Digimon Ghost Game: Episode 17- Icy Hell

[Vande]

This is the episode discussion thread for Episode 17, Icy Hell

A preview of the episode from the end of episode 16

Episode 17 airs Sunday, February 6th, 9am in Japan.

The simulcast for Crunchyroll is shortly after at:
Saturday, February 5th, 6:30pm in California (Pacific)
Saturday, February 5th, 9:30pm in New York (Eastern)
Sunday, February 6th, 2:30am in the UK (GMT)

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

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]

Starting off mid plot with everyone freezing then swinging back to the beginning. Not a bad place to start a story.

Kiyoshiro is in a bragging mood over his helping develop a power plant. It feels like he's puffing up a bit. Ruli seems more than unimpressed.

Oh, they were promised a hot spring trip, which is why she's annoyed.

Frozomon... he's coming, because he detects a heat source.

Ruli is uninterested because she doesn't like analog tech, she's also ranting about Kiyoshiro dragging them there. Ruli is threatening to build a giant snowman to get photos for her social media.

Jellymon wants to leave and get manju and wear a yukata.

Frozomon wrecking up the place with ice missiles to get rid of the heat source. At least this time Kiyoshiro recognizes it specifically as a hologram ghost/Digimon.

That Angoramon run cycle is good and cartoony looking. And Jellymon is explaining who Frozomon is, although she admits she's never seen him.

Angoramon is worried at Kiyoshiro arguing with Frozomon over a speaker, but doors are frozen, not much for him to do. He amps up the snow instead.

Jellymon points out he's only being brave because he's somewhere safe. Ruli called, she's outside building a snowman, as promised. -15 inside already. Gammamon is cold.

They have him evolve into Betel, and now he's ok and just hanging around. Ditto for Jellymon, who is hanging around as Tesla.

-21 now and Ruli got back in before the last door froze over, but she doesn't know where to go. Angoramon finally is able to get to Kiyoshiro and explain stuff, Tesla is amused as to how upset he likely made Frozomon.

Hiro switched to a pseudo desert world to try and fix things. Now it's just cold and sandy. Turns it back to normal.

Angoramon is using his fur to try and keep Hiro and Kiyoshiro warm. Ruli is still running around while Frozomon snowplows around and oh look... Ruli found Frozomon.

Ruli is running running, and one more door is open and she gets away. Frozomon figures out where the others are though. Ruli comments it's warmer out in the snow than in the building.

Frozomon blocks the adult attacks and swings his big heat blade. That's a nice attack for snow removal. And running they go.

Teasing that they are going to do 'phone rings at the wrong time and alerts the baddy' doesn't really work when they already did it.

At this point Angoramon's fur is starting to freeze also. Things are bad enough that TeslaJellymon is being helpful without taunting Kiyoshiro.

We also get some frost on Betal, and he goes back to Gammamon.

Kiyoshiro is happy TeslaJellymon is ok. The electric shocks is keeping her warm enough. It won't work for anyone else though. Before he passes out Kiyoshiro asks Tesla to at least figure out a way to save Hiro. At this point Ruli is elsewhere, and everyone else is passed out due to the cold.

Ruli is yelling at Frozomonand TeslaJellymon pops out to double kick him, grab Ruli and jump back.

Tesla is lying that it's not the time to worry about others and Ruli realizes something is very wrong. Tesla gives her a slap to stop her freaking out.

Ruli randomly calling a TeslaJellymon attack seems random and weird. Ruli seems aware of that also. Tesla is just smacking Frozomon around at the moment. Random Digimon run up and tell them to stop bullying Frozomon.

And it was all a misunderstanding and Frozomon was unaware his obsession with the cold was doing harm. The Digimon were worried it was becoming warm and Frozomon was trying to help them. The others are ok sitting next to a fire. Frozomon is still upset about the plant being there.

And off the cold Digimon do to find someplace colder to live. Angoramon finished with puffery. Ruli comments she doesn't really understand what he's saying.




Overall the episode felt good, but I don't know if it felt 'good' or just good for the rut Ghost Game has been in.

The Ruli/TeslaJellymon stuff was 'really' interesting if the show plans to do anything with it, but minus the initial shock Ruli and TeslaJellymon themselves don't seem to care much, so... we will see.


Basically, stuff actually happens and the episode seems interesting. But it feels like this 'should have' been a lesser episode rather than "Oh, this is actually kind of enjoyable"




Frozomon was played by Rikiya Koyama, who Digimon fans would know as Dantemon in Appmon, although his huge list of anime credits would take a long time to go through.

 

[Eitaroutarouman]

Jellymon is one of the few (if any. None come to mind) examples of a Digimon having an established relationship with a human other than their own, so them working together like this is decent payoff to what's been shown. Wonder if there's any meaning to Ruri getting the attacks streamed.

 

[Tarama]

From TeslaJellymon debut episode, we know that digimon partner in Ghost Game don't always need the human partner to shout their moves.
From GulusGammamon full debut episode, I assume that having human partner shouting digimon moves may make the attack stronger.
From this episode, we know a new fact that shouting digimon moves can be done by other human partner/tamer with digimon.

