Di Gi Charat


Di Gi Charat is a Japanese manga and anime series created by Koge-Donbo. The series follows a catgirl named Di Gi Charat "Dejiko" who was adopted as the mascot of Broccoli's retail chain store, Gamers. The original anime series and its original video animations are set in a Gamers store. There are twenty stores across Japan.
Several specials, OVAs, and movies have been adapted as prequels, sequels and alternate stories; trading cards and video games are among the many forms of merchandise released for the series.
The original series, movie, and Leave it to Piyoko! were licensed in North America by Synch-Point. The manga series is licensed by several companies. The original series, 4 specials and the Winter Garden special are now licensed by Sentai Filmworks.

Manga

The characters of Di Gi Charat and her sidekick Gema first appeared in July 1998 in From Gamers, a promotional magazine for the Akihabara store, Gamers. In August of that year, the two appeared in Gema Gema, a four-panel comic-strip in From Gamers drawn by dōjin artist Koge-Donbo. Dejiko was later adopted as the mascot of Gamers.
Broccoli Books in the US published the Di Gi Charat Theater series, which contain a number of Di Gi Charat manga by Koge Donbo and several dōjin artists. The comic strip Gema Gema, which still runs in From Gamers, is republished in these volumes. Broccoli Books have stated that all the manga will be translated and released. However, due to Broccoli closing their offices in the US in 2008, Dejiko's Adventure and Leave it to Piyoko! were left unfinished.
;Di Gi Charat
;Digiko's Champion Cup
;Di Gi Charat - It's Dejiko-Nyo
;Dejiko's Adventure
;Dejiko à la mode
;Dejiko's Advice
;Di Gi Charat Theater - Leave it to Piyoko!!
;Di Gi Charat - Piyo Piyo Piyoko-chan
;Di Gi Charat - GGBG!
;Di Gi Charat - GGBG! Refill
;Di Gi Charat - Rabian! - Usada's Love Story
;Di Gi Charat Official Comic Anthology
;Di Gi Charat Official Comic Anthology
Current Di Gi Charat Manga released in North America:
Broccoli Books
Di Gi Charat Theater - Dejiko's Summer Vacation
Di Gi Charat Theater - Piyoko is Number One!
Di Gi Charat Theater - Dejiko's Adventure
Di Gi Charat Theater - Leave it to Piyoko!
Viz Media
Studio Ironcat
Comic Di Gi, a bimonthly magazine that is issued by Broccoli, included a Di Gi Charat comic called GemaGema Theater by Koge-Donbo.
;Di Gi Charat Volumes
;Digiko's Champion Cup volumes

Anime

An animated Dejiko and her sidekick Gema first appeared on in a television advertisement for Gamers, set to the store's theme song, Welcome! by Hiroko Kato. The first anime premiered on the Tokyo Broadcasting System on November 29, 1999. Set in a Gamers store in Akihabara, the original series was sixteen episodes long, with each episode running for three minutes. Light-hearted and relatively cheaply animated, the series follows the story of Di Gi Charat, her new sidekick Petit Charat and Gema, who arrive in Akihabara, Tokyo. Dejiko dreams of becoming an idol, only to realize that they have no money and nowhere to stay. The manager of a Gamers store takes pity on them, and the series follows their exploits as they work in the shop. The series introduces Dejiko's rival, Rabi-en-Rose, and minor characters Abarenbou, Takeshi, Yoshimi, Takurou and Takurou. All other citizens of Akihabara, including the manager, are drawn as anthropomorphic thumbs, the reason being that Akihabara is one of the largest shopping areas of Earth for video games, among other things, and thumbs are most commonly used by people to press buttons while playing video games. The creative team was given free rein over the content of Di Gi Charat, and it is outrageous at times. The anime is directed by Hiroaki Sakurai, animated by Madhouse and produced by BROCCOLI.
As 2008 was the 10th anniversary of the series Di Gi Charat, Broccoli Inc. decided to recast the actresses of the main characters of Di Gi Charat. The new actress for Dejiko, Puchiko, and Usada were Satomi Akesaka, Nao Minakami, and Rieka Yazawa respectively.
However, as of the 15th Anniversary in 2013, Broccoli Inc. has since reverted to using their original voice actresses and retconned the 10th Anniversary in a comic.

