Digimon Tamers/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Due to the characterization not being explicit (in order to give a more realistic feel), there are wild differences between interpretation among the fans. For example, in the ending scene Jenrya (Henry) nods to his dad to tell him that he forgave him for having the Digimon partners forcibly separated from the Tamers, while many fans thought he had done exactly the opposite.
    • This is largely due to the dub, which set up the scene so that Henry's dad was saying that things would get better eventually, and Henry shaking his head at the notion (as if his dad was wrong). By contrast, in the Japanese version, Jenrya's (Henry's) dad is silent and looking down in shame, and then Jenrya shakes his head (as if in forgiveness).
  • Angst? What Angst?: Ryo is pretty cheery, considering that he is forced to whip his Digimon partner to stop him from attacking everything in sight and that because of him he had to travel through the digital world, without seeing any other human being, for at least a year.
  • Audience-Alienating Premise: The fact it takes place in a different universe than Adventure.
  • Base Breaker: Jeri.
  • Broken Base: Fans of Adventure were not too pleased about Tamers (or the Digimon anime franchise as a whole) taking place in a different universe, with the events of Digimon Adventure being rendered as an in-universe television show in the dub of Digimon Tamers.
  • Canon Sue: Ryo falls into this at times.
  • Complete Monster: You could put the J-Reaper down here. It's certainly creepy, and omnicidal. Plus what it did to Jeri.
    • The ENTIRETY of the D-Reaper is this. Or more precisely, the D-Reaper from the Digital World was really just performing its' function but in a destructive way. The split D-Reaper that emerges in the real world, however, which includes J-Reaper and all the agents that follow it, is cold, calculating and intelligent, using Jeri's feelings to come to the conclusion that all humanity is worthless and must be purged. And it attempts to do so in insane and sadistic ways. It cares nothing for all life, not even it's own artificial existance, making it truly heartless.
    • Also the one-shot IceDevimon, the one digimon in this series who was completely and utterly evil.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Impmon vs. Indramon, combined with This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself
    • Beelzemon when he killed Leomon, with it being literally the second time in the anime franchise that Leomon died.
  • Fan Dumb: Due to their complexity, Takato, Ruki/Rika, Jenrya/Henry, Juri/Jeri, and Canon Immigrant Ryo are perhaps the most misunderstood and misinterpreted characters in the franchise. Ryo especially, since he has a ton of baggage from his video game series that Western fans just do not have any access to.
  • Fanon: Ai and Makoto are not twins (Ai is clearly older than Makoto), but good luck finding a different reference to them.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: As mentioned elsewhere, the CD drama which retconned the second movie. The fans, however, gleefully ignore it.
  • Fan Nickname: "J-Reaper" for ADR-01
  • Genius Bonus: The whole show shows an extreme attention to detail, which requires an attentive viewer to appreciate. Examples are numerous and varied, but the most notable are perhaps the sheer amount of relevant references to real-world institutions and events like The Reaper Program, Echelon, the real-world American counterpart to Hypnos, the method by which the general populace provided processing power, what it means for the D-Reaper being described as a quantum computer (which explains why particles inside the D-Reaper seem to be travelling faster than light), along with many other examples in the Fridge folder.
  • Growing the Beard: If the first episode didn't at least show some impressive stubble for a Digimon anime, then the appearance of the Devas should have been when the full beard grew out...and then Beelzemon's appearance should have been when the beard hit the floor.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In-universe example. Takato used to cry a lot in the first episodes because he was really afraid of losing Guilmon. Cue the last episode.
    • On Konaka's blog, Konaka discusses the development behind Leomon: "In the first season of Digimon, Leomon lost his life in order to save the Digi-Destined. Even though the situation was completely different, was it a good idea to let Leomon face death once more in the third season?" And thus, the Running Gag of killing a Leomon Once a Season started...
  • He Really Can Act - Steve Blum, who is Yamaki, Guilmon, and Kenta here. At the time it was widely believed that the Yamaki voice - his standard, also heard in The Big O as Roger Smith - was all he could do. Add a little growl, you get his Wolverine. Add a little more growl, you get BlackWarGreymon. But then he does Standard Blum Guy (Yamaki), the dorky Kenta, and the very unique childlike-but-low-pitched voice of Guilmon and makes none of them sound anything alike, to the point that admit it - you had no idea he did all three before you read it.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Televisions and computers use the same Chromatic Arrangement. In 2010, Sharp added yellow into that protocol.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Impmon/Beelzemon.
  • Like You Would Really Do It: The first episode ends with the "cliffhanger" on if the main character will be annihilated by his own partner. It's not that kind of show. ...yet.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Catsuramon.
  • Memetic Molester: IceDevimon
  • Memetic Sex Goddess: "Everyone is furry for Renamon."
  • Misblamed: It is not uncommon to hear Adventure fans blame the change in universe and the darker tone contributed to the decline of Digimon in the west. However there its not that simple.
    • For instance it just had unfortunate timing - 2001 was pretty much the peak of the Pokémon phenomenon.
    • Then there was the fact that before the time that Tamers had come out it was decided that it would be the last series dubbed by Saban before who then gave the rights to Disney.
