#koushiros competence

[izzyizumi]

Digimon Adventure {Series} Last Evolution: Kizuna ("Bonds") ~ Koushiro{u} Izumi & Menoa Bellucci + Koushiro's R e s i s t a n c e + Menoa O f f e r i n g Koushiro an O U T

"{Join Me}?" / Menoa "Asking" {Threatening} Koushiro for the "[Full] list of Chosen Children" Koushiro owns by c o r n e r i n g Koushiro in the Izumi building o f f i c e

+ Koushiro H I D I N G the T h r o w-a w a y P H O N E S behind Koushiro's B A C K (Upon R e a l i z a t i o n)--

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"You really are A-" - Bellucci, to K o u s h i r o

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[seventeenlovesthree]

Fandom Shipping Polls - Daisuke Motomiya Shipping Analysis (Poll I + Poll II)

As pointed out in the main post, every single Chosen Child will get their individual analysis post to check on the status of the current popularity of their ships. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at Daisuke, shall we!  

The overall results / spreadsheet

Disclaimer: As the “Someone from 01/02″ and “Others” options from poll 1 and the “Someone from 01/02″ option from poll 2 have been excluded from the final analysis due to redundancy reasons and all results were culminated in another “final count”, the results will not be 1:1 to what the polls look like:

Overall votes: 132 (approx. 110 in sum after the exclusion), the main poll got 93 votes, the secondary poll got 39 votes.

The “Others” choice in the main poll received 3% (approx. 3 votes) and 0% (0 votes) in the secondary poll. The comments/tags did not specify any preferences here (aside from characters that were already part of the main choices).

Ship Analysis

1st place: It should come to nobody’s surprise that Ken (52%) singlehandedly swept this poll without facing any kind of serious competition at any time of the voting. Daiken is one of the most popular mlm Digimon ships on the planet - and for good reasons, as their anime portrayal provides for some very intense and intriguing mutual character development. Not only do they start off as “enemies” (with one of the parties unknowingly holding lots of the admiration for the other), but them turning into friends - and Jogress partners - is one of the most significant development fuels for both of them; nurturing each other’s (self) confidence while growing closer, developing great fondness, attachment and protectiveness for each other as they get more and more comfortable with themselves and in the other’s presence. It’s an endearing framing with a lot of heart, and with the additional anticipation of more news on the 02 movie, it’s really no surprise to see them being as prevalent and beloved in fandom as they are at the moment.

2nd place: With a huge gap to 1st place, Takeru (11%) takes his seat on 2nd place. As mentioned in Takeru’s own analysis, this makes a lot of sense; their popularity here may be explained by the idea that Daisuke is supposed to be a foil to Takeru in a similar way Taichi is to Yamato - even though their dynamic as so called “rivals” does not play out in the same way at all. Despite the occasional bickering, it’s portrayed to be more lighthearted, especially on Takeru’s behalf, who likes to tease Daisuke, making for a mutually challenging, yet very playful  - and most importantly: more soft - dynamic.

3rd place: Daisuke is the second character after Mimi who had SEVERAL people competing for third place, resulting in a three-way-tie between Miyako, Hikari and Wallace, with each of them snatching 8% of the votes. And again, taking a very close look at canon, all of these choices make sense; Miyako proves to be companion Daisukes has a teasing and competitive, yet supportive and familiar relationship with; Hikari is portrayed as someone Daisuke heavily crushes on at first and tries to compete with Takeru to get her attention and affection over, but once that quietly mellows out, they prove to have a soft, mutually trusting bond; last but not least, Wallace is a movie-only character with a flirty, teasing attitude towards Daisuke while also making him want to fight for his sake and sad backstory.

Honorary mentions: As the majority of votes has been distributed among the choices mentioned above, there isn’t much left to be mentioned - yet characters that got more than 1 vote include Taichi (3%), Koushiro (3%), Sora (2%) and Michael (2%).

“The 1 vote squad”: This spot is reserved for Iori, Yamato, Mimi and Jou (1% each).

“0 votes go to…”: Interestingly, Daisuke is the only character in whose poll EVER SINGLE main character received at least one vote.

Annotations: N/A

What did the other polls say?

Daisuke won Ken’s poll (61%) with one of the biggest margins and also came in second Takeru’s poll (18%), thus mirroring his own results to a high degree. 

However, he doesn’t appear in the top 3 rankings for the other characters and actually has a tendency to come in fourth a lot, namely in Hikari’s (9%), Miyako’s (15%), Iori’s (9%), Taichi’s (10%) and Yamato’s (7%) polls.

Thus, for the majority of the rest, he was merely a niche choice, such as Sora (3%), Koushiro (2%) and Jou (1%).

Mimi is the only character in whose poll he did not get a single vote - she herself had received 1 vote in his though.

Notable additions / comments / thoughts

Daisuke’s polls stand out for the fact that he received the fourth most votes overall (after Taichi, Ken and Takeru) - which is quite ironic if you consider that he also appears to be the KING of getting fourth place, thus missing the podium for third place 5 times overall.

These facts aside, he is, as mentioned, the only character whose polls had every of the other 11 Chosen Children get represented by at least 1 vote. It shall not be overlooked that the sample size is still comparably low of course. Thus, I really hope to reach a wider audience if I choose to repeat the polls once the fandom is not as quiet as it is right now. However, the idea that Daisuke has enough followers that every possible combination had at least 1 fan is very interesting. 

Seeing Daiken sweep the entire voting overall is really no surprise, as they appear to have a very passionate group of followers, artists and writers alike, not only on tumblr, but on various internet spaces - regardless of country, even after all this time. This may or may not be assigned to the growing anticipation of the 02 movie as well as for a general demand of more 02 related content after the Adventure 01 cast received a lot of exposure in the past years. Overall, for the reasons mentioned above (and beyond, thanks to their portrayal), Daiken has always been going strong, despite never having been canonized.

The comments in the tags have only referred to the already mentioned choices. The “Others” option did not receive any further votes in the second poll, indicating that all the most viable choices have been covered by poll 1 and 2. Usually, the option is reserved for OC ships, for when people prefer to not ship a character at all or when they’re considered asexual (which will definitely be a future option to include as well!). 

Other Analysis Posts

Taichi Yagami Shipping Analysis

Yamato Ishida Shipping Analysis

Sora Takenouchi Shipping Analysis

Koushiro Izumi Shipping Analysis

Mimi Tachikawa Shipping Analysis

Jou Kido Shipping Analysis

Takeru Takaishi Shipping Analysis

Hikari Yagami Shipping Analysis

Ken Ichijouji Shipping Analysis

Miyako Inoue Shipping Analysis

Iori Hida Shipping Analysis

Meiko Mochizuki Shipping Analysis

[detectiveichijouji]

Case 23 - Kido Joe’s strict rules of madness

[AO3 version]

Briefly, Ken and the others found Noel around Taichi’s university. But the moment his eyes encountered theirs, Noel decided to run away. Maybe he was still scared?

“Ken.”

Daisuke stopped walking and glanced at Ken, “Noel had a fragment, but he got it stolen from him. He was going to give it to me so we could keep it in a safer place and without hurting anyone.”

“... I see.”

“I told ya, Noel is a good guy. You gotta apologize to him.”

“... I will, but next time ok? I have to go home.”

And then Ken left. The group went back to their own homes after that too. But Ken wasn’t going home… He really found odd Noel Leblanc being there, right there… Casually and all of a sudden… He was kinda curious about Noel’s alibi to being there…

… But he didn’t find Noel.

… Noel Leblanc was definitely there -- Ken was musing as he returned home. The moment he arrived at the Ichijoujis residence, he realized his parents weren’t at home yet so he just walked to his room and started musing about the information gathered so far.

“... Something does not sound right…”

“Hm?” Wormmon blinked, “What’s wrong?”

“Noel confirmed he’s a distant relative of Arsène Lupin’s creator,” he was reading the messages Takeru sent to him. 

It felt like Ken and Takeru had become some kind of Sherlock Holmes and Watson for this mystery. Funny though, because of the Lupin books having its own take of the most known British detective as ‘Herlock Sholmes’.

“Huh, is it?”

“Well, it can be possible… But it might mean we’re on the right path,” Ken rested the phone on the desk and looked at Wormmon, “It could mean the hypothesis that Noel Leblanc created Arsenemon is plausible.”

“Hmm…Ah, I see!” Wormmon nodded, listening to Ken’s musings quite interested.

“Maybe he sent Arsenemon to help us out. Noel was present when Hikari-san received Koushiro-san’s phone call…”

“Hmm… True true.”

“This means… Espimon might not be Noel’s only digimon partner.”

“Oh??”

“He’s Arsenemon’s partner too.”

Joe and Gomamon usually go home late, because of the activities at the medical school and his internship there. Also, they were still helping the Digimon Arena -- which changed its localization to a better place, and kept training and challenging digimon and tamers. Except this time King Shoutmon had legit real prizes for them, from their village’s cuisine and crafts after all.

