My last post on this blog went over the early years of the Digimon Franchise, explaining how the series started and how the team behind the LCD Toys developed the settings and overall worldview that would later be used as the basis for the Media Mix project with Bandai, Shueisha, and Toei.
The development team for Digimon was relatively small with about 5 members initially, after some changes with new versions being made, the three main persons behind the Digimon series were initially “Volcano” Ota from Bandai, Kenji Watanabe, and Makoto Kitagawara from WiZ. Of the three of them, Makoto Kitagawara, known as Kitagawara-meijin from the “Strongest Digital Monster” guidebook series, was the person in charge of the development of most of the settings and worldview of the series.
The worldview of the series was originally developed in the pages of magazines such as “V-Jump” from Shueisha and guidebooks such as “Bandai’s Official Digimon Encyclopedia”, later by request from Shueisha and with the success of the “Digital Monster” toyline there was a decision of making a new toy and expanding the worldview of the series was necessary, as such we got games such as “Digital Monster Ver.S ~Digimon Tamers~” for the Sega Saturn that used the original settings, “Digimon World” that introduced concepts that were being created for the new toy, and of course, the “Digimon Pendulum” toyline with its own series of guidebooks and more material.
Before making a new post about the rise of the Media Mix project I decided that it would be good to talk more about the original settings since I ended up not talking about some of them in my previous post. The sources of what I’m going to use include the original Digimon profiles from the guidebooks, and that also were in the “Digimon Gallery” of Digimon Channel, setting information from guidebooks like “Bandai’s Official Digimon Encyclopedia” or “Bandai’s Official Digimon Pendulum”, the games “Digital Monster Ver.S ~Digimon Tamers~” and “Digimon World”, and other trivia from the original website, magazines and more.
The Origin of Digimon
The origin of Digimon was first explained in detail in “Bandai’s Official Digimon Encyclopedia” mentioned in my previous blog. According to it, Digimon first appeared “years ago” when computers started being popular, then a “virus” appeared out of nowhere and started eating data around it from the hard drive and other parts of the computer, the person using the computer tried to erase it, but it would return again and again.
This moment is expanded on “Bandai’s Digimon Pendulum Nature Spirits” guidebook for the first “Digimon Pendulum”. It’s stated in “What is a Digimon?“, that hackers spread a virus with artificial intelligence on the network to destroy data, those viruses would be what would become the “Digimon”.
People started to notice that the virus would behave differently depending on the environment of the computer they were in, what kind of data they absorbed and how the user of the computer interacted with the virus, this interesting characteristic turned these viruses into a fascinating subject to researchers.
The Creation/Visualization of the Digimon World and Research Organizations
Due to their unique nature Digimon turned into something researched by organizations such as “DigiLab”, they would catalog information on Digimon and test them, however, it was something hard to do at first.
Digimon existed on the computer network, it was something generalized called the “Computer Ocean” (電脳の海, Den’nō no umi), or, as it would later be known, the “Net Ocean” (ネットの海, Netto no umi). It was just a collection of fundamental data that could be said to be the source of Digimon’s life, but was still just a collection of 0s and 1s just like the Digimon, it was really not something that humans could understand or directly interfere with.
The solution to this problem came with the development of software that would translate the existence of the Digimon and their world into something that humans could understand. As explained in the “Nature Spirits” book, the body of a Digimon is made of data, a collection of numbers and symbols, that was been shaped into an animal-like figure for humans, so even if it looks like an animal, it’s, in fact, complicated data being translated by software.
This not only happened with the Digimon but also with the Net Ocean. To test the Digimon in a more controlled environment than the standard computer, humans created Virtual Spaces (仮想空間, Kasō kūkan) in the form of islands and continents.
The first result of this project was the artificially created “File Island”, a massive island that floats in the Net Ocean. After the success with “File Island”, a new larger island, also called a Continent, was created and named “Folder Continent” which resulted in the discovery of even newer Digimon.
