Anime / Digimon Ghost Game

They are behind you.

"Holograms, a new technology. In the near future, paranormal phenomena frequently occur. Humans began to refer to them as... Hologram Ghosts."

— Opening Narration

Digimon Ghost Game is the 9th anime TV series^note and 10th anime series overall in the Digimon franchise, which premiered on October 3, 2021 as the successor to Digimon Adventure: (2020).

Thanks to advancements in technology, holograms and artificial intelligence have become a part of everyday life. However, there are growing rumors online that glitches in these holograms are resulting in supernatural phenomenons and incidents, caused by so-called "Hologram Ghosts".

One day, first-year middle-school student Hiro Amanokawa discovers a mysterious device left behind by his father, who has seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth. When he puts on this "Digivice", Hiro is suddenly able to perceive and interact with the "Digimon" life forms who are the true culprits behind the Hologram Ghost incidents. With the help of Gammamon — a Digimon entrusted to Hiro by his father — and his various friends, Hiro steps into a hidden world of adventure and horror as he investigates the mysteries of the Hologram Ghost incidents, the Digimon behind them, and the "Digital World" that it all seems to originate from.

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Digimon Ghost Game provides examples of...!

• 20 Minutes into the Future:
  • The series takes place in a future where hologram technology became commonplace enough to be the primary form of advertisements, public notices and even traffic signs, though outside of that, it doesn't differ from the "present".
  • A blink-and-miss it example: Hiro's phone is connected to a 7G network, which is two generations further than in reality.
• Actor Allusion:
  • The Andiramon in Episode 44 are voiced by Kenichi Suzumura, Koichi's voice actor in Digimon Frontier. Andiramon evolves into Cherubimon (Evil), the very Digimon who brainwashed Koichi to fight for him.
  • Pucchiemon / Meicrackmon Vicious Mode in Episode 50 shares a voice actor with Aoi Shibuya from Digimon Survive. One of the endings in that game sees her turning into an insane Yandere monstrosity like Meicrackmon.
• Adaptational Badass: In previous members of the franchise, Ultimate-level Digimon are still highly powerful Digimon, but they can be outright harmed or killed by Perfect-levels. Here, Ultimate-level Digimon are established to be Physical Gods that are not only walking disasters, but are completely impervious to attacks from their lesser brethren and can withstand reasonable punishment from Digimon of the same level.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Our protagonists rarely attribute unnatural phenomena to Digimon until they properly investigate, with Kiyoshiro also trying paranormal or biological explanations first, despite every incident turns out to be a Digimon attack. The public also don't seem to care either.
• Back for the Dead: After swearing revenge, Dracumon returns during Vamdemon's debut episode only to be promptly killed by him for acting out of turn.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: The amoral GulusGammamon has no issues disposing of Sealsdramon, Archnemon, Oboromon, Rafflesimon, which spares the heroes the dilemma of what to do with powerful and hostile Digimon.
• Bait-and-Switch Credits: The opening shows Kiyoshiro seeing a Pumpmon in the mirror, but in the show itself Pumpmon appears before Kiyoshiro even meets his partner Digimon. It also has Piemon hiding in a sewer as a Shout-Out to It, but in the episode where he actually shows up, he doesn't attack people that way.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Averted. Unlike most other series where most villainous Digimon obviously look wrong and act wrong, since anything can be a Monster of the Week, the protagonist has a high chance of finding themselves fighting Digimon who are easy-to-the-eye like Bastemon and AncientSphinxmon. Even the Big Bad, the Jet-Black Champion, takes the form of more menacing versions of Gammamon's evolutions rather than something twisted.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The final arc reveals that the main issue of the series is caused by GulusGammamon spreading The Corruption in the Digital World To Create a Playground for Evil and to recruit the strongest into his space army, while Quantumon has been transporting Digimon to Human World in a well-intentioned, but still apathetic way to see how they'll adapt.
• Bloodier and Gorier: There's little to no "blood", but compared to before where most very unsettling Cold-Blooded Torture or brutal murder are either not shown in detail or left-off screen, such scenes are portrayed in a much more detailed and/or heinous manner here. Just compare Archnemon's death in the hands of BelialVamdemon in Digimon Adventure 02 with her equally brutal murder in the hands of GulusGammamon here.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The non-malicious Digimon that cause trouble have shades of this. They don't intend to hurt people but are initially unable to understand how dangerous their actions can be, such as Mummymon kidnapping tired humans and trying to turn them into mummies in a misguided effort to cure them. More often than not, this is also Played for Horror especially later on where Digimon will casually commit mass abductions, mind control or city-wide destruction. Fortunately, if someone fills them in they will fix their mistake and offer an apology.
• Body Horror: This happens quite often in the show. Over half of the Digimon of the Week will mutate or modify the bodies of humans or Digimon in every sort of way imaginable. Bizarre mutations, Forced Transformations into the Digimon's minions, or object transformations happen frequently, most of which are shown in detail. Even the protagonists themselves routinely become victims to these forced transformations on a regular basis.
• Book Ends: The first Digimon the protagonists fight is a Clockmon who drains life force from other people who was sent packing by the the Pitch-Black Champion's image. The last Digimon they fought before the Myth Arc actually starts to pick up is a Quartzmon, a Digimon with a similar build as Clockmon and drains life force from humans, who was implied to be driven into the human world by the Pitch-Black Champion's emergence.
• Born-Again Immortality: Dead Digimon in this series reincarnate into Digi-Eggs and are technically immortal, but any traces of their previous life vanish. A Nanomon was finding a way to defy this in Episode 47 by planting a dying Shadramon on a human to see what happens, although the end of the episode implies that it doesn't work.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Like Masaru before him, Hiro lacks the traditional pair of goggles worn by most main characters. Furthermore, he lacks a "Ta" or "Da" in his full name like Haru Shinkai.
  • Notably, this series lacks the Aloof Ally Deuteragonist partnered with a canine-themed Digimon that was a staple for most series previously.
  • Gammamon is a Virus-attribute Digimon, instead of a Vaccine- or Data-attribute like most characters, following after Guilmon before him.
  • Kiyoshiro and Jellymon are the first male human/female partner Digimon pair as part of the main cast in the franchise. There were several in Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time, but they were minor characters at best.
  • Some episodes are focused on only a single member of the main cast with the others being Out of Focus. The Digimon protagonists might also get their own episodes. Episode 30 is even largely told in the viewpoint of the Character of the Day.
  • This is the first series where it's the Tamers doing Calling Your Attacks for their Digimon's moves rather than letting them do it themselves.
  • The series formula heavily breaks away from the traditional "Evolve and defeat/destroy the Monster of the Week every episode" that was standard for most previous series. Gammamon has a potential four Adult forms, two of which he's accessed before Angoramon and Jellymon unlock their own Adult stages. Some episodes don't feature any evolution, and a fight will end with Talking the Monster to Death more often than a fight (justified due to the fact that the opponents' levels are usually way out of the protagonists' league and many having Blue-and-Orange Morality rather than being genuinely evil). The Monsters of the Week are also way more varied and can contain things up to former boss-tier Digimon or even those who had never debuted in an anime series.
  • Usually the Dark Evolution is caused by the human's emotions going out of control and the partner becomes a mindless monstrosity as a result. Here, Dark Evolution doesn't even actually happen, but another Digimon, also known as the Jet-Black Champion and more commonly known as GulusGammamon, possesses the childish Gammamon to take over fights when the former runs into a life-threatening situation.
