Tenma/Arion: *he looks at them and smiles* I don't have any kind of trauma, but i definitely been some unpleasant experiences *and he starts talking about all the shit he's been through in 3 seasons, from Raimon's initial hostility towards him, how he was beaten up with soccer balls by both Victor/Tsurugi and the various SEEDs, the various betrayals he's suffered from Shuu/Tezcat, Sol/Taiyoy, and Fei (and almost all the disagreements that happened in Choron Stones), and finally how after everything he's been through, he still doesn't feel worthy of being the captain of a team* but I think all in all things weren't that bad this year!
Tenma/Arion: *he looks at them and smiles* I don't have any kind of trauma, but i definitely been some unpleasant experiences *and he starts talking about all the shit he's been through in 3 seasons, from Raimon's initial hostility towards him, how he was beaten up with soccer balls by both Victor/Tsurugi and the various SEEDs, the various betrayals he's suffered from Shuu/Tezcat, Sol/Taiyoy, and Fei (and almost all the disagreements that happened in Choron Stones), and finally how after everything he's been through, he still doesn't feel worthy of being the captain of a team* but I think all in all things weren't that bad this year!
I still think the fact taiyou and haku retaliate the moment they found out that Yukimura was erased in the movie, that just... oh my god, my sole reason i made poly weather in ao3 and i never let go for years OISDHFUSEIFH
Headcanon Lists of my Inazuma Eleven AU where Taiyou is recruited as a Resistance Japan Player
1 . Taiyou was excited when he got the invitation from Fudou while Gouenji concerned especially Taiyou still in a recovery of his illness after CS and still need regular checkup
2. When Taiyou training with the team, he already befriended Haku in CS, it's just slow burn on Yukimura part cause he thought they wouldn't like him that way but he thought wrong
3. Taiyou infected these two with his chaoticness. For example:
Taiyou usually likes to escape from hospital and ran away from his own problems
Fubuki: if Taiyou jumped off a bridge would you
Yukimura: ……..
Fubuki: DONT JUMP OFF A BRIDGE
Fudou and Hakuryuu version
Fudou: if taiyou jumped off a bridge, would you?
Hakuryuu: ….You know I will jump off to save him right?
Fudou : yeah totally
Pause
Fudou : WAIT NO
Fudou forgot the important bit here, haku's keshin armed CAN MAKE HIM FLY
4. Because the certain incident in my fic called Devastation, both of them except Taiyou have to remind him about his meds cause beside he skipped his checkup, he also tend to forgot to take his meds.
5. Haku knows a lot of medical treatments due to trained longer in God Eden so he can take care of Taiyou in no time
6. Hakuryuu forced to be responsible for the team cause his coach and his dad always using unorthodox ways to coaching that confuses most of them for shits and giggles.
7. yes, Kishibe is a utsunomiya toramaru fan and that's canon to me /hj
8. Namikawa is a cryptid chuunibyou kid that somehow can understand fishes and sharks (also adopted by tsunami)
9. Taiyou tend to be misunderstand people care about him as pity cause they usually understimate him due to his illness and he hate that
10. Yukimura has like ego thing going on where he wants his image as cool badass edgelord while taiyou and haku teased him about it, mostly taiyou
11. Taiyou infact usually in timeout by Kurosaki cause Kurosaki is the responsible one in Gouenji's household cause Gouenji tired of Taiyou's shenanigans
12. Minamisawa and Haku are siblings and its awkward relationship they have cause minamisawa once protective about haku when there paparazzi asking about SEED trying to interview Haku without his consent, Minamisawa pulled a Gouenji and broke the sound barrier using his Sonic Shot
13. Most awkward relationship for Haku is between Miyabino and Hikaru cause.. they are basically pseudo-cousins and... they kinda not getting along cause 1. Miyabino is a soccer freak, specifically for teikoku soccer, 2. Hikaru is such pure dude and timid around him so Haku have to be gentle with him for a bit, probs because Hikaru have anxiety to meet new people he assumed.
14. Minamisawa dgaf in the Resistance Japan.
15. When a match between Earth Eleven vs Resistance Japan happened in this AU, Taiyou was benched cause his face did not fit with the order from Kageyama so he just sitting there. He thought the match is pretty boring tho since he really... dislike mindless threats and insults throwing at Earth Eleven except Namikawa who was actually trying to encourage his schoolmate, Matatagi without condencending tone.
