Digimon
Digimon, short for "Digital Monsters", is a Japanese media franchise, which encompasses virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films, and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures who inhabit a digital world, a parallel universe which originated from Earth's various communication networks.
The franchise was created in 1997 as Digital Monster, a series of digital pets, and it was intended as the masculine counterpart to Tamagotchi. The creatures were designed to look cute and iconic on the devices' small screens. Later developments had them created with a harder-edged style, which was influenced by American comics. The franchise gained momentum with an early video game, Digimon World, originally released in Japan in January 1999. Several anime series and films have been released; the video game series has expanded into various genres, such as role-playing, racing, fighting, and MMORPGs. The franchise generated over $500 million in sales by 2000.
Conception and creation
The Digimon franchise began as a series of virtual pets created by WiZ and Bandai, intended as a masculine counterpart to the more female-oriented Tamagotchi pets. It was released in June 1997 with the name Digital Monster, shortened to Digimon. This device shows to players a virtual pet composed entirely of data and designed to play and fight. In February 1998, the DigiMon fighting game was announced. It was developed by Rapture Technologies. The one-shot manga C'mon Digimon, designed by Tenya Yabuno, was published in the Japanese magazine V-Jump by Shueisha in 1997.A second generation of virtual pets was marketed six months after the launch of the first, followed by a third in 1998. Each player starts with a baby-level digital creature that has a limited number of attacks and transformations and to make the creature stronger by training and nourishing the creature; when the player is successful in a workout, the Digimon becomes strong, when the player fails, the Digimon becomes weak. Two devices can be connected, allowing two players to battle with their respective creatures, an innovation at the time, however, the battle is only possible from the moment the creature is in the child level or bigger. Playgrounds and subways were where the majority of users of the apparatus were concentrated; the virtual pet was banned in some Asian schools, being considered by parents and teachers as very noisy and violent. The first Digimon were created by Japanese designer Kenji Watanabe, influenced by American comics, which were beginning to gain popularity in Japan, and as such began to make his characters look stronger and "cool." Other types of Digimon, which until the year 2000 totalled 279, came from extensive discussions and collaborations between the Bandai company members.
The original Digital Monster model that was released in 1997 sold units worldwide, including million units in Japan and million overseas, up until March 2004. By 2005, more than Digital Monster units had been sold worldwide.
Premise
Several media in the franchise are contained within their own continuity; however, they all share a similar setting and premise. For instance, most Digimon stories begin with a human child, who comes into contact with a Digimon. This generally occurs either through an accidental entrance into the so-called Digital World or an encounter with a Digimon who has come into the human world. The child or children then often find themselves equipped with a "digivice", which is a device modelled after the series' virtual pets; this device enables them to empower their partner Digimon.While some Digimon act like wild beasts, there are many who form small societies and follow governing bodies. Digimon can change through evolution, where they absorb additional data that allows them to change forms. This process is normally linear, but there are other methods, depending upon the media within the franchise. For example, "Jogress" is when two or more Digimon combine into a single being. Though evolution can occur naturally, Digimon can progress into stronger forms more quickly, when they are partnered with a human.
Media
Anime
Television series
Multiple Digimon anime series have been produced by Toei Animation since 1999. The first of these was Digimon Adventure; it began as a short film, but after its storyboard was finished, a request for the film to become a television series was made. The film debuted in theaters a day before the series debuted on TV.There are seven Digimon series adapted into English for release in Western markets, with the first four treated as a single show under the collective title Digimon: Digital Monsters. The sixth series, Digimon Fusion, was only partially dubbed; its third season was never dubbed into English.
Films
Several Digimon films were released in Japan, with some of them seasonal tie-ins for their respective television series. Footage from the first three films was used for the American-produced Digimon: The Movie.OVA
Distribution and localization
In the United States, the first three series/seasons that made up Digimon: Digital Monsters first aired on Fox Kids from August 14, 1999 to June 8, 2002. The localized series was produced by Saban Entertainment, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Company during the show's Fox Kids run. Some scenes from the original shows were modified or omitted in order to comply with Fox's standards and practices. The show also featured more jokes and added dialogue, along with a completely different musical score. As a cross-promotional stunt, 2001 and 2002 saw Digi-Bowl specials co-produced with Fox Sports; NFL on Fox commentator Terry Bradshaw provided interstitial segments in-between episodes as if the episodes were actually a football game.Disney's acquisition of Saban resulted in Digimon airing on Disney's TV networks and programming blocks. Reruns of the show began airing on the cable network ABC Family on March 4, 2002, while the fourth series/season, Digimon Frontier, premiered on the Disney's Animation Weekdays block on UPN, and the ABC Kids block on ABC. UPN aired the series until late August 2003, when they severed their ties to Disney. Frontier also aired in reruns on ABC Family and Toon Disney under the Jetix branding. An English version of Digimon Data Squad, produced and dubbed by Studiopolis, premiered October 1, 2007, on Toon Disney. Around this time, the remaining Digimon Adventure 02 movie, both Tamers movies and the Frontier movie were dubbed and aired on Toon Disney in the US, with most actors from the TV series reprising their roles. The Data Squad/Savers movie however have not had a North American localised English dub produced.
In September 2012, Saban Brands, a successor to Saban Entertainment, announced it had re-acquired the Digimon anime franchise. Saban announced an English dub for Digimon Xros Wars, retitled Digimon Fusion, for broadcast on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons in the United States starting September 7, 2013. Saban Capital Group sold most of Saban Brands' entertainment properties to Hasbro in 2018 and shutter the division in July of that year.
The Digimon Adventure tri. series were distributed in North America by Eleven Arts, while Saban was not involved with licensing of the film series. The English dub utilized localized names from Saban's original dub, reunite several voice actors from the original cast, and feature a remixed version of the English opening theme, while retaining the original Japanese score. Shout! Factory acquired the broadcast and home media distribution rights for the films.
International
In Canada, the English versions of Digimon were broadcast on YTV, with the exception of Data Squad, which aired in Family Channel's Jetix block. YTV acquired Digimon Fusion, but only the first 26 episodes were shown.In the United Kingdom, Digimon first aired on Fox Kids. ITV's children's slot CITV broadcast Adventure, Adventure 02 and several episodes of Tamers during after school hours from 2001–2002. The rest of Tamers aired on Fox Kids from 2002–03. Digimon Frontier was originally announced to be broadcast on Jetix, but the series was later dropped. The series eventually saw a release on October 29, 2018. In 2011, Digimon Data Squad aired on Kix!.
According to Fox Kids' and Kix's BARB Television ratings, Adventure, Adventure 02 and Tamers have been the most popular series'/seasons in the United Kingdom and was consistently in the weekly top 10 broadcasts for both channels for new episodes. Broadcast rights and merchandising sub-licensing rights for Digimon Fusion in the UK have been acquired by ITV Studios Global Entertainment. Digimon Fusion had aired since Spring 2014 on digital terrestrial channel, CITV.
In the Philippines, Digimon was first aired on ABS-CBN in Filipino English language from June 2, 2000 to October 21, 2001. And later, it was shift to Filipino on April 6, 2002.