#jureimon

Oh dear, the recap is beginning to creep longer. It’s still not quite as egregiously long as some of them are going to be later, but it feels like we’re headed in that direction now.

We open on the group wandering through some rocky valley in the Digital World. They’re headed towards Jureimon – the big tree guy they met in episode 14 – because Ikuto and Falcomon figure he’s old and wise, so he might know something about where Kurata is. They… really didn’t come here with much of a plan, did they? But then again, that’s fair enough, because they were in such a hurry to get here at all before their one remaining way in got cut off.

I should note, not that it really matters for our purposes in this episode, that they must have already been headed towards Jureimon for quite a while. There are certain events we will learn about in a later episode that have to have happened between the end of episode 27 and the beginning of this one, so there’s actually been more of a timeskip here than it might seem. Doesn’t appear like we missed much other than our heroes wandering uneventfully through the Digital World, though. I’d rather have this than have to sit through irrelevant filler adventures.

They come across a village of Mushmon houses, flattened and destroyed. One lone surviving Mushmon flees desperately through the wreckage, only for a Gizmon: XT to murder it.

The Gizmon is carrying a kind of suction device we haven’t seen them with before. As the Mushmon’s egg disintegrates, the device sucks up some yellow sparkly energy that remains, and stores it in a tank. Tohma picks up on this detail and quietly wonders what it’s for.

Ikuto:  “I won’t forgive them… I won’t forgive them!”

Ikuto, meanwhile, is deeply furious at watching the first Digimon-murder happen in front of him since Mercurimon was killed. He flashes back to both Yukidarumon and Mercurimon’s moments of death and then flares up with Digisoul.

Falcomon, who’s been wearing a bandage since their run-in with the Bio-Hybrids in episode 26, dramatically throws it off as he prepares to evolve. I feel like “dramatically throwing off bandages” must be some kind of anime trope, because Masaru did it in episode 13 as well.

As Yatagaramon attacks the Gizmon, it seems its suction-thingy also doubles as a gun, somehow? Doesn’t feel like that’d be feasible, but sure. It can’t be using the yellow sparkly energy as ammo, at least; that’s not what it’s for.

Masaru:  “It’s gotten faster than before!”

Or alternatively, Masaru, Yatagaramon’s just lost his New Evolution Buff. Or the Gizmon: XT they beat in episode 25 was only slower because it’d been punched in the face by Mercurimon.

Some more Gizmon: XT show up. Tohma and Yoshino evolve their partners, who charge at the enemy (there’s Digisoul Charge animations, but the actual evolution animations are… skipped entirely? Amazing). Masaru runs in for a punch, which misses, and he gets smacked to the ground, while MachGaogamon and Lilamon get hit and quickly devolved moments later, perhaps explaining why the writers felt like sparing us from watching them evolve for like a full minute.

Tohma:  “Gaomon!”

Yoshino:  “Lalamon!”

Agumon:  “Aniki!”

As the trio rush to their fallen partners, one of these things is not like the others. Oh, Masaru. Savers in a nutshell.

Tohma silently muses that it’s strange that these Gizmon are acting on their own without partners, but that’s going to be a pretty common thing from hereon out. They’re basically robots; they probably have some kind of AI setting that lets them act remotely without direct orders.

Yatagaramon:  “So they’ve also raised their defence.”

Yatagaramon says this after firing another attack at them and having it bounce off. I am still skeptical about this claim the narrative is making that these Gizmon: XT are notably stronger than the one from episode 25. Our heroes had a lot of trouble taking that one down, even in its Adult-level form, even while outnumbering it, until the Ultimate-level Mercurimon stepped in to help.

One of the Gizmon retaliates by shooting Yatagaramon with… the striped laser. The weapon that’s permanently killed every Digimon we’ve seen it hit. Except that Yatagaramon’s fine; he just devolved into Falcomon, is all.

And, yes, I know what you’re thinking. I know. But hear me out, because this doesn’t necessarily have to be a huge glaring inconsistency. It’s possible that, under normal circumstances, that striped laser can’t instantly kill any Digimon higher than Adult-level.

The exceptions we’ve seen to this are SaberLeomon and Mercurimon, and both of those were Digimon that Kurata had personally encountered before: chasing him down on the original expedition, or almost murdering him in a rage during his first massacre. Kurata would have had these specific Digimon in mind as Dangerous Enemies that he needs to get rid of in order for his goals to succeed. So it’s possible he prepared some method that deliberately calibrated the Gizmon’s lasers to corrupt and destroy the data of these two Digimon in particular. For most other stronger Digimon, he wouldn’t have had that chance to prepare yet, so it could well take more than a single laser to kill them.

It's also possible instead that Yatagaramon surviving this is down to a perk of the evolving-through-Digisoul thing, in that that comes with a defence mechanism of always having the Digimon revert to Child-level first when hit with a devastating attack, rather than going straight to an egg (which would have then disintegrated, because Gizmon). I know I’m reaching here, but it’s possible, shush.

Still, even if it can be made to make sense, this is kind of a shame. In my first time watching episode 25, things felt especially tense as our heroes fought the Gizmon, knowing that one hit from that striped laser could kill them permanently, even though I knew that of course that wouldn’t actually happen. But now that illusion is broken, because we’ve seen that it’s functionally just another attack, at least to the Digimon we care about the most.

