Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express

Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express (デジモンテイマーズ　暴走デジモン特急 Dejimon Teimāzu Bōsō no Dejimon Tokkyū; Dub: Digimon: Runaway Locomon) is a short film. It is the second and final film to be based on the Digimon Tamers anime series, and is set after the series' conclusion.

It premiered on March 2, 2002 as part of the 2002 Spring Toei Anime Fair, alongside ' and its preceding short film '.

=Characters=

=Summary=

Teaser
Makino Ruki and her mother, Makino Rumiko, are at the train station, on their way home from having gone out for . Ruki is on her mobile phone, grilling Matsuda Takato over how she finds it suspicious that her mother would take her out for hanami when it is not the right season. Takato caves and admits that the others are trying to prepare a surprise birthday party for her. Although she is privately conflicted about it, she insists to Takato that she does not want any such party.

At that moment, Locomon runs past at great speed, causing a commotion. Ruki takes off after it.

As the others make their preparations for the birthday party, word of Locomon's appearance begins to spread on news bulletins and in public, getting their attention. The other Tamers take notice and begin to set off in pursuit of it as well. Another train sees Locomon coming straight at it, and is diverted at the last moment to avoid a collision.

Meanwhile, Katou Juri and Culumon are at Ruki's home with her grandmother, Hata Seiko, preparing the cake for the party. Juri, too, sees a news bulletin about Locomon.

Act 1
Takato and Guilmon rush to a station platform as Locomon approaches, and Takato realizes that Locomon is not a normal train, but a Digimon. Guilmon evolves into Growmon and attempts to manually stop Locomon. However, Locomon insists that it must "keep going" and increases its speed, throwing Growmon aside and onto the street below. Takato jumps aboard Locomon's rear train car and instructs Growmon to seek help from the others as the train carries him away.

At Akihabara Station, Lee Jianliang, Lee Shaochung, Terriermon and Lopmon disembark from their train, having originally intended to pick Ruki up, but Jianliang insists that they take a shortcut back to Shinjuku in response to Locomon's appearance. Partway through their walk back, while Jianliang has stopped to Shaochung a piggyback ride when she becomes too exhausted to keep walking, Terriermon spots a Digital Zone in the sky over, and the group speculates that it has something to do with Locomon.

Aboard Locomon's train, Takato starts making his way forward through the train cars, aiming to reach Locomon itself.

Ruki rushes to another train station in preparation for Locomon to pass through there, although, as she admits to Renamon, she has no plan for what to do.

At the railway command center, operators take notice of Locomon and command all other trains to stop. Yamaki Mitsuo arrives and takes command of their systems, and has Ootori Reika establish a computer link with Hypnos and initiate a scan.

Shioda Hirokazu and Guardromon run into Kitagawa Kenta and Marin Angemon, as well as Guilmon who, exhausted and devolved, is shambling along by himself. Guilmon reports to them what Takato is doing.

Takato reaches Locomon's cab as Ruki and Renamon jump off a bridge to board Locomon as well. With Renamon present, they are able to attempt Takato's initial plan—Slash a Shellmon card and use its to extinguish Locomon's firebox—but the fire is too hot for the water to have any effect. Ruki attempts to grill Takato further about the birthday party—Takato admits it was Juri's idea—but Takato's apology over knowing that Ruki does not like parties strikes a nerve.

Impmon (as Beelzebumon) rides up alongside Locomon on Behemoth and attempts to shoot out Locomon's mechanisms to halt its movement. His shots have no effect at all, and Locomon deploys its to stop him, tearing apart Behemoth and ending Beelzebumon's pursuit of it.

Meanwhile, the Digital Zone continues to spread downward, making contact with Ichigaya below it and causing the terrain and buildings themselves to start glitching. Reika and Onodera Megumi conclude from their scans that, if not stopped, the Digital Zone will merge with the Real World. Yamaki theorizes that they could reverse the process if they could force Locomon to run through the Digital Zone, and orders the railroad operators to construct a new, physical switch at Station to redirect Locomon.

Act 2
Hirokazu, Kenta and Guilmon run into Jianliang, who has since left Shaochung behind at Shinjuku Station, but accidentally took Lopmon with him instead of Terriermon. Jianliang suggests that they commandeer a nearby train engine and have Guardromon propel it, so they can catch up to Locomon. The group leaves Guilmon behind, who begins digging under the rail lines.

Workers report to the operations office that two children are aboard Locomon. Yamaki immediately concludes that it is the Tamers and contacts Takato and Ruki to inform them of the plan to redirect Locomon, and instructs them to disembark beforehand. Ruki is unhappy at the news and snaps at Takato, insisting that she does not trust adults, and sets off back into Locomon's cab by herself, intent on stopping it alone. However, when she attempts to do so, tentacles erupt from its firebox.

