Digimon Reviews, Episode 26: Arkadimon and Friends [V-Tamers]

I think I've gotten through all of the characters that show up in the Digimon Tamers anime, so let's go through a bunch of miscellaneous franchise entries that showed up around this time. We've got a couple of video games (Digimon World 2, Digimon World 3), and the aforementioned manga, V-Tamers, which starred Veedramon, entered its final run at around this point in Digimon history, so I'll cover a bunch of Digimon that showed up at around 2001-2002 but I just didn't quite manage to talk about them before. .
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Arkadimon - Baby

• Alternate Names: Arcadiamon In-Training (EN dub)
• Stage: Baby II
• Type: N/A
• Attribute: Free

First up, let's talk about the main villain of the V-Tamer manga. While Daemon and the human Neo Saiba are the actual villains, the big bad threat is this little baby, Arkadimon, named after the Greece region Arcadia. All of Arkadimon's stages are called "Arkadimon",  which just honestly makes me roll my eyes. Back when V-Tamers ran maybe this felt weird and unique, but so many Digimon ended up having multiple levels and designs sharing the same name or with ": Whatever Mode" added onto its back that it's ceased to have any sort of novelty. Anyway, this Arkadimon is the Baby stage, and is an artificial Digimon or whatever created by Daemon in his bid for world conquest. It's okay, for what it is, a clearly evil, mean-looking alien baby with shades of being inspired by Alien without having any obvious Xenomorph-like homages.

 4/10.
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Arkadimon - Child

• Alternate Names: Arcadiamon Rookie (EN dub)
• Stage: Child
• Type: Bewitching Beast
• Attribute: Virus

Child-level Arkadimon is like, oh-so-powerful and can fight against regular Adult, Perfects and Ultimates with no problem because it's the hyped-up villain of the piece. It's an okay design, I guess, succeeding relatively well in looking pretty unnatural, with a pair of really mean-looking weird scythe-blade arms, a head that doesn't really look like any animal, and a neat set of single-toed claws. I didn't really like this design a whole lot the first time I saw it, but I've came to appreciate just how unique and bizarre this motherfucker really is. It's just this weird construct with a humanoid body shape, and it lives by absorbing the data of its fallen enemies -- something that is also used in the Tamers cartoon. The entire Arkadimon line (and most of V-Tamer's original creations, save for Veedramon and Daemon) end up sort of never really appearing anywhere else but the manga and trading cards.

 6/10.

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Arkadimon - Adult

• Alternate Names: Arcadiamon Champion (EN dub)
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Bewitching Beast
• Attribute: Virus

Basically our theme here is 'weird humanoid monsters', huh? Adult Arkadimon is okay, I guess, with huge, gangly arms, weird red... growths that can extend into spikes, and a cool-looking single vertical third eye above two slit-like eyes... and whatever those hairy things that jut out of his shoulders are supposed to be. The weird usage of green here  sort of makes the Adult-level Arkadimon feel a bit messier than it should be, though. I suppose it's to show off just how unnatural and an aberration Arkadimon really is compared to the normal Digimon? It's neat, for what it is, although not a design that I must confess I'm really in love with. I suppose that's the point. 

Many of these V-Tamer manga designs were embargoed for a while, due to copyright concerns between the magazine and Bandai and maybe even the writer... but in recent years they seem to have hashed it out, with more and more V-Tamer original Digimon beyond Veedramon finally making appearances in the broader franchise. 

 5/10.

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Arkadimon - Perfect

• Alternate Names: Arcadiamon Ultimate (EN dub)
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Bewitching Beast
• Attribute: Virus

Perfect-level Arkadimon ends up being a pretty neat-looking humanoid anime demon with bug-like chitin armour, demon wings made up entirely of tendrils, a more defined demon head, and big mean-looking claws. It's just a shame that none of the Arkadimon stages really get any sort of unique lore or profile, or any attempt at exploring their abilities and behaviour, and are just "it's an aberration, it can delete other data, and absorb them" because they're treated as just the same creature mutating and growing stronger in the V-Tamers manga. I like Perfect Arkadimon. He's not a bad design, and probably the most cohesive of the Arkadimons without looking like a mess.

Clearly the anime staff agree with my love for Perfect-level Arkadimon, incidentally, because this is the only form to ever make an animated appearance, as a lieutenant of one of the main vilains in Xros Wars (albeit coloured white). Arkadimon Perfect also serves as one of the primary antagonists in the Cyber Sleuth spinoff game. It's overall a pretty neat-looking monster, and I'm happy that it's back to being used by the franchise!

