Conceptual Log: Archived Research on Digital World and Digimon (1998~2000 Digimon Pendulum)

1. Introduction
2. Digimon Pendulum 1.0 Nature Spirits
   1. Magazines and Books
3. Digimon Pendulum 2.0 Deep Savers
   1. Magazines and Books
   2. Deep Savers Profiles
4. Digimon Museum – The Last Summary
5. Digimon Pendulum 3.0 Nightmare Soldiers
   1. Magazine and Books
   2. Nightmare Spirits profiles
6. Digimon Pendulum 4.0 Wind Guardians
   1. Magazines and Books
7. Digimon Pendulum 5.0 Metal Empire
   1. Magazine and Books
   2. Metal Empire profiles
8. .5 and Virus Busters
   1. Magazines
   2. .5 and Virus Busters profiles
9. Conclusion

Introduction

The Conceptual Logs are archives where keywords that are important to the world of Digimon will be explained. The objective is to give a comprehensive view of the concept.

This is the general archive for research on the concept of Digimon and the Digital World as a whole. Due to the huge amount of information from many sources across many years, it has been decided to divide it into different pages, each dealing with a section of the whole. Below is a chart containing the topic division and access to each individual research.

Main Page

1997~1998 Digital Monster	1998~2000 Digimon Pendulum	1999~2002 Original Digivices	2002~2007 First Digital Monster revival era	2017~2022 Second Digital Monster Revival era	2020~2022 Digimon Digimon Reboot Project
1999~2018 Digimon Adventure and 02	2001~2021 Digimon Tamers	2002~2022 Digimon Frontier	2005~2008 Digimon Savers and Next	2010~2012 Xros Wars	2015~2018 Digimon Adventure Tri.
1999~2005 Digimon World~X	1999~2001 Ryo Akiyama Series	2006~2011 Digimon Story series	2012~2022 Habu Kazumasa’s foundational series	1999~2022 Other games	2020~2022 Digimon Adventure Kizuna and The Beginning

Notes:

• Be aware that the Cover date for V-Jump is around 2 months ahead of the proper release date. I’ll mention the Cover date here, but be aware that the real release date was around 2 months before it. So if I mention the V-Jump of June 1997, the actual release date is around April 1997.
• I only have access to the older V-Jumps; the content available in the Weekly Jump that should have been more complete in the early years isn’t available.
• The various scans featured from the Digimon guidebooks were made by Kyamos the Stubborn (@KyamosTS) from the Digisoul forum, Fandramon, Tuhka, Touya, and Xros Raws. The V-Jump scans were shared by Ulforce_Soul.

Digimon Pendulum 1.0 Nature Spirits

Magazines and Books

With the development of “Digimon Pendulum,” the Worldview of the Digimon series would be forever changed. Instead of making new places, regions, and characters and connecting them as they continued developing, the entire backstage where the Digimon Pendulum takes place was planned beforehand, along with many key features of the Digimon universe.

We got to see this full new world in the pages of the November 1998 V-Jump issue, following last month’s summary of “File Island”. Here the new stage for the Digimon toys was revealed, Folder Continent, full of totally new Digimon that are so powerful that a new device had to be made to properly capture them, the Digimon Pendulum.

As a result of investigating the Cyberspace, Digital World, a new continent was discovered!
Its name is “Folder Island”
The Monsters of the new Continent, they possess superior fighting power to the monsters of File Island, and were difficult to capture with the old Digimon, so the new Digimon “Digimon Pendulum” was developed.

Folder Island
File Island
The world map of the known Cyber Space, Digital World, so far. The new continent is huge.
A new continent bigger than the stage of the old Digimon. Were the functions (systems) scaled up to!?

A few things to note, while the term “Digital World” (デジタルワールド) has often been used to describe the world of Digimon, it’s also often put as the Furigana for 電脳空間 (Den’nō kūkan) which means “Cyberspace”. Also, as you might have noticed, the term “Folder Island” was used instead of “Folder Continent”. This wording was used a few times during the early days of the Pendulum announcements, but it has basically never been used again.

Building upon the original Digital Monster, the monsters that live in Folder Continent were shown as much stronger than those from File Island, an element that would be used to explain why the winning chance for a Pendulum was much higher than a Digital Monster when the two toys connected. This lore would be mentioned a few times in profiles for individual Digimon, comparing the same species of Digimon that live in the two places.

Where did the Digimon come from? What kind of life do they live in?
Let me report on that study
Digimon Research Institute Professor
Pendulum

Following that, Shueisha released “Bandai’s Official Digimon Pendulum Nature Spirits” on December 8, 1998. This is the first of the Pendulum-related books released by Shueisha, finally as a complete series with most of the information about the series. The book, like the first one released by Aspect, put a huge focus on developing the Worldview of Digimon and for that, it introduced the Digimon Research Institute, an institution created to explore the ecology of Digimon. The content of this book is the research report of that organization revealing many elements about the world of Digimon.

DIGIMON PENDULUM NATURE SPIRITS
Research Report No.1 Digimon World
Folder Continent
What kind of creatures are Digimon? We will reveal everything from their living environment to the secret of their birth, which until now has been kept a top secret.

Inhabitants of the digital world
[What is a Digimon]
A newly discovered life form unlike any other
Hackers spread Viruses with Artificial Intelligence all over the world to destroy Computer Data. Digimon are viruses that have absorbed data from all over the world, changed their appearance and nature, and evolved like living creatures.

Here we have a very short version of the Digimon backstory. It’s a bit different in regards to exactly where Digimon started. In the first origin, depicted in Aspect’s book, the Digimon were first discovered as computer viruses found on computers. Here it’s stated that Hackers were the ones to spread the virus, so it could also be likely that they were also the ones to create it, but since it’s not said directly, it could be that the original explanation is still in use.

Digimon Capture

Digimon Loader

Capturing Digimon
Teaching about how to keep a Digimon as if it was a portable game.
Search for Digimon with “Digimon Capture”.
Software that captures Digimon, it projects the world where Digimon live on the computer screen. If you search the world on the screen, you may find a Digimon in the Baby Stage in the Wild.
Put the Digimon you found in the “Digimon Loader”
After finding the Digimon, its data is reduced to a small size and put into the special capture software. Then, it’s transferred to the Digimon machine in the form of a Digitama, making it possible to battle anytime, anywhere.

The “technology that captures Digimon for training” has been mentioned since the very first book, but here it gets a proper explanation and even a name. Something to note here is that “Digimon Capture” is stated to project the world of Digimon, while with Digimon Loader it’s put inside the portable device. Where really Digimon has always been a bit contradictory in the lore of the V-Pets, with some materials stating it’s really inside the LCD Toy, while others simply state that it’s used to connect with the world of Digimon and the Digimon themselves aren’t inside the device. Here it seems we get a bit of the two worlds, with the Digimon Capture being connected with the world of Digimon, while the Digimon Loader was inside the portable device, or as it’s often called, the Digimon Machine/Main Unit (デジモン本体, Dejimon Hontai).

[Digimon’s form]
Why do Digimon look like animals or plants?
A Digimon’s body is made of Data. What was originally a collection of numbers and symbols was transformed into an animal-like figure by humans. Therefore, even if it looks like an animal, the contents are complicated data.
Before Digimon’s current form
It can be divided into two forms: one created by a human using a computer, and one that a Digimon learned on its own.
The appearance of Digimon is completed with reference to RPG monsters
Digimon goes into data stored in computers or in-game monster data. When they find a form they like, they take a form similar to that data.
It’s originally a collection of data, so inside the animal-like forms, it’s full of numbers and symbols.

They are originally a collection of data, so inside the animal-like forms, they are full of numbers and symbols.

