So the fourth Digimon series is a huge departure from the previous three, in that it bypassed the whole 'creature-raising' part of Digimon (i.e. arguably the whole point of the franchise) and did a reboot, in which our heroes are a group of humans who found their way into the digital world... and found themselves able to transform into Digimon. It's basically a Super Sentai or Kamen Rider series that takes place in a version of the digital world.In and of itself, that concept isn't bad, as much as what I felt at the time. It was a reinvention, and kudos for Frontier for trying something different. Frontier also had a great time world-building and setting up a history for its world with the legends of the Warriors Ten, Three Great Angels and the Royal Knights, as well as the setup of the Trailmon tracks connecting all the various parts of their version of the Digital World together.
However, it was also the season that the franchise lost its grove and really struggled to get back to relevance, leading to a massive 5-year delay between Frontier and the production of the next anime (Savers) that I don't think the franchise really quite recovered from. It's not all the fault of the anime, but I still maintain that Frontier is a lot of interesting ideas that ended up being executed very poorly. A lot of the interesting character concepts for both villains and good guys are abandoned, and the show eventually sidelines the rest of the cast to focus on the two main dudes Takuya and Koji -- which, coincidentally, are the two characters tied to the transforming toys in the market at the time. It doesn't help that the writing is particularly bad, characters don't really develop, and the lack of the traditional child/digimon dynamic ends up not being replaced with anything interesting.
i don't think Frontier is the worst Digimon series at all, with Hunters being the worst. There were definitely some good moments earlier in the show, and it did manage to feature some of the more obscure older Digimon which I appreciated.
But this being a creature-review series, I would say that the main characters in Frontier are quite poorly designed for my tastes. Even accounting that these are meant to evoke a 'super mode' similar to Sailor Moon, Kamen Rider or Super Sentai, it is still a bad look due to a much more exaggerated problem of why I complained about 02's main characters...
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3/10.
5/10.
Is it bad that I forgot Aldamon existed at all? I know that all the spirits have a 'combined' form, where the Human and Beast Spirits fuse together. Only the main two boys ever do this, and that's because they have transforming toys to sell. And I think Aldamon's main thing is that... it's obvious it's just the transforming toy taking parts of Agnimon and putting them on Vritramon.
2/10.
2/10.
Our second main kid is Minamoto Koji, the cool 'rival' kid who loses his bite in record time and becomes a friend. He transforms into Wolfmon, who is a wolf-themed robot kamen rider looking guy that I actually find a fair bit cooler than Agnimon. I think it's because he genuinely looks like a proper tokusatsu design, with the over-the-top scarf and the twin lightsabers. Wolfmon was also renamed into the far more imposing 'Lobomon' in the English dub, one of the few dub name changes I actually prefer.
4/10.
Officially spelled 'Garummon' but also better-parsed as Garmmon, this is Koji's Beast Spirit and it sure is a mechanical wolf that just looks quite cluttered. There are a bunch of stuff that is needed for the transformation of the toy into other forms that just detracts from the design, like the two massive blade weapons that are stored on its back, the random spike on its chest, the awkward-looking mess that is its rear end...
3/10.
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Yeah, Beowolfmon here is just mix-and-matching parts from Wolfmon and Garmmon. It's really obvious that it's got Wolfmon's head, Garmmon's arms, Wolfmon's legs, and then we bring out the weird tail-and-blade-wing section from Garmmon's back and give it to Beowolfmon. The end result is just... a less-cool Wolfmon wielding a particularly bad-looking weapon. Even if you had a toy to work off of, at least make the proportions look better! It's not even just an 'official artwork' thing, as Beowolfmon's anime appearances also make it look quite awkward looking.
1/10.
This is the equivalent to KaiserGreymon, where Koji fuses his own Spirits of Light with the second-stringers. MagnaGarurumon actually looks quite awkward, but credit where credit's due, it at least looks a bit different from its three previous forms. It's also got an entire fighter jet acting as its chest and jutting out of its back, with two random golden bits-and-bobs also jutting out of its back. (Those are parts for the toy's combined super-mode). MagnaGarurumon also has a huge, chunky and unwieldy-looking cannon for its right arm, and a giant revolver above its left hand.
0/10.
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1/10.
So let's go into the secondary cast, and if you're a fan of any of these... though luck! They tend to be utter losers, barely managing to scrape by with victories and honestly, watching Frontier, I'm just rooting for them to get maybe a win or two. But they never really end up growing out of their one-note personalities, and aren't even exciting action heroes for us to follow. The first of these is Shibayama Junpei ("JP" for English dub viewers). He's a fat kid, and he likes to eat, and he likes to crush on the lone lady on the team. That's about all you have to know about Junpei, really, because he never really grows out of his flaws. Junpei at least manages to get a couple of wins, at least, whereas I genuinely can't think of Tomoki and Izumi doing anything significant.
