Digimon Reviews, Episode 30: Ancient Warriors and Friends

This time around, we're going to be covering the Ten Ancient Warriors from Digimon Frontier, which are the "ancient warriors" in the setting's backstory whose ten spirits are the sources of power that our heroes and villains squabble against. They're also the ones that took down Lucemon prior to the setting's beginning... and they never actually make an appearance in the TV show proper outside of the opening and a non-serial movie where the ghosts of two of them pop up.

I don't actually have much of an opinion on a lot of these, so I'm mixing up a fair amount of other characters introduced in video games and the Pendulum Progress series of virtual pets.
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AncientGreymon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Dragon
• Attribute / Subgroup: Vaccine / Ten Warriors

First up is AncientGreymon, the embodiment of the attribute of fire, and the source of the spirits that is responsible for Agnimon, Aldamon, Vritramon and KaiserGreymon. I had to look two of those up. And as you can probably tell, this was designed with a transforming toy in mind that can transform into Agnimon and his other forms, although it at least has a four-legged dragon/griffin like stance instead of being some variation of humanoid with the toy kibble swapped around like any of Agnimon's other forms. Its entire bio just notes what an 'ultimate' being more supreme than the other ultimates (being more ultimate than other ultimates has sort of lost its meaning around this point) are AncientGreymon is, how it's the ancient being that all Greymon-species are descended from, and all that. Nothing much about AncientGreymon as its own thing.

I don't dislike this thing, because at least it looks different from Agnimon and its other forms, but I would be lying if I said I liked it.

 4/10.
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AncientGarurumon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Beast
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Ten Warriors

The ancient warrior of Light, AncientGarurumon, is the source of the spirits for Wolfmon, Garmmon, Beowulfmon and MagnaGarurumon. It just looks like Garmmon stood up, pulled out his blades, and had a bunch of Wolfmon's parts stapled onto him. It's a less awkward-looking super sentai than Beowulfmon and especially that atrocious MagnaGarurumon, but it's just so goddamn messy, with at least two pairs of random robot-wolf-leg kibble too much. It also is probably the least impressive or different looking of the "Ancient" Digimon on this page compared to his lesser versions.

Not much to say about this one either. It exists. I don't particularly like it. I can't tell it apart from Beowulfmon.

 1/10.
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AncientBeatmon

• Alternate Names: AncientBeetlemon (EN dub), AncientBeetmon (alternate spelling)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Insect
• Attribute / Subgroup: Vaccine / Ten Warriors

You'd think that I would gush over the ultimate bug monster, AncientBeetmon, but it's... it's just so messy and like probably a revision short of being a more cohesive design. I do like the attempt at an interesting concept of a bug-centaur, and I really appreciate the lack of a recognizable human face. There's a fair bit to like, from the ant/stag beetle-like crotch-face, to the blade arms, to the rhinoceros beetle head and wings... but I dunno. It's an interesting concept for a giant bug, and an obvious attempt to combine Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon aesthetics if nothing else, but I've always been ambivalent about AncientBeetmon as a design. I like it enough to give it a 3/5, but I always forget this dude exists. Good effort, but I am reminded at other attempts to make a centaur-bug fusion of the Kabuterimon and Kuwagamon families, and previous attempts of GranKuwagamon and HerakleKabuterimon just outshines this by a huge margin. AncientBeetmon, of course, embodies the element of Thunder in the same way that Junpei's forms, Blitzmon, Bolgmon and RhinoKabuterimon, do. Ultimately, while the concept of a beetle-centaur creature is neat, the execution's just a mite too messy.

 5/10.

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AncientIrismon

• Alternate Names: AncientKazemon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Bird Man
• Attribute / Subgroup: Vaccine / Ten Warriors

The Ancient Warrior of Wind, AncientIrismon, is... she's a fairy with some angelic wings, and some weird shoulder-pauldrons? She feels utterly underwhelming, honestly -- she has a lot of accessories, but feels so much less impressive than any of her previous forms other than maybe Fairymon. Honestly, comparing her to the likes of Angewomon or Valkyriemon or Shutumon or Angemon, there's definitely a huge case of the design team dropping the ball this time around by not actually adding enough details, something that can hurt a design considering how much huge wings and accessories have became the norm for Digimon. Hell, without seeing the name, I'd probably think this lady is an Adult-level at best. Wow, these are easier to write than I thought, huh? I really have very little opinion about these guys.

