Characters / Digimon Tamers Tamers

Main Character Index
Tamers | Partner Digimon | Supporting Cast | Antagonists

Beware of major spoilers, Late Arrival Spoilers and Walking Spoilers!

Tamers

In General

• Age Lift: In the original Japanese dub, all the tamers, except Suzie, are 10-years-old. Due to the more Darker and Edgier nature of the season, they were aged up to 13 in the English dub.
• Ascended Fanboy: They went from being fans of the Digimon franchise to being actual Tamers themselves.
• Birds of a Feather: All of the children are fans of the Digimon franchise.
• Character Development:
  • The difference in each character between their initial and final appearances is tremendous; it even gets lampshaded by Takato in episode 50.
  • The lyrics of Primary Colors, the final song heard in the original Japanese version, are basically about this.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Takato - Red. Henry - Green. Rika - Blue. Jeri is a Yellow fourth in this case.
• Color-Coded Characters:
  • Takato - Red and later Gold
  • Henry - Green
  • Rika - Blue
  • Jeri - Yellow
  • Kazu - Orange
  • Kenta - Rose
  • Suzie - Pink
  • Ryo - Dark Blue and Silver
  • Ai and Mako - Purple
• Determinators: Yamaki points this out on more than one occasion.
• Elite Four: Takato, Henry, Rika and Ryo are the only four Tamers who can Biomerge with their Digimon to achieve Mega form and they are the ones who do the majority of fighting against the D-Reaper.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Takato is Fighter. Henry is Mage (if you swap magic for artillery). Rika is Thief.
• Fire-Forged Friends: The main trio—they don't start off as friends, and their different outlooks and temperaments cause conflicts at first, but by the end, they're inseparable.
• Freudian Trio: Takato, Ego. Henry, Superego. Rika, Id.
• The Hero: Takato. At first he's a wimp but he grows into it. The last of the main trio to get a Digimon, and to get to the Champion level subverting Protagonist Power-Up Privileges at the beginning.
• Knight, Knave, and Squire: Downplayed. At the start of the series, Henry is an idealist trying to avoid violence, Rika is proud of her ability to slay enemy digimon, and Takato is trying desperately to keep up.
• Number Two: Henry. Gets the technical stuff about Digimon, his assured and serious nature balances Takato's naïveté and playfulness.
• Physical God: Biomerging with their Digimon achieves this next step in evolution, their Fusion Dance is enough to give even the Sovereign Digimon like Zhuqiaomon a very hard time and fight him to a stalemate.
• Support Party Member: Their role in battle is to empower the Digimon while they do the fighting, either with their own emotions and energy or with their cards.
• Those Two Guys: Kazu and Kenta. Rarely seen apart, get little development compared to the rest. Kazu's partner is a big robot, Kenta has a partner whose base form is his Mega form.
• Tagalong Kid: Shiuchon, Henry's little sister.
• The Unchosen One: In stark contrast to the protagonists of previous seasons, the kids who got Digimon were not chosen by some higher power to save the world; they just happened to get them because they wanted it. This was later downplayed with the introduction of Digignomes, who are the ones who distributed the d-arks and are responsible for Guilmon coming to life; technically the digignomes are choosing the tamers, but they do it mostly by whim. They still aren't being appointed to fight violent and dangerous enemies—that's purely their decision.
• Token Trio: Takato's family is working-class, Henry's is middle-class, Rika's is upper-class.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Everyone, either before or during the series.

Takato Matsuki (Takato Matsuda)

"Aw, nuts!"

^{Click here to see biomerged form}

^{Click here to see second biomerged form}

A complete Digimon fanboy, that reacts strongly to his emotions, who watches both the shows and plays the card game obsessively, to the point of creating his own fan-character Digimon partner. And then it comes to life...

Voiced by: Makoto Tsumura (JP), Brian Beacock (EN) (Gallantmon and Gallantmon Crimson Mode shared with Steve Blum) (EN), Rosa Vivas (Spain), Erick Osorio (Latin America)

