Hi, quick question! I've seen Koushirou's mother's name (äœłæ±) read as both "Kae" and "Yoshie". I assume the voice actor connection means it's probably supposed to be Kae, but do you know if we have any concrete canon on its reading? I don't think it's ever spoken in the anime.
Apparently, the Adventure novels write furigana (reading assistance for kanji) above her name as "Yoshie", as well as Sora's mother as "Yoshiko" (when the voice actress she's referencing is "Toshiko"). As far as I'm aware, this is the only concrete official source, and even then I'm not sure whether Kakudou and Masaki actually intended for this reading or whether it was arbitrarily added in by someone at Shueisha who didn't get the memo about the voice actor references. Personally, I've been calling them Kae and Toshiko to preserve the reference, but I honestly have no idea.
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A Yarne/Lucina fanfic for @tallmansions but especially for @vethica! Enjoy sakura season! You made it through the winter!
The battle rages on every side and Yarne's senses are overwhelmed.
He knows they're for his protection: heightened smell, heightened hearing, heightened touch. An instinct constantly screaming for him to run as fast as his muscled legs will take him, to preserve his heritage like Mother did before him.
The Risen paladin thunders toward him, eyes glowing red on both horse and rider.
Run. Run!
Yarne feels the hair rise on his entire body, but he shoves the impulse down.
Mother fought, to give him life. Father fought to keep the future from happening, even if he didn't win and broke his promise to return.
Lucina fights: for her own parents, and for him and his, and for all her friends. For everything.
Yarne won't let her do it alone.
He transforms with a yell, instantly as large as the mounted enemy, and lunges for him. The pounce knocks the Risen off his horse. His sword flails, slashing once, twice--but Yarne won't stop, can't stop, until the corpse finally lies still. Yarne rolls off and transforms again, lying on his back, gasping for breath.
He should probably get up. There's more fighting to do. But the cuts across his chest and stomach feel like lines of fire.
"That stings," he groans.
"Yarne!"
Someone lifts him up and slings an arm around his shoulder. Yarne cries out in pain but soon they're walking, and the familiar scent from the sweaty black hair so close to his over-sensitive nose is comforting.
"Father, wait," he insists. "The battle isn't over."
"It is for you," said Lon'qu. His grip doesn't ease until they've made it to the back lines, where Brady runs for him. Lon'qu lets him go.
"In this time, I keep my promises. Heal up, Yarne."
The adrenaline evaporates. Yarne's head spins so badly he can't even say thank you.
"Lucina?" he asks weakly as Brady leads him under the tarp of the healer's tent.
"Fine, last I heard. Now shut up and let me work."
***
Brady's quick and efficient, but oddly gentle. Yarne had never really noticed. He'd never really been in the thick of things; never really put himself at risk. Never really needed a healing like this.
When his wounds are clean, bandages wrapped, and the glow fades from Brady's staff, Yarne dozes on the stiff cot he was given. He wakes up to a small, calloused hand taking his.
"Lucina!"
He tries to sit but she keeps him down with her other hand. Despite their height difference, she's always been much stronger.
"Rest," she insists. "I'll sit with you."
She lets go of his hand only long enough to pull up a camp stool, and then cradles his palm between both of hers. Her clothes are still stained from the battle, but Yarne holds on tight.
"I'm sorry."
They blurt it at the same time, and then look away, though they squeeze each other's hands.
"I saw you get hurt." Lucina speaks first. "I promised you that I would watch your back."
"I think you might've promised that to everyone. It's okay, Lucina. My father had me, this time."
Yarne gives her a big smile. Hers is smaller, but she does return it.
"I'm just sorry I worried you," he says. "All my flight instincts were going berserk. If I hadn't hesitated..."
"No," Lucina soothes, smoothing a thumb over his knuckles. "I saw you fight. It's all right if you're afraid: we are all afraid. But you fought all the same. I think it is the bravest I have ever seen you."
Yarne would shove the compliment aside, but Lucina's nothing if not sincere. Her pride and admiration are undeniable in her voice. He feels himself blush.
