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"Enter The Dark Masters" 魔の山の四天王! ダークマスターズ (Ma no Yama no Shitennō! Dark Masters) "The Four Divine Generals of the Devil's Mountain! The Dark Masters"
Production company	(Ja:) Fuji Television (En:) Saban Entertainment
Airdate	(Ja:) December 12, 1999 (En:) February 26, 2000
Written by	(Ja:) Satoru Nishizono (En:) Rebecca Forstadt, John Ludin
Directed by	(Ja:) Tetsuo Imazawa
Chief Anim. Director	Masahiro Naoi
Art	Yukiko Iijima
Animation studio	Toei Animation
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Upon returning to the digital world, the group are ambushed by the most powerful group of enemies they've ever faced, and barely make it out alive.

Note: The English video recap for this episode is either unavailable or non-existent.

DA ep 40 recap(00:32) 304 views

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Featured characters 3 Digimon Analyser 4 Digivolutions 5 Quotes 6 Other notes 6.1 Continuity errors 6.2 Animation errors 6.3 Dubbing changes 6.4 Digimon references 6.5 Real-world references 6.6 Miscellaneous trivia

Synopsis

Through a telescope in the digiworld, the Dark Masters observe the events unfolding on Earth, preparing for the arrival of the DigiDestined. Meanwhile, the kids arrive to find the Digital World in darkness, and soon find Chuumon hiding in the tall grass nearby. He explains how he was seperated from his best friend Sukamon, and how the world was scrambled up into a single spot called Spiral Mountain, where the Dark Masters rule.

Seconds later, one of the Dark Masters, MetalSeadramon, shows up. All the digimon digivolve to their champion forms but they stand no chance against the mega Digimon, and are sent spiralling into an unfamiliar surrounding when MetalSeadramon uses his River of Power.

The children soon find themselves in a location covered in complete darkness. Angemon goes to investigate but gets attacked and reverts to his rookie form. Machinedramon, another Dark Master reveals himself and the digimon digivolve to their ultimate level. They are beaten once again and using his Giga Cannon attack, Machinedramon sends the kids and their partners to yet another another completely dark location.

While in the midst of falling into the endless darkness, they group suddenly stops moving and WereGarurumon and Garudamon start fighting one another against their will. Everyone starts moving uncontrollably and Izzy is the first to notice they are acting like string puppets. It is then revealed that they are all being controlled by Puppetmon, another Dark Master. He uses his Puppet Pummel Attack, forcing the digimon to de-digivolve and sends them to yet another location, an outdoor arena.

Piedmon, leader of the Dark Masters, turns up and defeats Agumon and Gabumon in their mega forms, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon. He then decides to take each child out one by one, starting with Mimi but Chuumon takes the shot blow and gets deleted. All hope seems lost, until Piximon whisks the kids to safety in his invisible bubble. Before leaving, Piximon informed the DigiDestined that simply being together is not going to be enough to win this battle, and they will have to figure this one out themselves. He tells them their next step should be to climb Spiral Mountain. Piximon then sends the children to safety and does his best to distract the Dark Masters.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance. Bolded characters are fought by the protagonists, and italicized characters appear only as a voice or silhouette.)

Digimon Analyser

MetalSeadramon Mega Data Cyborg Digimon Special Move Ultimate Stream Chuumon: "This guy is one real hard-nose, and I mean hard-nose! Take my advice: this is one train that you'd rather miss." Machinedramon Mega Virus Machine Digimon Special Move Infinite Cannon Izzy: "He's called Machinedramon. This metallic mutant can blow out a Digimon just like a birthday candle!"

Puppetmon Mega Virus Puppet Digimon Special Move Bullet Hammer Izzy: "Puppetmon has a controlling personality and a rotten temper. Get him mad and he'll bop you with his hammer." Piedmon Mega Virus Demon Man Digimon Special Move Trump Sword Chuumon: "He's a Mega Phantom Digimon of the worst kind! You never know what he's gonna look like next!"

