It's interesting how many of these villains post-Kaiser are all kind of designed exclusively for the show and only later incorporated into video games, instead of doing the Adventure method where they picked whichever ones among the existing Digimon they found the coolest and most appropriate as villains. For better or for worse, a huge chunk of Digimon's subsequent design process would involve this sort of "anime first" mentality, which... again, for better or for worse, would stifle out any sort of interesting standalone Digimon that never saw the light of day in the anime.
Also, I did a bit of a little rework of previous "Digimon Reviews" articles, changing the scale from 1 to 10, because unlike Pokemon, I feel that my feelings about the Digimon designs as a whole is far more varied, especially once we reach the post-Tamers designs. I'm slowly going through the Adventure-series "Digimon Reviews" ones, and you can expect the changes to bleed into the 02 ones as well.
_________________________________________________________
Archnemon
- Alternate Names: Arukenimon (EN dub / JP kana)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Demon Beast
- Attribute: Virus
For the majority of the second half of 02, Arukenimon (alternately, Archnemon) served as the 'Big Bad', although it's clear that she's at least in cahoots with a human in the real world, the shady Oikawa. Arukenimon's portrayals ended up alternating between pretty menacing as a Big Bad with a large amount of resources in her disposal, as well as being hilariously inept in an almost Jessie-and-James level of slapstick going on with her cohort Mummymon.
Arukenimon was initially introduced as what appeared to be an adult human, and ended up appearing in this strange humanoid form any time she isn't immediately involved in battle, but bursts out into that horrifying spider-beast any time she needed to actually fight the Chosen Children. There's actually a reason for this, with the revelation that apparently Arukenimon and Mummymon were themselves 'born' out of the negative emotions of the human Oikawa, himself a puppet of the ultimate-for-reals-big-bad BelialVamdemon, in an IMO pretty poorly-handled set of intro-dumps at the end of the 02 series. In her human form, Arukenimon tended to use a flute to control other insectoid Digimon to do her bidding like a twisted pied piper, and goes around turning the Kaiser's Dark Towers into artificial, evil Digimon puppets. Sadly, poor Arukenimon ended up getting sidelined in favour of a far less interesting "main villain". The official bio also makes a brief nod to Arukenimon's "human" disguise by noting that Arukenimon often pretends to look non-threatening as a way to lure its prey to its web.
I also appreciate just how insanely psychotic Arukenimon is allowed to look in the anime when she drops her humanoid guise. What an expressive and demented face she has! And her whole design really lends to expressiveness, really. That hunch-backed posture, those gangly, long Keramon-esque arms, the bandages, that batshit crazy grin, the black markings around her eyes... a lot of fun creepiness going on here!
Even from a design standpoint and not counting her 02 anime counterpart, I always found Arukenimon to be kind of fun. She's apparently the queen of all spiders, and is noted to be the master of all Dokugumon like some sort of queen ant. Her design, while clearly inspired in part by numerous spider-centaur creatures like D&D's Drider (and I do really like the huge bulbous abdomen with those clackety legs), also borrows from the Japanese yokai, the Ushi-oni (a spider-bull hybrid monster), especially with those low-key bull horns on her head that honestly still looks quite fashionable and monstrous at the same time. Also, interestingly, while we never see this particular ability in the anime, Arukenimon apparently has a large number of Dokugumon hidden in her abdomen that she can unleash upon the enemy.... that's got to be painful, since Dokugumon tended to be shown as pretty gigantic themselves. The anime exclusively portrayed Arukenimon as just shooting spider thread, controlling insects or breathing acidic mist. Overall, while Arukenimon might not be the most threatening of Digimon's villains, I've always liked her for the sheer monstrous charm she brings. Plus, she's a giant spider monster. That's pretty cool.
9/10._________________________________________________________
Mummymon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Undead
- Attribute: Virus
Mummymon here is Arukenimon's partner in 02, but partner kind of implies equal standing. 'High-ranking minion' or 'companion' is probably more appropriate, I think. Mummymon also is initially introduced as a quasi-human form, as this Igor-esque hunchbacked, gangly dude that serves as Arukenimon's chauffeur, driving Arukenimon around in a car and being the dumb muscle that keeps flirting with Arukenimon, and all he earns for his pathetic attempts of flirting is physical abuse. Which is sorta-kinda funny the first couple of times and would've been grating in the later episodes if not for the fantastic, hilarious voice acting work that the voice actors put into these two bumbling dudes. And kudos to the anime for still having this pair of Perfect-level Digimon still feel threatening even though they spend 90% of their screentime bumbling it up. Their deaths at the hand of the totally-Big-Bad BelialVamdemon is pretty unnecessarily brutal and mean-spirited, and is probably a huge, huge part as to why I disliked how 02 eventually ended. Poor Mummymon just looks so shocked at Arukenimon's death and is straight-up suicidal at that point. That's genuinely pretty dark.
