#taichi yagami is a good leader

[ashxketchum]

This month's Digigift on Digimon Partners website features Taichi and Agumon in a Children's Day/子供の日 themed illustration.

[seventeenlovesthree]

Digi Dynamic Shipping Game

Send me two names among the following 12 and I’ll write a short analysis post about them:

Taichi Yagami | Yamato Ishida | Sora Takenouchi | Koushirou Izumi | Mimi Tachikawa | Jyou Kidou | Takeru Takaishi | Hikari Yagami | Daisuke Motomiya | Miyako Inoue | Iori Hida | Ken Ichijouji

Whether canon provides input on them or not.

Boy, do I love to refer back to "Butterfly" and how it basically framed Taichi as the male main character and Sora as the female main character throughout. One might argue that this is a combination that has been occurring in quite a lot of anime - particularly kids and Shounen related - back in the 90s and early 2000s, so... Asking whether or not canon provides input on them is like asking if water is wet. They've known each other since elementary school, have been in the same class ever since (and will continue to be classmates until graduation) and even attended the same football club for a while. They start the series as "almost telepathically connected" football club duo (basically a novel quote right here), adventurous and hands-on plot drivers, the courageous leader and the tomboyish but caring voice of reason right by his side. You instantly get the impression that they are familiar and close with each other and it's a theme that continues throughout the entire first season; not only because they consistently jump into action and call out, care for and protect each other, but because they, their bond, their loyalty and development are basically responsible for the fact that the kids get through everything alive in the end.

Trying to describe the extent and depth of their relationship would probably end with me writing a whole novel, so I will try to keep this brief, because... You know them. Similarly to Taito, Koumi and Takari, Taiora has been a staple in the shipping scene ever since the conception of Digimon Adventure back in 1999 - and for good reason. As mentioned, there used to be - and still is - a trope to pair up the main boy and main girl with one another and this case is no exception, considering how well they play off of each other, supporting and saving each other time and time again. Digimon Adventure is a special series though - a series whose creators intended to break through tropes and stereotypes, turning those on the head whenever possible. So while Taichi's and Sora's bond may be so significant that the idea of them ending up together seems inherently plausible - this is not how their story ends.

The tomboy, who struggles with her sense of femininity and identity, cannot deal with her best friend gifting her a hairclip - and while they seem thoroughly devoted to and on each other's minds, they develop in different directions. There is a theme of miscommunication between them as they grow older, little quarrels here and there - but at the same time, there is still an incredible sense of mutual fondness and protectiveness that, despite a growing physical distance, never completely vanishes. "If you love someone, let them go", is a quote that may come to mind when you take a look at the screenshot above and are aware of its context. Whether that kind of love was romantic or platonic at this point? We may never know.

This is the story of two close long-term friends, who were not meant to be together - wrong time, wrong place.

... Which doesn't mean that there isn't a potential "right time", right...?

Whether I think why and how they’d work.

What I mentioned above seems to be somewhat cryptic and what I'm about to outline may or may not break canon to a certain degree, but HEAR ME OUT.

While this headcanon is, for now, nothing more than a headcanon, but I am a big supporter of @dutchforstrangers' interpretation of the epilogue, leading to the idea that Yamato and Sora might not remain together/married. This post is not meant to be Sorato slander in any way and I will not go into detail here as to why I think this is a valid headcanon - just know that there are a few subtext aspects in regards to their behavioural patterns and body languages that leave room for speculation. And that's all there is to it: SPECULATION!

The point I am trying to make here is, once again, that Taichi and Sora may not have been ready to be in a relationship early in life - because they first had to come to terms with themselves, their real dreams, aspirations and needs. They had to become comfortable with themselves (particularly after the loss of their Digimon partners) to bridge the (physical and emotional) distance that had festered between them through the years. Because if you think about it, due to their underlying insecurities, they both chose the same approach in their early twenties: Isolating themselves from the rest of their friend group. And I feel like they both have to come to the conclusion first that this is a state that could never bring them long-lasting happiness. They're both social beings that shrivel when they're left alone for too long. (They may also need the encouragement of their friends - particularly Mimi, Koushirou and Hikari - to get there though.)

So it may take a while, weeks, months, maybe even years, to reconcile, step by step. Rekindling their bond, making up their minds about their true passions and career paths, rediscovering old and finding new hobbies and similarities along the way; whether it's about their shared love for their friends, football, adventurous and sporty activities, probably therapy???, whatever it may be... Until they'd reunite with their partners and, with a gleeful but weary smile on their faces, realize that they just had to grow up to this point to eventually find each other as well.

Whether I’d prefer them as platonic or romantic ship.

In case the way I've been talking about them hasn't made it obvious yet - I do love Taiora a lot. While I hadn't started actively shipping Digimon characters until I started watching Tamers, I always had an incredible soft spot for them and up to this day, Taichi and Sora are my second favourite choice for each other. You could say that, in every possible universe in which Taich doesn't end up with Koushirou, he WOULD end up with Sora if I had anything to say. It's also no secret that Taikoura is my absolute favourite OT3 and I really think they COULD work out beautifully together. In the end, both romantic and platonic Taiora is absolutely beautiful to me - especially because it brought some very special, wonderful people into my life. Long story short: As long as their closeness persists in any way, shape or form, I'll be happy.

I also still maintain that the reboot timeline could potentially go there, but I will not get my hopes up... Yet.

[izzyizumi]

Digimon Adventures ~ Japanese version featuring CHARACTER: Taichi Yagami [Taichi “Tai” Kamiya in US] + CHARACTER INTROSPECTION

YOU were; a SCARED CHILD who didn’t want THIS; (you are    A GOOD SIBLING) (GOOD TO YOUR FAMILY) even when you made MISTAKES, BECAUSE you are FLAWED; (HUMAN) YOU ARE A GOOD FRIEND YOU ARE A LEADER; YOU ARE RELIED UPON

YOU ARE NOT “AN ‘IDIOT’”

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL

- Taichi introspection written by me / original poster (izzyizumi)

Orginal Poster’s {mine}’s commentary: In MY opinion this fandom REALLY needs to start watching HOW they Talk about Taichi Yagami. (*Includes Tri!Taichi) If you find you can’t talk about or comment on the whole of this character (including when/while commenting as Adventures as a whole) without basically going against anything stated above ...you might want to ask yourself why you think that and if you might not be heavily biased for some other reason or another.

caps/gifs (& 10th/final edit of set edited Specifically) by @izzyizumi, {DO NOT REPOST GIFS/EDITS/CONTENTS AS NEW POST DO NOT REMOVE CAPTION DO NOT USE MY CONTENTS FOR DISCOURSE DO NOT USE MY CONTENTS FOR SPREADING CANON HATE OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE BLOCKED} {usage of gifs may be allowed if permission is asked / or if credit is given. However, read my about & FAQ pages FIRST. Please do NOT use / ask if you match anything in my “Do Not Interact” sections/banner.}

{Additional note: this post is mainly intended AS FRIENDSHIP / CHARACTER-FOCUSED. please remember + RESPECT this when interacting please do not focus on ships with this post but character! (*It is ok if you tag with ship names or the like as long as this is respected!) [Please ONLY tag siblings as ‘siblings’ and/or ‘Platonic’!] {Failure to acknowledge interacting rules WILL result in a block}

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

[rockabelle]

Fic: Everyone is a little in love with Taichi

Me: This is the most accurate thing I’ve ever read

[earlgreymon]

guess who got a little too excited and ended up making all the avatar for my digichildren headcanon.

in chronological order:

tsuyoshi yagami, taiora's oldest son. i've mentioned that sora would never let him have the same bushy hair as taichi, and thankfully tsuyoshi hated the big hair because it's itchy. still and all, he inherited the recklessness (and apparently the glutton) of his father⁠—but also his mother's wisdom. i read a shoujo manga called meganee, tokidoki, yankee-kun and i couldn't stop thinking about tsuyoshi every time i saw the male protag, ichikura-kun. AND YES HE USES GLASSES LATER ON, WHY NOT? perhaps uncle kou gave him too much video games and he literally glued himself in tv screen every time the soccer game is on.

tsubasa yagami, taiora's 2nd son. no, he's not the "goggle leader" of the group, but obsessed with the goggle ever since his father showed him. tsubasa said it makes him look like an explorer or a pilot⁠ (he wants to be either one someday). he loves going outside, observing nature⁠—birds, bees, flowers, you name it. also apparently they have a yellow t-shirt with PIYO written on it. what a chance.

reina ishida, the oldest child of mimato. the queen, just like her name. hot-headed, loud, but tsundere. a sweet tooth thanks to her mother's amazing dishes, but also has a high tolerance on spicy food thanks to her father. has this model/k-pop star aura, but more into rock bands like scandal (it's a japanese band, not that tv show...).

runa ishida, the middle child of mimato. actually i'm not fond of the hair but the picrew has a limited option. haven't thought much about her, but she's a sweet girl with a milder temper compared to her older sister. perhaps like princess kaguya because her name also means moon?

raiden ishida, the youngest child of mimato. the coolest among all the children. nuff said⁠—the genes don't lie.

makoto kido, jyoumi's only child. his clothes are always dandy thanks to the coolest momma ever. if there was a world where mimato and jyoumi could coexist together, i would say he has a crush on reina.

kouki takaishi, son of takari, twin brother of hinagiku. has this amiable charm that will make everyone (LITERALLY EVERYONE) loves him. hikari teaches him to play piano and he's pretty good at it. naturally good at sport. still searching for his weakness...

hinagiku takaishi, daughter of takari, twin sister of kouki. twins don't have to opt for a similar name, a'ight? little hina-chan's favourite bedtime story is alice in wonderland. watching too many ghibli movies growing up. probably writes fanfiction about uncle taichi and uncle yama.

satoru izumi, eldest son of koukari. he's more of a street smart rather than a book smart, so don't think of him as a nerd. uncle taichi doted on him before tsuyoshi was born. he can play soccer, but he chooses baseball. very observant.

akari izumi, youngest daughter of koukari. she always thought the only similarity between her and her father was the hair, but that's that. without her realising, she was actually pretty similar to koushiro; for example, in terms of getting petty over little details. avid tea drinker like her parents. highly competitive.

(picrew credit)

[dutchforstrangers]

Taichi Yagami week 2022 Day 4 - Goggles

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

@taichiyagamiweek

For context see this post here. A/N: Souta is Taichi's (and Rei's) son, Kasumi is Yamato's (and Sora's) daughter, both as seen in the 02 epilogue. Both names are made up/created by myself. And yes. I am completing Taichi week in my own time and pace (:

Day 4: Goggles | Characters: Taichi Yagami, Yamato Ishida & Koushiro Izumi | Wordcount: 634

'The most important thing...' big Panda said, '... is to keep your eyes open.' - Page 21

Privilege

…

“Carrying around relics, aren’t you?” Yamato asked with his finger pointing towards the goggles sticking out of the pocket of his jacket. Taichi laughed.

“Souta found my goggles and now he keeps playing with them.”

“Kasumi did the same with my harmonica for a bit a year ago,” Yamato mused alongside Taichi.

“Why not giving them to him?” Said Koushiro as his reply to Taichi.  

Of course Taichi could give them to his son, but something told him he couldn’t just do that, it didn’t feel right. He played with the accessory in his hand, staring at it, perhaps hoping to find some kind of answer.

“Too precious to you, huh?” It was Yamato though who answered it for him.

Taichi growled while nodding in response to his friend’s saying. He was right, it was a very valuable piece to him since it held a hundreds of good memories and more. As he heard the screeching sound of the legs of a chair sliding across the floor, he looked up.

“No worries, Taichi-san,” Koushiro said while getting ready to go to his hobby room even his own wife didn’t dare to come. “I can get or even design Souta-kun a set all for himself to play with.”

“Ah, but you don’t have to…”

“Just be grateful,” Yamato chimed in, defending Koushiro’s actions. It made Taichi sigh, his eyes looking back at the special glasses in his hand.

Looking in the reflecting glass, he could see the adventures they had shared, the experiences he was able to collect together with his friends. The goggles were like a museum filled with both crazy and fond memories.

He could also see moments of losing himself and the goggles, right before basically resurrecting from the water in Odaiba.

“Remember when I disappeared? Back when we were seventeen?” Taichi asked, his eyes searching for Yamato’s blue ones.

“Of course, how could I ever forget?”

“You had my goggles.”

“I did.” Yamato replied rather matter of factly.

“Why’d you gave them back?”

“Why’s that even a question?”

Taichi sighed. “I don’t know. I was just wondering… holding these goggles…” He looked down at them, seeing the small scratches that after all those years were imprinted in the glass. “Was I worth it?”

“Taichi,” it was the way he had seen it. Cool, but with a stern and worried undertone in it. “They have always been yours and yours alone.”

“Yamato-san is right.” Koushiro came in as he entered the room again, laptop in hand. In his other he carried a few goggle prototypes.

“Then why do you have so many of them?” Taichi asked curiously, a hint of dismay seeping through his tone.

“Because you deserve the best, Taichi-san, and that means creating goggles after goggles to get them just right.”

Yamato smiled and nodded as he sat more upright, before continuing Koushiro’s trail of words, seamlessly connecting to the redhead’s thoughts. “And I could never offer the right sight to look through them. You can though, you always keep your eyes open, even when you don’t see it yourself. Besides, they weigh heavy on me. It’s a burden I was never destined to carry.”

Taichi lifted his hand with the goggles in it, trying to feel the weight. Of course he was aware of the metaphor in Yamato’s words, but even metaphorically speaking, he couldn’t find weight. They could be a burden, however, holding them like this he knew it was a leader’s burden he was privileged to bear. One that had made him move, see and grow. Grow up.  

He pondered. Whether the goggles were a privilege to his son was a question he wasn’t yet able to answer.

“Give me the most light ones, Koushiro. I need Souta to be a kid for as long as possible.”

…

[ri-ships-takari]

Fanfic mini-review: Across the universe

just found a fic where there exists a parallel universe where Hikari didnt make it the time she got really sick as a kid in Adventure 48 and it is so good.

Since Hikari didn't exist in their Adventure continuum, they never found the eighth Chosen Child, and couldn’t defeat Vandemon/Myotismon the first time around. So Myotismon never left Tokyo, but did eventually harness the power of dark spores and dark towers, so darkness reigns over the real and digital world... and they have to borrow adventure universe Hikari, which causes all sorts of chaos in itself.

They call the Adventure continuity “Here”, and the Hikari-less continuity “There” and its so heartbreakingly believable how they setup the alternate “There” universe.

“There” Taichi and the Yagami family never fully recover from losing “There” Hikari, with everyone feeling like he was responsible for it. Yamato somehow became the de facto leader in the group with a broken Taichi. Everyone grew up jaded by Gennai’s unfulfilled prophesies — sending them on a wild goose chase, sizing them up to save a world they could not — but maybe non so much as Takeru who even sounds like he wants to lose to the darkness, just to get it all over with and move on.

It’s so painful but real: Taichi without his drive and courage, Takeru without hope, and the whole universe without the light of the eighth Chosen Child.

Everyone including Tailmon. Not to spoil, but just imagine: if Tailmon never got to hope to meet her partner, what would have happened? Who would she have become?

It’s such a wild ride discovering the “There” universe, finally but warily rediscovering the slightest glimmer of hope of being able to even consider going against a Myotismon with such a powerful hold on both the real and digital world. It’s comforting on the other hand to watch the familiar “Here” continuum trying to figure out how to get Hikari back.

And there are reasonable hints of Takari in both universes. We have “Here” Takeru trying to get his best friend (or something more? I think even he isn’t sure) back, and “There” Takeru who is disillusioned and antisocial, somehow finally discovering a friend in the borrowed Hikari, who is also wary but somehow comfortable with him.

The pacing and development is also really smooth. Minor details like Takeru lending Hikari a jacket in the rain, for example, somehow eventually drive the plot in powerful ways that are so carefully built up.

The fic’s been in progress since 2014 but the author’s been updating it a bit more recently and I just had to plug this epic fic to debrief myself cause it is so good.

Here’s to hoping SunLight the author eventually gets to finishing the fic cause I just can’t wait to see where they’re going with it.

[digitalworldbound]

day one: sibling shenanigans

this is a day late bc yesterday was my birthday. ive tried to edit this, but it's like pulling teeth oof. anyways, excited for takari week!