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• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Takato's name is pronounced "TA-ka-to", but in most dubs, it's pronounced "Ta-KA-to" most of the time.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: In episode 11, Takato gets a rather large ego about himself after beating IceDevimon in the previous episode and his pride only gets bigger when he beats Kazu in a Digimon card game. This causes him to get cocky and lose a card game to Kazu in a rematch as well as a fight against Musyamon.
• Ascended Fanboy: He plays the card games quite well and draws Digimon fanart. In fact, it is one such piece of fanart that provides Guilmon's blueprint.
• Audience Surrogate: Takato's entire premise as a character is to be an Ascended Fanboy exactly like the sort of kid that might be sitting in the audience.
• Betty and Veronica: On accident. Because the writers kept giving him Ship Tease with Rika, Takato became the Archie between her Veronica and Jeri's Betty.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's a sweetheart and even shy, compared with Taichi, Daisuke, Takuya, Taiki, Tagiru, and certainly Masaru. But when he does get upset...WATCH OUT.
• Birds of a Feather: With Jeri—both are sweet kids with intense emotions buried deep down (intense anger for Takato and overwhelming despair for Jeri), who also seem to share a sort of psychic connection that lets them sense and hear each other from great distances. Both reacted badly to Leomon's death, which unleash their bottled up emotions, but by the end of the series, they let to gain better control of those emotions, be stronger for it, which help lead to the D-Reaper's defeat.
• A Boy and His X: A Local Schoolboy and his Loyal Kaijuu Hatchling.
• Bus Crash: In the Digimon Tamers 2018 CD Drama, it's revealed that Takato went on a journey for unspecified reasons only to suddenly fall off the grid with no explanation of what happened. HYPNOS' successor NYX, summons a digital copy in order to find out what happened to him as well as combat the Malice Bot, but only end up with a copy that has memories up until 2003.
• Cannot Talk to Women: Downplayed. While he's certainly awkward around his crush Jeri for obvious reasons, he also struggles to deal with Rika, especially when she's in a hostile mood.
• Character Development: His development takes him from Fragile Flower to a literal Knight in Shining Armor. Much pain and suffering is involved.
• Characterization Marches On: Spaniard dub only. In the first episodes, Takato's voice actress gave him a cockier and more energetic voice than she would use the rest of the series, making him sound like a Bratty Half-Pint at times. It was after this phase that she adopted a more innocent, childish tone.
• Chick Magnet: Downplayed. Takato has Ship Tease with his main Love Interest Jeri, but the show and second movie also tease him and Rika as well (and even more in the English Dubtext). Minami, a One-Shot Character from the first movie, also develops a crush on him.
• Chromatic Superiority: Takato's original d-ark and color theme are red for most of the series; he's also the newbie of the main cast, so it also highlights his status as Rookie Red Ranger.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: In contrast to Davis, who was a Hot-Blooded Boisterous Bruiser, Takato is shy and Prone to Tears (with some severe depressive tendencies to judge from the first Japanese ending) whose moments of anger are very rare but potentially terrifying when they occur.
• Creepy Child: He gets pretty disturbing when angry.
• Curtains Match the Window: His eye color toes a line between brown and a light mahogany, but looks brown in most distance shots.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He punched through J-Reaper, as Gallantmon Crimson Mode.
• Didn't Think This Through: One of Takato's flaws is his Rule of Cool mentality when designing Guilmon and his evolutionary line, specifically Growlmon. Making Guilmon strong is one thing, but making him taller than Agumon makes it difficult for Guilmon to walk around without being noticed by humans. One of Growlmon's scrapped designs include him having various natural weapons attached to his body, which would make it impossible for Takato to ride on him, and even without those he still ends up being difficult to ride on. In the end, although Growlmon is about ExVeemon's size rather than Greymon's, designing Growlmon with such a large body that won't fit in any house makes it very difficult to hide him, despite Takato's being aware that his Digimon is supposed to be a secret. What's more, making his partner a Virus Digimon is probably one of the reasons why Guilmon is often feral and aggressive in the first place.
• Dork Knight: Takato was always a dork, but after the Megidramon incident gains the Heroic Resolve to become Dukemon in the transition into the final act of Tamers, making him one of these.
• Dub Personality Change: In the original, Takato starts as a low-key delicate sort, while in the dub he's an easygoing Mellow Fellow.
• Expy: Zigzagged. Takato is definitely an Idiot Hero in the goggle-boy mold carved by previous Digimon protagonists, but he lacks their gung-ho energy and assertiveness.
• Evil Knockoff: Dark duplicates of Takato appear as enemies in a couple of video games produced for the Bandai Wonderswan.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: He wears goggles to protect his eyes when in digital fields.
• Golden Super Mode:
  • After becoming Dukemon for the first time, the Rule of Symbolism quietly replaces Takato's first (destroyed) d-ark with a new one that has some kind of holy ring in it and golden flourishes along the body.
  • The merch gave the Golden Super Mode a Golden Super Mode; there's a rare variant d-ark toy with the colors of Takato's final d-ark inverted so that it has a golden body and silver highlights.
• Gone Horribly Right: In episode 34, when Beelzemon kills Leomon, Takato is so outraged that he orders WarGrowlmon to digivolve and punish him. He does so, and the mere existence of the resulting Mega Digimon, Megidramon, nearly destroys the Digital World.
• Hellish Pupils: His pupils dilate in such a manner when becomes enraged enough to make Guilmon digivolve into Megidramon. Fans have used this and Guilmon's inexplicable connection to the Digital Hazard to mean something... more.
• Heroic BSoD: Occasionally.
• Heroic Resolve: Manages to get WarGrowlmon back on his feet when fighting the pig deva with this.
• Hidden Depths: While in the original Japanese version indicates Takato is just a bit immature, the first ending and certain image songs indicate he has depressive tendencies.
• Horseback Heroism: Gallantmon with Grani. Even Takato's dad seems to think so.
• Image Song: "Across the Tears".
• Irony: The before and after of how his parents treat him; even as far along as the first movie, his mother Mie was the confident one pushing Takato to grow up more, even arranging for his solo trip to see the family in Okinawa, while his father was the more hesitant one. Once Vikaralamon destroyed half the city and Takato introduced his family to Guilmon, Mie was terrified and distraught at the implications of Takato being involved with the Digimon, while his father responded so positively to Takato's treatment of the situation that he became Takato's main support.
• Knight in Shining Armor: As Gallantmon. He even gets to rescue the odd Damsel in Distress during the series finale and the second movie.
• The Kid with the Remote Control: His relationship with Guilmon is one of the best deconstructions of this trope. Its darker consequences are displayed in episode 34 when Takato orders Guilmon to digivolve and eat Beelzemon. This action makes him realize that he had, and could at any time, use his Guilmon as a puppet. Fortunately he isn't tempted by the power offered and makes the final decision of becoming Guilmon's partner.
• Last-Name Basis: In the Japanese version, he always addresses Jeri as "Katou-san," despite or maybe even because she is his main Love Interest.
• Lovable Nerd: The kid's just so earnest, it's hard for him to be anything but. It's really easy to see in his interactions with Rika, who can go Tsun-Tsun when she realized he's added too-girly emoticons to the e-mail he wrote in her stead, and dere-dere when she pretends to be more annoyed then she is at his failed attempt to keep her surprise birthday party a surprise.
• Magnetic Hero: Takato originally formed the center of the team, being the middle ground between Jian and Rika, and the initial expedition team is the main trio plus three of Takato's friends and classmates. It was later downplayed with the introductions of Xiaochun, Ryo, Ai, and Mako as tamers, none of whom have any direct connections to him.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Has a (mostly) platonic version of this with Rika.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Impmon murders Leomon he completely loses his shit and ORDERS WarGrowlmon to digivolve. He does. Takato regrets it instantly.
• Nice Guy: He is gentle, sensitive and true to his feelings, which makes him very emotive.
• Official Couple: In the Digimon Tamers 2018 CD Drama, he and Jeri are engaged.
• Out of the Inferno: As Gallantmon (who made said inferno), combined with the slow walk.
• The Power of Hate: Takato gets so angry at Beelzebumon killing Leomon that he briefly loses his composure and demands his partner evolve to Mega. This produces Guilmon's Superpowered Evil Side Megidramon, the sight of which horrifies Takato and induces him to collapse briefly into a Heroic BSoD.
• Psychic Link:
  • Takato's personal connection to Guilmon becomes a major factor during the fights against Mihiramon and Vikaralamon, causing Takato to feel his partner's injuries and allowing him to empower Guilmon with his own strength when sufficiently motivated. It's also very likely a factor leading to his Unstoppable Rage creating Megidramon, as Growlmon was technically the first one to go berserk.
  • By the end of the series he was able to hear Jeri's desperate plea from inside the Mother Reaper despite being miles away.
• Puppy Love: Takato has a whopper of a crush on Jeri, and even confesses during the final arc to her evil clone on accident.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Doubly Subverted. Yes, they are red. Takato starts as the most innocent kid in the trio but bad things happen to good people.
• Revenge Before Reason: After Beelzemon kills Leomon, Takato is so enraged and vengeant that he stops thinking clearly and orders Guilmon to digivolve in order to punish the villain. Guilmon's resulting form, Megidramon, is a hideous monstrosity that emits so much energy that the universe starts to implode. It's particularly notable that this happens, since prior to this, Takato had expressed fears about Guilmon digivolving into an uncontrollable beast, but clearly in this moment all such thoughts just went right out the window. To his credit, Takato very quickly realizes what a horrible mistake he made.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Wanting to save Jeri, Gallantmon Crimson Mode singlehandedly challenges and defeats the D-Reaper's collection of its most powerful agents. Although his Mega Form is undone, Takato does manage to reach Jeri.
• Rookie Red Ranger: Unlike Daisuke, who was officially appointed by a previous main character, Takato basically trips and stumbles into the status. He's the last of the main tamers to get a partner, have it digivolve, or learn to fight effectively; but he does try to make up for this by asking the others if he can learn from them.
  
  Takato begins to properly take the lead during the Deva arc, becoming the first to reach the have his partner reach the fifth stage and the sixth after that. He's also the one who makes the decision to follow the Deva back to the digital world to get Culumon back.
• Screaming Warrior: During the fight with Vikaralamon, he gives WarGrowlmon a Power-Up with what basically amounts to primal scream therapy.
• Ship Tease: With Jeri and sometimes Rika; he notably gets to play the knight in shining armor for each girl in the series finale and the second movie, respectively.
• The Slow Walk: Clearly channeling Gohan in episode 36, but with a cape.
• Spider-Sense: He notices the J-Reaper's presence faster than Renamon.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: A deconstruction out of all the Hot-Blooded goggle wearing Digimon protagonists. Being a lot more shy, reluctant, and modest than his predecessors AND successors.
• Tender Tears: Early on in the series he cried often, because he had never even had a pet before, and he was extremely worried of losing the (literal!) dream come true that was Guilmon. Ouch.
• This Is Unforgivable!: When he says it, he really means it.
• Trouble Follows You Home: To his horror.

Henry Wong (Li Jianliang/Jenrya)

"I always felt that I had to hold back, that fighting was wrong. But this is different, this is a battle that means something."

^{Click here to see biomerged form}

Another Digimon fan who prefers the video games, and the more level-headed one of the trio.

