One Piece 1191 Review: Second Form

One Piece, Chapter 1191: There's Still Loki

Picking up from where last chapter left off, Luffy is still struggling to get back up after his injury of being pierced multiple times by Imu's royal swords. I will straight up note that I'm not a big fan of just how quick Luffy appears to recover in this chapter -- while 1190 does have Scopper Gaban lay it on to Luffy about his lack of taking things seriously, I did wish for something more akin to the Sabaody or Marineford 'lessons'. Even if it's not quite as tragic as those two pre-timeskip stuff, I really didn't like it that Luffy essentially bounces back with some strange Gear Fifth bullshittery in this one. It's not as bad as some of the Wano parts, but I really hope this chapter is an anomaly and we get some character development for Luffy in the Elbaf arc. 

Luffy, at least, acknowledges that his wounds are severe enough that he would be in big trouble if he gets out of Gear Fifth at any point. There's a nice bit where Luffy apologizes to Gaban for 'taking the hit', only for Gaban to get pissed off at Luffy for thinking that -- he's just protecting Elbaf. Gaban wraps up his amputated arm, and tells Luffy that Imu is basically 'god'. 

We get shots of random animals being knocked out by Imu's Conqueror's Haki. Imu himself is lying on his back, not entirely unscathed from Gaban's Gate of God attack, and reflects that he should have eliminated all of Roger's crew in God Valley alongside Rocks. Imu then proceeds to transform -- into what I view as a Dark Souls style 'second phase'. His horns are larger and more ram-like, the placement of his tattoos have changed, and his arms are fully black (Armament Haki?). The general look is a more heavyset, more bulky form, and the large black wings does really make him look a lot more like a Lunarian. Imu is also seemingly larger than before, although it really is hard to tell -- One Piece has never been the best with scale. 

I do like this form a bit less than the original one, but I feel like this is the case with most villains that go through forms -- not many people care for Freeza or Cell's middle forms, after all. 

There's a brief cutaway to Robin, Chopper and Saul talking to Biblo. As what we've expected, they do want to get Chopper to talk to the mysterious ancient owl, and Biblo does go 'hoot hoot hoot'... but while Chopper does have a reaction, we as the readers don't get to learn this. Okay, sure.

We cut back to Imu in his new form attacking the wounded Luffy and Gaban. Imu and Gaban trade some barbs, including a hilarious bit where Gaban notes that he would applaud Imu, but, y'know, he's only got one arm left. Imu tells Luffy to get his crew and flee Elbaf, but Luffy doesn't want to do that, outmatched or not. 

I do think that unless we're going to highlight the 'tragedy' thing, with Gaban and potentially more of the giants dying, we won't be leaving Elbaf the way we escaped Egghead... Luffy is invested in the wellbeing of the people of Elbaf, and even if they don't get a full victory, I feel like the way to end this arc would have to be the implied timer on Imu. 

Luffy and Gaban, both in not much of a shape to block another attack from Imu, brace for impact... and motherfucking HAJRUDIN of all people comes in with Gungnir to punch Imu the fuck away. 

God bless Hajrudin. He has been theoretically one of the most important characters in this arc, being a member of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, and the son of a king... but from a fighting standpoint, we need to remember that Hajrudin was beaten effortlessly by a Gear Second Luffy, and had to struggle to take out even one of Doflamingo's lesser minions.

But god damn it, with all of the story we've been told via Loki, can you blame the guy for trying? He just comes in with his strongest move Gungnir, and while the physical blast is impressive, I don't get the sense that Imu is injured -- just waylaid unexpectedly. And even then, Hajrudin had to block Imu's black flame-bomb attack; his arm-shield shattering in the process. 

As Imu recovers, Gaban tells Hajrudin to get Luffy away, since "there's no way to win". Luffy adamantly refuses, with some bullshit handwave about 'eating a lot' before coming here. Hajrudin protects Luffy and Gaban from another barrage of bombs. Hajrudin is prepared to die for Elbaf, noting that "if I die... there's still Loki!"

It's a nice little mini-arc going in the background of all this madness, but the Hajrudin/Loki mutual respect is slowly growing over the background. And just in cue, Loki comes in to help his big brother. That is cool! A bit less cool (and inexplicable, judging by Gaban's reaction) is Luffy swelling up and going "I'm all better too!". He still does look a bit wounded so I'm not calling full bullshit yet, but I am worried about the deflating tension from this battle when the last couple of chapters built up Imu's threat to Luffy specifically quite well. 

Loki, Hajrudin and Luffy deals a triple-combo Gokoku Sovereignty attack; the same one that Gerd, Rodo and Goldberg did earlier in the arc. Cool moment, but I felt like this really should be a Loki and Hajrudin moment and we didn't need Luffy butting into the brothers' attack. But oh well. Again, it's a nice payoff to the two princes' storyline, and I'm a fan of it being at least tied up now. 

It's a bit annoying that I'm coming back to review single chapters on what I think is the weakest chapter in this Imu battle, but it is admittedly a bit early to be going on a proverbial witch-hunt when it's just a quick single chapter. We'll see if we continue this fight next chapter, or if we'll cut away to the Zoro or Sanji fights -- which has remained conspicuously absent. I wouldn't mind it if we just have some 'hold the line' bit for the wounded group here holding Imu off (well, three are wounded, while Hajrudin's just outclassed). 