Professor Pendulum

This will become more important as we move to the later stages of Digimon development, but let’s talk about a Digimon’s appearance, figure, shape, and form (デジモンの姿, Dejimon no Sugata). In the previous explanation about Digimon, the actual understanding of what Digimon are was still very vague; there were mentions about Digimon lacking physical properties like size, but that was still very inconsistent, and it wasn’t very clear how the existence of Digimon really worked. Here we have our first look at understanding what Digimon really are by saying that they really aren’t anything that they look like; instead, they are pure data, 0s and 1s, that are merely translated into a form that can be easier for humans to understand.

The closest we had to this explanation before was the lore regarding Food that was featured in Aspect’s book, so with this we can be sure that nothing in this cyberspace environment has a proper form of its own, rather everything is simplified to make it something that humans can understand. This will become the cornerstone of certain aspects of Digimon lore much later in the series’ history, so take note of it.

Mutual Relationship between Digimon
Many types of Digimon were born while fighting on Computers
At first, Digimon spread over the world as Viruses that destroyed computers. In order to prevent the abuse of that power, other types of Digimon were made.
Data (Da)
Used peacefully by many people
They are raised as pets and even used to send E-mails. They incorporate Vaccines to protect themselves from Viruses
Vaccine (Va)
Digimon that repel viruses
Digimon that were created to prevent Data from being destroyed by Viruses. They have the instinct to attack Viruses and destroy them.
Virus (Vi)
They eat data to sustain their lives
They were created to retrieve and destroy Data from inside computers. The only way to defend against their destruction was by making the Vaccine-Types.

The Digimon Types/Attributes were developed as a way of unifying Digimon’s “Rock-Paper-Scissors” structure, which was still very over the place in the original Digital Monster. This structure was made from an idea Volcano Ota had and named after common computer terminology. Not only does this give a structure of “X Digimon has an advantage against Y Digimon”, but it also explains that those types of Digimon are commonly used for more things on the internet than just spreading viruses.

[Mysteries of Digimon]
Where did Digimon come from?
As a consequence of the spread of computers all over the world, Digimon came into being from various Software and Data around the world. And thus, depending on the type of Data that existed and the purpose of their use, they all evolved according to their own characteristics.
Piccolomon enjoys making Computers go out of control
Piccolomon, who enjoys mischief, flies recklessly within the Net. Due to that, Data is scattered, which causes them to go out of control.
Net Area of the Tropics
Altur Kabuterimon
Altur Kabuterimon is thought to have parasitized the Data of insects that resided in the Tropical Area and its form is an imitation of that.
Computer’s Dictionary function
Motimon
They were born from learning the data of various languages from a computer’s dictionary function. Due to that, they understand human speech.
Space Exploration Center’s Planetary Analysis Software
Starmon
Regarding Starmon, both its form and Special Move with Meteors have their origin in Planetary Data from Planetary Analysis Software.
Karaoke’s Scoring System
Tonosama Gekomon
Learned from the Musical Performance and Song Data from Karaoke using the Artificial Intelligence Learning Ability that Digimon carry.

Here we get a breakdown of theories of how some Digimon became the way they are and what they do. The context implies that all Digimon have an Artificial Intelligence Learning Ability (人工知能の学習能力, Jinkō chinō no gakushū nōryoku) that they use to learn from the Data of the internet, by incorporating that Data they can mimic them and make use of that.

The topic of what exactly counts as a “Digimon birth” is something to take note of here. Although Digimon like Motimon are stated to have been “born” from that data, it was due to the learning of language data. The implication might be that the “birth” of a Digimon is more like a transition from their previous state of existence to another, rather than “data from that place became alive”, but rather “something studied or absorbed that data and it was reborn or evolved in this new form”.

The world where Digimon live
[Digimon living in the Folder Continent]
A virtual space that makes Digimon more like living animals
In order to give Digimon an ecology like that of real animals, the Folder Continent was created. In order to match the environment of Nature Spirits, Digimon made unique evolutions.
Insect Type
Kuwagamon and Kabuterimon belong to the insect type. They inhabit forests within the Net and make homes in the gaps between trees.
Amphibian Type
Unique Digimon that can live both on land and in water within the Net. It seems that they often swim in shallow water, probably because they go back and forth between water and land.
Plant Type
They hide themselves in order to protect themselves from enemies by mimicking the appearance of plants. Jyagamon, which live mainly in grasslands, protect themselves with the appearance of potatoes.
Dinosaur Type
The herbivorous dinosaur-type Triceramon inhabits the grassland within the Net. They do that so they can eat data of the grass plants that are their staple food.
Fairy Type
Piccolomon flies through the skies within the Net, and can freely come and go within the data. With their two wings, they can fly freely in the sky.

File Island, the background of the original Digital Monster, wasn’t properly explained during the initial release. But here we have the lore for Folder Continent alongside the initial release. Similar to how the Digimon themselves were given forms that could be easily understood by humans, so was this Virtual Space given form as the Folder Continent that also influenced the evolution of Digimon themselves.

[Life of Digimon]
Now, the way of life in the Digital world will be clarified
Just as Digimon grow 1 year older in 24 hours, time advances at a rapid pace in the Virtual Space where Digimon live. Take a look at life in the Virtual Space that is similar to, but different from, the Real World.

Food for Digimon
Even in a Digital world, there are the minimum necessary things to sustain life.
The difference between food seen by human eyes and food seen by Digimon
The form of meat was formed by humans, it’s the same as the form of Digimon. To humans, it looks just like meat, but for Digimon who live in that same Virtual Space, it’s just “Food Data”.
They need an Oxygen-like existence to maintain their lives
Just as humans cannot live without oxygen, electricity is essential for Digimon to survive. In other words, if the electricity is turned off, the Digimon will vanish.

Breeding of Digimon
Breeding for Digimon isn’t about leaving offspring, it’s about increasing the data of their own being.
Process of propagation in a Digital world without the concept of male and female
Digimon copy their own data and leave that in the form of a Digitama to propagate. They propagate alone if they are Adult Stage or higher; there’s no distinction between males or females.
They continue to evolve and change their forms depending on the environment in which they are raised
Digimon propagate by copying their Data, so there’s no parent-child relationship. The newly born Digitama are going to be raised and grown by humans just like their parents were.

This is the last part of the chapter focused on introducing the world of Digimon, and just from here, we have a much clearer structure than anything we had before. Interestingly enough, even Digimon breeding, which wasn’t explained even in the Q&As when that was asked, was given a very simple answer that makes sense in that world.

An interesting element added here is the “Pendulum function” that gives the name of the device. It’s a device that allows the Tamer to give direct commands to the Digimon. It seems to be able to convey the feelings of the tamer to the Digimon and it can even be used to make the Digimon live longer.

When you don’t want that they die
When your Digimon is dying and you just can’t let it die, try Penduluming desperately. Maybe your feelings will be conveyed…?

However, even with all the content that was seen on those pages, some content and lore that was given for certain elements were missing from the book, in fact even the most classic “Digimon lack proper height because they are digital beings” is missing from this book, while it remained a part of Keibunsha’s releases.

The rest of the content regarding the worldview was a part of individual profiles of each Digimon like before, but now that there’s a more solid view of the world, there are much more connections and elements that fit everything together, and since the Digimon Web had been released, it was also possible for fans to take a look at the profiles for each version there.

There were also other sources of content that were less focused on giving lore per se but still contained information about the series. One of them was the manual for the V-Pet. While the original manuals were just focused on introducing Digimon as digital pets that could fight, each version of the Pendulum had a manual with an introductory text that mentioned the basics of the Field it was based on.

①Nature Spirits is filled with Digimon that were gathered from various newly discovered areas of the Digimon World’s natural world, such as the Forests, Mountains, Rivers, and even the stars.

Digimon Pendulum Nature Spirits (Manual)

Another common merchandise that we can take a look at was the Carddass “Digital Monster” series. In this series of cards, it was common to have many cards featuring individual Digimon alongside a small profile for it and its special move, but there were also special cards about themes, such as a Digimon’s field, Digimon Category, and even the relationship between Digimon.

