Digimon, Digital Monsters, Digimon Are The Champions (Survive might actually be getting a release date!?)

I forgot just how bloody terrifying SkullGreymon was.  He's huge!  And it serves Tai right for being arsey - like, really bad and controlling.  I also like how they start doing subversions of the evolution music that are, presumably, lost entirely in the dub.

Wait: he's terrifying, apart from the dopey fish torpedo on his back. Speaking of fish, Gomamon is, once again, the real hero of the piece.  Fish out of interdimensional rifts because why not?  We do have another coincidental-feeling Crest-find, which is a bit meh.

Etemon reminds me a bit of Redd White in the anime.

Average episode, all things considered.  The SkullGreymon hook is good, but it's a bit stretched out over the runtime.

Yes, go straight for it lads and lasses, the last time you found 'luxury accommodation' it worked so well. This time wasn't as illusory as the title suggested, mind.  

I've got a lot of time for Kokatorimon, be it his design, his clucking, the stupid 'bakawk' in every subbed line, or his attempts to fly.  This could have been a really dull 'Digimon of the Week' episode without that, but he makes it.  Not too much Numemon nonsense either, fortunately.  Instead we have that giant cactus moment at the end which is just pure

The 'bringing them up correctly' thing is presumably a call-back to the original virtual pets, and it's one I have a lot of time for.  I think it also displays Mimi in a pretty good light, which I'm sure the dub stuffs up.

Tokomon is the cutest little potato.

I like this episode.  It isn't big or special: just a fun romp with a fun villainous Digimon.  Who, er, gets burned to death at the end.  Kids' TV everyone!

TOKOMON WAVING - MY HEART - IT CAN'T COPE

Er, anyway, we have two rather dull villainous Digimon: Kuwagamon 2 Antlion Edition, and Mega-Agumon.  Was the entire ideas department away that day apart from the work experience kid?  Piximon (or, er, Piccolomon) at least looks like he(?) was properly designed: shame he's really annoying, and that's ignoring that he has a voice that makes me want to take a fork to my ears.  I know I know, grouch with a heart of gold, and he does help, but my gosh he's bobbins.

Etemon steals the show in his few appearances.  There's not an awful lot of show to steal, heavy-handed bike-riding scene aside.  At least the use of Bolero is pretty cool.  Digimon: Our Best Music Is Saved For Boats.

Oh: and the message kind of fell a bit flat for me too.  Agumon evolved to Greymon just fine, so I'm not sure why anybody's worried about that!  But apparently they are, interminably.  Then he evolves and... suplexes a dinosaur to death.

This one was the biggest duffer out of the three.  The only good moments were Tokomon being cute and the girls spooking Joe.

Ah yes, I'm reminded that Etemon has an Elvis voice. It works. And that Biyomon's dubbed voice is awful. It doesn't work.

Tai says he'll get another Digimon if Agumon doesn't try harder. That's... even harsher.

The musical subversion, while not entirely lost, is much less noticeable and less good.

Watching this without a break, you get 'He's Koromon again,' twice in a row, said exactly the same. Also I forgot that Koromon has a girl's voice, weirdly.

Mimi's early-episode pep-talk is replaced by a 'pep-talk' in which she insults Tai. Not quite making a massive mess of it, but still not good.

BLOOPER ALERT. Missed this first time (I assume it's not a dub issue), but when they're running towards the mirage cactus, you can see Patamon flying even though he's still Tokomon. I see you, animators.

Gennai's script changes completely. At the start he talks about how essential it is to find the crests; then he says that they need patience. It's left to Biyomon to question whether she's being cared for properly. Then they refer to it later in the pool, like they've assumed he talked about it. Another example of 'whyyyyyy?' We also don't get how Mimi doesn't want a crest, or how Kokatrimon wishes he could fly.

'Hey there big boy,' says Mimi. Blimey.

'Remember when the food was just an illusion?' says Izzy, in a rare example of the dub being better. They literally didn't mention that very obvious comparison at all in the subs.

Kokatrimon's voice is bobbins. Fortunately he still clucks.