    • Unlike other Dark Evolutions, the Jet-Black Champion makes multiple appearances through the series rather than the incident being a one-time thing.
    • In previous series, the Digimon who underwent Dark Evolutions were usually aware of what they were doing, but were unable to control their body. In the other hand, the Jet-Black Champion is a very intelligent and sadistic killer that is well aware of what he is doing and does it so willingly. On top of this, he's later revealed to be an apocalyptic abomination akin to the Final Bosses of the franchise who is already slowly devastating the Digital World within the course of more than a year and Gammamon's body is his, but a much, more pleasant split personality somehow manifested within it.
    • Gammamon does not remember anything after GulusGammamon manifests from him, and GulusGammamon's behavior and Lilithmon's words imply that he's a separate entity sealed within Gammamon... which the Jet-Black Champion himself confirms.
  • This is the first Digimon series since Digimon Adventure (with the exception of its 2020 remake) where the Digivices aren't given individual colors whatsoever, through even Adventure still had the Digivices change to the color of the crests when evolving with them. It may or may not be a coincidence how it's later shown that partnerships aren't strictly exclusive to a single Tamer and Digimon pair.
  • In previous series, the protagonists generally have no qualms about destroying enemy Digimon, especially if they know they reincarnate. In this series, the heroes try to avoid killing except as a last resort (except for GulusGammamon), and when forced into it do not take it lightly.
  • While previous seasons try not to place the main characters (usually The Leader and The Lancer) in a position where they're just Badasses In Distress, the human protagonists of this series, as well as the Digimon protagonists, regularly find themselves falling victim to Digimon attacks without a chance to fight back, with Plot Armor reduced to a bare minimum for them to stay alive and not become Failure Heroes. More often than not, multiple incidents had resulted in Near-Villain Victories that only came undone because the offending Digimon sabotaged themselves on accident, GulusGammamon pops up to kill them or sheer luck.
  • It’s the first Digimon series where no extra tamers join the main team at all. In place of that, other Digimon that the party defeats assist the them in some sort of way.
  • Unlike past series, the Final Boss gets out alive and gets a Heel–Face Turn. It's also the first one that never reached the Ultimate level.
• Calling Your Attacks:
  • Still occurs in this series as it does with most Digimon franchise media, but this time it's more common to have the humans relay attacks to their partners rather than the Digimon calling their own attacks. Somewhat justified as the Vital Bracelets (the inspiration for this series' model of Digivices) contain a very sophisticated battling system compared to previous generations of virtual pets, more in line with a console RPG like Digimon World -next 0rder- or Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.
  • Episode 13 ends up showing that not only is it actually a subliminal prompt from the Digimon themselves and that ignoring it results in overwhelming pain, but it can also be subverted, as despite Hiro refusing to give him an attack command, GulusGammamon ends up using an attack of his own anyway to kill Sealsdramon.
  • Most enemy Digimon also call the names of their attacks when they use them. Exceptions such as Sealsdramon and Piemon exist though. Later on, there are enemy Digimon that don't even attack on their own.
• Casting Gag:
  • The Monster of the Week of the 6th episode, Sirenmon (described by Angoramon as a notorious singer of the Digital World), is voiced by Nana Mizuki, herself a very famous singer in real life. Made hilarious because this particular Sirenmon is actually tone deaf for some reason.
  • Shawujinmon is voiced Hiroaki Hirata, who also famously voiced another Sha Wujing/Sha Gojyo-based character, Saiyuki's own Sha Gojyo.
• Cerebus Syndrome: There are three such moments throughout the series, each one representing the threat level of the Digimon of the Week ramping up significantly.
  • After the Wham Episode that was Episode 13, the stakes of the encounters with most Digimon Of The Week begins to escalate with the protagonists and human civilians being in genuine danger of death or eternal imprisonment to enemy Digimon more often, with Episodes 20 & 21 outright having the deaths of human civilians involved in the plot.
  • Starting from Episode 25, which is when the party gets their first Perfect, the threat levels of Digimon they encounter seemingly skyrockets and they often find themselves falling victim to the Digimon's powers before any battle can commence.
  • After Episode 56 where a Kuzuhamon appears out of nowhere to attempt murdering an entire town and outs something throwing the Digimon into the human world, the protagonists find themselves dealing with multiple dangerous Ultimate-level Digimon capable of putting hundreds in serious danger, with some of these explicitly stating that they will take over or obliterate the world if given the chance to, and the Slice of Life sections are usually cut short to throw the protagonists into the incident immediately.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • At the start of the series, Hiro does a Smorgasbord Test on Gammamon to see what kind of food he likes. He loves chocolate, and hates spicy food. This comes in handy when Morphomon sends all the hero's Digimon into a violent rampage and a Betsumon threatens to Ret-Gone Gammamon.
  • Ruli has a habit of picking up random hobbies, such as photography, and dropping them after. In Episode 22, when a Morphomon-possessed Angoramon attacks her, she uses sports equipments like a golf club to defend herself from him.
  • Kiyoshiro went back to Japan after graduating overseas because he just wanted a normal high-school life. This becomes a plot point when one of his former classmates arrive to Japan and was instantly attacked and possessed by Eyesmon upon arrival.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The opening displays silhouettes or cameos of various Digimon, including Vamdemon, MetalSeadramon, Arachnemon, LadyDevimon, Pumpmon, Lucemon, Piemon, Mugendramon and Etemon. Pumpmon shows up in episode four, and Arachnemon, Vamdemon, and Piemon show up much later.
• Children Forced to Kill: While it doesn't happen often, there are several times the protagonists are forced to kill off certain Digimon.
  • In Episode 37, the group is forced to kill RareRaremon and put it out of its misery. None of them are happy about it despite it was only barely stopped from killing hundreds.
  • In Episode 61, the main cast are forced to dispel Manami's consciousness and Moon=Milenniumon from the former's corpse in order to stop Moon=Milenniumon from annihilating the world as ZeedMillenniumon. All that remains afterwards is a greiving man, the cold, lifeless corpse of his fiancée, and his sister. Angoramon also didn't bother reciting a poem at the end of that episode, showing that nobody is happy after that fight.
• Cleanup Crew: Hostile Digimon like Darklizamon and Saberdramon, Splashmon, Musyamon, Betsumon, Eyesmon, Nanomon, Chamlemon, ZeedMillenniumon get taken away after being defeated, most commonly by Blacktailmon, or kept somewhere safe, as heroes don't know what else to do after neutralizing them.
• Company Cameo:
  • The university where Mummymon resides at is called Toei University Hospital, named after the very company behind the Digimon anime series.
  • The brand of the cables Kiyoshiro uses to power his phone while in the world between life and death are Toei.
• Continuity Nod: Despite the seemingly loose continuity between the episodes and most incidents are unconnected, separate Digimon attacks, there's a consistent continuity between each episode. Notable incidents are referenced with flashbacks or character behavior, and certain Digimon of the Week (like Piccolomon) make cameos or subsequent appearances after being resolved.
• Cosmic Deadline: As the main plotline doesn't make any signficant advances until there are four episodes left, these last four episodes suddenly adopt a much faster pace. The final episode bears mention: the first half of the episode tries to solve as many lingering plot points as possible all at once, and the last few minutes display an epilogue that could have easily been its own arc.
