Digimon Adventure: (2020) Episode 61

Sadly this episode didn’t deliver as well as I would have hoped, but it at least touched on some things that I was hoping to see more of. It was a pretty simple episode of Takeru wanting to help Eldoradimon get back up onto the cloud continent… which honestly seemed like a near impossible task. Especially since Eldoradimon is this giant continent turtle that is trying to climb a freaking mountain that gets steeper the higher it goes. And when it showed Takeru trying to help by PUSHING it up I’m like: Child… I doubt Eldoradimon even feels you there.

The entire episode is just Takeru and the others pushing Eldoradimon up a cliff. But I do at least appreciate the fact that in Takeru’s episodes, he always inspires others to act. Though like I said in the last episode, they keep touching on things we already knew about the character and not diving too deeply into them as the original did. So I feel like the situation didn’t really help expand on Takeru too much. But looking back at how he started in the series, he does seem to have matured and grown into his own a little more rather than every other line being “oniichan.” It’s nice to see Takeru progress as his own person and doing his own thing rather than just being a satellite character around Yamato.

While they only scratched the surface, I do appreciate the fact they at least addressed why Takeru was doing so much to try and get Eldoradimon home. My heart did go out to him when he said he also wanted to return back to a time where his family was whole. THAT. That is what I’ve been wanting from the other characters. To see their character development connect with their backstories and life at home. And while it only dabbled a little into Takeru’s backstory, it still gave me an emotional reaction to him. It allowed me to see his driving force and really connect to Takeru on a personal level. I can SEE why he would want to help Eldoradimon return to a place he can get back to. I think a lot of people could relate to wanting to go back to a specific time in their life. I sure do. Takeru is still so young and to experience life in a divorced family must be so difficult for him. Especially when he constantly thinks back to the time when they were all together. But it takes such a strong heart to want to help others so they won’t have to suffer a similar fate of not having a place to return back to.

We run into the same problem with so many of the other episodes where the theme and circumstances are good, but the execution just isn’t fully there. I feel like they could have pushed the notion with the other Digimon having lost their homes from the Millenniumon fight further. Maybe a small flashback and actually SEEING the emotions the Digimon must have felt when they lost their homes. But instead, we were just TOLD about them and were never able to really connect with any of them. Which is a shame since I feel like it would have been a much more heartwarming scene if we were able to see their defeatist mindsets become determined not to have the same thing happen for Eldoradimon. Just another wasted potential for a great episode again.

Gravimon felt like a very obvious “tool” that would be used to ultimately get Eldoradimon back onto the Cloud continent. Which is a problem because he didn’t really feel like a character, just a way for the situation to be resolved. I wish we could have gotten some more backstory on this guy since he looked pretty interesting compared to all the other Digimon watching and loitering around. But man, when he granted Holyangemon and Takeru power to help Eldoradimon fly, I just lost it. The whole thing just looked extremely ridiculous, especially when they gave Eldoradimon wings to fly him back up to Cloud continent. I couldn’t even take the situation seriously because of how everything played out. But just like Angewomon, they hinted of a different Mega evolution waiting for Holyangemon. So I guess there’s that to look forward to.

The episode’s premise was painfully simple, especially when I had high hopes it would be a better episode due to it being a Takeru episode. Though I suppose it was a step up from the past few episodes since they tapped on something that I had been WANTING for a while. Sadly it was very brief, but even so, it still managed to flesh out Takeru a little bitand allow me to connect with him on a personal level. While I appreciated the theme this episode tried to portray, the execution was still lacking. At least I was able to see my mans Leomon and he’s still alive. So that’s good at least. Five more episodes left and it still feels like we haven’t hit the actual plot yet… that’s a problem. :/