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

They have attributes which give them their uniqueness, attacks, and so on. There are four attribute classifications of Digimon: Data, Vaccine, Virus, and Variable.

Digimon start as DigiTama and evolve (Dub: Digivolve), throughout their lives. The more data the Digimon gains, the higher the Digimon evolves, and the more powerful it becomes.

Each Digimon has a Type that describes them. There are many different types-- too many to list. Some common types include Machine, Plant, Dinosaur, Angel, and Demon.

Each Digimon has special and unique attacks. They use these attacks to aid in their survival. Most Digimon have atleast two special attacks.

As electronics continue to grow and evolve, so does the Digital World and its inhabitants. New Digimon and Digimon types are constantly being discovered.

=Species= 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= 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.