“Soooooo… Do you think I can beat TeslaJellymon next time and win the all-you-can-eat ticket from Delumon’s cafe?”

“It would’ve been nice, but don’t forget we’re not there to just compete,” Joe smiled, “we’re helping to keep everyone safe and treat their wounds.”

“Of course! But… Ah… I’d like to try out the Village of the Smiles’ cuisine someday…”

They laughed lightly, walking in the streets. Until they found the eyepatched Impmon… lying on the sidewalk.

“Huh…?” they blinked.

“Help… Me…!!”

In the morning…

“Aaaah I can’t believe I’m turning 17 soon!!” Daisuke seemed pretty… excited?? “Just a few more days… Uh… 18 days!!”

“Why? Do you want to get your presents already?” Hikari giggled.

“N-nope! I mean… Takeru, Ken and you are already 17! I’m always the last one of the 1991 kids to get older!”

“True…” Takeru smiled, “I’m the oldest. You can call me ‘Takeru-san’ now”

“No way!” he pouted.

Noel was also walking with them to school, again. At least this didn’t feel tense this time.

“... Ah! Noel,” Daisuke grinned, “When is your birthday, dude?”

“... June 15, but why?” The boy looked back, directly to Daisuke and with some curiosity about what Daisuke would do with that info.

“Oh! So you’re…”

“16 years old already. I was born in 1992… I think.”

“Makes sense…”

June 15…? -- Takeru thought, but this time he kept quiet. To not make Daisuke mad at him again. But why was that date interesting for him…?

“This makes him a Gemini!” Hikari commented, “Like Miyako-san!”

“Hm? Inoue-san… is a Gemini…?”

“Yes, her birthday is on May 30th though”

“Oh…”

“Mine is December 1st!” Daisuke added, with another grin, “This means I get presents twice in a month!”

“Oh… Christmas presents too…”

“Well, there’s the ones who just give only one present for two dates” Hikari teased Daisuke with a giggle, “Right~”

“H-hey…! Don’t remind me of that!!”

The classes were completely normal for them all. But something kept bugging Takeru… Something wasn’t right… Something… was off.

Then, after class he just witnessed (by sheer accident of fate) Lune talking with Noel and Soleil:

“You shouldn’t be befriending those punks!” She said, “Remember, we have a goal.”

“...” Noel, however, did not say anything in return.

“Well… Let him be, Lune.” Soleil sighed, “Soon or later he will stop.”

“I made predictions, they won’t stay on your side at all!” she continued, “If you keep trying to be Motomiya Daisuke’s friend… You’re fated to misfortune.”

Takeru wanted to intervene and defend Daisuke, they were saying something so awful about his friend! And now saying Noel couldn’t stay friends with Daisuke?!

But Takeru’s phone rang, and he had to leave before the other three noticed him there. It was Miyako, asking him and the others to gather at the karaoke booth.

He, Daisuke and Hikari (plus their digimon) left the school and went to the usual karaoke booth. There, Miyako explained them the details:

“King Shoutmon said… Joe-senpai had gone crazy and took control over the Digimon Arena. Then, Izumi-senpai sent me a message saying he detected another fragment and a bizarre amount of data around this area here,”

She pointed to a marked area in the map of her laptop.

“Then, I went to check which area is and… Bingo. It’s the new place our friends picked to host the Digimon Arena’s activities.”

“Another fragment…” Takeru clenched his fist.

“Now they chose to attack Joe-san…” Hikari frowned, “First Sora-san, then Taichi… What are their goals now?”

“... I can’t see the pattern here” Iori commented, trying to connect the cases to each other, “Only that Arsenemon was right to warn us about the enemy targeting us now.”

“Hmm…” Ken mused.

“Did you notice something, Ken?” Tailmon asked.

“Miyako-san, please search for Ornismon data. I need to check a little detail.”

“Hmm??” They all looked at Ken, and then Miyako started checking the database about Ornismon.

“Hmmm… It is an ancient bird, possibly linked to… hatred?”

“Hatred??” Patamon repeated, “So this means…”

“They were exploiting our Crests’ power negatively” Hawkmon added, “isn’t it what you were thinking about, Ken-san?”

“Yes, as I suspected… Previously they were enabling the seven deadly sins, but now…”

“They’re goin’ after us and using our Crest power wrongly…” Armadimon mused, “So, this means… Takeru and Patamon can be targeted again, dagya?”

“... We need to catch those remaining pieces as soon as possible” Daisuke clenched his fists, then asked: “How many shards are left?? How many do we have? And How many Arsenemon have?”

“Whoa whoa, calm down Daisuke” Miyako said, “Hmmm… 7 for us, 9 for Arsenemon, and there’s only 4 left.”

Iori was recapping all the previous incidents with the fragments: “Taichi-san’s case was possibly exploiting the Crest of Courage. So if Joe-san has one…”

“Well, he was kinda acting cowardly don’t ya think?” V-mon commented, “So, what’s the opposite of Reliability?”

“Hmm… Deceitful, disloyalty, dishonesty, treachery, unsteadiness…” Wormmon answered.

“I think we shouldn’t go too literal here,” Daisuke sounded annoyed, “Let’s go stop Joe-san before things get worse.”

“Alright!”

But someone else was listening to them… And before they could catch him , the one spying on them left quickly, not even meeting with the group when they left the booth and headed to the Digimon Arena.

The Digimon Arena was covered by… water!? At least it was a bubble filled with water shielding the building. The 02 group were confused about it though -- would they need to swim to get inside? Should they just send Iori and Submarimon?

But…

Sending Iori alone sounded too troublesome…

So Ken had a strange feeling and approached the water barrier. He examined it for a second and then put his head inside it for a few minutes. Miyako and Daisuke gasped in horror and they were ready to go there when Ken took his head off the barrier and looked at them, deadpanned. 

“It’s not real, we can breathe inside.”

“NEXT TIME DON’T DO SOMETHING THAT RECKLESS!!” both Miyako and Daisuke hissed.

“A-anyway… Let’s go,” Takeru tried to interrupt their fight. They all nodded and got inside the building.

And then they just met Joe and what was supposed to be Gomamon, perhaps? A Neptunemon was next to him and they watched the Arena, TeslaJellymon and other competitors like Tenno Yuu’s Sparrowmon were… writing something on paper sheets!?

“What, is this a cram school now?” Daisuke blinked “Everyone’s doing homework??”

“No, it’s not homework it’s…” Iori commented as they approached the arena. Then he just glanced at one of those sheets and realized what they were, “... a contract.”

“A contract?!” The others (but Ken) exclaimed.

Daisuke immediately took a paper from one of the kids filling it and read it, “Huh…? It’s about the arena rules?? Wait, you have to agree with ALL OF THOSE to be able to participate in the battles!?”

Ken yanked the paper from Daisuke’s hand, and the others read it over his shoulder, “... ‘No running, no using projectiles, no weapons, no shouting, no chatting, no singing, no rough play, no drinks or food, no swearing, no tossing junk, no diving’… ‘Don’t break the equipment/building, use the stairs, play safely, use slippers’... ‘Please inform your phone, Digimon Arena ID, blood type, digivice type, digimon type, digimon field, digimon category, allergies, goals’…”

“What is this, a public pool??” Daisuke squinted his eyes. (※ he clearly didn’t read it at all)

“I think this is going too far,” Iori commented.

“Joe-san, please stop!” Miyako ran towards her, but suddenly a horde of Marching Fishes came in, blowing a whistle and wearing security hats.

“DON’T RUN INSIDE THE BUILDING!!” Joe shouted from a high lifeguard chair.

“A-ah!!” Miyako stopped immediately. The others came in, but walking calmly. Then she looked at the group and whispered, “How can we do something without breaking the rules?”

“... Have Imperialdramon deck that fish-like digimon?” V-mon commented.

“That’s Neptunemon,” Tailmon clarified, “I didn’t expect to see one here…”

“The rules didn’t say we can’t fly, so…” Daisuke grabbed his digivice, “Let’s go, V-mon!”

V-mon nodded and then… “V-MON EVOLV--”

“NO SHOUTING!!” Joe ordered, shouting again; then he snapped his fingers. 

“W-WHAT?!” The Marching Fishes came in swarms and then dragged Daisuke and V-mon outside -- “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaah, helppppp…!!” they shouted until their voices faded. Then the fishes left them outside the building.

Daisuke and V-mon tried to get inside, but… no success. Now the barrier was made of water and they couldn’t dive into it -- “DARN IT!!” Daisuke punched the barrier.

The other five couldn’t even react to that… Oh no, they’re in real serious trouble. If they can’t snatch the shard from Joe and Gomamon…

“Joe-san,” Hikari frowned, and then walked calmly there, “Why are you doing this?? Weren’t you helping King Shoutmon and TeslaJellymon to get stronger? Weren’t you here because you wanted to help the contestants to not get badly hurt??”

