Takeru "T.K." Takaishi

Takeru "T.K." Takaishi (高石 タケル) is a character in the anime and manga series Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02. He is the younger brother of Yamato "Matt" Ishida. He is partnered with Patamon, and embodies the trait of Hope.

Prelude to Digimon Adventure
Four years before Digimon Adventure, T.K. lived with his parents and brother at Highton View Terrace, where he and his brother witnessed the battle between Greymon and Parrotmon. This event caused the two to be chosen to be among the new DigiDestined.

Sometime later, his parents divorced for unknown reasons. Matt was given the decision of who each child should live with, and while he was unwilling to abandon his father, he sent T.K. to live with their mother. T.K. was too young to remember his parents' divorce clearly, and so was not as affected by it as much as Matt, and remained quite cheerful throughout the series. Though he doesn't mind living with his mother, T.K. is still happy when he gets to visit his father.

Digimon Adventure
T.K. was the youngest DigiDestined when the first original seven were transported into the Digital World. However, he was fairly independent on his own, rebuffing his older brother Matt's attempts to comfort and coddle him. Though he often acted quite childish, he was the only one to suffer the loss of his Digimon, and in fact matured from the experience.

When Patamon digivolved into Angemon, Angemon summoned all of the others' strengths and sacrificed himself in order to defeat Devimon. This event traumatized him severely, to the point where three years later he still possessed an utter hatred of "the powers of darkness," along with nightmares about losing Angemon again in combat.

T.K. played a critical role in defeating Puppetmon. While at his mansion, T.K. taunted Puppetmon, saying that he had no friends and other insults, upsetting Puppetmon. He led Puppetmon through traps and a game of hide-and-seek, allowing T.K. to destroy his playroom and take the dolls he used to control the other digidestined. It was also T.K.'s hope that Matt and the others would be saved that allowed Angemon to digivolve into MagnaAngemon and helped Wargreymon and MetalGarurumon to defeat Piedmon.

Our War Game!
T.K. was with Matt visiting their grandmother out in the country. Tai and Izzy managed to get a hold of them and warned them about Diaboromon. Following this, the brothers searched the surrounding town for a computer to help fight in the Internet. T.K., however, could not do much to help in the battle and could only watch in horror as Patamon fell to Diaboromon. He was one of the many viewers around the world who watched the final battle between Omnimon and Diaboromon.

Between Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02
In May 2000, T.K. arrived in the Digital World and gave up his Crest power to free the Digimon Sovereigns. As a result, Patamon lost the power to become MagnaAngemon.

Digimon Adventure 02


T.K. grows a lot during the last years after his first adventure. He is 11 (5th grade) in the original version and 13 (7th grade) in the dub. At the start of April 2002, he and his mother moved to Odaiba, with T.K. attending Odaiba Elementary in the same class as Davis and his good friend Kari. Because he and Kari are already good friends, T.K. immediately becomes the rival (and sometimes friend) of a paranoid Davis. Like Kari, T.K. has a slight advantage compared to the new kids because he has had the most experience with Digimon.

After Paildramon and Silphymon debut, Cody sees that he and T.K. would have to have their Digimon DNA Digivolve. He soon learns that there are two sides to T.K.: The 'kind and cheery' T.K. and the fierce and serious T.K. that only surfaces in the matters of villains of pure evil like Devimon or Kimeramon. T.K.'s second side was mainly due to Angemon's previous death and how he doesn't want to see Patamon die again, which is made clear to Cody when BlackWargreymon attacks one of the destiny stones. In midst of the battle, Angemon is grabbed by the throat and tells T.K. not to worry about him and to save the stone. T.K. then sees the glow of the destiny stone and yells for Angemon to digivolve, which he does successfully to the DigiDestined and BlackWargreymon's surprise.

On Christmas Day, T.K., Tai and their Digimon go to Paris to help the DigiDestined of France round up the wild Digimon who had appeared in the Real World as a result of Arukenimon opening all the Digi-Ports. In the Other World, T.K. was subjected to MaloMyotismon's illusion: his desire for his family to be together again. But Patamon and Davis broke him free of the illusion and he then joined with the other kids, who were in the process of breaking free of their illusions too. T.K. used the power of the dream dimension against MaloMyotismon, his dream for not one to suffer as he had, with Angemon, MagnaAngemon, Pegasusmon and Shakkoumon appearing all at once.

In the epilogue, set 25 years in the future (year 2027) T.K. becomes an author. He writes various stories based on the adventures he and the other children had. He is married (unknown to whom), and has a son, who has a Tokomon. In the Filipino English dubbed versions, Tai's son refers to T.K. as "Uncle Takeru", indicating that T.K. and Kari did indeed get married.

Hurricane Touchdown/Supreme Evolution! The Golden Digimentals
When he and Kari visited Mimi in New York, they encountered Willis, Terriermon and Wendigomon. While on a train for Colorado, their train was hindered by Wendigomon so they had to continue on foot. He and Kari managed to join the others during the fight with Cherubimon.

Michi e no Armor Shinka
When Pukumon entered the scene with a Control Spire, Joe knocked into the 02 DigiDestined and T.K. ended up with Kari's D-Terminal, allowing Patamon to Armor Digivolve to Manbomon.

Revenge of Diaboromon
Three years after the events of Our War Game, the evil Diaboromon resumed his reign of terror on the Internet. The Kuramon were bio-emerging via e-mail, so while Tai, Matt and their Digimon entered cyberspace to battle Diaboromon once more, the others had to track down the Kuramon. T.K. and Cody found one on a soccer ball and caught it for Izzy for him to examine it. When Omnimon couldn't get a clear shot at Diaboromon thanks to all the Kuramon, T.K., Kari and their Digimon went to help their big brothers. T.K. was soon forced to watch the battle between Imperialdramon and Armageddemon.

Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01
During one of his battles as a child, he and the other 02 DigiDestined encountered Parallelmon, who absorbed him, Yolei, Cody, and Kari, as inadvertently sent Davis into the V-Tamer 01 world. There, Davis meets Tai and Zeromaru, and T.K. and the others helped Davis from inside the monster by recreating the Digi-Egg of Miracles. With the monster destroyed, Davis and his friends returned to their continuity.

Trivia

 * T.K. has two Japanese image songs, "Be All Right...", sung by Hiroko Konishi, and "Focus," sung by Taisuke Yamamoto, as well as a third one sung by Yamamoto with Miwa Matsumoto as Patamon called "Steppin' Out."
 * Despite the fact that, in the Japanese version, Takeru's given name is always introduced using katakana (タケル), in the first episode of Digimon Adventure 02 he writes his name using kanji (岳).
 * As seen in episode 41 of Digimon 02, T.K. has a French grandfather, Michel, presumably on his mother's side based on appearances. The ethnicity of his grandmother living in France is not known, but judging by his mother's name, Natsuko Takaishi, she could be full or part Japanese. In any case, T.K. is at the most half or 1/4 French.