I'm the boss~

I feel like Reina was handed the evolution as an apology for taking too long, in a way. Tomoro and Makoto got theirs from bonding with their partners and learning and accepting themselves as they are. Reina doesn’t get severe consequences from her hesitation other than Kyo surviving from the bomb attack and then getting reassured by the rest of Glowing Dawn which then leads to the long awaited evolution. Her biggest issue was her fear of not being useful to her family, but the episode honestly doesn’t focus on that too much. Yes, she does get upset over it, but I feel like Pristimon should’ve been the one to reprimand her and not Tomoro in a way. Like, out of the evolution episodes, this one focuses the least on the Digimon and only on the Owner, making it unfairly imbalanced as Tomoro’s evolution episodes always feature him getting closer to Gekkomon and Makoto has him risking tooth and nail for Chiropmon. The Digimon is supposed to be a reflection of their Owner. The sequence of events in this episode only makes Pristimon feel like an extension of Reina in a way. I wanted to know Pristimon’s feelings too!

Other than that, I honestly really like Bearcatmon’s design! If you didn’t know, the bearcat is the nickname of the binturong, a weasel-like creature belonging to the Viverridae group, which is what the weasel, civet-like creatures belong to—the more formal term would be feliform. Anyways, these creatures are native to South and Southeast Asian area, making Bearcatmon take the form of a South/Southeast Asian in a way. I honestly love the tomboyish look and that she wears a bearcat helmet with the tail being like a makeshift ponytail. She takes the form of a skater in a way, and I think that’s unique. While Bearcatmon is the smallest of the ultimates, she’s still strong enough to carry Reina around both in the bridal carry and then on her back—they’re both around the same height.

The Digimon causing problems in this episode is Bombermon which is an unused Ultimate evolution of Gammamon like now Fumamon was. I feel like the group tends to struggle with the Gammamon evolutions more than the other GIFT-related mons in a way. Anyways, I honestly do like how creative his bombs are used in this episode from the spiders to the expanding time bomb. What’s amusing about Bombermon is that his voice actress is Yu Kobayashi who voiced Ruli Tsukiyono in Ghost Game. This means that the Wolvermon/Bearcatmon vs Bombermon battles are essentially Hiro vs Ruli (Hiro has the same VA as the Pristimon line). Bombermon’s partner Sana Tsujimine is voiced by Shiori Izawa who voiced Pochita in Chainsaw Man, Kanata Ubuyashiki in Demon Slayer and Nao Makimura in Sasaki and Miyano.

Anyways, the funniest thing about this episode was the fact that GD was giving Reina the pep talk while there was a time bomb slowly going off. Other than that, the fact that Miharu got to bomb Chairman Wong was honestly a shocker. I don’t think he’s out that early though—he’s too important to go out just like that. Let me know your thoughts on this episode!

It's nice to sit back for a bit and let the Glowing Dawn just. Exist. At their home. They do not do that nearly enough. And it is nice to see her teammates worrying about her. It's interesting that none of them spell out the VERY OBVIOUS problem Reina is having.

Though… that does make me think. While the fact that Reina has been a cleaner for 5 years longer than Tomoro and Makoto but has fallen behind them is incredibly frustrating for me. I DO have to admit that in Digimon strength and personal growth are closely inter-related. Personal-Growth doesn't happen on any sort of schedule. Obviously Reina's problem is that she's tied her self-worth into being useful. So… in that sense her teammates have failed her?

And while I hesitate to say that Reina is the reason for Tomoro and Makoto reaching Perfect, since that's not really what those episodes were about, I don't think it'd be unfair to say that the Glowing Dawn as a whole provided the support structure that allowed them to grow into Perfect. And I literally made a whole post about Why Reina is central to the GD based on what we HAVE seen, so even though we haven't seen Reina directly support their growth, I could make an argument that Tomoro and Makoto on some level owe their strength to Reina. But they are unable to return that support to Reina.

Honestly we don't see enough of the Glowing Dawn's dynamic in show, so I feel like I'm grasping at straws here.