And it’s also very much the case that Ikuto should have utterly panicked, fearing that he’s about to lose Falcomon on top of everyone else. But he only reacts with the usual amount of worry, as if Falcomon had been devolved by a regular attack. The writers really ought to have thought about this some more.

Tohma:  “They’re stronger than before. They must have been modified even further!”

Yeah, still really not convinced by this claim at all, especially when you just saw that laser being explicitly “weaker” than you’ve ever seen it be.

Masaru, of course, is still being insistently defiant, though I don’t fancy their chances when he’s unable to get a punch in and the other three Digimon partners have already been devolved. But then they’re interrupted by the sound of… a reed pipe? It’s BanchouLeomon, atop a nearby cliff, announcing his presence in a far more extra way than necessary because that’s how he rolls.

The animators also announce his presence showing different parts of his outfit dramatically from multiple angles, just to get the point across. They want you to know that this guy is a badass. (Or a drama queen. You decide.)

Masaru:  “Who are you?!”

BanchouLeomon: “Just a banchou who’s passing through. BanchouLeomon!”

As the subbers notes inform us, a banchou is what they describe as a “boss fighter”. Basically, the kind of person Masaru is trying to be. The big tough badass whom nobody wants to mess with. As an example, the Japanese term that is subbed as “street fighter” in Masaru’s lines is kenka banchou, with kenka being the word for a street brawl. Masaru is a banchou of street fights, that’s how notoriously good he is at them. And this Digimon is a banchou of… the entire Digital World, I guess? Or at least his own “turf” within it.

Point is, this is Masaru’s kinda guy.

Just to underline the drama even more, we cut to the opening as soon as BanchouLeomon introduces himself. Here’s a shot from near the end, of our trio’s evolved partners flying into the sky, but, huh, those silhouettes don’t look familiar. The opening has always contained this tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpse of their Ultimate forms there, right from the beginning.

Back in the episode, the group’s commenting on how they’ve never seen or heard of BanchouLeomon before.

Yoshino:  “Could he be a member of Kurata’s troops?”

Masaru:  “No, that can’t be.”

[beat; everyone stares at Masaru]

Masaru:  “There’s no evil in a guy that’s a banchou!”

Yes, Masaru. Such logic. It is pretty great how Masaru instantly decides to trust this guy, because he must follow a similar fighting philosophy to Masaru himself if he’s calling himself a banchou.

BanchouLeomon dodges gunfire from the Gizmon: XT, leaps down from the clifftop and defeats one of them with a single punching attack. He’s Ultimate-level, so this isn’t particularly surprising. (Mercurimon only managed to weaken a Gizmon: XT with one punch, but he was also dying at the time and therefore not at his full strength.) Despite the narrative desperately trying to insist to us that these Gizmon: XT are totally stronger than before, they’re still no match for an Ultimate-level.

BanchouLeomon: “Holy am I, alone, throughout heaven and earth!”

According to the subbers, this is him quoting Buddha, as a sign of his self-importance. He’s just really, really extra, okay. He says this while rushing through and destroying two more Gizmon, just to drive the point home.

BanchouLeomon: “With my fists… nothing is impossible!”

This at least feels like a sentiment Masaru probably agrees with.

As he takes out the last Gizmon, its suction thingy drops to the ground and the tank on it breaks, releasing that sparkly energy into the air. Again, Tohma notices this. The others don’t really seem to have picked up on it at all, but it’s in Tohma’s character to spot details like that. The deal with this sparkly energy will also be the most relevant to him in particular going forward.

Masaru:  “Not bad, BanchouLeomon!”

Oh, Masaru. You just watched this guy perform a feat that your entire team couldn’t hope to manage, and all you have to say is “not bad”. Someone wants to present himself as still potentially the best banchou around here, huh.

BanchouLeomon is standing with his back to the group, but at this, he glances back at them, chuckling.

…And, okay, somewhere around here ought to be where I bring up the spoilery thing. Last warning for anyone who really cares about that, assuming you’re someone who can avoid having your eyes skip ahead to read the next line involuntarily.

Here’s the thing: this is Masaru’s dad. Sort of, but also not, at the same time.

I won’t mention the details of how exactly this happened until the episode where it’s all laid out in the open, but here’s what’s relevant to know for the sake of me talking about it here. Suguru’s consciousness is hanging out in BanchouLeomon’s head alongside the actual BanchouLeomon’s consciousness. They can communicate mentally and switch up who’s in control at any time, as far as I understand it.

So one fun thing to do in any of BanchouLeomon’s appearances is to try and figure out who’s speaking: BanchouLeomon himself, or Suguru.

The future Episode About BanchouLeomon will illustrate that BanchouLeomon and Suguru use different first-person pronouns in Japanese, as a way to distinguish them. BanchouLeomon uses the arrogant male ore, while Suguru uses the polite male watashi. This would be a very handy indicator, except that in most of BanchouLeomon’s appearances, he… doesn’t ever happen to use any first-person pronouns in his Japanese speech at all, I don’t think? This may well be deliberate on the writers’ part, because any Japanese viewer who noticed him switching pronouns would be clued in to him actually being two different people. It may have clued in the characters, too.

