Honestly saying that GIFT has 3 episodes and Rose and co have 2 episodes so far is being generous. 1 of those GIFT episodes didn't have any actual progression, just a quick shot of the GIFT logo on a Sapotama. And the Algomon episode did introduce Brilliant Thorn... only to sideline them for a random child character so Tomoro could save the day.
That's fair. I am being generous. Unlike Tactics which went in swinging being about Tactics, the episodes have mostly been about something else with GIFT or Brilliant thorn tacked on. Makoto's episode was sorely needed, and did have to do with GIFT but as a background element.
Rose and her underlings respective episodes were little more than debuts. A first episode to get things started. Despite being 5 episodes in we havent gotten followup on anything. This is a big part of why Tactics feels so out of place, they shouldn't be back yet.
I am going to have to disagree that episode where GIFT just appears at the end doesn't count though. That episode counts more than any other combined. The whole episode is dedicated to the mysteries of GIFT and meeting Miharu. Even if we don't find out it was GIFT until the end doesn't mean we weren't learning about GIFT the whole time.
Helped us understand GIFT's ideology, MO and leader. And then proceeded to just have it be a background episode for 5 episodes.
Not because I don't like the Tactics kids (I love Hotaruko and Granit), but because I wasn't really sure if this was really what the show needed right now.
Partially because I feel that the GIFT arc hasn't really built up enough momentum. Excluding 33, we've had 5 episodes of GIFT and they've been split 3 episodes about GIFT and 2 about Rose. Which is fine, and I'm sure the plots are going to intersect, but it does feel like we're only a couple episodes into two different arcs rather than 5 episodes into this one. We're still learning about Miharu, Rose, Kanon and Meto. And we just learned about Maki and Makoto's backstories. Taking a detour back to a group we already spent an arc with instead of focusing on the current plot is a bit frustrating to me. I'd prefer if we'd check back in with Tactics AFTER learning the backstories of any of the characters relevant to this arc.
And partially because absence make the heart grow fonder, and while it HAS been about two months since we last saw the Tactics kids irl, 3 of those episodes were the interlude arc, so it doesn't feel like a lot has happened since we last saw Tactics. They haven't been gone long enough for me to miss them. I think they should have stayed gone for another couple episodes, but honestly it might make more sense here before things get serious.
And in fairness, Hotaruko and Granit haven't exactly been out of reach. The Glowing Dawn know where they are.
But we aren't even there right now.
Feeling like this episode is out of place could have been remedied by if GIFT had been the one targeting TT7. As it stands, the remnants of Tactics chasing them does make sense, and provides proper weight to the kids earlier decisions to stay in Tactics. There are consequences for their desertion that they are having to contend with.
Swimsuits are back. Debut of Makoto's.
Why is Tomoro wearing a sweatshirt in the ocean in midsummer?
As is giant Gekkomon who has swallowed way too much.
The beach shop seems weirdly nice for a temporary shop ran by the Kanuma's. How did this happen?
It's got deer imagery too, which matches the Kanuma name. So effort went into this set up.
The special shop on a quiet beach, and Raito showing up there is a bit contrived. Even Team 1 comments on them just happening to run into Hotaruko and Granit.
Tomoro staring at the "Guests" while simultaneously keeping Gekkomon out of sight without even looking is great. He's really getting a hang of this single teen parent thing.
Did Reina and Makoto really need to be written out of this episode. I know you already had a bunch of characters but like? It's getting to the point where Makoto and Reina barely have more focus than TT7.
Don't get me wrong, having Reina and Makoto out of the fight meant Tomoro had to fight a bit more cleverly. And in theory, it gave the digimon more time to shine as individuals. There was too many for them to really do anything of note but. In theory.
Or counterpoint I guess, did the Glowing Dawn need to be here at all?
I get that people in horror movies don't know they're in horror movies. But also, 30 Okonomiyaki? If they're a family of 8 that'd still be 3.75 okonomiyaki per person. And bring to the car? When you have a criminal history?
I wouldn't be going anywhere out of sight of my Digimon if I were them.
Interesting that Ludomon can take his armor on and off. I think that's good symbolism.
Granit built a shield around his strong heart as a defense mechanism. He can let his guard down now. But he still has the shield, the coping mechanisms, that helped him get through dangerous times, if need be.
Raito, I fear, its a bit too late to be pretending you don't care after the events of episode 24.
Tomoro continues to be easily baited however, so I guess it all works out.
Getting to see Team 1 is interesting. Of course there are other teams besides 7. I do think its interesting elaborating on the Tactics structure, even after they've disbanded. Just because Tactics is gone doesn't mean their consequences don't linger. I do think this is the kind of story that hits harder a bit removed from the Tactics arc.
But again, I think it could have hit a bit harder if I didn't feel like GIFT was just getting started.
Granit with the "Raito does that to everyone".
Obviously if this whole thing is just personal revenge against Raito, nothing against Hotaruko and Granit, Raito walking away easily makes the most sense. Like what's the point at lashing out at people who also had to deal with Raito.
Of course, rage isn't always rational.
Which ironically enough saves them a bit. As Raito is carrying the sole blame for Tactics disbandment.
Even though it was, in fact, all of team 7. And honestly more importantly the Glowing Dawn and Genjo's interference.
But, am I forgetting something? What did Raito even do? He got demoted to the colosseum? And then gave Tomoro a pep talk after breaking out of his coffin?
He did the least?
I kinda figure the abandoned town was because of the Kano island disaster. Living near the ocean is probably not as desirable.
And Raito is working with Honoka and Kaito? Interesting because unlike Rose and Klay who had their respective teams, and Genjo whose got the whole everything going on, Kaito and Honoka don't have much going on besides.
"Obsessed with Kyo" and
"Obsessed with Kaito" respectively.
So getting Kaito involved when them gives all three of them something to do.
Also, Raito and Tomoro rivalry.
Raito has been spending to much time with Kaito apparently.
Which. Eh. This isn't a sports anime. So… I don't… really… care, outside of that. Outside of maybe setting up Raito/Tomoro and Kaito/Kyo parallels. We've got way to much other stuff going on to invest in this as a genuine rivalry.
Overall, pretty decent I think. Just suffers from a lot of Beatbreak's usual issues (Odd pacing choices, somewhat contrived plot, hyper-focus on Tomoro).
Looking forward to seeing more of Miharu next week. And Reina focus?
It's always good to get returning characters. Cold Hearting really is a useful story telling mechanic. It allows us to just, kill off (almost) whoever we want, with the opportunity of getting the back later.
So we can just. Kill of minor side characters when they've served their use.
Also, after about a 15 year hiatus on doomed Leomon's, we're back with Panjyamon.
Overall, I think this was a really solid episode that developed an ever present cast member, provided insight into the history of cleaners and Digimon human relations, all while connecting back to the GIFT plot and the idea of a world where people and Digimon can live together, that was brought back to the forefront of the audiences mind after last episode.
Technically describing Maki as a former cleaner is misleading; her partnership predates the cleaner system.
As she predates the cleaner system, and didn't meet Kyo until after he retired, she definitely wasn't the former star of water, if there ever was one. Though it is implied Maki, and those like her, were doing work for the government even before the Cleaner system.
Her partnership with Panjyamon was somewhat like Haruomi and Elizamon's partnership. A digimon seeking revenge for their dead partner, and a Saponushi separated from their partner.
Maki having a copy of Nighthawks on her wall is fun.
I love young Maki's design.
Seeing under construction Shangri La eggs, and lines of houseboats was cool. Helps showcase the state of the world what was probably about 15-20 years ago. The titular rainy atmosphere really helped sell the melancholy vibe of the world post Kano island incident.
Interesting seeing the start of the cleaner system. Right after we interrogated it's effect on young Saponushi last episode, seeing it's birth is fascinating. Seeing it reiterated that the options for those who give birth to Digimon are to work for the government or be targets of the government is good to reiterate, after stories like last episode or whatever Haruomi is doing. I would like some clarifications on what is required of cleaners but the specifics aren't that important I guess.
Seeing Panjyamon reject the cleaner system to keep Maki out of it is nice. Panjyamon is regardless cursed to this life, but doesn't want to drag Maki down with him. Maki was willing to make this sacrifice for him, but respected his wishes. This relates to Chiropmon's arc about recognizing that he makes Makoto's life better, despite the fact that his birth removed Makoto from his family and their privileges.
