Anime / Di Gi Charat

Official picture by Koge-Donbo*

Moe parody franchise about an alien Catgirl named Dejiko who is an aspiring Idol Singer, and her cute hijinks. The ultimate example of the Otaku-oriented series.

The franchise began with Dejiko being an Advertising Mascot for the "Gamers" store chain. The character became popular, and the company decided to capitalize on her popularity by giving her a Backstory and an actual personality.

In a huge subversion, however, Dejiko's personality turned out to be the complete opposite of the cutesy-innocent moe girl she appears to be. She does her best to appear sweet, but when provoked (and it doesn't take much) she can be vain, petty, argumentative, selfish, and downright violent. She often takes out her frustrations by physically abusing her guardian, a floating sphere named Gema, or firing eyebeams at those who annoy her. She does have a good heart deep down, though, and the show's borderline-surreal sense of humor plays her anti-social tendencies for laughs, so somehow Dejiko manages to be endearing despite it all.

The franchise contains:

Anime

• Di Gi Charat (1999)
• Di Gi Charat Specials:
  • Di Gi Charat: Summer Special 2000 (2000)
  • Di Gi Charat: Christmas Special (2000)
  • Di Gi Charat: Ohanami Special (2001)
  • Di Gi Charat: Natsuyasumi Special (2001)
  • Di Gi Charat: Tsuyu Special (2001)
• Di Gi Charat: A Trip to the Planet (2001)
• Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat (2002)
• Di Gi Charat Theater - Leave it to Piyoko-pyo! (2003)
• Di Gi Charat Nyo! (2003)
• Di Gi Charat - Winter Garden (2006)
• Reiwa No Di Gi Charat (2022)

Drama CDs

• CD Drama Di Gi Charat (1999-2003)
• Trouble Triangle (2003)
• Di Gi Charat In Wonderland (2004)
• Final Party Night Drama Sono (2004)
• Rune Angel Tai Vs Di Gi Charat (2007)
• Di Gi Charat20th Anniversary Drama CD (2019)

Manga

• Gema Gema (1998)
• Di Gi Charat (2000)
• Di Gi Charat Theater (2000)
• Dejikos Adventure (2000)
• Hyakuman Doru Connection (2000)
• Dejikos Champion Cup Theatre (2001)
• Di Gi Charat Nyo (2003)
• Dejiko A La Mode (2003)
• Dejiko Da Nyo (2004)
• Dejiko No Susume (2004)
• Di Gi Charat Rabi En Usada No Koi No Monogatari (2004)
• Di Gi Charat GGBG (2004)
• Piyo Piyo Piyoko Chan (2005)
• Di Gi Charat GGBG Okawari (2006)

Games

Visual Novels

• Di Gi Charat Fantasy (2001)

Video Games

• Dejiko no Maibura (Dreamcast, 2000)^note Actually just an internet application
• Dejiko No Mahjong Party (GBC, 2000)
• Di Gi Charat Digi Communication (GBA, 2002)
• Di Gi Charat Digi Communication 2 Datou Black Gemagemada (GBA, 2003)
• DiGi Puzzle (iOS, 2011)

Games where the Di Gi Charat characters are playable guests:

• Glove On Fight (PC, 2002)
• Super Heroine Chronicle (PS3, 2013)
• D4DJ Groovy Mix (Mobile, 2020)^note As special crossover cards

Light Novels

• Di Gi Charat (2000)
• Di Gi Charat Fantasy (2001)
• Suisei Matsuri Ha Dai Panic Nyo (2003)
• Dejiko No Gokigen Nikki (2007)

Radio Shows

Terrestrial

• Dejikos Room (1999-2001)
  • Dejiko's Room 2 (2001-2002)
• Dejiko San (2002-2003)
• GA Da Nyo (2003)
• Nyo Nyo Radi (2003-2004)
• Dejikos Careless Panic (2004)

Internet

• Puchikos Tell Me Hokke Mirin (2000-2004)
• DU Ps Welcome Party Night (2004)
• Asami Sanadas Comic Di Gi Charat (2005)
• Dejiko Radio (2008-2009)
• Dejikos Room For Winter Garden (2009)
• Terrestrial Di Gi Radio (2009-2010)

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These series provide examples of nyo!:

