Base entry for the Digimon
Series Franchise. A set of
Bond Creatures/Mons series involving multiple media including anime, video games, and manga. All of it based off of the
Distaff Counterpart of the Tamagotchi.
First was
Digimon Adventure, consisting of a group of children getting
Trapped In Another World, in this case
Cyberspace, where each was partnered with a digimon. Each digimon would grow stronger and gain the ability to evolve (
shinka, but the dub used "digivolve" in order not to step on
Pokemon's toes) into a stronger form as their human partners learned important
lessons about themselves. Bad things happened when the humans regressed emotionally.
Digimon Adventure 02 timeskipped forward three years, and had the kids of the original as
mentors to a younger set, including the two youngest from last season.
Digimon Tamers takes place in an
Alternate Universe. Much darker in tone, it was comparable to
Serial Experiments Lain (they share a head writer) or
Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Digimon Frontier abandoned the concept of humans partnering with Digimon, and had them able to
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.
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. The dub was named
Digimon Data Squad.
There was also a CGI
Made For TV Movie,
Digimon X-Evolution, in 2005.
The first Digimon manga was the one-shot
C'mon Digimon. The first appearance of the
Digital World, and
goggles, came in
Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01. The most recent manga is
Digimon Next.
From China, there are (much compressed) manhua adaptations of the first four anime, and
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, video games have been released for the Playstation, Playstation 2, Wonderswan, Gameboy Advance, and Nintendo DS. The games starring
Canon Immigrant Ryo Akiyama were never released in the west.
Also see the
character sheet.
These series contain examples of:
- All There In The Manual - A significant portion of the mythology of the series must be pieced together from the anime, video games, and manga.
- Anime Theme Song - Most by Wada Kouji or AiM.
- Bishonen Line - Many prominent Digimon, both good and evil, are humanoid in their more powerful forms. Some go back and forth.
- Bizarrchitecture - an upside-down pyramid building. The Digital World in general has no need to conform to the laws of physics or logic.
- By The Power Of Greyskull
- Calling Your Attacks - Every time. Tamers features the humans doing this as well as the Digimon with the Card Slash feature. Savers actually had to have the Bridge Bunnies call their partners' attacks, as they were mute.
- Canon Immigrant - Akiyama Ryou, who appears in both 02 and Tamers but stars in the games.
- Chest Blaster
- Cosmic Keystone
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome
- Crowning Music Of Awesome (Most of the battle songs are pretty badass.)
- Cute Monster Girl - Sometimes played straight, sometimes averted, with both "sexy" and "monstrous" female Digimon.
- Cyberspace - The Digital World
- Dark Is Not Evil - 'Virus-Type Is Not Evil', most prominently in hotblooded but goodhearted Guilmon.
- Deadly Upgrade / Dark Evolution - Rationalized as a potential 'natural' variation but caused by extensively bad vibes if this happens with Digimon who have partners/tamers.
- Disney Death: All seasons except for Tamers have a village where previously 'killed' Digimon are reborn, making actual death an absolute impossibility for those who do the bulk of the fighting. What would happen to a human who dies in the Digital World isn't certain.
- Savers took this trope and subverted it to great lengths in the second arc.
- Tamers' third act was more or less instigated by its subversion of this trope.
- Dub Induced Plot Hole (The evolutionary levels were changed from "Baby 1", "Baby 2", "Child" and "Adult" to something more threatening in the dub. Then came the "Perfect" level, which the dub changed to "Ultimate". Guess which level comes next? "Ultimate". The confusion has led purists and dubbies alike to use "Perfect" and "Mega", never calling anything "Ultimate" to avoid mixing people up.)
- Dying As Yourself
- Expository Theme Tune ("Change into digital champions to save the digital world...")
- Expy (The leaders of every incarnation's team resemble each other in apperance, and most of them have similar typical shonen hero personalities. Takato is an exception being somewhat more subdued, and being quite a bit more obviously introspective.)
- Not to mention Guilmon, who is a quite obvious expy of Agumon. Both are fire-breathing dragons which become larger versions of themselves, said larger version becomes coated in armor, and finally a slightly more humanoid warrior version. Slightly justified in that Takato designed Guilmon and had seen the previous seasons on TV, so he likely drew inspiration from Agumon.
