Monsters, Humans, and the End of the World

Monsters, Humans, and the End of the World: The Non-Human used to Understand the Human; A look into Japan's two biggest monster related franchises, and their influence on understanding the world around us. By Erik Akerman aka Tri.log

[non-human-mons]

Monsters, Humans, and the End of the World: The Non-Human used to Understand the Human; We All Live in a Monster-filled World

For twenty some years the Japanese monster themed franchise of Pokémon has held dominance in pop culture relevancy, and other Japanese monster franchise Digimon follows closely in it shadow. These two franchises hold major significance in modern popular culture, both in and out of Japan, and currently has raised and or played a huge role in the lives of at least two generations of modern society. The two are often compared to the other despite having only a few similarities; monsters/mons, evolution, the relationship of human and non-humans, and the anthropocene. Fans will argue that neither are truly comparable due to them being so uniquely different in their eyes, and whereas the respected stories and concepts are different, they work in similar ways to understanding our world through the non-human.

Pokémon World; Pokémon Adventure in the Orange Islands' theme song. Song by Youngstown ft. Nobody's Angel released in 2000.

“We all live in a Pokémon World”, the old English Pokémon Orange Island theme song would describe, decades before the franchise has truly taken over the world. Created by Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori, Pokémon is truly a force to be reckoned with, not even Disney can keep up. Truly, the likelihood of someone not knowing what Pokémon is, or what Pikachu, is near impossible to find in most parts of the world. According to a chart created by Carly Hallman of titlemax.com with the help of Wikipedia, as of 2019, Pokémon has been known as the world’s highest grossing media franchise, with being estimated to be worth $92.1 Billion USD in 2019. Now according to Wikipedia, Pokémon’s current estimated revenue is around $105 Billion USD, beating out Hello Kitty by $20.5 Billion, Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse by $24.7 Billion. Pokémon took the world by storm when it first released, and has gone through many years of going back and forth on its relevance in western society, but is currently in the height of its 25 year career. Pokémon is currently banking on nostalgia, but also a new generation of fans that stem from the older fans, and Pokémon has mastered the ability to be a staple piece of popular culture. Pokémon has had many forms of media, and products, but in 2001 was also on the currency of the small country of Niue, and in 1998 had its jet line debut on Japanese Airline, All Nippon Airways. Pokémon is truly a powerful force in popular culture, and as Pokémon holds a special place in many people’s lives, the franchise holds a lot of understanding of our relationship to our planet, and the relationship of human and the non-human.

Niue's currency featuring Pokémon. Image from Awol.junkee.com

Carly Hallman of TitleMax chart of 'The 25 Highest-Grossing Media Franchises of All Time'

Albeit Digimon may hold less of a significance in the west, and overall when you look at it versus Pokémon, but a franchise lasting twenty-two years is no laughing matter. Digimon’s relevance is considered less than Pokémon, but the franchise holds a strong power over those it has influenced, and is often brought up in comparison to Pokémon due to it being the first Japanese monster franchise brought into the world post Pokémania (a term used to describe the height of Pokémon's early popularity). Some western Pokémon fans (who refuse to consume the Digimon media) will yell to the heavens that it is a lesser copycat of Pokémon, and use it as an insult to any other monster franchise. This is such a common occurrence in Western society that Season 21 episode 18 of the Simpsons (a long running show that commentates on western culture) uses this trope. There is a scene when Bart learns about Battle Balls (a play on another Japanese multimedia monster related franchise; Bakugan) and a kid says that “Battle Balls makes Digimon look like Pokémon”. I am not entirely sure what that's suppose to mean, but it showcases this trope very well.

Outside of the west, Digimon plays an even bigger role in a lot of Japanese media. Digimon originally was not intended to be what it became, as it was originally a way for Japanese toy company, Bandai to create a boy version of the popular Tamagotchi. Later, Bandai would hire director Mamoru Hosoda, and writer Reiko Yoshida to produce the first ever Digimon animation, Digimon Adventure originally as a way to market the toy. This 20 minute short film defined Digimon’s future, and later became the Digimon Adventure 1999 anime series that became a part of so many people’s childhoods. Not only that, but Hosoda, and Yoshida would become the people behind many famous, and beloved anime series and movies. Yoshida would work on widely popular works from K-On! to D. Grayman, and so forth. Whereas Hosoda would become even more influential as he used the second Digimon film the two worked on, Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! as a catalyst to build off of for his movies like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Summer Wars. Both are hugely popular and influential anime films that exist outside of the Studio Ghibli movie universe that many people hold dear. If it wasn’t for Digimon Adventure most of these big anime moments would not exist or be the same level of quality that they are now. Digimon may be seen as less than Pokémon to others, but it has a strong hold on a lot of the media world, and once again its fans.

Fans who have consumed Digimon media will most notably say that the two are not comparable, but then go on to say Digimon’s story is way better, and that is due to Digimon taking a more serious tone with its stories and characters than Pokémon. Digimon focuses a lot on childhood trauma, and ways to overcome and push through that with the help of a world of escapism, whereas Pokémon is mostly nothing but escapism. However, both tell stories of our natural world, the human world, and the toll humans have on the natural world. Whereas one fanbase would rather not compare them, it is important to note that a lot of their similarities fall under this idea.

Clip from Season 21 episode 18 of the Simpsons; “Chief of Hearts”, Aired on April 18, 2010. Posted by @Wikimon_news on Twitter. Characters created by Matt Groening, owned by FOX and Disney.