Ruli and Jellymon partnership makes me think that we might see a new evolution, cross partner evolution. And I think it would be good for both Ruli and Kiyoshi, since I think Hiro doesn't need this because Gammamon already has four Adults.

Not gonna lie. If it was Jellymon facing Frozomon, not TeslaJellymon, I would have guessed Ruli evolving Jellymon to another Adult form.

 

[Lucifer Angel]

Angoramon using his fur to keep the others warm was interesting.

Why didn't Betel just create a fire to keep the others warm or at least try and warm them up?

 

[Chimera-gui]

Hiro, you realize cold deserts are a thing right? Deserts are literally just areas that receive no more than 10 inches of annual precipitation in the form of rain, snow, fog, or ice crystals.

In a desert, most of the moisture caused by precipitation evaporates — sometimes before it even hits the ground though most cold desert precipitation falls during winter.

Hell the Gobi Desert desert is a cold desert and two of the largest deserts on the planet are Arctic Polar Desert and the Antarctic Polar Desert thanks to the frigid air in the area being unable to hold onto moisture, meaning the air is as dry as that of a typical hot desert.

 

[Digiforlife]

shouldn't Kiyoshiro, Hiro and Ruli be concerned about why digimon/hologram ghost keep coming to the real world and start real investigation by now? It is almost 20 episodes in and we still have almost nothing in terms of main story arc plus weeky formulaic episodes like this which is starting to be concerning or even worse a lot people already losing interest in the series. I can see Ghost Game's similarity with Tamers but at this rate it is going to be nowhere near Tamers' level (sigh)

 

[Chimera-gui]

Bold of you to assume that there will even be a main story to begin with when historically speaking, series that use the format Ghost Game is almost never have main stories or in the worst case, the main story was actually a detriment to the series as a whole because the formula was designed to be episodic by its very nature.

 

[Lord Bearmon]

They didn't even try to get out of that place and accepted their fate to die freezing, so illogical

 

[AppliFang]

Thought we were gonna get an alt evo or something xD
Again the digimon was actually good lol

 

[RedFoxy]

This is a new development.
I wonder if it has anything to do with emotions or mindset. Here we see both Ruli and Jellymon having an emotional moment, and both of them using that moment to gain strength. Ruli the courage to fight and Jellymon the power to defeat the Frozomon.
Yes we see Ruli calling out Jellymon's attack, but thats all is needed, to call out the attacks name or it also needs some strong emotion/mindset to it?
We know from episode 16, using human fear helped those evil digimons to materialize. So i think that besides calling out the attack name, you need some emotional connection or mindset to that digimon for the attack to be boosted up.

From Jellymon this episode we can conclude that at least other tamers can help other partner digimon's to boost their attacks.
But what if any person, not necessary a tamer can help any digimon to boost their attacks or evolve and just the device makes the entire process more easy.
Maybe at start they needed the digital devices as they yet to form a strong bond with their digimon to allow without the device.
I dont think anyone would form a strong bond from their first contact. Your bond increases with a partner overtime.

From Gulusgammamon in episode 13, when he tried to have Hiro to call out the attack, we saw a bad reaction from Hiro side. More likely Hiro did not had the same emotion, mindset, desire like what Gulus was having at that time. Or Hiro was fighting back the desire, the emotions that Gulus was having. Anyway the streaming of attack seemed incompatible.

Also the evil digimons used humans other way in order to get strong without a bond. Just look at previous episodes.

 

[TheImpster]

Bold of you to assume that there will even be a main story to begin with when historically speaking, series that use the format Ghost Game is almost never have main stories or in the worst case, the main story was actually a detriment to the series as a whole because the formula was designed to be episodic by its very nature.

There's been multiple hints at a main story. Tamers and Data squad were episodic until episode 15-ish, and even then the plot didn't fully kick into gear until much later. Even the devas weren't really that important to the plot. The only ones that really did anything were Antylamon, Caturamon and Makuramon.

 

[digifan313]

Episode plot is kinda... meh
But I think it's obvious the question that pop up in everyone mind by the end of it. What does it mean for Ruri to be able to call out TeslaJellymon's attack?
Is it only going to go as far as name calling? But why since Gulus had shown that they are perfectly capable of doing it on their own even if their partner refused.
Will they be able to 'trade' partner later on? Make others evolve as long as they're connected through the bracelet? (Though I will be very surprised if anyone other than Hiro can make Gammamon evolve)
More hooks for the future to explore, I just hope the show doesn't end up crumbling under the pressure first before we can get the pay off

 

[Ricardolindo]

I finished watching more more than 2 hours ago but am only posting now. I think this episode was good. This was a different episode with the beginning in the middle of the plot and no scene of someone else being attacked. The premise of th building being frozen by Frozmon. I liked seeing Ruli escaping Frozmon. The first fight with Frozmon showed his superiority. It was nice of Angoramon to warm up Hiro and Kyoshiro. Unfortunately, the three and Gammamon ended up fainting because of the cold. Ruli and TeslaJellymon's conversation was interesting. TeslaJellymon told her not to worry about the others and that she was sure they would be fine. The slap was something I think there hasn't been since 02, right? The fight was good. Ruli could guide TeslaJellymon despite not being her partner. Frozmon's companions showing up was nice. They were able to come to an agreement.