(Actually, update from a future me who’s paid attention to this in a bunch more episodes now: BanchouLeomon sometimes uses ore, but never watashi, until the reveal. Seems like, whenever Suguru is in control, he makes a point of not using any “I” pronouns at all so as not to give himself away.)

Regardless of the lack of pronouns to tip us off, the answer to the question in this episode at least is pretty clear: it’s got to be BanchouLeomon. He has been and will continue to be incredibly extra throughout this whole scene, which I’m pretty sure is one of the giveaways of BanchouLeomon’s personality. From what we saw of Suguru in the flashbacks in episode 24, he was a lot more polite and reserved in general, despite his tendency to make things very Manly when the situation called for it. This doesn’t feel like his style.

It makes sense that it’d be BanchouLeomon and not Suguru in control in this scene, the first time he meets the DATS group and especially Masaru, given that he doesn’t want to reveal his identity to them for reasons. If Suguru had control, there’s every chance he might not be able to keep a poker face upon seeing Masaru again for the first time in so long. He probably asked his buddy to take the wheel on purpose to avoid letting anything slip.

The real point of all this is that I want you to please imagine Suguru insubstantially facepalming in the back of BanchouLeomon’s head as he does this whole over-the-top banchou ridiculousness at the group. “I finally see my son again for the first time in ten years, and this is how we act in front of him?”

(Then again, knowing Suguru and what a manly dork we’ve seen he can be, he might just think this is cool, too. I mean, he certainly seems to be impressing Masaru, if nothing else, and maybe that’s all he really wants.)

So anyway, hearing Masaru compliment him in a way that implies Masaru’s still the biggest banchou here, knowing this is his friend’s son – his friend whose consciousness is there in the back of his head, probably feeling immensely proud and happy to see his son so grown-up, not to mention relieved that he’s okay – BanchouLeomon turns around to face him, and…

BanchouLeomon: “Want to try taking on these fists?”

Oh my god that is so 1000% the most ridiculously Masaru way to approach meeting him, can you see why this guy and Masaru’s dad got along.

Masaru:  “Interesting.”

Masaru cracks his knuckles, grinning, naturally extremely ready to take on this challenge. There’s a long, dramatic pause as they face each other down, the wind whistling… and oh my god you two manly dorks have you forgotten you have better things to be doing right now, such as literally stopping a genocide

There’s this fun shot where Masaru imagines BanchouLeomon towering over him (he is not actually that tall), sensing just from looking at him how overwhelmingly much stronger he is. This feels very appropriate, given that, though Masaru has no idea of it, his dad is there in that body.

Eventually, BanchouLeomon lowers his fist and chuckles.

BanchouLeomon: “You’re one million and 35 years too early to clash with me.”

I need to keep commenting on how ridiculously extra he is. There’s something especially exquisite about the way he feels the need to add the thirty-five on top of the one million, just to be really specific about it. I cannot help but imagine Suguru must be shaking his immaterial head at this in the back of their mind.

Masaru takes offence to this, despite having sensed for himself the huge difference in power between them. Of course he wasn’t going to let that stop him trying, and he’s frustrated that this guy doesn’t seem to think he’d put up any kind of fight.

BanchouLeomon: “There’s a critical difference between you and me. I have something right now that you guys don’t.”

Oh! I said earlier that I didn’t think BanchouLeomon ever used first-person pronouns at all, but turns out I was wrong, because in this line, he used ore-sama. So, even more arrogant than just ore, because there’s a self-sama in there, too, like Masaru likes to do sometimes. Yep, absolutely definitely BanchouLeomon here and not Suguru, as if that wasn’t already obvious enough.

BanchouLeomon: “What you guys are lacking… is power!”

What he really ultimately means by this here is that he’s Ultimate level while their partners are still only Perfect. That’s it. He doesn’t need to dress it up by being this bombastic and yet vague about it, but, you know, that’s how he rolls.

Masaru:  “If it’s power you want, I’ve got it right here. In my burning fists!”

Oh, Masaru. Honestly I might be tempted to raise an eyebrow at this on a writing front, because Masaru’s development in episode 13 involved admitting to himself that his fists couldn’t do everything and that he wanted some kind of strength that was more than just physical. Buuuut, maybe this isn’t quite the same thing, because this is the word power, not strength. “Power” is a bit more leaning towards meaning just physical strength alone and not applying to emotional strength too. Even if Masaru desires some greater kind of emotional strength, he may still be perfectly confident that his fists have all the physical strength – ie, power – that they’ll ever need.

Or maybe this is a sign that Masaru’s kind of begun to forget what he learned from episode 13 in all the confusion of being caught up in this genocide and becoming really extra determined to be “powerful” enough to stop Kurata. Growth isn’t always one-directional. People can slip-up and need to re-learn the same lessons.

BanchouLeomon: “Simple fool. Your fists aren’t the only thing that make up strength.”

Masaru:  “What?”

I need to mention that the subs took some licence here, perhaps for the sake of avoiding repetition, because the actual word BanchouLeomon used here was still the word for “power” and not “strength”. In that context, it’s reasonable for Masaru to question it without him having to have completely forgotten what he learned in episode 13.