In addition to his role in 02, Mummymon also ended up having a brief minor role in the X-Evolution movie where he had a surprisingly badass Gandalf-style "you shall not pass" moment against the movie's villains. I don't remember much about X-Evolution other than it's confusing, but I do remember Mummymon's badass last stand. He also had a couple of brief cameos in Frontier and Tamers. Oh, and while I don't think Arukenimon has a default Ultimate stage (it's her Adult-stage that was established), everyone pretty much agrees that Mummymon evolves into Pharaohmon, something we covered a couple of weeks back, which is suitable, even if it sort of robs a lot of Mummymon's wacky charm. Also, thanks to the way his feet are illustrated, as a kid I've always thought that Mummymon and Andromon were related in some way.
Mummymon's a pretty neat design, and surprisingly I've never quite realized just how much is going on in Mummymon's design. I've always noticed the hideously long Devimon-esque arms that made Mummymon's posture so creepy, and the big-ass machinegun (it's named "Obelisk"), as well as the funky little Egyptian crooks on his shoulders.... but I've never quite realized the little metallic frames on Mummymon's legs, as well as how the official artwork makes Mummymon's machinegun look like a crutch. So is Mummymon a double reference? Is he an Egyptian mummy that also happens to be homaging a hospital patient in bandages? That's funny! Also neat that even in his human form, we only ever see one eye. Mummymon's bio notes that he's known as the Necromancer because of his ability to forcibly manipulate the souls of the dead.... but his "Necrophobia" attack, described in the bio as "summoning ghosts to drive its opponent into maddened death"... is almost consistently shown in anime and games as Mummymon just shooting his big-ass gun. Okay? Anyway, Mummymon's a fun undead Digimon design, and helps to round out Digimon's little roster of classic Halloween monsters alongside the likes of Boltmon, Vamdemon and WereGarurumon. Anyway, Arukenimon and Mummymon are actually pretty neat in the anime, whilst still being pretty fun designs themselves. I don't think I've ever realized how much I liked these two until I sat down and started typing.
8/10._________________________________________________________
BlackWarGreymon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Dragon Man
- Attribute: Virus
So 02 is easily divided into two parts -- the first half deals with Ken and his time as the Digimon Kaiser, which is both parts formulaic and repetitive, but at the same time with a clear end-goal in sight. The second half of 02 is just chaotic, running around introducing new concepts, introdumping the Four Holy Beasts and International Chosen Children and Dark Spores and the Daemon Corps and several different Big Bads, before culminating in dumb old BelialVamdemon below. But while 02's final episodes is a pretty jumbled mess, there was a stretch in the middle that focused on Arukenimon and Mummymon, as well as the wild card BlackWarGreymon.
And design-wise, there's nothing special about BlackWarGreymon. It's a WarGreymon. But black with silver and gold accents. They almost never have any interesting bit in their official profiles beyond "how is this mysterious being a black, possibly-evil version of an established heroic Digimon? Oh my!" My opinions towards these black repaints (and there's going to be a lot) is "neat, but do we really need this?" None of them really get any personality... other than BlackWarGreymon, of course.
