I suppose it's about time to acknowledge V-Tamer, a manga that went into publication at around the same time as these Pendulum toys. V-Tamer ran for a pretty long time and featured a storyline that was more of an adaptation of the Digimon World video game more than the Adventures mythos, and featured its own protagonist -- a unique "mythical beast" Digimon called Veedramon, when the protagonist (also called Taichi, and also looks like Adventure's Taichi) has his Digimon evolve into a never-before-seen species. Veedramon would never appear in an anime show as of the time of writing, but Bandai would include Veedramon and his evolution AeroVeedramon pretty quickly within the "Wind Guardians" Pendulum, starring a bunch of plant-people and birds, which we'll cover here.Veedramon and AeroVeedramon sort of remained quasi-exclusive to the V-Tamer manga and the video games, but he would become the genesis of the protagonist of 02's main goggle-head's partner, Veemon... who we'll get to in good time. As a side-note, V-Tamer ran for a pretty long time, ending at around the same time that Digimon Frontier ended. For those keeping track at home, this manga started before the first anime, and ended after the fourth.
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Floramon
Yeah, we're jumping straight into a Child stage! Pendulum 4.0 Wind Guardians was a Pendulum that starred Biyomon again, but introduced Nyokimon and Pyokomon as alternate baby stages that Biyomon would claim as her own. Other than Biyomon, though, Pyokomon evolves into two alternate Child forms -- a fungus and a plant. And that plant is Floramon here. Floramon's a pretty neat-looking critter, I suppose, sort of a far friendlier, far more peaceful looking than Palmon (the 4.5 version of the V-Pet actually replaces Floramon and Palmon). And while Floramon does share a lot of design features common to Palmon, like the root-feet and the random lizard tail, I've always found Floramon to be a lot more boring. I do appreciate the contrast, though, and it's not until now that I notice that Floramon's red "hat" is meant to be her own flower petals, extended and folding as head piece. Those purple flower-hands are neat too, I suppose, but I feel that it's just kind of overshadowed by Palmon.Interestingly, Floramon is noted to have 'evolved from a reptile', and sees Palmon as a rival. Floramon's used in the anime as sort of a go-to civilian Digimon in multiple series, namely Adventure, 02, Frontier and Xros Wars. Floramon's shown up in a fair bit of stuff and games, though, and I've never really minded her. She's just sort of underwhelming, I guess, although definitely a fun little creature. Thanks to Adventure, I sort of associate Floramon with Delumon (Deramon?) almost exclusively. She's neat.
6/10.Mushmoon (a.k.a. Mushroomon)
Ah, a fungus boy! Mushmon (Mushroomon in the dub) here is the resident Virus-type Child evolution, and is the resident mischievous jackass to contrast against the likes of Floramon and Palmon. I used to just write him off as a simple "mushroom with a face and limbs" until I took a closer look at him for this review -- those little balls on his boots and arms are meant to be little spore balls, I think, which explains why Mushmon's attack involves creating little eyeless grinning baby mushroom people to then blow themselves up at the enemy! Apparently, these little baby mushroom demons contain a mixture of laughing gas and some compound that makes you lose your memory. Spooky!
I've always under-appreciated Mushmon here, I feel. Initially a very short-lived minion of Pinocchimon's (and everyone in this Pendulum not called Griffomon and not affiliated with the Chosen Children is a Pinocchimon minion, basically) in Adventure, Mushmon would end up showing up as either a jackass civilian or an antagonist in 02, Frontier and Xros Wars. Anyway, Mushmon is kind of a fun and simple little mushroom boy, I think -- nothing too special to write home about, but a neat enough design anyway for a Child-level.