In order to understand these subjects I will be taking my own experiences with the two franchises, and utilizing information I have gained through my Art After Nature course at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago to analyze and discuss these ideas. My experience with the monster franchises is a unique one that not many on this planet might possess; I am only 24 years old (at the time of writing this), and I was born February 11th, 1997. Pokémon itself was brought into the world almost exactly one year before I existed in this world, on February 27th, 1996. Pokémon existed in Japan for a couple of years before being brought over to the west in August of 1998, when I was a little over a year old, and I was in love the moment I laid my tiny baby eyes on it. I’m told I knew Pokémon before knowing anything else, and honestly all I wanted from a young age was to be a Pokémon trainer; Pokémon was my entire life. I do not remember a life without Pokémon, but I also grew up along with the franchise so I was not born into a world with any pre-established information of the franchise, and grew with the franchise.

Baby me consuming my dog, Libby's dog treat in my sick Pokémon fit and tragic bowl cut (would kill for those shoes in adult sizing to be honest)

As for Digimon; at this point in my life, Digimon is my favorite franchise ever. Like Pokémon, Digimon came into the world when I was still fresh in the world myself; however I distinctly remember having nightmares over it when I was around two to three years old. Digimon is vastly darker, and often more serious or adult at times than Pokémon, but that fear of the franchise did not last long. I fell in love with it a few years later when I obsessively checked out the Digimon Movie from my local library every other week, and when we finally had internet in the house, it was a done deal. I spent all my time binging the dub of the multi-series anime on YouTube. I’ve been watching most of what the franchise has to offer, and what I can find online for at least a decade now. Unlike Pokémon, I’m still finding things I did not know about years later, and I love every minute of it. That being said, I have not played many of the games since they’re scattered through many different consoles, and a lot harder/longer than Pokémon, so I will not be focusing on the games and rather the anime series for both to make my analysis more consistent.

My right arm with the Crest of Courage from Digimon Adventure 1999 tattooed on it.

My experience with both franchises are vastly unique, as I’ve been interacting and consuming both for the majority of my life. Along with my love, passion, and knowledge for both franchises I will also be looking at both through the lens of ideas learned in my Art After Nature graduate course at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and reflecting on how they show understandings of our world and relations with the non-human.

As I end this post, I would like to leave you off with links to some of my most favorite pieces from each respected media franchise celebrating their 20th-25th anniversaries, as well as their original late 90s english and Japanese anime openings for fun (and nostalgia for some). Also to show the start of an era, and the current state of the franchises reign.

Pokémon 25th

Pokémon English OP

Pokémon Japanese OP

Digimon 2020

Digimon Adventure 1999 English OP

Digimon Adventure 1999 Japanese OP

[non-human-mons]

Monsters, Humans, and the End of the World: The Non-Human used to Understand the Human; Evolutionary Partnerships

Before I get started, I feel as though I should clarify; there’s twenty some years worth of lore for each franchise, eight different generations between the two of them, and both franchises explore the ideas of multi-verses within their own respected universes, so there’s A LOT of story elements. I will only be using elements relevant to my analysis, and not covering everything. If you wish to know more without actually engaging in depth with the media firsthand there’s several amazing YouTube videos that explore the depth of the lore for both franchises. Also final note: a Digimon’s name for the actual monsters will always end with the ‘mon’ suffix, whereas Pokémon names will not. With all that said, and done let’s get into it.

Digimon 20th Anniversary Project art featuring all of the Digimon and Appmon anime lead protagonists as of 2017. Found on wikimon.net

A good place to begin this conversation is the ideas of evolution in the franchises. Both utilize this idea of evolution to connect back to the human understanding of the natural world as well form a strong connection to humans and non-humans. Before we get into the juicy part of these connections, I would like to explain (as briefly as possible) the general evolution mechanics of both franchises.

How To Evolve All Pokémon Gen 1 - Gen 8 (Galar) 2020 (Animated Sprites) published by Shin Art on December 16, 2019.

Starting off the more simpler of the two; Pokémon. Pokémon follows a more linear, Darwin understanding of evolution aka the evolutions (usually) show a slow progression of the species, and shows how the creature adapts, and grows throughout its environment. There are some older evolutionary lines from generations one, and two that make little to no sense (ex. Remoraid from Gen. 2, a fish turning into Octillery an octopus), and Pokémon now often pokes fun at that, but the general idea is that theres clear relation between the species and its evolutions. We do also have to consider other forms of evolution in the world of Pokémon; Mega Evolution that only lasts in battle, evolutionary items like certain stones, or what’s known as a Metal Coat, evolutionary events like evolving in certain regions or trading between players, and multiple outcomes to an evolutionary line. There are also various different regional variants of Pokémon species as well, but those are not as relevant to evolution, but worth noting. That being said, the general idea is a Pokémon follows a natural route of evolution, or has multiple different outcomes, and or a forced evolution by humans in some way, and stays in that form permanently (with the exclusion of Mega Evolution).

Digimon evolution chart posted by https://digivolutioncentral.tumblr.com/

Now for Digimon; Digimon is short for Digital Monsters, so essentially Digimon are creatures made up from Data meaning for every individual Digimon, there are multiple routes it can take to evolve. It’s best just to showcase an image of what I mean. I would say this is closer to real life species, but only sometimes do the evolutions actually make sense (also the most note worthy meme of Digimon evolution is evolution but add guns and or machines). The other thing with Digimon is that with the exception of the original Adventure timeline (Adventure 1999, 02, Tri, Last Evolution, and various one off movies are all one timeline. Adventure 2020 is a reboot and its own unique universe using the Adventure 1999 characters), every generation of anime has is its own universe that follows its own set of unique rules, both with lore, and evolution. Digimon Adventure 1999 follows the more naturalistic path of evolution, Digimon Adventure 02 uses what’s called Digitama (or Digieggs in the english release) for armor evolution, and both also utilize this idea of crests relating to the humans’ greatest strengths and challenges to evolve, and explore Jogress/DNA evolution aka fusing two Digimon together. Those are the fairly common, and standard forms of evolution throughout the franchise, but then there’s also evolutions that involve physically fusing with the human partners, or the humans merging with ancient Digimon idols to become Digimon, or evolutions beyond the final evolutionary stage, and or they get some random one off evolution that is just altering its current form. Honestly, trying to understand Digimon evolution is simply just a lot, but unlike Pokémon, Digimon can revert back into a previous form.

