#(I finally did Kizuna Mimi)

[ashxketchum]

Some consolidated thoughts on the new Digimon announcement:

Since it's set to Brave Heart, which is originally 4:13 long, assuming that they add an intro scene and round it off to 5 mins, I think that it's best to not have high expectations of the amount of content they will cover.

Having every Digidestined (including 02 kids) get substantial screen time is the highest bar I will set. If this requirement is fulfilled I will personally consider the video a success.

I can't seem to land on one solid reason for why we are getting a PV instead of a third movie to truly tie off the series (giving space for the Reboot version to take off into their journey so we're all like 68 and still watching & arguing about Digimon lol). I've seen a few comments about 02TB not performing well enough to warrant a third part, which I don't feel is the case because that move was even released in India, a rare occurrence, so the global popularity was definitely felt considering Kizuna was hit by the pandemic in this department.

I'm leaning more towards creative differences, because Kakudo has made it quite obvious that his vision does not align fully with the narrative that Kizuna, then 02TB have built. It's entirely possible that Seki and Kakudo just couldn't sign off on the actual plot presented to make a third movie, and decided to do their own thing hence the shorter format.

One staff at NYCC was introduced as being responsible for heading the new Digimon team, which does give me the hope that another anime series (REBOOT SEASON 2!!!) is in the works and they were just waiting for the 25th Anniversary projects to tide over before announcing it.

Onto the actual content of the video, I think for the fans that enjoyed Kizuna, especially the open ending (I'm Fans) a half-assed explanation of how Taichi and Yamato get back together with Agumon and Gabumon will be disappointing. That said, I don't think we'll really get an explanation for it but I do think the video can start off with Taichi and Yamato reuniting with their partners.

However, the tone set by 02TB implies that these guys are also well settled in their lives even without their partner Digimon, so for them to rush back into battle something HUGE would need to disrupt that flow, but can they even explain & sustain a huge occurrence like that in 4-5 mins? I don't want to answer this question lol.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a more laidback take, which leaves a lot of space for fans to interpret what happened, rather than just shoving sequence after sequence of important moments in high speed. Showing Taichi and Yamato and other older kids just going about their lives as adults and then there is that moment when they're hit by a nostalgic memory of their partners which starts off their path to reunion. I understand the need for having a villain for Taichi and Yamato to join forces and battle, but I'm totally okay with a more nuanced, slice-of-life version which hits home for all older Digimon fans currently struggling with adulting.

And finally, the controversial (still traumatized by it) Epilogue. I would prefer it if the point of this video is to show the reunion of the Digidestined and their partners, with the implication that this will lead to the epilogue shown in 02. But I also fear that in order to fit in the societal standard of "adulting", and with Seki being a part of this team most likely, they'll definitely add the married couples with kids tropes.

Keeping shipping aside, I think that showing Sora, Mimi, Miyako and Hikari in their exploration phase during Kizuna/02TB did wonders for their characterisations. Rather than shoehorning all of them into wives/mothers/tradfem roles, we actually got a glimpse of how they will always continue to break barriers and moulds, which is at the core of how every Digigirl was written originally. Still, as life goes on people do change so even if we see Mimi with a typical cooking show or Miyako the Mom, I wouldn't be as upset because Kizuna/02TB already gave us a good glimpse of how the girls are capable of forging their own paths, regardless of any male presence in their lives.

But jk we all know this is going to be a TaiYama fest so Idk why I'm even worrying over my girls, I will be grateful if we get Mimi on screen for more than 10 seconds 😂

So that's my thoughts, open for discussion, not condescending arguments 🫶🏻

[tobiasdrake]

I'd say that Tri, Last Kizuna and 02 The Beggining are a tad of a weird approach to try and bank into nostalgia, but not letting go the concept of "no you have to say goodbye to the 'mons"... which doesn't work after 02's epilogue. And then Adventure 2020 happened, and forgot that it was supposed to be an assemble show.

I don't have a problem with nostalgia banking, but Last Evolution Kizuna wanted really badly to be Toy Story 3 and failed. That, I take a lot of issue with.

There's a lot of heated debate surrounding LEK. The idea that the kids' partnerships with their Digimon break because it's time to put away childish things and grow up is extremely contentious within the fandom, but it's also not universally agreed that the film is even saying that thanks to translation issues with the subs and also some very ambiguous imagery with the ending.

There are basically two different interpretations of what happens in LEK.

1 - Sora, Taichi, Yamato, Jou, Mimi, and Koushiro all lose their Digimon Partners because they enter adulthood - but not Takeru and Hikari because they still have a few years to go.

This is a natural occurrence and the result of growing up. They have no choice and no agency in the matter; The Universe takes their Partners away because they're too old to be playing with toys anymore, and they just need to fucking suck it up and deal.

2 - Sora, Taichi, and Yamato lose their Digimon Partners because they're too irresponsible with their adulthood. Mimi, Jou, and Koushiro do not because they're responsible adults and are balancing their adult lives and their love for their Partners well.

What happens to Sora, Taichi, and Yamato is a rare and unusual occurrence, but there is hope that they will one day find their Partners again once they've gotten their heads on straight and made their way as adults.

For obvious reasons, the film is very unpopular with fans who take the first interpretation and pretty well-liked with fans who take the second. Which one is actually the valid and intended reading? Well. It's complicated. The movie went through a tumultuous creative process, to the point that Adventure series director Kakado Hiroyuki walked out on production midway through over disagreements and inconsistencies to the original series.

Which is, y'know, always a promising sign for a new entry in a series.

Watching the film, for me, it honestly feels like both readings are intended. Which is to say, you can find evidence to support either/or. I don't think that's deliberate, I just think the film was sloppily made and shows signs of conflicting creative visions.

Proponents of the Good Movie interpretation can point to the villain of the film, whose central motivation is literally that having your Partner taken away because you grew up is some fucking bullshit. In its final act, the film reveals that her Partner did come back - Just in an unrecognizably different form, not as the Partner she knew.

So the natural conclusion then is that Agumon and Gabumon will reincarnate and may find their way back to Taichi and Yamato; They just won't be Agumon and Gabumon. Which still contradicts the 02 epilogue despite proponents of the Good Movie interpretation insisting that 02's epilogue is still canon to LEK.

Which itself has evidence to support it (Taichi and Yamato are on their way to becoming the people they are in the epilogue) and evidence to refute it (Agumon and Gabumon fucking died).

As the translation breakdown in the above link shows, there's also some phrasing issues that created confusion. Gennai in the official English version describes losing your Partnership as a typical occurrence while, in the original Japanese, he seems to describe this more like a rare thing that he doesn't fully understand.

It's explained that what's happening is the narrowing of potential. Children have infinite potential, which something something Digimon Partnerships. As you make choices with your life, you narrow your potential, and eventually it can no longer sustain a partnership - Unless you're able to become an adult with limitless potential anyway!

That seems like it's setting Taichi and Yamato up to figure out their shit and save their Partnerships at the last second. But they figure out their shit and still lose their Partners, which gets described in the end as a rite of passage.

The blog with the big translation breakdown I linked above makes a note of the difference between the official translation, "This is how we finally grew up," and a more accurate translation, "This is how we arrived at the entrance to adulthood." As they say, it shouldn't be translated with finality.

But that's splitting hairs, because either version is still saying that losing Agumon and Gabumon was Taichi and Yamato's rite of passage from childhood into adulthood. Whether they've become adults or taken their first steps into adulthood doesn't actually matter; it's still describing this loss as the gateway that brought them there, which is the point of contention.

They did what they were supposed to do, they were still punished for it, and then they close by describing it as if it were an inevitable consequence of growing up despite what Gennai said. Which may or may not be corroborated by what happened to Jou, Mimi, and Koushiro.

Proponents of the Good Movie interpretation will point to Jou, Mimi, and Koushiro as proof that not everyone loses their Partners. Proponents of the Bad Movie interpretation will point to those same characters as proof that everyone does. This is due to a fundamental disagreement in how you interpret the final scenes.

At no point does the film ever say, with words, that Jou, Mimi, and Koushiro lose their Partners. But it does conclude with these images:

The final shots of Taichi, Yamato, and Sora show them to be moving forward with their adult lives, with no Digimon. The younger kids Takeru and Hikari's slides contain Patamon and Tailmon. There are also slides for the 02 characters, which show their Digimon Partners still taking an active role in their lives too.

But Jou, Koushiro, and Mimi? No Partners in their slides.

Good Movie fans will say that the film never says explicitly that they lost their Partners, so this means nothing. Their partners are probably just offscreen somewhere.

Bad Movie fans will say that these slides are meant to show the older kids moving on with their lives post-Digimon and the younger kids still having their Digimon Partnerships. There's a clear contrast between Hikari and Takeru's slides versus Taichi, Yamato, and Sora's - and Jou, Koushiro, and Mimi are presented like Taichi, Yamato, and Sora here, not like Hikari and Takeru.

Good Movie fans have the counterpoint to be made that their Partners still exist in 02's epilogue. So, y'know, canon faithfulness says that everyone's Digimon will come back or was never lost. Checkmate, naysayers.

But also Last Evolution Kizuna basically ignores Tri and makes no attempt to address the questions it left hanging, and also the Adventure story director walked out of production over inconsistencies to the original so I don't think you can really use canon faithfulness as a talking point here.

Taichi and Yamato are still on their way to becoming an ambassador and an astronaut respectively, so the epilogue hasn't been thrown out entirely. But it clearly has been thrown out. Jou was supposed to become a doctor in the Digital World, Sora was supposed to become a fashion designer instead of inheriting her mom's ikebana mastery, and Mimi was supposed to become a chef instead of selling cosmetics.

Yeah, Taichi and Yamato are still on-track to a similar life path than what the epilogue gave them, but nobody else is. So I don't think the movie is actually as faithful to 02 as the Good Movie side thinks it is. And apparently neither does Kakado Hiroyuki.

For me, I do think they were trying to say it's time for the kids to put away childish things and grow up. I don't think they meant that to be insulting. But I do think it's kind of insulting.

I think they were trying to do what Toy Story 3 did; To tell a story about the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood and what that means for the things we loved and enjoyed as kids. But I don't think that story works when the putting away of childish things is something cosmically forced on the children rather than a choice they make with their own agency.

Toy Story 3 wouldn't have landed the way it did if the movie was about Andy's mom pinning him down by the arms while garbagemen come in and throw Buzz and Woody into a woodchipper. But that's kind of what Last Evolution Kizuna does to the Adventure kids.

Taichi and Yamato get to give a powerful emotional farewell to Agumon and Gabumon. But they don't want to, they are not making this choice for themselves, and no reason is ever provided for why they should have to. And even the best defenses of the film just make it out to be a weird, random cosmic blip that maybe they'll fix some day, who knows.

Even in the best-case scenario, the universe just decided to grievously hurt Yamato and Taichi for no reason even though they were already making strides to undo the thing they were allegedly being punished for. It's still mean-spirited and cruel even in the best possible interpretation.

So. Yeah. All things considered, I find myself falling on the side of "It's a bad movie and I don't accept it as part of my personal Digimon canon." I don't accept that the children need to all have their Digimon deleted once they enter into adulthood, and I equally don't accept that they don't need to have that happen but that Taichi and Yamato deserved to have their Digimon ripped away from them at the end. There is no version of this movie that I actually like.

[the-tubort]

Digimon Last Evolution Kizuna is such an experience that I feel really has melted my brain in a good way. A lot of people who hate this movie jump to saying that the movie told them to touch grass which is just. Baffling wrong. And those who love it say that it's telling you to cherish your childhood and that time until it's gone which. Isn't necessarily wrong, but I also feel misses the points just a little bit.

To me it's always been a story about the fact that our lives change and we have to do our best to grow with those changes. The most important core of the movie was outright stated during the final fight but it was even stated in the Sora short where Mimi says that she thinks it was fate for them to be chosen but it wasn't destiny for them to do all the things they did. It was the choices they made along the way that allowed them to be adults with jobs and responsibilities and be in a position where their lives are becoming more and more what they envisioned. I feel that it's very easy to forget that in the final fight it's Yamato and Taichi that remind Menoa that she didn't make the wrong choice when she wanted to grow up sooner and choose a life for herself in the adult world. This entire time after Morphomon disappears, Menoa feels that she was responsible for all of it and that she has to fix it because she made the wrong choices, but it wasn't true. Even with the brief backstory we got for her, it's clear that her childhood was not like the others. She didn't have many friends or a support system, she wanted to conduct high level research but she was restricted by the education system and had to advance through it, she was picked on sometimes and didn't enjoy being around those in her age group, and she was happiest when conducting research and given the opportunity to show how smart she is. Those were not ever wrong choices for her and even though she made some bad choices, Menoa still deserves the same level of kindness and forgiveness that the others would give each other.

Yes the movie does tell us to hold our childhood moments and memories dear, but it also reminds us that we can't always do that. It's not just reminding us growing up is inevitable and that our childhood is gone, but that when we make our choices, things change and we have to be okay with that change. Even if it means one choice closes one door, that doesn't mean that door will be closed forever. The ending where Taichi and Yamato say they'll see Agumon and Gabumon again isn't a cop out and neither is them disappearing is pointless either just because of the 02 ending. The 02 ending is important and because it's canon, we know that it's true that they see them again and if anything, adds more complexity and depth to Taichi, Yamato, and Sora as that means even though they've made the decision to be adults and pick a career path, they still find their way back to their roots and reforge their bond.

Menoa and Gennai discuss how children have limitless possibilities and that's why they get partnered with Digimon, but it's just as true that even when you're an adult you can have limitless possibilities. There are good days and there are bad days that come along in your life, but as long as you keep moving forward and you keep trying, you're never truly left without options.

For as much as it sucks to see Sora sidelined this hard in the film, I think the short really hits it home for why she ended up losing Biyomon first. She realizes that her life is her own and she wants different things than everyone else. She doesn't want to keep fighting and she wants to try and live a life where she can slowly be true to herself and what she wants. Even if it means that she isn't the same Sora when she met Biyomon, the time they spent together is invaluable to them and just as Biyomon says, the sky was meant to traveled in. Their Digimon leaving them briefly isn't a sign that your childhood has to be cherished forever and to never forget it, it means that you have to explore and seek out the world around you and your childhood will find you again later.

It's easy to get mad at the movie for how it ends and how it can conflict with the established 02 ending, but I also find that this movie makes the ending feel real. The ending of 02 with the timeskip is wild and it's hard to understand how things ended the way they did but this movie honestly helped reconcile a lot of those feelings. It now makes a lot more sense why Taichi becomes a diplomat of all things. The time he spent with Agumon and now this encounter with Menoa would likely lead him to want to ensure peace between the two worlds is strong and that other people can find their own partners. Yamato going to fucking Mars feels understandable now. He doesn't want to be boxed in with what he knows and wants to rediscover what he can accomplish.

There's a lot for me to say on this movie but after my reqatch these my most immediate thoughts and I just cannot believe we got something this well animated and strong

[koushirouizumi]

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[x-infernhoes-x]

Honeysuckle- Yamato “Matt” Ishida x Reader

[gif by ydotome]

Title: Honeysuckle

Genre: Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Rom-com elements, Mutual Pinning

Warning(s): Cussing, slight adult themes, mentions of past trauma and parental issues/divorces, SPOILERS FOR DIGIMON TRI AND DIGIMON: LAST EVOLUTION KIZUNA, implied smut in the last part oOP, everyone is of age (ASIDE FROM IORI AKA CODY BC HE’S 17) bc this takes place in Last Evolution Kizuna, two idiots realizing their feelings for each other in the long run

Pairings: Mimi Tachikawa/Koushiro ‘Izzy’ Izumi, Sora Takenouchi/Taichi ‘Tai’ Yagami, Ken Ichijouji /Miyako ‘Yolei’ Inoue, Yamato ‘Matt’ Ishida/Reader, Hikari Yagami/Takeru ‘TK’ Takaishi, mentions of Mimi Tachikawa/OC, Meiko Mochizuki/OC  and mentions of Yamato ‘Matt’ Ishida/Sora Takenouchi

Description:  This is my first time writing for one of my childhood fandoms, Digimon.  I used to write this silly fanfic of Digimon Frontier back when Quizilla was a thing when I was about 10 or 11 called Cherry Blossom Moonlight (*GAGS*) but yeah it’s my first time writing for our OG resident lone wolf, Yamato ‘Matt’ Ishida and all that jazz after watching Last Evolution Kizuna. So yeah! This is based and inspired by me ranting my feelings about Matt to @aeonghaseyo​ on FB and my best friend, Lucy along with this particular Lux Botanicals body wash we have LMAO. This would be a four-part ficlet that’s going to be like a drabble and all but yeah, I hope you guys enjoy it! P.S. (Y/N) is your name, (D/P) is your digimon partner!

