Hi All,

As mentioned in my previous post, see the link below, this will be the start of me writing a breakdown of each episode of Digimon Tamers and the differences between the Japanese/English/Manga version of this season.

https://www.deviantart.com/hibotancreations/art/Digimon-Tamers-Episodes-Breakdown-876521400

I think that I start getting the hang of using Takato’s drawing style, which is a lot of fun by the way XD
Also I feel like at this point my breakdowns are turning into bigger and bigger essays, which is not bad since I can then quickly find information that I need about an episode, but making these feels like forever at this point, and I'm only at episode 3 haha.

Anyway on to the breakdown.

Digimon Tamers Episode 3: To Fight or Not to Fight

Japanese title: Renamon Tai Girumon! Tatakai Koso ga Dejimon no Inochi
( Japanese: 君レナモン対ギルモン!戦いこそがデジモンの命
( English: Renamon VS Guilmon! Fighting is a Digimon’s Purpose)

Japanese air date: April 15, 2001
English air date: September 8, 2001

Episode breakdown:

Takato is trying to find a hiding spot that Guilmon can stay at in Shinjuku central park, but then they are ambushed by Rika and Renamon who want to fight them.
He doesn’t want to however as Takato has just created Guilmon, but they start fighting anyway and Takato notices that Guilmon has changed as if he isn’t there anymore.
Rika uses a Modify card and afraid that the attack will kill Guilmon, he then pleads him to stop fighting, Guilmon eventually snaps out of it and runs over to Takato’s side.
Henry and Terriermon then stop the fight between Guilmon and Renamon, and questions why they are letting their Digimon fight, Rika dismisses him and both her and Renamon leave.
Both Takato and Henry introduce each other, in what class they are, and Henry meniones that he is half Chinese ( Father is from Hong Kong and mother is from Japan )
He says that Terriermon lives at his place, Takato then tells him that he will hide Guilmon in the shed at the park where they are at at the moment.
Takato asks what moumantai mean to which Terriermon responds with “ No worries, relax, take it easy. “
Takato then goes home and meets Jeri at the bakery, while Takato is flustered she tells him that she hasn’t told his parents that he skipped gym class.
His father then asks him if he has thrown the cardboard box away, still thinking that his son brought home a stray animal, he seems pretty upset about it too.
Takato then questions in his room if Digimon should be tools for battle as Rika mentioned before.

Meanwhile Rika walks the streets at night, while being watched by Renamon.
Then we see Suzie, Henry’s sister, coming into his room telling him dinner is ready while patting Terriermon, who plays that he is a doll.
Before he leaves Henry asks Terriermon if he wants to Digivolve, remaining silent Henry then tells him that they wouldn’t be friends anymore if he did.
Terriermon promises Henry that he won’t.
Later that night Takato brings Guilmon some more bread to his shed, but discovers that Guilmon has dug a huge hole in both the wall and the ground while he was away.
Because of this Guilmon has become sleepy and falls exhausted on top of Takato, he wonders if Digimon have dreams.
Meanwhile we see Calumon in the middle of a busy street in the city asking why the people are all rushing.
Then we see Rika continue walking the street while a group of 3 guys are asking her if she is the Digimon Queen, thinking that she was the one to win the last Digimon card battle tournament.
Rika then questions Renamon if she wants to get stronger, she tells her to get stronger, to which Renamon responds that she will.
Rika then asks her why she hasn’t Digivolved yet if that is the case, and she can’t answer this question.
The next morning we see Kazu and Kenta playing the card game at the Dinosaur statue while Takato runs up to greet them.
Kazu won the fight again and mentions that option cards determine the Tamers true power, to which Takato flashes back to his fight with Rika where she used a modify card herself.
Meanwhile we see Shinjuku central park being investigated by government officials regarding a bio-emergence, while black vans are driving by, at the same spot where Renamon and Guilmon where fighting.
Meanwhile at school after their class Kazu questions if he will compete in this year’s card battle tournament, he then mentions that Rika, the Digimon Queen, who lives close by won last year’s tournament. Kenta asks how someone that strong could be a girl, to which Kazu responds that she uses her Digimon to attack ruthlessly.
Jeri then mentions that tarot cards are a lot more interesting, and Kenta says that you can’t battle with tarot cards and that card battles are a man’s game, to which she says that that’s quite discriminatory.
Kazu then proposes to Jeri that he will coach her so that she also can also compete in the tournament, so that she can take the Digimon queen’s title for them, Jeri responds that that’s silly and leaves the classroom.
After school Takato runs towards the park and sees that there are a lot of black vans leaving the place, fearing that the government might have taken Guilmon away from him he runs in a panic towards Guilmon’s shed and sees that he isn’t there.
He looks all over the park and then remembers that he can use the compass on the Digivice to find him, and eventually he finds him in a nearby bush.
Guilmon explains that he left because he was bored sitting in there all day, he then asks Takato why he can’t go wherever he likes.
Takato explains that people would panic if they would see a dinosaur walking around, but then he gets an idea to tell people that Guilmon is a person in a costume if they see him.
Which other people believe.
Takato’s Digivice then picks up a signal and Guilmon senses another Digimon nearby, they run towards an underground parking lot where they find Rika and Renamon waiting for them.
Guilmon and Renamon resume their fight, despite Takato’s plea not to.
Henry and Terriermon then arrive and tell them to stop, he mentions that Digimon came to the real world for a reason and that it doesn’t mean they have to fight in the real world as well like they did in the Digital World.
Rika says that she doesn’t care and tells Renamon to continue their fight.
Terriermon then gets in the way of Renamon’s attack.
Henry in his panic over his partner cries out for him which triggers Terriermon’s Digivolution.
He digivolves into Gargomon and loses control of himself and attacks everything around him.
Rika orders Renamon to defeat him, but he seems to be too strong for her.
Nearby we see Calumon with his head mark glowing, which is why Terriermon manged to Digivolve into Gargomon.
After we see Gargomon approaching Rika with his gun pointed at her, to which she reels back in fear.
Takato yells at Guilmon to do something and Guilmon pushes Gargomon out of the way before he ends up hurting Rika, this seems to snap him out of his crazed frenzy.
The episode ends on Rika’s frightened face at what just happened, and wonders if Digimon are all like that when they Digivolve.
 

