Contains: minor Digimon Beatbreak spoilers!
Digimon as a series has struggled to really bring to light strong, empowered, and independant female characters especially Digipartners. There certainly have been a few standouts, but overall the male heroes tend to be the backbone and focus of most series. The latest anime (Beatbreak) had the making of some real potentially great female characters but due to whatever circumstances most got relatively backburnered or underused (Rose, Reina, Honoka, etc)
I will also say we did have a stunning example of all three traits in Ms Maki Kutsuwada, who is both a former Cleaner and a stable reoccuring character whose backstory and mini-arc really set the bar in space for how beautifully protrayed she, her story, and her journey were relayed.
E32 (Cold Rain) of Beatbreak is an episode that goes into Maki's history, and it's... immensely sad. Knowing that Maki both had a partner that got deleted, and in Panjyamon's death he told her that her hands she never be made for violence, but making delicious coffee.. Makes you really want not only more for Maki, but to spend more time with her as a person to see how and why we got her. In the end of the episode, we see Maki face directly the bane of her existence - Fumamon, the entity that took away Panjyamon.. and she had to make a choice: let her anger overtake her and delete Fumamon - going against everything Panjyamon wanted for her, or to choose to believe in the world that Kyo wanted, even if it meant her own dreams would be put on hold.
It's a pivotal moment that really shows how strong Maki is and how far she's grown from the first time she met Fumamon 15 years ago. It's a haunting episode and leaves you heartbroken, no matter how you look at it, if nothing else but for how much Maki has had to endure in this shitty, broken dystopia.
With a quick two mini-arc focus for Maki - it felt like we just all became so endeared to her right away. I'd honestly love a couple mini-series or OVA that goes back deeper into her story - who her original partner was, how their loss came to be, and how Maki got connected with Yosshi & Kyo and even a portion in the epilogue where we truly get to see who she was looking at the end of the series as they enjoyed a cup of her special coffee (that she normally only makes in memory for a very special someone on rainy days!)
Curious if anyone else would fully jump into any additional Maki-focused media.
