#i wonder what the English dub will do to him

[diseasedcube]

Nooooooo a new trailer came out

I Literally Hate Bon's Voice So Much 🙃

[kerorowhump]

"H-Hi... we're back home..."

"But... sergeant, what's going on? Do you feel sick?"

"Don't worry. How are the guests?"

"I will be eternally grateful to her... if Lady Natsumi is leading the team that's in the kitchen I'm certain that our guests will appreciate it a lot..."

[animefeminist]

J Michael Tatum discusses returning to Spice and Wolf, dubbing philosophy, and Ouran's queer legacy

J Michael Tatum is a juggernaut of the English dubbing sphere. He started out as a secondary character in 2005’s Samurai 7, a mecha-flavored adaptation of the Kurosawa film, and from there went on to play multiple iconic roles, including Sebastian Michaelis, Scar, Okabe Rintaro, and Isaac Dion. Most importantly for today’s discussion, however, are his turns as traveling merchant Kraft Lawrence (Spice and Wolf) and host club manager (and Shadow King) Ohtori Kyoya (Ouran High School Host Club).

We sat down with Tatum to talk about radical recent changes in the dubbing industry, what it’s like being a highly visible gay voice actor, and Ouran’s enduring appeal.

Anime Feminist: Just to start off with something probably a lot of folks have asked you at this point: but what’s it like playing Lawrence again after all these years?

J Michael Tatum: Oh, such a gift. BrIna and I both—Brina Palencia, who plays Holo–so love those characters and that franchise that we’ve been dreaming of getting to revisit them for years because we never really got to finish it. And we loved it so much that we came back for the audiobook when they asked us even though we don’t typically do audiobooks, because they’re very time-consuming. But we love those characters so much we couldn’t resist. And then now [there’s] the reboot, so it is lovely.

It’s always such a wonderful feeling to get to come back to characters that you feel a relationship with, that you feel akin to. Now, I’m older, hopefully a little wiser and have more tricks up my sleeve that we can bring to the performance that I wouldn’t have thought of when I was, you know, 18 years younger. I’m also just so glad that here I am, pushing 50, and I could still play him. [Laughs]

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[yuurei20]

Lesson voice lines: Original Game and EN Comparisons

Original Ace: (about Crowley) How long is he gonna be here EN Ace: How long's this gonna take?

Original Ace: (about Crowley) Ugh, he's still here. EN Ace: Ugh. Are we still doing this?

Original Trey: What are you going to do for lunch? EN Trey: What should I have for lunch?

Original Cater: There is a lunch I want to recommend to you! EN Cater: I know JUST what to eat for lunch.

Original Cater: Do muscles go viral? EN Cater: Am I swole?

Original Cater: Shall I fill you in sometime? EN Cater: I'll fill you in this time.

Original Leona: Let's take a break. EN Leona: When's lunch?

Original Ruggie: I don't like autocrats. EN Ruggie: Booo, autocrats.

Jack uses the word "苦手" about Crewel, which can be difficult to translate into English.

Jack's in-class voice line became "Professor Crewel's a toughie," but another way to phrase it is "Professor Crewel rubs me the wrong way," i.e., they just don't get along.

Malleus uses the same word to describe a smell that he doesn't like, and when Jack uses it again in another voice line it is phrased as, "I have a hard time dealin' with him."

Original Azul: And now, the sturgeon... EN Azul: A dash of beluga, and...

This is a reference to the Japanese-language dub of "The Little Mermaid: "come winds of the Caspian Sea" was changed to "Sturgeon of the Caspian Sea," connecting back to Jade and Floyd's sturgeon-scale earrings (as explained by Jade himself in his first birthday vignette).

This was likely changed to "beluga" to connect to the "Beluga Sevruga" line from "Poor Unfortunate Souls," as there is no sturgeon for the English game to reference in the original, English-language song.

Original Rook: I could reach out and touch the etoile. EN Rook: I could reach out and touch the soleil.

There is an ongoing mistranslation of Epel: as we learn in Book 5, he is only being forced to adhere to Vil's rules until he is strong enough to win against Vil in a fight.

This is referenced in several of Epel's lines where he talks about beating Vil but on EN all of Epel's references to wanting to win against his housewarden have been changed to wanting to win against Crowley, instead.

(I was pretty sure it was just an oversight, but it is consistent enough that I wonder if it isn't intentional?)

Original Epel: I wonder what the Housewarden would do EN Epel: What would the headmage do?

Original Epel: I can beat the Housewarden at this EN Epel: Can I beat the Headmage now?

Original Idia: Life is... EN Idia: I wonder where...

Idia's line is very difficult to translate into English...it is similar to wondering about what life itself is, like souls and emotions (different from the concept of "ghosts").

Lilia, Silver, Sebek and Idia himself all have lines about eternal life during their alchemy classes so it makes sense in-context, and was changed to "I wonder where..." on EN. (Maybe stopping short of "I wonder where souls come from"?)

Original Silver: It smells like rotten eggs... EN Silver: That egg smelled rotten

(Several characters comment on unpleasant smells during alchemy lessons and Silver's original line is just comparing the smell to rotten eggs; he is not saying that a literal egg is involved.)

Original Grim: Is that the name of a food? EN Grim: I'm just gonna daydream about food...

[geekgirles]

I'm actually quite proud of Armand right now. Openly admitting to Amalia the reason their relationship was always strained was because he'd always been jealous of her and her relationship with their father is such a great character moment for him.

One thing season 4 is definitely delivering is some much needed depth and exploration of the Sadida Royal family. And I find myself fascinated (not only because Amalia is my favourite character and I have a soft spot for her people).

Personally, Armand is a character I have a lot of trouble having a clear stance on. I don't hate him, and it's true his motives become clear and even understandable once you give them some thought, it's just that Ankama does a wonderful job at making him both outwardly dislikable given his abrasive personality and some of his most questionable actions.

For example, season 3 Armand and season 4 Armand are almost like night and day. Maybe it is indeed that his new role as king has forced him to be more responsible and emotionally mature, but the vibes between L'assamblée and Falling Down are completely different.

In season 3 he just oozed contempt for his sister, and his actions towards her reeked of ulterior motives. The fact that Aurora has been described as manipulative (even her hairstyle is meant to hint at her true nature) and was purposely placed in between the two siblings as a visual nod to how she's keeping them apart doesn't help matters.

Which is another factor to take into account: Aurora's character and the role she plays in the siblings' deteriorating bond.

Even if so far she seems to genuinely love Armand, I really can't bring myself to trust Aurora. Not only because of all the behind-the-scenes facts I already mentioned, but because her actions are just sketchy and clearly veered to the betterment of the Osamodas rather than the Sadida.

First of all, her contempt for Amalia is genuine and she legitimately seems to be planning to send her away to keep her from interfering with her plans. After all, this is literally what she had to say about her sister-in-law:

"Ne vous en faîtes pas mon prince, nous finirons bien par redresser cette mauvaise herbe."

Translation: "Don't worry, my prince, we'll get this weed straightened out in the end."

(I haven't watched the English dub, so my apologies if the translation doesn't match the official version).

There's also the fact that, despite being the new Sadida Queen, her intentions in season 3 clearly laid in the benefit of her own kingdom, the Osamodas. Such is reflected in her choice of suitors for Amalia:

She intended for Amalia to marry Ashdur, her own cousin, thus, strengthening the Osamodas' hold over Sadida politics. In fact, it becomes quite clear Aurora's choice in suitors, only supported by Amalia implying back then her sister-in-law had already tried the same thing with her brothers, was much less about the future of the Sadida Kingdom and more about the Osamodas' sake.

After all, while arranged marriages between royal families isn't anything new, usually the sensible and even most strategic thing to do is for rulers to"spread" their children and marry them into different families around the world. That is exactly what Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabela of Castile did with their own children, they married them off to the royal families of England, Portugal, and Austria.

With that in mind, having both Sheran Sharm children marry Osamodas royalty just seems dumb, doesn't it? It all comes to show Aurora is more concerned over solidifying her power over the Sadida Kingdom than its actual well-being.

Which is why I'm still going to keep my guard up regarding her character until the season ends. After all, we still have 9 more episodes where everything can go up in flames.

But going back to Armand, even though he is in love with his wife, his treatment of Amalia in L'assamblée is leagues better than it was in season 3. Unlike most of his appearances and his interactions with his sister, where he kept treating her like a child who didn't know any better (what she just so happened to accuse him of when presented with Ashtur, as a matter of fact), here not only does he finally open up to his sister about his insecurities and his reasoning for his behaviour towards her, but he offers her support in the wake of their father's passing and even invites her to attend the assembly with him.

He is entrusting her with responsibilities befitting a queen, not a child.

Their relationship is finally healing.

As I said earlier, despite the undeniable depth behind his character, it's difficult to really side with Armand in plenty of occasions. Not only because of his difficult personality and flaws, but because it is so much easier to sympathise with Amalia.

And I'm not talking exclusively about the fact that, as one of the main characters, we've been by her side throughout everything, witnessing her true selfless, responsible, and brave self, but the fact that her position within her own family certainly tugs at our heartstrings.

Amalia is the youngest sibling, the princess. For all the sheltering and privileges that can get her, it also became her gilded cage. And for the most part, not even her family was a safe haven.

Queen Sheran Sharm died when Amalia was probably still a kid, whereas Armand was most likely already a teenager. As King Oakheart revealed back when he explained to Amalia it had been Armand who insisted they let her go, the queen's death shook their entire family, making the king and prince unintentionally turn their backs on Amalia during a time she needed as much affection as possible. And so, her royal duties became stifling, her royal upbringing unbearable. Thus is the reason for her wanderlust.

And then we have Armand's reason for not always being fair to her: jealousy. He resented her for being Oakheart's favourite, despite constantly going off to adventures while he remained in the kingdom by his side. Now, as I said, this was a great character moment for Armand, one that also belies his character development. However, it doesn't change the fact that, while easier to relate and sympathise with him, we still sympathise with Amalia more or have been doing so for far longer because we knew the effect this had had on her.

We all have been someone's scapegoat to their frustrations with a third person, we have all been treated unfairly by someone who, for whatever reason, couldn't solve their own issues with the person they had problems with in the first place and took it out on us. This is the crux of Armand and Amalia's strained relationship: for years, Armand took his frustrations and insecurities out on Amalia instead of having an honest conversation with their father.

That's why it's easier to sympathise with Amalia, because we know that, deep down, for all her flaws, she was never at fault for how their relationship turned out. Because we can understand her frustration and pain when, even with their dying father, Armand still chose to listen to his wife over her and try to marry her off instead of being there for each other when they both needed most. As Amalia called him out for before leaving with Yugo, he still chose politics over family. Everything involving Armand and Aurora is about politics.

But now that they are at least beginning to rebuild their relationship, I sincerely hope things get better for them. Unless their original intentions back in 2017 have changed, I seriously fear Ankama will still use Aurora to complicate things further between these two.

Please, Ankama, I'm literally begging you. They're all the family they each have left, don't let their relationship be ruined forever.

[goldeunoias]

Pls something about step-cest with Hee or dub-con would be great. I would love it.

(Sorry for my bad english)

A/N: why not both~ (your English is better than mine don't sweat <3) lmk if you like daisy's descent into darker kinks (since i absolutely love ish like this asdfasfd)

(they're both adults btw Im using the whole kids don't move out until their married thing here so bOTH ADULTS)

************************************

He'd been waiting for so long.

For you to show up at his bedroom door, with salty tears running down your face. For you through heavy breaths tell him you got made fun of at work for being inexperienced. For you to look at him with such innocent eyes wondering what you should...

"Do you want me to show you what being touched is like?" Heeseung cooed at you gently, wiping tears away from your soft cheek. He noticed your hesitance but that didn't sway his motives in the slightest, already leaning in.

"You can just push me away if you don't like it mkay sweetheart?"

You swallowed thickly and gave him and nod, body tensing up as he kissed you softly. Your body felt tingly as he slid his tongue into your mouth, Heeseung's mind going insane at how sweet your saliva tasted and how warm your mouth was.

You were doing your best to keep up with his pace but your head felt dizzy, pulling back to come up for air. Heeseung could only chuckle at how heavy your breathing was and how your lips were coated with his saliva, his possessive streak taking over him.

"Here, I can show you other places that feel good okay princess?"

"S-should we really be doing things like this?," you couldn't help but wonder as Heeseung took off his shirt and went to undo your work button-up, his hands roughly massaging your chest through your bra.

"Who better to touch your soft delicate skin than the person you trust the most, right sweetpea? See," he remarked, pulling down your bra and flicking an erect nipple. "Your body is reacting to me because it was made for me. Does your body get like this with any other man?" he pushed, bending down and aggressively sucking your boobs while fondling one in his other hand.

You flinched and then melted as his textured muscle swirled around your soft nipple, skilled hands tugging the other one as you said "no".

"Lay down at the foot of the best sweetpea," he ordered through a slightly sinister smile, using his strength to pry your legs open. You squirmed around a bit at his intense stare and Heeseung glared at you and lightly slapped your covered core, earning a shaky breath for you.

"Keep still sweetpea, otherwise I don't want to punish my sweet kitten right?" He asked as he pulled down your underwear, sliding a digit in rather forcefully.

Your breath got caught in your throat and you bit down onto Heeseung's shoulder as your walls molded to his digit, Heeseung's breath hitching at just how soaked you were.

"Shit sweetpea, you're sopping wet. I wonder if Mom and Dad will hear what a slut your cunt is being for me," He whispered in your ear. quirking a brow when you clenched down tighter at his sentence.

"Oh? Sweetpea is dirtier than I thought? Getting turned on at the thought of someone walking in and seeing your legs spread all pretty for me. Should I bring my friends over and give them a show while I fuck you?" he teasingly hissed, smiling as you avidly shook your head.

"H-hee you're being too mean," you panted out as his thumb rubbed over your clit and he slid a second digit in. Your stomach felt like it was on fire as something tight and intense formed in your lower belly.

At your blubbering Heeseung whispered a cooed apology as you stared at him through delicate lashes, not wanting to make his delicate flower upset.

Heeseung then curled his fingers and you let out a deep gasp, shaking as you felt a sensation rush through your body.

"Ah there it is, I found sweetpea's special spot. You see this spot here" he curled his fingers harder and your legs shook intensely, slowly losing track of his sentence as he sped his fingers up. "Only I can touch your special spot okay? Don't let any other man do so," he warned, feeling satisfied when you nodded your head.

"W-wait somethingfeels weird h-hee wait," you rambled out, feeling like your belly was about to burst. Heeseung knew where this was going and sped his fingers up, pinning your hands with his free hand when you tried to yank his wrist away.

You wanted to say something else but the knot snapped and you felt liquid soak your thighs and your voice croak from your body as waves of pleasure pulsated throughout your body, your breathing unable to come down for a couple of minutes.

Heeseung pulled out his fingers and sucked them clean sitting up to undo his sweats so his erect hard-on sprung free. Your eyes widened at the size and looked up at him with fearful eyes, which only turned him on more.

"Don't worry sweetpea. If your body was made to react to only me, then your princess parts were made to fit only me yea?"

"y-yes."

"thatta girl...."

************************************

LET ME KNOW IF YOU LIKE MORE DARKER ISH STUFF BC MY FOLLOWERS SAID THEY DID SO

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

What was up with Chris Thorndyke, anyway?

I think it’s safe to say that Chris Thorndyke is one of the most hated characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, which is... a bit odd, when you think about it. In a world of Ken Penders’s Daddy Issues Personified and Octopus Who Kills Children For Fun (the latter of which basically being a fandom sexyman), why is a twelve-year-old boy so polarizing?

It would be easy to chalk this up to the bad 4kidz dub, but I don’t quite think that’s it. A lot of the complaints I’ve heard can go to “he got the main character slot in Sonic’s show” or “I just don’t like the human characters,” which are valid, but pale in comparison to basically all I’ve seen being: “He’s just annoying,” “I can’t fucking stand him,” etc. That’s basically all I hear, and when asking why, it usually boils down to two things: 1) his extreme attachment to Sonic and 2) his status as a rich white american only child basically puts any and all of his problems at “first world problems” at best. Those also seem like valid reasons, right?

Thing is, while on the surface it seems like this kid has no issues, as a kid with a, how you say, rough childhood, something stuck with me when I watched the show for the first time. I remember sitting through episode after episode, wondering, When does Chris stop being sympathetic and start being annoying? Since, you know, that’s his reputation.

It didn’t happen.

And it slowly became apparent to me that a lot of the things that made Chris “annoying” and “obsessive”... were just obvious symptoms of a traumatized kid.

