

Tohma: “Wait! This is a trap!”

[the crowd’s cheers quieten into confused mumbling]

Masaru: “A trap?”

Tohma: “We were able to find their location so easily. It’s not like Kurata to be this careless. He must be intentionally using his camp as bait, in order to force us to divide up our troops. We should stay here for now and wait for the enemy to come to us.”

Tohma, as ever, has picked up on the more subtle strategies being used by their enemy, and is advocating the most careful, cautious approach. Everything he’s saying makes a lot of sense.

Revolmon: “That’s…”

Pumpmon: “You’re thinking too much into it…”

But to a crowd that’s just fervently got on board with the reckless gung-ho approach of simply charging in there and fighting and winning, it mostly sounds like Tohma’s trying to ruin the mood. It’s much harder to start cheering and getting excited about a strategy that comes down to sitting and waiting to be attacked.

Masaru: “I don’t care if it’s a trap! As long as Kurata’s defeated, the fight will end!”

Oh, Masaru. He didn’t realise it was a trap until Tohma pointed it out, but even knowing that, of course he doesn’t care. Of course he still wants to charge right in, because this is still the simplest and most comprehensive way to solve the problem as far as he sees it. They’ve spent so much time wandering around the Digital World trying to find Kurata, helpless to meaningfully protect the Digimon without knowing where the source of it all is, and now he’s right there, dammit!

Tohma: “Then you’re just doing what Kurata wants! He’s waiting for us to make our move!”

Masaru: “Then we’ll just go ourselves! You don’t have a problem with that, right?”

I really like Masaru’s approach to this. He and Ikuto (he puts his arms around Ikuto and Agumon as he says this; it’s pretty cute) want to charge right in at Kurata, and nothing will ever make them change their minds about that – but that doesn’t mean that Tohma can’t still do his own strategic defensive thing back here, right? He knows that he and Tohma have entirely different opinions about the best approach to this kind of thing, so rather than insisting solely on his idea, he’s letting them both do their own preferred approaches. They’re not mutually exclusive!

As I talked about a fair bit in the early Masaru-Tohma rivalry episodes, the best way to strategise with Masaru in your team is to accept that he is never going to not be Masaru, and work around that. Tohma can do that. He’s done it before.

…Though, Tohma did make a point that Kurata’s plan is to make them divide their forces by having some of them run into the trap. Masaru and Ikuto are only a small group, but still, ShineGreymon and Yatagaramon are two of their most powerful fighters who won’t be able to protect the city because of this. I bet that’s on Tohma’s mind.

Tohma: “This isn’t one of your little school fights! If we don’t follow a strategy, we can’t protect the Holy Capital!”

Perhaps because of that, or because of the sheer magnitude of what they have to lose if they fail, or simply because he’s still frustrated about Masaru getting all the praise and attention just because of his dad, Tohma isn’t willing to accept this and let Masaru go do his thing so easily.

Masaru: “A good offence is the best defence! I’m going to kick Kurata’s ass and that’s that!”

[the crowd begins cheering again]

Crowd member: “Words of a true hero!”

Yes, the most heroic words: go fight the thing and kick the enemy’s ass. The gung-ho offence approach really is far easier for a scared and angry crowd to get behind. And Masaru’s their legendary hero(’s son), not Tohma.

(Though it’s still notable that it was actually Ikuto who really got the crowd on board with charging in in the first place, rather than Masaru. Yet they’re now unconsciously associating all of their excitement and fervour with Masaru anyway, because of course their saviour’s son is the best leader.)

Tohma stares at the crowd as they cheer for what he can’t help but see as the obviously stupid and reckless strategy that’s going to get them all killed.

Tohma: “Why doesn’t anyone understand?”

It really must be so painful and frustrating for him right now, knowing that he has the right ideas about this but feeling like nobody’s listening to him. And all because of Masaru’s reckless brute-force approaches, and because Tohma’s not the one with an indisputably admired father.

Yushima is here too, sitting off to the side. (He got a chair, for some reason, even though Ikuto didn’t.)

Yushima: “Well… It might be best to just go with the flow.”

Tohma: “No way… Even Yushima-san agrees with them…”

I don’t think that’s necessarily what Yushima is doing, actually. From the way he phrases this, it seems like he understands Tohma’s argument and agrees with the merits of his strategy, but he also acknowledges that right now, there’s nothing Tohma or anyone can actually do to change the citizens’ – or Masaru’s – mind and have Tohma’s approach happen. You’ve just gotta accept Masaru’s Masaru-ness and work around it, like I said.

But Tohma’s in such a state right now of feeling like nobody’s listening to or understanding his viewpoint. He can’t help but see this as Yushima – someone he thought of as pretty sensible and likely to see his point – agreeing that Masaru’s approach is totally the best one, just like everybody else.

Later, as the sun sets, Masaru’s little band of four gets ready to head out.

Masaru: “I’ll definitely have beaten Kurata the next time you see me.”

Yes. Definitely. Go in there, defeat Kurata, stop the genocide and save the Digimon. (And live up to his dad’s reputation.) It is very definitely going to be this easy.

Masaru: “So take care of defending this place for me until then, Tohma!”

Masaru – unsurprisingly – seems completely oblivious to all of the issues and frustration that Tohma has been harbouring about this. Sure, they had a bit of a clash back there during the speech, but they have arguments about strategy all the time and it’s never a big deal, so why would this be one? He’s counting on his friend and comrade to have his back, just like always.

Tohma’s eyes narrow just slightly at this, but not in an especially resentful-seeming way. Whatever he’s feeling here, he’s able to keep it mostly inside.

Tohma: “You don’t need to tell me that.”

