Digimon 20th Anniversary, Digital Monster Art Book Ver. 1~5 & 20th- Breakdown & Scans

[MarcFBR]

Digimon 20th Anniversary, Digital Monster Art Book Ver. 1~5 & 20th- Breakdown & Scans

Time for another art book!



This time it's the 20th Anniversary Art Book! Digital Monster Art Book Ver. 1~5 & 20th!

This art book contains a bunch of Digimon art to celebrate the 20th Anniversary version of the Digimon V-Pet (and the 20th Anniversary of the franchise as a whole.)


A large hardcover book that is mostly the profile artwork and sprites of the Digimon contained in the 20th Anniversary V-Pet. Much of this we've seen before (in many cases for 20 years), but a good number of them we only have small thumbnails of the art from the official website.


Scanning for the book wasn't done by me. It was done by our friends at DigiSoul who kindly shared them with us. The images in the gallery are as provided by them.



The front cover, at the top of the article, features a well known piece of art of Tyranomon (this art borders on being the most used piece of art in the franchise's history most likely.) At the bottom of the cover is the title of the art book using the classic style Digital Monster logo. The logo is in foil and the cover has a reflective holo-material on it that reflects light in different colors. The cover is also textured.





The back cover features new artwork of Agumon, Hackmon, Zubamon, and Dracomon by Kenji Watanabe along with some digimoji at the bottom that has a simple message "To everyone who loves Digimon". It's a rather striking back cover.

The spine features the book title along with a number of Digimon V-Pet sprites.




Onto the inside of the book!

Due to the size of the book, every page won't be thumbnailed and embedded. Instead just various samples from different sections will be included.




The first page of the art book is a take on the cover using the old CGI render of Tyranomon that was used on the original Digimon V-Pet packaging.




This new illustration by Kenji Watanabe for the art book features various Digimon flying through a digital space. It's truly an amazing piece of art with some great personality to it (Numemon peeking at the audience out of focus makes me laugh.)




Chapter 1 is the main focus of the book. The majority of the chapter contains images of the various artwork for the Digimon along with their sprites. The section begins with all the Digimon that appeared in the original Version 1 through 5 V-Pets.

In addition to the better known profile art and sprites, there is also line art, unused sketches, and many of the Digimon also have artwork that was used elsewhere (and it's often comical.)

-Chapter 1: Digital Monster Art Work, Page 5
-Art Work, Page 6




After the Digimon from the original Ver. 1 through 5 V-Pets, the Digimon who were added for the 20th Anniversary V-Pets.




Throughout Chapter 1 there are also a number of one page columns detailing various items of interest to Digimon fans. These include details about the various versions of Agmon who have shown up over the years, details of the 20th V-Pet, a look at the different classifications for Digimon, an overview of the Digimon from prior Anniversaries, and a look at the Royal Knights.

-Digicolumn 1: All Sorts of Agumon, Page 19
-Digicolumn 2: In-Depth Analysis of the Ver. 20th!!, Page 59
-Digicolumn 3: Digimon Classifications, Page 83
-Digicolumn 4: Birth of the 10th and 15th Anniversary Digimon, Page 101
-Digicolumn 5: The Royal Knights, Page 150




Chapter 2 contains just over 25 pages of various articles and columns about the overall history of the franchise. These cover the creation of the franchise, various bits about the ecology and environment relating to Digimon, not to mention showing off design and art elements.

After that they go over the various versions of the V-Pets released over the history of the franchise. They go over some of the unique elements of updated V-Pets released over the years, including showing off updated sprite work.

Then there is a very nice interview with longtime Digimon designer Kenji Watanabe, which we have translated here.

Chapter 2 ends with a section focusing on comparing various elements of different Digimon. This comparison section begins with a size comparison, and continues on to details regarding various Ultimate Digimon battling each other, special abilities, and various other elements.