"I'm stronger now, thanks to you," he says. "I used to just worry about my own hide...maybe because of pride more than anything else. Dying is one thing, but going down in history as the last taguel? The one who failed an entire race?" He tries to laugh but it comes out too dry. "It was so important to me, to not be that person. But now there are more important things."
Lucina's head has cocked.
"You're more important," he elaborates, even though he feels himself turn redder, and the sensation stings his cheeks. This is probably something he should be saying on his feet, proud and strong, and instead he's lying injured on a cot.
"I wanted to run, Lucina. But for the first time, even more than that, I wanted to stay, too. I want to protect our parents. I want to protect what we have."
"I do not need protecting," Lucina says, but Yarne knows it's only habit. She hates letting other people sacrifice for her.
"But you said you'd be my girl."
And sometimes love means making sacrifices. Lucina laughs a little as he brings her hand to his lips to kiss.
She leans forward from where she's sitting and kisses his mouth. His breath catches, which hurts beneath his bandages, but he doesn't pull away. It's worth it.
"I don't know much about taguel families," he murmurs, feeling her breath warm his face. "But I know about you and me. It's not about bravery or strength, anymore. It's just instinct. You make me this way."
"You make me stronger, too." Lucina pauses, and then adds, looking a little surprised with herself, "And happy. You make me remember happiness."
Yarne ignores the strain or how Brady will chide if he sees him. He pushes himself onto an elbow and pulls Lucina into another soft kiss.
Most of the world scares him. The future scares him. But he knows that at the least, he and Lucina won't be alone. Their parents will make it through, this time, and so will they. They'll make it so.
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Hi! I've been devouring your Digimon meta lately, and I was hoping I could ask you a (hopefully simple) question. I think there's a general fandom perception of Mimi as boy-crazy, but I can't actually come up with any canon that states she's romantically interested in boys. The closest I have is the Mini Drama 2 CD, where she just fantasizes about boys being interested in *her*. However, there are definitely gaps in my Digimon knowledge, so I put this one to you. Does Mimi canonically like boys?
Hello! First of all, thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you're enjoying the meta!
So for clarity's sake, I'm going to be assuming we're talking about the Japanese version of Mimi and not the American English dub version, because although I still have general familiarity with it and its major changes enough to be able to roughly describe the changes, I can't remember things to the level of detail I do with the Japanese version, and to be honest, if said dub did have a line like that, I wouldn't be surprised. But as far as the Japanese version goes, you are correct: Mimi does not express romantic interest in boys, or in fact anyone, at any point, and in fact you have a better case for her not being particularly on the hard lookout for a partner at any time we saw her. Elaboration under the cut!
There are a few reasons why I think that fandom perception might have happened, but the first one is simply cultural. Mimiâs archetype in the Japanese version is recognizable as one youâd call the âparentsâ spoiled little princessâ kind, where the emphasis is more on her being sheltered and pampered and generally growing up in comfort (especially since her parents were upper middle class). So in other words, while itâs easy to see her as âshallowâ based on her actions of complaining often in the beginning parts of the series, itâs more in the sense that she wasnât used to dealing with hardships or having to physically get around everywhere, and she was otherwise a very insightful, polite, and empathetic person. Sheâs also one of the most adherent to proper honorifics among the entire cast, so, again, you see her a bit like a âproper princessâ. In fact, itâs probably because of this slight sense of distance and formal respect she treats everyone with that it often becomes difficult to interpret her actions towards others as romantically loaded, and itâs presumably why Koushirou/Mimi became such a dominant ship on the Japanese side to the point of nearly every other Mimi ship being rarepair there (because Koushirou is just about the only person you can really make that argument for when they had no less than three major interactions -- Adventure episode 10, Mini Drama 2, and Diablomon Strikes Back -- that entailed Mimi getting a bit petulant about the idea of not getting Koushirou-kunâs attention).