A smaller island was also created, “Web Island”, instead of working as a space for the Digimon, was a space created to gather people who knew about Digimon and share that information, was in such a place that, for example, people all over the world could later read online versions of Digimon’s profiles written by those who studied Digimon.
But, of course, the presence of Digimon wasn’t now exclusive to those places. The entire internet was still a general place where Digimon could appear out of nowhere on websites to eat data or just appear for humans. In theory, they could access those different places with addresses, such as the “Virtual Colosseum” that could be accessed and serve as a place for Digimon to fight, over time more and more virtual spaces would be created with Digimon in mind.
This Visualization Project really tried to translate everything from the world of 0s and 1s into things that humans could understand, even the “meat and capsules” that were given to Digimon to help them grow are in fact translations of the programs named “Growth Increase Program Data” (成長促進プログラムデータ, Seichō sokushin puroguramudēta) and “Muscle Increase Program Data” (筋力増進プログラムデータ, Kinryoku zōshin puroguramudēta). Yes, in nature everything in the Digital World is still 0s and 1s, and the Digimon themselves sees them as such, so for them, it’s just “Food Data” (エサのデータ, Esa no dēta), it didn’t stop being what it was, the translation was just for humans until now.
The Origin of the Digital Monster and Tamers
Alongside the development of the system to visualize the Digital World, the software named “Digimon Capture” was also created, this was a program that not only allowed to visualize the Digital World but also allowed to directly interfere with that world allowing it to capture Digimon. This gave a way for researchers to directly affect the existence of the Digimon to help their studies.
The user of the software first uses it to see the Digital World on the program’s screen, it then starts to search for Digimon that the user wants, the Capture program then can be linked with another program, “Digimon Loader”, that compress the data of the captured Digimon back as a Digitama. The Digimon that will hatch in the computer can be tamed in the computer and used for battles across the network.
Over time, the technology used in “Digimon Capture” and “Digimon Loader” became more and more advanced and the ability to compress Digimon not only was becoming stronger but could be realized in gadgets that weren’t considered highly advanced computers anymore, so what was before of exclusive use for researchers and hackers turned into something portable, the “Battle Simulator” (バトルシミュレーター).
The full name of the gadget is “Mobile Monster Training Battle Simulator” (携帯モンスター養成 バトルシミュレーター, Keitai monsutā yōsei batorushimyurētā), they are small computers that have Digimon Capture/Loader system integrated into a case called “Dock”, they have been released alongside the public reveal of the existence of the “Digital Monsters”. People all over the world started to use these gadgets and they started just calling it “Digital Monster”, or “Digimon” for short, instead of “Battle Simulator”. Those who tame the Digimon are called “Tamers” and a boom around them started.
In the beginning, the knowledge about them was very limited as children themselves tried to learn about the Digimon, the few able to learn a lot by just training started to help other children to learn how to correctly train a Digimon, which resulted in small guides that shared the information about the Digimon written by those selected Tamers and also the global use of the Web Island in the http://www.digimon.channel.or.jp/ URL.
However, over time the organizations understood that it would be good if they got the help of the hundreds of Tamers that were buying the Docks, and so public Digimon Research facilities were created to share the knowledge about Digimon. This happened alongside the development of the new Digimon Training machine with the “Pendulum” system, the “Digimon Pendulum” and the “Digimon Research Institute” (デジモン研究所) were in charge of first publicly explaining all the things I explained so far in their “Nature Spirits” guide, explaining about the origin of the Digimon, how they work and how to use the new device. Over time other organizations specialized in the different fields found in the “Folder Continent” were also sharing their information on their own guides.
Now, it’s time to introduce the ecology of the Digimon.
The Digimon Ecology
Before going into the specifics of the Digimon, there’s some generic information that is necessary to learn.
The core of the Digimon study is to understand the nature of their “Evolution”. Digimon are highly adaptative and depending on the environment and training they can grow into totally different Digimon, as Digimon were spread into the computer network, they adapted to the different programs that were installed in the computer that they were found and evolved based on the information on such programs, such as Digimon evolving into insects due to research on insects, a Digimon evolving into a space-related Digimon due to programs that showcase the outer space and so on. There are many ways that the Digimon can evolve and the overall study is mostly dedicated to looking into all the different possibilities for evolution and how to achieve the evolutions most effectively.
