Tag: Episode 16

Animini: Digimon Adventure – Episode 16 – The Jet-Black Shadow Invades Tokyo

Greetings my sweet Island Guests, the animini cocktail shot we will serve you today is two parts delusion, a dash of Groundhog day with a healthy splash of epic reunions. A strong episode of a strong series so far, yet the taste is a bit washed out by using some tropes a bit too much! Luckily the Dr Strange like action made up for a lot. 

The Summary

At the end of the last episode we saw Taichi’s group traverse a tunnel and end up in what seemed to be Tokyo and that is where this episode picks up.  The kids are back in Tokyo but things seem strange, there doesn’t seem to be any mention of the blackout and the kids cell phone will not connect. Excited however to be in the real world again the kids decide to visit their homes for a bit. Mimi being the most excited, wanting a shower and some change of clothes as well as going to a luxurious burger restaurant to have an Avocado Cheeseburger. Since Mimi lives in Shibuya the group has to split up! On the subway to their home though Koshiro and Taichi begin to feel worse. Why isn’t anyone talking about the blackout , why do they ignore the digimon with them? Things seem wrong. They are so locked into thought that they miss the next station they visit, Shibuya station.  The station they just traveled from. Meanwhile Mimi can’t seem to find the exit of the subway station and keeps ending up at the same map,  when she sees a Jack’s Burgers restaurant in the station. When the server glitches out , Mimi is pretty sure something is wrong.

The boys finally discover their train is looping as well and they get out. They find themselves in seemingly shrinking station loops happening more frequently. Relying on Greymon the group manages to collapse some of the area they are in and get out.  While it still looks like Tokyo the presence of a Digimon, who is scattered all around makes them realise they are still in the Digital world. A champion level Digimon called Eyesmon has copied it and can use it as his weapons to fight the Chosen ones. He proves to be such a formidable foe that even in their ultimate forms the digimon of our three heroes do not stand a chance. Just when  Eyesmon hurls three oil tankers at Metalgreymon, Lillymon and Atlurkabuterimon, they are held at bay by Garduamon, Zudomon comes in carrying Weregarurumon and destroys the tankers. Now united all the six chosen ones fight against a monster who can literally toss skyscrapers in their path. This champion level digimon has absorbed so much data it became this powerful. With a combined team attack they do manage to quell the danger. When the kids notice the blackout in Tokyo is still happening we see a few parts of eyesmon that did not get destroyed connect together again and it seems to digivolve into Orichimon.

The Positives

I love Mimi so much in this show! Her and Palmon’s interactions are hilarious! In this episode she also takes a starring role for me. The petty quest for an Avocado Cheeseburger is not something she gives up! No .. she let’s that desire empower her!   Seeing Palmon and herself in danger , she swears to Palmon she will take her to the real world so they can enjoy a burger together.  Giving her the strength to fight back!  Koshiro and Taichi are also  handled very well in this episode.  Taichi is becoming more of a leader noticing things are wrong in his gut, while Koshiro feels something wrong through contradictions seeing the world should not be like this.  When in trouble Taichi’s resolution is to power through and that is seen in this episode very nicely! I really love how the children are being handled here. Kari has a little cameo here which makes me wonder if she will come to the digital world. Takeru is shown with Palmon in the outro so I am pretty sure he is coming but Kari remains a bit of a mystery.. which I like!

The music and the battle here steal the spotlight in this episode. It is really great to see the group together again and see them combine their powers.  With Eyesmon shaping and twisting the city around them it is a very interesting fight as well. Metalgreymon crashes into a building so when Atlurkabuterimon leaps over the next he finds out there is a subway on top.. Lillymon gets struck by a plane.  Eventually the fight ends in complete surrealism where the city is formed into a sphere around the hero monsters. The music to accompany this all is great and it is done perfectly. It also works as a nice summary to see what everyone can do, and we see exactly how small Lillymon is next to all the other Ultimate digimon because there are a lot of great shows that offer us perspective! I do like these visual little things and it is one of the best fights yet! So on the action and personal front it was a great episode.

