Digimon

Digimon (デジモン Dejimon), or Digital Monsters (デジタルモンスター Dejitaru Monsutaa) in long, began as a series of Virtual Pets, that expanded into a franchise centered around the creatures living inside them that quickly eclipsed the popularity of the Virtual Pets themselves.

Based partially on the sister franchise, Tamagotchi, the idea was to raise a creature called a Digimon that would evolve and change form depending on how it was cared for. Digimon could be pitted against eachother in battle - the chief difference between Digimon and Tamagotchi. Digimon was designed to appeal to boys in the same way Tamagotchi were geared towards girls.

The term Digimon may refer to the video game franchise, an individual Digimon, or a species of Digimon.

=Name= Originally called Digital Monsters, the name was quickly shortened to "Digimon".

=Franchise= While the most popular part of the Digimon franchise has always been the anime, other aspects include video games, Virtual Pets, a Trading Card Game, and manga, and much merchandise.

=Anime= =Manga / Comics= =Virtual Pets= =What Are Digimon?= Digimon are artificial life creatures created from bits and pieces of lost computer data, living within electronics. They've modified the world inside electronics into a Digital World, a personal universe all their own.
 * Digimon Adventure
 * Digimon Adventure 02
 * Digimon Tamers
 * Digimon Frontier
 * Digimon Savers
 * C'mon Digimon
 * Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01
 * Digimon Next
 * Digimon D-Cyber
 * Digimon Chronicle
 * Digimon Tokyopop
 * Digital Monster
 * Digimon Pendulum
 * Pendulum Progress
 * Pendulum X
 * Digimon Accelerator
 * Digimon Mini

Origin of Digimon
Several years ago, during a time when personal computers started to spread in popularity, a mysterious computer virus spread into the network. Whilst there, the virus absorbed data and computer bugs, causing it to mutate into a creature, beginning to multiply one after another. Gradually, Artificial Intelligence was integrated into the virus in order to make it interpret things. The virus later spread worldwide via the network, causing widespread damage.

A computer hacker utilized the virus's AI in order to create a vaccine program to oppose it. In addition, people using their home computers for sending and receiving E-mails through the use of the vaccine, resulted in various Digimon attributes being formed. A sudden change occurred due to the fact that the program's specification became comprehendible, while repeating several network battles it absorbed information. The state in which it changed variously was the point where it “evolved”. A researcher who observed to this, enumerated a series of 0s and 1s, creating a framework skin and wireframe texture. Artificial lifeforms began to take shape and were later referred as "Digital Monsters".

Taxonomy
See Digimon Taxonomy

Digimon species are "kinds" of Digimon, such as Gomamon or Garurumon. Individual Digimon of certain species can change into some other species by evolution. Digimon "species" can often be a group, or sometimes a single individual living in the Digital World.

=Evolution= See Evolution

Digimon evolve with age, collecting data, winning battles, or drawing energy off a human. Digimon have six "natural" stages of evolution and two others obtained with artificial help.

While the anime generally presents Digimon as having conceptually "matching" evolution lines, in other aspects of the franchise, Digimon evolve depending on how they're raised - including what time they're awake, how much they've fought, how much they've trained, how much they've eaten, and other factors. An Agumon who has been raised properly will evolve into the powerful Greymon, while one who has been starved to death will evolve into the weak and disgusting Numemon. Evolution can be temporary or permanent depending on the circumstances. Generally in the anime, Digimon evolve for a short period of time before reverting to smaller, cuter forms. In the games, Digimon usually retain their larger forms after evolving.