Current Events > Why did Digimon never achieve the same level of success as Pokemon?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Back when FOX and WB aired cartoons in the mornings and afternoons I remember both shows. But Digimon seemed to fall off. Even today I cant think of a single Digimon meme while Pokemon has Shocked Pikachu face. And they even had Pokemon Go become popular a couple years ago.

Pokemon rode the success of the video games. Had the backing and push from Nintendo after it went from a low budget afterthought to one of the best selling games of the 90s

Pokmon backed by Nintendo. Digimon came second so always seen as the Pokmon knock off. Advertising made Pokmon into the mass culture thing. No one knew what digimon was.

The only true threat to Pokmon at the time was Yugioh, but that never really took off in NA as expected.

Cuz Pokemon has simple fun gameplay, good worldbuilding, waifus, and good designs well some of them >_>

Dakimakura posted...

The only true threat to Pokmon at the time was Yugioh, but that never really took off in NA as expected.

I actually enjoyed the Yugioh anime more than Pokemon. Especially Yugioh Season 0.

Yugioh Season 0 is a fun trip lol

Pokemon has greater mass appeal due to its simplistic designs, unchanging gameplay and guarantee of release.
Digimon has less mass appeal due to its more complex designs, variations in gameplay between releases and less support from the parent company.

Basically you can pick up a Pokemon game from first to last and know how to get Pikachu, how to evolve it, what moves it learns etc. Pick up a Digimon game and good luck getting a specific mon, before it dies of time/hunger/care mistakes (unless those don't exist!), while trying to get the right stats to evolve it (unless what you're looking for isn't in the game!) etc etc

DoctorPiranha3 posted...

Pokemon rode the success of the video games. Had the backing and push from Nintendo after it went from a low budget afterthought to one of the best selling games of the 90s

Digimon also had video games. But they were poorly designed. In the first game you could only have one digimon, they randomly die and you have to start over or it evolves into a poop monster. In the second game you could have more then one digimon, but they would stop leveling up after a few levels.

Digimon was made to compete with Tamogotchi.

Tsukasa1891 posted...

Digimon also had video games. But they were poorly designed. In the first game you could only have one digimon, they randomly die and you have to start over or it evolves into a poop monster. In the second game you could have more then one digimon, but they would stop leveling up after a few levels.

3rd game was great except for the random encounter rate.

As a dumb little kid, I wasnt as interested in Digimon because I thought it was a Pokmon knockoff and thought it was dumb that they all had "mon" in their names and thought it was dumb that they talked, and thought it was dumb they "de-digivolved" after a battle.

Basically I wanted it to be exactly like Pokmon (even tho, ya know, I didn't like that it was a knockoff)

lilORANG posted...

As a dumb little kid, I wasnt as interested in Digimon because I thought it was a Pokmon knockoff and thought it was dumb that they all had "mon" in their names and thought it was dumb that they talked, and thought it was dumb they "de-digivolved" after a battle.

Basically I wanted it to be exactly like Pokmon (even tho, ya know, I didn't like that it was a knockoff)

lilORANG posted...

As a dumb little kid, I wasnt as interested in Digimon because I thought it was a Pokmon knockoff and thought it was dumb that they all had "mon" in their names and thought it was dumb that they talked, and thought it was dumb they "de-digivolved" after a battle.

Basically I wanted it to be exactly like Pokmon (even tho, ya know, I didn't like that it was a knockoff)

So you didn't like every episode having a 30 second transformation scene for each digimon?

Tsukasa1891 posted...

So you didn't like every episode having a 30 second transformation scene for each digimon?

Nah, that was always hype af.

I'll tell you one thing, though. Their fandom is just as crazy.

spikethedevil posted...

Digimon was made to compete with Tamogotchi.

No, it wasn't. They were both made by Bandai. Digimon was targeted at males, while Tamogotchi was targeted at females.

Remember Fighting Foodons? Shit was lit

Pokemon actually had good games

Pokmon is so much more simple and straightforward than Digimon, which is key if you want to be popular with young kids and the man children they grow up to be.

Pokmon = Catch em, train em, trade em, rinse & repeat.

This is what every major piece of the franchise is based around from the show to the games, cards, etc. and they stick to it.

Digimon = I dont even fucking know.

I know they digivolve and fight other Digimon but thats all I know. The shows have different series plot lines that you had to follow to know whats going on, every game is different and most are bad, the cards where introduced just to ride the Pokmon TCG hype train, etc.

I never played the games, but I liked the Digimon anime/cartoon better than the Pokmon one. I appreciated the slightly more mature storytelling and character designs. That may have worked against it though. A Pikachu plushie was going to sell more than a Wargreymon plush toy.

It was pretty much always doomed to be in Pokmon's shadow. Even children are cynical about perceived rip-offs. Dissimilarities aside, the -mon suffix removed any doubt as to where they were going with the idea. It's like if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cash-in Street Sharks had been called Shark Ninjas.

It also didn't help that they were going up against a major company like Nintendo. If Nintendo had allowed it to fall to the wayside like Punch Out or Kid Icarus, maybe the owners of Digimon could've kept at it and won the long game. But Pokmon proved to be Nintendo's bread and butter.

The very concept of Digimon is stupid and only works as a play off of Pokemon.

The word "digital" here is just stupid and weightless. Is there a single time where substituting "magical" instead wouldnt work?

Video games, and the cards. Digimon had video games, but they mostly sucked, they had cards, but nobody cared.

Jerry_Hellyeah posted...

The very concept of Digimon is stupid and only works as a play off of Pokemon.

