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Digimon
English version logo for Digimon
Created byAkiyoshi Hongo
Bandai
Toei Animation
Original workDigital Monster (1997)
Print publications
ComicsSee below
Films and television
Film(s)See below
Television seriesSee below
Games
TraditionalSee below
Video game(s)See below
Miscellaneous
Toy(s)D-Arts
S.H. Figuarts
Bandai

Digimon (Japanese: デジモン, Hepburn: Dejimon, branded as Digimon: Digital Monsters, stylized as DIGIMON), short for "Digital Monsters" (デジタルモンスター Dejitaru Monsutā), is a Japanese media franchise encompassing virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures, who inhabit a "Digital World", a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication networks.

The franchise was created in 1997 as a series of virtual pets, akin to—and influenced in style by—the contemporary Tamagotchi or nano Giga Pet toys. The creatures were first designed to look cute and iconic even on the devices' small screens; later developments had them created with a harder-edged style influenced by American comics. The franchise gained momentum with its first anime incarnation, Digimon Adventure, and an early video game, Digimon World, both released in 1999. Several anime series and films based on them have been released, and the video game series has expanded into genres such as role-playing, racing, fighting, and MMORPGs.

Conception and creation

See also: Digital Monster (virtual pet)
Virtual pet model distributed on the Japanese market by Bandai,[1] that allowed the popularization of Digimon in Japan. It sold 13 million units in Japan and 1 million overseas, up until March 2004.[2]

In 1996, the Tamagotchi was released, created by Akihiro Yokoi, Aki Maita and Takeichi Hongo. The Tamagotchi was one of the inspirations for the first release of the Digimon franchise,[3][4] a device marketed in June 1997[1][5] with the name Digimon,[6] short for Digital Monster.[7][8] Aiming at the male audience and created by Akiyoshi Hongo (a pseudonym that refers to the creators of Tamagotchi),[3] this device shows to players a virtual pet composed entirely of data and designed to play and fight.[1][6][9][10] In February 1998, the DigiMon fighting game, compatible with Windows 95 and developed by Rapture Technologies, Inc., was announced.[11] The one-shot manga C'mon Digimon, designed by Tenya Yabuno, was published in the Japanese magazine V-Jump by Shueisha in 1997.[12][13]

A second generation of virtual pets was marketed six months after the launch of the first, followed by a third in 1998.[14] Each player starts with a baby-level digital creature that has a limited number of attacks and transformations[15] and to make the creature stronger by training and nourishing the creature;[1][6] when the player is successful in a workout, the Digimon becomes strong, when the player fails, the Digimon becomes weak.[1][6] Two devices can be connected, allowing two players to battle with their respective creatures, an innovation at the time,[1] however, the battle is only possible from the moment the creature is in the child level or bigger.[1] Playgrounds and subways were where the majority of users of the apparatus were concentrated; The virtual pet was banned in some Asian schools by being considered by parents and teachers as very noisy and violent.[16] The first Digimon were created by Japanese designer Kenji Watanabe, influenced by American comics, which were beginning to gain popularity in Japan, and as such began to make his characters look stronger and "cool." Other types of Digimon, which until the year 2000 totaled 279,[17][18] came from extensive discussions and collaborations between the Bandai company members.[19]

Eponymous creatures

Digimon hatch from types of eggs which are called Digi-Eggs (デジタマ, Dejitama). In the English iterations of the franchise there is another type of Digi-Egg that can be used to digivolve, or transform, Digimon. This second type of Digi-Egg is called a Digimental (デジメンタル, Dejimentaru) in Japanese. They evolve via a process called "Digivolution" which changes their appearance and increases their powers. The effect of Digivolution, however, is not permanent in the partner Digimon of the main characters in the anime, and Digimon who have digivolved will most of the time revert to their previous form after a battle or if they are too weak to continue. Some Digimon act feral. Most, however, are capable of intelligence and human speech. They are able to digivolve by the use of Digivices that their human partners have. There are currently over 1400 Digimon.