Voiced by: Mayumi Yamaguchi (JP), Dave Wittenberg (MegaGargomon (SaintGalgomon) Shared with Mona Marshall)

(EN), Gádor Martín (Spain), Rodolfo Cuevas (Latin America)

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• All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: Played with; it's Tai Chi instead (or Kenpo, in the Japanese version).
• Ascended Fanboy: Like Takato, though he used to play the video games rather than the card games.
• Asian and Nerdy: Technically, everyone in the show is Asian, but Henry deserves a special mention for being a smart half-Chinese kid proficient with computers and video games.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: This does save them quite a few times.
• Badass Normal: Being trained in martial arts, he os the first Digimon anime human to take a Hangyomon barehanded and win. Points for doing it underwater.
• Big Brother Instinct: But it bites him hard with Shiuchon's untimely arrival in the digital world. It not only leaves him uncharacteristically stressed out and temperamental, but unable to provide much, much needed emotional support for Takato, Jeri, or even Shiuchon.
• But Not Too Foreign: Half-Chinese, as you may have guessed. In the English dub, most of the characters with name changes had shortened or altered Japanese names, but he and his sister get the obvious American names Henry and Suzie, respectively.
• Character Development: Henry develops from a Control Freak Actual Pacifist into a Martial Pacifist willing to trust others and his partner. This is punctuated by his Bio-merge with Terriermon, on which he becomes a gigantic mecha with an arsenal that would make MetalGarurumon blush.
• Control Freak: Probably his main flaw. Deconstructed when Shiuchon ends up in the Digital World.
• Cool Big Bro: Not just to Shiuchon, but to Takato and his own partner Terriermon as well due to being much more emotionally mature.
• Demoted to Extra: When it comes to series merchandise, Jian takes a definite backseat to Takato and Rika. See the d-ark toys—Jian's "version 1.5" d-ark is merely a slight variation on Takato's own d-ark version 1.0, and he was completely passed over for the 20th anniversary toys (which come in Takato and Rikavariants only).
• Face Your Fears: Once Shiuchon entered the Digital World, he became so hasty in trying to resolve all their problems and return home that he was the only human not terrified by Zhuqiaomon at first sight.
• Foil: To Rika. They are both the first two tamers that Takato meet with very opposing ideas on how to treat digimon.
• Freudian Excuse: Before the start of the series, he once badly wounded another boy and vowed never to use violence as a solution. It doesn't help that later he ended up getting Terriermon injured in the video game.
• Genius Bruiser: He is a very competent hacker as well as a martial artist.
• Guilt Complex: A lot. When someone gets hurt in a fight, he puts the blame on his own shoulders for not being "competent" enough.
• Heroic Neutral: He mostly wants to ignore conflict but comes around when it's obvious the danger can't be ignored.
• I Know Karate: Early on he is shown practicing Tai Chi (or Kenpo in the original) with his master, and since the Mega level is a merger, it also allows him to kick butt when he runs out of ammo with some very loud Kiais.
• Image Song: "Mirai".
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Nearly flips when he finds Suzie in the Digital World.
• Last-Name Basis: Sub-only; Takato and Rika call him "Lee/Li" for the first half of the show or so.
• Martial Pacifist: He's a skilled martial artist, but hates fighting, only doing so as an absolute last resort.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • His reaction to finding out the Terriermon in his video game, that he forced to battle for his own amusement, was in fact a living, sentient creature (very similar to Ken in 02). He swore afterward he would never make him fight again. Unfortunately, Terriermon ''likes'' fighting.
  • His back-story has that when he first started learning martial arts he became something of a bully and threw his weight around a lot, until he hurt a kid quite badly. The realisation of the magnitude of what he did led him to become a Martial Pacifist.
• Nice Guy: He often helps out Takato early on in adjusting his life as a tamer, is very polite and often rebuking Terriermon’s lack of manners.
• Only Known By His Nickname: In the Japanese version, his name is shortened to just "Jian" from "Jianliang."
• The Perfectionist: Wants everything to be perfect.
• Spell My Name With An S: Henry's name in the Japanese version is a Chinese name; however, due to Alternate Character Reading, it is pronounced "Jenrya", which uses a Katakana approximation of the pinyin, pronounceable for Japanese speakers, rather than the On-Yomi (=Japanese readings adapted very loosely from the Chinese readings from different dynasties; the On-Yomi for his name would be "Kenryo".) In official images his name is written as "Jianliang", using pinyin and how his name would have actually been pronounced using Mandarin Chinese.
• Team Dad: Being the mature, responsible one, he's this to the main group.
• Tearful Smile: At Terriermon's departure.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Dub only; Janyu trying to reassure Henry that everything may get better in time despite having effectively made it so that Henry and his friends are likely permanently separated from their partners is met with Henry silently shaking his head, with the implication that this is a refusal of forgiveness. In the Japanese version, it was quite the opposite—Janyu tells Henry that he has every right to hate him and never forgive him for it, while Henry's response was his way of refuting that.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: He often uses reason above everything else in contrast to Rika’s "fight first, talk later" tactic.
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Henry thinks himself a terrible tamer because of his guilt trips.

Rika Nonaka (Ruki Makino)

"Walk all over him, Renamon."

^{Click here to see biomerged form}

Nicknamed "The Digimon Queen," she's one of the best Digimon card game players around, to the point where real Digimon seek her out as a partner! It takes her a while to break out of that mentality, especially since her Digimon partner shares it.

Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (JP), Melissa Fahn (Sakuyamon shared with Mari Devon) (EN), Blanca Rada (Spain), Angélica García (Latin America)

