Ritsu Kodo

Ritsu Kodo (鼓堂リツ) is the protagonist of Digimon Dreamers. He is partnered to.

Development
When Digimon Dreamers was announced in 's October 2021 issue Ritsu resembled Hiro Amanokawa from Digimon Ghost Game. Ten'ya Yabuno later changed the design and confirmed Dreamers has no relation to Ghost Game.

Etymologies
Name used in the Japanese version of Digimon Dreamers.
 * Kodou Ritsu (鼓堂リツ)

Name used in the American English version of Digimon Dreamers.
 * Ritsu Kodo

Digimon Dreamers
At some point, Ritsu gained and raised on his Digivice.

When walking to school one day, Ritsu is suddenly summoned to the Digital World by Pulsemon,, and who happily celebrate seeing their summoning had been successful. Ritsu recognises Pulsemon, since it was the Digimon he had been raising on his v-pet, though tells Pulsemon he was actually about to delete him since he seemingly was unable to digivolve passed the Rookie level. Pulsemon objects, and tells Ritsu to train him until he digivolves into an awesome Digimon though Ritsu rejects him and declares he's going home. Ritsu changes his mind upon seeing how determined Pulsemon was to digivolve and, after noticing there were no strong Digimon nearby, learns from Patamon that the residents of Cypress Village were unable to digivolve passed the Rookie stage for some reason. A Megadramon flies over the village, apparently mid rampage, with Ritsu becoming more impressed with Pulsemon upon learning he wants to digivolve to be able to protect the village from threats such as that Megadramon and tells him he can summon him whenever he wants.

Some time later, Ritsu is summoned to the Digital World whilst taking a bath — shocking and embarrassing both Ritsu and the residents of Cypress Village.

One day, Ritsu is once against summoned to the Digital World, though rather than help Pulsemon train he instead relaxes at Burgermon's restaurant with some of the Cypress Village residents. Pulsemon shows up and yells at Ritsu for not helping him to become the strongest Digimon ever and tells him that they're going to going to go train at an active volcano — though Ritsu declares he has no intention of going to a volcano and would prefer to stay at the restaurant. He even gives Pulsemon his phone and tells him to live stream the training so he could see it that way though Pulsemon instead ties Ritsu up and forces him to go to the volcano with it, Patamon, and Bokomon.

Now untied, Ritsu watches on in fear as Pulsemon dodges fiery rocks shot out by the volcano. He tells Pulsemon he has no advice for him, with Pulsemon using the rope to tie a protesting Ritsu to his back figuring that if he dodged the rocks with Ritsu on his back their hearts would become one and he would be able to digivolve. In the middle of doing so, Pulsemon stops and declares he's hungry — leading Ritsu to freak out since the rocks were still hurtling at them.

As Pulsemon eats, with Ritsu now free once again, a Vegiemon is drawn to the food's smell which worries Bokomon as Vegiemon is a Champion level Digimon. Pulsemon finds the situation perfect, since defeating a Champion would be worth lots of experience with that declaration angering Vegiemon as it states a Rookie would be unable to defeat it. Pulsemon insists it will be able to win as its partner will be cheering it on and begins to charge into battle, only for Ritsu to grab its tail and stop it. Pulsemon is confused but then watches as one of the fiery rocks hits Vegiemon, setting it on fire. Pulsemon celebrates winning — though Patamon points out it didn't gain any experience as it didn't actually defeat Vegiemon. Bokomon notes that it was a valuable battle, as they found out that Ritsu was a master of checking his surroundings which will help him to become a master Tamer.

Some time later, just as he was about to get some burgers and fries from Wc Donald's, Ritsu is summoned again. As he complains about the fact he wasn't able to get his food, the Digimon assume it's a greeting and start copying him — though he quickly lets them know that isn't the case. Pulsemon tells Ritsu they had summoned him to give him some good news — Tanemon had been successful in selectively breeding meat. As Ritsu expresses shock that meat grows out of the ground, Pulsemon tries to get some of it though it is stopped by Tanemon as it isn't ready to be eaten yet. One of the many Agumon cook the meat with its Pepper Breath, which allows the residents, and also Ritsu, to eat the meat together. After finishing it, Pulsemon and Ritsu fall asleep.

After they wake up, Pulsemon trains, with the Cypress Village residents watching. Ritsu asks it what it's going to digivolve to if it ever manages to, with Pulsemon insisting it would one day digivolve to Bulkmon. As Pulsemon is defeated by its own punching bag, a Jyarimon runs in panicked — telling everyone that an Ogremon had shown up.