However, I think a lot of people on our end of the fanbase have a tendency to want to pigeonhole Mimi into a very textbook âcliquey materialistic girly girlâ framework, which of course was helped along by said American English dub definitely assigning many of those associated tropes to her character. Things like âlacking in common senseâ, âlooking down on othersâ, âjudging everything by appearancesâ, âconstantly making everything about shoppingâ, you know the package -- whereas Japanese version Mimi always erred more on the side of polite, any concept of being fixated on appearances only showed up very rarely, even her variety of clothes in 02 was portrayed more as her being open-minded to experimentation rather than materialism filling her head, and she was borderline incapable of being particularly condescending, being rather empathetic and insightful instead.
This, incidentally, is why I find that you really need to be careful when buying into fandom rhetoric about just about anything, and not necessarily listen to everything the fanbase treats as truth just because itâs been circulating for 20 years or so, because while the series itself of course has some aspects that havenât aged well, there are many ways it was ahead of its time and intent on not forcing its characters into certain boxes, but -- to be blunt about it -- the fandom that formed 20 years ago was far more guilty of internalized misogyny, heteronormativity, and stereotype/trope forcing in regards to its characters than the actual series was, with said takes based on those still circulating even now just because so many people have treated it like longtime fact. (You have no idea how much it irritates me that I still have to hear discourse accusing Sora of âfriendzoningâ Taichi in this year 2021.) Again, not really helped by the heavy impact of the American English dub even on non-dub discourse and the fact it was rather guilty of forcing the characters into the trope boxes itself, but even then, the longtime fanbase has a penchant for absolutely taking things way farther than even said dub did. So while I wouldnât put it past said dub to have inserted a line or something about wanting to chase after cute guys, I think itâs more likely to simply be a byproduct of the general stereotype that the sort of âcliquey materialistic girly girlâ must also completely lose her mind over cute boys, resulting in a lot of people in the fanbase attempting to cram Mimi into that stereotype.
So in regards to how Mimi herself is portrayed in regards to relationships and romance: well, in general, Adventure and 02 were the kind of series that wanted to portray its children with an extra touch of realism from how media tropes would usually do it (case in point, itâs meant as an archetype subversion that Mimi is of the sheltered princess archetype but is also genuinely empathetic and insightful). In the end, the kids were only in elementary and middle school, and it is kind of prominent that things like Daisuke and Miyakoâs crushes on others are very much treated as the sort of somewhat shallow, didnât-seriously-think-through-this kind of mild attraction (no commitment to anything) youâd get out of eleven- or twelve-year-old kids, and the one âprominentâ relationship of Yamato and Sora involved two fourteen-year-olds who treated it as a hookup (no dramatic romance plot, just one person asking the other to try out dating) and kept their relationship as a footnote in public. In the case of Mimi, she was certainly depicted as being somewhat of a social butterfly by the time of 02, but thereâs no indication she was interested in anyone in her periphery as anyone but friends -- in fact, in Armor Evolution to the Unknown, she very casually refers to getting chocolate for everyone around her in the form of âsocial courtesy chocolate for friendsâ, which is explicitly drawn as a contrast to Sora getting the more romantically-loaded kind for Yamato (her boyfriend). In fact, I would say that Mimiâs attitude in that entire scene arguably says a lot about her -- she brings up the comparative gender egalitarianism of Valentineâs Day in the US compared to Japan without making a big deal about it, and sheâs also the one who takes a minute to analyze Soraâs relationship prospects with Yamato, so I would say itâs actually more likely Mimiâs own potential pursuit of a partner would involve being thoughtful about whether sheâd want to spend a long-term relationship with them rather than just casually clinging to anyone she finds attractive.