Anime

See also: List of Digimon episodes and films

Television series

The Digimon anime series was produced by Toei Animation and Bandai of Japan. Beginning in 1999, an anime series was green-lit as the first of the Digimon films aired in theaters. Originally, Digimon Adventure was supposed to be a short film, but after the storyboard was finished, a request for the film to become a children's television series was made.[citation needed] Several anime series have since been produced, with the first six series localized into English for release in Western markets.

Overview

No. Title Episodes Originally aired Network
First aired Last aired
1 Digimon Adventure 54 March 7, 1999 (1999-03-07) March 26, 2000 (2000-03-26) Fuji TV
2 Digimon Adventure 02 50 April 2, 2000 (2000-04-02) March 25, 2001 (2001-03-25)
3 Digimon Tamers 51 April 1, 2001 (2001-04-01) March 31, 2002 (2002-03-31)
4 Digimon Frontier 50 April 7, 2002 (2002-04-07) March 30, 2003 (2003-03-30)
5 Digimon Data Squad 48 April 2, 2006 (2006-04-02) March 25, 2007 (2007-03-25)
6 Digimon Fusion 79 July 6, 2010 (2010-07-06) March 25, 2012 (2012-03-25) TV Asahi
7 Digimon Universe: App Monsters 52 October 1, 2016 (2016-10-01) September 30, 2017 (2017-09-30) TV Tokyo
8 Digimon Adventure 66 April 5, 2020 (2020-04-05) present Fuji TV
Total 450 episodes

Films

Main articles: List of Digimon films and Digimon: The Movie

Several Digimon featurette films were released in Japan, with some of them seasonal tie-ins for their respective television series.

  1. Digimon Adventure / Digimon: The Movie (1999)
  2. Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! / Digimon: The Movie (2000)
  3. Digimon Adventure 02: Part 1: Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Part 2: Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals / Digimon: The Movie (2000)
  4. Digimon Adventure 02: Revenge of Diaboromon (2001)
  5. Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers (2001)
  6. Digimon Tamers: Runaway Locomon (2002)
  7. Digimon Frontier: Island of Lost Digimon (2002)
  8. Digital Monster X-Evolution (2004)
  9. Digimon Savers: Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode!! (2006)
  10. Digimon Adventure 3D: Digimon Grand Prix! (2009)
  11. Digimon Savers 3D: The Digital World in Imminent Danger! (2009)
  12. Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 1: Reunion (2015)
  13. Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 2: Determination (2016)
  14. Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 3: Confession (2016)
  15. Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 4: Loss (2017)
  16. Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 5: Coexistence (2017)
  17. Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 6: Future (2018)
  18. Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (2020)[20][21]

Distribution and localization

In the United States, Digimon Adventure premiered in August 1999 on the Fox Broadcasting Company. An English-language adaptation of the series produced by Saban Entertainment (later Sensation Animation), the series was broadcast on Fox Kids. Saban would dub the first four anime series in the franchise, which were collectively retitled Digimon: Digital Monsters.[22] Some scenes from the original version were modified or omitted in order to comply with Fox's standards and practices. The show also featured more jokes and added dialogue, along with a completely different musical score. As a cross-promotional stunt, 2001 and 2002 saw Digi-Bowl specials co-produced with Fox Sports; NFL on Fox commentator Terry Bradshaw provided interstitial segments in-between episodes as if the episodes were actually a football game.[23]

The Walt Disney Company would acquire Saban during the third series, Digimon Tamers. Reruns of the first three series began airing on the cable network ABC Family, while the fourth series, Digimon Frontier, premiered on UPN as part of a deal between Disney and UPN.[24] UPN aired the series until late August 2003, when they severed their ties to Disney.[24] Frontier aired on ABC Family concurrently, and also aired in reruns on Toon Disney under the Jetix branding.

