#anyway shinegreymon is my pick

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(added the photos because Idk how many people know all the variants)

[commentaryvorg]

Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 40 - The Strongest Group of Knights! The Royal Knights Assemble!

In this episode, the team seeks out Yggdrasil, guided by a reborn Gotsumon who doesn’t remember them. They encounter the Royal Knights and struggle to fight them, but Masaru’s biggest shock is in store when he comes face-to-face with Yggdrasil.

So now that we’ve got through the mostly lacklustre half-clip-show introductory episode for it, it’s time to really properly get into my other favourite arc of this series! I am excite.

The recap’s fairly short – not that it even had that much from last episode to recap. Apparently they didn’t even want to remind us that we spent half of last episode watching a clip show, because Yggdrasil isn’t mentioned.

We continue pretty much exactly where the previous episode left off, with the group at the summit of Mount Fuji having just decided to head to the Digital World. Masaru’s DATS earpiece, which apparently he’d kept in his pocket this entire time (or maybe he picked up a spare one from the hideout?) beeps with an incoming call. It’s Chika and Sayuri, still in the hideout, with Miki and Megumi having helped them get in contact with Masaru. Masaru implicitly fills them in on what he and the others are about to head off and do.

Chika:  “Don’t push yourself too hard.”

Aww, Chika. Someone’s always got to try and tell Masaru not to do that, because you know he’s going to anyway.

Sayuri:  “Try to make it back by dinner time. I’ll be waiting with a heaping helping of fried eggs.”

Aww, Sayuri. Still coping with her worry by cooking all of the food! It’s also quite a thing that she’s saying “by dinner time”. What even is dinner time any more when there’s no day and night because there’s no sun in the sky, and they’re living in a hideout that isn’t their normal home? But Sayuri just wants to try and make everything sound normal and familiar and safe.

Masaru glances up at ShineGreymon as he responds to this, which is amusing. Hopefully our dinosaur friend is not planning on eating any fried eggs while in that form. He’d need a hell of a lot more of them to fill his stomach that way.

Masaru:  “We’ll be sure to come back home.”

I love that Masaru makes a point of saying this. He’s still aware of how Sayuri feels about him disappearing off to the Digital World, given what happened to his dad.

Masaru gives this small smile as he hangs up the call. It’s the kind of expression he only ever makes when thinking about or talking to his family, and it’s adorable.

With the goodbyes said for the only person whose family is in any position to actually do so from here, the four of them and their partners fly up towards the Digital World. Yushima is still with the Norsteins, watching the four bright streaks of light shoot upwards into the sky.

Yushima:  “They’re our only hope left. We’re counting on you, Masaru.”

You’d think he’d want to mention at least Tohma as well, given he’s currently with Tohma’s family, but.

The space between the two worlds is full of huge purple storm clouds, with plenty of lightning and turbulence, just as Tohma was worried about. Yoshino is the first one to get swept off her partner by the winds – which is actually pretty surprising to me, because Rosemon and Ravemon are small enough that their humans are physically holding onto them, whereas Tohma and Masaru are literally just standing on their giant partners’ shoulders without holding anything, so they should really be the first ones to lose their balance.

Not that it matters, because it’s not long before all four of them and their Digimon partners are sent spiralling helplessly down to the Digital World.

Everyone regains consciousness sprawled on a beach, the Digimon having been reverted to Child form from the impact.

Agumon:  “Aniki, I can’t eat any more.”

Agumon mumbles this as he wakes up, because even when he’s knocked out rather than asleep, he still has the best and tastiest dreams.

Tohma confirms that they are indeed in the Digital World by looking at the Earth in the sky, though it’s pretty difficult to see it through all of the huge purple storm clouds.

Yoshino takes a moment to breathe in relief that they made it, and sits herself down on a nearby rock. The rock yelps and twitches. Figuring its probably a Digimon, the group helps to dig it out of the sand, and it’s… Gotsumon. The same Gotsumon from before; his voice is identical.

Everyone is extremely put-out to see him here all of a sudden. Ikuto and Falcomon in particular are very startled. Not surprising, given the number of times he tried to kill Ikuto back then.

Gotsumon:  “Well, I am Gotsumon, but is there a problem?”

Gotsumon doesn’t have a clue why they’re all staring at him like this, though!

Towards my future in the sky!

Just as I felt it

And on that sorta-bombshell, the opening! We sure did just head towards something in the sky, at least.

This second opening has a whole bit with the Royal Knights, which seems appropriate to cover in this episode where they’re properly introduced. It puts some particular focus on Craniummon, whom we’ve already met and seen is important, and also Dukemon, who’ll have a bit more of a significant role than most of the others.

Masaru:  “Damn it, you were alive?!”

Back to Gotsumon, Masaru as ever is getting right to the point, physically grabbing him to interrogate him about how the hell he’s here.

Tohma points out that it’s possible Gotsumon’s completely different now. Agumon and Lalamon are Unconvinced.

Gotsumon:  “It seems… It seems as if you are all angry at me, but that must be my imagination, right? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Agumon:  “He’s the same.”

Lalamon:  “Definitely the same.”

Agumon and Lalamon seem to be getting at the idea that his supposed pretending he’s done nothing wrong when he knows full well that he has is classic Gotsumon. That’s not actually what’s happening – but what is very much the same as the Gotsumon we knew is his simperingly polite tone (harder to get across as well in the subs, but it’s there in Japanese and very familiar, trust me). He is still basically the same person he was before.

Tohma reminds everyone that Gotsumon was reverted to a Digiegg and reborn, meaning he shouldn’t remember everyone any more. Indeed, it doesn’t seem like he does! Just like BanchouLeomon said, Digimon who are reverted to eggs are supposed to lose all their memories of their previous life. Agumon was an exception, only because of the strength of his bond with a human partner, but what’s happened to Gotsumon is the norm.

Gotsumon:  “I’m so grateful that you’ve helped me! You’ve saved my life! Thank you! Thank you very much!”

Gotsumon gives this heartfelt thanks while enthusiastically shaking Falcomon and then Ikuto’s hands. The two of them are extremely awkward at suddenly being treated this way by a person who in a previous life repeatedly tried to kill them.

If you remove his memories of a lifetime of bigotry and prejudice towards humans, suddenly Gotsumon’s actually not that bad.

Gaomon:  “His personality does appear to have changed…”

It’s really not so much his personality; like I’ve said, that’s pretty similar to before. It’s just his attitude towards humans that’s been completely reset.

Yoshino:  “But when he acts like that, it actually makes it harder to trust him…”

I don’t blame Yoshino for feeling weird and suspicious about this, though. Even if you know intellectually that he doesn’t remember anything at all from before, seeing someone who was previously so hostile towards you acting all nice and friendly must be weird and raise all kinds of instinctive suspicions.

Masaru asks Gotsumon why he was buried in the sand, and he’s happy to explain.

Gotsumon:  “I felt strangely uneasy about something this morning, so I came here to check out the scenery.”