Long story short, Arukenimon's modus operandi is to transform the Digimon Kaiser's old technology, the Dark Towers, into unfeeling, powerful minions. But as she gets increasingly desperate, Arukenimon combines a hundred of these Dark Towers into the mighty Ultimate-level BlackWarGreymon. But then... the thing built solely to become a weapon ends up developing sentience, if not quite morality. BlackWarGreymon has more power to lay the smackdown on the then-most-powerful Digimon on the good guys' arsenal, Paildramon (and later even HolyAngemon), but BlackWarGreymon's stopped by one thing that he has. A strange conscience, which torments him. He was built -- and driven by his instincts -- to destroy and kill and murder -- but he ends up wandering about the nature of free will, morality and just what he was put on this earth to do. Surprisingly deep questions in an otherwise light-hearted show. Including one point where BlackWarGreymon blows up an entire herd of Mammon (Mammothmon for the dub) just to protect a single flower, before questioning himself just why he chose the flower over the Mammon herd... and then crushing the flower himself in frustration. He ended up talking with our Agumon, and ended up developing his weird, warped sense of honour, culminating in him battling against the Chosen Children on his own quest to find his purpose. The writing towards the end of BlackWarGreymon's story was a bit spotty, but I did like how Qinglongmon ended up answering and also not answering BlackWarGreymon's existential crisis -- basically, he has to find things out on his own.
He would show up near the final episodes, initially choosing "protecting the Digital World" as his purpose and very nearly killed human villain (really a puppet for BelialVamdemon) Oikawa, but was talked down by Veemon and the other partner Digimon. BlackWarGreymon would then do a heroic sacrifice to protect Iori's grandfather when that jackass BelialVamdemon showed up... and I'm torn up about this. On one hand, it's a genuinely poorly-written and abrupt "oh no, look at this villain, he's so powerful, he killed one of the strongest guys around" shelving of a character. On the other hand, BlackWarGreymon did have a conclusion to his existential crisis by realizing that the purpose he was searching for was to become a hero, so at least he did die finding what he was looking for.
Overall, that's a whole lot of emotions I feel for what is otherwise just a bland, generic black-coloured repaint, and while nostalgia is a huge part of it, I really do feel that BlackWarGreymon and Ken's stories are the best part of 02, and despite the quality of the rest of the season, those two are relatively well-handled. Also note that the original blue virus version of MetalGreymon finally found a happy home after being shoved aside by the anime's orange version, because now the virus MetalGreymon have a proper and popular Ultimate stage to turn into.
9/10. Points courtesy of the anime._________________________________________________________
BelialVamdemon
- Alternate Names: MaloMyotismon (EN dub)
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Demon Lord
- Attribute: Virus
Okay, let's talk about BelialVamdemon, and how the character was handled. The final episodes of 02 was insanely eclectic, with three different villainous factions all fighting for screentime. Arukenimon, Mummymon and their human mastermind Oikawa were built up majorly, with ties to two the backstories of two of our main characters. Dagomon was this ominous threat that seemed to be a non-sequitur in an early episode, but its Dark Ocean kept showing up and being built up as something spooky. And in the middle of it all, everyone on the bad guys side were shocked when Demon shows up with an army of demonic Digimon. Oh, and BlackWarGreymon also shows up after a dozen-episode hiatus. All of this were rushed at the end of the series in the span of five or six episodes with barely any room to breathe.
Any one of these villains -- Arukenimon, Dagomon, Demon or BlackWarGreymon -- would've been an unsatisfying final villain for a rushed final season. But at least they would have some buildup. But randomly, it turns out that... it was Vamdemon's ghost all along? Through the very hastily-written final episodes of 02, Vamdemon is revealed to have survied, morphed into a brand-new form called BelialVamdemon, and hijacks the ending... for a very anticlimactic finish as BelialVamdemon essentially gets defeated by the power of happy feelings. 02 was always a show that I thought was filled with a lot of expectations that it didn't really deliver on, and having its final villain be this guy is a bit of a black mark against it. Apocalymon came out of nowhere, but at least it showed up after the previous bad guys were dealt with. BelialVamdemon came out of nowhere with no explanation and got rid of several other characters who deserved a better ending.
The worst thing is that BelialVamdemon isn't even a nice-looking design, lacking the sheer style of regular Vamdemon or the bestial monstrousness of VenomVamdemon. It's a very artificial-looking demon robot, and while there are attempts to make it look somewhat vampiric, it ends up being quite hokey. There's a huge set of bat-wings that looks like a plane stapled on BelialVamdemon's back, which ends up looking clunky. There are two shoulder cannons that open up like jaws, which I'm not a big fan of. It's also got a fanged beak as a crotch? I suppose that ties to VenomVamdemon, although this crotch-mouth doesn't talk.