Junpei ends up getting the spirits of thunder, allowing him to transform into Blitzmon (the far less cooler Beetlemon in the English dub), who is an armoured human wearing a rhinoceros beetle helmet. I'm not even mad, actually -- it's a neat little Kamen Rider/super sentai reference, isn't it? It's just that Blitzmon's design is honestly kind of boring, with generic robotic clutter outside of the cool-looking gauntlets and robot-bug helmet. It's mostly fun, though, and I don't really mind Blitzmon while not exactly liking it. Blitzmon's described in his profile to battle with wrestling style moves, and also is brash-but-kind. It's okay, I guess.
5/10.
Okay, this one is cool, Frontier. I'll admit that. So Blitzmon's 'beast' form is a robotic beetle with gatling guns for fingers, a far more prominent metallic beetle horn, and tank treads? It looks toyetic, yes, but at least it's clear that Bolgmon here is robotic, so the plastic feel of it actually works in the design's favour. It also looks different enough compared to Blitzmon while still retaining the same colour schemes and general aesthetic. See what the character designers can do when they're not limited by transforming toys? (Being secondary characters, there's no toy that transforms back and forth from Blitzmon to Bolgmon). Bolgmon is described by his profile to be born out of a defense matrix guarding a pyramid or something, which... which doesn't really make sense, but okay, whatever. It's also noted that Bolgmon is designed as logistical support due to its slow speed, but anything that comes close gets utterly annihilated with its machineguns and lasers. Anyway, this dude is a bit of a shoo-in for me liking him, so, yeah. Not a surprise here.
7/10.
Um, what? So none of the secondary cast's human-beast "fused" Ultimate levels ever made it into the anime, but Bandai designed them anyway to appear in video games. RhinoKabuterimon's never really made any appearances outside of the Virtual Pet it's shown up in, and it's... it's a really bizarre motherfucker, isn't it? Taking the "rhinoceros" in "rhinoceros beetle" a bit to literally, RhinoKabuterimon eschews all the robotic aspects of its pre-evolutions, and is just this giant dinosaur-beast with a giant rhinoceros beetle horn, with a second horn curling through and jutting out above it. There's a Ceratopsian frill around its eyeless, mouthlesss head, and a little... weird... jaw-thing that juts out. Oh, and it's got six gigantic pillar-like feet. It's ultimately a bit awkward, but I can't say that I dislike this creature.
RhinoKabuterimon here is just such a bizarre dinosaur-bug monster that I kidna wished that it actually showed up in Frontier just so that I can see just how this thing is supposed to move around and fight. Interestingly, despite being built like a goddamn tank, RhinoKabuterimon doesn't actually engage the enemy, instead manipulating electricity and magnetism from a distance and battles from afar. A pretty interesting beast, honestly.
6/10.
Okay, I suppose this was one of the reviews that I needed to rewrite the most. I was just disparaging the writing and design staff for this one back when I first published this review in 2019.
1/10.
2/10.
The combined form of Fairimon and Shutumon's spirits did not need a toy to work around, and could be an independent design. It is still a skin-baring lady, although at least JetSilphymon wears a more tasteful outfit compared to its predecessors. I do like the ridiculousness of it wielding a gigantic windmill, and I like the little airplane on its head. The wings are awkward-looking, though.
2/10.
The final member of the original cast, Himi Tomoki, who's a crybaby kid and barely grows out of being a bit of a burden as the series goes on, just in time for him to hand over his Spirits to Takuya and be completely irrelevant to the story. Yep! Anyway, Tomoki transforms into Chackmon (Kumamon in the dub, to make these names sound more 'foreign', I guess) with the spirit of ice, who is a grinning little baby bear made out of snow, wearing some quasi-military getup and holding a big-ass missile launcher that shoots more snow. Oh, and while the artwork doesn't look it, Chackmon himself is fluid, able to transform its bear-like body to gloop around like snow, an ability that the show shows off and sometimes forgets depending on the week.
I like this guy, I think. Chackmon looks like a Yukidarumon's more militant cousin, and the official profile notes that it "styles itself as a member of the polar army's polar region defense force", which is kind of charming because Chackmon insists that everything about the polar defense force or whatever is classified, so whether it exists or not is unknown. As far as the Frontier designs go, I don't mind Chackmon at all.
7/10.
