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Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 31 - The Showdown Between Geniuses! Tohma VS Nanami

In this episode, as the battle to defend the Holy Capital begins, Tohma goes alone to protect the one weak spot in their defences and finds himself facing fellow genius Nanami, who insists that the two of them have a lot in common.

After a quick recap, we open with the Holy Capital’s preparations to fend off attack from Kurata’s forces. ElDoradimon has moved into the centre of a huge lake, implicitly upon Tohma’s suggestion. The DATS crew and Baromon are standing at the top of one of the city’s tallest towers as Tohma explains that this is a vantage point from which they can see all around, so any Gizmon who come close enough over the lake to attack will expose themselves to a counterattack.

Baromon: “Yes.” [he turns to Masaru] “You chose a good place. It truly is impenetrable.”

This whole strategy was clearly all from Tohma, but Baromon gives all the credit to Masaru anyway, like Tohma’s just some lackey who answers to him. I don’t think he’s doing this to purposely be malicious towards Tohma; I think he and the rest of the citizens are still so hooked on Masaru being their beloved saviour’s son that they don’t realise he’s not the only important member of this little band of humans who showed up to help.

Masaru: “Dad protected this place, so I’ll do all I can to do the same!”

Baromon: “That’s our saviour’s son! I’m entrusting our friend to you.”

Agumon: “You’ve got a lot of responsibility on your hands, Aniki.”

Masaru doesn’t pick up on the fact that Tohma wasn’t given the credit he deserved, but I think that’s also not out of any kind of malice towards Tohma and is instead because of him being wrapped up in his own feelings about this. His dad came here and saved this city and is their legendary beloved hero; Masaru simply has to do everything he can to live up to that, and that’s all he can think about right now.

Gaomon: “It was Master who came up with the strategy!”

Tohma: “A saviour…”

Tohma was watching bitterly from the moment Baromon heaped all the praise onto Masaru, but it’s Gaomon who actually voices that Tohma really deserved the credit. It seems that Tohma’s also still kind of wrapped up in his own kind of dad issues. Because Masaru has the unquestionably awesome father, apparently that means he gets to be the one who’s praised for everything, even things he didn’t do, and that’s just how having an awesome dad works…?

(It really isn’t, Tohma; Masaru needs to stand on his own merits, and Gaomon is right to point out that you deserved the credit here.)

Meanwhile, at Kurata’s camp on a nearby hill, Nanami is observing ElDoradimon’s location through a telescope.

Nanami: “That’s the best strategy that can be made out of their current condition.”

This begins to highlight the issue with Tohma’s “perfect strategies”. They’re not unconventional or unpredictable in any way; they’re the single most optimal thing that can be thought up. Which means that anybody else who has a similarly good head for strategy can look at the situation Tohma is in and predict the exact strategy he will use before he even uses it.

Nanami remarks that someone smart must have come up with this, and Kurata tells her it’s got to be Tohma.

Kurata: “By merely judging from his IQ, you can tell that Tohma-kun’s intelligence is beyond that of an ordinary person’s.”

This might just be a subs thing, but the “merely judging from his IQ” bit always bugged me. What do you mean merely; judging someone’s intelligence is the entire point of an IQ. You can also judge Tohma’s intelligence from, I don’t know, his PhD and medical license at the age of fourteen, it’s not hard.

It's notable how Kurata refers to Tohma with -kun, which, considering Tohma is much younger, is probably a looking-down-on-him thing, despite having addressed him as “Doctor Tohma” to his face a few times prior to this.

Kurata: “He is most commonly categorised as a genius. Yes… Just like you.”

Nanami: “Hm? That sounds interesting.”

And here we finally get told about the obvious parallel between these two. Nanami has, on more than one occasion, made a point of going after Tohma during their fights, so I strongly suspect she’d already picked up on Tohma’s intelligence before.

She plays it off here like she’s only just realising it, but that could be because she doesn’t care enough about Kurata’s opinion of her to bother explaining that she’d already figured that out herself. Being a genius, she’s bound to be very used to having other people assume she hadn’t figured out something that was obvious to her from the start.

Kouki: “It doesn’t matter what they come up with. I’ll crush them with my own hands!”

Much like Masaru, Kouki doesn’t give a damn about strategy and insists he’ll win through raw power alone. He crushes an empty packet of potato chips as he says this to drive the point home (having been munching on them earlier in the conversation; again, the most disgustingly casual approach to genocide).

Ivan: “Garbage… must be properly disposed of. Those are the rules.”

This might have been a neat continuation of Kouki’s metaphorical chip-packet treatment, except for the fact that Ivan isn’t really the kind of person who would think of his enemies in this situation as garbage like Kouki basically does. And also except for the fact that Ivan then explains that he totally made a good metaphor but definitely isn’t saying this out loud oh my god please stop with this one-dimensional unfunny joke. I am so ready to be done with Ivan soon.

Kurata: “Anyway, there’s no need to rush. Don’t you think it’s boring to simply win? Since they took the trouble to defend themselves, let’s play with them for a bit first.”

Kurata is beginning to show signs of getting rather power-crazy. He started this because he’d genuinely convinced himself that he must destroy all of these horrible vicious terrifying Digimon for the safety of humanity. But now he’s not feeling like it’s urgent at all. He knows he has enough power to be able to achieve his goal in the end, and he’s started to enjoy the thrill of having that power over his enemies in and of itself.

As he speaks, we see an Igamon – one of Ikuto’s ninja friends he brought here last episode – floating silently and unseen over the camp.

Later, back in the Holy Capital, this Igamon has reported back about having found the enemy’s base camp, where all the Gizmon are assembled as well.

He also drew a definitely-very-helpful sketch of the human who was their leader. Masaru, Tohma and Yoshino stare at it in bewildered exasperation.

Igamon: “The saviour’s face is marked with sweat!”

Baromon: “Is the enemy that formidable?!”

I love that Igamon (and Baromon, apparently) have such faith in his drawing skills that they think the humans’ reaction is clearly one of great fear, and not anything else.

Tohma: “Igamon, was this man wearing a white robe and glasses?”

Igamon: “Yes. He was.”

Tohma tactfully finds a way to confirm whether this human was Kurata without insulting the poor Igamon’s artistic ability. He tried, bless him.

We cut to the humans and their partners gathered in front of a crowd of Digimon to give a speech about the upcoming battle. They’re all sitting in kinda throne-like seats, with Masaru’s being the biggest and fanciest because he’s the saviour’s son.

Baromon: “Everyone! As of now, we have an announcement from our saviour. Quiet down and listen closely.”

Baromon makes a point of grandly introducing the words Masaru is about to say. He (and Igamon just earlier) have also shifted from calling Masaru “the saviour’s son” to simply calling him “the saviour”. All of this can only be adding to the pressure Masaru feels to live up to his dad’s reputation here.

