D-Reaper's Feast (Digimon Tamers)

"D-Reaper's Feast"
If Cartoon Network banned "Blue Cat Blues" from Tom and Jerry because of suicide attempt, then why hasn't Fox Kids banned this episode?
Series: Digimon Tamers Part of Season: 3 Episode Number: 49 (Digimon Tamers) Air Date: (Ja:) March 24, 2002 (En:) June 8, 2002 Writer: Chiaki J. Konaka Director: Takenori Kawada Previous episode: Shadow of the Beast King Next episode: Jeri Fights Back

D-Reaper's Feast (首都壊滅!クルモンの願い lit: Destruction of the Capital! Culumon's Wish) is an episode from Digimon Tamers, is the forty-ninth episode of the show.

Summary

Within the D-Reaper Sphere, Jeri blames herself for Beelzemon getting defeated, as Calumon tries to console her.

Why It's a Disturbing Feast

1. Much like "Downhearted Duckling" and "Blue Cat Blues" from Tom and Jerry, "Scaredy Cat" from Looney Tunes and "One Coarse Meal" from SpongeBob SquarePants, this episode is infamous for containing an attempted suicide scene that is extremely inappropriate for an anime show for kids, including its writing by Chiaki J. Konaka (which will be explained why in a bit).
2. This episode is also infamous for containing a reference of the September 11 attacks of 2001 throughout most of the episode (see WIaTF#5), which is very offensive and disrespectful to victims of the attack.
   • In fact, this episode was released 9 months after this attack, showing how the showrunners just somehow didn't care about what happened. (Just look at WIaTF#9).
3. Mother D-Reaper is a extremely unlikable villain in this episode, as she tortures poor Jeri with her tentacles much to the point were she considers suicide.
4. Terrible writing by Chiaki J. Konaka, who's ironically the head writer for the anime. Wouldn't he have better writing skills for a head writer?
5. The sounds of Jeri wailing in pain are very disturbing to listen to, even for Tamers' standards.
6. There is one infamous scene that gives an insult to the victims of September 11th where the Twin Towers was collapsed by D-Reaper.
7. The one infamous scene where Jeri attempts suicide by choking herself to death with her own dog hand puppet after blaming herself. This is almost as bad as the infamous suicide scene in 13 Reasons Why.
8. Very noticable animation errors, thanks to the rushed animation direction from Setsuko Nobuzane:
   • Terriermon's eyebrows are missing at several points.
   • Before Renamon turn to face Rika's mother, the purple markings under her eyes are completely black.
9. Many American fans are furious and offended with this episode due to WIaTF#1, #5 and #6.
10. The whole episode is an unnecessary filler episode. You could just remove this episode, and the whole season wouldn't be any different.
11. All in all, it's absolutely outrageous to see that Fox Kids hasn't banned this episode from their when, ironically, they've banned two of The Ripping Friends episodes ("The Infernal Wedding" and "Jimmy's Kidnapped") for controversial and violent content!

Redeeming Qualities

1. Takato, Rika, Henry, Guilmon, Renamon, Terriermon, Jeri and Calumon are still likable characters.
   • Calumon saved Jeri from suicide. In fact, he has a really good moral that suicide is never the answer to solving a problem.
   • As for Jeri, she finally snaps out of her depression, which is very satisfying.
2. Renamon confirmed that Digimon not haven gender is actually normal in this episode.
3. D-Reaper does thankfully get her comeuppance by getting called out by Jeri in the next episode and beign defeated and killed in the final episode.
4. Great special guest of Brian Donovan as Kai, Takato's cousin from Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers (who voices Davis from Digimon Adventure 02).
5. Awesome Ending: The Tamers and their Digimon prepare to return to Shinjuku to save Jeri and Calumon and defeat D-Reaper once and for all, with an epic song in the background in the Japanese version, called Starting Point.

Gallery

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Reception

Since its release, "D-Reaper's Feast" is known for being one of the most controversial episodes in the Digimon series, and has received mixed-to-largely negative reviews by critics and fans alike for the infamous writing choice of a scene of Jeri attempting to strangle herself, which is often considered a suicide attempt in a kids' show. "D-Reaper's Feast" is often considered as one of the worst episodes in Digimon Tamers, and overall one of the worst episodes in the entire Digimon series.

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