page_title: Digimon
section_title: Conception and creation
hierarchical_section_title: Digimon / Conception and creation
caption_attribution_description: 中文（香港）‎: 迷你暴龍機Digimon Mini Ver.2.0的樣子 English: The Digimon Mini Ver.2.0
context_page_description: Digimon, short for "Digital Monsters", is a Japanese media franchise encompassing 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 that originated from Earth's various communication networks.
  The franchise was created in 1997 as a series of virtual pets, akin to—and influenced in style by—the contemporary Tamagotchi or nano Giga Pet toys. The creatures were first designed to look cute and iconic even on the devices' small screens; later developments had them created with a harder-edged style influenced by American comics. The franchise gained momentum with its first anime incarnation, Digimon Adventure, and an early video game, Digimon World, both released in 1999. Several anime series and films based on them have been released, and the video game series has expanded into genres such as role-playing, racing, fighting, and MMORPGs.
context_section_description: In 1996, the Tamagotchi was released, created by Akihiro Yokoi, Aki Maita and Takeichi Hongo. The Tamagotchi was one of the inspirations for the first release of the Digimon franchise, a device marketed in June 1997 with the name Digimon, short for Digital Monster. Aiming at the male audience and created by Akiyoshi Hongo (a pseudonym that refers to the creators of Tamagotchi), 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, compatible with Windows 95 and developed by Rapture Technologies, Inc., was announced. 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 by 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 totaled 279, came from extensive discussions and collaborations between the Bandai company members.
caption: Virtual pet model distributed on the Japanese market by Bandai,[1] that allowed the popularization of Digimon in Japan. It sold 13 million units in Japan and 1 million overseas, up until March 2004.[2]
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "gThumb 3.2.7", "Image ImageWidth": "3264", "Image ImageLength": "2448", "Image Make": "SAMSUNG", "Image Model": "SM-G800F", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "SAMSUNG", "Image DateTime": "2017:08:26 23:33:44", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "230", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "512", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "384", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "742", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3665", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/25", "EXIF FNumber": "12/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:08:26 23:33:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:08:26 23:33:44", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "116/25", "EXIF ApertureValue": "63/25", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "69/50", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "63/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "33/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "31", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}