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straightforwardly) wrote2026-05-17 04:14 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2026-05-17 04:14 pm
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366 | digimon ghost game, final thoughts!
► I’ve finished Digimon Ghost Game! I’m simultaneously thrilled to have finally completed it, and so so so sad that it’s over. I love this series so much ;_; I have some criticisms with the ending (specifically: certain elements from the last ten minutes of the final episode), but everything up until that point was amazing, and it’s definitely a contender for my all-time favorite Digimon series, fighting it out with my nostalgic affection for Adventure/Adventure 02.
My usual episode-specific reactions/thoughts beneath the cut!
Resurrection: When I looked at the summary for this episode, I went, “oh, this one is going to go hard, isn’t it”, and I HAD NO IDEA HOW CORRECT THAT WAS. Going hard doesn’t even begin to cover it. I think Ghost Game often does excellent horror, with many well-done creepy and/or disturbing scenes, but this was the only episode which genuinely frightened me. I watched this final batch of episodes all on the same evening, with this being the first one watched, and I genuinely had to take a break before continuing onwards because I was so shaken by this episode.
To be clear: this is a compliment.
A selection from the notes I took while watching:
And it really is her literal corpse that is being moved around in this episode! It’s not a lookalike, there’s not a magical, “oh, she wasn’t really dead”, no! It’s her literal corpse that’s being puppeted around, and although she’s (thankfully) not visibly rotting, outside of the greyish cast to her skin, she very much looks like a corpse throughout.
There is one almost cute moment in this episode, and that’s when they’re inspecting the corpse & affirming that it’s really dead—when Jellymon goes to listen for a heartbeat, she says, “She doesn’t make the same noise as Darling”, and while the whole scene is very much in the same grim, creepy tone as the whole episode, I was charmed by the thought of Jellymon curling up on Kiyo’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. (And also interested to have it confirmed that Digimon don’t have heartbeats… that does make sense, though, considering they’re made of data, not biology.)
And, like I said above, this episode didn’t just go hard with the horror, but also the stakes. I could not believe it when the antagonist of this episode turned out to be ZEEDMILLENUMON, of all Digimon!! Again: “going hard” is almost an understatement for this episode. I do think the writers did a good job of finding a believable way for the characters to be able to deal with that threat within the constraints of a single episode, without the answer being, “oh yeah their megas beat it”, because—no, them beating Zeedmillenumon in a straight-up fight would absolutely have broken my suspension of disbelief.
Hiro’s choice to keep the hibernating Moonmilleniummon also felt so ominous… especially with the way the light of his Digivice turns off afterwards, and that glimpse we see of Blacktailmon leaving. Tbh, I feel like it would be an excellent jumping off for a post-canon Ghost Game movie, though at this point, I highly doubt that’s a thing that’s going to happen.
The Strange Floor: Featuring the most terrifying horror subgenre of all…. landlord horror. /joking
In hindsight, though, this is kind of a housing crisis episode, isn’t it? The series has been slowly building up the situation in the Digital World—in hindsight, the recent influx of megas was because the situation in the Digital World was finally getting too hot for even them to handle—but the next episode makes it very clear that the Digimon now entering the human world aren’t just immigrants or accidents, but active refugees, which in hindsight explains why the plot of this episode happened: because so many more Digimon are entering the human world now and have nowhere to go.
While watching, I did have a brief moment of wondering if Aoi had somehow entered the real Digital World (because of Espimon’s comment about dimensions), but no, it was just a digital space carved out between the buildings’ floors. We also finally got a secret reveal! A rather lowkey one, but I was so excited to have Aoi finally in the know. Also, her dynamic with Espimon was cute!
I initially had a hard time taking, “I am Clavisangemon, enforcer of contracts!”, seriously, haha. But I think it was very effective how, we had the dramatic battle music start playing when Siriusmon evolves—only for the music to abruptly stop playing when Clavisangemon blocked Siriusmon’s attack.
I was also amused by the epic battle music playing when Espimon evolved… only for them to evolve into Hoverespimon, which is. Kind of a silly-looking Digimon, haha. The drama of the music did not match the design, imo.
Gluttony: Ooof, poor Ruli—she really goes through it in this episode. I got so disturbed that at one point, I had to stop and look up spoilers—I was genuinely worried we were going to see on-screen/implied successful cannibalism at some point! That moment when we begin to see her growing gaunt despite how much she was eating… and then how she changes even further, until she no longer looks human… wow. I really liked that the cast brought her to Mummymon—that made sense. I admit that I didn’t like Quartzmon, even after the reveal about why it was doing all of this, but I did enjoy the return of Jellymon’s farming business as a solution!
