It is hard to have a discussion about Digimon without first addressing its rival, Pokémon. Digimon and Pokémon have a lot of similarities for sure and they were released only sixteen months apart from each other. There might be some Pokémon fans who are unfamiliar with Digimon and may have misconceptions about Digimon. Those who are familiar with Digimon might know it best through the Digimon Adventure anime.

The Digimon Adventure anime made its debut in 1999. The well-received anime centered around seven, and later eight, children who were the Digidestined. They were destined to venture the Digital World and save it from the grasp of those who seek to do harm. They weren’t alone; the digidestined traversed the Digital World with their Digimon partners, Agumon, Gabumon, Biyomon, Tentomon, Palmon, Gomamon, Patamon and Gatomon. Eventually the real world was exposed to the Digital World, putting both words at ri💛sk. The differences between Pokémon and 𝄹Digimon should be night and day from that description alone. Each Digidestined has only one Digimon partner, and they are primarily interacting with each other from within the Digital World. The stakes are also much higher. The Digidestined are tasked with saving two worlds.

There is much more to Digimon. For example, Digimon began as a virtual pet similar to Tamagotchi despite being most known for its anime series. As you will read in this article, there are a lot of different facts about Digimon and little intricacies that are overlooked. Here are 25 things everyone gets wrong about Digimon.

25 You Think They're Just Monsters? 🍸

Just because they are called Digital Monsters does not mean they are only monster-like creatures. Digimon does not shy away from depicting Digimon as human-like figures. This is a contrast to Pokémon, which depicts its creatures more like animals. One of the most prominent examples of this is the main antagonists of the Digimon Adventure anime. The anime features Devimon, which is a devil-like humanoid Digimon. Above Devimon, there is Myotismon, which is a vampire-like humanoid. One must not forget Angemon and Angewomon, who battle these dark forces. There are actually several angel Digimon in the franchise. There is Lucemon and Ophanඣimon to name a few. Digimon also has the thirteen royal knights, which are a group of Holy Knight Digimon that guard the Digital World.

24 𝐆 One Monster At A Time

The Digimon Virtual Pet released in 1997 set the precedent for the Digimon franchise. It makes sense that one would not be able to care for multiple virtual pets at one time, so you were limited to one Digimon. This is also likely due to the influence Tamagotchi had on Digimon. This tradition of only having one Digimon carried into the anime, in which each Digidestined had one Digimon partner. This was also seen in some of the video games. In particular, the popular game for the PlayStation, Digimon World, only allowed players to have one Digimon at a time. This contrasts with Pokémon, where you can have a team of up to six Pokémon at any given time. However, there are some Digimon games where players can have a team of up to three Digimon, such as the Digimon World games for the Nintendo DS.

23 🎃 Small Beginnings

Most people remember Digimon from the 1999 anime which popularized the franchise. The anime is colorful and filled with a lot of different Digimon. Digimon first made its debut as a virtual pet in 1997. It was very similar to Tamagotchi, and was marketed towards a male audience. Being a virtual pet, the creatures were small and cute, but still had unique characteristics. With the Digimon virtual pet, you could check your Digimon’s status, feed your Digimon, train your Digimon, and clean up droppings. It is v🌟ery reminiscent of Tamagotchi. However, the Digimon virtual pet also allowed you to battle another owner’s Digimon. Unlike the animated series, the virtual pet was not bright, colorful, and filled with various Digimon. Version 1 of the virtual pet only had seven “adult” or “champion” Digimon one could obtain.

22 Digimon Released 16 Months After Pokémon ♏

As I have stated in the last entry, Digimon was released as a virtual pet in 1997. With Digimon, one cannot help but compare it to Pokémon, a similar, albeit more popular, franchise about monsters. Despite the obvious connection between both franchises, Digimon might not actually be as influenced by Pokémon as people are initially led to believe. Pokémon was first released as a game for the Game Boy in 1996 with the release of Pokémon Red and Green. In June of 1997, the first Digimon virtual pet was released. It is unlikely that the creators of Digimon saw the release of Pokémon and then decided to develop Digimon as ൲a knock-off of Pokémon. Digimon was mostly influenced by the Tamagotchi virtual pets. With the Digimon virtual pets, there is no capturing of monsters and you only have one Digimon at a time.

