#banchouleomon

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BT23-036 | BanchoLeomon

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Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 46 - Bombshell! The Truth About BanchouLeomon

In this episode, we hear Suguru’s story: how he befriended BanchouLeomon, and how he staked his life to protect humanity from Yggdrasil’s wrath. In the present, Suguru – and Masaru – make a huge sacrifice to try and stop Yggdrasil.

No recap this episode! I guess they’ve got a lot to get through here. Though, again, I am a little sad that we don’t get to hear what the recap narrator makes of last episode’s dad complex extravaganza.

Instead, we open on Mt Fuji, in a scene that happened chronologically a little bit before the end of last episode where BanchouLeomon showed up at Yggdrasil’s tree. Here he’s still holding the worlds apart. Craniummon’s there, along with Chika and Garudamon.

Craniummon:  “I… have always been troubled. I incessantly pondered over whether Yggdrasil’s way of justice was true or not.”

Craniummon has indeed been thinking for himself this whole time beneath the surface! It just took Masaru breaking his shield, apparently, for him to accept that he ought to do that and finally start acting of his own free will.

Craniummon: “But… You must have wanted to tell me such thoughts were wrong, Daimon Suguru.”

I would hope that what he means by this is that Suguru wanted to tell him that there’s no point pondering over it because it should be obvious that Yggdrasil’s way was never “justice”. Otherwise, trying to tell Craniummon that he was wrong to have second thoughts about his god’s orders feels… kinda counter-productive.

Garudamon and Chika stare in surprise upon hearing that this lion man is actually Chika’s dad.

Craniummon: “Your daughter should be able to tell… by looking at this man who loved the Digital World and wished for peace between the Digimon and humans more than anyone else…”

Chika’s staring with this look of sort of shocked longing, as she processes the fact that the father she’s been waiting for for so long is right there in front of her, but sacrificing himself. It is appropriate that Craniummon brings up Suguru wishing for peace between the two worlds, because Chika was the first person other than him to argue that the two species shouldn’t be fighting!

(Question, though – how on earth does Craniummon know that Chika is Suguru’s daughter? As far as he knows, she’s just some random human partnered with some random Digimon who got the wrong end of the stick and tried to fight him. I don’t think there’s any possible way he should be able to know who this is from his position. …But, shush, it took me a very long time to even notice this plot hole, it’s not a huge deal.)

Craniummon punches the solidified Digisoul to shatter it and moves in to catch the falling mountain as BanchouLeomon collapses in exhaustion.

BanchouLeomon: “Craniummon! You… Why?!”

Craniummon:  “I wanted to try believing once more… in the infinite possibilities that humans and Digimon can create together!”

This is very reminiscent of Mercurimon! He’d also forged a bond with Suguru once upon a time, forgot about that bond after the atrocities of the humans (read: Kurata), and then was inspired to try believing in it again thanks to the actions of Masaru and his friends. Seems like Craniummon also believed in Suguru quite strongly once upon a time, and now does again. He called BanchouLeomon his friend last episode, but maybe he was actually referring to Suguru, or, indeed, both of them.

Craniummon tells Suguru to hurry to Yggdrasil, evidently figuring he’ll have more chance of getting through to the god than Craniummon himself would.

And with that, it’s a pretty early opening. I showed this shot once before when this opening first started, just to explain why it had to be held off until so late into the series (spoiling some kind of link between Suguru and BanchouLeomon). Now that we’ve fully uncovered that link and are spending an episode on it, time to talk about this shot in more detail.

Turns out this may not just be showing Suguru and BanchouLeomon. It might be more like Suguru himself (as BanchouLeomon) on the left, and “Suguru”, meaning Yggdrasil in his body, on the right. Then of course there’s Masaru in the middle, caught between these two versions of his dad, not looking in the greatest mood about it, with his pendant rotating around behind him. It’s a great shot. My one nitpick about it is that it does not accompany either of the “I believed in it! It’s my soul” lines in the song that are obviously also about Masaru’s dad complex, which, like, why would you not take that opportunity, opening animators, come on.

Anyway, back to Yggdrasil’s tree, where we left off at the end of last episode as BanchouLeomon – or rather, Suguru – just dropped the bombshell on Masaru.

Masaru:  “Don’t give me that crap! Who the hell will believe that?!”

Masaru, despite having been given a much better answer for his dad’s identity than that he’s a genocidal god, is still being the most straightforward about it. No, BanchouLeomon doesn’t look like his dad, so obviously he can’t be his dad, what kind of nonsense would that be?!

BanchouLeomon: “When you were a little boy, you fell off the monkey bars and hit your head.”

Remember how Masaru mentioned this incident in episode 20, in order to argue that he could remember something that happened to him ten years ago? Yep, it’s because his dad was involved all right.

Masaru puts a hand to his head where his scar must be, almost defensively, upon hearing this, like he’s hurt and shocked to realise that this banchou lion Digimon he only met recently somehow knows about a memory so personal and important to him.

Masaru:  “How do you know…?”

BanchouLeomon: “Have you forgotten? I was the one who carried you all the way to the hospital.”

Of course Masaru hasn’t forgotten that. He continues to stare at BanchouLeomon, realising that the only way he could know that is if this really is his dad. He flashes back to himself as a little kid, whimpering from the pain of his head injury, as his dad carries him along. No wonder that memory stuck with Masaru; he was hurting and vulnerable, but his dad was there, big and warm and strong, protecting him and keeping him safe. And…

Suguru:  “It’s all right! It’s not a deep cut! If you’re a man, then bear with it!”

Little Masaru looks up at his dad in surprise at these words, and then continues grimacing, with just slightly less whimpering. He wants to make his dad proud and be a Man, so badly, so he’s going to try his absolute best.

“If you’re a man, then bear with it.” Masaru remembered those words of his dad – probably one of the few things he remembers about the concept of manliness that’s actually from his dad and not just made up from what he thinks his dad might say. He must have clung to that like nothing else, once his dad disappeared and he had to deal with the pain and grief of his absence. He might not have known how to cope at first, but one way or another, he had to bear with it, by becoming the Masaru we know and love today. This is a very important line.

(And, okay, it might be just little bit toxic masculinity. But I like to think Suguru didn’t quite mean it that way – that it’s not that men shouldn’t show or feel pain at all, but that they should bear with the pain. It doesn’t seem like Masaru internalised it in as toxic a way as he could have done, either, because he’s not completely averse to showing weakness or pain, and he doesn’t ever seem to think that doing so makes him less of a Man. But this probably does have a lot to do with Masaru’s stubbornly optimistic defence mechanism of never properly acknowledging the possibility of bad things ever.)

Masaru:  “You’re lying… That can’t…”

Masaru still isn’t quite able to accept it, despite having been given proof, and still despite how this is so much better than the alternative! I guess his straightforwardness is still in play, or perhaps it’s the shock of having had such a deeply personal dad-related memory brought up by someone his mind is still instinctively registering in the Not His Dad category. Perhaps he’s just having trouble reconciling every encounter he’s had with BanchouLeomon up until now with the fact that it was actually his dad all along and he never knew. That’s a lot to re-process.

(Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that, if BanchouLeomon was his dad, why on earth did he hide it from him for so long? Something sneaky and underhanded like that isn’t what a man would do, is it…?)

