Digimon was first conceived as a virtual pet toy in the vein of Tamagotchis and, as such, took influence from Tamagotchis' cute and round designs. The small areas of the screens (16 by 16 pixels) meant that character designers had to create monsters whose forms would be easily recognizable. As such, many of the early Digimon—including Tyrannomon, the first one ever created—were based on dinosaurs. Many further designs were created by Kenji Watanabe, who was brought in to help with the "X-Antibody" creatures and art for the Digimon collectible card game. Watanabe was one influenced by American comics, which were beginning to gain popularity in Japan, and as such began to make his characters look stronger and "cool." The character creation process, however, has for most of the franchise's history been collaborative and reliant on conversation and brainstorming. COUNT 9
QSN1 What kind of toy were the original Digimon? ANS1 virtual pet toy QSN2 What kind of creatures where the early digimon patterned after? ANS2 dinosaurs QSN3 What properties of american comics were the later generations of digimon trying to capture? ANS3 stronger and "cool." QSN4 Who was the designer responsible for the westernization of Digimon character design? ANS4 Kenji Watanabe QSN5 What was the name of the original Digimon character? ANS5 Tyrannomon QSN6 What was the screen size of the Digimon toy? ANS6 16 by 16 pixels QSN7 What animals were the digimon based off of? ANS7 dinosaurs QSN8 Who was the designer of the Digimon card game? ANS8 Kenji Watanabe QSN9 How did Watanabe get his influence? ANS9 American comics