I don’t know, Gotsumon, could it possibly have been the fact that the human world is falling from the sky? Just maybe that. Or even if you couldn’t see that, the huge purple storm clouds that are covering the entire sky are also a pretty big sign that something’s up.

(I guess maybe what he’s getting at is that he usually lives in the forest and couldn’t actually see any of that going on in the sky through the tree canopies, hence why he came here to get a better look?)

It’s as Gotsumon was at the beach that something huge fell from the sky and landed on him, burying him in the sand.

Masaru:  “I see… Well, that’s harsh.”

Agumon:  “It’s a good thing you weren’t injured!”

Masaru:  “You’ve got that right!”

[the two of them laugh awkwardly with Gotsumon]

Either these two are being oblivious dorks, or they know full well that the large thing that landed on Gotsumon was probably ShineGreymon and are awkwardly trying to play dumb about it.

Tohma:  “That large Digimon who fell out of the sky was most likely…”

Lalamon:  “ShineGreymon.”

Yoshino:  “Yup.”

Gaomon:  “Let’s just leave the ignorant to their laughing.”

I mean, there’s about a 50/50 chance it was actually MirageGaogamon, so don’t be so quick to poke fun at Masaru there, Tohma and Gaomon. (It was in fact ShineGreymon, we see him in Gotsumon’s flashback, but these guys don’t know that for sure.)

Agumon:  “Anyway, Aniki! We need to find Ykkrajil, quick!”

Yes, Agumon, Ykkrajil. He’s such a kid. What are these weird complicated words.

Ikuto and Falcomon, the Digital World natives, have heard of Yggdrasil but have no idea where to find it. Luckily, though, it just so happens that Gotsumon does, so he offers to take them to it! That’s… rather convenient that a Digimon who must have been born only fairly recently happens to know this thing that it seems most Digital World residents don’t, but you know what? I’m not complaining, because it means that we can get on with the plot immediately instead of spending several episodes aimlessly wandering around.

(Or, the writers could have had our guide to finding Yggdrasil be someone where it makes more sense that they know where it is, but I also find it neat that we get to see Gotsumon again here and have an actual example of how Digimon losing their memories when they’re reborn works.)

At Gotsumon’s offer to help, the group retreats into a huddle to confer amongst themselves.

Yoshino:  “It’s a trap. It has to be!”

Gaomon:  “Master, this smells dangerous.”

Tohma:  “He certainly isn’t the most trustworthy guy I know.”

The most rational members of the group definitely aren’t falling over themselves to trust him. (I love how Gaomon says it “smells” dangerous, again, did you know he is Dog.)

Ikuto:  “I think it’s okay to trust him.”

Masaru:  “Ikuto!”

Ikuto:  “Gotsumon is reborn. He doesn’t even remember me. He’s different from before.”

It’s really neat that Ikuto of all people is the first one to decide to trust him. Not only is he used to the concept of Digimon being reborn and completely forgetting their old lives, he also interacted the most with Gotsumon’s barely-suppressed bigotry and hostility towards him in his past life, and he can clearly tell that that’s not there any more. Ikuto is good. Look at him not holding a grudge, not against the new Gotsumon who doesn’t deserve to be blamed for things he doesn’t even remember doing.

Masaru:  “I’ll trust him, too.”

Yoshino:  “Why?”

Masaru:  “C’mon, remember that old saying? ‘If you don’t go in the butt, you won’t get the tiger cub.’”

[long, awkward pause]

Yoshino:  “It’s not ‘the butt’.”

Tohma:  “It’s ‘the tiger’s den’.”

(The subbers’ notes explain that this is a Japanese idiom that’s the equivalent of “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. The words “butt” and “den” are only one consonant apart in Japanese, so it’s reasonable for Masaru to get them muddled up.)

I love this. It’s so Masaru for him to have misheard that idiom once when he was younger and then just ran with it and assumed that was how it really went. Maybe he was young enough to figure it made a certain kind of sense, in that baby tigers come out of the mother’s butt, right, and then never re-evaluated this when he learned where babies actually come from? It’s the exact kind of thing this dork might do.

Also, idiom mangling aside, it’s very Masaru for him to decide to trust Gotsumon simply because they won’t get anywhere if they don’t. Always gotta move forward, even if there’s a risk.

It seems like Masaru and Ikuto’s votes are enough to sway the others to agree, so the next thing we see, they’re making their way along a narrow cliffside towards wherever Yggdrasil is.

Yoshino:  “Don’t you think it’d be faster if we evolved?”

Oh my god, it’s a miracle, somebody is actually suggesting evolving for the sake of transport, the world must be ending. (Oh, wait.)

Unfortunately for their convenience, Tohma points out that the sky’s grown even more turbulent than it was before and flying wouldn’t be safe, hence why they have to make their way there on foot. But I do still really appreciate that the writers finally actually addressed this option and gave a reason for why they aren’t doing it! This time, at least. It does not excuse literally every other time.

Back in the human world, the roads and train stations are absolutely packed with people trying to evacuate and get to shelters, at the government’s urging. Sayuri and Chika, however, have returned to their home.

Chika:  “Hey, Mom. Shouldn’t we evacuate?”

Sayuri:  “Why?”

Chika:  “Because we’re the only ones who are staying behind.”

Sayuri:  “It’ll be the same no matter where we run.”

I like Sayuri’s approach to this. Unlike the general public, she knows enough about what the crisis is that she’s perfectly aware that if the worlds do collide, they won’t be any safer in a shelter. The government’s only telling everybody else that to try and make them feel safe. Knowing that, if the end does come, Sayuri would much rather face it in her own home.

Sayuri:  “Besides… Masaru and the others will be sad if they don’t find us here when they come back.”

Aww. She did say he should be back by dinner time, and this way that can feel a little more normal! She’s trying so hard to keep her family together and happy in whatever small ways she can, even at a time like this.

Chika accepts this and happily starts munching on some of the rice balls her mom’s just made for her. As her daughter does so, Sayuri looks behind her at the family photo – of all four of them, back when Suguru was around.

Sayuri:  (Dearest… If something dangerous ever happened to Masaru… you will come and save him, right?)

Aww, Sayuri. How many times must she have coped with her worry about Masaru heading off into danger in the Digital World by telling herself that surely Suguru will somehow swoop in and save him if it ever comes to that.

(And yet it’s definitely not a coincidence that the narrative is showing her doing this for the first time in this episode out of all of them. Foreshadowing. Hee.)

Back in the Digital World, we’ve skipped the rest of what may have been a very long and boring travel time (don’t you love how Savers always just gets right on with the plot), and the group has arrived near Yggdrasil’s giant tree.

Gotsumon:  “That is the World Tree which supports the Digital World.”

That’s an interesting implication that the Digital World needs this tree, because, as we’ll learn in a later episode, it actually wasn’t always there. I guess this is some sort of legend that started up after the tree became a thing. Perhaps it’s considered to be that because Yggdrasil supports the Digital World, and it currently lives in that tree.

Gotsumon:  “No-one has ever seen what Yggdrasil really looks like, but it’s quite likely that he’s predicted this unprecedented crisis.”

Oh, it sure did. Predicted it so hard that it sat back and let it happen, even.

