Digimon Adventure:

Episode 11

I try not to expend too much energy on writing or plotting inconsistencies that crop up in episodes. As long as the general vibes of a show jibe with the ideas, arcs, or character work it's doing, I can allot for oddities that make that work. But with a pretty janky previous episode taking us into questionable territory for Digimon Adventure: as it moves into the double-digits, it's hard not to be critical of the processes by which it's getting these characters around. To start with, this week's episode left me wondering why the kids don't so much as mention a reason they couldn't just fly over the miasma, especially when we cut here to both teams they split into showing off flying abilities for transport? It's particularly egregious going back to Joe's introductory episode, when they decided they had to fly over the specific spot of the ocean Gesomon was in, only to now discover the secret explorative life-hack of taking detours around obstacles.

I had to get all that out of my system, because this week's episode is in fact quite the step up from the preceding one. It's easy to quantify too, dealing as it is with a similar setup and payoff as Taichi and Agumon's evolutionary level-up (as presumably, the next few episodes in these Ultimate Evolution showcase episodes will), giving Yamato and Gabumon their turn next. Right out of the gate there's the uphill battle that Yamato is the cast member we've easily spent the least amount of time with so far, so trying to develop him and his partner to a degree deserving of the next form-change could run into exacerbated versions of the same problems we had with Taichi previously. But luckily, either the writers have already learned their lesson, or Yamato's character and what they're doing with him just lends itself better to this kind of character plotting, because it all really works this go-around.

There is initially the issue of the air of repetition. Yamato seemingly just got over his problems with party members he considers ‘dead weight’ a couple episodes ago, so it's a bit jarring to see him double back on that for just his second ever character arc. There is the mild difference that this time he's specifically against protecting other, weaker Digimon when their crew is explicitly trying to get somewhere and complete a task on a timetable themselves. But it's still incredibly similar to the issues we just saw him get over, down to a flashback to the first time he was inspired by his new friends' efforts being the thing that inspires him again here. The sad part is this element still comes off stronger than what Taichi and Agumon got last episode just because there's at least gesturing in the direction of some kind of growth that leads Yamato to Gabumon's evolution.

Thankfully, while the framework is so similar, there are just enough details that push it over the edge into keeping us intrigued. For Yamato, the big new insight is into why he's so weirdly standoffish and dedicated to their destined mission: It's teased out in a cozy little conversation with Gabumon, and the older fans in the audience can assume it has to do with Yamato's little brother Takeru somehow, but we don't get the full picture until the end, and it's pretty interesting as a tweaked take on the classic character. Yamato's personality was always partially defined by the protectiveness he felt obligated to have towards Takeru, but that manifests differently here since the little brother isn't yet in the Digital World with him (that we know of). It shifts the seeming niceties of Yamato wanting to restore power to Tokyo with everyone else to a more personally-focused level, explaining how he can callously shirk the assistance of others needing protection in this world while going along with the duties he's destined for anyway. And reconciling those aspects of what he's doing here makes for an effective increment of growth we can buy as earning Gabumon's new evolution.

The other thing that makes it work is that, unlike last episode, the developments aren't so singularly focused on Yamato himself. As I mentioned last week, the time-honored tradition of Digimon splitting its cast has always been an effective tool for paring down the massive crowd of characters to let them settle into deeper roles and breathe there for a bit. So we still get to see cute moments across this episode like Mimi's lamentations over party assignments or Gomamon comforting Joe when no one wants to listen to him. But we also necessarily get some rejiggering of the team roles, most notably Sora stepping up to be the one opposite Yamato in regards to protecting other Digimon. It's actually jarring in the first moment it happens, since Sora's characterization has been so underutilized up until now, but ends up working because it actually makes perfect sense for her compared to all the other kids and with the arrangement of where the characters are now. It doesn't fully settle by the end of the episode either, making clear that Yamato's growth as a person is still very much in flux, so with the classic Taichi/Yamato rivalry rather downplayed so far, I'm enthusiastically curious at the potential for a Sora vs Yamato dynamic instead going forward.

And then there's the case of the actual Garurumon evolution that this episode is primarily in service of. The structure of all the fighting this episode couldn't be more of a departure from the singularly focused Greymon duels we've been getting the past couple episodes, with the other kids and monsters participating in different ways across multiple phases with various opponents. We're definitely hitting a mid-tier production ceiling that's affecting the way things look and move at this point in the series (with the first time they fight Scorpiomon cutting off so abruptly that I had to rewind to make sure I hadn't missed some moment), but the core staging of it at least uses the whole party effectively, which also nicely lends credence to the idea of ‘Working Together’ that's so central to the friendship moral of this one. WereGarurumon himself also just makes for a more interesting upgrade to his previous form to watch compared to how MetalGreymon follows on from regular Greymon. WereGarurumon's entire fighting style changes fundamentally, so we get to see him use those cool new dextrous martial arts abilities, including a thrilling blade-catch with his fingers and a nicely-animated cut of him doing some boxing weaves and dodges. And it definitely helps that this all feels like it was led into, earned as a payoff even as the previews happily told us it was coming.

This absolutely wasn't a perfect episode and indeed, I still feel like Digimon Adventure: is on shakier ground at this stage than it started. Plowing through all the Ultimate evolutions while trying to follow and resolve the main plot is going to be a daunting task this early in the series, and its ambitions may be getting the better of it.This episode though, even aside from just being obviously better compared to the previous one, showed a clearer path to success for what it's trying to do. There's still plenty to explore and develop with these characters, they just need to work that more effectively into showing off these new power-ups they're so invested in.

Rating:

Digimon Adventure: is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.