Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Legendaries Draw Major Digimon Comparisons

When Pokemon Sword and Shield were originally announced as the next generation of the Pokemon video game franchise, one of the more hilarious jokes among fans online was that the eventual third iteration of this new generation would be titled “Pokemon Gun.” The idea of a Pokemon with a gun might bother groups like PETA, who were totally roasted by fans after they made a comment about one of the new Pokemon, but it’s not a far-off concept for the Digimon series.

Sword and Shield‘s new legendaries have been drawing comparisons to the Digimon franchise for their weapon use, and one particular meme has gone viral for combining several hilarious jokes into one.

Jumping on this comparison rather quickly, @pat7286 on Twitter saw the new sword wielding Legendary Zacian and the new shield wielding Zamazenta and imagined that the gun toting Mega Digimon MetalGarurumon as the “Legendary” for the non-existent Pokemon Gun. With the two Legendaries’ blue color scheme combined with their wolf origins, this brought to mind Digimon’s Garurumon with a lot of fans.

MetalGarurumon is pretty “legendary” in its own right, as this Mega level Digimon was one of the first Mega Digimon to join the Digimon Adventure anime. Playing several crucial roles throughout the anime series, it’s a figure many fans remember fondly. Though Digimon initially had more intricate designs than the Pokemon series, with the number of Legendary Pokemon reaching the fifties, more and more are drawing allusions to these more intense designs.

Pokemon Sword and Shield are currently scheduled to release November 15th for Nintendo Switch. The Digimon series was originally conceived by Bandai, Toei Animation, and WiZ in 1997 as a way to capitalize on the virtual pet craze sparked by Tamagotchi. The franchise focus on its titular “Digital Monsters,” monsters that live in a parallel, digital world that came from mankind’s technology. The franchise had its first anime adaptation, Digimon Adventure, which focuses on a group of children known as the DigiDestined (or “Chosen Children” in Japan) that are transported to the world of Digimon and have to fight the various evil digital beasts that roam the land.

Digimon will be celebrating its monumental 20th Anniversary next year with a new film reportedly titled Digimon Last Evolution – Bonds. The new film will feature the original Digimon Adventure children aged into their 20s, and each of the Japanese voice cast members has been confirmed to return. The film is scheduled for a release in Spring 2020, and will be bringing back Seki Hiromi, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, and Kenji Watanabe from the original Digimon anime to serve as Supervisor, Character Designer, and Digimon Designer respectively.