Join me for my thesis presentation: Chris’s “annoying” traits are not a writing flaw, but an intentional character flaw brought about by severe neglect, which is resolved through his character arc, and why the fandom reaction to him is so furious.

Note: Throughout this meta, we will only be looking over the Japanese version of Sonic X, as it’s the original script and 4kidz did not translate it accurately. So if you see some lines you don’t remember being said, those are from the English subtitles/direct translation.

Once again, it is possible (also likely, we’ll discuss that a bit) that the kidification and cuts to Sonic X did a number on Chris’s likability, but for most of the meta we’ll be discussing his Japanese characterization with only a few references to cut scenes or lines in the dub.

Part I: First Impressions

On the surface, Chris seems like not just a normal kid, but a very privileged one. He goes to regular school with regular friends, but also goes home to a mansion and millions of dollars. His parents dote on him, his grandfather has fun with him, the two servants treat him like their own kid. He should have no problems, right?

Except, honestly, the issues become apparent in Episode One.

You may be saying here, “What do you mean, episode one? The second episode is when Chris gets all his characterization and exposition.”

Except we get all this visually in the final scene of the episode. (I PROMISE the whole essay won’t be this analytic over small scenes but this is important.)

Before Chris rescues Sonic, kickstarting his part in the plot, we see him hear Sonic fall, peer out the window, and then run out to get him.

Firstly, the shots of his room. His room is huge– and we’ll come back to that detail later, so keep it in mind– but it’s also dark. Which tracks ofc, it’s nighttime and the kid’s asleep, but there’s also a lit desk light, which we see when Chris goes to the window. This together gives the audience the visual impression that Chris is in the dark, with the light only coming when he opens that window and sees Sonic.

Let’s get into the bigness of the house here, as Chris runs out of the room. In every shot we see him running, it’s emphasized how small he is. No, not only how small he is, but how empty the rest of the house is.

First the shot in the hall. There’s minimal lighting from a few wall lamps, the rest of the hallway is incredibly dark. Chris is shorter than the height of the lamps on the wall, his positioning keeps him small in the frame despite him running closer. He’s also centered in the hall, and when you look to the walls you can see several doors, implying several rooms, but only Chris is in the hall.

Then the stairwell– once again incredibly dark, but we see more of the grandiose nature of the house. A painting taller than Chris, a Grandfather Clock maybe twice his height. He also runs down the stairs with the railing up to his shoulder. It’s all finely detailed, which of course reflects the Thorndyke luxury they live in. But it’s still dark, and Chris is still so small.

A shot of him running across the floor. It’s shot from above, and we see that the tiles on the floor are bigger than his whole body. This shot is even darker than the rest, only a few lights reflecting on the ground. The above-shot also shows a ceiling fan in front of us, which makes it look bigger than it is, also dwarfing Chris in the shot.

There’s a shot after that of Chris running to the pool– it is actually near-impossible to see him here, but if you look he runs off the back porch. Once again the world is huge, everything around him is huge, and everything is dark, except the pools. The pools where Sonic is, not that he knows that yet.

The pool still remains brightly lit as Chris dives in and saves Sonic. The first shot we see is him diving in, and then grabbing onto Sonic’s wrist. This is repeated multiple times later in the show as they reach for each other’s hands. It’s not only the first time we see this kid make contact with someone in the show, I’m pretty sure it’s the first time we see Sonic. In the first bit of the episode he’s only hitting robots, in the second bit he’s fleeing from everyone who comes near him. This first contact thus subconsciously establishes itself in the audience’s minds as important for both of them.

We finally see Chris clearly after he pulls Sonic out, where the two of them are lit by the pool’s light. Despite the long shadows coming off of them, they are both fully visible and sitting amongst the lit tiles, meaning Chris is now in the light.

This opening scene also establishes something important about Chris as well, and that’s that he’s... not a rich asshole. This kid woke up in the middle of the night, and for all intents and purposes saw nothing in the pool– he saw the ripples stilling, but that could’ve been anything. Could’ve been a frog. Could’ve been a bird taking off into the air. Could’ve been a bird shitting. But Chris still investigates anyway and immediately dives in, presumably once he sees something still in there. As he dives in, he also reaches for Sonic instantly, meaning it wasn’t just pure curiosity that drove him forward, but a deep desire to help whatever was in there. Likely he saw it moving and leapt in to save it without a second thought.

It’s established in the next episode that Chris knew full well he was not allowed to do this and it probably wouldn’t be safe; he’s not allowed to go outside at night or swim in the adult pool. Not to mention he’s also probably still half-asleep and wearing pajamas. Without hesitation he jumps in anyway because there’s something that needs his help. When he pulls Sonic out, he can clearly see this is a weird fucked-up thing he doesn’t recognize, but without even reacting to that fact he just asks if he’s okay. He only starts showing his surprise when Sonic begins talking. Even then there’s no screaming, he just introduces himself politely and then. Takes Sonic inside.

The next episode opens already in the next morning, and with Sonic still there we can assume Chris just hid him for the rest of the night without telling the other adults in the house. After Sonic mentioned people chasing him, Chris probably figured it wasn’t safe to tell anyone and took it upon his 12yo self to make sure this little guy didn’t get spotted.

Which, if it weren’t for Sonic’s impulsiveness, would’ve been incredibly easy.

The second episode opens with another panning shot of the huge mansion, with a voice overlay from Lindsey. The first thing we hear from Chris’s mother is that she’s sorry, but she won’t come home til “next week.” But she’ll send him a ton of gifts, so it’s okay!

Our next interesting shot is as she continues talking, and we see a ton of family photos tacked onto the wall. This immediately gives the impression of, of course, a family that really loves each other. It then immediately pans to Chris, alone on the balcony, talking minimally into a phone.

Chris then has another character beat of apologizing for diving in the pool. It seems like if he hadn’t mentioned it, nobody would’ve known, but he does anyway because he’s just like. A good little kid. Either that or it’s anything to keep his mom on the line longer.

Another thing to note is that Tanaka briefly enters during this scene, but doesn’t even look at Chris as he drops his food off and leaves.

When she hangs up, we hear a little kissing noise, and then Chris kisses the phone receiver and rubs the back of his head. His expression doesn’t seem embarrassed, though, especially as he didn’t notice Sonic staring at him until the next shot. He looks perhaps relieved, a soft kind of happy, perhaps at the compliment she gave him immediately before her abrupt goodbye.

Sonic then asks why Chris referred to him as a cat; he doesn’t seem upset, just a little curious. Chris’s reaction is interesting here– the first thing he does is ask if Sonic is mad at him, and then immediately launch into an explanation.

After Sonic seems calm, Chris then curiously asks Sonic where he learned to talk. They’re interrupted by the phone ringing, and Chris seems incredibly confused that it rung. He answers almost robotically, and immediately grows excited upon hearing it’s his dad, though his voice still indicates surprise. You can really hear it in the line delivery of his og actress, Sanae Kobayashi.

Chris continues smiling blankly as his Dad talks about how his mom told him that a cat got into the estate and maybe he should update security. Chris swiftly assures him that it’s okay, and then says, “But more importantly, you’re very busy, aren’t you?”

Basically he already knows that this conversation will be less than a minute long, but he’s still smiling until his dad’s already hung up.

The rest of the scene plays out as Chris googles what hedgehogs eat, tries to feed Sonic cat food, and then rightfully freaks out when Sonic leaves to get a chili dog, considering he’s a fugitive. And while his face and mannerisms at the end of the scene does effectively display this worry, they really do hold on that shot for a while as he fades back into a sadder expression.

These scenes both serve as introductory scenes to Chris, and both visually and through dialogue, we have established:

Chris is constantly alone.

His world is dark until he finds Sonic.

He has a kind personality and doesn’t seem to be at all jaded or spoiled by his privileged upbringing.

His parents love him but are so absent that he doesn’t even bat an eye at the fact he won’t see his mom for a week. He is surprised when his Dad calls but immediately puts his work before his own well being.

He’s relatively calm, but only freaks out when he thinks Sonic might be mad at him, and when Sonic leaves.

I’d love to do a fucking scene-for-scene analysis of the entire show, but we’d be here for like twenty years so instead let’s uh. jump ahead a bit.

We slowly unravel Chris’s backstory and mental state throughout the first two seasons, in a slow way that I think is very effective and won’t be effective enough through this essay, but I’m gonna try my best.

Anyway, let’s jump ahead and cover his whole... thing.

Part II: The Backstory Scene that 4kidz Cut

The youngest we ever see Chris is in the season two penultimate episode. There’s a flashback to him as what seems to be a toddler, or just out of toddlerhood. This scene, right here, was cut in the English dub for... no real reason I can think of. In fact, it just makes Chris look less sympathetic.

The first shot we get is of Chris and his parents. Much like the Chris’s first scene, he is tiny, even tinier. But unlike that scene, everything is bright. It’s blinding, actually, as the doors are open and Chris’s parents stand in front of it. This is obviously from baby Chris’s perspective, representing his emotional state. With those doors open and his parents in front of him, he is covered in light. Covered.

His parents are quite formal in their parting words. “We’re leaving now,” his dad says. His mom then says, “I’m sorry, Chris. Make sure you behave until we return.”

Once again, I mentioned that this scene is from baby Chris’s perspective, so maybe they weren’t as formal when this actually happened. But that’s how it came across to Chris.

Sidenote, but honestly? Considering his age, this could very well be one of his earliest memories.

Little Chris says, “If I behave, will you come home right away?” While of course operating on little kid logic, this also reflects on how much he loves his family again, as all he wants is for his parents to be home with him.

His parents look at each other, confused on how to answer. They then give the worst answer– “Of course.” We see how happy this makes him, but it’s only a temporary happiness. They’ve just made a promise they cannot keep and they know it, and at baby Chris’s age, he will NOT understand that.

When they turn to leave, Chris’s face falls. They once again have a formal goodbye, and as they leave, the doors shut, and the light is gone, and he stands there for again a long time. I don’t think I need to explain what this symbolizes.

The next shot, we see Chris is reading a picture book by himself on the couch. Once again a small little guy in a big world; the book also seems to be The Little Matchgirl, which... oof. The story is about how a lonely orphan dreams about having a family as she slowly freezes to death, in case you weren’t aware. The two shots we see from the book are first of her freezing, and then of her looking in a window and imagining a family. As Chris reads this, he repeats that if he behaves, his parents will come home.

He then hears the door about to open and immediately leaps up and smiles widely.

It’s not his parents, it’s Ella, but she has presents from his parents!

Despite being a little kid who would normally be ecstatic at the prospect of new toys, Chris just looks numb as she speaks.

He takes no joy in the toy either, because his parents aren’t there with it.

So. I have worked at a daycare and as a babysitter for about... seven years now. Kids? They have separation anxiety. They will sob and scream and shout and kick and run if their mom is out of their sight. I recently babysat a kid who learned how to unlock the door so he could try and run after his parents which was terrifying for me tbh.

Chris’s reaction of just immediately falling into a numb depression isn’t something I saw in the kids I watched. At this age, they cry at the very least. Chris doesn’t even do that, he’s just staring. We get one voiceover at the end of this scene, as Chris just says, “It never came true.” Obviously referring to the promise– he behaved, and his parents still stayed away.

What impression does this give a kid that age? One of two things, if not both at once:

I am not behaving enough and I need to behave perfectly.

Mom and Dad don’t care enough to come home.

From knowing Lindsey and Nelson, we know this is not true. They’re busy, and they hope to show their love through gifts. But Chris’s love language is very much not gifts, it’s quality time. And he doesn’t. Get that.

From anyone.

Part III: Chris’s Abandonment Issues

As I’ve made it clear, Chris’s parents are never around. He doesn’t bat an eye at his mother saying she’ll be gone another week, and is surprised that his Dad even bothered to call. We saw all those family photos, but looking at them again, how many of them were taken at the same time, one of the few times his parents were home? How many is Chris standing stiffly, properly, instead of relaxing like a kid?

Another line from episode six really drives his home, one I think a lot of people miss.

Upon being told his parents are coming home, Chris remarks that it has been months since he’s seen them. Months.

Later in the episode, Chuck remarks on how it’s a miracle to see them both at the house at the same time. They laugh this off, and spend the rest of the episode anxiously waiting for Chris to get home because, yeah, they do care. When Chris gets home he immediately calls for them and gets tackle-hugged. As they do, he stiffens upon the physical contact, and looks awkward the whole time, like he’s not used to physical affection.

He’s then later surprised to hear his parents were worried he was late.

The next episode, Chris’s dad has already left by the next morning. When he hears his mom has unexpectedly left, he is upset, but not surprised; he immediately resigns himself to this and sighs before leaning back on the couch.

When he brings this up to his uncle, Sam immediately remarks that his sister is never home.

This is where Cream breaks, because she has seen Lindsey herself break down over not being there for Chris. Chris has not seen that. All he knows is that his mother was there and then was gone, despite their elaborate dinner plan, despite knowing he was bringing a guest to meet her.

Once again, he’s not surprised. Neither is Sam.

Similar with his Dad; in the previous episode, when they were worried, Nelson implies that he has a guard service making sure Chris doesn’t get abducted. They’re two seconds away from calling the US Military to find him. But they stop short of going after him, because they don’t want him to think they’re being overbearing.

We’ve firmly established this by now, okay? His parents are never home and haven’t been since he was, what? Three? Four, tops.

Nobody else was really there, either.

Ella and Tanaka seem to have done most of Chris’s raising. And while Ella and Tanaka are amazing, and definitely care a lot about Chris, it doesn’t change the fact that they are paid employees and Chris knows this. They’re paid to hang out with him. If they weren’t getting paid, Chris has no idea if they would even give a shit about him. Even with that, there’s not a ton of evidence they like. hung out with him outside of making sure he was alright. As mentioned, in the second episode Tanaka doesn’t even look at him as he delivers food. Not for lack of care, but probably because they’re busy as only two servants in a huge estate. This isn’t their kid, too, they’re under no obligation to raise him. Ella is the cook and Tanaka is the butler-bodyguard, they’re not childcare experts.

What about his grandpa? Sorry to break this to you but Chuck wasn’t around, either.

In episode 51, which we’re gonna keep coming back to as it’s the culmination of Chris’s arc, Chuck says this while reprimanding Nelson and Lindsey. He says, “I never blamed you for neglecting your household because you were too busy with work. That’s because I also did whatever I wanted and continued my research.”

Back to the second episode, when we first see Chuck, you notice on the second watch that Chris 1) doesn’t trust his grandpa enough to tell him that he’s hiding a fugitive in their house, 2) didn’t seem to expect him (or ANYONE) to walk in on them in the LIVING ROOM, 3) seems to not know a ton about his personality. He’s surprised when his grandpa closes the door on Sonic, and surprised that he’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie. It seems that instead of spending time with his grandson, Chuck spent most of his time in his shed tinkering with machines.

His uncle? Seems to visit on occasion, but has a government job. You know he’s never around, either.

So Chris is growing up in a huge house, which is serving to give him a constant reminder that nobody’s home. There are two servants going around working and sometimes saying hi to him, there’s a grandpa in the shed somewhere who might come in once or twice to watch TV, and there’s photos on the wall of parents who aren’t home. He’s like that for at least eight years.

OH, and let’s talk about the friends argument which I’ve confusingly seen. He’s got two friends at school. His parents seem to recognize Danny’s name, so Danny might have been a longtime friend, or at least friend he talked about before. But Danny and Frances, being barely in any episodes, we can assume they also have their own lives and things going on and thus don’t, like, hang out with Chris after school a lot. He uses Danny as an excuse for being late in ep6, but the fact that nobody seemed to expect him to be late implies this is not a usual thing. And of course it is ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY not on the shoulders of these other 12yos to emotionally support another kid, but it’s not like they’re immediately moving into his house and giving him attention 24/7. They’re friends. Which is all they need to be. But for a neglected child like Chris, they’re just another part of his life that comes and goes. Him having two buddies at school that he shares a table with (thus probably just. friends by proximity) doesn’t negate the neglect.

Looking at the photos on the wall again, there’s one photo of Chris with some kind of sports team, probably baseball. Considering how bad Chris played in the baseball episode, he probably didn’t stay there long, and considering we never see anyone even resembling the kids in that pic, we can assume they didn’t stay long-lasting friends. The other photos, they’re dressed in suits, like they’re taking professional photos. Once again stilted, stiff.

But I hear y’all on twitter now. “Oh, boo-hoo, his parents weren’t around. He was still living fancy, it’s fine.”

So let’s talk about the effects of emotional neglect on the childhood psyche.

Part IV: Connie Read Actual Research Papers and Scholarly Articles For This Instead of Doing Actual Work

So, here’s something that’s been seen recurrently in neglected children: kids are psychologically dependent on parents or caregivers throughout their whole childhood and adolescence.

