Lee Jenrya: Passive aggressive, plain and simple. He doesn't want to use force against anything. He is sort of taking his martial arts training to an extreme. For example, when Gorimon attacks, Jen refuses to let Terriermon fight back. That view did change however, when a Musyamon was going to kill a little child. Jen is also over protective of Shuichon, but that is understandable, they are they youngest of the Lee children. There aren't really any emotional or mental troubles plaguing Jenrya, nothing tragic has ever really happened to him. Even when, the digimon had to leave them, he still didn't break down. His father was the one who forced them to leave, despite this fact, Jen instantly forgave him. This proves that Jenrya is quite capable of understanding the events of his world. If they had to leave, they had to leave; Jen was able to accept that.
Makino Ruki: Ruki is scared of losing her self. Look at her life, she is the daughter of a famous fashion model, she goes to an all-girls private school, and she lives in a huge mansion. Her mother, Rumiko, wants Ruki to follow in her footsteps as a model. Ruki feels that this would rob her of her freedom. She would only be consumed in her mother's shadow*. So, in an act to prove her own extistance as a person, Ruki lashes out as a violent, cold-hearted, tomboy. Her grandmother, Seiko, supports her. She knows that Rumiko doesn't really know how to raise a child; she sees that Rumiko is forcing her will upon Ruki. Ruki's fear is shown when she freaks out during a photo shoot. This fear is also why Ruki avoid skirts at all costs. Notice how she only wears gender neutral clothes (T-shirt and jeans). Additionally, she wears a shirt with a broken heart on it, showing she wants to be completely different from the stereotypical Japanese female. She immediately changes out of her school clothes when she gets home (the uniform requires a skirt). Ruki feels that if she wears a skirt or any other strictly feminine clothing (undergarments don't count, so don't get any ideas you perverts), she will end up like her mother. This insecurtity also contributes to her tomboyish image. Eventually, Rumiko see what she is doing and supports Ruki in her search to find her style*. Rumiko explains to Ruki that she means everything to her, and gives her a home-made mended-heart t-shirt to replace the broken-heart one. This is symbolic of her attempt to reconcile with her daughter. Also, with the introduction of her deep relationship with Renamon, Ruki feels much more open to caring for her new-found friends, the other Tamers, going so far as to being self-sacrificial in order to save them from D-Reaper.
In Movie 6, Ruki's deep-seated loneliless is revealed. It is shown through Parasimon's mind-rape that her father left her when she was little, after promising that he would see her again soon. When he never came back, Ruki could no longer believe in promises, and as a result could not trust in people offering friendship or even family members offering love, such as her mother. Her grandmother Seiko was the only one who she felt she could trust, since Seiko offered her the one thing she was looking for... 'unconditional acceptance and understanding'. Ruki eventually overcomes most of her problems with friendship and love, though she was still deeply hurt by her father's absence, leaving an 'unwanted' feeling within her. It has gone so far that she has even rejected singing. When her father left her, she had sang a song about their promise to see eachother again. When he broke that promise, she gave up such things as singing. Ruki equates singing with her father. In Movie 6, under Parasimon's possession, when she says 'I want to sing,' she's really saying 'I want to see my father.' She copes with the loneliness by continuing to affront people with her hard exterior, though really she cares for her friends and family.
* similar but not parallel to Hikari being swallowed up by Taichi's shadow
* that is a pun, Ruki's Girl's Festival Song is called My Style, that is what the song is about Ruki searching for her identitiy
Matsuda Takato: Takato is naive. He doesn't truely understand what is going on around him. He is forced to realize what the world is like when Guilmon realizes * . Takato is growing up and is now forced to let go of the childish fanatsies he once held. Hirokazu and Kenta are also like Takato, except they remain in their naive states until they go to the Digital World. In his naivety, he also doesn't see his relationships with others. Throughout the series he learns that he has fallen in love with Juri and never realized it * . Takato is very informal in his speach, he calls all his peers by their given names with no honorary suffix. Note how he never refers to Juri as "Juri", he will only call her "Katou-san". I view this as his subconscious affection for her taking control; leading him to refer to her with more respect than his other peers * . However, due to his childish innocence, he never understands why he does so, and just accepts this invouluntary action.