 

[Rohan]

Hmm...once again not a lot to comment on, just a lot of running in corridors. Of course the most interesting aspect was the last five minutes with the emotional moment between Jellymon and Ruli with the latter being able to Command the former. I wonder if that's going to be set-up for something later or not. The kids just shrugging off almost dying and cheerfully waving off the guy that tried to kill them actually got a laugh out of me ngl.

Next week is Petermon. The idea of Peter Pan being portrayed as a villain in recent years is a bit tired so I hope they'll shake it up a bit.

 

[KageX]

Hmm...once again not a lot to comment on, just a lot of running in corridors. Of course the most interesting aspect was the last five minutes with the emotional moment between Jellymon and Ruli with the latter being able to Command the former. I wonder if that's going to be set-up for something later or not. The kids just shrugging off almost dying and cheerfully waving off the guy that tried to kill them actually got a laugh out of me ngl.

Next week is Petermon. The idea of Peter Pan being portrayed as a villain in recent years is a bit tired so I hope they'll shake it up a bit.

Admittedly it is something we don't see often in Animated Shows and more reserved for stuff aimed towards adults.

 

[Bartz]

There are some things I like about this episode, and things I dislike.

I'll start with what I liked. The first thing is playing into the horror theme with Ruri being hunted down by Frozomon as that actually was kind of creepy, same with the cast succumbing to hypothermia as that is a terrifying way to die and they don't pull punches in how that happens. I also liked the teamup with TelsaJellymon and Ruri as one, it shows that we can get teamups between different pairs of Digimon and human partners, and two it shows the emotion from Ruri in how she doesn't know if her friends are alright and calling out her attacks in a way that fit that despair. It's a great moment and I'd like to see more out of that from this series since it lends so well to those different dynamics. I also liked the smaller details like using Angoramon's fur to keep warm and trying to use a desert area to keep warm (which as said before, wouldn't work, but that's not common knowledge to many), though BetelGammamon never using his fire to help keep them warm is odd.

In terms of what I didn't like, the set-up is poor. Frozomon is clearly the instigator in the situation but they try to blame Kiyoshiro for it. Maybe he could've chosen his words more carefully, but in the end Frozomon was the one who was immediately being a threat and starting the problem and was not giving any opportunity to listen to reason, he's far more at fault. The second is the conclusion, I know it's a broken record at this point, but I will criticize it again here as I dislike it when the cast gives a free pass to the Digimon when they're clearly in the wrong and endangering people to the point of near death. Frozomon was trying to help that group of Digimon (that came out of nowhere, but that's neither here or there), OK, but his actions would've killed two others on top of Hiro and Kiyoshiro and likely Ruri if TelsaJellymon didn't intervene, and he's not really held accountable for that action. It's just treated as a misunderstanding and he's allowed to shuffle off despite his own stubbornness being the root of the issue. I would've liked to have seen some acknowledgement from the Digimon that he acted too irrationally, but it doesn't really pop up, and that's pretty irritating considering the kids were getting on Kiyoshiro for escalating the situation earlier.

Maybe I'm being a little too harsh, but even if the conclusion doesn't involve taking out the Digimon you can still make a more fitting resolution, and I don't feel the cast really gave that good resolution that reflected what happened.

 

[PCN24454]

shouldn't Kiyoshiro, Hiro and Ruli be concerned about why digimon/hologram ghost keep coming to the real world and start real investigation by now? It is almost 20 episodes in and we still have almost nothing in terms of main story arc plus weeky formulaic episodes like this which is starting to be concerning or even worse a lot people already losing interest in the series. I can see Ghost Game's similarity with Tamers but at this rate it is going to be nowhere near Tamers' level (sigh)

We do have main story (GulusGammamon and the BlackTailmon). They’re just not being in your face about it by making a singular main antagonist that needs to be defeated to proceed.

Heck even in Tamers the Devas were just glorified MOTWs.

 

[TMS]

Based on what we've seen of the show so far, I'm expecting it to be largely episodic (which, indeed, is how Toei has described it from the beginning), but with big events happening at the end of each cours, similar to what Hunters did.

 

[Sparrow Hawk]

It really reminded me of certain Horror movies where the group got stalked and chased to death while trying to do their best to escape this hell. But I cannot confirm which movies references for this.

First time Ruli partnered with TeslaJellymon even streaming brain link?! Glad it's not some kind of lousy Pokemo commands. But it actually have hidden history I hope it will be revealed soon!

Wow coldness to death. Well almost. Luckily ladies saved the day! Although Frozomon ramming down the bunker doors and the walls is insane! I wonder how big size Raidenmon is?

Not even Angoramon's fluffiness can warm up huh how scary.