Digimon Savers

That's how a man lives!

The fifth series of Digimon, coming four years after its predecessor Digimon Frontier, and aimed at a slightly older demographic: those who watched its predecessors as kids. The cast is considerably older than usual, the story is Darker and Edgier (if nowhere near to the extent of Digimon Tamers or Digimon X Evolution), and the animation style is the most mature-looking and least stylized of the franchise.

Set in a world where the barrier between the Digital World and Human World is starting to fall apart, the Digital Accident Tactics Squad, or D.A.T.S., protects Tokyo from emergent Digimon while using Digimon partners themselves. During the escape of a lone Agumon, 14-year-old street fighter Marcus Damon gets involved with the organization. He is partnered with fellow agents Yoshi Fujieda and Thomas H. Norstein, and they are tasked with subduing Digimon emerged into the real world and preventing the havoc they would cause. Soon, however, things gradually begin to become far more complicated than any of them expected, as the Digital World shows signs of fighting back against mankind.

Savers consists of equal parts shaking up the formula and adhering to it more than Frontier. Adults have Digimon partners, Digivices are manufactured by humans, Marcus doesn't wear goggles and the effective Big Bad is a human acting of their own accord. On the other hand, it's a return to the standard Bond Creatures setup broken by Frontier, Agumon returns as the lead partner, and DATS must still Save Both Worlds before it's too late.

It was dubbed in the US as Digimon: Data Squad, breaking from the former practice of lumping everything together as Digimon: Digital Monsters. After another Sequel Gap, it was followed up with Digimon Xros Wars.

Spoiler warning.

Tropes used in Digimon Savers include:
  • Actor Allusion: English dub; Marcus does, in fact, assure Yoshi that he's "got it memorized."
    • Fans of S-Cry-ed will notice that Masaru is basically Kazuma in a Digimon series, both because of his personality (and tendency to punch things larger than himself) and his voice. And the all the punching. Did we mention that?
  • Affably Evil: Kurata flips from being this to being Faux Affably Evil during the confrontation with Merukimon.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Yggdrasil, at least the 'true form' that appears in the finale.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: DATS headquarters is blown up at the climax of episode 26, destroying all the equipment along with it and forcing the heroes to find an alternative means of getting to the Digital World.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: "When you have to face the fight..."
  • Artistic Age: Marcus and Thomas are supposed to be 14, yet don't look any younger than the eighteen years old Yoshi.
  • Attack Pattern Alpha: Thomas and Gaomon often use coordinated attacks, but they occasionally fall prey to Complexity Addiction.
  • Awesome but Impractical: To make Agumon digivolve Marcus has to punch the enemy. As awesome as this is watching Marcus leap into the air and sock a baddie in the face, it can understandably be difficult to do, especially when said baddie is very fast, invisible, or incorporeal.
  • Badass:...almost everybody, at least once.
  • Badass Longcoat: Commander Sampson. Yes, indeedy.
  • Batman in My Basement: Cheerfully subverted. "Agu-chan" quickly became one of the family.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: In episode 10, Kristy is embarrassed by Marcus' behavior and makes some specific wishes that end up with him getting hurt. Shortly afterwards, a Literal Genie of a Digimon makes them happen. One of her wishes was that Marcus should get squished by an oil tanker.
  • Bishonen Line: Digimon Savers is in love with this. Agumon, Gaomon, Lalamon and Falcomon all have humanoid Ultimate/Mega stages. Most of the supporting DATS Digimon, Kamemon and the two Chessmon, manage to pull this off, though they only reach the Perfect/Ultimate level. Even Gizumon pulls one.
    • That's just the Digimon shown evolving onscreen. Most of the Royal Knights, two of the three Hyper Bio-Hybrids and BanchoLeomon all have Bishonen lines in the expanded universe materials.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Par for course, all Digimon return home and leave their friends behind after the final antagonist is beaten. However, at least in this case, Marcus gets to stay with his by going along and has his happy ending. And since the Digimon chose to go this time, there's nothing saying the split up is for good and Marcus' intention is to make the Digital World good for humans and Digimon, so it's not as bittersweet as most.
  • Bowdlerization: In the dub, the BomberNanimon/Citramon episode. Unsurprisingly, this was the result of Executive Meddling. If Jeff Nimoy had not done this, Disney was going to cut the episode. However, some actually enjoy this change out of its sheer audacity.