BanchouLeomon:  “A BANCHOU NEVER LIES!”

Masaru flinches in shock at the booming dad sternness. Perhaps something about this is familiar to him, from long ago.

BanchouLeomon:  “Am I wrong, Masaru?”

Suguru drops the sternness and shifts into the fond dad smile. He must know his son would feel the same way about this idea. And, of course, though Suguru wasn’t there to hear it, Masaru did insist that a banchou never lies back in episode 30, when they’d only recently met BanchouLeomon! These two manly dorks both think alike, as you’d expect.

(Does Suguru really never lie, though? He’s had to be pretty deceptive towards them quite a few times while hiding his identity as BanchouLeomon, hasn’t he. It certainly makes sense that he’d be someone who’d want to never lie, in theory, so he can’t have been a huge fan of that at all.)

They’re interrupted by the rest of the DATS crew having made it to the top of the tree. I wonder if they got up here so relatively quickly because they used their partners for transport, but if they did, they all devolved as soon as they finished doing that. Regardless, it’s a good thing they’re also all here to hear the upcoming exposition about what’s been going on with Suguru.

Lalamon:  “BanchouLeomon?!”

Gaomon:  “He’s alive?”

BanchouLeomon:  “I won’t die that easily. That’s because this body has two lives dwelling within it.”

It’s a little odd that having two consciousnesses in the same body would apparently make it harder to kill, but I suppose we might be able to connect this to the tangible power of human emotions and human-Digimon connections in some way.

Suguru starts telling his story, and here’s where we get the subbers’ note that explains that he uses watashi while BanchouLeomon uses ore for their “I” pronouns in Japanese, making it sometimes possible to distinguish which one’s talking.

BanchouLeomon:  [narrating] “Along the way, we came across each other, as though we were destined to meet.”

He’s talking about how he met with BanchouLeomon on his journey to find Yggdrasil, but it’s interesting that he seems to think there was some kind of destiny at play here. Maybe this was in the sense that he and BanchouLeomon were always sort of connected and destined to be each other’s partners, just like what seems to have happened with the others whose partners arrived in the human world as eggs? Or perhaps Suguru’s just being manly and dramatic about it; that’s also very possible.

(This line is bound to be Suguru speaking. I’m going to continue to tag everything said in BanchouLeomon’s voice as BanchouLeomon like I’ve been doing this whole time, but unless it’s actually said within a flashback, it’s probably Suguru, just bear with me here. Consistency, dammit. Why does this series have so many characters hanging out in other characters’ bodies to make this difficult for me.)

(…You know what, I’m going to include those tags whenever he’s narrating, that’ll help. There.)

BanchouLeomon: “You’ve got guts stepping into my territory without notice.”

BanchouLeomon is such a banchou. This human’s on his turf, how dare he, that demands a fight, obviously! I’m sure Masaru can relate.

Suguru:  “I apologise for my rudeness.”

Suguru, meanwhile, is a lot less of a banchou on the surface. He’s being so polite about it! He explains that he’s looking for Yggdrasil and tries to walk past BanchouLeomon, but…

BanchouLeomon:  “A banchou or a god… Who is greater?”

Oh my god, this ridiculous banchou dork. (And yet, I can still imagine this as being the kind of attitude Masaru might also take.)

Suguru doesn’t even answer the question. BanchouLeomon just grins at him, evidently itching for a fight, and Suguru seems to pick up on that same spirit.

BanchouLeomon:  [narrating] “A battle between men has no need for a reason. We simply fire up our fighting spirits as we mutually display our fierce pride.”

Suguru may have been more polite on the surface, but he’s also an equally manly dork, as we know, and he is also very down to just have a good fight to test their strength against each other. Just like another pair of dorks we know!

As they throw a punch at each other and their fists meet, the volcano in the background dramatically erupts, just to punctuate it. I cannot help but wonder if this is truly how it happened – or maybe we’re seeing this scene as it’s being built up in Masaru’s imagination, and he imagined the eruption happening just because listen you guys my dad fought BanchouLeomon that’s so COOL and then a VOLCANO erupted just as they PUNCHED to show how AWESOME they are!!!! Because I kinda low-key headcanon that that’s why that’s there.

Later, as the volcano smokes and the sun sets, Suguru and BanchouLeomon are lying side by side, worn out from their fight, neither of them the victor nor the loser.

Suguru:  “Well fought…”

BanchouLeomon: “You threw some pretty good punches yourself…”

This is exactly word-for-word the exchange that Masaru and Agumon had after their fight back in episode 1! I told you to take note of that way back when for a reason. The only difference here is that the lines have been switched between the human and the Digimon – which is perhaps fitting, since this time it’s the human who was intruding on the Digimon’s turf, and not the other way around. This is an adorable parallel and I love it. Of course Masaru’s dad would have met and befriended his Digimon partner in the same way that Masaru did.

The setting sun is also the same as that scene in episode 1 with Masaru and Agumon, for that matter! And they follow up those lines by introducing themselves to each other, just like Agumon did (men don’t need to know each other’s names during their fight, after all!).

BanchouLeomon: “I’m a banchou. BanchouLeomon.”

Suguru:  “A banchou, huh? No wonder you’re so strong.”

As if you didn’t already know he was a banchou before the fight, given the way he led into it, Suguru, come on. Also, just look at him. Perhaps this is Suguru snarking at the obviousness of it in a low-key way that goes over BanchouLeomon’s head. Still, he does genuinely believe that that’s a reason for him to be strong, because we know he’s just as much of a dork about this sort of thing as Masaru is.

They shake hands, even though BanchouLeomon’s hand is at least twice as big as Suguru’s.

BanchouLeomon: [narrating] “And that’s how we completely hit it off with each other.”

I love the enthusiastic way he phrases this. They didn’t just meet, or become friends, they completely hit it off. Damn right they did, those dorks.

Masaru’s got this adorable excited smile as he listens to the story of his dad befriending his Digimon partner. No doubt he’s thinking about himself and Agumon and how similar their friendship is.

Masaru:  “Wait a second! What does that have to do with…?”

BanchouLeomon: “MASARU! LISTEN UNTIL SOMEONE FINISHES TALKING!”

Suguru breaks out the booming dad sternness again as Masaru continues to try and be straightforward about this. Some instinct in Masaru’s head clearly finds this familiar enough for him to behave himself and continue to listen. (His dad is the most important person after all; of course he’s got to behave when he gets told off by him.)

Suguru goes on to narrate about how he continued searching for Yggdrasil, now with BanchouLeomon as his travelling companion, but that it seemed almost impossible. Yggdrasil was so elusive and only spoken of in rumours and maybe didn’t even exist, as far as they knew.

Suguru doesn’t mention it, but during this time, a lot of stuff must have happened that we already know about. For one thing, this has to be when Suguru invented Digivices, now that he had his own partnership with a Digimon that he could use, to experiment with that bond and with Digisoul and start developing the technology.

This also means that he must have popped back to visit Mercurimon, if nothing else but to give him a Digivice for Ikuto, like we saw him do. Like I said back in episode 24/25, that one part of the flashback must have happened later than the parts where Mercurimon first told him to go and search for Yggdrasil. Perhaps there were a number of visits he made to Mercurimon to catch up and try and ask for more info on Yggdrasil. Maybe BanchouLeomon was also there and also got to know Mercurimon? We never see any indication that the two knew each other, but then Mercurimon was dead by the time BanchouLeomon first showed up in the series, so.

