Izumi Kōshirō's laptop
- For the toy based on this device, see Digimon Analyzer Toy.
For the computer used by the Digimon Adventure: version of Izumi Koshiro, see Wisdom Stone.
| Laptop | |
|---|---|
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| Kanji/Kana | ノートパソコン |
In Digimon Adventure and some of its sequels, Izumi Kōshirō owns a distinctive laptop computer (ノートパソコン nōtopasokon). He is a heavy user of it, and as the Chosen Children's adventures continue, Gennai upgrades it with new features and software to better assist the group. It is described in narration as "the key to solving the mystery" of the Digital World.[1]
Overview[edit]
Brand[edit]
Izumi Kōshirō's laptop is of a brand with a pineapple-shaped logo. In the novelization of Digimon Adventure, the brand is named Pineapple.[Japanese spelling needed][2]
Over the years, Kōshirō has owned other Pineapple computers, including desktop computers in the 1999-2002 period[3][4][N 1] and a new laptop with a flat white color scheme in 2005.[5]
In addition, other characters also own Pineapple computers. The computers in the lab at Odaiba Elementary School run the Pineapple operating system.[6] Ishida Yamato[7] and Takenouchi Sora[4] both own desktops of a similar style to Kōshirō's. Laptops of a similar style to Kōshirō's are seen in the ownership of Takenouchi Haruhiko (blue),[8] either Tachikawa Mimi or Michael (crimson),[9] Dingo (orange),[10] Jose (teal), Yuri (purple), and Ilya (also purple).[11]
Design & Analysis[edit]
The Pineapple brand is a play on Apple Computer and its apple-silhouette logo. The design of Kōshirō's laptop and other depicted Pineapple devices also play into this connection and resemble Apple hardware and software:
- The laptop's two-tone color scheme bears a resemblance to the two-tone translucent casings of many of Apple's late-1990s consumer devices, including the iMac G3 and iBook G3 (whose announcement and release post-dates the debut of Digimon Adventure). Its user interface (aside from in Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!) also loosely resembles Apple's Mac OS.
- The desktop computers that Kōshirō and others own in Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 also resemble contemporary Apple desktop hardware, such as the Power Macintosh G3/G4 and Apple Studio Display M2454.
- Kōshirō's new laptop in Digimon Adventure tri. resembles a mid-2000s Apple laptop, such as a PowerBook G4 or MacBook. Its operating system also bears an even more overt resemblance to contemporary mid-2000s editions of Apple's Mac OS X.
The Pineapple brand also occasionally appears in other Digimon anime productions that are not sequels or connected to Adventure, including:
- The convertible laptop used by the Digimon Adventure: version of Koshiro, although unlike the original Kōshirō's laptop, the operating system is instead branded Tachikawa Computer[12]
- The desktop computers owned by Amanokawa Hiro and Tsukiyono Ruli in Digimon Ghost Game (which are near-identical to 2010s-2020s iMacs)[13]
Design[edit]
The laptop is relatively small, but thick. Its outer shell is white with an extra outer layer of yellow trim, and its keys are black. It has various ports on its edges, including a USB port[14] and a telephone jack.[15]
During the 1999 adventure, Gennai installs a two-prong adapter that accepts Digivices, which replaces some of the right-hand function keys. This port includes a pair of grips on its left and right sides which, when a Digivice is inserted and presses down on two adjacent key-shaped switches, raise in response to snugly fit the Digivice into place.[16]
Kōshirō also owns two peripherals which he uses with the laptop: a mobile phone that he uses to connect it to the internet,[17] and a USB headset for voice chat functionality in very limited circumstances.[14] He carries the laptop around in a special fold-out backpack.[17]
Kōshirō's relationship with the laptop[edit]
In 1999, Kōshirō is virtually never seen without his laptop. When the group is not actively on the move, Kōshirō is very frequently seen with it open, working on it or attempting to get it to work.