This could read like a casual bit of banter between friends. But I think Tohma might mean it rather more literally in this instance. Masaru doesn’t need to tell him to do the thing that was Tohma’s plan in the first place. Tohma knows Masaru isn’t deliberately trying to steal his credit, but the suggestion of anything in that direction still frustrates him just a little.

Masaru chuckles, still oblivious to anything going on with Tohma and seeing this as friendly banter, and gives a casual see-ya.

Then he jumps down towards the Digimon-boat that’s already carrying the others, juuuust a little too late as it sets off, and lands in the water like a doofus, having to frantically swim after it to catch up. Our glorious saviour, everyone!

Tohma: “I can’t believe that reckless guy is considered a saviour.”

Gaomon: “I fear for the future.”

At least Gaomon can snark with Tohma about this, assuming this is just casual snark on Gaomon’s part and not him genuinely being worried about the outcome of this battle given Masaru’s recklessness. I’m not sure. Either way, Gaomon is always on his master’s side like the good dog he is.

Lalamon: “You think so?”

Yoshino: “I think the reason why Masaru continues to take such risks is because he trusts you, Tohma.”

Yoshino gets it! She didn’t say anything at all during their argument back at the speech, but she was paying attention and can see Masaru’s attitude for what it is, because she’s not wrapped up like Tohma is in the sense of inferiority it gives him.

Masaru really is genuinely trusting Tohma to hold the fort back here and isn’t doing this in an attempt to steal all the glory or completely ruin Tohma’s strategies – quite the opposite! Masaru and Tohma’s contrasting approaches can make them a really good team if they use both approaches in tandem while giving the other space to do his thing. Masaru knows that, even if Tohma’s kind of forgetting it right now.

At Yoshino’s words, Gaomon looks up at Tohma in surprise, like he’s only just realised this too and is hoping it’ll make his master feel better. But Tohma continues to stare doubtfully into the distance, unconvinced. Just like last time they clashed way back at the beginning of the series, his discomfort about all this isn’t really coming from Masaru at all.

My injured wings

will awaken a miracle

And I will flutter once again

And it’s opening time! I enjoy this first handful of lyrics from the new opening quite a bit. This sense of overcoming struggles and continuing to flourish even though you’ve been hurt, using the very part of you that’s been hurt, is an image that’s quite appropriate for multiple storylines in the later parts of this series.

Masaru: “Kurata! Prepare to die!”

Damn, Masaru’s feeling vicious as he and Ikuto and their partners rush towards where Kurata’s camp is. The actual Japanese line didn’t directly mention death, but from what I can make out, his phrasing is something in the direction of strangling, so, yeah, pretty to-the-point there.

Meanwhile over at ElDoradimon, Tohma and Gaomon watch as three Gizmon – just the Adult-level AT versions here – approach over the water. Stationed on the city walls, an assortment of Digimon with ranged weapons (why do so many Digimon have guns) fire at them and miss spectacularly, then some Igamon hiding under the water throw shurikens at them and take out two of them in one shot each. Baromon deals with the last one that made it through before it can reach the city.

That was pretty easy. In fact, going by the strength that a single Gizmon: AT was shown to have in episode 25 – one Adult-level held its own against DATS’s three Perfect-levels even before Kurata evolved it to Perfect – these Gizmon: AT here are significantly weaker for two of them to go down in a single attack from an Adult-level Igamon. So much for all those lines in episode 28 about how these new Gizmon are definitely a lot stronger!

We’re starting to reach the point where the Gizmon, including the XT ones soon enough, are becoming extremely subject to the Inverse Ninja Law: the more of them there are, they less of a threat they are. But if we think about it (possibly a little more than the writers ever did) that could make some kind of sense. Kurata mentioned that the one he had in episode 25 was made from modifying a bunch of regular Digimon to turn them into a soulless puppet. But once he starts mass-producing Gizmon, there can’t be that many Digimon that he was able to get hold of as a resource to create each and every one. So it just about logically follows that these mass-produced ones he must be using now, if they’re not made directly from mashed-up-Digimon juice, could be quite a bit weaker.

Regardless of all that, it’s also a thing that Kurata only sent in a handful of ATs just now when he has plenty of XTs lying around. Tohma says that this was just a probing attack to get a feel of their strength, and I guess we’ve got to go with that. I imagine the writers mostly wanted to show us a brief glimpse of something resembling the large-scale warfare that ought to be going on here, before Tohma spends the rest of the episode in a much more one-on-one kind of encounter.

Tohma: “The next place they’ll attack will be over there.”

Tohma’s referring to a waterfall at the edge of this elevated lake, the one point at which water is flowing out of it. Should the waterfall be destroyed, the lake will drain, and ElDoradimon’s current defence of being surrounded by water on all sides would be lost.

(It’s a little unclear in this episode in particular why this would be such a bad thing, because all of Kurata’s forces can fly over the lake anyway, so all the lake really provides the city is open space to see the enemy coming, which would work just as well with a dry open lakebed. However, the water being there is in fact a relevant factor that the Digimon side can’t afford to lose, as we will see next episode.)

Since the waterfall is such an important potential weak spot in their defence strategy, Tohma heads over to protect it. Alone. (Well, with Gaomon, but.)

If it’s so important, you’d think he’d want to bring a large amount of forces with him, to maximise their chances of defending it. But he doesn’t. I don’t think he even tells anyone else he’s headed here. Tohma’s perfectionism and insistence on relying on nobody but himself to get the job done is showing again, at perhaps the worst possible time. After everything earlier in the day with the citizens buying into Masaru’s approach over his and refusing to give him any of the respect he deserved, he doesn’t trust anybody else with this most important part of his strategy.

