Anyway, despite being mainly villains of the week with the exception of Makuramon and Caturamon, being someone that's ethnically Chinese, these twelve buggers have always been a group of quirky villains that I found pretty interesting, as well as one of the few groups of evil Digimon to actually feel like a set, in contrast to, say, the Dark Masters, Frontier's evil warriors or the Bagra Army Generals, which just felt like a hodge-podge mix-and-match of a bunch of evil villains.
In addition to being based on the twelve animals of oriental calendar, the Deva also take on the role of the Twelve Heavenly Generals, a group of Hindu Yaksa and the protectors of the Bhaisajyaguru, the Buddha of Healing. Uniquely in Japanese culture, the Twelve Heavenly Generals are associated with the twelve animals. The Digimons' Deva borrow their names from the Twelve Heavenly Generals (Kumbhira, Vajra, Mihira, Andira, Anila, Sandilya, Indra, Pajra, Mahoraga, Kinnara, Catura and Vikarala), and their signature attacks are named after one of the 28 Naraka, which are the Hindu equivalent to Christianity's circles of hell.Anyway, I really like these guys for being funky animal angel-deities, and being so utterly different while still feeling like a set. The Tamers anime introduces the Deva as a group of Perfect-level Digimon that's just ready for battle and doesn't evolve from anything specific, although I'll try to speculate what pre-existing Adult form fits them. As for evolutions, games tend to have two or three of the Deva fuse into one of the Four Holy Beasts, their masters.
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Kumbhiramon
The first of our Devas is the humble mouse, Kumbhiramon, and perhaps the most underwhelming of all the twelve Devas, being beaten by the Adult-level Leomon in his debut, although I guess being a rat that has to contend alongside the likes of dragons and tigers, poor Kumbhiramon has a lot going against him. What a bizarre design for a rat monster, though! Kumbhiramon is a rat head with these long, spider-like legs jutting out of a golden, spherical body, with two gigantic green claws which his bio identifies as pestles? Huh. Also, Kumbhiramon has angelic wings for some reason, maybe because otherwise he'd look a bit too underwhelming as a Perfect-level enemy. (He still looks far goofier in his Tamers model),Kumbhiramon is probably one of the more creative designs, visually, and not just "animal with Chinese armour", and is probably one of my favourite Devas. He's noted to be not very strong, but uses telekinesis to manipulate the Bao Chu, the treasured pestle, on his back. And apparently Kumbhiramon channels Joseph Joestar, often predicting what his opponents will say, making them think he has clairvoyance when really it's only just him being good at psychology. In both anime and video games, Kumbhiramon has been shown to be able to split apart into six bodies, and then smashing the opponent like a hexagram.
Possible pre-evolutions for Kumbhiramon? I don't think we have any outright rat or mouse Digimon at the adult stage (Chuumon is a Child, after all), although we do have some rodents in the Armours, which tend to be treated as Adults. So I guess Opossumon and Prairiemon fit the bill? I like Kumbhiramon a lot, even if he doesn't get the respect he deserves.
8/10.
Vajramon
We're going by the order of the animals in the Chinese zodiac, so after the rat it's the ox, who's Vajramon over here. Vajramon's an interesting cow-themed centaur, which is a design that I don't think I've ever seen -- thanks to the popularity of Greek mythology, cow-monsters tend to be patterned after the bull-headed humanoid Minotaur. Vajramon's neat, and thankfully he's part of a set, otherwise a cow-centaur with Chinese armour and two swords isn't the most interesting thing out there. Vajramon is described in his bio as a warrior that seeks honour, wants detachment from material and emotional concerns, and loathes cowardice. He's basically the biggest honour-bound warrior amongst the Deva, and fights with swords and creating earthquakes. In Digimon Tamers, Vajramon shows up with the similarly-named and similarly-designed Pajiramon (the sheep), although Vajramon stuck along for another couple of episodes, briefly trying to tempt Renamon to the side of the Devas for being a strong-willed Digimon, and Vajramon respects strength. It's an objectively cool design, I suppose, even if it's not particularly creative.Not much to say here, so let's get to the Adult-level speculations. Minotaurmon and Bullmon make for obvious bovine-themed connections, but some video games have placed Centarumon and Musyamon as possible pre-evolutions for Vajramon, and the visual theme of those two actually kind of work for Vajramon.
7/10.
