Heyo! I’m just someone who likes to draw and play video games in her free time, when I'm not drowning in work and all the crap that comes with adulting lol. I’ll just post random creations of mine from games, books, anime, etc. that I like or something in the rare times I actually create something other than doodles in the margins of my notebooks.
Taichi, Yamato, Parentification and Japan's Lost Decade
Okay. You might have noticed, I am recently talking about Japanese economics, and about adultism, and about child abuse. And it is partially because recently I have fallen down another rabbit hole through some circumstances. I will explain later.
To get everyone on the same page if you have not participated in this conversation before: in Digimon Adventure there is the whole noticable thing with some characters - most notably Taichi, and Yamato - that they are clearly parentified and are performing tasks that you would expect from an adult. This is not unique to Digimon. It happened in Ojamajo Doremi as well, and other kid shows like this. We do see the children suffer from this, but it usually gets framed as a thing that the children have to overcome. And now I know why.
What actually happens in the Show(s)?
Okay, let's quickly go over a couple of examples. Mainly from Digimon, but also two Magical Girls.
First in Digimon Adventure we have Taichi and Yamato. Both of them are older brothers to a sibling who is three younger than them. Taichi has both parents. His father is working some sort of office job. He works long hours and often comes home drunk during the night. The mother is not working, but she is often absent as well. Several times it is mentioned that she is with relatives, though the exact identity is never named. Taichi is left alone with his younger sister as early as when he was seven and Hikari was a toddler. He cooks for her and takes care of other things. There is a particular flashback we get in Adventure later, telling us about how when they were that young Hikari was sick, and Taichi, still no older than 8, took her outside to play, which ended up with her condition worsening to a level where she ended in the hospital. Their parents punished Taichi for this. Nowhere does the series acknowledge that Taichi at this age should not have been alone with his sick sister for that long.
Yamato and Takeru meanwhile have divorced parents. Yamato lives with his father, Takeru with the mother. We see that Yamato often is taking care of chores and cooking for his father, being in many ways the mom in the household and fullfilling that role. During the show he is 10 or 11.
Yamato also parallels a character from Digimon's sister show at the time: Ojamajo Doremi. Here we have another character of divorced parents. Aiko. In her case we actually go into the reason of the divorce. Aiko's mother is a nurse, and she refused to give up her job to be a full stay at home mom. It was originally decided that Aiko would stay with her mother after the divorce. But Aiko - at the time being about 5 or 6 - got worried that her father could not take care of himself. So she decided to stay with her father. Her mother allowed this and has fallen out of contact with her. Her father is working as a cab driver. He often struggles to make ends meet. Aiko is meanwhile doing all the household chores. She cooks. She cleans. She irons his clothes. She is 8 years old in the first season. There are a handful of episodes that do critique that her father relies on her too much. But all in all, the situation exists to show how good of a kid Aiko is.
Back to Digimon. We also have Juri in Digimon Tamers. Her father owns a pub, and she is helping out, either by working in the pub or by taking care of her younger half-brother, when both her father and her step mother are busy working. She never got a chance to properly work through the loss of her mother.
And lastly there is Love from Fresh PreCure. Both her parents work, as her father is not earning quite enough, as he chose passion over good pay. This leaves Love often managing chores, and often taking care of dinner at home. It also is part of the reason why she tends to overextend herself in terms of taking care of others.
Japan's Lost Decade
And before we engage with all this, we are going to talk about Japan's economic crisis. You probably have heard that some time in the 90s, Japan had a big economic crisis, and then did not really recover from that. And if you are like me three weeks ago, that was the extent of your knowledge: the Japanese economy boomed after the end of WWII, and then it went bust.
The context is important though. Japan after the war did get the strong economy by being technology forward, but also by having this very weird relationship to how work and employment were supposed to work. The concept of Lifetime Employment was very common. Basically: you went to school, did good in school, then you got hired by a company, and would work for that company for the rest of your life on good pay. Companies who fired employees for anything other than really heinous things were seen as bad companies. Companies who did not pay living wages (that was outside of the creative industries, because of course those were exploitative) while their CEOs had good pay were seen as bad companies.
Of course this generally was an idea applied to men. Men worked and had an income that would afford them a home for their family. Women were supposed to be married by age 25.
The thing was: the economy was actually working rather well. And the USA hated this. Sure, the USA was partially what created this context (you know, the After War period and stuff), but when Japan became such a major player they really were shitting their pants, because: what if a non-white culture overtakes them? What if a non-white culture becomes the dominant culture on the world? Oh heavens, imagine!
And this lead to the Plaza Accords. Made between Japan, the US and some European countries in 1985. It was meant to regulate international trade, to allow the other countries to still compete with Japan. And then... it worked too well. Partially because of some bad calls being made by the Japanese government in regards to - now say it with me - deregulating the financial market, especially in regards to housing loans.
This was not like the 2008 US crisis, but in some ways similar. Basically there were cheap loans, both for companies and people buying houses. And the idea was that houses could only increase in value. Spoiler alert: they did not.
And here was where the Japanese way of dealing with challenges kinda kicked them in the butt. Because the Japanese banks did not want to destroy small companies - it was seen as bad policy. But this kept a bunch of failing companies alive for a while, while also stopping new - potentially more viable - companies from being created. The Japanese banks kept loaning money to a bunch of companies that were failing slowly due to the way the money were borrowed. And the lack of new companies - because you can only lend out so much money - created an environment with a lack of new jobs.
Sure, this was not quite as heavily felt given that there was the demographic decline. And still... by the early 90s it started to show, and it got worse over the course of the 90s. There were not enough new jobs, and people now entering the workforce often did not get that lifetime employment opening. And even if they did, often enough the pay was no longer enough to feed a family. This was part of the reason why less and less people got married (men believing they should not marry if they could not feed a family, but also women not wanting to marry if they were expected to handle household chores AND a job). And it was also part of the reason why another thing happened.
The Death of Community
Let me get back to one of my favorite topics: bitching about how the nuclear family unit is unnatural to homo sapiens and a horrible way to raise children.
