Finally back, so here is my writeup.
We start off with detailed work being painted, and as he walks away, something grabs his shoes and demands his riddle be answered.
Riddles are given, but the guy is scared and thinks it is a prank. And he looks up and sees AncientSphinxmon, with a classic riddle of the sphinx setup, and he gets digitized into a block of stone.
Ruli plays piano and Angoramon is reading. A piano recital is coming up soon. We see Ruli and others checking clothes for it. It's noted Ruli left piano class but loves the piano. She didn't like the recitals, playing is still fun though. Angoramon notes that is fun.
Kaoru is leaving practice, but her teacher notes she's wearing her fancy shoes that should be saved for the recital. And she's grabbed, riddle time.
And she's a block now.
Ruli finds out Kaoru has gone missing. Everyone goes with her to look. No clues. Kiyoshiro recommends they go her route home. Ruli seems annoyed he gave an obvious suggestion. Kiyoshiro takes notes as they go along. Jellymon notes he's imitating an anime, right as he trips over a rectangle indention. Gammamon finds a shoe, which Ruli recognizes, Espimon finds the other.
Hiro notes similar mentions have shown up online. Jellymon is bothered by just how many shoes they find, as is Ruli elsewhere.
Another guy turned into a stone block/monument, hits the ground to make an indent, and then Hiro is grabbed also. Riddle.
It demands an answer as Gammamon notes it is a Digimon. Hiro becomes a block. Kiyoshiro recognizes the scream and Gammamon gets knocked away.
Ruli is annoyed everyone is late and not answering their phone. Jellymon and Gammamon arrive and explain both were turned to stone, and it was a Digimon. Angoramon seems surprised at this.
We see the blocks being made into a pyramid, but Kiyoshiro is still yelling for help.
Mummymon recognizes the story when they are looking for help, and knows who is doing it.
Angoramon doesn't believe that Digmon can still exist.
AncientSphinxmon appears in a movie theater demanding answers to another riddle, and a bunch of people get turned into stones. No one seems bothered at the giant lion create that walked out of the movie screen.
Mummymon notes that it ruled over death and destruction in ancient times, lives being nothing but pebbles to it. It continues to build the pyramid and seems in awe of it turning gold.
Mummymon and Airdramon both notice something happening, and we see the pyramid appear outside, building itself and floating.
Angoramon is bothered by the voices coming from the bricks. Jellymon and Gammamon recognize some of the clothes.
As people get ready to take photos Ruli activates a field. Mummymon is in awe as it really is AncientSphinxmon.
The pyramid is nearly complete and cracks begin to form above it in the sky. What is the name of the great kidn who will manifest shortly, from the cracks. Pharaohmon, the ruler of the ancient Digital World.
Mummymon isn't happy at the idea of this being returning and ruling over all.
AncientSphinxmon says Ruli will be the capstone. As it goes to attack Angoramon warps to Lamortmon.
Gammamon and Jellymon also attack, doing about as little as you'd expect. Although Lamortmon isn't exactly doing well either.
Lamortmon declines to answer its questions, and Mummymon also attacks, although Lamortmon gets slammed into him.
Espimon gets blown away after Mot Bomb doesn't do much.
AncientSphinxmon asks another reiddle as the pyramid inches closer to being finished.
Lamortmon tries to attack but gets blown away quite easily. AncientSphinxmon goes to attack again, Ruli and Airdramon rush in but got knocked back and Ruli falls, while Lamortmon jumps and grabs her, but he's mostly had it. And the pyramid only has one stone left as a sarcophagus appears. Only one stone is needed.
Rulis feet get grabbed, and a riddle is asked. Angoramon asks about if it has a piano, and talks about the novels it likes, desserts, tea, hot springs, and traveling, culture, and more, and Ruli begins to do the same as the VV starts to activate. Angoramon wants to learn more, and Ruli isn't done trying to find her perfect hobby yet.
Ultimate evolution. Diarbbitmon. The sequence is sort of just the Angoramon equivalent to Siriusmon and is less fun than I would have hoped.
His design looks better in animation than it had been in a lot of what we've seen.
Diarbbitmonstarts to slash at AncientSphinxmon a decent bit and knocks it back. AncientSphinxmon's attack is stopped and is seems surprised. Diarbbitmon demands it stops, and it says it doesn't need his permission. A portal tries to grab him, but he's able to move out of the way and AncientSphinxmon goes into it. Diarbbitmon tries to grab him to stop it but it's too late.
Everyone gets restored back to where they are. Kiyoshiro is happy. Hiro wonders if it was Ruli who saved them.
The others celebrate as light flies around with people restoring. Espimon wants to evolve. Angoramon mentions they should check on the others.
Mummymon is impressed. As the sarcophagus vanishes he refers to it as his king, and mentions there is hope for this modern civilization.
We see photos from the piano recital on Ruli's phone later. Angoramon is puffy.
The new ED visuals are nice, and slightly more fun than some of the prior ones, although feels far more coherent than a lot of what we've seen from Ghost Game, basically telling a story we didn't see, with returning characters, etc. Not sure about the song, it's almost a bit too calm. Will decide on it after listening to the full one a bit.
Hiro's Study Files this time is... AncientSphinxmon.
The problem seemed more focused than it often is in this one, but it never really goes past the actual question being asked. No one much muses on much of anything until the very end, and the actual riddles themselves didn't have the 'twist' moment where one is properly gotten and that turns things around, etc. It was an episode that came across much more bland than it should have.
Hiroyuki Kinoshita has his first Digimon role as AncientSphinxmon. A number of decently known roles including Ikyo in Ajin, Mugensai in Bakumatsu, Atsushi in Jin-Roh, Fujimaki in Megalobox, Nicolai in Tiger & Bunny 2, among others. His dubbed over roles are various Aaron Eckhart roles, including Two Face in The Dark Knight, various Colin Firth roles, Ultron in Age of Ultron, Crocodile Dundee in a recent redub, and House in House.
