Takeru "T.K." Takaishi

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

Appearance
In 1995, T.K. is a very young boy with light skin, short blond hair with a longer tuft on the front, and blue eyes. He wears green overalls over a light green T-shirt, as well as white socks. His pajamas include a long-sleeved light green shirt.

In 1999, T.K. is slightly older and taller, but not by much, still standing as the youngest and shortest of the DigiDestined. He wears a green vest over a light green shirt with long sleeves, khaki shorts, yellow socks, green and white strapped tennis shoes, and an odd green hat with a blue gem stone. His underwear is a pair of white briefs with a green band.

After taking a bath in Devimon's illusory mansion, he wears a blue bath robe over his briefs, which is later revealed to an illusion.

On March 4, 2000, T.K. wears an oversized cream turtleneck sweater, light khaki shorts, and a cream bucket hat.

In May 2000, when Gennai summons him back to the, T.K. wears a light green T-shirt, light beige shorts, white socks, green tennis shoes with white soles, and a beige bucket hat.

In 2002, T.K. has grown to be quite tall, matching the height of Yolei and Izzy, who are both older. His usual outfit is a yellow and teal long-sleeved shirt with a high collar, a pair of teal shorts, dark purple socks, green boots with grey soles, and a white bucket hat.

During summer, T.K. wears a khaki sleeveless vest over a light green T-shirt, dark green shorts, dark blue socks, beige boots with grey soles, and a light beige bucket hat.

During winter, T.K. wears a puffy white vest over a green turtleneck sweater, beige shorts, thick yellow socks, blue shoes with yellow soles, and a beige bucket hat.

In 2027, T.K. is an adult, and has longer hair. He wears a green button-up shirt over a green undershirt, beige pants, and black shoes.

Description
T.K. is a very cheerful and amiable person. He doesn't like when others are fighting or sad, and will do anything in his power to make others happy. He is very protective of his loved ones, especially after Patamon's sacrifice, and takes his duty as a protector of the Digital World very seriously. He is rather optimistic, and always tries to keep a smile on his face.

As a small child, T.K. is very naive and doesn't always understand the big picture, and is more prone to tears than the other children, being the youngest. However, he does his best to keep up with the older children, and grows to become very independent and resourceful. As a preteen, he far more mature than the average child thanks to his experiences in the Digital World, and is usually very levelheaded and reasonable. However, Patamon's death and his encounters with the forces of darkness made their mark on him, and he reacts very strongly when anyone abuses the powers of darkness.

In Digimon Adventure, T.K. is the only DigiDestined who doesn't live in Odaiba, instead living with his mother in Setagaya. In Digimon Adventure 02, he moves to Odaiba and lives in same apartment building as Yolei Inoue and Cody Hida. T.K. has a French grandfather, making him and his brother Matt at least 1/4 French.

Etymologies
Name used in Japanese materials. Officially romanized in Digimon Adventure: Official Encyclopedia II.
 * Takeru Takaishi (高石 タケル)
 * Ja: Takaishi (高石). Japanese surname that means "tall stone". "Ishi" is shared with "Ishida".
 * Ja: Takeru (タケル). A Japanese masculine name. With Yamato, it is a reference to.

Name used by Takeru when introducing himself to his class and on the cover of Adventures in the Digital World.
 * Takeru Takaishi (高石 岳)
 * Ja: Takeru (岳). Japanese masculine name that means "mountain". Its meaning is similar to the surname "Takaishi".

Name used in the English dub of Digimon Adventure.
 * Takeru "T.K." Takaishi
 * T.K.. Derived from the two consonants present in both "Takeru" and "Takaishi".

Fiction
In 1995, T.K. lived in Highton View Terrace with his parents, Hiroaki and Nancy, and his older brother, Matt. One night, the brothers witnessed the battle between and. This event led them to be chosen to become a new.

Sometime later, his parents divorced for unknown reasons. Matt was given the decision of who each child should live with, and he decided to stay with his father, while T.K. remained with their mother. T.K. was too young to remember his parents' divorce clearly, and because of his young age, he was not as affected by it as much as Matt at first.

At some point, T.K. and his mother moved to live in the Setagaya ward.

T.K. came to summer camp with Matt by a special arrangement, as he was from a different school than the others. He is the youngest DigiDestined to be transported into the Digital World from the summer camp. However, he is fairly independent on his own, mostly rebuffing his older brother Matt's attempts to comfort and coddle him. However, he enjoys getting to spend more time with his brother, despite the odd situation.