“Those fights ARE dangerous, so I put an end on them. If they follow the rules, no one will be hurt. I’m doing it for them, but I won’t allow anyone to disobey my rules.”

“That’s wrong!” she snapped, but still not raising her voice, “You know deep down that you’re setting too many rules to the point there’s no fun anymore! Yes, you’re preventing someone from getting hurt, but you’re also not allowing no one to do anything!!”

“You’re like them, disobeying norms and running amok in this place!”

“Aren’t you disobeying the rules too, at this point?” Iori said, deadpanned.

“H-huh?!”

“You clearly said ‘No shouting’ while shouting,” Takeru commented.

“Kh--!!”

“He also shouted when telling Miyako-san to not run too,” Wormmon nodded.

“The rules say no weapons, but Neptunemon is wielding that big spear right next to you,” Patamon added with a shrug.

“We can do those things! We’re keeping this place in order!!” Neptunemon hissed.

“That’s a lie, you just want to drop a ton of rules on us to ruin the fun” Miyako squinted her eyes, “How can the Digimon Arena work if you can’t even battle?!”

“Yeah,” Armadimon wagged his paw, “Bet y’all can’t beat us fair and square here, dagya.”

“You all are--!!”

“Checkmate, Joe-senpai” Ken smirked, “You know we’re right. You broke the same rules you made.”

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! I… I…!!!”

“Should we go retrieve the fragment from him now?” Hawkmon asked them.

“Mhm! Miyako-san!” Hikari grabbed her D-3.

“Ok!”

Hawkmon evolves to… Aquilamon!Tailmon!Jogress Evolution! Silphymon!!

Silphymon then used their visor to pinpoint where the shard was, so they could get it from Joe-or-Gomamon. They identified it as the whistle on Joe’s necklace.

“There” Silphymon shouted, but Neptunemon attacked. They dodged the spear and stared at the opponent, “Miyako-san, The Digimental fragment is the whistle” They (Aquilamon side) said.

“I won’t let you get him and ruin our dominion!”

“Since Joe-san broke the rules…” Takeru nodded, then used the Digimental of Hope to evolve Patamon into Pegasusmon.

“No!!” Neptunemon shouted, and then threw the spear at the boy and Pegasusmon. Everything was starting to get extremely BAD when…

“Un, deux, trois~”

Someone snapped the fingers and teleported Takeru & Pegasusmon out of the range of the spear.

“WHAT?!” everyone exclaimed.

“C'est l'heure du spectacle” Arsenemon appeared in the middle of the arena, “ Pardon, I’ve been appearing too early recently~”

“Arsenemon!!”

“STOP RIGHT THEREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!” Daisuke and V-mon came in, running after they had been unblocked from the barrier.

“Oh, my favorite Chosen Detective was outside this time,” then he snapped his fingers and a calling card popped in front of Daisuke, which was caught by the boy:

Hello, mon ami. I’m here to steal the wicked fragment from Kido Joe. Enjoy the show~

“I won’t sit and let you steal it!” Daisuke growled.

Then suddenly, Kido Joe started to laugh. Quite scary, to be honest.

“Ah, you want this?” Joe showed them the whistle in his hand, “Well, I’ll give you if you could beat Neptunemon.”

“?!?”

“What? Do you think I’m not a trustworthy person?”

“Ken… We have to use Imperialdramon right now” Daisuke whispered to the other, who nodded in response.

“Then I will--” But suddenly a robotic arm sneaked in and stole the whistle from Jou’s hand “W-WHAT!? HOW?!”

“You’re all bark but no talk!” Miss Espimon appeared from the ceiling, “Now go back to normal!!”

“… He let it be caught,” Armadimon blinked.

“?!?!?! HOW COULD YOU--”

“He might not wake up like this. So allow me to help you, fine gentleman…” Arsenemon shrugged, “Oeil de Chat” he snapped his fingers and a small black cat with green eyes magically popped in front of Joe, having the glowing cat eyes synchronize with Joe’s and then making the man fall asleep.

“I… um… Sleepy…” Joe fell asleep, and with this Gomamon returned to his original form.

“H-huh?!” Gomamon blinked, “Ah I’m back to normal…?”

“ You. tried. to. kill. us.” Pegasusmon appeared behind Gomamon with a deadly glare. He was already charging his Silver Blaze when Takeru patted the back of his head.

“GAAHAHAHAAAA SORRY SORRY SORRY!! 💦” Gomamon hid behind Daisuke. 

Daisuke took Gomamon with his two hands and lifted the digimon, “So, you we’re really into it huh…”

“I’m soooooooooorry!! That Impmon inserted one of those shards on Joe and it also corrupted me!!”

Everyone stared at Gomamon, “Suspicious…”

“D-do you really think I’d try to hurt y’all!? I’m a good digimon!! B-Besides… There was something else that night…”

“Huh?”

“A pair of eyes… They definitely cough Joe and me into some hypnosis spell… I recognized it… It was… Dracumon’s eyes.”

“Dracumon?”  The kids and the digimon exclaimed, but not Ken or Tailmon (neither Epimon and Arsenemon) (※ Silphymon jogress has undone and both Tailmon and Hawkmon were back to adult and child forms, respectively)

“Dracumon… that name…” Ken mused, “It surely sounds familiar…”

“Dracumon are vampire-like digimon, probably one of Vamdemon’s old acquaintances” Tailmon explained, “Might be… related to… That one digimon we met before…” 

“Hmm…”

“Ugh… I felt like I had a hangover…” Joe woke up, kinda dizzy though… “But I didn’t drink…”

“Are you okay now, Joe-san?” Hikari asked him.

“Yeah… Thank you guys… And sorry everyone…”

“Oh don’t worry you’re fine now right, Big J??” TeslaJellymon grinned, “we gotta catch those two digimon and snap their necks!!”

“No neck snapping!” Daisuke said, then he looked around and… “GAH, ARSENEMON AND ESPIMON ARE GONE!!”

Ken didn’t mind the lost fragment though… He was mostly interested in the fact that Espimon came out of nowhere. It only reinforced his theories that Arsenemon is linked to Noel, as partner or as some accomplice.

As for now, Arsenemon has acquired the 10th shard, while Team 02 has only 7. Only 3 are yet to be found, or to be used by Impmon and Dracumon.

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure (Manga) - Vol. 1

This is the manga (or manhua) adaptation of the original Digimon Adventure anime. I got my copy from the library and you can borrow it for free on Archive.org!

Manga adaptations of anime are typically cheap money grabs that just copy-paste from the anime, removing some of the soul of the original along the way. As such, I'm not expecting much from this.

Notes:

Ch. 1

-You can almost always tell when a manga isn't drawn by a Japanese artist, it's just a certain vibe (I know this is technically a manhua). That being said, the art is competent enough. Yuen Wong seems to struggle most when it comes to faces. A lot of the faces look really janky and off model for both the digimon and the digi-destined. The only other thing that's kind of off is that the text boxes are very heavily lined and take up a lot more space than I'm used to.

-When Sora is drawn in chibi-mode she has the straps of her hat up like a rabbit. At first the silhouette was so unfamiliar that I had no idea who it was lol.

-So they covered two episodes in one chapter (up until the Shellmon battle). Let's see if the pace stays that way...

Ch. 2

-This definitely has a similar vibe to most manga adapted from anime that I've read. I wonder if it will diverge from the original material at any point, too soon to judge.

-Tai says to Agumon "I'll do anything but a teeth buffing" and I have nooo idea what that means? (Is he saying "don't eat me?") Also in chapter one Izzy said "baby blue, how emasculating!" when talking about the digivice. I don't think Koushiro would ever say that tbh. I feel like spotting these weird dialogue choices is going to be the most entertaining part about reading this.

Ch. 3

-I guess we're now going at a pace of one episode per chapter, which is fine. Somehow the content still seems a little condensed with a lot of the emotional beats cut out. I feel like the setting changes every two seconds which is giving me whiplash.

-Some weird quirks: the digi-destined call their digimon by their rookie names, even when they're in champion form. Also, the artist really really likes drawing smiley faces as stand-ins for the actual characters. That's like a step below chibification lol

-I think manga like this is perfect for if you wanted to watch Digimon Adventure 02, but you didn't want to catch up on a 50+ episode anime. It's a lot faster to read than to watch. (Although probably not as satisfying overall).

Ch. 4

-More cheesy dialogue. Izzy says "don't mess with an elite hacker" to Tai lol. Koushiro is way more likeable in the original Japanese because localizations loved to make nerds insufferable in the 90s.

-It's funny, I've never thought of Tentomon as robot-like, but in this chapter he said his parts were "short circuiting" and I was like "oh yeahhh...I guess he does have metallic features"

-Did we really need that close-up crotch shot of Andromon?

-You would think that the plot point of there being editable code laying around in random areas of the digital world would have come up again, but I can't remember another time it was really used to the kids' advantage.

