Line #8 YMMV/Tamagotchi


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2	!!''Tamagotchi'' franchise entries with their own subpages:
3	* ''YMMV/MangaDeHakkenTamagotchi''
4	* ''YMMV/TamagotchiTheMovie''
5	* ''YMMV/TamagotchiVideoAdventures''
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7	----
8	!!YMMV folders for other franchise entires:
9	[[foldercontrol]]
10
11	[[folder:The franchise in general]]
12	* {{Adorkable}}: Mametchi is always geeking out over something scientific and a little awkward, and he's adorable.
13	* AmericansHateTingle: The franchise is highly despised in Italy. However, they ''miraculously'' got the first movie dubbed as well as a translation of ''Manga de Hakken! Tamagotchi''; even those couldn't bring its popularity up despite the fact that the former is still common to find online.
14	* ArchivePanic: This is a surprisingly large franchise to experience in its entirety.
15	** For starters, there are over 50 virtual pets to collect as of 2020.
16	** There's also the 2009 television show with its 271 episodes that are each 24 minutes long including the intro and end credits, which would be over 6,000 minutes or just barely over four days of material to watch with no breaks. The 1997 TV show, ''Anime TV de Hakken!! Tamagotchi'', thankfully only clocks in at 27 episodes that are all very short; ''Let's Go! Tamagotchi'' is no different with 12 short episodes.
17	** There are two feature-length films, ''Tamagotchi: The Movie'' and ''Tamagotchi: Happiest Story in the Universe!'', and two short films, ''Tamagotchi Honto no Hanashi'' and ''Eiga Tamagotchi: Himitsu no Otodoke Dai Sakusen!''.
18	** And then you have a bunch of {{Licensed Game}}s and a few manga series and books, among other adaptations and merchandise.
19	* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: A lot of the animation and backgrounds in the theatrical films and TV show are really well done and nice to look at. It helps that they're all animated by Creator/OLMIncorporated, who have also animated the similarly fluid ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime.
20	* BrokenBase: In the English-speaking world, how do you pronounce the third syllable? The fandom generally says "Tom-ah-GOT-chee" though there is infighting with a minority which prefers "Tom-ah-GOO-chee". ''WesternAnimation/TamagotchiVideoAdventures'' [[TakeAThirdOption tried to pass off]] "Tom-ah-GO-chee" based on how the "O" is enunciated in Japanese, though only die-hard fans accepted this. Anime adaptations starting in the 2000s have used "Tom-ah-GOT-chee".
21	* DracoInLeatherPants: It's not uncommon for characters brought on from neglect or abuse to be as popular as the perfectly healthy ones, despite many of them being listed in their bios as being nowhere as pleasant as the healthier ones.
22	* EnsembleDarkhorse: This was inevitable given the amount of characters, but several of the secondary characters seem to have their fair share of fans. In particular, Mimitchi's character profile pamphlet that was released with the character's Gotchi Gear carrying pouch states that she, not Mametchi, is the most popular ''Tamagotchi'' character.
23	* FandomEnragingMisconception: Calling the Tamagotchi a "Nano Pet" or a "Giga Pet", both of which were Tamagotchi's only competitors in America in 1997. Similarly, calling either of those products, or [[FollowTheLeader the myriad other copy-cat products that came after]], a "Tamagotchi". Tamagotchi came first, while the others were trying to get in on the craze.
24	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Apparently, there is a cult following of Tamagotchi in Poland.
25	* HilariousInHindsight: Akihiro Yokoi, one of the creator of Tamagotchi, initially wanted to scrap Mametchi because he felt it was too "cute" compared to what he thought the Tamagotchis should look like. Decades later, Mametchi would be overshadowed by new Tamagotchis that were even ''cuter'' than him.
26	* MemeticMutation:
27	** The music for "Left or Right" from the Game Boy game, due to Protonjon featuring it during his Fortune Cookie streams.
