#koushiro searching for taichi | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tobiasdrake · 9 days

Text

Digimon Adventure 01x44 - Jureimon of the Lost Woods / Trash Day

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Pinocchimon kidnapped Takeru wanting to play a twisted game, but then the grown-ups at FOX took his guns away and gave him a firm scolding. While Pinocchimon was busy, Takeru broke all of his other toys and fled the coop.

Before we begin, an interesting note on this episode's title. Today's episode is 迷いの森のジュレイモン Mayoi no Mori no Jureimon.

Mayoi no Mori is a popular recurring element of Japanese media. It translates to the Forest of Uncertainty or Forest of Indecision or some such. It's the idea of this labyrinthine and possibly even supernatural forest that, once you enter, you may never find your way out of. A place where people go missing and are never heard from again.

It shows up in a lot of places in Japanese media, though it often gets translated a bunch of different ways. Legend of Zelda calls it the Lost Woods. The Mario franchise has used names like "Forest of Illusion", "Forever Forest", or "Maze Woods". Final Fantasy has used terms like "Mazewood" or "Phantom Forest". Naruto called it "The Bewildering Forest". The subtitler for this episode called it "Forest of Doubt".

But they're all different attempts at localizing the same persistent concept: Mayoi no Mori. Throughout Japanese media, this idea persists of a thick, unnavigable forest where the souls of those who made the mistake of entering are doomed to forever wander, searching in futility for a way out that will never come.

I suspect it may be related to Aokigahara, Japan's famous Suicide Forest. But I don't know.

...

...so, let's have fun exploring that!

We join the Chosen Children searching for Yamato, who wandered off into the woods at the end of last episode.

Taichi: HEY!!! YAMATO!!! Sora: YAMATO-KUN!!! Gomamon: GABUMON, WHERE ARE YOU!?!? Hikari: Onii-chan, what do you think happened to Yamato-san? Taichi: How should I know!? What's his deal, anyway? Agumon: He might have been kidnapped by Pinocchimon! Koushiro: Judging by his abrupt disappearance, that's a likely conclusion. Jou: ...no. I don't think that's what happened.

The kids briefly bring up the cliffhanger from the dub and then Jou dismisses it. We're not going to spend too much time pursuing that as a possibility because the audience already knows Pinocchimon was moping in his playroom at the time.

The dub's had a week to stew on that as a cliffhanger, however.

Tai: MATT!!! HEY MATT!!! T.K.: MAAAAAATT!!! Sora: MATT, WHERE ARE YOU!?!? Kari: I'm worried. What do you think could have happened to him, Tai? Tai: Matt's a big boy; He can take care of himself! Agumon: Now, wait a minute; What if he was kidnapped by Puppetmon? Izzy: Yeah, he might have been. Or something worse! Jou: No, it wasn't anything like that.

Taichi responds sharply to Hikari's question in both versions, but there's a bit of a disconnect in Tai's response. Taichi is pissy and dismissive about why Yamato disappeared, but makes no indication that we shouldn't be looking for the guy. Tai sounds like he doesn't think we should be searching for Matt at all.

An odd choice given that his is one of the three voices calling for Matt a moment ago.

Jou recaps the kids on what he saw last episode. We see a silent flashback of Yamato's departure, with Jou noticing him.

Taichi: You saw Yamato leave!? Why didn't you stop him!? Jou: Because I thought he was just excusing himself for a moment. I'm sorry. Taichi: Well, forget it. At least now we know he wasn't taken by Pinocchimon. Agumon: But then where did he disappear to? Sora: Now that I think back, didn't Yamato-kun seem to be acting a little strange to you?

Sora conjures up a flashback to Yamato's Digivice and Crest refusing to function.

Piyomon: Gabumon wasn't able to evolve back then. Palmon: Yeah, but even so....

In the dub:

Tai: What, he just walked away!? And you didn't even try to stop him!? Joe: Well, no! Was I supposed to? I mean, I thought he was just going to go use the bushes! Or something. Tai: Huh. This is weird. I mean, it's one thing if he was kidnapped but why would he just disappear on us like this? Agumon: I'll say! He's been gone way too long for just a potty break. Sora: Wait a minute! Is it just me or has Matt been kinda strange lately?

They have Izzy talk over the second flashback to silence-break it.

Izzy: Come to think of it, he has been acting a little high-strung. Biyomon: Remember when Gabumon had that Digivolving problem? Palmon: (gasp) Yeah! I bet there's a connection!

This dialogue deviates a bit from the original, but not in a negative way. It flows really well. I especially like Palmon's organic response to Biyomon here.

Suddenly, Hikari hears something again. As with last episode, we don't hear whatever's caught her attention; Just a shimmering effect in the audio. Whatever it is, Hikari whips around too late. It's gone, if it was ever here to begin with.

Tailmon: What's wrong, Hikari? Hikari: I heard a voice again. Taichi: (runs up) A voice!? Was it Yamato!?

Taichi's quiet for a moment, listening for Yamato but hearing nothing.

Taichi: Were you hearing things?

This is another visual pun, like the one from inside Whamon. Taichi asks "Soramimi ka?" Soramimi is a Japanese expression that means "air in the ears" and is used to describe mishearing something. Upon asking the question, we cut briefly to Sora and Mimi exchanging awkward glances.

Koushiro: He couldn't have gone far. Taichi: You're right. Let's go!

Taichi rallies the group together and they head out to resume their search. Except Hikari, who stays behind briefly, answering the question now that the others aren't around to hear her.

Hikari: ...no, it wasn't Yamato's voice. Tailmon: (concerned) Hikari?

OMINOUS.

In the dub:

Gatomon: Kari, what is it? Kari: I thought I heard a voice out there. Tai: A voice!? Was it Matt!? (beat) Tai: I don't hear anything.... Come on, Kari! Don't you start losing it too! (Sora and Mimi exchange glances) Izzy: He couldn't be very far away, you know. Maybe we should look for him. Tai: Yeah, I suppose. Okay, guys; Let's go. (The group starts walking, except Kari) Kari: Gatomon, it wasn't Matt's voice I heard! Gatomon: Who's was it?

A small tonal difference here at the end; Hikari's basically talking to herself, with Tailmon beside her worrying. Kari addresses Gatomon to explain herself. But the important point still gets across in both versions. Hikari keeps overhearing somebody who is not yet accounted for in the story.

We leave the group here to join Yamato, storming off with Gabumon hot on his trail.

Gabumon: Yamato! What's wrong!? Yamato, listen to me! Yamato: (glower) ... Gabumon: Yamato....

While they're walking, we pan out to see Pinocchimon and Jureimon watching them from across the pond.

Pinocchimon: Hehehe! That guy is so stupid for breaking off from the rest! It's like he wants me to kill him! Jureimon: Of course, sir. Pinocchimon: Since I know he won't play with me anyway, I guess I'll give him what he wants and murder him. Jureimon: Please wait a moment, Pinocchimon-sama. I have an idea, sir. While you're dealing with the rest of the Chosen Children, your loyal servant Jureimon will handle this one! Ho ho ho ho!

Vulgar mouth on Pinocchimon. The show has used a lot of euphemisms to dance around the word korosu, which means to kill or murder or slaughter, since that word's considered vulgar in children's entertainment. Its favorite euphemism is taosu, which means to defeat or demolish.

We heard a lot of taosu last episode, such as discussing whether or not to "destroy" Kiwimon.

But Pinocchimon here drops two separate instances of its compound form koroshitai, combining korosu with shitai meaning "I want to verb". He's pulling no verbal punches; He intends to murder this child.

In the original, Yamato gives Gabumon a total cold shoulder, refusing to answer him entirely. The dub uses the last shot of Gabumon to let Matt talk to him.

Gabumon: Matt, come on! I'm all for exercise but I'm really not built for long distances! Matt! Where are we going? Matt: Just... away. I need some space! (Pan out to Puppetmon and Cherrymon) Puppetmon: Hehehe. Aww, the poor little kid needs a little space. Someplace far away from his nice little friends and closer to ME!!! Cherrymon: I agree completely. Puppetmon: I'm not waiting! I'll put him out of his misery! Those DigiDestined kids really bug me! Cherrymon: Wait a minute, Puppetmon! I have a better idea. You can take care of those other DigiDestined children if you want to but, as for this one, leave him to me! I'll have him climbing up a tree before I'm through with him! Hahaha hahaha HAHAHA!!!

I like Puppetmon's twisted retort to Matt "needing space".

But I'm sad to lose "Since I know he won't play with me...." That line was a nice callback to the previous episode, conveying that Pinocchimon is still salty about what happened with Takeru.

"I'll put him out of his misery" is a solid translation for Puppetmon's second line, since obviously Fox isn't going to let Puppetmon's language be as unapologetically violent as Pinocchimon's. The last bit is just Evil Space Filler, though.

As an aside, Jureimon's vocal performance is a deep and bellowing old man who speaks in a respectful and wizened tone. Cherrymon's going for Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone from The Godfather for some reason.

Yamato finds a place to finally rest and talk through why seeing Takeru be self-sufficient bothered him so much.

Yamato: I... I've always thought about Takeru. Takeru is... He can't take care of himself without me. Or, I thought so....

Yamato flashes quickly through various clips of Takeru over the course of the series, since they first noticed the snow falling at camp.

Yamato: Before I knew it, he'd grown up. And me? He doesn't need me anymore. (Flashbacks end) Yamato: It's not just Takeru, either. Taichi, Sora, Mimi, Jou, Koushiro... Everyone's changed so much since we came to the Digimon World. They've gotten stronger. Gabumon: (affirming) Mm. Yamato: But, next to them, look at me. I'm the same person I always was! I haven't changed at all! Gabumon: That's not true! You also-- Yamato: What's wrong with me!? This isn't who I want to be! Gabumon: Yamato.... Yamato: I can't stay like this! I have to change! I HAVE TO GET STRONGER!!! And for that to happen... I can't stay with the others.

This would, of course, probably be why his Crest wouldn't shine earlier. Sympathetic though Yamato's reasons are, he's not exactly expressing the virtue of Friendship here. He's wallowing in self-doubt.

The dub slips its first commercial break between scenes, which is a good place for it. Then we come back to Matt's doubts.

Matt: You ever feel like a third wheel, Gabumon? That's what I feel like. All this time, I thought I had, like, a purpose, y'know? To look after my little brother. (Flashbacks) Matt: I thought T.K. wouldn't be able to survive without me watching over him. Suddenly, it's like he's growing up. He doesn't need me anymore. Oh, and it's not just him. (Flashbacks end) Matt: It's everybody, man. I mean, when I think of Tai and Mimi and Sora and the others, this place has changed them for the better. They're stronger now. It's almost like they Digivolved or something. Gabumon: Hm? Matt: But you see, the problem is, I haven't. I'm still stuck in the same place. I haven't changed a bit. Gabumon: You may not see it, Matt, but you've changed a lot! Matt: Oh please, Gabumon. Give me a break. I'm the same jerk I always was! Gabumon: Hey, come on.... Matt: It'll never happen! Not this way. I've finally got it figured out! If I'm ever going to change, I've got to do it on my own! On my own... The others can't help me.

This is pretty much perfect. It his every last beat of the scene while being flavorful and interesting to listen to. 10/10 no notes.

Jureimon suddenly reveals himself with a hearty laugh.

Jureimon: AH HA HA!!! Yamato: WHO'S THERE!?!?

Jureimon calmly walks out to meet Yamato and properly introduces himself.

Jureimon is a Perfect-stage Virus-type Plant Digimon. He's one of the two Virus Perfects for the Wind Guardians, both of whom are pre-evolved forms for Pinocchimon himself.

His name comes from the Japanese word 樹齢 jurei, which means "the age of a tree". He's the Ancient Tree 'mon. The word jurei, sounded out loud, sounds super close to cherry - Something I don't think was lost on his creators, given that they filled his branches with cherry fruit. He's an ancient tree, but specifically a cherry tree.

Which means the dub's choice of "Cherrymon" fits well into the characters' lip flaps while still being evocative of his design.

Jureimon: My name is Jureimon. Yamato: Jureimon? Narrator: Jureimon. Called the Lord of the Deep Woods, this Perfect-stage Digimon lives deep within the forests. His special attack is Cherry Bomb.

A note about Jureimon's title. He's called 樹海の主 Jukai no Omo. The word of interest here is Jukai, which doesn't mean "forest". Rather, it more directly translates to "Sea of Trees" and refers to an especially dense part of a forest.

It. Um. It's also a term for Aokigahara. Jureimon is the Lord of places like Aokigahara.

...

And now he's talking to Yamato, in the midst of an emotional crisis.

Gabumon: You work for Pinocchimon, don't you!? Jureimon: Now, now, calm down. I didn't come here to fight. I am just looking for someone to talk to. Ah ha ha!

This is going to be bad, isn't it?

In the dub:

Cherrymon: Well, well. Look what we've got here. Greetings, nature lovers. (Cherrymon reveals himself) Cherrymon: What? You mean you've never seen a talking tree? Matt: ...not many. Gabumon: (rundown) Be careful. That's Cherrymon, Lord of the Forest and the best reason for the existence of termites. Gabumon: Stop right there or I'll turn you into toothpicks! Cherrymon: You really shouldn't be that rude. Calm down, my fighting days are over; I only want to talk with you. In fact, you might even say I've turned over a new leaf. Ehehe Haha!

"The best reason for the existence of termites" got me. XD It's the casual, matter-of-fact way he slides that into the rundown. Fantastic delivery.

Gabumon has all of his hackles up right now and he is absolutely right to. We are at war and he does not trust the enemy combatant emerging from the deep woods for a friendly chat.

Meanwhile, the other children continue their search for Yamato. Koushiro's using his Digivice to try and track Yamato's, but getting no results.

Koushiro: The Digivice isn't reacting. It doesn't seem to be functioning properly in these woods. Tailmon: I think we should take a break somewhere and wait for him. Everyone needs some time alone once in a while. Taichi: No, we have to find Yamato quickly. We can't do this unless all eight of us are together! Jou: But we're all tired. We should find a place to sit down and rest our legs. Mimi: (quietly, distressed) So the eight of us could stay together and fight... They all.... Palmon: Mimi.... Sora: Mimi-chan....

Quite a bit going on in this scene. We start with the discovery that the deep woods seem to be blocking the signals from their Digivices so they can't find each other.

Senpai and Team Leader have very different ideas of what we should do from here, with Taichi wanting to push the group to exhaustion out of a sense of urgency for fighting the war.

Taichi invokes what Gennai told them before they returned to Tokyo: They can only fix the distortions if all eight of them are together. That's why we had to get retrieve Hikari, and it's why we can't be splitting the party like this.

But Taichi is still trying to be Drill Sergeant and not considering the valid points that Tailmon and Jou are both making.

(That said, given what Yamato's talking to right now, they probably should hurry up and find him. Taichi's right but not because of the words coming out of his mouth.)

Meanwhile, Mimi remains traumatized from their various friends and Chuumon that gave their lives for the children's sake. The road they've walked to reach this point is paved in pixel dust.

In the dub:

Izzy: Mm, it's no use. I'm getting nothing. For some reason, the Digivices aren't working in this forest. Gatomon: You know, I'm not so sure we should be trying to find him. Everyone needs to be alone sometimes. I should know! Tai: I'm not gonna let him break up this team! We're gonna find him whether he wants us to or not! Joe: We're always walking around searching for someone; I've never done so much walking in my life! Mimi: Yeah, it's disgusting. My calves are starting to look like a bodybuilder's! Palmon: Like a what!? Sora: (dismissive) Oh, Mimi....

...okay, so all of this sucks. Well, Izzy and Gatomon are fine. Good job, you two.

Tai's being even more unreasonable than his Japanese counterpart. He offers no reason for why it's so urgent that we find Matt right now. Just that we're gonna drag his ass back here and that's fucking final!

Then Jou and Mimi both have their lines swapped out for whining about their poor constitutions. This is especially egregious for Mimi because the fact that she's practically catatonic right now from trauma is an important part of her character arc, but the dub has her quipping about her "gross" leg muscles like it's just another day.

Suddenly, a loud voice echoes through the forest.

Pinocchimon: YOO-HOO!!!

Perched at the very top of a nearby tree, Pinocchimon calls down to them, startling the group.

Taichi: (gasp) Pinocchimon! Pinocchimon: Hi, Takeru! It's good to see you again! Takeru: Not for me, it isn't! I'm not playing with you anymore! Patamon: That's right! Pinocchimon: Idiot! Playtime is long over! GET THEM, GARBAMON!!!

Three such creatures slide out of the woods in their trash cans.

Garbamon is a Perfect-stage Virus-type Mutant Digimon. Next to Jureimon, they're the other Virus Perfect from the Wind Guardians, and the other pre-evolution for Pinocchimon. Their name, of course, comes from the word "garbage".

They're based, specifically, on a desktop Recycle Bin for deleting files.

All Garbamon: YES, SIR!!! Narrator: Garbamon. A Digimon based on garbage. Their special attack is Unchi Bazooka, but they're still Perfect all the same.

Another rare attack name to feature a Japanese word in it. Unchi means poop. Yep, we're doing that again.

Which is what that last comment is about; Garbamon is along the same vein as the various junk 'mons we've seen like Scumon or Numemon or Nanimon. But these guys are not the pathetic little bottomfeeder Adults of the original V-Pet lineups. These guys are Perfect-stage Wind Guardians and they will fuck your shit up.

In the dub:

Puppetmon: Yoohoo! Tai: Puppetmon!? Puppetmon: Hi, everybody! Hey T.K., did you miss me? T.K.: No, not at all! And I'm not going to play with you anymore, either! Puppetmon: No!? Well, fine! You're not a lot of fun anyway! Front and center, everybody! Garbagemon 1: (slides out) Yes, sir! Garbagemon 2: (slides out) Yes, sir! Garbagemon 3: (slides out) Yes, sir! Palmon: (rundown) Uh-oh, Garbagemon! They're as tough as they are mean! And they don't smell very good, either....

Palmon's diegetic rundown here is completely different. But it still gets across the idea that despite being gross, they shouldn't be underestimated.

Puppetmon here is more outwardly upset about T.K.'s rejection. I do like that the dub has him clearly still nursing that wound, only launching the ambush after he's freshly rejected again.

Once the rundown's over, the Garbamon take aim.

Garbamon: FIRE THE UNCHI BAZOOKA!!!

The Garbamon unload their first volley of their disgusting projectiles. The kids turn and run into the woods as the Garbamon let off a second volley. But then Palmon notices one person who isn't running.

Palmon: Mimi!

Mimi snaps suddenly, furiously snatching one of the poops out of the air as it sails towards her.

Mimi: WHAT THE HELL EVEN IS THIS!?!? ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

She is so done with being the target of long-range poop assaults. She throws it straight back at the Garbamon.

Mimi is not very athletic, so her toss doesn't hit anything. It lands on the ground about halfway between her and the enemy, then flops to a stop in front of the center Garbamon. Still, her outburst takes everyone by surprise. The Garbamon stare slack-jawed at her, ceasing their assault.

A brief shot of Pinocchimon going O_O shows that he, too, is stunned speechless.

Sora swings back, grabbing Mimi by the arm and snapping her out of her temporary insanity. The second Sora grabs her, Mimi's ferocity collapses and she just looks freaked out and terrified again.

Sora: Mimi-chan, hurry! Mimi: Uh-huh!

A powerful moment for Mimi but not one that accomplished much.

In the dub:

Garbagemon: Junk Chuckers ready, aim, FIRE!!! Joe: RUN!!! (The kids flee from the non-specific junk) Palmon: Mimi! Mimi: (catch) I WON'T BUDGE!!! Let's let them do the running for a change! (throw) Garbagemon: :O ... Pinocchimon: O_O ... Sora: Mimi, come on! (grab) Mimi: Yeah, good idea! I must be nuts; I touched that stuff!

Mimi's ferocity comes on the heels of being repeatedly targeted by poop-throwing Digimon. It's the culmination of her individual experiences with Scumon and various Numemon.

Dub Mimi's snapping fury is recontextualized to be general outrage over all the running from enemies they've had to do. This probably goes hand-in-hand with the dub's persistent efforts to not directly admit that the projectile in question is, and has always been, poop.

Though calling it "junk" is getting pretty close to coming clean.

