Jeri Katou

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Jeri Katou
Digimon character
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First Appearance	Episode 1, "Guilmon Comes Alive"
Creators	Chiaki J. Konaka (writer)
Voiced by	Yoko Asada (Japanese) Bridget Hoffman (English, Series) Philece Sampler (English, Movie)
Profile
Series	Digimon

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Jeri Katou, known in Japan as Juri Katou (加藤 樹莉, Katō Juri), is a fictional character from the Digimon Tamers series. Jeri is voiced by Bridget Hoffman in the TV series, and by Philece Sampler in the movie 'Runaway Locomon'.

Usually shown with her sock puppet early on in the series, Jeri is a cheerful and sweet person who is always there to encourage her friends, though her later descent into despair has led some fans to deem the character as "feeble", while others view her as a tragic figure on line with Wizardmon of the Adventure universe. It is made clear that Takato Matsuki has a crush on her, and by the end, it seems that the feeling is mutual.

Jeri's family owns a small tavern in Shibuya, where she works sometimes waitressing and even helping her father to handle drunk customers, as she says when she's kidnapped by Orochimon in the Digital World. Her father is a good-hearted but very severe person who didn't know how to handle Jeri's raising after his wife's death; at first he's seen as an extremely cold man, but that facade breaks when he tries to rescue Jeri on his own after she's kidnapped by the D-Reaper.

Digimon Tamers

Development

Early pre-production notes made by Chiaki J. Konaka suggest a female character which likely would become Jeri was named Mishio who cared for her younger sister more often as her parents were workers in the red-light district.

Further along in the series the name Juri came about as well as the hand puppet which began showing in sketches by character designer Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru. At the suggestion of chief director Yukio Kaizawa the puppet was to be used to entertain Jeri's younger half brother which also gave way to the concept of Jeri having a stepmother.

Story arc

At first, Jeri is not very important to the series. She just plays as a school girl Takato has a crush on and won't become a Digimon tamer until later on. It might be said that she is a sort of perfect child, because of her cheerful and happy personality. However, there was a scene when she had claimed she was not interested in Digimon, but had cards dropping out of her pocket when she fell. She was known for her dog-shaped sock puppet from her half brother, which she uses to strike-up conversations.

Where Kazu and Kenta ran away when the existence of Guilmon (Takato's partner Digimon) was proven, Jeri was quick to befriend the strange digital life-form, (do that she finds Guilmon cute) becoming the first non-Tamer to do so.

Jeri is into the DigiBattle Card Game and has some very rare cards in her possession. Takato's friend Rika Nonaka gave her some pointers on what cards to use, and that is how the friendship between the two of them got started. Jeri becomes a Tamer and her partner is Leomon, although when he first appeared, she didn't exactly show that and rather chased him like a madwoman, calling him her Prince and looking almost starstruck at the sight of him. She eventually becomes Leomon's partner before she and the other Tamers (including Kazu and Kenta) headed out into the Digital World in search of Calumon.

Jeri proves herself to be a very capable Tamer with potential for greatness (she used the extremely powerful and rare Lady Devimon card on Leomon to destroy the evil Digimon Orochimon who had kidnapped her), but unfortunately her career is cut short when Beelzemon destroys Leomon and uploads his data.

Following this Jeri becomes withdrawn, believing that her destiny is to be alone. Some time during their return to the real world, Jeri's cheerful facade is ripped away and through flashbacks and a brief explanation she delivered to Takato, her less-than-cheerful past is revealed. Her biological mother had died a while ago and when Jeri met her stepmother, she didn't give her a chance, so deeply traumatized she was over the death of her real mother. Jeri came to think she was a bad person, because she knew her stepmother was a nice woman, yet she couldn't empathize with her. She also thinks over and over about the words that her father said after her mother's death, which Leomon repeated sometime before dying: "it's all because of Destiny."

Jeri showed no sign of caring about what was going on around her and she kept on looking into her now dead D-Arc. The only real reaction came when Takato and Guilmon, now fused into Gallantmon, were about to kill Beelzemon after defeating him; she yelled at them to spare him, and when Beelzemon asked her why, she tearfully said she didn't want anyone else to die because of her. When she disappeared for a moment and then came back, her eyes were different, as if something possessed her, and she had an evil smile, even after the kids were back in Tokyo.

It is later discovered that this was not Jeri, rather it was the D-Reaper's Agent 1, by discovering its "wings", who assumed Jeri's form to learn all she could about the Tamers. The real Jeri had been taken away and placed in a space within the D-Reaper. The Agent 1 said that Jeri was the perfect being for the D-Reaper as it used her sadness to strengthen itself.

Within the D-reaper, Jeri continued in her almost suicidal-state, repeating that she herself didn't deserve to live. D-Reaper was able to feed off her negative emotions and evolve, but gradually, thanks to Calumon's presense, Jeri decided to fight back against her kidnapper. She spoke what Leomon had spoken (while he was destined to die, she still had a lot to live for, and so did the others) and managed to break the sphere she was held in with her D-power. However, the chaos mess prevented her and Calumon from escaping until Takato arrived. In her depression, it is discovered that she cared deeply for Takato, for she once said "If Jeri wasn't around, no more bad stuff would happen. Nobody else would ever get hurt, especially not Takato." She is finally reunited with Takato when he fights into the D-reaper to rescue her and after awakening from unconsciousness Jeri hugs him. By the end of the series, Jeri snaps out her depression, thanks to Takato and Calumon, and realizes that humans can make their own destiny and that she was never meant to be alone. It was never stated but certainly Implied that Calumon was her second partner.

Digimon Tamers: Runaway Locomon

Jeri not only attended Rika's birthday, but she along with Calumon also helped Rika's grandmother, Seiko Hata with all the decorations as well.

External links

• Jeri Katou - Chiaki J. Konaka Official website (Japanese version)

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