Digimon being inherently tied to a life of violence is a reoccurring thing in Beatbreak. It reminds me of Tamers and the discussions of if digimon have to fight or not. It was a little different in Tamers, as that had more to do with the nature of Digimon themselves, rather than how humans factored into that. But it's still interesting.
While Savers had a similar set up to Beatbreak, with those with Digimon partners being required to work with the government despite age and Masaru protesting about his little sister getting involved, I don't think it leaned as heavily into this as Beatbreak is.
Maki having a bunch of knives is cool of her. I like how the shaking knife in the flashback shows that despite it all, Maki doesn't really want to kill. Foiling when she goes for the kill against Curimon.
We've seen so little of Maki, and haven't seen her working on Nirinso, but finding out she too shares the dream of a world where Digimon can coexist with humans really helps contextualize her relationship with the Glowing Dawn.
Tomoro being the one to stop Maki was admittedly pretty good because:
1. Tomoro experienced something similar with the Digimon who Cold Hearted his brother
2. This violence on her hands was the exact think Panjyamon didn't want for Maki
Interesting that we still don't know who her original partner was after the end of this episode. This episode was entirely dedicated to her second unofficial partner. So there's still a mystery there.
To the surprise of (probably) no one, Miharu is the leader of GIFT. What is a surprise, is Mephismon. Mephismon's biggest outing is as the villain of the first Tamers movie. But just one-off appearances since. Mephismon is likely Miharu's partner. She does think that Tomoro is a good match for their groups ideals, but that's only true on a surface level.
Maki is adverse to killing Digimon too, this was just an outlier of personal revenge, not an act of violence born of disregard for the lives of Digimon on the whole, and Tomoro himself has also almost killed Digimon.
Tomoro isn't much less aligned with the system than Maki, the person she sent an assassin after. Maki's just a more willing and able to work from within the system. And Tomoro's priority is his brother, who Miharu almost had blown up.
Why was Miharu at the hospital? Scouting?
With the description "midsummer" next week, (Late July/August) it really is worth noting how little time has passed in series. The show started May 20th. Episode 12 was June 6th. Tomoro has only been with the Glowing Dawn for a couple months. We have recently learned that Makoto has only been around for a year himself, so despite Tomoro being new, the Glowing Dawn as a whole probably hasn't known each other for very long.
On one hand, that kind of explains why they don't all know a lot about each other. On the other hand, man the found family kicked in really fast for them.
It'll be fun to see TT7 next episode. I'm a little disappointed tbh, because I feel like Brilliant Thorn and Miharu still need a bit of time to shine before we get back to them, but it is what it is. I wouldn't be surprised if TT7 find themselves targeted by GIFT considering their past crimes.
Absolutely gorgeous episode. The stakes were high, the character of the week is charming. It's got a cute story. The visuals were gorgeous and thematic.
I've seen a lot of comparisons to it being like an OVA/Movie that digimon used to do, and I have to agree. It does however seem like there is some thematic relevance and will factor into the plot
To me… this is a lot like the Pandamon episodes, good and bad. Good in that it tells a solid one off story, good in that it is thematically relevant and really fleshes out the world.
Bad in that it's yet another episode about Tomoro/Gekkomon and a set of side characters getting a whole storyline when the rest of the Glowing Dawn is already extremely underdeveloped relative to their role in the story.
Honestly, the first thing I noticed this episode was Hitomi's face seemed off. Not a big deal, it just was noticeably off to me.
It was good to see Hitomi again though. Love that she and Tomoro hang out some times. Conceptually, I like the idea of Reina and Hitomi as foils in their roles in Tomoro's life. Hitomi as Tomoro's anchor to the everyday, just a normal girl. While Reina is part of the Glowing Dawn and is an anchor to the "other". Tomoro met both at about the same time.
Chihiro is a cute character. I have a soft spot for child characters, so it doesn't take a lot to endear me to them. Quiet child with a powerful digimon, so some broad Hikari similarities.
The bullying storyline is a good addition to Beatbreak's list of heavy topics. Beatbreak's signature lack of subtly is on full display here, for better or for worse. We don't really dwell on it, it's just the catalyst for Chihiro's issues. But Chihiro's issues are given a lot of weight.
While I think the fandom has had a lot of discussion on how messed up it is that child cleaners are a thing, I think this is the first time that the messiness of children being involved in cleaner business is brought up in show.
I've said it before, but it is very notable that Tomoro is the only member of the Glowing Dawn who hasn't been a cleaner since he was about 9. While we don't know the details of Kyo's childhood, both Makoto and Reina have had to grow up fast, even before they got their Digimon partners. Tomoro meanwhile was almost coddled by his family. Despite the fact that his parents were arrested when he was 10, he was able to go to school normally and was provided for well enough by his brother. Tomoro has consistently been shown to be good with kids, or at least shows a great deal of empathy for them.
So Tomoro expressing concern for involving an elementary schooler in cleaner business while the others see zero problem with it does track. They don't know anything else.
She does seem even younger than Makoto though.
Congrats Little Rock AR on being the location of a fictional historical anime disaster I guess. (Maybe? Honestly hard to tell. Oklahoma City maybe? That whole area at least).
But… alas… what DOES this episode have to do with anything outside of introducing Kanon and Meto.
Don't get me wrong, I DO see where this COULD be going, with Algomon potentially being the instrument that brings about the birth of the digital world in this setting. The theme of a place where digimon and humans can coexist has been a reoccurring idea, and the digital world seems like the natural conclusion of that idea.
But speaking of Kanon and Meto, they're fun, if a little one note so far. Classic butch x femme duo. A trope with its origins in the Takarazuka Revue. A little unusual in a shonen setting, but very common in shojo. Like Rose, they seem to be a bit more well meaning than Klay/Tactics. Though their methods don't hold up to the Glowing Dawn's standards, we'll have to see if they have a darker side.
Pomumon's evolution to Tropiamon was completely expected, we can probably assume it's Adult is Parasaurmon, though I wonder if we'll see it. I also wonder if we'll see it become BloomLordmon because of how strongly it matchs Meto's aesthetic it seems a waste to skip that.
Alraumon becoming Oleamon was a surprise. Primarily because it is a digimon I completely forgot about. A relatively new digimon, that hasn't been in anything aside form a monster of the week in Ghost Game and the Vital Bracelet. It's potential Adult is completely up in the air though.
This episode does seem to mark the first time Digimon have caused problems on a wide spread scale within the context of the series. Obviously there have been some large catastrophes before, such as the Kano island incident and whatever US issue they mentioned this episode. Stuff like this was brought up before with the MarineBullmon fight. But that was still contained to the Glowing Dawn's headquarters.
Despite the OVA like story, or maybe more accurately because of it, the episode felt weirdly underhyped despite this being the first fight with major implications on the public and the introduction of what may end up becoming the Digital world.
Murasamemon cutting the bus in half was certainly a unique way of dealing with the problem. It was cool though.
Interesting that Chihiro was told about Nirinso and intends to go there. Will she go there in a future episode? We shall see. It'd be a weird thing to leave the episode off on otherwise.
Though its also a little weird that Chihiro and the Brilliant Thorn have to share a debut episode if Chihiro has a role to play later.
Maki episode next week it seems! Yay! Perhaps we shall finally learn about her time as a cleaner and what brought it to an end. I'm still predicting she was the former star of water, and considering we see some ice digimon that might be evidence.
Makoto having a twin makes me wonder if Hotaruko's little siblings, Kou and Ao being (probably) twins was written with this in mind.
Cougarmon holding Gekkomon down was pretty funny.
Tsukasa and Makoto being raised as potential heirs supporting their father provides a lot of context for why Makoto is hyper-capable 10 year old. He's likely been raised his whole life to be the heir, and thus has had lofty expectations, including adult responsibilities, placed on him since he was a child.
Becoming a cleaner was, in a way, reclaiming his childhood and life from his family. He's still adultified as part of the Glowing Dawn, but he's also given the agency and freedom that should correspond to that level or responsibility.
Tsukasa's haircut is certainly something.
Tsukasa not knowing his brother joined the most OP bullshit Cleaner team out there. Which in fairness, Makoto didn't know when he joined either. Though, I wonder what exactly their father knows about it. He hired them because of Makoto. But if Makoto ran away how did he find out?