As Masaru stands up and clears his throat to begin the speech, he actually seems kind of nervous. Though he’s really good at speeches about his manly principles, those things are always very spontaneous in the heat of the moment. Doing this thing that is supposed to be a speech, in front of a huge crowd, a crowd who admired his dad and is expecting him to be just as awesome, is quite a different matter. It’s a little daunting to him, as much as he’s trying his best to hide it.

(Though, to be fair, all of them are blushing, even Agumon, Yoshino and Tohma. They’re all clearly feeling kind of awkward about being put in this position of such revered importance when they’re just here trying to help.)

Yoshino: “Don’t slip up, saviour.”

Since we know Yoshino doesn’t actually see Masaru as some grand saviour the way the citizens do, she clearly means this not as further pressure but as a light-hearted little tease at the ridiculousness of the situation, to maybe help Masaru feel a bit more relaxed.

Masaru: “We know where the enemy is located! Now we’ll march right in and bring Kurata down!”

This is… the entirety of Masaru’s “speech”. Really wasn’t something that needed so much hyping up from Baromon, and of course Masaru’s opinion would be as simple and straightforward as “we should charge in there and fight the thing”.

This elicits some confused mumbling from the crowd, as even Baromon questions that they’re going to make the first move. (Though I wonder whether Baromon is questioning the recklessness of it, or whether he’s only confused because he’d got it into his head earlier that it was “Masaru’s” plan to stay put and defend themselves.)

Ikuto and Falcomon, who are also here but standing off to the side for some reason (I guess Baromon didn’t have enough fancy seats), speak up to agree with Masaru’s approach.

Falcomon: “We’ve had enough of Digimon getting hurt!”

Ikuto: “Also for Mercurimon and Yukidarumon… We’ll end this fight quickly!”

At this, the crowd’s mood quickly shifts into cheering and agreeing. It’s pretty interesting how Masaru alone couldn’t inspire this attitude from them; it’s hearing Ikuto and Falcomon talking about it from a Digimon perspective, avenging fallen friends and preventing more deaths, that really gets the crowd on-side.

Tohma: “Wait! This is a trap!”

[the crowd’s cheers quieten into confused mumbling]

Masaru: “A trap?”

Tohma: “We were able to find their location so easily. It’s not like Kurata to be this careless. He must be intentionally using his camp as bait, in order to force us to divide up our troops. We should stay here for now and wait for the enemy to come to us.”

Tohma, as ever, has picked up on the more subtle strategies being used by their enemy, and is advocating the most careful, cautious approach. Everything he’s saying makes a lot of sense.

Revolmon: “That’s…”

Pumpmon: “You’re thinking too much into it…”

But to a crowd that’s just fervently got on board with the reckless gung-ho approach of simply charging in there and fighting and winning, it mostly sounds like Tohma’s trying to ruin the mood. It’s much harder to start cheering and getting excited about a strategy that comes down to sitting and waiting to be attacked.

Masaru: “I don’t care if it’s a trap! As long as Kurata’s defeated, the fight will end!”

Oh, Masaru. He didn’t realise it was a trap until Tohma pointed it out, but even knowing that, of course he doesn’t care. Of course he still wants to charge right in, because this is still the simplest and most comprehensive way to solve the problem as far as he sees it. They’ve spent so much time wandering around the Digital World trying to find Kurata, helpless to meaningfully protect the Digimon without knowing where the source of it all is, and now he’s right there, dammit!

Tohma: “Then you’re just doing what Kurata wants! He’s waiting for us to make our move!”

Masaru: “Then we’ll just go ourselves! You don’t have a problem with that, right?”

I really like Masaru’s approach to this. He and Ikuto (he puts his arms around Ikuto and Agumon as he says this; it’s pretty cute) want to charge right in at Kurata, and nothing will ever make them change their minds about that – but that doesn’t mean that Tohma can’t still do his own strategic defensive thing back here, right? He knows that he and Tohma have entirely different opinions about the best approach to this kind of thing, so rather than insisting solely on his idea, he’s letting them both do their own preferred approaches. They’re not mutually exclusive!

As I talked about a fair bit in the early Masaru-Tohma rivalry episodes, the best way to strategise with Masaru in your team is to accept that he is never going to not be Masaru, and work around that. Tohma can do that. He’s done it before.

…Though, Tohma did make a point that Kurata’s plan is to make them divide their forces by having some of them run into the trap. Masaru and Ikuto are only a small group, but still, ShineGreymon and Yatagaramon are two of their most powerful fighters who won’t be able to protect the city because of this. I bet that’s on Tohma’s mind.

Tohma: “This isn’t one of your little school fights! If we don’t follow a strategy, we can’t protect the Holy Capital!”

Perhaps because of that, or because of the sheer magnitude of what they have to lose if they fail, or simply because he’s still frustrated about Masaru getting all the praise and attention just because of his dad, Tohma isn’t willing to accept this and let Masaru go do his thing so easily.

Masaru: “A good offence is the best defence! I’m going to kick Kurata’s ass and that’s that!”

[the crowd begins cheering again]

Crowd member: “Words of a true hero!”

Yes, the most heroic words: go fight the thing and kick the enemy’s ass. The gung-ho offence approach really is far easier for a scared and angry crowd to get behind. And Masaru’s their legendary hero(’s son), not Tohma.

(Though it’s still notable that it was actually Ikuto who really got the crowd on board with charging in in the first place, rather than Masaru. Yet they’re now unconsciously associating all of their excitement and fervour with Masaru anyway, because of course their saviour’s son is the best leader.)

Tohma stares at the crowd as they cheer for what he can’t help but see as the obviously stupid and reckless strategy that’s going to get them all killed.

Tohma: “Why doesn’t anyone understand?”

It really must be so painful and frustrating for him right now, knowing that he has the right ideas about this but feeling like nobody’s listening to him. And all because of Masaru’s reckless brute-force approaches, and because Tohma’s not the one with an indisputably admired father.

Yushima is here too, sitting off to the side. (He got a chair, for some reason, even though Ikuto didn’t.)

Yushima: “Well… It might be best to just go with the flow.”

Tohma: “No way… Even Yushima-san agrees with them…”

I don’t think that’s necessarily what Yushima is doing, actually. From the way he phrases this, it seems like he understands Tohma’s argument and agrees with the merits of his strategy, but he also acknowledges that right now, there’s nothing Tohma or anyone can actually do to change the citizens’ – or Masaru’s – mind and have Tohma’s approach happen. You’ve just gotta accept Masaru’s Masaru-ness and work around it, like I said.

But Tohma’s in such a state right now of feeling like nobody’s listening to or understanding his viewpoint. He can’t help but see this as Yushima – someone he thought of as pretty sensible and likely to see his point – agreeing that Masaru’s approach is totally the best one, just like everybody else.

