This episode definitely was something. On one hand, I wish we knew Takeru and his Digimon partner a little more before this rather emotional moment happened. But on the other hand, it was still a pretty powerful and emotional moment. I really liked the change of situation in regards to Takeru and Angemon… despite Takeru not really having many lines besides the word “Onii-chan.” We don’t really know much about Takeru’s personality yet so I feel like the emotional impact of this episode regarding him might not have hit for people. It definitely hit for me because I’ve seen the original and know of just how a similar moment to this hit hard. They definitely wanted to keep the essence of the original Angemon sacrifice, but I don’t think they set it up enough. So I definitely feel like this moment was done mostly for the people who have seen the original for nostalgia (and pain) reasons.
In any case, this episode was pretty well written with the action, the stakes, the emotion, they were all pretty great, aside from not really knowing Takeru and Angemon before this moment. I think I started liking Yamato a little more due to his relationship with his brother. He desperately wants to be there for and protect him. He went above and beyond trying to get to him, even if it meant getting hurt in the process. And I am a sucker for scenes where someone pulls another out of some sort of surface after desperately calling for them. I’m eager to see how being part of the Chosen children and forced to take part in the dangers of the Digital world will affect their relationship.
Also, I feel like Velgemon’s attack that completely decimated Valvemon was TERRIFYING. It was nearly noiseless and just left a melted crater in its wake. And because how terrifying that was, I feel like it made me like Velgemon even more. Too bad he’s gone. Maybe I should just rewatch Digimon Frontier… ANYWAYS, I was a bit confused as to why Velgemon seemed so keen on collecting Takeru for Devimon. Unless it could sense the link between Takeru and Angemon, but maybe it will be explained later. (Unless I accidentally missed that information) I wish we had gotten to know more about Velgemon, mostly due to my nostalgia for Digimon Frontier. But I do hope we get to know a bit more about why certain Digimon work for Devimon. We got a little bit from Orgemon, but he was very short lived.
In any case, Angemon’s appearance and reveal as the Holy Digimon the kids were searching for was honestly amazing. However, there was definitely a bit of melancholy there as well since it was very clear that Angemon was at the end of his rope. My eyes kept drifting to that burn-like mark on his arm and if you look closely, the guy has cracks on his armor and just in general looked to be in pretty bad shape. However, even with what little power he had left, he was still able to save Takeru, heal the others’ wounds and give them a power boost to defeat Velgemon. As soon as I saw him starting to turn staticy, I was like: Are you really about to do this now? Are you really about to just die in front of the small child before he even really has a grasp of the situation??? ARE YOU REALLY DOING THIS??? Yeah, that moment was definitely sad, especially for the people who have seen the original. But thankfully, he only turns into a Digitama to be reborn again… only to be freaking captured again by… Meta Knight?
Honestly, the guy looks like a combination of Meta Knight and Arbormon from Frontier (will I keep bringing up Frontier, YES) He must be a big thing if they shadowed him in the previous episode and I can only hope that there’s more to his character rather than just being a story boss that will disappear as soon as they defeat him.
This series definitely is tapping into my nostalgia pretty hard with this current arc, even though it probably wouldn’t do too well for new viewers. However, it does seem like they might start tapping into the kids’ home life a little more as they showed a little of what Sora had to go through when she came home after being trapped in the Digital world for three days. Kind of shows what kind of household she’s in when her parent seems to reprimand her for her disappearance rather than just being relieved she’s alright. We also get a very vague hint of what Koshiro’s family drama. There isn’t much to go on since he didn’t really say anything about it, but he did look uncomfortable and sad when it was brought up. It looked like he really wanted to confide in Sora about his situation but was promptly cut off when Tentomon and the others showed back up again. So hopefully they’ll delve more into the kids’ characters, because I’d love to see how they develop more.
You forgot something major in that Devimons intends to raise Angemon’s Digitama to be evil, so the Chosen Ones will likely have to kill whichever dark Digimon that Digitama becomes, so it’ll be a very long time before Takeru and Patamon/Angemon fight together again. This is assuming the Chosen Ones don’t save the Digitama before Devimon corrupts it.