Blizzarmon here perhaps is my favourite Beast Spirit in that his rampage is probably one of the more memorable events in Frontier for me. He also manages to look pretty beastly, the only other one other than Garmmon in this page to really look like a beast. Blizzarmon (or Korikakumon in the dub) is a giant angry yeti-beast that probably got along well with Vikemon, and wields two giant axes and has dreadlocks that can whip around and hit the enemy, and are tipped with arrowheads. Oh, and it apparently will randomly kneel down and pray while fighting the enemy, something that Tomoki's version of Blizzarmon actually also does. As I mentioned while reviewing Mojyamon so long ago, yetis aren't really a type of monsters I personally really like all that much, but Blizzarmon's an alright yeti barbarian dude. Actually, preparing to review these Frontier guys and making up rankings for them is why I ended up switching from the 5-point to 10-point -- Blizzarmon would've been 2/5 by the previous ranking system, but that also makes him similarly rated to Takuya and Kouji's forms, and I definitely like barbarian yeti man more than all of those.
5/10.
HAHAHAHA WHAT
So when Chackmon and Blizzarmon combine, they turn into Daipenmon? Man, you can totally tell that this one wasn't based on an action figure, because there's no way you can make a transforming toy go from an axe-wielding dreadlock yeti viking into a fat, grumpy purple penguin whacking people in the head with giant popsicles. Also, I really love that Daipenmon here is technically an Ultimate-level that has all the brouhaha badassery associated with the likes of Aldamon and MagnaGarurumon. Apparently it can briefly fly by flapping its two gigantic popsicles, whose Japanese names "Kakikaki-kun" and "Kochikochi-kun" roughly translates to Lil' Freezy and Lil' Stiffy. Oh, Daipenmon. Its special attack is to just whack people with its popsicles dipped in syrup. I'm not sure what that white hat is supposed to be -- is it some sort of handle to make the shaved ice or something? Daipenmon is apparently based on some kind of ice cream popsicle dispenser thing?
Appropriately enough, Daipenmon actually makes a fair bit of appearances outside of video games, showing up as a brief recurring enemy in Digimon Xros Wars as a pretty powerful minion of IceDevimon, woken up from a deep slumber Cthulhu-style, and one of the ice-themed villains attempting to lay siege into Lake Zone. I was definitely pleasantly surprised after watching Xros Wars and discovering that this big cuddly penguin is one of the 'modern' Ten Warriors or whatever. Easily the funnest and one of my favourite designs on this page.
9/10.
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So while the cast of Frontier doesn't have traditional Digimon partners, two Child-level dude travel with them -- Bokomon and Neamon, and these two add fuel into the fire of Frontier's quality. See, Bokomon and Neamon sort of represent a traditional Japanese manzai comedy duo, and sort of serve as an exposition tool. The thing is, neither of them are all that funny, and are extremely annoying all the time. Bokomon here is the 'smart' one of the two, this ugly goblin-duck thing with a traditional Japanese belt from where it keeps a 'tome' of prophecies and shit... but said tome proved itself more of a liability than anything. Bokomon also has this overly-long gag of keeping an egg in his belt and acting like a pregnant mom, and none of his jokes are ever that funny. There are some sub-par Digimon designs that I have given extra marks for because I like their portrayal in the anime -- I doubt I'd care so much for Chackmon or the Veemons if not for their anime portrayal. Bokomon and Neamon are the reverse, where I quite literally can't think of anything positive to say, and any goodwill I may have is expunged by their utterly annoying anime portrayals.
0/10.
But where Bokomon is at least somewhat important to the plot by being an expositionary tool, Neamon is just an utterly insipid and dumb little ugly rabbit thing with an oversized pair of pants, and Bokomon will drag that pants and snap it back anytime Neamon says something dumb, which is like all the time. And it's never funny. The showmakers could've given us any other scant-seen Digimon from the past to be the Frontier cast's mascots. Like, I dunno... practically anything like the Candlemon they meet early on to just dropping quite literally every other Child-level Digimon's name into a hat and picking one out would be preferable to these two dumbasses. Absolutely despise them.
0/10.
My favourite Trailmon has to be "Worm", which is the second from the top on that picture, with a gigantic maw full of teeth, four eyes and generally looking just so bizarre. The blue "Angler" and the duck-like "Kettle" are neat designs, too.
6/10.
Agnimon
- Alternate Names: Agunimon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Adult level
- Type: Demon Man
- Attribute: Variable
The main protagonist is Kanbara Takuya, who is... really, quite a generic 'hotheaded gogglehead' protagonist. He gets the Spirit of Fire -- there are ten spirits in total, with the spirits allowing our heroes to transform into Digimon.
Takuya's 'Human Spirit of Fire' form is Agnimon, parsed as Agunimon in the English dub for ties to Agumon. And it's... it's a muscular superhero man with long Super Saiyan 3 spiky hair, a three-pronged WarGreymon-style helmet, and it sure is a tokusatsu guy that can shoot fire. While these were all classified as the brand new 'Hybrid' level, most other fiction would classify the Human Spirits as Adults, Beast Spirits as Perfects, and anything else beyond that as Ultimate-levels.