28	** "I like Toxins. My dream is Eat dirt."[[labelnote:explanation]]A pair of screenshots of a character speaking in one of the ''Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop'' games, which was originally posted to Tumblr and later carried over to Twitter.[[/labelnote]]
29	* {{Moe}}: Go find any character in the franchise (especially the modern-series ones) and tell us they're not absolutely precious and huggable-looking. Even the less appealing characters fall under UglyCute.
30	* MorePopularSpinoff: ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', the franchise's SpearCounterpart, stayed active more or less continuously since its debut. ''Tamagotchi'', on the other hand, had an initial burst of popularity followed by a quick drop off as other companies released their own versions, sometimes even overshadowing it. The franchise has recovered somewhat after a few false starts. Innovation of the virtual pet concept with deeper gameplay, color screens, wireless connectivity and more have turned it from a must-have fad item into a not-quite-as-popular mid-tier toy brand.
31	* PeripheryDemographic:
32	** The franchise is primarily aimed at girls, but there are quite a few boys who like it as well. Though, it originally appeared to be more gender neutral before the Digimon v-pet made boys gravitate toward it instead.
33	** There's a decent amount of adult fans of this series despite it being made primarily for children. This is particularly evident in the anime's American fanbase, which consists almost entirely of teens and adults.
34	** The large number of crossover versions is a result of Bandai attempting to cater to its periphery demographics, primarily fans of anime and video games.
35	* ThatOneLevel: Level 59 of ''Tap and Hatch''. It ''can'' be completed without paying for power-ups, but it's an agonizing endeavor.
36	* UglyCute: Many of the characters obtained from neglect have a sort of charm all their own.
37	* {{Woolseyism}}: A number of character and location names are often changed during localization. Whether the changes work or not varies by the person. The Tamagotchi Angel may be the most divisive in this regard, as all of the names are literal translations; for example, "Kuriten" is called "Chestnut Angel".
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:The toys]]
41	* CheeseStrategy:
42	** In general: Want to quickly increase happiness without going through tedious minigames? You can simply spam the default snacks. Starting from the Connection series, getting toothache isn't even a care mistake and snacks do no harm to your Tamagotchi characters otherwise (although in the Tama-Go overfeeding will cause your Tamgotchi to be obese, you can simply give them some medicine). It's also doable in Angel so you can quickly improve Angel Power. The only modern Tamagotchi where you can't do it would be 4U where even the default snack fills hunger.
43	** On the Uni, you can increase happiness quickly by entering and exiting the Tamaverse. Doing so once can fill as much as ''half of the happiness bar'' (although unlike previous releases the happiness bar here is significantly easier to raise, feeding too much snack or playing too many minigames can risk getting unwanted teens and adults)!
44	* GameBreaker:
45	** Headpatting on the Smart. Headpats generate an utterly massive amount of Fondness, is a relatively quick and mindless task for how much it improves the meter, and unlike some other actions that generate Fondness, it can be repeated as many times as the player wants for no cost. It's very easy to refill a Tamagotchi's meter from empty to full in as little as ''five minutes''.
46	** Also on the Smart, [[RevenueEnhancingDevices DLC items]]. The Smart has "memory chips" which are released as separate products you can physically buy with real money and plug into the side of the toy to load in additional content, which typically includes new items and a separate evolution lines of new pets. The thing about all the DLC items is that once loaded, all of them are completely free of charge, requiring no Gotchi Points to purchase or use. This includes ''consumables'' too, like food and sweets, so you can forgo grinding for money altogether in favor of just stockpiling the DLC items. The only catch with the DLC items is that using them increases the chance that your next egg will hatch into the DLC pet line, which can be an unfavorable outcome if you're aiming to get one of the basic pets.
47	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
48	** Seeing two Tamagotchis marry.
49	** Seeing the parent Tamagotchi feeding or playing with the baby in the Connections series or in On/Meets when they live together.
50	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The various sounds used to indicate a Tamagotchi evolving. And as of the modern versions, the "victory" sound when perfectly completing a game.