  • Bridge Bunnies
  • But Not Too Foreign: Thomas is half Austrian.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Thomas has to do this to his father.
  • Calling Your Attacks: It's a given in the show, but on the other hand there is Ivan in his weird quest for Yoshino's love, when he shows his evolution he does nothing but use weird names for his attacks.
  • Catch Phrase: Yoshi's "This is the worst!", and Marcus has "It's fighting time!" in the dub only, and "That's how a man lives!" in the original.
  • The Cavalry: Keenan, Falcomon, and the Ninjamon appear to defend Eldradimon from the Gizumon in episode 30. The Royal Knights come to help the heroes in the final battle against Yggdrasil.
  • Censor Steam: Nanami, it was justified in covering her more than her coworkers because she's shorter.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Marcus. His fist can do seemingly anything.
  • Civilian Power: Happens at the last episode.
  • Colony Drop: Kurata, in his death, detonating a bomb that sets the two worlds to crash into each other. Though this wasn't intentional, as he intended to destroy the Digital World.
  • Colossus Climb: Marcus and Agumon attempt this against Yggdrasil, with the rest of the team as backup.
  • Combined Energy Attack: Everyone manifesting Digisoul in the finale.
  • Conspicuous CG: Rosemon and Ravemon's Burst Mode evolution sequences, unlike those for ShineGreymon and MirageGaogamon, aren't CG. They don't even try to remain consistent with the style they use, having completely different backgrounds with no text reading BURST MODE and being much shorter and less eventful. This is especially jarring since every other set of evolution sequences for the four main Digimon are consistent with each other, with all four sequences for evolving to Mega/Ultimate getting the same CG treatment.
  • Cross Counter: Marcus and Agumon do this at the start of their fight in the first episode.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: The first battle against Merukimon could not be considered anything else but this (but that's what happens when you have three Champions trying to beat one Mega. A later battle with the three as Ultimates against the same Mega...goes somewhat better but no successful victory.)
    • GeoGreymon in the first ten or so episodes.
    • Not to mention ShineGreymon Burst Mode vs. Kurata/Belphemon Rage Mode. Given Kurata's character, this one is very satisfying.
    • The first encounter against the Royal Knights.
  • Darker and Edgier: This is to Digimon Frontier in every possible way.
    • Heck, it is this to pretty much every other series save arguably Tamers.
  • Deadly Upgrade: ShineGreymon Ruin Mode
  • Deal with the Devil: Thomas
  • Death Glare: ShineGreymon Burst Mode gives one to Kurata after taking control of the battle with an epic Unflinching Walk for added intimidation. Emphasis on death, as his expression is practically screaming "I'm going to kill you" or at the very least "give you the most terrible thrashing of your life".
  • Deconstruction: Remember how Digimon Adventure 02 ended where everyone in the human world received a Digimon partner? Ever thought how it would really be if everyone including those with dishonest intentions had a powerful creatures to help them commit crimes? Now what was the first half of Digimon Savers about?
    • Reconstruction: That said, the series explores the relationship between humans and Digimon, and while there are people who will misuse and harm them, ultimately, they end up establishing that as long as there are those like Marcus and the others, Digimon and humans have great potential together.
  • Degraded Boss: When first introduced, Gizamon was thrashing no less than three Ultimate (Perfect) level digimon while Gizamon was only in its Champion (Adult) form. This gets even worse after Gizamon is upgraded to its own Ultimate form, which all the other Gizamon in the series use. They subsequently end up being mowed down by the dozens by digimon of all levels afterwards and instead end up being used for a Zerg Rush rather than the impressive destructive power they're supposed to have.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Averted: there is no showdown between the final form of Yoshino's partner, Rosemon, and Nanami's enhanced Digimon form, BioLotusmon.
  • Determinator: Marcus
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Marcus, literally. And it broke. And that still isn't the most ridiculous of his punches.
    • Possibly subverted in the end. Even though Yggdrasil was apparently defeated, he appears to Marcus and Agumon at the end, telling them that he intends to go to sleep and watch over them as they try to make a world for both humans and Digimon. So, even after all that, they couldn't completely kill Yggdrasil.
    • He practically makes a living out of doing this. Nearly every Digimon he successfully punches is nearly nine times his size and could obliterate a small army single-handedly. If ever someone deserved the title "Most Likely to Punch Out Cthulhu", its this guy.