Agnimon is not my kind of design, but it is all right as an armoured dude on fire. Of course, the chunky, clunky design is a symptom of the fact that Agnimon and its evolutions were designed as transforming toys. Oh, and all of Agnimon's lines are named after various Hindu deities. Agnimon itself is all right, I suppose...
3/10.
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Vritramon
- Alternate Names: BurningGreymon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Perfect
- Type: Demon Dragon
- Attribute: Variable
...but there's a reason that the 'Beast Form' looks so humanoid. Takuya could've been a cool monstrous dragon, but instead we go straight into a dragon-knight. The actual transforming toys came with an articulated humanoid 'inner body' to allow for ball-joints and articulations, which is a reason why a majority of Takuya, Koji and Koichi's forms are all either humanoids, or stiff-looking quadrupeds.
Vritramon (or 'BurningGreymon' in the dub) has a more explicit WarGreymon head, and has chunky diamond-things on its lower arms, but otherwise is just another in what is going to be a long series of dragon-men. And let me tell you something, out of all the dragon-men in Digimon, Vritramon really isn't all that.
Vritramon is actually probably my favourite out of Takuya's forms, and I am also including his predecessor 'AncientGreymon', which was also part of the transforming toy's forms. We'll cover the Warriors Ten a bit later, but if some of these forms are very similar to each other, that is why. Vritramon at least is usually portrayed with wings of flame in fiction, which is something.
Is there lore to talk about? A lot of these Frontier Spirits of X basically have pretty generic descriptions of the spirits they represent, and the fact that they can control fire. All the Beast Spirits rampage and go wild the first time that the kids turn into them, which is a nice trope common to many toku shows but also to Digimon. I don't mind this one.
5/10.
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Aldamon
- Alternate Names: Ardhamon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Ultimate
- Type: Demon Man
- Attribute: Variable
Is it bad that I forgot Aldamon existed at all? I know that all the spirits have a 'combined' form, where the Human and Beast Spirits fuse together. Only the main two boys ever do this, and that's because they have transforming toys to sell. And I think Aldamon's main thing is that... it's obvious it's just the transforming toy taking parts of Agnimon and putting them on Vritramon.
Very lazy and unmemorable. One of the reasons the ExVeemon/Stingmon/Paildramon toy works was because each form is distinctive from each other. I just edited their pictures here, and I can't even tell Vritramon and Aldamon apart from each other.
2/10.
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KaiserGreymon
- Alternate Names: EmperorGreymon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Ultimate
- Type: Dragon Warrior
- Attribute: Variable
This was the form that I thought was the 'human + beast' form, KaiserGreymon (EmperorGreymon in the dub). KaiserGreymon and its counterpart is actually formed out of the Spirits of Fire plus some of the other spirits. This was a writing choice that removed the transformation ability out of the side-characters, who were already struggling for screentime and relevance but made them even more pointless.
The official artwork is a bit noisy due to the big exploding dragon, but KaiserGreymon is... another dragon-man warrior dude. It's got another WarGreymon head, and dragon heads on its arms and legs. It's also designed to be one-half of a combining transforming toy.
I found nothing interesting in the profiles for the rest of the Agnimon 'line', but KaiserGreymon had a line or two about how its sword can seal the souls of dragon Digimon. Okay? That's surprisingly brutal, but okay?
2/10.
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Wolfmon
- Alternate Names: Lobomon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Adult
- Type: Warrior
- Attribute: Variable
Our second main kid is Minamoto Koji, the cool 'rival' kid who loses his bite in record time and becomes a friend. He transforms into Wolfmon, who is a wolf-themed robot kamen rider looking guy that I actually find a fair bit cooler than Agnimon. I think it's because he genuinely looks like a proper tokusatsu design, with the over-the-top scarf and the twin lightsabers. Wolfmon was also renamed into the far more imposing 'Lobomon' in the English dub, one of the few dub name changes I actually prefer.
Again, it is a bit more clear with the next couple of stages (as well as AncientGarurumon) that Wolfmon is designed around a transforming toy, but at least Wolfmon is an all right action figure. It is really hard to talk about these guys because their profiles are quite bereft of any interesting details, either going into overwrought descriptions about their armour and weapons, or a recap on the spirit lore.
Wolfmon's all right. Due to not just punching fireballs out of his fists, Wolfmon's action scenes tend to be more interesting in the Frontier anime.
4/10.
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Garummon
- Alternate Names: Garmmon (alternate spelling), BladeGarurumon, KendoGarurumon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Perfect
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Variable
Officially spelled 'Garummon' but also better-parsed as Garmmon, this is Koji's Beast Spirit and it sure is a mechanical wolf that just looks quite cluttered. There are a bunch of stuff that is needed for the transformation of the toy into other forms that just detracts from the design, like the two massive blade weapons that are stored on its back, the random spike on its chest, the awkward-looking mess that is its rear end...
