Goggles

Aviator goggles (ゴーグル Gōguru) are a traditional symbol for the lead human protagonist of Digimon stories, who are often nicknamed "goggle boys". The majority of lead protagonists from the Digimon anime series, manga, and video games wear goggles.

Some species of Digimon and Appmon also have goggles of their own. These species are usually either heroic dragon- or reptile-type Digimon who, like "goggle boys", have goggles purely for aesthetic reasons, or they are militaristic in theme and wear their goggles for practical purposes.

=Overview= Of the ten characters who have been the lead protagonist of a Digimon anime production, only Daimon Masaru from Digimon Savers and Amanokawa Hiro from Digimon Ghost Game do not wear goggles as part of their regular attire (and of these two, only Masaru never wears any goggles at all).

In the anime and manga, only male characters have worn goggles so far. The only "goggle girls" currently appear only in video games.

Most of the time, the goggles are purely a fashion item that they wear on the forehead and are not used by the wearer as eye protection. Exceptions include Digimon Tamers and Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01.

Other common traits that "goggle boys" often share, especially in the anime and manga, include:


 * They are the leaders of a team of Tamers, Chosen Children, or other human children who are partnered with Digimon
 * Their names start with the phoneme ta (た) or da (だ)
 * They are associated with either warm colors like red and orange, or, less frequently, blue; and their Digivice is at least one of these colors
 * They are partnered with Digimon who are Dragon-, Dinosaur-, or Reptile Type, and/or have fire attacks

These traits are also often shared with lead protagonists who do not wear goggles.

Production
The goggles tradition originated with Yabuno Tenya, the illustrator of Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01. When V-Tamer 01 entered production, Yabuno conceived of an aerial battle that would be a highlight of the story. This inspired the decision to have the V-Tamer 01 version of Yagami Taichi wear aviator goggles, which Yabuno regarded as critical equipment in aerial combat. Since he and Digimon Adventure character designer Nakatsuru Katsuyoshi had previously agreed that Yabuno's Taichi design would also be used for the Adventure anime out of respect for the fact that V-Tamer 01 would be the first of the two productions to release, the Adventure version of Taichi retained the goggles as well.

Yabuno himself would later be responsible for Amanokawa Hiro becoming one of the few anime protagonists to not have goggles. Although some of Hiro's early design concepts still had goggles, Yabuno argued that since their inclusion in the two Taichis' designs was motivated by their practicality for aviation, including them purely for show on a character who has no practical use for them is unnecessary. (This is despite Hiro actually regularly engaging in the exact same practical use scenario&mdash;flying on the back of Gammamon's Kaus Gammamon and Canoweissmon forms&mdash;as the V-Tamer 01 Taichi.)

Digimon and Appmon with goggles
=Appearances=

In the spring of 1995, Yagami Taichi wears a pair of goggles around his neck. He briefly uses them as a weapon by throwing them at Botamon while it is under the bed, to try to scare it out.

From August 1, 1999 to the spring of 2000, Taichi wears a pair of goggles, together with a headband.

The illusory version of Taichi's younger self, whom Taichi and Agumon encounter during Piccolomon's cave test, also wears the goggles around his neck.

As seen in flashback, Taichi wore the goggles again when Gennai called his group of Chosen Children back to the Digital World in 2000 to surrender their Crests.

At the beginning of the 2002 school year, Motomiya Daisuke wears a pair of goggles of his own in imitation of Taichi, whom he idolizes; he had found these goggles lying around his home. When he first sees Daisuke, Takaishi Takeru cannot help stare as he is strongly reminded of Taichi, and compliments him on his goggles. During Daisuke's first expedition into the Digital World, the goggles are shattered when he is thrown off a cliff by an Evil Ring-possessed Monochromon's.

On the same day, Taichi initially dons his own goggles again when he enters the Digital World to respond to Agumon's SOS. After the battle with the Monochromon, he gives the goggles to Daisuke as a symbolic passing of the torch to the new protector of the Digital World. Going forward, Daisuke continues to wear Taichi's goggles through 2002 and into 2003.

Ichijouji Ken's Digimon Kaiser outfit also features a pair of thick tinted goggles that he wears over his eyes. He throws these goggles away when he is defeated in "Goodbye, Ken..." and they dissolve into data. The goggles also appear when Belial Vamdemon's plunges Ken into a fantasy of the Kaiser being tortured by his victims. They are knocked off the illusory Kaiser's face by a Digimon's attack, and linger after the Kaiser's torture scene ends, whereupon an illusory version of Ichijouji Osamu picks them up as he reassures Ken that he has atoned for his sins.

In 2027, Daisuke's son wears a pair of goggles which resemble Taichi and Daisuke's. Neither Taichi nor Daisuke wear goggles.