Mihiramon
The third animal on the Chinese zodiac, the tiger, is represented by Mihiramon here, and he's also the first Deva that passed through into the real world, trouncing our heroes' Adult-level Digimon and proving to be such a threat that the Tamers had to work together alongside the shady human organization to take Mihiramon down. He's basically a tiger with some armour piecces stapled on, some nicely-drawn wings, and a scarf for some bizarre reason. It's a pleasant-looking animal, and like Vajramon, objectively cool, but I look at how creative Kumbhiramon and Indramon are, and I kinda feel like they definitely could've done more with Mihiramon other than gluing some accessories to a winged tiger. Mihiramon is noted to be a ruffian (which is probably why it doesn't really have much to say in Tamers beyond generic "you'll die" and ominous warnings), and is noted for being a tactician and a speedy fighter. Since all of the Devas have Chinese weapons incorporated into their design, Mihiramon's... isn't actually the spiked shields glued to his shoulders, but rather his tail, which is able to transform into the Bao Bang (treasure staff), the always-popular-in-anime Sansetsukon, the three-section staff.Possible pre-evolutions... Lynxmon is the only really appropriate one, I guess? Tailmon, if we're broadening the category to include cats? Do we really have that little feline Adult-level Digimon? Overall, despite its pretty weird scarf, I still find Mihiramon pretty dang cool.
7/10. Andiramon - Deva (a.k.a. Antylamon)
We've covered Andiramon before, but that was before she was part of this set, and this is apparently the 'true' form of Andiramon, the Data-type Deva, instead of the Virus-type one we've seen before. The only real change is that this Andiramon decided to forego casual day and dress up in Chinese-themed garb. This form is, of course, the one that Shaochung befriends, and eventually gets degenerated into a Lopmon. Most of my comments about Andiramon's design still remains -- it's a creepy giant rabbit-person that looks equal parts cute and unsettling, and fits well as the 'organic' counterpart to her mechanical twin Rapidmon. Andiramon's noted to have a personality that alternates between being compassionate, but able to transform into a warrior at a moment's notice. Apparently by manipulating Qi, and she will transform her arms into gigantic axes as her main attack. After how they emphasized that mouse-based Kumbhiramon is a non-combatant, it's neat that they gave at least the other furry, cute mammal the ability to kick a whole lot of ass.Andiramon's character arc in the anime is basically her being the one Deva that has a chance to interact with humans who aren't combatants trying to protect their world, and she's the only one to realize that Zhuqiaomon isn't telling the whole truth about how humanity is just trying to genocide the Digital World. This caused Zhuqiaomon and Makuramon to take away her powers, reverting her back into a Lopmon. It's neat, and I wonder if Andiramon was designed for the 02 movie before or after they knew that they were going to make a twelve-zodiacs themed set for Tamers.
Obviously, Andiramon has an established evolutionary line, evolving from either Wendimon or Tururiemon (she just warp digivolves between Lopmon and Andiramon in Tamers), and evolving into Cherubimon. Overall, I'm not quite sure which version of Andiramon I prefer more. The Deva version is the character I've grown to like, but the original one felt more... cohesive, I think.
5/10. Majiramon
They've already did an oriental-style dragon in Qinglongmon, but as any fantasy franchise can tell you, you can't have enough dragons. Majiramon does manage to look like a traditional Chinese-style dragon while still also looking like a weaker version of Qinglongmon, and restores a lot of the aspects of the chimeric nature of the oriental dragon, like the stag horns, the beard, and the serpentine body. Also always found that little vest he's wearing to be utterly ridiculous, especially when you considering the long claws that jut out of it. Majiramon is also another Deva with a centaur-style body type, although I didn't realize that until relatively recently. Majiramon, refreshingly, isn't even the leader of the Devas like you would think a Dragon would be, but rather just the huge, powerful flunky, while the more cerebral Caturamon and Makuramon call the shots. After a couple of ominous appearances foreshadowing him, Majiramon ends up fighting in a one-on-one battle against fellow Perfect-level dragon Digimon, Cyberdramon, and gets utterly curb-stomped. I've always loved just how skinny and gangly Majiramon looks in the Tamers anime as well, something that I don't think the official Bandai art really shows off that well.
