Score: A-

Digimon is back! It was already looking good with the release of the Time Stranger game, but Beatbreak absolutely landed its first episode too! Admittedly any show can stumble after the first episode, but this was a really good start. It also doesn’t feel like they’ll be taking the same approach as with Ghost Game. Obviously some people really liked that episodic type of show, but this one just feels more narrative driven. If they can keep this up it could easily be a really darn good show overall and a great Digimon series.

Great use of first person viewpoint

Tomoro has a lot going on! Even before the Digimon attacked he had a lot on his plate. He’s clearly out of place in the world with his e-pulse causing Sapotama’s to bug out. Touching his for a bit literally spawned Gekkomon! If he’s had to be so intensely careful it’s no wonder that he’s a bit guarded. You can just tell that things haven’t been easy for Tomoro or his brother to this point. And the idea that someone like Hitomi got hurt because of him just really hurt the guy. The fact that Tomoro had no idea what was even going on just made it all the more difficult.

I hope his brother isn’t dead since there is plenty that I’d like to find out. He certainly seems more than familiar with Digimon and likely has been fending or luring them away from Tomoro for a while now. Even if Tomoro’s decision to follow Gekkomon outside wasn’t completely without reason…it really hurts that Tomoro’s brother went down while trying to keep his family safe. Good chance his brother really is dead. Even if he survived getting his e-pulse drained…that fall might’ve killed him.

Hopefully she will be ok…

Hitomi’s fate is rather up in the air. I’d like to think she’s ok. The show spent enough time on her that I wouldn’t imagine she’d just be off-screened and never seen again. And Gekkomon was leading him somewhere based on the feelings he read about Hitomi. It’s possible that finding the Digimon that attacked her might help save her. If nothing else I think we’ll see her again. Hopefully under better circumstances than her getting miffed at Tomoro for…catching the device she accidentally threw at his head! At least she dropped her complaints fairly quickly. Just too bad she clearly got attacked due to Tomoro’s e-pulse having filled up her Sapotama.

Here we go!

The show isn’t shy about pointing out how creepy these Sapotama are. I suppose someone from outside our time would consider the same for us. Everyone walking around staring at small little devices in our hands…But it’s definitely uneasy in this case since these things are charged…off of people. Great system when you are powering your own phone I suppose! But clearly the system isn’t ideal and we’re seeing the flaws. I’m not sure if these devices are simply accessing the digital world or straight up creating Digimon. It definitely seemed to spawn Gekkomon who was “born” with knowing all about Tomoro because his Sapotama knew all about him. If the people behind these things know about this danger that certainly would make them a rather shady organization.

I don’t want to deal with that wasp!

No complaints about getting a fight nice and early in this episode. Even got a full blow digivolution. The visuals and effects were pretty safe. Have seen them go rather over the top with Digivolving. But maybe they wanted to keep it simple in the first episode and/or just don’t want to bog down episodes with long evolution sequences. The action overall was good. You had some good mobile fighting between Wolvermon and Funbeemon, but also some good opportunistic strikes against both humans and Digimon. If they can keep this up then it should be an amazing year ahead with all this Digimon action.

Tomoro had a wild first episode

Great start to the show. It had some emotional moments like the chase in the latter half while also setting up the world effectively. Obviously Tomoro and Gakkomon will get dragged into this Cleaner business, but there’s going to be way more than simply dealing with criminals who have teamed up with Digimon. I couldn’t ask for much more from this first episode. Here’s hoping they keep this up and just continue delivering pure enjoyment.