Digimon Adventure: Episode 48- The Attack of Mugendramon

[Vande]

This is the episode discussion thread for Episode 48, The Attack of Mugendramon

An extended version of the episode preview from the end of episode 47.

Episode 48 airs Sunday, May 16th, 9am in Japan.

The simulcast for Crunchyroll is shortly after at:
Saturday, May 15th, 7:30pm in California (Pacific)
Saturday, May 15th, 10:30pm in New York (Eastern)
Sunday, May 16th, 3:30am in the UK

If your time isn't included in the short list above this link will take you to an easy to use time converter so you check yours.

The show can be watched on the following:
(Most countries) Crunchyroll Series Page
(US only) VRV Series Page
(AU only) Anime Lab Series Page
(US only) Hulu Series Page


No spoilers past this episode and no posting before the episode is commonly available for most people at the simulcast times listed above (if you are posting about the episode trending on social media in Japan, feel free to post about that.) You can discuss any next episode previews if they are shown at the end of the episode.


Feel free to join us in the Discord if you want to chat about the episode.

 

[MarcFBR]

I dunno about this one overall.

Catching up with other characters was nice, and the loud and big Mugendramon fight was nice enough, but I was hoping more would happen here.

Mugendramon was used reasonably well, and we got pseudo-short appearances from most of the evolved forms of the Digimon who each got a moment or so. Them explaining him minimally worked pretty well for me. I had concerns they'd stop the episode for a minute or two to explain him, instead that was weaved in pretty well with things that will hopefully swing back in an episode or two.

The best part of the episode was Mugendramon vs. WarGreymon with a nearly full sized Break the Chain.

Episode overall felt like the equivalent of a harem anime when you go "So is anything gonna actually happen?"


I think the high point was seeing them use WarGreymon's gear in so many interesting ways in a way that hasn't been done in a very very long time (the 'punch' in War Game.)

I feel like it was kind of... good enough overall, even though it was lacking in many ways. Without the end stuff the episode would have felt much more boring and paint by numbers (even though it mostly still was.)


Notably Angewomon 'again' shows she can power up other Digimon.


And hey, we've seen this ending before in tri. It makes sense, it's a pretty standard dramatic type of action ending, and it does work well enough here.

Episode just needed more meat, even if a long drag out fight at this point was a decent idea.

 

[GoldenEXP]

Really wish this episode was animated better, this couldve been a great one
Right now its just okay
It seems to have done really well in viewers though, got 3 different trends on JP twitter (Digimon, Mugendramon and Wonder Swan)

 

[Eitaroutarouman]

The animation took a huge nosedive for the first half. The battle was basically near-still images vs another still image. Oh well, better the first part be the worst. Don't want a repeat of Nidhoggmon.

 

[Bartz]

First half was a bit weak, especially in the animation department. Second half made up for it though, especially the 1-on-1 between Mugendramon and Wargreymon as it felt more like a battle due to the damage both were doing to each other as well as the creative use of Wargreymon's different tools rather then relying on just one attack.

 

[RyummaSama]

The first half was bit of a drag, but the fight between WarGreymon and Mugendramon was pretty well done and interesting. Say what you will about this series, but you can't deny that they get pretty innovative and creative when it comes to the battles, instead of the same cookiecutter fights from previous series.

 

[Digiforlife]

yet another Mugendramon without personality...at least this time he is pretty OP. Again this really feels like a tribute to Digimon Adventure Tri Symbiosis' ending..

 

[Ghalheart]

Yeah, I'm kinda iffy on this episode.

So, final fight scene was nice overall, even though you can tell they held back on the animation budget for this episode. And they kept it pretty short-and-sweet with saying "hey, we made this Mugendramon based off the data of everything that fought against Milleniumon, break yourself upon this creation for our sinister purpose(s)."

The episode takes quite a few cues from other episodes and series as well. Notably, WarGreymon and Taichi get powered up again in this episode thanks to Angewomon and Hikari, but remember that WarGreymon was also powered-up by Hikari to take down Mugendramon back in the original Digimon Adventure as well.

Also, seeing Mugendramon use his telescopic arm to attack WarGreymon was a nice touch, since it's based on MetalGreymon's arm (which was a very useful means of attack in this series). Bonus points for bringing up the tail-laser attack (which was iconic during MetalGreymon's Dark Evolution to Not-Quite-Mugendramon and the ensuing slugfest against DoneDevimon several episodes ago).

