Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01

V-Tamer was the first and longest-running Digimon manga, printed in the pages of V-Jump magazine. Starting on November 21 1998, it ran to fifty-eight chapters and ended on August 21 2003. This manga introduces the character of Taichi - although it must be noted that he is not the same Taichi that features in the Digimon Adventure TV series even though both are quite similar in appearance and personality. V-Tamer takes place in an alternate universe.

Plot
In this universe, Taichi is involved in a V-Pet tournament, where he is told he cannot play because the Digimon in his V-Pet isn't recognized as being a real Digimon. However, after the tournament is over, Taichi plays the winner of the tournament, a boy named Neo Saiba, and their battle ends in a tie - something that is supposed to be impossible. Later, Taichi is summoned to the Digital World by a digimon called Lord HolyAngemon, and there he meets the mysterious Digimon in his V-Pet, Zeromaru the Veedramon. Taichi and Zeromaru travel to Lord HolyAngemon's castle with the aid of Gabo the Gabumon, and there Lord HolyAngemon begs Taichi to find the five Tamer Tags and defeat the evil Daemon, who has disrupted the peace of the Digital World.

Along the way, more humans are brought to the Digital World by Demon, including Neo Saiba, Rei Saiba, Sigma, Mari Goutokuji, and Hideto Fujimoto. Neo is chosen to raise the Digimon that will hatch from the Super Ultimate egg Demon is raising. Rei Saiba, Neo's sister, has a Digimental that will allow the Demon's experimental Digimon to evolve to a level beyond Ultimate. The others, called the Alias III, are to help Neo and Demon with their Digimon. Hideto's Partner is Omegamon, formed by the Jogress of Warg and Melga, a WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon respectively. Mari's Partner is a Rosemon and Sigma's is a Piedmon. They are all villains that eventually reform except Rei, who has no Digimon Partner or evil intentions.

Taichi Yagami
Taichi Yagami is the main character of the manga V-Tamer 01. He was a boy whose V-Pet had a Digimon thought to be a glitch. But when he was transported he learned that 'glitch' was his partner, Zeromaru. He met Lord Holy Angemon, who brought him to the Digital World to help them fight Daemon. Tai agreed, and with Gabo as a tour guide to find the five V-Tags. He faced the likes of Etemonkey and the evil Digimon that guard the V-Tags. He even fought other humans, like Neo Saiba and the Alias Three, who eventually helped him out. After he and Zeromaru defeated Demon, Tai and the other children returned to the Real World.

There were a few team-up specials Tai had with Davis Motomiya, Ryo Akiyama, & Takuya Kanbara.

Neo Saiba
Neo Saiba is an evil Tamer in V-Tamer 01, and the brother of Rei Saiba. His original Digimon was a Greymon that he rejected after it kept losing in battle. When he worked for Daemon, he had a lot of Digimon at his disposal, including a Devimon and an Ogremon that could DNA Digivolve into SkullSatamon, which he used to kill Etemonkey the Etemon, MetalGreymon (which was evolved from his own Greymon), Ghoulmon, and more. Each of them was killed by either Neo himself or Taichi Yagami's Zeromaru. Then he received Arcadimon from Demon, which he used to kill Pie the Piedmon and Rose the Rosemon (Rose died much later). He later brought it during the invasion upon Lord HolyAngemon's castle with an army of Airdramon, Devidramon, Vilemon, Devimon, a Boltmon, a Gryphonmon, a Megadramon, a Gigadramon, and a VenomMyotismon. His Arkadimon defeated Leo and Seraphimon (Lord HolyAngemon in his Mega Form). Sometime after the invasion and after Rei threatens to stop the fight by jumping off the cliff, Neo and Taichi stop their rivalry. After the event, Neo befriends Taichi and the Alias 3 again and saves Taichi's life. He goes on to win the next D-1 tournament and keeps his friendship with the 4 in the Real World.

Daemon
Daemon is the evil behind the chaos of the Digital World. He was raising an army of evil Digimon to take over the Digital World. Furthermore, he was raising a Digi-Egg of terrible power at his castle in the center of the Folder Continent where the castle originally belonged to a Digimon god. After seeing how powerful Zeromaru became under Tai, Demon realized that a tamer was needed to bring out the full potential of his super-ultimate digimon and found such a person, Neo. Demon also had intentions to invade the human world after taking over the Digital World. But Neo backstabbed Demon and had Arkadimon load the villain's data. It would have seemed that Demon was gone but in reality, he intended Neo's treachery to occur so he could possess Arcadimon. By the time Neo had reformed, Arcadimon shattered and Demon emerged, evolving to Super Ultimate after absorbing Arkadimon's data, but he was destroyed at the hands of Zeromaru as UlForceVeedramon Super Ultimate.

C'mon Digimon
C'mon Digimon is a one-shot manga, made in summer 1997, involving battles between more-or-less holographic Digimon. It was planned, but apparently never got off the ground. However, this manga was published as a special in volume two of V-Tamer, and there it was revealed the hero of this manga, Kentarou, was the source and inspiration for the design and character of Taichi, the hero of V-Tamer and the leader of the Chosen Children in Digimon Adventure.

Exclusive Digimon
The following Digimon have only made appearances to C'mon Digimon.


 * Bun is a Digimon with an unknown level, type, and attribute. He's the main Digimon in manga. The Italian translation of this manga, however, referred to him as Bunomon, and a character in the manga mockingly called him "Damemon."


 * Deathmon is the Evil Digimon in the manga. Deathmon could transform into "death" forms of the Digimon it had defeated. It transformed into DeathAirdramon, DeathDevimon, DeathMetalGreymon and DeathMeramon and DeathTyrannomon

Trivia

 * In the crossover special Double Tamer, Hiroshi Izawa's name appears as one of the tamers swallowed by Parallelmon.