16.Taiyou reaction to the lore drop in Galaxy but with Ichinose as the Earth Eleven coach (he still get orders from Kageyama despite he didn't want to be his puppet)
when earth eleven vs resistance japan match.
these two coaches talking how odd it is.
Ichinose: Is this really necessary?? like I know you just following orders from.. yknow him and they do need reminders but it does bother me that he ordered you to use bunch of kids to remind them through fear and humiliation… especially your kids still processing after what happened with Fifth Sector and tenma having low mental health these days so having this match going to lose of his optimism for a while (he mumbled and fudou didnt hear it that)
Fudou: I gave up questioning him atp but ig since earth at it stake so i have to do it despite i kinda regretted a bit but i have to try at least, why are you so concerned about this?
Ichinose just sighed
Ichinose: The team is kinda in chaos, in a bad way, the newbies took the victories arrogantly, well most of them anyways except Konoha cause she is so timid so ofc she scared at everything. and tenma still adapting as a captain, yes… he was better when he in Chrono Storm but that also because he was near all of his raimon teammates.. but only 2 raimon teammates he known isnt going to comfort him anytime soon especially shindou's… anger issues flares up these days cause he still angry at the newbies.. well the whole situation really, i mean who wouldnt be mad at the newbies took it for granted and hired to be in Inajapan… it doesnt matter, tenma now asking me about how to do leadership and concerningly about his inferiority of being a captain.
Taiyou hearing the convo when he picked up they mentioned Tenma name and left the bench to go near them, "Hey, Coach Fudou and Ichinose-san, what are you talking about?" he said with a smile (he here as extra player in resjp)
"…Amemiya Taiyou, go back to the bench!" Fudou pinched his nose, tired of this boy lmao
"Hey, I want to hear what are you talking about.. I am bored watching my team brutally kicking ass to Inazuma Japan right now!" which is fair to Taiyou, Taiyou bored of mindless threats in a soccer match.
Ichinose had the chance and took it, "Hey, Taiyou-kun.. do you know Tenma.. has problems as a captain?"
"Ah, his inferiority complex…" And then Taiyou connected the dots.
"Wait, he has that?" (Ichinose)
"Unfortunately, yeah… he got it like when Shindou injured and forced to be captain and then CS happened, honestly he was better in CS.. but now?" Taiyou looked to the match and Tenma still smiling but… he looked pained, struggled at something..
"He might be getting worse now…"
"…Now that makes so much sense why he still hesisating… Did you try to fix it?" Fudou asked to Ichinose.
"Well.. I tried alright, I already told him that he can tell me anything if he has concerns over something but… he kept things to himself, Domon tried too but he wont budge….. maybe he was thinking he was a burden that a coach have to act unprofessional for him since we knew each other since he was little but still…"
"…Yikes, that is not good at all, Coach Fudou, do you approve of me pull a Gouen-"
"NO ABSOLUTELY NOT, IT WILL RUIN IT MORE" Fudou scolded him
"Boo… Lame" He pouted
After the match
Two teams about to walk off from the field and leave… UNTIL… TAIYOU FREAKING AMEMIYA-GOUENJI DECIDED TO JUMP IN THE AIR WITH A BALL
"SUNSHINE STORM!" and… It hit Tenma
Fudou shocked and just slowly facepalmed. Look, he may be a menace BUT THERE IS A LINE
Resistance Japan? Choked on their spits, finally broke their nonchalant asshole facade that the hold for the match today.
Haku ran after him "Taiyou, what the fuck!…. When coach ordered to 'destroy Inajapan' DOESN'T MEAN ACTUALLY DESTROYED THEM!" but Taiyou ignored him for the first time. He is unnaturally quiet rn. Haku literally shivered after Taiyou ignored him.
Tenma's head lifted and stare at Taiyou, wondering why Taiyou did this.
"Matsukaze Tenma" Oh crap, he used his full government name.
Taiyou smiled creepily that filled with a threat. "Let's talk after this, shall we?"
