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Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 48 - The Perfect Conclusion! Goodbye, Street Fighter

In this final episode of the series, Yggdrasil finally gets the message about humanity with the help of a very big punch, family reunions are had, and heartbreaking farewells are made as the two worlds are separated for now.

No recap here – this episode’s so jam-packed that there’s absolutely no time for one. Instead, we open on the last handful of lines from the previous episode, but animated freshly in this episode’s much better art style. (Episode 47 was one of those with that annoyingly noticeably-weaker art style, but at least the final episode’s art style is a good one!)

Anyway, Masaru and Agumon have got their second wind and are rushing straight at Yggdrasil to prove just how strong humans and Digimon can be when they work together. Provocation Infinity kicks in as BGM as soon as they do so! Love the sense that evokes of the early days of the series, just these fighty dorks being fighty dorks, even as both worlds hang in the balance.

Masaru and Agumon dodge some crystal missiles and keep running. The other three partners leap into the fray to help out, and destroy some more – still at Child-level, mind you. I guess those crystals aren’t actually very strong? Yggdrasil lashes out with vines as Masaru and Agumon get close, but they leap over the intended strikes and climb onto them. Given that the vines are significantly thicker than Masaru’s entire body, they make workable platforms; good job giving them a way to get close to you, Yggdrasil!

Agumon gets knocked into the air by another vine, but Masaru (somehow) manages to reach out and swing his own vine around to grab his partner’s hand before he can fall. Friends helping each other out and working together!

Yggdrasil goes for dirty tactics and fires more crystals at the defenceless Tohma, Yoshino and Ikuto. Their partners desperately leap in there to protect them – and they emerge from the ensuing smoke cloud in their Adult forms, carrying their humans.

Yggdrasil: “Unable to compute. Unable to compute.”

Yggdrasil’s still very much in computer-mode, and it does not understand how they could possibly have evolved like this when this isn’t how things are meant to work. I’m not sure either, to be entirely fair, but I appreciate that it annoys Yggdrasil.

Tohma: “We didn’t even charge our Digisouls! How…?”

Gaogamon: “I don’t know either.”

Peckmon: “I just wanted to protect Ikuto.”

Sunflowmon: “I wished for the strength to protect everyone.”

Apparently Digimon can evolve on their own, without Digisoul, if they’re desperate enough to protect their partners! It’s still a little questionable that this is only an eleventh-hour superpower they’re getting right now and they were never able to do this any of the other times their partners were in severe danger throughout the series. That does seem to have been firmly established as not how it works in this Digimon canon, even though it works that way in most. (Though I suppose Piyomon did kinda do this in episode 43?)

But still, it's neat to see them doing something new in the final battle as the two worlds are at stake. Maybe it’s the direness of the entire situation, or perhaps the sheer amount of human emotion that’s powering all of the Digimon right now, as seen last episode. Or maybe it’s just that, hey, screw rules and expectations and calculations, they’re gonna do it anyway. How Masaru of them.

And if nothing else, I appreciate having this send-off for each of the partners’ (except Agumon’s) other forms! I like their designs the most at these lower levels, so it’s nice to see them again, if briefly.

Yggdrasil: “You couldn’t defeat me with your Burst Modes, so why do you still fight against me? The probability of you winning is exceedingly close to 0%.”

Yggdrasil is being me whenever I see a Digimon fighting something at a higher evolution level than itself and acting like it stands a remote chance of winning. Which, thankfully, is not a thing that’s happened very often in Savers. Usually when it has it’s been Masaru’s doing, of course, because Masaru’s never given a damn about calculations and logic.

Masaru and Agumon keep climbing the vines, while the other three partners fire attacks at Yggdrasil’s body to distract it, spontaneously evolving into their Perfect forms as they do. The pair make it onto Yggdrasil’s body itself, which is slanted enough that they can keep running up it, dodging crystal lasers along the way.

Yggdrasil: “Unable to compute. Unable to compute.”

It’s a small thing, but there’s something I really like about the way Yggdrasil keeps insistently repeating this among the action and fighting. It cannot comprehend why these stubborn humans are even still trying. Clearly it has not been properly introduced to Masaru yet.

The other three partners evolve again into their Ultimate-levels to protect themselves as they’re hit by attacks. There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it neat shot as Rosemon and Ravemon slice apart Yggdrasil’s vines, in which you can see the insides of them – they’re some kind of fancy optical cables, just like the vines at its tree.

Some more attacks give Masaru and Agumon a smoke cloud as cover, and just as Provocation Infinity reaches its climax, the pair leap in towards Yggdrasil’s face, ready to pu—

…Only it’s not time for that just yet. Yggdrasil catches them in its vines before they can get close enough, inflicting horrible pain on them with red lightning. As far as Yggdrasil saw all this, it really was a pointless endeavour. Masaru was never going to stand a chance.

Masaru’s teammates call out in worry at seeing him and Agumon helplessly in pain. So does Chika, who’s holding Kudamon in her arms. Further out from the fight, the Norsteins and Yushima, Miki and Megumi, and Sayuri, all watch on, not even able to see anything that’s going on except for the huge shape of Yggdrasil hanging over Mount Fuji and the columns of light from the Digimon who are still trying to hold the worlds apart. All of them can’t do anything but hope.

Masaru: “Damn it!”

I appreciate this little outburst from Masaru as he and Agumon endure the red lightning; he must hate that the pain he’s in is making him so powerless to do anything right now.

Chika calls out again to her brothers, and then flares up in Digisoul from the sheer force of her desperation to see everything turn out all right.

Relena: “The Digimon are protecting us. They’re fighting for us. […] You can do it, Digimon!”

Then, among the Norsteins’ group, Relena’s Digisoul activates, even though she doesn’t have a Digimon partner, as her emotions will the Digimon on. With the Noguchis and Satsuma, baby Yuka’s Digisoul makes an appearance, too. I like that it’s the children who manifest their Digisouls first here, since children do tend to be a lot more openly in touch with their emotions than adults. (Though Yuka is a bit much, because she ought to be too young to understand what’s happening, but shush.)

Also, a neat thing we can see here is that Digisoul colours run in families! We already saw that for the Daimons, but it’s true for everyone else; Relena’s is her brother’s cool blue, and Yuka’s is her brother’s purple.

After Miki and Megumi, Sayuri flares up with her Digisoul for the first time ever. It’s orange too, like that of Suguru and his kids, so evidently Digisouls run in families in a non-genetic way, because she’s not blood-related to Suguru. That makes sense, since it’s about emotion, not biology.

All over the world, every human is beginning to glow with Digisoul from the sheer strength of their will to not die. This emotion was already powering the Digimon last episode, but now it’s become strong enough and desperate enough to be visible, tangible Digisoul. We see the Hayase family from episode 9, the Shiratori family from episode 11, Neon from episode 8, to give us some characters we have vague reason to care about instead of random nobodies.

There’s Ivan too, with all of his siblings, and Nanami, who despite her nature has become desperate enough to be praying along with a group of other people. (This is how I knew the Bio-Hybrids weren’t actually dead when they were ambiguously defeated in their episodes.)

…Apparently the default Digisoul colour for unimportant characters is a sickly yellow, because there’s no variety in the hues for anybody else. Shame; I guess the animation budget only stretched so far.

From their place atop Mount Fuji, the DATS group can see the columns of Digisoul shooting up from all over the world, and the Digimon partners can feel it.

Yggdrasil: “Why do you interfere with me? The probability of your survival is equal to 0%.”

Are you still sure about that, Yggdrasil? There’s an awful lot of Digisoul floating around right now. It doesn’t seem like it’s factoring that into its calculations.

But hey, Masaru’s here – and since when did he ever care about something like calculations?

Ikuto: “That’s wrong! The power of each person on its own might be small…”

Tohma: “But the power of cherishing our friends and comrades… is infinite!”

Yoshino: “We want to stay with each other… Forever!”

The DATS crew aren’t even making it about the Digisoul of every single human on Earth, but instead about the sheer power of even a few people’s Digisoul. Because friends! Of course they want to stay with their Digimon partners forever! Digimon and humans deserve a world where they can live together!

Piyomon: “I want to live with Chika… and the humans, too!”

Gotsumon: “So do… So do I!”

Even the Digimon who’ve only recently met and got to know humans think so too, when they haven’t had their views affected by Kurata’s atrocities! It’s neat that even Gotsumon’s saying this – look how much a reboot to remove all that bigotry has done for him.

The Royal Knights are still there too, fighting to physically hold the worlds apart. Rather than have their own bodies give out under the strain, the ground beneath them crumbles from the sheer weight they’re holding up, because Ultimate-levels are just that strong I guess.

Yggdrasil: “Unable to compute! Unable to compute!”

Though it’s still acting like a computer, Yggdrasil’s voice is beginning to sound a lot more emotional and insistent. No, this doesn’t make sense, it shouldn’t be possible, Yggdrasil’s not supposed to be wrong about anything. What do you mean this many humans and Digimon actually want to live together, and they might actually have the power to make that a reality. That’s not how Yggdrasil’s neat and tidy little Digimon experiment was supposed to go.

Masaru: “You’ll… never understand!”

Yggdrasil: “Unable to compute!”

Masaru: “It’s true that we fight a lot over stupid things, and sometimes we even hate each other. From your point of view, we might have evolved in the wrong direction. But…!”

Not sure if Masaru’s talking about only humans, or both humans and Digimon here. It’d work either way, since at this point Yggdrasil’s trying to reboot both worlds.

Freed from the red lightning by now, Masaru and Agumon manage to reach out to each other and join hands as they give the climax of their speech. Friends doing this together!

Agumon: “Human emotions… make us Digimon stronger!”

Masaru: “And the Digimon… give us both dreams and courage!”

Masaru & Agumon: “There’s no limit to how far we can evolve!”

Masaru’s side of this is… frankly a bit generic; I wish he’d said something more distinctly Masaru than just talking about dreams and courage. But Agumon’s got the real point here, and it’s something Yggdrasil can’t possibly deny. Digimon and humans are intrinsically connected. They have a symbiotic relationship where they can make each other stronger. Given that inherent law of the universe, how can there be anything wrong with them wanting to create a world where both species can live together, even if it might take some fighting and strife to get there?

As the lyrics of Believer kick in, a huge column of Digisoul erupts from their linked hands, vaporising the vines they’re trapped in, and Agumon evolves into…

…Agumon Burst Mode! Which might seem a bit silly, but I actually love this. Digimon series like to end on the main protagonist gaining some kind of eleventh-hour final super ultra strong extra special evolution, which tends to be your usual armoured humanoid dude – so I really like that, in this case, it’s still Agumon. He’s grown big enough for Masaru to suddenly be able to ride him, but it still very much seems like that character we know and love as Masaru’s dork of a best friend and partner. It makes their triumph hit harder when it still feels like him.

Masaru: “Learn your lesson, Yggdrasil! This is the humans’…”

Agumon: “And the Digimon’s…”

Masaru & Agumon: “Power!”

They mean this, too, because I don’t think this is just Masaru’s power manifesting here. This isn’t Masaru turning out to be extra super sparkly-special in the final moments for no particular reason. This is the power of every single human on Earth’s desire to not freaking die, and all of that Digisoul latching onto and happening to use Agumon as an avatar for it, simply because he and Masaru are at the centre of things and happen to be the most personally determined to prove this point to Yggdrasil right now.

This might be the most justified eleventh-hour superpower in any Digimon series, because of just how great a length this whole series has gone to establish Digisoul and the power of human emotion as a tangible force that can influence Digimon and make them stronger. Of course that much Digisoul would have one hell of an effect.

Agumon and Masaru fly at Yggdrasil, who erects a shield of energy in front of itself. They keep pushing, shattering not only the shield but also blowing a huge gaping hole through Yggdrasil’s body.

Yggdrasil: “This is inconceivable! The probability of you defeating me is…”

Yggdrasil doesn’t finish that sentence. Maybe it’s beginning to realise that the probability isn’t as low as it’d previously thought and doesn’t want to admit that. Or maybe it’s just that the “eye” in its body here explodes before it can finish saying that.

