Well Shin Megami Tensei series pretty much inverts everything and its the trope maker. Especially Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne you are transformed into a Mon controlling other Mons.
edited 29th Mar '11 9:19:39 PM by Raso
Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!Deconstructing the Mons genre is right out, because that's basically just stuff like dogfighting, cockfighting, et cetera, which frankly, I don't think most people really want to watch. I know that I personally would just kind of find it sick.
edited 29th Mar '11 9:00:03 PM by Sporkaganza
Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember them, you are not alone.
Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor and Narutaru seem to deconstruct the genre without going into the 'cockfighting' aspect, to my knowledge.
Well Persona 3 and Persona 4 they don't really fight at all they just grant the user skills the character does all the fighting the Mons are in your head they just come out when you cast spells, their stats affect you but you take the hits.
edited 29th Mar '11 9:50:31 PM by Raso
Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!Narutaru does its "deconstruction" by having the mons appear in a "real world" setting that doesn't have the technology necessary to handle them, and asking, "what if the kids the mons attach themselves to were severely psychologically damaged?"
Why does the Mon page say that Digital Devil Story/Shin Megami Tensei is the Trope Maker, yet also lists the 1960s Ultra Seven as an example?
somethingLooking at the Trope Maker page, it says that a "Trope Maker" is the first unambiguous use of the trope, as opposed to Ur-Example, which is the first known use of the trope. So if Ultra Seven has elements of the Mons subgenre, but isn't quite Mons as it's defined nowadays, where Digital Devil Saga is the first known work that includes all the traits of the current definition of Mons, they're Ur-Example and Trope Maker respectively.
However, I have seen/played neither, so cannot speak to the accuracy of those claims.
Another inversion: Alice and Bob are typical junior high students walking in the tall grass near their hometown, when they are attacked and captured by a Sufficiently Advanced Alien. They are then forced to do battle as *its* Mons.
Our protagonists have played the Pokemon games, and recognize that the technology and such used are all very similar, except that it works on humans as well. Because Aash has a sufficiently high Gym Badge, they're obligated to follow its orders. (And when we see a scene from Aash's Point of View, Alice and Bob are using Pokemon Speech.)
More frighteningly for the kids, they realize their behavior is becoming more Mon-like over time, getting new special maneuvers and powers...and then Aash gets an Evolution Stone that it seems to think will work on humans....
... well that was depressing. Here, have a fluffy deconstruction.
In a world where mons are insanely common, the year-long science project of most of the eighth-grade universe is to rear one and train it at something. There are rules in place that students are not allowed to train their mons to fight; it's a delicate process that only adults who've studied Mons in university and gotten a lot of experience at handling them are really qualified for - and such people are inevitably military personnel, or police officers at the very least. However, it's traditional for some students to sneak a couple battles for the thrill.
Enter the rare kid who really would rather just do his time with this creature and then never have to see the thing again; he's not an animal-lover and it's really reduced his martial-arts practice time.
But when a bunch of other students sic their mons on his, who hasn't been taught any fighting at all, something clicks inside him and he rushes the mob, fighting side by side with his mon to defend it.
After that, they're friends. ^_^ And whenever delinquents go after them, they always fight side-by-side.
Right, you're nice and revived? Good. Here's another slightly-sad one.
The only kids who get mons are ones who're completely socially-isolated, and aside from their new, also-mon-having friends, they don't have any human connections at all, really. So when mons start *trying* to court a person who has lots of friends and who's seen other kids get so absorbed in the whole 'bond', (s )he says no.
But the thing is, she's supposed to be this big chosen-one person, so they *have* to get her roped in or else their entire species is doomed.
A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!Mon as Otaku Surrogate parable, go!
Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.Self-hating Mon leaves her world to bond with a human girl her age because humans are awesome, to her mind.
Reality Ensues, sadly, when she's forced to confront that humans also suck a little bit, particularly in their reaction to things as weird as mons.
A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!Parody/Horror Variant...
Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action is in full effect; Chibimon can breed with anything, including normal animals, plants, inanimate objects...and humans. The last has results that aren't nearly so cute as Pokegirls.

So, Mons. A popular subgenre of anime and manga.
Let's start with a brief examination of the standard features of Mons shows.
There are humans, and there are other creatures who work with/for the humans, which we will call mons. The mons may be mythical beasts, robots, alien animals, holograms derived from children's card games, any number of things. The mons battle each other with the aid/guidance of their human partner.
The strong relationship between the human and their mon is generally key to victory. Seemingly inferior mons can defeat opponents out of their weight class thanks to their special bond.
The culture of the country revolves around the mons, or at least the part of it we see does. Almost all conflict resolution is done through mon combat. Most main characters will be young, late elementary to early college age, with adults being villains or peripheral characters.
There may be a Gotta Catch 'Em All element, where the human must acquire a team of mons, but it is just as possible that each human has a single mon partner that is upgraded with various weapons or detachable abilities.
While the sentience level of Mons varies, they are usually treated by society as subordinate to their human partner/master.
So thoughts on Subverting, Exaggerating, Inverting, Deconstructing,etc. the Mons subgenre?
For a start, here's a possible inversion.
In a land that's essentially Fantasy China, the "mons" are various Kung Fu Spirits. By finding and forging relationships with these spirits, young martial artists learn new moves and special abilities. The inversion is that it's the humans who fight; the mons float on the sidelines and offer their mystic support during the battle.