As Locomon approaches Yoyogi, Yamaki calls Takato and Renamon again and instructs the group to disembark immediately. Ruki returns to the room, possessed, and approaches the two ominously, wielding a massive wrench. Renamon senses that something is amiss, but Takato obliviously keeps trying to update her.

Inside her head, Ruki relieves an old memory of herself in her early childhood on a swing, singing, with her father. She suddenly takes the place of her child self and, although she remarks on not liking singing, begins singing the same song. The "memory" progresses to her present-day self enjoying her father's company, but her father abruptly walks away without her and vanishes.

In reality, the possessed Ruki takes a swing at Takato and Renamon, telling them in a monotone not to get in her way and that she "wants to sing". Renamon moves to protect Takato from Ruki.

Outside, Locomon rapidly approaches the hole that Guilmon has dug. Guilmon hides in the hole, then, as Locomon's last train car passes, grabs on to it. Guardromon's train is in pursuit. Locomon runs through Shinjuku Station, and Shaochung notices that Ruki, Takato and Renamon are all on board it. As Guardromon's train passes, Jianliang reaches out and pulls Terriermon aboard, while Lopmon disembarks and rejoins Shaochung.

While Guilmon smashes his way through Locomon's train cars to reach Takato, Guardromon's car pulls ahead. They witness Renamon, heavily injured, being thrown out of the train, and Guardromon catches her.

Aboard the train, Takato flees from Ruki and climbs onto Locomon's roof. Yamaki calls him to try and get an update, but the mobile phone is shot out of Takato's hands. Takato's words continue to go unacknowledged by Ruki. Meanwhile, inside the train car below them, Guilmon smells something suspicious and, despite Hirokazu's attempts to stop him, fires a that blasts apart Locomon's back and reveals a mass of tentacles. In doing so, he also reveals an insect-like entity with legs and tentacles protruding from Ruki's back.

Jianliang uses his D-Ark's Digimon Analyzer function, which identifies Parasimon. Parasimon becomes visible on top of Locomon itself, having taken possession of it and, apparently, forced it to want to "keep running", in addition to also controlling Ruki through its tentacles. Ruki/Parasimon fires lasers at Takato and throws him off the train, and he barely clings onto the edge.

The operations office receives word that preparations at Yoyogi are almost complete. However, Yamaki instead insists that they delay putting the plan into action, as he trusts the Tamers to resolve the crisis.

Guilmon climbs on top of Locomon as well, completely unnoticed by Ruki. He spots the Parasimon entity on Ruki's back and, without hesitating, destroys it with his, freeing Ruki. He helps Takato climb back aboard.

Act 3
With the preparations at Yoyogi complete and Locomon nearly there, Yamaki gives the order to divert Locomon onto a different track, sending it toward the Digital Zone. However, the turbulence from the track causes Ruki to fall off Locomon. Takato grabs her hand, and he and Guilmon try to keep her from falling.

Locomon evolves into Grand Locomon. Guardromon's train continues its pursuit of Grand Locomon, and Jianliang worries that Takato, Ruki and Guilmon will be sent into the Digital Zone as well. At Renamon's request, Guardromon speeds the train up, enabling Renamon to reboard the train cars, open a window, and pull Ruki inside.

Grand Locomon disengages the other train cars, threatening to leave Takato and Ruki behind. They race to catch up with Grand Locomon before they are left behind, but Ruki encounters Parasimon tentacles that ensnare her and drag her away to Parasimon.

In response, Takato and Guilmon Matrix Evolve into Dukemon and climb aboard Grand Locomon. Dukemon cleaves through Parasimon's tentacles and releases Ruki. While he accuses Parasimon of manipulating Ruki and Locomon, Renamon concedes that without Parasimon, they would never have heard Ruki's singing. In "gratitude" for that, Dukemon easily destroys Parasimon with, but as it dies, it fires into the Digital Zone and declares that it has already accomplished its mission and that Grand Locomon will run forever.

In response to Parasimon, many more Parasimons Realize from the Digital Zone and attack Tokyo. Dukemon and Jianliang conclude that Parasimon's plan was to have Locomon create a Digital Zone, though which the other Parasimons could enter and invade the Real World. Jianliang, Terriermon, Ruki and Renamon Matrix Evolve into Saint Galgomon and Sakuyamon, and Saint Galgomon carries Sakuyamon and Dukemon to the Digital Zone to engage the Parasimons. However, despite the Parasimons being unable to withstand their attacks, they keep Realizing in numbers too massive for the three to keep up.

Hypnos' systems detect another, different Digimon Realizing: Akiyama Ryo and Cyberdramon in their Matrix Evolved form, Justimon. Ruki is not impressed to see him, but he joins the battle to assist them.