Out of the explosion flies a crystalline humanoid figure – apparently, Yggdrasil’s real true physical form, which it was keeping hidden safely inside its much larger body. It’s not actually as strong as it was trying to make itself look with all that godly posturing.

Masaru: “YOU CAN’T ESCAPE!”

Masaru clearly realises this is Yggdrasil trying to bail out of here before it can be forced to admit defeat, and he refuses to let that happen. He swerves Agumon’s path back around – Agumon’s claw-strap thingies have grown long enough that Masaru’s holding onto them like reins – and then leaps off Agumon’s back to punch the god right in the face.

…Or, perhaps, he’s punching the computer’s relatively fragile interface. And hasn’t Masaru always been one for, uh, “fixing” computer problems by hitting them as hard as he can?

That’s one way you could sum up the climax of Savers. Masaru fixes a very serious computer problem by hitting it really hard.

They’re still really good at timing these climactic fight scenes with Believer, by the way. The final line of the chorus plays over the punch and Yggdrasil’s face shattering, and it hits just right.

Yggdrasil’s body erupts into a blinding explosion, Agumon urgently swoops in there to try and catch his aniki, and everything turns white.

And with that, it’s the opening! There’s something really neat, and really final, about how the opening in this last episode happens right after the climax of the big world-saving fight.

Something else I also like about the finality of this opening is that the fansubbers I’ve been watching, for the only episode in the series, added subs crediting themselves during the opening. Again, it helps drive home that it really is the end, and, hey, they deserve it. Shout-outs to the fansub group who called themselves Ryuu-Rogue way back when for allowing me and many other non-Japanese-speakers to experience Digimon Savers in its original intended form.

Anyway, the opening itself has this shot at the end where the main and supporting cast line up (except Yushima apparently? Sorry, dude), so that seems like a perfect shot to highlight in this final episode as we give a send-off to everyone.

Also, the final final shot of the opening has Masaru and Agumon leap towards the screen like the dorky friends they are, which is adorable.

After the opening, Masaru and Agumon wake up floating in a white void.

Agumon: “What is this place?”

Masaru: “Heaven? No, of course not…”

Apparently it briefly crosses Masaru’s mind that they might have died, but then he brushes it off. No, of course not, there’s no way Masaru would have just lost like that.

Yggdrasil’s there, not even in its humanoid form that we just saw, but simply as a floating crystal. Perhaps in some ways, it doesn’t really have a true form, because its essence is simply a computer consciousness.

It’s not dead, of course. No matter how hard Masaru punched its fragile physical form, that wasn’t ever going to happen. I think Yggdrasil literally meant it last episode when it said that death doesn’t exist for a God. It’s the overarching consciousness that runs the entire Digital World; I doubt it’s even possible to destroy that.

Yggdrasil could never have been defeated or destroyed. What Masaru and his friends always needed to do was change its mind – and here it is, talking to Masaru and Agumon, because they’ve managed to achieve that.

Yggdrasil: “You two have shown me your abilities. It was indeed an enormous power, far beyond what I anticipated.”

Just like Masaru did when he managed to break Craniummon’s shield and prove humanity’s potential to him – he’s managed to prove it to Yggdrasil now, too! By punching it! Masaru always has been about communicating his feelings with his fists, hasn’t he? That’s why it took Masaru of all people to do this: not because he’s the strongest, but because of his very distinctive way of getting through to people. He’s so good at that that he’s even managed to get through to a god that was hellbent on rebooting two entire worlds.

(And it needed to be someone like Masaru, rather than someone like Tohma, to pierce through Yggdrasil’s hyper-logical worldview and teach it that things don’t always go according to calculations.)

An interesting thing to note here is that Yggdrasil’s no longer speaking like a computer and is back to using its more human-sounding androgynous voice. It dropped any pretence of not being a computer last episode when it stopped even bothering to try and sound like it cared about anybody’s interests but its own. But now that it’s accepted Masaru’s point of view and is willing to hear him out, it seems it wants to go back to pretending to be something more of a person than it really is, perhaps for the sake of making him see it in a better light. Yggdrasil’s definitely a benevolent god and not a tantrum-throwing computer, right, everyone can just forget that whole episode happened.

Yggdrasil: “But I still don’t understand. Why do you wish to live together in one world? If the two worlds between humans and Digimon combine, more conflict may arise.”

Hyper-logical as it is, Yggdrasil still can’t quite grasp why they’re not going for the simplest, most minimally dangerous option. At its core, to begin with, it wanted to wipe out humans because they caused conflict and problems with its nice neat isolated Digital World. Even though it hypocritically allowed the conflict to escalate in order to serve its own end goal, it still can’t see why anybody would want that in and of itself.

Agumon: “We can’t learn to appreciate each other if we’re scared of getting hurt.”

Masaru: “Agumon…” [to Yggdrasil] “You know, ever since I met this guy, I realised that by talking with these fists of mine, I could come to understand the other person no matter who they were.”

Good old Masaru! This is getting nicely into some of the overall themes of the series, about Digimon and humans learning to get along and live in harmony despite all the strife and pain that can come from their interactions. And it fits neatly with Masaru’s philosophy of communication through fighting in general. He really did only develop that philosophy throughout this series, thanks to how he befriended Agumon at the beginning! It’s that which we have to thank for him being able to get through to Yggdrasil and solve all this in the end.

Agumon’s line also reminds me of what Masaru said to Kurata in episode 25 when decrying his cowardice – that when you fight someone, you acknowledge that doing so is going to cause pain both for them and for yourself, and you need to accept that pain instead of running away from it. Being too afraid to even get at all hurt in the first place when interacting with others is only going to lead down Kurata’s path.

It’s like Masaru was saying to Yggdrasil before punching it out, too – sometimes people hate each other and fight over stupid things, but that’s just an unavoidable part of how people work! That doesn’t mean you go erasing them all; it just means you have to learn to work with it and find a way to get along anyway.

Yggdrasil: “I see. Then I shall lay myself to rest once more and watch over you. Whether or not a world shared among humans and Digimon becomes a reality… will depend on your abilities.”

Having been convinced that humans have enough potential to deserve a chance for harmony between them and Digimon, Yggdrasil… promptly decides it’s going to have nothing to do with actually creating that harmony itself and retreats back to its original position of noninterfering observer. Thanks, Yggdrasil. Very helpful. After all the effort Suguru went to get its help on forging this harmony between the species, it turns out Yggdrasil’s best possible stance on the subject is, “eh, don’t look at me, do it yourselves?”

Maybe it just realises that figuring out the complexities of how to resolve interpersonal conflicts is really not its wheelhouse and it wouldn’t have the first clue how to help. But of course it doesn’t want to admit that.

As to whether or not Masaru and co. actually will create that world themselves? …Well, it’s literally the final episode of the series, so it’s not like they’ve got time to do it now. It’s almost like there ought to have been a sequel series following up on this or something. If only.

Masaru: “Hey! Wait a second!”

I like how Masaru seems indignant as Yggdrasil just up and leaves. Looks like he also feels like Yggdrasil ought to be taking more responsibility onto itself in actually helping them create this harmony and not just peacing out and leaving them to it. Of course he would.

As Yggdrasil floats away, Masaru hears Yoshino’s voice calling for him to wake up, and then suddenly he’s regaining consciousness, lying on the ground at Mount Fuji’s summit. Seems like he and Agumon were unconscious in reality while Yggdrasil was communicating with them, because it can just do that, I guess.

Tohma: “Geez, you’re such a character.”

Yoshino: “Don’t worry us any more, okay?”

Aww, it’s cute that they were worried. Seeing Masaru and Agumon be so close to the blinding explosion from Yggdrasil and then take longer than the rest of them to wake up certainly must have given them a fright for a minute. It doesn’t seem like they had any idea he was talking to Yggdrasil, so we can assume they weren’t doing so themselves.

Masaru: “What happened to Yggdrasil? And the Digital World?”

Ikuto: “It’s alright now! […] The dimensional barrier is restored!”

Falcomon: “It looks like they were able to safely isolate it from the human world!”

Indeed, as they look up into the sky – which is now a usual Earth sunset or sunrise – they see nothing but an ordinary-sized Digital Gate, slowly closing. The barrier’s been fixed. Because Yggdrasil can just do that. It could always have done that, right from the start. This conflict was always about finding a way to change Yggdrasil’s mind so that it actually wanted to.

(No, the barrier has not been fixed due to the efforts of Ikuto’s parents; if that were the case, it would have been mentioned. Falcomon says “they”, but the Japanese sentence does not actually have a subject there. It has to be Yggdrasil who fixed it. That’s the only thing that makes any kind of sense.)

Dukemon: “This is thanks to all of you. […] Your Digisouls… have awoken a miracle!”

I’m going to assume that by “miracle”, Dukemon means changing Yggdrasil’s mind, which does indeed seem pretty miraculous to me. It makes less sense that the power of humanity’s Digisouls would just somehow magically have fixed the barrier on its own.

Craniummon: “You were magnificent, Daimon Masaru. You are without a doubt our true saviour!”

That’s a little bit overplaying it, Craniummon. Yeah, it all centred on Masaru in the end, but it was really just him happening to be the right kind of guy in the right place at the right time to communicate all of humanity’s emotions and power to Yggdrasil.

The Royal Knights zoom away into the Digital Gate before it closes, back to their own world. Hopefully they’re going to start thinking for themselves more when it comes to protecting it, now that their god’s gone back into a dormant state.

A helicopter arrives at the top of Mount Fuji. Satsuma, Miki and Megumi have gone and rounded up the loved ones of everyone who was just here fighting, so that they can all have a big reunion now that everything’s over.

Ikuto’s parents are the first to leave the helicopter. Ikuto stares at them with tears in his eyes – this is the first time he’s seen them since he left for the Digital World to fight Kurata, back in episode 27. He rushes into his dad’s arms (because his mom’s got her hands full with his baby sister).

Ikuto: “Dad… Mom… I’m home!”

Kenji: “Welcome home, Ikuto.”

These are those Japanese family phrases that Kenji taught him just before he left in episode 27! Ikuto’s finally getting to use them! Aww.

Relena’s the next out; she manages a few steps out of her wheelchair to hug her big brother.

Tohma: “Relena…”

Relena: “Thank goodness, Brother… I’m so glad you’re all right!”

Tohma: “I’m sorry for worrying you, Relena.”

Aww, Relena must have been so worried about her brother, out there fighting to save the world, especially because she hasn’t even met all of the friends he has to fight alongside, other than Gaomon.

Also, this is the first time there’s been a Norstein family moment with any of the rest of the DATS crew around. Though it’s not focused on, Masaru must be watching this and seeing for the first time that Tohma has a little sister, just like him! It’s almost a shame that we never got to have any of Masaru’s thoughts on Tohma’s family situation, given how delightfully parallel their families are. But then, I suppose that might be because the Norsteins are probably all actually speaking to each other in German, so Masaru wouldn’t be able to interact with that. Still, even if he doesn’t understand their words, I’m sure he can see that this is Tohma’s little sister all right.

Tohma: “Father…”

Franz: “Thank you, Tohma.”

Tohma: “Yes, Dad.”

This is Tohma calling his father Dad for the first time! Or, the first time since he tried to as a little kid the day they left Japan and his father brushed him off. After their reconciliation in episode 42, and then this dangerous situation in which they must both have been afraid they’d never see each other again, it seems that was just enough to break down the barrier between them and make Tohma finally feel comfortable calling him that.

Yushima, Miki and Megumi also reunite with their Digimon partners, who were up here trying to help hold the worlds apart.

Gotsumon: “It sure is great that everything worked out!”

Yoshino: “What are you doing here?”

Gotsumon: “Hey! Hey, don’t say that! I did my best, too!”

Yes, Gotsumon, you definitely helped out loads. To be fair to him, he did contribute as much as any of the non-main Digimon, but it is very him to flail in indignation when he’s treated like he wasn’t actually that important. I do kinda get the sense that this reborn Gotsumon awkwardly wishes he was more of a part of this group’s camaraderie than he knows he actually is. Which, hey, progress? I think?

