Pokemon vs Digimon

The Biggest trends in the late 90's was all about monster pets. Pokemon was the most ingenious marketing device that made kids obsess over the idea of catching and taming monsters in small prisons (Pokeballs). Because of this great hit, other series tried to replicate this concept with different characters such as those in Monster Ranchers and Beyblade.

One series that was on an equal plain with Pokemon was Digimon. Besides the names having the "mon" at the end, what is the difference between these two franchises?

Pokemon focuses on one boy named Ash, who travels with an electric mouse named Pikachu. Together, they catch and train Pokemon in order to collect gym badges.

Digimon revolves around seven kids, partnered with their own digital monster.

Most of the Pokemon have one or two stages of evolving; for example Squirtle can evolve into Wartortle which can turn into Blastoise.

Digimon, on the other hand were not limited when "Digivolving". They could evolve into any level in order of rank; for example they could go from In-Training to Rookie to Champion to Ultimate and finally the highest rank, Mega.

Both series had different kinds of antagonists. The villains in Pokemon, Team Rocket, were thieves who constantly stalked Ash in order to steal Pikachu.

The bad guys in Digimon were actually more threatening and challenging to fight. Myotismon, a vampire Digimon, actually wanted to rule both the digital and human realms.

You might be wondering why Pokemon is a more recognized name than Digimon?

When the first season of each series came to and end, Pokemon and Digimon had different ideas about adding new seasons.



Digimon continued for only three more seasons. In each of the three, there is a new set of kids with new monsters. The "goggle-headed" leader is always replaced by a new one, meaning the seasons are not chronological and independent in their own right. Digimon's idea to replace the original characters from seasons kept the series from having the popularity that it could have had.

Pokemon kept its main characters. Every time Ash's journey came to an end he would always lose in the finals that took place in a stadium arena. Then he would give his captured Pokemon away, keeping only Pikachu. Ash would then start a new adventure in yet another country. Pokemon's continuously ended each season in the same way causing the series to become dull and eventually lose its popularity.

All Pokemon images belong to Bulbapedia and all Digimon images are from Digimon Wiki.

Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Digimon belongs to Bandi.