Digimon (creature)
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Digimon are fictional creatures from the Japanese Digimon media franchise. They are central to several anime series and films, manga, video games and other merchandise. The word "Digimon" is invariable in the plural, and stands for "Digital Monster". Digimon include almost all the creatures that reside within the fictional parallel universe called the "Digital World." There are hundreds of different species of Digimon.
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[edit] Characteristics
Digimon hatch from eggs called Digi-Eggs. (In the English language iterations of the franchise there is another type of Digi-Egg that can be used to Digivolve, or transform, Digimon. This second type of Digi-Egg is called a "Digimental" in Japanese.) They age via a process called "Digivolution" which changes their appearance and increases their physical powers. Some Digimon act feral, like wild animals. Most, however, possess human intelligence, speech, and personality traits.
The first Digimon anime introduces the Digimon life cycle: they age in a similar fashion to real living organisms, but do not die under normal circumstances because they are made of reconfigurable data. Old Digimon and Digimon who receive fatal wounds dissolve into infinitesimal bits of data. The data then recomposes itself as a Digi-Egg and the Digimon goes through its life cycle again. Digimon who are reincarnated in this way will sometimes retain some or all their memories of their previous lifespan. However, if a Digimon's data is completely destroyed, they will die.
[edit] Digivolution
Digivolution is the process by which a Digimon "ages"[1] and grows up into larger and more powerful forms. Although the word "Digivolution" comes from the phrase "Digital Evolution", Digivolution is in fact more similar to metamorphosis in that Digivolution changes a Digimon from one form to another (which can sometimes be very different in appearance) very quickly.
Digivolving for Digimon is similar to aging for humans - it is generally a one-way journey whereby a Digimon will grow into a new form as they age and gain battle experience. However, moving from one form to another becomes progressively more difficult. Hence very few Digimon will ever naturally Digivolve into their final most powerful forms.
However, for the Chosen Digimon who are partnered with DigiDestined humans, Digivolution becomes far more flexible. Digimon who form bonds with a human are able to Digivolve more easily, generally through the use of a Digivice owned by the human. In such cases, the Digimon is given large amounts of energy and is therefore able to instantaneously Digivolve to a higher level. However, these Digimon will generally De-Digivolve back into a lower form after a fight. Digimon partnered to humans are also commonly able to use special forms of Digivolution not naturally available, giving these Digimon many different forms. These include Armor Digivolution, DNA Digivolution and Biomerging with their human partners.
In some cases, Digimon have also been granted the ability to Digivolve into higher forms by other, very powerful Digimon. In Digimon Tamers, Impmon was able to Digivolve into his mega form by using power given to him by the Deva Chatsuramon.
During Digivolution, a Digimon's appearance changes, and many of its other classifications (such as attribute and family) also sometimes do. The Digimon's fighting ability increases significantly, and the resulting Digimon is considered to be of a different species. However, Digimon species which are connected through Digivolution are generally similar in appearance. For example, Agumon is a small dinosaur-like Digimon; his Digivolved form is Greymon, a much larger fully-grown dinosaur; and then MetalGreymon, a large armored and winged dinosaur. However, Digimon can sometimes Digivolve into forms that appear very different. Salamon is a dog-like Digimon, but Digivolves into Gatomon, a cat-like Digimon. Gatomon is able to further Digivolve into Angewomon, a bipedal winged angel.
[edit] Gender
Digimon are officially genderless, although most Digimon either appear or act as if they where of one gender.[2] This is echoed by Renamon, who in Digimon Tamers, states that Digimon have no gender. There are however, instances in the Digimon anime that would suggest there are male and female Digimon, such as Jijimon and Babamon of Digimon Tamers being called a married couple. There are also cases where Digimon of the same species have been portrayed as being of different genders. Such as how Biyomon, Digimon partner to Sora Takenouchi in Digimon Adventure, is portrayed as being female; while the Biyomon in Digimon Savers is portrayed as being male. This confusion is further compounded by the fact that in Japanese, pronouns are not marked for gender, but English ones are.
[edit] Name
Digimon are generally not given individual names, and are instead simply referred to by the name of their species. So the word "Agumon" actually refers to a Digimon species, and not a single individual Digimon. The Agumon in Digimon Adventure and the Agumon in Digimon Savers share the same name because they are of the same species. However, they are not the same individual, and are different in drawing.
When a Digimon Digivolves and assumes a new form, its name changes to match the species of its new form. However, it is still the same individual, despite having a different name.
The exception to this is the Digimon manga series V-Tamer. In this series, Digimon where given individual names. The main Digimon character in this series was a Veedramon named Zeromaru. Although Zeromaru was able to Digivolve into more powerful forms such as AeroVeedramon and UlforceVeedramon, its name remained as "Zeromaru" (although its species and form changed). The Digimon Arkadimon (also from the V-Tamer series) is also an exception because all it's 6 Digivolution forms share the same species name. So that "Arkadimon" is both the name of this character, and the species name for all of its 6 Digivolution forms.
[edit] Classification
Digimon species are given many different classifications. With the exception of level, these are generally only important in the Digimon card game, and play a very small role in Digimon anime.
[edit] Attributes
All Digimon species are classified into four attributes - Data, Vaccine, Virus and Variable. Most digimon fall into the first three categories, the fourth "Variable" category is exclusive to Hybrid Digimon. There is also one other group "Unknown", for Digimon who either do not have an attribute, or are classifed as being "Unidentified".
