WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 28 of Digimon Adventure 2020, "The Children's Fight for Survival," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The Digimon reboot series has, as expected, been chocked full of blasts from the past -- from the show's original evil-incarnate villain, Devimon, to his sympathetic henchmen, Ogremon and Leomon. We've even had a cameo from the chilled-out Neemon. Digimon Adventure's latest episode, "The Children's Fight for Survival" is predominantly focussed on what it says on the tin -- splitting Tai and the gang up again and putting them directly in the crosshairs of some very prickly foes without each other to rely on for back-up.
All except for Joe and Gomamon, that is. While most of the DigiDestined fight for their lives on the new continent, the group's resident academic is confronted by yet another face from the franchise's past -- and while no harm comes to either Joe or Gomamon, the experience is still decidedly... unsettling.
That returning face -- and it is a whole lot of face -- is none other than Nanimon. The mustachioed Digimon emerges while Joe is catching up on some shut-eye in a hot spring following the gang's separation. (The Digital World is a stressful place so who can blame him, really?) While Nanimon doesn't do anything threatening to the startled kid -- simply staring at him silently -- doing nothing is somehow even more intimidating than him doing, well, anything. Joe even wonders, based on his recent realizations about Digimon cannibalization, whether or not the hairy creature plans on eating him. He did get himself nicely cooked, after all...
For newer fans who are unfamiliar with Nanimon, this Digimon needs little explanation -- mostly because it's such a mysterious character, there's very little to explain about it. Branded as an "Invader," Nanimon apparently hails from another dimension entirely, sent to the Digital World to take it over. In the original series, DemiDevimon enlisted its help as a personal trainer, of sorts, to get Myotismon's troops into fighting shape. Though it has a fearsome and booze-loving reputation, the Nanimon Joe comes across is a devolved version of its former self; changed by the very environment it arrived to dominate. In fact, one of its signature abilities involves flinging its own poop.
Nanimon could one day become the Digital World's greatest threat if it trains hard enough. For now, it's just a threat to the unfortunate DigiDestined's privacy. Even without knowing all this, Nanimon's bizarre presence in the episode is enough to make even newcomers to Digimon aware of its unique nature. Older fans will certainly get a kick out of seeing it back in the anime, though whether its role will extend beyond a mere Easter egg gag is a question for the next episode to answer.