Digimon Xros Wars - The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time episode 78 'The Great Gathering of Legendary Heroes! The Digimon All-Stars Showdown!!' aired on March 17, 2012. 'Digimon Xros Wars Legendary Heroes with Evolutions' edited and posted by Animeguy01, published to YouTube on March 5, 2019. Characters, and work belonging to Bandai and Toei Animation.

But what does evolution have to do with our understanding of the natural world? I mean the obvious answer is creatures, and humans have evolved over time, and continue to adapt. However, in the case of both we see the roles humans play in these evolutions, whether directly or indirectly.

Both franchises utilize ideas of battling these mons to raise them up, which is the one thing that’s the most controversial about both, since battling creatures in real life is actually a horrific cruel sight, and many see this as making light of that. Whereas I can acknowledge that, the mons (outside of primarily being friends with the humans) often act as a connection to the human partner’s growth, and the battles are visual journey to showcase that growth. Pokémon has been the most criticized for it, but even in the beginning of the franchise Pokémon was acknowledging that creatures doing our bidding is wrong, and it’s truly about friendship and caring about the world surrounding us. Evolution acts as a bond between humans, and mons and showcases the growth of these two.

Eevee evolution chart published by PokePokémon in their Amino post: 'Pokémon Evolution vs. Human Evolution' on February 20,2017. Characters owned by Nintendo and the Pokémon Company.

In the world of Pokémon, Pokémon will evolve at their own pace, and time, just like how animals in our world evolve slowly, but with human intervention that changes. Pokémon trainers who train the Pokémon to evolve to its highest form accelerate the process by pushing the Pokémon further beyond its current state. This can be seen as a humans natural growth as the trainer and Pokémon start as children, and evolve/grow into adolescents, and then adults. This natural progression and growth of the Pokémon is a visual for the human’s growth and evolution as they learn and change through their journey. When it comes to the special evolutionary events like trading, holding a specific combination of Pokémon on your team, or items it's a forced evolution or a forced change of habits caused by an outside force, and often we can’t control what happens, and certain events change and shape us. Mega evolution is a mechanic that is a temporary evolution in battle which can be related to the potential we are working for, but haven’t reached yet.

Pokémon vs Digimon evolution meme, source memezilla.com.

Digimon will also have a natural evolution over time without humans, but progress quicker with humans, and the approach is far more direct than Pokémon. With Digimon it is shown time and time again throughout the entirety of the franchise, but is its strongest in the Adventure 1999 series. In Adventure 1999, eight children are chosen to save the digital world that is connected to our own, and each one represents a Japanese elementary school student archetype; the athletic kids, the brainy boy, the loner, the it/rich girl, the overly anxious kid, and the younger siblings. However, as I have learned recently from watching Ygg Studio’s video essay; Anime Alphabet - D is for Digimon Adventure, each kid also represents some form of trauma that children go through, and that the original Digimon Adventure film that later became the series had a scene cut out in the west that put more emphasis on this idea. In the cut scene it is shown that Tai/Taichi and Kari/Hikari’s dad comes home drunk late at night, and abuse is applied in that scene. Right after that we reach the climax of the film where Agumon becomes Graymon and battles Parrotmon in the middle of the city to protect Kari/Hikari and Tai/Taichi, which is what the Digimon often do; protect the kids. While this battle is occurring the other six protagonists of the 1999 series lays witness to this fight, but later forgets the involvement of the mons, and rather remember it as a terrorist attack, which is the universal trauma that not only they experience, but many Japanese and American kids in our world could relate heavily to in these times with the events of 9/11 and the Tokyo subway sarin attack of 1995. Not only American and Japanese kids, but children everywhere can relate to the traumas in Digimon from the implications of terrorism to living in a world that has no future (more on that later).

Beyond these universal traumas, each character is representative of other traumas; children of abuse, not being enough in the parent's eyes, divorced parents, overbearing strict parents, adoption, dead parents, and even children who are consistently sexualized by the outside world. Each kid has their own unique trauma, and the digital world calls upon them to save the world closely connected to their real world. With the help of their non-human monsters this journey serves them as its a place for them to work through the stuff that holds them back, and pushes them further while quite literally saving both worlds.

Through evolution we once again see the growth of the humans as the mons evolve, because in Digimon the evolution happens with the children. However it’s slightly different, because in the beginning the Digimon evolve to protect the children from danger, and only later do they evolve as the children grow, and work past their issues. Considering that, the mons initially evolving in order to protect the children seems to be a response to the children wishing they could protect themselves from the problems they have faced in life that they were unprepared for. The children at this stage are in an unfamiliar setting, and are vulnerable to their surroundings, but this time the mons are protecting them. Later on in the Adventure 1999 series we are introduced to crests which are the children’s inner burdens/challenges that later turn into their greatest strengths; Tai/Taichi the abused with the crest of Courage, his sister Kari/Hikari with Light, Matt/Yamato the first child of divorce with Friendship, his little brother T.K/Takeru with Hope, Izzy/Koshiro the child adopted after his parents died with Knowledge, Sora the one who is not good enough with Love, Joe who is under constant pressure to be a doctor despite not being the brightest with Honesty/Reliability (the dub changed his and Mimi’s), and lastly the innocent yet sexualized Mimi with Purity/Sincerity. Not only are they rewarded with these crests when they show these strengths, but when they work though their battles with these challenges their mons evolve to become stronger. Like Pokémon there is also forced evolutions throughout the series, but are often a result of the children regressing in someway. Ygg Studio uses Taichi and the forced dark evolution of Graymon to talk about these ideas, but I want to take a moment to talk about the younger sister; Hikari. Hikari is the holder of Light, and often the light of the Digital world uses her as a vessel to talk, but she is often surrounded by darkness. We first see it respond to the grief and loss of Wizardmon, and we are introduced to her ultimate level partner; Angewomon. We often see a darkness that surrounds the children that is often a metaphor for depression throughout the entirety of the franchises’ multiverse anime series, but especially in the Adventure timeline predominantly with Hikari. She is the character that is often surrounded by both Light and Darkness, and it’s because she struggles to find the light inside to keep going, but when she does it’s the strongest force that she is connected to. However, we see her wander through the dark ocean in Adventure 02, and a forced evolution of her partner in Adventure Tri when it perceived that older brother Taichi dies (spoiler he doesn't). Her partner Tailmon/Gatomon also follows a tale of abuse, discussed in Ygg’s video, but this furthers their connection; Tailmon has to live with the struggles of her dark past, and Hikari struggles to find the light. It’s an interesting relationship, because whereas the other Digimon partners have some relation to their human counterparts, they generally are just fun loving creatures who want to help their humans, and can’t 100% relate to their struggles, but these two can. Tailmon is also the only one of the partners to stay in their adult stage, whereas the others revert back to their child stages, which could be due to her having to grow up quicker than the others, and many children of abusive parents can relate to that.