I do, however, love the addition of "I must be nuts; I touched that stuff!" at the end. That's a great line for her to deliver after snapping out of it.

From here, we return to Yamato to hear his answer to Jureimon.

Yamato: Sorry, but I don't feel like chatting with you. Let's go.

Yamato and Gabumon start walking towards the tree line. Jureimon extends his hand, growing it to a large size to cut off Yamato's departure.

Yamato: Get out of the way! Jureimon: Now now, I told you to wait. You don't need to be so hostile. Oh ho ho ho! "What's wrong with me!?" "This isn't who I want to be!" Yamato: (gasp) Jureimon: It's important to step back from time to time and think about who we've become, to better understand ourselves. Yamato: You were listening in? Jureimon: Ho ho ho ho! I didn't need to listen in. Nothing happens in this forest that I don't know about. Yamato: Then tell me! What should I do now? Jureimon: You're asking me what to do? Children these days, always wanting their answers handed to them. They never try to think for themselves. That's the problem right there, if you ask me.

Okay, boomer.

In the dub:

Matt: No offense, but even if I felt like talking, it wouldn't be to a tree. See you around. (Cherrymon blocks Matt's departure) Matt: Hey, what's the idea!? Cherrymon: Young man, didn't anyone ever tell you you should listen to your elders? Or was it redwoods you should listen to? I can never quite get those two straight. But anyway, I digress. So, you're still stuck in the same place. Still the same old jerk you always were. Matt: (gasp) Cherrymon: Surprised, huh? Ah, I know all about it! Must be tough being in such a rut! Matt: You've been spying on me, huh!? Cherrymon: Hahahahaha! Listen to me, kid. I don't need to spy because there's nothing that happens in this forest that I don't know about. Matt: (skeptical) Huh. Alright then, if you're so smart, what am I supposed to do!? Tell me that! Cherrymon: Ah, simple as that, eh? Kids. You want all the answers just handed to you on a mahogany platter but you never want to do the hard work of looking deep within yourself, where all the answers truly lie!

Pretty solid, with some tree jokes thrown in for shits and giggles.

Seeing that this isn't going anywhere good, Gabumon tries to intervene.

Gabumon: Yamato! You don't have to listen to this guy! Let's go! Jureimon: Are you sure about that? If you want to get stronger, you'll have to improve yourself. Yamato: Improve myself? Jureimon: That's right. But it's easier said than done. You will need to have the determination to carry it out. Yamato: Determination? I have that. Tell me, how am I supposed to do it? Jureimon: (thinking) Ha! He's taken the bait....

Jureimon playing Yamato for an absolute sucker.

In the dub:

Gabumon: Let's go. Don't you listen to that talking firewood, Matt! Come on! Cherrymon: That's right, go on! But you'll never learn how to change. You'll always be what you are right now. Matt: (weakly) I want to change! Cherrymon: Yes, of course, but are you really ready? After all, change isn't always a pleasant thing. You might find out a few things that you wish you hadn't. Matt: I'm ready. More than ready. Enough talking, big guy! If you've got some answers, let's see 'em! Cherrymon: (thinking) Haha! He fell for it like an overripe fig.

A small change: Jureimon baits his hook by questioning Yamato's resolve while Cherrymon questions Matt's commitment to change.

Finally, Jureimon reveals exactly what Yamato must do to better himself.

Jureimon: YOU MUST DEFEAT YOUR RIVAL!!! Yamato: Rival? Jureimon: (points) Go take a look at yourself in that lake. There, you will see the rival you must defeat. Yamato: I must defeat... my rival.... Gabumon: Yamato....

Yamato approaches the lake, peering into its waters.

Gabumon: Ah! Yamato: Th... That's...!

Slowly but surely the image of Taichi emerges.

(Honestly, who else was it gonna be? Mimi? Hell no. Yamato'd best not come slinging this shit at her 'cause she's got a mean answer to that now.)

The dub's delivery of Cherrymon's pronouncement is incredibly undercooked. Jureimon screams it as a dramatic, climactic revelation. The apex of what this conversation has been building to. Cherrymon lays it out all casual.

Cherrymon: Alright, kid, I'll help you out. First off, you're gonna have to defeat your rival. Matt: My rival? Cherrymon: (points) There. In that lake, you will see the face of the one who is preventing you from becoming as strong as you could be. Gabumon: Where are you going? Matt: I know it sounds pretty bogus but... Might as well look. Gabumon: Listen, Matt. You don't really believe him, do you? (Tai's image begins to emerge) Gabumon: Ahhh! Matt: TAI!?!? COME ON!!! WHAT KIND OF TRICK IS THIS!?!?

Matt absolutely refuses to sell the idea that he's buying what Cherrymon's selling at all. He's basically rolling his eyes while being dragged around by Yamato's decision-making. The original keeps what's going through Yamato's head here ambiguous. He's considering Jureimon's words but doesn't appear to have committed one way or the other.

From here, we go to commercial and come back to the Garbamon chase.

Garbamon: Don't think you can escape! Take this!

The Garbamon form up, back-to-back, and rotate in circles firing their Unshi Bazookas into the woods. in all directions. This achieves nothing, and instead Adult evolutions of all the Partner 'mons emerge. Everyone but Angemon, Tailmon, and Garurumon, that is.

The Partner Digimon converge their attacks on the Garbamon, creating a huge explosion. This seems effective until the smoke clears and reveals no trace of their targets.

Taichi: Great work! (Smoke clears; Nothing there) Pinocchimon: Hahahahaha! Did you think those puny attacks would be enough to defeat them!?

(This is a Dragon Ball moment; Their absence proves they got away before the blasts hit. But Digimon disintegrate upon death so there'd be no trace of them either way; This doesn't really work.)

In the dub, the lead Garbagemon gets philosophical.

Garbagemon: Ha! Don't you know that wherever you go, there will always be garbage? Okay, ready guys? MAKE A MESS!!! (The Garbagemon spin and fire into the trees. The Partners emerge and blast them.) Tai: WAY TO GO!!! Joe: That trash is thrashed! Puppetmon: Hehehehehe.... (Smoke clears; Nothing there) Puppetmon: Great, you've totally ruined my garbage fun! I'm beaten! I'm going home! PSYCHE!!!

Oh my god. Remember "PSYCHE!!!"? The 90's/early 00's!

"That trash is thrashed". Nice wordplay, extra Joe line.

With the team's failure revealed, the assault begins anew.

Pinocchimon: Look behind you!

A Garbamon rushes towards the Children from... Wherever they got off to, taking aim with his poopzuka.

Mimi: No.... Garbamon: GOT YOU NOW!!! Mimi: NOOOOOOOO!!!

Mimi lets out a bloodcurdling scream, activating her Crest and Super-Evolving Togemon into Lilimon. Bursting into existence, Lilimon tackles Mimi and pushes them both out of the way of Garbamon's shot.

In the dub:

Puppetmon: Look behind you! Garbagemon: WRAHHH!!! Mimi: It's trash! Look out! Garbagemon: (takes aim) Here's mud in your eye!

The dub takes its second commercial break here instead of where the original put it. Fair; The original's commercial did come surprisingly early.

Then we return, replaying the shots from Mimi and Garbagemon's previous two lines.

Mimi: Oh no! Help! Garbagemon: JUNK CHUCKER!!! Mimi: NIGHTMAAAAAAAAAARE!!!

On the hand, screaming NOOOOOOOO is incredibly overwrought and cliche. On the other hand, screaming NIGHTMAAAAAAAAARE is just silly.

I think they were stuck on that one because of the lip flaps. The word for no is ie, pronounced "eee-yay". It's two syllables, with Mimi's lips moving between them. It's hard to get two syllables out of NOOOOOOOO.

Once Mimi's safe, Lilimon soars into the fight.

Lilimon flies straight for Garbamon, but a second Garbamon suddenly emerges from behind them.

Garbamon 2: You fell for it! Lilimon: Wait, what!?

The pair of Garbamon open fire at once. Lilimon deftly maneuvers between their shots, but then the third Garbamon pops up behind them.

Garbamon 3: NOT DONE YET!!!

Lilimon's line here made me a little sad, because she says "Uso!" which means "Lie". It's an expression of disbelief; In this case, she fell for their trick completely and is conveying her surprise and confusion.

But for a moment, I thought she said "Kuso!" which is a Japanese curse word and literally means "SHIT!!!" Which would have been very apt in this situation. Alas.

In the dub, the Garbagemon remain poetic.

Garbagemon 2: TWICE IS NICE!!! Lillymon: Ah!? (The Garbagemon shoot; Lillymon dodges) Garbagemon 3: TRASH THAT PETUNIA!!!

Well punned.

Unfortunately for the Garbamon, Lilimon finds her footing and goes back on the offensive.

Stepping on the face of the Garbamon in front of her, Lilimon bounds up into the air to meet the third.

Garbamon 1: Do I look like a stepstool!? Lilimon: FLOWER CANNON!!!

Lilimon shoots Garbamon 3 point-blank, vaporizing them into pixel dust.

In the dub:

Garbagemon 1: That chick is heavier than she looks.... Lillymon: FLOWER CANNON!!!

Something about the replacement gag is getting my hackles up but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Inspired by Lilimon's counterattack, Taichi steps up.

Taichi: Yes! Now!

In the dub:

Tai: Alright! Finish them off!

Greymon Super-Evolves into MetalGreymon and fires off his Giga Destroyer. One of the two remaining Garbamon is still stunned from getting stepped on, but the other counterattacks with Unchi Bazooka.

The poop ricochet's harmlessly off the Giga Destroyer missile, doing nothing to impede its path.

Both Garbamon go up in a massive explosion that blows Pinocchimon off his treetop perch. While Pinocchimon hangs on for dear life, the errant final poop lands squarely on his forehead, provoking a furious and agonized shriek.

From here, we return to Yamato and Jureimon.

Yamato: Taichi is... my rival...?

Suddenly, Yamato stands up and starts laughing.

Yamato: Sorry to disappoint, but I've never felt that way about him. Not even once! Jureimon: Ha ha ha! That lake reflects whatever lies in the heart of the person who looks into it. Yamato: What!?

Of course, we know Yamato's not being honest with himself here. We've seen the friction between the two boys throughout the series, especially where Takeru was concerned. He may never have contextualized Taichi as a "rival" but he and Taichi have been locking horns since File Island.

You can tell how little Yamato believes in his own claim by how quickly he abandons it. Yamato says "LOL nice trap", Jureimon says "It's not a trap", and Yamato replies "WAIT WHAT!?!?" and resumes falling for it.

Yamato looks into the lake again. Then, after a moment, he pulls his gaze away once more.

Yamato: (struggling) I refuse to fall for this.... Jureimon: Do not avert your eyes! Properly face yourself!

At Jureimon's urging, Yamato gives in and looks down into the lake again.

In the dub, Cherrymon calls in from offscreen like a game show host while Matt's confronting the ugly revelation of the lake, which sounds absolutely hilarious in his Godfather Voice.

Cherrymon: Behold! The face of your rival! Matt: (hesitantly) ...so you're saying I have to fight Tai, is that it? (Matt stands up and starts laughing) Matt: Ahahahaha! Nice try, foliage-face, you had me going there. But you'll have to do better than that. Cherrymon: Hahahaha! I had nothing to do with it! The Lake of Truth reflects only what is in a person's heart; Hence the name. Matt: (shocked) You've gotta be kidding! Cherrymon: Sorry, kid; It's never wrong. (Matt looks again, then averts his eyes) Matt: That right? Well, I've got news for you. It's off this time! Way off! Cherrymon: Well, you can argue with me all you want but you're really only arguing with yourself.

Remarkably different approaches from Jureimon and Cherrymon. You can really feel Yamato's youth in the original; The way he responds to the booming voice of an elder authoritatively telling him what to do on a complicated issue he lacks confidence in himself to know how to resolve.

Jureimon has managed to manufacture an atmosphere where he can speak to Yamato as if he were a domineering parent commanding his child. Yamato's insecurity and uncertainty has created a vulnerability for an older predator to exploit, by speaking in a confident and certain tone.

Cherrymon takes the opposite approach, appealing to Matt as more of an equal. He pushes the issue but he's gentle and even sympathetic, going so far as to apologize to Matt for what he saw in the lake.

Cherrymon weasels himself into Matt's grievances with Tai as if he were just a passing bystander and not, you know, the guy who told Matt to look in the lake to begin with. He's metaphorically kneeling down on Matt's level. Hey man, it really sucks about that thing that's definitely just a fact of life and has nothing to do with what I said or did.

Yamato bends. He returns his attention to the lake, while Jureimon keeps pressing him.

Jureimon: I understand. Though you are both Chosen Children, everything you and that boy Taichi stand for are complete opposites of each other.

As a subtle psychological cue, Jureimon says Taichi's name with a scoff, as if the word itself tastes rotten and hollow in the mouth. He's monotonous and matter-of-fact except when he spits out Taichi's name as a curse.

Flashback montage of Yamato and Taichi's clashes through the series. We start with their fistfight on File Island, when Taichi wanted to abandon the rest of the group to go see what's beyond the ocean. Then Yamato snapping at Taichi at Digitamamon's diner. Then wrap up with their bitter argument over the graves Mimi built.

(Yamato was in the right in 2/3 of those.)

Jureimon: Whenever Taichi says or does anything, you can't help but react to it. That's how strong Taichi's presence in your heart has become. Until you overcome those feelings, you will never grow beyond where you are now. You must fight Taichi. Only when you free yourself from the hesitation in your heart will you be reborn!

What makes this interesting is that Jureimon isn't necessarily saying that Taichi is holding Yamato back. But rather that Yamato's feelings for Taichi are holding him back, and that those feelings can only truly be settled when he finally lets them out and has it out with Taichi. He must face the truth within himself before he can evolve.

Yamato feels like he's trapped in his cocoon and unable to hatch. Jureimon tells him that he's unwilling to hatch because the direction he must hatch in goes through Taichi.

Jureimon is telling Yamato that he needs to destroy the shadow of Taichi's influence over his mind before he'll be able to grow as an individual.

In the dub, Cherrymon... (sigh) ...makes this about who gets to be the show's main character.

Cherrymon: It's about time you face the truth. The one you call Tai is your leader; Everything he says, you do. Everywhere he goes, you follow. And yet, in your heart, you resent him because you know you're just as qualified to be the boss as he is!

The dub cuts the File Island flashback before Tai and Matt can start throwing punches, like they did in that episode itself.

(Digitamamon flashback) Tai: STOP IT!!! Matt: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, HUH!? (Mimi's graves flashback) Matt: WHO DIED AND LEFT YOU IN CHARGE OF THE WORLD!?!? Tai: Huh? What do you mean? Matt: I'VE JUST ABOUT HAD IT!!! (Flashbacks end) Cherrymon: Do not be ashamed of your resentment. Do not hide it. Embrace it, for in your anger lies your strength! Only when you recognize that will you at last be free to grow. To change. So face your rival! And prove you are his equal! Or better! By defeating him!

Cherrymon gives Matt a full-blown Emperor Palpatine Dark Side speech. You hate Tai because you deserve to be the team leader, not him, so let your anger grow and strike him down. Thanks, I hate it.

Fortunately, Gabumon is still not buying into any of this, and is ready to be the voice of reason.

Gabumon: That's a lie! It makes no sense at all! Taichi is your nakama. Don't be fooled, Yamato! This is a trap!

As a reminder, nakama is a group of people brought together for a particular activity or goal who form tight-knit social bonds with each other through their mutual pursuit of it. Like a military squad or a sports team.

Taichi himself started using the term to refer to the Chosen Children when he was getting the band back together in the PicoDevimon sub-arc. The term nakama was a big deal for Yamato and was part of what they fought about in the Digitamamon episode; Yamato internalizing and accepting Taichi and Jou as his nakama was what made his Crest of Friendship shine.

So Gabumon's tactical use of the word here is significant. The concept of nakama means a lot to Taichi and Yamato's relationship.

Yamato snaps suddenly as if breaking out of a daze.

Yamato: T-That's right! We're nakama....

Yamato turns on Jureimon furiously.

Yamato: A NAKAMA DOESN'T FIGHT EACH OTHER!!! Jureimon: Heh! Nakama, you say? You don't even believe that a thing like that exists. You can lie to the others, but you can't lie to yourself! Yamato: (suddenly quiet) ... Jureimon: Ha ha ha ha! A perfect picture of yourself, isn't it? Gabumon: YAMATO!!! Jureimon: Nakama. Tomodachi. Yuujou. Pleasant words, but they're all illusions. Nothing but a fleeting emotion. You can't let yourself be exploited by ephemeral things like that! Am I wrong, Yamato-kun?

Jureimon's list here is basically untranslatable because he says the same word twice. Nakama is commonly translated as "friendship" even though it has a much more precise meaning, as mentioned above. Tomodachi actually does mean friendship. And then Yuujou is also friendship, but more formally.

Yuujou, incidentally, is the specific word for Yamato's Crest. Yuujou no Monshou, Crest of Friendship. Jureimon picks that one for last because it has the most meaningful punch.

So trying to translate this list literally would be "Activity group with tight-knit bonds. Friendship. Friendship in a suit and tie. Convenient words, but they're all illusions."

A pragmatic translation would probably be something like, "Colleagues. Buddies. Friends." Switching the focus from the feeling to the objects of said feelings, while still ending on friendship for that punch.

The dub, again, is going to have to make this work without being able to lean on nakama. Though in this context, it'd be easy to just use the conventional "friends" translation. A bit of meaning would be lost, but that's pretty much doomed to happen since we couldn't use nakama in the Digitamamon episode either.

Gabumon: Don't listen! He's just trying to cause trouble! He's playing games with your mind. It's all part of some kind of trap! Tai is your friend, Matt. (Matt snaps out of it) Matt: He's my friend, yeah. He may not always act like it, but.... (Matt whirls furiously on Cherrymon) Matt: He's right! Tai is my friend. You don't fight your friends. Cherrymon: Friends? Ha! Now that's a good one. You don't even believe that such a thing really exists. Matt: Huh!? Cherrymon: Not in your heart of hearts, anyway. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Hit the nail on the head, didn't I? Gabumon: What's he mean? Cherrymon: Friendship. Loyalty. Comrades. Fine-sounding words, but that's all they are. Words. Delusions. And you're wise enough to see that now. You know that, ultimately, the only person you can depend on is yourself. Isn't that right, Matt?

Cherrymon starts with the meaningful punch and then lists out the other words from there, rather than building up to it. Odd choice.

He handles the friendship redundancy by translating the other friendship and nakama as "loyalty" and "comrades".

Yamato hesitates to answer Jureimon's accusations.

Gabumon: Is that true, Yamato? Yamato: I... I don't know. Gabumon: Yamato.... Jureimon: Listen, I will say this once more. If you want to improve yourself, you must fight Taichi. Unless you have the determination to do that, you'll never be able to change. Unless you face this trial, you will never become the person you want to be!

Now that Jureimon has vanquished Yamato's objection to his words, he doubles down and reiterates his line of attack. Pressing the issue again onto the now more vulnerable Yamato.

As Jureimon makes his pronouncement, the wind kicks up, picking off leaves from his branches that blow over Yamato. Symbolizing him becoming lost in the mayoi no mori that Jureimon embodies.

Yamato: I don't know what to....

Yamato falls to his knees, helpless.

Yamato: (voice breaking) Damn it.... What am I supposed to do!?

In the dub:

Gabumon: He's wrong, isn't he? Matt: (voice breaking) I don't know.... I... I don't know.... Gabumon: You don't!? Cherrymon: Alright, then! That's enough moping around for now. Look, kid, stop staring at your shoes; The choice in front of you is simple! If you truly want to change, to reach your full potential, you must defeat Tai. It's either that or be content to live your life following in the shadow of him forever. (Leaves blow from Cherrymon over Matt) Matt: What a choice.... (Matt falls to his knees) Matt: What do I do? Oh, what do I do!?

Cherrymon comes closer to the original topic this time around. But he still ropes in the dub's idea that Matt's just pissy he doesn't get to be team leader.

Also, Matt doesn't curse when he falls to his knees in the dub because of course he doesn't.

Yamato, here at the height of despair, pulls out his Crest.

Yamato: The Crest of Friendship. Why does someone like me have the Crest of Friendship!? Gabumon: Yamato! I understand, Yamato.... You should do what you think is right.

Yamato jerks up suddenly, having caught the tone of this conversation.