Character appearance for this episode in order:

Takato Matsuki-Guilmon-Rika Nonaka-Renamon-Henry Wong-Terriermon-Jeri Katou-Mother Yoshie Matsuki-Father Takehiro Matsuki-Suzie Wong-Calumon-Kazu Shioda- Kenta Kitagawa- Yamaki Mitsuo-Teacher Nami Asaji-Gargomon

 

Differences between the Japanese and English version:

Plot/story/Terminology ( English/Japanese );

* NA- Digital field
* Rookie- child level
* Takato mentions that he saw Rika in his dream - NA
* Rika calls Takato a gogglehead - NA
* Armour activate - Heavy metal card
* Terriermon asks if Renamon doesn’t feel silly rolling around in the dirt like that - Terriermon questions whether Renamon can Digvolve or not because of how strong she is
* NA - Rika lives on the other side of the train station, her school is east of the train station
* NA - Henry is from class 1 and Takato from class 2 of the same grade at school
* NA – Henry says that he is half Chinese/ Japanese ( this is not mentioned in the dub )
* Henry tells Terriermon that even Suzie won’t believe that he is a stuffed animal if he would Digivolve – Henry tells Terriermon that they couldn’t stay friends if he would Digivolve
* Rika won 1^st place in the last card battle tournament - Rika has gotten to the finals of the last card battle tournament, but won 1^st place at the Cathode Tournament.
* Kazu is against a girl being better than him at the card game, while Kenta says that she will wipe the floor with him and that he would pay money to see that happen – here it’s the opposite were Kazu admires someone as strong as Rika while Kenta is the one against a girl being stronger than a boy at the card game.
* NA- We can see Renamon drawing blood as she scratches Gargomon’s face
* Rika wonders if all Digimon get out of control when they Digivolve like Gargomon did - NA

Digimon Tamers Manga differences:

*The manga starts with Guilmon running from his shed directly to the parking lot where Rika and Renamon are, essentially skipping the first part of episode 3
*Takato thinks that Guilmon is attacking Renamon because it’s Digimon mating season ( yes he really says that )


My opinion:

A good third episode, and finally we see a Digimon digivolve and some cool battles too, and because of that the episode doesn’t seem as slow. This season has by far the best Digivolution sequences by far ( and a really nice call back for their Digivolution from Rookie to Champion level as it is exactly the same as in the Digimon World 1 game when the Digimon Digivolve, and Renamon’s entire Digivolution line is by far the best out of all because they kept her line 2D animation only which aged beautifully like a fine wine )
There are more differences in dialogue from here on out, especially since this episode was more dialogue heavy compared to the last two, the biggest difference is from Henry and also from Kazu and Kenta, see my notes above if you want to know more.

Again the English version is more optimistic and upbeat while the Japanese version is more serious, and both are perfectly fine depending if you want to watch something more fun or something more serious. The English version also feels a little bit more fast paced because of that.
Also very sad that the this is one of the last times that we will hear the unreleased version of the Japanese OST EVO, which is much better in my opinion than the version they ended up using for the rest of the season.


Well that's it for the third episode breakdown, stay tuned for more tomorrow : )

And don't forget if you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

See ya all next time.