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• 10-Minute Retirement: In episode 10, she quits being a Tamer after the events from the episode leave her traumatized. She gets over it by the end of episode 12.
• The Ace: As "Digimon Queen", there's nobody who can beat her in the card game...save for Ryo.
• Action Girl: Unquestionably the toughest girl of the anime franchise.
• Alone in a Crowd: Shown to be this early in the series before Character Development kicks in. Emphasised by her MP3/CD player.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: To the point where she has Renamon try to kill Guilmon just to get stronger.
• Badass Adorable: When she's not fighting (tactically, obviously), she IS a really cute girl.
• Badass Biker: In the Digimon Tamers 2018 CD Drama, it's revealed that she grew up to become a freestyle motocross rider.
• Badass Longcoat: According to Chiaki Konaka, an early inspiration for Rika was Trinity from The Matrix. So much so that being pastel yellow did not detract from the coolness.
• Badass Normal: She's just a young girl but a very tough one at that.
• Beautiful All Along: Come on, look at her at Episode 18. She looked amazing in that dress.
• Blood Knight: She starts out eager to challenge any Digimon that comes her way to prove herself.
• Body Horror: During Runaway Digimon Express. Rika's in the middle of a hypnosis-induced rampage and trying to kill Takato, but Guilmon ignores them both to shoot fireballs at something nasty he smells elsewhere in the car. When the smoke clears, we see this freakish bug-thing with dozens of spare legs and tentacles enshrouding her attached to her back, apparently controlling her through invasive physical contact.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In Runaway Digimon Express, Rika is briefly subjected to Mind Control by the Big Bad. She spends the duration trying to murder Takato, first with a wrench and then with laser beams.
• Broken Bird: She has a rather cold and aloof personality and it is shown she has trouble getting along with her mother, but in the end, she is a subversion since she still has a rather healthy family life and her issues with her mother are not truly that bad aside from a contrast in interests. She notices this herself when comparing her life to Jeri's.
• Byronic Hero: Pre-Character Development, she's cold and ruthless.
• Catchphrase: In the dub, she's fond of variants of telling her opponents that she/Renamon/her friends are going to "walk all over" you.
• Character Development: At first, Rika's only concern was maintaining and protecting her title as Digimon Queen, stomping out every Digimon she and Renamon came across so the latter can absorb their data and become stronger. But as the season's story progresses, especially after her encounter with Icedevimon in episode 10, she learns that there's more to Digimon than just simply fighting each other in order to stay on top of some competition. This development is fully established when Rika's mother gifts her a shirt with a full heart rather than the broken one she usually wore in episode 42.
• Cool Big Sis: They're the same age and not necessarily one more mature than the other, but Rika takes Jeri under her wing early on, teaching her to use her cards and holding her hand through the digital field.
• Cool Shades: Wears them sometimes.
• Costume Evolution: For half of the series, Rika wears a t-shirt with a broken heart. Then, her mother gives a similar t-shirt, but with a whole heart.
• Daddy's Girl: The Runaway Digimon Express movie implies she had a close relationship with her father.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mainly in the English dub.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She's rude, cold, and distant to everyone, but warms up over time; she buys Renamon a gift, tutors Jeri in the card game, and, during the big Beelzebumon fight, is openly scared for Takato's life.
• Disappeared Dad: According to his character notes, Chiaki Konaka didn't focus on this element of her back story because he didn't want to give the impression that not having her father around was responsible for Rika's attitude, but he appreciated the way Runaway Digimon Express dug into her character and found the psychological approach true to the style of the series. It isn't difficult to imagine that Rika being a little melancholic about her father and her previous attitude are still related, even if one is not necessarily the cause of the other.
• Don't Tell Mama: Eventually, she gets to find out in the end of the series.
• Dub Personality Change: While still an introverted Ice Queen, the American dub's take on Rika is much snarkier. This is naturally helped by the dub's World of Snark.
• Dude Magnet: A couple of young men Rika passes by on the streets compliment her good looks, she has some Ship Tease with Takato, and Ryo is strongly hinted to have a crush on her.
• Expy:
  • As revealed in this interview, Konaka and Nakatsuru based her off Trinity from The Matrix.
  • As a redheaded Short Tank with emotional difficulties driven by Mommy Issues (of the Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter variety), Rika is also a fairly overt duplicate of Sora (and of trope-codifying Short Tank Misty by extension).
  • You could also say her character is seen as a parallel to Mimi, just from a tomboyish variety. Both start the series rather self-centered and their development comes from learning to care and think about others, and learning the value of teamwork. Incidentally, both also stay with their interests throughout all their lives, one into fashion and the other into sports and card games. Never in the narrative are they invalidated for their hobbies or stripped of their agencies for it. Shows that there's no right or wrong way of being a girl.
  • She also has elements of the Lone Wolf archetype of the franchise, like Yamato or Kouji (it's rare in her case because as of yet, she's the only female Lone Wolf of the franchise). She's associated with the moon and a canine Digimon, and she's often aloof and butts a lot with the "gogglehead" lead.
• Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Rika starts as a tough and harsh tomboy who rails against her supermodel fashionista mother's attempts to make her more feminine. After they make peace, Rika loses the rebellious streak and starts wearing the full-hearted shirt to match her mother's. (As some Tamers storybook merch would have it, Rika secretly likes dressing up but finds it embarrassing).
• Fiery Redhead: Downplayed. Rika is redheaded and merciless in battle, but is quite reserved and emotionally distant, especially pre-Character Development.
• Foil: To Henry. They both clashed often because of their opposing ideology about Digimon, and are the first two tamers Takato meet at roughly around the same time.
• Friend to All Living Things: Rika and Renamon allude to feeling a compassion for all life when they become Sakuyamon.
• Gamer Chick: Downplayed; she's the most skilled among the Tamers, when it comes to the Digimon card game. Until Ryo shows up.
• Girl of My Dreams: Takato first sees Rika in a dream, though that's as far as the trope goes; barring some Ship Tease, they're never portrayed as anything other than friends.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: She wears headphones to cut herself off from the rest of the world.
• Hidden Depths: Who knew she had a stellar singing voice?
• I Can Explain:
  • When her grandmother sees her with Renamon.
  • Inverted during Runaway Digimon Express, which opens on Rika wringing answers out of Takato.
• Image Song: "Moon Fighter" and "My Style".
• Ineffectual Loner: In some ways, she's a more traditional lone wolf battle-hardened character, which makes her Co-Lancer along with Henry. This changes thanks to her Digimon partner, friends and family.
• It's All My Fault: Rika is upset about the fact that she has been handling Jeri's problems without appreciation.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Is highly frustrated about Kazu and Kenta coming to the Digital World, and considering that they're the only ones without partner Digimon to defend themselves, she's right to be.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At first, she's aloof, merciless, and selfish. But her Character Development allows Rika to become more selfless, thoughtful, and open.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Rika wears her hair down both times she wears the dress her mother wanted her to wear; she also loses her ponytail in her Out-of-Clothes Experience whenever she and Renamon both become Sakuyamon.
• Little Miss Badass: Especially her introduction in the first episode.
• Little Miss Snarker: Downplayed in the original Japanese; Rika isn't completely averse to making the odd joke, though she puts so much deadpan into being a Deadpan Snarker that it can be hard to tell when she is joking—Takato originally thinks her suggestion that he's come to confess his love for her is an accusation. The English dub's Rika, however, with an Adaptation Personality Change as part of the World of Snark, is quite sassy and much likelier to taunt people.
• Lonely Rich Kid: With shades of being a Spoiled Brat early on, thanks to her neglectful mother and overly tolerant grandmother. She's shown to go to a different, clearly more prestigious school from Takato and Henry, and doesn't have any friends besides Renamon.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: At first an aloof person but became a member of the main gang.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Her eyes go dull and emotionless in the movie when under control.
• Mommy Issues: She and her mom don't hate each other, but they do clash a lot due to having starkly different personalities.
• My Greatest Failure: Rika spends a moment with her thoughts alone after hearing about Jeri's very serious emotional/mental problems, which lead to her becoming the D-Reaper's power source, thinking about how badly she failed to notice that Jeri has inner demons of her own and did not help when she had the chance.
• Not So Stoic: She can get worried or angry quite easily.
• Ojou: Inverted. Despite being the daughter of an upper class family, she's a tomboy with a punkish sense of fashion.
• One of the Boys: In fact, she is much more willing to fight and upfront about things than any of the boys.
• Perpetual Frowner: She doesn't smile very often.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Shows great care for Renamon by episode six, and flips out in episode 15. When Renamon is forced to leave her and return to the digital world at the end of the last episode, she cries openly, something almost never seen from her in the series.
• Purple Is Powerful: Rika's eyes are colored purple, and she has the reputation of being the "Digimon Queen" because she won the card game tournament.
• Ship Tease: With Ryo and Takato.
  • Ryo is her Implied Love Interest and despite him annoying her constantly, she eventually warms up to him. Ryo notably goes out of his way to pursue her into danger twice during the last stages of the digital world arc, and there's a bit of Parent Service during the final battle when Sakuyamon transfers her power to Justimon, leaving her in nothing but Sensual Spandex and Justimon's Laser Blade extends in length.
  • That said, Rika also has significant emotional moments with Takato, especially in the final arc.
    • Rika repeatedly frets about Takato before and during the big fight with Beelzebumon.
    • Rika does a textbook flip from tsun to dere when she learns he wrote a reassuring note to her family on her behalf. She flips back when Takato fails to deny that he added hearts to it.
    • Rika provokes a Twice Shy moment between her and Takato when she notices him noticing her new shirt with its unbroken heart.
    • Her relationship with Takato formed something of a sub-plot in the Runaway Digimon Express movie (not unlike Tai and Sora in "Our War Game"), and Takato rescues her from certain peril at least twice.
    • In Yuen Wong Yu's manhwa adaptation, Ryo's part is heavily reduced to The Cameo, so Sakuyamon transfers her power to Dukemon instead; instead of the Parent Service, Takato briefly thinks that he's really starting to like Rika.
    • The 2018 Drama CD implies the adult Rika still has a soft spot for him when she sees a younger Takato and calls him cute.
• Short Tank: Rika takes Sora's spot as the leading tomboy (and another redhead to boot), but technically she wears a t-shirt and full jeans.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift:
  • For most of the series, Rika is seen wearing a broken hearted t-shirt, symbolizing her as a Broken Bird jerkass with issues regarding opening up. After maturing significantly, she receives and wears a new shirt with a complete heart after reconciling with her mother (who has a Palette Swap of the new shirt for herself to match). In a flashback to her life from before she met Renamon, Rika is shown wearing a much darker skull-and-crossbones design.
  • More subtly, Rika also wears different coats with her shirts. She's introduced wearing a trenchcoat over the broken heart, briefly wears a light blue windbreaker after transitioning to the full heart, and wore a black leather jacket over the skull and crossbones.
  • In Runaway Digimon Express, Rika's vision of her young childhood self shows the latter wearing an innocent blouse and jumper.
• Slipknot Ponytail: Most notably whenever she becomes Sakuyamon.
• The Stoic: Rika pretends to be aloof in order to keep others at a distance, but she's really a Defrosting Ice Queen.
• Tomboy: Rika is brash, rough, and enjoys fighting, with a notable lack of femininity compared to other female characters. In one episode, Rika is depicted as a Unwillingly Girly Tomboy, where she agrees to wear a girly dress for a photoshoot for her mother and later decides to run off when the camera flashes scare her. The series later establishes her as a Tomboy with a Girly Streak; a picture book shows her being visibly upset at being seen in a dress but only because she is embarrassed and refuses to admit that she secretly likes to dress up.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She is the Tomboy to both Jeri's and her mother's Girly Girl. The show implies that the reason Rika leans so hard into the Tomboy role is to reject her mother's attempts to make her more girly.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: One resembling a samurai cut.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Rika gradually becomes more open and nice to the other Tamers and Renamon.
• Too Many Belts: Wears a pair on her leg.
• Tsundere: Rika is a type A and tends to act brash.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Before she Takes A Level In Kindness, she repeatedly refers to Renamon as just data mere episodes after Renamon saved her life. When Renamon saves her again from an IceDevimon, all Rika has to say about it is "I hate Digimon. All of 'em." But considering the circumstances^note a ten year old who has only just escaped from a kidnapping attempt where her captor forced her to confront the fact that she's been having her partner kill living creatures for her own gratification, which was exactly the same thing she had just called IceDevimon evil for doing, her lashing out during the latter might have been understandable.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Early on, she saw Digimon as just data, including her own partner, and not as thinking, feeling beings. She grew out of it soon enough. Ironically, Renamon is of the Data type.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different? We can see that her mom wanted a girly girl. In the original version, we learn that her dad wanted a boy. Rika's mom eventually makes her peace with this.
• "World's Best" Character: Famed In-Story as the "Digimon Queen", Rika is the World's Best Warrior (at the Collectible Card Game tournament, that is). Belatedly subverted partway through the Digital World Rescue Arc—Ryo Akiyama beat her the year before she won, so for Rika there's been Always Someone Better.