• Darker and Edgier: All Digimon series have had dark elements, though the darker elements are more at the forefront here. The very first episode has two teens being rapidly aged to near death, and throughout the series, the threat of civilians being endangered by the weekly Digimon's antics (whether the threat is intentional or not tends to vary) is much more apparent — multiple episodes show people being hospitalized as a result of what a Digimon has done to them. Though justified in that most people are just Muggles who literally cannot do anything against them, with only three children capable of fighting back properly for most of the time — even then it can be iffy at times, at least early on. Although it's Downplayed in the aspect that this is also the most pacifistic Digimon series since while every series excluding Appli Monsters had the Digimon fight till the death, Ghost Game instead has the main characters reason with the Monster of the Week and only kill as an absolute last resort, and most hostile Digimon are open for a bargain after being suppressed, including several Ultimate-levels who essentially attempt mass murder or taking over the world.
• Dark Is Evil: Most of the Digimon of the Week are of the mostly Always Chaotic Evil Virus type. However, there are a few antagonistic Data and Vaccine types around, and in one case the protagonists find themselves confronting a legitimate member of the Angemon line.
• Dark World: Downplayed. The Digivices can take the characters to a dimension that's kind of like the AR-Field or the DigiQuartz, later revealed to be records of biomes from the Digital World that were installed on their respective DIM cards by Hokuto, and BlackTailmon Uver. later delivers a second set with more environments like a desert. It looks like the real world, but has little lights everywhere, every floor is covered in plant life, other humans (if present) disappear completely, and the sky resembles the original Digital World in perpetual overcast. It more or less follows the day-night cycle, though. Digimon are also fully corporeal there even without a Digivice. Played straighter with Kiyoshiro's as everything in his is made out of some kind of dark material covered in Tron Lines. It is used as a convenient battlefield for the heroes to fight in without having to worry about collateral damage. However, it is by no means a catch-all, since people who are considered extensions of hostile Digimon like Salamandamon's gecko people or RareRaremon's zombies (and for some reason, living organisms twisted by Calamaramon's ripples) still get in because of their connections, something that the former gleefully takes advantage of.
• Death of Personality: Digimon that are killed in a digital field or in the digital world in this series get reincarnated as a DigiEgg; however, unlike previous series, Digimon don't retain their memories or personality from their past lives, effectively resulting in this trope.
• Deconstruction:
  • While there's no ambiguity on how dangerous Digimon can actually be, it's in Ghost Game where the real consequences of Digimon living amongst humans are explored in a realistic and dark light, going as far as to further explore issues that weren't even brought up in Cyber Sleuth. Despite in the Cyber Sleuth series, Digimon are still outside-context aliens, most of them walk amongst humanity and mingle well. Here, while most Digimon living in the human world only want to form a community with each other, there's no shortage of bad eggs who abduct or kill humans for various reasons, and civilians are often in danger from getting themselves or their loved ones preyed on or lured out by them, with all the disastrous consequences laid bare for the audience to see. The reasonings are mostly among the lines of trying to do something benevolent but don't know how humanity works like an alien creature would or being unable to perceive us humans as anything but prey, impurities and/or inferiorities rather than sapient beings with their own lives like them. Even the ones who turn out to be protecting other Digimon like Frozomon and ClavisAngemon don't treat humans as anything but minor inconveniences in the big picture.
  • The usual Digimon formula and concept of Mons as a whole are thrown on their head. There's no holding back showing how deadly Digimon can be, but in the other hand they are considered sentient, living creatures with their own lives, making guilt-free extermination difficult. Almost every opponent the protagonists have faced has been unambiguously sentient and fighting isn't generally the thing that either side focuses on - not that there's a choice most of the time, as the majority of the Monsters of the Week are so persistent that they have to be thwacked to their senses or worse. Many of the Digimon lost on Earth want to fully integrate with human society or at least return to some degree of normalcy as they can get while they're stuck in another world, forming little civilizations if they aren't already trying to hide from people or find a way to get home. The first time a Digimon is killed, it's outright called murder in contrast to the kill-or-be-killed scenarios of many battles and Digital Worlds throughout the franchise - Hiro and his friends will try to talk down their opponents by any means possible, and were called out by several Digimon for avoiding lethal force as long as they could, even against opponents that couldn't be reasoned with. When they see someone die, the ordeal is traumatic for everyone - especially for Gammamon, and their first intentional kill is not only a Digimon who had developed an addiction to eating humans, but an acquaintance of Angoramon.
• Defanged Horrors: On top of all the transformations, abductions and ailments, some episode feature human characters dying in various ways. One character is disintegrated, a few others being eaten by Digimon, and Bokomon even gets flat-out murdered by one. But the series makes strides to not make it too graphic, usually cutting away or making the deaths not overly graphic/gory, such as the human characters fading away. Averted in the case of most Body Horror, which are displayed in their full, horrific glory.
• Disappeared Dad: Hiro's dad Hokuto hasn't been seen in several months after an incident occurred in his office, only leaving behind a crater and the Digivice that Hiro uses. BlackTailmon Uver. happens to be in league with him, able to go to and from the Digital World as he pleases and deliver packages from him to the group.
• Disguised Horror Story: Ghost Game is a show that adheres to its Spooky Kids Media premise mixed with slice-of-life elements. The setting is a Lighter and Softer post-modern urban setting rather than the usual adventure story, and the protagonists are intentionally designed to be cute. It doesn't take long for the show to go straight into horror tropes such as Body Horror, ForcedTransformations, mass abductions, a few villains are even Serial Killers, and there's physical and mental torture in some episodes.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Salamandamon is shown to be one of Sealsdramon's victims in Episode 13. In Episode 34, another Salamandamon is responsible for causing a pseudo Zombie Apocalypse of gecko humans to steal diamonds for her to eat.
• Electromagnetic Ghosts: The Digimon in this series are more similar to digital youkai, causing paranormal events that the heroes have to deal with.
• Emotion Eater: Strong emotions regarding a Digimon allegedly help them materialize, most commonly fear, which is why hostile Digimon intentionally stalk and toy with civilians who think of them as ghosts.
• Everything Is Trying to Kill You: While previous members of the Digimon franchise have no problems with Digimon co-existing with humans, in Ghost Game this isn't the case. Dangerous Digimon frequently kill and endanger humans for various reasons and often in unpleasant ways, and it's not uncommon for civilians to run into incidents with them on no fault of their own and ended up vanishing, dead or converted into something else.
• Evolving Credits: Starting after Canoweissmon's debut in Episode 25, the opening is constantly updated to include the Perfect level evolution for the corresponding Digimon that have unlocked it, with Episode 36 including GulusGammamon, and having a shot of the team with all of their evolutions (Minus the Dark Evolution) included in the end. Special mention goes to Kiyoshiro and Jellymon who have a completely revamped evolution sequence to include Thetismon, while Hiro and Gammamon and Ruli and Angoramon simply have Canoweissmon and Lamortmon's segments added in at the end of their sequences. From Episode 56 onwards, Siriusmon, Diarbbitmon, Amphimon and HoverEspimon also get added in the episode after their debut, and GulusGammamon takes a more sinister stance.
• Eye Scream: The entirety of "Red Eye" is based around this. Eyesmon can possess a person and take over their consciousness entirely, which causes more eyes to grow on the person's body is various places. Emma attempts to actively gouge them out in order to get rid of them. First with her hands; then with a sewing kit.
• Females Are More Innocent: Averted. Unlike in past series where the male antagonists tend to be monstrous at worst and tragic Well-Intentioned Extremists at best while the female antagonists are usually joke villains, Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains or Anti-Villains, the feminine Digimon here equally capable of causing gruesome incidents as the masculine ones.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: Quantumon takes everyone to a space dimension where Regulusmon and Siriusmon have their final duel.