Digimon rampaging around the Folder Continent. Some of them, such as Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon, have the same ecosystem as Digimon of File Island, but their strength is completely different. It’s said that the appearance of Ultimate Digimon is unique to Folder Continent!

Digimon World/Nature Spirits

Narute Spirits Profiles

Since Digimon Web was already a thing, we can make use of the official profiles that were made during that time without needing to wait for the books.

Since most of the details of the setting were explained in specific sections of the book, there isn’t much new to be addressed in the profiles themselves here. A very common detail found in many of the Digimon shared between both Digital Monster and Digimon Pendulum is that those on Folder Continent are much stronger than those found in File Island, the way it’s explained differs depending on the Digimon, but the overall structure is the same.

An Insect-type Digimon with the same ecosystem as the species that inhabits File Island, but with incomparably stronger powers and defenses. It has a very Insect-like personality, lacking any intelligence at all since it only has survival instincts. It is unrelentingly aggressive against its Virus-type rival Digimon. Its special move is “Mega Blaster”.

Kabuterimon (Digimon Pendulum)

The Carddass version of the profiles, ever since their late inclusion of the original Digital Monster series, usually are more complete in regards to certain elements. For example, since the cards are structured in three boxes covering basic profile, attack description, and evolution requirements, many of the Digimon attacks that aren’t addressed in the books and even online profiles are given in great detail here.

82
Nature Spirits
Kabuterimon
■Birthplace: Folder Continent
It’s almost the same Digimon as the Kabuterimon from File Island that appeared in Ver.2. But this one is much better offensively and defensively.
Special Move: Mega Blaster
The horn on its metalized head flashes at a speed that can’t be seen by the eyes. It then shoots heat rays generated by the collision with air!

The profile for the Version.2 Kabuterimon already had elements that were introduced with Pendulum. Since it seems they were all made at the same time by the same company, they are easier to see how they connect than something like the Nature Spirits V-Jump book and Aspect’s Version.1 book. Something curious about this is that the word “linked” connects a Tropical Network to the Real World as if implying that the two worlds exist separately, but are linked somehow.

Kabuterimon
■Birthplace: File Island
Unwavering Forest・Insect Kingdom
A new species of Insect-type Digimon found in a Tropical Network linked to the Real World. Has wonderful power that ranks among the best 3 Digimon!?
Special Move: Mega Blaster
Fires energy bullets from its horns made up of metal textures! They burn completely the target.

In the cards we have Evolution Line cards that connect Digimon from different stages, most of them have a very clear evolutionary path, but sometimes they add something new.

A form of evolution that is seen in Nature Spirits. Raising the Kabuterimon-species requires seriousness. Train them to the limits and answer their calls quickly. If they turn into Atlur Kabuterimon, their wings will degenerate, but their muscle strength will increase. Howver, by evolving into an Ultimate, they can turn into Herakle Kabuterimon that not only has superhuman strength, but also the ability to fly!

Digimon Evolution (Kabuterimon > Altur Kabuterimon > Herakle Kabuterimon)

A newly added detail from this era is the mysterious Chome Digizoid Metal that covers Metal Etemon’s body. More details about it are going to be given later.

The “KING OF DIGIMON” is back! With the data it obtained in battle, it researched for its own weakness and now returned after fully coating its body with “Chrome Digizoid Metal”. It’s an invindible figther that handles both Strike Long and Dark styles. Its Special move is “Banana Slip” that is throws at the opponent’s legs.

Metal Etemon (Digimon Pendulum)

Etemon&MetalEtemon
-DIGIMON TRIBE-
KING・OF・DIGIMON, that is what Etemon calls himself. However, Etemon resigned from the title of King, leaving alone for a journey for battles. Etemon returned from this harsh journey, and now its entire body has been coated with metal!
-CHECK POINT-
The stuffed animal hanging around his waist looks like Monzaemon, but it also looks different. Will this mystery ever be revealed?

METAL ETEMON
Birthplace: Folder Continent
Its entire body was changed into full metal with the “Chrome Digizoid Metal”, its standard fighting power is at MAX Level. It’s the revival of the self-declared KING・OF・DIGIMON!
Special Move: Banana Slip
A strategy of throwing bananas under the opponent’s legs. It’s a Special Move that can only be used by Diigmon who have raised their fighting power to the limit!

There are also some added trivia in the Nature Spirits books in the profile section that isn’t present online. In the V-Jump book, those details are featured alongside images and are separated into different topics. Keibunsha’s release has traditional profiles and it contains most of that information summarized.

For example, Piccolomon’s profile has an added detail that it has the power to appear in any place, any time, any space. Not only that, but it also changes its nature depending on the place it’s living in, and that is how those from Folder Continent far surpass those from File Island.

Holds mysterious powers
Other than magic, it has the power to appear in every place, time, and space. Depending on where it’s inhabiting, its nature will change.

A Fairy Digimon with the potential to appear anywhere
A Fairy Digimon that manipulates magic. It causes miracles with an Advanced Programming Language from another dimension. This Digimon can appear in any place, time, or space, with its properties changing depending on the area it inhabits. For that reason, it surpasses those of the same species that inhabit File Island. It enjoys making computers go out of control using its favorite spear “Fairy Tail”. Its special move are Computer Viruses condensed into a super-powerful bomb, “Bit Bomb”.

Piccolomon (Keibunsha’s Nature Spirits)

Digimon Pendulum 2.0 Deep Savers

Magazines and Books

The first mention of the second wave of Digimon Pendulum happened during the January 1999 V-Jump, as the name implies, the focus is on aquatic monsters, those that live in the Net Ocean, a place established very early in the settings. In that same issue, the Digimon Pendulum 1.5 was also announced, a version of Nature Spirits that would feature three Digimon from the Sega Saturn game “Digital Monster Ver.S”: Tailmon, Angewomon, and Holydramon.

The second V-Jump book featuring Deep Savers would be released soon after and it has basically the same structure as the Nature Spirits book, but it has the Digimon Cram School as the source of information instead of Digimon Research Institute. This is a private school managed by Dejimon-sensei where everyone can learn about Digimon.

DIGIMON PENDULUM 2 DEEP SAVERS
If you desire to become a top-class Digimon Tamer, you need to come to the Digimon Cram School.
There you’ll be informed all about Digimon’s world, species, and how to raise them.
Digimon Cram School Principal, Digimon Soichiro (^^)/

Although the book has very similar explanations about Digimon Loader, Digimon Capture, Digimon bodies, and Digimon reproduction, it has a small difference in the “What are Digimon” section. Here the Digimon are once again explained as computer viruses that were found by Hackers, a detail that was missing from the previous book that implied Digimon as a whole were created by hackers.

What are Digimon?
Pseudo Liveforms born in the sea of the C​omputer Network
They were originally a variety of Computer Viruses, Hackers modified them incorporating Artificial Intelligence into it becoming Digimon. Digimon absorbed information from the Computer Network, and so they evolved like living beings.

The Digimon mainly featured in this book are aquatic ones, so instead of describing directly the regions of the Folder Continent, this book featured an analysis of the sea around it, the Net Ocean.

The world where Digimon live
The Digimon who live in the sea around the Folder Continent
A Virtual Space Digimon World that exists on the Computer Network. The Digimon of Deep Savers live inside the surrounding sea that centering around the Folder Continent that is floating there. Digimon change their forms to match the surrounding environment, successfully accomplishing evolutions of their own.

Lastly, there’s an image of the globe featuring computers connected with the Computer Network, each of them being the origin of certain Digimon that evolved to fit the environment of each of them.

Mystery of Digimon
Where did Digimon come from?
The Computer Network expands all over the world and due to that Digimon exist inside of software and data from all over the world. Digimon evolve in unique ways to fit the environment and so they developed various traits.

Finally, we have the extra material such as the Carddass series and the manual.

