So after Digimon Frontier met with some pretty horrible reviews (not undeservedly, mind you), Digimon ended up entering a bit of a dark age, with nothing but trading cards, the occasional video game and some brand-new virtual pets for nearly three years. The backstory and profiles for these brand-new Digimon (including a bunch of X-Antibody Digimon that we'll cover in a different segment) actually give a pretty interesting backstory, where the Digimon World's CPU, Yggdrasil, decided to wipe out the entire world and create a new one, Noah's Ark style, but some Digimon from the old world ended up persisting due to mutating and getting the "X-Antibody" that allowed them to survive Yggdrasil's purge. This ended up with Yggdrasil dispatching its enforcers, the supposedly good-aligned Royal Knights, to purge these mutant aberrations... and it really would've made for an interesting hook for a new Digimon series.Of course, this never really manifested beyond profile backstories, some short tie-in comics and a pretty sub-par and horrid 3D movie, Digimon: X-Evolution, something that I never managed to sit through in a single sitting.
2003 saw the release of the Pendulum-X series of virtual pets, something that attempted to return to the simpler simulation-evolution-raising pet that Digimon originally was, with a bunch of new characters and a bunch of X-Antibody variants of old classics. Today we're going to be looking at the 'main' lines introduced in that series, which probably would've been protagonists had they made an anime or a manga series at this point.
___________________________
Dodomon
The star of the Pendulum X 1.0 and Pendulum X 1.5 series is Dodomon here, who is... a purple furry clump with a zigzag mouth. Definitely not the best looking baby, honestly, and looking at Dorimon and Dorumon, it's clear that they kind of worked backwards from the mascot Child-stage to get this Baby 1. Remember when babies at least looked unique? Man, I missed those times. Dodomon's sort of pleasant, I guess, but it's not my thing.
3/10.Dorimon
The Baby II stage, Dorimon is basically Dodomon with a tail and legs. I don't really have much to say here. His profile describes him as being kinda dumb and sometimes runs around a bit too much and whacks its head against walls and stuff. Apparently, where Dodomon has mithril hair, Dorimon can spit out metal balls. In the Pendulum X virtual pets, Dorimon is able to evolve into either Dorumon (the one it's clearly designed for), or a variation of Agumon.
3/10.DORUmon (a.k.a. Dolmon/Dorumon)
And here is the expected quasi-dinosaurian mascot to presumably stand on the side of Agumon, Veemon and Guilmon... DORUmon. Or Dorumon, as I will refer to him throughout this entire page, because it's a pain in the ass to hold the Shift button. DORU is an acryonym for "Digimon OR Unknown monsters", which requires some really selective letter-choosing to pick those exact letters to make an acronym.Anyway, Dorumon is a pretty neat looking squirrel-dinosaur, I guess, with a prominent bushy tail and bushy claws, while clearly having some sort of a theropodal dinosaur stance and face. Oh, and it has a gemstone on his head just to make it not as natural looking, I guess. It's pleasant and natural looking, although Dorumon's whole deal is its pretty complex anime protagonist backstory that puts Veedramon and Guilmon's to shame. Dorumon is a prototype Digimon that was apparently created before Digimon were created in the first place, and has a high combat instinct, and of course it has the hidden data-code of an all-powerful dragon-species within its code, because who doesn't? The X-Evolution movie also establishes Dorumon as kind of a freak species as one of the few bearers of the X-Antibody, and turns out to be the amnesiac, reduced-to-a-child-stage version of the mightiest Royal Knight. Spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen X-Evolution, I guess. Anyway, where I've been going "so and so is forgotten outside of TCG's" for the past couple of entries, Dorumon is happily not one of them, enjoying a token inclusion in many video games and tended to be counted alongside other protagonist Digimon from the anime. I don't mind Dorumon personally, even if he's not a favourite. An altogether pleasant design, honestly, something that I didn't think I would say when I started this review.
6/10.DORUgamon & Death-X-DORUgamon
While there are several possible evolutions for Dorumon in the original Pendulum X virtual pet (and many more in Dorumon's many subsequent appearances), including Greymon, Seadramon, Kuwagamon and Raptordramon who we'll cover down below, the most obvious default evolution for Dorumon is Dorugamon (or DORUgamon). The 1.5 version of Pendulum X will replace Dorugamon with an evil, zombie-cyborg version, the hideously wonkily-named Death-X-Dorugamon. There really isn't much information or uniqueness between both variants that I'll just lump them all together.
Dorugamon is basically what you'd expect Dorumon to evolve into. A larger, more dinosaurian/draconic version of Dorumon, with a more pronounced theropodal body structure and wings. Not the most interesting thing out there, and I kinda wished that they did something to make Dorugamon look a wee bit more different than Dorumon, honestly. I do like how despite being clearly meant to be a dinosaur-dragon, Dorugamon still retains the fuzz on his neck and tail that makes it still somewhat of a mammal-lizard like Dorumon. It still shoots metal from its mouth, apparently -- again, this thing is basically a bigger Dorumon.
That said, though, the evil zombie cyborg dragon Death-X-Dorugamon is far, far more interesting. With a very cool looking metallic head, and very framework-like limbs, as well as a pretty cool tail that tapers off into individual severed wires, as well as wings that look like a bunch of scrap metal bolted together, Deathy here looks so much cooler than regular Dorugamon. Overall, it'd be pretty boring if it's just a dragon evolving into increasingly larger dragons since we've got a lot of those in Digimon already, but the existence of a corrupted version that manifests as a zombie cyborg is definitely a fun little detail. I just kinda wish the name isn't just such a pain to write. Most of the Death-X versions, sadly, ended up being dropped in most of the major video games that Dorumon's line shows up in.