Ch. 5

-This panel made me laugh:

(something about this phrasing and the expressionless chibis is so funny).

-And then Izzy never manually triggered a digivolution again...for some reason? (I feel like this was definitely explained in the anime, but I can't remember what they said).

-They didn't censor the poop this time! As usual, you can get away with more in print than you can on the screen B)

-They confirm that you can repel Numemon with sunlight...and then immediately the kids get attacked by more Numemon in broad daylight. Quickest continuity error ever!

-Another chuckle worthy moment:

Ch. 6

-Okay, but this one had me die laughing. Just a really good dad joke:

-Going from Adventure 02 back to the early Adventure days the stakes really do feel lower. No existential conundrums or human/humanoid villains to contend with. Just rampaging digis that can be easily cured.

Ch. 7

-Maybe it's just a translation thing, but sometimes the digimon act like there's one of each digimon species. Like Gomamon says "Unimon's a nice guy!" as if there's one Unimon in the world. Pretty confusing for kids. I wish mon series would just use names (they do sometimes, but it's not the status quo).

Yep, that was pretty generic. I wish they had thrown some more personality in there to make this a unique experience. I would have loved to read some final thoughts from the mangaka or to have gotten an omake of some sort. Ohhh welll...

[earlgreymon]

Hi just wondering if you associate any specific flower with Taichi, Sora, Koushiro and Hikari respectively. Have a great day!

anon, why does it feel like this question is very targeted and specific LMAOOOO

thanks for the ask! happy to see this on my inbox this morning <3

despite my love for flowers and the fact that my real name means flower, i... have a very general knowledge about them and always need to look at multiple, different websites to know about their meaning.

my quick answer will be the flowers that sora used in her arrangement on to sora. i tried to think of some alternatives, but i don't think mine will compete to sora's brilliant head (well, she's the daughter of iemoto, after all) ;)

🌼 sora

i know some people perceived poppy as a remembrance of war, so an alternative for her might be a good thing.

i think camellia suits her well because it's a classic japanese flower. camellia means modesty, but at the same time, red camellia can also means, "you're a flame in my heart" (flame of birdramon, anyone?).

perhaps carnation is also good for her. it's a flower for mother, and sora's the mom of the group, right? i can also see red tulip for her somehow.

🌼 hikari

one way or another, hikari might be deemed as the yamato nadeshiko of the series, and the pink colour of nadeshiko (dianthus) kinda suits her, doesn't it? pink nadeshiko means pure love, btw, and it kinda reflects hikari's love towards others.

honestly one thing that upsets me is that there was no sakura in sora's arrangement (although they eventually gave too much sakura in the end just to emphasis a new beginning without the digimon partners... DAMMIT KIZUNA). i can see hikari gets pink sakura because of its meaning: spiritual beauty.

if we don't want to be colour-compliant, i think baby breath suits hikari too!

🌼 koushiro

i have no complaint at all with him getting lavender because it's one of my favourite flowers too lol. if you want an alternative, maybe violet can be a choice. it means modesty, which i think suits the humble koushiro.

🌼 taichi

can't think an alternative to gazania. collectively, taiora is often associated with sunflowers, so i think taichi has a right to be associated with it individually speaking since his crest is also a sun. honestly just pick an orange-coloured flower and it'll work for him lol.

[whookami]

I feel like Digimon Adventure (2020) has wasted it’s potential. Sure, the story is new, creating new dynamics, but the characters... they are so meh. Okay, so Tai is pretty much the same, yay for him, but most of the other kids have been robbed of the traits that made them interesting, that made them feel like more than just 2D characters in a fictional world.

Sora doesn’t have her struggles with how she feels about love, her complex relationship with her mother’s overprotectiveness, coupled with her own sense of responsibility. Koushiro isn’t struggling with his sense of belonging (as much, there are tiny hints), his unresolved issues about being adopted and feeling like he doesn’t have a real home with the people he cares about. Mimi isn’t being dragged down and forced to see the horrors of war, she’s shown to be immediately bouncing back after terrible losses and conflicts, rather than having to find the inner strength to choose her own path and forge ahead on her own. Jou’s struggles with school do still exist, and his practical nature, but they don’t feel as solid as in the original, as much of an obstacle for him to overcome in accepting his place as a Digidestined. Takeru isn’t suffering from the need to prove himself, constantly feeling helpless and like he is constantly being babied, as from almost the moment he appears in the Digital World everyone knows he’s got the most powerful digimon, who also manages to unlock an armour evolution when he can’t immediately evolve back into Angemon. Hikari is...weirder in this. Does she have a personality at all besides blank curiosity and belief in Taichi? Maybe. I guess we’ll have to see. And Yamato, poor poor Yamato who has basically had the core of his character excised and then just... not replaced with anything else compelling. Yamato’s issues with his own worth and his responsibility for his brother, who he hardly gets to see due to his parents’ divorce, how he babies Takeru and treats him like he’s helpless, then coupled with Tai’s seeming competence as a leader and how he’s bonding with Takeru and treating him as more of an equal, sparking Yamato into a spiral of doubt and jealousy???? Now he’s just kinda stoic and strategic, and also blatantly supports Takeru being involved in their fight and taking risks, which okay, from the original would be great character development, but this version just jumps right into being okay with his tiny tiny brother being on the front lines in a war??

Also, not sure yet how this will pan out as the character has only just been (re)introduced, but Tailmon (or Gatomon, for the sake of nostalgia). She was the most interesting Digimon originally due to her being hatched and brought up separately, surrounded by the darkness and knowing that something inside herself was missing, but going along with what she’d been taught until Wizardmon finally helped set her on the right path.

Oh, also, Tai going crazy and this version’s take on the SkullGreymon idea was so weak. Tai wasn’t being reckless or careless or trying to use his power like a cudgel, forcing Agumon to evolve. It was in the heat of a very serious battle and their actions made sense, but were painted as being the ‘wrong’ actions because the plot needed them to seem that way?? Of course Agumon’s gonna go dinosaur crazy upon seeing Tai get eaten. It was weak.

All this good character stuff is gone, and what replaces it so far had been drab, boring, and always easily overcome. In the original series Yamato didn’t get over his issues until like, episode 53!! The characters really struggled with their issues, went through ups and downs, made mistakes, learned over time to fix them. I feel like these new takes are static, not growing or changing due to their situations, just bouncing from one problem to the next without anything really sticking to them. Nothing feels like it has any consequences and I don’t relate to what the kids are going through because it’s just a bunch of huge monster battles without any emotional context besides surviving.

Final thought: Also, how the actual fuck are the kids staying on their Digimon during all these attacks?? Pegasmon literally turns into a whirling vertical disc of death and Takeru is on his back the whole time and isn’t barfing afterwards like a kid who ate before riding the Gravitron???

[ahiddenpath]

Digimon Adventure 2020 Ep 11 Reaction

In which the kids have their own ideas about how to proceed, and it’s beautiful.

(Warning: I got excited and started cussing a lot.  Also, this ep is really good, and I’m really proud of this reaction, you should read it!).

I love it when the Chosen argue.

The kids arguing means that they have different ideas, different priorities.  The kids making a stand- Yamato prioritizing the mission, Sora and Jyou prioritizing the digimon who will die without help- means that they are exerting agency over the situation.  This is so refreshing after all of those “blindly follow the prophecy, without even having an actual, living being to explain things and provide prospective” episodes.  I mean, seriously, I was a second away from “Would you kindly” jokes.  (If you’ve never played the original Bioshock...  DO IT, OMG).

AND SORA!  FINALLY, SOME GOSH DANGED CHARACTERIZATION FOR SORA!  I am so happy for her!  Now, this is going to get highly subjective, but...  I detest “competency” as the main character trait for female characters.  And so far, what we know of Sora is that she’s: competent, active, brave, warm (so we’re told- we’re mostly left to infer this from her beautiful facial expressions, which I guess is fine, but I’d love to see it guiding her actions more, which we’re finally getting!), and supposedly well-liked at school (no proof of this, just Koushiro’s word).  Er- also, knives.  For some folks, this seems to be enough to celebrate, but it just...  Falls so flat for me.  

The idea of a “competent, active girl” suggests that most female characters aren’t competent and/or active, or that competency/being active are male traits (hence, Sora having these traits somehow makes her “tomboyish”).  In Adventure, Sora was always competent, active, and playing a guiding/decision-making role with Taichi and Yamato, while Koushiro provided intel for them.  I remember and liked that about her, but I love Adventure Sora for simultaneously accepting, struggling with, and resenting her caring, sisterly role for everyone.  The caretaker love and resentment cycle was so fucking real, dude.  Sora’s...  I’m gonna say it, she’s probably the most complex Adventure character, and when people reduce her to AcTiOn ToMbOy, I vomit in my mouth (even though she absolutely is competent and active!  It’s just that competency does not a personality make, and she had SO MUCH relatable, compelling stuff going on!!!!!  And also, “tomboy” in general implies that certain character traits are masculine, which is damaging for everyone, frankly). 