Smaller details I liked: seeing the white-haired Ruli, Jellymon just tossing Kiyo at Hoverespimon mid-air, and his accompanying protest: “Don’t throw me like a potato!”
The Call: I was very excited about the promise fog horror, but I don’t feel like this actually captured the appeal of creepy fog? The body horror, on the other hand… I wrote, “asdfghjkl; ALWAYS UPPING ITS GAME WITH THE BODY HORROR, I SEE”, which I think sums it up well, haha. Though the way the fog interfered with the function of the Digital World field was intriguing, and I would’ve liked to have seen more of that!
Also, I was thinking to myself, “huh, you know, this kind of has Dark Ocean vibes…” like fifteen seconds before the screen panned and revealed the shadowy form of Dagomon. My inner Hikari & Dark Ocean-obsessed child definitely started (internally) screaming with shock and delight.
Relatedly, at one point after that reveal, Ruli went, “that light!”, using the word “hikari”, and I immediately went, “yeah, we do need Hikari here! <3”Crossover moment potential?
Dagomon being swallowed by the gate was an interesting way to end that battle—in hindsight, was it because Quantumon realized it’d been corrupted, and so was recalling it to the Digital World?
I also want to share this section from my original notes:
Finally, in the study files sections, in a response to an octopus-related legend, Jellymon says she also wants to wrap her tentacles around Kiyo and drag him into the sea, octopus style… tbh, checks out with her usual courtship style, haha.
The Black Zone of Death: This continued immediately where the last episode left off, unsurprisingly. I loved how this episode included so many of their allies and former enemies-turned-allies from throughout the series: all the Digimon who arrive at the alleyway meeting and Kiyo calling Emma via payphone and the other of the exchanging information about what’s going on in their respective countries.And Hiro staring at a hovering Moonmillenumon crystal while sitting in a dark room… that wasn’t concerning at all, nope!
I admit: I didn’t expect Bokumon to have been lying about humans being unable to travel to the Digital World! But it makes sense: they met him so early on in the series; at that point, they absolutely would have been unprepared to handle the corruption and dangers of the Digital World—and it’s not like he was completely lying: it’s true that humans alone usually can’t survive (with the exception of Hokuto’s unusual case), but humans traveling with Digimon can.
Honestly, I spent this whole sequence waiting for something to go wrong & prevent them from going to the Digital World, because part of the information I’d heard about why Ghost Game “sucked” as a Digimon series was that the kids never go to the Digital World. So imagine my surprise when they did, in fact, go to the Digital World!
On that note, Symbareangoramon princess carries Ruli throughout so much of this episode, and that made me so so happy <3
(I'm also quite charmed by Teslajellymon's chosen mode of transportation!)
Tbh, Bokumon wasn’t wrong to be concerned about the cast going to the Digital World too early… considering even as strong as they are now, they almost suffered a total party wipe not long after arriving there! Relatedly: the corrupted Rafflesimon was super hot.
I’d forgotten that Gammamon didn’t actually know about Gulusgammamon… not until he got hit by the corruption & Gulusgammamon started talking to him. Tbh, I thought we were going to see him come out at this point, and maybe even evolve, but I’m glad they waited! I’m amused by how Siriusmon’ method of victory was essentially making Rafflesimon eat something bad (him) and thus making her need to do the equivalent of vomiting up everyone she ate to get the “bad” thing out of her.
The Black Dragon of Destruction: Bloomlordmon… what a name, lol. When he vine-tentacled both of my ships together, I joked, “hey, so he sees it too!” (But then Hiro & Hoverespimon joined the tied up sidelines, so not actually.)
I also really liked how, the reason why the humans got tentacled together with them was their concern for their partners: Kiyo rushing over to check on Amphimon when she’d been knocked to the ground, Ruli trying to free Diarbbtmon from the vines.
Also, Diarbbtmon looked very pretty like this—just saying:
The reveal that Gulusgammamon was the one who corrupted the Digital World was… not a shock, tbh. While he’s a separate being from Gammamon, the way he functions is not unlike his corrupting or being a corrupted part of Gammamon, and so when they talk about the Digital World itself being corrupted… of course I’m going to assume that it’s Gulusgammamon’s fault.
Also, Regulusmon has a rocking design; I’m always here for a big dragon <3
I couldn’t help but notice that, now the truth has been revealed, Regulusmon started calling Hiro, “Hiro”, rather than “aniki”. I kind of missed it!