 2/10.
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AncientSphinxmon

• Alternate Names: AncientSphinkmon (alternate romanization)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Mythical Beast
• Attribute / Subgroup: Vaccine / Ten Warriors

AncientSphinxmon here is the Ancient Warrior of the attribute of Darkness, and part of the reason that Lowemon, KaiserLeomon and Richtmon look so awkward. Transforming toys, guys! Just look at that utterly awkward-looking front legs that's definitely supposed to be some other dude's legs. AncientSphinxmon here is basically just KaiserLeomon with its snarling lion head swapped out for one with a pharaoh's beard, and golden wings sprouting from behind his head. An interesting concept, and I don't think we have a proper sphinx Digimon other than AncientSphinxmon here, but at the same time it doesn't do anything particularly exciting or novel, and obviously designed as a toy first and everything else second. Again, not much to say here considering its profile is basically the same withe everyone else among the Ten Warriors, but with "Darkness" swapped in for whatever element the others have.

 4/10.

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AncientMegatheriumon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Beast
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Ten Warriors

Finally, we move away from the ones that are very similar to their lesser forms, and into something that's utterly different! Tomoki's forms -- the snow-teddy-bear soldier Chackmon, the viking beastman Blizzardmon and the giant ice cream penguin Daipenmon -- have all been genuinely different and interesting, and I think it's actually appropriate that he gets a pretty fun Ancient Warrior equivalent in AncientMegatheriumon. Mind you, the name is definitely a misnomer, since Megatherium is a genus of extinct giant sloths, and this dude is definitely anything but a sloth... but an ancient primal being embodying the spirit of ice manifesting as a multi-legged giant yak with viking braids and a hunchback that ends up looking like a mountain? It doesn't have the best-looking official Bandai artwork, but subsequent portrayals in TCG's have shown it to look pretty damn badass as this multi-legged giant yak with a giant EYE on that hunched back, with what appears to be exhaust cannons pointing out from the sides, something I've never noticed before. This is a design that I brushed off as another one of those awkward Ten Warriors before, but now it's easily a personal favourite of mine after taking a bit of a closer look at it. Amazing how some extra bits of details really change my perception on this thing, huh?

 7/10.
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AncientMermaimon

• Alternate Names: AncientMermaidmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Aquatic Beast Man
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Ten Warriors

This is supposed to be the Ancient Warrior that embodies the element of Water, and the source of Ranamon/Calamaramon's powers. I think it suffers from the same problem that AncientIrismon has, in that it definitely doesn't look like it's the ultimate form of the element of water or anything. It's not an unpleasant design, mind you -- it's a pretty fun mermaid even if subsequent artwork have ncreased the amount of human-toned flesh she shows off. She's got a cool water-themed version of Angemon's helmet. Not my favourite Digimon, but not one I mind as much as some of the more toyetic Ancient Digimon. It's also an obvious evolution of the Perfect-level Mermaimon, and one of the few here outside of AncientGreymon and AncientGarurumon to be tied into a pre-existing Digimon. She really could've stood to be more creative, though, instead of just being a mermaid with a couple of Zora armour tacked on.

 4/10.
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AncientTroiamon

• Alternate Names: AncientTroymon (alternate romanization)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Plant
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Ten Warriors

Holy shit, hahaha, this is definitely not what I was expecting from the Wood Ancient Warrior. But neither Arbormon nor Petaldramon are immediately obvious picks to evolve to/from each other, so having the super-ultimate Ancient Warrior of Wood being this giant wooden horse based on the giant wooden  horse of Troy... with fucking Zoids-style cannons jutting out of every single orifice? And wooden gears on his joints? Hell, this thing is so ridiculous and yet also kinda badasss that I can't not like him. LOOK AT THIS THING. LOOK AT IT. It's such an insanely bizarre concept to pick for the ultimate plant being when you'd think a giant tree or a fairy of some sort would be the obvious pick. I am very, very glad we got AncientTroiamon instead, this giant walking war machine. Look at this badass rickety horse. He is easily bar none the most memorable out of the ten goddamn ancient Digimon.

 9/10.

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AncientVolcamon

• Alternate Names: AncientVolcanomon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Mineral
• Attribute / Subgroup: Virus / Ten Warriors

AncientVolcamon is the Ancient Warrior of Earth, and the source of Grottemon and Gigasmon's powers. AncientVolcamon is obviously meant to be a variation of the pre-existing Volcamon, although instead of being a homage to a hammy MC, AncientVolcamon just retains the face, makes it crazier-looking, and turns the entire body into a walking volcano, with gigantic arms wrapped up in some good old-fashioned bandages and chains. I am very pleased that AncientVolcamon is described to apparently fight with lariats first and foremost, and resorting to volcanic attacks second.

AncientVolcamon is also the only one out of the Ten Warriors to have an anime appearance outside of vague Frontier flashbacks, being portrayed as a villain-of-the-week in Xros Wars, trying to take over Magma Zone.