To train a Digimon, it’s necessary to feed them and allow them to sleep well. As Digital programs, Digimon’s body needs to adapt to new data and if bad data appears on its body, it needs to be removed. The development of wireframe and texture to this data in the form of poop became the standard way of making it clear to users to remove said data, although some Digimon has learned to use their poop as a last resource weapon. In the end, the accumulation of “Poop Data” will injure Digimon by corrupting its data and as such it’s needed extra care to deal with said data.
Accumulation of bad data is one of the many ways that Digimon can die other than exceeding their lifetimes. Something aking to time exists in the Digital World and different Digimon will act in different ways depending on the time of the day, not only that, but one day for humans is equivalent to an entire year in the lifetime of a Digimon, as time is vastly accelerated in the virtual space of the Digimon, it’s an example of how similar, yet different, the Digimon and their world are to us.
Another example is the already mentioned looks of the Digimon, as they are just data, they don’t have a physical form that is easy to understand for humans. This is, for example, why not a single Digimon has any definitive height. As there’s no concept of physical “height” or “weight”, Digimon are measured by the amount of data that can be detected on their bodies, Digimon with “more data” should be “larger” than ones with “less data”, but that isn’t something certain as there’s no concept of physical space, to begin with. Just like the forms of the Digimon are something that is translated for human understanding, the same is valid for their “height” and “weight”, but since it’s, in the end, meaningless for the Digimon, height comparisons are useless for them as they can freely adapt what is detected as their “heights” to look small or huge.
This has a connection with the overall perception of what a Digimon is, a translation of what they and their world look like using computer software, and so, how they are perceived is entirely dependent on what is “easy to understand” to humans and how much their computer systems can support the complexity of a Digimon, as some Digimon need to not show a “complex design” to not crash the computer they are in, so they are always using this “size is meaningless” to put less stress to the gadget that is being used to observe them. Another example of how different they are from us is the lack of “Male” and “Female”, as Digimon are capable of compressing their own data into a new “Digitama” when they reach the end of their lifetime, allowing them to be reborn, basically making sexual reproduction not a necessity for them.
So, the usage of the Digimon in the computers is a much more valid way of categorizing the Digimon rather than anything human-like before the creation of File Island or Folder Continent. During this time, the Digimon categorization separated them into three categories known as “Attributes” that generalize what a Digimon does in the Computer Network, this categorization starts after the Child Level is reached. The first of them is the “Virus’ which represents any Digimon that is used to destroy Computer data, countering them are the “Vaccine” Digimon that are a program that removes the viruses, while “Data” represents common information, programs that are used to send e-mails and similar things. It’s important to notice that this categorization only is about how Digimon acts, as Digimon can be corrupted by Hackers, it can be used to make what were Vaccine or data Digimon into Viruses.
The Various Digimon
To study Digimon in a more organized way, they were classified into different “versions”, with each new “version” being related to a new release of the current “Digital Monster” gadget, the first of them are from “Digital Monster” that would later be known as “Digital Monster Ver.1“. The Digimon found in this version were considered “balanced Digimon”, with evolutions focused on a balance between the land, the water, and the air for newer Tamers, and the overall structure is the basis for the subsequent versions.
When the Digitama hatches the Digimon starts in the “Childhood-Period” (幼年期, Yōnen-ki) as “Botamon“. That is the weakest and most dependent form of Digimon so far, it’s weak and unable to fight, only releasing a bubble-like substance in to try to scare predators. It needs constant feeding and care so it can survive this stage to evolve to the next period.
It’ll not take a lot of time until Botamon evolves into Koromon, still in the “Childhood Period”. Botamon loses its fluffy appearance and starts to become more active. The evolution after this point is entirely dependent on how the Tamer takes care of this Digimon, it’s the start of the “Majimon” (マジモン系) and “Deremon” (デレモン系) systems.
