Japanese Title: Tomoki's Lonely Battle, Asuramon's Trap
Tomoki has a memory of his older brothernote telling him once that he keeps saying selfish things and only thinks about himself. When Tomoki had accused his brother of being the selfish one in turn, his brother had used that to show how Tomoki had a tendency to hide behind other people rather than stand up for himself - and in anger, Tomoki said that he hated his brother.
Tomoki wakes up in another strange area filled with fire, and, unable to find anyone else, resolves that his brother was wrong and that he’ll be able to take care of everything by himself if something happens. He’s soon after attacked by a Digimon and is too busy trying to escape to be able to spirit evolve.
From outside, Bokomon looks over the large structure and reveals that the “structure” is actually Sephirotmonnote , one of the Ten Legendary Warriors. They see an image of Tomoki inside one of the spheres, and Bokomon says that the kids have to get out of there as fast as possible.
Tomoki is saved by a cloaked Digimon who calls himself Asuramon, who explains that he was also trapped there and offers to help Tomoki look for the others. Tomoki befriends Asuramon, and Asuramon helps him out with various things under the justification that they’re friends. Tomoki has another memory of his brother, this time of him saying that once Tomoki grows older and steps out of the house, not everyone’s going to endear to him the way his parents do, and that he shouldn’t get used to it.
Kouji, meanwhile, finds himself in a forest area and is approached by a Digimon, and Kouji spirit evolves to Wolfmon. The Digimon, Karatenmon, claims that he knows everything about Kouji and demands his Spirits. Karatenmon tells Wolfmon that he can read minds, and that because of that, he can calculate his opponent’s moves.
Tomoki tells Asuramon about his brother, and Asuramon tells him that his brother is a horrible person who doesn’t deserve any sympathy. Tomoki admits that a little of it is his own fault and is a little perturbed when Asuramon suggests that someone like his brother would be better off dead, but shrugs it off. Asuramon leads them towards a volcano, but Tomoki, knowing that his friends aren’t that way and with the temperature too hot to continue, refuses to keep going. Asuramon demands that Tomoki go along with him to return the favors Asuramon had done for him, claiming that “that’s what friends do”, and Tomoki disagrees, saying that friends worry for each other and don’t demand selfish things. Asuramon reveals himself as the Digimon who had attacked Tomoki earlier.
Karatenmon taunts Wolfmon as they fight, saying that he knows all of his opponents’ weaknesses, and reveals that Kouji is afraid of having friends for fear of having to part with them all eventually. Wolfmon declares that he already knew that and had already decided that he doesn’t need any friends or family; upon hearing “family”, Karatenmon brings up Kouji having issues with his mother and says that he’s pitiful for having problems with not only friends but also family. Wolfmon, angered, slide evolves to Garmmon, who moves so fast that Karatenmon can’t do much to defend himself even after being able to predict Garmmon’s attacks. Garmmon defeats Karatenmon, slide evolves back to Wolfmon, and scans Karatenmon, causing Karatenmon to disappear. Garmmon reverts to Kouji, but Karatenmon’s words about him being lonely continue to cut into him. As an exit to another area opens and he goes through it, another one of Sephirotmon’s spheres goes dark.
Tomoki, now knowing that Asuramon had only been after the Spirits from the start, is told by Asuramon that nobody would become his friend otherwise. Tomoki responds by spirit evolving to Chakmon and attacking Asuramon, but his ice attacks are ineffective against Asuramon’s fire attacks. Asuramon demands Tomoki’s Spirits as proof of their friendship, declaring himself as the only friend Tomoki will have, but Tomoki declares that Asuramon was never his friend and Asuramon responds by saying that Tomoki will never have friends.
Tomoki remembers what his brother had told him and realizes that his brother had been saying that not out of a desire to hurt him but hoping that Tomoki would stop relying on others to do things for him. Declaring that he has friends, Chakmon slide evolves to Blizzarmon and teases Asuramon before quickly defeating him, slide evolving back to Chakmon, and scanning Asuramon, reducing him to nothingness.
Tomoki decides that he wants to tell his brother that he loves him when he gets back, and walks through the exit that opens in front of him. Another one of Sephirotmon’s spheres go dark and Tomoki finds himself finally having escaped, the exit having led him outside Sephirotmon.