An English version of Digimon Data Squad, produced by Studiopolis, would premiere October 1, 2007, on Toon Disney. In September 2012, Saban Brands, a successor to Saban Entertainment, announced it had acquired the Digimon anime franchise.[25][26][27] Saban would announce that they would be producing an English dub for Digimon Xros Wars, retitled Digimon Fusion, for broadcast on Nickelodeon in the United States starting September 7, 2013.[28] After three episodes, the show was moved to Nicktoons starting October 13, 2013.

Previously, Funimation Entertainment had online streaming rights to subtitled versions of Digimon Adventure 02 and Digimon Tamers.[citation needed] Digimon Adventure, Adventure 02, and Tamers, would later begin streaming on Netflix in 2013 and 2014 with Japanese audio and English subtitles.[citation needed] Crunchyroll began streaming the English-subtitled version of Digimon Fusion outside Japan in November 2011. The English-localized version of its first season became available on Netflix starting September 13, 2014, with the second season arriving on March 8, 2016.[29] After Crunchyroll acquired streaming rights to the dubbed versions and Funimation acquired rights to the subtitled versions, the dubbed versions of Adventure, Adventure 02, and Tamers were briefly removed from Netflix.[citation needed]

After Saban Capital Group sold most of the properties of Saban Brands to Hasbro in 2018, the rights of Digimon in the United States are currently owned by Shout! Factory.[30][31]

International

In Canada, the English versions of Digimon were broadcast on YTV, with the exception of Data Squad, which aired in Family Channel's Jetix block. YTV would eventually acquire Digimon Fusion, but only the first 26 episodes were shown.[citation needed]

In the United Kingdom, Digimon first aired on Fox Kids. ITV's children's slot CITV would broadcast Adventure, Adventure 02 and several episodes of Tamers during after school hours from 2001–2002. The rest of Tamers aired on Fox Kids from 2002–04.[citation needed] Digimon Frontier was originally announced to be broadcast on Jetix, but the series was later dropped.[citation needed] The series eventually saw a release on October 29, 2018.[32] From 2011, Digimon Data Squad airs on Kix!. According to Fox Kids' (2000–03) and Kix's (2010–) BARB Television ratings, Adventure, Adventure 02 & Tamers have been the most popular series'/seasons in the United Kingdom and was consistently in the weekly top 10 broadcasts for both channels for new episodes.[33] Broadcast rights and merchandising sub-licensing rights for Digimon Fusion in the UK have been acquired by ITV Studios Global Entertainment. Digimon Fusion has aired since Spring 2014 on digital terrestrial channel, CITV.[34][35]

Manga

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, written by Hiroshi Izawa, which began serialization on November 21, 1998.

  1. C'mon Digimon
  2. Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01
  3. Digimon Chronicle
  4. Digimon Next
  5. Digimon Xros Wars
  6. Digimon World Re:Digitize
  7. Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode
  8. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth
  9. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker's Memory
  10. Digimon Chronicle X

Yuen Wong Yu manhua

A Chinese manhua was written and drawn by Yuen Wong Yu (余 遠鍠 Yu Yuen-wong), who based its storyline on the television series. This adaptation covers Digimon Adventure in five volumes, Digimon Adventure 02 in two, Digimon Tamers in four, and Digimon Frontier in three. The original stories are heavily abridged, though on rare occasions events play out differently from the anime. The Chinese-language version was published by Rightman Publishing Ltd. in Hong Kong. Yu also wrote D-Cyber.

Two English versions were also released. The first one was published by Chuang Yi in Singapore. The second one, which was adapted by Lianne Sentar,[36] was released by TOKYOPOP in North America.
The three volumes for Digimon Frontier have been released by Chuang Yi in English. These have not been released by TOKYOPOP in North America or Europe. However, the Chuang Yi releases of Digimon Frontier were distributed by Madman Entertainment in Australia.

Dark Horse

Main article: Digimon: Digital Monsters (comics)

Dark Horse Comics published American-style Digimon comic books, adapting the first thirteen episodes of the English dub of Digimon Adventure in 2001. The story was written by Daniel Horn and Ryan Hill, and illustrated by Daniel Horn and Cara L. Niece.[37]

Panini

The Italian 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 UK 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 undubbed 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.