That being said, I think my feelings of frustration with the fact that Reina is weaker than Tomoro and Makoto despite how much longer she's been a cleaner could have been resolved if Reina, despite not reaching Perfect, was demonstrably more experienced. Though I admit it would be rather hard to implement. Perhaps making her familiar with certain Digimon species, good at strategies, make her better at predicting attacks. She could still be frustrated with her weakness, even reckless about it.

I do like how at this point of the story the Glowing Dawn is Maki's go to for particularly dangerous problems.

I will say it's definitely a fascinating dichotomy that Reina is the most gung-ho about bounties, but the least capable of earning those bounties herself.

Tomoro listening to Reina's orders while she's clearly having a mental breakdown. On one hand. Yeah. She is still the more experienced cleaner. Tomoro and Makoto cede to her in fights. But she is NOT doing okay. I don't blame any of them for not being emotionally intelligent enough to help Reina (who is infamously not very emotionally intelligent herself). Because Tomoro's options here are ignore her, and break her last remaining razor thin shred of self-esteem. Or feed into her self destructive tendencies.

I like long panning shot of Wolvermon's face. Because this IS just as much a Wolvermon issue as it is Reina.

"Because Reina evacuated everyone first". Okay. That's great and all. I guess this is a busy episode so we didn't NEED to see it. But. Really. "Oh by the way before that fight Reina evacuated everyone so no need to worry about casualties. We just didn't think it was important enough to mention until now. But it is important enough that we attached Reina's name to it specifically". And. In shows like this, that's typically the job they give to a person who can't actually fight. It IS very important, more important than shows typically give credit for, don't get me wrong. But that kind of says the bare minimum about Reina. Actually really that reflects even more poorly on the rest of the cast if Reina is the one who gets 100% of the credit for that very obvious lifesaving decision that should be part of their routine when approaching a fight like this. That we have seen be a concern in a previous bomb threat that the GD dealt with. From an in-universe perspective I think Tomoro was trying to make her feel better, but honestly. If I was Reina I'd just feel like he was being condescending.

I do like that when Reina is blaming herself, she blames herself for making a bad call. That IS something she's got control over. That is something that she has "power" in so to speak. Despite the fact it's irrelevant to her physical strength, it's eating at her confidence in other areas.

Immediately followed by Reina taking over fighting bombs so everyone else can go ahead. Of course because that IS something that she can handle with her skill level. It IS her not being over confident and making the most reasonable call.

"Our job to protect our family" That's what she feels she is most useful for. Protection. At first out of being the strongest and most able… but now twisted into being the most expendable.

Speaking of which! It's been a bit since I've brought it up, but hey. What's with Reina's profile descriptor! Profile description's should be stuff that comes up in the show very early on, serving as just the baseline for the character for any newcomer. Reina's is the only one who never did. I think it would have been great if Reina's self-sacrificial tendencies for her family were shown more explicitly earlier on. Don't get me wrong, Reina throwing herself into danger without a second thought has been a consistent thing.

I think it says a lot about how little faith I have in this show right now that when Kyo stepped in to protect Reina I was actively annoyed because Kyo does this all the time. This is literally how they were introduced. "Oh great, Kyo protects Reina because he cares about her not for what she can do and that helps her get stronger despite the fact this happens all the time and is actively part of the problem".

That is to say I was pleasantly surprised with Murasamemon devolved. It's Reina's turn to protect him. The kids are catching up to Kyo too. It's not just Tomoro who is getting that honor. Unfortunately, the way the episode actually played out, it didn't matter at all if Murasamemon devolved or not. :/

I have very mixed feelings on the conclusion here. Because on one hand. YAY! Recognition of Reina's fundamental importance to the Glowing Dawn. While Kyo is nominally the leader, she's the one who drives them forward. And it's really nice for her teammates to tell her that they're willing to cover for her weaknesses when her biggest anxieties are about not being strong enough.

I'm not really sure what they were going for here. There is a lot going on here and I'm not sure it comes together sensibly. Her teammates are basically going, "Do what you want". Like. Okay. But that's not the issue here. The issue is Reina is frustrated with her inability to do what she wants to do. Not her willingness to do it?

Reina goes "I want to cut loose too but I can't" and the response is "Then cut loose?"