Image 1: Wizardmon's death in episode 37 of Digimon Adventure 1999, titled 'Wizardmon's Gift' originally aired on November 21, 1999. Image 2: Flashback of Tai/Taichi being slapped by his mother in episode 48 of Digimon Adventure 1999, titled 'My Sister's Keeper', originally aired on February 13, 2000.

The relationship of evolution connecting to the humans of both franchises is not only connected to the ideas of the natural world and human's growth and stories through the non-human, but a tool used when confronting the anthropocene. The non-human being used to tell the human’s story has gone back thousands of years to ideas and beliefs from early religion, and is still prominent by today’s standards with these two franchises. However, now there is the relationship between the two beings brought together to fight against the end of the world in these series. Before that though, I will be looking into the mons themselves and these ideas at play.

[non-human-mons]

Monsters, Humans, and the End of the World: The Non-Human used to Understand the Human; Who Are The Mons?

When talking about John Berger’s ‘Why Look at Animals?’ we start to understand the role that animals and the non-human play in understanding ourselves, and our existence. With that being said when it comes to the monsters and their origins there’s both Pokémon, and Digimon that do a good job at bringing forth understanding our world beyond ourselves. In this part I will be focusing on four different categories of the non-human monsters; the animals, the plants, the man-made, and the holy legends.

The four different categories. Digimon artwork/images owned by Bandai, and Toei Animation. Pokémon artwork/images owned by Nintendo and the Pokémon Company.

Let's start with the animals, and how animals have influenced these mons. You have your birds like Biyomon, and Pidove, your bugs like Tentomon, and Beautifly, your aquatic friends like Dolphmon, and Kingdra, your domestic pets like Dobermon, and Snubbull, and even your prehistoric creatures like Tyrannomon, and Aerodactyl. Both Pokémon and Digimon utilize a variety of animals found in our world and previous worlds to create these new creatures with seemingly supernatural abilities. I say seemingly because a lot of their ‘powers’ or ‘attacks’ often are amplified abilities the real life counterpart possesses. Dobermon’s attack: Grau Lärm or Gray Noise, relates to it being based on a Doberman Pinscher. According to the Digimon fandom wiki page of this attack “seals the opponent's abilities with a howl.” A doberman is a dog, and dogs howl, but this attack is an amplified adaptation of that animal fact. Similarly, Snubbull is based off the Bulldog breed, and one of the many attacks it can learn is the move Snarl. Snarl acts the same as Grau Lärm as it's a move that uses a behavioral feature from the real life counterpart that disables the opponent in some way, a noise. Most of these abilities/attacks from all these creatures are related to what they come from. The use of the animal form is one of many forms used in both franchises, and they all stem from real life animals found in our own planet.

Dobermon and Snubbull. Digimon artwork/images owned by Bandai, and Toei Animation. Pokémon artwork/images owned by Nintendo and the Pokémon Company.

Similarly to the animal department you have mons based on real life plants; Vileplume the rafflesia arnoldii, Weepinbell the pitcher plant, Cherrymon the cherry tree, Togemon the cactus, and so on. However, with both you see the addition of a beast combined with plants with the likes of Tropius, Bulbasaur, Sunfloramon, and Jagamon. Whereas the source of the beast is often a bit more ambiguous the plant elements and connections are strong; Bulbasaur a bulb, Tropius a tropical tree, Sunfloramon a sunflower, and Jagamon’s body is covered in what looks like dirt clods (they’re actually potatoes) with a sprout for a tail. When it comes to the mons based on plants or the mons that combine beast and plants, the connections are to our natural world, but the plant mons go beyond just the natural world and lean into more contemporary or legend based territories, and no other category does this or at least not nearly as much.

Tropius and Jagamon. Digimon artwork/images owned by Bandai, and Toei Animation. Pokémon artwork/images owned by Nintendo and the Pokémon Company.

When thinking of the various kinds of plant mons there’s way more complexities than just the other types of mons. Plants and animals both share a connection where both have been used in human history to help understand our existence on the planet for eons now. When thinking about the various types of plant mons it shows the huge relevance of plants in our existential understanding of existence. The plant mons based on the real life plants reflect on the long history or archiving plants, but puts a twist on it and turns them into these monsters to interact with vs a normal plant. To understand the plants and to archive them is to note whether a plant is dangerous or if it can be used to heal. Many of the plant based mons either have features that reference the dangers of plants such as poisonous moves that physically enables the threat or features the healing abilities with move sets that draw health or power from the sun, or through the ground, and or are able to heal others on their team. The combining of beast and plant goes far back in a lot of ancient societies, and the fusion of both were used to try and grasp things beyond our understanding, thus leading to folklore. Folklore extends from the inability to capture nature in the moment, but also from generalized ideas of an image vs the reality. Through folklore or holy-legends, we then get into contemporary society as now plants have become a way to symbolize or define either a political movement or generation.

