Digimon Reviews, Episode 27: Agnimon and Friends [Frontier]

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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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. 

 4/10.

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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.
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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.
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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.

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Blitzmon

• Alternate Names: Beetlemon (EN dub)
• Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Adult
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Variable

The next three kids that form the secondary cast are really only relevant for the first one-thirds of the show, because they only got the earliest forms (to promote their toys!) before their spirits were given to Takuya and Koji, reducing Shibayama Junpei here and the other three kids to just being a cheerleader squad. 

That's a shame, because if we're going for tokusatsu-style 'human transforms into armoured warrior' vibes, Blitzmon (Beetlemon in English) is not bad. It's Kamen Rider meets Beetleborgs, and while I'm not a fan of the design's messiness, I can admit that it's a cool one. A chunky robot with a faceplate, a beetle horn and lightning punches? That's pretty cool. The official art angles it to show off its better colours, but the anime model has a lot more orange on its stomach and upper legs that I think makes the design feel a bit messier. 

For a toku homage, I don't actually like Blitzmon that much and we will (and have gotten) better efforts from Digimon. I'm at least neutral about Blitzmon, though. 

 5/10. It's all right. 

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Bolgmon

• Alternate Names: MetalKabuterimon (EN dub)
• Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Perfect
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Variable

Oh, this one is actually cool. Where Blitzmon is a bit boring, Bolgmon here is a lot cooler. Junpei's 'beast' form is a robotic beetle with two chunky arms with three-pronged gatling gun fingres, and tank treads for legs. there are a lot of nice details here, too, like the two additional smaller arms, and the fact that its rhinoceros beetle horn is also a cannon. 

Yes, there is a 'plastic' feel to Bolgmon, and you can tell from the placement of some of its details (particularly the legs/tank treads) that this is a transforming toy... but being a robot, the artificiality actually works in its favour, and it's a lot less egregious compared to how eye-rolling the Agnimon evolved forms look. 

Bolgmon also actually has a somewhat unique profile, being described to be born out of the data of 'the scarab-like defense system guarding a pyramid'. Which is, uh... okay? Bolgmon is designed originally as a logistical support robot due to its slower speed, but I like the detail that it has so much machineguns and lasers that anything that gets close to snipe the 'logistical support' gets utterly decimated. Ha!

 7/10.

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RhinoKabuterimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Ultimate
• Type: Insect
• Attribute: Variable

So other than Takuya and Koji, none of the other secondary cast's 'fused' Ultimate levels ever made it into the anime. Or the toys. But they have fusde forms regardless, and RhinoKabuterimon here is... it's a fun one. 

Taking the "rhinoceros" in "rhinoceros beetle" a bit more literally, RhinoKabuterimon eschews all the robotic aspects of its pre-evolutions, and is just this giant dinosaur-beast with six pillar-like legs, with a giant rhinoceros beetle horn. A secondary, more dinosaurian horn is placed on top of the beetle horn, and it's also got some dragon-like frills around its head. It doesn't have eyes, but it does have a pointy chin. Which is such a weird face. I can't say I mind it! 

Despite being built like a tank, RhinoKabuterimon doesn't actually engage the enemy, instead manipulating electricity and magnetism from a distance and battles from afar. I actually do find it a bit messy, and maybe I need to see it in action to warm up to it. At the time of writing, RhinoKabuterimon hasn't appeared in any anime, video game or cartoon yet. It's a bit too weird for me, but I can't say I dislike it. 

 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. The fact that they also did it because Izumi didn't have a toy to sell, and the alternative is 'make her sexy', is... not a good look either. 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.Fairimon 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 is Himi Tomoki, the 'kid' of the group. His 'human' evolution is Chackmon (Kumamon in the dub), which represents the spirit of ice. It's like a little bear snowman, but wearing random bits of military gear, including a chunky missile-launcher bazooka? The anime (when it remembers to) is a bit more creative with Chackmon, making it a bit more clear that its body is made up of snow, allowing it to actually move around like a snowy slime and reform elsewhere. 

I don't mind Chackmon too much. I've seen it described to me as 'Yukidarumon's cousin that joined the army'. The military getup is either charming or eye-rolling, although I like the cannon. Its profile is cute, with Chackmon insisting that it's a member of 'the polar army's polar region defense force'. Which... doesn't actually exist, but who are you to deny Chackmon its fantasies?

 6/10.

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Blizzarmon

• Alternate Names: Korikakumon (EN dub)
• Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Perfect
• Type: Beast
• Attribute: Variable

Blizzarmon (or Korikakumon in the dub) is an all right beastie, in that it actually looks like a proper beast. Probably the only one on this page that's a 'beast spirit' that isn't a robot or a humanoid. A giant snow-ape monster isn't anything new, though. I'm of two minds about Blizzarmon's design. On one hand, those dreadlocks tipped with blades are kind of cool, and I like the twin axes. On the other hand... there's so much random unnecessary details around the face, and I don't think the random pieces of armour is doing anything for it. 

Tomoki's Blizzarmon probably has the most memorable 'beast spirit goes into a rampage' episode out of the cast. It also has really weird moments both in the profile and the anime of randomly kneeling down and praying when fighting the enemy. It's one of the nicer ones on this page, but compared to the greater franchise in general I don't like Blizzarmon all that much. 

 5/10.

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Daipenmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Hybrid - equivalent to Ultimate
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Variable

HAHAHAHA WHAT!

I love this. Most of the 'human and beast combined' forms for the good guys have some kind of logic that combines features of its two previous forms. Daipenmon doesn't give a shit. Daipenmon is a gigantic penguin. It's not just a penguin, it's a penguin ice shaver, that's why it's a cyborg -- you can see the little knob at the top of its head, and that's why its body looks so artificial. It's also holding two gigantic popsicles. 

I love this. So does the anime teams, because out of every 'spirit' design that didn't make it into the Frontier anime, Daipenmon's one of the few to appear outside of it, becoming a sealed ancient villain in Xros Wars (in a very memorable role) and showing up in Adventure 2020 as the gigantic oarsman for a mobile underwater city. 

And can we appreciate that Daipenmon is an Ultimate-level Digimon? With all the self-congratulating, self-indulgent power description that I've had to read while doing the Aldamon, KaiserGreymon and MagnaGarurumon entries, it's refreshing to see that big badass Daipenmon and his two popsicles Kakikaki-kun and Kochikochi-kun are technically on the same playing field as them.

I really like this one. Bless you, Daipenmon.

 9/10.
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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.

 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.

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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.

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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.
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