Masaru:  “My dad must’ve climbed that tree…”

Hee, I love how Masaru’s instantly thinking about that. For all he knows, his dad never actually found Yggdrasil at all! But no, obviously he would have managed to achieve his goal, and obviously Masaru’s following in his footsteps now.

Before they can approach the tree, Craniummon appears dramatically in front of the group in a huge whirlwind, refusing to let them pass.

Craniummon:  “I, Craniummon, shall eliminate all who dare to approach Yggdrasil.”

Masaru:  “What?” [he steps forward] “We just came here to see Yggdrasil. At least let us talk to him!”

Love how straightforward Masaru always is, refusing to be deterred by Craniummon’s lofty pompous attitude about this. Come on, just let them talk to the guy, it can’t be that unreasonable a thing to ask.

Something suddenly slams into Masaru, throwing him back across the ground. Craniummon didn’t appear to move an inch, but it was him, doing that moving-too-fast-to-see thing.

Craniummon:  “I believe I told you not to come closer. The next time you do, I will slice out your heart.”

Yikes, Craniummon. Taking this guarding-Yggdrasil thing very seriously, I see.

As the rest of the group marvels at how invisibly fast Craniummon struck, Masaru gets up, one hand over his chest.

Masaru:  “You’ll slice my heart out, eh? Bring it on! I’ll force you to let us pass!”

Oh, Masaru. He rushes forwards and is slammed backwards by something invisible again, but this time he manages to right himself mid-sprawl and land safely in a crouch. His heart doesn’t appear to have been sliced out at all. He looks up, grinning, and raises a fist glowing with Digisoul.

Tohma:  “You were able to see Craniummon’s attack?”

Masaru:  “No way. I just punched the air in front of where my heart was!”

I love Masaru’s approach to this! So straightforward and risky, and yet he knew he’d be able to block the attack if he did it this way! We get a brief flashback shot to the moment of the impact, just slightly slowed-down enough that we can see Masaru punch at the slicing energy that was shooting towards him, but we still don’t actually see Craniummon move.

This is how you show someone using this kind of tactic to hit an enemy that moves so fast they can’t be seen! Take notes, episode 23. This is the same tactic Masaru used there, but this time it’s actually depicted well.

With that, as everyone decides to fight to get past, it’s evolution time, for all four of them and not just Masaru, so time to stand up and get a drink or something.

As the four Ultimate-levels stand before Craniummon, Gotsumon has a good view of ShineGreymon’s back and suddenly realises that this is the Digimon who fell on him earlier. He is not happy about it.

Yoshino:  “I-It was an accident! An accident!”

Tohma:  “She’s right! We didn’t do it on purpose!”

Gotsumon:  “No! That was unforgivable! I won’t forgive you for it!”

Also a very Gotsumon trait: being very petty and insisting on holding grudges about something like this, even after they helped him out of the sand afterwards and even when they’re telling him it was an accident.

Masaru:  “Gotsumon! We came all this way trusting your word! That’s why you should believe us, too! That’s what a man does!”

The writers mostly make comedy out of this by having Masaru’s last sentence accompanied by an overly-dramatic close-up shot, but even so, this is some legit Masaru manliness here! They trusted him (despite some compelling reasons not to on their end), so he should trust them, obviously!

As Masaru keeps glaring dramatically at him, Gotsumon is cowed into deciding to believe them. It kind of comes across less like Gotsumon relented because he bought into Masaru’s manly argument, and more just that he was intimidated into it. But maybe that’s kind of necessary, for someone like Gotsumon. He may have lost the bigotry, but he still has that pettiness to him that makes him not very compatible with Masaru’s principles.

Yoshino:  “It looks like we were able to convince him in a really confusing way!”

Tohma:  “Even with my intelligence, I can’t tell how that happened!”

Yoshino and Tohma’s comments are continuing the comedic vibe, though they don’t quite land right for me. Tohma’s “even with my intelligence” is a particularly awkward phrasing, especially given that he already knows full well that Masaru’s approaches rarely make sense to him and yet often work.

Anyway, comedy over, mostly, Craniummon starts off the fight by firing a blast at Gotsumon. ShineGreymon has to dive in the way of it to protect him.

Masaru:  “You bastard! Gotsumon just brought us here!”

I love how Not Happy Masaru is at Craniummon taking such an approach. The four of them and their partners have expressed their willingness to fight by evolving, so they’re fair targets, but Gotsumon is an innocent bystander who doesn’t want to fight. Nobody should attack somebody like that; that’s not what a man does!

Craniummon:  “My duty… is to get rid of all who dare to approach Yggdrasil. Those who assist you must also be eliminated.”

Geez, Craniummon. That’s a bit much in and of itself, but it’s especially a bit much that you made a point of attacking Gotsumon first. Ravemon and MirageGaogamon agree that this is super uncalled for.

Masaru:  “Damn it! ShineGreymon, go and…!”

[Gotsumon steps forward and points at ShineGreymon]

Gotsumon:  “Go and beat him up! Now go! Do it!”

Seeing a little bit more of the old Gotsumon we knew here. He always did like bossing around bigger and stronger Digimon, didn’t he? Apparently he has an instinct to be the one to do that, even when it’s completely unnecessary, because Masaru was already going to ask ShineGreymon to attack and has a lot more right to be the one to tell him what to do.

Not that ShineGreymon really cares who’s telling him to do it; he’s quite happy to charge at Craniummon. Craniummon easily deflects his and MirageGaogamon’s attacks with his whirlwind, then catches Rosemon’s whip between his fingers and flings her into Ravemon.

Masaru:  “Don’t give up! We defeated Belphemon, so we can’t lose to a guy like him!”

Oh, Masaru. I do like him reminding them of the incredible against-the-odds victory they’ve already managed to pull off.

Masaru activates the GeoGrey Sword, which is actually the first time we’ve seen it since its debut in episode 33. I suspect that most of the reason the writers decided to give ShineGreymon this fancy sword is because of the Royal Knights he’s going to be fighting in this arc, a lot of whom also have their own weapons.

Indeed, Craniummon responds to this by summoning his own double-ended spear, Claiomh Solais… man I’m probably never going to actually call it by that name again, that is hard to spell and also contains an accent on the first “I” that I can’t be bothered to figure out how to input on my English keyboard. It’s a thing from Irish mythology or something, I think. Big fancy weapon, is the point.

Craniummon:  “We Royal Knights, who protect Yggdrasil, are the ones who are closest to God! Opposing the likes of us… is the same foolish act as challenging divine authority!”

That sure is some Royal Knight pompousness there. It seems Craniummon – and almost certainly the other Knights too, we will be seeing a lot of them acting similarly – tells himself that Yggdrasil is totally always right, because it’s a god, and therefore he is also totally always right if he does what Yggdrasil tells him to do. Sure makes things easy for you, Craniummon. Easier than thinking about whether you actually agree about billions of humans being wiped out.

