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Franchise / Digimon

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Base entry for the Digimon (short for "Digital Monsters") Series Franchise, centered on bond creature Mons from cyberspace. Originally beginning as the Digimon Virtual Pet, conceived as the Spear Counterpart of Tamagotchi in an effort to broaden the latter's appeal to boys, it has since spread across numerous alternate continuities in multiple media including anime, manga, video games, and trading card games. The franchise is created and maintained by Bandai (now Bandai Namco Holdings) while Toei Animation shares an interest in the brand and is responsible for its anime series, promotional materials, and game cutscenes.

The franchise cultivates a sort of multiverse; with a few exceptions (most famously the original Digimon Adventure having two anime sequels and a final movie) and barring the occasional Intercontinuity Crossover, each entry, even within the same media series, takes place in a different Alternate Continuity. Thus, although certain themes and elements such as the Digital World are franchise staples, the rules of the universe are subject to change depending on the work. The franchise itself is also subject to quite a large amount of Worldbuilding regarding the nature of Digimon and the Digital World, which may or may not be used in different ways. On a story level, the Bond Creature premise leads to The Power of Friendship being a common theme.

There are also contributions to the franchise outside Japan as well; in 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 has created an adaptation of the first few episodes of Digimon Adventure. South Korea has also contributed two MMOs, with the current one in service being Digimon Masters.

Licensing-wise, the franchise has generally fallen under the umbrella of Bandai Namco, but the anime has been in sketchier territory; the rights originally belonged to Saban Entertainment before being shifted to Disney after its dissolution in 2003 (in certain regions, including the US). Disney handled the franchise's dubbing for a period until Saban Brands reacquired the English rights to the franchise in 2012. The dub as a whole, however, was subject to Keep Circulating the Tapes during periods of non-airing, as it never received a formal home video release until New Video Group's DVD releases in 2013. However, Saban's (and by a very brief extension Hasbro) rights to the Digimon animes expired during the dawn of the 2020s, reverting them back to Toei Animation. Since then, Discotek Media bought the North American home video distribution rights to the anime series and has released them on Blu-ray complete with both dubbed (Saban masters) and subbed (uncut) discs. Official subtitles of volatile quality are few and far between, with Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Tamers, and Digimon Fusion being streamed by Netflix, Funimation, Hulu, and Crunchyroll respectively.

As far as manga goes, only the Chinese manhua and Digimon Dreamers have ever been officially translated to English. The video gaming side of the franchise faired far better though, but after 2008 and until 2014, they too began to fall under No Export for You; Digimon All-Star Rumble was an American-built game released to English-speaking territories in 2014, while Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth was finally localized in 2016.

Although the franchise was initially conceived as and is most known for being a children's franchise, it has been going through an Audience Shift as of late; dwindling sales of franchise media among children in The New '10s have caused Bandai Namco and Toei Animation to shift their focus towards adults. However, they seem to be reaching out for a younger audience once more as of Digimon Adventure: (2020), at least in terms of anime.

Also, it's best not to call it a ripoff of Pokémon. You will regret it for the rest of your life.note  Nor has it anything to do with the similar-sounding Di Gi Charat.

See each series page for series-specific tropes.

Anime

Video Games

Manga

Other Official Media

  • Digimon Adventure (2001) — A retelling of the first series which also expands some of the lore.
  • Multiple trading card games released through the years.
  • Multiple virtual pet toys, which also includes another line of v-pets based on the in-universe Digivices after the first anime was introduced.
  • Digimon Project 2021, a series of short live-action videos promoting the Vital Bracelet Digital Monster toy.
  • Digimon Seekers, a novel series made to promote the franchise's 25th anniversary, set to begin serialization on April 3, 2023 with weekly chapter releases.
  • Digimon Liberator, a novel series set in the same universe as the manga version of Digimon Liberator, but with a different cast and story. It is set to begin serialization alongside the manga release.

These series provides examples of:

