So one of the newer protagonists in 02 is Inoue Miyako (Yolei Inoue in the dub), who is... a brasher version of Mimi, mixed with Koushiro's tech-savviness, I think? She also sort of fills in the tomboy part of the group to contrast with Hikari's default role as the girly-girl. I honestly don't really remember much about what she does -- she's kind of just there, I think, inoffensive but doesn't really have much of a character arc.Anyway, while the D-3 Virtual Pet series are divided between the Jogress pairs (Version 1 has either Veemon or Wormmon; Version 2 has Hawkmon or Tailmon; Version 3 has Patamon or Armadimon), I think we'll mix things up and cover all of the two newcomers in 02, which means Hawkmon today and Armadimon next week, before going into talking about the Patamon and Tailmon Armours while also covering other main characters in 02.
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Pururumon
Pururumon here is the Baby I of the line and what an adorable little baby bird-blob it is! You can just imagine this thing blobbing about with its two adorable little stumpy hands and its cute little eyes and beak. Apparently its body is made out of silicon? Pururumon doesn't quite have much in lieu of personality or unique lore beyond "hey, this thing is a baby Hawkmon", but it's easily one of the more adorable Baby I's. Look at this little jelly bird baby! I dunno. I like this little blob a lot more than I thought I would. I'm not sure if Pururumon ever actually appeared on-screen in 02 or not, actually. Still, a very charming little blob-bird-baby.
7/10.Poromon
Pururumon then evolves into a Baby II form, Poromon, which is... just fine, I suppose. It's what you'll expect form a baby form of a bird Digimon, having the classic "spherical head with features" deal that a lot of these babies evolve into. Poromon's a cute little pink fuzzball with wing-ears, Hawkmon's little prominent feather, and apparently can actually flap around and fly. I do like how the actual prose of Poromon's profile notes how it couldn't even turn its "neck (?)" to clean itself. Yes, that question mark is part of Poromon's official profile. I thought that was a fun little joke. Anyway... not much to say about here. Wait till we get to the anime-exclusive babies in Tamers, I'm not sure if I can even get a paragraph for those guys. 6/10.Hawkmon
Hawkmon is the Child-stage of this evolutionary line and the one we see the most of, and he’s one of the few times in the Digimon anime’s history that a human is partnered with a Digimon of the opposite gender. Do Digimon even have gender? Eh. Anyway, Hawkmon’s kinda cool, I guess. He follows the same design features as Piyomon, with the clawed wing-arms and generally the same body plan, and he’s got a belt on his head for some reason, and the little feather from Poromon ends up being kind of an instantly-regrowing feather Hawkmon chucks around like a reusable throwing knife. Hawkmon shows up a lot in 02, being one of the main characters, but damn if I can’t remember a single thing about his personality beyond being sort of the serious foil to Miyako’s crazier antics. And he's got a samurai accent in the Japanese version, apparently translated into a posh British accent in the dub... And… and wow, I really don’t have much to say here, huh? Hawkmon never really impressed me in the anime, but I genuinely didn't think that I had so little to say about him.Like Veemon and Wormmon, apparently Hawkmon is the descendant of some ancient, mythical species of Digimon that is able to do Armour Evolution, something that isn't really followed up anywhere unless it's Imperialdramon, GranKuwagamon and Valkyrimon that are menat to be these ancient mythical species-es. Outside of 02, Hawkmon's made brief cameos in Frontier and Xros Wars, and like most partner Digimon is a near-universal fixture in most video games. Anyway, Hawkmon’s a neat design – I just don’t really have any strong feelings about him.
6/10.Aquilamon
In addition to being Miyako’s partner in 02, a different Biyomon partnered with Masaru’s little sister would evolve into Aquilamon in Savers, and thanks to the different rules of that universe, that particular Aquilamon rampaged like a feral monster and had to be put down. Aquilamon’s pretty neat, and a giant monster bird is inherently pretty cool, even if Aquilamon doesn't do enough to make it feel distinct.
