So, the Tactics Team Seven...
Okay, given we got a whole lot more characters announced yesterday than just the Five Stars. We also have the Tactics Team Seven, who are going to be the antagonists for the next arc of the story. And it is also quite interesting to see what is up with them.
Also, before I forget, if you want to discuss this stuff further, once more the invitation of the Rewatch Discord Server, though right now the rewatch is on hold, because I am way too stressed.
But with that said, let's get to the Tactics Team, alright?
So, we know already that this is Team Seven. Which leads me to assume that there are also at least Tactics Teams One to Six, probably also others.
Seven as a number is a bit interesting, too. In Chinese numerology Seven is not really a very important number, though it does have specific meanings. Chinese numerology works often about the fact that a number is read as something that has a very different meaning. Seven in Chinese is written as 七 and read as qī, which is similar to 起 (qǐ = arise), 氣 (qì = life essence), and 欺 (qī = deceive).
Meanwhile in Japanese numerology Seven is usually a lucky number, as it is usually associated with the seven lucky gods. Though it also has other cultural meanings. Like with entire "seven samurai" thing and such.
Either way, I am fairly sure that we have been given the number for a reason to imply something, but with the possibilities going so far apart, that it is hard to say what exactly to expect. But let's go through the characters.
Raito obviously is the person who is going to primarily clash with Tomoro based on what we know so far. While he is not the leader of Tactics Team Seven, he will probably be the character playing the central role as a rival here. His likes and dislikes are not that interesting (a lot of people dislike Natto), so not much to say about this. His name in Japanese is written as 惣田ライト. 惣 means "all", 田 is again the field. And then there is his first name Raito. Usually if someone is called Raito it tends to be a wordplay on the English word "Light" which in Japanese gets written out as Raito. This also tends to remain that way when we write it out with Kanji, where this name often is written with 光 (light) or 輝 (brightness). There are other ways to write the name, but usually this is how it goes. And usually the name is associated with intelligence. Technically his name also could be written with 雷 (thunder) for the Rai part. Which obviously could fit also in well with Justimon, given his partner is Monodramon. Then again, though, I would not be surprised if his Monodramon does not go Monodramon -> Strikedramon -> Cyberdramon -> Justimon, but has a different evoline...
So, next character is Kanuma Hotaruko. Her partner is Shakomon, which is actually a super interesting partner for a girl, given they are also one of those less desireable Digimon usually, and not a typical girly Digimon. Then again, outside from Rose Woodville probably having Lilamon as a partner, it is quite noticable that so far the girls in this show indeed have not the typical plant or fairy Digimon.
Her design and the fact that Hotaruko is said to like cleaning, makes it quite clear that she is probably one of those "proper" girls, who likes to have control over everything and be very clean, but also tight up. Her dislike of Large Dogs in this case might actually be something more than just a throwaway and turn out to be associated with fears/trauma?
Her name 鹿沼ホタルコ. Her last name, Kanuma is written as 鹿 (deer) 沼 (marsh/wetland). Her first name is a fairly classical girl name. Hotaru usually gets written 蛍 (firefly) and obviously the ko 子 ending is the typical "child" end of a name often used in Japanese Girl Names. The fact that her name is Hotaru (a popular girl name) + ko is also really drawing attention to her being a girl.
Next we have a character who only has a nickname. Granit. Which means Granit. Hooray, that was easy. They are an interesting character design, given that they are pretty much the first time in an animated Digimon series that we have a character who is clearly darker skinned and has possibly a Black or Indigenous identity. We obviously have Black characters in Liberator, but never in anything animated. We do not know it for sure of course. Notably we also do not know Granit's gender. While they have long hair, their entire design feels very degendered from what we have seen so far, and I do wonder if that might also be a topic brought up. Also, their partner being Ludomon, a Digimon we have not seen animated despite it being around since 2017 is also a nice aspect of this.
And then we have Seraphy Naito. His name instantly sprang up to me as in Japanese it is given as セラフィ内藤. Which is noticable beause his last name is Japanese but his name in Japanese is given as First Name, Last Name, rather than the other way around (as it is normally done in Japanese), which strongly implies that this character identifies with a more western identity. his first name obviously also is not Japanese. Seraphy obviously does make me think "Seraph", so angels. Though the word Seraph actually means burning, which is interesting given his partner is Gigasmon, a Digimon that is associated with earth and not fire or angels. But the again, as we denoted yesterday: in Chinese philosophy fire is the element supporting earth, that is feeding earth as ash makes ground more fertile. And given that his e-Pulse will be feeding Gigasmon, that could actually be an intelligent name. His last name is written as 内, which means inside, and 藤 meaning wisteria. The latter part is actually interesting. Because 藤 usually denotes names in anime for characters who are connected to nobility and royalty. This is because the Fujiwara, the clan who ruled Japan for a long while, is written with 藤原氏. So I am really interested to see what is up with him.
