The best way to survive any impending apocalypse is to take control of the monsters wreaking havoc on the world or raise a demon slayer to do it for you. It’s angels vs. demons in the latest Tamagatchi releases from Bandai with virtual pet toys based on the Japanese anime series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Demon Slayer follows a young boy who wants revenge after his family is murdered and his younger sister is turned into a demon. The siblings get caught up with a secret society called the Demon Slayer Corps that is run by nine powerful warriors known as the Hashira. The demons taking over the world feed on humans and possess supernatural abilities, while the demon slayers are humans who use special breathing styles that grant them superhuman strength and resistance. Owners of the Demon Slayer Tamagotchi must train a new member of the Demon Slayer Corps to evolve them into different types of breath users.
Evangelion takes place 15 years after a worldwide catastrophe known as the Second Impact in a futuristic city where teenagers pilot giant robots called “Evangelion” on behalf of a shadowy government agency called NERV. The purpose of the Evangelion is to fight monsters known as “angels” to prevent them from causing more cataclysms that would destroy the world. The backstory behind the Evangelion Tamagotchis is that NERV has developed the technology to force the angels into their embryonic state. The egg-shaped Tamagotchis were built to restrain the violent angels from destroying the world and to allow people to transport them outside the NERV lab. Players will act as members of NERV who are assigned to raise the angels and prevent them from breaking through the forcefields.
Both the Demon Slayer and Evangelion Tamagotchis come in the mini-Tamagotchi Nano size and are available in an impressive assortment of designs inspired by characters from both series. These highly collectible toys are authentic Japanese Tamagotchis that feature Japanese packaging with no English instructions included. Unlike the original Tamagotchis, the Demon Slayer ones feature actual human characters rather than aliens, while the Evangelion Tamagotchis feature different versions of the evil angels. Both versions are heavy on the fandom aspects of the mangas, featuring characters, mini-games, and animations based on the respective series.
Players can care for their Demon Slayer by filling their happy and hungry meters, feeding them rice bowls and green tea, and playing three training games to prepare them for battle. If you’re familiar with any other Tamagotchi, it’s easy to figure everything out by pressing the three buttons on the egg and taking cues from the animations. Like all Tamagotchis, it requires lots of time and energy: Trainers need to stay on the ball because demons will appear at random to attack and injure the Demon Slayer. Players can press a button to help heal the Demon Slayers, but if they stay injured for too long or get hurt too many times, they will die. The mini-games are inspired by training regimens seen in the series and every hour, a Kasugai Crow will appear on screen to show animations based on the manga.
The Evangelion Tamagotchi brings fans right into the Evangelion series from the get-go with an animation of the Second Impact and the hatching of the embryo angel. Like the Demon Slayer Tamagotchi, this one also features hungry and happy meters that users must keep full by feeding it (in this case, it eats Super Solenoid Engines and watermelon) and playing games with it (this one features two mini-games instead of three). Also similar to the Demon Slayer Tamagotchi, animations inspired by the Evangelion series will appear on screen every hour. Players are responsible for cleaning the angel and if the angel is neglected for too long, it will put up an Absolute Terror Field around itself and players must coax it out. The angel will evolve based on how well players care for it, either causing it to trigger the Third Impact or causing it to get killed by NERV in an explosion.
With either Tamagotchi, the character will eventually depart and players can start over with a new one as many times as they want. These Tamagotchis have the most detailed and fandom-specific backstories yet, making them perfect for fans who want to dive right into an apocalypse to see if they have what it takes to fight off monstrous demons and murderous angels.
