#s1act12

[letsrearise]

Season 1 retrospective part I: the most memorable adult evolution, Filmon.

As a way to celebrate ReArise’s Anniversary, I’m starting my retrospective series on season one highlighting its most memorable parts in order to cover season 2 later on.

ReArise’s season one scenario writing is mostly formulaic—it uses the basic format of meeting up with the focus character, having some kind of spiral encounter that’s resolved through fighting and some kind of highlight such as a new character introduction or a new evolution. That’s not to say it doesn’t seed its plot and lore—although the repetitiveness hurts lending the drop feed more interest. From the Tamers’ introductions that involved random digimon as collateral, there’s been hints to Herissmon's true nature and their affinity to Spirals; as well to the Spirals’ plans through them provoking digimon and manipulating both the digital points’ frequency and size (the most pointed case being in act 11, with Keito noting the weird expansion of a particular Digital Point). Which leads us to acts 12-13 being among my favorites in season one, since they take all these hints and escalate the situation in an effective, shocking way.

The end-of-act-11 cliffhanger revealing the spiral expanding the Digital Point is still around, coupled with the fact that the unusual electronic disturbances point at the movement of the Digital Points for their eventual convergence at the center of the city are both rewarding little ideas that sell a sense something bigger than usual is brewing, more so than your typical “Digital Points are increasing in frequency” talking point so far. The event ties the instability of the Digital Point to Tyrannomon, so we get a different main objective than simply destroying the Spirals in order to restore the space back to normal. Previous digimon encounters haven’t necessarily been friendly from start, but none were a serious threat to the Tamers themselves as much as to the digimon’s own safety, so it’s a fun tug-of-war between Spirals and Tamers to get to and pacify/subjugate Tyrannomon first (also, it’s nice to see the once-to-be mascot of the franchise get a lil’ hype as especially strong).

 We also get to entertain some kinda strategy from the Tamers, with Takumi dealing with Tyrannomon directly and the others offering support by clearing the Spirals. Agumon’s eventual request for their help in order to talk it out with Tyrannomon also provides a shake-up to the usual course of action. The Tamers clear a path for Greymon to get to Tyrannmon, who at this point is merely a rampaging beast… It’s a bit underwhelming as far confrontations go, but it’s also note-worthy as the first time ReArise puts reaching out to the creature lashing out at the heart of the debacle, something that gets much greater pay-off in season one’s own finale.

 Herissmon’s building sense of impotence through act 12 is good to anticipate their eventual evolution during this event, as well as valuable characterization setup for their constant ruminating and guilt through the last stretch of season one as the Spiral possession occurrences keep on troubling them. The Tamers’ initial hesitancy to simply destroy Tyrannomon isn’t too deply explored, but it’s nice to see echoes of it for when the possibility starts creeping as a way to deal with Herissmon themself later on.

 The end of act 12 is a great cliffhanger on its own right— just when it looks the tides have changed and the Tamers have successfully weakened and cornered Tyrannomon, the Spirals resonate with it and force a corrupt evolution that successfully integrates Spiral data. This finally puts into perspective all of the Spirals previous experiments and hints at their ultimate goal as well as it foreshadows Herissmon’s own eventual fate. Not to mention it was just cool. This fucked up egg is my friend.

Herissmon’s adult evolution being fueled by a desire to help their friends when they’re in a pinch and literally paralyzed is Digimon at its most classic. It’s not the most shocking of revelations, but it goes quite well with Herissmon’s character— their answers for the Spirals in the season 1 finale hinges on how much they cherish life thanks to their beloved friends, and this will continue being their core source of strength through season two. Herissmon’s deep love for its friends is even baked into the lore of its ultimate evolution, given that it can get a power boost from the emotions of its allies. That the spirals are drawn to Herissmon as well and it looks like they might try to force a corrupt evolution right there and then is the cherry on the cake adding a bit of a twist. All in, it’s the perfect scenario for Herissmon to evolve for the first time.

There’s genuine pathos in the way the Tamers note SkullGreymon’s pain over the forced evolution and MetalGreymon’s desire to keep on reaching their rampaging friend culminating in a bittersweet victory for the Tamers. It’s a bit of a waste this season doesn’t use this event to pivot to a more serious atmosphere, especially as we deal with its shadow looming over Herissmon and how it affects the other Tamers—particularly Takumi, but I still enjoy the tragedy of it as is.