They don't mention that it's the Crest of Sincerity in the sub, do they? But then, having given Mimi no redeeming features in the dub, they have to explain it clumsily.

Kuwagamon's 'roaring' (somebody saying 'rargh') is really irritating in the dub, but Piximon isn't as irritating by a long shot. TOKOMON THOUGH.

The boat scene lacks the good music, as guessed (and tiny Tai's voice is deeply unconvincing); but actually I think this episode holds up a lot better in the dub without Piximon making me want to take a craft knife to my ears. It's his episode rather than the villainous Digimon's, so it lives and dies on how well he comes across.

'Black cables shattering'... no Sora, that's a Digimon dying.

'Far from over, your training is.' Who would that be an imitation of, eh?

This is one I remember really well from watching as a kid, and it held up pretty well. Tai did some dumb stuff but it all made sense, characters actually learned things, and Skullgreymon is really bloody cool.

Fine, but forgettable. The boat was just Devimon's mansion all over again. These kids don't learn!

Another pretty good one. Character growth and that, plus a very cool monster to fight. I just wish the writers would commit one way or the other to Piximon talking like Yoda . . .

These two start off like any other episode in this arc- wondering around, looking for someone's crest. We get an email asking for help and a seemingly generic good Digimon who wants help, monster of the week story.

Izzy actually starting to speculate on what the hell the Digiworld is was a cool moment, and things are left vague enough to still kind of work.

There's a part where Tai spoke in TK's voice, I think, which was weird.

Datamon's design being cool as hell helped, of course, but when he turns out to be no better than Etamon things get interesting. The dynamic is more interesting than pure good versus evil, then Sora is taken and Tai gets a sudden dose of character development. He realises the danger is all real and has a total deer-in the headlights moment. We get our bleakest cliffhanger yet!

Then we get the kick-ass Etemon finale. The team all have to actually think and plan in order to save Sora, so we get character moments and some slightly more clever action than just two Digimon facing one another down one-on-one. There are distractions and brawls and Etemon fights in unsurprisingly funky style.

Sora is of course rescued, Datamon makes a last-ditch effort and revenge and of course it all boils down to our hero making a final stand against Etemon. Sure, the baddy is finally defeated by Greymon digivolving to a new level, but it feels different because the evolution is fuelled by Tai having to make this breakthrough. Instead of being a reckless idiot, he actually faced his fears and did the courageous thing anyway, earning that dope CGI digivolution and ruthless use of nipple rockets.

Then we get another amazing cliffhanger - Tai and Koromon are back on Earth"

Well, this one set of my weeb senses something rotten!

Actual locations in Odaiba! I've been there! Tai cooked Omrice! They live in an apartment building just like mine and have a classic Japanese aircon system! There was a family mart! They all said "いただきます" before they ate, whatever the dub tried to tell me! And . . . a can of coca cola, weirdly.

And we got to see Kari! And see some hint of how cool fights in the real world are gonna be.

Also, and I did look this up, this one is animated in the style of Digimon movies instead of the TV way, and it looks goooorgeous! Really good stuff, yo.

This was a sweet, excellent episode and a really welcome change of pace.

A really top-class episode, this one.  Nanomon/Datamon is a strong sub-villain and another well-designed monster, Izzy gets to be a damn hero, we get some top lore bombs (that carry on using information from previous episodes in a solid way), and it had an excellent ending/sequel hook.  Tai's been a bit annoying of late, but the data/death thing is good character development.  (Still, him booting the Gazumon up the bottom was funny.)  Sora's still a stick-in-the-mud, mind.

Is there any reason why Team B stick around in the sphinx's mouth?  It gives me fewer cute Tokomon moments.

First things first: I thought the evolution sequence for MetalGreymon was great back in the day, and it still is.  MetalGreymon himself, however, is rubbish.  They've slapped some armour onto Greymon and called it a day.  He's very disappointing in design, and I think the next one to come will be too.  Also, 'holy power'?  How is a cyborg dinosaur 'holy'?  Nah.

That out of the way: strong episode.  Etemon is great, even greater when he's absorbed into a ball of pulsing darkness.  We get to see TK cuddling Tokomon and Ikkakumon waddling around like the fat walrus-dog he is, both of which are lovely.  

