#meikoxtakeru

Yes Takari is definitely included in my “ships I am 95% sure will be canon”

Takeru is shown to have his arm around her waste in the same merchandize pick that has Sora and Yamato together

And also, this infamous scene

But the reason I forgot about them and why, even if I had remembered them, they would not have been included in that post is because they do not line up with the point that post was trying to make. Toei does not need to invest time into making us like Takari because 95% of the fandom is already in love with them, no convincing needed. I would guess that even for the 5% they are not a Notp but rather a ship they either just don’t get or prefer another ship over them (me being the latter).

Unlike the other 3 ships I mentioned, Meichi, Sorato and Koumi, and basically any other of the other pairings in digimon, Takari literally has nothing standing in the way of it being Canon.

Meichi is in hot competition with Taiyama and Taiora (the two favored pairings for Taichi from my understanding). If Meichi becomes canon and the creators put no effort into converting some of the non-shippers they are going to have a lot of hate on their hands. In addition, it’s also in competition from people who ship Meiko with other people (MeikoxMimi appearing to be the favoured with MeikoxSora seeming to come in as a close second, and I have also seen some JyouxMeiko shippers… OH AND BTW WHERE ARE THE YAMATOXMEIKO SHIPPERS?? I mean I don’t ship them but it surprises the hell out of me that this is not a thing anywhere… there is way more shippable moments between them then TaichixMeiko…. :S seriously in shock that YamatoxMeiko has not taken off yet). I’m going to be honest, I feel like Tri (based solely on the moments we have had in the movies and excluding Taiyama as an option) is actually gearing up for a YamatoxMeiko and TaichixSora ending. But I don’t think that will end up being the case because of the controversy it could cause which ties into my “Gut Feeling” I keep talking about.

With Koumi they have Jyoumi, TaichixMimi and YamatoxMimi to compete with (Mimi seems to be the most shippable female). I will be honest, I was never a part of the fandom until after I watched Reunion so I had no idea that Koumi was a thing… everyone I knew either shipped Jyoumi or YamatoxMimi and I always thought Jyoumi was a given as a child (I felt about them the way most people seemed to have felt about Taiora and Takari, that they were the one couple destined to be canon) so I was very shocked when I watched Reunion and instead of Jyoumi like I expected I got Koumi and boy was I not happy. So Toei needs to invest time into attempting to convert me to a Koumi shipper, which they have (I’m still not converted but I have some interest in it)

And Sorato we all know has a lot of fire behind it. It has been at the center of what is, to my knowledge, the greatest Ship War in the fandom. Now I wasn’t in any online community until recently and as a child didn’t care that Sora ended up with Yamato (I actually completely forgot it happened until it was brought up by a friend of mine in highschool and I was just like “oh yeah… that was a thing wasn’t it”) so I have only heard about this war in legend, although I believe I have recently been subject to the after effects of it… Anyway, Sorato is in competition primarily with Taiora and Taiyama, as well as many other ships to a lesser extend like SoraxMeiko, JyouxSora, etc. If this ship is not made canon in Tri then Sorato fans will be very upset (and understandably so, there are even Taiora fans who feel that if Sorato is removed then it is disrespectful). At the same time, if it is made canon they still have a large fanbase upset. Furthermore, unlike Meichi and Koumi who could easily become canon without changing anything because who these kids ended up with was left up in the air – Sorato was not left up in the air, it is canon and they either have to change the ending or go with it, no alternative. So, more so then any other ship, I feel they need to make people invested in these two to avoid massive backlash.

Takari, like with ships like Koumi and Taiyama, is getting a lot of attention from the creators because it is so popular within the fandom (probably the most popular ship of all) and so of course they are going to want to cater to it. Now Taiyama is not likely to be made canon because it isn’t a Heterosexual couple (I don’t think this point needs further explanation…)

Takari is a whole different game than any other pairing in digimon, in my opinion. It has virtually no competition and certainly no real competition. They are most people’s OTP for these two characters. And also, who they ended up with is left up in the air so even if Tri sticks with the original epilogue, these two could very easily be married in that world. And they are a heterosexual couple… they literally meet all of the criteria to easily be made canon whether this is the 02 Epilogue universe or an alternate universe. So yeah… let’s say they have a 98% chance of becoming canon to me 😝 and I’m putting that 2% in as a safe net… and also because I think an argument can be made for them not becoming canon… which I’m about to do because it ties into how I feel about the couple, specifically their relationship in Tri

Okay let’s talk how I felt about Takari as a child before getting on to Tri… because this one ask was left ever so slightly ambiguous as to if they wanted my feelings in general or just Tri (most of my focus will be on Tri but I’ll cover all my bases).