It's one thing to be cluttered with details, but it's another when it's all transformation kibble from a toy. Garmmon at least does look like a proper beast and attempts to fold into a wolf, unlike Vritramon up above, so it does get points for that. But compared to the other wolves and hounds in the Digimon franchise, poor Garmmon just looks quite bad.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Beowolfmon
- Alternate Names: Beowulfmon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Ultimate
- Type: Warrior
- Attribute: Variable
Yeah, Beowolfmon here is just mix-and-matching parts from Wolfmon and Garmmon. It's really obvious that it's got Wolfmon's head, Garmmon's arms, Wolfmon's legs, and then we bring out the weird tail-and-blade-wing section from Garmmon's back and give it to Beowolfmon. The end result is just... a less-cool Wolfmon wielding a particularly bad-looking weapon. Even if you had a toy to work off of, at least make the proportions look better! It's not even just an 'official artwork' thing, as Beowolfmon's anime appearances also make it look quite awkward looking.
Again, I also forgot that this existed, like Aldamon. A lot of the Frontier designs just weren't interesting to me, especially the ones tied to the characters that show up the most.
1/10.
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MagnaGarurumon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Variable
This is the equivalent to KaiserGreymon, where Koji fuses his own Spirits of Light with the second-stringers. MagnaGarurumon actually looks quite awkward, but credit where credit's due, it at least looks a bit different from its three previous forms. It's also got an entire fighter jet acting as its chest and jutting out of its back, with two random golden bits-and-bobs also jutting out of its back. (Those are parts for the toy's combined super-mode). MagnaGarurumon also has a huge, chunky and unwieldy-looking cannon for its right arm, and a giant revolver above its left hand.
Like KaiserGreymon, the proportions look a bit better in the anime, insomuch that the plane jet wings and Susanoomon's orange bits are folded down... but it still looks really weird seeing a cartoon wolf head jutting out of a jet cockpit. The proportions are, like Beowolfmon, also very off. It's one thing to make the heroes turn into humanoid Digimon, but these don't really look cool, do they? I was actually rooting for Dynasmon and LordKnightmon to beat them up at points of watching the show due to my dislike for KaiserGreymon and MagnaGarurumon's designs.
And I am someone who normally likes robots and enjoy transforming or combining robots. But MagnaGarurumon manages to be bad in all aspects. I'm sorry.
0/10._________________________________________________________
Susanoomon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: God Man
- Attribute: Vaccine
I originally reviewed ultimate endgame super mode Susanoomon at the end of the article, but since it really just combines KaiserGreymon and MagnaGarurumon, I'll put it here. Susanoomon, theoretically, is the full combination of all Ten Spirits -- the human and beast spirits of Fire, Light, Darkness, Wind, Lightning, Ice, Earth, Water, Wood and Steel. It's so epic-sounding, and being named after one of the most important Japanese deities makes it sound important and awesome and cool.
The design? It's just KaiserGreymon and MagnaGarurumon's parts latched onto each other to form another humanoid action hero. I can't fault it because it's early in the franchise's history, but it's also aping Omegamon's "one Greymon arm and one Garurumon arm" look. Susanoomon's got the massive giant golden ring behind it that looks neat, I guess. Everything about Susanoomon is just 'how to we make a generic power ranger robot man', and the end result ends up looking really unimpressive. Being a bit hard for me to instantly distinguish with some of the Agnimon's many many forms also makes Susanoomon feel a lot less impressive in my head. Its face is also... not very cool.
Susanoomon has a weapon called 'Zero Arms Orochi', which is just all the random leftover kibble from MagnaGarurumon and KaiserGreymon lashed together into a giant Super Sentai gun. I actually like this, since it's one of the goofier aspects of Sentai shows and Frontier trying to be a sentai show kind of works with it. Do I like it as much knowing that some of MagnaGarurumon and KaiserGreymon's visual awkwardness are because of these weapons? ...eh.
Susanoomon's profile notes that it is an entity designed as the strongest destructive god that rules over regeneration, and if the network should descend into chaos, it is its role to wipe everything out to create a new one. In Frontier, Susanoomon is actually fighting against the beings that are trying to do that. Some newer material has tried to make Susanoomon more relevant, but I think that's just people like the real Susano'o-no-Mikoto instead of Susanoomon itself. This one isn't exactly a mess, but it's boring.