And it’s also reasonable for BanchouLeomon to be saying this! This is a shounen universe where physical power comes from more than just the physical strength of your body, and BanchouLeomon – or perhaps more accurately, the other person in his head right now – understands that better than anyone.

BanchouLeomon: “The answer lies within yourselves.”

Masaru:  “Within us?”

It sure does, though BanchouLeomon is continuing to be unhelpfully vague about this. This is all pretty much setup for the fact that we’re reaching the point where our protagonists will be achieving their next evolution level soon.

BanchouLeomon: “Look for power! Then convince me to acknowledge your strength! When that time comes, I will allow you to fight me!”

With that, BanchouLeomon leaps back up onto the cliffs and strides dramatically away, cackling to himself. Still being super extra, and also very unhelpfully vague. I guess the idea is that the “lesson” he’s trying to teach them will work best if they figure it out for themselves?

At least he has the right idea to use the prospect of getting to fight him as incentive for Masaru to figure this out.

Masaru:  “Damn, he just says what he wants and leaves…”

Like that’s not the kind of straightforward thing you’d do too, Masaru, when you put it like that.

Tohma:  “It’s true that our strength is greatly inadequate right now. We can’t even begin to find a trace of Kurata anywhere if the Gizmon: XT keep delaying us.”

Yoshino:  “But power isn’t something easy to attain…”

Look at Tohma being analytical and thinking about the strategy of things, while Yoshino is subtly worrying and feeling inadequate.

Meanwhile, Ikuto has an idea, and he begins to leave with Falcomon.

Ikuto:  “There’s a place where you can go to get power.”

Masaru:  “Where?”

Ikuto:  “I make sure to catch up with you later. You guys go to Jureimon.”

Also a bit weirdly vague – you’d think, if Ikuto knew of such a place, it’d be somewhere they’d all benefit from going. I guess Ikuto’s still really fixated on the idea that them meeting Jureimon will be helpful.

And, well, as it’ll turn out, this place Ikuto’s going isn’t somewhere anyone else would benefit from tagging along to. Still a little odd why the others don’t press this more, but what this really is on a narrative level is a way to get Ikuto out of the group for this and the next episode so that certain things can happen without him around.

Masaru:  “Hey, don’t just run off! You’re messing up our teamwork!”

Yoshino:  “You’re one to talk.”

You said exactly what I was thinking, Yoshino. Though I’m surprised Tohma wasn’t the one to comment on that.

Tohma:  “Ikuto grew up in the Digital World. He must have an idea.”

It’s fair enough that if anyone was going to separate from the group here, it’d be Ikuto, who knows his way around. Not sure entirely how the other three are planning to reach Jureimon now without Ikuto showing them the way, but I guess they’re close enough and he’s pointed out the forest in the distance to them such that they can easily keep heading that way?

Yoshino:  “There’s no doubt he’s working hard to make up for Mercurimon’s death.”

Aww, it’s sweet that Yoshino thought of that. Ikuto really is going through a lot and doing remarkably well to not just fall apart.

Elsewhere, Kurata is in the ruins of another Digimon village, patting himself on the back for wiping it out while peering into a huge container full of that sparkly yellow stuff.

Kurata:  “The Digimon’s life energy… I’ve collected quite a lot of it. But it’s still not enough.”

Note that, in the flashback we saw to Kurata’s first massacre, and even at Mercurimon’s death, we didn’t see any of the Gizmon collecting this life energy that the murdered Digimon left behind. It is not because the life energy is harvested that the eggs disappear and the Digimon permanently die.

Still, though his primary goal is to kill all the Digimon, it looks like Kurata now has another plan cooking on the side by collecting this stuff while he murders.

As one of his troops informs him that some of the Gizmon deployed to a certain area have stopped responding, Kurata frowns and adjusts his glasses.

Kurata:  “That’s odd news.”

Yes, the idea that your brilliant creations could possibly be destroyed, and that other people out there could possibly both want and be capable of stopping you doing a genocide… definitely just an odd thing that obviously shouldn’t be happening. Kurata is the most right and the most in control.

Our trio and their partners are now making their way through a foggy forest towards Jureimon’s place.

Lalamon:  “We need to catch Kurata quickly, before there are more victims.”

Yoshino:  “Yeah. But this is the man who exploded DATS HQ to get what he wanted. We don’t know what kind of foul traps he’ll have set up for us. Besides, if we don’t win…”

Yoshino and Lalamon’s thoughts are on the theme of worrying – worried about potential victims, worried about Kurata’s level of power and the things he might do to them to get his way, worried they might not be able to stop this.

Gaomon:  “Kurata must have a considerable number of Gizmon: XT with him. It will be difficult to battle, considering their numbers.”

Tohma:  “I guess this matter can’t be settled through normal planning…”

Tohma and Gaomon’s thoughts are along similar lines, but less overtly worried and more leaning towards trying to strategise, like you’d expect.

And then Masaru and Agumon…

Agumon:  “Who was that BanchouLeomon?”

Masaru:  “I don’t know. But his strength was the real thing. He’s terribly strong.”

Masaru & Agumon: “Power, huh…?”

