This was a great episode. Though to be fair, almost all of the Hikari/Tailmon episodes have just been absolute bangers. I don’t like to hold onto any hope for this series, but thankfully they continued to pull through with another fantastic Hikari centered episode. Right off the bat, it felt a lot more enjoyable than the last two episodes. Mostly due to the fact that we returned to an already established place with familiar faces. Not to mention a call back to an episode that I really liked. And of course I mean Petaldramon. Because of the familiarity, I feel like there was a stronger need to want the kids to protect the forest. Can’t let Petaldramon’s sacrifice be in vain!
It was honestly great seeing how big the forest has grown since the last time they were here and it was even more heartwarming to see that Digitama were starting to grow in it. Thus bringing new life into the forest. However, when there is new life, new evils also start appearing to wreak havoc. I am extremely protective when young one’s lives are endangered so when the dumb Bakumon with hats, erm, I mean, Soulmon were preying on the unborn Digitama’s, my maternal instincts just went straight through the roof. Protect the Digitamas! But dang, the way the Soulmon disappeared into the forest while whispering curses at Tailmon was eerie as heck.
We definitely get a bit more characterization with Hikari. While I still feel we only have a surface level of knowledge about her, she is starting to show a bit more of personality as she seems to have taken on her brother’s determination to protect those around her. And I have to say I’m very proud of her for how she handled everything. For someone so young, she has a strong sense of duty and I can respect that. And I do really like how she and Tailmon worked together this episode and Hikari wasn’t just the damsel in distress. This is probably the most action oriented we’ve seen of her, even more so than the original series.
The stakes in this episode was incredibly high and unlike the past couple episodes, I was honestly really worried for Tailmon and Hikari. When I saw the title of the episode, I honestly got a bit worried Tailmon was going to be deleted and reverted to a Digitama. It felt like there were so many stakes in this episode that while I knew it was going to be okay, I was still held in dispense. Since we don’t want the forest to be destroyed, we want the Digitama to be all right and there was a real chance Tailmon could have gotten killed since they were not the biggest fans of the Holy Digimon.
Especially when they were just surrounded by an overwhelming amount of Soulmon. While Tailmon was able to fend a few of them off fairly easily, I was definitely worried whether she’d be able to handle that giant hoard of them. And then another freaking skeleton Digimon that sucks out life appears, Skullbaluchimon. After seeing that I literally was like: Can y’all life sucking Digimon just leave Petaldramon alone! Just let his forest live in peace! And judging from the sheer size of Skullbaluchimon, it most likely was a mega. So the fact that Angewomon was facing this thing alone along with all the Soulmon was incredibly worrying. Though I do wish they showed Skullbaluchimon do other things other than just stomp. While it did do that roar thing, it most just tried stomping on them and I’m like: Come on… they could have done so much more with that thing. What happened to it’s life sucking beam or whatever? Though I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised with them not putting much effort into the fights these days.
But man, I was seriously afraid of those Digitama being shattered when Skullbaluchimon blew Hikari and all of them away. Thankfully they seemed fine, but this episode did a fantastic job in building the suspense and making things feel hopeless. And I admit, it hurt seeing Hikari just helplessly trying to protect the Digitama despite her having little to no energy left. But when all home seemed to be lost, that cold Digitama hatched into a healthy Digimon. And I teared up HARD over that. It just felt like so much to have that Digitama hatch and that Hikari and Angewomon’s efforts weren’t in vain. And having that little guy hatch despite the situation inspired Hikari to persevere and gave her a reason to push through it all to protect the forest even more.
I do really like the interpretation of the crest of Light in this. Unlike the other crests, Light always felt super vague and they never really went into detail on what it represented. However, in this episode, they emphasize how their Light is to protect life. And it was rather touching for it to extend to leading Digimon to a new life through rebirth. Instead of just obliterating Skullbaluchimon and Soulmon into data particles, she sent them to become Digitamas instead. And it hints that there was good inside Skullbaluchimon that could have been corrupted but now gets a second chance.
Compared to all the other Mega evolutions, this was probably the only time where I really WANTED it to happen because I really wanted Angewomon to protect everyone. I’m a bit disappointed that it didn’t happen since it felt like the right time to do it. Though I am surprised that they hinted that Angewomon will take on a different Mega form as opposed to what she evolved into during the battle with Millenniumon. Maybe those God forms were a one time only thing? A bit weird, but so be it I suppose. All’s well that ends well.
I can always count on Hikari/Tailmon centered episodes to be top quality in the writing department. Sure it wasn’t terribly plot relevant (though who knows if it will be relevant later on), however I appreciate the growth shown in Hikari and that we get to see her and Angewomon completely dominate in their fight without anyone’s help and just getting to see the current state of Petaldramon’s forest. Also Taichi you really had no business being here again. Looks like Koshiro is taking the spotlight next episode and I’m sure to experience a drop in writing quality because all of it often goes to either Hikari or Takeru’s spotlight episodes. Not to mention it still irks me that they keep telling us the mega evolution in the title…
Hikari and Tailmon episodes never disappointed me. I’m so happy to watch this after so many lukewarm and so-so episodes. I gotta agree that I had expected for Angewomon to save the day with cool evolution or move. Still, this episode is satisfying. Proud of the light pair!
Am I the only one who has suspicion that the studio is playing favorites when it comes to character writing? In the original series, I always felt that Taichi, Yamato, Takeru, and Hikari were the ones whose stories were written much better and deeper compared to the others. In this series, the quality is even more evident if you ask me.
Yes, this episode was definitely a breath of fresh air in terms of writing quality after some excruciatingly basic scenarios that ultimately didn’t feel like much. I really need to rewatch the original series sometimes because I did feel like at least the cast had decent spotlight spread out amongst each other (definitely some more than others) and we at least got to know their circumstances and why they are the way that they are. Here, there is definitely A LOT of favoritism going on especially in regards to Taichi because he’s literally been appearing in every episode when he really has no reason to.