Tamagotchi Nostalgia

It’s 2021, and Tamagotchi has turned 25 years old. I am now 26 and have just gone out of my way to pre-order a Jujutsu Kaisen Tamagotchi because I am now both curious and hit with a pang of nostalgia. Also, I want to understand the concept, because the anime-themed Tamagotchis that have been released have baffled me.

I’m a big Jujutsu Kaisen fan and I don’t understand how I would raise one of the characters from an egg. Unfortunately, I won’t get my answers until February; when that time arrives I promise I’ll tell you all about it. But I’m not here to discuss my confusion of this — although I’m even more baffled by Demon Slayer and Neon Genesis Evangelion branded ones.

You could maybe make a leap at the Evangelion one, but somehow, the cute toy is a bit alarming considering the existential dread Evangelion has given me since first watching the series as a teenager.

Now that this tangent’s over, let’s actually talk about Tamagotchis.

The Birth of the Tamagotchi

The year is 1997. Maita Aki sits in the marketing division of Bandai where she tries to come up with a brand-new toy. She does so while watching an advert about a boy who insists on bringing his turtle to school with him. She has no idea how this became a Tamagotchi, but like all artists, no one can understand how influences actually work.

She works with Yokoi Akihiro of WiZ to bring the Tamagotchi to life. In October she brings some Tamagotchis to Shibuya to gauge the market. It’s targeted at teenage girls, and they love how adorable and portable it is. Now, they could finalise the colour, chain design, and the packaging.

November strikes, and every child wants one. But it’s not just the children. Adults love the Tamagotchi as well. The cultural impact is so profound that Maita and Yokoi receive a joint Ig Nobel Prize in Economics for diverting millions of hours of work into the husbandry of virtual pets. (Note: The Ig Nobel Prize is not to be confused with the actual Nobel Prize. It’s a satirical prize given to honour unusual or trivial achievements in science.)

You might be thinking, well that’s a bit extreme — but it’s not, really. Tamagotchis didn’t have any sort of pause button back then. If you didn’t pay attention to it, then it would die. Which would lead to a whole other lot of issues there. At the time, many players would get attached to their Tamagotchis like they would to an actual pet. Naturally, this would lead to the grieving process, and even in extreme cases where this would actually lead to suicide. Or on a slightly less darker, but still dark note, you could have been one of those players who would see how quickly they could kill it off.

Essentially, there was something to do for everyone.

The Digimon Effect

I personally didn’t know anything about Tamagotchis until 2006/2007 — the date’s a bit uncertain simply because I just know I was in my final year of primary school at the time. But if there was anything I had heard of, it was Digimon.

Considering the popularity of the Tamagotchi, it was also in 1997 that they released a Tamagotchi for boys. Digimon Virtual Pets was designed to be like the Tamagotchi but in a way that there would be battles, training, and all the good stuff.

In fact, I recall a time when my brother and I managed to find Digimon Virtual Pets on eBay. They were never really released in Europe, so it felt like a novelty to find one. Meanwhile, even though the Virtual Pets weren’t released in Europe, the Digivice could be bought in mainstream toy stores. 

Unsurprisingly, I was one of the only children in my class who even still had any interest in Digimon in primary school. I was too anxious to bring it up, so I simply had my Virtual Pet with me until I lost it sometime during my adolescence. Also, with the Digimon anniversary coming up, I have already been tempted into buying one of the anniversary editions.

The Tamagotchi

But even though Digimon had long since become abandoned by my peers, the day the Tamagotchi was introduced to my school was a great day for me.

I was 11 years old, and as I mentioned before, I was in my last year of primary school. At this point, my burgeoning social anxiety was becoming an issue, and I had already started treating the internet as a refuge. My brother was now a teenager, and our joint interest was anime, which wasn’t anything my classmates cared for in any way.

So, when all my friends started getting Tamagotchis, I was intrigued. It was the Tamagotchi Connection V3, and I remember watching all the other kids use the infrared to organise playdates with each other.

Unsurprisingly, I went to my Mum and begged for one. She wasn’t impressed and tried to weasel out of it by getting me a cheap knock-off from a pound shop. I came into school with it, and was, naturally, roasted for it. My friends attempted to cheer me up, but my poor knock-off Tamagotchi would simply have to die alone with no friends.

I think my mother began to realise she’d messed up a bit, when I came home and cried about it; I did that a lot as a kid. So eventually, she brought me home a little turquoise Tamagotchi Connection V3 and I could finally join in with the rest of my friends.

The only time I enjoyed my final year of primary school was when we all had our Tamagotchis. It was a weird sense of camaraderie as we all got them out to feed and play with at the same time. Thankfully, they’d implemented a pause button by then, otherwise my school would have banned them like they did with Beyblades.

As a kid with my anxiety, it did give me a good chunk of time to spend with my friends. My Tamagotchi was able to visit so many of my classmates who I usually wouldn’t have spoken to. So, when the fad calmed down, I would look back at my Tamagotchi and sigh. It would no longer have visits to friends, who had by now moved on to broader horizons.

And by broader horizons, I mean the impending change to secondary school. So, as I would sit at home and go through the motions of feeding and playing with my Tamagotchi, it gave me a little bit of comfort as everyone steadily moved on. It even added a bit of a routine to my life — something I appreciated.

Looking back, that time with the Tamagotchis was one of the only things I really remember from that year. That, and a burgeoning obsession with Final Fantasy, but that’s a whole other article for another time.

So, in a way, I can see how Tamagotchis have remained a constant staple over the years. They do feel like an actual pet, and it’s hard to ignore the importance they can have for one lonely and anxious kid.

But I stand by my confusion about the anime Tamagotchi. I want answers, and I’ll get them.