…aren’t even thinking about the genocide at all, they’re still too fascinated by oh man that BanchouLeomon guy sure was strong, I wonder how we can become as strong as him!!! Oh my god, these dorks, I love them.

They’re interrupted as Agumon trips over his feet in the increasingly dense fog, causing a domino pile-up of everyone except Tohma and Lalamon. Most of the tripping happens with just sound effects and yelps over a shot of the background, and we only see the resulting pile, which is a fun comedic touch.

It's getting so foggy because they’re getting closer to Jureimon – close enough for his voice to call out to the “intruding humans” and demand that they leave. When Masaru calls back and tells Jureimon who it is, he makes a tunnel in the fog through which they can approach. Jureimon must have sensed humans coming and, not knowing it was allies (our trio helped him out before in episode 14, remember), been terrified that it was Kurata and his men here to kill him.

…Him and many others, it turns out, as the group emerge through the fog into a clearing to find a whole host of injured Digimon taking refuge near Jureimon. These must be the lucky ones who managed to flee from their homes being massacred before they got hit with anything fatal.

Jureimon’s little Nyokimon pals seem unhurt – they live here, and nobody’s attacked this place yet – so they’re helping out in taking care of the injured Digimon as best they can, still with their cute, sad little “Nyo!” sounds, I love them. It’s also very cute to see Agumon and Gaomon (and Lalamon, not pictured here) immediately pitching in to do what they can to help.

Jureimon:  “Mercurimon has done an unfortunate thing.”

…I’m gonna go out on a limb and say this is a subbers’ mistranslation, because this really feels like it should be more like: “It is unfortunate what happened to Mercurimon.” No need to go phrasing it like it was his fault he went and died.

Jureimon:  “The wind told me about the death of that heroic warrior.”

Aww. Even though Jureimon brought up in his previous episode that he doesn’t answer to Mercurimon, he still respected him enough to call him a “heroic warrior” after his death.

Tohma:  “It looked like they were sucking the Digimon’s life energy from them. Why would they do that?”

Tohma has indeed picked up on exactly what that sparkly energy is, but not what Kurata might need it for. Jureimon’s answer is, paraphrased, “I don’t know, but it sounds bad.”

Yoshino (always the one to get to the logistical point, I love her) asks him where Kurata is. He doesn’t know that, either. For all that Ikuto insisted Jureimon was old and wise and must be able to help, he really doesn’t have anything to offer. He’s just an old man, terribly sad at the horrors happening to his species, doing his best to protect those he can, but helpless to save anywhere close to everyone.

Jureimon:  “Even now, from places far away, I can hear the screams the wind brings to me.”

Apparently when he said he heard about Mercurimon’s death on the wind, he meant it literally. Seems like it’s one of his powers to be able to hear things from far away on the wind (makes sense, when he’s a big tree and can’t exactly move very far). That has got to be rough, constantly hearing all his fellow Digimon screaming and dying and not being able to do anything to help them or even just block it out. Ouch.

Masaru:  “Damn Kurata… Just wait until I punch him to the ground!”

Masaru does not like that this conversation has done nothing but remind them all how helpless they are to stop these atrocities, so he’s channelling that into some furious and definitely-not-impotent anger at somebody who’s not even here.

They’re interrupted as Jureimon senses “uninvited guests”, who promptly announce their presence with a completely unnecessary explosion, just so that they can emerge dramatically as the smoke clears. It’s the trio of Bio-Hybrids, having been sent by Kurata to investigate the defeat of those Gizmon from earlier. Though that happened in a rocky valley, it seems it wasn’t too far from this forest, allowing them to find their way here to Jureimon’s clearing.

Masaru:  “Where’s Captain Satsuma?”

I enjoy how Masaru wastes absolutely no time in bringing up the biggest reason he’s furious with these guys, like it’s right at the front of his mind – he and his friends had to leave Satsuma behind fighting to protect them because they weren’t strong enough to face these guys on their own. Masaru is not a fan of leaving other people behind to risk themselves in his place, we already know that.

Kouki:  “Huh? Captain? Oh, you mean that old guy. He’s dead.”

Who wants to take bets on how truthful this is? This is not the sort of anime where a badass authority figure like Satsuma would be unceremoniously killed offscreen like this. Didn’t fool me on my first time for a second.

(I guess I’m technically spoiling this, but hey, I already put a spoiler warning on this episode anyway.)

But it says a lot about Kouki that he’s willing to casually lie that they did kill Satsuma, just to watch his enemies squirm and make them feel smaller and weaker. Acting like Satsuma’s nobody important or memorable and was just some random old dude also adds to that. In reality, I bet Satsuma gave them a run for their money in their fight and left them – especially Kouki – feeling frustrated at his tenacity, but no way Kouki’s gonna admit that, especially not in front of these guys who seem to look up to Satsuma.

Anyway, back to the part where our protagonists don’t know they’re in a kids’ anime and so have no idea their Captain has plot armour and therefore have every reason to believe Kouki’s claim – they’re pretty horror-struck at the thought that Satsuma’s gone.

Or, at least, Yoshino and Tohma are. Masaru would be, but no, he is not the sort of person who lets himself get upset and falter at things like this, so he’s going to push that pain down inside him and turn it into anger on the surface and not think about this

Nanami:  “I thought the orders we received would be quite boring to fulfil… but I’m glad we ended up finding a playmate.”