  • Dirty Coward: Kurata. His hatred of Digimon actually started out as simple fear. After SaberLeomon attacked the expedition (because of HIM) he decided that all Digimon were dangerous and needed to be eliminated. Really shows during his final fight with the heroes after ShineGreymon digivolves to Burst Mode and turns the tables on him. He goes from a Smug Snake to crying coward begging for his life.
  • Disappeared Dad: Because Marcus's dad went into the Digital World in order to retrieve Keenan, and then had his body possessed by Yggdrasil while his soul went into BanchoLeomon.
  • Disney Death: Subverted. Originally, Savers looked to follow the convention set by Adventure/02 & Frontier: Digimon don't really die. They just revert back into eggs, from which they will hatch again and restart life anew, with no memory of anything that happened to them previously (except when they do remember); DATS "killed" Digimon in this way all through the first arc. But then Kurata develops a way to permanently kill Digimon, and embarks on a mission of genocide...Also had a Double Subversion, when Agumon is killed. He does revert back into an egg, and Marcus is repeatedly warned that when he hatches, he won't remember anything about their life together; it really will be just like he died. However, this ends up being untrue, and Agumon and Marcus are happily reunited. Possibly foreshadowed by Piyomon earlier: apparently, exposure to humans and a Digisoul can break the rules.
  • Distant Finale: less controversial than another Distant Finale in the series.
  • Double Knockout: Marcus and Agumon
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The dub still has the group refer to themselves as D.A.T.S., even though the team in the dub is called the Digimon Data Squad (or D.D.S.) instead of the Digital Accident Tactics Squad.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Marcus's first scene involves punching a Digimon in the face. This becomes something of a pattern.
  • Evil Versus Evil: A Downplayed Trope: Merukimon and SaberLeomon don't see eye to eye over how to deal with the humans; they exchange threats, challenges and criticisms during the conversation.
  • Facial Composite Failure: The Ninjamon provide a pretty bad one
  • Fake Defector: Thomas H. Norstein joins Kurata near the end of the Kurata arc.
  • Fan Service: There's a certain animation team in the rotation who go out of their way to...ah, enhance the viewing experience, shall we say?
  • Feud Episode: In one episode, Marcus and Agumon get into a fight which results in Agumon hiding inside Marcus' digivice for most of the episode. When Marcus is unable to defeat a black Garurumon that's rampaging through the city, Agumon finally comes to the rescue and everything is sorted out once again.
  • Flash Step: Chirinmon has an attack move called "Knowledge of Swift." And indeed it is.
  • Freudian Excuse: A powerful one. Keenan's hatred of humanity began with the worst day in the digital world, when he saw his mother Frigimon murdered before his eyes. Merukimon trained him to become a Digimon warrior, and though Marcus, Thomas, Yoshi and Kristy became his friends, and Merukimon convinced him that he did not hate all humans, the events of that day remain his chiefest motive.
    • Kurata is hinted as having one himself, though it's much less sympathetic seeing as it stems from him being a Dirty Coward of a sociopath. In addition to his fear of Digimon, he deeply resented Marcus's father, who he was originally assistant to, and believed Spencer humiliated and slighted him during their time in the Digital World.
  • Freudian Trio/Power Trio: Marcus as Id, Thomas as Superego, Yoshi as Ego.
  • God Is A Massively Pissed Off Anti-Villain: Yggdrasil appears, and as per usual, he's a major baddie. In this case, however, he has a specific example to point to as a justification for his belief that Humans Are the Real Monsters. Having a monster like Kurata attempt a massive genocide on your worshippers is a very valid reason to be ticked off. And he makes a deathbed apology anyway.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: Marcus. Yes, he fights super-powered monsters on a regular basis with his bare hands.
  • Government Agency of Fiction: DATS
  • Grand Theft Me: Yggdrasil occupying Spencer Damon's body.
  • Gratuitous English: Gaomon's "Yes, Master!" Changed to "Sir, yes sir!" in Data Squad.
  • Heel Face Turn: Keenan and Falcomon (of course), Gotsumon via death induced amnesia, Merukimon, Nanami and Ivan, The Royal Knights and Yggdrasil.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Marcus, Thomas, and Yoshi are accused of treason after the incident in the Infinite Ice Ridge. They and other DATS members later come under fire once public opinion about the danger posed by Digimon clashes with their opinion of the same. Marcus at one point has to point out to his mom that they are technically criminals.
