Thomas H. Norstein

Thomas H. Norstein, known in the Japanese versions as Touma H. Norstein (トーマ・H・ノルシュタイン Tōma H. Norushutain), is a fictional character in the anime series Digimon Data Squad. In the Japanese version he is normally voiced by Hirofumi Nojima; Yuko Sato voices his younger-self. He is to be voiced by Crispin Freeman.

Thomas is a 14-year-old boy genius who graduated from the Stockholm Royal University of Science at the age of 12. His abilities are considered elite, even within DATS. He bases his operations on data and theoretical principles, and as such his personality clashes with Marcus's. His mother is Japanese and his father is a prominent Austrian aristocrat named Franz Norstein. Franz and Thomas' mother met while she was a exchange student in Austria, and Thomas lived with his mother in Japan until she died. He was taken back to Austria. He also has a younger sister, Relena, who suffers from a strange disease. It is never shown who Relena's mother is, but she died of complications during childbirth. While Thomas does not particularly care for his cold father, he does love his sister very much and does whatever he can to protect her. Calm and shrewd, he is the exact opposite of Marcus and sees him as a rival. He has an elitist attitude but he gets emotional when thinking of his mother, who died years ago when he was young.

Touma's loyal partner is Gaomon, who always addresses him as "master" and gets angry easily when he thinks someone is not treating Touma with the proper respect. It has still yet to be revealed how the two actually met.

A great deal of Thomas's background comes in episode 15, when MetalPhantomon manipulates his mind, feeding Thomas nightmares from the past. We learn his mother died in a horrific accident in which she was killed by a speeding truck. However, the nightmare does not have the entire desired effect on Thomas, and he pulls through, allowing Gaomon to evolve to MachGaogamon.

In episode 28, he finally obtained the power to Digivolve his partner further, but his Digivice iC was not able to support the enhanced power of his Digisoul and shattered, with the same process happening to both Marcus's and Yoshino "Yoshi" Fujieda's digivice. In the following episode, he, along side his friends managed to repair their iC's and turn them into Digivice Bursts, allowing Gaomon to evolve to MirageGaogamon.

After the destruction of ElDoradimon, Thomas was forced by his father to abandon his friends and side with DATS' greatest enemy Akihiro Kurata, who claimed to have the means to cure Relena. He even had to fight his former comrades, to the anger of Marcus, who accidentally invoked a dark Digi-Soul to fight him, with disastrous consequences. In the end Thomas betrayed Kurata by destroying the device he was using to control Belphemon, and rejoined with his friends to confront him.

In episode 36 he also confronted his father that the only reason he went to study abroad was for him to become a physician, in order to find the cure for Relena's illness when any other doctor had failed before.

In episode 42, Thomas gets into an argument with his father and remembers how his grandmother hated him for not being born a "true" Norstein, being half-Japanese. While protecting the airplane where Relena was located, Thomas fought against Crusadermon and unlocked MirageGaogamon's Burst Mode. After that, he rejoined the others and went to find Marcus back in the Digital World, partaking in all of the events leading up to the final battle.

After the defeat of Yggdrasil, Thomas was forced to realize that the Digimon needed to go back to their own world, and spent one final evening with Gaomon. The next day, he and the others bid the Digimon farewell as they returned home, only to find out that Marcus had tagged along with them as well.

Five Years Later, Thomas receives the Nobel Prize in Medicine at Stockholm City Hall, aged 19, becoming the youngest person ever to win it, for finding a cure for Relena's illness.

Fighting Skills

Thomas is a very skilled fighter, and uses boxing. He is an Olympic boxing champion, and gave Marcus a humiliating defeat near the start of the season. Both smart and fast, he was capable of hanging with the Featherweight boxing worldchamp in a sparringmatch. His most impressive feat is to knock Marcus down with just a two punches, even though Marcus has taken much harder hits and fought gangs alone. He is generally one of the better human-combatants in the series.

Trivia

• In one of the earlier episodes of the Japanese version, Masaru Daimon called Touma "Tonma", which is a rarely used Japanese word meaning idiot or dope.
• It is revealed that Thomas has a doctor's license when they go to the Digital World in episode 16.
• He appears in quests of the game Digimon World DS.

es:Tōma H. Norstein