Rounding up the three new kids that make the main characters of 02 is Hida Iori (Cody Hida in the dub), who's a little kid! And this little kid comes from a very traditionally-Japanese household that practices kendo and stuff, and moreso than anyone, Iori has a very, very strict black-and-white morality view of the world, exacerbated by his young age and the fact that both his father and grandfather are police officers. Iori has always been the most fascinating of the initial 02 cast, and while he didn't really do that much in the early parts of 02, he later came to a head with the former Digimon Kaiser Ken, because he's evil, and Iori refuses to cooperate with anyone that's evil, not accepting that people can change.And the fact that this never ended up really being followed up and Iori just sort of softened towards Ken and sort of gets shuffled into the background even more as the series goes on is another hallmark to why 02 ended up feeling so messy. I would really be interested in seeing what the Adventure and Tamers writing mentality, which actually explored their main characters' psyche, would make of Iori's character quirks. Eh. Iori's also particularly memorable to me that he's got the unquestioned coolest new Digimon of the new cast, at least up until Wormmon shows up anyway. Iori's fusion partner is Takeru and Patamon, and he shares the D3 Virtual Pet with him.
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Tsubumon
The Baby I in this case is good old Tsubumon, who is... pretty dang forgettable, just a blob with a weird featureless horn-leaf thing on his head. Basically this dude is just "less developed Upamon", and doesn't quite feel as different as Minomon and Leafmon, or Poromon and Pururumon. The lore in the official bio at least gives Tsubumon (tsubu = rice grain) some neat little backstory, though, that isn't just a generic "THIS WILL BECOME A SUPER AWESOME MYTHICAL DIGIMON" hype bio like Veemon's babies have. Apparently Tsubumon just looks like a seed and can be carried around by wind and is often mistaken as a plant monster. Cute, but sort of underwhelming.
4/10.Upamon
Upamon here draws his name from "upa rupa", or Wooper Looper, the Japanese nickname to Axolotl pets and definitely something that the Western geek community would know best from the Axolotl-based Pokemon Wooper. Upamon is just a little grinning face with the Axolotl's distinctive head-fins, which is pretty neat. I really wished that they actually went a bit further in trying to showcase that Upamon is actually based on an Axolotl, though, because without the name I wouldn't realize that it's actually meant to be a wooper-looper. Apparently Upamon is a creature that is amphibious, but is leaning more towards living on land? Why the hell is Tsubumon a floating seed instead of a water-based baby-blob, then? Jeez, get your lore team right, Digimon! Anyway, Upamon's whole thing is that it's often bullied, but apparently it has such a positive outlook on life that it thinks that other kids are playing? No, Upamon! Stand for yourself! 6/10.Armadimon (a.k.a. Armadillomon)
The rookie this time around is Armadimon (or Armadillomon in the dub; another one that I sort of use interchangeably), based on, of course, the armadillo. And Armadimon is easily one of my favourite Child-level stages post-Adventure. And Armadimon is... he's actually pretty neat! The segmented shell halves and the large, mean-looking claws look neat, and I've always loved that he has those huge weird ears (that I only just now realize is meant to be a throwback to Upamon's axolotl ears) and that very pleasant-looking zigzag mouth. Not sure about the random red markings on his forehead, but that's not as distracting as it could've been. Armadimon admittedly doesn't really do much with the animal he's based on, but that's all right. I've always felt Armadimon to be one of the more pleasant-looking Digimon that's also designed as action figures. I guess an armadillo's segmented body parts does lend itself to looking both natural and toyetic at the same time? Eh.The actual 02 model shortens Armadimon's legs even more than his official Bandai art, making him look more adorable! It's a simple change that I always thought made Armadimon extra-cute in the anime. Armadimon's personality is super-chill, sort of filling in Gomamon's role from Adventure as the relaxed, easy-going dude partnered with a stricter human. Armadimon also speaks in a Nagoya accent in the anime, translated quite adorably into a Texan accent in the dub.
The best part of Armadimon? His special attack is, obviously, rolling up into a hard ball and ramming the opponent. That's what you'd expect from any armadillo monster. The name of this attack? ROLLING STONES. Hee hee.