The episode as a whole, what with Mugendramon's data-absorbing from some of the Chosen Children's Digimon, as well as WarGreymon and Taichi taking a wild ride on Mugendramon's rocketing torso into Cloud Continent... it's setting up for another episode (or two) to resolve. It's definitely not a self-contained episode that you can easily judge by itself, but by its set-up and payoff in future episodes.

...

So, uh, Mugendramon. I'm a huge fan of this Digimon in general, so I'm personally disappointed that it was treated as a monster-of-the-week in this series and not a story-arc villain as seen in other media in the franchise.

I get that Mugendramon is a composite Digimon that can be portrayed as either a malicious Digimon lacking compassion or a destructive Digimon with no personality or emotion that fits whatever plot or character it needs to; I'm just disappointed that it showed up in this episode as a one-and-done thing that was more focused on being a non-emotive robot that's trying too hard to shoot down a floating island, and not an important payoff to even the shortest of story-arcs in anime.

I'd talk more, but there's already enough of a set-up for future episodes, so I'll wait and see before I commit to a definitive opinion.

 

[Imperial]

This was pretty fun. When Yamato reflected on where he'd seen Machinedramon before and looked back at Taichi I kinda thought something more would happen. I'd have liked Agumon to reflect on it a bit. Or even ask for the one on one instead of Taichi. Also I think it was a missed opportunity with Lopmon not speaking with Tailmon.

As mentioned in this thread, so many good ideas with the fight. But the animation felt lacking. If ever they did a directors cut version of an episode I think this one would be a high priority. One thing in particular is the difference between WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon here. MetalGarurumon can't fall back and say his intro was glorious like WarGreymon can. When WarGreymon first came I feel the intent was to show "This guy is super strong. Look at how he nuked that forest. He's big and he's bad." But with MetalGarurumon it was like "Time for Yamato to get an Mega. We don't really care who it's against or having it be flashy." And it felt the same here, MetalGarurumon was not flashy at all. Like if I didn't know he was the final Gabumon form I'd just assume he wasn't because I couldn't tell one way or another. I think that's something they need to fix and soon, because everyone else is going to suffer if they get the same treatment.

 

[Brubarb]

This was pretty fun. When Yamato reflected on where he'd seen Machinedramon before and looked back at Taichi I kinda thought something more would happen. I'd have liked Agumon to reflect on it a bit. Or even ask for the one on one instead of Taichi. Also I think it was a missed opportunity with Lopmon not speaking with Tailmon.

As mentioned in this thread, so many good ideas with the fight. But the animation felt lacking. If ever they did a directors cut version of an episode I think this one would be a high priority. One thing in particular is the difference between WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon here. MetalGarurumon can't fall back and say his intro was glorious like WarGreymon can. When WarGreymon first came I feel the intent was to show "This guy is super strong. Look at how he nuked that forest. He's big and he's bad." But with MetalGarurumon it was like "Time for Yamato to get an Mega. We don't really care who it's against or having it be flashy." And it felt the same here, MetalGarurumon was not flashy at all. Like if I didn't know he was the final Gabumon form I'd just assume he wasn't because I couldn't tell one way or another. I think that's something they need to fix and soon, because everyone else is going to suffer if they get the same treatment.

I agree with you, and also had the very same thoughts with MetalGarurumon. It's a shame that he doesn't receive treatment as anything other than ordinary. Hopefully that changes next episode against Gryphonmon. Here's to hoping.

 

[Tarama]

That was the best WarGreymon vs Mugendramon battle.

 

[Bancho]

I've noticed that Adventure: is great if you like kaiju battles, as nearly every boss fight is more focused on the monster fights than anything else (Ogremon, Minotaurmon, and Sephirothmon revived Devimon are the only battles I can remember that had narrative over action). It's one of the many reasons Adventure: is very enjoyable if you just turn your brain off and roll with everything rather than going in expecting to leave with narrative substance, it really does have a ton of fun scenes if you let go of what you want the show to be. The Machinedramon fight here is very well done within the limits of animation and how much graphicness they can appropriately do for a kid cartoon but even as a great fight in Adventure:, I much prefer the Machinedramon from Digimon Next as a Digimon with a personality and agenda are much more appealing to me than an instinctual monster especially in a series already full of boss monsters with no signs of sentience.

AW HELL NAW THEY KILLED MY BOY TIE CHEESE

 

[Lilimonblooms]

It was a fine episode with very weak animation.
Lillymon and zudomon were good today.
Zudomon seemed to have used a new technique while lillymon sticked to flower cannon.
Angewomon was very good while holyangemon was disappointing in my opinion.
I liked the fact that lillymon was the first ultimate to attack even though flower cannon was pretty useless against mugendramon.
Angewomon's intervention was pretty badass though

 

[Lord Bearmon]

The lack of attack moves screaming really makes the battle less exciting.

