This review on Digimon Adventure (2020) Contains spoilers. It is recommended to be up to date with the series before reading it.
Chapter 4 – Birdramon Flies
The fourth episode of this series begins just after Taichi’s arrival in the Digital World, where he meets Agumon again. Shortly after, he realizes that Sora has traveled together with him and, after some introductions, Taichi’s attention turns to some monoliths with a message in DigiCode that tells them that “they must follow the light”, towards a mountain. On their way, Sora meets a Piyomon and they are attacked on the surface by a Snimon and in the water by a Coelamon. Fortunately the digivolutions to Greymon and Birdramon were enough to counter the threat.
Back to the DigiMundo
After two months, we finally have the fourth episode of this reboot. Since it has been a long time since the third episode was reviewed, it is worth noting that in these reviews I make quite a few comparisons with the original series from 1999, mainly because the majority of the public that watches this series also saw the original, and because the series itself is taking the same path, starting from now with the evolutions per episode.
Certainly this two-month hiatus made me forget those weird first three episodes with an early inclusion of Omegamon which, in my opinion, was only made to stir up the masses and pay homage to the Digimon Adventure: Bokura no War Game movie (surely as part of the commemorative project). Precisely because it was only a tribute, it must be kept in mind that it was probably only a fleeting appearance and will not be seen again in a long time.
Anyway, going back to the episode, after a summary of almost four minutes, we are finally before the Digital World, of which there is not much to say but it is appreciated that this time we can observe a variety of Digimon populating the ecosystem from the beginning, and not just a jungle environment like the one the Chosen Children came to in 1999.
Now after Sora and Agumon are introduced, I wonder, how come Sora is not at all concerned about where she is or about the creature in front of her? I mean, I understand Taichi since he was already in the Internet World, but Sora had no idea of the existence of Digimon or the Digital World and is quite calm about it. In short, whether it is “because they are children” or for anything else, Taichi is “called” by a small pillar with a DigiCode inscription that he manages to read (apparently thanks to DigiVice). Let’s remember that the DigiCode does have a real meaning, and they are not just random symbols, and that if you are interested in this you can check on Google.
A surprise attack
Well, the text tells them that “they must go where the light points them”, and a beam of light rises towards a mountain in the distance. Without asking anything else, the boys decide to go there. Along the way, Sora steps forward and bumps into a Piyomon (or should I say the Piyomon?) who is running away from a Snimon. Sora takes Piyomon in his arms and they decide to run away from the place. Here a big question arose about a comment Agumon makes while fleeing: “Snimon must think we stole his food. ”. Here what needs to be clarified is that yes, Digimon “eat” other Digimon, but not in a literal sense. Rather, they defeat other creatures to absorb their data and reach DigiEvolution. In reality, the Digital World itself gives them the food necessary to survive (as indicated by the official site), but the data obtained from this is minuscule compared to absorbing that of other Digimon. This last concept was exploited in Digimon Tamers.
Well, putting that aside and after Agumon’s ineffectual attempt to confront Snimon, they keep running away and make it to shore. Taichi proposes that they jump into the river that runs below, and Sora immediately accepts, without even proposing that they continue running along the shore, but anyway, I suppose it is necessary for the script. As they fall, it seems that Piyomon realizes that the girl he is carrying is his destined partner, but the impact renders him unconscious.
On a small shore, Taichi and company rest and, through DigiVice, Koshiro communicates with them revealing that, for some reason, he was not transported to the Digital World but to the Internet World, and also reveals that he has met there Tentomon, his companion Digimon. In addition to the latter’s presentation, this entire conversation is limited to reminding us that the Real World is going through difficulties, something we already knew from the four-minute summary given to us at the beginning of this chapter.
A “new” DigiEvolución
Well, after they have this conversation, Sora proposes building a raft using ropes and logs, and they do so. Boy are these guys self-sufficient, and why was Sora wearing all those things? If I’m not mistaken, the camp was over and Sora mentions that “I went to buy emergency rations, and I ended up buying other things too“So what kind of things does this girl usually buy?
Already on the raft we have a two-minute trip that does not contribute anything, more than the presentation of Piyomon revealing to Sora that he was waiting for her for a long time. But well, just after they manage to get out of the rapids unharmed, they are attacked by a Coelamon. I quite like that they are not recycling the same minor enemies (because the major ones will be the same as seen in the trailer, ahem, Devimon) that the Chosen Children face, and once Agumon is wounded by a strong attack, Taichi jumps to help him and …
Finally it is here, the strong and characteristic point of the entire franchise, the DigiEvolución sequences. There are few occasions when this franchise disappoints with any sequence of evolution, and this time we are not facing one of these cases. The sequence is phenomenal although, unlike the original series, this time an evolution theme song has not been used (and no, before the scream hits the sky, I’m not asking for “Brave Heart” to return, in fact I even applaud the fact that they finally stopped using the theme “Butterfly” from the opening), but it just seems strange to me that in this series the DigiEvolución does not have its own musical theme and only makes use of the main melody. The sequence is spectacular, showing in the background the previous stages of Greymon (which by the way were not shown in this new series), going from DigiHuevo, Botamon, Koromon and finally Agumon, really a direct blow to nostalgia.
