THE FANATIC'S GUIDE TO:

"Guilmon Comes Alive"

English Version Written by Steve Blum

First Appearances: Calumon, Takato, Kazu, Miss Asaji, Kenta, Jeri, Yamaki, Tally, Riley, Takehiro Matsuki, Yoshie Matsuki, Rika, Renamon, Terriermon, Suzie, Henry, Guilmon

Guest Starring: Maildramon, Lynxmon

• It's a new season, and a new season means new theme music! The assorted pieces of footage used in the new US opening are:

  Takato, Rika and Henry's Digi-Modify stock sequences
  Beginning portions of Guilmon, Renamon and Terriermon stock Digivolve sequences
  Henry's Digivice flares into life, from "To Fight or Not to Fight"
  Rika with pointed stick, from "Divided They Stand"
  Guilmon shoots a fireball, from "Guilmon Comes Alive"
  Calumon's powers activate, from "A Question of Trust"
  Renamon lunges, from "To Fight or Not to Fight"
  Impmon hurls a fireball, from "The Icemon Cometh"
  Yamaki removes his glasses, from "Grow Mon Grow"
  Takato in a Digital Field, from "Now You See It, Now You Don't"
  Latter portions of Guilmon, Renamon and Terriermon stock Digivolve sequences
  Rika throws her cell phone, from "Snakes, Trains and Digimon"
  Henry running, from "It Came From the Other Side"
  Impmon in a tree, from "The Icemon Cometh"
  Yamaki, from "Much Ado About Musyamon"
  Terriermon jumps off of Henry's head, from "Grow Mon Grow"
  Takato throws a card, from "Grow Mon Grow"
  The Shining Digivolution, from WarGrowlmon's stock Digivolve sequence
  Riley and Tally stock footage, originated in "Guilmon Comes Alive"
  Takato, then the Digimon and their various forms, from the original Japanese opening
  Calumon in the park, from the original Japanese opening
  Rika suits up, from "O Partner, Where Art Thou?"
  Renamon launches a Diamond Storm, from "To Fight or Not to Fight"
  Rika removes her glasses, from the original Japanese opening
  Gargomon fires his cannons, from "Grow Mon Grow"
  Henry removes his glasses, from the original Japanese opening
  Growlmon uses Dragon Slash, from "A Question of Trust"
  Takato lifts his goggles, from the original Japanese opening
  Final shot of the group, from the original Japanese opening with the US logo added

• Maildramon is an Armour Digivolution of Gatomon, and yet has a male voice. Don't give me that "Male Gatomon" stuff... and how is it that Armour Digimon are naturally occuring, anyway? New world, new rules, I guess...

• Takato's first words are "Bull's-eye, baby!" This is a reference to Digimon 02 episode #45, "The Dark Gate," when Davis exclaims it.

• I'm not totally sure, but that star on the lid of Takato's card box might be related to the star that was on the sleeve of Tai's shirt back in season one. The lid also has an Agumon sticker on it.

• So... Takato just leaves his cards in this dinosaur on a regular basis, where anyone could just come in and steal them?

• In the pan-across of Takato's class, the only recognisable faces are Jeri and Kenta. Where are all the other children from the class that we will see regularly in later episodes, like Jeri's friends?

• Look at the red screen behind Yamaki when he first appears (in the screenshot to the right). Rotating on it is the Yuggoth symbol - but the Yuggoth program isn't uploaded into the Hypnos network until "Now You See It, Now You Don't," so this symbol should not be here. This keeps appearing, both in this episode and in future ones, as this piece of footage of Yamaki is reused a few times.

• Takato's Digivice is shown to tear out and scan five pages from his notebook. But as it stops, and the five sheets flutter to the ground, there are a lot more pages lying on the ground than there were torn out. Including the five that then land on the ground, at least eight of the pages have writing on them.

• Lynxmon is another Armour Digivolution of Gatomon, and yet those growls are definitely masculine.

• When Rika selects her Modify Card, it spins around her finger without her actually moving it. It does it by itself - and that's without getting into the fact it wouldn't be able to spin that perfectly unless she didn't have any fingers...

• Kazu quips about Takato making his own "cold puddle," but, y'know... uhm... if he wet his bed, wouldn't it be... kinda warm?

• The footage of Riley and Tally swivelling around in their chairs from this episode quickly becomes stock, to be used over and over again in future episodes, albeit sometimes reversed, and sometimes with different symbols on the globe-screen surrounding them. I won't be bothering to list all the times it's re-used, because it happens so much.

• Tally has a much sharper, clipped voice in this episode - at certain points, she sounds almost British. It goes away later on.

• Sticking with Peggy O'Neal's voices - Suzie doesn't have her speech impediment in this episode, pronouncing her R's fine. Her voice is also a bit deeper than it would later become.

• Takato's backpack is gone when we see him on the street, before he turns into the alley that leads him to Guilmon's Bio-Emergence point. It doesn't reappear, either.

• The various pieces of footage used in the closing credits are:

A group shot of all the Tamers (bar Kenta), all the forms of the three main Digimon, Impmon, and a shadowed image of Beelzemon Blast Mode, all from the original Japanese version
Calumon running, from "Dream a Little Dream"
The Tamers in the light of Guilmon's Digivolution, from "A Question of Trust"
Rika crawls backwards and bumps into a wall, from "O Partner, Where Art Thou?"
Henry puts his glasses on as he runs, from "Much Ado About Musyamon"
Guilmon shoots a Pyro Sphere, from "A Question of Trust"
Gargomon jumps, from "Snakes, Trains and Digimon"
Renamon absorbs data, from "O Partner, Where Art Thou?"
Takato in his pyjamas, in the rain, from "Guilmon Comes Alive"
Individual images of the three main Tamers, and a group shot of them beneath a rainbow, from the original Japanese version.