#handa

This episode mainly focuses on their trip back to Japan from the Kingdom of Albidia. I’m surprised the Ministry was kind enough to let Glowing Dawn travel back in luxury. The focus of the episode is mostly on Makoto who’s acting his age and enjoying a hero show! The rest of Glowing Dawn are just chilling with Reina and Tomoro playing in the pool and Kyo resting.

It seems that Makoto idolizes Star-Man a lot as he knows that they’re actually a Digimon-Cleaner combo consisting of the Cleaner Handa and his partner Starmon. Despite being the popular Star-Man for the children, Handa actually a timid man underneath the suit. Starmon is also a lot weaker than he appears in the video footage Makoto showed off. While it did appear as if Star-Man rescued the kids from a Digimon attack years ago, it was all due to luck as lightning struck at the right time for both the Octomon and the squid Digimon who’s name I forgot. Starmon’s signature Meteor Squall is also due to effects and not actually activated. Rather than being an episode where Makoto learns a life lesson, he’s the one observing and helping Handa become more confident. Overall, the problem did seem to be that Handa never knew how to control his e-pulse as it only activated when he was doing a heroic deed with bravery.

While Cleaners and Digimon are still a secret to the general public, it’s actually cool to see a Cleaner use his Digimon for kind purposes like to be an entertainer for kids. Usually, we see Cleaners use their Digimon for nefarious purposes, so it’s nice to see the opposite for once. It’s nice to see an individual Cleaner learn something from a Glowing Dawn member. This episode is just a feel-good one in general!

Though, the scary part of this rather wholesome episode is that pirates exist and instead of swords, they wield rifles. I know guns have been seen in Beatbreak, but it’s still scary to see rifles. Petermon is scary too as he’s a Digimon in cahoots with pirates, but is interested in kidnapping children to feast on their e-pulse. His spell causes people to sleep, but he can control sleeping people when needed like how he did with Tomoro, Reina and their Digimon.

This might come off as a surprise to some, but Handa is voiced by Soichiro Hoshi who voiced Masaru Daimon (Marcus Damon) in Digimon Savers (Data Squad)! Since the anime celebrated its 20th anniversary on the 2nd, I guess having Hoshi be a guest in this episode made sense! Handa’s character is the total opposite of Masaru’s which is why it might come off as a surprise to some. Starmon is voiced by Takeshi Kusao who voiced Kiriha Aonuma (Christopher Aonuma) in Digimon Xros Wars (Fusion) and Joe Kido in the Adventure 2020 reboot. To add a cherry on top of the Digimon veteran sundae, Petermon is voiced by Yumiko Kobayashi who voiced Koushiro (Izzy) in the Adventure 2020 reboot and Espimon in Ghost Game. This is definitely a Digimon veteran fiesta.

There’s a new ending! It’s sung by K-Pop idol Choi Yena who used to be an IZONE member! The sequence itself features all the girls from Beatbreak, so that means Rose’s two henchmen, who got a face reveal, are women! I find it funny how they gave the blond boyish woman Pomumon as her partner when there were memes surrounding Pomumon and Armalizamon back when Armalizamon first made his debut. The long-haired woman’s partner is Aruarumon and not Palmon. Since Rose is the Wood Star, the plant-themes is very apparent. I do wonder about the mysterious girl with green eyes. She’s the one on the key visual for the third arc. She doesn’t have a Digimon, which only brings in more curiosity to her identity. 

While my theory that Honoka might actually be a guy has been dissolved, I do have a new theory in that the long-haired lady with Aruarumon could be Maki’s sister in that both have dark hair, blunt bangs and similar eyes. Also, the preview for the next episode has Haruomi making his return, which excites me because I like Haruomi! I’m glad that he’s not a one-off character and that they actually brought him back! Let me know your thoughts on the episode as a whole!