But before we do that, we're going to have to go through the Metal Empire, the fifth and final Pendulum series toy. It's a machine-themed Virtual Pet, and both of the anime's most prominent Ultimate evolutions, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, which we covered so long ago, debuted in here.
________________
Choromon (a.k.a. MetalKoromon)
Our Baby I for this virtual pet is this cute little Choromon, renamed MetalKoromon in the dub presumably because "Choromon" and "Koromon" sounded too similar. I do like that it's basically a simplified computer mouse sans clickers, with little eyebrow antennae-horns and its tail even looking like a ripped wire. Appropriately for the simplest form of many other robotic Digimon, Choromon is acts like a very simple robot with photosensors that causes it to zip around in reaction to bright lights. I like it! It's one big anime moment is in Tamers, where a village of Tsuchidarumon was assaulted by a mysterious riderless motorbike (no, really) and our heroes end up trying to fight the motorbike only to find out that it was controlled by a little Choromon. It's cute and all right. Not much else to say beyond that. Perfectly neutral.And I must say that these neutral "5/10" doesn't mean that I hate the design. It's neat! A design that's like 5/10 is always something I find to be neat and likable in some way. Wait until (or if) we ever get to the post-Xros-Wars TCG glut of random anime boob girls to see just how brutal a "I loathe this" review is.
5/10.Caprimon (a.k.a. Kapurimon)
Interestingly, between the clearly-robotic Baby I Choromon and clearly-robotic Child-level options is this dude Caprimon, which... which is actually pretty pointedly not a machine monster, but a little mammalian cat/dog blob similar to the likes of Nyaromon wearing a metal hat. Apparently it is able to use those metal horns as antennae that receives radio waves? Its profile also notes that while it has a tail and mouth similar to a kitten or a puppy, it's actually bat-like, having weak eyesight and perceiving the world with ultrasonic wave. Definitely an interesting bit of detail! Caprimon never really had any real appearances as a major character in any of the anime seasons, and unlike most of the older Digimon it's one that I completely never remembered from old video game guides with profiles. The first time I've ever remembered meeting Caprimon was when I replayed through Digimon World: Dusk (Moonlight in Japan) when I genuinely thought it was the baby forms of one of the later-introduced Digimon. Anyway, it's pretty cute, and I do like the additional lore given to it.
5/10.ToyAgumon (& Black/Shadow ToyAgumon)
So interestingly, while "Metal Empire" is a mainly robot-themed virtual pet, we did get this adorable little Lego dude called ToyAgumon, a facsimile of the real Agumon created entirely out of Lego blocks. Or, well, trademark-friendly Lego blocks. It's a simple concept, but one that's done in such an adorable fashion, basically just a bunch of blocks arranged in a vaguely Agumon-like shape, with eye stickers placed on them. Perhaps my favourite bit of detail, however, is the fact that the flame that ToyAgumon shoots out is a little plastic fire-shaped projectile! That's adorable. ToyAgumon also apparently can harmlessly just fall apart into Lego when it is surprised. In the Digimon World games, ToyAgumon are among the common residents of Toy Town, a part of the Digital World that Monzaemon rules over. ToyAgumon is extremely common in video games, although it sadly doesn't get a proper Lego-themed Greymon to evolve into, either just evolving into a regular Greymon or into one of the robots here.
ToyAgumon's biggest anime role is in an episode of Frontier, where there is an entire castle full of those things, but part of the population are corrupted by the villainous Cherubimon into entirely-black ToyAgumon ("ToyAgumon (Black)" in Japan, "ShadowToyAgumon" in the dub). These black ToyAgumon act as the villains of the episode, corrupting their ruler Monzaemon into WaruMonzaemon, and the episode interestingly enough shows off the fact that these block-based can straight-up just combine with each other, Lego-style, to form tanks and giant robots to fight, which made them even cooler in my books. While they really could've stood to have more toy-themed evolutionary line, I'll always appreciate this adorable, colourful little buddy. 7/10.Kokuwamon
Kokuwamon here is a very interesting little bug robot! While it's initially meant as a generic robotic Child-level that can evolve into a lot of other robotic or mechanical Adult-level, it is obviously meant to evoke Kuwagamon, and has in many video games been treated as Kuwagamon's Child-stage. And it's... interesting, for sure, because Kokuwamon here has been associated with insects and robots, making him a Digimon with many possible evolutions. I always loved how Kokuwamon's head is meant to resemble Kuwagamon's stag beetle deal, but it's also explicitly a taser! I love the little jet wings on Kokuwamon's back, as well as its funky arms, bringing to mind Tentomon's own "two larger arms, and two smaller arms" configuration... except Kokuwamon's smaller arms are little cable-connector ends! Adorable. Also, I've never really given it much thought, but is Kokuwamon the reason why so many bug Digimon have electrical powers? (Ironically, Kuwagamon tends to be the exception to this).Kokuwamon briefly appeared as a minor enemy in a Tamers movie, before showing up as an entire village in Frontier that needed to be rescued because they were enslaved by Snimon for their electricity-generating powers. In Xros Wars, the Kokuwamon are seen as part of a huge army of bug monsters, which is neat. While I am sort of sad that we don't actually get a full line of robotic beetle monsters, I actually end up still really liking Kokuwamon. It's a pretty great design on its own, this little taser-bug-robot with such a sad-looking expression that I can't not love this guy.