Later, as the sun sets, Masaru’s little band of four gets ready to head out.

Masaru: “I’ll definitely have beaten Kurata the next time you see me.”

Yes. Definitely. Go in there, defeat Kurata, stop the genocide and save the Digimon. (And live up to his dad’s reputation.) It is very definitely going to be this easy.

Masaru: “So take care of defending this place for me until then, Tohma!”

Masaru – unsurprisingly – seems completely oblivious to all of the issues and frustration that Tohma has been harbouring about this. Sure, they had a bit of a clash back there during the speech, but they have arguments about strategy all the time and it’s never a big deal, so why would this be one? He’s counting on his friend and comrade to have his back, just like always.

Tohma’s eyes narrow just slightly at this, but not in an especially resentful-seeming way. Whatever he’s feeling here, he’s able to keep it mostly inside.

Tohma: “You don’t need to tell me that.”

This could read like a casual bit of banter between friends. But I think Tohma might mean it rather more literally in this instance. Masaru doesn’t need to tell him to do the thing that was Tohma’s plan in the first place. Tohma knows Masaru isn’t deliberately trying to steal his credit, but the suggestion of anything in that direction still frustrates him just a little.

Masaru chuckles, still oblivious to anything going on with Tohma and seeing this as friendly banter, and gives a casual see-ya.

Then he jumps down towards the Digimon-boat that’s already carrying the others, juuuust a little too late as it sets off, and lands in the water like a doofus, having to frantically swim after it to catch up. Our glorious saviour, everyone!

Tohma: “I can’t believe that reckless guy is considered a saviour.”

Gaomon: “I fear for the future.”

At least Gaomon can snark with Tohma about this, assuming this is just casual snark on Gaomon’s part and not him genuinely being worried about the outcome of this battle given Masaru’s recklessness. I’m not sure. Either way, Gaomon is always on his master’s side like the good dog he is.

Lalamon: “You think so?”

Yoshino: “I think the reason why Masaru continues to take such risks is because he trusts you, Tohma.”

Yoshino gets it! She didn’t say anything at all during their argument back at the speech, but she was paying attention and can see Masaru’s attitude for what it is, because she’s not wrapped up like Tohma is in the sense of inferiority it gives him.

Masaru really is genuinely trusting Tohma to hold the fort back here and isn’t doing this in an attempt to steal all the glory or completely ruin Tohma’s strategies – quite the opposite! Masaru and Tohma’s contrasting approaches can make them a really good team if they use both approaches in tandem while giving the other space to do his thing. Masaru knows that, even if Tohma’s kind of forgetting it right now.

At Yoshino’s words, Gaomon looks up at Tohma in surprise, like he’s only just realised this too and is hoping it’ll make his master feel better. But Tohma continues to stare doubtfully into the distance, unconvinced. Just like last time they clashed way back at the beginning of the series, his discomfort about all this isn’t really coming from Masaru at all.

My injured wings

will awaken a miracle

And I will flutter once again

And it’s opening time! I enjoy this first handful of lyrics from the new opening quite a bit. This sense of overcoming struggles and continuing to flourish even though you’ve been hurt, using the very part of you that’s been hurt, is an image that’s quite appropriate for multiple storylines in the later parts of this series.

Masaru: “Kurata! Prepare to die!”

Damn, Masaru’s feeling vicious as he and Ikuto and their partners rush towards where Kurata’s camp is. The actual Japanese line didn’t directly mention death, but from what I can make out, his phrasing is something in the direction of strangling, so, yeah, pretty to-the-point there.

Meanwhile over at ElDoradimon, Tohma and Gaomon watch as three Gizmon – just the Adult-level AT versions here – approach over the water. Stationed on the city walls, an assortment of Digimon with ranged weapons (why do so many Digimon have guns) fire at them and miss spectacularly, then some Igamon hiding under the water throw shurikens at them and take out two of them in one shot each. Baromon deals with the last one that made it through before it can reach the city.

That was pretty easy. In fact, going by the strength that a single Gizmon: AT was shown to have in episode 25 – one Adult-level held its own against DATS’s three Perfect-levels even before Kurata evolved it to Perfect – these Gizmon: AT here are significantly weaker for two of them to go down in a single attack from an Adult-level Igamon. So much for all those lines in episode 28 about how these new Gizmon are definitely a lot stronger!

We’re starting to reach the point where the Gizmon, including the XT ones soon enough, are becoming extremely subject to the Inverse Ninja Law: the more of them there are, they less of a threat they are. But if we think about it (possibly a little more than the writers ever did) that could make some kind of sense. Kurata mentioned that the one he had in episode 25 was made from modifying a bunch of regular Digimon to turn them into a soulless puppet. But once he starts mass-producing Gizmon, there can’t be that many Digimon that he was able to get hold of as a resource to create each and every one. So it just about logically follows that these mass-produced ones he must be using now, if they’re not made directly from mashed-up-Digimon juice, could be quite a bit weaker.

Regardless of all that, it’s also a thing that Kurata only sent in a handful of ATs just now when he has plenty of XTs lying around. Tohma says that this was just a probing attack to get a feel of their strength, and I guess we’ve got to go with that. I imagine the writers mostly wanted to show us a brief glimpse of something resembling the large-scale warfare that ought to be going on here, before Tohma spends the rest of the episode in a much more one-on-one kind of encounter.

Tohma: “The next place they’ll attack will be over there.”

Tohma’s referring to a waterfall at the edge of this elevated lake, the one point at which water is flowing out of it. Should the waterfall be destroyed, the lake will drain, and ElDoradimon’s current defence of being surrounded by water on all sides would be lost.

(It’s a little unclear in this episode in particular why this would be such a bad thing, because all of Kurata’s forces can fly over the lake anyway, so all the lake really provides the city is open space to see the enemy coming, which would work just as well with a dry open lakebed. However, the water being there is in fact a relevant factor that the Digimon side can’t afford to lose, as we will see next episode.)

Since the waterfall is such an important potential weak spot in their defence strategy, Tohma heads over to protect it. Alone. (Well, with Gaomon, but.)

If it’s so important, you’d think he’d want to bring a large amount of forces with him, to maximise their chances of defending it. But he doesn’t. I don’t think he even tells anyone else he’s headed here. Tohma’s perfectionism and insistence on relying on nobody but himself to get the job done is showing again, at perhaps the worst possible time. After everything earlier in the day with the citizens buying into Masaru’s approach over his and refusing to give him any of the respect he deserved, he doesn’t trust anybody else with this most important part of his strategy.

And also, now look who’s dividing up your troops, Tohma. The whole point of him protesting Masaru and Ikuto rushing off towards Kurata was that it would leave fewer powerful Digimon behind to defend the city, and yet now Tohma’s depriving them of the help MirageGaogamon could give, too.