Chapter 2- Making of Digimon, Page 151
The Secrets Behind the Birth of Digital Monster, Page 152
Digital Monster Ecology, Page 156
The World in Which Digimon Reside: The Digital World, Page 158
The Process of Creating a Digimon Illustration, Page 160
The Journey of Digital Monster Ver. 1-5, Page 162
The Evolution of the LCD toy 'Digital Monster', Page 164
Kenji Watanabe Special Interview, Page 168
Various Comparisons of Digimon, Page 172




Chapter 3 is an informational section that ends the book. It begins with evolution charts covering all the different paths your Digimon can take in the 20th V-Pet. After that there are profiles for every Digimon, which also tells you what page their artwork can be found on. The final section is a comprehensive index of every page a Digimon is shown or mentioned in.

Chapter 3- Digimon Data, Page 177
Ver. 20th Digimon Evolution Chart, Page 178
Digital Monster Profiles, Page 183
Digimon Index, Page 198






A great art book that covers the 20th Anniversary V-Pet in a pretty fantastic manner. Covering the beginning of the franchise with the original run of V-Pets (which are contained in their entirety in the 20th V-Pet) and going up to the newest V-Pet is a clever way to celebrate it.

The book has a proper focus on the V-Pet itself, while also feeling like a celebration of the brand as a a whole. There's a lot of interesting information in the book and the artwork is simply amazing to see with such detail.


The book was available last year during a limited period of time. It's no longer sold but intermediaries may have a limited number still in stock if you check their websites.




The scans for all the art can also be found in the gallery.




Lots of Digimon stuff is coming out soon and supporting us via our Patreon or donations would be greatly appreciated so that we can do more breakdowns and improve the site. Feel free to join us in the Discord if you want to chat about the release.


As mentioned above, thanks again to our friends at DigiSoul for the scans, along with a few other things we will be using in the future.


Thanks to garm for translations.



More things to come!


Images are hosted on our gallery and embedded on the forum, so let us know if anything is acting up.

 

[flintlock]

All these scans and interviews have been awesome. I hope we get a pendulum artbook. Finally some artwork that's not 320x320, lol.
Edit: Has anyone else ever noticed Lucemon Falldown mode has Culumon's symbol on his hand like his regular mode? He must have the Digital Hazard on the other. I never noticed that Rasielmon has a Holy Ring either. Or that GraveNovamon was purple under his black tube things, unlike Omegamon who is all black tubes. He really is a galaxy like his cape.
And what's with those Dorumon in other colours?

 

[shaikgb]

thank you so much! those are so great i love to see all the mons with so much more details then normal especially the new mons that don't have much artworks so it hard to see much of their details

 

[Vande]

Drools. Now people can stop whining lol

 

[Shadow Shinji]

A lot of interesting stuff to say about the Artbook. My highlights:
– The special illustration by Kenji Watanabe. Rasielmon and Omegamon Alter-S are definitely my favourite artworks on there.
– Bandai artwork at last for Bushi Agumon. With this nice addition, now the only one left is Santa Agumon. By the way, Bushi Agumon has already been confirmed for the Digimon Pendulum Ver.20th.
– Line arts and unused sketches for a really great bunch of Digimon, including some of my personal favourites like Lilithmon, Lucemon, GraceNovamon and Jesmon.
– BlitzGreymon confirmed as being the canon Mega evolution for the original MetalGreymon. So, in terms of power: WarGreymon (Folder Continent) > BlitzGreymon (File Island).
– Imperialdramon: Paladin is after all the founder of the Royal Knights, am I right?
– Brand-new Bandai artwork for the 20th Anniversary for Coronamon, Firamon, and Flaremon & Lunamon, Lekismon, and Crescemon.
– Birth of the 10th and 15th Anniversary Digimon, with some more details behind the production of both events.
– GraceNovamon as the greatest Digimon ever, also in terms of power?
– Probably the most important bits of information, the origins of the franchise of Digimon itself through its unmade predecessor "Capsule Zaurus", as a direct evolution of the original concept of the Tamagotchi, and also as a call-back to the now defunct franchise "Pocket Zaurus", so for the umpteenth time, Digimon is not a rip-off of Pokémon at all.