The more you take care of a Digimon, the higher in the “Majimon” system you’ll be, and the worst your Digimon is taken care of the more it’ll be in the “Deremon” system. The first division happens for “Agumon” and “Betamon” during the “Growth Period” (成長期, Seichō-ki). Agumon is the result of a Koramon that received good care, while Betamon is a result of some care mistakes. The “Majimon/Deremon” system is the basis for the entire “Digital Monster” series as it dictates how you’ll evolve.
Depending on how the Digimon is tamed, the two can reach the “Maturity Period” (成熟期, Seijuku-ki). For an Agumon that received very good training, it’ll become “Greymon”, one with less training will become Digimon like”Tyranomon”, the bottom of the “Deremon” system is Numemon that is shared between Agumon and Betamon. Among them, it’s important to mention the presence of “Devimon” that teases the existence of a “Shining Angel” that Devimon once was before falling into darkness to serve evil.
Normally, those who reach the Maturity Period are in their last evolutionary stage, the idea for “evolution” so far was on Growth, as the levels are named after a period of life (Infancy, Growth, and Maturity) with the suffix “Period” (期, ki). However, for the few Digimon that wants to become even more powerful, they can achieve the “Perfect Body” (完全体, Kanzen-tai). The suffix “体” (tai) represents “Body/Form” and indicates a different growth when compared to the “Periods”.
This is mostly because those beyond adults evolve only to gain more power after they had won many battles. Growing from Childhood to Growth is only a matter of having taken care of a Digimon, it can train and maybe you could even force them to fight, but that isn’t a necessity. Going from Growth to Maturity only requests for training, no real battles. However, Perfection is only achieved after countless battles and a Digimon that has fought without end while winning most of them. Metal Greymon is an example of that, of the “most powerful mechanized Digimon” with power that can destroy other low-level Digimon easily.
However, something is interesting in all of this. As Digimon evolves depending on the environment and the stronger a Digimon normally is, the easier it’s to win a fight, that would mean that already very strong Digimon don’t evolve into something higher than a weak Digimon that managed to win fights against those who are stronger. Greymon, Devimon, and Airdramon are the results of the best training from Growth to Maturity and their Perfect Body is the already mentioned “Metal Greymon”. However, Tyranomon, Meramon, and Seadramon are their counterparts below in the “Deremon” system and evolve into “Mamemon”, although it looks weak, this Mutant-type Digimon is in fact stronger than “Metal Greymon” due to its necessity to evolve in a harsh environment.
But the biggest surprise is the mysterious Monzaemon, which only evolves from Numemon which is the weakest and the bottom of the “Deremon” system, that is the real strongest Digimon of “Ver.1”. As such, the “Majimon/Deremon” system can be seen as initially showcasing the strongest Digimon as you go higher in this system, but due to the harsh environment for Deremon, when it’s time for them to evolve, they become much stronger than the “Majimon” counterpart. And this is the basics for “Ver.1” which represents the standard for the other “Ver. X”.
Ver.2 as the direct follow-up to “Version.1” brings “rivals”, a set of Digimon whose function exists to rival that of the previous version. An example of that is “Yukidarumon” which rivals Meramon or Angemon, the shining angel who descended into the world to remove the existence of Devimon using its light power. Other important additions include the explanation of the “Net Ocean” as the source of Digimon’s life with Whamon’s introduction. In general, it follows the same “Majimon/Deremon” system with the perfect levels resulting in Skull Greymon, Metal Mamemon, the “Metal”/”Mechanized” aspect would become a very important trend for the following versions, and Vademon whose existence implied that something aking to an outer space existed.
Version.3 introduces more Digimon based on mythical beings such as Orgemon (Onis), Unimon (Unicorns), Bakemon (Yokais), and Centalmon (Centaurs). There’s some interesting terminology introduced here, Poyomon’s profile state that is the most simple Digimon known so far, it’s also a Digimon that lives in the Net Ocean, so scientists think it’s the key to solving the Digimon’s creation and those who study said subject are being attracted to study more about them. Unimon’s profile gives “Computer Network’s World” (コンピュータネットワークの世界, Konpyūtanettowāku no sekai). Bakemon’s profile brings the idea of darkness, which was already mentioned by Devimon’s profile in Ver.1, as something that can create Digimon like Bakemon itself that are pure evil that brings destruction to the computers that they are in, also it seems that there’s a relationship between it and black holes, it also mentions the existence of a “Hell” (地獄, Jigoku).