Presumably, DATS was also founded sometime around this time! At the very least, the part where DATS received blueprints for Digivices has to have happened after Suguru met BanchouLeomon, though it’s possible that Satsuma and Yushima were fighting with Kudamon and Kamemon without Digivices for a little while before then, perhaps.

(It’s still pretty fun how Kudamon must have come to Suguru to offer to go to the Digital World as an ambassador while secretly being a spy for Yggdrasil. And all the while Suguru was searching for Yggdrasil and had no idea he’d just made an agreement with one of the god’s very servants.)

So anyway, eventually, what must have been quite a few years later, Suguru and BanchouLeomon were wandering aimlessly through a desert (you know, that thing you do in the Digital World when you don’t have a plot to guide you) when Craniummon appeared before them, in a whirlwind, for drama points. The Royal Knights are all so extra.

Craniummon: “Are you the ones searching for Yggdrasil?”

Evidently – as Kudamon’s sneakery proves – Yggdrasil knew that this human was searching for it long before it decided to make itself known. Though Craniummon doesn’t quite say as much here, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was also sent to meet Suguru as a kind of test, to see if this human was worth granting an audience with in the first place. Surely it wouldn’t have taken so long for one of the Royal Knights to seek out this human who’s apparently been all over the place looking for their god, unless they were deliberately avoiding him until Yggdrasil gave Craniummon orders to approach.

Craniummon:  “I am the most faithful of the Royal Knights who serve under Yggdrasil, Craniummon!”

I’m sure all the Royal Knights say that about themselves, Craniummon. Also, fun irony, considering that Craniummon’s going to end up being only the second Royal Knight to think for himself and turn against Yggdrasil.

Upon hearing that this is a Royal Knight, one of Yggdrasil’s servants, Suguru and BanchouLeomon look at each other and burst out laughing. Not because they’re mocking him, but because they’re relieved and happy to hear evidence that this thing they’ve been fruitlessly searching for for years actually exists. Man, that must have been a stressful, exhausting search. (And it certainly proves that, Kudamon aside, the other Royal Knights kept well away from them the entire time.)

Suguru:  “Please! Take us to Yggdrasil!”

Craniummon: “Absurd! You believe Yggdrasil will allow an audience with a lowly human like you?!”

Well, apparently Yggdrasil must have been at least considering it on some level, or it wouldn’t have even asked Craniummon to show himself to them. But of course Craniummon’s got to approach this with the usual Royal Knight pompousness.

It’s telling, too, that Yggdrasil apparently considers humans lowly – and, keep in mind, this is before any of Kurata’s atrocities happened, so its prejudice isn’t even coming from that. Though it’s apparently willing to give them at least a bit of a chance, perhaps after hearing how persistent Suguru has been in his search, it seems it just… doesn’t like humans, in general.

Suguru bristles at the insult, but then BanchouLeomon steps forward to vouch for his friend, perhaps knowing that Craniummon will be more likely to listen to a Digimon’s view on this.

BanchouLeomon: “Humans have the power of emotions within them which we Digimon do not have!”

Which presumably isn’t to say that Digimon don’t have emotions – of course they do – but just that their emotions don’t carry the power of Digisoul like human emotions do.

BanchouLeomon: “When a Digimon becomes united with a human’s emotions, unlimited potential can be born!”

There it is again: that idea of infinite potential. Craniummon challenged Masaru to prove it to him by breaking his shield, but it turns out it wasn’t Masaru who first put that idea in his head – it was Suguru and his partner!

BanchouLeomon and Suguru both stare determinedly at Craniummon, and he relents enough to summon his spear and challenge them to prove their potential to him. Much like he did with Masaru!

Suguru responds by pulling out his Digivice and making BanchouLeomon go Burst Mode. It’s a little awkward that Suguru’s partner already being Ultimate-level when they met means that there’s relatively little Suguru’s Digisoul can do to power him up further. Sure, Burst Mode is impressive and apparently quite rare – perhaps it never usually happens without human input at all – but it’d be even more impressive if Craniummon saw Suguru evolve a Digimon all the way from Child level up to Ultimate level first. That’s showing potential.

(Given the natural evolution level of his partner, all of Suguru’s experiments on Digisoul and how it causes Digimon evolution… must have only been done at Burst Mode level…? It feels like that would give him incomplete data on exactly how it works, since Burst Mode’s a bit different anyway. I wonder if he somehow found a way to experiment with lower-level evolutions, too. Perhaps through being sent data by Satsuma and Yushima at DATS.)

(Also, time to talk about why I could be sure back in the previous arc that whatever reason BanchouLeomon – and Suguru – knew that Burst Mode misuse causes self-destruction couldn’t possibly be because it’d happened to them. If it had, BanchouLeomon would have turned into an egg, and then he’d have remembered Suguru when he hatched because of their friendship – which would mean that he would have known it’d be possible for Agumon to remember Masaru, too.)

Anyway, without a fancy evolution animation because he’s not important enough for one, BanchouLeomon goes Burst Mode, which is really more like BanchouLeomon ON FIRE MODE. He delivers one fierce burning punch to Craniummon’s spear and knocks it out of his hands… and that’s it. That doesn’t actually seem as impressive as it’s supposed to be. I like to imagine that maybe their fight was really more drawn-out than this, to give BanchouLeomon and Suguru a chance to really meaningfully impress Craniummon the way Masaru did, and we just don’t see it happen that way because this episode’s got too much other stuff to fit into it.

Still, this apparently-impressive feat surprised not only Craniummon, but also Yggdrasil, who was paying attention to all this. (Again with how I’m pretty sure Yggdrasil put Craniummon up to this.) The ground begins to shake.

Yggdrasil: “That was splendid, human.”

Suguru:  “It’s inside my head…”

Yggdrasil’s natural voice, when it’s not speaking through Suguru’s body, is an androgynous kind of voice that doesn’t have a physical sound so much as it just echoes through everyone’s minds, apparently. And it hasn’t shown any signs of a physical form, yet it was able to watch this encounter. Mercurimon’s words about how Yggdrasil is “everywhere and yet nowhere” may not have been so inaccurate. It is a god, after all.

Yggdrasil:  “I never imagined that human emotions could boost the power of a Digimon to this extent. This has far surpassed my expectations.”

…So long as we imagine that “to this extent” was a little more impressive than just “a little bit more powerful than the already ridiculously powerful Ultimate-level, to the point of being able to punch a weapon out of another Ultimate-level’s hands”. But perhaps Yggdrasil’s godlike powers allow it to measure and sense just exactly how much more powerful BanchouLeomon’s Burst Mode was. At the very least, I doubt it expected anything of the sort from a “lowly human”.

As Yggdrasil speaks, a sapling sprouts from the ground, quickly growing into a massive tree. This is the same World Tree that they’re at in the present day; it didn’t exist until this point! Locating Yggdrasil in the present is a lot easier, because all you need is someone who can tell you to go find the giant tree, but Suguru didn’t have any kind of pointer like that at all. It really was everywhere and yet nowhere, until just now.

