Takeru Takaishi / TK and his Digimon partner picspam
(Japanese and English dub names)
1st and 3rd pics = 8 year old Takeru Takaishi / TK in Digimon Adventure
2nd and 4th pics = 11 year old Takeru Takaishi / TK from Digimon Adventure 02
5th and 7th pics = 14 year old Takeru Takaishi / TK in Digimon Adventure Tri
6th and 8th pics = 19 year old Takeru Takaishi / TK in Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna movie
9th pic = adult Takeru Takaishi in the epilogue of Digimon Adventure 02 (the epilogue itself might be too controversial and debatable to many Digimon fans.)
10th pic = Poyomon (baby form)
11th pic = Tokomon (baby II form of Patamon)
12th pic = Patamon (default child/rookie form)
13th pic = Angemon (Patamon's evolved adult/champion form)
14th pic = Holy Angemon / MagnaAngemon (perfect/ultimate form)
15th pic = Seraphimon (ultimate/mega form)
16th pic = Pegasmon/Pegasusmon (armor evolution with Digimental of Hope)
17th pic = Shakkoumon (another perfect/ultimate form except that Anklomon is fused with Angemon. Also known as Jogress evolution or DNA digivolution)
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Why Digimon Ghost Game is Episodic
Background
Note: a lot of this is sourced from @RavelMonte on Twitter, who has a lot of great translations and threads about Digimon production across the franchise.
Recently, there was a soundbite going around where the lead writer of Digimon Ghost Game explained that one reason for the episodic structure of the show is to adapt to the shorter attention spans of children these days. While I don't think that's true (well, attention spans may actually be getting shorter, I do believe that -- but at least, anecdotally it seems that people are more hungry for serialized stories, not less, and that is one of the reasons why anime is getting so popular worldwide). But as Ravel points out, there's another goal here, which is part of the Digimon Reboot project (thread linked below):
I'm no expert when it comes to these things, but one thing that's important in the media mix business model (which Digimon has always been a part of) is the term 世界観 (sekaikan = worldview). You may have heard this term used in interviews from various Japanese creators. In a media mix structure, the central element is not necessarily a fixed plot or even necessarily characters (characters can be part of a worldview, but not necessarily a specific iteration of a character -- we can see this in the 2020 Digimon Adventure series, where the 8 chosen children remain but their personalities and arcs change drastically). Contrast with something like Star Wars which is continually forced to fit everything into one consistent universe and timeline. Obviously there must be more to media mixes and I'm not an expert on the topic, but I think this video is really well presented and informative:
So anyway, to summarize Ravel's thread and its implications for Ghost Game, one of the main purposes of this show is to unite the disparate elements of the franchise (and everyone knows Digimon is all over the place, especially after the flagship game series known in the west as Digimon World vacillated between raising simulator, dungeon crawler, and musou-style action RPG in just 4 entries). The purpose of the Digimon reboot, brought on by a producer on the (formerly?) successful Aikatsu media mix empire, is not really to "reboot" the franchise and create a new worldview, but rather to slowly incorporate all the existing branches of the franchise as much as possible into one worldview.
Monsters of the Week
One more or less obvious way that this is reflected in Ghost Game (and even more so in the 2020 Adventure reboot) is the choice of monster of the week. There are a few new mons altogether, but also a lot of mons that never appeared in an anime. Of course, every few weeks there is a public update to the newly curated reference book:
I'm only 27 episodes in but let's take a look at the roster of monsters of the week.
There are a few "fan favorite" Digimon like Digitamamon, Arukenimon, Mummymon, and Vamdemon that were villains in former series.
A Deva Digimon from Tamers (Majiramon)
Bokomon from Frontier
Splashmon and Pilomon from Xros Wars
Morphomon from the epilogue film Digimon Last Adventure Kizuna
Some armored evolutions (a concept introduced in Adventure 02, though there are many mons that had never appeared in the anime). For example, Quetzalmon is an armored evolution of Wormmon (a partner in 02) that had previously only appeared in a V-Pet, the original TCG, and some video games. Fans probably do know a lot of these mons from seeing them around.
Mons like Ginkakumon and Sirenmon that were introduced in an online version of the original TCG.
Black variants like BlackTailmon and BlackAgumon.
There are still a few elements of the franchise missing, for example X Antibody Digimon from the CG film Digimon X Evolution and Spirit Digimon from Frontier (though the pre-evolutions to Spirit Digimon did appear in Adventure 2020). There's some lore like the Royal Knights, Three Archangels, Olympus Twelve, Seven Demon Lords, or Four Holy Beasts that may or may not be referenced as well. It's not likely, but it would be cool if they added in Appmon too. But for the most part, these last two anime have really drawn from the entire franchise and made an effort to feature a diversity of mons.