Video games

Main article: List of Digimon video games
The player battles with three Digimon: Rosemon, WarGreymon, and SkullGreymon. The opponent's Digimon are Ninjamon, Centarumon, and SandYanmamon. Battling is an integral concept of the Digimon video game series and media franchise.

The Digimon series has a large number of video games which usually have their own independent storylines with a few sometimes tying into the stories of the anime series or manga series. The games consists of a number of genres including life simulation, adventure, video card game, strategy and racing games, though they are mainly action role-playing games.

In late 2009, Bandai created a webpage in Japanese showing a new game to be released in 2010 called Digimon Story: Lost Evolution, which uses the same engine as their predecessors Digimon World DS and Digimon World Dawn and Dusk and was released on July 1, 2010. In February 2010, a website for the online multiplayer game, Digimon Battle Online, was launched, showing it to be based primarily in the world of the Tamers saga and its characters.[38]

On September 22, 2011, online game publisher Joymax announced the release of an MMORPG game called Digimon Masters, which was developed by the Korean publisher DIGITALIC.[39]

Inside a large, brightly lit convention center room with white walls is positioned a promotional display booth for a video game. A saleswoman clad in a blue shirt and skirt and a red bowtie motions towards several illustrations on the booth, explaining their implications. The illustrations are anime-styled and depict several outlandish and brightly colored creatures. Three men in dark jackets watch the demonstration.
A presentation at a Digimon RPG booth in South Korea.

In 2011, Bandai posted a countdown on a teaser site. Once the countdown was finished, it revealed a reboot of the Digimon World series titled Digimon World Re:Digitize.[40] An enhanced version of the game released on Nintendo 3DS as Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode in 2013.[41]

A new fighting game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 was revealed in the summer of 2014, named Digimon All-Star Rumble. It was released in North America, Europe and Australia in November of the same year.[42] Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, a role-playing game in the Digimon Story sub-series, was released in 2015 for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 in Japan.[43] It has also been released with English subtitles in North America and the rest of the world in 2016.