As seen in flashbacks, Nishijima Daigo used to wear a pair of goggles when he was a child, during his adventure in the Digital World with Himekawa Maki and the other original Chosen Children. The goggles were knocked off his head in his team's final battle with the Dark Masters. He no longer wears them as an adult.

When the Chosen Children begin their investigation into the Infected Digimon in 2005, Izumi Kōshirō finishes manufacturing a new pair of enhanced goggles for Taichi. These goggles visualize the flow, strength and format of data as swirling lines of different colors, and as such can be used to visualize distortions (marked in red) and identify ones large enough for an Infected Digimon to emerge from them. When he is not using them, Taichi usually lets the goggles hang around his neck, instead of wearing them on his forehead as he used to do.

When Taichi disappears in the aftermath of JESmon's attack in the four-way battle between the Chosen Children, Raguelmon, JESmon and Alphamon, only his goggles are left behind. Ishida Yamato begins wearing them in Taichi's place, as a symbol of how Taichi would want the group to keep going. When Taichi returns to the group during the final battle against Ordinemon, Yamato returns the goggles to him.

A pair of goggles are part of the Mysterious Man's Digimon Kaiser disguise. These goggles are smaller and significantly different than the original Kaiser goggles, but they are still darkly tinted.

In 2010, during the battle with Parrotmon in, Taichi uses a new set of prototype goggles developed by Kōshirō, which Taichi had taken without Kōshirō's permission. These goggles are equipped with a targeting heads-up display which locks onto targets by perceiving its user's line of sight and provides information readouts about them. However, they are still a work in progress, and an error with their display nearly causes Taichi and Agumon to be unnecessarily hit by Parrotmon, so he stops using them.

Later, Taichi gets a pair of regular goggles, resembling his original ones, out of storage along with his old Digivice, and starts wearing them again until after the final battle with Eosmon.

Daisuke no longer wears any goggles, and instead wears a pair of sunglasses.

When he first brings Guilmon home, Matsuda Takato adopts a pair of goggles that he had stored in his room when he declares to Guilmon that he is his Tamer. He continues to wear them on a daily basis, except when in class at school, to the amusement of Shioda Hirokazu and Kitagawa Kenta when they first see him wearing them the following day.

Takato regularly uses his goggles to protect his eyes against hazards like the fog of Digital Fields in the Real World, and when entering the Digital World. His friends, Makino Ruki and Lee Jianliang, instead use sunglasses as their eye protection.

Following the defeat of the D-Reaper and the return of the partner Digimon to the Digital World, Takato ceases wearing his goggles. He wears them again during the Locomon incident.

Kanbara Takuya wears a pair of goggles on top of his hat. He only uses them as eye protection on one occasion: to protect his eyes from a sandstorm in the Hamburger Digimon Village.

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Kudou Taiki wears a pair of goggles. He has a habit of snapping his fingers on his goggles whenever he has an epiphany or an idea for a tactic in battle.

During the last battle of Lake Zone, after Taiki has been incapacitated by exhaustion, Tsurugi Zenjirou temporarily wears Taiki's goggles while he takes command of Xros Heart in Taiki's place.

One year after Bagramon's defeat, Taiki has taken to wearing a new pair of goggles. Akashi Tagiru wears another pair of goggles of his own in imitation of Taiki, claiming that he needs them if he is going to surpass Taiki and become a "superstar," although Amano Yuu accuses him of not understanding what they symbolize.

Hinomoto Akari puts on Taiki's goggles while Taiki rests after winning the city basketball championship.

The "legendary heroes" Yagami Taichi, Motomiya Daisuke, Matsuda Takato, and Kanbara Takuya all still wear their own goggles while they are in DigiQuartz.

When Astamon turns on the Digimon Hunters, it unleashes a blast that destroys Tagiru's goggles. Taiki, having been badly injured by Astamon, gives his own goggles to Tagiru when he asks him to wield the Brave Snatcher in his place. As he struggles to raise the Brave Snatcher again, Daisuke, Yuu and Mogami Ryouma lecture him about what the goggles represent&mdash;bearing all of their power, and being one's own person rather than a mere substitute for Taiki&mdash;inspiring him to succeed at raising the Brave Snatcher in his own way.

A month after Quartzmon's defeat, Tagiru continues to wear Taiki's goggles, while Taiki goes without goggles of his own.

Shinkai Haru wears a pair of goggles as part of all of his regular outfits.

On Halloween, when Cameramon tricks the city crowds into pursuing Haru in an attempt to force him to surrender his Appli Drive, he briefly wears them over his eyes while he attempts to blend in with the crowd. However, when a child catches him immediately, he realizes that this is entirely ineffective given that there are cameras everywhere, and takes them off his eyes.