 7/10.
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Arkadimon - Ultimate

• Alternate Names: Arcadiamon Mega (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate 
• Type: Bewitching Beast
• Attribute: Virus

Ultimate-level Arkadimon basically is the same design as Perfect Arkadimon, but cuts out a lot of the colours, swaps out Perfect Arkadimon's tendril wings for two pairs of boring-looking leather wings, and homogenizing the design somewhat. While the Child, Adult and Perfect stages don't feel like they connected with each other too well due to changing too much, Ultimate Arkadimon feels like it has the opposite problem -- it's way too similar to Perfect Arkadimon, just with a lot of the more interesting aspects cut out. It's still a decent bug-demon monster, though, and I can't fault it for that. I do like that its eyes seem to have migrated into the sides of its lower arms, though, a fun little bit of detail I've never really noticed. Ultimate Arkadimon is able to transform his tendril-like fingers into spears, in his ultimate attack, "Dot Matrix", which allows it to absorb and drain the data of any Digimon to restore his own. Still pretty neat, even if I like the Perfect Arkadimon better.

 6/10.
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Arkadimon - Super Ultimate

• Alternate Names: Arcadiamon Ultra (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate / Super Ultimate
• Type: Bewitching Beast
• Attribute: Virus

This Arkadimon is identified as a "Super Ultimate" level, created when Ultimate Arkadimon evolved even further, and was treated as this big, unnatural deal because Digimon aren't supposed to evolve beyond Ultimate. And the franchise seems really leery at even using the term "Super Ultimate", with the franchise flip-flopping on whether the "Super Ultimate" Digimon are just powerful Ultimates or a unique, super-special final stage. Super-Ultimate Arkadimon does manage to take the Ultimate/Perfect Arkadimon design and conflate it into such an unholy mass of tentacles and tendrils that really sells the fact that it's mutated into some strange monster that must-not-be, and the eyes on the huge shoulder-blades (arms?) do help to give it a pretty interesting look. While I think I prefer the look of other 'eldritch abomination' style Digimon like Apocalymon or ZeedMillenniummon to Super-Ultimate Arkadimon, it's a neat effort that results in a pretty distinctive design.

 5/10.

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Demon - Super Ultimate

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Demon Lord
• Attribute: Virus

Oh, halfway across the final battle, our previous bad guy, Demon, shows up and hijacks Arkadimon and transforms into a Super-Ultimate level himself. Which is basically the exact same demon-man design, but proportioned into a less comical fashion with extra huge bony fingers on his wings. It's a form that earns me a bit of an 'eh' for me. It does admittedly make Demon look far more badass, but at the same time a fair bit more generic than the goofier beast-man that he was originally envisioned as. And looking at how this looks like a poor man's Summoned Skull, I kinda see why they went with the more distinctive angry beastman design for canon Demon. Kinda don't care about this one, honestly.

 3/10.

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Metamormon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute: Virus

Metamormon another one-shot villain original to V-Tamers, showing up in a crossover episode between V-Tamers and Digimon Frontier, and it's an Ultimate-level that can basically transform into any other Digimon, basically being the Digimon counterpart to Ditto. It's got a fun little blobby-ghost look with giant claws and weird little blob-wings. I kinda wished that he was used a bit more due to how utterly goofy it looks for what's otherwise supposed to be a pretty powerful Ultimate-level. Most importantly, Metamormon's belly is supposed to actually evoke the shape of some of the earliest virtual pets. It's a joke that entirely went over my head before. That's actually a pretty hilarious and somewhat meta design choice!

 5/10.
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Parallelmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute: Virus

Another one that appeared in a crossover episode, Parallelmon is yet another Ultimate-level that facilitates a different crossover episode between the protagonist of V-Tamers and the protagonist of 02. It's... it's kind of like a weird cross of Diaboromon and Arkadimon, with a neat single-eyed face, huge claws connected to his body with wire-like tendrils, an always welcome feature in any monster design. I do like how this one looks, the contrast between the vine-y upper limbs and the chunky bug-like lower limbs are nice. 

