This week we're going to be covering a pretty significant part of Digimon lore. The Four Holy Beasts, also known as the Four Sovereigns! Or Harmonious Ones, or Shiseijuu. They have a lot of names! 02 was where the world-building in the Digimon profiles extended beyond just "this is a strong creature!", for better or for worse. The Four Holy Beasts are added as secret characters in the D3 Virtual Pets and the Wonderswan games, and appeared in both the 02 and Tamers continuities as basically the four 'gods' of the world.And since the real-life origin of these four sovereigns are shared, I guess I'll talk about them a bit. These four are based upon a neat little myth from China, that of the Four Symbols -- the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermilion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West, and the Black Turtle of the North. Each of the four beasts represent a cardinal direction and a season. The myth of these four beasts would later spread to other oriental-Asian cultures, among them Japan, where the Four Beasts were famously depicted as the Four Guardian Beasts of Kyoto. They are also associated with the constellations of the sky. TVTropes has an article about these dudes and how they are often depicted in media, famously in YuYu Hakusho, Beyblade and Gurren Lagann.
Interestingly, the names of the Four Beasts actually use the Chinese names -- 青龍 (Qing Long), 朱雀 (Zhu Que), 白虎 (Bai Hu) and 玄武 (Xuan Wu)... and the official romanization of these four Digimon use that of the Chinese pinyin. But the way that they are pronounced in the actual anime is how Japanese people pronounce Chinese words, not to be confused with the Japanese reading of these Kanji (which would be Seiryu, Suzaku, Byakko and Genbu, respectively). Oriental languages are fun, aren't they?
Anyway, the Holy Beasts first made their appearance in 02, where only Qinglongmon makes a real appearance... but he delivers a whole ton of exposition to our characters, telling them that they were the ones that sealed away Apocalymon and the Dark Masters prior to the start of Adventure, and that they themselves ended up being sealed themselves, and Qinglongmon at least helped out in battling against a couple of threats although he doesn't really end up doing much throughout the series. It would be revealed in Tri, the sequel to Adventure and 02, (mild spoilers for Tri), that the Four Holy Beasts were actually the ascended Ultimate versions of a previous generation of Chosen Children, mentioned ever-so-briefly in Adventure's final arc... and it's revealed that two of the adult humans that have been helping out our heroes in Tri are part of this past generation of Chosen Children!
In Tamers, on the other hand, had a distinctly different mythology. The Four Holy Beasts still serve as the 'gods' of the world, and it's revealed that they are the masters of the Deva -- a group of twelve powerful Perfect-level Digimon that were sent to wreak havoc upon the human world (also based on the Chinese mythology). We get the revelation that one of the Four Holy Beasts, Zhuqiaomon, is convinced -- not without good reason -- that humanity is trying to wipe out their entire universe. Our heroes and that universe's Qinglongmon manage to talk Zhuqiaomon down, gather the other two Holy Beasts, and then face off against the real threat -- the D-Reaper, an eldritch abomination born out of humanity's attempts to purge the digital world, which has gained its own sentience.
It's a shame that the Four Holy Beasts ended up being dropped out in favour of other 'boss' Digimon, with the three Angels in Frontier, part of the Olympus XII in Savers and the Royal Knights in both Frontier and Savers. They have their own appeal, but for the life of me I've always found these four to be a lot more majestic than a bunch of samey angels and dudes in armour.
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Qinglongmon (a.k.a. Azulongmon/Chinronmon)
Anyway, after all of that origin story and talk about their huge lore implications, let's start off with the Azure Dragon of the East, Qinglongmon. Pronounced Chinronmon and renamed Azulongmon in the dub, Qinglongmon here is a pretty badass depiction of a Chinese dragon. His serpentine body is seemingly made up of lightning, with chains holding him together, and he's got five pairs of wings dotting his body. I also do like his head-helmet thing which looks a bit more solid, with that fancy Chinese dragon beard trailing down. There's perhaps a couple of details that end up making Qinglongmon a bit more cluttered than he should, but that's the fault of his inspiration more than Qinglongmon himself -- real-life Chinese Dragons are meant to be supreme beasts with attributes of all other animals, so they are inherently pretty busy. As an aside, I love that beard.All of the Holy Beats have four eyes and a bunch of glowing orbs floating around them as a shared design. Qinglongmon opts for the simple "two eyes on each side of the head", with orbs floating around each of his legs. Pretty neat! I've always found Qinglongmon to be cool and dignified and just a touch silly, and clearly the franchise has no problem making Qinglongmon look cool. In addition to his membership among the Four Holy Beasts, Qinglongmon also moonlights as the leader of the Four Great Dragons alongside Holydramon, Megidramon and Goddramon.