Chika’s had Kudamon in her arms since Dukemon brought him up here, and now she hands him back to Satsuma so that he can take his rightful place around his partner’s neck. Satsuma has his weaselscarf back!

Sayuri’s the last person to leave the helicopter. Chika rushes to hug her.

Chika: “I’m sorry for making you worry!”

Sayuri: “It’s all right. I believed that Masaru and Agu-chan would protect you.”

Aww, at least Chika knows how much her mom worries about her being in danger and knew that going off to fight with Piyomon would definitely make her do that. And of course Sayuri coped by holding onto the belief that Masaru and Agumon would be able to keep them safe. She’s so good and brave.

Masaru doesn’t approach his mom, looking hesitant. There’s some bad news he needs to give her, and it’s not easy for him to bring it up.

Masaru: “Mom… I…”

Sayuri: “Masaru?”

Masaru: “I’m sorry. I couldn’t keep my promise. I couldn’t bring Dad back with me.”

Aaa, Masaruuu. It’s heartbreaking how he can only bring himself to phrase this as not keeping his promise and not bringing his dad back. That way it’s more like that same old status quo of his dad simply Not Being There, and he doesn’t have to think about the fact that his dad died protecting both worlds (let alone the fact that it was Masaru himself who killed him).

Sayuri: “I was prepared for that. That man… Suguru-san has become the wind blowing through the Digital World. Even if we can’t see him, I’m sure he’ll always be watching over us from the other world.”

Even without Masaru saying it, Sayuri knows what he means – that her husband didn’t make it. Despite what she’d said in previous episodes that she believed Masaru would bring Suguru back, it seems she also remained realistic about his chances of doing so and prepared herself for the worst as well. She’s able to frame it in this lovely way immediately, as a comfort to herself but even more importantly as a comfort to her kids, because she knows they must need it. Man, she’s so good, I love her.

Sayuri and Chika step forward and hug Masaru. He stands there and accepts it, but doesn’t hug back, not admitting that he needs it. Come on, Masaru, you stubborn idiot, hug your mom, it’s okay, you’ve been through so much.

Except, never mind all that, as a voice suddenly calls out to them – and it’s Suguru, alive and well and back in his own body, striding towards them. Masaru’s eyes widen in amazed disbelief as he realises who it is.

I love the desperate, stumbling way Masaru rushes towards him here, like he’s so overcome with relief he can barely contain himself.

Masaru: “You’re really… You’re really my dad, right?”

Aaaaa, after having been wrong about it before and had to suffer the horrible pain that brought, Masaru wants to make absolutely sure he’s not getting it wrong again and this really isn’t too good to be true.

Suguru: “Yeah. The one and only yours truly.”

Man, look at Suguru’s big dorky smile and over-the-top phrasing about simply being himself. Again, can you see where Masaru gets it from.

Masaru: “But… how…?”

Suguru: “Yggdrasil restored me to life.”

Because Yggdrasil’s a god, so it can just do that! But really, though. I’m sure some people might find Suguru’s sudden revival to be cheap, but I personally don’t mind it at all. Aside from anything else, I think it makes decent sense in-universe as something Yggdrasil might do. Now that it’s become less up itself and has acknowledged humanity’s worth, it’s probably done some reflection and realised that it really, really screwed over Suguru in particular throughout all of this. Suguru wouldn’t have died if not for all of Yggdrasil’s actions – and also, Suguru’s one of the best people to keep around if we want to try and forge that world of harmony between humans and Digimon. Yggdrasil must have figured that the least it can do is make up for one of its biggest mistakes and give Suguru his life back.

Anyway, Chika also approaches her dad and stares up at him in utter wonder. This is the first time in her life that she’s ever seen him, as himself, here and real and alive rather than as some legendary fantasy in her head.

Suguru: “Chika! You’ve sure grown big.”

Suguru kneels down and ruffles her hair while saying this, the same thing he also said to Masaru two episodes ago when he was still a lion. He hasn’t seen his kids in ten years; he must be bursting with pride and emotion to get to see them having grown so much bigger and stronger without him.

Chika: “Dad… Dad! Dad!”

Chika breaks into happy tears at this simple gesture alone. She finally has a dad now, like she’s been missing and desperately waiting for all this time. Aaaa.

Suguru: “Sayuri… I’ve caused you to worry.”

Sayuri: “Don’t leave us any more, okay?”

Suguru: “Yeah, I promise.”

Sayuriii. It’s so understated, but she’s on the verge of tears here, too, finally letting herself express how she feels about her husband’s disappearance – and she just doesn’t want him to disappear on her ever again.

I love the Daimon family so much and it warms my heart to get to see them happy and reunited like this. They deserve it, dammit, sanctity of narrative consequences be damned.

But, see, I also don’t personally feel that Suguru coming back here particularly cheapens the moment of his death in any way. Back when that happened in episode 46, both Suguru and Masaru absolutely believed it would be permanent, so all of the emotions they felt at the time were still just as raw and real. That doesn’t change just because he comes back here. I still enjoy that part of episode 46 just as much, even knowing Suguru’s not actually going to stay dead.

And while this might seem a little unnecessary in that it’s not like the writers had to bring Suguru back because there’s hardly any series left for him to do anything in anyway (alas, that hypothetical sequel, of which we can only dream), I do think there is actually a very specific reason why they needed to have Suguru back in the Daimon family in order for the rest of this episode to work as they’d intended it. More on that later on.

Suguru: “We’ll always be together from now on.”

Well, I say they’re happily reunited, but, uhhhh, about that.

As the Digital Gate in the sky closes up, we cut to some time later. Probably quite a while later, based on the fact that the DATS HQ is in the process of being rebuilt and is functioning again on the lower levels, including the main control room. Everything seems to be gradually getting back to normal, with all the destruction slowly being repaired. (I gather that Japan in particular is good at rebuilding things quickly, thanks to all the earthquakes they get.)

Masaru: “What? You’re closing the Digital Gate?”

Specifically, everyone’s gathered for this announcement. It’s a bit of a weird way for Masaru to phrase it, since it’s not like there’s any Digital Gates open right now that need to be closed, but what it really means is that very soon they’re not going to be opening any more Digital Gates for travel between the two worlds at all.

Satsuma: “The dimensional barrier has been restored, and all of the people who had disappeared have returned.”

Remember those missing people other than Ikuto who were part of the reason the expedition happened ten years ago? Because I would not remotely blame you if you didn’t. Apparently they… somehow…? came back home??? It’s honestly rather silly that the writers felt the need to clean up that loose end that never mattered and that nobody would even remember or care about if not reminded of it here, in a way that’s just never explained. It’d be better to just not mention it and have us passively assume that all the other missing people must have died in the Digital World.

Satsuma: “But that does not change the fact that its condition is still unstable. That’s why we’ve decided to close the Gate for some time.”

This seems fair as a reason to not have any inter-world contact for a while. The barrier needs time to heal itself, and while the Digital Dive machine is a cleaner way to open Gates than the space-time bombs, it’s probably still not a great idea to go opening Gates everywhere while the barrier’s still fragile. Don’t want another repeat of the dimensional collision that we nearly had.

Tohma: “For how long?”

Yushima: “We don’t know. Maybe for a year or ten years… Perhaps it’ll stay closed forever.”

NO, it will not!!! There are plenty of people here who will make absolutely sure that it does not stay this way forever and gets opened again sometime in the future, thank you very much!!!!! Yushima, why are you being so chill about maybe never seeing your turtle friend ever again, come on.

Masaru: “Then, what’s gonna happen? What about our promise to create a world that humans and Digimon can share together?”

Exactly! It’s such unfortunate timing that, right after this fight with Yggdrasil in which Masaru and friends fervently insisted that Digimon and humans can and should live together, they now have to go and separate the two worlds for a long while for the sake of dimensional safety.

As this discussion has been going on, the camera’s been panning out to show us that the humans and the Digimon partners are standing in two separate groups on either side of the room.

Agumon: “Um… Actually, there’s something we’d like to discuss with you about that.”

It seems like the Digimon must have been told about this earlier by themselves, if they’ve already come to a decision on what to do about it. They’re here, awkwardly separate from their partners, to break the news to them - the news that they want to return to the Digital World.

Gotsumon: “For us, we’ve just lost our God. Everyone’s upset and confused.”

Falcomon: “That’s why we’d like to help rebuild the Digital World!”

Gotsumon’s statement that this is about them having lost their God is a bit silly, because most Digimon didn’t even seem to know that Yggdrasil existed, and it’s not like Yggdrasil ever actually did anything helpful for Digimon-kind in general, did it. But it’s true that all of the Digimon must be upset and confused right now, not because of Yggdrasil, but because of having recently endured a genocide followed by an apocalypse, the reasons for which most of them wouldn’t even understand.

The Digimon partners need to go to the Digital World to explain what happened and act as spokespeople on behalf of humanity. There’s probably still an awful lot of hatred and prejudice about humans floating around in the Digital World right now, thanks to Kurata’s awfulness, so someone needs to spread the word among Digimon that that was only one human and most humans are much better than that.

…Much like the human members of DATS are also going to need to be doing in their world on behalf of the Digimon, since most humans probably still think Digimon are horrible vicious invaders like Kurata insisted they were.

Lalamon: “We believe that in the near future, there will truly be a time when humans and Digimon can live together. That’s why…”

That’s why Savers deserved to have a sequel! Everyone keeps stressing their desire to create this world where the two species can live in harmony, but it’s not happening yet! Everything’s still a mess of confusion and pain and prejudice after all that’s happened, and it’d be so good to be able to actually see all of our friends here try and rebuild things from the ashes and eventually reach a point where the worlds can be together again. All of this talk is quite possibly the biggest most obvious sequel hook any end to a Digimon series has given, and it makes me so sad that we’ll never have that.

Masaru: “That’s why what?!”

Agumon: “A-Aniki…”

Masaru in particular is not happy to hear that his best friend and partner’s planning to just up and leave like that. Never mind that he’s got a good reason for it; Masaru doesn’t want this!

We cut straight to Harbour View Park, where Masaru punches Agumon to the ground. He brought him right to this special place where they first met each other, and he’s going to communicate to Agumon exactly how much pain he’s feeling about this decision, through his fists!

Masaru: “What’s this crap about leaving? You traitor!”

Aaaaa, Masaruuu, it’s heartbreaking that he feels that Agumon leaving like this is a betrayal. Wasn’t Agumon supposed to be his follower, who’d go anywhere with him and always fight by his side?

Agumon: “You can punch me all you want… But I’ve already made up my mind!”

Masaru: “And I’m saying that’s too selfish of you! I thought of you as if you were my little brother… So why…?!”

Masaru! He really is Agumon’s aniki – which, remember, can mean big brother – and that means Agumon really has always been like a little brother to him! Masaru’s assuming here that Agumon must not have any particular feelings about leaving him for the Digital World – but, still, he feels it’s selfish of Agumon to not be considering how he feels about having to say goodbye to his best friend and brother possibly forever! Aaaaaa.

Agumon: “Even I…!”

[he gets to his feet and punches Masaru in the face]

Agumon: “Even I want to stay with you forever, Aniki!”

But of course Agumon has painful feelings about this, too! Of course he doesn’t want to have to leave his aniki any more than Masaru wants him to leave! Masaru must have not realised this until now due to the way Agumon was trying to hide it, because he’s made up his mind anyway and so it’s hard to think about that part – but of course he’s hurting just as much. He delivers a punch of his own to Masaru here to communicate that pain of his right back. They’re both hurting, equally, over this.

Masaru: “Then…! Then why don’t you just stay here?!”

Agumon: “I *can’t*!”

Masaru stares at Agumon in surprise at that, having not realised this could be a matter of Agumon not feeling like he really has a choice in this.

Agumon: “The Gate is going to close. There won’t be any more Digimon incidents. So what’ll that make me? I’ll just be one big *nuisance* who spends his entire time sleeping and getting fat on Sayuri’s fried eggs!”

AGUMON. Aaaaaa. You were never a nuisance in the Daimon family! It’s so heartbreaking that he feels like he doesn’t properly belong in the human world, and in a human family, if there aren’t any more Digimon for him to fight.