And also, now look who’s dividing up your troops, Tohma. The whole point of him protesting Masaru and Ikuto rushing off towards Kurata was that it would leave fewer powerful Digimon behind to defend the city, and yet now Tohma’s depriving them of the help MirageGaogamon could give, too.

Tohma: “Thank goodness. It appears…”

Nanami: “Nothing’s happened to it yet, hmm?”

As he reaches the waterfall, Nanami is here too, standing atop a tall tree for drama points, echoing Tohma’s thoughts. Being a genius like him, she predicted that he would come here for this exact reason and came herself to confront him.

Tohma: “Who’s there?”

Nanami: “Dear, dear. Have you already forgotten my voice?”

It’s really quite reasonable that Tohma wouldn’t remember her voice; the previous times the DATS team encountered the Bio-Hybrids, Nanami didn’t speak up that much and only interacted with Tohma in particular in any way in her Digimon form, which had a different voice. But apparently Nanami feels like she ought to be at the forefront of Tohma’s mind, just like he’s been in hers since she noticed he was a genius. (Has Tohma even noticed in turn that Nanami is a genius? I don’t think he has.)

Nanami turns to face him, rattling off his exact strategy regarding the waterfall and why he came here to protect it.

Tohma: “You were able to predict everything?”

Tohma appears a little stressed and caught off guard by this. He’s not used to people predicting his strategies – if someone can see right through it like that, it’s really not such a perfect strategy at all.

Nanami: “Anyone could see it, if they just gave it some thought. Wouldn’t you agree, Doctor Tohma Norstein?”

Clearly not just anyone could figure it out. But Nanami lives in a world where all these sorts of things are so completely obvious to her, and it’s so frustrating that nobody else can see it. Tohma here is one of the only other people who can, just like her.

(Tohma was almost having the same kinds of thoughts earlier, as the crowd ignored his strategy that was the obviously correct approach in his mind, and he hated the way that nobody else could understand that.)

Nanami: “I’m quite interested in you.”

Of course she is. Somebody else who gets it, who isn’t so frustratingly slow and stupid like the rest of the world, who might actually understand what it’s like to be her?

Nanami: “I wonder for how long… you will entertain me!”

That’s something she can entertain herself with. Though it is also interesting to note how she seems to be resigned to the fact that even Tohma won’t be able to entertain her forever, that sooner or later she’s going to grow bored of him, too.

At this, she dramatically leaps from the tree and floats daintily to the ground with her parasol that is definitely not actually big enough to slow her fall that much, but anime logic I guess. Landing behind Tohma, she suddenly goes for his head with a fast and precise kick, and he only just dodges out of the way. Nanami’s got herself some physical fighting skills to go alongside her smarts, just like Tohma!

I guess for the sake of making a mini-cliffhanger out of revealing Nanami’s badassery or something, we get a brief cutaway to Masaru’s little group. Some Gizmon: XT rise up in front of them, Agumon laments that it really is an ambush, and Masaru does not care and is ready to kick their ass.

Anyway, back to Tohma. Gaomon rushes at Nanami with a spinning punch attack, and she elegantly flips backwards out of the way. Mid-air, she lets go of her parasol, letting it fall into Gaomon’s face and block his view of her as she rebounds off a nearby rock and slams into his stomach with a kick. Some impressive tactics, as you’d expect from someone like her.

Tohma: “She’s reading Gaomon’s movements!”

Nanami: “It’s not that difficult. When you’re as smart as I am, you already know what he’s about to do.”

Again, Tohma’s strategies (and by extension Gaomon’s) are very predictable to someone like Nanami.

Nanami: “Nothing that moves within your hearts is left unseen to me. Absolutely nothing.”

Reading his strategies is really not the same thing as knowing everything he’s feeling. But Nanami’s a genius who always knows everything and is certain she’d also know about how a fellow genius would see the world, so she believes this, nonetheless.

Nanami: “But… There is one thing I don’t understand. Why… Why are you fighting?”

If there’s something going on in Tohma’s head that doesn’t match with how she feels a genius should see the world, it totally must be something that doesn’t make sense, something she needs to ask him about and figure out. It couldn’t simply be that, despite him being a fellow genius, he’s otherwise a completely different person from her.

Nanami: “The Digimon’s existence won’t bring you any worth. There’s no reason for a genius like you to fight them.”

That sure is not even remotely the point of the reasons one should have to oppose a genocide. Nanami genuinely doesn’t seem to realise this.

In fact, given his baggage with the Norstein family – we’ll be getting to that! Soon! – this lofty concept of “worth” is bound to be the last thing Tohma wants to be told he’s obviously supposed to care about. His expression as he responds to her is probably mostly horrified at her not getting why murdering sapient beings is bad, but perhaps a bit of it comes from how close to home that comment might have hit.

Tohma asserts that Digimon are friends who can connect with humans (as Gaomon makes it back to his side to agree) and that he can’t allow Kurata to get away with letting them suffer. Nanami stares at him for a moment, and then chuckles, before looking down at him in contempt.

Nanami: “How absurd. Did you think you could fool me with that ‘defender of justice’ talk?”

Tohma: “What?”

Nanami: “You just feel a sense of superiority from helping those who are weaker than you. Even when you’re executing DATS’s missions, the honest truth is that you’re only doing them for your own conceited self-satisfaction!”

(These lines are accompanied by this very fun shot of the camera zooming out from Nanami, showing her image reflected in Tohma’s eyes, and then zooming out further from him to show his image reflected in Nanami’s eyes in turn. It gives the impression that she’s looking right into his soul, that he’s the same as her and she knows everything about him. Kudos to the storyboarder for that one.)

It's really not that hard to accept that Tohma is helping the Digimon simply because he cares about them and it’s the right thing to do. That’s what any decent person would do, genius or not. So Nanami’s insistence that Tohma’s friendship talk must be a load of bullshit to cover up more selfish reasons really actually says a lot more about Nanami than it does about Tohma.