Tsukasa not getting along with Makoto isn't a surprise per se. Considering the whole Hotaruko parallel thing. But still. Ouch. Tsukasa is envious of Makoto, and probably has been for a long while. And he feels abandoned, probably in a darker reflection of Hotaruko's relationship with her family. Where Hotaruko was forced out to protect them, rather than because her family forced them out.
Hotaruko's family wanted Hotaruko home for her own sake. But Makoto's family seemingly wants him back more for what they can do for him.
"Ive put Tsukasa through a lot" Seiji says. Literally no one made you. You literally didn't have to do that.
"To keep the family from falling apart" he says. Literally not Makoto's job. He is 10. The adultification is extreme. The fact that Makoto tries to say he'll work harder so he can keep Chiropmon is just sad.
Interesting that Seiji doesn't even pretend to argue against Makoto being the favorite. He seems to sort of pit Tsukasa against Makoto on purpose. And then control Makoto through guilt. Golden child scapegoat sort of situation.
It's a bit interesting seeing a truly adversarial sibling relationship in Digimon. The most is manga Kiriha's silhouetted older brothers. Otherwise siblings get along well. I guess maybe Osamu and Ken but Osamu died so Ken just has to deal with that.
Makoto and Tsukasa being identical twins, I would guess the family was only planning on having one kid so there wasn't any complications for determining who was going to be heir. And then oops, there's two of them.
Tsukasa being the one to sell out Chiropmon to their father is interesting for 2 reasons. One, Tsukasa knew about Chiropmon, was he there when Chiropmon was born? And 2, that Makoto managed to keep Chiropmon a secret for at least a little bit.
Which… why have we not gotten flashbacks to the birth of any of the Glowing Dawn Digimon? We did for at least some of Tactics? Seeing the emotional incident that birthed the Digimon is such a huge character moment, its bizarre to not give it to us.
We got a hard date on how long Makoto's been a cleaner! A year! So since he was 9. Which lines up quite nicely with Reina's soon after her parents died when she was 8, and Kyo's ultimate by age 11. I stand by my assessment that with the exception of Tomoro, the Glowing Dawn is comprised of people who have been involved as cleaners since children. Which is probably unusual. The only other child (younger than 13) "Owners" we know of are, Yume, Haruko, Kaito, and Granit. Everyone else we know of was at least in their mid-teens (15+). While I don't think it necessarily means anything in-series, and between Haruko, Yume and Granit we have a good sense on what horrors Saponushi kids are subjected to so I don't think its lacking or anything I do think its a potential layer to the Glowing Dawn's dynamic.
Reina and Kyo don't really know any other way of life. Makoto does but he's still so young that the single year he's been a Cleaner is 10% of his life, and give it a few more years and he'll be in the exact situation as Reina. Even then, the life he had before had also adultified him to the extent that being a cleaner is an active lifestyle choice on Makoto's part and just as much a job as he had before. Even Tomoro who made it past 10 without giving birth to a Digimon had his childhood colored by his parents arrest and his glitchy e-pulse. The fact he wasn't adultified is purely because of the sacrifices Asuka made for him, guilt that weighs heavily on them.
Reina and Tomoro immediately claiming Makoto as their against his father was cute in a way. But also. Chill guys. This is something Makoto deserves agency in. Not for anyone else to decide.
Seiji threatening Chiropmon is kind of a rehash of the champion episodes. Which I expected. Good to reiterate. People continuously denying Chiropmon as Makoto's partner because it doesn't match what they perceive/want Makoto to be. And so leveraging the fact that having a Digimon is dangerous and making Chiropmon feel bad for dragging Makoto into the situation. (Metaphorically rebuking Makoto's inner self to try and get Makoto to be who they want). Meanwhile, it kind of speaks to how messed up Makoto's childhood was that being a cleaner with Chiropmon is VERY MUCH preferable to being with his family.
Makoto has a grandfather he was sent to live with. Interesting. But not as much as the vague sort of "I left my grandfather's to be a cleaner with Kyo".
Excuse me? The separate house where the grandfather lived outside the egg warranted explanation but not him meeting Kyo? Really doing a bad job of selling the dynamic and merits of the Glowing Dawn.
Makoto's desperate screams at Chiropmon to fight back were so good.
A new insert song for Makoto's perfect? Interesting. There has been a strange lack of music for a Digimon season, especially one NAMED after music.
Makoto and ScourgeChiropmon remind me a lot of Iori and Submarimon. Cute!
Plot is certainly happening in this episode, as the characters become aware of GIFT's name.
Although, I notice that the preview voiceover for this episode basically implies a scene we never see. Where Tomoro and Reina find out about Tsukasa. This isn't new mind you. Just kinda. Hmm. This show really likes just getting into the thick of things without any set up.
I little while ago I posted this about Reina's role in the Glowing Dawn. And I still stand by all of that, but I'd like to note that while Reina is an invaluable piece of the Glowing Dawn, the narrative doesn't spend any time dwelling on it (actually it doesn't dwell much on the glowing Dawn dynamic much instead as more of a symbol but I digress).
But what I was kind of waiting until the season was done to do was talk about the sexism at play here. And well. I've seen enough.
I think the first thing to note just so we understand what we're working with here, is that Reina is the Taichi to Tomoro's Yamato. I don't think I need to spell out the archetypes here. But Tomoro is clearly intended as a subversion to Digimon's typical protagonist.
When I say Reina is the Taichi to Tomoro's Yamato, this is not a surface level observation. This is not she's reckless red fire to Tomoro's edgy moon. SHE'S THE LEADER. At least of the kids. And she's the one with the aversion to talking about her issues while Tomoro (like Yamato) will scream them to your face. She's the one who takes initiative to go after their goal (bounties), while Tomoro fixates on his brother and his well being. Reina is emotionally unintelligent and often unintentionally upsets people. While Tomoro is sort of purposefully keeping people at arms length.
Tomoro and Reina as foils was set up early on, and then more or less resolved by episode 5. Which is a bizarre thing to do for a pair of characters whose dynamic strongly echoes that of the franchises golden boys.
But okay. Maybe the Taichi parallels weren't on purpose and they just kind of accidentally made a Taichi to fill the void on the team left by Tomoro being more of a Yamato.
How was Reina's character presented to us at first?
Making a female lead the experienced one while the less experienced male character is the one who gets to be the big strong hero is a well established (sexist) phenomenon. And it's well in play with Reina. But the thing that makes it particularly insidious here is that Reina isn't even the MOST experienced member of the team. That's Kyo.
Something sort of weird that I don't think means anything, but think is worth pointing out is Murasamemon is treated as Kyo's partner's default form. But it's not. It's Cougarmon. Meanwhile, Reina who started out at Adult, has her partner default be treated as Pristimon, Child, by the marketing. As if she really is on the same level as Makoto and Tomoro.
I easily accepted this facet of Reina's character for a couple reasons.
The fact that it places her at the center of the Glowing Dawn, see other post.
It's actually not unheard of for non-protagonists to already have Adult level when we meet, see Savers and Adv: 2020. Perfects and Megas are where the drama is.
The character bio description caught my attention, so it seemed she had some sort of relevance to fights already plotted out.
But the Glowing Dawn itself was NOT set up properly (A discussion for another time) and thus Reina's role within it left painfully unexplored.
Sure is interesting that the exploration of the Glowing Dawn as a group rather than individuals is minimal, despite it's importance to the plot narrative. And also that the character whose most central to the group dynamic/the character whose character revolves the most around the Glowing Dawn is the sole female member.
And the seasons that DO have main cast members starting with Adult, are seasons where Adult is reached within the first few episodes. It took until episode 10 and 12, and Adult episode was treated as a big deal. Reina didn't even get a FLASHBACK showcasing her Adult evolution. It does not count as an evolution. And of course, 30 episodes into a 48 episode season, we've seen nothing come of the "In an attempt to break through stalemates, she often runs out of e-Pulse and collapses."
Which is really weird considering often is used in that statement implying it is a regular part of the flow of battle for the Glowing Dawn. Being halfway through the season, without seeing this implies that the often was a lie, if we do end up seeing this at all. And not seeing it? What was Reina passing out during a fight going to put too much focus on her role in a fight? Would they have to actually make Wolvermon do something?
I had assumed, once it became apparent that Adult level was going to be a big deal (Both two parters), that Reina would be the first Perfect. While Beatbreak is able to be more creative with its pacing than a typical digimon season, not being bound by merchandising, to a certain extent that pacing IS used for a reason.
