Digimon Adventure REBOOT Episode 14 “The King of the Insects Clash” Review

Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.

I didn’t really know what to expect going into this episode. After back-to-back Girl Power episodes with Mimi and Sora getting their Ultimate Digimon, I realized Izzy and Tentomon weren’t given much to do in the reboot series other than be information dumpers. Izzy having little to no screen time other than to inform the other kids about what’s going on in Tokyo didn’t help with that opinion either. Basically, it was hard to care about Izzy’s centric episode.

Let’s talk about what’s been going on in Tokyo. The electricity is still out, fires are breaking out, and there were people trapped in elevators due to the outage. There was really nothing else going on.

Side note: some of those people trapped were wearing facemasks. Please remember to wear a mask when in public spaces.

Since the time difference is so vast between the Human World and the Digital World, the slow roll on what’s been happening in Tokyo makes sense, but I wish there was something more interesting—or dire—to report. Make the mission feel more urgent, or the reminder feels pointless. Here’s an idea. Maybe show Kari or TK watching the news on what’s been going on and hint at their inevitable arrival. The show did it with Kari before in an earlier episode, and now I wish they kept that going on.

That’s enough critiquing. Let’s refocus on Izzy and the rest of the episode.

While Tai, Izzy, and Mimi were traveling through a maze-like canyon with crystals that show their reflection, Izzy is having a hard time functioning because his laptop was experiencing technical problems. This issue made Izzy feel like he wasn’t smart anymore, but then he eventually learned that he was a smart person without his laptop aiding him. He realized how dependent he became to his laptop, making him forget about his own natural knowledge.

The new Digivolution sequence—where Agumon, Palmon, and Tentomon became colorful orbs before changing into their Champion forms—was awesome. The episodes should do those orb Digivolution scenes more often when everyone needs to Digivolve together.

The fight scenes against the Kuwagamon swarm were animated well, but I didn’t understand why Greymon waited to go Ultimate when he was getting pounded. I also wondered why Togemon didn’t go Ultimate at all. I enjoyed the moment Kabuterimon evolved into MegaKabuterimon, but I wish Izzy’s moment had more impact.

The reboot needs to give Izzy more screen time moving forward, so future centric episodes hit better emotionally for the audience; they should rewatch the original series episode when Izzy traded his knowledge to Vademon and became a stupid, carefree person. The original “MegaKabuterimon episode” was structured so much better than this rebooted one and handled the message about Izzy being more than his smarts in a more meaningful way. I also hope the reboot deals with Izzy’s parentage too.

Fun Fact: Izzy-centric episodes were some of my favorites from the original series.

Matt, Joe, and Sora were also seen traveling in this episode, albeit briefly. The whole thing was used humorously though with Matt refusing to ride on Ikkakumon with the others because he didn’t want to deal with Joe’s voice. Matt and Gabumon climbed on Ikkakumon after Joe fell asleep.

Starting with this episode, we have a new ending theme with TK and Patamon being highlighted alongside the other DigiDestined. Kari and Gatomon weren’t in the ending theme, which means TK and Patamon will likely show up first. I had it in my mind for a while that TK and Kari would show up together, but the reboot could space out their appearances too depending on where the story goes.

Overall, the Izzy-centric episode was decent. I have a feeling that I will enjoy the Joe-centric episode more next week. Joe’s character in the reboot is more-or-less his original self, so I’m looking forward to seeing what the reliably message will be. Thanks for reading this episode review, everyone! I’ll see you all next week in the Digital World.