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"Three Digimon once met three children. Three children once met three Digimon. They laughed together, fought together, suffered together, and they understood each other... until their hearts became one."

The third anime series of the Digimon franchise, Digimon Tamers was the first installment to set itself in a different continuity entirely.

Takato Matsuda (Matsuki in the dub) is an ordinary kid who is a big fan of the Digimon franchise and the associated Collectible Card Game. One day, a strange blue card transforms his card reader into a Digivice, which in turn brings a Digimon of Takato's own creation to life: Guilmon. But having a fire-breathing red dinosaur as a pet is only the start of Takato's problems: the walls between the Digital World and the Human World are beginning to break down, and hostile Digimon are appearing in the real world to wreak havoc.

Furthermore, there are other "Digimon Tamers" who have secured a Digimon as their partners in the real world: Ruki Makino (Rika Nonaka), a cold-hearted gaming champion who only cares about becoming the strongest Tamer; and Jianliang Li (Henry Wong), who believes that Digimon should be free to choose whether to fight or not. As the three Tamers clash over their conflicting ideals, a mysterious government organization is monitoring the digital invasion and developing counter-measures that could see the trio's Digimon partners ripped from their side forever.

Though it starts out similar in tone to previous installments of the franchise, it gets significantly Darker and Edgier as it goes along, with its last acts being conceptually inspired by Cosmic Horror Story and incorporating more philosophical themes. This is due to the influence of head writer Chiaki Konaka, who had largely worked on shows aimed at significantly more mature audiences, like Serial Experiments Lain and Hellsing, and also was influenced by the works of H. P. Lovecraft.

Tamers got two Audio Drama CD called Digimon Tamers 2018: Days -Information and the Unordinary-, showing the new threats on the rise! Taking place on the year mentioned in the title, organization NYX is formed, recruiting the main tamers but with Takato and Renamon missing from their respective sides, the second in the form of a live reading simply titled Digimon Tamers 2021, featuring a new D-Reaper called Political Correctness that has the ability to censor everything from news to opinions.

Its predecessor was Digimon Adventure 02, and it was succeeded by Digimon Frontier.

The dub is now on DVD in the US.

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Digimon Tamers contains examples of:

