Rika Nonaka

Rika Nonaka, known in Japan as Ruki Makino (牧野 留姫), is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Digimon Tamers. She is voiced by Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese), Pansy Tsang (Cantonese) & Melissa Fahn (English).

Character
Rika is the type of person who, in the beginning of the series, sees Digimon as nothing more than mere computer data, wanting her partner, Renamon, to be the strongest Digimon ever. But she eventually realizes that the two must be on equal partnership and friendship. She is a bit bitter and slightly antisocial due to her parents' divorce, but Takato Matsuki (Takato Matsuda) and Henry Wong (Jenrya Lee) manage to bring out the best in her. Her background story and character are quite similar to Matt's from the first season (They both have divorced parents, they both seem to have some hidden sadness or anger, they both undergo some period when they are disconected from the group, and the blue crest, and the blue digivice, the need to express one as being a good friend before either of their digimon can digivolve, ect.). She lost a tournament to Ryo Akiyama two years before the series begins, which explains why she resents him. Rika takes Jeri Katou (Juri Katou) under her wing, teaching her about Digimon cards and Digimon Taming when Jeri becomes a Tamer.

The exact reasons for Rika's rebeliouse behavior unjustified, although her mother is unusually young and her father is absent (see below). It is never said/proven why she is angry, but the way her mother treats her. Her mother constantly tells Rika her style isn't pretty, that beauty is all that matters and she should attempt to look more like her, Rika should be like her. In fact Rika's mother tried to get Rika to do a photo shoot Rika didn't want to do (and after Rika left she blamed Rika for embarassing her, completly ignoring how Rika felt). In one episode Rika's mother left Rika during a parent to daughter event at Rika's school. Rika cared despite what she said (she was looking to see if her mother was there or not). All of these acts Rika's mother makes on Rika is probably why she is rebelious, and cynical.

Rika's relationship with Renamon is unusual, more as a human contemporary than either a pet (like Guilmon was) or a playful child (like Terriermon). She may act cynical towards everyone else in the group, but acts like a true friend to Renamon. She is often worried about Renamon, even if she doesn't admit to it, and even in one episode risked her life to save Renamon's. Rika's proud, independent, grouchy and cynical personality is substantially different from most of the female characters in the series. Rika has somewhat shut herself out of other peoples lives, and that's why she says things like "I don't need anybody,". These words are probably to comfert her.

Digimon Tamers: The Adventurers' Battle
With Takato, Henry and their partners on vacation in Okinawa, it was up to Rika and Renamon to keep the peace in Shinjuku as Digimon continued to appear at a rapid pace. When Digimon started appearing all over the world, Omnimon appeared to transport Rika and Kyubimon, along with Henry and Gargomon, to the battle site where Takato and Growlmon were fighting the true enemy: Mephistomon. Rika was present when the battle continued into an alternate dimension where the Tamers' Digimon combined their attacks to create the "Trinity Burst" attack to defeat Gulfmon and put a halt to the chaos in the Real World. In the episode, "Song of a Sakuyamon" Rika and Renamon took a leap into the D-Reaper's Chaos, resulting in Sakuyamon, Renamon's final digivolution, the "Biomerge".

Digimon Tamers: Runaway Locomon
Rika's family and friends were planning a party for her and she was less than enthusiastic when Takato spilled the beans to her, after suggesting they go cherry blossom watching together when they actually happened "later" as Rika describes. The appearance of Locomon called her into action, along with Renamon, jumping onto one of Locomon's carriages with Takato. Taken over by a Parasimon which tricked her into attacking Takato and Renamon with memories of her father, Rika was freed when Guilmon destroyed the Parasimon controlling her. She Bio-Merged with Renamon to Sakuyamon to help defeat the Parasimon invasion in Tokyo. Following their defeat, Rika attended her birthday party thrown by her friends, only to leave just after blowing the candles out. Takato found her watching the sunset but Renamon stopped him from going to her, letting Rika be alone with the memories of her father, but in the series it tells you that Rika's parents were divorced.

Possible Couplings

 * Takato & Rika
 * Ryo & Rika
 * Henry & Rika

Cross over Couplings
Matt (season one) and Rika

Trivia

 * According to, Rika's earliest designs were influenced by Trinity of The Matrix as an example of a strong female lead, before later settling on the red spiky 'pineapple-head' look instead.
 * After Rika received her D-Power and before she chose Renamon, among the shadowed Digimon who wanted Rika to tame either of them are:
 * 1st Window: Gekomon, Deramon, Minomon, Musyamon, WaruMonzaemon, a Digimon that might be Dolphmon
 * 2nd Window: Apemon, Phantomon, Bakumon, Tsubumon, Mummymon (in his human form)
 * 3rd Window: Gizamon, Tuskmon, Aquilamon, SkullMeramon (in his hat and trench coat from Adventure/ Season One), a Digimon that might be Apocalymon
 * She is the only character who actually got one of her image songs converted over to the U.S. dub, in that, during Runaway Locomon, Melissa Fahn sings 'Promise', during the same sequence where Fumiko Orikasa sung 'Yuuhi-no Yakusoku', or 'Promise Of The Setting Sun', in Runaway Digimon Express.
 * During the majority of the series, Rika's top depicts a blue broken heart symbol. In the beginning of the last arc she receives a new top from her mother in which the heart is complete. She continues to wear it for the rest of the series and in 'Runaway Locomon' possibly as a symbolization of her personality change over time.
 * In the anime seasons, Rika was the first female human who managed to bring her Digimon to the Mega level. The second was Yoshino Fujieda in Digimon Savers who made her Lalamon evolve to Rosemon. Another case may be Kari Kamiya, whose Angewomon digivolved into Magnadramon during one of the movies.(however the movie in question, Hurricane Touchdown is non-canon.
 * Rika is the narrator of Digimon Frontier in the English dub until Bokomon takes over for the last eight episodes (as a result of voice actor Melissa Fahn leaving to join the cast of Wicked).