From New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research by the Committee on Child Maltreatment Research, “Children who have experienced abuse and neglect are therefor at increased risk for a number of problematic developmental, health, and mental health outcomes, including learning problems, problems relating to peers, externalizing symptoms [aggression or conduct disorder], and posttraumatic stress disorder. As adults, these children continue to show increased risk for psychiatric disorders, substance use, serious medical illnesses, and lower economic productivity.”

Let’s talk mainly about the mental health outcomes. Without a present caregiver, neglected children often fall behind on the abilities to regulate behavior or emotions. Several parts of the brain will end up altered due to early childhood neglect, including the stress response system, the emotion processing and regulation system, the learning and memory system, etc.

The stress response system is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortial axis, aka the HPA. The HPA is incredibly sensitive to early childhood experiences and an uncertain childhood can effect a lot of things, such as sleep patterns and hyperactivity. Abused children will often have higher spikes of cortisol, a high enough number of which can cause damage to the brain and premature aging.

The behavioral regulation is also most commonly affected in these victims; neglected children will often show “behavioral and emotional difficulties that are consistent with effects on the amygdala, such as internalizing problems, heightened anxiety, and emotional reactivity, and deficits in emotional processing.”

Other mental health issues are also seen; children with trauma experiences will show similar mental patterns as those with ADHD, and can have serious issues with inhibitory control– aka, controlling your impulses.

Then there’s the corpus callosum. (Insert SnapCube dub joke here.) The corpus callosum manages communication between the two hemispheres of the brain. Several studies have found that abused children have a much smaller corpus callosum than non-abused children, even those who are mentally ill; these effects are also more pronounced in boys than girls, which is relevant to our analysis of a 12yo anime boy from 2003. This means that their brain development will often be behind that of their peers, and it could take a while for them to mature.

That was long and boring Connie. Give us the tldr.

Okay don’t worry, the article got to that right about now. Children dealing with neglect will show several issues related to the interrupted development of these parts of their brain, including:

Extreme Deficits in Executive Functioning

Difficulty in regulating attention: As a note on this, 18.6% of abused and neglected teens are diagnosed with ADHD. Compared to 5% of other children. That’s like three times the amount!

And, most interestingly, the behavioral outcomes:

Difficulty forming trusting attachments to caregivers

Both Disorganized and Insecure Attachment Issues, usually getting severe Attachment Disorders

Reactive Attachment Disorder: Inhibited or emotionally withdrawn behavior, rarely seeking or responding to comfort

Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder: Basically the opposite; it’s marked by a pattern of overly familiar behavior with strangers.

Emotion Regulation: infants learn how to deal with distress via their parents– how their caregivers handle stress, how they take care of problems and slowly introduce the ability to deal with them. Without that, abused and neglected children will often fail to develop effective strategies for regulating emotions. This will probably cause a lot of the following.

This also includes recognizing emotions in others. While abused children will identify anger quickly, neglected children tend to be worse than non-neglected children at identifying any facial expressions.

Their emotional issues can also cause them to feel isolated from their peers, as their peers do not understand them and do not act like them.

Anxiety

Depression– nearly a 3x chance compared to non-neglected kids

Dissociation

Conduct Disorder

PTSD

Physical issues include stunted growth and motor development, and lower health.

Note that these do not appear in all victims of neglect, these are just common symptoms.

Part V: Every “Annoying” Thing Chris Does is a Fucking Symptom

Difficulty forming attachments to Caregivers

In episode 43, Chris deals with a situation that’s obviously alien to him: his parents coming home to care about him.

His parents hear that he’s sick and drop everything to come home. This is clearly something that’s unusual, judging from both Chris’s and his grandpa’s reactions to it. Chris is confused and embarrassed, kinda numb and still, until his grandfather and father start arguing. Even then, he only reacts when they bring up Sonic.

He then yells that he hates his family and orders them to leave him alone. This doesn’t last long as they’re immediately attacked by more badniks, but it’s a beat they definitely put in there intentionally.

Also, he doesn’t seem to trust Chuck as an authority either. He really just sees him as an impulsive adrenaline junkie at best; in the cruise ship episode, Chuck is drunk the whole time and Chris doesn’t seem to care. It also says something that while Ella and Tanaka are present, he doesn’t trust them to tell them they might be finding an alien in the attic until they find out for themselves.

Difficulty Understanding Others’ Emotions

This one’s gonna be easy, as I talked about it earlier in the essay. When Sonic asks, “Was the cat supposed to be me?” Chris immediately assumes he’s upset and tries to placate him with an explanation. This happens throughout the show as well; let’s take Mr. Stewart for example, that man is obviously spying on him and inserting himself into his life and Chris thinks it’s maybe a little weird, not that much though. He also spends most of his time hanging out with Shadow standing there in complete obliviousness as to what Shadow is thinking or feeling. He doesn’t even seem to really register Shadow as a threat, instead throwing himself at him in hopes that he can convince him to help Sonic. In doing so, he also doesn’t think that Tanaka would at all be worried about him, and is surprised at their reunion that Tanaka was upset.

Aggression / Delinquincy

This was very underplayed, but in the Sonic Battle arc, we literally see him start to rebel. He tells Sonic that he’s sick of being the perfect rich kid, that he wants to be a problem on purpose sometimes. Sonic seems to completely understand that, as that’s a point Chris needs to reach. He has to realize he cannot be perfect and that’s okay.

[except that dialogue was all cut in the 4kidz version no im not bitter]

Only Chris explores his imperfection in a really bad way.

And now. Let’s get into the attachment.

And to do that, we need to get into...

Part VI: What Sonic Represents

This is a fascinating part of Chris’s psyche since I think it occurs both subconsciously and consciously, but when I drew attention to Sonic bringing the light back into Chris’s life? Yeah, that’s cause he did.

Everything changed only after Sonic arrived. Suddenly Chris’s parents are... visiting??? For once??? TOGETHER??? His grandfather wants to spend time with him! His friends at school are hanging out with him more and he’s even made new friends! And most importantly, he has the mobians around him constantly. He’s got constant attention from all of them, and while he quickly takes on the figure of the Responsible One, he’s still WITH PEOPLE. He’s gone from being alone all the time to surrounded by a rowdy-ass found family.

Most of all is Sonic. Chris seems to have attached himself mainly to Sonic, likely because in his mind Sonic represents the moment when everything changed. Of course, Sonic would probably have been the worst of the gang to get attached to, seeing as he runs off all the time. The first several episodes, even after they stop hiding from the public, Chris is noticeably upset whenever Sonic leaves. He only calms down after several, several episodes, after assurances from every character that this is just a thing Sonic does, he never sticks around anyway, don’t worry about it.

But still, he definitely attaches himself to this hedgehog for better or for worse.

And it gets worse.

Part VII: Even More Trauma

First we gotta talk about the end of Season One.

At the beginning of the arc, Chris is noticeably... incredibly depressed. He’s also disassociating hardcore. He’s constantly staring into nothing, his face upset, but as soon as someone snaps him back to reality, he forces a smile on his face, acting happy despite going through a ton of negative emotions at once. Almost like he’s trying to behave perfectly.

Chris realizes throughout the episode the attachment he’s gotten to the mobians, and especially Sonic, but even then he still does his best to help them. He steals a chaos emerald and runs off to Eggman in order to get them home, because it will make them happy! Nevermind if it doesn’t make Chris happy. He’s never worried about that anyway.

Of course this backfires and Eggman kidnaps him, and then Chris has to go through the serious trauma of. Well. Being strapped to a wall, forced to watch helplessly as Sonic fucking dies.

And he’s blaming himself for it too.

MAJOR shoutout to Kobayashi’s acting in this scene, holy crap. But he just screams, and then... BREAKS THROUGH METAL?? And GRABS the Chaos Emeralds despite them ELECTRIC SHOCKING HIM???

And then of course we get this incredibly subtle dialogue.

"I will not let you have it. I will not let anyone have it. They’re only mine. Only me. Sonic... Sonic, you’re staying with me forever.”

Immediately after this, Chris almost fucking dies, and is only saved by Super Sonic. When he sees Super Sonic, he reacts by... begging. He drops down, clinging to Sonic and screaming and crying that he is nothing without Sonic.

Chris literally yells that he can’t do anything without Sonic, because that’s how he felt before Sonic. He could not do anything to get anyone to care about him, it only happened when Sonic arrived. So that’s how he sees himself: useless, worthless.

Sonic of course stays, but then dips for six months. When he gets back, a fucking god attacks Chris’s neighborhood, destroying his city. He gets sent away for a month, but that’s interrupted by Sonic being declared a fugitive from the government. Then Chris ends up with Shadow. He gets kidnapped by the goth clone of his emotional support hedgehog. He bonds with the goth clone. He gets the shit beaten out of him begging the goth clone to help save the world. It works, and Shadow runs off to save the planet. And then DIES.

You can tell how traumatized Chris is by this in the next episode. He’s disassociating again, staring at nothing, and eventually asks his uncle if he thinks they can actually live in the same world.

Which is followed by...

Part VIII: The Season Two Finale

We get the rather worrying scene of Chris having to write an essay for his school about his ideal future. Literally all he can think of is that he wants to stay with Sonic forever. He has no other ideals for the future. Just being attached to Sonic.

Only to go downstairs and find out that Sonic HAS to leave. They ALL have to leave. Their dimensions are caving in on themselves and they need to separate.

So he enters the Denial stage of grief.

He seems... dazed. Like he’s in a trance, as he argues that Sonic can’t leave, that all he wants to do is be with Sonic, that he can’t be apart from Sonic because he’s only been able to do things since Sonic got here. This was the first time he’s had agency in his life and he places it all on Sonic.

He decides that it must be Eggman’s fault and literally tracks him down. When he finds out that it’s not Eggman’s fault, he is distraught, and what’s interesting to me is that Eggman seems to get it. He just tells his robots to let him go. Let him be alone. Let him accept it.

Chris then falls back into the depression/disassociation during the entire farewell. He doesn’t emote, he just stares ahead. Something they cut in the English version is that while Chris is politely saying goodbye, throughout the whole scene you can hear his inner monologue screaming. Crying not to let them leave.

So he doesn’t.

The penultimate episode of Season Two is the culmination of Chris’s arc and they do it so beautifully.

Sonic knows Chris is going through a breakdown, and he lets him figure it out for himself. He lets him run off with him, he lets him make the decisions about where they go. Chris starts to realize this but says nothing. They see his tearful parents on TV begging him to come home and he... groans and leaves.

The episode also subtley shows Chris doing things himself. Climbing up the mountain, picking their roads. Sonic is slowly trying to let Chris know he has his own agency. That he is his own person.

They get to the campsite that meant a lot to Chris in his childhood, one of the only times that his parents hung out with him, and he breaks. Asks Sonic why he doesn’t hate him. Why he hangs out with him. If he only hangs out with him out of obligation.

And he comes to the conclusion himself that no, he can’t keep Sonic here. He can’t keep Sonic away from his world just because he has attachment issues. It was what he knew was right in Season One but couldn’t get himself to understand no matter how hard he tried. But now he gets it. And now he can let Sonic go.

The episode is soooo good, sooo fucking good. And then in the season finale, when we see the aftermath of that, when Sonic takes him on one last run and... he sees Sonic crying? Realizes that Sonic does love him and still lets him go? It’s impactful. It’s emotional.

Then when his parents come get him and he just smiles? Because he realizes they did come for him? That if Sonic can love him without obligation, maybe other people do too?

Chris’s severe attachment issues and trauma from being neglected culminated in this episode, and he made a bad choice. And then he made the right one. And that’s so good.

Part IX: Some Season Three Notes

Chris’s inclusion in the third season was... weird. It felt like they didn’t want to animate his adult model so they shoved him into a child body and made an excuse for it. But honestly, after traveling there, you can kinda... tell how much Chris has grown.

He was trying to get back to Sonic, but not because he needed him, but because they were friends. He and his friends wanted to see their friends again. He only went alone because he had a sense Sonic was in danger. And even in the twelve-year-old body, he’s an adult now and he acts like it. His only real emotional issue is that he is upset he can’t fight as well in his kid body, but then he figures out he can be useful with his inventions and finds a place with Tails. He’s basically parenting the rest of them for the rest of the season, telling Cosmo that her impulsiveness reminds him of his younger self. He offers to give up a way to return home because he knows the Metarex problem is bigger than himself.

At the end, when Eggman offers him a way home, you can tell they expected him to freak out about it. They’re shocked when he just says thank you, cries, and leaves immediately. They clearly not only will miss him, but they expected him to freak out like he did at the age of twelve. But he’s not twelve anymore. He’s spent the last six years surrounded by people who love him, healing from his trauma, and becoming his own person. So now he isn’t unhealthily attached to Sonic, and he can say goodbye if he has to. That growth, so subtly in the background of the season, really impressed me.

Part X: Fandom Reaction

On June 24 2022, I posted this meme to both twitter and tumblr.

On tumblr I got no pushback and a few agreements. On twitter I got a tidal wave of discourse, which tells you a lot about the two sites but regardless, this is the first time I get to ratio my commenters cause as of today, it has 23.4k likes and only 161 replies and 156 quote tweets. So that’s barely over 300 people (TOPS, considering several replies were positive) arguing against 23,400. So I may not be the only one thinking this!

But even still, with this being my most viral post atm, I got so many people bitching about Chris still. Even after all these years, he’s despised for being so annoying. And what is it? Is it really the fact that he got main charactered over Sonic? Really, I thought that was a plus of the show, that Sonic was a static figure that influenced what was around him. It doesn’t work for every Sonic property, but it did for this one. Was it just a hatred for humans in the franchise? Probably not, everyone loved Helen and the recent movies.

I really do think a vast majority of it is his realistic reaction to the trauma of neglect. “Ugly” trauma symptoms, like attachment issues, impulsive destructive behavior, aggressiveness, and selfishness, they are not looked upon kindly. Just look at how TikTok picks and chooses cute parts of mental illnesses and calls the rest “toxic.” And yes, sometimes mental illness can cause you to be toxic! And sometimes you’re just mentally ill! Sometimes you just have bad days and bad decisions and horrible mental states, and sometimes, life gets better. Sometimes life gets better and you begin to heal, and that’s what Chris’s arc was about, about him slowly gaining his own agency and starting to heal from his abandonment trauma. And he does this through the help of others. But with him having several moments where he reverts, several moments where his healing is non-linear, viewers see it as an annoying personality trait, not a trauma symptom he is trying to overcome. And one that he does. I cannot emphasize enough that he does overcome this and that the narrative specifically focuses on it. I’ve seen so many people say it was a writing flaw, that they never criticized Chris for his attachment to Sonic... it’s the focus of two season finales, what are you talking about? I think at that point, it’s just you.

Just think about why you find him annoying. You do not have to like Chris as a character but please recognize that his arc is a realistic portrayal of a neglected child and that’s why he is the way he is.

Part XI: Conclusion

I was gonna write a full-ass conclusion here but tumblr’s already trying to kill me over wordcount so uh. tl;dr Chris isn’t annoying he’s a traumatized child and this is something the narrative notices, examines, and resolves. What this means is that it’s not a writing problem, it’s a character flaw brought on by trauma that his character arc makes him heal from.

Leave him alone.

[bugs1nmybrain]

Could you possibly write Professor Aizawa x college student reader, where UA is a college instead of a high school?

Teacher's Crush - Professor!Aizawa x College Student!Reader ☆ Part 1

Warnings: No smut but nsfw, fem-reader, Professor x student, age gap (readers in early 20s, Aizawa is 30), no sex and cliffhanger, unrealistic confession, not proofread, very ooc aizawa

Notes: OOF. I questioned if I should do this because it is admittedly a guilty pleasure, but it feels taboo?? Then I remembered some of the somno and dub-con stuff I've written and humbled myself down. Fiction is meant to be fun. You're in luck! The recent chapters of MHA rekindled my Aizawa fixation a bit. Very excited to write this.

I plan to make a part 2 of this that will include ooey gooey SMUT. There's just a lot that has to build up to their relationship.

The College won't be UA itself but an out of canon school. Any MHA students will not be included. Aizawa is an English teacher because I noticed that he likes reading in Vigilantes so maybe he has a secret passion for it.

Notes About Reader: Fem-reader, Honor student, shorter than Aizawa, curvy, early 20s

College had its challenges, but overall, you were an A+ student and even better, a teacher's pet. Or..professor's pet?