Jeri Kato (Juri Kato)

A sweet girl who Takato has a crush on. Has issues with her father and stepmother. Winds up on the end of a lot of bad luck. You can see where this is going.

Voiced by: Yōko Asada (JP), Bridget Hoffman (EN, series), Philece Sampler (EN, movie) Gádor Martín (Spain), Mireya Mendoza (Latin America)

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• Arc Words: "Destiny". Jeri seems to have an obsession with the idea that the things that happen to her are destiny, at first feeling like she isn't special enough to become a tamer but then becoming elated when she becomes partnered with Leomon, seeing it as favorable fate. This gets bolstered with Leomon's own declaration that "everyone has their own destiny". Unfortunately, this heads down a tragic path when Leomon is suddenly killed, which, combined with the fact that Jeri lost her biological mother at a young age, leads Jeri to believe that she's destined to be alone. Eventually however, Jeri realizes that people make their own destinies and with the help of her friends, pulls herself out of her depression.
• Birds of a Feather: With Takato. Both are sweet kids, with intense emotions buried deep down (intense anger for Takato and overwhelming despair for Jeri). They also seem to share a sort of psychic connection that lets them sense and hear each other from great distances. Both reacted badly to Leomon's death, which unleashed their bottled up emotions, but by the end of the series, they learn to gain better control of those emotions, which helps lead to the D-Reaper's defeat.
• Break the Cutie: After losing Leomon, the second half of the show pretty much does everything in its power to make Jeri soul-crushingly miserable.
• Broken Bird: Jeri hides behind an upbeat, cheerful, optimistic persona, but even before the events of the series she had severe issues relating to the death of her mother and how she treated her stepmother. The death of Leomon merely shattered this facade and exposed her inner vulnerability, leaving her ripe for her subsequent Mind Rape by the D-Reaper. After all this she is completely and utterly broken, her despair fueling the D-Reaper's power and giving it the impression that all humans crave is obliteration.
• Closet Geek: In the beginning she acted like she thought digimon was just a silly boys thing. Later however, she's the most receptive to the idea that digimon are real and is extremely eager to meet Guilmon, and it's made blatantly clear that she's been secretly collecting digimon cards, immediately after denying that she did so, no less.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Funny in action, tragic in retrospect. Jeri is a sweet but quirky girl who often talks through a hand puppet. It's eventually made clear she does so as a coping mechanism and that she longs for some escapism in her life.
• Consulting Mister Puppet: She has a sock puppet she frequently talks to. It gets alarming once Leomon dies, as the puppet is how she expresses some really negative thoughts towards herself, and eventually goes as far as trying to strangle her(self). Kid's show!
• Crucified Hero Shot: Suffers from this (by cables), twice in a row, because she is fighting the aforementioned mind rape. It's only once in the English dub, though.
• Cuteness Proximity: Upon meeting Guilmon, her instant reaction is to squeal "How cuuuuuuuute!" and Glomp him. She has a similar reaction to meeting Calumon.
• The Cutie: Just look at her!
• Damsel in Distress: Jeri gets captured by the D-Reaper and used to fuel its rampage around the world. At first Jeri is largely left unharmed in a bubble and completely indifferent to what's going on, still suffering from a Heroic BSoD from losing Leomon. When she snaps out of it and starts fighting back though, the D-Reaper actively starts restraining her. Much of the final third of the season is dedicated to saving her.
• Death Seeker: The weight of her despair in realizing the D-Reaper has been using her to hurt her friends and endanger the entire world eventually hits the point that she not only thinks things would be better if she weren't around, but she attempts to strangle herself with her puppet. Thankfully Calumon intervenes and talks her out of it.
• Demonic Dummy: Jeri's sock puppet is usually benign, and she uses it to entertain her little brother. However, she also often uses it as a proxy for her to voice her insecurities, or whenever she has to point out something bad, and that is why the D-Reaper impersonates it during her Mind Rape, turning even one of the least threatening things into something terrifying.
• Despair Event Horizon: Jeri was already secretly dealing with issues, but losing Leomon breaks her. She's practically catatonic in the aftermath, and begins to feel like not only is she destined to be alone, but that everyone would be better off if they weren't around her. It takes a lot to pull her out of the depths of her despair.
• Deuteragonist: If Takato, Rika, and Henry, along with their partners are to be taken together as a collective protagonist, Jeri, along with Impmon, are the deuteragonists, with Jeri being the child receiving the most character development and plot relevance next to the main three kids.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: On at least two occasions, Jeri succumbs to a broken heart and snaps at people who approach and try to comfort her, demanding to be left alone.
• Dub Personality Change: While she has her quirks in the Japanese version, the English dub makes Jeri much more into a Cloud Cuckoolander.
• First Girl Wins: Jeri and Rika both make their debut in the first episode, and both have Ship Tease with Takato. However, Jeri is the first girl whom Takato interacts with, and she's the one whom Takato has feelings for. Per Konaka's notes, Takato is falling in love with Jeri, but he doesn't realize it until the antepenultimate episode, where he admits as much to his cousin Kai. The final episode shows that Jeri reciprocates Takato's feelings, and as revealed in the 2018 CD Drama, Takato and Jeri are engaged.
• Five Stages of Grief: Experiences all of them.
• Four Is Death: Although chronologically, she isn't the fourth Tamer in the series (that one is Takato) she is the first addition to the trio and the fourth Tamer that the audience sees getting a digivice.
• Foil: Her characterization and arc run roughly parallel to Impmon's. Both of them are lonely individuals, but Jeri desperately seeks connection with others while Impmon desperately tries to pretend he doesn't need it. This gets exemplified in how Jeri crazily chased Digimon around hoping to be their partner while Impmon rejected and ran away from his would-be-partners. Both of them go through a period where they believe it's better to be alone, with Impmon deciding to destroy everything around him, and Jeri deciding it would be better if she just disappeared. Jeri ends up sparing his life unexpectedly, while he fails to save hers when she's in danger. Impmon ends up learning how to find strength in his friends, while Jeri learns how to find strength in herself. They both also break the usual digimon human-partner conventions, with Jeri being the only human to lose their digimon without revival during the series and Impmon being the only digimon with two partners.
• Genki Girl: When she gets really excited about something. See her mad pursuit of Leomon in episode 21.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She's a very feminine girl for the most part, especially compared to Rika, and always wears dresses. But she thinks Guilmon (a dragon-like dinosaur nearly the size of an adult human) is adorable and she's secretly a big fan of the Digimon card game. Unlike most female human characters in the franchise whose partners are cute and/or feminine-looking Digimon, her partner is the very masculine Leomon.