Kōshirō tends to get so engrossed and focused on his work on it that he cannot think or pay attention to anything else, and has a habit of thinking of that work as the most important thing that he could be doing at any given moment to help the group. This has been known to frustrate and even upset the other Chosen Children and partner Digimon, since any attempts they make to talk to him seemingly go ignored.[14] Tentomon has said in hindsight that initially, Kōshirō was unable to see past his laptop.[18] Kōshirō reflects that this was a coping mechanism following his accidental discovery that he had been adopted, as a way to avoid revealing his true self to anybody.[19]
At first, Kōshirō is highly protective of the laptop and, on one occasion, panics when Yagami Taichi starts hitting it in a misguided attempt to get it to work.[1] He seems to have eventually moved past this protectiveness, as by the end of the 1999 adventure, he is willing to neglect it and let it fall while he tends to Tentomon.[20]
However, after the history of Kōshirō's adoption was revealed to Kōshirō[19], Izumi Masami told Kōshirō with an insistent tone, "It is ok for you to be obsessed with computers!". When Kōshirō looked up with a small exclamation of surprise, Masami elaborated by explaining that Kōshirō "took after" Kōshirō's biological father, Masami's distant relative, who was, in Masami's words, "a university lecturer and genius mathematician".[N 2]
Prior to their adventure, Kōshirō liked using his laptop to email his friends.[21]
In the future, Kōshirō has become a researcher of the Digital World, and while Kōshirō's old laptop is not specifically seen, Kōshirō is still visibly seen working with highly technological, futuristic computer equipment. Kōshirō works with Takenouchi Haruhiko, Sora's father, and Kido Shuu, Jou's older brother, who oversee Kōshirō continuing to work with computers and research as an "advisor"[22].
Software[edit]
Digimon Adventure[edit]
- Net
A web browser.[17] - Remote Access 「リモートアクセス」
An interface for establishing internet connections using a cell phone peripheral.[17] - Program Editor 「プログラムエディタ」
A text editor that Kōshirō uses for writing/transcribing computer code.[1] - Various map utilities, including:
- A floor plan of the Ancient Dino Region ruins' labyrinth. It plots the locations of both traps and individuals inside the labyrinth, and also establishes an audio communication link with said individuals. Acquired by transcribing computer code from the ruins' walls.[14]
- A map of the Digital World, depicting File Island and Server Continent. Provided by Gennai.[23]
- MAP
A utility that includes a) a map of Etemon's network (accessed by intruding on said network), and b) a cross-sectional diagram of Nanomon's Pyramid that maps its interior passages.[24] - RADAR
Detects Digimon in the Real World and plots their locations on a map. Installed by Gennai without Kōshirō's knowledge.[25] - A map of Spiral Mountain's Digital City. Has a search function to find particular facilities, which it plots on the map. Accessed by intruding on the city's network, but in doing so, reveals Kōshirō's location to the network.[15]
- A map of Spiral Mountain itself. Generated using input from Andromon.[26]
- A program that warps space to open a passageway between the chamber of the Crest of Hope and Nanomon's Pyramid. Provided by Nanomon.[24]
- MAIL
An email client.[24] - Digimon Analyzer (labeled ANALYZER on the computer's desktop[25])
A database of information on Digimon species that Kōshirō has encountered. Provided by Gennai.[27]- After the installation of the two-prong adapter, the Digimon Analyzer can also read data from the Digivices of the other Chosen Children, in order to access Digimon Analyzer data on Digimon that the others have encountered but Kōshirō has not.[16]
- Various joke programs that Gennai installed without Kōshirō's knowledge, including:[25]
- Digital Barrier 「デジタルバリア」
Establishes a barrier that renders those in the immediate environment invisible to Vamdemon's minions. Provided by Gennai, for use on Kōshirō's desktop computer.[3] - A program that can mask the physical access point he uses to access networks, and spoof false readings that he is using other access points.[15]
Digimon Adventure: Our War Game![edit]
Unlike Adventure and Adventure 02, Our War Game! depicts Kōshirō's laptop as running Windows 98 as its operating system, like all other computers that appear in the film. As such, the majority of the software that he runs on it here consists of real-life Microsoft software that was bundled with Windows 98.
- Internet Explorer
A web browser. - Outlook Express
An email client. While the client itself is near-identical to the real Outlook Express, the appearance of most individual emails when opened is changed significantly, most notably to include an avatar of its sender. - Gennai's Refuge 「ゲンナイのかくれが」
A window that pops up when Gennai and the partner Digimon reach out to communicate with Kōshirō and Taichi.