Anyway, here we see Sora standing up for her principles, which means saving these digimon who will die if left where they are.  There is no fighting, no name-calling, no posturing...  Just Sora saying: I care about these digimon, this is the right thing to, and therefore, I will do it.

ALSO I AM PROUD OF JYOU FOR BACKING SORA, and also showing his Adventure roots with an attempt at peace-keeping so ineffective that it was annoying, lol!  First, he is sad that Sora asked Yamato’s opinion, not his...  But when actually asked for his, he says “Er- I guess everyone has good points?” *sweat sweat*  THIS IS SO CLASSIC JYOU, I AM CRYING.  And then Gomamon is like, “What do you want?”  Ie, I don’t want a statement of validity for everyone else’s thoughts, I want your thoughts.  Gomamon is the best!

Then we jump to Gabumon and Yamato, walking off all lonesome-like.  Gabumon says, “Yamato, they can’t know what you’re thinking if you don’t tell them,” and honestly?  THAT’S A HELL OF A LINE FOR A KID SHOW.  Damn, Gabumon is great?  In the fortress siege ep, I thought that Gabumon explaining that Yamato is excluding the others to protect them was a little...  Too much.  Kids shows especially tend to error on the side of being too explainy, though, for the sake of their young audience (I laughed my ass off in Frozen when Olaf goes, “TrUe LoVe SaVeD hEr,” or something similar, because yes Olaf, we fucking got that, thanks, lol!).  This line was similar in intent (helping the audience understand an aloof character who is potentially unlikable on the surface), but damned if that ain’t some tea for real life.

AND JFC, WAS WEREGARURUMON ALWAYS SO FUCKING EXTRA?!  Wait, what am I saying, of course he was!  Hahaha!  I gotta say that these reboot perfect level evolutions aren’t feeling earned or impactful, just a kind of fun, “Oh hey, there you are” (and in this case, “Who does your nails, btw?”).  I’m hoping that we’ll see other content to make up for this, but so far, I’ve given up on the thought of being touched/impressed by evolutions in Digimon Adventure:.

AH SHIT!  BUT AT THE END!  Sora says, “Thanks for coming back!”  And Yams replies, “Eh, you were bait.”  And SORA!  SHE SEES THROUGH THIS BS!  SHE’S ALREADY REACHED GABUMON LEVEL OF SEEING  THROUGH THIS IMPOSSIBLE BOY’S GRUMPY FACADE!  “Well, we’ll leave it at that,” she says, with an understanding smile.  GOD!  THIS IS SO GOOD, I FINALLY SEE SORA IN FRONT OF ME, I’M CRYING, THIS IS 1,000% MORE SORA THAN HER OWN INTRO EP!!!!!!

AND I AM DYING!  Yams says, “I have a brother, so I...  AM SO... DETERMINED TO END THIS AND PROTECT HIM.”  You butt face, EVERY KID HERE HAS A FAMILY, OMG, WHAT A FUCKING DORK!  I am absolutely dying!  Here Yamato is, tryin’a explain his tunnel vision and his DEEP DARK EMBARRASSING SECRET...  HE, A HUMAN, HAS A HUMAN FAMILY THAT HE LOVES.  It tells us a lot about Yamato, alright, but not what Yamato was actually trying to say (ie, I hate to admit it, but I am a huge softie for my brother)!  Instead, what we’re finding out is...  Yamato is forgetting everyone here has a beloved family that they also want to help, because HE LOVES HIS BROTHER SO MUCH!  

GOD, SUCH YAMATO.  SUCH PURE, UNDILUTED, 1,000% CONCENTRATED YAMA JAMMAS.  I FUCKING LOVE HIM.  WHAT A GOOMBA!

THIS EPISODE WAS SO DAMNED GOOD, my second fave so far after Mimi’s intro, and it had 0% to do with the action/plot/evolutions and 1,000% to do with these dumb kids being good, dumb kids, god I love them.

ALSO!  HERE WE ARE AT RUINS AGAIN WITH KOUSHIRO AND MIMI?!?!?!?!  AM I HAVING A STROKE?!?!?!?!?!  BUT THIS TIME IT’S EVEN WORSE BECAUSE TAICHI IS HERE!?!?!?!?!?!?  GOD, I AM SO FUCKING HAPPY.  WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS BOUNTY?!?!?!?!?!?!

God, thank you, reboot.  Bless.

ETA:  I’m also hoping we swing back around to Leomon’s Resistance.  I mean, I assume we will...  And I also assume Leomon ain’t gonna fare so well, lol!  But seriously, I wonder what kind of intel Leomon can provide?  I’m loving that the Digital World has so much going on, its own groups and such.

[o-w-quinlan]

Digimon Adventure 2020, episode 12 reaction (and over-analysis)

This week, the Digimon remake of “Laputa, Castle in the Sky”, except with a more focused narrative. And somehow something so antithetical to what the show has been thus far ends up being one of its best episodes.

An interesting thing in this episode: twice, we saw Guardromon compare the Mimi he was watching with a picture of her in his archive. Both times, the picture is of her sweetly smiling, completely relaxed, and the reality is of her terrified and confused by the violence around her.

It’s been something that’s building up in the background, I guess. It’s not that Mimi is completely against fighting, but the current situation where they have to fight or otherwise they’ll die (as opposed to the Tuskmon or the Gesomon situations, where it was her choice to get involved) is overwhelming to her. The episode stresses a lot of things about Mimi. She takes charge when Palmon is confused about what to do, she’s quick to assume the best out of whoever she meets, refuses to leave Palmon and run when Andromon is about to attack her (in fact, by how her body is positioned, she’s shielding Palmon from the attack), doesn’t ask for help unless she knows the person she’s with doesn’t mind helping her. All in all, the episode emphasizes all of Mimi’s good traits, and then contrasts her with all the violence Soundbirdmon and Andromon bring, a violence both Togemon and Guardromon claim they will protect her from but fail. And it hurts, and it should hurt.

While this episode borrowed a lot from Studio Ghibli films, it aimed to make them more than just reference and actually use them for their narrative. The ancient technological marvel, starting to decay, buried underneath ancient ruins, is obviously a direct lift, but one that works very well in the context of the Ancient War that looms in the background of the story. It’s implied several times that Andromon, Guardromon and the entire factory have far more history to it than the children and the audience can ever know. Soundbirdmon doesn’t come from outside, it was already in the factory to begin with. The episode identifies all the metal of the factory with death, decay and violence, contrasting it with the healing and peace of nature, yet also makes clear that it doesn’t need to be that way. This is the most alive the world has felt so far, the most filled with history. In short, aesthetically it’s the best episode of the series thus far, with only episode 9 and it’s high-octane atmosphere competing.

When the insert song started playing during MetalGreymon’s evolution, I was worried Lilimon would be once again overshadowed in her debut, much like in the original Adventure. What happened instead was the complete opposite. The same contemplative OST from the episode recaps was played instead throughout her evolution and fight with Andromon, and it fits perfectly, additionally making her stand out even more than if it were just the same song that will play in every episode. It makes perfect sense that a normal action scene won’t be a fulfilling end to the story of violence breaking into Mimi’s life (which is why MetalGreymon can’t win), so of course Lilimon will mostly dodge, Andromon’s weapons completely useless in the face of her. Of course her final attacks won’t physically destroy Andromon, but subdue him, pacifying him for a last moment (enough to restore him to normal, enough for us to see that there was more to him than we thought) before burying him in a coat of nature, temporarily becoming the same death and decay that Andromon symbolized. Lilimon says that it was not just Mimi’s sorrow but her anger that brought her forth, and it feels as if something has been lost. That she does not turn to look at Palmon when she asks if she’s okay is intentional.

Additional thoughts on the episode:

The scene with the Birdramon group was great. We see Sora worried about Neamon’s group, and how everyone else reacts to that. Gomamon is the first to ask (because he’s paying attention to the group), Birdramon already knows what’s on her mind without needing to hear it, Gabumon gives practical advice that doesn’t really address what she’s feeling, but Yamato does address it, showing himself far more empathetic and likeable than in the entirety of last episode. Jou’s sadly just comic relief.

Taichi and Agumon climb down the shaft by holding onto random ledges and hoping they don’t fall. Tentomon just grabs Koushiro and flies down. Tells you everything you need to know.

Koushiro’s computer is starting to malfunction. Wonder what that’s building up to.

MetalGreymon’s evolution sequence was great, and the most interesting thing about it is the Mugendramon shape that surrounds him. Is this foreshadowing something?

Koushiro went weird in the Digimon Enciclopedia section. He wants to smell Palmon when she’s angry or happy? That... okay... okay...

I get why Andromon repeated the “Eliminate” line constantly and agree with the reasoning, but they overdid it.

