Digimon
Digimon (Japanese: デジモン, romaji dejimon) was originally a dueling digital pet ("digi pet") created by Bandai.It was later turned into a Japanese anime movie which spawned a television show and a manga series (the pet and the movie are little known in the US), as well as representants in other media segments, like a series of video games for various platforms and a trading card game.
"Digimon" is also the shortened title for "Digital Monsters", which are, according to the stories, creatures who inhabit the "Digital World" (also known as DigiWorld), a parallel universe that is a manifestation the Internet's cyberspace. The stories tell of a group of pre-teens (known as "Digi-destined") who accompany special Digimon born to defend their world (and ours) from various evil forces, both Digimon and human. To help them overcome the most various obstacles found within the both realms, the Digimon have a special ability called digivolution. Such ability consists of an instantaneous evolution, transforming the appearance and the powers of the Digimon. The group of children who come in contact with the Digital World changes from season to season.
Contrasting rumors claim that there will be between four to seven seasons of the Digimon television series, but nothing has been officially confirmed. As of 2004, there are four seasons: the former two make one storyline, while the latter two (Tamers and Frontier, respectively) have unrelated plots. The third season makes reference to the television and commercial enterprises of the first two. In addition, there are several movies based on the Digimon universe. A new series initially named Digital Monster X-Evolution is in production by Bandai, and its released is scheduled for the beginning of 2005 in Japan. This new segment in the Digimon saga will be entirely done in CG animation.
Digimon is produced by Saban and Bandai. Originally, the series were first exhibited on Japan's Fuji Television. In the United States, they started to be broadcasted through Fox Network's Fox Kids and Fox Family, but after Disney's acquisition of Fox Family (renamed ABC Family) during the third season, the first three seasons stayed on ABC Family and the fourth premiered on UPN.
The manga is published in English by TokyoPop.
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2 Digimon Zero Two (Second Season) 3 Digimon Tamers (Third Season) 4 Digimon Frontier (Fourth Season) 5 The Movies 6 See also 7 External links |
The premise of Digimon Adventure is a group of young teens, while at summer camp, become the Digi-destined and are unwillingly forced to save the digital world from evil. Each Digi-destined human was given a "Digivice" which selected them to be "transported" to the Digital World. The digivices help their digimon allies to digivolve into stronger creatures in times of need. The digimon usually reach higher forms after they see they human partners in a dangerous situation.
The children have no idea of what's really going on after they meet their digimon partners, yet they still have to fight to protect themselves. However, as time passes and the series start to evolve, new subjects and concepts are presented. It covered such difficulties kids face when growing up, such as making friends, being courageous and standing up to bad people, lending a supportive hand to others even though they may be different, saying goodbye to the ones you love, and much more. This has best been displayed by the collection of "crests" the children collect in the first season to make their the Digimon friends digivolve into stronger digimon and help them stop the evil forces. They embody virtues such as Courage, Friendship, Love, Sincerity, Knowledge and Reliability. The crests won't work unless their bearers exhibit the quality they represent. This has lead the children to express the traits they didn't know they had, which sometimes comes with interesting emotional and dramatic results.
The children realized that the world they were in was not a game, and that the creatures there had feelings and could feel pain. Digimon expressed every quality that humans do, only they weren't human. They decided without much thought that they had to defend the strange creatures in the Digital World because they didn't want them to suffer, and they were the only ones that could help. The Digi-destined made efforts on not having to destroy any Digimon, unless they were perverse (usually of the "virus" kind) and gave them no other choice.
Later in the season, Tai's little sister Kari joins the crew. Her involvement expanded the scope of the show as a new dark world was introduced, and a description on how the DigiWorld got besieged by the "Dark Masters" was added. There was even a reference to the first movie, showing the events that preceded the happenings of the story and the way every Digi-destined entered in contact with digimons for the first time. In the next season there was more information provided on the dark dimension but there was still a visible gap in detail, suggesting that what we have witnessed in the series is just a small story out of a much larger one.
Digimon 02 involves the main enemy the Digi-destined thought they had destroyed in the previous season, but has been putting in practice his evil schemes even after his defeat. In this season, the original Digi-destined grew up into high school students (except for Hikari and Takeru, who are junior high students) and could no longer watch over the DigiWorld and be with their Digimon friends. All of a sudden, a young kid who called himself "The Digimon Emperor" rampaged through the digital world attacking digimon, putting them under mind control and making them fight with the help of the "Dark Rings" and "Control Towers".
A new generation of Digi-destined, composed of three new children as well as Hikari and Takeru, are given a new kind of digivice known as D3, which allows them to be transported to the Digital World through regular computer machines. Once there, they stop the Digimon Emperor, Ken Ichijouji, and find out that he became the Digimon Emperor after his brother died in a car accident. Ken was then attacked by a "Dark Spore" that got stuck in his neck. The spore made him great in sports and schoolwork, but also corrupted his mind. It was also revealed to the Digi-destined that there are other children from all over the globe fighting evil forces from the Digital World the same way they did.