• Go and Sin No More: Despite the fact Beelzemon hurt her the most, Jeri begs Takato and the others to let Beelzemon live when it's obvious he's been defeated, declaring that she doesn't want to see anyone else be killed. Her mercy snaps Beelzemon out of his Power High and sets him on the path to becoming The Atoner.
• Hates Being Alone: She is never seen having fun by herself, and has a borderline-unhealthy need to be around other people.
• Heroic BSoD: Jeri gets pulled into this after Leomon dies and remains that way until near the end of the series. She actually starts recovering from it when Beelzemon comes to rescue her but she horrifically relapses hard when he makes the mistake of using her fallen digimon's attack when he tries to save her. Although ultimately, this event does end up snapping her out of it for good.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation:
  • Jeri really is a sweet kid, but when Takato tells her what a kind person she is, Jeri responds with the very negative statement that she isn't a nice person. This belief comes from the guilt she feels for the fact that even though she recognized that her step-mother genuinely was a good person and was trying to connect with her, Jeri still rejected her.
  • Her self-loathing only increases when she fails to accept Beelzemon's attempt to save her and he nearly dies in the process. Following that she despairs at the idea that her friends, family, and even the whole world might be suffering because the D-Reaper was using her.
• History Repeats: Tragically so. Jeri lost her biological mother at a young age, and when her father remarried she rejected her stepmother even though Jeri recognized her stepmother wasn't a bad person and was trying her best to be a good mom. Then Jeri loses Leomon only a few weeks after becoming a Tamer, murdered by Beelzemon during his time being Drunk on the Dark Side. And while this means Jeri has legitimate reasons for not trusting Beelzemon, she ends up rejecting his attempt at rescuing her even though she did in fact recognize his good intentions.
• I Just Want to Be Special:
  • And she gets her wish! For a little while, anyway.
  • In a twisted way she becomes the most special child - the one the D-Reaper picks to be its host.
• Interrupted Suicide: With her puppet, no less! What Do You Mean, It's for Kids? indeed.
• Image Song: "Sayonara Dake ga Shitteta" ("Only Goodbye Knew") and "Itsuka no Iro" ("The Color of Someday")
• It's All My Fault: When the D-Reaper starts to take over the world, Jeri blames herself because it's been using her as a battery and information source to drive its actions. These feelings in her worsen when her friends, family, and other allies get hurt in the process of trying to rescue her.
• Meaningful Name: She shares her name with a friend of Lain Iwakura, who goes through just about the same level of mental trauma as this Jeri. Both are characters created by Chiaki Konaka so this was very intentional.
• Mind Rape: After she's broken. Comparable to Asuka's, except it lasts weeks. She recovers by the end, since others openly support her.
• Mommy Issues: Played With; Jeri misses her late biological mother, and Jeri feels very guilty over treating her stepmother poorly because of it, when she knows her step-mother doesn't really deserve it.
• Nice Girl: Played With. Jeri fits the role to a T. She's sweet, inoffensive, and easy to get along with. She gets along with boys and girls alike and immediately accepts Guilmon the moment she sees him. Takato even declares what a nice girl she is. However, Jeri herself believes that she's an awful person, due to the fact that she rejected her step-mother's attempts to connect to her.
• Official Couple: In the Digimon Tamers 2018 CD Drama, she and Takato are engaged.
• Parental Neglect: An interesting case with her father, who is neglectful not out of malice but because he himself doesn't know how to handle the family problems after his first wife passed away. And he really, REALLY shows how much he loves Jeri by the end.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers a magnificent one of these to the D-Reaper when Jeri is finally able to break out of her depressive state and properly direct her anger at the D-Reaper, as well as voice her belief in a better future.
• Reflectionless Useless Eyes: She has these while she is behaving oddly. However, this "Jeri" is actually a clone constructed from data.
• Sanity Slippage: Seeing Beelzemon kill Leomon right in front of her during her and the Tamers' expedition to the Digital World took a massive toll on her mental stability. The D-Reaper exploits this later on.
• Satellite Character: Subverted. She is Takato's main Love Interest, and it seems her interest in Digimon was at least partially sparked by him. Unlike many other characters with her archetype however, she undergoes her own personal character development arc and, due to a number of admittedly unfortunate circumstances, actually ends up the character who the plot and her castmates end up revolving around in the final act of the season.
• Screw Destiny: She eventually realizes that people make their own destinies, and proves it by breaking out of the D-Reaper's Kernel herself.
• Sexophone: Showed up when she was gushing over Leomon in the Japanese version. Results in him running away from her.
• Stepford Smiler: A heartbreaking example of what can happen to you if you repress your traumas for too long. First shown when she meets Leomon in episode 21, a mostly comedic episode where her despair for a bit of fantasy is subtly shown. Jeri was a cheerful, if a little bit odd girl who almost always seemed like she was smiling and having fun, and often worried about the troubles of others. The façade comes crashing down when Leomon dies, causing her to spiral into a depression filled with negative thoughts about herself, which quickly become apparent are things she's always believed but never voiced. Rika even later muses and expresses regret about how due to Jeri's happy nature, she never realized or considered that Jeri might have her own inner-demons.
• Strong Family Resemblance: In episode 24, a picture in Jeri's room reveals that she looks very similar to her deceased mother.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to Rika's Tomboy.
• Took a Level in Badass: Double Subverted. Good lord the girl tries so hard. She wants to toughen up to be worthy of Leomon and it slowly happens. Then it all goes to hell in a hand basket. It FINALLY ends up working for her in the end when she stands up to the D-Reaper on her own without Leomon OR Takato there and choses to Screw Destiny and make her own fate. Of course, she and Culumon still need to be rescued in the end... but so does everyone else.
• Trauma Conga Line: Like you wouldn't believe. It starts with Leomon's death and just keeps going downhill from there.
• Unwanted Rescue: Played with. Even though Jeri had every reason to despise and fear Beelzemon, she initially seemed willing to be rescued by him from the D-Reaper. But that instantly changes when he uses Leomon's "Fist of the Beast King" to break into her prison, serving as a reminder that he'd murdered Leomon and retraumatizing her in the process. She freezes up from a combination of terror and grief, and ultimately doesn't allow him to save her.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Jeri delivers this to Takato after Guilmon dark digivolves into Megidramon. Even though it was mostly out of revenge for her sake, Jeri is devastated to see what Takato's rage did to a sweet creature like Guilmon.
  "Stop. Don't come near me. Guilmon was so sweet and cute, and look what you did to him."
• You Can't Fight Fate: Believes this. Which makes Leomon's last words (in the Japanese version) of "this was my destiny" VERY poorly-chosen.

Kazu Shioda (Hirokazu Shioda)

Takato's best friend and rival playing the Digimon card game. when he discovers Guilmon, he decides to try and help the other Tamers in their plight. Mostly used as comic relief.