The Negatives

The scenario though is very bland, an illusion that keeps looping itself and where there is no escape. Star Trek Holodeck much?!  This thing has been pretty much done to death and this episode doesn’t really do anything new with it. The worst thing it does is forcing characters to be dumber than they are. I praised this show throughout for clever conflict set-up. What the characters did they were forced to do for valid reasons, here not so much.  Koshiro would never board that train without asking people about the blackout.. but no of course they have to seperate from Mimi first so questions aren’t asked until Mimi ate her burger so they could sneak in a creepy visual and get the more satisfying reaction.  I am fine with how Mimi is portrayed except that I would think she would notice her phone is dead too.. she probably would not take a subway back but ask to be picked up..if she needs that change of clothes so much. Maybe she grew who knows.. but it does feel like characters make more leaps to fit the story.

Furthermore I do think if you are going to use a location that loops, use something is a bit more visually impressive than a subway station. It does work better because everything looks alike .. but we are forced to believe this sequence of events based on a similar map on the wall. I assume a subway station has more maps. Why would they be able to travel to Shibuya but not from it.. why would the evil digimon know they are heading to Shibuya. There are several things off with the story here and while it isn’t anything horrible the show has shown it can set up conflict so much better. While the fight is very epic,  the escalation to it was very lackluster to me. It just isn’t executed well at all.

The Score

I was doubting between an Okiwi and a Fineapple here and I decided to settle on the latter. Yes it has a lot of sloppy writing, forced conflict  and even the rare character contradictions and it seriously insults the intelligence of any of the chosen ones.  Mimi doesn’t notice a Burger Restaurant just magically appears?! Okay she was hungry before.. but after she just shrugs it off.  No it isn’t nearly as well written and clever as most of the other episodes, while I think a Champion being this powerful is cool and needed to set up for Devimon later on .. it also kind of shows that you made a mistake and had to write an out!  It does show.  Yet it all feels slightly more irrelevant to me this time around because I still had so much fun.

The moments the characters DO act in character are strong, the action is sublime and the music is timed very well.  The Dr Strange like citybending and the weird eye filled version of Tokyo gave everything such an unique vibe as well. Kind of like those areas in the first three Digimon episodes that I loved  so much. I may not be convinced that this is how this scenario would play out had everything prior actually happened but I was super entertained. Like a toddler clapping at tv for seeing a fun colour combination they do not understand properly. I felt that kidlike joy that I also felt when watching the series when I was an actual kid. That in itself is also worth something I’d say. So while it is one of the dumbest episodes so far. The fact that I remember more cool scenes than poorly written episodes from anime in general makes me rule that this episode is quite alright.

Animini: That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime -Episode 16- Demon Lord Milim Attacks

Very few Isekai shows feel as wholesome and whimsical as  Slime to me! The episode we feature in today’s Animini to me shows exactly that “feel good” vibe I love this show so much for.. yet it also shows some of the shows weakest points for me! A great episode to be the first to break off from my bulk Sunday review!

The Summary

This episode picks up right after establishing the great Jura Alliance. Gazel Dwargo gifts Rimuru the scientist “Vesta”  whom we have seen earlier in .. I think it was episode 4! But I am too lazy to double check! The asshat guy .. now redeemed becomes a scientist for the village. We also see the Lizard Folk join Rimuru City and finally Gabiru’s sister is named as well.. which transforms her into a very humanoid person with a little dragon fang and some wings. Gabiru evolves further and gets some wings while he is being made a herb farmer down in some caves. Vesta is made the village scientist charged with making potions from those herbs.. like we saw Rimuru do in the very first episode of the show. The village proserpours but it also seems to have gathered some unwanted attention from the demon lords. A pink haired girl in particular takes interest in Rimuru , the Great Jura Alliance and the absence of the great Dragon Veldora and rushes over.

We quickly find out that she is the first person that is stronger than Rimuru. Even while holding back she has 10x the magicules he has. When the ogres attack the Demon Lord known as Milim she quickly beats them without much effort prompting Rimuru to join the fight. Knowing he does not have a chance he decides to feed her honey instead to appease her. Bribing her to give her some more.. as he discovered she has a very childish nature.  He also notices she is flat.. probably because she is so kid like!  Milim likes the honey and the two start talking and Milim asks Rimuru to become a Demon Lord, which he tells he has no interest in. This prompts her into believing he has more fun than Demon Lords who just can fight strong people.. and she joins the village proclaiming herself to be Rimuru’s bestie.. and she gives Gabiru a proper asswhooping.. Finally! She decides to live in the village which Rimuru’s council tells him might invoke the wrath of the other demon lords.. but Rimuru is mostly glad he subdued this powder keg of a woman. 

