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the digimon boys for pride month!! Find the girls here!!
Spring is in full bloom, so let's never forget to be kind - and do all things with love. 🌸
TaiKouvember 2024, Day 4: Reliability
‘A headache is coming on.' Joe thinks to himself, massaging his eyes and opening them to the blurry blobs before him. He gently paws the table for his glasses, cupping them gingerly in his hand before equipping them once more.
“Okay, run this by me again... How do you get stuck on an island in the middle of Tokyo???” Joe yells into the phone, quickly assembling his things as he awaits the reply. First aid kit, rations... maybe bring double... utility knife, rope, an atlas, a compass...
“Well, uh, Kou…?” Taichi questions on the other line, prodding his friend to take the reins.
“Well, Joe-san, we heard stories of a monster on the island... and, thinking that perhaps there was a Digital Gate, we went to investigate... and there was! We defeated the Digimon! However, we spent too much time fighting it, and our Digimon went back to rookies." Koushirou says meekly, shame coating his words as he has to admit their blunder.
“Alright, me and Gomamon will be there as soon as we can. And Koushirou? Please tell me when you do this. I may be busier now, but if I thought you were in danger, I’d be there immediately.” Joe says, confident in his ability to make time for his friends.
“Yeah! We’d be there faster than two shakes of a Tylomon’s tail!” Gomamon cheers as he jumps into Joe’s arms, grinning as the two give their goodbyes and quickly make their way to the coast of Odaiba. Pulling out his Digivice and aiming the screen at his best friend, the bar begins to overflow with the Light of Hope within his heart.
“Okay, Gomamon! Time to Digivolve!”
Quickly, a ball shrouds Gomamon in grayish energy, and he begins to float midair, forming the features of his evolution as it spins midair.
Gomamon! Digivolve to…
IKKAKUMON!
Suddenly the sphere shatters, and Ikkakumon lands in the water, floating proudly as Joe easily makes his way on top of the digital beast. The two begin their journey, Joe giving directions as best he can using the directions Koushirou gave him, his atlas, and his compass. Soon enough, they see a wooded island, a Pepper Breath erupting from the shore like fireworks in the sky. Joe calls out but deems it futile, so Ikkakumon returns fire with a weak Harpoon Torpedo, signaling their arrival.
“Joe! Am I glad to see you!" Taichi is the first to make contact, giving Ikkakumon a big hug as Joe slides down to greet him.
"Well, I couldn’t have just left you two here!” Joe exclaims, mock-offended as he looks around. Noticing the lack of a certain redhead, he turns to Taichi and questions the location of Koushirou.
“Oh, yeah! Come on, we found a campsite!” Taichi grins, grabbing Joe’s arm as Ikkakumon devolves back to Gomamon, quickly catching up on the familiar sandy surface.
Quickly Taichi has led Joe to a rather open expanse; dried log chairs surround a now-burning flame, Agumon tending to the fire with his claws as a smell of burnt sugar fills the air. Discarded aluminum cans partly covered by dirt indicate to Joe this was an older spot, not likely used for a while. Koushirou, arms full of fresh and old tree limbs, sets them down before waving down the two other boys.
“Hey! Glad you could make it, Joe-san! And I see you brought some supplies.”
“Yep! I figured better safe than sorry, right?” Joe puffs his chest out proudly, happy he could help his dear friends.
“Oh yeah? Whatcha got in there?” Taichi questions, creeping up on Joe’s bag like a tiger stalking a poor rabbit. Knowing it’d be opened anyway, he drops the bag down and begins to sort it out, revealing the various items he brought. With a hearty laugh, Taichi can’t help but grin.
“You were more prepared than I thought! This is great! Joe, this may be too sudden, but can you camp tonight? With this campsite, your equipment, and Gomamon’s fishing skills, we can spend the night roughing it together!” Taichi pleads, flashing his best smile and biggest, brightest eyes.
