Kazu Shioda

Kazu Shioda, known in Japan as Hirokazu Shiota (塩田 博和 Shiota Hirokazu), is a character in the anime and manga series Digimon Tamers. He is voiced by Brad MacDonald (US).

Kazu is one of Takato's closest friends and is also a player of the DigiBattle Card Game, and there is nothing more Kazu enjoys than beating Takato and Kenta all the time. His involvement in Tamers truly started when Takato actually beat him, leaving him confused, but when Takato mentioned about real life experience, Kazu wanted to go deeper into it. When Kazu first saw Guilmon he and Kenta freaked out and ran away, but when he saw him as WarGrowlmon, he got to know what being a Tamer is all about. Kazu usually calls Takato "chumley" which shows how deep their relationship as friends are.

Kazu is known as the comic relief of Tamers due to the fact that he makes so many jokes and wisecracks to keep the entire episode amusing. He often does these jokes with Kenta and they make quite a pair. He's also had his share of one liners by himself, and with Guardromon, often ending up in mass confusion.

For Kazu, he may seem like just a comedian with no sense of purpose, but he is really a true friend and he will help out to the best of his abilities as he knows it's the right thing to do.

Digimon Tamers, 1st Half
Kazu proved how good a friend he was by giving Takato a Blue Card he made himself. He said that it should work since Guilmon came from a drawing, so why shouldn't this work. The card worked and it proved to be the one that saved the day. Secretly, Kazu wanted to be a Tamer himself and be just as good as Takato and the others. His chance came when he went to the Digital World, although he and Kenta did seem out of place as the others had Partners, he made the best of it until he did finally get a partner of his own in the name of Guardromon.However, though he recieved a D-Arc and a blue card, meaning that he could digivolve Guardromon(or even bio-merge), he never did so even in times of need.

Digimon Tamers, 2nd Half
Kazu was the only one who stood by Guardromon's side when he was injured while the others went to rescue Jeri. The two became closer as Partner and Tamer, both in battle and in the multitude of jokes Kazu told, as Guardromon seemed to like to copy him (though Guardromon doesn't always understand; at one point, Kazu told Guardromon to watch Suzie, and when Suzie flew away, Guardromon said he "watched the whole thing", misinterpreting Kazu's meaning).

Digimon Tamers: Runaway Digimon Express
During Locomon's rampage Kazu, Guardromon, Kenta, and MarineAngemon met with Henry and Lopmon (Who Henry accidentally misplaced with Terriermon when he left his sister Suzie, but managed to switch them back later) and followed Locomon on a small Train car with Guardromon providing the thrust for them. During the Parasimon attack Kazu and Guardromon assist in the battle and then attended Rika's Birthday party at the end of the movie.