10 Ways Pokémon Ripped Off Digimon (And 10 Times They Cribbed Nintendo's Pocket Monsters)

Pokémon and Digimon are constantly compared to each other, and you don't have to look far to see why; both have "Mon" in the name, both center around kids using magical/elemental/super-powered animal-type creatures to fight battles, and both came out around the same time, in the mid to late '90s. Suffice to say, the two appear to be exact copies, and with the original Digimon toys coming out after the first Pokémon game was released, it appears as though one is a ripoff of the other. However, it's not as one-sided as it seems, as both properties have "borrowed" from each other throughout the years— be it by using the same animal as a basis for a monster or in larger ways, such as copying entire game or lore mechanics.

This back and forth of "shared ideas" has only stoked the flames of the "Digimon VS. Pokémon" debate, and while we're not here to decide once and for all which is better, we can provide some examples of the instances in which the two properties ripped each other off. Well, "rip off" might be a bit of a harsh term, since the basic idea of collectible creatures that kids can fight with is far from original, even before Pokémon hit the scene, but some of these instances of shared ideas are a little too close to be coincidences. Everything from similar creatures to straight up stolen concepts, let's take a look at all the times that Pokémon ripped off ideas from Digimon, and all the times that Digimon pulled ideas right out of Pokémon.

20TAKEN FROM DIGIMON: EGGS

Starting off, we have a concept that Pokémon surprisingly lifted from Digimon; eggs. Now, creatures coming from mysterious eggs is a pretty common idea in fantasy-like settings, but as the two franchises were so similar to begin with, this particular similarity is still worth pointing out.

Eggs were not present in the first Pokémongame. They were, however, present in the second generation of the series, which came out after the original Tamagotchi-like Digimon toys were released, which gave kids digital eggs to hatch into monsters to battle with. This concept itself was taken from Tamagotchi, but in the case of which "Mon" series did it first, this one goes to Digimon.

19TAKEN FROM POKÉMON: MON ABBREVIATION

Perhaps one of the most obvious similarities between Pokémon and Digimon is the shared "Mon" suffix. In both instances, this is short for "monsters," Pokémon meaning "Pocket Monsters" and Digimon expanding to "Digital Monsters." Abbreviations like this are not uncommon with Japanese properties, but which of these two did it first?

Well, contrary to popular belief, Digimon actually didn't come first; many believe that the Tamagotchi-like toys that launched the Digimon came first, but they actually hit stores about a year after the first Pokémon games, Red and Green, came out. This is to say that, since Pokémon came first, Digimon was the one that "copied" the "Mon" suffix.

18TAKEN FROM DIGIMON: SUN AND MOON

Since the very beginning, Pokémon games have been putting out two versions of each generation in order to sell more copies. The most recent generation release, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, brought players to the Alolan region of the world of Pokémon.

What does this have to do with Digimon? Well, before Sun and Moon were announced, Digimon put out their own dual releases (more on that later) entitled Digimon World: Dawn and Digimon World: Dusk. Not exactly the same concept, but we say it's a little too close to be a coincidence, especially since the the cover art for Digimon World featured a sun and a moon in the designs.

17TAKEN FROM POKÉMON: DOBERMAN MONSTER

We mentioned earlier that one of the more "minimal" examples of "shared" ideas between the two franchises are the multiple instances in which a Pokémon and a Digimon were based off the same animal. One of these examples is Dobermon, which looks vaguely similar to and shares its animal origins with Pokémon's Houndoom.

Now, this one could very well be a coincidence, but then again, basing a creature off of a dog would be okay, but basing them off of specific breeds? That's a bit suspicious. Not to mention both creatures have grey/silver spikes and/or bone-like augmentations to the animal they were based on.