Kemonogami

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Kemonogami (ケモノガミ, lit. "Beast God") are a type of supernatural lifeform in Digimon Survive. They are the game's counterparts of Digimon, the difference being that Kemonogami are not (yet) digital life forms.

Overview

Properties

According to Habu Kazumasa, in the story background of Digimon Survive and some other Digimon media, Digimon were not born as a result of humans creating computers. Instead, they always existed, living alongside humans albeit in another dimension, becoming visible to humans once they created computers and digital technology. Prior to this, they may have been manifested through magic or sorcery, through the ancient art of Onmyōdō, subjugating them as shikigami, yōkai, or demons; the invention of computers has the effect of accomplishing this digitally, making them Digital Monsters. Hence, the main plot of Survive takes place in a period before said technology causes said creatures, the Kemonogami, to become Digimon. Two of Survive's endings—Truthful and Moral—state that, due to the Kemonogami's world becoming in some manner fundamentally affected by digital data from the Real World (the means differs based on the route), Kemonogami either have become, or will soon become, digital entities and therefore Digimon.

Almost all Kemonogami species seen in Survive are simply species of what all other Digimon franchise productions call Digimon.

Kemonogami are split into categories that are each directly equivalent to a Digimon Attribute: Moral (Vaccine), Wrathful (Virus), Harmony (Data), and Free. Of these categories, Free is the only one to share the same name as the respective Digimon attribute. Huanglongmon (and Ruin Mode) has one exclusive to itself, however the game does not state what it is. Like Free, it is neutral to everything else.

Death is permanent for Kemomongami. Exceptions are Renamon and Master in the Moral route where they became Eggs. Renamon due to his remains fusing with Minase Miyuki's tears and Master possibly due to being fused with Minase Haruchika's soul at the time. When a human dies, their Kemonogami dies too. An exception is the Four Holy Beasts for unexplained reasons (possibly because they technically live on as ghosts).

Production

Since Kemonogami are not digital and therefore technically not Digimon, the English localization of Survive does not use much of the standard terminology used by previous localizations. Instead, it in effect keeps or approximates the original Japanese terms: the process of evolution is just called "evolution" instead of "digivolution", and the term Chosen Child is translated as "Chosen Kid" instead of "DigiDestined".

Appearances

Video Games

Digimon Survive

The Kemonogami are a type of lifeform that exist in an alternate World to the Humans'. In some places, Humans came to worship and/or fear them and as such would provide them with children as sacrifices in the hopes it would keep them safe. Originally, the two worlds were combined with Kemonogami and Humans being the same entity with them sharing the same soul. Minase Haruchika even states that the combined form of Kemonogami and Humans actually had Kemonogami as their real form, not humans, and that upon the two worlds being split the Kemonogami half of the soul went to the alternate world and the human part went to the human world. He also states that should the two worlds fuse together again the Kemonogami and Humans would eventually become one again with the Kemonogami forms being the true form again.

In one small village, the locals created a shrine dedicated to worshipping the Kemonogami though eventually barred anyone from going near it due to many people going missing near it. Some referred to this as being "spirited away". 

Some Humans would also find their way to the Kemonogami World in other ways, such as Momotsuka Takuma and his friends ending up there after walking through a tunnel on their historical studies extracurricular activities camp. Female members of the Minase clan, such as Minase Yukiha and Minase Miyuki are able to open gates to the alternate world/human world (depending on location) which allows travel between the two.

A year after the events of the Truthful route, due to the two worlds merging together once again — the digital components of the now merged world (the digital elements coming from the human world) cause Kemonogami to become Digimon. Though not stated in the Harmonious or Wrathful routes, the worlds merge together in those routes as well meaning it is likely they became Digimon there too. Unlike the other three routes, the worlds do not merge in the moral route. Minase Akiharu however, considers that same thing will happen due to the Kemonogami's world (now named by him as the Digital World) now being sustained through digital data.

Additional Information

References	Notes