Digivolutions

(Number indicates order of occurrence.)

Koromon			1	Agumon			6	Greymon			15	MetalGreymon			22	Agumon			29	WarGreymon			31	Agumon

Tsunomon			2	Gabumon			7	Garurumon			16	WereGarurumon			23	Gabumon			30	MetalGarurumon			32	Gabumon

Motimon			3	Tentomon			9	Kabuterimon			17	MegaKabuterimon (Red)			28	Motimon

Tokomon			4	Patamon			12	Angemon			14	Patamon

Yokomon			5	Biyomon			8	Birdramon			18	Garudamon			24	Yokomon

Gomamon			10	Ikkakumon			20	Zudomon			25	Bukamon

Palmon			11	Togemon			19	Lillymon			27	Tanemon

Salamon			13	Gatomon			21	Angewomon			26	Gatomon

Quotes

"Oh. We'll just save the world without you, then."

—Joe realizes Gomamon is still in his bag.

Joe: "Would somebody mind helping me?"
Gomamon: "Whoops! I forgot all about ya! Uh oh."
Joe: "You forgot. I'm hanging here by my elbows and you're off in La La Land!"
Gomamon: "Gee, I wonder what it's like to have elbows..."
Tai: "Joe! Figures."

—Joe has the worst luck in both worlds.

"After you guys left File Island, Sukamon and I went on with life as usual. You know, eating, eating, and more eating."

—Chuumon describes the many activities of his daily living.

"Color me cynical, but nothing surprises me about this place."

—Joe gets his first look at Spiral Mountain.

Tai: "Where are all the other Digimon? Are they up there, too? Where's Leomon?"
Chuumon: "I don't know. But what I've been told, they'll plow through anything that tries to get in their way!"
Sora: "Who will?"
Chuumon: "Who? The Dark Masters!"
Tai: "Well they can't be too much tougher than anybody we've wrestled with before."
Chuumon: "No way! They'll beat the pants right off of you!"

—Chuumon tries to warn the DigiDestined that they may be in over their heads.

"Ever notice we're always in the wrong place at just the wrong time?"

—Joe learns MetalSeadramon is a Mega level Digimon.

"Well, I think your plot needs a few rewrites!"

—Tai doesn't think much of Piedmon's distrubing tale.

Other notes

Continuity errors

• In the English dub, Tai implies that Piximon who told the group that being together would make it possible to win, though Piximon said no such thing. It was Gennai who said something along these lines, and revealed the existence of the eighth DigiDestined in the first place.
  

Animation errors

• When Izzy finds out that they are controlled by strings,his digivice is purple,while in the next shot,his digivice is white.
  

Dubbing changes

• In the original version, the scene of Piximon's confirmed death is shown at the end of this episode, rather than at the beginning of the next, so as to create some kind of cliff-hanger.
• When Piedmon threw his swords at WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, the swords penetrating the two were actually visible. In the English dub, only flashes of light can be seen. Similarly, the moment Piedmon's dagger strikes Chuumon was also cut from the English dub.
• In the original version, Piedmon does not announce the names of the other Dark Masters until they appear simultaneously in front of the children, and none of the other Dark Masters speak until this point.^{[citation needed]}
  

Digimon references

• The DigiDestined last encountered Piximon in the episode The Piximon Cometh.
  

Real-world references

• Piedmon's English dub voice is based on that of the actor Tim Curry, who played Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990 film adaption of Stephen King's It.
• Piedmon also references Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors right before introducing the other Dark Masters.
  

Miscellaneous trivia

• Piedmon announces the episode title in the Japanese episode.
• This is the only episode to show Salamon digivolving into Gatomon.
• During Machinedramon's analysis, rather than showing the previous clip of him in the fog, a similar clip is shown from later on, with the coliseum in the background.
• Puppetmon is shown in a different tone when appearing in the Digimon Analyser.
• This is WereGarurumon's last appearance in the series. He won't be seen again until Digimon Adventure 02, in the episode Digimon World Tour, Pt. 3.