He gives this line as his and ShineGreymon’s weapons clash, and ends it by flinging the GeoGrey Sword out of ShineGreymon’s grip. Which kinda goes to show how overhyped the GeoGrey Sword is by the narrative, really. It’s literally just a big sword – and funnily enough, against opponents who have much more experience using similar kinds of weapons, ShineGreymon doesn’t get any meaningful advantage from it at all!

Craniummon summons a huge whirlwind attack, flinging the Ultimate-levels helplessly into the air and back down to the ground (while, amusingly, the humans and Gotsumon have to avoid getting sucked in too by clinging to some nearby trees).

Craniummon: “Come, my next attack shall sever you from any lingering attachments you have to this world!”

Wow, Craniummon, that sure is one way to dance ridiculously around saying you’re going to kill them.

He raises his spear to thrust it towards ShineGreymon, who’s lying prone and helpless on his back. Something stops it before it can stab through him. ShineGreymon opens his eyes to see…

…Masaru punched the spear. In the pointy end. And it worked.

Which, to be fair, is almost certainly because his body is cloaked in Digisoul right now. We’ve seen a fair few times now that Digisoul is more than just a power that can pass onto Digimon to evolve them. It can make Masaru’s (or Suguru’s) attacks more powerful and have other very tangible, physical effects, such as what BanchouLeomon did to keep the two worlds apart. Why shouldn’t it also be able to act as some kind of shield?

Still, credit to Masaru for the fact that he didn’t necessarily know that when he decided to do this. He just wanted to protect his partner in the most straightforwardly gutsy way possible, and went for it, and it paid off. Masaru is so good.

Craniummon: “You…”

Craniummon’s eyes widen as he stares at this tiny human showing such ridiculous tenacity towards someone as important and godly as himself.

Masaru:  “What’s this crap about the Royal Knights?! What’s this crap about God?! Two worlds are about to be destroyed, and just what the hell is your God doing?!”

You frickin’ tell him, Masaru! I love that he can call this out for the bullshit it is. Who cares about all this pompous posturing about gods when people are going to die?

Craniummon: “What?”

Masaru:  “Someone who doesn’t even bother to save the world… shouldn’t… shouldn’t call himself a god!”

EXACTLY! I love this speech of Masaru’s so much. It draws from his strong sense of responsibility – if someone’s going to call themselves the god of a world, that means they have a responsibility to protect all the people in it to the best of their ability. Sure doesn’t seem like Yggdrasil gives a damn about doing any of that!

(Well, unbeknownst to Masaru for now, apparently, on the surface of things based on what we saw last episode, it seems like Yggdrasil is at least trying to protect its Digital World by destroying the human world. But, ha ha.)

Masaru gave this whole speech while still furiously blocking the spear with his fist and his Digisoul, and at the final words of it, he thrusts his fist upwards and pushes the spear away, sending Craniummon toppling onto his back. Everybody else gapes in amazement that he managed to do that. Do not underestimate the power of Masaru’s sheer determination and fierce sense of right and wrong.

ShineGreymon: “Aniki, that’s amazing!”

Masaru:  “C’mon! Show ‘em what you’ve got!”

ShineGreymon is still always so in awe of his aniki and the awesome things he can pull off, I love it. Inspired by this, he gets to his feet, blazing with power, and Masaru, probably also coasting off the fierce emotion of the speech he just gave, activates his Burst Mode.

For the record, this is not evolution padding. Yes, Masaru didn’t evolve ShineGreymon to his absolute highest form right away at the beginning of the fight – but we are never going to see anybody go straight to Burst Mode from Child-level. So evidently that’s not how Burst Mode works, because it’s different from a regular evolution level. It seems like a Digimon and their partner need to fight for a while at Ultimate level before they can build up enough fighting spirit to be able to achieve that extra Burst Mode boost.

ShineGreymon Burst Mode flies at Craniummon, clashing against his spear, but the moment only lasts a short time before another glowing figure shoots out of the sky towards the battlefield, knocking ShineGreymon down. It’s another Royal Knight, Dukemon, who seems unimpressed by Craniummon having so much trouble dealing with these intruders.

(Dukemon has the same Japanese voice that the Dukemon in Digimon Tamers did. It’s an amusing reminder, for anyone who’s seen Tamers in Japanese, that this armoured humanoid dude actually used to be an adorable dinosaur friend once upon a time. Oh, Digimon and their obligatory humanoid evolutions. Tamers had a reason for it, but here Dukemon’s a humanoid knight because he just is, how else would he be able to be one of the Royal Knights, right?)

More glowing figures arrive on the battlefield, revealing (most of) the rest of the Royal Knights. Gotsumon stammers out their names as he sees each of them, but I’m not going to bother giving them here, because most of these guys won’t actually matter much to the narrative. Gotsumon seems particularly intimidated by one called Omegamon, who is in fact supposed to be the leader of the Royal Knights, but this also does not matter one bit for the purposes of Savers. I’m not sure Omegamon even gets any lines. (Edit from later: okay, he gets like a couple of lines in one episode, that’s it, but it’s very telling that I forgot that fact.)

Digimon Analyser: “Each of them fight for their own personal justice.”

Which is kind of a weird thing for them to do, when their whole thing is supposed to be mindlessly obeying Yggdrasil’s orders, as we’ve seen with Craniummon. They shouldn’t have much room to have their own individual feelings and principles about anything this way. This is probably a remnant of an idea that’s lot more relevant in other media featuring the Royal Knights.

Masaru:  “Interesting. Let’s take them all on, ShineGreymon!”

Oh, Masaru. There’s like… nine of them? here, and he had enough trouble with just the one. But of course he’s just seeing this as a challenge.

(Okay, seven, apparently, I had to count. That’s how little most of them matter. I very much appreciate that this is not one of those Groups Of Villains in Digimon where we obligatorily have to defeat all of them in individual episodes before getting on with the main plot. Man that’d be tedious.)

Before ShineGreymon can actually start any attempt to take them on, though, Dukemon raises his lance and launches a huge blast of energy that turns the entire surroundings blinding white, knocking the whole DATS group and their Digimon out.

The next thing we see is a flashback to Masaru’s childhood! We haven’t seen one of those from him until now, have we? There might just be a very good reason why this is suddenly changing.

Little Masaru: “No! I want to take him with me!”

Tiny four-year-old Masaru is holding a frog that he found out in the wilderness somewhere, insisting to his dad that he wants to take it home as a pet. That’s adorable. Remember how Masaru seemed low-key upset at the school pets being killed in episode 2? Turns out he’s actually got a soft spot for animals!

And, of course, remember him calling Agumon a frog both times he first encountered him? (“Both” as in counting the memory wipe episode as a “first time”.) Masaru actually did end up bringing a big orange fire-breathing frog home with him, in the end! Perhaps that’s part of why he insisted on thinking of Agumon that way, despite all appearances to the contrary. What an adorable dork.

Suguru:  “Masaru. That frog has a family, too.”

Little Masaru:  “A family?”

Suguru:  “Yeah. The mommy frog has dinner made and is waiting for him to come back.”

I love that this is the angle Suguru takes to explain to his son why taking a wild animal out of its habitat is wrong. It’s got a family! You should always respect other people’s families and how important they are to them, no matter what species.