51	* NightmareFuel: The Game Boy games ramp up the original releases' death sequences by adding flashing screens and a montage of the Tamagotchi in a number of poses (many of which indicate they are in agony), topped off with a rather depressing song as its spirit floats about. It isn't exactly the best material for its target audience. While the second game removed the flashing screen, the third one replaced the original death theme with a ''much'' creepier new one.
52	* PlayerPunch: The death sequence on any Tamagotchi is drawn out to be as heartbreaking as possible. particularly on the originals where the Tamagotchi lays down ill while a heart monitor plays and gradually slows until the flatline, and on modern Color Tamagotchis where the Tamagotchi helplessly gets tormented by 4 Grim Gotchis before two Chestnut Angels take them away. This is turned up to eleven on the Game Boy edition, where you're forced to watch your Tamagotchi's last moments while sad, solemn music plays.
53	* PortingDisaster: The Tamagotchi L.I.F.E. apps are ports of the original virtual pets. While there are minor issues like the animations being off, the biggest issue is how the pets' growth patterns and conditions are altered or don't exist, meaning it's nearly impossible to get certain characters.
54	** The Generation 2 update completely changes the mechanics of the Gen 2 game, adding the number 0 (originally it only allowed 1 through 9), letting the pet's second number sometimes be the same as the first, and the "next" number after a round is random instead of the last number they thought of.
55	** The Angel app has the programming and sprites in place for using the Praise icon, but the pet ''never'' calls for it. Worse, there's much more leeway on raising it, so a player could obtain the best character with absolutely no effort, while getting anything less requires carefully balancing neglect and care, and some luck.
56	* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: The [[VideoGame/{{Tamagotchi}} original Game Boy game]] is notorious for how easy killing a Tamagotchi is (even moreso than the [[NintendoHard Ocean]]) and thanks [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness to being part of the Vintage era]] they can die from old age. The entire Game Boy trilogy's death scenes are also infamous for their disturbing ways of playing out, even to some adults.
57	* SacredCow: While arguments about which modern era releases are better than others can get pretty heated, the P's is widely regarded as the best color release - if not ''the'' best Tamagotchi virtual pet altogether - in part due to the sheer amount of built-in content it has (even before any additions provided by the Deco Pierces) and being a versatile platform for custom content, including but not limited to characters and complete English translation patches.
58	* ScrappyMechanic:
59	** The overall toy; many people have had less trouble taking care of a real animal than a Tamagotchi or anything similar. It's particularly bad with the vintage releases - as the Tamagotchi grows older, the rate at which its hearts begin to deplete grows until the point where they're needier than the babies. Later installments have significantly reduced the stress of taking care of a Tamagotchi, adding features like daycare and the ability to save your Tamagotchi if it's dying, removing features like discipline and make the Tamagotchi overall easier to take care of.
60	** The Ocean takes the crown for being one of ''the'' hardest Tamagotchi releases to raise - it may be popular for its rarity, but it definitely isn't beloved for its gameplay. Every character on the device is unusually fragile (Even Ningyotchi loses hearts quicker than a teenager and will be lucky to outlive something like a Nyorotchi, two major differences compared to '''every''' other special adult on the vintage pets), the predator system means that a close eye needs to be kept more than usual so the Tamagotchi doesn't die, and the RNG-based game has a chance to empty all of the happy hearts and water quality. Most young Tamagotchi on vintage releases naturally get sick once a stage about 12-24 hours before evolution - Kuragetchi and the teens naturally get sick ''multiple times every day''. Failure to raise the discipline bar beyond 5/7 before evolution time results in death, [[GuideDangIt and nothing in the manual warns you of this]]. Even worse? You pet can ''also'' die randomly when they are about to evolve!
61	** The Push Notifications for the iPhone edition quickly become this once the baby's born.
