D-Reaper (Tamers)
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| D-Reaper | |
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| Kanji/Kana | デ・リーパー |
| Dub Name | D-Reaper |
| Voice Actor |  Asada Yōko (浅田 葉子) (ADR-01/ADR-07/Mother)
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 Bridget Hoffman (ADR-01/ADR-07/Mother)
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The D-Reaper is an antagonistic force in Digimon Tamers.
Evolution[edit]
| Original | D-Reaper (original program)[N 1] |
| Evolution | D-Reaper |
Profile[edit]
Appearances[edit]
Anime[edit]
Digimon Tamers[edit]
The D-Reaper was originally a computer program, also called the "D-Reaper,"[N 1] which was created in the 1970s, long before the Wild Bunch began their research;[1] therefore, it predates other digital lifeforms such as the DigiGnomes and Digimon. The identity of the program's original author is unknown.[4] Its original purpose was to purge data from memory spaces in order to reset them to zero[1] (alternatively described as deleting useless data from the Network[5]).
At some point, however, the program underwent an aberrant evolution and became the D-Reaper entity.[6][7] The precise cause of its evolution is a mystery, but it is speculated to have come into contact with another world entirely during its hibernation in the depths of the Digital World.[8][4]
Multiple events in the history of networking and computer science have been speculated or implied to have been linked in some way to the D-Reaper:
- In the early 1970s, the world's first computer worm, Creeper, spread across the United States Department of Defense's ARPANET until a program by the name of Reaper eradicated it.[2]
- The self-defense system built into the American/British mass surveillance program ECHELON, whose operations commenced in the 1980s, is theorized by some to have been a forerunner to the D-Reaper.[2]
- In 1990, the Tierra computer life simulator had a Reaper program which committed a genocide against the simulation's virtual lifeforms after they multiplied to the point of exceeding memory limitations.[2]
According to Qinglongmon, the D-Reaper had been present in the Digital World since its earliest days, when the Digital World consisted only of the physical layer. It inhabited the layer along with the early Digimon and the DigiGnomes; the Digimon had no knowledge of its name or nature beyond that it was neither a Digimon nor a DigiGnome, but they deduced that its purpose was to delete them, and came to refer to it as "the true enemy" 「真の敵」. The D-Reaper was at one time in early history actively seeking out and deleting Digimon and DigiGnomes, but after a time, it totally vanished from the Digital World, retreated to a world of its own creation in the Digital World's deepest depths, and entered hibernation.[5]
In the D-Reaper's absence, there was a simultaneous rapid expansion of both the Network and the Digital World. The Digimon were able to proliferate and evolve, but they did so at too fast a rate, and this triggered the D-Reaper into reawakening, with the intent of deleting them.[1] In an attempt to avoid provoking the D-Reaper, Qinglongmon had the Digi-Entelechy transformed into a Digimon and hidden away, to make evolution impossible.[5]
The D-Reaper remained dormant for most of the show until some time after Zhuqiaomon manipulated Impmon into accepting the gift of evolution through Caturamon. From there, Impmon evolved into Beelzebumon and went mad with power, eventually killing Katou Juri's Leomon. [9] This action caused Juri to fall into depression for the remainder of the show, allowing the D-Reaper an opportunity to use her as a conduit which it uses to analyze humanity and empower itself. It then captured her by taking over her hand puppet and tricking her into walking towards it. However, as the girl it captured was in a despondent state, the D-Reaper only knew that human and Digimon existence is shallow and self-destructive by nature, and thus went straight into annihilating both the human and Digital Worlds under this premise. The D-Reaper then swapped the real Juri with a fake with blank eyes, grey skin, a creepy expression and perpetually bare feet to spy on those around her, with none of them knowing the better. [10]
The D-Reaper then managed to enter the real world from the Digital World and manifested from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building where Takato and co. came out from the Digital World, turning the area around it into a sea made out of a red, goo-like substance. From there the Tamers battle the Agents that endlessly appear from the zone, but find themselves outmatched. This changed when Alice McCoy and Dobermon appeared, the latter who sacrificed its own life to grant them the ability to evolve into their Ultimate forms in the real world. [6] The Tamers can now enter the D-Reaper Zone to confront the D-Reaper itself and save Juri.