When Leomon dies, and Juri loses it, Takato is hurt just as much. He states that it was his fault that Leomon died. He continues, saying that if he was stronger, Leomon would still be alive and Juri would still be happy. The time on the train to Matsumoto was the only REAL emotional breakdown he had. The time when couldn't hide Growmon was a childish impulse. When a child is scared and confused, what else is there to do but cry? Takato's tears on the train show a high level of mental and emotional growth. Now, he was in pain from something that wasn't directly effecting him. Juri's pain was his pain as well. When D-Reaper kidnaps her, Takato loses it and vows to rescue her. Takato hense forced to throw away the life of an innocent child and take up the responsibility of fighting for his friends, his family, his loved ones, and not one, but two worlds.
* pun, Realize is the orignal term for Bio-Emerge.
* Don't flame me Rukato supporters, this statement is based off of the notes of Chiaki J. Konaka himself, the head writer of Tamers.
* Yes, I am a Jurato fan, but this statement is based purely on given facts and educated hypotheses, my personal preferences has nothing to do with this.
Katou Juri: Juri is a very hard case. She lives behind a facade. She always seems happy, however she is a depressed, torn, and destroyed on the inside. It started when her mother died. The flashback makes her look about 4 or 5 at the time. The doctors and her father said, that fate was against them. When Juri hears this, she assumes it was her mother's fate to die. Her father, Tadashi, didn't take the death so well either, he became unable to show affection towards Juri, the living memory of his wife. When her father remarries, Juri is faced with a difficult situation. In her eyes, her step-mother is trying to erase the memories of her biological mother. This isn't the case because Shizue, her step-mother, really likes Juri and is very kind to her. However, Juri is very cold towards her * . Juri's hand puppet on the outside is used to entertain her 4 year old half-brother, Masahiko. But on a deeper level, it is a door to a false world that Juri lives in. She denies the existance of sadness and darkness. When she faces such emotions, she retreats to her "happy place". For example, when Takato is talking to her about Growmon being to large; she thinks that he is embarassed to be seen with a taller girl, she doesn't know how to respond and... arf, arf, she starts talking through the puppet. When Hirokazu and Kenta are scared of Takato after they saw Guilmon, they were very cold to Takato. Juri overhears that and trys to defend Takato, she panics when confronted with anger and sadness again, and she ends up talking through the puppet once again.
Leomon's death, reopened old wounds. His last words were "This is my fate". Sound familiar? The same words she heard when her mother died. "Fate" and "Death" are the synonymous to Juri. She suffers from a mental breakdown. Her entire world, the false happiness that she created for herself, shattered instantly. Juri is no longer able deny the existance of death, sadness, and suffering. D-Reaper capitalizes on her negative emotions and possesses her. Inside the Kernal Sphere, Juri is raped (mentally) by the D-Reaper, her memories are distorted and other memories are blocked out. She is forced to constantly relive her mother's death. In the end, she only responded to Takato. She wanted to be saved by him, even though it would mean she would have to return to a world of pain and sadness. Juri allows Takato and her family to love her, without fear of them dying. Even though Juri goes through such trauma, Konaka was able to give her the happy ending he wanted: her family life is repaired (she accepts her step-mother, her father realized how important she was to his life, etc), and she is happy with Takato by her side.
* This is similar to how cold Kouji is toward his step-mother.
Shiota Hirokazu: He is a modern, street wise child. He has a strict mother and a lot of pride in his own skills. As you have seen, he brags about his card game skills and became very annoyed when Ruki (the queen of the game) made herself known again. His desire to be strong manifests in both his hero-worship of Ryo (who he corners into discussing Digimon Card Strategies in movie 6) and his overt fear of Ruki's attitude as well as her card-playing skills. When Takato creates his own digimon, Hirokazu shuns him not out of fear, but jealousy. Hirokazu wants to be the best but always a step behind. So he struggles to keep up. When he overcomes his jealousy for Takato, he tries to make up for it by drawing him a blue card. His belief in Takato shows us his rarely seen compassion. Even Takato thinks of Hirokazu as a harsh person, as seen in his idea of what Hirokazu would be like as the partner of Culumon. However, it is Hirokazu's compassion that eventually wins him the partner he's always wanted. When he cared for the wounded and weary Andromon after his fight with Orochimon, Andromon de-evolved back to Guardromon, and eventually became Hirokazu's partner. Oddly enough, Hirokazu never manages to make Guardromon evolve to Andromon again, making Hirokazu the weakest Tamer by default. This doesn't hamper his spirit however, and he continues to fight even against powerful enemies such as D-Reaper's agents and the Parasimon in Movie 6. On one of the Tamers soundtracks, however, it shows a picture of Andromon instead of Guardromon as Hirokazu's partner, this could indicate that he eventually gets Guardromon to evolve after the Digimon return from the Digital World in Movie 6.
