Digimon Adventure’s Satanic Panic Creates the Reboot’s Strangest Meme

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 38 of Digimon Adventure 2020, "The Blazing Blue Friendship," now streaming on Crunchyroll.

It's no secret that Digimon takes a lot of influence from Judeo-Christian symbols and imagery. Holy Digimon like Angemon and Angewomon have been there from the start, as has the devilishly vampiric Devimon, and the list goes on and on. But the Digimon Adventure reboot takes things a step further in its most recent episode, "The Blazing Blue Friendship."

In Digimon Adventure 2020's quest to reunite the DigiDestined (again), Episode 38 is a Matt and Joe-centric one. Joe finally escapes the strange hot tub situation he's been in since a few episodes back and, on his quest to recover his clothes, runs into Matt, who's in hot water himself. Matt and Garurumon became separated during a recent battle and now, inexplicably, his Digimon has been kidnapped by the Mephistomon, an Ultimate-level "fallen angel" who has been ritualistically sacrificing creatures like Garurumon to one of Milleniumon's dark crystals in the hopes of liberating the new archvillain. (Yes, that's right, Digimon Adventure 2020 has given us the Mephisto reveal WandaVision refuses to.)

The site of Matt's Rookie partner strapped to a crucifix while a Baphomet-themed overlord babbles incoherently underneath a giant, power-draining artifact has proven... disconcerting, to say the least, for most viewers. In fact, the image is so arresting, it hasn't taken long to make the rounds on social media.

The combination of Digimon remaining a nostalgic childhood favorite and the out-of-context comedy of the screenshot makes for excellent meme-fodder. Though, to be honest, even in context, it's still thoroughly bizarre. Other fans have pointed out that, as mentioned before, this isn't a franchise historically adverse to these kinds of reference points.

While others have used it as an opportunity to create some unique (and pretty cool) messianic Gabumon fan art.

Luckily, Gabumon doesn't have to die for anyone's sins in the episode -- least of all Matt's, who feels so guilt-ridden about their separation he risks life and limb ascending the hill on which Mephistmon is extolling his satanic verses from (with a little help from Joe's counter mantra(?) and Ikkakumon's Harpoon Torpedo creating something of a stairway to heaven). Following BlitzGreymon's introduction to the anime, fans may have been hoping for WereGarurumon to similarly make the jump to CresGarurumon, the counterpart to the former game-exclusive's alternate Mega form, for the Mephistomon fight. But, given we haven't even gotten MetalGarurumon yet, that was probably asking for too much. Plus, WereGarurumon's Blue Saggitarious Mode proves strong enough to give the devil its due.

Episode 38 is not only completely overshadowed by the weirdness of crucified Gabumon, but it also arguably detracts from what could have been Joe's time to shine. In the same way that Mimi, an otherwise lesser-used character so far, was given greater prominence in the previous episode, "The Blazing Blue Friendship" could have given Joe more of the reigns in his team-up with Matt. He plays an important supportive role, sure, but Matt is still the dominant alpha of the pack, and with the wider group's reunion imminent, it's unlikely Joe will get another opportunity like this. Still, at the very least, Gabumon's Christ-like, near-death experience will ensure this installment of the Digimon reboot will go down in Digi-history.