6/10.Ankylomon
Armadimon's default Adult-stage evolution didn't come in play until later in the anime, just like ExVeemon and Aquilamon. But while the progression of Armadimon to Ankylomon has always felt natural to me as a kid, I've never realized until writing this review how bizarre it is that a little mammal evolves into an ancient armoured reptile... and how it still works pretty damn well, with both Armadimon and Ankylomon being armoured four-legged herbivorous beasts. One of the better ways that two Digimon that are obviously designed to evolve to and from each other also still manages to draw inspiration from completely different creatures. Ankylomon is neat -- he does do the obvious thing of turning the Ankylosaurus's bone-breaking tail into a morning star, and some spiky leg-bands, but ultimately Ankylomon's just an Ankylosaurus with a lot of extra spikes, and Armadimon's clawed fingers.
Ankylomon's a design that I really wished was a bit more streamlined, though, at the end of the day. There's a couple of extraneous design feaetures that I don't think was super-necessary or particularly creative, and I'm not particularly a big fan of those weird devil-horns on Ankylomon's head. Still, ultimately a pretty pleasant design among these dinosaurs. Ankylomon's not my favourite Armadimon evolution, though I remembered really liking him as a kid because, hey, dinosaurs!
6/10.Shakkoumon
In one of the most bizarre evolutions in Digimon, Ankylomon and Angemon's Jogress fusion becomes... Shakkoumon here. Which... um... okay? With the other two main Jogress evolutions in 02, Paildramon and Silphymon, you can at least see the parts of the base Adult-stage Digimon if you know what you're looking for. But an angelic humanoid combining with an Ankylosaurus becomes... a dogu doll with angelic wings? What? Yeah, you can handwave all the answers you want about how dogu dolls are quasi-mystical like an angel, and ancient like dinosaurs, but that's just such a bizarre and out-of-nowhere transformation that I was equal parts confused and excited the first time I ever laid eyes on this bizarre motherfucker in the anime.Shakkoumon himself is based specifically on the Shakoki-dogu, the most popular version of the mysterious dogu dolls in Japan, and also the style that inspired the Pokemon Baltoy and Claydol. Interestingly, Shakkoumon's bio describes him as both a "mutant" and an "ancient angel Digimon", meaning that apparently this particularly bizarre dude is an alien angel of sorts? Shakkoumon attacks with exploding clay discs that come out from his skirt, or superheated eye beams, called Nigimitama and Aramitama respectively, based on two facets of the mitama, a part of Japanese soul/spirit mythology.
In addition to Shakkoumon's role in 02 where it's easily the most powerful of the Jogress Perfects because it's part-Angemon, Shakkoumon made a minor appearance in Xros Wars' Heaven Zone arc, where our heroes are racist fucks who immediately suspect Shakkoumon to have some ulterior motive because he's an emotionless doll-angel, but it turns out that it's the handsome humanoid Lucemon that's evil, and Shakkoumon was good all along.
Anyway, Shakkoumon's kinda cool, and I've always found it to be neat how it manages to both look pretty holy and also unnerving at the same time. I just don't think it's a particularly good fit as a combination of Ankylomon and Angemon -- if anything, Shakkoumon felt more like an evolution of Angemon on its own, which I wouldn't have minded as much. I did remember everyone rioting in the proto-internet because how dare they turn Angemon into a robot alien angel. I've personally always liked Shakkoumon a fair bit, but I do kind of feel that it's kind of misplaced as part of this Jogress evolution.
In the original D-3 game, Armadimon's line is capped off with Vikemon, which would later be reassigned to Adventure's Gomamon and we've covered before... and I think it's genuinely nonsensical, yeah? You go from a seed to an axolotl head to an armadillo to an Ankylosaurus to a dogu angel to a Viking walrus-man? At least with Shakkoumon you can handwave it with fusion. But you evolve Shakkoumon to the genuinely disconnected Vikemon? Blah.
7/10.
Digmon
Digmon here is clearly my second-favourite of the Armours that debuted in the show, with only Shurimon surpassing it. Digmon's pretty damn great, and while I kind of wish its design was a little bit more battle-worn and had less random purple markings, Digmon always looked pretty cool to me. A drill mouth, two drills on each arms, and two mole-like claws as the middle arms? Digmon's perhaps the only Armour Digimon to probably fit in with the original monster-insects from a visual standpoint, with six limbs, a reptile-like pair of lower legs, and buggy features from the waist up. He's even got little transparent bug-wings jutting out of his back! Putting drills on an insect-themed monster might seem kinda weird, until you see the claw-arms and realize that Digmon is meant to be based on the mole cricket (family Gryllotalpidae), a group of insects with developed shovel-like forelimbs.
