Rika's Appearance in DIGIMON TAMERS (episodes 1-13)
Ruki and Renamon first appear in Takato's dream/vision. Ruki helps Renamon fight and defeat Lynxmon by using the Digimon cards. Takato doesn't know her but recognizes her as a Tamer. He's later convinced what he saw was real and not just a dream but Hirokazu and Kenta don't believe him.
Ruki appears as an actual girl towards the end of the episode. She's standing under a bridge, listening to music when she sees a stream of Guilmon's DigiField realizing in the distance and disappears to explore it.
Goblimon materializes in Shinjuku park and Ruki runs to the DigiField to fight it. She uses her cards to power up Renamon but to her surprise Goblimon evolves, something she thought was not possible. They don't back off from the fight:
They defeat Goblimon and while Renamon is absorbing its data, Ruki analyses the fight. She comes to the conclusion that they were stronger, even though Renamon's level was lower. However, she wants Renamon to get even stronger, which to them means she must absorb more Digimon data.
The episode ends with Takato and Guilmon walking around Shinjuku park, looking for a place to hide Guilmon. They suddenly get attacked by Renamon and Ruki asks Takato to move aside for the Digimon to fight.
The episode explores Ruki's relationship towards Digimon, who, at this point, she only sees as mere tools for battle. She believes it's her purpose as a Tamer to make Renamon stronger by fighting other Digimon and loading their data. This would then lead to a Digivolution. Renamon shares her way of thinking and does what Ruki asks of her.
The episode starts with Ruki insisting Renamon and Guilmon should fight and when Takato refuses, she scolds him:
Renamon and Guilmon fight and Ruki is pleased to see Renamon is winning. However, the Digimon struggles before striking the final blow to defeat Guilmon because she could hurt Takato too.
Renamon decides to attack but the fight is stopped by Jian, who questions their need to fight other Digimon.
That's when they go and leave Jian and Takato behind but the seed of doubt had been planted, although she dismisses the thought instantly:
She's later walking around Shinjuku, deep in her thoughts and listening to music, when three random guys recognize her as the Digimon Queen. She's really good at Digimon cardgame and had been in the finals of at least two tournaments.
So even though we find out she's already really good at Digimon battles, she wants and needs to get even better and wants Renamon to do the same. When she stops at an intersection, she has this telepathic conversation with Renamon that reveals this fixation of hers. She's pretty unrelenting to her Digimon and their ultimate goal.
Later they practically lure Takato and Guilmon to a parking garage for the fight to continue. Guilmon sensing Renamon and wanting to go there in the first place is the evidence enough for her, that Digimon are drawn to eachother to fight. Takato tries telling her he doesn't want Guilmon to fight without a reason.
Jian interfers in the fight again. He agrees that Digimon on the internet are there to fight but that it doesn't mean they have to do it in the Real World too. She doesn't want to consider this at this point.
Renamon attacks Guilmon but Terriermon interferes in the fight, almost gets hurt and thus he digivolves.
Ruki encourages Renamon to fight the Champion level Gargomon. He's out of control to the point that he aims his machine guns to Ruki's face but Guilmon prevents the worst from happening. Ruki is terrified by the experience.
The episode focuses on Jian's history and relationship with Terriermon and we see Ruki only briefly. She's at home trying to think of a card combination that would help Renamon defeat Gargomon. She comes to the conclusion that they could only win if Renamon digivolved. Ruki is very invested in Digimon fighting. She not only wants Renamon to be the best and evolve, she takes an active part in it. I like how they combined her cardgame skills to her actively thinking about strategies to fight in actual Digimon battles. She's the Digimon Queen because she puts a lot of effort into the game and is determined to be the best.
An evil Evilmon (xD) materializes in a DigiField and Takato, Jian and their Digimon have problems fighting it. Ruki and Renamon join them and Ruki helps Renamon defeat it by choosing a right card strategy.
TAKATO (angry): You're horrible! Digimon are living beings. How can you only want their data?
She actually feels bad about these accusations but doesn't want to change her mind (RUKI: Digimon are just Digimon.). She seems to feel even worse when Culumon is suddenly standing at her feet, asking her to play with him and Takato warns her not to hurt him.
Ruki is in (a all-girls) school and somehow the moms of the girls are also there, standing in the back and listening to the lecture. Ruki's classmates are admiring her young-looking-model mother Rumiko. Rumiko gets a call from work and has to leave early. Ruki looks like she's used to her doing that. When walking home from school she remembers a moment with her mother (that ends with Rumiko having to go to work, which makes Ruki disappointed).
A Digital Field appears again and Ruki runs home to change her clothes. They fight Allomon in the Field and Renamon has problems winning:
Takato and Jian come to help and Ruki tells them not to interfere in her fight.