Craniummon: “This is the first time Yggdrasil has presented himself publicly!”

The tree isn’t precisely Yggdrasil itself, I don’t think, but it’s something like an extension of it and its powers. It is pretty impressive that Suguru’s display of strength caused Yggdrasil to decide to give itself more of a physical anchor in the Digital World, when it felt quite content to be an incorporeal non-interfering consciousness until then.

In the present, Suguru narrates that things should have gone well from there, leading to the forging of harmony between Digimon and humans like he wanted… except that right then, with the worst possible timing, Kurata happened.

We get a couple of very brief flashback shots to the first massacre, proving exactly how you should do recaps: only brief shots are needed to remind us of the thing that happened! We don’t need to practically watch it happen again!

As soon as this happened, Suguru was seized and thrown into some sort of makeshift prison cell inside Yggdrasil’s tree. Even though the god must know full well that Suguru himself had nothing to do with Kurata’s attack, the attack was carried out by humans, and Suguru’s a human, so how dare he come here waxing lyrical about harmony between humans and Digimon.

(Hmm, you know, I’ve never really thought about this until now, but I wonder… was this timing truly just a coincidence? Yggdrasil apparently sent Craniummon to approach Suguru in order to test him and give humans a chance, and it says it was deeply impressed by the power of Digisoul. But I wonder – with its omniscience about everything in the Digital World, did it know that Kurata’s massacre was just about to start? Could it have timed it this way on purpose, to use Kurata’s actions against Suguru, and silence any sense of advocacy for humans he might have otherwise seemed to have?)

Craniummon: “Yggdrasil has commanded us to wreak vengeance against the human world.”

See – right after Kurata’s first massacre, Yggdrasil already wanted to do this, just like it’s doing in the present. Things never needed to get to the point of the two worlds colliding and this apparently being the only way to save the Digital World for Yggdrasil to want humanity gone.

Suguru pleads with him to stop the attack, and insists that humans and Digimon can still become friends. Craniummon counters that that’s not possible now, because of the hatred that Digimon have for humans after what’s just happened.

BanchouLeomon: “Answering hatred with hatred only creates more hatred. Why can’t you realise that? […] If we don’t break the chain of hatred at some point, there will be no future for both humans and Digimon!”

Wise words from BanchouLeomon! He’s here to vouch for his friend, but he’s taking a somewhat more pragmatic approach than Suguru’s fervent insistence on human and Digimon friendship, which is perhaps slightly more likely to work on Craniummon, given his current mood.

Craniummon: “Then… That means we Digimon are the only ones who must endure the anguish! Can you dare repeat those words to the ones who have lost their beloved companions forever?!”

It is unfair for the Digimon, but also, revenge is bad and won’t actually bring those lost Digimon back. And it’s especially bad to wreak “vengeance” upon a human race who were 99.9999999% completely uninvolved with Kurata’s massacre anyway, come on. I wonder if Yggdrasil’s account of the attack twisted the facts slightly to give Craniummon the impression that it was most of humanity who want Digimon dead, and not just one single human with a few lackeys.

Suguru:  “Please! Have faith in humanity just one more time! I promise that this tragedy will never happen again! I bet my life on it!”

Aww, Suguru. I wonder if they told him that the attack was carried out by Kurata, his old assistant? Even if they didn’t, perhaps he can figure out as much. But even then, he has faith that his other comrades from the expedition, like Yushima and Satsuma, would have picked up on this happening and be able to take measures to stop it ever happening again. Kurata was a cowardly exception, but Suguru truly believes that most humans are so much better than this, to the point that he’s willing to stake his life on that belief.

And of course, this is also him staking his life simply to protect humanity, as this is the only way he can think of to get Yggdrasil to call off its attack.

Craniummon: “Your life?”

BanchouLeomon: “Believe him.”

Suguru:  “BanchouLeomon!”

BanchouLeomon: “This man will never lie.”

BanchouLeomon’s putting in a good word for his friend, which Suguru even seems somewhat surprised by. Of course he would, Suguru; he doesn’t trust you any less just because Kurata’s decided to be an asshole!

And yes: a Man such as Suguru would never lie, never make a promise he doesn’t intend to follow through on. If he says he bets his life, that means he is 100% willing to give up his life should he turn out to be wrong. (Right?)

Yggdrasil, still just a disembodied voice around some floating crystals, decides to trust Suguru’s word, and holds off on its attack.

So, when Yggdrasil claimed back in episode 39 that, after Kurata’s first massacre, it continued to watch over the humans to be certain they were truly despicable? It was glossing over a pretty big piece of the picture there! It only decided to do that at all because of Suguru, because Suguru begged it to reconsider and swore on his life that humans could be better, and that made it willing to give them one more chance.

(Or maybe, Yggdrasil isn’t actually reconsidering at all, but it realises that with Suguru’s vow, most of its Royal Knights would likely feel more hesitant to attack the human world now. So it’s playing the long game and waiting for things to escalate more, so that it can manipulate them into thoroughly agreeing.)

In order to make sure he’s keeping his word and is willing to die if he should be wrong, Suguru was kept in that prison in Yggdrasil’s tree for the entire time since then. So, from that point on at least, he genuinely couldn’t return to the human world or contact DATS or his family in any way, for a very important reason. Masaru’s not entirely wrong to have believed that his dad would only not have come home for all that time because he was unable to.

This also means that Mercurimon never saw Suguru again after the day of Kurata’s first massacre and never knew why, which would not have helped with his belief that this was Suguru betraying him, as I talked about back then.

Several years would have passed between this and the next part we’re about to be shown, throughout which Suguru would have just been stuck in prison without much to do. I imagine that BanchouLeomon came to visit him a lot to keep him company, and also that Craniummon was the primary Royal Knight responsible for guarding him. Craniummon did call BanchouLeomon and/or Suguru his friend, which is likely to have developed over years of hanging out at Suguru’s prison cell and coming to respect them both.

But then, of course, despite Suguru’s fervent promise, Kurata struck again and murdered Mercurimon. (We get another satisfyingly brief recap clip to remind us of that.) Now we’ve caught up to stuff that was happening concurrently with the series, behind the scenes.

Suguru:  “Damn it! What are Chief Yushima and Satsuma-kun doing?!”

Suguru really must have been counting on them to keep Kurata in line. Alas, stuck in his cell in the Digital World without any understanding of the situation back in the human world (even if you knew, there’d be nothing you could do), he’d have no idea of all the political powerplays that were going on over there that prevented Satsuma and Yushima from doing anything to stop it. Heck, they weren’t even aware of Kurata’s first massacre until way too late.

(Also, a brief little insight that it seems like Satsuma must be younger than Suguru, considering the lower-status honorific Suguru uses for him. Satsuma did always seem to have a lot of respect for Suguru.)

Craniummon: “I’ve heard another disturbing rumour. Your son, Daimon Masaru, is here in the Digital World.”

Suguru:  “What?”

Craniummon:  “It appears he came chasing after a man named Kurata…”

This puts these events we’re watching right now between the end of episode 27, in which the DATS team made it to the Digital World again to chase Kurata, and the beginning of episode 28, in which BanchouLeomon showed up in front of them, at which point Suguru would have been inside his head. I said there must have been a lot of offscreen wandering in between those two episodes; this is why.

