The Gifted S02E09 Review: Fast Paced

The Gifted, Season 2, Episode 9: gaMe changer

I've been pretty down on The Gifted particularly in the second season. Between relatively poor dialogue, mis-management of the split-up cast and poor pacing, it's not been the best show to watch, and in the current state of television where superhero shows are the norm instead of the oddity, The Gifted is always gouing to be left at the wayside as that weird X-Men show that never has the cool X-Men... and mis-manages the couple of second-tier characters that they're able to work with.

Of course, though, after all of the bland and repetitive pacing that the first eight episodes of the second season has given us (and my slowness in reviewing this series is probably the biggest condemnation on my part on how uninteresting it can be) it's done its buildup pretty well, with the caveat that these are stories you've seen a couple dozen times if you've ever read an X-Men comic book or movie. 

On the side of the Underground, the increasingly reduced members -- it's basically just Thunderbird, Blink and Eclipse at this point -- ends up finally doing something to try and do something before the Inner Circle/Hellfire Club raise up too much bad blood between humans and mutants. And the focus of this episode is undoubtedly Thunderbird. Eclipse is all out of sorts after being separated from his kid, while Thunderbird's super-suspicious of Blink because she hangs out with Morlocks or some shit? (Totally on Blink's side throughout all of the arguments she has, by the way). But John's self-destructive behaviour throughout this entire episode with him being particularly nasty to the civilian he's interrogating, and even lashing out at Marcos and Clarice, eventually leading to him insinuating that Clarice's cheating on him and causing her to rightfully walk off. 

This, of course, leaves the two of them under-equipped when their enemies show up. First Fade (representing the Inner Circle) shows up to kill their informant, and later on the Purifiers show up, and John's forced to stay behind to hold onto a truck and buy time for for Marcos and Fade to escape. Jace Turner doesn't get a lot of scenes in this episode, but the ones he got is definitely pretty creepy, even if it's more of "someone who is convinced he is right descending into extremist hate" scenes that we've seen a fair amount of throughout the season. 

Meanwhile, Reed, Caitlin and Lauren end up through a discussion to decide and destroy Madeline Garber's research, because they realize that despite all of the nice shit she's been saying, she's still pretty much going to use the research to genetically wipe out humanity. It's a bit disappointing to revert back to black-and-white morality, but honestly I've never really cared of the Madeline Garber fishy-research-institute anyway, and the fact that it's wrapped up pretty quickly in two episodes is definitely preferable to the alternative. Absolutely love that Madeline, despite all of her inherent racism towards mutants, still genuinely believes that she's helping humanity, giving her a unique perspective while also making her still pretty much a villain. 

Kinda wish that we learned a wee bit more about Noah or Nathan or whoever Lauren's friend was, ebcause he's really flat and basically just end up going from the most faithful and optimistic acolyte into an angry betrayed mutant because of some poor choice in Madeline's wording, but eh. Whatever. I'd take this any day rather than the alternative of wishy-washy-ing for half a season . 

The main bulk of the episode still focuses on the Inner Circle, which is very interesting. After Rebecca's capture (the subtitles call her "Twist?") she gets placed into this evil horror-Rubik's-Cube of torture where she keeps getting spun around indefinitely because they won't just outright kill her, but she's also too dangerous to let run around alone. Reva's stone-clone, Polaris is a lot less cold but understands why, and poor, poor lovesick Andy ends up, of course, releasing his beau from the prison only to realize, a bit too late, that Rebecca isn't a misunderstood girl whose powers went out of control, she is that spiteful and did mean to do everything she meant to do.

And when Rebecca tries to just straight-up murder the entire leadership of the Inner Circle, Andy ends up attacking Rebecca... and kills her. It's the sort of scene that's perhaps comparable to Anakin contributing in Mace Windu's death in Star Wars Episode III, where the killing perhaps wasn't the intended result... but Andy did use his powers to defend the Inner Circle against Rebecca, a girl he clearly cares enough to break free, so it's definitely a pretty interesting development for sure as Andy is presumably going to throw his lot in deeper and deeper with the Inner Circle. 