7/10.Silphymon
So like
Paildramon, the 02 cast had to
achieve their Perfect forms with the Jogress/fusion evolution, with Aquilamon
fusing with good old Tailmon. Silphymon is the result of this, and apparently a
giant horned eagle and a holy cat turn into… a human with bird talons, a metal
sports bra and wings on the sides of his wrists? I suppose Tailmon’s evolution
into Angewomon is the precedent as to why Silphymon looks so humanoid. I’ve kind
of always found Silphymon to be decent – he’s simple enough of a design for me
to not rant about how it’s cluttered and everything, and I guess he’s still got
an air of beastliness to him… but for the life of me I’ve always sort of forgot
about Silphymon. Whereas Paildramon is the cool dragon one that they show the
most often, and Shakkoumon is the bizarre weird one, Silphymon just seemed to
play it sort of safe. I dunno. From the waist down she's clearly trying to emulate Aquilamon, and the waist up is theoretically Tailmon's part... but other than the obvious ears, I don't really see it.
I do
like the little details of him actually having a radar sensor built into his
weird head-visor, although I’ve honestly wished that they went with Harpymon
below for the fusion between Tailmon and Aquilamon which really made far more
sense as a cat/bird humanoid combination. I dunno. I just can’t muster much
enthusiasm for this thing, I’m afraid. Outside of 02, some Silphymon was part of a group of angelic Digimon that protected the Sand Zone. I suppose that's what Silphymon is meant to be, then -- an angel that just has a lot of bird features and dresses up with pilot headgear for some reason.
4/10.Valkyrimon (a.k.a. Valkyriemon)
Valkyrimon here is the Ultimate evolution of Silphymon in the virtual pets, and she’s… she’s just a lady in armour with a golden bird perched on her arm. So Hawkmon spends three evolutionary lines as a dude, then transforms into a woman? Eh. Valkyrimon never actually appears in the 02 cartoon, and as far as I can tell she’s never shown up in any other subsequent Digimon anime either. Even among the humanoid Digimon Valkyrimon is a particularly bland and boring design, and this is one that I’m not afraid to knock points of.Valkyrimon is one of the few Digimon that actually has a lot of fun little chunks of mythology worked into her lore (the only one before this that we’ve covered is Zudomon’s Mjolnir Hammer, I think), with the little golden bird being called Freyr after the Norse goddess, and her sword is called Fenrir after the Nordic giant wolf. She’s the one responsible, apparently, for the reincarnation of fallen heroes and reverting them into Digitama, and Valkyrimon’s bio is really the only thing that explains why all the good Digimon in Adventure canon ends up being reborn at some point in the future, while all the bad ones stay dead. Cool, but from a design standpoint I've always found this dude-lady quite boring.
3/10.Holsmon (a.k.a. Halsemon/Horusmon)
Call her whatever you want, Holsmon or Halsemon (the concensus is that it's meant to be a corruption of Horus, apparently), but this dude here is Hawkmon’s most-used Armour evolution, and a far cooler beast than Aquilamon, I feel. Holsmon does fall into the same problem I had with Imperialdramon and Dinobeemon where her design is clearly meant to evoke a transforming toy, with Hawkmon’s two bird-hands hanging uselessly underneath the wings and really kind of ruining the whole gryphon design.Other than that unfortunate bit, Holsmon actually is a pretty interesting bird monster, with a leonine body with four talons, and a mean-looking beak, with the front half of her body covered by the pieces of the Digimental of Love’s armour that sort of spread out and act like jet wings. The anime certainly had Holsmon do a lot of cool things with her eye beams (called the Wdjat Gaze, I think?) and her ability to just straight-up transform into a tornado. Holsmon’s neat.
4/10.Shurimon
Shurimon is the other Armour Evolution that Hawkmon achieved in the anime, and he achieves this form with the Digimental of Purity, Palmon’s crest. And Hawkmon went from a bird into a leaf ninja! Look at this thing! With the two leaves covering most of her body like a cape, Shurimon has a big-ass shuriken strapped onto his back, his main body’s just covered with sneaky-sneaky ninja clothes, but clearly the coolest part of Shurimon’s design is the fact that all of her limbs are coiled-up vines that end in more metal shurikens. That’s such a unique design for a ninja and they could’ve so easily turned Shurimon into just a humanoid ninja with leaf armour (and they did it for other Purity Armours like Yaksamon), so I am really, really glad that Shurimon manages to be a cool looking humanoid Digimon that’s not just a dude in cosplay. Throw in the very cool hidden-face deal, as well as the design still maintaining a nod to Hawkmon's little head-feather, and we actually get a pretty damn sleek design.Also, throw in that badass-looking face, and some genuinely fun episodes starring Shurimon in the anime, which really play up the whole “ninjas use leaves and wind to hide” trope, and Shurimon is easily one of my favourite Armour evolutions. Easily the best ninja Digimon out there, although granted his only real competition is a chubby onion with limbs.
