Digimon Reviews, Episode 29: Lucemon and Friends

This time around, we're going to be talking about Frontier's final set of villains, as well as awhole bunch of other Digimon that showed up in video games released around this time. Not much to say here about the intro, really -- Frontier is a show that I've always thought wasn't quite bad, but has too many problems for me to recommend even as a franchise tie-in anime.

I guess I kinda have to intro the Royal Knights? The Royal Knights are noted in various Digimon profiles, video game backstories and prose writings to be a group of super-powerful noble elite knights that guard the central computer of the Digital World (previously "God", called "Yggdrasil" in all subsequent material). Past final-forms of main Digimon partners like Omegamon, Magnamon, Imperialdramon, UlforceVeedramon and Dukemon are all part of this Royal Knights group.

Frontier, interestingly, introduces the Royal Knights, and only two of them, as villains. When I first read brief synopses of Frontier, I thought that we're going to at least have some sort of backstory behind these guys. Were they once protectors who are corrupted or fooled by the main villain, Lucemon? Nah, the Royal Knights just 'went rogue' for no real reason, and are just huge dickheads that are utterly unbeatable and spent a huge stretch of the Frontier cartoon just curb-stomping everything our heroes throw at them until they get killed off by the true main villain, their new master Lucemon. Not even an attempt to play off the Knight Templar tropes like Digimon Savers did.

Lucemon himself has a more interesting backstory, even if in practice he's just a mwa-ha-ha-I-shall-rule-the-world generic final boss villain, being the one who brought the digital world to peace before being corrupted by power, and then sealed by the Ancient Ten Warriors. Not the most impressive backstory, but at least there's something.

Anyway, let's talk about them.
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Dynasmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Holy Knight
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Royal Knights

Out of the two Royal Knights that were spotlighted in Digimon Frontier, Dynasmon is the louder, brasher 'brute' of the duo. More physically powerful and aggressive, Dynasmon's design is patterned after a dragon... which at this point in the franchise's history is starting to lose its novelty. Dynasmon does lean towards being a bit more 'monstrous' than designs like Imperialdramon or UlforceVeedramon, with lots of fang-like spikes and its wings also looking like tattered capes. I do like the shape of its helmet and its oversized claws and boots. 

And Dynasmon is... all right. A lot of other 'super awesome humanoid knight' Digimon designs would either be overdesigned that I don't know what's going on; or underdesigned that it just looks like a person in cosplay. Dynasmon strides that balance well, although reviewing this design in 2019 with so many other humanoid knights to compare Dynasmon to... it just looks 'more monstrous' compared to the Frontier cast, if that makes sense. 

Anyway, most of Dynasmon's major appearances tend to have him be a fanatic that doesn't question orders given to him, and is quick to be aggressive. The Royal Knights would make a lot of future appearances (in Savers, the Xros Wars manga, and especially in video games) and Dynasmon tends to take the role of being the aggressor against humanity, or at least one of the first to launch attacks at the enemy. Dynasmon's attack is the 'Breath of Wyvern', which creates an energy blast in the shape of a dragon that causes a gigantic nuclear explosion. 

Dynasmon is one of those designs that I am aggressively neutral on, and that goes for its fictional appearances as well. Dynasmon has shown up enough to be memorable, but hasn't really done anything to make me really like him. 

 6/10. I don't mind Dynasmon that much.

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LordKnightmon

• Alternate Names: Crusadermon (EN dub), LoadKnightmon (alt. romanization)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Holy Knight
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Royal Knights

Dynasmon's partner is LordKnightmon, who as its name suggest, is the leader of all the Knightmons. LordKnightmon is also a bright pink-and-golden, slender and lithe-looking warrior that is clearly designed to be traditionally feminine. In the original Japanese version of Frontier, LordKnightmon is the type of flamboyant warrior that prizes style and beauty and speaks in a bit of a stereotypical manner... but LordKnightmon is otherwise portrayed as a full-on competent equal to Dynasmon. Which I thought was refreshing, especially compared to how older Japanese anime at the times. Meanwhile, the English dubs decided to give LordKnightmon a female voice actress and call 'her' Crusadermon. I mean... sure. As I go back and revise a bunch of these Digimon reviews I've been trying to consistently use 'it' as the pronoun of choice for the Digimon, due to that being the term used by official translations of the Reference Book profiles, but also multiple Digimon media did note that the entire Digimon species doesn't have gender anyway. 

In any case, LordKnightmon is a fancy design. I wasn't impressed at its visuals the first time I saw the Royal Knights, particularly next to the busier Dynasmon... but LordKnightmon is a lot more fun to see animated. Its primary weapon seems to be that shield that it uses as a transforming piledriver, but LordKnightmon's main weapon in attacking is extending and using its ribbons and using them as whip-blades. That's actually cool. 

