The infamous, PUPPET OF DOOM!
Actually not really. Juri’s puppet has been the source of criticism these days. When she first came out people where throwing words around such as ‘weird’, ‘scary’, and ‘stupid’. However there is more then meets the eye… er button. Welcome to the realm of over-analyzing.

First let us exam the possible origin. I do not think that this was some random character in the real world. If you notice on her purse there is a character that looks suspiciously like her puppet. This suggests it is or was a popular television show character, perhaps more of children cartoon character that she liked. It was probably a famous show that even older people watch when they go on a kid binge like Sponge Bob, Power Puff Girls, or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The second is the age of it. This obviously wasn’t a store bought puppet but it’s too good to be made just by her. I doubt her father made it for her, and she isn’t too close to her step-mom, so I conclude it was a momento from back before her biological mother died. This would explain the certain sentimental value she has with it.

There is also the ‘duh’ answer. I saw this site that was claiming to be the official Japanese site translated (I wasn’t sure if it was), they said they originally just used it for character design (and later for a dramatical plot device). They thought it was a very cute character design and it brings about the cute personality of Juri. Which I agree that it does.

Now onto the symbolic part of it. After her mother’s death Juri had some communicational problems. She hid her problems from her friends and she hid her feelings from herself. Juri’s character without a puppet when you think about would be very contained, very one-dimensional, at least until she got Leomon. With her puppet she became a very unusual and original character that no one could quite understand.
It took me awhile to understand but I soon found out that everything a normal person would feel uncomfortable speaking about she said with her puppet. Juri’s puppet basically says everything Juri just can’t. The puppet represents her innermost feelings toward herself.

Her puppet is like the id. If none of you ever had psychology before the id is sort of like the devil on the shoulder. We can only assume that the puppet was possessed by the D-Reaper for awhile, yet Juri wasn’t freaked out when it began to talk to her. Throughout her fight with herself and the D-Reaper the puppet was used to show her negativity about herself. It reveals her deepest part of her, the part that is disgusted with herself. She obviously but degrade herself constantly (as shown in one of the episodes before “Nothing ever special happens to me”) hence she wasn’t scared of the puppet.

One theory on why people of multiple personality disorders is that when a severely traumatic situation occurs, sometimes one person alone cannot deal with it so they make a person up. Juri had no one to turn to. Her father was cold and was dealing with problems on her own and her friends probably couldn’t comfort and comprehend her situation since she was about eight. So she created another personality to help deal with the stress to prevent too much psychological damage to herself. The puppet is a physical form of that personality, and since it had a physical form she doesn’t have to transition into personalities like a normal m.p. person would do. They could converse like a one on one conversation. They are so distinctly apart that the puppet was able to try and strangle herself. Now I probably could never strangle myself, it is physically is impossible because I am me, I would either pass out and then let go and breath air or unconsciously let go. But the puppet was so different from her that she was succeeding.
When Leomon died it was probably almost as scary as her mother dying so what happened. The amazing ‘evil’ puppet arrived to help her deal with the stress.

The puppet was a friend to help her with loneliness. Despite her friends it was evident later that she always felt that she was alone. It’s been with her ever since her mother died. I noticed though as soon as she got Leomon and became better friends with the group the puppet slowly vanished. However when Leomon, her best friend, died she closed herself off to her loved ones and viola, the puppet once again returned.

I was thoroughly confused when the producers gave the puppet back to Juri. I guess it gave everything a sign of normalcy, that lives go one if you give it time. Perhaps it is also a way to show that even though Juri’s life was straitened out, there will always be problems in her life.
Another thing that was mentioned was that her puppet was that Juri uses it to entertain her younger brother. Well I guess this shows that Juri might have a bit of motherly streak in her, or maybe she is doing something familiar to her. I think this further supports my theory that this was something her mother made for her.