About Tai Kamiya
English Name: Tai Kamiya
Japanese Name: Yagami Taichi
Voice Actor: Joshua Seth
Seiyuu: Fujita Toshiko
Anime/Manga: Digimon
Age: 11 (season 1), 14/15/40 (season 2)
Ethnic Origin: Japanese
Friends: Yamato "Matt" Ishida, Sora Takenouchi, Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi, Jyou "Joe" Kido, Mimi Tachikawa, Takeru "T.K." Takaishi, Hikari "Kari" Kamiya, Daisuke "Davis" Motomiya, Iori "Cody" Hida, Miyako "Yolei" Inoue, and Rei (the manga only)
Rivals: Yamato "Matt" Ishida(season 1), Neo (the manga only)
Relations: his younger sister, Kari Kamiya, his mother and his father
Digimon: Botamon/ Koromon/ Agumon/ Greymon/ Metal Greymon/ Wargreymon, and "Zero" which is a Veedramon (the manga only)
Crest: Courage
Color: Orange
Theme Song: Yuuki wo Tsubasa ni Shite (I'll Turn My Courage Into Wings) Click the title for a translation.
Likes: Sora Takenouchi
Liked By: no one I guess (unless he has a wife or girlfriend or someone we don't know about) Poor Taichi!
Best Match: This is opinionated I know, but I really do think it's Sora.
Best Quality: He tries to be a good leader.
Worst Quality: There must be one, but I can't think of it right now.
Warning! Some of the below information contains spoilers for the first two seasons of Digimon. If you haven't seen these seasons, you probably shouldn't read ahead. Actually the above information had some spoilers too. Whoops. Just don't look anywhere on this page if you don't want the series spoiled for you.
And so it begins...
Tai is the main character from the popular anime show, Digimon. This show is aimed at an audience from ages 6-12, but not limited to because it is evident that a lot of older people like me like it just as much. ^_^ I at first ignored the show because even though I had started becoming interested in anime and wanted more of it on American television, I had no interest in something that looked like a total rip off of Pokémon (The success of that show astounds me really, and I find it a shame that some of the quality anime shows can't find an audience in America because kids have no interest in them and the adults won't watch them because they think of them as cartoons). I never liked the show (those characters and their mono-verbal pokémon bug the heck out of me) and I believed a carbon-copy like Digimon could only be worse. When Digimon became more and more popular, it only fueled the belief that it was just another "mon" show hoping some of that Pokémon success would rub-off. But then one day, when Digimon was was more than halfway through its first season and I had nothing better to do, I decided to watch the latter part of an episode. After all one of my friends really liked it and her enthusiasm was beginning to get to me. To my surprise, I found that it actually has quite an interesting plot and fun characters. And to my utter amazement, I found that I was hooked after seeing that half an episode.
When I first saw the show one of the characters immediately grabbed my attention. Matt with his those pretty blue eyes and that sweater had me guessing for a a good two minutes whether he was a guy or a girl. After I heard his voice and double-checked myself to make sure he was in fact a guy, I lost interest in him and moved my attentions to Tai. It was evident that Tai was the main character and the leader of these "digidestined" kids and I was impressed at the way everyone looked up to him. He had really come into his stride towards the end of the first season, and there were a lot of great Taichi moments. In particular was the episode Home Away From Home. This is undoubtedly one of the best episodes of the Digimon series, and a great artistic acheivement for all those involved. It was an abberation from the usual story and it also set up the character of Kari who would play a major role later on in the series. But it also showed a more sensitive side of Tai that was very easy to fall in love with.
As you can probably guess, it really didn't take very long for me to fall for this big-haired, goggle-wearing boy. He was simply too cute and too charming.
However, despite Tai being the main character of the series, a helluva lot more people like Matt. Understandable enough, with those pretty blue eyes, that overly gelled blond hair, and that ultra-cool demeanor, but Tai's got a certain boyish charm and carefree personality that I just find incredibly appealing. Matt does far too much brooding in my opinion. He's got some serious emotional issues that he needs to sort out, and that unattractive sleeveless green sweater that shows off his skinny little arms certainly doesn't help either. But I don't resent him, really I don't.