The setting for the Siriusmon versus Regulusmon confrontation reminded me of the setting for the end of the original Adventure, when they were facing Apocalymon. And the end of this episode… what a note to end it on. I loved how Regulusmon was aiming that blast at both Siriusmon and Amphimon, and Siriusmon—whose character & journey has been defined more than that of any other character by how much he values the friendships that he’s made!—uses the single split-second he has to react by pushing her out of way. ;_;
And seeing Siriusmon floating like that, with that gigantic hole carved out of him…. oof.
Overall, I do think that this episode is the most “standard Digimon episode”-style of episode in the whole series (with the next episode also having a similar feel, and the one previous starting to head in that direction as well). This is not an insult—I really liked this episode!—but it also highlighted for me how unique Ghost Game has been up until this point, in the style and type of story it was trying to tell, and how much I appreciate it for not following the standard formula.
The Devourer of All: My short thoughts on this episode: I think the first half or so is very solid (it even made me cry!), but the last ten minutes were… a mixed bag, let us say.
Like Hiro, I initially got tricked by the fake Gammamon, especially since their “reunion” mirrored similar scenes in the series so far—and like Hiro, I got hit by the cold shock of realization when “Gammamon” said “chocolate”. And Hiro briefly getting Siriusmon’s blade!! That gave me Digimon Frontier vibes, and was very neat—now that I know it’s possible in this universe, I wish we’d gotten to see more of that sort of thing! In general, I liked this whole sequence: seeing Gammamon’s trauma about losing those he cares about (both those he fears to lose and those, i.e. Bokumon, who he did lose), and Hiro going in after him… Hiro finding the real Gammamon and bringing him back is the part of this episode where I found myself tearing up.
I do think it would have been nice if the story had been clearer on why Hiro was able to save Gammamon like that, especially considering how Ghost Game has treated death so far. I don’t think it’s necessarily a copout: my interpretation is that it has to do with the bond between Gammamon & Gulusgammamon, and the energy Gammamon needed to heal being drawn by that preexisting connection between them (especially since we visibly see that flow of energy reversing & going into Gammamon)—but making that a little more explicit wouldn’t have been amiss.
I also enjoyed the battle with Regulusmon, and the way Gammamon utilized the different evolutions he’s had throughout the series! Regulusmon’s reaction when he de-evolved from Siriusmon to Gammamon… lol. Also: I find it extremely funny how, after my first reaction to Siriusmon’s appearance was joking about how they were saving on mouth animation, the pivotal moment in the final battle turned out to be SIRIUSMON ACTUALLY OPENING HIS MOUTH.
My live reaction:
Now. We’re finally getting to the point of the episode (and the series) where I do have actual criticisms: the final ten minutes. Holy infodump, Batman.
I liked elements from these ten minutes! But there were things explained that didn't need to be explained, or that just felt like they were cramming unnecessary plot points into the tiny amount of time they had left, and it definitely could have been handled better.
I was baffled by Quantumon trying to claim that Digimon don’t have “illogical human emotion” / that they only gain it via contact with humans, because… no? That’s clearly not the case? Angoramon & Digitamamon were friends! That requires feelings! I’m sure there’s other examples from throughout the series, but that’s the first that comes to mind.
I did like the explanation for why the black Digimon—Blackagumon, Blackguilmon, etc.—kept appearing, particularly in context of Blacktailmon being Quantumon’s proxy in the human world: because they can’t be touched by Gulusgammamon’s corruption, they were the safest options to send out to handle him if things went south.
The Endbringer stuff was… I don’t think it’s necessarily a terrible concept, but it’s not something that should be brought up in the final ten minutes of a series, and worse, it wasn’t actually necessary to explain anything. If you were only going to devote this much screentime to an explanation, than it would have been far simpler to just not have Gulusgammamon mention anything about an army in the previous two episodes, and then leave his motivation for corrupting the Digital World as stemming from his “devour or be devoured” worldview.
Gammamon & Gulusgammamon being both Digimon from a different world does have kind of interesting implications. Either they come from a different reality (so from a different Digital World in the same sense that the Digital World from Adventure, Tamers, Frontier, Survive, etc etc etc are all different Digital Worlds, attached to a different version of our world)... or it’s a different Digital World connected to the world of an alien species, somewhere in the universe, who have also reached the Digital Age the way humans did. (...And who then got hit by the apocalypse via the Endbringer, RIP, I guess.)