Voiced by: Yukiko Tamaki (JP), Brad MacDonald (EN), Pepa Agudo (Spain), Manuel Campuzano (Latin America)

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• Accidental Kiss: In episode 26, Rika kicks Kazu to wake him, which results in him rolling over on top of Kenta and accidentally kissing him on the cheek. This was cut from the English dub.
• Ascended Extra: Was originally just one of Takato's friends, but winds up accompanying him to the Digital World and becoming a Tamer in the process.
• Ascended Fanboy: For Digimon card games, and twice as much as everyone else.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the final battle.
• Character Development: Kazu had all the makings of a Stock Shōnen Hero wannabe. As an avid digimon fan, he was jealous when he saw that Takato, Rika, and Henry had their own real digimon and he forced his way into the trip to the digital world to find his own digimon partner, which he eventually did. However, he gets a massive wake-up call to exactly how dangerous and emotionally taxing dealing with digimon can be when Beelzemon attacks the group. Kazu's desire to fight on the frontlines is practically snuffed out right then, and while he still makes an effort to be useful after, he becomes content with serving as more of a backup member.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Enables him to save Takato and Guilmon from Beelzemon.
• Genius Ditz: For about one episode. Figured out how the blue cards work.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Kenta, so much.
• Plucky Comic Relief: The gutso attitude is more of a show though.
• Those Two Guys: Is almost always by Kenta's side.

Kenta Kitagawa

Friends with Kazu, he often serves as a straight man to his jokes. He also volunteers to help the other Tamers.

Voiced by: Touko Aoyama (JP), Steve Blum (EN), Carolina Tak (Spain), Jorge Sánchez (Latin America)

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• Accidental Kiss: In episode 26, Rika kicks Kazu to wake him, which results in him rolling over on top of Kenta and accidentally kissing him on the cheek. This was cut from the English dub.
• Alliterative Name: Kenta Kitagawa,
• Ascended Extra: More so than Kazu as he originally wasn't even going to be a Tamer and was just going to be a background character.
• Ascended Fanboy: Obsessed with Digimon card games.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the final battle.
• Butt-Monkey: In the dub, Kenta is constantly getting made fun of, making an affronted "Hey!" almost his Catchphrase.
• Combat Pragmatist: Despite his meek nature, and having a partner suited toward support and healing, Kenta proves to be a surprisingly efficient fighter, managing to clear out several D-Reaper agents and save Takato from one through nothing more than a series of sneak attacks from behind.
• Character Development: Much like Kazu, Kenta went to the digital world to find a partner digimon that he could have adventures with. Beelzemon nearly killing everyone destroys the rosy picture he'd had of those adventures, though, and Kenta completely stops looking for a partner digimon after that, only becoming a Tamer because Marineangemon himself wanted to be Kenta's partner. Rather fittingly, Marineangemon is explicitly a support/healer digimon and not a fighter.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Similar to the Kazu example, he saves Takato from being Mind Raped by the D-Reaper. Not to mention that he had to beat up singlehandedly several D-Reaper Agents just to perform said attack.
• Expy: Of Makoto, the supporting protagonist of C'mon Digimon
• Satellite Character: Rarely does much of anything besides interacting with Kazu.
• Those Two Guys: Hangs out with Kazu a lot.

Ryo Akiyama

^{Click here to see biomerged form}

A mysterious Digimon tamer and former champion of the card game, who has some sort of rivalry with Rika. To everyone outside of Japan who didn't read about the Japanese version, he seemed to come out of nowhere.

Voiced by: Jun'ichi Kanemaru (JP), Steve Staley (Justimon shared with Lex Lang) (EN), Ana Plaza (Spain), Mauricio Valverde (Latin America)

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• The Ace: Ryo is lauded as the "Digimon King", the kid who beat Rika a year ago.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Downplayed; Ryo's flirting with Rika is much more overt in the dub.
• All There in the Manual: Tamers makes no overt reference to the Digimon (WonderSwan Series), so if you want to know what it is and why it's relevant, you'd have to look it up yourself. In the series' heyday, access to this material was nearly impossible, so Chris McFeely of The Digimon Encyclopedia helped create a comic explaining Ryo's origins for Western fans. "Ryo's Story" appeared in Wickid (Fox Kids' UK magazine) issue #43, on September 28th, 2003... which North Americans didn't get.
• Always Someone Better: Mostly where Rika is concerned; he and his Digimon are introduced trouncing the Megadramon that was on the brink of loading Kyuubimon, he's the guy who beat Rika in the card game a year ago, he's perfectly polite and charming and the idol of local Digimon while Rika is busy being bitter and grumbling to herself.
• Ambiguous Situation: Is this Ryo an Alternate Self of the protagonist of the Digimon Wonderswan Series or is he the same person? Seki Hiromi, the producer for Tamers, has stated that Tamers-Ryo is the Wonderswan series hero, but head writer Chiaki J. Konaka's notes strongly suggest that he is not. The series itself leans to Konaka's side — the Ryo shown has a clearly different backstory and is explicitly shown to hail from the same world as the rest of the tamers, while no mention is made to the events of the Wonderswan series or the fact that they involved Ryo meeting Taichi and the rest of the original Children.
• Big Brother Mentor: He gives a stock inspirational speech to the Hagurumon he rescues during his debut, who responds by fawning over him. He does it again with Xiao, giving her a card of her own to swipe.
• The Cameo: In the manhwa adaptation, he only appears briefly in the Digital World and then disappears from the story.
• Canon Immigrant: While the protagonist of the Digimon Wonderswan Series was The Cameo in Digimon Adventure Movie: Our War Game! and became a Guest Star in Digimon V-Tamer 01, Tamers has the first version of Ryo to be a regular cast member in his own right, although it is implied to be an alternate version of the character and not the character himself.
• Character Shilling: A variety of characters—Hirokazau, Kenta, local Digimon like Hagurumon—heap constant praise and recognition of Ryo's accomplishments on him.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Ryo inserts himself into Rika's business a couple of times during the final act ostensibly to protect her, chasing her down into the pit with the D-Reaper and effectively cutting in line by insisting that he and Cyberdramon be the ones to go rescue Rika and Kyuubimon when the Ark is departing after Terriermon and Jian come up with the idea.
• Continuity Snarl: One results from Seki Hiromi's claim that the Ryo of Tamers is the same character as the Wonderswan Ryo. Tamers gives its version of Ryo a game-incompatible backstory that creates snarls, like how Ryo has parents and a past in the Tamers world, when the Wonderswan Ryo and his family are originally from the world of Digimon Adventure.
• Demoted to Extra: The role played by him and Cyberdramon in the manhwa is reduced to The Cameo; he encounters the gang briefly in the digital world and does not return for the final act—rather than Sakuyamon Super-Empowering Justimon, she does the same for Dukemon Crimson Mode instead.
• The Drifter: By the time he's introduced, Ryo has been spending time wandering the digital world with Cyberdramon and looking for good fights.
• Energy Weapon: He can project an energy whip from his Digivice to discipline Cyberdramon.
• Flat Character: Unlike Takato, Henry, Rika, and Jeri, Ryo has no character arc—he starts at Ideal Hero and stays there through the whole series. He does basically two things throughout the show—rescue people and annoy Rika (sometimes by rescuing her).
• Friendless Background: Downplayed. Ryo spent a year in the digital world with only the nearly-rabid Cyberdramon for consistent company, but he doesn't seem to be too worried about it. This makes him a subtle Foil to Magnetic Hero Takato—the group of Tamers that travel to the digital world are all Takato's friends.
• Ideal Hero: When Ryo is introduced, he's charming, composed, accompanied with a very powerful digimon, and unironically regrets that Rika doesn't like him very much. His lack of flaws appears to annoy Rika even more.
• Image Song: "Digital Surviver" (Yes, "survivor" is spelled incorrectly.)
• Informed Ability: Downplayed. Multiple characters insist that Ryo is an excellent Tamer and a master of the card game, but we never see him playing, if anything because the series has mostly gone past it by that point. He certainly has very powerful cards, though, and looks generally very confident in all situations.
• Jumped at the Call: Message in a Packet reveals Ryo immediately accepted Cyberdramon's invitation to come to the digital world the night he beat Rika at the tournament, without a thought for his family.
• Make My Monster Grow: The "Goliath" card he possesses can turn Cyberdramon gigantic.
• Meaningful Name: His given name is written with a character meaning "Distant".
• Mythology Gag: Ryo's suggestion in Message in a Packet that Cyberdramon's Arch-Nemesis is an Enemy Within (even stronger than the Harmonious Ones, no less) is a very likely nod to the finale of Brave Tamer where Monodramon finally beats Milleniumon by forcing him into a Fusion Dance.
• Remember the New Guy?: Despite the fact that Ryo had always been planned to be a character in the third series, he is only belatedly debuts during the digital world arc, yet multiple characters nonetheless immediately recognize him and Kazu and Kenta start talking him up like he's super hot stuff. In a particular blatant point, he is revealed to be Rika's superior in the card tournament, yet up to that point there had not been any mention of anybody ever beating Rika at it.
• Satellite Love Interest: Despite being The Ace and the longest-established tamer, most of Ryo's influence on the story is through his relationship with Rika and how she reacts to him.
• Ship Tease: Some here and there with Rika, mostly consisting of him aggravating her, which is emphasized in the dub.
• Sixth Ranger: He's the final tamer introduced in the show, and he's the only one on par in terms of power and competency with the core Power Trio.
• Smooch of Victory: In the dub, he flirts with Rika and attempts to invoke this trope.
  Ryo: So what do I get for saving your life not once but twice?
  Rika: How about twice the whuppin'?
• Socially Awkward Hero: Averted. His year in the digital world has apparently done nothing to harm his social skills.
• Walking the Earth: He's been traveling around the Digital World for a year with Cyberdramon, who was too feral to safely keep on Earth any longer.
• Whip of Dominance: He uses an energy whip from his Digivice to reign-in his Cyberdramon when it becomes berserk. No one else's Digivice has this ability, and it doesn't appear to be triggered by any of his cards. It's also used more to characterize Cyberdramon's sheer ferocity than Rio being particularly strict or cruel as a tamer.