The Taichi, sorry, Digimon Saga Continues...
The second season of Digimon, called Season 02 by avid Digimon fans, does not pick off where the first season left off but instead is set three years after the kids' first adventure. Everyone from the old season has seemly turned out for the better. They have less stereotypical personalities (nerd, ditz, rebel, etc...) and act more like normal kids (well, most of them). Most noticable are outward appearances, and boy did the animators have fun with those. Everyone of course is taller and more mature, but OMG...the hair changes. I had no idea how they did it, but they completely changed the hair of half the characters and they still look fantastic, better even, with the unfortunate exception of Mimi. Tai pretty much looks like his old adorable self. He gave away his trademark goggles but fortunately he looks even better without them (and you thought that wasn't possible!). Overall, Tai is even hotter in this season, and it's a damn shame he's not the main character anymore. Instead there's a new digidestined team consisting of T.K., Kari, and three ugly children that just seemingly came out of nowhere. Frankly it's a big disappointment and there are no episodes like Home Away From Home, but Taichi still manages to have his moments, despite the lack of screentime. The best part of 02 in my opinion is that infamous Sorato/ Taiora moment when he asks Sora out and she turns him down because she likes Matt. I realize it sucks for Tai, but it just shows us how great a guy he is, because he'll ignores his own feelings if it means Sora is happy. The good thing in this season is that there's a lot more emphasis on the relationships between characters and we see Tai develop more as a person.
Every good show must end...
...and if it's an anime, then chances are you're going to be disatissfied with the ending. During the last five minutes of the last episode of season 02, A Million Points of Light, we fast foward to 25 years later. Everybody looks quite different but not for the better like in Digimon 02, except for ironically, Mimi (she just has to be the maverick doesn't she?). The animators obviously weren't willing to spend to much time on character design for five minutes worth of screen time, and it shows. Basically what they did was have all the guys except T.K. cut their hair really short and made the girls' hairsytles the same, with a slight variation. And um, they're more developed. Tai also cut his hair, and it was a complete shock seeing him like that. Now I realize that Tai's now a grownup and needs to look more dignified, but I loved his brown mop. It really defined who he was. Even though it's still got some of that messy quality to it, it's just not the same. He still pretty looks good though, I mean it is Tai after all.
He's now an ambassador to the Digital World. Not quite what I expected (international soccer star), but it's a good job I suppose. I am a little dissapointed though, because I was hoping he would find a job due to his talent, not experience. I'm sure he's using his leadership qualities and all, but no, actually I really don't believe he is. An ambassador isn't a leader; an ambassador sorts out problems between two sides, a peacemaker of a sort. The two worlds are at peace. All Tai does is look pretty. I'm sure that wasn't his childhood dream, to become a stupid ambassador and look pretty. Of course at least he's not an astronaut like Matt. Now where the hell did that job come from? When has he ever wanted to go to space? And Gabumon in space? Not funny. Frankly I think the writers did a really crappy job on this. Joe and Izzy, okay their jobs were pretty much a given. But the rest? Pulled out of thin air. I would never have though Mimi would cook much less have an entire cooking show to herself. And Sora really doesn't have much taste in clothes. Her season one clothes were ugly as hell...but then again so were most of the character's. Of course she could have worn the helmet as a saftey measure...but I don't think so. And T.K.? When was he ever able to write worth crap? What? He couldn't find an actual job so he decided to fall back on writing about their experiences in the digital world? That's what ex-duchesses do because they got kicked out of Buckingham and need a source of income. The only job I really liked was Davis's noodle cart buisness. It fits the guy and seems like actually a pretty cool occupation. :)
And Tai has a kid who looks exactly like him when he was younger, which pissed me off to no end. The animators really didn't spend that much time on character design for this episode. No lonely bachelors, no lonely spinsters. Everyone is completely happy and all is right with the world. You probably wondered who Tai married, or whether he's even married. Is he divorced? Is the kid a bastard? It's really anybody's guess. He's certainly not with Sora, for she has a happy little family with Matt now, despite the fact that the smart people at Saban decided not to say anything about them being married for the dub. I have no idea what those fools in Japan were thinking; Matt and Sora do NOT make a good couple. I have a theory that they just wanted to end the series as quickly as possible and move onto their next project.