I- Can’t Sleep Love

 Out of the Digi-destined, you were never the type to call up people in the dead of night, especially if all of your other friends were busy with their own lives so why the hell did you think calling up at least 5 or more of them to your house at midnight? Usually, you would’ve called at least one or two of them if they were free or shoot them a text out of the group chat’s reach, write about it on your journal or let alone talk to your Digimon partner about it but you were pretty sure that they were starting to get tired of it despite their instances that it was fine. But after writing down what you feel in your journal just as you had considered doing so, you caved in and you were lucky that all of them were free.

 So now here you were, sitting inside your house’s dining room in nothing but a shirt that says ‘Know Your Worth’ and a pair of navy blue yoga pants and a pink cat headband on your head to keep your hair from sticking to the charcoal peel-off mask you had on your face. It was embarrassing really, calling up at least 6 of your closest friends at this time of night just to talk about the group’s resident lone wolf, Yamato ‘Matt’ Ishida, and your feelings towards the said male. In all honesty, you and Matt had been friends since your trip to the digital world, although the two of you shared some similarities, you were still different like day and night, you could’ve said both of you were like fire and ice but that’s more on with him and Taichi. Out of all of the chosen kids within your circle, the only ones who knew of your harbored feelings towards the elder of the Ishida-Takaishi siblings happened to be Mimi, Miyako, Taichi, Meiko, Izzy, Willis, and by extension, Ken because of his girlfriend, Miyako and finally, TK (Honestly, the kid was the first to know among you all and he would often tease you about your not so little crush on his older brother and it was even more of a pain in the ass about it when he got older? At least you got back at him when you found out that he has a crush on Kari. The kid thought he could escape, huh?)

 Taking a deep breath, you then faced your friends, all of them eager and curious about what you have to say as you finally spoke, “I know that this is unexpected for me to call you guys over on such short notice and I know that some of you are busy with your own lives and all.” The moment you had said that your eyes seemed to land on both Mimi and Izzy, the busiest ones out of the bunch before continuing, “But I just really need to talk to someone about well….” Unable to find the right words, your partner quipped in from beside you, munching on the pack of Fita Crackers both of you were sharing before the arrival of your friends, “About your feelings towards Matt.” To which you sent a glare towards your smug-looking Digimon partner, your friends sweatdropping at this before you continued to speak, “Just as (D/P) had said, yes, it’s about him.” Reaching over to the pack of chips Wallace had brought, you let your eyes wander over to where all of your Digimon partners were, munching down on their snacks and talking with each other, letting out a sigh.

 “I know I have other things to worry about such as college and my future and all of those other things, I just had to get this out of my system. I’ve been crushing on Matt for years and you all know that and it’s just… I have a lot of feelings and I just can’t seem to word them right, especially when it comes to him! Every time I try to express how I feel about him, I feel something weird in my chest. It’s the  'I can't explain this shit right' type of weird and it just frustrates me to no end! Like I will admit that I’m happy that he ended up with Sora.” At the mere mention of Sora and Matt’s relationship, both Ken and Izzy wanted to say something but both of their girlfriends had given them the look of ‘no, let (Y/N) figure it out by themselves.’ Honestly, you thought that it was weird but you simply brushed it off by popping another chip in your mouth. “It’s just….this sense of longing you know like almost as if we missed out or something and it makes me wanna go like…”

“Like real-life keyboard smashing?” Miyako spoke, brow raised in slight amusement at your current situation as you nodded, popping another chip into your mouth, “I mean I want to be with him but not in a sense that I want to sleep with him and ruin two of my long-running friendships with both Sora and Matt in one go the moment I come clean about my feelings!”

 “It sounds like you’re going through a crisis….” Willis spoke out, holding Lopmon in his arms while Terriermon situated themselves upon your arms, much to your surprise as Izzy spoke, “I don’t see this as a ‘crisis’ of the sort. Plus I don’t think you’d be ruining any friendships at all! What I’m trying to say here, (Y/N)-senpai is that I think you should try and talk to him first but be subtle about it and not go in guns blazing. Plus there’s a study that says that most romantic relationships start as friendships! Just look at Mimi and I or even Ken and Miyako.”

 “Easier said than done, Izzy.” You groaned, hand nearly flying to your cheek before realizing that you had a peel-off mask on, making you wrinkle your nose in slight annoyance as you pouted. “You guys had it easy because you didn’t have to worry about hurting anyone else’s feelings.” “That’s where you’re wrong, dummy!” Mimi spoke, reaching over to playfully tap you on the head as she continued, “Before Izzy and I became a thing, I was worried about hurting Emiko and ruining my friendship with her but after the three of us talked it out, we’re still friends and she’s okay with me dating Izzy here! “ After that brief story Mimi had told you, you recalled her dating Emiko, who happened to be a part of your little group and possessed the Crest of Loyalty and was paired with Elecmon. She and Mimi dated for 5 years but due to their packed schedules (Mimi running her own business and Emiko being a famous musician who constantly travels with Elecmon and takes up modeling and acting gigs as a side-line) and everything in between, it was safe to say that the both of them had ended their relationship on a good note and if you recall correctly, she and Meiko were dating now. “But still! It’s kind of different, alright? Plus the last time I had spoken to him and had seen him face to face was the time both of us were like 17!” This seemed to shock everyone, especially Mimi and Izzy as all of them spoke all at once, their questions mixed in a flurry of questions regarding your connection with Matt. Well…It was mostly Mimi, Wallace, and Miyako who did the questioning rather than all 6 of them.

 “Five whole years!?!  But the two of you are close!” “How about face-timing each other??? Or even DM’ing each other?” “Not even a single call or text or even a letter?!” Hearing all of them come at you all at once with these questions made you feel a little bit uneasy and perhaps even on edge, the only time they did stop was when they saw you clenching and unclenching your fists before holding a finger up as you spoke, “First off, we only talk in quick lapses and small ‘how are yous’ because we’ve been respectively busy with other things such as keeping our respective home bases safe from unwanted Digimon attacks. Both (D/P) and I have been keeping the damage on the down-low whenever there’s an attack and Izzy knows about this.” The aforementioned redhead nodded at this as he spoke, “That’s true, you’d be surprised at how many Digimons appear in (Y/N)’s home-turf now and then!” “I’m just lucky that I got a free week this time around and that I have nothing else to do. I mean I’d be in college right now but since I didn’t get accepted into the college I wanted to go to, I’ve decided to take a year off and then try again next year but that’s not our main topic here right now! The main topic is about how Matt and I went on for five years without seeing each other or let alone having an actual full-blown conversation with each other.” You spoke with a wave of dismissal as the rest of your friends listened to your final statement. You had been talking for at least an hour or so, at first, it was a small catch up on how things are going on with them and yourself included other stuff like hobbies and all that and somehow it came down to talking about the main reason why you called them up in the first place.

 Standing up to head over to the bathroom to peel off the dry mask off of your skin you continued to speak, your voice echoing from the open bathroom door and towards your friend’s ears, occasionally wincing all the while as you peeled off the mask, “Not to mention, he’s busy with college. The last time I heard from him was when he told me about how he wasn’t sure about what he wants to do with his life.” You could hear one of the chairs move backward, indicating that one of your friends had stood up while you were preoccupied with the remains of the black peel-off mask. When your eyes had met the mirror once more, Miyako was the one to stand right behind you, arms folded over her chest, brow raised, and lip quirked upwards in a questioning manner as she spoke, “And when did this conversation take place?” Turning around to face her, you then reached over to the towelette that hung on the rack that was near the door, patting your face dry with it as you thought, exactly how long was it since then? “Uh….a month ago at least??? Why?”

 Placing a hand upon your shoulder, the younger lilac-haired female stared directly right into your eyes as she spoke, “(Y/N)-san, you’re like family to me but PLEASE just talk to him. It’s as simple as that but like Koushiro-senpai had just said, just don’t go in guns blazing.” “I-I’ll think about it, okay? For now….”

 It had been an hour since your friends had left and now here you were, wide awake with an arm thrown across your forehead in a debilitating manner, nose scrunched up and lips pulled into a tight huff as you thought about what your friends had told you moments ago. They made a point, sure, but what they didn’t know was that you had been constantly texting Matt for the past few months, in hopes he would get the chance to read it, and sure, he did but he never responded and that was enough for you cease your texting because you were getting worried that you were probably distracting him from his studies and whatnot. So what do you do when you start to miss him? You scroll through your phone and re-read some of your old chats together, scroll through your gallery to look at some of the old photos and videos of the two of you together during your high school days. Most of these videos were taken by your Digimon partner, Gabumon, or anyone from the group and such. But out of all of the videos you’ve taken, the one you cherish the most was the one that you had taken during his 14th birthday. It was your first time seeing Odaiba without any Digimon attacking and you marveled at the scenery before you, both you and Matt venturing around the city and it was also the first time you had witnessed him perform live on stage with his band during the time and you’ve supported him in his endeavors ever since but you also made sure to knock some sense into him whenever you got the chance, this was also the time he had first taught you how to play your guitar as well and the time you had realized that you weren’t crushing on him anymore, no. You were in love and you fell for Matt, hard.

  Snapping yourself back into reality, you then cast your phone aside to your bedside table, hands flying over to your face, you then groaned a little bit loudly, enough to wake your slumbering partner right beside you, which of course, effectively woke them up, their eyes half-lidded and sleep ridden as they spoke, a little bit bluntly, “Y’know, it wouldn’t kill you to just talk to him, (Y/N). Mimi, Miyako, and the others are right, just talk to him. It would do everyone some good and please get some sleep instead of reminiscing at hours such as these.” Turning around to look at your partner, you finally caved in and heaved a deep sigh, expression softening as you spoke, “You guys win. I’ll talk to him.”

 At this point, your partner looked as if they were completely done with your bullshit and had reached over to bonk you on the head as they spoke, “Not through text, genius. Give him a call and don’t be awkward.” “Ow! Fine, I’ll do it, happy?” You responded, holding your head a pout on your face as your digimon partner yawned, turning over to their side, snuggling further into their side of the bed and their blankets, “Yes, now go the fuck to sleep.”

“SINCE WHEN DID YOU LEARN HOW TO FUCKING CUSS, (D/P)!?” “The moment I was paired with you, now go to sleep.” “I-Fair point. Good night.”

[shihalyfie]

Comparing the original Best Partner character song series and the new one, and what that says about the 02 cast

So if you haven’t heard yet, a new series of 02 (it’s actually Kizuna) character songs dropped! Allegedly intended as a slightly delayed 20th anniversary project, the series is a callback to the original “Best Partner” character song album series that released during 02′s actual airing.

If you know anything about the original Best Partner series, it’s one that sets an insanely high bar, even for Digimon standards (and that’s saying something, given the deep associations this franchise has with music). The series of character songs before it, Adventure’s “Character Song + Mini Drama” series, has a…kind of questionable amount of relevance to each character; it’s not like they’re super amazingly out of character, but they don’t really tell you a lot about each character beyond some gloss details (this is probably best demonstrated in how Mimi’s song is blatantly just an AiM single disguised as a Mimi song). Best Partner, on the other hand, very intimately goes into each character’s head and their relationships with their respective partners, even putting in direct words what wasn’t stated explicitly in the series.

So does the new series live up to the high bar its predecessor sets? Answer: on top of some abnormal attention to detail on the covers, it is very obvious that the new series not only has a lot of the depth of the 02 characters in mind, but also is made in direct response to the original series itself. Moreover, putting the original Best Partner series and this one side by side reveals a lot about each of the 02 characters and what they got out of 02′s story, in a surprisingly neat summary.

Let’s go into how!

Since this is something that has a deep relationship with all of these characters in regards to the series, this particular meta would not have been possible without input from multiple people who know these characters better than I could ever hope to by myself. Thank you for all of your help.

A bit of historical context

The original Best Partner series consisted of a set of albums, one representing each pair of partners in 02. Notably, even though nowadays there’s a specific order of the Adventure/02 characters that’s used in modern media, not only does the original series not follow that ordering (as it hadn’t been set in stone at the time), it also leads with the original Adventure characters and not the 02 ones, which is pretty unusual for a series that’s ostensibly supposed to be for 02 (modern lineups will usually favor leading with whichever group the relevant product is branded with).

A lot of this probably makes more sense when you realize that the original Best Partner series was released during the first half of 02’s airing. The final album was released on August 23, 2000, four days before the fateful 02 episode 21 (yes, that means the third track on Ken and Wormmon’s album is actually a spoiler). So in other words, while the original Best Partner series accurately reflects the older Adventure group’s character development and what problems they were able to sufficiently overcome, the 02 group does not have anything about their character development from 02′s second half reflected in it at all.

That’s actually a really huge disparity, when you think about it, especially because a lot happened with the 02 group in that second half – that second half was where the emotional payoff and the results of everything that had been building up over that first half came together. So in comparison to the Adventure group, composed of people confidently talking about what they’ve decided for themselves from now on, you still have the 02 group drenched pretty deeply in insecurity. Watch 02 to the end and listen to those songs again, and you might even think “wait, this is supposed to represent these characters?” So, in essence, the new Best Partner series serves to address that gap, and what the 02 group gained and learned out of 02′s second half.

Best Partner (and its successor series for Tamers, Best Tamers) follows a uniform format: a solo song for the human partner, a solo song for the Digimon partner, and a duet between the two. (Given that, the original Best Partner series was really huge, at a whole 36 songs.) Recalling that, in the Adventure universe, a Digimon partner reflects the human’s inner self and psyche, it’s pretty extensive coverage: what the human has to say about themself, what place their Digimon partner is in relative to that, and what the nature of their relationship is due to that.

Let’s go into each pair of partners in detail!

Daisuke and V-mon

For those who love 02 and love Daisuke in particular, when you ask “what kind of character is Daisuke like?” or “what’s Daisuke’s best quality?”, you’re probably going to get answers like “forward-thinking” or “positive” or “good at uplifting others” – basically everything to do with how Daisuke is an encouraging presence who doesn’t give in easily and has a strong mentality of moving forward in the face of despair. Someone who appreciates and understands others’ best qualities, and loves them for everything they are. So when you look at his original Best Partner solo song, Goggle Boy…

But more than just saving the world I really don’t want to lose, you know

…Uh…

These goggles are my proof Given by a certain someone to me The precious thing he handed over It’s just like his Crest, you know Aren’t they cool?

…Well, that’s nowhere to be found.

This is the kind of song that might make you think “wait, this is supposed to be Daisuke’s representative song?!” (It’s possibly because of this that Daisuke’s song from The Bridge to Dreams, Tomorrow, generally tended to be far more favored among Daisuke fans, although it’s more relevant to 02 as a whole than it is to Daisuke in particular.) if you listen to Goggle Boy knowing about what Daisuke’s best qualities should be, this is almost a little frustrating, because this is the kind of thing he really shouldn’t be pigeonholed as – basically, begging for others’ approval and praise and focusing on idolizing others. Even his most insightful moments in this song come from his appreciation of something that came from someone else (Taichi), not from himself.

Well, the thing is, that was Daisuke’s character for most of the first half of 02. Of course, even in early episodes, there were many times where Daisuke’s potential for positivity and forward-thinkingness were starting to poke through, but most of the time he was rolling over trying to please others and chasing after his seniors. The real period of time he started to grow into his own about this was 02 episode 24 and its aftermath – when his time spent with his friends started to fill the void in his life and his need for validation, and the escalating situation, especially with Ken, led him to have a proper grasp of what was properly important and what needed to be done.