Yamato: (vulnerable) Gabumon...? Gabumon: Charging boldly ahead like Taichi does can't always be the right answer. There are some things that only you can do, Yamato. Yamato: Things that only I can do? Gabumon: Let's look for those things together. And if you do need it so badly... Then I will fight for you, Yamato! Yamato: (shocked) Gabumon...? Gabumon: Even if it means making an enemy out of the others, I will always be with you, Yamato! Yamato: (crying) Gabumon....

Gabumon's proclamation is so affecting, Yamato's Crest reactivates once more.

Gabumon doesn't agree with Jureimon. He hasn't agreed with anything Jureimon's said. He's still convinced that this is the wrong answer, and tells Yamato as much.

(And he's right. Gabumon is right. Yamato was right in two out of three of those clashes with Taichi! And others, like the time Taichi got weirdly misogynistic about Sora's parental issues.

Taichi struggles to empathize with other people. This is a consistent flaw of his, and frequently the spark that sets Yamato off because that is something Yamato does far better than Taichi. Jureimon has poisoned his mind into individualist ways of thinking when Yamato's greatest strengths come from what he brings to the collective good. That's why he has the Crest of Friendship.)

But out of love for his Partner, Gabumon is willing to walk down the wrong path hand in hand with Yamato.

In the dub, the Crest continues beeping and making malfunctioning noises when Matt takes it out even though it... It has no mechanical parts. It's a lanyard with a magic rock inside of it.

Matt: Oh, that's a laugh. Wouldn't you know it that my Crest had to be the Crest of Friendship! Gabumon: Matt... There's one thing he's right about. Whatever you're going to do, do it! Matt: But do what? Gabumon: You've got to hear what your own conscience is telling you and not listen to anyone else! Not Tai or Cherrymon or me! You've got to have faith in yourself, Matt! Matt: What if I make the wrong decision? Gabumon: I know that whatever it is, it will be the right one. Because I have faith in you. And whichever path you take, I'll be there with you. Matt: You mean that? Gabumon: You do have a friend. Never forget that. I'll always be there, Matt, no matter what. Matt: (crying) Gabumon....

This. Is entirely wrong. Dub Gabumon washes his hands of the entire (much shittier) moral conundrum on Matt's hands, telling him "I'll back whatever you decide and that's that." He makes no attempt to engage with the conflict resting on Matt's heart in a scene where he's supposed to be the voice of reason.

This is a bittersweet scene where Gabumon's devotion to Yamato is contrasted by him literally saying, "Yes, I will go fight our friends for you if that's what it takes." But he still makes clear that he disagrees with this course of action, and offers Yamato guidance about a better solution to Taichi's influence over his heart.

In the dub, Gabumon ironically agrees with Cherrymon. Original Gabumon says, "Bold and decisive action isn't always the right answer," and dub Gabumon is like, "You must make a decisive choice right now!"

Original Gabumon offers guidance, and Dub Gabumon says "You must figure your shit out yourself and accept no guidance from anyone, not even me."

Americans suck at recognizing when individualism is bad.

Then the dub kicks up the opening credits Digimon theme song as he evolves, like this is a triumphant moment... Before we head off to go betray our nakama and beat the shit out of Tai.

Speaking of which, Gabumon Warp-Evolves into MetalGarurumon.

MetalGarurumon: Let's go, Yamato! Yamato: Yeah.

MetalGarurumon and heads off with Yamato. As he does, both Jureimon and MetalGarurumon reflect on what went down here.

Jureimon: Ha ha ha! That went perfectly. Jureimon: (thinking) Still, I'm surprised by the strength of their bond. Pinocchimon doesn't have a heart like theirs, so he may still be defeated if he isn't careful. MetalGarurumon: (thinking) Yamato... I know how you really feel. You truly want to believe.... In nakama. In tomodachi. In yuujou.

MetalGarurumon quotes Jureimon's list from earlier, noting that even though Yamato doesn't think he cares so much, he does.

MetalGarurumon lost the battle because he misunderstood the turmoil that was raging in Yamato's heart. But he intends to win the war, because he understands Yamato's truth better than anyone.

In the dub:

MetalGarurumon: Ready. Lead the way. Matt: Right. (The pair head off) Cherrymon: Hahahaha! Yeah, I think that went rather well. Cherrymon: (thinking) Still, I'm surprised by the strength of the bond between them. It took every trick I had to undermine it. If Puppetmon isn't careful, this game could still be lost. MetalGarurumon: I meant what I said, Matt. Cherrymon was wrong! Friendship. Loyalty. They're more than just words, they're real! And they matter. I'm going to prove it to you!

It's... honestly not clear if MetalGarurumon is thinking or saying those words out loud. His lip flaps aren't moving because the original MetalGarurumon is thinking, not speaking. But his tone is conversational, rather than introspective.

In any case, MetalGarurumon makes his intent more clear here.

Both of these carry on from where the previous scenes left them. Original MetalGarurumon is determined to work through this together with Yamato and believes Yamato already has the right ideas in his heart.

Dub MetalGarurumon thinks Yamato well and truly does not believe in friendship, but wants to show him a positive example of friendship in order to sway the decision he makes for himself.

Both of which they intend to do by fighting Taichi/Tai because that's what Yamato/Matt mistakenly thinks he needs right now.

His work complete, Jureimon reports to Pinocchimon, finding him washing his face at a nearby creek.

Pinocchimon: Shit! How dare they throw poop at me!? They'll all pay! Jureimon: Pinocchimon-sama, my plan has worked out perfectly. Pinocchimon: What was your plan? Jureimon: The two Ultimate stages, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, are going to fight each other. Pinocchimon: Eh!? That sounds fun! Jureimon: If those two fight seriously, neither of them will come out unharmed. No, at best, they might even kill each other. Once the strongest are out of the way, you'll only have to pick off the weaklings. Pinocchimon: Great! I should hurry up and check that out! I don't want to miss such a Super Battle!

"Super Battle" is said in English, for a similar effect as snarking (TM) onto the end of a phrase.

In the dub, Puppetmon seems to be threatening the Garbagemon.

Puppetmon: Yech! Splattering me with their gunk. Those bucket-brains will pay for this! Cherrymon: There you are. The plan went perfectly, just as I thought. Puppetmon: Plan? What plan? Cherrymon: You should have seen it! I played that trusting sap like a violin. He's gonna do our dirty work for us, Puppetmon. Puppetmon: Well, sounds like a plan. Cherrymon: Any second now, we'll hear the sounds of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon locked in mortal combat. Puppetmon: You're serious!? Cherrymon: Oh, yeah. With any luck they'll destroy each other. With the two strongest Digimon out of the way, the rest will fall like rotten fruit. Puppetmon: Mortal combat!? This I gotta see! Let's go! What are we waiting for!?

That threatening remark might be meant for the kids but "bucket brains" sounds like a jab at the trash cans that the Garbagemon were in.

Were they shouting out the Mortal Kombat series?

I love Cherrymon's enthusiasm here. He runs up like a happy kid shouting "Look what I did! Look what I did!" The dub handles this scene pretty much perfectly.

Pinocchimon turns to go see the fireworks, but Jureimon has a warning for him.

Jureimon: Please be careful around the Chosen Children! If you don't take this seriously, even you could be defeated by them. Pinocchimon: (stops, suddenly serious) I... might be defeated...? Jureimon: They have something that you lack, Pinocchimon-sama. Pinocchimon: (quietly) I lack something? You're saying that I lack something? Jureimon: Yes, it's-- Pinocchimon: THERE IS NOTHING THAT I LACK!!! BULLET HAMMER!!! Jureimon: WAAAAAAUGH!!!

Furious at Jureimon's insinuation, Pinocchimon erases him with his Bullet Hammer. Jureimon lets out an agonized scream and disintegrates into pixel dust - taking his critical insight to the digital grave with him.

(Which Mimi will not be making.)

Pinocchimon: Hmph. I don't care who it is; no one gets away with making fun of me.

Pinocchimon's childishness has become his undoing. He misunderstood what Jureimon was trying to say, interpreted it as mean-spirited mockery, and retaliated with ultimate force before Jureimon could even get a word out to explain. Pinocchimon killed Jureimon in the midst of a temper tantrum.

In the dub:

Cherrymon: Wait a minute! We gotta be careful! The DigiDestined are strong! Stronger than I expected, and to underestimate them could be disastrous! Puppetmon: What!? Are you saying... I might lose? Cherrymon: I'm only saying that I think you should take them seriously. There's something about them. Puppetmon: Something? Hmm... You mean like something I might be missing!? Cherrymon: (backpedaling) Well, not totally.... Puppetmon: I have everything I need to take care of you! PUPPET PUMMEL!!! Cherrymon: OH THE HORROR!!! (Cherrymon disintegrates into pixel dust) Puppetmon: Huh. Man, that kind of negative attitude really brings me down!

You know, from my perspective going over both languages, there's something hilarious about the way Puppetmon keeps trying to rerail the conversation back to the original script but Cherrymon refuses to actually say the things he's supposed to be saying here. XD

Jureimon was trying to warn Pinocchimon not to underestimate their feelings for each other. Pinocchimon doesn't have a heart and can't truly comprehend the strength of the bonds they share - bonds which may be a threat to the entire "Pit them against each other" plan. If he doesn't play this carefully, Yamato may yet turn back against him.

That context didn't make it into the dub, so Cherrymon's forced to say the kids themselves are super strong; Maybe stronger than Puppetmon.

Similarly, Puppetmon's final line doesn't quite convey the childishness of the original. This is overall a weaker scene.

Meanwhile, against all reason, one of the Garbamon actually survived that Giga Destroyer.

It's the one that Lilimon stepped on. Bootprint still on their face, they pop out of their trash can.

Garbamon: Alright, fine. I give up. JUST KIDDING!!!

Garbamon picks up their trash can; A powerful vacuum begins pulling everything into it.

Garbamon: YEAH HAHAHA!!! There's a Black Hole in here! I'll suck all of you into it!

Most of the kids cling to tree to avoid being dragged in. Hikari and Taichi hide behind MetalGreymon's leg; He's dug his claws into the earth to stabilize himself.

Taichi: Damn it. They still had a trick like this up their sleeve.... Hikari: (loses her grip) ONII-CHAN!!! Tailmon: HIKARI!!! Taichi: HIKARI!!!

Hikari and Tailmon both go flying, though Tailmon appears to have jumped and can be briefly seen swimming through the suction to reach Hikari. I don't know what she's planning but she intends to try something.

We'll never find out how Tailmon intended to rescue Hikari, because Garbamon is suddenly killed by a surprise Cocytus Breath from behind. The black hole trash can freezes and shatters right alongside them.

In the dub:

Garbagemon: Okay, okay! I know when I'm beat! You win! I surrender! ...JUST KIDDING!!! HYA HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Garbagemon starts sucking everything into the trash can) Garbagemon: Trash Day; Everybody in the can! If you're lucky, you'll get recycled! Taichi: This nasty little creep's really starting to get on my nerves! Kari: (loses her grip) TAI, HELP ME!!! Gatomon: KARI!!! Tai: KARI NO!!!

Garbagemon doesn't mention the black hole inside the trash can, so it's not super clear what happens to things dragged into it. But it's still clear that getting dragged in would be bad, which is the important thing.

With the last Garbamon dead and MetalGarurumon revealed, things begin to escalate right away.

Tailmon: MetalGarurumon!

Yamato steps out from the woods; Everyone's ecstatic to see him. Taichi has the biggest smile on his face to be reunited with their lost nakama member.

Sora: Yamato! Taichi: (running over, ecstatic) YAMATO!!! Where have you been this whole time!?

MetalGreymon degrades back down to Agumon and sprints across the field, smiling as well.

Agumon: Thank you! That was really close, so thanks!

MetalGarurumon says nothing, but fires a warning shot. Blue lasers shoot from his eyes, exploding next to Agumon and startling him. The children all gasp in shock at the unprovoked attack.

In the dub:

Gatomon: It's MetalGarurumon! (Matt emerges) Joe: Matt!

The dub puts a commercial break here. We return right where we left off, with Joe's extra line basically filling in as the respective ends of the commercial. Joe popped in to shill products before we resume the scene. :P

"Matt, you're back! Have you heard about ice-cold Pepsi Zero?"

Joe: Matt! Sora: Matt, you're back! Tai: (running over, ecstatic) BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!!! Where you been, buddy!? (MetalGreymon powers down to Agumon) Agumon: Thanks for saving our necks but did you have to cut it that close?

Agumon is ungrateful and deserves to be shot with lasers.

Now that the stage has been set, MetalGarurumon faces off with Agumon.

Agumon: W-Why!? MetalGarurumon: Agumon, I challenge you! Evolve to Ultimate! Agumon: The hell!? Why do I have to fight you!?

MetalGarurumon answers his question with another warning shot, firing off two missiles that detonate to either side of Agumon.

Following the reaction shot when MetalGarurumon first shoots at Agumon, Taichi whips back around to face Yamato but says nothing. It honestly feels like he should say something here if we're going to the trouble of animating him turning back around and facing Yamato, so the dub puts one in.

Tai: What's he doing!? Agumon: Hey, what is this!? MetalGarurumon: What do you think!? It's a challenge! You might want to Digivolve, and fast! Agumon: What have you been eating out there in the forest!? You want to fight me!?

MetalGarurumon's more aggressive here than his Japanese counterpart. Original MG is laying this down as a formal challenge, using the stock shonen phrase shoubu da, which basically means "Compete with me!" Often times in shonen that competition is fighting, including this one, though it doesn't necessarily have to be. The point is simply to face one another in a contest that will decide a victor.

Dub MG is saying the same thing, but pushes it harder with more threatening language.

I love Dub Agumon's translation of Nandayo!? as a censor-friendly "ARE YOU ON DRUGS!?" Beautiful reaction line.

Sora the peacemaker tries to confront Yamato over this.

Sora: Yamato! W-What... What are you doing!? Taichi: Hey, Yamato! Hurry up and stop him! Yamato: (coldly) No. This will happen. Taichi: (shocked) This will happen...? You....

In the dub:

Sora: This is insane! Matt, what's going on!? Is this some kind of joke!? Tai: Matt! I don't know what he's doing but call him off now! Yamato: (coldly) No, Tai. I won't. Tai: What did you say!? You won't!?

Sora and Taichi are both too shocked and confused to form words properly. Sora stumbles over her "Nani" as she tries to create her sentence.

Taichi initially doesn't realize that Yamato's in on this too and thinks MetalGarurumon went crazy for no reason; When he realizes the truth, he repeats Yamato's raw line straight back to him as if he can't process that those words came out of Yamato's mouth.

As usual, the dub kids are quicker on the uptake. Sora and Tai don't understand why he's doing this but they have an easier time delivering their flabbergasted lines.

With Yamato unwilling to call off MetalGarurumon, all eyes return to Agumon.

MetalGarurumon: I won't miss the next one. Now, evolve to WarGreymon quickly! Agumon: (steeling himself) You're serious about this.

We cut to Jou, Koushiro, and Hikari watching with apprehension. Takeru calls out:

Takeru: Onii-chan!

But Yamato's gaze remains cold and he doesn't acknowledge his brother. Finally, we close on Pinocchimon watching from the treetop perch that got him shitfaced earlier.

Pinocchimon: Hehe! I made it just in time. This is sure to be loads of fun!

Will it be loads of fun? Find out next time, when things will definitely go well for Pinocchimon, who is lacking nothing.

In the dub:

MetalGarurumon: I'm warning you! Hurry up and Digivolve into WarGreymon because I won't miss next time! Agumon: (surprised) ...I think he really means it!

They use the various reaction shots to have offscreen characters continue talking.

MetalGarurumon: Well!? Time's running out, Agumon! T.K.: Tai, stop him! Tai: I wish I could, but there's only one person who can stop him!

Yeah, instead of calling out to Yamato in startled confusion, T.K. yells for Tai to make this stop. I have no idea why.

The episode then closes on Matt's silent stern face; Itself now a response to Tai instead of to Takeru. Pinocchimon's final bit is cut.

Narrator: Will Matt succeed in destroying the DigiDestined from within? Find out next time on Digimon: Digital Monsters.

This is how far off-track we've drifted. We've gone from "In order to break free from Taichi's influence over his heart, Yamato mistakenly thinks he must fight and defeat Taichi in a formal contest of arms," to "Will Matt SUCCEED IN DESTROYING THE DIGIDESTINED!?!?"

Assessment: This one's a lot of sitting and talking. The Garbamon fight breaks up the discussion a bit, but the focus of this episode is Jureimon and Yamato's conversation.

It is a long talk because, while it's true that Yamato and Taichi are diametrically opposed to one another, it takes a lot of convincing to turn Yamato temporarily into an honest-to-DigiGod shonen rival. They don't really have that kind of relationship. In fact, the scene where they unlocked these Ultimate forms for their Digimon was all about the ways their Crest attributes complement and strengthen one another.

Yamato does need to figure out the emotional blocks holding him back from the true expression of himself that slips out when he's not thinking about it. But this ain't it, champ. This is Jureimon's nonsense.

Jureimon is, honestly, a pretty cool villain. I took him for granted as a kid because he's a big tree that just talks for like ten minutes. But as the physical representation of mayoi no mori, he's fascinating. The episode namedrops those words in the title, but the inescapable forest of lost souls never really appears.

Because, of course, it's not a place. It's him. The deep unnavigable wood is the semantic web Jureimon weaves around Yamato over the course of their talk. He fucks up Yamato for basically the rest of the show. This sets Yamato on his final character arc: The path to his true self-actualization down the road.

A conversation which the dub handles decently well in places but makes critical missteps about important points, particularly pertaining to Jureimon and Gabumon's respective interpretations of Yamato's feelings.

#digimon #digimon adventure #revisiting digimon #revisiting digimon adventure

20 notes · View notes

taikouvember · 3 months

Text

Taikouvember 2024 - Rules & FAQ

Even though most of the general rules for the week were already written down in the Event Announcement Post, we would still like to specify some of our Do’s and Don’t’s to make sure Taikouvember will turn out amazingly for everyone involved!

Do's & Recommendations

The event goes from November 4th to November 10th. There are prompts for every single day - this time, they refer to the Crests of the other Chosen Children.

Interpret the prompts as you like, you can find some helpful tips in our Prompt Guideline. You may submit as many entries for each prompt as you like.

If this year's prompts are not to your liking, feel free to use the prompts used for the 2022 and 2023 events as well.

Every kind of entry will be allowed: Fanfiction, Drabbles, Poems, Fanart, Comics, Sketches, Doodles, Music, Playlists, Music Videos, Picture Sets, Edits, Gifsets, Meta, etc.

You can of course decide which series or medium you want to focus on: Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, all corresponding movies, Digimon Adventure Tri, Digimon Adventure Last Evolution: Kizuna, Digimon Adventure 02 The Beginning, Digimon Adventure: The 2020 Reboot, games, manhuas, audio dramas, novels, the stageplay, etc.

You are free to choose how to interpret the relationship of Taikou - whether that's romantic or platonic is completely up to you!

Other canon characters are allowed to be included, as long as the entries contain the original ship Taikou, the original characters, Taichi Yagami and Koushiro Izumi, and/or in extension, their partners, Agumon and Tentomon. You can also include multi-/polyships, OT3s, OT4s, etc. as long as they contain Taikou.

Crossovers, Alternate Universes (AUs) or Own Characters (OCs) are allowed, as long as the entries contain the original ship.

When posting your entries, please make sure to @ us directly as @taikouvember in the entry post or use the following tags: #taikouvember2024, #taikouvember 2024, #taikouvember. You can also submit your posts directly to our blog.

We will search the different ship tags (#taikou, #koutai, #taishiro, #taishirou, #taichi x koushiro, #taichi x koushirou) for your entries too, so regardless of what spelling you use, we will try our best to find it. Late entries beyond Taikouvember are perfectly fine, we will search the ship tags until at least the end of November. If we missed your entry, please contact us directly!

Old content may be reblogged by using our handle @taikouvember, so we can find it or you can send us content you would like us to reblog for consideration. We highly encourage creating new content though!

Don't's & Restrictions

Do not post any ship or character bashing/hate concerning any other Digimon ships/characters. It will not be reblogged.

Only post your own content, art theft etc. will not be tolerated. This includes the use of AI technology. AI art may only be reblogged if it is tagged/marked explicitly as such and doesn't blatantly copy other people's work.

