WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 2 of Digimon Adventure 2020, "War Game," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Few villains in Digimon history have stuck in fans' minds quite like the apocalyptic Diaboromon. Inspired by the "Millenium Bug" from the Y2K panic at the turn of this century, the viral monstrosity first showed up in Digimon: The Movie with one goal: to eat, eat and eat until the Digital World was no more. Though it was eradicated by the film's end, its ability to copy, multiply and infect always left the lingering threat of a return behind.
Now, in Digimon Adventure 2020, there's a new rogue Digimon that seems intent on stealing all of Diaboromon's thunder. In fact, the similarities are so strong it's very possible that the reboot series' current antagonist could even be Diaboromon in some new guise.
In the season premiere of Digimon Adventure 2020, Tai (Taichi) is sucked into the Network while trying to get to the root cause of digital disruption in the real world. There, he quickly meets his destined partner, Agumon, and in the second episode, teams up with Matt (Yamato) and his partner, Garurumon. They successfully wipe out a horde of Argomon in their In-Training form -- green, Mutant Digimon that almost caused a train in Tokyo carrying Tai's mom and sister to collide with another. But the battle is far from over. Tai and Matt soon discover another nest of the one-eyed monsters, as well as what appears to be their leader.
This Argomon Digivolves all the way to the Mega level, and it's at this point that the Diaboromon comparison starts to become clear. Despite the two Digimon being two distinctly different types, they bear strikingly similar facial features: mask-like, dark purple faces with yellow and red eyes. There's also Argomon's Attribute change when it Mega Evolves -- "Virus," the same as Diaboromon's Mega form. Even without this alteration, however, mutation is a virus's specialty. The link in their genetics couldn't be more pronounced.
The pair also just so happen to have the exact same villainous plot: hijacking the US military's computer network in order to aim a nuclear warhead right at Tokyo. Is it just a simple case of terrible, great minds thinking alike, or is Argomon just finishing what it started in a former life?
Everything about this new series so far has also been inescapably pointing back at the first Digimon movie, too. The title of the second episode, "War Game," mirrors the name of the segment that focussed on Diaboromon in the film, "Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!", as does the set-up of the fight against Argomon -- a four-on-one with Tai, Matt and their creature companions within the Network. And just in case the parallel wasn't quite obvious enough already, Omnimon, the fusion of WarGreymon and MetaGarurumon that drove its sword right through Diaboromon's cold heart in the film, makes a surprise appearance at the end of "War Game."
Either this 20-year-old franchise is tapped of fresh ideas or the anime is trying to tell us something. The choice to rehash so much of the first movie certainly seems to be deliberate and, coupled with the fact that we're currently watching a story we've seen before play out the present day, it's possible that it's not just the show itself that's been restarted. This could be a whole new alternate timeline in the franchise's canon -- a timeline in which it's not just the original DigiDestined who've experienced an unconscious rebirth, but one of their deadliest enemies, too.