Masaru doesn’t have that many distinct memories of the times when his dad was still around (he was four), so it’s very meaningful that this one – in which his dad taught him the importance of respecting people’s families – is one that managed to stick with him.

At these words from his dad, little Masaru understands that he needs to let the frog go, and he happily waves goodbye to it as it hops off.

Suguru:  “You did great. That’s what a man should do!”

Of course Suguru finishes up with this. Respecting other people’s families is part of his concept of manliness! He was already teaching his son how to be a Man (which is not about gender but about being a decent and honourable person), even when Masaru was this little.

Look at him he’s so smol and so good and so happy to be making his dad proud, it’s adorable.

Masaru:  “Dad…”

Masaru in the present regains consciousness mumbling his dad’s name, probably without having really meant to. How often do you want to bet he has dreams about some of the few memories he still has of his dad. Very often, no doubt.

He opens his eyes to see his comrades sprawled around him, hurt and barely conscious just like him after Dukemon’s attack, the Digimon devolved. Further around them, the scene’s suddenly taken on an atmosphere of ominous gravity; the Royal Knights are lined up in two rows, bowing deeply, as a human-seeming figure in a cloak walks between them towards the group.

Masaru:  “Damn it… They’re planning to finish us off… I won’t… let that happen… This fight… isn’t over yet…”

Masaru doesn’t quite seem to register what this might mean. He struggles to focus on the approaching figure, seeing them as nothing but another enemy, here to finish off him and his friends. Of course he can’t let that happen. Of course he can’t just give up like this.

He forces himself painfully to his feet and rushes at the figure, throwing a punch at their face. His fist ends up sailing harmlessly past just inches to the side – at the last second, Masaru must have noticed whose face it was and frantically redirected his fist to miss on purpose.

The gust from the missed punch blows the figure’s hood back, revealing the face of Suguru Daimon. Masaru’s eyes widen in shock as he stumbles to a halt and turns around to stare at him.

This is the first time Masaru’s seen his father in anything but a photograph in ten whole years.

(At this moment, the BGM piece called I’M JUST FIGHTER starts up. This scene is the single biggest reason I really love that piece.)

“Suguru” turns back to look at him with a completely cold, impassive expression, no hint of recognition or happiness at seeing his son again.

Masaru:  “Dad… Is that you, Dad…?”

Masaru is Staring, hardly able to believe this is really happening: his dad, here again right in front of him after all this time. He doesn’t even seem to be properly registering the lack of reaction he’s getting, not yet. He’s too stuck on his dad is actually here.

Masaru:  “Don’t scare us like that. Why didn’t you contact us or something if you were safe?”

I love that this is something that immediately comes to mind, seeing his dad here and apparently… fine? He must have told himself for all this time (and especially since learning where his dad really disappeared to) that the only reason he didn’t contact them must’ve been because he couldn’t somehow. And yet it looks like… he probably could have, but he just… didn’t? Why on earth not?

Masaru:  “C’mon, let’s go home. Mom and Chika are waiting.”

I adore how Masaru’s got so caught up in the moment of finding his dad at last that he’s completely forgotten what they’re supposed to be doing right now. They kind of have a god to talk to and an apocalypse to stop, but literally none of that matters to Masaru in this moment. His dad’s here; that means he needs to bring him home and they can finally have their family back together at last, like they’ve always dreamed of. Nothing else is even remotely as important as that.

He says this while raising his hands forwards and stepping towards his dad, perhaps vaguely hoping for some kind of hug or something. “Suguru” just keeps giving him that impassive look, and slaps one hand away.

Masaru stares some more, probably beginning to realise there’s something very wrong about this. He must have imagined a thousand different ways his reunion with his dad might go when he definitely eventually found him again in the Digital World, and this was not any of them.

Dukemon:  “Insolent fellow! Do you have any idea who you’re speaking to?”

Masaru:  “Who I’m speaking to…? This is my…”

Dukemon:  “This person is our God, Yggdrasil!”

I love the sort of lost, automatic way Masaru mumbles an answer to Dukemon’s question without thinking. He never even stopped to consider the context of what’s going on and the fact that the Royal Knights were all bowing to this figure. It’s his dad, of course, why even ask, what other possible answer could there be…?

Except apparently, his dad’s also a god.

Masaru:  “Dad is… the Digital World’s God…?”

This shot here, as Masaru tries to process this, is so good. It does a perfect job at getting across just how huge and momentous and all-encompassing Masaru’s father is and has always been to him. His dad is the biggest most important person in the whole wide world, so upon hearing that he’s literally a god, some part of Masaru’s mind just kinda goes, yeah, that makes sense? it’s his dad, after all.

(Remember that Masaru last saw his dad when he was four. Thanks to his absence, that way that a four-year-old kid would look up to their parent as the greatest most powerful person ever is still how Masaru unconsciously sees his dad today, even now that he’s fourteen. I love Masaru’s dad complex so much.)

Masaru:  “I-I don’t get it, Dad. We came here because we were told to go see Yggdrasil. Explain to me what’s going on here…”

It’s so adorable how, despite how obviously weird and unresponsive “Suguru” is acting, Masaru still instinctively asks him for an explanation to clear up the confusion he’s feeling. It’s his dad, right? He knows the answer to everything; of course he’ll be able to explain things and make it all make sense.

Dukemon informs him that there’s nothing left to talk about; Yggdrasil has already made up its mind to save the Digital World by annihilating the human world. Everyone gapes at this revelation, Masaru especially. “Suguru” stands there impassively, saying nothing to contest it.

Masaru:  “H-He’s lying, right? You can’t destroy the human world… My dad would never say that…”

I love the desperate smile on his face, and the stammer (Masaru hardly ever stammers!) as he tries to tell himself that surely all of that’s just lies, surely his dad would never want to destroy an entire world, that doesn’t make sense, as soon as his dad opens his mouth to say something it’ll all be put back to normal again (right?)

(and yet he’s got to already be afraid this is true, because that look on his dad’s face, and the fact that he hasn’t said anything to question it, and how can this be happening it’s his DAD)

“Suguru”:  “The ones who destroyed the dimensional barrier and are leading the two worlds to their destruction are none other than the humans. There is no worth in keeping the humans alive.”

Masaru’s desperate smile falls away as his dad’s voice cuts him off with an emotionless, callous explanation of exactly why humans deserve to die. No; no explanation from the father he thought he knew is coming. This really is exactly what it looks like.

(Of course, this is Yggdrasil speaking, just the same as it was last episode. It’s only Suguru on a superficial, physical level. But I’m using “Suguru” as the tags for this in these scenes where Masaru is present, because it is vitally important that Masaru 100% believes it really is his dad.)

Masaru:  “Da… Dad…”

Masaru backs away in horror, and there’s this delightful flash of his dad smiling at him from the flashback, like Masaru’s image of his father as the kind and honourable person he thought he was is being utterly shaken to its core right now. I love it.

“Suguru”:  “The human world… will be destroyed.”