They go to the meat farm, where they find Ogremon and Monmon stealing and eating the meat. As Tanemon had made the meat for the residents it tries to stop them though is easily defeated by Ogremon. As Ogremon laughs at how weak everyone in the village is, Monmon telling it the village was cursed and no one could digivolve passed Rookie, Pulsemon attacks Ogremon with the surprise attack pissing Ogremon off and it declaring it will kill Pulsemon in revenge. Just like Tanemon, Pulsemon loses from only one attack though refusing to go down it gets back up and continues to fight. It figures the more damage it takes, the closer it would get to being able to digivolve and tells Ogremon to beat it up as much as it wants. Ogremon and Pulsemon continue to fight, with Pulsemon standing no chance against its Champion level opponent. Ritsu and the Cypress Village residents watch on in horror, with Ogremon stating Tamers were useless and even telling Ritsu he should fight in Pulsemon's place. Ritsu, fearing for his life, apologizes to Pulsemon for being useless with Ogremon laughing and telling him to run away to the Human World where he belongs. Pulsemon, still refusing to go down, tells Ritsu he doesn't have to fight his battles for it and that he just has to believe in Pulsemon and that will be enough to allow Pulsemon to win. Bokomon backs this up, telling him to believe in his partner as that will give Pulsemon strength which spurs Ritsu on to cheer for his partner. As their hearts synch together, Pulsemon begins to digivolve with the residents shocked that someone from their village was about to break the curse. Unfortunately for Pulsemon, only its head digivolves. The Bulkmon head is so big compared to Pulsemon's body it can't even hold it up, which Ogremon and Monmon find hilarious. Not finding the situation funny, Pulsemon/Bulkmon is still able to charge at them with its head on the ground though Ogremon is able to stop it in its tracks without effort which reverts Pulsemon's head back to normal. This doesn't last long as Pulsemon's arms digivolve to Bulkmon's, revert back to normal, followed by its legs doing the same thing, and then one arm and one leg. Everyone watches on in horror, including Pulsemon, with Bokomon theorizing that Pulsemon's digivolution energy from its bond with Ritsu was trying to break the curse but can only digivolve parts of its body due to it. Though Pulsemon is unable to fully digivolve, Bokomon figures it should still have the power of Bulkmon within it which Pulsemon is able to prove as it was able to damage Ogremon with its temporarily digivolved parts (its body still alternating which parts of it was digivolved, meaning Pulsemon alternated which body parts it hit Ogremon with). Pulsemon jokes they should refer to its hybrid forms as "Bulsemon" with "Bulsemon" able to defeat Ogremon. Monmon wheels away its boss in a wheelbarrow, whilst Pulsemon celebrates its win by eating some of the saved meat.

Pulsemon, Bokomon, and Patamon once again summon Ritsu to the Digital World with Ritsu annoyed as he was about to get a victory royal — the Digimon having no idea what that meant. The Digimon take Ritsu to the nearby shrine, hoping they could find some hints there about why Cypress Village was cursed. Ritsu refuses to go in, since it radiates dark energy, though he's forced to go in anyway as Pulsemon ties him up with rope and drags him in. Not seeing a way in, Pulsemon digivolves its arm to Bulkmon's and breaks into it with Ritsumon telling it that it's just gonna end up getting even further cursed.

As they traverse through the shrine they come across a Sandiramon who gets annoyed at being woken up. Pulsemon tells Sandiramon to get rid of the village's curse, though it has no idea what Pulsemon is on about and decides it will kill it as punishment for waking it up. Bokomon tries to calm it down by offering it rocks, though Patamon says it wont work as stuck up Digimon can't be reasoned with as they're too childish to be able to contain their anger. Proving Patamon right, this pisses off Sandiramon even more with Ritsu and the Digimon only just able to avoid Sandiramon's attack. Finding Sandiramon spitting swords at it disgusting, Pulsemon spits at Sandiramon which shocks the snake Digimon. Insulted at Pulsemon's spit being compared to its sword spitting attacks it summons its spear and tries to kill Pulsemon with it though Pulsemon digivolves its arm to Bulkmon and blocks it. Confused as to what just happened, Sandiramon can only watch in shock as Pulsemon alternates which parts of its body are digivolved to Bulkmon with Pulsemon able to defeat it. Having lost, Sandiramon tells Pulsemon it has no idea about the curse and it should look elsewhere. Sandiramon goes back to sleep, with Bokomon pulling out some meat. Sandiramon smells the meat, wakes up, and chases the group deciding it wanted to eat the meat.

Bokomon teaches Ritsu and the Cypress Village residents about DigiCode, though Pulsemon sleeps through the lesson.

As Pulsemon practices writing its autograph in DigiCode Ritsu asks what Lil Pal is doing. Being called little annoys Pulsemon and it demands that if he is going to give it a nickname to give it a cooler one and hates being called little as it makes it seem like he would prefer it stay as Pulsemon. He eventually calms down and turns it from an insult to instead being that Pulsemon is so cute Ritsu would prefer it that way due to its cuteness. Ritsu is surprised saying something like that doesn't embarrass it and changes the subject, asking again what it was doing. It shows off that it was practicing writing its autograph with it writing "The Strongest" rather than its own name since that's supposedly what people will refer to it as in the future anyway. Ritsu finds that lame, which annoys Pulsemon.

Starmon shows up, sees one of the unused autograph cards, picks it up, and asks if anyone wants its autograph though they decline. Starmon assumes they were just being shy, though becomes annoyed when Pulsemon starts drawing its autograph on its body. Bokomon tells the others that Starmon was a self proclaimed star that boasts about its combat experience to as many people as possible with Starmon disagreeing stating it was not just a star, it was the creator of a universe and they should refer to it as the Big Bang. They ask why Starmon had even come to the village, with it stating it had wanted to get some of the legendary Cypress Meat there as Tanemon had started selling it. Tanemon charges 1000 bits, with Starmon surprised it would have to pay with how big of a celebrity it supposedly is. The group mock and insult Starmon, who asks for a sample to see whether it should buy some and after finding it amazing is insulted when Tanemon tells it what it gave it wasn't actually the same meat as it had instead given it regular meat. Pulsemon and the others laugh at Starmon and call it a loser which annoys it with Pulsemon challenging it to battle. The others tell Pulsemon to stop, as they didn't think they could beat it, but Starmon declares it was too late with Pulsemon able to avoid Starmon's meteor attacks by digivolving its feet into Bulkmon's. Seeing such a thing freaks Starmon out and now super high in the air Pulsemon de-digivolves its legs and changes to digivolving its head and falls onto Starmon, having its giant Bulkmon head collide with it. This was enough for Pulsemon to win, with Tanemon giving Starmon some Cypress Meat to make it feel better. Bokomon looks up the meaning of pal, and seeing it means friend tells Ritsu he should've told him earlier and that is delighted he gets to be Ritsu's "Pal-semon" though upon hearing that decides maybe they should forgoe nicknames as a surprised Pulsemon questions why.