• Final-Exam Boss: Gammamon swaps between each of his evolutions while fighting Regulusmon.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Concerning the truth behind Gammamon:
    • The catchphrase of the show is: "They're near you". On top of emphasizing the sheer paranoia of dangerous Digimon appearing anywhere and everywhere, turns out the real apocalyptic threat was living with Hiro all along.
    • If one pays very close attention to the series poster (see the page image), GulusGammamon is Hidden in Plain Sight behind the protagonists with an incredibly widened Slasher Smile, while they are all looking at the Digimon surrounding them. It's because GulusGammamon (or more accurately, his evolved form Regulusmon) is a world-wiping abomination destroying the Digital World and causing the ones who stayed to become insane monsters, prompting the other Digimon to make their leave, and the protagonists don't really suspect him until he tells them what he actually is.
    • In Episode 19, a Piccolomon tries to Ret-Gone Gammamon by going back in time only to be heavily injured, with Piccolomon asking Gammamon what he even is. It's implied that he ran into Regulusmon, a full-blown Draconic Abomination and not the child-like Digimon he was expecting.
    • The Witchmon in Episode 49 asks if Gammamon is the "Jet-Black Conqueror". Turns out not only he is the Jet-Black Conqueror, Gammamon's body actually belongs to the original apocalyptic monstrosity, but somehow a split personality became the dominant one.
    • In a similar tangent, Regulusmon does earn his title as the "Jet-Black Conqueror". He intends to destroy everything through establishing an "invincible army" through groups of apex predators that survived in the Death World he created.
    • Episode 62 and 63 each feature incidents that share a same pattern; an Ultimate-level Digimon protects and shelters entire groups of lesser Digimon away from harm and ends up harming people through their actions. At the end of Episode 63, large groups of Digimon show up in the human world, shocking Clockmon. It's implied that the Gulus Realm Burst corrosion Regulusmon left in the Digital World more than a year ago had reached its tipping point when the protagonists deal with ClavisAngemon (Episode 62) and before they know something is horribly wrong.
    • Gammamon's Adult Forms are respectively colored Green, Red and Blue. When you mix the three colors, they become black, GulusGammamon's main color. And the infection Regulusmon spreads is known as the Gulus Realm Burst, outing him as the reason why all the Digimon are running into the human world.
  • Petermon accuses Hiro and the other protagonists for being "no different from the lying adults", and treats them no differently from the parents he's been abducting children from. He likely meant that the protagonists had made an enemy of him and had to be eradicated to protect his Never-Ever Land, but come the final battle, Hiro lied to Regulusmon that he will synch with him to kill BloomLordmon, but he has no intent of going for the kill and following Regulusmon's social darwinist mindset. He's just synchronizing with Regulusmon to free Gammamon from him.
  • In Episode 54, the Fujitsumon show Hiro a vision that Gammamon will be gravely injured by being ran over by an incoming truck when he's not paying attention. Come Episode 66, and Regulusmon inflicts Siriusmon with a near-assuredly fatal injury after catching him off guard.
  • In Episode 61, after the protagonists defeat ZeedMillenniumon, Espimon wonders if he can evolve so he's more of a use to them. On the next episode, he gains his own Adult form courtesy of becoming Hiro's second partner, and provides a huge enough distraction for Siriusmon to defeat ClavisAngemon.
  • The Lilithmon in Episode 57 notes how the entity behind the Digital Gates has no rhyme or reason to send Digimon in. Per Quantumon's own admission, there really isn't; she was just sending random Digimon to understand humans in her place.
• Go and Sin No More: Due to heroes operating on Thou Shalt Not Kill principle, even actively malevolent Digimon are let go and pardoned if they promise to stop. This includes Clockmon (second encounter), Kinkakumon and Ginkakumon, Reppamon's tail, Frozomon, Petermon, Picklemon, Asuramon, WaruMonzaemon and Ex-Tyranomon, Salamandamon, Calamaramon, Piemon and his circus, Oleamon, Witchmon, Darkknightmon, Bastemon, Cthyllamon and Hangyomon, and even GulusGammamon.
• The Good Guys Always Win: The party has never failed to solve a single Digimon incident, as opposed to past seasons where the heroes can fight uphill battles and end up losing. Considering that if the Ghost Game main cast failed to solve even one incident, dozens to hundreds can and will end up dead or vanished especially in later episodes, them coming out victorious every time is well-justified.
• Halloween Episode:
  • Episode 4 is one such example, dealing a Pumpmon during a Halloween celebration. Appropriately enough, it aired on Halloween, 2021.
  • Episode 49 is another example where a Witchmon is going around the city trying to take over it with witches in Halloween. Unlike Pumpmon's Episode, this aired a day prior to Halloween in 2022.
• Hold the Line: In Episode 5, Gammamon, Angoramon, Hiro, and Ruli attempt to do this against Majiramon and his underlings so that Jellymon and Kiyoshiro gain enough time to delete the digital talismans, but are horribly outmatched. The four do it again for Jellymon in Episode 44 when she's canceling hundreds of orders on Fukatsu's laptop to stop a trio of virus-type Andiramon from destroying the Hazakura Dorm to craft the products.
• Hanlon's Razor: Half of the time, whenever a Digimon attempts to harm anyone, it's because they're trying to do good but are unaware of how much harm they are doing or they just can't comprehend that humans are living beings deserving of respect like they are rather than inferiorities or playthings. Yet, many of these acts are just as horrific as the openly malicious ones.
• Ice Crystals: Ruli's second DIM card creates an area resembling a snowfield with patches of blue crystals jutting from every surface.
• Invading Refugees: At the end of Episode 63, massive hordes of Digimon suddenly manifest out in the human world, which is sighted by Clockmon. It's implied that this happens because the infection spread by GulusGammamon is threatening to devastate the Digital World. Given that the protagonists were dealing with Ultimate-levels sheltering weaker Digimon that episode and the episode prior, the mass exodus might had been happened a bit earlier before they're even implied to be anything but random troublemakers.
• Invisible to Normals: Digimon are this by default, but there are different levels of it. However, in general the Digimon can always see and interact with each other, and a human currently wearing their Digivice bracelet can always see a Digimon, but not necessarily be capable of interacting with it.
  • First stage: Invisible. Capable of walking through walls and objects, but can't interact with them.
  • Second stage: Invisible. Capable of interacting with solid objects and holding things for a brief period of time, but humans can't affect them. This comes at the cost of the ability to walk through walls and objects.
  • Third stage: Visible but translucent. Capable of interacting with objects and can be affected by humans while also retaining the ability to walk through walls. When a Digimon enters this stage, the Muggles refer to them as "hologram ghosts." Requires concentration to achieve and maintain, which is why Digimon can only hold this form for a limited amount of time.
  • Fourth stage: Visible, opaque, and fully solid. A human with a Digivice can freely shift their partner from the first or second stages to this one and back, but any Digimon can achieve this state. Episode 9 implies that once a Digimon enters this stage, they are "locked" into it and must relearn how to regress to previous stages. As the series progresses further, the heroes encounter hostile Digimon that are solid from the get-go more often.
• Just Eat Gilligan: Horrifically subverted in multiple later episodes. In previous anime series, villains usually don't outright neutralize the Digimon protagonists before they evolve and any hard confrontation can take place. In Ghost Game however, hostile Digimon often claim one or two of them, either by possessing them or converting them into something harmless, either mid-episode or at the start of the battle. Another variant is the tamers themselves falling victim, which often prevents the Digimon from evolving and gaining an upper hand in battle.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • In Episode 37 Herd of the Dead, the workers who have been dumping trash illegally are surrounded by the resultant zombies and ended up falling into RareRaremon's toxic lair.
