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Poyomon
This time around, our resident Baby-I level is the absolutely adorable Poyomon, who may very well be my absolute favourite among the Baby-I Digimon (although Botamon and Pabumon are very strong contenders). There's just something adorable about this little blob jellyfish that just bloops along in the water. Apparently Poyomon is even far more primordial than most Baby-I digimon, and heralded as the solution of the 'missing link' of Digimon evolution? Can creatures born of data in a virtual world even have a proper real-world evolution? Anyway, I like Poyomon a lot. Poyomon is actually the Baby-I Digimon that has the most screentime in the Adventure anime, because everyone else only ever revert back to Baby II, whereas at one point in Adventure's run, Patamon straight-up DIES when he evolves into Angemon and brought down Devimon, the series' first Big Bad, and reverts back into an egg that hatches into Poyomon. Maybe it's that reason why I like Poyomon so much? I mean, I do like jellyfishes, too, I suppose, and having this non-aquatic jellyfish monster is actually a neat take on making a jellyfish monster.
7/10.Tokomon
Tokomon here, on the other hand, is probably my absolute favourite out of the original Baby-II forms that we were shown. Tokomon's default form isn't anything to write home about. It's very pleasing, with that cute :3 face, cute little fangs, four stubby legs and two fun antennae. It's cute, but it doesn't really elevate it beyond your Koromons and Bukamons and Mochimons. And then Tokomon opens its mouth and under that cute baby fangs is the most horrifyingly realistic maw of monstrous teeth. Something that is so hilarious and genuinely comes out of nowhere the first time I saw Tokomon in the anime. Also love that the two cute fangs are apparently vestigial and just hang in front of its gums. Especially considering how adorable it looks when it's in its default form, seeing Tokomon suddenly open its mouth and show off those multi-row fanged teeth just adds such a fun level of detail that separates Tokomon from so many of the other Babies. Hell, the anime definitely had fun with Tokomon's real teeth.
Despite this, though, Tokomon's as sweet as Patamon is in the anime, and not a gibbering angry beast like its appearance would make you think it is. A different Tokomon was also the star of the (frankly quite confusing) X-Evolution standalone CGI movie.
9/10.Patamon
Patamon's whole deal is that he's not that strong, but very loyal to his partner. And also has hints of latent holy power according to his profiles. Of course, this all leads to his eventual surprise evolution to Angemon, a humanoid angel that has nothing to do with Patamon's fat chubby hamster-bat deal. But back in the day, I actually found this to be a genuine surprise (well, as surprising as can be, considering the opening sequence pretty much spoiled everyone's Adult stages) and quite an oddity because it's a subversion. The other Digimon evolves somewhat similarly. The dinosaur-like Agumon evolves into a bigger dinosaur. The bug-based Tentomon evolves into a bigger bug. The plant-based Palmon evolves into a bigger plant. Patamon? This bat-hamster evolves... into a straight-up angel. Nowadays, though, most Digimon end up becoming humanoid superwarriors at around the Perfect stage, which makes this a lot less special.But Patamon's pretty damn cute, and it's easy to see why he was assigned to the youngest member of the team as the 'cute' one. Out of the original seven partner Digimon in the cartoon, Patamon is certainly the most obviously 'cute' one. Anyway, I like Patamon a lot. He's cute.
