Digimon superfan Jean-Karlo gushes about the newest Digimon series, Ghost Game and how it revitalizes the franchise with its unique designs and spooky vibes.
This series is streaming on Crunchyroll
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Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
Jean-Karlo Hey Nicky, so like, I know we're talking about
Digimon today but I really don't like the Saban theme from way back, so I'd appreciate it if we didn't really bring it up—
GOD DAMMIT
Nicky Hey, even if I have no proper nostalgia for
Digimon Adventure I can't deny the appeal of a catchy (but also kinda lame) kid show theme song. However, you know what's not lame?
Digimon Ghost Game !! Today, we'll be teaming up with the latest horror-tinged iteration of those adorable digital m
onsters.
Me, I'm a longtime fan of
Digimon. I mainlined the first four seasons growing up; those original seven kids that went to camp for the summer feel like longtime friends of mine, the sight of that old ruined street car by the lake tugs at my heartstrings, and I long to make a pilgrimage to the
Fuji TV station where Wizardmon made his last stand. I even liked Frontier, so sue me. And—bear with me, I promise there's a point to this digression—it all starts with virtual pets! Back in the 90s, when Bandai's Tamagochi toys were all the rage, Bandai decided to make a line more-obviously aimed at boys. So they ditched the cutesy abstract designs, reskinned the feeding and playing minigames to make them "tougher" (candy was replaced with "protein", playing was replaced with "training"), made the pets look more like tokusatsu heroes or kaiju, added a data-sharing mechanic that allowed for battling, and created the Digital Monster line of virtual pets which went on to inspire the anime. I had one as a kid, before I even watched the anime, but it's long since been lost to time. Bandai has continued making new Digital Monster pets since the 90s, but very few have come to the US over the past 20 years. This past summer, I had a nostalgia-bomb and bought the US releases of 20th Anniversary edition of the original Digital Monster pet, pictured here, as well as the subsequent Digital Monster X update. And it was fun! It definitely helps contextualize the original show, its obsession with the Dig
imon being properly fed or pooping creating Digi-sludge, or the choices in
Digimon that appeared.
Bandai went on to unveil a new Digital Monster pet over the summer, the "Vital Bracelet". A pedometer toy aimed at kids, this allowed kids to raise Dig
imon with physical activity. You can install new Dig
imon to the device with "DIM cards" (like SIM cards, but Dig
imon instead). It's fun, and Bandai has expanded the Vital Bracelet line to the
Ultraman brand. But you can't keep a good
franchise down, so Bandai decided to make a new anime to tie into the new toys. Hence
Ghost Game! See, I told you my bloviation would pay off.
Ah, I see! I was wondering how the watches played into the real-world merchandising aspect, as a total
Digimon novice. I never got into the original series. My parents were very strict about not letting me enjoy certain things aimed at boys, growing up. I sneaked whatever I could anyways but I couldn't fit in
Digimon and I kinda feel like I missed the boat ever since. Then, when I was interested in stuff like
Tri or the new version of
Adventure those ended up kinda dropping the ball. So don't sue me for being a little skeptical about a new
Digimon. However, since
Digimon Ghost Game is not connected to the
Adventure continuity in any way, it made it pretty easy to dive-in as a newcomer.
Which is equally great whether you're an adult who never watched
Digimon or also if you're the intended audience, that is, children.
It's a great "All-ages" spooky times that's just skilled enough to make my definitely-not-a-kid-anymore skin crawl. I was thoroughly impressed by the tone of the first episode, it lands the direction and audio just enough to be scary while never being explicitly gruesome even with otherwise modest animation. It's very much "What if Dig
imon acted more like yokai?" It actually reminds me a lot of the latest
GeGeGe no Kitarō series, which I watched some of but it also went pretty hardcore in a way that was also fun and stylish.
It also fits nicely into a (no pun intended) "Monster-of-the-week" format that feels native to a kids show and allows us to explore all the cool Dig
imon properly as they wreak havoc upon the real world. It also plays a lot with rumors, social media, and smart devices as added flavor, something I love amongst more recent horror-outings when it's done well. Regular readers and people who know me should know that I have a soft-spot for horror and spooky stuff and kid's horror is no exception, in-fact a lot of kids shows are slightly scary because fear is one of the few emotions children understand easily and can have fun with in the safe context of a cartoon.