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    Tropes A-M 
  • Adaptational Wimp: Unless you dig through the data books and various supplementary material, you never know that the Mega/Ultimate-Level Digimon are actually capable of multiversal feats without breaking a sweat. The most range we usually see onscreen encompasses two worlds, or two universes by that logic when the Big Bad unleashes their plan. This also applies to the Digimon partners, who are so powerful lore-wise that this trope is why humans can even stand in close vicinity of combat without dying or how the Earth isn't destroyed from collateral shockwaves.
  • 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, 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 in Digimon Adventure.
    • Mostly averted in Digimon Tamers. Not only did Yamaki and the Wild Bunch know more about Digimon than the Tamers did, but they were actively involved in the Tamers' challenges, from traveling to and from the Digital World to leading the fight against the D-Reaper. In fact, it was a modified version of Yamaki's Juggernaut program, installed in Terriermon, that ultimately defeated the D-Reaper.
    • Pretty much justified in Digimon Frontier. The parents aren't useless, but rather, flat out never knew the kids are traveling in Digital World trying to save it, because the kids are only gone for 20 minutes in real world timenote .
    • Also mostly averted in Digimon Data Squad. Captain Sampson, while staying in the commanding officer position a lot, bails the heroes out three times. That old man who gave Marcus his Digivice, helps out at times and gives him sage advice? That would be Commander Yushima, who bails the heroes out twice, and gives assistance during some fights later on. Marcus's open-minded mother, Sarah, gives refuge to the heroes after they become fugitives from the Confidentiality Ministry thanks to Kurata. Keenan's parents help the heroes get to the Digital World to chase after Kurata. And, finally, there's Marcus's father Spencer, who is one of the most badass characters in the series, only rivaled by his own son. And his partner BanchoLeomon, whom allows Spencer to share his body. One of the leads, Yoshi, is technically an adult at 18 years of age.
  • Advertising by Association: The original virtual pets had text on the packaging saying they're from the makers of Tamagotchi.
  • Alien Invasion: More ambitious villains have attempted an invasion of the Real World.
  • All Myths Are True: The franchise's very big pool of monsters takes here and there, from the Classical Gods, to Judeo-Christian angelology, to the Four Great River Dragons, to even the Akashic Records.
  • All There in the Manual: A significant portion of the mythology of the series must be pieced together from the anime, video games, manga, the Digimon Reference Book website, and actual manuals for V-pets (many of which were not released outside of Japan).
  • Alphabetical Theme Naming: With the exception of Masaru/Marcus and Haru, all the main Chosen Children's names have begun with "ta" (た) or "da" (だ, derived from "ta"): Taichi, Daisuke, Takato, Takuya, Taiki, and Tagiru. Masaru and Haru get included if you say all the names begin with a syllable ending in "a." Daisuke's dub name Davis doesn't fit the theme because it would be transliterated into katakana as DEIBISU. Of course, Davis also had to compete with T.K., or Takeru.
    • Masaru is a twist on the theme, same as his series in general: the kanji for his name is the same as the 'dai' in 'Daisuke,' but it's pronounced differently depending on whether it stands by itself or is part of a compound word. Not to mention his surname is Daimon (Damon, in the dub).
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: In the English version, an action-oriented rap song is used for the first three seasons, an epic chant for Digimon Frontier, a rock song for Digimon Data Squad, and an upbeat techno tune for Digimon Fusion.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: Individual members of any given species of Digimon may have upwards of three or four colors, by and large due to the principle of Color-Coded Multiplayer. There are, however, a number of Digimon with official re-colors that suggest something of a moral alignment (hint: if it's a black version of a normally brightly-colored Digimon, it's probably viral). The Digimon Almanac keeps a good record of these.
  • Anime Theme Song: Almost all of them were by Kouji Wada, while Ai Maeda was responsible for all the Ending Themes from Adventure through Frontier.
  • Another Dimension: The franchise loves this trope. In addition to distinguishing between Earth and the Digital World, you've got the Digimon Wonderswan Series declaring that there are many different Digital Worlds (presumably each tied to the various Earths of the individual series), you've got Adventure 02 talking about Dagomon and his Dark Ocean on the one hand and the world of dreams on the other, you've got the nebulously defined "Dark Area" referred to in the Card Games, you've got DigiQuartz, you've got Witchelny as the home of the various Digimon inspired by the Magical Witches v-pet, and you've got all sorts of crossovers between them that will make your head hurt if you take anything besides a Broad Strokes approach.
  • Arc Symbol: Downplayed. Ever since Wada Kouji produced "Butter-fly", Digimon Adventure's original opening theme, the eponymous insect has cropped up here and there in reference to the song.
    • According to an interview, UlforceVeedramon's evolution sequence was meant to resemble a butterfly.
    • In Adventure 02, Yukio Oikawa becomes a mass of butterflies upon his death.
  • Arc Welding: 02 added so much new lore to the Adventure universe that the digital worlds of each series can seem incompatible at first blush. The Adventure novelization is filled with many a Call-Forward to bridge the gap.
  • Art Evolution: When C-mon was released its aesthetic was not much different than Pokémon's but soon the "official" Bandai designs were shown to be much more along the lines of a Gross-Out Show or 90s "attitude". From there the whole thing has been sliding toward sleeker, shinier designs or generic cuteness though fanservice is also on the rise.
  • The Artifact:
    • Level 5 being referred to as "Perfect" or "Ultimate" stopped making sense after the 6th level debuted in Adventure (where it was a case of Beyond the Impossible). It makes even less sense in continuities that have a 7th level.
    • Since the debut of the 6th level, there's been a strong attempt to avert this, by insisting that the level remains the end-cap of all standard Digimon evolutionary tiers, usually by introducing the next form as a Super Mode of the specific Digimon.
    • Around the franchise's 20th anniversary, there's been an admitted shift to make the "Digital" part in the title an artifact. In early canon, Digimon were artificial lifeforms created by humans and the Atanasoff–Berry computer—the first computer ever—who evolved into animals, machines, and mythological creatures by absorbing data they consume on computers. Starting with Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, the story has been altered so that Digimon are literally spiritual entities that have existed since the dawn of humanity, were summoned by shamans, clerics, and onmyoji, and the fact that computers facilitate their communication with humans is just a coincidence. This was done so that the creative team wouldn't be shackled to creating stories after the Information Age. This also means, for instance, that mythological and religious Digimon like Lucemon and Demon are no longer digital programs based on Judeo-Christian mythology, but the literal devils from Judeo-Christian mythology.
  • Artifact of Hope: Digivices have different designs and features across the various iterations of the franchise, but their purpose usually remains the same; they use the bond between Digimon and their human companions to give the Digimon a massive power boost in the form of Digivolution (or in Frontier's case, becoming Digimon themselves) through a special bond built on comraderie and usually some type of positive quality the human has.
  • Artistic License – Biology: Handwaved, anything impossible that a Digimon (or the Digital World) does is explained away by saying "they're just data".
  • Ascended Extra: Angewomon, especially after the Audience Shift. Interesting to note that while she (and her pre-evolution Gatomon) has always been rather popular Digimon, most promotional materials back in the day would feature Gatomon over her, if they showed her at all, mostly because she was always associated with Adventure, where she was one of the main characters. After the shift, Angewomon became much more prominent, even gaining a new evolution (in the form of a Fusion Dance with LadyDevimon) in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and is used as the host character in the Mobile Phone Game, Digimon Heroes.
  • Ascended Meme: In Digimon Adventure, there's an Angewomon and LadyDevimon who get into a famous Designated Girl Fight that involves a lot of slapping. In years since, the two Digimon have been given special slapping attacks reserved for one another, "Holy Slap" and "Binta".
  • Atrocious Arthropods: Insectoid Digimon appear throughout the various anime series. A few of them have been partners to the heroes (Tentomon in Adventure, Wormmon in Adventure 02) but more often than not they appear as main villains or monsters of the week.
    • Digimon Adventure: The first antagonistic Digimon the team encounters is a Kuwagamon, an Insectoid Digimon based on a saw stag beetle. Other examples include Scorpiomon, a servant of the Dark Master MetalSeadramon and Dokugumon, a spider Digimon who served Myotismon.
    • Digimon: The Movie: Diaboromon is the main villain of the "Our War Game" portion of the movie. Sporting an insect-like appearance inspired by the Y2K Bug, it is an evil virus Digimon who was wreaking havoc across the Internet.
    • Digimon Adventure 02: Arukenimon is an evil Ultimate Digimon based on a spider. She and Mummymon serve Yukio Oikawa, the second human villain seen in the series.
    • Digimon Tamers: Dokugumon appears as an evil Digimon again, this time trying to eat Rika and Renamon. She is defeated when Renamon digivolves into Kyubimon for the first time.
    • Digimon Adventure: (2020):
      • "The King of Insects Clash": Taichi, Mimi, Koshiro and their Digimon are attacked by an Okuwamon and a swarm of Kuwagamon when they reach a canyon. While MetalGreymon and Togemon take care of the Kuwagamon, Kabuterimon digivolves into MegaKabuterimon for the first time and slays Okuwamon.
      • "Garudamon of the Crimson Wings": A massive CannonBeemon commands a squadron of Waspmon to kidnap local Digimon to be used by the evil forces. It is defeated when Birdramon becomes Garudamon for the first time.
      • "The Wolf Standing Atop The Desert": Garurumon becomes WereGarurumon for the first time when Matt, Sora, Joe and their partners have to face a Scorpiomon ruling over a desert they are trying to cross.
    • Digimon Ghost Game: Arukenimon appears as a villain again. She is portrayed as a Digimon that likes to devour the brains of very smart people to gain their intelligence, and is one of the few antagonist Digimon that is genuinely depicted as evil and unsympathetic.
  • Audience Shift: Although Digimon Data Squad was the first significant work to be aimed at older audiences rather than just children, it was still intended to sell kids' toys and aired on children's network programming, and was thus created in the hopes of being a kids' show that teens and adults could get into. However, starting with Digimon World Re:Digitize, Digimon entries took a notable shift away from the children's block to aim at the adults who grew up with Digimon instead, with Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (a game that was the first in the franchise to receive a CERO rating of B, meaning children were shut out of the game entirely), Digimon Adventure tri., Digimon World -next 0rder-, and Digimon Survive following suit. The staff for Cyber Sleuth indicated that this was because the franchise didn't sell with kids anymore. Since then, this has become a Zig-Zagged Trope, as Digmon media after Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizunanote  seemingly shifted back into primarily trying to appeal to children, as shown with a newer card game getting released alongside a reboot of Digimon Adventure, only for the next series, Digimon Ghost Game, to seemingly dive right back into an older audience target with a much Darker and Edgier setting and episodes compared to Adventure: (2020).
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • The whole Mega (Ultimate) level was this. In its debut in the Digimon pendulums, it required the Jogress of three separate Digimon, or a perfect care record in the case of some Vaccine attributes. Sometimes, the resulting Digimon may be weaker than the Digimon it used to be but specialize in something in exchange, such as when MetalGreymon Digivolves to WarGreymon. In the Adventure universe, Mega Digivolution was only possible through the intervention of the Digital Worlds' Digimon Sovereigns or the malign influence of something like the Dark Network. In V-Tamer they make the Digimon World more unstable and vulnerable to attack.
    • In-Universe, to a certain extent. Megas go through so much energy that they functionally shorten their lifespan.
  • Baku: Bakumon (Tapirmon in the dub) is an Animal Digimon with the appearance of a small tusked-warthog-esq creature with a cloud instead of backlegs. Lore states that it was generated from a medical computer for detecting brain waves, and it seems that it uses the data from humans in REM sleep as nourishment, later going on to feed on bad dreams and malignant viruses.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Wishing for a Digimon is nice, until it gets loose in your school. On several occasions, characters try to force a Digivolution, and it goes horribly right.
  • Beyond the Impossible: The Ultimate/Mega level was presented as this when it first debuted in Adventure, as at the time Perfect/Ultimate was considered fully-evolved. Matt calls it "changing the rules in the middle of the game"
  • Big Bad: Lord Demon for V-Tamer. Apocalymon for Adventure, 02 had Myotismon/Vamdemon return as the cause of everything that happened in 02. Frontier had Lucemon. Data Squad is an odd case — while Kurata dies long before the final episode, his destructive actions are causing the entire endgame mess; Yggdrasil is only acting. Fusion has Bagramon. The Wonderswan series had Milleniumon.
  • Big Good: In Adventure and Tamers continuities, ENIAC as the first computer, though it only directly appears in the Wonderswan series. And there is even a Bigger Good with the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. In some other continuities, Yggdrasil theoretically is meant to be this... but usually isn't.