"Y-Yeah.." Tenma stuttered
Yukimura and kishibe was like "you know what?… Let not make taiyou mad to us-"
17. Whenever Taiyou on the field, he will and not afraid to FLIRT WITH CHEESY PICKUP LINES TO HUMILIATE HAKU AND YUKIMURA to lighten the mood cause he KNOWS Resistance Japan is such... mood breakers, most of them and Fudou brought him to break the mood of the team and want them to act like actual children despite the consequences is that.. Taiyou made them too much chaos even Fudou can't handle it.
18. Yukimura has a jealousy issues with his own DAMN HISSATSU ANIMAL PANTHER just because THE DAMN PANTHER IS SO AFFECTIONATE TOWARDS HIS DAD, FUBUKI AND HIS TWO PARTNERS.
19. After the incident, Yukimura make the pep talk to Taiyou about his lacked of self-care and other things because Haku is kinda bad at communication and his words tend to be harsh whenever he scold someone so Yukimura took the role for the them.
20. Because of this, Taiyou also give him a pep talk whenever Yukimura felt inferior and Haku too but mostly Yukimura.
21. Haku and Yukimura unfortunately worsen each other anger issues so Taiyou unfortunately have scold them whenever they overboard.
22. Only one time that Taiyou pissed off and goes violence with Haku in Inazuma Eleven Go vs Danball Senki Wars Movie where Yukimura was erased and they both pulled a gouenji for him.
I still think funny when i differentiate the two AUs i came up inspired from AU is that
One time, Taiyou forgot that Li Hao literally told him to make fake backstory especially him and Coach already told him the family background of Little Areori! Taiyou for his first introduction and made himself a fake name on the spot when he first introduce himself to the team as.. Sol Amemiya which is just.. his dubname-
The scenario in messy fic format is like this
when he going to introduce himself to the him, he was standing and giggly until
"Hello, I am Amemiya-"
'WAIT SHIT, HOLD ON FOISDHFDSOIFH I NEED NEW NAME QUICK I FORGOT ABOUT THIS PART' he thought.
"-Sol, my name is Sol Amemiya, nice to meet ya :D"
meanwhile nosaka squinting, thinking he saw the same kid before but he was like "ah maybe i overthink it and it's just his big brother"
while shirou being suspicious of taiyou, he actually hacked and check the file like if he existed or not
Taiyou may be smart and a prodigy but man, he tend to be dumb at acting and remembering stuff beside.. pranks. There is a reason why Adult Fudou want him in Resistance Japan after all.
And then back to the Atsuya and Hiroto being the ones that know the other timelines.
It is kinda funny to think about Atsuya as Hiroto's PR manager, like when Hiroto said something like compliment but its worded like mean insult, he fixed it for Hiroto 😭
Hiroto doesn't need it but Atsuya does it for shits and giggles
I need context on how Taiyou and Li Hao became friends in your AU.
Did Taiyou just fall from the sky one day and Li Hao went"cool new sky friend" or something? /joke.
Using Taiyou's dub name as his undercover alias is cool.
That Taiyou introduction reminded me of this YouTube shorts about YTTD.
Taiyou is crashing out on his introduction. Meanwhile, Nosaka needs to overthink more.
Orion Shirou causually having hacking skills/being a computer nerd will not be hilarious.
Your Taiyou needs to learn how to act or else he might mess up again. And GO homeless-looking adult Fudou is not slick.
Atsuya and Hiroto knowing the other timelines? Does that mean in your Orion AU Atsuya & Hiroto have OG memories while Taiyou crashed into their universe to do whatever? What an AU.
Atsuya being a PR manager specifically towards Hiroto just to mess with more? Nice. Atsuya & Hiroto being the chaotic duo as always, love to see it.
After doing some math, I discovered that Haru must have been born when the first years of GO are in their third year... I thought the idea of Endou bringing Haru to their trainings would be cute hehe
Tagiru is a more well-behaved kid than he's given credit for (and other misconceptions about him and Hunters)
With Xros Wars finally getting some officially endorsed anniversary love (you don't see that happen every day, you know!), I also happen to have rewatched Xros Wars quite recently! I had previously written a meta talking about the differences between Daisuke and Tagiru, but while I wouldn't disagree with anything I wrote back then per se, there are some things I wish I'd phrased better or emphasized more. I owe it to Tagiru to make it up to him, so I wrote this up quickly.