Digimon World/Deep Savers
Experts on underwater combat gather! Fighting-type Ikkakumon, Zudomon with a defense that surpasses Shakomon and Ganimon, Octomon and Dagomon with great flexibility, and more. There’s a variety of underwater species, but the so-called Seadramon-species is overwhelming!!

②This “Digimon”is filled with newly discovered ones from the waterfront and the vast “Net Ocean” that is said to be the source of Digimon life, those are the Deep Savers!! The special attacks of the Aquatic Digimon will heat up your battles!!

Digimon Pendulum Deep Savers (Manual)

Deep Savers Profiles

Deep Savers profiles have a good number of both new and old Digimon, an interesting detail that we had here is Digimon being recategorized from the levels that they had previously. There are two main cases here, one is those explained due to the changes between File Island and Folder Continent.

This wasn’t said about every Digimon, nor was the same thing that happened with all of them. Some Digimon like Holydramon, which was allocated alongside Deep Savers due to the distribution of Version 1.5, was put as Ultimate Body evolving from Angewomon without any proper explanation that differs it from the one from Version.S. The same happed with Shakomon who instead of being a Perfect Body became a Child Level.

An Aquatic Mammal Digimon that looks like a giant whale that hides in the deep seas of the Net. Its gigantic body is in the Digital World’s Largest-class, and because of its gigantic size, it holds a large amount of data that cannot be processed by a normal computer. Whamon can also be found in the waters near File Island, but the Whamon living on the coast of the Folder continent are a bit different. Their appearance is almost the same, but their offensive power and vitality are greatly evolved. Scientists agree that this is due to the inhospitable environment of the Folder Continent. Its special move is “Tidal Wave”, a terrifying technique that destroys everything by creating a huge tsunami.

Whamon (Deep Savers Website)

-Whamon-
■Birth Place: Folder Continent
They lurk in the deep seas of the Net, they are Gigantic Digimon of the Digital World’s largest-class. They accomplished evolution into Perfect Body, which greatly increased both their attack power and life force.
Special Move: Tidal Wave
With this technique, they slam their giant bodies into the water to generate a large tsunami. With tremendous energy, this destroys everything without leaving a trace!

The CHO Alloy that was mentioned on Metal Etemon’s profile is detailed a bit more here on Metal Seadramon’s profile. That metal would become more and more common among many Digimon from now on. Here we also have the very common confusion regarding the multiple names that are used to refer to this, with it being “Chrome Digizoid” (クロンデジゾイド, Kurondejizoido) and “Chrondigizoit” (クロンデジゾイト, Kurondejizoito). As you can notice, the only difference is with the last kana; the terms will be used interchangeably many times later.

The final form of Seadramon, with its entire body covered by the strongest metal, the Chrondigizoit alloy, it was modified to be an underwater interceptor Digimon. It not only boasts the fastest movement speed among aquatic Digimon, but it also repeals every attack with its metal body. Its Special MOve is firing energy bullets from the gun bareel on its nose, the “Ultimate Stream”.
* The official name of “Chrondigizoit Metal” is the substance “Chrondigizoit Hybrid Organism Alloy”, which is abbreviated as “CHO-alloy”. The Chrondigizoit Alloy is an intermediate between the Chrondigizoit metal and living organisms, it has the potential to be unificated with living organisms, possessing both the super hardness of Chrondigizoit and the smoothness of living organisms.

Metal Seadramon (Deep Savers)

-METAL SEADRAMON-
■Birthplace: Folder Continent
The entire body is covered by Chrondigizoit alloy, the final form of the Seadramon-species. It was remodeled as a Digimon for underwater interception, it boasts being the fastest underwater!
Special Move: Ultimate Stream
A technique that fires high-output energy bullets from the nose. If released into the sea, it will instantly evaporate the seawater and create an underwater tunnel in the trajectory!

SEADRAMON > MEGA SEADRAMON > METAL SEADRAMON
-DIGIMON EVOLUTION-
A form of evolution that is seen in Deep Savers. Ganimon and Shakomon will evolve into Seadramon if are trained and raised carefully. After that, it’ll be all about the Winning Percentages of the matches. As it fights, it’ll grow accustomed to the wounds and improve its strength. If it continues to fight hard and win, it can evolve into Mega Seadramon and even Metal Seadramon!

Digimon Museum – The Last Summary

In January 1999 a new book was released by publisher Axela, and it’s a very strange book. Usually a new book is released for each new version of the V-Pets and when they all end a compilation book might be released with all the content from the previous ones and a bit more detail. This wasn’t really the case, it’s the only Axela Digimon book that I know of and it’s a compilation of the original Digital Monster series and the first two Pendulum versions.

The introduction of the book is a big summary of the origin of Digimon that was mentioned in previous books, but here it’s put as a huge box of text that is much similar to how it was structured in the first Aspect book. Just like in the Deep Savers book the Digimon are mentioned to have been a mysterious virus that was modified by hackers so it could destroy more robust systems. They would evolve and be more influenced by humans until they finally get the shape they have now and are called “Digital Monsters”. The detail that Botamon was the first of the Digimon was first mentioned in the Carddass series for “Digital Monster Ver.1”.

What’s Digital Monster?
Digital monsters (hereinafter referred to as Digimon) were originally a type of computer virus that infected certain software. This virus quickly spread around the world through the network, and hackers took notice of it and modified it into a self-learning virus that incorporated AI (artificial intelligence) so that it could destroy more robust systems.
In order to prevent hackers from using Digimon to spread viruses and hack into computers at companies and government facilities, Digimon were also developed as “anti-hacking vaccines”. On the other hand, there were people who domesticated Digimon as digital pets on their computers and used them to send and receive e-mails, and so many Digimon with different attributes were born.
Digimon evolve like living creatures, absorbing a variety of information and changing their characteristics in response to their environment as they repeatedly engage in fierce network battles… One scientist who took notice of this excellent artificial life successfully took a virus, which was once a mere program of numbers and symbols, and gave it a wireframe skeleton and a textured skin to turn it graphical. This artificial life was named “Digital Monster”, and the first Digimon was named Botamon.

During this introductory text, there are various Keywords that are marked by numbers and represent general concepts regarding Computers and the Internet that might have been unknown by most children in the past, so the page right after this introduction explains those concepts. Aspect’s books also had glossaries like this one and many future books will also feature glossaries to expand on concepts seen in profiles.

Network
The Internet or computer communications, or what links computers together so that hardware, software, data, etc. can be shared.
Hacker
A person who illegally hacks into someone else’s computer through the network.
AI
Abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence. The use of electronic computers to artificially realize the functions of human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and judgment.
Hacking
Breaking into another person’s computer, stealing or destroying data.
E-mail
Electronic letters that are sent through the Computer Network. It is possible to send not only text but also voice and graphics.
Wireframe
A technique for creating objects in 3D graphics. It is a computer graphic in which the vertices of three-dimensional data are connected by straight lines.
Texture
A graphic mapping technique. A technique of attaching CG pattern data to a three-dimensional device.
Botamon
A newborn Digimon that appears in the very first “Digital Monster Ver.1” released.

There’s also a map of the two regions of the Digital World developed so far, File Island and Folder Continent. The description of the map talks about how it’s a graphical representation of a world inhabited by Virus-like beings. The description of File Island makes reference to “Digimon World”, a game that made making use of the settings from the original toys, but it’s going to have its own research later.

DIGITAL MONSTER WORLD
The world where Digimon live!
Digimon are, essentially, Virus-like things that inhabit Computer Software and Systems. And now the spread of the Computer Network around the world resulted in the formation of a Virtual Space, the “Digital World”. The map on the right is a graphical representation of that “Digital World”.
File Island
File Island floats in the Net Ocean. This place is the stage of “Digimon World” for PlayStation, Digimon from “Digital Monster Ver.1~4 live here.
Folder Continent
The Folder Continent is inhabited by Digimon from the new model Pendulum. Many parts of it are still unknown, new Digimon might be discovered in the Folder Continent.