So when we get to his new solo, RUNNING MAN…

I’ll keep on running far ahead Let’s bring everyone along with me, today, too Really, always, thank you, Thank you so much Riding the wind, going past the sky Grasping your hands and flying I’m even starting to see beyond my dreams

Even in only one section, you can get an instant image of the Motomiya Daisuke we all know and love – someone who appreciates his friends’ role in his life, loves their company, and moves positively towards the future. Because, again, after the events of 02, and after being able to bond further with his friends and gaining his own strengths in leading everyone forward, he became able to more properly express his love for everything instead of constantly vying for others’ attention. Even the title reflects the change, from a “boy” who’s flashing the symbol of courage he got from someone else, to a “man” who’s positively running forward on his own merits.

(Interestingly, RUNNING MAN is composed by Ohta Michihiko, a legendary composer who’s made many of some of the most important songs in the franchise, and also composed many of the original Best Partner songs, including Goggle Boy. It’s interesting how RUNNING MAN is the one most like the original songs in atmosphere as a result – possibly representing how Daisuke is a simple-minded person who ostensibly doesn’t change drastically in disposition – yet has lyrical content that’s so starkly different.)

As a result, this is subtly reflected in the other two songs in each album as well – remember that V-mon is one of the partners who most “matches” his own partner in terms of disposition and mentality. So as Daisuke shifted his own priorities, V-mon did too; we go from Go Ahead! being about taking a stand and fighting, whereas Beyond the Future is about a similar forward-thinking mentality to Daisuke’s.

Likewise, the duets have different priorities as well; 2-TOP was composed of Daisuke and V-mon bickering for the most of it, and the most substantial point you could get about it was that despite their bickering, they made it work, whereas HEY-rasshai! has them almost entirely in sync (with one minor moment of deviance). It’s also interesting to see the topics covered in each; 2-TOP is about soccer, which ultimately is revealed to be a fairly incidental hobby for Daisuke, whereas HEY-rasshai! is about ramen making, which, while comical, also has a very strong tie to “Daisuke’s dream for the future, and his willingness to single-mindedly dedicate himself to something when it’s something he truly wants”. In other words, while Daisuke knew what he wanted since elementary school, it says a lot that he’s at a point where he and V-mon are now taking proactive steps to have that dream achieved, now that they’re able.

Ken and Wormmon

Like with his position in 02 itself, Ken’s is probably the easiest to see the contrast without trying too hard, but there’s still quite a lot to unpack!

When you think about it, in the modern era, it’s actually surprisingly hard to find stuff too relevant to Ken’s time as the Kaiser. The reason is, simply, that the series itself discourages this – Ken himself had an obvious aversion to dwelling too much on it, and the entire series itself has a strong theme of “moving on”. It’s not to say that the Kaiser doesn’t have a fanbase (I’m sorry if you’re reading this and find that I might be implying too hard that you don’t exist), but rather that there’s a franchise and fanart tendency to focus more on “Ken-chan” than “the Kaiser” these days, and old merch from the first half of the series will all too often get responses of “it’s really sad Ken-chan can’t be there…” Of course, 02 itself was also about accepting one’s mistakes, not pretending they never happened, so it’d be foolhardy to deny Ken’s dark history entirely, but it’s retroactively interesting to see such a prominent and persistent piece of merch like Ken and Wormmon’s original Best Partner album focus so largely on Ken’s time as the Kaiser when most of the franchise ended up trying to move on.

Starting with Ken’s solo songs, and his first one, ONLY ONE:

I’ve lived without showing my true feelings, wearing this mask

Well, this was easy to tell from the series itself, but the point driven home is that Ken didn’t want to expose his true self to others, putting on a front of “strength” and smashing his true feelings into the corner so that he could become more of the “perfect” person he thought he was supposed to be. There’s also another interesting line that one should pay attention to:

I polished the knife in my heart and put my belief in infinite power

Basically, putting up a defensive front to prevent anything from approaching his weaknesses.

Anyway, moving onto his new song, Never Ending:

If I want to be proud of tomorrow’s version of myself I wonder, what can I do? Never Give-up I’ll keep fighting, even doing someone else’s part No, I won’t be afraid anymore

First of all, the main theme of the song is about putting conscious thought into understanding how to stay true to himself – basically, understanding what it is he really wants to do and become, instead of putting on fronts and hiding it from others. Not only that, we see traces of what exactly he gained over the course of the second half of 02 – because so much of it involved constantly trying to blame himself for everything, this song is about what he came to learn in terms of proactively making it up and actively fighting forward. He’s working hard!

We also have this part:

The knife that’s pointed at someone, or at myself If it’s been let go of

Two things going on here: firstly, we have an explicit reference to the metaphorical “knife” Ken referred to putting up in ONLY ONE, talking about finally letting it go instead of bothering with this kind of front. He also points out that, in a sense, the knife was pointed at himself too, either in the sense of actually having hurt himself through this entire ideal, or in the sense that he constantly was trying to blame and punish himself for everything. None of that should be necessary anymore. Moreover, Never Ending contains a lot of references to “daily life” and the happiness that comes with the simplicity of just being alive – because that was indeed what Ken gained through his experiences, the ability to treasure living life in itself instead of aspiring to an impossible standard.

Another interesting thing about Never Ending is that it’s technically in a similar rock genre to ONLY ONE instead of being “soft”, like Ken’s personality is often thought to be. This was a surprise to a lot of people who commented on how surprisingly “cool” the song was, but this is actually completely in line with Ken arguably being one of the most openly assertive people in this group even after his reformation. Note that it’s very difficult to call this song purely angsty – it’s definitely positive and forward-thinking, and the chorus itself is partially in major key – but it has the vibe of someone who’s fully aware of everything that’s happened, is putting proper thought into it, and is pushing on despite everything. Remember, the intensity the Kaiser had originally came from somewhere; Ichijouji Ken is the same person, in the end.

In regards to Wormmon’s song, the contrast is also obvious: The Future You Dreamed of, the Future I Dreamed Of. is of course about Wormmon’s tormented feelings during the Kaiser’s abusive relationship with him, whereas can change it! is about its aftermath and how they made up (including copious references to the events of 02 episode 23). Even then, there’s a certain “forward-thinking” attitude that marks this song as being representative of being after 02’s events and not during – see the line “The mistake we made that day/is exactly the reason we’ll never let it happen again”, instead of the self-punishment and shame Stingmon expressed in 02 episode 26).

On top of that, the duet song Forever Adolescence also marks a subtle progression from the point they were at from True Strength – remembering that Best Partner 12 was released at a time when True Strength was actually a bit of a spoiler, while Ken and Wormmon obviously had made up by that point, the key line in it is still “everything truly begins from here”. So what, exactly, happened after that? According to Forever Adolescence, the decision made was to keep moving forward, and, moreover, to stay “the way they are”, especially with the nuance that it means it’s okay to not force oneself into the role of an adult and stay “young at heart”. This is really, really important in light of the events of Kizuna, the 02 group’s unusual role in it and its relevance to 02′s themes (more on this below), and how Spring 2003 referred to the pressure placed on Osamu as him being “forced to grow up too quickly” – in essence, Ken and Wormmon have firmly resolved to actively move away from that kind of pressure.

Miyako and Hawkmon

I’ve pointed out several times on this blog that the actual complex Miyako was going through in 02 was that she hated herself more than anyone else in the group would be willing to criticize her – and if you don’t believe me, it’s put in a pretty heavy-handed manner in her original song, Crash and Bingo!:

Fussing about it won’t get anything done But my selfishness and problems and panic keep coming out

…and even more viciously in her own and Hawkmon’s duet, Fly High:

I can’t do anything right, besides playing around with computers

or

Everyone would be still be fine if I weren’t there

If you thought it was subtle in the main series, it certainly isn’t here: Miyako considered herself good for absolutely nothing and unable to be accepted by others for being too useless – in these songs, despite Hawkmon’s attempts to uplift her, she criticizes her own messy tendencies and considers herself a burden. Best Partner is a positive series, so it still has the attitude of “we’ll try anyway”, but it’s clear that Miyako really didn’t have the highest opinion of herself at all. Hence, Fly High also shows off the worst of Hawkmon having to deal with the fallout – with Miyako flailing around in panic and considering herself good for nothing, he’s forced to carry her around.

But come Miyako’s new solo, From Spain with Love!, we see a huge contrast all over the place:

I, who have evolved into an adult make everyone do a double-take at me when I walk by!

Exhibit A: actual confidence in herself and ability to consider herself worth something;

If I can always, always be honest with myself Even if I don’t put together some program, even if I keep screwing up Ah, you understand me

Exhibit B: understanding that she’s worth something to others besides her utility abilities, and knowing that she has friends who’ll support her despite her flaws (which is very true);

When things are feeling hard, the first thing you should do is call me, okay? I’ll take the wings of love and purity, spread them, and get there as fast as I can Ah, I’ll open up any gate I need to

Exhibit C: indulging in her capacity for helping and supporting others;

Al mal tiempo, buena cara We laugh exactly when things are hard

Exhibit D: understanding the strength to get through hard times, instead of emotionally crumbling under the pressure.

Yep, that’s exactly what her character arc in 02 was about; 02 episode 31 was a huge turning point for her because, in the depths of her berating herself for her messiness and expecting Hikari to be secretly judging her the whole time, Hikari revealed that she was outright jealous of Miyako being able to speak her mind, and Miyako shortly after ended up showing her true capacity for reaching others who needed her help and supporting them, a role she ended up growing into for the rest of the series. Note that, other than the casual remark of confidence at the beginning, Miyako hasn’t necessarily become arrogant or anything – it’s just that, by focusing her energies into how much she loves everyone and turning her “nosiness” and “sticking herself into others’ business” tendencies into positive energy to help everyone, she gained more confidence in her ability to be loved and accepted by others.

This is reflected as well in her new duet with Hawkmon, where, instead of Hawkmon dragging her around everywhere, their differences and mismatched personalities are outright celebrated, and while Miyako still has awareness of her messy tendencies, she’s no longer letting it emotionally rip her apart and has confidence that Hawkmon can be by her side to help her through it. Perhaps reflecting that, Hawkmon himself goes from the over-the-top, dramatic, high-strung Knight of Love to the more calm and straightforward Gentle Tornado, perhaps because his own partner isn’t constantly bouncing off the walls recklessly nearly as much anymore.

Incidentally, it’s not like all of this is without nuance, either; even if Miyako’s become more of a confident person, she’s not all put-together. Considering that the entire song has her gushing about how she’d be willing to drop anything to go see her friends (which was pushed forward in Kizuna itself, what with her willingly taking the same request she’d refused to do earlier just because her friends were involved, and even inventing D-3 gate exploitation just to go see them), when you get to the end, and her gushing about her fun in Spain suddenly derails into reminiscing about the events of 02 episode 42, the implication is clear: for as much as she wants to be wholeheartedly enjoying this fun trip abroad for what it is, she can’t help but let her thoughts float back to memories and friends she cares about, and her bonus conversation with Hawkmon drives it in further that, ultimately, she dearly misses them too much.

Iori and Armadimon

Iori also went through some drastic changes in character over the course of 02, so when you look at My Conclusion, it’s basically Iori at his “worst” point of black-and-white morality:

Everyone, I will be speaking my conclusion Evil will not be tolerated Even evil in itself will be defeated by justice That will always be a certainty in the end

I mean, let’s even consider the fact that the song is called “My Conclusion” in the first place. Iori’s slamming this all down like this is the end-all of everything, and you can’t change his mind! He does briefly admit that there are certain things reason itself won’t change, but it’s more like he’s on the verge of having an out, because in the end, really…

Everyone, I will be speaking my conclusion Our enemies are beyond reason Again and again, to the very end They will certainly use cowardly means to come and attack us

Rationality. No feelings involved. Evil is evil, and justice is justice. No takebacks. Life exists by rules, and nothing else.

Message to the Future is possibly one of the most interesting songs in the original Best Partner collection, because it does actually provide hints about where Iori should be going in the future, and also has a lot of things that retroactively hit a lot harder from the meta perspective. The song fully fleshes out Iori’s feelings and concerns about how to grow up into a proper adult (which was hinted to be his real motivation as to why he was so strict with himself in 02), and that, most of all, what he wants is for his “feelings” to never change no matter what happens. Iori expresses concerns about how he might change as an adult to Armadimon, and Armadimon assures him that he’ll still be “Iori”, no matter what.

So, come the new character song collection, Iori’s new solo song is aptly titled “Things That Won’t Change” – because, in the end, despite everything that changed, his feelings did not. He says it himself: the important parts that he really wanted, the desire to do the right thing and to protect others, never changed a bit at all since “back then”. What did change, however, was his way of going about it.

Rather than what someone else has decided I’ve chosen my own future now

and again:

Rather than imitating someone else This is to shout out my own future

The emphasis on this being Iori’s own choice is important because Iori has finally decided not to live by strict rules imposed on him nor by imitating others (remember, part of the reason he kept doing what he did back in 02 was because he had such a strong belief “my father would have done this”). Others had been encouraging him to “make his own decisions” from the get-go – even Hida Chikara himself had told him that he was the one who needed to decide what to do in any moment in 02 episode 5 – and after dealing with a violation of his own morals in having to kill a Digimon in 02 episode 44, one episode later, in discussing with Takeru, Iori has to come to terms with the decision to continue fighting because “this is what I have decided myself”, because it’s not about whether he has an obligation to keep fighting for the sake of justice, but because he, himself, wants to protect others, and will do what it takes to do so. There’s no more of these strict rules of “because it must be this way” or the black-and-white morality that caused him to be so initially hostile towards Ken and Oikawa, but an understanding that these things need to be decided from the heart.

Moreover, unlike My Conclusion, Things That Won’t Change isn’t written like Iori’s turning in some school essay, but rather, more than half the song is in casual-form Japanese (which was associated with Iori when he became more emotional and wasn’t keeping himself in check anymore), and is more of a thoughtful reflection of his own feelings rather than trying to pass itself off as following rules because he must.

Thus, while the duet Choo Choo Tryin’ isn’t as heavy-handed as Message to the Future, Iori and Armadimon acknowledge that they need to be forward-thinking and keep going (generally tied to the message of 02 in itself), and Iori outright discusses the potential pitfalls of becoming too stiff. Furthermore, the song has copious rap portions, which seems rather unfitting for Iori on its face – until you realize that not only was Iori sometimes willing to indulge in more fun even back during 02 (just because he was strict with himself didn’t mean he was a complete killjoy), Iori’s also just a lot more flexible-minded in general, and has a penchant for wanting to do things right when he’s given a task. (His delivery of the rap in the song isn’t monotonous nor overly emotional, but has the nuance of someone who’s trying to recite all of it with caution.)

The part that’s particularly striking from the meta perspective is that Iori and Armadimon are no longer voiced by the same voice actress; Message to the Future was essentially Urawa Megumi talking to herself. So now, Iori has a new voice actor, and in many ways has become very different from Armadimon – but because Armadimon sounds a little like Iori, you could say he’s helping preserve the childish side of Iori that’s more important than ever to hold onto, especially since Iori himself worried about changing too much. And so, Iori’s still willing to indulge in a sort of “fun” song like this, and in the end, despite everything, you understand that they haven’t drifted apart at all in the slightest.

That’s not to say that Armadimon himself hasn’t changed either – in fact, he’s changed himself in response to how much Iori has. His original solo song had a lot of easygoingness to it, and some constant reminders for Iori to please, please chill – but his new one has a much stronger sense of resolve and forward-thinking attitude, reflecting that, while Iori himself technically had to learn to embrace more emotional uncertainty through the events of 02, it was also able to give him much stronger resolve that this was something he was doing because he was emotionally prepared for it, not out of some sense of moral obligation.

Takeru and Patamon

I’ve already covered Takeru’s original Best Partner song Focus and how it’s probably not about shipping as much as the fanbase tends to pin it as, but in any case, the operative part is here:

Before I knew it, I was watching over you Still standing at a skewed angle from behind The focus of your heart I wonder, is it on me, or… No, I can’t ask

Takeru couldn’t bring himself to ask sensitive questions or be straightforward about his emotions – which is basically what was Takeru’s lingering problem over Adventure and 02, that he kept swerving around or even lying about sensitive topics and holding everything inside, until one of his triggers was hit and everything exploded. Therefore, even when an important question about someone else comes up, he “can’t ask”. Moreover, for all Takeru is known as a lighthearted and kind person, Focus is a really turbulent song with a really harsh arrangement, and it’s a pretty accurate view of all the complicated and sometimes even negative emotions that Takeru was (badly) coping with over the course of 02.