  • Heroic Resolve: The DNA Charge translates this into Digimon strength, so when Marcus, Thomas, Yoshi and Keenan master it, it enables Agumon, Gaomon, Lalamon and Falcomon to digivolve to the Mega level. An even more powerful and controlled version manifests as the Burst Mode, which is harder to achieve (as Marcus found out to his horror) but results in Digimon far more powerful than even the Mega level.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Merukimon musters up his Heroic Second Wind in order to severely damage and weaken the Gizumon XT prototype with one punch, despite being mortally wounded and bound to die in the process.
  • Hoist By His Own Pertard: Remember those devices that allowed Kurata to handily jump between the worlds? Yeah apparently abusing them causes damage to their locations,so he sucks a few up while merged with Belphemon and continues to destroy the space continuity,and then when he's defeated,he blows up the last thing stopping the Digital World from colliding into Earth,but dies with it.
  • Homage/Internal Homage
    • Agumon. Most blatantly. In addition, GeoGreymon, RizeGreymon, and ShineGreymon are all based off of the original Agumon's evolved forms, and have attacks that invoke similar themes.
    • To Digimon Tamers: Marcus hides Agumon in a box, much like Takato did with Guilmon. Made even funnier in the dub, as Agumon and Takato are both voiced by Brian Beacock.
      • Also to Digimon Tamers, in the Japanese original, the voice actor of Dukemon is the exact same to the one from Tamers.
    • Citramon, originally BomberNanimon, became an homage to Don Patch of Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo, complete with matching voice actor! The dub writer, Jeff Nimoy, was told that the giant walking bomb had to be censored or the episode was cut; they made the best of a bad situation.
    • Possibly to Digimon Adventure: Koromon hatches...and immediately latches onto Marcus' face. Just like in the original Pilot Movie.
    • Definitely to the actual series of Digimon Adventure, and as the most obvious one: As the villain of the penultimate arc is finally defeated, the Digital World appears in the sky, leading to the appearance of the final antagonist and the final arc. Complete with a montage across the world of people looking at the Digital World, and with a scene of one of the main characters saving a falling plane. Pretty much the only differences are that this time, the Digital World is actually, physically there in the sky...and that it first appears in episode 38, not 39.
  • Hot Mom
  • Hot-Blooded: Marcus. Sadly, he's an aversion to the way Digimon will typically give such a character Hidden Depths. Marcus and Agumon would not look out of place in Gurren Lagann.
  • Humans Are Special: Digimon who have actually partnered with humans are under this impression, as working together does allow them to get much stronger. Yggdrasil and his Royal Knights strongly disagree due to Kurata's actions, that is at first. Yggdrasil is convinced of this after getting a hole blasted through him using said power and a lowly human literally punches his lights out.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: Keenan believed this strongly at first, but was convinced not to hold all of humanity in low regard at the end of the Merukimon arc. This was also Merukimon's and his follower's belief, and the main basis for the conflict of the series results from their convictions. It turns out to be wrong, as the basis for their belief is actually because of what one human bastard did, and he's no friend to humanity either.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Between Marcus and Kristy. After she gets Biyomon Marcus fights Biyomon to sent him back to the Digital World so that Kristy won't have to join DATS.
  • Idiot Hero: Marcus, sometimes to an infuriating degree.
  • Improbable Age: Marcus becomes part of a "The Men in Black" organization at age fourteen. Thomas, the same age, joined at some point earlier than that...after graduating university and becoming a licensed doctor. Anybody who partners with a Digimon (that isn't evil, anyway) is forced to join DATS.
  • Inconsistent Dub: Many Digimon who appeared in past seasons have their names, attacks, or both changed from their previous appearances, in the dubbed version at least.
  • Incredibly Obvious Tail: Yoshi makes no secret of the fact that she is keeping an eye on Marcus and Agumon at first.
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Thomas and Nanami, while not socially shunned, feel cut off from others by their own intellects, but as he becomes True Companions with Marcus and Yoshino, Thomas manages to overcome this, while Nanami seems to as well off-screen, as she's on the good side in the Grand Finale.
  • It Only Works Once: GeoGrey Sword. Effective in its first appearance. Every use after that it is quickly broken.