Parallelmon's whole deal is that it can facilitate crossovers by ripping through parallel realities, which isn't immediately obvious from its design, but there you go. It's an all right monster! I don't mind this one. Surprisingly, Parallelmon would rise a bit more into relevance, showing up in the recent Time Stranger game to facilitate some parallel-world crossover with some previous video games. That's honestly quite cute, I do like that there's a multiverse-portal Digimon that isn't world-ending like the Quartzmons and Millenniumons, but just is here as a giant bug to open portals. 

 6/10.

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Callismon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Demon Beast
• Attribute: Virus

Halfway through the manga's run, the human villain Neo began modifying and remodelling existing Digimon by taking chunks of Arkadimon's data and injecting them into other Digimon. Callismon here is a Gryzmon (which we haven't covered, but it's a bear) modified as such, and is basically a bear-man with a big-ass gatling gun for an arm. It's an Ultimate-level. It's purple! It's got an all right design with some fancy clothes and whatnot, and it's got neat proportions, but I'm not the most impressed.

Surprisingly, despite never appearing outside of that manga, Callismon recently got a brand-new piece of artwork and a role in the Time Stranger game. Again, I still don't find him all that much interesting, but it's nice for older obscure Digimon to get recognized!

 0/10.

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NeoDevimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Fallen Angel
• Attribute: Virus

Far more memorable, though, was NeoDevimon, who was modified from Neo's own Devimon army, and enhanced in a similar way that Callismon was. But where Callismon is a silly-looking man-bear with a gun, the redesign for NeoDevimon ends up being pretty different while still faithful to the original Devimon aesthetic that NeoDevimon's ended up appearing in a fair amount of virtual pets and video games, the only other Digimon from the V-Tamers manga outside of Daemon and the whole Veedramon line to really get any sort of huge recognition. 

In fact, with the franchise really wanting to make Devimon and Vamdemon distinct, it's neat that Devimon gets a Perfect-level that's more "him". It's a simple set of modifications, and I probably wouldn't have cared about NeoDevimon as much if it was just changing the bandages and wings into blood-red (although that's cool), adding golden claws (also cool), boot-spikes (also cool) and covering chunks of his chest with silver plates and red implants (also also cool)... but the most striking figure is easily changing Devimon's Batman cowl into a faceless metallic golden mask. It's a very cool visage on top of a lot of other 'edgy' additions done right, and I'm definitely a huge fan of NeoDevimon as a design. Edgy done right, I say.

When Devimon returned in the Adventure 2020 reboot, lo and behold, his Perfect form ends up being NeoDevimon, which gave our heroes quite a great fight. Those six eye-orbs on its face alternate from being soulless orbs to having disturbing organic eyeballs bulge out of it! Creepy! I really just enjoy this one. 

 9/10.
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Dominimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Dominion
• Attribute: Vaccine

Dominimon here is the alternate Ultimate-level evolution for HolyAngemon. The V-Tamers manga gave a bunch of new evolutions to its supporting cast, and Dominimon gets to represent the 'Dominion' type of angels. Over the course of Digimon's franchise, some of the various angel types are slowly being filled out by random Angemon variants like ClavisAngemon and SlashAngemon. 

Dominimon is... it sure is an Angemon. It still has HolyAngemon's wrist sword, but has two giant shields on its shoulders now. It really felt like it's just a middle ground between HolyAngemon and Seraphimon, though, with details borrowed from both forms. I'm not really a fan of this one, though, sorry.

 3/10.
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Regulumon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: N/A
• Attribute: N/A

While Dominimon, the Arkadimons, the one-shot villains and even PetitMamon below do show up here and there, the local Leomon gets an Ultimate-level evolution... but Regulumon here is just a brown lion with a green cape. That's... that's boring! Leomon already has a couple of alternate ultimate forms even when V-Tamer was running, and giving us one that's just Leomon is... I guess the joke is that it went from Leomon to Panjyamon to Regulumon, with minimal changes beyond colour and now a cape, but it's just very bland. This one's here for completion's sake, but I really don't care for it. 

 1/10.
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PetitMamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Small Devil
• Attribute: Virus

These two PetitMamon feel like they came from a different franchise altogether, honestly, like the knockoff brand Digimon's version of Impmon. They also have nothing to do with the actual Mammon in Digimon, who is a giant mammoth. These two show up as slapstick comedy sidekicks to the main villain's sister, and really felt superfluous when the manga already had more interesting supporting characters. And design-wise, they just felt... off. I don't know. I don't really like them. 

 2/10.