I don’t know if this is my favorite episode so far, but it’s definitely in the running, along with 1, 6 (Mimi’s introduction), 7 (Jou’s introduction) and 9 (Ogremon’s fight). It’s definitely my favorite of the Perfect-level evolution episodes so far. I probably liked Taichi’s and Agumon’s arc in episode 10 better (if only because bond-based evolutions are so rare in the franchise), but when taken as a whole I far prefer this episode.

Next week, Sora gets involved with the Royal Base of the Beemon line. Hopefully it’ll make up for the mess that was her previous episode.

[digitalworldbound]

“D..did you just make that noise?” For Sora/Jyou

Number 20: “D-Did you just make that noise?”

Characters: Sora/Jyou. This takes place sometime during the Tri timeline. I tried to add some references to other pairings you like, so if you squint, I hope you can see them. I absolutely loved the idea of all of the Chosen in their little Halloween costumes, and had to stop myself around 1500 words because I was getting way too excited. Also, I apologize for the abrupt ending!

Send me a prompt if you’d like!

In retrospect, maybe encouraging her rambunctious group of friends to go to a haunted house on Halloween may not have been the best idea she’s ever had, but Takenouchi Sora refused to admit defeat. The past week had been stressful, filled with exams, sports tournaments, and holiday festivities. The group was due for some relaxation.

As Sora watched Daisuke and Iori competitively inhale their second yakitori, she felt more like a mother hen tending to her chicks than a high schooler. “Hey, guys!” she called, attempting to gather the attention of at least two of their collective braincells. Any response she might have received would have been lost in the throngs of people that crowded the waterfront. Festival tents lined the shore, the smells of fried food and pumpkin spice wafted through the air.

Each second of silence only added to her annoyance. She had worked endlessly for days to plan this get together, and it seemed that no one was taking it seriously. “Did you need something, Sora-san?” A small squeak escaped her throat as her body whipped around in surprise. The skirt of her devil costume swayed around her hips as she tried to regain control of her breathing.

“Oh, it’s you, Jyou-senpai.” She managed, heart pounding in her chest. A Bakemon costume (hand crafted by Mimi) hung off his thin frame, casting grueling shadows across his cheekbones. The sight reminded her of their first encounter with the ghost-like creatures, all wrapped up and ready for a sacrifice.

Instead of responding, the gentleman in question smiled a toothless grin. The soft glow of the fairy lights illuminated dark blue eyes as they scanned the crowd for his friends. “You know, everyone looks like they’re having fun.”

From their position on the outskirts of the festival grounds, Sora could make out Mimi’s hair as the girl mercilessly teased Koushiro. Her cat costume left little to the imagination, and Koushiro’s pink cheeks contrasted against his blue wizard robes.

Sora’s tension eased when her eyes landed on a blonde vampire and his mummified friend chatting amiably next to a noodle cart, toothy grins gleaming under the lights. It always soothed her worries when those two boys managed to get along. Their siblings, ever the rowdy pair, competed head-to-head in a heated battle for dominance: dart throwing. At stake? A month supply of strawberry ice cream for the girl in the Wizardmon-inspired ensemble and a kiss on the cheek for a smaller, blonder vampire. Sora laughed lightly as Takeru’s last swing wedged itself in the bullseye and Hikari’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Even if it wasn’t Miyako’s slightly off-key voice that filtered through the karaoke speakers, she would have been easy enough to find in her full Sailor Moon cosplay. Ken had managed to slip away and join Iori and Daisuke in their quest to consume any meat that was wedged onto a stick. They looked darling, Sora decided, dressed as Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

“I guess. I just wanted everyone to go to the haunted house together. What’s the point of planning this get together if we all aren’t, you know, getting together?” Punctuating question with a sigh, her shoulders slumped forward. “But,” she continued, “they all look happy enough, so it’s okay.”

Jyou opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it. Sora’s hands fiddled with the plastic horns nestled in her hair. Her eyes flicked towards her navy-haired friend as he cleared his throat nervously. “Well, just because they won’t go doesn’t mean we can’t.”

Her rejection died in her throat when her eyes settled on his hidden smile and flushed cheeks. “Jyou-senpai, you don’t have to sacrifice your night to entertain me. I’ll be fine. Besides, I think Koushiro-san might spontaneously combust if Mimi-chan tries to feed him again.”

In an uncharacteristic act of boldness, his slender fingers wrapped themselves around her wrist. “C’mon,” he said, turning his neck to meet her eyes, “You need to live a little.” Sora allowed him to tug her down the boardwalk and towards the old courthouse. If the twisted, bloody smiles of the clowns weren’t enough to double the young girl’s heart rate, the shrill, primal screams spilling out into the October air were.

If the twitch of Jyou’s hand on her wrist was any indication, he was becoming apprehensive as well. His smile never wavered, nor did his grip on her. Before Sora could decide whether or not to kindly remove his fingers, the pair were shoved in a group of Love Live! Idols and various farm animals. “Welcome to the House of Terror!” gritted the clown from before, his pungent odor testing the limits of the young girl’s gag reflex. His mouth opened once more, but whatever advice he was about to give them was drowned out by the screeching of the entrance erupting wildly on its hinges.

“Right this way, my pretties.” an old woman crooned from the building, voice reminiscent of branches scratching against a window. Sora shivered, but allowed Jyou and some stranger dressed as a rooster to push her along.

Her tension eased once the group left the corrupt clown outside. The hallway they entered was eerie, a black light illuminating the fabric of Jyou’s costume. One of the school idols screamed as an arm reached out from behind a blood-splattered curtain to caress her. Sora pressed herself closer to her companion. Wordlessly, his fingers reached down to grab her own, giving her palm what Sora assumed was supposed to be a reassuring squeeze. If his hands hadn’t of been so sweaty, she might have been comforted.

The black sheets opened into a large room filled to the brim with children. Dismembered baby dolls littered the ground, limbs hanging from the rafters above. The Chosen of Love smoothed down her pleated skirt, eyes avoiding the creature in the corner. A young girl, no older that thirteen, sat alone on the far side of the room. Dressed in a simple white gown, the child chanting something, but her voice was so low and haunting that Sora couldn’t make it out. Water dripped from her dark hair, and her lips were painted sea-sickening blue.

A couple dressed as cows made a run for the door on the other end of the room, utters quaking in fear. Their hooves slipped on a severed baby arm, and their spots went flying. Jyou tensed, the crunch he heard after the fall not boding well with his first-aid training. Sora looked around helplessly as the pair of utters still hadn’t gotten back up. ‘Oh, gods.’ she thought, stomach anxiously twisting itself into knots.

The group’s guide had suddenly disappeared.

“D-Did you just make that noise?” Jyou whispered into her ear. For a second, the red-haired girl had to convince herself that the shiver she felt was a result from the chilly atmosphere, and not the fact that his lips had been that close to her skin.

In all honesty, her heart had been pounding too loudly for her to hear much of anything, but with one look at the soulless girl in the corner, she turned towards Jyou. “No, but let’s get out of here!”

Jumping over the up-turned cows and various idols, the pair ran towards the rickety door. Apparently, the staff on the other side had no idea they were expecting the next group of people to terrorize, as the bloody nurses and doctors still engaged in an intense lip lock.

“G- Gomen'nasai.” Jyou stuttered, a flush reaching his hair line. His little devil companion felt as uncomfortable as he looked. “Um,” the polyester doctor called out, “this room is occupied.” Sora made haste to drag her and Jyou away from the hormonal teenagers before he could give them The Talk. He attempted the same thing with the younger kids a few months prior, and nearly cried when they were the ones to correct him.

Red light filtered through the hazy hospital room, but Sora recognized an exit when she saw one. “This way, Jyou-senpai!” she yelled, tugging his arm behind her.

The pair burst into the warm October night, panting and sweating. It took several minutes for the pair to catch their breaths and ever longer to notice their mischievous friends staring at them.

Takeru’s laughter startled Sora, her hand flying up as if to hold her heart in her chest. As her orange eyes rose to meet mahogany, she found herself temporarily blinded by the flash of a camera. “Hmm,” Hikari mused, “this one may be cute enough to develop.”

“That’s not the only thing that’s developing.” the younger, annoying, traitorous vampire giggled out. His basketball reflexes proved useful as he dodged an attack from the little devil, pulling an amused Wizardmon behind him. “See you love birds later!” he called out cheekily, admiring his own pun.

“Get back here, you guys!”

Jyou laughed quietly beside her, the hood of his costume bunching around his shoulders. “Ah, just let them have their fun. Besides, I’m pretty sure that sound I heard was the growl of your stomach.”

Fingers still intertwined; Sora allowed her senpai to tug her towards the tents of food. On the way down, her eye caught Mimi’s. In a strange way, the well-placed wink and sly smile on her friend’s face seemed to be a cue of sorts., and Sora tightened her grip on Jyou’s hand.

“Hey, Jyou-san, how do you feel about splitting some ujikintoki?”