She has spent so long isolated from everyone else due to her nature as a genius, looking down on them all for being stupider and weaker than her, to the point that she can’t connect with and care about anybody else on a personal, emotional level any more. Giving herself a sense of superiority is the only reason she could ever conceive of for helping somebody else, so she’s utterly convinced that Tohma, a fellow genius, must see things the same way and have the same attitude.

But Tohma can’t see that she’s projecting. Her words rattle him, because it must not feel entirely untrue to him. As a genius who’s always the smartest person in the room, he probably can’t help but feel some sense of superiority to everyone around him in a certain way, even though he knows he shouldn’t. The Norstein family would also have drilled into him a certain idea that he should consider himself superior to anyone not of their noble heritage, to an extent. And he does care a lot about his own sense of pride and self-satisfaction, as evidenced by his insistence on doing everything perfectly. Enough of this is somewhat technically true about Tohma that it must be making him wonder whether the part where this means he doesn’t truly care might be true as well.

(It doesn’t, Tohma. You can have all of those mental vices and yet still care about helping other people who need it anyway, because you’re a decent person at heart.)

Gaomon: “Don’t make fun of Master!”

While Tohma may be frozen, not sure what to make of her words, Gaomon is such a good dog and immediately leaps to defend his master’s integrity – literally, as he throws himself at Nanami for a punch. She effortlessly blocks it with one hand.

Nanami: “What a boring attack.”

Seems like this outburst of Gaomon’s was complete Masaru-style head-on recklessness without anything resembling one of Tohma’s usual strategies behind it, if Nanami’s going so far as to call it boring. It’s pretty adorable that Gaomon got so heated about her insult to Tohma’s character that he charged right in without even thinking about being strategic.

In another quick cutaway to Masaru’s group, ShineGreymon (who evolved offscreen, hooray) dispatches the Gizmon. As Masaru celebrates that that should be all of them, some more Gizmon: XT rise up before them in a suspiciously similar way to how they did before. Masaru is, if anything, even more thrilled.

Anyway, back to Tohma again. Gaomon is still furiously leaping after Nanami, trying to punch her, but she barely seems to care about him. She dramatically falls backwards off a high rock ledge, away from Gaomon, to land next to Tohma.

Nanami: “Tohma… I understand your loneliness. The thirst in your heart that nothing you do can satisfy.”

Tohma: “What would you know?!”

Nanami: “I know. After all, both you and I… are of the same race. You can’t help but feel lonely, can you? After all, everyone else around you are idiots. There isn’t one person out there who understands you. Being a genius means being alone.”

Really, Tohma’s right. What would she know? She’s continuing to insist that because they’re both geniuses (she doesn’t mean “same race” in a literal sense), she definitely knows everything about he sees the world.

All of this comes with an extremely strong implication that this loneliness and lack of connection to all these idiots around her is a feeling Nanami is very familiar with. She’s just barely skirting around directly admitting that these are her own feelings, instead projecting them onto Tohma, but that’s clearly why she’s doing all this. There’s some actual sadness in her eyes there as she says that geniuses are always alone.

Nonetheless, this is still getting to Tohma, as evidenced by his expression here, and the fact that he flashes back to earlier events as she talks about this: his inability to convince anyone of his strategy as they all listened to Masaru’s reckless approach instead, even Yushima and Yoshino seeming to take Masaru’s side.

The inclusion of Yoshino here, from when she tried to tell Tohma that Masaru trusts him, is especially interesting, because in the context of Nanami’s words, it implies that Tohma saw this as yet another person not understanding or listening to him. It was really sort of the opposite of that! She was essentially saying that Masaru understands Tohma, in his own way, and in turn that meant that she did too! Tohma’s friends don’t need to be geniuses who can follow all of his logic in order to understand him and care about him, but right now he might be forgetting that a little.

Tohma: “In that case, let me ask you this. Why are you supporting Kurata?”

Tohma doesn’t appear to have a proper rebuttal to the loneliness thing right now, based on the fact that he changes the subject. I suppose this is somewhat related to the topic of being surrounded by idiots, but it sure is dodging the loneliness point entirely.

Tohma: “Why do you side with a fool who fears Digimon and wants to eradicate them?!”

I love this; it doesn’t take a literal genius, but Tohma is plenty smart enough to know that Kurata justifying his irrational fear and hatred of Digimon to the point of genocide is nothing but the behaviour of a huge moron. Yeah. Damn right it is. I also like that Tohma is trying to appeal to Nanami with this, even turning towards her and fervently grabbing her shoulder as he says this – surely she’s also smart enough to see what a fool Kurata is?

Nanami chuckles.

Nanami: “I don’t remember siding with him.”

Of course she’s able to tell that there’s no actual logical righteousness or justice in what Kurata’s doing, like he constantly insists there is. She certainly isn’t in this because she agrees with him.

Nanami: “Hunting for Digimon is just another way of passing the time.”

Gaomon: “What?!”

Nanami: “Like I said, when you become a genius like me, everything bores you.”

But she doesn’t care about the Digimon either. She’s so disconnected from everybody else in her little genius bubble that she doesn’t really care about anything. She’s just along for the ride, because she’s bored, and getting to turn into a powerful creature and defeat creatures from another world she’d never heard of before seemed more intellectually stimulating than anything else she could find. It’s a kind of horrifyingly casual reason for her to be participating in a genocide, but it makes a lot of sense for the person she is.

Nanami puts her hand over Tohma’s hand that’s still on her shoulder. Not to pull it away, but rather to keep it there, like she wants to hold onto this sense of connection between them (even though Tohma did that for an entirely different reason than what she wants this to be).

