J.P. Shibayama

J.P. Shibayama, known in Japan as Junpei Shibayama (柴山純平 Shibayama Junpei), is a fictional character in the anime series Digimon Frontier.

J.P. is the oldest of the DigiDestined, a group of children chosen to defend the Digiworld from evil. J.P. was chosen to wield the Spirits of Thunder that hold AncientBeetlemon's power, giving him the ability to spirit evolve into two powerful Digimon that wield electricity as their primary weapons. At first, J.P. is slightly jealous of Takuya Kanbara, the leader of their group, because he wishes to be Tommy Himi's (Tomoki Himi) hero. Being the youngest and most impressionable in the group, Tommy idolizes Takuya, a natural born leader. Later on, he becomes jealous of Takuya's ability to fusion evolve, the ability to combine both of his Digimon forms into one powerful Digimon. But, eventually, J.P. overcomes his jealousy. He also has feelings for Zoe Orimoto (Izumi Orimoto), the only female in the group. While he is very clear in his flirting with her, those feelings are not apparently returned although many point out very slight hints that she at least opens up to him more as the series progresses. For the most part, she used his attraction to her to get him to do things he wouldn't normally do, like helping weak Digimon with hard labor projects. In the beginning, he also had a tendency to try and bribe his way out of tough situations using chocolate, an attempt that never really worked in his favor.

J.P. was revealed to have a fear of lightning, a fact Zoe found curious, stating, "but you use electric attacks all the time." J.P. responds by saying that when he spirit evolves into Beetlemon, he becomes a totally different person, no longer affected by the same fears that plague him as a human. Upon seeing this, a Tsunomon in a Digimon school run by a Togemon began to realize that it's okay to digivolve, even though his peers shunned him for it at first due to fear.

For all his faults, J.P. has a surprisingly insightful side to him hidden underneath his more boastrous personality. At certain times he has offered insight as well as encouragement to individual members of the team. This surprising side to J.P. is a hidden away because J.P. has a deeply rooted fear of being left out or of being alone. J.P. gets a lot of attention in the real world because of his various entertaining talents and knowledge on various hobbies. However, he feels that he is never anyone's real friend, but just a quick fix that is easily forgotten. Because of this, he feels that he is constantly left alone after all is said and done, and feels that no one really cares about him. This is what spawned his more obnoxious behavior seen earlier in the series. As he confronts his fears however, he begins to shed this aspect of himself and begin's to see the others as friends and learns to open up his more genuine feelings and behavior.

J.P. is somewhat unique among Digimon protagonists, as he is the only DigiDestined in all four of the Digimon series' that is overweight. Many noted that almost all Digimon main characters tended to have the same body build of being rather slender. This made J.P. stand out although many feared he would play into negative stereotypes of fat characters. Thankfully, he arguably didn't. J.P. has brown hair that spiked, and wears a predominantly blue jumpsuit with patches of yellow.

Human Spirit of Thunder: Beetlemon

Description

• Blitzmon in the Japanese version. Blitz in German translates into lightning.

Using the Human Spirit of Thunder, J.P. becomes this human-type Digimon. Beetlemon has a large horn on its head, and its entire body can become electrified. Beetlemon is capable of flight, as well as of unleashing powerful electric attacks. His blue and yellow armor-like exoskeleton seems to match not only J.P.'s D-Tector, but his civilian clothing as well. The armor plates just above his knees bear the insignia of the ancient Sprit of Thunder.

Beetlemon is significantly larger than the other human spirit digivolutions, and appears to have more raw, non-elemental related strength in his tackles and punches. Beetlemon is one of the two spirits derived from AncientBeetlemon, one of the ten legendary warriors that originally sealed away Lucemon when he became corrupted with his own power.

Attacks

• Lightning Blitz: Beetlemon's horn emits a powerful electric charge, comparable to MegaKabuterimon's horn buster attack.
• Thunder Fist (Thor Hammer): Launches a powerful electrified punch either at his enemy, or at the ground to send a fissure towards the opponent.
• Proton Slam (Mjolnir Thunder): Charges his body with electricity then tackles the enemy.