  • Bishōnen Line: Many prominent Digimon, both good and evil, are humanoid in their more powerful forms. Some go back and forth.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Nearly every series ends with the final Big Bad defeated and peace restored, but the Digimon having to return to the Digital World and leave their beloved partners behind. Digimon Adventure 02 is the only one with a completely happy ending. How much hope there is they'll meet them again varies from series to series.
  • Bizarrchitecture: An upside-down pyramid building. The Digital World in general has no need to conform to the laws of physics or logic.
  • Bizarre Alien Reproduction: There's definitely some mechanism that allows Digimon to increase their population, since not all Digimon are able to be ressurected due to file corruption, data destruction, damage to the DigiCore, simply being trapped in the Dark Area by Anubimon or having their data eaten by one of the Demon Lords that live there and yet the Digital World will still occasionally experience an Overpopulation Crisis. What or how it works has never been introduced in any continuity - though it has been confirmed in the Digimon Seekers novel continuity that whatever the process is doesn't involve sex or sexes and it's relatively slower than analog sexual reproduction.
  • Bland-Name Product: In the Adventure series, Izzy's always tapping away at a PineApple laptop. In 02, the Giga House has a Wac with a tomato on it.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: And it's not always (probably not even usually) the translator's fault. The franchise takes names and words from all over the world, and then transliterates them into Japanese kana. Localizers then have to interpret and unpack the original word the franchise used, which has resulted in a few bizarrely named Digimon. It can be especially tough if a Digimon's name is taken from one language and its Special Attacks use words from another.
    • For years the name "Sukamon" was used for what turned out to be "Scumon" (i.e. scum-monster).
    • The official name of "Orgemon" appears to be derived from a bilingual portmanteau of the Japanese oo ("big") and ogre.
    • Probably among the most amusing is when the Digimon SlashAngemon was given the name SlushAngemon for Digimon Fusion.
    • And then there's Yo!Yo!mon, who had the unfortunate luck to be translated as Yoxtu!Yoxtu!mon.
  • Body Snatcher: The Royal Knights in the Pendulum X. They infect the Digimon that can defeat them via their Master Tags, allowing them to become more powerful by possessing a succession of increasingly more powerful Digimon.
  • Body Surf: How the Royal Knights increase their power.
  • Body Horror: All over the place in the early days.
    • Many of the Cyborg Digimon—Andromon, MetalGreymon, MetalTyrannomon, etc.—are a gruesome patchwork of damaged flesh and cybernetics.
    • Raremon, so far-gone that it's technically an Undead-type, is a mountain of shambling, rotted flesh with exposed bones and cables.
    • Deltamon is a Composite Digimon made of three creatures that got fused during a data corruption event, leaving exposed bone in some places while fusing flesh and metal in others.
    • LadyDevimon's kink gear features stitches and even a chain penetrating her flesh.
  • Born-Again Immortality: With the exception of Tamers and Fusion, all Digimon have Type IV. When killed, they normally turn into digi-eggs and are reborn (though it varies as to if they remember their past life or not, even within the same season). Myotismon from Adventure had a different type in that his soul just kept coming back in a stronger body till it was destroyed. A plot point in Data Squad was that Kurata found a way to rob Digimon of this, making him able to kill them off for good. In Fusion, they remain dead unless someone resurrects them or they can maintain a form of memory.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sometimes, in the dub, the Previously on… or To Be Continued segments end with a character sharing his or her questions or concerns with the audience.
    Izzy: Most curious. With all this excitement, you'd think we were back in the DigiWorld.
    Kari: There's something even more powerful out there, and the only way we can defeat it is with The Golden Radiance. I wonder what (Wizardmon) means.
    Davis: Woah! Tension, huh? But, what if nobody can beat the Devas?
    Rika: These guys have no idea what they've gotten themselves into, but I bet you know!
  • Brought Down to Badass: Several of the Perfect level, then the highest evolution level, Digimon introduced in the obscure Digital Monster were retooled as Adults in subsequent materials. These include Ebidramon, Minotarumon and Mechanorimon. Of course, they're still plenty dangerous.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Syakomon, like the examples above, also originated in Version S and got this treatment. Unfortunately, since he was small and cute, not unlike an aquatic Mamemon, he was reassigned to the Child level.
  • But Now I Must Go: The traditional (though not compulsory) ending to a Digimon story; how much drama it employs, how permanent the parting will be, and to what extent the parting is required depends on the work.
    • Digimon V-Tamer 01: The Digital World is saved and all the humans return home, but although Taichi's technically separated from Zeromaru, he'll always have him at his side as his V-Pet.
    • Digimon World: After all is said and done, Hiro decides he needs to return home, or else his mother will worry.
    • Digimon Adventure: The Trope Codifier for the franchise, and the first to play it for drama. The kids need to leave the Digital World lest they be trapped there indefinitely, meaning that they have to part with the friends they've made so deeply after a short time to say their goodbyes. Post-series supplemental material has them meet up a few times afterwards; eventually, Digimon Adventure 02 allows them to meet again. Digimon Adventure tri. and Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna force another separation, but 02's Distant Finale makes it a Foregone Conclusion that they'll eventually be allowed to stay together.
    • Digimon Tamers: The kids are informed without warning that their Digimon will have to leave the Real World to save them from degenerating, meaning that the Digimon are practically ripped away from the kids' at a moment's notice. What happens afterwards depends on which media you take as canon; the second movie has them reunite after around six months, whereas the drama CD establishes that the gate Takato found at the end was only a Hope Spot and that it'll be difficult for them to communicate or meet again.
    • Digimon Frontier: The defeat of Lucemon causes the dimensional gate to close, meaning that the kids have to rush back before it closes. This is played for very little drama other than Bokomon tearfully wishing them farewell, since the kids don't have actual Digimon partners to separate from.
    • Digimon Data Squad: The Digital Gate has to be closed for a while for safety reasons and the Digimon will be returning to the Digital World to help recovery efforts there. After a night in which everyone's allowed to give their farewells to their partners, Masaru finally decides to give a middle finger to series tradition and join Agumon in the Digital World, where they protect the peace together. Since the gate is under DATS's control, the closing has a decidedly less final tone than the others (especially since the theme of the series is the hope of creating a world where Digimon and humans can live together, making it feel like the ending was there for tradition more than anything else).
    • Digimon Next: The kids return to the human world, though like Taichi in Digimon V-Tamer 01, Tsurugi still gets to fight with his reborn Agumon as his V-Pet.
    • Digimon Fusion (anime): After saving the day, the Digimon return to the Digital World, with Taiki waving them goodbye. No drama is pulled here.
    • Digimon Xros Wars (manga): As Shoutmon fears, the kids are forced to return home after saving the Digital World, although UlforceV-dramon tells Nene that the Digital World may need them again. Shoutmon tearfully begs Taiki to stay and go on more adventures with him, but concedes when Taiki promises to go on an adventure with him after he's fulfilled his own dream.
    • Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time: As everyone's returned to their own worlds, Tagiru and Gumdramon are also forced to have a tearful goodbye...until somehow Gumdramon reappears to Tagiru again. And the Adventure Continues.
    • Digimon World Re:Digitize: With Vitium defeated, everyone is sent back by Mirei and separated from their partners, though they're taken aback by the suddenness. Decode adds a little extra: Mirei reveals that she won't be going with them...because she no longer has a physical body.
    • Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth: The Digimon will have to return to the Digital World while the humans return to the human world, and due to the Digital World being reformatted to the state it was eight years prior, the Digimon won't even remember their human partners. Agumon, Gabumon, and Nokia promise to meet again someday, somehow, and the kids return to a human world with a Cosmic Retcon that makes it so that they're the only ones who remember the Digimon at all.
    • Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna: Due to being mature and having no more potential which was the fuel for the Digivice, the Digimon partners have to leave their human friends. Whether either side likes it or not. Not surprisingly, the humans don't take it well.
  • By the Power of Grayskull!: Digimon calling their attacks is often treated as a staple but some 'can' use their powers without doing so.
  • Calling Your Attacks: A series staple. Tamers features the humans doing this as well as the Digimon with the Card Slash feature. Data Squad actually had to have the Bridge Bunnies call their partners' attacks, as they were mute. In the Japanese version, it's averted in all the movies except the Frontier one; no-one calls attacks at all in them. Fusion has the names of the called attacks shown in the bottom of the screen.
  • Canon Immigrant: Ryo Akiyama. He makes a few cameos in Our War Game and 02, and is a Sixth Ranger in Tamers, but he originated as the star of a series of WonderSwan games.
  • Can't Catch Up: Once a Season, the cast is divided into tiers this way. In the original version of Adventure, Tentomon has the presence of mind to lampshade this immediately.
  • Captain Ersatz:
    • Nanimon is Oyajitchi from sister series Tamagotchi, with a new name and a pair of sunglasses to try to make him look cooler. The anime redesigned him to look a bit more like a wrestler, but the v-pet uses a barely altered sprite. Unlike many examples, Bandai outright admitted it was done as an in-joke.
    • Several for Godzilla monsters:
      • Raremon's original design in the v-pet was a tall shambling sludge pile with vertical eyelids, a very obvious copy of Hedorah. It was later redesigned into a much more original idea of a failed cyborg suffering Body Horror.
      • In the V-pet, Devidramon has a design almost identical to Destoroyah, with the few missing details being a result of the tiny sprites used in the toy. He was redesigned to look more like Devimon with Greymon's head later.
      • Deltamon was changed in the anime to look like more like three existing Digimon that had fused together, giving it heads on its arms and two tails. The original v-pet design simply had a three-headed dragon with no arms and only two legs. While the anime was more subtle about it, both of these designs are derived from Godzilla's archnemesis, King Ghidorah.
  • Central Theme: The Digimon anime franchise as a whole: as you grow up, challenging times will reveal your true character and who your real friends are.
  • Cephalothorax: In the original Digital Monster v-pets, there was an entire sub-group of Ultimate Digimon that were distinguished by how tiny they were: Mamemon, MetalMamemon, Giromon, Piccolomon, Nanomon (Datamon in the USA), and Tekkamon, all of whom are little balls with faces and limbs. Mamemon has since produced a few more Underground Monkey variants such as BigMamemon and PrinceMamemon.
  • Character Development: Par for the course with the protagonists.
  • Character Focus: The show may be titled "Digimon", but make no mistake, it's about the humans. Most allied Digimon only serve either to reflect their human partners or serve as Foils. From Adventure to Fusion, you could count the number of major Digimon with actual backstories on one handnote . In fact, when allied Digimon do get characterization, it usually comes out of nowhere, like Veemon's crush on Gatomon.
  • Chest Blaster: A common type of attack, special mention to MetalGreymon's missiles that fire from this pecs.
  • Combined Energy Attack
    • In Name Only; Wargreymon's "Terra Force" and Black Wargreymon's "Terra Destroyer". Word of God is that these attacks actually do have the energy of an entire planet, but they obviously don't require draining energy from any external sources.
    • BlackWarGreymon was even able to spam his attack! There are draining moves in X-Evolution but they still don't drain much.
  • Company Cross References: This being a male counterpart to Tamagotchi, it was practically contractually obligated to make at least one Tamagotchi reference since its inception. Both franchises are from Bandai.
    • Tamagotchi character Oyajitchi serves as the inspiration for Digimon character Nanimon's appearance.
    • Wizardmon's staff and Belphemon's Sleep Mode clock are both modeled after Tamagotchi devices.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: Played With; The anime (and movies) mostly averts, subverts and inverts the trope, especially when played for drama, while Fusion plays it straight.
  • Continuity Lockout: Every piece of Digimon media is canon in some way, resulting in Tamers referencing a Wonderswan game, several concepts that were formerly game-only or anime-only appearing in other media, and the Story and World games connecting with previous, family-friendly installments despite the audience shift towards adults. Getting the complete Digimon experience will require a lot of effort.
  • Continuity Snarl: The Digimon Wonderswan Series is a notable offender, especially considering that both it and the anime make direct nods to each other that don't match up (e.g. Our War Game has Ryo briefly appear in Turkey as The Cameo, but Tag Tamers indicates he was in Ken's house when he saw the Omnimon-Diaboromon fight).