Eldradimon and the Turtwig line. Digimon artwork/images owned by Bandai, and Toei Animation. Pokémon artwork/images owned by Nintendo and the Pokémon Company.

With the folk legend mons we have the Turtwig line from Pokémon and ElDradimon from Digimon which both represent the World Turtle which is an ancient idea that the world or parts of the world resides on the back of giant turtles. Abomasnow the pine tree abominable snowman, Toropiamon the flower dragon, the ghost of a lost child in the woods aka Phantump, and the mythical mandrake that is Palmon. All of these mons are based on legends or folklore that dates back generations, but all of these ideas were relevant to understanding the world at one point, similarly to the plant mons that represent more modern contemporary ideas.

Poison Ivy, Variant cover of Batman vol. 3, #26 (Sept. 2017) Art by Joshua Middleton. Poison Ivy owned by DC Comics.

We have monsters like the jack o'lantern Pumpkaboo line, and Pumpkinmon that showcase the halloween tradition of carving pumpkins, and the love and celebration of the holiday, but then we have hyper fem, strong, confident yet mysterious mons like Roserade, Tsareena, Lillymon, and Rosemon. When I think of these mons, I think of Batman’s Poison Ivy, who since their debut in the 1960s has become a pop culture icon for feminism. The design elements for Poison Ivy most widely known lean more into the sexy feminine form with her emphasized long legs, and cinched waist, which is considered sexy to a male gaze (I’m gay so I am just assuming based off her ability to seduce). Poison Ivy is a femme fatale that is seen as sexy, and allures men to either kill them or put them in their place as a means for her environmental activism. Poison Ivy brings in an interesting perspective into the world of plants and femme fatale characters. Plants have always been seen as feminine, hence the term 'Mother Nature', and both the femme and plants have been seen as less and or weaker in society despite possessing great power. Not only does she use her feminine sex appeal along with her elite powers to reclaim the world for plants/protect them, but also reclaiming her space as a woman. The femme fatale mons in Digimon and Pokémon seem to relate to this Batman character, or at least similar concepts.

Evolution Line - Palmon by Indominus1 on DeviantArt.

Bringing back Mimi from the Adventure series; her partner Palmon eventually becomes both Lillymon and then Rosemon. Mimi’s trauma is related to her being over-sexualized as a literal nine year old, and Mimi reflects a similar story to Poison Ivy where men are the root of the issue. Mimi is constantly sexualized by creepy human men, and at times even male Digimon. Her crest of purity reflects on her struggles of the purity of a child in a messed up world, and her partner's evolution line is reflective of that. Palmon the child stage turning to Togemon with its hard exterior toughening up and hiding the soft interior, Togemon to Lillymon who emerges delicately from the hard exterior, and then Rosemon reclaiming her space. Poison Ivy’s story is reflective of these ideas of femininity fighting back against the patriarchy that once suppressed them. Even with Tsareena and Roserade from Pokémon this idea is still there of the femme fatale stomping on the patriarchy as both stomp opponents into submission.

Grimer and Raremon. Digimon artwork/images owned by Bandai, and Toei Animation. Pokémon artwork/images owned by Nintendo and the Pokémon Company.

Outside of plant mons, when talking about contemporary society related mons, we have the non-human mons formed from the impacts of humans, or created directly by humans. We do have more folklore based mons that stem from ghost stories of abandoned toys coming to life to haunt those who abandoned them; Banette, and Puppetmon/Pinocchimon, and we also have some based on post apocalyptic/sci-fi theories/fantasies like the android Andromon and the clone Mewtwo, but we also have monsters based in the realistic toll humans have caused on nature. Consider Pokémon’s mascot, Pikachu, the electric rodent Pokémon. Now consider laboratory mice, and electric experiments placed on them. Now consider Grimer, and Raremon, both mons made of sludge formed from toxic human pollution, and Trubbish and Sukamon, both formed from literal garbage from humans. Pokémon's Corsola is the coral Pokémon who later gets a new form and evolution of Cursola, the bleached coral Pokémon. A third of the poison typing in Pokémon are Pokémon formed from the toxic environment humans produce, and whereas its more abstract in Digimon, the impact humans have caused is still a relevant issue in a lot of the differing multi-verse plots. Neither try to shy away from calling out the harsh consequences that come from human existence, since both try to bring understanding of our world through their own. Also don’t get me wrong, there is a whole discussion to be had on their real life impact from the amount of plastic and energy usage both franchises consume to tell their story, as well as market themselves, and create an immersive experience, but again, we’re focusing on the stories they tell.

Magnadramon and Arceus. Digimon artwork/images owned by Bandai, and Toei Animation. Pokémon artwork/images owned by Nintendo and the Pokémon Company.

