Matt x Sora

About

Matt x Sora or "Sorato" threads regularly appear on /a/ as a form of trolling. It is a pairing involving two characters from the series Digimon Adventures 02 that happens to cause a lot of butthurt and rage from the fans of the series. The characters involved in this meme are Taichi (Tai in the US version), Sora, and Yamato (Matt in the US version). It is rather significant as a meme as Digimon Adventures is over ten years old, but Sorato threads still has a strong affect on anonymous users of /a/.

Taichi and Sora are the main male and female protagonists in the series. They are childhood friends and get along pretty well. Because of this, many fans considered them to be a couple. However, in the sequel Digimon Adventures 02, Sora dumps Taichi for Yamato (Taichi's pretty boy best friend/rival).

Origin

Digimon Adventures (named Digimon or Digimon, Digital Monsters in the US) is a popular children's anime series that was created by the animation studio Toei and aired on Fuji TV in 1999.^[1] The series consists of young kids who partner up with monsters named Digimon (short for Digital Monsters) and go on various adventures from saving the virtual world (called Digital World) to saving the real world. Digimon Adventures 02 is the sequel of Digimon Adventures which takes place a few years after the first season. Although it has it's own cast of Chosen Children (Digidestined in the US version), the first season cast returns as teenagers who act as mentors for the new cast.

Digimon Adventures was in the early wave of anime series that became popular in the US. It shared a rivalry with Pokémon in the monster raising genre. However, even though Pokémon was undoubtedly more popular, Digimon is still very clearly remembered. Many users on /a/ state that Digimon shaped their childhood view of anime. And this is probably why Sorato still very easily triggers rage to this day.

The famous scene happened in episode 38 titled "A Very Digi-Christmas" (named "Holy Night the Big Digimon Reunion!" in Japan) which aired in the US March 24, 2001. Taichi meets Sora who is going to a concert hosted by Yamato's band to give Yamato a present. Taichi takes this opportunity to make a very awkward attempt to try to hang out with Sora who politely turns him down by saying she'd rather go to the concert. Afterwards, it is very heavily implied that Sora is dating Yamato.

Fan Reaction

Many fans raged as they saw no reason for this other than Sora being shallow (going for the pretty boy rather than her childhood friend) and the writers trolling. Fans sympathized with Taichi for being friendzoned. Although many people lay the blame on Sora, Yamato is often depicted as a douche-bag for agreeing to date Sora. Images of Yamato trolling will often appear in Sorato threads.

Other images that regularly appear is of Taichi getting friendzoned by Sora.

To this day, fans still rage over this scene and it is notable enough where several sites including TVtropes^[3] and Encyclopedia Dramatica^[4] have specific sections about Sorato.

Ending to Digimon Adventures 02

Taichi, who dreamed of becoming a soccer player, grew up to be a Human-Digimon ambassador with Agumon

The ending of Digimon Adventures 02 was rage inducing among fans for being confusing and making no sense. For example- Yamato who as an aspiring rock star grew up to an astronaut and was the first man on Mars. Also, somehow Digimon got incorporated into the real world and everyone became Chosen Children. However, for people who hated Sorato, insult was added to injury during the very last part of the episode which shows that in the future Yamato and Sora got married while Taichi is by himself (though he has a son).

The ending of Digimon Adventures 02 showing all the characters as adult. Sora, Yamato, and Taichi are all on the right side

Other than the weird pairings (which the creators later admitted were kind of randomly chosen) and troll future occupations (Daisuke/Davis grew up to be a ramen peddler). The children of the cast were also random mini clones of the characters with slight variations thrown in.

The ending is so controversial that many fans like to forget that this ending happened and this combined with Sorato are key reasons for why many fans consider Digimon Adventures 02 the worst of the Digimon series.

Also, despite the ending which firmly confirms that Sora married Yamato, many fans like to pretend this never happened and still support Sora being paired with Taichi. There are several comics and fanfictions which effectively rewrite the series to pair Taichi with Sora.

Example of Trolling with Sorato

The typical Sorato thread looks like this-

Simply mentioning the pairing, posting pictures of it, or posting pictures of either Yamato or Sora, will typically result in these kinds of reactions. Also regular threads discussing Digimon will typically have Sorato mentioned somewhere as an attempt to derail the thread.

External References

^[1] Wikipedia – Digimon Adventures

^[2] 4chan /a/ – Digimon + RAGE

^[3] TVtropes – Digimon Adventure 02

^[4] Encyclopedia Dramatica – Sorato