    • Ryo as he appears in Digimon Tamers is officially the same person as Ryo as he appears in the Wonderswan series, but Tamers gives Ryo a completely new backstory that is incompatible with the Wonderswan Series.
    • D-1 Tamers had a young Wallace as a major character, but the original Wallace, who debuted in Digimon Hurricane Touchdown, had never been to the digital world and didn't know there were other Digidestined.
  • Cosmic Horror Story: The whole damned franchise constitutes one. Each anime and manga feature their own elements of the Genre.
    • Adventure's final boss Apocalymon is an incarnation of resentment and hatred and tries to annihilate both the Digital World and human world.
    • 02 has the Dark Ocean and the World of Dreams, both of which are Eldritch Locations.
    • Tamers: The D-Reaper and all its agents form a terrifying Eldritch Abomination that threaten both the Digital and Real Worlds.
    • Frontier: The only season to feature an End Of The World scenario, in that Lucemon destroys the entire planet.
    • Data Squad: An interdimensional collision is the impending threat, which Yggdrasil considers hardly a loss.
    • Next: The Digital World's God-Emperor (Yggdrasil) dies, the entire universe gets destroyed and remade by NEO.
      • Couple all the above with the facts that (A) we have such Mons as Megidramon, Millenniummon, Chaosmon, Dagomon, and others lurking in the background, and (B), the SGDL are relegated to individual Big Bad status because they are in all likelihood far too powerful together to oppose, and we get a product that would make Lovecraft proud.
  • Cosmic Keystone: The Human Worlds are this to the Digital Worlds.
  • Crisis Crossover:
    • Digimon Rumble Arena and Digimon Battle Spirit were this for Adventure, Zero Two, and Tamers, and also a powerful case of Let's You and Him Fight. Rumble Arena focused on the Adventure verse, culminating in a battle against Reapermon, the latest Beyond the Impossible evolution of Diablomon from the movies. Battle Spirit instead focused on the Tamers cast; its final boss was Milleniumon, the Big Bad from the Digimon Wonderswan Series (strangely, Ryo himself does not appear, raising some scary questions for people familiar with his backstory).
    • The finale of Young Hunters calls in the chosen children and tamers from every anime series up to that point.
  • Critical Failure: WarGreymon's Dramon Killers can cause this. They're especially effective against draconic Digimon. WarGreymon himself is a "dragon man" however, and is constantly at risk of serious, self inflicted injury as a result.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Normally, the first appearance of the new Big Bad or enemy of a higher level than the characters presently have is accompanied by one of these. Likewise, the first fight of most of the characters new digivolutions are this as well.
  • Cute Monster Girl: Sometimes played straight, sometimes averted, with both "sexy" and "monstrous" female Digimon.
  • Cyberspace: The Digital World.
  • Cypher Language: The franchise uses one called DigiCode (lit. DigiLetters), which is not to be confused with the scanned code in Frontier that was renamed in the dub as "Fractal Code". The cypher has symbols that correspond to both types of Japanese kana and Roman letters, and you can find them on individual Digimon designs, Digimon merchandise, and within the anime as Freeze Frame Bonuses.
  • Dark Is Evil: In general, "black" versions of pre-existing Digimon (e.g., BlackWarGreymon) are either berserk or outright evil Virus counterparts to the Vaccine-type original. Virus types in general are often dark in color and serve as villains. A few of them even have Dark, Black, or a variation of it in their names to drive it home.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: That said, the Virus type is not, itself, evil. Several of the hero monsters, including Guilmon and Wormmon, are Virus Digimon.
  • Darker and Edgier: Digimon Tamers, Digimon Data Squad, and Digimon Ghost Game. Digimon Adventure tri. and Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna deserve special mention, as they feature the original cast of Adventure but much older (Attending high school in tri. and college in Last Evolution Kizuna), and the works as a whole has a far more subdued and realistic tone than almost any other piece of Digimon media.
    • The franchise as a whole when compared to other Mons series such as Pokémon. Of course, it can't even compare to Shin Megami Tensei, but that's a different matter altogether.
  • Deadly Upgrade: Dark Evolution. It's rationalized as a perfectly legitimate potential evolution variation under natural circumstances, but in Digimon partnered to humans, it's an aberration caused by very negative emotions on the human's part.
  • Demon Lords and Archdevils: There's a dedicated Demon Lord-type of Digimon, which is mostly comprised of the Seven Deadly Digimon, but which also includes BelialVamdemon, Deathmon, Murmuxmon, and Bagramon.
  • Digital Abomination:
    • Quite a few Digimon in general, especially those of Ultimate level and beyond fit this trope in regards to their appearances, power, and abilities. Even more so are ones like Guilmon that possess the Digital Hazard symbol, which indicates that they have the potential to become powerful enough to threaten the existence of both the Digital World and the human world. It's no exaggeration either, as Guilmon's Mega-evolved form Megidramon was able to tear apart the very fabric of the Digital World by simply existing.
    • The D-Reaper from Digimon Tamers was originally a data cleanup program made in The '80s that targets and deletes programs that "evolved pass [their] parameters". After procuring stray Digimon-data and finding its way into the Digital World the Digimon inhabit, the D-Reaper develops the same Adaptive Ability Digimon have and soon begins evolving into a monstrosity that threatens all worlds.
  • Dimension Lord: Both good and evil examples.
  • Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Agumon, Guilmon, and their evolutions tend to be fire-breathing or otherwise fire-wielding dinosaurs.
  • Disk-One Final Boss: In nearly every season. A good rule of thumb is never assume the first Big Bad is the final one.
    • Subverted in Fusion, where Bagramon is still considered the final threat. Bagramon is actually a rather impressive triple subversion. He remains the main villain until close to the end of the series, and as he's fighting the heroes he suddenly gets backstabbed by his brother-slash-Dragon DarkKnightmon who forces a Xros between the two. Next episode, Bagramon reveals he saw it coming a mile away and kills his brother in a Battle in the Center of the Mind, taking back control and continuing on as the Big Bad til the end.
  • Dismantled Macguffin: The Digimentals, which originated in 02, had to be reconstructed from fragments in both the Wonderswan series and the D-3 children's toy.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: Some Digimon with close associations may differentiate themselves as they progress from form to form.
    • The Terriermon and Lopmon families are practically identical up to their third stage, with their most obvious difference being a Palette Swap between them, but from Adult-Champion stage on, Terriermon's line becomes more doglike and robotic, while Lopmon becomes more rabbit-like and mystic. To the day, the fandom will refer to Terriermon and Lopmon as dog-rabbits.
    • Dracomon is a 3rd level Digimon who has two distinct evolutionary lines; after evolving into one of two different versions of Coredramon, he will proceed to evolve to a form suited to either the sky or the land. These two vastly different evolutions are meant to undergo a Fusion Dance at the Ultimate-Mega level to create the Royal Knight Examon.
    • The franchise tried to invert this with Patamon and Tailmon by swapping out Tailmon's classic final form Holydramon for Ophanimon, a Distaff Counterpart to Patamon's classic final form Seraphimon.
  • Diverging Evolutionary Phases: While most Digimon have set evolutionary lines, there are times when a digimon will undergo alternate forms of digivolution when certain conditions are met.
    • "Dark Digivolution" happens when a Digimon is coerced into digivolving while under intense negative emotions (either their own or their human partner's), resulting in the digimon digivolving into a Virus-type variation of their usual digivolved form.
      • In Digimon Adventure, Greymon digivolves into SkullGreymon after Tai tries forcing Agumon into digivolving on command (first bby overfeeding him, then by deliberately putting him in danger). In Digimon Adventure 02, the Digimon Emperor tries forcing Agumon (who's under the control of a Dark Ring) to digivolve, he becomes SkullGreymon again. He then later manages to force Agumon to digivolve into MetalGreymon's Virus Mode while under a perfected Dark Spiral.
      • In Digimon Tamers, Takato is overcome with grief and rage after Beelzemon kills Leomon. Picking up on his tamer's negative energy, a feral Guilmon warp digivolves into Megidramon, a Draconic Abomination who's very existence destabilizes the Digital World.
    • "Armor Digivolution" is when a Digimon digivolves with the power of a Digi-Egg. This was considered a lost-form of digivolution that digimon would use before they eventually learned how to do it on their own. In Digimon Adventure 02, the Digimon Emperor's Dark Spires blocking the digimon's ability to digivolve, Veemon, Armadillomon, Hawkmon, Patamon and Gatomon gain the ability to armor-digivolve when their digidestined partners discover the digieggs.
    • DNA Digivolution is when two or more different digimon digivolve together into a single, more powerful form.
  • Dragons Are Demonic: Only some, but when they are, they are.
    • Devidramon is a draconic version of Devimon and has the latter's tattered wings and Creepily Long Arms. They generally appear in the various anime as Always Chaotic Evil minions of stronger villains. No Unholy Nuke powers despite the name.
    • There's an official Demon Dragon-type, which includes Orochimon, all variations of Guilmon's typical adult stage Growmon, Vritramon, Eyesmon, and Nidhoggmon. There is also an Evil Dragon-type, which includes Devidramon; DarkLizamon; and Guilmon's potential Ultimate stage Megidramon, the world-rending Token Evil Teammate of the Four Great Dragons.
    • Zigzagged with Guilmon itself, a draconic baby Kaiju marked with the Digital Hazard to warn of its apocalyptic potential. While Guilmon's typical evolutionary line is filled with increasingly fearsome dragons culminating in Megidramon, at the same time it has a heroic Bishounen Line evolution Dukemon, which even has an angelic Super Mode. On top of that, Guilmon even has an Evil Counterpart evolutionary line demonstrating what could happen if it fell into evil.
    • Lucemon Satan Mode is a colossal dark dragon with multiple wings and the sigils of the Seven Deadly Sins. It's actually just a mech-suit that's Made of Evil for Lucemon Larva, which pilots it from within the dark orb that it carries.
  • Dragons Are Divine: The Digimon franchise has many godly Dragon Digimon:
    • The Four Great Dragons are a group of Mega-level Dragon Digimon based on the Dragon Kings of Chinese mythology comparable to gods, and include Azulongmon (who is also a member of the Digimon Sovereigns and guardian of the eastern Digital World), the wicked Megidramon, as well as Goldramon and Magnadramon/Holydramon.
    • Huanglongmon, the leader of the Digimon Sovereigns tasked with defending the Digital World, is a giant golden dragon who normally resides in the Digiworld's center. Like his fellow Sovereigns, unlike the one Digicore held by most Digimon, they have about twelve.
  • Dub Name Change:
    • Zigzagged. Most of the main cast of the various anime have their names changed for local audiences, though whether a name is changed and to what extent tends to vary with the individual. In Digimon Adventure, Taichi becomes Tai, Yamato becomes Matt, and Sora remains Sora.
    • Notably, the west revamped the Theme Naming of the evolutionary stages; instead of naming the evolutionary stages after the life cycle, the names evoke competitive sports, instead. The two Baby stages became Fresh and In-Training respectively; Child became Rookie; Adult became Champion; Perfect is called Ultimate; Japan's Ultimate is called Mega; and Super Ultimate (when it exists) is called Ultra.
  • Dub Text: The dub tends to change characters names and ages to make them easier for kids to remember and advance most of them into puberty in an attempt to make them less impressionable.
  • Dummied Out: Some versions of the virtual pet have extra monsters available that are normally unobtainable but can be selected by using a trick involving undervolting the batteries.note 
  • Ear Wings: Patamon, Terriermon, Lopmon, and Culumon.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Some Digimon qualify as this, like Apocalymon, Millenniummon, and especially UltimateKhaosmon◊.
  • Eldritch Location: The Dark Area, the Digital World's Hell. Various details of the background fluff have fleshed it out, and it's not a nice place. It's utterly hostile to any Digimon not meant to be there, and the locals are all evil Digimon, usually incredibly powerful and vicious ones at that.
  • Elemental Personalities: The lead Digimon from each anime series represent the element of fire, typically by being partnered with a Digimon with fire-based powers and the quick tempers to go with it, with the exception of Guilmon and Gammamon in the the latter case.
  • Emotion Eater: All of the Digimon outside of the video games feed on human emotion as the canon explanation to where a Digimon gets power from its human. This is inherent to all of the anime and most of the manga, but made most explicit in Digimon Data Squad. In a bit of a subversion, the humans whose emotions are eaten typically aren't harmed by this process alone (though Digimon will often kidnap or exploit humans for their feelings) — but Digimon can be poisoned if they get fed an emotion that doesn't agree with their nature (hence: Dark Evolution). In Hunters, the feeding isn't directly harmful to the humans but is sometimes a corrupting influence.
  • The End: Keeping the pattern of title cards at the end of episodes, Fusion ended with a card that said "owari" (おわり).
  • Enemy Scan: In the anime, there is usually a portion of time reserved for describing a newly-encountered Digimon.
  • Evolutionary Levels: A big thing in the franchise, although with the six levels being treated as stages of growth it's probably closer to Metamorphosis Monster. Has some overlap with Power Levels, though exceptions abound. The Story games, in a moment of mixed awesome and humor, once featured a Minomon (an In-Training Level Digimon) who had undergone so much Training from Hell that it equaled Impeprialdramon Paladin Mode. Notably, Fusion mostly abandoned the system.
