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Data Squad Episode 28: Digivice Meltdown

In this episode, the Data Squad meets BanchoLeomon's challenge to find more power... and overclock their digivices in the process. 


Yushima sacrificed himself to make sure the Data Squad got out of the Digital World. Sampson sacrificed himself so they could get back in. At some point, they're going to need to fight their own battles. You can't be too hard on them as they're going up against Mega-level Digimon far sooner and in far larger quantities than any previous protagonists. But the fact is, the only major enemy they've beaten on their own is Gotsumon. Every other battle had outside help. Now they're on their own against an entire army of Gizumon and three powerful ringers. They cannot win unless they get stronger.

Given his eventual role in the story, but from the narrow viewpoint of these episodes... BanchoLeomon is pretty much Piximon with an attitude. He bails out our heroes in impressive fashion, says a bunch of cliches about the need to get stronger, implies that power comes from the inside... and he's a Leomon so you know he's going to die eventually. That's not a criticism: if anything, it makes you appreciate how badass Piximon was.

BanchoLeomon does, however, refuse to befriend/fight the Data Squad until they gain some power. It's a harsh thing to say to four Digimon capable of going Ultimate, but it's very true. As much as they've gone through, all of the potential reality checks had been ignored thanks to outside forces saving the day. Merukimon, Gotsumon's invading troops, SaberLeomon, the Bio-Hybrids, and every Gizumon XT they've run into all overwhelmed them.

It's not all that different from the Adventure kids floating by on a raft of dead Digimon. The digidestined, however, were strong enough; the only added power they received was from MagnaAngemon at the very end of the Piedmon fight. Sacrifices like Piximon's prompted them to assess things better and fight more intelligently. Thomas and Marcus provide strategic intellect and strong gut instincts in a fight, so that's not their problem. They're up against an army that is simply too much for them. BanchoLeomon is forcing them to acknowledge that if they carry a delusion that they can win in their current state (Takuya Code?), it will end in disaster.

Witnessing the devastation of Kurata's army underscores this. It's bad enough that Digimon are being deleted with no regeneration. But even the survivors are left injured with their homes totally ravaged. Cherrymon, whose general opinion of mankind surely hasn't improved, remembers the Data Squad as good people and fills them in on the carnage. Along with the genocide, the Gizumon are collecting the data of deleted Digimon for Kurata. As evidenced by the Bio-Hybrids, this is a dangerous resource that Kurata is surely using for no good, spelling another evil plan for the madman.

The Bio-Hybrids arrive again and the Data Squad still can't beat them. Something about all the ass kickings, the threat of the already-damaged forest going under, and the beating poor Cherrymon takes for defending his land triggers a massive response from the three humans and a power surge. This is, of course, the power that BanchoLeomon was talking about and it's enough to send the Bio-Hybrids into orbit. We've seen this sort of thing in Tamers, and it makes all sorts of sense in this season that red-blooded passion would become actual energy. It shows that the human DNA element in the DNA Charge isn't just arbitrary terminology.

The awesome wrinkle is that the power surge exceeds the capacity levels of their digivices, rendering them broken and unusable. It sort of happened in Tamers and Ophanimon prevented it from happening in Frontier when she upgraded Takuya & Koji's D-Tectors. But this season's digivices are man-made, making them very susceptible to an overload... especially with the likes of Marcus around.

My Grade: B+

Loose Data:
  • For some reason, we got Crowmon's long-form double evolution sequence, rather than the warp evolution sequence we saw with the other three.
  • Even while the battles with the Bio-Hybrids are 3 on 3, they're already defaulting to the designated Marcus/Kouki, Thomas/Nanami, and Yoshi/Ivan battles. Now's the time for them to mix things up, but they don't do it nearly enough.
  • While the DNA Charge is utilized appropriately, it's not quite as appropriate as its original name Soul Charge, which suggests something more emotional than biological. It's unclear why this term was changed; if “soul” was considered religiously taboo, they wouldn't use it in the opening song.

3 comments:

  1. Did you notice that Crowmon got hit by a Gizumon XT's laser blast, and wasn't permanently deleted? When I saw that, it really bugged me because it didn't make sense, given both what the Gizumon XT are trying to do and what the laser has been shown to do. It's also part of the same problem of the Gizumon being ruthlessly straightforward when dealing with other Digimon, but resorting to non-lethal attacks when dealing with the main Digimon.

    BanchoLeomon sure likes to use the word "friend" a lot. I think it was at a rate of twice per sentence, or something.

    Also, we got a sneak preview of the Mega forms when the DNA charge went into overdrive. Neat!

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  2. "While the DNA Charge is utilized appropriately, it's not quite as appropriate as its original name Soul Charge, which suggests something more emotional than biological."

    DNA stands for Digimon Natural Ability; it's not literally deoxyribonucleic acid. It makes a lot more sense near the end, when it manifests as a raw or "natural" desire to survive. Otherwise, yes, I agree that it still isn't a very good name compared with Soul Charge.

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    Replies
    1. It in fact was called "Digisoul Charge" analysing it, somehow is the same as the "Xros Code" from Xros Wars. A unique human element that upon digitalization is/can be shared with digimon to help the grow while a connection is formed between them.

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