Lastly we have our elder society mons aka the mons based on ideas of God or Gods, and religion. Religion, and the holy drive a lot of our understanding of the world, as it is to understand what is beyond our reach, and this is shown often through the monster filled worlds. Pokémon straight up has its own one true god lore with the god of the Pokémon universe; Arceus. Arceus is the creator of everything, Arceus created time and space in the forms of Diagla, and Palkia, as well the ancestor of all Pokémon, Mew. Pokémon, and the god/creation lore of Pokémon is incredibly long, but clearly shows the influence of religion in this piece of media. When it comes to Digimon the story is a bit different, as there’s not really any Gods per say, but Digimon and ideas based off of East Asian Deities/Gods, and touches a bit on Christianity with literal Angels as monsters, but one thing Digimon does that Pokémon doesn’t is it has direct ideas of reincarnation. When a Digimon dies, they are reborn, but more so on the monsters themselves. There is an interesting conversation to be had with classifying angels as monsters, especially the more human-like ones like Angemon and Angewomon, but I then there’s angelic ones that are directly beasts, like Cherrubimon or Magnadramon, which is similar to Pokémon’s God and God-like beings reference. A long time ago beasts were often used to understand the divine and what is beyond us, but somewhere along the line we in the west started to associate God and the holy with humans. However, these franchises from the east are still using beasts like Gods, and whereas one does have more humanoid mons they both don’t center on the humans as the truly divine. The holy legend mons show how both franchises do focus on the human relations with the world, but does not always place them at the center of everything

[non-human-mons]

Monsters, Humans, and the End of the World: The Non-Human used to Understand the Human; Environment and the Anthropocene

Both franchises do a great job at focusing on the human relation to the natural world through fictitious monsters, but both also talk heavily about ideas of the Anthropocene, and the role humans play in their own downfall. Both franchises have loads of content that deal with how humans are harming the world around them, but in very different ways; Digimon talks more abstractly about the negative side of humans that plays into their downfalls, whereas Pokémon often takes a more environmental approach to humans' harmful impact on their surroundings.

20 years after Y2K panic, what happened to the guy with a bunker of food? posted by KENS 5: Your San Antonio News Source, Jan. 1, 2020.

Digimon Adventure 1999 starts off in a pre-Y2K timeline where the real world (like our actual human flesh world, not the “real world” in Digimon) was anticipating the computers, and technology bringing the end of the world. Digimon Adventure 1999 starts off with various climate emergencies that are still a huge concern today; ocean levels rising, snow in July, heat waves, and so on to preface this end of the world idea. Digimon starts off in a world that has no future, and is connected to the idea of technology bringing forth the end of the world, as both digital and human worlds are threatened, but they use imagery associated with the climate crisis to bring forth this threat. A lot of the climate crisis we see in this series is related to the Digimon, and the digital world. Later on we see Digimon trapped between both worlds and are ghost-like in their demeanor, because the only people who can see them are Tai/Taichi and Agumon when they come back from the digital world temporarily. Though not noticeable to the humans, these trapped Digimon cause a lot of chaos that humans see as these climate issues. Most of these mons are just lost and don’t know what to do, but then we have the villainous ones, who in this series and every other series we see the role humans play in creating the villains. Many of the villains in the Digital World that the children face are not only the looming darkness within themselves, but also the darkness extending from a human impact, and are always tied to an impending doom. The final villain in Adventure 1999 is known as Apocalymon who is formed from the negativity of humans, and is not the last villain through the several multiverses to be formed from the negative implications of humans. Digimon Tamers’ main antagonist aka the D-Reaper (which takes many forms) is a virus created by the United States Department of Defense that is consuming both the digital and human world, but is neither mon nor human. Digimon Savers/Data Squad’s Akihiro Kurata, Digimon’s first human villain, a mad scientist who’s crime list goes from mass genocide, terrorism, war crimes, and so on. Digimon Savers also has a Digimon villain, King Drasil who also commits mass genocide and attempts mundicide (the destruction of a planet) in order to destroy the human world. Both villains from Savers act the way they do in seeking world domination, and power because both villains see either world as a threat. Kurata attempting to destroy the Digimon, leads to King Drasil trying to destroy humans- without Kurata Drasil’s motivations would most likely not be the same. With each Digimon villain, Digimon is essentially calling out the fact that humans are the ones causing this destruction to their world, which is commentary on our reality. Humans have been destroying worlds while destroying the planet at the same time, but Digimon’s approach is less environmental compared to Pokémon.

Mother D-Reaper, Digimon Tamers 2001-2002.

Pokémon has always been a world of escapism, and fun times, but has often emphasized the importance of the natural world. From treating the creatures of the world with respect, to the role human greediness plays in the destruction in the world. Many of the evil organizations throughout the generations of the franchise reflect this, from Team Rocket to Team Flare. Team Rocket, the original bad guys of the universe, uses Pokémon for the sake of world domination, Teams Aqua and Magma of gen three use Pokémon to push their strong beliefs on the world, Team Galactic of gen four use Pokémon to start a new world, but a world they are in control of, and this goes on until generation six’s Team Flare. In the past two generations this has changed from the main “evil organizations”/”bad guy” teams to misguided rich people; Lusamine in generation seven who desperately wants to find the ultra space, and Chairman Rose in generation eight who tries to bring forth a second ‘Darkest Day’ to provide the region with infinite energy supply. Both end up causing more harm than good in the end.

Pokémon Villains Gen 1-Gen 6. Infographic posted by u/Magister_Xehanort on Reddit.