Reina getting the first perfect would make her the last kid to get an evolution episode, but the first perfect, in order to space out the fact she had one less evolution to achieve than the other kids. Sure there's still sexism to the fact she has one less, but it would sort of disguise it.
But that didn't happen. Nor did they give her any equivalent episodes, like, say a flashback to the founding of the Glowing Dawn to make up for Kyo and Reina's lack of Adult episodes? The closest Reina gets is in episode 15(Little Courage, the Taichi parallels continue), which isn't even about Reina, Pristimon just happens to give us some Reina lore here.
So, lets talk Tactics arc.
Logistically, Reina getting her perfect in the Tactics arc would have broken the level symmetry between the two teams.
Except, Reina's Tactics foil, Granit, was at a lower evolution stage. Instead of Reina getting an evolution herself, she played a key part in Granit's. Which I actually do like. That's a clever way of going about it.
Except… Reina herself is still stuck at the power level of an Adult. And as much as her helping Granit helps inform her character, her character development is still largely being replaced by a male character.
I've basically got mixed feelings on this because I do think Reina was treated about as well as Makoto during the tactics arc, maybe even a bit better. But because she lost out the worst in the Glowing Dawn arc (even Kyo got a focus episode with Nirinso), it's not enough to make up for that. She did get some focus early on, but that focus was split with Tomoro. Not her own.
Especially since on the Tactics side RAITO AND GRANIT GOT EVOLUTION EPISODES. Raito to Perfect and Granit to Adult. You know who we didn't get an evolution episode for? Hotaruko. I think otherwise Hotaruko is treated fairly, but even so. No evolution.
SIDE NOTE:
Raito I think is often regarded as the goggle head to Tomoro's "rival" but I don't think that accurately gets the full picture. It's very common for Digimon to split the "rival" into two. Or, rather my Digimon metanalysis hot take is that Ken is not a Yamato he's his own unique thing. Ken is the rival, Yamato is the lancer. Koji is Yamato, Koichi is Ken. Yuu is Yamato, Ren is Ken. Arata is Yamato, Yuugo/Yuuko is Ken. Rei and Yuujin are Yamato and Ken though I don't necessarily know which is which. Etc. Etc. Etc. My hot take is that Takeru IS IN FACT the Yamato of 02.
Please note I am not trying to oversimplify these characters into boxes. Just acknowledging that it is not uncommon for Digimon to use Ken as an inspiration in addition to using Yamato.
Raito has Ken parallels, in being a genius antagonist who is only trying to live up to that title. He visually, and with his digimon does resemble more of a goggle head. So I think if I were to put him in a box, I'd call him a Ken with Daisuke mixed in. A rival and a secondary leader.
BUT it does not help my belief that, Reina would be a better foil for Raito than Tomoro is.
I though it was kind of weird when Raito and Reina and Tomoro and Granit were paired together in episode 13. And those ARE the pairs with matching blood types. So it's not like this didn't occur to them.
Raito and Reina are both leaders, both desire the approval of their superior, Raito because he wants to prove his genius label, and Reina because she'd been abandoned so many times before. Both are collectors. Both claim to be more pragmatic than what they are, as both are actually pretty emotional. Neither is very emotionally intelligent. Raito gets in trouble for disobeying orders several times, and Reina despite her prioritizing her teams safety does ultimately go along with freeing prisoners easily enough.
Naito is abusive towards Raito. Kyo gave Reina a place to belong. Raito is the absolute leader of TT7. Reina collaborates more with her teammates who don't always listen to her. Reina takes responsibility for her mistakes and her teammates mistakes and celebrates her teammates successes. Raito blames his digimon for his own mistakes, and sees himself as not good enough.
Granit and Tomoro are both relative newbies, whose Digimon was born around the same time as the loss of a loved one. A loved one who had supported them though an underprivileged life-style. Granit had no where to go and was taken in by someone who sought to use him.
Tomoro was taken in by people who, despite grumbling by teammates for him to pull his weight, took Tomoro in for his own well being. Granit is emotionless, Tomoro's defined by his strong emotions. Granit habitually chews gum. Tomoro drums.
Now, I don't think the switch was a bad idea exactly. Tomoro catching Raito's interest, Tomoro probably not the best character to help Granit out. But it did come at the cost of letting literally anyone but Tomoro have some focus. Specifically Reina. As I said before, Reina is the heart of the Glowing Dawn. Tomoro JUST got here. So if we're doing an evil mirror team, wouldn't it make sense to make the character at that teams heart get focus? Even if Tomoro and Raito are still rival with each other, we could have still gotten some Raito vs. Reina leadership contrast to flesh out all involved parties.
We could have given Reina ultimate to go toe to toe with Raito, and then still let Tomoro have his big moment against Klay.
The plot of episode 19-24 could have certainly used a second draft anyway to streamline what was going on but I digress.
Where are we now?
The interlude arc gave us a Makoto episode, but not a Reina episode. Reina was arbitrarily assigned the ad-break card in Elizamon's episode.
And of course, Makoto got his perfect before Reina got hers. As of now, the single female character is the weakest member of the team. Even if this leads to a "feels unhelpful to the team" arc, (which to be fair, kind of has some set up?) would not erase the fact that that arc would be just a cheap justification for the female character to be weak.
Though… this arc is heavily focused on female characters. And I AM fully expecting Reina to get focus here. But you can't retroactively set-up a character. This is a broader issue I have with Beatbreak, where the show would be so much better if episodes 5-8 of the "Glowing Dawn" arc actually focused on establishing the Glowing Dawn. It wouldn't fix everything, but it would at least make many of the moments about the Glowing Dawn feel more natural and earned.
And I don't know. I think giving Reina focus in the "evil mirror of Glowing Dawn" arc would have made more sense than arbitrarily in an arc where the main villain and her subordinates are female. That almost feels more sexist than if they'd just made Hotaruko and Reina rivals. But the arc isn't over yet. So I'll reserve judgment until then.
My current crack theory/hope is that Reina has achieved perfect before but it was so traumatizing she hasn't achieved it sense.
Unfortunately, it's too late no matter what they have planned for Reina here. We are 30 episodes in. You can't have a main character go 30 episodes in a Digimon series without a single new evolution. That's where Digimon's bread and butter is.
Back during Savers Yoshino only got her Perfect evolution episode to herself, but had to share both Mega and Burst Mode. Tohma and Masaru got their own Burst Mode debuts and Ikuto got his own Mega debut.
Back during the Xros Wars era, everything was Red and Blue. They only released those two Xros Loaders, the video games were named Red and Blue. Sure Nene appeared in Red while Kiriha appeared in Blue. Kiriha got his theme color. Nene was hidden behind Taiki's Red. Nene if she got any sort of official acknowledgement was the Black of Twilight. Which was taken over by her brother.
Her digimon partner didn't get a golden evolution like Kiriha and Taiki. Sure, the narrative sort replaced that with a new Digimon. But that's still the writers covering up that she's not being given the same beats as the boys. That doesn't change the fact that the weight placed on the moment of a first new evolution is heavy and to deny that from a character is to deny them a big place in the narrative. Digimon is a toy franchise first. Denying them the gimmick is literally to deny them space in the franchise.
DENYING DIGIMON CHARACTERS, DIGIMON EVOLUTIONS, IS TO DENY THEM A PLACE IN THE FRANCHISE.
The franchise is literally built around this gimmick, if you have a character who does not do that gimmick, even if they hold an important role in the story in other ways, it is a blatant disregard for them on production side. They aren't worth their own episodes, their own stock footage, even the opportunity to be in the running for "Best evolution sequences" in the fandom going forward. They aren't worth spending time and marketing on. Regardless of the quality of an evolution moment, an evolution is a highly marketable moment. And it says a lot, who and who does not get these moments.
And in Beatbreak, it's apparently not the female characters.
And unfortunately, it's not the worst Digimon's ever been about it. The fact of life is I'm used to it. I am still quite fond of the Glowing Dawn and Beatbreak has a lot of interesting stuff to talk about. But one of those things is the frustration I feel about the mistreatment of the female cast.
Obviously, all the Survive kids are meant to reflect one of the 8 original Adventure kids. However, the characters aren't completely one to one, as each of the characters are in fact, unique characters in their own right. (Most evident I think is in the fact I'd assign basically every character except for Miyuki a different crest from their adventure counterpart). But they do echo the basic archetype of the role each adventure character played in the series. For the most part this is self explanatory, some more than others.