Also, like Ankylomon, Digmon plays into Armadimon's theme of having a more dome-like body, which I thought was kinda neat. Digmon was the only Knowledge Armour evolution to be shown on 02, and, man, Digmon clearly stands head over heels over the pretty generic dudes like Butterflymon, Honeybeemon or Flybeemon. Pretty damn badass monster, I must say. Interestingly, a Drimogemon that appeared as a villain-of-the-week of an early episode of Digimon Savers actually evolves into a Digmon, really showing that these Armour evolutions don't really end up mattering after 02 is over.
8/10.Submarimon
Armadimon's other Armour form that he was able to evolve to in the anime was Submarimon, with the Digimental of Sincerity (Jo/Gomamon's thing) and it's a pretty neat evolution. Clearly based on the narwhal, I've always found it interesting that there are obvious parts of Armadimon's biology attached to Submarimon, like the axolotl ears, the random chunk of armadillo armour on his throat, and the little armadillo legs poking out at the back. And while Submarimon does have a giant narwhal horn and little seal-like flippers, he's also got some submarine anatomy like jet fins, a rocket engine and a cockpit that Iori can sit in. I do like Submarimon a fair bit, but I've always thought that there was just a couple of extra details that definitely could be removed and would make Submarimon's design a lot cleaner and cooler. A submarine-narwhal with seal flippers is already a funky design as it is, I really don't think that any of the Armadimon features other than the ears really fit.Anyway, Submarimon is a pretty dang cool as an Armour evolution, and while he doesn't quite see as much action because, y'know, the Aquaman factor, I've always really liked Submarimon and found it pretty unique among the Armours that showed up in the show. And that really makes Armadimon by default my favourite character because of how much I found Digmon and Submarimon pretty dang cool.
8/10.Boarmon
That said, though, Boarmon here isn't that bad. As Armadimon's Courage armour evolution, Boarmon follows the theme of "shit on fire!" and is a boar on fire. And... it's not bad. It doesn't feel particularly like any sort of 'armour' Digimon, doesn't feel like any sort of evolution tied to Armadimon, and is a huge "what are you doing here?" moment. Hell, I found this guy so unmemorable that I completely missed the fact that it was one when Boarmon made minor appearances in Frontier and Savers. He's a neat enough design, I suppose, just completely boring. Or is it boaring? Ha!
4/10.Pteranomon (a.k.a. Pteramon)
Pteranomon is Armadimon's Love armour evolution, continuing the theme of all Love armours being birds or avian monsters of some sort. As a bonus, it actually looks like a dinosaur (pterosaur, dinosaur, whatever) wearing armour plates, fitting with the whole military theme it's got going on. Overall, easily one of the better armour evolutions for sure, and one of the more pleasing designs from the newer art style.
8/10.Sepikmon
With the Friendship digimental, Armadimon evolves into Sepikmon. Which is certainly a Digimon with some sort of armour, but also doesn't have anything to do with Armadimon, or with any of the other Friendship evolutions. It does work to Sepikmon's favour in giving him a pretty unique look, and unlike Boarmon, there's a fair bit going on here. Sepikmon is a fun gangly monkey dressed in random tribal paraphernalia, with what appears to be a Tiki mask and a gigantic boomerang, and borrowing his name from the Sepik river in New Guinea. Also interestingly, Sepikmon's apparently meant to be some sort of a tribal shaman, because it's classified as a wizard Digimon, and is noted to speak to the dead... so much that its only friends are the dead people it speaks to! This dude'd probably get along with all the Bakemons of the world, then. It's also willing to turn you into his friend if you wander into your territory. By making you a dead ghost. I guess there's your "Friendship" tie-in?Sepikmon would appear a couple seasons down the line as a fortune-teller in Frontier, ending up as a bit of a plot-device as he delivers plot-relevant prophecies to our heroes. A different and more feral take on Sepikmon was one of the random rampaging Digimon in the Digimon Tamers movie. Overall, I'm not the biggest fan of monkeys, but this one is charming enough and fun enough for me to like it.