She then thinks about the time she and Renamon met for the first time. It was after the Digital Monster D-1 Grand Prix tournament, the one that Ruki won. When she gets home from the tournament a bunch of different Digimon appear in her room and they all want the same thing:
She's scared of them and yells: "I only want one really strong Digimon to be with me!"
A blue card and Renamon appear: "A really strong Digimon... That would be me." Ruki swipes the Blue Card to her Card Fighter EX calculator and gets her D-Power.
Although Renamon wants to get stronger as much as Ruki does, she also feels bad about letting down her Tamer.
Ruki is determined Renamon will only evolve if she defeats a really strong Digimon and loads its data: "That is the only way..."
They're later fighting Dokugumon in a particularily scary looking Digital Field but Renamon gets caught into its web. She understands the severity of the situation and begs Ruki to go away before she could get hurt. Ruki refuses to do it and uses cards to help her Digimon. Dokugumon attacks Ruki too and the already injured Renamon jumps in front of her to protect her. Ruki is overwhelmed by Renamon risking her life to save her:
Renamon is too weak to continue and Ruki cries her name, thinking she lost her. Her caring makes Renamon digivolve to Kyubimon and defeat Dokugumon (and load its data).
Ruki is at home with Kyubimon, waiting for her to devolve. She's satisfied with her Digimon and the new connection they've established.
Meanwhile, Takato wants to talk to Jian and Ruki about the possibility of their Digimon to simply vanish. After talking to Jian he goes searching for Ruki. It's Guilmon who finally senses Renamon and runs to her.
Renamon still shares the same perception of Digimon as Ruki. Takato tells her they don't want to fight and Ruki joins them. Takato introduces himself to her for the first time and she makes fun of him wanting to confess his love for her. When she later does it again and he seriously denies it, she calls him a "kid":
Ruki obviously sees Takato as the less mature and experienced Tamer and thus treats him like a kid, even though they're the same age.
Takato expresses his concerns that Digimon might turn back into data. Regardless of the new intimacy Ruki has experienced with Kyubimon she still acts indifferent to Digimon:
She acts as if though she doesn't care about a bunch of data vanishing, but gets a sad look on her face at this thought when she glimps over to Renamon.
Later when Takato goes home, she catches him to threaten him to not add the -chan to her name again or she's going to hurt him.
Yamaki is executes a program named Yuggoth that's erasing the Digimon and is the reason for Guilmon sudden disappearce. Takato asks Jian and Ruki for help. At first, Ruki refuses to help find Guilmon but then she changes her mind, since a "Tamer doesn't turn her back on the enemy".
They successfully save Guilmon from being erased and Ruki continues her act of indifference:
However, Takato and Jian seem to be used to her act by now (would she really help them if she didn't care?), since it doesn't bother them anymore and they just sigh.
Impmon is scaring couples at night in the park and Takato thinks Guilmon does it and is angry at him.
Ruki is studying the Digimon cards when Devidramon materializes in a DigiField. Renamon and her go there but Renamon wants Guilmon to fight his opponent by himself.
I really like how they took time to introduce us to the Digimon Queen, rather than just telling us she's the best at Digimon cardgame. She's not only shown several times studying different card strategies, we also get to see Takato struggling with it, since he's less experienced in it.
Guilmon manages to digivolve to Growmon and defeat Devidramon.
Takato is trying to help Growmon devolve. Nothing seems to help the process so he paints the Digimon with Jian's help to different shades of green to make him less visible in the park environment. Ruki comes and doesn't find the solution that amusing. She orders Renamon to show Takato that his plan was stupid.
Ruki still considers Takato (and Jian?) as children not mature enough to even be Tamers. Although it looked like they were getting closer in previous two episodes, she's still driven by the idea of Digimon being mere battle machines.
Ruki is walking the streets of Shinjuku and trying to better understand the conditions of a digivolution, since the experience has shown that the sole data loading isn't the crucial precondition (Guilmon could evolve without loading other Digimon's data).
Ruki snaps at her Digimon pretty badly but clearly feels bad about it. However, at this stage she's still too proud to apologize and just leaves the house, asking Renamon not to follow her. While Renamon already understands the condition of her evolution lies in her relationship with Ruki, Ruki can't change her way of thinking over night and is still struggling with it.
IceDevimon follows her to a subway station and kidnaps her to a cold dark Digital Field.