Also: I had to laugh at how similar the Endbringer reveal felt to Chairman Rose’s* whole deal in Pokémon Sword/Shield. Granted, Gulusgammamon didn’t have any heroic aims—just wanted to survive himself, but the reveal that this threat is coming to their world in TWO THOUSAND YEARS was just… omg. Ghost Game really looked at Chairmon Rose and went, ‘yeah, we can top that’.
*(My first try at typing his name featured me making the typo of “Chairmon”. Clearly I’ve been talking too much about Digimon lately, lol. )
I also loved how all the humans are visibly relieved when they find out that this Endbringer is still two thousand years in the future, all ‘oh that’s still so far away; we have plenty of time to prepare!’, while the Digimon—most dramatically Quantumon, but even their partners!—are all, ‘what are you talking about, that’s almost no time at all!!’ It’s both amusing, but also interesting, in what it reveals about their differing perspectives on time.
But my absolute least favorite aspect of the ending, and the one thing I would cut out entirely if I could only remove one thing: the “new country” thing. I’m sorry, but that’s absolutely stupid. Apparently, Ghost Game wasn’t just trying to out-do Chairman Rose*, but also Digimon Survive’s Harmony ending!! This has the exact same vibes as that stupid institute, but even stupider!!!
*(...confession: I once again typed “Chairmon Rose” here asdfghjkl;)
That being said, I do think other aspects of this ending otherwise really works as a payoff to everything that came before! This entire series has revolved around the main characters dealing with the integration of Digimon into the human world, “building a bridge” between Digimon and humans, and so having the ending about them arguing against the two worlds being separated—stepping up, and dedicating themselves to strengthen the “bridge” they’ve been building even further—that does work pretty well, actually.
Especially since like… I’d initially had some worries about this series having a Tamers’-style ending (ever since that run of episodes where Hiro was clearly worrying about the ability of Digimon to truly adapt to the human world), and while at some point I started to think that type of ending wouldn’t make sense anymore, Quantumon clearly wanting to separate the two world got me worrying again. That would have been such a terrible ending: not just because I hate seeing humans and their Digimon partners being separated, but also because it would have undermined everything this series had been working towards up until this point.
The new country bit is still so stupid, and I could not take those aspects seriously. I do think I would personally have preferred the ending to be more of, “more people know about Digimon than before” rather than “Digimon are known to all of human society”, mostly because I never enjoy the latter type of scenario, but I think this (minus the new country bullshit) is the best take on that concept I’ve seen in the series so far—certainly better than the Adventure 02 epilogue or certain endings from Survive.
Smaller details from this episode I liked:
Hiro calling out Quantumon for using Digimon as their pawns (and the semi-title drop when he describes it as, “like some kind of game”.)
Very amused by Hokuto, when describing how he met Gammamon, saying, “For some reason, everyone was afraid of Gammamon.” I WONDER WHY, haha. <3
MUMMYMON GETS TO OFFICIALLY JOIN THE HOSPITAL STAFF. Do I enjoy Digimon being revealed to all of human society? No. But do I love everything about this coming about as a result of that??? YES, ABSOLUTELY. (I think it’s safe to say that Mummymon is my favorite side character, outside of the main six.)
tl;dr of my ending thoughts & criticisms: the final ten minutes had far too much info-dumping; the Endbringer plotline should either have been cut entirely or integrated more fully into the series before this point (and, tbh, I think cutting it makes the most sense!); and finally: the new country thing is very stupid & should never have been a thing, but the cast focusing their futures towards further supporting a successful coexistence between Digimon and humans in the human world is kind of perfect, actually.
I think, if I were to ever write post-canon fic for this series, I’m just going to be operating on a permanent headcanon of the “new country” thing not existing, while the existence of the Endbringer plotline, as well as whether Digimon are really known to all of human society or just more people than before, are all things that’d depend on whatever suits the fic I want to write best.
► About a week or two ago, I found out that a Digimon Ghost Game boxset is being released this fall, and got so excited…! Until I realized that it’s being released in Japan. Meaning, no English subtitles. Still, fingers crossed that it will eventually get an English boxset as well at some point… this is absolutely a series I want to watch and rewatch, without having to shell out for a subscription.
My usual episode-specific reactions/thoughts beneath the cut!
Resurrection: When I looked at the summary for this episode, I went, “oh, this one is going to go hard, isn’t it”, and I HAD NO IDEA HOW CORRECT THAT WAS. Going hard doesn’t even begin to cover it. I think Ghost Game often does excellent horror, with many well-done creepy and/or disturbing scenes, but this was the only episode which genuinely frightened me. I watched this final batch of episodes all on the same evening, with this being the first one watched, and I genuinely had to take a break before continuing onwards because I was so shaken by this episode.