Themes
Despite Ghost Game being episodic, even at 27 episodes I can already see an overarching narrative emerging. I don't mean the hints that appear once every few episodes about GulusGamamon and Hiro's dad. There's another story, about all the Digimon that game to the human world and the ways in which they interact and try (and sometimes fail) to fit in. This sort of worldbuilding again draws from all across the franchise thematically.
One major element that we may worry about is, what are Digimon even, and what is the Digital World? Whereas previous series went into depth about the creation of Digimon (notably 02 and Tamers) or the structure of the world (Frontier), Ghost Game notably does not. It's entirely possible, though unlikely in my opinion, that the main trio never go to the Digital World at all. What's more important is that Digimon already exist, they're in the real world now, and though they were trapped there by some malevolent (?) force, this does not seem to be part of some coordinated assault on the human world. They're just there, living their lives. And already we see some interesting implications of this.
For one, there's our main cast, the symbol of harmony between Digimon and humans (as noted by Bokomon, this may make the main trio very important in the future). But there are also more general ideas of a "Digimon partner" (though, since it is shown that Ruri can team up with Jellymon, that concept may be more flexible than in past seasons). Take for example Ajatarmon in episode 24, who loved a particular human so badly it wanted to become one, or Koemon in episode 14, who is grieving over the loss of a human friend. There's also the scientist who we briefly see experimenting Morphomon, in a reference to Last Evolution Kizuna. These storylines usually end with some kind of compromise, though in the case of Ajatarmon we see that sometimes the alienation is too strong to overcome. This is reminiscent of the early, episodic parts of Digimon Savers which saw Digimon integrating into the real world, often as allies but not necessarily partners (my favorite is Piyomon).
Then there's Digimon that are only interested in using humans to meet their own needs, like Sistermon (need for speed), Digitamamon (sees humans as food), Arukenimon (ditto but more horrifying), Kinkakumon (desires a strong opponent), Splashmon (desires moisturizer), or Zassoumon (Gremlins from the movie Gremlins). These can sometimes be reasoned with, but more often than not this kind of encounter ends in violence. This reminds me of the early parts of Adventure, where the concern for the main protagonists was basically surviving this strange world as just another link in the food chain.
There's plenty of Digimon who want nothing to do with humans, notably Angoramon's friends and the ice Digimon from episode 17, but don't have any particular ill will towards them either, possibly unless provoked.
Plenty of Digimon try to help humans only for it to backfire, like Mummymon (wants to be a doctor), Sirenmon (cheer humans with songs), Petermon (save the children), Piximon (chaotic neutral), or DarkLizamon and Seadramon who end up desperate for a way home. Some of them can find a way to fit in, some of them can be convinced to go do something less harmful, but this category tends to be the most unpredictable.
And then there's a handful of malicious Digimon, though notably only one (Vamdemon) has expressed any interest in conquering or destroying the world as far as I can tell. The rest just want to cause mayhem or hurt humans for fun. Rarely they can be reasoned with, but mostly this ends in violence. There are lots of these types of encounters in Tamers and Savers.
Notably, all the previous series were heavily serialized, so eventually this variety of monster of the week conflicts gave way sooner or later to a big bad. Sometimes, it's revealed that all the bad guys were controlled by one super bad guy all along. Other times, like in Frontier, the stakes are clear from the start and the villains remain consistent. But Ghost Game, at least so far, doesn't seem interested in that kind of plot. Instead, it focuses on coming up with often pretty creative ways for Digimon and humans to interact, not schemed up by some genius villain but just as a result of their own desires. Notably, the one Digimon who did seem to be sent on orders by a villain (Sealsdramon), turns out to just enjoy killing for fun. This is an interesting twist on the usual structure, and I think it definitely gives this one series more room to explore those kinds of dynamics.
I've been watching a lot of episodic shows lately, such as another long-running Toei series, Precure. Compared to a lot of episodic and formulaic shows of this sort, Ghost Game really is pretty unique. There's not just one solution to every problem. When I'm watching Precure, sometimes I'm frustrated that a particular fight just seems like an excuse to show the transformation, instead of another vehicle for increasing our understanding of the characters. But I rarely feel that way about Ghost Game, even though it is true that most episodic conflicts don't have any implications for the characters really. Instead, the episodic structure is used to flesh out the world itself.
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