Chances are, all you know about Japan, is that it is fairly conservative of a place. You probably have heard how much sexism is a problem. And how queer marriage is not allowed at large. And how trans people can only bureaucratically transition once they had bottom surgery. And how disabled people are marginalized. And all of this is true.
But also Japan actually hung onto some ideas of raising children communally, and preferring multi-generational households for way longer than the west. In the US the nuclear family was largely invented in the 1950s. Japan hung onto the multi-generational household way into the 80s. In many cases families lived with grandparents and other relatives in one home. And yes, this partially also burdened mothers on one hand, by making them responsible for the older relatives. But at the same time it also allowed for there to be more adults to be responsible for children.
And then there were the walkable communities. And this is the part that especially for Americans probably is strange. But: a lot of Japanese towns and even cities were organized around several walkable centers. For cities this was often a specific walkable neighborhood, featuring a lot of family owned small stores and restaurants. The shotengai (商店街). You probably have seen this in a bunch of anime. The entire Pandamon neighborhood in Beatbreak is this, and it is brought up in a lot of anime.
The general idea is quite simple: the government protected family owned businesses over bigger companies and shopping centers, and meanwhile those neighborhoods were just safe places where kids were just roaming around, everyone knew everyone, and there was a lot of community happening there.
Kids could be unsupervised, because they actually never were truly unsupervised. Everyone knew the names of the kids. The kids were safe and if anything happened taken care of.
This is also why you see in so many Japanese media really young kids run errands. Because this is just assumed. And, yes, there also is the general thing that children in Japan are still very much seen as fully fledged people - at times to a good ending, and at times to a bad.
But this brings me back to those anime kids - and the lack of acknowledgement.
The Reliable Child Archetype
Now, imagine you are a young family in Japan in the 90s. Suddenly the money is tight. Your family might need to move to the city because it is where you can more reliably find a job. This also means that you can no longer live in a multigenerational household, because right now the housing market is in shambles and you just cannot afford a big home in the big city where your relatives can move in.
So, the father works. Likely in an office. He is likely a salaryman. Japanese office culture says that you cannot go home before your boss, and if your boss wants you to go drinking with him after work, than that is what you do. Of course. So often the father is only ever home to sleep, because he literally cannot not go drinking with the boss.
Your wife might now also have to work at least part-time. And if not, she might still be held accountable for taking care of older family members, who might still be living in a suburban or rural area, making her commute between your home in the city, and the rural living of your family.
But at your home, there is also work that needs to be done. Chores. Cooking.
But hey, children are basically tiny adults, right? So it is just natural that you expect your children to do this. The oldest first. And this is the birth of the しっかりした子, the reliable child. The reliable child is a good natured child, who is taking care of chores without complaining. Who cooks for you, and possibly their younger siblings. Like a good member of the productive society, they put themselves after the well-being of others, especially their family. This is not something to be seen as bad. It is indeed something that Japanese society at large is proud of. Our children can help out and shoulder the burdens. Our children are capable.
And this is what gets us characters like Taichi, Yamato, and Aiko. Especially Aiko feels strange when you watch the show, because Ojamajo Doremi does seem to be so keenly aware of the troubles of children. Yet, while the show does criticize the father for too heavily relying on her, it does never say that he should not rely on her at all. No. It clearly says that it is good and admirable that she is cooking and doing the chores. And more than once she also learns the lesson that this is to be expected of her.
The same is with Taichi and Yamato. The series never sees a problem with their roles in their respective families. No, it is a challenge for them to grow from, rather than a case where possibly adults should be responsible.
After reading through Japanese papers on this topic, I am actually very certain on what is happening with the Yagami family. They constantly live in buildings that were explicitly built to allow young families to migrate to the city. The grandparents are very likely still around but either living in the outer edges of the city, or even rural. Yagami Yuuko will be expected as a daughter and daughter in law to commute out there to take care of those grandparents and other older relatives. Which is why she is often gone the whole day. As the oldest child Taichi will be expected to take care of everything. And he does. He is a responsible child.
Which also makes Digimon Tamers and Fresh PreCure stand out here. Because both shows actually do something similar: they call back onto the shotengai (in Fresh PreCure this is very clear, as literally the entire show takes place within the bounds of a shotengai, while for Tamers Takato's and Juri's families both have businesses within a shotengai) and the idea of communal child raising, while also explicitly calling out the parents who fail their children.
Which is actually quite interesting. Konaka in general is a writer who has to his credit called out the weird relation Japan has to children a bunch of times in his writing.
Meanwhile Fresh PreCure is interesting because, well... It was written by Maekawa, who also was one of the two lead writers on Digimon Adventure 02. And I also gotta say. While 02 never fully called out the concept as heavily as Fresh PreCure or Tamers did, it had at least some commentary on the Reliable Child archetype. Osamu was a Reliable Child. So is Ken. And meanwhile a large chunk of the 02 kids are actively younger siblings - which I think was actually intended to show those dynamics play out from a different perspective.
The Specter of the Lost Decade
Something I keep thinking about is, how a lot of those specific cultural contexts - especially back then - were never fully explained to audiences. Because anime were still made primarily with a Japanese audience in mind. And much like American shows do not explain suburbia, these things were not explained in anime back then. But as someone who has looked in from the outside.
For the anime I grew up with the Lost Decade and economic ruin is haunting the narratives. I mean, a bunch of series that were fairly beloved were almost entirely the result of that context. But even the fairly normal shows like Digimon, or Ojamajo Doremi, or Precure later on were kinda haunted by the consequences of this. And it is... interesting, to say the least.
Eh, well, tagging @firedragon1321 and @seventeenlovesthree for the Taichi love and context.
I'm begging Flowery glazers to understand him in context with the other antagonists, because I'm seeing way too many people use Flowery as "proof" that Tenna, Queen and King (but especially Tenna) acted irrationally or with little regard for others. So let me remind you of their circumstances:
King - relegated to the supply closet after a lightner accidentally tore him. Has grown to resent lightners as a result of the Card Kingdom denizens being abandoned.