The Yagami’s air conditioner did little to fend off the sweltering August heat. Despite staying inside, Hikari felt like she was melting. Yamato and Takeru fared no better. Their father’s central air had erupted in a cloud of smoke in the night, the boys waking up sticky, sweaty, and flushed. They arrived at the Yagami’s thirty minutes later under the guise of a video game tournament, but Taichi laughed when he caught the pair arguing over who got to sit closer to the fan.

Hikari stretched herself across their worn couch, feet barely poking over the arm. Leftover air from the fan whispered over her flushed cheeks. Taichi, Takeru, and Yamato crammed themselves in front of her. It was obvious that their legs had gotten longer when the three of them had to fight for dominance underneath the coffee table.

Some snacks were spread out on the table, but the heat subdued even Taichi’s stomach. “Yamato, you miss more shots than a damn Stormtrooper. Takeru was wide open! He would have been an easy kill!” A mop of brown hair playfully shoved the boy beside him.

“If I wanted to support some talentless douchebags, I would have bought a Nickelback album.” Yamato smacked the nape of Taichi’s neck. “And besides,” Yamato paused, “If he was such an easy kill, then why weren’t you able to snipe him first?”

Hikari snickered, shoving a socked foot in her brother’s face. His cries of indignation were no match for Takeru’s and Yamato’s arms as the held him down to let Hikari continue her assault. “Onii-chan, only winnersget to trash talk.”

“You boys are terrible, turning my innocent sister against me.” He huffed. It took a moment to shove the brothers off, their sweaty skin clingy together. Takeru laughed before grabbing his controller. He cocked an eyebrow in challenge, “Best two out of three, eh, Taichi?”

The boy in question only rolled his eyes, shifting to he could stand. Takeru raked his fingers through his damp hair, “Unless our brave leader is scared.”

“It’s not that I’m scared, I just…have to use the bathroom is all.” Even Hikari could see through his flimsy excuse.

“Wow, I can’t believe my brother is a chicken.”

He smacked her forehead on his way out of the room, skillfully ignoring the way she stuck her tongue out in his direction.

Yamato rolled his eyes. Pushing his hands together, Takeru gagged at the sound of his brother’s knuckles popping. The older boy merely laughed, twisting his back to enhance Takeru’s unease. “Well, we might as well as take a break. It’s hard to play with just two people.”

Hikari’s head perked up. “I can play with you guys.”

Takeru and Yamato shared a look before their laughter spurred Hikari out of her state of relaxation. “Hey!” her indignation made the boys laugh even harder, nearly rolling over each other. She crossed her arms over her chests, poking the boys with her toe. “If you just want to twiddle your thumbs for the twenty minutes that Onii-chan will be in the bathroom, then be my guest.”

“Hikari, don’t be like that. I just don’t want to hurt your feelings when I win.” When he wasn’t fighting with her brother, Yamato was easily one of the more brazen Chosen. If the mood struck him right, he could even wind Koushiro up with his teasing.

She cocked an eyebrow, picking up her brother’s discarded controller. Takeru said nothing, but readied his player for battle. He had learned that of the two, Hikari was the more stubborn Yagami. There would be no changing her mind once it was made up. Scooting over, Yamato made room for Hikari between himself and his brother.

The round started; the brothers teamed up without a word. Within minutes, her avatar laid lifeless on the battlefield. Perfect.

“He told you so,” Takeru muttered underneath his breath. Hikari was unperturbed. “Can we try again? I just had to get a hang of the controls.”

With a poorly stifled laugh, Yamato busied himself with a bottle of water. He nudged Takeru under the table, shooting him a look Hikari had no trouble deciphering: It’s cute that she thinks she has chance.

“Why don’t we make it interesting with a little bet? Everyone bets a thousand yen, winner takes all.” She did her best to seem nonchalant, widening her eyes to lure them into a false sense of innocence. Like any good fish, they took the bait, hook, line, and sinker.

A wallet was pried from a pair of shorts, crumpled bills mingling with spilled popcorn. The brothers wore matching grins of victory. If only they weren’t so foolish.

Her sly smirk dissipated into feigned surprise as she deftly maneuvered around the battlefield, ignoring the way their jaws unhinged at her victory. Yamato grumbled as a wad of cash disappeared into Hikari’s pocket. She ignored his squinted eyes.

“Beginner’s luck,” she said.

“Bullshit. Double or nothing.” Takeru didn’t even glance in her direction. Jaw set, the next round started before Hikari could grab on to her controller. Playing dirty had never been his style, but she had a sinking suspicion that he had her figured out.

She didn’t have long until the boys figured out her ruse, so Hikari worked quickly. Navigating the battlefield with a suspiciously practiced ease, she discerned the boy’s hiding places. Though they had teamed up, they were no match for Hikari’s digital prowess.

It only took her five minutes to wipe them out. “Hmm, that wasn’t my personal best, but it’ll do.”

With a curse, Yamato slung his controller on the coffee table. “Of course you would kick ass in video games. What can’t you do, Hikari? Please, tell me, so that I might actually have a chance at being better than you at something.”

Takeru rolled his eyes as Hikari shrugged in nonchalance. It was as if tricking men had become merely a pastime as if it had become a form of passive income. And Takeru supposed it was as numbers were whispered under her breath as she counted out her winnings.

She glanced up briefly, raising an eyebrow at the brothers’ sullen expressions. “Aw, c’mon, don’t be that way. Practice makes perfect, remember?” Her grin was downright devious. With a leap, she pealed herself away from the floor.

Taichi emerged from the bathroom as his sister toed on her shoes in the doorway. “Where do you think you’re going?” He could see the money crumpled in her hand, the sagging shoulders of unwilling victims.

“Icecream! My treat.” With a wink, she was off.

[fizzingwizard]

I could cry y’all. Episode 37 was SO GOOD. So good!! It truly felt like a Mimi episode, and it truly felt like Digimon Adventure, in multiple ways. It’s seriously fantastic!

I feel at once super duper relieved that this show is, really and truly, capable of this time of episode, and also super duper confused why, if it could do this, it hasn’t been doing it the whole time??

Anyway, we’ve now had four or five solid episodes in a row, so I’m letting myself feel hopeful again!

This episode is called “Mimi Wars,” but I feel it might be more aptly titled “Sailor Mimi”

In the name of employee rights, I will punish you!

More below!

Okay... so as I was watching this episode, I really got the feeling that they were parodying something again. Like last we had a Mimi episode - far far away in the distant past though it was - when they very obviously parodied Castle in the Sky. That’s twice now Mimi’s been compared with a girl with twin tails, Usagi’s pigtails and Sheeta’s braids xD

Although the poses Mimi uses aren’t exact replicas of Usagi’s, though, so maybe I’m wrong. I got the Usagi vibe from her personality even more, so maybe using the poses would have been considered copyright infringement and so they had to change them a little. Or, maybe Mimi is parodying someone else who also uses dramatic hand movements and talks a lot about justice in spite of being generally clueless...

See the resemblance? XD

But what I REALLY think is going on is, they’re spoofing the genre in general, while also taking it seriously. That’s important. It’s not just a joke here. This is the girl power episode, in a way, and in my opinion, it’s a better girl power episode than the fare I got used to growing up, which went more or less like this:

Guy: *does something with good intentions but inept*

Girl: Ugh! Men don’t respect women!

Guy: I’m sorry, what did I do wrong?

Girl: I won’t tell you because feminism! C’mon girlfriends, let’s assert our confidence as women by going on a girls night out shopping spree and making a bunch of random guys stare in awe at us for no clear reason!

Girls: Yes! This is third wave feminism!

... that was more or less the formula. It was... awkward. I’d like to blame on “those episodes were written by men who think all feminists are angry feminists,” but I think if I went and checked who the scriptwriters were, there’d be some women in there for sure.

What we got in THIS episode is something I’d actually want my daughter to see. First off you’ve got Mimi, who loves pink and pretty things and comes across as a real girly girl, not to mention a bit of a ditz. And the show’s straight up, “but just because you have flaws doesn’t mean you can’t grow into a great person. Also, being girly is not incompatible with being a boss.”

Mimi doesn’t need to be a man, nor does she need to be a hard ass, nor does she need to be especially kind and sweet to soften her orders. All she has to do, according to this episode, is care about her craft, care about quality, and care about worker conditions.

I mean... a show where the girl boss wasn’t a Russian spy in a former life?? A show where the girl boss isn’t a Stepford wife who got where she is by marrying rich and funding her perfume company that way? She’s... she’s Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. She gets to be flawed and girly and fun-loving and bossy and ditzy all at the same time. She loves diamonds - but diamonds are no longer a “girl’s best friend.” Rather, Mimi herself is the diamond in the rough!

This actually makes her a really good set with Sora. Sora continues to be both a tomboy and very sisterly. Mimi’s very girly but very bossy. Between the two of them, they can conquer the world. Of course, I don’t know that the show would take it any farther than they already have, but I’m just happy to see this development for Mimi at all. We had it to a degree in 99 Adventure, and Kizuna took it a bit further by making her an entrepreneur. Reboot Mimi is a remix of that for the 21st century.

*deeeeeeeeeep breath*

so... back to our regularly scheduled programming!

As awesome as Mimi is, she’s not the only one who’s great in this episode. The others get to let their real personalities shine, at least. We needed this episode sooooo bad like 20 episodes ago... le sigh.

Anyway, we start off having mad camp, for some reason (why aren’t they just staying on Komondomon?? whatev)

Food! They’re going to get food! They’re splitting up and making a plan in order to get food!!! I still miss the “food desperation” of 99 Adventure but hey, at least they’re acknowledging that they need to eat.

Sora advises Hikari and Takeru not to go too far on their quest and Tailmon swears like a knight of the round table to protect Hikari with her life.

Taichi: Oookay... note to self: don’t piss off little sister’s hotheaded partner...

Taichi adds that they’re also counting on Patamon, who is just thrilled to go off and play with Takeru.

Tailmon: *BIG SIGH*

Lol I really love that they’re bringing back the old Patamon/Tailmon dynamic where she’s all grown up serious and he’s got the priorities of a toddler most of the time... It’s Black Widow and Hawkeye bahahahaha

We even get to see them COLLECT FOOD what did I do to deserve this they are COLLECTING FOOD IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN I REPEAT IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN

Taichi even has to warn Agumon not to eat the food becaues they’re supposed to be gathering it to share ;___; omg... we actually get on screen proof that Agumon is a glutton??

Then Taichi tries to “help” by shaking the tree and the tree falls and they -

BAHAHAHAHAHA

humor!!! Poking fun at Taichi even!! Over food!! Because he has a klutz for a partner!!! And because he himself was overzealous!! ;_; I could die of Cute.

Sora absolutely shocks me this episode too. I expected she’d just watch Taichi and Agumon drift away with their folly while sighing and shrugging her shoulders or something.

NOPE

She jumps DIRECTLY UP and into the water without a moment’s hesitation, like they’re going to die without her - I don’t even know what her plan is here, she seems to want Piyomon to evolve and pull them out, but why does that mean Sora has to be in the water too?

I think her sisterly instincts just freaked out on seeing Taichi looking wet and confused and clinging to a tree trunk so she just did the first thing she could think of which was “Get to him!!”

Piyomon then fails to evolve, reason unclear, I suppose she’s hungry... they never do eat though so I’m not sure why she can evolve later xD (probably they eat off screen)

But I mean I just love that we got this bit with Sora. I call it freaking out but she doesn’t seem freaked out - she stays calm and seems decisive and takes action - all good things. It’s just hard to understand her thought process xD But it’s all good info about Sora. (again stuff we needed more of AGES ago)

Now I had thought this was all just a funny bit that was separate to the main story, but this is how Taichi and Sora end up washed up in the rocky area Mimi is. This does mean Koushirou, Takeru, and Hikari aren’t much in the rest of the episode, sadly. Not sure why but the reboot does seem to struggle with writing episodes for the whole group.

Like last week, I’m somewhat miffed that, in the end, the main group finds the stragglers instead of the other way around. It’s even worse this time because at least last episode Koushirou told them where he was and they had a reason to go there. This time they have no idea Mimi’s gonna be there and it’s all a big coincidence. On the other hand... I do think Mimi was born under a lucky star, so that explains it. :P

Taichi and Sora suddenly find them selves trapped Gulliver’s Travels style and they’re both immediately like, “Hmm... something about this situation seems very familiar...”

Taichi and Sora: Oh that’s RIGHT we totally forgot that the pink cowgirl we hand out with is also TOTALLY BATSHIT

D’awww. Our future overlord is just so adorable, I don’t even mind when she flogs us in the street

TBH, up till now they’ve woefully underestimated just how batshit she is. And it’s wonderful.

So Mimi has happened upon some poor, disenfranchised Digimon who are being forced to work for an evil boss who collects the beautiful gems that grow in this area. Like in 99 Adventure, Mimi will have none of this sort of crap. Her reasons, though, have evolved with the times:

omg... she voted for Bernie Sanders!

This is how Harry and Ron reacted when Hermione said she was starting a house-elf welfare organization called SPEW.

Though I joke - like I said before, even though Taichi and Sora are rather mind-boggled by Mimi’s mood swings and fits of passion, and there’s definitely humor there, Mimi herself is not a joke here. We are shown strongly that, however in the clouds her head might be, her heart is not only in the place, it’s also already internalized the fact that people don’t always get treated well in the real world and it’s up to those with power to ensure that are protected.

I mean. At this point, I’m going, “Sorry but ISN’T MIMI THE REAL LEADER IN THIS SHOW?!?!”

Of course she does have another, less lofty motivation... she really likes pretty stones.

Buhahahaha.

Mimi’s names are as creative as they are incredible, just like her. Taichi and Sora have trouble keying in with Mimi due to how changeable she is, but they never talk badly about her or reject her. They never try to wrest leadership from her either! Taichi might think Mimi’s names for the stones are over the top, but sort of sidesteps it and just goes along with her plan.

Reason #14567876867867 why I love Yagami Taichi: when someone else is the leader, he can be a follower. And he’ll be the BEST follower. Keep reading to see why.

The story of how Mimi befriended the enslaved rock Digimon here is pretty much how Goku became besties with Vegeta.

Men communicate their hearts through their fists! Or swords, depending on the anime. ANOTHER AWESOME SUBVERSIVE MOMENT FOR MIMI - she’s now even got cliche shonen hero tropes assigned to her!

Taichi and Sora, like I said, don’t try to change Mimi’s mind - they’re actually touched by her strong feelings about workers’ rights and her desire to help her new friends -

Taichi: Wait... what?

Sora: Well, she’s still a ten year old girl.

The rock Digimon show their allegiance to Princess CEO Mimi. They don’t even mind having their names and identities stripped away and being reduced to numbers on an Excel spreadsheet...

Taichi: I hate Excel.

Sora: I do too, but I’m more impressed that she remembers the numbers she gave us back in episode 6.

Taichi: Impressed? More like filled with a sense of impending doom

Only Taichi seems to understand Mimi’s unique power bahahaha.

But back to what I said earlier, about Mimi being the real leader: I don’t know if the show’s gonna keep doing anything with this at all, but I really like that they didn’t NOT do this in order to ensure Taichi’s the only leader. (I mean, Yamato’s so far not made much of a bid for leadership so he’s been pretty uncontested thus far. He also hasn’t had to do all that much leading given how often the group is separated... but I digress)

I love the idea that Taichi can step back and let someone else take the reins when they’re best suited. Which Mimi is, due to her easy ability to make friends and gain trust. Mimi had this ability in 99 as well and it was used in the final battle to muster the troops, so to speak. It ought to have been a bigger deal but wasn’t since she missed most of the final battle :/ But I loved that “social, able to make friends” wasn’t some stupid “Girls talk too much” trait, it was actually something that was useful. This is a great place to take that with the reboot.

At the same time, while Mimi and Taichi both have similar leadership traits, there are places they diverge that potentially make them leaders for different situations. Taichi’s pretty cool and strategic even in emergencies. He was more of a hothead in 99, but Mimi’s always been quick to anger. (And quick to cool down.) As we’ll see in this episode, that’s sort of where Taichi’s true ability lies: he’s serious, determined, strategic, and reliable as well as brave. But this is Mimi’s episode, and Taichi isn’t going to get to be the hero anymore than he (almost) was last week with Koushirou. Because more than one character can have positive leadership traits! Hallelujah.

Quick nip over to Komondomon and the others - Koushirou’s group is going to try to find them, but Komondomon falls asleep. Oh noes. I wish someone (Koushirou) would ask, out loud, “Gee, what are these strange symbols that appear when we communicate via digivice? Do they mean something? How were they assigned?” I really thought we’d get a hint what with all the conveniently colorful gemstones this episode, but still nope.