For the perfects, this time we have Andromon as the “Majimon” representative, once again a Mechanized Digimon, and it’s mentioned as a Prototype Digimon (試作型デジモン, Shisaku-gata dejimon) for Cyborg Digimon (サイボーグデジモン) and the technology used on it was only completed after the development of Metal Greymon and Metal Mamemon. Also, since it’s a Prototype Digimon, it has no emotions or will of its own and only follows instructions.
Giromon is known as the “Net Keeper” (ネットキーパー), and it functions by attacking those who try to illegally invade the network. Finally, Etemon is the “bottom of Deremon” of this series and is, as usual, the strongest Digimon. Etemon is a “Puppet-Type” Digimon that is said to be behind the scenes controlling the mysterious Digimon “Monzaemon” who was the strongest Digimon in “Version. 1”. It also has an attack named “Dark Spirits” where it uses a “Black Sphere” (黒い球体, kuroi kyūtai) to “erase” (消めつ) everything it touches.
For “Version. 4” we have more interesting Digimon. Following the discovery of Poyomon, a new Digimon known as Coelamon was discovered while a computer network that was attacked by a hacker was being repaired. It’s a Digimon with a very primitive structure that is thought to be an exemplar from before the Digimon started to evolve to move away from the Net Ocean and go into the land. Kuwagamon is a Digimon that is said to be in a similar way to that of Kabuterimon that appeared in “Version.2”. Nanimon is a very mysterious Digimon and represents the “bottom Deremon” of this generation, according to research, it was a mysterious creature from a different dimension where it was kept as a digital pet known as “Oyaji”, it then invaded the Digital World and then evolved into the “Nanimon” that we now know.
Since it’s the bottom of “Deremon”, it’s not common for Nanimon to evolve, but those who were able to survive the harsh battles can evolve into “Digitamamon“, a Digimon in form of a Digitama. It uses the already mentioned darkness-based attacks whose powers can end the life activity of a Digimon destroying their spirits.
Piccolomon is the Digimon in the middle of the system, it’s also related to a different dimension, but one with an “Advanced Programing Language” (高度なプログラム言語, Kōdona puroguramu gengo) that is called “Magic” that is used to perform “magical miracles”. Finally, Megadramon is the “Mechanized” Digimon, it’s mentioned that it’s the 4th of the Digimon that has been “remodeled by someone”. Megadramon is the strongest of the Dragon Digimon and also the evilest as it was created as a program to destroy everything, in fact, it can easily destroy any security in the computer network and destroy their systems.
“Version. 5” is an interesting case, first of all, the sprite work in it shares a lot in common with those used in Virtual Pets for the Godzilla franchise creating the theory that it was a last-minute project that used the sprite work for other projects that planned to use them. Future projects that I’ll mention also don’t mention “Version. 5” and stops counting the Digimon with “Version. 4” that was the moment when the creation for “Pendulum” started to be thought about. So it’s possible that contents used in “Version. 5” were added after the development of some of the next projects with explains the focus on certain concepts.
This already starts with “Zurumon” the very first Digimon of this “Version”. Most of the early Digimon stages were not only weak, but they barely did anything other than eat and sleep, Zurumon is different as it’s a Digimon born from a supervirus and the evil hearts of hackers who attacked computers, turning it into a very active virus with a poisonous attack that really scares larger Digimon different from the other attacks from those in a similar level.
Another example of a Digimon affected by a virus is Dark Tyranomon, originally a member of the Tyranomon-species until it was corrupted by a computer virus. Deltamon was originally three different Digimon until an electromagnetic wave hit the computer they were in causing a bug that made them merge as one.