  • Jerkass: The Director of DATS, though he's Just Doing His Job, tries to arrest Keenan and give him up to Gotsumon in order to protect the city from the Pteramon and Boarmon attack, and is openly cynical of Commander Sampson's team's competence. He also views the Digimon as too dangerous to reason with, and becomes an obstacle to the trio's attempts to reveal the misunderstanding. He does a Heel Face Turn later when Kurata announces his plans for World Domination, and even sends in helicopters in order to take down Belphemon.
  • Jumped At the Call: Marcus, once he realizes what he can do in DATS to further his fighting ambitions.
  • Just Following Orders: MirageGaogamon claims this when fighting his allies. Crowmon tells him his master is wrong, but this only enrages him.
  • Karma Houdini: Popstar Neon, who had been using a Keramon to hack the internet to make it seem like his song was hitting the charts when it wasn't, ends his episode with just a mindwipe with no legal rammifications, despite knowingly committing internet fraud on a global scale. Sure, he won't remember doing it, but that doesn't stop the fact his music career gets a huge jumpstart that he didn't deserve.
  • Killed Off for Real: Digimon conventionally revert back to a Digi-egg upon being defeated or otherwise killed. They can then be reborn, and in rare cases retain memories from their past lives. However, the Gizumon species (and possibly Kurata's foot soldiers) are equipped with weapons that can permanently delete a Digimon's data, either by destroying them without a Digi-egg appearing or by causing their newly-formed Digi-egg to self-destruct.
  • Killer Robot / Mecha Mook: The Gizumon, Gizumon AT and Gizumon XT have no emotions and are programmed to do what they are told, i.e. to kill Digimon. They all carry a Death Ray, a laser which obliterates the data of any Digimon unfortunate enough to get hit by it.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Averted with at least Marcus, who ends up sporting three totally different outfits in the series, each of which is adapted for his stock footage Digisoul sequences. Yoshi and Thomas get the same treatment as well (Thomas even gets an 4th alternate Digisoul in one episode). Keenan, on the other hand, not so much.
  • Load-Bearing Hero: BanchoLeomon holding the two worlds from colliding with each other while Marcus and co. seek out Yggdrasil, but Craniamon and, later, the rest of the Royal Knights take his place.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Yggdrasil is Spencer Damon...then it's revealed he's not - Bancholeomon is Spencer Damon, Yggdrasil is just using his body.
  • Mad God: Yggdrasil after the Royal Knights turn on him, pretty much going insane and deciding to let both worlds be destroyed and start over. Agumon blasting a hole through his One-Winged Angel form and Marcus punching his lights out convinced him he was wrong and snapped him out of it.
  • Mad Scientist: Kurata. Oh God, Kurata.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Kurata, and to a lesser extent, Thomas and Nanami.
  • Master Computer: The tree in which Yggdrasil resides is a server. Don't ask Marcus what that means.
  • Mechanical Monster: The Gizumon XT. Possibly also MirageGaogamon and ShineGreymon on the good side.
  • Memento MacGuffin
  • The Men in Black
  • Million-to-One Chance: Yggdrasil says that the odds to Save Both Worlds is this. He was wrong.
  • Mind Rape: Happens to all three main characters simultaneously thanks to MetalPhantomon.
  • Missing Mom: Thomas', revealed to have been hit by a truck when he was young.
  • Mistaken for Spies: Baronmon at first believes that the heroes are spies and lures them into Eldradimon's city, captures them, and offers them as prey for Cerberusmon. He is shown to be in error rather quickly, however, and they become allies.
  • Mons: Duh.
  • Monster of the Week: Half the time...the first arc actually had a couple reasons for this. The first was expanded in the video game.
  • Mood Whiplash: Standard fair for Digimon, but one particularly snicker-worthy scene happens when Kurata is about to digitally join with Belphemon Rage Mode. Kurata enters some sort of chamber . . . and starts making funny faces and poses while being electrocuted before joining with the beast.
  • More Than Mind Control: Thomas again. C'mon, it's practically a contractual obligation in this franchise. Kurata blackmailed him using his Ill Girl sister. He made up for it by showing he was intending to backstab Kurata from the beginning.
  • Mysterious Parent
  • Names to Know in Anime: Masako Nozawa, voice of Dukemon
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Gotsumon, arguably but he did have a good showing in Frontier too. Vilemon definitely, they were never even close to effective before.