But as heartbreaking as that is, it is understandable. This whole time he’s been here, there has kind of been this DATS-centric framing of “he’s here to help Masaru fight Digimon”, so Agumon may have internalised that more than he should have. And even if he looks beyond that… it’s still going to feel really weird and alienating for him, being stuck as the only Digimon in a human world that he doesn’t understand that well. He must have given it a lot of thought and realised that… he really couldn’t do that. Even if it means having to say goodbye to Aniki.

Masaru: “Agumon…”

Masaru seems taken aback. I don’t think he ever realised that his follower had been feeling that way about this, either. Aaaa.

Agumon: “I can’t forget the days I fought together with you. I…! I want to keep having adventures with you, Aniki!”

Look at poor Agumon in tears over this. Of course he wants to be able to keep having fun fighty times together with his aniki! But… you just can’t get those in a human world where no more Digimon are going to show up.

Masaru: “Well…! Even I…! Even I want to be with you! I want to keep running wild with you everywhere until I die!!!”

Masaruuu! He lurches forward with desperate emotion as he says this, a glint of tears visible in his eyes too, just for a split-second. Of course both of these fighty dorks just want to keep fighting things and having adventures together forever. It’s not fair on them that they seem to be getting forced into a situation where that’s not going to be possible any more.

The sky, which has been gloomily overcast all day to match the mood, breaks out into some Anime Sads Rain for the last time, to punctuate the moment. Something about that seems to make Masaru stop protesting and miserably accept it, as much as he hates it.

Masaru: “Go to the Digital World. This world is too small for you. Go back to the world you belong in.”

Masaru’s voice sounds bitter and angry here – and it is, because he’s in so much pain over this and he doesn’t know how to express that properly – but this is also said out of kindness and consideration to Agumon. He must realise that Agumon would be better off in the Digital World, where there’s fights and adventures, and then at least one of them will be happier. Part of that bitterness in his tone must be out of jealousy at the fact that Agumon has this world he belongs in, while Masaru doesn’t.

(And yet, as he says this, perhaps it’s starting to cross his mind that… maybe the human world’s too small for him, too.)

Agumon: “Aniki…”

Agumon must be upset that his aniki can’t bring himself to accept this and say any kind of goodbye in a less painful and bitter way than this. After a long pause, he turns and walks away, sobbing quietly to himself, leaving Masaru there alone on his hands and knees in anguish.

Aaaaaaa, these friends, this scene breaks my heart every time, I love it.

Elsewhere, Tohma’s watching the Anime Sads Rain outside his mansion window, also sharing that same mood, when Gaomon brings him a cup of tea. He takes a sip, and…

Tohma: “This is…”

Gaomon: “It’s an original blend. I call it ‘Our Vow to Meet Again’.”

GAOMON, what an absolute sweetheart, I love him. Look at his shy little blush and tail wag as he says it, too! I assume he also left the recipe for this new blend with Tohma so that his master can keep drinking it in his absence and thinking of the day they’ll meet again, aww.

Gaomon: “My Master…! Is no-one else but you.”

Gaaah, the way Gaomon blurts that out, out of nowhere, and then just stands there staring up at him for a long moment. He’s such a good loyal dog. He says he’s not a dog, but he is. Best dog.

In an arcade out in town, Yoshino and Lalamon are having one last night out, like the regular friends and sisters they are. Lalamon fiercely bashes one of those arcade machines that test your punching strength. Now that Digimon are a known thing, she can actually be out of her Digivice and joining in! There’s a bunch of other people there watching, but none of them are batting an eye at the presence of a Digimon here. Good signs for the future!

Lalamon then insists Yoshino has a go too, and she punches her palm as she prepares. She’s clearly taking a leaf out of Masaru’s book; embrace your inner banchou, Yoshino!

…In fact, she gets so into it that she accidentally summons her Digisoul, and we know how much that can power up a punch. She ends up breaking the machine. Oops. The furious arcade owner kicks her and Lalamon out into the Anime Sads Rain that’s still going on.

Yoshino: “That sure surprised me! I’ll have to apologise to them later.”

Lalamon: “But… it made me feel a bit relieved. Because you’ve become stronger.”

Yoshino: “That’s not true, Lalamon.”

Aww, come on, Yoshino, of course it is. Though it hurts that Yoshino’s still being too hard on herself, I love that Lalamon can see this, and that she’s thinking about Yoshino’s growth, on this final day before they have to part ways. (Guhhh, they’ve known each other and been together every day for over a decade.)

Lalamon: “You’re not the Yoshino who couldn’t play piano by herself any more. Even if I go back to the Digital World, I can keep singing the song you gave me.”

Lalamon still really cares about that song that brought them together, and is thinking of what it means for Yoshino that she’s so much stronger now than she was on that day they met! Lalamon really has been the catalyst for all of Yoshino’s growth. Aww.

Out of nowhere, upon hearing this, Yoshino pulls Lalamon into a big hug, to her yelp of surprise. Aaa, they are FRIENDS.

Miki and Megumi are still at the DATS HQ, polishing their PawnChessmon’s armour and thanking them for everything.

Miki: “I wish we had more time to hang out… Then we could’ve gone to the hot springs, or karaoke…”

Megumi: “How about we do that now?”

Miki: “Seriously?”

Megumi: “Yeah! The night is young!”

Aww, they’re also gonna go have one last night out with their partners, now that they can actually hang out of their Digivices and join in! I’d sure love to see the PawnChessmon do karaoke. (…The joke is that they’re mute.)

Satsuma crosses paths with Miki and Megumi as they leave the control room and he enters. He sits down in his command seat, perhaps just for old times’ sake, and Kudamon settles around his neck.

Satsuma: “You’re here.”

Kudamon: “This place relaxes me the most.”

Satsuma: “Me too.”

Aww, Kudamon. He likes being a scarf! Satsuma likes him being a scarf! They are good scarf friends.

[Satsuma chuckles]

Kudamon: “So even you can laugh.”

Also look at Kudamon affectionately ribbing Satsuma for being so serious all the time. The same could be said for you, too, Kudamon, you super-serious Royal Knight, you.

Somewhere outside, the full moon overhead, Yushima’s sharing some kind of alcohol with Kamemon, and also Gotsumon. I guess nobody else wanted to awkwardly include Gotsumon in their heartfelt goodbye moments, but Yushima’s got him covered. He’s chill enough for that.

Yushima: “What a beautiful moon.”

Kamemon: “It is. But tonight is the last time we can see the moon like this.”

Kamemon’s being more talkative than usual! Perhaps it’s because he’s (almost) alone with Yushima – or perhaps it’s just that Yushima’s getting him drunk, which might make him a bit less shy.

Yushima: “Kamemon. Sometimes the moon looks as if it’s changed shape, but it really stays circular all the time. Come back any time. I’ll always be waiting.”

In true Yushima fashion, he gets across his feelings in a metaphor. Something something things may seem different on the surface but they actually don’t fundamentally change underneath, so their bond will always be the same even if they’re far apart? Something like that.

Out on a pylon overlooking the city, Ikuto and Falcomon are sitting up there like the birds they are. (Most of the city is covered in scaffolding, as one would expect; there’s a lot of rebuilding to be done.)

Falcomon: “A lot of things have happened to us.”

Ikuto: “Too many things.”

They sure have, for these two in particular. It’s nice that they’ve finally got this quiet moment together to reflect and process it all.

Ikuto: “Falcomon. I’ll go back to the Digital World, too. I’ll make a new Digital World together with everyone else!”

Oh, Ikuto. Of course he’d want to do that and go and help with the restoration over there; it’s his home, much more than the human world is. But even as he says this, he’s kind of subdued about it – I think he realises on some level that, as much as he wants to, he can’t actually do this.

Falcomon: “You can’t, Ikuto. What about your mom and dad? Your family was finally able to welcome you back home.”

Falcomon gets it, even though it’s not his family. Poor Misuzu would not be able to deal with Ikuto disappearing on her again, and none of them want to put her through that. It’s heartbreaking that Falcomon has to be the one to voice it, even though Ikuto knows that just as well and has much more of an actual connection to the Noguchis than Falcomon does.

Ikuto: “But I… I’m family with Falcomon, too! I don’t want to say goodbye!”

But of course he is, and of course he doesn’t, and aaaa. Ikuto breaks into tears as he says this, which sets Falcomon off too, and the two of them just lean against each other and sob. Gahhhh, they’re just kids, and they’ve been together their whole lives, and now they have no choice but to say goodbye for who knows how long and this is heartbreaking.

The next morning, it’s time for the final Digital Dive for the Digimon, and (almost) everyone has gathered in the DATS control room. Chika is hugging Piyomon with one last tearful goodbye. (Piyomon seems kind of low-key about returning the gesture, which makes me suspect that he still didn’t consciously remember everything and is only going off his affection for her in this one most recent life.) Even Sayuri and Suguru came to see the Digimon off. But Masaru’s not there.

Tohma: “He must not want to say goodbye.”

Oh, Masaru. That would indeed be a very plausible reason as to why he’s not here. He is not good at big displays of heartfelt emotion, at least not when those emotions are painful and negative, and it would be very him to not want to do that in front of everyone else. Even while alone with Agumon, he could still only manage to express those emotions through punching him.

Agumon: “Stupid Aniki.”

Poor Agumon, knowing that his aniki’s stubbornness and difficulty with this sort of thing means they won’t even get a proper goodbye, aaa. He’s acting bitter and annoyed about it on the surface, but you know he must really be hurting a lot.

Megumi: “Co-ordinate axes are set!”

Miki: “Cooling of transmission equipment on! Bionic Condenser functioning!”

Megumi: “Digital Harmoniser aligning! Security open!”

Miki and Megumi have given this whole Digital Gate opening spiel a bunch of times in the earlier episodes. But this time, it hits different, because you can hear the pain in their voices as they’re doing this, knowing that they’re sending their friends away for who knows how long.

But just as the swirling energy begins to descend through the Dive chamber, before it can warp anyone away—

Masaru: “WAIT JUST A MINUTE!”

Masaru shows up at the door with a massive backpack on his back. I love how this instantly makes it clear exactly what he is planning to do. This is why he was missing, not because he didn’t want to say goodbye. Or, well, effectively yes – precisely because he didn’t want to have to say goodbye, so he’s not going to!

Agumon: “Aniki!”

Agumon sounds thrilled to see him; he must also have immediately realised exactly what this means, as Masaru excitedly bounds right up to him in the Dive chamber.

Masaru: “Like hell I’ll ever say goodbye! I’m going to the Digital World with you!”

Oh, Masaru. He must have spent a horrible sleepless night last night agonising over the fact he’ll have to say goodbye to Agumon for an unknown amount of time. Of course he eventually found himself landing on the simplest, most straightforward, most Masaru solution to that problem. No, actually. Screw that goodbye. Screw the normal thing that’s expected of him in this situation. He doesn’t have to do that at all.

This human world is too small for Agumon, with his boisterous fighty ways – and hey, doesn’t that also mean it’s too small for Masaru, too? Way back in episode 2, Yushima cryptically told Masaru pretty much exactly that, and that in “the Digimon’s world” he’d find plenty of opponents to fight to his heart’s content. At the time, by “the Digimon’s world”, he meant DATS, but that was also very definitely foreshadowing this outcome in the ending!

The BGM that kicks in around here is also one I like a lot for this moment; it’s upbeat and kinda gives this sense of “yeah, we’re going on an adventure!”

Tohma: “Hold it!”

Yoshino: “Who knows when you can come back if you go now!”

Masaru: “Who cares! I’m gonna enjoy travelling through the Digital World no matter how long it takes!”

Of course Masaru refuses to let himself care about a little thing like never seeing the human world (or his family) again for who knows how long if he does this. He’s focusing on the good things about this – that he gets to stay with Agumon, and keep having fun fighty adventures! No need to worry about any of the downsides when there’s that!

Suguru: “Masaru! Go!”

Sayuri: “Dear!”

Suguru: “Go there and polish up your manliness!”

Of course Suguru – also known as the man who willingly chose to stay in the Digital World indefinitely when he could have gone home, because he knew that going home meant he might never be allowed back there – would be on board with this choice. This is pretty much exactly the same kind of thing that he did; in some ways he must be thrilled to see Masaru making a similar choice and following in his footsteps. And of course he’d see it as a way for Masaru to hone his manliness, what a dork.