Queen - believes she is helping lightners by distracting them from their pain. Feels threatened when the internet shuts off. Acts with what she thinks are good intentions but is ultimately misinformed.
Tenna - fearing for his life the entirety of chapter three. Doesn't understand why the people around him keep disappearing and is desperately trying to bring back the past. Stuck in a negative environment with a poor mental state and acts accordingly.
Flowery - cared for by Asgore diligently despite both Asgore's shop and life crumbling around him. Feels protective of the man who has kept him and his family alive all these years.
Can we see why Flowery is the obvious outlier here? The world hasn't abandoned him, but rather from his perspective the world has abandoned the person he cares about. His actions are fueled by the fact he is loved, both by Asgore and the other flowers. So can we stop acting like he exists to cast shame on the other antagonists' actions? All of these characters are both products of their environment and the objects they represent, and personally I don't blame a single one of them for behaving the way they did.
tricky toby radiation fox will make an amazingly written chapter about freedom, compromise, and sacrifice. and then everyone goes "wow this is the worst chapter yet" and start killing the most pivotal character in ralseis entire arc with hammers because he's less annoying than their gay television.
Do you tumblr people want a whimsical funny guy or not??
Also he’s literally a great character and helps Ralsei out in their whole debacle with being bound by prophecy/rules and with their identity? Like gotdang by the end of the chapter I was crying man I didn’t wanna leave
as joyce carol oates once said, “the poorest persons on twitter may have access to more beauty & meaning in life than the ‘most wealthy person in the world.’”
Someone who single-handedly killed hundreds of thousands of people thinks he gets to call anyone else “not a good human.” And for being “mean” to him on Twitter, of all things
I think I've written something similar in the past but but...I actually ALMOST feel sorry for Musk.
His life is parasitic and his death will be a net positive to humanity and the worst thing is HE KNOWS IT! Oates has a point - you'd think someone with that kind of wealth would ACTUALLY write about the elements of life and culture that he feels enriches him but he can't. Because the only thing he has to strive for is more money and more power. Two things that his acquisition of would actively cheapen the overall value. To people like Musk, the very idea of family is transactional. "What do I get out of it?" (insert comparison to his trans daughter - I'm rushing this). He COULD devote his life to something that fulfills him but...nothing ever will. When you have more wealth than has ever been owned by anyone and that STILL isn't enough, why would you or I assume it ever WILL be?!
To be THAT hollow and empty and devoid of the most basic pleasures of life, if Musk wasn't who he was, I'd ACTUALLY feel sorry for him.
Whats interesting about fanon(or more specifically I guess spamtenna focused fanon) perception of tenna is most people think he just exists in a vacuum and his entire deal is about Spamton and never acknowledge his dynamic with the Dreemurrs or anyone else.
If you ask them to characterize Tenna without mentioning Spamton it turns into “well hes a hardass boss whos super lonely” WHY is he a hardass boss. WHY is he lonely. If you take out the background of him knowing he will be killed if he fails at being a perfect TV then him being a “hardass” becomes a background quirk that’s just “aw thats spamtons silly husband”(or a way to make Spamton look like the better one). If you take out the factor of him being deeply isolated both as a boss darkner and a celebrity with no real equal(too above other darkners too below his lightner family he loves) then him being lonely seems like nonsense and awww spamton can fix that!
I’ve said it many times before that like… Tenna is very much shoved into a cardboard wife-like role for Spamton in fanon. But what interests me in this topic is the factor that it’s just so amatonormative that it loops around to a sick form of horror or tragedy and something that Tenna probably expects himself to step into, too. Yes he will be Spamton’s loving partner he can depend on yes he will be a strong figure that will protect him and take care of him for nothing in return other than basking in his love and affection.
It’s the factor of Tenna being deeply unwell and disabled himself, Tenna having such an endless amount of baggage and issues- obviously I’m really annoyed that it’s ignored amongst the fandom but it also fascinates me because it’s like theyre falling for Tenna’s facade. Like I know it’s the ableism it’s the amatonormativity it’s many things ect ect but like, isn’t it ironic? That Tenna, someone who will go to such insane lengths to avoid being seen as broken or not entertaining, is often seen as a prop? It’s so interesting to me.
But again, it’s so frequently that I never see anything done with that. It HAS to be about Spamton’s angst and when Tenna gets a turn it gets turned into more Spamton angst. I wish I could count the times I’ve read a fic or a comic where Tenna finally has a breakdown or gets hurt and it becomes about Spamton. I feel insane. Can anyone hear me.
No you’re 100% right and you should say it, especially the concept of people getting mad when you criticize a ship and say you hate it. I have a 300k spamtenna fic!!! I adore Spamtenna!!! But people are so blinded by their “toxic yaoi” that they refuse to look at anything else.
“Haha Tenna is always trauma dumping about his ex” is he? Or is he making a petty remark or two? Because Battat, the guy whos stalking and taking notes and making conspiracy boards about Tenna and is supposedly his therapist, doesn’t know who Spamton is(watsonian explaination of the frequency can easily be Tenna’s just spiraling out of control during ch3 so he’s got no filter. Doylist is toby has to portray information Somehow). “Tenna’s entire personality is spamton” Did we play the same game? Or do you only remember the three entire mentions of Spamton and nothing else about Tenna rambling about his family or his games or his fears of being killed for not being good enough(which, honestly w how much Tenna’s themes heavily rely on the themes of utdr as a whole, it makes sense that people only there for the “yaoi” dont pick up on them).
