‘Digimon Ghost Game’ episode 22 review: ‘Nightmare’

So what’s it about?

Courtesy of Crunchyroll, here’s a synopsis for Digimon Ghost Game episode 22: “Nightmare”:

Jellymon is running a sleep therapy scheme when everything goes sideways! Jellymon’s customers are waking up with injuries. The gang go to investigate, but will they be able to escape the nightmare?

You can catch up on our coverage of the series thus far with our reviews of past episodes.

Okay, but how does it look?

Prior to the hiatus, the art and animation were Ghost Game’s main pitfalls. They managed to look pretty good about half of the time, but when they didn’t Toei’s continued refusal to adequately bankroll this franchise really showed through.

Fortunately, that’s not the case here. There’s only one or two awkward (but brief) moments animation-wise, and otherwise it all flows fairly nicely. There are none of the horrifying rushed facial expressions I’ve come to expect, and the battle choreography in the latter half is quite nice. SymbareAngoramon has one of his coolest sequences in the series thus far (albeit in the context of there being a whole army of himself).

More impressive than the characters however are the backgrounds. The scenery in this episode is great. The bulk of the drama takes place within Pilomon’s dream world, the skies of which evoke major Starry Night vibes. The real world imagery is also lovely courtesy of bright green hills and cherry blossom trees. All in all this episode is just a pleasure to look at.

Story and character beats

“Why are you like this?!” (Toei Animation)

This week, the heroes (mainly Jellymon) invite trouble upon themselves. In her latest scheme Jellymon has decided to use Pilomon’s dream bubbles to give people nice, relaxing sleep…for a fee, of course. When Pilomon starts to have nightmares however the customers also do, and they find themselves under attack by a dream SkullGreymon whose attacks injure their real bodies. Ultimately Kiyoshiro, Jellymon, Angoramon, and Ruli end up stuck in the dream world and have to fight their way out to save themselves and the other victims.

While this is a total filler episode in terms of contributions (or lack thereof) to the series’ ongoing mysteries, it’s enjoyable due to how the dreamscape premise is handled. Realizing that they’re trapped in a world beyond the limits of physical laws, Kiyoshiro literally parts an ocean and levitates in order to escape harm. The Digimon partners follow suit in defying reality, with TeslaJellymon growing to skyscraper proportions at one point. All in all it’s a fun exercise in letting loose and allowing the heroes a moment to overcome their usual constraints in dramatic ways.

Sometimes you need a week off from the action to rest. (Toei Animation)

Hiro and Gammamon barely factor into this episode but their limited screen time is still cute. Hiro isn’t getting the others’ texts for help because his phone is currently being fixed after Gammamon took a bite of it. It’s silly, it’s charming, and it allows the other characters their time in the spotlight. Plus, we get a fun return appearance from Tapirmon which makes sense given his own lore connections to dreaming.

Wrapping up and looking forward

Who cares what the next episode is about? At least we have it to look forward to. (Toei Animation)

All in all, this is quite an enjoyable episode. It doesn’t lead to anything particularly new or unexpected, but it gives all the cast members some moments to shine in satisfying ways. The art is also lovely throughout and the battle scene is well-done. I’m very excited to have another episode to look forward to next week.