Reviews Anime / Digimon Ghost Game

Creepy and Fun, but a tad too Formulaic.

After the disappointment that was Digimon Adventure 2020, Toei clearly felt that a course correction was needed. Enter Ghost Game, a Digimon anime that is a drastic departure from its predecessors. Namely, the action elements are downplayed in favor of a story-driven narrative with some horror elements thrown in. As such, it's easily one of the more darker Digimon anime. With humans and Digimon alike dying in gruesome ways, and even more comical Digimon such as Arukenimon becoming deranged murderers, the writers are clearly having fun seeing how far they can push the envelope in terms of violence. Also, the animation is a massive step up from Adventure 2020.

Then we have our heroes, who much like the Chosen Children in Adventure 2020, are more than willing to throw down along with their partner Digimon. You have Hiro, who defies the typical Stock Shōnen Hero trope by being calmer and levelheaded. You have Ruli, who reminds me a bit of Mimi, and Kiyoshiro, who is practically the Spiritual Successor to Joe (a lovable coward who can and will man up when it counts).

And we have their partner Digimon. We have Gammamon, a Composite Character of Agumon and Gulimon, Angoramon, who himself seems to be a Composite Character of Terriermon and Renamon (a rabbit Digimon with wind powers who is a calm and intelligent martial artist), and Jellymon, a lovable but impulsive Digimon who tends to cause as much problems as she help solves.

Now after 31 episodes, I'm starting to notice that the show is falling into the same trap that befell the Adventure reboot: It's starting to get repetitive.

A typical episode goes like this: The heroes hear rumors of an urban legend, they defeat the Digimon behind said urban legend, and said Digimon either reforms, retreats to cause trouble somewhere else, or is killed. And this is the same pattern for 31 episodes straight. And while there are hints to a larger story behind the scenes, said hints are barely touched upon in favor of the show's Monster of the Week formula (the black Agumon that appeared in episode 13 hasn't been seen since), resulting in a story that's starting to get a bit boring.

Overall, Ghost Game is a good show that's definitely worth a watch, but if something isn't done to shake up the story and soon, it won't be long before fans start uttering the Eight Deadly Words.