Anyway, Qinglongmon is easily the most dignified and regal of the Four Holy Beasts, and remains one of my favourite designs for a god-tier Digimon. While most Digimon games tended to have one or more of the Deva (Perfect-level servitors of the Holy Beasts) act as the Holy Beasts' pre-evolved form, with the draconic Majiramon being the most likely candidate, Tri opted for a more humble pre-evolved state for Adventure's Qinglongmon, having him evolve from one of the Chosen Childrens' Triceramon of all things. Triceramon! One of the members of the Chosen Children's Digimon in that flashback is a Megadramon, but that Megadramon was the one that died instead of becoming the dragon god. Why?
Anyway, Qinglongmon's cool. I like him.
9/10.Zhuqiaomon (a.k.a. Sutsemon)
Being part of an oriental culture, you just know that the "Vermilion Bird of the South" will always gets depicted as a mighty phoenix. And Zhuqiaomon (pronounced Setsumon) is the only Virus-attribute member of the group, although his appearance in Tamers is less evil and more of a Knight Templar-style extremist. Zhuqiaomon is described in his bio as the one with the roughest temperament among the Four Holy Beasts, whihc plays into his control of flame pretty well. Zhuqiaomon's bio is also the one that emphasizes just how powerful these Holy Beasts are, noting that they stand so much higher above ordinary Ultimate-levels... although writing this several Digimon series down the line, that distinction honestly doesn't mean much, with every other Royal Knight or Olympus people being "so much stronger" than regular Ultimate-levels.Zhuqiaomon's design is pretty interesting, since it isn't just a normal phoenix but has a much more serpentine body before it ends in the bird-like beak. They perhaps added a couple too many wings on Zhuqiaomon, with four pairs of wings dotting his body, and that two tiny ones from his chest honestly feel quite silly. Do like that the normal bird-legs also end up just being wings with claws at the end. I get that Zhuqiaomon had to look far more impressive than the earlier-released Hououmon, which is a "mere" phoenix and not the GOD OF ALL PHOENIXES, but I always feel that Zhuqiaomon is the most cluttered among all the Holy Beasts. Again, this is one that other artwork tended to take liberties with, emphasizing the sheer size of Zhuqiaomon's wings to make him feel more majestic. Also note that the art here doesn't really show it, but on Zhuqiaomon's spine is a random jet turbine, which I first saw while watching Tamers and it always felt so out of place.
Again, just like Qinglongmon, Zhuqiaomon has four eyes, and a bunch of floating orbs, this time around his neck and tail. Just like Qinglongmon, Zhuqiaomon tended to be portrayed to evolve from one of the Deva... although the Devas' resident Rooster, Sinduramon, has always felt waaay too goofy to turn into this majestic phoenix. Hilarious, though! Tri had a Hippogriffomon turn into Zhuqiaomon instead, which is less funny, but I guess more appropriate. Anyway, while probably one of the more boring out of the Four Sovereigns, I still like Zhuqiaomon for a big scary god-bird phoenix.
7/10.Xuanwumon (a.k.a. Ebonwumon/Shen'umon)
Xuanwumon (pronounced Shen'wumon and renamed Ebonwumon in the dub) is the Black Turtle of the North, and I've always felt like he's the most fun design out of the Four Holy Beasts. Qinglongmon, Zhuqiaomon and Baihumon opted for majesty and a general look that just screams Holy Beast, but Xuanwumon looks silly but still dignified... just like real-life old turtles, really. Xuanwumon plays off myths of the "World Turtle" in Hindu, Chinese and Native American mythology (which also inspired the Pokemon Torterra), as well as some depictions of the Black Turtle as a two-headed serpentine tortoise. Xuanwumon's just this huge two-headed turtle whose shell is also a big-ass tree with the biggest trunk ever. And he's fun!I also love how both heads in Xuanwumon has different helmets, with the right head being more snake-like, and the left head looking like a chibi-Greymon head. They also split the Four Holy Beasts' four eyes among the two heads, which I've always thought to be quite clever! Xuanwumon is described as the oldest out of the Four Holy Beasts, and also the gentlest. In Tamers, Xuanwumon is easily the one that's the cheeriest and funniest out of the four. Zhuqiaomon is quick to blame humanity and acts as an antagonist, Qinglongmon plays the peacekeeper fighting for humanity, Baihumon acts as the spearhead and fights the threat while everyone else fights among their own... Xuanwumon just chills, yo, and makes jokes.