Not Safe For Work (NSFW) content may be submitted in moderation and in line with tumblr's guidelines, but only if it is hidden under "Read Mores". Any kind of adult themes and triggers need to be tagged accordingly. Please understand that we may not reblog explicit, disturbing or any kind of discriminating content.

We're excited to see what you'll have in mind. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us directly! Have fun!

#taikouvember #taikouvember 2024 #taikouvember2024 #taikou #koutai #taishirou #taishiro #digimon events #faq #rules #taichi yagami #koushirou izumi #koushiro izumi #tai kamiya #izzy izumi

12 notes · View notes

dutchforstrangers · 10 months

Text

Rouge - Taikoura one-shot for Shades of Red

For @taioraweek 2023 Day 8

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

A/N: Shades of Red is a very precious little story I wrote for digiweek 2021 about Taichi falling for not only Sora, but for Koushiro as well. A story about the wonders of polyamorous relationships and that it takes self-knowledge to take that one courageous step towards a life full of love. So have a new shade of red <3

Based on a little Taiora-scenario I wrote in early 2021 which @seventeenlovesthree made sure to provide with beautiful art which I'm still so in love with :3 You can find it here: [x].

Day 8: Rogue or Blush | Characters: Koushiro Izumi (POV) x Sora Takenouchi x Taichi Yagami | Genre: Romance, some sort of hurt/comfort | Rating: T | Wordcount: 1.293

A yawn escaped him as he stretched his slender frame, the office chair rolling slightly to the back. Koushiro was still up, the different monitors on his desk lined up and on. After much complaining from Sora, who was according to him unnecessarily way too worried about his health, he had installed a filter on the screens. That way he could protect his eyes, but still work during night time.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t work in the day time, no, he had grown fond of working with both Taichi and Sora around. However, they had the tendency to distract them and so, being the night owl of the three, he decided to catch up on work during the night. Koushiro liked the quiet, the only sound interfering his endless thoughts the sound of keys clicking.

Time had already gone way past midnight when the sound of his fingers flying over the keyboard was interrupted with bare feet entering their shared office. Koushiro peeked over his computer screens, his eyes picking up on red-colored messy sleep hair, his nose smelling Taichi’s perfume she was bringing with her into the room.

“Sora-san, shouldn’t you be asleep?”

His fingers left the keys as he decided to check up on her. He watched her closely and concluded she looked stress. It wasn’t a surprise with the big deadline that was luring from behind a bush called Friday. Koushiro remembered all of her speedy talking which wasn’t very Sora-like, her calm demeanor sliding off.

“I couldn’t,” Sora answered sounding sleepy yet stressed. “Tomorrow’s the first draft for the collection and it feels like I missed a few details. I have to check it.”

Not for one second did she look at him. As if pulled to her drawing table, she walked towards it, her right hand frantically searching for the right pencil underneath the pile of designs. To Koushiro they were all equally wonderful and knowing Sora, he knew she didn’t miss any details. He also knew she was stubborn, perhaps even more so than Taichi, and so he didn’t ask further. Instead he kept a close eye on her while he kept working, thinking it would only be a few minutes before she would return to bed.

But a few minutes turned into over half an hour and Koushiro grew worried. Without saying anything, he stood up to grab the both of them some tea.

“Thanks.” Was all Sora said as he carefully placed the cup on the only empty spot on her drawing table. Her eyes were wide, completely focused on her work. Koushiro looked over all the colors and lines dancing on the papers forming beautiful designs for modernized kimonos.

“I truly admire your skills and ambition, Sora-san. The designs look unquestionably stunning, I’m convinced that they’re enough for a first draft. I’d like to escort you to bed so you can sleep some more.”

“Tell that to yourself, you always stay up late,” Sora snapped back, but immediately realized how mean that was. She finally looked at him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I’m aware. You must be tired, hence why I wanted to bring you back to bed,” Koushiro explained calmly.

Sora smiled in return, her tiredness didn’t allow her to keep her lips curled up for too long. “And I appreciate your worry over me. But I just can’t sleep yet.”

Koushiro nodded in response. She gave off a tired look, the determination however made her glow all the same.

A little bit defeated, Koushiro headed back to his seat behind his desk. He sighed before his fingers went back to the keyboard, then started typing once more, the room filled with the tapping sound again. Per usual, it made him loose track of time.

Eventually from the corner of his eye Koushiro could see Taichi’s sleeping body dragging himself into the office. The brown haired man rubbed his eyes and a yawn escaped him as he placed himself next to Koushiro, looking over the computer screens in Sora’s direction. A worried expression emerged on his face and Koushiro looked up to Taichi.

“How long has she been up an working?” Taichi asked with a hoarse sleepy tone followed by another yawn.

Koushiro checked the time.

“It could easily be over an hour now.”

Taichi sighed. It was all he needed to know. He kept standing there, watching her work, worried yet the fondness in his eyes easily outdid the worry.

Even though Koushiro was well aware of Taichi’s adoration and admiration for both him and Sora, he could never get enough of Taichi staring so intensely to especially Sora. It was something he could observe day in and out, it would never grow old.

“What?” Came Sora’s voice. Clearly she had been taking notice of Taichi’s staring. It made Koushiro snap out of his thoughts, however, Taichi only intensified the eye contact he now had with her. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No.” He replied. The features in Taichi’s face changed from intensity to softness accompanied by a cheeky grin.

“Then what is it?” Sora asked, the annoyance in her voice returning.

In a way, even though Taichi meant it well, these little exchanges of words between his two partners made Koushiro feel uncomfortable. Simply because it could go two ways. They would either start bickering, or…

“I just think you’re beautiful.”

Or they would jump each other in a more sexually physical way.

Yes, Koushiro loved them both very much, but their intensity could sometimes be a tad too much. Making him blush in frustration or ecstasy. Often it was both though.

He looked from Taichi to Sora and back in anticipation. Because with Sora being stressed and tired, you could never predict how exactly she would respond.

Koushiro had not expected the cherry red blush on her cheeks radiating warmth and surprise.

“Go back to bed, Taichi,” she stumbled, failing to hide how that one compliment had gotten to her.

“Well, you’ve heard the boss,” Taichi said to Koushiro, taking Sora’s words as his cue to go. “Can you tell her I’d like to see her back in bed soon? And you too by the way.”

Taichi winked and gave Koushiro a sweet small peck on the top of his head before he turned his heel to return back to bed. Alone.

Or so Taichi thought.

Right before he would have left the office, Taichi was stopped by Sora hugging him from behind. Her graceful arms embraced his athletic body, her one hand just able to hold the wrist from her other hand. She pressed her head to Taichi’s back and rubbed her nose into the fabric of Taichi’s sleep shirt, a genuine smile happily dancing on her lips before she spoke.

“Thank you, I needed that.”

Koushiro looked at the both of them, standing in the door way exchanging love in a to him beautiful way. It was tender and fragile, grand in its simplicity.

Where Sora’s blush turned into a warm and grateful pinkish one, Taichi showed a knowing one. Accepting the love he felt for her. For them. And all Koushiro could do was take in the little loving still he was treated to.

He recalled how their love wasn’t self-evident from the beginning, especially to Taichi. But the road he had followed together with Sora and Koushiro had led him to being his happy and cheesy self again. Where his blush first was one of confusion and shame, it now showed his pride and a genuine love.

Koushiro smiled, a shared blush like rouge now complimenting his own face. Happy he was here with them, being able to see the love unfold in front of him over and over again.

#taioraweek2023 #taioraweek #taikoura #digimon fanfiction #taiora #koura #taishiro #taichi x koushiro x sora #taichi yagami #sora takenouchi #koushiro izumi #digimon #taichi #sora #koushiro #tai kamiya #tai #izzy izumi #izzy

11 notes · View notes

koushirouizumi · 4 months

Text

[Index] Koushiro{u} Izumi {DigiAdvs} Scenes (J.P.N Ver.)

{This is still actively being worked on; Please be patient as I continue to add more!!}

Because I got tired of not being able to immediately refer to scenes without having to use piles of caps / etc.

{More to be added shortly!!}

NOTE/DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THIS SERIES. I do not make $$$ off my posts. This is being posted for Reference. Please actively support the series via any official means in your location{s} as well!!

{Adventure}

Ep02: Koushiro + rapid Maths Calculations {+Moments; with Jou} Ep05: Inside the Battery; Interests + Adoption {+ Friendly; with Tentomon} Ep10: Koushiro Guides Mimi Out The Maze {+Friendly; with Mimi} Ep13: Koushiro stands to signal support for Taichi’s decision {Friendly} Ep18: Koushiro and Yamato discuss their Crests {+Friendly; with Yamato} Ep20; vs. Etemon Arc (Near-End); Koushiro assisting Taichi Ep21: Hosoda!Koushiro; Communicating from Vademon’s Dimension? {+Moments; with Taichi} [+Taichi’s Monologuing that follows in relation] Ep24: Searching for Crest; & Vademon’s Dimension {+Friendly; with Tentomon} Ep24: Koushiro’s laptop + “Cosmic Power”?? activates communication with Taichi Ep24; Koushiro regains Inquisitive Heart + “I Want to Know!” {+Friendly; with Tentomon} Ep24: Koushiro Snaps Awake {+Friendly; with Tentomon} Ep28 vs Tri. Kyousei: Motimon/Tentomon’s “Bond” {“Kizuna”} with Koushiro Ep28: The Gate sequence {+Friendly, with Taichi} + Part 2 Ep28: Ending moment; Taichi with hand on Koushiro’s shoulder Ep29 x Tri. Soushitsu x 2020 Ep59: Motimon / Tentomon Parallels Ep30: Koushiro {physically} intervening to defend Jou / Pushed from Bridge Ep31: Koushiro’s Polite{ness} +(J.P.N) speech {+Familial; with Mrs. Izumi} Ep31: Koushiro’s Excuses + Adopted!Koushiro Scene {+Familial; with Mrs. Izumi} Ep31: Koushiro’s Bad/bland jokes + Adopted!Koushiro {+Familial; with Izumis} Ep31: Koushiro’s Guilt + Adopted!Koushiro & Izumi’s concern + Taichi’s worry Ep36: “Just leave your computer behind!” {+Familial; with Izumis} + “Let’s BELIEVE in Koushiro, in our son.” - Mr. Izumi, to Mrs. Izumi [Koushiro sets up Gennai’s “barrier”; Izumis discover Tentomon] Ep36: Koushiro sets off to help the fight; Izumis send him off with love Ep38: the Adoption reveal / “It’s not wrong for you to be obsessed with Computers!” Ep38: Koushiro & Izumis Figure Out the Prophecy {+Familial; with Izumis} Ep39: Koushiro Displaying Compassion for Parents {+Familial; with Izumis} Ep45: Yamato & JouMi Leave the Group {+Moments; with Yamato & Chosen} Ep48: vs. Mugendramon Arc (Start); Koushiro showing concern for Yagamis Ep48: vs. Mugendramon Arc; +Andromon; Fake-Fights {+Friendly; with Taichi} Ep48: vs. Mugendramon Arc; Taichi’s Confession {+Friendly; with Taichi} Ep50: Koushiro (Totally Not) Showing off Skills {with Adv!Chosen; & Taichi} Eps 52~53: “Why WON’T YOU LET ME FIGHT?!?” {+Interaction, with Taichi} Ep52: vs. Piemon; crying out for Jou + teary-eyed {+Friendly; with Jou} Ep53: (Near End) Koushiro’s realizations {+Friendly; with Tentomon} + Tentomon: “But that’s what I like about you” Ep53: (Near End) Adventure Lore about The Crests

#originally compiled: 2k22 #koushirouizumi compilation #koushirouizumi refs #koushirouizumi dgmn refs #koushirouizumi dgmn #koushirouizumi koushiro #koushiro refs #koushiro clips #izumis #mrs izumi #yoshie izumi #izumi kae #masami izumi #izumi masami #koushiro and izumis #(I finally found my old beginning of a post I was Making)#(I also had a link on blog somewhere I need to re find)#({IN THE MEANTIME} HI PLS USE THIS)#(But like pls note IT WAS INCOMPLETE SINCE 2K22 FOR A REASON AKA I POSTED A LOT I STILL NEED TO COMPILE)#(I think I missed a link here from Adv 48 I will go back and add later too!!!)#(These took me FOREVER to grab and clip PLEASE for the love of EVERYTHING ***DO NOT RE U P L O A D THESE CLIPS***)#(Im also making this list from MY OWN Interpretations of these scenes like Please Acknowledge + Thank You)#(Originally I was compiling these even before No R. B.s function got intro'd I THINK and because of that the old post I began didnt have it #(If people misbehave on this I WILL LOCK THE POST so DONT DO IT)

5 notes · View notes

izzyizumi · 1 year

Photo

Digimon Adventure ~ Episode 24 (J.P.N Version) ~ TIMELINE Hints & CLUES ~ Digital World LORE ~ Koushiro’s Character Traits ~ IMPORTANT Quotes + Koushiro[u] Izumi & Tentomon + Koushiro’s Communication

gifs by @izzyizumi / @koushirouizumi {DO NOT REPOST} {DO NOT REMOVE CAPTION} {DO NOT use this post or my gifs for spreading series negativity}

{usage of gifs may be allowed if permission is asked / or if credit is given. However, read my about & FAQ pages first. Please do NOT use / ask if you match anything in my “Do Not Interact” sections.}

Further transcript and my own commentary under the ‘read more’!

(Episode start): {Tentomon}: Koushiro-han! Let’s take a little break! {Koushiro, only briefly pauses, with a notably perturbed look}: I want to meet Gennai-san as soon as possible! {Tentomon, insistent}: But even so, it’s already been two months! {Koushiro, surprisingly direct, and yet still using typical speech*}: (*Koushiro in the J.P.N version commonly uses a more polite J.P.N speech form than characters like Yamato, or even Taichi, which is quite notable with Koushiro.)

“It doesn’t matter HOW LONG it takes!!” {Tentomon, immediately in response}: (*sighing*)/(*sweatdrop*) {Koushiro, matter-of-factly/calmly}: I’m going ahead. {Tentomon, quickly}: A-aa, Koushiro-han, wait for me!...

(They walk together as the calm OST {music} track playing fades.)

My commentary: Episode 24, Koushiro’s focus episode where Koushiro will later obtain the Crest of Knowledge, opens on this scene, and in the original version, right away, you begin to get a feel of the character progress he will eventually have- For a start, Koushiro actually insists a little at Tentomon. The Adventure novel (also penned by a head/“main” director + writer, Hiroyuki Kakudou) indicates in a later Dark Masters “Arc” scene that Koushiro “never” raised Koushiro’s voice towards a “senpai”/“upperclassman” - especially NOT Taichi, as the scene stating that line involved Taichi - and even these lines Koushiro states using overall “polite” form J.P.N speech, but Koushiro DOES insist a little, and it’s very obvious from the look on Koushiro’s face that Koushiro Means Business, OK, Don’t Argue With Me On This! Tentomon responds by immediately sighing, and another common pattern of this episode are the close-ups of Tentomon’s reactions to basically everything Koushiro is saying.

Tentomon clearly notes that it’s been “TWO MONTHS” in the Digital World since Taichi vanished. The novel is a bit more vague there, but it’s also a direct timeline clue - keeping in mind the time difference between the worlds. However, it also hadn’t been longer than two months since Koushiro split from the group of other Chosen, who Koushiro left behind in the search. Koushiro’s plan is apparently to FIND “Gennai” - It seems Koushiro believes Gennai can help with the search.

The novel does go a little more in depth in various places there... Taichi isn’t directly mentioned, {though still goes missing} but Koushiro, DOES feel a “pull” by the Crest of Knowledge - not knowing it’s the Crest. Vademon will then proceed to immediately trick Koushiro & Tentomon by scamming Koushiro out of Koushiro’s often-referred to as “Inquisitive Heart”, convincing Koushiro that what Koushiro “needs” is ““Knowledge””.

But the fake, anti-intellectualist “Knowledge” Vademon talks about is not necessarily the kind of actual “Knowledge” Koushiro NEEDS...

Tentomon clearly recognizes at least a little of this, and with the ‘expressions’ (sudden shocked or panicky movements) Tentomon ‘gives’, often reacts in turn.

{I will slowly be dropping more image sets of this episode as time goes on, with further commentary, along with possible comparisons to the novel, so please keep a look-out!}

(While the images used may not highlight Koushiro’s best moments, This is STILL a Koushiro POSITIVITY Post.)

[Note: commenting/tagging positively/respectfully is ok!] (Please AGREE TO BANNERS BEFORE interacting) (Note: click on the banners to enlarge / read text more clearly!)

10 notes · View notes

digitalworldbound · 2 years

Text

Digimon & AO3/Fandom Statistics

While on the Fandom Stats website, I got curious and did some research about the Digimon Fandom!

Disclaimer: These statistics will only be accurate to the Archive of Our Own website, and will not include statistics about the fandom on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or Fanfiction.net

When searching for fanfiction about Digimon on AO3, there are a total of 6,616 underneath the general "Digimon- All Media Types" tag. This is not a fair representation of the total numbers of Digimon fanfiction, as there are FIFTEEN Digimon categories an author could label their story under.

Listing from highest number of fics to fewest fics, these other categories include (as of Nov. 5, 2022):

Digimon - All Media Types: 6,619 fics

Digimon Adventure Zero Two: 2,637 fics

Digimon Adventure: 2,037 fics

Digimon Adventure tri: 1,043 fics

Digimon Tamers: 602 fics

Digimon Frontier: 575 fics

Digimon Xros Wars/ Digimon Fusion: 172 fics

Digimon Savers/ Digimon Data Squad: 150 fics

Digimon Universe - Appli Monsters: 125 fics

Digimon Ghost Game (Anime): 89 fics

Digimon Adventure (Anime 2020): 73 fics

Digimon V Tamer 01: 50 fics

Digital Monsters X-Evolution: 16 fics

Digimon NEXT: 12 fics

Digimon D Cyber: 2 fics

After inputting all of this data (aside from the “Digimon - All Media Types” tag, as this tag can reference all Digimon media) into a graph, it is clear to see which characters the fandom tends to favor:

(Some of the numbers are really small - I’m so sorry!)

Digimon Adventure Zero Two takes the lead, while Digimon Adventure follows close behind. Between the two, there is only a difference of 600 fics. These numbers are unsurprising, as most Digimon official events revolve around the Adventure and 02 cast!

According to the Fandom Stats website, fanfiction (specifically AO3) in the Digimon Fandom heavily gravitates towards General Audiences, with a total number of 2,551 fics using this tag. Other tags include:

(Graph found on Fandom Stats)

While Teen and Up Audiences have 2,214, Mature and Explicitly tagged fics have a combined 1,307 fics.

Now, onto the pairings! Though 35% of the fics are general, the other 65% of fics include some kind of romance!

(Graph found on Fandom Stats)

In the lead, we have M/M relationships at 33%. Of these 2,155 fics, 29.7% are Daisuke/Ken! Taichi/Yamato are a close second at 22.5%. (Taichi/Koushiro comes in at 7.5%, and Daisuke/Takeru is last at 6.2%.)

With 1,889 fics, F/M relationships share 29% of the total non-general fics. Of these, 18.6 percent are Takeru/Hikari! Sora/Yamato cover 17.7%, while Taichi/Sora covers 8.6%. Lastly, we have Mimi/Koushiro at 7%.

I couldn’t find any statistics on F/F, Multi, or the Other categories, but I will try to search in the future.

On the Archive of Our Own website, the fandom shows clear favoritism in characters and pairings! Now, I wish there was a way to factor in data from Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and FanFiction.net. Let me know if you have any ideas!

#digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #digimon statistics #bro it 10 pm im so sorry to dump this on yall

60 notes · View notes

ladyofthecastleproject · 1 year

Text

The Awakening Of The Hurricane Sincerity

[AO3 version]

Summary:

The 02 group start searching for Daisuke and V-mon, who had disappeared suddenly from the last battle against Ranamon and Frostmon. Palmon mentions seeing Fladramon and a mysterious human-sized hooded creature in a village and led them and Mimi there. But... The place had been taken by the vile DarkSuperstarmon and his troops. In the heat of the battle, Miyako's pure desire to help those digimon and her friends grants her a wish.

