Renamon (Tamers)

Renamon is a Digimon, the Digimon partner of Rika in the Digimon Tamers season. Unlike the other Rookie Digimon, Renamon is a mature Digimon with experience and a jaded view on life. As she shows it, there are two things she lives for: to battle her foes and to protect Rika. Renamon's Digivolution was inspired from the Kitsune and other fox spirits of Asian myth. Her name may be derived from Renard, the French word for Fox and the folktale character, Renard the Fox. Her name was originally to be Lunamon, implying some connection to the Moon (which is an element of almost all her Digivolution sequences).

At first, Renamon's view on humans was that they were used for aiding Digimon in Digivolution. Rika thought that Digimon were just fighting machines. The two had a distant relationship. But as time passed, the two saved each other on many occasions and their friendship grew stronger. It reached its zenith when it enabled the final Bio-mergance that sparked Sakuyamon's birth.

Abilities
Renamon can warp light around her, able to turn invisible and possibly even to teleport. Combined with her agility and strength, she fights like a fictional ninja in some respects. Her strength is in her speed and agility, although none of her forms should be considered physically weak.

Digimon Tamers
Renamon became Rika's partner after she received her D-Power. During her time with Rika, she battled Lynxmon, Fugamon, and Allomon before Digivolving to Kyubimon to defeat Dokugumon. Renamon has been Rika's companion throughout the Tamers season.

Gender issue
In one episode of Digimon, Renamon stated that Digimon have no gender; however most fans decry this is not true, and go to great lengths to prove this otherwise based upon instances in the show that they feel clearly depicts digimon as having gender, such as for example the obviously female appearance of such Digimon as Sakuyamon, who is Renamon's mega stage form. Toei, however, does not seem willing to detract or even comment on this statement. One view seen would be the concept of gender has no real importance among Digimon. Most regions treat Renamon as female, with a female voice actor. However, in the German version of Digimon Tamers produced for the channel RTLII, Renamon was voiced by a male voice actor (and Sakuyamon by a female voice actor). This is sometimes considered awkward due to the issue of the Biomerge sequence, where Rika (a young girl) fuses with Renamon.

Trivia

 * According to some cards in the Digimon trading card game, Renamon is a Nightmare Soldier, a class of digimon that usually refers Digimon of the dark element. Why this is so is never explained in the series. (Outsides the series, Nightmare Soldiers are classified as Digimon with Dark Powers. Most of Myotismon & Piedmon's Servants were of that type.)