This was the whole issue with Takeru and Iori’s Jogress arc in 02 episodes 34-36 – that Iori felt he couldn’t understand nor communicate well with Takeru, and had to eventually take matters into his own hands in order to properly understand his feelings. Takeru’s further interactions with Iori were significantly more straightforward for the rest of the series, and the experience also led to Takeru being able to more openly communicate with Ken as well, since the two had been on awkward speaking terms for most of the third quarter of the series.

So when we get to Step High Step…

You lament, you don’t have confidence in yourself I’m saying this to you as I’ve been watching you You’re amazing at all times

The song features Takeru being fairly straightforward about his feelings and opinions instead of just dodging it and going for an “everything’s okay” keeping-the-peace attitude, and not only that, he’s commenting on someone else, something that he probably would have refrained from in 02 for being intrusive. Of course, Takeru was always a nice person, but he wasn’t exactly straightforward about being nice back then – and yet here we are.

Since Focus is probably about his relationship with Patamon and how he kind of wasn’t exactly straightforward about his worries with him either (see 02 episode 34), it’s also interesting to compare Takeru and Patamon’s duet songs as well. Steppin’ out does portray a progression from Adventure in that they’ve accepted they can “do things over” again after things crash down (presumably referring to Angemon’s death and rebirth), but you’ll notice there isn’t much in the way of actual communciation between the two – something that’s not only present in Le Lien, but also portrays them as outright in-sync to the point of “telepathy”. We’re talking about a pair where the fanbase has historically had doubts about how similar they were back in 02 because of how “mismatched” they seemed!

Which, incidentally, they weren’t actually – you can see Patamon pretending he’s not about to cry in his original Best Partner song Don’t Stop Pata-Pata, much like how Takeru would cover up his own emotions, and gritting his teeth and resolving to fight harder. Meanwhile, while Ring of Smiles ostensibly continues to have Patamon be “sweet and cute”, it contains a lot of important nuances of “appreciating daily life with friends”, even if Patamon himself can’t quite find words for it – in other words, it’s actually some rather insightful and thoughtful sentiments from Patamon about the importance of being with and connecting with others, mirroring what Takeru himself learned in connecting with the others around him, especially Iori.

Hikari and Tailmon

Remember, Hikari has two lines (one in Adventure and one in 02) that basically summarize the main “issue” she was dealing with in both series: she was selfless to unhealthy levels, and would prioritize others’ welfare over herself to the point of self-destruction. So in her original solo Best Partner song, Gentle Rain, she puts it pretty explicitly:

I want to always be wearing nothing but smiles But I can’t be cheerful all of the time

or:

So that I can become a greater version of myself Please give me strength

All things considered, Gentle Rain is full of Hikari’s own insecurities, and her belief that she doesn’t have enough strength to do anything for herself. She makes references to being pulled to the Dark Ocean, mainly because – as she says – she doesn’t want to go there, but she doesn’t have enough strength or willpower to resist it. In fact, Best Partner 11 is full of a lot of angst; Gentle Rain is Hikari angsting about her own weakness and inability to do much for herself, Getting up is Tailmon angsting about her painful past and everything to do with it, and Shining Star is basically a plea for both of them to be able to do anything despite all the pain. It’s all pretty severely heavy content, despite the initial sparkly-looking sentiment of it all.

Considering the circumstances, it’s not really all that surprising. Hikari spent her time in Adventure and the first half of 02 very “emotionally isolated” from the others, to the point very few people could understand what she was thinking, and while she’d never hesitate to put herself out for other people, anything to do with herself, like getting pulled to the Dark Ocean, would result in resignation “it’s over” and “I can’t do anything about it”. Tailmon came from the background of being effectively raised by the abusive Vamdemon, so 02 was really only part of the earliest portion of her moving on with her life and being able to spend happier moments with Hikari. But, of course, the real turning point was 02 episode 31, when Miyako finally managed to break through to her and convince her to not accept the inevitability of things happening to herself, to accept help with the support of others, and to not take things happening to her as a sign she’s doomed.

So when we reach Hikari’s new solo song, Tomorrow’s Blue…

I want to chase after my dreams and hopes, it’s fine even if they’re incomplete I won’t lose, I won’t stop, I’ll do this to stay true to myself

The most striking thing about the song is that it features Hikari assertively talking about her own desires and feelings, when back in 02 she basically tried to kick them out of the picture for the sake of everyone else (and, really, even in Tailmon’s new solo song, Tender tale, she outright calls Hikari out for still prioritizing other people over herself). It’s not demeaning herself, it’s not resigning herself to anything, it may have a slight admission that she’s not super-confident about everything yet, but it’s still her looking forward and choosing to pursue what he wants. It’s a big deal!

And instead of the constant angst that permeated Best Partner 11, the new album is about Hikari and Tailmon talking about their feelings towards each other – something that neither of them really verbalized that well over either Adventure and 02 – and contextualizing their importance to each other over the course of their “story”. Hikari talks about Tailmon’s role of assertiveness in helping her break out of her shell, and Tailmon generally provides an extremely accurate description of Hikari in a nutshell – that she’s a bit mysterious, that she’s emotionally sensitive, that she’s cheerful and lifts others’ spirits. What’s more, Tailmon makes a reference to the same kind of “pain” and “losing things” she referred to in Getting up, but instead of angsting about it, she positively accepts it as something that may happen in the process of protecting others. (Oh, and it and the new duet A Tale of the Light also make reference to Hikari’s photography hobby in 02, contextualizing it as something Hikari did to chronicle their precious memories.)

So in summary, Hikari and Tailmon have both been able to accept 02′s philosophy of becoming forward-thinking, positive, and accepting the help of others in order to move forward. Not bad!

Conclusion and digression

Despite how these songs are almost polar opposite in portraying their before-and-after development of the 02 kids, nobody’s really argued that any of them are out of character! In the end, it’s a pretty succinct depiction of what these kids were dealing with and what they grew into by the end of the series. Seriously, I never, ever want to hear that these kids were underdeveloped nor that they didn’t go through any significant development over the course of 02 ever again. That’s just not true at all, and this simply happens to be one of the many illustrations of how.

Moreover, the songs themselves and the “conversations” that came with the new albums solidify firmly that the 02 group has extremely tight relations with their partners even at this time – with Daisuke actively consulting V-mon for help, Miyako, Takeru, and Hikari actively dragging their partners everywhere with them, Ken having Wormmon be his effective alarm clock, and Iori being so close with Armadimon that his Nagoya dialect is rubbing off on him. Daisuke, Miyako and Hikari have a huge point made that, regardless of the rather easygoing way they’re going at it, they’re very aware of what they want to do from this point out and are following it with gusto (and while it’s not stated in words, Iori carrying a huge textbook, presumably a law one, with note markers all over it drives the point home that this applies to him, too). It’s a really, really huge contrast to what was going on with the directionless Taichi, Yamato, and Sora effectively neglecting their own partners back in Kizuna – and further reinforces the reason the 02 group was in such an unusually favorable position during the movie.

[beermanoftana]

Hmmm..... let's have a discourse to cheer you up... why is Sorato a bad ship. give us all the reasons <3

Okay, this took me a while but I finally have my answers. And thank you for cheering me up!

I haven't watched the first two seasons in a while so if my memory is wrong, please do tell me because I want to know. Or do I. I mean, this is Sorato so why would I want to know. HAHAHA.

Let's go! (not in order because I just wrote down whatever came to mind atm; also I didn't include Tri. and Kizuna because I really only watched them once and was like...yeah, okay)

their interactions were purely "forced", i mean like, if they didn't need to talk to each other, they wouldn't even have said a word

sora may care a lot about the others but did she make an effort to pay their respects, unlike yamato who actually did (with mimi, let's put in some mimato here)

in retrospect, we see sora's crush on yamato when the original 7/8 got together in s2...but like...that's it, that's all, ta-dah

yamato barely looked at sora's direction, yeah, sure, they were friends and they interacted a bit (see bullet 1), but like, the only time we actually see him with her is during the concert

and may i add that sora was in danger...really, if jyou was the one there, would he not save her, too?

also, in the epilogue, were they really still together or what, like, kenyako was always together even when the kids were running forward, but sorato was apart?

in the battle with piemon, gomamon was the one who got yamato from him and sora threw him at takeru...i think the reason why i'm putting this here is because we must remember that it was not sora who got yamato, but gomamon...

put sorato in one room, just them, do you really think that they'll suddenly have feelings for one another, go on, think about it...i admit that their bond may become stronger but i don't see enough tension for them to suddenly be like "oh, i love you", if ever, they'd push each other more to be with other people--not because they don't want to have feelings for each other but because they could become good friends and support one another

if we think about it, yamato never really...you know, sees much in sora, i mean, he does of course, he sees a lot in all, but the only time i actually remember them saying more than just one sentence to each other was when sora was pulled by the dark side (shoot, i don't remember what that was but i remember that interaction)

yamato and sora, though could be good friends, cannot be romantically linked...why? because in the long run, they will butt heads, they're both very strong personalities, and if you think about it, those personalities are the ones that tend to clash, sure, they can talk things out, but...let's face it, their relationship can only purely be platonic

And that concludes my essay. These are really just more of my opinions but why not share? I know some may not make sense atm (and my battery is running out and I'm too lazy to plug in at 11pm so I'm doing this a bit faster) but if you wanna talk about it, let's go!

[sincerelytan]

Did you see the brief Mimato moment in the new Digimon movie? (Last Evolution Kizuna) There was even a Taiora moment, I'm convinced everyone on that team wanted these endings !!

Hey! 

Thank you for the ask! Yes I totally agree with you. To be honest in all the movies and shows the creators always seem to bring Tai and Sora together. 

I'm so sorry for not replying to you sooner. I had really bad and stressful weeks. But thanks to you I saw the movie again! (always love an excuse to watch Digimon again) and I got some screenshots! 

(spoilers for kizuna)

I absolutely loved loved loved the Kizuna movie. It's filled with nostalgia. Although I do wish they would have focused a bit more on all the chosen. Obviously the movie mainly centered around Matt and Tai and after them Izzy but I kind of wished they had more of the others in it as well. Sora was hardly in the movie but they covered it up by having a short movie, (Mimi and Joe deserved some more screen time in kizuna though ) To Sora for her which describes she's moving on from the fights and is concentrating on her flower arrangement. (and I loved how her final piece represented everyone).

Also loved how being miles apart Mimi still kept a check on everyone, following up on what everyone's doing and specially Sora when she hasn't been responding to the group chats. (I love their friendship) as Sora is now a bit distanced from the rest of the group,

Which brings me to the TAIORA MOMENT in kizuna

When Taichi blows that whistle to wake everyone up from their memory trap, Sora despite being super far away from Tai, CAN STILL HEAR HIM CALLING OUT. I mean she always knows when he's distressed even when they are miles apart and she's not spoken to him for days! Toei, how can you tell me Tiora was not intended to be the end game!! 

I mean look at this 

This right here is Taiora proof!!! SHE EVEN CALLS OUT TAICHI as she looks out the window. And to add further, in another movie, when Matt, Tai and Sora are standing together and the wind blows, she instinctively turns towards Tai. 

Sora always runs to Taichi for any support, comfort or trouble as instinct and has a much deeper bond with him and he's always there for her. They understand each other much better.

After all this you're telling me Toei didn't make Taiora end game? Like are you kidding me!

The major Mimato moment for me in the movie was when Matt dropped everything and ran to the hospital as soon as he heard Mimi had collapsed and was in the hospital. He basically just ran as soon as he got the call in the middle of his important research on the assistant! Tell me that's not concern. Knowing Matt's nature and personality, he would finish his research and go to the hospital calmly (as he knows others are there and the research he was conducting was super important) and wouldn't rush like this unless it was TK (or Mimi!)

During the hospital scene, it looked like Matt and Tai were more concerned about Mimi than Izzy and Joe. Izzy was trying to figure out everything going on with Eosmon, Joe is concentrating on being a professional doctor and Tai and Matt show genuine concern (I mean look at Matt's face when he looks at Mimi)

Another moment for me was when they were in the digital world, Matt looks at TK and Mimi and becomes extremely concerned.

Also when they were stuck in their memories as kids, Mimi, TK and Joe went to physically stop Matt while Izzy and Kari stopped Tai and that's when Sora felt Tai's pain as she called out to him even though she was at her place in the real world. (Matt says we need to keep moving forwards while looking at Mimi)

Probably nothing but a small thing for me was that during the end credits it was Mimi, then Matt.

Agh Tumblr won't let me post more than 10 images!! And thus the image blend.

I'm convinced the epilogue after season 2 doesn't count after kizuna.

[jippy-kandi]

Digimon Adventure: 2020 – Episode 17: The Battle In Tokyo Against Orochimon (Review)

Thoughts on the seventeenth episode of the Digimon Adventure reboot series.

Decent episode. I liked that Takeru got more than two seconds of screentime!

Eyesmon evolved into Orochimon and, honestly, Eyesmon was the better villain haha. Orochimon was more like filler-mon.

Sora: “Hurry, Taichi, Yamato!” Taichi: “Yamato, we need to hurry!” WereGarurumon: “Yamato!” So many “Yamatos” in a short span of time. XD; He has a great name. ;)

Mimi: “We’re falling!” Jou: “But my entrance exam score can’t fall!” Haha, our Hermione. <3

Big Brain Koushirou strikes again. This team would fail so hard if he didn’t exist, lol.

I liked that Yamato wanted to defeat Orochimon right away, because he didn’t want it to harm Takeru in the real world. It’s a given, but . . . it’s still so sweet. <3

Yamato reveals to Taichi that Takeru lives in Daikanyama, near Shibuya. Noting this for future reference.

TAKERU IS SO CUTE. *SQUISH* He’s only had very little screentime, but I already feel so much more attached to him than I did to OG Adventure Takeru, haha. (I love tri. Takeru though, I just didn’t care that much for Adventure/02 Takeru. :P)

Takeru has Yamato down as “Onii-chan” (Big Brother) in his phone, and he calls him “Onii-chan”, but the official translation just goes with Yamato’s name, since we (the West) don’t refer to our older siblings like that.

Well, I guess Yuuko Yagami is a better mother than Natsuko Takaishi, who is no where in sight in Takeru’s apartment during a 3-day power outage. :P

OMG PHOTO OF HAPPY YAMATO AND TAKERU -- AND THEY’RE HOLDING HANDS. <3 Awww, they cut off Hiroaki and Natsuko’s heads. This better be for good reason! (For a cool reveal later!)

You know, when you’re a kid . . . your hairstyle is mostly thanks to your parents (likely your mum). Natsuko gave Yamato a really stylish haircut, but when it came to Takeru, she just shrugged at the hairdresser and said a mop was fine. XD;

Oh, but then Yuuko loses Hikari in a crowd . . . I’ll deduct a point here. :P

Jou: “Gomamon literally became bigger and evolved into a stronger Zudomon too.” Piyomon: “Oh, if you’re talking about size . . .” Sora: “Garudamon would rival you.” Sora in Kizuna’s timeline: “Yamato would rival you.” I’m sorry. XD; 

Palmon: “Then I’m the most beautiful!” Mimi: “Only when you’re Lillymon.” Mimi spitting straight facts. XD

Sora is best Team Mum and I love her so much.

Awww, Taito. <3

How are Taichi and Yamato just sitting on top of MetalGreymon’s head? But it looks cool, so let’s not question it. :P (Look at Yamato smiling though, while Taichi is totally focused on destroying Orochimon, hahaha.)

This episode had an excessive amount of nodding. Let’s all agree in silence! XD

Pretty cool that Hikari and Takeru got to see their brothers fight. Now join them! :)

The MetalGreymon vs Orochimon fight was nice, but very anti-climatic to be contained to one episode. Now we have another countdown (this show loves them!), and the kids will finally meet Devimon?