[uniarycode]

Digimon adventure reboot 8

Spoilery thoughts below the cut

-        In this episode all eight, six, five chosen are together at last.

-        No seriously, Koushiro best have a super heroic entrance whenever he joins up at this point.  It’s very noticeable.

-        Mimi braiding Ikkaumon’s hair tho

-        Still not 24h out of 72h we have at least 10 more episodes to go before they solve this problem

-        Digivices can warp time and space to provide a stable communication, but be sure not to wander into the fog. Sure, whatever.

-        I did like the use of all the different Digimon here, the Solarmon were a nice touch for a Digimon that’s been around since at least 02 if not 01

-        Yamato claims he doesn’t trust the group to be competent, but Gabumon implies he just doesn’t want them getting hurt, I guess he doesn’t trust them enough to not get hurt.

-        Gabumon doesn’t get a first time evo sequence, but does get an Agumon tier stock-evolution, does that make him a winner or loser.

-        On that note we get two separate, ‘Birdramon digivoles offstage’ moments.

-        Having everyone here to start playing off each other is paying out.

-        “Darktyranomn has the edge in power” *Get’s pushed back by Agumon + Biyomon* so Garurumon is just super weak?

-        That one’s for the Sorato shippers, and the mimato shippers, and the jyoumato shippers, and the Taito shippers.  Look if you ship Yamato with basically anybody you get a scene.

-        After doing thing the sneaky way, the muscle through the last of the opponents, for the XP

-        Now that you had some fun character moments and a bunch of fights, time for plot.  Next time.

-        The Digimon attacking in the “Perfect’s attack” is Metaltyrannomon.  They pushed DarkTyranomon off a cliff.  Please let these be connected.

[gossipchii]

Kizuna Countdown

11 -  Favorite Chosen Children Friendship

You know what? I’ve been very careful with the rules, only chosing one of each because since I’m the goddamn police, I had to follow my own rules. Right? RIGHT???

Well, not today!!!! There are way too many special friendships in the Adventure Universe for me to pick just one. So I’ll mention my most precious ones.

VERY LONG POST AHEAD

Taichi and Koushiro

I had to start with this one because I already talked about them in this previous post, so it was way easier.

Let’s keep going.

Jou and Yamato

If you saw these two dorks anywhere together, you would never naturally guess that they are great friends, lie ever. You have the stereotypical “cool kid” and the “total nerd”, and they usually never get along. Actually, if this was a cliché show, Yamato would even bully Jou, can you imagine a universe where that happened? God that would be awful.

But we don’t have a stereotypical show here, and Digimon cab be many things but it never falls into cliché. Sure, Jou and Yamato have their issues, they foght, they are completely different.

But they both open their hearts to each other in the most unexpected way, making the restaurant episodes one of the most entertaining, yes, but also one of the most originals of the bunch.

Sora and Mimi

The ultimate girl power frienship! I’ve read so many good analysis over these two the last few days that I don’t feel like I can add anything else. I can just say once again that I’m so glad that Digimon decided not to fall into clichés, because then these two would compete over the boys’ attention and heck, they never did that.

Instead, they pushed each other into growing and being better and stay close friends no matter the distance and/or changes. Holy shit, why am I crying?

Koushiro and Takeru

I’ve also already talked abou this blessing of a friendhsip before, so let’s keep moving.

Miyako and everyone she interacts with

I’m double cheating here, but Miyako is that much of a good character that everyone she talks with comes to live, I don’t know what it is with Miyako Inoue but she makes everyone around her shine, that’s why I adore every single friendship we get to see from her. Daisuke, Iori, Koushiro, Mimi, Hikari, you name it! She has absolutely not a single meh frienship!

Last but not least, I’m gonna finally talk about my main frienship, like the OG to my heart.

SORA AND TAICHI

I’m kind of cheating here as well, because they were originally my OTP, I know what the hell. But to be honest, I’ve always adored their friendhsip, and God bless Digimon has never been afraid to make a boy and a girl platonic friends, because that’s what Sora and Taichi are. They may have a small crush or something, but it never crossed the platonic line.

I could use many arguments as of why Sora and Taichi have the most special frienship of them all, but nothing will come close as to TAICHI RISKED HIS LIFE, LIKE HE WAS WILLING TO DIE TO RESCUE SORA. Holy shit, if that doesn’t show something about how much these two love each other, nothing else will.

Sora abandoned the group in episode 22 in order to look for Taichi, Taichi pushed Sora (literally) in order for her to stop being a little coward and confess her feelings to Yamato. They are each other’s rocks, even if Taichi ouked on Sora’s hat and all that. They’re the ones taht have known each other for the longest time, apart from, you know, the brothers, and will continue to be there for each other.

I’m salty tri. didn’t give me more Taiora frienship moments because of them playing the sly game of shipping, fuck that! Their frienship is absolute gold and I will never not be in love with it!

[ashxketchum]

Mimato & Taishiro double dates to the arcade or karaoke where they split into team bffs and compete over everything. Koushiro and Mimi DECIMATE Taichi and Yamato and then the two idiots end up paying for everything.

[seventeenlovesthree]

Sometimes, I’m still in awe of how things come together and this is one of them. I was made aware of the graphic novel around a year ago - and by now, I own the first four volumes at home, as they’re just super endearing, empowering, give room to a lot of different representation and cover very serious topics revolving around mental health, so... You should definitely read it as well. <3

THAT ASIDE - I was, obviously, initially drawn to the series because of the veeeeery obvious Taishirou parallels that was already apparent on the freaking preview pic presented on Amazon. I’m sure Lynn will come up with even more parallels, but I still wanted to point some of the points I/we already gathered:

Suspect number one: Charlie Spring is our resident Koushirou Izumi - even if they’re not the exact type of nerd, Charlie is STILL constantly being referred to as (gay) nerd throughout the series. Starts the series in grade 10 (14 years old, turns 15), spends a lot of time alone, isolating himself (mainly because he was being bullied after having been outed) or among his friend group (Tao and Isaac - or Aled in the graphic novels - and, partly, Elle). According to Nick, Charlie is “good at everything, video games, sports, maths, essays, making friends, playing the drums-” While Koushirou doesn’t play drums (he’s more the violine type according to one of the album covers for Digimon Adventure) and doesn’t really strike you as sporty, Adventure 01 still showed him being a competent runner around the more sporty kids - guess what Charlie is good at? Right, running. And even if that wasn’t the case - Taichi calling Koushirou “awesome” wouldn’t be a rarity either. So he’s pretty damn smart, he’s also got snark and wit - and, obviously, has pretty bad self-esteem (among other things I will not mention here yet, because spoilers), where he fits right in with Koushirou: “Before now, before he had come to the Digital World, Koushiro had considered himself an insignificant and worthless human being. He knew computers, but what use was that? Even he was aware that he stuck out like a sore thumb in class, and he had thought that even if he wasn’t around, the world would still go on.” Which is almost exactly how Tao refers to Charlie thinking about himself, so... I think our boy needs a golden retriever someone to pull him out of that state, right? Because he actually IS very capable, kind and able to make friends easily...

Suspect number two: Nick Nelson is our resident Taichi Yagami - the sporty jock, star player and captain of the school rugby team, a popular sunny boy, one year above Charlie in grade 11 (15 years old) and also a tad bit taller. (”Why are you so strong?” - “I’m not strong, you’re just short”). We see the two of them being paired together in their term, very unlikely people to get along with each other it seems - but they basically immediately do read: they’re starstruck by one another and Nick almost instantly asks Charlie whether he wants to join the rugby team, since he is a fast runner. Taichi didn’t ask Koushirou to join the football club in Adventure/the novels, but it is heavily hinted at that he took a lot of care of him there, treated him like everyone else - and may or may not have protected him about the other members, who, according to the novels “thought he was hard to get along with”. That’s exactly what both Taichi and Nick do for each Koushirou and Charlie - being protective and encouraging towards them (”Well, I like you and want you on the team!”). He’s generally just a super kind, supportive guy who overthinks and second guesses a lot - and might go for the punch if he can’t otherwise protect the ones dear to him. (Also has an amazing mom!!!)

Nick is seriously starting to question his own sexuality, as he’s crushing hard on Charlie - who is crushing back just as hard, but they do start off as friends, become closer, even best friends. That’s obviously a very common theme for Taishirou in most of fandom as well, with both of them being oblivious nuts that don’t realize what is going on. (”You like me too?” - “Wasn’t that obvious?” - “Why are we like this?”). One of my - and Lynn’s - favourite headcanons is that Taichi realizes he is bisexual - so this parallel with Nick is just too wonderful. There’s a lot of amazing cheese, a lot of texting, mutually protective behaviour displayed by both of them - all the things one enjoys in a Taishirou fanfiction, so I’m absolutely here for it.