In Xros Wars, a different Shurimon with black ninja clothes and autumn-coloured leaves is an antagonist in the Edo-themed Shinobi Zone, a neat variant and one of the few times where a previous protagonist Digimon is used as an antagonist. We'll cover a lot of the Xros Wars variants when we get there, because interestingly a lot of the new variations and species introduced in Xros Wars tended to be straight-up ignored by Bandai.
9/10.Peacockmon
3/10.Harpymon
Harpymon’s another one that’s been used as villains-of-the-week, as a particularly fun one in Tamers that led to some internal conflict in Renamon's mind, I think. Harpymon then showed up briefly among other quasi-angelic Digimon in Xros Wars' Heaven Zone, and then as a less-memorable one during Hunters where she disrupts a concert or something, I dunno.
6/10.Toucanmon (a.k.a. Tocanmon)
Sometimes parsed as Tocanmon, Toucanmon here is Hawkmon’s evolution through the digimental of kindness, Wormmon’s crest, and it’s the last of Hawkmon’s bird-themed evolutions. And it’s… it’s fun, isn’t it? The first time I saw this I sort of dismissed Toucanmon for being a silly thing that doesn’t quite look as battle-ready as the likes of Holsmon or Shurimon, but Toucanmon has a lot of charm! An eggshell that ends up looking like Mickey Mouse pants is pretty dang charming, and apparently despite being gaudy as all hell and being a flightless bird, Toucanmon can retreat into his shell like a turtle… but can’t actually go all the way thanks to his big-ass beak. Oh, Toucanmon. Interestingly, under that shell apparently he’s featherless… but is “rumoured to be quite muscular”, according to the bio! Well, that’s certainly unexpected. This flightless bird's design has certainly grown on me.Toucanmon’s made appearances in Frontier, I think, as part of a tiresome “Izumi vs Ranamon” idol popularity fandom nonsense, as well as brief cameos in Savers and Xros Wars. A fun little flightless bird! He and Kiwimon should hang out.
7/10.Allomon
I do remember Allomon showing up in Tamers, as one of its first villains-of-the-week to actually wreak some serious havoc in the human world. Allomon has no real connection design-wise with Hawkmon other than the feathers attached on his head, and it’s a shame that they didn’t at least import Hawkmon’s colours over to Allomon. I guess they just didn’t want another huge Adult-level theropod that’s a reddish colour since we already have Tyrannomon? Allomon is noted to be a rival to Tyrannomon, for what it’s worth. Also, Allomon shows up in Hunters as the partner of minor character Noboro, and it's something I genuinely forgot about.Anyway, Allomon is just an allosaurus with random Native American feathers strapped onto him, but I do like the idea of a bird and a theropodal dinosaur being connected. I just don’t really think Allomon’s design really feels like it follows logically from Hawkmon. Allomon has since apparently proven popular enough to be assigned as alternate, non-Armour evolution to many other evolution lines, even evolving from the likes of Agumon and Guilmon. Oh, also, unintentional as it’s likely to be, we do get a feathered dinosaur long, long before it became common scientific consensus that dinosaurs are more likely to have feathers than just scales.
Interestingly, despite most Courage Armours being a fiery beast, Allomon doesn’t actually incorporate any fiery elements into its design, and its primary attack is instead a wind blast. So I guess it’s Agumon’s dinosaur-y-ness that gets translated to Hawkmon? Ultimately it's a pretty pleasing design, but it's also kind of just a dinosaur.