Digimon Adventure 02[edit]
- Gate Sensor 「ゲートセンサー」
The standard interface for accessing Digital Gates on computers.[28] - Various map utilities, including:
- A photograph viewer.[29]
- An email client. Throughout the series, Kōshirō is seen using email clients with two radically different user interfaces, one of which is named "INTER EXPRESS".[29][4]
Appearances[edit]
Anime[edit]
Digimon Adventure[edit]
On August 1, 1999, at the moment that the aurora appears at the summer camp, Izumi Kōshirō is attempting and failing to get internet reception for his laptop via his cell phone. His laptop and the cell phone, along with a digital camera, are on his person when he is taken into the Digital World. At first, his laptop is totally nonfunctional while in the Digital World, and he assumes that the cause is the battery being depleted, even though he thought there had still been some charge left at the time that they entered the Digital World.[17][30]
As the group approaches Factorial Town, the laptop suddenly begins working again. When he discovers the giant battery chamber at the heart of the factory, Kōshirō sets to work transcribing the computer code from its inner walls onto his laptop, and to his surprise, once completed, the transcribed code starts moving on its own and forms into a wireframe model of File Island, while also triggering a reaction with his Digivice that electrifies Tentomon; to end the reaction and protect Tentomon, he powers off the laptop. When Andromon attacks the group under the control of a Black Gear, Kōshirō retypes the code at Tentomon's suggestion, triggering Tentomon's first evolution into Kabuterimon. Later, as the group departs Factorial Town through the sewers, the laptop ceases working again.[1]
When he and Tentomon discover the Ancient Dino Region ruins after Devimon splits the Chosen Children up, Kōshirō finds a power outlet inside the ruins that enables his laptop to run. Despite the objections of Tachikawa Mimi and their partner Digimon, he insists on deciphering the ruins' Digimoji inscription in the hope of learning more about File Island; after hours of work, his incomplete transcription of the code produces an incomplete map of the ruins maze and its traps. Upon completion, he gains the ability to track Mimi's location in the maze and to use his headset to talk to her in order to guide her out, as well as detect the presence of Centalmon. He later attempts to further analyze data in order to stop a giant Black Gear that is causing the Ancient Dino Region to float away from Infinity Mountain, although this becomes unnecessary when Mimi kicks the Gear in anger and causes it to reverse.[14]
Following the defeat of Devimon, when Gennai contacts the Chosen Children for the first time, he emails Kōshirō a map of File Island and Server Continent.[23]
During their exploration of Server, the group finds a terminal for Etemon's surveillance network. Kōshirō accesses the network with his laptop to gain information about it, and receives an email from Nanomon asking for help in exchange for sharing the locations of the remaining Crests. After acquiring the Crest of Hope through Nanomon's information, it reveals a passageway into another chamber whose walls are inscribed with computer code, with which Kōshirō causes the chamber to generate a holographic globe map of the Digital World that incorporates Gennai's map. With further coding, he demonstrates that the network pathways of the Real World and those shown on the Digital World globe are identical, concluding from this that the Digital World is inside the Real World's computer network.[24]
Kōshirō runs a program that Nanomon had included with the email to warp space in such a way that links the chamber to the interior of a faraway sphinx, giving them a quick passageway to the vicinity of Nanomon's Pyramid. Using a map of the pyramid, they enter through a secret passageway and make their way to Nanomon's chamber. Nanomon speaks with them through the laptop until Yagami Taichi and Kōshirō release him from his cell.[24]
While Kōshirō is trapped in Vademon's "Universe of Sacred Mysteries," his Digivice suddenly reacts (as does Taichi's simultaneously in the Real World) and a video link is established between Kōshirō's laptop and a PC in the Yagami family apartment. Kōshirō is initially too focused on Vademon's brainwashing curriculum to pay any attention, so Tentomon opens the laptop instead when he hears the Digivice. The connection is unstable, so Taichi does not hear most of what Kōshirō has to say (concluding apathetically that Taichi is never returning to the Digital World) before the connection breaks off entirely.[31][27] After defeating Vademon, Gennai contacts Kōshirō again and transmits the Digimon Analyzer program to his laptop.[27] Going forward, he peridocally uses the Analyzer to support the group in battle.[32][19][33]
During the group's stay at Gennai's Home the night before returning to the Real World, Kōshirō asks Gennai if there is something that he could do about the Analyzer's inability to get information on Digimon that he has not seen. During the night, Gennai acquiesces and installs the two-prong Digivice adapter on the laptop,[16] as well as various other software that he does not mention to Kōshirō.[25]
The next day, when the group enters Vamdemon Castle to unlock the gate to the Real World, Mochimon suggests that the laptop might help Kōshirō solve the gate's card puzzle. Although his first thought (ask for help about the pedestal's symbology on occult forums) is not possible, while browsing through the Digimon Analyzer, he realizes that there is a link between the engravings on the pedestal's card columns (lion, centaur, ape) and the Attributes of Digimon based on the same creatures as those engravings (Leomon, Centalmon, Etemon). Using the Analyzer, as well as the Digivice port on the laptop to access Analyzer data on Tonosama Gekomon and Digitamamon from Kido Jo's Digivice, he identifies the Attributes of the Digimon depicted on the cards and, aside from the Agumon/Gomamon double-up on the Vaccine/Childd card slot, solves the card combination required to open the gate successfully, leaving the decision between choosing the Agumon (incorrect) and Gomamon (correct) cards to Taichi.[16]
