Digimon Tamers

Digimon Tamers 28: Friend or Foe? Akiyama Ryo the Legendary Tamer

La la la, Ruki and the boys are lost in the Digital World and roam aimlessly. So does Kurumon for that matter. After a few antics, they get swept away by a data stream and sent to clockland.

In a fairly uncharacteristic act of stupidity, Ruki touches the still hand of a clock that sealed Megadramon, despite Clockmon's warning. With Megadramon released, it attacks the other digimon, and Renamon/Kyuubimon goes into battle. Unfortunately, she's not quite strong enough to beat it.

Cyberdramon then attacks from seemingly out of nowhere, and soon enough beats Megadramon to a pulp. Then, also from seemingly out of nowhere, a very nice male voice calls out for Cyberdramon to stop. Cue quasi-techno (porno...) music as the shot shifts to a bunch of gears and cranks, slides past them, and Ryo appears to save the day. In mini-chaps, a shirt with a torn sleeve, and a bandanna that gives him a techno-cowboy look. (And, amusingly enough, I'm writing this while listening to a Japanese version of a country/western tune. o/` Ashita ga aru sa~... o/`)

However, despite Ryo's commands, Cyberdramon refuses to listen to him. Thus, he takes drastic measure and pulls out his D-arc. Which, somehow, can produce and energy whip with which he restrains Cyberdramon from killing Megadramon. With Cyberdramon back under his command, Ryo turns and smiles to Ruki and steps up to shake her hand. She isn't all that impressed with someone who saved her and Kyuubimon from Megadramon, so pulls away to sulk for a while as Ryo talks with Kyuubimon and the others for a bit. After bits of exposition about a legend saying that digimon could enter the real world by killing a Tamer's digimon, several scenes of Ryo repairing Hagurumon and fixing Megadramon's seal by using his own switchblade knife to keep the second hand from moving, and why Ryo had to leave the real world 10 months back (Cyberdramon was too wild to keep on Earth for long without causing damage), Ruki decides to leave the group and go her own way.

Overall a nice episode. Kanemaru-san's voice fits Ryo's personality perfectly, and so far that personality seems to fit his Tag/D-1 Tamers persona. Critics in English-speaking fandom are already jumping on Ryo's case for being too 'perfect' despite them knowing nothing of the language and nothing of what he's actually like in the games (and his treatment of the quite feral Cyberdramon, and his hair color, and anything else they can pick out as an excuse to hate him).

Digimon Tamers 28: Blame it on Ryo

I really wasn't looking forward to the English dub of this, especially since the Saban translator herself said she hated Ryo and the flames soon commenced on her messageboards. Then there was the episode title (a play on the movie "Blame it on Rio"). I mean look at it. Blame what on Ryo? Ruki went off on her own initiative, dammit.

But you know, it was better than I expected. Oh, sure, "Erase Claw" was changed to "Desolation Claw", Clockmon was outright annoying and Hagurumon's speech was ridiculous in his use of nonsense words, but the dub actually wasn't that bad. And sure, the porno music was replaced by elevator music, but it was to be expected. Moments of silence in the original were instead filled with inane dub jokes. Go figure. Amazingly, I think a whole five seconds went by in silence.

Cyberdramon's "Omae wa ore no teki ka (Are you my enemy?)" line was changed to "Good try, but not good enough", and the voice actor has nothing on Seta Ikkei. For some reason the dubbers played music that sounded suspiciously like the kind I expect in my mother's Spanish soap operas when Ryo turned around and smiled at Ruki. Huh. Well, that or RPG town music. I wonder why I even noticed this anyway. I still much prefer Kanemaru over whoever Ryo's English VA is, but at least it's nice and not as obnoxious as I expected.

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