Tohma: “Thank goodness. It appears…”

Nanami: “Nothing’s happened to it yet, hmm?”

As he reaches the waterfall, Nanami is here too, standing atop a tall tree for drama points, echoing Tohma’s thoughts. Being a genius like him, she predicted that he would come here for this exact reason and came herself to confront him.

Tohma: “Who’s there?”

Nanami: “Dear, dear. Have you already forgotten my voice?”

It’s really quite reasonable that Tohma wouldn’t remember her voice; the previous times the DATS team encountered the Bio-Hybrids, Nanami didn’t speak up that much and only interacted with Tohma in particular in any way in her Digimon form, which had a different voice. But apparently Nanami feels like she ought to be at the forefront of Tohma’s mind, just like he’s been in hers since she noticed he was a genius. (Has Tohma even noticed in turn that Nanami is a genius? I don’t think he has.)

Nanami turns to face him, rattling off his exact strategy regarding the waterfall and why he came here to protect it.

Tohma: “You were able to predict everything?”

Tohma appears a little stressed and caught off guard by this. He’s not used to people predicting his strategies – if someone can see right through it like that, it’s really not such a perfect strategy at all.

Nanami: “Anyone could see it, if they just gave it some thought. Wouldn’t you agree, Doctor Tohma Norstein?”

Clearly not just anyone could figure it out. But Nanami lives in a world where all these sorts of things are so completely obvious to her, and it’s so frustrating that nobody else can see it. Tohma here is one of the only other people who can, just like her.

(Tohma was almost having the same kinds of thoughts earlier, as the crowd ignored his strategy that was the obviously correct approach in his mind, and he hated the way that nobody else could understand that.)

Nanami: “I’m quite interested in you.”

Of course she is. Somebody else who gets it, who isn’t so frustratingly slow and stupid like the rest of the world, who might actually understand what it’s like to be her?

Nanami: “I wonder for how long… you will entertain me!”

That’s something she can entertain herself with. Though it is also interesting to note how she seems to be resigned to the fact that even Tohma won’t be able to entertain her forever, that sooner or later she’s going to grow bored of him, too.

At this, she dramatically leaps from the tree and floats daintily to the ground with her parasol that is definitely not actually big enough to slow her fall that much, but anime logic I guess. Landing behind Tohma, she suddenly goes for his head with a fast and precise kick, and he only just dodges out of the way. Nanami’s got herself some physical fighting skills to go alongside her smarts, just like Tohma!

I guess for the sake of making a mini-cliffhanger out of revealing Nanami’s badassery or something, we get a brief cutaway to Masaru’s little group. Some Gizmon: XT rise up in front of them, Agumon laments that it really is an ambush, and Masaru does not care and is ready to kick their ass.

Anyway, back to Tohma. Gaomon rushes at Nanami with a spinning punch attack, and she elegantly flips backwards out of the way. Mid-air, she lets go of her parasol, letting it fall into Gaomon’s face and block his view of her as she rebounds off a nearby rock and slams into his stomach with a kick. Some impressive tactics, as you’d expect from someone like her.

Tohma: “She’s reading Gaomon’s movements!”

Nanami: “It’s not that difficult. When you’re as smart as I am, you already know what he’s about to do.”

Again, Tohma’s strategies (and by extension Gaomon’s) are very predictable to someone like Nanami.

Nanami: “Nothing that moves within your hearts is left unseen to me. Absolutely nothing.”

Reading his strategies is really not the same thing as knowing everything he’s feeling. But Nanami’s a genius who always knows everything and is certain she’d also know about how a fellow genius would see the world, so she believes this, nonetheless.

Nanami: “But… There is one thing I don’t understand. Why… Why are you fighting?”

If there’s something going on in Tohma’s head that doesn’t match with how she feels a genius should see the world, it totally must be something that doesn’t make sense, something she needs to ask him about and figure out. It couldn’t simply be that, despite him being a fellow genius, he’s otherwise a completely different person from her.

Nanami: “The Digimon’s existence won’t bring you any worth. There’s no reason for a genius like you to fight them.”

That sure is not even remotely the point of the reasons one should have to oppose a genocide. Nanami genuinely doesn’t seem to realise this.

In fact, given his baggage with the Norstein family – we’ll be getting to that! Soon! – this lofty concept of “worth” is bound to be the last thing Tohma wants to be told he’s obviously supposed to care about. His expression as he responds to her is probably mostly horrified at her not getting why murdering sapient beings is bad, but perhaps a bit of it comes from how close to home that comment might have hit.

Tohma asserts that Digimon are friends who can connect with humans (as Gaomon makes it back to his side to agree) and that he can’t allow Kurata to get away with letting them suffer. Nanami stares at him for a moment, and then chuckles, before looking down at him in contempt.

Nanami: “How absurd. Did you think you could fool me with that ‘defender of justice’ talk?”

Tohma: “What?”

Nanami: “You just feel a sense of superiority from helping those who are weaker than you. Even when you’re executing DATS’s missions, the honest truth is that you’re only doing them for your own conceited self-satisfaction!”

(These lines are accompanied by this very fun shot of the camera zooming out from Nanami, showing her image reflected in Tohma’s eyes, and then zooming out further from him to show his image reflected in Nanami’s eyes in turn. It gives the impression that she’s looking right into his soul, that he’s the same as her and she knows everything about him. Kudos to the storyboarder for that one.)

It's really not that hard to accept that Tohma is helping the Digimon simply because he cares about them and it’s the right thing to do. That’s what any decent person would do, genius or not. So Nanami’s insistence that Tohma’s friendship talk must be a load of bullshit to cover up more selfish reasons really actually says a lot more about Nanami than it does about Tohma.

She has spent so long isolated from everyone else due to her nature as a genius, looking down on them all for being stupider and weaker than her, to the point that she can’t connect with and care about anybody else on a personal, emotional level any more. Giving herself a sense of superiority is the only reason she could ever conceive of for helping somebody else, so she’s utterly convinced that Tohma, a fellow genius, must see things the same way and have the same attitude.

But Tohma can’t see that she’s projecting. Her words rattle him, because it must not feel entirely untrue to him. As a genius who’s always the smartest person in the room, he probably can’t help but feel some sense of superiority to everyone around him in a certain way, even though he knows he shouldn’t. The Norstein family would also have drilled into him a certain idea that he should consider himself superior to anyone not of their noble heritage, to an extent. And he does care a lot about his own sense of pride and self-satisfaction, as evidenced by his insistence on doing everything perfectly. Enough of this is somewhat technically true about Tohma that it must be making him wonder whether the part where this means he doesn’t truly care might be true as well.

(It doesn’t, Tohma. You can have all of those mental vices and yet still care about helping other people who need it anyway, because you’re a decent person at heart.)