Specials

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 and Dejiko's rival, Pyocola Analogue III.
;Summer Special 2000
;Christmas Special
;Ohanami Special
;Natsuyasumi Special
;Tsuyu Special

Movie

Di Gi Charat - A Trip to the Planet is a movie that premiered on December 22, 2001 in Japan. The twenty-minute animation follows the adventures of Dejiko, Piyoko and Gema as they use the spaceship seen in the first episode to travel back to Dejiko's home planet, Planet Di Gi Charat. It was licensed by Synch-Point and announced at Anime Boston 2003 along with Leave it to Piyoko!.
Synch-Point planned to include a 13-minute bonus episode called "Kuchi kara Bazooka" that was also included in the Japanese release, but it was never released.

Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat

A prequel of sorts with its own alternate continuity, Panyo Panyo 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 Digi 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.

Di Gi Charat Theater - Leave it to Piyoko-pyo!

Di Gi Charat Theater - Leave it to Piyoko-pyo! is an eight episode OVA that was released in 2003. The OVA is the only show in the series where Dejiko is not the main character. Instead it focuses on Piyoko, Rik, Ky, Coo, and the rest of the Black Gema Gema Gang as they leave Planet Analogue and make their way to Earth to kidnap Dejiko.
At Anime Boston 2003, Synch-Point announced they have acquired North American distribution rights to the OVA. It was released on two DVDs on November 15, 2005 and March 7, 2006. Miyuki Sawashiro, the voice actor of Puchiko, also dubbed Puchiko in English for the first six episodes. It marked the first time a Japanese voice actor repeated their role in English for an English anime dub.

Di Gi Charat Nyo!

An alternate story to the original series, Nyo!, aired from April 6, 2003 until March 28, 2004. There were two stories for each of the fifty-two twenty-minute episodes.

Winter Garden

Winter Garden is a two part spin-off series. Dejiko is around 20 years old and Puchiko is now around 15. This was also the last animated project to feature the original voices of the characters. The story starts on Christmas with Dejiko working at a cake shop. She meets a young man named Senba Takuro while going home on Christmas night. Dejiko accidentally drops her cake, but Takuro exchanges his for hers, and love starts after several unplanned meetings with each other.
A promotional video premiered at Anime Expo 2006 during the Di Gi Charat panel sponsored by TBS, PONYCANYON and Broccoli. The series first aired on TBS on December 23, 2006 and December 24, 2006 and later on BS-i.

Relation of each series

Characters

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.

Main characters

Di Gi Charat / Dejiko
Petit Charat / Puchiko
Hikaru Usada / Rabi~en~Rose
;Gema

Black Gema-Gema Gang

Pyocola Analogue III / Piyoko
;Rik Heisenberg
;Ky Schweitzer
;Coo Erhard
;Nazo Gema
;Black Gema-Gema Danin

Minor characters

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.

Games

A game titled Di Gi Charat Fantasy was released for the 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 was ported to PlayStation 2 and was renamed Di Gi Charat Fantasy Excellent. Since the PS2 version uses DVD-ROM media, it features improved FMV cutscenes and additional VA. The PS2 port came with a Standard release and a "Premium Box" release that contained one extra disc.
Di Gi Charat: Digi-communication I & II
Digi-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.
Glove on Fight
Dejiko appeared as a selectable character in the 2D fighting game Glove on Fight for the PC. The game contains several popular mascot characters such as Ecoco and characters from well known visual novels and anime such as To Heart and Tsukihime. This was a fanmade game by the circle French-Bread.
Dejiko no Maibura
Dreamcast game.
Dejiko no Mahjong Party
Game Boy Color game.
Di Gi Charat Puzzle
Game for iOS.

Reception

THEM anime gave the original TV series one star out of five and described the characters as cute but with "schizophrenic, sometimes homicidal personalities that just incite cringes from any sane member of the audience" Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network gave Di Gi Charat Nyo's first DVD a review in which he describes Dejiko having a "mercenary personality and butt-scratching manners" with a "frilly-cute exterior". In Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, Carlo Santos from Anime News Network describes Dejiko having a temper that "adds some spice to her goody-goody nature". In contrast, in the alternate story Winter Garden where she is now twenty, Chris Beveridge from the Fandom Post describes Dejiko as a "normal young woman".