Suzie Wong (Li Xiaochun/Li Shiuchon)

Henry's younger sister who winds up dragged into the digital world with the others. Lucky for them, as her power of cute helps convert one of the Big Bads to their side.

Voiced by: Ai Nagano (JP), Peggy O'Neal (EN), Pepa Agudo (Spain), Flavia Termignoni (Latin America)

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• The Baby of the Bunch: Compared to all the Tamers who are in junior high, Suzie is only 7.
• Break the Cutie: The day she winds up in the Digital World is the same day Beelzemon attacks the Tamers, giving her a front row seat to Leomon's death, Takato's Sanity Slippage, Megidramon, and Zhuqiaomon trying to incinerate them all. She at least recovers, and pretty quickly.
• Cheerful Child: Pretty happy by default.
• Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: In the dub, she speaks like this, calling her brother "Henwy."
• Girlish Pigtails: A girly kid with pigtails.
• Sixth Ranger: Over Henry's objections, she is this.
• Spell My Name With An S: Like all the other members of her family, this is in full effect because of Alternate Character Reading. The characters in her name are read using the onyomi reading ("Shiuchon") whereas if put into pinyin, it would be read as "Xiaochun" in Mandarin Chinese. The dubbers more or less gave up the internal debate about what it was and went with Suzie instead. Fandom sometimes adds to this by calling her 'Shuchun', because the Japanese VAs pronounce her name that way sometimes. The German dub goes with "shuichon" half the dub and when she joins the others she says she would rather be called "Suzie", while the Spaniard dub opted to pronounce her name as a vague variation of the onyomi ("Shuchon").
• Technical Pacifist: After becoming a Tamer, she develops a bit of her brother's old attitude.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Is essentially this as a character-concept, though with unexpectedly happy results; in a Darker and Edgier series where heaps of tropes are examined deeply and where the tone is comparable to that of a Cosmic Horror Story, she singlehandedly manages to survive the plot by being innocent, bubbly and sweet. She'd have fit perfectly in the previous series or the next one.

Ai & Mako (Makoto)

The youngest humans partnered to a Digimon in any Digimon canon, these toddlers turn out to be the Tamers of Impmon, and are part of the reason behind his disdain for humans.

Ai is voiced by: Haruhi Terada (JP), Rebecca Forstadt (EN), Carolina Tak (Spain)

Mako is voiced by: Miwa Matsumoto (JP), Wendee Lee (EN), Diana Torres (Spain)

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• Age-Appropriate Angst: They react to Impmon leaving them by learning to share and being the best they can be, and they apologize profusely to him when he returns. Given that they were three or four when he left, this is probably all the angst they're capable of.
• Badass and Child Duo: Both of them plus Impmon make it a trio. The two youngest children to ever be officially partnered with a digimon have a partner whose fully evolved form is classified as a Demon Lord.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Both of them, at first.
• Character Development: A surprising amount given how little screen time they got.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: They become Tamers in the final episode; sadly, they don't have a chance to do anything. (Unless it was them that healed Impmon of course, but then it happened off-screen.) This is justified due to their ages.
• Family Theme Naming: Ai means love, while Makoto means truth. This is a common Japanese sibling name combo.
• Girlish Pigtails: Ai has her hair up in ponytails.
• Half-Identical Twins: It's ambiguous if they're twins, and Ai is taller than Mako, but they look very alike as siblings and they often repeat each other's sentences.
• Heel–Face Turn: Sometime between Impmon witnessing them tearing a teddy bear in half and his search to find them at their grandmother's house, Ai and Makoto have learned to share, which they attribute to guilt after he abandoned them.
• Imaginary Friend: The English and German dubs imply their parents think Impmon is/was this. Averted in Spain, where their parents never seem to discover Impmon's existence.
• Improbable Age: Younger than any other Chosen or Tamer on record, bar none. Though they are admittedly bad at it at first and at least act their age.
• Inconsistent Dub: Their age in any given dub suffers from this. The English and Spanish dubs avoid this by just not stating it.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: Mako's toy gun morphs into a sentry gun as Beelzemon heads into battle.
• Kid-Appeal Character: They're even younger then Suzie.
• Love Redeems: Platonic love, as the case might be.
• Morality Pet: They're this for Impmon.
• Noodle Incident: Their grandma mentions something about Mako having once been glued to the floor, presumably by Ai.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Mako" (or "Mako-chan") is Impmon's term of endearment for Makoto, but in the English dub, everyone, whether they know Mako personally or not, calls him "Mako". Impmon even introduces him as "Mako" to Takato and the gang.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • In flashbacks, they live with their parents, who spoiled them rotten. The next we see them they're living with their grandmother, and no explanation is given for why.
  • They are next seen with their grandmother because their families have evacuated due to the D-Reaper, though that still doesn't explain where they were during Impmon's visit.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Ai wears a pink dress and Mako has blue overalls.
• Power of Friendship: How they cause Impmon to digivolve.
• Redemption Promotion: Impmon gets a lot stronger once he makes amends with Ai and Mako, and his actions inadvertently made them grow up enough to be the people they are today.
• Satellite Character: They barely interact with any relevant character other than Impmon or each other.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Played far more realistically than most uses of this trope; they're different but not night and day different, and get along very well now.
• Spoiled Brat: Due to their parents showering them with toys that they don't even know how to share. They get better, though.
• Tagalong Kid: Averted. Impmon makes them stay home where they're safe since they're even younger than the already young main characters, and they're smart enough to obey him.
• Those Two Guys: Seen together a lot.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Their childish treatment of Impmon leads to him going his own way, becoming Beelzemon and killing Leomon, which leads to Jeri being used by the D-Reaper.
• Vague Age: Word of God says they're younger than Suzie. Other than that, fandom can only guess. Different dubs have said different things about them. It's also up for debate if they're twins or if they're just close in age. In Japanese, Mako does call Ai 'big sister', but in Japan, a younger twin might still refer to their older twin in this way.

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