Majiramon's described to actually be a lazy fucker who refuses to raise a finger to do anything if it doesn't benefit himself, but gets super-serious about things if it does benefit himself, and is a greedy, greedy bastard that puts a price on everything. Majiramon's "treasure" is the transformed feathers from his tail and beard, which are shot out and transformed into the Bao Shi, Treasure Arrows. The bio, hilariously, notes that each arrow costs five thosuand yuan, and a normal attack uses 108 arrows, coming to cost 540 yuan. I've never realized the greedy, penny-pinching mentality of Majiramon until when I sat down to write this, and that gives him an extra point in charm.Majiramon clearly has a huge choice of evolutions, with a whole ton of Adult-level dragons or draconic Digimon to choose from. Airdramon, the various Veemon evolutions, Seadramon... Overall, a hilariously goofy dragon beast that still looks like a threat.
7/10. Sandiramon
I've always felt that Sandiramon is pretty underwhelming, basically a white snake with a weird turtle-like shell that doubles as a cobra's hood. I do like snakes, and white snakes form a particularly popular legend (Madame White Snake) in China, but compared to fellow Perfect-level monster snake based on an oriental myth, Sandiramon just doesn't hold a candle to Orochimon.I do appreciate the utterly horrific maw that they gave Sandiramon, though, and at least they tried to make him somewhat interesting by incorporating the purple turtle shell onto Sandiramon's back -- an effort that I don't think works particularly well, but it's something. Sandiramon's noted to be the most cunning and cruel, often taking the time to torture his preys. In Tamers, he shows up in the underground subways and basically shows off the capability to drill through solid rock... and attacks by spitting a spear from his mouth? Yeah, they're trying a bit too hard with the "treasured weapons" theme for Sandiramon, I think. It's a fancy spear, if nothing else. I used to kinda like Sandiramon a fair bit as a kid, but I think that might just be because I like snakes. The easiest possible pre-evolution for Sandiramon is Coatlmon, of course, although I really do think that Coatlmon looks far more majestic and 'perfect' compared to Sandiramon. Airdramon and Seadramon works too, I suppose, even if they're technically more draconic than serpentine.
4/10. Indramon (a.k.a. Indaramon)
I didn't realize, until just now, that Vajramon and Indramon basically swapped the traditional "centaur" and "minotaur" look, because Indramon here is a pretty badass humanoid horse. And despite the humanoid stance, Indramon is utterly unsettling, with the horse's long, flowing hair being interpreted as these shaggy locks that cover his eyes, and his arms extending hideously into gigantic horse hooves. Oh, and he carries a big-ass golden trumpet shell that he uses as a weapon, unleashing gigantic blasts of sonic waves at the enemy. It's a unconventional and pretty cool design. See here and here for cool, updated art of Indramon. It's genuinely interesting that they picked the horse and not the more fearsome dragon or tiger to give the name "Indra" to (although his name is sometimes romanized as Indaramon), by the way, and Indramon ends up being one of the more unsettling villains among the Deva, being one of the more sadistic members. The previous Devas that appeared in the real world have so far been just spouting the same lines about "the reckoning is coming" and are just powerful enemies, but Indramon straight-up tortures and brutalizes Impmon to show how utterly pathetic these human-loving Digimon are, and proceeds to be able to hold off all three main Adult-levels with ease until Growmon decides to evolve into MegaloGrowmon and finally take him on.Indramon's bio notes how he's proud of how utterly powerful he is, how he ridicules anyone who works hard, and takes great pride in his power and looks... while simultaneously being utterly unrefined in battle, often using the giant trumpet shell not as a proper weaponized trumpet, but as a goddamn cudgel to bludgeon the enemy to death. Overall, it's a pretty unsettling horse demon-monster, and one that I've always felt to be pretty damn creative as a design.
As far as pre-evolutions go, there's no shortage of horse Digimon for Indramon to pick from. Unimon, Pegasmon, Centarumon and Sagittarimon all work pretty well, even if none really match Indramon's sheer monstrous humanoid horse look.