8/10.Hagurumon
I don't like to compare Pokemon and Digimon, because both of them have their own unique aesthetics, but Hagurumon is so much cooler looking than Pokemon's resident gear monster, Klink, doesn't it? Hagurumon simultaneously looks simpler yet more intricate in all the good ways, and I've always loved the fact that it's a big gear (that obviously has smaller gears inside) face with two tiny gears serving as hands. Oh, and those hand-gears can spin around like little buzzsaws! Also loved the little asymmetry going on with those eyes. Being a creature made up of gears, though, Hagurumon's official profile notes that if even one of those gears is missing, it just straight-up seizes up and dies. It's also interesting that the official profile notes that Hagurumon can send especially deadly computer viruses into its opponents and even manipulate them at will but while Hagurumon itself is just a robot that doesn't know any better, this ability ends up being manipulated by far more fiendish Digimon. Is this the low-key origin story of Devimon's mind-altering Black Gears? Interesting!
I've always really liked Hagurumon, and clearly the Digimon game makers do, too, because Hagurumon's shown up in a lot of video games, often becoming the basic go-to Child-stage for all robot Digimon. Hell, Hagurumon was one of the unlikely spotlights shown in many covers of the relatively recent game, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, the only non-anime-partner Digimon to do so. Two Hagurumon show up in Adventure as basically Mugendramon's "mission control" dudes, helping him monitor the happenings going on in Mugendramon's city. In Tamers, a Hagurumon and a Clockmon end up befriending our heroes, particularly Ruki, and that Hagurumon ends up going through such a whole deal of noting how he really wants a human partner to help him get stronger and evolve. Poor little guy! Anyway, I've always loved Hagurumon! He's an all right robot child.
8/10.Clockmon
Clockmon here tends to be the default evolution for Hagurumon thanks to the obvious gears/clocks connection, and I've always found it to be an interesting, if weird, design. The clock portion is pretty neat, if generic, featuring two mismatched robot arms, and a single eye in the clock face. Simple but not particularly interesting. So they decided to staple a humanoid half that just sort of pops out of the clock's top half, this weird humanoid with a hoodie, a stitched-up mouth, and holds a big-ass hammer for some reason. I guess it's meant to be a homage to old-school clocks that sort of have little figurines hammer on a clock gong? I dunno.
Clockmon, despite being a mere Adult-level Digimon, is characterized in his official profile as the protector of time, managing the time-space of all computer networks. Interestingly and a hilarious reference to the now-dated Y2K stuff, Clockmon can only advance and rewind time between 1900 and 1999. Clockmon's profile notes about how his power is so feared that if Clockmon ever chooses a side, that's going to be the end of the Virus/Vaccine conflict. Of course, in practice, Clockmon tends to just be treated as any other Adult-level Digimon, and he's not any more tougher than any other Adult in most of his game and anime appearances. While Clockmon's big anime debut was as Hagurumon's buddy in Tamers, very interestingly, Hunters made use of a variant of Clockmon that for whatever reason lacks the upper humanoid half as sort of an ominous character that just hangs out with the oh-so-mysterious shopkeeper that turned out to be the poorly-disguised Bagramon, the main villain from Xros Wars, who is trying to prevent the total collapse of space-time from Hunters' main villain, Quartzmon. In practice, though, this just makes Clockmon (who really looks weird without the human part, honestly) a lazy plot device to bring together previous series protagonists from their own realities to cameo in the final episode. 4/10.Revolmon (a.k.a. Deputymon)
Revolmon is characterized by the official profile as being a Virus Hunter, but loves gambling so much that he'll often go through an elaborate game of Russian Roulette, allowing his prey to walk away scot free if they survive the roulette. I was always sort of bleh about his episode in 02, where he and Starmon end up being rivals fighting over a Western-themed town, where Revolmon ends up being a bit of a weird subverted-pervert where he shows up to rescue the Chosen Children. But only the girls! What a pervert, right? Turns out, no, he just wants to play cards with the girls. Just because. Eh. Many Revolmon are seen throughout Savers, trying to defend the digital world from the invading humans, although all that earned them was being just sort of killed. Xros Wars straight-up turns Revolmon into a member of the supporting cast, joining the main characters' literal army (Xros Wars basically has the main characters trying to consolidate an army to fight the bad guys straight from the get-go) as they attempt to liberate the digital world from the Bagra Empire.
