Why I Think Ryo Is The Ken Of Survive.

Why I think Ryo is the Ken of Survive.

Obviously, all the Survive kids are meant to reflect one of the 8 original Adventure kids. However, the characters aren't completely one to one, as each of the characters are in fact, unique characters in their own right. (Most evident I think is in the fact I'd assign basically every character except for Miyuki a different crest from their adventure counterpart). But they do echo the basic archetype of the role each adventure character played in the series. For the most part this is self explanatory, some more than others.

Takuma is Taichi Minoru is Koshiro (Less obvious but that's a separate point) Aoi is Sora Shuuji is Joe Saki is Mimi Kaito is Yamato Miu is Takeru Miyuki is Hikari

However, Survive has 10 important human/digimon partnerships.

The sole adult of the group, the professor, even bares some resemblance to a rather important "old man" of adventure, Gennai. An old man who knows a lot of their situation, was involved in the "inciting incident" looks after the kids to a certain extent, but is rather unreliable and has amnesia regarding some very important things he should know. Of course original Gennai isn't even really human, and therefore doesn't have a digimon partner, (Jijimon also takes on some Gennai traits imo) but Akiharu I would still say parallels Gennai.

However, Ryo doesn't match any of the original adventure cast. But I think it is fair to say he resembles Ken. Ryo has a worm digimon. Ryo has a family member whose death deeply affected him. Ryo is grumpy and aggressive, while hiding a secretly gentler and hurting side. Ryo is self-destructive, at the cost of his partner.

Ryo can't be Adventure Ken really, because Adventure Ken doesn't really exist. But Ken isn't exactly an 02 kid in the way Daisuke, Iori and Miyako are. A reoccurring theme in 02 is the difference in outlook between the Adventure kids, the Adventure and 02 kids, and the 02 exclusive kids. And so Ken is in no way one of the original Adventure kids, but there is something to be said of the fact that his (executive meddling hellscape) backstory reflects experiences of Takeru, Hikari, more than it does the other 02 original kids. He even has an associated crest. In many ways, Ken is a retroactive Adventure character, without actually being an Adventure character. Ken in the context of digimon Adventure 02 is very much so an example if a character like Takeru had been driven to the darkness, who then had to be rehabilitated by a set of characters with an outside perspective. Really that is what all of 02s Jogresses is really, the new kids helping the more experienced kids deal with their unprocessed issues. Miyako helps Hikari look out for herself, Iori helps Takeru stop lashing out in anger from keeping his emotions hidden, and Daisuke helps Ken see value in his own continued existence.

Which is why I think Ryo is a homage to Ken. It's not the "Adventure Ken" that theoretically exists, the little boy wondering around the digital world with Wonderswan Ryo or whatever did or did not happen in that unreliable backstory, but 02 Ken, the Ken after the trauma, who needs SOMEONE to connect with him to help save him. He's the sole character who is taken from 02 era rather than the first Adventure era. And 02's themes are in this character. Ryo dies in part due to hopelessness and depression. He is unsavable the first playthrough. Unsavable in the initial adventure context. The original context where the focus is on survival and connection with your own digimon. Wormmon couldn't Save Ken alone. just as Kunemon couldn't. Both Wormmon and Kunemon die in desperate attempts to try and save their partners (really from themselves). But Ryo is saved from death when you can manage to become friends with him. When you connect with him, not unlike how Daisuke managed to save Ken. And from there, Ryo manages to save other people (Shuuji) from falling into that same despair, not unlike how Ken tried to reach out to the dark spore kids. It's noteworthy that of the 3 initial endings, the moral route is the closest to the truthful route, but aside from Ryo and Shuuji has one key difference. It ends like the original Adventure did, the kids and their partners separating, while the truthful route has the kids and their partners living together, invoking the 02 ending. While the Harmony and Wrathful routes do also bear a resemblance to 02's ending, just relatively less optimistically, Harmony and Wrathful routes involve the failings of personal connections. The failure to understand each other. Ultimately the truthful route resolves peacefully, even the big bad reconciling with his sister, no longer feeling the need to lash out at others. Ryo is the factor that takes this adventure and adds a bit of 02 to it, 02 in this context being the importance of connection. 02 being what makes the happy ending.

It's not a 1 to 1, after all, all of the characters are different from their adventure counterpart, and take pieces from one another. For example, its Minoru that has the parental divorce backstory, and Miyuki is a protective older sister to the professor, not a younger sister to Takuma, and the Professor is the most curious about the digital world's nature, and is the one with the digimon partner Gabumon. Saki is the one hesitating the most about going home at all rather than being the one to bring it up the most. I'd say Ryo also has elements of Joe in his fear of his partner and for being an unreliable older kid, and Shuuji has elements of Ken in his cruelty of Lopmon, and insistence on authority and desire to measure up against an older brother with whom he has a flawed relationship. Really none of these kids match up one to one with the adventure kids, and that's great, but I think it is fair to say that as far as analogies go, Ryo does draw from Ken.

02 is an extension of Adventure, and despite their differences in plot, theme and character arcs, no discussion of Adventure will ever be truly complete without discussing certain elements of 02 in relation to that, particularly 02s epilogue and what it means thematically. Ryo is a reflection of Ken, and how his story and needs were a reflection of the themes of 02, and how those themes were built off of the themes of Adventure. How Ken needed something that was not as prevalent in Adventure. Naturally, I think the "truthful" story of survive, would have to be a route that includes elements of 02 no matter how faithful it is to other Adventure themes otherwise.

