Digimon Beatbreak Episode 30 Review - Keeping Up With The Kuonjis
Since they didn’t give Reina an evolution last week, I was honestly 50/50 on whether they’d skip out on giving Makoto an evolution, but I’m glad to say that they didn’t! The fact that it’s not a two-parter is shocking at that! In all honesty, I’m glad that there’s more characterization to Makoto and more world-building to Shangri-la Egg.
This time, Glowing Dawn isn’t busting into the utopia, but is personally invited by Makoto’s father Seiji Kuonji who hired them specifically to catch a criminal after secret data and also injured Makoto’s younger twin brother Tsukasa who caught the criminal in the act before escaping. However, there seems to be something a bit odd regarding the request…. Honestly, I was a bit shocked with the reveal that Makoto had a twin brother. However, it does make sense given that he was let go that easily by his family (well, he ran away, as confirmed in this episode). If Makoto had been an only child, things might’ve been different, but since Makoto ran away from his family with Chiropmon, it definitely hinted that there was someone else who could take over as heir, but it was mainly conjecture up until now.
Still, what is with Shangri-la Egg episodes and having terrible fathers? Episodes 9 and 10 featured Shangri-la Egg and had a terrible father in Sunny Yamada who was abusive towards Haruko. This episode had Seiji be a controlling and terrible father towards Makoto. The fact that he was scheming with the criminal Riku Hosho into targeting Chiropmon so that he can bring Makoto back into the family is just a scumbag move. The fact that he’s fixated too much on his older son and not his younger one also screams abuse. Sir, you are on the highest point in hierarchy in Shangri-la Egg and you have another son—just focus on what you have instead of what you lost. I swear, these rich people… By the way, how does a scumbag like Seiji produce two cute kids? What does the mother look like?
I’m glad that Tsukasa isn’t as bad as Seiji. Sure, he has a hostile personality, but it was mostly due to guilt for what happened a year ago with Makoto rather than complete disdain. There were hints that he’s not as bad as he appeared at first due to Tsukasa not blaming Chiropmon for what happened while Seiji thinks Chiropmon is the root of all evil in the Kuonji family. He also helped Makoto get out of the egg during the battle with HellLoogarmon. If that doesn’t scream that he cares, I don’t know what does. I’m honestly glad that both are able to reconcile. Hopefully, the two will be able to get along better now. Makoto does seem to genuinely love and care for Tsukasa.
I also liked seeing a different side to Makoto in this episode. He’s usually so mature and composed, so to see him yelling out to Chiropmon in frustration really shows how much this kid is willing to go for his bat son. It’s kind of crazy when you realize that Makoto ran away a year ago, meaning that Chiropmon is only a year old and that Makoto himself was 9 years old when it all happened. That’s crazy young, but it also shows how mature Makoto is when he made that big decision.
In regards to the world building, Shangri-la Egg is still as corrupt as ever. However, it does seem that joining a cult can also lead to expulsion or scruntiny? Gift is referred to as a cult in this episode and it’s the first time GD hears of this name. Riku isn’t as mentally unstable as Jokermon’s owner Hori, but it does make me wonder what compels people to join. The fact that an employee of Kuonji Industries can easily bust into secret data rooms also makes me question how bad security is in the utopia… Still, I commend Riku for being one of the rare criminals who cares about their Digimon and can even evolve them.
Now, let’s talk about the highlight of the episode: ScourgeChiropmon. I did NOT expect the Ultimate level to be a bat plane that looks like a fusion between Sparrowmon and Mega Latios. Though, it does make sense in a way since flying is Chiropmon’s thing. He’s a flying bat hero as Champion and now he’s a plane. I wonder if his Mega form will be a mecha suit—they fly, after all. I like that Makoto can fit inside Scourgechiropmon’s cockpit and is able to control him around like how Cody did when he’s inside Submarimon. The insert song used in the transformation sequence is a brand new song! Since Kyo got Mad Pulse as his transformation song, Tomoro getting Edge of Limit and Makoto getting the newly revealed Answer, it makes me wonder what Reina’s insert song will be when she finally gets her Ultimate-level Digimon. I think what surprised me the most, more than the plane look, was that this is the deepest I’ve heard Misaki Kuno so far. It’s not too deep, but it’s a lot deeper than the high pitched cute voice she’s known for.
Tsukasa is voiced by Arisa Sekine who is Makoto’s voice actress. It makes sense given that they’re twins, but I personally don’t like that shows tend to give twins the same VA—it makes them lose their individuality in a way. However, I do applaud that Sekine was able to make Tsukasa sound much different from Makoto. Seiji is voiced by Atsuki Tani who voiced ZeedMilleniumon in Ghost Game. Riku Hosho is voiced by Shunsuke Kanie who voiced a lot of background characters in Ghost Game. Loogarmon is voiced by Takahiro Miyamoto who hasn’t been in Digimon before; some of his roles include voicing Shibayama from The Dinner Table Detective and Zoltan from Final Fantasy XVI.
Here’s an interesting trivia about Seiji. While his name is written in katakana like a majority of the BB characters, there’s a certain way that Seiji can be written where “Sei” can be read as “Makoto” and “Ji” can be read as “Tsukasa. Now that we’re at the 30-episode mark, I do wonder where the direction of this arc is going. Next week does seem to be integrating Brilliant Thorns into the story, so I can’t wait to see what they’re like! Let me know your thoughts on this episode! Also, happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!