In the profiles pages, there are basic profiles for each Digimon, but sometimes with added information that could be seen in other material like the Carddass series. The Botamon profile, for example, makes reference to the fact that it was the first Digimon to be created and seen by humans.

After all the profiles there’s a Q&A about the Digital World and it focuses on many elements that were mentioned in previous books, but also some new information first revealed here. An example of information that seems to only be found here is that only Baby and Child level Digimon naturally live in the Digital World with all other high-level Digimon being originally tamed Digimon that have been abandoned and set free into that world.

Hometown of Monsters !? Great research on the world of Digimon !!
Digital World Q&A
Here, we will focus on the Digital World where Digimon live, and report on the ecology of Digimon that have not been clearly revealed until now! Read carefully and explore the roots of “Digital Monsters”!

Q What the Digital World looks like?
The Digital World, the habitat of Digimon, is a virtual space created with the development of computer networks. As a result of a project to visualize the Digital World and give Digimon a more lifelike ecology, “File Island” floating in the “Net Ocean” and the “Folder Continent” inhabited by new Digimon were artificially created.
World of Digimon
Now that the digital world has been visualized, it can be easily viewed on a computer screen.

Q What kind of Digimon are there in the Digital World?
Basically, only Child level Digimon exists in the Digital World. However, on rare occasions, Adult Digimon that have been abandoned by humans can be found. Unlike Child Digimon which are fed by humans, Adult Digimon which have been completely abandoned will turn into a vicious virus and continue to survive by devouring the data in the computer in order to maintain their own lives!
The life of an abandoned Adult Digimon is misery itself. Even if they grow up to be unlikable Digimon, don’t throw them away, but take good care of them until the end.

Q What do Digimon eat for a living?
Although they live in different places, the diet of Digimon is the same all over the world! Of course, Digimon in the Digital World also lives on a diet of food and protein every day. Also, food and protein are familiar in shape to meat and capsules, but did you know that they are made from program data with completely different names and shapes !? Originally named “Growth Increase Program Data” and “Muscle Strengthening Program Data”, it seems that they are visualized as meat and capsules as it’s now for the reason of “making it easy for humans to understand.
Program Data
Instead of Meat or Capsules
Use it as food for Digimon!!

Q How have Digimon evolved?
There are many causes that trigger evolution. Some Digimon change form depending on the purpose of use by the people who raise them, and there are also Digimon that parasitize the data of animals and monsters that appear in games installed on computers and take a form similar to that. It also seems that there are quite a few Digimon that evolve by linking with the Real World. According to past data, the Arctic network gave rise to Yukidarmon and Garurumon, and the tropical network to Kabuterimon-type Digimon. Meramon and Birdramon are also reported to have been born from Internet’s firewall.
The way they evolve is completely different depending on the environment they live in!
Hot Digimon are born from hot places, and cold Digimon are born from cold places!

Q How do digimon reproduce?
The way Digimon, which have no concept of male or female, seems to come into existence is “Digimon that have grown beyond the Adult stage copy the data of the basic parts that make up themselves and leave them behind in the form of Digitama.” Moreover, since they do not have the concept of “parents raising their children,” it seems that Digimon children are inevitably raised by human hands.
Copy their data => Copy! => Keep that in the Digitama!

Q Are there any extinct Digimon?
Because time is progressing at a furious pace in the Digital World, many Digimon have been confirmed to have disappeared right after their birth. There have also been Digimon that were instantly erased by human power because they evolved into computer viruses that were too dangerous. If they are extinct, there’s no choice but to give up on them. However, some Digimon that have been super-compressed making their existence unknown can be brought back to life by decompression, so they may one day be found and resurrected…

Q How do you catch the discovered Digimon?
All you need is a dedicated software called “Digimon Capture” to capture Digimon on the screen of your computer. The first step is to display the digital world in the “Digimon Capture” window and search for your desired Digimon, After the search is complete, move the Digimon displayed in the window into the Digimon Loader, which automatically compresses the data of the Digimon and puts them into the state of Digitama. Also, the captured Digimon can be tamed on the screen as it’s, and battles between Digimon are conducted over the network.
The portable Digimon body was developed to take advantage of the convenient Digimon Capture system. With the advent of portable Digimon, you can now carry your Digimon freely and enjoy battles anytime, anywhere!

Digimon Pendulum 3.0 Nightmare Soldiers

Magazine and Books

Pendulum 3 was first announced in the May 1999 V-Jump issue. More specifically, it was announced alongside a contest that would give away 100 Pendulum 3 to the readers, the only detail about what would appear in this new version was from Wizarmon that appeared in that announcement saying: The next monsters appear in your “dreams”.

The later issues that showcase the roster are a bit more revealing. The general idea of the Digimon featured here is “occultic monsters“, ghosts, and other supernatural beings that appear in myths.

The “Nightmare Soldiers” is the V-Pet released in the transition period to the release of “Digimon Adventure” and much of the V-Pet tie-in material will stop releasing after this, such as the original Carddass series.

Digimon World/Nightmare Soldiers
Nightmare Soldiers is a group of inhabitants of the Dark World, including demons, ghosts, and Demon-man Digimon. You can experience the evolution of Meramon, Devimon, and Garurumon. Let the bewitching and beautiful heroes of the Dark Area burn in your eyes!

There are mysteries in this world that science cannot explain. The Nightmare Soldiers, nightmare warriors with mysterious data that cannot be analyzed, now gather in the digital world!

Digimon Pendulum Nightmare Soldiers (Manual)

Digimon Pendulum 3 Nightmare Soldiers
Welcome to the Nightmare Mansion, if you want to learn about the world of Digimon, their types, and how to raise them, go through this entrance and you’ll become the strongest Digimon Tamer…
Lords of the Nightmare Mansion

This transition didn’t affect only related merchandise, even the V-Jump guidebooks had a huge decrease in content comparing it to either Nature Spirits or Deep Savers. The backstory for the Digimon was greatly reduced with many elements of Digimon ecology missing from this book such as their nature with Wireframes and Textures, the specific ways they evolved from networks all across the world, and more.

For many years the only complete scans from the old books with important setting information that we had was Nightmare Spirits and Metal Empire, due to that many elements of the worldview that were very common before this release weren’t known by most parts of the Western fanbase. We knew that certain elements existed because of recent interviews that mentioned settings such as the Wireframes and Textures, but we didn’t know if it was something from books and manuals or only existed as background information for the developers.

What are Digimon?
First, let us briefly explain what Digimon are. If you are playing Digimon for the first time, be sure to read it.
A life form spread all over the world through the Computer Network!
Digimon is a computer virus that incorporated Artificial Intelligence. It absorbed data from all over the world and evolved like a living creature.
The Digimon Pendulum is a Communication Item for Digimon
Through the Digimon Pendulum machine, you can raise Digimon that live in the Digital World.
Digimon act according to the time
Time flows in the Digital World as well. Just like you, Digimon lives a day-to-day life.
Digimon will grow living every day!!
With help, Digimon will grow more and more every day. When they grow and their appearance changes it’s called “Evolution”. Of course, their strength is powered up!

The Folder Continent Map still has the same structure as before, but the Nightmare Soldiers have one added detail. They aren’t just “those who live in certain regions of the Folder Continent”, but also those “from a different place” (別の場所, Betsu no basho). This was a term used previously to describe Piccolomon’s ability to teleport to anywhere, here it’s explained to refer to places that exist in other dimensions, other spaces. The two examples given here are Witchelny, home to Wizarmon and the backstage for the Magical Witches series, and the Dark Area, the region of darkness and the hell that was mentioned in the profiles of Dark Digimon and first named in Devidramon’s profile in “Digital Monster Ver.5”.

World where Digimon live
Digimon live in a Virtual Space called the Folder Continent. Let’s introduce the entire picture of the continent and how Digimon are distributed.
The Digimon gathering and living on the Folder Continent
Digimon that evolved to match environmental sections of the Folder Continent, and also Digimon who came from a different place. Those two are the Digimon called Nightmare Soldiers.