This is very Nanami. She’s probably been pretty bored with most of her chores for Kurata so far, but getting to mess with some actual strong opponents who’ll fight back is just what she signed up for.

(She and Ivan are not contradicting Kouki’s lie; they probably figure it’s best if their enemies continue to assume Satsuma is dead. Or, well, Nanami probably does; I think Ivan’s too busy being terrible to even think about it.)

Ivan:  “I like how vivacious she appears. Maybe next time, I’ll ask her out to a dinner at a restaurant with a great view…”

“Vivacious”? What, that look of horror on her face as she was told that someone she cares about is dead? Oh my god learn to treat women like people you objectifying piece of human trash. Ivan is the worst.

And then we do the whole oh-no-he-was-thinking-out-loud thing again like this is at all a thing that any actual human being would allow to happen more than once. Ivan is the most one-dimensional terrible excuse for a character in this series.

Kouki:  “Anyway… If we kill these Digimon here, I’m sure Kurata-chan will be satisfied.”

The fact that he uses -chan – a feminine, diminutive honorific – for Kurata really says a lot about how Kouki sees him. Kurata may have given him these powers and hired him to do this, but Kouki still seems to feel like Kurata’s beneath him if he’s talking about him this way.

noooo the poor Nyokimon are so scared, don’t hurt the Nyokimon

Kouki just chuckles as he sees the helpless injured or baby Digimon cower in fear upon hearing they’re about to be killed. Masaru can’t stand it, hearing this asshole be so cruel and callous about snuffing out the lives of sapient people – people who don’t want to fight and can’t defend themselves. With that, and also with the pain of hearing about Satsuma still raw, he grimaces and roars in some delightfully furious rage before charging at Kouki.

It is good. I enjoy the sense the animation and voice acting give that Masaru is just painfully angry here.

Kouki:  “That’s the spirit!”

Kouki saying this, as he too rushes forward to meet Masaru’s charge, sounds superficially Masaru-like. But given the context of him being glad that he’s made his opponent so desperately angry, he really is just being a huge asshole. This probably didn’t help Masaru’s rage at all.

They cross-counter and punch each other in the face. Masaru’s Digisoul lighting up while his fist is in Kouki’s face has to be kind of blinding for Kouki, really.

Not that it matters for long, because they leap back from each other, and then it’s evolution time… for all six of the people here, oh boy. At least the Bio-Hybrids don’t have super long fancy animations for it, and we’re using the shortest possible cuts of the protagonists’ animations, but geez.

Masaru:  “Time to take revenge for the Captain!”

It does sound like Masaru is somewhat buying Satsuma’s death – but even so, he’s talking about it in an indirect way so that he doesn’t have to think about the part where Satsuma’s dead. He only needs to focus on being angry and strong and avenging him.

(A bit like Ikuto, heh. For once I’m comparing those two in the opposite direction.)

The three DATS Perfect-levels charge at the Bio-Hybrids, but their attacks continue to basically bounce off or just get dodged altogether. This episode features the last ever instalment in the saga of Winning Knuckle Not Winning; alas, it’s been fun. BioThunderBirmon can even deflect RiseGreymon’s shots with a flap of his wings, sending them back down towards Jureimon and his friends, which is not good.

BioCoatlmon: “I’ve already figured out your attack pattern.”

She says this as she effortlessly sways her snake body from side to side to dodge MachGaogamon’s punches. The problem with Tohma’s thing of having very distinct “optimal” strategies and attack patterns that he sticks to is that it makes him very predictable if there ever happens to be an opponent who thinks in a similar way to him and can also figure out what optimal moves he’d come up with.

(This isn’t shown very well in the animation, in which MachGaogamon is kinda just doing left-right jabs, but, you know. Let’s believe this is what’s happening, because it’s interesting and relevant to Tohma’s character and the upcoming further Tohma-Nanami conflict.)

BioStegomon: “Accept this man’s pure-hearted attack!”

oh my god Ivan, shut up, there is nothing pure about your heart, you objectifying moron

The worried look in Yoshino’s eyes has an extra kind of franticness to it as she watches Lilamon get hit. They’ve already lost to these opponents before – these opponents who apparently then killed Satsuma – and they’ve just had BanchouLeomon lecture them about how they’re not strong enough. She must be so afraid that this battle is only going to turn out even worse than the last one.

The three Digimon partners crash to the ground in pain. RiseGreymon stubbornly forces himself back up, just like his aniki would, determined to stop these would-be murderers getting any closer to Jureimon and his friends, and the others follow suit. BioThunderBirmon promptly proceeds to electrocute RiseGreymon; BioCoatlmon coils around MachGaogamon’s body and squeezes; BioStegomon starts beating Lilamon repeatedly with his huge tail. Some Nyokimon cower underneath one of Jureimon’s big roots in fear. The Digimon partners are standing their ground valiantly, but they’re in so much pain, and all the humans can do is watch.

Yoshino:  “Stop it! Stop it now!”

Yoshino buries her face in her hands, unable to stand watching Lilamon or any of the others get hurt like this. She’s always hated fighting and had to constantly battle against that anxiety of hers, and right now, with things looking so bad and their enemies being so brutal, she can’t hide it from the surface for once. Aaaa, Yoshino.