Tropes
- Alien Sky: As with Sephirotmon's other areas, the skies of the areas shown in the episode have Technicolor swirling patterns. The sky in the area the Tomoki is trapped in uses different shades of red with some purple and black patches here and there. Takuya is trapped in an area that uses dark blues and light yellows for both the sky and the landscape. The sky of the area Kouji is trapped in uses various shades of blue. Izumi is trapped in an area with an ordinary blue sky, but the clouds make the same patterns as the skies of other areas..
- Berserk Button: Karatenmon probably shouldn't have mentioned Kouji's family problems.
- Bird People: Karatenmon is a humanoid crow.
- Blade Spam: Blizzarmon finishes off Asuramon with Avalanche Step.
- Breaking Speech: Karatenmon tries to use Kouji's home life against him. It doesn't work as planned.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Karatenmon says that he's able to predict Kouji's moves because his training allows him to read Kouji's heart. Unfortunately for him, Garmmon is too fast for him to keep up with even with that.
- Convection, Schmonvection: While in his Digimon forms, Tomoki isn't bothered by the heat at all, even when he froze himself into an icicle overlooking a river of molten lava to make Asuramon fall in. The heat does bother him in human form, but only as much as, say, the heat of a desert at noon would.
- Dual Wielding: Karatenmon.
- Eye Beams: Wolfmon is shown to have this ability, though he doesn't land any hits with it. The attack is called Strahlnote , but it remains unnamed in the dub.
- Eye Catch: Tomoki and Kouji’s variants are used for this episode.
- Feather Flechettes: Karatenmon's Ballistic Feathers attack shoots glowing feathers from his wings, but Kouji is moving much too quickly for it to hit by the time he uses it.
- Hand Blast: All of Asuramon's attacks are fired from his four hands.
- Ghibli Hills: Izumi is trapped in one of these.
- Interface Spoiler: Despite being named, Asuramon doesn’t get a Digimon Anaylzer screen until after he reveals his uncloaked form. It’s a pretty good indication for a sharp-eyed viewer early on that Asuramon hasn’t revealed his true nature.
- Lethal Lava Land: The area Tomoki is trapped in has rivers of lava everywhere. Asuramon tries to lure him up a huge volcano.
- Lightning Bruiser: Garmmon and Blizzarmon are both very fast for their respective sizes. Blizzarmon does a couple of backflips while dodging Azuramon's attacks. Garmmon avoids Karatenmon's attacks with some very fast turns, launches himself up a tree, turns in midair and hits Karatenmon In the Back.
- Living Mood Ring: Downplayed. Asuramon rotates his heads so that the one that matches whatever he's trying to express faces forward. At a couple of points, his genuine feelings break through and his heads move accordingly. For instance, when he said that Tomoki's brother is better off dead, his angry head rotates forward apropos of nothing when he'd been flattering Tomoki using his joyful head up to that point.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Karatenmon says that his Combat Clairvoyance is the result of his training allowing him to read the hearts of others. It's never really stated whether he's actually using telepathy or if he's just that good at reading others.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Asuramon has four arms and can attack with all of them at once.
- Multiple Head Case: Averted. Asuramon does have three heads but expresses different emotions with each one rather than each having a different personality. Each head sports a different expression and mask and whenever he speaks, he rotates the head that matches whatever mood he's trying to convey to the front. Initially, he wears a cowl to conceal this feature, though how he rotates his heads without it falling off is anyone's guess.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Wolfmon uses a unique Eye Beams attack in this episode. This is the only time he does so.
- Stock Footage: Blizzarmon's battle with Asuramon uses the same animation for Avalanche Step as during his battle with Petaldramon, including Blizzarmon concealing himself in the glare of the sun before attacking. Sephirotmon's internal environments have no sun.
- Playing with Fire: Asuramon's attacks involve shooting fireballs or creating arcs of flame, both from his hands.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Karatenmon calls Kouji out on his loner tendencies to demoralize him while Asuramon turns Tomoki's self-centeredness against him as an attempt at manipulation.
- Significant Anagram: Several fans have pointed out that Tomoki’s brother’s dub name, “Yutaka”, is an anagram of “Takuya”. It’s symbolic!
- Spam Attack: Asuramon's Asura God Fist attack involves throwing fireballs continuously. Chackmon uses his snowball cannon for a similar attack with snowballs.
- Wild Wilderness: Kouji is trapped in an area that looks like a fairly pristine evergreen forest.
