Japanese Title: Recover the Bond between Parent and Child, Evilmon's Bewitchment
Satsuma gives Tohma some time off so that he can pursue his suspicions and investigate. In the hopes of pursuing their lead, Tohma and Gaomon depart on a plane to America. Masaru and Yoshino are rather annoyed that Tohma gets a vacation, and Miki and Megumi try to lighten the mood by bringing in some manjuu
from Kyoto, a kind that’s apparently difficult to get...only for them to find that Agumon’s already eaten all of them. An irritated Miki and Megumi give Agumon a pounding for that, and Agumon decides to have Masaru “take responsibility” for it.
In order to make up for it, Masaru decides to get some manjuu from the famous Shiratori store, since he has a friend there. When he gets there, however, he finds Tasuke Shiratori, the owner, in trouble with a bunch of shady money loaners. Masaru makes quick work of the thugs, causing them to scram and earning the gratitude of Tasuke and his son Kouichirounote . Kouichirou is happy to see Masaru, having not seen him in a while, but informs him that the shop is closing down. Masaru is shocked, having only recently seen the store on TV and getting a lot of customers, but Kouichirou tells him that recently the boom of customers had died and Tasuke had lost his motivation to make manjuu.
Tasuke begins raiding the family storage looking for things to sell in order to make money. His desire for money summons a Digimon, who begins to hypnotize Tasuke.
The girls at DATS begin to become irritated at the lack of manjuu, and although they catch a potential Digimon signal near the area, it’s too weak for them to confirm as a Digimon. They send Yoshino over to check it out (and to drag Masaru back if she finds him).
Against Kouichirou’s wishes, Tasuke goes off to use the last bit of money the family has in order to gamble, and Kouichirou tells Masaru that the gambling is the reason the family’s in debt. When Yoshino arrives, Masaru enters her car and tells her to pursue Tasuke, assuring Kouichirou that he’ll take care of it.
In America, Tohma meets with a Professor Stimson, wanting to consult with him on something.
Masaru and Yoshino follow Tasuke to the horse racing track, hoping to find him in the large crowd. The unseen Digimon releases three PicoDevimonnote ; they initially try to speed up the three horses that Tasuke had laid bets on, only to slip up and accidentally speed up one of the wrong ones. Lalamon alerts Yoshino to the Digimon’s presence, but Agumon doesn’t feel it.
The PicoDevimon correct their mistake, and Tasuke wins his bet. When the PicoDevimon disappear, so does Lalamon’s track on them; Yoshino decides to go to headquarters to analyze it, while Masaru insists that he at least has to stay behind to keep his promise and convince Tasuke to make manjuu again.
When Yoshino returns to DATS, Miki and Megumi aren’t able to pick up anything, and Satsuma tells Yoshino to keep a close eye on it anyway. At the Shiratori household, Tasuke gives his thanks to what he believes to be the “god of good fortune”, asking it to give him its power again. Tasuke begins to make more and more money through the rigging of the PicoDevimon, and his obsession with gambling begins to alienate Kouichirou, who’s given up on his dream to someday run the manjuu store. Masaru refuses to give up, however, and the power-inflated Tasuke comes by to hand them money and show off his new expensive car. Masaru asks him to make manjuu again, but Tasuke is far too taken with gambling to do anything else.
Kouichirou shows Masaru the wooden board that the family used to make manjuu and reminisces on how happy his father used to look when he made them. Masaru, thinking of the concept of “father”, refuses to give up even when Kouichirou says he’s not good at making the manjuu himself, and asks about Tasuke’s obsession with the “god of good fortune”. Masaru has him take him to the room where Tasuke shuts himself in and prays, and Masaru casually flicking the “god of good fortune” causes it to twitch.
Tasuke catches Masaru and Kouichirou in the room and tells them not to get close, and when he claims that he can do whatever he wants with money and doesn’t have to make manjuu, Masaru givies him a talking-down about how money can’t get things like Kouichirou’s dream to run the manjuu store. Tasuke’s gone too far to turn back, however, and the “god of good fortune” behind him reveals itself as Evilmonnote as Yoshino and Lalamon approach.
Masaru Realizes Agumon, while at DATS Miki and Megumi find that Evilmon had put himself in a sleep state that had allowed him to slip under DATS’s radar. Evilmon orders the PicoDevimon to destroy Tasuke’s money and the house, and the PicoDevimon tell Masaru that they’re only acting on Tasuke’s greed. Tasuke tries to salvage the money at risk to his own safety, and Masaru ends up restrained by Evilmon. Lalamon’s intervention releases him, allowing him to land a punch on Evilmon, activate his Digisoul, and evolve Agumon to GeoGreymon.
GeoGreymon quickly defeats Evilmon and the PicoDevimon, and Kouichirou, wanting to finally learn how to make the family’s manjuu, asks his father to start the business up again in order to regain the money lost. Tasuke agrees as Masaru looks on, satisfied.
Masaru finally gets to bring some Shiratori manjuu to DATS, to the satisfaction of Miki and Megumi. Masaru tells Satsuma that he believes the Digimon incidents to be connected to human greed, and Tohma comes in just in time to add onto that theory: after some study of the last cases, he’s come to a conclusion important enough that requires an emergency notification be sent to all DATS divisions.
Tropes
- Bowdlerize: In keeping with how Digimon dubs tend to scrub references to religion, Conner's father refers to Vilemon as his master instead of a god of good fortune. They couldn't do anything about the shrine or Marcus's comments on it, though.
- Emotion Eater: Evilmon feeds on greed and is able to induce it to that end.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Evilmon after growing to giant size.
- Foreshadowing/It's Personal: When Kouichirou mentions his relationship with his father, Masaru thinks about the word “father” and fingers the pendant he wears; later, he gives Tasuke a lashing for not respecting how his son had looked up to him and wanted to be like him. We later find out that the pendant was the last thing Masaru’s father Suguru had left him before going to the Digital World, and that Masaru had indeed also grown up wanting to be like his father.
- God Guise: Evilmon pretends to be a "god of good fortune".
- Greed: What Evilmon feeds on.
- Is It Something You Eat?: Due to being unfamiliar with the human world, Agumon doesn’t know what “America” is and asks if it’s tasty.
- Make My Monster Grow: Evilmon grows gigantic.
- Mind Rape: Evilmon tries and fails to do this to GeoGreymon during their battle.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: Evilmon attempts this, but Masaru flicking him on the nose reveals him. Masaru even comments on how ugly the "statue" is.
- Very Special Episode: The gambling addiction theme is very strong in this episode.