(And yet, Masaru’s not even really doing this for dad-complex reasons at all – if this were more about his dad, he’d be wanting to stay at home with him and actually get to be a family again! But never having to say goodbye to Agumon is even more important to him than that, aaa. Or maybe it’s not quite that Agumon is even more important to him than his dad, but just that he’s used to his dad not being there, and so continuing to not be around him doesn’t feel like a bad thing, whereas not being with Agumon is.)

(And consider that Masaru’s going to the Digital World, where his dad’s built up this impossibly-awesome legacy of great feats, so in a way Masaru’s just going to keep on chasing after his dad’s unreachable, eternally-absent back. That’s not why he did this, but that sure is a position he’s put himself in again, hee.)

But, ouch, looks like the Daimon family is not going to be properly reunited for a while after all, despite what they said in that earlier scene. Masaru clearly did not take any time to inform his family of this choice of his and has just suddenly dropped this bombshell on them right now. Still, his dad’s back at home, so they’ll be fine without him, right? They don’t need Masaru to be the replacement father figure any more.

…This is why I think Suguru needed to come back to life. The writers were obviously planning this ending with Masaru leaving for the Digital World right from the beginning of the series – see it being foreshadowed in episode 2 – so they needed it to be possible for Masaru to choose this. And if his dad had actually remained dead, and the family had been left fatherless for good, I don’t think Masaru would have been able to cause his mom and sister the additional heartbreak of losing him on top of that. Not when he feels like he needs to be the protector of the family in his dad’s absence.

But this? It’s still going to hurt them to lose Masaru, but at least with Suguru back, it won’t be quite so unbearable, and so Masaru’s just about able to make that sacrifice, for Agumon’s sake. It’s not that he doesn’t realise this is going to make his mom and sister sad – of course he does. But… Agumon.

Of course, it’s not like it’s not going to hurt Masaru to be apart from his family for ages, either! But in true eternally-optimistic Masaru fashion, he’s not gonna let himself think about that, now that he’s made up his mind to make that sacrifice anyway. He absolutely didn’t gloss over that when making his decision; I’m sure he must have known and thought about exactly what he was giving up. I drew a post-ending comic exploring this idea once.

And really… just like Agumon, Masaru also doesn’t belong in an ordinary human world with no Digimon incidents. He never truly did. He’s found his calling in life, and like hell he’s gonna let that go and go back to a boring normal human life just because the main adventure’s over and everything’s telling him he’s supposed to. Since when did Masaru ever listen to what the world tells him he’s supposed to do?

I love Masaru. He’s always so gloriously himself at all times, and this final choice of his exemplifies that wonderfully.

Masaru: “Let’s go, Agumon! You and I will always be together!”

Agumon: “Aniki!”

Agumon is so thrilled. The happiest Agumon ever! He’s never ever going to have to say goodbye to his Aniki!!! They are FRIENDS I love them so much.

Because it’ll take me far away!

And then, instead of the usual uninteresting ending song, we get an actual epilogue of content over a different insert song, which is in fact the first opening! Isn’t this first lyric just perfect? Masaru’s being taken away by his fighting spirit, all the way into the Digital World. That’s always what the first opening song was foreshadowing, too. I love it.

The song’s upbeat gung-ho mood also just gives a great uplifting feeling throughout the whole epilogue, which I enjoy.

It's several years later, and Ikuto, in middle school uniform, is meeting Chika at her door in the morning to go to school with her. They’re the same age, so they’d be in the same school year! Seems like the Noguchis moved to someplace in the city, so that Ikuto could be around Chika and get used to human life and school stuff in the presence of somebody he knows. That must have been helpful for him; I can’t imagine a wild, feisty kid like him would have adjusted well to being at school without at least someone there on his side.

Inside the house, Suguru’s just there on the sofa, reading a newspaper and watching the news, being a normal dad! I’m sure he must have still been working as a Digimon scientist all this time, though, publishing his research and generally spreading the word among humans as to what Digimon are really like, to prepare for whenever the Gate will be opened again. The Daimons are definitely not going to let it stay closed forever, not when that means they’d never see Masaru ever again, never mind the Digimon.

Tohma is on the news, having just won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. The text on the news screen mentions that he’s nineteen years old – oh my god it’s been five years, Masaru’s been off in the Digital World for that long. (Hah, he skipped the rest of school. Sneaky of him.)

Tohma: “May it restore hope to many people who shared the same illness as my sister.”

Based on this, we can assume that Tohma did manage to cure his sister’s illness! Look at him go! An older Relena is there at the awards ceremony next to him, looking much healthier, beaming with pride at her brother’s achievements.

Also Tohma wears glasses now, which only serves to make him look like even more of a dork.

At a police station, Yoshino’s working there as an officer along with Miki and Megumi, discussing the news about Tohma with them. Satsuma, their boss, coughs pointedly at their distraction, so Yoshino heads out on patrol. Satsuma’s gone back to his old job! And it seems like he put in a good word for Miki, Megumi and Yoshino, so that they could get themselves a job in this Digimon-free world. Yoshino was always pretty good at all the logistical investigation stuff that DATS required; she’d make a good police officer.

She drives past Ikuto and Chika on their way to school, and then finds herself chasing after Kouki – the only one of the Bio-Hybrids we didn’t see praying for the world’s survival earlier in the episode – for his crime of not wearing a helmet on a motorbike. Hey, if Kouki wants to go and recklessly endanger his own life like that, I say let him, no big loss.

Chika and Ikuto pass by Yushima, doing some fishing on a bridge. I guess he’s old enough that he simply retired, and has become a mysterious fisherman full time? Perhaps.

And then. And then.

As the music dies down, we cut to the Digital World, to a gang fight between two different groups of Digimon, squabbling over turf. Just as the fight’s about to break out…

Masaru: “Wait wait wait! Those who disturb the peace in the Digital World… this street fighter, Daimon Masaru-sama, won’t forgive you!”

…the music kicks back in, and we see Masaru and Agumon up on a cliff, ready to step in and keep the peace – by fighting, of course! These two dorks have clearly settled firmly into their role as protectors and peacekeepers of the Digital World, fighting anyone who’s looking for trouble and getting through to them with their fists.

(Also, a neat detail – Masaru’s still in the same clothes he came here in, but they’re all ragged around the edges, as you’d expect when he’s been wearing them out in the wilderness for five years now.)

Masaru: “Let’s go, Agumon!”

Agumon: “Yeah!”

With this declaration, and with one last line of Because it’ll take me far away! from the song, the two best fighty dorks leap into the fray, and the series ends right there. I love them. I love it. Best, most uplifting ending. Look at them go.

Overall thoughts

Have you noticed how in these summary bits, as positive as I’ve usually been, I’ve never called any episode my absolute favourite one? That’s because this episode is my absolute favourite single episode in Savers! A lot of others have individual scenes I like more, but this is my favourite episode overall, because all of it is just so good. There’s barely a dull moment, Feelings abound everywhere, and I always come out of it feeling just so delightfully happy. I love Savers.

While the fighting in the previous episode I was kind of eh about, I really enjoy this as a final fight scene! It’s fun and upbeat and gives a neat send-off to most of the lower evolution stages and really exemplifies Masaru’s Masaru-ness one last time. It actually makes sense that all of humanity’s Digisoul would spur an eleventh-hour superpower, I love that said power is still Agumon, and it’s so fitting that it takes all of those emotions and Masaru’s very distinct brand of communication-through-fists to finally get through to Yggdrasil and change its mind.

Then we can spend the bulk of this episode on giving a send-off to the characters and their relationships with each other, and all of it is lovely. Seeing everyone be so happy to see each other safe again after the danger is so sweet, especially the Daimons, god they deserve to finally have Suguru back and get to be a family again, I love the Daimons so much.

And then the goodbyes tug at my heartstrings in the most wonderful way. All of them (Gaomon’s tea!!!), but of course especially Masaru and Agumon’s – the heartbreaking fact that Agumon feels he’s a nuisance in the Daimon family, and the extremely Masaru way that they can’t express their pain at saying goodbye through anything other than punching each other, aaaaa.

The epilogue is great, too! Tohma curing his sister, Suguru being a dad, Chika and Ikuto being schoolmates, Yoshino being a police officer. There’s all sorts of stuff that could be done with them from these new lives they’re leading after the five-year gap, if only there’d been a sequel like the writers were obviously trying to hook us into. Gahhh, there needs to be a sequel. Savers deserved a sequel. Literally the only thing wrong with this ending is that there will never be one.

But the absolute best thing is MASARU GOING WITH AGUMON TO THE DIGITAL WORLD, I love him so much. It’s the best subversion of all the usual obligatory heartbreaking Digimon endings where the humans and Digimon have to part ways Just Because and nobody gets to say otherwise. It’s so delightfully Masaru for him to just decide, screw that. He never really belonged in the human world either, and he doesn’t have to stay there. And I love that the narrative lets him! It lets him go off and live the life of fighty adventures he’s most suited for, instead of forcing him to go back to his normal boring human life and learn to be the Normal Person that he never was in the first place. It really epitomises the great way in which Savers has handled Masaru’s entire character.

See, I think a lot of fictional narratives – especially shows aimed at children – would take a boisterous, fighty kid like Masaru and put him through a character arc that pushes him to be less like that and more like a normal person, presenting that change as if it were a good thing. But Savers does none of that. It never once tries to tell Masaru that he’s wrong for being the way he is, just because it happens to not fit the world he lives in. All his arc does is refine that nature of his to make it less aimless and more focused on communication and emotions and having a meaningful impact on people. Maybe it’s my neurodivergence speaking, but I really really love the way that Savers’ narrative allows Masaru to keep being unabashedly himself, no matter what, right up until the very end.

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[Dub comparison]

#digimon #digimon savers #masaru daimon #agumon #tohma h norstein #gaomon #yoshino fujieda #lalamon #ikuto noguchi #falcomon #sayuri daimon #chika daimon #suguru daimon #miki & megumi #rentarou satsuma #kudamon #the digivice old man #yggdrasil

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Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 42 - The Burst Mode of Tohma’s Determination

In this episode, Tohma goes to protect his family from the Royal Knights’ attack and his father’s own stubbornness. Many Norstein family issues are aired out and explored, leading to Tohma and his father finally beginning to understand each other.

The nicely short recap focuses entirely on Masaru’s issues in the last couple of episodes and doesn’t even bother mentioning Dukemon. I approve.

Anyway, with Masaru having headed off to another world to prove his dad’s not a mass murderer, we catch up with the invasion in the human world. Royal Knights are casually disintegrating entire skyscrapers with their attacks. I’m still sceptical as to how much good this is doing in terms of destroying the entire planet, which is what would need to happen if Yggdrasil is actually telling the truth about only wanting to avoid the collision. Doesn’t really seem like it to me.

There’s also massive armies of Knightmon, Armour-level (so, basically Adult) Digimon who all work for the Royal Knights, I guess. The narrator – narrating over something that’s not actually recap, which is rare – tells us that they’re invading every city around the world, but I kind of doubt that, too. There’s only like seven Royal Knights that we’ve seen, and even with much larger armies of subordinate Knightmon, I doubt there’d be nearly enough to get to literally every human city ever.

Still, one of the cities they definitely are attacking is Yokohama, naturally. MirageGaogamon, Rosemon and Ravemon are working to fend off the attack, effortlessly taking out individual Knightmon, but the numbers are tough to deal with.

In amongst the battle, Tohma gets a call on his DATS earpiece from Yushima, who’s still hanging out with the Norsteins.

And then there’s an unusually early opening! As this episode’s title already spoils, Masaru’s not gonna be the only one of the crew getting Burst Mode. There’s this one shot near the end of the opening in which only ShineGreymon is seen in his Burst Mode, which might make you think this is one of those (very common in Digimon) times where the most central main character gets to achieve a higher final evolution level than everybody else. But actually, this shot’s misleading! Fair and equal evolutions for all our main cast in Savers, even though this is much less of an ensemble cast and Masaru really is much more the single main character than in any other Digimon series.

