Digimon (デジモン), short for "Digital Monsters" (デジタルモンスター Dejitaru Monsutā), is a Japanese media franchise, which encompasses 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 which originated from Earth's various communication networks.
The franchise was created in 1997 as Digital Monster, a series of digital pets, and it was intended as the masculine counterpart to Tamagotchi. The creatures were designed to look cute and iconic on the devices' small screens. Later developments had them created with a harder-edged style, which was influenced by American comics. The franchise gained momentum with an early video game, Digimon World, originally released in Japan in January 1999. Several anime series and films have been released; the video game series has expanded into various genres, such as role-playing, racing, fighting, and MMORPGs. The franchise generated over $500 million in sales by 2000.[1]
Conception and creation
The Digimon franchise began as a series of virtual pets created by WiZ and Bandai, intended as a masculine counterpart to the more female-oriented Tamagotchi pets.[3][4] It was released in June 1997[2] with the name Digital Monster,[5] shortened to Digimon.[6][7] This device shows to players a virtual pet composed entirely of data and designed to play and fight.[2][5][8][9] In February 1998, the DigiMon fighting game was announced. It was developed by Rapture Technologies.[10] The one-shot manga C'mon Digimon, designed by Tenya Yabuno, was published in the Japanese magazine V-Jump by Shueisha in 1997.[11]
A second generation of virtual pets was marketed six months after the launch of the first, followed by a third in 1998.[12] Each player starts with a baby-level digital creature that has a limited number of attacks and transformations[13] and to make the creature stronger by training and nourishing the creature;[2][5] when the player is successful in a workout, the Digimon becomes strong, when the player fails, the Digimon becomes weak.[2][5] Two devices can be connected, allowing two players to battle with their respective creatures, an innovation at the time,[2] however, the battle is only possible from the moment the creature is in the child level or bigger.[2]
The original Digital Monster model that was released in 1997 sold 14 million units worldwide, including 13 million units in Japan and 1 million overseas, up until March 2004.[18] By 2005, more than 24 million Digital Monster units had been sold worldwide.[19]
Premise
Several media in the franchise are contained within their own continuity; however, they all share a similar setting and premise. For instance, most Digimon stories begin with a human child, who comes into contact with a Digimon. This generally occurs either through an accidental entrance into the so-called Digital World[20] or an encounter with a Digimon who has come into the human world.[21] The child or children then often find themselves equipped with a "digivice", which is a device modelled after the series' virtual pets; this device enables them to empower their partner Digimon.
While some Digimon act like wild beasts, there are many who form small societies and follow governing bodies.[22][23] Digimon can change through evolution (or "digivolution" in most English-language dubs), where they absorb additional data that allows them to change forms. This process is normally linear, but there are other methods, depending upon the media within the franchise. For example, "Jogress" (a portmanteau of "joint progress"; "DNA Digivolution" in most English-language dubs)[24]
Media
Anime
Television series
Multiple Digimon anime series have been produced by Toei Animation since 1999. The first of these was Digimon Adventure; it began as a short film, but after its storyboard was finished, a request for the film to become a television series was made. The film debuted in theaters a day before the series debuted on TV.
There are seven Digimon series adapted into English for release in Western markets, with the first four treated as a single show under the collective title Digimon: Digital Monsters.[25] The sixth series, Digimon Fusion, was only partially dubbed; its third season was never dubbed into English.
Films
Several Digimon films were released in Japan, with some of them seasonal tie-ins for their respective television series. Footage from the first three films was used for the American-produced Digimon: The Movie.
External links
References
- Nicole Swengley. Bewore:here comes the new toy craze Evening Standard, August 21, 2000, retrieved July 1, 2024^
- Pixelmood. Pixelmood - Digimon Tamatalk, retrieved 22 March 2014^
- デジタルモンスター ART BOOK Ver.1～5&20th Bandai, 2017-12-09^