Nanami: “But now I’ve found something much more interesting. Will you join me, Tohma Norstein?”

Tohma: “What are you saying?”

Nanami: “Only a genius can understand a fellow genius. If you join me, changing this world to whatever we please isn’t a mere dream.”

Nanami acts like this is all about changing the Digital World into some sort of massive twisted playground for herself and Tohma. Heck, she drops that idea completely casually like an afterthought, still stuck on the idea that Tohma totally feels exactly the same way as her, as if this thing she’s thinking about as an ideal goal must obviously be what he wants, too.

But really, there’s no way Nanami wouldn’t be able to try and do this on her own, if she wanted to. Kurata is also quite the technological genius and has come this far with destroying the Digital World; Nanami, being even more of a genius than him, could totally go further, if she so chose. This isn’t about her not being able to do this without Tohma. It’s more that she doesn’t see the point in doing so without somebody to share it with.

Like she was insistently projecting onto Tohma, acting like it was only his problem and not hers, she’s lonely, desperately reaching out towards this one other person in the world who might actually understand her and be able to connect with her. The whole idea to take over the Digital World or whatever is really just an excuse, something for them to do with themselves for there to be a point in them partnering up at all. She’s only acting like that’s the main point of it all because she refuses to admit that this is all about her being hopelessly lonely and reaching out towards him for companionship. No. No way. She’s a genius; she’d never do something that irrational.

There’s a heartbeat sound effect as Tohma stares at her in horror for a moment. I don’t believe that he’s actually tempted by this offer for a second (though it’s possible, for reasons, that the writers could want viewers to at least consider that he might be). Rather, this is presumably him being taken aback at the sudden realisation of how utterly batshit this woman is, someone he was just a second ago trying to reason with on the basis that surely she can tell Kurata’s a fool. He’s probably also not all that happy about her casual implication that obviously geniuses like them should want to take over the Digital World and use it as a playground, either.

They’re interrupted by the sound of an explosion from the lake. Some of the Gizmon: XT are straight up self-destructing as a means of attack, taking out the Igamon stationed in the lake, while Ivan watches on, effectively acting like a general for the Gizmon army. Man, Kurata must have ridiculously mass-produced these things if he’s willing to throw so many units away so carelessly. There’s plenty of ways a Gizmon: XT could take out an Igamon – or most other Digimon in the city – without this. Like he indicated at the beginning of the episode, Kurata really is kind of playing with his food and flexing the confidence and power he has over them purely for kicks.

Hearing that this is happening, Gaomon suggests he and Tohma should head back to the scene of the fight to help.

Nanami: “That’s not the place for you to return to.”

What do you mean a genius like Tohma might actually genuinely care about protecting these worthless Digimon things, no, that can’t be right, as a fellow genius he’s definitely meant to be exactly like her.

Nanami: “Now, come with me. Let’s build a more exciting world.”

Still making it all about that supposed end goal rather than her screamingly transparent need for company. She also articulates the point of her goal to change the Digital World a little more clearly this time – she seems to think she can make it into something exciting that she can have fun with and never get bored again. (And yet that’d still be pointless to her without anyone to share it with.)

Tohma slaps away the hand that Nanami had put close to his face.

Tohma: “I refuse. I have a duty to protect the Holy Capital.”

Oh, Tohma, still always making things about duty. That’s not entirely inaccurate; he effectively kinda does (though really, not as much of one as Masaru does right now given the whole dad thing), but, did he need to put it like that? He could also just say that he wants to defend the city because he cares about Digimon. This is his choice, not just a “duty” that he’s obligated to fulfil. It’s very telling that it doesn’t occur to Tohma to frame things that way.

Nanami: “Even though you’re a genius… you’re a stubborn blockhead.”

Yes, clearly, if Tohma doesn’t want to go along with her and wants to keep defending the Digimon, he must actually be an idiot, for not choosing to do the thing that obviously any genius should totally want.

Really, for all she’s been insisting she knows everything about Tohma, she barely knows him at all. She knows nothing about his Norstein upbringing that’s given him this ingrained sense of “duty”, nor about his bond with Gaomon and DATS that’s made him care about protecting the Digimon. But no, it couldn’t possibly be that Nanami doesn’t know everything. She’s a genius, she’s always right, so he must be wrong, even if he’s a genius, too.

Nanami: “Then, I’ll just have to make you understand through force.”

That’s… not actually going to achieve the goal you want, Nanami. She wants a Tohma who agrees with her and joins her willingly, hence why she’s been projecting that that’s totally the person he is. Coercing him into changing his mind through force isn’t genuine co-operation. But she’s so desperate for his companionship one way or another, and/or so utterly convinced that her worldview is right and he’s just being stupid in a way that can totally be beaten out of him, that she doesn’t see that.

Tohma: “We’ve defeated you once. You can’t win against us now.”

Nanami: “Evolution isn’t your special privilege.”

I like Nanami’s line as she reveals that she can now evolve to a higher level, too. Of course she’d hate the idea that Tohma could have any reason to look down on her, to be more special than her.

Nanami: “Hyper Bio Extra Evolution!”

That’s the evolution call for their Ultimate-levels: same as before, but with the word “extra” added in there. They use exactly the same stock animation for their equivalent of charging a Digisoul as they had before. Conveniently, all three of these animations happen to obscure the characters’ mouths for most of it, so that they could be re-used for these new evolution calls without worrying about the different lip-flap. Clever animators.

And then she evolves into BioLotusmon, who is… a sexy fanservice flower lady. Of course she freaking is. Ugh. I really liked BioCoatlmon, a pretty, winged snake with a neat design that isn’t inherently feminine in any way. But nope, we couldn’t possibly keep her in a nice gender-neutral or even feminine-but-not-sexualised form for her Ultimate-level, not when she’s Female™, gotta get those boobs out.