To be clear: this is a compliment.
A selection from the notes I took while watching:
- THEY STRAIGHT-UP SHOWED A HUMAN BEING KILLED IN THE FIRST THIRTY SECONDSWith the opening death—we’ve seen humans die in this series before, but I think the reason why I was so shocked by this one was how it was presented. She’s alive and passionate in one moment, before the accident happens—and then we see her be slammed into the wall with incredible force, the kind that would kill you irl & is often walked off by your typical shounen anime character, and then we see her body crumble to the ground, and the camera lingers on her lifeless, staring gaze.
- that moving corpse was too much for me ngl
- the use of silence in this episode
- fuck this is so creepy
- fucking terrifying holy shit this would have traumatized me as a child
- not just going hard with the horror, but also the stakes
And it really is her literal corpse that is being moved around in this episode! It’s not a lookalike, there’s not a magical, “oh, she wasn’t really dead”, no! It’s her literal corpse that’s being puppeted around, and although she’s (thankfully) not visibly rotting, outside of the greyish cast to her skin, she very much looks like a corpse throughout.
There is one almost cute moment in this episode, and that’s when they’re inspecting the corpse & affirming that it’s really dead—when Jellymon goes to listen for a heartbeat, she says, “She doesn’t make the same noise as Darling”, and while the whole scene is very much in the same grim, creepy tone as the whole episode, I was charmed by the thought of Jellymon curling up on Kiyo’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. (And also interested to have it confirmed that Digimon don’t have heartbeats… that does make sense, though, considering they’re made of data, not biology.)
And, like I said above, this episode didn’t just go hard with the horror, but also the stakes. I could not believe it when the antagonist of this episode turned out to be ZEEDMILLENUMON, of all Digimon!! Again: “going hard” is almost an understatement for this episode. I do think the writers did a good job of finding a believable way for the characters to be able to deal with that threat within the constraints of a single episode, without the answer being, “oh yeah their megas beat it”, because—no, them beating Zeedmillenumon in a straight-up fight would absolutely have broken my suspension of disbelief.
Hiro’s choice to keep the hibernating Moonmilleniummon also felt so ominous… especially with the way the light of his Digivice turns off afterwards, and that glimpse we see of Blacktailmon leaving. Tbh, I feel like it would be an excellent jumping off for a post-canon Ghost Game movie, though at this point, I highly doubt that’s a thing that’s going to happen.
The Strange Floor: Featuring the most terrifying horror subgenre of all…. landlord horror. /joking
In hindsight, though, this is kind of a housing crisis episode, isn’t it? The series has been slowly building up the situation in the Digital World—in hindsight, the recent influx of megas was because the situation in the Digital World was finally getting too hot for even them to handle—but the next episode makes it very clear that the Digimon now entering the human world aren’t just immigrants or accidents, but active refugees, which in hindsight explains why the plot of this episode happened: because so many more Digimon are entering the human world now and have nowhere to go.
While watching, I did have a brief moment of wondering if Aoi had somehow entered the real Digital World (because of Espimon’s comment about dimensions), but no, it was just a digital space carved out between the buildings’ floors. We also finally got a secret reveal! A rather lowkey one, but I was so excited to have Aoi finally in the know. Also, her dynamic with Espimon was cute!
I initially had a hard time taking, “I am Clavisangemon, enforcer of contracts!”, seriously, haha. But I think it was very effective how, we had the dramatic battle music start playing when Siriusmon evolves—only for the music to abruptly stop playing when Clavisangemon blocked Siriusmon’s attack.
I was also amused by the epic battle music playing when Espimon evolved… only for them to evolve into Hoverespimon, which is. Kind of a silly-looking Digimon, haha. The drama of the music did not match the design, imo.
Gluttony: Ooof, poor Ruli—she really goes through it in this episode. I got so disturbed that at one point, I had to stop and look up spoilers—I was genuinely worried we were going to see on-screen/implied successful cannibalism at some point! That moment when we begin to see her growing gaunt despite how much she was eating… and then how she changes even further, until she no longer looks human… wow. I really liked that the cast brought her to Mummymon—that made sense. I admit that I didn’t like Quartzmon, even after the reveal about why it was doing all of this, but I did enjoy the return of Jellymon’s farming business as a solution!
Smaller details I liked: seeing the white-haired Ruli, Jellymon just tossing Kiyo at Hoverespimon mid-air, and his accompanying protest: “Don’t throw me like a potato!”