However, before any of these later storylines, there is one of my favorite episodes of the anime ever; Season 1, Episode 19: ‘Tentacool & Tentacruel’. In this early episode of the franchise’s anime, a greedy businesswoman is destroying the coral reef where many water type Pokémon live, and most notably the jellyfish Pokémon, Tentacool. When Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu miss their ferry to the mainland, a boat with workers explodes in the middle of the ocean, and the group acts fast to save the workers. While doing so they run into an injured Horsea (the seahorse Pokémon) who warns them of the incoming threat. The greedy businesswoman invites Ash and friends to her residence to thank them for saving her workers, and then tries to hire them to eliminate the Tentacool population for her resort. Misty refuses to harm the Tentacool saying how beautiful they truly are, and the rest come to their senses and leave alongside her. With their rejection, the woman hires Team Rocket (who are just petty criminals/often comedy relief in the anime) who set off a bomb in attempt to destroy the Tentacool population. Instead of destroying them, the reaction causes a mutation to one of the Tentacools causing one of them to evolve into a giant Tentacruel. This Tentacruel is 20 times bigger than a regular Tentacruel, and uses telepathy/esp abilities on Team Rocket’s infamous talking Meowth to express its rage towards the humans. The Tentacruel, and Tentacool go on to destroy the construction site and eventually the city to show the humans the pain they caused the Pokémon and how it feels to lose their homes. The humans initial reaction is to defend their home just like the Tentacool had tried earlier on, and like the Tentacool they are greatly overpowered. Pikachu tries to reason with the leader, however the audience can not understand it (since Meowth is the only Pokémon that can authentically talk), but then Misty chimes in and pleads with the Tentacruel. She does not wish any harm on the jellyfish Pokémon species, and empathizes with the Tentacruel to stop. She promises that the humans understand the pain they placed on the water Pokémon, and that no human will do it again. This episode is reminiscent of Godzilla, but is full with heavy environmental messages and the importance of leaving ecosystems as is. By starting off with the humans destroying the homes of the non-human to the non-humans destroying the episode is not only forcing empathy on its human characters, but the human viewer as well. The empathetic message, while played up, serves as an environmental message that extends beyond its fictitious world into ours. This episode is the first of many stories that tackles non-human issues, and corporate greed along with human ignorance in the Pokémon world.

Pikachu and Misty's Plea from Pokémon Indigo League Season 1, Episode 19; 'Tentacool & Tentacruel’, English version aired on October 1, 1998.

Many more of these stories are shown throughout different generations of the franchise, from early on to even today. In a recent episode of Pokémon Master Journeys, Pokémon’s current anime title; we see a group of Pokémon poachers polluting bodies of water to lure out the legendary Suicune so they could catch it, and make big money. Suicune is known for purifying polluted bodies of water to make it habitable for other forms of life, but is also known for being extremely rare, and holding great power, and that is what the poachers are hoping to exploit. Rare Pokémon are often either legends like Suicune or are rare because the species is endangered or not native to the region. Pokémon poachers act similarly to real like poachers who hunt down rare and exotic species for sport, and are a direct relation to this minus the killing of the species. Pokémon (the anime especially) has always had strong anti-poaching messages from the early Safari Zone episodes to the Pokémon 4Ever movie, and the Hunter Jane arc in generation four. These episodes/arcs express to the young audience that poaching and hunting is wrong, as it not only endangers a species, but will have negative side effects on the ecosystems they are a part of. Not to mention the awful way these creatures are mistreated, and used for profit. When these characters are shown in the anime they are often seen mistreating the Pokémon whether they weaken them into submission or trap them in confined spaces. Pokémon will then always mention their main motivation for doing this; big money. Pokémon, though a world of escapism, does not shy away from teaching/showing the importance of caring about the non-human world, and standing up for what's right.

Still from Pokémon Master Journeys episode 5; 'Healing the Healer', aired January 29, 2021 in Japan, and September 10, 2021 in the US.

Whereas both act as realms of escapism for their audiences, the series have serious undertones with their messages they deliver. In the introduction of ‘A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None’ by Kathryn Yusoff, Yusoff discusses how the anthropocene is seen as ‘ending worlds’, and how both imperialism and colonialism have been ending worlds especially for marginalized groups for forever. Capitalism is linked to colonialism, and both franchises comment on ideas of capitalism through greed and mistreatment of the non-human, and natural world. There’s also heavy themes of imperialism with a large array of villains who want control and to govern/take over the world (or worlds). Yusoff talks about forced intimacy with the inhuman for survival which is shown in these franchises of the literal team ups of mons and humans to fight back these villains and save their world. When they fight against these villains they are often fighting to preserve these worlds, and unlike reality they often succeed in doing so. I mean their target demographic is kids, and are forms of escapism from our own reality, but with the idea of saving their reality it instills hope into the viewer to do what's right in the end. Though often grounded in harsh realities; they inspire the viewer to think beyond themselves. Both have served as warnings for the impact humans have on the world, and support the claims of many writers of understanding the anthropocene write- this issue is nothing new. Both the issues and these works of media have been around for decades, and the media contains these messages, but only now are those messages and the real time issues being taken seriously.

[non-human-mons]

Monsters, Humans, and the End of the World: The Non-Human used to Understand the Human; Final Thoughts

diMyself and Lopmon from Digimon commission done by @sproutcreature on twitter

There are times where they take themselves seriously, but ultimately they are forms of escapism through media for people to find answers in their own lives while being free to imagine a better world with hope. As I mentioned before, I love both franchises, and have loved them since I gained consciousness. Over the years they have been outlets of escapism to escape a world I often feel defeated in; to feel hope again, and find joy that was once lost. These series molded me into who I am today, and I learned a great deal from them. It is hard to deny the relevancy they have in discussing these ideas as they are quite literally about relationships with the non-human, and the roles humans play through the lens of new and exciting worlds similar to our own that showcase a touch of reality. The media we consume as children often define us, as many things from our childhood do, and define how we take in the world. Going on twenty some years for both monster kinds is no laughing matter, as they define generations of people, and their understandings of the planet. Both franchises are still hugely relevant, especially in Japan, and are raising many generations at this point, and by doing so they will hopefully have a similar impact on these generations in the same ways they did for their now series’ veterans like myself. These pieces of media serve as educational tools that provide a level of escapism often not found with these heavy issues, and is highly accessible to those willing to partake in their stories. Thus making both incredibly powerful pieces of media hence supporting the hold they have on popular culture.

Myself and Vileplume from Pokémon commission done by @__.dango.__ on instagram

[non-human-mons]

Bibliography

“Akihiro Kurata.” Villains Wiki, https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Akihiro_Kurata#Digimon_Savers.2FData_Squad.

Animeguy01, director. Digimon Xros Wars Legendary Heroes with Evolutions. YouTube, 15 Mar. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng7iQnrRu4k&ab_channel=Animeguy01. Accessed 2021.