4/10.Elephamon (a.k.a. Elephantmon)
Elephantmon (I know the Japanese name is Elephamon, but that's so awkward to type) here is a Digimon born from the fusion of Armadimon and the Digimental of 2/10.Frogmon
Look at this adorable motherfucker! Like Elephamon, Frogmon here has never been used in any of the anime, and it's a huge darn shame! Look at this guy! He's a garish bright-yellow frog with a green leaf that acts like some sort of mask (which shields attacks to near-nothing, according to the bio), with two helicopter blades made out of leaves attached to his backpack... and look sat Frogmon clutching those two leaf shurikens! And that random combat knife strapped to Frogmon's thigh! Look at this thing! It's just so much more adorable than Gekomon, and I like Gekomon! This dude is some kind of weird cyborg frog ninja commando, and I absolutely love just how garish its colours actually are. When I first discovered the non-show Armours for the first time, Frogmon was easily the only one that jumped out to me, whereas I only grew to like or tolerate the others thanks to anime appearances or just over time. Look at this smiling fucker. He's just so happy to be a ninja, and then he's going to fly into your room with his backpack helicopter and then cut you with that combat knife.Frogmon is Armadimon's Armor evolution with the Digimental of Purity, Palmon's crest, and I guess that explains the plant part, if not the frog part. Poor Frogmon has been one of the most ignored Digimon even in video games, too! What's wrong with you, Bandai?
8/10.Sheepmon
Evolving with the Digimental of Hope, and continuing the trend of Hope Armours being four-legged hoofed mammals, Armadimon evolves into... Sheepmon? An adorable little pink fluffy sheep with two big-ass jetpack/bazooka combo on his back similar to the later-introduced and much more prolific SaintGargomon (MegaGargomon to dub viewers). Apparently Sheepmon's whole deal is that it's a pun on the concept of counting sheep, and even those bazookas shoot wool that somehow make people sleepy. One of Sheepmon's attack is even called "Silence of Lambs"! He's actually a pleasant design, although, again, not been used a whole ton. Still, Sheepmon's a pleasant and cute enough design. Also, at least some trading card games do find a use for the likes of Sheepmon and Boarmon, having them be the default Adult stages for some of the Devas. 3/10.Seahomon (a.k.a. Seahormon)
Seahomon (Seahormon or Seahomon alternatively in the dub, but never Seahorsemon for some reason) is Armadimon's evolution with the digimental of Light, which so far have been turning Digimon into holy or angelic-themed beasts, and this time around we've got... a seahorse, but a pretty interseting one at that! Not sure why he's got a big-ass metal helmet that ends in a megaphone, with a lock of blonde hair peeking out from under it, but I do like the general look of his body, with winged arms held in a prayer-like position, and that metallic whiplike tail. Seahomon is described by his bio ass being tiny because it lives deep in the Net Ocean and has to withstand pressure, but balloons up into being bigger than Seadramon when it comes to the surface with less pressure. What a fun little feature, and pretty unexpected on a seahorse monster, which isn't traditionally an abyssal-dwelling sea creature. Seahomon's sole anime appearance is as a minor ally character in the Disc Zone of Xros Wars. Overall, though, while I do like the creativity that they showed with Seahomon, I do feel that the design is a couple of details too cluttered for my liking. 6/10.Chamelemon (a.k.a. Chameleonmon)
Chamelemon here is our last Armadimon Armour, this time evolving from the Digimental of Kindness... and it's... it's a chameleon with a bunch of military gear? Chameleons are pretty cool beasts, but man, they really don't put a lot of effort into some of these armours, do they? Chamelemon here, of course, has the ability to blend perfectly into his surroundings in a manner far better than real-life chameleons, although in Chamelemon's case it apparently "scans the surrounding environment, and transforming the texture of his skin". Neat! Interestingly, his bio also notes how Chamelemons are used in digital warfare between companies trying to steal each other's data. Chamelemon's sole anime appearance of note, however, is as bumbling minions of Arbormon trying to kidnap a bunch of Burgamon in a particularly atrocious episode of Frontier. Chamelemon deserved better than that! 6/10.HiAndromon