Once Kōshirō gets home upon his return to the Real World, he examines the programs that Gennai installed on the laptop and, after being frustrated by the "KANKAN" and "BALLOON" joke programs, discovers the "RADAR" program. An avatar of Gennai inside the program alerts him to the appearance of a mysterious Digimon (Raremon) in Shibaura, prompting Kōshirō and Tentomon to sneak out to confront it.[25]
When Vamdemon's Fantomon and Bakemon minions begin rounding up the residents of Odaiba for imprisonment at Tokyo Big Sight, Kōshirō receives an email from Gennai that contains the Digital Barrier program, and Gennai instructs him via voice communication to transfer the program to his desktop and enable it at once to protect himself. Although the transfer is slow, Kōshirō succeeds just in time for the Bakemons to break into the Izumi family's apartment, at which point the Digital Barrier makes Kōshirō, Tentomon and his parents entirely invisible to the intruders. Gennai goes on to mark the Fuji TV station on a map as the source of Vamdemon's magical barrier.[3]
Shortly after Vamdemon's apparent defeat, Kōshirō receives an email from Gennai containing a propechy inscription from ancient ruins which he describes as a way to defeat Vamdemon. At his parents' suggestion, Kōshirō accompanies Taichi, Ishida Yamato, Takaishi Takeru and Yagami Hikari to the fight with Venom Vamdemon, and uses the Digimon Analyzer to explain the basic mechanics of Evolution Stages to his parents. When his father asks about Venom Vamdemon, Kōshirō checks the Analyzer and is shocked to learn that Venom Vamdemon is of the hitherto unheard-of Ultimate level. At Ishida Hiroaki's request, he brings up the prophecy again, and the group figures out its intended meaning as a way for Taichi, Yamato, Agumon and Gabumon to also unlock the Ultimate level.[19] Once they fulfill it, Kōshirō confirms on the Analyzer that they have indeed become Ultimates.[34]
Once the group returns to the reformatted Digital World following Venom Vamdemon's defeat, Kōshirō attempts to use his laptop to get in contact with Gennai, but fails. As the Dark Masters appear one-by-one to attack them, Kōshirō checks the Digimon Analyzer to identify them as also being Ultimates; in the case of Pinochimon, Pinochimon himself uses his puppeteering abilities to mockingly force Kōshirō to open his laptop and look him up.[33]
During their ride with Whamon to escape Metal Seadramon, Kōshirō uses the Digimon Analyzer to learn about War Greymon's Dramon Killers, and shows its information to the group as a way that they can defeat some of the Dark Masters. Once they have fled underwater once Metal Seadramon's pursuit has begun, Kōshirō links his laptop to Whamon's sensory data, enabling the laptop to display what Whamon is seeing, so that the Chosen Children can see from inside him. Shortly, after, he uses this link, together with Yagami Hikari's whistle generating a makeshift sonar pulse, to locate an undersea tunnel to continue through.[35]
In Spiral Mountain's Digital City, when Taichi and Kōshirō begin their search for medicine for Hikari's fever, Kōshirō repeatedly plugs his laptop into the city's network to access maps and information about the city. He uses this information to locate medical facilities which might have medicine, and to access a database of information on medicines to identify the appropriate one for Hikari (ZE 22 Y-ZE) from a database, but in doing so, he exposes their presence and location to Mugendramon's systems to their presence. At first, he does not realize this and continues to access the network to locate Mugendramon's forces and plot a safe way out, and only realizes his mistake once he sees the forces approaching their location on the map. In order to escape them, he comes up with the idea of exploiting Mugendramon's strategy by using a program on his laptop to not only mask his access point, but spoof false readings that report that he is at multiple access points across the city, to confuse the enemy. Mugendramon, however, responds by initiating "Plan Z" to level the entire city.[15]
When Taichi and Kōshirō's group reaches the top of Spiral Mountain, Kōshirō plugs his laptop into Andromon, and the two use Andromon's ability to access data from terrain to generate a map of Spiral Mountain on the laptop, confirming their location at its top.[26]
Following the defeat of Piemon, Gennai emails Kōshirō to warn him about the existence of the "true enemy".[36] Once they have been taken into Apocalymon's darkness, Gennai initiates a video call to explain further and introduce them to the Ancient Dino Ruins inscriptions documenting Apocalymon's history.[18]
When the Chosen Children are preparing to return to the Real World after Apocalymon's defeat, Kōshirō hooks his laptop up to the Dragon Eye Lake trolley car and works on it while a Mechanorimon conducts maintenance on it outside.[N 3] As he and Tentomon say their farewells, Tentomon is taken aback by Kōshirō's continued insistence at formal speech and falls off his seat, prompting Kōshirō to rush down to aid him, knocking his laptop down in the process.[20]
Digimon Adventure: Our War Game![edit]
At the moment that he discovers the Digitama that eventually becomes Diablomon, Izumi Kōshirō has his laptop open alongside his desktop PC. He brings the laptop with him to the Yagami residence, to show Diablomon (at the time in the form of Kuramon) to Yagami Taichi. Gennai and the partner Digimon contact Taichi and Kōshirō through it via a "Gennai's Refuge" pop-up, in order to volunteer to assist in fighting Diablomon.