I'm actually shocked that he doesn't have goggles, either. Like, dye Adol from
Ys into a guy with green hair and make his new romantic interest a blonde, why don't you. Give Professor Xavier a mullet. Give Kirby a Tom Sellick porn-stache. The goggles are a big part of
Digimon iconography (Takato from
Tamers went through the effort of getting himself some once he met Guilmon, and the
Digimon show was canonically fiction in his world!). Not using goggles was a ballsy move—and by God, they pulled it off. Who needs goggles when you have a lockpicking kit?
Likewise, Gammamon could have been very annoying—people hate kids or people with kid-like brains. Gammamon is all id, no common sense, and has his own weird way of speaking, like calling
Salmon "shiny" or referring to chocolate as "the champion". But he's nevertheless very cute. The big draw for
Digimon has always been the idea that out there in the world, you have a best friend waiting for you who just happens to be a talking dinosaur that can turn into a bigger talking dinosaur and they want nothing more than to eat junk food and play video games with you. (You're on you're own if you get the snarky seal-guy with the marching fishes.) The two fall in step with each other very quickly and Hiro is shown to be very diligent in raising Gammamon right from the word "go".
Can testify, that's the Digimon-raising experience. Those babies poop a lot in the 20th Anniversary device.
I would like to congratulate Pumpkinmon on finally escaping Myotismon's dark DigiDungeon. I can only hope Gotsumon also found his way out.
But yeah, this is a thing I like. I may love Kamen Rider and the sight of villains getting blown up every week, but there's something to be said about a kid's show where the problem can be resolved diplomatically and with no ill will towards either side. Sometimes, people just don't know that what they're doing is wrong. People are nice, if you give them a chance. And I appreciate that, at the end of the day, a lot of Digimon just want to be friends with humans. AND THEN THERE'S THIS ASSHOLE.
Pretty sure the only one I would label as actively-malicious so far! But the singlemindedness still applies. Dracumon is just harming people for funsies. and also so he can materialize in the real world but we'll get into that.
His design is such that I'm disappointed we never see him Digivolve. In the tradition of rabbit-like Digimon like Terriermon having badass forms like Gargomon or Rapidmon, I'd love to see the kind of thing Angoramon turns into.
Oh yeah, is should mention that both the OP and ED are very catchy, and the music for the show does it's job well with various synths for both the spooky parts or the more action-y parts.
Jellymon-sama is definitely the most fae-like of the main Dig
imon, lol. Including the high sense of superiority. Too bad Jellymon-sama's partner, Kiyoshirō Higashimitarai ,is a little scaredy baby, an overachiever, and also a major chuuni, who is magically not annoying at all thanks to a surprising appearance by veteran
Akira Ishida. I did not expect to hear him in this after the last major role I heard him in was the last freakin'
Eva movie!
That's all to say that I love him and think he is precious.
To wit: Kiyoshiro is in middle school but he graduated with a Master's degree in America. He came back to Japan because he's an incurable weeb who wanted to experience Japanese school life like in his Japanese anime. Jellymon-sama is sure to call him out on that.
Sorry, Kiyoshiro. Jellymon's got the Louis Vuitton CBT boots on, too late to back out now.
Kiyoshiro is also painfully superstitious, like Benny from The Mummy. He goes so far as to hack 1,000 devices in his city to set up a network of talismans in an attempt at preventing Jellymon from "haunting" him. The kid turned the blockchain into a digital sealing ward, and it didn't work.
He's somehow both hypercompetent, and cool, and also pretty pathetic with how paranoid he his. He also keeps talking about his sealed bandage hand.
She also earns a degree of respect for Kiyoshiro when she sees that, coward that he is, he's still willing to take responsibility and stand by his friends. She even goes as far as to do the Lum Invader-thing of calling him "Darling" (hey, she can control electricity already, why not?)
