WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 29 of Digimon Adventure 2020, "Escape the Burning Jungle," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
From the offset, the Digimon reboot series has been extremely heavy-handed with its callbacks to Digimon: The Movie. The first two episodes not only featured a villain that was incredibly similar to the film's iconic viral threat, Diaboromon, but its attempt to drop a nuke on Japan -- bringing Omnimon into the fray surprisingly early -- was also an eerily familiar setup for older fans. These references have quickly died down, however, as Digimon Adventure 2020 continued, though the cameos from the original series have still been coming in thick and fast.
In the last episode alone, Nanimon made a delightfully strange reappearance to have a staring contest with Joe in a hot spring. The latest episode, "Escape the Burning Jungle," multiplies Nanimon from a singular, stoic Digimon to an entire platoon's worth. But that's not the only throwback for fans to look out for.
Hot on Kari's trail following her abduction by Skullknightmon, Tai and MetalGreymon are themselves pursued by scores of jungle-dwelling enemies -- Ultimate Digimon incensed by the dark miasma Skullknightmon has unleashed on the new continent that the DigiDestined arrived at. Other smaller critters are also forced to flee from the rampaging army, and Tai and his partner pause to help as many of them as they can along the way. One of these Rookie Digimon is Lopmon, who adorably trips over its oversized ears and has to be scooped up by the DigiDestined leader before it's trampled.
Though we don't see much else of the rabbit Digimon in the episode, its inclusion is significant considering the big role one of its kind played in the Digimon movie. In the closing segment of the 2000 film's US release, the remnants of the virus that tainted Diaboromon are revealed to have also infected a Kokomon (Lopmon's In-Training form) belonging to American DigiDestined, Willis. Unlike the DigiEgg that Kari and Tai received in the film, Willis' egg hatched into twins. One became Terriermon, Willis' main partner, while the other, corrupted by the virus, became Wendigomon, and relentlessly followed Willis wherever he went -- desperate to communicate with him but unable to suppress its violent urges.
After an intense battle with Willis and other DigiDestined who came to his aid, the dark Digimon was healed, finally reverting to its "Good" Mega form, Cherubimon, before disappearing entirely, having made peace with its tormented human partner. This Mega form is why Lopmon popping up in the current Digimon series is so significant: Cherubimon is one of the Celestial Digimon; the "guardian of God and its wisdom," no less. The reboot's new canon has been entirely focussed on these "Holy Digimon." Patamon, with its angelic evolutionary line, is one of these important figures, and Kari's as of yet unseen partner (save for the end credits) will be another.
In this context, knowing that there's also a Lopmon with matching angelic potential scurrying around the new continent is an interesting development. But because we barely saw Wendigomon at the Rookie-level in the movie, Lopmon is far less recognizable and easy to overlook in the episode.
This could just be a fun little Easter egg for knowing franchise fans but should this clumsy creature show its face again, Digimon viewers should expect big things from it.
