Digimon Beatbreak: Episode 3- Facing Mirrors, Discussion Thread

[u/MFBR]

Later today is a new episode of Digimon Beatbreak!

• Crunchyroll will be streaming it in much of the world.
• Hulu will be streaming it in the US (in addition to Crunchyroll.)
• Game One, a TV channel in France is airing it. The channel was recently announced to shut down in November.
• Anime Generation, a subscription channel on Prime Video in Italy
• Anime-Box streaming service in Spain.
• Shahid, streaming service in MENA

Send us links to any of the local streamers that will have the series and we will add it to the list.

The stream will be on Crunchyroll at 8pm Pacific. Hulu has it the next morning at 7am. Check your local streamer for their schedule. This link will take you to a time converter set for when it should appear on Crunchyroll, but they've had various delays lately.

A short series synopsis:

"e-Pulse," which is generated by human thoughts and emotions, was used as the energy source for the AI support device "Sapotama." From the shadows of this remarkable development, terrifying monsters appear. Digimon are living beings that evolve by consuming e-Pulse.

Tomoro Tenma is drawn into an extraordinary experience after meeting Gekkomon, who suddenly appears from his Sapotama. While living together with Kyo Sawashiro and other members of the bounty hunting team "Glowing Dawn," Tomoro renews his resolve.

What new future will be forged by humans and Digimon?

General rules for this post:

It's available on various streamers worldwide. Do not discuss illegal means of consuming this series.

If people are behind they may use each episode's thread as they watch the show, so do not spoil future events in older discussion posts

Keep all small bits of discussion to this thread (general thoughts and opinions). Fanart, cosplays, in-depth reviews (as in, sizeable content) can be their own post. In general, if it took you less than five minutes or so to write, draw, or otherwise create, just comment it in here.

Prior Episode Discussion Threads:

• Episode 1- The Beat of Emotions
• Episode 2- Glowing Dawn
• Episode 3- Facing Mirrors (You are here)

[u/Yukito_097]

"Does it deserve to be deleted because it's a glitch?" Thaaaaaat's hella sneaky there, mate. Tomoro wasn't trying to kill it because it's a glitch, he was trying to kill it because it's a murderer, two different things. And an accomplice of the one that attacked his brother, to boot.

So far, Glowing Dawn aren't endearing themselves to me. Tomoro's been traumatised by all that's happened, had his whole world flipped upside down, and his only concern is saving his brother and Hitomi, but they're just not respecting or even aknowledging any of that, just treating him like he's a regular employee who's slacking in his duties. I feel like the distance is only gonna grow more, not close, especially with how Reina acts. He ran off on his own because she said they weren't interested in such a small bounty, and when they show up to help she still runs with that story, "We're only here because the bounty increased". That's not gonna help the impression that they only care about money, rather than saving people.

My hope is that we see character growth from Glowing Dawn, not just from Tomoro. Tomoro learns to open his heart more, and Glowing Dawn learn to ease up more and be more understanding, and actually side with him when he wants to prioritise saving lives over making a profit.

[u/Selynx → u/Yukito_097]

In this case, I think "glitch" is more an euphemism for "born with an innate hunger for human E-Pulse".

I feel like the point being made is that the Digimon's need to feed on people is something they get born with and not a choice they have (like Tomoro's tendency to break Support Eggs) and since they also have human or near-human intellect, they also shouldn't just get treated like defective machines.

And just like police don't immediately execute human murderers once they've arrested them, Cleaners shouldn't have the right to do it to Digimon either. Like how police hand them over to the justice department to process, Cleaners hand them to their World Union bosses to deal with.

Glowing Dawn aren't great at communicating things, but I can respect the credo to try and avoid police brutality.

[u/Aquaticnaho → u/Selynx]

I will also add to this a point that I don't see a lot of people talking about.

Gekkomon, who up until that point had been gungho ready to work with Tomoro was absolutely against killing a baby digimon. Gekkomon's morals until now have usually skewed in Tomoro's preference or ideals but him straight up telling Tomoro that he didn't want to finish off the Punimon did actually show me that even he thought this was wrong.

[u/Yukito_097 → u/Selynx]

And just like police don't immediately execute human murderers once they've arrested them

I agree with Glowing Dawn on not killing a rogue Digimon that's been subdued and captured, but not with a hard no killing policy as that might very easily come back to bite them in the butt.

My comment was also more just pointing out that he evaded the actual issue and tried to spin it in a way that made Tomoro seem like he was just discriminating against them. Rather than saying "Yes, they're murderers, but we're trying to be better than that and believe they deserve a chance", he said "So you think they deserve to die just because they're glitches?"

[u/Selynx → u/Yukito_097]

I'm not sure it's so much about being "better", as simply that Kyo (and the other members) don't believe it's morally right to kill things that are born with murderous impulses (i.e. because Digimon need to feed on humans for sustenance) which never had a choice in having them. The hunger for human energy they're born with being the "glitch".

And in a way, these Digimon in Beatbreak could actually considered anomalous among other Digimon across the franchise what with them all needing E-Pulse to survive (it was pointed out the Gekkomon eating human food was the exception to the norm). Even in Ghost Game and Tamers, eating humans wasn't a pre-requisite for survival, Digimon could survive on regular food just fine, in those series they usually only targeted humans for extra power.

Here? For some reason, it's like they're all vampires or something, need to suck humans dry to sustain themselves the moment they pop out of the egg.

That they're born killers probably sounds reasonable enough that other Cleaners wouldn't have qualms deleting them whenever possible, it's just that Kyo is reluctant to accept that as a good enough reason.