9/10.Angemon
Interestingly enough, Angemon isn't introduced in the same V-Pet as Patamon, and instead was part of the second V-Pet, meaning that originally Angemon was meant to evolve from Gabumon or Elecmon... and then evolve into SkullGreymon. Yeah, the original V-Pets were kinda weird, although, to be fair, Patamon isn't that much more angelic than Gabumon. Angemon was assigned as Patamon's evolution in the anime, and that, of course, stuck for the rest of the franchise. And while I've made my stance quite clear on what I think about the more "anime human" style of monsters... I actually like Angemon a lot! It's not just because he has hands-down one of the most epic evolution sequences and curb-stomps in the franchise's history, but the sheer execution of how desperate everyone was when they were held at the mercy of a souped-up Devimon that when Patamon finally achieves his Adult form, it's this glorious six-winged armoured arch-angel... and unlike most other humanoid Digimon, there's enough in Angemon's design that makes it feel a wee bit more "Monster" than just a dude in an angel suit. Part of it is just how gaunt Angemon looks, as well as those fingers that are just a bit too long to be unsettling without looking too grotesque. But part of it is probably the same love for metal bands and random metal studs on Angemon's body. Throw in that metal mask that covers only the upper part of his face, with a metal cross drilled in... I'm also always a big fan of the little gold emblems and tattered blue cloth on Angemon's form. Angemon's actually a pretty badass angel monster.Angemon's hands-down one of the most powerful Adult-level Digimon thanks to the anime, and Angemon has even been shown to hold his own against some Perfect-level Digimon in Adventure. In battle, he fights with a big-ass golden rod that sometimes gets converted into energy around Angemon's knuckle so he can one-punch things with all the fury of the heavens. Sadly, while Angemon will always hold a special place in my heart due to his role in Digimon Adventure, in subsequent series he's definitely been a lot degraded, treated as servants or minions of 'greater angel' Digimon, one of which is going to be a Patamon's Ultimate evolution that we cover below.
(We'll cover Patamon's new evolution in 02, Pegasmon, when we get to the armour evolutions since I feel those could end up being a theme of their own)
8/10.HolyAngemon (a.k.a. MagnaAngemon)
HolyAngemon (known as MagnaAngemon in the dub, because "Devimon" and "Daemon" are okay, but the word Holy was anathema, apparently) was initially introduced in the V-Tamers manga, a manga released around the same time as Digimon Adventure, but the anime staff would redesign HolyAngemon and... and it's quite a cluttered design, isn't it? HolyAngemon's got an extra pair of wings, and two pairs sort of wrap around HolyAngemon's body. There's also a long golden ribbon with glyphs that wrap around his body. Oh, and a huge purple semi-translucent face guard. And his left hand is entirely black with a weird purple arm-guard. And his right arm has a wrist-mounted LIGHTSABER. I've always thought HolyAngemon is way too busy, honestly, especially considering how clean Angemon looks despite having arguably as much random accessories. HolyAngemon does get an extra points in my book for having that badass lightsaber, though.HolyAngemon's official Bandai profile would note that HolyAngemon swaps around between his "Priest Mode" and "Battle Mode", depending on when it is required, so the idea of a holy priest that turns into a lightsaber warrior is actually not bad. "Priest Mode" seems to be HolyAngemon's robed appearance in the V-Tamers manga, but that form hasn't really been seen anywhere outside of that. HolyAngemon's main attack isn't just to use his lightsaber (called Excalibur, apparently) to stab people, but to create a interdimensional portal to suck villains in and seal them
HolyAngemon is also the last Perfect-level Digimon to be introduced in the Adventure series, appearing in the third-to-last episode where Takeru is literally the last hope to fight one of the final villains of the series, Piemon. Just like Angemon curb-stomping Devimon, HolyAngemon would absolutely curb-stomp Piemon. He wouldn't be quite as badass in 02, but still got some decent fight scenes here and there. Overall, I'm a lot less enamoured with HolyAngemon, and if we're going with design alone he'd easily score pretty low. But he does have a lightsaber, and had a couple of cool scenes in the anime.
5/10. boosted by anime appearances. Seraphimon (a.k.a. Seraphymon)
Seraphimon's biggest role for me, however, was as part of Digimon Frontier, the fourth Digimon series and taking place in a completely different universe than the Adventure stuff, where Seraphimon was one of the Three Great Angels that are basically rulers of the Digimon World. This Seraphimon basically acted as the quest-giver for the characters there, before being killed by the bad guys and turned into a Patamon. I don't have much thoughts about the Seraphimon in Frontier.