Random Notes:

• Single chapter review this time around, because I'm a bit freer this week. Not sure if this is going to keep happening, and depending on my schedule I may go back to 3-5 chapters in a go. 
• The strange panda and wolf-bunny monster, as with all Elbafian wildlife, were creatures that first debuted in One Piece: Strong World. 
• Some people are trying to map Imu's current forms to the three Zoan forms... but I feel that's not what the story is going for. Luffy, after all, is also a 'god Zoan' and his forms and gears are all over the place compared to the human/beast/hybrid dichotomy. 
• Since we do have some time, I would like to note that we did get a significant number of Imu's nineteen blades (he's missing Lily's blade) named, and most of them refer to a legendary weapon or some kind of religious meaning:
• Stigma is a term that means a 'brand' from Greco-Roman culture, usually a brand or tattoo to mark a status of disgrace. However, due to Christianity, the term 'stigma' or 'stigmata' has since been associated with the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ; and wounds that appear in similar places reported in some devout followers.
• Longinus, or rather the 'Spear of Longinus', is taken from extended Christianity mythos. It is stated that the soldier that pierced Jesus Christ's side with his spear was named Longinus, and the spear, coated with the blood of Christ, was transformed into a holy lance -- with many various relics over the Middle Ages being claimed to be the holy lance that allowed whoever held it to have the right to rule. 
• Nemesis is the Greek goddess of divine retribution. While often mistranslated by modern interpretations as a mere 'goddess of revenge', the original Nemesis is tasked with meting out punishments specifically to mortals that show pride and hubris before gods.
• Fragarach, Blade of the Sea God, is a magical sword from Irish mythology that belonged to the sea god Manannán mac Lir, which can cause wounds that do not heal, and force people to tell the truth. 
• Gram -- which also means 'wrath' in its original language -- is a famous blade from Germanic mythology. The blade Gram is embedded into a tree by the god Odin, who noted that only a worthy hero can pull it out. The blade would be drawn by the hero Sigurd (a.k.a. Siegfried) to slay the evil dragon Fafnir in the Nibelung Saga. 
• The Axe of Xingtian refers to the Chinese myth of an axe-wielding divine giant. Xingtian was a rebel against the supreme god, who was decapitated for his rebellion. Refusing to let a simple thing as death stop him, Xingtian survived as a headless being, using his nipples as eyes and his navel as a mouth, continuing to fight beyond death. 
• Bohu (or Vohu) and Tohu are terms from the Hebrew Bible about the void that exists prior to the creation of light by God. The subtitles for Bohu and Tohu identify them as "Blade of Nothingness" and "Blade of Chaos" respectively. 
• Honebami Toshiro is a a Japanese katana, attributed to one of the greatest swordsmiths in Japanese history, Toshiro (Awataguchi Yoshimitsu). The sword is now in a shrine in Kyoto, and gained its reputation for the ability to crush or sever bones as if 'devouring' them.  
• Muramasa is a famous Japanese swordsmith from the 14th-16th century, whose swords are well-known for their supreme quality... but also often had myths of them being cursed blades.

Bleach TYBW E43 Review: horn of sAlvAtion

Bleach, Thousand-Year Blood War, Episode 43: Blood for My Bone

This episode is nicely divided into two aspects. One adapts the titular 'Blood for My Bone' chapters, continuing Ichigo and Orihime's fight against Juhabach leading up to Ichigo accessing his half-Hollow Bankai form, the 'Horn of Salvation'.

But what improves this fight a lot, and what improves Inoue Orihime's character a lot from the last chapter, is the focus on her scenes beyond just tugging on Ichigo's clothes one time. Orihime continues to cast rejection and having her shields shattered by Juhabach. And Juhabach actually takes the time to mock Orihime as well, noting that due to the similarities between the power of him and Ichigo, Orihime unconsciously can't reject the full attack. We get a badass scene of Orihime constantly trying to get up, casting shields to protect Ichigo. And while these proves only a delaying tactic, Juhabach even compliments her, noting that a 'mere human who overstepped her bounds' could even be here in the final battlefield between gods. 

And Orihime does not care. She stands back up.

All she wants to do is protect the man she's in love with, and actually manages to reject one of Juhabach's soul king attacks long enough for Ichigo to attack. 

Again, something that didn't exist in the original fight is the cutting away to the Uryu/Haschwalth fight, where both Juhabach and Haschwalth are monologuing to their respective foes in a thematically similar way. The Soul-King-powered-up Haschwalth continues to fight Uryu, boasting that he could wield Juhabach's powers as long as those powers are split to him. We get a nice dizzying sequence as Haschwalth floods the arena with the black shadowy goop, while Uryu summons a swarm of arrowheads before creating a giant D20 dice shield to protect himself. That's cool! He then turns it into a weird machinegun thing that can snap shut into a shield again. That's cool!  Haschwalth continues to monologue, about how killing Juhabach might destroy the world.

But even as Uryu is impaled by shadows, he stands defiant, and says 'something that Kurosaki would say if he was here'. And we cut from Uryu saying those words to Ichigo saying how he'll still take Juhabach down, before going into a bit of a spiel about how Juhabach is trampling over the world that everyone else is trying to protect... and if defeating Juhabach might destroy that world, then so be it. Ichigo unleashes a Getsuga Jujishou at Juhabach, which doesn't really work either. 