Craniummon: “…but he is utterly powerless against him.”

Suguru:  “Let me out of here right now!”

Hearing that Masaru’s here in the Digital World, in danger, fighting an enemy too strong for him to manage, Suguru forgets about everything else and grabs hold of the twisted branches that he has for cell bars in desperation. He has to go and protect his son. What a good dad.

And, though Masaru’s grown pretty strong and capable of protecting himself by now and has a Digimon partner by his side, remember that Suguru wouldn’t realise that! He last saw Masaru when he was only a four year old boy, and he must still instinctively think of his son as that little kid who needs protecting.

BanchouLeomon, however, reminds Suguru that he can’t leave. He placed his life on his promise that this wouldn’t happen again, and he was wrong – which means he has to die.

BanchouLeomon:  “A man must keep his promises!”

And Suguru should know that, right? These are his manly principles, just as much as or even more than they’re BanchouLeomon’s.

Suguru:  “A man doesn’t… go back on his word…”

At any other time, Suguru would no doubt be more willing to do this – to keep his man’s promise, even though that means forfeiting his life. If he didn’t, that’d be like proving himself to be some sneaky underhanded coward who never actually meant what he said when he made that promise years ago. That’s Not What A Man Does. But…

Suguru falls to his knees, pounding the ground with his fists in anguish.

Suguru:  “Masaru… Masaru! Masaru!!!”

…if he does the manly thing and keeps his word, he’s never going to see his son again. His son, who might be in danger, who might need his protection, whom Suguru just wants to get to be a dad to after all this time, and raise him, and watch him grow up…!

If Craniummon hadn’t reminded him of his son by telling him Masaru’s here in the Digital World, maybe Suguru would have been able to push that aside and do the Manly Thing without hesitating. But now that he knows, all he can think about as he’s going to die is Masaru.

(What a good dad!!! Look at how Masaru’s just as important to him as he is to Masaru, and even more important than his principles of manliness. Aaaaa. I have a lot of Feelings about this moment.)

We cut to Suguru’s execution. He stands, blindfolded, hands tied behind his back, a tiny figure on that giant podium in the chamber at the top of the tree as all of the Royal Knights tower around him. (Well, all of them that we’ve seen in Savers except obviously Sleipmon, and also Duftmon, who I guess really does like to work alone.)

Dukemon:  “Do you have any last words?”

Suguru:  “I don’t want to die.”

Aaaa, Suguru. All of the Royal Knights react with shock as they hear him come out with this. He’s about to be killed because he promised he’d do this; they were no doubt expecting his last words to be some kind of honourable final statement of his convictions. Suguru himself must know that’s the kind of thing he ought to be saying. But he can’t think about anything except the fact that he doesn’t want this.

Suguru:  “I want to make Masaru… I want to make my son into a fine young man, so I can’t die until then.”

It’s not even necessarily about protecting Masaru – it’s even more about Suguru wanting to raise him and finally be a dad to him and watch him grow up into a full-fledged Man! By “fine young man”, he’s using that same Japanese phrase that was subbed as “grown man” in the flashback where he gave his pendant to Masaru, and as “full-fledged individual” when Masaru met Agumon. He just desperately wants to get to be part of making Masaru into the person he is.

(Oh, Suguru. You already are, so much more than you know.)

Craniummon: “You dare to make those words your last at your dying hour? If you’re a man, then don’t make such unsightly utterances!”

Suguru grimaces at this, at the thought that he’s failing to be a Man in his final moments. All of his principles still matter to him an awful lot, enough that he hates to be breaking them, but… Masaru matters to him even more.

(Really, though, Craniummon, I think it’s plenty manly of him to care about raising his son! Perhaps it’s because Digimon don’t do the parents thing that Craniummon doesn’t quite get this and thinks this is just cowardly unmanly nonsense. …Though I’m sure Suguru must have talked about his son plenty during their prison visit chats. We know he talked about Masaru to Mercurimon in their very first conversation.)

Before the Royal Knights can execute Suguru, BanchouLeomon leaps onto the podium to stand beside his friend and block their path.

Craniummon: “Does this mean you are betraying the Digimon and siding with the humans?!”

BanchouLeomon totally is, as it happens, but he doesn’t want to let on about that.

BanchouLeomon:  “I would merely like to, as his friend, send him personally to the other world.”

This is a believable excuse for why he’s doing this, even as it’s kind of heartbreaking – the idea that, if Suguru’s going to die no matter what, he’d prefer to be killed by the hand of someone he trusts. Aww, but also ouch. That’s some friendship.

BanchouLeomon: “Forgive me.”

With this – I love that he feels the need to say this, they are friends – BanchouLeomon punches Suguru in the stomach, powerfully enough that energy erupts out through his body from the force of it. As an Ultimate-level Digimon, of course he can kill a human in a single attack.

(Which goes to show that he must have been not drawing on his Digimon powers when he and Suguru befriended each other in that fight, in order to make it fair and even and not literally kill him with a single punch. Just like how Agumon didn’t use his fire breath against Masaru!)

As Suguru’s body collapses to the ground, BanchouLeomon fiercely addresses the god he knows is watching.

BanchouLeomon: “This man believed in the future of humans and Digimon, and gave us his life! In honour of this man’s passion, desist from your attack on the human world!”

It seems like BanchouLeomon had got wind that Yggdrasil was, again, planning to wreak vengeance on the human world in retribution for Kurata’s crimes. Not even to stop Kurata, apparently, who is currently murdering his way through countless Digimon villages, but just to kill all of the other humans back in their own world who evidently don’t have anything to do with this. Yeah, those, uh, sure are some priorities Yggdrasil has.

Yggdrasil doesn’t say a word, but the crystals above the group glow and then fade, as if in acknowledgement. Once again, Suguru’s sheer manly passion and willingness to give his life was enough to give Yggdrasil second thoughts and allow it to give humanity another chance. Or so it would seem on the surface, at least – again, I suspect that Yggdrasil may be thinking more about how its Royal Knights would feel if it attacked the human world now despite Suguru’s sacrifice and has decided once more to wait for things to escalate just a little further.

Later, the Royal Knights have left the chamber, and BanchouLeomon kneels by Suguru’s side.

BanchouLeomon: “Forgive me, Suguru. This was the only thing I could do to save you.”

Suguru’s mortally wounded, dying, but not quite dead yet. This is why BanchouLeomon stepped in to kill his friend himself – because he knew that he could make sure to do so in a way that gave him just enough time for this last resort.

BanchouLeomon: “Entrust your life to me.”

Suguru:  “My… life…?”

BanchouLeomon: “Become one with me. That’s the only way to fool Yggdrasil’s eyes.”

That’s why Suguru’s been in BanchouLeomon’s head this whole time – because it was the only way BanchouLeomon could think of to keep his friend alive and safe when he was supposed to be dead. What a good friend, to be willing to share his body with his buddy just like that, in order to protect him.

(There’s a little problem here that he’s overlooked, though. Yggdrasil doesn’t exactly have eyes to fool, does it?)

BanchouLeomon:  “By uniting with me, you can also watch over your son, Masaru, in the shadows.”