  • In Episode 45 Ghost Newspaper, Publimon attempts to kill Anna because she said his PubliNews blog was "boring" and to bolster his site's popularity, only for him to be the only one dead in that incident because he was too distracted trying to kill Anna and cut his parachute by accident.
  • In Episode 48 The White Bride, the Chamblemon group turns women into living mushroom logs and tortures them for food, only for a large group of Geremon to arrive and dispose of them. It's implied that the Geremon want to turn the Chamblemon into mushroom farms like the latter did with all the victims they kidnapped and tortured.
  • Episode 58, Pyramid, after spending most of the episode turning humans into stone blocks to build a pyramid for Pharaohmon, AncientSphinxmon attempts to kill Diarbbitmon with Necro Eclipse, only for Diarbbitmon to send it into the black void.
• Lighter and Softer: The episodes are usually consisted of the characters participating in leisure activities and Slice of Life interactions before and after a Digimon attack makes itself known to at least one of the protagonists or someone near them. Which also means that you won't see the horror elements kicking in until around halfway or a bit earlier into the episode.
• Made of Iron: Near the end of the series, incidents instigated by Ultimate-level Digimon begin to appear way more than usual. To give the audience an exact idea how unfathomably powerful these things are, attacks from their lesser brethren that are otherwise shown to be capable of explicitly hurting Digimon up to the Perfect level fail to even so lay a scrape on them, if they didn't just intercept the attack midway. They can even withstand a fair beating from Digimon of their level.
• Masquerade: Our heroes like to keep it a secret between themselves that Hologram Ghosts are actually Digimon and refer to their partners as "AI Holograms" in public, which somehow works. Digimon attacks also don't cause more publicity than mere Urban Legends, even the very late ones where Megas are literally trying to massacre entire cities and take over the world.
• Master of Unlocking: Hiro displays this skill in the first episode by picking the lock of the door to the auditorium which has been closed off due to being a crime scene, while certain Digimon can telepathically hack digital locks to bypass them. Strangely, this is never shown outside of the first episode.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Episode 35 revolves around a werewolf legend connected to Ruli's family, with the Digimon of the Week being mistaken for it. Yet Ruli has a strange vision at one point in the episode and then, after the conflict is resolved a long howl is heard.
• Mercy Kill:
  • SymbareAngoramon had to execute Digitamamon in Episode 26 with a lot of regret to stop his Horror Hunger.
  • RareRaremon from the episode Herd of the Dead. Notable in that the main cast is largely adverse to killing Digimon unlike previous series. However, they eventually came to the conclusion that while they weren't happy with it, RareRaremon was so far gone at this point and far too dangerous to be left alive that they were forced to kill him for everyone's safety. Ultimately, this act is framed as this.
  • In the fight against ZeedMillenniumon, the group pulls this against Manami's consciousness when she tells them to strike her to destroy it, evicting both Manami's consciousness and Moon=Millenniumon from her corpse. Nobody, not especially the victims of the week, is happy after that fight.
• Mirror Scare: Kiyoshiro gets one in the opening credits when he sees a Pumpkinmon in the mirror.
• Monster of the Week: Similarly to the earlier parts of Tamers and Data Squad, Ghost Game's plots revolve around a Digimon stirring up trouble and needing to be dealt with. Unlike them, Digimon usually concede long before they can be seriously injured - and unlike previous cases - they can contain just about anything. This varies from Digimon you'll expect to appear, Digimon that were former bosses in previous series, or even anime debuts for brand-new Digimon. The only common ground between them all is that they've been mysteriously spirited away from the Digital World - some like Mummymon are only accidentally causing strife and repent when they're talked down, while others are intentionally terrorizing humans like Clockmon (before he reforms), or refuse to reform altogether as was the case with Dracumon.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: The characters in-general run on different moralities. You have the protagonists who are firmly on the side of good (though Jellymon takes some time before she goes full-white), most Digimon of the Week (as well as their human accomplices, if they had any) who are usually on the morally grey side of things, a few others like Clockmon and Mummymon who are firm black or grey until they pull off a concrete Heel–Face Turn, and a handful of hostile Digimon like Sealsdramon or Lilithmon who are as pitch-black as they could.
• Moral Myopia: Many Digimon actively hunt humans for personal satisfaction, and get angry and confused when they're interrupted.
• Mundane Made Awesome: In episode 32, Gammamon proves he's the real deal, saving his own existence and foiling the Betsumon's plans...by beating his fake in an eating contest.
• Myth Arc: The overarching plot deals with how Digimon came to the real world and the Jet-Black Conqueror's role behind the exodus.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In episode 2, one of the statues in the museum looks suspiciously like an Agumon.
  • In episode 4, the sky in the in-between world that the Digivice takes the characters has a spotty appearance similar to the Digital World's sky in original Digimon Adventure series. The transition between the two also resembles the first time Haru entered an AR-Field, the change sweeping across the visible landscape in a wave.
  • Episode 6 features the song Kuyashisa wa Tane, the first ending theme from Digimon Adventure: (2020), as the song that Sirenmon sings.
  • In Episode 9, in a Freeze-Frame Bonus, Hiro's computer is clearly a Pineapple, like Koushiro/Izzy's. Kiyoshiro's laptop is of the same brand.
  • In Episode 13, in a dark Call-Back to when Agumon ended up undergoing a Dark Evolution on his own to Mugendramon after Taichi was seemingly killed, Gammamon ends up initiating a Dark Evolution of his own without Hiro's help to GulusGammamon after Bokomon was killed.
  • Episode 16 features a Jyureimon and MoriShellmon within a foggy forest, the Misty Trees area in Digimon World also had Jyureimon and MoriShellmon lurking within. But unlike Ghost Game, the Jyureimon in World is friendly to humans and MoriShellmon are enemies.
  • If one pays attention before Bakumon appears next to Hiro at episode 22, there are mannequins with Mimi's Digimon Adventure and 02 outfit in a fashion store nearby.
  • In Episode 23, once again, a scientist messing with a Morphomon ends up causing the plot of the episode, with her research causing several Digimon to become Brainwashed and Crazy.
  • The main antagonist of Episode 38 is a Doumon possessed by vengeful spirits of the Hojo clan, who also possesses Hiro with the ghost of the clan lord. In Digimon Survive the Master was revealed to be fusion between a Kamakura era clan lord and a Fanglongmon, who also possesses one of the main characters to wreck havoc and is at one point served by a Renamon who can evolve into a Taomon, who Doumon is a Palette Swap of.
  • The first Digimon fought in the series is a Clockmon and the last Digimon fought before the Myth Arc truly picks up is a Quartzmon. In Young Hunters, a Clockmon participated in the fight against that universe's Quartzmon.
  • Just like in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth the final act has the protagonists investigate a corroded Digital World to resolve a crisis that bleeds into the human world.
  • An incredibly dark example. A Kuwagamon is the first hostile Digimon the Chosen Children meet in the original Digimon Adventure, and a Brachimon is the first Digimon the Chosen Children meet in the Digital World in Digimon Adventure: (2020). When the protagonists enter the Digital World in Episode 65, a Kuwagamon and Brachimon are the first Digimon they meet, aside that they are infected by Gulus Realm Burst and thus are insane monsters trying to kill each other.
  • The Big Bad is a powerful Digimon whose lesser forms are way stronger than their level suggests, and whose Perfect form can easily slaughter Ultimates. This also happens with Lucemon, the Big Bad of Digimon Frontier. Both of them also desire to destroy and recreate the world In Their Own Image.