62	** The Happiness meter Introduced in Tamagotchi Plus Color. Replacing the original Happy meter, it's measured in points (0-100, represented by 20 colored squares). It affects not only how the Tamagotchi grows, but also how it behaves and reacts to the user. The problem is ''raising'' the Happiness takes a huge amount of time, it lowers very quickly, and it can only be filled halfway during the first three stages of life, [[GuideDangIt which the instructions don't warn you about]]. The end result is a lot of Tamagotchis sadly sulking in the corner of their room, with players not understanding what they're doing wrong. Thankfully, in the Smart and the Uni raising happiness is much easier.
63	** Snacks are meant to fill happiness more quickly without playing games, if the user has no time to play games or is struggling with games. They ''will'' kill your pet after just a few doses on the original re-releases and Ocean even if games are played to reduce weights, especially since the latter has an extremely frustrating game listed above.
64	** On the English connection models, if your Tamagotchi dies, you lose all Gotchi Points and items.
65	** The Baby Stage, while intended to be a "tutorial" stage for the toy, is infamous among the fanbase. While your Tamagotchi can't die in this stage, its hearts drop ''very'' quickly. Depending on the toys, they will also require you to turn the light off for them or cry. Later toys would even have multiple child stage characters and give you the "worse" happiness child if you do ignore the baby, though for most of the time they are cute enough for you to not care.
66	** The Uni's inability to be turned off prior to later updates, with frustrations stemming from people wanting to take a break from their Unis but not willing to kill their Tamagotchi just to do so, there existed early alternatives such as restarting when in the egg stage or draining the battery but both of them had their issues with the former requiring for the user to ditch their current character completely and the latter carrying the risk of damaging the battery, The community wondered why Bandai decided to give the [[Franchise/{{Digimon}} Vital Bracelet and Digital Monster Color]] ways to be turned off but not doing the same for the Uni. Thankfully the problem seems to be fixed with recent updates adding a toggle to turn it off through a special menu accessed by holding A and C simultaneously while "Digital friends of the world" is on screen,
67	* TearJerker:
68	** When your Tamagotchi dies or runs away. For the latter, they'll often leave a letter saying that they hope they can be taken good care of next time.
69	** When the Tamagotchi baby cries after waking up find that their parents have left. This is the most prominent in the Connection series, and appears in some models like the iD too. Thankfully just give them a bit food and snacks and they'll warm up to you in no time.
70	** When a Tamagotchi that proposes on the M!x and On gets rejected. A sad song plays as they stand there, sobbing and alone, before flinging their proposal ring away.
71	** A more bittersweet one than sad one, but on the Pix and the Uni, the Tamagotchi can move out on their own and both toys play an emotional song when they leave. The [=4U=] also has your Tamagotchi require that they leave, but it's a bit less sad, with a happier song playing and your pet leaving a letter expressing their gratitude.
72	* ThatOneSidequest:
73	** Obtaining Lucky Unchi-kun on the Angel, let alone a ''raisable'' one, is purely a LuckBasedMission. Cactus Angel/Smiling Angel have a chance of their usual farewell screen being replaced by a faceless Lucky Unchi-kun, and starting a new run but not touching ''any of the buttons at all'' until it departs nearly a week later may also produce such a farewell screen. Whether or not you can obtain the raisable iteration is decided when an Ghost Jr. is born with a minuscule chance, the only way to find out until it is due to evolve into Marutchi Angel an hour later is if its Angel Power manages to surpass 30, loses hearts much slower than usual, takes a stroll, prays, doesn't take a nap or falls asleep when nightfall comes. Should this Ghost Jr. be kept alive for about a week, it will evolve into Lucky Unchi-kun.
74	** Ashigyotchi, the unhealthiest adult on the Ocean, is thoroughly believed to be harder to obtain than ''Ningyotchi'' due to how susceptible the characters are to neglect. It is believed to be possible to raise a character on the device to adulthood without ever feeding or playing games with it, but attaining sufficient discipline points is vital to keeping it alive. However, getting the discipline required for evolution will likely cause Kuragetchi to evolve into Otototchi, whose unhealthiest possible adult is Kujiratchi.
