**DISCLAIMER**
This post mostly refers to the first and second Digimon Series,
Digimon Adventure, as they are what I am most familiar with.
Pokemon and Digimon may look similar on the surface, but are very different once you get into them. Digimon is more focused on its story of the digidestined getting out of the Digital World, while Pokemon is centered around Ash becoming a Pokemon Master.
They do share similarities though. They’re both Japanese franchises that began around the same time. Both deal with children traveling alone with their monster companions who fight each other. Although, they do contrast each other a lot. Such as in their narratives.
Pokemon is a show about Ash Ketchum, a boy who aspires to become a Pokemon Master by collecting all the Pokemon in the world with his friends. Digimon, on the other hand, is about a group of children who get sucked into a whole different universe called “The Digital World” where they’re greeted by their partner Digimon (Agumon, Gabumon, Biyomon, Palmon, Gomamon, Tentomon, Patamon, and Gatomon) who help them escape back to the real world.
There are many other differences aside from the story though. The differences in cast of characters is pretty significant. Pokemon’s main cast usually consists of 3 people each series (4 if someone’s little sibling tags along). It’s usually Ash, a female character (Misty, May, Dawn, Iris, Serena) another male character (Brock, Tracey, Cilan, Clemont), and sometimes someone’s little brother or sister (Max, Bonnie). Digimon is more of a Sentai series, with a team of characters who work together called the Digidestined (Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Mimi, Joe, TK, and Kari). The Digidestined are replaced in the second series, “Digimon Adventure 02” by new characters (Davis, Yolei, Cody, Ken) but, TK and Kari remain main characters in the show. These show’s casts differ because, for one, Digimon’s cast is way bigger than Pokemon’s each generation. Also, Pokemon keeps Ash in each series, and doesn’t have him age, while Digimon gives you a complete new cast each series, where the old cast makes minor appearances that shows that they got older. Also, Digimon had twice as many female characters in each series than Pokemon did.
One more difference I’d like to bring up is kinds of evolution. Pokemon “evolve” when they reach a certain level of experience, causing them to go through a metamorphosis that makes them stronger, and they can’t return to their previous form. Digimon “digivolve” when they feel they need to protect their digidestined partner from harm, causing them to temporarily transform into a stronger form with stronger attacks, and they return to their basic form once finished. In generation 6 of Pokemon, they decided to add a feature called “Mega-Evolution” that is pretty much digivolution but with Pokemon.
Although they are viewed as the same by many people who never took the time to watch either show, these shows’ differences outweigh their similarities. Even if Pokemon ended up being more successful than Digimon, I will continue to love both franchises as they both have their own things that make them great.
