Arp's Digital Domain

Aw… Souji just wants the old Kyo back. The somebody he used to know. The pre-woke Kyo that would murder a Digimon, hell, maybe a human, if there was a paycheck in it. It’s a twist that delivers exactly what the narrative needed. It forces an examination of who Kyo used to be and possibly answers both how Kyo became like that and why he stopped (make room in the fridge, Stella!). It makes Kyo revisit his past self, no matter how much he hates it, exposing the rest of Glowing Dawn to it and complicating how they feel about him. It also avoids the alternative of nothing but Kyo running around trying not to die for three episodes. There’s a lot more to all this, with Brilliant Thorn and World Union and Kaito and the Ministry all having their own reactions to these developments. For now, none of them really matter all that much. And while the direction we’re going is more interesting than anticipated, many of the twists that get us there sort of cancel each other out.

For all of his fiendish ways, direction is something notably lacking with Souji. While he did so with harrowing antipathy, Souji admits none of his acts of murder really moved him that much. He also says Wong never cared for him, so the job satisfaction couldn’t have been that high either. It makes sense that the old, merciless Kyo would get something out of him, that sense of using his lack of compassion for something benefiting a larger purpose and being rewarded for it. And that just because he shrugged off the deaths of others, he’d overlook his own as well. For Kyo it’s a more effective punishment for his past. Not as a spurned ally out for revenge and demanding the coldness he turned his back from; that would validate his choice. But as someone who reveled in the darkness alongside him, forcing him to embrace it again and drudge up all those memories, it’s hard to imagine a worse kind of hell.

His response seems dramatic at first: agree to the terms, bring back Old Kyo, and use him to burn down every bridge he built since then. It’s an intense moment watching the other Glowing Dawn members pleading for their lives as Kyo professes to reject them while Murasamemon kicks their asses. It’s the kind of thing we should be wanting more of, even as it breaks our hearts. But even in the middle of it something feels off. Kyo isn’t merciless towards them, letting their Digimon live even as he claims he’s a killer now. And the sudden shift in his demeanor feels abrupt even if we know why it supposedly happened. We sense there’s more to it even as it’s happening, and that’s not always great. And Glowing Dawn’s response is shockingly rational: they collect themselves, gather information, talk to the right people, and realize exactly what’s going on. Yeah, clearly Kyo’s keeping them out of trouble while he deals with the guy who actually took out Rose. Makes sense. And they’re very sensible about it, determined to help him deal with Souji and possibly even clear things up with the Ministry. Who, if Kanon is any indicator, only think Kyo did it because it takes a Five Star to defeat a Five Star. Except for, you know, the time Tomoro did. In the end, as wild a journey as it was to get there, and more to come as they drop in on Klay, it’s all adding up to Kyo and Glowing Dawn trying to reason with Souji instead of killing him. Which doesn’t sound like an outcome worth all this trouble.

After a Gift arc often caught between an underdeveloped one-track story and side bits that didn’t serve the larger narrative, it’s appreciated that so many things are going down at once, all of which appear to shake things up in a way that can have long-term consequences. There’s Chairman Wong, not only unbothered by his kidnapping, but thrilled that it exposed the location of a White Core, a handy e-Pulse amplifier and the MacGuffin crucial for his ultimate plans. That ends up back in the hands of that Kishiwada guy who assisted (and likely empowered) Miharu. That assistance now goes to recent escapee Souji, who decides that one more L for Rose will be the her last for a while. Kyo is somehow framed for this deed, meaning that not only is Souji out for Kyo’s blood… so is everybody else. Suddenly having three different feature film storylines thrown at Kyo at the same time is a lot to take in. What’s going to make this work is whether this arc can link Kyo’s past to Beatbreak’s future, or whether this is just one horrible no-good very bad day and everything will go back to normal again afterwards.

While making it ever the more frustrating Tomoro didn’t do something about him when he had the chance, at least Chairman Wong has an eye for the endgame. And that it, in some fashion, gets us back to why Genjo needed Asuka’s e-Pulse. At this point, anything to get all that back into the fold is welcome and appreciated. The lack of any recent mention of it was a major flaw of the last arc and an indictment of the entire concept of arc-based storytelling. Still waiting for Kaito and Honoka to do literally anything, by the way. Wong also acts on the discovery of this White Core, sending Rose after it despite its importance. Everything is set up for him to eventually get his hands on it and activate his big scary project that will give him unimpeachable power in some capacity. While we pray that Beatbreak won’t be that predictable, we are left looking at the White Core’s current application- powering this Souji dude. This little psycho has a reputation for feeding his Digimon to newer Digimon to constantly step up the power at his side, which works with the White Core’s enhancement and delimiting abilities. And he has his eyes set on Kyo.

