History Anime / DigimonTamers

* ThatManIsDead: [[spoiler:Beelzemon about Impmon]].

* TheUnfought: Technically speaking, although he plays the largest villainous role of all the Devas, the tamers never fight Makuramon, aside from Leomon charging after him and taking the force of his attack, and Antylamon fighting him off to protect Suzie (before she becomes Suzie's partner). The only damage Makuramon really receives before [[spoiler: Beelzemon kills him]] is when Suzie bites him.

* RedemptionDemotion: When Antylamon turns against her masters, the Sovereigns, she de-digivolves to Lopmon. However...

* RedemptionPromotion: Not a "redemption" per se, but when Andromon becomes Kazu's partner, he de-digivolves to Guardromon. Conversely, when Impmon agrees to serve the Sovereign, he recieves a Betrayal Promotion. A bit more involved than [[PowerOfFriendship If Friendship Then Upgrades]].

* DarkerAndEdgier. And how. There's torture, death, and terrible destruction. Your jaw may just hit the floor when you realise who the head writer was it too, none other than ChiakiKonaka, also responsible for such famous horror and sci-fi titles as ''SerialExperimentsLain'', {{Texhnolyze}} and ''Anime/Hellsing''. Yes, ''that'' ChiakiKonaka. ''And he asked for this project specifically''.

* DarkerAndEdgier

* AllDeathsFinal: The only digimon continuity (except, maybe, the games) where '''nothing''' comes back from death. There isn't a village of beginnings. Also, digignomes, digimon and humans (military, bystanders, car drivers) '''die''' both in the series and in the movies.

* CanonDiscontinuity: The second movie was made without the consultation of the original writer Chiaki Konaka. It gets Retconned in the [[AllThereintheManual CD Dramas]] where [[spoiler:the children never got to meet up with their partners, and instead sent out voice messages to them promising to find a way to see them again.]] Said CD Drama takes place a year after the end of the tv series (the sixth movie takes place sixth months later).
** Chiaki has said on his [[http://www.konaka.com/alice6/tamers/index.html website]] that although the second movie doesn't fit into the timeline of the series, he is happy with the way the directors and screenwriters stayed true to the psychological nature of the tv show and expanded on Rika's character.

* GenreSavvy: Deconstructed. Since the main characters all have experience with the ShowWithinAShow version of Digimon as well as the card game and video games, they have varying degrees of expectation on how things are meant to go when it comes to taming Digimon. However, it turns out to be harder than they thought due to a lot of fine print--the protagonists of ''Adventure'' never had to worry about de-Digivolving their Digimon for example, but in the first story arc of ''Tamers'' it's a recurring problem. Also, Ruki must know about ThePowerOfLove being needed to digivolve at the very first episode, without learning this as CharacterDevelopment.

* FrothyMugsOfWater: The dub changes sake to "milkshakes" in the tale of Orochi(mon). Jeri being a server at her parents' restaurants is left in, as is her knowledge that enough "warm milkshakes" will get Orochi tired.

* FrothyMugsOfWater: The dub changes sake to "milkshakes."

Metaphorically speaking, one could call it the RealRobotGenre to ''Adventure'''s SuperRobotGenre - the series' hallmark is being DarkerAndEdgier than its predecessors (and indeed, every other ''Digimon'' canon since), and is significantly more cerebral, psychological, technologically minded, and becomes one hell of a CosmicHorrorStory by the end. It tends to be described as "''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' [[XMeetsY with]] {{mons}}," or "''{{Serial Experiments Lain}}'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids for kids]]", and for good reason - series head writer ChiakiKonaka was also the man behind ''Lain'' and is reportedly a big fan of ''Evangelion''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: WordOfGod states that ''Impmon'' was originally conceived as the main character!
** Beelzemon was originally intended to be the BigBad of the series, but was replaced by [[spoiler: the D-Reaper]] and became TheAtoner instead.
** This may explain why Impmon is portrayed in typical BigBad fashion in the earlier promotional material.
** Rika was originally supposed to have a Lunamon.

** Bad stuff, and I mean BAD, happens when Takato is pushed too far. Remember [[DigimonAdventure SkullGreymon]]? The giant skeletal Dark (Digi-)Evolution of Greymon without a mind with a nuke on his back? Meet Megidramon, whose MERE EXISTENCE causes the Digital World to begin to collapse. The one time we see him? Beelzemon just pissed Takato off and he's outright ordering [=WarGrowlmon=] to evolve to Mega level. He does. [[spoiler: Beezelmon STILL almost kills him.]]

* CallBack: [[DigimonAdventure02 "Here We Go"]] is on Rika's MP3 player in the dub. [[DigimonAdventure "Bolero"]] also happens to be Reika's ringtone.

* MythologyGag: In an early episode of the dub, a couple mistakes the digital fog for the Northern Lights. The original Digidestined of DigimonAdventure mistook the lights they saw before being taken to the digital world as the Northern Lights as well.