“Apocalymon.” DigimonWiki, https://digimon.fandom.com/wiki/Apocalymon.

Art, Shin, director. How To Evolve All Pokémon Gen 1 - Gen 8 (Galar) 2020 (Animated Sprites). YouTube, 16 Dec. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SasEQQEPCJI&ab_channel=ShinArt. Accessed 2021.

Awol. “Niue: A Tiny Nation with Free Wi-Fi for All and Pokémon on Its Currency.” AWOL, 16 Aug. 2018, https://awol.junkee.com/this-tiny-island-nation-has-free-wi-fi-pokemon-on-its-currency/36342.

Berger, John. “Why Look at Animals?” About Looking, 1980, pp. 3–28.

Blademaster-Banryu, User. “Motimon Evolution Chart.” Digivolutioncentral.tumblr.com, https://digivolutioncentral.tumblr.com/image/131509995495. Accessed 221AD.

“D-Reaper.” DigimonWiki, https://digimon.fandom.com/wiki/D-Reaper.

“Digimon 20th Anniversary Poster.” Wiki,On.net, https://wikimon.net/File:Digimon_20th_anniversary_poster.jpg.

“Digimon Adventure Opening Theme JAPANESE with English Subtitles HD 720p.” YouTube, JovanFB, 4 Dec. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czHmCZFWooI&ab_channel=JovanFB. Accessed 2021.

“Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digimon_Adventure:_Our_War_Game!

“Digimon Digital Monsters Season 1 Intro - English.” YouTube, Monu Rajvanshi, 25 July 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFIxvVr8Ykg&ab_channel=MonuRajvanshi. Accessed 2021.

“Dobermon.” DigimonWiki, https://digimon.fandom.com/wiki/Dobermon.

“EP019.” EP019 - Bulbapedia, the Community-Driven Pokémon Encyclopedia, https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EP019.

Hallman, Carly. “The 25 Highest-Grossing Media Franchises of All Time.” TitleMax, 2018, https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-center/money-finance/the-25-highest-grossing-media-franchises-of-all-time/.

Indominus1. “Evolution Line - Palmon.” Indominus1 On DeviantArt, 19 Aug. 2019, https://www.deviantart.com/indominus1/art/Evolution-Line-Palmon-699726576. Accessed 2021.

KENS 5: Your San Antonio News Source, director. 20 Years after Y2K Panic, What Happened to the Guy with a Bunker of Food? YouTube, KENS 5: Your San Antonio News Source, 1 Jan. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzl13cybj0&ab_channel=KENS5%3AYourSanAntonioNewsSource. Accessed 2021.

“King Drasil.” Villains Wiki, https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/King_Drasil.

“List of Highest-Grossing Media Franchises.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Dec. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises.

“My Sister's Keeper.” DigimonWiki, https://digimon.fandom.com/wiki/My_Sister%27s_Keeper.

“Pocket Monsters - OP 1 - Aim to Be a Pokémon Master.” YouTube, Naka Naka, 2 Feb. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-lEahV5Q_o&ab_channel=NakaNaka. Accessed 2021.

“Poison Ivy (Character).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Dec. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_Ivy_(character).

“Pokemon Evolution Digimon Evolution Meme.” MemeZila.com, https://memezila.com/Pokemon-evolution-Digimon-evolution-meme-6459.

PokePokémon. Pokémon Evolution vs. Human Evolution, 20 Feb. 2017, https://aminoapps.com/c/pokemon/page/blog/pokemon-evolution-vs-human-evolution/xEh2_u6abWGkXqjnZQpRwxB12xDm3x. Accessed 2021.

The Pokémon Company, et al. Pokémon Indigo League - Pokémon Master Journeys, 1 Apr. 1997.

Still airing to this date

“Pokémon Season 1: Indigo League - Opening Theme.” YouTube, ThePokemonNetwork, 4 Jan. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKWiCMKKJg&ab_channel=ThePokemonNetwork. Accessed 2021.

“References to Digimon in Popular Culture.” Wikimon, https://wikimon.net/References_to_Digimon_in_popular_culture.

Studio, Ygg, director. Anime Alphabet - D Is for Digimon Adventure. YouTube, 4 Oct. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-cWiXLl-gQ&ab_channel=YggStudio. Accessed 2021.

Toei Animation, and Bandai. Digimon Adventure - Ghost Game, 7 Mar. 1999.

Still airing to this date.

“Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_subway_sarin_attack.

U/Magister_Xehanort. “Do You like over Which Villain Team?” r/Pokemon on Reddit, 2016, https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/5335bx/do_you_like_over_which_villain_team/. Accessed 2021.

Wikimon. “Wikimon Twitter Post.” Twitter, Twitter, 15 Mar. 2020, https://twitter.com/wikimon_news/status/1239300275040595968.

“Wizardmon's Gift.” DigimonWiki, https://digimon.fandom.com/wiki/Wizardmon%27s_Gift.

Yusoff, Kathryn. "Introduction” in A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), The University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2018, pp. 1–3.

“【Official】Pokémon Special Music Video 「GOTCHA！」 | BUMP OF CHICKEN - Acacia.” YouTube, ポケモン公式YouTubeチャンネル, 29 Sept. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoZ0Zwab6Oc&ab_channel=%E3%83%9D%E3%82%B1%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E5%85%AC%E5%BC%8FYouTube%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8D%E3%83%AB. Accessed 2021.

“【WELCOME TO DIGIMON WORLD】 デジモンプロジェクトムービー／DIGIMON PROJECT TRAILER.” YouTube, バンダイ公式チャンネル BANDAI OFFICIAL, 24 Jan. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPvzjkxVl5U&ab_channel=%E3%83%90%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%82%A4%E5%85%AC%E5%BC%8F%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8D%E3%83%ABBANDAIOFFICIAL. Accessed 2021.