Anyway, Seraphimon as a design is... honsetly kind of m'eh. It's still somewhat pleasant to look at, and definitely looks more regal than Angemon and HolyAngemon. I also like the little detail of Angemon having six wings evolving into the eight-winged HolyAngemon, before finally achieving the ten-winged Seraphimon form. Seraphimon attacks by manipulating seven balls of light called Seven Heavens, and apparently can blow himself up and turn himself into a Big Bang? What? Seraphimon's design is... okay, I suppose, which is why he still gets a 2/5 rating. The blue and silver armour is inoffensive, and the weird full-face mask is at least different. But I've never really been of a fan of the weird cloth with writing dangling from Seraphimon's crotch, and, well, I guess he just looks... not glorious enough, but at the same time still cluttered? I don't mind Seraphimon, though, which is why he's still getting points. He's one of those designs that I'll acknowledge at least looks good and is aesthetically pleasing (and hence the points), but definitely not as attuned to my aesthetics as many other early Digimon.
3/10.Kunemon
Eyyy it's Kunemon. Kunemon is the resident "Virus"-type Child for the Tokomon V-Pet, and is another one that kind of got ignored in favour of the partner Digimon. I think Kunemon might get it a bit worse, because Digimon Adventure 02 would include another, far more high-profile caterpillar Child-level Digimon in Wormmon. I've always kinda liked Kunemon, although I've made my love for arthropods clear in this blog, haven't I? I've used a Kunemon as part of my party in various Digimon World games, mostly out of pity. In Digimon World, Kunemon is associated with the far more badass Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon as his evolutions, but eventually we'd see the genesis of Flymon, Kunemon's de-facto Adult stage which is... a lot less impressive than the other two. I do still like Kunemon for what it is, though. It's a striking combination of colours, with the combination of yellow, red, blue and black really making a striking bug and the black lightning bolts communicating that Kunemon shoots electricity far more clearer than Elecmon or Betamon. Really love the fact that he doesn't have eyes, only lightning bolt marks that look like eyes.I do like the very mean-looking beak on this thing, and the eyelessness (although he always has those lightning-bolt marks) always looks cool. I've always liked Kunemon in the visual sense, but it's a shame that, well, he's never really done anything in fiction. I think Kunemon had a brief cameo as part of Arukenimon's huge bug army in an episode in 02, and was a villain-of-the-week in Savers? Eh. I do like Kunemon from a visual standpoint, it's just a shame that the Digimon franchise never really gave him a chance to, well, do anything.
7/10.Unimon
From here on out it's a bunch of Adult-stage Digimon that were originally released in the same V-Pet as Patamon and Kunemon! And for the most part, my opinion on them is pretty much the same -- great takes on an otherwise 'typical' monster. Unimon, as you can probably tell, is based on a unicorn. That's about where the similarities end, though. Stapling on Pegasus wings onto a Unicorn isn't something new, as many fantasy games and worlds have done this, but in addition to having the tattered wings that most early Digimon are given, Unimon's head is just so bizarre, with freakishly long ears that look somewhat mechanical, and its face has a weird blue-visored red metal mask stapled on to it. And for some reason, Unimon's teeth is nothing like a horse's, and looks more at home with an animal like a dog or something. Also love the battle scars all over its body. It's a pretty cool design, and despite its ferocious appearance, Unimon actually plays a lot of the 'holy beast' tropes associated with unicorns and pegasi pretty straight, being a holy beast that tends to be aligned with goodness. Modern artwork tend to have Unimon shut his mouth to make him look a lot more heroic.Unimon's neat, and was one of the villains-of-the-week in both Adventure and 02, and thus pretty memorable to me since I watched a lot of both those series. Sadly, Unimon's one of those Digimon that feels somewhat ignored, never making an appearance in the anime after that, and never really getting a dedicated evolution or pre-evolution down the line. The original V-Pet, of course, had Unimon (and Centarumon below) evolve from Patamon, although it doesn't really make sense for a fat bat-hamster to turn into a horse. Patamon would, interestingly enough, get a pegasus-themed evolution in 02, making poor Unimon even more standalone. Oh well. I do like Unimon! He's cool, if somewhat bland.