Takuma is Taichi
Minoru is Koshiro (Less obvious but that's a separate point)
Aoi is Sora
Shuuji is Joe
Saki is Mimi
Kaito is Yamato
Miu is Takeru
Miyuki is Hikari
However, Survive has 10 important human/digimon partnerships.
The sole adult of the group, the professor, even bares some resemblance to a rather important "old man" of adventure, Gennai. An old man who knows a lot of their situation, was involved in the "inciting incident" looks after the kids to a certain extent, but is rather unreliable and has amnesia regarding some very important things he should know. Of course original Gennai isn't even really human, and therefore doesn't have a digimon partner, (Jijimon also takes on some Gennai traits imo) but Akiharu I would still say parallels Gennai.
However, Ryo doesn't match any of the original adventure cast. But I think it is fair to say he resembles Ken. Ryo has a worm digimon. Ryo has a family member whose death deeply affected him. Ryo is grumpy and aggressive, while hiding a secretly gentler and hurting side. Ryo is self-destructive, at the cost of his partner.
Ryo can't be Adventure Ken really, because Adventure Ken doesn't really exist. But Ken isn't exactly an 02 kid in the way Daisuke, Iori and Miyako are. A reoccurring theme in 02 is the difference in outlook between the Adventure kids, the Adventure and 02 kids, and the 02 exclusive kids. And so Ken is in no way one of the original Adventure kids, but there is something to be said of the fact that his (executive meddling hellscape) backstory reflects experiences of Takeru, Hikari, more than it does the other 02 original kids. He even has an associated crest. In many ways, Ken is a retroactive Adventure character, without actually being an Adventure character.
Ken in the context of digimon Adventure 02 is very much so an example if a character like Takeru had been driven to the darkness, who then had to be rehabilitated by a set of characters with an outside perspective. Really that is what all of 02s Jogresses is really, the new kids helping the more experienced kids deal with their unprocessed issues. Miyako helps Hikari look out for herself, Iori helps Takeru stop lashing out in anger from keeping his emotions hidden, and Daisuke helps Ken see value in his own continued existence.
Which is why I think Ryo is a homage to Ken. It's not the "Adventure Ken" that theoretically exists, the little boy wondering around the digital world with Wonderswan Ryo or whatever did or did not happen in that unreliable backstory, but 02 Ken, the Ken after the trauma, who needs SOMEONE to connect with him to help save him. He's the sole character who is taken from 02 era rather than the first Adventure era. And 02's themes are in this character.
Ryo dies in part due to hopelessness and depression. He is unsavable the first playthrough. Unsavable in the initial adventure context. The original context where the focus is on survival and connection with your own digimon. Wormmon couldn't Save Ken alone. just as Kunemon couldn't. Both Wormmon and Kunemon die in desperate attempts to try and save their partners (really from themselves). But Ryo is saved from death when you can manage to become friends with him. When you connect with him, not unlike how Daisuke managed to save Ken. And from there, Ryo manages to save other people (Shuuji) from falling into that same despair, not unlike how Ken tried to reach out to the dark spore kids.
It's noteworthy that of the 3 initial endings, the moral route is the closest to the truthful route, but aside from Ryo and Shuuji has one key difference. It ends like the original Adventure did, the kids and their partners separating, while the truthful route has the kids and their partners living together, invoking the 02 ending.
While the Harmony and Wrathful routes do also bear a resemblance to 02's ending, just relatively less optimistically, Harmony and Wrathful routes involve the failings of personal connections. The failure to understand each other. Ultimately the truthful route resolves peacefully, even the big bad reconciling with his sister, no longer feeling the need to lash out at others. Ryo is the factor that takes this adventure and adds a bit of 02 to it, 02 in this context being the importance of connection. 02 being what makes the happy ending.
It's not a 1 to 1, after all, all of the characters are different from their adventure counterpart, and take pieces from one another. For example, its Minoru that has the parental divorce backstory, and Miyuki is a protective older sister to the professor, not a younger sister to Takuma, and the Professor is the most curious about the digital world's nature, and is the one with the digimon partner Gabumon. Saki is the one hesitating the most about going home at all rather than being the one to bring it up the most. I'd say Ryo also has elements of Joe in his fear of his partner and for being an unreliable older kid, and Shuuji has elements of Ken in his cruelty of Lopmon, and insistence on authority and desire to measure up against an older brother with whom he has a flawed relationship. Really none of these kids match up one to one with the adventure kids, and that's great, but I think it is fair to say that as far as analogies go, Ryo does draw from Ken.
02 is an extension of Adventure, and despite their differences in plot, theme and character arcs, no discussion of Adventure will ever be truly complete without discussing certain elements of 02 in relation to that, particularly 02s epilogue and what it means thematically. Ryo is a reflection of Ken, and how his story and needs were a reflection of the themes of 02, and how those themes were built off of the themes of Adventure. How Ken needed something that was not as prevalent in Adventure. Naturally, I think the "truthful" story of survive, would have to be a route that includes elements of 02 no matter how faithful it is to other Adventure themes otherwise.
The two mandatory deaths your first playthrough are Shuuji and Ryo. 2 of the 3 oldest kids. A big part of why Shuuji died is because of the tension born from the fact that as the oldest Shuuji was obligated to be the "leader" and he cracked under that pressure. The younger kids don't interfere because Shuuji is their upperclassmen.
Ryo is the one who saves Shuuji by reaching out to him, despite being an underclassman. Ryo is also an upperclassman himself to most of the cast and thus subject to some of the same social pressure (though not as bad as Shuuji).
Similarly, Ken is subject to a lot of pressure as a "genius", that keeps other people at a distance and his parents from worrying about him.
The 02 kids in general are pretty good about not worrying too much about social hierarchy and such. Miyako despite being the oldest gets a lot of support from the others. Iori despite being the youngest, does often get his perspective and place on the team respected. It irks Ken as the Kaiser immensely that Daisuke treats him like he would any other kid his age.
Ryo being a kid who breaks that social hierarchy and its expectations ties in well to being a character representative of 02.
There is something in the fact that instead of Hikari, Tailmon found Vamdemon, dwelling in the very castle that the chosen digimon originated in.
Because of course Nyaromon should have grown up with the others. She should have grown up playing together and waiting for Hikari with others who knew what she was waiting for and why. Tailmon shouldn't have had to grow up to be an adult while the others were still babies.
But if we're going with what ifs and should haves, then all 8 of them should have been at that castle, but with the Agents to teach them about what they were meant to do. With their tags and crests, and knowledge of their meanings. With knowing not just who they were waiting for but why.
In the end, Plotmon found where she was supposed to be, but none of the people who were supposed to be there, were there.
Do you ever think about if eiji knew he was gonna have a little sister. His mom was pregnant and had the baby in the digital world, so wiji probably thought he also lost the little sister he was about to have...
Eiji is like. An evil terrible combination of takano miyo from hit vn higurashi and amlathus from hit game xenoblade 2. Its like. Diabolical how fucked up that guy is....and even then he stilled tried be kind! (Sara...i think, and probably takumi- tho he still treats him like shit- but acts relatively normal in truffle) but then he would go around and use the people he was kind to....omg disorder man i need to shove into a trash compactor
Eiji unknowingly went against his mothers final wishes in going against Mon. And then goes against his mothers wishes by banishing himself. Only one of the siblings happy at a time.
Do you ever think about if eiji knew he was gonna have a little sister. His mom was pregnant and had the baby in the digital world, so wiji probably thought he also lost the little sister he was about to have...
Precure has yet to have sibling cures as part of the same main team, but Precure rarely even has siblings who are of similar ages anyway.
Main Precure tend to be between the ages of 12-15 (6th to 9th grade), unless they are magically aged up. With, a few exceptions of older cures (Moonlight, Macaron, Chocolat and Butterfly) and one younger Cure (Muse).
Precure do not usually have siblings between these ages.
The only exceptions are: Miki, Akane, Aguri, Hana, Emiru, Ciel, Lala, and Nagisa. Which is 8 cures out of of 89+.
Not that low statistically, but Ryota was actually in 5th grade at time of his debut, and 2 of these are midseason cure sibling villains so are plot important for other reasons, and of the remaining 5, 2 are from Hugtto.