7/10. Pajiramon (a.k.a. Pajramon)
Pajiramon showed up at the same time with his buddy Vajramon in the anime, and is basically, well, a ram centaur, representing the zodiac sign of the sheep. He's... he's okay, I guess? It's what you'd expect from a ram-based centaur, with a sheep's lower body, curling ram horns and a bunch of Chinese accessories. Oh, and a crossbow, the Bao Gong. In the anime, Pajiramon is shown with the capability to create illusions and put people to sleep, and apparently can do a similar thing with his arrows? Even the Deva are not immune to the arrows, according to Pajiramon's bio, and only the lowly Kumbhiramon can counter it because of his own thoughts. I do like how the otherwise harmless-looking sheep ends up being built up in his profile as this "Dark Deva" who has a lot of secrets and is unnecessarily cruel, and one that never befriends others. Compared to his utterly bland personality in the anime (basically Vajramon's foil), and its pretty bleh visual design, it's honestly fairly interesting. Pajiramon's most obvious pre-evolution is Sheepmon, of course. Or Goatmon, if we're going for the horns. Overall, Pajiramon's one of the more underwhelming Devas, I've always felt, particularly compared to his buddy Vajramon 5/10. Makuramon
The Monkey, Makuramon here is easily the longest-running Deva, and if you've read my Pokemon reviews I've been known to not really be a big fan of monkeys. And it's still true, but Makuramon embodies so much of what makes a mischievous, cheeky monkey work, and I really love those huge googly eyes with that slit-like grinning mouth. (It's a lot less cute when Makuramon opens it) Makuramon actually shows up way earlier, masquerading as a strange, ooh-ooh-ah ing human boy, watching the other Devas try and fail to brute-force their way to obtain the plot device Culumon, before taking advantage of the distractions provided by the increasingly brutal Indramon and the rampaging Vikaralamon to just snatch up Culumon before anyone realizes that the kooky boy in the park is actually a threat. Makuramon then spends most of his time just hanging on top of Majiramon and then continuing to hang out with fellow co-conspirator Caturamon before finally falling victim to his own machinations, and getting murdered by Beelzebumon in a bit of karmic justice. Also worth noting is Makuramon's extremely distinctive voice in the original Japanese version, which I didn't know until five minutes before writing this article to be provided by Ryo "Vegeta" Horikawa.Makuramon is described by his bio as being someone with an always-calm and unreadable face, and communicates with body language, something that definitely isn't the case in the anime, thankfully. Makuramon's special attack is by summoning the Bao Yu, crystal balls that encase the enemy and cause Makuramon to collect them as part of his collection, and just stash them somewhere. Or delete them, because he can apparently do that. In the anime the Bao Yu is just depicted as a metal ball that whacks people.
I do appreciate that we shy away from the obvious Sun Wukong (or Son Goku for Japanese speakers) imagery to make Makuramon look unique as a Chinese-themed monkey man, and while he's not my favourite visual design (being, again, just a cartoon monkey in Chinese clothes) Makuramon's interesting enough in the anime to make him like him a fair bit. Makuramon would actually later get a default Child stage, Koemon, who shares the same face as he does. As far as pre-evolutions go, Hanumon is really the only obvious thing for him to evolve from, but no video game or TCG, currently, lets you evolve the Adult-stage monkey digimon to the Perfect-stage monkey Digimon. Oh well.
7/10, mostly for anime personalitySinduramon
Sinduramon follows the same design pattern as Kumbhiramon, being a spherical metal body with rooster anatomy attached to it. Oh, and it's got the same Bao Chu on his back as Kumbhiramon does. Sinduramon's definitely a whole less less creative, though, I think, although not an utterly unpleasant one to look at. Sinduramon's described as a nasty sort of fellow, liking to gossip and quarrel and often acts as a provocateur but then retracts his limbs inside his armour like some sort of bizarre chicken-turtle. It's apparently the most defensive of teh twelve Deva? Also, Sinduramon unleashes lightning strikes, because, um... reasons. Tamers makes Sinduramon a lot portlier and more comical, while some other art try to make him a lot cooler looking. Sinduramon's a chicken, though, and I've always found part of Sinduramon's charm to be how silly it looks. Not my favourite Deva and one of the more unmemorable ones in the anime, but an okay design.Pre-evolution wise, Sinduramon doesn't have a lack of Adult-level bird Digimon to pick from, like Birdramon, Kiwimon, Swanmon, Peacockmon, Peckmon and Diatrymon... but clearly the most appropriate one to evolve into Sinduramon is the actual cockatrice, Kokatorimon.