75	** Meruhetchi from the Yasashii differs from good care teens on most vintage models in that good care alone isn't enough to obtain it. A Hoppetchi needs to have a ''very'' specific discipline level - not too high and not too low - and its stats cannot be allowed to even as much as reach midway with the exception of the daily hunger calls in the morning. If you make even just the smallest slip up, it '''will'' become Mayumarutchi.
76	** Obtaining the special characters on Entama/Uratama. For the former, it requires the user to get at least 200 points in the respective skill points to get the best job by the time the character graduates from school on day 9... then all up to 999 points (''and'' a three-star rating, should it not be attained by that point) by day 11. Unless cheats like codes manipulations are used, it requires the user to spam either the game or the GUTS-up item for a long time. Even with tools like Enwarehouse, it still takes a long time to fill up your guts points. On the V4 and V4.5, it's easier, since the school minigame has no RNG and they give a lot of free skill points for you to reach the 350 points requirement more easily. Should the Tamagotchi graduate prior to evolution, however, users will find themselves impeded by the daily skill points limit from the job minigames.
77	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The Smart gets some criticism from both people who like it and dislike it for changing some features that are present in other toys. First, instead of using the traditional 3-button controls, this toy features a touch screen that is technically 4 touch buttons, and they don't work all the time. Also, the Tamagotchi pet will stay at the bottom right corner, never walk around, and it makes the pet feel less like a living character and more like part of an interface.
78	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The iD L 15th Anniversary Version in Japan. It was meant to be a celebration of Tamagotchi toys for the past fifteen years...except Bandai put the character roster up as a poll on the site, where people could vote on which adult characters they wanted. As much of the original audience in Japan was gone and replaced with those who know Tamagotchi primarily from the anime adaptation, the end result was only ''five'' vintage adult characters making the cut (out of 32 total adult characters), while the rest of the cast comprised of characters made popular by the anime.
79	[[/folder]]
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81	[[folder:The 2009 anime]]
82	* AngelDevilShipping: Pianitchi/Smartotchi, by way of Smartotchi also taking on the alias of X-Kamen and being the ArcVillain of ''Miracle Friends''.
83	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
84	** Depending on who you ask, Himespetchi is either adorable and a perfect choice for shipping with Mametchi, or an unnerving stalker with little characterization outside of her crush.
85	** Kuchipatchi; some fans find him to be a funny character who provides much of the humor on the show, while others find him to be a FatIdiot who eats way too much.
86	* BizarroEpisode: The first half of episode 30 gets pretty surreal for a ''Tamagotchi'' episode. Mametchi and Chamametchi are just relaxing and watching an episode of Gotchiman when a giant corn-shaped spaceship appears out of nowhere and causes everyone besides Mametchi and Chamametchi to look like their mother Mamametchi. ''Including their dad, Papamametchi.'' The kids have to figure out which one's actually their mother based on the food they've cooked for them... and they guess wrong. And then the one that actually is their mother gets angry, grows in size until she's bigger than Tamagotchi Planet, and then ''CONSUMES all of Tamagotchi Planet in her anger''. [[spoiler:It's AllJustADream, thankfully, but still.]]
87	* CreatorsPet: Although Lovelitchi/Lovelin [[BaseBreakingCharacter has plenty of fans]], she can come off as this to those who aren't too fond of her. She's an extremely popular and talented idol who gets talked up by everyone and is adored by her staff and classmates alike. Many episodes throughout the course of the first and fourth sagas also focused more on her than other characters who had existed longer and had a larger role in the franchise. This has also applied to the virtual pets, where she's been a raisable character gotten through high-quality care on almost ''every'' release since her introduction. It's more of an Executive's Pet than a Creator's Pet in this case, as idol culture is extremely popular in Japan, and Bandai wanted to cash in on that HARD at the time. Even the second and third sagas, both of which don't feature Lovelitchi aside from one episode in the former, have similar characters designed for similar purposes.