I feel like I could write an entire essay with chapters explaining why Tenna is treated the way he is- if I really wanted I could write a fucking book. Like there would be chapters titled “how misogyny blinds an audience” and you’d go how the fuck does that effect anything about the male character being mistreated and I go on a 20 page rant about how because none of the protagonists of utdr are not traditionally manly men they aren’t paid attention to and therefore the themes aren’t and how most the bonds Tenna has are with people who arent men and the 2 or 3 most masculine men that know him like to shit talk him so those voices are elevated and god FORBID I get into how BPD symptoms are most often associated with women and how women are disproportionately diagnosed with BPD for “acting out” and how people hear the disorder and think “attention seeking whore” speaking of this opens our Next Chapter: how ableism impacts the view of Mr Ant Tenna-
^ ignoring this rant, it fascinates me that if you criticize spamtenna or spamton its seen as hatred. And here is where I wrote an entire paragraph about that subject and then deleted it bc I don’t want to sound too mean even though I think it’s all 100% right LMAO 😭 just know I can’t agree enough on the idea of like. “How dare you imply spamton/spamtenna has issues” being the response to a lot of genuinely fascinating characters analysis
Thank you tumblr user thattennafan you are so very right all the time
It irks me to no end seeing very complex and good characters get bastardized through fanart or interpretation, getting the villain treatment and such, especially when it’s just someone who is struggling, at their lowest point in mental health in the narrative/does seem to or is implied to have some mental health condition (like I feel we should appreciate characters that are more realistic and show actual struggles and symptoms, and not villainize that, or completely ignore all the inherent good about their character, their arc, or otherwise mischaracterize so badly aughhhh
It irks me to no end seeing very complex and good characters get bastardized through fanart or interpretation, getting the villain treatment and such, especially when it’s just someone who is struggling, at their lowest point in mental health in the narrative/does seem to or is implied to have some mental health condition (like I feel we should appreciate characters that are more realistic and show actual struggles and symptoms, and not villainize that, or completely ignore all the inherent good about their character, their arc, or otherwise mischaracterize so badly aughhhh
christianity being a real facet of peoples lives instead of something you grow out of is killing me what do you mean youre 19 and still believe that mission trips are a positive force in the world
I'm going to respond like that person said their comment in good faith for a second.
I've been on mission trips, both domestic and international. I once believed I was doing good work. I don't any more, and I'm going to walk you through why. We're going to set aside the religious aspect for a second and call it what it is: voluntourism. You're going somewhere novel to you and doing volunteer work. That's voluntourism.
Here's what I learned over the 21 years since my first international mission trip. Voluntourism is a destabilizing influence on the people and communities it nominally serves. They introduce a lot of change in a short period of time and then they leave without doing any of the work needed to make those changes sustainable. The people who live there are faced with a no-win choice: they can try to keep the change going, and devote resources they may not have to creating the necessary infrastructure; they can abandon that change and let it decay over time, with all the risks associated; or they can scrap it for parts and risk upsetting anyone from the original set of voluntourists if they ever come back.
Now imagine that there are kids involved, as they often are. Voluntourists have a nasty habit of using kids as props to enhance the social credibility of their photos. I did this, and I'm ashamed of it. Kids everywhere form emotional bonds easily. So what happens to a kid whose school is constantly bringing in volunteers for a week or two who are friendly and affectionate, who bring food or gifts, and then bounce and never come back? That kid eventually grows numb. They don't connect with people as easily. They stop trusting that people have good intentions.
And all this is without even addressing the objectification of people in poverty that goes into these trips. The devaluation of cultures. The implicit, and sometimes explicit paternalism and colonialism that fuels them. Voluntourism depends on the idea that you are coming from somewhere "better" to somewhere "worse" and that your presence and cultural exports will inherently improve the place you are going.
If you want to do volunteer work, start at home. Start somewhere that you can go to regularly, that strengthens your community. Don't just show up for a day and call it done. And if you want to travel, travel! But remember when you do that you are a guest, and you owe it to your hosts to tread lightly and with respect.
what's the darkest thought Yamato ever had about himself? What's his villain trait?
Also same question for Taichi and Takeru because it's fun
Oh my gosh, ok, this was actually a really tough one, and so what I have come back with here is pretty deep-cut headcanon, based more on my own interpretation of these guys and how I characterise them in my fics, rather than this being some super insightful meta about the source material. That’s my disclaimer up front, for the canon purists!
I’ll start with darkest thoughts about themselves.
Yamato
One thing I have always found really interesting when writing him is to play with how others see him, versus how he sees himself, because I think there is a big gap between the two.
For example, he is clearly a desirable guy: he looks like the standard anime prettiest of pretty boys, and we see people explicitly crushing on him.
He is also sexualised in a way that the other boys aren’t, from an early age. Like, there is that weird hitchhiking scene where Taichi and Jou and Koushiro all try to hitch a ride and fail, and then Yamato tries, only to have an older woman instantly try to pick him up.
My headcanon is that Yamato goes through life knowing that people are drawn to him for his looks, without necessarily caring about getting to know him as a person.
And I think that in his darkest moments, he agrees that he is not someone worth knowing.
It all plays into existing fears of abandonment and not being good enough to be loved that stem from his parents’ divorce, troubled relationship with his mother, and the kind of transactional set up he has with his dad - him taking care of the house while his dad works all hours.
I also think this is why Sora actually makes sense as a partner for him in canon, because she would obviously be an exception to this narrative. She is sensitive and empathetic and has seen him at his worst. She clearly knows him and is choosing him for who he is as a person, not just because he’s in a band and has pretty eyes.
Taichi
I think his darkest thoughts are probably around looking back on past choices and questioning whether he did the right thing/did enough in the moment. He wants to save people, feels like it is on him to do it all, and for instances where this hasn’t worked out, it’s easy to look back and to feel like he has failed. It’s like that scene at the end of Schindler’s List where people are celebrating Oscar Schindler for all the lives he has saved, but all he can do is look at the gold rings on his fingers and think about how many more he could have saved if only he had thought to sell those rings.
Taichi willingly takes so much on his shoulders and I think his darkest thoughts are him beating himself up for not being able to take more.
Takeru
I feel like I have not spent enough time really exploring his character to be able to answer this particularly well! I guess there are obvious things like the typical younger sibling complex of not being able to measure up to an impressive older sibling…
But I think for Takeru maybe the key thing I would like to explore if I were to write fic about him would be a sense of him fighting to avoid succumbing to an underlying nihilism, which is seemingly at odds with everything a child of hope is supposed to stand for. Like, he has seen so much dark stuff from such an early age, and I’m sure he must have times where the whole world seems like a very dark place because of that, and I can imagine him struggling with holding on to the point of it all - like what is this for, and where do I fit in this existence?