We cut back and forth between the two monologuing villains, but Juhabach and Haschwalth basically tell Ichigo something that was merely implied in the original manga, and only confirmed by Kubo's comments and tie-in novels later on. Haschwalth asks Uryu what would happen to the balance of the world if the Soul King disappears, and Juhabach tells Ichigo that Ichibei Hyosube has been doing some sinister plan all throughout the time that he's been essentially grooming Ichigo. 

We get brand-new scenes of Ichibei in the room with the seals of Squad Zero (everything is empty now since Shutara was killed as well... by Uryu!). Ichibei creates a ring of ink, which becomes a weird lizard that flows down into a sakazuki cup that Ichibei drinks from. Weird!

Juhabach notes that Ichigo is a son of miracles, a combination of human, Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy and Fullbringer. This is something Juhabach brings up in the manga. The next bit, though, is a description of why Ichigo 'clads himself in black'. Black is the colour of chaos, and chaos is the power of the Soul King. The colour without colour, and the Soul King's reiatsu... and as the animations show while this is being spoken, Juhabach and Haschwalth wielding the Soul King's shadowy black powers... and Ichibei Hyosube's own black ink. 

The big revelation? Ichibei Hyosube intends for Ichigo to be installed as the next Soul King. 

Again, it's a 'big revelation' of sorts, and Orihime at least is surprised. Ichigo... doesn't really give a shit, really. Neither does Uryu, who gives a 'so what?' to Haschwalth, and noting that it's what Kurosaki would say. I love this new focus on Uryu as a main character, and setting up the two of them as essentially being super in-sync with each other. Ichigo doesn't give a shit if he becomes the Soul King or not, since he's more interested in protecting the world and the people he cares about. Ichigo charges in and slashes down on Juhabach in a scene lifted from one of the manga panels. 

There's a bit of a cutaway to the Gerard fight, but the Ichigo/Orihime/Juhabach fight continues. Juhabach recovers from the massive blow, and then starts bashing Ichigo around with his shadow powers, while Ichigo blindly continues to charge in over and over again. We go back to Orihime's POV, where she's just seeing Ichigo attack in manic succession, before grabbing his sleeve and telling him to calm down. This was a scene that really didn't land on me in the manga (the frustration at the pacing probably didn't help), but the small Orihime focus scenes in the past couple of chapters, and the music actually building up as Orihime and Ichigo makes eye contact, is really well done. 

Juhabach continues to taunt Ichigo, but eventually Ichigo slides back, Orihime summons a gigantic shield to protect Ichigo, and the two have a brief conversation where Orihime notes that Ichigo doesn't look like he's lost himself, and he clearly has something in mind. Ichigo reveals that he had wanted to 'wake someone up', i.e. Old Man Zangetsu, by bathing him in Quincy powers. And as his swords turn (are bleached, ho ho) white, Ichigo enters his 'Horn of Salvation' form. Neat!

Again, no complaints about the Ichigo/Juhabach stuff and the Uryu/Haschwalth stuff going alongside it. It really does help to really go deep into the psyches of the five main combatants -- Ichigo, Juhabach, and especially Uryu, Haschwalth and Orihime -- all three who really didn't get much in the original manga. The action scenes are admittedly a bit samey with a lot of giant shadow waves roiling around and hitting out good guys, but I appreciate very much the additional context and character development being done here. 

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The Gerald Valkyrie fight is intercut around the halfway mark of the big final confrontation, and... and unfortunately, despite the big promise at the end of the last cour, the Visored really didn't do anything all that much or all that cool before being all summarily taken out. The scenes are a bit expanded, yes, and I didn't expect something as over-the-top as the new Ichigo/Uryu or Uryu/Renji or Ichigo/Bambis fight. But I had thought that we'd at least get maybe an early showcase of the Visored harming Gerald enough for him to activate the Miracle. 

Instead, Gerald continues on his 'finding you guys would be a miracle!' before we get the expected adaptations of the Visored trying to do stuff and fail. Hiyori fires a three-Cero beam. Hachigen, Lisa and Love do a triple attack with their kido and zanpakuto, and fail. We do get a couple of extra scenes, since Shinji uses Sakanade to flip the world around and stab Gerald in the back of the neck... but it's actually a lot less cool than the thing he did with Momo last season. Rose uses Kinshara to hold Gerald for a bit, and then Kensei (in Bankai) and Mashiro does a combo attack on Gerald. And then all the Visored do a rainbow Cero blast together...

...before Gerald just does a lariat and knocks everyone out in one punch. 

And here's the thing. I don't mind Gerald defeating the Visored. I don't mind the Visored being defeated. What I minded is the manner that they were taken out. It actually feels worse here since Rose and Kensei were revived from zombification to do essentially nothing. Again, having them trigger the Miracle early wouldn't really be all that bad, would it? 

Eh. Anyway, the three more marquee captains show up. Hitsugaya freezes Gerald's arm before he can bring this whole part of Wahrwelt crashing down onto the Soul Society. He activates Bankai and freezes Gerald's giant body. Then after we cut back and forth to the Juhabach fight; Byakuya shows up with Senbonzakura Kageyoshi to back Hitsugaya up. We still get the same joks about Hitsugaya being hypersensitive about his height, which is... it's always less funy than the reaction the show probably expected me to have, but the voice acting is always good.