  • Expository Theme Tune:
    • "Change into digital champions to save the Digital World..."
    • Applies to the English dub of the first three seasons only — and Tamers changed that line to "Change into digital champions to save and defend the world", because they didn't actually go to the Digital World until later in the season. Frontier, Data Squad and Fusion have completely new theme tunes.
  • Expy: The franchise is so Once a Season pattern-heavy that you can draw definite lines of continuity between character designs.
    • The frontmen of each team in the anime series are nearly all a bunch of Hot-Blooded brunets who wear goggles like Taichi Yagami with some zigzagged exceptions like Takato (who wears goggles but is either a Fragile Flower or Mellow Fellow depending on the version) or Masaru (who is immensely Hot-Blooded but wears no goggles).
    • The Digimon of the frontmen also follow very specific trends, and almost all are Playing with Fire Our Dragons Are Different after the style of Agumon and Greymon. (Flamedramon, Guilmon, Vritramon, etc.).
    • Yamaki, Riley, and Ms. Asaji are strikingly similar in appearance to an adult T.K., Yolei, and Kari (a resemblance emphasized by the U.S. dub recycling Yolei's and Kari's voice actors), which produced a lot of fodder for fan theories in the Tamers hey-day.
    • Tobucatmon looks suspiciously like Nall, and Bellestarmon resembles Bayonetta.
  • Fantasy Pantheon: Given the Fantasy Kitchen Sink, this crops up here and there. Mostly this trope gets play in the interactions between major groups of nigh mythic Digimon.
    • Council of Angels: Seraphimon, Cherubimon, and Ophanimon guard over God's Law, Wisdom, and Love, respectively, and each is said to manifest a trait of Lucemon; together they form the Three Great Angels. All three also have fallen versions in the form of ShadowSeraphimon, Cherubimon Vice, and Ophanimon Falldown Mode.
    • The Four Gods: The Four Holy Beasts, or Digimon Sovereigns, each of whom guards a quadrant of the Digital World. They consist of Qinglongmon/Azulongmon the Azure Dragon (East), Zhuqiaomon the Vermillion Phoenix (South), Xuanwumon/Ebonwumon the Black Turtle (North), and Baihumon the White Tiger (West). Azulongmon appears in Adventure 02, while the others are only referred to as the Harmonious Ones; all four star in Tamers. According to the Metaplot, they serve a fifth Sovereign, Huanglongmon/Fanglongmon the Yellow Dragon (Center), who was sealed beneath the earth while warring with Lucemon.note 
    • Eastern Zodiac: The Sovereigns are in turn served by a group of twelve Digimon called the Devas. When they first premiere in Tamers, they are driven partially to wreak vengeance on humans (fitting, since Yamaki has been going around and destroying them) and kidnap Calumon. The Metaplot again serves to give them a little more context by sub-dividing them into groups of three, one per each sovereign, and organized according to the elemental arrangement described on the actual trope page. Xuanwumon is served by Vikaralamon, Vajramon, and Kumbhiramon (Pig, Ox, and Rat); Baihumon is served by Caturamon, Sinduramon, and Makuramon (Dog, Rooster, and Monkey); Zhuqiaomon is served by Pajramon, Sandiramon, and Indaramon (Sheep, Snake, and Horse); and Quinglongmon is served by Andiramon/Antylamon, Mihiramon, and Majiramon (Rabbit, Tiger, and Dragon). Each Deva is said to exhibit a singular primary trait (which may or may not hint at the personality of their master).
    • Seven Deadly Sins: The Seven Great Demon Lords, in possible answer to the Three Great Angels, all come with their own crest resembling their identifying sin and names likely taken from the Ars Goetia; Lilithmon - Lust, Beelzebumon - Gluttony, Leviamon - Envy, Demon - Wrath, Barbamon - Avarice, Belphemon - Sloth, Lucemon - Pride (fittingly, he leads the group). Each member has appeared individually here and there throughout Digimon canon, though the Metaplot links them and tells of stronger Digimon that they're connected to. There exist at least two Super Demon Lords, the first being Lucemon Satan Mode and the second being Ogudomon, whose appearance derives from the First Beast of Revelation and is named for the Ogdoad, who may or may not be their leader as Huanglongmon was to the Sovereigns (i.e. Huanglongmon and Ogudomon are both summoned in the card game by fusing any two members of their "subordinate" groups).
    • World Tree: The very host computer of the Digital World is called Yggdrasil. A good rule of thumb is that if the Yggdrasil is present, it will be an antagonistic force, though whether malevolent or not is up for grabs. In a nod to Norse Mythology, Yggdrasil in the Digimon Chronicle seeks to create three servers named for the Norns that tended its namesake.
    • Knights of the Round Table: The Royal Knights are a selection of thirteen Digimon that belong to an order founded by Imperialdramon Paladin Mode. While this order was founded for ostensibly benevolent reasons, it was quickly subordinated to Yggdrasil, who uses them for purposes of network security. Most of them have a bad case of My Master, Right or Wrong, unfortunately, though at least two of them, Dukemon and Alphamon are unambiguously heroic. Imperialdramon PM is not an actual member of the order; ostensibly they hold to his ideals.
    • Four Dragon Kings: The Four Great Dragons, based in the mythos of the dragon spirits of the four seas that surrounded China. This group consists of Quinglongmon (yes, doing double-duty and the most deified of the four) for the East Sea, Megidramon for the North Sea, Goddramon for the West Sea, and Holydramon for the South Sea. This group was one of the oldest and first to be codified in the Metaplot, but has gotten the absolute least mileage out of any of them.
    • The Dark Masters technically fit here but only Digimon Adventure material. Four villainous Digimon (Apocalymon's "children") that were powerful enough to defeat and seal away the Sovereigns. As a quick trip to the Headscratchers section for Adventure relates, given their basis in the Virus-type Megas from the virtual pets, some speculate that Pukumon should have been part of the group rather than MetalSeadramon, though the latter was chosen as a superior alternative, since a Weapons Platform Sea Serpent is more visually impressive than a thuggish blowfish. (To do him credit, Pukumon got a part in one of the Digimon Adventure 02 CD Dramas).
    • The Ten Warriors are a collection of Digimon who were able to defeat and seal Lucemon in the backstory to Digimon Frontier. They ended up dividing their powers into "Human" and "Beast" spirits and scattered them throughout the world. Five of the Human Spirits were given their own lives by Cherubimon Vice, while the others fell to human hosts. (The spirits with the humans seem to have their own "lives" as well, and it may be the case that the ones Cherubimon drew out were corrupted to his will).
    • Twelve Olympians: Another group, the "Olympus Twelve" group of Digimon consists of a selection of powerful Digimon based in, well, you probably already got it. These Digimon have yet to act as a centralized organization, though individuals may crop up here and there.
    • God: A being whom the Angel Digimon serve, noted to be an immeasurably powerful being of ultimate goodness and infinite love. Apparently created the Digital World and its laws. There is also a number of Fallen Angel Digimon having "rebelled" against God. May be a human, may be Homeostasis - the weird light that possessed Kari in Adventure, and named in the Xros Wars manga.
      • A note on Homeostasis: Homeostasis is actually the replacement server for Yggdrasil, who went bad.
    • In addition, there are also two other figures that have the title "God of the Digital World"; Huanglongmon and Yggdrasil. However, this refers to their roles as rulers, and not the same being that the Angel Digimon serve.
    • Shakamon is an interesting case. Supposedly the "closest" to Yggdrasil, Shakamon (based on the Buddha) is responsible for the Eastern Digital World's protection... and its ordeals, both of which are because of its love for the Digimon. It is said to be meaningless to fight Shakamon, who will subvert and disperse any "evil" intent.
  • Filling the Silence: The dub usually inserts new dialogue to make the show more understandable for kids or to insert an added joke.
  • Fusion Dance: The franchise demonstrates several methods for fusing mons together. Unlike most fictions which features this sorta thing, it is a recurring trend in the franchise that DNA and Biomerging are only possible routes to a form. Digimon being [1] what it is, this is not universally consistent.
    • DNA Digivolution / Jogress Evolution, used in Digimon Adventure 02. Typically is two Digimon of the same level. Per secondary materials for Adventure, the XW manga, and the Hyper Colosseum card game, it works by the second Digimon providing the first with power for a shared evolution.
    • Biomerging is introduced in Tamers. Happens between a human and a Digimon of any level below Mega, and produces a Mega-level Digimon.
    • Fusion / Gattai was introduced in Our War Game (a.k.a. the second portion of Digimon: The Movie) with Omegamon. Has since been changed to Jogress, or DNA Digivolution in some international regions.
    • DigiXros.
  • Fusion Dissonance: A lot of fusions in Digimon do not have Morphic Resonance to their components, but Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Blue and Red cranks this up. As there are too many to mention, let's just take a few:
    • Patamon is a guinea pig with bat wings that can combine with Kuramon (spiky ball with one eye) to form IceDevimon (a humanoid demon with long arms and tattered wings). Or, in the Blue version, with Otamamon (tadpole), Wormmon (caterpillar), and Piximon (a Cephalothorax fairy) to form Calumon (a Carbuncle Creature with Ear Wings). Calumon's components make more sense in the Red version because it replaces everyone except for Piximon with Lopmon, Lunamon, and Terriermon (all with bodies with stubby arms and legs and rounded cutesy heads similar to Calumon's).
    • Kuramon can also combine with Dracmon (looks like a kid vampire with eyes in its palms) and DemiDevimon (a Cephalothorax demon) into Bakemon.
    • Togemon (a cactus with boxing gloves) can combine with Yanmamon and Kabuterimon (a heavily stylized rhinoceros beetle) to form Lillymon (a fairy with leaves for wings and petals for hair and skirt). In the Digimon Adventure continuity and some of the other games, Togemon can evolve to Lillymon without fusion.
    • Monzaemon is combined from Sukamon, Numemon (a slug), and Apemon.
    • Goblimon and Armadillomon fuse into Minotarumon, which is pretty faithful to Classical Mythology except for its mechanical left hand.
    • Coelamon may only slightly resemble a coelacanth but it resembles its components (Crabmon and Syakomon) even less. Crabmon can evolve into Coelamon without fusion in other games.
  • Gag Dub: The dub tended to be silly at times, similar to how Samurai Pizza Cats was dubbed, though the dub generally avoided this during the serious moments.
  • Giant Spider: Dokugumon (with six legs and classified as an insect) and Arukenimon (semi humanoid).
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Aside from Marcus and Hiro, every team's leader wears a pair on their head. Only Takato makes frequent use of them. In Digimon Fusion, it is somehow seen as a symbol of the leader, as when Taiki is unable to lead, Zenjirou temporarily puts it on. Daisuke/Davis does at one point say "Maybe I should put on my goggles!" He doesn't.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: The X-Program. Yggdrasil cooked it up as a way of getting the Digital World's population under control, which it did... at first. Then Digimon started developing a resistance to it which came with the added bonus of unlocking their innermost potential. So, good becomes great and bad becomes worse. Not exactly a problem when dealing with, say, a Tokomon or a Numemon, but a lot of Digimon who gained the X-Antibody tend to be incredibly dangerous sorts.
  • Gratuitous English: Almost all attacks are in English.
  • Grossout Show: The virtual pet raising sims placed more emphasis on the gross nature of some Digimon, which was downplayed later.
  • Heart Drive: The Master Tag to the Royal Knights. You can acquire these in the Pendulum X V-Pets by defeating their corresponding Royal Knights. If you give it your Digimon Congratulations! You just gave Yggdrasil a more powerful Royal Knight to hunt down illegal Digimon with.
  • Heel–Face Turn: This is traditional for every season. The Heel Face Turner may also become Sixth Ranger if human. Usually involves More than Mind Control.
    • Adventure: Gatomon/Tailmon, Wizardmon/Wizarmon, Orgemon
    • Adventure 02: Ken
    • Tamers: Impmon
    • Frontier: Kouichi
    • Data Squad: Keenan, Craniummon
    • Fusion: Baalmon (revived as Beelzebumon), Grademon, Nene, Kiriha, Yuu
  • Hotter and Sexier: Digimon cards released after Digimon Data Squad and Digimon Fusion have put the female Digimon in more of a suggestive spotlight than before. And it's not just limited to Digimon who are purposely sexy, such as Ladydevimon, Lilithmon and Bastemon; one card features Angewomon in a "defeated" pose with some of her "clothes" ripped and torn.
    • Outside of the card game, the series became more obvious with its fanservice as the years went on, and to the point that during and after the Audience Shift, many new female Digimon happen to have much larger busts than they used to. This also happens to the now-older Digi-Destined of Digimon Adventure, where a promotion of the second part of the Digimon Adventure tri. included shots of the girls in detailed bikinis.
  • Human-Focused Adaptation: Practically every work in the franchise puts more focus on the human characters, and sometimes even the human world, than the titular Digimon themselves, which is very jarring as this means the Digital World usually has its own society and culture treated like window dressing while the Digimon themselves are fully sapient beings. Any story that actually develops Digimon as their own character is usually a Day in the Limelight or a work that completely removes any human involvement like Digital Monster X-Evolution and Digimon World 4. The result is that usually the Digimon partners are Satellite Characters at best, Character Focus being mainly reserved for the human characters while the Humans Are Special trope get abused so much that it is often the reason why the human world is dragged into the Digital World's conflicts. The human world being in danger is the only cause that we should mostly care about, it is not like the Digital World being in crisis usually causes this sort of scenario to happen in the first place.