My favourite part of BelialVamdemon's design is its arms, strangely enough, mostly due to the chunkiness of the lower arms and the weird multi-pronged fingers. Those always stood out to me in what is otherwise a messy design. I mostly go for the original Japanese names here, but 'BelialVamdemon' is, by the way, a horrible name that lacks the punchiness of 'VenomVamdemon'. The English dub opts for 'MaloMyotismon', which actually isn't a bad one! I also really don't like his head, which just looks so out of place with a very flesh-toned face and blonde hair.
Yeah, I'm sorry, BelialVamdemon. I tried to like you, but I really don't.
3/10. Minus one for ruining a season finale._________________________________________________________
Pegasmon
- Alternate Names: Pegasusmon (EN dub)
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Holy Beast
- Attribute: Free
Just like Hikari, Takeru ended up joining the main cast of 02, and also like Hikari, Takeru ended up in possession of the Digimental with the crest that he was originally associated with, Hope. So Patamon gets to evolve into this creature, Pegasmon (Pegasusmon in the dub), which is this holy pegasus that is a neat nod to Patamon's 'default' evolution of Angemon, as well as one of his possible evolutions in the original V-Pet, Unimon. Except unlike the raggedly Unimon, Pegasmon is far more majestic, with a bunch of holy metal plates attached to his body and full, non-tattered golden wings, and a fun little mouthless mask. Pegasmon's fleshy parts, while being decidedly equine and not at all like a bat/guinea pig hybrid, still are clearly inspired by Patamon. And it's neat that Patamon's bat wings end up as Pegasmon's ears.
Pegasmon has kind of been... there. He's a very pleasant design and an appropriate evolution for Patamon, but I've never quite been as enamoured with him as his partner-in-crime Nefertimon. He's neat, but I don't really have that much of a personal attachment with him. In addition to 02, Pegasmon has a brief appearance as part of Xros Wars' Heaven Zone. He's neat. I just don't love him is all.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Pipismon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Mutation
- Attribute: Free
Pipismon is maybe my favourite of the Patamon evolutions, and the only Patamon evolution to really acknowledge Patamon's bat-ear-wings. Borrowing his name from the scientific name of the Japanese house bat, Pipistrellus abramus, Pipismon is anything but a regular bat! It takes the sickle-shaped finger that bats have on their wing to grasp things, turns it into an actual metal sickle, and proceeds to replace every limb on Pipismon's body with a sickle. Oh, and it's given this huge-ass mouth that shoots sonic blasts, which makes a pretty cool visual even before the tie-in with Patamon became apparent in my head. Pipismon's a pretty cool, if simple, bat monster. The profiles note that Pipismon is born out of an ultrasonic sensor's computer. And apparently Pipismon's ear and mouth function similarly to a speaker, allowing it to record sounds and reproduce it perfectly.
And if Pipismon's official Bandai art doesn't appeal to you, the anime model actually gives him a more stylized, more humanoid body. Man, Pipismon looks so much more threatening and adorable simultaneously with that gaping maw closed, huh? Pipismon has had a bunch of appearances in the animes, too, first appearing as a minor enemy in a Tamers movie. In Frontier, the Chosen Children of that series enter the Darkness Continent and was sure that everything in a place called the "Darkness Continent" will murder them, especially these sickle-bats flying around them... only for them to find out that, hey, the Pipismon are actually nice folk who don't want any trouble, and the Frontier kids are just kind of racist. After they make friends with the Pipismon, though, they get straight-up murdered by recurring villain Arbormon. Pipismon would make brief cameos in Savers and Xros Wars as well. Overall, a pretty cool blade-bat.
9/10._________________________________________________________
Baromon
- Alternate Names: Baronmon (EN dub)
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Demon Man
- Attribute: Free
Huh! Patamon evolving with the Digimental of Courage apparently evolves him into a Barong, a lion-like king of spirits native to the myths of Bali, and despite his fearsome appearance, the Barong is actually a force of good. As someone who spent a not-insignificant part of his life living in Bali, I can definitely appreciate Baromon (renamed Baronmon by the dub, who I assume just didn't get the cultural reference, or is afraid the kids wouldn't) a lot. Shame that the design actually feels a lot more low-key than what I thought a Barong-based monster would be. It's just a dude with a Barong mask. Shame. It's noted that Baromon guards database/ruins in jungles, and that Baromon is a survivor of an older generation of Digimon, and has abilities of a "lost technology not found in current Digimon", particularly his third eye, able to forecast the future, and can manipulate the spirits of the cosmos to summon meteors that can "annihilate 10 terabytes of data around the target". Shame that none of Baromon's abilities really line up with the mythological Barong, though at least the thematic influence of a different sort of 'angel' for Patamon to evolve into is sort of shown here.