The Call: I was very excited about the promise fog horror, but I don’t feel like this actually captured the appeal of creepy fog? The body horror, on the other hand… I wrote, “asdfghjkl; ALWAYS UPPING ITS GAME WITH THE BODY HORROR, I SEE”, which I think sums it up well, haha. Though the way the fog interfered with the function of the Digital World field was intriguing, and I would’ve liked to have seen more of that!
Also, I was thinking to myself, “huh, you know, this kind of has Dark Ocean vibes…” like fifteen seconds before the screen panned and revealed the shadowy form of Dagomon. My inner Hikari & Dark Ocean-obsessed child definitely started (internally) screaming with shock and delight.
Relatedly, at one point after that reveal, Ruli went, “that light!”, using the word “hikari”, and I immediately went, “yeah, we do need Hikari here! <3”
Dagomon being swallowed by the gate was an interesting way to end that battle—in hindsight, was it because Quantumon realized it’d been corrupted, and so was recalling it to the Digital World?
I also want to share this section from my original notes:
HIRO’S DAD?????? (and professor terriormon!!! so cute!)In hindsight, I was not being fair to Hiro’s dad—he had nothing to do with this—but in my defense, he has caused so many problems so far, haha; I don’t think my suspecting he caused this one to be unreasonable! But oof, that moment when the Digital World vanished, and how all the Digimon react to it—that was so effectively done.
blackout WHAT DID HOKUTO DO
jellymon crying
angoramon talking about the warmth that was always there being gone,
mummymon saying digital world vanished???
again: HOKUTO WHAT DID YOU DO
Finally, in the study files sections, in a response to an octopus-related legend, Jellymon says she also wants to wrap her tentacles around Kiyo and drag him into the sea, octopus style… tbh, checks out with her usual courtship style, haha.
The Black Zone of Death: This continued immediately where the last episode left off, unsurprisingly. I loved how this episode included so many of their allies and former enemies-turned-allies from throughout the series: all the Digimon who arrive at the alleyway meeting and Kiyo calling Emma via payphone and the other of the exchanging information about what’s going on in their respective countries.
I admit: I didn’t expect Bokumon to have been lying about humans being unable to travel to the Digital World! But it makes sense: they met him so early on in the series; at that point, they absolutely would have been unprepared to handle the corruption and dangers of the Digital World—and it’s not like he was completely lying: it’s true that humans alone usually can’t survive (with the exception of Hokuto’s unusual case), but humans traveling with Digimon can.
Honestly, I spent this whole sequence waiting for something to go wrong & prevent them from going to the Digital World, because part of the information I’d heard about why Ghost Game “sucked” as a Digimon series was that the kids never go to the Digital World. So imagine my surprise when they did, in fact, go to the Digital World!
On that note, Symbareangoramon princess carries Ruli throughout so much of this episode, and that made me so so happy <3
(I'm also quite charmed by Teslajellymon's chosen mode of transportation!)
Tbh, Bokumon wasn’t wrong to be concerned about the cast going to the Digital World too early… considering even as strong as they are now, they almost suffered a total party wipe not long after arriving there! Relatedly: the corrupted Rafflesimon was super hot.
I’d forgotten that Gammamon didn’t actually know about Gulusgammamon… not until he got hit by the corruption & Gulusgammamon started talking to him. Tbh, I thought we were going to see him come out at this point, and maybe even evolve, but I’m glad they waited! I’m amused by how Siriusmon’ method of victory was essentially making Rafflesimon eat something bad (him) and thus making her need to do the equivalent of vomiting up everyone she ate to get the “bad” thing out of her.
The Black Dragon of Destruction: Bloomlordmon… what a name, lol. When he vine-tentacled both of my ships together, I joked, “hey, so he sees it too!” (But then Hiro & Hoverespimon joined the tied up sidelines, so not actually.)
I also really liked how, the reason why the humans got tentacled together with them was their concern for their partners: Kiyo rushing over to check on Amphimon when she’d been knocked to the ground, Ruli trying to free Diarbbtmon from the vines.
Also, Diarbbtmon looked very pretty like this—just saying:
The reveal that Gulusgammamon was the one who corrupted the Digital World was… not a shock, tbh. While he’s a separate being from Gammamon, the way he functions is not unlike his corrupting or being a corrupted part of Gammamon, and so when they talk about the Digital World itself being corrupted… of course I’m going to assume that it’s Gulusgammamon’s fault.
Also, Regulusmon has a rocking design; I’m always here for a big dragon <3
I couldn’t help but notice that, now the truth has been revealed, Regulusmon started calling Hiro, “Hiro”, rather than “aniki”. I kind of missed it!