 

[Dynamicmon]

That was the best WarGreymon vs Mugendramon battle.

well the other really notable one was a one slice win, yea, pretty easy call.

 

[Ragnalord]

The only thing I liked here is that they fully referenced mugendramon lore in that they can make him however strong they want him to be due to his infinite program thing, thank you digimon gods.

 

[Chudix]

The episode was good, exept one stupid thing.

WarGreymon should jump off from the Mugendramon's body, when he and Taichi noticed that they gonna crush into Cloud Continent. They were not immobillized.

 

[Sparrow Hawk]

Didn't think this episode got really good despite terrible animation scenes.

Leomon survived huh but wait wait hold on? Eldoradimon just grew a new castle as it is healing up?! SO DIGIMON CAN HEAL WOUNDS TO
RETURN TO THEIR NORMAL STATE? Poor Cyclomon... But it's good to see Lopmon again but may I ask why... Burgamon, and others who appeared in Jagamon's episode joined? I thought they were eating with new sets of Potato menu at "Rest Station"?! I mean they aren't even... "Victims". Oh well who cares about that anyways.

So Mugendramon appeared! Sephirotmon's true body finally revealed fully! And I didn't expect Vademon can hack Koushiro's laptop using... Creepy telepathic minds. Ugh if it weren't for terrible animations, it'd be most epic episode with Mugendramon!

But what's up with that Zudomon's horn glowing as if he got a new attack yet I saw the yellow beam came from Zudomon but it was clearly showing his horn didn't shoot laser beam weeeeeird! Probably hammer did this but what was the point of that glowing horn....
I seriously thought Angewomon evolve here as Hikari strongly triggered with powerful light of hers but nope it gave Taichi and WarGreymon
"Light Shield" mystery buff thingy. Wow! Mugendramon and Wargreymon battle (Rematch) is very cool and brutal! WarGreymon clawed
that Shin Godzilla tail then threw one of Dramon Killer to clog up inside its Megadramon arm and exploded after Mugendramon launched
mysterious fireball at them in process of destroying its MetalGreymon arm... Oh yeah I was surprised at WarGreymon completely discarded his Brave Shield after protected...Then Wild West Stare and standing style scene looked so epic! I guess WarGreymon didn't get deleted instantly as his chest/Digicore got pierced because of that... Light shield buff. Oh boy I sure wish this episode needed huge buff animation...!!
I wondered what that was for? Mugendramon totally focused on shooting at Cloud island? "Mugen"dramon finally gave us the meaning of why it's named but it only... Showed Infinite symbol in the end. That's it. Just overload. Simple... That's kinda... Somewhat "meh".
Heh it's extremely amusing, not too long time a certain topic about the Digimon profiles and there was some arguements about Mugendramon being the strongest one then Vademon showed up and presented that who is the Strongest Digimon? Answer! LMAO but it is only buffed up from Sephirotmon's data collections and Vademon cult's methods, right? I prefer the strongest one without BUFFS to prove itself...

But still, it's pretty interesting and entertaining episode! Seriously frozen stiff standing animations were everywhere and it really got on my nerves along with Pewpewpewpew Stormtrooper lasers. It totally ruined this ep. But still I didn't know Mugendramon can disconnect its parts.
Mugendramon being mindless beast was used too many times lol I mean DW1, Next Order, and now this. However unlike those, this kept going on until death while it lost the most of its parts and the hidden activation button made it went like kamikaze mode was pretty scary for "the Strongest Digimon" but it still didn't count that because it was painfully obvious Vademon cult treated Mugendramon like remote controlled suicidal drone. That's why.

 

[robiu013]

Oh well, the episode was pretty good for what it's worth. They had some interesting battle choreography ideas, too bad they couldn't back it up with good animation. The continuous versatility of Machinedramon as it keeps losing body parts was pretty great.

I guess Taichi just did a repeat of Takeru from that Pegasusmon episode, where he is just glued to his Digimon and won't fall off because magic.

On a different note: As much as people keep saying (and complaining about) how Digimon 2020 is a Taichi-centric show, he is just the blandest. 48 episodes in I still can't even describe any interesting aspects about his character other than that he has Agumon. He is just an idea of a main character and nothing more.

 

[AppliFang]

I was hoping Wargreymon was gonna yell out Brave Tornado xD

Zudmon is interesting...glowing horn headbut...and then it turns to a laser that comes from the hammer?

I hope if this show get an English Dub that they yell out attack lol