First Impression: Digimon Beatbreak

High school student Tomoro Tenma has a problem, and it’s not related to his drumming skills or eating his broccoli. Our boy has a problem with his e-Pulse, a power source created by human emotions and thoughts and harnessed by AI devices known as Sapotama. His e-Pulse can cause Sapotama to malfunction on contact, and since this society relies heavily on Sapotama, he tends to be a loner, living with his older brother in a small apartment. After discovering that a classmate whose Sapotama he touched earlier is in a frozen state called Cold Heart, Tomoro is clearly not in the best of moods and blows up at his Sapotama. However, before he has a chance to yeet the egg away, his e-Pulse causes a reaction, and a weird digital monster appears from inside. Calling itself Gekkomon, this little one has a taste for Tomoro’s e-Pulse and, after getting a recharge, offers to show our bespectacled bro what happened to his frozen friend. Naturally, Tomoro decides to follow his brother’s earlier advice and stay at ho—oh, come on—this is a Digimon protagonist. They thrive on danger and refuse to heed reasonable advice. He throws on his futuristic Crocs and chases after Gekkomon in pursuit of answers. Cue the Digi-Shenanigans!

At long last, we have the 10th entry in the illustrious and prodigious Digimon franchise and…if I’m being honest—maybe it’s because I watched this episode early in the morning—but I found the premiere episode to be a bit of an overload. Perhaps if this were a feature-length premiere or if they released two episodes to give us a chance to learn more about the world, rather than hearing things in passing, it would be better. But I might be asking for a lot. I’m typically not a fan of shows that jump right into fights and battles in the first couple of minutes, as it throws a lot at the viewer with little to no context. The idea of AI being so intertwined with our society that it uses our own life force as a power source is both an intriguing and terrifying concept. Please, Digimon Beatbreak, don’t give Elon any ideas.

Our male lead, Tomorrow—sorry, Tomoro—is a departure from the goggle boys of the past. Heck, this one doesn’t even have goggles, unless you count his glasses. He’s giving off a lot of Yamato “Matt” Ishida vibes mixed with Koji Minamoto from Digimon Frontier. He’s very much a lone wolf, which seems odd for a leader in this franchise, but time will tell if he changes over the series. Gekkomon appears to be in the vein of many main character partners of the past—energetic, childlike, and a balance to the gloomy, loner aura of his human partner. I do find it weird that they named him Gekkomon when we already have a Gekomon in the franchise, just one missing “K”. I can see this causing some confusion down the line.

The OP this time around, “Mad Pulse” by MADKID, is excellent. Is it on the same level as the legendary Koji Wada’s “Butter-Fly”? Absolutely not. But if we’re being fair, there are a few OPs that are. However, it still rocks out in its own way, very much staying in the vein of modern-day Digimon OPs. The ending theme, “beat up” by Ai Tomioka, is a very gentle and calm way to end an action-packed episode, and the visuals are sweet, too.

So, where does that leave us with Digimon Beatbreak? I’m on the fence with this one. While I’m intrigued by the world this first episode builds up, and I think our main character has loads of potential, I’m not sure if this first episode was strong enough to warrant sticking around for the rest of the series. I know how weird that sounds for me, the Digimon Fanboy of the group, but I can’t help it. But because I AM a Digimon Fanboy, I’ll be more than willing to come back next week (assuming Crunchyroll decides to post the episode on time when they SAY they will) and give episode 2 a shot. Can Tomoro reach the standard of awesomeness that nine of his bushy-haired, floppy socked predecessors have set? We shall see.

Digimon Beatbreak is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

Josh
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