• Narnia Time: Played With Just like in past settings, the Digital World runs on a significantly different time as the human world. When GulusGammamon tells the story of the Endbringer coming after 2,000 years of human time, the humans don't take him with enough seriousness, but all of the Digimon are freaked out instantly because "2,000 years of human time" is a very short timespan for them, though it's not clear if it's a matter of time duration or Digimon basically being seemingly immortal.
• No Ontological Inertia: Usually, beating the hostile Digimon turns everyone back to normal. This however, is not always the case, and sometimes someone has to convince the offender to undo any harm they cause.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: A lot of Digimon are Obliviously Evil and fail to understand that their actions are causing distress or harm to others despite their victims' protests, until stopped and educated. This includes Mummymon, Pumpmon, Sirenmon, Koemon, Toropiamon, Sepikmon, Gigasmon, Antylamon, Tonosamagekomon and Gekomon, ClavisAngemon, Quartzmon. Other cases reveal that Digimon going berserk of having Power Incontinence was due to an accident, like Pilomon, Morphomon, Manticoremon, Doumon, Ryudamon, Shaujinmon, Fujitsumon.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: Digimon in the human world often take the form of grainy holograms, especially if they manifested recently, resulting in people calling them "hologram ghosts".
• Person of Mass Destruction:
  • While all Digimon can be very dangerous, Ultimate Digimon in this series are effectively walking cataclysms capable of effecting things on vast scales.
  • The Jet-Black Champion turns out to be an incredibly destructive Digimon who wipes out the Digital World by infecting it with Gulus Realm Burst particles.
• Phantom Zone: The heroes are able to access a pseudo Digital World, where everything resembles the real world but has no effect on it, allowing them to battle more dangerous Digimon without threat to the city or the civilians in it, which is very important especially later on where the attacks of stronger perfect-levels or Ultimates have enough destructive power to blow up entire cities. Digimon within it are also fully materialized without the help of a Digivice. Each DIM Card seems to open a different one. One is covered in grass and temperate trees, another is covered in tropical forests, and the third one has green Tron Lines everywhere. And later on, Hokuto has more DIM cards delivered to the kids and allowing them to open up more fields, including a desert and a snowy area. Episode 13 shows that a powerful enough Digimon can potentially break out of the field, Episode 30 shows that some Digimon can avoid getting pulled in initially and break in later, and Episode 34 onwards shows that humans affected by the Digimon's powers are still being pulled in, often to the hero's detriment.
• Rings of Activation: The effects of Digimon on people and objects are indicated by rings of data appearing over whoever or whatever is affected.
• Physical God: According to word of god, Ultimate/Mega in this series isn't just 'the next level of power', but more or less a Digimon that has ascended to godhood. This is why their power is on such an immense scope and they're so far out of reach of everything else.
• Police Are Useless:
  • The only times the police get involved with a Digimon incident was Episode 7 and Episode 44, the former where we see an officer investigate a pet shop Yatagaramon had the ravens attack, and the latter where several officers investigate a building damaged by several Andiramon. And that's it.
  • In Episode 42, a woman reported to the police that she lost her sister to an "Oni" (actually an Oboromon), but the police didn't believe what she said.
• Poor Communication Kills: The entire problem of GulusGammamon trying to find strong allies while Quantumon sends Digimon to the Human World only escalates due to neither speaking to the Digimon involved. The motives of both are revealed only at the very end and both agree to work together with everyone.
• Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: Interestingly, Gammamon has access to four different evolutions, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. While each form does have their downside (Particularly BetelGammamon who's subjected to The Worf Barrage pretty often), all four of these forms make their debut before Ruli even unlocks Angoramon's first evolution.
• Running Gag: Espimon is Literal-Minded, so he insists Hiro is a fake because Hokuto said his son is a "spitting image" of him, which goes on until Episode 62.
• Schmuck Bait: One of the possible ways for dangerous Digimon to find victims is to set up fronts, often disguised as VIP events for specific customers, only to convert them into something the Digimon wants (such as minions or collectibles) once they show up to the event. There's at least three instances where Ruli falls for this and she gets the party involved with some rather nasty Digimon.
• Self-Disposing Villain:
  • After the Heel Realization about how much of a Yandere she is, Ajatarmon decides that if Yuto doesn't want to be a Digimon, she needs to be human instead and uses own poison on herself. It didn't "go well" and she disintegrates.
  • Publimon falls to death after failing to kill Anna just to get back at her criticizing his "news".
  • AncientSphinxmon gets accidentally pushed into his own Necro Eclipse.
• Serial Escalation: There are several points in the show where the Digimon incidents explicitly and consistently escalate in scope of harm.
  • The first of such is Episode 13, which features a massive tonal shift from the other episodes before and after it and the beginning of the show's Cerebus Syndrome, with the Monster of the Week Digimon Sealsdramon being a full-blown Digimon serial killer who kills Bokomon (Along with 999 Digimon before then) via a thrown knife, leading to Gammamon undergoing a Dark Evolution to GulusGammamon, who outright murders Sealsdramon by stabbing him stab straight in the head. Past that point, the scope of destruction or harm that the monsters of the week can do exponentially increase.
  • The second time it happens is Episode 25, wher, dark subjects otherwise played very seriously in Digimon as e the protagonists encounte Vamdemon and receivs their first Perfect. The danger levels of Digimon get jacked up further, with boss Digimon from past seasons like Splashmon and Gigasmon who become Monster of the Week villains, and the show delves into darker subjects. For example, one episode feature a Sepikmon killing Kiyoshiro out of nowhere. The second half of the show features many psychotic Digimon who have no remorse whatsoever who gleefully torture or attempt to kill their victims. There's even one notable case where a Piemon staged a mass abduction incident, which happens before the main trio's Digimon even have their own Ultimate levels.
  • After Kuzuhamon shows up out of nowhere in Episode 56 to essentially attempt mass murder, several Ultimate-level Digimon instigate horrific incidents with all the disastrous consequences that entails, with several of these attempting to take over the world or flat-out destroy it. One case even has a woman explicitly shown murdered out of the blue, not even by a normal Ultimate-level, but by a Moon=Millenniumon.
• Solid Clouds: The third DIM card that Hiro gets from Hokuto creates an area where the ground and floors are made of solidified clouds. Everything else seems to be made of wood.
• Smorgasbord Test: After finding Gammamon, Hiro feeds Gammamon numerous different foods to see what he likes. Being a Digimon, Gammamon doesn't know the words for the different types of tastes and uses his own words to describe them. Salmon skin is "shiny", spicy cod roe is "scary", and his favorite, chocolate, is "champion". This eventually comes in handy when Morphomon's scales possess him and he goes into a rampage in Hiro's room, where Hiro frees him by stuffing him with all sorts of spicy dressings, and again when Gammamon outs a Betsumon pretending to be him.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted, since the levels of the Digimon of the week goes all over the place, with different, haphazard levels of villainy on each one. There are Perfect-level Digimon like Mummymon or Frozomon who run on Blue-and-Orange Morality instead of genuine malicious intent, Ultimate-level Digimon who have no qualms harming dozens to hundreds but are open for negotiations like Piemon or Cthyllamon, and completely unreasonable and malicious Adult or Child levels like Sealsdramon or Dracumon. This varies between Digimon of course, and malicious Perfect or Ultimate-levels can happen just as easily as their lower-leveled counterparts.
• Spoiler Opening: The opening spoiled the Adult forms of Gammamon, Angoramon and Jellymon before their actual debut in the show.