Gaomon: “Don’t make fun of Master!”

While Tohma may be frozen, not sure what to make of her words, Gaomon is such a good dog and immediately leaps to defend his master’s integrity – literally, as he throws himself at Nanami for a punch. She effortlessly blocks it with one hand.

Nanami: “What a boring attack.”

Seems like this outburst of Gaomon’s was complete Masaru-style head-on recklessness without anything resembling one of Tohma’s usual strategies behind it, if Nanami’s going so far as to call it boring. It’s pretty adorable that Gaomon got so heated about her insult to Tohma’s character that he charged right in without even thinking about being strategic.

In another quick cutaway to Masaru’s group, ShineGreymon (who evolved offscreen, hooray) dispatches the Gizmon. As Masaru celebrates that that should be all of them, some more Gizmon: XT rise up before them in a suspiciously similar way to how they did before. Masaru is, if anything, even more thrilled.

Anyway, back to Tohma again. Gaomon is still furiously leaping after Nanami, trying to punch her, but she barely seems to care about him. She dramatically falls backwards off a high rock ledge, away from Gaomon, to land next to Tohma.

Nanami: “Tohma… I understand your loneliness. The thirst in your heart that nothing you do can satisfy.”

Tohma: “What would you know?!”

Nanami: “I know. After all, both you and I… are of the same race. You can’t help but feel lonely, can you? After all, everyone else around you are idiots. There isn’t one person out there who understands you. Being a genius means being alone.”

Really, Tohma’s right. What would she know? She’s continuing to insist that because they’re both geniuses (she doesn’t mean “same race” in a literal sense), she definitely knows everything about he sees the world.

All of this comes with an extremely strong implication that this loneliness and lack of connection to all these idiots around her is a feeling Nanami is very familiar with. She’s just barely skirting around directly admitting that these are her own feelings, instead projecting them onto Tohma, but that’s clearly why she’s doing all this. There’s some actual sadness in her eyes there as she says that geniuses are always alone.

Nonetheless, this is still getting to Tohma, as evidenced by his expression here, and the fact that he flashes back to earlier events as she talks about this: his inability to convince anyone of his strategy as they all listened to Masaru’s reckless approach instead, even Yushima and Yoshino seeming to take Masaru’s side.

The inclusion of Yoshino here, from when she tried to tell Tohma that Masaru trusts him, is especially interesting, because in the context of Nanami’s words, it implies that Tohma saw this as yet another person not understanding or listening to him. It was really sort of the opposite of that! She was essentially saying that Masaru understands Tohma, in his own way, and in turn that meant that she did too! Tohma’s friends don’t need to be geniuses who can follow all of his logic in order to understand him and care about him, but right now he might be forgetting that a little.

Tohma: “In that case, let me ask you this. Why are you supporting Kurata?”

Tohma doesn’t appear to have a proper rebuttal to the loneliness thing right now, based on the fact that he changes the subject. I suppose this is somewhat related to the topic of being surrounded by idiots, but it sure is dodging the loneliness point entirely.

Tohma: “Why do you side with a fool who fears Digimon and wants to eradicate them?!”

I love this; it doesn’t take a literal genius, but Tohma is plenty smart enough to know that Kurata justifying his irrational fear and hatred of Digimon to the point of genocide is nothing but the behaviour of a huge moron. Yeah. Damn right it is. I also like that Tohma is trying to appeal to Nanami with this, even turning towards her and fervently grabbing her shoulder as he says this – surely she’s also smart enough to see what a fool Kurata is?

Nanami chuckles.

Nanami: “I don’t remember siding with him.”

Of course she’s able to tell that there’s no actual logical righteousness or justice in what Kurata’s doing, like he constantly insists there is. She certainly isn’t in this because she agrees with him.

Nanami: “Hunting for Digimon is just another way of passing the time.”

Gaomon: “What?!”

Nanami: “Like I said, when you become a genius like me, everything bores you.”

But she doesn’t care about the Digimon either. She’s so disconnected from everybody else in her little genius bubble that she doesn’t really care about anything. She’s just along for the ride, because she’s bored, and getting to turn into a powerful creature and defeat creatures from another world she’d never heard of before seemed more intellectually stimulating than anything else she could find. It’s a kind of horrifyingly casual reason for her to be participating in a genocide, but it makes a lot of sense for the person she is.

Nanami puts her hand over Tohma’s hand that’s still on her shoulder. Not to pull it away, but rather to keep it there, like she wants to hold onto this sense of connection between them (even though Tohma did that for an entirely different reason than what she wants this to be).

Nanami: “But now I’ve found something much more interesting. Will you join me, Tohma Norstein?”

Tohma: “What are you saying?”

Nanami: “Only a genius can understand a fellow genius. If you join me, changing this world to whatever we please isn’t a mere dream.”

Nanami acts like this is all about changing the Digital World into some sort of massive twisted playground for herself and Tohma. Heck, she drops that idea completely casually like an afterthought, still stuck on the idea that Tohma totally feels exactly the same way as her, as if this thing she’s thinking about as an ideal goal must obviously be what he wants, too.

But really, there’s no way Nanami wouldn’t be able to try and do this on her own, if she wanted to. Kurata is also quite the technological genius and has come this far with destroying the Digital World; Nanami, being even more of a genius than him, could totally go further, if she so chose. This isn’t about her not being able to do this without Tohma. It’s more that she doesn’t see the point in doing so without somebody to share it with.

Like she was insistently projecting onto Tohma, acting like it was only his problem and not hers, she’s lonely, desperately reaching out towards this one other person in the world who might actually understand her and be able to connect with her. The whole idea to take over the Digital World or whatever is really just an excuse, something for them to do with themselves for there to be a point in them partnering up at all. She’s only acting like that’s the main point of it all because she refuses to admit that this is all about her being hopelessly lonely and reaching out towards him for companionship. No. No way. She’s a genius; she’d never do something that irrational.

There’s a heartbeat sound effect as Tohma stares at her in horror for a moment. I don’t believe that he’s actually tempted by this offer for a second (though it’s possible, for reasons, that the writers could want viewers to at least consider that he might be). Rather, this is presumably him being taken aback at the sudden realisation of how utterly batshit this woman is, someone he was just a second ago trying to reason with on the basis that surely she can tell Kurata’s a fool. He’s probably also not all that happy about her casual implication that obviously geniuses like them should want to take over the Digital World and use it as a playground, either.

They’re interrupted by the sound of an explosion from the lake. Some of the Gizmon: XT are straight up self-destructing as a means of attack, taking out the Igamon stationed in the lake, while Ivan watches on, effectively acting like a general for the Gizmon army. Man, Kurata must have ridiculously mass-produced these things if he’s willing to throw so many units away so carelessly. There’s plenty of ways a Gizmon: XT could take out an Igamon – or most other Digimon in the city – without this. Like he indicated at the beginning of the episode, Kurata really is kind of playing with his food and flexing the confidence and power he has over them purely for kicks.