And that cliff-hanger!  I'm running out of superlatives.  Also, is it me or is the real-world art style subtly different?

I'M GOING TO CRY

This is it, then.  The best episode so far.  So strong.  What a fool I was, not to see Koromon for the cutie he obviously is!  Look at him playing pat-a-cake!  And guzzling cola!  And being generally squishy.  Not that he's the only cute one: Kari is adorable!

Poor Kari...

Cough.  Yep this was great, showing off the real-world consequences of digital-world actions and that.  Interesting too that Kari's been able to see Digimon since the year dot.  And I do reckon there was a subtle shift in art style.  (EDIT: Ah, I see!  Like the films, eh.)

Well played, all.  Very well played.  Like heck I'm going to stop here for tonight.

So, the gang have all split up again while Tai was away, huh?
The overall idea here, with TK being separated from the others and groomed by a villainous party pretending to be his friend is sinister and a good set-up. But how would he possibly trust a character called DemiDevimon, who looks like another Devimon, at this point in the series!?

One thing I did like was the final fight. Digimon is often accused, in very reductive terms, of always boiling down to the good guy digivolving enough to win. This marks two episodes in a row where fun fight scenes with real stakes have been fought between Rookie level monsters.

A pretty dumb little story but it was fun enough and WereGarurumon is pretty cool. Sora's thing of sneaking around foiling DemiDevimon's plots is . . . weird? But okay I guess.

This one was weird and surreal and I loved it. MegaKabuterimon can apparently destroy whole planets in Vademon's dimension?

'From the sublime to the ridiculous,' was how I described this on first watching it.  Now, after watching the next two episodes, I feel better about it; but I still think it's on the weaker side, especially given what came before.

For starters, everybody splits off and only Sora gives a reason; but the reasons are drip-fed through the ensuing episodes.  I also don't get why Sora remains hidden, but I'm confident enough that'll be explained later.  

That said... I know TK's young, but Pico/Demidevimon doesn't exactly do a lot to earn his trust.  Turns up looking suspicious, with a suspicious name, and tells him some transparent crap about his brother loathing him that anyone with half a brain cell should see through.  How gullible is this child?  I know that TK feels some insecurity re. his brother and Tai, but this feels like stretching a point to create some artificial drama out of it.

Then we have boletus ex machina and a really disappointing fight scene.  The Elecmon one could afford to be somewhat lower stakes, because of where we were in the story and where TK was.  This one just felt poorly paced and slow and dull.

I'm probably being harsh on the episode because anything would feel mediocre after episode 21, and there are some clever ideas: the devil whispering in TK's ear, for example, and our first sighting of [REDACTED].  I just don't think it came together particularly well.

There's an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged in which they encourage you to 'take a drink every time someone mentions friendship'.  This episode had the same problem.  I know that they had to awaken Matt's Crest of Friendship, but the pacing took a real hit at that point.

It's a shame, because this episode was strong up until then.  Vegiemon and Tamamon were good creepy villains, Demidevimon's lie was more believable and insidious this time and Matt's reaction understandable, Joe (who remains one of my favourites) had a Big Damn Hero moment, and also... there are apparently multiple Meramon and Ogremon?  Huh.

But then we got WereGarurumon, which is clearly aimed at the younger market who think leather piercings and scars are 'cool' and is even worse than MetalGreymon; a battle scene consisting of a whole two attacks; and interminable mentions of friendship.  Matt blushing and saying sorry was cute as heck though.

A better episode, this one; but not up with the greats.

WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

I don't know what to think of this episode!  A soul-stealing alien who kisses meteors, a space void, 'Cosmic Power' that seems to be something like a parody of enlightenment, toilet humour up the wazoo, Tentamon deteriorating for no good reason, a bug the size of a house (I'm sad that they stopped doing the full CG animations for the Ultimates, especially since MegaKabuterimon's the best so far), and the sudden realisation that Darth Vader's 'surname' comes from 'invader' and actually that's quite cheesy.

Is it good?  Is it bad?  I don't know, but it's bizarre!