Adventure Episode 27: The Gateway To Home

In this episode, Myotismon forms a plan that succeeds so splendidly, it isn't until the very end that his side even bothers to fight back against the charging digidestined.


Myotismon certainly pays attention to detail, doesn't he? Here we are in one of the most critical moments of his plan and he's totally collected. With the digidestined safely distracted for the last five episodes, he raised both an attacking army and a garrison troop, had the gateway to the real world prepared, calmly deciphered the keycard puzzle that the kids will spend the next episode agonizing over, and marched on through like it was nothing more than a parade. He has things worked out to the point where he doesn't even flinch when the digidestined attack. It's not even arrogance! The plan's so foolproof that he doesn't even respond to the digidestined until the absolute end, when Gatomon takes care of things and activates some Devidramon that were just sitting around in the off chance the good guys cut it close.

Gatomon's debut really is the talking point in this episode, which otherwise wasn't that exciting. Part of the problem with a villain with such a foolproof plan was that some drama is taken away when he doesn't seem to care about the digidestined invading the castle. But Gatomon... it's easy to forget how much of a bitch she was! She's dismissive of fellow lieutenant Demidevimon, uses him to primp her own batch of recruits and bops five Champions at once in battle before summoning the Devidramon to do the grunt work. Meow.

Other than that, for an episode with such high stakes and a certain gravitas from Myotismon, it was mostly simple silliness that doesn't warrant much discussion. Gennai was almost useful, telling the digidestined about the eighth child and Myotismon's attempts to break through and capture her. Then he drops the ball by not knowing who the child is or how to save her.

The training camp infiltration was amusing but ultimately useless. In another illustration of how little Myotismon is concerned about the digidestined, the garrison army responsible for stopping them is a who's who of the most worthless Digimon we've seen so far- Numemon, Sukamon, Chuumon... Seal Team Six it ain't. They're mostly in it for the free food. Nanimon, the wrestler-meets-Pacman drill sergeant, attempts to whip them into shape. A disguised Agumon and Palmon seem to walk through the front door and join the team with few questions. After some hard drills, they scheme with the Numemon to get Nanimon drunk (or fizzed off soda... whatever...), which succeeds and allows them to sneak everybody else into the castle. Given that they had joined the apparent security force, they probably could have snuck in anyway.

The kids split up again, which results in one boring scene where Joe, Sora and Mimi encounter a locked door, one scene where Matt and TK find themselves upside down and one scene where Tai and Izzy find themselves in an MC Escher painting. Only the final scene has any sort of amusing payoff. It's all for naught anyway as they all get back together somehow and follow Gatomon's army where they need to go.

The climactic battle's actually pretty good. After the garrison team runs away screaming and Gatomon delivers her early blows, the Devidramon offer a good, honest fight. It's hard to tell who's winning, which is a rare sight in the series. Usually somebody dominates handily. Also, nobody loses sight of their actual objective. The digidestined are focused solely on getting through the gate, while Gatomon is focused solely on stopping them. Even Patamon is able to chip in, squaring off against Demidevimon and isolating him from Myotismon. MetalGreymon shows up and finishes off the opponent, but the gate closes behind Gatomon and Demidevimon and it's clear who actually won. Not that there was ever a doubt.

My Grade: B-

Loose Data:
  • Agumon and Palmon each use an alias when sneaking into the castle- PunkAgumon and ReggaePalmon. Feels like those two show up again in Data Squad.
  • During the training, Agumon and Palmon struggle just as much as the Numemon. Given their training, battle history and strong bonds with Tai and Mimi, shouldn't they be running circles around the other recruits?
  • Finally a Numemon we can cheer for! That little guy creeps up the wall, finds the booze and airdrops bottle after bottle straight to Nanimon.
  • This is the first time we hear about the “eighth child.” Yet, as mentioned in episode 25, this was the debut of the second ending in Japan. It features Kari prominently... and Gatomon briefly. Spoilers much?

5 comments:

  1. Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Agumon and Palmon's disguises look like they came out of a 1970's cop show?

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  2. "Then he drops the ball by not knowing who the child is or how to save her."

    As I recall, Gennai doesn't even tell them that the eighth child is a girl. That alone would have cut their search in half, but nooo....

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  3. I don't know about you, but I think this episode could have gotten one grade higher. It's the third WHAM! episode after episodes 13 and 20, There's an eighth Digi-Destined child who's back home in Japan, and Myotismon all along was planning to go to Japan and invade it with his army of evil Digimon in order to find and kill the eighth child! I think everyone watching (even the dubbing team) never suspected that this show would leave the Digital World until the very end, so having the kids needing to get back to their home world with their Digimon partners in order to stop an incredibly nefarious and dangerous villain who's planning on killing a child and doing damage to that home world with his Digimon soldiers is quite a curveball. Do you suppose they'll take this premise and run with it, having Digimon publicly appear in Japan more and more until all hell breaks lose and all humans in Japan, and possibly around the world, will find out about Digimon? The kids' own families included? Pffft, like THAT would ever happen! Kids shows like this don't dare go there, right? RIGHT?

    We also meet Gatomon in this episode and she is an awesome character already. Almost too small and cute looking to be on the side of evil but she's actually really tough and efficient, with a huge nasty streak. I love the banter she and DemiDevimon exchange. I also liked seeing the shadowed forms of Gatomon's recruits who we'll end up seeing later - Mammothmon, Gesomon, Raremon, SkullMeramon, Pumpkinmon, Gotsumon, and Wizardmon can all be made out. The castle itself was also very atmospheric and deliciously twisted in it's layout, and Myotismon really got to show what a fantastic villain he is. He was ahead of the game the entire time, knows how to effectively exploit secrets and weaknesses, and in the original version he had a line indicating that killing the eighth child is merely the foundation upon which he can achieve his true goal, which we don't find out yet. Needless to say it has to do with becoming all-powerful. A pure evil villain who just wants power can often be unengaging, but with Myotismon it really works due to his vampiric nature. It makes sense that he has an undying thirst and hunger for something, and that something is absolute power and total domination of everyone and everything he comes in contact with. Just a few episodes in and he's already the best Big Bad this show has seen yet. (In the dub, they have him say he doesn't intend on having his lackeys share in the rewards, which is technically true to either version. What a dick!)

    The bits with Nanimon were probably the weakest part of the episode, but they were amusing enough for me to not care, especially the "PunkAgumon and ReggaePalmon" disguises. (And yeah, the "soda" is obviously sake and Nanimon gets intoxicated - everyone knows that.) Oh and that fight at the end? And the cliffhanger ending itself? Just wow. When the first episode in a new arc ends with things so intense, you know that you're in for a wild ride ahead.

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  4. Notice when Tai and his friends tried to go through the gate the 1st time, they were gonna leave their Digimon behind. Tokyo would have been doomed if they were able to get back home, but left their Digimon back in Digiworld they wouldn't have been able to fight the other evil Digimon along with Myotismon.

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