#baromon | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

commentaryvorg · 3 years ago

Text

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

10 notes · View notes

jolteonjordansh · 8 years ago

Text

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

1 note · View note