Masaru’s response to what they’re seeing, naturally, is to charge forward to try and do something so that he’s not just powerlessly watching his friends get hurt. As RiseGreymon falls to his knees from the pain, Masaru leaps past him at BioThunderBirmon, and… gets blasted to the ground by a gust of wind, unable to even get close. A moment later, RiseGreymon cries out in agony, unable to take it any more, and collapses.

BioCoatlmon: “You’re not even worthy enough to play with.”

Still with Nanami talking about “playing” with her enemies, like she’s hoping this’ll be something fun for her.

again, Ivan shut up there’s nothing pure about your heart you’re the worst

BioThunderBirmon: “Little shits. You think you can defy us, when we’re fused with both the powers of humans and Digimon?”

Kouki continues to be just an absolute asshole, as shown by his choice of words to insult them and the tone of laughter in his voice, like he thinks it’s pathetically hilarious that they could ever possibly think they’re as strong as him.

BioThunderBirmon is a very cool-looking Digimon design from literally every angle except this one, geez. Bird pecs.

He makes to stomp on RiseGreymon’s head, intending to kill him – and if it did, this’d almost certainly be permanent egg-destroying death just like any of Kurata’s weapons are capable of – only for a crowd of tiny but incredibly brave Nyokimon to swarm around RiseGreymon, trying to protect their protector. Oh my god you precious little things, your courage is admirable but you stand absolutely no chance of helping and will only get murdered even harder than RiseGreymon, please just try to hide somewhere safe.

BioThunderBirmon: “Outta the way!”

Kouki seems furious, as if they’re even in his way at all (they literally aren’t). I think he can’t stand the idea that something this weak and pathetic could possibly be trying to stand up to him.

He goes to crush the Nyokimon along with RiseGreymon, but Jureimon’s huge roots get in the way, wrapping around all of his allies to create a protective wall, with what seems to be immense effort. The Nyokimon bounce and cheer excitedly at being saved by their leader.

Kouki just scoffs.

BioThunderBirmon: “Are you an idiot? Trying to save these pieces of scum… Ha! If you wanna die that badly, then I’ll give you what you wish for!”

Yes, trying to save defenceless babies, obviously that’s idiotic and asking to get killed because they’re nothing but scum anyway. God, Kouki is just the world’s most gigantic asshole and it’s exactly right for this scene’s atmosphere.

At this, he leads his trio in beginning to viciously attack Jureimon, who’s too busy defending everyone else to defend himself. BioStegomon’s spinning tackle gets deflected by RiseGreymon, who just barely manages to stand and make himself a living shield against another electric attack.

Masaru:  “RiseGreymon!”

[RiseGreymon collapses again]

RiseGreymon: “Aniki…!”

Masaru’s trying to be fierce and determined but you can tell he’s so worried as he calls out to his friend. I love the way RiseGreymon calls back, like he’s apologising for not being strong enough, or like he’s desperately hoping that his aniki will give him more strength somehow, as a madly cackling BioThunderBirmon electrocutes him. He’s trying so hard, but it’s just not enough.

Yoshino’s face still looks especially stressed and frantic as she calls out to Jureimon, I love her, she’s clearly terrified out of her mind but being so brave.

BioThunderBirmon: “I’ve decided! Your names in my autobiography will be Small Fries A, B and C!”

Kouki laughs at this, like he’s just told the world’s most hilarious joke, before savagely attacking Jureimon further. He continues to be the absolute biggest most infuriatingly punchable asshole.

Helpless at the onslaught, Jureimon, the giant tree, collapses heavily onto his back, his front roots having been ripped out of the ground. BioCoatlmon and BioStegomon advance on his prone form while BioThunderBirmon hovers above.

BioThunderBirmon: “C’mon! Any last words?”

He cackles some more, as if callously murdering this wise old man and the young children who live with him is the most fun thing he’s done in ages, and oh my god he is the worst cruellest evilest asshole, these bastards need to Stop—

—and Masaru, Yoshino and Tohma can’t take it any more.

Masaru, Yoshino & Tohma: “STOP IT!”

At this outburst of desperate emotion as the trio can no longer stand to helplessly watch these murderers, their bodies flare up in Digisoul. A moment later, they’re staring at their Digivices, confused, like they don’t know where this came from and didn’t trigger it consciously. The Digisoul flies out from each of their Digivices to cloak their partners, and the three Perfect-levels stand up, almost like they’re being puppeteered by some outside force.

Masaru looks up at RiseGreymon, still unsure what’s happening. The overwhelming emotion the three of them felt a moment ago is gone, given way to their confusion, but that doesn’t matter.

Three larger silhouettes appear behind RiseGreymon, MachGaogamon and Lilamon and fire off attacks at the Bio-Hybrids. These are their Ultimate-level forms, using the signature attacks they’ll be using all the time once they reach that level properly.

Each of the Digivices cracks as the respective attack is fired off. The trio managed to temporarily activate their partners’ Ultimate forms… sort of, but in such a raw, uncontrolled way that their Digivices couldn’t handle the strain, and now they’re sparking, broken and useless.

