In this episode, the closest thing
the Data Squad has to a clock-punching employee gets fired up because
her challenger considers himself a clock-punching employee.
There's a fan conspiracy theory out
there that claims the Bio-Hybrids were created as a way of mocking
Frontier's concept of humans turning into Digimon. It's a lousy
theory. The Bio-Hybrids, while they don't last all that long, are
legitimate henchmen that put up a credible fight. Besides, for all of
Frontier's flaws, its spirit evolution concept was the least of its
problems. The comparison between the two groups is worthwhile,
however, as it was the first-hand experience being Digimon that made
the Frontier digidestined so fiercely determined to save the Digital
World. They were, after all, citizens of the world the way no other
human character (except for Keenan, perhaps) can claim to be. The
Bio-Hybrids are in the same position, but all fight to destroy the
very beings they become.
Ivan is the most stark example of this
given his lack of secondary incentive. Kouki is a punk itching for a
fight and Nanami seems to enjoy making a hobby out of inflicting
pain, but Ivan is just there to do his job, and has no specific beef
with either the Data Squad or the Digimon. In fact, he harbors a
“secret” crush on Yoshi and loves the kind of power his Digimon
form gives him. His sole incentive is to make enough money to provide
for his siblings back home. This makes him the most fascinating of
the three Bio-Hybrids, and the perfect counterpart to Yoshi.
The three Bio-Hybrids are the splitting
images of the Data Squad. There's the one who's in it for a fight,
the one who wants to test their genius and maybe alleviate their
boredom, and the one who's just there for the paycheck. Marcus is the
central character and we don't need Nanami's help to appreciate
Thomas (although she certainly seems to have influenced Thomas's
thinking given how lost he looks this episode), but Ivan does wonders
in helping us understand what Yoshi's character should have been
about. She'll go down as one of the least interesting main characters
in the franchise, but Ivan offers clues as to the hidden depths of
her character and what could have made her stand out.
In spite of some dubious camera angles
and the childish sexual harassment she has to face (which, amusingly,
does more to piss off Lalamon), Yoshi gets more riled up about Ivan's
claim that this is strictly business. And she's right- previous human
villains have all had either an emotional incentive for their
misdeeds or were bored, intelligent and/or susceptible. Ivan's doing
all of this evil for nothing more than money, failing to see the kind
of damage he's causing and how disappointed his siblings would be if
they knew how he was supporting them. Yoshi is on fire as she points
this out, doubly so when you realize that she too is just an
employee. If more had been done to cement her punch clock status and
if she truly had to choose whether or not to rebel against Hashima's
DATS rather than instantly become an enemy of the state (and it's
clear here that she would have), there'd be a lot more to like.
Still, it's a pretty good glimpse into
the kind of awesomeness Yoshi's capable of, and what could have been.
She and Lalamon wisely realize that engaging Ivan is good strategy as
it prevents him from leading the other troops. She raises her game in
the heat of the moment, getting enough of a charge to wipe out
Bio-Supinomon. She takes out a Gizumon XT with a freaking barrel. She
even saves a Tanemon in the middle of all that! Add in her verbal
undressing of Ivan and her snide observation of how ridiculous the
battle is at first and it's all quite impressive. If only she was
capable of it full time.
And yet, the space oscillation charge
still goes off and Eldradimon is sucked into the real world. Marcus
and Keenan's offensive maneuver backfires as they have to scramble to
avoid getting stranded. Even when Kurata loses, he wins.
My Grade: B+
Loose Data:
- There's a great moment of symmetry in completely separate scenes. When he sees the water recede, Marcus leaves it to Thomas, trusting that he'll take care of it. Later, Thomas elects to return to Eldradimon to help Yushima defend the city (interesting that he says Yushima and not Yoshi), trusting that Marcus is handling his business fine.
- Gwappamon takes out a Gizumon XT. Much as we love Gwappamon, he's just a Champion and really shouldn't be able to kill those things that easily.
- You know Yoshi's on fire when she rejects the idea that she's merely distracting Ivan and instead wants to be the one to take him down entirely.
- Ivan's transformation into Bio-Supinomon looks terribly painful, far worse than what Nanami had.
- What's with the odd spellings of these new Bio-Hybrid forms? Bio-Rotosmon is obviously meant to be Lotosmon (itself a corruption of Lotus) and Bio-Supinomon should have been Spinomon. It's not so much a silly dub thing as a “one of the translators forgot to turn on spell check” thing.
- During Yoshi's rant against Ivan, she expresses her disgust at not only him, but says she wants to get rid of his kind. That can be taken in several different ways, from utter ass-kicking to slightly genocidal.
Ivan has to be the only character in Digimon who, while being utterly hilarious at the beginning of a fight, then swiftly becomes one of the more tragic. The bit with the photograph was really sad, as was Yoshi's realizing how weak-minded he was.
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