In 1997, Japanese toy manufacturer Bandai released their first line of virtual pet devices aimed at boys, following the success of their girl orientated Tamagotchi series. The new line of devices were known as Digimon (Digital Monsters). Next year will be the franchise’s 20th anniversary and a countdown website has appeared ticking down to a special reveal.
The website is counting down to Friday, January 6, 2017. Details about what will be revealed at the end of the project have not been revealed. A similar reveal was made for the 15th anniversary of the Digimon Adventure anime back in 2014.
Digimon (Digital Monsters in Japan) is a large multimedia franchise that was based on Bandai’s Digivice products, which first released in 1997. The toys were based on Tamagotchis, which were also produced by Bandai. The toys were seen as more female orientated products, so Bandai created a new line of products for a male equivalent. .The first anime adaptation, Digimon Adventure, was produced in 1999 by Toei Animation. A film and TV anime were released alongside each other in 1999, the movie being a 20 minute anime produced by Mamoru Hosoda (Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time). Since then there has been numerous anime series, toys, figures, manga, video games and trading card games in the franchise.
A countdown timer is being held for the 20th anniversary of the Digimon franchise. The countdown will end on January 6 2017; details about whether there will be a new project, line of virtual pets, will be revealed on the day.
You can visit the 20th anniversary website here: http://digimon.net/20th/
And don’t forget to visit the anime’s 15th anniversary project: http://digimon-adventure.net/
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