I really liked Koshiro from the original series, but the 2020 Koshiro just feels so bland compared to what he was. I’m honestly a little annoyed that they’re not even trying to put any of the kids’ backstories into their development. That’s what made the kids in the original so interesting and relatable. I feel like Koshiro suffers a lot if not the most in this series in regards to characterization. While I feel like Joe has deviated a lot from his original self, at least he makes things interesting in this episodes. Koshiro on the other hand feels SO BLAND. Which is my biggest problems with his episodes. They just feel incredibly boring to me because Koshiro himself just doesn’t make things interesting. He just acts as the info guy who just relays things to the others while not having any interesting interactions with the other characters aside from Tentomon. Which is a shame because he was one of my favorites back in the original series.
Coming off of last episode, this episode felt a tad lackluster. Though I will admit it is hard to follow up on Hikari or Takeru centric episodes. But as I said before, I just don’t find Koshiro all that interesting a character in this adaptation so most of his episodes end up being rather boring for me. I feel like they tried to have similar stakes from last episode with a previous Digimon we’ve met be in trouble. However, Whamon never felt like an actual character, much less a Digimon that Koshiro bonded that much with. So emotionally, I wasn’t really feeling their connection as opposed to Hikari’s determination to protect the forest.
Koshiro is challenged by Nanomon who seems to view him as a knowledge rival and gives him several riddles to overcome to save Whamon before being eaten by Grankuwagamon. They just HAVE to insert the Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon rivalry in all of his episodes nowadays don’t they? The first time was fine, but the second time kind of loses the charm a bit and instead starts feeling a bit repetitive. Anyways, the premise of the episode was slightly interesting with Koshiro solving riddles. But the whole thing just felt a little too in your face at times with them pointing out the obvious wrong answers at the start of solving the riddle and making a big deal about it before being “WAIT, there’s something more to it!” I’ve seen this type of premise a lot in different medias and done a lot better than this. Solving riddles and mysteries are exciting, especially when they solve it in ways you weren’t expecting. However, every riddle they came across I was like: oh, they probably have to do “this.” Which kind of kills my investment in the mystery/riddle if the answers are more obvious than they are trying to make them out to be. Though I will admit the idea of turning Koshiro’s friends into Nanomons if he doesn’t find them in time was rather unsettling.
The only thing I like that comes from Koshiro is probably his relationship with Tentomon, though it most likely is due to the fact that Tentomon is a very interesting character on his own. Their partnership is rather precious with Tentomon helping to talk Koshiro through things when he gets too flustered and just being such a great support while also having his unwavering trust in him. Koshiro tends to lack confidence and doubts his abilities so Tentomon having his back and telling him not to give up helps build Koshiro up, pushing him to keep going and to not doubt his abilities. I mean, Tentomon even went as far as to go walk into fire because he was confident in Koshiro’s deductions. If that isn’t trust, I don’t know what is. Also the pat on the head Tentomon gave Koshiro was freaking adorable.
So far, I’ve been pretty disappointed with how the mega’s have been achieved in this series and HerakleKabuterimon was no exception. I feel like there would have been a bigger impact in this episode if we did delve into Koshiro’s past a bit more. However, without really getting to know Koshiro better (or the other kids for that matter on a more personal-level) or overcoming a character developing issue, the moral he learns ends up ringing a bit hollow. And the evolution just ends up being something entertaining than actually meaning something. Which has been a big problem in this series.
Though I will admit when Nanomon is released from Soundbirdmon’s control, it was rather cute to find that it was actually a fan of Koshiro’s rather than viewing him as a rival. Though it kind of starts making its behavior seem more like a stalker fan with how it was keeping tabs on Koshiro all this time…
It’s a little frustrating how slow this final arc feels, especially with how little episodes are left. Not to mention there have just been several episodes where it feels like we just wasted time. Overall this episode was fine, but nothing spectacular. It’s just a shame because they can do so much with Koshiro’s character, but they simplified him too much where he’s just kind of boring as a character. Well, it looks like we’ll be getting another Joe episode next week so it guarantees an entertaining episode at the very least.