6/10.Kiwimon (ft. ChibiKiwimon)
So the theme for "Wind Guardians" are plants and birds... and Kiwimon is both! Hell, in the original V-Pet he appears in, Kiwimon is exclusive to Floramon, and you can't get the actual bird, Biyomon, to turn into a Kiwimon. Over the years Kiwimon's been attributed to both bird and plant Child-level Digimon alike, and can evolve into bird and plant Perfect-level Digimon, which I've always thought was charming. And for what's easily a simple bird Digimon, there's something about Kiwimon that always struck me as unique. Maybe it's the bony bird-skull helmet it's wearing (is it even a bird underneath it?). Maybe it's the joke of the kiwi fruit and the kiwi bird that informs its main body. Maybe it's the fact that it shoots little baby clones of himself to blow up. The little birds (always loved how they are displayed in the Bandai art) are explicitly identified as ChibiKiwimon, an actual species and not just a brainless mushroom like Mushmon! Although the Bandai profile notes that the ChibiKiwimon tends to survive to limp away from exploding, we've never actually seen this in the anime.Kiwimon's Bandai profile makes the fruit-bird's real nature explicit, noting that it's a bird... but it can't fly and has the makeup of a plant type, able to perform photosynthesis with its leaf-hair. Kiwimon is introduced as one of Pinocchimon's many minions, and was actually the subject of an ethical debate between Sora and Yamato on whether to kill the bad guy that's obviously fucking with them. Interestingly, the argument isn't even a "thou shalt not kill" situation, but when it's appropriate to kill an enemy -- after you get all the information you're required from them (Yamato's brother Takeru was missing at the time, and Kiwimon's the only one nearby, or do you kill them off when you realize they're not going to be helpful? Damn, these kids are cold. Kiwimon would appear again in 02 as the evolved stage of a Floramon partnered with one of the international Chosen Children; in Tamers as a jackass that bullies Lee's little sister; and in both Savers and Frontier as civilians. Anyway, I've always loved Kiwimon's pretty minimalistic look ever since I've seen him in the anime, and the whole plant-bird lore is just a bonus. Kiwimon's sort of the fun sort of monster that simultaneously looks like a simple animal, but also has surprisingly so much going on that I really do end up liking him.
8/10.Woodmon
Woodmon doesn't look all that impressive, does he? He honestly looks -- and serves -- more like a generic enemy Digimon, sort of like Evilmon next week. Tough enough too look like it's going to present a challenge, but far, far less impressive than the other plant Adults like your Togemons and your Shurimons. I do like it for what it is, though, neatly communicating a dead-stump monster pretty well. Always loved the fact that he has four root legs, two giant broken-stump arm, and two smaller humanoid arms. The Bandai profile notes that Woodmon's sort of like the plant monster version of a praying mantis, staying still before jumping and feeding on whatever comes by. Woodmons first appear as generic soldiers of the Pinocchimon forces, and they end up serving as minor antagonists in 02, Tamers, Frontier and Xros Wars. Overall, while I don't have a whole ton to say about Woodmon relative to everyone else in this page, is honestly a fun little dead-wood monster. Those two sets of hands really do it for me. 8/10.Jyureimon (a.k.a. Cherrymon)
So while in the Pendulum games Jyureimon here (Cherrymon in the dub, with jyurei literally meaning "age of a tree") is a possible Perfect evolution of either Woodmon or RedVegiemon, the franchise tended to have Jyureimon be Woodmon's default evolution, with a scene devoted to a group of Woodmon evolving into a group of Jyureimon in Tamers. Jyureimon is a pretty damn awesome-looking giant tree, and it of course plays on the common fantasy trope of Ents/Treants/Ancients/Treefolk depending on which vaguely-Tolkien-based tree-people term you prefer. While at a glance Jyureimon's just a tree dude, there are a fair amount of details that really stand out for me -- the six different-sized wooden arms, the little walking stick, and the fact that his eyelids are vertical. Jyureimon, of course, is described as an ancient being with extreme intelligence and power (despite it taking around like five seconds to evolve it from a dumb ol' opportunistic predatory stump of wood), and Jyureimon's profile describes him not as a kind, gentle Ent like Treebeard of Lord of the Rings fame, but rather more like the mysterious lord of a haunted forest, creating a fog that generates illusions to tempt its prey into the forest depths, and then using its roots and vines to trap the opponent and drain them of nutrition. Spooky!While the trope of "wise old tree-man mentor" is played straight in Savers, where a Jyureimon was the guardian of a group of weak forest Digimon, most of the time Jyureimon ends up being properly cast as a villain. 02 and Frontier basically had Jyureimon be rampaging tree monsters, but perhaps one of the neater usages of Jyureimon is in Adventure, where a mentally-confused Yamato is approached by this kindly old tree-person who offers advice... and ends up turning Yamato against the other Chosen Children with honeyed words. Jyureimon is, of course, an agent of the arc villain Pinocchimon... and while discussing the Chosen Children with the mad puppet, Jyureimon ends up getting killed for daring to suggest that Pinocchimon might lack something that the Chosen Children have. I've always remembered Jyureimon to have a way bigger role than he actually did, honestly.
