Optimus Prime versus Megatron, Batman versus Superman, Elmer Fudd versus Bug Bunny. Many of history’s greatest figures can be defined by their rivals. In the realm of kids’ Saturday morning cartoon time, there were never two shows that fought harder than Pokemon and Digimon. Over the years, both have become an integral part of today’s geek culture, and each have become immortalized in today’s highest achievement, the pinnacle of popular culture’s echelon of greatness -- memes.

While both series star plucky kids on mighty adventures to learn about the power of friendship and teamwork, their worlds diverged in some very interesting and quirky ways. Some of these shifts came from overall tone and style and others just from the general themes each separately tackled. For better or worse, Pokemon is usually in the forefront of today’s zeitgeist, but there is still a treasure trove of memes dedicated to Digimon and its eternal arch-rival Pokemon. We have scoured the deepest, dankest depths of the internet to bring to you the cream of the proverbial crop and we now present you with the top memes all about your favorite digital and pocket-sized monsters. Be you a master trainer or digi-destined, enjoy the ride!

15 PUMP UP THE VOLUME

If you are of a certain age, when you were a kid, you will probably remember waking up at 5 in the morning every weekday. This was not because you had to walk 20 miles uphill to get to school, but because that was the time they showed episodes of Digimon. You may recall putting the volume just high enough so you could hear it (and not wake up the rest of the household). But there was always one point in the show where you just would have pump up the volume just a tad higher -- that sweet, sweet theme song. While the Pokemon theme was more of a feel-good pop ballad, it never really got the blood pumping quite like Digimon’s openers did. There was something about it that just made you want go to a dark club with bright glow-sticks and go crazy.

When that EDM beat kicked in and you heard “DI-GI-MON ARE THE CHAMP-I-ONS,” you knew a real banger was in your hands and you could not help but get swept up in it. A good theme songs is supposed to make you pumped for the show to begin, and the Digimon theme fit that need perfectly. Nothing makes you wanna go hard in the paint like this theme song did.

14 LOOKS RIGHT TO ME

One of the major points of contention between Pokemon and Digimon was always the design choices and the looks of the creatures’ evolved forms. From their humble beginnings with the original 150 to the near 1000+ roster of today, the world of Pokemon always tried to at least keep their designs based on some rules of nature in some way, shape, or form. Pokemon always strived to create a natural looking world for its fantasy setting, so to some extent, they tried to ensure that their creatures' evolution made some level of sense. And whenever that rule strayed at all, many a fan would be up in arms trying to figure it out.

However, since Digimon are from the digital realm and are technical just pieces of complex code, they are not bound by any laws of nature. This freedom leads to some very off the wall transitions and evolution trees -- and some that just do not have any rhyme or reason; like a bunny-eared dog evolving into a jeans-wearing bipedal creature with gatling-guns for hands. In a world where a talking cat with mittens can evolve into a fully grown angel woman, logic has lost its true north a long time ago.

13 KEEP IT SIMPLE

While the world of Pokemon has its fair share of evolutions and even some with alternating evolution trees like Evee, none will hold a candle to anything in Digimon. The average digimon has at least three final evolutionary forms, which they can shift to at any time they choose. Throw in the fact that others can fuse with other digimon and fusions have their own evolution tree, and the possibilities are just about endless. The sheer volume of forms Digimon can take is one of the defining facets of the series and is what is the biggest difference between the two series.

Despite the fact that a hero in Digimon only has one digital monster to partner with, from the sheer volume of results they can shift to during an evolution more than makes up for any lack for variety in their roster; egg forms, rookie, champion, mega just to name few of the stages each digimon has access to at any given time. Whereas Pokemon evolution is a one-way street, for Digimon it is a multitrack super train station with thousands of trains running amok. It makes Pikachu’s transformation into Raichu through a special rock is just plain basic.

12 SOUND LOGIC

In the spirit of “more is better,” Digimon designs range from the peculiar, to the unorthodox, and sometimes straight to something out of Salvador Dali’s fever dreams. Without having to deal with pesky things like “laws of nature and god,” Digimon evolutions just get crazier and more unhinged as they develop. But there is indeed a method to the madness. The beauty and horror of Digimon is that nothing is limited by such wimpy concepts that bind us in the physical world. The designs reach deep into the psyche of humanity and mashes it together like a child playing with Play Doh.

Each digimon tends to have some sort of visual gimmick early on, that the following forms latch onto. They then crank it up to 11, break the knob, throw it into a fire and eat the ashes. Say, for instance, your digimon starts using a sword, in its next evolution it will have a suit made of swords. If you are lucky and get a Mega digivolve state, it will probably become a sword with guns that shoot out smaller swords. Does it fuse with another digimon? Then buckle up for the sight of a giant tank turtle golem that uses two howitzers chained together. Oh and it will probably have some sort of jet engine apparatus on its legs to allow it to fly at supersonic speeds... or something.

