- published: 18 Mar 2016
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Digimon (デジモン, Dejimon?), short for "Digital Monsters" (デジタルモンスター, Dejitaru Monsutā?), is a Japanese media franchise encompassing digital toys, anime, manga and video games. The franchise's eponymous creatures are monsters of various forms living in a "Digital World", a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication networks.
Akiyoshi Hongo is credited as the creator of the original virtual pets, but he is a mysterious figure whose exact role remains unknown. Nothing is known about Akiyoshi Hongo as an individual. It is speculated that Akiyoshi Hongo is a nom de plume used by Aki Maita, the creator of the Tamagotchi virtual pet, and Takeichi Hongo, the Tamagotchi president for Bandai when working on Digimon-related media.
Digimon hatch from eggs called Digi-Eggs (デジタマ, Dejitama?). In the English iterations of the franchise there is another type of Digi-Egg that can be used to digivolve, or transform, Digimon. This second type of Digi-Egg is called a Digimental (デジメンタル, Dejimentaru?) in Japanese. They age via a process called "Digivolution" which changes their appearance and increases their powers. The effect of Digivolution, however, is not permanent in the partner Digimon of the main characters in the anime, and Digimon who have digivolved will most of the time revert back to their previous form after a battle or if they are too weak to continue. Some Digimon act feral. Most, however, possess large amounts of intelligence and human speech. They are able to digivolve by the use of Digivices that their human partners have. In some cases, as in the first series, the DigiDestined (known as the 'Chosen Children' in the original Japanese) had to find some special items such as crests and tags so the Digimon could digivolve into further stages of evolution known as Ultimate and Mega in the dub.