Like Dynasmon, LordKnightmon is noted to be extremely faithful and fanatical to 'justice', but even moreso than just the brutish Dynasmon, LordKnightmon is noted to be particularly ruthless and uses 'the end justifies the means' as its motto. Leading its army of Knightmons into battle, LordKnightmon is willing to raze entire towns and people just in the name of 'justice'. In Savers, LordKnightmon is one of the Royal Knights to be explicitly given a villainous episode where it attacks an airport; and it is also one of the primary antagonists in the video game Cyber Sleuth. 

I normally wouldn't have given Dynasmon and LordKnightmon these high-ish marks, but I do appreciate what they bring to Frontier and the franchise as the first truly villainous Royal Knights, and I really do find their designs to be much more tolerable than the Frontier heroes. 

 6/10.
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Lucemon - Child

• Alternate Names: Lucemon Child
• Stage: Child
• Type: Angel
• Attribute: Vaccine

Lucemon's first form that we see him in is a Child-level, and in full defiance of power levels, Child-level Lucemon is noted to be as powerful as Perfect-classes or something along those lines.  Lucemon's backstory in his profile notes that he was born in a chaotic period of the digital world, and brought harmony and order to the world, but to deal with a period of rebellion, he ended up plunging the world into darkness, and had his ability split between the three great angels, Seraphimon, Ophanimon and Cherubimon. I'm not 100% sure if this is the same backstory as the Frontier backstory or not, though. I'm also not 100% sure what's the use of naming a villain after Lucifer if they're not going to even attempt to give him a similar backstory.

In addition to being the main villain of Frontier, Lucemon in both his Child and Falldown modes act as a villain-of-the-week in Xros Wars. Anyway, Child-level Lucemon has always felt like he belongs to another franchise. He's just an angel kid with ten wings. Not even trying here, Bandai.

 1/10.
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Lucemon - Falldown

• Alternate Names: Lucemon - Falldown Mode
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Demon Lord
• Attribute / Subgroup: Virus / Seven Great Demon Lords

Lucemon borrows a page out of Arkadimon, and all of his stages have the same name. Falldown Mode Lucemon is your typical half-angel, half-devil aesthetic that I've never actually liked, but I also know that it's pretty popular in the anime circles, so I get why they went that way. In any case, Lucemon Falldown Mode definitely looks a lot cooler than his Child version. Bandai alternates whether Falldown Mode Lucemon is meant to be his Perfect-level evolution or Ultimate-level evolution, but either way he's, of course, oh-so-powerful and represents the Sin of Pride among the Seven Great Demon Lords, just like the real mythological Lucifer.

I guess my problem is how Lucemon just looks like a dude with a cosplay costume? Comparing this dude to the more intricate getups of your HolyAngemons and Seraphimons, and if you take away the half-and-half aesthetic of Lucemon, you're just left with a very generic blonde dude in a fancy suit. Lucemon Falldown Mode is noted to be this contradictory existence that loves all things equally but also wants to destroy all things, although in practice he just tends to be mwa-ha-ha-I-am-the-devil! Throw in the pretty suspect quality of Frontier, and I can safely say that Lucemon is at the bottom of the list of these angel/demon Digimon. I don't really have much to say here.

 3/10.

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Lucemon - Satan Mode

• Alternate Names: Lucemon Satan Mode, Lucemon Chaos Mode (EN dub), Lucemon Larva
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Demon God
• Attribute / Subgroup: Virus / Seven Great Demon Lords

Oh, now we're talking! Lucemon: Satan Mode is the result of Lucemon when he fought the ultimate-final-form of Frontier's Chosen Children, Susanoomon, leaving behind only his evil, dark data, and it turns him into a crazed demon-dragon with seven wings (sometimes depicted with seven magical rainbow-coloured circles representing the seven deadly sins) and carries around a little ball of shadow. 

It's not the most creative evil dragon ever, but at least they're trying to do something different with him, and I've always found Satan Mode here to be far more impressive-looking than Falldown Mode. That ball is apparently named "Gehenna", after the name of a cursed valley in Judeo-Christian mythology.

Interestingly, though, Lucemon: Satan Mode, supposedly the ultimate to end all ultimates (until the next ultimate to end all ultimates show up, of course) has a secret. His body is utterly immune to all attacks, but inside the orb exists his true body... Lucemon Larva, which is Lucemon's absolutely and most definitely true form, a little robot fetus-shrimp with twelve wings and an adorable wasp-stinger that shoots beams of light. It's actually a great subversion on Digimon's part to make the final form not the most humanoid one of all, but rather a dragon with a little winged prawn inside it.

Individually, I don't think I would rate either of these designs above 3/5. Satan Mode is a cool evil shadow dragon, maybe with an extra ball and some wings, but that's all it is. And Larva mode isn't that cool without all the backstory of being the true soul/brain/core of Lucemon's most powerful form. Together, this little robot worm piloting a gigantic dragon that can destroy the world ends up actually being a pretty nifty monster, and far, far more memorable to me compared to Mr. Generic Bishonen up there.