I feel like his future career as a writer works well, as writing would allow him to work through some of those feelings.
Villain traits
Yamato
He has so many lol. He has all the ingredients to be an excellent villain.
At the top for me is that I think Yamato is very astute about people. He’s super smart, but there is a more emotional dimension to his intelligence compared to, say, Koushiro’s smarts, and that has the potential to be really dangerous, because he can spot what is going to hurt you the most, and then aim right for it.
Added to that, he has a temper and can quite easily be triggered to use physical violence. So, if you piss him off enough, he’s going to hit you.
Taichi
His villain quality is probably his drive to push on regardless and his potential to do whatever it takes to win - sacrificing anything he needs to and trampling over anyone who gets in his way.
In reality, he is not so cut-throat as to never consider the feelings of others. But in certain circumstances, I think that his commitment to a cause, and ability to inspire others to follow him in it, could potentially be quite toxic.
Takeru
I honestly don’t think Takeru is very villainous, lol. But I guess his sunny nature and seemingly mild manners would do a very good job of hiding what he might really be up to. So, in my view, his ability to pass as a non-villain would be his most villainous trait.
This is really interesting! If you don’t mind, I’d like to share my thoughts on Yamato a little.
What stands out about Yamato is that the series actually gives us moments where we hear his darkest thoughts directly.
The best example is the Digimon Adventure episode with Cherrymon, where Cherrymon manipulates Yamato and convinces him to fight Taichi . The second best example is the dark cave episode, where Yamato completely sinks into his fears and negative emotions.
Across those episodes, Yamato’s thoughts can be summarized like this:
He feels that his only purpose in life is being needed (by Takeru)
He feels like the group — and even Takeru — would be fine if he didn't exist
He believes Taichi is a better older brother than he is.
He thinks that defeating Taichi might finally make him feel important or needed.
He feels unworthy of the Crest of Friendship.
Since his parents’ divorce, he’s been afraid to cry or show weakness.
He believes he always has to stay strong for everyone else, especially Takeru.
Deep down, he feels completely alone.
All of these thoughts are dark, especially for someone Yamato’s age. But I think the core issue is his desperate need to feel needed — to feel like he has a place within the group. Whenever he feels unnecessary, he starts questioning everything: his worth, his role, his friendship, even his own existence. He constantly compares himself to Taichi and doubts whether he deserves the connections he has.
That’s incredibly heavy for a child to carry.
Now, moving a bit into headcanon/fanfiction territory, I’ve always had this idea that Yamato’s existential crisis — the fact that he questions the value of his own existence — doesn’t come only from his parents’ divorce. I think there could be something even deeper behind it.
My headcanon/fanfic idea is that Yamato’s parents only got married because of him. Maybe Natsuko (his mom) became pregnant unexpectedly, and she and Hiroaki (his dad) decided to marry for the sake of the child.
But the marriage ultimately failed, and years later they divorced.
Because of that, Yamato subconsciously blames himself simply for existing. In his mind, if he had never been born, maybe his parents would never have married and might have lived happier lives.
That would explain why he’s so desperate to be needed by others specially Takeru. If he isn’t needed, then he starts wondering what value his existence even has.
To me, that would be the darkest part of Yamato’s psychology.
Also I just wanted to say something about Takeu
Takeru generally is shown to be nice and kind and polite but there are some episode both in adventure and 02 that show deeper side of him. I think Takeru's 2 important insecurities are :
His parent's divorce
Patamon's death which scarred Takeru forever
Yamato hating him (Picodevimon episode)
Becoming a burden (since he was the youngest in DA he wanted to always prove that he is capable)
Another thing about Takeru is that unlike Yamato, he is extremely good at supressing his anger but in the infamous episode with Ken, he literally snapped and hit Ken. Takeru does have some of Yamato's anger inside of him after all. They truly are brothers lol
Teen-Age Wolf: A Yamato "Matt" Ishida Analysis and Critique
(What do you mean absolutely zero people asked for or will care about this I don't understand.)
I grew up a massive Yamato fan. He was a character that was very dear to me, so naturally I was extremely excited to hear I'd get to go on more Adventures with him, first in Tri and then Last Evolution Kizuna. The consistent thing through all of this was that I loved each evolution of his character as we got them, but a recent rewatch of Tri and Kizuna have had me thinking about his character in ways I really hadn't before—in some ways leaving me delighted and others making me feel outright betrayed. So I wanted to explore his character journey to fully and properly grasp my thoughts on the character I consider to be my favorite of all time.
Walk on the Edge of a Knife
While the main desire in this is to explore his journey through Tri and Kizuna, I think it's important to lay the foundation of where he comes from to better understand how he evolves. We first see him in Adventure as a seemingly aloof kid, though it's pretty quickly revealed that this isn't really true. While not as openly friendly as some of the others, he often shows that he does care about them, seeking to protect them and trying to choose the path with the fewest dangers. His interactions with Takeru highlight this the most but that does extend toward the rest of the group as well.
Yamato's growth as a character is most obvious through his thoughts and interactions relating to Takeru and his parents. Due to his parents' divorce, he himself admits that he grew to be closed off from others, viewing himself as the unwanted child and placing Takeru on a pedestal as something for him to protect at all costs. He viewed his own value through the lens of being a useful older brother, so when Takeru grew to be more independent, Yamato began to lose sight of who he was.
This was exacerbated by the fact that Taichi—as well as the rest of the kids—applauded and encouraged Takeru's independence. Yamato viewed this as a threat, growing jealous of Taichi specifically due to how well he got along with Takeru, even stating that he believed Taichi to be the better older brother figure of the two.