Kenpachi comes to slice off Gerald's right hand, before the Miracle restores it. Kenpachi, the big idiot, then tries to just cut Gerald and dice him up, and Hitsugaya stops him before he can make Gerald overly powerful. There's a fun sequence as, again, Hitsugaya gets insulted when Byakuya mentions Gerald's height; and Hitsugaya also gets frustrated at Kenpachi's insane troll logic about how he'll deal with Gerald getting more and more powerful the more he is cut. 

Gerald knocks Kenpachi away and draws his sword Hoffnung, while Kenpachi unleashes his shikai, Nozarashi. They clash, and Nozarashi manages to chip Hoffnung. In a bit of an expansion of the manga's version of this fight, we get Byakuya and Hitsugaya combining their Bankai attacks to push Hoffnung away, also chipping the sword. In the manga version, only Kenpachi gets the reflected damage from Hoffnung, but here all three of them do. The Gerald fight was infamous for essentially not having a proper ending, and having Byakuya in particular feel like he's just not doing anything... so hopefully in place of a Visored fight, we get a more proper conclusion with the three marquee captains.

Anyway, my slight saltiness about the Visored's handling, I really did enjoy this episode with the Juhabach, Ichigo and Orihime sequences. I really didn't expect how much more impact Orihime (and Uryu, too!) would have with some small, extremely targeted and purposeful extra lines. But at least on that end, with the main characters, we're getting a lot of nice moments. 

Random Notes:

• While Ichibei wanting to install Ichigo as the new Soul King isn't that much of a revelation (in the original manga, the scene of Kyoraku giving tickets to Ichigo's human friends is a bit of a foreshadowing), the idea that the black powers used by Ichibei and Soul King Juhabach being tied to Ichigo and the Soul King isn't something that I think was established... but a very cool one. 
  
• And, of course, it finally gives a proper meaning to the otherwise nonsensical title of 'Bleach'. Whether it's the black of the Soul King's reiatsu, or Ichigo turning his swords white, these powers are bleaching each other. 
• Yeah, the moment that the cold open of this episode begins with Kenpachi kicking the stasis pod open, you know the Visored isn't going to be the focus of the Gerald Valkyrie fight. 
• I do wonder if Ichibei is going to be confronted about this particular fact of him trying to groom Ichigo for the position of the Soul King, of if it's going to be brushed away as like Can't Fear Your Own World? 
• While the scene focuses more on Ichigo's desire to protect and his willingness to sacrifice himself, we also have to note that while Juhabach condemns Ichibei's manipulations... he himself is much worse in that regard, going around, you know, killing Masaki for his own grooming. 
• Haschwalth's anime-only Soul King super form is called 'hAschwAlth', which I thought was funny since I've been spending the last couple of seasons styling all of my own Bleach reviews by capitalizing all the A's and making all the other letters lowercase. 
• It does give the Haschwalth fight a nice extra oomph, since Haschwalth isn't a character capable of utilizing Vollstandig. 
• In the manga, Momo's commentary at Hitsugaya arriving has her supporting an unconscious Shinji. Here, at least, she's not doing so... but I'm not holding my breath for Shinji being relevant in the rest of the cour. 
• Soi Fon, like her manga counterpart, is back to being MIA when she should be either around in the Askin or Gerald battlefields. I think in the anime she was last seen near Gerald. 
• You know what? For as much as I spent the Gerald portion of the review talking about the Shinigami, I did like Gerald's insane over-the-top ranting about how 'this is impossible... it's a Miracle!!!' throughout the fight. 

Digimon Reviews, Episode 63: Elizamon and Friends

We're going on a brand-new line, with Elizamon being another one of the main characters' Digimon lines. Similarly with the Pteromon and Shoemon lines, we're going to cover both the initial chunk of evolutions released in 2024, and their bonus one that debuted in 2025!

And we're also going to go through the Maquinamon line, who serves as the final antagonists for a chunk of the Liberator webcomic which I thought was a pretty interesting visual  concept even if the pacing of the webcomic wasn't the best near the end. 

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Elizamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Reptile
• Attribute: Virus

Oh! A cutie! Elizamon's name and inspiration is a bit of a pun. The Japanese term for the frill in a frilled lizard is 'eri', so eri lizard... which is also a double-pun on Elizabethan-era fashion. So we've got a nice,  pink-and-blue frilled lizard with the frills and fashion of a noblewoman from that era. Neither the fashion frills nor the neck frills are overly exaggerated, however, giving us a rather distinctive design that stands well on its own, but when you point out the inspirations you go "ah, I see!" It really is a very pleasant-looking friend.

I also like the shape of its chunky forearms, with how the claws are arranged. Elizamon's frill-ears are noted to be soft but sensitive in terms of picking up sounds. Of course, it has an elegant personality... but can be fierce in combat. It can also spin that frill around to either fly at low altitudes, or use it as a buzzsaw. Fun! 

I really have not much to say here beyond that, but I really did find Elizamon to genuinely be one of the neater new Child-levels. They really did start making good, intresting Child-levels again after the glut we got in the late 2010's, huh!

 9/10.