We cut back in at an airport, which is having a very rough time of it in the Knightmon’s attack, with flames and destruction everywhere. And yet, one very foolishly reckless plane is trying to take off: the Norstein private jet.

Yushima: “The man is crazy! He’s planning to take off?! After all I went through to stop him!”

Evidently, Yushima called up Tohma and asked him to come here because his father was about to do something extremely stupid and needed to be protected from his own stupidity. I also appreciate the acknowledgement that Yushima, having promised he’d take care of Relena in Tohma’s absence, didn’t just sit back and let this happen and did try to stop it, but in vain.

A Knightmon shows up in front of the plane’s cockpit, smashing the windows and effectively blinding the pilots. Gawappamon (I do not know why Kamemon is still only in his Adult-level form, more on that later) is there to take out the Knightmon, but the damage is done and the plane careers off the runway, unable to take off. (Which is probably for the best. Better it gets attacked now when it’s still on the ground than while it’s in the air.)

Inside the plane, Franz Norstein, Tohma’s father, is not pleased.

Franz: “What the hell are you doing?”

What do you think the pilots are doing, Franz, you must know full well that there’s a Digimon invasion going on, including at this very airport. Someone’s very used to always getting his way no matter what.

A worried Relena staggers her way out of the back section of the plane that’s being used as a makeshift hospital room for her.

Relena: “Father, what happened?”

Franz: “Stay inside!”

[Relena winces at his shout]

Franz: “I mean… it’s dangerous.”

Franz is stressed out enough that he snaps at her and kinda freaks her out, then realises his mistake and tries to explain how he meant it in a softer voice. He did mean well and warn her out of concern for her safety, but he’s not great at showing it, especially at a time like this. Not the best at dadding, this man.

Relena: “Father… why are we leaving for home so suddenly?”

Relena doesn’t listen to his warning and staggers further towards him anyway. I don’t blame her for just wanting to understand what’s going on and why her father’s even putting them in such a dangerous situation right now. Evidently he didn’t bother to explain his Big Important Norstein Reasons to her.

More attacks shake the plane, knocking them both to the ground. Franz gathers up the fallen Relena in his arms, desperately crying out for someone to help them.

Someone does come and help them: MirageGaogamon – or, in other words, Tohma. The big dog-knight effortlessly takes out all of the Knightmon flying around the airport, making the place safe, for the time being at least.

(More points on the using evolved Digimon for transport chart! They really are getting the hang of that at last. But still not evolving him specifically for transport, since MirageGaogamon was already evolved fighting elsewhere.)

Tohma watches with this bitter look on his face as the doctors stabilise Relena in her hospital bed on the plane. She would never have been hurt at all if his father hadn’t been so stubborn and foolish.

Tohma: “No matter where you run off to right now, the situation will be the same. Please stop exposing Relena to unnecessary danger.”

Franz: “I must return to Austria and protect our manor.”

That’s Franz’s reason for the reckless attempted take-off, apparently. As if protecting his manor is worth risking his daughter’s life, or as if he even could protect it himself against Digimon whom he has no way to fight. Someone’s sense of Norstein responsibility is extremely strong, to the point of overriding all common sense.

Tohma: “You *know* that flight take-off is currently prohibited!”

Franz: “That can be fixed just by mentioning the Norstein name.”

Franz, you absolute moron, it’s not about some arbitrary rule that you get to break because of your power and influence, it’s about the fact that if you take off then you’re going to freaking die because of the turbulence and the Digimon. Franz is clearly extremely used to being able to do whatever he wants and can’t quite grasp the idea of a situation so far beyond his control that he literally can’t.

Tohma: “That’s not what you should be saying!”

Franz: “You dare to challenge your own father?!”

Tohma, who kind of hates the Norstein name and everything that comes with it, really cannot stand the way his father is willing to wave it around in order to put Relena in danger, and snaps at him. Franz snaps right back by continuing to cling to his unearned authority based on titles – he’s Tohma’s father, so what he says goes.

Gaomon: “Master…”

Gaomon’s here too, and though he’d usually be a good dog and keep out of things like this, even he can tell his master’s getting rather concerningly worked up about this.

Tohma manages to calm himself just a little and tells his father that more Digimon troops might arrive, so they should take shelter.

Franz: “Take shelter? Don’t be stupid. I’ll have another jet prepared to take us home.”

It’s very rich that Franz insists the suggestion to take shelter and not put themselves in more danger is being “stupid”. What does Tohma mean, Franz should change his mind and admit he was in the wrong.

Tohma: “I just told you, you can’t do that!”

Franz: “Then you’ll act as our escort.”

Franz really is being very entitled about this. Tohma, one of the few people in the world with a Digimon partner capable of fighting off the waves of Knightmon, happens to be here and happens to be his son, so obviously he gets to make use of that for his own purposes. Tohma doesn’t get given a say in it; it’s his duty as a Norstein, obviously.

Tohma: “You are really…”

Tohma’s getting absolutely sick of his father’s entitlement to ordering him around and controlling his life like this. He’s grimacing and shaking in barely-suppressed anger and sounds like he’s very close to snapping out some sort of insult.

Franz: “What? Don’t you at least want to protect your sister’s life?”

And again, here’s Franz, using Relena in order to emotionally exploit Tohma into staying and helping when he otherwise wouldn’t. If he wasn’t putting Relena in danger in the first place, Tohma wouldn’t have any reason to want to do this.

Tohma: “Then… Then, what about you?”

Franz: “What?”

Tohma: “What have you ever protected so far?”

Tohma’s anger here isn’t even specifically focused on this one instance of his father being like this. This particular incident is hitting all the sore spots and turning into a reason for him to let out all of his long-bottled-up frustration about everything his father’s ever done – or rather, not done, as he feels.

We move into a flashback. Little Tohma stands forlornly in his house in Japan, which has been emptied of furniture, holding a funeral portrait of his mother. He’s about to move out to go and live with his father instead.

Franz: “Let’s go.”

Little Tohma: “Okay.”

Tohma mumbles this reluctantly after a pause, obviously not wanting to leave his home and the memories of his mother behind at all, but what can he do?

On the way out, in the hall, he glances at a wooden beam into which is carved some lines and writing, marking his height at different important days in his life. It’s a cute little ordinary-kid thing that he did together with his mom! Aww. Based on the highest-up birthday listed here, Tohma is currently only six years old. Ouch, that’s young to lose your mother. (This is how I knew to cite that age during episode 15.)

Seeing this, Tohma perks up just a little and heads outside to his father, seemingly wanting to show him and share this cute family thing with him, perhaps something they can start to bond over?

Little Tohma: “Dad, wait a…!”

But his father’s already getting into the car and doesn’t listen, too busy and grown-up to care about silly little sentimental things like that. Tohma’s face falls in disappointment.

…Also, something I can’t believe I only just picked up on while writing this: little Tohma tries to call him Dad here. Yet, every time we’ve seen in the present, Tohma calls him Father. Tohma really did want to have a closer, more personal connection with his father, but Franz’s demeanour and unwillingness to engage forced him to make the whole thing more formal and distant. Gah.

Later, in Austria, inside the gigantic Norstein manor, little Tohma sits awkwardly on a chair in a hallway as he overhears an argument in a nearby room between his father and his grandmother.

Franz: “Why, Mother?!”

Grandmother: “This isn’t a joke. I have no obligation to meet that child.”

Franz: “He’s my son! He’s *your* grandson!”

Grandmother: “Only through blood. That boy cannot be called a true Norstein.”

Credit to Franz – and a sign of the way he really feels about Tohma that he’s very bad at showing – he really does want to introduce his mother to his son, just because Tohma’s his son. Never mind anything else about those rules of noble pedigree that says he’s not a “true” Norstein because he’s half-Japanese, which Franz’s mother is very insistent on sticking to.

Something to note is that this conversation must be actually happening in German, and we’re just getting translation convention here – Franz might know Japanese, but there’s no way Grandmother Norstein would stoop to speaking some foreign language in her own home. So I suppose, for little Tohma to be listening in, he must already be fluent in German. Which makes sense; he’s a genius, and his mom might have encouraged him to learn it, because of his heritage.

Little Tohma couldn’t manage to sit still and just listen to the argument; by now he’s peering in through the doors to the room, and his grandmother notices him there.

Franz: “Tohma!” [he clears his throat] “What are you doing over there? Don’t you know how to greet others?”

Since she’s awkwardly seen him now, the best Franz can do to salvage this and make it seem polite and proper (and to not be an absolute dismissive dick to his son, which he doesn’t want to be) is to have Tohma introduce himself to his grandmother anyway, despite her wishes.

Little Tohma: “How do you do, Grandmother?”

Tohma nervously walks up and greets her, his gaze on the floor, because he overheard and knows full well that she doesn’t actually want him here. His grandmother lifts his chin to look at his face.

Grandmother: “His eyes are just like his mother’s.”

She doesn’t even greet him back. She just immediately comments – about him, not to him – on the physical feature of his that marks him out as not a true pedigree Norstein and the son of some foreign commoner. Being told you have your mother’s eyes is often meant as a compliment, but very definitely not here.

(Awkwardly, they’re literally not his mother’s eyes. Tohma’s eyes are blue, like his father’s, while his mother’s were brown like a Japanese person’s. It seems like the series’ artists finalised Tohma’s character design as someone who looked European without thinking about this relevant point for his half-blood heritage. It’s a shame; it would have been neat if he had blond hair and brown eyes to kind of reflect that. But, shush, please ignore what we can literally see here and focus on the narrative point of his grandmother’s words. I appreciate the spirit of the writers still wanting to go for this narrative point anyway despite that the character design had screwed them over on having it actually make visual sense.)

Grandmother: “I’m sure it must have been easy for you to mislead that young and ignorant exchange student.”

This is all we need to know about how Tohma’s mother and father met. She was an exchange student studying in Austria, and they happened to fall in love and conceive a child – out of wedlock, of course – despite that such a thing is very much not what a true proper Norstein should do in terms of creating offspring and potential heirs. Franz may have tried to do the proper dutiful Norstein thing, but he couldn’t help being driven by his emotions and his love. A little bit like another Norstein we know, really.

Of course, because a Norstein fathering a child in this way Will Not Do, Franz’s lover quietly took her baby back with her to Japan and raised him there. I imagine the Norsteins would have been quite happy to pretend this embarrassment had never happened, and Tohma would have grown up as a (relatively) normal Japanese kid, if things had been different. But then his mother died in that accident, forcing his father’s side of the family to awkwardly take custody of this kid they never wanted to be associated with.

Tohma’s grandmother finally looks straight at Tohma and addresses him directly.

Grandmother: “Listen closely. You are of the Norstein family, yet at the same time, you are not. You’ll do well to continue bearing that in mind.”

Geez, what a thing to say to a six-year-old kid who’s only just lost his mother and has been taken halfway across the world into a new home. If you’ve ever wondered how Tohma can seem full of himself sometimes and yet at the same time have such an inferiority complex? Yeah, this explains it pretty comprehensively. On the one hand, he’s technically a Norstein, which means that attitude of him being More Important than common people would be subconsciously ingrained into him no matter how much he doesn’t agree with it. But on the other hand, he’s not a “true” Norstein, and he’ll never be good enough for his family no matter what he does. Imagine growing up with that hanging over you from such a young age.

Little Tohma, almost on the verge of tears, glances to his father for any kind of support in this cruel disapproval from his grandmother – disapproval that he knows full well is because of his mom, aka the one person in the world he loves and misses dearly. And wasn’t his father supposed to have loved his mom, too? Surely he’d stand up for her?

Franz doesn’t. He’s twisted his entire face away from Tohma, not saying a word.

Seeing his father refusing to defend his mother against such insinuations, little Tohma feels very, very alone.

Tohma: “I will never forget what you did back then. You insulted my mother, in the most despicable way, through your silence!”