My girl looking like a BAMF!

Mimi explains her plan to her servants employees. She is surprisingly artistic!

Sora plays the role of bait to create a diversion while Greymon digs a tunnel to get to where the gems are stored. Mimi congratulates herself on a job well done.

Taichi: A job well done? Who d’you think has been doing the work here?

Greymon: That would be me.

Taichi: Right, right I was going to say you >.>;

So we do see bits of Mimi’s self-centered side as well - she’s not perfect, but who is? Taichi just lives with it. Mwehehehe.

... will be fired! LMAO

No. 72 is Taichi, btw. Mimi gave up calling people by their names for Lent.

Taichi: Lent’s not for over a month.

Mimi: It’s never too early for religious sacrifice.

Taichi: And you’re not Catholic.

Mimi: I celebrate Mardi Gras.

Taichi: yOU JUST LIKE THE COSTUMES AND KING CAKE

He’s miffed and he.... just lives with it. Again. xD

It’s hilarious. And adorable. I love both that 1) Mimi is an awesome boss while being, in fact, rather bossy, and that 2) in spite of being a boss type himself, Taichi not only listens to Mimi, but he totally indulges her like he’s her older brother or something x’D He wouldn’t be out of line for saying “I have a name you know!” On the other hand, I guess he knows her well enough to understand that she doesn’t mean anything by it, and... there’s no stopping her when she gets like this :P

Feel the wrath of Tachikawa Mimi!!!

So Mimi’s plan has worked so far, and she’s got everyone listening to her despite her questionable business practices, and then she... suddenly rushes off in another direction.

Taichi: That’s it, I am through being her personal assistant if she’s just going to change the plan on a whim!

Taichi: ... I don’t want to see her get hurt or be sad though...

Greymon understands Taichi’s heart ;___; and enables him to go after Mimi. I don’t really get why it’s wise to split up given that Taichi can’t fight big rock Digimon without his partner... x’D So I’m going to chalk this up to, Greymon understands that Taichi is, at his core, the team Dad. He’s got to be allowed to worry and check up on the kids, even when it’s not so advisable. Awwwwwwwww.

Indeed, Taichi doesn’t get to be the hero this ep, but small moments like this give us waaaay more character development than always being the hero!

Fortunately Mimi does have her own partner and she’s not afraid of the enemy’s rock hard abs. :P

They make it into the storage center for all the gems. IT’S SO COLORFUL. Ten year old men is squeeing just like Mimi.

Come on!! She’s holding yellow/orange topaz and purple amethyst! It could be the material for Taichi or Takeru’s and Koushirou’s crests! (I always liked fire opal for Taichi though xD)

Taichi’s been promomted!! To chief pack animal x’D Just because it’s a cool name doesn’t mean that’s what the job is, Meems.

Taichi’s just like, “I think I’m too young for that position.” Bahahaha.

He’s going to be carrying her books to school before long.

Then something big and hard hits Taichi in the head!! He freaking starts to cry, it hurts so bad!!

Taichi: Owww! Omg I think I got a concussion from that! Help someone call an ambulance!

He was hit in the head by a diamond, which Mimi loves. So she goes off on a monologue about how much she likes diamonds. She never asks him if he’s okay x’D

Taichi: Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, not that you asked or anything.

Mimi: Please, everyone knows your head is already harder than diamonds.

Taichi: ...

The pile of gems looks like Fruity Pebbles. Mmmmm

It turns out the mastermind of this whole operation is Gogmamon, who is the bastard child of Gogmagog I assume :P He eats the gemstones as well as Gotsumon for power. He then produces the diamonds?? I didn’t quite understand if he was spitting out the diamonds because he didn’t like them, or he was creating them inside him when eating and then spitting them out like... diamond turds...

...

they’re diamond turds aren’t they >__>

Mimi is not interested in big business bulldozing the mom and pop shops and small upstarts. And she hates sweatshops! She is pro-Fair Trade all the way! And she will yell it in your face!

Taichi: It’s the yelling part that I’m having trouble with.

Mimi: A good speech from the boss is what keeps up employee morale!

Taichi: Yeah, that’s less true when the boss is about to be gobbled up herself...

Golemon and Togemon try to fight Gogmamon and this results in Golemon falling to pieces.

Taichi: Are you okay?

Golemon: My HEAD was knocked off, but sure I’m doing JUST FINE -____- little brat

Taichi stands protectively in front of Golemon’s head. Lol. He’s thinking of strategies... perhaps regretting rushing after Mimi and leaving his own partner behind...

Mimi joins him and Gogmamon finds her a formidable opponent in the war of words. Gogmamon argues that all the rocks, all the Digimon, everything here belongs to him and him alone! And Mimi brilliantly counters with:

“Fuck that! They belong to ME!”

x’D He just like... under his breath... “she admits that’s how she thinks of us...” hahahaha... I laughed out loud...

It might not be 3D but this is an excellent evolution sequence xD I haven’t said so yet but the animation in this episode was good! Good for the show anyway. It was smoother than usual despite some mechanical-like mouth movements and more than that, it had character and expression!

okay important question everyone: Taichi = Kermit, Mimi = Miss Piggy... discuss??

So Gogmamon has a pretty cool-sounding attack, “Curse Reflection.” I have often complained that the villains we fight and get new evolutions with aren’t that scary, but Gogmamon not only seemed pretty formidable (if not the smart, I mean he does have rocks for a brain), he also had a good story build up. My one disappointment in this episode is that the ending is so fast and Gogmamon so easily dealt with. This would have been a good time to introduce Rosemon (like how last week would have been an appropriate time for HerculesKabuterimon). But in both cases, we’re definitely supposed to take away at least that these guys are almost there... Anyway yeah, I would have liked a tiny bit more meant to the resolution but.

So here’s ANOTHER cool thing! Taichi notices that Gogmamon rejects the diamonds, and realizes they’re the key to defeating him. But he doesn’t just tell that to Mimi. He asks her “Did you see that?” And guess what - she did!

So even though the show couldn’t resist telling us that yes, Taichi would have been able to handle this situation - it doesn’t even let him give Mimi a hint towards victory. She figures it out for herself! The most we can say he does is point out the diamond, but she understands the implication and is able to use it against Gogmamon through her own intellect.

TAICHI DOESN’T MANSPLAIN Y’ALL. HE’S NOT A MANSPLAINER. HALLELUJAH AND PAST THE PEAS!!

Mimi is very influenced by her hardworking, CEO grandpa, Tachikawa Genichiro, who’s taught her things about business and things about values, and it really reads as if she’s the one who will inherit the family business - like she’s the family investment. You know, the role that traditionally only falls to sons. That’s changed with the world, and apparently Tachikawa Genichiro-jiisan is totally on board with his granddaughter being more than just a pretty heiress!

... btw what are they making...

“You’re fired!” Mimi yells as Lillymon takes Gogmamon down x’D kill me I love it

Like last time (and it sure was a long time ago that we saw it ;_;), the aftereffects of Lillymon’s powers is plants start growing everywhere. This is such a cool effect, I don’t get why it’s not used more. Right now I feel like Mimi/Palmon are the best set in the show.

(I did think it was funny when Mimi gives the diamond to Lillymon to use against Gogmamon and Lillymon acts like Mimi’s making this huge sacrifice since she loves diamonds so much. But 1) it wasn’t the only one, and 2) they were spat out by Gogmamo! that’s gross! that’s got to cut into the value! hahah)

The others finally catch up and the day is saved. Golemon is an employee for life now. Awww.

AWWWWWW.

I gushed about all this before so I won’t repeat myself, but yeah, I’m so happy with this episode.

Lol Sora and Taichi have accepted their places in Mimi’s world, in the end. They might have numbers instead of names and their boss might change her mind about things every five seconds, but other than that it’s a pretty nice gig overall.

Again the art, so sweet. This reminded me of Miyako yelling to Mimi about how she wants to be like her when she grows up in 02 so I capped it.

And I absolutely love this little play on words since it’s in English! Wow!

SO CUTE. How did a Mimi episode kick every other episode out of the water? Scratch that, we always knew Mimi was fantastic. A shojo hero for the 21st century.

Well I said a ton and this is really long now so I’m gonna assume you all get my thoughts on this episode. 9.5/10, really awesome, totally unexpected but perfectly suted to Mimi. I’m so so happy this show seems to have figured things out and remebered that it’s supposed to be freaking Digimon Adventure, it seemed like it forgot for a while there. I just hope we haven’t wasted too much time on those more lackluster episodes, I want so many more stories like this one.

Next week looks like another winner:

OK, that concept is hilarious x’D I’m so sorry. But also, leave it to Yamato and Gabumon to get the tragedy episode.

The mood maker will be this guy! I’m totally psyched for Yamato and Jou. Taichi’s been important in the past two episodes even though they were centered on Koushirou and Mimi, so I wonder if/when he’ll be involved this time? Or maybe it really will be just Yamato and Jou - my dream combo?? I can’t wait either way.

DID NOT CHECK FOR TYPOS! See y’all next week.

[curedigiqueen]

So while I was working on my… analysis I suppose, on why Digimon Adventure: does not work as a show, it occurred to me that despite claims that Taichi in Adventure: is inspired by V-Tamer Taichi, his partner is an Agumon whose final evolution is Omegamon, and why that doesn’t work. But I realized that it is a point that I could expand on, and so I have separated it out here. Consider it a preview.

The protagonists of Digimon V-Tamer are Yagami Taichi and his partner Zero, a Veedramon. The story is carried by these two alone. While others help and hinder them on their way, their mission is theirs, and the responsibility of defeating Daemon belongs to no one else. It is with that power that they reach their highest form, UlforceVeedramon Future Mode While Taichi is the main protagonist, Zero is just as much a protagonist. Their names, even reference binary. While there are other characters who impact the plot, the role of protagonist belongs to these two. 

This is echoed in the themes of Digimon Adventure:, the digivice in the title supposedly representing the bonds between human and digimon. And, while I don’t think it particularly succeeds, I can see clear attempts to be made to make the digimon partners their own characters, equals to their human partners. 

But yet, Digimon Adventure: uses Omegamon as Taichi and Agumon’s final evolution. And that is a bit of a problem. Digimon Partners are not interchangeable. Well, okay, the species are a bit arbitrary, all things considered, (after all, Zero’s rookie form is also Agumon) but the problem is what UlforceVeedramon represents vs. Omegamon. 

In Digimon Adventure, Omegamon is not Taichi’s power alone. Not by a long shot. Taichi is not the solo human protagonist of Digimon Adventure. Even in the first film, before Hikari was even meant to play a key role in the series, she shared the series debut. Regardless, the burden of defeating Apocalymon is not his alone to bear. And Agumon’s evolutions reflect that. WarGreymon is reached through borrowing Hikari’s power. Omegamon is literally formed by WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon (who was formed by borrowing Takeru’s power), but in reality is born from the power of hundreds of people reaching out from across the world. And perhaps even Taichi’s crest of Courage is not something that belongs to him alone. As Yamato puts it, “It’s everyone's Friendship”. Though Taichi best embodies courage, the courage he wields is not his alone. Even tri. which I usually avoid using as an example, has Omegamon Merciful Mode, which very explicitly draws from the other children’s partners. Adventure’s Taichi’s not strong because he himself is powerful. Really compared to Hikari he seems rather unimpressive on his own. He’s strong because he is able to easily act as a receiver to others powers, a trait that is fitting for a leader. Because that’s what sets Adventure Taichi apart from his peers, he’s a leader.

Note, that I didn’t really bring up the partners in regards to the discussion of Adventure, not that they aren’t important, but that they aren’t a driving factor. Digimon partners are something vastly different in Digimon Adventure. They are reflections of the children’s inner selves. For straightforward characters, like Taichi, his partner Agumon is very much like him, and for characters like Sora, Piyomon seems very different. This isn’t to say that the digimon are simply their partners, Tailmon went through quite a bit on her own. But nevertheless, Tailmon is the way she is, because Hikari is the way she is. 

Digimon Partners and their evolutions are not things that are just assigned, and given. They are things that arise from the circumstances. Omegamon is there because the themes and circumstances make Omegamon the most appropriate "Ultra”. This is true both in and out of universe, who can forget SkullGreymon? SkullGreymon isn’t wrong. It’s just not the evolution that fits Taichi and Agumon’s situation.

And here’s the thing. Digimon has done the whole focus on “Bonds with Partner’s” before. That’s Tamers. And in Tamers, the final evolution was born from a human and a digimon literally coming together as one. The final episodes all appear somewhat humanoid as a result, particularly notable from WarGrowmon to Gallentmon. Because that was what evolutions were needed narratively and thematically. Otherwise, we have Megidramon. And guess what, the Adventure timeline also has a movie in which the focus is on the bonds between human and friendship, and lo and behold. In Digimon Adventure Kizuna, Agumon (Bond of Courage) and Gabumon (Bond of Friendship) were born. Born from the bond between human and digimon. They even use the “looking like humans” idea from Tamers.

Interestingly, Kizuna came right before Digimon Adventure: started. 

Now, I am really advocating for the Bond forms to be used in Adventure:, those forms were something special to that timeline. But that’s just the thing. Many evolutions, whether unique digimon or not, are brought about by circumstances unique to that timeline. Look at 02’s usage of Armor levels, Frontier's Hybrids, and Xros Wars' Xros mechanic. It’s not new for later seasons to take these Digimon that have existed in these specific circumstances and use them generically later. It would, after all, be a shame to put all those good designs to waste. But at the very least, the evolutions of the main cast are carefully chosen, created if need be, to fit the show.

And that creates a problem for Adventure: as a reboot. It is pulling from the evolutionary lines of its predecessor, despite aiming for different themes and using an entirely different world and characters, and in the process the meaning behind the evolutions has been stripped out. While it has been able to throw in additional evolutions, most of those are well within the confines of precedent: Armors and Ultimate’s that are already related to these evolutionary lines. Adventure: is trying to be a show that, as a reboot of Adventure, it cannot be. Adventure: spends so much of its time screaming that it is not the original Adventure, while simultaneously dragging in call backs that it loses any sense of identity.

The enemies they fight are not Taichi’s responsibility alone. These kids have to have crests. Agumon must evolve into Omegamon.  Angemon still has to die, HolyAngemon and Angemon have to mean something. Tailmon has to be Adult, and has to have been evil. Hikari and Takeru have to give their brother’s power. Omegamon still has to appear. . They still go to summer camp, and Taichi still fights Parrotmon. 

Note, that this is far from Adventure:’s only problem, however I do think it illustrates a large problem that affects the way certain elements and characters are used in this show. Taichi is a solo protagonist, but his “Ultra” is still Omegamon born of Yamato, Takeru and HIkari’s influence. Mimi is now a bossy rich girl, but her crest is still Purity. Yamato is a loner who doesn’t overly concern himself with others, but he’s still Friendship, and still Takeru’s semi-estranged younger brother. 

When Adventure: manages to work a new angle into the old mold, it works well. Yamato’s focus on his friendship with Gabumon works well, and various side characters work alright. Resolving the conflict over Tailmon’s Ultimates by using both for separate things and bringing in Goddramon is a great idea. But more often than not, it doesn’t. Properly contextualizing what a holy digimon is is great, but Angemon’s death is awkward, and Pegususmon’s presence smooths over the issues of Tailmon being champion and keeping Angemon special in an awkward way, refusing to address what an Armor is. Because they are trying to write a story around a set of evolutions they are required to have while absolutely refusing to be Adventure where it matters. Leading to the awkward mesh of Adventure elements and characters, with themes and stories that they were never meant for. 

If Adventure: was meant to be about the bond between Taichi and Agumon, Omegamon was never going to work, including the concepts of crests, was going to muddle things at the very least, and including 7 whole other partner pairs who are going to require at least a few episodes of focus a piece was not going to work out. It’s not that we couldn’t have had more focus on Taichi and Agumon within a reboot and their bond, or that the idea of Taichi and Agumon (or any other pair), activating an evolution because they are in agreement on a concept isn’t a good idea. Just an understanding that this primary focus wasn’t going to work because Adventure in its very concept has a lot of characters that need some degree of focus. Savers with its heavier Masaru focus and use of shonen tropes, dials back the number of “main” characters to half that of Adventure, because it is built around its premise. That unless they were going to be bumped down to secondary, recurring characters, this was never going to work, because that’s not how Adventure’s concept was intended. To tell a new story, it needed to have dropped a few more of Adventure’s elements. But to do that would be to essentially admit that this isn’t Adventure at all. Adventure: needed to have evaluated what story it could tell with what elements it was required to include.

