Japanese Title: I am Masaru! Cockatrimon Strikes
As a strange creature, codenamed Raptor-1, goes on the run from a mysterious Government Agency of Fiction, the Bridge Bunnies attempt to seal him off. The commander, Rentarou Satsumanote , sends in his agent Yoshino Fujiedanote , saying that only Digimon are capable of stopping Digimon.
The civilian area is sealed off under the guise of an unexploded bomb search, and Yoshino, presenting herself as an agent of DATS, enters the area. A voice inside a device Yoshino is carrying alerts her to the nearby presence of humans. Yoshino approaches to find a bunch of students knocked out all over the ground...and finds a young teenager trying to start a fight with Raptor-1 for “getting in the way of his fight” and getting on his turf. Declaring himself the number one street fighternote in Japan, the boy, named Masaru Daimonnote , begins his “man-to-man” fight with Raptor-1 despite Yoshino’s attempt to intervene.
The two match each other blow for blow, and at DATS, the agents express surprise that Masaru is capable of attacking Digimon barehanded. The battle ends with both Masaru and Raptor-1 on the floor in a stalemate, and, declaring each other Worthy Opponents, become friends. Raptor-1 introduces himself as Agumon and decides that Masaru, as the first person to acknowledge him as an individual, will become his “aniki” (literally meaning “older brother”, used by gang members to refer to their boss)note and Agumon will become his follower.
In the middle of this bonding moment, Yoshino pulls out the device and summons her Digimon, Lalamon, and demands that they come with her quietly - but when Agumon tells Masaru that Yoshino is from an agency that wants to take him away, Masaru, declaring it his duty to take care of his follower, makes a run for it with Agumon. Lalamon attacks them, but Agumon fends her off and the two escape.
Masaru and Agumon hide out in a tower, where Masaru demands an explanation about what Agumon is. Agumon tells Masaru that the only thing he knows is having been in the “institution”, to where he doesn’t want to return. Agumon turns out to be insatiably hungry, and when he deliriously almost eats Masaru, Masaru tells him to wait there while he gets some food.
Yoshino catches Masaru at the convenience store, and, while eating some of Masaru’s coffee jelly, casually asks to know where Agumon is. When Masaru refuses, Yoshino threatens to take Masaru in as a witness, revealing that she knows everything about him right down to his birthday, blood type, junior high school, and Disappeared Dad. She properly introduces herself as a member of the Digital Accident Tactics Squadnote , whose job it is to keep beings called Digimon from the Digital World under control.
Yoshino says that Digimon only eat food made especially for Digimon, and tells him to turn Raptor-1 over because only DATS will supply the food Agumon needs. Masaru agrees to go to the DATS headquarters, where Commander Satsuma and his Digimon partner Kudamon greet him. Yoshino explains that all of the DATS members have Digimon partners to help them, and Masaru demands to get some food to feed Agumon with.
Satsuma tells Masaru that the barrier between the Digital World and the human world is collapsing for unknown reasons, and that Digimon are starting to appear more and more frequently in the human world. Agumon, being one of the renegate Digimon, is wanted by DATS in order to keep him under control and to prevent him from injuring more humans. Masaru refuses to budge, claiming that Agumon came to the human world out of admiration and wonder for it rather than hostility, and that he’ll take responsibility himself if Agumon does anything destructive.
An incident with a rampaging Digimon at a nearby hamburger shop triggers DATS’s alerts, and Yoshino theorizes that Agumon did it out of hunger. Masaru goes to find Agumon, and Yoshino chases after him on Satsuma’s orders; Masaru finds Agumon missing from the tower and while Yoshino believes this marks Agumon as the culprit, Masaru has faith that Agumon wanted to obey Masaru’s order to stay in the tower. Blaming himself for not staying with Agumon, Masaru runs off to search for him against Yoshino’s protests.
Masaru finds the Digimon rampaging and urges Agumon to stop...only for Agumon to appear behind him, with a trash can stuck on his head. Agumon explains that he’d gone to search for food in the trash can, and Masaru turns back to the rampaging Digimon only to find that it’s actually a large bird that DATS identifies as Cockatrimonnote . In the hopes of clearing Agumon’s name, Masaru and Agumon charge in. DATS, looking on, is surprised to see Agumon fighting against Cockatrimon and Masaru fighting alongside him.
Agumon struggles against Cockatrimon, but Masaru tells him that the struggle should “fire him up” and as Yoshino tells them to run for their lives, Masaru insists that being a man means not being afraid to die in a fight. Cockatrimon creates a large explosion that blasts Agumon away, and when Masaru goes to tend to him, he finds that Agumon is unresponsive. Masaru, angry at Cockatrimon for hurting his follower, runs up to Cockatrimon and punches him in the face, to the shock of all the DATS agents watching.
This causes an orange aura to appear around Masaru’s hand, and, seeing this, a nearby mysterious old man gives him a device not unlike Yoshino’s. The man explains that it’s called a “Digivice”, and tells Masaru to charge it with the Digisoulnote in his fist so that Agumon will evolvenote . Masaru is confused, but when he hears that it’ll revive Agumon, Masaru uses his Digisoul to charge the Digivice and causes Agumon to evolve to GeoGreymon. GeoGreymon makes quick work of Cockatrimon, causing him to revert to a DigiEgg.
Still hungry, GeoGreymon reverts to Agumon, and Satsuma, seeing how Masaru had connected with Agumon and made him evolve, decides he wants to recruit Masaru. Yoshino retrieves Cockatrimon’s DigiEgg, and as Agumon asks Masaru to take him out for hamburgers and Masaru wonders who the mysterious old guy was, Yoshino reminds them that Agumon’s still responsible for having injured thirteen human students. Masaru, however, reveals that he was actually the one who knocked out the students, saying that they were punks from the next town who challenged him to a fight. An exasperated Yoshino says that she should arrest them both on the spot, and Masaru and Agumon run for it.
Tropes
- Big Eater: Agumon. Masaru buys a huge amount of food for him and Yoshino says that Agumon can only eat food specially prepared for Digimon. It's probably good for DATS that she's wrong about that. On the other hand, it's also why he was the initial suspect in the attack on the hamburger shop.
- Bothering by the Book: One of several ways that Yoshino tries to bring Masaru back to DATS is to tell him he's a witness to Agumon's actions and they need that information from him.
- Breath Weapon: Agumon, GeoGreymon and Cockatrimon all have different ones: fireballs for Agumon, full fire breath for GeoGreymon and a beam attack for Cockatrimon.
- Bullet Seed: Lalamon's first action in the series is to attempt to stop Masaru from running off with Agumon using one of these. Agumon counters with Baby Flame.
- Clear My Name: Agumon is the initial suspect for the attack on the burger shop. It's cleared up rather quickly when Cockatrimon reveals itself.
- Combat Pragmatist: Masaru knees Agumon in the chin and Agumon counters with a Groin Attack.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: GeoGreymon.
- Feathered Fiend: Cockatrimon.
- Gas Leak Cover Up: Agumon's rampage is covered up as an unexploded bomb.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Masaru and Agumon are engaged in this when Yoshino finds them.
- Groin Attack: Agumon hits Masaru with one during their first fight...which only makes him angrier.
- Hit Flash: The dub censors said attack with an impact flash.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Masaru finds Agumon again with his head stuck in a trash can near the burger shop. Agumon thought he'd find food in it.
- Taken for Granite: Cockatrimon's Eye Beams do this to a tree after missing Agumon.
- Theme Music Power-Up: When Agumon evolves.
- The Men in Black: DATS. They operate in secret, sending Digimon back to the Digital World while also covering up the existence of the 'mons.