[Note: this takes place in 2008]

It had been a while since the group went to the Digital World to help Mimi and Palmon. Koushiro and the 02 group had planned carefully all the details of such an adventure beforehand: Him, Taichi and Yamato had used the ol’ excuse of camping with the group to justify why a bunch of teenagers would pass a few weeks in the Digital World. But now, the golden trio being young adults could take responsibility for them. Well, the only non-adult in the meanwhile was Koushiro, but next year he will hit his 20s.

Anyway… Mimi had met the kids quickly and explained to them what had happened before. Ken Hadn’t been familiar with Gummymon and vice-versa, but that hadn’t been a problem at all.

Though, there had been a question in Ken’s head:

“When we tried to open the gate after Daisuke disappeared… It was locked. But we were able to come here in the end.”

“Uh… Maybe it was a malfunction?” Palmon replied.

“Or someone had unblocked it,” Iori mused, stroking his chin, “Maybe… Daisuke-san?”

“Hmm… Before the D-3 being created, the gate only opened at random occasions” Tailmon mused, “Maybe something blocked the D-3’s signal...”

“You think that could be the reason...?” Patamon asked.

“Whatever is the reason…” Miyako whispered, but due to the silence they all heard if “It’s my fault Daisuke disappeared” and she avoided looking at the rest of the group, she kept sitting with them, inside Palmon’s house, looking at the teacup. Hawkmon frowned, and then said:

“It’s not your or Hikari-san’s fault. We got caught off guard… Sorry.”

“I’m sure he’s fine” Mimi tried to cheer Miyako and Hikari up, those two were completely engulfed in regrets at the moment “We just need to find him.”

“I have sent him a message since we came here,” Hikari said with an annoyed tone, “But he didn’t respond to it.”

They all frowned. If it weren’t for Mimi there, they could start feeling the weight of not having a leader. Not that Daisuke is a lead by nature, he just managed to keep them all together and… Sane? Determined? Ken seemed cool, but deep down he was… Worried? Scared? Not even himself knew.

“What should we do now?” Iori had a deadpan face.

“We get out and look for Daisuke-kun?” Takeru replied, “Or we should check if there’s some enemy around?”

“No, let’s focus on searching for Daisuke-kun” Hikari’s voice was serious, she finally set her foot on this, she wanted so badly to find him first “He was a target, remember? If he’s alone… He will need our help.”

“Then it’s settled. Let’s find Daisuke first, dagya.”

After leaving Palmon’s house, the group started planning a route to take and start their search. During their walk to the closest village, Mimi heard someone’s voice and waited for the best moment to leave the group and meet…

“Ah you’re around…!”

… A mysterious figure with a Lighdramon-esque armor. Except said armor details were cold colors instead of the yellow and red tones.

“Have you discovered something?” Mimi chatted with the stranger, while Palmon watched around to make sure no one would find them “Ah I see… No idea where Wallace is…”

“Mimi-san?” Miyako’s voice was heard.

“O-oh, I need to go…!! Please be careful!!” and she walked back to where the 02 group were, “I’m fine don’t worry Palmon thought she had heard something but it was just a fruit falling on the ground.”

“It’s not good to separate from the group” Miyako commented, “If you disappear too we’ll feel worried and panicked.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay” she giggled, “Ah, there’s a town in this direction. We can ask the digimon if they saw Daisuke-kun or Wallace.”

“Yes, I noticed it by the D-terminal map Koushiro-san sent to us,” Ken pointed at the device on his other hand, “I didn’t get any message from Daisuke though.”

“The digivice has no reaction either” Iori added, “He’s not in this area… Or left it already.”

“Huh strange… I was sure I saw something moving around” Hikari raised an eyebrow, “Could it be Daisuke-kun but…”

“Maybe he’s in the village?” Wormmon wondered.

“Let’s go then” Palmon replied with a nod, “I will take you there, follow me!”

“Good, they’re moving” the masked shadow said, then looked back as if he was looking at someone “We need to move now.”

“Hurry up!!” he heard from a distance “The next village must be conquered at all costs!!”

“... We got one more thing to do here, I guess” and he and his ally left in the direction of the mysterious voice.

They followed in the opposite direction of the kids, going farther from there reaching a new area and town, which was under the eyes of this digimon army’s general, Frostmon.

“Ugh… stupid lizards” she wasn’t having a great time, seeing the Tyrannomon troops moving slowly “Can’t you walk more fast!?”

“You know, Tyrannomon species are not fast runners” she heard a voice.

“W-who’s there!?” and Frostmon looked around “Show yourself!!”

He jumped from the tree branches and landed in front of her. He was smaller than Frostmon and the Tyrannomon army, quite the size of a human teenager. But None of those digimon had much contact with humans so… They couldn’t tell the difference.

“Who are you!?” Frostmon interrogated him, “Why are you spying on us!?”

“I’m just a digimon passing by, relax” he chuckled, “besides… The town you’re trying to take control of has a guardian and a curse.”

“A… A curse?” The army looked at each other, and you could hear them rambling something.

“What kind of curse?” Frostmon squinted her eyes, “I never heard of it before.”

“You know, anyone who tries to take the town’s control is smashed by the town’s guardian” he shrugged, “I’d rather not risk facing said guardian. But you do you.”

More noise was heard by the troops, and he could see Frostmon’s face grimacing at that information. While none of them could see his face, he was smirking.

“That’s nonsense, soldiers! Let’s move on, don’t listen to a pipsqueak digimon and those fairy tales!”

“Who are you calling pipsqu-- *AHEM* sure let’s go with that”

“Hmph, stupid child level” and the army proceeded their march.

“It didn’t work…” he muttered, annoyed.

A small shadow was visible in the branches, but not a face except for two big red eyes.

“I know you’re going to say” the armored digimon sighed, “I should be more careful…” and then he looked at the town’s direction “Can you be a convincing god-like guardian, buddy? We will need that right now.”

But… This wasn’t only the mysterious masked digimon’s problem. In the meantime…

Mimi’s group had arrived in a destroyed village. None of them expected it to happen and Palmon even remembered that two strangers had helped them to save villagers and beat Cyberdramon.

“But now it seems… No one’s here, dagya” Armadimon frowned, and the group started examining the area.

“Strange…” Palmon frowned, “It was saved from the invaders…��

“Huh, someone was here?” Hikari blinked.

“Yes, and I saw Fladramon and a hooded human-size creature.”

The group’s eyes widened, “Fladramon and a hooded creature!?”

“Then… this means Daisuke was here before” Miyako said, “If he and V-mon were here, they’re alive and fine…? Or in danger, if Daisuke was wearing a hood…”

“Don’t be afraid, Miyako-san, everyone” Hawkmon called their attention “He’s with V-mon at least. It’s only a matter of time until we find them.”

“Hawkmon is right,” Ken said, but his eyes were focused on something he just found on the ground, “Daisuke is with V-mon and we know that idiot can survive alone.”

“What’s this Ken-chan?” Wormmon pointed at Ken’s hand, which had something looking like…

“Seems like a Starmon was here. This is a fragment from the Meteor Squall’s meteorites.”

“Wow! Sharp eyes, Ichijouji-kun” Mimi exclaimed, impressed.

“So whoever attacked this village might not be that far from here” Tailmon mused.

“Let’s be cautious,” Takeru added with a serious tone, “the residents of this village might be captured and hidden somewhere in this area.”

“In this case, what if we slip up?” Miyako suggested, “We keep contact via phones and D-terminals. Once we find either of them, we gather everyone again.”

“It’s a good idea,” Iori nodded, then picked Armadimon from the floor, “Armadimon and I will check this direction. If we don’t find anything, let’s meet here again and come with a backup plan.”

They went to different directions, to find the prisoners and the bad guys quickly. But… One by one, the group were captured, somehow. All they remembered was about a black hole popping out from somewhere and sending them to… Somewhere.

“Miyako-san” Hawkmon called her, and then looked behind him but saw nothing. So he looked back at her “Are you feeling okay?”

“Huh, why do you ask?” she babbled “Ken-kun’s right Daisuke can--”

“You seem nervous, is it because of Ranamon? It wasn’t your fault, Tailmon and I didn’t expect her to appear from nowhere and capture you two.”

“Argh, okay I’m worried!” she threw her hands up in the air. She could not think straight right now and Hawkmon was pretty aware of it, “We know Daisuke had been chased by Ranamon and that blue bird-like digimon! We let our guards down and it happened! Now… Now he’s missing and while you say it’s not my fault, not even Daisuke appears in front of me and says that will make me feel less guilty!”

Hawkmon frowned, he approached her quietly. He was about to say something but it got lost because he saw a black hole appearing in mid air. Then, he jumped on Miyako and both ducked on the floor, having the black hole pass through their heads.

“W-what’s that!?” she babbled.

“Hoho, you’re tough human girl” a digimon that looked like a Starmon, but with a darker color and wearing sunglasses appeared in front of them, “Can’t say much about your friends.” He showed the digivices of the group to her and Hawkmon, to make sure they couldn’t call for help.

“M-My friends!? T-those are...!!” Miyako gulped. Was her idea and now…

“I won’t let you guilt-trip her!” Hawkmon got up from the floor and threw his Feather against DarkSuperstarmon. But it didn’t work, and the villain hit him with a punch “GUH!” which followed by Hawkmon falling on the floor.

“H-Hawkmon!!” Miyako screamed, “I… I won’t let you hurt anyone anymore!”

“Miyako-san…” he got up from the floor, “Please, lend me your strength.”

“OK!” she grabbed her digivice, “Love Digimental Up!!”

Hawkmon armor-evolved to Horusmon and stood in front of DarkSuperstarmon with an intimidating glare at him. The enemy didn’t feel much intimidated though, but acknowledged the girl and digimon were tough opponents.

“Very well, then let’s get this party started” And the black star digimon attacked Horusmon, but now the hawk-like digimon had gotten more speed and dodged. Then, Horusmon spinned his body to generate a tornado, forcing DarkSuperstarmon to step back.

“This digimon seems stronger than a regular Starmon… ” Miyako mused, “Uh… don’t underestimate him, Horusmon!”

That battle was still on a draw, with just dodging from both ends. The enemy was tough, but willing to play dirty. DarkSuperstarmon opened a black hole right behind Miyako and she was swallowed by it. Luckily, he couldn’t steal her digivice due to Horusmon blocking his way.

“M-Miyako-san!!” Horusmon stared at him “What did you do to her!?”

“She’s with her friends now, and you… You will be dead soon.”

“OOF!" She fell on the floor and the digivice slipped from her hands, hitting someone “A-ah, I’m sorry!!” She got up and went to retrieve the slippery D-3.

“That’s okay” it was Ken!? “I guess we’re unable to leave this place now…” he laughed nervously, but stopped and handed her the red D-3 back.

“Horusmon is fighting! I need to help him but… how!?”

“He got our digivices...” and she heard Hikari’s voice; Iori, Takeru and Mimi were also there alongside their digimon and more residents from the town, “We can’t escape.”

“W-where are we?” Miyako asked.

“This is still inside the town” and now a digimon appeared, it was a Muchomon “One of the abandoned buildings. I was hoping for someone to save us again but… Our hopes are gone now…”

“Don’t lose your hope!” Mimi looked at the digimon and clenched her fists, “We still have a chance!”

“... If… If I could do something else but I’m useless!” Miyako shouted, “I only commit mistakes! I want to help fix them! I want to help Horusmon and this entire town!!”

The digivice in her hands beeped and turned on the screen, which sent a light from it. The Digimental of Sincerity appeared in front of her and its form mutated to a big Shuriken like the one on Shurimon’s back. The only difference from Shurimon’s was the Crest of Sincerity being engraved on its surface.

“What is this??” other villagers, and the group exclaimed, watching Miyako hold it with her other hand.

“I… I don’t know!?” she babbled, “But… maybe this is the answer to my dilemma.”

“Uh, isn’t it very dangerous using that here” Patamon asked.

“Miyako-san please… Don’t do something dan--” But Takeru was interrupted by Miyako throwing the shuriken at the bars blocking their way.

… It definitely cut the jail bars. It surprised everyone, since they didn’t know if it wouldn’t reflect the shuriken against them.

“Whoohoo, I knew it would work!” she chirped and looked back “So, everyone go out and let’s take down those bullies.”

“Miyako-chan is scary sometimes…” Mimi whispered to the others, who nodded sagely.

The troops hadn’t yet arrived, so the mysterious Lighdramon-esque armored digimon managed to reach the town quickly and talk with the digimon living there. Despite doubting him at first, one of the residents of the town confirmed the masked-mon’s information.

And then… They gladly accepted his plan. The hooded digimon with him shrugged in disapproval, but couldn’t do much. Also, this cape made a ton of villagers curious about the digimon’s appearance.

“You can’t talk, just do some screams” the armored digimon said to the small one, “Like, unleash your inner beast!”

They were in the front of a temple, the perfect spot to bring this story into reality. The villagers were hiding in a safe part of the town. He was so sure this would work with no actual bloodbath that it felt like a harmless kid’s prank. The partner-in-crime wasn’t too confident about this though… But if no one might see the prank but the soldiers and Frostmon…

“Shush, get ready. Show your best AncientGreymon’s impersonation.”

The other sighed, and tried to roar but it didn’t feel intimidating…

“No, no you need to scare them! Focus on being like a terrifying Qinglongmon who hates everyone stepping on their yard!”

“The troops are coming,” the smaller digimon said, “I can sense them. Do you think this will work?”

“Don’t worry, bud. It will work.”

Horusmon was on the ground being stepped on by DarkSuperstarmon, who was laughing and toss juggling the digivices. While distracted, he didn’t see the Chosen Children approaching, or Tailmon jumping behind him and grabbing all digivices in midair.

“HEY, YOU STUPID POINTY HEAD!”

“Huh!? Who’s calling my pointy hea--”

Miyako threw the giant shuriken against DarkSuperstarmon, hitting him and making him fall on the floor.

“GAH!”

Horusmon escaped from the enemy and met them. Miyako hugged him tightly and whispered “I’m sorry Horusmon… I won’t let them catch me again!”

“Ugh, you agai-- Wait how did you escape-- It doesn’t matter, without these you can’t--”

The group showed their digivices and angry faces. They were ready to fight. DarkSuperstar screeched and then snapped fingers summoning a group of DarkTyrannomon, “TROOPS, GET THEM!!” and flew away.

“Miyako-san” Iori said, “Go after him. We will take care of his lackeys.”

“Ok! Let’s go Horusmon!” and she looked at him “Are you okay though?”

“I’m fine, get on Miyako-san.”

She got on his back and they flew after the troop’s leader. The enemy wasn’t that fast as they thought and it was easier to watch it after all. Horusmon shot laser beams from his eyes (Red Sun) and hit the running star. But it didn’t work because the enemy's body was indeed resistant.

They stopped on a dead end and faced each other.

“Look, we can negotiate--”

“No, we can’t!” Miyako snapped, pointed at him and continued “You took control of this town, captured its people and later captured my friends! I have no time to make a deal with you!”

“Very well, then--”

“Horusmon, let’s go!” She pointed the digivice at her partner and its form changed to a bipedal hawk, with wings sprouting from his back and Egyptian God motifs -- Fauermon.

“W-wait, have mercy I will leave!!”

“... Will you really leave?” she asked.

“I will don’t worry!” he nodded, “But can we shake hands to make it a deal?”

“Fine, I guess.” she was still mad though, and approached calmly, until that shuriken appeared in her hands and she used it as a blade to slash DarkSuperstarmon in the face. Fauermon was holding her to not fall on the black hole that vile digimon had done.

“W-what!? How did you!?”

“I noticed you set a trap right when we cornered you!” she said angrily “You’re a vile monster!”

Horusmon then put Miyako away and summoned his rod, “Red Sunburst!”

DarkSuperstarmon screamed and then got destroyed by the laser beam coming from the sphere at the top of the rod.

“Miyako-san” Fauermon glanced at her, “I’m sorry I had to--”

“It’s okay. He wouldn’t stop anyway… And he can be reborn I hope so” then she looked at the shuriken in her hand “But… Where did this come from? And why did the Digimental of Sincerity turn into a weapon…?”

“Beats me…” he devolved to Hawkmon form, then looked at the others coming in “Everyone, are you okay?”

“Yeah, we managed to beat all the troops in town,” Tailmon said, “Now we can leave.”

“But where should we go now?” Miyako asked.

Meanwhile, Frostmon’s troops invaded a deserted town with the exception of a hooded digimon. Said digimon made sure to be seen by the enemies and ran away. The soldiers and Frostmon chased them and when the invaders found them in front of the temple…

… A wild wall of fire ignited from the floor, preventing them from reaching the creature, and a bigger one appeared through the flames roaring loudly and throwing fire against the Tyrannomon army.

An eerie voice came from the wall of flames, “I’m the great Ancient Digimon who protects this town. LEAVE OR PERISH”

The enemies panicked and ran away, including Frostmon. So the strange child level digimon she had met previously was right!? Better not mess with that town then. Their screams were heard until they faded in the distance.

The fire stopped and then the digimon from the flames turned small and covered himself with a cape thrown by the mysterious masked one.

“Did you see their faces!!?” and this armored digimon was delighted by the prank, “They were so scared that I guess they might not return here that early hehe~”

“Sigh, get the villagers back and let’s get out of here.”

“Fine fine~ At least laugh a bit… You used to find funny those pranks…”

“I’m busy now!” the hooded one growled, “no time for pranks!!”

“... Oh. You’re right.” he blinked. Behind the helmet he had a deadpan face “Let’s do it…”

Once they got the entire villagers out, the mayor of the town shook hands with the masked one.

“My young’mon,” Sorcerimon the mayor said, “We will be eternally grateful for your help. I have absolutely no idea what you and your friend did, but we’re thankful that it worked.”

“H-Haha, it was… a dumb thing I learned from human’s videos” he chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his helmet.

“What does that deity digimon look like?” a young Blucomon asked, “We will draw it and spread through the town, and write stories about it to keep mean spirited digimon from invading us.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea!” he said, “Let’s see… It's a flame element digimon, looks like Fladramon but with wings, and got hair, big terrifying claws and wonderful fangs! Maybe… AncientFladramon feels like a good name? What do you think, bud?” and he looked at the hooded digimon.

“Yeah, let’s go with that” and the small one shrugged.

“Cool!” Blucomon and more child level digimon around exclaimed, “Thank you mr. uh…”

The masked digimon then posed like a tokusatsu hero and said:

“I’m the warrior of the night, the silent knight… Lightnimon!”

The villagers' reactions were full of “ooooh!!” and some applause and cheers.

The hooded digimon shook his head.

“But I need to go now, more of those bad guys are coming and more towns, cities and villagers need me and… uh… Buddymon.”

“Alright, thank you Lightnimon and Buddymon” Socerimon and the villagers thanked them once again.

“Heheh~” Lightnimon grabbed Buddymon and ran away, leaving the town quickly.

Who’re that mysterious digimon duo and would they be a menace to the Chosen Children?

#arc 5: hinode [concept]#digimon adventure 02 #inoue miyako #hawkmon

3 notes · View notes

patamon · 2 years

Text

Koushiro Izumi Week

I unknowingly incorporated almost all the suggested Koushiro week prompts into this fic XD. Can you spot them all 👀

Title: One Rainy Afternoon Character: Koushiro Izumi (for @izumikoushiroweek ) Word Count: 4390 Rating: G Summary: One rainy afternoon, Koushiro heard a cry that changes everything...

Cross-posted on AO3

Read below the cut 👇

One Rainy Afternoon

There were few things in life that could divert Koushiro’s attention away from whatever complex problems chewing through his mind.

Today, he found himself captivated by one of those few things.

The rain puddles by his feet, they resembled, in almost perfect symmetry, the splotches of pattern found on Kabuterimon’s wings. Koushiro could recall them with sharp clarity: the translucent patterns and oblong shapes, bringing him back to those life-defining adventures of his youth, during moments that captivated him enough to tear his sight away from the bright glares of his computer screen.

For a moment, he became absorbed in the shapes of the puddles. He questioned and wondered the probabilities of it settling into the shape it did. He hypothesized its origin and mapped out the path of its descent, not realizing the shape and colour of the traffic signal before him had changed, and what ensued was an onslaught of pedestrians pushing and muscling their way past him, damp clothings brushed past him with disgruntled force.