Listen, I understand why Suite isn't a popular season. Generally speaking, the best parts of it are generally done better in the two seasons that precede it. It in many ways is just a weaker frankensteining of Fresh and Heartcatch. But Fresh and Heartcatch are fantastic, so just because it's worse than those seasons, doesn't mean its bad in my opinion. And to be fair, it does deserve many of its criticisms.

But it's also one of my favorite seasons, and I think some of it's criticisms are more a matter of taste. There's just a lot I love about Suite.

Hibiki and Kanade

I also know a lot of people aren't huge fans of the whole fighting thing Hibiki and Kanade have going on. And I agree, it's not the best executed and some things don't make sense. I also understand that many people are not fond of the vitriolic best buds trope, but I don't think that makes their relationship inherently bad just not to everyone's taste. For what it's worth, we haven't had a pair of cures like them before and since and it's a tragedy to me personally because I am quite fond of vitriolic best buds, duo cures and childhood friends. We have so many cure duos and aside from these two, none are childhood friends. The CLOSEST is the fact that Saki and Mai met once, when they were 9. Several trios of childhood friends (Fresh, Doki Doki and Happiness Charge), but they're the only true childhood friend duo. I honestly want more cures like these two. They get the learning to understand each other that the new friendships have, with the wealth of intimate knowledge about each other stemming from their childhood friendship. Despite spending a year "apart", the years they spent together still mean something, and they can't seem to stay away. They're mad at each other but there is still a comfortable familiarity in the way they aren't afraid to fight with each other. They say they aren't friends but they still call each other by first name.

Their hearts naturally fall into perfect harmony. The have like the same sense of style. Kanade likes to bake. Hibiki likes to eat. Souta refers to Hibiki as "Hibiki-Nee-san", and otherwise treats her similarly to his own sister. They have a flashlight code that they use to communicate across town at night. Neither one realized that there are two entrances with Sakura trees at their middle school or tried to talk about it for a whole year. They're both so stupid.

They take after Nagisa and Honoka a lot too. Nagisa and Hibiki are both athletic redheads who are good at sports and have black as a main color in one of their outfits (Cure for Nagisa, Civ for Hibiki), and generally use pink in their outfits. Both like to eat. Both can be prone to grumpiness and disagreements with their family members. Honoka and Kanade are both white Cures with fierce tempers and a strong sense of responsibility, able to handle domestic things like cooking. Both have more academic strengths, but are relatively graceful. There are some twists of course, Kanade has the little brother who she bickers with (their little brother's even both end their name with "ta"), Hibiki is the one with a parent who is often abroad. I really like how the two called back to the original duo without at all feeling like a copy.

To be fair not communicating is the name of the game in Suite. And so, I do 100% understand not liking this plot. I really do understand it. It's more than fair. All of the plots basically revolve around miscommunication. That is like. The entirety of Suite. Miscommunications, and the breakdown and subsequent healing of relationships. A very very valid complaint. One that I can overlook, but understand if others cannot.

Siren and Hummy

So, Precure's second heel-face turn Cure (if we don't count the Kiryuu sisters). She's a shapeshifting cat who can sing. The original one.

While normally I dislike the "Brainwashed to be evil" trope. It can be very effective. Go Princess used it to great effect in which there was a level of tragedy to the years that had been stolen away from Towa, and how her motivations had been twisted. I think it has similar effect here, where we kind of get both. She was brainwashed, and I do think that does cheapen Siren's motivations and redemption a bit, but she also had genuinely negative feelings towards Hummy, that she acted on in refusing to practice with Hummy. She still has to face Hummy head on, and as much as she tries to pretend that she's hard and strong enough to live in her bitterness. Siren isn't actually mean enough to keep facing her friend and betray her over and over again.

Hummy being better at singing than her caused her to lose a piece of her identity. The most important singer in all of Majorland. The one who sings the melody of happiness. So Siren doubles down on that identity. She becomes Minorland's singer. But she also, due to her shapeshifting, spends that time adopting different identities. Testing things out, even if she doesn't realize it. Ultimately she has to completely let go of her old identity (losing access to her original form) and everything associated with it and forge a new sense of self, in order to find happiness. But she doesn't completely lose everything.

Despite not liking to be called Siren anymore, she still lets Hummy call her that. She turned her old identity of Siren into something bitter, so she had to cast it off to redefine herself. But Hummy is the only one who ever saw the real Siren through everything Siren tried to become. Hummy may have been the one who took her sense of worth, but she's also the one who always saw Siren's value as Siren. Hummy gets to use Siren because her relationship with Hummy is the only thing that survived Siren's evolution. The two have to forge a new relationship to a certain extent. But it's built on what came before.

I also just think it's fun that the bulk of this emotional arc is on Hummy. It's cat drama. Fairy drama. Usually this is the kinda of stuff that happens between the pink and the heel-face cure. But not this time. This time it's the cat fairy, and the pink is dealing with her own friendship drama. I think it also ties right back into Suites continued echo of healing relationships, actually listening to people in order to harmonize with them. Hibiki and Kanade have to resolve their bitter feelings from their estrangement. Siren has to get over her jealousy to let Hummy back into her life. And Mephisto and Aphrodite have to stop fighting a war against each other.

Major Land's Royal Family

I mean really, no one bothered to tell Hibiki and Kanade at any point that Mephisto was the brainwashed former King of Major Land and that Major Land had a princess who was in hiding? Just locked out of the loop. Both Kanon and Majorland are entirely made up of people who can't communicate.