Anything goes in Digimon, and Adventure: seems to want to make the most of this, using armors, Hybrids and Xros Wars digimon with regularity. But you can’t build a cohesive narrative simply by plucking your favorite ingredients and sticking it in a pot. Some things just don’t go together. You can’t take the ingredients to make bread and make a salad. But in short, V-Tamer Taichi and Adventure Taichi aren’t interchangeable. They are two different characters because they are designed for two different stories, and their partners reflect this. Adventure: was doomed from the start if it didn’t realize this. 

[ashxketchum]

Fairy Tail Parfum (Japanese perfume brand) announced a collab with Digimon Adventure, with the products releasing early at the Digimon 25th Anniversary Exhibition set to begin in 2 days.

Details about the products listed on the website:

Taichi Yagami: This perfume inspired by the protagonist of the work possesses fresh and invigorating fruity notes which easily bring to mind the image of an athletic, cheerful and active Taichi. The change from an aromatic fragrance to a fruity sweet fragrance gives us a sense of Taichi's bravery, and how with his positive attitude he acts as the leader for his friends.

Fragrance: Fresh Green Note. Scent image: Top notes: Pink Pepper, Bergamot, Mango, Lotus. Middle notes: Cardamom, Geranium, Soft Rush (Grass) Last notes: Amber, White Musk, Patchouli, Cedarwood.

Yamato Ishida: The uplifting fruity notes take inspiration from the cool demeanour of Yamato, who also has acts with a strong sense of responsibility, bringing forth his wild personality. The last note, which changes to a calm fragrance with a lingering fruity freshness, gives us a sense of Yamato's inner feelings, who despite of putting up the front of a lone wolf, feels strongly for people he considers friends, which makes him a suitable partner for Garurumon.

Fragrance: Fruity Floral. Scent image: Top notes: Apple, Narcissus, Lemon. Middle notes: Jasmine, Rose, Bamboo. Last notes: Amber, White Musk.

Koushiro Izumi: The fresh and invigorating fragrance brings forth the image of a curious, intelligent and practical Koushiro. The change to softer floral notes brings to mind his adeptness at solving mysteries and how reliably Koushiro uses his knowledge to stand as the chief advisor among the members of the group.

Fragrance: Floral Ambery. Scent image: Top notes: Pear, Coriander. Middle notes: Cabbage Rose, Linen, Pink Lily. Last notes: White musk, Amber, Sandalwood

Jou Kido: The natural citrus note inspires the image of Jou, who is self conscious about his role as the oldest member of the group. The fresh fragrance lasts and as it dries down the scent changes, resembling the growth of Jou through his adventures in the digital world.

Fragrance: Sheer Citrus. Scent image: Top notes: Bergamot, Neroli, Ginger. Middle notes: Ivy, Oakmoss. Last notes: Cardamom, Tea Leaves, Sandalwood.

Takeru Takaishi: At first the fresh and invigorating fragrance evokes the image of Takeru as the youngest member of the group, who through this journey embraces growing up by developing a strong will and building up a sense of self-reliance. After the fragrance settles down, it leaves a fresh and lasting scent changing into something which gives a glimpse of the strength of Takeru's character, who never gives up, no matter what the situation.

Fragrance: Fruity Floral Scent image: Top notes: Apple, Blackcurrant, Cherry Blossom, Peach. Middle notes: Peony, Freesia, Pomegranate, Ylang-Ylang. Last notes: Musk, Cedarwood.

Sora Takenouchi: The fresh and soft scent of the citrus notes is at first glance boyish, but under it's layers it is easy to visualise a gentle and mature Sora. The change in fragrance with the addition of sweetness to the floral notes brings to mind the image of Sora, who is good at paying close attention to other's feelings and acts like an elder sister to her friends.

Fragrance: Floral Fruity. Scent image: Top notes: Honeysuckle, Grapefruit, Mango. Middle notes: Jasmine, White Rose, Cabbage Rose. Last notes: Musk, Sandalwood.

Mimi Tachikawa: The strong and pleasant fruity notes bring forth the innocent side of Mimi, who expresses all her feelings be it joy, anger or sorrow with a sense of purity, but who is also kind at heart and cares deeply for her friends. The change to floral notes, which are pleasant yet strong at the core, aptly shows Mimi's kindness.

Fragrance: Floral Fruity. Scent image: Top notes: Honeysuckle, Passion Fruit. Middle notes: Wild Jasmine, Cabbage Rose. Last notes: Sandalwood, White Musk.

Hikari Yagami: Using Lemon and Lilac as it's base, the sweet and refreshing fragrance takes inspiration from the mysterious atmosphere surrounding Hikari and her kind-hearted yet fragile nature. The change from the sweet scent of fruit to a spreading fragrance represents the gentle feeling she possesses towards all Digimon and her friends.

Fragrance: Floral Musk. Scent image: Top notes: Lemon, Lilac. Middle Notes: Blossom, Green Tea, Peach, Peony. Last Notes: Cedarwood, Musk, Amber.

And now, time to choose!

[seventeenlovesthree]

Ever since I saw this lovely little post floating around, I felt the need to compile one of my favourite suffer plotpoints when it comes to Taichi’s character: His tendency to “shrivel” when he cannot get the band together. Or: Taichi Yagami’s love language is “quality time” and he suffers the most when he (unintentionally or intentionally) isolates himself from the others - and yet, he also has a tendency to fight the need to be with the others for their sake, displaying a sense of selflessness, even if it bothers him.

Let’s break this down, shall we:

Episode 21 is the third time* we see Taichi struggle with his sense of “want” vs. “need” in regards to his “responsibilities” for the whole group, which is also a big indication towards his role as leader of the group later on. (*Prior to this, his arc of understanding the difference between courage and recklessness as well as him overcoming his fears/cowardice to save Sora have been more about his general development, even if these moments help to understand his sense of leadership better. Up to this point, he had a tendency to rush forward head first without much consideration and got called out for that continuously by several other characters - but he had also already burdened himself with the idea of “being the only one with a crest”, so he HAD to be the first to fight and protect everyone there).

He’s happy to be back home, finally back in the real world and at first, that means that there is no need to fight anymore. But on the other hand, he knows that something is off - the others are still “on the other side” and his sense of duty is bugging him greatly. Taichi Yagami, as much as he’d like to, cannot consciously be selfish if he knows others are suffering because of it - and when the stakes are that high. When he receives Koushirou’s cryptic message, he panics first, then is visibly overcome by helplessness - but also weakly tries to justify why staying in the real world could be a good thing after all. Both Koromon and Hikari can tell that he’s pulling himself together, but he cannot get the others out of his head (indicated by his immediate instinct telling him that Yamato may have called him back once the telephone rings). He HAS to go back to the Digital World, he HAS to help the others, he could never leave them on their own devices.

And he’s right with that - because the others, even if they kept looking for him for more than two months, fell apart one by one, with one part of the group already having given up on Taichi, whereas the other part still believed in finding him; Sora was the first who left, still hoping to find Taichi, not believing that he could already have died. Koushirou was next, trying to find Gennai in order to get answers about their whereabouts (and, in my opinion, also because he had no reason to stay in the group, as Taichi and Sora had been the people he had been most attached to up to this point). Jyou and Mimi followed, leaving Yamato and Takeru by themselves. And when Taichi gets back, the group reunites bit by bit - as indicated by both Jyou and Yamato, even if Taichi himself denies that it was really HIS doing. However, this is the moment Taichi gets called the group’s “leader” for the first time - and even if he struggles with that title at first, it’s something he will fall back to for the rest of the season, if not the entire series. Feeling that sense of responsibility (and pressure) as well as learning to deal with the consequences.

And even if 02 already indicates that the kids are slowly but steadily growing up, comfortably learning to do “their own things”, Taichi is ALWAYS portrayed as the one (besides Koushirou) ditching real world obligations more easily to join and help the 02 group. However, it’s Tri where it becomes most apparent that the leader struggles when he has nobody left to “lead” anymore (which is quite an exaggeration in this case, but if you want to interpret it this way, it makes sense why Taichi appeared to be as gloomy as he did). 

Let’s look at the order of priority here: Taichi’s football match is coming up and, obviously, he’s keen to invite his friends to watch him play. It seems to be that he intends to ask Sora first, which would make sense, since she used to be his football club companion - just to witness Yamato doing the exact same thing, asking Sora to come to his concert, which takes place on the same day. And thus - Taichi hesitates and backs off. At this point, it is implied that Sora and Yamato actually aren’t dating (anymore/for the time being), yet Taichi is still hesitant to get in between them. 02 showed us that there are no animosities between these three in ANY capacity, quite the contrary, Taichi had always been supportive of his friends’ relationship. Which would also explain WHY he may feel like he shouldn’t get in the way right now; while it is not outright stated, we may interpret it as him trying to take a step back to give them time for themselves. Whatever may have happened before, they might need the time to reconcile. Taichi isn’t always able to find the right words, may be a bit too blunt or doesn’t appear empathetic due to his rashness - however, he IS observant of his friends.

Which is also shown by the fact that he doesn’t try to push Koushirou into coming to his match either once he hears that it takes place on the same day as his parents’ anniversary. He does seem a bit detached and disappointed, but tries his best to not let it show, roughly explaining that he cannot ask Jyou because of his exams, that he did want to ask Takeru and Hikari, but doesn’t expect them to come either. Koushirou voices his empathy towards them having a hard time spending time together anymore - and Taichi deflects immediately. You can tell by the fact that he averts his gaze here, pretending not to care too much, casually claiming that he “figured you might be free”. However, the fact that he cannot even look Koushirou in the eyes anymore really just shows that he is actually hurt.

... Which is also deducted by Hikari once she tells him that she doesn’t have time either. Once again, Taichi downplays it, but his grumpy tone and the way he looks away again are way too easy to read. Hikari is a highly empathetic person and she ALWAYS knows when something is wrong with Taichi - even or ESPECIALLY when he denies it. 

She’s uncomfortable with the situation, the viewer can tell that she’s THIS close to cancel her own plans in order to put Taichi at ease - but he keeps deflecting.  As Taichi has always been particularly protective of Hikari and probably still has to deal with the aftermath of how his good intentions may almost resulted in her dying as a kid. Thus, it’s not surprising that he is not intending to put that pressure on her here. And it can be argued that the same applied to Koushirou earlier - one could interpret his deflection as him not wanting to dwell on it for Koushirou’s sake, as he probably did not want him to feel guilty.

Shortly before his match starts, the urge to have the others around takes over one last time - Taichi’s just about to ride his bike, but sends a quick text to Sora regardless, asking if she goes to Yamato’s concert or not. She responds within not even 5 seconds, asking why he asks. So he just generally tells her about the time and place of his match - and starts to type “Come if you have time...”, but then, after a short moment of contemplation, decides to delete that last line again.

It is very easy to take that scene as symbol for his inner struggle of not wanting to be alone - yet also not wanting to be a bother to the others either. The fact that his fight with Yamato about whether or not they should fight and cause harm (to lives and environment as well as emotionally) in all iterations is dealing with the exact same thing on a higher scale - and is really telling: Taichi’s entire arc will always be about making (uncomfortable) decisions, whether it’s about killing a friend or in regards to choosing to become a diplomat/ambassador in the end. Which is indicated by the last screenshot from above, showing him talking to Yamato about their career choices, how difficult it is to see everyone else thrive, yet having to accept that everyone is drifting apart.

He had to learn to become more considerate, empathetic and less impulsive throughout Adventure - but once he did, he also learned how difficult it is to find a good balance in order not to hurt others. That’s why Stageplay!Taichi also mourns the loss of his younger self, thinking that he has regressed, because he cannot just move forward anymore. Which is also why we see him isolating himself throughout Tri, not really confiding in anyone, keeping away from the likes of Sora and Koushirou (the ones he wanted to ask about coming to his football match first), suffering from his dysfunctional bond to Yamato - and only choosing to talk about his emotions to Agumon and Meiko, who ALSO struggles with her sense of self and the idea of having to kill her own partner. Stageplay!Agumon tells him that he’s only struggling so much because he has realized that there are way more things he’d like to protect, but that he shouldn’t deal with all of that by himself. That’s what everyone in the stageplay is trying to tell him as well; whether it’s Sora telling him to stop pretending to be "tough”, Hikari telling him that he does not have to "play” a role when he doesn’t want to be or Koushirou telling him that he’s pushing himself and that he thought he could be honest with him.

That’s why everything always feels less disrupted, less dysfunctional when Taichi is on good terms with himself - and the others as well, as he is (mostly figuratively, but also kinda literally) what “keeps the band together”. Just because he is who he is, with all the charisma and his own sense of courage.

Kizuna shows us that he hasn’t really learned that lesson yet - he does know what’s going on in the lives of Jyou, Mimi, Koushirou, Hikari and Daisuke, but has no idea about Takeru and Sora and only meets with Yamato to really (superficially) mope about how hard adulting is. That also explains why he’s seen thriving when he gets to ditch real life responsibilities to fight alongside the others again - even if he chooses to close himself off from them emotionally (as indicated by Hikari stating that their mom tells him to come home more often), he can still shine as a leader to fight for the greater good. He has come to the conclusion that fighting IS in fact necessary - that’s already one step forward in comparison to Tri. But due to the fact that he could not make up his mind yet, rather playing the role of a stagnating adult, he starts to lose the bond to Agumon (at this point in time at least). He may use the fighting as escapism, but doesn’t see his partner as an active part of his life (unlike every other Chosen Child besides Yamato and Sora, who suffer the same fate). Furthermore - the fact that he’s denying himself emotional support time and time again fundamentally contradicts who he really is. 

He IS a people person - obviously he’s not the most extroverted extrovert, as he has always had his more contemplative, quiet moments, overthinking to find the right solution if he cannot trust in his guts (and courage!). But as much as the role of the leader was externally assigned to him once, he genuinely has that sense of responsibility - and likes the company of the people close to him, which is why he cannot (fully) grow without them. Stepping up is hard, you have to know when the right time is to take the lead and when to cut yourself some slack - and we see Taichi being on a good way by the end of Kizuna, having decided on his final thesis and taking a step closer to becoming Digital World Ambassador.

The 02 movie already implies that he has stepped up in that regard, doing PR work alongside Koushirou, which means that he has at least embraced that “you can get the kid out of the Digital World, but never the Digital World out of the kid - who is also learning to become an adult alongside that attitude”.

Hence my hope for the future is that we will actually see him thrive again, without isolating himself (or getting isolated) from his friends, fully embracing who he is and what he wants.

[dragonandtiger]

Dreaming To Reality: Oneiromancy Chapter Seventeen - 12

Daisuke blinked once, twice, then widened his eyes as he snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah! You’ve got the God Crest of Miracles, right? Guess that means you’re kinda like my supervisor or something.”

Ryo failed to hide the wince at the suggestion and held up his hands once more to ward off the notion. “No, no, no. I’m nothing like that. I’m no supervisor. Don’t worry. I’m not interested in leading anyone.”

“T-that’s right!” Monodramon said as he clenched his claws into fists, his eyes taking a particularly dazzling shine. “L-Lord Ryo doesn’t need to order anyone around, because he’s naturally so inspiring!”

Ryo could only let out a small, awkward laugh, unable to meet Monodramon’s shining gaze. The little dragon’s admiration was too blinding to look at.

Daisuke dismissed the tense atmosphere with a wave of his hand. “Nah, man, don’t worry about that. We’ve already got a leader - Taichi Yagami. He’s an awesome guy, and really strong, and he doesn’t even have a God Crest.”

Ryo felt himself relax a little. “That’s good to hear.”

Monodramon frowned as he furrowed his brow. He definitely didn’t like the idea of Ryo being side-lined, especially for some guy with no God Crest. It seemed disrespectful, after everything the Chosen of Miracles had done for the Digital World. “B-But Lord Ryo is a born l-leader… a hero, even! It was only because of his g-g-g-guidance that we were able to fight against Zeed Millenniumon for so long! H-h-he’s done so much for us!”

Ryo let out a breath that failed to be a laugh. “H-hey, that’s… it’s kinda…”

“Sure, but that doesn’t mean Ryo’s gotta make himself keep being leader,” Daisuke said as he looked from Monodramon to Ryo. “I mean, you got all of us now, so if you wanna take a break for a while after all the crap you’ve been through.” Daisuke paused for a moment, his expression thoughtful as his eyes turned towards the sky. “Heck, I think Jou Senpai was the leader a while ago before he let Taichi do it instead. And if Taichi Senpai doesn’t want to do it anymore someday, someone else’ll do it.”

