Animanga/Manga| Information
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Animanga/Anime| Information
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Animanga/Other| Information
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is a popular
Anime and
Manga series by
Koge-Donbo . The series follows a
Catgirl named Di Gi Charat (
Dejiko for short).
The characters of Di Gi Charat and her sidekick Gema first appeared in July 1998 in ''From Gamers'', a promotional magazine for Akihabara store, Gamers. In August of that year, the two appeared in ''Gema Gema'', a four-panel comic-strip (
Yonkoma ) in ''From Gamers'' drawn by
Dōjin artist
Koge-Donbo . Dejiko was later adopted as the mascot of Gamers. The original anime series and its
Original Video Animation (OVAs) are set in a Gamers store. There are 20
Gamers stores across Japan. Gamers opened a store in the United States in 2001,
Anime Gamers , that is located in Los Angeles.
The anime is directed by
Hiroaki Sakurai , animated by
Madhouse and produced by
BROCCOLI . It is licensed in
North America by
Synch-Point .
While continuing to appear in ''Gema Gema'', an animated Dejiko (Also known as Di Gi Charat) and her sidekick Gema starred in a television advertisement for Gamers, set to the store's
Theme Song , ''Welcome!'' by Hiroko Kato. Dejiko soon starred in her own animated series.
Despite the series' low budget and its status as an advertisement for a games store, sequels for Di Gi Charat, several feature-length Di Gi Charat special episodes and
OVAs , followed. Each special was around twenty minutes long. The specials introduce the Black Gema Gema Gang (Black Gema Gema Dan) and Dejiko's rival Pyocolla Analogue III (Piyoko).
The Christmas Special aired in December 2000 and featured Piyoko again attempting to capture Dejiko by inviting all the characters on a cruise.
The Ohamami Special was four independent episodes with no continuation that aired in Spring in Japan.
The Di Gi Charat Natsuyasumi Special was another four episode series set in America that aired almost a year after the original series from
2 August 2001 to
3 August 2002 . The young American otaku, Rodoyan, is introduced in this series.
Piyoko Ni Omakase-Pyo translated to ''Leave it to Piyoko'' was an eight episode OVA that was released in 2003.
In 2001, the Di Gi Charat movie Gekijouban Di Gi Charat: Hoshi no Tabi (デ・ジ・キャラット] 星の旅) was shown in Japan. The twenty minute animation follows the adventures of Dejiko, Piyoko and Gema as they use the spaceship from the first episode to travel back to Dejiko's home, ''Planet Di Gi Charat''.
See Also: Di Gi Charat Nyo!
An alternate story to the original series, Nyo! (デ・ジ・キャラットにょ) aired from
April 6 2003 until
March 28 2004 . There were two stories for each of the fifty-two twenty minute episodes. It is a series that retells Di Gi Charat as a proper children's anime instead of its original promotional randomness. Nyo! included the concept of the riddle cellphone which was used several times throughout the series.
See Also: Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat
A
Prequel to the original story, Panyo Panyo (ぱにょぱにょ デ・ジ・キャラット) aired from
January 5 2002 until
September 29 2002 . The characters are drawn to look much younger. Princess Dejiko and Puchiko wish to escape castle life to help people of Planet Di Gi Charat achieve happiness. Pyocola Analogue III and
Hologram Deji Devil try to stop her. In this series Dejiko, Puchiko and Gema meet friends Meek and Rinna.
Panyo Panyo was arranged into five minute mini episodes in order to make it feel like classic four panel manga. Panyo Panyo did not have the wide open endings which the original series had.
This series is a 2-episode spinoff. Dejiko is around 20 years old and Puchiko is now around 15. The characters are ordinary human beings and no longer wear their signature outfits with the cat ears and tails, have "eye-beams" or add "nyo"/"nyu" to the end of their sentences. They have a new and more mature look, and different personalities.
The Di Gi Charat anime promotional video premiered at Anime Expo 2006 during the Di Gi Charat panel sponsored by TBS, PONYCANYON and Broccoli. The series aired on TBS on
December 22 2006 and
December 23 2006 . Unlike the usual Di Gi Charat anime, it is a romance. The story starts from Christmas of a certain year, with Dejiko working at a cake shop and meeting a young man named Senba Takuro. Both Puchiko and Dejiko's personalities have differed.
A ''Di Gi Charat'' manga began at around the same time as the anime.