The highlight this episode was definitely Takeru for me. HE’S SO CUTE. And it looks like Takeru and Hikari will finally join the team next week! :D

[higuchimon]

[information]

I decided since my old 2021 Resolutions post was so horrifically out of date, that I should write a new pinned post. I recommend reading this for information about me.

First: no more writing resolutions. I'll write what I can, when I an.

Second: I am non-binary/agender. Pronouns are they/them, though I responded to she/her so long that I am not bothered by them. I'm also asexual & aromantic.

Third: I am nearly fifty. My fandoms of choice are, in no given order, are: Power Rangers (MMPR-PRLR, with occasional dips into later ones), Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Tamers, Digimon Frontier, Digimon Xros Wars/Hunters, Digimon Applimonsters, Digimon NEXT, YGO DM, YGO GX, YGO 5Ds, YGO Zexal, YGO Arc-V, YGO VRAINS, YGO Sevens, Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boubeiu Love & Love Love, Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boubei Happy Kiss, Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, and Trollhunters. Digimon tri & Digimon Kizuna I might take small bits from but am not overly fond of them. Nothing more needs to be said on that front. YGO GX is the blood in my veins. I am unlikely to writee any given game for Pokemon.

Fourth: I have a large backlog of prompts for fics, both submitted by others and taken up for myself. If you wish to send in a prompt, the inbox is always open but it may take time for me to get to it, depending on my mood and what the prompt sparks. Please check "higuchimon prompts" for lists of prompts.

I warned you. All right. Here we go. You'll see some concepts and preferences pop up repeatedly. Tread with caution.

Digimon Adventure 02

Non-epilogue compliant: fics where the epilogue (and now that they exist, Tri and Kizuna) isn't going to happen. Non-canon ships (most often Ken x Daisuke & Taichi x Yamat0) abound. Fics seldom related to one another unless otherwise noted.

Loss, Gain, & Other Heartaches: A new enemy brainwashes a lot of human Chosen and their partners, after destroying the original twelve's patners, leading to the Digimon's data being merged with the Chosen's.

Division of Destiny: What if Vamdemon turned Sora into a vampire and from there defeated the Chosen? Well, he ended up turning Taichi, Jou, & Mimi into vampires as well, while imprisoning Hikari and giving Yamato, Takeru, and Koushiro to Piemon and the Dark Masters as slaves. A pesky rebellion formed of Daisuke, Iori, Miyako, Ken, Osamu, and various other charactes tries to fight them. Firm ships are currently just Ken x Daisuke.

When Blood Crosses: Oh, one of my favorites and probably my oldest AU altogether. What if humans and Digimon could have children together? And what if they did already? Seven out of twelve of the Chosen are part Digimon - or more. This is a full-blown multiverse. Stories don't always relate to one another, but the basic concepts tend to be the same. Ships can vary but for the most part are Taichi x Yamato, Jou x Koushiro, Mimi x Sora, Hikari x Miyako, Ken x Daisuke, and Takeru x Iori. Not averse to Piemon x Takeru, either.

Quiet Interlude: Little fluffy pieces featuring Taichi x Yamato in an establihsed relationship during 02 and beyond.

Adaptions: I don't have much written here but I have Such Plans. It will involve Things Happening to Taichi (in season 1) and Daisuke (season 2). It will probably end with Taichi x Yamato and Ken x Daisuke.

Take To The Skies: In this world, some people have wings and can fly. Daisuke is a Flier. The Digimon Kaiser thinks that makes him the perfect pet. But he will need training, of course. Kaiser x Daisuke. Other stories might involve the others who have wings.

Return of Old Enemies: Takeru is captured by two strange Digimon and collared so he can't speak. That's only the beginning of what's going on.

Fragmented Memory: Kaiser x Daisuke. Kaiser has wiped Daisuke's memory and convinced him that they're together. The other Chosen are not happy about this.

Broken Bonds: A soulmate AU featuring Piemon x Takeru. This is also a breeds AU. Piemon murders Patamon and takes Takeru.

Fight To Remember: Kaiser has lost his memory. So has Daisuke. Together, they need to learn who they were, who they are, and who they're going to be. Ken x Daisuke, obviously.

Services Rendeed: Daisuke gets poisoned and the cure lies within territory controlled by the Kaiser. The only way to save him is for the Kaiser to do it. His price - Daisuke himself. To be his until he gets bored with Daisuke. Sadly, the Kaiser isn't easily bored. Ken x Daisuke.

Stirring Shadows: Ken had a very naughty dream about being the Kaiser again and wanting to dominate Daisuke instead of the Digital World. Now, it was just a dream - right? Ken x Daisuke, older.

Scars of Victory: The Digimon Kaiser defeated the Chosen and took Daisuke as his trophy. For seven years he's ruled over the Digital World unopposed, having blocked the older Chosen from entering the Digital World. Now the barriers have dropped - and revenge is best served cold. Ken x Daisuke, brainwashing, off-screen death.

Course of Events: Set in a breeds AU: Vamdemon notices something unusual about Daisuke when he's in line to meet Tailmon and sends him to Piemon, who discovers who and what he is. How interesting. No current ships.

Walking The Edge: The Chosen have fought the Kaiser for years without knowing his true identity. Daisuke has also been dating Ichijouji Ken for years. So when the Kaiser finally reveals who he is - well, Daisuke has a choice to make. And the Kaiser will only allow one.

Dark Brotherhood: breeds AU. Ken, as Kaiser, has discovered that his half-brother is Yamato. Or rather, Anbumon. An alliance is offered. Ships: Yamato x Taichi & Ken x Daisuke.

Danger Zone: The Kaiser is very annoyed at Daisuke's continued existence as his enemy. So he decides to change where Daisuke's allegiance lies. Kaiser x Daisuke.

Hidden Truths: Miyako-centered breeds AU, also involving Jou and his dark side Fuseiimon. No ships centered, but light indicationss of Ken x Daisuke, Jou x Koushiro, and Taichi x Yamato.

Errors of Love: Aged up AU. Daisuke is dating the Kaiser. This is probably a very terrible mistake. KEn x Daisuke.

Magical Educations In Love: Magical school AU. Established ships: Ken x Daisuke, with possible Ken x Daisuke x Takeru.

Shadowed Soul: Piemon x Vamdemon x Takeru. is it love or just sex? Takeru wishes he knew. It's also a soulmate AU.

Melody of the Heart: A world of magic and magical creatures. Loosely a mirror of my breeds verse (and I do mean loosely). Established ships: Taichi x Yamato, Ken x Daisuke, Jou x Koushiro, Mimi x Sora. Others to come.

What He Wants: M rated/non-con, Kaiser x Daisuke. That's pretty much all there is to it. Just a couple of drabbles now but I'll expand it later.

Game of Life: breeds AU. The Kaiser's noticed something about some of the Chosen and wants to know what's going on. Undecided ships.

Bitter Bargains: The Chosen have fought the Kaiser for years. He's shown a rough attachment to Daisuke - kidnapping him on a regular basis. Then one day, Daisuke wakes up to find the Kaiser in his bedroom. Oh, dear. Non-con Kaiser x Daisuke.

Sanguine Bindings: Aged up AU - and Ken's a vampire, who mind-controlled Daisuke from episode 2 onward. Brainwashing/mind control/non-graphic non-con.

Purpose of Existence: Kaiser found out about Daisuke being a very special breed and claimed him for his own. Daisuke doesn't like this but something isn't right - he listens, whether he wants to or not. Aged up/breeds AU. Ken x Daisuke.

Buds and Blossoms: A romance between Hikari and Mimi. That's about it.

No Good Decisions: Daisuke accidently eats something he shouldn't have in the Digital World. It wouldn't be so bad - if the Kaiser hadn't found him and determined that someone needed to watch him. Ken x Daisuke.

Blood Of His Blood: Breed AU. Piemon wants to live again and will ensure that he does, through his oldest son.

For All Time: Taichi's been in an accident and Yamato's not sure when he will wake up. Taichi x Yamato.

Heart of Demon, Soul of Angel: AU where Taichi is an angel and Yamato is a demon. At least it starts off that way. A lot is going to change. Established ships: Taichi x Yamato & Ken x Daisuke.

Bonds & Bondage: Kaiser goes ahead and Rings V-mon. This affects Daisuke, unexpectedly. Now what will the Chosen do? Ken x Daisuke.

Fireblood: Breeds/Firestarter/Healer AU. Vamdemon bites Yamato and awakens his dark side - not good for anyone at all. Taichi x Yamato.

Flaming Ivy: The 02 Chosen are Healers and Firestarters and are working out what that means for them. Ken x Daisuke.

Digimon Tamers

Fair Wings: Some of the Tamers have wings, including Juri, Kenta, and Ruki. Adventunres and romance thereof. Established relationship: Juri x Takato.

Digimon Frontier

Consequences of Games: Just a set of fluffy post-canon fanfics featuring the Chosen playing games and what happens after the games. Firm ships include Kouji x Kouichi and Junpei x Izumi.

Heirs Apparent: Lucemon's spirit escaped confinement and was able to have an encounter with Kimura Tomoki, siring twin boys.

Godslave: So, Lucemon is the God-King of the world, ruling humans and Digimon alike. What he wants, he gets. And now he wants Kouji.

Tales of WInd and Water: Stories that cicle around Ranamon and Izumi.

Reflections of Dark Shadows: An AU where Kouji doesn't have a twin. What he does have is a reflection - and the reflection doesn't like his boyfriend. Established Takuya x Kouji, one-sided Kouichi x Kouji.

The Wind-child: A fantasy AU where Izumi is the daughter of AncientIrismon and has many adventures.

Yu-Gi-Oh Xros Wars/Hunters

Not Telling All: Yuu is a vampire with a taste for Tagiru. Tagiru doesn't know - at least not yet.

Hunting The Great Game: A rewrite of Xros Wars/Hunters. Set three years instead of one after the Xros Wars. Taiki finds himself back in the Digital World and that's where it all begins.

Digimon NEXT

Knight Tales: Fantasy AU. Kahara Shou's village is slaughtered and burned down and he's the only survivor. Taken in by Barbamon, he becomes the Demon Lord's devoted Knight.

Yu-Gi-Oh DM

Pleasures of Shadows: Yami no Malik has been revived as an incubus.

Crimeland: An AU where there are three Kaiba brothers (Seto, Seth, and Mokuba) and - many other differences I haven't gotten to writing yet. Only set 'ship is Seto x Kisara.

Uncertain Choices: A modern day AU, with Atemu and Yuugi as twin brothers. Only set ship right now is Atemu x Mahaado. If I ever finish the sequel I have in mind, I will add Seto x Yuugi.

Ways of Magic: a magical AU. Seto and Mokuba are dragons. Pegasus is a sorcerer. Mai is a pirate queen. Otogi is a djinn. A few scattered set pairings such as Otogi x Bakura Ryou.

Heart of Magic: a magical AU. This one involves a magical school where various characters are students or teachers. Established ships: Atemu x Mahaado.

Gifts of Power: A Superhero AU. A large chunk of people have powers. Established relationship: Isis x Mana.

Yu-Gi-Oh GX

Reversal AU: In canon, Juudai has the poewr of the Gentle Darkness. Here, in a world very like Dark World but with differences (such as a sun), he has the power of the Destructive Darkness - and he is pure evil, enjoys it, and has the overall goal of destroying all of creation. A small, plucky rebellion stands against him. Do they stand a chance? Time will tell. Be warned: non-consensual Juudai x Johan, as well as someone becoming a vampire, and many other twisted plot points. I love this AU.

Stronger Than Water: We don't know much about Johan's past. So what if he actually grew up in Dark World, as Brron's adopted son? And was sent to kill Juudai? Firm ships are Yubel x Juudai and maybe Yubel x Juudai x Johan. I havevn't gotten far enough to be sure.

Hell's Ice: What if Ryou were the one taken by Kagemaru and Amnael instead of Fubuki? Well, add in some elemental affinities and we have the Hell Kaiser of Ice - one of the Seven Stars. No set ships othe than Yubel x Juudai, though I am debating a few.

Itch To Scratch: Juudai and Yubel are demons. Johan's an angel - or he thinks he is, anyway. What he really is, he'll find out eventually. Firm ship is Yubel x Juudai x Johan.

Bridges: So, in this series, Juudai's power is that of the Light of Creation. Johan has the Gentle Darkness - and Juudai has been possessed by the Light of Ruin for seven thousand years.

Dead Weight: It's the zombie apocalypse! Ahhh! No set in stone ships yet.

King's Champion: When a late-night break-in goes very wrong, Yubel ends up taking Juudai to Dark World for his own safety. He ends up being raised by Brron. But taking him away from Earth has consequence, both good and bad. Yubel x Juudai. Not ruling out Yubel x Juudai x Johan in the future.

Shadow Demons: Juudai: King of Hell, with Yubel and Johan as his Consorts. Ryou, a demon prince. Fujiwara Yuusuke, a shadow mage with Honest as his guardian angel. Fubuki as an angel of love. Asuka slays evil vampires. And much, much more. Established ships: Ryou x Yuusuke and Yubel x Juudai x Johan.

Echoes: Rewrites of different parts of GX. Currently only the Haou arc, but others to come. Established ships: technically none but eventually Yubel x Juudai.

In The Shadows of the Fae: Juudai is the King of the Fae with Yubel and Johan as consorts, and Shou as his servant. A delicious AU that I enjoy. Established ships: Yubel x Juudai x Johan.

In Chains: Fantasy AU. Brron is gifted Shou as a slave, and Shou has to deal with that. Not easy. Established ships: Yubel x Juudai x Johan & Edo x Ryou x Saiou.

In Any World: A series of non-connected Yubel x Juudai AUs. Each is a one-shot and is in a different AU.

Past and Future: Yubel shows Juudai events that happened in their past lives together, as they forge a new future with one another. Yubel x Juudai.

Sky Stories: A lot of people have wings. Juudai didn't - until he fused with Yubel. Ryou has rusted metal wings - until Edo takes care of them. ANd many more stories. Established ships: Yubel x Juudai x Johan.

To Accept Fate's Will: A soulmate AU. Established ships: Yubel x Juudai, Edo x Saiou x Ryou. O'Brien x Sea God's Priestess.

Hole In Your Heart: Not fighting means that Shou's in danger. Especially when he gets captured and sold to one of Haou's servants. As if his third year wasn't already going downhill. No actual ships that I know of (probable future Yubel x Juudai)

In Space, In Light: Juudai sent Yubel into space to be healed by the Gentle Darkness. In canon, it failed. Here, it worked. Uh-oh. Yubel x Juudai.

Paladin's Quest: post ending series. Ryou dies of heart failure and is reborn as a duel spirit without his memories of his past. But that's going to change, because what he did in Dark World cannot be forgotten.

In Darkness We Find FIre: An AU of my own devising, that I call Healer/Firestarter. Healers can heal & communicate/grow plants, and Firestarters bun things. There are a lot more details than that but this tale is a retelling of canon through that lens. Established ship: Yubel x Juudai.

Politics of Ages: Asuka is a vampire queen with two consorts: Manjoume and Ryou. Lots of vampiric politics.

Infinite Love: A magical AU with soulmates. Features Ryou x Yuusuke, Camula x Ruthven (OC), and Edo x Saiou.

King's Knights: Post-canon series. Juudai offers Ryou, Fubuki, and Yuusuke as his Knights. But that's just the beginning. Johan has his own tale to tell.

Passion's Flight: Soul-wings universe. Established asexual/aromantic Asuka. Future Yubel x Juudai.

Prisoner of the Black Tower: Johan is trapped in a black tower by someone called Haou. He doesn't know who that is. And he wants to leave.

Apprentices: A mild alternate timeline, where Kyle and Nero from season 3 meet and become friends - while in Haou's dungeon.

World of Fusion: Brron fused all the dimensions and the world that results is so very different. Now Brron also has three sons: Juudai, Johan, and Rune (the Johan lookalike from season 3). Also, Ryou is a vampire. Established relationships: Yubel x Juudai.

Fate's Heart: Multiple tales of Yubel and Juudai as soulmates.

Power of Earth: Healer/Firestarter AU, featuring Jim and O'Brien.