Joe, weighing the options in his mind, eventually sighs in defeat and says, “Fine, but I’ll need to borrow your satellite phone, Koushirou.”
Taichi jumps up into the air in excitement and runs to Agumon, leading his Cretaceous creature into the woods to forage and get more wood. Koushirou, satellite phone in hand, passes it to Joe.
“You didn’t have to; we would have been able to camp ourselves if you’d just left the rations,” Koushirou says matter-of-factly, smiling as Joe begins to dial his home.
“Yeah, but even future doctors need breaks now and again, right? Besides, don’t think I didn’t notice the smell earlier; there are pears on this island, right? You could have left any time.” Joe smiles knowingly, causing Koushirou to look away, their little plan to spend time together exposed.
After calling their parents and confirming they have the night to camp, they all begin to scrounge up some fishing rods to catch dinner. Naturally, no one can best Gomamon, but Joe didn’t happen to do too badly. Tentomon, rather than fishing, prepared the fish to be roasted as he learned from Kae. As Agumon again tends to the flame, they all take turns watching the fish in between rounds of stories and laughter.
Soon, with their bellies full and the darkness coating the landscape, they can’t help but begin to reminisce about the Digital World. Living under the stars for so long in a world straight out of a fever dream, spending what felt like months while constantly fighting for survival, was something that you can’t forget. The stars begin to fill the once-shifting expanse—different stars than in the Digital World, but no less special. They exchange stories, revisit memories, laugh together, and spend time with each other. The Digimon are the first to fall asleep, their bellies full and their partners at ease, giving them all the comfort they need. Next is Koushirou, huddled together with his precious partner Tentomon; he can’t help but join him in sleep.
Taichi, however, stays up alongside Joe, quiet for a while, but he can’t quite let this thought go.
“Psst… Joe…! I got a question.”
“Yes, what is it, Taichi?”
“Do you... ever have bad dreams? About the Digital World?” Taichi mumbles part way through, but Joe can get the gist of his words.
A moment passes as Joe begins to formulate a response, Taichi worrying his bottom lip as Agumon instinctively moves in closer to his partner.
“I used to. You don’t go through that without at least some bad dreams... Leomon... becoming a doll... even fighting with Matt at the cafe. I used to dream about all of that and more.”
"And... why did they stop…?”
“My parents found me screaming one night, and I was in therapy the next day. That helped me a lot. Are you…?”
“What? Me? Having nightmares? Psh, no! I’m the Crest of Courage, remember? I don’t need therapy!” Taichi deflects, the tone of his voice obvious to Joe that he’s lying.
“Hmm, I guess you’re right. Still, there must have been some reason you wanted to know.”
“Kou… He’s been having them too, and I wanted to know what could be done…?”
“Well, it can’t replace therapy, but how about you two come over for breakfast tomorrow and I can show you some of the techniques I learned? At least until ‘Koushirou’ can get into therapy.”
“Yeah! That sounds great! Thanks, Joe! You’re the best!”
“Mmmh… and don’t you forget it…!” Gomamon tiredly says, breaking up the back and forth of their conversation and eliciting laughs from the both of them.
“I won’t anytime soon. G’night Joe, don’t let the Bedmons bite!” Tai flashes him one last grin in the dimming light before laying on his back, staring at the stars, and cuddling Agumon to fall asleep.
“Of course Taichi, I’m good Ol’ Reliable Joe, and I won’t forget that. Good night, both of you.” Joe says, returning the warm smile and giving Gomamon a small peck on the head.
It may take some time, but he’s going to help his friends however and whenever he can.
@taikouvember
Digi Dynamic Shipping Game
Send me two names among the following 12 and I’ll write a short analysis post about them:
Taichi Yagami | Yamato Ishida | Sora Takenouchi | Koushirou Izumi | Mimi Tachikawa | Jyou Kidou | Takeru Takaishi | Hikari Yagami | Daisuke Motomiya | Miyako Inoue | Iori Hida | Ken Ichijouji
Disclaimer: I won’t claim this to be a conclusive/definitive analysis of all of the ship’s aspects. Ship dynamics vary depending on which parts of the series/timeline or media types you are looking at. So this is going to be my personal take on it and just a personal interpretation of how I perceive them.