I realize the response is probably more in response to the "What's wrong with trying to be helpful within my own capacity" and her teammates going "Don't worry about what you can do, just do your best how you want to". Which is a nice sentiment. But. Does not address the underlying issue that Reina has been doing that, and it hasn't worked the way she wants.

Tomoro tells her to stop running away when she hasn't. This is the first time she's even slightly hesitated. She's only gotten to this point because her usual strategy wasn't doing what she wanted it to. It feels like Tomoro is yelling at her for daring to be upset that she's failing. Like I get here teammates are not bothered by her failures. And Reina's issues are related to how useful everyone sees her so reassuring her they don't care about her failures, counters the idea Reina has to be useful.

But Kyo tells Reina that Wolvermon (the Adult) is the only one fast enough to stand a chance. Kyo tells her she's good enough as she is. Reina doubts that she is. Justifiably. Because when Reina had previously attempted WITH WOLVERMON. And failed.

But the conclusion of this is just. Reina gets Perfect. She just. Her anxieties about being good enough are solved by becoming good enough when everyone tells her she should just keep trying anyway?

Sure. The issue was all in Reina's head. So confidence boost is enough to break through the mental block, to evolve. On the other hand, this was a mental block caused by more recent developments. Why had she never gotten Perfect before? Never needed to?

I think the idea might be that Reina succeeds here because she has the freedom to fail, because her teammates are covering her weaknesses. But considering the stakes are succeed or get blown to pieces + Kyo specifically asked her because apparently Wolvermon is the only one with a chance to match speed, that message, if it is the intended one, is really muddled.

I think the episode was actually held back by the stock animation requiring Pristimon to be reverted back to Child. I feel like the fight could have been a lot more impactful if Wolvermon evolved into Bearcatmon after attempting to fight Bombermon as Wolvermon, and actually getting somewhere as Wolvermon. I think a lot of the weirdness of the speech could be resolved if Reina hadn't just actively been beaten down for the sake of Pristimon, and hadn't had to evolve before she got to start kicking ass again. I DO WONDER if this was a decision made because of this rather than for creative reasons.

Regardless of the reasons though, as it stands, Pristimon just anti-climatically evolves during some downtime in a fight while the Glowing Dawn is just standing their talking to each other telling Reina she is literally fine as is (when she hasn't been) and Reina going "Okay I can do it now". While if she had been able to do it mid-fight, she could have been actively proving that she was valuable without her Perfect, before she kicked it up a notch. They definitely should have been able to work out something better either way.

I mean, did we actually address the root of the issue here being her need to be useful? That was literally explicitly stated in her dream. But it's not brought up at all by her teammates. Beatbreak isn't usually one for subtlety, so it's weird it wasn't brought up directly. I mean we kinda did? If we tell her she's fine as is and we have her back -> she doesn't need to be useful? But those don't feel mutually exclusive, especially because it felt more like they were insisting that she was useful, even at things she was actively failing at? I feel like regardless her teammates failed to validate her emotions in general. Maybe this is one of those things were the sentiment is more clear in Japanese and the translators dropped the ball on translating things consistently? But I find the sentiment her teammates express and Reina's actual issues to be woefully mismatched.

I like Pristimon's line about being unreliable. Because Reina has been putting all the blame on herself, but it's a partnership. Her doubt in herself, IS also doubt in Pristimon. So she has to have faith in Pristimon, (and by extension faith in herself).

Reina getting the final blow herself was awesome. That has consistently been something she has going for her, the ability to get her hands dirty alongside her partner.

Anyway, Reina joining Kyo couldn't have happened any more than 2 years ago, since she doesn't look any younger than she does now. So she spent probably at least 3 years being passed around.

I've said it before that Reina's character is centralized around the Glowing Dawn themselves. So it's only natural that her biggest character focus episode would actually focus on the Glowing Dawn and their dynamics as a team. And that did come across. I do very much appreciate Reina's teammates trying to hype her up.

I was ultimately never going to like what they did for Reina's evolution because I did not like how it was (or rather was not) set up. And overall, nothing this episode gave justified the 35 episode wait for Reina's first (and potentially only) evolution episode. But, given that. I think the episode was pretty enjoyable for the most part, save the context around the actual evolution.

Bearcatmon is cool though.