Then there are the other characters and their dynamics of course. Again, not all of it fits and some characters are portrayed differently in the graphic novel than they are in the Netflix adaptation. Not only are the boys not wearing the green uniform (just like in Digimon Adventure 02, hehe), but Tao for example gets a lot more focus, his fear of the group drifting apart, him getting left behind by Charlie, his feelings for Elle, etc. He’s got quite the snark, the very apparent “Rough skin, soft core” attitude that makes him very much Yamato in my opinion. Isaac staying out of trouble and just smiling, reading his book and being a cuddly boy strikes me as Takeru a LOT. Elle is a difficult decision, though I feel she would be an amazing Jyou - in regards of her mature attitude towards Tao’s worries, basically mirrorring Jyou’s speech towards Yamato in the stageplay, who was also fearing that everyone would eventually just leave. And... That gives me a lot of Jyoumato parallels as well!

Then there are the other girls and, thus, the other canonically confirmed couple: Tara and Darcy. In the graphic novel, Darcy is being portrayed as a tomboy with short hair and a beanie who’s out as a lesbian openly (and later we also learn her family is giving her a hard time about it...). While her design (and family circumstances) obviously scream Sora, character-wise she’s more Mimi than anything else. And Tara - she is the one who still struggles with her identity (!), unable to take the gossiping around them. She’s fancied by a lot of the guys - and rumoured to have been in a relationship with Nick, since he used to have a crush on her and they even kissed in grade 8... Which was where Tara actually realized that kissing boys was not for her. Ladies and gentlemen, here we have the - bittersweet - Taiora parallel. Thankfully, throughout the series, Tara and Nick actually remain close in their growing/combining friend group so we have a very gentle, very adorable friendship dynamic between Sora and Taichi here. So Darcy is the spunky, confident and comfortable Mimi pulling Tara, the gracious, gentle and opinionated Sora out of her shell, both of them having a very adorable, fun and supportive relationship. (Plus, Sora and Mimi being friends with Jyou in their grade is a special kind of awesome the world needs more of!!!)

Everything else... is up for debate or doesn’t fit too well. (Like Charlie being the one who has siblings - although, hey, could be nice to have a Koukari sibling dynamic as well, with Tori being Hikari, right?) There are a few scenes in between that definitely made me giddy (like Nick calling Charlie “Char”, which is basically the fandom equivalent of Taichi calling Koushirou “Kou” and if that isn’t amazing, I don’t know what is. Actually the same could be said about Charlie getting a haircut - at least in the graphic novel, because, let’s be real, fandom is pretty divided on Koushirou’s hair. :D)

To be continued??? :D

Just here quickly to talk Heartstopper. I'm watching it and it's crazy good, loving it <3

Aside from that it's a such a great setup for a Taichi x Koushiro AU (I mean, the sweet sports guy from 5th grade and the cute nerd from 4th grade), for which I will write down all the headcanons sometime soon, there's something very important I want to point out to everyone after @seventeenlovesthree pointed this out to me earlier.

This is Heartstopper's creator Alice Oseman's Twitter account:

Nothing special right? Yet. Cuz THIS IS THE HEADER SHE/THEY USE FOR SAID TWITTER ACCOUNT:

Yes my darlings, that's Sora. SORA FROM FREAKING DIGIMON. You cannot tell me that this person isn't a Digimon fan and this gives me and all of you all the reasons to make every possible Heartstopper x Digimon crossover!!

Bye.

[firstagent]

(For the Ranking) Who would make the better ruler/president/monarch?

Tricky thing here is it’s a combination of leadership, political savvy, and likability.

Taichi (Obvious choice, plus he does end up in politics and would have to figure out how to play the game)

Mimi (She has both personality, strong empathy for people’s problems, trusts the right people, and won’t take crap from those thinking they can swindle her)

Sora (Always looking out for everyone’s well-being and a pretty fierce negotiator, she’ll be a wreck behind closed doors but put on a strong face for the masses)

Joe (His preference for fitting into the collective but his tendency to stray from that puts him in an oddly strong position to lead… if he can only assert himself and convince people he’s competent)

Koushiro (Plenty of questions to ask about how he gets into this position, but as long as he has a couple people reminding him of the human element, his information gathering could make for an efficient model… if he’s not overthrown by that point)

Hikari (Could surprise people with some assertiveness and concern, but likely to be overwhelmed by the job quickly)

Yamato (Bound to be a little forceful and makes too many enemies to be too effective, especially since he’d care a little too much about doing a good job)

Takeru (A positive spirit and a smarty attitude is a great way to get nobody to take you seriously as a leader)

Want to support my site and/or my work? Buy me a coffee!

[earlgreymon]

digidestined as camp half-blood’s demigod: headcanons

⚔️ you can read the previous post first to have a better understanding about this universe. these are all for now, but maybe in the future i can always add more (probably write a fic about it?) and i’m open to your suggestion! also, excuse the messy order since my head was all over the place lol.

camp half-blood  © rick riordan

___

— mr. d (dionysus), the camp director, hates taichi. especially because in his first year, taichi accidentally smashed the volleyball too hard and broke the window of mr. d’s room in big house.

— besides volley court, taichi’s favorite spot is the lava-climbing wall where he usually competes with sora.

— koushiro developed a safe connection for demigods to communicate with each other using mobile phone. after miyako came and be claimed, they created an app for demigods not only for them to make a phone call, but also chat and others.

— historically speaking, pan and apollo are not really in a good relationship. but takeru is very friendly to the satyrs (which are pan’s loyal followers) that it is their guilty pleasure to hang out with takeru.

— the satyrs often ask takeru to play flute for them, but takeru don’t really play instruments. when takeru told them to come to yamato, they said that they prefer takeru rather than yamato because yamato seems scary. (lol)

— takeru doesn’t want to see them upset, so he asks yamato to teach him how to play wind instruments. (aww)

— jyou once fell into the canoe lake and wasn’t able to swim to the shore because his foot got stuck in a pondweed. the naiad came to the rescue and somehow, they thought that jyou’s a charming guy. he became popular among the naiads ever since.

— yamato once had a crush on sora after she helped him on their first capture the flag, but after he found out that she obviously likes taichi (which wasn’t obvious enough for taichi himself because he’s so insensitive), he decided to forget about it. although no one really knew about it, takeru realized how his elder brother played more mellow tunes after.

— on their fourth year, taichi, sora, yamato, mimi, koushiro, and jyou are appointed as the counselor of their respective cabin. let’s just say the counselor meeting is getting merrier ever since.

— and ever since his appointment, taichi always pulls a prank to the newcomers. although hikari cannot stop his brother’s antique, she will always help to clean up the mess after.

— although takeru is not really into musics as much as his brother, he’s extremely good at archery. he teaches hikari about it, which makes them closer, and later on, hikari becomes as good as him. they are dubbed as the camp’s “twin hunter”, inspired by apollo and artemis. this fact irritates taichi a bit because he doesn’t want hikari to become an artemis hunter and afraid that this can affect her decision later in the future.

— miyako developed a huge crush on ken when they just entered the camp. she showed no mercy though when ken turned against the whole camp. (although yes, she starts to like him again after the whole things have been resolved and won’t stop pestering daisuke to help her…)

— jyou’s the one who mostly takes care of the camp’s shop. mimi usually helps him (or disturb him…) hence they’re getting so close. miyako and iori also help later on. taichi’s the one who usually steals, as he is the son of hermes after all.

— after mimi got claimed, she started to handcraft a lot of things from flowers and sold it on the camp stores (after all, she’s the daughter of a businessman, right?). potpourri, soap, jewelry, you name it. sora also helped her sometimes.

— recently, yamato thought of gifting something to his mother for her birthday, so he went to the camp store. he saw mimi’s handcraft and pondered for quite a time that mimi finally caught him. mimi ended up helping yamato to create a personal flower tea for her mother, but in return yamato had to give mimi one of his grandmother’s recipes, which was a famous local dish from his hometown. they both got close ever since ;)

— mimi also opens a pop-up café together with other demeter’s children every summer for a week (the idea came up after she was appointed as counselor), where they would all cook different menus each year. this is refreshing since demigods usually eat only the things that wood nymphs serve on dining pavilion.

— takeru also notice the change of yamato’s music after he gets close to mimi. “your music sounds like love songs,” he said. yamato was flustered.

— how taichi finally asked sora out: he asked mimi’s advice, and she said that he should do it like “this classic movie” where the boy raised a boombox in front of his crush’s house. taichi then asked yamato for a song suggestion, and although yamato was pissed off, he ended up giving him a song anyway just so that taichi wouldn’t bother him. when he did that, sora was so embarrassed, but she finally cracked a laugh when daisuke who lived on cabin twelve (next to cabin ten) popped up from his door and screamed, “SHUT THE HELL UP!” when he found out that it was taichi who made the noise, taichi gave him a death glare and daisuke was extremely afraid that he just made his respected senior mad at him…

— long short story, taichi and sora go out anyway, so daisuke’s safe.