Well, I certainly was correct from last week in saying that this episode looked like filler just from the trailer because it turned out to be quite filler-ish. It honestly feels like the show doesn’t know what to do with itself during down times in between the rising and falling action of the plot. Not to mention it’s reusing similar plot points… again. The episode even pointed out how the situation felt very similar. Just because you’re self aware of the fact you’re reusing the same idea doesn’t make it better. It makes it seem like they don’t know how to expand upon some of the characters so they have to resort to pulling stuff like this. I’m a bit disappointed because Mimi is one of my favorites and there is so much more to her.
When this series hits its high points, it HITS. But when it doesn’t know what to do, it just kind of flounders here and there. Which is a shame because they could have used this time to delve further into the human characters. They’ve shown me that they can make me care about their Digimon characters… now make me care about the kids! While I do like Mimi, I don’t feel particularly strong for her in this adaptation. Especially since they just touch on character points that have already been established. We know she cares about others and that she isn’t afraid to go out of her way to help others. And while it was nice to see that she views her “employees/servants” as friends and how she came to develop this mindset from how her grandfather treats his employees, it didn’t really add much to Mimi as a character. Especially with this coming off some great character developing episodes with Tailmon and Patamon, this one felt pretty weak.
While it was somewhat different circumstances with the Gotsumon having to work without break against their will, it was essentially too similar of a scenario as with the Tanemon from when Mimi was first introduced. Again, basically a similar situation with a different coat of paint. Especially when Mimi literally coerces Taichi and Sora (AGAIN) to help her out. Though now that I think about it, this episode basically felt like a combination of Mimi’s two focus episodes… Sigh… way for it to be even more ruined for me. Since her trying to protect the Gotsumon was like with the Tanemon and her protecting Golemon from an Ultimate Digimon because he’s her friend was like Guardromon and Andromon. Wow, this series really DOESN’T know how to expand on her character or isn’t even trying to at this point. JUSTICE FOR MIMI.
While I didn’t really enjoy this episode all that much, it still had some pretty funny moments. Like when Mimi proclaimed how she had dug a tunnel but Taichi muttered how it wasn’t her and Greymon pointed at himself. Patamon being the baby that he is by saying he’ll be sure to play with Takeru after Tailmon declared she’d protect Hikari and then proceeded to extend the offer to play to Tailmon. And the part where Togemon and Golemon were able to work out their differences with their fists. That part definitely got some chuckles out of me. And I do admit that Golemon was very cute (personality-wise) and I’m glad that he ended up being a nice Digimon. Protect him. I also appreciate that Gogmamon actually spoke and actually seemed to have a little bit more of a personality than a lot of the one-off enemy Digimon. And I think it has more of an impact for a Digimon that talks eating other Digimon as opposed to one that doesn’t. Since when the Digimon doesn’t talk, they just seem like wild animals. But here, along with the indications that Gogmamon has been eating Gatsumon was pretty chilling. I’m also glad that Greymon didn’t get ANOTHER evolution and was mostly put on the back burner for this episode. So there’s that.
Hopefully next episode will be a bit better, considering the preview showed that Joe finally made it out of the hot springs and Gabumon being freaking sacrificed?! Thankfully it seems like Yamato finally found someone and I do hope those two will have some great interactions because more often than not, Yamato just seems to ignore him most of the time. Though I can hardly blame him considering how this series chose to make Joe.
