In this episode, a digi-egg
materializes, hatches, and befriends the main character and his
sister. This time DATS is around to explain just how problematic that
is.
Did anybody order a plot?! In one swoop, the first major plot element comes forth, followed in quick succession by the second and third. In an attempt to justify the long stretch of filler, Thomas presents research on patterns between all of the cases. They suggest a weakening in the barrier between the two worlds that may or may not be intentional. They do not justify the long stretch of filler. The decaying barrier also doesn't directly correlate to anything in this episode other than to suggest that things are only going to get nastier. Boy do they.
The premise of the episode is best
described as what would happen if there was an organization keeping a
close eye on the Digital World when the events of the first Adventure
movie unfolded. Just as it happened then, a digiegg shows up in a
household. Mom's involved this time, but isn't bothered by this at
all and would just assume use it for dinner. DATS makes a proper big
deal out of eggs materializing out of thin air, but are too late to
get it back to base before it hatches. Once Puwamon shows up, he and
Kristy are inseparable.
For all of the stink Thomas makes about
Digimon responding to human emotion, it's really little more than a
case of Puwamon taking to Kristy's instant love for him. She chides
Agumon whenever he does anything to bother the little guy and cares
for her like a beloved pet. Given how young both of them are, it
shouldn't be any more complicated than that, yet it very much is.
Falcomon doesn't give a specific reason
for wanting the egg/Puwamon/Biyomon to return to the Digital World,
but he very much does, to the point where he'll disobey his master to
do so (not very becoming of a ninja). That opens up a whole can of
worms as it drags big Merukimon into the picture, setting up an epic
showdown between him and Marcus that will lead into the next episode.
This alone would have made an intruiging enough episode, but we get
even more of an impact with the reaction from DATS.
It's the same dilemma Marcus went
through with a more tragic spin: once again, either the partner joins
DATS or the Digimon can't stay. It makes sense that the group
regulating Digimon activity in the real world isn't going to put up
with monsters under the care of outsiders. The resulting conflict
puts Kristy and Biyomon in a terrible position where one of the two
will be forced to make a sacrifice for the other's behalf. Biyomon
wants to stay and Kristy's too young to understand what she just got
caught up in. The result is a rare moment of pure innocence where the
two hold hands, promising to stay together, neither grasping just how
impossible that is. It leads to Marcus trying to bully Biyomon out of
the real world, and when Biyomon fights him you feel bad for
everybody.
Meanwhile, it's time for Sarah to come
out of the woodwork with some startling revelations. Her ability to
take Agumon in stride has been amusing enough, and she does have a
high tolerance level given Thomas's giant unemotioninator and
constant arguing with Marcus. Suddenly we not only see why she's been
so capable of smiling off the potential for major personal injury and
property damage, but that she does have a game face. She knows the
members of DATS and accepted their recruitment of Marcus because she
saw too much of his father in him. She can't give Kristy the same
fate. It's tense, it adds to the mystery, it's not even the main
conflict of the episode and it's something we really needed.
My Grade: A
Loose Data:
- Thomas tries to connect the previous Digimon-human interactions to the seven deadly sins. I was going to get all “Better Know A Sephira” and match them up, but it actually doesn't work at all.
- Yoshi and Thomas mention that the only Digimon that had arrived as digi-eggs were Lalamon, Gaomon, Agumon and the two PawnChessmon. To file in the “Subtle Mystery Department” is where Kudamon and Kamemon came from.
- Gotsumon and Merukimon namedropping Keenan loses a bit of its luster when the name in question is Keenan.
- As terrible as Kazemon was, Sunflowmon's repeated false starts at even trying to attack Falcomon clinches her position as the saddest Champion ever. Everybody point and laugh.
- To give you an idea how epic this episode is, we go from episode upon episode of filler to the earliest fight with a Mega.
So happy we are at the good parts! Going to love re-living this again! Still curious if there are any cuts of Biyomon getting punched out. It was brutal in the Japanese version I would be amazed if part of it wasn't softened.
ReplyDeleteI think they do cut out the actual hits, and in one case edit out some blood, but in general it's still a pretty brutal beatdown.
DeleteI remember reading some flak over Biyomon and how it's so different in this version (being male, being so big, etc.). A lot of it's just fan dumb, of course, but I think there were some weird choices all the same. Given that he later digivolves to Aquilamon and Garudamon, and comes from a spikier-looking Puwamon, I'd have thought Hawkmon would be more appropriate. And the Rookies in general look way bigger than they should be in this season; just look at Gaomon on the pileup in this episode.
Since this Biyomon is a boy he should have had his own digivolve line, instead of forms from first season Biyomon and second season Hawkmon.
ReplyDelete