Professor Aizawa had a soft spot for you. One that he was ashamed of. But the thing was, he couldn't help himself be completely enamored by his favorite student. You were responsible, kind, humble, smart, and reliable. A brilliant student, he could tell from your essays and comments in class. A mind of your own. That's not to say that you were flawless. Sometimes, you'd make a grammatical mistake or two, but he ignorantly disregarded them (which he did not do with the other students) because he enjoyed the appreciative thanks you gave him on the school website when you got a perfect grade.

It's a good thing he was respectful, because you also waltzed into class with little slutty skirts and tops that conveniently showed off your waist and tits. Like today. Yeesh, playing the schoolgirl angle up much?

"Who can tell me the cultural significance of this week's reading?"

Professor Aizawa glanced around to the sounds of crickets. Even you weren't speaking up, though you did seem to have a peculiar look on your face. He wondered how your expression would shift.

"Y/n."

You jolted up and redirected your attention.

"What're your thoughts?"

"Oh, well, I assumed it was important because it showed the socioeconomic struggles of people in the real world in this time period and what they did to make ends meet."

"Great work. Sharp as always, Y/N."

You smiled at him with what seemed like a blush. This was regular lately. You always dressed nice, but lately, your outfits were more revealing, and you became more flustered at his praise. You were so cute.

He wanted you so bad.

And so did you.

Professor Aizawa was one of the younger instructors at this school, though still well older than you. But with his sluggish looks and broody attitude, you'd think he was older than 30. You weren't the only one charmed by him. You heard some students joke about who had the biggest dick out of all professor's and how Aizawa was easily on the top. You wondered how true that was...

He gave you looks that he didn't to the others and you weren't stupid. The As you recieved seemed undeserving at times, but he'd marvel at your work. You caught him peaking when you'd lift up from a chair and your body was on display for him. How soft his tone was with you, and an underlying lust from both of you.

"It's 4pm. Class dismissed." As everyone began gathering their supplies, Aizawa stood from his desk and came over to you.

"Y/N. I'd like to speak with you once everyone's left," he said as if it wasn't an option.

"Wha-what's wrong?" You panicked. You became anxious whenever you suspected you've done something wrong. Especially from Aizawa.

"Don't stress, just stay seated and wait for them to leave."

You nodded sheepishly. Aizawa stood by his desk, trying to keep distance between you and him. You didn't know what on earth was wrong and to upset your favorite professor would hurt you for the rest of the semester.

The rest of the students left, leaving the empty noise between you and Aizawa. He stood seated on his desk with his hands figeting with each other.

"You always tell us to get off the seats," you joke, not remembering that you may be in trouble right now.

"This is my desk. Those chairs are the schools."

"Right. I'm sorry, sir."

Mm.. you were too much for him.

"Why-why, uh. Did I miss an assignment? I did have a busy week so I'm not sure."

"No. Nothing like that. Your grades are perfect, one of the best in my class and I wager the rest of your classes, right?"

"Well, I'm not the brightest in CIS, but I have an A."

"The A is what matters. You seem pretty hard on yourself, I've come to notice."

"I-uh. Hm?"

"I have to pay attention to all my students to make sure you're all living up to your potential. You're talented, and you have a promising future. You're really not an English major?"

"No. I don't read as much as this class has me."

"You seem to like movies based on your personal essays. Film studies have similar elements, you know? But I'm sure you're going to do great things with your degree."

"Thank you, Aizawa. Um. You're much nicer to me than the others, I've noticed," you laugh nervously.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Yes."

Aizawa chuckled softly. The first laugh you've heard from him. You weren't sure if Aizawa was even capable of humor.

"Well it's because I.."Shota stammered, realizing he really didn't have a solid reason for keeping you behind. He figured just having a reassuring peptalk could win him moments with you. But you were catching on.

Shota's gaze zoned out on your breasts without thought. He admired your short stature and full features more than he should. It felt wrong. You were his student.

"What's that?" You asked.

"I suppose I just see you as a model student."

"Thank you, Professor Aizawa."

"Of course. I was wondering if perhaps you'd be interested in doing a work study as my personal teaching assistant."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. You'd recieve hourly pay and it's part time. I think you're smart enough to handle it."

"I mean, yea! I would love that. I've been trying to get work study for a while but I've had troubles."

Well, this was convenient he thought, considering it was spur of the moment. "I'm glad to hear that. You'll do great and I look forward to working with you."

While you were still here, Aizawa thought of another way he could capture your attention. Your outfit was a problem and it made him feel in checkmate. His cock would grow in his pants just at the sight and the filthy thoughts he had. Though it was against his personal beliefs on the matter, it could be worth it to scold you.

"You know...Y/N. Your sense of style is rather revealing as of late."

"Oh."

"I'm not mad. It's just that the students, especially the boys, might have a hard time focusing in class."

Aizawa eyed you with a faint look of wanting, as if he was trying to signal to you his intentions. He's already accepted he's borderline fucked if you two got together. Would he risk that? With the submissive and hungry pout you gave him back, though...hell yea he would.

"Am I being dress coded?" You perk up playfully.

"Mm..well, maybe you should show me if that skirt passes your fingertips, hm?"

You couldn't believe what was happening. You halfway doubted he was actually trying to make a move, but you realized that he was angled in a way to conceal his crotch from a boner.

"I- um!" You blushed and cracked a smile. You got up and started to check the fingertips, but Aizawa snickered again.

"I wasn't serious about that," he smiled at you, shamelessly looking you up and down. "Y/N, I'm really proud of you. So responsible, smart, attentive. Always in the front of my class, giving me a gorgeous smile. Are your clothes maybe a call for my attention, too?"

It's like he caught you like a deer in headlights. You stammered and looked down at the floor, in disbelief of what he was saying to you. You felt a tingle in between your legs, and Aizawa noticed your squirm.

"Come here," he looked at you with a motion of his pointer finger. So you obeyed and stood in front of him. "Do you have a crush on me?"

He got you.

You felt heated and panicked, worried this would be a problem. By how he spoke, it seemed thay he liked you too. But this was wrong, right?

"I..I mean, you are my favorite professor."

"Uh-huh..that's good to know,"he smirked, encouraging you to say more, but you kept quiet. "Is that why you're always nearly the only student to stay for extra lessons? With your smarts, you certainly don't need them."

"Well, it always helps to stay on top of things," you bluffed.

"That also explains you staring at me in the halls and through the teachers lounge window?"

Did he really notice that? You thought.

"..maybe. I'm sorry, Professor Aizawa.." You spoke in shame.

"It's alright, kitten."

!~¡☆!

Kitten

"This is very inappropriate," he remarks, as if you were the one who approached him.

"Well. Yea."

"Mhm. Are you able to keep a secret for us? Do you want that?"

You stared at him with huge eyes of excitement. You swore you must've been dreaming. You soon felt a calloused hand brushing up again your hand.

"How rational do you think this is?" You giggled, moving closer to rest your forehead on his.

"Not very. But it's not rational to force these things away, either." He sighed in relief, feeling his heart become warm. "Would you like to go out to dinner with me? Out of town, ideally."

"Yea. That'd be very nice."

[yandere-daydreams]

Can we get a rec list for shojo? I've been picking up shows you write for (like jjk) but I enjoy shojo too and I think I would enjoy similar shows to you. If not thats okay too!

uhhh i only have a few that i would actively recommend but!!! i feel very passionately about all of them. not all shows have to be fanfic fodder. some can just be fun.

♥ horimiya. it's a classic and has literally no flaws to speak of. never before has a heterosexual romance been so queer-coded and never will it be again.

 ♥ ouran high school host club - the anime AND the manga!!! i know everyone's already seen the anime half a dozen times, but if you liked it, i'd really recommend picking up the manga. it's aged pretty well (all things considered) and does in fact have an actual plot with a real and satisfying ending, something that i can tragically not say for the anime.

♥ jibaku shounen hanako-kun/toilet bound hanako-kun. it is vaguely shounen coded but don't let the occasional fight scene fool you, this one is for the girls <3 i'd recommend watching the anime and picking up the manga from there, since both have a really unique and charismatic art style and are very good in their own right. there are ghosts. there are gay people. the heroine is trying to brute force her reality into becoming a rom/com and repeatedly turns into a fish. what's not to love.

♥ i'm in love with the villainess!!! i would STRONGLY recommend this if you are both gay and have been repeatedly abused by just,,, so many early 2010s dating sims. the animation is a little rough at times but overall it's very enjoyable and has a surprising amount of lore. i'd also very strongly recommend watching the english dub. the mc is just,,, yeah. that's a woman who's been in the trenches y'know.

♥ the ancient magnus bride. it has aged contentiously but if you can get past the 'sixteen year old x immortal eldritch being' thing then it WILL emotionally wreck you. the ost is also just,,,, delectable. they should really pull out the lute more often that shit goes hard.

♥ welcome to demon school! irumu-kun! people will tell you that this is a shounen and those people are WRONG!!! never before has an anime been so deeply concerned with love and friendship and putting everybody's favorite little guys in situations that make you wonder if it truly is gay to kiss the homies goodnight. the animation is very rough but in a very charming way, and mc has a very cute, very prominent romance with a woman who could snap him over her knee like a twig. then english dub cast is doing the goddamn most too, but feel free to consume it however you see fit.

[hunterbunter3000]

HIIII SO i have an ask

PLEASR MORE ABOUT THE WOMB TATTO WITH 141 IM OBSESSED 😭😭❤️

EHEHEH SINCE YOU ASKED SO NICELYYYY

Sweetheart gets more comfortable around her team that she wears shorter shirts now. She still wears long sleeves though, they haven't unlocked the tattoo sleeves she has LOL (I'm drawing all the tattoos she has and I can't WAIT TO SHOW YALL)

But she shows off her✨️ ICONIC✨️ yummy, womb tattoo constantly. Sometimes, even when she's training, she'll wear a compression shirt that she cuts. (Rookies don't know what to feel lol)

Soap dubs it his tattoo, Sud's Tattoo as he calls it, because he can't get enough of it. And he has to wrestle off Roach and König when he lays on it

Soap: BACK AFF YE FOOLS THIS IS MY TATTOO

Sweetheart, laying on the couch: Soap--

König: IT IS NOT YOURS GET OFF OF HER

Roach, stomping his feet: 😠 🥾💥🥾💥🥾💥

Soap: ROACH SHUT TH' FUCK UP YE TWO ALWAYS GET TAE DO THIS

Sweetheart, stressed: what the hell is happening--

Soap REALLY likes the tattoo 💀as I said, he's obsessed with it (like you, kiame HA) Everytime Sweets comes out with a cropped shirt, he fucking ZOOMS to the tattoo and just snuggles his cheek against it

Soap, smiling and sighing: Good morningggg~! I missed you, Bonnie.

Sweetheart: Are you talkin' to me or my tattoo?

Soap, opening his eyes:

Soap: uhm

He DEFINITELY talks to it sometimes

Soap: And how are YOU doing today, Bonnie?

Sweetheart, smiling: I'm doing good thank you- why is your face on my tattoo.

Soap: Because... I was talking to Bonnie...

Sweetheart:

Sweetheart, kinda offended: AM I NOT BONNIE ANYMORE??

Soap: UHM

I mean he just loves it so much. Seeing such a sexy design on rich, golden brown skin so low on a wonderful body... it's enchanting. He's not the only one who thinks that. He argues with Ghost alot on who likes it more, but they always agree when they team up on Sweetheart.

18+ MDNI

"Ghost, please..."

Ghost hums on her soft pussy, tongue swirling on her chubby lips. He kisses and sucks on them, thin strings of saliva connected to his chin and mouth. "Please what, love?" He eyes her as his fingers spread her open and glides his tongue slowly up, all the way to her pulsing clit and making her jolt. Soap groans on her skin, kissing each detail on her womb tattoo. "Y'need to speak up, St. Can't know what to do if ye'r tae wheesht." His hands travel up her sides, caressing and scratching her skin. Marking it as his.

Ghost sighs. "In English, Mactavish." He's getting tired of not understanding what the Scottish man is saying half the time. Soap grumbles, lips still attached to her tummy. "Simon..." Sweetheart whines out, hips squirming and eyes prickling with tears. The two men chuckle, knowing what she wants but not giving it to her quickly enough. Ghost reigns himself back, the lust and desire getting too hot for him when she whined out his name like that. He wanted to fuck her right then and there, but not yet.

"Say what you need, Sweetheart." Ghost mumbles, his tone low and caring. Hungry. His thumb does small circles on her clit, making her yelp, back arching off the bed and thighs squeezing Ghost's head to which he loves it. "Please! Please let me cum! I need-- I need it, please!" Sweetheart wails, overwhelming tears flow down her cheeks as her hand buries in Soap's hair and pulls. Soap's broken moan was heard by both of them, but his lips would not leave her tattoo. Teeth nibbling on the black ink, tongue sliding up to her bellybutton. He comes up for air finally, a lazy smile on his face. "Since we both agreed on liking this," his hand smooths over his tattoo on her body. "Beautiful piece of art, Lt., I think it's time we gave our Sweetheart what she deserves, aye?" Ghost grunts as he comes up from her legs and places a kiss on the tattoo, causing Sweetheart to mewl. "I think it is, Mactavish." Ghost says, both his and Soap's eyes turn dark and starved.

🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️ ANYWAY

YEAH EVERYONE STILL LIKES IT LMAO

[museqmeg]

A little (a very long) Vash & Meryl Trigun Stampede thought:

Let's talk about these two and how they view humanity and plantness. ("Plantness" is the plant equivalent of "humanity," right?)

Vash's plant reveal to the gang is meant to be shocking, but there's more to this moment than meets the eye. If you're a new member of the Trigun audience, Meryl is your avatar into the world of No Man's Land and who/what Vash is... but she is also so much more.

Meryl is a reflection of Vash's own humanity. Meryl is one living, breathing human who embodies all that he wants to protect. She is what Rem sacrificed her life for, but also selfishly in the best way, for himself - Vash truly loves humanity. Meryl is the humanity Vash aspires to be. Vash and Meryl are mirrors.

One of my favorite ways that Vash and Meryl demonstrate their mirror imagery, is through their views and treatment of plants. They both show so much care, compassion, and consideration for a being that is seen as less and to serve humanity. Offering these rights to another living creature puts plants and humans on equal ground. Coexisting.

Orange did a wonderful job of parallel imagery to highlight this. Let's take a look, shall we?

Help

They ask a plant for help. Only when things are truly dire do they request the assistance of a plant. For Vash, it's his sister on the sand steamer. For Meryl, it's Vash in JuLai.

Something very small, but very important to me... In the English dub, they both say "please" when asking for help. It's clearly a choice given to each plant (sister or Vash), but their agency is kept.

(This particular parallel imagery makes me perish. Well done Orange.)

Choice

When both Vash and Meryl ask, both are willingly and freely answered.

Connection

When we see Vash connect with his sister, it's mysterious and otherworldly. However, when we see Meryl connect with Vash, it's so human and heartbreaking. The tension we feel as she desperately calls for him while he reaches out with his violet geraniums makes us feel the stark difference between plants and humans. The connection isn't so easy between the two species.

Poor tiny, human Meryl is trying so hard here. She's literally up against an interdimensional being while giving everything she has. But it's her voice. Her humanity. It calls out to Vash's own. It's the connection that comes easy.

"Follow your heart."

In this moment, humanity/Rem/Meryl is Vash's heart.

And Vash is Meryl's heart.

Two human hearts.

Dare I say it was actually Roberto who saved Vash and humanity? Roberto knew. He knew that Vash and Meryl were two sides of the same coin. Roberto had them pegged. His gentle nudge was the courage Meryl needed to act on her heart, creating a domino effect for Vash's courage.

Humanity

It was always inside him. Vash is human. He is so very lucky to have two very strong tethers: Rem & Meryl.

I very much interpret this moment as a handoff of Vash from Rem to Meryl. His anchors pulling him out of his brother's gate and plant state. Letting him be his true self.

Agency

Compassion. Respect. Love. They're integral to one's self-worth. Meryl giving all of that to Vash and seeing him as her equal, as human... gave him back his own identity and autonomy.

Heart

Two hearts.

Maybe all it took for a human and plant to connect and coexist was just a little heart. A little love & peace, if you will.

[kerorowhump]

"H-Hi... we're back home..."0

"But... sergeant, what's going on? Do you feel sick?"

"Don't worry. How are the guests?"

"I will be eternally grateful to her... if Lady Natsumi is leading the team that's in the kitchen I'm certain that our guests will appreciate it a lot..."

[lieutenantselnia]

A little comparison of Lieutenant Lyste's voice in the English and German dub (+ a little bit of Kallus too); because I find languages interesting and this made me really think about how a voice actor can influence how a character is perceived.