Get out of the way.

Move it or lose it, idiot.

“Sorry, sorry,” Koushiro mumbled, before readjusting the grip on his umbrella and bag of bottled oolong tea, then making his way to the other side of the street.

Once over, Koushiro whisked himself into one of the smaller side streets, sighing in relief at the quieter, calmer atmosphere it offered. Without warning, the rain overhead picked up its pace, prompting Koushiro to do the same. The oolong tea bottles in his bag somehow grew heavier in tandem with the rain all around him.

He only had the comfort of his dry apartment in mind when through the pitter patter of rain on pavement, he heard it: a sound as fragile and delicate as breaking glass, shooting through dense, humid air to pierce his attention. He whipped himself around, his feet nearly slipping on wet concrete, but through the grace of Qinglongmon, he managed to hold steady, eyes searching and scanning his surroundings while his ears honed in on the empty streets around him.

Then, he heard it again, and this time, the sound sharpened into a familiar call.

Meow.

Koushiro gasped, with careful attention to the dripping umbrella and his sacred haul of oolong tea, he maneuvered himself until he was low on the ground, scrutinizing holes and crevices with narrowed eyes.

Meee-owww.

He flinched. This time, there was an infliction to the call, a long drawn out syllable indicating discomfort…or pain. He doubled his effort to scan the area until finally, a spark of something shiny caught his eyes. There was but one logical course of action, he followed the light, only to find a soggy cardboard box tucked behind a crowded bike rack.

“Meow”

He stood frozen for a moment, not daring to breathe lest any outburst might scare away his caller. But in spite of his fear, the sound came forth again, this time with obvious desperation.

“Meeeee-ooowwww!”

“Here, here,” he cried out instinctively. His bag of oolong tea hit the wet floor, but he barely noticed in his attempt to squeeze closer to the box, and upon lowering himself, he finally laid eyes on his feline caller.

By no means was this the first time he had seen a cat. He spent many afternoons and evenings over at Taichi’s apartment, where Miko would hiss at him from afar or threaten to claw out his eyes if he dared walk too close. But this was the first time he had seen this cat, and he was struck by the visible fear in its large green eyes, its rail-thin body drenched with rain, the matted black fur betraying just how skinny it was.

“Uh…hello?” he attempted. The cat looked up at him with an unblinking gaze, the only response he received was a quick twitch of its right ear.

“Uh…” he fumbled through possible courses of action in his mind, parsing and sorting them by logic and sensibility.

“But I know nothing about cats,” he mumbled.

He could call someone who had more experiences with cats. He pulled out his phone from his soaked jacket pocket, but the only person he had in mind was Hikari, but he sensed it might be awkward to call her just to talk about his current predicament.

The cat opened its mouth, and from the depth of its emaciated body, it cried out again.

“MEEOOWWW”

Koushiro flinched, then the situation escalated to a point where he could no longer parse through the possibilities, for the cat emerged right then and there. It was smaller and thinner than he could ever imagined, and it swayed more than it walked, betraying how exhausted and weak it must really be.

“Uhh…What are you…?”

It plopped down on wet concrete, right before Koushiro’s frozen body and looked up at him with pleading eyes, and suddenly, Koushiro was transported back to when he was ten, when he locked eyes with the dark round ones of Mochimon’s for the first time. He understood now…

“You don’t have anywhere to go, do you?”

The cat did not change its stance, but merely lifted its head up a few millimetres higher, waiting for Koushiro to make his move.

Koushiro sighed, “I guess…the least I can do is bring you home to give you some food,” he mumbled in resignation, then scooped the cat up with his free arm and made his way home, the bag of oolong tea long forgotten behind him in the rain.

—-

There were still a myriad of questions in Koushiro’s mind as he walked into his building with the newfound cat tucked in his arm.

What do cats eat?

How often do they eat?

How often do they drink water?

Are some foods dangerous for cats?

What happens if they need to use the bathroom?

Where can he find a litter box?

But although he could not find clear answers to his questions, it did become clear to him that his feline refugee was in worse shape than he thought. It shook and shivered the entire way home, Koushiro could feel the hard edges of its bones poking through as he held it in his arms. Occasionally, it emitted a pitiful mew, but otherwise kept quiet as it laid in Koushiro’s hold underneath the cover of his black umbrella.

Once he returned to his apartment, dry and warm and safe, he rummaged through cabinets and shelves in search of suitable food for the cat. Unlucky for them both, he wasn’t the best at keeping his pantries stocked, his diet on a good day consisted of an unhealthy amount of bottled oolong tea and premade sandwiches he picked up from any convenience store he stumbled across. The best he could offer was a leftover tuna onigiri he picked up for lunch two days ago. But despite the questionable expiry date, the cat devoured it all, digging into the tuna filling at a speed that put him on edge.

“Hey…um…slow down…uh…you’ll get a stomachache,” Koushiro chided, albeit he felt a little more than silly speaking to a cat the way his parents spoke to him when he was a child.

The cat was a little more than halfway through his meal when its entire body went rigid. Koushiro’s eyes widened, his hand flew towards his chest as he gawked at the cat, wondering if he inadvertently killed it through food poisoning. But before he could take action, the cat pounced away, scurrying underneath his sofa before three knocks sounded out at his door, followed by the chime of his doorbell.

He scurried towards the door, his hand barely on the knob before Taichi’s voice boomed out on the other side.

“Koushiro, it’s me”

Koushiro opened the door hurriedly to reveal a drenched Taichi, rainwater dripping from the top of his brown hair to the soles of his shoes, a brown parcel tucked underneath his arms.

“Here,” he asserted before handing the parcel to Koushiro, “It’s that package you wanted from your office”

“Oh!” Koushiro cried out, then accepted the package with glee. His memory came back to him bit-by-bit, of the project he was working on before finding out he was out of oolong tea, of the frantic message he sent Taichi just moments before he stepped out to the grocery store.

“So…What’s in the package?” Taichi questioned

“A new book published by a Digimon researcher I knew in India. I needed to look something up to help me with this project I was working on before…” his voice trailed off, remembering his trip to the grocery store, remembering the cry that distracted him from his route home.

“So…aren’t you going to invite me in?” Taichi asked, his voice breaking through Koushiro’s reverie.

Koushiro blushed. Any other day, he would have, especially knowing Taichi marched across the city in a torrential downpour to bring him this book. But today, today his heart and thoughts were preoccupied by different priorities.

“Actually um…I’m kind of…maybe not today.”

“What? I walked forty minutes in the rain to deliver the book to you. Can’t you at least let me wait out the rain in your apartment?”

“How about…um…how about I call you an Uber?”

Taichi narrowed his eyes, his gaze now directed to the inside of his apartment, to the glass of water he left for the cat before Taichi’s entrance interrupted its meal.

“Do you have guests over?” Taichi inquired, in a somewhat salacious voice.

Koushiro winced, “No…no it’s not that”

Taichi burst into a rambunctious laugh, then winked obnoxiously at Koushiro, who stood like a deer in headlights.

“Say no more, Kou, I’ll leave you be, but…you have to tell me all about it at work tomorrow”

“What? No no no no no, I…it’s not that…I swear!”

Taichi pursed his lips and shrugged, “Listen, Kou, you don’t have to be embarrassed about it. We’re all adults here.”

Koushiro sighed, “No, it’s not what you think…it’s…alright fine, come on in, you might be able to help me with this…given that you have experience in this field.”

Taichi gave an uneasy stare, but the prospect of a warm and dry shelter was much too enticing to pass off, so he entered Koushiro’s apartment and closed the door, shedding his wet outerwear onto the foyer floor.

“Should I be scared?” he demanded in a hesitant voice.

In response, Koushiro beckoned Taichi over to his sofa, putting his fingers on his lips as he pointed to the darkened space beneath.

Taichi eyed it cautiously, then emitted a nervous giggle while he stared Koushiro down.

“What are you setting me up for?”

Koushiro jabbed his finger towards the space, “I think it’s better…if you see for yourself”

They bent down to their knees and pushed their heads into the small space. It took awhile for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but once it did, Koushiro saw the cat huddled deep into a corner, its large green eyes widened with fear.

Taichi gasped and drew his head out immediately, prompting Koushiro to follow suit.

“Is that a…cat?” Taichi inquired.

Koushiro nodded, “Yeah…I found it on my way home from the store. I couldn’t leave it on its own so…”

Taichi laughed and shook his head, “Had no idea you were a cat person, Kou. Did Miko awaken something in you?”

Koushiro rolled his eyes. Both he and Taichi knew he had a very strained relationship with the Yagami cat, but he chose to ignore the statement and moved on with his question.

“So…can you help me out with this?”

Taichi took a step back, “What do you mean? Like….take the cat?”

Koushiro shrugged, “Well…I think it’s best since you’ve owned a cat before…”

“No. Nope, no, no thanks. I did my share of cat caring with Miko growing up”

“Okay fine…don’t take the cat, but…can you at least tell me what to do? You have experience, so…how can I care for it? What do I feed it? What does the cat need?”

Taichi stroked his chin thoughtfully, “Let’s see…you’ll definitely need cat food, both the dry and wet ones, which leads to…food bowl, and a cat fountain, and you’ll definitely need a litter box, a cat bed, and maybe some cat toys…”

“Wow, there,” Koushiro interrupted. Cat toys? “I’m not…I’m not keeping the cat, I just need some small supplies for until I bring it to a proper shelter”

Taichi raised one eyebrow, skewering Koushiro with a stare he could only describe as doubt.

“Oh yeah…how long are you planning to keep it?”

Koushiro pursed his lips, “I don’t know…a few days? But not longer than a week.”

Taichi shrugged, “Alright…whatever you say,” he bent down and studied the cat with one eye closed, “What type of cat is it?”

“I don’t know…black?”

“Really? Like it’s all black?”

“Yeah, why? Is that…is there something significant about that?”

Taichi chuckled, then stood up again with his gaze still locked on the space beneath Koushiro’s coach, “Actually…yeah…black cats are…well…okay, let me tell you a story, but you can’t tell Hikari this, swear to me you won’t tell her.”

Koushiro scrunched his face in confusion before finally nodding, “Alright? I mean…I don’t know how anything you tell me could come up in my conversations with Hikari, but…let’s hear it”

Taichi shot him an annoyed look, but obliged and continued his story.

“The truth is…Miko was originally a black cat, an all black one like the one you found but well…when my Dad and I brought him home from the shelter, my mom freaked out and demanded that it be taken back and ask for a different one instead…that’s how we ended up with the Miko we had.”

Koushiro gasped, “No way…why?”

“Well…a lot of people are scared of black cats. They’re really superstitious about these things. I still remember my mom’s tirade when we brought the first cat home, about how Hikari was already a sickly child as she is, and bringing in a black cat will only give us bad luck.”

“But…they’re just cats, what difference does it make what colour they are? It’s not their fault they were born with black hair”

Taichi gave a wistful smile, “That’s just the way it goes sometimes. I heard black cats are usually the last to get adopted, and there are so many left in shelters that sometimes, they have to put them down to make room for other cats that get brought in.”

Koushiro’s chest tightened, he looked down at the space underneath the sofa and thought of the round green eyes that honed in on him in that drenched cardboard box, of the way it shivered in his arms as he walked it home, and the way it devoured the leftover onigiri with a desperation that made his heart ached.

It was just looking for a home, a place to belong to…how could anyone hate it for such empty reasons?

“Is that…are you really telling me the truth?”

Taichi snorted, then walked away and entered Koushiro’s kitchen, opening the fridge without an invitation.

“It’s up to you if you want to believe me or not, but…just keep that in mind before you bring it to the shelter, that’s all.”

—

One week later, it was still on Koushiro’s mind.

Taichi’s stark statement echoed in the recesses of his consciousness each morning, jostled awake by the cat bunting its head against his cheek.

“Wha…what…?” he grumbled groggily. But of course he already knew the what, he had somehow inherited a personal alarm clock, one that runs on a need for a morning feeding at 6:30 in the morning, every morning.

In response, it rubbed its head against Koushiro’s mouth, transferring a good helping of black cat hair onto his tongue.

“Oh…okay…okay I’m up, I’m up…I’m going, I’m going…”

He rolled out of his bed, stumbling out of his bedroom and into his darkened apartment, where subtle changes had slowly accumulated over the past few days. He dug up old pillows and cushions to lay around his minimalistic apartment, creating perfect nap nooks for his new - and as he continued to insist, temporary - roommate.

His feline friend zipped past him and bounded onto the kitchen counter, circling twice before parking itself down and fixing its large green eyes on him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Koushiro mumbled in between yawns, opening up his cabinet to retrieve a can of unopened cat food.

Immediately, the cat reacted, jumping down to the floor and weaving in-and-out of Koushiro’s legs.

“Hey now, that’s not helping me move any faster,” Koushiro groaned, but to no avail. The cat continued its dance between Koushiro’s limbs, rubbing against him while purring in ecstasy.

Koushiro couldn’t stop a satisfied smile from seeping out between his lips. The first time he heard the cat purr was the first morning he woke up with it in his apartment. He fell asleep to it huddled beneath the sofa, even hours after Taichi had left, but he woke up to the cat laying beside him on his pillow, its purr reminding him of the old school heater his grandparents would wheel into his room during his visits. He had assumed purring was a good sign, but after looking it up, he learned a purr can be as enigmatic as a smile, and somehow, it fascinated Koushiro even more. Only a week in, and he had devoted hours to deciphering the cat’s purrs and eye movements, hypothesizing what thoughts could dance in its mind while it rubbed its head against Koushiro’s arms.

After heaping a mountain of cat food on an old chipped plate, he placed it on the floor beside the cat, then kneeled down and watched it devour the offering at breakneck speed.

“Jeez, you haven’t learned to eat any slower, have you?”

It ignored Koushiro, or perhaps…it didn’t hear him, Koushiro wasn’t sure. Only after it licked the last of the food from the bowl did it finally move closer to him, then bunted its head once again against Koushiro’s shin as if to say thanks.

“You’re welcome,” Koushiro chimed off.

The cat gave a satisfied mew, then parked itself down on the floor before closing its eyes and opening them slowly. According to his research these past few weeks, this gesture was much less ambiguous than a purr. When a cat engages in slow-blinking, it feels safe and comfortable enough to let down its guard, and although finding this out thrilled him to a surprising degree, it also left something else in the depth of his heart as well.

Guilt.

Beyond researching cat behaviours and cat caring strategies, Koushiro was busy looking up other things as well.

Cat sanctuaries in Tokyo

Safest animal shelters near me

Black cats

Black cats adoption rate

Black cat superstition

Do shelters put down black cats because there are too many of them?

Every result he pulled up added to his uncertainty and doubt, swaying him back-and-forth between his choices.

“Don’t give me that look,” Koushiro sighed, albeit with a hue of sadness staining his tone, “You know you can’t stay here much longer.”

The cat turned away, as if understanding every word Koushiro spoke, and ambled off towards his makeshift litter box - an old wash basin Koushiro found filled with the cheapest litter he could buy from the grocery store. Koushiro sighed in defeat, watching as the cat kicked up a storm of dirt, no doubt voicing its displeasure at Koushiro’s intentions.

“Although…” he mumbled, before his thoughts were cut short by a series of chimes from his phone.

He turned his attention to the screen, unsurprised to find his mother’s name appearing on the caller list.

“Hello? Mom?” he greeted.

“Good morning, Koushiro,” came his mom’s usual cheerful voice through the receiver. He let loose an unbridled smile, imagining his mother bustling through her balcony garden, her phone in one hand, the other with her purple watering can to sprinkle just the right amount of water on her beloved flowers.

“I’m calling to see if you’re awake,” his mom continued, “And to remind you to eat your breakfast, and oolong tea is not breakfast, don’t try convincing me otherwise. I don’t care how much vitamin the labels say it has…”

Koushiro held back a chuckle, his thoughts drifting away as he listened to his mother retell the harrowing account of securing the last batch of fresh salmon at the fish market yesterday, beating old Miss Suzuki from a few doors down.

He recalled, with fondness that pinched his stomach, how his mother used to take him to that very fish market, teaching him the marks of a fresh fish, and the ones to avoid. There were passersby that cast adoring gazes upon both of them, and he remembered the old fisherman vendors asking the question with toothless grins.

Is that your son?

And even in his youth, he remembered catching the subtle twitches of his mother’s lips, the way her fingers would stiffen with his palm in hers.

Yes, yes it is. This is Koushiro, my son, and I’m…I’m his mother.

Koushiro inhaled deeply, feeling the question fill his lungs without his consent, but nevertheless, he welcomed it anyways.

“Mom?”

His mom paused his story, there was a slight hesitation, then a response.

“What is it?”

“What made you and dad decide to adopt me?”

Koushiro heard the gasp emanating from the receiver, then a dull thud indicating his mother had dropped the watering can in shock. But he bit his lips and waited, and waited, and waited, until his mother finally responded with a small chuckle.

“You know…everyone always speaks of adoption as if it was a one way street.”

Koushiro froze. Unbeknownst to him, the cat had made its way back to where he stood, as if sensing the tension in his body. It bounded onto the kitchen counter and squeezed itself close, its head desperately pushing up against his palm, begging for attention.

“When we told people we had plans to adopt you, it was always wow, how kind of you and that boy is so lucky. They talked about us doing some great favours for you, as if we were saving your life.”

“Well…you did…in a way…”

“I don’t know about that, Koushiro, but…”

Finally, Koushiro noticed the cat by his side. He looked down at its wide green eyes, remembering the first time it called out to him, desperate for a place to belong.

“I guess…now is as good a time as any to tell you the full story…”

Koushiro’s face contorted in confusion. He remained silent as his mother continued her story, which was preceded by a heavy sigh.

“Originally, we…intended to foster you, at least until Social Services figured out a long term solution for your future. I had thought of adopting you right then and there, but we didn’t think it was a good time since your dad was still travelling a lot for work, and I was working nights. So a week went by, and Social Services was sending messages about a potential family that lives in Nagoya that was eager to meet you, but…when it came time to make plans to bring you there…I couldn’t…we couldn’t do it. I kept remembering the way you laughed when your dad played with you, the way you nestled into my arms when I held you, the way you babbled like you were talking to us, asking us questions…Even when you were a baby, it seemed like…you were already asking questions and wanting to learn everything about the world.”

His mother’s voice broke, the crack of her syllables shattering his own heart. Koushiro clutched his chest and backtracked, until his back made contact with some corner of his apartment. Without missing a beat, the cat hopped off the counter, following Koushiro until it was close enough to rub up against his quivering legs.

“So you see, Kou,” his mother continued, “It’s not so much that we chose you, it was that you chose us.”

“I…I did?” Koushiro questioned in a soft voice.

“Yes, yes you did. If there’s anything we learned, it’s that…adoption is a beautiful bond forged through reciprocity, it’s about both parties opening up their hearts, and accepting one another…as family. In the end, we chose each other.”

Koushiro smiled. His vision became blurry by burgeoning tears, but he held them back, building mental levees with the will of steel. He bent down and bundled up the cat in his arms, then brought him close to his chest, feeling its purr vibrate against his chest.

“Thanks, mom,” he acknowledged.

“Anytime…my son”

Once his phone conversation ended (after a few more stories from his mother about Old Miss Suzuki down the hall), Koushiro decided to fix himself a cup of coffee, and as he sat by his window watching the morning unfold, the cat leapt up to the table with a graceful bound, reminding him of the grasshoppers that fascinated him as a child.

In his research, he learned that grasshoppers are a symbol of good luck, and spent hours building contraptions to catch them in his backyard. He never succeeded, but perhaps it was the start of his fondness for insects.

“Batta,” he mused, and scratched the spot between his ears, where Koushiro knew his new cat loved to be scratched.

The cat responded with a soft meow, then bunted Koushiro’s hands affectionately like it always did when it seeked his attention.

“Yeah…Batta, I think that’s what I’ll call you,” he said with a smile, “Now…let’s see about buying you some supplies, since you’ll be staying with me from now on, maybe a proper bed, and…some cat toys.”

Batta closed its eyes, then opened them again slowly and purposefully, and that was all the confirmation Koushiro needed to understand.

They had chosen one another, and they were now each other’s forever homes.

(Author’s note: “Batta” is Japanese for grasshopper 🦗)

#Digimon #Digimon Adventure #izumikoushiroweek2022 #Koushiro Izumi #Breewrites

19 notes · View notes

digitalgate02 · 2 years

Text

Final part of that AU setting.