She’s also really gigantic, unlike Rosemon, because this episode (her only episode) features her going up against MirageGaogamon. The writers obviously figured that’d look silly if they weren’t evenly-matched in size.

BioLotusmon: “Let me show you… my new power that is beyond the Ultimate level!”

Gaomon: “Beyond the Ultimate level?”

Don’t freak out too much, Gaomon, because I’m not sure I buy this. Granted, the Bio-Hybrids at their Perfect levels were noticeably somewhat stronger than a regular Perfect. But it seems that Kurata can only keep ahead of the ridiculous exponential escalation of evolution levels up to a certain point. Note how he very conspicuously has not created any kind of Ultimate-level Gizmon form, which you’d think would be the first thing he’d try.

Tohma: “We don’t know what her abilities are. Be careful.”

After evolving Gaomon, Tohma is continuing to be his usual strategic, cautious self. He likes to know his opponent’s skillset so that he can plan a strategy around that and doesn’t enjoy dealing with something he can’t predict.

Both MirageGaogamon and BioLotusmon have that teleportation-like level of speed as they dodge each other, but BioLotusmon repeatedly manages to get herself behind MirageGaogamon and create openings to attack, boasting again that she can read his movements. As Tohma rushes towards his fallen partner, BioLotusmon blocks his way and addresses him, and her face and voice melt away into Nanami’s.

Suddenly, things get very trippy, as snakes with Nanami’s upper body (featuring boobs, of course, that part is clearly very necessary; this is another episode with that Evidently A Straight Dude art style, sigh) float towards Tohma and coil around him. What really must be going on here is Nanami using one of her Digimon abilities to show him this as an illusion, smoothly enough that he didn’t even notice her beginning to do so.

She continues to try and coax Tohma into joining her, all while still making it about how Tohma is totally the one who wishes to no longer be surrounded by idiots and to be with somebody who appreciates and understands him, how the only thing going on with her is her boredom, how this is all about creating and controlling a new world. This is still very much actually about her own loneliness, but she will not admit that – not even to herself, I don’t think – and projects it all onto him.

For not the first time, she reaches out to caress Tohma’s face, which can’t be making him comfortable at all (though unwanted face-touching is really only one objectionable part of this trippy snake illusion she’s currently trapping him in). This lack of respect for his personal space is another sign of Nanami insisting that he obviously totally wants to come with her and couldn’t possibly be uncomfortable about this whole thing.

Tohma, again, firmly pulls Nanami’s hands away from his face.

Tohma: “I… I am not that self-conceited!”

I love Tohma putting it this bluntly, implicitly pointing out how conceited she’s being at the same time. Just because Nanami’s got it into her head that the best thing for a genius to do is take over a world and make it her plaything, that doesn’t mean that Tohma’s up himself enough to think he should, or even could.

Tohma: “There’s a source of power in this world that even I can’t calculate!”

Nanami: “Daimon Masaru, is it?”

Tohma: “That’s right. There are times when I’ve been saved by his abilities.”

Aww, look at Tohma’s faith in Masaru’s ridiculous unpredictable nature, still here long after he grew to respect it in episode 5, and even despite the niggles and jealousy that Masaru’s presence has been giving him lately. Genius calculations don’t always account for everything; sometimes it benefits to have the completely opposite approach. And Tohma is smart enough to understand that!

Nanami: “So you rely on something like him.”

Tohma: “Rely on him? Me?”

This, though, gives Tohma pause. For all of his faith in Masaru’s approach to things, he doesn’t like it being framed as him relying on Masaru. No. Tohma’s not supposed to need to rely on anyone; he has to be able to do things all on his own. That’s why he came to the waterfall by himself.

Nanami: “There’s no such thing as something beyond calculation. That’s just an excuse.”

Tohma himself would have said that at the beginning of the series, until the situation in episode 5 forced him to open his mind to Masaru’s unpredictable approaches. Nanami refuses to accept this because she hasn’t been in a similar situation with a similar person – and she probably never will, because she’s so completely walled herself off from anyone who isn’t as smart as her that I don’t think she’d ever be willing to give somebody like Masaru a chance, no matter the circumstances.

Nanami: “If you continue to stay content living with fools, you’ll only neglect improving yourself!”

Tohma: “That’s not…”

As if Tohma hasn’t been improving himself plenty since he started hanging around with Masaru and becoming more accepting to his kind of attitude. Tohma’s become a hell of a lot more open-minded and willing to try different approaches and work with others since then, and that’s nothing but a good thing. Tohma’s insistence on doing everything alone and sticking to rigid, logically-optimal, predictable strategies are his biggest weaknesses, as this episode has been illustrating!

(I’m not sure whether Tohma’s line is him struggling to even be able to articulate this himself, or whether it simply gets cut off because Nanami interrupts him out of refusing to listen to his side of the argument.)

Nanami: “Throw away your worthless friends and your insignificant self-satisfaction!”

Funny how the two things she’s telling him to throw away are actually kind of the two things she wants him to have more of. She’s asking him to become friends with her instead (but it’s okay, because she’s a genius and not a worthless moron). And she’s basically been telling him to have more self-satisfaction by lording their genius over an entire world with her (but that’s fine, because it’s the right kind of self-satisfaction, about geniuses being always right, not a kind of self-satisfaction born from humility and accepting that he doesn’t know everything, what kind of genius would ever do that).

There’s some more very creepy trippy stuff (what are those arms) as she continues to try and lure him in with her illusion – and then MirageGaogamon, the goodest dog, shatters through it while calling out for his master. Just before he tackles BioLotusmon away, we see that she was holding Tohma in her giant hand, confirming that yes, this was all some kind of power of hers and wasn’t just the animators deciding to be very weirdly metaphorical today.