Man, whatever happened to the grungy way that they used to draw robotic Digimon? They don't make them like they used to! HiAndromon here is one of the possible opponents in the D3 virtual pet, and, well, as you can probably tell, HiAndromon is the Ultimate-level evolution of regular old Andromon. And he loses a lot of the charm that Andromon has by virtue of being a creepy incomplete half-organic cyborg. And I guess it's by design that HiAndromon is basically a perfect-looking Robocop, but he's also a hell lot more boring. Still, at least it's got some parts of Andromon's anatomy down pat and it's clear that HiAndromon's based on regular Andromon. There's really not much I can say here other than how I like regular Andromon better than this, although I did find it neat that apparently that red and blue shoulder thing-a-ma-bobs are apparently modules to create an atomic bomb that HiAndromon shoots through his fingertips. 5/10.Pharaohmon
The mighty Pharaohmon is another Ultimate-level Digimon, and he tends to be associated as the evolution of Mummymon, a Digimon we'll cover later on. Pharaohmon did debut on his own, after all. Anyway, while Mummymon embodies the part of mummies that are decrepit zombies left to rot for aeons, Pharaohmon is a regal mummified body of a king, complete with golden wrappings, big-ass bracelets, a full-on Egyptian style helmet and, of course, he comes with a sarcophagus he can sleep in.Pharaohmon's bio notes that he used to rule over huge swathes of the ancient digital world, and his pretty damn badass attack, Necromist, unleashes ghostly visages of himself that "steals the will of hostile Digimon while desiccating their flesh", basically either killing Pharaohmon's enemies, or to control them as Pharaohmon's zombie servitors. Pretty neat and pleasant-looking mummy boss. It's not my thing, but I can definitely respect what they're going for here. Pharaohmon shows up in Xros Wars as the guardian of a pyramid that while looking all evil and shit, was actually only one of those "I must fight thee to test thy morality" obstacles that the protagonist Taiki has to face against.
5/10.Volcamon (a.k.a. Volcanomon)
Another Digimon that debuted as an enemy NPC in the D3 virtual pets, Volcamon (or Volcanomon in the dub) is a Digimon that I didn't quite 'get' when I first saw it. It's a robot-cyborg with a volcano on his back? With a helmet? And a mike for some reason? Volcamon was a villain-of-the-week as one of Sephirothmon's minions in Digimon Frontier, but while Volcamon isn't a bad design, I've always found him to be a bizarre design choice for a volcano-based Digimon. Especially when we actually get additional variations down the line with AncientVolcamon and PileVolcamon. But this Volcamon is a boisterous celebrity, and apparently a rival to Etemon, and attacks by singing really loudly into that mic.Apparently Volcamon is based on a Digimon developer and tournament announcer called Pile-Volcano Ota, who wears a getup similar to Volcamon's and is apparently pretty outrageous and hammy. Sort of like Ben Brode if they ever made a Hearthstone card out of him, then? Unlike Nanimon, which is bizarre even when you know his backstory, I've always thought that Volcamon worked pretty fine (if a bit odd) for a weird cyborg giant that just happens to really like to do performances and has a volcano on his back. It's kinda similar to one of the weirder early Digimon like Starmon. Speaking of which...
4/10.Superstarmon
Superstarmon (sometimes parsed SuperStarmon) is the Perfect-level evolution of Starmon, and was first introduced in the Playstation Digital Card Arena game that came out around this time. And Superstarmon is... well, basically Starmon, but golden and with some sick shades and whatever those little thingies on his arms are. It's actually pretty neat, preserving Starmon's design (even if, again, Starmon isn't my favourite Digimon) while adding a bunch of fun little paraphernalia that do sell the impression that this is a stronger Digimon. Superstarmon can even apparently control real stars, summoning a mini meteor shower. Apparently, Superstarmon's bio notes that it wears shades to "hide its identity", but because it's, well, a golden star, everyone knows who he is.A non-speaking, enigmatic Superstarmon was the leader of a moon colony of Starmons in Digimon Frontier, assisting our heroes when they were randomly blasted to the moon in one episode. In Hunters, a horrible filler episode had an obnoxious Superstarmon kidnap celebrities and... and did something. I dunno. Hunters is terrible. Superstarmon's all right -- it's a better evolution than Insekimon is, anyway, with just enough extra touches put in to not just make him a recolour.
5/10.
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