Throughout most of the battle, Kōshirō uses the laptop for handling the emails that they receive, while they use Yagami Susumu's PC as their main computer for tracking Diablomon.
Digimon Adventure 02[edit]
When he, Yagami Taichi and Ishida Yamato embark on a camping trip as a cover story for Motomiya Daisuke's group of Chosen Children's expedition into the Digital World to defeat the Digimon Kaiser, Izumi Kōshirō brings this laptop with him.[37] Throughout the mission, he keeps in contact with Daisuke's group via email, and Yagami Hikari sends Kōshirō photographs of Chimairamon to enable him to identify its components.[29] Once their mission is completed, the group returns to the Real World via the laptop to arrive at the campground, to maintain the cover story; at the time that they return, Kōshirō and the laptop are in the woods as Kōshirō feigns searching for the group to keep Motomiya Jun fooled, and he is taken by surprise by the opening of the Digital Gate as it dumps the group right on top of him.[28]
On December 25, 2002, following Gennai's instructions, Kōshirō points the screens of this laptop and one of his desktop computers at one another, in order to cause Gennai to Realize in his bedroom in a beam of light created by the two screens.[4] Afterward, he brings the laptop with him when he and Hikari travel to Hong Kong, and they use it with Hikari's D-3 to open a Digital Gate and send the rounded-up Digimon from South and Southeast Asia back to the Digital World.[9]
On December 31, 2002, when he accompanies Taichi, Yamato, Takenouchi Sora, Kido Jo, Kawada Noriko and their parents back to the summer camp site in the hope of traveling to the Digital World, Kōshirō brings his laptop with him. A map utility on it detects the reaction of Digital Gates all over the world as they respond to the light of Digivices from all around the Digital World.[22]
Video Games[edit]
Digimon Adventure: Cathode Tamer[edit]
Kōshirō's laptop—specifically, the Digimon Analyzer toy depiction of it—appears in the connection screen for the Ancient Colosseum's Analyze mode (i.e. sending a Digimon to the Digimon Analyzer toy).
This function, and therefore this depiction of the laptop, is only present in Digimon Adventure: Cathode Tamer and Digimon Anode/Cathode Tamer: Veedramon Version, and not Digimon Adventure: Anode Tamer.
Digimon Adventure[edit]
The laptop is used in the same way as it was in the Digimon Adventure anime, with the addition of events happening in game-exclusive Sub-Episodes.
In Sub-Episode 14, "Food for Thought", which happens after Episode 31, "Vamdemon, the Castle of Darkness", after Tentomon asked Izumi Kōshirō if he could cook, he acknowledged he couldn't but he tried using his computer to help him do so. His research got him to search for specific ingredients: DigiTaters, DigiTomatoes, DigiCelery and DigiPineaps; as well as the recipe to prepare the Food for Thought. However, everyone disliked the final product, including Kōshirō himself.
Virtual Pets[edit]
Digimon Analyzer Toy[edit]
This laptop, and its Digimon Analyzer functionality in particular, is the basis for the Digimon Analyzer LCD toy. It is a database companion to contemporary virtual pets and the Adventure Digivice toy, and is also compatible with certain WonderSwan video games.
TCG[edit]
| Hyper Colosseum | |
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Image Gallery[edit]
Artwork[edit]
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| Digimon Adventure | Digimon Adventure |
Video Games[edit]
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| Digimon Anode/Cathode Tamer: Veedramon Version | Digimon Adventure |
