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; Yūko Satō voices his younger self. In the English version, his voice actor is Crispin Freeman, while Mona Marshall voices him as a young boy.

Thomas is a 14-year-old boy genius who graduated from the Stockholm Royal University of Science at the age of 13. His abilities are considered élite, even within DATS. He bases his operations on data and theoretical principles, and as such his personality clashes with Marcus'. His mother is Japanese and his father is a prominent Austrian aristocrat named Franz Norstein. Franz and Thomas's mother met while she was an 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 (at least until the events of episode 42, see below), 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.

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

A great deal of Thomas' 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 warp digivolve to MachGaogamon.

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

After the destruction of Eldradimon, 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 DNA to fight him, with disastrous consequences. In the end Thomas betrayed Kurata by destroying the device he was using to control Belphemon ]]. At this point it was revealed that the real reason that Thomas sided with Kurata was because he realised that Kurata was secretly holding Relena hostage with an explosive charge that he had planted in her necklace and had to wait for it to be removed before betraying him. He subsequently 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, an illegitimate child, and having a mother who wasn't an elite member of society. While protecting the airplane where Relena was located, Thomas fought against LoadKnightmon and unlocked MirageGaogamon's Burst Mode by reconciling with his father over their prior disfunctional relationship and focusing on his desire to protect his sister. 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 King Drasil, 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 to defeat his enemies. 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 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 Tohma "Tonma", which is a rarely used Japanese word meaning idiot or dope.
 * In the English version, Marcus calls Thomas "Nerdstein" (as opposed to Norstein).
 * 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.
 * He appears in the "The Legendary Tamer" quest in Digimon World: Dawn and Dusk and fights alongside the player and Marcus.

Tōma H. Norstein Touma H. Norstein