When separates the DigiDestined, T.K. and  end up landing near Primary Village. They enjoy playing with the baby Digimon, but don't know how to take care of them, and, the babies' caretaker, accuses them of being harmful and starts fighting with Patamon. T.K. defuses the situation and settles Patamon and Elecmon's fight with a friendly tug-o-war match, with T.K. as the judge.

During the final battle against Devimon, Patamon Digivolves into when Takeru is in danger. Angemon summons all of the others' strengths and sacrifices himself in order to defeat Devimon. Though Angemon is immediately reborn as a Digi-Egg, this event traumatizes T.K. severely, to the point where he still has nightmares about losing his partner three years later. However, this event causes T.K. to be the first of the team to accept his role as a DigiDestined.

After Tai and disappear following the battle against, Matt and T.K. stick together even when the other DigiDestined leave. When they reach an amusement park near a lake, Matt and Gabumon cross the lake to check things out, but never come back. uses this opportunity to make T.K. believe Matt didn't like him and reject 's friendship. However, Tai and 's return ruin DemiDevimon's plans, and T.K. and Tokomon reconcile, with Tokomon Digivolving to Patamon to fight DemiDevimon.

Soon, the DigiDestined reunite and return to the Real World with their Digimon, hoping to find the eighth DigiDestined before and his army get to them. On August 2, as Matt accompanies T.K. on the way back to Setagaya, T.K. and Patamon get in an argument, and Patamon leaves the train in a huff in Shibuya. As T.K., Matt and try to find Patamon, they encounter two members of Myotismon's army, Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon, who are more interested in having fun with them than attacking the DigiDestined. Myotsimon is unimpressed with Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon's disobedience and banishes them (kills them in the Japanese version), and T.K. and Matt fight Myotismon in their honor. Patamon returns to T.K., and regains his ability to Digivolve to Angemon.

Before the DigiDestined go back to the Digital World to fix the distortions once and for all, T.K. gets to see his mother, father and brother together again. Though the atmosphere is tense, T.K. is oblivious, and is happy to see his family as it was before the divorce.

T.K. plays a critical role in defeating. While Puppetmon kidnaps him to "play" at his mansion, T.K. taunts Puppetmon, saying that he had no friends and prompting the distraught Dark Master to leave him unattended in an attempt to prove him wrong. This allows T.K. to destroy Puppetmon's twisted playroom and take the dolls he used to control the other DigiDestined. He returns to the other DigiDestined on his own, proving how much he has grown.

While fighting against, T.K., Patamon and Kari are the only ones left after Piedmon turns everyone else into keychains. However, snatches a keychain from Piedmon and throws it to T.K. before turning into a keychain himself. When T.K. and Kari find themselves falling to an almost certain death, T.K. realizes the keychain is Matt's keychain. Knowing his brother is still there and has faith in him fills T.K.'s heart with hope, and this hope causes Angemon to Digivolve to. MagnaAngemon saves T.K. and Kari, restores everyone from their keychain state, and is the key to defeating Piedmon once and for all.

On March 4, 2000, T.K. is with Matt visiting their grandmother out in the country. Tai and Izzy manage to get a hold of them and warn them about Diaboromon. Following this, the brothers search the surrounding town for a computer to help fight in the Internet. T.K., however, cannot do much to help in the battle and can only watch in horror as Patamon falls to Diaboromon. He is one of the many viewers around the world who watch the final battle between Omnimon and Diaboromon.

On May 2000, T.K. arrives in the Digital World and gives up his Crest power to free the Digimon Sovereigns. As a result, Patamon loses the power to become MagnaAngemon.

On April 2002, T.K. and his mother move to a new apartment building in Odaiba. On his first day in Odaiba Elementary School, T.K. meets his new neighbors, Yolei Inoue and Cody Hida, and starts attending Odaiba Elementary School, where he finds out he is in the same class as his old friend Kari. Another boy in his class is Davis Motomiya, who immediately singles him out as a rival due to his good relationship with Kari. On the first day of school, he finds out that the Digital World is in trouble due to a human boy who calls himself the Digimon Emperor. He also discovers Davis, Yolei and Cody are new DigiDestined, whose Digimon are capable of Armor Evolution. T.K., like Kari, has a slight advantage compared to the new kids because he has had the most experience with Digimon, though at first he feels like a burden because Patamon can't evolve, due to the Digimon Emperor blocking evolution with his Control Spires. However, he soon finds the Digi-Egg of Hope, which turns his Digivice into a D-3 and allows Patamon to Armor Digivolve into

When Kari begins to act strange and starts fading out in class, T.K. becomes worried, and is distraught when tells him that Kari disappeared into thin air. He goes to look for her on the beach with Patamon and Gatomon, and they are surprised to see Kari calling to them through a portal. They enter the portal to the Dark Ocean, a strange dark world that Kari has been pulled into. Pegasmon destroys a Control Spire in this world, allowing Gatomon to evolve into and save Kari. The four then return to the Real World.