Current Di Gi Charat Manga released in the US:
Broccoli Books
Viz
- Di Gi Charat Anthology v. 1 - 4
Defunct graphic novel publisher
Studio Ironcat published a Di Gi Charat series - Di Gi Charat Champion Cup.
Comic Di Gi, a bimonthly magazine that is issued by Broccoli, included a Di Gi Charat comic called GemaGema Theater by Koge-Donbo.
Most of the characters of Di Gi Charat originally debuted in the yonkoma ''Gema Gema'', and later appeared in the anime series.
Across all of the Di Gi Charat series, each catgirl ends their sentence with a cat sounding suffix, such as Dejiko's ''Nyo''. The four DVDs of the series ''Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat'' are named after each of the four catgirl's
Onomatopoeia . Piyoko talks in a similar manner.
- (''' Dejiko ''' for short)
:Dejiko is the main character of the story. She is also known as Chocola but despite this alternate name implying she likes chocolate, she prefers broccoli. Dejiko has a Type A Personality and can be aggressive at times.
:Dejiko dresses up as a
Catgirl and is the princess of Planet Di Gi Charat. She is ten years old when she comes to Earth with hopes of becoming an idol singer. She has green eyes and green hair and her maid-like uniform consists of a white and navy blue dress with big cat bells tied to her hair with navy blue ribbons. On the very top of her head are her cat ears, which are white with pink inside and have a set of large, non-functional yellow cat eyes. She always wears white gloves and boots (with the exception of her sleeping outfit) and she has a white tail.
:She has the ability to use her eye-beam weapon called the ''Me kara BEAM!''. Voiced by
Asami Sanada , she ends each sentence with ''nyo''.
- ('''Puchiko''' for short)
:At the beginning of the story it is explained that Puchiko, also known as Capuccino, is Dejiko's five year old sidekick and is a catgirl. Her relationship to Dejiko is not explained in the original series, but Gema states that she is a princess in the Di Gi Charat Movie and it is seen that she lives with Dejiko in the castle in Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat. According to Di Gi Charat Complete 2002, Dejiko saved her by pulling her out of a hole, and so Puchiko followed Dejiko to thank her. Although in Winter Garden, it said that Puchiko is Dejiko's sister and share the same parents.
:Puchiko is quiet and has a
Type B Personality . She has the ability to use an eye-beam similar to Dejiko's but is often too docile to conjure the aggression required to perform such a feat. This has caused many things to come out of her eyes, including sludge, when she attempts to use it.
:Puchiko has brown hair and dark brown eyes. She wears a schoolgirl-type uniform plus cat bells in her hair, though they are much smaller than Dejiko's. She wears orange boots, cat ears and tail. Voiced by
Miyuki Sawashiro , she ends each sentence with ''nyu''.
- (real name '''Hikaru Usada''')
:Rabi~en~Rose is revealed to the viewer to be Dejiko's rival. Her name may be a play on a number of things. "Rabi~en~Rose" may be a play on the common French saying "La Vie en Rose" which means "life in pink". Considering that Di Gi Charat is largely aimed at Otaku, it may more specifically be a reference to the mobile docking ship ''La Vie En Rose'' from Gundam 0083. Japanese does not have a "V" sound, often substituting a "B" in its place (the full Japanese pronunciation of her name being "ra bi an rōzu"). It may also be a reference to rock band L'Arc~en~Ciel (''Ready Steady Go'', from Fullmetal Alchemist ). "Rabi" also resembles the English word "rabbit." "Hikaru Usada" may be a Pun on pop singer Hikaru Utada (best known in the West for her theme songs for the ''Kingdom Hearts'' Series ) and "usagi", the Japanese word for "rabbit."
:In the original anime, she is seen as a normal girl who uses dice to transform into her bunnygirl , she does not end her sentences with a rabbit sound (typically ''pyo'' in anime) and is the only character with
Kemonomimi animal traits in the Di Gi Charat franchise not to do so.
:Gema is explained to be the guardian of Dejiko and Puchiko. Essentially he is a floating yellow balloon that is always upside-down with very small eyes and mouth. Creator Koge Donbo once joked that Gema was the best character because anyone can draw him. He ends his sentences with ''gema''. He can shoot darts out of bamboo sticks; but they have little effect on anyone.
- (full name '''Pyocola Analogue III''') who is eight years old is shown to be the leader of the Black Gema Gema Dan and hails from the planet Analogue. In the anime it is unclear whether she is the princess of Analogue. Piyoko, a panda-girl, is voiced by prolific Seiyū Megumi Hayashibara . Her costume is similar to that of a nurse's uniform. She ends her sentences with ''pyo''.