88	* CultClassic: While the ''Tamagotchi'' digital pets aren't exactly staples of pop culture in the English-speaking world outside of 90's nostalgia, people are more likely to recognize them than the anime. With that said, the anime still has a tiny, yet dedicated fandom in the West. It helps that a small handful of episodes have been dubbed in English.
89	* FanPreferredCouple: There are a handful of pairings that have been shipped by groups of fans, both heterosexual and homosexual:
90	** Lovelitchi & Mametchi
91	** Lovelitchi & Kuromametchi
92	** Himespetchi & Mametchi
93	** Neenetchi & Kuromametchi
94	** Pianitchi & Smartotchi
95	** Flowertchi & Gozarutchi
96	** Chamametchi & Kikitchi
97	** Chamametchi & Pipospetchi
98	** Kuromametchi & Orenetchi
99	** Kuromametchi & Mametchi
100	** Lovelitchi & Melodytchi
101	** Yumemitchi & Kiraritchi
102	* [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Heartwarming Moments]]:
103	** In ''Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream'' episode 22, [[spoiler:Ikaritchi and Aguritchi reunite, and Ikaritchi finally shows Mametchi respect and appreciation.]]
104	** In ''Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream'' episode 26, Mametchi [[spoiler:finally learns how to sing, and sings a little song for Himespetchi.]]
105	* HilariousInHindsight: Turns out Mametchi's English and Japanese voice actresses both starred in ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure''!
106	* JerkassWoobie: Memetchi can be quite a jerk, but has moments where you can't help but be sad for her anyway. In "The Power of Gossip!", she goes all out in making a rumor about Safetytchi... because she and Uwasatchi had made their own rumor about [[NobodyTouchesTheHair Memetchi's hair]].
107	* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Mametchi has been shipped with almost every female character more than a few times, Lovelitchi and Himespetchi being especially common choices for pairing. He's also been shipped with some male characters, like Kuromametchi.
108	* NightmareFuel: That...awful robot husband Mametchi builds in ''Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream'' episode 25. Especially its crude face. Mametchi's friends are rightfully unnerved.
109	* PeripheryDemographic: The show has attracted fans who weren't already fans of the original toys. To quote one fan, "I do not own a Tamagotchi toy, but the anime TV show is what got me into all this madness. Long story short, cute stuff tends to be my weakness."
110	* PortmanteauCoupleName:
111	** "Mamespetchi" for Mametchi/Himespetchi.
112	** "Kuroneenetchi" has been invented for Kuromametchi/Neenetchi.
113	* TearJerker:
114	** Episode 143, where [[spoiler:Kizunatchi nearly ''dies'' while taking care of the spreading egg curse and slowly plummets to the ground as Mametchi and his friends all run towards her and shout that they'd rather be cursed than to see her die]]. Even if [[spoiler:it's a DisneyDeath and Kizunatchi evolves from the power of the Tama Hearts and manages to vanquish the epidemic once and for all]], it's still a bit of a pain to watch.
115	** ''Tamagotchi! Yume Kira Dream'' episode 20 is full of this. [[spoiler:Mametchi's still miserable after losing the competition in the last episode, and an argument with Ikaritchi prompts him to run away and find a new place to stay.]] Even worse, he later visits Himespetchi and asks her to [[spoiler:bring him back to Tamagotchi Town. After a fierce argument, Himespetchi throws Mametchi out of her ship before curling up on the floor and crying.]]
116	* ToyShip: Mostly applies in the anime continuity, since Mametchi and his Tama-Friends and other students tend to be in the adult stages of growth in the original toys. Either way, though, going by this logic there are a bunch of examples of this within the fandom (Mametchi/Lovelitchi, Mametchi/Himespetchi and Kuromametchi/Neenetchi are just three of them).
117	[[/folder]]

Context YMMV / Tamagotchi