Revolmon is a design that never landed with me, although it's also kind of way too ridiculous for me not to like. Of course, depending on the dubbing team, they tend to straight-up just censor Revolmon because guns in a cartoon? Bad and how dare they! We must paint them purple and make the barrels glow yellow! Yes, because children are so unfamiliar with guns from the many, many other pieces of non-cartoon media to never censor them. While Revolmon never really gets a dedicated evolution or pre-evolution, I feel like the relatively new and obscure Gundramon is basically Revolmon on steroids, isn't he? Anyway, not my thing, but I don't mind him.
4/10.Tankmon
Tankmon here is a pretty interesting design, too! Instead of just giving a tank a face, they end up making Tankmon here both appear to be the tank, but also someone driving the tank, which is... actually pretty impressive. The fleshy camouflage-patterned humanoid body ending in a huge toothy jaw looks like a driver, but at the same time is clearly connected to the green metal parts (unlike, say, Gerbemon, who's clearly a separate entity from his garbage bin). There's a lot of fun details here, like the giant tank turret horn, the arms ending in even more turrets, little ammo ribbons, four treads, and even a secondary mine-sweeping 'face' on the front side of his tank. Hell, those eyes look like the scary eyes painted on the side of military vehicles, too, which is a neat little detail. Tankmon is noted to be a "Mercenary Digimon" that, despite its fearsome appearance, will side with villain or hero depending on the profit involved. And while its appearance in Adventure was indeed as minions of Mugendramon, and Xros Wars' Bagra Army employs large amounts of Tankmons, we've seen Tankmon joining the heroic side in Savers. Overall, a pretty badass looking tank monster. Always liked the over-the-top ridiculousness of this one.
8/10.Mekanorimon (a.k.a. Mechanorimon)
But, of course, we've got the very interesting detail of how the profile notes that Mekanorimon is a "Powered Suit used exclusively by tiny Digimon", and is unable to move on its own and can't do anything without a pilot. And while some of the robotic Digimon also tended to be noted to be pretty robotic (Andromon, Hagurumon and Choromon are all noted to be either soulless or not truly sentient), Mekanorimon is the only one that carries this trait into his fictional appearances. I've always thought that to be genuinely bizarre and unique to this dude here.
8/10.Guardromon (a.k.a. Gardromon)
Guardromon here has always been the most boring of Mugendramon's minions to me, but I guess that's just because Guardromon doesn't do anything funky like being a crazy over-the-top tank-military monster or a freaky mobile suit. Guardromon has a fair bit more steam-punk design mentality thrown in, albeit sans steam. He's a fun, chunky and honestly quite pleasant looking walking furnace that honestly contrasts a lot of the silver, high-tech look of a lot of the robot Digimon pretty well. Am also a big fan of the eyes peeking out through that visor, and I do love that it shoots a little bullet with arms and a whistle. Guardromon are used as minions of Mugendramon in Adventure and the Kaiser in 02, but its most memorable anime role was when it was a partner Digimon in Tamers.An Andromon that the Chosen Children there befriended and aided ended up partnering up with Hirokazu (just "Kazu" to the dub viewers), one of the secondary cast, and that Andromon devolved into the Adult-level Guardromon, which is his default stage that he spends the most time in. Tamers Guardromon doesn't do much or have a proper character arc, sadly, but I've always liked him! He just sort of keeps showing up and is a constant stable source of manpower that's not quite powerful enough to outshine the main heroes, but still quite enough to actually make a difference. I haven't rewatched Tamers in some time, but I'm 99% Guardromon never actually evolves into Andromon while partnered with Kazu.