When T.K. and Kari visit Mimi in New York, they encounter Willis, his Digimon,, and. While on a train for Colorado, their train is hindered by Wendigomon, so they have to continue on foot. They manage to join up with the others during the fight with. Angemon and Angewomon Digivolve to their Mega forms to release the powers of the Golden Digi-Eggs so and Terriermon can golden armor digivolve.

While T.K. and Cody infiltrate the Digimon Emperor's base, T.K. realizes Ken is using Devimon's data to complete his secret project. Enraged by Ken's abuse of the powers of darkness, T.K. throws his hat to the floor in anger and seeks out Ken. when he confronts Ken, he taunts the other boy for thinking he could control the forces of darkness, and gets in a fistfight with him, which is only halted by the uncontrollable attacking the base.

After the debut of and, Cody realizes that he and T.K. would become partners and have their Digimon DNA Digivolve. As he tries to understand T.K. better to become a better partner to him, he realizes 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, Kimeramon or. He sees this side clearly during a battle to protect one of the Destiny Stones, when T.K. is increasingly angered by BlackWarGreymon's existence as a construct made of darkness. When BlackWarGreymon grabs Angemon by the throat, T.K. becomes upset until Angemon uses the Stone's power to Digivolve into MagnaAngemon, though this isn't enough to save the Destiny Stone. Cody decides to talk to Matt, who explains how darkness hurt T.K. three years ago. When Matt informs T.K., he comments that Cody could have asked him, but is glad Cody made the effort to understand him. After he helps Cody relax and assures him that he is sure they can achieve DNA Digivolution together, Angemon and finally DNA Digivolve to.

On Christmas Day, T.K., Tai and their Digimon go to 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. They are aided by T.K.'s grandfather, Michel, a proud Frenchman. When he returns to Japan, he is forced to admit to his mother that he is involved in Digimon-related business again. He is surprised but grateful when Nancy uses her connections as a journalist to give him a list of the children Yukio Oikawa kidnapped and seeded with Dark Spores.

During the battle against, T.K. is paralyzed with fear after witnessing MaloMyotismon's cruelty. While he is subjected to MaloMyotismon's illusion, he experiences his desire for his family to be together again. Patamon appears, making T.K. realize that the effect was not real, and Davis appears to break him free of the illusion, after which he joins with the other kids to help Ken break out of his illusion. Cody uses the power of the dream dimension against MaloMyotismon, making his desire for justice come true, with Angemon, MagnaAngemon, Pegasusmon and Shakkoumon appearing all at once. He then helps defeat MaloMyotismon once and for all with the light of his Digivice.

When Pukumon enters the scene with a Control Spire, Joe knocks into the 02 DigiDestined and T.K. ends up with Kari's D-Terminal, allowing Patamon to Armor Digivolve to Manbomon.

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 Fighter Mode and Armageddemon.

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.

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

PSP game
When Puppetmon was revived by Apocalymon, T.K. refuses to give up and told Tai and Matt that he and Patamon will fight him, which causes Patamon to warp digivolve to Seraphimon.

Digimon World Re:Digitize: Decode
Taiga can fight T.K. in the.

Music
T.K. has two Japanese image songs: "Be All Right...", sung by Hiroko Konishi, and "Focus", sung by Taisuke Yamamoto. He has an additional image song, a duet sung by Yamamoto with Miwa Matsumoto as, called "Steppin' Out". Yamamoto also sings "Jingle Bells" as a duet with Megumi Urawa as Cody Hida, and participates in "Bokura no Digital World" ("Our Digital World") and in the male Digimon Adventure 02 characters' rendition of "Target~Akai Shougeki~" in the Digimon Music 100 Title Memorial Box.

Notes and references
T.K. Takaishi Takaishi Takeru