Contestants
Definition
Digimon = Digital Monsters
Pokémon = Pocket Monsters
Storyline
A group of children enter the Digital world and meet the digimons. They use their individual digimons to fight evil and protect the Digital World.
A group of children (trainers) capture their own pokémons in the real world and use them to battle other pokémon trainers or capture other pokémons.
Main Cast
Eight children (1st season);
Five/Six (2nd season) &
Three [unconfirmed]
(3rd season)
Main cast from season one
Three
Misty, Ash and Brock
Creature Names
Always end with a xxxx-mon. Some may tend to be unpronounceable by a child above 10. (just like dinosaur names :)
Tanemon
Names are combinations of certain words and are all different.
Bulbasaur (Bulb + Dinosaur)
Creature Abilities
All the digimons can speak and tend to have cute chirpy voices when they're in their less evolved forms.
Salomon: One of the cuter dog-like digimons
All the pokémons (except for one Meowth) can only speak their names, i.e. Pikachu can only say: "Pika-pika pikkkkaaa-chu!"
(Something like Bucky from Emperor's New groove going squeak-squeak squeakkky squeak!)
Pikachu: A electric rodent
Creature Evolution
All digimons belonging to the main cast can evolve with the help of certain devices into stronger creatures. However, once the battle is over or the digimon is too weak, they will devolve back to their original forms.
Koromon
Metalgreymon: Evolved form of Koromon
All pokémons will evolve only if they have gained enough experience during their battles. They can never go back to their earlier forms. Certain stones can help them evolve faster.
(However, in the animated cartoon, Charmander was shown to have evolved but was shown later in its unevolved form)
Charmander: A fire pokémon
Creature's Home
Digimons live in the Digital World and roam around with their companion humans.
Angewomon: One of my favourites
Pokémons live in the real world (there doesn't seem to be any other animals, insects or fish around in that world) but stay inside devices known as pokéballs and are carried around by their owners. Certain pokémons, however, move around freely with their owners.
Maximum Creatures
Each child can only possess one digimon. The digimons can evolve into at least three other stronger creatures.
Each owner can carry a maximum of six pokémons in six different pokéballs. They can however choose a variety of pokémons to help in their battles.
Battles
The digimons are used to battle evil digimons in order to protect the Digital World. Each digimon has it's own special attack.
Gomamon: A sea-lion digimon
Pokémons are of various types: grass, electricity, fire, water etc. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. Pokémons are used to battle other pokémons in order to gain experience or for the owner to capture the creature.
Squirtle:
A water pokémon
Special Information
All information about new digimons are found on a laptop belonging to one of the children. Towards the end of the season, this info (in Japanese) pops out whenever a new digimon appears.
Information about the various pokémons are available on the trainer's Pokédex. It's like a Palm top that can read and identify the various pokémons.
Conclusion
Winner: DIGIMON!!!
The animation for the Digimon is far better than Pokémon and the storyline is more engaging. Pokémon may have their regular villains but every episode seems them blasting off into a far corner of the sky (like Ekin in Zhong Hua Ying Xiong). The villains in Digimon are more interesting and even the main cast offers a wider 'selection' of characters.
All in all, Pokémon is just too cartoonish, even the evolved pokémons are cutie-cutie, and Digimon will appeal to all.