Elsewhere, Guardromon's train comes under attack from Parasimons, who Guardromon and Marin Angemon easily dispatch. At Shinjuku Station, multiple Parasimons corner Shaochung and Lopmon, but Beelzebumon (in his Blast Mode) arrives to protect them.

The sheer numbers of the Parasimons begin to overwhelm Dukemon, Sakuyamon, Saint Galgomon and Justimon. As the four are ensnared, Takato/Dukemon defiantly declares that they will not be beaten, and unleashes a bright red light, Mode Changing into Dukemon: Crimson Mode.

Dukemon: Crimson Mode flies at the Digital Zone and, using, throws into the aperture of the Digital Zone. It calls down a wave of light that impacts the city and disintegrates all of the Parasimon, ending the battle.

Grand Locomon is freed from possession, reverts into Locomon, and departs into the Digital Zone as it vanishes. However, its disposition does not change at all, and it still insists that it must "keep running", to the confusion of the Tamers.

That evening, at the Makino household, the Tamers (now joined by Juri and Culumon), their Digimon, Rumiko and Seiko, gather for the birthday party. Everyone else is excited for the occasion, but Ruki barely responds at all, although she does acquiesce when Juri asks her to blow out the candles. Afterward, the party continues, although when Shaochung ends her attempt at karaoke and asks Ruki to go next, Ruki silently leaves the room. Rumiko volunteers to sing instead.

Takato moves to follow Ruki and check in on her, but Renamon appears and stops him, and the two walk away. Ruki sits by herself on the veranda of the house, silently watching the sunset for a time.

==

=Screenshots=

=Gallery=

Promo
=Credits=

Soundtrack

 * Main article: Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express Original Soundtrack

Uncredited songs:

=Production= Chiaki J. Konaka has stated that he was not involved in, or consulted for, the production of The Runaway Digimon Express, and has claimed that his lack of involvement is the reason for the discontinuities between the Tamers series and the film.

=Reception= In May 2020, in an informal Digimon Web poll in which users were asked to vote for their favorite Digimon film, The Runaway Digimon Express placed seventh, earning 4% of the vote.

=Extra=

Evolutions

 * Guilmon → Growmon
 * Guilmon + Matsuda Takato → Dukemon → Dukemon: Crimson Mode
 * Renamon + Makino Ruki → Sakuyamon
 * Terriermon + Lee Jianliang → Saint Galgomon
 * Cyberdramon + Akiyama Ryo → Justimon
 * Impmon → Beelzebumon → Beelzebumon: Blast Mode
 * Locomon → Grand Locomon

In Other Media
Parasimon has a recurring role in Version 2.0 of the Southeast Asian D-Power Digivice toy, as a random encounter which can abduct and possess Digimon in the players party. Digimon who are possessed by Parasimon appear in subsequent random encounters to fight the player, and may be rescued from Parasimon by defeating them.

Home Media Releases
=Edits=

American English
The American English dub of The Runaway Digimon Express, re-titled Digimon: Runaway Locomon, was produced by on behalf of  in 2005 (several years after production on the dub of Digimon Tamers itself concluded), alongside dubs of the other three previously-undubbed Toei Anime Fair films. It aired on 's "Big Movie Show" programming block.

Since its original airing, the Runaway Locomon dub has never been issued on home media or streaming services.


 * As usual for American English dubbed Digimon productions, the score is almost totally replaced in Runaway Locomon. However, instead of reusing music from the /Disney English dub of Tamers, Runaway Locomon reuses the soundtrack of Disney's English dub of Digimon Frontier, including using the Frontier dub's theme song, "A World For Us All" (albeit modified to remove the lyrics' references to Frontier 's Spirit Evolution concept) as a substitute for the Saban "Digimon Theme".