Perhaps, under other circumstances, BanchouLeomon wouldn’t have done this. He understood how important it was for Suguru to keep his man’s promise and submit to this execution honourably. But then he saw his friend’s anguish at not being able to see his son again, and he must have figured… that is even more important, actually.

Suguru agrees to this offer without any hesitation. It may not be the honourable manly thing to fake one’s execution, or to hide one’s identity, but at this point, he doesn’t even care next to his overwhelming desperation to keep being Masaru’s dad in at least some small way.

They clasp hands around Suguru’s Digivice, which glows with energy, and I guess somehow that transfers Suguru’s soul into BanchouLeomon’s body. This is not entirely unlike what Kurata did with Belphemon, I guess, just with actual consent on the Digimon’s part this time.

(I suppose this does beg the question of how BanchouLeomon knew such a thing was possible. Maybe it’s something Suguru discovered and studied the theory of during all of his time studying Digisoul and human-Digimon bonds?)

Masaru:  “Then… You’re really… You’re really my dad?!”

Back in the present, having reached the part of the story that explains how Suguru’s soul ended up in BanchouLeomon’s body, Masaru is staring at him in renewed shock. Finally, straightforward as he is, he can properly accept it, now that he’s been told how.

Suguru breaks into the fond dad smile again with his friend’s lion face.

BanchouLeomon: “You’ve sure grown big, Masaru.”

He steps forward and ruffles Masaru’s hair, and just for a moment Masaru’s a little kid again, feeling the physical affection from his dad that he’s missed for so long, and it’s adorable. How desperately must Suguru have wanted to do this, to just get to actually treat Masaru like his son for the entire time he’s been around him as BanchouLeomon, aaaa.

But it only lasts a moment before Masaru pushes his hand away.

Masaru:  “Why?! Why did you keep quiet about such an important thing until now? Dad!”

This is not the first time Masaru’s tried to ask his dad something to the effect of “why didn’t you tell me you were safe?”, oh man. It must be especially hard to know that throughout all his encounters with BanchouLeomon, his dad was right there, but he was hiding, lying to Masaru about his identity. That kind of underhanded thing isn’t what a man does! It doesn’t make sense that his dad would do that, does it?

Suguru replies that he couldn’t tell Masaru his identity, and he goes back into narrating the rest of what happened after he merged with BanchouLeomon, in order to explain why.

BanchouLeomon: “Now you are inside of me.”

Suguru:  (Let’s go. We have to stop Kurata.)

BanchouLeomon: “Yeah.”

Here’s a brief little illustration of the fact that whoever’s not in control can still communicate telepathically with the other, as you’d expect when they’re hanging out in the same head.

Yggdrasil:  “I won’t let that happen.”

BanchouLeomon: “Yggdrasil!”

Yggdrasil: “You are both fools for thinking you could deceive a god.”

They… kind of are? BanchouLeomon talked about fooling Yggdrasil’s “eyes”, but… Yggdrasil’s pretty much omniscient, actually. It’s just a floating omnipresent consciousness; of course it’s going to notice if they do a body-swap.

It doesn’t seem like Yggdrasil is willing to also kill BanchouLeomon in order to get rid of Suguru properly – perhaps it’s worried the Royal Knights might take issue with that. Instead, to deal with them a different way, it takes control of Suguru’s body.

Yggdrasil:  “I have now taken this body hostage.”

BanchouLeomon: “What?!”

Yggdrasil:  “If you ever tell anyone about your true identities, or directly involve yourselves in battle, I shall destroy this body at once.”

That’s why BanchouLeomon always stood around without actually helping, and why Suguru kept his presence a secret.

And, so, listen. This does in theory make perfectly good sense as a reason for it, but that reason is presented wrong in these lines. It doesn’t fit for Suguru’s body to be held hostage when Suguru had already been executed. He knew his human body was dead anyway! He’d accepted that when he merged with BanchouLeomon! You can’t exactly threaten somebody with losing something they’d already gone and lost.

What this actually is, which I wish had been presented this way better, is not a threat, but a bribe. Yggdrasil has restored Suguru’s body to normal working order, because it’s a god and it can do that. What it’s really saying by inhabiting the body and waving its functionalness in front of their faces like this is, “if you behave and do as I say, I might let you have this body back once this is all over”. Suguru might just be able to get to live with his son and wife and daughter again and return to his normal family life, which he thought he’d sacrificed for good, if only he complies.

Yggdrasil already knows that Suguru’s willing to betray his manly principles, the principles that were supposed to be so important to him, for the sake of his son. Or, well, maybe it doesn’t quite understand the family part of that, because that’s a weird human thing, but at least it realises on some level that Suguru doesn’t want to die for some particular reason, so it’s hoping that giving him a chance at his life back will be enough to make him comply and stay out of things.

And so, of course he did. Of course Suguru hid his identity, and refused to directly help fight Kurata and save Digimon lives, even though that’s very decidedly Not What A Man Does… all for the chance of just maybe getting to live with his family again, in his own human body, once this is all over. Even though he believed he was willing to make that sacrifice for the sake of protecting harmony between humans and Digimon, when it comes right down to it… of course he doesn’t want to lose that, not if he can avoid it.

Gotsumon:  “Why… Why would Yggdrasil do that?”

Tohma:  “It’s a trial from God. Yggdrasil wanted to test them! It was all to determine whether or not we humans were a positive existence to the Digimon!”

Yoshino:  “That’s too selfish of him!”

Lalamon:  “That’s right! Does that mean he doesn’t care if masses of humans and Digimon get hurt in the process?!”

Yggdrasil: “Exactly.”

So this exchange is interesting. It doesn’t appear that Gotsumon’s “why” is referring to “why did Yggdrasil take Suguru’s body”, because then Lalamon’s comment doesn’t make any sense. So what’s actually being discussed here is, “why did Yggdrasil tell BanchouLeomon and Suguru to stay out of the fight, even though they could have helped save lives?”

Tohma’s answer may be somewhat close to the truth – this idea that it wanted to test to see if other humans were worthwhile allies to Digimon, while removing from the equation the one human it saw as a potential outlier.

But I also suspect that Lalamon’s comment, and Yggdrasil’s agreement with it, really gets to the heart of this. That Yggdrasil didn’t care how many humans and Digimon got hurt as a result of it choosing to let Kurata’s attempted genocide play out. That, really, it was just waiting for an inevitable disaster like the dimensional catastrophe we’re in right now, to give it the ultimate excuse to destroy all of humanity that no Royal Knight would ever question. Can’t have Suguru and BanchouLeomon helping fight Kurata when they might do such a good job of it that they stop things escalating this far.

This was Yggdrasil speaking again, for the first time in the present this episode. Either it took that long for it to regain the strength of its borrowed human body, or perhaps it was willing to let the others indulge in some backstory exposition? Not sure. But now, it blasts its way out of the rubble it was buried under and stands up.

Yggdrasil: “You worthless humans… Even when you are confronted with this unprecedented crisis, not once have you reflected on the error of your ways. All you do is run around fretfully. Your actions are truly the height of stupidity.”

We get some shots of the chaos in the human world as it says this, making it clear that it’s talking about humanity in general. And, Yggdrasil, what the heck else did you expect them to do? How can the vast, vast majority of humans reflect on “errors” that they didn’t even know existed? It’s still weaving a narrative to make humans sound bad that does not actually hold up to logical scrutiny.