Where Zhuqiaomon and Qinglongmon command fire and lightning respectively, Xuanwumon is described to command the element of water, using it to not shoot water cannons as you'd think, but rather to create mists and hallucinations. Again, Xuanwumon traditionally evolves from a Deva or combination thereof (there is none among the Zodiac that perfectly fits a turtle, though), whereas Tri opts for one of the Chosen Children's Orochimon to transform into Xuanwumon... kind of appropriate once you think of it, since Orochimon is also a multi-headed serpent based on Asian mythology!
9/10.Baihumon
Anyway, back to Baihumon... I honestly can't say much about him, really. He's just a white tiger with stuff stapled onto him, and I honestly prefer his little minion, the tiger Deva Mihiramon, over Baihumon himself, if we're being honest. Interestingly, Baihumon is noted to be the youngest and most powerful of the Four Holy Beasts. He at least has a cool move where his roars will convert anyone into metal, dooming them to rust to death, unable to move or scream... but what if Baihumon uses this against a robot Digimon? What, then?
Again, Baihumon tended to be shown to evolve from one or more of the Devas, with the tiger Mihiramon or the dog Caturamon as the most common subjects, but Tri would have one of the Chosen Children's LoaderLiomon evolve into Baihumon instead.
6/10.Nefertimon
Hoo, that's a mouthful! Time to talk about a bunch of armours. This time around, we're going to talk about the Armour evolutions of Tailmon, who, during the 02 cartoon's early parts (and for the D3 pet) is de-powered to the level of a Child-level when her Holy Ring was lost, and which is why Tailmon still needed to Armour Evolve. Despite technically being Armour Evolutions of an Adult-level Digimon, Nefertimon and Tailmon's other Armour evolutions tended to still be portrayed to have the relative power of an Adult-level, although power scaling in the Digimon franchise is kind of bullshit anyway.
Anyway, Hikari and Tailmon are one of the two pairs that made it from the main cast of Adventure into one of the main cast of 02, and Hikari quickly laid claim to the digimental associated with her originally, the Digimental of Light. And the resulting armour evolution is... actually pretty cool! It is basically a Tailmon with exaggerated, larger proportions, turned into a sphinx! It's actually a pretty fitting evolution for Tailmon, with the angelic wings a neat nod to Tailmon's natural evolution of Angewomon, whereas all of thearmour and the sphinx theme being a fitting evolution of Tailmon's own cat-based design.Interestingly, Nefertimon's attack is to create a beam of light from her back, from which shoots out a slab with hieroglyphics on it, called Rosetta Stone. What? Anyway, I've always loved Nefertimon's expressionless mask of a face and that fun little snake ornament on her brow. Also worth noting that while Tailmon is a cute little cat-sized Digimon and Angewomon is only slightly taller than a human adult, Nefertimon is a gigantic rideable sphinx-beast, so even when Hikari and Tailmon would have access to Perfects later on in the show (with Tailmon having Angewomon and Silphymon as options), Nefertimon still continues to pop up as transportation.
Anyway, I've always liked Nefertimon. Honestly, if Nefertimon looked slightly more majestic, I would wager that I would lobby for Nefertimon to be the more natural, official Perfect-level to bridge Tailmon and Holydramon. But I'm not going to -- Angewomon's still cool. In addition to being a main character in 02, a Nefertimon was an ally Digimon for an episode of Frontier.
