digimon

This article is about the media franchise. For the anime, see Digimon: Digital Monsters.

Digimon (デジモン, dejimon^?) (short for "Digital Monster") is a popular Japanese series of children's merchandise, including anime, manga, toys, video games, trading card games and other media. Digimon are monsters of various forms living in a "Digital World," a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication networks.

Overview

Digimon started out as a digital pet called "Digital Monster," similar in style and concept to the Tamagotchi. It was released by Bandai on June 26, 1997. The Digital Monster toy was enormously popular, and four additional varieties were released in November of the same year. In December the second generation of Digital Monster was released, followed by a third edition in 1998.^[1]

Digimon first appeared in narrative form in the one-shot manga C'mon Digimon, released in the summer of 1997. C'mon Digimon spawned the popular Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 manga, which began serialization on November 21, 1998. The first Digimon video game, Digimon World, was released January 28, 1999 for the Playstation game console.

TV series

Main article: Digimon: Digital Monsters

Digimon Adventure, the first Digimon television series, began airing on Fuji TV on March 7, 1999, a day after the first Digimon film was released in movie theaters. Three additional series followed in consecutive years and one several years after: Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Tamers, Digimon Frontier and Digimon Savers. Adventure 02 is a continuation of Adventure. Digimon Tamers' only human connection to the Adventure series is Ryo Akiyama, a character who was put into Tamers due to his immense popularity as the main character of many Digimon video games on the WonderSwan handheld game system. He briefly appears in a flashback sequence in Adventure 02^[2] but has no connection to its actual plot.^[3][4] The Adventure and Adventure 02 series are television shows in the Tamers world, with an attached line of merchandise similar to what the Digimon franchise offers in reality. Frontier and Savers have no continuity connections to any other series. (Savers, however, features many species of Digimon that appeared in the first four series.) There have been eight Digimon movies released in Japan. The first seven were directly connected to their respective anime series; Digital Monster X-Evolution originated from the Digimon Chronicle merchandise line. All movies except X-Evolution have been released and distributed internationally. The Digimon series was thought to have ended with Frontier's 50th Episode (the 205th episode overall at that time), End of the Line. Three years passed before the existence of a fifth series was confirmed at the 2006 Jump Festa, an annual exposition of upcoming anime and manga franchises. The new series, Digimon Savers, premiered on April 2, 2006 on Fuji TV.

Manga

C'mon Digimon

Main article: Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01#C'mon Digimon

Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01

Main article: Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01

Digimon Next

Main article: Digimon Next

Digimon Chronicle

Main article: Digimon Chronicle

D-Cyber

Main article: D-Cyber

Dark Horse

Dark Horse Comics published American-style Digimon comic books, adapting the first thirteen episodes of the English dub of Digimon Adventure. The conclusion to the story arc was never released.

Panini

The European publishing company, Panini, approached Digimon in different ways in different countries. While Germany created their own adaptations of episodes, the United Kingdom (UK) reprinted the Dark Horse titles, then translated some of the German adaptations of Adventure 02 episodes. Eventually the UK comics were given their own original stories, which appeared in both the UK's Official Digimon Magazine and the official Fox Kids companion magazine, Wickid. These original stories only roughly followed the continuity of Adventure 02. When the comic switched to the Tamers series the storylines adhered to continuity more strictly; sometimes it would expand on subject matter not covered by the original Japanese anime (such as Mitsuo Yamaki's past) or the English adaptations of the television shows and movies (such as Ryo's story or the movies that remained un-dubbed until 2005). In a money saving venture, the original stories were later removed from Digimon Magazine, which returned to printing translated German adaptations of Tamers episodes. Eventually, both magazines were cancelled.

Yuen Wong Yu (TOKYOPOP/Chuang Yi) manhua

A Chinese manhua was released by TOKYOPOP in North America and by Chuang Yi in Singapore. It was written and drawn by Yuen Wong Yu, who based its storyline on the television series. Covering Digimon Adventure in five volumes, Digimon Adventure 02 in two and Digimon Tamers in four, the original stories are heavily abridged, though on rare occasions events play out differently than the anime. Three volumes for Digimon Frontier exist, but these have not been released in English.

Reception

The Digimon franchise has been criticized as being a clone of the more popular Pokémon title, as both properties are aimed at children and feature interaction between humans and imaginary monsters. Although their basic concepts are similar, their respective media thematically bear little in common.

Notable people

• Akiyoshi Hongo - Creator of the original Digimon concept.
• Hiroyuki Kakudo - Director of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02.
• Yukio Kaizawa - Director of Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier.
• Naozumi Itō - Director of Digimon Savers.
• Chiaki J. Konaka - Head writer of Digimon Tamers.
• Takanori Arisawa - Composer of the Japanese versions of Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier.
• Jeff Nimoy - US Director of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02.
• Mary Elizabeth McGlynn - US Director of Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier.
• Yuen Wong Wu - Writer and illustrator for the Digimon manhua series.
• Hiroshi Izawa - Author of the Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 manga.
• Tenya Yabuno - Illustrator of the Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 manga.

See also

• List of Digimon
• Digimon virtual pet
• List of human characters in the Digimon series
• List of Chosen Digimon
• Digimon: Digital Monsters
• Digimon card game
• Digimon: The Movie

External links

English

• Bandai of America's Digimon Site
• JETIX U.S. Digimon Tamers website
• The Digi-Zone.com
• Megchan's Digimon Encyclopedia, archived at The Shining Evolution
• Digimon Encyclopedia
• Patamon's World
• TheDigiPort
• Wikimon, the Digimon Wiki
• Digimon Himitsu
• With the Will Forums
• Digimon Go

Japanese

• Toei Animation's Digimon Adventure website
• Toei Animation's Digimon Digimon Adventure 02 website
• Toei Animation's Digimon Tamers website
• Toei Animation's Digimon Frontier website
• Toei Animation's Digital Monster X-Evolution website
• Toei Animation's Digimon Savers
• Bandai of Japan's Digimon website
• DVR

Notes