Whether canon provides input on them or not.
Jyou and Koushirou, mostly thanks to their connection to Iori, often get paired together as "left-overs" in official art portrayals; this also happens when "the main fighters" (Taichi & Yamato), "the girls" (Sora & Mimi) and "the angel siblings" (Takeru & Hikari) get paired off as well. At first glance, there isn't much more to it than that (because there are also variations of them being paired off with Sora and Mimi respectively too). Especially because their roles in the series actually aren't as "tropey" as they appear to be at first glance. But their relationship is still interesting to look at regardless:
The creators of Digimon intended to "throw you off the usual, conventional track" by the way they depict their main characters. Kakudou himself refers back to Jyou and Koushirou to make this clear: "The oldest one would be the most unreliable, and the smartest one would be one of the third youngest." Reading that, you would assume that our studious Jyou, being as keen to become a doctor as he is while dealing with occasional self-esteem issues, would feel rather intimidated by Koushirou. Koushirou, who is depicted as naturally smart and, during one of their first interactions in the Digital World, easily solves a math problem that Jyou struggles with.
However - this is literally NEVER an issue between them. There are exactly two occasions where it's played for laughs: First, in the stageplay, as Koushirou is overall blissfully unaware of Jyou's despair over his grades. Second, in the reboot, but even there, it only happens during their introduction and is never brought up again.
Overall, the series is mostly subtle about their stance towards each other. But Adventure and 02 also make sure that, when they do interact with each other - as rarely as it happens -, you KNOW they are on good terms with each other. It's when Jyou trustfully follows Koushirou through the crowd of Tokyo while they wonder where the others have vanished to; it's when Koushirou tries to protect Jyou from being assaulted by a literal adult and ends up getting thrown down a bridge because of it; it's when Koushirou cries because Jyou willingly sacrifices himself to get him to safety, even if it happens in vain; it's when they call each other for arrangements through the course of 02 because they know they can rely on each other; heck, it's when the English dub makes Jyou shout out things like "DON'T START WITHOUT ME, I WANNA HEAR IZZY'S THEORIES, I LOVE IZZY'S THEORIES."
So you can tell, they are generally valuing and supportive of each other. Tri is, unfortunately, a little bit more divisive in this regard; as mentioned here, the topic of romance is a touchy one for our resident "nerds". Which is, unfortunately, a trope they both have to deal with, as Jyou is involved with a girlfriend we never see and know if she's real - but he still gets kinda boastful about it, so his "advice" towards Koushirou ("At least take a shower or the ladies will hate you") is... Not exactly taken well by him, quite the contrary. Koushirou is stuck trying to save the world while fighting with the girl he has complicated feelings for - thus he seems to be feeling belittled by Jyou and shuts down.
But fear not, the stageplay and Kizuna are here to save the day! The former in particular is excellent at showing us the extent of how much they simply value and adore each other: All comic relief aside, Koushirou straight up voices his delight over Jyou being with them on their camping trip and while he tries to maintain a harsh demeanour towards Jyou being potentially "fake", you can tell that the possibility gets to him. Jyou on the other hand kinda seems to enjoy the little bickering between them to an extent, it's all pretty lighthearted after all - and, most importantly, he is the one who manages to reassure Koushirou during his lowest moment. Telling him that, even if he doesn't believe in himself, Jyou DOES believe in him - and judging by the screenshot above, you can tell that this does something to Koushirou. Overall, it may not be the MOST VISIBLE friendship in the series, but their bond is definitely there - and persists, as Koushirou still seems to manage to stay in touch with Jyou during Kizuna.
Whether I think why and how they’d work.
