Anime The Most Mediocre Digimon Show Yet
Ghost Game is a series that's littered with issues, but the most prominent one is its inability to integrate continuous plot threads into an episodic structure, which actively harmed the writing of the standalone episodes and the overarching plot. The main characters were static and never truly got character development, all of the supporting characters and new villains were robbed of any chance to be more than their starting set of characteristics (if they're even lucky enough to get more than one characteristic), episodes bled together as the show progressed because the MOTW formula got tedious, the series would either abruptly drop or rush interesting plot threads, and the climax of the series kicks in with minimal build-up and is hastily resolved in the final 3 episodes. To elaborate, its own episodes just bleed together because almost all of them are "MOTW with body horror powers," supporting characters are treated like shit (e.g. Kotaro’s one characteristic is being a pervert), the main characters' relationships remain stagnant (e.g. Hiro and Gammamon's relationship barely changes from episode 1), the show rushes its own plot threads (e.g.: the letter in ep. 31, Espimon’s subplot, Hokuto being barely relevant) and climax. The series being formulaic is a more noticeable problem in the show's second half, where almost every episode has body horror in it. Lastly, the main characters in this show are very reactive and have little agency, which becomes a problem since it leaves less room for characterization and they never actively investigate anything in either the standalone stories or in regards to the overarching plot threads.
Now, onto the positives. The animation, while nothing spectacular, does look fairly decent for a good chunk of its run. Plus, the character dynamics of this show are decently written, even if they're held back by largely stagnant main characters. However, it becomes stale to watch the same character dynamics when the character relationships don't change, especially in the show's second half. That said, the Digimon partners do feel unique and have their own personalities, and the same applies to the human leads. And there are slightly more good horror-themed episodes than bad ones and mediocre ones. There's less lead protagonist bias because while Hiro and Gammamon are favored, the other four leads do get their own individual episodes and still play a part in most of Hiro's focus episodes.
Overall, Ghost Game is an aggressively mediocre series with more good episodes than bad ones, but it's still a show held back by messy writing and a MOTW formula that becomes more tedious as the series progresses. Lastly, GG made me reconsider my stance on Digimon Savers since I now think it's a good show instead of mediocre, so congratulations, Ghost Game.
Anime Better than Young Hunters, but that's a low benchmark.
Ghost Game as a series is... frustrating, to put it lightly. The animation and soundtrack can be genuinely breathtaking, and many of the episodes, when taken as standalones, are fantastic, same for many of the characters said episodes introduce. But the overall "plot" is formulaic beyond belief, and the ending is a rushed mess.
GG is, in many respects, a Spiritual Successor to Young Hunters. A small cast of characters forced to regularly battle Digimon as they have negative effects on the human world, largely being episodic Monster of the Week fare until the final stretch, at which point the plot goes a mile a minute. GG manages to fare better than YH by virtue of having actual consequences between each episode, steady character development for our core cast, making the various Digimon threats feel like actual threats by not holding back on the brutality and danger they pose to humans, and actually teasing the plot from the beginning and giving regular nods to it.
That's not to say it's not without its flaws, many being the same trappings YH fell into. Many of the episodes are just done-in-one's, with the Digimon of that episode not even being Back for the Finale. The plot is slow-dripped to us, with several "developments" just amounting to an appearance of the "Jet-Black Conqueror" showing up for a bit and being cryptic. Hiro's father is completely useless for the majority of the series, and the indirect cause of several of the enemy Digimon. So many characters of the week like Yuto, Riku, Emma, and Kaoru seem like they're being set up to becoming more important and possibly join the main cast, even getting focus episodes of their own, but they go nowhere. And the ending with the introduction of Quantumon, her motives, and revealing the Mysterious Watcher Digimon were a Black-Ops team she had watching GulusGammamon is so cluttered, it's too much at once, and leaves me with more questions than answers.
I want to like GG more than I do, but, while better in some aspects, it just reminds me of some of the worst aspects of YH. Maybe if there's a sequel focusing on this "Endbringer" entity, I'll change my mind about the series overall. I'll give it this though: it made me reevaluate my opinion on and appreciate other entries more, like Frontier, so good job.
Anime 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.