  • Oblivious Adoption: Keenan. Somehow he didn't notice he lacked the superpowers his adoptive parents and everyone else around him had.
  • Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: The first English dub season to use this trope.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The fight between Spencer Damon and BanchoLeomon. All we see is the two of them performing a Punch Parry with an erupting volcano behind them...then it cuts to them both in the same position that Marcus and Agumon were in at the end of their fight in episode 1.
  • Oh Crap: Kurata, when ShineGreymon digivolves to Burst Mode. Kurata has an entire string of progressively larger Oh Craps from that point on as things get worse and worse for him.
  • Open-Minded Parent: Sarah. She doesn't even mind aiding and abetting the Data Squad when they are classed as criminals by the public.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Justified with Merukimon, who does this out of necessity. The drawback is that he has a lying messenger.
  • The Other Darrin: One or two cases in the English dub of the video game "Digimon World Data Squad" due to being done before the TV series. (There's also a few other differences, such as the use of "Digisoul" like the Japanese version instead of "DNA".)
  • Palette Swap: Gotsumon digivolves to Meteormon, who is basically the same digimon with a white color scheme. He gets way more powerful though. Yoshino lampshades this in the dub.
  • Parasol Parachute: Used by Nanami in episode 31.
  • Parental Abandonment
  • Phlebotinum Rebel: Zig Zagged Trope in Belphemon's case -- during the battle, Kurata sporadically gains and loses control over Belphemon Rage Mode's consciousness. The result is that a Demon Lord that once nearly caused The End of the World as We Know It in the Digital World and a Complete Monster with an Omnicidal Maniac agenda try to gain control of the same body.
  • The Power of Friendship: An integral part of the Empathic Weapon nature of Digimon is that they fight at their strongest when the bonds between Digimon and human partners are strongest. It is also the inspiration for fighting the biggest battles, when the team must make a collaborative effort.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Royal Knights operate according to a strict honour code.
  • Psycho Rangers: The Bio-Hybrids.
  • Puppy Love: Keenan and Kristy
  • The Quiet One: Kamemon and both the PawnChessmon.
  • Raised By Snowmen: Keenan, somewhat.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Kurata pretends to be this during his first appearances, 'saving' the trio from SaberLeomon, opening the digital gates during the Digimon invasion, and persuading the director of DATS to begin negotiations with the Digimon leader Merukimon. But even here there are warning signs, as Commander Sampson and Kudamon point out later in the episodes 23 and 26.
  • Recap Episode: Two, each right as one Story Arc ends and another begins.
  • Robotic Reveal: Yggdrasil's final form is a computer program that handles human-to-Digimon interactions. It then concludes that they cannot coexist and tries to start all over again, yelling Does Not Compute as it does so.
  • Sacrificial Lion: This time, it's SaberLeomon AND BanchoLeomon. Yes, you're reading it right, they did it twice. Merukimon, Baronmon, Eldradimon and even ShineGreymon also become victims of this trope, the first three to the data-deleting Gizumon species, and the last one to the corrupted Burst Mode.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Belphemon's Digi-egg was discovered and captured by Kurata during his second visit to the Digital World. He took it back and incubated it until it hatched into Belphemon Sleep Mode, and then fed Belphemon digital energy until he could use it as leverage.
  • Self-Disposing Villain: Kurata's death is an example of this. He might yet have survived if he hadn't activated the bomb.
  • Sequel Gap: The series followed the 3 year gap caused by the poor performance of Digimon Frontier. It's own poor performance resulted in another 3 year gap for the franchise.
  • Shining Goodness: The Burst Mode.
  • Shirtless Scene: Marcus and Thomas several times, usually in their...
  • Shout-Out: The alarm clock in Belphemon Sleep Mode's hand looks just like a Tamagotchi, Digimon's Distaff Counterpart.
  • Shower Scene: In fact, this is how we first meet Marcus and Thomas.
  • Sleep Cute: Lampshaded: Belphemon's Sleep Mode's face is stated to be quite cute, belying the power it hides. When he wakes up... not so cute
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Touma/Tohma/Tooma.
    • For the English dub, several Digimon names were improperly translated, like LoadKnightmon, BioSupinomon, BioRotosmon, and ElDradimon. Jeff Nimoy stated that Toei themselves asked for these names to be used, even if the Digimon already had dub names.
  • Squee: The Bridge Bunnies for Thomas, including in the episode title where he's introduced.