 * There is one major exception to the soundtrack replacement: the melody for "Yūhi no Yakusoku" is retained in Runaway Locomon, and new English lyrics are written for it. Unlike the original, however, it is only heard once as the version that Rika Nonaka (Makino Ruki) sings in her imagination, and no version of it is played over the end credits (which, like the other films dubbed in 2005, use an instrumental version of "A World For Us All").
 * As usual for contemporary American English Digimon dubs, dialog is generally longer-winded, previously nonexistent jokes are often added, and previously nonexistent dialog is often added over what were originally moments of silence. Notably, they routinely make puns about Locomon being "loco" (crazy).
 * In The Runaway Digimon Express, Makino Rumiko takes Ruki out for  as a means to keep her busy while the others prepare for the birthday party, and since it is not the appropriate season for hanami, she is immediately and vocally suspicious. In Runaway Locomon, Rika is instead taken to the museum, and her cause for suspicion is instead that her mother "likes, not ".
 * Although it did already have lines of dialog in The Runaway Digimon Express, Runaway Locomon greatly expands the amount of dialog that Locomon is given. The dub also gives it a voice based on country singer Johnny Cash.
 * In Runaway Locomon, Guilmon sometimes, but not always, addresses Takato Matsuki (Matsuda Takato) as "Takatomon". He does not do this in The Runaway Digimon Express. This is a continuation of a trend in the Tamers dub, which perpetuated the "Takatomon" nickname significantly longer than the original version, in which it was only used in one scene in one episode.
 * In The Runaway Digimon Express, the characters routinely name-drop actual locations and train stations in Tokyo as they relate to their mission. Runaway Locomon omits all of these mentions in favor of generic terms like "downtown". This is a departure from the dub of the Tamers series, which generally retained references to Japanese locations.
 * The railway stations are instead identified by a numbering system; for instance, Yoyogi Station becomes "Station 9".
 * Some, but not all, background Japanese text is edited out. Notably, the Digimon Analyzer readouts are not edited at all and still present Digimon names in Japanese, unlike the Tamers dub.
 * As in the dub of Tamers, the "EVOLUTION" and "MATRIX EVOLUTION" text readouts on D-Ark screens during evolution stock footage are edited to instead read, respectively, "DIGIVOLUTION" and "BIOMERGE DIGIVOLUTION", and the computerized masculine D-Ark voice is "replaced" with the same less computerized feminine voice from the Tamers dub. However, the edited visual effect is inconsistent with that of the Tamers dub and is much cheaper-looking, as the text a) is presented in plain typeface with no attempt made to resemble the pixelated original, and b) just wipes in in rather than blinking in letter-by-letter.
 * The cursor from the original footage, appearing beneath each new letter, can still be seen beneath the edited text in Runaway Locomon, but it clearly matches the edited text in neither timing nor positioning.
 * In the case of Guilmon digivolving into Growlmon (Growmon), the original "EVOLUTION" voice clip is also not completely removed, as for some reason it still plays immediately after the dub's "DIGIVOLUTION" voice clip, also unlike the Tamers dub.
 * In Runaway Locomon, the sound effects of Beelzemon's (Beelzebumon) gun shots are replaced with laser sound effects.
 * In The Runaway Digimon Express, when Ruki reacts to Yamaki's phone call, she says that she does not trust adults. In Runaway Locomon, Rika instead says that she specifically does not trust Yamaki and that she does not need his help.
 * In Runaway Locomon, footage relating to Biomerge Digivolution (Matrix Evolution) that depicts the Tamers undergoing the evolution or inside the resulting Digimon (in which, as in the series, they are depicted nude but without any anatomical features at all, as is common in Japanese media) is routinely censored using white flashes to obscure anything below their waists. This is a departure from the dub of Tamers itself, which rarely, if ever, censored any such footage.
 * In The Runaway Digimon Express, as in the Tamers series itself, Matrix Evolved Digimon externally speak with a single voice comprised of a more mature version of the Digimon's voice, and separate speech from the constituent Tamers and Digimon is generally reserved for internal monolog. In Runaway Locomon, as in the Tamers dub, Biomerged Digimon generally speak in the voices of both the Tamer and Digimon speaking in unison, sometimes separating into them speaking individually.
 * Nineteen seconds of Gallantmon's (Dukemon) encounter with the first Parasimon—constituting everything between Renamon's remark that "But thanks to him, we got to hear a beautiful song" and Parasimon fading away—is cut from Runaway Locomon. Since the cut footage includes all of the footage of Dukemon attacking and killing Parasimon, Gallantmon is not depicted doing so at all in Runaway Locomon, making it appear as if the act of cutting Rika free is what caused it to die.
 * Several seconds of footage are cut from the fight between the Biomerged Digimon and the Parasimon horde in Runaway Locomon.
 * In The Runaway Digimon Express, at Ruki's birthday party, the characters perform karaoke versions of various Japanese Tamers songs: Lee Shaochung sings "The Biggest Dreamer", and Rumiko sings "My Tomorrow". In Runaway Locomon, these are replaced with generic songs.
 * The last shot of The Runaway Digimon Express depicts Ruki sitting alone at her house, watching the sun set. In the original, there is no dialog over this shot. Runaway Locomon adds voiceover to the shot, in which Rika repeats a line from her song—"You promised me we'd stay for the sunset"—in her thoughts. (In the original, this is also the point at which AiM's credits version of "Yūhi no Yakusoku" starts playing as the credits begin to roll.)
 * The Runaway Digimon Express 's closing credits are cut entirely, in favor of a split-screen setup in which credits roll over black next to clips from the movie. The footage that plays in the background of the original credits—Ruki getting up after watching the sunset for a while, and still images of the cast's activities after the film—is not repurposed anywhere.

=Additional Information=

=External Links=
 * Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express on the Spring 2002 Toei Anime Fair official website
 * Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express on the Toei Animation Production Lineup website