1/10._________________________________________________________
Blitzmon
- Alternate Names: Beetlemon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Adult
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Variable
Junpei ends up getting the spirits of thunder, allowing him to transform into Blitzmon (the far less cooler Beetlemon in the English dub), who is an armoured human wearing a rhinoceros beetle helmet. I'm not even mad, actually -- it's a neat little Kamen Rider/super sentai reference, isn't it? It's just that Blitzmon's design is honestly kind of boring, with generic robotic clutter outside of the cool-looking gauntlets and robot-bug helmet. It's mostly fun, though, and I don't really mind Blitzmon while not exactly liking it. Blitzmon's described in his profile to battle with wrestling style moves, and also is brash-but-kind. It's okay, I guess.
5/10.
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Bolgmon
- Alternate Names: MetalKabuterimon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Perfect
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Variable
Okay, this one is cool, Frontier. I'll admit that. So Blitzmon's 'beast' form is a robotic beetle with gatling guns for fingers, a far more prominent metallic beetle horn, and tank treads? It looks toyetic, yes, but at least it's clear that Bolgmon here is robotic, so the plastic feel of it actually works in the design's favour. It also looks different enough compared to Blitzmon while still retaining the same colour schemes and general aesthetic. See what the character designers can do when they're not limited by transforming toys? (Being secondary characters, there's no toy that transforms back and forth from Blitzmon to Bolgmon). Bolgmon is described by his profile to be born out of a defense matrix guarding a pyramid or something, which... which doesn't really make sense, but okay, whatever. It's also noted that Bolgmon is designed as logistical support due to its slow speed, but anything that comes close gets utterly annihilated with its machineguns and lasers. Anyway, this dude is a bit of a shoo-in for me liking him, so, yeah. Not a surprise here.
7/10.
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RhinoKabuterimon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Ultimate
- Type: Insect
- Attribute: Variable
Um, what? So none of the secondary cast's human-beast "fused" Ultimate levels ever made it into the anime, but Bandai designed them anyway to appear in video games. RhinoKabuterimon's never really made any appearances outside of the Virtual Pet it's shown up in, and it's... it's a really bizarre motherfucker, isn't it? Taking the "rhinoceros" in "rhinoceros beetle" a bit to literally, RhinoKabuterimon eschews all the robotic aspects of its pre-evolutions, and is just this giant dinosaur-beast with a giant rhinoceros beetle horn, with a second horn curling through and jutting out above it. There's a Ceratopsian frill around its eyeless, mouthlesss head, and a little... weird... jaw-thing that juts out. Oh, and it's got six gigantic pillar-like feet. It's ultimately a bit awkward, but I can't say that I dislike this creature.
RhinoKabuterimon here is just such a bizarre dinosaur-bug monster that I kidna wished that it actually showed up in Frontier just so that I can see just how this thing is supposed to move around and fight. Interestingly, despite being built like a goddamn tank, RhinoKabuterimon doesn't actually engage the enemy, instead manipulating electricity and magnetism from a distance and battles from afar. A pretty interesting beast, honestly.
6/10.
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Fairimon
- Alternate Names: Kazemon (EN dub), Fairymon (alternate spelling)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Adult
- Type: Fairy
- Attribute: Variable
Okay, I suppose this was one of the reviews that I needed to rewrite the most. I was just disparaging the writing and design staff for this one back when I first published this review in 2019.
It is one thing to design a sexy lady as a Digimon. I roll my eyes at many of those, but Angewomon has been around since the earliest years of the franchise. But it is really different when Fairimon (or Kazemon in the dub) is designed to be the specific transformed form of an 11-year old girl. The fact that every single one of her teammates had fully-armoured forms that only expose human chin makes it look even worse, and let's not even go into the fact that Fairimon's outfit resembles lingerie more than a bikini. That really made me feel a bit uncomfortable about Fairimon even when the show was around, and even moreso now that I'm older. This is what makes Fairimon feel so much skeevier compared to the portrayals of other characters like Mervamon, Venusmon, Lilithmon, Angewomon or the other sexy-lady Digimons.
(The fact that Orimoto "Zoe" Izumi loses almost all her fights, adds nothing to the group but catty bitchiness, and only wins designated girl fights... doesn't make me feel any better about her character).
Fairimon's design itself, taken independently of the context that it was designed to be the super form of a 11-year-old girl, is also not particularly interesting. It is just a lady with butterfly wings! The lavender-and-green colour scheme is pleasant enough, and I like the visor, but even then I find the design being lazy and trying too hard for fanservice. And yeah, the Collectors/Crusaders TCG artwork had a massive field day with this line. It's just... it's kind of an unfortunate line to be considered a Digimon, is all.
1/10.
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Shutumon
- Alternate Names: Zephyrmon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Perfect
- Type: Bird Man
- Attribute: Variable
Fairimon's associated 'Beast" form is Shutumon, named after the Sumerian wind-god Shutu. This form is renamed Zephyrmon in the English dub. And it is... it looks very humanoid, still, while also sitll being stripperiffic. It's got two pairs of wings, one sprouting from its back and a second from the blue hair. And it's got claws on its hands and feet... and also an underwear model body and outfit otherwise.