( PLEASE DO NOT ADD ANTI-▽ COMMENTS/TAGS ON IT. Like i said before, i do not like fix-it attitude, i prefer AUs instead. AUs are valid and free to our own interpretation. If i see any hate on this or on ▽ you will be immediately blocked ^_^💢 )

[Part one here]

Here’s the final six pages.

Project Mei

Meiko faces her dad, asking more about Meicoomon and her purpose. The old man feels nervous to talk about it, yet he decides Meiko should know. He explains Meicoomon's reason to exist was to create their own squadron of Chosen Children in order to fight menaces from the Digital World. But the Digital World’s Gods hated it and told them to cancel the project.

When Meiko talked about Meicoomon being made to kill digimon, her father elaborated it more, about her not being a total killing machine and she would only kill the enemy if they refused to give up, by injecting a powerful virus in their data. Meiko gets mad, because now this means Taichi, Yamato and their friends’ digimon were infected. The old man strokes his chin, hearing that more digimon might be in trouble. He then refers to Meicoomon also having an antivirus in her program, in case of one of their allies getting infected by accident. This makes Meiko less concerned, but she remembers of some strange parasite digimon consuming her.

Mr. Mochizuki finds it odd, a parasite digimon? And then he receives a call from the Data Bureau agent Nishijima Daigo, to talk about Meicoomon with him and Meiko. The man asks why, but the other couldn’t give details sadly.

Meanwhile, Daisuke tells Koushiro and the others about Himekawa’s offer, and that she could help them. Not that Daisuke believed her, because she was extremely shady and stalking him, but he started to wonder if she wasn’t involved with what happened to Imperialdramon and Meicoomon.Ken thinks that’s possible, but they have not enough evidences to accuse Himekawa. Mimi wonders how Meiko is feeling and offers to talk to her.

Sora thinks it’s too dangerous for them to fight, so she says to only work as their support, Jou apologizes and says he cannot help much since there’s a school exam coming, but he also joins the support cast – in case of them being needed, they will rush to aid their friends. Yamato is afraid of Gabumon’s health, and Taichi decides to keep seeking for Meicoomon in the meanwhile. Daisuke and Ken are also concerned about their partners, but they can’t stay doing nothing, so their help would be investigating stuff for Koushiro. Miyako, Iori, Takeru and Hikari agree to assist Taichi in the search for Meicoomon.

Meiko and her dad are escorted to the Data Bureau HQ, where they meet Nishijima. With him, there’s a pretty man in light robes, Gennai. They came to discuss Meicoomon’s status and destiny. The girl knew this could mean they had to put Meicoomon down, but…

… It was about one of the scientists in the old program contacting them to allow her complete Meicoomon’s program in order to stop the imminent crisis. Meiko raised an eyebrow at this – She was aware Meicoomon’s program was incomplete, but not totally? Like, Meicoomon had been functioning like a legit digimon being, having a heart and such… What could this woman mean?

The said woman was Himekawa, and Meiko was surprised by that revelation. Why would she…

The reveal

The young kids and their seniors were running against the time. Koushiro had copied the papers Meiko had brought him before so he could read them calmly later, and now he was sitting in his office checking them, again. Tentomon wonders if there’s something interesting in those, only to catch with his eyes some detail they skipped.

The developer of the virus program. He then analyzed the data from V-mon and Wormmon’s eggs and noticed it contained an ID number from the papers, which means the mysterious parasite digimon was also human-made. He checked the developer name and… Maybe Daisuke’s suspicion was right.

Mimi talks with Meiko, and the girl seems a little upset. Mimi tries to ask what happened, but Meiko asks to talk with Koushiro as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Taichi and the 02 group report seeing Meicrackmon on the loose, Koushiro tells them to not approach her and prevent her from hurting people and digimon.

Ken and Daisuke are not great at hacking things, so their plan was asking Himekawa how they could save their digimon from getting their data corrupted. Himekawa knew he would come, especially asking for help.

She talks a bit about her developer function in an old project, that she was this close to fixing corrupted digimon data… But the government ceased their activities. Ken asks how they can save their digimon, and she says she couldn’t do anything without the data under the Data Bureau’s server. The boys look at each other, and she asks them to retrieve that data for her.

They would say something, but Koushiro calls Daisuke immediately. The duo leave after saying they would discuss that with their friends. Koushiro gathered all the info given by each party. It was when Meiko connected the dots and messaged Taichi immediately about a detail. Koushiro also understood what that meant, but Daisuke was a little confused. Until he noticed it too.

Taichi and his juniors were in battle right now, and Meicrackmon was Causing a lot of damage. She then mutated again into Raguelmon. She was even more powerful thanks to the parasite digimon. Silphymon, Shakkoumon and WarGreymon weren’t happy with that, neither were their partners.

Meiko, Daisuke and Ken went to the battle scene immediately. It was when the 02 group, Taichi and Meiko saw Himekawa hiding in a spot. Meiko accuses her of manipulating everyone, and the woman smirks.

Of course they caught her. But it’s okay, she got permission to reactivate the project Mei development in order to stop Meicoomon. Why was she using those kids like that?

It was for Bakumon.

Gennai meets Koushiro

During that climax battle, Gennai came in, with Nishijima, to explain details to Koushiro. The decision to not destroy Meicoomon was unanimous and everyone agreed to keep watching her development. But there was another detail they were trying to avoid – Himekawa’s obsession with bringing her partner back. Nishijima says that he was her friend and teammate, witnessing the fall of them. Himekawa’s digimon dark evolved into Mugendramon and attacked the enemies, but lost control and went on rampage. His partner and the others had to evolve further to stop Mugendramon, who returned to digiegg state. The egg got corrupted and was told it couldn’t hatch, but Himekawa refused to believe it and became obsessed with the idea of creating a program able to fix the problem.

They had to stop her, and since she was using her knowledge as a former Chosen Child for the government, they had more reasons to intervene. Daigo joined the Data Bureau as some “spy” for Gennai and Homeostasis, to keep an eye on her. But now they just discovered she was doing some illegal experiments and created a digimon called Shademon, which can control and corrupt other digimon, and especially cause Meicoomon’s incomplete program to go on a rampage. All of that in order to convince the Data Bureau to reactivate the project development.

Koushiro wasn’t aware of those details, but this was what he and Meiko realized. So now he feels a little disturbed by the consequences of that plan, and then he just wishes they could do something to stop Himekawa and save Meicoomon. He shows the other two the copy of the project’s papers and points to the section about Meicoomon’s restore abilities. Tentomon comments that if they all work together, they can find a way to activate said function.

In the Battlefield, the kids, Taichi and Meiko try so desperately to prevent a disaster. Ken calls Koushiro, to update him about their situation; Daisuke was about to snap, but he’s trying to act cool right now. Koushiro then tells Ken to pass the phone to Hikari, and then he asks the girl to use Angewomon’s healing powers on Meicoomon.

Sure, to do that you will need backup right? WarGreymon and Shakkoumon could do it. Miyako says they could call the others if things get bad, which everyone agreed. Silphymon jogress was undone, and Tailmon evolved to Angewomon. The rest should keep Raguelmon occupied and without touching her, while Angewomon could use her healing powers to exorcize the parasite enemy inside her body.

Back to Koushiro’s office, Nishijima and Gennai keep explaining what happened before, and then Gennai revealed that Bakumon’s egg had hatched but the digimon turned into a Dark Master, the one the kids fought before. Tentomon then asks if the Dark Masters had been reborn, and Gennai says their data got locked in the Dark Area. Nishijima exclaims and asks why they didn't tell him before, only to Gennai explain Bakumon had turned into a vile creature so they couldn’t break the news to him or even Himekawa. Nishijima agreed that could’ve been worse than now.

“So this is what she meant by being a ‘former’ Chosen Child” Koushiro muses. Gennai confirms it, they revoked Himekawa’s access to the Digital World and turned her digivice inactive, she was really out of their reach so this was the best option they could find. Nishijima laments that.

Rampaging Meicoomon

Since Angewomon had holy powers able to extinguish evil and heal the good, their idea was simple: Keep Raguelmon occupied, get Angewomon to use Saint Air at her and then take the chance to destroy Shademon.

Easier said than done.

To protect Angewomon from getting hit by Raguelmon’s claws, they would have to stop her first. But how do you stop a digimon from moving without touching them? These were times Daisuke wished Paildramon could help them, but…

Suddenly, a very beautiful digimon woman appeared – it was Rosemon and she used her whip to grab Raguelmon. They looked behind and saw Mimi coming. The group focused on attacking Raguelmon, but not at full force so they could avoid destroying her. When Angewomon approached behind her, the holy angel released a heavenly aura to purify the enemy, but it wasn’t enough to beat Shademon. The group was losing their hopes…

Himekawa knows she can’t let them take Raguelmon away from her hands, or else she would never finish her program to save Bakumon, so she inserted a few more codes to induce a new mutation. The laptop overheats due to the max data loaded in it, making Shademon lose control over Raguelmon, turning her extremely feral.

Raguelmon mutates to another higher form, Ordinemon, and starts corroding the barriers of human and digital worlds. The group of digimon fighting her had to retreat for now. Meiko is mad, she snaps at Himekawa for that, and the woman is terrified – everything got worse. She lost the data, she lost her chances to bring Bakumon back!!

Gennai realizes this could mean the end of both worlds if they don’t take her down, Nishijima requests Gennai to gather his and his friends’ partners, in order to fight alongside those kids. By that request, Gennai tells Daigo to bring his friends as soon as possible, and leaves in order to gather the Holy Beasts. Koushiro is intrigued, but he decides to keep helping them all as soon as possible. Koushiro’s desire to help everyone with his knowledge unlocks the HerakleKabuterimon form (outside the building, of course), which he rides in, taking Nishijima with him.

Jou, Yamato and Sora come in, concerned with what was happening. Jou couldn’t take a test at this hour! So he grabbed Gomamon and pedaled his bike til the heart of the battle. Yamato and Sora came together, afraid of what could happen to Taichi, the younger kids and Meiko. Their wishes to protect their beloved ones and their loyalty to their friends unlocked Hououmon and Vikemon for Piyomon and Gomamon. MetalGarurumon carried Yamato and Sora to the battlefield.

The group, almost complete, started to fight Ordinemon as an attempt to stop her. Daisuke clenches his fists, because all he could do was watch. Ken felt even more useless, but he knows even without their seniors being able to evolve their partners, Taichi and the others were able to find ways to help. He had witnessed it, as the Kaiser. Himekawa is still petrified by her mistakes, so she does not notice Ken taking the busted laptop from the ground. He knew soon or later this would come handy, and, if they’re lucky, they can remove the HD disc and connect it to Koushiro’s computer at the office.

They had no other option but to escort people away from that area. Himekawa had no other option but to go with them, and call the Data Bureau to secure the area.

Himekawa discovers the truth about Bakumon

They went back to Koushiro’s office and their digimon just jumped inside the pocket dimension inside the server (Miyako has full access to it, remember?) so it didn’t feel too crowded outside. When Miyako tried to contact Koushiro, the boy replied that he and Nishijima went to gather the Holy Beasts’ partners in order to save the world.

Daisuke went to check the V-mon and Wormmon eggs, just to distract his head for a while. They were fine, but still not hatching. He wouldn’t force it though, he preferred to expect his and Ken’s partners to come at their own pace. Ken was worried about Daisuke’s mental health so he just went to ask if he was okay, and the other boy replied “Yeah, I’m better now. No worries.” which made both smile, one in relief.

Jou and Meiko were staring at Himekawa, who was still lost in her thoughts, broken inside actually. Patamon asks from the screen what they should do with her, and Takeru decides they should at least ask her some info. Taichi is not sure if Himekawa would help them out though. Ken tries connecting the HD disc to Koushiro’s computer with Miyako’s help, and by a great miracle it was still running. They decide to examine its contents, while Jou, Taichi, Yamato and Takeru watch the woman. Iori inspects the HDD with Ken and Miyako. Daisuke is still quietly watching the eggs, and Hikari, Mimi and Sora try to help Meiko cool off.

Meiko had her own reasons to dislike Himekawa after this. And the group was trying to fix Himekawa’s mess, and Daisuke now was aware who was the culprit for what happened to Imperialdramon. But he tries to not get involved with the interrogation, he needs to cool off as well! He needs to cool off…! He and Meiko actually. Sora takes both outside and try to hear them out.

Daisuke growls about what happened, but he doesn’t want to fight a younger adult. Meiko vents about knowing Himekawa for years and never expected her to do something like that before, but now she noticed the red flags. But deep down both Daisuke and Meiko noticed something strange in Himekawa, something they couldn’t be totally mad at her and yes feel pity for. Sora wonders what it would be, and Meiko says “She’s lonely” Daisuke remembers of the dude, Nishijima, who had said to be her ex-boyfriend. All three start thinking of why she would do something like that, if she had a boyfriend before…

Himekawa is still in shock. But she’s coming back down to Earth, little by little. When the kids ask her about what she was aiming for she mentions that her goal was trying to save a digimon from data corruption. Mimi frowns, so that lady had noble reasons… Himekawa continues by saying the Project Mei was her chance to cure data corruption, how close she was from it until the government ceased their operations. Hikari almost snapped, and Taichi saw it in her eyes. Someone connected with the power of life itself like her would feel this narrative was too soulless and toying with the concept of life.

Sora took Daisuke and Meiko to go buy something for them all to eat and drink. The investigation outside gets more and more creepy, as Himekawa starts feeling delusional in front of them, saying maybe now they will let her finish her job! Maybe now she will see Bakumon once again! Hikari snapped politely, “That’s not how you will get your partner back!” and everyone is shocked. She continues: “Meicoomon is suffering right now because of your actions, she’s not a toy! She’s not a tool! V-mon and Wormmon are in the Digiegg stage because of you! ” – That definitely made them all silently look at Hikari, until Takeru says he agrees with her.

Koushiro calls them, saying he and Nishijima just reunited the Holy Beasts’ partners and they’re moving ahead to the battle field. Taichi and Yamato decide they should meet with them and fight Meicoomon. Seven of them agreed, but Miyako said they would stay there trying to find any useful information to help them. Thus, Taichi and the others leave. Piyomon says she wants to go but Sora’s not back yet– And Sora, Daisuke and Meiko come in, with food. Daisuke asks where’s everyone and Iori says they went to face Meicoomon. Piyomon tells Sora she wants to go, and then Daisuke comments she should go and take Meiko with them. Sora’s not sure about this, she doesn’t want to fight a friend’s digimon… Only to Daisuke put a hand on her shoulder and say this would’ve been what Meicoomon wanted. Meiko is a little antsy, but she gets it – Mei-chan would prefer to be destroyed than keep hurting innocent people, especially her friends and family. With those kind words and encouragement, Meiko, Sora and Piyomon go after Taichi and the others. Miyako and Iori smile, because they know exactly where Daisuke got this lesson from.

The group joined forces with the previous generation – Higashikata (Qinglongmon), Kitabayashi (Xuanwumon), Minamino (Zhuqiaomon) and Nishijima (Baihumon) – for this battle. They examined all of their possibilities, but Ordinemon had strong defense by creating dark digimon from her wings. Omegamon was good with numbers, so they decided to let it take care of it. Koushiro analyzed the other Final form digimon’s specialties – and then he discovered Hououmon has an ability which could purify Meicoomon. “Maybe if we combine the divine power of the Holy Beasts with Hououmon’s special ability…”

Holydramon, Seraphimon, Rosemon and Vikemon were in the same group fighting evil digimon while opening the path for Hououmon and the Holy Beasts. It felt a terrible risky idea, but they wanted to give it a shot.

The Miyako, Ken and Iori were so busy searching for anything they could use to stop Ordinemon that they didn’t notice Himekawa leaving the room, but Daisuke did and went after her. The Lady had lost her composure and was trying her best to ‘Save Bakumon’ that the poor boy couldn’t keep watching that disastrous talk. But nothing he could say would make her stop right… She’s beyond salvation. It was when Gennai appeared from a security camera and stood in front of her. Daisuke approached cautiously to hear their conversation. This is how he and Himekwawa learned about Bakumon’s fate – Bakumon had hatched but became a vile creature, and then evolved straight into Megidramon, becoming a Dark Master. Daisuke wonders if said Dark Master was the one Taichi and the others had fought before, and this was exactly what Gennai said next. Mugendramon’s data was sent to the Dark Area, sealed alongside the other three Dark Masters.

Himekawa Maki does not believe it, and condemns Gennai and the others for destroying Bakumon. Daisuke couldn’t stand that and approached a little more. She screams, and falls on her knees, crying loudly and holding Gennai’s robes. Gennai himself did not like to bring bad news, and Daisuke knew it. So, the boy tries to talk with Himekawa… But she was too deep into madness to hear a child out. Gennai apologizes for this, but she does not listen. Suddenly, Data Bureau agents appear and take Himekawa under custody. Daisuke gets confused about how did those people know, only to find out he got something like a small spy wire attached to his goggles. “Since when…!?” It was probably the time he went to save Imperialdramon, maybe??

(No. It was implanted on his goggles when he first met Nishijima. )

Saving Meicoomon

They had to take that chance and purify Ordinemon, so they didn’t want to waste it. The moment they had it, Hououmon and the Holy Beasts gathered their powers and Hououmon used her Starlight Explosion on Ordinemon’s body. Since it was amplified by the godly and holy power of the Holy Beasts, Ordinemon started to be purified.

Ordinemon then converted into Rasielmon. The gloomy atmosphere changed drastically, filled with hope and happiness. Meicoomon didn’t die, and she was purified from Shademon… Which got destroyed by Omegamon’s cannon attack the moment it left Rasielmon’s body.

Rasielmon apologized for her acts, but the kids and the previous Chosen said it wasn’t her and Meiko’s fault. Meiko was so thankful her digimon had turned back to normal. Before reverting into Meicoomon again, Rasielmon said she had to do one more thing, and rushed to Koushiro’s office at the speed of light. Meiko wonders what it is, but the other eight were pretty sure what it was.

Daisuke returned to the office, where Miyako, Ken and Iori were ready to leave and meet their seniors. They say they found out a way to help in the battle and Daisuke grins. Suddenly, Rasielmon appears in a smaller size to not destroy the room and talks to the four. An unfazed Ken then comments “Maybe they solved it without us…” and Daisuke sighs, he wanted to help them all so badly…

Rasielmon then moves to the room with V-mon and Wormmon’s eggs and uses her powers to heal them, making them hatch. Iori finds this curious, only to remember the files said Meicoomon has also an antidote to her own virus program. The eggs hatched into Chicomon and Leafmon, making Daisuke so thankful he immediately hugged Rasielmon as his way to thank her.

Ken also thanks her, but in his own way by bowing and being polite. Rasielmon giggles, and then disappears. She returns to also heal the other eight’s digimon as her apologies, then reverted into Meicoomon and fell on Meiko’s arms.

A few weeks later, Taichi and the group heard some good news regarding Meicoomon: Hououmon and the Holy Beasts’ powers supposedly had helped to finish her program, becoming more stable and suitable for interacting with other people and digimon. Data samples of her special ability – by infecting and controlling digimon with a virus – were used to create vaccines in any case of her accidentally infecting civilized/pacific digimon. Nishijima asked Meiko’s parents to allow her and Meicoomon to be part of the Data Bureau as some honorary agent. Daisuke commented he was a little jealous about that, and that it would’ve been cool to work as some special agent. Koushiro jokes about him already serving in some special unit only to make him go like “??! Really!? Am I a secret agent!?” only to Taichi cut the joke by saying he needs to get a little more mature to handle special agent business. They all laugh, and then they all return to their daily routines.

#project mei AU

7 notes · View notes

higuchimon · 2 years

Text

[fanfic] Open His Eyes

For all intents and purposes, Yamato hadn’t been in the hospital for about a week. At least not as a patient. But he’d not missed a single day when it came to visiting Taichi. There wasn’t any reason that he would miss a day. He came here once he’d cleared everything else off of his schedule for that day - which he did a fast as he could - and then he and Agumon and Gabumon spent the rest of the day sitting with Taichi.