As the smoke clears from the massive attacks, the injured Bio-Hybrids emerge, having been defeated and reverted to their human forms. Evolution levels! Even one Ultimate-level attack is strong enough to beat these Perfect-levels, who were modified to be stronger than regular Perfects and all.

Kouki:  “Huh?! I didn’t hear of this!”

Kouki is, as you’d expect, furious. What do you mean there exists some power greater than his, Kurata was supposed to have made him into the strongest.

(Clearly Kurata didn’t tell these guys about evolution levels.)

Kouki:  “You’re dead for sure next time!”

As they retreat for now through a space-time bomb Digital Gate, Kouki makes sure to get one last word in, stubbornly refusing to accept defeat. He’s still just a little bit like Masaru, even as his monumental assholeishness means he is also really, really not.

The Bio-Hybrids got away, still with no word on where to find Kurata, but at least Jureimon and his injured and baby Digimon friends are safe. None of the Digimon sheltering in this clearing were killed after all, despite how things were looking for a bit there. All Jureimon can do now is create another wall with his roots and summon more fog, hoping to hide and protect the Digimon here until they (and himself) can heal.

Jureimon:  “The future of the Digital World… I will entrust to you humans. For that is Mercurimon’s will…”

The Savers Main Theme plays over this, giving a sense of grandness to Jureimon’s words. Our heroes really are the main line of defence in protecting an entire world here. No pressure.

Masaru:  “Agumon… If you had that power to begin with, you should have used it! Don’t be stingy!”

Agumon:  “No, that was your power, Aniki! Your Digisoul made me stronger!”

Agumon saying this isn’t just because he looks up to his aniki so much; he’s right that that’s where the extra power came from. I am amused by Masaru’s straightforwardness of assuming it’s totally just something Agumon could have used all along, right.

Masaru realises that this is what BanchouLeomon was getting at when he said the power lies within them. BanchouLeomon’s appearance in the first half of this episode might feel kinda unrelated to the whole big fight to protect Jureimon, but it had some thematic relevance, at least.

Yoshino asks what they’re going to do with their broken Digivices. Gaomon and Tohma respond by suggesting that they broke because they couldn’t handle the power of the Ultimate level that everyone just tapped into.

Yoshino:  “They couldn’t handle it… is not what I’m asking! Now that we can’t use our Digivices, we can’t make our Digimon evolve! How are we going to fight from now on?”

Yoshino continues to be the best most competent member of this team, always focusing on the most important concerns! Tohma speculated on why they broke, because he’s analytical and interested in the theory like that, but Yoshino does not give a damn about why next to the far more immediate and pressing problem of how do we fight when we can’t evolve. None of the others thought to ask this. She is the best. They would be lost without her.

Masaru:  “That’s right! If we had Dad…!”

Yoshino:  “Professor Daimon?”

Masaru:  “Dad made these Digivices! I’m sure he can fix them!”

I love how, for once, Masaru is the first one to think of the solution, because it involves his dad. There’s no way it’d have ever crossed his mind that they know of a guy who might be able to fix these if it was anyone else in the world.

Tohma:  “But Professor Daimon has been missing in the Digital World for ten years!”

Masaru:  “So we’ll find him! Dad’s definitely alive somewhere! Just you wait, Dad!”

Oh, Masaru. He is so very insistent that his dad is totally alive and they can definitely find him easily if they just start looking, right. He must be stoked that they’ve happened upon circumstances that give him an excuse to actively go searching for his dad instead of just quietly hoping they’ll come across him at some point while saving the Digital World.

(Little does he know, that’s already happened.)

Overall thoughts

There are parts of this episode that I really like, which I’ll get to in a sec, but my feelings on it as a whole are… kind of lukewarm? I can’t even say what I usually say when I feel this way by calling it a transitional episode, because it’s not, really. It’s just that, when you hear that this arc is going to be the DATS crew in the Digital World stopping Kurata’s genocide, this episode’s plot is pretty much the most generic thing you could imagine that will fulfil that: watching some villages of Digimon get murdered, fighting some waves of Gizmon. (At least this is the only episode in which pretty much exactly that happens, while the rest of this arc’s episodes go in different directions. This won’t get repetitive.)

Of course, there is other stuff that does happen to spice it up. BanchouLeomon’s introduction is very memorably over-the-top and extra, but then… he doesn’t really do much other than talk vaguely about their power and leave, as some not particularly interesting setup for their upcoming evolutions to Ultimate level. It’s fun to imagine Suguru being there in his head for that scene, but that’s not a surface part of the episode. It’s also nice to see Jureimon again, I guess: someone we’ve met before, to give more stakes to the episode’s main fight than just some random nameless Digimon village.

The part I really do enjoy about this episode is that whole fight scene. The key moment of this episode is the trio snapping in desperate emotion and triggering that uncontrolled burst of Ultimate-level power, so the build-up had to sell them having reached that mental state, and it does. I did my best to get that across in my summary narration, though it’s the sort of thing hits a lot better when watching it in the actual episode. Everyone’s fighting so hard but getting so hurt, I love Yoshino being so terrified, and Kouki in particular being The World’s Biggest Asshole is exactly what’s needed to make our trio just not be able to take it any more.

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