Digital World of a Different Dimension
Wizarmon belongs to the Demon Man-type. It came from a Digital World of a different dimension for training. It uses a special technique that is called thunder magic.

Distortion of space
Devimon was originally an angel Digimon. By falling into the Dark Area in the Digital World, It has become a Fallen Angel Digimon.
Dark Area

Nightmare Spirits profiles

As mentioned previously, many profiles of Nightmare Soldiers had a focus on the nature of the different realms that make up the world of Digimon, not just File Island and Folder Continent, but the Dark Area. This is the realm that was previously mentioned to be the “darkness” or “hell” where angels are converted into Fallen Angels and more.

A Fallen Angel Digimon of the Dark Side, whose body is clad in jet-black cloth. Although it was originally an Angemon-species Digimon, by falling to the Dark Area, which exists in a spatial distortion of the Digital World, it became a fallen angel. It has a cunning and fiendish personality, but it also possesses an outstanding intellect. Also, it is said that those who have stared into its two eyes, which shine a deep crimson, are mind-controlled and completely dominated by its mind. Its Special Move “Death Claw” is a terrifying technique in which it extends both of its extensible, elongated arms even further, and enforces its will on the opponent’s body. Although it has the same outward appearance and Special Move as the Devimon that inhabit File Island, it seems its lethal potential and power are remarkably increased.

Devimon (Nightmare Soldiers)

Born from the Dark Area, which exists in a spatial distortion, it is a wicked Ghost Digimon. As a Ghost Digimon, its Level is low, but because its body is composed of a fiendish virus program, it is said that computers it possesses are pulverized in a flash. Everything underneath its cloth-like skin is wrapped in mystery, and this Digimon is so mysterious that it is rumored that a portion of the shadow of its true form has become a black hole. Because its fighting strength isn’t great, it doesn’t attack directly, but is instead an expert in indirect attacks employing curses or magical power. Its Special Move, unlike the Bakemon of File Island, is to cast a death spell on the opponent (Death Charm). For those who incur this death sentence, it is said that annihilation comes within five turns.

Bakemon (Nightmare Soldiers)

The other world element that is mentioned in these profiles are “different dimensions such as Witchelny. Some other Digimon are also mentioned to be from other dimensions and it’s implied those from different dimensions have a different nature and ecology, something that was mentioned in Piccolmon’s profile.

A high-level Demon Man Digimon that came from a Digital World of another dimension, different from this world. In its previous Digital World (Witchelny), it seems to have mastered fire and earth magic (high-level programming language) and aimed to become an Great Mage. However, it seems that as a part of that training it came to this Digimon World. Although it has a slightly mischievous personality, since it also has a shy side, it tries not to show its real face at all.

Wizarmon (Nightmare Soldiers)

A Ghost Digimon that looks like Death, it’s distinguished by the giant sickle and chain it always carries. Different from Bakemon this is a perfected high-level Ghost Digimon, there’s no option other than death for those Fantomon takes a hold. The eyeball-shaped crystal hanging from its neck is endowed with the power of clairvoyance just like Mammon’s Crest, so it is said that it can see through everything. It is said that this allows it to distinguish even those who are close to death and decide its targets. Also, just like Bakemon, the contents of the cloth that covers its body are shrouded in mystery, but it is believed that it is connected to a Digital World of a different dimension. Its Special Move “Soul Chopper” is a terrifying move that chops up the enemy’s soul.

Fantomon (Nightmare Soldiers)

An elusive Demon Man-type Digimon wrapped in mystries with a form that is like a circus clown. Basically, Demon Man-type Digimon have many mysteries, and are considered to exist other dimensions different from demon-type and undead-type. For that reason, their existence and purpose why they are appearing are completely unknown, and at present there is no prospect of a means to elucidate these. Also, despite its appearance, its offensive power is unparalleled, so the moment Piemon turns into an enemy it would be better to be cursed. Its special move “Trump Swords” is a technique that teleports the four swords piercing the “Magic Box” on its back into the opponent’s body. Once this technique is set it’s impossible to escape.

Piemon (Nightmare Soldiers)

Finally, in the Nightmare Soldiers, there’s also an origin for Flame Digimon such as Meramon, here it’s explained that these Digimon are born out of the Firewall that protects the Internet from unauthorized hackers.

A Flame Digimon whose whole body is covered in crimson flames. This Digimon was originated from the “Firewall”, a protective wall that prevents unauthorized hackers from entering the Internet, it has extraordinary fighting abilities. Personality-wise this is a dangerous Diigmon that burns down anything it touches, it possesses a fierce temper just like the flames that cover its body. It’s confirmed there are Meramon on File Island, but the Meramon from the Folder Continent have stronger firepower and are extremely difficult to tame. Its special move “Burning Fist” is a technique in which it burns violently both its hands and charges fowards puching through the opponent. It’s said that unless the opponent is very powerful, they will be burned black.

Meramon (Nightmare Soldiers)

Digimon Pendulum 4.0 Wind Guardians

Magazines and Books

At first glance the teaser to Wind Guardians from the June 1999 issue seems strange, it was merely a mention that next month would have the reveal of Wind Guardians, no new Digimon revealed, or even a mention of the theme. The reason for that is basically that the series was changing forever, V-Tamer was already being published for some time and Taichi and Zeromaru took over the magazine as the Digimon Navigators, the anime also had its first articles, now the main focus of reveals and information would be the anime and the manga, Wind Guardians is the work that finished this transition as it was focused on connecting with the anime and manga.

Wind Guardians was the “all-star” release featuring monsters that appeared in Anime and also manga, so it was the debut of V-Dramon and Aero V-Dramon. The Wind Guardians are “monsters that live in the skies and forests of the Digimon World“. So far there are no Wind Guardians-related books scanned.

What! In Wind Guardians not only V-Dramon, but familiar monsters from the TV anime will also appear! For now, we’ll introduce the monsters up to the Adult Stage!

The Carddass series now is very changed, it became a proper playable card game and this resulted in a much more different card layout. Cards now mention more than one Special Move, but the flavor text now is limited to a single line of text that might be already existing trivia. The old structure of the Cards will be inherited into a special Digimon Adventure series that will cover both Digimon and scenes.

A new wind is blowing in the sky of the Digital World! New species with the wings of a bird and the vitality of a plant! Wind Guardians, the Guardians Deities of the Wind, now enter Digimon Battle!

Wind Guardians (Manual)

Finally, there was a sticker book released around this time called “Digimon Biology”. Three versions are known to exist (One covering Nature Spirits, the second one covering up to Virus Busters, and the last third one covering the D-3). The most interesting details are some trivia statements that are found only here including profiles for Digimon from Version 1 up to Version 5 and also profiles for the Wind Guardians.

Quick Column
“Power of Life”
A newborn Digimon will always evolve to the next stage even if abandoned. They may look small, but they might have the highest life force.
“Bubbles and Bubbles and Bubbles and…”
Digimon at the Baby Stage always blow bubbles to protect themselves. Is it like “cries” naturally done by humans?
“Secrets of Poop 1”
Digimon’s poop is always as hard as steel. If that is the case, doesn’t it make sense to be used as a last resource weapon to increase their ability to cause damage?
“Secrets of Poop 2”
Accumulating too much poop will bring wounds to oneself. Poop has evolved into a weapon, it needs to be treated carefully.
“What is wrong with being bad!?”
The point of such an evolution is raising them irregularly, not concerning if the Digimon calls you. Does that feel like raising a delinquent son on purpose?
“Rivalries”
Some Digimon have rivalries between themselves. Leomon, in particular, seems to be the rival of many Digimon.
“Change of Generation”
There are various ways for a Digimon to die. However, it seems that Digimon who die under a good owner will leave eggs behind for the next generation.
“Who made the stuffed toys?”
For some reason there are many “stuffed animals” among the Perfect Bodies. They are proud of being the strongest, if you made them, would they have cute personalities?
“Can’t we meet in reality? (1)”
They are “Digital” monsters, so they live inside the Net. If so, humans can’t meet them in the Real World?
“Can’t we meet in reality? (2)”
Even if they can’t entert the Human World, humans can always get into the Net. That is the “Digimon World”. That is where the “Digital Monsters” live.