In the official profile, Guardromon is apparently part of the computer network's security forces, hanging out with the Net Keeper Giromon to repulse viruses, which is why Guardromon's little missile buddies have a cop theme going on. Definitely a neat little robot, even if ultimately he's not my favourite design.
6/10.Thunderballmon (a.k.a. Thundermon)
2/10.BigMamemon
4/10.WaruMonzaemon
Our next available Perfect in this is the creepy evil version of Monzaemon, WaruMonzaemon... and, my god, this thing looks so horrifyingly decrepit! What is it with old, tattered dolls that's just scary? WaruMonzaemon here has stitches running all across his body, arms and face, and those bloodshot, squinting eyes just looks so terrifying. And the fact that there's something inside is more obvious with a single green glowing eye peeking out from the frayed stitches on WaruMonzaemon's body. Oh, and of course, it's replaced its right arm with a big-ass bear claw held together by leather straps. That patch on his arm is the Japanese word for "evil", by the way. WaruMonzaemon isn't strictly a machine, but I suppose it does feel artificial enough to show up here. No word on whether he's still controlled by a Numemon, though. WaruMonzaemon's noted in his profile to be the opposite of everything Monzaemon is, unleashing a "Heartbreak Attack" that causes anyone it hits to become emo and sad and lose their will to live, and apparently he's also very good buddies with MetalEtemon. Newer material would introduce an actual bear Digimon called Gryzmon (or Grizzlymon), and the puppet bear WaruMonzaemon apparently killed and stole an arm from a real bear. Hardcore.In Adventure, WaruMonzaemon was a minion of Mugendramon, and was portrayed as a horrifying slave-driver who abused the Chosen Children's Numemon buddies. In Frontier, WaruMonzaemon is treated as an alternate form of Monzaemon, with Monzaemon transforming into this decrepit monster when infected with a virus. In Xros Wars... WaruMonzaemon is a chef. But an evil chef, and part of the bad guys' army, who the heroes had to defeat in a glorious Iron Chef match! Anyway, a very creepy teddy bear monster, and honestly one that I've never really appreciated properly until doing these reviews.
6/10.Knightmon
Oh boy, I forgot Knightmon was even in this virtual pet! Yeah, the Perfects aren't really robotic, are there? Knightmon here is a pretty generic knight, although I do like the general look of this guy as a burly dude in a full suit of armour. I think that's the key to making these humanoid Digimon actually work -- the early ones have dainty fairies, gangly devils, bulky knights... the humanoids were properly exaggerated to match their theme. A lot of the modern ones are just all jagged, streamlined and just flat out generically anime. Anyway, Knightmon, despite being pretty nice and bulky... is also generic in his own way, and it doesn't help that they've never really gotten a lot of respect in the anime. Its initial appearance in 02 is impressive enough, being another one of the 'golem' villains created from control towers, but clearly is just introduced to pose himself as a threat before resident anti-villain BlackWarGreymon shows up and just murders Knightmon without breaking a sweat. Kngihtmon shows up as a creepy background event in an episode of Tamers, and in both Frontier and Savers, Knightmon are portrayed as this huge army that serves LordKnightmon, one of the Royal Knights... and end up being portrayed as a generic, disposable army that honestly makes you forget that these dudes are supposed to be Perfect-level. Xros Wars has its own Knightmon, serving the royalty-themed Bastemon, but also ends up getting tossed around by IceDevimon, an Adult-level Digimon. Poor Knightmon can't catch a break, huh?Knightmon's profile notes that its power is apparently so strong that it wears that armour to restrain its power, something that I genuinely find pretty sad considering how he's just treated as a way for the villains to demonstrate their power. He's all right, I suppose, but not a particularly interesting design for me.
3/10.Cyberdramon
I keep forgetting that Cyberdramon was part of the cast in these older Virtual Pets! This cyborg dragon human never appeared in Adventure or 02, but will make a huge entrance in Digimon Tamers, where he would end up being one of the more iconic hate-it-or-love-it moments of the series. So, you see, in Japan, there are a bunch of Wonderswan-exclusive games that never got localized, starring this dude called Ryo. Through multiple games, Ryo ends up getting his partner Digimon fused with the main bad guy, Millenniumon. We'll cover this story when we get there, but long story short, through some mystical mumbo-jumbo, Ryo gets transferred into another universe, showing up in Tamers out of nowhere to assist our heroes. And Ryo's appearance in Tamers (apparently there's another Ryo in the Tamers universe, too, which this Ryo sort of supplants? It's never made clear) is either a badass entry of a new character, or a bland author's pet who shows up in an established universe to sort of be a badass without earning his spot like the rest of Tamers' cast. I am fully in the "Ryo's cool" group.
