Following on from last week’s review and, of course, our podcast discussion episode, it’s time to watch the 36th episode of Digimon Adventure: (2020)!
Opening thoughts
Are we returning to the Taichi Yagami show? Boy do I hope not!
I’m super not looking forward to this week’s episode judging by the ‘which Digimon is next!?’ part in the Digimon Encyclopedia from last week’s episode.
But lately, my lack of excitement has lead to me rating an episode 5/5 in pure surprise that Digimon can be better than terrible.
Digimon Adventure 2020 Episode 36 “Operation Satellite Sniper”
Digimon Adventure 2020 Episode 36 Review
Koshiro is floating through space in what can only be either a really bad or really good trip. It reminds me of the Vademon episode of the original Digimon Adventure where we see AtlurKabuterimon for the first time. Anyway, Taichi is calling out to Koshiro.
We see that the Human World is having issues, Houston has a problem. I’m surprised that they have people in Moscow and Houston speaking fluent Japanese and not English, but then again, if that were the case, we’d have another “Please tell Mum Amy we’re going to the summer memory.”
Anyway, we have the Koshiro reunite with Taichi and the others, and then the children look at fossils and immediately I am concerned because Biyomon’s head doesn’t look right in terms of how it’s drawn. Anyway, Tailmon explains about Digimon don’t just fight over good vs evil, but for survival and pride. So that’s an interesting concept.
I really like how the concept of evolution is touched on as a concept – the fact that there are fossils is a fairly fascinating topic that I’m sure will never be relevant again.
Anyway, Tailmon basically then says “but we should probably plot instead and address the giant pillar of light in the room instead of do some world building”.
Koshiro sees that the pillar formed after a battle between huge Digimon and the top of the pillar is a singularity and it’s outside of the Digital World and is breaking into the network, so they can communicate to the Human World from here. I wonder if this pillar will come back later on when they eventually want to go home?
Koshiro says that data that is distorted by Digimon can also be fixed by it and then explains how they’re going to divert the satellites rather than destroy them.
There’s only twenty minutes until the IIS passes through the snipe point. We then decide to devote a few of those minutes to have Agumon evolve to Greymon. Koshiro says he’ll support him, and I thought we’d get Tentomon evolving, but instead it’s Greymon to MetalGreymon. Biyomon, Patamon, and Pegasusmon all evolve in quick beams of light. Koshiro says that there are now 15 minutes remaining.
Awww Komodomon howls goodbye. Also, an interesting thing to note is that Tailmon doesn’t evolve, they choose to travel by Pegasusmon. I wonder why Tailmon chooses not to evolve here. I hope she’s not going to just be an evolution to pull out when we want to win.
ANYWAY BLADEKUWAGAMON SHOWS UP AND I THINK HE’S NEVER BEEN ANIMATED BUT IT’S ALWAYS BEEN A HILARIOUS DESIGN. IT’S KUWAGAMON, BUT AN ELECTRIC KNIFE. BladeKuwagamon was on the Digimon Accel virtual pet and debuted in 2005.
Oh wow, one of the BladeKuwagamon’s actually cuts MetalGreymon, which is pretty cool for some reason. Kabuterimon evolves to AtlurKabuterimon, who, I’m fairly certain, we haven’t seen for maybe 15 episodes. Birdramon also evolves.
I would really like to see what happens to the children when their partner Digimon that they are travelling on burst into flames – it’s probably just a magic orb shield, but it’d be nice to see it.
The children near the snipe point and have eight minutes, but then Tailmon’s spidey sense goes off and something attacks them – it’s BladeKuwagamon’s boss – MetalLifeKuwagamon. We previously saw him in Xros Wars. MetalLife Kuwagamon was also in the Digimon Accel virtual pet and debuted in 2005.
MetalGreymon becomes Alteros mode while fighting MetalLifeKuwagamon, but the three perfect levels apepar to be struggling against this one perfect level.
Garudamon gets surrounded by a huge hoard of BladeKuwagamon but tells Taichi and Koshiro to go ahead, and it’s almost a brave moment for Sora and Garudamon. Garudamon continues to show that she’s the strongest by obliterating like twenty or more BladeKuwagamon.
Metal Life Kuwagamon and more BladeKuwagamon follow Taichi and Koshsiro, and the satellite is still falling. Taichi’s Digivice starts glowing and Taichi and MetalGreymon scream about not giving up, and then MetalGreymon evolves to BlitzGreymon, but the animators didn’t feel like doing much, so they just kind of have him move out of a red mess of colour.
It’s a surprisingly dull moment for an evolution. Likely because it feels almost like more of a dark evolution with the lightning spewing from the Digivice, the distorted red fire and ominous music.
Koshiro says that this evolution occurred because MetalGreymon adapted when he evolved, so that’s pretty cool. Koshiro made the evolution much cooler, I guess.
Taichi tells Koshiro that he can continue on and get this done on his own and leaves it to him. Koshiro then thinks about how he used to talk about wanting to be alone and never cared and thought to himself that he was better to be alone, but now he has AtlurKabuterimon and the other chosen children.
Koshiro exclaims that he can do it because he has everyone, AtlurKabuterimon charges his attack and Koshiro’s DIgivice activates and we see a shadow of Hercules Kabuterimon – which I guess is a prerequisite to evolving to Mega in this show.
The target he shoots at has all of these Zurumon fall out and the ISS is diverted and changes trajectory 1000 metres above Odaiba and fell into Tokyo Bay.
The last shot is a nice scene where Taichi looks hurt and Sora is holding him up.
Koshiro then introduces us to BlitzGreymon as being a subspecies of Greymon. Koshiro says that BlitzGreymon is a very cool form and how Tentomon has kept mumbling that that is mighty brilliant and then says “One day, you too…”. It’s Leomon next time!
Rating for Digimon Adventure 2020 Episode 36
3.5/5
It was an episode.
It had cool bits, yes, but it felt like it was primarily fighting. I felt like the episode could have focused more on Koshiro, primarily because my favourite bits of the episode were all Koshiro bits.
Not much to say other than that. I don’t really have any complaints…but I don’t really have any bits I want to rave about passionately – the foreshadowing at the start mentioning how Digimon fight for survival and can adapt followed by BlitzGreymon being an ‘adapting evolution’ was pretty cool, though.
Also, I guess we’re done having Hikari be a character as she’s back to just not having lines again.
Next week’s episode looks good tho.
So what were your thoughts on Digimon Adventure 2020 Episode 36? Let me know in the comments or in the discussion thread on /r/Digimon!
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