• Advertised Extra: Dejiko’s mother appears on the Blu-ray cover for Reiwa despite not showing up until the last episode.
• Alternate Continuity: There are several continuities that were established when the franchise started to branch out.
  • Panyo Panyo, prequel of sorts to the original anime (since it ditches the otaku in-jokes), but establishes its own rules when it focuses in characters' from the past of Dejiko and Puchiko. This is, instead, the basis of "prequel" for Nyo!.
  • Nyo! is a Continuity Reboot of the original anime, with a better set continuity, and without the obvious Gamers advertising set-up. It also features some obvious side-character expies from the original anime's continuity.
  • Winter Garden, which focuses in Dejiko and Puchiko if they were human instead of hybrid-catgirls, in a slice-of-life future where they are 20 and 15 years old, respectively.
• Animal Motifs: People from the Planet Di Gi Charat are usually portrayed as hybrid cat-humans (such as Dejiko, Puchiko, Rinna, and Meek).
• Bowdlerize: In addition to calling the Black Gema Gema Gang, the "Dark Gema Gema Gang", Nazo Gema's lips are edited out in Viz Media's release of Di Gi Charat Official Anthology.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The third episode of Reiwa has Broccodess take offense to being called a new character by the Black Gema Gema gang with Dejiko bringing up how she'd been around since the 15th anniversary of the series.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In Episode 13 of Reiwa, when Dejiko and Puchiko are transported to the world of Nyo!, John and Paul are the only major characters from the series not to appear.
• Comic Trio: Dejiko is the schemer, Puchiko is the one who goes along with the schemes, although it's out of indifference rather than stupidity, and depending on who's with them, either Gema or Rabi~en~Rose is the ignored voice of reason.
• Continuity Cameo: Episode 13 of Reiwa has Dejiko and Puchiko get transported to the world of Nyo! where they bump into several characters from the series, including Rinna and Meek who originally debuted in Panyo Panyo.
• Continuity Reboot: Nyo!, which takes basic elements from the original series and mixes them up with the background already provided in Panyo Panyo, while also abandoning its original otaku-related humor.
• Cut Short: Two of the manga series, Dejiko's Adventure and Leave It To Piyoko! were also cut short in America after only one volume of each had been released. The remaining two volumes of the former and one of the latter were announced for 2005, but were on hold for three years until Broccoli USA ceased operations.
• Faceship: Dejiko’s UFO is designed after the beanie that she wears, with the original series giving it a white paint job to match.
• First Girl Wins: Episode 4 of Reiwa has Minataku bump into three different girls while at school who all end up falling in love with him. However, they end up backing off when they see him with Usada and see that he only has eyes for her.
• Gag Series: Many series based on the franchise usually poke fun (in a positive way) at the Akiba otaku culture in the late 90s - mid 2000s, with Dejiko and her friends being parodies of the kawaiiko moe archetypes, while they were also living up to ridiculous situations around them.
• Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: Inverted. Dejiko and Puchiko, the protagonists, are based on cats while Piyoko’s henchmen (Rik, Ky, and Coo) are based on dogs.
• Image Song: The franchise released numerous image songs and character-related albums continuously, ever since its first single "Welcome!" was released in 1998. It eventually stopped somewhere in its 10th anniversary, in 2008.

• Last-Name Basis: Dejiko refers to Rabi~en~Rose as "Usada" (despite repeated times she denies to be called as that, she eventually gives up).
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: And worked in both ways. Characters from other shows appear under different names, and characters from this show appear in other media productions under different names.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: While in the world of Nyo! in Reiwa, several characters greet Dejiko by telling her long time no see, referencing how Nyo! ended nearly two decades before and they haven't appeared since.
• Mythology Gag: In Episode 12 of Reiwa, Puchiko gets transformed into her Winter Garden design.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Takurou Minagawa and Takurou Kimura share the same first name. This is rarely an issue however as they are usually known by their nicknames of Murataku and Minataku. A third Takurou, Takurou Senba, is introduced in Winter Garden and also shares no relation with the other two.

• Retool: Di Gi Charat Nyo! is a retelling of the first anime series, which retains basic elements, but also changes some backstories and some settings.
• Revisiting the Roots: Reiwa returns to the Gag Series format of the original series and has each episode of the show being roughly three minutes in length.
• Second Episode Introduction: Dejiko did not appear until the second Gema Gema comic.
• Shout-Out:
  • Reiwa has Gema use an attack called "Yellow World" and in the background a Yellow Submarine can be seen.
  • In Digiko's Champion Cup, Dejiko's representation of her fairy godmother is Majin Buu from Dragon Ball Z. Fitting as Buu gets his name from Cinderella, his masters are named Bibidi and Babidi.

• Verbal Tic:
  • So many. Dejiko uses "Nyo", Puchiko uses "Nyu", Piyoko uses "Pyo", Gema uses, well, "Gema", Rinna uses "Myu", Meek uses "Mya", and Deji Devil uses "Devi". Whether or not they're kept in the English dubs depends on which series you're watching, Synch-Point and ADV Films respective dubs kept the tics meanwhile Bandai Entertainment/Blue Water's dub of Nyo! excised the tics entirely.
  • The episode introducing Mr. Longhair has him going to the store to get them to stop, as he thinks them doing it will cause language to degrade, and providing examples of words that will sound silly if each character says their verbal tic after them.

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