On that note, Yamato's interactions with Taichi specifically are also important to understanding him as a character. The two are often butting heads and disagreeing on the right course of action, with Taichi seeking the straightforward and sometimes reckless route while Yamato usually prefers the more thoughtful and sometimes overly cautious approach. While Taichi does become the natural leader of the group, Yamato's input is still taken seriously, to the point where when he has split off from the group, Taichi actively tries to think about how Yamato would handle the given situation if he were there. Yamato, for his part, largely comes to acknowledge and defer to Taichi's leadership, always offering his opinion when he feels it is necessary.
The last character I need to touch on is Gabumon whose biggest impact on Yamato is through his loyalty. Gabumon is often shown simply enjoying being in Yamato's presence, a quiet but firm rock for him to lean on, but will also actively put Yamato's needs and desires above his own. While trying to be a voice of reason, he will still go along with whatever Yamato wants to do so long as Yamato himself feels it's the right thing to be doing, even if Gabumon himself disagrees.
This is important to Yamato since he has trouble viewing himself as someone worthy of such loyalty due to the issues with his family touched on earlier. While everyone is changing around him in a way that makes Yamato unsure of himself, Gabumon remains a constant. The only character Yamato really talks about his issues with is Gabumon, hiding them from Takeru, Taichi, and the rest of the group. And when he cuts himself off from everyone else, it's Gabumon who finally convinces him that his view of himself is skewed as he refuses to see his own positive qualities.
All of these interactions (and more) shape who Yamato grows into by the end of Adventure. Gabumon's loyalty gets Yamato to be more open with his feelings—at least to Gabumon himself—helping him work through his issues with his family and Taichi. He comes to accept that just because Takeru doesn't need him to protect him all the time doesn't mean that he's a bad or useless brother and that Takeru loves him for who he is, not what he is capable of.
As for Taichi, Yamato turns his jealousy into respect. While initially feeling threatened by Taichi's growing maturity, Taichi is, in a way, a bit of an ideal for Yamato by the end—he's decisive, friendly, caring, and strong-willed while always desiring to do what's right, qualities Yamato wishes to possess himself.
The series ends with him embodying all of these things as well. He is shown to be supportive of Takeru, have utmost faith in Gabumon, and work in perfect sync with Taichi.
These all carry over into 02. While he doesn't appear often, we can still see his growth in what is shown to us. He is more open and friendly, both to the original Digidestined and the new, though he will still snap if he thinks the situation calls for it or he is pushed too far. And when he is around, he leads by example, being the first willing to do what's needed. His relationship with Takeru is on more equal terms, he and Taichi are friends that can both support and mess with each other, and he is clearly always happy to see Gabumon when he is able, the two still shown to have complete faith in each other.
To Me, You're Someone Irreplaceable
By Tri, though, things have shifted ever so slightly. While Yamato is more open than he used to be, we see that the only one he genuinely talks about his worries to is Gabumon. He and Takeru still have a close relationship, but it almost feels like Yamato purposefully doesn't want to tell him things about himself that might upset him—perhaps his new way to "protect" Takeru without smothering him. And as for Taichi…
By the end of Adventure, Taichi and Yamato had managed to become similar in a way, each taking on traits of the other that they had come to admire. Taichi grew to be more conscientious of those around him while Yamato learned to be more decisive. We see them in sync come 02, the two of them barely even needing words to understand each other. But this, too, has shifted, though in this case it's more than slightly.
By the start of Tri, Yamato and Taichi almost feel like the inverse of how they started. I mentioned that Taichi at the end of Adventure felt like a bit of an ideal for Yamato, someone with traits he aspired to have. Over the years, Yamato worked to change himself, to fashion how he handled tough situations after his ideal: Taichi as he was in Adventure. But meanwhile, Taichi was also changing, taking to heart the lessons he learned from Yamato and paying more attention to the people around him.
So when Yamato sees Taichi struggling against the Kuwagamon, he instantly knows something is wrong.
It takes a little while, but eventually he realizes that the ideal Taichi he's been admiring isn't the current Taichi. It leaves him at a loss for how to handle the situation, trying initially to confront Taichi head on before he realizes that way just isn't working anymore. Taichi isn't reacting the same way he used to. Yamato has to relearn how to approach his best friend, the person he thought he'd been in sync with for years now, in a completely new way.
This one difference is the catalyst for Yamato to finally stop idealizing the Taichi of the past and come to terms with how he truly wants to live his life.
We see Yamato take a gentler approach with Taichi, offering him relief instead of applying pressure. We see him taking active steps to look further into the situation with the 02 Digidestined, seeking answers from Nishijima and Himekawa in an attempt to ease the group's worries. He is stepping up and out of the shadow he had inadvertently been walking in, doing what he can without relying on Taichi.
We also see him actively approaching Takeru when he can tell something is wrong, but their encounter solidifies that it's not just Yamato who doesn't want to open up—Takeru is also no longer confiding in Yamato. The two are still close, but there's something keeping them both from truly trusting each other. And Yamato knows he's hiding something—Takeru, like Taichi, is changing.
And who does he talk to about all of this? Gabumon, his one remaining constant.
In the first three Tri movies, we see Yamato open up to Gabumon on several occasions, sometimes on his own and sometimes with merely a single question. But it's clear that their bond has grown over the years—Yamato trusts Gabumon more than anyone else, enough to talk about things he'd never admit otherwise. He shares about his struggles with Taichi, he admits that he's afraid of things changing, worrying that even his fond memories might change over time. And Gabumon listens, saying exactly what Yamato needs to hear if he can.
But then Yamato loses that too.
I think it's important to note that of all the kids, Yamato is the only one never shown by himself after the reboot. Right after it happens, he goes to Takeru and holds him while letting him cry. We later see him visit Taichi and riding on his moped with Takeru, and when they are all coming together at last, he's shown arriving with Sora.
These are the people that mean the most to him. All of them are changing, and that's clearly been hard on him, but they—unlike Gabumon who won't even recognize him even if they meet—are still here. Making sure to show him spending time with each of them instead of alone feels very deliberate, a clear indication that Yamato is both seeking and giving comfort.