First of all, I've watched Rebels primarily in German so far (though I've seen a good amount of scenes in English as well), partly for nostalgia reasons (I was in my teens, probably around 14 when I first watched the series and my English wasn't that good at the time to just casually watch an entire series, plus I was watching it with my younger sister), but also because I think the voice actors especially for the main and recurring characters are genuinely doing a really good job. Heck, for some characters I might actually prefer their German voice because it is that good! Kallus might actually be a good example for this if he's already here, I think he has such a pleasant roughness in his voice. For Thrawn it's also a pretty close match, he sounds wonderful in both variants but I might prefer his German voice just by a teeny tiny bit.

Who I actually wanted to talk about is Lieutenant Lyste though. I'm mainly familiar with his German voice, and as he's a fictional crush of mine, this is also the voice of his that I've fallen in love with. When I imagine him talking - regardless in which language - the sound is that of his German voice. Personally, I feel like that voice makes him seem a little younger and more naive compared to his English voice. I've always headcanoned him to be fairly young, in his early to mid twenties, and that by the start of the series he had just completed his military training recently (his position as supply master might have been the first one where he had to bear more responsibility). I've always seen him as a guy who's motivated and just trying his best, but at the same time he's lacking experience, plus, if we're being honest, when it comes to his military career he's a pretty average guy. I think he'd learn and improve over the years, but he isn't the "best of his academy year" or "promising young talent with innovative ideas" kind of guy, and he's far from a mastermind like Thrawn. He's literally Just A Guy, and personally, that's actually something I really like about him and that makes him endearing to me.

In contrast, I think his voice in the English dub makes his age a bit more ambiguous (I still wouldn't guess him older than 30, also based on his appearance but I feel he seems less "boyish" than in the German dub). I think it also gives him a bit more of an arrogant tinge and less of the playfulness that at least I hear in his German voice. He still conveys that dutifulness, but he seems a bit more uptight as well. I wouldn't go so far to say that that's bad, and I still like his English voice as well, but I think for me it won't come close to the charm that his German voice has to me.

Towards the end I want to point out though, that the voice, while being an important aspect, is not everything that makes a character. Appearance, behaviour, body language, actions and decisions contribute to that as well. What I found interesting is that most headcanons that I read about Lyste actually still overlap closely with my own as well, even though I heavily assume that not all people who wrote them are familiar with his German voice. I would say that this is a good thing, because his core personality is still conveyed across language barriers, even though the way that different actors voice him may emphasise different aspects of his character more or less.

[sofasoap]

Interlude: Here comes the insertion specialist

Pairing: König x  f!Reader ( OC aka Mini MacTavish )

Summary: Don't give König ANY alcohol.

Warning: M Rated. INNUENDO, INNUENDO!  Alcohol consumption ( be responsible people), swearing, sexual theme. Slight crack fic. English isn’t my first language, there will be a lot of grammatical and tense mistake.

A/N: This is part of the world what I dubbed “ Mini MacTavish Universe”. Inspired by  @saltofmercury ’s “ “The Favorite MacTavish”. Praise her for lending me her character and universe * starry eye *. Go read her brilliant stories!

 “masterlist” for more stories to this Mini MacTavish expanded verse.

You know König doesn't drink alcohol. No big deal. Each to their own. Maybe he just doesn't like the taste of it. What you didn't realise is he has ZERO tolerance to alcohol.

Kortac was in UK again after a successful joint operation with the SAS. To your surprise, Johnny rang you and ask if you want to travel to  Credenhill  to join the party. "That's rare, usually I have to beg you to let me tag along!"

"... The team was asking for you." " They are asking for their FAVOURITE MacTavish you mean?"

" Jesus Christ, do you want to come or not?"

" Just give me the date and I'll check my shift timetable."

You were secretly excited you will get to see König again after the chance meeting which turned into, according to Emma, a coffee date. Was that a date? You don't know. Do you like him? Maybe. For the moment you are just enjoying your time texting back and forth. ( or mainly him sending pictures of what his current little carving projects are or interesting things he notice while on mission. It's quite adorable really. )

Dropping off your luggage at the airbnb near the barrack, you make your way towards the bar frequently attended by the team. Walking in, loud noises hits you instantly. The pub was packed full of people, it's a popular spot for the SAS soldiers since the barrack isn't far off. You look around trying to find your brother. Soon enough you spot Ghost's tall figure with Johnny and Gaz playing a round of snooker. You ran up to your brother and tackled him from behind.

"Mini! you made it!" Gaz exclaimed. "What's a gathering without me livening up the atmosphere?" You high fived each other. Johnny turned around and gave you a big hug.

" How was the train ride here?" "Busy. Lucky I booked my ticket as soon as you told me about the gathering." Pointing at Ghost, " Am I allow to greet him? or is the no Ghosting rule still apply?" "What are you planning." he look at you deadpan expression. " Nothing. I am just being friendly." " Why does this sound familiar." You turned and smiled at Ghost, " Hey Simon. "

" ... Hey." " Mini." " Hey Uncle Price!" You left Johnny's embrace and went in for a hug with Price. Why does Ghost look slightly disappointed?

"Who else is here?"

Price pointed towards the table near the bar. "Some of the KorTac members are over there, the rest are scattered around." "OHh I see new people I haven't met." " MINI" Johnny and Simon chimed in same time with warning tone.

" Yes Sir, I know Sir, I will behave Sir.” You gave the boys your best salute and wondered towards the bar to order a beer. While standing at the bar, you see König, per usual, hiding at the edge of the room, trying to make himself invisible with a glass of what looks like a coke in his hand, listening to his teammate's conversation. Doing your best you try to wave to him, he spotted you, his eyes lit up and timidly waved back. Horangi saw the interaction, elbowed König and teased him a little. König duck his head down, blushing. You felt a set of eyes on you, turning around you can see Ghost looking at your direction, eyes narrowed. What's his problem?

Soon you find yourself mixing with the ladies from both teams, gossiping away. They sure have fascinating stories to tell, tales of war to suitors or love interests they meet during their missions.

".... and would you believe, their pick up line was, "“I’ve lost my teddy bear! Can I sleep with you instead?”" You laughed, " Oh gosh, that sounded like me from last time!" " Look, if it comes from you, it sounds cute, but coming from that person??" Nova made a face. " Mini, come on, got any stories to tell? Any strange pick up lines?" " Sadly no. All the boys that wants to approach me been scared off by Johnny." " Pfft, for a casanova like him, it's bit contradicting. no offense Mini."

" None taken Kleo. I know my brother is a manwhore. A gentlemanly manwhore." Everyone burst out laughing. Out of corner of your eyes, you saw König swaying a bit in his seat. No one else seems to notice. His drink nearly finish. Maybe he is tired? All of sudden, he stood up, startling the people around him, and proceed to swagger towards you, full of purpose, you will be lying if it doesn't stir the heat up a little bit down there. Cocking an eyebrow, you turned your chair towards him. Waiting for his next move. Stopping right in front of you, he leans down, hands on both side of you on the table, trapping you. Gosh, he does have beautiful blue eyes, the piercing blue eyes.... wait, is that bit of alcohol you can smell from his breath?

"Hello Schatz." He purred. "Do you know why they call me insertion specialist? because I am VERY GOOD at ramming... " his eyes flickers down towards his crotch, " THINGS... especially into people." The whole pub just went dead silent. Your jaw dropped. Is he trying to flirt with you? Hearing a loud clank noise, your eyes darts towards the snooker table, Johnny had dropped his cue, eyes wide with shock, while Ghost looks like he was about to murder certain someone with veins popping out of his forehead. Gaz was laughing his head off, smacking Price's back, making him choke. " WHO THE FUCK ADDED RUM INTO HIS COKE!!!!"

Just think of the way König walks at the character intro screen. mmmmm.

lack of sleep does this to you. Oops.

[randomthefox]

I want you to PLEASE do me a favor and put Yakuza 0 out of your mind. Also please disregard Yakuza Kiwami. Pretend that this and the scene with Majima at the beginning of the game is the ONLY content with Majima that exists in the entire world. Ten years ago Majima beat the shit out of his own underling because he disrespected Kiryu, gave him some psudo advice on how to run his family which everyone expected was going to happen soon, then walked off. Next thing that happens is Kiryu goes to prison for 10 years for killing his boss. Majima has no reason to think Kiryu didn't do it. Suddenly Kiryu is back in town and running around with some little girl, so Majima kidnaps Haruka and lures Kiryu to the batting cages EVERY SINGLE OTHER ENCOUNTER that Kiryu has had with EVERYONE ELSE in the Tojo Clan so far has been them going "FUCK YOU KIRYU YOU KILLED YOUR BOSS YOU'RE A TRAITOR WE'RE GONNA FUCK YOUR SHIT UP >=o " OR has been saying "hand over Haruka because she's vaguely important." So obviously the assumption would be that Majima is doing the same kind of thing. But what happens?

Majima just tells him where Haruka is and says he's free to take her.

Because Majima DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK about the main story.

ALL Majima wants is to fight Kiryu. He doesn't care about ANYTHING ELSE. He kidnapped Haruka as a means to an end, and if anything his motivation for wanting to fight Kiryu is BECAUSE HE LIKES HIM. Fighting to the death is Majima's love language.

Majima calling him "Kiryu-chan" also cannot be overstated. I literally don't even have time to unpack the layers of meaning in him applying that particular suffix to him.

Majima literally throws himself in the way to stop one of his own underlings from stabbing Kiryu. In the original english dub he says "Kiryu is my friend." In the Kiwami sub they actually chose to translate this as "he belongs to me." The subs I'm using naturally went with "Kiryu is mine." Everyone was on the same page here. Majima wants to fight Kiryu because he LIKES him.

Is it any wonder Majima became so insanely popular as a character? And believe it or not, the developers didn't originally envision Majima as a very important character. The character evolved and developed over time. As originally written, he only has three scenes in the entire game and the character designer and voice actor kind of ran away with the concept and brought Majima to life in a way that did not exist in the script or design document.

This is why the Majima everywhere system in Kiwami actually kind of annoys me. It's a great and funny system IF YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO MAJIMA IS AND HAS BEEN PLAYING THESE GAMES FOR TEN YEARS. But if you *started* with Yakuza 0 or Kiwami as your FIRST GAMES? It turns Majima into this fucking meme and totally knees caps your perspective of his character.

Majima is so special and unique. A real wild card of a character that only EVENTUALLY had depth added to him starting with Yakuza 4 when his backstory started getting delved into. In the first game, he's actually kind of a yandere type character that has some tantalizing implied nuance to him.

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure 01x29 - Mammon! Great Clash at Hikarigaoka / Return to Highton View Terrace

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Vamdemon went on a vacation to Japan but fucking forgot all of the children. We tried to Home Alone the place, as you do, but went too hard and accidentally brought the roof down. So we ended up playing cards in the basement until we could board a second flight.

Now, at last, the Chosen Children have returned to the campsite where this all began. The Eighth Child will be in Hikarigaoka. It's up to us to find them before Vamdemon does.

Discussing next steps at the campsite, Koushiro briefly lays down the time dilation effect that Taichi experienced.

Sora: You don't think Vamdemon has already found the Eighth Child, do you? Koushiro: According to my calculations, not even a minute will have passed between Vamdemon's arrival in Hikarigaoka and our appearance here. The flow of time between the two worlds is different. Yamato: The problem is, how do we get to Hikarigaoka? It's pretty far from here. Jou: But is today really the same day we were at camp? We were in the other world for months. Mimi: That's true. Even if the flow of time is different, we don't know for sure. Taichi: I'll go take a look at the camp! We shouldn't have been gone for that long!

Taichi would know. He was here, like, four days ago Digimon Time.

Over in the dub, they've backed off on saying Japan but they've also stopped dancing around proper nouns. They have arrived at an official name for their version of Hikarigaoka.

T.K.: We're back to camp where we started! Tai: We've gotta get to Highton View Terrace and stop Myotismon before he finds the Eighth DigiDestined! Sora: I wonder how much of a head start he has on us? Izzy: Not even a minute has passed between the time Myotismon left for Japan and when we arrived. Time flows at a different pace in the Digi-World. Matt: I'll say! We've been gone for months in the Digi-World and yet here in the real world it's the same day we left! Joe: But that's impossible! You mean all those adventures took less time than it does to, say, get a haircut? Mimi: Please, Joe! Don't exaggerate! Imagine getting your hair done in such a short amount of time! Tai: I'm gonna go take a look at the camp! I'm gonna see for myself how much time has really passed!

That's a pretty good Mimi Quip, I'll take it. XD

The actual Japanese district Hikarigaoka is now the fictional setting Highton View Terrace, which kinda sounds like a rich upscale neighborhood for fancy people.

Matt doesn't get to point out that "Highton View Terrace" is pretty fucking far from the campsite we're at, which is a problem for seven unattended children.

Taichi sprints down the stairs to go scout out the camp, only for the entire rest of the group to follow him down.

Taichi: You don't all have to come! Mimi: Maybe not, but.... Jou: I'm the group leader! Koushiro: We're all curious about what could have happened while we were gone. Taichi: But how will we explain if someone sees these guys?

Jou's line might seem odd after the last episode made such a fuss about Taichi being team leader, but he means that in terms of formality.

Taichi is リーダー riidaa, a loanword from the English "leader". Unofficially, the group has elected Taichi to the position of their leader.

Jou says he's 班長 hanchou, which we actually took as a loanword from Japan to become "honcho". It means squad leader, project leader, class president, etc. Jou-senpai is formally the responsible older kid who's expected to be in charge of these children, and it might be kinda weird if Taichi just showed up at camp without him.

In the dub:

Tai: One of you come with me, the rest of you stay there! Who volunteers? (everyone chases after) Tai: One volunteer, not thirteen! Mimi: I thought I'd keep you company. Joe: And we're gonna keep Mimi company. Izzy: I guess we're all pretty curious to find out what happened while we were gone. Tai: But how will we explain it if somebody sees our Digimon?

Officially, Mimi is the volunteer. She, alone, is going with Tai. Everyone else is going with Mimi. XD That's one way to do it.

Suddenly, a voice calls out. An adult voice. An adult human. An actual other human!

Voice: YAGAMI!!!

Taichi turns around to see a man running towards them.

Taichi: Sensei! Sora: It's Fujiyama-sensei! Taichi: SENSEI!!!

Overcome with emotion, Taichi runs out to meet Fujiyama, but Fujiyama's having none of this emotional reunion. He starts yelling at Taichi so hard that Taichi falls flat on his ass.

Fujiyama: YOU DUMBASS!!! Why are you loitering out here instead of packing your things!? Taichi: U-Uh well-- Koromon: What do you mean, 'packing'?

Oh shit, here we go again. Taichi clamps his hands down hard around Koromon's mouth. Fortunately, despite looking right at him with glasses, Fujiyama doesn't seem to notice that Koromon spoke.

Fujiyama: We can't keep camping out here in all this snow, of course. Everyone's getting ready to go home. Taichi: Oh, o-of course, hehe.... Fujiyama: What are those filthy things you're holding? Are they toys? Taichi: U-Uh-huh! Yep! Mochimon: Who are you calling filthy-- Koushiro: (covers Mochimon's mouth) Don't speak.

Credit to Gomamon, Piyomon, and Palmon who all freeze up and never speak or move in this entire scene. Also Patamon and Tsunomon who haven't done anything wrong.

The dub presents Fujiyama like a threat.

Fujiyama: Oh, kii~iiids!

He calls out, and we go to commercial with Fujiyama running towards them, like it's a cliffhanger. Then, upon return, they play peril music over his approach and also repeat his line.

Fujiyama: Oh, kii~iiids! Tai: It's our teacher! Sora: We are back in the real world! Tai: Mr. Fujiyama! (Tai races out to meet him and gets shouted down) Fujiyama: WATCH OUT!!! (Taichi falls) What are all you kids doing playing around here when you haven't even packed up your gear yet!? Tai: Well, sir, I can explain-- Koromon: Well, I'm Tai's Digimo-- (Taichi clamps Koromon's mouth shut) Fujiyama: Didn't you kids hear that we're closing up camp early because of the snow? Everyone else is all ready to go home! Tai: Sure, of course we heard! Ahaha.... Fujiyama: What are those dirty little toys you're carrying? Where'd you get 'em? Tai: Uhhh toys? Motimon: Who's he calling a dirty little toy!? That's not-- Koushiro: (clamps Motimon's mouth shut) We can't let anyone know you can talk.

Seems we were gone a bit longer in the English version than the Japanese, as all the other kids have already packed. They're waiting on us.

A minor plot change but a lateral one. Though it's kind of funny that Japanese Fujiyama seems angrier at the kids than English Fujiyama, despite the English kids actively delaying the rest of the class's return home.