Family Flowers: Healer/Firestarter AU, featuring Rick and Cobra.

Red Zinnias: Healer/FIrestarter AU, featuring Saiou and Edo

Destructive Flames: A merging of the Firestater/Healer AU and the Reversal AU. It's even less fun than the usual REvers - well, for values of fun.

Spirit Friends: People become friends with Duel Spirits aren't in their decks. Such as Wolf for Juudai and SQuall for Amon.

Bonds of Kinship: Exploring the relationship between Johan and the lookalike - his twin brother.

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

Order of the Outcasts: A fantasy AU loosely inspired by AD&D. The Order of the Outcasts is the Barians. Yuuma is a powerful healing mage and Astral is his fae companion. Much fun to be had! Co-written with SilvorMoon.

Committed To Her: Kotori is Queen Merag's slave, and devotedly loves her. Merag would like to return it, but it's not that easy. Obviously, a Merag x Kotori story, and an AU.

Cry of Vengeance: Vector wants revenge on Nasch for a long-ago offense, so he attacks Nasch's boyfriend Durbe. But that's not all he wants his revenge on and he has an interesting way to get it. Vampire/slight magic AU.

On Dragon's Wings: Mizael is a dragon. Vector is a prince who becomes a demon. And many other changes for a fantasy AU. Established ships are Vector x Mizael and Alit x Leo.

Inevitable Encounters: soulmate AU and how they deal with it. Established ships: Kaito x Yuuma, Durbe x Nasch, Kotoi x Merag/Rio, Vector x Mizael

Fae Whispers: Durbe x Chris. Chris is a Fae Prince who offers for Durbe to become a Fae Knight.

Different Numbers: Another soulmate AU. Features Durbe x Nasch, Vector x Mizael, V/Chris x Kaito, Gilag x Sanagi, & Alit x III/Michael x Yuuma.

Prison of the Prince: Vector wishes to keep Fae Prine Mizael as his prisoner. Mizael isn't so thrilled about that. Vecto x Mizael.

Hating Humanity: Durbe finds Nasch and Merag before the Astral Messenger arrive. Without Yuuma's influence, what will Nasch do? Durbe x Nasch.

Blurring: There are multiple ways to detect one's soulmate. Mizael has Vector's name on his right arm and Kaito's on his left - right arm is for the soulmate and left for the enemy.

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Beat of Wings: Some characters have wings, including Yuuya, Yuuto, Yuugo, and Yuuri. And Shun. And others. No real ships (that I know of) and Yuuri is going to have fun!

Life With A Demon: Featuring Masumi x Yuzu, Asuka x Selena, and past Selena x Masumi. Demon AU, along with other creatures of magic.

Confusing: Yuuri has captured Shun and is training him to be a warrior of Fusion. Shun would rather not - but his mind is now Yuuri's plaything.

Angels, Demons, and Deciding Factors: Angel/demon AU. Yuuri is a demon, who encounters the angel Shun in his territory. Yuuri decides that he wants this angel for his own - mostly because Shun doesn't want that, nor does Yuuto. M rated/consent issues/brainwashing.

Collars and Keeping: Yuuri captured Shun early in the war and Shun escapes the first chance he gets. But Yuuri won't let him go - and there's a horrible punishment awaiting his pet.

Fae Song: Selena x Rin x Ruri x Yuzu. Selena is a Fae Princess and the others are her servants.

Deadly Daughter: Professor Leo Akaba decides he can't trust Yuuri and thus trains Selena to be his sgent to find and captue the other gils with her face. Selena's girlfriend, Asuka, helps - only seeing what happened in the war turns her away from Fusion. Undecided ships.

Dragon and Falcon: Yuuri's a dragon & Shun's a shapeshifting falcon. Yuuri claimed Shun as a part of his hoard and his servant. And it just seems that dragon saliva does something to shapeshifters. non-con/drugged Yuuri x Shun.

Soulwings: In this AU, when soulmates meet one another (or when one's true purpose is found), wings are developed. So when Kaito and Edo cross paths... Established Kaito x Edo and alluded to Yuuri x Shun.

Strike Hard, Strike Fast: Vampire AU. Sora, Yuuri, and Dennis are vampires. Ruri and Shun are vampire hunters. So when Shun crosses their paths, Yuuri decides to take him for his own.

Opposite Ends: Yuugo is brought to Shingo as his slave. Yuugo doesn't like Shingo. Oh, they're going to have a lot of fun.

Dragonflame and Nature's Spark: A HEaler/FIrestater rewrite of Arc-V, mostly featuring Ryou and Mizael, along with Yuuri and Vector. Ship: Ryou x Mizael, Durbe x Chris, and Shou x Michael.

Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS

A Model Life: Kogami Ryouken is a supermodel. You know, when he's not a cyber-terrorist.

Power Rangers

Flip Of a Coin: Tommy Oliver is Tommi Oliver here. Gender-switch from birth.

Soulborn: Soulmates from the Power Rangers. Established ship: Cassie x Phantom. Future ship: Kat x Tommy.

BKCBL

Burning Inscription: Soulmates have the most important words spoken to them by their soulmates written on their arms. On Kinshiro's: I am Battle Lover Epinard! Nonsense. Atsushi x Kinshiro.

Love of Spirits: Kinshiro is a spirit of the sun. Atsushi is a wind spirit. The others are also magical beings. Kinshiro x Atsushi.

Crossovers

Elemental Ties: YGO GX & Digimon Frontier. Juudai and Kouichi cross paths. But they're not the only ones who share elements.

Replacement Vampire: YGO GX & Digimon Adventure 02: Post his defeat in 02, Vamdemon awakens in his Perfect form again, in a new world, where he meets someone he never thought he would - a female vampire. Camula didn't think she'd ever see another vampire. He's not quite her species, but he's definitely her type. Firm ship: Camula x Vamdemon. Also, vampire Seven Star!Ryou.

Scorpion Strike: YGO GX & YGO Zexal: Ryou wakes up in the Barian World, and doesn't know his name or anything else. But he's a Barian now, so he works for the Barian World. Ryou x Mizael.

Those are all my current series. Here are the series that I have waiting in the wings:

Power Rangers

Unexpected Tales: A series of fics about ships I like: Rita x Zedd, Emily x Jason, and Tanya x Adam.

Yellow & Blue: A pair of fics involving Trini x Billy

Digimon Adventure 02

Blossoms of Death: Non epilogue compliant, where a new enemy attacks the Chosen and a lot of things happen including friendship between different Chosen and their partners.

In Our Veins: Breeds AU. Non epilogue compliant and the breeds slowly start to awaken to their powers. Known ships: Ken x Daisuke.

Far From The Tree: Breeds AU, rewrite of a very old story of mine. Starting in the Devimon arc, the Chosen begin to awaken.

Last Dark Master: Breeds AU, another rewrite of a very old story. Yamato attracts Piemon'os attention. No ships at this time.

To True Love: A series about Taichi x Yamato. Mild Ken x Daisuke also.

Heed The Call: The Kaiser discovered the breeds - especially Anbumon, the strongest of them all. Time for an alliance. Ken x Daisuke & Yamato x Taichi.

Digimon Tamers

After Tamers: Post-canon, the Tamers have even more adventures with their returned partners.

Burning Brightly: An alternate take on Ruki and Renamon meeting one another.

Yu-Gi-Oh GX

In Solitude Lies Strength: A slight divergence changes a great deal about Juudai's rule in Dark World.

Different Kind of Darkness: When Juudai encounters a vampire before his rule in Dark World begins, everything takes a dip to a deeper darkness.

After Academia: Graduating doesn't mean that their adventurs have ended. They're just different now. Yubel x Juudai.

Colors of Love: A different soulmate concept - those who have soulmates only see the colors of their soulmate's hair and eyes until they meet - at which point they see all colors, and sprout their wings. Edo x Saiou and Yubel x Juudai, with others to come.

Hi Kari Kouri E: Healer/Firestarter. Kagemaru wants a powerful Frostflame on his Seven Stars team, so sends people to recruit a six year old Marufuji Ryou. Future Yubel x Juudai and Ryou x Yuusuke.

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Prey and Hunters: Yuuri captures Shun and has a good old time tormenting him. Rewrite of my original "Yuuri torments Shun" story. It will have a crossover with Mythology of Love by SilvorMoon eventually.

BKCBL

Seduction of Shadows: a realm with Io being human, Akoya being a demon, and Ryuu being an angel.

Crossovers

Love Is Out Of This World: BKCBL & Digimon Adventure 02. When the Digimon Kaiser drops into the Student Council Room, things become very interesting. Ken x Daisuke, Atsushi x Kinshiro.

Ties To Magic: Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Tamers, and YGO GX. A fantasy world where anyone can meet anyone at all.

From Shadows Within: Digimon Adventure, 02, Tamers, and Frontier. A new adventure for everyone! Ships: Ken x Daisuke.

I fully expect to develop more of these in the future. Time will tell! And I will update this when or if the time comes.

[ashxketchum]

A little treat for @himetsundere since she wanted to see some Mimato writing from me set in the Kizuna timeline.

For detailed notes on this little fic, refer to this post! 

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Just landed.

Once the delivered receipt appeared under the text that she had just sent, Mimi smiled and turned off the screen of her phone and slipped it in o her dress pocket. The group chat had been buzzing relentlessly since the past few days with the sudden increase in Digimon related incidents, and she was glad that her schedule allowed her to be back in Tokyo, as she wanted to help out with the problems as much as she could. Even if she did always skip through Koushiro’s lengthy explanatory messages and waited for Miyako to send her a tl;dr on the side.

Mimi readjusted the strap of her pink and white striped shopper on her shoulder and lined up in the immigration queue, knowing well that her message would get lost in the thread of all the Digimon related updates and there was no point in expecting a response. Once all the entry procedures were finished and she could finally make her way to the arrival lobby, she felt her phone vibrate strongly, not once but twice. Curious, she pulled it out of her pocket with ease, having no luggage to look after except her big handbag, and wasn’t surprised to find a message from Sora.

Welcome back. Come see me soon, Mimi chan.

She swiftly typed up her reply, letting her friend know the days she had set aside for catching up with her. Once she exited the chat screen, the next message she had received almost made her trip on her feet out of surprise. At the top of the chat screen was Yamato’s name, with a red bubble indicating that she had two unread messages from him. It was odd because the blond wasn’t much of a texter and the two usually stayed in touch through emails, and even more so because when she had recently announced her plan to come back to Japan on the group, he had been the first one to move on from the topic and onto discussing the Digimon incidents.

Nevertheless, she still tapped on his name and read the message.

Still at the Airport?

Stay there.

The messages had been sent within an interval of one minute and only confused Mimi further. Since she had already opened the chat, she decided to let him know that yes, she was still at the Airport and was just heading to catch the Monorail home. Within seconds of her text being delivered, Yamato responded with how he was waiting at the station platform, describing his location in detail so she would be able to find him easily. It was a good thing that her feet remembered where to take her since she travelled so frequently, because her mind was completely preoccupied by the fact that Yamato had offered to receive her at the Airport.

His detailed explanation of where he was at the platform was obviously unneeded, as his golden hair and the untucked grey shirt he had donned made him the odd one among the other few well suited salarymen waiting at the platform. They spotted each other at the same time, their eyes locking as Mimi got off the escalator, and in unison they raised a free hand in an awkward wave. She noticed Gabumon peeking from behind Yamato’s legs and greeted him too as she reached the pair, before calling out Palmon from the digital space so the two digimon could catch up with each other, same as their partners.

“Your luggage?” Yamato asked right off the bat, craning his neck to look behind her to see if she was hiding a suitcase or two in thin air.

“I believe in travelling light.” Mimi responded, smiling at how Palmon and Gabumon had already moved on to the topic of delicious food the two had eaten recently.

“Wouldn’t have guessed that.”

Yamato raised an eyebrow in dull surprise, but before she could come up with an appropriate reply, the train rushed into the platform silencing their little group as they queued up to enter. Luckily they were able to find seats in an empty compartment, it was midday after all Mimi thought, most people would be at work, one of the reasons she always picked this time to land, a relaxing commute home was a must after a long flight. Gabumon and Palmon sat, or more like stood, on the seat opposite to hers and Yamato so they could watch the scenery once the train exited above ground, and once they were all settled comfortably, Mimi turned her head to narrow her eyes at the blond.

“I’m a minimalist when it comes to packing for business trips, essentials only,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.

A smirk graced the blond tired face as he tilted her head towards her, “I have a very distinct memory of someone showing up to summer camp with two large pink suitcases.”

“I was ten back then,” Mimi retorted, huffing at him. “Every girl travels like a princess at that age.”

“A delusional princess?”

She punched his arm lightly and he chuckled, the sound of his light laugh filled the compartment and Mimi noticed that they were under Gabumon’s watchful gaze, or rather Yamato was, making her feel curious about the reason the two had shown up at the Airport in the first place.  But their solitude could only last so long, as once the train was above ground and a few stations in, more people started to get on. The two digimon had no choice but to return to their partners and settle themselves on their laps.

Mimi closed her eyes for a brief moment and nostalgia crashed down on her like a ferocious current. It was almost as if she had lived this moment before, Palmon snuggled in her lap, Yamato’s knees brushing against her own with the train swaying slightly as it curved for a turn. The only new sensation was that of Gabumon’s fur pressing against her bare arms, leaving a warm and tingling sensation across her skin and the fresh smell of mint that accompanied Yamato’s serene presence next to her. She felt so calm and peaceful that her eyes begin to droop on their own, her body telling her that now was the perfect time to recover from the weariness of the long flight, that she would be safe if she allowed herself to close her eyes now, that there was someone watching over her with diligence.

However, Mimi managed to collect herself and not give into the strong desire of wanting to take a nap. She watched Yamato from the corner of her eye, wondering if he too had dozed off, but found him sitting with his azure eyes wide open, staring blankly ahead of him, his face lacking any emotion making it difficult for her to understand if he was upset or angry, or just simply himself. His jaw was set strongly though, and his eyes stayed fixed on a random spot in front of him, as if inside his head he was debating over which emotion should be allowed to grace his features. Gabumon was watching him intently as well, the hint of worry in the furry creature’s piercing red eyes giving Mimi all the clues she needed to figure out just what had gotten Yamato to this point.

“That bad, huh?”

The words slipped from her mouth and she bit her tongue as Yamato turned to look at her with widened eyes. He held her gaze for a minute before he let out a tired sighed and leaned back in his seat, running his hands through his hair first before letting them rest on his forehead. It seemed as if he was trying to debate just how much information he needed to share with Mimi, before he eventually began to narrate the details.

Yamato shared with her in a low voice how the chosen children across the globe were being targeted this time, with the human partner losing consciousness and the digimon partner disappearing without a trace. He told her how he and Taichi had witnessed a girl fainting without any cause just last night, and that Koushiro had confirmed that he had lost all contact with many close friends of theirs recently. They had narrowed down the digimon that seemed to be causing this mess, but it wasn’t an easy victory and the evolution of their digimon had been affected to some extent as well.

It was obvious to Mimi from the way Gabumon’s ears kept perking up and down, and the vague way in which Yamato ended some of his statements, that he had not given her the full truth. Maybe he was waiting for Koushiro to send a detailed report to all of them later, or maybe there was another layer to the problem that the blond hadn’t` managed to come to terms with yet. Either way, Mimi understood exactly why he was on edge and why he had shown up at the Airport out of the blue. Yamato had always been the type to care deeply for his friends, even if he articulated it with aggression sometimes, knowing that chosen children were being targeted he probably just wanted to make sure that she was doing okay and would get home safe, and realising this made Mimi feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside with a natural smile appearing on her face.

Even if he had kept her in the dark with some of the details, Mimi still felt the need to repay him for showing consideration towards her safety, in his own tsundere way.

“You don’t seem too confident about this,” she said, after he had finished filling her in.

“It’s quite unlike anything we have faced before.” Yamato nodded, he didn’t admit his lack of confidence every day and that enough was a sign that much more dire things were coming their way.

“Isn’t that how it is every time?” Mimi chuckled lightly. Yamato frowned at her, possibly annoyed that she was able to laugh this over but Mimi took no heed of it and continued, “Koushiro always does his research and gives us the logical options available, while Jou senpai manages to overthink even the most easiest of solutions. But in the end, we always follow whatever Taichi san and you decide, and so far we’ve managed quite well for ourselves, don’t you agree?”