Last but not least, I'll acknowledge the old Digimon World video game's version of Jyureimon, an NPC in Misty Forest whose allegiance you'll need to properly transverse through the titular misty forests. Interestingly, though, whether official art wasn't available at that time, or Digimon World was where Jyureimon debuted in, he looked like this. No beard, no arms, different tree, stapled-mouth... Weird! Anyway, regular Jyureimon's pretty dang neat for an old tree-person.
8/10.RedVegiemon
7/10.Blossomon
Ah, this dude! While I praised Palmon, Vegiemon and Togemon for subverting what a traditional plant monster looks like, we did eventually get a proper "Piranha Plant" style plant monster, but Blossomon is such a pretty dang cool plant monster! A gigantic colourful flower with a zig-zag shaped mouth and those fancy eyes, with an octopus-like body made entirely of vines? Five of which end up in smaller chomping flowers that act as arms, and can be thrown around like shurikens? Blossomon here was the default evolution of Togemon and Kiwimon in the 4.0 Pendulum game (Lilimon wasn't introduced until the updated version), and it's served as an enemy Digimon in many, many series! Adventure didn't grant Blossomon much screentime beyond a brief cameo, hanging out with Mushmon in Pinocchimon's house... but 02 recognizes the real potential of this plant monster and had her be a villain of the week, one that ended up triggering the evolution of Silphymon. Blossomon was also an enemy in Savers... which revealed that it can fly by helicoptering its vines and petals. WHAT THE HELL! Blossomon was also briefly seen in Xros Wars and a pink-flower variant was a villain-of-the-week in Hunters. Blossomon's honestly a pretty neat monster plant, and a very appropriate Perfect-stage monster, honestly. The official Bandai profile notes that Blossomon is apparently very gentle and shy despite looking like a goddamn serial killer, which I thought was interesting. Anyway, one of the cooler monster plant in the franchise.
10/10.Deramon (a.k.a. Delumon)
My reaction to this dude was "wait, this dude's a Perfect"? Deramon (pronounced Deramon in both the original Japanese and the dub, but sometimes romanized as "Delumon" for some reason) is introduced as Floramon's buddy as two members of Pinocchimon's army that's just too damn scared of all the bodies dropping left and right and doesn't want to be next. And Deramon's honestly almost exclusively seen as civilians either running away from danger or hanging out in settlements in 02, Frontier and Xros Wars, which I've honestly always thought was a bit bizarre. And the fact that Deramon's a Perfect-type just makes me even more confused, honestly. This is the same level as the likes of badass monsters like Vamdemon, Garudamon and MetalGreymon! But no, this little peacock carrying around a giant shrub just wants to look prim and proper with his crown and his snazzy bowtie. It's certainly a fun-looking creature, if nothing else, and tends to be noted as Kiwimon's default evolution, being a plant-bird Digimon that can't fly. It's... it's okay, I guess, but as much as Deramon looks all prim and proper, he was never really that memorable to me.