Baromon is perhaps one of the most prolific non-02-show Armours, being one of the Big Bads of the Tamers movie "The Adventurers' Battle". Baromon led a small army of other unused Armour evolutions in battle against the Tamers, before being defeated and eventually replaced by the real big bad, Mephismon. In Frontier, Baromon was a historian that preserved the history of the digital world's past, and while initially assumed to be a villain by our heroes, it turns out that Baromon was just trying to get their attention, warning them that the ancient evil Lucemon and his minions, a pair of Royal Knights, are trying to destroy the world. After giving this information, the Knights show up and straight-up murder Baromon as he held the line to allow the heroes to escape.
Another heroic Baromon appeared in Savers, being the leader of the Holy City atop the mighty giant ElDoradimon. After a brief misunderstanding where he nearly fed the heroes to a Cerberumon, he and his city ended up being a staunch ally to Masaru's team, and was the leader of its defenses against the man-made Digimon led by the evil human Kurata. This didn't end well, however, and both Baromon and ElDoradimon (and what's implied to be its entire population) were straight-up murdered by Kurata and his machines.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Ponchomon)
- Alternate Names: Baronmon (EN dub)
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Ghost
- Attribute: Free
I like Ponchomon, as long as we remove the context that he's supposed to be Patamon's Armour evolution via the Digimental of Purity. It's clear that Poncohomon here is meant to be related to Togemon, either as an evolution or as a variation, because Ponchomon... is the undead, Mexican-themed ghost of a Togemon. And, hell, in at least one game, the only way to get a Ponchomon is straight-up through the 'death evolution' of Togemon. I was initially pretty indifferent about Ponchomon up until the point that I was about to write this review when I realized that, hey, a grinning ghostly cactus with a poncho, a sombrero and a bunch of maracas is actually quite hilarious. Besides, its Bandai profile is actually pretty charming, noting that despite its morbid origin of a Togemon dying due to unforeseen circumstances, and something about a "Latin music distribution system", causes the Togemon to be reborn as the cactus ghost Ponchomon. Apparently despite its grinning expression, its facial expressions is as unreadable as regular Togemon due to it being stuck in that tongue-grin near-permanently. Also, it, of course, moves around in the beat of a mariachi song, something that Ponchomon apparently enjoys performing alongside Bakemon! It's adorable.
Ponchomon has a couple of minor appearances throughout the years, first appearing in a Tamers movie as one of Baromon's henchmen alongside fellow Armours Pipismon and Sepikmon, and as background characters through multiple episodes of Frontier -- particularly characterized as street performers -- and several Ponchomon works in the Disneyland pastiche seen in Xros Wars: Hunters. Is this thing racist? Perhaps somewhat, but it's such a fun design. I was about to give him a 1/5 with a review along the lines of "lol racist Togemon variant" but somehow I missed the whole point of Ponchomon being a ghost. And that, I think, elevates him enough to become a 3/5.
Does it make sense that Patamon evolves into Togemon's ghost? No, not really. But very few of the Armour evolutions really do.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Stegomon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Stegosaur
- Attribute: Free
Stegomon is Patamon's evolution with the Digimental of Friendship... and he's... kinda boring, I've always felt. It's just a mean-looking Stegosaurus with metal blades instead of, well, flesh-blades. Multiple rows of them, in fact. I feel that Stegomon didn't really do enough to distinguish itself that much from its real-life counterpart, and doesn't quite look as unique as other dinosaur Digimon like Monochromon or Triceramon. It's neat, but it's one that I felt to be kind of underwhelming. It can apparently shoot out its blades into the sky like rain, but it'll leave the rest of him unprotected, apparently. Also, add Stegomon into the pile of "Friendship Armours don't actually have a theme", because so far we've got a lightning wolf, a monkey shaman, an ice skater, a blade-shooting stegosaurus, an icy porcupine and a rabbit luchador.