Now, there is one character you could call âboy-crazyâ, and thatâs Miyako, although even then Miyako also plays with the trope by being less so âboy-crazyâ and more âa twelve-year-old girl who has absolutely no filter whenever she finds someone to be attractiveâ (especially since Miyakoâs own self-esteem is utterly shot, and so sheâs not the type to feel up to trying anything besides just being a bit too blunt about complimenting and gushing about the other party). Itâs understandable that Miyako and Mimi sharing a Crest might make one inclined to compare them, but in fact, 02 episode 14 has Miyako explicitly compare her own tendency to judge by appearances and shallowness negatively and in contrast to Mimi, meaning that Miyako acknowledges that Mimi, whom she admires, does not have those traits of shallowness and handles everything much more maturely. So Mimi really canât be described as that kind of archetype at all, and Miyako spends the episode constantly recognizing that Mimi is much more thoughtful and capable of getting to the heart of things than she is.
Moreover, while the stage play came after 02 and may not be considered applicable Adventure universe canon to many people, I find it to be an interesting case study of an example of a writer studying the series very closely (there is some very good attention to detail with the original series, and Tani âshowed his workâ very well with it) without preconceived notions from the fandom. The stage play has Mimi admit explicitly that sheâs not interested in anyone at the moment, having only momentarily lied about it in the hopes Sora could open up about her own love life -- which Mimi explicitly contrasts with having lied about not being interested in her future, when in fact she wants to do so many things she canât commit to one. So it reinforces the idea that something like a relationship would be something Mimi would treat with gravity and as something sheâd want to have proper commitment to, but she wonât when itâs a time in her life sheâs having a hard time figuring out commitment to anything.
And, finally, as you mentioned, thereâs Mini Drama 2, but as you say, itâs Mimi joking that all the boys must be into her (because sheâs attractive) and that âall of the boys in the world will be kneeling before me before longâ -- and the reason she throws a fit is that Hikari indirectly implies that the love letter Koushirouâs writing could not possibly be for Mimi, which Mimi interprets as Hikari indirectly trying to pick a fight with her or insult her by acting like itâs such an impossibility. Knowing that Hikari is well-known for being capable of passive-aggressively trolling, and in fact is very heavily implied to be doing so in this scene, itâs not like Mimiâs entirely wrong, either. (Also, the Adventure mini dramas are infamously full of fourth wall-breaking and characterization-irreverent crack -- it wasnât until the 2003 drama CDs when actual âseriousâ drama CDs would become more of a thing -- so it should be taken with a grain of salt.)
Hi again! Hope I'm not bugging you. I was just thinking about something Digimon-related that's stuck in my craw for a while. With 20+ years and so many entries in the franchise, we haven't yet had a female lead (other than choosable-gender game protags). It's especially annoying because Digimon's had so many great female characters! Any thoughts on why we don't get any gogglegirls? (Yes, I know it's a shounen, but in a world with Soul Eater and TPN, that's no excuse! It's 2021!)
No worries, I love getting asks so donât worry about bothering me! Thank you for the insightful questions!
So the answer is indeed "it's a shounen", but more specifically, it actually is on statistical record that toys related to the female characters don't sell as well as those related to the male characters in a shounen anime (or at least they didn't at the time of Tamers). This is something Soul Eater and The Promised Neverland don't have to worry about because they're not toy-seller shows and are simply based on already well-proven manga, but 4-cour original anime lives and dies by its toy sales, poor toy sales being responsible for killing Digimon the first time via exponential drops during Tamers and Frontier. Unfortunately, in an era where a lot of boys (or, perhaps more accurately, parents of boys) don't want to buy Girl Toys, you do run the risk of damaging said sales by a not insignificant amount, and it's also presumably the reason why we've had a pretty huge number of cases of girls with masculine Digimon partners (since the partners are more closely tied to the toylines) than we have the reverse. As you've pointed out, the games are more lenient, and that's because people will be buying the same game regardless of whether there's a male or female protagonist. But for the anime, the protagonist-centric toys are the ones that make up the majority of the sales, so risking that percentage creates the biggest risk of overall financial loss.