I also really love just how Rebecca's portrayal over these past couple of episodes makes it clear that she's really sick in the head and is fully aware of what she's doing, with full agency... but also makes it clear that a good chunk of why Rebecca ended up like this was how the world hasn't been kind to her. Lorna's description of what mental institutes do to people like the mutants is chilling and well done, and while the random flashback cold open is, in my opinion, perhaps not necessary, it does help illustrate why Rebecca is such an interestingly complex character. Sure, she feels betrayed because her own parents sold her out to Sentinel Services in the midst of pancake breakfast, but on the other hand even as a cheerful child she also is kind of fucked in the head and is turning people inside out.

Anyway, as The Gifted's second season goes into its halfway point, we get the revelation that the Inner Circle's carrying out their plan. Andy has renewed fervor and Polaris has a badass looking new headpiece, and they've gone to destroy the company that manufactures mutant power-dampening collars, and because this is comic-book land and these sort of important infrastructure is managed poorly, shutting down the central core computer shuts down ALL of the collars all over the country. Cool visuals, though.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo S04E27 Review: Saint Anger

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Golden Wind, Season 4, Episode 27: King Crimson v.s. Metallica

This feature almost wholly features the fight between Doppio and Risotto Nero, and it's... it's definitely one of the highlights of Part V as a whole, for the simple reason that it's one of the few times we've seen infighting between two different antagonistic forces, while also showcasing and building up Doppio as a distinct entity from King Crimson.

I will admit that it's sort of bullshit that Doppio is able to use a completely different set of powers compared to the Boss, with the fragment of powers that he is able to use being the ability to look at "what happens 10 seconds in the future". You could, I guess, twist it to mean that it's just an extrapolation of how King Crimson can ignore segments of time and move around freely in it, but I've always felt like it's yet one more power that's thrown into the Boss's power set that is just there to make things extra complex or whatever.

Doppio, meanwhile, not aware that the Boss is sharing the same body with him, is more than determined to stand and fight and defeat Risotto despite the Boss's orders, which is a neat twist on the two-bodies-sharing-a-body thing. The Boss himself is noted to take 10 seconds to manifest full, and I do really like just how panicked the Boss persona is at the idea that Doppio might very well get the two of them killed. The first part of the fight is pretty simple, though, with Doppio deciding to allow himself to get stabbed by Risotto's Stand to try and figure out where he's attacking from and the specifics of his Stand, while trying his best to get a strike in with King Crimson's arm.

The fact that he's prepared for the scissors manifesting in his own throat means he's able to rip it out before it does too much damage, causing Risotto himself to start realizing the extent of Doppio's powers. Doppio then basically realizes that he's been going about the fight the wrong way, puts down the frog that he's been "communicating" with the Boss with, and realizes that Risotto's Stand is the ability to use the iron within living creatures and turn them into blades.

Doppio then lobs the scissors towards where Risotto is hiding in his bizarre usage of metal manipulation to make himself invisible, slicing off Risotto's foot... which then gets stapled back on by Metallica, which manifests as creepy little metal babies. Risotto quickly figures out what's going on, particularly with Doppio gaining confidence, and puts two and two together. We get a brief flashback to how his old Assassination Squad was looking for information to bring down the Boss, and he has to keep telling them to not take things personally, lest they lose focus.

It's then a bit of a battle of attrition, as knives form and launch themselves at Doppio, King Crimson's arm manifests to protect Doppio, and then Doppio collapses because his blood has ran out of iron and he can't bring oxygen to his organs anymore. In true anime logic form, though, this still means that despite him likely going into hypovolemic shock, Doppio is still able to monologue, noting to himself that Team Bucciarati (with Abacchio!) has arrived near the mansion.

Doppio then sees a vision of his own head exploding, and the Boss keeps yelling that Doppio should just stay put, because he's incoming and he's going to use King Crimson to erase time... and Doppio ends up trying to prevent this by trying to figure out where the huge magnetic field is coming from, and attacks there... but apparently Risotto can manipulate which parts of his body gives out magnetic energy, and has left behind his severed leg as bait. But as Risotto gets the advantage and gloats in triumph, apparently Doppio's impaired breathing and Risotto's excitement has drawn the attention of Aerosmith, causing it to riddle Risotto Nero with bullets and killing him. Apparently, instead of aiming for the foot, Doppio had thrown the knife in the direction of Bucciarati, in order to attract their attention.