Koromon and Mochimon screw up so hard they get all the other Digimon in trouble too. Takeru and Yamato clap hands over Patamon and Tsunomon's mouths even though they haven't done anything.

Yamato: (whisper) Pretend you're stuffed animals. Tsunomon: (muffled protests) Taichi: Th-these are plushies! Fujiyama: I can see that. Mimi: Someone threw them out here and we found them! Jou: Y-yeah! They were in a remote region deep in the mountains where no one ever passes through! We went through a lot of trouble before we finally got them! Fujiyama: How did you even find them in the first place if they were in an area people don't pass through? Taichi: Th-That's just how hard-to-find they were! RIGHT, EVERYONE!? Kids: RIGHT!!!

Oh, these kids were definitely doing drugs. They are being way too suspicious right now. if I were Fujiyama, I'd be seriously wondering right now whether Kids These Days use plushies to conceal bags of narcotics.

In the dub:

Matt: Pretend to be stuffed animals. Tsunomon: (muffled protests) Tai: Oh, THESE toys!? Well, you see, they're stuffed. Fujiyama: Yes, Tai. I can see that. Sora: Uhhhhh we found them here. Joe: Yeah! That's right! You see, we were hiking up an uncharted trail when we came across these stuffed toys that someone had thrown away! Makes perfect sense if you ask me! Fujiyama: Who in their right mind would hike up an uncharted trail just to throw away seven stuffed animals!? Tai: Exactly our point! And that's why we think that littering is crazy! Right, gang? Kids: RIGHT!!!

"That's why littering is crazy!" Tai making a desperate and futile bid to present himself like a Good Kid (TM) by inserting PSAs into his bad excuse. These kids were doing even more drugs and I'm about to search that Koromon.

Fortunately, Taichi's had enough time to think of something.

Taichi: S-See? (holds up Koromon) You remember my little sister Hikari wasn't able to make it? I wanted to give this to her as a souvenir. She loves this kind of stuff. Fujiyama: Oh... She had a cold, right? Taichi: She did, but she's better now; I made her an omelette. Fujiyama: YOU did!? Taichi: !!! Koromon: !!! A-- Taichi: (hand over Koromon's mouth) B-Before camp, I mean! Ehehe....

Wow, Taichi fumbled the ball fast. I would have thought an ace striker would be better at ball control than that.

Fortunately, the plan still works despite Taichi nearly screwing it all up.

Fujiyama: A souvenir for your sister, huh? Well, after you've all finished packing your things, meet up in the parking lot. Kids: Yes, sir! Fujiyama: (runs off) Don't take too long! Kids: Okay! Koromon: But how do we get to Hikarigaoka? Taichi: Hehe, I've got a plan.

Phew! We survived encountering our first adult in our return to Japan. Sympathy bid to sow doubt and make him feel guilty for suspecting us takes the win.

In the dub, Tai continues to try and sell his anti-littering PSA.

Tai: But, being the good citizens that we are, we cleaned up the mess! And now I'm giving the toys to my little sister Kari as a present! She wasn't able to come to camp, remember? Fujiyama: Oh, yeah. She caught a cold, didn't she? Tai: Yes, but she's feeling much better now because I went home and made her an omelette. Fujiyama: And when did you do that? Koromon: WHEN I-- Taichi: (clamps Koromon's mouth shut) Uh, when? That's a good question. Uh, right before I left for camp! Ahaha! Fujiyama: It's nice that you're thinking of your sister, Tai. But don't overdo it. Those toys are filthy and belong in the garbage. Right kids? Kids: RIGHT!!! Fujiyama: (runs off) Meet you at the bus! Kids: OKAY!!! Koromon: I'd like to get his gear together and throw him in the garbage can! Tai: Well, then you won't be littering, at least!

Tai is really proud of that 'littering' bit. Proud enough to again not talk about the logistics of reaching Highton View Terrace.

I appreciate English Fujiyama for pointing out the flaw in Tai's alleged intentions. Actually no? Do not pick up strange plushies from the wilderness and take them home with you? Insects will make nests or hives out of them if they get the chance. Those toys belong to nature now.

That said, it's more believable that Fujiyama accepts Taichi's backpedal than Tai's. Tai explicitly says he "went home" to make the omelette. That's a statement that should have blown his cover story wide open.

Meanwhile, in Hikarigaoka, the Vamdemon's inner cicle makes their plans. But the harsh light of day is not good for all of them.

Tailmon: So, the Eighth Child is near here? PicoDevimon: Yes. Isn't tha tright, Vamdemon-sama?

The both of them seated on the edge of the roof, they look back to see Vamdemon trying to remain inside a shrinking shade. His voice pained as he speaks.

PicoDevimon: What's the matter, sir? Vamdemon: I will wait in the world of darkness until that ball of light disappears. Take care of the rest, Tailmon.

He tosses the eighth Tag and Crest to her.

Tailmon: Leave it to me, Vamdemon-sama!

Then, groaning with pain, he flees inside and slams the door shut. Too late, PicoDevimon tries to follow after.

PicoDevimon: Whoa, wait for me!

PicoDevimon slams facefirst into the door and comically bounces to the ground.

In the dub, Gatomon chimes in with some silence-breaking observations while the camera's panning over the city.

Gatomon: The human world is so cluttered. All these creatures crammed on top of each other. DemiDevimon: The Eighth DigiDestined lives nearby! What's next, Myotismon? Myotismon: Agh! Unfortunately, until the sun goes down, I must remain hidden in the shadows! Begin the search without me. Here! (tosses the Crest) Gatomon: (catch) I won't let you down, Lord Myotismon. Myotismon: (runs through the door) I need to be alone! (closes it) DemiDevimon: I'LL COME WITH YOU-- (smack)

Myotismon doesn't use the same flowery language as Vamdemon. He just says "I need to stay hidden while the sun is out." That's fine. It's kind of odd that Vamdemon's describing it that way, when it's not like he doesn't know what the sun is. He has to hide from it in the Digimon World too.

In the Japanese, the flowery language does serve a purpose. Specifically, Vamdemon's over-description of the sun makes for a fun bit of wordplay. Do you know what the Japanese word for light is?

It's hikari.

He needs to hide in the shadows from hikari, while we search for the Eighth Child. How poetic.

This wordplay, of course, does not translate to English well so there's no reason not to have him just say "I'm hiding from the sun."

Back at camp, the Chosen Children prepare to smuggle their Partner Digimon on the bus.

Taichi: Listen up. Don't ever open your mouths in front of other humans, okay? Gomamon: We understand! Palmon: We should just pretend to be dolls, right?

Gomamon, Palmon, and Piyomon remain the MVPs of understanding how to stay undercover. Koromon, on the other hand....

Taichi: (slowly peaks out of bushes to see the kids gathering around the buses) Koromon: WHOOOOAAAAAAA TAIIIIIIIIIICHI-- Taichi: (clamps Koromon's mouth shut) I just told you not to talk! Koromon: (whispering) But there's so many children! Piyomon: I didn't know there could be so many human children! Sora: You can't be surprised by just this many. There are thousands more children all throughout the world. No, make that millions. Gomamon, Piyomon, and Palmon: EHHHHHHH!?!? Piyomon: There are millions of Soras!?

Piyomon imagines an entire flock of Soras. Sora wigs out and breaks the fantasy.

Sora: THERE'S ONLY ONE OF ME!!! Takeru: When we get to the city, you'll see tons more adults and children too!

This is going to be an adjustment. The Digimon have a lot to learn about this strange, foreign world they've been Isekai'd into. At least it was voluntary for them.

The dub takes Taichi's instructions and gives them to Joe.

Joe: Remember: Don't talk in front of anyone else, okay? Palmon: Don't worry! We can just pretend to be adorable stuffed animals. Tai: (slowly peaks out of bushes to see the kids gathering around the buses) Koromon: Whoa, look at all the kids! Tai: (clamps Koromon's mouth shut) Didn't we just say not to talk out loud! Koromon: Yeah, but look at all the human children! Biyomon: We never knew there were more human children than you. Sora: This is nothing. Why, just in this city alone, there must be tens of thousands of kids just like us. And when you add the rest of the kids in the world, there must be millions. Gomamon, Biyomon, and Palmon: Huh!? Biyomon: You mean there are millions of Soras!? (Biyomon imagines a flock of Soras) Sora: THERE'S ONLY ONE OF ME!!! T.K.: She just means there are more kids our age. But there are tons of different people in the world.

I like this version of Biyomon's misunderstanding better because I think Sora does a better job setting it up. Saying there are lots of kids "like us" queues up Biyomon to think she means millions of Soras more effectively than just saying there's lots of children.

But it still works in the original too. It especially makes sense that Piyomon might leap to that conclusion when you consider her frame of reference as a Digimon. Just as you can have an entire village of Pyokomon, why not a village of Sora?

Piyomon is experiencing culture shock.

Suddenly, Mimi spots two of her friends by the bus. She erupts with emotion, knocking Palmon to the ground in her haste to reach them.

Mimi: Ehh!? MI-CHAN!!! (breaks into a sprint) I MISSED YOU!!! Mi-Chan: Eh? I was with you earlier.... Taako: What's wrong? Mi-Chan: I don't know--

Before Taako knows what hit her, Mimi wraps her up in a hug and spins her around.

(If Fujiyama is around, this is only going to exacerbate the likelihood of drugs. I'm telling ya. Search that Koromon.)

Mimi: TAAKO!!! How are you!? Taako: (annoyed) Come on, Mimi....

The others, still hiding behind the bushes, watch Mimi weird out all of her friends.

Palmon: Really, Mimi? Taichi: I kept telling her that time hasn't passed here, but she still doesn't listen! Koushiro: I understand your feelings but we need to focus on getting to Hikarigaoka quickly. Taichi: Alright.

In the dub, despite the fact that Fujiyama-sensei's name was not altered, Mimi's friends do get new names.

Mimi: Hey, it's Michelle! (breaks into a sprint) I've missed you so much! Michelle: You missed me? You just saw me ten minutes ago. Terry: What's going on? Michelle: Mimi's weird! Mimi: OH, TERRY!!! (hug) Michelle: She's wigging out. Terry: Too much caffeine! Palmon: Oh, Mimi. Tai: She'll give us away! I told her no time has passed since we went to the Digi-World! Izzy: Forget Mimi! We have to find some form of transportation to Highton View Terrace. Tai: I've got an idea!

Okay, I was not prepared for Terry to in fact accuse Mimi of substance abuse. Tame though it is. XD I also really like Michelle accusing "Mimi's weird!"

The dub's generally harsher tone of voice works great for this scene.

There's a lateral shift here too. Taichi formulated the plan he's about to put into effect shortly after the tense conversation with Fujiyama-sensei. But Tai acts like he only now thought of it.

This connects well to the previous scene, as the dub had replaced Taichi coming up with the plan with the punchline to the litter gag. So Tai is, in fact, only just now thinking of the plan.

What doesn't connect is when Michelle says she saw Mimi ten minutes ago. In the Fujiyama scene, he said, "Didn't you kids hear that we're closing up camp early because of the snow? Everyone else is all ready to go home!" That was, at the time, a lateral plot change. In the original, everyone was still packing, but in the dub, they were already waiting on us.

So. Which is it? Have we been gone for long enough Earth Time that the rest of the campers were already packed and ready to go by the time we got back? Or has less than ten minutes passed since the Chosen Children first decided to go up to that shrine in the first place? Reminder that the snow we're evacuating from fell like a minute or two before we went into Digi-World.

Taichi puts his master plan into action: Asking for permission from an adult.

Taichi: Sensei! Fujiyama-sensei! Could you drop us off somewhere on the way? Fujiyama: Drop you off? Of course not! I have a responsibility to make sure you all get back home. Taichi: Oh, come on! Don't be like that! Please! You just have to take us to the housing complex in Hikarigaoka. Fujiyama: Hikarigaoka? Why there? Taichi: Uh... Well... I used to live there! I just felt like seeing it again. Other Kids (sans Mimi): (run up) Please do it for us! Fujiyama: You kids too? Other Kids (sans Mimi): That's right! Driver: Hikarigaoka is pretty close to the route we're taking. When we get on the Kan-etsu Expressway and interchange to the Tokyo Gaikan, we'll be passing through Ooizumi. That's within walking distance to Hikarigaoka. Taichi: (to the driver) Perfect! Then can you drop us off there? Fujiyama: Hold on! I haven't given my permission yet.

The route that the driver gives are real directions. It's about a two-mile walk from Ooizumimachi to Hikarigaoka, so the kids will be doing a bit of urban hiking but it's totally doable.

In the dub:

Tai: Mr. Fujiyama! Can you have the bus drop us off somewhere? Fujiyama: Have the bus drop you off? No can do. The rules say I have to take you straight to your homes. Tai: Please, Mr. Fujiyama! I'm begging you, sir! Could you just let us off somewhere near Highton View Terrace? Fujiyama: Highton View Terrace? Why do you want to go there? Tai: Well, we used to live there and we were feeling nostalgic so we thought we would visit our old hangout. Other Kids (sans Mimi): Come on! / Please! / We'd appreciate it, sir! Fujiyama: But it's against the rules. Driver: You know, I think we drive pretty close to Highton View Terrace. Let's see, first we take the freeway to the parkway to the throughway and-- Oh! That's the wrong way! Oh, yeah. Here at the roadway. Highton View Terrace is within walking distance. Tai: (to the driver) Great! Then that's where you can let us off, mister. Fujiyama: Whoa, hold on! I didn't give the bus driver permission yet.

At least the kids have finally figured out that Highton View Terrace isn't where they're currently living.

The real Japanese directions to Hikarigaoka are replaced by a wordplay joke about the way Americans name their streets. I'm cool with that change; I don't think many early 00's American kids were well enough versed in the urban geography of Tokyo to have gotten the original line, so this is a fine place for a gag.

Of course, there's no way in hell any responsible teacher would sign off on dropping these children off at a random highway intersection. However, Fujiyama's already demonstrated a vulnerability to sob stories. It's time for someone else to step up and strut their family tragedy.

Yamato: Sensei, please do this for us! We really want to see the place where our family used to live together, before the divorce. Takeru: (starts crying) Yamato: Takeru! Takeru: (dramatically hugs Yamato's legs) Onii-chan!

In the dub:

Matt: Please, Mr. Fujiyama? You'll break T.K.'s heart if you don't let us go. It was the last place we all lived together as a family before my parents got divorced. T.K.: (starts crying) Matt: T.K..... T.K.: (dramatically hugs Matt's legs) Oh, brother!

I don't remember if this is the first time we've changed tracks from Matt and T.K. being half-brothers, but I think that interpretation is officially dead. Unless the implication is that their mom cheated on Matt's dad and T.K. isn't his, it'd be logistically hard for them to live together with Matt's parents as half-brothers.

Suddenly, Jou storms up, ready to clinch this.

Jou: Sensei, please do this for us! Let us get off at Hikarigaoka! I will take responsibility for escorting them all home afterwards. Fujiyama: Well... I guess it will be okay if a sixth-grader like you is with them, Kido. Be sure to call your parents and let them all know about this. Taich & Jou: We will! (both bow respectfully) Jou: Thank you so much! Taichi: Thank you so much! Fujiyama: (walks off uncertain) It's fine, it's fine.

Similar to Matt and T.K.'s parents, I don't remember if this is the first time the dub's acknowledged Joe being older than the rest, but here it is.

Joe: Mr. Fujiyama, please let us off at Highton View Terrace. As an upperclassman, I'll take responsibility for getting them home. Fujiyama: Well, I guess if a reliable kid like you is going, Joe, then it's okay. However, call your parents and tell them where you are. Tai & Joe: Deal! (both bow respectfully) Joe: Thanks, Mr. Fujiyama! Tai: You're the greatest teacher ever! Fujiyama: (walks off uncertain) Yeah, yeah....

As soon as he's gone, Taichi congratulates the team on a job well done.

Taichi: Yahoo! Hey! How long are you two gonna keep that up? (Yamato and Takeru separate with huge shit-eating grins) Jou: What's going on here? Yamato: It didn't seem like he'd let us go unless we pulled out the waterworks. Jou: THAT WAS AN ACT!?!? I was desperately trying to get Sensei's approval because I thought it was true! Taichi: Now, now! It all worked out, so forget about it!

In the dub:

Tai: Yahoo! Hey! How long are you gonna keep that act up? (Matt and T.K. separate with huge shit-eating grins) Both Brothers: (giggle for five straight seconds) Matt: Hey, if we didn't come up with something sappy like that, he never would have let us go. Joe: You mean that sad story was just an act!? I was crying my eyes out so much for you guys that my glasses started to fog up! Tai: Joe, calm down before you have an asthma attack!

And Palmon despondently watches Mimi board the bus with Mi-chan and Taako.