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Dimetromon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Reptile
• Attribute: Virus

Oh! Another cute one. Dimetromon is, of course, based on the Dimetrodon -- one of the more iconic prehistoric creatures that hasn't been adapted yet into a Digimon. Dimetromon still follows a lot of the fun Elizabethan frills and ribbons that Elizamon has, although it's still kept quite subtle other than the big ribbon on its neck. The flowing parts of the body and the 'sleeves' feel natural enough that it could be part of the natural anatomy. I really like how wavy the main sail is, and unlike a real dimetrodon, Dimetromon's got an extra 'leaf tail' similar to Seadramon. I also like the head and the jagged beak that it has. 

The colours are nice, and it really is overall a very pleasant-looking creature that both adapts the inspirational creature without just being a transplant. Some of the dinosaur Digimon do look a bit underwhelming because of that! Dimetromon does it without going the obvious and lazy route of just mechanical cyborg parts that so many other dinosaur-mons like to do. 

Dimetromon interestingly has the ability to regenerate wounds from its sail, and the sail grows larger every time it regenerates, making those Dimetromons with larger sails be particularly respected due to having survived competition. The sails can also absorb energy and amplify it as heat rays, which were one of the theories that are still debated on the function of sails on prehistoric animals like dimetrodons and spinosaurs. Being a Digimon, of course, Dimetromon does absorb heat... and uses it as a Solarbeam.  

Very pleasant! Did not expect to like this line quite as much as I do. 

 8/10.

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Lamiamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Dragon Man
• Attribute: Virus

Now you'd think I would not like Elizamon's Perfect-level since it becomes a humanoid and a 'waifu', but it's the opposite, actually! I really like Lamiamon! It has never being just 'humanoid' or just 'a waifu' that bothers me for a Digimon. It's when they no longer feel like a digital monster, or even a monster at all. It's when they look like just a regular dude or lady wearing some anime clothes. Lamiamon isn't that, and she's a stylish one to boot! Now a 'lamia' isn't necessarily always awoman with a snake lower body, but that's what Japanese media has synonymized the name with... and it's such a stylish snake lower body, with frills made up to be like a dress opening up cleverly on where a snake's dorsal and ventral scales would change in appearance, and it ends in a fancy fan!

Lamiamon's humanoid part is also quite nice, with pterodactyl wings jutting out from below her arms, her face being the same reddish-purple as the rest of her body, and while she does have clothes and accessories they're not so obviously 'for fanservice'. The fancy hat, the horns, and the huge umbrella accessory are really fun, too. I actually really like this one!

Lamiamon's profile describes that it has lots of 'scales and fins that resemble dresses', and being a snake-person in a quasi-fantasy media of course it's an expert of poison -- being able to create all sorts of fantasy poison like paralytic ones, unrealistically acidic ones, and just regular poison that kill the enemy. Lamiamon is a sadistic noble that lies to watch its opponents suffer, and that umbrella (her 'Venombrella'), of course, is tricked-out to contain all of the poisons that Lamiamon synthesizes. That's neat! 

Interestingly, its expertise in poisons also makes it great at detoxifying viruses, despite being a Virus-attribute itself... but it's not going to do it for free, of course! Getting a snake-person to de-poison you is going to cost quite a bit!

 9/10.

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Medusamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Dragon Man
• Attribute: Virus

We've never had a Medusa Digimon? Really? All that creatively-bereft years when they were adapting the Greek gods and they didn't go for the Greek monsters? You know, I would've liked the Olympos XII a lot more if they had bothered trying to make them feel like an actual Digimon evolutionary line that might be Greek-themed, which was something they really only did for Plutomon evolving from a Cerberumon, and Ceresmon from Sirenmon. The Greco-Roman mythos has so much monsters and even heroic inspirations!

But then we wouldn't have gotten this Medusamon, which is also a fun design. I like it a bit less than Lamiamon, but Medusamon's quite cool, too. It's got a fancy ballgown which looks very nice. Sure, she's got a generally more humanoid inner body, but keeps the monstrously pink skin tone, and has a long tail and elf-ears. The best part of her humanoid side has to be that singular eyeball embedded into a golden mask with two horns. 

Being a Medusamon, it's got snakes for hair... but instead of regular Medusa's writhing swarm of snakes, we've got three large snakes tied up into two massive pigtails plus a couple of smaller ones that trail down its arms. The profile describes the two primary snake-hair-bunch as 'serpent dragons', which are sentient and fights independently so the main body doesn't need to move and can pose elegantly. Medusamon can further unbraid its hair, letting the serpent-dragons rampage even more. It's like a noblewoman letting her retainers do most of the work for her... but if the opponent manages to endure Medusamon's serpents, the main body can still fight with tail-stingers and those fancy fanged platform boots. 

Being a gorgon, Medusamon can petrify enemies into stone, of course. But for whatever reason, Medusamon is given an extra quirk of particularly liking to petrify 'small, round Digimon', and this unfortunately often ends up being Babies. Oh no! Medusamon shows no mercy to these, turns them into stone, and lines them up in its collection. This is what I like when I talk about using creatures and figures frmo mythology and giving them a nice twist, and tying into the dinosaurian theme of Elizamon and Dimetromon really worked out very well, too. 

 8/10.

