Rewatching project: Solving riddles in "Izzy style"
Episode 5 of Digimon Adventure was always a special part of the whole tv show, because it introduced the symbols and signs of the Digiworld, which follows us through the whole series. And you cannot mention them without our “mastermind” Izzy.
With his laptop Izzy can solve any riddle and therefore he has a key position in the group. I tried to figure out, what he is actually looking at in episode 5.
Actually there are not only senseless symbols, there are also letters from actual existing alphabets from our “real” world.
- in the upper right corner ( orange box) there are definitely Tamil signs, since this is my mother tongue. ( Tamil is originally spoken in south India and in the north of Sri Lanka)
எ - ”e” ஈ - long “ii”
- in the blue box, we can find the Latin alphabet
- the green box possibly contains Arabic or Telugu characters. Since it is hard to identify any signs, the writing form reminds me of both languages
(Arabic) أنا أحب ديجمون. నేను డిజిమోన్ ప్రేమ. (Telugu)
- it is hard to identify the letters on the left side, but some ( in the red boxes) show similarities to Sanscrit ( an old indian language and holy language of Hinduism), but i am not able to define them colser
All in all , i do not think that each symbol appearing in Digimon has a deeper meaning. Maybe we are not as intelligent as Izzy!!:(
However, it is clear that the Digiworld makers have been inspired by languages all over the world and borrowed some letters.
I think it is fantastic that the Digimon makers did so much research and invested so much time in order to create an authentic Digiworld by using models in reality. It really shows us ther hard work and passion.
I never noticed this before. o.0 Well observed!
The part you say it looks like Sanskrit, could those be part of the Korean alphabet? They seem a bit similar.
As for the digicode itself, can I share a random headcanon? I’ve always been fond of those “digikanas” because some look like a modern take on old viking runes. Here in Portugal we had some viking colonies, ages ago, and they left us a very rudimentary system of language we call “siglas poveiras”. When you go to places like Póvoa de Varzim you can find signs like this. The first time I saw these I had a funny feeling, it was only later digimon came to mind. XD
The above might sound a bit random, but, considering how Digimon pretty much adopted some traits of the Norse Mythos and even decided to call the God of the Digital World Yggdrasil in later anime series and mangas, I can’t help thinking it’s a funny coincidence.