When I was a kid I shipped these two for sure (not really hard… the only ship I shipped super hard as a child to my recollection was syaoran x sakura from Cardcaptors). And I think I just assumed they were married in the Epilogue because it wasn’t stated otherwise. They are the youngest two characters and super cute together

Love the scene with them against piedmon

And holding hands as they fall (just noticed that in this scene Hikari is holding his hand and it’s reversed in Tri)

And they had some good moments together in 02. I love every second of them together in Hurricane Touchdown, especially the train scene (favourite scene in the original Japanese version)

They really do act like partners and people who have known each other forever, more so than I think a lot of the other pairings in the original cast (but that might be because of how much we see Hikari and Takeru vs the other 6). But I always really liked the idea of Wizardmon and Hikari as a couple as well. And have grown a love for HikarixKoushiro in recent years (I have plans to do a post on why I ship these two in the next week).

Tri though has done something very peculiar to my feelings regarding Takari, it seems to have done the same thing to many Koumi fans, and that is that it has made me ship Takari less.

I seem to not be seeing what everyone else is seeing. Many people seem to believe that Hikari is in love with Takeru but I am not getting that vibe at all.

The way she teases him about the Girlfriend in Reunion does not come across as someone who is jealous. It comes across as a girl making fun of her guy friend, who she has zero interest in, finding himself a girlfriend.

Takeru on the other hand does come off like he is hoping Hikari is jealous, so I think he likes her romantically

I’ll give more detail in a sec but I want to take a moment to point out that I feel this is similar to their dynamic in 01 and 02 (I always felt he liked her more than she liked him) because in hurricane touchdown (at least in the English version, I don’t remember the Japanese version off the top of my head) he seems annoyed with her concern for Daisuke

And in the episode with the dark ocean he is acting like he is trying to confess and she seems kind of oblivious to me, or maybe understanding but not 100% on the same page as him

The way she warns Meiko comes off one of two ways to me: either as a girl warning another girl about her platonic friend who is a playboy, but who she also has affection for and so it is said in a lighthearted way vs in more of a “omg get away while you can” kinda way

Or alternatively, and here we are getting into some theories of mine, as a girlfriend warning another girl about her boyfriend while also stealthily telling her boyfriend off for flirting…

Okay so I think it is not in any way unthinkable that Hikari and Takeru could have gotten together between the airport battle and the scene where they are searching with Meiko. I think it is possible they are secretly dating. Because I also think the scene where Hikari seems to be teasing Takeru in Loss comes off as either a girl teasing a guy friend about a potential crush or a girlfriend warning her boyfriend

Unlike Koumi though, where it is over the top obvious that Koushiro likes Mimi, all of the non-teasing moments with Takari could easily come off as both platonic and Romantic love.

Her holding him after he loses patamon

Yamato also holds him

Takeru is holding her arm not her hand

I’m Just saying…

…

And even if he was holding her hand

I’m just saying…

As for him always being by her side protecting her… well he has always been like that, he is just by his nature very protective of her and honestly, I think they have always hinted that he likes her from 01 to 02 to now Tri. But you could also argue there are a lot of pairing like this

Koushiro is always by Taichi’s side as the series progressed

Taichi and Yamato are often attached at the hip

Sora and Taichi are pretty attached at the hip (specifically in adventure)

Jyou is always protecting Takeru

He is also pretty attached to Mimi

Now the scene where she says he has grown up… I do not get this scene… I don’t see how Takeru has grown up any more than he had grown up in 02… and I definitely don’t see how this scene showcases he has grown up. But I would say this is the most shippable moment, I feel like her thinking he has grown up is one of those very cliché (not as in bad cliché but as in recognizable) lines that indicates growing romantic interest.

Why I ship them less is because I don’t really like the way she teases him… she almost seems to tease him in the same way she teased Daisuke. It comes across as more mocking than anything else and I don’t care for it, just like how I didn’t care for how she treated Daisuke.

Also there is the MeikoxTakeru stuff I wanted to address. Cause there is a lot of MeikoxTekeru in Tri. She has more interaction with him than any other male character and also

I think Hikari ships it lol

Okay so I addressed the scene where she gets the nick name earlier.

But then we also have the scenes in Determination (also side note but Yamato is so fucken hot in this scene omg, that necklace that shirt perfection)

And him being the first to come up to greet her friend (Maki)

The fact that he opens up to only her in Confession, and I know you could argue it’s because she is the only one who may understand but it also means he has a level of comfort with her

And how he tried to get her to come to the digital world with them

Playboy with shy girl is almost more common in anime then hyperactive/lead boy with shy girl (takeruxmeiko vs taichixmeiko)

Anyway, I’m not going to do a long analysis of TakeruxMeiko, I just wanted to throw it out there as a possibility or alternative to Takari

I feel like I have kinda gone around in circles with this post, sorry, it’s probably not super easy to follow.

I have heard there is an interview where they said they were planning to make Takari Canon but I’d like to see some definitive proof. Actually I’d like to see some proof of all these rumored interviews… like the one where they said the epilogue is still going to be canon specifically. Cause I have some theories about that one but I need to know the exact wording used, otherwise I’m shooting a little more in the dark.