    Tropes # to C 
  • 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:
    • A minor example is Beelzemon's Double Impact bullets.
    • As is series custom, the two main boys' Digimon have their Ultimate and Mega Digivolution sequences rendered in CG. Taomon and Sakuyamon's Digivolution Sequences did not get this treatment, which isn't a bad thing. Sakuyamon has one of the most beautiful evolution sequences ever.
    • Deliberately invoked with the D-Reaper to show how alien it is and how it really doesn't fit in either the digital or real worlds.
  • Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Unlike most of the main characters, Takato's first name is not changed in the dub. It's just pronounced with accent on the second syllable instead of the first.note 
  • Accidental Kiss: Hirokazu and Kenta have one that is cut from the dub.
  • Actor Allusion:
    • Possibly to Bridget Hoffman, the voice actress for Juri, also worked on another Chiaki J. Konaka production, voicing the eponymous Lain. Definitely in the case of Yōko Asada, who voiced Juri in Tamers and Alice in Lain.
    • The German voice actor of Makuramon is Tommy Morgenstern, best known for voicing Son Goku in Dragon Ball Z. Makuramon is the monkey Deva, Goku is a Saiyajin (some kind of monkey Human Aliens) and both characters are inspired by Sun Wukong from Journey to the West.
    • Similar goes to Makuramon's seiyuu Ryō Horikawa who voices Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyajin.
  • Adaptational Heroism: Diablomon, MetalSeadramon and Mugendramon all respond to the Four Holy Beasts' call to protect the Digital World from the true enemy.
  • Adults Are Useless: Subverted. The kids are still on the frontline of battle, but if it weren't for help of the adults of this series serving actively as mission control, the kids wouldn't have made it half as far as they did.
  • Alice Allusion: Alice McCoy, the mysterious, possibly dead Deus ex Machina. She's also a blonde goth-girl, for extra points. Writer Chiaki J. Konaka favours this trope.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted by the Digimon themselves. Though they've gone far beyond their original programming, the sentient ones are subject to Rousseau Was Right and tend to either be good or act for understandable reasons. The Big Bad is an inversion, adhering strictly to its original purpose with nihilistic glee.
  • Alien Sky: In Tamers, the digital world is a largely barren desert wasteland, but in the sky above the iconic "real world sphere" looms overhead.
  • All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: Henry is half Chinese, and he's studying Tai Chi. His father also knows it, and uses it to effortlessly knock out a couple of Hypnos guards when getting out of the building.
  • All Deaths Final: 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. Not even partner Digimon are exempt from this rule, as one of the Tamers' partner is brutally murdered right in front of her.
    • There is one exception, though. Vajramon is revived for no apparent reason after he is destroyed the first time, though he stays dead the second time.
  • All for Nothing: Taking into account Ryo's backstory, the ending becomes an example of this trope. Since Cyberdramon was separated from Ryo and there isn't any way to get back into the digital world,note  it is extremely likely that without Ryo to reign him in he'll rampage and evolve into his mega form: ZeedMilleniummon. Unleashing an infinitely greater threat than the D-Reaper and rendering the heroes' sacrifice completely pointless.
  • All There in the Manual:
    • If you accept the producer's claims that the Ryo of Tamers is also the protagonist of the Digimon (WonderSwan Series), you'll need to be familiar with that series to understand Ryo (and even then you'd need to know about it to get the Mythology Gag).
    • Furthermore, Chiaki Konaka's website explains virtually everything that went on over the course of the series.
    • Then there's Chiaki Konaka's short story, Digimon Tamers 1984, a quick little bit about the team that created the Digimon.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
    • The American version uses a remixed version of the rap of the first two seasons.
    • The Korean dub composed its own theme song rather than translate the Japanese theme song. Averted with the dub of "Runaway Digimon Express" which did use a translation of the Japanese theme.
    • Initially the Greek dub again reused their translation of "Butterfly" from their dub of Adventure, but this time, muted the lyrics out of the second half of the song that referenced the chosen children from that season. Later averted when they used a translation of the Japanese theme song.
  • And Then What?: The question any Digimon partner who tries to strike out on their own eventually comes to — first Renamon, and then Beelzemon.
  • Angels, Devils and Squid: This features notably in the finale. The three most powerful entities during the climax are Gallantmon: Crimson Mode, Beelzemon: Blast Mode, and the D-Reaper.
  • Animal Motifs: The three key Mons take their influence from real-life animals (lizard, dog, fox), while the twelve Devas are based on the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac. The four Sovereigns are also based on the animals of the Four Symbols in Chinese astrology: vermillion bird of the south; black tortoise of the north; blue dragon of the east; and white tiger of the west.
  • Animation Bump:
    • The Stock Footage Transformation Sequences from Rookie to Champion, and Taomon and Sakuyamon's sequences.
    • Episodes 30, 38, 44 and especially the Tamers' first movie (Battle of Adventurer's) were all supervised by Naoyoshi Yamamuro and feature some of the best animation on this series. He also supervised the animation of the Digimon Frontier movie.
  • Apocalypse How: The D-Reaper will cause a Class 5 or 6, both on the Real World and the Digital World.
    • The D-Reaper has already caused either a Class 1 or 2 in the Digital World, where it's reported that at least 60% of the Digimon in it were killed.
  • Arc Word: "Destiny" is used a lot after (and right before) Leomon's death. It applies to not just Jeri's situation, but Calumon as well as he realizes his true nature.
  • Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl: Rika doesn't see Digimon as living creatures, just tools for fighting. She quickly grows out of this.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Clockmon constantly lives this trope (in the dub).
    Clockmon: (To Renamon) That's why Megadramon is interested in your data. He's a scoundrel, he's a beast, well he's not all that bad.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Riley, one of the two virtually interchangeable Hypnos operators is revealed to be Yamaki's live-in girlfriend halfway through the series. Chiaki Konaka has stated that he took the writing staff completely by surprise when he revealed Riley was Yamaki's girlfriend.
    • Kazu and Kenta, who start out as two Muggle Best Friends, unexpectedly join the gang when they enter the digital world and eventually get Digimon partners.
    • Jeri's first especially important role wasn't until the twenty-first episode. After that, she becomes much more involved in the overall plot.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Most of the cast. Guilmon was born from Takato's fanart, Rika is known for her Digimon Trading Card Game prowess, Henry had a computer game, Kazu and Kenta played the card game with Takato every morning before school. Even Jeri becomes a fan despite her initial disinterest in the card game.
  • The Atoner:
    • Impmon, after killing Leomon, spends the last quarter of the series trying and failing to do the right thing by helping Jeri. She forgives him in the end.
    • Yamaki starts out insisting that Digimon are dangerous data anomalies that need to be deleted lest they cause irreparable harm to the real world, later specifically citing the Tamers as troublemakers since Digimon, both good and evil, were far too dangerous to be left in the hands of children. After getting fired and having his building collapse around him, he finally rethinks his position and spends a fair bit of time trying to make up for the fact that his obsession with deleting Digimon from the real world may have done far more harm than good—in fact, it may have been his messing around that let most of the dangerous ones in in the first place. He even repeatedly defends the Tamers and insists that others trust them to handle a problem. He coordinates efforts to defeat the Big Bad in the end.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Various Digimon (both good and bad) and several of the D-Reaper's agents fall into this category. Vikaralamon is one of the biggest enemies to attack.
  • Audience Surrogate: Takato is designed to be like this.
  • Badass Adorable: Guilmon and Terriermon.
    • All the main kids, pretty much. They vary both in cuteness and level of badassery, but they all count.
  • Badass Longcoat: Rika's Establishing Character Moment in Takato's dream famously features her in a trenchcoat. She's never actually seen in this coat when Takato is conscious.
  • Bait-and-Switch Credits: it is actually quite accurate to what occurs in the show. So what's missing? Kenta doesn't appear in the first version, but a hundred random kids with Digivices and Digimon partners do. Ultimately, Ai and Mako get a Digimon of their own, while they don't appear in the updated opening either.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: The Biomerged Megas are piloted by the their respective Tamers, who appear nude but featureless within them. The original Japanese version succeeded in Getting Crap Past the Radar by averting this trope with a couple of Freeze-Frame Bonus shots during certain evolution sequences.
  • Because Destiny Says So:
    • In the English dub, invoked by Jeri on becoming Leomon's partner.
    Takato: Hey Jeri! Are you sure he's your partner?!
    Jeri: Yes!
    Takato: How come?!
    Jeri: 'Cause it's DESTINY!
    Takato: OK, thanks!
    Jeri: You can't escape destiny Mr. Leomon!
    • Becomes a really painful Ironic Echo after Leomon is killed and Jeri is left broken and in the thrall of the D-Reaper.
      Destiny... destiny... destiny...
  • The Berserker:
    • Cyberdramon pretty much all of the time, which is why Ryo keeps a tight leash on him.
    • Terriermon during his first evolution to Gargomon.
    • Also Megidramon.
  • Beware My Stinger Tail: Mihiramon's Armor Tiger Tail attack.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Sweet little Takato might just make it up there on your list of the nicest, most sensitive kids you've ever had the pleasure of meeting... but if you manage to piss him off, you run the risk of him DISINTEGRATING THE UNIVERSE.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
  • Big Fancy House: Rika lives in a large, traditional Japanese-styled home.
  • Birthday Episode: Run Away Locomon is set on Rika's birthday. She finds out about and bemoans Jeri throwing her a surprise party from Takato. The movie essentially boils down to the Tamers going to Rika's house for the party and dealing with said Locomon on the way. Rika's Disappeared Dad issues are used against her by the Parasimon to control her and attack Takato. She does make it to the party in the end, but she's pretty much the only one not enjoying herself.
  • Bishōnen Line:
    • Guilmon is a straight example, with his normal evolution line getting bigger and more fearsome until he makes the jump to the humanoid Gallantmon at the start of the final act.
    • Renamon plays with this by literally sliding back and forth along the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism. Renamon starts at the Funny Animal level, evolves into the Talking Animal Kyuubimon, then the Beast Man Taomon, and finally the fully humanoid Sakuyamon.
    • Downplayed with Impmon, who jumps from a midget Cartoon Creature to the overtly humanoid Beelzebumon.
    • Inverted with Andromon, who starts off with a largely humanoid appearance, but reverts to the heftier, stumpier Guardromon and stays at that level for the rest of the series.
    • Also Downplayed with Terriermon's evolutionary line, which gains more and more cyborg armaments when evolving to Gargomon and Rapidmon; MegaGargomon, on the other hand, gets to show off his face and hands.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Subverted by Jijimon and Babamon. In a world where is said that "only the strongest survive", it's obvious that the nice old couple — who warmly welcome the Tamers in their house, offering food and bed — will just try to kill them at some point. Except that the couple is honestly nice, and sincerely enjoyed the strangers visit.
    • Worth noting that the moment we discover this is when Kazu and Kenta are freaked out about the possibility of the Mons being actually evil, and then go on peeping the couple reminiscing about their day with the Tamers.
  • Bittersweet Ending: While the world is saved in the end, the series would have a pure Downer Ending if not for the Hope Spot at the last minute.
    • In the anime, the Deus ex Machina that Hypnos and the Monster Makers put together successfully destroys the D-Reaper, but also forces the Digimon to return to the Digital World as well, leaving the children sobbing and Henry demanding answers from his distraught father. After the world returns to normal, Takato discovers a digital world portal in Guilmon's shed.
    • In the manhwa adaptation, the story ends with the disappearance of the digimon, and there is no mention of any portal for Takato to discover. The best Takato can say is that he'll never forget the experience.