And... and it's definitely a close victory, as it's very, very close defeat -- Risotto basically only needed to not gloat and attack to kill off Doppio, but as the (I think anime-original?) flashback to how Risotto was admonishing his squad to not let emotions get the better of them, it's when Risotto starts gloating and enjoying his triumph that he actually fails, making it actually pretty dang ironic that Risotto dies for failing to follow his own advice.

And, of course, apparently the "head exploding" vision ends up just being the invisibility blood-cloak splattering on Doppio's face, which is honestly kinda sorta a cop-out... "Future sight" is something that honestly works in smaller, more light-hearted doses (Oingo/Boingo, anyone?) and it's nowhere as fulfilling as a narrative structure when it's in a more serious fight light this.

Still, this is a pretty interesting battle episode, the animation is spectacular, and both Risotto and Doppio have a lot of great moments. It is genuinely interesting to see how much of a determinator Doppio is, and how he's not just a pussy alter-ego of the Boss or anything. The visuals with Metallica's abilities are also great, both the invisibility and the random metallic objects sprouting, so even if chunks of the fight doesn't make the most sense (even by JJBA standards), it's still a very pretty fight to watch.

The JoJo Playlist:

• Risotto's Stand is called Metallica after the American heavy metal band, a personal favourite of mine. Standout singles include Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters, The Unforgiven, St. Anger and Master of Puppets.
• Doppio's segment of the Stand is called Epitaph, named after the King Crimson song Epitaph.

Digimon Reviews, Episode 23: Guilmon, Cyberdramon and Friends

This time around we're going to be finally discussing the main partner of Digimon Tamers' resident "gogglehead", the designated main character of the cast. This time around it's Matsuda Takato (renamed Takato Matsuki in the dub), who is a huge departure in the franchise by making the main goggle-head boy... not a confident action hero like Taichi, Daisuke, or even Takato's successors in any of the subsequent seasons. This actually makes Takato feel pretty unique to me, as if Tamers didn't already have enough things for me to harp on and on about!

Interestingly, Takato perhaps comes from one of the most stable families in the Digimon franchise, with a pair of parents that runs a bakery, and Takato himself doesn't have to deal with any actual angst or sad backstory in his life. There's no attempt to rebel against a too-young single mother like Ruki, there's no implied abusive/neglected parentage like Juri, and there's no childhood trauma of nearly causing his Digimon's death (as well as the whole daddy conspiracy) like Jianliang. Takato is pretty normal, and unlike most normal anime protagonists, Takato... actually sure as hell isn't ready for being a superhero and defender on Earth.

The beginning of Takato's journey is similar to 99% of Shounen anime out there. A young, normal boy discovers that he has some sort of amazing power, and decides to be super-confident and save the day. In Takato's case, he's a huge Digimon nerd and he naturally spends most of his day drawing up what he thinks should be his partner Digimon. Don't lie, any one of you readers who grew up in the 90's with Pokemon and Digimon did the same thing. And when this made-up Digimon suddenly comes to life into a real fire-breathing dragon dinosaur Guilmon, Takato is excited! Oh, the adventures they'll have together!

...except this isn't just all fun and games. Sure, Takato initially just has fun, raising his pet magic dinosaur and having him fight the feral monsters that come into this world and cause rampage. He's a superhero! But then things start getting real. The Digimon that manifest actually do have feelings, but how does Takato explain that to the bloodthirsty Ruki? Or the mysterious government agent who's likely to murder Guilmon as any other "Wild Ones"?

Throw in the fact that due to being far more newly created and never actually existing in the digital world, Guilmon is far, far more childlike and naive than Terriermon or Renamon are. Tamers really likes throwing Takato into the deep end and basically seeing if he's going to sink or swim, but it doesn't subvert expectations that much, and while Takato has had to endure a fuckton of loss, including seeing many of his friends die, Takato ends up basically being the superhero he kind of dreams to be. Quite literally, since, as I mentioned in the previous segment, Tamers Ultimate evolution involves the tamer fusing with his partner. And I think that's the big point of his characterization -- Takato learning to accept responsibility despite just wanting nothing more than to goof around.
_____________________________

Jyarimon

Another baby blob that's obviously meant to be 'blob Guilmon'. I really, really find it hard to say anything about these newer babies beyond "eh, it's not ugly". Jyarimon's profile just basically notes how he's the baby of a dragon and hypes up the potential murder dragon that he's going to become. About the only interesting thing about Jyarimon that he has on his own is that instead of acidic bubbles, he shoots out fire bubbles.

