Digimon
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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.
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[edit] 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, Digital Monster Ver. S: Digimon Tamers, was released September 23, 1998 for the Sega Saturn game console.
[edit] TV series
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 is set largely in a "real world" where the Adventure and Adventure 02 series are television shows, and where Digimon game merchandise (based on actual items) become key to provide power boosts to real 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])
Digimon Frontier and Digimon Savers have no continuity connections to any other series, but their worlds are populated with many digimon species that appeared in the previous shows.
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.
[edit] Manga
[edit] C'mon Digimon
[edit] Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01
[edit] Digimon Next
[edit] Digimon Chronicle
[edit] D-Cyber
[edit] Dark Horse
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. [5]
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Reception
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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. The Digimon concept was also put into action before Pokémon, in the form of a digital pet.
[edit] 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.
- Shuki Levy - Composer for the English language releases of Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02 and Digimon Tamers.
- Deddy Tzur - Composer for the English language release of 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.
[edit] 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
[edit] External links
[edit] 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 (via web.archive.org)
- With the Will Forums
[edit] Japanese
- Digimon at TV.com
- 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
[edit] Notes
- ^ What Is Digimon?. Retrieved on September 5, 2006.
- ^ "Genesis of Evil." Digimon Adventure 02. Fox Kids. 2000-12-02.
- ^ Ryo character notes. Retrieved on September 15, 2006.
- ^ Digimon Tamer concept planning notes. Retrieved on September 15, 2006.
- ^ Horn, Daniel, Ryan Hill (2001). Digimon: Digital Monsters, illustrated by Daniel Horn, Cara L. Niece, Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 1569715165.
| Digimon | |
|---|---|
| Anime: | Anime overview | Adventure (Season 1) | Adventure 02 (Season 2) | Tamers (Season 3) | Frontier (Season 4) | Savers (Japan only) | Digital Monster X-Evolution (movie) |
| Mangas: | V-Tamer | Digimon Next | Digimon Chronicle | D-Cyber |
| Video Games: | Digimon World (and 2, 3, 4) | Digital Card Battle | Battle Spirit (and 1.5, 2) | Digimon Racing | Rumble Arena (and 2) | Digimon RPG | Digimon World DS | Digimon Savers: Another Mission | Anode/Cathode Tamer |
| Other: | Digimon card game | Digimon virtual pet | DigiDestined | Digivice | Digivolution | Digital World | List of Digimon | Chosen Digimon | List of human characters |