Beast Spirit of Thunder: MetalKabuterimon

• Borgmon in the Japanese version.

Using the Beast Spirit of Thunder, J.P. becomes this Beast-Machine type Digimon. MetalKabuterimon's entire body is covered by armor. Most prominently noticed is that he bears two cannons for "arms" and one much larger cannon on his head. When setting up for an attack with the larger cannon, a mechanical transformation takes place, opening up a panel on top of his head that reveals a power gauge for his Electron Cannon attack. MetalKabuterimon's tank-like body allows him to roll to move. Of all the Beast Spirit Digimon, it appears that MetalKabuterimon is the second-largest, beaten out by Sakkakumon, and his Electron Cannon technique, although slow to fire, has the highest raw power level of any Digi-spirit attack.

Attacks

• Bolo Thunder (Ultimate Thunder): Releases energy from both his arms that resembles a two-weight bola.
• Electron Cannon (Field Destroyer): A brief charging period followed by a powerful electric blast that must be fired from a distance. Once, MetalKabuterimon faced a shadow form of himself, and fired the attack from a very close range. He obliterated the doppelganger, and sent himself flying backwards, de-digivolving in the process back into J.P.

Appearances

Beetlemon

The Digidestined, during their travels, stopped at a wind factory in hopes of having found a food source. The group, however, during a tour conducted by the Leafmon, soon discovers that the Kokuwamon that work there are actually being forced into slavery by the Goblimon and their leader, Snimon. At first, J.P. had objections to aiding the Kokuwamon in fighting off the Goblimon and Snimon, mostly because he didn't have a Digimon spirit yet. But seeing a young, weak Kokuwamon ready to fight caused J.P. to run in and aid Agunimon, Kazemon, and Kumamon in the battle. He managed to use some construction equipment to ram Snimon into a wall. Snimon retaliated and destroyed the machinery that J.P. was riding in. The Kokuwamon caught J.P. before he hit the ground, and the destruction of the machine revealed the Spirit of Thunder. J.P. spirit evolved into Beetlemon and wiped out Snimon, freeing the Kokuwamon.

MetalKabuterimon

Cornered in an underwater cavern with a Whamon, the group, this time with Koji on board, is attacked by Grumblemon and Arbormon. Already injured, J.P. was motivated to continue fighting against everyone else's advice when Zoe lamented over the loss of her Kazemon spirit in an earlier battle. He spirit evolved to Beetlemon and attempted to take on Grumblemon's army of Golemon on his own, as Agunimon and Lobomon were preoccupied with Petaldramon. J.P.'s attempt ended in failure, and it seemed Grumblemon was going to finish him off when Whamon released a powerful blast of water at Grumblemon, knocking him away. Along with that water came the beast spirit of thunder, which Whamon recalled accidentally swallowing. Grumblemon attempted to steal the spirit, but J.P. uploaded it into his D-Tector before he could. J.P. spirit evolved into MetalKabuterimon. Like the others, he lost control of his beast spirit at first, firing his Bolo Thunder attack in all directions. When an unnerved and fearful Grumblemon called him his friend in the foolish hope of being spared from an attack, it irritated MetalKabutermon enough to allow J.P. to regain control. With a powerful blast from his Electron Cannon, he destroyed Grumblemon and absorbed his fractal code and the human spirit of earth. In the chaos, Petaldramon was buried inside the cavern, temporarily removing him from the game. Much to Zoe's delight, this also allowed her to reclaim her spirit which had been stolen by Grumblemon in the first place.

• Both of J.P.'s Thunder Spirits are temporarily transferred to Koji Minamoto's D-Tector when Koji evolves into MagnaGarurumon.
• ''Although not shown in the anime, Beetlemon and MetalKabuterimon can fusion evolve into RhinoKabuterimon.

See also

• RhinoKabuterimon