8/10.Centarumon (a.k.a. Centalmon/Kentarumon)
Centarumon is a Digimon whose Katakana name has been translated in different ways, with the Japanese team flip-flopping between Kentarumon and the insanely awkward Centalmon, whereas the dub team decided to call this dude Centarumon -- a perfectly legit romanization of ケンタルモン. Centalmon sounds absolutely dumb, so I'll just go on with Centarumon in this review. While originally a possible evolution of Patamon in the V-Pet, Centarumon is another one of those Digimon who's just sort of a standalone Adult Digimon without any real 'official' pre-evolution or evolution. Centarumon is another Digimon that appeared as a villain-of-the-week in Digimon Adventure, interestingly enough lurking within a labyrinth. That's a minotaur, not a centaur, anime team! Centarumon surprisingly became a bit of a recurring character in the later arcs of Adventure, because he has a lot of knowledge from being a bit of a student of history. Centarumon would later appear in Frontier, Savers and Xros Wars as minor filler characters.But holy shit, if Unimon is a bizarre take on a unicorn, Centarumon is such an insane motherfucker of a centaur! Sure, it's got the basic body shape of a centaur nailed down -- upper humanoid body, lower horse body -- but the rest of him? His body is orange with these weird purple armour plates (according to his profile, those are secreted to the surface from the insides) grafted on to his body. He's got chains hanging down from his wrists, and his right arm can straight-up transform into a disturbingly organic "Hunting Cannon". His head is this metallic helmet with a single cylon-eye. And he's got exhaust pipes jutting out of his shoulder-blades... just because? And yet, somehow, all of these insane details stacked on each other never really feels too cluttered, especially in other artwork pieces that give him somewhat better poses. Apparently, Centarumon is insanely fast and powerful thanks to his exhaust vents and his transforming hand-gun, but is extremely fragile and runs out of energy very quickly. Yeah, definitely a huge fan of this one from a purely visual standpoint. What a crazy-looking motherfucker.
9/10.Orgemon (a.k.a. Ogremon)
For whatever reason, the official romanization spells this dude's name as "Orgemon"? Orge's not a real world, and the Japanese katakana oga is definitely meant to be Ogremon, so I'll refuse to look like an idiot and spell his name as Ogremon.Anyway, everyone who's watched Digimon Adventure will remember Ogremon as one of Devimon's two biggest lieutenants, being the archetypal brutish goon that hounds our heroes throughout a huge chunk of the original File Island arc. Ogremon is best defined by his rivalry with the noble Leomon, who ended up being mind-controlled by Devimon and utilized as another one of Devimon's top lieutenants. Ogremon would eventually return in the final arc, being chased by minions of the Dark Masters, and it turns out that Ogremon is the lesser evil here. He was rescued by the Chosen Children, and this bit of compassion ended up turning Ogremon into a rude ally throughout the entirety of the series, a definitely surprising turn of events for me as a kid... and especially surprising that of all the villains they chose to redeem, it's the demonic-looking Ogremon that they did so. Ogremon would appear as minor enemies in Savers, Hunters and Tri, but none quite displayed the sheer personality that Adventure's Ogremon did.