Notably, most of these siblings are brothers, who until very recently were disqualified from being Precure on a meta level, with the very notable exception of Hana's sister Kotori. (And Regina, who is sorta the same person as Aguri anyway. Kinda).
Ryota as a 5th grader is pretty stand out, as technically I don't think any other Cures OR siblings are 5th graders except for maybe Nao's oldest younger sibling Keita. But as a two year long series, he ages up into this demographic of "potential cure age", only being a year younger than Hikari. But because Nagisa is herself on the upper end of "potential cure age range", he still firmly maintains the role of much younger sibling within the series.
Miki's younger brother by one year, is mostly treated narratively the same as a much younger brother. He's somewhat sickly which makes Miki protective of him, and due to their parents divorce they're inclined to make the most of the time they spend together. The only main difference is that due to their similar ages Kazuki is able to pass as a boyfriend to ward off unwanted male attention.
Akane's younger brother by one year is really of note for how little note he has. Not an older sibling to aspire to, not a much younger sibling to protect, and honestly they don't even have that vitriolic a relationship like Nagisa and Ryota.
Regina and Aguri aren't technically twins, but are basically twins. Rio and Ciel ARE twins. Regina and Rio are both villain siblings. Both actually do adopt Cure like roles post series, but are never quite given the official cure title. Circumstantially driven to the villain side, Regina and Rio are both major characters but on the antagonist side. The similarly aged sibling is used for mutual drama on both the side of the Cure and their sibling. They're largely extensions of their Cure siblings character. Rio plays a major role in the birth of Parfait, and as two halves of the same heart Regina and Aguri's characters are literally intertwined. These are the closest we've had to sibling Cures though, but they never officially were given Cure titles.
Lala and Lolo's relationship is somewhat opposite of Rio and Ciel where the younger, less successful twin, became the Cure. Also, Lolo's not a full fledged villain, just briefly, accidentally antagonistic for a couple episodes. Lolo is narratively treated similarly as a older brother to Lala due to his success compared to her. However, because its one of the few sibling reveals, it's able to actually do something with the premise of Cure with older sibling, where Lolo learns what Lala is truly capable of. But Lolo spends most of the series in space away from Lala, so we don't actually get a lot of their dynamic outside of the focus arc.
Which ultimate leaves Hugtto as somewhat bizarre in regards to Precure sibling dynamics. Until Tsubasa, Emiru was the only 12 year old cure. Which is quite frankly is an odd place to be because she's just shy of being in middle school with the other cures, but is too old to really be "team baby" like Ako is. Tsubasa the oddness works because the whole team is wildly varied in age. But its especially odd since Emiru is the same age as Hana's younger sister, Kotori. The only Cure Sibling to be in 6th grade, (with the exception of Ryota who aged into that grade) and also notably a sister, so qualified to be a potential Cure on a meta level, especially since the one who DOES become a cure is her classmate. (And her classmates Cure partner lives with her?)
Speaking of Emiru, her older brother is on the upper edge of this "potential cure age range". He is in the same school as the other Cures. Which, is an interesting dynamic that has never been reused. He's actually the same age as Nagisa in Max Heart, as Emiru is the same age as Ryota in Max Heart. Which is notable because of Hugtto's extensive use of All Stars elements. Nagisa and Emiru interact a decent amount, which I imagine must be kinda weird from Nagisa's perspective considering how otherwise violently protective she is of Ryota and how much she treats him like a child. But then again, Hikari IS only a year older than Ryota… but also Hikari plays support for the most part and is mostly protected by Nagisa and Honoka.
Now, Kotori is not the only sibling to a Cure and classmate to another Cure. That honor is also held by Momoka and Souta. Momoka whose classmate Yuri, became a Cure alone, several years pre-series while she was still of "potential cure range". And Souta who is a boy and a few year below "potential cure range", but his classmate Ako became a cure, despite being below "potential cure range" at least in a meta sense, because the plot of Suite Precure revolves around her family. But Ako and Yuri are classmates with another cure's sibling, because it highlights the unusualness of their situations.
Both Souta and Momoka are close friends with their Cure Classmate, and thus important parts of their Cure Classmates characters. Kotori is friends, though seemingly not that close, with Emiru.
Ako being the youngest, not magically aged up Cure, and the same age or younger as several cure's siblings I would imagine would be pretty funny in All-Stars contexts. Ako's a pretty mature 9 year old on account of all the trauma, and has some innate magic on account of being Princess of major Land. But she is still otherwise a normal 9 year old girl. She's the same age as her own teammates younger sibling, but due to her basically running circles around them causing problems, they recognize Ako as their teammate. Ako's character is Suite is built around the disconnect between her being young but growing stern from her rough circumstances. But to the other cures? Cure Bloom? Cure Black? Cure Soleil? Cure Chocolat especially? She has to inspiring annoying amounts of "must-protect" instincts in many of the other cures.
But that really does make Kotori and Emiru all the more bizarre. There is no real reason someone does become a cure and someone doesn't in-universe of course. But from a meta perspective, Emiru is just slightly weirdly young for a Cure, Kotori is just slightly weirdly old for a Cure's younger sister. But neither is really that unusual. But what is kinda weird is they exist in the same series, so they're actually in the same class. Kotori feels she should have more relevance to the plot. She's the main cure's sister, another cure's classmate, lives with the villain turned cure, is the main mascots aunt (Who may or may not be from a timeline where main cure died?).
She does find out at some point, as does her mom AND grandmother at various points, but??? She feels like she should have been the Yui or Seiji of the team or something. As far as Kotori is concerned her classmate just hangs out with her older sisters friend group for some reason.
Don't get me wrong, being similar in age to Hana gives Hana and Kotori a relatively unique character dynamic as far as the franchise goes, and I do like their relationship. It actually reminds me a bit of Doremi and Pop from Ojamajo Doremi (but even then Pop did become a witch, even if Pop took a step back from Main Character status as the show added more main characters. Kotori doesn't have that same relevance).
But it is weird we haven't hand main Cure sisters on the main team, when at this point we've proven the concept.
I find it funny that Maki looks at these 2 teenagers + preteen asking for a job and goes, you know what's perfect for these guys. Complete and utter mystery bounty.
I mean she's not wrong. They DID take down Tactics. These kids are capable, and she would know that. But when she thinks "Completely unknowable enemy" she assigns it to this group of children.
I have a lot of thoughts about gender and this episode. Neither particularly positive or negative just. A lot of them.
Reina is very "not like other girls" here. Which is generally not cool. But also, it is Reina in a very specific context, that Reina specifically would probably not fit in. Putting characters in situations they are otherwise not well suited for is both good, and really easy to do with tomboy characters. But it runs the risk of sort of making girls generally out as "Frivolous and stupid" and Reina is better than other girls or the tomboy out as less of a girl for her lack of skill in stereotypical feminine activiites. Or, often somehow both at the same time which…
Hmm. I don't think this episode really negated too well.
Especially since Reina didn't meaningfully interact with female characters too much. Maki dresses her up as a doll, Rose takes an interest in her, and the other girls just kinda are there. But this could have been a fantastic opportunity to let Reina interact with other girls, or more accurately, normal people. That would have been a more meaningful dichotomy than Tomboy-Girly Girl. Cleaner vs. Normal Girls.
Tomboyish girl vs. stereotypical feminine girl is kind of a broad dichotomy so can be sort of applied to pretty much any set of character traits, but also breaking female characters down into this dichotomy for every time we parallel characters is kind of old. Maybe its the fact that I watch a lot of magical girls, and thus a lot of pairs of magical girls who are both feminine but set apart in different ways.
But I did generally have fun watching the episode and Reina's out of place confusion while at the fan meet-up. Her just absolute confusion at all of this, her sulking in a corner and just happenstancing herself into a cool rescue was pretty funny. And it is an all too rare treat to see Reina actually act as an experienced cleaner.
Reina is willing to throw hands and I love her for it. Please do that more. I wish she got to be more effective at it. But still.
I do think its… notable… that in order to get Reina to shine they have to separate her from her teammates. Both in episode 16 and now in episode 29. She can handle herself but she can't overshadow the boys I guess. I can clearly see her role in the team, they literally give her a description of her role in the team in her profile, but they won't let her actually fill that role in the team on screen.
I love Reina and Pristimon's complete trust of each other though. And the return of "When you want to chicken out, that's when you move forward".