11 GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL

One of the major differences in the show came in how they treated their creatures of the world. While Pokemon was all about forming the biggest and best roster of monsters in your pursuit to “be the best there ever was,” Digimon always had their partners team up with a single digital monster and focused on boosting the bonds between them for greater power. Even though in the Pokemon series they play up the idea of friendship and teamwork, it is kind of hard to be all chummy-chummy with your Pokemon if you are spending most of the time running after something bigger and better than your current line up.

While Digimon tends to look at the individual bonds between digital monster and their chosen partner as the source of growth and power - Pokemon usually devolves into an arms race of super-powered critters. Pokemon are seen more as integral cogs in the great machine of the fighting roster -- if one falls, another simply comes in to pick up the slack that was left behind. Whereas with Digimon, each battle is a close-knit solitary affair since there is no one to back you up if you fall. Digimon battles just tend to have higher stakes in the long run.

10 DIPLOMACY IS FOR SUCKERS

Following in the age-old tradition of the main character always striving for challenges, Tai always took the “act first, think never” approach to many conflicts within the series. His plucky outlook on life and his adventures with his friends probably tempered his desire to become strong enough to protect them. But this thirst for new battles would get him into many tough and tricky situations. Much like Ash of Pokemon, Tai may not have been much of a brainy type, but his instincts and tactical mind made him a savant on the battlefield. Usually a common trait for many shonen heroes is this desire to become stronger and face any challenge head-on is ingrained in many popular series stretching across countless manga and anime series.

Of course, Tai usually tends to take this to a whole other level. In a world where creatures are routinely several stories tall and have at least three kinds of rocket launcher and/or laser beam ready to obliterate every cell of your body, practicing some level of diplomacy would be a finer trait to have instead. If Tai ever thought things through before taking action, he would never be the Tai we all know and love.

9 THIS TIME, WITH FEELING

Twilight, once the chief whipping boy of the internet world, has long since dropped off the pop culture zeitgeist since the trilogy featuring the infamous family of sparkling vampires drew to a close. But the one enduring aspect was Kristen Stewart’s acting prowess throughout the movies (which was described as “wooden” at the best of times). While she has made great strides in her other theatrical outings, her stoic range will forever be a defining facet of that movie.

Renamon, the fox spirit Digimon was treated as a weapon and tool to fight off corrupted digimon in the human world and was always treated with a distant and cold approach from her tamer partner who saw her as an asset and less of a friend. This led to Renamon becoming just as cold and taciturn as her teammate, which led to her signature calm and calculating demeanor throughout the Digimon series -- even when her character developed and she was able to express her emotions. In spite of this illustration of her, she was always shown to be an interesting character in her own right and garnered countless fans the world over. Her overall popularity just goes to show that having a level-head can still make you an interesting character to cheer for.

8 DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

In one of the age-old questions that has plagued philosophers for decades; just what does happen to Pokemon when they are in their pokeballs? What about when they are deposited in the PC at the countless Pokemon clinics when their trainers have no need for them on their roster? Do they sleep? Do they dream? Are they aware of themselves? Or are rendered dormant and placed on standby until they are summoned again? And this does not even begin to beg the question of what becomes of their physical forms; are they turned into light particles and stored like data? Or maybe they are placed in some form of quantum pocket dimension?

Or maybe... they become digitized and are sent to roam the lands of the internet until they are called upon again? Much like Tron, maybe there is a whole other realm comprised of ones and zeroes teeming with the lives of deposited Pokemon. Perhaps that Charmander that was left behind while their trainer was hatching countless eggs in the hopes of finding a shiny variant, just wandered the wilderness of this new world for too long and became one with code of the PC -- their very DNA transforming into something entirely different?

7 LAUGH A LITTLE

One of the contrasts between Pokemon and Digimon was always each one's treatment of tone and heavier themes. While Pokemon tended to focus on a younger audience, and kept its stories relatively light and cheerful, Digimon was never afraid to tackle darker themes and story arcs that forced its adolescent heroes to deal with concepts of death and mortality. There was a sense of stories always “playing for keeps” in the Digimon series that granted them a dark edge. However, this does not mean the series was without moments of levity.

Most of the tonal shifts came about localization with American audiences that were trying to capitalize on the popularity and story-telling style of Pokemon. This led to a great deal of humor and one-liners being injected into the shows to help temper the somber mood of some of their more emotionally heavy scenes. Especially during the early arcs in the series, this need for levity created shows with dual aspects competing with one another. It was not until later series like Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier where themes like death, war, kidnapping and family dysfunction were allowed to develop with a clearer path -- unobstructed by levity being shoehorned into an episode.

6 PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE

Going back to the way Pokemon and Digimon evolve and grow, Digimon have the benefit of evolving at will to stronger forms when the situation called for it, unlike their counterparts where the evolutionary process was a one-and-done affair. This also helped to reinforce Digimon’s “don’t judge a book by its cover” ideology by giving some of the most basic and unassuming creatures extremely powerful and borderline godly forms to do battle as.

Having a pudgy bat-eared animal have the ability to transform into a giant arc-angel that can fire off bolts of holy light at his enemies would make any Pikachu think twice before stepping up to them in a battle. In all honesty, there is not much a little electric mouse can do against a T-Rex that can fire volleys of rockets and breathe blasts of fire that are on par with a supernova. This was doubly true for series like Digimon Frontier where the kids themselves transformed into the Digimon themselves. Tiny children being able to morph into powerful behemoths that can set entire fields of enemies ablaze, summon gale force winds, or even turn into a being of pure darkness blows anything Pokemon can do out of the water.