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Styracomon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Dragon Man
• Attribute: Data

Okay??? All the main characters get a second Ultimate-level form, and Elizamon is no exception, but we get a rather interesting deviation here. The other alternate evolutions (Vortexdramon, Nyabootmon, Ariemon) tend to tie in somewhat to an aspect of the original line and I suppose Styracomon ties back to the dinosaurian aspect, but the vibe is most certainly different. Based on the styracosaurus, Styracomon goes for an old-school WarGreymon-style 'inner dragon-man with chunks of armour like a sentai hero'. 

And it's... it's an interesting design, I'll give you that. The huge styracosaurus helmet is certainly nice and eye-catching... but the real 'face' is actually nestled within the beak of the dinosaur head, which forms more of a helm. It's a lot more obvious in close-up shots in the manga, but it is disproportionately small compared to the proportions of its muscular arms and legs. 

Styracomon's got an Iron Man style chest-piece with a glowing core. It's tail has cannons and armour that resemble cutely a Triceratops head. On either arms, it's holding two giant shields (again, similarly to WarGreymon's gauntlets) with horns that are patterned after a different kind of ceratopsian -- the Einiosaurus. 

...what? I know my dinosaurs at least as well as I do my Digimons. 

Styracomon basically goes on a subversion of the elegant-noblewoman vibes of the Elizamon line in general, as it is now a brawny, brutish fighter that prides itself on its muscles and armour. It generates a forcefield that nullifies physical attacks against it, and it prides itself on being able to tank and defend attacks before counteracting. It's a neat monster design. I am legitimately unsure about how much I like it as an evolution of Lamiamon, but I do like it enough on its own merits. 

 7/10.

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Necromon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ghost
• Attribute: Virus

One of the main supporting characters, Violet Inboots (no, really) is partnered with a Ghostmon. I don't know enough about the Digimon TCG to understand if it's accurate to the games, but the way her deck is portrayed is a graveyard resurrection deck which is one of my favourite styles of TCG gameplay. Violet's Ghostmon evolves into existing Adult and Perfect-level spooksters (Bakemon, Soulmon, Phantomon, MetalPhantomon)... but receives a brand-new Ultimate ghost monster. I like this! We've got a lot of demons, devils, vampires, even skeletons in the Ultimate level but we're actually sorely lacking a big ghostly boss. 

Necromon is a typical fantasy 'lich', with a pretty cool skull-head that's lacking a lower jaw. It has four ghostly arms burning with pale blue flame, and is holding a giant blade that expands out into a crescent blade at the end. I love that the official artwork has it surrounded by a small cluster of Bakemon and Soulmon. Necromon walks around with a soul-trapping lantern, killing strong Digimon silently and absorbing their souls in its lantern and recording their names in its book, the Necronomicon. 

This would normally fall under 'okay, you look like a World of Warcraft raid boss more than a Digimon'. And that is absolutely true. On the other hand, I really do find giant over-the-top undead armour pimped out with fancy WoW armour and weapons to be cool and still quite fresh in Digimon!

 7/10, could be 8. 

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Dullahamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ghost
• Attribute: Data

Ghostmon's alternate Ultimate is Dullahamon. The official artwork is a bit cluttered, but it's essentially an adaptation of the Dullahan that often shows up a lot in Japanese RPG media -- a headless knight holding its own head. Dullahamon goes a bit further, having the knight be quasi-robotic, and the decapitated head doubles as the morningstar/flail that's attached to its robotic arm. Oh, Dullahamon's face also has a giant blade stuck to it. Floating on either side are two iron maiden coffins that are constantly emitting ghostly hands. 

I do find it quite cool! The lore notes that Dullahamon's head and body are linked by chains and appear to have a will of their own, and different Dullahamon might cooperate together while others have the 'rampaging head manipulate the body'. The ghost horse is called Coiste Bodhar, and presumably is a different entity as well. Those slain by Dullahamon ends up having their spirits trapped in the coffins.

Necromon and Dullahamon are both pretty cool overall, and it really is quite refreshing to be talking so positively about what otherwise would be just 'humanoid knights'. We really don't get enough ghosts and spooksters!

 8/10.

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Maquinamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Composite
• Attribute: Data

So of course any self-respecting 'investigate the problems in the Digital World' storyline needs to have an artificial creature going around running amuck. Especially if you're in a very video-game-y setting! It is ironic because BEMmon of Digimon World 3 fame is actually one of the partner Digimon in Liberator and received its first significant role in over two decades. But the strange glitch in this case is Maquinamon here. 

And the concept of this creature is one that I didn't care for initially, but has grown to really appreciate after seeing its evolutionary lines. Maquinamon is split right down in the middle, with its right half being a generic fuzzy cat-like Digimon that wouldn't be too far off if I call it an off-brand Tailmon; while its left half is a robot version of that. The details are paralleled nicely, and Maquinamon's even got two different tails -- its mechanical tail being a little plug-jack thing. I like that!

I like the profile that cyborg Digimon are not uncommon. Very common, in fact, in the Digimon world. But instead of a cyborg like MetalGreymon or Andromon where the metal parts are grafted onto flesh; or the more 'clean' ones like RizeGreymon and Styracomon where the metallic parts look more like armour, Maquinamon is bizarrely split right down the middle. It is a Digimon of unbalance, and ends up not showing much emotion or hostility towards those around it. Its unbalanced nature also means that its attacks end up being quite weak, and its dual-property 'bubble' attacks are noted to be equivalent to that of the baby Digimon! 