Ruki remembers Renamon and wants her to save her. Renamon feels her cry for help but hesitates for a moment when she remembers the fight they had and that must have hurt her a lot. IceDevimon feels Ruki's desire to see Renamon and tries to convince her that he's her real partner. To prove it to her, he shows her his collection of Digimon he's defeated for the sake of digivolving (they're all captured in ice blocks). He tells her she's been doing the same thing and Ruki's shaken at the thought that's what she was making Renamon do. However, although acting like a cold indifferent person she proves herself not to be one. She despises IceDevimon for what he had done.
Ruki hesitates to call Renamon. She doubts she would come after the fight they had and even if she did come, she would do what IceDevimon had been doing and she can't handle it anymore at this point. She's reevaluating her opinion on the meaning of Digimon existence.
Takato and Jian come to help her, confused by the fact Renamon is not there yet. IceDevimon feels Ruki's sadness and accuses her of becoming soft:
Ruki calls for Renamon anyway and she comes but is too weak to fight IceDevimon. Even though Ruki doesn't want her to evolve, Renamon does so after Ruki expresses her caring for her again.
It's Guilmon and Takato's strategic Digimodify that beat IceDevimon in the end.
Ruki's shaken from what happened and from finally realizing that Renamon means more to her than she thought. She also starts to doubt the Digimon evolution itself, and she can't handle it. She deals with her confusion with anger and says out loud how she hates Digimon and just goes away. Kyubimon disappears into the night as well, leaving Takato and Jian in shock.
The episode focuses on Jian's attitude towards Digivolution. He accepts in the end that some fights are unavoidable, let's Terriermon evolve and Gargomon can finally control himself.
Ruki on the other hand is still upset and wants to give up on Digimon. She shoves her deck and D-Power into a trash can. She's later laying in bed but can't sleep. When Culumon knocks down the trash she hopes it's Renamon. Culumon wants her to feel better and leaves her D-Power at her bedside.
Renamon is also having a crisis and she shares her thoughts with Jian, whom she meets in a park:
Ruki and Renamon don't get to resolve their conflict in this episode. I love it how they took time to do it, giving their relationship, doubts and reevaluating of their mindset much greater weight.
Ruki and Renamon haven't seen eachother since the fight with IceDevimon. Ruki misses her Digimon and looks around the house for her but doesn't find her.
Renamon is trying to continue getting stronger withouth Ruki, who she believes doesn't want to have anything to do with her. A DigiField appears and she goes there alone. Ruki comes to it too but can't bring herself to enter and runs away from it. Renamon defeats the Digimon and loads their data.
Jian tells Renamon that Ruki was there and asks her to be her partner again. Renamon asks of him to tell her what it even means to be a partner. Jian explains that he considers Terriermon his friend but doesn't know, if Ruki feels the same about her Digimon. He's sure though that it wasn't a mere coincidence that Renamon and Ruki met.
Renamon later tries to understand what being a partner means and even talks to Impmon about it. She's convinced that she can't evolve or grow stronger without a partner, but will at least try to do it.
Ruki on the other hand tries to convince herself that Renamon is the one who doesn't need her anymore ("Renamon only needed me to help herself evolve. That's all."). She's suffering from losing her and is even curt and kinda mean to her grandmother.
A Digital Field appears and Renamon is determined to fight it on her own. Ruki's D-power reacts to Harpymon's materialization but she chooses to ignore at first, but comes to the DigiField anyway. She sees Renamon battling Harpymon on her own, which just confirms her thoughts about Renamon not needing her anymore.
Renamon comes to the same conclusion but before defeating Harpymon he questions the purpose of fighting and evolving. Harpymon uses this moment of hesitation to attack Renamon.
Ruki needs to help Renamon but realizes she forgot her cards at home. Not knowing what else to do, she grabs a pointy off the floor, runs to Harpymon and stabs her in the back with it. Renamon digivolves to save her Tamer from Harpymon's counter attack. Kyubimon defeats Harpymon but doesn't load its data:
They finally give in to their partnership and are satisfied with the vague feeling-based definition of it, which opposes Ruki's old strict idea about what Digimon are meant to be and meant to do, and also Renamon's attempt at thinking of a rational definiton of a partnership.
Takato doesn't understand what they're saying and Jian explains to him that they're finally admitting to like eachother, aww.
We find out more about Yamaki, Hypnos and his plan to erase all Digimon in this episode. Ruki and Renamon are only shown shortly, talking about the fight with Harpymon and what it means to evolve. Renamon tells Ruki that she came to the conclusion that Digimon with a human partner don't need to load data from other Digimon to gain stronger evolutions. She tells her that the purpose of evolution doesn't seem to be only to get stronger.
Their relationship feels more intimate; not only because they speak openly about their thoughts, they also sit very close to eachother and Ruki actually expresses her feelings for Renamon out loud:
We see that she's ready to accept all Digimon as living beings worth caring for, since she also expresses her concern about Culumon.