Anyway, Ryo's partner is Cyberdramon here, who's an unbelievable badass. And also the epitome of edgy, badass 90's design. I actually like how they made Cyberdramon quite monstrous and feral in Tamers, as much as I'm not a big fan of his humanoid build. Cyberdramon sort of makes up for it, though, by having a pretty cool sleek, eyeless metal face, as well as those tattered blood-red wings. Cyberdramon's body is interestingly covered in rubber armour? Also, Cyberdramon's main attack is called "Erase Claws", where apparently his claws can straight-up fucking erase space. Cyberdramon's design is sort of... it could go either way, honestly. I do appreciate the efforts at making it beastly, so it's a lot better than its evolution Justimon, in any case. I tend to forgive a lot of Cyberdramon's faults on account of its portrayal in Tamers, but nowadays I'm a lot more ambivalent about Cyberdramon. Still gets an above-average score, I guess, because I still find him genuinely likable.
7/10.Mugendramon (a.k.a. Machinedramon)
YEAHHHH MUGENDRAMON. Mugendramon here is the final member of the Dark Masters, and while Piemon is the nominal leader of them, Mugendramon's actually starred as a main villain in a lot of other stuff. Best of all, and it's something many people missed, is how Mugendramon's actually a combination of a lot of machine Digimon's parts! Many people just write Mugendramon off as a MetalGreymon or a MetalTyrannomon who's fully mechanized. Not so! Sure, Mugendramon does borrow a lot from the two theropodal cyborgs, but all of Mugendramon's parts come from different, previously-introduced robot Digimon. Those cannons on his back? MetalMamemon's cannon arms. The left arm? MetalGreymon. The right arm? Megadramon's snappy-snap pincer arm. That lower jaw with an underbite? MetalTyrannomon. That soulless, creepy skull-like face? Megadramon again. Hell, even those skull kneecaps are taken from Andromon's face!While Pinocchimon is a villain that I gush over thanks to his japery and personality, Mugendramon is a villain I love purely and solely because of his design. I absolutely love how creepy this guy is, with his hollow eyes and his deep, no-nonsense voice, and just how genuinely awesome he looks. The official profile notes that all the talk about experimentation on cyborg Digimon are all a prelude to the creation of Mugendramon, and... yeah, I can totally see that. In the Pendulum Virtual Pet, , Mugendramon evolves from fusing Megadramon and a suitable other Digimon, which is pretty damn awesome! Other games have made SkullGreymon, Chimairamon, as well as many other Perfect-level machine Digimon, evolve into Mugendramon.
Mugendramon actually debuted in the video game Digimon World, as the ultimate and final boss, created out of the distortion plaguing the world. It's a genuine slog to reach him and a race of time before your current Digimon devolves back into an egg, and atop Infinity Mountain where reality is breaking apart, this is your final enemy. This monstrous Terminator-style dinosaur with weapons up the wazoo. No wonder they decided to bring him in as one of the main villains for Adventure's final arc! And even then, if the Wonderswan-exclusive video games are anything to go by, Mugendramon didn't die, and instead his spirit will live on as the primary antagonist of those games, forming one half of Milleniumon. Other sources have also introduced Chaosdramon, a variant/upgrade on Mugendramon... but that's honestly nowhere as impressive as this blank-faced monstrosity. And I think that's what makes Mugendramon's design so dang memorable, really. His face. That is the face of a soulless machine that lives for nothing but destruction.One of my all-time favourite Digimon, for sure.
10/10.Let's throw in two bonus Digimon who aren't exactly machines, but have mechanical parts, which is why I sort of stuck them at the tail-end of this review.
Minotarumon (a.k.a. Minotaurmon)
4/10.Gorimon (a.k.a. Gorillamon)
Gorimon himself is a pretty.... okay monster, I suppose. An albino gorilla whose entire right arm has been replaced with a cybernetic cannon. It's not the most creative design, and Digimon has no shortage of cyborg or robotic monsters (just look at literally the rest of this page), but this honestly makes Gorimon a fair bit more interesting to me than fellow ape-themed early Digimon Hanumon. Anyway, while not the most exciting Digimon, it's one that I remember above other simple musclemen like Cyclomon and Minotaurmon.
5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment