Digi Dynamic Shipping Game
Send me two names among the following 12 and I’ll write a short analysis post about them:
Taichi Yagami | Yamato Ishida | Sora Takenouchi | Koushirou Izumi | Mimi Tachikawa | Jyou Kidou | Takeru Takaishi | Hikari Yagami | Daisuke Motomiya | Miyako Inoue | Iori Hida | Ken Ichijouji
Disclaimer: I won’t claim this to be a conclusive/definitive analysis of all of the ship’s aspects. Ship dynamics vary depending on which parts of the series/timeline or media types you are looking at. So this is going to be my personal take on it and just a personal interpretation of how I perceive them.
It's been a few months since I conducted my last ship analysis post, so I may be a little rusty here - but I thought about giving it a try now!
Whether canon provides input on them or not.
While Takeru is set up to be the viewers' introductory character in 02, meeting all the new cast members within the span of the first ten minutes - his encounter with Daisuke is already framed as special. Because the moment he sees Daisuke playing football, goggles proudly sitting on his head, Takeru confuses him for a young Taichi for a few seconds. However, he quickly learns that this guy isn't exactly as the older gogglehead, as their first conversation has Daisuke shouting at him for being close to Hikari in a jealous haze - causing Takeru to just chuckle at that. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the first of various layers that prepare us for what we're gonna have to expect from them. At least up until a certain point in the series, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Visibly speaking and from a storytelling standpoint, one may be inclined to think of them as Taichi 2.0 and Yamato 2.0. And that kind of framing is even supported by a few episode theme beats; for instance, once they get into a physical fight over differing opinions, Taichi and Yamato literally comment on how sometimes, you gotta solve your arguments with fists to come out of it as better friends. There actually is some kind of competitive spirit between them - but in the end, their dynamic is nothing like that of Taichi and Yamato. Because their so-called rivalry is a one-sided one, mainly initiated by Daisuke's jealousy (and maybe inferiority complex) towards Takeru, whereas Takeru himself has the time of his life teasing Daisuke about it in a friendly, only slightly troll-ish manner.
Prior to their fight mentioned above, they had traveled to the Digital World together to save Hikari - an episode that continuously shows Daisuke desperately trying to get the better of Takeru, but failing at least twice: First when Takeru playfully looks through his coin trick and second when Patamon bullies him over Tailmon and him basically being "meant to be" for being Angel Digimon. The series continues to frame Daisuke trying to challenge and catch up to Takeru - either by beating him in playing basketball or making V-mon evolve to Adult level as well. Takeru himself, for the most part, does not join in on the trolling too much though - despite his humorous reactions towards Daisuke, he plays along with his antics and generally just seems to have a good, casual time with it, not taking it too seriously or belittling him for any of it. For someone like Takeru - who tends to hide his true feelings behind smiles -, this can be taken either way: Him masking what he genuinely thinks in order not to upset Daisuke (less likely in my opinion). Or: Him genuinely having a fun time with a friend of the same age.
On Takeru's behalf, there are a few layers of subtext one may wanna take a closer look at - and that's how he may relate to him. On one hand, he already dismissed him as "a second Taichi" early on in the series, but it's well known that Takeru looks up to Taichi a lot, and may still be drawn to (and admire) Daisuke due to his courageous - and, later on, unbreakingly optimistic - spirit. Especially because with Daisuke, there isn't a pedestal he puts him on. And despite the two times where they genuinely disagree with each other (and almost get violent because of it), Takeru supports and encourages Daisuke a lot, almost acting like a "senpai" himself at times. On the other hand, Daisuke, like himself, is a younger sibling - who doesn't get along well with his big sister and frequently gets into fights with her. Which may or may not trigger something in Takeru, who's very keen on having a positive relationship with Yamato and dreads the idea of not being on good terms. (On a personal note, I still wonder if basing Jun's character design on a female version of Taichi was intentional to be a trigger point for Daisuke, Takeru and Yamato at the same time.)
On Daisuke's behalf, unfortunately, the series kinda stops putting emphasis on their relationship once Ken's redemption arc starts, as Daisuke's primary role becomes supporting Ken - and becoming his aforementioned optimistic, inspirational self. The forcefully competitive need to prove himself slowly but steadily disappears and, even though he remains as stubborn as ever, the interactions with Takeru become a lot calmer. However, they also become significantly less, as Daisuke's focus lies more on Ken and Takeru's more on Iori - which remains a theme for most of the upcoming movies/depictions as well.
Long story short: There definitely is an intentional set-up between these two that initially makes the viewer believe they're going to be a "copy" of the previous googlehead/rival trope. However, it's executed in quite a different way and distinguishes both Daisuke and Takeru from Taichi and Yamato - as characters and in terms of their relationship. It starts as lighthearted, one-sided rivalry and ends with both of them being a lot more grounded in their personalities. Even if they may not share the closest bond within the group, there is a lot of foundation and potential!
Whether I think why and how they’d work.
As outlined above, there are various aspects that make Daikeru appealing from a potentially romantic angle. First of all, there is the fact that their first moment together is already framed in a Shoujo-esque light - and if one already has a softspot of Taikeru (or at least believes in the possibility of Takeru having a crush on Taichi), they may fall even harder for a Takeru, whose behaviour towards Daisuke can absolutely be read in a flirtatious light. As mentioned, even if he is more experienced and knowledgeable about a lot of things (in terms of both, being a Chosen Child and being close to Hikari), he may think of Daisuke more as an equal - and simply has the time of his life teasing and getting under his skin in a non-malicous way. He frequently calls Daisuke "funny" and yet, still seems to be fascinated by him. Not only because of that, but also due to his carefree yet optimistic and honest attitude. And even if I said that his smiles here are not meant to hide his true feelings with Daisuke - they may still be a way for him not to show just how endeared and enchanted he actually is by him. There may be lots and lots of conflicted feelings involved even ("I can't really categorize him, he's stubborn and a dumbass sometimes and he's not nice to his sister, but he's also got a good heart, he accepted Ichijouji-kun immediately, he believes in people and pushes forward like I couldn't and that's amazing, he's such a cute dummy, I swear").
On the other hand, Daisuke may not be any different in terms of being conflicted. The most popular interpretation of his early behaviour towards Takeru may be that he really didn't want to lose against him in terms of getting Hikari's attention, approval and affection - he really, really liked her after all, enjoyed her kind, sweet, sophisticated attitude, someone who was actually nice to her and who also was the sister of his beloved senpai, gasp! Thus, he would put a lot of his self-worth in "winning" against Takeru... On the other hand, there's also the possibility that he wanted to impress Takeru himself, not Hikari. Speaking of conflicted feelings ("Look at him in this stupid hat, always smiling and laughing with Hikari-chan and, what, he's the brother of that guy my sister crushes on AND he's close with Taichi-senpai too and has that awesome angel Digimon and man, he's so good at everything and so nice and so cool, why would someone like that even like me?!").
So yeah - the main set-up here would be two dorks masking their admiration and affection for one another by acting like a teasing smileyface and a competitive rascal respectively... But through the events of 02, through their interactions with others, they may actually become people able to genuinely take a step towards one another. To actually open up, be honest and vulnerable... Without truly losing what initially sparked interest in one another.
Takeru will probably always think of Daisuke as that endearing dumbass with a strong sense of justice and endurance he admires and adores, whereas Daisuke may always think of Takeru as this "too cool for you" smartass, who's actually a great, layered guy with a strong moral code he also admires and adores. There is this kind of complementary theme between them that works both, on a platonic and a romantic level, causing them to get into a lot of shenanigans - and, once again, playful competitions. They would butt heads (in a friendly manner) a lot and make everyone around them shake their heads over their attitude (including a very bewildered glance between Taichi and Yamato going "We're not like that, are we???").
Whether I’d prefer them as platonic or romantic ship.
As it is the case with a lot of ships, writing these analysis posts and diving deeper into how exactly I interpret their interactions with one another helps me to gain more appreciation for them. Daikeru actually is a ship I usually do not consider through a romantic lense, as I am not really a fan of competitively grounded dynamics - however, I can absolutely see the appeal in what was outlined above and how their personalities play off of each other like that, since they both masked their true feelings a lot, but handled it both pretty differently. Especially with the way Takeru's teasing may be read as endearment or, on a different note, maybe even him living out some semi-kinky tendencies?. Daisuke's attitude, on the other hand, could potentially grow into the realization that he may have just liked Takeru all along, but was unable to process these feelings (and needed someone like Ken by his side to get more in touch with them). There is a lot of potential, even though it was a shame that their bond wasn't developed more by the midpoint of the season.
They may not be my primary choice for each other romantically, but the platonic side is already very intriguing!