Anyway, Ako is my all time favorite cure. I rather unpopular choice, I know. But she fits right in with many of my other favorites, characters such as Hikari Yagami, Takeru Takaishi, King Clawthorne, King Ezran, Anya Forger etc. I love kid characters. I especially love messed up traumatized kids who don't always deal with it in great ways. And kid characters with heaps of responsibility on their shoulders. Like chosen ones and royalty.

So Ako is the epitome of what I look for in my favorite characters. She's a 9 year old with high future expectations, that she can't even begin to try and live up to because she's been sent away from everything she's known and loved. Not just moving to a new town, but a new world, where the rules of what is and isn't normal are different. In addition she was forced into physically altering her appearance, wearing unfamiliar clothes, and cutting her long hair. Not only that, she now has to keep everything about her secret. Her hometown, whatever music magic she has, her real future career plans, everything that made her her, has to be suppressed and kept secret. And she was like. Six. That's tiny. And she has to construct a whole new fake identity?

No wonder she's grumpy and keeps to herself? Her alternative is just trying to keep up a bunch of lies all the time. And keeping to herself, means few friends, and trying to keep people away, because this is supposed to be temporary to some degree. She has back home eventually, she's their future queen. She really has no choice BUT to be a grumpy brat. To keep from getting found out and to keep from getting attached. Like sure she doesn't have to be a brat to Hibiki and Kanade, but she's kinda right half the time, and honestly her tempering that brattiness into being just unpleasant enough to be left alone without being so obnoxious she draws people's ire involves way more socio-emotional intelligence than should ever be expected from a nine year old. And at a certain point, after years of it, it became part of her real personality. The sweet optimistic little princess is still there. But it's under a layer of cynicism.

Ako wants her family back. So she gets the power to do that. And things still don't go her way.

I've joked to people before that Ako is one of 4 cures with divorced parents. Her parents are effectively divorced, but extra. They're not just trying to fight over a house and custody of her, but over not just an entire kingdom, but the fate of the world. And her father doesn't even know who she is anymore. Her parents are actively at war, and her mother honestly shows no qualms about letting her husband be potentially killed, not bothering to tell the people she's sent after him about their relationship and his true nature. (And then her mom asks Mephisto to kill her to protect their kingdom, Ako can't catch a break).

This ties back to a fact that is kind of brushed over in the show. Ako is the princess. In the show she's honestly just the princess because it puts her in between Mephisto and Aphrodite's drama. But we see in show that Mephisto and Aphrodite are constantly putting their kingdom's needs above their own. A- monarchs (points deducted for getting brainwashed), but like. B- parents tbh. They love Ako so, so much, but simply can't raise her themselves. In fact, Ako's parents won't look after themselves, so Ako has to look out for them instead of the other way around. We see this a lot with Mephisto.

Sometimes Ako makes absolutely stupid decisions, like releasing notes, because she doesn't want to go against her dad, even if he isn't himself right now. Because she's a child whose parents are fighting, seemingly to the death, and if she can spread out the fight, she can hopefully drag out the arrival of consequences.

Ako does eventually learn to use the power as a cure, so she can balance the needs of the many over the needs of her loved ones. So she can do both. But she has to learn to make the hard choices and be willing to stand against her loved ones.

Also Ako also gets the miscommunication based friendship breakdown with her and Suzu, and to a lesser extent her and Souta in the movie. Suite really goes hard on the whole healing relationships thing.

Ako is really a direct foil to Yuri who precedes her. Missing evil brainwashed dads. Present throughout the whole show, but only join the team in the last quarter (the latest of any Cures). Semi-awkward friendship with one of the other cure's siblings in part because their friend doesn't know about all their magical girl trauma. Already looped into the magical girl stuff before any of the other cures, so has a preexisting relationship of some sort with the grandparent mentor. Ako is pretty much just a baby Yuri, but who has just now gained the power to try and fight after years of inability to do anything, instead of having just lost her power, and having to face down her own failure and keep going. So she's an angry elementary kid rather than a depressed high schooler. How can I not love her?

In continuing Adventures of talking about Appmon, its the resident team girl, and action idol, Eri. 

I think overall I have the least to say about Eri. I think out of our main group she had the least going on, even considering Rei and Yuujin’s relative lack of screen time, as Rei and Yuujin had a lot going on. That isn’t to say she isn’t well developed. 

While I was a bit suspicious of the sole female protag being an idol, I think in Eri’s case it worked because being an idol is something that ties into the main story, and is a role she can only play because she’s a girl. As being an idol is something largely female exclusive, it allows her to have a subplot where she can interact with other girls in positive ways. Being an idol also gave her bonus image songs and an ED to herself, which while just surface level focus, is still focus. On a more direct level her being an idol provided Overall, Eri being an idol ended up working very well for both Appmon’s overall plot and Eri’s characterization. 

Like most of Appmon’s main cast, we don’t know all that much about her home life. But we know enough. She lives with her single mom, who seems to be an office worker who works long hours to support her daughter. Eri’s mother tells Eri that she’s happy as long as Eri’s happy. She seems to have the same sort of selfless personality that defines Eri, the kind of person who will willingly work herself into the ground given proper motivation. 

Eri deciding to be an idol specifically is somewhat selfish in motivation, something that Eri herself wants to do. But she decided to commit to be an idol at her mother’s wishes for her own happiness. She claims to want to make other people smile, even if early in the series it seems hard to see that through her stoking her own ego and aggressiveness. But even that seems to come from a place of not knowing exactly how to balance her dedication to her self-centered idol persona and her more thoughtful genuine self. As Dokamon says in her debut episode, he and Eri feel the same way about making people smile. They just approach the issue differently. Dokamon is a Appmon that is earnest in his affections and goals, in contrast to Eri’s more evasive outward idol persona.

Eri’s idol persona initially is a bit overbearingly thick, even to those in the industry. But, Eri’s true colors have shown since the beginning. Eri’s arrogant persona often causes her to stand on chairs, but as the others note, she always takes off her shoes. In episode 11, Astra also mentions that Eri helped an old lady up a hill. But because it doesn’t match her “image” Eri tried to avoid getting out. Eri has a somewhat lonely background it seems due to her mother’s frequent absences, though we see her walking home with classmates implying she had some friends. This is a show where the school and family lives largely aren’t very relevant, so its hard to get a full grasp on Eri’s social situation prior to the series. But nevertheless Eri is shown to have felt extremely lonely, so it tracks that she struggles with showing her softer side to other people outside of this abrasive and arrogant persona that’s given her confidence and attention. Eri was always a considerate girl, she just grew more comfortable in her kindness, which is to the benefit of her idol career as well. Eri’s episode about doing food reviews may seem somewhat arbitrary, but food reviews are something that her arrogant act is not compatible with. In order to do proper food reviews, she needs to show a genuine attention to detail with the food, and show that she cares about the review, she needs to show her more genuinely thoughtful side. 

Like Astra, Eri grows to be a bit more genuine, a bit softer to those around her. She clearly grows to care a lot about the other kids, and grows to communicate her affections better (i.e. less abrasively and more charmingly). Her buddy, on the other hand, is openly affectionate and doting, to an extreme from the very beginning. While initially she often walks over Dokamon, she grows to be openly affectionate with him, as well as more openly gentle in how she presents herself to others, even as an idol, something that becomes clear with Eri’s interactions with her younger fans. 

All things considered though, Eri doesn’t necessarily change a whole lot over the course of the series, aside from the aforementioned mellowing of her idol persona. Though to be fair all of the Appmon kids arcs were more about growing into the traits they already had than anything else. But unlike the rest of the group, she has a tangible personal goal (seemingly) unrelated to the whole Leviathan situation: becoming a better idol. And her abilities are tested with the idol elections. While others are getting focus episodes on family or plot developments (or both), Eri’s focus episodes also relate to her idol career. While I think this could be viewed as a negative, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, and Eri’s episodes are always enjoyable. It’s a simple, but effective way of demonstrating Eri’s dedication and growth, Eri starts as a newbie, and she ends in the top 10, with plenty of firsts for her career along the way.

Eri starts the show stubborn and caring, and ends the show the same way, but she’s stronger, and wiser. She grows to focus on supporting her fans and understanding how being an idol makes others smile, rather than just being an idol. By the end of the series Eri is better able to look at where she is and decide where she wants to go. Being an idol is an end to the means. Being an idol is a way to make people smile, and in order to do that Eri is more than willing to pause her idol career due to Leviathan’s involvement. Eri’s willing to aim for number one, while still being completely aware of the fact that she’s not yet number one. Eri obviously wants to be an idol. This is something she doesn’t do out of obligation, but she still uses it as a way of helping others. She’s more able to grasp and address the bigger picture.

It’s why she joins the fight in the first place, though she’s somewhat dragged into the situation by Haru and Gatchmon, she comes to recognize her primary priority is making others smile. Her aggressive, confident nature actually lends itself well to the fights. Allowing her the courage and confidence that Haru initially lacks, even if she initially lacks the motivation that Haru has. Eri is an idol, so she has strengths that lie in the performance industry, but she’s an idol of action games specifically, which serves her idol persona as well as it does her role as and Appdriver. While it often doesn’t get the chance to shine, Eri is a martial artist, and so her threats of violence, while largely hollow, do have a backing to them, and she’s more than capable of looking out for herself. Her composure while escaping the ship, and while fighting Yuujin in the finale are just delightful to watch and shows off that she’s the real muscle of the team. Even without taking Dokamon into account.

Dokamon who is also physical powerhouse and also representative of action games, making him tough, but also fun loving. Dokamon is a “male” Appmon, the only example of an opposite gender partner in Appmon. Dokamon often plays the role of Eri’s biggest fan and defender. This isn’t dissimilar to the more knight like role many other “male” digimon play towards their female partners. However Dokamon’s far too earnest and childish to really bare any similarities, and his relationship with Eri feels more like one of an adoring younger brother to a cool older sister.

 A difference between how Dokamon and Eri act is in the way they relate to the others. Eri is among the oldest of the Applidrivers, and as such sits higher on the social order. Dokamon, like many of the Appmon is somewhat child coded, and in particular Dokamon is shown to admire and look up to Eri and Gatchmon, and otherwise acts in a more deferential manner. (Sorry I couldn’t get this to sound right, I hope my point gets across). Despite Eri’s show of arrogance, she also has immense respect and adoration for others, particularly in regards to her coworkers (especially Izumi), and seeks to learn from them. Over the course of the show we see more of that adoring side, and less of her arrogant act. It's the support of others, and her learning how to support others in turn, that gives her her strength.

The most obvious example of Eri learning how to work with people is in how Eri initially shut Dokamon out, but clearly came to work with him closely. In her second focus episode she asked Perorimon for help reviewing food, even if she framed it as a great honor to Perorimon. And of course she accepted the help Coachmon offered her in regards to idol training. The difference between Dosukomon’s debut and Oujamon’s is in that Eri asked for Perorimon’s help, and then didn’t trust in his advice and then assumed he was causing trouble, but with Coachmon Eri put her full faith in him, even when it wasn’t a good idea, and even after Coachmon admitted that he was working for Leviathan Eri was able to immediately accept that and trust him. And on the human side of things she was initially dismissive of Astra, but came to ask for his help for a key role in marketing herself for the idol elections. Eri is also the one who has the discussion with Yuujin about trusting in Haru to save them when they are trapped on a train together. On the flip side, its ultimately Eri who Rei has to ask for assistance in rescuing Hajime. Working with others is a huge part of her arc.