Hearing that this is happening, Gaomon suggests he and Tohma should head back to the scene of the fight to help.

Nanami: “That’s not the place for you to return to.”

What do you mean a genius like Tohma might actually genuinely care about protecting these worthless Digimon things, no, that can’t be right, as a fellow genius he’s definitely meant to be exactly like her.

Nanami: “Now, come with me. Let’s build a more exciting world.”

Still making it all about that supposed end goal rather than her screamingly transparent need for company. She also articulates the point of her goal to change the Digital World a little more clearly this time – she seems to think she can make it into something exciting that she can have fun with and never get bored again. (And yet that’d still be pointless to her without anyone to share it with.)

Tohma slaps away the hand that Nanami had put close to his face.

Tohma: “I refuse. I have a duty to protect the Holy Capital.”

Oh, Tohma, still always making things about duty. That’s not entirely inaccurate; he effectively kinda does (though really, not as much of one as Masaru does right now given the whole dad thing), but, did he need to put it like that? He could also just say that he wants to defend the city because he cares about Digimon. This is his choice, not just a “duty” that he’s obligated to fulfil. It’s very telling that it doesn’t occur to Tohma to frame things that way.

Nanami: “Even though you’re a genius… you’re a stubborn blockhead.”

Yes, clearly, if Tohma doesn’t want to go along with her and wants to keep defending the Digimon, he must actually be an idiot, for not choosing to do the thing that obviously any genius should totally want.

Really, for all she’s been insisting she knows everything about Tohma, she barely knows him at all. She knows nothing about his Norstein upbringing that’s given him this ingrained sense of “duty”, nor about his bond with Gaomon and DATS that’s made him care about protecting the Digimon. But no, it couldn’t possibly be that Nanami doesn’t know everything. She’s a genius, she’s always right, so he must be wrong, even if he’s a genius, too.

Nanami: “Then, I’ll just have to make you understand through force.”

That’s… not actually going to achieve the goal you want, Nanami. She wants a Tohma who agrees with her and joins her willingly, hence why she’s been projecting that that’s totally the person he is. Coercing him into changing his mind through force isn’t genuine co-operation. But she’s so desperate for his companionship one way or another, and/or so utterly convinced that her worldview is right and he’s just being stupid in a way that can totally be beaten out of him, that she doesn’t see that.

Tohma: “We’ve defeated you once. You can’t win against us now.”

Nanami: “Evolution isn’t your special privilege.”

I like Nanami’s line as she reveals that she can now evolve to a higher level, too. Of course she’d hate the idea that Tohma could have any reason to look down on her, to be more special than her.

Nanami: “Hyper Bio Extra Evolution!”

That’s the evolution call for their Ultimate-levels: same as before, but with the word “extra” added in there. They use exactly the same stock animation for their equivalent of charging a Digisoul as they had before. Conveniently, all three of these animations happen to obscure the characters’ mouths for most of it, so that they could be re-used for these new evolution calls without worrying about the different lip-flap. Clever animators.

And then she evolves into BioLotusmon, who is… a sexy fanservice flower lady. Of course she freaking is. Ugh. I really liked BioCoatlmon, a pretty, winged snake with a neat design that isn’t inherently feminine in any way. But nope, we couldn’t possibly keep her in a nice gender-neutral or even feminine-but-not-sexualised form for her Ultimate-level, not when she’s Female™, gotta get those boobs out.

She’s also really gigantic, unlike Rosemon, because this episode (her only episode) features her going up against MirageGaogamon. The writers obviously figured that’d look silly if they weren’t evenly-matched in size.

BioLotusmon: “Let me show you… my new power that is beyond the Ultimate level!”

Gaomon: “Beyond the Ultimate level?”

Don’t freak out too much, Gaomon, because I’m not sure I buy this. Granted, the Bio-Hybrids at their Perfect levels were noticeably somewhat stronger than a regular Perfect. But it seems that Kurata can only keep ahead of the ridiculous exponential escalation of evolution levels up to a certain point. Note how he very conspicuously has not created any kind of Ultimate-level Gizmon form, which you’d think would be the first thing he’d try.

Tohma: “We don’t know what her abilities are. Be careful.”

After evolving Gaomon, Tohma is continuing to be his usual strategic, cautious self. He likes to know his opponent’s skillset so that he can plan a strategy around that and doesn’t enjoy dealing with something he can’t predict.

Both MirageGaogamon and BioLotusmon have that teleportation-like level of speed as they dodge each other, but BioLotusmon repeatedly manages to get herself behind MirageGaogamon and create openings to attack, boasting again that she can read his movements. As Tohma rushes towards his fallen partner, BioLotusmon blocks his way and addresses him, and her face and voice melt away into Nanami’s.

Suddenly, things get very trippy, as snakes with Nanami’s upper body (featuring boobs, of course, that part is clearly very necessary; this is another episode with that Evidently A Straight Dude art style, sigh) float towards Tohma and coil around him. What really must be going on here is Nanami using one of her Digimon abilities to show him this as an illusion, smoothly enough that he didn’t even notice her beginning to do so.

She continues to try and coax Tohma into joining her, all while still making it about how Tohma is totally the one who wishes to no longer be surrounded by idiots and to be with somebody who appreciates and understands him, how the only thing going on with her is her boredom, how this is all about creating and controlling a new world. This is still very much actually about her own loneliness, but she will not admit that – not even to herself, I don’t think – and projects it all onto him.

For not the first time, she reaches out to caress Tohma’s face, which can’t be making him comfortable at all (though unwanted face-touching is really only one objectionable part of this trippy snake illusion she’s currently trapping him in). This lack of respect for his personal space is another sign of Nanami insisting that he obviously totally wants to come with her and couldn’t possibly be uncomfortable about this whole thing.

Tohma, again, firmly pulls Nanami’s hands away from his face.

Tohma: “I… I am not that self-conceited!”

I love Tohma putting it this bluntly, implicitly pointing out how conceited she’s being at the same time. Just because Nanami’s got it into her head that the best thing for a genius to do is take over a world and make it her plaything, that doesn’t mean that Tohma’s up himself enough to think he should, or even could.

Tohma: “There’s a source of power in this world that even I can’t calculate!”

Nanami: “Daimon Masaru, is it?”

Tohma: “That’s right. There are times when I’ve been saved by his abilities.”

Aww, look at Tohma’s faith in Masaru’s ridiculous unpredictable nature, still here long after he grew to respect it in episode 5, and even despite the niggles and jealousy that Masaru’s presence has been giving him lately. Genius calculations don’t always account for everything; sometimes it benefits to have the completely opposite approach. And Tohma is smart enough to understand that!

Nanami: “So you rely on something like him.”

Tohma: “Rely on him? Me?”

This, though, gives Tohma pause. For all of his faith in Masaru’s approach to things, he doesn’t like it being framed as him relying on Masaru. No. Tohma’s not supposed to need to rely on anyone; he has to be able to do things all on his own. That’s why he came to the waterfall by himself.

Nanami: “There’s no such thing as something beyond calculation. That’s just an excuse.”

Tohma himself would have said that at the beginning of the series, until the situation in episode 5 forced him to open his mind to Masaru’s unpredictable approaches. Nanami refuses to accept this because she hasn’t been in a similar situation with a similar person – and she probably never will, because she’s so completely walled herself off from anyone who isn’t as smart as her that I don’t think she’d ever be willing to give somebody like Masaru a chance, no matter the circumstances.

Nanami: “If you continue to stay content living with fools, you’ll only neglect improving yourself!”

Tohma: “That’s not…”

As if Tohma hasn’t been improving himself plenty since he started hanging around with Masaru and becoming more accepting to his kind of attitude. Tohma’s become a hell of a lot more open-minded and willing to try different approaches and work with others since then, and that’s nothing but a good thing. Tohma’s insistence on doing everything alone and sticking to rigid, logically-optimal, predictable strategies are his biggest weaknesses, as this episode has been illustrating!

(I’m not sure whether Tohma’s line is him struggling to even be able to articulate this himself, or whether it simply gets cut off because Nanami interrupts him out of refusing to listen to his side of the argument.)

Nanami: “Throw away your worthless friends and your insignificant self-satisfaction!”

Funny how the two things she’s telling him to throw away are actually kind of the two things she wants him to have more of. She’s asking him to become friends with her instead (but it’s okay, because she’s a genius and not a worthless moron). And she’s basically been telling him to have more self-satisfaction by lording their genius over an entire world with her (but that’s fine, because it’s the right kind of self-satisfaction, about geniuses being always right, not a kind of self-satisfaction born from humility and accepting that he doesn’t know everything, what kind of genius would ever do that).

There’s some more very creepy trippy stuff (what are those arms) as she continues to try and lure him in with her illusion – and then MirageGaogamon, the goodest dog, shatters through it while calling out for his master. Just before he tackles BioLotusmon away, we see that she was holding Tohma in her giant hand, confirming that yes, this was all some kind of power of hers and wasn’t just the animators deciding to be very weirdly metaphorical today.

Tohma’s breathing heavily as MirageGaogamon asks him if he’s all right. Yeah, not surprising that he’d be a bit shaken after that, even as he assures his partner that he’s okay.

In another brief Masaru cutaway, this time it’s Yatagaramon who takes out a Gizmon. And then more Gizmon rise up, in… oh dear, that’s the third time we’ve seen that same exact bit of animation this episode, isn’t it.

Ikuto: “What’s more, they keep showing up the same way like all the others!”

Ikuto actually lampshades this, which is pretty hilarious. Gotta give credit to the writers there; if their animation budget gave them no choice but to repeat this bit of animation multiple times to pad out time, the least they could do is have a little nod to it, as a way of saying, “yes, we know, we don’t like it either.”

MirageGaogamon: “Master, she can predict all of my movements. Please guide me through your orders.”

Anyway, back to the fight; MirageGaogamon doesn’t realise that asking Tohma to guide him is not going to solve this problem. Nanami understands the strategies of a fellow genius, so she’d be just as good if not better at reading Tohma guiding his partner than she is at reading MirageGaogamon alone. But MirageGaogamon is being a loyal enough dog that he believes the only problem is that he’s not clever and unpredictable enough, and surely Tohma will know exactly what to do to outwit her, because his Master is the best smartest person who never fails! What a good dog.

Tohma: “Attack Pattern! Gamma Formation 0.25!”

Tohma begins barking out these codenames for strategies, which is the kind of thing we haven’t really seen from him since the very early episodes when he and Gaomon were first introduced. This may well be the writers having awkwardly forgotten that Tohma even did this until it become relevant to the narrative of an episode again. But maybe we can charitably interpret this as Tohma having drifted out of using such unnecessarily elaborate strategies since he loosened up to Masaru, and now he’s slipping back into old habits because of the way Nanami’s been getting to him, or simply because he thinks Nanami is smart enough that he needs this kind of thing for once.

(Still doesn’t entirely answer how these codenames, which are evidently for things they’ve decided on and practiced in the past, can work with the new abilities that MirageGaogamon has only recently gained since his new evolution. Unless we want to imagine that during their implied long journey to the Holy Capital offscreen, Tohma spent some of that time drilling new strategies with MirageGaogamon. I bet that drove Masaru a little nuts.)

This particular codename appears to refer to MirageGaogamon rushing towards his opponent and then speed-teleporting behind them, before… completely ruining any element of surprise by calling his attack. I know that’s a thing Digimon are apparently obligated to do, but geez. BioLotusmon sees through it, of course, and we’re supposed to think of this as her having predicted the clever strategy rather than her simply having heard him yelling behind her and dodged in time, shush.

Tohma orders another attack pattern, and this one looks a lot more impressive, with MirageGaogamon moving fast enough to clone himself into eight, and then all of the clones attack in one movement that’s actually just a diversion for him to appear behind BioLotusmon as she dodges it. …Then he ruins it again by calling his attack. BioLotusmon turns around to block, seeming more impressed but not remotely to the point that she can’t handle it, and we’re still meant to be taking this as her figuring out the strategy rather than oh my god MirageGaogamon stop calling your attacks, okay.

(As she gloats, there is a completely unnecessary boob jiggle. Animator, no, stop it, you are terrible.)

What follows is what I interpret as a montage of MirageGaogamon loyally asking his master for more orders, which all repeatedly end in him being out-predicted and beaten down each time he tries one. We don’t see Tohma give the orders, nor the actual attack patterns themselves, but the shots of BioLotusmon attacking are cut together abruptly enough that it feels like a montage skipping bits in between, rather than that she’s simply beating the crap out of MirageGaogamon while Tohma stands there helplessly. Nanami wouldn’t want to do that; that wouldn’t be the fun way to win.

The point of all this, though, is that MirageGaogamon is such a good dog. No matter how many times Tohma’s attack plans fail to work and he gets hurt because of it, no matter how much more stressed Tohma looks as he pores over his digital organiser and tries to think of something better, MirageGaogamon stoically keeps asking Tohma for his next orders anyway, continuing to believe that this time, surely, his Master will think of something that will work.

As BioLotusmon kicks MirageGaogamon to the ground yet again, she decides she’s had enough entertainment and plants one of her staffs at the top of the waterfall, as a threat.