It's at this point we see a few things start to shift again. Yamato seems to take notice of Taichi sliding back into the role of taking charge and finds relief in it. Upon meeting Tsunomon/Gabumon, the easiness they had is clearly gone. And now he finds Sora as the latest person around him that's suffering.
We have seen Yamato deal with trying to help people in two ways: 1.) getting aggressive as a means to force a solution into existence and 2.) quietly being there for them and hoping they open up to him. He chooses the latter with Sora, though trying to tackle the issue with Taichi winds up landing it somewhere in between the two instead, and it fails pretty spectacularly. It does at least show that he cares and wants to help.
The changes in Taichi, however, actually have an effect on Yamato. Taichi has taken his time to think, and when confronted with a hard choice, he chooses to kill Meicoomon on their own terms. This is different from anything they've dealt with in the past. In 02, when MetalGreymon was under the Digimon Emperor's control, they vowed to fight as hard as would be necessary, but the intent was to free him. And back in Reunion, Taichi was wavering because of potential deaths the collateral damage could cause. This is directly attacking a friend with the intent to kill.
And finally things with Yamato come to a head. He, too, has been growing and changing, taking charge when he felt he needed to, but this was not an answer he had ever come to, or one, I think, he ever expected Taichi to come to.
But he did. Yamato gave him room to figure out whatever was going on in his head, and this is the answer he came up with.
Now Yamato is the one left wavering. For all his growth, the one thing that has stayed the same is his desire to protect and help the people he cares about most. This decision feels like the antithesis of that. And yet Taichi, the person he most looked up to, the person he was at one point most in sync with, the person Yamato knows does feel the same way as him about the ones he cares about, has decided it's the best course of action.
He defaults back to aggression in retaliation, but ultimately he trusts Taichi. He hates it, he doesn't want to, but he trusts that Taichi isn't making this decision on a whim, and he can't do it without Omegamon—without Yamato.
But the battle abruptly ends, and Taichi disappears.
Yamato's development throughout Tri has been leading to this point—what is he capable of when the one he so often compares himself to isn't there as a guidepost?
Luckily, he does not have to answer that question alone.
Yamato does initially take charge, trying to keep everyone from falling apart under the loss, putting off dealing with his own feelings until they are in a safe space to think and rest. But even then he attempts to deal with them on his own, because the one that used to help him has been erased.
Accept, he hasn't—not exactly. Throughout all of Loss and Coexistence, Yamato's relationship with Gabumon felt far more surface level than it had in a very long time. I mentioned that Yamato has two ways of trying to help people, and with Gabumon he clearly decided that he would give him space to come to terms with a partnership he can't remember. This means that while Yamato still genuinely seemed to enjoy his company and cared about him deeply, he was choosing to not go to Gabumon with his worries like he used to.
So Gabumon comes to him.
While everyone around him was changing—while Yamato himself was changing—the core of who Gabumon was remained the same. It didn't matter that he didn't have his memories; he still wanted to be that listening ear he'd always been.
We can see Yamato hesitating to go along with it at first, simply giving Gabumon the friendly smile he'd been directing at him the past two movies when Gabumon tells him that he should rely on his digimon partner for advice. But Gabumon doesn't give up until Yamato is finally able to recognize that his friend is still in there. He may not remember everything that happened between them, but Yamato can recognize that despite it all Gabumon is still Gabumon.
This is what Yamato needed in this moment. He is not only allowed to process his emotions, but he is given the confidence he needs to do what he knows he has to.
Admittedly, though, Future doesn't actually give him a lot to do—Huckmon and Koushiro largely coordinate things. He does do his best to keep them together and focused and lead the attack charge, which are still important, but soon enough Taichi comes back, and the role of leader goes back to him, this time with Yamato backing him up completely, holding his ground despite how awful the situation is.
The last piece of insight we get into Yamato is him hearing that Taichi has finally decided to really aim for his future, and this inspires Yamato, claiming that maybe he'll aim even higher.
Virtual Reality Resistance
By the time Kizuna rolls around, Yamato is working hard in college, though feeling like he's in a bit of a rut, uncertain about his future. Instead, though, he gets pulled into a digimon related plot, one that includes a timer indicating that when it's up, Gabumon will vanish.
Yamato is shown working tirelessly trying to save the comatose people, the leadership traits he gained in Tri on full display as he investigates on his own as well as seeking the help of the 02 kids. He even goes so far as to purchase burner phones for Taichi and Koushiro, fearing they're being tracked. And when he and Taichi are confronted with Menoa's plan to "save" all of the Digidestined by trapping them in happy memories with their digimon from their childhood, everything finally comes to a head.
Yamato can have more time with Gabumon before he disappears, or he can put his all into the fight to save everyone and reduce the amount of time they have left.
There's a lot to note about all of this. For starters, Kizuna begins with them fighting off a digimon. But as soon as it's over, Yamato leaves Gabumon behind. Based on the reactions from Takeru, Gabumon, and everyone else left behind, this is not unusual. We later see Yamato and Taichi at a restaurant drinking beer, and when they talk about Gabumon and Agumon, they mention that they never change, making a joke about being unable to bring them with them to class. Taichi practically flat out says he's too busy for him, and Yamato doesn't dispute this. Later we learn that Agumon has never even been to Taichi's apartment, and Taichi freaks out when he sees stuff that's "only for adults".
Kizuna seems to be telling us that their digimon are holding them back from moving forward, that as long as they're around, Yamato will always have his attention divided.
This is where the timer comes in. They have, apparently, been neglecting their digimon long enough that it is somehow decided that it's time for their role as a Digidestined to come to an end. This would allow them to move forward with their lives without clinging to the past, the idea that maybe, someday they can reunite if they have "limitless potential".
Whether Yamato and Taichi realize all of this or not, they make the choice to save everyone, vastly reducing the time they have left together with their digimon.
In the end, Yamato has to let Gabumon go. But in doing so he finds a renewed purpose, running toward his future with the hopes of seeing him again someday.
If You Don't Believe I've been Here All Along Just Turn Around
As stated at the beginning, I have a lot of thoughts on all of this, some good, some not so good. As my biggest issues come at the end, we might as well start with Kizuna.