Tohma’s breathing heavily as MirageGaogamon asks him if he’s all right. Yeah, not surprising that he’d be a bit shaken after that, even as he assures his partner that he’s okay.

In another brief Masaru cutaway, this time it’s Yatagaramon who takes out a Gizmon. And then more Gizmon rise up, in… oh dear, that’s the third time we’ve seen that same exact bit of animation this episode, isn’t it.

Ikuto: “What’s more, they keep showing up the same way like all the others!”

Ikuto actually lampshades this, which is pretty hilarious. Gotta give credit to the writers there; if their animation budget gave them no choice but to repeat this bit of animation multiple times to pad out time, the least they could do is have a little nod to it, as a way of saying, “yes, we know, we don’t like it either.”

MirageGaogamon: “Master, she can predict all of my movements. Please guide me through your orders.”

Anyway, back to the fight; MirageGaogamon doesn’t realise that asking Tohma to guide him is not going to solve this problem. Nanami understands the strategies of a fellow genius, so she’d be just as good if not better at reading Tohma guiding his partner than she is at reading MirageGaogamon alone. But MirageGaogamon is being a loyal enough dog that he believes the only problem is that he’s not clever and unpredictable enough, and surely Tohma will know exactly what to do to outwit her, because his Master is the best smartest person who never fails! What a good dog.

Tohma: “Attack Pattern! Gamma Formation 0.25!”

Tohma begins barking out these codenames for strategies, which is the kind of thing we haven’t really seen from him since the very early episodes when he and Gaomon were first introduced. This may well be the writers having awkwardly forgotten that Tohma even did this until it become relevant to the narrative of an episode again. But maybe we can charitably interpret this as Tohma having drifted out of using such unnecessarily elaborate strategies since he loosened up to Masaru, and now he’s slipping back into old habits because of the way Nanami’s been getting to him, or simply because he thinks Nanami is smart enough that he needs this kind of thing for once.

(Still doesn’t entirely answer how these codenames, which are evidently for things they’ve decided on and practiced in the past, can work with the new abilities that MirageGaogamon has only recently gained since his new evolution. Unless we want to imagine that during their implied long journey to the Holy Capital offscreen, Tohma spent some of that time drilling new strategies with MirageGaogamon. I bet that drove Masaru a little nuts.)

This particular codename appears to refer to MirageGaogamon rushing towards his opponent and then speed-teleporting behind them, before… completely ruining any element of surprise by calling his attack. I know that’s a thing Digimon are apparently obligated to do, but geez. BioLotusmon sees through it, of course, and we’re supposed to think of this as her having predicted the clever strategy rather than her simply having heard him yelling behind her and dodged in time, shush.

Tohma orders another attack pattern, and this one looks a lot more impressive, with MirageGaogamon moving fast enough to clone himself into eight, and then all of the clones attack in one movement that’s actually just a diversion for him to appear behind BioLotusmon as she dodges it. …Then he ruins it again by calling his attack. BioLotusmon turns around to block, seeming more impressed but not remotely to the point that she can’t handle it, and we’re still meant to be taking this as her figuring out the strategy rather than oh my god MirageGaogamon stop calling your attacks, okay.

(As she gloats, there is a completely unnecessary boob jiggle. Animator, no, stop it, you are terrible.)

What follows is what I interpret as a montage of MirageGaogamon loyally asking his master for more orders, which all repeatedly end in him being out-predicted and beaten down each time he tries one. We don’t see Tohma give the orders, nor the actual attack patterns themselves, but the shots of BioLotusmon attacking are cut together abruptly enough that it feels like a montage skipping bits in between, rather than that she’s simply beating the crap out of MirageGaogamon while Tohma stands there helplessly. Nanami wouldn’t want to do that; that wouldn’t be the fun way to win.

The point of all this, though, is that MirageGaogamon is such a good dog. No matter how many times Tohma’s attack plans fail to work and he gets hurt because of it, no matter how much more stressed Tohma looks as he pores over his digital organiser and tries to think of something better, MirageGaogamon stoically keeps asking Tohma for his next orders anyway, continuing to believe that this time, surely, his Master will think of something that will work.

As BioLotusmon kicks MirageGaogamon to the ground yet again, she decides she’s had enough entertainment and plants one of her staffs at the top of the waterfall, as a threat.

BioLotusmon: “If you join me, I’ll leave the waterfall alone.”

This is still her very much missing the point of getting Tohma to join her. She’s supposed to want him to join willingly, but if he did that, he wouldn’t care about the waterfall and ElDoradimon and this threat wouldn’t be needed. She must be getting desperate enough to have his company in any way that she’s willing to coerce him into it (after which, judging by everything we’ve seen, she will probably continue to fervently insist to herself that he totally wanted it and chose it for himself).

Tohma: (She’s predicting all of my calculations. What the hell should I…?)

Tohma doesn’t even consider the offer at all (of course he doesn’t) and is continuing to try and figure out a way to defeat her. An idea hits him, and he closes his digital organiser entirely before getting up on MirageGaogamon’s shoulder.

MirageGaogamon: “Master, it’s too dangerous.”

Tohma: “Just do it.”

MirageGaogamon: “Yes.”

Aww, what a good dog. He’s worried about the danger (to Tohma, rather than to himself), but he’ll follow his Master’s orders anyway!

MirageGaogamon begins to simply charge straight at BioLotusmon. She raises her other staff and fires a beam of dark energy at him, and Tohma orders him not to dodge it; he braces himself and endures the attack as the energy hurts both of them. (Tohma really did not actually need to be on MirageGaogamon’s shoulder for this and all that’s doing is getting himself hurt too, but it’s the spirit of the thing, okay. They’re in this head-on reckless strategy together.)