To put it simply and bluntly, partially as a byproduct of people misunderstanding his home series and people misunderstanding him directly, Tagiru tends to be taken the wrong way by a lot of people in the fandom, so let's set the record straight!
First, let's talk about Hunters
Like I said, a big reason Tagiru ends up misunderstood quite often is that...well, I won't mince words, but Xros Wars came out at a time when the Western fandom had some very specific ideas about "what a Digimon series should be", and to compound things even further, the target demographic for the older Digimon series was in pretty much peak edgelord phase (late teens/twenties) of wanting everything to be Dark and Edgy.
In fact, this treatment of Xros Wars and Hunters is very specific to the Western fandom and only to that particular time period; Hunters is reasonably well-liked and Xros Wars as a whole very well-liked among Japanese fans, and nowadays, I hear a lot of cases of even Western fans watching Xros Wars and Hunters in recent years for the first time and being utterly baffled as to why anyone would treat the series as poorly as much of the Western fandom does. There was a serious echo chamber and toxic aura problem going on that seems to have altered people's perception of reality to the point of historical revisionism regarding what was and wasn't in the series.
Hunters got especially maligned on the grounds that it was supposedly a bunch of meaningless trash that didn't go anywhere, but having rewatched it recently, I find that a lot of it is little more than unrealistic expectations where people were expecting something completely different from what it actually was. I suspect this to be one major reason Japanese reception to the series wasn't nearly as negative, because the Japanese fanbase had much stronger consciousness of two major factors:
The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami had a massive impact on Japanese media and especially kids' media at the time, and there was a collective bid among them to make things that would lift kids' spirits after the disaster (Smile PreCure, Kamen Rider Fourze, and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger were also made under this philosophy). Combined with the fact that Japanese audiences tend to be more insistent that kids' shows should brighten kids' days, if you were to insinuate that a show was too lighthearted during this period, you'd easily be seen as a cruel and insensitive sadist to suggest that a kids' series isn't "dark" enough.
It is well-known among Japanese fans that Hunters was greenlighted at the last minute (the Death Generals staff was already into production of the finale when they found out Hunters was going to exist), and it's widely understood that it was also a series made to hold down its timeslot until Saint Seiya Omega was ready. In other words, Hunters was a series made after the staff was told to make something that would literally waste time. Once you stop having unrealistically high expectations of the series to do something revolutionary with its content, it's actually doing much more for its audience than it needed to, and frankly, I have seen series that spent 50+ episodes doing far less interesting things than Hunters did within its two cours.
You are supposed to watch Hunters under the understanding that you're meant to have fun, and from what it sounds like, the staff was also trying to have as much fun as they could within that time. (Honestly, I'm currently convinced that the crossover episode was made for the returning Digimon staff to indulge and satisfy themselves more than it was to pander to the fans.) That's all it is, and the story becomes much more enjoyable and insightful when you watch it this way.
I'm not kidding when I say that a lot of people who currently dislike Hunters would probably become a lot more attached to it just by rewatching it now. It's only two cours, so it's not even that long! One thing I noted during my last rewatch is that the kids are all of the archetype that the modern Internet would affectionately call "gremlins" and enjoy for being all over the place and often of questionable morals. Perhaps one could even say that the series was too ahead of its time.
Tagiru is actually pretty well-behaved
So let's talk about Tagiru. Common perception is that he's rude to the point of disregarding what others say and often puts down others, but is that really true? Certainly, it's true that he's at least a little poorly behaved in terms of often stepping out of line and disregarding what Taiki and others tell him to do, but:
Even when he disregards others, it's not nearly as much as people often think. Having rewatched the series lately, I find that the majority of his cases of directly violating someone's suggestion without at least taking it into account is simply just because he was too impulsive and went ahead before even he had thought it through. Otherwise, he'll still defer to others most of the time (even if he has to complain loudly about it). And you don't see people giving Taichi grief for doing the same thing, do you?
He's diligent about his honorifics and still largely treats strangers and elders with respect as per Japanese propriety rules. He's not as deferential as Daisuke, but he also doesn't massively step out of line either.