Truth to tell, Taichi wasn’t a very good companion at the moment, but Yamato wasn’t expecting much from him. All he did was lay there underneath the snowy white sheet and blanket, his eyes closed, his visible injuries slowly mending. The doctors still assured everyone that he’d wake up sooner or later and there’d be no real, or at least limited, lasting damage.

Yamato believed them, if only because the alternative to doing so was to give up, and while his particular dominant trait might not have been Hope, he’d learned a lot from his brother.

The other Chosen visited as well. Not as often as he did, of course, but Daisuke and Ken showed up at least three times a week, and Hikari came by nearly as often as he did. Koushiro had a regular visiting schedule as well, while Jou came in twice a week - he cited actually knowing Taichi as barring him from helping to take care of him. Something about a conflict of interest. Mimi and Sora came in whenever they could, as did Iori and Miyako. Takeru dropped in enough to keep updated on the situation and to make sure Yamato didn’t forget to eat, and that Yamato kept in touch with their dad to be sure that he ate.

Yamato might be a full-grown adult living on his own - or with Taichi when all was as it should be - but if no one kept on eye on Ishida Hiroaki, he’d likely get so involved in his latest story that he forgot to eat or brush his hair and would end up passing out from hunger at some point. So Yamato kept an eye on him and on Taichi and that was that. At least his dad could answer him most of the time.

Yamato settled into his seat as he did every night. He’d already eaten; Takeru made him promise to do that, and make sure Agumon and Gabumon ate, before he went to the hospital at all. And it had to be something reasonably solid for all of them.

Sometimes Takeru could be as much of a mother hen as - a mother hen could be. But Yamato wasn’t going to put up a fuss about it. Not when he got to sit here and wait and wait and wait and he damned well might put Taichi back in the hospital once he got out when this was over with!

“Really?” The voice was low and creaky and raspy, and at first Yamato jerked his head to the door. He thought at first a nurse or a doctor had turned up, then realized a bit belatedly that one, no one was there, and two, he’d spoken out loud and not meant to.

Third, that Taichi’s eyes had cracked open and were somewhat blearily focused on him. Yamato stared, swallowing, searching for something that resembled a word and not finding anything.

Agumon found it for him, trying to throw himself on Taichi and not succeeding as Gabumon held him back. “Taichi! Taichi! Taichi!”

One pale hand reached upward as Taichi attempted to reach for his partner. Yamato shook his head, grasping for thoughts and managing to get hold of them this time.

“Took you long enough. I thought I was going to have to get a trombone and start playing it for you to wake up.”

He was already getting to his feet; the nurses would have to know about this, and the doctors. The only reason he’d been allowed to visit like he did was because of Agumon. The rules involving a Chosen and their partner still hadn’t been fully ironed out by hospital staff, but as long as a second human was in there with them, it seemed to be all right. At least for now.

Truth to tell, Yamato didn’t want to leave Taichi, even for a few seconds. He couldn’t shake the feeling that if he did, Taichi would slide back into that coma or worse. He refused to entertain thoughts about what ‘worse’ might be. He’d thought about ‘worst’ often enough since the accident and even more since he’d started visiting Taichi on a regular basis.

For now, though, he stuck his head out the door, spied one of the regular nurses coming down the hallway, and quickly beckoned to her. They’d get everything started to be sure that Taichi recovered safely.

Even as he did, he cast a few glances over his shoulder, and saw Taichi reaching out to brush his fingers against Agumon’s claws. Yamato smiled; he’d held Taichi’s hand as often as he could that same way. Not that it had been often; hospital rules didn’t allow it. But whenever the chance came, he did.

Can’t wait to do more than that. As much as it annoyed him, he’d have to wait until Taichi could be home for that. He rather looked forward to it - hoped with all of his heart that Taichi did as well.

From the way those warm brown eyes looked back at him, clarity and intelligence slowly seeping back into them, awareness of where he was and who Yamato was, along with a tiny hint of a smile touching onto Taichi’s lips, Yamato suspected that he did. But they could find out more about that later.

He tugged Agumon and Gabumon away as the nurse called for others and they all started working with Taichi, checking on his vitals and asking him questions, most of which Taichi seemed to know the answers to. If he’d forgotten anything, they weren’t asking questions that revealed it.

For now, the three of them just stayed in the hallway out of the way and waited until they could go back in. Yamato worked on getting everyone else notified that Taichi had - for however briefly it might turn out to be - woken up, and wasn’t surprised that the Yagamis were going to be heading over as soon as they could be. He might have to wait a while to see Taichi again.

He’d wait as long as he had to. And one day, the two of them would wake up together at home once again.

The End

Notes: Not the end of the series, but Taichi has at last woken up! What’s next? In time, you’ll see!

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #taichiyamatoweek2022 #digimon #ishida yamato #yagami taichi #taichi x yamato #yamato x taichi

13 notes · View notes

legendheroes · 1 year

Note

i wonder other than the legends/leaders, is other characters meet other characters like for example, kiriha and ken sorry kinda new here and this AU looks so cool

No. The LXW AU events and so do not involve other characters besides the protags and XW characters. They're still in their worlds at this point, The document states that the enemy was after the protags/goggle boys, not after someone else.

So yeah, there's no Ken meeting Kiriha or Kouji or Tohma. Not even Miyako meeting Ruki, Izumi and Yoshino. Tbh, they all have busy lives and some might have lost contact with the others, so I doubt they all noticed that Takato, Takuya and Masaru had disappeared. The only group to have indeed noticed the strange omission was the 02 group and the older six, but the latter (except for Koushiro) had absolutely no time to help search for Taichi, so they all dumped it on the 02 group's hands.

#ni rambling about something else in this blog

2 notes · View notes

tobiasdrake · 4 months

Text

Digimon Adventure 01x03 - The Blue Wolf! Garurumon! / Garurumon

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Prank phone calls sure do hit different when the emergency line operator is the one doing them.

Good news is, we have like a day's worth of food. Bad news is, we're still in this awful place File Island and don't know how to go home. Or even where we can physically be that won't piss off territorial wildlife. Man, when I signed up for an Isekai, I was promised elf waifus and unearned combat supremacy; I want to speak with this place's manager!

We open on Taichi standing on the edge of a cliff, staring into emo distance. He's trying to make sense of the rules of this death world. Why did only Agumon evolve? Why did he lose his evolution and revert to Agumon again?

Agumon has no answers for him. As noted last episode, the Partner Digimon don't understand how this works either. We're all figuring this shit out together.

Dub Tai makes the wild-ass claim that they've already searched the whole island, which is a bald-faced lie given that exploring File Island will take up much of this arc. Then he just brags about how Greymon is super badass, rather than contemplating how evolution works.

Tai does also ask Agumon why he can't remain as Greymon, but he's more macho about it and kind of mean. "I like you better as Greymon," he says with actual words from his mouth. Agumon apologetically explains that "Even superheroes need a rest."

No time to keep thinking about this, nature has discovered us once again. Monochromon, an Adult-stage Digimon, smashes through some nearby rocks. Tentomon assures us that Monochromon are docile. The narrator agrees, but adds that they have a foul temper.

As a second Monochromon emerges from the other side of the group, the kids quickly decide to skedaddle out of the way. The Monochromon aren't here for us, we're just in the crossfire. Nature can be like that sometimes.

Tentomon speculates that this is a territorial dispute. Makes sense, and also not our problem so we book. Fleeing from this violence, Takeru trips and falls, but Yamato stops to help him, giving the brothers a nice moment.

Once we've run as far as we can from the territory duel, Mimi gets tired. She offhandedly complains that all this walking is going to thicken her calves, prompting Agumon to chime in that thick calves are good 'cause you can kick dirt with them. Palmon argues that leafy feat are better. Mimi is unswayed by both of these arguments.

Dub Mimi adds a bit about shopping malls; "I don't walk this much unless I'm at a mall, and as you can see, we're nowhere near one!" However, the thrust of her complaint remains that she's tired and sore from all this walking. Agumon inexplicably suggests she'd feel better if she took off her shoes and walked in bare feet. Palmon doubles down, saying she loves the feel of dirt between her toes. Mimi is not impressed.

Meanwhile, Koushiro and Sora discuss the strangely colored sunset of File Island. Even the sky in this place is weird. In any case, the sunset brings a more pressing concern: It's going to get dark soon. We're about to spend our first night on File Island.

Tentomon notices the smell of water in the air, so he takes to the sky to scout out and discovers a lake nearby. A freshwater drinking source is a huge discovery in a survival situation, so we should head that way!

It takes very little time to reach a survival consensus. Everyone is tired and hungry. We'll make camp at the lake and figure things out in the morning.

Well, consensus except for Dub Matt. Yamato likes the idea of stopping to rest for reasons that are clearly visible onscreen with him and require no elaboration. Matt, however, decides to be contrarian and barks that "We should keep walking and stop all the complaining!" Harsh, Matt.

Lake's full of telephone poles and shit but honestly we are past caring that File Island is weird. As we approach the lake, the group takes a moment to agree that this is a great spot to camp out for the night.

Mimi's nervous, though. She asks Taichi to clarify that camping means they have to sleep outdoors, which he confirms.

However, a new option suddenly presents itself courtesy of File Island being so weird. As if directly responding to their presence, a trolley sitting on a little island connected to the mainland by a manmade stone bridge suddenly turns on and calls their attention to it.

As they race for the trolley, Dub Tai inexplicably calls out, "Mimi, wait up!" as he leaps through the doors, despite being the first kid to set foot on it.

Having thoroughly failed their Don't Get In A Stranger's Car check, they take a moment investigating the trolley. Taichi and Koushiro confirm that nobody's here. Taichi's extremely bothered by this whole thing. Jou agrees, wondering aloud if the trolley's going to start moving by itself, but Taichi waves him off; There aren't any tracks for the trolley to go down.

Dub Tai agrees with Joe, but thinks it might actually be good if the trolley suddenly kidnaps them all. It might take them home. Dub Tai somehow manages to be worse at Stranger Danger than any of the Japanese crew. To be fair, he's not alone; Dub Mimi said that too.

Well, it's decided. We'll sleep in the trolley tonight. Just like that, the group sets to work on foraging for food and supplies. Last episode, the Digimon said they're good at foraging; Now they get to show off their skills, gathering various fruits and berries. Mimi tries to help, but Palmon stops her from accidentally picking poisonous mushrooms.

Jou and Sora gather firewood while Koushiro and Takeru catch fish to cook. Taichi and Yamato prepare the fire and just like that, we're camping.

When he sees Takeru struggling with figuring out how to eat a whole fish like this, Yamato offers to de-bone it for him. Taichi interrupts and tells Takeru to just start at the head and bite; Takeru accepts that advice and gives it a try.

In the dub, T.K. complains that his mom wouldn't like this. He's only supposed to eat fish sticks, and he's not supposed to eat with his fingers. Matt assures T.K. that he won't tattle, and Tai chimes in to tell him he's "hanging with the big boys now" which seems to settle his nerves.

From there, Taichi approaches Sora, who's filling up a bamboo shaft with water from the lake. He's noticed that Takeru refers to Yamato as "Onii-chan" and he's curious about it. Sora's as lost as he is about it.

Dub Tai already gets that Matt and T.K. are brothers, and instead complains that Matt "doesn't treat T.K. like a brother, only like he's a bother." Rude. Sora agrees, but suggests he's still learning how to be a big brother.

Jou returns from having a short walk around, stargazing. He's been trying to use the night sky to figure out where the hell File Island is, but the sky is wrong. Not just wrong for Japan; It's just wrong. Neither the North Star nor the Southern Cross can be found. So we are neither in the Northern Hemisphere nor the Southern. What does that leave?

Sora quickly corroborates, observing that she can't find any familiar constellations either.

Dub Joe is less thorough than Jou. He doesn't look for the Southern Cross, instead settling on the idea that we must be in the Southern Hemisphere if he can't find the North Star. Mystery solved.

Before long, it's officially time for bed. Time to spend our first night on File Island. Koushiro wants to establish a night watch rotation, which Taichi and Jou quickly agree to.

Taichi suggests that the girls shouldn't have to keep watch. Upon hearing this, Yamato jumps to his feet to demand that Takeru be excluded too. Takeru volunteers to take a turn anyway, but Yamato tells him no; Takeru should just sleep.

The dub cuts Tai's line about wanting Sora and Mimi excluded from the rotation, which leaves Matt issuing demands on T.K.'s behalf out of nowhere. This still works for the scene's intent.

Mimi points out that they have no bedding to sleep with. Getting an idea, Taichi goes straight for Gabumon, trying to steal his pelt away from him. He's only playing around, and he lets go as soon as Gabumon freaks out and runs.

Dub Tai somehow makes this about Mimi, playing her up like a predator in the night who's going to come for Gabumon in the night and cut off his tail.

Yamato angrily shoves Taichi away from Gabumon and the two nearly come to blows before the others tell them to quit it. Jou interrupts, calling the group's attention together so they can set up the shifts. With Sora, Mimi, and Takeru all excluded, the rotation he comes up with is:

Taichi

Yamato

Koushiro

Jou

Sora and Mimi remain excluded from the list even in the dub, so I guess Joe's the sexist one in this version. :P

As the kids prepare for bed in the trolley, they proceed to make unbelievably poor use of all that seating area. Everyone has to sleep in a sitting position but like there is so much space y'all.

Mimi's upset because she's used to sleeping in a bed. Dub Mimi instead is mad that she has to share sleeping space with other people. Rude.

Going to bed, we're made privy to each of their last thoughts as they drift off. Sora hopes they aren't attacked in the night. Mimi wants to take a bath. Koushiro expects it will be a long day for the group tomorrow. Jou wants this all to have been a dream.

In the dub, T.K. bids everyone good night with, "Don't let the Monochromon bite," giving Sora a specific monster anxiety to worry about. Mimi's feet are still sore. Izzy speculates that the aliens he's still on about put the trolley here to help them. Joe worries about getting "monster cooties", actual quote.

Yamato's staked out his own bench to rest on. He orders Gabumon to go keep Takeru warm. Gabumon teases him about loving his brother and Yamato storms off in a fit of embarrassment.

As the group drifts off to sleep, things start to go to shit almost immediately. The other shoe finally begins to drop during Taichi's shift, as he steps on a strange red leaf on his way to wash his face. Nothing comes of it, however. Not yet.

While Taichi's washing his face to stay awake during his shift, Yamato exits the trolley to get away from everyone. He apologizes to Taichi for their earlier fight, and confides that Takeru's closer to Taichi than to him because of his overprotective behavior; Calling back to the earlier incident with the cooked fish.

Dub Matt, meanwhile, continues being a total jerk. He still apologizes but, rather than opening up about his feelings, Matt aggressively blames "having to watch T.K." for his behavior. Nice, bro.

Taichi asks Yamato to explain the nature of their relationship for him. Yamato explains that they're brothers from a broken home; Their parents divorced and the brothers were split between them, which is why they have different last names.

The dub hasn't been playing coy about this the way the original did, so Tai instead has to ask, "Do you two even live in the same house!?" out of nowhere to provoke Matt's explanation. Matt answers that they're half-brothers so that's why they see each other so rarely.

Having had his fill of emotional honesty, Yamato splits with Taichi and goes to play his harmonica by the lake shore. He's shortly joined by Gabumon, doing a startlingly poor job of being Takeru's blanket.

That's when it happens.

Okay, fucko, I can handle being stepped on but that is a bridge too far. Local wildlife mad now.

I blame Taichi for this. 100%. That fin wasn't exactly hard to spot.

This is the Adult-stage Seadramon, the first of a particular kind of Digimon. The "dramon" lineage is a pun on the word "dragon". Any time you meet a -dramon, that's a dragon Digimon. Seadramon is, of course, the Sea Dragon Digimon.

Seadramon honestly wants nothing to do with this. His first reaction to his rude awakening is to try and peace out. Unfortunately, his tail is embedded in the island, so he ends up dragging it around with him.

Tentomon explains that Seadramon is normally pretty docile. He only attacks if he feels threatened. As long as we haven't threatened him, we should be fine. As Tentomon says this, he hops directly onto Seadramon's tail like an idiot.

Really playing up how much this impending fight is absolutely, 100% our fault. We screwed up. Seadramon is trying to defend himself against us.

This context doesn't make it into the dub. Instead, Tentomon assures the others that they'll be fine as long as Seadramon doesn't realize they're here; However, by stepping on Seadramon's tail like that, he reveals their presence to the dangerous predator.

Wrenching his tail free of the island, Seadramon retaliates by submerging himself and pushing the island further out into the lake until it collides with those telephone poles we saw earlier and can't budge any further.

Seeing Takeru in trouble, Yamato doesn't even hesitate to throw himself in the water and swim halfway across the dragon-occupied lake to reach his brother. Gabumon hesitates for a moment, not wanting to get his fur wet, but pursues Yamato anyway.

As Seadraman renews his assault on the island, the Child-stage Digimon try to fend him off, but their attacks are useless against an Adult-stage Digimon as usual. Taichi tries to get Agumon to evolve, but he can't; Agumon doesn't know why. As previously established, the Digimon don't understand this whole thing any better than the kids do.

Dub Agumon is lost too, but at least offers speculation. He thinks his body might still be tired from his fight with Shellmon. Valid theory.

Takeru falls in the water trying to get to Yamato, but Gomamon gives him a ride. Trusting Gomamon to take care of Takeru, Yamato and Gabumon throw themselves into the Seadramon fight.

Gabumon's signature move is Petit Fire. Like Baby Flame, this conveys the idea that it's a junior attack fitting of a Child-stage Digimon. The dub calls it Blue Blaster. Like the other Child attacks, Petit Fire is useless against Seadramon, who flicks Gabumon away with little difficulty.

Wrapping his tail around Yamato, Seadramon goes in for the kill.

The dub uses careful language to avoid explicitly saying that Seadramon is going to kill Matt, but nonetheless conveys the same idea. Tentomon calls Seadramon a "bubble brain" but explains that "once he finds his prey, he won't let go".

Takeru, Patamon, and Gabumon briefly discuss what they can do. Takeru wants Patamon to help, but Patamon is powerless so he turns to Gabumon. Gabumon's hesitation strikes again; He wants to help Yamato but he isn't strong enough to intervene.

However, as he watches Seadramon choke the life out of Yamato, Gabumon thinks about his harmonica music and how much he wants to hear it again. He dwells on that music and how badly he wants to hear Yamato play, then lets out a bloodcurdling scream and begins his Adult-stage evolution.

None of this emotional conflict makes it into the dub. English Gabumon agrees to go save Matt immediately, calling out that he's on his way and assertively saying, "What's a little stinky fur compared to a friend like him?"

Either way, Gabumon SHINKAAAAAA!!!

Gabumon's Adult-stage is Garurumon, another onomatopoeia name. He's named for the sound of a wolf growling. "Garururururu...."

While Garurumon and Seadramon fight, Tentomon explains that Garurumon's fur is as strong as the legendary metal mythril. The kids don't know what that is, so Koushiro asks for clarification. This puts Tentomon on the spot, who has to admit that he doesn't know what mythril is either. Taichi wonders aloud if they should really be trusting Tentomon's word when he's explaining the Digimon lore.

Dub Tentomon only equates Garurumon's fur to steel, and adds that he's a "growling torpedo". Izzy understands what that means and declares Garurumon to be invincible, forcing Tentomon to backpedal and say it's only local heresay, nothing concrete. Tai then accuses him of "exaggerating with another one of your wild fish tales again". Uh, another?

For once, we get some focus on the antagonist's special moves too. Seadramon is a wild animal so he doesn't talk, but Tentomon explains this to be his signature move Ice Arrow. Fitting for a sea dragon, he has frost breath.

Garurumon matches it with his Fox Fire. The dub calls this Howling Blaster.

Y'all, he just wanted to sleep.

Gomamon's Marching Fishes bring us back to land, but the sun comes up and nobody's rested. Exhausted, conversation turns to Gabumon's evolution.

Sora suggests that Gabumon was able to evolve this time because it was Yamato in danger. Taichi remembers Agumon evolving to protect him and corroborates that theory. The kids are beginning to develop an understanding of how evolution functions.

Once that's settled, the kids find spaces in the grass to snooze; Everyone's too tired to even care anymore where they rest their heads.

We close this episode on Yamato playing Takeru and Gabumon to sleep.

...I guess technically it is his turn to take watch.

#digimon #digimon adventure #revisiting digimon #revisiting digimon adventure

21 notes · View notes