The big elephant in the room is the idea that Yamato has grown beyond Gabumon. I can see what the writers were trying to do with this, but I admit it doesn't work for me for many reasons, the first being Gabumon himself. While I understand the idea is that everyone has changed except the digimon, the Adventure-verse as a whole doesn't fully support that.
In my analysis of Tri, I mentioned that even after the reboot, Gabumon was still the same, but I only said it that way because it's how Tri wanted you to view the scene. In truth, however, Gabumon post-reboot is the same as Gabumon from earlier in Tri, but not the same as Gabumon from Adventure/02. The Gabumon from Tri feels older, as if he's been around Yamato long enough that he's taken on some of his traits and mannerisms, like his sarcasm and side-eyes. In a similar vein, the Gabumon in Kizuna has a moment where he feels younger than the other versions—in the restaurant when he and Agumon both get shushed by the waitress for being too loud. The Tri version of Gabumon would have been annoyed at Agumon causing a ruckus, while Adventure/02 likely would have just sat there quietly. So as much as Tri/Kizuna want you to believe Gabumon hasn't changed, the writing is so inconsistent that it feels like he has, with Gabumon being written in a way to support each different story.
But even if you ignore that, Gabumon is shown to be one of the more mature digimon even back in Adventure, and not only that, for a long time he was Yamato's only true confidant. This is not just a childish toy or game—this was his closest ally and friend. Am I really being expected to believe that Yamato, the one given the Crest of Friendship, was ignoring not just one of his best friends but the one who had always been there for him in his darkest, most vulnerable moments? The only one he felt he could tell anything to? All because, what, Gabumon wasn't "adult" enough?
So, to summarize, Kizuna is about the Bearer of the Crest of Friendship actively ignoring one of his closest friends because he was now too immature and that being the catalyst for Gabumon's death in all but name. If someone has a better take, I would love to hear it, but this is how Kizuna read to me, and I am honestly SO not ok with it.
Which is a darned shame as if you completely ignore this incredibly unignorable aspect of the movie, I actually like it quite a lot and think Yamato is handled pretty well. How he acts for most of the movie builds really well on the potential we saw from him in Tri.
Which is nice as Tri itself kinda failed a bit in that regard.
I unabashedly adore Yamato in almost the entirety of Tri. Even the parts I'm less fond of, it is largely in a "it's still ok" kind of way rather than an outright "oh, no, that doesn't work" kind of way. I think there are only two exceptions. One is when he and Taichi are trying to get Sora to talk to them and he (and Taichi) says, "What a pain." The whole scene just feels mildly off (though amusing), but this line specifically feels pretty out of left field for Yamato.
Which is a real shame as Yamato only really has important scenes with three characters—Taichi, Takeru, and Gabumon—and it would have been nice to add Sora—the only other character we know he's supposed to have a close connection with—to that group. It really feels like Sora's conversation with Meiko should have been had with Yamato (and maybe Taichi). A more awkward version, sure, but it would have helped their chemistry which was pretty lacking.
The only other part I don't really like is a bit more subjective, though. In Future, when Sora says she wonders what Taichi would say if he were there, Yamato states that Taichi would "go with the option that causes the least damage". The line is not what I have a problem with—it's the implication behind it. This is one I admit I can't say for sure what the intention was, but to me, the scene reads like Yamato is implying that allowing Homeostasis to reboot the real world would cause the least damage, which is honestly an insane take.
Perhaps I'm reading the scene the wrong way (I did watch the same scene dubbed and it leans far closer to the "we don't know what side that is exactly, but it can't be the reboot, right?" which feels like a fair take), but the way everyone just kind of starts listening to Huckmon, the way Koushiro gets angry and runs off with Yamato yelling after him… it really feels like the implication is supposed to be to allow the reboot to happen. I would love to be wrong on this one, though, because I can't believe that Yamato (and the others, frankly) wouldn't be able to grasp just how badly that would effect the world as a whole.
Other than these two very small details, I do think the way Yamato is handled in Tri not only works really well but builds off of his development in Adventure/02. He still feels like the same character despite the fact that everything from the art style to his voice is different.
The biggest letdown is that the payoff is kind of weak. If the scene I mentioned in the paragraph above had been tweaked just a tad, having Yamato actually make a definitive, hard decision instead of adding his two cents and letting Koushiro and Huckmon handle it, it could have really felt like a proper payoff to all the build up of Yamato learning to handle things his own way. Instead it feels a bit like he really is just holding onto the goggles until Taichi gets back. Thankfully Kizuna does give us the proper payoff to this, but it not being in Tri itself feels like a missed opportunity.
Overall I think Yamato's development is handled shockingly well considering it's spread out over two decades with different writers at the helm. There are characters written by just one guy in a much shorter span of time that don't have the kind of consistency that Yamato has. And each iteration really does build on the last, even if I don't personally agree with all the choices made. I may have other issues with various iterations of the Adventure-verse, but going back through everything has made me realize just how lucky I am to have a favorite character that I've been able to actively enjoy new material for for so long.
your honor he did that shit but his beloved youngest viewer/sibling/nibling/child/best friend/whatever the fuck brought him out of purgatory and told him he'd get unplugged again if he didn't, and he tried to make it as comfortable and entertaining for everybody else as possible while he practically had a gun to the back of his head, and he didn't expect it to go much longer than one round and was forced to keep it going in order to not fail his end of the bargain and get sent back to purgatory/the dump, and when he finally snapped under the pressure it was clear how terrified and miserable he was for his entire breakdown as he barely recognizes his surroundings and babbles unrelated nonsense and talks about his family arguing in present tense like he's still hearing and remembering it, and even still his absolute last stand was structured as a game with a clear end goal and plenty of opportunities to get there including his damage for his final attack decreasing the lower your health is, and the moment a teenager shows him the slightest bit of understanding and compassion he instantly changes his ways and vows to make things right, and the second he does he's viciously cut down in of the most brutal and cruel deaths in the whole series like it was a fucking secret hostage situation
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