I am intrigued by Rose being intrigued by Reina. Will we actually be getting more Reina here? Will Reina have an arc relating to Rose? Will Rose want to recruit Reina.
We get Reina blushing at Kyo complimenting her. Which its been a little while since we got that. Because despite Reina being more aggressive, she is still a "girl" and girls are into guys I guess. To be clear I don't think this is a bad trait for Reina to have. It does round her out and provide another layer to her relationship with Kyo. I kinda like that Reina has a little crush that she also recognizes isn't really going anywhere. So long as this is kind of the extent of it.
It's also VERY possible to read this as less a crush, and more not great at receiving compliments directed at her.
Also we don't see Pristimon as Pristimon fight that often, so that's nice to see to in its own way.
Cute seeing Makoto's love of horror movies referenced.
What is the deal with the whole silver thing actually? Reina stating she'll never be afraid of Vamdemon feels, weirdly personal. Is wolvermon actually that strong? Does Vamdemon specifically just have a silver weakness? I mean, Makoto did say a lot of the lore was made up by movies, but also Digimon come from the internet, and thus modern lore. Not actual, historical, beliefs.
And once again, why write Kyo out of an episode only to write him back in. In all seriousness, I don't actually have an issue with Kyo coming in at the end here. The implication being Makoto and Tomoro called him in when Reina lost contact. And its very possible Kyo would have never let the kids take this job. So I understand it. It's just sort of a reoccurring thing with Beatbreak's episode scripts that they just kind of go "Kyo is at Nirinso" to write him out of some sort of interaction the kids are having only to loop him back in for a fight scene that even when it's reasonable it feels cheap.
I don't know anything about Tarot to say anything about the meaning of the cards, but they are all cat themed which is an interesting little quirk.
Anyway, I DID like the episode. I just wish generally Reina was treated better by the narrative so this episode didn't have to carry as much weight as it did.
As for the preview, TWIN brother?? I have to admit, I saw the sibling coming, but I couldn't figure out if it was an older or younger sibling. I never would have guessed twin.
It kind of puts the description of Chiropmon as Makoto's mirror in a new light. Makoto DID grow up with a "mirror" of sorts. Makoto is used to coming as a pair. But also, Makoto leaving Tsukasa for Chiropmon? The name of the episode being "Wings to Protect You" and Makoto's feelings of reliance on others and feelings about "siblings getting along". It's all pointing to something, but Obviously there is more to this story and we will probably get it next time, super excited for that.
Though, if Makoto and Tsukasa are twins I would think we would have seen some evidence of Tsukasa before now? Same age as Haruko and Makoto, I mean I get it if Tsukasa was in a different class in school. But Haruko immediately knowing Makoto is Makoto and not Tsukasa Maybe facial recognition mistaking Makoto for Tsukasa and that's how Makoto got into Shangri La egg.
I'm going to have to go back and rewatch those episodes because an identical twin could recontextualize a lot of stuff. But also, once again, Beatbreak foreshadow your plot points better. Maybe you did, I'll look back on a rewatch. Maybe it'll make sense once I see the episode.
Is Makoto's family being targeted by GIFT for crimes related to Digimon?
Ryota, Nagisa's annoying little brother, being a 5th grader is honestly kinda funny because on one hand he is narratively treated like a child. Which dont get me wrong he is. But also:
This makes him a 6th grader in Max Heart and closer in age to Hikari than Hikari is to Nagisa and Honoka.
Which makes him the same age as Emiru in Hugtto, which does kinda track but, is extra funny because Emiru and Nagisa interact extensively and Nagisa at this point is the same age as Emiru's older brother.
Also the same age as Tsubasa "Royal Babysitter Knight" Yuunagi.
The same age as the protagonists of Digimon (another Toei production), at the time of Futari wa Precure's airing. Ryota has to be secretly watched as he takes a train, but the Adventure kids get to hitchhike across Tokyo with no adult supervision. 8 year old Takeru protests about his 11 year old brother accompanying him home. The whole premise of Frontier is a bunch of elementary schoolers, mostly 5th graders followed mysterious phone instructions to take trains to Shibuya alone. But Ryota the 11 year old has to be accompanied, even if secretly.
Doremi did a plot like this in the same airslot as Precure, 5 years earlier but the older sibling was 9, and the younger sibling was 4. Not to mention Doremi becomes a mom when shes not quite 10.
Ryota is treated a lot more like a child than a lot of similarly aged Toei children show characters. Which obviously has to do with the age of the POV characters of these respective shows being a bit younger. But the dichotomy is striking.
Recently I’ve been thinking about role the idea of roles plays in Appmon. As in, the different identities that the kids in Appmon assume over the course of the series. The roles that they are pushed into adopting by the circumstances (Minerva and Leviathan) around them. The way they accept, reject and integrate those roles into themselves.
Haru as the protagonist. Eri as the “Center of the Universe”. Astra pulled between his roles as the dutiful successor and the free-spirited Apptuber. Rei as gentle older brother and vengeful morally grey anti-hero. And of course Yuujin, custom made to be Haru’s best friend.
I think is the most clear example of what I mean is Eri. She was a reserved, lonely girl, before Minerva posed the question “Do you want to make someone smile”. And from there she took on the persona of “Center of the Universe” the last member of Appliyama 470.
When we meet her, she comes off as incredibly arrogant and full of herself. She’s shut Dokamon out. She has aggressively adopted her idol-persona as “Center of the Universe” in every facet of her self-expression, to the point it’s hard to believe she was actually very nervous at her audition.
And despite her dedication to the role, she slips sometimes.
And she always takes off her shoes before she stands on chairs.
Despite the persona she’s adopted, deep down, she’s actually a considerate person. She just isn’t willing to be that person at first.
The question Minerva posed, that sent her down a path pursuing idolhood, seemingly almost 180’d her personality.
She starts the show dismissive of Dokamon, and butting heads with Astra. But as the show progresses, she integrates the aspects of her true self with her idol-persona. She becomes affectionate with Dokamon and Astra. She can be genuinely supportive to her fans and gentle with Offmon. She gracefully accepts 8th place at her first (and only) Appliyama 470 election. She prioritizes taking down Leviathan over her career as an idol.
Her assertive idol-persona becomes less a conscious choice, and more a natural part of her identity, at the same time she becomes gentler even in her idol-persona. She grows into balancing the two together.
For Astra the split between his personas is very obvious. Unlike Eri who integrates them, the aspects of his personality don’t directly integrate. Astra is naturally a high-energy person, but his polite tea-ceremony self isn’t a lie either. Astra genuinely is the dutiful son who wants to support his dad and carry on his family tradition. But also a boisterous kid who likes to make goofy videos of whatever new thing catches his attention. His polite-restrained persona has no business in the world of Apptubing, and his energetic self has no place at a tea ceremony. He lives his day to day life freely, but is still capable of being calm and thoughtful when the situation demands.
The question from Minerva frees him from others expectations of him, and allows him to be himself outside of tea ceremony. This freedom leads him to getting attention and a sense of accomplishment completely outside of his families legacy. When this success is threatened, he throws his family legacy to the side to try and claw it back, throwing aside his sense of self, the very thing that Apptubing allowed him to embrace. While he never full on rejects tea ceremony, earlier in the anime he’s prone to over-selling his Apptuber persona, being more driven by ego and less considerate than he could be (though in fairness he is 11). Later in the anime, he’s shown to be capable of being more restrained and thoughtful, like when he sits down to talk with Eri about overworking herself.
The synthesis of these persona’s is best represented in the conclusion of his arc in episode 46. Astra rejects an aspect of his family tradition, training at the temple, as it interferes with his Apptubing. His uncle takes this rejection of tradition, as a rejection of tradition entirely and tries to force him back on track. But Astra’s Apptubing, though something he pursued for himself, is not without benefit to his family. As it is something that bring joy to his hospitalized cousin. A member of his family, the family who he wholeheartedly embraces tradition for. Though the persona’s themselves don’t synthesize, but the seemingly separate and distinct goals Astra has are brought under the same umbrella. If you think about it, his start point and his end point both involve him tossing aside family tradition, but at the start it was purely in the name of Apptubing, and not in the name of being true to himself. In the end it was so he could be his true self, but also being his true self still helped his family in his own unique way.