Yagami Taichi wears a pair of goggles, together with a headband, as part of his regular attire.

Like the real Taichi, all of the identical fake Taichis created by Algomon also wear goggles.

Amanokawa Hiro does not wear goggles as part of any of his regular outfits.

However, when he goes go-karting with Tsukiyono Ruli, Hiro wears a pair of racing goggles, together with a helmet. When their go-karting turns into an investigation of Sistermon Ciel's "nightly procession" Digimon races, Jellymon gives Higashimitarai Kiyoshiro a helmet-and-goggles set as well when she makes him join the race. (Ruli wears a full racing helmet with a visor instead of goggles.)

In the spring of 2003, Motomiya Daisuke shares the story behind his/Taichi's goggles with a child who asks about them, and admits that simply wearing him makes him feel as if he can do anything, and as if his feelings become stronger. The child asks whether the act of wearing goggles will make him stronger so that he can protect his family, having been inspired by seeing Taichi (wearing his goggles) and Greymon in action in Odaiba in August 1999, and Daisuke gives him a pep talk about how to be stronger.

Yagami Taichi wears a pair of goggles, together with a headband, as part of his regular attire before, during and after his adventure in the Digital World. As he tells Piyomon during the fight with Raremon, he has had them since he was very young: they were a gift from his grandfather, who had them as a memento of a deceased pilot friend. After Taichi witnessed a friend being bullied, his grandfather gave the goggles to him as a symbol of the courage to act to protect one's friends, like his pilot friend used to do, sharing the maxim that "courage will become your wings upon which to fly through the sky".

Following Zeromaru's evolution into Aero V-dramon, Taichi periodically uses the goggles for eye protection while flying on Zeromaru.

When Motomiya Daisuke, Kanbara Takuya, and an alternate Yagami Taichi are brought from their realities to meet Taichi, they are all still wearing their goggles. In particular, when Taichi notices that Daisuke's goggles are identical to his own, he concludes that Daisuke must have received them from his world's Taichi. When Daisuke demands to know why Taichi saved him despite his hostility toward him, Taichi characterizes the goggles as a sign of friendship and, based on his own reasons for hypothetically giving his own goggles away, he speculates that the other Taichi must have given Daisuke the goggles out of recognition of the fact that that Daisuke cares about his friends and is cared about by them in return. On hearing this, Daisuke recognizes something of the Taichi that he knows in this Taichi and has a change of heart about him, enabling them to work together against Parallelmon.

Doumoto Kouta wears a pair of goggles.

Lóng Zhìguāng wears a pair of goggles.

Tatsuno Tsurugi wears a pair of goggles.

Kudou Taiki wears a pair of goggles.

Doumoto Kouta wears a pair of goggles.

Wakamiya Jo wears a pair of goggles around his neck.

Akira wears a pair of goggles.

Atsushi wears a pair of goggles.

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Both player avatar options, Koh and Sayo, wear goggles.

Both player avatar options, Shū and Kizuna, wear goggles.

The protagonist wears goggles.

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Taiga and Shinomiya Rina both wear goggles.

Both player avatar options, Aiba Takumi and Aiba Ami, wear a pair of goggles that serve as their Digivice. The game's pause menu is the Digivice's interface.

When Lord Knightmon traps Takumi/Ami in Chapter 17, "Recollection", their goggles are left behind and found by their allies. Shiramine Nokia temporarily uses the goggles for the duration of Chapter 18, "Lost, Lost Memories", but she does not actually wear them and her access to its Digivice functions is restricted: she can command Takumi/Ami's Digimon, but cannot use their DigiLine chat or Hacking Skills. She returns the goggles to Takumi/Ami when they reappear for their final fight with Lord Knightmon.

Kamishiro Yuuko also has a pair of goggles that she wears around her left arm. Shinomiya Rina also continues to wear her goggles.

Both player avatar options, Takuto and Shiki, wear goggles.

Both player avatar options, Kazuki and Itsuki, wear goggles.

Amazawa Keisuke wears a pair of goggles that serve as his Digivice. The game's pause menu is the Digivice's interface. He uses his goggles as the interface through which he enters EDEN, and the goggles can project a holographic screen which he uses to perform hacking tasks.

Two NPCs in the entrance to EDEN imply that goggle-style Digivices are sold as sought-after consumer goods and that they come in many styles, including both Keisuke's visor-like ones and Takumi/Ami's smaller ones.

Aiba Takumi/Ami, Kamishiro Yuuko, and Shinomiya Rina all continue to wear their own respective goggles.

The protagonist wears goggles.

Sakamoto Satoru wears goggles.

Momotsuka Takuma wears a pair of goggles.

One of the three player characters in the D-Spirit's "Quest" game mode wears goggles.

=Additional Information=