Japanese Title: King of the Darkness, Digimon Kaiser
The new group of Chosen Children, minus Miyako and Hawkmon but accompanied by Taichi and Agumon, free the Gotsumon prisoners from the Kaiser's arena. The kids find it weird that the Kaiser didn't come out to stop them, but decide to go back to the computer lab. As they leave, Tailmon looks behind and sees a large black tower...
The Kaiser surveys the Digital World, noting that another area has become his. He visits said area, identifies the tower as a Dark Towernote , and says that anywhere a Dark Tower stands is his territory. The town, populated by a bunch of Gazimon and Yamato's Gabumon, has no choice to comply, while Gabumon notes that the Kaiser is controlling an army of Veggiemonnote with him.
The kids bring the Gotsumon to the human world with them, hoping to pose them off as statues if any human asks questions. Since Miyako's Digivice has the power to open the gate, Koushirou asks to borrow hers, leaving Miyako out of the proceedings for the day.
Locked up in a dungeon with the Gazimon, Gabumon makes an escape once the Kaiser leaves but is stopped by a RedVeggiemonnote , a stronger lackey of the Kaiser. The RedVeggiemon sentences Gabumon to a hundred lashes, and the Gazimon do nothing but avert their eyes in horror. Gabumon is sent flying off a cliff and into water. He washes up on a shore nearby a Digital Gate television and collapses near it, calling for Yamato.
Yamato happens to be performing a concert with his band. After the concert, Takeru discusses with him where to hide the Gotsumon, but Yamato doesn't know what to do with them. A girl named Jun Motomiyanote approaches Yamato to get his autograph and Takeru, recognizing the surname, asks if she's Daisuke's older sister. Jun calls Takeru cute and asks for his autograph as well, telling the brothers that Daisuke is uncute and she wishes she had brothers like them.
Yamato's Digivice begins to beep and Takeru gets an email from Miyako on his D-Terminal saying that they've gotten an SOS signal. Yamato realizes that Gabumon is in trouble and they head to the school, where Yamato and the new Chosen enter the Digital World.
Yamato and Gabumon share a reunion, and Tailmon realizes the TV gate can be used to send SOS signals, remembering that Agumon had told her he had used one to get to Taichi. Gabumon points the group to the town of Santa Geria, a peaceful town that had been taken over by the Kaiser. Daisuke insists on charging in with Fladramon, but Yamato, Takeru, and Hikari prioritize saving the prisoners, since if they go in too recklessly the Kaiser's army could use the prisoners as shields. The other kids plan their strategy, while Daisuke feels frustrated at being left out, especially after yet another failed attempt to impress Hikari.
In order to infiltrate the town, the kids' Digimon wear fake versions of the Kaiser's rings and the kids pretend to be their prisoners. Once they manage to get in, the kids' Digimon quickly attack the Kaiser's Veggiemon army.
Daisuke becomes increasingly frustrated at everyone shafting his plans in favor of Yamato and Takeru's, an irritation that only increases when Takeru informs him that he met Jun. Daisuke goes off about how Jun must have definitely badmouthed him, how she hates him, and how he hates her too. Yamato, being older brother to Takeru, takes large offense at this, threatening to beat him up, but backs down after Takeru tells him that he wouldn't do something like that. The two walk off, Yamato telling Daisuke to watch his mouth, and Daisuke shrugs them off, saying that he can say whatever he wants about his older sister... until Hikari tells him that she hates people who talk badly of their siblings. Hearing Hikari saying this completely shocks and drains Daisuke, and V-mon worries about him.
The kids and the freed Gazimon prisoners are attacked by RedVeggiemon, and, wanting to cheer Daisuke up, V-mon takes RedVeggiemon head-on, only for the kids to be pinned down by the Veggiemon and for V-mon to be defeated and sentenced to a hundred lashes. Daisuke feels bad, knowing that V-mon wanted only to help him, and begs the RedVeggiemon to beat him in V-mon's place, but they continue to beat up V-mon and manage to get up to ninety-nine hits before the last one breaks the Dark Tower behind him.
With the Dark Tower cracked, Gabumon is able to evolve to Garurumon, who attacks the Veggiemon and gets them to release the kids. Daisuke gets V-mon to armor evolve to Fladramon and cheers him on as he delivers a royal beating to RedVeggiemon. Miyako arrives with Hawkmon, Taichi, Koushirou, Agumon, and the Gotsumon, and Patamon informs them of what had just happened with the Dark Tower. Armadimon armor evolves to Digmon and destroys the Dark Tower, causing the effects of the Kaiser's Evil Ringsnote to stop.
Miyako reasons that this means the Digimon Kaiser's Dark Towers transmit the Kaiser's powers to areas where he isn't in at the moment, and the Chosen realize that his means their duty is to destroy the towers. With that, they return the Gotsumon to where they came from, now aware of how to free their area of the Digimon Kaiser’s influence.
At home, Daisuke apologizes to V-mon for making him worry, and V-mon (in the form of Chibimon) tells him that he's matured a little. Koushirou shows them a map of the Digital World that displays what areas are controlled by the Kaiser and, seeing that the Kaiser's area is very large, realize they have a lot of work ahead of them. Greymon, supervised by Taichi, Hikari, Takeru, Tailmon, and Patamon, destroys a Dark Tower, but the Kaiser is unfazed, saying that the area wasn’t strategic and he'll control the entire Digital World in under a year anyway. The worm Digimon next to him looks on in concern...
Tropes
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In the Japanese version, the song Yamato sings with his band happens to be his Image Song, "Walk on the Edge".
- Leeroy Jenkins: All of Davis's plans are simply armor-evolving and raiding the place; which is why they kept getting shafted.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: In the English dub, RedVeggiemon's voice is a parody of Jack Nicholson.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: V-Mon is subjected to this.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Instant infiltration, just add fake rings.
- Plot Hole: The Kaiser's rings are named as the Evil Rings for the first time in this episode, but it's never established how anyone learned this name. Presumably one of the Digimon told them?
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Matt and Kari do this to Davis; the latter sticks.
- Shout-Out: The dub title is a reference to Iron Chef.
- Underestimating Badassery: Davis seems to forget that Kari has faced much worse threats than getting hit with sludge.