And it seems like Tohma never let that go, for eight years. His mother was the one who raised him and loved him and was most important to him, so of course his first impressions of his father were horribly tarnished by the way Franz seemed to not even care about her. Tohma’s always been carrying that resentment towards his father. And similarly, remember how he brought up his father not helping his mother when she was suffering, presumably from money problems, when they were arguing in episode 34? Though growing up in the Norstein household with someone as uptight as Franz as a father can’t have been fun in general, all of Tohma’s most bitter feelings about it all revolve around his mother. She really did mean so much to him, even though he almost never mentions her to anyone.

Hearing this, realising his son still resents him for this, Franz grimaces and looks away.

Franz: “You know nothing. Nothing.”

His words indicate that there was a lot more to his actions back then than simply not caring and not wanting to stand up for the woman he loved. It’s that he knew exactly how his own mother would react to such a thing. A Norstein isn’t supposed to care about some commoner, and he was desperate to not disappoint his own parent here any more than he already had.

And it’s very true that little Tohma didn’t take Franz’s point of view on this into account at all back then – but then, how could he have been expected to? He was six. Still, Franz acting like Tohma knows nothing at all of the Norstein family pressures he was under even now is maybe not quite as much the truth as he thinks it is, is it.

Gaomon gets their attention and pulls them out of the family quarrel by pointing out that there’s another squadron of Knightmon approaching outside the plane, just like Tohma predicted.

Franz: “Do something, Tohma! Since you’re a Norstein, you should be able to do something!”

In his panic at the renewed danger, Franz instinctively clings to two things – his belief in his son’s abilities, and the notion that the Norstein name in particular makes somebody worth more than someone without.

Tohma rounds on him, scowling. Being told that he should be able to help because he’s a Norstein is the last thing he wants to hear right now, after the words of his grandmother’s that he was just remembering.

To his credit, Franz shrinks back a little at that, seeming to realise that that was not the best choice of words under the circumstances.

Doctor: “Master Franz! Miss Relena is going into spasms!”

(Incidentally, though I’ve been calling Tohma’s father Franz since he showed up in episode 34, this line is the only point in the series at which we actually learn his name. I’m glad we have this, because it’d have been a lot more awkward wording-wise to talk about Tohma’s issues with him, and Franz’s own issues, if I didn’t even have an actual name to refer to him by.)

Yushima: “Well, then. I guess it’s time to show them how serious I can be.”

Yushima, outside the plane and watching the squadron approach, does a Digisoul Full Charge and evolves Gawappamon into his Perfect-level form, Shawujingmon. I do not know why he didn’t have his partner evolved to his highest possible level earlier. Or, well, I do: it’s because the writers wanted to show off this form by having him evolve onscreen, even though he’s not important enough for a full-length evolution animation.

What I also don’t get is why we didn’t see Kamemon’s Perfect form earlier in the series, back during the ElDoradimon arc, where most of the main cast were already Ultimate-level and most of the Gizmon they were fighting were Perfect. That’d have been a much more appropriate point for it. And then maybe we could have got to see an Ultimate-level form for Kamemon here, like we’ve also seen Satsuma’s partner as an Ultimate? (Okay, yeah, I know, Kudamon’s a Royal Knight so he was always going to be that strong, but still.) It’d make Yushima feel a lot less awkwardly behind the times for someone who’s the Chief of DATS and therefore presumably supposed to be kind of a badass.

Still, even at only Perfect-level, Shawujingmon is more than a match for this army of Armour-level Knightmon, because of course he is.

Relena: “Brother…”

Back in the plane’s makeshift hospital, Relena’s been stabilised, somewhat, but she’s still clearly in distress, grimacing and mumbling through her oxygen mask. She reaches out to grasp hold of Tohma’s hand as it rests on the railings of her bed. Tohma gasps – that simple gesture’s reminded him of another very important memory of his…

In the Norstein manor, perhaps a year or two later than the previous flashback judging by little Tohma looking a little bit older, Relena’s just been born. Franz and his mother hurry to consult with the doctors about the condition of the child, while Tohma lingers behind, watching from around a corner, obviously not properly allowed to be here even though this is his half-sister they’re talking about.

Grandmother: “A girl?”

Tohma’s grandmother sounds vaguely displeased at hearing the child’s gender, despite that she herself is a woman and seems to be the matriarch of the Norstein family. I guess that ingrained sexism still runs strong enough that she was hoping for a boy regardless.

Doctor: “However… both the mother and child were in danger during the labour process…”

Grandmother: “Very well. Do everything you can to save the child’s life.”

…But not the mother’s, apparently? I guess she can be sacrificed, in the name of bringing a new Norstein heir into the world. Presumably, after his, ah, mishap with the “ignorant exchange student” who was Tohma’s mother, Franz was married to a European woman of suitable noble pedigree, and since then they’ve been trying to conceive a child who can be a proper true-blood Norstein heir, unlike Tohma. That’s far more important than said woman’s life, right.

Grandmother: “She is a precious child who has finally been born into the Norstein family.”

Implicit in her words, which little Tohma clearly picks up on in some form as he listens from around the corner, is that he was never a precious child, and they never cared about him being brought into this family.

Sometime a little later, with baby Relena safe and sleeping (her mother presumably didn’t make it, because we never hear anything more about her), little Tohma heads into his sister’s hospital room to see her for the first time, while nobody else is around. He probably isn’t allowed to see her with others around, because he’s not Norstein enough, but how could he not want to anyway?

Little Tohma: “So you’re Relena.”

The way he phrases this, like she’s so important already, even though she’s just a little sleeping baby, says a lot.

Little Tohma: “Everyone is worrying for you.”

Not stated but thoroughly implied in Tohma’s words: just like nobody ever worries about him.

I get the sense that he’s come here to see her not just because she’s his sister, but because he wants to try and understand what’s so special about her that makes her so much more important to his family than he is, even when she’s just a baby. After all, Tohma’s still pretty young himself, and genius or not, he probably doesn’t entirely grasp the Norstein politics and understand what it actually is that makes him “not good enough”.

Baby Relena, of course, understands all that even less. She begins to cry and wave her arms around, searching for some kind of human contact, and manages to grasp Tohma’s hand as he holds onto the edge of her crib. As soon as she does, she stops crying and chuckles happily.

Tohma stares in surprise. He takes his hand away, experimentally, and Relena immediately begins crying and reaching out for it again. Tohma keeps staring at her, like he can’t believe it. She wants him.

Somebody wants him.

Slowly, Tohma lowers his hand back towards his baby sister, and as Relena grabs hold of it, again she stops crying and becomes happy.

This is exactly what little Tohma needed. Someone who doesn’t care about any of the Norstein pedigree nonsense, and loves him unconditionally exactly the way he is. He smiles back at her, and there’s a kind of subtle determination in it. You can almost see him resolving then and there to do absolutely anything for this little girl.

I love this sequence; it shows so subtly and succinctly just exactly why Relena is so incredibly important to Tohma. She gave him unconditional love when he needed it most, when nobody else in his family would. No wonder he went and devoted his entire life to getting himself a medical license and research degree, all for the sake of curing her. No wonder he pretended to participate in genocide to keep her safe when an evil man put a bomb around her neck.

In the present, Relena’s still holding Tohma’s hand. He puts his other hand over hers protectively.

Tohma: “I will do something… for Relena’s sake. But I won’t be doing it because I’m a Norstein!”

No matter how he feels about his father’s approaches, he cannot ever say no to protecting Relena. But he can at least do so while making it clear exactly who he’s doing this for, and that it’s not about those Norstein ideals that have caused him so much pain.

With that, Tohma heads out of the hospital section, leaving Franz and Relena in there. Franz calls after him, in vain, and then looks back at Relena, wincing. Seems like Tohma’s words lodged somewhere.

Gaomon: “Master…”

Tohma: “It’s all right.”

Tohma says this without looking at Gaomon, speeding up in his exit from the plane as if to prove just how all right everything is by getting straight into the action.

No, Tohma, it’s not. You are clearly not okay right now, with all this baggage that’s being dredged up. Gaomon can tell. (Gaomon, talk to him about his issues! You too-obedient dog, you.)

Outside the plane, Shawujingmon is still taking out Knightmon but is beginning to get overwhelmed by numbers, so MirageGaogamon joins the fray to help out.

Tohma: “Yushima-san! I apologise.”

Yushima: “Hm? For what?”

Yeah, Tohma – don’t apologise when you’ve done nothing wrong! I like how Yushima points out that he’s got nothing to be sorry for. Apparently Tohma being around his father and subjected to those ridiculously high standards has made him feel like he needs to apologise for something as insignificant as, I dunno, taking an extra minute to leave the plane and come help because he was dealing with family issues.

After some more fighting, the Knightmon fall back as one of the Royal Knights, RhodoKnightmon, descends dramatically from the storm clouds.

(Guh, thanks to Digimon Frontier, my brain still can’t help but want to call this guy LordKnightmon, which is how his name was romanised in those subs, but nope, I am going to insistently make myself stick to what the Savers subs call him anyway, because Savers.)

RhodoKnightmon: “You will pay for laying your hands on my subordinates.”

[Tohma scowls]

Tohma: “Let’s go, MirageGaogamon!”

MirageGaogamon: “Yes, Master!”

Yushima: “Don’t! Tohma!”

Yushima can be seen taking notice in the background upon seeing Tohma’s uncharacteristically fierce and charge-in-headfirst approach. Tohma is not being himself, and Yushima, who’s good at observing interesting people and figuring out the gist of their issues, can tell.

MirageGaogamon, as ordered, simply zooms right up to RhodoKnightmon, who dodges his attack and counterattacks with a super-speed flurry of blows from every angle, sending MirageGaogamon crashing to the ground. That’s the sort of reckless mistake Masaru might make, but not usually Tohma.

Tohma: “Damn it…”

Yushima: (His composure is breaking… Just as I assumed, he’s agitated about something.)

Again, I like how Yushima can tell. Tohma’s getting too worked up by his family issues to be thinking straight right now.

Franz: “I… I…”

Meanwhile, in the hospital section of the plane, Franz is also getting rather worked up with his own issues. He briefly flashes back to all the times Tohma’s snapped at him this episode, perhaps starting to realise that his son might have a point.

We move into another full flashback – this one from Franz’s perspective. It’s not long after Relena’s been born; maybe a few days or so? Long enough for the poor state of her long-term health to have been confirmed by the doctors, at any rate.

Grandmother: “Tohma shall succeed the Norstein lineage.”

Franz: “What did you say?”

Grandmother: “Because of her weak body, Relena will not do.”

Thinking about this from Franz’s perspective, this has got to have been a slap in the face. He finally goes and does the Proper Thing instead of being led by his emotions, marrying, and conceiving a child with, a woman he presumably didn’t have any feelings for (and even if he didn’t, it’s still got to hurt that she died giving birth). And after all that, it turns out those efforts still weren’t good enough to produce a proper heir after all.

(It’s probably not a surprise that Relena’s so ill, when you think about how much the Norsteins seem to care about proper “pedigree” – her condition may be a result of the rather shallow gene pool available among European nobility.)

Grandmother: “Instead, arrange for a lady of suitable pedigree to become Tohma’s wife. Choose one that will prevent others from talking behind our backs.”

Even though a part of Franz might be happy that his son is finally being recognised, his mother makes it clear that Tohma’s existence is still a stain on their reputation, and he needs to make up for that and cover it up by giving Tohma a suitably pedigree wife. Clearly the “talking behind our backs” remark is referring to what other noble families will be/have been doing about Tohma’s heritage and Franz’s “mistake”.

(Also, imagine how this must have felt for Tohma. You’re a Norstein, except you’re not really. Oh, wait, except you are, but only because you’re the inferior back-up option, now have all these immense pressures and standards to live up to as we decide the rest of your life for you. Gah. It must have been such a relief for him when he ran off to medical school and then also joined DATS, just to be able to get away from all that.)

Franz: “But Mother!”

Grandmother: “Understood?”

Franz: “Yes…”

Franz’s expression wavers before he gives in and accepts his mother’s demands. Seen from this perspective, it reads as quite similar to the way Tohma has been protesting his father’s unreasonable demands, and has been given little choice but to accept them and go along with the Norstein Way. It’s not just Franz; every member of the Norstein family imposes these values and pressures on their offspring, until they learn to impose it on theirs in turn. It wouldn’t even be fair to say that Franz’s mother is the sole villain here, because although she’s never presented in a sympathetic light in this episode, she must also have grown up with those same pressures from her parents until she internalised it all. (Especially as a woman leading the family, which it seems like this culture is still vaguely sexist about.)