I'll be real, I am incredibly torn when it comes to the romantic potential between these two. It is fascinating to see them bounce off of each other the way they do - especially if you consider their age difference and that even the little instances of bickering between them still don't feel like either of them feels really inferior or superior to the other in the long run. The potential to have them fight over "intelligence" and "girls" in a typical "nerd fashion" had been there - and I'll give kudos to the writers for not succumbing to that, but instead making their bond incredibly valuing and supportive.
And I'll be real again... The fact that Koushirou's bitter reaction to Jyou telling him to "shower or the ladies will hate you" does have the potential for subtext... Because personally, I still believe Tri in itself is a metaphor for Koushirou trying to figure out his preferences in more than one sense. So despite everything, what if it weren't the "ladies" he wanted to impress - and the reason why he got mad at that statement wasn't so much that Jyou was right, but that he didn't even think about that...
Thinking of Jyou and Koushirou through a romantic lense is both difficult and interesting, because on one hand, their Tri portrayals give off very blatant "bickering bro vibes" while simultaneously trying very hard to push them both in a "strictly straight" direction. And yet - the gentle, fond subtext that Adventure, 02 and the stageplay offered at least gives room for an entirely different set of feelings towards each other. It could be a story of them masking their preferences, being heavily in denial and learning how to overcome their comp-het phases - together!
I have no doubt that they will stay in touch way into adulthood, since both their careers are intertwined with the Digital World and they may ask each other for information and advice a lot. So the opportunity to bond and get closer through that is definitely there. One might argue that they both need more contrasting forces in their lives to pull them out of their comfort zones (such as Mimi, Yamato or Taichi), since we saw Jyou wasn't exactly capable of doing that for Koushirou (yet)... But if they manage to actually listen to each other and get over themselves, they may be able to make it work. Slowly but steadily.
Whether I’d prefer them as platonic or romantic ship.
Not gonna lie, I love to imagine these two as adults going on Digital World strolls with Taichi, moping over adulting and their respective jobs giving them headaches - even though they all love what they're doing and are probably closer than ever. I usually do think of them as complementing friends who trust each other without a shred of a doubt and call each other when something urgent is up - including the moping. While I do believe that Taichi would be Koushirou's and Yamato Jyou's gay awakening respectively, I feel like they could be a solid fit for each other - but like with many other ships, they're more likely to find each other when a lot of other people are "out of the picture". So I mostly prefer them to be platonic, absolutely do not deny the subtle romantic potential though!
@jyoukidoweek Day 2: Relationships
In case you couldn’t already tell, I absolutely adore the Digimon Adventure Tri stageplay and there probably isn’t any better time to promote it than Jyou Kidou Week - because ya boy is amazing in this, the undeniable MVP and the beloved friend and senpai that everybody needs in their lives.
@creepysora You know what’s great? Rambles about Jyou having great bonds with all the other Chosen Children. Mild spoilers ahead though.
Taichi & Jyou: Taichi needed some time to gain respect for Jyou and Jyou did not like his brash, irresponsible attitude at first, but they did gain a lot of respect and admiration for each other through the course of 01, with Jyou being the first one to actually call Taichi their “leader” and affirming his trust in him. Funnily enough, it is quite a missed opportunity that we never saw them bonding over "Adult life fucking sucks" in terms of how exhausted they are especially at the time of Kizuna (yet at least we saw Gomamon and Agumon spending time in the short, so them actually being somewhat close as adults is not THAT unlikely). I also liked that Taichi was the one who defended Jyou for choosing his responsibilities in Tri over their duties as Chosen Children, because it shows that he does understand where Jyou is coming from after all and that he strongly relates to him as well.