The word "digital" here is just stupid and weightless. Is there a single time where substituting "magical" instead wouldnt work?

Uh, they are literally digital pets. They aren't magical. Why use "Magical" to describe the digital pets, when you can use "Digital" to do so.

I said it before and will again. I actually really, really, really loved Digimon World 1, and it was easily one of my favorite games of all time. They really should have made more like it back in the day. I know they have newer ones, like Re:digitized and .... whatever the PS4 one was or something, but back on the PS1, they should have really pushed out another like it. I liked 2 and 3, but back then, Digimon World 1 was all the hype.

Monster rancher though

Nothing has reached the success of Pokemon.

Pokemon was a video game so the following generated from that plus the show came out at the perfect time when anime was being imported to American markets. Tie those elements together plus Nintendo's aggressive penchant for merchandising and nothing else stood a chance.

Digimon and YuGiOh simply rushed out of nowhere to US markets to coattail on that success which is why all of those IPs fall below Pokemon.

Pokemon was inspired by Satoshi Tajiri feeling down that all of the places he used to catch bugs as a kid have been paved over and turned into Arcades or apartment complexes. There's a melancholy there in the original games that were made as a way to show kids what his childhood was like. Grimer and Koffing were made to show kids the dangers of pollution.

And all of that in a fairly good creature catching game too. The guy who sold sea monkeys said that the idea came from isolating the three things kids love most. Toys, pets, and surprises. Pokemon captures that exact same feeling, so it's no wonder the games took off. (The entire creature catching genre itself probably works so well because of this)

Digimon, as much as I love it, has always been a toy first. It would eventually grow into something else. A full media franchise of its own complete with anime, movies, books and card games. But while Nintendo was pushing Pokemon as hard as it could (and still is), Bandai continued treating Digimon as just another one of their many products.

And for anyone curious, Digimon has a new anime airing right now called "Digimon: Ghost Game" and it's pretty good so far. Seems to be angling for some light children's horror, playing up the more monstrous appearances of many Digimon.

Ngl, I don't even remember how Digimon even works.

lilORANG posted...

Nah, that was always hype af.

I always found it to ruin the pacing. They should of saved the long transformation scenes for big moments instead of using them for every villain of the week. It's even worse latter in a season when every digimon has to transform to it's mid form then again to final form. They should of just had them all transform at the same time with a split screen instead of throwing five+ minutes of filler when you just want to see the action. Season 3 really shoves it in your face when the human characters now have to do a overly dramatic pose just to swipe a card.

JE19426 posted...

Uh, they are literally digital pets. They aren't magical. Why use "Magical" to describe the digital pets, when you can use "Digital" to do so.

And where does that distinction matter at all? The "Digi" thing is barely ever touched. They are magical monsters from a magical world that little kids get sucked into. Its a weak name.

Devimon vs. Angemon is cornier than I remember. I thought this scene was cool back in the day.

https://youtu.be/XLiUyTlEJvU

Pepys Monster posted...

Devimon vs. Angemon is cornier than I remember. I thought this scene was cool back in the day.

https://youtu.be/XLiUyTlEJvU

When I was a kid, it blew my mind that Devimon's dying words were "Nice job killing yourself, jackass. But I'm not even the baddest bitch in the digital world. Good luck against Myotismon and I'll see you in hell!"

Just the idea that the big, major villain could have some humility about where they stood in the context of the world around them, at 9 years old I had never seen anything like that before. >_>

Jerry_Hellyeah posted...

And where does that distinction matter at all? The "Digi" thing is barely ever touched. They are magical monsters from a magical world that little kids get sucked into. Its a weak name.

By thar logic Pokemon is also a weal name.

At least Digimon managed to be close to Pokmon. There are other games in that genre in Japan but none of them ever came as close as Digimon, in the west

Japan has monster collecting games based on Dragon Quest and SMT

Also there is Monster Rancher

None of them are as big as Digimon outside Japan

Pokemon had more marketable designs, I think. Even the main characters mons in Digimon were kind of ugly and digimon in general tend to get more and more overdesigned as they rank up.

i hated micromanaging my digimons poop time

Dakimakura posted...

Pokmon backed by Nintendo. Digimon came second so always seen as the Pokmon knock off. Advertising made Pokmon into the mass culture thing. No one knew what digimon was.

The only true threat to Pokmon at the time was Yugioh, but that never really took off in NA as expected.

speak for yourself, Yu-Gi-Oh was always #2 to Pokemon's #1. Incomparable.

The Digimon anime, especially when the Dark Masters are introduced, is great.

The first game could have been a lot better if the partner-death/de-evolving wasn't such an issue. The town recruitment aspect was the best part.

Maybe Scoob and the gang can solve this mystery. Do you think?

Zikten posted...

Japan has monster collecting games based on Dragon Quest and SMT

Well obviously. Monster taming has been a core mechanic of SMT games since the beginning.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/7/4/AADbJNAACtzC.jpg

Tsukasa1891 posted...

Well obviously. Monster taming has been a core mechanic of SMT games since the beginning.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/7/4/AADbJNAACtzC.jpg

I guess. I haven't actually played any but I want to sometime. But I'm talking about a sub series called Devil Children. It apparently is just like Pokmon. Part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise

No love for Yo-kai Watch?

Tsukasa1891 posted...

Well obviously. Monster taming has been a core mechanic of SMT games since the beginning.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/7/4/AADbJNAACtzC.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/7/AAdlC_AACt-f.jpg

"Damned kids. I was using capsule monsters in the 60s!"