In this episode, Prequel Gennai
drops in to bestow some powers and give some marching orders.
Meanwhile, Davis and Ken are busy doing all the work.
It's amazing how quickly this season
has changed direction. Just a couple episodes ago it was an endless
slog of chasing BlackWargreymon in an unsuccessful effort at
protecting the destiny stones. Now both the old and new kids are
suddenly teaming up to embark on a worldwide mission to destroy
control spires and retrieve the loose Digimon popping up in the real
world. It's a rocky transition that continues to tie loose ends
solely for the sake of plot advancement, but at least it does succeed
in advancing the plot.
It also points out the starkest
difference between Davis and Tai. With both goggle boys back on
active duty, it's not surprising to see a small leadership clash, but
they hit a big one right off the bat. With spires and Digimon popping
up around the world, Tai wants to step back and analyze the full
situation before doing anything. With one spire in Tamachi, Davis
first wants to make sure Ken is safe and accounted for. It's a
perfect illustration of their differing perspectives in times of
crisis, with neither being incorrect.
Since right around the time Etemon was
defeated, Tai has done a good job viewing the long-term perspective
and planning accordingly. Even with a control spire across the bay,
Tai doesn't view it any differently than the other hundred around the
world and sees no reason to put a priority on destroying it. To him,
Ken being in that area makes it even less important, as he believes
Ken can take care of it. Davis doesn't have such foresight, but he
also doesn't assume that Ken will be all right. Given the kind of
Digimon that had threatened Odaiba, the fact that Wormmon does not
have access to an Armor form, and the likely culprit having a vested
interest in Ken, Davis would rather verify his friend's safety than
worry about what's going on overseas. It's doubtful that all that
actually entered into Davis's head, but his instinct in sensing
something amiss tends to be spot on.
Meanwhile, Tai's certainly right that
there's a massive problem making Ken's situation seem insignificant.
There's Digimon around the world, spires inhibiting the international
digidestined from dealing with them, and no way to open a port to
send them home. With distress e-mails coming from around the world
and no easy solution, Izzy does a magic trick with two monitors and
summons Prequel Gennai, trading his old man look for something Yolei
can sink her teeth into.
Other than going from Alec Guinness to
Ewan McGregor, where's Gennai been all this time? Hacking. That's
right, he's been hacking. The Digital World is conquered by an evil
emperor, the guardians are sealed, spires pop up all over the place
and the destiny stones are being destroyed by an emo golem and
Gennai's top priority is wiping all information about the Myotismon
incident from the world's military installations. Don't get me wrong-
deleting official records of the Digital World is an excellent touch,
especially given the very real fears about governments and private
investors attempting to capitalize off this new frontier. But once
Ken starts tearing up the place, you'd think he and his buddies would
have more immediate priorities. Did Gennai really look at the Digimon
Emperor situation and assume that Davis and company would sort out
that mess on their own?
The digicore that grants everybody the
power to go Ultimate is such a lazy plot device that it's not even
worth complaining about. Taking away Ultimate power was a cheap
contrivance and restoring it isn't any different. What's really
remarkable is when this also allows Paildramon to evolve to Mega,
Gennai treats it as an unexpected side effect. Imperialdramon's
ability to travel at supersonic speed is the one thing that actually
allows the digidestined to deal with the global crisis with any
efficiency... and it was a happy accident! All this time and Gennai's
still useless!
My Grade: B-
Loose Data:
- It's Christmastime and the broadcaster claims to be interrupting the Power Rangers Arbor Day special? Love the Power Rangers reference, but Arbor Day? Since I haven't done it nearly as much as this season deserves- silly dub!
- Between the discussion about the influx of e-mails, the Willis name drop and talks about Yolei's uncle being a travel agent, I can't take all these references to the movie.
- Izzy delegates the duty of answering the e-mails to Tai, Matt and Sora, who appear to be answering from their home computers. Yet they're at Izzy's apartment the whole episode. This continuity error is due to the dub's insistence on having Izzy be the main point of contact for the international digidestined. The Japanese version implies that all the older kids are conversing with the internationals at their leisure. Granted this is the first time we've even seen Matt, Sora and Joe with home computers.
- There wasn't a voice actor change, but Mummymon sounds considerably different in this episode. As if they stopped trying to make him sound like James from Pokémon.
- Cody and Yolei are shocked when Upamon and Poromon evolve to Rookie in the real world, even though they did so in episode 17 for no apparent reason.
- While Gennai's giving his directives, Davis and Ken take out spires in Sapporo, Osaka and Kyushu. That is literally from one end of mainland Japan to the other and back.
- Given the digiports that were opening around the world, Gennai's choice of locations aren't as strategic as he makes it sound. Two locations in North America and Europe and none in South America or Africa? If he ever plays Pandemic, the yellow disease will kick his ass!
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