The setting for the Siriusmon versus Regulusmon confrontation reminded me of the setting for the end of the original Adventure, when they were facing Apocalymon. And the end of this episode… what a note to end it on. I loved how Regulusmon was aiming that blast at both Siriusmon and Amphimon, and Siriusmon—whose character & journey has been defined more than that of any other character by how much he values the friendships that he’s made!—uses the single split-second he has to react by pushing her out of way. ;_;
And seeing Siriusmon floating like that, with that gigantic hole carved out of him…. oof.
Overall, I do think that this episode is the most “standard Digimon episode”-style of episode in the whole series (with the next episode also having a similar feel, and the one previous starting to head in that direction as well). This is not an insult—I really liked this episode!—but it also highlighted for me how unique Ghost Game has been up until this point, in the style and type of story it was trying to tell, and how much I appreciate it for not following the standard formula.
The Devourer of All: My short thoughts on this episode: I think the first half or so is very solid (it even made me cry!), but the last ten minutes were… a mixed bag, let us say.
Like Hiro, I initially got tricked by the fake Gammamon, especially since their “reunion” mirrored similar scenes in the series so far—and like Hiro, I got hit by the cold shock of realization when “Gammamon” said “chocolate”. And Hiro briefly getting Siriusmon’s blade!! That gave me Digimon Frontier vibes, and was very neat—now that I know it’s possible in this universe, I wish we’d gotten to see more of that sort of thing! In general, I liked this whole sequence: seeing Gammamon’s trauma about losing those he cares about (both those he fears to lose and those, i.e. Bokumon, who he did lose), and Hiro going in after him… Hiro finding the real Gammamon and bringing him back is the part of this episode where I found myself tearing up.
I do think it would have been nice if the story had been clearer on why Hiro was able to save Gammamon like that, especially considering how Ghost Game has treated death so far. I don’t think it’s necessarily a copout: my interpretation is that it has to do with the bond between Gammamon & Gulusgammamon, and the energy Gammamon needed to heal being drawn by that preexisting connection between them (especially since we visibly see that flow of energy reversing & going into Gammamon)—but making that a little more explicit wouldn’t have been amiss.
I also enjoyed the battle with Regulusmon, and the way Gammamon utilized the different evolutions he’s had throughout the series! Regulusmon’s reaction when he de-evolved from Siriusmon to Gammamon… lol. Also: I find it extremely funny how, after my first reaction to Siriusmon’s appearance was joking about how they were saving on mouth animation, the pivotal moment in the final battle turned out to be SIRIUSMON ACTUALLY OPENING HIS MOUTH.
My live reaction:
HOLY SHIT SIRIUSMON’S MOUTH OPENEDI love that the solution was Gammamon taking Gulusgammamon’s “devour or be devour” philosophy literally! And how, in the end, defeating him didn’t mean killing him—that felt very fitting, considering what the ethos of the entire series has been up until this point. Gammamon setting him ground rules for the bodysharing the same way Hiro set Gammamon ground rules for living in the dorm was also very charming. <3
he got eaten….
Now. We’re finally getting to the point of the episode (and the series) where I do have actual criticisms: the final ten minutes. Holy infodump, Batman.
I liked elements from these ten minutes! But there were things explained that didn't need to be explained, or that just felt like they were cramming unnecessary plot points into the tiny amount of time they had left, and it definitely could have been handled better.
I was baffled by Quantumon trying to claim that Digimon don’t have “illogical human emotion” / that they only gain it via contact with humans, because… no? That’s clearly not the case? Angoramon & Digitamamon were friends! That requires feelings! I’m sure there’s other examples from throughout the series, but that’s the first that comes to mind.
I did like the explanation for why the black Digimon—Blackagumon, Blackguilmon, etc.—kept appearing, particularly in context of Blacktailmon being Quantumon’s proxy in the human world: because they can’t be touched by Gulusgammamon’s corruption, they were the safest options to send out to handle him if things went south.
The Endbringer stuff was… I don’t think it’s necessarily a terrible concept, but it’s not something that should be brought up in the final ten minutes of a series, and worse, it wasn’t actually necessary to explain anything. If you were only going to devote this much screentime to an explanation, than it would have been far simpler to just not have Gulusgammamon mention anything about an army in the previous two episodes, and then leave his motivation for corrupting the Digital World as stemming from his “devour or be devoured” worldview.