BioLotusmon: “If you join me, I’ll leave the waterfall alone.”

This is still her very much missing the point of getting Tohma to join her. She’s supposed to want him to join willingly, but if he did that, he wouldn’t care about the waterfall and ElDoradimon and this threat wouldn’t be needed. She must be getting desperate enough to have his company in any way that she’s willing to coerce him into it (after which, judging by everything we’ve seen, she will probably continue to fervently insist to herself that he totally wanted it and chose it for himself).

Tohma: (She’s predicting all of my calculations. What the hell should I…?)

Tohma doesn’t even consider the offer at all (of course he doesn’t) and is continuing to try and figure out a way to defeat her. An idea hits him, and he closes his digital organiser entirely before getting up on MirageGaogamon’s shoulder.

MirageGaogamon: “Master, it’s too dangerous.”

Tohma: “Just do it.”

MirageGaogamon: “Yes.”

Aww, what a good dog. He’s worried about the danger (to Tohma, rather than to himself), but he’ll follow his Master’s orders anyway!

MirageGaogamon begins to simply charge straight at BioLotusmon. She raises her other staff and fires a beam of dark energy at him, and Tohma orders him not to dodge it; he braces himself and endures the attack as the energy hurts both of them. (Tohma really did not actually need to be on MirageGaogamon’s shoulder for this and all that’s doing is getting himself hurt too, but it’s the spirit of the thing, okay. They’re in this head-on reckless strategy together.)

MirageGaogamon powers through the attack through sheer force of will, getting closer and closer to BioLotusmon until he’s right in front of her, at which point he knocks the staff out of her hand and fires his signature attack at point-blank range. No amount of strategy is letting her dodge that, and she was never going to be able to predict this. What kind of genius would make such a stupidly reckless move?

On her knees, defeated and about to devolve, Nanami struggles to make sense of what just happened.

BioLotusmon: “You plunged in while receiving my attack head-on… Just what sort of calculations did you use?!”

Tohma: “None. I just thought that if we got close enough to attack at point-blank range, we’d be able to pull it off.”

BioLotusmon: “I lost… to such a foolish attack…”

He didn’t use calculations! He did a Masaru! This is the exact kind of reckless, head-on, still technically a strategy kind of strategy that Masaru has been known to come up with to win fights before, and sometimes, it’s the right approach! Tohma is open-minded enough to understand that, which is more than can be said for Nanami. That’s exactly why she could never have predicted this and why this worked.

Just before devolving, as BioLotusmon screams in pain and sore-loser-ness, she lets out one last burst of energy connected to the staff she planted at the waterfall, causing it to explode. The waterfall is destroyed, and water begins flowing rapidly out of the lake, just as Tohma was trying to prevent. Tohma beat Nanami in the fight, but Nanami refused to let him have that win and destroyed what he wanted to protect in the end, out of spite. I don’t think she even really cares about how this is going to affect the ongoing Digimon war, now that she’s no longer able to take part in it. She just didn’t want to let Tohma win.

(But it was a legitimately smart move of her to plant the staff there to begin with, not only as a threat but also as a back-up plan should she happen to lose.)

A quick cutaway to Kurata shows him watching the water drain away, not caring that BioLotusmon’s signal is gone if she took the waterfall down with her. Masaru and Ikuto are apparently still busy fighting the endless identically-animated hordes of Gizmon on the way to Kurata’s camp. Kurata offhandedly comments that Kouki might not even get his turn to fight at this rate; Kouki does not seem happy about that suggestion.

Devolved, Nanami lies injured on the ground, her broken Digivice and the egg of her Digimon form lying beside her. I guess being defeated this thoroughly simply beat the Digimon data right out of her.

Nanami: “I… I haven’t lost to you… Because… What you used was… Daimon Masaru’s power…”

Man, talk about a sore loser. You’d think she’d be even more mad at losing to some reckless stubborn idiot like Masaru, but right now she’ll take anything to get one up on Tohma and feel like she at least hasn’t lost to him. But it’s all bullshit, of course, because Tohma’s open-mindedness and willingness to work with others and acknowledge more approaches than just the genius one are precisely the strengths he always had over Nanami, and those are his strengths, even if they involve other people.

With that, Nanami… to be honest, it kind of looks like she dies, and the show is pretty ambiguous about it for a while, but she will in fact be cameoing in a much later episode, so she’s actually just falling unconscious.

Tohma: “Masaru’s… power?”

Despite everything I’ve been saying here about Tohma’s willingness to accept Masaru’s approach being a good thing, Tohma himself has not properly internalised any of that. Especially not now, after all the doubts of his that Nanami’s words managed to dig up, and after this episode’s earlier events fuelling his jealousy towards Masaru. He doesn’t want to have had to rely on Masaru’s power in order to win. He’s supposed to not need to rely on anyone except himself, right?

Gaomon is a good worried dog but still isn’t talking to him about this stuff enough, leaving Tohma to just stew silently in his own emotions.

Tohma: “Why… do I feel so irritated?”

As ever, it’s not really Masaru he’s irritated by. Tohma doesn’t understand it because he doesn’t quite realise that he’s frustrated at himself, for his inability to live up to his own ridiculously high self-sufficient standards of perfection.

Overall thoughts

A really great episode among a string of just-pretty-okay-ones! This is easily my favourite episode in the Bio-Hybrids arc. Look at how many issues it’s full of. Delicious.

Even before we get into the main bulk of the episode, the beginning has some great stuff: painfully drawing out Tohma’s jealousy at Masaru for having an awesome respected dad, bringing back the clash between Masaru and Tohma’s approaches and laying on Tohma’s frustration at everyone favouring Masaru’s. This is not only fun in and of itself but is also setup for some Important Stuff to come soon.

Then, of course, there’s Nanami, who makes an excellent villainous foil to help us explore Tohma’s genius issues and jab at his doubts. Nanami’s also just a fascinating character in and of herself and easily the best Bio-Hybrid. She’s a terrible person, of course, but she’s complex and messed-up and all of her psychology makes a lot of sense for who she is. I love her blatant projection of her loneliness onto Tohma; it’s so screamingly clear that that’s why she’s asking him to join her, but she refuses to admit that and insists that it must be true for him. There’s also more fun Setup going on in this Nanami stuff as well, though I should probably restrain myself from indicating exactly what.

And I love the way that Tohma manages to win the fight by pulling a Masaru. It’s the perfect solution to defeat an enemy who matches him in the genius department, and proof that Tohma’s better than Nanami because he’s more open-minded than her. What’s even more fun, though, is that winning this way gets to Tohma, because what do you mean he can’t just rely on nobody but himself for everything. Refusing to rely on anybody else is also very appropriately the reason he failed to defend the waterfall regardless; things might not have turned out this way if he hadn’t insisted on going there alone.

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[Dub comparison]

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