Anyways, especially thanks to DigiSoul for the scans, and all of you guys for your hard work

 

[Sparrow Hawk]

Oh so they still have sword transformations of Zubamon's line. Awesome sword design of Durandamon! It kinda almost look like it's VictoryGreymon's sword.

Damn, that concept arts of Omegamon. That savage looking vike "WarGreymon" look like he came out of Norse myth. And the other one is like the angel...?

Oh with huge picture of BlitzGreymon revealed two "gatling guns" got back boosters.

Hmm Andromon's "concept arts" isn't there :/

I really knew Barbamon was supposed to be "tengu" because of that original design used to be a tengu! Oh well

Where is the translation of the height scale? lol? Also what's up with "Vs" gallery?

 

[MarcFBR]

– BlitzGreymon confirmed as being the canon Mega evolution for the original MetalGreymon. So, in terms of power: WarGreymon (Folder Continent) > BlitzGreymon (File Island).

I don't see anything that mentions that. It appears you saw the ecology chart that explains how evolution works and took it for some random statement of canon.

And there is no statement of which is more powerful either between War and Blitz (honestly, I still enjoy how the profile for Alter-S mocks the general convention/assumption that one or the other for similiar characters has to be more powerful.)

Imperialdramon: Paladin is after all the founder of the Royal Knights, am I right?

That's been a core element of the Royal Knights since... I don't remember if it was there from day 1, but if it wasn't it was pretty soon after.

GraceNovamon as the greatest Digimon ever, also in terms of power?

I don't believe they've really talked about GraceNovamon's power. We can reasonably assume it's high (and the attacks suggest as such in it's profile), but the information we know of the character is more interested in mentioning the physical size.

so for the umpteenth time, Digimon is not a rip-off of Pokémon at all.

If someone thinks it's a rip-off it doesn't affect any of us in any fashion. And I'm not sure what information is provided here that would be used to convince anyone of anything.

 

[sirtao]

GraceNovamon is the HEAVIEST Digimon, with Examon a far second(apparently he does weight as much as the whole File Island?) and RustTyrannomon even farer third.

The VS Gallery is to show fights among Ultimates can be a matter of matching up-

 

[Exiled]

So, in terms of power: WarGreymon (Folder Continent) > BlitzGreymon (File Island).

This depends on how they will handle the connectivity between the 20th V-pet and the 20th Pendulum. In the old materials, the Digimon from File Island were weaker than those of Folder Continent, because mechanically speaking the Pendulums always had more chances of winning against a V-pet. But I dunno they handle things the same way this time.

Imperialdramon: Paladin is after all the founder of the Royal Knights, am I right?

That's been a core element of the Royal Knights since... I don't remember if it was there from day 1, but if it wasn't it was pretty soon after.

Many people doubted about this because it was not specifically stated in the DRB profile. Yeah, there is a card and whatnot, but stubborn people is stubborn. So, its good to see this in some innegable form of canon statement.

– GraceNovamon as the greatest Digimon ever, also in terms of power?

Its just says that GraceNovamon generates so much energy (that of a Big Bang), that you cannot measure its data, and that it has the (data) weight of a galaxy.

The text also says that the "data", "size" and "strength" of a Digimon depend on both his training and the environment in which the Digimon is located. So, we can speculate that there can be GraceNovamons with less data, and so on.

And also pretty much confirms that the "G" used in certain products to measure Digimon weight is in fact an abbreviation of "gigabyte".

 

[XDragon]

>> Are there any translations for the text on the page?

 

[Inpu]

I love that we get to see the weapon forms of the Weapon Digimon. I was beginning to wonder how those would work.

 

[Exiled]

>> Are there any translations for the text on the page?

I have the translations of the "Most dangerous attack techniques", if you're interested.

 

[XDragon]

>> Are there any translations for the text on the page?