The ultimate factor deciding the success of this arc will be how much Souji draws out of Kyo. We got a few vague flashbacks about Kyo as a child including one Tenma-shaped figure. That needs to build into something that not only reshapes how we think about Kyo, but actually justifies all the other nonsense this episode throws at us. Kyo’s past might be the best clues our heroes will have to understand what Chairman Wong is planning and could actually maybe not let him accomplish his scheme without at least a little bit of resistance. But there is a lot of nonsense. This bounty on Kyo could serve as an unnecessary distraction, perhaps taking Tomoro, Reina, and Makoto out of the main story entirely. There’s a weird tug of war over what to do about Miharu, with the ministry insisting on keeping her locked up while World Union has other plans for her. Kishiwada opposes World Union but has his own agenda. We’re going to have to find out where that’s leading. The worst fear is that this accidentally becomes more about Souji than Kyo. This guy might be nasty work, but we’re just meeting him now and it’s a lot to expect us to care about him with everything going on. He needs to serve Kyo’s story, not the other way around. And his use of the White Core needs to be something more interesting than a bit of power scaling or a demonstration of the nastiness it contains solely to show how bad it’ll be when the actual bad guys get it.

For all of the lack of momentum, the failure to develop the newly introduced characters, the constant distractions, and the confusion over whether we’re supposed to support someone knee-deep in evil coding, the Gift arc has still somehow brought things to enough of a head that tensions feel high and the stakes feel real. Chairman Wong is still in captivity, Miharu still has the capacity to commit atrocities and a powerful Digimon enabling her, and Tomoro still wants to save her in spite of that. Everything you’d expect from a climax is technically here: there’s a big fight with Mephismon, Rose and Brilliant Thorn try to keep Glowing Dawn out of it, Tomoro reaches deep to get Miharu to see the light, and everything turns out all right. But it’s all so empty. Either due to faults in the episode itself or the insufficient way they were built up, none of those big spots are in any way satisfying. This is a place in the show that demanded some big swings to steer things forward. Instead Beatbreak ends a disappointing arc by playing it far too safe.

The biggest issue is that in this big climactic moment, we realize halfway through that we… sort of don’t have any antagonists. It’s not Rose; she’s there to save Wong and stop the terror network. Meto and Kanon go down like chumps anyway (again) and Lilamon’s poisoning seemed like a good idea at the time. As for Mephismon, the big scary demon guy who was the main villain for an entire Digimon movie, he’s just a reflection of Miharu’s wishes at the time of his creation, turning him into this big devil on her shoulder talking her into acting on all the nasty stuff she wants to do to avenge her sister. Cool villain backstory, definitely touches on the dangers of echo chambers… but it’s not the kind of thing you want resolved with a conversation in a show like this. Tomoro turns Miharu around with one question, making her realize she’s acting on her own selfish desires, not towards her sister’s dream. That is all it takes for her to turn a new leaf and rein in Mephismon. Somewhere in Adventure land, Wallace and Lui are watching this furious at how easy that was. Love Tomoro for believing in the best in people and insisting Miharu’s actually gentle, but he deserves better enemies.

Oh wait, he has one! The actual antagonist in all this! The guy Miharu has helpless in handcuffs! Chairman Wong is the single biggest obstacle to getting Digimon more recognition and freedom in the world. He holds the keys to immense power and influence that could probably convince the world to embrace Digimon in a heartbeat if he wanted to. And what do Tomoro and Miharu do immediately after resolving to work towards realizing Chifuyu’s dream of freedom for Digimon? They let him go with no conditions and still insisting Digimon are glitches to be patched over. Even if forcing him at gunpoint to acknowledge Digimon publicly isn’t the right way of going about it, having him face-to-face is as big an opportunity to change things for the better as they’re going to get. Have that conversation with him. Have Gekkomon charm him. Ask the big question about what really happened all those years ago that made him hate the idea so much. There are no pretenses about him being a harmless old man; Kyo fled his organization and even Klay tried to rise against him. Right now the bigger twist would be finding out that he was actually justified in his acts of suppression. But in letting him go, Tomoro made this dream that much harder to achieve, and that’s something to bear in mind as the story moves onward.