21 Ripping Off Mega Evolutions 🥀

Digimon was briefly brought into discussion among fans of the Pokémon games with the release of Pokémon X and Y in 2013. This is because Pokémon announced there would be mega evolutions. With mega evolutions, one could mega evolve their Pokémon which would temporarily make their Pokémon stronger. Digimon has had mega evolutions since the beginning, and some pondered if Pokémon would take a direction similar to Digimon. Mega evolutions in Digimon are strange. In the Digimon anime and in some Digimon games, meꦚga evolutions are temporary. However, the Japanese version of mega evolution in Digimon is actually called “ultimate” and ultimate evolutions, which are before mega evolutions in English versions, are referred to as “perfect” in Japanese versions. It’♔s a stretch to say Pokémon simply took Digimon’s idea on this one.

20 ♑ Dub And Sub Differences

Digimon Adventure made its debut in 1999 as the first season of the Digimon anime saga. It was a popular series and ran for 54 episodes. It began its run in Japan before coming to the United States a few months later. Like all dubbed anime, there were some differences between the dub and original material. At the time, dubbed anime typically went through a great deal of localization for American audiences, but Digimon retained a lot of material. The names of characters were not changed for the most part. The term “Digivolution” is a term created for American audiences. Digimon in Japan kept the word for evolution. The dubbed also has a lot of dialog changes, and s🎀ome scenes were cut out, like𝓀 a scene were Tai was slapped by his mother.

19 🔯 Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Although it is not as popular as similar franchises, the Digimon franchise is pretty wide in terms of its content. For example, there are several distinct and separate universes. The first season of the Digimon anime had a cast of characters that were only slightly present in the second season. The second season had a completely different cast of characters. The third season rebooted the series entirely and was not connected to the second season in any way. Same with the fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons. In this way, Digimon could be comparable to the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, but sets it apart from Pokémon. The Pokémon anime follows Ash for several seasons. Ash maintains his age and goes on adventures in relatively the same formula. Digimon, on 💟the other hand, decided to spice tꦺhings up with new elements each season.

18 ꦜ Battl𓃲e Of The Trading Card Games

Many might now know this, but there was actually a short lived Digimon trading card game called Digi-Battle Card Game. I have never actually seen anybody play the game before, but there are some obscure websites online dedicated to it. The rules seem convoluted and easy to misinterpret. For this reason, the cards are mainly just collectables. The card game might also have something to do with the Digimon cards seen in the third season of Digimon. However, the card game existed in Japan far before the third season of Digimon. The card game existed in Japan as early as 1997. There are also several iterations of the card game which I would imagine makes it hard to keep up with. Digim༺on just wasn’t meant to be a card game, but at least they’re nice to look at.

17 ✃ Bursting Away From Mega Evolutions 💫

As if mega evolution was not confusing enough, burst mode was introduced to Digimon in Digimon Data Squad, the fifth season of the Digimon anime series. It is essentially a better version of mega evolution. There are a lot less burst forms than there are mega evolutions in total. The most commonly seen burst forms of those of ShineGreymon, MirageGaogamon, Rosemon, Ravemon, BanchoLeomon, and Agumon. The Digimon Next manga also included burst mode. In this series, burst mode was used to Digivolve to mega if a Digivice is not present, but there is a catch. Using burst mo💜de would consume the tamer’s life-force. Like many other gimmicks that are introduced, burst mode was forgotten after the 🃏fifth season. One may still see burst mode Digimon in the Digimon video games.

16 🔴 Digivolution Is Confusing

Digivolution can be very confusing, if you could not already tell based on what you’ve read in this article. Let’s go over the basics. Digimon go from fresh, to in-training, to rookie, to champion, to ul🍬timate, to mega. In Japan, these stages are named differently. For example, mega is called ultimate and rookie is called child. In the Digimon anime, any Digivolution past rookie is temporary. That’s not always the case in the video games. There are also a variety of gimmicky special Digivolutions that are typically used for one season until they move on to the next gimmick. There is Dark Digivolution, Armor Digivolution, DNA Digivolution, Warp Digivolution, Biomerge Digivolution, Shining Digivolution, Burst Digivolution, and Spirit Digivolution. I am sure I missed others as well. Digimon are very versatile with what they can Digivolve into since it is all technically data; they do not have biological restrictions.