Highlights
- A creative fan reimaged the original Pokemon starter trio as Digimon, showcasing the overlap between the two beloved franchises.
- While Digimon anime shows are favored by many, Pokemon video games still dominate the gaming market.
- VilliamBoom's designs of the Pokemon starters as Digimon highlight the differences in creature designs and offer a darker and more human-like interpretation.
In a surprising crossover of beloved 90s monster franchises, a creative Pokemon fan has reimaged the original starter trio as Digimon. Pokemon and Digimon have often been compared to each other, as both properties involve young protagonists interacting with elementally empowered creatures that evolve into larger and stronger forms over time. They also burst onto the scene at roughly the same time, spawning video games, anime, and other tie-in merchandise in their wake. There have even been countless fan theories and memes connecting the two franchises together, including one fan theory that Digimom are actually Pokemon that have been deleted from a Trainer’s PC.
While many feel that the many Digimon anime shows are better than Pokemon’s offerings, the Pokemon video games have long overshadowed their Digimon counterparts. In recent years, Digimon has tried to catch up with the two Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth games and last year’s long-in-development Digimon Survive with mixed results, while the Pokemon gaming brand is still going strong. Still, there are plenty of gamers who love both franchises, with impressive fan art combining Pokemon and Digimon that share a common archetype.
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A Twitter user by the handle of VilliamBoom took their own Pokemon/Digimon idea in a different direction, instead imagining what the original starter trio from Pokemon Red and Blue would look like as Digimon. In a series of posts, they take their remained versions of Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander through the four main Digimon evolutionary stages, starting as small In-Training creatures before transforming into their more common Rookie forms, growing into larger Champions, and finally taking on their final Ultimate stages. Along the way, the differences in Pokemon and Digimon designs are apparent, with VilliamBoom’s designs becoming more humanoid and sporting weapons like swords and cannons.
Pokemon Red and Blue’s starter trio are among some of the oldest and most popular Pokemon out there, and fans have re-imagined them in different ways over the years. For example, both Bulbasaur and Squirtle have been given Halloween-style makeovers in time for October, while Charmander (who shares many similarities with Digimon’s fire-breathing mascot Agumon) has been drawn as an Ice-type and fused with the ghostly Gastly.
Pokemon and Digimon both introduced a new generation of kids to anime back in the 90s, and there is plenty of overlap between these rival franchises. VilliamBoom’s Digi-fied versions of Pokemon Red and Blue’s Starter Trio exemplify this while showing off how different Pokemon and Digimon are in their creature designs - showing off a somewhat darker and more human-like take on the classic trio that started Nintendo’s now-legendary series.
Source: NintendoSoup