I utterly adore how “Suguru”’s decisively ruthless words in the present are immediately followed by the flashback snippet of Suguru smiling at his son, affectionately saying his name while patting him on the head – and then it just shatters, and there’s nothing but a dark swirling void of nothingness behind it.

This is a very deliberate metaphor. Literally everything about who Masaru is has been built off his image of and idolisation of his father as the best most wonderful person ever. Seeing his father like this, casually ordering the genocide of an entire species – his entire species – utterly shatters that image. And without that, Masaru has nothing left that makes him Masaru. It’s all just gone. Empty. The writers knew exactly what they were doing with this shot and I love it so much.

Back in the Daimons’ house on Earth, Sayuri and Chika turn around in surprise. The family photo’s been knocked off its shelf by an earthquake or something, the glass shattered exactly where Suguru’s face is. Sayuri stares at the broken photo in horror, perhaps sensing that this is an omen of something really bad.

(It may be a huge coincidence that this happened with this exact timing and the exact placement of the damaged glass, but I don’t care it’s symbolism I love it)

Masaru stares at his father in broken disbelief for a long moment… and then he just crumples to his knees, utterly defeated.

I love this so so much. This is Masaru Daimon, completely indomitable unstoppable spirit, who’s been unintimidated by literal Demon Lords and who just earlier this episode stopped a huge deadly spear twice, by punching it – but this one man says three sentences to him, and he shatters, simple as that. It’s so impactful. It says so much about how his father is everything to him. This is my single favourite scene in all of Savers.

Something else worth talking about regarding this is: remember the concept I brought up in episode 26 when Masaru nearly didn’t remember Agumon, and in episode 34 when he completely bought into Tohma’s betrayal, both times because he’s so straightforward that he doesn’t know how to look at something beyond surface level? That is extremely relevant here, as well.

Anybody else in this situation, even someone else with an equally powerful dad complex as Masaru’s, would have been able to look at the way their “father” is acting, see him callously declaring that he’ll destroy an entire species, and realise, something’s up with this. Surely the better explanation, rather than that their dad has become a genocidal god, is instead that this isn’t really their dad at all, despite what it looks like. But Masaru is so utterly used to taking everything at face value that this doesn’t even occur to him. He completely buys into the idea that his dad has turned into this monster, despite how much it hurts and how badly he must not want to believe it.

Masaru reacts the way he does to this, again, because he is Masaru and has such a straightforward approach to everything. Nobody else would in quite the same way. (I mentioned that this scene uses I’M JUST FIGHTER, and it’s perfect for it. The music comes to a crescendo and climax right as “Suguru” says those damning words that break Masaru, and it hits just right; I love it.)

And then, because his belief in his dad was nonetheless so strong, that’s why this breaks him so badly, just like when he thought Tohma had betrayed him. The difference between the two situations, of course, being that Masaru can’t even get angry at his dad betraying him, because how could he? It’s his dad! That and all of the mental mechanisms that enable Masaru to get fired up and passionate about things are rooted in his belief in his dad in the first place, so when that shatters, he simply loses the ability to even get angry at all. There’s nothing else he can do but just… shut down entirely.

With Masaru summarily dealt with – he’s very clearly not about to say anything else to question their god – the Royal Knights advance on the others, asking Yggdrasil what to do with them. It orders the Knights to kill them, as they’re useless to it.

The Royal Knights tower over the group, raising their weapons, while Tohma and the others watch in fear, knowing they have no hope of stopping this. Yoshino is hugging Lalamon and trembling – aaaa, Yoshino, she’s still always so scared of all of this!

Agumon:  “Damn it! Aniki! Get a hold of yourself! Aniki!”

Agumon at least is clinging to some of his Aniki’s usual never-say-die spirit, not understanding why Aniki isn’t – but Masaru himself is still broken, utterly unable to function like his follower expects him to. Masaru.exe has encountered a problem and has stopped working. He probably doesn’t even hear Agumon’s words.

His dad is a genocidal god out to kill humanity; how is he supposed to care or even think about literally anything else?

(This is my single favourite shot in Savers. I love it so much. Please give this kid a hug and tell him it’s going to be okay. Also, a bonus detail about it that I enjoy: Masaru’s pendant is almost always angled so we can see the front, but right now all that’s visible is the back.)

Just before the Royal Knights can finish them off, another giant Digimon, Sleipmon, swoops towards them, scooping the humans and their partners up in his hand and flying away with them. People familiar with Royal Knight lore will know that Sleipmon is also a Royal Knight, though the rest of the Knights seem quite surprised to see him doing this.

(You can just about see Masaru there in Sleipmon’s hand, but while most of the others seem to be freaking out about this sudden development, Masaru looks like he’s barely even registering it.)

Dukemon shoots an attack at Sleipmon as he flies up into the sky, which hits him but isn’t enough to kill him or stop him escaping. Craniummon suggests they should pursue him, but Yggdrasil tells them not to bother. Everything will be wiped out anyway; these humans and one rogue Royal Knight don’t matter.

Overall thoughts

This would otherwise be a relatively unremarkable, solidly decent but not outstanding episode, if it weren’t for my single favourite scene in the entire series at the end of it. That inherently pulls my appreciation of the episode as a whole up by several notches, purely because it contains this scene.

The rest of it’s fun enough as episodes go. Having Gotsumon show up reborn is neat, giving us an example of how this normally works; he’s clearly the same person but without the previous lifetime of bigotry making him an asshole. There’s a lot of comedy in this one that’s kinda hit-or-miss for me, but I do like the tiger’s butt line for how dorkily Masaru it is. And I love Masaru’s determination while fighting Craniummon, having the guts and straightforwardness to block his spear twice with his own fist, as well as the delightful “shouldn’t get to call himself a god!” speech.

And then. The best scene.

I just adore how comprehensively it gets across that Masaru’s dad is everything to him. We’ve always known this the whole time, of course, based on the way he acts whenever his dad – or, heck, parents in general – get brought up, to say nothing of where he obviously gets his manliness and determination from. But it’s so, so delightful to finally actually see it in full force. All this stuff I’d been noticing about Masaru’s dad complex this whole time, even on just my first time through? Yes, I’d been reading it right, and it matters, and we’re about to start getting really deep into it all. I love it. Those metaphor shots in particular are just. *chefs kiss* So good. The writers get it. They knew exactly what they were writing when it comes to Masaru.

And, of course, deep analysis aside, it’s also the absolute biggest possible example of Masaru being Not Okay. This is the most Not Okay it is possible for a Masaru to be, literally the one single way it is possible for him to be this. Even his dad turning out to be dead wouldn’t be nearly as bad, because then at least he could still keep believing in the father he remembered. The single best way to break Masaru: show him that his dad’s a monster. Which, thanks to his ridiculously straightforward nature, he won’t even question and will accept at face value.

Also I do love the adorable Little Masaru flashback with the frog, and his dad teaching him about the importance of family. The first of a few Little Masaru flashbacks we’ll be getting in this arc!