7/10.Lynxmon
Again, none of these other Armours ended up showing up in 02, but were introduced in the D3 Virtual Pet as Armour evolutions for a Child-stage version of Tailmon. Lyxnmon here is Tailmon evolved with the Digimental of Courage and... well, it's a cat on fire! I don't necessarily think Lynxmon is a particularly good representation of a real-world lynx either. Other than the splashes of purple on her ears and face, though, Lynxmon really doesn't have much in common with Tailmon design-wise. It's kinda neat in the sense that a cat ON FIRE is inherently pretty neat, but I've always sort of thought that Lynxmon felt kind of lazy. Apparently Lynxmon has some good-natured rivalry going on with Garurumon, according to her bio. Lynxmon would appear briefly as a villain-of-the-week in Tamers, as well as a brief cameo in Savers where Lynxmon was a Digimon that attacked the villainous racist human Kurata... but not before Kurata shot Lynxmon with a shotgun. Man, talk about asking to get mauled! Anyway, Lynxmon's neat but there's nothing really special about her. 6/10.Bitmon (a.k.a. Rabbitmon)
Bitmon (renamed Rabbitmon in the dub because, face it, I didn't get that 'bit' was short for rabbit until it was spelled out for me) is another one of those ideas that really felt like they were ideas for other miscellaneous Adult or Child-level Digimon that got shoved to fill a quota in the D3 pet. This one is utterly forgettable, honestly, and doesn't have much going on for it that marks it as either an evolution of Tailmon or as a Friendship Armour... although it's not that Friendship ever has any sort of connecting thorough-line. Bitmon is... a rabbit with... a skin-tight wrestling suit? Weird tapering ears? Random claws that can crush diamonds and dig underground? It apparently collects minerals and then attaches it to its body and head, and curls up to avoid damage. Also, it kind of apparently likes to collect fossils? Whatever. Bitmon here is easily one of the more forgettable armours, and that's saying something since this dude has even shown up in two anime series -- Frontier and Xros Wars -- and I remember Frogmon more fondly than this one. 3/10.Maildramon
Oh yes, finally something cool! Maildramon here doesn't have anything to do with Tailmon, but god damn, this is a cool one. Maildramon evolves from the Digimental of Miracles, and I honestly think only it and and Magnamon really look the part of some miraculous holy beast ready to kick ass... although Maildramon is nowhere as powerful as everyone's favourite plot device evolution, having merely the power of an Adult-level. Oh well, Maildramon's a lot cooler! He's a sauropodal dinosaur with angelic wings, and a distinct knightly-vibe with that cool segmented tail and that fun little helmet-head. Maildramon is described as being the steed of Knightmon, which I guess explains the whole knightly vibe. Maildramon's sole appearance in anime was in Tamers, where it's surprisingly shown as a wild beast chasing around poor old Culumon, fighting a DarkTyrannomon, before getting absolutely crushed when Culumon caused the DarkTyrannomon to evolve into a MetalTyrannomon. I've always found Maildramon to be pretty cool! 8/10.Swanmon
Mmmm, yeah, not feeling this one. Swanmon is Tailmon's evolution through the Digimental of Love, playing into the theme of flying things and... I dunno. It's just kind of a swan? A swan with random bits and bobs of metallic accessories stapled on, including the weirdest set of slippers I've ever seen on a bird. Apparently Swanmon has ice powers, and whenever she moves through the computer network, any computer she passes through "freezes". She's also the guardian nanny of the Digimon Eggs in the Frontier cartoon, watching over the baby Digimon in the Village of Beginnings. I'm completely indifferent about Swanmon, though -- one of the armours that genuinely felt like they just picked an animal they haven't turned into a Digimon and just drew it funny. Or maybe I just don't like swans in general, considering I gave Swanna a similarly bland rating. Whatever. Not my thing. 2/10.Kabukimon
I didn't think I really liked Kabukimon much until I paid a little more attention to her lore. I thought she was just a generic humanoid with a Kabuki mask and some flower petals slapped on. See, Kabukimon here evolves with the Digimental of Purity (Palmon's crest), and it took a while for me to realize that Kabukimon actually has thorny vines for arms, and both of her 'hands' are actually flowers with Kabuki masks on them... and considering we've seen these sort of plant monsters with heads on vines with Blossomon, it's likely that those head-hands are, well, heads too! Maybe. The bio notes just how plant-like Kabukimon behaves, where she often plants her feet in the ground and assuming a pose, and the Kabuki-dance-esque movements Kabukimon does are apparently because she's a plant trying to blend in with non-plants or something. It's a fun enough backstory to raise my initial 1/5 rating to 2/5, at least. Kabukimon's sole anime appearance is as one of Musyamon's minions in Xros Wars, as a member among many, many Japanese-themed Digimon. 4/10.Butterflymon (a.k.a. Butterflamon)