Ogremon is, obviously, based on the Japanese Oni, which often get translated into 'ogre' or 'troll' in English before they sort of gave up and imported the term oni in popular culture anyway. And Ogremon's sort of a combination of both Western and Eastern definitions of "ogre", incorporating a lot of elements of orcs and ogres in Western mythology into Ogremon's oni-based design. I do like Ogremon's design, embodying sheer brutish power as it mixes and combines basically every single trope associated with ogres, orcs, trolls and onis. Green skin? No clothing except for the leather pants and a whole fuck-ton of leather straps? A huge bone that serves as a club? Long arms and huge fists? Head-horns? Tusks? Muscles? Unkempt hair? A personality that's not quite stupid, but extremely violent and battle-hungry? Random bone-spikes on his shoulder? Ogremon's a pretty gruesome looking ogre, and apparently that bone was ripped off the body of a SkullGreymon -- something that's pretty impressive considering SkullGreymon's a full level stronger than Ogremon. Ogremon's attack, in addition to, y'know, being an ogre, is to shoot out a
In this original V-Pet, Ogremon evolves from either Patamon or Kunemon, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and then evolves into Andromon, which makes slightly more sense. Digimon would quickly introduce Goblimon (or Goburimon, as it was translated as for a fairly long time) as its default Child stage, but sadly doesn't have a dedicated Perfect stage, with WereGarurumon and Digitamamon often substituting as possible ones in video games. Oh well. Ogremon's pretty rad. Giant hulking brute monsters aren't my thing, but damn if Ogremon isn't a particularly great example of one.
10/10, mostly for Adventure's Ogremon.Bakemon
Bakemon (pronounced Ba-Keh-Mon, not bake as in baking a cake) is actually a pretty cool Digimon, and one of the most common recurring enemies in the original Adventure series. Bakemon is a spooky monster ghost that is supposedly a wicked being born out of darkness, and in addition to being, y'know, a ghost, also apparently 'possesses' computers and fuck up their systems a whole lot. It's a fun design, being a simple sheet ghost... but at the same time, the sheet is so raggedy, the eye-holes look so cool with the pinpoint yellow orb within the dark pupils, and that glorious fanged mouth is pretty neat! Apparently, according to the Bandai profile, a portion of the shadow underneath Bakemon's sheet has transformed into a black hole... which... yeah, that's a bit too badass for good old Bakemon. While we never really see Bakemon unmasked, its special attack Hell's Hand (apparently pulling its opponents to hell, although in practice it's just a shadowy hand) does show that apparently Bakemon has weird demonic hands under that sheet.In the original V-Pet, Bakemon is just one of the available Adult-level Digimon, but in some games -- most notably Digimon World -- the only way to get your Digimon to evolve into a Bakemon is to raise it so badly IT DIES, at which point there's a 10% chance it transforms into this ghost. In most subsequent games, though, it's not quite as morbid and Bakemon is just a possible evolution of many 'spooky' Child Digimon like Candlemon, Impmon and PicoDevimon.
In the anime, Bakemon was initially introduced as a one-off villain in a particularly spooky episode where they disguise themselves as monks in a monastery that kidnap the Chosen Children and prepare to straight-up sacrifice the kids to a bigger Bakemon... only for them to be beaten by Buddhist mantras. This Bakemon is the first Digimon in Adventure to straight up be killed instead of driven away or broken free from mind control, too. Later on, Adventure's most infamous villain Vamdemon (Myotismon to the dub people) would employ a literal army of Bakemon when he invades the real world, although these Bakemon end up honestly being pretty much fodder enemies that even some humans with sticks manage to actually beat up the poor Bakemon.
Bakemon's a very simple ghost monster, but honestly a pretty well-designed one. Most people overlook Bakemon because there are so many cooler monsters in the Adult-level department if you're in the market for spooky monsters, but I, for one, appreciate this little ghost minion. Bakemon's got a couple of genuinely cool Perfect-level evolutions in Phantomon and Pumpmon/Pumpkinmon, both of whom we'll cover much later.
