Digimon (short for Digital Monsters, AKA: デジモン, デジタルモンスタ) is a cross-industry series of products, as an extension of the electronic pet developed by Bandai from Japan. It was originally created in 1996, as a combat based virtual pet toy, and has since evolved into anime, manga, films, trading card game, as well as video games for all kinds of home and handheld game consoles.