    • The CD Dramas set after the series decide to Yank the Dog's Chain by implementing a Happy Ending Override in which the portal Takato discovered was sealed in with concrete and the matter abandoned.
  • Bloodless Carnage: There isn't a single drop of blood on this series, making it suitable for 7-year-old children and above. Averted for the second movie, where many Digimon are stabbed in the eye and ooze green blood.
  • Blood Knight: Cyberdramon, who seethes with violence and occasionally has to be restrained by Ryo.
    "Are you my enemy?"
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Terriermon is a midget Cartoon Creature with plenty of sass to go around.
  • Book Ends: One of the first things Beelzemon does after Digivolving from Impmon is slaughter a group of Chrysalimon. At the end of the Digital World arc, another group of them pile onto a guilt-ridden and repenting Beelzemon, draining him of his energy until he's back in Rookie form.
  • Bowdlerization: Surprisingly rare, but there if you look.
    • While the dub was allowed to keep the shots of the Tamers within the Biomerged digimon, it some of the imagery during the evolution sequences was removed.
    • The Disney adaptation of Runaway Locomon skips over the part where Gallantmon stabs Parasimon in the eye... but, since the last act of the movie is basically the mass slaughter of invading Parasimon after Parasimon, certain hands appear to have been tied.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: Usually the smaller a Digimon is, the more obnoxious it is (Terriermon and Impmon being huge examples). On the human side; Ai and Mako before their character development, and Suzie has one moment in episode 37 that nearly causes Henry to smack her.
  • Break the Cutie: Jeri, meticulously and horribly.
  • Bridge Bunnies: Riley and Tally, who operate most of Hypnos' central machinery and give status updates to their boss Yamaki.
  • Broken Masquerade: Hypnos tries to be an enforced Weirdness Censor, trying to keep the existence of Digimon out of the public sphere (by killing them on sight). Post-Vikaralamon, however, the Masquerade hasn't just been broken, it's been crushed into a billion pieces under a boar the size of a football field. Contrary to Yamaki's fears, however, once the existence of Digimon becomes public knowledge, people adjust to them fairly quickly.
  • By the Power of Grayskull!: "Biomerge Activate!"/"Matrix Evolution!"
  • Call-Back: "Here We Go" is on Rika's MP3 player in the dub. "Bolero" also happens to be Riley's ringtone.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Averted. The second movie "Runaway Digimon Express", set after the series' ending, was written without consultation of the series' writing staff, and head writer Chiaki J. Konaka later helped produce CD Dramas also set after the series in which the second movie never happened. This has not actually removed the second movie from canonicity so much as created a diverging timeline.
  • Canon Immigrant: Ryo Akiyama rarely appears in the Adventure universe (not counting the games) but is very important to the story. He literally immigrated to the Tamers universe in Brave Tamer.
  • Car Fu: Attempted by Jeri's dad against the D-Reaper. It doesn't work.
  • Catchphrase:
    • All together now — "Moumantai!"
    • "Aw, nuts!"
    • "Walk all over him/her/it."
  • Casting Gag:
    • In the English dub, Nami Asaji, Takato's teacher, is voiced by Lara Jill Miller, who voiced Kari Kamiya in the previous two series. Kari became a teacher when she grew up, and Ms. Asaji bears a striking resemblance to her.
    • Makuramon, a divine Chinese monkey Digimon, is played by none other than Ryō Horikawa, the Japanese voice talent for Vegeta (who rivaled Goku, the trope-codifying Monkey King Lite).
    • In both the Japanese and English versions, Terriermon and Leomon are voiced by the same actors as their Adventure counterparts (Aoi Tada and Mona Marshall for Terriermon and Hiroaki Hirata and Paul St. Peter for Leomon).
    • The English dub has several other Digimon voiced by the same actors as their Adventure counterparts, including Dave Mallow as Gekomon and Peter Spellos as Meramon.
  • Cat Smile: Suzie, almost all the time.
  • Central Theme:
    • What is the line between fiction and reality?
    • Life's (whether natural or artificial) will to grow and live.
    • And lastly, is humanity ready to confront the consequences of their messing with technology, and the growing possibility of artificial intelligence going far beyond its initial tenets?
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The contrast between the first time the Kids go to the Digital world filled of dreams and hope (Set to upbeat Shonen music, no less) and the later episodes is appalling.
  • Chain of People: When Takato is chasing after the Ark.
  • Chromatic Arrangement: The song "3 Primary Colors" even references this.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe:
    • This is ultimately revealed to be the basis of blue card technology, which uses emotions and faith to make ideas real.
    • How Biomerging is first unlocked (in episode 35).
  • Coincidental Dodge: In Guilmon's first fight with Renamon, Renamon gains an Arm Cannon from Ruki's card and aims it point-blank at a feral Guilmon's head—Guilmon nearly bites it for good when Takato's yelling causes him to snap back to his senses and turn his head just in time for Renamon to miss. The recoil sends Renamon flying.
  • Color-Coded Characters: Takato and Guilmon are associated with the color red, Henry and Terriermon green, and Rika and Renamon blue; these colors dominate their digivolution sequences and are the color of their respective digivices. The remaining tamers also have specific colors attached to their own digivices.
  • Comic Books Are Real: Digimon is a well-established franchise in this universe, with nearly all the kids being regular players of the card game, and Jian in particular owning a computer game. There are some strange ontological questions, however, such as how directly the Show Within a Show maps to the digital world.
    • Renamon, for example, arrived directly through a portal from the digital world, while Terriermon came to earth from a Digimon computer game. Culumon is introduced narrowly surviving a wild Maildramon when a MetalTyrannomon kills it, which directly mirrors a card game Takato (MetalTyrannomon) is playing with Hirokazu (Maildramon).
  • Commonality Connection: Takato and Henry got along perfectly fine and avoided the Rule of Drama, the only lead males in the Digimon franchise to do so. On a broader level, all the children were fans of Digimon.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: In "The Messenger", Professor Tetsuo Uchiharato. While being interviewed by the news, he reveals what he knows about Hypnos, and believes that the program was responsible for the D-Reaper and Digimon. Unlike most Theorists, he's not overtly paranoid (though he should be, as he works at Miskatonic University), is creditable, backs up his reasoning, and is partly right.
  • Continuity Nod: Several cards Takato and Lee use to assist their partners are throwbacks to Digimon Adventure and its sequel. Examples include a power up that summons WarGreymon's shield and a card that by all intents and purposes is the Digimental of Fate
  • Cool Teacher: Averted with Miss Asaji, Takato's (et al.) teacher at school. She's lazy, barely motivated to teach, dozes off when she should be watching the kids on a school trip, and (voice of Lara Jill Miller notwithstanding) is basically the opposite of Kari. In the original Japanese, it's an explicit character note of hers that she's doing the job because it looks good to the community and when the kids tell her they're going to the Digital World, she tries to stop them because it might reflect poorly on her. She has enough of a change of heart at the end of the series to run out and cheer Takato on during the final arc.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: It's brief and temporary, but Takato's Unstoppable Rage after Leomon's death has very serious ramifications.
  • Cosmic Horror Story: Of the (debatably) kid-friendly variety.
  • Creating Life: The Monster Makers' research project accidentally lead to the creation of true artificial lifeforms that later became known as Digimon. This comes back to bite them.
    • Takato wished for his own Digimon. The Digignomes were happy to oblige.
  • Cruel Twist Ending: The Bittersweet Ending can also come across as this, seeing as it was never really foreshadowed, apart from some extremely vague dialogue from Janyu that he has done something unforgivable.
  • Cyberpunk: Most Digimon series tend to focus on Post-Cyberpunk. Tamers is closer to the flip side of the 'punk spectrum, exploring traditional themes of the genre: A government conspiracy is conducting dangerous experiments and monitoring everything. Young people befriend otherwise-dangerous A.I.s, and do battle in the urban jungle. They end up opposing the conspiracy and other equally dangerous A.I.s. Society is on the edge of radical change, and questions about "How do we define life?" and "How do we respond if that life turns out to be hostile?" arise. While it does still manage to maintain some of Adventure's themes of "the power of belief can make things happen", Tamers is much more dark and cynical.
  • Cyberspace: Obviously.
    Tropes D to G 
  • Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: The reason Jeri's father acts so distantly towards his daughter is because, after her mother died, he was forced to fill in the role of both parents for her and, try as he might, he couldn't. By the time he remarried, the damage had already been done. That said, he does eventually realize his mistake. See My God, What Have I Done?.
  • Damsel in Distress: Jeri in the third act. Justified, as she's only ten years old, and suffering an intense Heroic BSoD.
  • Damsel out of Distress: Not entirely, but Jeri does manage to break open the "Kernel" keeping her trapped inside the D-Reaper. Had she not done so, rescuing her would have likely been impossible.
    • Jeri also attempts to get Orochimon drunk when she's captured so she could escape. Unfortunately, he got stronger when drunk...but she does manage to finish the job by giving Leomon a power-up to kill Orochimon.
  • Darker and Edgier. You've got to wonder who thought it was a good idea to give a children's show to the scriptwriter of Hellsing and Ultraman Gaia, no matter how enthusiastic he was about the project. That said, with some influences from Gaia, Tamers, although very dark for a Mons show, still had some general tones of a Kaiju show.
    • One small sign that this series was different from the others, especially in how it was adapted for English-speaking countries, eventually ballooning to its extreme existential themes: In shows that dealt with mature-for-its-audience topics, nothing pertaining to death would be mentioned on the show, instead opting to use euphemisims like "destroy" or "lead to demise" or other variations. In episode 6 of the English dub, after Renamon has defeated a rogue Digimon and absorbed its data, Takato explicitly calls out Rika for commanding Renamon to kill said Digimon.
    • The english dub Zigzags between being this and Lighter and Softer. On one hand the dub tries to follow in the footsteps of the previous two digimon dubs by having a script that inserts random jokes here and there and of course, there's censorship of things like alcohol or gratuitous explicit violence. But from the Beelzemon fight onward, the dub arguably manages to feel more dark and serious than its Japanese counterpart due to music choices: The Japanese version of the show usually inserts various Rock/Pop tunes into battle sequences which creates a certain mood of excitement and levity. The English version instead often went with an ominous and suspenseful symphony soundtrack, which completely changes the tone of the scenes.
  • Deader than Dead: Digimon in this series can absorb the data of the Digimon they defeat in order to get stronger. If this happens to a defeated digimon, they are Killed Off for Real and don't experience the rebirth as a digi-egg as in previous seasons. And unfortunately, this plays a MASSIVE role in the endgame with Leomon’s death at Beelzemon’s hands and Jeri’s resultant depression and kidnapping.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Renamon has a lot of sass, especially in the English dub.
  • Death Means Humanity: Leomon's permanent death and the knowledge that All Deaths Are Final for the digimon makes everyone realize that despite their digital origins, the digimon aren't just digital characters or toys they can use for battle without consequence. Takato in particular has a Heroic BSoD in response and flies into an Unstoppable Rage and Roaring Rampage of Revenge that has dire consequences.
  • Deconstruction: Zigzagged. While Tamers is a deconstruction in the sense of a work in which each of a work's internal elements are tweaked or have their sense altered (see Deconstructor Fleet below), Tamers does not fit the TV Tropes definition of the trope, which is a work in which nothing in the Rule of Index is at play—Tamers has multiple examples of the Rule of Symbolism.
  • Deconstructor Fleet: Tamers tweaks or suspends many of the conventions previously established in Adventure and 02. Many of these modified tropes are Darker and Edgier, but not all of them.
