数码宝贝(又称：数码暴龙，日文: デジモン,罗马字： dejimon)最初是由日本Bandai公司在1996年创造的一种战斗数码宠物。
at the same time，此公司发布了一种名叫"C'mon Digimon"的漫画，但很快失败了。然而，它提出的这种概念使"V-Tamer"(一系列在V-Jump杂志上的连载漫画，开始于1998年，并连载到2004年)取得了很大的成功。In 1999, the franchise was turned into an animated series, with assorted tie-in movies, as well as representants in other media segments, like a series of video games for various platforms and a trading card game. The animated series is easily the best-known fragment of the Digimon universe, and responsible for the majority of it's popularity worldwide.
数码宝贝(Digimon)是"Digital Monsters"。依照故事情节，他们是居住在数码世界(一个平行宇宙，部分上是地球上网络的一种表现)的生物。故事关于一群儿童(在动画中被称作“被选召的孩子”("Chosen Children" or DigiDestined))，他们与特定的数码宝贝(为保护他们(和我们的世界)免遭各种邪恶力量破坏而产生)在一起。为了使他们克服各种困难的障碍，数码宝贝具有进化的能力(Digivolve)。在这个过程中，数码宝贝会改变他们的外貌和性格，变得更强。与数码宝贝有关的那一群孩子在每季中都会变化。
到2004年为止，数码宝贝已推出了四季：前两季的故事情节是紧密相连的，但后两季(分别称为驯兽师(Tamers)和无限地带(Frontier))的剧情是与前两季完全无关的。The third season makes reference to the television and commercial enterprises of the first two. 除此之外，还有一些与动画片情节有联系电影。Bandai公司推出的最新的一部叫做数码宝贝：X-进化(Digimon: X-Evolution)，于2005年初在日本发布。This new segment in the Digimon saga was entirely done in CG animation, but included all the familiar voice actors from previous series.
Digimon is produced by Toei Animation and Bandai. Originally, the series were exhibited on Japan's Fuji Television. In the United States, the series was dubbed by Saban, and was initially broadcasted through Fox Network's Fox Kids and Fox Family, but after Disney's acquisition of Saban during the third season, the first three seasons stayed on ABC Family and the fourth premiered on UPN, farmed out as part of a deal between Disney and UPN, which concluded with Frontier's end, leading to the season being re-run on ABC Family. In Canada, the show was broadcast on YTV. Assorted fansubs and dubs for the series also exist, with focus having been on the undubbed movies.
The animated series have also spawned a manga adaptation, Chinese in origin, written and drawn by Yuen Wong Yu. It has been published in English in North America by TokyoPop, and it retains its right to left format. Digimon is published in Singapore in English by Chuang Yi. Dark Horse Comics has also published American-style Digimon comic books, adapting the first dubbed 13 episodes of the first animated season. In the United Kingdom, Panini Comics reprinted these Dark Horse titles, then some translated German adaptations of second-season episodes, and finally began to print their own unique stories, which danced in and around the continuity of the second animated season, before shifting to the third season, where the stories were more carefully thought out to fit between the tight storytelling of the animated series. These original stories appeared in both the UK's Official Digimon Magazine, and the official Fox Kids companion magazine, Wickid, both of which have since been cancelled.