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Gokumon

• Alternate Names: Reapermon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Virus

Moving on to video game bosses now, we'll start off with Gokumon! Who draws his name from jigoku (hell), not Son Goku. That monkey king will be romanized as Gokuwmon a decade or so later. This so-called 'Reapermon' is a neat little robot-warrior man with scythes, a giant Megatron arm-cannon and cool-looking claws. The final boss of a fighting game, Gokumon has got an interesting bio. It was born out of the data of wanted criminals... and believes that it is a 'bounty hunter' even though it's the one with a bounty on its head. Okay!

The visual design is all right, a humanoid robot with giant weapons for arms. The gold and silver are all right, but not too special. Like most of these 'final boss' Digimon in games, though, many of these video game Digimon would fade into obscurity... until the 2020's, which was very good for a lot of the guys featured here. Gokumon showed up as a robotic villain of the week in Adventure 2020. I still find it a bit underwhelming and stiff-looking, but those scythes and cannons do look quite neat. It's all right. I don't love it, but it's all right.

 4/10.
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Suijinmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Machine
• Attribute: Data

These next few guys are bosses in Digimon World 3, and have so far only really been seen in very obscure trading card games. Borrowing his name from Suijin, a Japanese god of water, Suijinmon is a centaur robot with gigantic, long arms that reach the ground, as well as big-ass cannons on his shoulder. As its profile notes, it's got a combination of two Justimon arms and two Mugendramon cannons. I'm actually a big fan of how this creature ends up turning out... a centaur-like robot that also manages to look somewhat antique, with arms that are planted on the ground like some sort of weapons emplacement being emplanted onto the ground. I definitely also like how he's lurching forwards, like he really needs those massive arms to support that gigantic set of shoulder weaponry. You know what? I've never actually given Suijinmon the time of the day before, but he's honestly a pretty neat-looking robot!

 7/10.

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Raijinmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Virus

Anyone who's played old-school Yu-Gi-Oh knows that if there's a Suijin, there's going to be a Raijin and Fujin. I don't have much to say about Raijinmon, though, borrowing his name from Raijin, god of thunder. He's... he's a humanoid figure with two of Justimon's regular arms, I think? I kinda like the little SaintGargomon-esque shoulder missile-pods, and I definitely like the fact that he's got a tail that's basically just a cable jack. Robots are cool, and I feel like while Raijinmon doesn't quite look as distinctive as Suijinmon, he's still kinda neat-looking.

 5/10.

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Fujinmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Vaccine

Fujinmon, borrowing his name from Fujin, god of wind, is probably the most boring of these three, looking pretty generic and not even with the fun little cable-tail or the chunky shoulder-pads of Raijinmon. He's got a weird little wind-funnel thing, I suppose? He's got Justimon's blade-arms, but that genuinely doesn't quite look that cool, and especially not with his mono-green paint scheme. Not much for me to say here. Where the other two are kind of charming robots, Fujinmon just feels like it doesn't have a lot of thought put into his design.

I guess I haven't mentioned that all three of these are Ultimate-levels? Now you know.

 3/10.
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Raidenmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Machine
• Attribute: Virus

Borrowing his name from Raiden, the god of thunder and lightning, and he's... he's supposedly the combination of Fujinmon, Raidenmon and Suijinmon, but I genuinely don't see much of their three being incorporated into this gestalt machine. I guess the huge missile pods are from Raijinmon? It's a fun design, regardless, looking less like a tank and more like a huge robot with gigantic boots and short legs, as well as huge arms. Also never realized that he's got a cute little face with goggly eyes in front of that scary tank body. I don't dislike Raidenmon, though -- I can totally see this dude being the final Ultimate evolution for Tankmon if the game designers cared enough about Tankmon. While I had initially dismissed Raidenmon, writing this up made me realize that it's not quite that bad of a design on its own. And, well... I like robots. He's neat. 

 5/10.
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Valvemon

• Alternate Names: Bulbmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Machine
• Attribute: Data

Valvemon is a Perfect-level Digimon in Digimon World 3, and among Digimon World 3's many, many boss-only encounters, Valvemon is the only one to actually be popular enough to be included in various other games, the first to get an official artwork, and even made it into the anime as a minor villain in Xros Wars. Not bad, Valvemon! He's a pretty neat design, this huge multi-faced d40 die or whatever, with four pillar-like spider legs, tentacle-arms, a pop-up head and apparently chunks of his dice-like body can be shot off as projectiles. The Perfect-level Valvemon is apparently utilized as a transport Digimon, carrying up to forty Digimon within his body (Forty Koromon? Forty Whamon? What?) and acts as a troop-deploying carrier for the bad guys of World 3.