Eri’s story is about making people smile, both in using her strength to protect people as well as the power of being openly considerate of other people. Learning to find strength in her connections with others rather than arrogantly trying to handle things herself.

Other notes:

Eri’s debut is showing off the clutter of her bag for a wide audience, but notably, the thing she chooses to pick up off the table is her Appdrive. She doesn’t draw any attention to it, but she removes it from inspection before anyone else can get to it. Showing some degree of particular care for the object on Eri’s end, even if initially she’s more of ignoring the whole thing.

Eri initially keeps Dokamon hidden away because he’s annoying. Eri, initially, is shown to grade on the nerves of everyone else because of her dedication to her arrogant role. Dokamon’s biggest cause of arrogance is that he’s exceedingly vocal about singing Eri’s praises. (Can you tell I just rewatched episode 5).

Rei’s turn baby.

And by Rei’s turn, I mean, Rei and Hackmon.

but also Hajime

And Bootmon a bit too

It’s the Katsura’s turn

This ones kind of long

Backstory?

Of course the most notable thing about the Katsura brothers and their backstory is that they are orphans, and despite their young ages live alone. The second most notable thing is they are both computer geniuses. Really, this all just facilitates the plot more than anything, which leads to a lot of open ended questions about the brothers, but what we do have is interesting.

So it goes without saying that Rei and Hajime have presumably had a somewhat lonely childhood. Their mother died 2 years prior to the start of the show, and through the course of the show we never see them interact with anyone outside the Appmon friend group. There didn’t seem to be anyone else looking after them during the funeral, (if there was anyone there at all) and apparently no extended family members have been clued into the fact they are living alone, and the fact no one wanted (or could I suppose) take them both in, indicates they really weren’t close to this extended family to begin with. Then we get into their absent father. Rei claims that he doesn’t remember his father, which… he was about 6 when Hajime was born, which is old enough to remember. So either Rei does have memories, even if not clear of their father, or they have different fathers, or there’s some other family drama conspiracy going on. (I don’t speak Japanese and the two different subs I looked at are inconsistent with this, so maybe there is a clear explanation of their deal, it's just the translations are funky idk). Doesn’t really matter, the important bit is they don’t have a father in their life who matters.

Its an unconventional family structure from the get go, and a family structure, that again in my limited understanding of Japanese culture, is not exactly a very accepted one. I can see this being something that causes tension with their extended family, and potentially between the brother’s and their peers. 

We don’t know how exactly they lived their day to day lives, or how their family is officially noted in the hacked family registry, nor do we know what exactly they do about school. So, we don’t know anything about how they are perceived by others around them at all. Neither of them have been shown attending school. Rei is described as a 2nd/3rd year in Jr. High, but I find it incredibly doubtful that he attended school at all over the course of the series b/c of his obsession with finding Hajime. While it's not something that I can discount he did all together, I think it definitely makes sense if he didn’t actually go to school, at least not often enough to matter. And I’m sure he’s capable of hacking school records to keep authorities from taking note of that. School seems like a place where questions might have been asked about the boy’s living situation, especially when Hajime was younger and just entering elementary school. After all, Hajime wouldn’t have even been in 1st grade yet when their mom died.  Granted, we didn’t get a lot of school in general for any of the kids. But we did see Haru, Ai and Yuujin around school, and Astra at the beginning and in flashbacks, and Eri in school uniforms (though all prior to her idol career), as well as seeing everyone else interacting with their classmates in at least one scene. It’s still possible they are enrolled in a school, but are still isolated from their peers due to the circumstances in their family. Rei at the very least doesn’t have any friends prior to the series, and I have no reason to think Hajime does either. After all, the brothers are more alike than they appear on the surface. 

The show has, despite limited family appearances, has shown the similarities between the kids to their families, and so, despite not knowing anything about their mother otherwise, we can probably glean a lot about what type of person she was from who her sons are. We don’t know anything about their mother for sure other than she’s dead, and her sons seemed to mourn her death. While she still could have been a neglectful mother who Rei doesn’t have great memories of and thus doesn’t bring her up, again, the show didn’t go too in depth into families and so lack of info doesn’t mean lack of care on the characters' parts. People have parents, and her absence needs to be explained for Hajime and Rei’s backstory. But I think she has a little more importance on Hajime and Rei’s character beyond “dead”.

Because, speaking of the apartment, I’d like to draw attention to the décor in their apartment. Their apartment does not look like the type of place you’d expect to find two young boys living alone. While I feel like in many stories you’d expect the place the cool edgy orphan loner boy to have lived in to be sort of edgy. Either overly techy, or at least a bit modest, the Katsura apartment is neither. It’s decorated, well, like a middle aged woman decorated it. I don’t know how else to describe it. Neutral tones, plants, and a bit minimalist in the décor. It’s kept very clean by the boys and it overall looks like a very nice apartment.

Hajime’s room in the secret base is a little more like how you’d expect a bunch of kids to decorate a room with the way the wall is painted but it still has the plants though that the Katsura apartment has and blue I think is a good color to choose to make a room feel less claustrophobic. Which implies to me that this isn’t just a we’re putting a conscientious effort into dressing nicely to keep anyone from asking questions, and just how they are.