Its technorganic nature actually makes it energy inefficient, making it only skillful to hunt food and consume food... something that feels like it's referencing real-world cancer cells without being explicit about it. Maquinamon is noted to be able to change its physiology by taking in data from its surroundings, and is extremely omnivorous regardless of its habitat. Maquinamon is all right, a little weirdo and an okay design, but I like what they did with its evolutions. Its two branching evolutions. 

 7/10.

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Mulemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Machine
• Attribute: Vaccine

So the first evolutionary line for Maquinamon is... a robot dog! And I think this is a pretty fun gimmick going on both sides. So the 'vaccine'-attribute evolutions for Maquinamon are all completely mechanical robots... but are shaped like animals! That's a really nice way to design two different evolutionary lines that still feel like they tie to the concept of a half-organic, half-mechanical design. Beast Machines!

Mulemon is probably supposed to be a 'mule' more than a dog, but that's what I see out of the design. Or maybe that's just because there was a period of time where robot dogs were everywhere. I find it interesting that there seems to be two 'faces' on this creature, with the obvious main ehad with the syringe/rocket upper jaw; and a second head on the torso with Maquinamon's eye on the side. I like the blade-tipped feet as well. The little lightbulb tail, exhaust vents and exposed wires are also quite neat. 

Mulemon is noted to look fragile at first but is actually very sturdy and possess the balance and mobility to go through rough terrain. While not seen in its official image, Mulemon also has a bunch of extendable robotic arms, which it uses to grab objects and place them on its back... which is where the 'mule' part comes along. While the Liberator manga portrays Maquinamon and its evolutions as being unnatural invaders, the official profile notes that Mulemon just exist in the digital world as a 'courier Digimon'. Being a robot, however, Mulemon often only travels along a set route in a straight line no matter what... and also will violently remove anything in its way. 

I like it. It's a fun looking robot! Robots shaped like animals aren't anything new (we've even had a couple in Digimon) but taking into context everything else around Maquinamon, I do like this. 

 7/10.

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Mockingbirdmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Machine
• Attribute: Vaccine

The machine-themed Perfect-form for Maquinamon is Mockingbirdmon, which is a robot shaped like a bird. I appreciate that the designs are allowed to look like different animals! Going through some of the lines that I didn't like so much is when the Adult and Perfect forms are just 'transition phases' for the little dragon to be a big dragon -- something that doesn't really make for particularly memorable intermediary forms. 

Mockingbirdmon is noted to merely look like a bird, but the central 'head' is actually that eye on the base of the bird's 'neck'. In fact, all five of its limbs are actually 'arms', with its main head, its two wings and two talons being able to serve the same function. Mockingbirdmon actually makes use of people thinking it's a regular bird, and alternates between using its various five tentacle arms as either shooting lasers or functioning as restraining tentacle-talons. That's why the 'wings' appear to be energy projections of some sort. That's cool! The mental image of this thing swooping in like a bird, and then swapping the functionality of the limbs like a madcap octopus is really fun. 

Mockingbirdmon's two giant orbs are 'search eyes' that function as radars. Like the mockingbird it's named after, Mockingbirdmon also engages in mimetic behaviour, mimicking the sounds of Digimon it has heard and using it to confuse its prey. I like this one a lot, too -- it really feels weird! 

 8/10.

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Metatromon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Machine
• Attribute: Vaccine

The Ultimate-form of robotic Maquinamon and the main big bad of Digimon Liberator is this guy, Metatromon. We've run out of dominions, powers and thrones throughout the various Angemons that has been released over the years, so we're moving to specific named angels. The mighty Metatron occupies a different role in Jewish mythology as the celestial scribe. Originating from the Apocrypha, there are lots of debates on whether Metatron is a 'true' angel or not in mythology. And this has led to Metatromon here being also an apocryphic, artificial angel digimon. In that it's a robot angel!

Have we had a robot angel before? With the two dozen Angemons out there, I am surprised we never got a MetalAngemon or any such cyborg ones! That's actually quite cool, and Metatromon's similarity to angel Digimon without having holy power and status is actually noted in its profile. Metatromon is noted to be a machine Digimon in its core, and has prided itself to reach the level of angelhood while still being a machine. 

Metatromon's entire body is filled with robotic eyeballs, which run across its wings and 'feathers', its limbs, and even the circular palms of its robotic hands. The bio describes every single one of these eyeballs as being able to shoot lasers and creates forcefields, making it super-powerful in battle. The actual final battle in Liberator ends up being a card game due to the nature of the manga and so we don't really get to see Metatromon do a lot of actual eyeball-attack stuff, but with how much I've expressed my disdain about them churning out Angemon after Angemon without any of them feeling like they add anything, this is a very refreshing and cool one. I like it! 

 7/10.

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Turbomon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Beast
• Attribute: Virus

While 'machines that look like animals' are common in fiction and we see them in real life a fair bit too, the other side of Maquinamon's evolution is a bit more interesting. These are organic beings that look like machines instead, and Turbomon here is some kind of strange, rodent-like mammal... but its body layout is shaped like a racing car, or perhaps a Crush Gear. Anybody remember Crush Gear? 

Turbomon's a pretty interesting design, having wing-like protrusions. The beard looks like the front pars of a F1 car, and those blue colourations and red/yellow highlights are pretty striking. The 'wheels' around its three-clawed feet are described as shell-like organic protrusions, which is can spin around and is described as being particularly strange to see on an organic animal. I would bet! 