But let’s remember the title of this episode, and that is that Agumon is not the main theme this time, but Sora and Piyomon. A curiosity is that in both the original 1999 series and this one, the fourth episode is dedicated to the relationship between these two characters, however, there is a big difference. In the original series, Sora and Piyomon already had a relationship built on four episodes, while here they barely met. Could this new series mimic the same sentiment that brought them together in the original? The answer is, no. This time everything has happened by the amazing power of the script and not of love, which is the emblem of Sora. Let me explain, in the original series Sora acted as “the mother figure of the group”, constantly taking care of T.K. and calming the hysterical Mimi, as well as mediating between the discussions of Taichi and Yamato, also, she did not know what to think about Piyomon’s cloying attitude, but she was understanding it as the episodes progressed.
Unfortunately, this time there was no compelling development to explain Piyomon’s evolution in the terms the series wants to sell it to us, but rather because of his bravery rather than a feeling of love for his partner he had just met. Well, the Birdramon evolution sequence was fleeting, something quite similar to what happened with the first time Greymon was shown in this series, so you will surely have your complete DigiEvolution sequence next time. Some wondered, where did Sora get the DigiVice from? But it surely materialized the moment they both joined hands. The theme “Be The Winners” performed by Takayoshi Tanimoto is the insert song that was used in this evolution and in the subsequent battle sequence, will this be the theme that will be used regularly for the evolutions? I hope so since it is quite good and it would be a shame to use it only once. Anyway, after this very regular but not boring Deus Ex Machina resource in Digimon, the battle ends with the victory of the Chosen Children (or those that exist so far).
The sanctuary?
From the sky and being on Birdramon, Sora sees in the distance the place towards which they must go according to the holy light. It turns out that there is a shrine there, and we can see a large statue of Seraphimon and Ophanimon. At first glance and following the canon of the “Three Angels”, one would expect the third statue to be from Cherubimon, but it turns out to be from Varodurumon, and this is confirmed in the preview of the fifth episode. Will we then see a development similar to Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth?
The episode closes with Tentomon and Koshiro heading towards the Digital World from the Internet World, with the appearance of Whamon swallowing them. It is very obvious that he is not an enemy, given his role in the original series and because of the trailer. If things continue like this, I am not surprised that, again and in the future, Whamon dies again, not forgetting Digimon’s “Krillin”, Leomon.
Conclusions
As I said at the beginning, the truth is that there is not much to comment about this series, but it is worth emphasizing that, like the original series, we will be seeing a new DigiEvolución for each episode, which makes me wonder then, which one Was it the need to show Omegamon from the beginning? For me, the answer is, none. I respect the fact that the film has been honored, but I actually feel like it didn’t add anything to the plot, and the series could easily be considered to have started from this episode. Anyway, it is a personal opinion and I am not going to say that the appearance of Omegamon did not move me, since it did, but I do not stop thinking that it could have been a resource that was used later and not from the beginning of the series since, after seeing Omegamon, how are you going to feel excited with the smaller DigiEvolutions that will be presented below even more already knowing what they are? Digimon Adventure (2020) will then have to emphasize putting a good back story to the evolutions so that they have the same impact again, but with the generic story that fueled Piyomon’s evolution to Birdramon, I don’t see much effort in that part.
I will close this review by mentioning again that Digimon Adventure (2020) started for me in the fourth episode and not in the first, and I will be waiting for the addition of the other chosen children, since I am interested in knowing what new arches there will be, since that they can no longer recycle the “eighth child” bow because Hikari was already indirectly revealed as such. By the way, in this episode Ogremon was also shown for a few seconds, and as we already knew in the promotional video previously published, we will have the Devimon arc again, will Patamon be the last one to evolve in this new series? After all, let’s remember that meme of “Why only me? Why can’t I DigiEvolve?“
Anyway, for the moment I have not stopped thinking that this reboot of Digimon Adventure is completely unnecessary, and that Toei Animation has shown again that it cannot do anything with the Digimon franchise that is not related to the Adventure saga, but hey, This is probably due to the fact that the public is still determined to keep asking for series from this series, and because the other Digimon projects were much less successful when compared, why do you think Xros Wars became moderately relevant? Well, for the episode in which the heroes of other lines met, including the Adventure one. Honestly, if they were going to do a reboot I would have preferred it to be done by Digimon Tamers, since Adventure already gave everything they had to give and they even blatantly promoted the movie Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna as “Tai and Agumon’s last adventure“, So that in the end they came out with this. In the end, it seems like the biggest question here is, will Yamato steal Tai’s girlfriend again?
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