5 DOWN AND OUT

Leomon, the Sean Bean of the Digimon series, is considered one of the more popular and better designed digital monster -- too bad he never stays alive long enough to get any real headway in the shows he appears in. This burly lion man is a kind and loyal fighter who puts justice above his own self-preservation. Bearing this in mind, he will never hesitate to face down any foe he feels is treating an innocent badly or if he feels someone is in danger. While he will fight any great evil that comes his way, he usually does not have the power to back up his warrior spirit.

In regards to power levels, Leomon is actually just a Champion level Digimon -- one step above the basic Rookie form in the evolutionary tree. This means he is outclassed in power against most foes in the series he is in, which usually results in him getting thoroughly trounced by the hands of a superior foe. Much like Yamcha of Dragonball Z, he is forever outmatched by the majority of big time villains but he is determined to face them all the same -- at the cost of his own life almost all the time.

4 COPYCAT

As the Pokemon series continued into the later generations, a strange pattern started to emerge in regards to themes and styles; it began to look like they were taking several beats of inspiration from the Digimon series. With the introduction of Mega Evolution, granting Pokemon the ability to transform into even more powerful versions of themselves in the middle of battle, it echoes very strongly of the Digimon’s ability of multi-tiered evolution in battle. The Pokemon series even went a step further and designed special gems and bracelets that the Pokemon trainer has to wear to unlock these new mega forms, which was an extremely familiar look and feel to the kids of Digimon, who wield special bejeweled crests that do the exact same thing.

Despite the fact that they were contemporaries, Digimon was indeed the first of the two to introduce mega evolution to the scene. However, it appears that Pokemon adopted the concept and hit the ground running to make the lore its own. Some say that imitation is the highest form of flattery or is this just a simple smash and grab of ideas between series? It does make for some interesting debates since it always looks like a one-way exchange of ideas.

3 NEW GENERATION, WHO DIS?

As the Pokemon series carried with new generations, the designs of the Pokemon species began to take a decidedly different approach when it came up to the fifth generation that rolled in with Pokemon Black and White. While it continued to maintain a natural aesthetic with its pocket monsters, the looks began to take a more stylized and otherworldly form. With Pokemon like the fire pig Emboar, which had the design of a boar mixed with a sumo wrestler, mixed with a forest fire -- the artwork looked less like something that would normally arise in nature and more at home in the digital realm of Digimon.

This flair for an ever-growing stylized look and feel to the Pokemon stems from the franchise’s long lifespan. Clocking in at 800 different entries (and climbing), the species of Pokemon is constantly expanding, with new and intriguing looks needed to keep things fresh and alive. They cannot keep falling back to the traditional tactics of taking a lizard and shifting its color hue slightly, they had to take some bold and unique steps. Leading to the all-new and all-different lineup we are seeing with greater effect in the latest Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon series.

2 GOT A BONE TO PICK

Individual bonds and understanding were at the heart of power for Digimon and their partners. When this bond was affected by feelings of frustration and rage, these emotions would seep into that bond and warp the Digimon themselves to reflect the landscape of the partner’s psyche. Early on in the Digimon series, Tai’s frustration and overwhelming desire for his Digimon partner Agumon to become stronger forced him to evolve when he was at the brink of his energies. Amidst this exhaustion and rage, a corrupted form of Agumon took shape to mirror the darkness within Tai’s heart in the form of SkullGreymon, a creature of raw power but of little to no mind. To Tai’s horror, he had to bear witness to his partner running berserk, driven mad by the power he was so desperate to obtain for himself.

While Tai was able to help Agumon regain his sense of self and revert from that corrupted form, the guilt and distrust that grew between them created a huge rift, which took some time to rebuild. However, after much soul-searching the two were able to finally obtain Agumon’s true evolved form of MetalGreymon and later to his ultimate form of WarGreymon.

1 STYLE VS. SUBSTANCE

Amongst all the compare and contrasts of Pokemon and Digimon, the core philosophy all comes down to the design of their creatures and what influences them. The world of Pokemon was created to have a naturalistic sense to it, nature and humanity coming together as one towards a common goal of improvement. The need to form a team and have it benefit the world around you lies at the core every major event in the Pokemon series. Because of this, conflict is less a tool of aggression and more of a necessary tactic towards that improvement within the world. However, since it is not supposed to be a place of true violence and destruction, the creatures of the pokemon world are designed to reflect that.

The world of Digimon, however, has taken a different approach. The digital world is a reflection of the modern physical world. That world is rife with conflict and struggles. Even among the more developed regions in the digital world, battles erupt on a regular basis. This world is built off of the conflict that is fed from the real world as the framework for its own. Since the digital world is a mirror for the modern human world, where high powered weapons and other tools of war are present, it only makes sense that the digital realm of the Digimon would also adopt them into the fabric that comprises their own.