3/10.Gerbemon (a.k.a. Garbagemon)
Our next Perfect-level Digimon that we're covering is Gerbemon (or Garbagemon in the dub), which is... a Perfect-level Digimon made entirely of garbage! This dude tends to be characterized as the evolution of Sukamon and his variants, and I'm just bemused to find out that he's considered in the same group as all those pretty-looking plant and bird monsters. I've never really liked Gerbemon all that much, though, finding the main pink goblin body to be a bit too amorphous to really embody garbage. But there's enough going on with Gerbemon that honestly looks neat, like the banana peel hair, the trashcan lid shield, and best of all, that bazooka made up of empty cans. Sure, Gerbemon still shoots poop out of that bazooka, but as Adventure shows, poop unleashed from a bazooka wielded by a Perfect-level still does a fair bit of damage to anything that's not also a Perfect-level.Interestingly, though, Gerbemon in Adventure ends up being a hidden badass. While Lilimon and MetalGreymon, fellow Perfects, were able to take down a couple of the Gerbemon, the last surviving one picks up his trash can, and reveals that the entire goddamn thing is a miniature black hole. What? Why? How? It doesn't matter, but that damn Gerbemon almost kills some of the Chosen Children if MetalGarurumon didn't get a cheap shot in and kill the dude. Not bad for a poop monster! Even the Bandai profile notes how the "balance of power" will change now that the trash monsters have their own powerhouse. Overall, not my cup of tea, and definitely not as charming as Sukamon or Numemon, but I do appreciate the effort.
4/10.
Griffomon (a.k.a. Gryphomon)
Griffomon here can evolve from many bird-type Perfects like Garudamon, Deramon, as well as AeroVeedramon and Parrotmon who we'll cover below. Also Blossomon for some reason. Nowadays it's gotten a dedicated Perfect-level, Hippogriffomon. Griffomon here is one of the three possible final Ultimate levels alongside Pinocchimon and Rosemon, and it's... it's neat, I guess? I've never been quite as impressed with Griffomon. It does look like a pretty fierce griffin, mind you, with the bat wings and the metal helmet. And I've always loved how he's got a grinning snake tail. It replicates the general look of a griffon (with a bit of a chimera thrown in) pretty neatly with the Digimon aesthetic, and I can definitely respect that. Griffomon never really ends up doing anything significant in the animes, though, first appearing alongside many other Ultimate-levels in Tamers as a group of minor recurring characters, then showing up alongside a bunch of other Ultimates just to get killed in Frontier by the Royal Knights. Poor Griffomon! Anyway, I don't really have much to say about her here. She's cool. 5/10.Pinocchimon (a.k.a. Puppetmon)
The Virus Ultimate-level Digimon in "Wind Guardians" is... a demon marionette? Wow, I've never quite realized just so bizarrely weird that is. In a series that's mainly plant and bird monsters, the final evolution ends up being a wooden puppet. Which I suppose sort of makes sense -- puppets are made up of wood, I guess, and Pinocchimon here (renamed Puppetmon in the US presumably to avoid copyright issues with Disney?) is apparently carved out of the cursed wood of Jyureimon.And... and Pinocchimon's my favourite villain in Adventure. Devimon, Piemon and Vamdemon are all cool, don't get me wrong. And Mugendramon gets the "coolest looking motherfucker" medal. but if you ask me who my absolute favourite villain is? Pinocchimon easily takes the cake, eats it, and likely shoots you in the face after eating said cake. See, throughout Adventure we've seen sadistic, cunning villains like Vamdemon and Piemon. They have some flair and hamminess, but their train of thought ends up being pretty simple and villainous. We have methodical villains like Devimon, MetalSeadramon and Mugendramon, who just go straight for the throat. And we've got Etemon, a bombastic egomaniacal thug. But Pinocchimon? Pinocchimon's just a full-blown psychopath, a sadistic little shit who treats everything like a game. Pinocchimon is the second member of the Dark Masters that the Chosen Children face, and the one that takes the longest to defeat. And he was portrayed in such a jarringly different light than the previously-faced MetalSeadramon.
No, instead of sending his troops out to kill and kill and destroy and halt, Pinocchimon lives to 'play'. But playtimes for Pinocchimon involves kidnapping the youngest member of the Chosen Children, little Takeru, and play hide-and-seek in his house. Oh, and Pinocchimon straight-up has a gun while doing this, with the intentions as to what will happen if he finds Takeru being quite clear. He teleports the Chosen Children around in the forest and sends Jyureimon to turn Yamato against the other Children for no other reason than he could, and he racks up a high bodycount of his own minions as high as the heroes did. Sometimes for the simple insult of suggesting that Pinocchimon doesn't have enough friends. Hell, one of the moments that made Pinocchimon actually furious and starts to take things seriously is Takeru refusing to play with him.