    • "What if Digimon was real?" Well, for starters, they might not be pre-programmed to be loyal protectors. If they're like the original v-pets, they might be pre-programmed to fight and grow stronger to fight even more. So you might end up with violent monsters that don't always act in your best interest who want to grow as big and strong as possible.
    • In Digimon Adventure, the partner digimon were programmed specifically to be connected to their respective human being; in Tamers the partnerships are voluntary. At one point, Ruki and Renamon have a falling out and Renamon goes solo for a time; Impmon, for his part, abandoned his tamers outright, a couple of brats who yanked him back and forth like a toy.
    • In prior stories, the majority of the Chosen Children were stable people who, while certainly having their own troubles and issues to work through, also still had the benefit of having friends who could help support them through their problems. Even Ken, probably the most morally complicated of the bunch due to his past as the Digimon Emperor/Kaiser, was still able to redeem himself and the destruction he caused could still be healed to an extent. In Tamers however, not only are each of the Tamers way in over their heads to varying degrees, but one of them (Juri) turns out to be very emotionally inbalanced and dependent on her Digimon partner Leomon in order to maintain any semblance of normality. When Leomon is murdered however, his poor choice of final words absolutely breaks her, making her an easy target for the dangerous D-Reaper.
    • Unlike the protective urges of Adventure's partner digimon, the digimon in Tamers have a natural urge to fight, which becomes a problem for Terriermon when his partner Jianliang turns out to be an Actual Pacifist.
    • The partner digimon of Adventure are all small and generally easy to hide or pretend away; in Tamers, Guilmon is big and bulky, and too young to understand the wisdom of hiding. After a while, Takato gives up trying to hide him.
    • Digimon have been threatening to the real world before—Vamdemon took over all of Odaiba in Adventure and Archnemon and Mummymon kidnapped twenty children for Oikawa's use in 02—but Tamers is the first series to propose Digimon as a cause of brutal injury, as it does when the infant Guilmon burns a few rats to death on impulse.
    • In the world of Adventure, partner digimon can be made to evolve quite conveniently in a crisis and the digimon can devolve at will. In Tamers, nobody quite has the knack for evolution at will (not for Ruki's lack of trying), and even once a digimon evolves, it can't just automatically degrade to the next lowest stage. The built up energy has to be spent, first.
    • In the universe of Digimon Adventure, to kill a digimon was to break it down to its most basic data fragments, which would disperse and later reassemble as a digiegg in Primary Village. There's no Primary Village in Digimon Tamers, and any data fragments are usually consumed by the killer; you know, like Experience Points.
    • As in Digimon Adventure, there is mysterious organization involved directly with the digimon. Unlike Digimon Adventure, it's a Government Conspiracy trying to exterminate them.
    • In 02, Ken was a bitter, smart, and lonesome kid who thought Digimon weren't people, so he did what a such a kid might do and played toy soldiers with video game characters. In Tamers, Yamaki is a bitter, smart, and lonesome adult who thinks Digimon aren't people, so he does what such a man might do and tries to eradicate them like buggy AI from infected computer systems. Indeed, Yamaki fears the kids associating with such dangerous creatures might just see it all as a game; as Ruki proves, he's not far wrong It's deconstructed even further in that because Yamaki is an adult, he has access to far more dangerous means of getting what he wants...which leads to far more disastrous consequences once he starts meddling in things he doesn't understand well enough because of his paranoia.
    • Like Ken before her, Ruki sees Digimon as a fighting game and like the v-pets tries to get Renamon to evolve by winning fights. But Tamers is not quite like the v-pets, so Ruki's Level Grinding is entirely for naught. Not only is she not the first to Digivolve her partner (that would be Henry), the first thing the new Champion does is destroy a parking garage and nearly shoot her in the face.note 
    • Even if the children who gain digimon partners all lived nearby like in Adventure and 02, they may not all be conveniently grouped, get their partners at the same time, or even be on the same side. In Tamers, Jian and Ruki were tamers well before Takato, and Ruki wasn't particularly willing to reach out to them except perhaps for an easy kill against a weakling newbie.
    • In the Adventure universe, partner digimon evolved to the Adult stage with an Extreme Graphical Representation of downloading the needed data and transforming instantly; in Tamers, a digimon's evolution was a strenuous if not Painful Transformation—the digimon's skin peels right off and the wireframe beneath undergoes mutation in fits and spurts.
    • Adventure and especially 02 show partner digimon sneaking around to avoid notice by humans; in Tamers, Impmon goes out of his way to cause a ruckus, even jumping from one car to another, and is confronted with armed police. In the last arc, the government sends in the Self-Defense Force in an attempt to deal with the D-Reaper.
    • Adventure and 02 were in the fantasy adventure genre, where the kids spend most of their time travelling through an eclectic wonderland. Tamers is sci-fi slice of life, where the kids spend most of their time in the real world; the digital world is a bizarre wasteland. Adventure and 02 had Cosmic Horror elements, but these were mostly isolated and reserved for the finale; in Tamers, the entire last arc is cosmic horror.
    • In Adventure, the parents of the children learned about digimon partners in the middle of a greater ongoing crisis, so they had more to worry about than just the partner digimon. In Tamers, the parents learn of digimon partners in times of relative peace, which makes them all the more startling and scary.
    • In 02 all visits to the digital world were temporary, and in Adventure the kids were trying to return home before they were officially appointed to their mission. In Tamers, Ryo left the real world a year ago and has no desire to return; besides, his partner Cyberdramon is too dangerous and violent to really stay in the real world.
    • The mysterious man who the children meet in the digital world is not an arbitrarily human-shaped native of Another Dimension. He's a real human being in a coma.
    • In Adventure and 02, the enemies were either Card Carrying Villains or human beings with a Freudian Excuse; the powers that be of the digital world were generally benevolent to humans and concerned with the digital world's protection. In Tamers, the powers that be are also concerned with the digital world's safety and protection... but not necessarily benevolent and were far more willing to resort to morally dubious methods to ensure the safety of their realm...even at the expense of the human world.
    • In Adventure and 02 fights in the real world didn't generally cause much damage to the environment; in Tamers they definitely Trash the Set—an entire overpass is destroyed in the fight with Devidramon and the fight with Vikaralamon levels a good chunk of the city.
    • In 02, Wallace was uncommonly blessed with two digimon partners, a pair of very close siblings; Impmon of Tamers began with two human partners, a pair of siblings who cannot share for the life of them.
    • In Adventure, Tailmon spent most of the show with no partner and was trained specifically to be a strong and ruthless killer only to complete a Heel–Face Turn once her best friend was murdered. In Tamers, Impmon spends most of the show with no partners and desperately wants to be a strong and ruthless killer... only to have a Heel–Face Turn after he murders someone else and his own life is spared.
    • In the world of Adventure, there are eldritch powers and fantastic locations at work independent of the digital world and its inhabitants. In Tamers, there's really only the Digimon AI and the Black Box entelecheia that brought them to life—the eldritch stuff in Tamers happens when that entelecheia software interacts with programming less advanced than the Digimon AI, which is how you get yourself a D-Reaper.
  • Decon-Recon Switch: The show does work to deconstruct many of the tropes in the previous two Digimon series, such as showing the brutality of owning a Kaiju as a pet and sending ten year olds to save the world, and yet it still revels in The Power of Friendship, Hot-Blooded characters, and most of the antagonists have several shades of gray to them.
  • Defictionalization:
    • While for the most part, the cards that the Tamers use in the anime correspond to actual cards in the Japanese card game, there are some original ones. Those cards were then released in an anime-based booster for the card game.
    • Inverted with the digimon in-universe; officially, Digimon were around in the 1980s, long before they became a franchise.
  • Determinator: Eh.... let's just go with everybody.
  • Deus ex Machina:
    • When Growlmon first evolved, he was unable to de-digivolve for reasons that were never explained or looked into. What finally allows him to return to Guilmon form appears to have been some mixture of Takato's Inelegant Blubbering and a rainbow.
    • When the Tamers return to Earth, they lose the ability to biomerge with their digimon partners. The solution to this problem is delivered by a girl named Alice and her partner Dobermon, messengers from The Four Gods, who pop out of nowhere and deliver the sovereigns gift—the power to Biomerge in the real world— to the Tamers.
    • Not only did Ryo get the ability to biomerge offscreen, he gained the ability to biomerge in the real world at the same time, despite his absence during Alice and Dobermon's appearance.
    • While the D-arcs are modified toy scanners, the series also gives them the ability to scan fanart for data as well, like when Guilmon was born from Takato's drawing and Hirokazu's handmade blue card was able to be successfully scanned and help Growlmon evolve to WarGrowlmon.
  • Diabolus ex Machina: Growlmon's complete inability to devolve in "Not as Seen on TV", which has no explanation.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Henry and Terriermon, as MegaGargomon, beat the ever-loving daylights out of Zhuqiaomon with their bare hands.
  • Discontinuity Nod: As it says under Canon Discontinuity, Message in the Packet retconned the movie. However, note  there's a brief scene of Rika humming the same song she sings at the movie's climax.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?:
    • In the midst of his struggles to get a freshly-evolved Growlmon back down to the child-stage Guilmon in episode 9, Takato encounters Juri and ends up asking for her advice by mentioning I Have This Friend. While his awkward explanation convinces Juri he's having romantic problems with an older girl, the specific language also makes it sound like he has certain issues with puberty.
    • When Sakuyamon gives her powers to Justimon to fight the Reaper, she loses her armor and ends up in nothing but her Sensual Spandex, while Justimon's Laser Blade grows to twice its size. Subtle.
  • Dramatic Irony: Takato summons up the courage to give Jeri an Anguished Declaration of Love in episode 41, not knowing that it's not really her.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole:
    • In episode 18, Riley was on the phone apparently turning down a date offer because of work. Though, in episode 24, it's revealed she is Yamaki's girlfriend.
    • "Destiny" became an Arc Word for Jeri during the final act of the series, though the dub missed the actual transition by changing Leomon's dialogue as he died, breaking the chain of continuity leading to when Jeri started fixating on the concept (to be fair, the dub had Leomon briefly mention destiny in an earlier episode). In a stroke of luck, the dub's version of Jeri's first meeting with Leomon adds even more resonance to the arc word by having Jeri insist, "It's destiny!" when Takato asked her why she was so convinced she and Leomon were partners, in some ways letting "destiny" overshadow the whole of her relationship with Leomon.
    • In the original Japanese version, the Biomerged Megas only speak with their own voice, which leads to some mystery regarding Takato's disappearance when Dukemon first appeared and Justimon's identity during the latter's debut. In the dub, the Biomerged Megas speaking with the voices of both the Digimon and Tamer, which rather spoils the mystery. (Admittedly in Takato's case it's a matter of Dramatic Irony, as the evolution sequence clearly indicates Takato is present within Dukemon).
    • In "Runaway Digimon Express", Ruki has problems trusting adults — she's upset that her family is in on her not-so-surprise party before she is, her mother Rumiko is carrying what is heavily implied to be a present for her, the instant Yamaki calls her she passes her phone off wordlessly to Takato, she later declares she doesn't trust adults, and then there's her quite conspicuous Flashback about another certain adult to make suggestions about all of this. "Runaway Locomon" changes her dialogue to be that she mistrusts Yamaki specifically, making it look more like Arbitrary Skepticism.note 
  • Dub Species Change: While Terriermon's evolution line always had dog Animal Motifsnote , the trend didn't become obvious until the debut of the overtly dog-faced MegaGargomon.