      • Fox Kids, the program block that Digimon appeared on, was also being cancelled at the same time, leaving Digimon to appear on a different channel, at inconvenient times, which was also something that was already in motion before the Digimon Tamers dub even premiered.
    • Similarly, people blame Tamers for the reason why other Digimon series take place in alternate universes (becasue they did it first); however, that is actually Digimon Adventure 02 fault.
      • When Digimon Tamers was in its early planning, it was going to be a sequel to the Digimon Adventure universe, but because of a lot ofproblems with the Adventure universe, both on the production side and with the story itself, they couldn't go forward with that idea.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Greatly subjective in Beelzemon's case, and the show tried to have him come back from this. However, attempting to kill children, including Suzie (barely older than his own partner) after selling his soul for power instead of listening to the people offering friendship, when friendship is proven to give power: low. Very low.
    • Beelzemon's actions are indeed treated as a Moral Event Horizon crossing in the show, to the point where Beelzemon himself acknowledges that what he did was "beyond forgiveness."
    • Yamaki creating what's basically a Digimon black hole - the data gained by experimenting on a relatively harmless Monster of the Week Digimon until she died in agony - that results in many Digimon being dragged screaming to their deaths in one of the series many Nightmare Fuel and Tear Jerker moments as even one of the Bridge Bunnies is covering her ears to block out the screaming... it's hard to like Yamaki after that, but like Beelzemon, he manages to pull himself back even after doing something horrible.
    • The D-Reaper crosses it with it's merciless Mind Rape of Jeri in order to feed itself, and then it outdoes itself with very nearly murdering a desperate, defenseless Beelzemon. Unlike the abovementioned characters, there is no redemption for this thing.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Zhuqiaomon is directly responsible for all damages caused in the real world,and indirectly caused Leomon's death which caused the D-Reaper's rise,all on a misguided thought that destroying humans would save the Digital World.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Say what you want, but many people find this season more enjoyable than Digimon Adventure 02.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: Suzie Wong/Lee Shiuchon, Henry's kid sister. She actually forces her eventual partner, Antiramon, into a Heel Face Turn through sheer cuteness.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: With the continuity reboot, some fans of the original Adventure series stopped watching the show because of how different the setting was.
    • Which of course led to many of them complaining about things that either was only there during the first couple of episodes or weren't there at all.
    • Some would subvert it because this is the season with Renamon.
    • And others would subvert it simply by the season being Darker and Edgier having been done right.
  • Tough Act to Follow: This series was the tough act Digimon Frontier had to follow.
  • Ugly Cute: Guilmon.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Rika started out as a girl who wouldn't trust anyone and used her digimon partner solely for battle, paying no heed to Renamon's feelings. By the end of the series she'd developed and matured into a strong-willed, confident person. How is this unfortunate? Look at it this way: she started off as a loner who simply didn't care, and ended up as, basically, a Yamato Nadeshiko to Ryou. So, she used to be someone who tried to never depend on anyone, and became... someone who just ended up depending on people - that's all she did in the final fight - give up her power so that the man could put it to better use.
    • Actually, she is never subservient (as the Yamato Nadeshiko troupe seems to imply) in the series; she just becomes more caring (which is not flaw, or at least I think so) without losing her strong will or confidence (keep in mind that her earlier confidence was entirely unjustified, since she hadn't actually felt in mortal peril as she did in episode 3). Besides, I would like to point out that all of them had been fighting for a while and were completely exhausted (Jenrya/Henry had even run out of ammunition), so giving up her power was really a last resort/desperation attack meant to give as much damage as possible without allowing the Cable Reaper to regenerate. Finally, note that said action, the one that was supposed to prove that woman should let a man handle things was utterly ineffective so it just served to prove that she had gained the ability to trust others. However, the above trope is a bit subjective so fundamentally it is up for the viewer to decide.
      • To add on to that its more of a case of Real Women Never Wear Dresses considering that during the D-Reaper fight Rika actually has the best kill record of D-Reaper agents of any of the Tamers, and she was also the one who was prone to pulling off Big Damn Heroes, as opposed to Ryo whose record isn't even close to hers( the Tamer with the closest record to hers is Henry), and he even had to be saved by an 8 year old no less. Even during the last battle, she was more useful than him, and even when she left the attack up to Ryo it didn't even leave a scratch, so if there was an implication it would be more on Ryo's uselessness during the D-Reaper arc than anything else.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: A major factor as to why most children watching it feel pretty alienated by it, especially when you put this show in comparison to Digimon Adventure.
  • The Woobie: Jeri/Juri...goodness. Even some members of Jeri's Hatedom (Due to her high-pitched voice, Dub and Sub) wanted to hug her after all the stuff she endures.
    • Impmon has a couple Woobieish moments, too, though mainly he's a jerkass one.
    • Renamon is often depicted as a Stoic Woobie in Fan Fiction that is at least partially set prior to Rika's defrosting.
    • DarkLizardmon in the episode Juggernaut. She just wanted to find a human partner... Instead, she got tortured to death.
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