And every good anime show will probably have a movie...
Tai was also in the first three Digimon movies that aired in Japan, but in Digimon the Movie, the Americanized version that has all of the movies combined in a great gigantic mess, Tai is not shown in the third one. This is extremely sad because in that movie, all of the older kids are captured by the Willis's evil digimon and are forced to age backwards. Consequently, in that movie there's a very cute season two Tai playing soccer in the begginning, season one Taichi, and even a little chibi-Tai that we've never seen. The creators/editors of the Americanized versions of the shows decided to cut all this good stuff out and left us with... well, mostly Davis. Yeesh. Well, at least if you can see around a dozen or so pics of Tai in the third movie in the Image Gallery section.
In the first movie, Tai shown as a little tiny kid about 7 or 8 years of age. In that movie, Tai is the digidestined we see the most. This is because the whole movie is about him and Kari finding a Koromon and helping him evolve and fight Parrotmon. The other digidestined are shown for about 5 seconds each and that's about it. The plot is a little hard to understand but it probably isn't supposed to make too much sense because this was made when or before Digimon was first starting out and I think was to help sell the series. Despite the lack of a comphrehensible storyline I enjoyed the movie because Tai was simply adorable in it. One of my favorite parts was when he wasn't tall enough to reach the steps of the bunk bed and so made a small gasping noise whenever he slipped while climbing down. Kari's commentary was obviously added and facts were changed, but I liked it anyways because it added to the kawaiiness of the movie. I think the Digimon dub is one of the best dubs out there despite the cheezy lines added in. In fact I really enjoy them. It would be very interesting to see a DVD edition of the series because the dub and subbed versions are totally different from each other and it would be fun to compare them...oh wait, Digimon is out on DVD. But it's not an entire season, only the first 13 episodes and they don't have the subbed version. But at least it's cheap. Thirteen episodes for only $22.94 SRP is a steal.
In the second movie, Tai is shown the most also and Izzy and Matt are shown a fair amount too. This movie is set a little after season one and Tai wears pretty much the same clothes as in the show, with the exception of a yellow turtleneck under the star shirt. This was my favoite movie, mainly because of the e-mail (see the Tai and Sora section), but also because it was really funny seeing him trying to get a hold of the other digidestined. Tai and Izzy also had some great chemistry in this movie. All in all it was a great movie for a Taiora and Taishirou fan like me. The only thing that I didn't like about it was the tear-jeaker last scene which became a tad too melodramatic for me. And the animation is really weird...I mean, the animation of all three movies is weird, but in this scene you can really see how skinny and deformed Tai and Matt look.
Taichi is also in the fourth movie, Diablomon Strikes Back, and from what I've seen there will be no way to cut him out of that but. However, I don't think that movie will ever reach North America so whether they could edit Tai out isn't really important. I'm not sure exactly where people have gotten the original Japanese version of it, most likely Megchan. If you're only getting it for Tai though, you'll be disappointed because the 02 digidestined are still featured the most. There is a cute scene in the beginning though when Izzy is showing slides and Taichi's baby picture pops up.
