DIGIMON BEATBREAK

Episode 12

Looks like we've finally hit the end of Beatbreak's first cour, and it picked a pretty good note to go out on. After how harshly Tomoro rejected Gekkomon last week, their relationship issues needed some serious addressing. It's great that the show ended up using this opportunity to cut right into the heart of Tomoro's self-hatred and how it feeds into the way he views Gekkomon. While that drama makes the beats of this episode fairly predictable, that simplicity largely works in the show's favor, and it all culminates in some much-needed payoff.

With Kyo getting injured in the process of shielding Tomoro, the situation in last week's episode looked pretty dire, but despite his antagonism towards Kyo, seeing the others rush to help him is enough to get Kaito to back off for the moment. That doesn't mean the kids are out of the woods yet, as there are still some issues that need addressing. First on the agenda is everyone learning more about Kyo's past connection to the Five Stars, and how he was recruited to join them at a young age, but eventually bowed out when he grew to dislike the way they operated. From the brief time we see of it, we also get the impression that Kyo was a lot more hot-headed and violent when he was younger, so there's definitely some extra details to his past we're missing, and I'm interested in learning what exactly changed him to become the person he is now. There are also some rather ominous implications as far as how all this ties into Beatbreak's setting since we also learn from it that both the Five Stars and the Ministry of Civil Protection answer to the World Union, a conglomerate of corporations that are behind the creation of Sappotamas, as well as the normalization of their use. The intersection between capitalistic forces and government is a key feature of cyberpunk fiction, as it is our current reality, with capitalism often using government to influence society in ways that can be profited from. While there's probably a lot more to learn about how the World Union operates, it's nice to see that Beatbreak isn't shying away from acknowledging that connection, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the show explores this subject.

Those are all concerns for the future, though, and at the moment, the more pressing issue is the growing discord between Tomoro and Gekkomon. Even though the two have rarely been in sync, it's also not as though we haven't seen them get at least a little closer, so I'm glad it doesn't take long to learn that Tomoro regrets what he said to Gekkomon about wishing he was never born, and is pretty beaten up about it. Gekkomon (or rather Kekkomon, who's devolved thanks to Tomoro's neglect) just wants Tomoro to open up to him about how he's feeling, but on top of what he said, Tomoro is also wracked with guilt for feeling like he keeps hurting everyone around him. When Gekkomon eventually snaps at Tomoro's refusal to be honest with him, we see that Tomoro once had a similar argument with Asuka about how rough their living situation became after their parents were arrested. It becomes evident that what Tomoro sees in Gekkomon is a reflection of all the parts of himself that he hates.

This just makes matters more complicated when another Digimon appears on a beeline, straight for the Glowing Dawn's home base. With Kyo still too injured to be much help, and the others struggling to hold the Digimon off, Gekkomon pushes Tomoro to try lending a hand. At first Tomoro remains unsure of whether or he should risk getting involved and potentially cause more problems but watching Gekkomon dive in head first to protect the others reminds Tomoro that in the same way the changes to their lifestyle eventually allowed him to get closer to his brother, his experiences with the Glowing Dawn haven't all been negative, as it's what eventually lead him to find a second family in the others.

With that, Tomoro decides to fully accept Gekkomon as his other half, and this resolve allows Gekkomon to finally Digivolve into Armalizamon. It's a moment that's been a dozen episodes in the making, and frustrating as parts of that wait have been, I can't deny that the emotional payoff here feels immensely satisfying, so I'd say that Beatbreak's slow burn approach to building up Tomoro and Gekkomon as partners is one that's ultimately worked in its favor. Sweet as all that is, though, I'm also here for some good Digimon fights, and after such a long wait, I'm so glad we've finally been graced with some quality insert battle music in the form of Resonance, which so far seems like a good battle anthem for this show. I'll admit that part of me wishes there was a bit more going on in the fight itself since its mostly laser beam clashes as opposed to having some back and forth action, but that's just further proof of why we needed some good insert music because it make even a battle as simple as this one feel genuinely exciting (and hey, is this not basically the entire appeal of AMVs?). I do think the decision to hold off on using an insert song for this long was the right call thematically, but now that we have one, I hope the show gets as much out of it as it possibly can.

While the big battle here is the obvious highlight of the episode, I'm glad that it doesn't skimp on the aftermath, since it gives some much-needed direction for where the show could go next after all this. Unsurprisingly, this big Digimon attack wasn't simply a coincidence and seems to have been orchestrated by another member of the Five Stars named Kaneda. Considering that the Golden Dawn are basically small-fry on the Cleaner pecking order, it's hard to know if there's a reason he's decided to target them, or if he's just after Kyo specifically given his past affiliation, but either way it is nice to finally have some overarching antagonists and I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of the Stars next episode. It was also really sweet to have this episode end on Tomoro introducing Gekkomon to Asuka as their newest family member, and as on the nose as the moment was, it still got me pretty hard, and it's nice to see how far the two of them have come. Even though this episode marks the end of the first quarter of this show, in many ways it feels like its true beginning, and now that we've gotten there, I'm ready for whatever lies next over the horizon.

Rating:

DIGIMON BEATBREAK is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.