 6/10.

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AncientWisemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Ancient Mutation
• Attribute / Subgroup: Virus / Ten Warriors

AncientWisemon here is the final Ancient Warrior we're covering, and my god, this took like five times less paragraphs then I thought I would. AncientWisemon represents the element of Metal, and is the source of Mercuremon and Sephirothmon's powers. Appropriately, his body is basically just a gigantic mirror with wizard's robes draped over it, and he's holding a Zhuge Liang style hand-fan thing which is a neat little detail. AncientWisemon is also the ancestor of all "mutant" type Digimon. Which includes oddities like the Mamemons and... Nanimon? Okay then. I always like the whole stylization of wizards in artwork which have their faces covered other than two glowing eyes set in the darkness. AncientWisemon kinda looks like a Wizzrobe from Zelda or something, mixed with some ancient Chinese strategist and giant mirror aesthetics. Also, Ancient Wisemon is one of the few to have some sort of lore in his profile, noting that his mirror leads to another dimension that he traps enemies in. Not a bad design at all!

 8/10.

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Wisemon

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

Introduced interestingly in a trading card is AncientWisemon's Perfect-level pre-evolution, regular Wisemon, who would make his debut in subsequent video games way, way later. Wisemon here is far more interesting than AncientWisemon, though, described as being bound to that giant book, and apparently it travels through the space-time continuum via the powerful book, which can alter its size and shape to allow Wisemon to manifest. Apparently Wisemon's true form (speculated in the official profile to be something similar to Piemon) is within a separate dimension! Which... is probably just AncientWisemon above, but that's still cool. 

If Wisemon had just been an instesting-looking humanoid wizard, I would've shrugged. If he's just a dude that manifests from a separate dimension, I'd have shrugged as well. If he's just a generic lord-of-space-time-or-whatever, it's kinda boring. If he's just a dude that's bound to a book, it'd be a neat concept. But Wisemon is all of the above, without looking too confusing and retaining a simple design that still looks powerful. Is it any wonder that Wisemon ended up appearing in a whole lot of video games, and even becoming a recurring character in Digimon Xros Wars as a resident morally-ambiguous-mad-researcher-turned-ally? 

But the clincher that made me give Wisemon the 7/10 rating below? The Adventure 2020 interpretation, which decided that Wisemon shouldn't be a Final Fantasy Black Mage tied to a giant book... but a tiny friend tied to a regular-sized book -- as shown in this screenshot with a human-sized Garbemon. Being a tiny fairy-friend makes all the difference, and even ties with the whole 'some Perfects shrink down to compact their power' vibe that Mamemon, Giromon and other higher-level Digimon do!

 7/10.

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PileVolcamon

• Alternate Names: PileVolcanomon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Data

PileVolcamon here is an Ultimate-level evolution of Volcamon, and an alternative to AncientVolcamon up there. While AncientVolcamon ramps up the whole volcano aspect, PileVolcamon ramps up the hammy humanoid bit and is apparently themed after a wrestler, although I'm not sure why he gets a turban and a scarf. Eh. I don't care much for this one. 

 2/10.
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Mikemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Beast
• Attribute: Data

The Adult-level Mikemon here (borrowing her name from the Japanese term for tortoise-shell cat) is honestly kinda-sorta forgettable to me, being a vaguely tiger-themed recolour of Tailmon. Mikemon's even introduced in the D-Scanner games and a bunch of other minor video games as a possible alternate evolution for Plotmon, although her profile notes that she's different for not having a Holy Ring like Tailmon. She's at least somewhat intricate enough to set her apart from most minimal-effort repaints, and tended to be shown as chunkier in fiction. I don't have much to say about Mikemon here, I'm afraid... it's nice that she exists. She shows up as brief crowd fillers in some episodes of Xros Wars. She's neat. Cat-lovers probably will like her more than I do.

 4/10.

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Bastemon

• Alternate Names: Persiamon (EN dub, games), Beastmon (EN dub, anime)
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Beast Man
• Attribute: Data

Bastemon here is based on the Egyptian cat-goddess Bast (or Bastet), although the English localization team sort of bent over backwards to give her several different names. And she's... she's basically a catgirl, a more "natural" evolution to the adult-level Mikemon when you take the whole Angewomon thing out of the equation. She's definitely a bit... provocative, and when she became a main character in Xros Wars she is subject to some rather uncomfortable anime catgirl tropes... but by and by I think Bastemon is actually one of the better-designed humanoids. Sure,  how Bandai portrays her is pretty unfortunate, but taken from this official artwork, and noting that she's based on some Arabian exotic dancer stuff, I do kind of like just how puffy her legs end up being, as well as those long, genuinely beast-like arms that taper off into mean-looking claws. Bastemon even has some Nekomata vibes going on by having two tails. Unlike most usages of this trope, Bastemon's ability to charm people with her wiles ended up leading to her eviscerating them with her claws. Interestingly, Bastemon's profile notes it to be rivals with her Egyptian-mythology-based cousin, Nefertimon.

