Alright, so this episode was definitely a step up from last episode since it actually had some plot relevance, even if it did still feel a little like filler. But at least it revolved around a Digimon trying to resurrect Milleniumon. It makes me think, WHY are these random Digimon trying to resurrect it? Are they followers from way back when? What is driving them to revive this freaking weapon of a Digimon? There are so many questions, but whatever. Now, I knew Digimon could get dark, but literally Satan sacrificing Digimon on crosses… GOODNESS. This series has not been shy about going into some pretty dark topics that would normally not be talked about in media like this. I know this series has already delved into sacrificing, but not like THIS. This was straight up a Satanic ritual and not gonna lie, made me a bit uncomfortable.
So Gabumon has been captured by Mephismon (who was the main antagonist in one of the Digimon Tamers movies) who plans to use him and a few Elecmon as sacrifices for one of Millenniumon’s shards. And not gonna lie, I feel like Gabumon felt a little out of character for a moment before he got separated from Yamato. He proclaims that he won’t leave the sacrifices behind, but we’ve never seen him so adamant about helping others. Sure he gently nudges Yamato to help others, but he’s never yelled out that they shouldn’t abandon anyone. That’s more Sora than we’ve seen Gabumon. So it did feel a little out of nowhere in that sense.
Joe finally escapes the hot springs and joins up with Yamato to help rescue Gabumon and I honestly wish we got a little more out of their interactions than what was given to us. I felt like this was the perfect time to really have Yamato and Joe bond a little more and build up a dynamic. But Joe mostly ended up being sidelined while he and Yamato did their own things for the most part. Yes, Yamato asked him for help, but it didn’t really feel that different from how he asked something of him back in episode 15. So that was a bit disappointing as the episode ended up being more about Yamato and Gabumon’s friendship.
I did like that this episode gave us a little more insight to Yamato’s character, even if just a little. Since it still didn’t introduce anything really new in regards to his character. Though if you ask me, it brought up more questions rather than adding to his character. But more on that later. So we finally get a bit on Yamato and Takeru’s home life with them coming from a divorced household, which is similar to the original, but it is a shame that they didn’t really show us some examples of that. And I’m still super disappointed with how not overprotective Yamato SHOULD be towards Takeru. I know I keep comparing the two series, but it’s really hard when one does something SO much better than the other.
Taichi brought up a very good question as to how Yamato and Gabumon met because we too did not see their first meeting. We’ve seen everyone else’s first meetings with their partner Digimon except for Yamato. I didn’t even think about that. Though it is interesting that he actually met Gabumon in his in-training stage rather than his rookie stage. While I still have questions, I thought it very cute how the two had a similar shot to when Taichi first met Agumon with them sitting and facing one another, as if they were looking at each other as equals right then and there. So that was a great character moment there for them.
And while Yamato is busy climbing a freaking mountain, Joe is… okay, not gonna lie, this part with Joe was really weird. When he was getting attacked by those stormtrooper Digimon, he just stops and sits down and starts spewing out a bunch of things he was studying and was powerful enough to combat Mephismon’s mind controlling power. That part just made me go: Alright, this is just nonsense. That moment really took me out of it. Not to mention, wow, those stormtrooper Digimon are such BAD shots. Joe was literally just sitting down, right in front of them and they still couldn’t hit him. And then they started viewing him as some sort of sage? Why does Joe have to have the most wacky, out there type of situations?
Anyways back to Yamato. I totally just spit when Yamato yelled out how Gabumon was his first friend. It was no surprise that was what he was going for, but the fact that Yamato has literally had no friends before Gabumon and Yamato is what, 10 or so years old? It makes me wonder what’s been going on in his life that he spent ten or so years without a friend. Like, no wonder the guy was super antisocial initially. Did his parents’ divorce have anything to do with it? How young was he when it happened? Like I stated earlier, I feel like more questions was added to his character rather than actually adding onto his character, besides him adopting Gabumon’s stubbornness to keep on going for a friend. Though I feel like the biggest problem is that we haven’t really been able be with Yamato enough to get more character development from him since the series since he’s spent too much time away from the group. So we weren’t able to see him develop a little more naturally. Which is a shame because I did end up really liking him and Gabumon’s bond. I wish we got to see more of it.
I was hoping we’d get a Metalgarurumon appearance considering it felt like it was leading up to that, but nope, I was disappointed yet again. Oh, well, hopefully we’ll be able to see Metalgarurumon some time in this series. I wonder if this was a warm up before his appearance. But considering Wargreymon is the only mega to appear in the opening, I shouldn’t get my hopes up too high.
Overall, it was a decent episode, though it brought to light some major problems I have with this series. Thankfully the gang is FINALLY back together (again) and hopefully will STAY together this time because I am so tired of them constantly apart from one another. Looks like next episode is going to be yet another filler because I feel like Joe is another one of those character this series doesn’t know what to do with. As soon as I saw the “fast-food” Digimon I just groaned since it reminded me of that dumb burger episode in Digimon Frontier…