Devidramon is one of the most interesting Digimon in relationship to the worldbuilding, since “Version. 1” the existence of something considered to be darkness or hell has been mentioned in several profiles, Devidramon is one of such Digimon that is theorized to have been born from the evil emitted from the hearts of hackers. It’s a Digimon said to reside in a place called the “Dark Area” (ダークエリア) where it can be summoned by Devimon.
For the Perfects we start with “Metal Tyranomon“, continuing the other mechanized Digimon, this one was created to complement Megadramon, who was a fighter for the air, as a grounded Digimon. “Nanomon” is an early example of a Digimon with changed attributes as it was originally a Vaccine Digimon until it was hit by a powerful virus while it was making a repair in a computer, changing its attribute into Virus. “Ex Tyranomon” is the “Puppet” Digimon of this version, it has a Digimon inside of a stuffed animal like Monzaemon and it uses some kind of “evil sphere” emitted from the Digimon inside of it.
As I already explained, the “Version. S” generation was developed before “Ver.5”, so the overall idea behind it doesn’t include those from Version. 5. In “Version. S” a new artificial Digitama was developed merging data from Digimon from “Version. 1” up to “Version. 4”.
Of the Digimon introduced here, the concept of “Holy Digimon” (神聖系のデジモン, Shinseikei no dejimon) was finally expanded upon after “Angemon” appeared in Ver.2. Here it’s explained that Tailmon is a Digimon that can be considered a source to this holy species making that Digimon very valuable, It can evolve into “Holydramon” that is said to be the ultimate form of the God Beast Digimon that appears when a huge energy of evil appears in the Digital world and it uses the light energy of justice to make this evil power to return into nothingness. Tailmon can also evolve into “Angewomon” that due to their power and spirit are said to be like a Goddess of the Digital World.
The Dark-species was also developed with the introduction of “Evilmon”. Evilmon can evolve into Minotaurmon that has a great “Darkside Power” (ダークサイドのパワー, Dākusaido no pawā) that it uses in attacks like “Dark Side Quake”. There’s also Lady Devimon, a “female” Dark Digimon with unrivaled Dark Side Power of high purity with the ability to convert the opponent’s energy into Dark Energy (ダークエネルギー, Dākuenerugī) and destroy them from within.
Now inside the Digimon World
Finally, “Digimon World” brings the planned world of Digimon for the next generation to life. The game takes place in “File Island”, the same place where the Digimon from “Digital Monster” were now explained as being from. There a human Analog Boy only known as “Analog Boy” helps Digimon who have lost their hearts to regain sanity and return to their correct place.
The world of File Island could finally be seen as a whole now integrated with the already planned worldview for “Pendulum” with a background image showcasing the “Folder Continent”. As a whole, the game was very faithful to the mechanics of the V-Pets and their general worldview for them, but there was some extra information that seemed to be contradictory with what was established before and what was going to be established later as well.
The first is about the very start of the game. So far Digimon were simply computer viruses that existed in the network with an existence that has been translated for humans, the only way for humans to interact with Digimon is to use software that serves as a bridge between the Digimon and Humans, with the book “Digimon Biology” stating that was the only way that Digimon and Humans could interact. However, the very start of “Digimon World” has the human being transported into the Digital World, interacting with the Digimon “physically” and later his Mamemon even went to the Human World in order to call him to save the world again.
Not only that, but the backstory of the game also states that was not the first time that humans appeared in the Digital World, stating that Analog Humans appeared one hundred years ago, fought with Digimon, and then disappeared while the size of File Island doubles the next 10 years. Not only that, but the Story in the game’s Soundtrack Booklet states that the File Island was a Virtual Space created by Digimon for Digimon (デジモンがデジモンのために創り出した電子の空間ファイル島). The statements bring a different idea about the existence of the Digimon and their world that gives them an existence that far surpasses what would be initially implied in the original “Digital Monster” toyline. These contradictions would be mentioned in future material and some of them prefer not to choose an answer and simply state “for unknown reasons”.