Daisuke flashed Ryo a beaming smile. “I mean, there’s a ton of us all together now, and we’re all heroes - all of us Chosen!” His smile grew a bit crooked as he started to feel a little concerned he was being too pushy. “Not to steal your spotlight or anything, but you’ve got us now, so you don’t need to take a huge load or anything. We’ll all help each other out. Isn’t that what our crests are for anyway?”

Ryo took a moment to mull over Daisuke’s words before he returned the grin with a soft smile of his own. “Yeah, I guess it is, isn’t it?”

[digitaldreams0801]

Digimon Adventure x Fire Emblem Three Houses AU

AKA the AU in which I plop the cast of Digimon Adventure in to Three Houses and watch what happens. Neat. 

First of all, shoutout to my pal Ashley who schemed this whole thing up with me one night when we got bored. She proceeded to watch the entirety of Tri. with me in under twenty-six hours, so she’s one of the real ones. 

Second of all, none of the parents are in this. Why? Three Houses relies on parental angst, and all of the Digimon parents are too good to be involved with shit like that (yes I know we don’t know Jou, Daisuke, or Miyako’s parents shh it still applies). The exception to this rule is Hiroki (Iori’s father). 

Third of all, I’m adding daggers to this AU. Why? Because I said so. 

With that said, let’s get into this. 

First House: Crimson Lizards

The first house of this universe replaces the Black Eagles. It covers the region on the southern area of the continent known as the Adrestian Empire. Its leading family is the Yagami line. 

Taichi Yagami - House Leader - Minor Crest of Seiros Taichi is an axe fighter with a Crest of Seiros. He’s the leader of the Crimson Leaders and the future ruler of the Empire. He’s confident and optimistic, easily earning the respect of those around him thanks to his natural charm. However, this hides a few dark secrets involving the Yagami line.  Taichi’s courage is unmatched, and he fights with a bold battle style to prove this. He relies on axes and gauntlets as his main weapons. He has an advantage in both as well as authority. Meanwhile, his skills with faith and reason magic are poor, and he’s not great when it comes to flying either. He has the potential to be good at armor as well when trained. Taichi is fast with high strength, able to obliterate most of his foes easily, though he suffers from poor magical resistance.  Taichi was one of many children born between the emperor and his many consorts. He had a variety of older and younger siblings, but he was the only one born with a Crest, prompting him to be named as heir to the house. One by one, the rest of his siblings disappeared, and none of them resurfaced saved for his younger half sister, Hikari. He has grown incredibly protective of her as a result. Taichi also grew up as a close companion of Sora, and the two are close friends even years later. 

Sora Takenouchi - Noble Student - Minor Crest of Cichol Sora is Taichi’s childhood friend and heir to House Takenouchi, a powerful house within the Empire. One day, she will grow up to become the prime minister of the Empire, but she is far from being a typical noble given her personality. She’s Taichi’s primary confidant as well since they grew up together. Sora is a mercenary, fighting with swords and gauntlets a good chunk of the time. She is also good with lances, and she has a budding talent in both faith magic and flying. However, Sora struggles when it comes to heavy armor or horseback riding, and she’s poor with daggers as well. She relies primarily on skill and speed when fighting, though her strength and defense are also strong. She’s well-rounded, but she fails to excel in a given area.  Sora grew up with the expectations of the world on her shoulders, and she grew to loathe the way others ignored her feelings in favor of their own opinions. Taichi was the main person to listen to her when they were growing up, and the two became mutually supportive of one another. Despite this, Sora could sense that Taichi was struggling with other things, prompting her to start bottling her emotions from a young age. She has become so numb to her own suffering that she believes herself to be incapable of love. 

Koushiro Izumi - Commoner Student - No Crest Koushiro is the adopted son of two merchants within Adrestia, and he is the only commoner student in the Black Eagles this year. He is known for being incredibly inquisitive and curious when it comes to Crests. Koushiro admires all of his classmates, wanting to become closer to them after years of struggling to reach out to others.  Koushiro’s class is wyvern rider, meaning he has strengths in lances, axes, and flying. He’s not as strong in dagger, gauntlet, or horseback riding, but he does have potential in archery. Koushiro is a tankier member of the group, maintaining strong defenses and incredible strength. He is on the slower side though, and he is far from being strong in magic.  Koushiro’s birth parents were Crest researchers who stumbled upon a few things they shouldn’t have shortly after his birth. As such, they were killed by unknown figures who would later be revealed to have ties to the church. Koushiro was taken in by a few distant relatives, too young to remember his birth parents. He remained curious on the subject of Crests like his parents were, and he still tries to find out more about them despite not knowing of his true heritage. 

Hikari Yagami - Noble Student - Major Crest of Fraldarius Hikari is the younger of the two surviving Yagami children, though she is not set to inherit the Empire like her brother. She is on the shy side, but she is still known for her empathy and kindness. Hikari lived a rather sheltered life, so she is simultaneously curious about and afraid of the world at large. She hates the dark greatly due to her past.  Hikari acts as the healer of the class, specializing in faith and reason magic. Her skills with a bow aren’t bad either. However, she is poor in the categories of heavy armor, axes, and gauntlets, leaving her as the opposite of her brother. Hikari’s weaker constitution contributes to her being stronger in the magical fields, and she’s highly lucky as well, but her defense from physical attacks is very low.  Hikari was born without a Crest as a child of the emperor and one of his consorts. As the years passed by, her siblings started to go missing, and Hikari was one victim of such. She was taken away from the palace where she was experimented on by Crest researchers involved with the Church of Seiros. Hikari was the only person to survive the horrors, and she wound up with a Major Crest of Fraldarius despite not being great with physical weapons. Only Taichi is aware of the truth behind what happened to her, as he was the only one she told after returning from the experimentation. Hikari tends to avoid using physical weapons most of the time, claiming instead that she doesn’t have a Crest unless she is forced to reveal the truth. 

Second House: Azure Wolves

The second house is known as the Azure Wolves, and it consists of students from the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. The ruling family of Faerghus is the Ishida line. 

Yamato Ishida - House Leader - Minor Crest of Blaiddyd Yamato is the somewhat stony and closed-off leader of the Azure Wolves. He isn’t a bad person in the slightest, instead being an incredible person to rely on when he gets to know someone, but he fears reaching out to others. Yamato is very defensive of his younger brother, Takeru, and such can drive him to extreme lengths at times.  Yamato’s class is soldier, meaning he is skilled with lances. He is strong with swords and authority as well, but he is far from being a mage, possessing poor skills in faith and reason magic. Yamato also suffers when it comes to flying, but he does show potential with daggers. He has high strength, speed, skill, and defense, but his luck and resistance are far from being the best.  Yamato’s life began with him living alongside his brother, Takeru, in the palace of Faerghus. This all came crashing down when his parents split in a bloody divide. His mother and Takeru moved away, and the two brothers didn’t see each other again for years. Yamato made friends with one of his guards, a young man named Kyukichi. Yamato found himself falling in love with Kyukichi, and the two became incredibly close over the years. However, Kyukichi was defeated in battle, leaving Yamato paranoid about reaching out to others in case they died as a result. Shortly after Kyukichi’s death, news reached the Ishida household of a tragedy in a nearby territory: Yamato’s mother had been assassinated, and Takeru was gravely injured in the attack. This was the first time the brothers saw each other after their family split, and Yamato was far from being happy. Yamato was dragged back to the palace without Takeru, but his concern for his brother only grew. The two were apart until they came to attend classes at the Officers Academy together a few months later. 

Mimi Tachikawa - Noble Student - Minor Crest of Daphnel Mimi is a kind, empathetic young woman with a strong distaste for violence. She is a firm pacifist even in the face of bloodshed, never wanting anyone around her to get hurt. She is prone to being overwhelmed by her emotions, causing occasional outbursts on her end, but she has good intentions. She is set to lead a noble family upon coming of age.  Mimi’s class is the pegasus knight. She is strong in lances, flying, and faith magic with a budding talent in reason magic. She isn’t anywhere near as strong where axes, horseback riding, or armor are concerned though. Her fighting style is reliant on skill and speed in particular, but she is otherwise rather well-rounded.  Mimi grew up in a life of danger, always fearing what could lurk around the corner. She knew that she was set to inherit a noble house, and the dangers of such became apparent to her from a young age. Many guards of her family’s estate were forced to sacrifice their lives for Mimi, and in some cases, she witnessed their demises. She grew to detest violence, wishing that she could give up her status if it would stop people from giving up their lives for her. She only fights because she knows that there is no other option. Unlike how Sora grew up as friends with Taichi, Mimi and Yamato were separated throughout their early lives since neither wished to reach out. 

Jou Kido - Commoner Student - No Crest Jou acts as the somewhat anxious over thinker of the Azure Wolves, always trying to think seven steps ahead. He can get panicky at times, allowing his fear to control him, and he is far from being a social butterfly. Jou still attempts to take responsibility as the oldest member of the house despite this. He comes from a family of merchants.  Jou is an archer. He has strengths in bows, faith magic, and daggers. He lacks prowess in heavy armor, flying, and authority, though he does have potential in lances. Jou is a bit of a glass cannon, relying on high critical chances and speed rather than his defenses. In particular, he is vulnerable to attacks from enemy mages.  Jou’s family is known for being a prominent line of merchants in Faerghus, but since Jou has older siblings (Shin and Shuu) to take up the family business, his parents wanted him to become a knight. Jou didn’t want this path for himself in the slightest though, instead wanting to heal others. He kept this idea private though, not wanting to let anyone down if he diverged from the path set before him. Jou takes up faith magic in private, and he secretly brews medical potions, though not even his fellow classmates are aware of such. Mimi is the first one to find out, but he swears her to secrecy. 

Takeru Takaishi - Noble Student - Major Crest of Dominic Takeru is Yamato’s younger brother and a noble of Faerghus. He grew up apart from his brother, explaining the difference between them. Where Yamato is dark and quiet, Takeru is optimistic and hopeful, making friends easily. He’s a bit of a flirt as well, though he primarily uses his skills on Hikari, Daisuke, and Ken. Much like Sora though, he has a nasty habit of bottling his emotions.  Takeru is a mage, and he has strengths in faith magic, reason magic, and lances. He’s weaker in the departments of heavy armor, gauntlets, and axes. He has budding talents in both bows and daggers. He has high magic, skill, speed, and resistance, but his physical strength, defense, and luck are rather poor to contrast such.  Takeru, much like Yamato, was born to the king of Faerghus and a noble of a nearby house. Following a sudden divorce, Takeru went to live with his mother, who chose to use her maiden surname. He began to develop attachment issues, not wanting to lose anybody the way that he lost contact with his father and brother. These came to a head shortly after the death of Kyukichi when an assassin snuck into the Takaishi estate. Takeru witnessed the murder of his mother before being attacked himself. He received an awful wound to his stomach, leaving him struggling to get by for quite some time. Yamato visited briefly, and the two vowed to become close since they never had the chance to beforehand. Yamato was forced to return to Ishida lands, leaving Takeru alone to recover for the next few weeks. When the two met up at the Officers Academy a few months after the assassination, they were practically inseparable. Takeru’s unhealthy issues with losing people have remained though, and he would do anything to defend the newfound connections he has formed with both Yamato and the other ten students. 

Third House: Golden Dragons

The third and final house is the Golden Dragons. It consists of students from the Leicester Alliance. The Alliance itself is led by the Motomiya family, and the house’s leader is Daisuke. 

Daisuke Motomiya - House Leader - Minor Crest of Riegan Daisuke acts as the eternally loyal and upbeat house leader of the Golden Dragons. He is kind almost to a fault, believing everyone has good within them somewhere. He has a special way of drawing people out of their shells with his infectious nature. Daisuke greatly admires Taichi and Yamato from afar, though the former is the primary subject of his affection. Daisuke is a brawler, fighting primarily with gauntlets and axes. He is strong with authority as well, and he has a budding talent in sword usage. On the other hand, he is poor with lances, reason magic, and faith magic. Daisuke relies on high critical chances and his overwhelming natural strength, but his defenses are poor, especially where magic is concerned.  Daisuke is the younger of two siblings within the Motomiya household. His older sister, Jun, was not born with a Crest, meaning he was left as the heir to the family. Jun married another nobleman within the Alliance, so the two didn’t interact much and as such have a rather rocky relationship. Daisuke’s father was from Almyra, so both Daisuke and Jun are half Almyran. Daisuke has suffered under common misconceptions regarding Almyran people throughout his life, leading to him hiding his heritage. He doesn’t wish to be abandoned or left alone by those who he would otherwise be friends with, so he keeps the secret close to his chest always. 

Miyako Inoue - Commoner Student - No Crest Miyako is a passionate spirit from Leicester, one of the few commoners at the academy for the year. She is talkative and open, always loyal to herself above all else. She can get a bit carried away at times, not thinking before she speaks in her worst of moments. Miyako comes from a prominent merchant family within the Alliance, but much like Jou, she is not set to inherit much of anything.  Miyako’s class is the thief, leaving her strong with swords and daggers. However, she has a strength in reason magic as well, contributing to her ability to become a dancer further down the line. She isn’t the best in faith magic, horseback riding, or axes, but she does have potential to get better in faith. Miyako has high resistance, skill, and speed, but she suffers from poor defense and being squishy where HP is concerned.  Miyako is the youngest of four children within her family, and she has always been regarded as the black sheep of the group, never quite living up to the expectations of others. Since there was never enough inherent trust for her to decide her future on her own, she was pushed into becoming a knight for the Motomiya family against her will. Miyako hates that her future has already been determined for her and longs to take back a sense of agency. Some find her to be abrasive and blunt, but this is truly a defense mechanism she uses to keep people from controlling her. Luckily for her, Daisuke has no wishes to completely manipulate her, leaving Miyako feeling most open and home around the other Golden Dragons. 

Iori Hida - Commoner Student - No Crest Iori is the quiet, introverted son of a knight from Leicester. His father was a fighter for the Motomiya family, but following his death, the Hida family was left feeling somewhat empty. Iori is distant and perceives most situations to be black and white. He is rather stoic as well, keeping to himself unless he is otherwise called upon.  Iori is a cavalier with strengths in lances, swords, and horseback riding. He has a budding talent in axes, but he lacks aptitude in daggers, faith magic, and flying. Iori is well-rounded with an inclination towards skill and strength. He never misses his target and is known to critical hit rather often, but his luck is somewhat on the lacking side.  Iori’s father was once a renowned knight for Daisuke’s father, but he lost his life when defending the archduke of the Alliance. Grief came to be too much for the family, and Iori’s mother and grandfather moved far from the capital as a result. This string of events caused Iori to become somewhat distanced from his emotions for better or for worse. Daisuke’s family offered Iori a place at the Officers Academy as a way of paying back the Hida family for the sacrifice of Iori’s father, and he accepted it. He wishes to become a fighter for the sake of defending the weak. Iori can unfortunately be prone to polarized thinking, believing that all things are either good or bad with no middle ground. 

Ken Ichijouji - Noble Student - Major Crest of Gloucester Ken is the son of a prominent family within Leicester, and his line is second only to the Motomiya family as far as power is concerned. Ken is kind and caring, putting the wellbeing of all others above himself. He is endlessly empathetic, but he can tend to keep his feelings inside at times. Ken is shy and requires patience to get to know, but he is a great supportive voice when he gets close with others. Ken is a dark mage, possessing primarily dark magic spells rather than elemental ones. He’s talented with daggers, reason magic, and authority with a budding talent in faith. He struggles with horseback riding and heavy armor, and he’s not great with gauntlets either. Ken is a glass cannon with high offensive stats, but he can easily be defeated between his lack of evasion and low defenses.  Ken is in truth the younger of two children within the Ichijouji family. His older brother, Osamu, had a Minor Crest of Gloucester and was regarded as a genius by many. Ken felt neglected when compared to Osamu, and the only thing he really had over his brother was having a Major Crest. Osamu gained renown as a knight, but he was defeated in battle after an unfortunate accident. Ken blamed himself immediately, feeling that somehow his inferiority issues had manifested in Osamu’s fall. When his parents were overcome with grief, Ken began to mold himself to be more like Osamu as a way of becoming the person his parents truly longed for. They didn’t notice a difference in his behavior, instead applauding the shift. Ken began to feel insecure in his true nature since he thought it wasn’t enough to be thought of as worthy by his family and people, and until he went to the academy, he made attempts to shove his true personality aside on multiple occasions. 