The Positives

Overall this was a very fun episode that  featured a lot of callbacks, easter eggs, call references and I really do like the character of Milim.. She has pink hair so that already is a plus and she is a type of person I really like. A super strong character but lacking the right persona to  actually take full advantage of that strength. I really do like these types of characters as they allow for character growth without powers spontaneously manifesting.  
In last week’s episode I also mentioned how I liked the growth of the town that once again is given some proper attention. The idea of making the potions one of their main trade goods is great and really ties in with the person Rimuru is.  Plus what we have seen before.. it feels well established and earned. Having Gabiru fail miserably at the task makes it funnier. Vesta being involved in the potions feels like poetic justice.. so from a writing perspective this episode does really well. 

The brief moment of action was also very appealing to me, from Milim’s aura being something very monstrous and explosive to the fake out with Rimuru doing his honey summoning technique. My favourite bit was when Milim punched Gabiru in the face. That hit felt so viceral and the powerful glow she gets in her eyes makes her feel strong.. and similar to Rimuru in a sense.. there is a sense of a tale that still needs to be told surrounding that. I do like the human rendition of the lizard folks as well..I have a weakness for girls with tails or fangs, and while it is a bit of a shame to see them not depicted as Lizards anymore the whole Lizard look lacked the personality they can put into these humanoid forms.  I am not sure I agree with the idea of making her human as a concept..  but for me it did work. I have been known for not liking Lizard people too much though so that may be personal bias.  I do like lizard elements.  All in all I say this episode made a few clever choices that brought a lot of flair and persona to the table for some characters.

The Negatives

I dislike .. a lot.. that Milim wears a barely anything outfit… I dislike that they made Shion’s boobs jiggle in the hottub and I dislike that every female surrounding Rimuru has to be hot and judged by their breast size.  I get this will appeal to some people who like that kind of stuff but I found it obnoxiously present. If Milim is indeed so childish why not reflect it a bit in her outfit as well .. give her a more kidlike outfit.. Why does she have to show so much skin?! It seems to conflict with everything else about her. There is a hot tub scene where Rimuru is alone with the ogre girls and Milim and it feels odd. Shuna seems more uptight.. which makes sense for a princess ..but before she was depicted as more shy and very forgiving yet for some reason she is a real stickler against a demon lord swimming in a hot tub..it felt a bit forced to produce a boob joke later on.

While the storytelling of the episode is great and the visuals are mostly nice, I do think the second half of the episode drags on a bit. That is because this episode does a few “false endings” .. Rimuru says some words in conclusion of a situation that feel like an ending “And that is how a Demon Lord joined our village”,  “So I became besties with a Demon Lord” and the likes after which we mostly get just casual conversations between characters that do not really add anything. I do not mind the idle conversation but I would have placed the Hot-tub scene BEFORE the big speech so we can end on a high note.  Now I ended up checking the timeline twice to see if I had much longer to go because in the end I got bored and wanted the episode to end.. not because it’s  a bad episode persé but because they concluded the episode at the 16 minute mark and the final 7 minutes just give it episode length. It could have been mixed a bit better.

The Score

In the end I have a bit mixed feelings about this episode. In the end I think it is a fine episode because it very much did keep me entertained for the majority of its runtime. It just blew the final few minutes and I honestly felt there was too much of an emphasis on fan-service in this episode.  I wonder what the little slimes were around Rimuru when he was in the tub. Are they actual slimes or where they like bath toys? I am not sure!  It’s perfect light entertainment but it is also an episode that does not hold up when exposed to a more scrutinous eye. 

As this episode most likely is aimed to introduce us to the known villains for the rest of the season we also saw too little for it to have properly done that.  Yet despite those flaws I had a lot of fun with new and old elements being reintroduced. The fact that Rimuru doesn’t always need power to defeat someone is great and the fact he has met someone stronger than him makes this world feel more alive.  So if you are watching the show still by episode 16 I do not think any of these offences it makes are unforgivable.. it just could have been done a bit better, which I know because the show has been better many times over. It does get a positive score from me..  but of the “good” scores it is in the lower range!