Adventure: (2020) Episode 66: The Last Miracle, The Last Power

In this episode, Negamon poofs Koshiro, Sora, Joe, and Mimi out of existence. Given how much they contributed, it’s hard to notice they were gone.

 
Well, it definitely wins on style points. Just about everything happens exactly as you’d expect. Enemy turns around any momentum the good guys were having, things get stickier, they rehash that one scene from Our War Game, then they rehash that other scene from Our War Game when Omegamon shows up. It was so obvious that all of those would happen in some order that you’d be more inclined to punish them if they didn’t. But by telegraphing everything so clearly, there’s no room for anything creative or interesting in the narrative. Anything inspirational happens in the presentation. Thankfully what’s there just about makes up for the empty storytelling.

We begin with the traditional round of shallow one-liners reminding us how determined the kids are to not let their worlds be erased. It’s too hard to knock the concept of the pre-climax final battle since it’s so common across so much media, but it’s best executed when the heroes actually have something to say. When they tie in something related to their character development, it’s a nice reminder of what they’ve been through. When it’s just some variant of refusing to give up, it’s a waste of time. Especially when the enemy is trying to eradicate their worlds. Yeah, they better not quit.

In many past seasons, there had always been a certain added stake when the real world got involved. Vamdemon terrorized real landmarks and dragged family members into the fight. The Tamers and Savers worlds saw real destruction that gave them pause about whether Digimon belonged in the human world. Bringing it back here feels more obligatory than intense. It’s been neglected for thirty episodes, and then in a crisis dealt with remotely. For all the effort to establish the Chosen Ones as denizens of the Digital World, they forgot where they were originally from. The treatment here is just as impersonal, as all the shots are on random bystanders. We’re only vaguely aware of these kids having families (with Koshiro we can only assume he has one since it’s never come up), and continuing to ignore them trivializes what should be an equally important reason to fight.

And yet… it’s still fun to watch. Negamon evolving into a floating mass with lots of moving appendages offer plenty of opportunities for the Mega Digimon to fly around and show off in an appropriately chaotic fight. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon show off some nice teamwork, and the action slows down enough to show Negamon being creepy, pulsing with destructive energy. The obligatory next form appears, invincible for the first few seconds after respawning. In that time, it hits the unimportant kids and blinks them out of existence. Well, the unimportant kids that aren’t Yamato, at least.

Once again, the ghost forms of the unimportant kids are better in presentation than substance. It looks harrowing, they sound humbled, and it’s cool to look at. Still, they don’t say anything interesting, and they accomplish as much as you’d expect non-existent beings to. They’re stuck waiting for the most predictable miracle ever. After hearing all that stuff about Negamon feeding on the internet’s negative energy, you knew its attack would prompt a wave of encouragement and hope in another recycled bit from Our War Game. But again even here, building on the light of hope concept that was instrumental against Millenniumon keeps things consistent and makes a pretty scene to look at.

As obvious as all this was, it’s obvious because it was the natural progression of everything set up before this. You can lament how previous episodes telegraphed it so much and the lack of any interesting spin, but deviating from it entirely would have been far worse. Everything went the way it was supposed to with few surprises. Even the final evolution sequence carried some impressive fanfare and enough pop to make you cheer for it, even if it just ended up being Omegamon showing up again. Again, the disappointment in seeing him for the third time is balanced by the reality that anything else would be too out of left field. That said, it is absolutely fair to dread the inevitability of one episode-long fight next time.

My Grade: B+

Loose Data:

• Hey, at least Mimi acknowledged that she has a family! Other than Takeru and Yamato waxing on when they used to be a family, Mimi’s the only one who remembered she had one since the show’s halfway point.
• Wonder if Negamon/Abaddomon actually sees the crests when they’re flying at him.
• Maybe it’s a Japanese thing, but it’s amazing how many of the kids pictured are using tablets instead of phones. Outside of work functions, are tablets even that common anymore?
• It’s a good thing they showed that it was children sending the good vibes to the kids. Half the adults would consider the eradication of all existence an improvement.
• It’s little more than lip service and doesn’t explore the idea nearly as much as it should, but it’s appreciated that they at least acknowledge the dark energy within Seraphimon and Ophanimon. Devimon’s as interested in preserving existence as any of the good guys, as is DarkKnightmon it would seem (despite being more connected to Millenniumon’s revival).
• Even if it was just heralding Omegamon, that Break the Chain instrumental was amazing.

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