Valvemon would make a surprise appearance in Adventure 2020 as a massive mobile base, walking around carrying massive troops of, uh, Troopmon as it walks through the wastelands. Our heroes actually have to infiltrate Valvemon. Again, it's a pretty neat to see that many of these obscure Digimon aren't forgotten. I've always had a soft spot for this one. 

 5/10.

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Bemmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute: Unknown

These guys are the villains of Digimon World 3, and went ignored for quite a while... until exactly two decades after their debut, they received brand-new art, brand new trading cards, a major role in the tie-in manga Liberator, and official Reference Book profiles. Wow! Someone must have replayed Digimon World 3 in Bandai headquarters. 

Bemmon is a very cool looking little guy, looking like a weird space alien. The shades of purple, the long head, and the Tentomon mouth is nice. It has a visor with a single eyeball that seems to move around, and has extra yellow eyeballs on its hands similar to Deathmon. It's got a metal collar with a chain? The general sleek purple angles and body gives a very 'alien' vibe, making it feel similar to designs like Mewtwo or Frieza. 

Bemmon (or more accurately BEMmon, 'Bug Eyed Monster') is an artificial Digimon that is quite en vogue for these video game enemies, going around with the directive of consuming and assimilating those it defeats. 

 8/10.

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Snatchmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute: Unknown

The adult-level Snatchmon has grown a bit more formidable looking and is a bit less cute than Bemmon. Its tail has moved to the back of its more complex head, giving it shades of Mega Mewtwo Y from Pokemon. It's still cool-looking, although I like Bemmon a lot more. 

The official profile notes that Snatchmon happens when a group of Bemmon begin to attack and cannibalize each other, and the resulting victor would evolve into Snatchmon. Most Snatchmon continue to obey orders, but some become independent and go around hunting for stronger prey so it itself can become stronger. Pretty cool!

 7/10.

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Destromon

• Alternate Names: Galacticmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute: Unknown

At some point, the Snatchmons or whatnot fuse with an entire battleship, transforming into Destromon. I had to use the concept art to make heads and tails of what they are, and the official artwork makes it a bit more clear. It's a giant dinosaur-man with loads of battleship parts, making it look kind of like a far more mutated version of MegaloGrowmon in terms of proportions. I particularly like the arms -- having two layers of claws but still only a single pair of arms gives it a rather unique vibe. 

Destromon is a bit cluttered, but I've grown a bit more fond of it. It's a kaiju dinosaur with a bunch of cannons strapped to it, I can't really be too harsh on it. And in this case, the clutter is part of the monster's design, due to the fact that it's unnaturally feeding and merging with powerful weaponry. I like it a lot less than its predecessors, but it's still neat.  

 5/10.

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Ragnamon

• Alternate Names: Galacticmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Unknown
• Attribute: Unknown

Okay, and the final stage Ragnamon (Galacticmon in the dub) has merged with a whole orbital station. I didn't 'get' that concept and kind of ignored Ragnamon in my first pass, but now that I see it,  it makes more sense. It's still messy, it's still cluttered, but I get it. The wing-panels of the space station form like the 'wings' of this body layout that appear to be mimicking Megidramon? Considering World 3 would come out when Tamers was the main anime, it would make sense. Ragnamon's main draconic-serpent body is still purple like BEMmon and Snatchmon. 

There are a lot of details here and there that make this look a bit like a messy Transformer, but I do like the two giant hip cannons, and the fact that Ragnamon has one space shuttle as its shoulder armour, and a second space shuttle as its entire right wrist -- with two purple metal pincer claws bursting out of it. I had dismissed this entire line when I first reviewed them, but I have grown to really appreciate these weirdoes!

In World 3, Ragnamon attempted to fuse with the Earth itself to become a 'Gaiamon'. We never quite see what a 'Gaiamon' is, but it would be interesting to see the Bemmon line fused with things that aren't battleships and space stations. Oh, wait, that's just the Xros Wars franchise, isn't it?

 6/10.

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ToyAgumon (Black)

• Alternate Names: BlackToyAgumon, ShadowToyAgumon (EN dub)
• Stage: Child
• Type: Puppet
• Attribute: Virus

Repaint rapid-fire time! 

