Digimon Adventure REBOOT Episode 18 “Countdown to Tokyo’s Annihilation” Review

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

This latest episode reminded me a lot of what happened during episode 2—except the other DigiDestined were watching from afar. Throughout this episode, Tai and Matt were the only kids pushing through the hopelessness when Orochimon digivolved into a Mega—Nidhoggmon!

For obvious reasons given that a Mega Digimon just showed up, the solution was clear—as once again story elements from the Digimon movie, Our War Game! came back into play. I’m also beginning to see that TK and Kari are being plot deviced to summon Omnimon to help their older brothers defeat a Digimon before a countdown hits zero. Yes, Omnimon returned in this episode to finish off Nidhoggmon Deus Ex Machina style.

Ominmon coming back in this episode really catered to my dislike—and everyone else’s love—for Tai and Matt getting all the special attention. Sora, Izzy, Joe, and Mimi were stuck watching from the sidelines the whole episode, then they were taken away by a sandstorm. Yeah, everyone got separated again except Tai and Matt. The new goal—after Devimon showed up again briefly—is to find everyone, then find the Holy Digimon.

The “find the Holy Digimon” plot is gradually starting to spin its wheels. Plus, this plot is similar to when Tai had to find everyone in the original series except now Matt is with him, so that’s something different.

I did enjoy the animation throughout Tai and Matt’s battle against the Mega Digimon though, but it was too similar to episode 2—especially how Greymon and Garurumon jumped straight into Omnimon. The episode low-keyed recycled a lot of what they did already in episode 2 but with a different setting and Digimon enemy. So, virtually nothing new happened.

I’m disappointed that Kari and TK are taking so long to get here now that the window of opportunity for them to show up has passed. With the “find the Holy Digimon plot” on the backburner again, I don’t think they’ll show up soon. Please prove me wrong, Digimon writers.

I am excited to see Leomon in the next episode though—he meets up with Matt and Tai in the preview. I’m hoping this Leomon is stronger and more important to the story compared to his previous versions. And if they have to kill him, please don’t let it happen too soon. Killing Leomon off is a huge Digimon trope for some reason.

My thoughts on this episode though aren’t 100% positive… please do better in the 2/3 of the Reboot once this 1/3 (22/66) wraps up, Digimon writers. Let this anime be one of those animes that go, “After the first 20 episodes, it gets really good” like Hitman Reborn.

Thanks for reading this episode review, everyone! I do plan on hitting Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna soon. I heard that’s a good conclusion to the original Digimon Adventure series. See you next week in the Digital World!