    The English dub, mistakenly judging from the fact that Terriermon's evolutions are mostly long-earned Cartoon Creaturesnote , referred to Terriermon as a rabbit, though it may have lampshaded the ambiguity at least once by calling him a 'dog-eared bunny'.
  • Dubtext: In the original version Ruki is ten years old to her mother's twenty-eight, which would be unusual enough, but the dub version of Tamers, or at least related official materials from Fox, bumped the main cast's ages up by three, making Ruki thirteen years old to her mother's twenty-eight.
  • Eastern Zodiac: The Devas are twelve antagonistic Digimon, each representing an animal from the eastern zodiac, but are named for warriors from Sanskrit legend. The rabbit Deva, Antylamon, became the partner of Henry's little sister after devolving into Lopmon.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The D-Reaper is a digital version of this, being a data clean-up program gone horribly, horribly wrong.
    • Eldritch Location: The D-Reaper eventually becomes so massive that it engulfs an entire city block.
  • The End... Or Is It?: In the final episode, it appears that the kids will be 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.
  • Evolving Credits: The Japanese opening changes to reveal who the shadowed figures are as they are revealed in the show. The English opening subverts this by consistency using the first version of the crowd shot.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Generally averted. For example, Takato has an Imagine Spot in episode 8 of the police shooting Guilmon.
    • Beelzemon's weapons don't look that real but quite clearly fire real bullets. Well, except for his Death Slinger, but then again it's an upgraded form of a toy ray gun given to him by Makoto.
    • Another shot features police officers with realistic looking guns, but dialogue was added stating that they were not loaded. Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers can be seen later on armed with assault rifles (specifically the Howa Type 89 used by the real-life JSDF), but are never shown firing them on-screen.
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Inverted. Janyuu Wong is perfectly fine with his son having such a big attachment to the Digimon franchise, right up until Impmon takes a shotgun to the Masquerade right in front of his face, after which he goes running to Hypnos offering to help Yamaki fight back against the monsters. This causes tension between him and his son.
  • Fast Tunnelling:
    • In Episode 17, Takato used the Steel Drill/Digmon's Drill card to equip Guilmon with one on each hand to quickly get to the enemy below.
    • After the fight with Vikaralamon, the Tamers escape approaching cops before they can arrive in the midst of the wreckage. MegaloGrowmon's method of escape is to use his mechanical arms to excavate a tunnel big enough for him to move through, which he does in mere seconds.
  • Foil: If one thinks about it, Impmon serves as a either a reflection or inversion to nearly every other major character in Tamers to some capacity, whether they interact or not.
    • Takato - they both lose control of themselves in dark feelings of wanting others to suffer, and create destructive monsters as a result (Megidramon and Beelzemon, respectively)
    • Renamon/Rika - They all held misguided ideas about what it meant to be strong and saw fighting as the only thing that made life worth it, only to realize later that it just leaves them feeling empty and alone.
    • Henry - they both struggled to assert themselves amongst their peers (siblings for Henry, other digimon for Impmon) that culminates in them hurting someone, and their worldviews change greatly thereafter.
    • Jeri - they both deal with loneliness, lack of self worth, and later feelings of guilt, and it takes time for them to realize other people care about them. Although while Impmon mostly externalizes his problems, Jeri directs her negativity inward.
    • Yamaki - they both think they have more power and control than they actually do, and make decisions without regard for how they might affect anyone else only for it to blow up in their face. They become allies to the tamers after seeing the error of their ways.
    • The D-Reaper - both are entities that go From Nobody to Nightmare and end up having way too much power for their own good, absorbing and assimilating what they mindlessly destroy and becoming more monstrous as a result. But the D-Reaper is emotionless and can only do what it was programmed to. Impmon has a conscience and learns from his mistakes.
    • Calumon - they both serve as mascots for Tamers, have green eyes, and have white, purple, and red as part of their color scheme, but while Calumon is childlike and innocent, Impmon's got the personality of an angsty rebellious teenager.
  • Foreshadowing: Lots of it. Tamers has a lot of moments in the first half of the story that end up becoming relevant later.
    • Takato at one point designs and then scratches out a monstrous looking new digivolution for Guilmon, and then starts worrying about the possibility of Guilmon digivolving into something dangerous.
    • Takato and Guilmon have a conversation about Guilmon one day Digivolving and becoming a different Digimon. Guilmon assures him that will never happen because he will always be the same Digimon in the inside. Takato even says he wishes he could Digivolve in the same conversation...
    • Many of Jeri's scenes and dialog take on new meaning if one knows in advance that Leomon dies and there's an impending Break the Cutie session; even the end of Leomon's debut episode ends with Jeri in misery and indicates emotional weaknesses that are just waiting to be exploited.
    • Not long after the Tamers arrive in the digital world, Makuramon and Majiramon are shown flying towards the real world sphere within a column of fire. Their lord, Zhuqiaomon, has mastery over fire.
    • Gee, Takato sure seems to stress about the possibility of losing Guilmon forever a lot, doesn't he...?
  • The Four Gods: The Digimon Sovereigns are based on them.
  • Friendlessness Insult: In the English dub, Mitsuo Yamaki dismisses Takato's protest that Digimon are sentient and can have friends by coldly commenting that Guilmon, as a Digimon, is "nothing more than a dangerous, artificial life-form".
  • "Friends" Rent Control: The show avoids this trope most of the time, but Jenrya/Henry's house is a little harder to justify; he has a bunch of siblings and his parents’ jobs (never explicitly explained, though Word of God states they are a computer programmer and a graphic designer, respectively) don’t seem like they would be able to afford the enormous apartment he lives in.
  • Friendly Tickle Torture: Growlmon gets tickled while being painted in an attempt to hide him. Terriermon also tickles Guilmon during a flashback in episode 16, and in episode 5 this happens to Calumon when Guilmon is sniffing him.
  • Frothy Mugs of Water: All references to alcohol in Orochimon's episode were removed from the US dub; instead of being deliberately supplied with too much sake he's defeated with "warm milkshakes" instead (which Jeri is used to serving at her parents' restaurant and which has a scent that Jeri and Rika recognize at a distance), and Orochimon's special move Sake Breath is instead called "Inferno Blast".
  • Full-Boar Action: Vikaralamon, as one of the Eastern Zodiac-themed Devas representing the pig.
  • Fusion Dance:
    • Takato, Henry, Rika and Ryo all merge with their partners when it comes to Ultimate level.
    • Gallantmon merges with Grani in the penultimate episode to become Gallantmon Crimson Mode.
  • Genre Savvy: Deconstructed. Most of the main characters all have experience with the card and video games, and have varying expectations of how things are meant to go when it comes to taming Digimon. Which turns out to be a lot harder than they ever could've imagined.
  • Genre Shift: The show starts out as a Slice of Life with Mons and becomes a Post Cyber Punk Kaiju Cosmic Horror Story.
  • Gentle Giant:
    • Growlmon, at least after his fight with Devidramon.
    • Also, Antylamon the Rabbit Deva. In the episode where he/she first appeared, she played with Henry's kid sister, Suzie. Heck, she even defended her from Makuramon, the Monkey Deva. As a result, Antylamon was stripped of a large portion of her power and dedigivolved to Lopmon, and Suzie was made her Tamer.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Takato, of course. Subverted when he really does use them underwater a couple of times, as well as when he enters a digital field (which manifests as a cloud of fog). Henry and Rika usually wear sunglasses to enter digital fields, so it's not just him.
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: Takato's red digivice is destroyed, but his replacement is gold. His and his partner's Super Mode, Gallantmon Crimson Mode, does stick with traditional red, though.
  • Gone Horribly Right: When Takato, in a fit of rage, orders Guilmon to evolve to Mega, he does exactly that. Completely understandably, Takato regrets it almost immediately.
    • All the D-Reaper was supposed to do was delete information that fell under a certain criteria. The only problem was that the human race ended up falling under that same criteria.
  • Good Parents: For most of the main characters. Even Jeri's dad, who told her to find her own way home since she left on her own, breaks down when he sees what's happened to her and realizes his part in it.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: In episode 14, after Growlmon's arm gets bitten by Mihiramon. Takato, who has started to experience Growlmon's pain, passes out and experiences a trippy sequence where he talks to Growlmon. The moment is to encourage both of them to stand and fight, but Growlmon's arm and half of his face are obscured in shadow, and are heavily implied to have been badly mangled.
    • The most common edits in the english dub broadcast version are this, presumably in order to keep the rating appropriate for kids. Examples can be seen as early as the first episode when the camera pans out before a Digimon get crushed alive. Most close up shots of digimon getting directly impacted or injured are either spliced out, or out of focus, such as the scenes where Renamon rips holes in enemy digimon with tiny white shards. Other examples include episode 19 having about half of the sequence of Impmon being gratuitously beaten to a pulp in a Curb-Stomp Battle snipped out, and the audience is also spared from the sight of military personnel getting sickled by the D-Reaper's agents. Naturally, this makes the few times that the series averts this and shows the violence in all its glory, (like episodes 34 and 35) especially memorable.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!:
    • Gallantmon got a moment in the dub before soaring off to help free Jeri from the Kernel Sphere. It would have been pretty badass if he hadn't said it in Guilmon's voice:
    • Beelzemon had a downplayed Precision F-Strike version in the same episode
      Beelzemon: I'm gonna get you outta here, Jeri, if it's the last thing I freakin' do!
    • Impmon/Beelzemon in general has dialogue in the dub that is frequently peppered with G-rated stand-ins for swearing, as part of his Brooklyn Rage characterization.
  • Gratuitous English: In Japanese, most of the Digimon shout out their attack names in English, with Renamon and all her (digi-)evolutions being the exception to this.
  • Green Rocks:
    • The blue cards, which can be used to create d-arks, evolve digimon beyond champion, summon digital life forms into the real world, you name it. Ordinary cards can be transformed into blue cards when you Clap Your Hands If You Believe.
    • DigiGnomes have similarly vaguely-defined but powerful abilities, being essentially capricious genies.
  • Gut Punch:
    • The first thing Guilmon does after Takato finds him is to burn a few rats to death with his Special Attack, a much more brutal scene than anything from Adventure and 02 even at their darkest. The predecessor series were perfectly capable of frightening scenes—Myotismon's invasion of the real world and the Dark Ocean were plenty scary—but they never had anything as outright visceral as this scene.
    • The fight with Beelzebumon and particularly Leomon's death, which not only sees the birth of Megidramon but clearly establishes the permanence of death—and just in time for the final act to introduce an Eldritch Abomination called the D-Reaper.
    Tropes H to M 
  • Hair Color Dissonance: Brown-haired Jeri is sometimes mistaken for a redhead.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Impmon is so tightly wound he actually sounds like Joe Pesci, an actor famous for his pyrotechnics.
  • Harmless Villain: Impmon tries really her ally hard, but he mostly just comes off as an annoyance at best, petty bully at worst. When he Digivolves into Beezlemon, he becomes a Not-So-Harmless Villain.
  • Head Crushing:
    • Cyberdramon lifts Majiramon into the air with one hand and crushes his head with the other.
    • Majiramon meets his end when Beelzebumon grabs his head and crushes it in order to absorb his data.
  • The Heartless: The J-Reaper (also called the ADR-01: Jeri Type or just “Evil Jeri”) is this to the D-Reaper, being both a seperate being and it’s first agent and part of it’s AI.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Several, but mostly notably Beelzemon and Yamaki.
  • Hellish Pupils: Whenever Guilmon senses a Digimon or is fighting, his eyes do this. Also happens to Takato on the one occasion that he loses his temper. when Beelzemon kills Leomon. Needless to say, he goes out of his mind with anger.
  • Heroic BSoD: Pretty much every major character has gone through at least one. In case you can't tell yet, it's one of those kinds of shows.
    • Special mention goes to Jeri, who plunges into a terribly depressing one after losing her Digimon partner, and doesn't make it out until the end of the series.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Hirokazu and Kenta, to the point that the Accidental Kiss was almost superfluous.
  • Hypocritical Humour: Terriermon's reaction when someone else tells him to 'Moumentai'? "That's a really irritating thing to say!"
  • An Ice Person: There are three cards used in this series that augment the Tamers' Digimon with ice powers. They are YukiAgumon, MetalGarurumon and Yukidarumon, used by Ruki, Takato and Jianliang respectively.
  • Ignorance Is Bliss: Takato and his friends enjoy a relatively peaceful time in the beginning. An utter ignorance by their side, that there exists a secret organization trying to wipe out their partners, also the everliving nightmare that is the D-Reaper, and finally the harsh reality that tamers would have to say farewell to their Digimon, once and for all.
  • I Have This Friend: When trying to ask Juri's advice about how to devolve a freshly-evolved Growmon while still keeping digimon a secret, Takato's awkward explanation leads Juri to think that Takato has a crush on a teenage or adult woman, prompting her to launch into largely useless romantic advice.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: The Tamers' fight with Beelzemon is initially this, with the kids and digimon desperately trying to get him to see reason and remember his time as the Impmon who played with them. That is, until it reaches its climax with Leomon. Leomon pleads with Beelzemon to realize he is being used and his reasons to fight for evil are meaningless, but Beelzemon ends up killing Leomon. Having crossed the Moral Event Horizon, the Tamers stop sympathizing for Beelzemon. It’s not until Leomon’s partner Jeri convinces Takato to stop that they spare Beelzemon, and the latter begins to see the fault to his actions.