Stegomon also sort of ends up becoming one of the more prolific of the Armours thanks to Savers, where Stegomon, or rather, a variant of Stegomon, ended up being the transformed form of a Digimon-Human hybrid, namely the Russian mercenary Ivan. Thanks to Savers and Ivan having access to two bio-hybrid evolutions, Stegomon also ended up having Spinomon as his 'default' Perfect-mode evolution. Stegomon's all right, but I honestly don't find him all that interesting as an actual Digimon.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Mothmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Insect
- Attribute: Free
Obligatory Knowledge-Armour bug Mothmon here is at least a bit more pleasant compared to Butterflymon from last week, but it's another one I feel utterly indifferent towards. It's just kind of a vaguely insect-based robot with Patamon's mouth, moth wings, and moth antennae... and a big-ass gatling gun on its butt. It's just kinda there, I guess? Mothmon isn't terrible, and I suspect my indifference towards Mothmon is that he is utterly unused even in video games. I do find the gatling-gun-butt funny, at least. And apparently Mothmon joins Flybeemon, Honeybeemon and Butterflymon in "being born during a large Kunemon outbreak". Apparently Mothmon takes the myth behind moth dust-scales and instead of making them poisonous or sleep-inducing like most traditional Japanese fiction does, Mothmon's wing-dust are gunpowder, which it uses to power its butt-gun. Not quite the sort of bug monster I like, but one that's so ridiculous looking that I can't lie, I do like this one.
7/10._________________________________________________________
Mantaraymon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Aquatic
- Attribute: Free
The aquatic evolution of Patamon, via Gomamon's Digimental of Sincerity, is Mantaraymon over here, which, like many other Sincerity evolutions, also has a bit of a mechanical, vehicular vibe to it -- although not quite as much as the likes of Submarimon or Tyloon, I feel. Mantaraymon's a neat enough design, I suppose, although I feel that it doesn't do enough to differentiate itself from a real manta ray, just adding a bunch of spikes and making the fins more jet-like... and the one thing that they change, getting rid of the manta ray's huge bwaaaa mouth, ends up making the design feel a lot less charming. I do like that they went with a bit of a military vehicle vibe by noting that Mantaraymon is basically the digital world's version of a stealth jet, being invisible to radar, and often "used for reconnaissance or underwater bombardment". Mantaraymon also adopts a trick from real-life stingrays by having a stun-gun built into that stinger-shaped tail of his. Mantaraymon shows up a bit as a recurring enemy in the first Tamers movie, working alongside fellow aquatic Armours Tylomon and Depthmon, and was the most effective among the three, I remember. A bunch of them also served under arc villain Neptunemon in Xros Wars, where they were portrayed as the size of large battleships and functioned as like these capital ships for the rest of Neptunemon's aquatic-themed army. That particular aspect is probably the most fondly I remember these guys, I feel. I really like real-life rays, but I'm surprisingly lukewarm on this dude.
7/10._________________________________________________________
Rhinomon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Mammal
- Attribute: Free
7/10._________________________________________________________
Manbomon
- Alternate Names: Mambomon (EN dub)
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Mutation
- Attribute: Free
Ummm. Ummm??? Manbomon here obviously based on the Mola mola, otherwise known as the ocean sunfish, which in itself is a pretty dang bizarre choice for an Armour evolution at all, let alone one associated with Patamon. And that's without getting to the fact that Manbomon has a pretty cool propeller on his butt, as well as two random muscular arms that ended in boxing gloves. What is this, Pukumon's little brother? I don't think Manbomon ever evolves into something that evolves into Pukumon, though, since the non-show Armours tend to be sort of ignored by the video games. Manbomon's just... he just doesn't do it for me. I do appreciate a boxing sunfish, but Manbomon is just a collection of concepts that just doesn't really work for me. Interestingly, Manbomon is the Armour evolution for Patamon with the Digimental of Light, which had previously given us angelic-themed Digimon like Nefertimon, Gargoylemon, Coatlmon, Harpymon and Seahomon, making Manbomon the completely bizarre one. It's apparently deceptively slow and can deliver quick punches with his propeller, and that it can heal people by spitting out antibodies that look like smaller versions of himself. An okay design, I suppose, but definitely not my thing. Maybe I would've liked Manbomon if it is just a random standalone Digimon instead of part of a set? I dunno, I feel that it's not quite as weird as Pukumon and is just flat-out silly more than anything.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Prairiemon
