This being the first Jeri-centered episode of the season, I'll take the time to make a confession. Jeri is definitely not my favorite character, and the efforts in the first half of the series to make her endearing have been pretty hit-and-miss. Most of the time she just comes across as too much of a weirdo, especially with that hand puppet. The few times that the intended charming naivety has shown through include her scene in "Not as Seen on TV" (before she whipped out that puppet), her first meeting with Guilmon and when she covered for Takato at the bakery. Other than that, there's always been something off about her, and the series hasn't made much of an effort thus far to define her as an individual.
It's a shame, because her early scenes in the episode were on the right track towards changing that. Seeing how she secretly relates to Kazu and Kenta wanting to be tamers, confirmed by that card collection that she so innocently spills, and later declaring herself Calumon's tamer due to some suitably naïve reasoning, I actually did feel a measure of sympathy for her. This is because her behavior is cheerful and restrained. But, when Leomon shows up all of that is quickly discarded in favor of overtly silly antics. Jeri's subsequent behavior is so eccentric and over the top that, in the end, it's off-putting.
Other aspects of the episode do not fare much better. It sports the absolute worst Deva, has a thin story, lacks excitement and, again, teases us with far more important matters. Some of the other characters act quite a bit dumber than usual. The tamers hold an overly solemn meeting to conclude that the Sovereign is the one behind the Deva attacks. Wow duh! Why does Takato need to call Henry and Rika about how to check if Jeri really is a Tamer? Even in the technical department there are issues. The animation for Jeri chasing Leomon is repeated several times, as is an entire scene at one point and the stark jump from mid-day sky to full blown sunset when Leomon departs is very jarring. As for Leomon himself, he does have one memorable moment. When he rises out of the rainbow looking all heroic, it's so cheesy that it borders on self-parody. Also, rather than have him hide in the bushes for 10 episodes, he is given proper focus that implies his future role in the group, although this isn't capitalized on fully because he is more an awkward object of Jeri's admiration than an adequately defined individual.
One tends to find that the big point of discussion is Jeri's lachrymose reaction at the end, which is purportedly indicative of the deeper issues she harbors. Admittedly, this is an excellent idea that may have redeemed those silly antics from the rest of the episode, but I find it to be mishandled. At no point did I feel discomforted or unnerved by Jeri's behavior, partially because it's so dismissible in context. Of course she feels embarrassed she really was acting like a fool! Also, the scene's tone is rather off. Instead of being appropriately sullen and subdued, the music and Bridgette Hoffman's voicework overtly attempt to elicit pity. To be fair, the original version doesn't have some of these issues, but still doesn't quite fulfill the writers' intentions. Even in context of the rest of the series, this scene fails to achieve a foreboding quality.
But the biggest problem is that, at the end of the day, Jeri's behavior for much of the episode is plumb annoying. How can one be expected to be affected by a character's underlying issues when any attempt to endear that character is undermined? Compare Katara from "Avatar: The Last Airbender", who was initially portrayed as caring and nurturing, and whose early displays of jealousy and anger were both amusing and intriguing (and lead to eventual, true action).
It's a shame, because her early scenes in the episode were on the right track towards changing that. Seeing how she secretly relates to Kazu and Kenta wanting to be tamers, confirmed by that card collection that she so innocently spills, and later declaring herself Calumon's tamer due to some suitably naïve reasoning, I actually did feel a measure of sympathy for her. This is because her behavior is cheerful and restrained. But, when Leomon shows up all of that is quickly discarded in favor of overtly silly antics. Jeri's subsequent behavior is so eccentric and over the top that, in the end, it's off-putting.
Other aspects of the episode do not fare much better. It sports the absolute worst Deva, has a thin story, lacks excitement and, again, teases us with far more important matters. Some of the other characters act quite a bit dumber than usual. The tamers hold an overly solemn meeting to conclude that the Sovereign is the one behind the Deva attacks. Wow duh! Why does Takato need to call Henry and Rika about how to check if Jeri really is a Tamer? Even in the technical department there are issues. The animation for Jeri chasing Leomon is repeated several times, as is an entire scene at one point and the stark jump from mid-day sky to full blown sunset when Leomon departs is very jarring. As for Leomon himself, he does have one memorable moment. When he rises out of the rainbow looking all heroic, it's so cheesy that it borders on self-parody. Also, rather than have him hide in the bushes for 10 episodes, he is given proper focus that implies his future role in the group, although this isn't capitalized on fully because he is more an awkward object of Jeri's admiration than an adequately defined individual.
One tends to find that the big point of discussion is Jeri's lachrymose reaction at the end, which is purportedly indicative of the deeper issues she harbors. Admittedly, this is an excellent idea that may have redeemed those silly antics from the rest of the episode, but I find it to be mishandled. At no point did I feel discomforted or unnerved by Jeri's behavior, partially because it's so dismissible in context. Of course she feels embarrassed she really was acting like a fool! Also, the scene's tone is rather off. Instead of being appropriately sullen and subdued, the music and Bridgette Hoffman's voicework overtly attempt to elicit pity. To be fair, the original version doesn't have some of these issues, but still doesn't quite fulfill the writers' intentions. Even in context of the rest of the series, this scene fails to achieve a foreboding quality.
But the biggest problem is that, at the end of the day, Jeri's behavior for much of the episode is plumb annoying. How can one be expected to be affected by a character's underlying issues when any attempt to endear that character is undermined? Compare Katara from "Avatar: The Last Airbender", who was initially portrayed as caring and nurturing, and whose early displays of jealousy and anger were both amusing and intriguing (and lead to eventual, true action).