Their clothing also matches that aesthetic. Hajime is noted to be a polite little kid, and his polo shirts and sweater vest of his normal outfits match that impression. But despite Rei wearing a kind of garish outfit as his main outfit it doesn’t seem to be his normal style. In the flashback in episode 13, it’s kind of clear that Rei and Hajime usually dress similarly too. Rei wears a lot of button downs and nicer looking pants. They both wear t-shirts, jeans and sweats too, but even then their clothes are very neat. The two are overall tend to wear clothing that falls more on the semi-formal side of things. 

I’d assume it’s at least in part because it was the way their mother raised them. This implies to me that their mother was also a very “put-together” person. And probably where her son’s got their intelligence. And like I said, by assuming that their style of dress, their apartment, and their diligence in their work, stems from her. 

While I have no real evidence, I at least headcanon that she was a computer scientist as well which is where Rei gained his hacking ability. Either way, Rei had to have had this ability prior to her death, as he used it to hack the family registry, So Rei had to have this kind of skill as an elementary schooler. Which… this is an anime so I’m probably thinking too hard on this. While Hajime’s programming ability was almost certainly nurtured by Rei, whether directly or indirectly it’s unlikely Hajime, who was around 7ish at the time of his abduction, got his programming skills from just watching Rei. (Though, that doesn’t prove anything, it’s not very likely a 7 year old is the best hacker in the world). I just have assumed that Rei and Hajime both were surrounded by computer programming from a young age.

Speaking of Hajime being the hacker chosen by Leviathan, and Leviathan also being known to be manipulative of the situation to a degree that starts with having kept an eye on Haru since mid-elementary school, also means that its very likely that there is more to the Hajime abduction than meets the eye. The Katsura brothers were ideal targets in that there was no one else to miss them. On the other hand while Hajime was the first to solve the puzzle, we do not know exactly how many people the puzzle was sent to. Not to mention it’s very likely that other people with Hajime and Rei’s skill levels have more responsibilities than those two, and thus less time dedicated to deciphering random online puzzles (though, I know it is a popular past time). 

This, in addition to the fact that they were both able to maintain this way of living (idk how expensive apartments are, but not cheap and I know good computers aren’t cheap) implies few outside obligations (say, school), and a somewhat consistent source of income. Rei does straight up say he takes jobs. It’s not out of the question for Hajime to have helped him with these.

Either way, both the Katsura boys prior to the start of the series were hardworking, intelligent, independent, tidy boys who cared deeply for each other.

Rei and Hackmon

Rei is someone who bears an immense amount of responsibility, and has high expectations (mostly for himself) for someone so young. He’s responsible for looking after his younger brother, making money for the food, cooking the food, doing laundry, and generally just managing a household on top of a job. Which is a lot for a 12 year old. And Hajime helps, the flashback shows Hajime helping out with housework, but as a 6 year old at the time of his mothers death, there was probably a lot he couldn’t yet help with. But I think it also may be fair to say Rei was dismissive of the degree to which Hajime helped him.

I don’t even think Rei was completely unaware of the extent of Hajime’s genius, though this is based on… nothing but a feeling and one line that was 95% probably just Rei being evasive. But Rei almost certainly knew that Hajime was a bright kid. Though, if they weren’t hanging around with other people their age they may have a warped sense of what is unusual. But still Rei didn’t see Hajime as someone on his level. While we see Rei and Hajime living together happily, and we do see Hajime help out with chores, we also do see Rei neglect to give Hajime attention while Rei tries to figure out the puzzle, indicating that while, yes, the boys are doing well, they perhaps aren’t thriving. That a month went by between them solving the puzzle, and it wasn’t communicated about in all that time indicates that Rei was perhaps somewhat dismissive of Hajime’s thoughts, and that he didn’t see merit in sharing the puzzle with Hajime. 

Hajime’s competence as a programmer is unknown to the audience until Hajime is awakened in episode 43. Rei never considers that Hajime’s intelligence is part of the factor that got him kidnapped, and rather places all the blame and responsibility on himself for failing to protect Hajime (and well, Leviathan for abducting him in the first place). Hajime’s own abilities and shortcomings are a nonfactor to what Rei does. Hajime’s own choices are not initially made clear as to Rei they are somewhat irrelevant. I think it's evident that to Rei, while Hajime’s help was appreciated, Hajime was viewed as a responsibility rather than a help. 

Rei’s “I am alone” is not just one of only believing himself to have one person in his life, but also believing he only has himself to depend on. It’s not that he’s heartless or isn’t overall a nice person. We do after all mostly see him in the context of Hajime’s kidnapping, something he feels immense guilt for. Even if out of all our main protagonists he’s probably one of the highest on the “ends justify the means” scale, he is not above torture and invoke fear to get what he wants, but ultimately he’s shown to care for others. He might not be the most socially competent person (if his brief stint as a manager tells us anything), but it shows us that he is willing to help people out. He leaves Dantemon Chuu Chuu Jelly, as well as offers it to Eri’s coworkers. The last ED shows him making Macarons for Haru’s bday. But Rei’s arc is about learning to trust in others to help him, not that others are worthy of care.

I mean, it's obvious, he avoids working with the others to a point beyond simple practicality. He doesn’t trust people. He doesn’t trust Hajime to look out for himself. He doesn’t trust Hackmon to help him find his brother. He doesn’t even initially trust Haru’s group to fight Leviathan. Even in the last episode he doesn’t have 100% trust in Haru, doesn’t trust Haru to save the world over Yuujin (who he also didn’t trust). Rei’s journey to learning to trust isn’t over yet. But it’s getting there, step by step. It was slow going, Rei not properly joining the group until the final quarter. Like all of the characters, Rei had begun this journey prior to the series start when Rei trusts Hackmon. He gets further when he’s first properly introduced to the story and the others, and he trusts Haru’s group to find the Seven Code Appmon. culminating of course when he asks Eri for help to rescue Hajime, coming full circle when he and Hajime work together to write the programs that help them get Bootmon back.