Digimon Pendulum 5.0 Metal Empire

Magazine and Books

The stage is a factory area!
The stage of Metal Empire is a factory with an eerie atmosphere. What kind of factory is this? Maybe they are developing a very strong Digimon…!?

Pendulum 5 was announced in the September 1999 V-Jump issue and the first revealed Digimon on the next month’s issue. Similar to the previous one it just got namedropped at first, but the presentation of Metal Empire was much more interesting and was the first time since Nature Spirits that there was a focus on showing the Folder Continent map. Since this was the last planned Pendulum the map was a summary of all the previous Pendulum indicating where each one of them fit in the Folder Continent.

Digimon Pendulum 5 Metal Empire
Welcome to the Digimon Guard! There are still many mysteries in the Digimon World. Let’s learn about Digimon and protect the peace with us! We wish you the best of luck in becoming the best Digimon tamer. So, Mission Start!!

The Metal Empire V-Jump book was scanned so we can compare it with the previous ones. Its structure is very similar to the one used in Nightmare Soldiers with most of the same explanation text, but there was a certain difference regarding the Folder Continent map. Since it’s the last one the map here is the same as the one featured in the V-Jump and focuses on naming all the regions using the V-Pets as the basis instead of detailing the multiple environments that exist in each region.

The world where Digimon live… Its name is Folder Continent!!
Digimon live around the virtual space “Folder Continent” on the Computer Network. Furthermore, depending on the area, the types of Digimon that live there are different.

So while the previous books all had details about different environments and which Digimon existed in each of them, here it’s all summarized in a single place. This doesn’t feel very out of place due to how artificial the Metal Empire is, as it’s basically a huge factory that experiments on many different Digimon and develops the idea of artificial and mechanical Digimon that have existed since the very first Digital Monster. Although the book makes a lot of mentions about Digimon having to adapt to that environment, in this case a “Factory’, there’s little information about the place itself.

Digimon evolve according to the environment!
The stage of Pendulum 5 is a mysterious factory area!
Digimon have evolved according to their environment. The Folder Continent has various environments, that’s why there are many kinds of Digimon there. By the way, the stage of the battle here is a “Factory”!

Steel body for battle, iron will for victory, we are the ultimate group of metal warriors! The Metal Empire declares war on the Digimon World!

Metal Empire (Manual)

Metal Empire profiles

Focusing on mechanical Digimon we have very interesting things that tie up the Digimon introduced since the beginning of the V-pets as all the mechanical Digimon seem to have been used to create Mugendramon, it seems that the intent with the Metal Empire in Folder Continent was to create Mugendramon, the strongest Digimon.

Since there aren’t Carddass extended profiles anymore our sources for profiles have decreased a lot, but the V-Jump sometimes still introduces new stuff from time to time. Hagurumon’s V-Jump profile, for example, implies that it evolved from leftover parts that from the factory.

It looks like it evolved from the components used in the factory!

The scope of the profiles in this book can get very high, with Clockmon being introduced as the Digimon that manages time and space in the Computer Network. The nature of time has been

An alarm clock-shaped Machine Digimon. It has the ability to control space and time, and this ability seems like it can destroy the Digital World!! Because Due to such dangerous power, it never participates in battles.

Clockmon (Metal Empire)

Clockmon (V-Jump book)
A Machine Digimon with a form similar to an alarm clock. It has the ability to manage time and space inside computers. This ability is said to cause the collapse of the Digital World.
Chrono Breaker
This Special move stops the time of an enemy. If time is stopped with this technique, it’ll never be able to take action again.
Guardian Deitity Time
it can move forward or back in time at will between 1900 and 1999.

Another interesting element introduced in the Metal Empire is the group “Virus Busters”. Just like there were Dark Digimon related to evil and darkness there was always some Digimon that were related to “good” and “justice” who used their powers to defeat the evil ones, here those Digimon seem to be called the “Virus Busters”.

Has a cowboy hat as its trademark!! Has a serious sense of justice and is a member of the “Virus Buster” team who fight evil these days. It loves to gamble and challenges its opponents to Russian roulette. The bullets of justice “Justice Bullet” have the power to erase evil hearts!

Revolmon (Metal Empire)

.5 and Virus Busters

Magazines

Nature Spirits and Deep Savers got their .5 versions still during the release of the next conventional versions of the V-Pets, but 3.5 Nightmare Soldiers and the other .5 versions were all released after Metal Empire and as such aren’t present in the V-jump books. They were first teased in the January 2000 issue as a riddle that the fans should answer and the very next issue revealed “Digimon Pendulum 3.5 Nightmare Soldiers”. Version 3.5 added Dokugumon from Ver.Wonderswan, Lady Devimon from Ver.S and Demon from V-Tamer 01.

The big surprise came in the March 2000 issue of the V-Jump with the reveal of “Digimon Pendulum ZERO Virus Busters”. Originally only the versions up to Metal Empire were planned, but with the success of the anime Toei requested a tie-in to the movie “Our War Game” and so a new version was made to feature the new Digimon “Omegamon” and various of the main Digimon featured in the anime. This release is very unconnected and lacks a proper placement in the Folder Continent map as the previous ones, instead, it takes the name of the organization mentioned in Revolmon’s profile.

No new books were made focusing on this release and for years there wasn’t a proper compilation of the settings of the original Pendulum run until the D-Project guidebook was released with the Perfect Training Guidebook in 2002. Instead, all the settings regarding Virus Busters were mentioned in magazines like the V-Jump and the official website. Some other material also featured the Virus Busters like the “Digimon Biology 2”, but no scans of this book exist on the internet other than some photos of it for sale on websites like eBay.

All Digimon up to the Perfect Body are revealed!
The Digimon that appear in “ZERO” are all Data-type and Vaccine-type. They are an elite force gathered to defeat the Digimon Virus-type that destroy the programs of the Main Computer.

The strongest elite force gathers!
The Virus Bursters are a menacing force for Virus-type Digimon. Finally, the veil in the Ultimate Bodies was removed!!

Wrapped in dazzling light, the righteous power dispels the darkness. The “Virus Busters” are now descending, carrying the holy will!

Virus Busters (Manual)

.5 and Virus Busters profiles

Since the anime and manga were not only released but already well-established, we already see some influences of the new material into the V-pet side, such as the backstory for Demon, called the strongest Digimon in history in the V-Jump, that includes details about an existence who created the Digital World (デジタルワールドを構築した存在, Dejitaruwārudo o kōchiku shita sonzai) and was mentioned in V-Tamer.

A Demon Lord-type Digimon that leads all the Demon-type and Fallen Angel-type Digimon. Originally, this Digimon was positioned at the highest rank among Angel-type Digimon, but when it rebelled against the Existence that built the Digital World and failed, it was banished to the Dark Area and became a Demon Lord. It plans to one day rule the Digital World, so it plans for its revenge. Also, it seems to be planning to revive the “Super Ultimate Body”

Demon (Nightmare Soldiers)

In Virus Busters the Holy Angemon profile gives more information about what might be the same existence, here called the ‘consciousness of “light”‘ who maintains the order of the Digital World.

An Archangel Digimon with 8 shining silver wings. Holy Angemon’s mission in the Digital World is to be the administrator of the law, and also has the role of monitoring and directing many Angel-type Digimon. Futhermore, it’s the spokesperson for the consciousness of “Light” that preserves the order of the Digital World, normally it has an appearence of a priest, but when the consciousness of “Darkness” warps the Digital World, it changes into a form for battles (Battle mode) and destroys the evil.