• Strictly Formula: Every episode follows this structure: the heroes hear rumors of an urban legend, they learn its a Digimon behind the chaos, they defeat the Digimon causing said chaos, and then one of three endings happens. The most common ending is the Monster of the Week reforming because they are misunderstood. The other two endings are that the Digimon either retreat to cause trouble somewhere else (which is very rarely followed up on) because they don't reform, or lastly, they are killed or disposed by other Digimon.
• Super Wrist-Gadget: The Digivice -V- is a wrist device similar to a smartwatch or fitness tracker, which also happens to be similar to the Vital Bracelet Digital Monster v-pet. Fittingly, its first v-pet appearance is the Vital Bracelet.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Justified as this is usually their only option against the Monster of the Week especially early on where they are leagues above the Digimon protagonists in power meaning that a straight-up fight will just get them defeated quickly and in some cases the Digimon are only antagonistic because they don't realize their actions are harmful. Later Digimon are usually so persistent that they need to be defeated in combat, but depending on the situation, even Ultimate levels keen on killing hundreds can be open for a bargain after being defeated.
• Technical Pacifist: Certain Digimon like Dracumon or Chamblemon are completely remorseless and cause immense amounts of physical and psychological harm to their victims, but the party either can't kill them or are wondering how to really dispose of them. They won't stop other Digimon from killing them or dragging them to a Fate Worse than Death, or when BlackTailmon Uver. arrests them for good, though.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Evolution theme playing or not playing is usually a good indicator if the fight is almost over.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Despite Digimon being portrayed as the most dangerous than they have ever been in the franchise, the core cast is extremely adverse to killing Digimon unless there's no choice. This is largely because the main cast view Digimon as sapient, living creatures, and the troublemakers might not even be necessarily acting out of malice. The number of times they outright had no other option and were forced to kill a Digimon happens exactly three times in the series, and the experience always leaves the core trio deeply disturbed by it.
• Timed Mission: Some Digimon's powers are not instantly lethal, but will eventually kill the victim in the course of time. Examples include Ginkakumon (Victims will be melted into his sake bottle), Betsumon (Replaces their victims from other's cognition and erases them from existence), RareRaremon (victims eventually throw themselves into its jaws) and Eyesmon (possessed victims disintegrate entirely if left unchecked).
• Timed Power-Up: The Perfect forms of our protagonist's Digimon don't last long and revert back if the fight drags on, justifying using them as last resort. This however, does not happen with their Ultimates, and they can seemingly stay as long in that state as they want.
• Trailers Always Spoil: ZigZagged in terms of next episode trailers. While they will give viewers a good idea on what the next Digimon of the Week do, they don't always show what's behind the attacks to add more suspense. Sometimes the enemy Digimon is shown right out in the open, in other times only part of their body is shown, and in a few trailers they aren't even shown on-screen at all. It's made more unpredictable as Digimon like Calamaramon are both not shown on-screen and have powers exclusive to Ghost Game, or had never displayed the ability to use their powers in ways that could be connected to the incident like Andiramon.
• Trapped in Another World: Inverted since just like with Tamers and Data Squad, it's the Digimon who end up trapped in another world. According to Angoramon they ended up there due to gates that randomly appear and throw them into the human world; although most of them don't mind being trapped and instead try to make what's best of the situation with differing results ranging from a peaceful life to causing as much chaos as possible. Played straight with Hokuto, who somehow managed to survive a trip to the Digital World but can't get back.
• Truer to the Text: With one or two exceptions like Sistermon (Ciel), the Monster of the Week Digimon tend to more closely refer to their entries in the Digimon Reference Book than in prior series, which in turn can make Digimon that had softer prior appearances come across as more monstrous, like Jyureimon.
• The Unmasqued World: The series ends with the existence of Digimon being exposed to the entire world, with Hiro and company tasked with ensuring the two join together peacefully. The epilogue implies this is going well.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Thanks to the advancement of hologram technology in this setting, Digimon materialized into the real world end up being assumed by the public to be "AI Holograms", some even being impressed that the so-called "technology" has advanced to the point of even being able to feel them, without finding any aspect of it odd.
• Urban Fantasy: Ghost Game leans far more heavily into this than it does into the Science Fantasy of previous series, with Digimon acting more like youkai and some later episodes even having outright supernatural elements.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The In-Universe setting is a cozy urban setting fit for a Slice of Life anime as opposed to the standard war story setting and most episodes start fairly light-hearted, but most hostile Digimon are very unpleasant creatures committing crimes arranging from large-scale kidnapping to attempted mass murder by the hundreds. Even the redeemable ones like Mummymon kidnap a dozen before they reform.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Some hostile Digimon simply leave when their plans are foiled due to heroes being unable to pursue them. This includes Clockmon (first encounter), Dracumon, Majiramon, Crowmon, Sistermon Ceil, Zassoumon, Phelesmon, Jyureimon, Vamdemon and Matadormon, Meicrackmon, Baalmon, Kuzuhamon, Lilithmon, Dagomon. Some even promise to return and never do.
• Weirdness Magnet: Hazakura Academy is the spotlight of numerous Digimon incidents, with many episodes involving either its students being attacked by Digimon or someone introducing the Digimon right to the dorm. It's even Discussed in Episode 51 where rumors about ghosts kidnapping its students arise.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 13 "Executioner": Not only does a major death occur in Bokomon who dies in a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Gammamon from Sealsdramon, but Gammamon also activates a Dark Evolution to GulusGammamon, killing Sealsdramon (While also revealing he can still perform special attacks even without Hiro's command) in the process. We also learn that Digimon that are killed revert back to Digitama in this series but with no memory of their former life, and discover that an ominous Black Agumon has been watching the group as well.
  • Episode 17 "Icy Hell": Hiro, Kiyoshiro, Gammamon and Angoramon nearly die of hypothermia after a Frozomon lays waste to the geothermal power plant the group is visiting, leaving Ruli and TeslaJellymon to fight him off themselves - and subsequently discovering that Tamers and Digimon can sync with someone other than their partner. After this, Hiro might also order Jellymon or Angoramon for support in episodes where their human partners are disabled or possessed by the Digimon's powers.
  • Episode 20 "The Prison of Fire": A human is accidentally killed by a pair of Digimon in front of a large crowd, marking the first of many onscreen victims to come. To subdue DarkLizamon and Saberdramon, Gammamon masters all three of his evolutions and how to choose which Adult he evolves into - and Hiro starts questioning whether it's truly possible to unite Digimon and humanity under one world.
  • Episode 37 "Herd of the Dead": Remembering Sealsdramon's murder of Bokomon and Angoramon slaying Digitamamon to keep his friends safe, the group are faced with the scenario that they've been dreading for so long another time - an enemy that they need to kill because it is beyond reason in every sense of the word. After coming to the agreement that RareRaremon is closer to a mindless zombie than it is a living Digimon, they decide to kill it to prevent it from pointlessly feasting on any more victims - and more importantly, so that it can properly reincarnate as a digitama.
  • Episode 38 "The Diviner": Espimon debuts, with Episode 40 later revealing that he was looking for Hiro due to advice from Hokuto. Additionally, the episode reveals that genuine supernatural beings actually exist, despite never following up on this information.
  • Episode 42 "Human Hunter": GulusGammamon returns after being absent for 21 episodes, and the red Oboromon falls to him as easily as his previous victims. He comments on Hiro's willingness to approach and attempt to command him without bothering to sync up before willingly devolving, while the surviving Oboromon reveal that he is an infamously powerful Digimon known as the Jet-Black Champion.