These attributes have a Rock, Paper, Scissors arrangement where Virus is generally advantaged against Data, Data is advantaged against Vaccine and Vaccine is advantaged against Virus. However, these attributes don't play a very important role in Digimon fights. A Digimon can generally defeat an opponent regardless of attribute if it is stronger than the opponent in Digivolution level and experience.
Most evil Digimon are of the Virus attribute (although not all Virus Digimon are evil, Wormmon being a notable exception), and Vaccine Digimon are generally considered to be "good". In the Digimon card game, some Digimon species can have more than one attribute. For example, most cards for the Digimon species "Agumon" are of the Vaccine attribute, but there is a Virus version.[3] Gabumon has versions for all three attributes.[4] Different attribute versions of a digimon are sometimes of different colors.
[edit] Family
Digimon in the card game are also classified into 10 different "Digimon families". These classifications are mostly trivial. They do not appear in the Digimon anime series, and have little bearing on actual gameplay in the card game.
Each Digimon family have a different colored background in the Digimon card game, and the Digimon within a family usually have something in common. For example, the Dragon's Roar family consists of Digimon who resemble dragons.
[edit] Level
Digimon species are classified by Digivolution levels. Digimon generally hatch out of Digi-Eggs as Fresh level Digimon. In the anime, most digimon encountered are of the rookie or champion level, ultimate and mega-level digimon are rarer. Digimon of one Digivolution level are generally far stronger than Digimon of the previous level. There are exceptions where a Digimon has been able to defeat an opponent of a higher level. There are also cases, such as with Lucemon and Arkadimon, where a Digimon is far more powerful than what its actual Digivolution level would lead one to think.
For most Digimon, there are six Digivolution levels:
- Fresh (幼年期 I Younenki I, translating literally as "Baby 1")
- In-Training (幼年期 II Younenki II, translating literally as "Baby 2")
- Rookie (成長期 Seichouki, translating literally as "Child")
- Champion (成熟期 Seijukuki, translating literally as "Adult")
- Ultimate (完全体 Kanzentai, translating literally as "Perfect")
- Mega (究極体 Kyuukyokutai, translating literally as "Ultimate")
There are also other levels, the most notable being "Armor" and "Hybrid". The "Armor" level appeared in the Digimon Adventure 02 series, and is reached when a rookie level digimon uses a Digi-Egg to Digivolve into an Armor Digimon. The "Hybrid" level contains several sub-levels, and is exclusive to the Digimon Frontier series for digimon who are formed "Spirit Digivolution".
[edit] Mode Change
There are some Digimon species who have multiple "modes", and are able to "Mode Change" between them. Often, this involves going from just a normal form to a special mode that is more powerful in some way. An example of this is Beelzemon and Beelzemon Blast Mode. Different modes of the same Digimon are generally very similar in appearance (in this case, Beelzemon Blast Mode is simply Beelzemon with a giant blaster on one arm and a pair of wings).
Different modes of a Digimon are generally considered to be the same species. This is because a Digimon who goes through a Mode change remains at the same Digivolution level (Imperialdramon, Imperialdramon Fighter Mode and Imperialdramon Paladin Mode are all Mega level digimon), and retain the same name (except with a suffix giving the name of the new mode).
Although Mode Changing does not result in a change in a Digimon's species or level, it is considered a form of Digivolution.[5]
It should be noted that only digimon of the mega level can mode change.
[edit] Type
As another form of classification, all Digimon species are given a "Type". This generally describes the physical appearance of the Digimon. So for example, Agumon is a "Reptile Type" Digimon, whereas Angemon is an "Angel Type" Digimon.[6] Some types, such as "Insect Type", include dozens of Digimon, whilst others, such as "Ancient Insect Type" are unique and belong to only a single Digimon (in this case it's AncientBeetlemon.[7] A Digimon species is generally classified into only one "type".
Like the "Family" classification, "Type" is considered to be a fairly trivial and unimportant classification. It is referenced occasionally in the anime,[8] and has some minor gameplay effects in the Digimon card game.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ In the Digimon Frontier episode "Ladies and Gentlemen: The Beetlemon", a Kokuwamon is depicted as physically aged.
- ^ official Digimon Tamers character design notes for Renamon.
- ^ St-1 is a Vaccine version, but the Attribute of St-136 is Virus.
- ^ St-5 is a Data attribute version, St-139 is the Virus and St-452 is the Vaccine one.
- ^ In Digimon Savers, the transition to Burst Mode is called "Burst Evolution", showing that this Mode Change is considered to be a form of Digivolution.
- ^ Angemon's entry in "Megchan's Digimon Encyclopedia"
- ^ Digimon kata list - a list of Digimon arranged by type.
- ^ During the "Digimon Analyzer" segments where a quick description of a newly introduced digimon species is given.
| Anime: | Adventure (Season 1) | Adventure 02 (Season 2) | Tamers (Season 3) | Frontier (Season 4) | Digimon Savers (Digimon Data Squad) | Digital Monster X-Evolution (movie) |
|---|---|
| Manga Series: | V-Tamer | Digimon Next | Digimon Chronicle | D-Cyber |
| Video Games: | Digimon World (and 2, 3, 4) | Digital Card Battle | Battle Spirit (and 1.5, 2) | Digimon Racing | Rumble Arena (and 2) | Digimon RPG | Digimon World DS | Digimon Story: Sunburst/Moonlight | Digimon Savers: Another Mission | Anode/Cathode Tamer | Tag Tamers |
| Other: | Digimon (creature) | Digimon card game | Digimon virtual pet | DigiDestined | Digivice | Digivolution | Digital World | List of Digimon | Chosen Digimon | List of human characters |