Once Takato goes into the D-Reaper Zone alone (as Dukemon), he encounters fake Juri again. He still thinks that the Juri was real, but Guilmon was able to recognize her as a fake manifested by the D-Reaper. Takato ignores Guilmon's warnings and Fake Juri announces its intentions to eradicate all life in both human and Digital Worlds, and has now learnt how to destroy organic matter. It then proceeded to psychologically torture Takato for a while before exposing its true form as D-Reaper ADR-01 to attack them only for Kitagawa Kenta's Marin Angemon to scare it away with its Ocean Love and save him and Guilmon.[11]
The Tamers, now joined by Akiyama Ryo, who is now able to Matrix Evolution into Justimon, continues to fight uphill battles against the D-Reaper Agents until the D-Reaper ADR-09 manifested with Juri and Culumon trapped inside its Kernel Sphere and the D-Reaper began transmitting live feed of its battle with the tamers by hijacking telecommunications. Beelzebumon decides to join forces with Takato-Dukemon to break the Kernel Sphere and save Juri. In spite of the D-Reaper attempting to psychologically torture him, Beelzebumon manages to temporarily destroy the Kernel Sphere using Leomon's Jūouken, but this triggered Juri's PTSD instead and the D-Reaper reacts, closing it off again and taking Beelzebumon out from the fight by cutting it with its wings.[12] Seeing that the children had failed to stop the D-Reaper, the adults themselves ordered the children to leave as they will drop stealth bombers loaded with EMP bombs on the D-Reaper to halt its advance. This fails and the D-Reaper reacts by increasing its mass further and evolving the ADR-09 Agent into the Mother D-Reaper. Furthermore, while the army is bombarding it, ADR-01 appears inside the Kernel Sphere taunting Juri and telling her to scream more so she could empower the D-Reaper, before it was assimilated into the Mother D-Reaper as well. The operation has ended up in failure, and all efforts to confront the D-Reaper have ceased. At the meantime, D-Reaper cells are appearing across the entire world.[13]
A week later, the Wild Bunch found a way to deal with the D-Reaper once and for all, coining it as "Operation Doodlebug". The final operation consists of two parts; a Red Card that changes the Digimon's native wavelengths to become identical to those of the D-Reaper, which allows them to battle inside the D-Reaper Zone without suffering from its weakening effects, and a version of the Shaggai program loaded into Terriermon, so when it evolves into Saint Galgomon it will reverse the Transphotic Eddy flow used to power it and completely delete it out of existence. [14] The Tamers then initiate a grueling battle against the D-Reaper, with Dukemon: Crimson Mode fighting the Mother D-Reaper's minions alone and Sakuyamon, Saint Galgomon and Justimon fighting the newly-spawned Reaper.