This was originally rolled into ClearAgumon, but BlackToyAgumon (or ShadowToyAgumon in the dub) actually shows up a bit later, in 2000 in the TCG alongside a bunch of black-repaint Digimon that we'll cover below. 

The difference? BlackToyAgumon actually had a major-ish anime role in Frontier, where they were attacking the regular ToyAgumon and even corrupted the local Monzaemon into a WaruMonzaemon.

Having an anime role alone doesn't mean it's suddenly elevated to importance, though, as they probably used the BlackToyAgumon to make animating the giant lego forms easier instead of needing to make multi-coloured blocks. It is a bit more relevance and shows off the ToyAgumon gimmick than the base species has ever done, however, so they get a bit of a leeway.

 4/10. Would be 2 otherwise. 

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BlackAgumon

• Alternate Names: BlackAgumon, Agumon (Black)
• Stage: Child
• Type: Reptile
• Attribute: Virus

They saw the success of BlackWarGreymon and they thought it would just be easy to slather some black paint across any and all protagonist Digimon, huh? With the handwave of justifying it with 'we need a full line for BlackWarGreymon', and since there's a BlackWarGreymon, there needs to be a BlackMetalGarurumon, and its entire family too. 

They're pretty low-effort, and not all of them are even done particularly well. While the official Reference Book is inconsistent in terming these guys 'Agumon (Black)' or 'BlackAgumon', I'll probably be using the latter throughout most of my reviews. 

 0/10. Lazy.

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BlackGreymon

• Alternate Names: BlackGreymon, Greymon (Blue), Greymon (Virus)
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Dinosaur
• Attribute: Virus

Okay, fine, the Agumon line can be justified because we've already got the Virus MetalGreymon from the first day of the franchise, and BlackWarGreymon is a major anime character, and BlackAgumon was needed for the transforming toy... so we've got BlackGreymon. Fine. It's got blue skin, like the fleshy parts of the Virus MetalGreymon. That's cute. 

This would form the basis of the Greymon from Xros Wars, however, and unfortunately that's what comes to mind when anyone talks about a blue-coloured evil Greymon. Sorry, original BlackGreymon, you don't get much love. 

 1/10. Point for continuity.

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BlackGabumon

• Alternate Names: BlackGabumon, Gabumon (Black)
• Stage: Child
• Type: Reptile
• Attribute: Virus

It sure is a monochrome Gabumon. I give it a single point, because I actually find the subtle colouration of the yellow belly markings and orange eyes being quite light against the rest of the monochrome to be quite pleasing to the eyes compared to the rest of its line. 

BlackGabumon and BlackAgumon make lots of appearances in the 3D video games, which I actually think is clever in a lazy sort of way since they just have to repaint the existing iconic characters but without rigging a new model, they get to assign a bunch of the more 'evil' virus evolutions to them.

It's clever in a problem solving way, though not in a design way. 

 1/10. 

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BlackGarurumon

• Alternate Names: BlackGarurumon, Garurumon (Black)
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Beast
• Attribute: Virus

Yawn. It sure is a black coloured Garurumon. I suppose it also gets one point, because being a predominantly black wolf is probably appealing to a significant portion of the fandom. It is cooler, at least, than Gururumon. 

BlackGarurumon actually shows up in the anime of Savers, being the evolved form of a villainous Elecmon. 

 1/10. 

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BlackWereGarurumon

• Alternate Names: BlackWereGarurumon, WereGarurumon (Black), ShadowWereGarurumon (EN dub)
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Beast Man
• Attribute: Virus

Okay, BlackWereGarurumon also has an anime appearance, this time in Frontier... as a villain in a 'wacky races' parody. I actually appreciate this one, for not being entirely black-and-white, and giving BlackWereGarurumon some military-themed pants and a strange flesh-coloured arm-glove. 

I would, by the way, readily give these guys much higher points if they had better profiles. But every single one of them copy-pasted the original design right down to the attack names, and maybe if they bother, adding a line that it's a virus attribute this time.

In most video games, BlackWereGarurumon tends to serve as the pre-evolution of the Olympos XII Mercurymon. Sure.

 2/10. 

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BlackMetalGarurumon

• Alternate Names: BlackMetalGarurumon, MetalGarurumon (Black)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Virus

It sure is a black coloured MetalGarurumon. This one just feels lazy; all the robotic details feel drowned out. 

 0/10. Lazy.