  • Image Song: Three for each pairing (a solo by each partner and a duet) for a total of 24 songs from the eight Best Tamers CDs, plus a whole bunch of others scattered through various discs.
  • Imagine Spot: Takato is prone to these.
  • The Imp: Impmon, naturally enough, starts out as this.
  • Improbable Age: Lampshaded by Yamaki, Deconstructed in Impmon's case, and Justified in that Digimon is mostly played by children, so only they got the real ones.
  • Interrupted Suicide: How they got that scene to air is still anyone's guess...
  • Ironic Echo: Even in the dub, Jeri was talking about how it was destiny for her and Leomon to be together. About 15 episodes later, she's wondering if it's her destiny to be alone.
  • Ironic Echo Cut: (Digivice beeps) "There's never a dull day around here."
    • Another example in episode 39.
    Kazu:(Calumon)'s about as tough as butterscotch pudding.
    Calumon: It's not like I'm butterscotch pudding or something.
  • I Wish It Were Real: Guilmon was born from Takato's imagination and a disastrous amount of Applied Phlebotinum.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rika, Yamaki, and Impmon, all post-character development. Impmon in particular is a Jerkass Woobie.
    • Kazu is painted as a mild version of one in the dub.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Yamaki was right about Digimon being dangerous and children probably being too irresponsible to be wielding sentient weapons of mass destruction.
  • Job Title: Digimon Tamers basically translates to trainer and caretaker of said Mons and Kaiju.
  • Joshikousei: Rika, though she's in elementary school.
  • The Kid with the Remote Control: Unusually for the genre, this is actually one of the major themes of Tamers, and it is Takato and Guilmon who better explore this trope.
  • Jumped at the Call: Every Tamer in this season (except Ryo, it's complicated) got a Digimon because they wanted one, but unlike the previous two seasons nothing was expected of them — the kids made the active choice to involve themselves further and ultimately save the world.
  • Killed Off for Real: Leomon.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Two of them. The first of these is Beelzemon, who's the first character to really show how dark and serious the series is by permanently killing off Leomon. He is then done one better, however, by the Eldritch Abomination that is the D-Reaper, which takes the serious out of "dark, but still appropriate for most children" territory and into the What Do You Mean, It's for Kids? realm its most known for.
  • Lady of War: Renamon and her evolutions.
  • Landmarking the Hidden Base: Hypnos, inside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
  • Last Episode Theme Reprise: The second verse of The Biggest Dreamer plays in the penultimate episode when the protagonists square off against the D-Reaper.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Dub Text. With less than three and a half minutes to go in episode 15, Renamon tells Guilmon that their team doesn't have much time and needs him to digivolve.
  • Leap of Faith: Rika and Renamon have no idea how they will beat the D-Reaper, but they leap down to it anyway, becoming Sakuyamon in the process.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: When Guilmon's pupils shrink, you know something's going down.
  • Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: Qinglongmon and Zhuqiaomon, but this specifically applies when they clashed in #38. The Foil between is revealed further from there:
    • Zhuqiaomon, believing humans to be irredeemable, wanted to destroy the Tamers for killing the Devas, while Qinglongmon intercepted and pointed out that they were the ones attacking the Tamers first and they fought back in self-defense.
    • Zhuqiaomon believed that evolution was the key to defeating their true enemy, while Qinglongmon believes that Digimon evolving was the one that strengthened them in the first place.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Everyone has winter clothing and school attire, but everyone usually wears the same thing day in and day out.
  • The Little Detecto: The D-Arc.
  • Little Miss Badass: Rika, whose debut has her rocking a Badass Longcoat and Cool Shades. according to Chiaki Konaka, she was originally modeled after Trinity.
  • Load-Bearing Boss: Inverted with Megidramon, whom threatens to collapse the Digital World by merely existing. Things only stabilise when he's defeated.
  • Love Bubbles: When Takato tries to tell Jeri that Growlmon won't devolve back to Guilmon, she thinks he's talking about a girl he likes. Cue pink bubbly background as she envisions this.
    • MarineAngemon's Kahuna Waves releases 'bubbles' in the shape of hearts. They also heal D-Reaper affected data and allow travel within it as well.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The (WarGreymon's) Brave Shield Card, used by Jianliang a few times to equip his partner Digimon with protection.
  • Filling the Silence: The American dub inserts dialogue in scenes that don’t have any, as in the previous seasons.
  • Madness Mantra: When the D-Reaper analyses Jeri's father Tadashi it gets stuck on the word 'father', repeating it over and over again. When Guilmon wonders whats wrong, Renamon says it's because D-Reaper doesn't understand the word. Being born from data rather than biology, it has no concept of parents or what a 'father' even is.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: SaintGalgomon/MegaGargomon
  • Malignant Plot Tumor: Runaway Locomon has two. The introduction sets up a storyline about the tamers trying to put on a surprise party for Ruki (which Takato has already given away by the time he enters the story), only for Locomon to seize all the attention and immediately make the story be about trying to get rid of the latter. The second is when the Locomon problem is Hijacked by Ganon and suddenly the plot turns into an Alien Invasion.
  • Mascot: Calumon can be considered to be this for Digimon Tamers, and arguably the concept of Digivolution as a whole.
  • Meaningful Echo: In the original Japanese, when Rika goes out right after coming home, she says she's coming home soon. Her mother asks, "When is 'soon'!?" When Renamon reverts to her baby form and leaves for the digital world, Rika asks the same.
    • Leomon's last words in the dub get repeated in a more positive light in the penultimate episode by Gallantmon after Grani's sacrifice.
      Gallantmon: A PART OF YOU WILL ALWAYS BE WITH US, GRANI!
  • Mechanical Monster: MegaloGrowmon (WarGrowlmon), Rapidmon, SaintGalgomon (MegaGargomon), Guardromon
  • The Men in Black: The entire Hypnos organization.
  • Meta Sequel: Instead of being set after the earlier Digimon stories, it's set in a world where the earlier Digimon stories are only fictional, which allows for commentary on how the franchise usually works.
  • Militaries Are Useless: During the D-Reaper arc, the Japanese Defense Force attempt to destroy the D-Reaper and its Agents, but fail miserably. Several choppers were destroyed by a lone Pendulum Feet Agent whom they couldn't even scratch.
  • Mind Rape: Boy, did poor Jeri suffer a lot...
    • J-Reaper partially succeeds using her "mind scan" attack on Takato, just before deploying her wings in the park, in episode 45.
  • Mission Control: The Monster Makers, along with Yamaki and his coworkers from Hypnos, end up serving as this through the Digital World Arc into the finale, supporting the children in missions and in battle with their technological expertise.
  • Mood Whiplash: Despite the dark tone, the series can sometimes skip over into jokes, normally involving the characters snarking. The eyecatches in the Japanese version, which features the Digimon in the style of Lego minifigures and jaunty music, can also result in this.
  • Mukokuseki: Zigs and zags all over the place. Henry and his dad are drawn with obviously chinese features, but they have blue hair, and that's before you learn Henry's younger sister's hair is... purple. Kazu and Kenta look Japanese enough, and Takato is even passably — but there's no telling what Jeri and Rika are supposed to be. The adult secondary characters don't help swing it one way or another, either. Averted with the Monster Makers who are very clearly each of different ancestries and nationalities, and are drawn to look the part.
  • Multiple Head Case: Ebonwumon, a colossal turtle with two heads. The dub amuses itself by having one head speak Irish and the other Scottish.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: Nearly every main character has a different, epic, method to slide a card through their Digivice, complete with fancy card spinning and flipping, and kung-fu moves. The payoff comes in the form of two sequences which come close to being actually epic, including a split-screen triple slash, and the final one where all four mains slash the same card.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Takato's reaction to forcing Guilmon's evolution, resulting in Megidramon.
    • Beelzemon, after having his life spared in a lost battle by Jeri, whose partner he murdered, goes through a Heel–Face Turn and spends some time wandering the digital world aimlessly and in a stunned state of regret for the atrocities he's committed.
    • Jeri's father, after discovering that his daughter has been taken by the D-Reaper, feels terrible guilt for treating her coldly ever since he lost his wife, and then makes a very desperate attempt to save her.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • In an early episode of the dub, a couple mistakes the digital fog for the Northern Lights. The original DigiDestined of Digimon Adventure mistook the lights they saw before being taken to the digital world as the Northern Lights as well.
    • Kari/Hikari from Adventure and Adventure 02 wanted to be a teacher (and became a Kindergarten teacher in the epilogue). In Tamers Takato's teacher bears a striking resemblance to an adult Kari, and in the American dub is even voiced by her actress Lara Jill Miller.
    • In both versions, Henry/Jianliang became a Tamer through playing a Digimon video game. In the Japanese version, when Yamaki first meets Takato and Jianliang, he mispronounces Jianliang's name (due to the difference in how to pronounce the characters between Chinese and Japanese) as Lee Kenryo.
    • During the assault against the Gatekeeper, Megumi uses Miyako's Catchphrase "Bingo!" once she successfully connects Hypnos and the Wild Bunch to Takato inside Dukemon via Satellite.
    Tropes N to S 
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: The cards used by the kids are mostly used for producing whatever Deus ex Machina will get the kids out of the immediate pinch they happen to be in. Beelzebumon, who has no cards, instead taps into the data of digimon he's consumed for the same reason (at at one point he suddenly develops Extendable Arms to seize Makuramon from a distance).
  • Never Say "Die": Surprisingly, largely averted in the english dub. There's still an effort made to avoid using words like "die" and "kill" where possible, but due to how high the stakes in the story become, especially in the final story arc, in certain situations the words are used to help emphasize their seriousness.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: With the exception of Antylamon, Zhuqiaomon and the Devas, particularly Caturamon, are responsible for the D-Reaper's empowerment and rampage in the real world. Indramon's curb-stomping of Impmon leaves him so desperate he accepts Caturamon's bargain to kill the Tamers in exchange for power, which led to Leomon's death and Jeri's ensuing breakdown, which fed and accelerated the D-Reaper's evolution after it captured her. Worse yet the combined assault on Hypnos by Makuramon, Vikaralamon and Zhuqiaomon crippled Hypnos's system, leaving them unable to help the Tamers while they rebuilt their infrastructure, and ultimately left them wide open to the D-Reaper's initial attack on the real world.
  • The Nicknamer: Ebonwumon, Mr. Analyse McTroperton (in the dub, anyway).
    • Impmon in the dub too, ain’t that right, Pineapple Head?
  • Nightmare Dreams: Jeri has one after Leomon dies, reliving the trauma of her mother’s death. It’s quite terrifying.
  • No Antagonist: Downplayed. Unlike 02, Tamers isn't specifically about defeating a villain but about dealing with the surprising reality of Digimon and clashes of opinion that occur. In a sense, it's more like Adventure, in which an Arc Villain emerged only partway through—but unlike Adventure, where Devimon's fingerprints were all over the place even before he appeared thanks to the black gears, Tamers's Arc Villain Hypnos only causes a few incidents.
  • No Biological Sex: During the final arc, Rumiko asks Renamon whether she's a boy or a girl, and Renamon claims that 'digimon aren't divided into gender', which has most commonly been interpreted to mean this trope. The statement requires some interpretation, as there are digimon like Jijimon and Babamonnote  who live as husband and wife. Not only that, but the dub still uses gendered pronouns.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Guilmon, Renamon, and Impmon get one each at some points in the series. The cast as a whole gets it even more.
  • Non-Serial Movie: As stated above the second movie was made without the involvement of the original staff, and aired in theaters weeks before the last episode aired on television in Japan.
  • "No More Holding Back" Speech: The Tamers reflect upon their histories and adventures before their first Biomerges in the physical world. All three speeches have elements of this trope, but Henry's speech in particular has him come to the realization that he has to stop holding back if he wants any chance of winning.
  • Not Quite Dead: Vajramon manages to hold on after what looked like death.
  • Numerological Motif/Rule of Three: The number three:
    • This is the third television season of Digimon.
    • There are three main human Tamers.
    • There are three backup human Tamers before and after Leomon's death (And Ryo).
    • There are three core members of Hypnos.
    • Yuggoth is conceptualized as three interlinked spheres.
    • The Devas all have three horns on their heads.
    • The three main Tamers and their digimon take on Mihiramon, one team at a time. Takato and WarGrowlmon go last, and they win.
    • Beelzemon has three eyes.
    • The three main Digimon have a team attack called Trinity Burst.
    • The Crystal Matrix on Calumon's forehead and Rapidmon's Tribeam attack are both triangles. Not to mention the triangular shape of the Digital Hazard symbol on the chest of Guilmon et al.
  • Offing the Mouth:
    • Beelzemon does this to the Deva Makuramon.
    Makuramon: What are you doing? If you continue this fight, not only will this domain of our gods be destroyed, but the whole world!
    Beelzemon: Shut up...
    Makuramon: Foolish Chatsuramon... Why did he allow you to evolve?
    Beelzemon: I said shut up! (Grabs Makuramon's head and crushes it.)
    • Dukemon Crimson Mode gets to dispatch the mouth of the D-Reaper when flying to rescue Juri.
  • Oh, Crap!: The Chrysalimon against Beelzemon after the latter fires a few shots at them.