But also note how it’s not even really bothering to argue that humans are a threat to Digimon any more. It just thinks they’re… stupid? As if that’s why they should all die?

Ikuto:  “There are plenty of people who are working hard to protect the worlds from this disaster!”

By “plenty of people”, he’s referring to his human parents and Satsuma, who are still working on trying to fix the barrier. Which is a whole, uh, three people. Still, to be fair, that is a pretty big proportion of the humans who actually even understand what’s happening, so!

Yggdrasil, still insistent on getting its way, shoots a blast of energy out of Suguru’s hand at the group, who all dive out of the way.

Yggdrasil: “Humans are unnecessary. That is what I, Yggdrasil, the God of the Digital World, have concluded!”

Yep; it wants humanity gone simply because they’re unnecessary to it. Like Tohma mused last episode – since humans don’t belong in the Digital World, it’s like Yggdrasil sees them as a virus. This has nothing to do with getting rid of them because it’s the only way to stop the collision. It’s not even bothering to try and make it about that any more. (Perhaps because there are no Royal Knights in earshot.)

Masaru:  “Like hell we’d accept that self-centred decision of yours!”

Hah, you tell it, Masaru. Now that he knows this thing isn’t and never was his dad, he’s right back to being delightfully Masaru at it – of course Yggdrasil deciding the fate of an entire species just based on its own whims is ridiculously self-centred of it.

Yoshino:  “He’s right! You can’t get away with everything just because you’re a god!”

Yggdrasil: “Silence! All who defy me deserve to die!”

Yggdrasil seems quite pissed off at having people actually talk back to it! It’s really not used to that, is it, being usually surrounded by nothing but yes-men in the form of the Royal Knights.

Agumon:  “You don’t know anything!”

Yggdrasil: “What?”

Agumon:  “I have fun being with Aniki! I like fighting strong guys and getting stronger myself! It’s exciting!”

Aww, Agumon, look at him standing up for his human friend! I like that this seems to be a rebuttal to Yggdrasil’s silent assumption that, as the God of the Digital World, what it’s decided must obviously be best for Digimon – but no, of course it isn’t! Of course the Digimon themselves have something to say about that!

The intro to Believer starts up here, incidentally, giving this bit a nice triumphant sort of mood even though it’s not a fight yet.

Gaomon:  “Me, too! I am proud to be fighting alongside my master!”

Aww, Gaomon, what a good dog, of course he’s proud of that.

Lalamon:  “Me, too! I love Yoshino!”

Lalamon giving a platonic I-love-you towards Yoshino! That’s always adorable.

Falcomon:  “Me, too! Ikuto is precious to me!”

And Falcomon, of course, best birb friend. All of the Digimon’s human partners all seem touched by their friends’ words. Did you know that FRIENDS, because clearly Yggdrasil didn’t.

Agumon:  “Digimon and humans can appreciate each other!”

With this firm insistence, Agumon shoots a Baby Flame at one of Yggdrasil’s energy blasts, which dissipates pathetically against it, but it’s an adorably Masaru-like sentiment for him to have tried anyway. The blast sends the group diving to the ground again (Masaru lands with an arm protectively around Ikuto, which is cute). Only BanchouLeomon is still standing.

Masaru:  “What should we do? What should we do to stop Yggdrasil? Dad!”

I love how Masaru instinctively turns to his dad for the solution to this situation. His dad’s the bestest strongest ever, after all – Masaru’s never stopped feeling that way. If anyone knows how to get them through this, it must be him.

His dad gives him a pained smile.

BanchouLeomon/Suguru: “There will come a time in a man’s life when he must accomplish something at the risk of his life. Now is that time.”

BanchouLeomon’s image is overlaid with one of Suguru, and Suguru’s voice, as he says this, reflecting the fact that Masaru knows full well it’s his dad speaking here. Suguru must have previously felt that the time to risk his life for something important enough had come, back when he vowed the massacre would never happen again – but this time, it really is it.

Masaru:  “Dad?”

Masaru just reacts with confusion, not at all wanting to properly process what those words must mean, as his dad turns his back to him to face Yggdrasil.

BanchouLeomon: “Masaru! Take care of Mom and Chika.”

Oh boy. Now that’s a goodbye if Masaru ever heard one. (It’s very fitting that that’s the goodbye Suguru would give him, trusting Masaru to look after the family and be the dad to them in his place – just like he’s always been trying to do this whole time!) This moment’s also neatly underlined by Believer shifting from its intro section into its main riff.

Masaru stares in shock, still not quite willing to process what’s about to happen, as his dad strides towards Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil fires blasts of energy at him, but Suguru’s simply grimaces slightly with his lion face, refusing to let the pain stop him, and keeps approaching. Yggdrasil shifts to firing blasts with both hands, seemingly putting as much force into it as it can; Suguru roars in exertion and makes it close enough to trap his own possessed body in a huge bear hug. (Lion hug?)

BanchouLeomon: “You’re coming with me to the bottom of Hell.”

Damn, Suguru. Sounds like he’s been pretty low-key pissed off at Yggdrasil and waiting to be able to get one over on it for quite a while now.

BanchouLeomon: “Now, Masaru! Destroy my body along with Yggdrasil!”

Yeahhh, Masaru’s not stoked about that plan! Not only is this the first moment he’s unable to run away from the fact that this is very definitely his dad sacrificing himself, it also turns out that he’s got to be the one to pull the metaphorical trigger. I love this shot of his shocked expression, in negative colours to really sell the impact of it, and exquisitely punctuated by the… orchestral hits? Is that the right musical term? that form Believer’s dramatic lead-in to the chorus.

Masaru:  “No way! I can’t do that!”

BanchouLeomon:  “Do it! You’re a man!”

Masaru:  “But…!”

Aaaaa, Masaru. Of course he doesn’t want to do that to his dad! But… it is what needs to be done here, to defeat Yggdrasil. It is the sort of thing a Man needs to do at a time like this, to make such a huge sacrifice for the sake of the greater good. Masaru knows that, but… still…!

(Technically Masaru doesn’t have to be the one to kill his dad and Yggdrasil here. It could really be any of the team’s evolved partners to do it. But in this situation, since the sacrifice being made is Masaru’s dad, it’s only fair that Masaru needs to be able to make himself okay with this happening. If someone else just went and killed his dad against his will, that’d be horribly cruel, more so than pushing him into being able to accept this himself. That’s what Suguru wants, and why he’s asking his own son to kill him.)

Masaru and Suguru look at each other for a lingering moment, Masaru anguished and hesitant, Suguru unwavering and determined.

BanchouLeomon: “Please. Masaru! NOW!”

Masaru:  “Dad…”

Masaru grimaces, trying so hard to force himself into being able to do this for his dad’s sake, and then roars in anguish and flares up with a blazing Digisoul, right in time with the Believer! at the end of the song’s chorus. Yet another instance in which he’s managed it without needing a punch first – if ever he’d be able to fire up those emotions without that psychological trigger, it’d be now.

Masaru:  “Digisoul Charge… Overdrive!”

A detail I extremely enjoy here is that, for the only time ever, we do not get the stock footage for the Digisoul Charge. It’s animated uniquely here in a rather more subdued way, without the dramatic spin-around they all usually do, and also voiced differently – note the lack of exclamation mark after the Charge. Masaru is forcing himself to find the strength to do this, but he cannot get eager and excited about it like he usually does. Of course he can’t.