* PreviouslyOn: Davis does the narration in the dub. Rika would do the same for ''[[DigimonFrontier Frontier]]''.

The third anime series of the ''{{Digimon}}'' franchise, ''DigimonTamers'' was the first installment to set itself in a different canon entirely, setting the standard procedure for the rest of the franchise to come. Gone were the characters and world of ''DigimonAdventure'', instead introducing a new cast, new mechanics for pretty much everything, and a very different interpretation of the Digital World. Its universe was intended to be much more grounded in reality than its predecessors, partly achieving this by using a version of the ''Digimon'' franchise as a ShowWithinAShow[[hottip:*:In the original version, said ShowWithinAShow is '''''not''''' ''DigimonAdventure'', though the dub insists that it is]] of which the main cast are fans, and by giving [[TabletopGame/{{Digimon}} the Hyper Colosseum card game]] an important role in mon-to-mon combat.

Its predecessor was ''DigimonAdventure02'', and it was succeeded by ''DigimonFrontier'', which continued the trend of rebooting into a new universe and presented a radical shift in concept.

** It includes the most explicit, not to mention heartbreaking, killing of a main character seen in a Digimon anime, all with an established AllDeathsFinal rule in place making a return of the killed off character impossible.

** Renamon was originally supposed to have a Lunamon.

** Rika was originally supposed to have a Lunamon.

* ZerosAndOnes: This show has several examples, but it is actually a subversion since the code shown is written in ASCII (which angers Yamaki), or was actually written directly in machine code language.

The third anime series of the ''{{Digimon}}'' franchise, ''DigimonTamers'' was the first installment to set itself in a different canon entirely, setting the standard procedure for the rest of the franchise to come. Gone were the characters and world of ''DigimonAdventure'', instead introducing a new cast, a very different interpretation of the Digital World. Its universe was intended to be much more grounded in reality than its predecessors, partly achieving this by using a version of the ''Digimon'' franchise as a ShowWithinAShow[[hottip:*:In the original version, said ShowWithinAShow is '''''not''''' ''DigimonAdventure'', though the dub insists that it is]] of which the main cast are fans, and by giving the CollectibleCardGame an important role in Digimon combat.

Much as you'd imagine as a result of its alternate canon, ''Tamers'' was [[BrokenBase the first of many causes of dissent among many fans]]; though ''Tamers'' is certainly one of the most popular ''Digimon'' series among the fanbase, it certainly has its detractors who consider the ''Adventure'' canon to be the superior works. Even so, it still stands alongside its predecessors as one of the most popular installments in the franchise.

* TransformationNameAnnouncement: Takato and Guilmon's personalities start to overlap even before the concept of [[FusionDance Bio-Merging]] is introduced.

* IAmHeroHearMeRoar: Takato and Guilmon's personalities start to overlap even before the concept of [[FusionDance Bio-Merging]] is introduced.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Kazu and Kenta.

* YourDefeatMeansIGetYourPowers: Beelzemon could perform the attacks of the Digimon he absorbed, including [[spoiler:Leomon's Fist of the Beast King, which he uses to try to break Juri out of the D-Reaper Kernel Sphere.)]]

* MegaManning: Beelzemon could perform the attacks of the Digimon he absorbed, including [[spoiler:Leomon's Fist of the Beast King, which he uses to try to break Juri out of the D-Reaper Kernel Sphere.)]]
** The partnered Digimon could also employ attacks from other Digimon when modify cards were used by their Tamers, such as Renamon employing Agumon's Frozen Wind attack and Leomon using [=LadyDevimon=]'s Darkness Wave.

** TheBumblebee: Suzie
** [[spoiler:{{Eleventh Hour Ranger}}s: Ai and Mako (also double as twin [[TheBumblebee Bumblebees]]). ]]

* [=~She's A Man In Japan~=]: Lopmon

** Gallantmon/Dukemon should count too. Crimson Mode.

** Bad stuff, and I mean BAD, happens when Takato is pushed too far.
*** Remember [[DigimonAdventure SkullGreymon]]? The giant skeletal Dark (Digi-)Evolution of Greymon without a mind with a nuke on his back? Meet Megidramon, whose MERE EXISTENCE causes the Digital World to begin to collapse. The one time we see him? Beelzemon just pissed Takato off and he's outright ordering [=WarGrowlmon=] to evolve to Mega level. [[OhCrap He does.]]
**** It gets worse though as [[spoiler: Beezelmon STILL almost kills him.]]

* OrIsIt: In the final episode, it appears that the kids will be [[spoiler:permanently separated from their Digimon]].The appearance of a red light in a gazebo for the last few seconds at first suggests that there may be a way to change this, but when they analyze it they find it too small and not powerful enough to enable the Tamers and their partners to reunite.

''Digimon Tamers'' is officially available in its original Japanese with English subtitles (of dubious quality) on [[http://www.hulu.com/digimon-tamers Hulu]], [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/digimon-tamers Crunchyroll]] and the PlayStation Store, but [[NoExportForYou only in the US and Canada]].