 3/10. 

Gigimon

Jyarimon then evolves into Gigimon, who is noted to be a dragon-like variant of Tokomon by the bio. And, you know what? It actually does! It keeps the dragon-wing-ears that Guilmon and Jyarimon has, and has the genesis of the markings and cute little stubby tail that he'll have when he becomes Guilmon.

And... and that's all I got. Jeez, remember when babies were at least somewhat unique?

 3/10. 

Guilmon

And here we go with the poster boy of this series, Guilmon! And while it's obviously meant to capitalize on the baby dinosaur-like look that Agumon has, it is at least canon that Takato probably has Agumon in mind when designing his fanfiction Digimon. Guilmon's a pretty fun little design, honestly. It doesn't really try to do too much -- it's just a slightly more elaborate Agumon with a better-proportioned head, some extra dragon wing-ears, spikes and a bunch of black bands on his body. Also, on Guilmon's body (and indeed most of his evolutions), there's this little tattoo called the Digital Hazard that is basically the Digimon equivalent of a radioactive sign, noting that Guilmon carries huge power within him.

Guilmon's also, interestingly, a Virus-type, a fact that is lampshaded a couple of times early on in the anime where Guilmon is so, so friendly and happy and likes to make friends, but is still a Virus-type. I guess it's part of Takato's edginess where he wants to be friend with a badass Virus-type, but also wants his Virus-type buddy to be friendly and have fun with him and goof off? As a Virus-type, Guilmon's evolutions would prove to be pretty damn horrifyingly powerful, though, and nobody designs a fire-breathing dinosaur-dragon child to just play football with (get Terriermon to do that!) since Guilmon is, at his heart, a fighter. It's very interesting how the childlike Guilmon has to struggle with his own internal feral instincts. They never really try to emphasize this too much in the anime because I guess the mascot still has to be kinda relatable to kiddies, but at the same time the few times the anime is allowed to show Guilmon's feral-ness is pretty well-executed.

Other than Tamers, Guilmon would make some short minor cameos with all the other protagonist Digimon in Xros Wars and Hunters. There's really not that much to say about Guilmon himself -- he's admittedly a pretty simple character and a simple design, but it does manage to balance itself between both feral animal and cute mascot pretty well. I'm not quite sure whether I like Agumon or Guilmon better as the tyrannosaur-based mascot character, but I like both of them!

 9/10. 

Growmon (a.k.a. Growlmon)

Growmon, renamed into the far more imposing Growlmon in the dub, is... a bigger Guilmon. The anime made it clear that Growmon actually, well, grows a fair bit from Guilmon, but I've always felt that without taking the anime's scale (and default slouching pose) into account, the evolution from Guilmon to Growmon felt pretty underwhelming. Growmon gets some white hair on his head, swaps out the batwing-horns for normal horns, and gets some arm blades and... and that's it? Comparing the sheer difference between Agumon and Greymon, for example, or Terriermon and Gargomon, I really wished that they had tried to be a little more different with Growmon here. Again, the anime portrayal helps to fix this a fair bit by making him pretty dang big and having Guilmon's first couple of evolutions be pretty scary with feral growls and roars, and the fact that initially, Growmon couldn't evolve back into cute little Guilmon! Yeah, the Tamers world isn't as convenient as the Adventure world.

It's actually kind of neat to show that the likes of Guilmon and Growmon are far more melee-based scrappers compared to the fire-breathing Greymons. Sure, Growmon is perfectly capable of shooting fire out of his mouth, but for the most part, he tends to use that arm-blade to slice up his enemy. Overall, Growmon's still pretty cool thanks to the anime and thanks to being a big-ass dinosaur, but also kinda underwhelming.

 7/10. 