And the Adventures anime does such a marvelous job at communicating Pinocchimon's expressiveness, with his black-rimmed eyes and little clackety mouth going from a creepy serial killer to unnervingly "friendly" pretty quickly. Throw in his personality that really, really confuses what 'games' and 'playtimes' are, and that ends up as his downfall. Pinocchimon ends up alienating all of his troops that eventually he was left alone -- even though he actually does want to have friends, but reacts violently (and murderously) whenever anyone, like poor Jyureimon, tries to second-guess him. And unable to really realize that the supposedly-turned-to-darkness Yamato actually has feelings and not just a piece on a game board, Pinocchimon ends up meeting his end for the simple reason that he doesn't try to understand other people's feelings or try to make real friends. It's not actually pointed out properly in the show, but I do like how Pinocchimon's got the highest rate of minions that actually turn or betray him, whereas Piemon, MetalSeadramon and Mugendramon's minions are all loyal to them.A different Pinocchimon appears in Xros Wars and its sequel Hunters as something of a bit of a crybaby and a bit of a loser, who ends up gaining self-confidence after befriending the heroes. Not a bad take, but kind of overshadowed by his pretty damn awesome Adventures counterpart.
And let's talk about that design, yeah? Look at just how rickety Pinocchimon's limbs look, and I've always loved the fact that all four limbs are connected to a wooden cross that people tend to use to control real puppets. I've already talked about Pinocchimon's sinister-but-expressive eyes and mouth, but that Pinocchio nose also doubles as a drill, apparently, which I've always found to be pretty cool. Oh, and his favoured weapon? A big-ass sledgehammer which ends in a revolver's barrel, so when Pinocchimon hits someone he also basically creates an explosion point-blank in his face. Yeah, I really, really love his design, really communicating the whole "creepy doll" vibe. What is it with dolls that make them so creepy? Anyway, I love Pinocchimon. Easily my favourite villain from the franchise, if the length of this review is anything to go by. 10/10.Veedramon (a.k.a. V-Dramon)
One of the Adult-stage Digimon available in the Wind Guardians virtual pet is Veedramon (or V-Dramon if you like hyphens and awkwardly-parsed names) here, a Digimon that has never appeared in the anime at all. That's because, as mentioned before, Veedramon was the manga-original protagonist of Digimon Adventure: V-Tamer, a manga that ran before the Adventure anime was syndicated. Veedramon here would be the homage of 02's protagonist, Veemon, although bizarrely Veemon got an all-new Adult-form created for him during the airing of 02. The actual Veedramon in V-Tamer, a Veedramon called "Zero", is your typical dumb-but-kindhearted anime protagonist. He's... inoffensive. Right now, he's known mostly to the Western fandom as "that one other Veemon that never shows up in the cartoons". As a dinosaur-dragon creature, Veedramon's a neat enough design, even though for the life of me I'll never understand the obsession that Digimon has with the letter V. It's neat-looking and does make the whole "dinosaur with a dash of dragon genes" deal work, even if it's a bit generic. I do really like the scars it has on its face, though. Apparently Veedramon gets mistaken for a dog a lot, which... eh what? Because of the rules of the V-Tamer manga, Veedramon can go through a brief Son Gohan style power-up where he gets a power boost when he's angry, surpassing the Perfect level because of
6/10.AeroVeedramon
So because Veedramon appaerntly has the genes of some mythical ancient dragon in his blood/code, Veedramon's subsequent evolution is this mighty AeroVeedramon, which is basically Veedramon with a few additional enhancements -- mostly the nice-looking bat wings, but also a bunch of metal plates and spikes grafted onto his elbows, shoulders and face. While more modern artwork tended to stylize AeroVeedramon a fair bit, I've always loved his original Bandai official artwork with its scary-looking arms, a more bestial set of proportions and a genuinely badass looking pose. I kinda wished that they did something more to make AeroVeedramon a bit more different than Veedramon, though.AeroVeedramon was one of the available Perfect-level Digimon in the "Wind Guardians" virtual pet, able to evolve from Veedramon or Birdramon, and then evolving further to either Griffomon or Hououmon. It's neat, although nowadays all the Veedramons are shunted into an alternate evolutionary line for Veemon. And thanks to their major role in Digimon's early days, the Veedramon line tended to be included in practically every game. Anyway, when you say "Veedramon", this is the first image that pops up into my head. I've always thought AeroVeedramon's pretty dang cool.