After his defeat, Ken repented his evil deeds and joined the Digi-destined as they fought a human who was using two evil digimon (created from his own DNA) to make the Dark Spores into a super-strong, soulless Digimon. This man also extracts the Dark Spore inside Ken and implants it into other children who wished to be the way he once was. Those spores develop into flowers that harvest the kid's energy. Eventually, the Digi-destined confront this evil man, who turns out to have been a friend of Cody's father. The man and Cody's dad were responsible for the creation of the idea behind all digimon creatures while playing old video games when they were young. In the end, an entity springs from this man's body and the Digi-Destined recognize it as a stronger version of the evil Digimon they have destroyed before.
This season ended with the help of the other Digi-destined from all over the world, using the light that existed inside each one of them and their wishes to transform the Digiworld in a nice place again. After peace is restored, the boundary between the digital and the real world are broken down, giving every human a chance of having their very own Digimon companion.
This season has changed the whole nature of the series. Set in the year 200X (between 2000-2009), it shows an alternative universe were Digimon was just a franchise composed of video games and a cartoon. However, Takato, Henry and Rika (fans of the Digimon card game) meet their own digimon friends and start to duel "bio-emerging" digimons who cross the barrier between the information network, synthesizing proteins and becoming real. The tone of this season borrows certain elements from the head writer's other works (like Serial Experiments Lain and Hellsing) and is considered to be the most dark and depressing of the series. Most of it set in the modern Japan and only changes scenario to the DigiWorld for a short time.
Takato creates his digimon partner Guilmon when he slips a mysterious blue card he found in his deck through his hand-held card reading device, changing it into a digivice. The appearance and powers of this digimon come from Takato's sketches that were scanned into the device. Guilmon "bio-emerges" from the DigiWorld and is found later by Takato. Henry meets his digimon Terriermon when he rises from the screen of a computer game, while Rika's digimon Renamon approached her to ask to be made stronger, since Rika was famous for her skills on the Digimon card game. Other Digi-destined children are introduced later in the series.
Along the way, the kids learn to be responsible for those creatures as a mysterious man known as Yamaki tries to stop wild digimon from coming to the real world. From the secret government agency called Hypnos, Yamaki was in charge of monitoring all digimon activity around the globe. Later, the new Digi-destined are forced to fight a series of evil digimon calling themselves the Devas, who believe that true digimons shouldn't pair up with humans. After dealing with those enemies, the Digi-destined deal with a malevolent computer program called D-reaper, which threatens both the real and digital worlds.
Several new characteristics are introduced in this season, like the use of game cards in conjunction with the digivices to give different powers to the digimon and the presence of Calumon, a lone digimon responsible for the digivolutions in the real world.
Digimon Frontier is the newest season. After receiving strange phone messages, the protagonists take a train to the Digital World. Once there, they meet Bokomon and Neemon (who act as guides) and learn that the DigiWorld is in danger. They must fight the evil Cherubimon and his servants before they destroy the world. In the typical Digimon fashion, it's up to the kids to save the world.
The biggest feature introduced in this season is the "spirit digivolution," where the Digi-destined themselves evolve into digimons. For this special kind of digivolution, there are used "digispirits," artifacts hidden in certain areas of the Digital World. The two types of digispirits are the "human spirits" and the "beast spirits." Another interesting detail lies on the way the children travel within the regions of the DigiWorld. Unlike the previous seasons, most areas are connected by railroads, where train digimons called "Trailmons" act as a mean of transport.
Digimon: The Movie, released in the US territory in 2002, consists of the union of the first three Japanese movies. Those stories are based in the universe introduced in the first two seasons of the TV series.
The first story focuses on Tai and Kari at a time when the Digi-destined were mere toddlers and shows what happened to them (as well as the other children) when they participated in their first digimon battle after raising a quickly growing digimon. In the story, that digimon hatches from a Digi-egg and, after suffering several digievolutions, turns into Greymon to fight another digimon who appeared at Tai's and Kari's city. This movie shows the way Tai meets his digimon for the first time.
The second story shows many of the Digi-destined, but only four end up saving the day when an artificially made Digimon, programmed by a young American boy named Willis, gets infected with a computer virus and raises havoc all over the world through the Internet. The kids must stop the evil digimon quickly before he provokes the launching of nuclear warheads aimed at Japan (where the kids are) and Colorado (where Willis lives). Tai and Matt end up getting so worried about their Digimon (in the form of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon) that they actually phase into the Internet and mysteriously give them the power to destroy the enemy in time. Both digimon merge, evolving into the powerful Omnimon.
The last story involves the next generation of Digi-destined children after they travel from Japan to the U.S.A. and meet up with a grown up Willis, helping him to stop the menace of a mutating virus. As a kid, Willis was given two twin digimon, one of which was infected with a virus and disappeared, returning later with a different appearance and a ruthless behaviour. After a long battle, Willis and the Digi-destined manage to defeat the infected Digimon. In the end, Willis discovers that his digimon was still alive after the fight, ready to be reborn from a Digi-egg.
Digimon Adventure (First Season)
Characters
The seven children, along with their Digimon partners are (names used in Japan are listed first. That is followed by the English manga name, and is then followed by the English anime name, if any):Digimon Zero Two (Second Season)
Characters
The Japanese names are listed first, followed by the names used in the English language version, if different.Digimon Tamers (Third Season)
Characters
Japanese names are listed first, followed by names used for the English language version, if different:Digimon Frontier (Fourth Season)
Characters
The Japanese names are listed first, followed by the names used in the English language version (if different) and the names of their digimon form.The Movies
Compare: Pokémon