MegaloGrowmon (a.k.a. WarGrowlmon)

Thankfully, Growmon evolves into the Perfect-level MegaloGrowmon (WarGrowlmon in the dub), which takes a completely different version of 'cyborgification' than MetalGreymon! I have gone on record in stating that I really, really love the grungy tech aesthetic that the likes of MetalGreymon and Andromon have, but MegaloGrowmon has its own really fun sense of appeal. It's sleek but at the same time bulky and chunky, and as a kid I really thought those black arm-blades are the coolest shit. As an adult, I think those black arm-blades are the COOLEST SHIT. MegaloGrowmon is interesting in that from the stomach down he's still basically the same Guilmon/Growmon body, but the chest is outfitted with some kind of weird futuristic space-suit armour, and his head has been completely streamlined and turned into a smaller, more lethal-looking Gundamized version of Growmon's head. Apparently the silver chunks that close around his lower jaw like a Gundam faceplate is something like a horse-bit to keep MegaloGrowmon focused and not run wild? Interesting.

Oh, and those two giant metal rods jutting out of MegaloGrowmon's metal vest? Those are actually his vernier thruster jet engines, allowing him to fly. I'm not quite sure what the silver metal whip is for, but it's a cool little detail that doesn't clutter MegaloGrowmon's design up too much, and in the anime I think it's used as something akin to a combat tentacle. And in addition to using those blades to slice people up, MegaloGrowmon has a goddamn atomic reactor in his chest that he launches through his nipple-cannons. I also find it hilarious how many people compare his chest-plate to looking like a Transformer's car-chest kibble. The Bandai art also has disproportionately large feet for some reason. 

I've always found MegaloGrowmon to be pretty damn cool, honestly. A pretty good cyborg dinosaur, and one that doesn't really lose a lot of his dinosaur-y-ness upon evolution.

 9/10. 

Megidramon

All this talk about restraining Guilmon, Growmon and MegaloGrowmon's power comes to a head when MegaloGrowmon evolves into the Ultimate-level dragon, Megidramon! With the digital hazard tattoo emblazoned proudly on his chest, Megidramon is definitely intent on making sure that he is a hazard. Megidramon, named after the hill of Megiddo where Armageddon takes place, is described as the ultimate destroyer dragon, the evil, destructive member of the Four Great Dragons that stands against the likes of Holydramon and Goddramon. It's interesting that Megidramon is described as the 'alternate view' of ChaosDukemon, a different dark evolution for MegaloGrowmon, and whether you see him as a coiling serpent-monster or as a black knight depends on the viewer.

Megidramon's design is pretty cool, basically taking everything I love about Megadramon and Airdramon, and putting a slightly more stylized, streamlined version with more humanoid proportions. And I really do love this dude! I kinda wished that he looked more bestial and feral, but the look of a humanoid figure stapled onto the draconic, serpentine tail is pretty dang cool. Also love the fact that his head is basically the same head with Guilmon's with a bunch of spikes and a far more feral mouth. I do feel that Megidramon is a little bit too cluttered, with random bits of golden armour that, other than the arm-blades he inherits from MegaloGrowmon, we probably could've done without. Love those ribcages, too. He does work kinda well as a final, ultimate evil dragon Digimon!

Megidramon in the anime appears when Takato is so consumed with grief and rage when one of their allies, Juri's partner Leomon, gets murdered, causing Guilmon to dark digivolve into the insanely powerful Megidramon that curbstomps not only Beelzebumon but also everyone else. It's a trope that's been done before with Taichi and SkullGreymon, but here Takato has to agonize over having to weep over his feral partner nearly getting killed and nearly killing all his friends because of his own mishap.

Overall, a pretty damn suitable final form for a cute little dinosaur-dragon baby who's a Virus type but tries to deny his true, destructive heritage!

 9/10. 

Dukemon (a.k.a. Gallantmon)

This is still an optimistic anime, though, so the cool and badass Megidramon isn't Guilmon's "real" final form. No, Guimon's real Ultimate form is actually achieved when he and Takato has reached a full level of understanding, and... and then they fuse together into the mighty Dukemon! (Renamed Gallantmon in the dub). And... really, I'm of two minds about Dukemon. He's pretty damn badass in the anime, and he certainly stole my heart there, but there's barely anything from Guilmon's evolutionary line that makes it into Dukemon's design other than the vaguely Guilmon-ear-shaped mask that Dukemon has, as well as MegaloGrowmon's head-antenna thing. And this is what I truly dislike about Dukemon -- he has so little to do with his previous forms that I just don't really think he's that suitable as a final evolution from a visual standpoint. Even SaintGargomon and Sakuyamon shares a lot more traits with their previous forms, while becoming more humanoid. Hell, even dudes like Imperialdramon and WarGreymon from the previous shows at least have more parts than their mask horns that indicate that they evolved from dinosaurs or dragons.