Church of Seiros

The church is the primary religious institution of the continent, and it is led by an archbishop. There are teachers at the church as well, and they are meant to preside over each individual class. 

Homeostasis - Archbishop - Major Crest of Seiros Homeostasis is the archbishop of the church, and she is known for being a kind, benevolent figure cared for by all. Her sweet nature is beloved by everyone. In truth, she is a child of Sothis and partially a dragon as a result. Homeostasis has ruled over the continent from afar for generations and has gained a perfect reputation over the decades. She has changed in recent years, becoming far darker because of the influences of...

Yggdrasil - ??? - Major Crest of Seiros Yggdrasil was once the ruler of the continent through the church, but he was forcefully usurped by Homeostasis nearly a thousand years before the current year at the academy. He spent countless decades attempting to regain his footing before getting rid of Homeostasis entirely. Thanks to his special abilities, he was able to seamlessly place himself in Homeostasis’ position, changing his appearance to match hers. In truth, Yggdrasil is Homeostasis’ sibling and one of the children of the goddess, Sothis. Yggdrasil took over after the death of the goddess, but he was a corrupt ruler. Homeostasis took over after usurping him from power, leaving him alive as an act of mercy. Yggdrasil took this as a chance to scheme for the future when he would return, and that time has finally come. 

Gennai - Archbishop’s Assistant - Major Crest of Seiros Gennai is an artificial being who was created by Homeostasis to act as her assistant in keeping the peace. He shares her blood since she crafted him. Gennai has kept the truth of his heritage secret for countless years, and as far as any history books are aware, he simply appeared from nowhere one day and has been serving Homeostasis ever since. He has grown nervous around Homeostasis as of late though, recognizing that something is wrong but not realizing it is Yggdrasil. 

Daigo Nishijima - Crimson Lizards Teacher - Minor Crest of Indech Daigo is the teacher of the Crimson Leaders. He was once a noble of a house within the Empire, but he stepped down after seeing how corrupted the system of nobles had become over the years. He is relaxed and laid back, caring greatly for his students. In particular, he has a close relationship with Taichi, who comes to him for advice whenever he is feeling nervous or unsteady.  Daigo is an armored knight with strengths in axes, gauntlets, and heavy armor. He has a budding talent in authority while he struggles in flying, horseback riding, and faith magic. He isn’t too fast, but his strength, skill, and defense more than make up for such a weakness.  Daigo was raised to be a noble for most of his life, but all of that came crumbling down shortly after he graduated from the Officers Academy himself. He realized after entering the world of nobility how corrupt the system was and knew that he couldn’t contribute to such in good conscience. He stepped away from his post and became a teacher. Daigo has grown increasingly suspicious of Homeostasis (now replaced by Yggdrasil), knowing that something has changed within her. 

Maki Himekawa - Azure Wolves Teacher - Minor Crest of Lamine Maki is the Azure Wolves teacher who hails from Faerghus. She was born as the youngest of many children, and she was not given the chance to rule over her house. She went to the academy alongside Daigo and wound up following him in becoming a professor at the monastery. She is known for being blunt and somewhat harsh, but Maki does ultimately care for those around her in her own way. Maki is a myrmidon, known for her speed and skill. She has immense strength with swords and daggers along with authority. However, she is lacking in faith magic, axes, and heavy armor. Maki has potential in gauntlets. She is difficult to hit and often criticals between her high strength and evasion, but she suffers from poor defenses as well.  Maki was once Daigo’s classmate at the Officers Academy, but seeing the horrors of war firsthand caused her to grow dark and pragmatic. She wasn’t sure of what to do with her life, not wanting to fight but not having a noble title to take up either. In the end, she followed Daigo back to the monastery to become a teacher. She and Daigo have a positive relationship, though the true depths of how close they are remains unknown. 

Yukio Oikawa - Golden Dragons Teacher - No Crest Yukio acts as the teacher of the Golden Dragons. He is a longtime friend of the Hida family, having once acted as a knight alongside Hiroki. He comes off as rather kind and positive, but he hides a secret dark side. All others know Yukio as a rather bright individual looking to the future in the name of progress, unaware of how scarily accurate this is.  Yukio is a dark mage much like Ken, having benefits in reason magic, daggers, and bows while struggling in heavy armor, axes, and swords. He has potential to get better in swords. He deals heavy damage but is rather slow and at risk of dying if he takes too many hits, especially from physical weapons.  Yukio was close with Hiroki leading up to his death, as the two attended classes at the Officers Academy years before Maki and Daigo did the same. They became knights for the Motomiya line together, but Hiroki fell while doing his job. This started to push Yukio off the edge when he couldn’t move past his grief, and he became obsessed with the idea of resurrecting Hiroki somehow. Yukio turned to dark magic, and he was eventually noticed by Yggdrasil, who said that such was possible if Yukio joined forces with him. Out of desperation, Yukio followed him, unaware that Yggdrasil had lied in order to manipulate him. Yggdrasil promoted Yukio to professor of the Golden Dragons as soon as he managed to take the place of Homeostasis. 

Meiko Mochizuki - Monastery Assistant - Minor Crest of Cethleann Meiko is an assistant at the monastery who has taken shelter at Garreg Mach ever since a tragic incident left her an orphan. She is introverted and shy, hesitating to reach out to others due to her own awkwardness and paranoia. Meiko hates feeling alone despite her aversion to reaching out to others, leaving her a bit of an anxious wreck a strong majority of the time.  Meiko’s class is the dark knight. She has strengths with reason magic, faith magic, and horseback riding with budding talents in lances and swords. She is weaker in authority, heavy armor, and dagger usage. Meiko boasts high resistance, skill, and magic, but she can be rather slow and suffers from poor physical stats.  Meiko’s parents were killed in what seems to be a tragic accident at face value. In truth, they were killed by agents of Yggdrasil who were trying to get at her. Meiko was taken in by the church after the incident with Homeostasis treating her kindly. However, this was all a mask, as Yggdrasil had already replaced his sister as the archbishop. Meiko was essentially gaslit into staying at the monastery by Yggdrasil, who said that nobody would believe her if she spoke out. Gennai took particular interest in her, taking her under his wing unofficially. In truth, Yggdrasil was planning on using her for her skills with magic. She showed signs of being a prodigy from a young age, and Yggdrasil was planning on shifting such to fit his plans. However, Meiko wound up turning against Yggdrasil at the encouragement of Gennai when the moment of fate came. 

Other

Yggdrasil’s Crimes Yggdrasil was responsible for the deaths of Koushiro’s parents. They were getting too close to realizing the truth behind his plans, so he had them killed and covered it up as an accident. In that way, Koushiro is rather similar to Meiko. Yggdrasil was also the one who sent the assassin to kill Yamato and Takeru’s mother. The plan was also to kill Takeru along the way, but he never got the chance to do so when Takeru unexpectedly survived the attack. Security was too high in the months afterwards for him to make any further attempts.  He also had the Crest experimentation performed on the Yagami children aside from Taichi. He spared Taichi only since he already had a Crest. Hikari was never meant to be rescued, and she was instead planned to be yet another powerful soldier as Meiko was. Empire soldiers saved her before she could fall to such a fate though.  Osamu did not die in battle as was explained initially. Instead, Yggdrasil kidnapped him and reached out, intending to use Osamu for his own purposes. However, Osamu lashed out and attempted to escape, prompting Yukio to kill him. At the time, Yukio was already under Yggdrasil’s thumb and willing to do his bidding. The truth behind Osamu’s death was covered up immediately under the guise of an accident during combat. 

Kyukichi Kyukichi did not die as was once expected. In truth, he was born to a few firm followers of Yggdrasil, causing him to be raised under the idea that Yggdrasil had to rule the world. He was told to become Yamato’s friend to eventually stab him in the back, but Kyukichi was given orders to retreat before the full betrayal could play out, prompting his death to be faked as Yamato fell into despair. Kyukichi continued to work for Yggdrasil afterwards, though his faith began to waver after his next mission. He was told to infiltrate the Takaishi household as an assassin, meaning he was the one who killed Yamato and Takeru’s mother. After he nearly killed Takeru, he began to grow unsteady in his confidence, but he hid such for a while longer.  Kyukichi acts as a figure similar to the Flame Emperor, appearing somewhat often throughout the Academy Phase as an enemy before being unmasked shortly before the War Phase begins. He escapes only to return after time skip. 

Plot

Academy Phase

Throughout the Academy Phase, the students do things that walk the fine line between helpful and harmful to Yggdrasil, not doing any serious harm to either Homeostasis or Yggdrasil to not draw too much attention to Yggdrasil while not damaging his schemes. Kyukichi appears a few times as a masked figure who seems to be neither friend nor foe, but he does cause some serious harm later on when given instructions to finish his previous mission of killing Takeru. While he doesn’t succeed in killing Takeru, the boy is once again horribly hurt. Yamato finds him soon after, and Kyukichi is unmasked in the struggle. Yamato goes into shock as Kyukichi escapes and Hikari heals Takeru’s injuries. Taichi wonders how Kyukichi was able to invade the monastery, and Yukio reveals his betrayal as well. Soon after, Yggdrasil arrives and reveals his true plans to the group, prompting them to scatter and go into hiding. The three nations are told their heirs are dead shortly before Yggdrasil’s forces lead a widespread invasion of the continent. 

War Phase It isn’t until five years later that Daigo and Maki bring the students back together alongside Gennai and Meiko with plans of defeating Yggdrasil once and for all. The twelve students come together after spending years running from Yggdrasil’s forces and decide to help Homeostasis. In the end, they succeed, and Homeostasis is once again honored as the archbishop. Yggdrasil and Yukio are killed in battle, and Kyukichi is defeated at Yamato’s hands as well. Peace reigns over Fodlan at long last, and the lost heirs take over their thrones at long last. The rest of the students stand by them as well. Meiko and Gennai work with Homeostasis to properly reform the church with the former becoming the professor of the Golden Dragons in Yukio’s stead. 

Ending Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed this big old tangent from me! If you’d like more from this AU, feel free to say so, and I can try to whip up a solid plot structure for it in the future! Now, I’m going to sleep since it’s 4:30 AM. I hope you liked this mess of a rant!

[jippy-kandi]

Digimon Adventure 02 Blood Types (+ Astrology)

The Chosen Children (DigiDestined) in Digimon Adventure and 02 do not have official birthdays. However, Toei Animation officially gave Miyako the star sign Gemini and the blood type AB. But I’ve always focused on the astrology aspect of their source of inspiration -- and completely disregarded their blood types.

That was wrong of me. Their blood types are almost as important as their Western zodiac signs, no matter how ridiculous I think the idea is.

Taichi ‘Tai Kamiya’ Yagami: Aries Sun, Blood Type O

Hikari ‘Kari Kamiya’ Yagami: Taurus Sun, Blood Type A

Miyako ‘Yolei’ Inoue: Gemini Sun, Blood Type AB

Mimi Tachikawa: Cancer Sun, Blood Type B

Daisuke ‘Davis’ Motomiya: Leo Sun, Blood Type O

Jou ‘Joe’ Kido: Virgo Sun, Blood Type A

Ken Ichijouji: Libra Sun, Blood Type AB

Sora Takenouchi: Scorpio Sun, Blood Type O

Takeru ‘T.K.’ Takaishi: Sagittarius Sun, Blood Type B

Iori ‘Cody’ Hida: Capricorn Sun, Blood Type A

Koushirou ‘Izzy’ Izumi: Aquarius Sun, Blood Type AB

Yamato ‘Matt’ Ishida: Pisces Sun, Blood Type AB

Blood types are even more popular than astrology in Japan. And, more importantly, every single anime character with an official birthday is always listed with both their star sign and their blood type. Because it matters. The blood type is there to either offset or complement the Sun sign.

I’ve recently fallen into a bit of a Sailor Moon hole (nostalgia at its finest!), and noticed that the main character, Serena (Usagi), was officially a Cancer with blood type O.

So I actually decided to look up what blood type O meant -- and it gave Serena an outgoing, friendly disposition with leadership skills.

Ah. That’s cheating! XD;

So, yeah, it only took me 20 years to really acknowledge that Miyako was given an official blood type, and that it might actually mean something, lol.

Apparently, only around 30% of people in the US know their blood types, whereas at least 90% of people in Japan know their blood types.

Yeah. Blood types are a MASSIVE DEAL in Japan (and South Korea and Taiwan . . .). Even bigger than astrology, apparently.

I still find the whole thing utterly ridiculous, but I forced myself to read up on it because I’m interested in the “origins” of the Chosen Children (character trivia is interesting to me!). Because, as Sailor Moon showed me, their blood types should either complement or offset their Sun signs.

I’ve also never thought about the “impact” of their blood types because I’ve never had an issue with identifying a character’s Sun sign. Whether an anime character with a Sun sign was introverted or extroverted was never an issue to me because, well, if you’re really knowledgeable in astrology, it’s really easy to see “through” that and see the “core” of their character anyway.

Mimi being an extroverted Cancer, for example, was never a barrier to me -- because all Sun signs can be introverted or extroverted, especially in an anime series created by writers who can do whatever they want with their characters. It’s the “skeleton” of the character that lets you know exactly which Sun sign inspired them. So I’ve always just accepted, “oh, the writer wanted to create an extroverted Cancer”, for example.

I just didn’t know that the writers actually gave a reason for their characters’ extroversion or introversion -- via their blood types.

It’s been in front of me this whole time . . . but I just ignored Miyako’s blood type because I personally think the whole blood type thing is ridiculous. I still think it is, but it was wrong of me to ignore it -- and I think anyone who is actually interested in figuring out the origin of the characters would be wrong to keep ignoring their blood types, too. It goes hand-in-hand with astrology.

Fortunately, there are only four blood types, so reading up on it was pretty easy. But, as there are only four, it’s a lot more restrictive than astrology -- and a lot of traits are contradictory, especially when you give one character a blood type, as parts of it will fit and parts of it won’t.

(This blood type system is just as bad as the Hogwarts Houses. Honestly, I never understood its popularity -- it never made sense to me and is such a terrible system. Hermione is a Gryffindor because she’s brave? So . . . all Ravenclaws are cowardly intellectuals? And not one Slytherin stayed to fight in the final battle, so all Slytherins are pure evil? OK, I’ll stop. I’ve just been disappointed in JK Rowling recently.)

Here’s one summary of the four blood types (note: there are tonnes . . . so I recommend googling for some more to get a better idea!):

Type A -- “The Farmer” Best traits: Warmest, reserved, sensible, patient, responsible, perfectionists, wise, and cautious. Worst traits: Fastidious, over-earnest, obsessive, stubborn, the least temperate, inconsiderate, jealous, cold, angry.

Type B -- “The Hunter” Best traits: Passionate, active, creative, animal-loving, flexible, cheerful, friendly and optimistic, vocalizing personality Worst traits: Irresponsible, forgetful, selfish, lazy, impatient, unreliable and "going own way".

Type AB -- “The Humanist” Best traits: Creative, calm, rational, sociable, intelligent and adaptable. Worst traits: Critical, indecisive, unforgiving, aloof and not trustable

Type O -- “The Warrior” Best traits: Confident, self-determined, ambitious, strong-willed, intuitive, agreeable, competitive and athletic. Worst traits: Unpredictable, spiteful, self-centered, cold, aggressive, arrogant, envious and ruthless.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The Japanese population consists of approximately 40% blood type As, 30% Os, 20% Bs and 10% ABs. This is actually important because the As and Os are considered the more “popular” (”socially accepted”) blood types, whereas people really consider the minority, ABs, as “weird” . . .

The associated traits are also kind of all over the place, depending on which source you’re reading. And there are a lot of them . . . so it can get pretty confusing! But I found it a lot easier and simpler to break them down into groups of introverts and extroverts:

Type A: Introverted

Type B: Extroverted

Type AB: Introverted or Extroverted (AB is A + B combined, hence, AB!)

Type O: Extroverted

I also read some anecdotal descriptions from Japanese people or people who have lived in Japan -- and what their Japanese peers think of the blood types (so a “real world” impression of them). Because it gives me a better idea of the “general opinion” from actual people (therefore a reflection of “common knowledge”), which gives me more context and understanding than just reading a set of traits.

For example, guys with blood type B are considered playboys -- so a lot of women (who believe in this crazy blood type personality indicator) generally avoid dating them. Blood Type As are considered the “stereotypical” quiet Japanese personality, blood type Os are considered the best people in general to be around, and blood type ABs are considered “weird” and social outcasts.