“Yes, but it-”

“Follow your instincts Yamato san.” Mimi locked eyes with him, her voice firm and her gaze determined, “They have never led us astray.”

He looked like he could still argue with her but he chose to stay silent, contemplating over her words for the rest of their ride.

When it was time for Mimi to change trains she assumed that the two would part ways, but Yamato silently followed her all the way out of the train station closest to her home. Once her parents’ apartment building came into view, she stopped in her tracks and smiled at him.

“I’ll be fine from here.”

“I know but…” He trailed off, avoiding her gaze as he looked at the ground, his hand unconsciously moving to pat Gabumon’s head.

“My father would be more worried about seeing you drop me home, rather than a digimon knocking me unconscious,” Mimi grinned, pleased with herself over how she finally managed to bring a small smile to Yamato’s face.

“I cannot argue with that.” He nodded, his blue eyes shining like a gem against the sky painted orange by the setting sun.

She assured him twice, that she would be safe and take care of herself and not allow herself to fall victim to the onslaught on chosen children, before bidding him goodbye. Even as she turned on her heels and made her way towards her parents house dreaming of a long bubble bath and home cooked food, she knew that Yamato still stood with Gabumon watching her, and allowed her heart to skip a beat.

Being the centre of Yamato’s concern was starting to seem more fun than she had expected.

Once she had relaxed at home with a long bath and dinner with her parents, she snuggled into bed with Palmon and decided that the two of them would get done with the warehouse work as quickly as possible tomorrow and head to Koushiro’s office so they could help out in the fight against this new threat. As she finally allowed herself to drift off to sleep with a smile still playing on her lips, Mimi had no idea about the nightmare that awaited her the next day.

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[ae0nx]

SUPERPOST: DIGIMON ADVENTURE: LAST EVOLUTION (KIZUNA) RECAP/REVIEW SPOILERSSSSSS

SPOILER ALERT I WILL BE GOING INTO DETAIL. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER.

I’m not gonna do a blacktober/drawtober today, but I willlll rant about Digimon, because nothing ever really changes. Ok, I’m tipsy and I feel like everyone and their mum has watched Kizuna now so I wanna finally express my feelfeels on it. Let’s goooo

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Ok, so I love how this movie opens especially as an old school fan.

It’s perfect. I love the solid feeling of ‘finality’ to the series that we never got to see in Tri... (I’ll try not talk shit about Tri in this recap but it’s gonna be difficult, I’m sorry)

- We got that call back to the original soundtrack! The only time in life I will tear up at hearing Bolero.

- I adoreee the animation and designs in this movie. It feels so much more diverse (in terms of facial features) than Tri did without even trying really. The facial expressions are so much characteristic and there’s less awkward spacey moments. It’s nice! (Ooops, mentioned Tri: Count 2 haha)

- While I was a bit disappointed with the digidestined outfits when they were first released as still images, they do look a lot better in action and they fit in well with the world that is built. But Taichi swapping sneakers for sandals? Seems false lol

Taichi’s anxiety about the destruction. Nice to see continuation and character development. We love him~~~

- The Parrotmon vs Greymon + Angemon + Angewomon fight looked dope and was a nice call back/development. The electricity and fire looked amazing and honestly had me hyped. A lot of fight scenes in this movie did.

Haha, of course Yamato had to come in looking unnecessarily cool on his fancy new bike only to talk shit about Taichi. We love him too, goddammit lol

- It totally makes sense that the two pairs of siblings and Koushirou would be the most actively involved out of all of the digidestined tbh

The movie opening theme being set to the original ‘Butterfly’ was great, and in a weird way reminded me a little of the Cowboy Bebop Movie opening theme - except very much in the style and world of Digimon Adventure

- The digidestined are public superheroes now? Makes sense, I don’t hate it~~~

- I love the montage of Taichi and Yamato going about their lives as people in their early 20s. Taichi mostly dealing with the pressures of adulthood. Yamato feeling nostalgic about the things he left behind in childhood (playing harmonica, being in a band)

Ahhh, they can drink now! So weird, yet so fun haha

- It’s also really nice for my shipper heart to see Taichi and Yamato sit down and have a meal together without totally biting each other’s heads off. Shows how much they’ve matured!

- Yolei straight up was like ‘I don’t have time for this shit, Koushirou you deal with it’ 😂Mimi has taught you well, young padawan

I was really hoping these two would be a better addition than Maki and Daigo (RIP) and they were! It’s almost like the writers saw Tri and was like... let’s do better. (Ooops mentioned Tri: Count 3)

- I reallyyyyy really sadistically like the concept of the Digimon and Digidestined’s connection to each other dying slowly the older they get and with the less necessary the Digimon become in the human partner’s life. Yeahhhhh, it doesn’t match up with the 02 ending but I’m personally not too attached to that ending so I don’t mind. A) it’s actually a plot point that makes me give a shit and B) it’s very much a reflection of life which Digimon Adventure has always been and C) it makes sense of the reason as to why Digimon gravitate to children

DAISUKE! We stan a kinggg, with his dope sunglasses. I’m so happy the 02 kids are involved in this, even if it is kinda minimal.

- I love that they included the fact that the digital gates are basically like a free airplane ticket to anywhere in the world with a computer. It’s such a useful and cool concept

- ‘Burger Queen’ ahaha

AHHHHHHHHH HAHAAHHAHA I can’t. It feel so wrong yet so... correct? Hahaha

I’m sorry, my love for Gennai died with Tri. If it was old Gennai from Adventure maybe I would’ve felt a bit more nostalgic and loving. (Oops mentioned Tri: Count 4)

- I love the 02 kids basically being a smaller detective team that Chief Detective Yamato sent forth to do some investigating. It makes so much sense and we shoulda got this in triiiiii (I just wish we got this movie instead of Tri, I’m sorry Oops mentioned Tri: Count 5)

Spy movie? I don’t hate it~~~~

OK, DETECTIVE ISHIDA! (enter theme music which is most likely very dark and edgy and gothic with a hint of pop punk)

- Sora staying at home when Mimi is in the hospital seems... off... very off... but ok... ... ... I hate how they sidelined Sora in this movie. Why does every Digimon writer since Adventure hate Sora?!?!

- The act of Taichi literally shunning his future by switching off his phone to once again reach for his old goggles and old digivice is... poetic cinema

Saw the switch coming but whoa 😳

- You know the whole concept of her creating an eternal Digital world was a cool concept until she called it Neverland

- While I really like Menoa and her being the villain, this isn’t exactly a new motivation. How many times have we seen human partners turn into villains after losing their Digimon, man?!?! Just more motivation into making me think this film is just fixing the mistakes of Tri (Oops mentioned Tri: Count 6)

I really like this design! It might make my top 3 Digimon designs.

- You know... only in the Digimon fandom would a goddamn whistle make us all emotional 😭😂

This movie is so pretty!!!!

- Wait... did Biyomon vanish and that’s why Sora wasn’t involved? 😢

Wow. WOW. That goodbye... between Taichi and Agumon... and Yamato and Gabumon... was... ALL I WANTED/DIDN’T WANT. Seriously. As I said before, I really like the fact that this movie feels... final. Honestly, I don’t want grown up adventures with the Digimon - regardless of how mean that sounds. What’s unique about Digimon is how childlike it is and the separation between the Digimon’s childlike nature and the Digidestined was growing the older the humans got and it wouldn’t make full sense for the relationship between the two to go from friends and almost equals to parent and child. 

I guess I would’ve been more accepting of the Digimon staying a constant in the Digidestined lives if the writers touched on the theme of the Digimon being adult or baby whenever they like (or whenever they eat) and relating it to humans still looking after their inner child of curiosity and creativity as they get older. But that’s a pretty difficult concept, I’m still working my head around that haha

Also, Digimon has always specifically been a metaphor/real example for the joys and hardships of childhood. While it’s super sad, I’m glad we got such a nice send off!

[rockthistowninsideout]

Never Too Late For A Leap Of Faith

Part 2

Part 1 here

Five times Taichi only feels the presence of Digimons and one time he actually meets them (again).

Words: 1401 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Tags: 5+1 Pairings: Taichi Yagami/OC, Sorato, Jyoumi

Inspired by this youtube video talking about how the end of Kizuna fits into the narrative of the Epilogue in 02, posted by TheDigiKnow. It’s in my opinion a thorough and yet personal analysis.

   The last time Taichi had been this nervous was before his final exam in his studies. He stood before a sleek black door on one of the highest floors in a governmental skyscraper in Tokyo’s heart, Roppongi. Behind the door sat a panel of the Japanese government, wanting to hear his expertise. He wondered if Koushirou was already in there. After another deep breath, telling himself to just screw it, it wouldn’t be any better if he stood here for another minute or two, he knocked.

   “Ah, Yagami-shi.” The prime minister bowed to him, as did everyone else, when he entered.

   Taichi did his best to compose himself and not get all flustered by the honour of the prime minister knowing his name.

   “Hello Taichi-san”, someone said at the other end of the table and Taichi noticed to his relief that it was Koushirou already standing beside a holographic screen.

   Taichi bowed to everyone around, then proceeded towards Koushirou. He put his briefcase onto a desk and extracted his notes. He looked at them but then he realized he wouldn’t need them. Nodding to Koushirou, he said, after a few welcoming words “The public has known Digimons mostly as, at best, a nuisance and at worst as a life-threatening force. But we know that Digimons also have a different side. They are caring, loving, and loyal companions who want nothing but the best for humans.

   Notice how I said ‘who’? Rationally looked upon, they might be only comprised of data, just like a music or a text file. But they are much more. Imagine the agony you might feel when a CD with your favourite song breaks or a very important text file gets deleted. Now exponentiate that to the grief you feel when losing a loved one, maybe even finitely. This is how we felt when we had to let our Digimon partners go all those years ago because the nature of human-Digimon bond was a doomed one, it was only temporary. Something we lose when we grow up because Digimons make the most sense when you are a child.

   And as an adult, you lose sight of what is important in life. You think you have cracked the meaning of life, working hard and getting married – and while I don’t want to disparage marriage or family, not at all – we treat it like it’s some kind of competition. That way, though, carefreeness, our sense of fun, and the lightness of just being and living get lost. But when you have children of your own, you start seeing the world again through the eyes of a child, and slowly that lightness returns.

   To make a long story short, we as humans are better off having a good connection to Digimons instead of condemning them as monsters. They preserve our childlike side and add to our social value. This is not about being chosen for a great task, like Izumi-kun and I had been, but about living peacefully together with a species that is much like us humans: Every Digimon is an individual with a fully-rounded personality.

   We are here to propose diplomatic relations to the Digital World with the long-term plan of finding a Digimon partner for every human, if they wish to have one. Izumi-kun will now introduce you to his network of DigiDestined that he’s been running for nearly fifteen years now and that shows that not only peaceful connections between humans and Digimons are possible, but also between humans themselves.”

   If Taichi had thought the anxiousness he had while standing in front of that office door had been bad, well, he’d blatantly been wrong. He had to suppress the urge to vomit while he watched Koushirou typing furiously on a holographic keyboard. It didn’t make any sense to him, though. As long as he knew Koushirou, there had been the steady rhythm of his fingers flying over the keys, a soft hammering, the sound of knowledge and curiosity. But now it was only silence, as if someone had muted reality.

   With a final enthusiastic hit, a picture appeared on the floating screen floating that was painfully familiar. A crystal blue lake, nearly perfectly circular, glittered in the sunshine, surrounded by a dense wood. In the middle of the lake was an island with the most peculiar yet reassuring sight around: a gleaming tram wagon, empty but for a few odd creatures looking like they’d been sitting there for eternity.

   Taichi looked down when he felt someone take his hand.

   “Let’s go together”, Koushirou said smilingly.

   On the other side, he felt another person’s presence. Yamato hadn’t taken his hand but his upper arm was brushing Taichi’s. Taichi inhaled deeply, then nodded. It was time.

***

   “Taichi-san?”, a hardly-surprised, childish voice asked.

     Taichi took a deep breath but he didn’t turn yet. It was too good to be true, it was what he had dreamt of since their disappearance after the Eosmon incident but he was wiser as to put too much hope into this voice. After all, it could be a hallucination his wishful mind had made him think.

   “Taichi-san, do you not want to say hello to me?”, the voice asked again. Someone tugged at his hand.

  Finally he looked down. A tug at the hand could hardly be imaginary, could it?   Many teeth greeted him, then the mouth closed and he looked into Agumon’s blinking blue eyes. “Taichi-san, you’ve finally come back to me!”, Agumon exclaimed and held out his arms.

   Taichi laughed while he cried, crouching down before his Digimon partner. “Yeah, it took me a while, a lot of things have happened.” He embraced Agumon. “Are the others with you? Because we’ve all been waiting so long. Biyomon and Gomamon and Palmon and Gabumon and Tentomon and Patamon and Gatomon. They’re all here.” Agumon stepped away and made a sweeping gesture. The Digimons came forward, their gazes flickering between Taichi and the group of people standing a little distance behind him.

   “Yes, we’ve all come back. And we want you to meet some special persons.” Taichi wiped away the tears with the back of his hand, then got up and beckoned the rest towards him with a wave.

   “Oh, Sora-san”, Biyomon exclaimed and excitedly fluttered forward, straight into Sora’s arms.

   Yamato and Gabumon looked at each other amicably; they’ve never been much for words but understood each other perfectly nonetheless.

   “Jou-senpai, I hope you’ve been eating well and not studying too hard while I was away”, Gomamon greeted his partner after he’d waddled over towards him.

   “Kouhirou-han, still carrying your tablet with you? I’m glad you haven’t changed a bit.” Tentomon buzzed excitedly around Koushirou’s head.

   Mimi and Palmon were running towards each other, screaming with joy, but actual words were not decipherable.

   “Takeru-kun, Takeru-kun, why haven’t you come earlier? I was so bored without!” Patamon flapped towards Takeru, then settled comfortably onto his head after Takeru had taken off his sailor’s cap.

   A solemn but smiling Gatomon stood before Hikari, paw extended. “I’ve been keeping this”, he said.

   Hikari took the whistle gently, a flood of memories rushing through her mind, then she blew it mightily.

   As if they had agreed on that as a sign, the remaining people shuffled forward, most were visibly nervous.

   “Kana-chan! Oh, Kana-chan, it’s been so long!” somebody suddenly yelled from the edge of the forest. A red birdlike Digimon, with a green beak and yellow coat pattern on his belly, waddled as fast as he could towards Taichi’s wife who’d been leading Hotaro to the Digimons.

   Now she dropped to her knees, crying “Oh Muchomon” in delight and embracing her Digimon once he had reached her.

   The remaining spouses, who had not been DigiDestineds, watched a little warily. They had heard the stories, hair-raising at times and most certainly not what children should have to endure, so they were familiar with the concept of Digimons. But meeting them now in the wild, so to speak, in their natural habitat, was something they still had to get accustomed to.

   Until Gatomon turned to Hikari’s daughter and introduced himself. Then he added “We welcome you to the Digital World, hoping that you will find a home here just like it is ours.”

   Meaning the same, but phrasing it differently, Agumon exclaimed “I’m hungry, let’s have a picnic!”

   Which earned him laughter from everyone. The ice was broken.

[zoetekohana]

I finally watched Digimon Kizuna, and it was everything I wanted Digimon Tri to be!

It had the artificial digimon plot I thought we’d get with Meicoomon and wanted to have!

It had the dread of losing the digimon partners because of the chosen having to grow up and make more final choices in their lives ‘aka losing their unlimited potential’.

Adding to the “growing up”: the little detail of Taichi having a beer with his dinner was <3 and Agumon discovering his dirty magazines was even more <333 Oh Taichi, ofc you would!! xD

It actually had the build-up to their career choices and the 02 epilogue that tri promised!!!!! This was very important to me. 

It just had the perfect combination of a character-driven and action-driven storylines. 

It had the Taito interaction I wanted to see in tri. Much less “antagonistic” and more in line of what I thought they’d be: a little annoyed with each other, but ultimately working so well together because intrinsically they know each other so well and read each other so well.