Holy Angemon (Virus Busters)

Conclusion

My previous post covered basically all the books related to Digital Monster thanks to their scans made by Kyamos the Stubborn, he is still scanning the Pendulum books and for that reason, my covering of the content of the books is much more limited than before, but this time it’s not much needed from what we know.

The original worldview of Digimon was spread in a much more limited way than here with the Pendulum. The source of the majority of the worldview was the first Aspect book with many of the elements not being presented in a direct way in most of the other books, so the worldview was spread out across many individual Digimon profiles that were written differently across many publishers.

Digimon Pendulum is much more concise as it was originally made with the intent of developing a worldview, as such the books cover much more of the worldview in pages dedicated to it than before, although the general content on them did decrease after the release of the manga and anime.

Some more specific Digimon with profiles that seem to expand more on the nature of the Digital World, such as Demon and Holy Angemon’s profiles, were released tied to products with no presence in the guidebooks of the Pendulum era, even Keibunsha’s “complete guidebook” barely included material up to Metal Empire, a specific Metal Empire book was released later on, far before the material from either 3.5 or ZERO. We would only get similar profiles for those Digimon in future guidebooks that are related to future projects such as the Digivices.

In any case, now with Digimon Pendulum, we can see a much more complete picture of the Digital World and the Digimon than before.

As computer technology develops around the world a network connecting all of them is developed, the Internet. Computers normally have data that are related to the area they are on, so each computer might have information about their specific region, such as computers found in the Artic might have Artic-related data.

In that network computer viruses were discovered with the ability to eat data found on those computers and mutate, adapting to the data they got, a process that got called “Evolution”. Those viruses were resistant to normal erasure and started to be studied by both hackers and researchers to be used in many situations.

Hackers implemented Artificial Intelligence to those viruses and started to use them to break into more secure computers and databases, researchers and security developed viruses that would act as anti-viruses and erase the damaging virus. And the general public adapted those programs as computer navigators, digital pets and even to send e-mails. These programs are now categorized as Virus, Vaccine, and Data respectively.

As the programs continued to absorb data, they also started to get a “form” that resembled the contents of the data they acquired, many of them getting monstrous forms using data from Computer RPGs. Many people also started to give forms to their programs, the first of them was called Botamon and the programs started to be named “Digimon”, short for “Digital Monster”.

In order to expand their study on Digimon, researchers started to give form to their environment in the network creating virtual spaces in the “Ocean of the Network”, also called the “Net ocean”, resulting in the creation of places such as the File Island, Folder Continent, Web Island, Virtual Colosseum, and more. Everything in that world, that was originally just code and symbols, became translated into something that can be more easily understood by human minds.

Many of these regions, such as File Island, are something like a “small earth” having many environments on the same “island”, but the actual scope of these virtual spaces seems to be much larger with some Digimon related to stars and the overall cosmos also inhabiting those spaces.

An unidentified Digimon that suddenly appeared in this dimension. There are various rumors about its relationship with Monzaemon;

The world where Digimon exist can be considered a dimension of its own located on top of the Computer Network, that dimension has a flow of time much faster than that of the Real World, and is called the “Digital World”, or just “Digimon World”, although the term fluctuates to refer also to the isolated spaces represented by the islands and continents that float in the Net Ocean. Different dimensions where certain Digimon are from, such as Nanimon, Wizarmon, and Etemon, are also known to exist and there they might not even be recognized as Digimon. Their form seems to change depending on the dimension they are in, which certain Digimon becoming stronger after adapting to a dimension with a more severe environment, such as the Piccolomon from Folder Continent being much stronger than those from File Island, or Nanimon that changed to a form much more adapted to combat after arriving in File Island.

The programs “Digimon Capture” and “Digimon Loader” were developed to help with the visualization, capture, and management of Digimon. Those programs at first were used in personal computers, but the technology was later compressed and was added to portable devices known as the “Digital Monster” machines. They would later become commonly used by the general public and those who trained Digimon would be known as the Digimon Tamers.

Digimon machines are sealed controlled spaces with particular environments (Such as individual regions of the File Island and Folder Continent); they were divided that way as a method to make the endless possibilities of evolution more limited and research the exact parameters that led to certain evolutions of Digimon.

The exact way the spaces in the machines are located in the Digital World is a bit unclear. Some materials state that the device works as a communication device that can connect with the Digimon that live in the Digital World, other times it’s stated that the Digimon live inside of the device and that the Digimon living with Tamers do not exist in the Digital World. It seems the actual answer is fluid depending on the already mentioned multiple meanings of what “Digital World” can mean. It’s also stated that when two devices connect and put Digimon to fight they are transferred to a space that spreads infinitely so they can fight all-out.

There are many mysteries to the Digital World, in the Folder Continent the many regions are divided into Fields where Digimon act in a way that sometimes feels like an organization. The Metal Empire that spreads its domains to the other regions while they attempt to create the strongest Digimon, or the Virus Busters gathered to protect the Main Computer.

-DEVIMON-
■Birthplace: File Island
Mugen Mountain
Rival: Angemon
This was originally an Angel Digimon, but it was tainted by evil and was converted into an evil Fallen Angel. Digimon easily change their nature depending on the environment!
Special Move: Death Claw
It is a brutal technique where it stretches out its long arms and quickly pierces the enemy’s body with its sharp claws. It contains an Attack Program that targets the heart with unparalleled accuracy.

In the Digital World it seems there’s a Hell and a Heaven. The Hell is also commonly known as the Darkness, the Darkside, or the Dark Area, This place is accessible through a spatial distortion and it’s not only the source of many Dark and Ghost Digimon, but also the place that corrupts Digimon such as Angels into Fallen Angels, a consequence of a Digimon’s abilities to adapt to their surroundings. Some Digimon have the ability to send their targets to Hell and the “Being who constructed the Digital World” once sent one of the highest-ranked angels to the Dark Area after it tried to rebel.

-ANGEMON-
Birthplace: File Island
Freezeland・Ice Sanctuary
It seems that it was originally composed of the same data as Devimon. Since it was raised in a perfect environment, it achieved a glorious evolution into an angel Digimon. Its policy is “No mercy against evil”.
Special Move: Heaven’s Knuckle Is this really the hammer of God!? A Gold Fist that pierces the opponent and sends it to Heaven, it’s a dazzling holy attack.

The Heavens seem to be the place the angel Digimon and Holy Digimon are from, including those that make up the Virus Busters organization. Not much is known about it, but the angel Digimon seem to work under the consciousness of “light” that desires to protect the order of the Digital World and in turn acts against the consciousness of “darkness”. As such, many Holy Digimon, which are often marked by the presence of a Holy Ring, will appear in the Digital World when a Dark Digimon attacks with the objective of sending that evil back to nothingness, or even purifying that evil and returning it to the Heavens.

A showdown between an Angel Digimon and a Fallen Angel Digimon. The only difference between the two, who have the same true strength, is their good and evil hearts. Will Devimon’s offensive, who is willing to do anything, win, or will Angemon’s pride in justice win!?

When Digimon were first found by humans in the network, they were quickly shaped into something useful for humans, with some of them being used normally every day as a fun element, some being used to interrupt the peace, and even some being used to protect the peace. But the more research on Digimon continued, the more vast their world seemed to be, and even the Digimon themselves were shown to be much more complex than originally expected. The full scope of the possibilities of the Digimon is still a mystery, and it deserves further research.

Since the objective of Pendulum was to provide a baseline for the worldview so it could be expanded later by other material, we can say that a good job was done here. Although there are still some mysteries, such as the creator of the Digital World or the nature of the Virus Busters and more, it’s normal to think that they will be solved later by the new material that is being made, but things are never this easy after all.

The next chapter of this story will focus on the changes that were made in the new material and all the references outside of Digimon that were used as the basis. Since I’m going to need to explain other material in that post, it might take much longer than this one to be done (It’ll also cover many more years).