That said, though, as much as Dukemon is just a dude in anime armour with an admittedly cool-looking set of lance and shield (Gram and Aegis, respectively). And while I don't mind dudes-in-armour if they're drawn well, Dukemon feels like he should evolve from Knightmon or something instead of MegaloGrowmon. OThe anime really manages to sell Dukemon's awesomeness that looking at him I kind of shrug and not mind quite as much. He is kinda generic, though. Dukemon is still a Virus type, which I appreciate, and his bio notes how he has to keep his mental balance in check lest he transform into Megidramon. Also absolutely loved the weird Takato/Guilmon mixture voice that they give him, and making this badass knight having that voice is pretty hilarious.

Also, in the anime, in addition to being based on a knight, Dukemon gets a little steed, this not-quite-a-Digimon called "D-Arms Grani", which... exists. I love the Tamers show to bits, but I forget Grani exists most of the time. It's.. okay?

Dukemon is also a Royal Knight, following the tradition set up by Omegamon, Magnamon, Imperialdramon and UlforceVeedramon that the main character's final evolution ends up being, hey, a Royal Knight and one of these super-badass people that guard the god of all of the digital world. Dukemon is also, I think, the last protagonist Digimon to be inducted into the Royal Knights. Tamers' Dukemon isn't actually part of any organization, mind you, but different Dukemons would appear in the Xros Wars manga, the X-Evolution movie, and especially in Savers as the most enthusiastic and passionate of the Royal Knights, quick to exercise the will of Yggdrassil but also quick to question it. Anyway, not a bad-looking lancer knight, all things considered. Could've been better, but the anime helps to fix that for me.

 7/10. 

Dukemon: Crimson Mode (a.k.a. Gallantmon: Crimson Mode)

In the final episode of Tamers, Dukemon needed an extra boost of power, and thus the little steed Grani sacrifices himself to give Dukemon the ability to modo chenjii into Dukemon: Crimson Mode. Which is just Dukemon, but the cape is now a coulpe dozen transparent wings, and his armour is redder and spikier. Oh, and he carries a lance and a sword now, named Gungnir and Blutgang after weapons from Nordic myths respectively.

I do like the little subversion that this super-ultra-badass-final-form ends up... being a bit of a hilarious fail as Dukemon: Crimson Mode runs out of energy right before he/they can reach Juri from deep within the D-Reaper (long story short, that's the way they win the final battle), and it's good old Guilmon and Takato that has to save the day. Which is fine and dandy -- Dukemon appears enough times in Tamers that I have an emotional attachment to him, but Crimson Mode here is just kind of an honestly redundant power-up that sort of comes out of nowhere. Not a big fan of this one, and in my opinion it's way too cluttered compared to the original Dukemon. It's way, way more popular in the fandom, of course, and I respect that, but Dukemon: Crimson Mode just isn't my sort of aesthetic is all. He's not ugly, at least.

 4/10. 

Ketomon & Hopmon

While the first half of Digimon Tamers focuses mainly on the three pairs of Takato/Guilmon, Ruki/Renamon and Lee/Terriermon, eventually members of the supporting cast would end up being promoted into Tamers as well. Juri is partnered with Leomon (which we've mentioned a couple of times), Xiaochung is partnered with Lopmon, Hirokazu is partnered with a Guardromon and Kenta is partnered with a MarineAngemon. 

But there is another character -- one Ryo Akiyama, who is a canon immigrant from a huge mess of backstory that spans a couple of video games never released outside of Japan, as well as being part of 02's Ken's backstory. Ryo is also coincidentally and somehow a super-well-known-tamer in the Tamers universe, but also has the backstory of the Adventure/02/Wonderswan games and... and it's best not to think too hard about it, really. Just accept that he's a cool supercompetent dude that comes out of nowhere and move on. His backstory is really complex and way cooler than the pretty convoluted mess that it actually is. (And we have also covered it in Millenniumon's entry).

