Three words but they are enough to explain another reason why I love Junpei. There are 1000 reasons for me to, personal too, ehm very personal to the point the Volcanomon episode gives me PTSD, and this is why it’s nice when the stars align to let me analyze each of them step-by-step.
These shots come from Odaiba Day’s stream. They invited some comic actors so they could perform funny skits about Adventure 01, while occasionally offering heartwarming commentary about the series.
I’ll be honest with you: when I heard “skits” and I saw a stout dude everyone was laughing at, I sat on my train of thoughts and started sweating, because, ehm, I was sure they would bring up Junpei in a way or another to joke about fat people or something similar. INSTEAD, INSTEAD, what happened is that for once I let myself be caught by utter surprise, because Takai did mention Junpei but to just nostalgically talk about how he felt connected with him as a kid.
Representation is important, fundamental, in every shape of its’. I’m not here to claim Junpei is a brilliantly-written character. Ogni scarrafone è bello a mamma sua, we say here, but the truth is that nobody in Frontier is, because the show didn’t allow the potential of these adorable kids to explode…Junpei and Izumi especially, who felt partly lacking due to the way the last half treated them. Yet, this show is from the early 2000’s and besides Doraemon, which already had plus-size characters who would occasionally show an interesting depth in the 80’s series, Japan didn’t have many fat characters who were respected and not heavily stereotyped in their shows; characters that could make stout kids feel visible.
Junpei came in, placed in a main group as a member who felt organically included in the cast, even when it comes to the stylistical choices of his design. He had growth arcs from the very beginning, had a cool Digimon to fight as, had moments in which he got to shine even as the hero he himself wished he had been, was given monologues in which he subtly or directly showed the audience how far he had got, without even acknowledging it. And whether you want to accept it or not, his chocolate and his crush on Izumi were there to try deconstructing tropes kids from those ages had been forced to swallow and internalize in those years.
If nowadays I still get to hear people like Takai and Shitanda himself- his VA-, Steven Bloom as well, who fondly remember about how they could relate to Junpei when they were children, it means this kid had something to tell. And he also did in a pretty decent way, considering the standards of those days, which, hear hear, were not AS BAD as nowadays because you should really give a look at the way anime has gone backwards in the healthy representation they were attempting to reach; at the way Digimon hasn’t been able to go and give us another stout character in the span of almost 25 years.
Happy Odaiba Day in late for all the people appreciating Junpei. You are in my heart, cradled next to this little motherfucker.