I even read someone saying that they’ve never seen people in Japan being discriminated against due to their star sign, but that they have seen people being discriminated against due to their blood type (usually AB). Apparently ABs don’t “play well with others” to the extent that some Japanese companies avoid hiring them. Some Japanese politician even exploded angrily at work, subsequently resigned, and his apology was, “Sorry, I’m blood type AB” . . .

Yeah. Crazy. But it gives me a really good idea of what the blood types “mean” (no, I do not believe in blood types -- I’m just seeing what the “rules” about it says!).

Because I like to be thorough, I also wanted to see the blood types “in practice” -- with Sun signs, too. So I looked up the Sun signs and blood types of some official anime examples to give me a better idea and understanding of how anime creators/writers use and execute star signs and blood types together. I think these characters are popular enough that most people would be familiar with a few of them, too.

Sailor Moon: Cancer Sun, Blood Type O

Sailor Mercury: Virgo Sun, Blood Type A

Sailor Mars: Aries Sun, Blood Type AB

Sailor Jupiter: Sagittarius Sun, Blood Type O

Sailor Venus: Libra Sun, Blood Type B

Tuxedo Mask: Leo Sun, Blood Type A

One Piece’s Luffy: Taurus Sun, Blood Type B

One Piece’s Usopp: Aries Sun, Blood Type O

One Piece’s Nami: Cancer Sun, Blood Type A

One Piece’s Zoro: Scorpio Sun, Blood Type AB

One Piece’s Sanji: Pisces Sun, Blood Type O

Naruto’s Naruto: Libra Sun, Blood Type O

Naruto’s Sasuke: Leo Sun, Blood Type AB

Naruto’s Sakura: Aries Sun, Blood Type O

Gravitation’s Yuki: Pisces Sun, Blood Type AB

Gravitation’s Shuichi: Aries Sun, Blood Type AB

I definitely understand it a lot better now. But it’s clear that they do “cheat” and just take certain aspects of a blood type to go with a zodiac sign. For example, while Sanji is an outgoing, silly Pisces, he’s not the leader of the Straw Hats.

Also, most of the ABs are the typical “dark” characters with tragic pasts . . . so social outcast is spot on.

Now let’s finally get to the Digimon characters!

I want to be clear that I am not trying to “assign” blood types to the Digimon characters. This is about determining what the Digimon Adventure/02 staff actually used as a blueprint for the characters.

For example, if I were to “assign” a blood type to Yamato in Digimon Adventure tri., I would definitely give him blood type O (for leadership abilities -- while ignoring the outgoing aspect . . . I guess his Pisces Sun “dims” it!).

But I don’t think the original staff for Adventure/02 “used” that blood type for him. I really don’t see Adventure/02 Yamato as a capable leader (but I do in tri., where he is 1000% the better leader for most of the series, over tri. Taichi).

This is about the actual source of inspiration for Yamato’s character by the original Adventure/02 staff, and not the tri. staff (who I don’t think knew that the characters were based on signs/blood types), so tri. Yamato’s personality is irrelevant to this particular discussion.

Because Toei Animation gave Miyako both a star sign and blood type (as do the majority of anime writers for their characters), and it’s 100% clear they gave star signs to all the Chosen, then they gave all the characters blood types, too. Because star signs and blood types go hand-in-hand in Japanese anime.

Taichi ‘Tai Kamiya’ Yagami: Aries Sun, Blood Type O

I think they kept it super simple with Taichi, their main character and protagonist of the entire series. Aries Sun for leadership, blood type O for leadership as well. I don’t think his Aries Sun needed to be “offset” -- he’s an outgoing person and a “warrior”, and blood type O just complements that.

Hikari ‘Kari Kamiya’ Yagami: Taurus Sun, Blood Type A

I think blood type A for her because it just complements her Taurus Sun. Type A is really the Earth equivalent in astrology, and there’s nothing about Hikari that suggests to me that she’s more than Earth (well, except when she’s taken over . . . which I think has nothing to do with her).

Miyako ‘Yolei’ Inoue: Gemini Sun, Blood Type AB

Official. Note that the blood type here just complements her Sun sign as well. Blood type AB is actually considered the equivalent to Gemini in its duality . . . so the writers here just doubled down on her duality. She’s also the more extroverted version of an AB, where they can be both.

Mimi Tachikawa: Cancer Sun, Blood Type B

She needs an extroverted blood type to offset her introverted Cancer Sun, like Sailor Moon, who is a Cancer Sun with blood type O. So B or O for Mimi -- I lean more towards B, because Mimi doesn’t have leadership qualities. And I think of her outgoing, cheerful nature as more similar to that of Takeru, rather than Taichi.

Daisuke ‘Davis’ Motomiya: Leo Sun, Blood Type O

Like Taichi, I think they went super simple with him and just gave him the leadership blood type. There’s nothing about his personality that sways away from being a stereotypical Leo -- this includes the fact that quite a few anime makes the Leo the “mean” character. Daisuke is not that mean, but compared to the others, he’s definitely the most “obnoxious, jerk”-type amongst them. (Examples of mean Leos: Sasuke in Naruto, Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon.)

Jou ‘Joe’ Kido: Virgo Sun, Blood Type A

I just think all the Earth signs are blood type A, lol. It just complements their boring Earth sign . . . again, I am not insulting Earth signs, it’s just textbook astrology! (I swear. I’m a boring Earth sign . . . lol) Jou is such a Virgo to me that I think his personality is the Earth equivalent in blood types.

Ken Ichijouji: Libra Sun, Blood Type AB

I’m the most confident with Ken’s blood type. AB can give you an introverted, social outcast character -- which offsets his Libra Sun’s extroversion. Done. (Sasuke in Naruto, for example, is a Leo Sun who should be outgoing -- instead, he’s an introverted, social outcast because he’s blood type AB. Also, I just noticed that Ken and Daisuke are Naruto and Sasuke, but with swapped blood types. Neat.)

Sora Takenouchi: Scorpio Sun, Blood Type O

I view Sora as an “extroverted introvert”. She’s definitely an introvert, but she plays well at being an extrovert. Because her Scorpio Sun is introverted, I think her blood type offsets it to make her a little bit more extroverted than usual for a Scorpio. So I think O or B both works for her -- I lean towards O, because it’s called “The Warrior” and she has that meaning in her surname. Plus, O would make her the same blood type as Taichi, giving exactly the same “connection” as being Mars-ruled does. (The exact same connection . . . competitiveness, sports, etc.)

Takeru ‘T.K.’ Takaishi: Sagittarius Sun, Blood Type B

This also just complements his Sun. Also, I know I’m supposed to disregard his tri. personality, but I do also think that Adventure/02 Takeru has the ingredients to grow up to be a charming playboy, so . . . lol. Blood type B it is!

Iori ‘Cody’ Hida: Capricorn Sun, Blood Type A

Again, this blood type just complements his Sun. I think the blood type is complementary when the character is so like their Sun sign -- and Iori is incredibly Capricorn. So much so talking about him bores me, lol. (I don’t hate him! I swear! He’s just SO MUCH Capricorn!)

Koushirou ‘Izzy’ Izumi: Aquarius Sun, Blood Type AB

Blood type AB are said to be “geniuses” or “talented”. Koushirou is Adventure’s genius, seen as a bit of an outsider just because of his intellect. I think AB is being expressed in a similar way to Miyako’s AB here; the more positive aspects of it (”genius”), as opposed to the negative aspects of it in Ken and Yamato (social outcast). I also view Koushirou as an “introverted extrovert” -- I think he’s actually an extrovert; if you put him in a room full of intellectuals, he’d stay there forever talking to everyone.

Yamato ‘Matt’ Ishida: Pisces Sun, Blood Type AB

Similar reasoning to Ken -- I think the writers set out to make Yamato the “social outcast”-type character in Adventure (when Ken didn’t exist). I consider Yamato the blueprint for Ken’s character in a lot of ways, actually. They used Yamato to be the “outsider” (troublemaker, doesn’t really fit in) in Adventure, to turn against his friends -- and then upped it a few hundred notches for Ken in 02, who also has blood type AB. ABs are also blood types A and B combined (who are opposites); see the contradiction? Yamato can be both shy and confident; he can be cool, calm and collected one minute, then off-the-rails emotionally the next. AB! Actually, I’m just as confident about his as I am Ken’s. ABs are the easiest to spot in anime! They just turn every Sun sign dark, lol.

And that’s my current list!

The blood types are subject to change, as I’m not an expert on them by any means. I literally just looked the whole thing up a few days ago, so my knowledge on it is very, very basic compared to the years I spent reading about astrology from multiple different sources (and thus why I’m 100% certain on those).

This was a lot harder than their Sun signs. With astrology, I could fact-check myself with their character designs, Crests, digimon partners, name meanings and roles in the plot -- but with blood types? Nope.

This is just me guessing with what I think was being done with their Sun signs (to complement or offset) -- where most of them do seem to just complement their signs. But I can’t grasp on to any “evidence” like I can with astrology, unfortunately. I’m pretty confident with Ken and Yamato’s blood types, though.

What do you guys think? What blood types do you think the kids were given in Adventure/02? Please disregard anything you saw in tri., as that’s an entirely different staff (who interpreted and expressed the characters as they saw fit). Just focus on the characterisations from Adventure/02.

[shihalyfie]

A meta and analysis on Yagami Taichi

Being the face of Adventure and arguably the rest of the franchise, Taichi has the honor of being an important figure in the realm of shounen anime overall, which has the unfortunate side effect of very often being described with things that don’t actually match him at all -- the way people often talk about him (especially mainstream press) tends to portray him like a stereotypical shounen hero who charges aggressively into everything and is hot-blooded all of the time. That’s not...quite on the mark.

I think “impulsive” is certainly a correct way to describe him, but in a very different way than one might think -- and, in fact, Taichi is much more of a multifaceted character than he’s often pigeonholed as. How? Well, let’s talk about it!

Taichi in Adventure

The main reason it’s probably incorrect to call Taichi “hot-blooded” by nature is that, in actuality, he is far more often too chill than otherwise. It’s not that he aggressively charges into everything without any rhyme or reason! Rather, it’s more like he takes everything very easily and has a “don’t worry about it!” attitude.

In fact, I think our friend the Animation Chronicle explains it better than I can:

If he doesn’t know/understand something, he acts while he tries to figure it out...

So in other words, rather than our conventional version of “being impulsive” meaning beelining to the most aggressive possible action, rather, it’s more like “the first thing that pops into his head” -- even if it’s a fairly easygoing or relatively harmless-seeming solution, he just goes for it because it sounds like it’ll work and he doesn’t see any reason why not.

That said, it’s also made abundantly clear by multiple sources that his ideas do come with some kind of consideration:

From the Animation Chronicle: “He appears to move with reckless abandon, but he actually does take in his surroundings and he takes good care of his juniors in the soccer club.” 

From the Adventure novels: “Taichi treated everyone without discrimination, as equals. That attitude of his didn’t change, even towards Koushiro. If Taichi hadn’t invited him, Koushiro was sure that he would have never gone to summer camp.”

Sora and Koushirou even back this up personally in Adventure episode 16, when Koushirou points out that Taichi had always been kind to his juniors, and Sora recalls an incident when he’d foregone an opportunity to score a goal because he’d known Sora was more likely to pull it off successfully.

So in other words, Taichi is, fundamentally speaking, not someone who does things for personal glory, but does want to work for other people’s sake. It’s just that, in trying to carry that out, he has a tendency to default to the first thing that pops into his head. Or in other words, Taichi’s primary way of thinking is “act first and figure out the details later” -- and this has both good and bad things about it.

Firstly, the fact that Taichi has such an “action-first” philosophy means that he’s capable of acting very practically in situations when others would freeze up. A very good example of this is Adventure episode 21; after angsting for half an episode considering quitting the fighting and enjoying his life at home, the moment he realizes that everyone else will be in danger if he leaves everyone be, he immediately instinctively steps in to help everyone. It’s not necessarily that Taichi doesn’t feel the stress or danger of fighting; it’s just that when he sees the practical impact of people he cares about getting hurt in front of him, all bets are off, because he needs to help people now.

The second thing is that, as Koushirou points out, he’s very kind to his juniors, and people in general -- he doesn’t really pay much mind to things like seniority, and is more concerned about treating everyone in accordance to their practical capabilities. This means that he’s someone who has a certain sense of charisma, especially since he’s appreciative of people’s abilities.

This is best indicated in Adventure episode 28, when two important things about Taichi are brought to the forefront:

Taichi’s natural charisma and ability to appeal to people makes him someone good at “bringing people together” -- indicated by the fact that the group hadn’t taken long to completely fall apart after he’d momentarily departed in Adventure episode 20, but came back together after he’d rallied them. The Adventure kids, coming from rather different social circles and backgrounds, were not originally the type to stay together or be particularly tight with each other by default, and so, during the first half of the series when they still had ways to go in terms of having any kind of meaningful bond with each other, they were unconsciously dependent on the charismatic Taichi to keep them together.

Taichi is a “natural leader” in every sense -- “leader” meaning not only someone who pushes people forward, but also someone who recognizes others’ abilities and is willing to delegate rather than trying to do everything by himself. This was briefly demonstrated in Sora’s Adventure episode 16 flashback when she remembers that Taichi willingly gave up the opportunity for a goal when he understood she could do it better (it’s reflected in his soccer position, too), but also here in Adventure episode 28, he gives the task of solving the card puzzle to Koushirou because he (correctly) determines that Koushirou, not himself, is best equipped to do the job. Also note that the episode makes clear that everyone agrees to it specifically because Taichi appointed him to the position -- much like how “understanding everyone’s abilities and delegating properly” is an important and necessary skill for a leader, everyone trusts Taichi to make that decision, and therefore trusts in Koushirou because he was appointed by said well-informed decision.

So those are the good things about him. What about the drawbacks?

The first is that Taichi is, unfortunately, a little emotionally insensitive. He doesn’t mean badly, of course -- you can’t deny that his penchant for teasing or trolling people makes him quite a fun person to be around -- but he tends to lack a bit of emotional insight and is prone to crossing the line with his remarks. Again, this is a symptom of him being too chill about things at times; he tends to react with “what’s the big deal?!” -- a statement that one should absolutely not say when arguing with someone, and which tends to get Taichi in hot water, especially with Yamato.

While the trope of “the shounen hero and the cool rival often having friction” is quite common in anime like this, Adventure’s play on it is actually quite different from how it would usually be played elsewhere. In most other shounen anime, this kind of relationship would have to do with something like the hot-blooded protagonist wanting to charge in and the cool-headed person wanting to be more “rational” about it, but in Adventure, Taichi and Yamato are pit against each other due to reasons that have to do with emotions. Yamato, contrary to what his character archetype might suggest, is someone who’s openly passionate and emotional, and is also someone who goes out of his way to care about others and their welfare -- so he often gets into fights with Taichi because he perceives Taichi to be insensitive and not putting sufficient thought into the others.

Yamato’s reactions are certainly extreme -- Adventure episodes 9 very clearly depicts him as the one losing control of his emotions and escalating the argument with Taichi to a full-on fight, whereas Taichi wanted him to calm down -- but he’s not fundamentally wrong in that this is an aspect Taichi needs to improve about, because it is true that Taichi tends to take the first suggestion of “what’ll get something done” that pops into his head, but also has a problem of vastly underestimating how dangerous things might be.

Again -- and this is very important to stress -- it’s not that he doesn’t care about others, and it’s not that he’s unaware of the dangers around him or the potential for repercussions! As Sora says in Adventure episode 16, he is conscientious of his surroundings and aware of potential risks. He has always put thought into his actions, and he doesn’t just charge into things with no rhyme or reason. He just has an abysmally poor sense of judgment, because he’s so naturally chill that he thinks “it’ll be fine, don’t worry!” -- and thus starts stubbornly locking down on what he wants to do because he’s so sure it’ll be fine and that everyone (usually Yamato) is overreacting.

If you want a specific example about Taichi’s tendency to misjudge: in Adventure episode 9, Taichi and Yamato get in a fight when Yamato perceives Taichi as too insensitive about Takeru’s potential welfare, which weirds Taichi out because Yamato’s being awfully overprotective. On its face, it might seem hypocritical because we later find out in Adventure episode 48 that Taichi is just as overprotective of his own sister, but it’s important to note that in the relevant episode, Taichi states that he has to go out of his way because Hikari continually fails to vocalize whenever she’s hurt or in pain. This implies that Taichi sees Takeru as someone who’s clearly capable of taking care of himself because he expresses himself better (and thus, Taichi doesn’t understand why Yamato has to go out of his way for him). Indeed, Takeru ends up latching onto Taichi because he sees him as treating him with the independence that Yamato won’t -- but Takeru has his own very deep-seated emotional issues that he just happens to be very good at hiding, and while Taichi is certainly always looking out for Takeru, he never seemed to have become aware of this problem.