Gammamon & Gulusgammamon being both Digimon from a different world does have kind of interesting implications. Either they come from a different reality (so from a different Digital World in the same sense that the Digital World from Adventure, Tamers, Frontier, Survive, etc etc etc are all different Digital Worlds, attached to a different version of our world)... or it’s a different Digital World connected to the world of an alien species, somewhere in the universe, who have also reached the Digital Age the way humans did. (...And who then got hit by the apocalypse via the Endbringer, RIP, I guess.)
Also: I had to laugh at how similar the Endbringer reveal felt to Chairman Rose’s* whole deal in Pokémon Sword/Shield. Granted, Gulusgammamon didn’t have any heroic aims—just wanted to survive himself, but the reveal that this threat is coming to their world in TWO THOUSAND YEARS was just… omg. Ghost Game really looked at Chairmon Rose and went, ‘yeah, we can top that’.
*(My first try at typing his name featured me making the typo of “Chairmon”. Clearly I’ve been talking too much about Digimon lately, lol. )
I also loved how all the humans are visibly relieved when they find out that this Endbringer is still two thousand years in the future, all ‘oh that’s still so far away; we have plenty of time to prepare!’, while the Digimon—most dramatically Quantumon, but even their partners!—are all, ‘what are you talking about, that’s almost no time at all!!’ It’s both amusing, but also interesting, in what it reveals about their differing perspectives on time.
But my absolute least favorite aspect of the ending, and the one thing I would cut out entirely if I could only remove one thing: the “new country” thing. I’m sorry, but that’s absolutely stupid. Apparently, Ghost Game wasn’t just trying to out-do Chairman Rose*, but also Digimon Survive’s Harmony ending!! This has the exact same vibes as that stupid institute, but even stupider!!!
*(...confession: I once again typed “Chairmon Rose” here asdfghjkl;)
That being said, I do think other aspects of this ending otherwise really works as a payoff to everything that came before! This entire series has revolved around the main characters dealing with the integration of Digimon into the human world, “building a bridge” between Digimon and humans, and so having the ending about them arguing against the two worlds being separated—stepping up, and dedicating themselves to strengthen the “bridge” they’ve been building even further—that does work pretty well, actually.
Especially since like… I’d initially had some worries about this series having a Tamers’-style ending (ever since that run of episodes where Hiro was clearly worrying about the ability of Digimon to truly adapt to the human world), and while at some point I started to think that type of ending wouldn’t make sense anymore, Quantumon clearly wanting to separate the two world got me worrying again. That would have been such a terrible ending: not just because I hate seeing humans and their Digimon partners being separated, but also because it would have undermined everything this series had been working towards up until this point.
The new country bit is still so stupid, and I could not take those aspects seriously. I do think I would personally have preferred the ending to be more of, “more people know about Digimon than before” rather than “Digimon are known to all of human society”, mostly because I never enjoy the latter type of scenario, but I think this (minus the new country bullshit) is the best take on that concept I’ve seen in the series so far—certainly better than the Adventure 02 epilogue or certain endings from Survive.
Smaller details from this episode I liked:
Hiro calling out Quantumon for using Digimon as their pawns (and the semi-title drop when he describes it as, “like some kind of game”.)
Very amused by Hokuto, when describing how he met Gammamon, saying, “For some reason, everyone was afraid of Gammamon.” I WONDER WHY, haha. <3
MUMMYMON GETS TO OFFICIALLY JOIN THE HOSPITAL STAFF. Do I enjoy Digimon being revealed to all of human society? No. But do I love everything about this coming about as a result of that??? YES, ABSOLUTELY. (I think it’s safe to say that Mummymon is my favorite side character, outside of the main six.)
tl;dr of my ending thoughts & criticisms: the final ten minutes had far too much info-dumping; the Endbringer plotline should either have been cut entirely or integrated more fully into the series before this point (and, tbh, I think cutting it makes the most sense!); and finally: the new country thing is very stupid & should never have been a thing, but the cast focusing their futures towards further supporting a successful coexistence between Digimon and humans in the human world is kind of perfect, actually.
I think, if I were to ever write post-canon fic for this series, I’m just going to be operating on a permanent headcanon of the “new country” thing not existing, while the existence of the Endbringer plotline, as well as whether Digimon are really known to all of human society or just more people than before, are all things that’d depend on whatever suits the fic I want to write best.
► About a week or two ago, I found out that a Digimon Ghost Game boxset is being released this fall, and got so excited…! Until I realized that it’s being released in Japan. Meaning, no English subtitles. Still, fingers crossed that it will eventually get an English boxset as well at some point… this is absolutely a series I want to watch and rewatch, without having to shell out for a subscription.