Rei is an interesting one, because the persona he adopts, the edgelord anti-hero to Haru’s protagonist, is not one he adopts out of choice, but because he feels he has to. Before Hajime’s kidnapping he wore bright colors and did house work. After, he wore dark, zippered up clothing, spent much of his time in dark rooms and stopped properly eating. He goes from a doting older brother focused on Hajime’s well being, to a vengeful brother, willing to torture Biomon for his role in what was done to Hajime.
The question Minerva poses for him, is the only question where the right answer is “no”. The question is actually prompting a rejection of the edgy persona. Later on, when Rei rescues Hajime from L-corp, the key to rescuing him is being goofy. A rejection of his cold persona. For Rei, the person he became after becoming an Appdriver, is not him becoming someone he desires to be, but is someone who is jaded by trauma. Being an Appdriver pushes him towards healing, as he has to learn to integrate that trauma persona with the person he was before, the person he is at heart.
And of course, Haru and Yuujin. Haru is a quiet, self-doubting, kind, but somewhat cowardly boy. He admires protagonists, admires Yuujin (who is meant to be Haru’s ideal person). But as Denemon’s grandson was always destined to be the protagonist of this tale. And Minerva’s question prompts him to be more like a protagonist. Grow more confident and self assured. Much like how Eri's question prompted her to become an Idol, and how Astra's question prompted him to be an Apptuber.
Yuujin is meant to be Haru’s ideal person. Yuujin doesn’t have a self outside the "act", unless you count Leviathan. Yuujin’s entire identity is purposefully constructed persona.
But it wasn’t all a lie.
Minerva's question for Yuujin isn't a push to become someone new like it is for Haru, Eri and Astra. It isn't an encouragement to hold onto who you were before like it is Rei. It's a reinforcement of who Yuujin is. To truly be Haru's friend, to hold onto himself, even when Leviathan is claiming that Yuujin's entire self was an illusion.
The one thing Leviathan didn’t account for when Yuujin was introduced to Haru was the importance of kindness. Yuujin is kind. Yuujin is kind because of Haru. Because not only did Haru value kindness, he showed Yuujin the benefit of it. And so Yuujin genuinely came to admire Haru. Genuinely came to adore him.
And that important trait, kindness, was a trait Haru had the whole time. Unlike the other kids, Haru doesn’t have to learn to integrate being a protagonist with the person he was before. He just grows more confident, but he never loses track of his kindness. The trait that Haru taught Yuujin. The trait that made Yuujin real. The trait that saved the world. Was there all along. It wasn’t something that Minerva or Leviathan manipulated him into. “Kindness” or rather “Gentleness” isn’t necessarily the first word you think of when you think protagonist. Other words like “Courage” “Confident” “Stubborn” and “Friendly” (as in sociable and extroverted) tend to come up first. But kindness is an incredibly important trait for a hero to have.
Miharu referring to the world as glitching is a little funny considering what happened in Precure this week; they literally had the world glitching out.
Miharu refers to Tomoro as giving birth to Gekkomon, and Jokermon's Owner referred to the partnership as a "parent".
Really, I never spared a second thought about all the egg imagery because Digieggs. Digimon IS a Tamagotchi spin off at the end of the day. But the egg imagery does invoke new life, parenthood. Giving birth. I wonder if that will end up being thematically relevant.
The Glowing Dawn really just sat there while Jokermon's Owner walked in another package.
I loved the truck getting launched off the highway. Absolutely wild in the best of ways. Good use of Digimon's enhanced durability to spice up an otherwise mundane murder method that would otherwise require a murder-suicide I guess. Sure is convenient the road was elevated like that.
Love seeing Makoto doing computer stuff.
So, what was the point of having Tomoro mention that they hadn't been able to evolve since the first time, only to evolve this episode. It's not like we've done anything to warrant it the past 3 episodes.
I'm being a little overly critical. In fairness, it provides the illusion that the Glowing Dawn have been doing other stuff that would off screen, and it provides an opportunity to have a second debut, this time allowing the other members of the team to see MonarchLizamon. (Though we could have seen a bit more of that). I'm not sure 3 episodes is really a long enough time to warrant a grand re-debut, but whatever. I'm just generally a little bit salty about MonarchLizamon's debut episode in the first place, so this is really just a me thing.
Protecting the GD at the end of Tactics, and protecting Asuka at the start of GIFT, does sort of bring up back on track after the Interlude arc.
MonarchLizamon using the Perfect power of opening portals to the mirror world should not have surprised me as much as it did. Creative use of that ability.
The main point of this episode was to introduce Miharu and presumably the way she relates to reality in computer terms and judges peoples hearts based on their Digimon. And also presumably her pre-emptive knowledge of whatever was going down
So, a lot of information right at the end. The guy we spent the episode protecting was found dead, framed as a suicide. This is presumably shocking to the kids because it reveals that the Jokermon and his partner were not working alone.
He was also apparently transporting Digimon from the ministry to the world union for "Disposal", whatever that means. This isn't really that surprising from the audience perspective since we KNOW the World Union has labs and such with Digimon.
Actually, Kyo probably knew that as a 5 star, since IIRC Kaito and Genjo were talking about the MarinBullmon going missing from a World Union lab. Even if he didn't know who was in charge of transportation. Though Kyo very likely did not tell them that.
But it does provide insight into the potential motivations of the murder.
And there seems to be a network of people going after those who presumably harm digimon with a masked figure in the center of it. Or whatever "Digimon Judgement" means. Jokermon said that humans were lead astray, and that "we" were sent to guide them. Jokermon's partner (who seems to be named Hori. Hori, Harley. Close enough) refers to Jokermon as "Jokermon-sama" with some sort of clear reverence.
Presumably that masked figure is Miharu. They have a girlish voice. She is clearly not content with the current situation. Described as having "a powerful sense of mission". And "Does she seek to control the world, or is she trapped by it?" And also she knew about the hospital being dangerous beforehand.
I wonder if GIFT is going to be what kicks the Glowing Dawn from trying to reduce harm from within the system, into tearing the system itself down.
Are we dealing with a group that worships/idolizes Digimon… considering the topic of the next episode there might be thematic parallels.
Speaking of which…
YAY! Reina focus next episode! FINALLY! She looks so cute! And it seems we're getting Rose.
An observation I had, that I'm not sure is supposed to mean anything, is the gender presentation of the Digimon and their partners are different these past few episodes. First with Elizamon and her male partner. Elizamon is a very distinctly feminine Digimon, using the pronoun "atashi". Then Mummymon and their partner, I don't remember or care to look up what pronouns they used but they were voiced by a man. And now Jokermon and his partner. Which is odd when Digimon are their partner's mirrors, to be different genders.
There's the obvious trans reading of course, but its just a bit odd back to back to back, when aside from maybe Shademon and Haruko the digimon's gender expressions have matched their partner.
All in all, a solid episode that does what it needs to do and makes me intrigued for what's coming next.
Hitomi's immediate questioning of "him" and dismissal of having a crush on Tomoro even when seeing him a literal crystal ball and having been thinking about him earlier immediately read as not into guys, though I think that there may be some nuances lost in translation there.
I appreciated kids just hanging out! We don't get this NEARLY enough.
Unfortunately I'm hopeless about drawn out awkward confession and non mutual romantic shenanigans. Or just… any kind of extended awkward social interaction. So… this entire episode was a bit difficult for me to get through the first time.
Though I don't think it's a bad episode at all. There were tons of little character details. The poorly shelled eggs. Proof that Kyo can sew (albiet poorly) which lines up with his apron. Reina being invested in romance, Chiropmon not getting it. Makoto wanting to fight with Chiropmon because the other partners do. Reina giving Pristimon the tea cup she wanted and constantly buying stuff for her, unusual due to her usual money concerns. Tomoro feeding the always hungry Gekkomon, unusual given the usual money concerns and grumpyness. Kyo being very invested in Cougarmon's fur is very cute. He thinks his big cat is soft and adorable.
Reina buying clothes for Pristimon kind of surprised me at first, but I then remembered she likes stuffed animals. She does like cutesy things like that, but due to her situation she probably doesn't get to indulge often.
Cougarmon acting a bit goofy and pathetic was fun to see.
Yoshimura walking in on this got a laugh out of me. I keep rewatching for his change of expression. Despite not being able to see his eyes, you can clearly read his emotions. He just showed up for fun.
The digimon going after Mummymon alone was also fun. This is our second Digimon-centric episode, although this one did have a bit more of the humans as well.