So does the character of Tai in the anime end there? The answer is yes, sadly. None of the older digidestined appear in the third season, which is called Digimon Tamers and most defenitely won't be in Digimon Frontier, the fourth season. This is the end for our original Digimon friends and I'm sad but if it went on much longer, some idiot would have probably screwed it all up anyways. Well, some idiot already screwed up the show by adding those last five minutes of the last episode of the second season, but I'm not here to blame. In fact, if Tai was in the third season I wouldn't be able to watch him anyways because FoxKids programming was dropped in the area where I live after the second season. It would have been maddening if I knew Taichi was having new adventures and I couldn't watch.
And a manga as well...
Tai is also the central character, of the Digimon manga (Manga is the name for Japanese comic books/ graphic novels), called V-Tamer or something like that. The plot of of the story goes like this: In the real world there are people called Digimon-Tamers, mostly kids, and they raise a type of creature on a thing similar to one of the virtual pets that were really hot a few years back, and enter competitions, battling their digimon with other digimon. Tai somehow raises a digimon that wasn't programmed into the game and is therefore disqualified from the competition that he wanted to enter. When he tries to figure out what went wrong he gets transported to the Digital World and meets the Digimon he created, Zero. Zero isn't an Agumon. It looks like a Veemon but is much larger and is a champion (A fatter X-Veemon?).
The two travel to Holy Angel Castle because that's the name Tai heard when he was transported. They are guided by a Gabumon (not the one from the show) who is a servant there. After they arrive they see Leomon training dozens of Agumon using a whip and Tai stops him. Leomon belittles the pair and tests them with a Kuwagamon. Using a brilliant plan, Tai and Zero defeat the Kuwagamon. Then a Magnaangemon appears telling him about a villain called Demon, destroying their world by building a destructive egg. He ends by asking Tai to help them defeat the Demon. Tai agrees and he, Gabumon, and Zero start on their quest. If you're wondering where the other digidestined come in, the answer is they don't, at least to my knowledge. There's another human boy in the Digital World called Neo, but he's the villain. There's also another human called Rei in the latter part of the story but I don't know much about her except that she journeys with Tai and Zero. However, a lot of the digimon we know about appear pretty frequently though they aren't the ones from the show (ex. Gabumon, Gomamon). Tai looks exactly like he does in the anime, and his attitude is pretty much the same as well. But very unlike the anime is the fact that he's shirtless for quite a while, and has got some major abs! *whistles* He's such a hottie! I haven't got far so it's not the most interesting manga, but if you're a major Taichi fan like me you'll want to check it out. Lelola.net has some translations of this manga if you're interested. There are also some pictures from the manga in the Image Gallery
Behind every cute anime guy is a guy who may or may not be cute but has a nice voice.
Since Taichi is part of an anime that was picked up for North American television, he has at least two voice actors. His first voice actor, or seiyuu as it they are called in Japanese, was Fujita Toshiko. He's very elusive and there's hardly any information on him on the net. I don't think he's done a lot of voice work, but I could be wrong. If you have any information on him or a picture please send it to me at whodrn@yahoo.com. The English voice for Tai is the extremely cute Joshua Seth, who besides doing numerous voice work also is a comedy magician. He's got his own official site at joshuaseth.com which, despite the simple design is a great resource for learning about him. The site gives you information and a clip on his magic performances, and links to interviews about his voice over work. In particular, Akira Interview is worth checking out. There are two short quicktime clips of him talking about his role in the more adult anime film Akira. He plays Tetsuo whom you could call the main character, especially if you're biased like me. The movie however, was actually ruined for me because when I heard Tetsuo's voice I was like...that's Tai! And it took me a hard time to separate the two characters which was not a good thing because they were total opposites. He's more like Matt to tell you the truth. But the interview is still fun to watch and you learn some interesting things like the fact that the first anime Seth watched was Akira and it's one of the things that motivated him to get started in the voice acting buisness. If you haven't seen the movie, it is still fun to hear his actual voice and doing the voice over work for it. Wendee Lee, voice of young T.K. and a million other anime voices plays the main female character, Kei and there's an short interview with her too.
Thanks to Megchan for providing a lot of the pictures and information about the 4 movies and the manga .
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