 9/10.
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Puttimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby I
• Type: Small Angel
• Attribute: None

While none of these would appear in Frontier, at around this time period, Bandai released a bunch of classic Virtual Pets. There's not a lot of new creatures in these Virtual Pets, though, as they tend to be obligated to include a bunch of old fan favourites from older series, but the second version of the Pendulum Progress Virtual Pets, "Armageddon Army", plays on the whole angels-and-demons deal and ends up introducing perhaps the most canon pre-evolutions for Lucemon. This little adorable dude with a single horn, the most adorable eyes and little flappy wings is Puttimon, and I just find this little bugger adorable! How long has it been since we've had a real adorable little blob-baby? Puttimon is noted to have poor self-judgment between good and evil, and presumably its tamer is the one that'll guide Puttimon into embracing its true nature and become your Seraphimons and Ophanimons, or have it fall down into evil and become your Lucemons and Beelzebumons.

 7/10.
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Cupimon

• Alternate Names: Kyupimon (EN dub)
• Stage: Baby II
• Type: Small Angel
• Attribute: None

Puttimon gets significantly less cute when it evolves into a surprisingly intricate Baby II stage, Cupimon (or Kyupimon in some localizations), named after the mythological Cupid. Cupid is a Roman god, not an angel! Cupimon is a lot less cute, losing the adorable eyes of Puttimon and getting a pretty generic bipedal-bunny body design. It's also a lot more akin to a Child-level Digimon in complexity instead of a Baby II, too. In the virtual pets it showed up in, Cupimon is able to evolve into either Patamon, Plotmon, Terriermon, Impmon or, of course, Lucemon.

Both Cupimon and Puttimon's sole anime appearances are as background characters in Xros Wars's heaven zone, a heaven-themed area.

 4/10.

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Lilithmon

• Alternate Names: Laylamon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Demon Lord
• Attribute / Subgroup: Virus / Seven Great Demon Lords

Lilithmon is a cool design, as far as humanoid villains go. Lilithmon was introduced in the virtual pet 'Armageddon Army' as one of the Seven Great Demon Lords, slowly drip-feeding us more and more members to match Lucemon and Beelzebumon. And out of all seven demon lords, Lilithmon is the only one that is the most explicitly humanoid. Sure, she's got two pairs of wings -- one tiny set poking out of her shoulders and another tattered set from her back and blending with the accessories of her kimono. It's a bit subtle in the official art, but Lilithmon's right arm is also slightly mor monstrous, encrusted with golden markings and ending in claws. but Lilithmon is just a lady in a very fancy getup.

Now, I get it. I get that she is the 'sin of lust' and it makes sense that the sin of lust is as attractive as possible for the human audience. And admittedly, other than the cleavage, they were very restrained in designing Lilithmon in making her look elegant, attractive but not eye-rollingly fanservice-y like some of the 2010 entries will be. And removed from me trying to review this as a digital monster, Lilithmon is a well-designed character in terms of visuals. That said... I really felt like Lilithmon is missing something. I think it might just be a proper 'monster form', the way Lucemon got a 'Satan Mode' above. 

Lastly, the official profile does note that Lilithmon is rumoued to have originated from a fallen Ophanimon. That's quite interesting, actually. 

Lilithmon does get a pretty major portrayal almost a decade after her debut in Xros Wars, serving as the three major generals of the main antagonists and being a long recurring character. While starting off as being quite intimidating, Lilithmon would be reduced to something like a 'Team Rocket' level of a villain in subsequent seasons. And while Xros Wars gave her some temporary power-up forms, one of them was a disrespectful joke and the other keeps all of her humanoid looks. 

The Xros Wars manga, meanwhile, did a pretty good balance showing off Lilithmon as having some comical moments but overall does a good job portraying her as a really competent spellcaster, with some really cool artwork of her in that manga.  

Ultimately, I do enjoy Lilithmon as a character enough as a character and the visual design is all right for me not to be too harsh on her. But it's never going to rank particularly high as a 'monster' design in my books.

 5/10 for fiction, could be 2/10.

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Boogiemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Demon Man
• Attribute: Virus

Pushed a bit forwards from the other video game debuts, we get Boogiemon and Phelesmon here. They originatied from the TCG and clearly used to poke fun that it was the 666th card in the set that it was released in, Boogiemon here is an Adult-level demon that's based on the archetypal cartoon devil with red skin, a spiked tail, a trident and a horns-and-wings deal. I like that it looks like it's actually wearing a bodysuit, and the fact that its body is covered head to toe in random demonic tattoos, which is the source of the spells it casts. Boogiemon is also described as a coward that hides in the darkness. Kinda redundant because we've got a fair amount of evil-looking Adult-level demons (Devimon, Evilmon, et cetera), but I think aesthetically Boogiemon looks unique enough that I don't mind it existing, even if it's not quite my style of aesthetic. It's been sort of ignored for the most part, though, only appearing in super-comprehensive TCG or collection games. Personally, I kind of don't mind it. It looks unique enough, in any case. 