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BlackTailmon

• Alternate Names: BlackTailmon, BlackGatomon (EN dub)
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Demon Beast
• Attribute: Virus

BlackTailmon debuted in a TCG video game, I think to give LadyDevimon an Adult-level evolution to parallel Angewomon... but I think they just didn't want LadyDevimon to evolve from like, a dude Devimon or something. BlackTailmon would show up a fair bit more in virtual pets and video games. 

I acutally find this one to be quite pleasant, with the two shades of purple highlights actually making it a much less lazier-looking repaint than many of the others, and... and to be frank, it's a lot more novel seeing some of the other anime Digimon get some love instead of the obvious Agumon and Gabumon lines. And a 'black cat', I suppose, is a good enough theme -- it even gets a unique bio, noting that it's a rare mutation born among the Tailmons, and has a much more mean, spiteful and bullying personality that normally evolves into fallen angels. 

 3/10, could be 2.  

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BlackImperialdramon

• Alternate Names: Imperialdramon: Dragon Mode (Black)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Dragon
• Attribute: Virus

IMPERIALDRAMON IS ALREADY BLACK, YOU REPAINT-OBSESSED GAME DESIGNERS!

COME ON, GUYS! YOU CAN'T JUST REMOVE THE MINIMAL BLUE AND CALL IT A NEW FORM!

Sigh. Honestly, I'd be bitching and groaning if they repainted ExVeemon, Stingmon and Paildramon from the 02 cast, but at least those would've been different. Imperialdramon is already predominantly black! Come on!

• Alternate Names: Imperialdramon: Fighter Mode (Black)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Dragon Man
• Attribute: Virus

Originally looking no different than the regular Imperialdramon beyond the lazy lack of blue, Virus Fighter Mode would be given a new gun and a fanged dragon-chest and tattered wings in 2022 of all things. I guess someone out there really liked this black repaint in particular? They might give Black Imperialdramon 10/10, but not me. 

In 2025, the two Black Imperialdramons, rather unexpectedly, became the main minions of the antagonist of Digimon Liberator. Someone in the design team really likes them!

 0/10. Lazy.

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Elecmon (Violet)

• Alternate Names: Elecmon (Violet)
• Stage: Child
• Type: Mammal
• Attribute: Virus

Oh! Oh! See how much cooler if you give alternate colourations? Elecmon Violet feels like it could be a subspecies, like all those original Digimon World variants, such as Alraumon or Zassoumon or IceDevimon or SnowGoblimon or whatnot. The lavender and an almost greenish yellow does really give it a nice look, distinct from the primary colours of the regular Elecmon. 

I am also surprised that Elecmon of all things got a variant, and not like, Gomamon or Tentomon or Veemon or one of the other protagonist Digimon. Not that I'm complaining, Elecmon deserves some love. This one also gets a nice alternate bio, being noted as having an unpleasant personality that bullies indiscriminately. 

It's a very pleasant alternate colouration, and has shown up in the Adventure 2020 anime. 

 4/10, 

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GoldV-Dramon

• Alternate Names: GoldV-Dramon, GoldVeedramon
• Stage: Armor
• Type: Mythical Dragon
• Attribute: Vaccine

And we finally close off with the tacky GoldVeedramon, which debuted alongside a couple of other Veedramon variants in a video game as secret characters. There are a lot more of these secret repaint characters (particularly when we reach Xros Wars) but mercifully I haven't had to talk about them. 

Gold repaints can be tacky if they're repeated as much as black repaints... but the bio describes this as an... armour evolution for Veemon using the Digimental of Fate that appeared one time in a movie. A repaint as an Armour evolution is lazy enough, without considering the line in the bio talking about how GoldVeedramon has the power of an Ultimate-level? Yeah, this is like Magnamon all over again with none of the effort. No. 

 0/10. We don't like plot device Mary Sues here. 

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Speaking of which, we are not even going through every single video game / TCG repaint. Originally reviewed here but ultimately omitted because they don't get a proper Reference Book entry or artwork are: 

• MasterVeedramon (who's just blue, and a way to get a 'stronger' Veedramon that still looks blue... but that's just AeroVeedramon)
• Veedramon (Red), MasterVeedramon, who don't get good artwork but are essentially just different-coloured Veedramons. 
• ChaosGreymon, ChaosPiemon, ChaosSeadramon (black-and-silver repaints of WarGreymon, Piemon and MetalSeadramon for one of the World games... which are all right, other than the fact that BlackWarGreymon already exists.)