  • Humans Are Special: Somehow, maybe because their networks created or expedited the Digital World, humans have a huge influence over the Digimon from evolutions to raising eggs. It seems that Humans Do It Better then most Digimon can do it on their own. In the Digital World, it takes a Digimon an unfeasibly long time to evolve on their own. Hundreds of thousands to millions of years to achieve the Champion or Mega level. Whereas if they bond with a human partner they can evolve in a matter of days or weeks. Hence why some Digimon, wanting to become stronger, are so determined to either abduct a human or escape to the human world.
  • Hu Mons: Humanlike Digimon have existed from the beginning of the franchise with the likes of Angemon and Angewomon, winged humanoids with helmets. This is later used as a distinction in Digimon Frontier, where Spirits and the occasional regular Mon are divided into Human and Beast categories. The majority of such Digimon have a mask, cowl, or at least a visor so you never see their whole face, or at least their eyes.
  • Hypnotic Eyes: Gatomon's Cat's Eye Hypnotism move gives her these.
  • Iconic Item:
    • Each season has their respective Digivices, differing from season to season. As the anime series went on, the capabilities of Digivices also expanded.
    • Goggles. They're so iconic, most people associate these with the show, and The Other Wiki mentions it in their "Goggles" article. In-universe, it is the mark of The Leader among the various Digidestined/Tamers. Only two seasons broke with the tradition, but subsequent seasons brought the goggles back.
  • Idiot Hero: Several, the goggleheads in particular.
  • Image Song: And how.
    • Zero Two: all the DigiDestined from both Adventure and Zero Two get an Image Song, as do their Digimon partners. Additionally, each DigiDestined/Digimon pair also gets a song shared by both of them, bringing the total to 36 separate songs.
  • The Imp:
    • PicoDevimon in Adventure.
    • Impmon, of course, in Tamers.
  • Inconsistent Dub: As of Data Squad and Fusion, the English dubs tend to flip-flop back and forth between using a Digimon's original Japanese name and a previously-established dub name. For instance, the Frontier dub had Crusadermon, while Data Squad had another of the same kind named LoadKnightmon, who also has another inconsistency issue with its name. One episode of Fusion even used both names for some snow-monsters (Yukidarumon and Frigimon) in a single episode.
  • Inconsistent Spelling: Not necessarily a spelling issue, but there are inconsistencies even on this very wiki over whether to use the English dub names or the original Japanese names, mainly because there is quite a lot of Nostalgia Filter over growing up with the dub despite (or because of) the occasional changes. The Japanese version has recently amassed a fanbase, and both are widely accepted in their own right. It is generally optimal for fandom members to familiarize themselves with both sets of terms for minimum confusion. It doesn't help that some of the English names are plagued by Engrish; for instance "LoadKnightmon" (seen in Data Squad), whose correct name would be "LordKnightmon" or "RhodoKnightmon" (a pun on "rhodonite"). It also doesn't help that multiple names are used even in English, like when the dub of Frontier named this very same Digimon as "Crusadermon".
    • A lot of Digimon (and their attacks) suffer from being written in mostly katakana, which leaves interpretation up in the air. Most of the time, a simple solution can be found, but in some cases, a foreign attack name will slip under the radar due to being obscurenote  or due to the aforementioned Nostalgia Filternote .
  • In the End, You Are on Your Own: In Adventure and Frontier, to the point where in Frontier there was pretty much no-one else left alive in the Digital World. Averted in 02, Tamers, and Data Squad — in those cases they had the extensive support of all the world's Chosen, Yamaki and the Wild Bunch, and the Royal Knights respectively. In Fusion the main kids never get help outside, but they do have armies of Digimon to use.
  • Intra-Franchise Crossover: In the last two episodes of the Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time, the protagonists of the prior seasons of Digimon shows (Tai and Agumon from Digimon Adventure, Davis and Veemon from Digimon Adventure 02, Takato and Guilmon from Digimon Tamers, Takuya from Digimon Frontier, and Marcus and Agumon from Digimon Data Squad/Digimon Savers) arrived to help the heroes against Quartzmon. In addition, Mimi, Palmon, Joe, Gomamon (all from Adventure), and Rika and Renamon (Tamers) also appear in that set of episodes.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Tactimon's could supposedly cause much destruction, if he ever unsheathed it. In fact, even while sheathed it needs an additional seal on it. Next Zambamon practically calls the trope by name.
  • Kibbles and Bits: WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon were the first Digimon to be modeled after their toys instead of vice versa. This lead to creative use of kibble, such as Agumon's head and claws becoming the Brave Shield and Dramon Killers or Gabumon's feet, horn and tail becoming his shoulder mounted missile launchers, tail and wings respectively. However, this caused them to fit in poorly with their other forms due to clashing themes.
  • Killer Rabbit: Many Digimon are cute but deadly.
  • King of Beasts: Leomon. His signature move is actually called "Fist Of the Beast King"
  • The Lancer: There's one in every team, who generally doesn't get along with the leader and they normally have blond hair (the exceptions are Rika and Koji, who have red hair and black/blue hair respectively).
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Look at any merchandising (besides the initial posters and DVD covers) for Adventure, Adventure 02, Frontier, or Data Squad, and you'll very prominently see Hikari, Ken, Kouichi, and Ikuto happily smiling with everyone else on the covers.
  • Lighter and Softer: The character designs for the Digimon themselves have been cleaned up considerably in more recent incarnations. While earlier designs featured a lot of details such as chipped nails and teeth, scarred flesh, tarnished metal, bulging veins, tattered wings and general asymmetry, newer designs tend to eschew those details and place more emphasis on roundness and polished surfaces. There a notable difference between the original Agumon and his Data Squad incarnation or the original MetalGreymon and RizeGreymon.
  • Living Doll Collector: Piedmon, at least in Adventure, where he makes keychains (get it?) out of most of the Digi-Destined and their partners.
  • Loser Archetype: Numemon, in the greater Digimon canon, exist because some poor schlub of a Digimon botched his evolution. A Champion that's weaker than basically every kind of Rookie, they literally failed to become anything better. You can usually find them sliming around, serving some local virus-type, or throwing poop at the people they don't like. Sukamon and its variants are similar, except they're formed entirely from junk data.
  • Loyal Phlebotinum: Part of the reason human-partnered Digimon are so powerful, to the point that if Digimon are aware of this, and can travel to the human world, they'll actively seek out partners if they're cognizant enough to not be driven into a rampage.
  • Magikarp Power:
    • Numemon and his breathern have one, and ONLY one use: evolving into Monzaemon in the original virtual pets. That is to say, unless you find throwing poop useful...note 
    • Version 2 of the v-pet had Vegimon, who was similarly weak to Numemon, but Digivolves into Vademon.
    • Version 3 did this with Scumon. His massive power jump came in the form of Etemon, who was a real threat to the Digi Destined in the anime. And the 20th Anniversary version takes it further, where Etemon can further Digivolve into KingEtemon.
    • V-pet Version 4 has Nanimon, who is not only a weakling but an in-joke - he's actually Oyajitchi from Tamagotchi but with sunglasses, where he is also a Memetic Loser. But he can become Digitamamon, who looks like a joke character since he's an egg with feet but is the second strongest Ultimate. And then he can hatch into Titamon, a Mega level Digimon with high attack power.
    • The final original v-pet had Raremon, who is more or less a Captain Ersatz of Hedorah both in terms of being a living pile of sludge and a complete joke. He can then become Ex-Tyrannomon, an Expy of Monzaemon - a stuffed animal Digimon (which actually has another Digimon inside it) that gains a massive power boost on Digivolving. He can then become a real threat as Puppetmon, who was a tricky adversary on the show as well.
    • Also Patamon, who's a Ridiculously Cute Critter even by Rookie level standards but evolves into Angemon, one of the strongest Champions.
    • Also inverted. The most famous example is MetalGreymon, who has tremendous power for a Perfect level. Evolving to WarGreymon causes him to lose power rating and have a shorter lifespan compared to other Ultimate levels in the Digivice v-pets. Since similar Digimon, such as AeroVeedramon and Cyberdramon, also shared this pattern. Notably though, in many other media, their evolved form are indeed stronger than them. In particular, this doesn't apply to the 20th Annivery v-pet, where it instead gets significantly stronger and lives as long as other Ultimate level Digimon. It can also Jogress with MetalGarurumon into Omnimon.
  • Make a Wish: Happens occasionally, and is explicitly a plot point in Adventure 02.
  • Male Sun, Female Moon: While Digimon technically don't have genders, the Olympos XII members Apollomon and Dianamon follow this trope; Apollomon is a male-looking warrior who wields The Power of the Sun, while Dianamon has a feminine appearance with a moon-based armor theme.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Digimon Adventure: Matt and TK from Adventures may have their Japanese Names based on Yamato-Takeru, a legendary prince who fought many battles in his fathers name. Matt fought mostly to protect TK. Also, Yamato-Takeru turned into a great white bird at his death. Angemon, anyone?
    • Digimon Tamers: Screenwriter Chiaki Konaka inserted his signature character named Juri Kato, and proceeded to make her as mentally ill as the other Juri Kato's friend Lain Iwakura.
  • Mechanical Monster: A good 185 or so of them comprise the Metal Empire "family". Specific Digimon species of this nature are usually classed as "Cyborg" or "Machine" type Digimon.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Digimon is first and formost a toy franchise, so much so that having good toy sales can save your season from being canned even if it has low ratings.
  • Metamorphosis Monster: How digivolution (and all its methods, such as Jogress/DNA Digivolution and Armor Evolutions) function, especially outside of the anime installments. In general (starting with the original V-pet game), every Digimon can digivolve into a variety of species that don't always follow a set theme, and, depending on the quality of its raising, a Digimon can go wildly off course with its expected evolution path. This is one of the many aspects of the series that sets it apart from other Mon series.
    • The anime installments downplay the randomness of this facet of things, by giving each individual partner having a single straight line through various forms (which tend to differ even for individuals of the same species; Tai & Marcus both had Agumon partners, distinguished by their evolines). Variant evolutions occasionally occur (through Dark Evolution and item-induced evolutions).
  • Mind Screwdriver: Remember that mysterious being of light that possessed Kari in Digimon Adventure and was never brought up again? Well, the Xros Wars manga finally gives us an explanation — it was Homeostasis, a being whose job is to protect the Digital World. Replacing Yggdrasill after it went nuts, Homeostasis is much more calm and protective until Tri reveals it's just as bad.
  • Monster Compendium: The Digimon 20th Anniversary Editon virtual pet includes a Digi Dex, where all Digimon that you've evolved can be seen. Selecting a Digimon from the list lets you see its name. There is also a "Stock" option, which shows Digimon you've received by copying, which can be used in Tag Battles. However, the ones in Stock don't count toward the main Digi Dex and are lost if used in Jogress Digivolution.
  • Mon Tech: Digivices are commonly used by Tamers throughout the different media to primarily empower their Digimon partner through Digivolution, but each version has its own features.
  • Morphic Resonance: Zigzagged. Many Digimon are designed to be part of a specific line of Evolutionary Levels (some even highlight this by using modified versions of the same name, e.g. Greymon and MetalGreymon), while others are standalone designs that lack resemblance to anything they can evolve from or evolve to. Digimon aren't required to observe the lines they were designed for and can diverge into different forms depending on how they're raised.
  • Motor Mouth: What happens when you have thirty seconds to explain what happened in thirty minutes, although this counts as Dub Text.
  • Multiversal Conqueror: Several of the villians, who have set their sights on conquering both worlds.
  • Must Make Amends:
    • Ken Ichijoji, in Digimon Adventure 02, after discovering that the Digital world is not just an artificial construct in which he can play out his anger and issues concerning his brother's death. This method essentially turns him from the Big Bad to The Woobie.
    • In one of the Digimon movies, the little American boy had one of his Digimon go rogue; he had been chasing it all over the US in an attempt to fix it. Even after the other kids show up, he is initially insistent that because it is his Digimon, he needs to make it right, himself.
  • Mythology Gag: Nanimon and Wizardmon family are stated as travelers from another dimension and not proper Digimon. Both are referencing other Bandai digital pets before Digimon, with the former character being Oyajitchi from Tamagotchi and the latter being a reference to the Magical Witches toys.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: Usually played straight, as with Gabumon, Wormmon, Renamon, Duskmon, Gaomon, and most of Kiriha's army (in fact, everyone but Dracomon, who just stays inside of Kiriha's Xros Loader and pleads for him to stop, and Deckerdramon, who actually turns on him and attempts to remind him of the 'strong love' he once felt). Heel–Face Turn may include a subversion of this. Once Gatomon realizes that her place is with Kari, all of her dialogue with Myotismon amounts to "screw you." Though she was also helped by Myotismon being a sadistic monster.