  • Older Sidekick: Yamaki, Riley, and Tally (Post Heel–Face Turn), and the Wild Bunch/Monster Makers. Hilariously enough, once he's convinced of their maturity, Yamaki seems to get along better with the kids than most other adults.
  • Older Than They Look: For Rookie level Digimon, Renamon and Guilmon are much larger and developed than the norm. They could be easily confused for Champion-levels. Guilmon of course, was born as a Rookie, rather than in a baby form the way other digimon are.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: In the Japanese version, Impmon exclusively calls Makoto "Mako-chan". This result in the englis dub is that he's only known as Mako.
  • Orochi...mon.
  • Out-of-Clothes Experience: The Tamers were completely naked when merged with their Digimon and during a soul-searching experience before Biomerging in the real world for the first time. The dub, surprisingly, retained these moments.
  • Out of Focus: Ai and Mako show up in person in a total of four times in the show, two times without dialogue.
  • Papa Wolf: Don't even try to hurt Henry, not even indirectly by hurting somebody he loves. His dad knows martial arts.
    • Upon discovering that his daughter has been taken, Mr. Katou drives his car into the D-Reaper at full speed.
  • Parents as People: While it's extremely common in children's media for a kid to lose a parent, it's extremely uncommon to show what the realistic consequences would be. See Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You.
  • Phantom Zone: The Digital World.
  • Plot Hole: How Juri fell into the clutches of the Big Bad; her puppet comes to life after Culumon triggers the Shining Evolution, starts talking on its own, and then leads Juri away from the group only for her to be replaced. How the puppet came to life and why it talks like or practically serves the Big Bad are never explained.
  • Police Are Useless: When Impmon is held at gunpoint by some police officers, one of them asks "Should we tell him we weren't issued any ammo, sir?"
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: The D-Reaper is scary enough even before you realize that it runs on the misery of a depressed little girl. It does everything in it's power to increase said misery, going (arguably) beyond NGE levels.
  • Power Copying:
    • A human running a Digimon card through a digivice results in his or her partner temporary gaining the attacks of the Digimon depicted on the card.
    • Beelzemon can steal attacks from the Digimon he kills if he is also able to absorb their data. That's how he's able to use Fist Of The Beast King after killing Leomon
  • Precision F-Strike: An unusual Gosh Dang It to Heck! example in the dub:
    Beelzemon: "I'm gonna save you Jeri, IF IT'S THE LAST THING I FREAKIN' DO!"
  • Previously on…: Davis explicitly does the dub narration, to the point that's how Brian Donovan is credited. Rika would do the same for Frontier.
  • Prophetic Names: Ai's name means love and she gives Impmon a good luck kiss before he heads into battle. His new digivolution Blast Mode sprouts black wings, meaning that love literally gave him wings.
  • Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: Zigzagged.
    • Takato, Henry and Rika, as the main trio, have their Digimon reach Mega level. The highly promoted Sixth Ranger Ryo also gets to reach the level, but Takato and Guilmon are the only ones whose Mega gets a Super Mode.
    • Those Two Guys member Kenta's MarineAngemon is a Mega by default, though not good for fighting.
    • The Digimon of the other outliers, Jeri, Kazu and Suzie, never reach Mega.
    • Like the leaders and rivals before them, Takato and Jianliang get the CGI evolution sequence when evolving to Perfect and Ultimate, while every other evolution sequence is animated traditionally. However, only the main trio have evolution sequences at all, so Renamon keeping the traditional animation actually makes her higher stage sequences more unique than the Guilmon's or Terriermon's.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In both the dubbed and original versions, Beelzemon calls Leomon's Beast King Fist in such a halting manner. "Juu! Ou! Ken!"/"Fist! Of! The Beast King!"
  • Put on a Bus: Renamon does not speak in the Digimon Tamers 2018 drama cd, due to her seiyuu needing time off for her family. What exactly happened to Renamon is not answered and the CD ends on a Cliffhanger.
  • Putting the Band Back Together: Yamaki reunites the Monster Makers, sans Shibumi, after twenty years in hopes of learning of a way to contain the Digimon. The group is happy about the reunion.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Devas. They run the gamut from laughably pathetic (Kumbhiramon, Pajiramon), to credible threats (Vajramon, Indramon, Vikaralamon), to outright Manipulative Bastards (Makuramon, Caturamon), and one Heel Face Turner (Antylamon).
  • Real-Place Background: The iconic Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office Building. Also, many other locations from Digimon Tamers exist in real life Shinjuku, such as Guilmon's hideout, Henry's apartment building, Takato and Henry's school, The street Takato lives on, and the park Takato, Kazu and Kenta played in.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Beelzemon first appears, he has red eyes and is bent on eliminating the Tamers and their Digimon (though later gets the green eyes of his Rookie form after Mode Changing to Blast Mode). Somewhat subverted with Takato; while he's generally the kindest and most innocent of the three main tamers, God help you if you do make him mad...
  • Red Herring: Impmon factors ominously in the early promotional material (as seen above), but proves to be rather pathetic as a villain...until he Takes A Level In Badass and became Beelzemon.
    • Further justified by the fact that Impmon as Beelzemon was originally planned to become the Big Bad of the series.
  • Redemption Demotion: When Antylamon turns against her master, the Sovereign, she de-Digivolves to Lopmon. However, in the face of a mutual enemy, she is allowed her Digivolution back. In the midst of getting over Honor Before Reason, when Andromon becomes Kazu's partner, he de-Digivolves to Guardromon.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Almost for Beelzemon. While desperately trying to save Jeri to atone for killing Leomon, he suffers a fatal attack to his back. His data disintegrates, and he plummets into the D-Reaper mass. Grani manages to save him, and he instead reverts to Impmon.
  • Redemption Equals Life: Antylamon turns against Zhuqiaomon, and is the only Deva to not be destroyed.
  • Redemption Promotion: Not a "redemption" per se, but when Impmon agrees to serve the Sovereign, he receives a Betrayal Promotion. A bit more involved than If Friendship Then Upgrades.
    • Then he gets a true Promotion after making amends with his Tamers.
  • Refuge in Audacity: How does Takato take Guilmon out for walks around the city? He just does, he walks around with him. Right next to him. In plain view. He tells a couple of curious kids that Guilmon's actually just a really good cosplayer; other then the occasional odd stare, nothing ever comes of this.
    • Subverted in the case of Jen and Terriermon, due to the latter's insistence on being a Head Pet. In one episode Jen remarks that people are giving him weird looks due to Terriermon being on his head.
  • Remember the New Guy?: In part because the games detailing his backstory never left Japan, Ryo. Some may have remembered him in Adventure 02 (If you blinked, you probably missed it) but outside of that, he has no foreshadowing and comes completely out of nowhere while the characters react to Ryo like he was always there.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Sandiramon is the only Deva who uses his last words to taunt his enemies. Guilmon gets a pass from this trope by being a dinosaur, although he is a virus-type nonetheless.
    • Orochimon is particularly nasty even by enemy digimon standards, being a bullying alchoholic who manipulates a tribe of Gekomon.
  • Rescue Arc: The second major arc begins with the Tamers entering the Digital World to get Calumon back from the Devas.
  • Rewatch Bonus: There's a lot that happens in Tamers that's more meaningful (or more emotionally taxing) on a second viewing.
    • Takato's original design of Guilmon doesn't have the Digital Hazard symbol on it, which makes its appearance that much more of an ominous mystery when one knows exactly what it signifies.
      • In Takato's notebook, we briefly see the scratched out doodle of a scrapped evolution for Guilmon that looks particularly monstrous... perhaps it wasn't entirely an accident that Megidramon happened.
    • Pretty much everything regarding Jeri on her journey from wanting to become a Tamer and then getting partnered with Leomon is painfully tragic upon rewatch.
      • Additionally, the glimpse of the photograph of Jeri with her mother on display in her bedroom is much more noticeable once one is aware of her family situation.
    • The story of the Red Shoes, which is compared to the out of control motorcycle, Behemoth, bears a vague but unsettling parallel to what happens to Beelzemon. Sure, he's able to control the motorbike no problem, but his selfish desire to be the strongest puts him on an uncontrollable Power High that ends in nothing but terror and regret. It is also perhaps symbolic, that it was Jeri who brought the story up (and ends up getting interrupted before she can relay how the story ends), because it's ultimately Jeri who decides Beelzemon's fate.
    • A line added in the dub makes a pretty hilariously ironic bonus: At one point Impmon chides Terriermon for protecting Henry's father with a disgusted 'One master's not enough? You hafta have two of 'em?' and yet, it's Impmon who literally ends up with two partners.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Culumon, Guilmon, Terriermon, Lopmon, and MarineAngemon.
  • Rocket Jump: Gargomon uses his vulcans to do a Rocket Jump to the top of a skyscraper, although this causes him to run out of ammo in the ensuing fight.
  • Rule of Symbolism:
    • When Takato first becomes Dukemon, his original red d-ark is replaced with a shiny new golden one (something only Takato possesses). He lost the red one when he dropped it after creating Megidramon, which caused it to utterly shatter.
    • Juri's d-ark deactivates during the Wham Episode at the start of the final arc when Leomon is murdered and she enters her Heroic BSoD. It reactivates when she finally escapes her funk and starts rejecting the D-Reaper.
  • Running Gag: Guilmon or Takato wondering if Takato can/should have redesigned him whenever a problem occurs (ie, needs longer legs so he can run faster).
  • Sacrificial Lion: Leomon is this, both metaphorically and literally, meeting his end at the hands of a crazed Beezlemon trying to save the others.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Renamon's final form, Sakuyamon, is named for Konohanasakuya-hime, the cherry blossom princess who keeps Mount Fuji from erupting. Sakuyamon is a humanoid clad in fox themed garments that makes use of Onmyodo magic, neither of which Konohanasakuya-hime was associated with.
  • Save Both Worlds
  • Say My Name: Just as Beelzemon's about to kill Takato and Megidramon, the other Tamers friends shout Takato's name in slow motion as Beelzemon's bullets approach him.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses:
    • This is Yamaki's defining trait through out the first half of the season.
    • Takato's googles make him scary (really!) when they shine. Just watch one of his card-slashes (or digimodify) closely, or even in slow motion.
  • Sequel Hook: The Digimon Tamers 2018 Drama CD ends with one.
  • Shapeshifter Mode Lock: A recurring plot element in the Hypnos and the early Devas arcs is the difficulty of returning to Rookie stage after evolving to the Champion stage. It's inconvenient enough with Galgomon, whom Henry puts through a rigorous workout to burn off the energy, but in episode nine, "Not As Seen On TV", Growlmon's sheer inability to devolve leaves Takato and Henry to try to camouflage him until whatever Deus ex Machina that will devolve him occurs. Kyuubimon does not appear to have this problem.
  • She's a Man in Japan:
    • Lopmon in the US dub, presumably. Lopmon's a gender-ambiguous example who in Japanese uses a completely neutral dialect but at one point Xiaochun tries to get Lopmon to use a soft-masculine pronoun that is usually (though not exclusively) used by boys.
    • Renamon is voiced by a man in Germany, except for in the Mega-level. She is also referred to as a male in the Filipino dub.
    • Calumon/Culumon sounds distinctly more boyish in the English dub than the original, though both are fairly ambiguous.
  • Ship Tease:
    • While the show has no Official Couple, per se, Takato has a big crush on Juri from the word, "Go," which she starts reciprocating after they both go on the trip to the digital world. Starting around Sakuyamon's debut, Ryo and Ruki have some downplayed Belligerent Sexual Tension—Ryo teases Ruki, who is annoyed to one extent or another about it.
    • After Ruki receives a new shirt from her mother, she and Takato prove Twice Shy when they fumble over an attempt to give and receive a compliment for it.
    • The second movie has several scenes between Ruki and Takato; including Takato's conversation with Ruki in the intro and Takato helping rescue Ruki from peril multiple times.
    • The later CD Drama Message In A Packet (which completely ignores the second movie) has extended conversations between Takato and Juri on the one hand and Ryo and Ruki on the other.
    • Saban bumped up the shipping with some Dub Text:
      • There appears to be a slight but long-running one between Renamon and Impmon in the series' second half; early on, Impmon also used flirtier language and nicknames like "Foxy" and "Toots".
      • During Takato's first visit to Ruki's house, her grandmother Seiko finds them and offers Ruki's "friend" hospitality and an invitation to return when Ruki claims he's leaving. The dub makes Seiko a Shipper on Deck, suggesting Rika brought a boy home, and her invitation is more coy. Rika also attempts to get rid of Takato earlier, which makes Seiko's hospitality a ploy to keep Takato around despite Rika's wishes. The dub also gives Takato a joke about Rika being his literal "dream girl", for what it's worth.
      • The dub has an alternate take on Takato and Rika's Twice Shy fumbling over the compliment and immediately beforehand gives Terriermon some teasing dialog when Guilmon agrees with Renamon on the severity of the D-Reaper threat.
      Terriermon: "Renamon and Guilmon, sittin' in a tree..."
      • In the original Japanese version, after Sakuyamon first confronts the D-Reaper she asks if everyone is okay. In the dub, Sakuyamon (who uses the voices of both Renamon and Rika) asks if Takato is alright, instead.
  • Shout Outs: See the subpage for details.
  • Show Within a Show: Tamers vaguely implies that the Digimon franchise in the Tamers world is, in fact, Digimon Adventure (the in-universe anime is likely responsible for Takato deciding to pick up a pair of goggles and Takato's concept for Guilmon is explicitly "Agumon, but Cooler"). The dub made this trope explicit, and in later franchise cameos and guest appearances, Takato can recognize Taichi and Daisuke.
  • Shown Their Work: And how! There's more details on the Shown Their Work main page, but you can also look at Genius Bonus in Tamers' YMMV page and the lead writer's minisite on the show.