The final enemy of this game is “Analogman”, a human who tried to rule over the Digimon and their world long ago, when he was defeated he tried to spread a virus to steal Digimon of their memories, their languages, and doing so many Digimon moved away from their places. Analogman then created “Mugendramon” as the strongest Digimon, and the final “Mechanized Digimon” was made with parts of all the Mechanized Digimon introduced so far. It’s so powerful that its attack “Mugen Cannon” carries infinite energy and can be used to distort the entire world and destroy everything. When he was defeated, it tried to destroy File Island with a bomb and use a program to travel into another world. However, it gets stopped by the other Digimon and something goes wrong with the process leading to the mystery of what happened with Analog Man. At least his curse remains on the island turning Digimon into Mugendramon.
Pendulum and Folder Continent
After what happened in the “Ver. 1~4/5” series and Digimon World in File Island, it was time to develop a different place in the graphical representation of the Digimon World, the Folder Continent. This is a place over 3 times the size of File Island and floats in the Net Ocean. Many mysteries about it existed compared to the ones from File Island that have been mostly discovered so far, in order to study them it was decided to separate the study and the region into 5 (Later 6) groups, known as “Nature Spirits” for Ver.1, “Deep Savers” for Ver.2, “Nightmare Soldiers” for Ver.3, “Wing Guardians” for Ver.4 and finally “Metal Empire” for Ver.5 with the Folder continent being divided into regions for each one of those families.
However, this is where I need to talk about something. Although much of Pendulum was already planned before the Media Mix projects started to be released, as new versions were being released, mentions to added settings from the new projects were also added or created for it, so I would like to only develop Ver.3 and beyond after I introduce what happened in the manga and in the anime.
The information on “Nature Spirits” was released by the members of the Digimon Research Institute and was the most complete source of Digimon information so far. The Digimon in the “Nature Spirits” field are the ones who adapted to fit in that area. This includes insects such as Kuwagamon and Kabuterimon, dinosaurs such as Triceramon, fairy-like such as Piccolomon, amphibious such as Otamamon, and much more. As you can see, a lot of them are similar to the ones that we have seen before in “File Island”, however, the environment in Folder Continent is much harsher, making the Digimon who evolved in there much stronger than their counterparts in File Island. This environment also led to the discovery of a new evolutionary level, the “Ultimate Body” (究極体, Kyūkyoku-tai) beyond the “Perfect Body”. Some Digimon previously assumed to be at a certain level in “File Island” are now of a different level in the “Folder Continent”, such as “Holydramon” that was a Perfect that evolved from Tailmon in “Version. S”, but is now an Ultimate that can evolve from Angewomon in “Pendulum 1.5 Nature Spirits.
Of the concepts introduced here, “Metal Etemon” is the returning Etemon that after various battles, learned their weakness and with that data, complemented their body with the “Chrome Digizoid Metal” (クロンデジゾイドメタル, Kurondejizoidometaru), more about it is revealed later.
The same can also be seen in “Deep Savers” that lived in the ‘Net Ocean” around the Folder Continent. There’s a “Perfect Body” Whamon can be found, it’s not only stronger than those from File Island but is on an entirely different level from them. In this sea there’s a Digimon known as “Dagomon“, thought to have evolved from a virus that infected computers on ships. Strangely enough, this Digimon showcases a fake form with its various tentacle and those who see the true form behind all of this are said to be erased from the world most of the time.
We continue to have mechanized Digimon in the last form with “Metal Seadramon” appearing as an Ultimate and the last form for the “Seadramon” species. Just like Metal Etemon, it’s a Digimon that implemented the metal “Chrondigizoit” (クロンデジゾイト, Kurondejizoito). The official name of this metal is “Chrondigizoit Hybrid Organism alloy” or just “CHO-Alloy” It’s an intermediate state between the metal itself and living organisms, so it can be integrated into Digimon while retaining the super-hardness of the metal while having the smoothness of living organisms.
There’s still much more to talk about Digimon, but I think that this is enough for now. Next time it’ll be the time to talk about the start of the multimedia project of Digimon and how that changed the franchise forever.
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