English Dub Review: Digimon Beatbreak Episodes 1-5

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

2050, a world where society is assisted by small egg shaped computers called Sapotamas, powered by human thoughts and emotions known as “e-pulse”. One day, young recluse Tomoro Tenma’s Sapotama turns into a Digimon, a hyperactive lizard called Gekkomon, starting Tomoro down a treacherous new path alongside other Digimon Tamers known as the “Glowing Dawn”.

OUR TAKE

We’ve got a new Digimon series on our hands! I was a big Digimon fan from the moment it came on Fox Kids in the late nineties, kept up with it frequently up until around the fourth season, and then sort of lapsed in and out until that 2020 remake of the original series came out a few years ago. Much like Pokemon, Beyblade, Yugioh, and many other shows of its kind, Digimon tends to reinvent itself every few years and manages to stay afloat for a bit. However, unlike those three I mentioned, Digimon hasn’t really gotten a foothold back into the American mainstream, with some of the recent seasons not even dubbed into English until long after they finish their original runs in Japan. Well, it seems that curse is finally broken, as the current season, Beatbreak, is getting its dub while its sub airs, and better yet, we got the first five episodes all at once! I’m currently caught up with the sub, which is incidentally on break this week because of the holidays, so I remember this first batch being a bit slow paced, but mainly about table setting and getting our new protagonist, Tomoro, used to his new status quo working for a team of Tamers who hunt rogue Digimon for bounty money. That’s actually a relatively new premise for a Digimon show, since usually the main team are all thrown together at the beginning and have to learn to work as a group over the course of the show. There are exceptions, like Data Squad, but those are rare.

In the case of Beatbreak, not only is Tomoro the newbie on this team, he’s also taken in by them after losing his brother to a Digimon encounter. Thankfully he’s not dead, just in a coma, but it’s caused by a wild Digimon feeding on his “e-pulse” energy, which also power all of the Sapotama devices that sometimes turn into Digimon. Because that was his first experience with a Digimon, Tomoro is naturally not so accepting of his new partner, Gekkomon, even after he saves his life, though luckily they become better friends a few episodes in. Still, I can’t say I’ve seen a Digimon main protagonist outright hostile to Digimon, including their own partner, at the start. Usually it’s someone they meet early on who has the harsh attitude that the main character plays foil to as being loving and accepting, but in this case he’s the one who has to get the stick out of his butt. There are other prominent characters in the Glowing Dawn, some of which already have a digivolution stage or two under their belts, but we’ll get into them in the next episodes that focus on them. In the meantime, these first five episodes are a solid start to a series, and as long as it doesn’t turn out to be a huge disappointment like Ghost Game (the season that came right before this) I’m up to see where it’s headed.