Card game

The Digimon Collectible Card Game is a card game based on Digimon, first introduced in Japan in 1997 and published by Bandai. The third season (Digimon Tamers) utilized this aspect of the franchise by making the card game an integral part of the season. Versions of the card game are also included in some of the Digimon video games including Digital Card Battle and Digimon World 3.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Pixelmood. "Pixelmood - Digimon". Tamatalk. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  2. ^ "New Digimon for 2005". Anime News Network. 25 May 2004. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  3. ^ a b Takato e GlassHeart (21 March 2014). "Dossier (Digimon) — première page (Introduction)" (in French). Manga News. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
  4. ^ Thierry Chèze. "Cinq choses à savoir sur Mamoru Hosoda". L'Express (in French). Retrieved 11 April 2014. [...] un film dérivé de la saga Digimon Adventure, sorte d'ancêtre des Tamagotchi.
  5. ^ "Radica Games Limited Announces Manufacturing Agreement For New Innovative Digimon Product". PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  6. ^ a b c d Matt Richtel. "From Virtual Pet to Virtual Pit Bull: Fighting Cyber Toys". The New York Times. Retrieved March 22, 2014.
  7. ^ Dedpool (March 28, 2013). "DVD Review: Digimon Adventure – Volume 2". BeyondHollywood.com. Archived from the original on April 1, 2014. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  8. ^ "Pokémon, G-Boy Lead Parade of Toys at Fair". Billboard. 112 (13): 60. March 2000. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  9. ^ David Zdyrko (5 July 2000). "Digimon World. We promise not to say the word Pokemon at all in this entire review". IGN. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  10. ^ Tiphaine Clotault (10 December 1997). "Le nouveau Tamagotchi sera sexué. Une gamme pour assurer la rente du fabricant". Libération (in French). Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  11. ^ Bandai Digital Entertainment Corp. (17 February 1998). "Bandai Digital Entertainment Ready To Rumble in June with DigiMon CD-ROM". The Free Library. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  12. ^ "Digimon C'mon" (in Czech). digitalnimonstra.cz. Archived from the original on 2014-04-13. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  13. ^ "Reprenons au début". Digimon France. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
  14. ^ Lesley Aeschliman. "Digimon". Bella Online. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  15. ^ "DigiMon Virtual Pet Page". virtualpet.com. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
  16. ^ Wolf 2008, p. 218
  17. ^ Sarah Ryle (14 May 2000). "Digital pests invade Britain". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  18. ^ Ruki Sayid (15 May 2000). "Digimon's coming; New monster toys may KO Pokemon". The Mirror. The Free Library. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  19. ^ 『デジモンワールド リ：デジタイズ デコード』 イラストレーターインタビュー！. Famitsu (in Japanese). 5 July 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  20. ^ Luster, Joseph (May 5, 2018). "New "Digimon" Project Announced, Final "tri." Chapters Hit Crunchyroll". Crunchyroll. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  21. ^ Loo, Egan (July 29, 2018). "Digimon Gets New Film Project With Original Anime's Staff, Aged Characters". Anime News Network. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  22. ^ "Digimon: Digital Monsters Episode Guide". Fox Family Properties. Archived from the original on 2001-06-15. Retrieved 2018-11-02.
  23. ^ "Digimon: Digital Monsters: Digibowl 2002". Fox Family Properties. Archived from the original on 2002-01-23. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  24. ^ a b Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003, Volume 1. McFarland & Company. p. 249. ISBN 978-0786420995.
  25. ^ Crowe, Deborah (September 25, 2012). "Saban Brands Acquires Digimon Anime Brand". Los Angeles Business Journal. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
  26. ^ "Saban Brands Acquires Digimon Anime Franchise". AnimeNewsNetwork. September 25, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
  27. ^ Sarah (September 25, 2012). "Saban Brands Acquires Digimon Brand". BSCKids. Archived from the original on September 28, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
  28. ^ "Nickelodeon dives into Digimon | News". C21Media. Archived from the original on 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  29. ^ "Crunchyroll to Stream Digimon Xros Wars Anime". Anime News Network. November 2, 2011.
  30. ^ "Hasbro buying Power Rangers, other brands in $522M deal". ABC News. AP. May 1, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
  31. ^ "Saban Brands Sells Power Rangers to Hasbro for $522M". Los Angeles Business Journal. May 2, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  32. ^ "AW Slate". us12.campaign-archive.com.
  33. ^ "Viewing Data Top 10s". BARB (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board). Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  34. ^ Clancy, Michelle. "ITV to broadcast Digimon Fusion anime in 2014". Rapid TV News. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  35. ^ Dickson, Jeremy. "ITV licenses Digimon Fusion". Kidsscreen. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  36. ^ "Lianne Sentar's Other Published Works/Works List". Liannesentar.com. 2011-10-23. Retrieved 2012-08-19.
  37. ^ Horn, Daniel; Ryan Hill (2001). Digimon: Digital Monsters. illustrated by Daniel Horn, Cara L. Niece. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 1-56971-516-5.
  38. ^ "Digimon Battle- The Journey Begins. To the Digital World". Digimonbattle.wemade.net. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  39. ^ "Digimon Masters OBT Sept 27th - iMMOsite get your gaming life recorded". my.mmosite.com. 2011-09-22. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  40. ^ Romano, Sal. "Digimon World Re: Digitize a "return to origins"". Gematsu. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  41. ^ Romano, Sal. "Digimon World Re: Digitize Decode announced for 3DS". Gematsu. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  42. ^ "DIGIVOLVE WITH BANDAI NAMCO GAMES EUROPE'S DIGIMON ALL-STAR RUMBLE IN EUROPE AND AUSTRALASIA THIS FALL". Gamasutra.
  43. ^ Romano, Sal. "First look at Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth". Retrieved 7 August 2014.
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