I just wish it had more Sora, Mimi and Jyou being in the loop of what was going on. Jyou and Mimi got to fight alongside everyone else in the end, which made me happy, but I wish their digimon, as well as Sora’s, Hikari’s, Kou’s and Takeru’s got to go beyond the adult evolution? Taichi and Yamato got a new special evolution, which was awesome, and I get it because they are the two main protagonists, but I wish the others wouldn’t have been sidelines so much. Especially Sora, Mimi and Jyou deserved more screentime. (Because Kou was such an mvp: “boy genius!”)

And a little side note to that: I did want the guys to have been more upset when standing beside Mimi’s comatose body in the hospital? And to wonder more where Sora was?

BUT YAY AT THE 02 GANG GETTING THEIR DESERVED SCREENTIME! They were so wonderful. They made me laugh so much. I basically loved every second with them!!

I really felt for Menoa, though. Again that’s the storyline I wanted for Meiko and Meicoomon. (I believe I have stated that when watching tri, but I can’t find the post again...)

Speaking of Meiko, I am glad that she got a cameo and wasn’t forgotten.

Also; the animation was so gorgeous!!!!! 

Anyways, will watch again and then write down more coherent thoughts. Because it was just so good!!!

I cannot wait for the sequel to this and how the chosen get their digimon back! If I noticed correctly, Sora had lost Piyomon before Taichi and Yamato lost Agumon and Gabumon, as her crest was stone when she looked at it? And then in the end credits, the 02 gang + Takeru&Hikari were shown with their digimon, while the older six weren’t.

[sloanerisette]

Jyoumi Challenge Day #29: Time Travel

Ok, so, two things:

a) this is time travel in a more nebulous sense

b) major spoilers for Last Evolution Kizuna, so I won’t talk more about what this piece entails, and will put the whole thing under a read more.

This is one of the ones I was waiting to get to for a while, and I hope you all enjoy it!

For a few moments, it seemed as if the air in the Digital World had a light fog spread across it all. Not enough to obscure his view, but enough to cause a knot to tighten up in the pit of Joe’s stomach and give him the feeling that something was suddenly wrong. His thoughts had been focused on that (as best as they could be right now, given how fuzzy his mind felt, too) until he felt Gomamon’s flipper knock on his head.

“Joe! Are you even awake?” his Digimon partner asked, to which Joe quickly blinked a few times, looking up to the seal.

“Huh?”

At that point he heard the giggling of Mimi and Palmon, the sounds quickly bringing Joe’s gaze to the two of them, a soft smile on his face as he looked at the girl.

“You’ve been zoning out! It feels like we’ve been talking to you forever and you haven’t been saying anything! How else am I going to try out all my new jokes?” Gomamon added, hopping off of Joe’s shoulder in front of him, looking up at his friend, who started to look around.

“Oh, uh… sorry. I guess I just felt like I was in a fog or something,” he said, now looking up into the sky.

“Weird, I was feeling kind of like that a few minutes ago…” Mimi said, tapping her chin.

“Are you ok, Mimi?” Palmon asked as a worried expression came over her face.

“Oh, yeah! Now I am! I just think it’s because we’ve been walking for a while!” Mimi chirped, offering her own Digimon partner a reassuring smile.

What neither of them could tell, past the fog that Joe could currently see and the fog that Mimi had seen not too long ago, was that the fog wasn’t just some weired weather occurrence of the Digital World, but a way to dull and distract their minds. To lead them to believe that it wasn’t currently 2010, but that they were back in 1999, within their second trip into the Digital World.

What Mimi and Joe didn’t know was that just past the bright blue sky they were looking up at was Never World, trapped within one of its infinite islands, and with Tai and Matt just outside fighting for their freedom— as well as the freedom of every other DigiDestined who had their consciousness stolen by Eosmon. The two adults were trapped in their own memories, to a blissful (if scary) time when they were just kids. Kids who had their whole lives ahead. Kids who didn’t know they would lose their partners soon enough.

Kids who would remain in the best times of their lives and would never have to worry about anything bad. In the world Menoa had set up, they would never even have to worry about the Dark Masters. Just Joe, Mimi, their partners, and a life together forever.

Even with the situation they believed to be at hand, one the two kids knew to be dangerous with massive risks to their lives, they couldn’t help but be happy for some reason, smiles on their faces as they walked along the mountain path.

“We’ll stop the Dark Masters, right?” Mimi asked, the three others looking over at her.

“Of course we will. I mean, there’s still three left, but once we get some reinforcements, it’ll be no problem,” Joe nodded.

“Yeah Mimi! Plus you got all of us! I think once we start taking them down one by one, it’ll be no sweat!” Palmon said, throwing her arms in the air.

“You’re right!” Mimi said, smiling wide, “And we got Joe and Gomamon, too!”

Joe blushed, but Gomamon flexed a flipper, “She’s right, Joe! Make me Zudomon, have Palmon become Lillymon, and we’ll trounce them all!” he said, causing the group to laugh thanks to the Digimon’s bravado.

“That’s the spirit!” Mimi chirped happily.

Joe was still a soft red, but he laughed along with the others, “Yeah, you’re right! I don’t think we have anything to worry about!”

“We won’t ever have anything to worry about,” Mimi said suddenly, the words tumbling from her tongue as if on instinct. They had her freeze suddenly, stopping in place, Joe bumping into her, nearly causing the two to fall over.

“Mimi! Are you ok?” he asked, holding onto her and steadying himself so they didn’t tumble. He looked at her with furrowed brows, worry lines etching onto his forehead.

“Mimi?”

“What?” she asked, head suddenly whipping to face him, hair flying.

“Are you ok?” he asked again, peering at her curiously and carefully.

“Oh, yeah… my head just sort of… felt foggy for a second,” she said, Joe bringing up a hand to her forehead.

“Do you want to sit down for a moment? We have been walking for a while…” he said with a frown. Mimi nodded, and Joe led her to a nearby grassy patch under a big, shady tree, the group of four sitting down, Mimi leaning against Joe.

“Thanks… I’m not sure, its like when I said that, my head felt weird,” she sighed.

“I mean… you are right, though, everything is going to be fine. We have each other,” Joe assured her.

And within the real world, they had said that to each other plenty of times throughout the years: if they had each other, things would be fine. It was a realization that came to them in their teenage years, after all they’d been through and after getting through it all together, both the big and small.

So when Joe said that, both of them went deathly silent, staring off into the distance. The feeling of familiarity lingered in the air around the two kids, though a cold chill compared to the warmth that it would bring in most other cases.

“You guys are moping way too much!” Gomamon huffed, “You keep acting like something is wrong, and the only thing wrong is that we haven’t stopped the Dark Masters yet!”

“Yeah! And then we can go back to having fun!” Palmon chimed in.

“Yeah… it would be nice to just… have fun here. We haven’t had a chance to actually do much of that since we got here,” Joe said.

“Either time,” Mimi added.

They looked at each other with smiles, the idea of being able to not have to worry about saving the Digital World, but instead relax in it, sounding perfect. All of them able to stay there until summer ended.

Maybe even longer.

The shouts from their friends made in hopes of reaching out to all the DigiDestined weren’t heard, and Joe and Mimi remained in their little dream world, stuck in those blissful memories still.

“We can still stay here for a little while longer, right?” Mimi asked the Digimon, who looked at each other, then nodded simply, Palmon moving to sit next to Mimi, leaning into her like her partner was doing to Joe, and Gomamon hopped onto Joe’s lap to flop out and enjoy the shade and cool air.

“Do you think we’ll be able to defeat the rest of the Dark Masters?” Joe asked, voice quiet and filled with a fear that wasn’t present in him just moments earlier.

“We have to, yeah. We will,” Mimi said, swallowing hard, “We’ll get all our old friends from the Digital World together, we’ll team up, and we’ll beat those nasty Dark Masters.”

Joe nodded slowly, a small smile gracing his features, “Yeah, yeah you’re right.”

Mimi gently patted Palmon’s head, before holding the plant Digimon close, while Joe absently scratched at Gomamon’s stomach.

The silence was all that they needed, not to speak needlessly, but to have each other’s company and presence was perfect. And to be in a peaceful situation made it even better. Little did they know, there was, for once, no danger lurking behind every bush and under every rock.

“I’m glad you’re here with me,” Mimi finally said, breaking the long quiet that had taken hold of them, “It wouldn’t have been the same with anyone else.”

Her words were sudden, and Joe’s eyes went wide as he stared at her, jaw dropped, absolutely dumbfounded.

“R-R-Really?”

“Yeah. I just know I can trust you. I know you’re there for me.”

Butterflies swarmed deep in Joe’s stomach, the boy clearing his throat hard, trying to not seem too awkward when that was all he was feeling at the moment.

“Of course. I mean, you’ve become one of my closest friends,” he admitted shyly, unable to look at her. He wrung his hands together nervously, swallowing hard.

“Me, too,” she said with a smile.

Joe went quiet for a few moments, before smiling to himself, “Well, I’m glad we have each other, then.”

“Me, too,” she laughed. They had become close in such a short amount of time, that for each of them, their presence was like a comfort.

Before either could say more, though, there was a distant whistling sound, one that caused all four of them to look around in confusion.

“There aren’t cicadas in the Digital World, are there?” Joe asked, craning his neck around as he stood up.

“I don’t know what those are, so I don’t think so,” Gomamon said as he scaled Joe, settling on his shoulder to help look around.

“Aren’t those those loud annoying bugs that woke us up that one time, Mimi?” Palmon asked, Mimi nodding.

“Yeah! Ugh, if they’re in the Digital World, too, then we need to find somewhere else to hang out!” Mimi pouted.

The whistling became louder, all-encompassing, and soon it was all they could focus on.

“You don’t think its one of the Dark Masters, do you?” Mimi asked, voice filled with worry as she looked around frantically.

“I— I don’t know!”

Their Digimon soon stood in front of their partners, assuming fighting stances.

“We won’t let anything happen to you guys!” Palmon shouted.

“Yeah!” Gomamon piped up.

However, the whistling got even louder than before, as the Digital World around them started to turn into bright, stark white.

“Joe!”

“Gomamon!”

“Palmon!”

“Mimi!”

“Joe!”

“Mimi!”

Eventually, the light faded away, revealing the crystalline landscape around them, shallow water stretching out along the distance. The sounds of fighting, explosions, blasts being shot could all be heard. The two young adults slowly stood up, trying to adjust to the sudden headaches they were feeling.

All around them were different DigiDestined, from their friends to ones they had never seen or met before, in some strange place. Mimi looked down at herself to see herself in an outfit far different than her former signature pink dress. She turned to see Joe, not the young boy she had just been with, but the man she had spent so much of her life by his side, a sigh of relief falling from her lips.

“Mimi!”

That familiar voice flooded into her ears, as he frantically ran over towards her, Gomamon running along behind him. Joe held onto her shoulders, panting heavily, eyes wide as he looked at her.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah I am,” she said quickly in hopes of reassuring him. “Are you?” she asked, relieved to see him nod.

“You were there too, right? We were both there? In the Digital World?” she asked, now bringing her hands to his shoulders, needing to keep hold of him for comfort and to help ground her.

“Yeah… I think it was those Eosmon that Tai told me about… They must have trapped us in that fake Digital World…” Joe explained.

The two looked around them, watching Tai, Matt, their Digimon, so many people now fighting the legion of Digimon that had kidnapped so many DigiDestined, then looked back towards each other.

They each pulled out their smartphones, both silently relieved Izzy had upgraded them so long ago, letting go of each other and facing forward, ready to fight. Their Digimon were already at the ready, starting to glow.

“Gomamon Digivolve to…!”

“Palmon Digivolve to…!”

“Ikkakumon!”

“Togemon!”

Their Digimon were already firing off attacks against the mass of crystalline Digimon, the expressions on Joe and Mimi’s faces nothing short of fear. Fear at the thought of losing such an important fight. Of failing the world.

However, even that looming thought couldn’t stop Joe from speaking.

“That… was nice, though. For a little bit.”

“It was. Getting to experience the old days,” she said, a soft, if sad smile on her face.

“Yeah. Hearing from each other that we were each other’s best friends was nice,” he nodded.

“I meant it then and I mean it now… or… also, then.”

“Me, too,” he told her, causing the both of them to smile. Right after, they turned to their Digimon.

“Go! Ikkakumon!”

“Kick their butts, Togemon!”

The time they got to spend in that little time capsule was nice, but the most important thing were all of those years they got to spend together since then, once they defeated these Eosmon, all the years they’d continue to have together.

[shihalyfie]

Daisuke’s English skills

Adventure and 02 have a lot of really tiny details that tend to fly under the radar but, under closer inspection, are hard to read any other way, which is especially enhanced by the fact that some of these details are reinforced by other small things that appear throughout the series and are consistent with them. And then sometimes multiple fans pick up on these, completely independently from each other and often even from different countries, and it’s probably easy to think “how do all of these fans come up with such specific headcanons?” -- but no, it’s all based off stuff from the actual series, one that actually did tend to have a lot of background info about everything but loved to drop details in maddeningly subtle ways.

One of them is that Daisuke apparently has English proficiency, which is a surprising trait to come from someone who’s generally been portrayed as not very book smart. But it is true that there’s such a thing as being “good at languages” even if you’re not necessarily good at other kinds of studying, so perhaps Daisuke happens to be one of those with a natural feel for it?

Our first piece of evidence comes from Hurricane Touchdown, when the kids hitchhike via the car of a strange guy who spouts a lot of English at them. Daisuke actually interprets what the man says -- it’s clear that Iori’s relying on what he’s saying, and it’s hard to come up with any other interpretation of what’s going on here.

But that’s not all!

The “world tour” arc of 02 (episodes 40-42) is a bit ambiguous in terms of how much we should be interpreting everyone as speaking the literal language they’re speaking and how much of it is “translation convention”. However, even though Daisuke technically has people who could translate for him (Mimi, who presumably has gained a bit of proficiency in English after living in the US, and Michael, who seems to speak Japanese), it’s actually quite notable that Daisuke’s portion is the only one to never even remotely address the concept of a language barrier:

Hikari and Koushirou run into issues in Hong Kong until Jackie comes to intervene, since Koushirou’s English is terrible;

Jou is implied to translate Dingo’s English for Iori in Australia (similar to the Hurricane Touchdown example), and it naturally makes sense that Jou would be good at English, given its general usefulness for his academic studies and his future career as a doctor;

Catherine (conveniently) speaks Japanese;

Ken (conveniently) speaks Spanish;

Miyako and Sora can’t speak Russian at all and have to improvise.

Of course, some of them are ultimately given handwaves, but even so -- the fact that absolutely zero indications are given of anyone translating on Daisuke’s behalf definitely sticks out, and especially because Daisuke ends his segment of episode 40 with this:

Daisuke says this line in English (including the “Mr.”). He knows very well that Mimi’s father should be able to speak Japanese, so while this line is of course silly (Daisuke’s playing dumb here), it’s still an interesting dialogue choice to make in light of all of the other aspects.

Our final clue comes from The Door to Summer, when Daisuke meets Mimi and Wallace in America again, and since Wallace canonically speaks Japanese, you could think that they’re speaking Japanese the whole way...up until Nat-chan gets introduced. The group holds a conversation normally all the way up until Mimi gives Nat-chan her name, leading Daisuke and Chibimon to balk at Mimi for giving her a Japanese name. In other words, nobody in the group had any reason to believe that Nat-chan was Japanese, meaning that they were most likely not holding their conversation in Japanese either. Presumably, they thought that Nat-chan was native to the area -- meaning that they, including Daisuke, had most likely been speaking to her in English.

So in the end -- like I said earlier, this “random” character trait of Daisuke’s seems oddly incidental, since he’s otherwise not portrayed as particularly studious. Except maybe not, because...

Daisuke’s epilogue career ties into it. In fact, the specific Japanese wording of the narration in the epilogue also indicates that his ramen business started in America, and Kizuna confirms that Daisuke indeed had the idea of starting his business there even in early adulthood. If Daisuke happened to have pretty decent English even as a kid, that would certainly explain why he’d be open to that idea so early, wouldn’t it?