Digimon Ghost Game

Episode 12

This week's episode of Digimon Ghost Game gave us a threat that arguably had the heaviest stakes: a Digimon that basically acts like a legitimate virus, taking advantage of how people respond to certain messages and attempting to spread it to as many people as possible (it really doesn't help that I watched this episode right after I got my Instagram hacked but what can you do?). Not only is the spread of this Digimon dangerous and extremely unsettling, but the episode doesn't shy away from depicting the actual impact it can have on ordinary people. Not only can regular humans see this Digimon come out of all of their devices, but they are suffering real pain from being assaulted by dozens of these tiny creatures at a time as they try to suck the moisture from their body. I do think the episode could've gone a bit further with communicating how creepy this threat is, but the danger is no less apparent. I am very curious to know if this will affect Japan in any way, shape, or form moving forward. While I can suspend my disbelief and see how the previous Digimon threats, being relatively isolated incidents, can be hidden from public consciousness either by media suppression or being framed as some kind of modern-day urban legend, this one feels significantly more public and difficult to conceal.

I also have a lot of questions regarding the final third of this episode which, while effective, does feel a bit like a copout with various plot contrivances. First off, the gang's solution to isolating this virus Digimon is by transporting them to the same in-between world as they've done every episode. However, I was always under the impression that it only works in isolated locations but here it seems to have affected all of Japan. Secondly, the look of this world is slightly different: the city looks a lot more digitized compared to the almost post-apocalyptic look that it had in previous episodes. Third, this alternate world is still seemingly based on the real world, so I don't know how the gang came up with a conclusion that there was only one lake in it unless they had previously searched this location earlier in case something like this happened? And finally, the resolution left me with mixed feelings in a way that I think was intentional but I have no idea if the show is ever going to actually follow up on it. We find out that the virus was just an accident caused by a Digimon that tried to clone itself because it was lonely, but the show keeps zooming in on this main digimons face while it's speaking in a sinister tone, so I have no idea if it's genuinely being sincere or if there's some kind of larger thing at play. So yeah, a bit of a mixed bag, but I'd be lying if I said that it didn't reach the bare minimum threshold of entertaining me and besides, getting a look at Gammamon's digivolution was awesome.

Rating:

Digimon Ghost Game is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.