  • Stay With The Digimon: Marcus in the ending.
  • Stock Evil Overlord Tactics: See Sealed Evil in a Can.
  • Stock Footage: The digivolutions and digivice charge, as well as several flashbacks used as filler.
  • Straw Vulcan: Thomas is The Strategist, Marcus is the Leeroy Jenkins. 'Raw power' versus 'strategies' is explicitly stated by Marcus to be the dichotomy they represent. Marcus keeps winning, often by what looked like a plan but which almost always relied on luck (hence Idiot Hero). This is one of the reasons Thomas does not take to Marcus at first, and it is still visibly affecting him thirty episodes later.
  • Super Dickery: See Fake Defector above. It manifests as Shoot Your Mate, motivated by a not totally untruthful dislike of being underappreciated by the team.
  • Take That - The Bio-Hybrid Trio might be one towards the widely-loathed Spirit Evolution from the previous season, which was almost a Franchise Killer.
  • Teen Genius: Thomas. He has a medical license, among other things.
  • That's No Moon: Eldradimon the walking Digimon capital city.
  • This Cannot Be!: Yggdrasil says this in response to having a gigantic hole punched through him by Marcus and Agumon, defying his calculations.
  • Three Man Band
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Agumon and Sarah's fried eggs, and possibly the Bridge Bunnies and manju.
  • Transformation Sequence: This is sometimes abbreviated. The double-warp digivolutions skip the Champion and Ultimate levels and head straight for the Mega level.
  • Turtle Island: Eldradimon is a walking fortress large enough for many Digimon to make their homes on his shell. At one point Thomas stations him in the middle of a lake so that they have a protective moat around them. At another point, Eldradimon ends up at sea.
  • Turtle Power: Kamemon and his digivolutions.
  • Undying Loyalty: Gaomon to Thomas, though it was also because he knew Thomas' secret intentions. The Royal Knights, until the persistence and power of the heroes convinces them that their master is not the Big Good they thought he was. Craniamon is the first to change his mind.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Zig Zagged Trope, as some spoken plans work early on in the series, but in general the unspoken ones tend to be more successful (and the spoken ones less successful) as the series progresses.
  • Untrusting Community: The citizens of Eldradimon's sacred city did not trust the heroes at first. This is a symptom of the Digimons' general distrust of humanity. Indeed, even the human community regards Digimon and pro-Digimon supporters as suspicious and potentially dangerous, which results in the heroes getting bad publicity (see above).
  • Very Special Episode: A confectioner falls prey to a Gambling Addiction in episode 11. Subverted when the incident makes the heroes start realizing why digimon are appearing in the first place.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: When Kurata is appointed by the government to protect the city from the invading monsters.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Kurata has a huge one during the Final Battle with him and Belphemon. First he starts raving in fury about how the Damon family keeps on standing in his way and belittling him. Then when things turn against him, he goes from a Smug Snake to begging for his life as he realizes he's no match at all for ShineGreymon Burst Mode and Marcus, who is about to punch his face in. Afterwards, he completely snaps and pretty much seals his own fate.
  • Villains Never Lie: Kurata manages to convince Thomas into believing that he will cure his sister if Thomas cooperates with him. Subverted when Thomas reveals that he never believed Kurata in the first place, and was merely pretending to do so in order to undermine Kurata's plans to control Belphemon and turn his sister into another Bio-Hybrid.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: A few on both sides, including SaberLeomon, the Director of DATS, and Gotsumon.
  • Why Am I Ticking?: This is why Thomas was a Fake Defector -- his sister had been rigged with a secret bomb, disguised as a collar, that Kurata could detonate if Thomas refused to comply. The Time Bomb had to be taken off during the surgery before Thomas could reveal his true motives. He even succeeds in implanting a small detonator in Kurata's remote, preventing him from controlling Belphemon from afar.
  • World Tree: Yggdrasil stays in one.
  • Wrecked Weapon: GeoGrey Sword again. It's broken twice.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Kurata transports Eldradimon to the Real World. Not only does this enable him to unleash a new weapon built specifically to destroy Eldradimon, but even if it had failed it would have made the city believe the monsters were attacking, thus reinforcing his governmental position. Also his plan to take over the world, even if it wasn't his first desire.
  • Younger Than They Look: Marcus and Thomas are both 14. Yes, that's right.
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