9/10.Shellmon
Shellmon's easily remembered as the second enemy that the Chosen Children had to fight in Adventure, and I'm genuinely impressed by how this looks. Yes, Shellmon is a 'snail monster', but how many snail monsters out there have an inner body shaped like a weird dragon-dinosaur creature? Shellmon's based on the Sazae-oni, a mythological creature in Japanese mythology that is an oni rising from a turban shell, the same mythological inspiration for the Pokemon Slowbro. Shellmon's a pretty damn cool look, because instead of just being a simple slug or a hermit crab, it's this weird monstrous dinosaurian creature that still looks like it has the consistency of a slug. I think it's the way those fingers end in what appears to be suction pads that really sold me to Shellmon as a pretty interesting design. Throw in that insanely fun jagged fang-teeth deal, and the sea anemone that doubles as Shellmon's hair as well as a goddamn water cannon, and Shellmon's honestly a standout, at least for me, among these early beasts.Shellmons sadly don't actually appear a lot in the anime, only showing up a couple of times in Adventure and 02. It sadly doesn't really have much going on beyond that design, but it's such a fun blend of different animals and I'm honestly a pretty big fan. Not much else to say -- a very solid hermit crab slug dinosaur monster.
10/10.Drimogemon
Drimogemon is yet another standalone Adult-stage Digimon that doesn't really have any default pre-evolution or evolution set in stone, and is sort of lumped as a "alternate evolution, maybe" to many other less prominent Childs and Perfects. Drimogemon's a pretty simple monster design, I suppose. It's a giant mole, and it's also got a big-ass drill for a nose-horn. Oh, and all its claws are tipped in drills, too, which is a neat beat of detail I often forget. Drimogemons apparently like to steal the bones buried by Garurumon and then weaponize them as thrown projectiles, if the profiles are anything to go by. Drimogemon is a pretty simple monster, and nowhere as crazily derivative as Unimon or Centarumon. I'm not big on moles, but there's a neat bit of simplicity in Drimogemon's design. It's just a giant mole with drills. Drimogemons have shown up in Adventure, 02, Savers and Xros Wars as villains-of-the-week. Savers, in particular, had their Drimogemon antagonist materialize in the real world and end up befriending a bunch of thieves and helped them to rob banks. My fondest memories of Drimogemon, I think, is from the Digimon World game where the Drimogemon are NPCs and mini-boss-fights in their own dedicated area, Drill Tunnel, and you need to help and/or beat the Drimogemon to access the tunnel to go around the world. Overall, a pretty solid, if boring, design. 6/10.Andromon
Andromon here is one of my favourite designs among the earlier Digimon. As my love for MetalGreymon and MetalGarurumon might've told you, I'm a huge sucker for robots! And Andromon would've gotten pretty high points if he was just a humanoid robot. But he's not! He's a goddamn cyborg, and he is always shown with the metal parts of his right feet and parts of his right arm somewhat decayed, showing the gross, semi-atrophied musculature beneath. Hell, that left leg even ends in some spiky clawed toes! Add that to the fact that you can see a bit of flesh underneath Andromon's skull-shaped helmet shows that, yes, this particular cyborg didn't quite get as clean a transformation from a flesh-being into a cyborg as Robocop.Andromon's design has always struck me as pretty damn cool, with the huge, chunky lower arms contrasting nicely with the sinewy upper arms (quite literally in the left arm's case), the long, tapering sharp claws, the skull-shaped helmet and the way it attacks in the anime -- Andromon was one of the few Digimon to consistently show two special moves in the anime, and both of them look cool! "Spiral Sword" involves him spinning his right arm so fast that it becomes a blade, and then it somehow slices the air and shoots a blade of energy at the enemy. "Gatling Missile" causes Andromon to shoot the same fleshy piranha-missiles that MetalGreymon shoots from its nipple-compartments. Andromon's profile noted that Andromon was the prototype for cyborg Digimon, developed alongside Ultimate-level Boltmon, and is the prototype for the technology behind MetalGreymon and Megadramon.