  • Episode 51 "Headless": BlackTailmon Uver. shows up with the Digivice -VV-, and Hokuto gives our protagonists a demo how to use it, in addition to delivering new DIM cards containing new Digital Field terrains, with a cloudy ruins variant being used by Hiro. When DarkKnightmon attacks Gammamon, Angoramon, Hiro, and Ruli and delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle against their Adults, all three children's Digivice becomes the Digivice -VV-, and Hiro has Gammamon Warp Digivolve into Canoweissmon directly to deal with the berserk knight Digimon.
  • Episode 56 "Impurity": Hiro gets involved with Kuzuhamon, a hostile Ultimate who unlike Piemon, holds nothing back attempting to brainwash and murder everyone in his town under a belief that everyone there is "impure". Canoweissmon is no match against this foe way out of Hiro's management bracket and Kuzuhamon almost claims him too, but Canoweissmon awakens his true Ultimate form, Siriusmon, and takes her down. After Kuzuhamon is defeated, she drops a Wham Line that this was calculated by "the one" who sent her and the other Digimon to the real world.
  • Episode 62 "The Strange Floor": Aoi discovers what Digimon actually are when she gets whisked into the Digital Field due to being affected by ClavisAngemon's keyhole-generation powers, ending Ruli's year-long facade. With the team at their limits trying to fend off ClavisAngemon during their rescue mission, Espimon finally accepts that Hiro may be the real deal after all, syncs with him and evolves. Thankfully, Aoi quickly comes to terms with the truth and befriends Espimon.
  • Episode 62 and 63 each feature Ultimate-level Digimon instigating horrific incidents for the sake of a huge group of lesser Digimon. At the end of the latter episode, Clockmon sights several large groups of Digimon entering the human world and goes to the protagonists and Quartzmon, warning them that the Digimon are committing exodus from the Digimon world, then a black blot appears on Gammamon's body. It's implied that the troublemakers of those episodes are sheltering Digimon driven away from the human world by GulusGammamon.
• Wham Line:
  • Episode 19 "The Witching Hour": "What are you?", said by Piccolomon after he finds out the hard way that Gammamon's alter ego is a horrifically powerful Digimon...even long before he met Hiro.
  • Episode 49 "The Crimson Harvest Festival": "Hey, aren't you the Dark Conquerer?"
  • Episode 56 "Impurity": "If this was all calculated by the one who sent us to this world...", muttered by Kuzuhamon after witnessing Siriusmon's power, implying that someone or something is actively sending Digimon to the real world for some purpose.
  • Episode 64 "The Call": "The Digital World... has disappeared." Let that sink in for a moment. The Digital World is apparently gone.
• Wham Shot:
  • For individual episodes in general, if you see Gammamon looking deranged and not like The Cutie he usually is, expect the Black Eyes of Crazy to happen next...then GulusGammamon emerging out to try killing the troublemaker.
  • Episode 34 "Wall Crawlers": When Hiro and Kiyoshiro are dealing with Salamdamon, they expand the Digital Field in hopes of obscuring the gecko people she creates. It doesn't work, and Salamandamon gleefully takes advantage of their unwillingness to harm human beings by surrounding them with her gecko people. Turns out the Digital Field does nothing to prevent people who are converted into the Digimon's minions from interfering, and several Digimon in later episodes take advantage of this to make things harder.
  • Episode 41 "Clown": Anyone who is familiar with Digimon will notice that the culprit, while shown from the start, is a Piemon. Nevertheless, an Ultimate like him is way out of the party's current power bracket and Hiro had to defuse him without trying to take him head-on.
  • Episode 47 "Memory of Eternity": Hiro's Digivice suddenly flashes a new sigil while the group are facing off against Nanomon, that of the Digivice -VV-.
  • Episode 51: "Headless": When the group are left clueless on who was behind the recent incidents of armored, headless ghosts kidnapping Hazakura Academy students, they barge under the History Club desk and find something wrapped in paper. That's not a cursed helmet, it's actually Dark Knightmon's head, and shortly after the Digimon itself comes right in front of the two.
  • Episode 56: "Impurity": The incident is significantly greater in-scope than the ones encountered prior, with nearly everyone in Hiro's town brainwashed and seemingly replaced by wooden marionettes. When escaping from Aoi and Mika, Ruli and Angoramon get sucked into an orb and the former meets the troublemaker, a purple palette swap of Sakuyamon's Miko Mode. All but to let the audience know this is going to be bad news, considering most past opponents up to the previous episode were Adults or Perfects manageable by the teams' firepower bracket and the troublemaker isn't in the mood to negotiate unlike Piemon.
  • Episode 57: "Ghost Taxi": When Gammamon is about to take Kotaro to safety, he briefly glances at Lilithmon, his eyes go black as GulusGammamon takes over for a moment to growl at her, sparking Lilithmon's interest in Gammamon. In fact, even seeing parts of Lilithmon's face qualifies as this, because a Digimon like that walking around in the human world so casually is definitely bad news.
  • Episode 61: "Resurrection": When investigating a creepy incident involving victim of the week Kotoha's household, the corpse of her brother's fiancee suddenly leaps around to drain life energy from him, Kotoha and Kiyoshiro in quick succession before absorbing a group of nearby Digimon haunting the house. Then a very familiar Digimon taking the form of a black and brown substance with the heads of a Mugendramon and a Chimeramon engulfs the body. That's right; the Monster of the Week is a ZeedMillenniumon.
  • Episode 63 "Gluttony": After the incident with Quartzmon is solved, Clockmon notes that Digimon are fleeing by the masses into the human world, and rushes in to warn Hiro about it. At the same time, a black blot appears on Gammamon's back (the same blot that shows up when Gammamon is resisting Lilithmon's Phantom Pain), suggesting that GulusGammamon (or his evolved forms) is making his move.
  • Episode 66 "The Black Dragon of Destruction": GulusGammamon digivolving into Regulusmon.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: While many Digimon do become recurring background characters, most disappear after their first episode. This is especially that case with Myotismon, Lilithmon, Phelesmon, and other genuinely evil digimon who were given no reason to end their rampages.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: While never directly brought up, this topic is a prevailing theme of the narrative. Unlike past seasons, the Ghost Game main cast is extremely reluctant to kill Digimon due to them showing human level intelligence, preferring to try and talk the Digimon down if possible, with Hiro even worrying if it's possible for Digimon to integrate into human society. The few times they have to kill a Digimon that can't be reasoned with for the greater good of everyone, the group is usually left deeply disturbed by it.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The ending appears to be a much, more optimistic version of Digimon Survive's Harmonious Route ending. It helps that the Digimon here had walked amongst humans for some time rather than abruptly appearing one day and acting like feral monsters, and they aren't uniformly hostile to people.
• Wowing Cthulhu: Given that the Ultimate-levels in this series are portrayed as city-destroying, world-wiping abominations who can kill or vanish hundreds within a very short amount of time, any time the protagonists manage to talk one into a Heel–Face Turn becomes this. Gammamon also manages to pull this on GulusGammamon, the world-wiping Digimon he was sharing a body with.
• Wrong Context Magic: The Digimon protagonists being capable of evolving and reverting to their previous form is established as simply not how evolution in this series normally works at all. Most Digimon who evolve are mode locked to that form and can't turn back except by dying and reincarnating. This is explicitly a unique power of the Digivices and their connection to humans. This becomes a plot point when they use them to revert Ryudamon back from Gyukimon, something that's otherwise impossible.

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