(Agumon’s evolution animation into ShineGreymon is still the same, though.)

The BGM switches from Believer to Burst Mode, that momentous, haunting choral piece, which is very fitting for this moment (even though there’s no actual Burst Mode involved at all).

Yggdrasil is still trapped in BanchouLeomon’s arms, unable to get free.

Yggdrasil: “You’ll die too, if you stay like this!”

BanchouLeomon/Suguru:  “When we revealed to them who we really were… We were already prepared for death!”

Indeed, Yggdrasil essentially threatened them with the death of Suguru’s human body – for real this time – if they ever revealed their identities. They must have already known that doing this would be a last resort, only if they were willing to make that sacrifice.

Perhaps Suguru’s more ready to die this time than he was last time, now that he’s actually gotten to see his son again, see how much stronger he’s grown and be able to help him along that path. And perhaps it also feels a lot more right to be dying for a purpose, helping to save the world from the worst possible crisis, rather than simply because he promised he would for no actual gain.

BanchouLeomon/Suguru: “Now, shoot! Masaru!”

Masaru’s still staring in anguish, fighting to make himself able to do this. He flashes back to the day his father left, when he played catch and gave him the pendant; then to BanchouLeomon smiling at him after their training to reach Ultimate-level, which Masaru now realises was his dad being so proud of him. It’s almost unbearable to think that his dad’s going to be gone, for good this time, after all the effort Masaru went through to find him again…!

Masaru:  “Dad… Dad…! DAD!!!”

With yet another delightfully agonised series of expressions, Masaru finally manages to work up the courage to do this, screaming his dad’s name. Of course, he’s not even the one doing the deed – but ShineGreymon glances at him just briefly, at that last desperate scream, before firing the attack. I think ShineGreymon was able to sense that his aniki had finally completely found the mental resolve to do this, and only fired once that was the case.

BanchouLeomon/Suguru: “Thank you… Masaru…”

Suguru (and BanchouLeomon) takes the attack with a serene smile on his face, so proud of his son for having found the strength to do this.

Masaru:  “DAD!!!”

Masaru… is very far from serene about any of this. He’s just screaming in emotional agony, tears in his eyes, barely able to take it. I want to give this kid a hug, he is so strong and brave. Masaruuuuuu.

The force of the blast shakes the entire tree they’re inside. Back in the human world, Chika seems to somehow be able to sense what just happened to her father. The rest of the Royal Knights, too, can somehow feel that their god has just been dealt a very devastating blow.

This includes Dukemon and Sleipmon, who it turns out aren’t actually dead after all. Sleipmon froze them together in a block of ice at the end of episode 41, but they’re still alive, slowly sinking towards the bottom of the ocean.

Sleipmon:  “Did you feel that?”

Dukemon:  “Yes. Yggdrasil has fallen.”

Sleipmon:  “Now you understand. God is not absolute.”

Dukemon:  “Yes… But… it appears I’ve realised that too late.”

Saying that Yggdrasil has fallen is a bit of an overstatement, because, ha ha, about that. But at the very least, this has apparently proven that it’s not invincible. Good on Sleipmon for trying to use this moment to persuade Dukemon towards his point of view, like he was always wanting to do in the first place. Maybe the Royal Knights shouldn’t just be mindlessly following their god, huh? Though it’s a bit much that it takes their god being physically vulnerable, rather than morally reprehensible, for Dukemon to start considering that.

In the Digital World, the entire giant tree is in flames and falling apart. It seems like ShineGreymon must have grabbed everyone and flown them out of there to safety before the fire took hold.

Masaru:  “Dad…”

Masaru, of course, is still shaken by this. Of course he is.

Ikuto:  “Let’s go home… To the human world.”

Ikuto says this with a sad, sympathetic look towards Masaru. If anyone does, he understands how Masaru’s feeling right now. He’s also lost his father and yet had to move on and keep fighting with barely any time to grieve.

Tohma, too, gently reminds Masaru that their fight isn’t over yet.

Masaru:  “Yeah. Let’s go, ShineGre—!”

In Masaru’s expression, you can see the exact moment he manages to push his grief aside and focus on what needs to be done, forcing some of that usual upbeat determination back into himself. This kid is so damn resilient.

But before they can do that, a huge shape emerges from the burning wreckage as Yggdrasil threatens them, now with its own androgynous voice. Whoops, Suguru’s body wasn’t Yggdrasil’s real body. Of course it wasn’t.

Suguru and BanchouLeomon should have thought about that before pulling their sacrifice, because, ouch. I imagine they assumed that by putting itself into a human body, Yggdrasil had made itself vulnerable – but they were wrong. Turns out you can’t kill a god that easily, actually.

Overall thoughts

Another really long commentary as a sign of a good episode! Apparently big flashback backstory episodes do that to me.

Oh my god, look at Suguru and BanchouLeomon being such ridiculous banchou dorks in their friendship, as Suguru and his Digimon partner were always going to be, I love them. And I especially love the deliberate parallels drawn with Masaru and Agumon, of course they did that, it’s great. Plus some very adorable father-son moments between Masaru and Suguru, finally, now that Suguru’s not hiding his identity and Masaru actually knows this is his dad. Even if he’s a lion.

I really love that, in this most Suguru-focused episode, we get to see plenty of him not only being a manly dork but also being human and fallible and conflicted, in stark contrast to Masaru’s idealised perfect image of him we’ve had in mind for most of the series. In particular, I love he wanted to do the Honourable Manly Thing and keep his promise to stake his life on his word, but when it came right down to it, he couldn’t – because of Masaru. It’s not that his principles aren’t important to him; of course they are, we see that. It’s that Masaru is even more important to him than any of that. What a good dad. And that’s why he’s been hiding himself as BanchouLeomon all this time, even though such deception is an underhanded thing that Isn’t What A Man Does – for the chance of being able to get his family life back at the end of it all. Of course he would.

Then of course I cannot help but be fond of the incredible Masaru Being Not Okay-ness of the climax in which he has to be the one to kill his dad in order to (supposedly) defeat Yggdrasil, aaa. Masaruuuuu.

---

[Dub comparison]

[mercuriart]

based on a very important comment about Masaru with a gakuran post-epilogue, because it's what a banchou deserves

Also based on my headcanon that he'd try his hardest to emulate the VERY badass vibes of banchouleomon, because of his sacrifice and all that. (except he isn't like. permadead or anything, so one day he'll show up again and look at Masaru like "why are you here and why are you dressed like that??")

[elyvorg]

Just a couple of ordinary ‘mons, nothing to see here.

(yo @radondoran)

[trashgoblinart-blog]

I will eventually teach myself how to shade. This is my half of an art trade with my bestest pal @dogsnacks !! Here is your ghostly possessed Bancholeomon hope you like it~

[housespecialfriedrice]

[hydroflorix]

assembly arena’s first round just ended not too long ago, here’s the first page of the comic entry @cancrunchgoats and i collabed on and submitted! marina and goma discuss the important details.

read the full entry starting here!

[breziarchive]

why not go down into the fires of hell for drawing bancholeomon so much