- Alternate Names: Prariemon / Ferrarimon (EN dub)
- Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
- Type: Beast
- Attribute: Free
Prairiemon is Patamon's Armour Evolution with the Digimental of Kindness, and it's just a prairie dog with big-ass blood-stained metal claws. It's... it exists, I guess? I dunno. Always found this one to be particularly uninteresting, although it's well-drawn, I suppose, with that thousand-yard stare being quite charming. Its entire bio basically just tells us how Prairiemon lives in colonies underground like real prairie dogs, and it attacks by "accelerating its metallic ears to slash its opponents". Prairiemon's shown up in bit roles in Frontier and Xros Wars, and... and that's about it. He's non-offensive, kind of pleasant looking, but not the best design here. The most interesting part of Prairiemon, in my opinion, is that in at least one video game, the dub team mistranslates his name as Ferrarimon.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Goddramon
- Alternate Names: Goldramon (EN dub)
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Holy Dragon
- Attribute: Vaccine
Goddramon (renamed Goldramon in English because you can refer to satan and devil, but not god) debuted in the Wonderswan games, and was originally reviewed in 'Episode 14' of this series alongside a bunch of other stragglers that debuted there. It sure is a nice 'god dragon', having the upper body of a muscular man, some angelic wings, a helmet that looks like an exaggerated version of the Greymon helmet and a long, serpentine body. I wasn't impressed by its original artwork, but subsequent TCG and video game apperances actually interpreted Goddramon as being quite muscular and epic-looking. Combined with the novelty of being one of the first 'holy dragons' and having a serpentine lower body, I didn't mind Goddramon even if it was never my preferred aesthetic. (The mass of colours around its arms bothered me a little bit, particularly the green gloves)
That is, until Digimon Adventure 2020. Patamon and Tailmon (or rather, Angemon and Angewomon) have enjoyed a bit of a reputation among the fandom as being the two original 'Holy Digimon'. While Patamon's Ultimate evolution has always been the humanoid-angel Seraphimon, there has been a bit of a split between fandom consensus about Tailmon's Ultimate form. Her original Ultimate form shown in games and movies was the draconic Holydramon, with the humanoid-angel Ophanimon only being really applied to her later on to make a set with Seraphimon and Cherubimon.
Digimon Adventure Tri would formalize all of the Ultimate forms for all of the original cast members, and for Tailmon they went with both Holydramon and Ophanimon as two potential final forms for her. That's always nice, but fandoms like parallels. And in a move that blindsided me entirely, the Digimon Adventure 2020 reboot... actually assigned Goddramon as Patamon's alternate, 'holy dragon' evolution! I have known this thing existed for more than two decades now, but I've never really 'got' that the yellow fur might be a tie-in to Patamon. And that's despite knowing that Goddramon was originally designed to tie in with Holydramon! That's a cool classic tie-in, and that has caused me to move Goddramon to hang out with Patamon's other forms! How cool was it that we get a more bestial/draconic form, that the design team for the reboot decided it to be important... and not just make a random one on the spot but to give relevance to this forgotten, obscure Ultimate?
It's also not clearly shown in that screenshot, but 2020's incarnations of Holydramon and Goddramon are kaiju-sized -- those little orbs near their heads are protective bubbles containing the rest of the cast. I like Goddramon a fair bit more when it's a kaiju god dragon man.
Goddramon's deal is that it has sealed two powerful spirits in its two vambraces, 'Amon' and 'Umon', which appear as ghostly dragons. While I was kind of down on Goddramon initially, I've grown to appreciate it quite a bit even before Adventure with how it at least was still trying to balance the 'humanoid' and 'monstrous' aspects unlike so many other 'god dragon man' Digimon that tend to just be Omegamon clones. Definitely one that I ended up appreciating a fair bit more after recent appearances!
6/10. Not a bad upgrade from 1/10._________________________________________________________
And with that, we're sort of done with 02! For the next two weeks we'll cover two evolutionary lines that technically debuted in a non-serial 02 movie, but ended up being main characters of the following series, Digimon Tamers, and it's going to be... interesting to see how I'll cover those. In addition to Lopmon and Terriermon's lines, I'll also cover a bunch of miscellaneous Digimon introduced in the 2000-2001 period, I suppose.
I think my favorite about Goddramon is that while it could shoot fire like a normal dragon, it could also put those arms to good use and deck you in the face.
ReplyDeleteGoddramon didn't build that godly physique to do nothing!
Delete