8/10.UlforceVeedramon (+ Future Mode)
Unfortunately, all that goodness can't last for long. Veedramon and AeroVeedramon were both introduced in 1999, and in 2002 AeroVeedramon evolves into his final, Ultimate form. Is it some sort of mighty mythical dragon, as Veedramon and AeroVeedramon's name has been foreshadowing? No. It's a dude in a Power Rangers outfit. What? I'm trying to not be too harsh to all the humanoid Digimon out there, and try and judge them on their own merits... but what? How does a fearsome looking beast like AeroVeedramon, who evolves from a dinosaur-dragon, evolve into... just an action figure. It's not even a WarGreymon situation where at least WarGreymon is feels like a humanoid rendition of Greymon and MetalGreymon. UlforceVeedramon (my god that name is a fucking mouthful) here doesn't really have much in common with his predecessors other than his colour scheme and a huge V on his chest. And I suppose that wing-cape, which tended to be portrayed to be more draconic in newer artwork.But jeez, UlforceVeedramon (yeeeah that name doesn't roll off the tongue) honestly just isn't my thing. His whole deal is that he's part of a prophecy that says a group of powerful Royal Knights will arrive when the Digital World is in a crisis, and the Royal Knights is a group that contains UlforceVeedramon, the earlier-reviewed Omegamon, and a lot of other oh-so-powerful holy knight Digimon. The rest of UlforceVeedramon's profile ends up just talking about how over-powered and how badass he is. At least that cape and that arm-mounted lightsaber looks somewhat cool. Apparently UlforceVeedramon is named after some mysterious power source called the "Ulforce". Okay? I dunno. I just don't like UlforceVeedramon at all.
The Royal Knights would appear mostly in video games, although various anime series and manga have featured them in various degrees. Outside of V-Tamer, UlforceVeedramon's appeared as part of group shots of the Royal Knights in Digimon Savers, and one of the few members of the Royal Knights to straight-up just do nothing other than stand around.
This second picture, by the way, represents "UlforceVeedramon: Future Mode", apparently one of the few "SUPER Ultimates" in existence, because the Ulforce is so powerful that it allows UlforceVeedramon to totally access this super-duper-awesome form that no one else in the franchise can access. Oh, and "Future Mode" is basically the exact same thing with regular UlforceVeedramon. Jeez. Yeah, this thing just doesn't appeal to me at all. Like, honestly taken on its own Ully here isn't the worst design ever, but I dunno. It's just not my style, the profile is just a highly exaggerated "what a badass" Mary Sue set of descriptions, the name is extremely super long, and we even get an unnecessarily super-powerful zero-creativity secondary mode thrown in for no reason. Just... just don't really like him at all.
1/10.Oh well, we'll close this one out with one bonus dude because he was released around this time period, and also a bird!
Parrotmon
As hilarious it is that a giant parrot kaiju exists in Digimon, I've always found this dude to be underwhelming, though. And they don't even do anything particularly interesting with the parrot concept. Parrotmon is just a giant bird with a pair of extra hands and a metal plate attached to its head and crotch, and while I know that real birds have weirder colouration than Parrotmon, I've always found him to be pretty bleh. His profile basically notes that he's a big, scary bird monster from a different digital world, and can shoot thunder. I honestly can't really bring myself to care a lot about Parrotmon at all, finding him pretty dang underwhelming. Sure, subsequent character models and artwork tended to make Parrotmon not quite as awkward-looking, but, again, it's a bird monster that always felt pretty minimal-effort. Oh, and it's Perfect-level, a fact that I completely forgot. I've always thought it was Adult-level. Honestly quite forgettable.
4/10.
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