Digimon Tamers 29: Here is the Ghost Castle! The Great Escape of Stray Kurumon

Hirokazu and Kenta bring Ryo to meet with Takato and his party, and Hirokazu introduces Ryo as the Legendary Tamer, to which Ryo tells Hirokazu to stop that, then introduces Cyberdramon. Not knowing what to expect, Takato runs up to Cyberdramon and promptly gets growled at. It is only Ryo's touch that calms Cyberdramon down, and his partner soon quiets down and kneels. Odd. Takato eventually asks Ryo if he's seen Kurumon, which he hasn't. Meanwhile, Kurumon runs around aimlessly. Oi.

Apparently Ryo was living in Fukuoka, Kyushu, and his fame as the champion of several card tournaments brought more attention to his disappearance than it would have otherwise. Despite his "legendary" status, he didn't seem to care for the attention. There are conflicting veiws abount Ryo's age. Oh, and Ryo is indeed 14, Toei's profile page for him says so. Anyhoo, onward.

Ryo leads the party to a ghostly castle for some rest in a room that has a convenient number of beds. Well, a convenient number if Guilmon and Terriermon share one bed and Cyberdramon snoozes on the floor. Or maybe he has a doghouse of his own. Who knows. Ryo and Cyberdramon have apparently been living here more or less for the past 10 months anyway. See Kenta scream and wake everyone up as Knightmon passes by. See Ryo state that this happens all the time and he makes a point of trying to go back to sleep in hopes that the others will do the same. However, the kids don't seem to take the hint and Juri and Takato have a bit of a talk. Wow, Ryo can (try to at least, that snore sounded awfully fake) sleep through anything except for Kenta's screaming. Later, watch as Kurumon asks Beelzemon about the location of the Tamers. Real smart. Oi.

Then here comes the fun part: the battle with Majiramon. Makuramon, like the intelligent monkey he is, decides to save his hide and just watch from a distance. Smart boy, more evil digimon should try that. Cyberdramon, like the attack dog he is, runs into battle despite Ryo's orders. The other digimon follow suit and soon enough they get their rears kicked by Majiramon. Ryo, as is typical for him in the games, does have an ace up his sleeve. Five of them. He drags out the King Device card, despite some very obvious misgivings showing on his face, and swipes it to increased Cyberdramon size to equal Majiramon. From the looks of it, Cyberdramon managed to twist Majiramon enough to delete him. Way to go, attackdogmon! Unfortunately, it's not a real card swipe sequence. Oh well. When asked about the Device Cards, Ryo replies that they're so powerful that only a strong Tamer can use them correctly. And thus the entire band of Ryo-bashers jump on his ass and call him 'cocky'. Well duh, he has experience and has been in the Digital World for 10 months, of course he's going to consider himself strong enough to survive in a hostile environment. Anyhoo, that's a tangent I really shouldn't get into.

Unfortunately, Cyberdramon's bloodlust is still in full gear, so Ryo takes off into the wilderness to help Cyberdramon appease that in a scene that suddenly reminds me of a Western movie. Hell, they already have the desert and mesas to go along with Ryo's cybercowboy get-up. Alas, this is the last we'll see of them for a few eps.

Digimon Tamers 29: Goliath

First thing I noticed in the English dub version of this episode was the lack of Hirokazu and Kenta singing. Then the conspicuous absense of the mechanical whirring-type sounds that indicated Cyberdramon's walking.

And oh my gods, the Kurumon song... Okay, you know, it was actually cute in Japanese, his seiyuu can actually sing. This voice actor makes my ears hurt.

During the battle with the dragon deva, Ryo's King Device card was changed to simply "Goliath". Could be worse, I suppose. Amazingly, the dub writers actually kept in the part where Cyberdramon crushed the dragon deva's head. Cue inspirational music as Ryo says bye to the other Tamers and runs off with Cyberdramon. But before he leaves completely, he says this: "Say hi to that wildcat Rika for me!" *smacks face with palm* They could have done better, really. Fortunately it wasn't too bad.