In short: the Norstein family is messed up as all hell, by its very nature.

As Franz, in the present, clutches his head and grimaces from his own issues and guilt, one of the doctors comes and tells him they’re ready to move Relena back to the airport so that they can transport her onto the replacement jet. (They’re still apparently going with that plan to continue trying to fly back to Austria, although I wonder if Franz would really be so willing to stubbornly insist that’s the best approach any more. But either way, they’ve at least got to move Relena out of this plane.)

Doctor: “We must do this while Master Tohma is distracting them.”

Franz: “Tohma…”

Franz mutters his son’s name like he’s worried, or perhaps proud, as it sinks in (not for the first time) just how much Tohma’s willing to risk himself and sacrifice for Relena’s sake.

Out in the fight, RhodoKnightmon gets in an attack on Shawujingmon, instantly devolving him, because of course. MirageGaogamon, while remaining evolved, is taking quite the beating from the Royal Knight too, ending up collapsed in pain on the runway.

Relena’s doctors emerge from the plane, wheeling her bed across the runway as fast as they can while RhodoKnightmon is hopefully not looking their way. Relena regains consciousness and looks over to see her brother rushing to the downed MirageGaogamon’s side. With all the self-preservation of a scared little girl who’s just desperately worried about her precious big brother (that is to say, no self-preservation whatsoever, but let her off, she’s very young), Relena climbs out of the hospital bed and starts running as fast as she can towards Tohma out of some frantic attempt to help him somehow.

Relena: “Brother… No… Don’t go…!”

Or perhaps it’s not about helping him, but some sense that she’s being taken away in a different direction to him, and so she thinks he’s going to leave her and just wants to stay with him? I’m not sure if this is meant as a warning or as a plea.

Franz sees this from the door of the plane and rushes towards his daughter. One of the Knightmon sees a free target and fires an attack directly at Relena, who freezes up in fear as it approaches.

(Seriously, Knightmon, what a dick move. Of all the exposed human targets you’ve got here right now, you aim right at the defenceless child before anyone else?)

Franz desperately reaches out for his daughter as the attack draws close, but he’s never going to get there in time. He collapses before he can see it hit – and looks up to see Relena safely in Tohma’s arms, with MirageGaogamon kneeling behind them. Despite how injured he was, the good good dog managed to stand up and get there just in time to block the attack, because he would do anything for his Master’s precious sister.

Franz couldn’t do anything to protect his daughter – but Tohma could.

Relena smiles at seeing her brother safe (and is hopefully learning her lesson about feeling like she can protect him in a dangerous situation if that’s what it was, Relena that was sweet of you but please) and passes out in his arms.

Franz staggers closer to both of his children, and then he drops to his knees in front of Tohma, as if begging for forgiveness.

Franz: “Even I… Even I have acted out of desperation. I always did everything in my power to protect the Norstein family’s name!”

Finally, after seeing what almost happened to Relena and having himself be powerless to protect her, Franz is willing to humble himself in front of Tohma and admit that he’s not perfect. Everything he’s done has also been out of a desperation to live up to those ridiculously heavy Norstein family pressures, but it’s hard, and he’s never been good enough at it, and he’s messed up his own son in the process.

Franz’s voice cracks with emotion as he says this, and he breaks down crying.

Tohma: “Father…”

This is, almost certainly, the first time Tohma’s ever seen his father cry, or show any real amount of vulnerability at all. This is the first time he’s realising that his father has also been suffering under the Norstein pressures, just like he has. His father’s not such an unreasonable tyrant after all; he’s just a flawed, imperfect human being.

Tohma remembers himself, as a kid, crying alone outside the Norstein manor. We’re not shown why, but surely it must simply have been from all of the pressures put on him and the loneliness it made him feel – this probably happened a lot more than once. That image gets overlaid over the image of Franz crying here and now. Father and son aren’t so different after all. Tohma can understand what his father’s going through, because he’s been through the same kind of thing.

Tohma: “Father. Please take care of Relena.”

[he hands Relena over to Franz]

Franz: “Tohma?”

[Tohma stands up]

Tohma: “I will protect you.”

That seems to be all Tohma needs – coming to some kind of understanding of his father as a person, seeing him be vulnerable – for his protective instinct to kick in towards him, too. Tohma may come across as logical and calculated on the surface, but he really is so deeply driven by the desire to protect those closest to him more than anything else.

Tohma: “I’ll make sure to protect you. I won’t let them lay a finger on Relena, either.”

[he puts a hand on MirageGaogamon]

MirageGaogamon: “Yes, Master.”

I like MirageGaogamon’s “Yes, Master” here. There’s somehow more gravity to it than most of them, like he understands the resolve his master’s just come to and how important this is to Tohma, and he’s even more determined than usual to support him. Tohma didn’t even give him a verbal order, but he knows exactly what his master wants him to do. Good dog.

With that, he and Tohma turn dramatically to face RhodoKnightmon.

Tohma: “RhodoKnightmon! You won’t get away with this any longer! With my name, Tohma Norstein, on the line… I will defeat you!”

It sure marks a turnaround that Tohma’s willing to dramatically swear on his name like this. I imagine this is a lot less about the family name in and of itself, given how much pain and grief that’s caused to both him and his father, and more about just Tohma himself. He’s being proud of every single part of him, his sister and his father, because they’re all his family, even if that family’s pretty messed-up.

RhodoKnightmon: “You will defeat me? Even as a joke, that’s quite insulting. Such a sin is punishable by death.”

Oh my god, more ridiculous Royal Knight pompousness. Yes, clearly, simply saying you’ll defeat a Royal Knight is such a terrible insult that you deserve to die for it. Get over yourself, RhodoKnightmon.

RhodoKnightmon flies at MirageGaogamon, who, despite his earlier injuries, blocks the knight’s ribbon-sword without missing a beat, before Tohma even begins to flare up with Burst Mode energy. I guess his partner’s new determination and resolve already managed to give MirageGaogamon a pick-me-up, even without the whole thing being charged through the Digivice into Burst Mode just yet.

But anyway, it’s Burst Mode time for Tohma, as if the title of this episode didn’t already give that away. Look at this unicorn dog-knight with fabulous hair. I think I actually like MirageGaogamon’s Burst Mode form distinctly more than his regular form, while for the other Burst Modes I’m kind of indifferent. Something about the different shape of his body is more appealing to me.

His animation also involves him dramatically pulling his new weapon out of the moon, which makes for some nice duality with how ShineGreymon’s Burst Mode animation has him pulling his flaming sword and shield out of the sun.

Also, as you’d imagine, we get Believer again, which is always a good time when we haven’t heard it since episode 38.

MirageGaogamon’s new moon-flail weapon shatters one of RhodoKnightmon’s ribbon swords. Then RhodoKnightmon’s attack of striking at super-speed from multiple angles, which did a number on MirageGaogamon earlier, is now something he’s fast enough to block every single strike from.

There’s not much else that’s interesting about the fight. It’s not quite won in a single attack, but it’s your pretty standard comprehensive victory brought on by a new evolution. RhodoKnightmon was never an interesting antagonist anyway, so I don’t mind. This episode was about the family issues, not the fighting.

As RhodoKnightmon disintegrates into an egg, a beam of light appears and carries it upwards towards the Digital World. All of the Knightmon’s eggs were just left here, but apparently Yggdrasil doesn’t want to let any humans get their hands on the egg of one of its Royal Knights in particular.

Later, Relena’s sleeping safely in a hospital bed in the airport building. It seems Franz has seen sense and is not about to try and risk her life again by taking off with her in another jet. Protecting the Norstein manor (as if he even could; he’s probably been humbled enough to realise how out of his power that is right now) is not worth that risk.

Franz: “I see. So you’re leaving.”

Tohma: “Yes.”

Franz: “Will it be all right?”

Tohma: “Set your mind at ease. Relena has already settled down.”

Franz: “No. I was talking about you. Will you be able to come home safely?”

Aww, Franz. He’s very awkward and bad at showing it, but he really does love and care about both of his children. His strict Norstein upbringing just forced him to always treat those feelings like they were a secondary priority next to whatever he had to do to protect the Norstein family name.

It’s also not a surprise that Tohma initially assumed his father’s question was about Relena, because he is thoroughly not used to the idea that his father worries about him. He stares at his father in shock for a moment as the reality sinks in.

Tohma: “It’ll be all right. After all… I am a Norstein.”

I am, again, going to assume that this is not about the lofty Norstein pedigree like his grandmother would have meant it. Instead, perhaps he means it in the sense that, well… being a Norstein messes you up, but that also means it gives you the resilience to get through any kind of challenge and still stay standing. His father must understand that too, surely.

(Something that might be worth noting is that we never get any sense that the influence of Tohma’s grandmother is still around in the present day. She may well have passed away by now? …Or, I suppose, maybe she’s just back in Austria, having not joined Franz on his trip to Japan to cure Relena through Kurata’s methods, because she doesn’t care about Relena enough when she’s not the heir anyway.)

Franz: “I see.”

I kind of like this shot of both of them sitting side-by-side like this. They’re still both so awkward about this communicating and talking-about-their-feelings thing – but at least Franz is now making an attempt, which is significant progress from how he was before.

Tohma exits the hospital room, implicitly leaving his family’s safety in Yushima and Kamemon’s hands. He’s resolved to head out to the Digital World to help Masaru.

Which… is a bit of a sudden turnaround from the end of the previous episode, in which he promised Masaru he’d stay behind to protect the human world from the Royal Knights’ attack. This does somewhat smack of this episode transparently existing to get Tohma his Burst Mode before he can head off and join the real fight.

But it does make a certain amount of sense for him to join Masaru anyway. As much as they might talk about protecting the human world from attack, there’s just so many Royal Knights (and minions) that there’s very little that one person can do to help, even with an Ultimate-level partner. The only thing that’s really going to make a difference to the fate of the world here is getting through to Yggdrasil, so really, Masaru needs all the help he can get with that side of things. Tohma and the others may have been briefly swayed at the end of last episode by Masaru’s stubborn insistence on Doing This Alone because of his dad complex, but despite the legit argument about staying to protect the human world, following Masaru to help him really was always the best call all along.

Yushima: “He’d rather face the danger than wait for it to come, is it?”

Perhaps that’s one way of putting it. Tohma’s new resolve found in this episode seems to have also come complete with nudging him to take a more head-on Masaru approach to things.

Overall thoughts

This really is nothing but a Tohma’s Issues episode, but it does still feel reasonably integrated into the plot, being wrapped up with the current crisis, which is nice.

And man, what a good Issues Episode it is. I am very glad to have this to cap off all of Tohma’s other issues and development that we’ve had throughout the series. It’s masterfully done – I love how all these flashbacks tell us everything we need to know to fully explain Tohma’s character and let us realise where every part of him comes from: his inferiority complex and perfectionism, his resentment of his father, his devotion to Relena, everything. All my analysis of Tohma in previous episodes has been done with this stuff low-key in mind in the back of my head, even as I’ve not mentioned it directly, because it’s just so vital for understanding what makes him tick.

I also enjoy that this episode shows us Franz’s issues and humanises him a lot, drawing parallels between father and son in terms of the pressures they’re under. This doesn’t excuse Franz for not having been a great father until now, but it’s for flawed human reasons and not simply because he’s A Bad Person. While he was terrible at showing it, he has always loved his kids, and at least he’s now admitted to his mistakes and shown willingness to try and do better. It’s still going to be awkward at the Norstein dinner table for quite a while, but they’ll be able to get somewhere.

RhodoKnightmon is admittedly barely a character, but also, who cares; he’s just here to be a Villain of the Week to give Tohma something to fight. At least the writing isn’t trying to treat him like we ought to be invested in him – see me side-eyeing next week’s episode.

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[Dub comparison]

#digimon #digimon savers #tohma h norstein #franz norstein #relena norstein #the digivice old man

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