Winter Anime 2022: The Covid Runback

[Skull]

Digimon Ghost Game Episode 14: As I had feared, we are back to the monster of the week formula though they did at least try to give us some answers. So, the DiM cards are creating a pseudo-Digital World based on a recording that Hokuto takes and sends to Hiro. Hiro being so callous after his father mentioned nearly dying to a Digimon struck me as weird given how anxious he was last time he brought up Hokuto. The scene of Kiyoshiro hiding and the screen turning negative as Koemon's footsteps paced around him was really well done and it's a shame we didn't see more of those creative takes as the "hologram ghosts" attack the humans. On the subject of Koemon...I felt how he was handled was a mishmash. They really should have either stuck to either the horror tone or the grief of losing a loved one plot as trying to put the two together made the former feel too padded and the latter not developed nearly enough to sell the idea. Furthermore, the twist that Granny was alive the whole time really undercut the parallel between Koemon and Gammamon. Speaking of Gammamon, seems he doesn't recall any of his time as Gulus and is comparably an innocent toddler. Hiro casually mentioning seeing Gulus again and then telling Gammamon to Evolve without hesitation was odd, and while Betel was cool for the five seconds we saw him I would have preferred Wezen since he was denied a climactic finish last time.

Next week will we see SymbareAngoramon at last since Ruli's friends seem involved?

[Rafflesiac]

Arifureta: LMAO at Kaori interrogating Hajime.

[Rafflesiac]

Sono Bisque: Super Sunny Marin, blessed. I like seeing the detailed thought Gojo puts into the cosplay; it reminds me of an article I read that really impressed me.

[Mattias]

It's kind of amazing how many times Dress-up Darling can swing from horny to wholesome in one episode.



Also somehow Demon Slayer managed to make an even more incel version of Shigaraki from My Hero. Wasn't expecting that.

[Skull]

Digimon Ghost Game Episode 15: I feel like a lot of these episodes would be okay as initial drafts, but someone forget to actually tidy them up and this week's is no exception. When it comes to horror, what people fear the most is the unknown and so simply showing us right off the bat what Phelesmon does to his victims robs us off most of the suspense. Similarly, having two running plotlines that meet at the the climax is a nice idea in theory but usually are best when we aren't sure of how they connect, so having Hiro and company wander around until the plot finds them felt like meandering. As I suspected, for all its faults the Reppamon episode would have been better served as the SymbareAngoramon debut since there was an emotional crescendo with Ruli and Angoramon overcoming their differences (however artificial), whereas here it fell completely flat. Being extremely charitable I would say what the writers wanted to convey was the pair's desire to save Ruli's friends, but had I been in charge what I would have done was have Angoramon actually aid the other girls directly initially like, I dunno say Mika trips and falls into oncoming traffic, have Angoramon push her out of the way so the girls become vaguely aware of an unseen friend. Then have the girls be turned into stone so that gives *both* Angoramon and Ruli the righteous fury to stop Phelesmon, who then once Hiro and the others turn up offers turning everyone back to normal in exchange for retreating so that causes a moral dilemma since the gang don't know if simply defeating Phelesmon will save the others. Thus you could justify the villain escaping and not just casually walking off like he did in the actual episode. Just a thought.

Oh well, next week is attack of the trees. Hopefully that one is better.

[LegalLoliLover]

What, is Princess Connect finally alluding to the "reality is a dream/Matrix simulation" plot point?

[bassgs435]

It has been since Karyl's previous meeting with Kaiser, where Kaiser told Karyl that their connection was the only real one in PriConne's world

[Rafflesiac]

Sono Bisque: I felt those "What do I do?"s from Gojo. And he didn't even need to rush it... Well, he protected her smile in the end. Bless these good kids.

[Skull]

Digimon Ghost Game Episode 16: Well that was...certainly an episode, I guess. The fact that they're trying to push the whole "brothers" thing so hard makes me think it'll be plot relevant soon. Similarly the fact that everyone but Hiro denies Gulus as being Gammamon makes me think he'll be redeemed (or at least more of an ally) by Hiro accepting him. Always nice to see the Recolours getting screentime and personality with MoriShellmon. Hiro's reluctance to fight is really starting to get on my nerves. He was saved by the super convenience of Jyureimon having to go dormant for 50+ years and the hikers all miraculously coming back alive.

Struggling to think of anything else to talk about. Hopefully next week's episode will be more eventful.

[bassgs435]

I mean, unlike before he knows of Gulus now and last time Gammammon witnessing death was what triggered the evolution into him. So I can buy him hesitating to let Gammamon kill since he doesn't want to trigger another evolution into Gulus. It's something he'll have to deal with eventually but not yet, and miraculous recovery of victims: Morishellmon did say he captured hikers Jyureimon chased and put them under protection by putting them into sleep in his territory. Now that Jyureimon has retreated for a while, there was no need and he released those under his protection. I'm not too observant, so maybe some of those who were shown fine are those who were shown as Jyureimon victims, in which case you'd have a point (then again, that could be production not caring since as I've said before, Toei wanting to keep the timeslot by starting GG right after Colon hurt production a lot and the staff are struggling with the schedules and deadlines. Apparently the staff that were working in WT 2 and 3 will move to Digimon now that WT is done. But I wonder how much they can do with shitty schedule)

[AmADo VII]

now I understand fighting upper moon oni is nothing but kusoge.

[Comun]

Started and got caught up Tribe Nine yesterday. Not a fan of the pacing so far. We're 3 episodes in, so by this point I feel like we should have already seen a second arena, and been given a reason to care about at least Arisugawa, if not Mita and Manami, before getting into Oujirou. "Shun is dying" is also super telegraphed since ep. 1.

[LegalLoliLover]

In latest Vanitas... Did Chloe just do to Charlatan what Arcueid did to Wallachia?

[Rafflesiac]

Arifureta: In which Hajime takes many things lying down. Fun stuff like usual.

[Rafflesiac]

[Ideofago]

This is peak 令和.

[NMR-3]

Digimon Ghost Game: Damn, I think this is the closest the kids have come to death. Wild. Also interesting that the tamers can give each other's Digimon commands.

[Skull]

Digimon Ghost Game Episode 17: Hmm...once again not a lot to comment on, just a lot of running in corridors. Of course the most interesting aspect was the last five minutes with the emotional moment between Jellymon and Ruli with the latter being able to Command the former. I wonder if that's going to be set-up for something later or not. The kids just shrugging off almost dying and cheerfully waving off the guy that tried to kill them actually got a laugh out of me ngl.

Next week is Petermon. The idea of Peter Pan being portrayed as a villain in recent years is a bit tired so I hope they'll shake it up a bit.

[Comun]

Tribe Nine 4

"No one saw Kamiya's death coming."

I did. Since ep 1.

[Mattias]

I expected it, but not that soon. Like an episode 11 climax or something, not end of 3.