Ryo is introduced in the second half of Digimon Tamers as having journeyed in the digital world and ends up helping our characters, partnered with the oh-so-badass Cyberdramon. The Tamers staff ended up creating two forms for Cyberdramon's younger stages, the Baby I Ketomon and the Baby II Hopmon. as you can probably tell, none of these have much effort put into them, none of these even got official Bandai artwork or profiles. Hopmon's kinda neat, though, looking like a weird malformed fish as opposed to the simple "take the head of the Child stage and add stubby legs" mentality that Guilmon, Renamon and Impmon are stuck with. Eh, whatever. 

 2/10. 

Monodramon

Cyberdramon

While Ryo's partner tended to run around as the badass, super-awesome but feral Perfect-level Cyberdramon (who we covered waaaay back in the first couple of years, but I'm including a picture of him here), he does have a Child-stage, the happy little Monodramon! And Monodramon is...  I dunno. Okay?  I do like his weird drill claws, and the fact that his arms have wings attached to them, but I've always found Monodramon to be kind of underwhelming. It's a pleasant-looking Child-level dragon, I guess, but I  felt that there's not quite enough with Monodramon that really distinguishes him enough other than those arm wings. I guess it's the shape of his head that makes me not like him quite as much? I dunno.

Monodramon's described in his profile as being kind of a brawl-seeking fight freak, although the exact opposite ends up happening in Tamers to contrast Monodramon and the Cyberdramon form that we see him most as. While Cyberdramon feels barely even sentient and constantly seeks fights and wants to murderkill everything, Monodramon is a happy little dragon baby. In a reference to Cyberdramon's data-deleting claws, Monodramon's attacks apparently causes little bugs and cracks in the data of whoever he bites, which I thought is kinda neat.

Anyway, as much as I like Ryo and Cyberdramon, Monodramon's kind of always been a bit of a miss for me.

 3/10. 

Strikedramon

This form never actually appeared in the Tamers anime, but shows up in the associated video games to serve as the Adult-stage to bridge Monodramon and Cyberdramon. And Strikedramon here is... he's a dragon-man in ugly, mismatched green jeans? I dunno. I don't like him at all. It's like someone was told to draw the middle stage between chubby purple dragon Monodramon, and humanoid, eyeless dragon-man Cyberdramon... and they ended up making this dude, then started adding random accessories like gloves and metal bolts and a huge chest tattoo and ugly long red hair and a chest tattoo. Its bio notes that it's not quite as crazy as Cyberdramon yet, but anytime it gets near a Virus-type, Strikedramon gets super-feral and oh-so-violent. Shame that the anime actually doesn't have Ryo's Cyberdramon try to attack Takato's Guilmon. What a missed opportunity! Also, apparently Strikedramon's stupid red hair can burst into blue flames. Unsurprisingly, Strikedramon's never really appeared in anything outside of video games. Eh. I've really, really tried to like or tolerate Strikedramon, but I honestly can't. It's such a messy, cluttered design, like an uglier ExVeemon. And I wouldn't even say that I like ExVeemon that much! Strikey here has so much going on and so many poor fashion design choices that I just can't bring myself to like this thing. I'll give him a point because the same eyeless-mask dragon face he shares with Cyberdramon is kinda cool, I guess. 

 2/10. 

Justimon

Now this dude actually did appear in the anime! Ryo is such a badass that he ends up unlocking the Ultimate form, and the only member of the secondary cast to get to this form. It's a bit of a shame that Ryo himself never really ends up evolving as a character beyond gaining some respect for Ruki, and tends to function more as an additional body to write action scenes for. Bit of a shame, that. As for Justimon... eh? It's this weird Tokusatsu dude that kinda-sorta looks cool as far as explicitly humanoid Digimon goes, but maybe the reason I don't mind Dukemon so much is that Justimon exists and he's kind of just a dude with a metal arm and a badass scarf? I dunno -- that's as far as the Kamen Rider homage goes anyway, the scarf and the bodysuit. I would've liked him more if he actually does things like ridiculous poses or have bug eyes or had... anything that made him not just "generic action figure man in armour". I like Tamers and visually he's a pretty cool Kamen Rider-style action figure. Being a neat action figure doesn't really make him particularly neat as a Digimon, though, and especially not one that's supposed to evolve out of something as monstrous as Cyberdramon.

