Digimon Adventure: (2020) Episode 34

Another great episode. While yes it could be considered filler, it felt like a very good world-building and relationship developing episode. Especially since we get to see more Digimon cities and more NICE Digimon which has been a pretty rare experience in this series. And it’s also nice to see the kids actually get a freaking BREAK. They actually got to spend some down time eating, sleeping and just relaxing for a little bit, which was a very nice change of pace.

The newest member, Tailmon takes the spotlight this episode and it was honestly great to spend some time to get to know her a bit more. And can I say that she has such shounen protagonist energy. It’s actually pretty hilarious.

Strong sense of destiny/duty: check

Desire to protect those she cares about: check

Rushes straight into battle: check

Learns the importance of not having to fight alone: check

Already, Tailmon is such an interesting character and it makes me really want to know what happened to her to become Skullknightmon in the first place. As she stated that she was basically just sitting in darkness for a long time until Hikari came around. And I appreciate this series actually took the time to develop Gato- Tailmon as a character along with her relationship with Hikari. Due to being possessed by the darkness, Tailmon exposed Hikari to a lot of danger, thus developing a strong determination to keep Hikari safe at all times, essentially being her knight in shining armor. However, Tailmon and Hikari seem to have very different views on their newfound partnership. While Gato- Tailmon wants to keep Hikari safe, Hikari just wants to be by her side no matter what. This obviously becomes a conflict between them, especially when they really haven’t figured out how their partnership even works yet. And honestly, it’s cute to see their small interactions with each other and just showing how much they mean to the other.And while they had their obvious conflicts, it was still cute to see how much Tailmon admired and looked up to Hikari’s kindness.

The kids find themselves in an underwater city after Komondomon took them into the ocean (to which surprised me that it seems to act as all sorts of vehicles and not just a pick up truck lol) on their way to FAGA where Millenniumon’s largest shard is located. And I’m sure that’s the place where all those alien-like Digimon are (whose name still escapes me). But anyways, while they were initially attacked, they were just on guard due to the ongoing turf war that has been going on with the Mantaraymon. And once they proved to be on their side, they find out that Marinangemon was the one protecting the city, another Holy Digimon.

Also can we just talk about how freaking SMALL she is??? I appreciate that they didn’t make her GINORMOUS just because she’s a Mega leveled Digimon. Though it is kind of funny that they made her smaller than her original appearances.

It is interesting to find out that the Holy Rings are the indicators of a Holy Digimon and I couldn’t help but snort when Takeru pointed out that Patamon didn’t have one and Patamon just does not seem impressed by this statement lol. He has one, Takeru. He just has it as Angemon. I am curious as to why a lot of the Holy Digimon have Holy Rings in only specific evolutions like Patamon having his ring as Angemon and Lopmon only having her rings as Cherubimon while Tailmon has it as early as her Rookie stage, Salamon.

We also learn a little bit of lore with how the Digimon living in the city were descendants of those who used to live on land, but retreated into the ocean during the war and evolved accordingly. It makes me wonder if there are more cities like this elsewhere and what else happened due to the war or how the war even started.

I’m glad we could finally see the kids get treated nicely for once and they were actually in a place where all of the Digimon were friendly and not just a few out of the many like what happened with the Woodmon. It felt very reminiscent of the original series and I appreciated that because the kids could finally just recuperate after what it seemed like DAYS of endless fighting. But also Komondomon who had been working hard since the day it started helping the kids. I’m glad it could get some well deserved rest.

Unfortunately, things can’t stay peaceful when there is an attack during Marinangemon’s moving of the underwater city. To which I was fine with because at least the kids and their Digimon are at full strength after a good meal and a peaceful night’s rest. Not to mention it wasn’t attacking the kids because they were there, they just happened to be there at the time of the attack. Anomalocarimon attacks the city and there they go with making powerful Digimon big again.

The kids help fend off the attacking Digimon and it was hilarious to see these light jabs from Tailmon were enough to completely obliterate the Mantaraymon. And you have to hand it to Tailmon for attempting to challenge an opponent over a million times larger than her own body. And I feel like Tailmon should count her blessings that she only got hit by lightning because if that thing actually moved its other body parts, she most likely would have been completely crushed into smithereens. You couldn’t even see where she was on that thing’s body with the camera pulled out.

While I still don’t care too much about Hikari as a character (especially since she still can’t seem to emote properly), I do admit her bond with Tailmon is very heartwarming. The fact that Tailmon had been calling out to her for help for so long made me so sad for her. Hikari was finally able to reach Tailmon’s heart and show her that they are partners and not a one-sided relationship where one fights for the sake of the other. And this moment felt so fitting for Hikari’s Digivice to finally form, signifying that they are officially partners and that their hearts have aligned with one another. And again, strap that freaking ost track to anything and I’ll get emotional. I do also like the little detail of Hikari playing with her cat before noticing the feather. Gotta love the little details.

But man, seeing Gato- Tailmon (I’m sorry, I really want to call her Gatomon because it’s just a more interesting name…) just punch Anomalocarimon so hard that it started cracking was just amazing. This small, adorable Digimon that amounts to just a speck on its body split open its shell with just her fist. I couldn’t ask for anything better lol.

Going into this episode, I didn’t know what to expect with Gato- grrrr, Tailmon‘s introduction but it turned out to be a pretty good dang episode. Tailmon is a great character and her shounen protagonist energy makes watching her so entertaining. I got a lot of things I liked from the Original series in this episode so I’m pretty satisfied with how it was done. Looks like next episode is going to delve into her past and I’m all for it because I’m pretty curious as to how she became Skullknightmon. Not to mention, it also looks like we’re going to get to see a fan favorite’s appearance~

Also random note, but I couldn’t help but get the idea that Patamon has some sort of crush on Tailmon from the way he reacted to her in this and the last episode. But he’s just too baby to be noticed by her lol. Don’t mind me and my headcannons~