- General. He plays the role of the veterinarian of the doctor trio. He takes pride in his profession and loves animals. The brains of the group and the oldest.
- Lieutenant General. He is a dentist and always worries after Piyoko. Ky makes sure that Piyoko practices proper dental hygiene. The second-oldest of the group.
- Major. The physician of the group. He is Piyoko's childhood friend and is closest to her. Sometimes if food flies through the air he will jump up and catch it in his mouth in a doglike manner.
- , Gema's counterpart in the Black Gema Gema Dan. It has large spooky eyes and red lips.
- - One of the two self-confessed "fans of Dejiko".
- - Takeshi's friend and the other half of the "fans of Dejiko".
- --- - In the original series, Dejiko misreads the Kanji for Takeshi and Yoshimi's names as "Bukimi" (meaning 'weird'/'unpleasant smell') and refers to the pair collectively as "Bukimi" for the remainder of the series.
- ('''Minataku''' for short) - A boy who comes into the store to buy trading cards and falls in love with Rabi-en-Rose. Enjoys Melonpan . Not related to Kimura, though they share the same family name.
- ('''Murataku''' for short) - A rich and long-haired man infatuated with Puchiko's cuteness. Not related to Minagawa.
- - A rowdy creature seemingly made of water. His appearances in the series are always incredibly random and crazy.
- ('''Rod Young''')- An excitable American fan of Di Gi Charat.
- - A thoughtful finger-person who runs Gamers and sends Dejiko on errands.
- - A cat who is Puchiko's sidekick. It can walk sideways and has five kittens; Sa, Shi, Su, Se, and So.
- - A small green creature likened to a Kappa , is Rabi-en-Rose's sidekick.
- (変な生き物 ''lit. "Strange Creature"'') - A mysterious, tiny, yellow bear. Its face always appears to be angry, crying, depressed and laughing all at the same time. It always remains in its box and is always seen as being completely still. On one side of the box, 'Take whatever you want' is written in Japanese.
See Also: List of music from Di Gi Charat
A great number of Di Gi Charat albums have been released, including soundtracks to the anime as well as collections of original songs sung by the main characters. These albums include drama CDs which expand the Di Gi Charat story.
A game titled ''Di Gi Charat Fantasy'' was released for the
Sega Dreamcast . It's a
Visual Novel style game, in which the player takes on the role of a boy with a crush on Dejiko who, along with Dejiko, Puchiko, and Rabi-en-Rose, gets sucked through a dimensional vortex into a fantasy world. The player finds himself alone with Dejiko in a forest, and she's lost her memory. In this game, players are given a very different view of Dejiko, as the amnesia makes her innocent and shy.
This game later got converted to
Playstation 2 console and got new title; Digi Charat Fantasy Excellent; and since it's using
DVD media, it features improved
FMV and additional VA.
''Di Gi Communication'' is a game series for the
Game Boy Advance . On
October 25 2002 the first game was released by Broccoli, the sequel a year later. The games are based on money management. Choosing one of the three main characters of the anime, the player takes the role as the manager of the store with the objective of running the store on the little money available. The game takes aspects of the anime into its gameplay including character art and an instrumental music score of popular songs from the anime composed by Manabu Namiki for the games.
The two games were released only in Japan, and, as of yet, have not received English translations.
Dejiko appeared as a selectable character in the 2D fighting game
Glove On Fight for the PC. The game contains several popular mascot chacters such as Ecoco and characters from well known visual novels and anime such as
To Heart and
Shingetsutan Tsukihime . This was a fanmade (or
Doujinshi ) game by the circle
French Bread .
Other anime series have been known to reference Di Gi Charat and the characters make appearances in:
- A parody of Di Gi Charat appeared in Megatokyo . In two comics ( 51 and 109 ), Kimiko is dressed as Dejiko, while Erika is dressed as Rabi-en-Rose. Later, the mysterious antagonist Miho appears dressed as Piyoko, which has been suspected to be a clue about her relationship with the other characters, but this suspicion is likely unfounded. Additionally, in 89 Piro puts on a hat resembling Puchiko's head, and Erika attempts to force him to put on the rest of the costume in 100 .
- There is a parody of Di Gi Charat in episode 23 of Excel Saga , in which Excel's secret fighting technique turns baddies into "cute" versions of themselves, which look like Dejiko.