* This analysis assumes that Movie 6: Digimon Runaway Express is in-continuity.
Kitagawa Kenta: He is a shy kid. He hangs out with loud, outspoken people like Hirokazu to try to define himself as a person. Kenta often merely follows Hirokazu's actions, such as when Hirokazu became suspicious of Babamon and Jijimon. Kenta initially had no fear or suspicion of the pair, until Hirokazu began to suggest otherwise. Kenta seems to have a co-dependency problem in this area. He has become used to being in Hirokazu's company and feels very out-of-his-element when he is otherwise. Though there are several opportunities in which Kenta could have gone beyond Hirokazu, it seems like he doesn't like the spotlight, Marine Angemon is an Ultimate, he can keep up with Saint Galgomon or Justimon if he wanted to. Kenta seems to like being a backup fighter. I think it makes him feel needed, since he lacks any outstanding skills of his own. It's reasuring for him to know that his friend know that he is there to catch them if they fall. Interestingly enough, it could be argued that Kenta is the strongest of all the tamers. In addition to having the only non-matrix-evolved Ultimate digimon, MarineAngemon was proven to have stuck great fear into the likes of the J-Reaper when it revealed itself to Takato for the first time. MarineAngemon and Kenta appeared and barely had to attack before the J-reaper fled in sheer terror of the small Ultimate. Later, the J-Reaper doesn't have any qualms about attack Dukemon Crimson Mode, showing us that MarineAngemon is quite possibly the most powerful of all the Digimon in Tamers, ignoring the card game were quite clearly he isn't. Still, Kenta quite possibly holds himself back on the account of his friend Hirokazu's desire to be strong.
Lee Shuichon: Shuichon is a happy hyper little child, with a propensity for stubbornness and playing dress-up with Terriermon. Her sheer energy and childlike belief and will are what make her a powerful Tamer. She is the youngest of the all the Tamers and although she has a potential for great power, she never gets the chance to exhibit it throughout the series. This is mostly due to the over-protectiveness of her brother, Jenrya. His habit of constantly protecting her has imprinted itself on Shuichon, making her believe that she needs the protection. When she first encounters a slight bit of danger after being transported to the digital world, she becomes upset and cries for her brother. She eventually meets up with the Rabbit Deva Antiramon. Antiramon is a more sensibly-thinking Deva than most of the other Devas apparently. Instead of being blinded by greed or amibition, he feels sympathetic for the young child, and the two become partners even after Jenrya scolds Shuichon for being in the Digital World. Antiramon is reverted back to his form as Lopmon, the twin digimon of Terriermon, because he has 'betrayed' his god Zhuquiaomon. Now that Shuichon has a digimon of her own, the relationship changes immediately. It reflects the treatment that Jenrya gives to her. Shuichon treats Lopmon as if he is a fragile being, incapable of protecting itself, much less her. This shows how she subconsciously has picked up much of her own behavior from her brother. It is likely that as she grows she will develop a personality similar to Jenrya's. The first real change in her protective nature comes when Ryo gives her a modify card. When Lopmon finally builds up the initiative in the real world to protect Hirokazu and Kenta who are being outnumbered by the D-Reaper's agents, he practically has to beg for her help. She is fearful for Lopmon's safety, but then realizes that Jenrya is also fighting to protect his friends, and she decides to be strong like him and aids Lopmon to evolve into Antiramon again. This is another potent example of Shuichon's dependence upon Jenrya as an example for maturing.