Andromon has been one of the more recurring characters in the different anime, first showing up in Adventure as the very first Perfect-level Digimon the Chosen Children encounter (as early as episode 5, I believe?) and is so powerful that he beat up two Adult-level Digimon effortlessly, leading to resident Knowledge-expert Koushiro to find an alternate way -- which is to strike the Black Gear controlling Andromon's mind. Andromon would return as a long-running ally in the Dark Masters arc, even personally battling against Mugendramon and Piemon... and somehow surviving, which considering the insane bodycount Adventure gets in its later stages, is pretty impressive. The same Andromon also make an appearance, mind-controlled again, in 02, although being a Perfect-level Digimon he ends up being able to break free from the control.
In Digimon Tamers, Andromon is actually elevated to partner status! Andromon ended up first being a local freedom-fighter, the only Digimon in a village to do battle against a vile Orochimon, and ended up inspiring the Tamers to help him out. Andromon ended up befriending one of the minor supporting cast, Hirokazu, before eventually becoming his partner... but after regressing into his Adult stage, Guardromon. Overall, Andromon's been a pretty cool dude! Even without his relatively huge-for-a-supporting-cast role in Adventure and Tamers, Andromon's already got a pretty decent design.
10/10.Giromon
Oh, this time the super-dense Perfect-level Digimon isn't a member of the Mamemon family, but we still do get a super-dense Perfect. Giromon, like the Mamemons, never really had any spotlight in the anime, only appearing briefly in 02, and honestly the biggest association I have with Giromon is a trading card I own of the dude, as well as him being an especially frustrating boss fight in Digimon World's factorial town. Giromon's design's pretty simple, just this metal sphere with the most glorious shit-eating grin on his face, devil horns, a thin metal arm holding a landmine and a weirdly muscular arm holding a goddamn chainsaw. I was definitely surprised to learn that Giromon was a Perfect-level as a kid, because he certainly doesn't look like it! Interestingly, despite Giromon looking for all the world like a villain, he's actually a Vaccine-type, and his profile makes it clear that Giromon is actually known as the "Net Keeper", sort of acting like the digital world's anti-virus program as it tries to repel any intruder illegally entering the network. Sometimes it gets so overboard with defending the network (I mean, it already carries a big honking chainsaw) that it blows itself up! That's dedication to your work, Giromon. Overall, I don't mind this little grinning dude, but most of the time I kind of forget he exists. 4/10.Sukamon & Chuumon (a.k.a. Scumon & Tyumon)
Ah, Sukamon.The bane of so, so many jokes! Even worse than Numemon, Sukamon was the big loser Digimon back in the day, because while Numemon is a sewer-dwelling slug that throws shit around... Sukamon is... a pile of shit. Yeah. Among all the 'bad evolutions' in Digimon, I think none quite embody "you fucked up" as much as your Digimon turning into a literal pile of shit with arms and the goofiest looking set of teeth that sometimes bisects Sukamon's entire body. The Digimon profile books note that Sukamon was born out of the scrap data from the Recycle Bin, whereas most other games have Sukamon be the default 'bad evolution', either doing double duty with Numemon or the two being different results of you taking care of your Digimon poorly in different ways. And... and honestly, once you get past the sheer ridiculousness of a living golden poop monster, Sukamon actually has a bit of a charm to it. The separated lower jaw, the random metal blobs and leather belts that Sukamon has on his arms... and it even has a little ugly-ass pink rat buddy hanging on his head!
Sukamon's more famous appearance in Digimon Adventure was trying to get a kiss from resident girly-girl Mimi, and later ended up being somewhat helpful before tragically dying offscreen in a moment that is absolutely played straight when our main cast of characters meet poor Chuumon alone. Man, I've never felt so sorry for a piece of crap before. Or, as the dub would have it, "lemon custard".