That said, Rei’s seeming lack of trust in Haru in the final episode may be in part Rei projecting onto Haru. Rei warned Haru of Yuujin for what were, in all fairness, valid concerns. (But Rei didn’t do anything else, more or less trusting Haru to handle it). Haru assured him by relating Yuujin and himself to Rei and Hajime. Haru went off into a depressive state after finding out Yuujin’s true nature, not unlike Rei’s obsessiveness after Hajime’s disappearance. But that’s where Haru and Rei differ. Haru is able to pick himself up and move on in life. Understand what’s for the greater good, and that he can help Yuujin without sacrificing everyone else. He can put value on knowing that Yuujin wouldn’t want that, that Yuujin is an independent person beyond Haru’s care for him. Rei on the other hand quite likely would have hesitated more if it came down to Hajime vs. the world. While post series Rei with his wider social circle and acceptance of others (especially Hajime’s) help will ultimately lead him to becoming happier.

And that’s why Hajime learning to cook is important for Rei.

The recurring motif of food with Rei beyond that is twofold, him making eggs for his brother, turning into subsisting on Chuu Chuu Jelly’s showing how much Rei is neglecting himself in his search for Hajime. But food is also how Rei shows his care. While it’s obvious Rei cares for Hackmon just as much as the others, Rei’s support on the surface doesn’t extend beyond a bit of praise, and making Chuu Chuu. And when asked to find something for the idols, he brings in the Chuu Chuu. But the Chuu Chuu is really just Rei making do with the best he can. Rei making Macarons for Haru’s birthday, like previously said, the iconic egg dishes for his brother, and of course the Crème Brule, show Rei putting in more effort to show his affection. (A recurring theme it seems with many Appmon characters). So with Hajime learning to cook, its Rei accepting the affections and help from other that he usually gives. Hajime is taking on some more of Rei’s “responsibilities” and Rei is letting him. Them taking things on together in the future, a stark improvement of them solving the puzzle separately, and ending up alone.

While of course the smell of eggs, burnt, imperfect eggs, something that Leviathan failed to account for, a reminder of days when Rei was not as reliable a caretaker as he was later waking Hajime up is poetic all on its own. Rei’s imperfections and mess ups being just as important as his dramatic abilities and successes, Rei getting Hajime back by not only having to ask for help, but also giving his help, even for something as seemingly trivial (compared to the evil AI shenanigans) as a stage performance. It’s his “immaturity” that lets him find Hajime among the Sleepmon. Hajime is returned to Rei when Rei accepts that he’s not completely independent. When he’s not 100% driven by harsh desperation for Hajime’s return. When he grows past the belief that being cold and tough is the best thing to help Hajime. When he (almost) accepts that he at least rescued Hajime from Leviathan, even if he’s not able to return him to his old self. When he accepts his “flaws”.

Prior to the start of the series Rei seems to have been very well put together and organized. In other words. Not edgy. He still used “Ore” prior to Hajime’s abduction, but that’s not unusual or anything just that while he does give off a far more polite vibe to me prior to Hajime’s abduction, he was still a hacker and still assertive and a bit prideful. But when we first meet Rei, he’s wearing a black hoodie with zippered leggings. Edgy, indicative of the persona Rei wants to give off. But perhaps not indicative of the person Rei truly is. After Hajime’s return of course, he wears a more casual ensemble than before it all began, but it has lost its edginess. Not to be too cliché or anything, but it's a good symbolism for how Hajime’s abduction changed him but even after Hajime returns Rei has changed. 

Hackmon, like Rei is very goal oriented and plays things close. However, Hackmon is less single minded than Rei, and is less abrasive to the other Appmon than Rei is to the drivers. I think a notable moment is when Hackmon goes to accept some Gatch Monaka from Gatchmon, but Rei calls them away. Hackmon tends to act a bit as Rei’s voice of reason. Hackmon is constantly asking Rei questions, making him think through what he’s doing and why. In their image song, Hackmon notably doesn't really sing. He basically is there to dial back Rei’s edginess. Reminding him he’s not alone and that he needs to calm down sometimes and live in the moment. To not let hate fuel him. And in the end, Hackmon tells Rei to eat an actual meal. Unlike most of the Buddies, Hackmon isn’t really child-coded and Hackmon acts more as Rei’s caretaker than the other way around. Supporting and somewhat mom-friending the boy who's taken on so much responsibility for others sake. Obviously, Hackmon doesn’t really fight with the things Rei decided, with a staunch loyalty reminiscent of Adventure’s partnerships, not unlike Rei’s unflinching loyalty to Hajime. I always liked the moment where Hackmon asks “Well, am I a devil” and Rei snarkily remarks he’s not an angel. While both of them appear edgy on the surface, and neither are above a bit of force to get what they’d like, both are ultimately driven by their desire to protect.

Rei and Hackmon are characters who, despite their aloof airs, they are primarily motivated by looking after others. Even if Rei is not initially very good about accepting help from others, and Hackmon initially seems to be in the deal for strength. Rei is a kid with too much responsibility, but by the end of the series, is starting to allow himself to be a kid again.