Sakuyamon gives all of her power to Justimon to power up its Critical Arm to slice off the Reaper in a single hit. It regenerates only to be dragged down by the Four Holy Beasts. Dukemon: Crimson Mode battles through hordes of D-Reaper ADR-06 units, eventually facing a grossly deformed version of ADR-01, destroying it in an uphill clash and finally freeing Juri and Culumon from the D-Reaper. The Mother D-Reaper tries to attack Takato with its tentacles, only for Saint Galgomon to go inside it and activate the Shaggai program, which caused the D-Reaper to be dragged down in a vortex and quickly disintegrate, the Mother D-Reaper body being drawn in screaming as it disappears. This operation comes with a price that the Wild Bunch realized too late; since Red Card modifies the Digimon's wavelengths to match those of the D-Reaper's, the children and Digimon are under the risk of being erased alongside the D-Reaper while they are inside the D-Reaper Zone. However, Kenta and Marin Angemon's timely intervention allowed them to escape, as Marin Angemon's Ocean Love imparted them immunity to the D-Reaper's presence. The operation also had another cost; that the children's Digimon will slowly devolve back into programs, and thus must return to the Digital World and bid farewell with their partners. [8]
Properties[edit]
The form in which the D-Reaper is first encountered in the Digital World is a gelatinous mass (hereafter, a "body," for convenience) that gives off bubbles. Its form in the Real World, known as the D-Reaper Zone, is very similar in appearance, except vastly larger and constantly expanding further to envelop the terrain around it within itself; the Wild Bunch diagnose it as a quantum bubble, inside which data flows at superluminal speeds, which is structured like a quantum supercomputer.[13] Its native wavelengths differ from those of Digimon[8].
In the Digital World, anything that comes into contact with the D-Reaper body or its bubbles is deleted.[15] In the Real World, however, this ability is hampered. Notably, D-Reaper Zone initially attempts to avoid living organisms, including plant life,[6] until its analysis of such organisms is complete.[11] Digimon cannot maintain an evolved form while within a D-Reaper Zone[11] unless if their data is modified to resemble the D-Reaper's by the Red Card[8]. This makes it very difficult for Digimon to take out the D-Reaper or infiltrate it without special measures.
D-Reaper bodies operate at a high temperature, both internally[13] and externally; early in the spread of the Tokyo D-Reaper Zone in February, the ambient temperature around its margins is reported to be 30°C despite it being winter.[6] How hot a D-Reaper body, or an area of it, it is appears to correlate with the strength of its effect in that given area,[16] and with its own growth and expansion. In particular, interconnecting with other D-Reaper bodies around the world triggers such a rapid spike in its temperature that it is projected to be capable of singlehandedly changing Earth's climate if it continues to rise at the same rate.[13]
The D-Reaper's "brain" is a central artificial intelligence core known as the Kernel 「カーネル」.[16] The data that it takes in accumulates in the Kernel; the passage of the data can be traced to identify the Kernel's location.[7] The purpose of the "Gatekeeper" Agent is to form a protective wall around the Kernel.[12] Although there is only one Kernel, it is possible for multiple D-Reaper bodies to exist; at its peak, there are multiple D-Reaper bodies in locations all around Earth, as well as in the Digital World.[12] D-Reaper bodies are capable of interconnecting with each other,[13] even between the Real and Digital Worlds.[14]
The D-Reaper draws power from Katou Juri's negative emotions and, toward the end, actively attempts to break her to stimulate its own growth.[13] It is also capable of accessing and analyzing her memories to inform itself.[7] This behavior allowed the D-Reaper to freely play psychological warfare Matsuda Takato and Beelzebumon using the former's close relationship with Juri and the latter's role in directly killing her partner Leomon [12].
Agents[edit]
By loading Digimon data and analyzing their capabilities, the D-Reaper is capable of creating entities referred to by humans as Agents 「エージェント」.[N 2] Which act as extensions of the D-Reaper body itself, with far better mobility[6] and various specific purposes to serve the D-Reaper's needs. Agents have no individual identity or will at all, and all of them operate in accordance with the consciousness of the D-Reaper itself.[17] All of the Agents used for combat are extremely powerful and even lesser Agents can easily overwhelm Perfect Digimon.[6] Greater Agents had been proven to be more of a match against Ultimate-level Digimon. Some agents can even play physical warfare specifically against Takato or Beelzebumon. All D-Reaper Agents can be redeployed at any time as long as the D-Reaper deems it to serve a purpose.[17]
When an Agent is operating outside the D-Reaper Zone, it remains tethered to the Zone with a red, umbilical cord-like[6] cable, which supplies it with energy.[16] Severing this cable can incapacite the Agent.[1]
As the D-Reaper exclusively fed on Juri's negative emotions, at least D-Reaper ADR-01 appears to be particularly vulnerable to Marin Angemon's Ocean Love. [16] However, Marine Angemon's small size means that it is ineffective against the D-Reaper as a whole.