In the Xros Wars anime, Bastemon is the princess of Lake Zone and was introduced as this princess that our human characters try to curry the favour of, and ends up picking Taiki as her champion, becoming part of his army... and after the whole catgirl-fetish jokes are out of the way, Bastemon actually got a fair bit of action scenes for a secondary character that isn't part of the main cast. The English dub heavily censors Bastemon, apparently.

 4/10.

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Betsumon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Puppet
• Attribute: Data

Yeah, this thing. For whatever reason, they decided to make a Perfect-level ugly middle-aged-dude in a body-suit of Tailmon, with a disgusting, protruding navel and a very unfortunate budge on his crotch. Betsumon is apparently the Digimon World's version of Ditto, where it is able to impersonate any other Digimon by changing his suit. Its only real abilities and ways to attack, according to his profile, is by telling horribly bad jokes. Somehow this is a Perfect-level Digimon. Even moreso than any other Digimon, Betsumon was utterly ignored, even by most of trading card games, since his introduction as an 'alternate' Bastemon in the D-Scanner.

Instead of burying this abomination permanently, though, Betsumon ended up being featured as a villain-of-the-week in Xros Wars: Hunters, and he is as obnoxious and horrible as you think anyone with that face would be. Nope, they could've used, oh, Marsmon or Fangmon or Assaultmon or Hookmon or Kyukimon or any of the many abandoned Digimon on this page. But... yeah. This thing is a horrible design. He gets my vote for being the worst Digimon design ever. I feel bad even having Sukamon represent this thing.

 -5/10

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Salamandamon

• Alternate Names: Salamandermon (EN dub)
• Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
• Type: Amphibian
• Attribute: Virus

Salamandamon (Salamandermon in romanizations) is another Armour evolution introduced around this time, albeit debuting in the D-Scanner games first, and he's... he's pretty much just a real-life salamander on fire. Basically what you'd expect from something based on the mythological salamander, honestly, albeit less dinosaurian or draconic. It's a pretty pleasant-looking monster, honestly, and I do enjoy how natural this thing looks. Also love the stitched-up mouth, always a welcome feature in these Digimon. Salamandamon ends up being retconned into a possible Armour evolution via the Digimental of Courage, with Tentomon and Chuumon as some of the things that can armour-digivolve into this dude. Salamandamon would show up as generic troops of the evil Dorbickmon in the Xros Wars anime, and again in Adventure 2020. 

It is quite refreshing to get some of these guys that are just regular beasts and monsters, instead of the nth number of Ultimate-tier dragon devil angel god!

 6/10.
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Thunderbirmon

• Alternate Names: Thunderbirdmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Armor - usually treated as Adult-equivalent
• Type: Giant Bird
• Attribute: Data

Thunderbirdmon (technically Thunderbirmon in Japanese, but I'm not writing that) is another Adult-level Digimon introduced in the D-Scanner and later retconned into an Armour Evolution similar to Salamandamon and Kenkimon... but would later end up being one  of the villains in Digimon Savers, one of the few obscure ones introduced in the 2002 era to actually have a major role in a subsequent series. Thunderbirdmon here, of course, is a possible Armour evolution of the Digimental of Friendship, one of the few that follow the "lightning speedy monster" that Rairdramon's profile notes the Friendship Digimental should give. Based on the mythological Thunderbird, Thunderbirdmon is a pretty fun armoured lightning bird. Not my favourite aesthetic, but I honestly do think that Thunderbirdmon does a lot of things differently enough -- like the spiky thunerbolt-like feathers on the edge of his wings, or the Rairdramon-style helmet --- to make him look somewhat interesting.

Thunderbirdmon would end up being the main form of recurring villain Kouki, the leader of the Bio-Digimon operatives in Digimon Savers, a bunch of human mercenaries who are modified to be able to forcibly transform into Digimon. Kouki's version of Thunderbirdmon (BioThunderbirdmon) has slightly different colours, but it's essentially still the same thing, and it's honestly got a couple of pretty memorable battle scenes. Good on you, Thunderbirdmon.

 5/10.
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And... and that's about it for Digimon debuting in 2002! We're going to go through the 'dark years' of Digimon where there isn't a corresponding anime next week, so... yeah!