If you take his words at direct verbal face value, he's being rude to people, but if you actually look closer, he's just kind of brash and loudmouthed and doesn't actually mean it that seriously. You don't see people giving Takuya nearly as much grief for this one either, do you? Rather, once you get into Tagiru's head, you'll see that him treating Taiki and Yuu as "rivals" of a sort is his way of acknowledging them as people worth having a rivalry with; he sees the entire world as a competition, but he respects his competition too. And Tagiru does have a concept of kindness and decency; he loves to mess with Yuu because Yuu is someone he knows well (and, frankly, even if he's not as direct with what he says, Yuu is actually the one responsible for provoking him most of the time), but with strangers and other people he doesn't want to step on the toes of, he takes care to not be insensitive and apologizes well.
Multiple episodes (starting from as early as episode 2) allude to the idea that the real reason Tagiru can often be a problem for others is that he has too much energy that he hadn't been given a good enough outlet for, something alluded to by the fact that Shoutmon also immediately let up on Gumdramon when he found that the latter had gotten himself a partner (episode 2). Just like how the Digital World's "wild child' stopped causing chaos for everyone around him now that he had something to dedicate himself to, Tagiru becomes much easier for Taiki and Yuu to work with once he starts putting all of that excess energy into the Hunt. And that ties into...
Being "selfish" can be a good thing
I mentioned earlier that I wrote a meta about Daisuke and Tagiru but currently wish that I'd phrased some things differently, and the biggest reason is that I emphasized a lot that Tagiru was self-interested compared to more altruistic characters like Daisuke. But when I said that, I also meant this in the sense that having personal goals and "selfish" interests is not a fundamentally bad thing, and Hunters is actually quite a lot about the juggling of personal interests and doing good for others.
Tagiru is impulsive, brash, and often disregards what Taiki and others would prefer that he do in order to pursue his own goals, but he's also not self-centered to the extent he doesn't care about other people. Yes, he's participating in the Hunt because he personally enjoys the thrill of it. But it's not like he's paying zero consideration to the fact that it helps people, and in fact, if you actually pay attention to Tagiru's behavior throughout the series, Tagiru enjoys the Hunt partially because it's a way of helping people in meaningful ways. It's because of this that he's able to meaningfully distinguish between Hideaki's personal goals and Ganemon's greed (episode 8), because Tagiru himself would also hate it if he got lumped in with people who took from others purely for self-gain!
It's easy to get distracted by the fact that the Hunt technically involves combat, but Tagiru also just thinks Digimon are pretty cool in general (see episode 21, when he immediately drops the idea of Hunting the amusement park Digimon when they seemingly aren't doing anything wrong). It's actually quite common for people to have things they enjoy doing that also happen to help others! It's just that we usually call those "hobbies" or "career aspirations".
The Hunt is a competition that's structured in a battle royale, dog-eat-dog sort of format, and in a case like that, having personal ambition is very important. It's tempting to expect every shounen hero to fit a model of constantly saying one-sidedly selfless things like "I just love seeing everyone smile!", but the realistic truth is that there are also cases where you're not going to survive very long if you don't think about yourself, too. This is where Tagiru excels: he's brimming with motivation (to the point that episode 11 demonstrates how dangerous that motivation would be if it were anyone different), and he's up against Digimon who are manipulating kids based on their own personal desires without any selflessness at all.
He may not be like Daisuke in terms of cooperating with others as a given team player, but not everything in this world is about team cooperation, and there's a reason Daisuke and Tagiru are the respective protagonists of their own respective series tailored to those strengths.
And that's also why saving the world from Quartzmon required someone who enjoyed the Hunt itself rather than just wanting to save everyone for altruistic reasons. If you're on the verge of getting obliterated from existence and need to find something to cling onto, having something you personally enjoy and find fulfillment in helps a lot.
Up until Hunters' finale, participation in the Hunt was optional. There was no need to save the world, and a lot of Tagiru's cases could have easily been solved by any other Hunter. But Tagiru didn't need to have "the world is going to end right this second if you don't do something!" to motivate him, and that's why he's able to focus on Hunting Quartzmon even while dealing with a situation where everyone he knows might be gone forever if he fails: sure, he wasn't one of the "chosen heroes" for this job, and it's stressful as hell, but since he can have the mindset of "wow, saving the world requires doing something that I happen to be really good at? Too bad for you!"