I have the translations of the "Most dangerous attack techniques", if you're interested.

Sure, Love to read as much as I could from this.

 

[Chimera-gui]

Something Inpu noticed that I can confirm is that Lucemon has the Zero Unit symbol on the back of its right hand in addition to the Digital Hazard symbol on its left, both of which seem to carry over on to the plates on Chaos Mode's hands.

Also, regular Meicrackmon's eyes are closed and it has a cross scar under each.

 

[Inpu]

Something Inpu noticed that I can confirm is that Lucemon has the Zero Unit symbol on the back of its right hand in addition to the Digital Hazard symbol on its left, both of which seem to carry over on to the plates on Chaos Mode's hands.

I actually got that from flintlock's post, above.

 

[B-mon]

Edit: Has anyone else ever noticed Lucemon Falldown mode has Culumon's symbol on his hand like his regular mode? He must have the Digital Hazard on the other.

There are a handful of shots in Frontier where you can see both. I always thought "he's an old Digimon in terms of lore, so they just stuck every symbol they could think of."

I hope I can still find this book, it looks fantastic. Every new piece of art from Watanabe makes me wish he'd draw a manga for the franchise.

EDIT: The Agumon page left ClearAgumon to waste away in a Recycle Bin; too bad.

 

[Chimera-gui]

Mind posting some of these shots? It's clear that the Rookie stage has the symbols but I'm not 100% sure if Chaos Mode does as or if it's just three triangles that we're mistaking for the Zero Unit.

 

[Exiled]

>> Are there any translations for the text on the page?

I have the translations of the "Most dangerous attack techniques", if you're interested.

Sure, Love to read as much as I could from this.

Etemon: All dissapears
Dark Spirits
Etemon's special technique that creates black spheres from its hands. The data that is touched by this technique will disappear without a trace. Among all the techniques used by Perfects, this one is specially dangerous.

Digitamamon: Life stops...
Nightmare Syndrome
The egg's exoskeleton releases a dark sphere through the hole from which those eyes watch. The lives of those digimon touched by it just stops. When you meet Digitamamon, ideally, do not stimulate it as much as possible.

Lucemon: The path that separates life and death
Dead or Alive
It creates a sphere of sacred and demonic light, and traps its enemies inside. If they are imprisoned in it, they either will completely disappear, or will receive a large amount of damage, so it is [a technique] quite dangerous in both cases.

Alphamon: Annoyed guests
Digitalize of Soul
Alphamon has a very powerful existence, because he has the Alpha Inforce that allows him to go backwards in time. Besides, to summon legendary digimon from other dimensions with this technique [the Digitalize of Soul], he needs to be facing at least two opponents.

Examon: The disaster that arises
Dragonic Impact
An attack method that causes a shock wave as it descends rapidly from outside the atmosphere. Because his body is so large, the range of this attack is extraordinarily extensive. Even from the moment Examon starts the flight, it would not be a technique from which one could escape very far.

Lilithmon: A curse that remains after dying
Phantom Pain
It deceives its opponents with its charming appearance, and then kills them... The breath of darkness that Lilithmon releases is a curse. The [victim's] body is eroded and the data that composes it disappears from its extremities. Even after being reborn as a digitama, that pain remains.

Barbamon: An invitation to hell
Death Lure
Barbamon, who is considered the best strategist even among the Seven Great Demon Lords. With its "Death Lure" it sends digimon to the Dark Area and turns them into villains. In this way, in addition to increasing the number of dark digimon, it also increases the number of its soldiers.

Jesmon: Transcending the world's laws
OS Generics
Since it temporarily rewrites its own data and works beyond physical limits, its individual combat capability is outstanding. In addition, his fighting style in cooperation with the Sistermon, and Atho, René and Por, does not know defeat.

 

[Deep Saver]

Wow, I thought Grace Novamon was just more dense than Examon, but it is also physically larger! That’s pretty crazy.

 

[XDragon]

Awesome! Thank you!