MirageGaogamon powers through the attack through sheer force of will, getting closer and closer to BioLotusmon until he’s right in front of her, at which point he knocks the staff out of her hand and fires his signature attack at point-blank range. No amount of strategy is letting her dodge that, and she was never going to be able to predict this. What kind of genius would make such a stupidly reckless move?

On her knees, defeated and about to devolve, Nanami struggles to make sense of what just happened.

BioLotusmon: “You plunged in while receiving my attack head-on… Just what sort of calculations did you use?!”

Tohma: “None. I just thought that if we got close enough to attack at point-blank range, we’d be able to pull it off.”

BioLotusmon: “I lost… to such a foolish attack…”

He didn’t use calculations! He did a Masaru! This is the exact kind of reckless, head-on, still technically a strategy kind of strategy that Masaru has been known to come up with to win fights before, and sometimes, it’s the right approach! Tohma is open-minded enough to understand that, which is more than can be said for Nanami. That’s exactly why she could never have predicted this and why this worked.

Just before devolving, as BioLotusmon screams in pain and sore-loser-ness, she lets out one last burst of energy connected to the staff she planted at the waterfall, causing it to explode. The waterfall is destroyed, and water begins flowing rapidly out of the lake, just as Tohma was trying to prevent. Tohma beat Nanami in the fight, but Nanami refused to let him have that win and destroyed what he wanted to protect in the end, out of spite. I don’t think she even really cares about how this is going to affect the ongoing Digimon war, now that she’s no longer able to take part in it. She just didn’t want to let Tohma win.

(But it was a legitimately smart move of her to plant the staff there to begin with, not only as a threat but also as a back-up plan should she happen to lose.)

A quick cutaway to Kurata shows him watching the water drain away, not caring that BioLotusmon’s signal is gone if she took the waterfall down with her. Masaru and Ikuto are apparently still busy fighting the endless identically-animated hordes of Gizmon on the way to Kurata’s camp. Kurata offhandedly comments that Kouki might not even get his turn to fight at this rate; Kouki does not seem happy about that suggestion.

Devolved, Nanami lies injured on the ground, her broken Digivice and the egg of her Digimon form lying beside her. I guess being defeated this thoroughly simply beat the Digimon data right out of her.

Nanami: “I… I haven’t lost to you… Because… What you used was… Daimon Masaru’s power…”

Man, talk about a sore loser. You’d think she’d be even more mad at losing to some reckless stubborn idiot like Masaru, but right now she’ll take anything to get one up on Tohma and feel like she at least hasn’t lost to him. But it’s all bullshit, of course, because Tohma’s open-mindedness and willingness to work with others and acknowledge more approaches than just the genius one are precisely the strengths he always had over Nanami, and those are his strengths, even if they involve other people.

With that, Nanami… to be honest, it kind of looks like she dies, and the show is pretty ambiguous about it for a while, but she will in fact be cameoing in a much later episode, so she’s actually just falling unconscious.

Tohma: “Masaru’s… power?”

Despite everything I’ve been saying here about Tohma’s willingness to accept Masaru’s approach being a good thing, Tohma himself has not properly internalised any of that. Especially not now, after all the doubts of his that Nanami’s words managed to dig up, and after this episode’s earlier events fuelling his jealousy towards Masaru. He doesn’t want to have had to rely on Masaru’s power in order to win. He’s supposed to not need to rely on anyone except himself, right?

Gaomon is a good worried dog but still isn’t talking to him about this stuff enough, leaving Tohma to just stew silently in his own emotions.

Tohma: “Why… do I feel so irritated?”

As ever, it’s not really Masaru he’s irritated by. Tohma doesn’t understand it because he doesn’t quite realise that he’s frustrated at himself, for his inability to live up to his own ridiculously high self-sufficient standards of perfection.

Overall thoughts

A really great episode among a string of just-pretty-okay-ones! This is easily my favourite episode in the Bio-Hybrids arc. Look at how many issues it’s full of. Delicious.

Even before we get into the main bulk of the episode, the beginning has some great stuff: painfully drawing out Tohma’s jealousy at Masaru for having an awesome respected dad, bringing back the clash between Masaru and Tohma’s approaches and laying on Tohma’s frustration at everyone favouring Masaru’s. This is not only fun in and of itself but is also setup for some Important Stuff to come soon.

Then, of course, there’s Nanami, who makes an excellent villainous foil to help us explore Tohma’s genius issues and jab at his doubts. Nanami’s also just a fascinating character in and of herself and easily the best Bio-Hybrid. She’s a terrible person, of course, but she’s complex and messed-up and all of her psychology makes a lot of sense for who she is. I love her blatant projection of her loneliness onto Tohma; it’s so screamingly clear that that’s why she’s asking him to join her, but she refuses to admit that and insists that it must be true for him. There’s also more fun Setup going on in this Nanami stuff as well, though I should probably restrain myself from indicating exactly what.

And I love the way that Tohma manages to win the fight by pulling a Masaru. It’s the perfect solution to defeat an enemy who matches him in the genius department, and proof that Tohma’s better than Nanami because he’s more open-minded than her. What’s even more fun, though, is that winning this way gets to Tohma, because what do you mean he can’t just rely on nobody but himself for everything. Refusing to rely on anybody else is also very appropriately the reason he failed to defend the waterfall regardless; things might not have turned out this way if he hadn’t insisted on going there alone.

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[Dub comparison]

#digimon #digimon savers #tohma h norstein #nanami #gaomon #masaru daimon #yoshino fujieda #baromon #akihiro kurata #the digivice old man

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