Why Pokemon But Not Digimon?

The 2000s were the beginning of the West being introduced to anime. We ended up getting many of the big names that still are talked about today such as Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. However, one series that isn’t talked about nearly as much that was also introduced around this time is Digimon. Sure there’s still fans of the series around, however, it’s nowhere near as popular here as the others. This is especially strange considering that Pokemon, a series similar to Digimon, is even more popular than ever here.

Pokemon and Digimon share a few things in common. They’re both serieses about kids using monsters to fight other monsters with power to evolve said monsters to make them stronger. However, once you delve a bit deeper you realize that these two shows couldn’t be more different. For one thing Pokemon is centered around a more creature capture aspect to it with characters usually having more than one partner at a time. Digimon on the other hand - aside from one season - focuses more on the bonds between pairs and thus characters will only ever have one partner. Then there’s the fact that characters in Pokemon are usually only fighting other trainers while in Digimon it’s wild Digimon they’re fighting.

Even with these differences though, it still doesn’t explain the difference in popularity. That’s why I believe it boils down to two factors. The first is the fact that Pokemon was more ‘relatable’. In Digimon these kids weren’t your ordinary kids; they were the Digidestined. These kids were the chosen ones who were said to be the ones to save the Digital World from danger. Ash Ketchum, however, isn't some chosen one, he’s just your ordinary kid. Sure he’s done some pretty incredible things, but technically speaking any kid in that world would be capable of doing the same. In other words, any kid watching at home could step into that world be as good of or even better of a pokemon trainer than Ash was without needing to be some chosen one. This ability to basically place yourself in that world so easily was just one of Pokemon’s appeals.

What really helped Pokemon and hurt Digimon though were their games. If you ask any Pokemon or Digimon fan what the best game in their respective series is, they’ll always have different answers. In the case of Pokemon the reason is because there have been so many great games it’s hard to narrow it down to just one. Digimon fans struggle though because of how different the quality of their games are. While there are good Digimon games, there aren’t a lot that have created as big of an impact as Pokemon. As a result fans of the franchise have at times felt burned because of them. And if old fans feel this way, how does the franchise have any chance of gaining new fans?

In terms of show quality I’d say that Digimon is just as good and has even surpassed Pokemon at times. But that’s unfortunately not enough to build up a franchise. While relatability was definitely part of it, I truly feel that had the games been better Digimon could be just as popular in the West. However, it’s instead a series that’s gotten to the point where people aren’t even aware that a new season came out.

Logan Floyd-Mcgee | Writer
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