6/10. Caturamon (a.k.a. Chatsuramon)
Caturamon here is based on the Dog sign of the Zodiac, although clearly not just a dog, but a Guardian Lion, or the Shi Shi, often translated as "foo dogs" in English. And it's a pretty neat-looking oriental hound, too, with the most adorable little floppy puppy ears jutting out from that otherwise fearsome Chinese statue visage. Caturamon's noted as someone with a strong sense of justice and loyalty in his bio, although this also translates to a black-and-white worldview, shown in his utter economical ruthlessness as the head strategist of the Deva. It attacks, apparently, by summoning a giant hammer or sometimes shape-shifting into a giant hammer. Caturamon in Tamers acts as the devil that tempts Impmon with power beyond imagining after hiss brutal defeat at the hands of Indramon, with Impmon not quite realizing that both Indramon and Caturamon work for the same master. Caturamon then ends up working as the newly-evolved Beelzebumon's "handler", ensuring that Beelzebumon fights the Tamers. Caturamon is also the one that attacked Andiramon after her "betrayal" of associating with the humans, and continues to be obsessed with executing the traitor even in subsequent appearances. He's another one killed and absorbed by Beelzebumon when he finally makes his stand for independence.Caturamon's most obvious Adult-stage pre-evolution is obviously the similarly Chinese-artwork inspired dog Siesamon, although I guess you can make a case for Garurumon, Dobermon and Gaogamon? Doesn't fit the aesthetic as well as Siesamon, though. Anyway, I would've liked Caturamon if he didn't end up as such a fun villain in the show. The fact that he is definitely is a nice bonus.
7/10. Vikaralamon
Vikaralamon is one of the few Devas to make an appearance outside of Tamers, being portrayed as a protector of wounded baby Digimon in an episode of Savers. Vikaralamon's bio notes that he is an observer that gazes on everything with its eyes open, and its special attack is apparently the Digimon equivalent of D&D's prismatic spray, the Bao Lun (Treasure Wheel), and depending on the colour of the wheel that hits you, the effects are different. In Tamers it just rampages like a big fat pig. The obvious pre-evolution is Boarmon. Overall, a pretty badass, if slightly a bit too busy, design.
9/10. Locomon
We have a bit of space left after the twelve Deva. So... These next few are the star of Tamers's second movie, Runaway Digimon Express, and... eh, I'm not too big on trains, and the Trailmon introduced in the next series, Digimon Tamers, are far more interesting-looking and far more well-integrated into the storyline. Locomon's a Perfect-level that's just a train with claws on its side and eyes. Not particularly interesting. It apparently serves as data-carriers in the digital world? Eh, I guess we now know what all those weird, surreal train tracks in Adventure were for.Locomon in the Tamers movie sort of rampaged throughout the Shinjuku train tracks, obsessed with how he wants to "keep running", but it turns out that Locomon was kept under the thrall of the evil Parasimon. A different Locomon showed up in a particularly bad filler episode of Hunters. Overall... not unpleasant, but not a design I'm a big fan of.
5/10. GrandLocomon
6/10. Parasimon (a.k.a. Parasitemon)
Parasimon's official Bandai art doesn't really do him justice, huh? It just shows this Ultimate-level purple bug from the back, and while, yes, that's where the kissy-face carton lips are, Parasimon's front is what makes him fairly more distinctive. Parasimon has a huge, veiny eyeball in lieu of a head, and it makes him look so much like a fun little Zelda critter. I can't not like this guy! From a design standpoint, I really do love how it combines spiders and eyeballs, and it functions like a monstrous parasite, despite being a mighty Ultimate-level. And just look at this hilarious Digimon Crusader art, where it shows that when Parasimon hangs from a thread all spider-like, you end up with a grinning one-eyed face with massive lips. That's hilarious!Parasimon tends to be portrayed as the final Ultimate-level evolution of Arukenimon, or as an alternate Ultimate for Infermon. And it's a fun little eyeball spider, with the ability to shoot out green tendrils from its mouth, and just having an unsettlingly cartoonish lips and fangs as a spinneret. Parasimon is noted to be a unique creature that can't survive without leeching off other beings despite being an Ultimate-level, and is one of the few Ultimate-levels that gathers in numbers. It's an interesting bugger that's actually noted to be "powerless by itself", and it needs to gather in huge numbers or to leech onto a host (like Locomon, as shown in the movie) to draw out its insane amounts of powers, amplifying the host's desires and powers. While not the most original design, and sort of overshadowed by the other cooler looking spiders in Digimon's repertoire, it's a neat enough little bug-monster that I really do like.
8/10. This has been a bit of a shorter review page, but I do kind of want to get through the Tamers villains (and movie enemies) in a single page. So.
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