The colours do draw attention to the wings, but it's still not a particularly good look design-wise. Both the profiles for Fairimon and Shutumon that are setting-agnostic just note how 'capricious' and 'impish' they are, and how they're not actually powerful fighters, despite being the representations of one of the Ten Legendary Warriors. Even the official bio-writers don't respect them! I rate this slightly higher than Fairimon, but it's still not a good look.
2/10.
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JetSilphymon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Variable
The combined form of Fairimon and Shutumon's spirits did not need a toy to work around, and could be an independent design. It is still a skin-baring lady, although at least JetSilphymon wears a more tasteful outfit compared to its predecessors. I do like the ridiculousness of it wielding a gigantic windmill, and I like the little airplane on its head. The wings are awkward-looking, though.
Less of a praise is the fact that she has windmills on her nipples. Come on, Bandai.
Even ignoring that... it is still just a lady wearing a fancy outfit. At least JetSilphymon is described in its bio as being able to manipulate the wind, whereas Fairimon and Shutumon actually kick or claw at their enemies way more than they do manipulate the wind. The giant windmill weapon being the biggest attention-catcher at least does salvage the design somewhat.
2/10.
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Chackmon
- Alternate Names: Kumamon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Adult
- Type: Beast Man
- Attribute: Variable
The final member of the original cast, Himi Tomoki, who's a crybaby kid and barely grows out of being a bit of a burden as the series goes on, just in time for him to hand over his Spirits to Takuya and be completely irrelevant to the story. Yep! Anyway, Tomoki transforms into Chackmon (Kumamon in the dub, to make these names sound more 'foreign', I guess) with the spirit of ice, who is a grinning little baby bear made out of snow, wearing some quasi-military getup and holding a big-ass missile launcher that shoots more snow. Oh, and while the artwork doesn't look it, Chackmon himself is fluid, able to transform its bear-like body to gloop around like snow, an ability that the show shows off and sometimes forgets depending on the week.
I like this guy, I think. Chackmon looks like a Yukidarumon's more militant cousin, and the official profile notes that it "styles itself as a member of the polar army's polar region defense force", which is kind of charming because Chackmon insists that everything about the polar defense force or whatever is classified, so whether it exists or not is unknown. As far as the Frontier designs go, I don't mind Chackmon at all.
7/10.
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Blizzarmon
- Alternate Names: Korikakumon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Perfect
- Type: Beast
- Attribute: Variable
5/10.
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Daipenmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Variable
HAHAHAHA WHAT
So when Chackmon and Blizzarmon combine, they turn into Daipenmon? Man, you can totally tell that this one wasn't based on an action figure, because there's no way you can make a transforming toy go from an axe-wielding dreadlock yeti viking into a fat, grumpy purple penguin whacking people in the head with giant popsicles. Also, I really love that Daipenmon here is technically an Ultimate-level that has all the brouhaha badassery associated with the likes of Aldamon and MagnaGarurumon. Apparently it can briefly fly by flapping its two gigantic popsicles, whose Japanese names "Kakikaki-kun" and "Kochikochi-kun" roughly translates to Lil' Freezy and Lil' Stiffy. Oh, Daipenmon. Its special attack is to just whack people with its popsicles dipped in syrup. I'm not sure what that white hat is supposed to be -- is it some sort of handle to make the shaved ice or something? Daipenmon is apparently based on some kind of ice cream popsicle dispenser thing?
Appropriately enough, Daipenmon actually makes a fair bit of appearances outside of video games, showing up as a brief recurring enemy in Digimon Xros Wars as a pretty powerful minion of IceDevimon, woken up from a deep slumber Cthulhu-style, and one of the ice-themed villains attempting to lay siege into Lake Zone. I was definitely pleasantly surprised after watching Xros Wars and discovering that this big cuddly penguin is one of the 'modern' Ten Warriors or whatever. Easily the funnest and one of my favourite designs on this page.
9/10._________________________________________________________
Bokomon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Child
- Type: Mutation
- Attribute: Vaccine
So while the cast of Frontier doesn't have traditional Digimon partners, two Child-level dude travel with them -- Bokomon and Neamon, and these two add fuel into the fire of Frontier's quality. See, Bokomon and Neamon sort of represent a traditional Japanese manzai comedy duo, and sort of serve as an exposition tool. The thing is, neither of them are all that funny, and are extremely annoying all the time. Bokomon here is the 'smart' one of the two, this ugly goblin-duck thing with a traditional Japanese belt from where it keeps a 'tome' of prophecies and shit... but said tome proved itself more of a liability than anything. Bokomon also has this overly-long gag of keeping an egg in his belt and acting like a pregnant mom, and none of his jokes are ever that funny. There are some sub-par Digimon designs that I have given extra marks for because I like their portrayal in the anime -- I doubt I'd care so much for Chackmon or the Veemons if not for their anime portrayal. Bokomon and Neamon are the reverse, where I quite literally can't think of anything positive to say, and any goodwill I may have is expunged by their utterly annoying anime portrayals.