Interestingly, maybe because Bandai themselves realize that a simple Power Ranger isn't enough to sell action figures, Justimon can swap between a couple of modes, namely Critical Arm where his arm transforms into a big-ass laser buzzsaw, or Accel Arm where his arm becomes extra large. "Eh", I say.


I'm giving him two points because of how fun he is in the anime because the Tamers anime sort of flip-flop between playing him straight as a badass action hero, or to parody the concept. Easily hands-down my least favourite major design in the Tamers anime, though, and I kinda wished that Ryo's Cyberdramon stayed a badass, feral robot-dragon-man. Oh well, at least we get to hear him shout "JASUTISHUUU KIKKUUUU" every time he attacks. I don't hate this design, and maybe if Justimon was a standalone Digimon I'd go "eh, he's neat" and move on, but the fact that this is attached as the final evolution for Cyberdramon is pretty irksome. I just find it really hard to justify why this is a good Digimon design, and such an utter disappointment compared to Cyberdramon. I dunno. I just don't really like humanoid Digimon, I guess.

 3/10, only because of the anime.

Culumon (a.k.a. Calumon)

Culumon here is another major supporting character from Tamers, one of the two seemingly partner-less Digimon to wander around the real world and befriend our characters. Where Impmon is the human-hating jackass, Culumon is this cute little mascot that flies around with his ear-wings and is buddies with everyone. And for such a simple design, the anime actually puts in a fair amount of effort in actually making Culumon be adorable. And those ear-wings can shrink whenever Culumon isn't super excited, kind of like a dog's tail! I like that. Culumon is also this super-important plot device that carries within him a mysterious light that enables the evolution of Digimon, making him desirable to be captured by the villains of the series. Culumon is later revealed to be the personification of the part of the Digimon world that causes evolution, and transformed and given life by the Four Holy Beasts and sent away to avoid the huge flux of energy from awakening their true enemy, the D-Reaper. But Culumon ends up just wanting to live with his human friends, which... yeah, these plot-device-characters is a bit of an unfortunate trope that doesn't tend to be done well, but Culumon still manages to be a cute mascot while still having a short character arc of his own. Also, when he realizes what he can do, Culumon unleashes his powers of evolution to straight-up create an army of Ultimate-level Digimon to help out our heroes! That was cool. Culumon's biggest emotional moment is perhaps to return the favour to Juri when he tells her about the whole "everyone has a right to live and be happy", and coming from what's essentially an artificial being among artificial beings, that's a nice feeling.

Interestingly, the franchise really flip-flops on what level Culumon really is, with various sources fli-flopping between Culumon being a Child, a Baby-II or outside normal evolutionary levels.  Anyway, he's cute. He does get a wee bit too wrapped up in exposition for his own good, but honestly, can't you not like Culumon? A pretty fine little cutey-mascot Digimon.

 6/10. 

Other versions of the Guilmon Line

Yeah, Tamers is when they went super-crazy with the repaints. Here we have, in order, BlackGuilmon, BlackGrowmon, BlackMegaloGrowmon, ChaosDukemon, Growmon (Orange) and MegaloGrowmon (Orange). Substitute "WarGrowlmon" and "Gallantmon" yousrelf. Not quite sure why we need even-more-evil versions of the Growmon line when they're already Virus-types... but I dunno, I guess they needed merchandise, I guess. To have a cheap-yet-desirable repaint to sell as extra toys and cards and whatnot. 

BlackGuilmon is kinda... there, just Guilmon with his colours swapped. I do like the effect on BlackGrowmon that makes the golden digi-code glyphs light up, and thus BlackGrowmon is easily the coolest repaint amongst these. BlackMegaloGrowmon's secondary colours end up being a sickly green for some reason? Ew. ChaosDukemon is just Dukemon, but black and purple. Worth noting that ChaosDukemon is a major NPC in the Digimon World: Dawn/Dusk video games. The only real interesting thing is the bit of backstory where Megidramon and ChaosDukemon can appear as each other depending on the observer.

The orange versions are apparently 'data' versions of the Growmon line. And that's it. While I appreciate them doing more colour variations other than "paint it black", they kind of look like literal piss. Really? Our of all the shades of orange, yellow or gold they could've done, they pick this? Looks more like someone shines a really bright light at Growmon more than anything, honestly.

Honestly, pretty minimal effort.

 1/10.