However, I can talk about where I got the inspiration for the characters in Digimon Code.

First, we’ll start with our token goggle-head, Tadashi Ozaki (尾崎忠司).

Starting with his name.

Tadashi’s family name comes from none other than Yutaka Ozaki, “the voice of Japan’s youth”. He was a famous young singer in Japan during the 80s, who died at a very young age. He wrote smash-hits like “Fifteen’s Night” when he was a high school student, that spoke of the troubles that the young Japanese society experienced. He was especially popular with the rebellious yanki and bosozoku (Japanese biker punks). Even though he is gone, he still has a lot of fans, and Japan continues to hold live video concerts of his music. His name isn’t exactly related to his character, but it was an intentional reference nonetheless. I really like Ozaki’s music.

Tadashi’s first name is a little more conventional. All of the previous goggle-heads (except for Masaru, but he wasn’t even a gogglehead…) had a name that began with た (“ta”); Taichi, Daisuke, Takato, Takuya… to keep the Digimon feel, I decided it was best to follow suit. Tadashi’s name is written with the kanji for “loyalty” and “director”.

Now on to his actual design…

Apart from drawing influence from all the past goggle-heads, Tadashi’s main outside influence was Bart from Fist of the North Star. Really! I was actually looking at his picture while I was drawing his design, not a picture of Taichi or Daisuke or any other goggle kids. Bart wears goggles too, y’know. While I had to follow certain conventions, like making his hair and eyes some shade of brown, the shaggy hairdo was heavily inspired by Bart, just a little less ’80s. I know it sounds pretty out there, especially since the only thing people notice when watching FOTNS is “AHHTATATATATA” and the magical regrowing shirt, but the truth can be a strange thing.

It’s me, KoH; I write the basic, borderline, rough scripts, then Anthy turns them into the miracle that you’ve just seen (well, if you haven’t, go check it out, NAO!). I should be on here, and I’ll update you if there’s anything I need to tell you.

See you around.

-Your Friendly Neighbourhood Scriptwriter, KoH

There are a lot of things about Digimon Code that I could go about discussing, but since this is the first release I should probably write up a short commentary about Code’s debut chapter. I plan on updating with insights, side notes, and snippets of random Code-related info as regularly as possible.

Anyway, first chapter! I was a little less than satisfied with the artwork, personally, but considering the time frame in which I drew it, it’s pretty amazing I was able to draw so many pages. My personal favorite highlights are Tadashi fishing through his backpack (p.6, don’t know why… but I really like it), everything with Mei in it (she’s so cute), and Haru’s hair.

There are a couple of random cultural references in this chapter, some of which might need some explaining–

p.12 – Marin: “[...] I’ll have Noriko Sakai’s ‘Blue Rabbit’ totally nailed!”
Noriko Sakai is a very well-known idol in Japan who debuted in the late 80s. Later on she also started appearing in television drama series as an actress, and one role she had was that of a deaf girl (Hoshi no Kinka). “Blue Rabbit”, the song that Marin is learning, was the opening song for the series, and in the promotional video Sakai signs out the lyrics as she is singing them. While Marin is more interested in mastering the vocals than sign language, learning the steps and movements is crucial for a perfect idol performance. (“It’s my dream!”)

If you’re interested in hearing the song, you can listen to it along with the PV here.

p.19 – Yuusuke: “And this is the only vending machine I’ve seen that has root beer… why is it so unpopular?”
Unlike the United States, root beer is very hard to come by in Japan. Generally it’s considered exotic and an acquired taste, and usually can only be found in shops that specialize in imported food and drink, if even that. A few years prior to Code, Yuusuke’s family took a vacation to the United States and he’s been hooked on root beer since. In Japan it would probably seem kind of odd for someone to like it so much.

As far as the following chapters go, it might be a while before we see any new releases. I’ll be busy training to improve my skills, meditating under waterfalls and wrestling wild boars (figuratively speaking), and having everything set up so that a new chapter of Code can be released every week. The wait might seem long (~6 weeks most likely)… but in the long run, it will cut the overall waiting time in half (or more). And I’ll be posting updates and artwork here to tide everyone over in the meantime.

You can check out the incredible, high quality AJAX online viewing I put together here (by Monday maybe that won’t be a joke) and you can download the convenient ZIP file here!

Enjoy and tell your friends! Discuss on DDF!

Also FIRST POST.