0/10.
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Neamon
- Alternate Names: Neemon (EN dub)
- Stage: Child
- Type: Beast
- Attribute: Data
But where Bokomon is at least somewhat important to the plot by being an expositionary tool, Neamon is just an utterly insipid and dumb little ugly rabbit thing with an oversized pair of pants, and Bokomon will drag that pants and snap it back anytime Neamon says something dumb, which is like all the time. And it's never funny. The showmakers could've given us any other scant-seen Digimon from the past to be the Frontier cast's mascots. Like, I dunno... practically anything like the Candlemon they meet early on to just dropping quite literally every other Child-level Digimon's name into a hat and picking one out would be preferable to these two dumbasses. Absolutely despise them.
0/10.
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Trailmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Machine
- Attribute: Data
Another recurring set of characters are the Adult-level Trailmon, because the world of Digimon Frontier is connected with a whole lot of railways, and these Trailmon help to get our heroes around. There are around nine or ten unique models of Trailmon, some of which I'm displaying here (some of the others just don't have good enough artwork online). They tend to just be relatively simple locomotives, and I assume that they might be related in some way to the other train Digimon, Locomon. These guys actually do a fair bit more than just being transport vehicles, with some of them getting a fair bit of personality and working hard to get the Chosen Children away from the villains any time the Chosen Children fuck up, and a filler episode had every variant of Trailmon hang around in a parody of Wacky Races. They're not my favourite Digimon out there, but the Trailmon definitely adds a lot to the unique vibe of Frontier's admittedly well-constructed world-building.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Flamon
- Alternate Names: Flamemon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Child
- Type: Demon Man
- Attribute: Variable
The virtual pets kind of ignore the fact that the anime had kids evolving into Agnimons and Wolfmons, and ended up making a brand-new Child level for the main characters. Or at least, the two that they care about, leaving the others kind of in the lurch. I felt this was unnecessary, since previous and future seasons would have humanoid Adult-levels with more bestial Chid-levels (Patamon into Angemon is a great example).
But did they really need to give us Flamon? It doesn't really even look like a Digimon. It's just a tanned anime kid with spikes on legs and two Hellboy horns as the only real determinator of it being a 'monster'. It's bad-looking. The official profile describes it as the reincarnation of the Ten Warriors, waiting to find the Spirit of Fire plot device to become Agnimon. It's bad looking. In Frontier, Takuya briefly gets transformed into this form in a 'mind-fuckery' episode. I wouldn't mind it as much if it was just a one-off hallucination, but as an actual Digimon, I would prefer this did not exist. At all.
0/10._________________________________________________________
Strabimon
- Alternate Names: Storabimon, Sutorabimon (EN dub)
- Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Child
- Type: Beast Man
- Attribute: Variable
The Wolfmon line would also get a default Child-level Digimon, Strabimon. Unlike Flamon, Strabimon actually looks like a proper Digimon instead of just a weirdly-drawn human child. Sure, Strabimon is a 'furry', and it is still obviously tied to Wolfmon, but it actually looks like a 'wolf beast'. The lavender colour is pleasant enough, and I find the sheer amount of belts to be hilarious. It's a pleasant-enough fox/wolf-furry. Its lore notes that it has enough latent energy inside it (presumably from the Spirit of Light, without being as over-encompassing as Flamon's bio) that it rampages and exhibits so much strength that it exceeds Adult-levels.
On account of actually looking like a proper Digimon beast-man, end up showing up in an episode of Adventure 2020 as an ally to our heroes. It's not 'my thing', but I respect it as an independent design. It actually looks like it could also evolve into other wolf-y monsters like Sangloupmon, and being able to conceivably tie to other evolution lines is always a nice mark of a good Digimon.
The other Frontier cast wouldn't really get designated Child-levels, rather thankfully for me, although Kokabuterimon has had enough similarities to Blitzmon that many fans consider it to be one. Tinkermon have also been associated with Fairimon in some games, which I suppose is appropriate? Eh.
3/10._________________________________________________________
This might be a surprise but the Ghost Game anime showed off a Bokomon that was rather interesting
ReplyDeleteI have been kind of out of the loop about Digimon since... since Appmon, I think? I got into a couple of episodes of it but decided it's not for me. I think they did a Digimon Adventure reboot? Maybe I'll have to look up some of these newer series!
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