    Tropes N-Z 
  • '90s Anti-Hero: Many Digimon sport this look. Huge muscles with visible veins, scars, stitches, tattoos, Too Many Belts, spikes, cybernetic body parts and oversized weapons are very common, especially amongst Digimon of early generations. They were created in The '90s, after all.
  • No Body Left Behind: Digimon normally disappear into data upon death, though depending on which canon is in question, they might also leave a Digi-egg behind.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Far too many times to list politely, here's a list.
  • Nominal Villain:
    • Digimon Adventure: Earlier in the series, most of the antagonist Digimon the heroes fought were only evil because of a Black Gear. After Devimon's defeat, the Digidestined began encountering one-shot Digimon antagonists who were evil of their own volition.
    • Digimon Adventure 02:
      • The Digimon enslaved by the Digimon Emperor's Dark Rings have a similar deal with the ones corrupted by the Black Gears in the original show.
      • Wormon isn't under mind control, but he still follows the Emperor out of loyalty. When the Emperor's actions go too far for him to ignore, Wormon turns on him and helps the Digidestined defeat his latest creation. This leads to Ken's Heel–Face Turn and eventually him joining the heroes after Wormon's return.
    • Digimon Frontier: Duskmon is the Legendary Warrior of Darkness and serves the villain Cherubimon. However, Duskmon is actually Koji's brainwashed brother Koichi and isn't evil by choice. He is eventually freed from Cherubimon's control.
    • Digimon Ghost Game: In his first appearance, Mummymon abducts and mummifies humans. However, he only does this because he doesn't understand how modern medicine works and after being informed of his error, he frees the humans he abducted and resolves to learn modern medicine.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: Human characters tend to be simplistic in design and shading while humanoid Digimon (especially the Ms. Fanservice ones) are given more details and more realistic proportions.
  • Nonindicative Name
    • Why are the ones that look like bees called Flymon?
    • Then there's DinoBeemon, JewelBeemon, HoneyBeemon, FlyBeemon, CannonBeemon, and FanBeemon, which are, in order, A bug/dragon mishmash, a humanoid insect knight, a bee-fairy, a humanoid dragonfly, a Dendrobium Orchisnote , and finally something something more or less resembling a bee.
  • Noob Cave: File Island is generally treated as the weakest region of the Digital World in most continuities. Even the monsters that appear on File Island are considered weaker than members of the same species that appear elsewhere.
  • No-Sell: Often happens when the heroes face an incredibly powerful enemy; Their attacks tend to have no effect, until one of them digivolves to the same level as the baddy.
  • Not Quite Dead: While used less often than reincarnation as the series went on, seeing one burst into data isn't always a sure sign that they are deleted, sometimes they reform back together. We're shown the point of view of someone in this state at least once.
  • Notzilla: The Tyrannomon line is supposed to be a parody/homage to Godzilla.
  • Nuclear Weapons Taboo:
    • Played straight or averted with SkullGreymon's attack, dependent on your region. In the English dub, the move is called Dark Shot. In the original version, it's called Ground Zero. Which makes SkullGreymon a mindless, semi-invulnerable creature bent on mass destruction with a nuclear missile attached to its back.
      • MetalGreymon's attacks are directly compared to individual nuclear warheads in Digimon canon. Basically, SkullGreymon can shoot one nuke total, MetalGreymon can shoot several. Luckily for everyone in the battle zone, MetalGreymon's missiles don't act like real nukes.
    • The movie Our (or Children's) War Game averts it spectacularly, by featuring the main villain lauching an ICBM, carrying a nuke at the children, that are in Odaiba, Tokyo. This was as shown in Japan, and came from an anime made for kids.impact. The beginning arc of Digimon Adventure: (2020) reuses these plot points with the exception of the nuke going off high in the atmosphere and the resulting EMP being magically reversed within seconds.
  • Numbered Sequel: With some modification: Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, and Digimon Adventure tri..
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Myotismon has this reaction when he sees Kari get her hands on her Digivice. The original version uses the "oh, no!" variant of this trope.
    • Takato and Henry have one when they spot a Deva hanging out with Henry's sister.
    • Priceless one when Kurata sees a very ticked off ShineGreymon Burst Mode heading right for him. Most of his faces after Burst Mode is reached qualify as well.
    • Subverted by Gravimon upon seeing Shoutmon X7. What does he do after seeing a huge, golden Digimon that so quite powerful that his army behind him got obliterated? He smiles evilly.
  • Once a Season:
    • Try to find one season without a main character who is either overprotective of their sibling or has some sort of complex. Try it. Alternatively, try find a season in which a main character doesn't have an unexpected, traumatic past
    • Leomon dies. Even in the seasons he's not explicitly in, a character who dies shares his name in some evolution. Digimon V-Tamer 01 and Digimon Adventure: are probably the two only exceptions to date that features a Leomon that doesn't die.
    • The main character, at some point, will become so angry, but so angry that their Digimon partner will perform a corrupt digivolution.
    • At the end of each season, the kids and their Digimon partners will have to be separated. For how long? That will depend on how generous the writers are feeling.
  • Our Angels Are Different: There are many Angel-type and even Fallen Angel-type monsters, and even some "Angemon" species that aren't classed as angels; for more details see the character sheet.
  • Our Centaurs Are Different: There are a lot of centaurine Digimon, of whom only Centarumon even remotely resembles the centaurs of myth. Most draw resemble other creatures entirely, only retaining the anthropomorphic upper half and quadrupedal lower half.
  • The Paladin
    • The Royal Knights are ostensibly a collection of these, though most often come with a bad rash of My Master, Right or Wrong.
    • Dukemon and Alphamon are straight examples, along with Imperialdramon Paladin Mode (who was not an actual member, but rather the founder of the order).
  • Palette Swap: There have been many, many recolored Digimon over the years, ranging from official recolors like Psychemon or Omnimon Zwart to more obscure ones that appear in one toy or game and nowhere else. Examples of the latter include Digimon World 3, which has variants with different stats or elemental alignments and Digital Monster: D-Project, which would use a usually-minor Palette Swap to indicate that a Digimon had a different attribute than normal.
  • 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.
  • Pattern-Coded Eggs: Digi-Eggs are sometimes given a themed pattern based around the baby Digimon inside. Other times, however, the egg will either have no actual theme or just be a solid color with no pattern at all.
  • Personal Space Invader: In the pilot film, the first Koromon that Kari and Tai meet wraps his ear... tentacle... things around their heads and kisses them repeatedly about twice each.
  • Plot Armor: With a few exceptions, the humans practically never have to worry about being in danger during fights. They can even act as head or shoulder pets and never worry about being a liability to their partners by acting as a glaring weak spot. This is especially jarring in the original Adventure continuity where the Digimon partner will die if their human partners bite the dust. Granted, this fact was revealed later on in the Digimon franchise's life, but still.
  • Post-Cyberpunk: Digimon is an extreme example. Everyone, including the Hacker are good guys, they're trying to save society, and are trying to improve themselves.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep:
    • Happenes to some of the Digimon designed for the the earlier video game adaptations when the Ultimate(Mega) level was introduced with the Pendulum style v-pets. Notable examples of Power Creep include SaberLeomon, Mugendramon (Machinedramon), and MetalEtemon who were all designed to be Perfects. On the seep side of things we have Ebidramon, Mechanorimon and Syakomon, former perfects who were bumped down to adult and child respectively. The Pendulum series did this a lot, with four of the five having examples of this. Happened again V-pets came out with Super Ultimate/Level Seven. Thankfully it was mostly ignored by the rest of the franchise that time.
    • Prevalent in the card games. Numerical values creeped higher and higher with every new expansion in the Hyper Colosseum game. By it's last expansion, Adult-level Digimon had surpassed the Ultimate levels in the first few sets.
    • Some non-standard Power Levels themselves are prone to this, namely Armors and Hybrids. (Digimon Fusion looks at your Power Levels and laughs). To take the armor example, a generally good rule of thumb is that the vast majority of armors have a mean power range between Champion and Ultimate, whereas the Golden Digi-Eggs (Miracles and Destiny) range from Ultimate to Mega. In the card game, however, Magnamon is treated roughly equivalent to a Champion due to the nature of the game mechanics (a specific type of evolution getting you a Mega-equivalent from a Rookie would certainly skew the game); in the games, he can generally be counted on to rumble with other Ultimates; and in his Royal Knights incarnation, he's on par with Mega.
  • Power Glows: Most attacks involve some part of the Digimon in question glowing before the attack is fired. Most digivolutions also start with the Digimon and sometimes the digivice or the human partner glowing.
  • Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: Almost every season the Hero and the Lancer will be the only ones to unlock the ability to digivolve to Mega, or achieve the first evolutions.
    • Averted in Tamers where all three main heroes and Ryo can Bio-Merge to Mega, and where the first Super Mode goes to Beelzemon.
    • Averted in Data Squad where all four heroes achieve Burst Mode, which is implied to be that setting's equivalent of Super Ultimate.
    • Averted in Ghost Game, as all three members acquire Mega forms with no extra Super Modes or fusions to tip the balance. (While Proximamon did exist in the TCG and in the Vital Bracelet v-pet as a fusion of Siriusmon and Arcturusmon, GulusGammamon's Mega level, the fusion didn't make an appearance, as well as Arcturusmon.)
  • Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: PowerLevels + Constant battling = Troperiffic
  • Pure Is Not Good: Some Digimon (usually babies) are described as so pure that they even lack morality. Like Puttimon, for example.
  • Purely Aesthetic Gender: Zigzagged depending on the continuity. Some Digimon are clearly Distaff Counterparts to masculine Digimon (e.g. Angewomon and LadyDevimon), but some continuities specify that the Digimon in that universe have No Biological Sex (e.g. Tamers). There's even a male Lilithmon floating around the franchise somewhere. Frontier seems to avert the trope and Fusion averts it unmistakably.
  • Random Power Ranking: There's no real consistency between the various Digimon properties when it comes to how strong any particular Digimon species is. One day they may be considered the strongest Digimon in existence, the next they may be used as cannon fodder for the new designs. Evolution levels also suffer from this. Several Digimon may exist as two or more different levels simultaneously. For example, Whamon is an Adult on File Island, but a Perfect on Folder due to their increased strength and larger size. In theory this means any given Digimon species may exist on all evolution levels simultaneously just by increasing or decreasing it's power or size. Curiously, Adventure Whamon(File Island) was drawn larger than V-Tamer Whamon(Folder).
  • Rank Inflation:
    • The earliest Digital Monster v-pets featured Digimon that progressed through five stages of evolution, from Baby I to Baby II to Child to Adult to Perfect. In the late nineties, the Digimon Pendulum v-pet series introduced a sixth stage, Ultimate. Since then, various installments of the franchise have tried to cheat the levelling system with either an official or de facto seventh stage—a Fusion Dance of two ultimates here, a ultimate's Super Mode there—but the franchise at large has stuck to six stages.
    • The above tends to be inverted quite often in the video games. It's pretty common for Super Ultimates to be merged with Ultimates for the sake of better gameplay, and earlier games like the first Digimon World combined Ultimates with Perfect since it was still made with 5 levels in mind.
  • Real-Place Background: A tradition for the franchise, and a defining aesthetic look. No matter how different the Digital World may be, the "Real World" will be extremely faithful to the actual place bar some artistic liberties. Notable examples range from Fuji TV's building in Digimon Adventure, the country of Japan in Digimon Tamers, the Shibuya district in Digimon Frontier, and the Odaiba Bay in both Digimon Data Squad and Digimon Fusion.
  • Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: Pre-teenagers with attitude, to be specific. Nearly all the humans who get directly involved with Digimon in the anime are children, which is not unusual as you would think, considering that Digimon's dub was produced by Saban—notable for the Power Rangers—and that both Digimon and the original Super Sentai are Toei properties.
  • Red Is Heroic: Just about every lead in each anime installment starting with Takato is associated with red, either in their clothing or their Digimon partner, if not both at once. Tai and Davis were aversions as both focused on Orange/Blue Contrast instead, though Davis may have been an attempt to start the trend by having red and orange flame decals on his blue jacket, and his partner Veemon's early iconic evolution, Flamedramon, having a red fire-based armor instead of orange like most of the "Courage" themed evolutions Tai had.
  • Red Live Lobster:
  • Reduced to Dust: Any time a Digimon is destroyed, it usually either spontaneously bursts or slowly disintegrates, in this case, the "dust" actually being computer data.
  • Reincarnation:
    • All seasons except for Tamers have a village where previously killed Digimon are reborn. What would happen to a human who dies in the Digital World isn't certain.
    • And then they manage to turn it around and take it into terrifying territory at least once: We dunno what would happen if a human would die in the digital world, but we sure as hell know what happens to a Digimon who dies in the real one — they remain a half-conscious, mostly-spectral wraith for the rest of time with no hope of rebirth. Poor, poor Wizardmon... On the other hand, none of the Digimon killed in the real world, except Wizardmon and Myotismon return as ghosts. Fridge logic would suggest if the digital world is made from deleted data that their data would eventually make their way back there.
    • Tamers' third act was more or less instigated by its aversion of this trope.
    • One of the things that makes Kurata in the fifth season so despicable is the use of weapons that make this impossible, effectively making any victim of his Gizmon Killed Off for Real.
    • Fusion plays this trope straight with Baalmon, who is reincarnated as Beelzebumon, as well as some others, but otherwise Digimon stay deadwithout the code crown.
  • Retcon: 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.) According to the drama CD, it seems they don't, or at least, not through the method hinted at by the end of the actual show.
  • 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 MarineAngemon, a Mega level (and fits right into the kid's pocket)! And now Fusion has a Digimon actually named Cutemon.
  • Ridiculously Small Wings: Petitmon, Babydmon, and Dracomon have small wings for their bodies, but can fly nonetheless, with it being Handwaved as Petitmon and Babydmon being light enough and Dracomon only being capable of flight (and even then only for short times) under the influence of the X-Antibody.
  • Rings of Activation:
    • Digimon Adventure 02: Gatomon and Patamon's Armor Digivolution sequences both feature them briefly becoming an upward-travelling beam of glowing rings as they fuse with their respective armor eggs.
    • Digimon Tamers: The Biomerge Digivolution sequence involves rings of light manifesting around the tamers as they merge with their Digimon. These rings are still present when the perspective switches to the kids within the Digimon.
    • Digimon Frontier: Fractal Code is the data that Digimon's bodies are comprised of and typically appears as a glowing ring of light when manifested. The Digidestined's tranformation sequence has a ring of fractal code manifest around their hands as they scan it with their D-Tector.
    • Digimon Adventure tri.: The evolution sequences have been updated to involve rings manifesting around the Digimon's bodies. A large single ring passes upwards of them in champion evolution, multiple, smaller rings manifest across their form in super evolution and four glowing rings are featured in ultimate evolution.
    • Digimon Adventure: (2020): Agumon and Gabumon's evolution sequences feature rings of light.
      • During their champion evolutions, Agumon and Gabumon are hit with a beam of data surrounded by rings. The beam then transforms into a sphere around them, with the sphere itself surrounded by rings matching Agumon and Gabumon's respective signature colors.
      • The sphere surrounded by rings appears at the end of their super evolution sequences, exploding to reveal their ultimate forms.
      • In their ultimate evolutions, the rings surrounding the sphere interlock and explode as they take their mega forms.
    • Digimon Ghost Game: Any time a Digimon inflicts some supernatural effect on people, rings of various colors appear around the victims as the Digimon briefly converts them to data.
  • Rock Monster: Various Digimon, like Gotsumon and Golemon.
  • Rousseau Was Right: Played straight in 02 (with Ken and Oikawa), Tamers (Yamaki), and Fusion (Yuu); averted in Adventure and Frontier (no human villains), and averted in Data Squad (DAMN YOU, AKIHIRO KURATA!!!).
  • Sacrificial Lion: In an unusually literal sense; it's a notorious franchise tradition that Leomon, a Leomon variant, or a Leomon expy must die Once a Season (a Leomon died in Adventure, which was given an homage in Tamers... which accidentally spawned the tradition). With notable exceptions in V-Tamer and Digimon Adventure: (2020), which break that tradition.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Many Digimon, especially Olympus Mons, draw from Real Life mythology and fable, but often get the details wrong. Sometimes this is an obvious riff, and sometimes this is because a Digimon is named for the mythological character without being otherwise informed by them.
  • Sapient Cetaceans: Dolphmon possesses advanced intelligence, but its form of thought is too complex for a normal person to understand.
  • Satanic Archetype:
    • Regarding the broader franchise:
      • There are multiple Digimon, like Devimon, Demon, and Lucemon, who model different facets of The Devil. Other digimon take inspiration from apocalyptic monsters or Goetic demons as well. The Seven Great Demon Lords — also known as the Seven Deadly Digimon — are a collection of these.
      • Inverted with Beelzebumon, who is in many appearances a Noble Demon or even an Anti-Hero.
    • It is a very popular archetype in anime:
      • Digimon Adventure has Devimon, an Evil Genius who preys on innocent Digimon and drives them mad, and Myotismon, whose evolved form is based on the Beast of the Apocalypse.
      • Digimon Adventure 02 has Daemon, the wicked leader of other devilish Digimon, and MaloMyotismon, whose Japanese name is taken after the Goetic demon Belial.
