WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 2 of Digimon Adventure 2020, "War Game," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
After getting off to a strong start in its season premiere, Digimon Adventure 2020, a rebooted origin story for the long-running franchise's original cohort of world-saving kids, continues to keep the pace up in its second episode. Not only are the DigiDestined already feeling the pressure of keeping the real world safe from digital threats but, at the episode's climax, an incredibly powerful Digimon answers their call for aid: Omnimon.
Of all the Digimon forms and evolutions, few hold as special a place in fans' hearts as Omnimon, the multi-type Warrior fusion of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon. The latter pair are the Ultimate forms of Tai and Matt's (Taichi and Yamato) partners, making the union a truly awe-inspiring one. Omnimon made its debut, not in the original Digimon Adventure series, but in the spinoff film, Digimon: The First Movie, to fight Diaboromon, the Virus Digimon. Omnimon, the appropriately named, Vaccine Digimon, ended up being the only thing that stood between Diaboromon and nuclear annihilation in the real world, as the diabolical creature used the Internet to set off nuclear warheads. By spamming Diaboromon with a mass email chain from children around the world glued to the online battle -- not to mention powering-up through the healing power of friendship -- Omnimon was eventually able to obliterate the viral villain.
That particular segment of the movie (which was made up of a collection of shorts) was entitled "Our War Game!" and it can't be any coincidence considering the content of Digimon Adventure 2020's second episode that its name is almost a carbon copy: "War Game." Here, Omnimon's appearance is superseded by the arrival of Matt and Garurumon, who had been battling solo against the one-eyed, green horde of rogue Digimon (Argomon) wreaking havoc on Tokyo's infrastructure. He begrudgingly teams up with Tai and Izzy but even having their Digimon at the Champion level isn't enough to take out what appears to be the pack's leader.
Just as they think they've immobilized this Argomon for good, Izzy frantically tells Tai and Matt that it isn't over: a warhead from a U.S submarine is set off -- and it's aimed right at Tokyo. Argomon's lifeless form stirs and Digivolves again. This is what prompts Omnimon's fusion to emerge, which is shocking not just for the new partners of its component creatures, but also for us watching. After all, the fusion seems to just skip right over Greymon and Garurumon's individual leveling-up. Plus, Omnimon is a hero that was formerly considered to be worthy of the big screen. Now its casually gracing TV screens just two episodes into a new series.
But if older fans are feeling apprehensive about Omnimon's premature presence, they might perhaps feel reassured that for Digimon Adventure 2020 to be bringing out the big guns this early, bigger and better things have to be ahead. If fusion is achievable at lower levels and earlier stages than previously thought possible, we could even see more of the DigiDestined's group similarly be able to access this prestige type of transformation, introducing a wider range of combinations to the series. It's never been a better time to be a Digimon fan.