Digimon Ghost Game 1×1 Review – “The Sewn-lip Man”

‘The Sewn-lip Man’ offered a very enjoyable debut for the Digimon Ghost Game anime series. I’m looking forward to seeing more!

As implied by the name of this series, Digimon Ghost Game leans a bit creepier than the previous Digimon anime installments. The visuals in the opening theme reminded me of the Scooby-Doo franchise as it showed our three leads – Hiro, Ruri, and Kiyoshiro – in various moments trying to make sense of strange occurrences around them. The creepy yet kid-friendly take is perfect for October. 

Surprisingly, the opening theme also showed us the Champion forms of the lead DigiPartners. It looks like Hiro’s Gammamon will have four Digivolution lines. We got to clearly see three of them with the fourth one being encased in shadow during the opening theme.

As an episode, ‘The Sewn-lip Man’ did a good job of setting the tone and explaining the type of world the lead characters live in. Turns out, in the near future, holograms are being used for advertising, entertainment, academics, and a whole lot more. From street signs to warning labels, there are holograms everywhere.

However, over the past two or three years, an urban legend about mysterious entities known as Hologram Ghosts has formed. From what I could understand, some people think Hologram Ghosts are paranormals beings that glitch like holograms. Apparently, Hologram Ghosts have been harming humans with one such dangerous being called the Sewn-lip Man.

The debut episode didn’t waste any time showing a young student at the Hazakura Academy being attacked by the Sewn-lip Man (who is actually a Clockmon) and having her lifeforce/time stolen. For some reason, Clockmon’s addicted to stealing time from humans. I hope we get an explanation behind Clockmon’s actions. In my opinion, seeing the young student rapidly age into a frail old woman and fall to the ground was showcased quite well by the anime team. While we have seen Digimon attack the entire human world before, seeing such a direct attack on a single human by Clockmon really helped raise the stakes.

With Digimon Ghost Game having three co-leads, we got to meet Ruri first. I don’t know about you, but I liked the creative team showing Ruri being a proactive girl. In certain boy-centric content, the girls end up tagging along on an adventure by accident and then serve as the “Mom” of the main group throughout the story. But I think Ruri’s going to be different. She wanted to learn more about the elusive Sewn-lip Man without getting coaxed into it by a male character. I also liked how she had two other girls as friends to talk to. I love it when lead characters have friends outside the core ensemble.

Hiro’s the second character we got introduced to. Similar to Ruri, he’s got a friend at school name Nomura. I have a feeling that Hiro’s going to serve as the “Mom” of the three-person team as the narrative progresses. Even Nomura called out Hiro on his very friendly nature and how he’s willing to lend a hand to anyone who asked. Hiro’s clearly going to be the leader of the team and I don’t mind having a leader who has a friendly/caring disposition.

During the flashback, Hiro’s shown cooking breakfast for his father. Also, Hiro’s father (I’ll get to him in a bit) happened to be the one to entrust Gammamon to Hiro by making him promise he will think of Gammamon as a little brother and will take care of him moving forward.

With Ruri being the curious one and Hiro being the reliable and caring leader, Kiyoshiro’s the third main character. Apparently, he’s a coward and very superstitious. And I’m here for it. I think this anime will make Kiyoshiro go through a well-earned character development arc that will help him find the courage to protect his friends and save the world.

Kiyoshiro checking up on Hiro, after Nomura got attacked by Clockman, and giving Hiro a talisman to ward off evil spirits was cute. I think the reason Kiyoshiro’s right hand is always bandaged might have to do with him hurting himself as a child and linking it to bad luck, thus causing him to grow superstitious. I’m looking forward to learning more about him.

As for how Hiro got involved with the Digimon world, it all linked to Hiro’s father. He’s been doing research on the Digital world which led him to disappear one day right from inside his room. I liked how seeing a police car outside the academy made Hiro remember talking to the police after his father went missing. Apparently, his mother’s been traveling to different countries to help refugees, which… okay? I guess she couldn’t find the time to return home to comfort her son? 

Anyway, with his father having left behind a Digivice (resembling the Digimon Vital Bracelets available to fans in real life), Hiro’s introduced to the existence of Digimon. With Hiro meeting Gammamon in the very first episode, I wonder how long we will have to wait to see Ruri and Kiyoshiro get their DigiPartners.

Fun fact, while Hiro and Kiyoshiro are from Hazakura Academy and know each other, Ruri’s yet to meet those two. I can’t wait to see the trio banding together for the first time and try to make sense of what’s going on.

As for Gammamon, the little Digimon’s design has been inspired by ceratopsians. The little monster’s into biting stuff and is also quite feisty during battle. Furthermore, from what I could understand, there’s some kind of darkness present inside Gammamon which even took Clockmon by surprise while he tried to steal time-related data from Hiro’s little DigiPartner.

I liked Hiro and Gammamon’s quick battle with Clockmon. Even though Hiro wasn’t able to help Nomura during Clockmon’s attack at the academy, Hiro found the courage to take action during the rematch. Throwing a branch into the data stream to stop Clockmon’s attack was some good thinking. Both Hiro and Gammamon found the strength to battle a powerful opponent by relying on each other which has been a staple theme across the long-running Digimon franchise.

I was surprised to see Clockmon’s victims returning back to normal during the end of the episode. I really thought that Hiro’s journey to save the victims was going to be a multi-episode arc. At least, the creepy Clockmon will return. So, there’s that. I’m ready for more!

My only complaint would be that I found the facial features of certain human characters to be quite simple and distracting.

What did you think of ‘Sewn-lip Man’? Are you interested in watching more Digimon Ghost Game?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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