Mons Series?

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Mafty
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Mons Series?

So exactly where did the whole Mons (Ie Pokemon, Digimon, Kids and mini monster thing) start? Was Pokemon the first franchise to use this? Or did the idea come earlier?
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MythSearcher
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Re: Mons Series?

Mafty wrote: Thu Jun 16, 2022 5:01 pm So exactly where did the whole Mons (Ie Pokemon, Digimon, Kids and mini monster thing) start? Was Pokemon the first franchise to use this? Or did the idea come earlier?
If you are talking about a series about capturing monsters and using them to fight against other monsters, Megami Tensei series(first game released in 1987) predates Pokemon for around a decade.
Megami Tensei originates from the 1986 novel series Digital Devil Story and Megami Tensei(Reincarnation of Goddess) is the name of the first book.

Pokemon is like a kids friendly version, but the idea is definitely not new.
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Re: Mons Series?

Mafty wrote: Thu Jun 16, 2022 5:01 pm So exactly where did the whole Mons (Ie Pokemon, Digimon, Kids and mini monster thing) start? Was Pokemon the first franchise to use this? Or did the idea come earlier?
As far as I am aware, the claims of originating that particular trend are somewhat contested due to various properties having been in development at approximately the same time with different companies. Game Freak was working on Pocket Monsters (Pokemon) in the mid-90's right when the virtual pet trend started taking off, and debuted in Japan about half a year before Bandai and WiZ debuted the Tamagotchi brand of virtual pets in November 1996... the success of which would prompt them to develop a more guy-friendly line called Digital Monsters (later branded as Digimon) in June 1997.

Based on remarks by Pocket Monsters creator Satoshi Tajiri, the whole monsters-in-capsules concept was inspired by the Ultraman sequel/spinoff Ultraseven from the late 1960s, who occasionally wielded "capsule monsters"... creatures he stored in a manner similar to gachapon toys. The whole collecting aspect was inspired by Tajiri's youthful hobby of bug collecting.

The style of abbreviation in the names is pretty typically Japanese, though...
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Re: Mons Series?

Mafty wrote: Thu Jun 16, 2022 5:01 pm So exactly where did the whole Mons (Ie Pokemon, Digimon, Kids and mini monster thing) start? Was Pokemon the first franchise to use this? Or did the idea come earlier?
Well, here's from Wikipedia article on Shikigami.
It is thought to be some sort of kami, represented by a small ghost. The belief of shikigami originates from Onmyōdō. According to the tradition of Onmyōdō, shikigami is a symbol of onmyōji's power because onmyōji can freely use shikigami with magical powers. It has been associated with "curses" since the 1000s of the Heian period, and was often depicted as a bird or a child in Japanese literature and Emakimono.
.

Look up TV Tropes, there's this card game called Obake Karuta created in the Edo period.
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Re: Mons Series?

Kuruni wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:52 pm
Look up TV Tropes, there's this card game called Obake Karuta created in the Edo period.
Obake Karuta is different though.
It is a game where someone reads a short poem, and the other players will compete in grabbing the corresponding card as fast as possible.
They collect the cards during the game but won't use that to fight.
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Re: Mons Series?

Hmm....true (must fix that entry).

Well, another examples I learned from Megami Tensei is Fujiwara-No-Chikata from Heian period, who control 4 oni/demons and use them to fight against Imperial Court.
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Mafty
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Re: Mons Series?

Thanks, I remember years ago reading Narutaru (an extremely disturbing Mons deconstruction, I don't intend to read again). And I'd noticed it started in 1998, just after Pokemon began. So it seemed odd to do a deconstruction on a genre that had seemingly just began(for context darker genre shows often happened after the genre had been around for a while: Gundam to the Super Robot genre that had been running for a decade, ditto Ideon, Zeorymer and Evangelion, Madoka Magica for the Mahou Shojo genre which had existed in one form or another since the 70s, and plus there were darker Mahou Shojo before).

So its neat to see how far back this actually goes (plus there was already Digital Devil Story, and Pokemons original treatment was also fairly dark). That being said the core Dragon Child design in Narutaru seems to borrow alot from the Pokemon design (the rest of the story and how the Dragons Child works is totally different however).
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Re: Mons Series?

Mafty wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 10:59 am Thanks, I remember years ago reading Narutaru (an extremely disturbing Mons deconstruction, I don't intend to read again). And I'd noticed it started in 1998, just after Pokemon began. So it seemed odd to do a deconstruction on a genre that had seemingly just began(for context darker genre shows often happened after the genre had been around for a while: Gundam to the Super Robot genre that had been running for a decade, ditto Ideon, Zeorymer and Evangelion, Madoka Magica for the Mahou Shojo genre which had existed in one form or another since the 70s, and plus there were darker Mahou Shojo before).

So its neat to see how far back this actually goes (plus there was already Digital Devil Story, and Pokemons original treatment was also fairly dark). That being said the core Dragon Child design in Narutaru seems to borrow alot from the Pokemon design (the rest of the story and how the Dragons Child works is totally different however).
Well, if you talk about non-game entries, the above replies are correct.
I was thinking about the games at the time.

You also get legends and stories of people controlling monsters way back.
For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_no_Gy%C5%8Dja
who is supposed to control two Oni(Zenki and Goki, roughly means front demon and rear demon, but I like the some modern interpretation of them with different kanji as a pun of battle demon and protective demon.) as disciples, back in the 8th century.(700s)
The manga Zenki loosely based on this legend started in 1992 and the anime adaptation was in 1995, both before pokemon.
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