      • Digimon Tamers has Beelzemon (Beelzebub) but he's not evil, though the D-Reaper possesses many Satanic qualities (lies and manipulates, wants to end the world).
      • Digimon Frontier has Lucemon, who is Lucifer, Chaos Mode (who is Lucifer in the process of falling) and Shadowlord Mode (the dragon).
      • Digimon Data Squad has Belphemon, named after Belphegor.
      • Digimon Fusion has Lucemon and Beelzemon again, as well as Lilithmon, another demon lord.
  • Satellite Character: Partner Digimon tend to fall into this depending on the canon in question or how many other human characters there are around at the time; the partners in Adventure fell into it the most. Best averted in Tamers, Fusion, and Ghost Game, where Digimon are more often treated as independent characters. The few that remain are exaggerations.
  • Sea Monster: A common antagonistic force, corrupted or not. For starters, Seadramon and Shellmon in Adventure. Doesn't help that sea monsters are the minority in the franchise, you will be hard-pressed finding one of the protagonists even using one.
  • Sea Serpents: The Seadramon family is a line of aquatic -dramon Digimon depicted as serpentine, legless and exclusively marine. Seadramon is a fairly typical sea serpent, MegaSeadramon is largely a bigger take on this with a sword-like horn, and MetalSeadramon and GigaSeadramon are cyborg versions of this trope, with GigaSeadramon in particular being modified to serve as a living troop carrier.
  • Series Mascot: Fox Kids used closeups of principle characters to advertise their shows, so they chose Tai, Davis, and Takato to represent the franchise. In more expansive terms, the Agumon line tends to act as the closest equivalent to Pikachu for the Digimon franchise, with it's evolution Greymon filling a similar role to Charizard. The leads of each anime series usually have partners with at least one form inspired by the line.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Yes, Gennai does sound like Jedi. Yes, he does look like Obi-Wan. Yes, he looks like Ewan MacGregor in season 2.
    • Digimon has lots of Paradise Lost shout outs. Deathmon is named after the demon Death, Lucemon and Barbamon has, respectively, an attack named Paradise Lost and Purgatory Lost. Beyond it, both Barbamon and Belial Vamdemon reference the city of Pandemonium in their attacks.
    • Decoding the DigiCode that appears on Oryxmon and Seraphimon will reveal direct quotes from The Castle of Cagliostro and Final Fantasy XII, respectively.
  • Shown Their Work: Moved here.
  • Short Tank: A common character archetype in the anime, no doubt thanks to pioneering work by its contemporary Pokémon: The Series.
    • Sora Takenouchi of Digimon Adventure, with her red hair, yellow tank top, and blue jeans, is blatantly an expy of fellow Mons-genre leading lady Misty, though more conservatively dressed and mostly a Tomboy only next to Mimi. She underwent a Girliness Upgrade in 02 after resolving her Mommy Issues.
    • Kari Kamiya's Digimon Adventure 02 self is an inversion; while she wears the shorts and tank top, her hot pink color scheme and gentle personality clearly cast her as the Girly Girl of the group, whose real Tomboy is Yolei.
    • Rika Nonaka of Digimon Tamers is an Expy of Sora, another redheaded Tomboy in jeans with a wealthy background and Mommy Issues. While she's a ponytailed Tsundere like the Trope Codifier, her personality goes to an Ice Queen extreme. Further, Ruki has no overt cuteness or sex appeal to speak of, which is unusual for the trope.
    • Angie Hinomoto of Digimon Fusion is yet another redheaded leading lady in denim, though she was a noticeably modernized example of the trope, being a Genki Girl Gamer Chick in short-legged overalls.
  • SI Prefix Name: Subverted by Gigadramon and Megadramon, whose power levels are...exactly the same.
  • Sixth Ranger: Like Heel–Face Turn, a tradition.
    • Adventure: Kari/Hikari
    • Adventure 02: Ken
    • Tamers: Anyone who's not Takato, Rika, or Henry; Ryo is the straightest example
    • Frontier: Kouichi
    • Data Squad: Keenan
    • Fusion: Kiriha and Nene
    • Digimon Universe: App Monsters: Yujin. But in this case, he's a Sixth Ranger Traitor.
  • Sleep-Mode Size: Partner Digimon usually spend their off hours in Rookie level form. Demon Lord Belphemon's main form Rage Mode◊ only shows up once every thousand years. For the rest of that time, he looks utterly adorable◊. Though Belphemon actually subverts it by still being pretty huge in this form.
  • Smash Cut: A common way to transition to digivolution in the heat of battle.
  • Solomon Divorce: Digimon Adventure, Zero Two, and Frontier all involve a divorce that split the kids. It would be a spoiler for us to talk about Frontier, though.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Gennai: "[villain name here] was not the true enemy!"
    • Invoked in the Digimon Adventure novelizations, where it turns out the villains are all actually part of the same organization.
  • Special Guest: Terry Bradshaw used to host a Digimon marathon on Fox Kids. Not only that, it was a Super Bowl themed marathon, in which Bradshaw would provide commentary in-between episodes.
  • Species Title: A Virtual Pet device franchise about raising the titular Digital Monsters and having them battle their fellow kind. In terms of anime, the common premise is Digital Monsters from cyberspace allying with kids to fight evil Digimon.
  • Spoiler Title: A lot of Japanese episode titles will give away new evolution premieres, spoiling major plot developments.
  • Starfish Aliens:
    • The Digimon themselves. Sure, they tend to have mostly human behaviors, but they're pretty unusual: They're data-based (as opposed to matter), each subspecies have radically different and varying forms, and even each individual has different forms through their life! They also change said forms instantly, changing in shape and size in seconds (and without regard to biology). Even stranger is that Digimon seem to lack individual names. In fact, most Digimon of the same subspecies are almost indistinguishable from each other. The Digignomes and the D-Reaper also count.
    • Inverted, in that from the point of view of the Digimon, humans are Starfish Aliens. When Sora explains that on Earth there are hundred of kids, Biyomon visualizes hundreds and hundred of Soras. Later, Patamon states how weird humans are to Digimon.
  • Stationary Wings: A good amount of winged Digimon aren't shown flapping their wings, especially in the various anime.
  • Stock Footage: In addition to each partner Digimon's individual Transformation Sequence, virtually every major Digimon's attacks rely on stock footage.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: How much damage a Digimon can withstand from higher level opponents varies wildly throughout the franchise; in some instances, a Digimon can take multiple hits from an enemy several levels higher and survive, but in others, all it takes is one hit from an opponent even a single level higher for them to revert back to their base level (or even die).
  • Super Mode: Many Ultimate- and Mega-level Digimon can undergo Mode Changes that alter their form and abilities without actually Digivolving. Some lore also treats the X-Antibody as granting more powerful forms at the same level, though other lore treats it as a Deadly Upgrade unless actively maintained. The various anime and Digimon Survive also treat Digivolution itself as a multi-layered super-mode that wears off when no longer needed or if the Digimon can't maintain it.
  • Superpowered Evil Side: When a Digimon is forced to evolve under the influence of intense negative emotions or dark powers it will cause a Dark Digivolution, which creates a violent monster whose only instinct is to destroy everything around it.
  • Synchronization: Most apparent in Tamers, where the damage that Digimon take will occasionally visibly affect and push around the Digimon's partner.
  • Synchronous Episodes: Many, for multiple series:
  • Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Concerning the Digimon attributes: Vaccine beats Virus, Virus beats Data and Data beats Vaccine. This is for the most part, just seen in the games, as while anime and manga have at rare times acknowledged them, many times a Digimon beats one whose attribute its meant to be weak to with no problem.
    • There are also three "alternate" attributes: Free, Variable, and Unknown. Free and Variable exist independently of the original three-point system (read: they tie with everything). The Variable attribute is connected directly to Hybrid Digimon, while the Free Attribute appears to be connected to Armor Digimon. The Unknown/Unidentified Attribute (which dominates everything) has been connected to Apocalymon, The Diablomon line, Gizmon: XT, and Yggdrasil 7D6. There are a few heroic Unknown Attribute Digimon, too, however: Calumon and Shoutmon, for example.
    • There are also Digital Monsters who lack attributes. Mostly, they're Baby Digimon, but this also applies to the D-Reaper and its Agents, NEO, UltimateChaosmon and Gravimon.
  • Talking Animal: Unlike Pokémon, Digimon can speak the human language. That said, various anime series sometimes either leave the more bestial/monstrous-looking ones not voiced or give them Pokémon Speak.
  • They Killed Kenny Again: With multiple people:
    • Leomon always dies, preferably by Heroic Sacrifice, and it's always played for tragedy. Digimon Frontier has the heroes kill a Panjyamon/IceLeomon, and Digimon Data Squad 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. He did not die in 02, but tri has that Leomon ravaged by Meicoomon's berserk form.
    • Frontier has Kouichi, whose Digimon forms were lion-themed, and in Japan his Beast form's name was KaiserLeomon. Then again, he didn't quite die, either, although it seemed that way. Fusion' very first enemy of any significance is MadLeomon, and he gets killed off in episode 3. Subverted later on that he gets revived as Leomon; although he's also mentioned to be Green Zone's guardian and is later unseen amoung the other captured Green Zone inhabitants; indicateing he *probobly* died... again.. MachLeomon from the Xros Wars manga similarly dies in chapter 2, except he never gets revived. Appli Monsters feature the Leomon-like Oujamon, but slightly subverted in that he died as Dokamon, and revived later.
    • Oh look, we have another humanoid lion in Fusion named Apollomon! He has the noblest of intentions! His Jekyll & Hyde sickness pretty much confirms him being killed.
    • Leo didn't die, but V Tamer 01 was never released internationally and predates the running gag anyway.
  • This Is a Drill: Digmon, Drimogemon, LoaderLiomon, Breakdramon, and Dorulumon all exhibit this trope.
  • Tiered by Name: Higher-level Digimon often have the names of their prior level with a prefix attacked, such as Greymon to MetalGreymon, or Garurumon to WereGarurumon. However, there is no universal rule, as there are Digimon who change their names entirely when gaining levels, such as Togemon - Lillymon - Rosemon. There are also a handful of prefixes given to lower-leveled Digimon indicating that they're a lesser version, like DemiDevimon or ChibiTortomon. And some prefixes are just used with different, equally ranked versions; such as Agumon and ToyAgumon, Greymon and GeoGreymon, MetalGreymon and RizeGreymon, and WarGreymon and ShineGreymon.
    • There's also the unique case of Terriermon line, which features Gargomon entirely changing name to Rapidmon when evolving, but becomes SaintGargomon/MegaGargomon when evolving again.
    • Digimon Fusion uses a different name system for its main Digimon, Shoutmon. Shoutmon can combine with his friends, and the result is called Shoutmon X[number] - As in, a four-mon combination is Shoutmon X4. By the end of the series, he goes up to Shoutmon X7.
  • Title Theme Tune: Used in the English version for the first three seasons. Though presumably due to legal wrangling, it hasn't been used since Tamers.
  • To Be Continued: Let's just go ahead and say that the dub abused this trope. Xros Wars, the Japanese version, abused it, too.
  • Took a Level in Badass: With the exception of natural carriers, the X-Antibody greatly increases or draws out the full potential of a Digimon’s natural abilities, essentially turning them into heightened versions of themselves. And keep in mind, this isn't even its main function. However, this isn’t always a good thing.
  • Toyline-Exclusive Character: Some toylines have Digimon with no counterpart in the media they represent, such as Gallantmon Chaos Mode in the Warp-Digivolving Figures toyline or a black version of Omnimon that appeared in the Japanese Xros Loader toy before Omnimon Zwart's debut.
  • Toyless Toyline Character: Likewise, there are a few Digimon that only appeared in the anime without any acknowledgment in the broader franchise, such as Rosemon Burst Mode and Shoutmon DX.
  • Transformation Sequence: And how.
    • Painful Transformation: At certain levels in both Tamers and Frontier. In Tamers, the Digimon's flesh is stripped from their wireframe before being put back together in their new form.
    • Transformation Name Announcement: In general, "[X] evolve into/digivolve to... [X]!". Other forms of transformation (such as armor digivolving) have different call outs.
    • Stock Footage: Which can get especially bad in certain episodes where entire teams power-up at once.
    • Transformation Is a Free Action: Normally, but Infermon averts it to great effect in the first movie. This is actually quite interesting because we get to see what a Digimon looks like while it's transforming, "outside" of the sequence. We get an even better view in the Data Squad movie — When Agumon digivolves to ShineGreymon, it looks like a series of progressively bigger digieggs which eventually hatch to him.
  • Truth in Television: There is no such thing as joint parental custody in Japan. This adds subtext to the lives of several characters:
    • Takeru and Yamato probably spent more time apart than foreign audiences might think, which helps to explain Yamato's angst.
    • If Mr. Minamoto never had custody of Koichi, it was that much easier to pretend that his ex-wife was dead.
  • Unique Protagonist Asset:
    • The Leader and either The Lancer, The Rival, or the Number Two of any given series will usually have the Digimon with the highest Power Levels. Tai and Matt from Adventure were the only two to have their partners achieve Mega level and then their partners underwent a Fusion Dance in the movie.
    • Exaggerated in Frontier, where Takuya and Kouji achieve not one but two forms beyond everyone else, the second at the expense of everyone else's power.
    • Double Subverted in Data Squad, where the whole team achieves Mega and Burst Mode. Then Marcus and Agumon get another boost on top of that...though their appearance in Fusion suggests it isn't any better than burst mode...triple subversion?
  • Universe Compendium: The Digimon Reference Book, that is, if you can read Japanese.
  • Universe Concordance: The Digimon Encyclopedia by Chris McFeely, which covered all of Adventures to Tamers and part of Frontier. It was the main source of Digimon info for fans before the advent of Wikia (nowadays going by Fandom) and the creation of more Digimon fan sites.
  • Voice of the Legion: Jogress and Biomerge typically use this, Digixross usually doesn't but can.
  • War Elephants: Mammothmon are usually used in this fashion.
  • Weirdness Censor: The adults, besides a few of the Chosen Children's parents, seem to realize there are strange events going on during the Myotismon arch of Adventure but ignore them until they are rounded up and kidnapped. This is averted in Digimon Adventure tri. and is regularly brought up by bystanders how terrifying the Digimon are, even the heroes' partners.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A prevalent theme, especially when there are human villains involved.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Despite the majority preteen cast of the many anime series, most of them are at least as mature as teenagers, and several are practically adults.
    • Kari starts as an eight-year-old Mystical Waif in Adventure and is one of the most reserved and put-together members of the team in 02.
    • Cody of 02 is an astonishingly dutiful and responsible eight-year-old.
    • Zigzagged with Willis of Digimon Hurricane Touchdown, who is both perfectly capable of wandering the American countryside with only a never-evolved Terriermon at his side and being a riotous flirt with any pretty girls in the vicinity, but who is also such a Momma's Boy that he routinely calls home to let his mother know he's "safe". In the English dub of Digimon: The Movie, he's also a peer of Izzy's in sheer tech-savvy so he can help with the Canon Welding between his own movie and the otherwise unrelated Our War Game.
    • Both Rika and Henry of Tamers appear to be much better established and confident as Tamers than Takato, though Ruki's Little Miss Badass act turns out to be a coping mechanism and Henry has Control Freak tendencies that get the better of him. Takato's crush Jeri also displays some knowledge and behaviors that repeatedly hint at some dishearteningly adult situations for a ten-year-old to experience, which comes to a head during the final act. The English dub downplayed this trope by officially updating the kids' ages from the original ten to a full thirteen.
    • Mikey of Fusion, too, who is an uncommonly tactically-minded and strategic Goggle Boy. Jeremy is apparently a skilled mechanic as well.
  • World Gone Mad: The Digital World varies from series to series, but all agree that it is bizarre even under the most peaceful circumstances.
  • World of Badass: The Digital World, in almost every incarnation, is home to some of the most powerful beings in the universe. Fitting, considering how many of the stronger ones tend to be digital expies of well-known legendary and mythical beings.
  • "X" Makes Anything Cool: Digimon enhanced by the X-Antibody are given an "X" after their names in localizations; Agumon X, Garurumon X, Magnamon X, etc. This does not apply to natural carriers like DORUmon or Ryudamon, for obvious reasons.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: The sixth season is called Xros Wars in Japan. Justified, in that this is taken from "Xaos", the greek spelling of Chaos. The "X" is pronounced like a "K" or "C" though pronouncing the western character "X" as "cross" seems to be becoming a bit of a trend in Japanese media. It's actually quite a surprise they didn't refer to "Double Xros" as "WX"note , using "DX" instead.
  • Your Size May Vary: Any given species of Digimon may appear at multiple sizes between franchise installments, or even between different parts of the same series. One of the more obvious examples is Biyomon; the Biyomon of Digimon Adventure was about as tall as a preteen's knees, while the Biyomon who appeared in Digimon Data Squad was nearly as tall as an adult.

 
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Evolution Power Up Tiers - Digimon: The Movie

A battle dictated by which tier the monsters are in. Agumon and Tentomon (rookie) evolve one level into Greymon and Kabuterimon (champion) to take down Keramon (rookie). Keramon responds by going up two levels to Infermon (skipping champion into ultimate level), forcing the others to try to reach their ultimate level forms, but they take too much damage and revert back to rookie.

Example of:
Evolution Power-Up

Jogress Evolve ...

"Have your fill."

Digimon Adventu...

Alternative Title(s): Digimon Digital Monsters

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Evolution Power Up Tiers - Digimon: The Movie

A battle dictated by which tier the monsters are in. Agumon and Tentomon (rookie) evolve one level into Greymon and Kabuterimon (champion) to take down Keramon (rookie). Keramon responds by going up two levels to Infermon (skipping champion into ultimate level), forcing the others to try to reach their ultimate level forms, but they take too much damage and revert back to rookie.

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5 (7 votes)

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Evolution Power...

Jogress Evolve ...

"Have your fill."

Digimon Adventu...