Digimon Adventure: (2020) Episode 46

While I didn’t particularly care for the Metalgarurumon episode (which is still a shame), seeing that this next episode will be an Angemon and Takeru focused episode, I was pumped. Especially since their episodes tend to be more plot relevant and they always seem accompanied by good writing. And boy was I not disappointed. Especially since it felt like we were getting plot progression rather than being stuck in filler purgatory.

As soon as I saw how giant the green-eyed ball Digimon I literally had to pause and go: Wait… isn’t this…? And I was right! It was freaking Sakkakumon (in the English Dub) from Digimon Frontier. I knew it seemed and looked familiar. As soon as it took the kids and sent them to a separate world inside its body, it confirmed my suspicions. Though I did look it up just in case and I was 100% correct. They really be treating the people who enjoyed Frontier, huh? (myself included lol) It’s very interesting to me that we’ve only seen the Beast forms of the Five Warriors of Evil. Though I do appreciate that not all of them seem to be evil, aka Petaldramon, the best one. Makes me wonder if we’ll see Gigasmon in the future… or any of the other Legendary Warrior Digimon for that matter. Though I doubt they’ll touch on the main character Digimon from other series.

Anyways, Taichi, Yamato, Koshiro and Takeru are all sucked into Sephirothmon’s world and while I don’t remember how Sephirothmon fought in Frontier, but it was very interesting how it did here. It’s very reminiscent of a mirror as it takes and reflects the data from a Digimon’s battle memory in order to consume them. We basically get to see a lot of past Digimon the kids have fought in the past and it was kind of cool to see them all again. Especially when Ogremon makes a brief comeback. I love the subtle detail of Greymon feeling a bit of sadness over seeing Ogremon again, especially with how his memory is basically being abused by Sephirothmon.

What is especially worrying is that the longer the fight goes on, it won’t be long until the Mega foes they fought show up. And while they do have Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon to fall back on, there’s probably still so much they can do if they end up outnumbered by megas.

When they took in Angemon’s reflection, my immediate thought was Velgemon… which was silly because of course it’d be Devimon. But that didn’t stop me from being surprised and I audibly gasped.  I just love how it showed the shift of Angemon becoming Devimon, because that’s literally what could have happened to him as they are a part of the same line. But that smile Devimon gave… THAT WAS SO CHILLING. I honestly didn’t think we’d get a continuation of this plot point. I thought it was dead. But I am INCREDIBLY happy that they’re finally addressing it again. And things became even more chilling when it actually took a solid form instead of the static-y form the other fakes take.

I was always curious as to what sort of past Angemon and Devimon had since Devimon constantly referred to him as “old friend.” We finally get that answered this episode. I think we all thought that Devimon was the one to personally put Angemon into the miasma or at least had something to do with his capture. Though it turns out that wasn’t the case at all. While I’m a bit disappointed that Agemon and Devimon weren’t ACTUAL friends, but two sides of the same coin, it’s still interesting that Devimon was birthed from Angemon’s shadow from being in the miasma for so long. Very similar to Darkknightmon and Angewomon in a way. So Devimon really was an actual representation of what Angemon could have become if he had lost all his hope in the darkness, his shadow. Devimon was Angemon’s weakness and was a representation of his lost hope.

Devimon brought up a very interesting point of the kids basically limiting their partner’s power. Believing that Angemon has all this power, but is shackling himself to the Takeru’s wishes, referring the Chosen kids as a curse. It was almost as if he was telling that if Angemon were free, he would have more power. However, Devimon’s lust for power lead to him being consumed by it and ultimately destroyed him. It brings up the question of “what exactly is true power?” But man, it did hit me a little when Angemon refuted that none of the Chosen kids are a curse, reminding me a little of this one scene in Assassination Classroom where Korosensei declares his students are not a weakness, but a strength. Same wholesome vibes there.

Angemon nearly finds himself overwhelmed by the darkness that Devimon slowly consumes him with, nearly killing Takeru with his own hands. And boy was it terrifying to see Angemon slowly start to morph into NeoDevimon. But man, gotta give Takeru props for standing his ground against Devimon’s words, risking being torn apart by his own partner. Takeru isn’t forcing Angemon to do anything, he’s trusting and putting his hope in him to not be overcome and prevail. The two support each other in different ways, showing that the partnership is not one-sided. They’re both bringing out the good in one another.

I honestly love the representation of Devimon becoming a part of Angemon. It’s like accepting the negatives in you but not letting it overwhelm or consume you. He took the negatives and made it into something positive. No one can be completely free from the darkness within yourself, however, it’s up to that person whether or not it becomes something that will ultimately destroy them or a reminder to continue striving forward, hope if you will. For Angemon, he took his weakness and darkness and transformed it into his Ultimate form, Magn- ahem, Holyangemon. And of course whenever the angel Digimon comes out for the first time, he’s going to absolutely wreck his enemy, slicing Sephirothmon into pieces. I also really like how the black armored arm became a permanent reminder of his weakness, the darkness that is always residing in him. I’m not sure if that was always lore for Holyangemon, but it’s cool that they added more significance to his design.

This episode was great. Yes, the situation is essentially another reskin of when Gato- Ugh, Tailmon’s episode of when she nearly became Darkknightmon again. But I do like the different take on it. Instead of overcoming the darkness and fear of evolving like Tailmon did, Angemon took that darkness and transformed it into his strength. The major theme of this episode was reflections and I just love how that theme was shown through Sephirothmon’s power and how Devimon was a mirror image of Angemon. Not to mention we alsofinally got the full backstory to the Angemon and Devimon relationship. However, it does make me wonder how exactly Angemon got into the miasma to begin with if Devimon wasn’t the one to put him there. Some answers gained, some more questions raised. But at least we got some well needed plot progression. Especially since the kids are getting closer to FAGA and Sephirothmon is still out there. I didn’t expect the other parts of Sephirothmon to take back the leftover data and restore the lost part of its body. Surely, this thing is going to be coming back in future episodes, especially since we didn’t experience it’s full power. Which is a scary thought.

The next episode looks to be another filler… which is disappointing since this episode was so good and teased us with actual plot. Though I do hope that it surprises me in a good way.

Also LOL at the size inconsistency on Angemon. He was first shown as to be the size of a regular full grown human man, then in one shot Takeru is literally the size of his head.. and then another shot shows him back to the size of a human. MAKE UP YOUR MIND LOL.