Everything Butterflymon tries to do, I'm afraid, every single other bug-themed Armour Digimon does better. Honeybeemon is yellow, cuter and more distinctive. Flybeemon nails down the cool, sleek look better than this guy. And Shadramon nails the chunky, quirky look a lot better as well. Butterflymon doesn't really look much like a proper butterfly anyway, more like a generic humanoid imp with huge chunky lower arms, with butterfly wings stapled onto her back. Sure, she's got Tailmon's ears popping out of her helmet, and a little spit-curl based on a butterly's proboscis, but this Knowledge Armour always felt superfluous and utterly bland to me. I dunno. I'm surprised that a bug-based Digimon would make me feel so indifferent, but this is such a weirdly bland and genuinely somewhat messy design that ends up being so much more superfluous with other better humanoid bug Digimon. Honestly tempted to give this a 0/5, but I don't actively hate Butterflymon. I just... forget she exists. All the time. 3/10.Tylomon
Oh shit, this one is cool. Tylomon is Tailmon's evolution with Gomamon's Digimental of Sincerity, and it borrows a page from Submarimon in that Tylomon is an aquatic creature crossed with some sort of deep-sea vehicle. In Tylomon's case, he's based on a Tylosaurus, one of the largest members of the Mosasauridae family (Mosasaurs had a huge resurgence in pop culture thanks to Jurassic World) crossed with some sort of a jet or submarine or something. I really like this one! The design is simple with a bunch of sleek cyborg parts and two giant knives stapled on, and Tylomon even kind of looks like he hangs out with the likes of old-school aquatic monsters like Seadramon and Plesiomon. I would perhaps do away with the random Digimon language glyphs tatooed onto Tylomon's side, but otherwise the random metallic parts doesn't detract too much from Tylomon's design. Apparently Tylomon's known as the "Jet Plane of the Deep", being one of the fastest Digimon underwater, and is, of course, a ferocious deep-sea dinosaur. Tylomon has appeared in a Tamers movie, as part of a pretty badass battle sequence between him and Guilmon, and also had a brief role as an ally Digimon that ferried Masaru around in Savers. All in all, a pretty cool and sleek design! 7/10.Goatmon (a.k.a. Oryxmon)
Goatmon (renamed Oryxmon for some reason in the dub) is... a goat? With a bunch of armour? Goatmon at least looks somewhat neat, although I've always found him to just kind of be there. Goatmon, of course, is a Hope Armour evolution, all of whom are quadrupedal hooved mammals. Goatmon is apparently a Digimon charged with the duty of guarding treasures, ruins and other important data... but because it's a goat, sometimes it forgets and embarrassingly eats the data it guards. Oh, Goatmon. Goatmon is also noted to have a rivalry with the thieving Harpymon, and apparently attacks with the sound from that bell on his neck. It's a fun, grizzled goat, I guess, and has appeared a couple of times -- as a servitor of Seraphimon and a recurring ally in Frontier who actually had a fun "grumpy ally" personality and had a pretty badass death, as well as brief cameos in Xros Wars. Anyway, Goatmon's... neat. As a grizzled goat that doesn't really offend me in any way, I find it a lot more likable than the likes of Bitmon and Butterflamon here. 5/10.Opossummon
Opossumon is definitely one of the more bizarre armour evolutions that Tailmon can turn into, and this one doesn't even look like a proper Adult-level Digimon. Opossumon evolves from the Digimental of Kindness, and I guess the whole theme of Kindness is that it turns the Digimon into a cute, charming fairy-like thing? I dunno. Opossumon is kinda cute, I guess, and I've never noticed that she's got Tailmon's ears. A weird little cartoon rat with gloves, booties and a fun little Santa hat, traveling around with a bunch of balloons with shit-eating grins painted on them is pretty bizarre, but bizarre in a fun way. Interestingly, despite looking weak, Opossumon's balloons are apparently filled with "powerful computer viruses", and in battle Opossumon is apparently unexpectedly destructive. Also, Opossumon apparently hides underground with only its balloons showing above, which is a neat little detail to throw into Opossumon's backstory.Opossumon, interestingly, ended up being featured as the partner of one of the secondary characters in the dire Xros Wars: Hunters, being partnered with a generic "kyaa kyaa" flirtatious girl Suzaki Airu, who is also prone to violent mood swings for no real reason. Hunters' Opossumon evolves into something truly bizarre, ChoHakkaimon, which is... yeah, I'm not going to talk about that thing any more than I should. I still am not sure how I feel about ChoHakkaimon, actually. Opossumon's cute, though!
5/10.
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