Anyways, that's all to say I think the cast isn't very complex as characters but they have strong enough simple personalities to the point where they aren't annoying or whiny like a lot of kid shows are and they never slow down the episode. Helps that the beats and jokes are presented in a pretty snappy fashion so they don't overstay their welcome. Even some of the more repeat-phrases don't break the tone to feel like a real "turn to the camera" moment.
There's a line between characters having personalities and characters just having a shtick, and Digimon Ghost Game stands quite firmly in the former and not the latter. It's the difference between a kids' show and a good kids' show, and for the most part Digimon has been great on that front as a franchise. Ghost Game isn't quite Tamers, but it's up there in terms of execution. Way better than 02, at least.
I mean, at least the writer for
Digimon Ghost Game hasn't been caught posting conspiracy theories on twitter afaik. So there's that. (sad)
Though does the episode where crows turn out to actually be drones count?
An entire generation of mecha-fans recoils at the words "Listen to my song" as echoes of "Fire Bomber" bubble to the surface of their memory...
Also, the aerial battle in the most recent episode was probs one of the more extended fight scenes, it's cool how the attack names just randomly appear in the kid's head. Idk if that existed in previous
Digimon series but I think it's a neat way of making that trope more diegetic.
That's new to this show; for the most part, the older shows had the Digimon fighting on their own while the children offered moral support and fueled them with the power of friendship (not kidding, that's how it worked). There was never a need for the Digidestined to call out their partners' attacks before. Considering how the Vital Bracelets IRL depend on the user's physical activity for the Digimon to be able to fight or Digivolve, it's a neat way to demonstrate how there's more of a need for the kids to take part and contribute to the fights, even if it's just their heartbeat or whatever.
Anyways, I don't consider
Ghost Game to be a radical take on the
franchise or the genre but it's solid at what it is and it seems to hold a lot of respect for the audience watching it regardless of what age you are enough for me to enjoy it without encountering some of the plentiful kid show hang-ups. Which is pretty ideal, honestly.
In fact, I could probably name at least three other shows I'm watching that wasted my time more than Ghost Game does.
I'm a long-time
Digimon fan and I can honestly say that, ignoring my nostalgia,
Ghost Game is a competent show that does everything it has to in order to earn that distinction. Nicky's right; the show respects the intelligence of the audience, the characters are distinguished and consistent, the mysteries are engaging and genuinely gripping, and there are good lessons to be had. Even with this show revolving around selling a toy pedometer to kids (that doesn't even track your movement all that great—the Vital Bracelet is a bit inaccurate), this is a really fun show.
Taking my nostalgia into account? Even then, Ghost Game stands on its own. The references aren't even aimed at the older shows in particular, although seeing older Digimon pop up every so often is fun. The show is not like the older ones in terms of format, and that's fine—it works very well. Maybe this show will crap the bed and tack on some laborious world-saving plot that'll crumble its delicate foundations, like in 02. Or maybe it'll weave in an interesting angle as to why Digimon are bleeding into the real world and we'll get some kind of tragic twist of a final villain that casts the actions of the main cast in a different light, like with Apocalymon in Adventure.
I mean, hell, they still do the thing where the Digital World has random splotches of color in the sky and foliage. I can't help but love that.
Oh yeah, we didn't mention but they do occasionally swap between the real and digital world, it's just doesn't make a big deal about it.
I'm kinda glad I haven't seen
Tri or
Kizuna. As much as I love the original Digidestined, I think
Ghost Game is much better as a continuation of
Digimon Adventure . Sure, there's no world-saving plot and the kids have much simpler lives than Joe-"You don't understand, this seal is ruining my life and he won't stop owning me, someone please help me"-Kido, but it's a show about kids having adventures with their best friends. Sometimes, the adventures are dangerous, sometimes they're less so. Sometimes they make new friends, sometimes they find a new enemy leering at them from the shadows. But they're always with their best friends, through thick and thin, and I could never ask for more from
Digimon. It's why we're here.
So please. Bandai.
Release the Pendulum Z and the X-3 Digital Monster pets in the US, I am dying here, help a guy out. 
Well as for myself, I might keep up with this show on a casual level. But for now. I gotta take this page of wisdom from the big fox Dig
imon. Even adults need to take naps! ZZZZZZZZ
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