So what is a "superstar"?
Since it's one of the first things presented about his character, "Tagiru wants to be a superstar and surpass Taiki" is the part that most people easily remember about him, and that means that Tagiru's primary fandom reputation comes from his arrogance. And it is true that he has a certain degree of arrogance and pride, moreso than a lot of other Digimon protagonists. But once you actually look at the series as a whole...
...it turns out that Tagiru being a bit arrogant is also the main reason he's able to be normal about his personal aspirations compared to almost everyone else in the series.
Episode 9 introduces the concept of "excessive idolization and putting others on a pedestal to the point they just become nothing but tools to you" and puts in a warning that idolizing Taiki is very likely to go in the same direction. Even Yuu, who's not necessarily doing it to an entirely unhealthy level, is still overly conscious of Taiki's role in the Digital World war a year prior and initially resents Tagiru for lightly using the Xros Heart name and imitating Taiki without understanding the war. It's understandable that Yuu would feel insulted by this, but you also have to look at things from Tagiru's perspective: Tagiru only ever knew Taiki as "the cool middle school senior whom I should use as a goal to surpass", and it's not really his fault for not knowing there was an entire war going on there.
But that's also the key word there: surpass. It's a word that's often taken as a sign of arrogance, but the point here is that Tagiru only treats Taiki like an admirable reference point rather than judging his entire self-worth based on whether he's like Taiki or not. He seems to be as close to treating Taiki as an equal as he can get within the limits of Japanese seniority. And after a whole series of people getting caught up in Digimon incidents because a Digimon started feeding off their feelings of "not being good enough"...
...we get to the eventual reveal in the final episode that Ryouma was, essentially, the same as another monster-of-the-week victim: someone who made his entire life about "wanting to be like someone else" and easily fell prey to a Digimon's manipulation because he was so obsessed with that goal that he lost sight of anything else.
The truth is, even with humility being a virtue, being confident in yourself is important too, because it means you won't project your insecurities on others. Even back in the first two parts of Xros Wars, Taiki's disregard for himself was also the cause of a lot of problems. And ultimately, that's the take-home: Tagiru is self-aware about what he is and isn't, and that's why he's able to pursue his own dreams in a healthy manner rather than railing on himself.
Tagiru's vaguely-defined goal of "being a superstar" is essentially "doing something that I feel is fulfilling and worthy", and he repeatedly demonstrates that he knows full well that he's only going to become a superstar when he decides he's done enough. For Tagiru, it seems that as long as he himself acknowledges that he did something cool (and his friends also acknowledge that it was cool), he'll see that as sufficient to have achieved his goal. So when it comes to saving the world, Tagiru decides that this is satisfying enough for him to pat himself on the back and go "that was really cool, wasn't it?"
In conclusion
I'm aware there are a lot of people who were expecting a more traditional shounen hero progression of "a protagonist who's not cut out for heroism grows and becomes a noble hero by the end of the series". Certainly, if Hunters had been a longer series and were given more resources in planning to be anything beyond a stall series, it's true that we probably would have gotten to see this aspect of Tagiru gone into thoroughly with the attention that it should have been given. But with what we were given already, there's already a lot you can get out of it, and in fact, I personally find that Hunters still covers a niche of the boundary between personal aspirations and finding fulfillment in it, even when it's about mundane problems that anyone else could have solved.
Tagiru wants to pursue his own personal goals, but he balances it well with doing good things for others and finding fulfillment in it. He's prideful enough to aspire to do bigger and better things, but he's also self-aware enough to not be constantly insecure about whether he's doing enough already. He's rough around the edges, but he gets it in a way that even adults often don't (again: it's arguably a series that was ahead of its time), and while it's not necessarily a perfect way to live nor the only way for one to live, I'd say it's pretty admirable.
Gaap and Agares have opposite personalities, but they still manage to be best friends 🥹 I find it cute that the misfits keep asking Agares how Gaap is because they're good friends. Agares gave some good advice, you need to take care of yourself, do some introspection before you apologize to someone. He might act annoyed and standoffish, but he shows he cares in small ways like making onigiri.
kaledo-art
andulkaphoto
snowghoul
romaincrisis
