Fusion Episode 05: Thanks for the DigiCards!

In this episode, Mikey and Shoutmon are only able to survive because of the rather ambivalent giant whale that supports the entire island.

For all the credit Mikey gets for leadership and tactics, it didn't take long for him to get completely overwhelmed and in need of some lucky breaks. It would be easy to cut him some slack here. Neptunemon and the code crown's inaccessibility presents a compromising situation, to be sure. Everybody relies on a little bit of luck at some point, and other seasons rely on outside assistance far more than Fusion. What's the big deal that KingWhamon totally bails Mikey out on multiple occasions?

Fact is, Shoutmon should have died four times. It's only episode five; that should just not happen this early! One is due to Shoutmon's stupidity. Two are miscalculations on Mikey's part. One is because Team Neptunemon has a deep bench. Mikey doesn't have that same depth, but he does have resources and he stops using them the moment Shoutmon starts being reckless.

Let's be clear about that- Shoutmon repeatedly headbutting the dynamite meant for KingWhamon is entirely stupid and entirely on him. Mikey had a solution involving the rest of his team and even if it wasn't working as well as he had hoped, it was something. But even if it was Shoutmon being reckless, Mikey should have realized that and stopped him. That dynamite's going to do a lot more damage to Shoutmon than KingWhamon, and Mikey can't risk his strongest fighter to protect someone with far better defenses. As infuriated as KingWhamon might be, Mikey has to hope that his ire would be directed at those actually responsible.

The end result of that mess was ultimately not a bad thing, as it gets Mikey and Shoutmon inside KingWhamon to pursue the code crown. Bear in mind that this calls out an odd quirk in Shoutmon's objective- rather than being content with KingWhamon guarding the code crown and keeping it out of Lord Bagra's hands, Mikey actually needs to collect it himself. It's hard to fault Mikey for his clever use of the Pickmon in finding the code crown, but it was short-sighted not to plan for Flymon following as well. He should have been ready to fight. Instead, he was caught off guard and Shoutmon is poisoned as a result.

KingWhamon bails Mikey out, after some pleading from Jeremy, Angie and the rest of the team. He even abdicates ownership of the code crown to Mikey, albeit reluctantly. Victory in hand, Mikey promptly goes and gets his ass into trouble yet again when he thinks Shoutmon X2 has any chance against Ebidramon in the sea. This one's less avoidable, but Mikey needed to do more here than throw Shoutmon into yet another battle where he's at a disadvantage.

ChibiTortomon comes through again and retrieves five digicards, these one-time summoning spells that evoke legendary Digimon from the past. This concept isn't as advertised as much as digifuse, and you have to wonder what this adds to the show. It's toy marketing, of course, although not as transparent as the way the card game featured in Tamers. The problem is that there's little other purpose.

If digicards are supposed to be another tactic for Mikey to incorporate into his arsenal, it's a pretty poor introduction. Leviamon is anything but subtle, and Neptunemon's reaction suggests that Shoutmon's lucky to have survived being that close to it. Fact is, Mikey clearly didn't know what he was doing and just picked the most imposing monster in the set. The other possibility is that the digicards are little more than nostalgia bombs to get some of the beloved Digimon from seasons past more airtime. Lord knows Fusion isn't shy about using nostalgia to mask its own faults. That has to be it... it explains why they led off with good old Leviamon. Man, remember when he did that thing in that one season? That was great.

My Grade: C

Loose Data:

• So, Archelomon is a senile old fool that can't remember where the code crown is because he's a senile old fool. Solution? Get him drunk! That'll stimulate the brain cells!
• Yeah, obviously we're not going to buy that Archelomon was only drinking “digijuice.” In the original Japanese version, he was drinking milkshakes.
• My my, that's an awfully sissy scream Shoutmon has when Mikey realizes that they're in KingWhamon's stomach.
• How does KingWhamon speak to Mikey and Mikey only? The Flymon are right there in the room with him.
• KingWhamon doesn't seem all that convinced of Mikey's credentials. That's actually refreshing compared to all the big shots who normally trust a group of foreign kids instantly and without question just because one of them's wearing goggles.