Mimi: Ahahaha, is that so? Palmon: (dour) Aww, Mimi's forgotten about me. WAIT FOR M--

Sora and Koushiro jump Palmon, with Mochimon and Piyomon both clamping her mouth shut together. Her status as a plushie MVP is tragically revoked.

The dub cuts Palmon's sadness from this scene, turning it into a laugh line instead.

Mimi: Ahahahahaha!!! I missed all of you so much! Palmon: I hope she's not gonna act this way with every kid that she meets! Heeeeey--

Without Palmon suddenly realizing she's been abandoned and screaming for Mimi to wait for her, the part where Sora and Koushiro suddenly have to silence her feels out-of-place.

The kids board the bus to return to Tokyo. Along the way, they check to ensure their equipment's still functioning in the human world.

Koushiro: (checking his laptop) It's okay. It's still working properly in this world. Taichi: That's good.

Sora takes out her Digivice. It's showing a big centralized red dot for the seven of them, which bodes well.

Sora: The Digivice is also working. Fujiyama: What are those things? Is that what's popular with kids these days? Jou: NO, IT'S REALLY NOT A-- Fujiyama: Let me have a look. Taichi: YOU CAN'T!!! Fujiyama: Don't be stingy. After all, I'm letting you guys get off at Hikarigaoka. Sora: Y-yes, sir.... (hands over her Digivice) Fujiyama: Those are good manners you have, Takenouchi. You're an obedient kid, unlike some others I know.

Sora blushes from Fujiyama's praise and hides her face. The dub follows the script right up until Fujiyama shows up.

Fujiyama: What's up? Is that the latest toy all you kids are into? Joe: NO, IT'S JUST ONE OF THE OLD ONES THAT WE ALL HATE!!! Fujiyama: Let me take a look at it. Tai: UH, IT'S BROKEN!!! Fujiyama: Maybe I can fix it. Here, give it to me. I'm pretty good with electronics. Sora: Yes, sir. Fujiyama: Thank you, Sora. Unlike other children, you really listen to your teachers.

Tai comes up with a stronger attempt at fending off Fujiyama, but he's got an answer for it all the same. Meanwhile, Joe embarrasses himself with a hilarious failure of a claim.

Koushiro and Taichi discuss what's happening.

Koushiro: It's fine to just let him have a look at it. Taichi: I felt like we were being attacked by an evil Digimon or something. Koushiro: (skeptical) Fujiyama-sensei is an evil Digimon? Taichi: Evil! Evil! I mean, when you forget your homework, he snares you with his tickle atta-- Fujiyama: I heard that last part.

Fujiyama-sensei doles out intense punitive tickling to Taichi while terrifyingly stone-faced.

In the dub:

Izzy: There's no harm in just letting him take a look at it, Tai. Tai: For about a second there, I thought Mr. Fujiyama was an evil Digimon. Izzy: I think you've spent way too much time in the Digi-World. Tai: Think about it! If he were an evil Digimon, every time you failed a test, he'd scream out his attack, "HOMEWORK BLASTER!!!" Fujiyama: Actually, it's more like Tickle Blaster.

This version of the tickle gag doesn't work as well because Tai doesn't queue up Fujiyama to launch his tickling assault. He overhears Tai comparing him to an "evil proper noun he doesn't recognize" and decides to start tickling him, apropos of nothing.

While the kids are still trying to reach Hikarigaoka, Tailmon searches the district.

With the Crest around her neck, she moves through the district, waiting for a child's presence to cause the Crest to glow. But it never does.

Tailmon: It's not reacting at all. What does this mean? Isn't the Eighth Child supposed to be around here!?

In the dub:

Gatomon: You can't turn over a rock without finding a kid under it in this world, and yet I still haven't found the Eighth DigiDestined!

Gatomon's line doesn't convey how she intends to find the Eighth DigiDestined. Which is kind of important information, because a Crest and Tag glowing to indicate that their associated child is nearby is something of a new mechanic.

It's not entirely new. We've used the glow from the Tags to find their associated Crests and seen those Crests do some shit in the presence of the child and Tag. So the Crest and Tag together glowing to identify a child feels like it's rooted in established metaphysics.

But it's still nice to have her explain that this, using the Crest as a radar, is what she's doing.

She also has a brief altercation with a dog, who she fends off by whipping the dog in the neck with her titular tail.

Ultimately, Tailmon is forced to report her failure back to Vamdemon at his new lair: The basement of a parking garage.

Vamdemon: You couldn't find the child? Tailmon: Yes, sir. At the very least, the child doesn't appear to be in the vicinity of Hikarigaoka. Vamdemon: PicoDevimon.

A still art frame of PicoDevimon descends, with several Tags and Crests around his legs. He neither moves his lips to speak nor flaps his wings as he slides onto the screen. I guess they didn't have the budget for him today.

PicoDevimon: (telepathically I guess) What are these? Vamdemon: I've made copies of the Eighth Child's Tag and Crest. PicoDevimon: (levitates offscreen to the right) Vamdemon: The one you have is also a copy. Tailmon: Then where's the real one!? Vamdemon: (reveals his fist, clutched around the Tag's cord) Here, in my grasp. Even though those ones are copies, they will still react when the Chosen Child is nearby. Do everything you can to find the Eighth Child! Tailmon & PicoDevimon: Yes, sir! (they both bow, including PicoDevimon who is no longer paralyzed by the finance department) Vamdemon: Children... I will do everything in my power to eliminate you!

The misadventures of still-frame PicoDevimon cracked me up in this scene. But in any case, Vamdemon's flexing his Big Fucking Nerd credentials once again. The Digimon World's #1 expert on Chosen Children lore has fabricated fake Crests that can reproduce the tracking effects of the original.

Which he also has in his possession, of course. Can you really call yourself a Chosen Children stan if you aren't repping their merch? Of course he went out and yoinked one of those Crests for himself. He was trying to complete the collection through the entire PicoDevimon arc!

...I can't wait to see what the dub does with still-frame PicoDevimon.

Myotismon: What do you mean, you couldn't find the Eighth DigiDestined!? You have failed me! Gatomon: Please don't hurt me, Your Evilship. I swear he's not here! Myotismon: SILENCE, GATOMON!!! DemiDevimon: (levitates down onto the screen with a sort of whirring vrooming sound effect) Myotismon: I have made several copies of the Eighth DigiDestined's Tag and Crest. DemiDevimon: (levitates offscreen) Myotismon: The one you have is a copy too. Gatomon: So I'm a copycat? Myotismon: The original's with me. Even though they are only copies, they will still become activated when the Eighth Child is nearby. This time, make no mistakes. You must find that child. Gatomon & DemiDevimon: Gotcha! (they both bow) Myotismon: And when you do find him, then he must die!

HAHAHAHAHAHA They cut his line because he has no lip flaps HAHAHAHAHAHA

And gave him a little wooshy sound effect.

He is just. He's just full-on DisplayModelDevimon HAHAHAHAHA

The Chosen Children finally arrive in Hikarigaoka.

Koromon: Is that the Hikarigaoka housing complex? Taichi: Yeah! Piyomon: WOW!!! You used to live in that huge castle, Sora!? Sora: It's not a castle. It's divided into smaller rooms inside and a lot of people live there. Piyomon: Did you used to live in Hikarigaoka too, Sora? Sora: Mmhmm. Taichi: Sora and I were in the same class. Sora: Yep. Taichi: Third Elementary School, Class 1-2. Yamato: I was in Fourth Elementary School. Jou: H-Hang on! Then you weren't lying to trick Sensei!? Yamato: It's true that we lived in Hikarigaoka. Takeru: Yeah. I remember a little of it. Jou: I went to Fifth Elementary School here! Mimi: I lived here in kindergarten. Jou: Huh!? Koushiro: So did I! But only for a little while. Taichi: That means all of us used to live in Hikarigaoka! Koushiro: This can't be a coincidence.

Nor can it be a coincidence that Big Fucking Nerd Vamdemon began his search here. He has no reason to believe that the Eighth Child is presently in this place. He doesn't have, like, a huge blinking radar telling him "Hikari There".

He's here because this is the place that the Chosen Children came from. Hikarigaoka is the point of origin; The source of Chosen Children. The ancient lore knows that the children come from Hikarigaoka. But it doesn't seem to know that they moved.

In the dub:

Koromon: They were nice to drop us off here. Tai: Yeah! Mimi: There's the Highton View Terrace Tower! Izzy: The tallest apartment building in Japan! Joe: Terrific. I'm afraid of heights. Tai: That place isn't so hot! Sora: That's true. The heat never worked. I used to live there. Biyomon: Wow, Sora! You lived in that castle! Sora: Yep! Tai: I lived near here too. A block away in another building. Sora and I went to Westside Elementary together. Matt: Hey, I went to Westside Elementary! Joe: You're kidding! You mean that you guys were telling the truth when you said you used to live in Highton View Terrace! Matt: Yeah, we really did live here before my parents broke up. T.K.: That was a long time ago when I was a little kid. Joe: Strange coincidence because I used to live here too. Mimi: I lived here too before we moved! Joe: Huh? Izzy: Me too! Just for a little while; It's a long story. Tai: So at some point we all lived at Highton View Terrace at the same exact time! Izzy: This can't just be a coincidence; There's gotta be some meaning here.

Oh! There's a "Japan"!

Rather than compare schools, everyone just agrees that they lived here once in their lives. Tai somehow leaps to the conclusion that they're all talking about the same timeframe. This is not a conclusion Taichi reached, despite being a little better founded in the original when they're talking about being in elementary school (and, for the younger pair, kindergarten).

We lose Sora explaining what an apartment building is to Piyomon, echoing Agumon's similar confusion back when he and Taichi were in Odaiba.

We do, however, gain the "That's not so hot!" "Yeah, the heat never worked" bit, which got me. XD

The kids are interrupted by the sound of dozens of wings fluttering overhead. High up above them, Night Raid bats scour the city. At the same time, armed with weaponized cosplay, Tailmon and her mercenaries spread out through Hikarigaoka.

I realize that shot looks like half of her forces are fleeing into the mouth of a colossal Tailmon kaiju but the perspective was wonky and that was the best I could get.

Over in the dub, I think the shots of silhouetted Digimon mercenaries spreading out through the city confused the dub team because Tai suddenly yells this when he sees the bats.

Tai: It's Myotismon's army! RUN FOR IT!!!

Followed immediately by silhouetted figures running through the city. Then we get that shot above of Gatomon soaring overhead while the silhouetted figures spread out, and she says:

Gatomon: They can run but they can't hide from Mammothmon!

Which feels like it's meant to imply that the silhouettes are the kids fleeing for their lives from the Night Raid bats. And that Gatomon is then intentionally sending Mammothmon out on a rampage to force them out of hiding.

That's a pretty major change.

While Tailmon and her mercenaries scour the city, one Digimon isn't creeping around.

This massive mammoth Digimon, Mammon, goes on a full rampage. Stomping vehicles and smashing whatever's in his path. He picks up a biker's motorcycle with his trunk and hurls it.

Biker: (just sees his bike suddenly soar through the air overhead) MY BIKE!!! Who did that!? (whirls around to see the mammoth) Was it you!? HOW DARE YOU RUIN MY BIKE!?!?

Dude is bizarrely chill with seeing a violent armored mammoth in the streets.

(In fairness, this is Tokyo. It ain't their first rodeo with Godzilla shit.)

His boldness doesn't last, however. When Mammon roars at him, he throws his helmet at it and runs for his life. Mammon swats the helmet back at him, striking him in the back of the head and knocking him over, then stomps over him to continue their rampage.

Biker: (crying) WHO LET THEIR ELEPHANT LOOSE!?!?

Mammon continues his rampage, smashing cars and streetlamps while people watch on in confusion.

Bystander: Why is there an elephant in Hikarigaoka!? Girlfriend: It's probably for a movie or something! Bystander: Oh, very convincingly made. It looks like a real monster.

Happy to report that media has poisoned the survival instincts of people not only in the U.S. but in Japan as well.

Over in the dub, the biker remains audacious as ever.

Biker: (just sees his bike suddenly soar through the air overhead) MY NEW MOTORCYCLE!!! (whirls around to see the mammoth) HEY!!! Respect other people's property, you big walkin' shag carpet! Mammothmon: (roar) (Biker throws helmet and flees; Mammothmon knocks it back, knocks him down, and stomps over him.) Biker: T_T HEY!!! Whoever owns this elephant should know there's a leash law around here!

Meanwhile, both of the other civilians are complete fucking chuckleheads.

Girlfriend: Oh look, honey. A wild elephant on a rampage. Bystander: They must be filming a movie or something.

I support equal rights dipshittery.

While Mammon continues his entirely pointless and confusing rampage, Tailmon is as lost as I am about what he thinks he's accomplishing here.

Tailmon: What is that moron planning to gain by causing all this chaos!? I should not have recruited that Digimon.

Another bystander is forced to flee his car, moments before Mammon steps on and crushes it.

Driver: WHAT THE HELL IS AN ELEPHANT DOING HERE!?!?

And someone finally dials 110, the Japanese emergency number for the police.

Caller: I'm calling the police! (Nothing but static crackles through his phone) Caller: IT WON'T CONNECT!!!

Remember how the sheer presence of Vamdemon and his forces in Hikarigaoka last episode were making phones go haywire? Yeah, have fun dialing out.

Over in the dub, Gatomon has suddenly reversed course and is no longer cheering Mammothmon on.

Gatomon: What's that big-eared freak trying to do? Destroy the DigiDestined with everything else too? We never should have brought that type of Digimon along for this!

This is a little confusing because minutes ago she was like "HAHAHA You can run but you can't hide from Mammothmon." But now, to shore her up with her Japanese counterpart, she's at "Ugh so destructive Mammothmon sucks".

The driver fleeing squishy death takes this opportunity to quip.

Driver: If that's a car, it's got an awful lot of trunk space!

And, since phones going haywire was a plot point that they removed for some reason, the caller has what may or may not be the same problem?

Caller: I'm gonna call the cops! (Nothing but silence) Caller: Augh! My phone's dead!

Meanwhile, despite Tai freaking out earlier, the Chosen Children are non-urgently taking a fun trip down memory lane.

Taichi: I remember this place. I often came here to buy candy and juice! Mimi: I used to come here too! Jou: This sure brings back memories. Yamato: Takeru, you might not remember but we used to play around here a lot. Takeru: I do feel like I know this place. Sora: How long did you live in Hikarigaoka, Koushiro-kun? Koushiro: I don't think I even stayed here for a year. Probably a couple of months. Taichi: That's pretty short. How come? Koushiro: I don't know.

Fortunately, there's one kid among us with a longer memory than the rest.

Jou: Hehe! I can answer that for you! Sora: You can, Jou-senpai? Taichi: But you didn't know Koushiro back then. Jou: Even so, I still have a good idea of what happened. To make a long story short, the reason Koushiro's family moved was because of a terrorist bombing! Sora: A bombing!? Koushiro: There were terrorists? Jou: You guys might not remember this, but there was a terrorist bombing here in Hikarigaoka four years ago. So far as I know, they still haven't found the bomber. My parents said they didn't want to live in such a dangerous place, so we moved to Odaiba. Sora: THAT'S RIGHT!!! It was the same with my family! I do remember them saying something about a bomb! Taichi: Now that you mention it, I do think that's what happened.

A terrorist bombing four years ago whose bomber has never been caught, huh? Here in Hikarigaoka? Interesting....

In the dub, the kids are as chill as in the original. Which is weird given that they're supposed to be running from Myotismon's forces.

Tai: Say, do any of you remember this place? I bought candy here. Mimi: It was my favorite store. Joe: Oh, sure. Mine too! Matt: You probably don't remember this place, T.K., because you were too little, but Mom and Dad used to take us here all the time! T.K.: Maybe some candy will help me remember! Sora: You're awfully quiet, Izzy. Didn't you like living in Highton View Terrace? Izzy: I don't remember. Sora: How long did you live there? Izzy: Just for a little while. About six months. Tai: Wow. Why did your parents move away? Izzy: I don't know.

Very close to the original with no notable changes. Then comes Joe's time to explain the bombing.

Joe: You're kidding! Well, if you don't know then maybe I should tell you why. Sora: What do you mean, Joe? Tai: Yeah, Joe. How could you know why Izzy's parents moved away from here? Did you know them or something? Joe: No, I didn't know Izzy back then but I did see what happened. His whole family packed up and left Highton View Terrace because of a terrorist bombing. Sora: Bombing? Izzy: Did you say terrorist!? Joe: Maybe you don't remember it, but about four years ago, the story was in all the papers. It was one of the worst terrorist attacks of all time. They never found the group responsible for the bombings, so a lot of families got scared thinking it could happen again and moved out. My parents figured it had just become too dangerous to live here anymore so we moved out to Odaiba. Sora: Now that you mention it, I do remember. A lot of my friends moved away after that. Tai: Now I remember. My parents acted scared that whole time.