This difficulty in judgment leads into a certain pattern of behavior that Taichi exhibits that only comes up in very specific situations, but is so consistently depicted that it’s basically an inherent trait of his: what I call the “Yagami Taichi stress response”.

Taichi is the kind of selfless person who prioritizes others’ welfare over himself, and there are times when it will often fall into almost self-destructive levels. (This is a trait he actually shares with his sister, although the two of them naturally deal with it in very different ways.) His first priority is “helping everyone”, and especially “helping anyone who’s in trouble” (especially when it’s happening right in front of him). Which means that whenever he feels that others are depending on him for something, he ends up often taking too much responsibility for everyone’s welfare, and starts cracking under the pressure.

Because Taichi is the kind of person who prioritizes “action first” and figuring things out as they go along, this means that his reaction to stress is basically becoming a completely unfocused mess. Or, in other words, he lets the thought of but we have to do something!! completely consume his head, methodology be damned, and he starts panicking and doing everything in every which way to get it done, to the point he starts lashing out at others or becoming an emotional wreck because of the stress. The first time we see this is Adventure episode 16, where, being the only one with a working Crest and feeling that he and Agumon have the responsibility of protecting everyone, starts pushing himself and Agumon to carry everyone’s burdens, resulting in everything going wrong and the dark evolution to SkullGreymon at the end of the episode.

Again: It’s important to remember that, even at his “worst”, Taichi’s main priority is helping and protecting others, which means that his way of responding to that stress is basically determining that he’ll take all of the responsibility onto himself. That involves things like forcing himself to “work harder for everyone’s sake”, or becoming dangerously self-sacrificial, or at least allowing himself to become an emotional wreck because as much as he knows better, his one strongest thought is always we have to do something!!

Taichi exhibits more of this behavior in Adventure episodes 48 and 49, to the point he gets unusually aggressive with Koushirou (which is also explicitly pointed out as him not acting like his usual self) once he starts panicking about Hikari’s welfare. Again, note that all of this stems from we have to do something!! -- he basically starts panicking because despite Koushirou clearly doing the best he can, once things start going south, it’s just not enough.

So, speaking of things going south: because Taichi often misjudges situations, whenever things go wrong, he takes it badly. This is someone whose first course of action is to “act first and work it out as we go along,” but the number one thing he can’t stand is seeing other people get hurt, and so when other people do get hurt because of the consequences, Taichi shuts down -- for instance, when he learns that his ploy to attempt to get Greymon to evolve ended up hurting Koromon and everyone around him in Adventure episodes 16-17, and when his taking the Digital World too lightly (taking Koushirou’s explanation of it being “like a game world” at too much face value) ends up getting Sora in trouble and his own life in danger.

Which leads to a certain degree of irony: Taichi’s behavior isn’t normally out of solely recklessness -- mainly really poor judgment and a tendency to underestimate things -- but when he does slip up and start having to deal with consequences, he does become reckless. But because this recklessness is out of a desire to “not let anyone else get hurt”, it results in him being reckless specifically with his own welfare --  he’s the kind of person who “takes too much responsibility onto himself”, and his way of responding to the issues of “someone might get hurt” and “but we have to do something!!” means that he, by default, responds to everything with “okay, then I’ll be the one who gets hurt!” Or in other words, his solution to preventing other casualties while still doing something to help others involves becoming dangerously self-sacrificial. Because in the end, Taichi is the kind of person who hates seeing people being in trouble or hurt in front of him, and his instinct is to always protect people, no matter what.

But, again: Taichi’s way of “action first” is not a fundamentally bad thing -- remember, Adventure episode 21 established very well that this trait of his is very good for bringing him out of his biggest bouts of hesitation, because he has a very practical understanding of the need to fight in order to prevent more casualties. This is especially because the final arc of Adventure deals heavily with the concept of “collateral damage”, or the question of how to handle fighting to save people, when people are inevitably hurt (or, in this case, dying) in the process.

Yamato accuses Taichi in Adventure episode 43 of not being conscientious enough about the friends they’ve lost in the process, but once Yamato succumbs to his resentment and personal beefs and starts selfishly picking a fight with Taichi in Adventure episode 44-45, Taichi indicates that he is keeping his fallen friends in mind -- it’s just that, to him, not continuing the fight is an insult to everything they’d died for (especially because, indeed, more people will get hurt if they don’t do something). 

And, ultimately, in Adventure episode 50, Taichi does conclude that Yamato, Jou, and Mimi are right about one thing: while he’s always been right about them needing to do something, they do at least need to be careful about how they go about it so that they don’t incur more sacrifices along the way. Fortunately, Taichi is a soccer captain and perfectly capable of quickly coming up with a suitable plan on the fly (he even cites it in this episode, and in fact had already demonstrated an ability to come up with tactics when necessary back in Adventure episode 20) -- it’s not that he’s never been able to do flexible thinking, it’s just that his natural tendency to be “too chill’ about things and overestimate the efficacy of the first thing that popped into his head was something he needed to learn to think through a little harder.

And so, the final episodes of Adventure indicate him finally starting to tap into his capacity for that -- thus truly becoming the definition of the Adventure group’s “leader”.

Taichi after Adventure

We learn in Our War Game! that Taichi still has a bit of a way to go in terms of the “emotional sensitivity” part, most notably when Taichi starts getting defensive when he accidentally disrupts the computer connection, and Koushirou (most likely correctly) pinpoints this insensitivity as the likely reason he and Sora got into a nasty fight prior to the events of the movie. In fact, while Taichi already clearly had some shades of this in Adventure, when his “teasing” of others or stepping over their boundaries could sometimes go a little too far, it’s especially indicated here that Taichi is very, very bad at dispute resolution, because he keeps trying to deflect blame for his own actions and indirectly accuses Sora of being the irrational one in regards to their argument. (Again, for anyone entangled in a dispute with a friend: “dismissing the other person’s feelings” and going for the ad hominem, instead of at the very least acknowledging them in the process of making your point, is the number one worst way to handle this.)

Of course, Taichi wouldn’t have gotten this far if he didn’t have the natural charisma to compensate -- again, he’s fundamentally someone who cares about other people and attends to them. But, unfortunately, he’s still bad at knowing how to deal with other people’s emotions and learning to deal with them with proper empathy...

...So, in fact, it’s striking that the Taichi we initially meet in 02 is someone who, most of the time, seems to come off as very mature and put-together. The fact that he so willingly turned over his goggles to Daisuke at the beginning of the episode is a really huge deal, frankly -- even if you don’t subscribe to the theory that there’s any major sentimental backstory to it a la V-Tamer, that’s still an item he’s kept on him since he was a tiny child and clearly must have a huge amount of attachment to, yet he immediately handed it over to Daisuke the moment he felt Daisuke was worthy of it.

It’s actually quite a bit of a swerve for those of us used to the more “playful” Taichi who sometimes took things way too lightly, but it’s also important to realize that this is the Taichi that Daisuke and his friends see. This is especially in light of the fact that Daisuke starts off the series with a very severe inability to be assertive, so Taichi, who’s always been naturally assertive from the get-go (almost too much sometimes), is everything he is not, and therefore admires.

Taichi is still Taichi, which means that he’s still subject to the Yagami Taichi stress response, and he gets very close to blowing up angrily at the others when they show up late. But unlike how he had a whole train of being rather out of control when emotionally compromised in Adventure episodes 48-49, he gets himself together fairly quickly and admits that he also didn’t want to force everyone to come if they didn’t want to (to the point where he had even thought about going alone with Hikari in the worst-case scenario -- again, note the tendency for self-sacrifice and putting responsibility on himself).

We also see him about to lapse into it again at the end of the episode, when he freezes up because he’s not sure about what to do in regards to the potential of hurting Agumon in the process of getting him back -- but Yamato manages to get him back on his feet, rather literally, and with a punch to the face.

This punch tends to be really often misinterpreted as if violence is just a fact of life when it comes to Taichi and Yamato, but it is very, very important to understand the context behind this scene and how it differs from the two’s relationship in Adventure. Whenever the two fought back in Adventure, it would be a very vicious argument with the two genuinely angry at each other, and with Yamato accusing Taichi of being insensitive and thus becoming hostile and resentful towards him. In this scene, however, Yamato has become conscientious of Taichi’s own feelings and reasons for hesitating. This is evidenced by the fact he only does a single punch and holds out his hand to Taichi right after -- said punch was strictly meant as one meant to snap him back to reality, and Yamato holds out that hand knowing that Taichi will not take it as anger or resentment, but rather “I did this because you needed something to get you back into focus, I know you also know this and won’t take it as an insult, and I understand your feelings and want to help you.”

It’s important in establishing the level of deep trust Taichi and Yamato have where they understand each other’s positions now without fighting over it -- the two of them even point out in the next episode that the reason they can get away with this is because of how much worse they used to go through before, but now, the two of them treat each other with mutual sympathy, understanding, and support, and devoid of condescension whatsoever. And because of that, Taichi is able to “snap out” of his hesitation much more quickly than he would three years prior, because now he has Yamato’s emotional support, and Yamato even frames the situation in a way the “we have to do something!!” Taichi would understand: if they don’t do something, Agumon will continue to be the Kaiser’s slave destroying everything that he himself would never want to see destroyed, and even if they end up accidentally losing him in the process, it would arguably be a bigger mercy to him than it would to let him continue in this state. It’s all very practical reasoning that works best with Taichi’s way of thinking, and because of that, they’re able to push forward into the events of the next episode.

But just because he’s become more mature doesn’t mean he’s lost his characteristic charisma or ability to be playful or a tease -- after all, Taichi has always had a penchant for a bit of a smug personality, sometimes even bordering on the petulant. This especially comes out when he’s with Agumon, but, really, Taichi is a person who really likes fun.

On another interesting note, however, Taichi sends Sora off in 02 episode 38 when he’s very heavily implied to have caught on that Sora is about to confess to Yamato, and pushes her on without giving her grief for it. Regardless of whether you subscribe to the theory that Taichi has his own unresolved feelings in the situation, the important part is that he understood that this was a grave enough situation for Sora that this did not merit teasing her or insensitively poking into her feelings on it -- in other words, it’s a huge contrast to Adventure episode 26 when he was clearly at a loss on how to deal with her when she was emotionally compromised, and Agumon and Gabumon commented that he wasn’t as mature as Yamato in dealing with this.

But now, Taichi is much more capable of showing actual empathy for others and understanding when it’s the time to hold back on the teasing or potential insensitivity, and for that, Agumon compliments him on the same maturity he’d failed to express three years prior.

By the time we get to Kizuna, the fact that Taichi is one of the lead protagonists is for obvious meta reasons (he’s the protagonist of Adventure, after all), but it also makes sense that a movie centered around the millennial existential crisis -- and, specifically, the issue of career uncertainty -- would have him as a major player in it. Remembering that Taichi is fundamentally the kind of person who operates as “act first, deal with it later,” it makes perfect sense that the terrifying pressure of dealing with something as vague and uncertain as career pressure would be something that Taichi would continually put off. Again, Taichi is a very practical-minded person who usually works best with things that are clearly happening in front of him, so “wide-ranging” things are things he plays badly with.

Despite Taichi being very clearly depicted as “out of it” for this movie, at the very least, certain fundamental personality traits of his haven’t gone away -- for one, he’s still one of the most expressive characters in the movie (to the point many a fan has commented on his jackpot of facial expressions) in terms of petulance, sometimes getting a little defensive, and driving poor Koushirou a little nuts with his tendency to be reckless with electronics. He also gets a bit cocky during the battle with Eosmon, which, again, tracks with his tendency to do that every so often (and to be fair to him, everyone was guilty of severely underestimating Eosmon at the time, so it’s not like this was a major miscalculation on Taichi���s part).

Moreover, much like in 02, Taichi and Yamato are understanding of each other’s feelings to the extent that Yamato is the first person Taichi calls to dump his feelings about his existential crisis over. Even though they’re still prone to some mild bickering at the beginning of the movie, they immediately go back on high-fiving terms right after, so it’s a very far cry from the time back in Adventure when Yamato would look down on Taichi for being insensitive.

But here, we have this one line that basically represents the source of all of the problems Taichi ends up going through in this movie, including the reason for his loss of Agumon: Taichi is trying to “force” himself to become an independent person, and in the process is pushing Agumon away, and, on a more metaphorical level, his own self.

Taichi moved out of his parents’ house under the pretense of not burdening his family, but Hikari’s comment about their mother wanting him to drop by indicates that it’s not likely they necessarily wanted him to move out -- and despite that, Taichi is miserable in his daily routine of walking back and forth from school and working at a part-time job and eating convenience store food. He’s clearly lonely, yet he won’t allow Agumon into his room (it’s stated that his visit midway into the movie is his first time here). He keeps his old goggles and Digivice, yet he shuts it in a drawer and only opens the drawer to stare at it from time to time, and when Agumon finally does visit and finds his AVs, Taichi freaks out and pins it as an “adult thing” before he finds himself in the awkward situation of basically gatekeeping his own partner with a societal standard he doesn’t even understand.

I should point out that the AVs are not strictly porn, if you want to be really technical about it; it’s “gravure” videos, involving a cosplayer dressing up in sexy/high-exposure outfits and striking suggestive poses, but it’s not actually explicit porn. Moreover, a toned-down version of this scene exists in the Shueisha Mirai version of the novel, where the issue is not about AVs but rather the fact that Taichi only has alcohol in his fridge -- absolutely nothing non-alcoholic, despite how impractical this is -- because “[he’s] an adult, after all.” So the point of this scene is that Taichi’s being performative, or in other words trying to do Adult Things because That’s What Adults Do. And since a Digimon partner is representative of the inner self, and especially established in 02 to have relevance to one’s “less dignified and more childish dreams”, Taichi looking down on Agumon, i.e. looking down on himself, becomes the reason why he ends up losing him at the end of this movie.

As things get worse for Taichi and the crisis escalates, we actually get another glimpse of the Yagami Taichi stress response -- Yamato confronts him on whether he’s okay with going in to save all of the Eosmon victims despite knowing what’ll happen to their partners. Taichi, frantically (Hanae Natsuki’s voice acting really sells it here), has an emotional outburst and professes that, no, of course he’s not, but, again: they have to do something!! Because in the end, Taichi is a selfless person who understands that bad things are happening to people now, and the important thing is saving them now and dealing with the consequences once that’s done with, and even Yamato admits that, as much as he hates it, this is the correct answer.

Taichi does, unfortunately, lose Agumon at the end of the movie, but there are multiple indications he’s already on his way to getting him back, given that Taichi’s starting to address all of the problems he was neck deep in at the start of the movie. In the middle of the movie, after having shut his goggles in the drawer all of this time and only pulling it out whenever he was depressed, he decides to embrace the courage they initially symbolized and puts them back on his neck, and when we reach the climax of the movie, he uses Hikari’s old whistle to wake everyone up. This needs to be distinguished from all of the “nostalgia” everyone else had been drowning themselves in by looping themselves eternally in old memories from a desire to never move on from them; symbolically speaking, Taichi’s blowing of the whistle represents acknowledging the important things in your past, and making productive use of them to move onto the future, rather than the unhealthy reactions of either drowning eternally in nostalgia, or performatively shutting everything out about your past in a bid to reach some arbitrary standard of adulthood.

Hence, Taichi’s thesis -- the one he had failed to write at the beginning of the movie -- is only filled out once Taichi embraces that past version of himself, because his thesis summary is about reflection on his past experiences, and making use of those to think about how to apply them to the future.

This is, obviously, intended as a lead-up to the 02 epilogue in which Taichi becomes an ambassador -- or in other words, someone who indeed specializes in “bringing humans and Digimon together” and offering proposals on how they can coexist in the future. Agumon, of course, is an important part of this job (look at his suit and bowtie!), instead of Taichi shutting him out and treating him like someone who doesn’t belong in his adult life.

Of the careers depicted in the epilogue, Taichi’s is the most “furthest-reaching”, since, as a diplomat, he has influence over a pretty huge range of things, which fits with Taichi’s tendency to shoot for some pretty high things -- and, also, conceptually, it works well with what we’ve always known since Adventure to be Taichi’s true specialties as a “leader”: having the charisma and understanding to bring people from different places together, and to lead them all forward.