---

[Dub comparison]

[jolteonjordansh]

Thoughts on Kurata Arc

We got a doozy, guys. I have no idea how to start this other than oh God. Lots of changes to talk about, lots of characters, and lots of opinions. But in one sentence: Digimon Savers did but also didn’t go in some of the directions I expected it to and I’m kind of blindsided by it. 

Let’s deal with this below the break.

I can’t believe how many risks Digimon Savers took in a single arc that it could have screwed up so easily. I was so ready to get so irritated with this series if they screwed up so many specific and particular things, but they managed to nail it in a way that made things work miraculously.

So there's a second opening in this arc! Digimon has never done a second opening before, but it's a Koji Wada opening! And I'm so torn because both the first opening and this one, Hirari, are super catchy and great. Seriously, I don't think I can pick between the two. But regardless, go listen to Hirari. Any Koji Wada song is worth your time.

Anyway, I'm ready to tear Kurata apart, but let me try to keep some order in this post. I do like how this series goes between the Digital World and Real World, but it's not as convenient as it was in Digimon Adventure 02 and there is some danger to it. This is especially an issue when Kurata destroys the DATS headquarters and the only Digital Gate the cast had there. Thankfully, there is a Digital Gate in the leftover basement of Keenan's parents. Naturally, they're against seeing Keenan go to the Digital World with the rest of the cast after finally seeing him again, but they eventually agree to let him go. Unfortunately like Adventure 02, this show felt the need to do a set of comedy antagonists. While I do think Arukinemon and Mummymon had some merit and humor, Savers' comedy trio... doesn't quite catch my interest.

Kouki, Nanami and Ivan are examples of people Kurata takes advantage of, and I can say I like that much of their characters. Nanami is vain and wanted more in her life and knowledge, and Ivan worked with Kurata to get money for his siblings. But this is about as much depth as they get. Nanami is mostly fanservice with boob jiggle physics, and Ivan is a really annoying comic relief character who wants to bone every girl he sees. There's also Kouki, who basically serves as Marcus' rival in that they both want to punch the shit out of each other, but that's it. There's no reason for him to offer himself for Kurata's research other than he wants to fight things and feel powerful. I guess you could argue this was part of the reason Marcus joined DATS, but he also joined them to be Agumon's partner, so there is some depth for him. I can't help but admit that these three being humans fused with Digimon is actually Frontier done right to an extent. Silly nonetheless, but there's some sick cruelty behind it that characterizes it as part of Kurata's insanity and sadist nature. If not Frontier done better, it certainly feels like a Take That to Digimon Frontier. The trio of dumb does prove to be strong adversaries if anything, supposedly killing Richard as the main cast escapes to the Digital World, but I don't think Richard's dead yet. I just don't think he would die that easily and to such loser characters. Plus, they can't get rid of my adorable Kudamon that Digivolves to this badass!

The main three characters also manage to achieve Mega level almost simultaneously. They have to train with BanchoLeomon who I know is going to die too, and this somehow fixes their Digivices after breaking them from a sudden surge of power in their last fight with the trio of dumb. I do appreciate how Marcus' achievement to Digivolution to Mega with Agumon was done since he fought hard the entire time in BanchoLeomon's dojo, but Thomas and Yoshino's felt sort of sudden. Hell, Yoshino didn't even fight the wooden dolls that BanchoLeomon had. They just made it work. I'm glad they do all achieve Mega level at least, but I will agree what does bother me a little bit is that the development of characters doesn't quite feel balanced. It's not to a point that it ruins any of the characters, but I do feel the lack of balance. You can really feel this for Keenan and Falcomon a bit in this arc, who don't achieve Mega level until the very end of the arc because they leave to do their own things in the Digital World and don't get the same experience as the other three. Even then, their excuse to leave was kind of flimsy at best. But again, not enough to ruin any of these characters for me.

I am glad we get to know the mysterious old man more--Homer Yushima. The main group ends up running into him and he does provide a funny supportive role, and his partner Kamemon is a funny partner with his odd shyness. I would classify him as a badass old man, but he doesn't really do anything really kickass. He's just there to be a cool old guy and be quirky. The supporting cast, in general, is pretty good, like Miki and Megumi actually participating (even if they are mostly back-up) and Marcus' mother and sister. There's a couple of Digimon on the "holy capital", ElDoradimon, but most of them really don't mean or do anything and one of them, Baromon, has about as dumb of a death as Seraphimon's in Frontier. But other than the supporting cast, some big changes happen in the main cast within this arc, and the writers could have totally screwed this up so easily.

In the midst of the Digital World part of this arc, Thomas gets pointed out ways he may be inferior to Marcus or even similar to him but not as good. This starts to set up the potential rival mini-arc, kind of like with Tai and Matt in Digimon Adventure, and this really started to irk me. I did not want to see Digimon Savers copy this plot point of Digimon Adventure, especially since Marcus and Thomas already had their fight in the beginning of the show and generally recovered from it. It definitely comes across this way, especially when Thomas decides to "join forces" with Kurata and fights Marcus for the sake of his surprise younger sister's health. It really frustrated me, but thankfully Digimon Savers somehow managed to land right on its feet and make this whole elaborate plot that shows just how clever Thomas really is, when initially it made him look really stupid.

The whole thing comes across as Thomas letting his emotions take over his intellect, between his supposed "grudge" against Marcus and his love for his younger sister, but no. Kurata is just a really clever asshole who put Thomas in a terrible position by having a bomb on Relena and having Thomas figure it out, so he knows fighting against Kurata would only end up getting Relena hurt. But he also makes his whole non-existent grudge against Marcus all the more convincing. And it's convincing all the way to the very end, down to Thomas creating a faulty device for Kurata to control Belphemon and to agree to Relena's surgery to do a human to Digimon fusion until the very end and utilizing his actual doctor title. It's here we also see Thomas kind of has an asshole dad because he was neglectful of him and his mother, but still loves Relena. It's still a little confusing and I'm hoping we get some depth on that.

This whole "betrayal" also leads to the inevitable Dark Digivolution of the series, which I had honestly forgotten about because I was becoming so immersed into it. It's all triggered by Marcus' anger towards Thomas for seeming to betray him, and the raw anger of his DigiSoul transforms ShineGreymon to his Dark Digivolution, ShineGreymon Ruin Mode. It actually works really well with the whole theme of the soul in Digimon Savers and Marcus' negative emotions are personified really well into ShineGreymon Ruin Mode, who is overcome with so much of Marcus' negative emotions that he just continues to rampage until he will destroy himself. Marcus is thankfully able to stop this... but at the cost of ShineGreymon reducing to an egg once more. This does lead to a good character arc of Marcus having to understand how to control his raw emotions and deal with the despair of losing Agumon--especially since it's speculated that all Digimon who are reduced to DigiEggs lose their memories. Lucky for Marcus, this doesn't happen, but they do a kind of funny fake-out with it that just fits Marcus' relationship with Agumon. Their reunion is honestly pretty emotional, as silly of moments as it has, and it just really solidifies how much more I like Marcus and his Agumon. Also, the way Marcus carries around the egg towards the final fight is weirdly adorable.