| Agent | Debut | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|
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D-Reaper ADR-01 "Juri Type" |
"Evolutionary Radiance - Shining Evolution" (Juri impostor) "Stand Up to the D-Reaper - Charge into the Zone!" (True form) |
Espionage |
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D-Reaper ADR-02 "Searcher" |
"The City Attacked by the D-Reaper" | Information Gathering |
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D-Reaper ADR-03 "Pendulum Feet" |
"The City Attacked by the D-Reaper" | Aerial Assault |
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D-Reaper ADR-04 "Bubbles" |
"The Mysterious Girl! The Bringer of Miracles Dobermon" | Ground Assault |
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D-Reaper ADR-05 "Creep Hands" |
"The Mysterious Girl! The Bringer of Miracles Dobermon" | Grappling |
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D-Reaper ADR-06 "Horn Striker" |
"Stand Up to the D-Reaper - Charge into the Zone!" | Commander |
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D-Reaper ADR-07 "Palates Head" |
"Save Dukemon! Grani Scramble" | Armed Reconnaissance |
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D-Reaper ADR-08 "Optimizer" |
"Save Dukemon! Grani Scramble" | Mother Ship |
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D-Reaper ADR-09 "Gatekeeper" |
"Save Dukemon! Grani Scramble" | Base Defense |
| n.b. None of the D-Reaper Agents are referred to by name in Digimon Tamers itself. | |||
Personality[edit]
As a primitive program, the D-Reaper originally did not, and should not have had, the capacity for intelligence or emotions.[5] This changes once it has analyzed Katou Juri and absorbs these faculties from her.[11][13] It also duplicates her speaking voice and has a tendency to target anyone with a close enough relationship with her in an exceptionally cruel manner anytime it is given the opportunity to.[7] By contrast, it does not attempt to communicate with anyone who is not directly invested in Juri's life (e.g. Makino Ruki or Akiyama Ryo) and merely deals with them through brute force.
It is unclear if the D-Reaper has agency (the ability to define good or evil) or has gained it to begin with. While most of its "dialogue" consists solely of the exact same, nihilistic conclusions against humanity and Digimon repeated ad infinitum and it never speaks to anyone bar those it identified as being particularly close to Juri, there was one moment where D-Reaper ADR-01 taunted Juri and told her she should "scream more" to empower to D-Reaper before it manifested its Mother D-Reaper form. [13]
When communicating its intent to destroy humans and Digimon, it positions its reasoning as objective and based on the facts identified in its analysis: that humans are weak, foolish and contradictory, and that their thought process are illogical and cause them to desire destruction and wish harm upon others, and to only ever act accordingly.[11][13][14] It deems the Digimon, as creations of humans, to also be foolish,[13] and condemns them for their need to consume other Digimon in order to further the individual's own evolution.[14] Its conclusion is that humans and Digimon are not worthy of existing and should never have existed,[11][8] and therefore it has taken it upon itself to reset the worlds to zero.[13] By its own admission, all of its nihilistic views against life were only extrapolated solely from Juri, who was in a despondent state after losing Leomon to Beelzebumon, and its thought algorithms were similar to hers when it first analyzed her (and has likely never evolved past that point). Thus, it was unable to draw any other conclusions towards humanity and Digimon beyond their absolute worst. [11]
Despite this, Mizuno Gorou speculates that the D-Reaper is also emotionally motivated by fear of the unknown, just like humans.[7] As a result, it analyzes its surroundings, including sample specimens, to attempt to understand the unfamiliar and draw conclusions.[7]
While speaking, the D-Reaper always refers to itself in the third person.[11]
