Digimon

Digimon (Japanese: デジモン, Hepburn: Dejimon; branded as Digimon: Digital Monsters), short for "Digital Monsters" (デジタルモンスター Dejitaru Monsutā), is a Japanese media franchise, which encompasses virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films, and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures who inhabit a digital world, a parallel universe which originated from Earth's various communication networks. The franchise was created in 1997 as Digital Monster, a series of digital pets, and it was intended as the masculine counterpart to Tamagotchi. The creatures were designed to look cute and iconic on the devices' small screens. Later developments had them created with a harder-edged style, which was influenced by American comics. The franchise gained momentum with an early video game, Digimon World, originally released in Japan in January 1999. Several anime series and films have been released; the video game series has expanded into various genres, such as role-playing, racing, fighting, and MMORPGs. The franchise generated over $500 million in sales by 2000.