To finish! This week marks ghost game’The return from the hiatus after the Toei Animation hack, and it also marks the return of a longtime fan favorite: SkullGreymon. How’s our first look at Digimon in almost two months?
So what is it?
Courtesy of Crunchyroll, here is a synopsis of Digimon Ghost Game Episode 22: “Nightmare”:
Jellymon runs a sleep therapy program when everything goes wrong! Jellymon customers wake up to wounds. The gang goes to investigate, but will they be able to escape the nightmare?
You can catch up on our coverage of the series so far with our reviews of past episodes.
Ok, but what does it look like?
Before the break, art and animation were ghost game’s main pitfalls. They managed to look pretty good about half the time, but when they didn’t, Toei’s persistent refusal to adequately fund this franchise really showed.
Fortunately, that is not the case here. There are only one or two awkward (but brief) moments in terms of animation, and everything else runs pretty smoothly. There aren’t any of the horrible rushed facial expressions I expected, and the fight choreography in the second half is quite nice. SymbareAngoramon has one of its coolest sequences in the series so far (albeit in the context of having a whole army of itself).
More impressive than the characters, however, are the backgrounds. The sets for this episode are superb. Most of the drama takes place in the dream world of Pilomon, whose sky evokes great Starry Night vibes. The real-world images are also lovely thanks to the green hills and cherry blossoms. All in all, this episode is just a pleasure to watch.
Story and Character Rhythms
“Why are you like that?!” (Animated Toei)
This week, the heroes (mainly Jellymon) are getting into trouble. In his latest plan, Jellymon decided to use Pilomon’s Dream Bubbles to give people a nice, relaxing sleep…for a fee, of course. When Pilomon starts having nightmares, the clients do too, and they find themselves attacked by a dreamy SkullGreymon whose attacks injure their real bodies. In the end, Kiyoshiro, Jellymon, Angoramon, and Ruli find themselves stuck in the dream world and must fight their way to save themselves and the other victims.
While this is a total filler episode in terms of contributions (or lack thereof) to the series’ ongoing mysteries, it’s enjoyable because of how the dreamscape premise is managed. Realizing that they are trapped in a world beyond the limits of physical laws, Kiyoshiro literally parts an ocean and levitates to escape evil. Digimon partners are following suit in defying reality, with TeslaJellymon reaching skyscraper proportions at one point. All in all, it’s a fun exercise in letting loose and allowing the heroes to overcome their usual restraints in dramatic fashion for a while.
Sometimes you need a week off to rest. (Animated Toei)
Hiro and Gammamon barely consider this episode, but their limited screen time is still cute. Hiro doesn’t get help text messages from others as his phone is being repaired after Gammamon takes a bite out of it. It’s silly, it’s charming, and it allows other characters to spend time in the spotlight. Plus, we get a fun return appearance from Tapirmon, which makes sense given his own ties to dreams.
Conclusion and haste
Who cares what the next episode is about? At least we have it to hope. (Animated Toei)
Overall, it’s a pretty enjoyable episode. It doesn’t lead to anything particularly new or unexpected, but it does give all the cast members satisfying moments to shine. The art is also lovely and the battle scene is well done. I’m very excited to have another episode to look forward to next week.
