Digimon: Difference between revisions

Base entry for the '''''Digimon''''' [[Series Franchise]], a [[Bandai]] franchise centred on [[Bond Creatures]] [[Mons]] from [[Cyberspace]] spread across numerous [[Alternate Continuity|alternate continuities]] in multiple media including seven anime series, four manga, and countless video games. All of it originated from the ''Digimon'' virtual pet, conceived as the [[Spear Counterpart]] of ''[[Tamagotchi]]'' in an effort to broaden the latter's appeal to boys.▼

The franchise's first adaptation was a one-shot manga called ''[[C'mon Digimon]]'', released in 1997 shortly before the original virtual pet and centered around the competitive nature of the devices. [[Trope Codifier|The first appearance of]] the [[Cyberspace|Digital World]], [[Goggles Do Nothing|goggles]] and numerous other mechanics prevalent in the franchise came a year later in ''[[Digimon V-Tamer 01]]'', a serial manga [[Long Runners|which continued well into 2002]]. Around the same time it received its first game called ''Digital Monster Ver. S: Digimon Tamers'', a scaled-up version of the virtual pets for the Sega Saturn.▼

In 1999, [[Toei Animation]] was given the task of adapt the rapidly-growing franchise into an anime series. It could have just been yet another cheap and quickly-forgotten toy anime adaptation in a sea of hundreds of the things, and that could have been the end of it... and yet, it ''wasn't''. The result was ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'', and despite being a relatively low-budget production, it was lucky enough to have an excellent writing team and to feature a cast of thoroughly fleshed-out and dynamic characters. The premise was that seven children were [[Trapped in Another World]] -- in this case, [[Cyberspace]] -- where each met and [[Bond Creature|was partnered with]] a Digimon. As in the virtual pets, each Digimon would grow stronger and gain the ability to evolve (the American dub used "digivolve") into stronger forms, as their human partners learned important [[An Aesop|lessons about themselves]] and dealt with the ''[[Heroic RROD|serious]]'' consequences of ignoring those lessons.▼

Following it was a sequel: ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' [[Time Skip|Time Skipped]] forward three years, where the original children had grown up and become entrenched in the demands of life, and so the torch was passed to a completely new group of children -- including the two youngest from ''Adventure'' and their newly-met partner Digimon, dealing with the rise of a new threat in the Digital World, this time [[And You Thought It Was a Game|human]].▼

''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' was much [[Darker and Edgier|darker]], [[Genre Deconstruction|deconstructive and psychological]] in tone than before, comparable to ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]'' (they share [[Chiaki Konaka|a head writer]]) or ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. The setting is very meta: the Digimon card game, video games, and anime are just those in the ''Tamers'' universe, until strange turns of events lead to Digimon actively coming into the human world. It's the first show not to give particular prominence to the Digital World (only coming into it in the last half of the series), with its focus firmly on the human drama in the real world interspersing with the consequences of having Digimon around.▼

From then onwards, the anime series were set in [[Alternate Continuity|Alternate Continuities]], later established by [[Digimon Wonder Swan Series|a series of WonderSwan games]] to be loosely connected as a [[Multiverse]]; these games demonstrate this with a [[Canon Immigrant]] [[Digimon Adventure: Anode Cathode Tamer|Ryo Akiyama]], who originated in the ''Adventure'' universe and came to live in the ''Tamers'' universe.▼

''[[Digimon Frontier]]'' abandoned the concept of humans partnering with Digimon, and had them able to [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|turn into]] Digimon. Otherwise, it seems to be a throwback to ''Adventure'': a bunch of kids lost in another dimension and they can't get home until they save it, and happily, they manage to sort out their various problems along the way.▼

Following ''Frontier'', the anime experienced a [[Sequel Gap]] of three years, but the franchise's merchandise kept up alone with several waves of virtual pets (and, oddly enough, an entirely new English card game<ref>this is odd because card game aside, the franchise pretty much ceased to exist in the west in this time period</ref>) released during this time, introducing plenty of new Digimon. There was also a CGI [[Made for TV Movie]], ''[[Digimon X Evolution]]'', in 2005, which remains the only major ''Digimon'' production to feature no human characters whatsoever and to focus exclusively on the Digimon.▼

''[[Digimon Savers]]'' came out in 2006, targeted toward the people that had watched ''Digimon'' as kids and the basic set-up seems to be a throwback to ''Tamers''; in tone it's somewhat darker and ''extremely'' [[Hot-Blooded]]. The dub was named ''Digimon Data Squad''. Running around the same time was another manga, ''[[Digimon Next]]'', which employed similar mechanics, the same Digivices and the same partner Digimon, but was more like any of the predecessors of ''Savers'' in theme and presentation.▼

''[[Digimon Xros Wars]]'' ([http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/digimon/ pronounced ''Cross Wars'']) premiered July 2010 on TV Asahi. It harkens back to the the animation style of ''Adventure'' and generally contains quite a few throwbacks to it, though its basic set-up is significantly different. A trio of humans lead their Digimon armies in a great war against [[The Empire]] with the intention of reunifying the shattered Digital World. Running alongside it was a manga adaptation, also named ''[[Digimon Xros Wars (manga)|Digimon Xros Wars]]'', which experiences several unique changes and deviations from the plot of the anime. It is the longest of all seasons with three arcs noted by their different subtitles ''[[Digimon Xros Wars the Evil Death Generals And The Seven Kingdoms]]'' and finally ''[[Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Leaping Through Time]]'' which many fans mistakenly believe to be its own season.▼

From China, there are (much compressed) manhua adaptations of the first four anime, as well as the unique ''[[Digimon D-Cyber]]'', and in America, [[Dark Horse Comics]] did an adaptation of the first few episodes of ''[[Digimon Adventure]]''.▼

Following the original virtual pet, a massive variety of video games crossing numerous genres have been released for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, [[Wonder Swan]], [[Game Boy Advance]], and [[Nintendo DS]]. The games starring [[Canon Immigrant]] [[Digimon Tamers|Ryo Akiyama]], being [[Wonder Swan]] games, were never released in the west. The games include the ''Digimon World'' series, consisting of ''[[Digimon World]]'', ''[[Digimon World 2]]'' and ''[[Digimon World 3]]'' for the PlayStation, ''[[Digimon World DS]]'' and ''[[Digimon World Dawn/Dusk|Digimon World Dawn]]'' and ''[[Digimon World Dawn/Dusk|Dusk]]'' for the DS. and "[[Digimon World Data Squad]]" for the Playstation 2.▼

Also, it's best not to compare it to ''[[Pokémon]]''. [[Gannon Banned|You will regret it for the rest of your life]].<ref>For the sake of clarification: the similarities between the two pretty much end at their status as [[Shonen]] [[Mons]] franchises which debuted at roughly the same time; beyond that, they are ''vastly'' different beasts in every respect. Of course, the Pokémon [[Fan Dumb|Fanbase]] doesn't seem to realise that; [[Hate Dumb|it's actually rather one-sided, though, as a rather sizable portion of the ''Digimon'' base also enjoys ''Pokémon''.]]</ref>▼

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{{tropelist}}▼

* [[The Ace]]: Ryo Akiyama▼

* [[Adults Are Useless]]▼

** Leave the saving-two-worlds to the kids. For the most part, all their parents did was sit at home waiting for them to come back (when they even knew the kids were gone). Sometimes, [[Screening the Call|they even tried to stop the kids from doing their Chosen Child duties,]] leading to the kids' occasionally having to lie and go behind their backs. A few adults -- like Matt and T.K.'s dad, Sora's mom, etc. -- did help out but in minor ways.▼