There were some mumblings that the Boogiemon/Phelesmon duo could be used to bridge the gap between two pairs of Child and Ultimate demon lords (the Lucemons here, as well as Impmon/Beelzebumon) but Boogiemon and Phelesmon just aren't popular or matching enough. Oh well. 

 6/10.
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Phelesmon

• Alternate Names: Feresmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Fallen Angel
• Attribute: Virus

Boogiemon's go-to Perfect-level evolution is Phelesmon, based on the demon Mephistopheles, using the half of the name that Mephsimon didn't use. Where Mephismon played up the "goat devil" stereotypes, Phelesmon is definitely a lot more inspired by the same bat wings/pitchfork/horned/devil-tail deal that Boogiemon was, except he's clearly a lot fancier about it with a more humanoid face, some fancy boots and a cowl. As Phelesmon notes in his bio, he's "shaped like an aristocrat", a pretty common depiction of demons masquerading as humans in fiction. Phelesmon showed up in trading cards and the D-Scanner virtual pet and was forgotten for quite a while...

Until Phelesmon ended up being used as a villain of the week Xros Wars: Hunters anime, where some kid in the main character's school being corrupted and tempted by Phelesmon as he possesses people or something. I dunno. Hunters was kind of a crappy show, although Phelesmon at least was memorable for a scene where he forced a school's population to make a pentagram in the field.

 6/10.

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FlaWizarmon

• Alternate Names: FlameWizardmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
• Type: Demon Man
• Attribute: Virus

FlaWizarmon, or his easier-to-write dub name, FlameWizardmon, is introduced in the D-Scanner tie-in virtual pets with Frontier, but where most of the D-Scanner exclusive characters have been forgotten by Bandai, FlaWizarmon here manages to show up in a couple of scenes in the Frontier movie. He's an Adult-level Digimon that's clearly a fire-themed version of Wizarmon, but it's not just a recolour. FlaWizarmon straight-up has a completely original getup with a hat that's on fire, goggles, chunky pants and boots... but still retains Wizarmon's scarecrow-demon face. I absolutely love the fact that FlaWizarmon carries around matchsticks instead of wands, which is just such a fun little detail.

FlaWizarmon also ended up popping up in Xros Wars: Hunters as a minor recurring ally. Interestingly, FlaWizarmon has been portrayed in some material as an Armour evolution of Tentomon, Wormmon or Wizarmon himself with the Digimental of Courage, a.k.a. the fire one. Considering how FlaWizarmon's profile notes how much more confident and outgoing he is compared to the shy and reclusive Wizarmon, it's definitely an appropriate one even without the fire themes!

 8/10.

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Huanglongmon

• Alternate Names: Fanronmon (Japanese pronunciation)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: God Beast
• Attribute: No Data

It's a bit weird to have this dude show up randomly here, but Huanglongmon here was introduced in 2002 in the D-Scanner virtual pets, and I am working off of debut dates. Huanglongmon (pronounced Fanronmon) is the master of the Four Holy Beasts/Four Sovereigns, i.e. Qinglongmon, Zhuqiaomon, Shen'wumon and Baihumon, acting as the 'center dragon' to the beasts representing the four cardinal directions. The profile for Huanglongmon tries to tie in Frontier's backstory to the Four Holy Beasts one, noting that Huanglongmon was sealed by Lucemon in the distant past within the deepest core of the world, but, of course, Huanglongmon never appeared in Frontier. Or, really, any other material outside of some trading cards and minor games, up until Xros Wars, where the animation team used Huanglongmon as a random minion of the general Dorbickmon. It's a usage of a lore-important character that ends up pissing a lot of fans off. Personally, I don't have much of an attachment to Huanglongmon. It's a cool golden dragon, but I kinda feel that it does look a lot less impressive than Qinglongmon.

I do like the fact that it has an extra set of eyes compared to its subjects, though, as well as having more spheres rotating around those upwards-facing spine-horns. It is apparently able to unmake and remake the Digital World as it wishes, which is pretty neat, but "ultimate beyond other ultimates" have definitely lost its luster for me at this point. For whatever reason, its official Bandai profile gives an extra paragraph talking about "Huanglong Ore"? Eh. I dunno -- I felt like they definitely could've gone for a more impressive looking dude than this genuinely pretty standard-looking dragon. A gold holy dragon's still cool, but with all the hoo-ha that Huanglongmon comes with? Not quite cool enough.

 6/10.

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