- Actually Toei Animation has confirmed that the people from the Tamers universe did NOT watch Adventure/02, but a variant of their own Digimon. (Otherwise the term "tamers" wouldn't exist. Takato muttering "Digi-Armor...Energize..." in his sleep was a dialogue error.)
- Fetish Fuel (the Furry Fandom is quite fond of Flamedramon and Renamon...)
- The Four Gods (Qinglongmon/Azulongmon the Azure Dragon, Zhuqiaomon the Vermillion Phoenix, Xuanwumon/Ebonwumon the Black Turtle, and Baihumon the White Tiger. Azulongmon appears in Adventure 02, while the others are only mentioned. All four star in Tamers.)
- There's actually a fifth "god," Huanglongmon/Fanglongmon[1]
the Yellow Dragon (see the trope page). But he's never referenced in the anime.
- Goggles Do Nothing (Aside from Masaru/Marcus, every team's leader wears a pair on their head.)
- And subverted by Takato who uses his goggles to protect against the digital field.
- Goldilocks And The Mines Of Moria
- Gratuitous English (Almost all attacks are in English.)
- Hey Its That Voice (Lots of actors have played multiple characters on both sides of the Pacific.)
- I Am Hero Hear Me Roar
- Idiot Hero
- Image Song
- The Imp (Demidevimon/Picodevimon in Adventure; Impmon, of course, in Tamers)
- In The End You Are On Your Own
- Killer Rabbit (Many Digimon are cute but deadly)
- Lull Destruction - Constantly. The ending to the first episode of Tamers is rendered nonsensical by it.
- Mechanical Monster (An entire class/family of them (Metal Empire) and various cyborgs besides)
- No Body Left Behind
- No Export For You (The Ryo games and the AU manga. All we got in the West were different adaptations of the anime.)
- Nonindicative Name: Why are the ones that look like bees called Flymon?
- Only The Author Can Save Them Now
- Parents As People (Lots of examples of parents making a decision with the best intentions, but being horribly, horribly wrong—or even just reacting to something badly-yet-understandably-so.)
- Post Cyberpunk
- Purely Aesthetic Gender (Despite the fact that Digimon may look male (Such as Piedmon) or female (Such as Ladydevimon), because they are all made of data, they simply appear as they do. No Digimon actually has a true gender.)
- Didn't stop the Numemon or Sukamon from hitting on Mimi..
- Or the Shippers.
- It's more accurate to say that Digimon do not have sex (biological distinctions for reproductive purposes) but do have gender (social and personal distinctions based on how males and females define themselves).
- Ret Con (Overlapping with All There In The Manual: the CD dramas included little things like Mimi being present for 9/11, his brother Shuu being the person Jou was on the phone with in the Pilot Movie, and Miyako's "Yamato Nadeshiko Panic!" song, but it also completely threw out the second Digimon Tamers movie, by not having the Tamers reunite with their partners. Or did they? Later, perhaps? We don't know.)
- Ridiculously Cute Critter (Most Digimon in the early stages, though there are a few exceptions with later forms being adorable—Kenta's little pink partner is Marine Angemon, a Mega level!)
- Running Gag (Subverted. Leomon always dies, preferably by Heroic Sacrifice, and it's always played for tragedy. Digimon Frontier escapes this by having the heroes kill a Panja/IceLeomon instead, and Digimon Savers lulls the viewer into a false sense of security by killing a SaberLeomon about a quarter of the way in, only to throw BanchouLeomon onto the viewer later... The very first scene of X-Evolution is of Leomon dying!)
- Not quite. Frontier had Kouichi, whose Digimon forms were lion-themed. Then again, he didn't quite die, either, although it seemed that way.
- Sorting Algorithm Of Evil: Gennai: "[villain name here] was not the true enemy!"
- Special Guest: Terry Bradshaw. Yes, the NFL's Terry Bradshaw. He used to host a Digithon (digimon marathon) on Fox Kids. Not only that, it was a Super Bowl themed marathon, in which Bradshaw would provide commentary in-between episodes.
- Synchronization
- The Ace: Ryo.
- The Lancer: There's one in every team, who generally doesn't get along with the leader.
- Title Theme Tune - Dub only; used across series. Gets repetitive. (Though presumably due to legal wrangling, it hasn't been used since Tamers)
- Transformation Sequence - And how.
- Voice Of The Legion
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Several members of the main cast(s) seem remarkably mature or intelligent for their ages.
See each series page for series-specific tropes.