This is absolutely a bit more unnatural than how Mulemon and Mockingbirdmon felt more like cool robot animals. In these organic-vs-mechanical stories, usually the organic side tends to be the good guys and the mechanical tend to be portrayed as something unnatural, but here I can see why the 'virus' attribute was assigned to the Turbomon stream of evolution. They do look a bit more unnatural and somewhat more unnerving. 

Turbomon isn't described to be particularly evil or aggressive, though, with its bio being more intent on talking about its abilities to maneuver like a vehicle that can instantly respond to an organic brain's thoughts. Also, Turbomon can still walk around on two legs like Maquinamon, but it has adapted so much to being a rat-car that it prefers to move around like a car. Okay! It's not my 'type' of design, but I appreciate the creativity. 

 7/10.

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Maneuvermon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Beast
• Attribute: Virus

The evolution goes airborne, and Maneuvermon is an organic shark-bird-dragon thing that behaves like a fighter jet. This type of design, I feel, I've seen a bit more often in fiction compared to Turbomon. Latias and Latios from Pokemon come instantly to mind, but the streamlined shape ending in a shark head does remind me of a lot of other Armour Digimon. Maneuvermon is a nice, colourful one, though, and I like those ribs/gills-like details on its underside that try to emphasize that this is an organic creature. It's got feathers at the end of its wings, and we can see talons both pointing forwards like missiles. They shoot lightning bolts! When Maneuvermon needs to land, it has recessed talons that function like landing gear in real jets.  

The colours are admittedly a bit eclectic, but I like the non-traditional colours. Dark blue, yellow, orange and teal all serve as secondary colours to white without any of them dominating, and that does make for a memorable silhouette, if a slightly messy one.

Maneuvermon is described as having 'bone-hard-wings', and has 'jet-engine-like organs' to fly. It also has a 'cockpit organ' on its neck to carry humans or smaller Digimon. Maneuvermon likes flying its friends around... but they don't like it as much since they have to enter the cockpit through the mouth. I like that bit of nice inconvenience, and I actually think it is a bit more realistic as a 'speculative alien biology' that it doesn't actually have a cockpit segment that can be lifted up.

It's not an easy task to make an organic creature that looks like a machine, and while I'm not super in love with Turbomon and Maneuvermon, I can respect what they are. 

 7/10.

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Dalphomon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Beast
• Attribute: Virus

Unfortunately, their final form is... just a big lion monster. Dalphomon draws its name from the angel Sandalphon, an angel associated with gathering prayers. Where Turbomon and Maneuvermon do a decent job at being a beastly dragster and a jet respectively, Dalphomon is just... it's a huge lion with braids, a bunch of wings, and a bunch of tails, and a metal mask. It's still somethiing we don't quite see as much of in Digimon, but other than the huge missile on its back there's nothing that really ties Dalphomon to the theme of the rest of the Maquinamon line. I suppose the fact that it's a 'beastly' angel to contrast Metatromon's 'humanoid' angel?

Anyway, Dalphomon is an angel that values the elegant physical forms of beasts, and believes it can ascend by taking in pure data from other angels or holy beasts... and it despises cyborgs that modifies their bodies. That's a bit of an interesting twist and I honestly wish that some fiction in the future would actually play a bit more on this organic-vs-machine conflict. It has been something brewing in the back of some of the classic bios of the 'Metal Empire' Digimon that many Digimon are utilizing cyborgification for power-ups, but it's never actually been explored in actual fiction as digivolutions tend to just be a bright beam of light and an instant change. 

The plotline introduced is interesting and Dalphomon is at least a nice looking holy angel lion. It gets points for novelty if nothing else, but I felt it could have been more. 

 6/10.

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ExMaquinamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Unique
• Attribute: Data

Of course the two fuse. I'm not even mad about that, because while it doesn't quite go to the epic levels of Ordinemon before it, or even other fused creatures like UltimateChaosmon, ExMaquinamon fuses the mechanical eyeball wings of Metatromon and the organic, feathered wings of Dalphomon together. At the center of it is a humanoid angelic body with a whole mass of details, which does admittedly make ExMaquinamon a bit less interesting to me -- I'd much have preferred the design to just be the two fused wings, and then just the red/blue mask with eyes and the extra greebles. With the so-called 'biblically accurate angels' being a fad in popular media in the last couple of years, I'm a bit bummed that their attempt at making a monstrous angel ends up with another humanoid core. 

The humanoid core is... is all right. It's a mass of purple tentacly flesh with a metal horned devil helmet, placed on top of a mask. I felt like it could've been more of a weird cyborg if this is a true fusion of machine and organic. 

ExMaquinamon is a being that can combine different kinds of data with its powers, something that can cause vast destruction. The main villain of Liberator wants to use it to reboot the world, which is nothing new in Digimon, but at least the source of the power has a fun theme of fusing two things that shouldn't be fused together. 

I feel torn about this one! I really like the wings and having it go back to the half-and-half theme of the original Maquinamon, but with the angelic themes of Metatromon and Dalphomon... but the central part really isn't doing it for me. It's still an impressive creature and I do appreciate it for what it is, I suppose. 

 7/10, could be 6.

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