  • Sigil Spam: The Zero Unitnote  and Digital Hazardnote  both debuted with this show and appear with some frequency. The zero unit is most commonly seen as the symbol on Culumon's head, and the digital hazard is Guilmon's Chest Insignia, but they do appear in several other locations.
  • Silence of Sadness: Following the death of Leomon, Juri sinks into a deep depression that leaves her in a borderline catatonic state. Seeing his friend go from talkative and enthusiastic to mute and distant is enough to make Takato cry tears of despair.
  • Silent Whisper: Subverted in episode 14: "Grow Mon Grow". When Terriermon whispers to Henry, the words are actually intelligible to the audience before Henry repeats them aloud to Takato.
  • Sixth Ranger: Ryo
  • Slice of Life: This is what Chiaki Konaka wanted, and succeeded spectacularly, at introducing in the series.
  • The Slow Walk: Gallantmon comes marching Out of the Inferno during his fight with Beelzemon to kill Chatsuramon.
  • Smart Ball: Subverted in episode nine, where Takato has to figure out how to devolve Growmon back to Guilmon and comes up with several strategies to diminish Growmon's energy level in the vein of Jian making Gargomon work off the energy. None of these work, because the Rule of Drama won't let them.
  • Spoiler Opening: The main trio digimon's full evolutionary lines all appear in the opening from the very first episode, with only their mega forms Gallantmon, MegaGargomon, Sakuyamon obscured by shadows but still clearly present, until their proper debuts. This also includes Impmon's eventual mega form, Beelzemon, who is even further spoiled than the others because the shadowed form hovering behind him is very clearly his Blast Mode. Jeri, Kazu, and Suzie are shown with Digivices—again, this would eventually happen; Beelzemon is teased as a major threat—and boy-howdy is he ever; right after his appearance, a pink shadow is also shown taking over the Hypnos building, clearly representing the D-Reaper. It even spoils Jeri and Kazu getting Leomon and Guardromon as Digimon partners.
  • Spoiler Title:
    • The Japanese title of episode 34, "The Kind-Hearted Hero, Leomon Dies".
    • The images behind the titles also spoil new developments every few episodes. With the help of the Spoiler Opening, you can figure out which of the main characters' digimon will be reaching the next level that episode.
  • Starfish Aliens: The D-Reaper and Digignomes.
  • Stationary Wings: Judging from the visuals, it would seem that Digimon with flight abilities can accelerate air across their skins.
  • Swirly Energy Thingy: One episode featured an anomaly of the Hypnos mainframe that manifested in a tunnel and abducted Guilmon, keeping him bound in web-like strands in a white void inside itself.
  • Synchronization: The tamers experience the same exhaustion and pain that their perfect-level digimon do, and Takato notably felt it when Mihiramon took a nasty bite out of Growmon. During the Vikaralamon fight, Takato hits on the idea of invoking this in reverse to send MegaloGrowmon power, which he does successfully by screaming. With the matrix ultimates, the tamers not only feel the effort of their digimon but direct their movements from within by using their own arms and legs.
    Tropes T to Z 
  • Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: You know how Digimon are supposed to have either vaccine, data, or virus attributes that behave this way? In most of the TV shows they're completely ignored, but in this season it actually makes a noticeable difference in battles, though it's only obvious if you're a really dedicated fan. For example, when vaccine attribute Rapidmon uses an attack against two devas at once, virus attribute Pajiramon is deleted instantly, while fellow vaccine attribute Vajramon is only badly injured and is able to reform later. Soon after, data attribute Taomon proceeds to defeat him with ease. Before that near the beginning, data attribute Renamon attempts to one-hit virus attribute Guilmon, but her attack literally bounced off him harmlessly.
  • Take My Hand!: Culumon, when Takato is struggling to get on the Ark.
    • Then later, Beelzemon to Jeri, in one of the most emotional scenes in the whole season.
  • Take That!: The final episode is a Take That! to Status Quo Is God and "everything is back to normal" endings.
    • In the dub version of episode 21 ("Jeri's Quest"), both Jeri and Takato make comments on how over-designed and bizarre-looking Kumbhiramon looks. Since these lines were not in the original version, we can assume it was the translators poking fun.
  • Tail Slap: Mihiramon's Samurai Tiger Tail, which he nearly kills Renamon and Terriermon with.
    • Renamon does this to a Flybeemon, and as Kyubimon she does this to Vajramon.
    • Also Allomon does this to Renamon.
    • Horn Striker does this to Justimon as well.
  • Team Title: The title refers to the three protagonists and their friends and allies.
  • Tear-Apart Tug-of-War: Impmon observes this happening when he watches Ai and Mako, a pair of siblings that Impmon once stayed with, who are both 5 years old at most, fight over a doll they both want. It serves as the impetus for him to run away, declaring be doesn't need a tamer to get strong. When Impmon eventually returns to the children during the latter half of the series, he's surprised to find the children have repaired the doll. It seems in the interim they'd come to realize their constant fighting is what drove their digi-friend away, and they were determined that, should he return, they would prove they were capable of getting along.
  • Tender Tears: In the first act or so, Takato can barely go two episodes without crying for one reason or another. He toughens up a bit after Character Development, but still remains the series' most sensitive major character.
  • That Man Is Dead: Beelzemon about Impmon.
  • They Look Like Us Now: Happens twice. The first time is Makuramon's human disguise—it doesn't really pass muster. The Tamers know there's something wrong with him, they just don't catch onto what is wrong until it's too late. The second time is even worse. The D-Reaper's copy of Jeri was perfect except for being very pale and having creepy mannerisms, which are written off as her simply being broken with grief. Takato doesn't clue into what's really going on until she sprouts wings and nearly Mind Rapes him.
  • This Is a Drill: The Steel Drill/Digmon's Drill card.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Renamon will routinely cite this reason for not participating in some battles. The most plot-relevant example is her standing back and letting Impmon fight Indramon alone. Rika has to goad her into intervening out of concern for Impmon's life.
  • Those Two Guys: Kazu and Kenta.
  • Time Travel: Such an effect occurs during the final arc, produced by Operation: Doodlebug. By installing the Shaggai/Juggernaut program into Terriermon and having SaintGalgomon reverse the spin of the wormhole connecting the digital world and earth and accelerate the reversal beyond the speed of light, Operation Doodlebug is able to make time flow backwards and force the D-Reaper to be reduced to its original state.
  • Tokyo Tower: Actually it's Tokyo's ominously-designed city hall that's featured prominently throughout the series.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Rika is the cool-headed and serious tomboy and Jeri is the more bouncy and dreamy girly girl.
  • Toy Disguise: Terriermon masquerades as a plushie when other people are in the room because of his cute appearance. Unfortunately for him, this makes him the butt of many of Suzie's antics, such as getting dressed up in girly clothes.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: In Japanese, episode 33's On the Next spoiled Leomon's death.
  • Transformation Name Announcement: Whenever one the Digimon evolves, mostly.
  • Trouble Follows You Home: When the main cast left the Digital World, the D-Reaper followed them out. This proves to be a very bad thing.
  • True Companions: The main cast and their Digimon become this by the series end , which makes their parting all the sadder.
  • Turned Against Their Masters: One of the underlying themes of the show (particularly in regard to the adult characters) is the responsibility that comes with creating life, and what happens if that life you created turns against you, of which Zhuqiaomon and the D-Reaper are examples.
  • 20 Minutes into the Future: According to Konaka, the series is set in 200X. However, a set year of 1984 for the Monster Makers project (said to be 20 years ago in-series) would more specifically set the events of Tamers around 2004.
  • The Unchosen One: According to the early planning notes on Konaka's website, this was a very important thing he needed to emphasise:
    In Season 3, the main characters Realizenote  the Digimon out of their own will, and leap into adventure under their own will. This is something important that the children of today, who passively accept and enjoy what is given to them, need to gain from fiction.
  • The Unfought: 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 ever receives before Beelzemon kills him is when Suzie bites him.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Takato eventually decides that keeping Guilmon hidden is too impractical and unfair for the Digimon and tries taking him out for a walk in a crowd and in broad daylight. Takato discovers that nobody bothers them about it, so he starts going almost everywhere with Guilmon, though they do get the occasional odd look, making the trope downplayed.
  • Unwitting Pawn: The Monster Makers to Yamaki. The Makers think they're being brought together to help study the Digimon, and find a way to contain them. What they don't know is Yamaki is using their knowledge to wipe all Digimon out.
  • Verbal Tic:
    • In the english dub, Guilmon adds "-mon" to everyone's names at some point (mostly Takato's). Lampshaded by his voice actor, Steve Blum. Guilmon actually does this in the Japanese version but only for a scene or two. Instead, he speaks in childishly in third-person and occasionally makes sounds like "giru".
    • "Culululu~"
    • As per usual for Gekomon in the Japanese version, they say 'geko'.
    • In the english dub, Impmon has a tendency to end his sentences punctuated with a 'ba-boom!' or 'bada-boom!'.
  • Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Beelzemon could perform the attacks of the Digimon he absorbed, including Leomon's Fist of the Beast King, which he uses to try to break Jeri out of the D-Reaper Kernel Sphere.) It's implied that any Digimon could do this, but Beelzemon's the only one who does it on-screen.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Yamaki gets closer and closer to this as the series goes, culminating when Juggernaut does not work as planned and he actually grabs Henry by the throat before stumbling away and yelling at himself. He does not, however, go through one when he's fired after his building is destroyed. Instead he mopes in his apartment until Riley says something that snaps him out of it enough to do a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Villainous Rescue: Makuramon shuts down Hypnos when Juggernaut is about to destroy WarGrowlmon, Rapidmon, and Taomon. Granted, his intent may have been to save Vikaralamon, who was also under attack from Juggernaut, but WarGrowlmon killed Vikaralamon shortly after.
  • Vocal Dissonance: In the dub, Biomerge Megas speak in two voices, both their Tamer's and their own rookie form's. Renamon's the only one with a voice deep and mature enough to pull this off. The original Japanese version merely has them speak in the base Digimon's voice with different inflection (such as Dukemon/Gallantmon having a deeper, more formal version of Guilmon's voice), and they still apply for this trope.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: In the beginning, Guilmon, Renamon, and Terriermon were able to defeat any wild Digimon coming into the real world as themselves or at adult level if need be. Then comes the Deva story arc, where they encounter Mihiramon, who easily one-shots Kyubiimon and Gargomon in rapid succession. He almost does the same to Growlmon, until he evolves to the perfect level, WarGrowmon.
  • Walk Into Camera Obstruction:
    • "Digimon, Digimon Everywhere" with Takato when Kazu yells for him to hurry up because they're late for class.
    • "Boar Wars" where Jeri is chasing after the weird kid in the red hat.
  • Walking Away Shot: In the movie Runaway Locomon after a fantasy of Rika singing, "You promised that you'd stay for the sunset."
  • Weak, but Skilled: Compared to its predecessors, in Tamers a stronger emphasis is placed on how well a Rookie-level digimon can fare in a fight, with boosts from cards, along with battle strategy, allowing them to defeat digimon at higher levels without having to immediately jump into digivolving.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Zhuqiaomon and Yamaki. Both of them are individuals who want to protect their respective worlds, but use extreme methods to do so, and display hatred towards the life forms that they aren't - human and digimon, respectively.
  • Wham Episode: "Lionheart". The kids are on an adventure in the Digital World! They've fought some bad Digimon along the way and have gotten separated, but everything always turns out all right. Then Beelzemon kills Jeri's partner Leomon, Takato's rage causes Guilmon to Digivolve into the mindlessly destructive Megidramon, and Jeri suffers an Heroic BSoD that will take her the rest of the series to snap out of. The group's innocence is quite violently lost.
    • Then it gets worse when they introduce the D-Reaper, a simple data cleanup program Gone Horribly Right. Just when it appears that our heroes have defeated it and returned home, it turns out not only has it survived it's hitched a ride to the human world.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Data vs. DNA is a major theme in this series.
  • White-and-Grey Morality: The worst antagonist the series has is ultimately a corrupt A.I. with no real sense of malice. Most bad Digimon have their reasons and moral codes despite their antagonistic position, and the scary/unapproachable adults are really just paranoid or overprotective at worst.
  • Wicked Stepmother: Inverted; Jeri's stepmother is actually an extremely kind person, it's Jeri who doesn't want anything to do with her. The fact Jeri is a aware that her stepmother doesn't deserve the cold shoulder, yet she can't bring herself to open up to her, is a source of guilt for her.
  • Worthy Opponent: Guilmon to Renamon, as he was the first Renamon failed to beat upon first encounter.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: After Dobermon's sacrifice, Alice begins to feel glum. The light show that was once Dobermon reforms into its head, licks her face, and sticks around long enough to hear her say "Oh Dobermon, you came back?" before exploding again.
    • The Digital World portal that appears in the final episode is covered up by concrete in the Message in the Packet audio drama and protected by a firewall to prevent the worlds from crossing again.
  • You Are Not Alone: One of the main themes of Tamers, particularly in Jeri's case.
  • You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You: What the main characters say to their parents in the American dub.

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Gargomon Digivolution

Terriermon digivolves into Gargomon

How well does it match the trope?

5 (12 votes)

Example of:

Main / TransformationSequence

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