For lacking the context of the OVA, they do a pretty good job with this one. There's still a couple errors, however. The story doesn't need to be in the papers. The "bombing" happened right outside everyone's balconies. It wasn't just in the neighborhood but out in the street directly between their housing complexes.

Also, they blew up an unoccupied street late at night. Calling it "one of the worst terrorist attacks of all time" is a bit much. Can you feel how pre-9/11 this is? But, of course, the dub team doesn't know any of this context.

It is a little weird that Joe was peeping on Izzy's family departing enough to know it was them, and that Sora only mentions her friends leaving. All of them left. None of them currently live here.

Also, I guess we can say Odaiba but not Hikarigaoka. Maybe they just thought the latter was too complicated of a word.

Suddenly, the kids see cop cars go by.

Mimi: What's going on? Taichi: Could it be Vamdemon!?

A possibility that Tai is much more certain of than Taichi.

Mimi: What's going on? Tai: Where there's trouble, there's Myotismon!

You hear it here, folks. A nerdy vampire Digimon is responsible for all crime in Japan. I was not aware that Dracula was the yakuza Kingpin, but I'll believe it.

The Chosen Children race to the scene to find the trail of destruction Mammon's leaving in their wake.

Taichi: That's one of Vamdemon's Digimon! Koushiro: (already on his laptop) That's Mammon.

Time for the rundown on this destructive dipshit. Mammon is a Perfect-stage Vaccine-type Ancient Beast Digimon. He's from the Nightmare Soldiers line; An evolution for Garurumon and for Hanumon, who won't be seen in the anime until 02.

The name Mammon comes from "mammoth", same as their English name Mammothmon. The dub likely extended it because "mammon" has a different meaning in a society where Christianity is the predominate religion.

Narrator: Mammon. A Perfect-stage Digimon who has enormous ancient power. His special attacks are Tusk Strikes, where he fires his two tusks, and Tundra Breath, which releases a cold blast from his nose.

In the dub, this is quite reasonably handled by Izzy.

Matt: A monster Digimon! Izzy: (already on his laptop) He's called Mammothmon. He's a fully Digivolved Digimon with the strength of a wooly mammoth. He shoots missiles he calls Tusk Crusher and has a chilling attack called Freezing Breath.

Before the kids can do anything, a cop car pulls up.

Officer: All of you! It's dangerous here! Get to shelter!

Inside the car, he futilely tries to use the car radio to request backup but all that comes through is static.

Officer: Hello? Hello? I need urgent backup! Hello!? That's weird....

Mammothmon hears him, turning around and growling.

Taichi: He's seen us! Officer: Hurry and get out of here!

The officer shouts at the kids to get to safety and then speeds off in his mostly empty squad car, abandoning these lost children to their wooly mammoth fate. Fucking ACAB.

No change in the dub, except there's no static feeding back through the radio. It's just dead.

Mammon roars at the kids, and the fighting's on.

Taichi: HE'S COMING FOR US!!!

With admirable enthusiasm, Koromon and Tsunomon leap out of Taichi and Yamato's arms to the front of the group to fight him.

Yamato: DON'T!!! He's Perfect-stage! You two can't fight him. Piyomon: (rushes forward) Let me handle this! Sora: Eh? PIYOMON!?!?

This is the same in the dub, except Matt continues using the terminology "fully Digivolved".

Evolving to Birdramon, Piyomon fires off her Meteor Wing at Mammothmon. The shots land all around him, with one fireball glancing off his tusk and ricocheting into a series of phone booths. Sora gasps in horror, and the camera fixes for a moment on the bombed out phone booths.

Mammothmon slams his tusk into a nearby bus and hurls it at Birdramon. She deftly maneuvers out of the way - lobbing projectiles at flying opponents remains difficult - leaving the bus to crash into the ground and explode. This time it's Koushiro's turn to gawk in horror at the wreckage of the bus.

Birdramon gets in too close. Mammothmon slaps her with his trunk, then follows up while she's stunned with his Tusk Strikes.

A glancing hit to her shoulder sends Birdramon plummeting from the air.

Of note: Mammon doesn't have dialogue in either version. He's another non-speaking beast type of Digimon, and the dub didn't change that this time around. Nonetheless, the dub Mammothmon manages to call his attack when firing "Tusk Crusher".

Sora: BIRDRAMON!!! Takeru: KAIJU!!!

Bit of an odd proclamation from Takeru. Kaiju is one of the more well-known Japanese words these days. Literally meaning "mysterious beast", kaiju are most commonly associated with colossal city-destroying monsters such as those found in the Godzilla brand.

Seeing two Digimon fight like this has stirred a recollection in Takeru.

Takeru: Two kaiju! Taichi: What are you talking about, Takeru? Yamato: That's it! I remember now. A long time ago, Takeru insisted he saw kaiju but Mom scolded him for it.

Over in the dub, T.K. oddly puts the emphasis on the quantity of monsters rather than the fact that there were monsters.

Sora: BIRDRAMON!!! T.K.: There were two! Matt: What!? T.K.: There were two monsters! Tai: What are you talking about, T.K.? Matt: Oh man, now I remember! A long time ago, T.K. was insisting that he saw two monsters and my mom was upset at him for it.

I don't know why we're all emphasizing the number two like this, when it's the monster part that's important

Yamato flashes back on the day Takeru tried to tell their mom about the kaiju.

Takeru: I really did see kaiju! Natsuko: Kaiju don't exist. You were just dreaming. (bitterly, seemingly to herself but audible enough to hear) And whose fault is it that you can't even tell the difference between dreams and reality!? Takeru: ...but....

Okay, that took a turn for harsh. Takeru touched a nerve and I'm genuinely not sure if she's mad at him, at Yamato, or at her husband who she later divorced.

Just a brief glimpse into the broken home these boys come from. Yamato isn't in the room with them, but he is seen lurking behind a door.

The dub dials back Natsuko's hostility.

T.K.: But I really did see monsters, Mommy. Nancy: T.K., there's no such thing as monsters. You were just imagining it. Or maybe it's a dream. T.K.: But Mom, I really saw them! Nancy: Now that's enough! I don't want to hear any more of these crazy stories.

She still refuses to believe him, but she isn't bitterly fuming at an unspecific member of her family. The dub's never been comfortable talking about the divorce.

Yamato: ...that's why I couldn't said anything. Koushiro: When did this happen? Yamato: Around the time of the bombing.

Yamato's line as we return implies that he saw the kaiju too, but was afraid to speak up about it way back when after hearing what came out of their mom's mouth. As if he were afraid that bringing it up might further damage the fabric of their parents' marriage. So he kept quiet and eventually forgot he ever saw it.

All tragic context that, again, the dub doesn't want. So Matt legitimately never saw it.

Matt: I just assumed he imagined the entire thing. Izzy: So when did all this take place? Matt: It was right after the terrorist bombing. Sora: This is where it happened! Joe: Right on this footbridge!

Nonetheless, Sora and Joe are chiming in a bit early to identify this footbridge as the site of the bombing. So early, in fact, that we're still standing at the street corner we talked to the cop from and not on the footbridge.

There we go, a bit of an awkward teleporting cut later and we're on the footbridge for some reason. Birdramon got her second wind and has returned to the fray.

Jou: This is... Where the terrorist bombing happened.

As Jou says this, Taichi flashes back on the OVA, when he stood under this same bridge.

Taichi: This bridge....

The kids sprint downstairs from the bridge they inexplicably teleported to, as more and more they start to remember.

Mimi: This is the same thing that happened back then!

Another ricochet of Meteor Wing off Mammon's hide blows up the bridge, right where they had been before they moved.

Jou: It's exactly the same! A fireball destroyed the bridge! Yamato: No! The one shooting fireballs back then wasn't flying! It was something else! Taichi: You're right! There was a fight between... something and something else!

They're vaguely remembering the OVA battle. Yamato's right; It was Greymon shooting fireballs at Parrotmon. Mass deja vu is a hell of a thing.

In the dub, they talk through Taichi's OVA flashback.

Joe: This is really strange. Does anyone besides me feel like they can remember the night of the bombing? (flashback starts) Others: Yeah! / Uh-huh! / I do! Tai: I feel like I was there but somehow I forgot! Izzy: Gee, that sounds like repressed memory. Tai: WE'VE GOTTA GET OFF THIS BRIDGE!!!

Tai's sudden attack of precognition is as good an explanation as any for why they suddenly fled the bridge they inexplicably climbed up onto in the first place.

Mimi: I'M HAVING DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN!!! (Ricochet of Meteor Wing destroys the bridge) Joe: THIS IS JUST HOW IT HAPPENED!!! Back then, a giant ball of fire destroyed the bridge! Matt: Something is definitely different. I remember the firebreathing monster didn't fly; There had to be another one! Tai: You're right! There were two monsters fighting but they were different than these two!

Again, for having to recap the events of an OVA I'm pretty sure they hadn't seen, they're doing a decent job of making it work. Matt's line is nonetheless janky because. As with the Takeru flashback, Matt seems to be trying to prove a second monster's existence.

While the kids are discussing, Birdramon once again gets in close to try and melee the hulking Perfect. Grabbing his snout with one of her talons and wrestling.

It does not go well.

Sora: BIRDRAMON!!! Birdramon: Sora!

Sora sprints to where her half-frozen firebird partner landed, followed closely behind by Taichi. Her Crest of Love activates when she gets close, super-evolving Birdramon into Garudamon.

(Probably should have led with that. I understand the Digimon are trying to resource-manage. If I evolve, then I can go back to my Child base afterward and then evolve again next fight. But if I super-evolve, I'm basically out of commission for the next couple days. What if someone needs to super-evolve tomorrow and we're all burned out?

We have four Perfect-capable Digimon and right now three of them are burnt out to Baby-stage. As of this super-evolution, we are now defenseless against any future Perfect-stage Digimon until the others recover.

But when the Analyzer says "That dude's a Perfect", we should still probably try to match his level. At the very least, we should get Ikkakumon and Togemon in on this, rather than letting Birdramon try to solo a Perfect. This was a terrible idea.)

Mammon fires off his Tusk Strikes while Garudamon's super-evolving. She throws herself on top of Taichi and Sora, shielding them from the blast.

Taking cover beneath Garudamon's hand, this is the last piece Taichi needs to remember the OVA.

Sora: Garudamon! Taichi V.O.: What I saw back then...

Flashing back, Taichi remembers taking cover with Hikari, shielding her in the same way as Sora, but with a different monster towering over them.

Taichi V.O.: It wasn't a kaiju. The one who saved me back then was... Greymon!? Taichi: That's right! It was Greymon! Yamato: That's it! Koushiro: I'm sure of it. Jou: Yeah!

In the dub:

Tai V.O.: The firebreathing monster I saw... Greymon! It was Greymon and another Digimon! Tai: Sora! It was Greymon! Group: Right! / Greymon!

Garudamon mounts Mammon and giddyups him while Taichi remembers the OVA more clearly.

Taichi: A Koromon came to my house that day. That Koromon turned into Agumon. Then he became Greymon and he fought with another Digimon!

We see a flashback to Greymon and Parrotmon's brawl to give the dub team something to work with, and then Tai takes a crack at it.

Tai: The day Koromon came to my house! And Digivolved into Greymon! He was fighting with a birdlike Digimon! After the fight, they disappeared.

Hitting all the major points.

While they're talking, Garudamon finishes the fight. She hoists Mammon high up into the air and drops him from great height onto his back, then follows up with Shadow Wing. The firebird projectile slams into the defenseless Mammon, killing him. Mammon dissolves into pixel dust.

Once the fight is finished, Garudamon reverts to Pyokomon and falls into Sora's arms.

Taichi: The two disappeared after the fight. Koushiro: That's right. Jou: So that's why it was labeled a terrorist attack. Taichi: So that's why Hikari knew about Koromon. She met him back then. Patamon: She met you? Koromon: It must have been a different Koromon. Though, when I met Taichi for the first time, I did feel as if I've somehow always known him.

Koromon referring to how all the Partner Digimon laid eyes on their Partner Children and instantly knew who they were, way back on File Island.

He is not Hikari's Koromon but there's still some connection to that day in Hikarigaoka.

The dub puts a commercial between Mammothmon's death and this scene. It's a good place to put it, and that means it doesn't feel redundant when Tai mentions the disappearance again so soon after stating it before.

Tai: After the fight that day, Greymon and the other Digimon disappeared. Joe: And the police called the fight a terrorist bombing. Izzy: Exactly! Somehow, the Digimon were involved all along! Tai: That's why my little sister already knew Koromon! Kari met him back on that day! Patamon: You met her? Koromon: It must have been a different Koromon! But I did have a strange feeling when I met Tai that we had met somewhere before....

Close but not quite, Koromon. You'd always known him, but you'd never met him. That will make more sense when the series delves into the lore behind their Partnerships later down the line.

Suddenly, the sound of police sirens in the distance means we need to skedaddle.

Jou: This is bad! They'll ask a ton of questions if they catch us! Koushiro: Yes, they won't let us go easily. Taichi: LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!!!

Like any responsible citizen, the Chosen Children flee the police to avoid being connected to the crimes they, uh, are technically partially responsible for. Birdramon caused a fair chunk of the damage here.

In the dub, this is perfect timing for one of Dub Joe's neurotic breakdowns.

Joe: Listen, it's the cops! They'll ask a ton of questions! They'll blame us for all this! I'm too young to go to the Big House! Matt: STOP IT, JOE, AND START RUNNING!!!

XD That's a good one. It's a mild exaggeration of what he was already saying, in a situation where freaking out is entirely valid. This episode's gotten good mileage out of the Mimi and Joe gags.

Taking shelter in a park, the Chosen Children discuss what they've learned and apply it to their search.

Koushiro: I've been wondering about this for a while. Out of all the children at camp, why were we the only ones chosen? But now we've found a clue to solving that mystery. Mimi: The incident four years ago. Koushiro: Yes. All of us are linked by the fact that we already encountered Digimon four years ago. Yamato: Then it must be the same for the Eighth Child! Koushiro: There's no doubt about it! The Eighth Child, too, would have witnessed that event! Jou: What if Vamdemon's already found them!? If the Eighth Child saw the incident, then they should be in Hikarigaoka, right? Mochimon: That's not true. Since Mammon was wandering around this area alone, the others must still be scattered about and searching for the Eighth Child! Taichi: We're going to find them first. The Eighth Child. One of our nakama!

Nobody's bringing up the obvious suspect but it's nonetheless a huge step for their investigation.

In the dub:

Izzy: You know, I always thought it was kinda strange that out of all the kids at camp, we were the only ones chosen to go to the Digi-World. And I knew it couldn't just be coincidence. Somehow, we were all connected by some common event. Today, I discovered what that event was. Mimi: We all took French in school? Izzy: No, four years ago we were all living at Highton View Terrace at the same time and all of us saw those two Digimon fight. Matt: Then the Eighth DigiDestined saw the Digimon too! Izzy: Right! So the person who's the Eighth DigiDestined had to have been there as well! Joe: What if Myotismon found the kid already!? I mean, he's been searching the city all day. And if the child lived here four years ago, maybe it's still here! Motimon: I don't think so! Mammothmon wouldn't be making all this commotion if they had already found the Eighth DigiDestined child. Myotismon is still searching; I'd say the child is still out there or maybe he moved like you guys! Tai: We'll find him! Before Myotismon! The Eighth DigiDestined... He might be someone we know!

Tai lays it on a little thick there at the end. And we have a Mimi gag that I'm going to put in the "harmless" category. I don't like it, but I don't dislike it either.

The episode closes on Taichi's renewed resolve to find the Eighth Child before Vamdemon.

Assessment: Man, this is a major lore episode. But also kind of a retread. The benefit of the dub is that for an English audience, this is all genuinely new information. For the Japanese audience, we're finally seeing the Chosen Children learn things that we've known since the OVA. This episode is for the characters to play catch-up.

Mammon is something of a nothing antagonist, here just to give the episode some conflict and spark the revelatory parallels to Parrotmon and Greymon. Even Tailmon is like, "Why is this guy even here?" which was hilarious.

A few errors on the dub's part but this is one of their better eps. They manage to hit most of the major beats successfully and there's a lot of charm in their presentation.

There's still some things that get missed such as the tension in Yamato and Takeru's childhood home or that weird moment when the dub thought the kids were fleeing Myotismon's bats. But they're few, and there's a lot of good to be found here too.