5/10.Linkmon (a.k.a. Rinkmon)
Hawkmon’s Friendship Armour evolution is Rinkmon, who is… an ice skater in weird body armour? Yeah, this is pretty uninteresting, really. And Rinkmon isn’t even trying to be a cool humanoid like an angel or a knight or whatever. It’s a figure-skater. Rinkmon’s bio notes that apparently it’s a cyborg born out of data from an experiment trying to accelerate particles to the speed of light. So the Flash, then. Apparently, with his skis, Rinkmon can accelerate to 98% the speed of light? Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Rinkmon. Not my thing, and there’s really nothing in Rinkmon that I really find cool or interesting in any way. 1/10.Flybeemon
Flybeemon here is Hawkmon’s evolution with the Digimental of Knowledge (Tentomon’s), and it’s a bug! It’s a very streamlined bug, though, and it’s missing a lot of the more grotesque bugginess of the earlier pre-02 bug Digimon. Flybeemon’s sort of cool, really, even if it’s more of a robotic bug monster. Flybeemon does look pretty sleek and fast, and I think he’s supposed to be some sort of dragonfly-esque thing? Interestingly, while originally introduced as a Hawkmon Armour, Flybeemon’s profile directly specifies Flybeemon to be born out of a large amount of Kunemon gathering together, creating this ‘mythical’ Digimon. That's a lot more complex than I thought someone of Flybeemon's caliber deserves!Flybeemon shows up as an early villain-of-the-week in Tamers, and as a cameo in the bug-themed zone of Xros Wars. It’s pretty neat for a bug monster even if it doesn’t look quite as cool as the Kuwagamon and Kabuterimon aesthetic... I think what bugs me (heh) the most is just how many unnecessary details are crammed into Flybeemon that detract away and clutter him up, like the random rabbit ears, or the neon-blue Intelligence symbol... I dunno. Part of me really wants to like Flybeemon, but he doesn't quite endear himself to me as most bugs do.
6/10.Orcamon
Okay, so Hawkmon evolving with the Digimental of Sincerity, Gomamon’s crest, turns him into an aquatic creature… that is this weird humanoid killer whale with the goofiest face, waddling penguin limbs and apparently wears a life jacket and a life preserver? And a metal cross as a belly button? I… I don’t really like this thing, honestly. it tries a bit too hard to be goofy, but I’ve never really liked this particular design. It’s also apparently extremely dumb, because it often breaks things accidentally… but people come to him for advice anyway because it moves fast in the water? I dunno. Always found Orcamon to look way too doofy, and that’s without factoring in that it’s supposed to be an Armour evolution. No wonder he never gets used in any official media. I'll give him a 1 because I sort of appreciate what they're going for here even if I don't like it. Pity points for creativity, something that Rinkmon up above kinda lacks. 2/10.Moosemon
All of the Hope Armours are some sort of four-legged hooved mammals, so Hawkmon evolves into a giant winter-themed moose. Moosemon’s a pretty cool moose monster, mind you. He doesn’t quite have the same weirdness that the likes of Unimon and Centarumon have, but it’s definitely drawn pretty well with lots of fun little magical runes on his horns and body. Moosemon is characterized by his bio as a guardian of the icy mountains of the digital world, and apparently has erratic mood swings that makes it go from calm to rampaging in a moment – apparently his moodswings will be reflected in the climate of the mountains, and whenever Moosemon throws a tantrum an avalanche happens. Interestingly enough, Moosemon’s attack apparently allows him to cut through “space itself” with his horns.I don’t think Moosemon has ever appeared in any of the anime series, although I’m pretty sure that he’s sort of became the unofficial Adult-stage for whatever evolutionary line you theorize leads to AncientMegatheriumon. Anyway, a pretty neat design even if it doesn't have much to do with Hawkmon. Don't mind this one.
5/10.Lampmon
3/10.Ebemon
According to his bio, Ebemon was apparently a cyborg artificially created from a captured Vademon in, pretty explicitly, Area 51. Apparently it isn't clear whether these Americans (only noted to be 'a certain country' in the actual bio) used actual alien technology, or just the fantastic superpowers from the digital world. Anyway, America's apparently planning to invade the digital world with their studies on Digimon, if Ebemon's profile is anything to go by. Also, if you think Ebemon's not quite powerful enough to be an Ultimate-level, apparently that gun on his right hand is called the Planet Destroyer, and it does what you think a gun called the Planet Destroyer does. Ebemon never appeared in any of the earlier anime, although finally made an appearance in Xros Wars as a general of the Bagra Army that acted as a villain-of-the-week, using his alien technology to put chips into people's brains and control them. Ebemon's not a design I particularly love, but I definitely appreciate his existence.
6/10.
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