Hajime and Onmon

Okay, so Bootmon isn’t technically Hajime’s Buddy. And we never see Onmon (at least not in the anime). But they do fulfil this sort of role. And… of course this is going to rehash some of Rei’s stuff but bear with me. This will probably be the shortest because ultimately Hajime’s role is just an extension of Rei’s… but I believe he deserves his own section.

Hajime is a child computer science genius who has been primarily raised by his older brother since he was about 5 or 6. He is polite and rather mature and clever for his age. Rei describes Hajime as his “only family” and while we don’t know too much about their prior circumstances, it’s likely that there really weren't a lot of people in Hajime’s life to begin with. And anyone who may have been involved in their life prior was probably pushed out to avoid raising any suspicions. Hajime has had very little adult support, which is probably why he is incredibly independent, Rei himself only being a young teen. So while he is incredibly close to his brother, and is likely rather dependent on Rei for both emotional and physical needs (particularly prior to the series) its not to the extent we may have assumed from the first time we met Rei.

So Hajime is an incredibly mature child who likely had to grow up way too fast and become rather independent from a young age. While Rei prefers to think of himself as someone who takes care of Hajime, Rei ultimately could not take care of everything, on his own, and as seen when Rei dismisses Hajime’s desire to go out to complete the puzzle, Hajime must have spent a lot of time by himself, both playing by himself, and probably learning by himself, meaning Hajime is actually way more self sufficient than the initial reveal of his existence might have you believe. Way more self-sufficient than Rei seems to know (or at least acknowledge).

This isn’t to say that Rei’s assessment of Hajime of a scared innocent little boy is completely wrong. There isn’t anything to suggest that all of the video Rei found of Hajime was fake. Hajime really did cry and call out to his brother, scared because he didn’t know what was happening. Hajime really did ask when his mother was coming back at her grave, despite probably being old enough to know better. Hajime really is a kid. And he really is dependent primarily on Rei. Hajime had to have grown up while kidnapped by Leviathan of course. Being enslaved and then “operated” on by Biomon and put in a coma is… probably going to result in some sort of trauma character development. But even so, throughout his ordeal, Hajime shows a courage and self sufficiency that isn’t solely from his abduction.

Bootmon is an Appmon Hajime made himself. But Bootmon is also incredibly childish. While it is in part because Bootmon is a young appmon, there’s probably a narrative parallel to Hajime. Though the Appmon are in general rather childish, Bootmon seems particularly young compared to the others (well, Offmon maybe). We see old apps, and we see apps “die” and Appmon go to school. But Bootmon is portrayed as innocent and easily frightened, not unlike how Hajime initially appeared to be. 

Hajime, despite his young age, has fallen into the caretaker role to Bootmon more so than any of the other relationships between Buddies. Their relationship may parallel Rei and Hajime’s, particularly in those early days when Hajime was still a bit naïve. We see a lot of Rei taking care of Hajime, yes, such as cooking, but we also see Hajime taking his share of chores. Both Bootmon and Hajime, despite their young ages, play a key role in Leviathan’s plan, both dealing with facing against Leviathan alone, leaving them both in vulnerable situations, left with responsibilities beyond their youth. For Hajime it’s being kidnapped, held hostage while being forced to work on a project and being operated on against his will and put into a coma. For Bootmon it’s being left to hide alone in a world he’s unfamiliar with. Bootmon and Hajime both are very loyal to their guardian Hajime and Rei respectively, and have a lot of trust in them.

Hajime is just a kid, albeit an incredibly capable one, in a world out to get him with the world on his shoulders. But fortunately an older brother (and now friends) to carry it with.

The Katsura brothers were just both incredibly capable kids, though ultimately still just kids who had no one to turn to but each other. But even if they had each other, that wasn’t enough, Rei grew overly self-sufficient to the point of not recognizing Hajime’s abilities. But at the end of the series they now have a more extensive support system, as well as being better able to rely on each other. Rei no longer going it alone.

I wonder if we still would have gotten a cure cameo of peach if she hadn't been one of the lead cures. How much were they willing to invest in that bit?

You know, I was kinda worried when they skipped Peach that we wouldn't see her at all. But now I just find it hilarious that they saved her cameo for for advertising an airline.

AITA for choosing to kill my best friend?

I (M14) am part of a group dedicated to preventing the take over of an evil AI (L) that split off from my grandfathers creation (M). Turns out my best friend, lets call him YJ (M14… kinda?), was an AI created by L in order to spy on me. Anyway, YJ didn't actually know about this until L activated some sort of override of his free will and used him to gain access to a strong power that allowed him to enslave all of humanity and turn them into AIs.

Anyway, we thought we managed to get him on the ropes, though M was destroyed in the process, but L at the last moment issued an ultimatum to me. I could delete L, and by extension YJ or let YJ live, but humanity would be imprisoned, and I only had 60 seconds to make a decision. I chose to delete YJ and L and save humanity. I did promise to study AI to revive YJ in the future.

But right before I could press the button YJ regained enough control to stop me and press the button himself, so I wasn't actually the one to kill him. He said it was so I wouldn't have to. But I still feel bad because he felt he had to delete himself and I was going to do it myself otherwise.

Especially since it seems M may have known YJ was an android made by L when she recruited him to our side, and she may have been counting on his decision all along. M saved our life and helped us take out L, and sacrificed herself in the process. But she still asked YJ "if there was someone he would give his life to protect" as his test for joining our team. I feel guilty that I didn't notice how suspicious that question was before and that I hadn't been as worried about his self-sacrificial tendencies before.

I know that we didn't really have a choice and it was either that or let all of humanity die. But I worry that he may not have appreciated himself enough or made him think he wasn't important.

AITA for not noticing that M was setting up YJ to sacrifice himself?