Society is slowly changing and nowadays it's more acceptable and well-known for boys to be into feminine-coded things (case in point, magical girl series PreCure is said to be enjoyed by quite a few boys who watch it waiting for Kamen Rider to air on the timeslot right after it, and Kamen Rider itself is starting to more prominently show female Riders in the Reiwa era). But the problem is that, of course, it becomes a self-feeding loop. If you want real-life boys to be more accepting of female characters and their associated toys, it's good to help normalize that with more representation, and it's going to be slower to happen in the first place if you don't take the first step, so who's gonna give first? Even with Ghost Game, you'll notice that there's only one device instead of multiple different models -- in the past, when we had different models of Digivice toys, the ones associated with the female characters would sell noticeably less than the ones associated with the male ones -- and Angoramon and Jellymon's DiM cards are sold together to try and maximize sales in light of Ruli being a girl or Jellymon being feminine. But on the flip side, as many have pointed out, Kiyoshirou and Jellymon are our first prominent male Tamer-feminine Digimon pair, so steps are being taken. Maybe. At a baby steps pace, but nevertheless.
In the end, it's an issue that has a lot to do with the cause-and-effect of internalized misogyny in society as a whole, and unfortunately since Digimon is in a stage right now where it's still barely on life support and trying really hard to not die, I imagine the important first step will have to be taken by more prominent or financially stable franchises first (maybe Kamen Rider or Super Sentai will stop being coward and have a lead female Rider or female Red) before Digimon is comfortable trying it. Ah, capitalism.
This is an incredibly random question, but have you ever seen Japanese Digimon fans discuss the American dub music? I remember my tiny teen mind was blown when I realized we'd been missing out on Butter-fly on this side of the Pacific.
As far as I've been able to tell, they don't tend to discuss the American dub much, and to be honest, I don't think they really care that much...overall awareness of it seems to be pretty low other than "it's nice that Digimon is so well-loved around the world," although I have had someone refer to the infamous Angela Anaconda short as "legendary", and the other person I mentioned from the infamous oolong tea incident who knew of the reason why everyone kept memeing about beef jerky shakes and, uh, was not amused. (They referred to it as "a huge sin" on behalf of the American English dub, considering it part of Western insensitivity about Asian tea, and had concerns about whether people were going to project that on tri. and Kizuna's oolong tea depictions...) There's one official Digimon book that gushes about how great it is that Digimon is in other countries and even talks about the name changes, but, amusingly, it reads Yolei's name wrong, which may or may not be an accidental statement about how that name change completely defeated the purpose of accessibility, but its framing of it was definitely in a positive light. I also know Kakudou himself kept an eye on the American dub's episode naming and spoke positively about it making pop culture references (since he himself is into Western pop culture, and Adventure/02 are full of his tributes to a lot of Western cinema he likes even in the Japanese version), to the point he almost named a Japanese 02 episode after an American Adventure one, but on the flip side, a certain Tamers writer kept filling a certain infamous blog with nitpicks about how much he hated certain name/terminology changes in its dub, so it seems like there's some degree of awareness of what's going on, but it depends on the person and how much they care.
I think, if you asked the average Japanese Digimon fan about how they feel about the Butter-Fly change, they probably would not be very happy about it, not because of the change in principle but because the pedestal Butter-Fly is put on is pretty huge in Japan (I mean, not that it's not in the international fanbase sections, but in Japan it's really a huge deal). Butter-Fly is a big deal not only among Digimon fans but also as a "legendary anime song" regardless of whether you know Digimon or not, to the point it shows up in basically every historical anime music festival on TV and continually ranks on the top 20 requested anime songs on karaoke machines every year, even to this day. Part of the reason Kizuna uses Butter-Fly untouched (I mean, besides Wada's unfortunate passing by that point) is that even so much as rearranging or covering it tends to incite controversy, and there were people even approaching the official Hatsune Miku cover with backlash (despite the fact it was never used for anything besides a merch collab), so I imagine something as drastic as the American English dub change could easily get someone ranting about disrespect.
Funnily enough, the one time I did see a Japanese fan directly reference American English dub music was not to do with Adventure but with Frontier -- there's a fanmade Frontier parody of the Persona 3 opening that uses the dub opening lyrics for the English flavor text. So I guess they thought that part was pretty cool!