And now, I can finally talk about Kurata. Ho. Ly. Fuck. I hate this guy. Everyone hates this guy. He's the actual definition of a douchebag. No, seriously, if you look it up in the dictionary, you'll see his picture there. He's despicable in every way possible. He's a spineless coward. He takes advantage of people's emotions and fears. He's a liar who claims he's out to do one thing like destroy the Digital World for the safety of the Real World (even though that was wrong to begin with), then he decides "Fuck it, let me rule both worlds!". He kills hundreds of Digimon for their life energy, all to revive one of the Seven Great Demon Lords, Belphemon, without a care in the world for Digimon or even people. Seriously, he's despicable in every way and is just an awful human being. Thankfully Thomas was smart enough to sabotage part of this plan, but ironically Kurata tries to force this to work by transforming himself into data and basically fuses with Belphemon to turn him into the destructive beast he wanted to control. This eventually bites him in the ass as Belphemon's consciousness takes over Kurata's... only for Kurata to come back and create this ugly abomination. Thankfully, he does get his just desserts when he gets exactly what I wanted--Marcus and ShineGreymon punching him straight in the fucking face.

During the fight with Belphemon, Falcomon does get to achieve his Mega level--Ravemon, who's honestly a neat looking bird samurai. On that note, I should talk about the other Mega level Digimon. ShineGreymon is a neat take on the Greymon line, and I think I prefer it over WarGreymon. He's definitely not Gallantmon, but pretty neat. MirageGaogamon is probably my favorite of the Mega levels here, having a sort of knight theme to him, maybe mixed with a ninja theme considering how fast he is. As for Rosemon, she's... well, Rosemon. She's about the same as I would say about Rosemon when watching Digimon Adventure tri. I'll give credit that generally they've avoided doing jiggle physics with her (though they did some with Lotusmon, but Evil is Sexy). There's a couple of bits of fanservice like ass shots, but nowhere near as bad as... Ugh... Fairymon. There's also an advanced form called the Burst Mode, and ShineGreymon manages to achieve ShineGreymon Burst Mode, and it looks even better. Again, it's a really awesome design for the Greymon line. I just hope that the other three Megas get Burst Modes too, but I won't be surprised if they don't necessarily.

Still, the final fight in this arc is so freaking satisfying. Again, Kurata getting his punch to the face was something I was clamoring for since the end of the Worlds Conflict arc. It feels like a truly challenging fight with high stakes, and it's probably my favorite fight in Savers so far. While Kurata's fate isn't made clear in the very end, my mind tells me he's either dead or stuck in limbo in space-time. So either way, he suffers. And that's good. Because Kurata sucks. I can say without a doubt in my mind that he's the worst Digimon villain--not from a writing standpoint, but as a human being. He's the cruelest, most manipulative, jerkish villain I've seen in these series. And if the next arc somehow changes that, I'll be shocked.

This arc overall was really good. Once again, Digimon Savers continues the trend of getting better as it goes just like Digimon Tamers. I don't know how it can get better in 10 episodes, but I'm willing to let Digimon Savers try to convince me if they can execute things as well as they did in this arc where they could have screwed up so easily. It looks like with this whole rip in space-time that's colliding the worlds, traveling between the Real World and Digital World might have more freedom? I'm curious to see how it goes.

But before I can close this out and move on to the last arc of Digimon Savers... Surprise! Digimon Savers has a movie! Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!!. This movie isn't canon, and you should only watch it until after this arc because it spoils ShineGreymon Burst Mode. You may be wondering why I don't have a separate final thoughts post on this movie. Well... That's because this movie kind of sucks. In fact, it's probably the worst Digimon movie of them all. Yes, worse than Hurricane Landing!!/Transcendent Evolution!! after all of the hell I've given that movie. Not to mention, this movie is only a mere 20 minutes long. So yeah, it doesn't deserve its own post.

One of the worst parts of this movie is that the human characters are barely even in this movie. There's just Marcus. No Thomas. No Yoshino. Not even any Keenan or even Falcomon. The movie just focuses on the three main Digimon--Agumon, Gaomon and Lalamon. But even then, Gaomon seems kind of out of character as apparently the humans are trapped in these weird cocoons, but he tells Agumon to give up hope on them ever waking up. Seriously Gaomon? Aren't you the loyal one in this group? Why would you not have faith in Thomas or even try to help him? It just comes off as really out of character.

But then the movie spends five minutes--a quarter of its runtime--on a really clumsy fight scene that doesn't do anything for the "plot" as the three Digimon try to save this little girl. But she's not a little girl! She's actually a Digimon named... Rhythm, and not something like Rhythmmon? Yeah, okay, I get it Digimon. You wanted your loli bait for the movie. Fine. Do whatever Japan. You're just trying to beat around the bush with the "B-B-But she's actually a Digimon!!!!!" excuse like with Fairymon, but whatever. They don't do anything fanservice-y with her at least, but the problem with Rhythm is she’s just... really boring. With the 20 minutes this movie has, they do nothing to really give her a character or give us a reason to care for her other than she got in trouble and the Digimon want to help her. She's just being chased by the Digimon in charge of all of the destruction in this movie, Argomon, for... reasons. They don't really explain. But Argomon's motives to dominate the world is... he's mad at humans for destroying the environment. Oh come the fuck on! A freaking environmental message!? Even the Pokémon Shaymin movie wasn't this transparent about the message! The West always sucked with environmental movies like Ferngully and Once Upon a Forest! Why are you trying this in 2006!?

So yes, this is a dumb movie with a dumb premise, dumb plot, and does nothing interesting. The Digimon are basically just running away constantly being unable to Digivolve due to not having their human partners, making it really boring until Marcus comes in last minute and Digivolves Agumon to ShineGreymon Burst Mode, but that's it. Even main antagonist Argomon is boring because his designs are very reminiscent of Diablomon and he lacks any originality. It's just a bland waste of time. Honestly, this movie has just two redeeming factors.

One is the animation. It's really, really good. Nothing quite as revolutionary and timeless as Our War Game!, but it's still really nice to look at. The fight scenes look great and there's some really fluid animation with nice shading. But what sucks is that it was wasted on this movie and not something better. There aren't any Digivolution animations (though I'm glad they didn't do the shitty cropping from Runaway Locomon), but I gotta say that ShineGreymon and the effects on him just look awesome. I really loved looking at it. But again, it's just a shame this budget was wasted on this. I wish they had just done a special episode with this, but even this movie is basically just a bad episode of the show. It's just bland and a waste of time. The other redeeming factor, which is related to animation, is that this movie has bloopers in the credits oddly enough. It's silly, but it's funny and I like it. I don't see a lot of 2D animated films do bloopers so I can appreciate Digimon doing something fun and lighthearted here. I just wish I didn't find the bloopers better than this whole 20 minute movie. It's just a waste of time, and I can't recommend watching it unless you really like Digimon and want to see some pretty animation.

So yeah, the Kurata arc was great. The Digimon Savers movie sucked. But despite that, I really hope to see that the final arc of Digimon Savers is great and that it makes watching this show all the more worth it. Ten episodes left, let's see how much they can do in that time.