Speaking of Chuumon (sometimes romanized as 'Tyumon' even though the katakana is technically read as Chuu), this little pink rat definitely has a rather odd history! It's initially just another part of the detailing on Sukamon's official art, but the Digimon Adventure anime ended up having him be an actual character, and actually survive Sukamon's death and ends up making a heroic sacrifice in the final arc (yeah, the side-characters do this a lot). Chuumon's now recognized as an official Digimon, classified as a Child-level Digimon. It's interesting, because apparently Sukamon rescued Chuumon from a "Carnivore Program" (yeah, take that, FBI) and now the two of them are near-symbiotic. Chuumon is also the 'brains' of the group, often leading Sukamon to do far more mischievous and bad things than the pile of turd would normally do.I'm not the biggest fan of toilet humour, but Sukamon just takes it so freaking far that, hey, I can't help but find some charm to him. If nothing else, he's so ridiculous that the sheer absurdity of having a talking poop monster ends up looping around from being in poor taste to being just simply ridiculous. I also remember that there's a Sukamon-dedicated area in Digimon World, Trash Mountain, where it's filled with Sukamon, Numemon and their variants, ruled over by the biggest pile of shit ever, King Sukamon (Sukamon Dai'ou in the original Japanese), a big Sukamon with a crown made out of scrap metal. Overall, I... I don't mind Sukamon, as much as it surprises me to say this. He's a'ight.
5/10.Etemon
Just like how both Numemon and Vegiemon have their 'secret' evolutions in the original V-Pets, Sukamon's secret Perfect-level evolution is Etemon, which, of course, surprises me a lot more than either Monzaemon or Vademon did. To the uninitiated, Etemon is the second Big Bad of Digimon Adventure, appearing after Devimon and before Vamdemon, and I've always found it pretty hilarious that this deceptively dumb-looking Elvis impersonator orange monkey ends up being a bigger threat than Devimon. Etemon would have the shortest arc comparatively compared to the other Big Bads of Digimon Adventure (Apocalymon doesn't count as an arc) but for being a raucous, obnoxious shitbag of a villain, I was actually somewhat endeared by Etemon's appearances during his time as a Big Bad. He's not some megalomaniac with some long-running plan, he's not some huge tyrant... Etemon's just a dirty, nasty bully, plain and simple. And he's got the figurative muscle to beat down anyone who says otherwise, and controls an information network that allows him to extend his influence over Server Continent. And as much as Etemon gets shit from the fandom for not being a cool dark devil-man or vampire-man, I honestly never minded him. He's pretty hammy, and he beats up enemies by SINGING REALLY LOUD with his Love Serenade. (Sometimes he makes dark spheres that consumes anything it touches, which is a lot more impressive but a lot less fun.)Outside of Adventure, though, this self-proclaimed "King of Digimon" is more played up as a joke. In both the V-Tamers manga that ran alongside Adventure, as well as the far-later Xros Wars, Etemon's treated more as a joke villain. Ditto for the games. Which I suppose suits it better. I mean, Etemon isn't even a real monkey, if the stitches across its arms and the suit-like consistency is anything to go by. That kind of means that Etemon's basically the same thing as Monzaemon or ExTyrannomon -- he's a suit operated by a smaller Digimon inside. In this case, it's freaking Sukamon, a pile of crap. Huh! Considering that "shit-talking" is kind of a slang, I guess it sort of fits that Sukamon evolves into a boisterous, loud and aggressive bully that is thinks he is a superstar.
I do like the little detail of the little Monzaemon doll on its waist. As a kid, I thought Etemon killed Monzaemon off-screen and turned him into a doll (another big bad, Piemon, would do just that later on), but apparently they're just kind of good buddies, although the Bandai profile does note that Etemon "pulls Monzaemon's strings". Overall, I actually like Etemon a fair bit. Not because of his design, because it's honestly quite simple and bland, but because of the sheer ridiculousness of a crazy Elvis-impersonator rockstar monkey-suit, and the fact that out of so many Digimon they can pick from, they pick this one as the main villain for a portion of their series.
Rock on, Etemon. Rock on.
7/10.
Neat fact, King Sukamon got official bandai art. There is even a smaller Sukamon where chuumon would be!
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