Yamato & Jyou: Yamato was in the same boat as Taichi, thus needed to gain respect for Jyou as well, but once he saw how selfless and brave Jyou could be for his, his brother's sake and in general, his own admiration for him grew as well - not to forget that Jyou was the reason Yamato’s Crest of Friendship activated for the first time! And Jyou actually (novel) canonically thought of Yamato as being his first real “friend”, whom he admired for looking for his own path, while he was still struggling with his sense of “choosing his fate”. So that is the perfect bonding opportunity for them and I will never get over how they flipped that around in the stageplay, making them talk about the difference in “being chosen” and “making choices”, with Jyou being the one who encouraged Yamato to speak his mind. (Also both of them being brothers who struggle with their roles in their respective families should have been explored a LOT more).
Sora & Jyou: Sora and him are literally "Team mom and dad", both feeling way too responsible for taking care of others, and even if Sora had her doubts about his leading capabilities at first, she at least encouraged him and treated him nicely from the start. Eventually, he became the confident rock that she needed herself as well to make her see that she was capable of and allowed to make choices - it's SUCH a wasted opportunity that we never had THOSE two talk about their future fears together, especially since both of them had to face so much pressure (either self imposed or by their families).
Koushirou & Jyou: With Koushirou and him it absolutely depends on what “part” of canon you want to look at, because I actually liked that OG!Jyou never made a deal out of Koushirou being smarter than him, that was literally never an issue (and only came up in the stageplay for comic relief reasons and very briefly in the reboot, where Jyou felt visibly intimidated upon meeting Koushirou for the first time). Koushirou never looked down on him for that either - they're both dorks, who canonically have shown protective sides for each other in 01 and 02 and they should have had more opportunities to bond over trivial things. Unfortunately, Tri felt quite hollow in the way Jyou tried to take care of Koushirou, which made him feel belittled, so it absolutely didn't work out at all... That's where stageplay!Jyou was the superior one, literally the ONLY (human) character after the gate scene in 01 who said he believed in Koushirou. Plus, Koushirou was also indredibly happy to have Jyou around at the beginning, so mutual adoration is definitely there.
Mimi & Jyou: Mimi and him are just so... You wouldn't even think of them as a likely pair outside of "The Beauty and the Nerd" tropes, but I will never get over how nicely they played off of each other in the Dark Master's arc, with him staying behind with her and them finding their "purposes" outside of being "main fighters". That is why their scenes in the second Tri movie actually work, even if they basically admit that they have already been there before - they are able to open up to each other, because they've BEEN through so much already. Mimi admires Jyou for prioritizing what he does and Jyou admires Mimi for being straightforward with what she wants, even if neither of them are happy with themselves at that point in time, struggling with their own ideas of “selfishness”. But they actually do take each other for what they are. Surely Mimi had her own moments of doubting Jyou’s capabilities here and there at the VERY beginning, but that shifted completely by the end of 01; neither of them has to change for the sake of the other or play a role and that is why I feel like they are such a great fit!
Takeru & Jyou: Takeru and him have the biggest age gap, but I am so mad we never got bonding material for them after 02, like... Jyou saved Takeru so many times, Takeru was always so happy to see Jyou and, due to getting saved so many times, trusted in him without a shred of a doubt from the very beginning. Plus, we have the "my relationship to my big brother(s) is (potentially) complicated" angle which should have been explored a LOT more.
Hikari & Jyou: Hikari and him are the least developed due to the lack of screentime together, but it's interesting that SHE was the one who encouraged him to come back and fight again in Tri, making it his own choice, because... Well... She wasn't even THERE when he had to come to that conclusion in the 01. I still maintain that scene would have been SO much more impactful if either Takeru, Yamato, Sora or Mimi had said it to him - probably not Sora or Yamato, because they were having their own struggles at this point, but Takeru would have been PERFECT here.
In which Stageplay!Jyou Kidou is both the MVP and the Senpai that everybody needs.
First of all: Yamato telling Koushirou “all about” what happened to Jyou? Yamato being chatty and open towards Koushirou in general??? Second of all: Gentle, reassuring, mutual conversation between Koushirou and Jyou? Man, I really wish we would have seen more of that in the anime, this is beyond precious.
