This week’s episode of Digimon Beatbreak introduces us to the Mirror World and has Tomoro on the edge of diving into the dark side if his emotions remain unchecked. It brings up a lot of questions about what digimon are exactly and if they are to be trusted.
The Question of Trust
In this episode of Digimon Beatbreak, the main question is trust. Tomoro is unsure of whether he can trust Gekkomon and this new reality. Revealed through flashbacks, we see that due to his e-pulse, Tomoro has had issues all his life with Sapotama and AI. His e-Pulse has always caused problems for him and those around him. With this history, it’s easy to see why he would be wary of them.
With the current conversation surrounding AI, this is an interesting part of Digmon Beatbreak. Many of us (myself included) are wary of AI due to the rush for everyone to adopt it and the environmental implications (not to mention the ethics of its training). Tomoro has always felt like the odd man out because he has never trusted AI and Sapotamas. In this universe, though, the Digimon are said to be that AI.
As an old-head Digimon fan, this framing is interesting because it makes sense technically, but I don’t want to see the beloved digimon as AI. Since Digimon Adventure, digimon are “digital monsters,” but they are also partners! They may be made up of code, but they are sentient and care deeply about humans and each other. Admittedly, I am probably jaded due to my dislike of real-life AI, but digimon being AI in this universe is going to take some time for me to get used to.
Tensions Rising
It’s still super early in the series, and Tomoro is going through a lot! We see this coming to a head when he wants Gekkomon to delete the training level version of Hyemon. He snaps and inadvertently embeds Gekkomon with dark e-Pulse energy, making them go crazy. Lucky, Kyo, and his digimon step in.
Glowing Dawn is super welcoming with Tomoro and Gekkomon, he is not there yet. Aside from his brother, he mostly kept to himself because of his e-Pulse issues. I suspect he may be on edge with the group for a few more episodes, if not, until the end of the season. I do hope it happens sooner rather than later because he does need friends and people around him. He’s been misunderstood for so long; hopefully, Glowing Dawn can be like a family to him.
Digimon Beatbreak is streaming on Crunchyroll, with new episodes on Sundays.