7/10.DORUguremon (a.k.a. DORUgreymon) & Death-X-DORUguremon
There are some other evolutions that Dorugamon (and his death-flavoured counterpart) can evolve into, including versions of MegaSeadramon and Okuwamon, but the default Perfect evolution is Doruguremon here. Sometimes romaniced as Dorugreymon. It's... it's different from both Dorumon and Dorugamon, if nothing else, swapping the purple fur for red, and adapting a four-legged posture more akin to traditional dragons. It's kind of an awkward, cluttered design, though, with so much going on jutting out from his back, with like three or four different pairs of mismatched metal wings. There's way too much clutter in Doruguremon's design, honestly, and I've always thought it looked pretty awkward. Of course, Doruguremon is built up to be this wielder of ancient techniques that can wipe out everything in its path. I don't really care, he looks really awkward with that body posture and the general ugliness and mismatched look of its design.
Definitely improved is the colour scheme for the Death-X version, and it's kind of cheating since black, silver and blood-red will always go well together, but the clutter of blades jutting out of his wings end up feeling so much more cohesive by turning Mr. Deathxy's face into having a metal mask bolted on to it, and changing that tail into a mass of tentacles wrapped around a drill. It makes all the spikes on the wings and shoulders look like they actually belong on Deathxy's body, instead of just a bunch of metal accessories glued onto an organic body. Deathxy is described as basically a zombie hunting for digicores that it needs to sustain itself and survive, and in the X-Evolution movie, there are a lot of him unleashed upon the digital world.Still, they aren't the best-looking designs in Dorumon's line.
3/10.DORUgoramon & Death-X-DORUgoramon
What is even going on here? I had to zoom in to properly make out what's going on with DORUgoramon. It's so utterly cluttered, and it's just honestly a pretty generic metal dragon dude with wings. It's honestly very boring and kind of generic looking, and I'd take the Frontier designs of humanoid digimons (other than MagnaGarurumon, who looks worse) any day than this. This just looks so dang messy! Dorugoramon (keeping track of these different names is a pain in the ass) is easily my least favourite of this evolution line. His profile doesn't even offer anything particularly interesting, because of course this is just the unleashed internal 'dragon' that Dorumon totally always has within him.
Of course, just like his two previous versions, Dorugoramon comes in a Death-X vesrion, and that doesn't help to make the design any less cohesive. The addition of like three new colours and like fifteen extra details into an already cluttered design doesn't really give me much of an incentive to really like this thing, and it takes actual 3D renders of this thing to really understand what they're going for, and that's a pretty generic dude-with-wings. Death-X-Dorugoramon has sort of an interesting backstory, noting that unlike its predecessors, it's straight-up dead, but is kept alive by the amassed power of the digicores it's consumed or something. Still, not an overall big fan of the designs, and their annoying names causes me to subtract whatever goodwill I may have left towards these guys.
1/10.Gaioumon (a.k.a. Samudramon)
A possible alternate Ultimate evolution exclusive to Death-X-Doruguremon is Gaioumon here, who is a samurai-themed version of WarGreymon or something? Gaioumon is noted to be a subspecies of the Greymon species in his bio, and actually replaces WarGreymon-X in the Pendulum-X virtual pet he debuted in. It's not a bad concept and I suppose it's got cool curved blades, but the design is kind of a bit too messy. Gaioumon is apparently born out of an oriental computer, and is like, super-powerful or something. The profiles around this time really doesn't try to make the Digimon feel distinct from each other and is far more intent on describing the ways it shows off its strength. Gaioumon is a lot more cohesive than Dorugoramon, I think, especially when they actually use a less-messy artstyle to render him. It's still too cluttered for my liking, though. Gaioumon ended up having a brief cameo as one of the many samurai/ninja-themed bad guys in a Xros Wars two-parter. 3/10.Raptordramon
5/10.Grademon
Surprisingly, Grademon actually made it into the Xros Wars anime, as a former protector of the location known as Sword Zone, but was corrupted by the main bad guy into evil, and became one of the antagonists in the Sword Zone arc until the good guys manage to purify him, managing to make Grademon return back to the side of good, and do a 'last stand' deal holding off one of the main villains, Tactimon, before dying in a blaze of redemption. Not a big fan of the design, but the story they told with Grademon in Xros Wars is pretty well-told, if somewhat basic.
3/10.Alphamon & Alphamon Ouryuken
Alphamon's also the one Digimon on this page to have shown up in many, many Digimon fiction thanks to his role as a member of the Royal Knights. The X-Evolution movie has him as the final form of the lead Dorumon, managing to convince some of the Royal Knights that killing civilians for the crime of not being chosen is wrong, and ends up destroying Yggdrasil himself. Alphamon also shows up as an antagonist in Digimon Adventure Tri, acting as the voiceless enforcer of the far-more-villainous Yggdrasil, although he's pretty quiet and doesn't really have much of a personality. Alphamon is also a very, very popular NPC in various different Digimon games, often showing up as a supporting character or a fake antagonist.
Alphamon is originally intended to combine with fellow Ultimate-level Digimon Ouryumon (who we'll cover below) into Alphamon: Ouryuken, where he gets a pair of angel wings and a big-ass glaive-blade thing by combining with Ouryumon. In practice, though, both X-Evolution and Tri end up just having Alphamon quite literally usmmon the Ouryuken out of a pocket dimension, and just spread his wings from his back. It's okay, I guess. Overall, though, I'm utterly neutral on Alphamon. It's pretty cool in a vacuum, if not particularly special, but also has the baggage of being pretty overhyped in a lot of his appearances and backstory. He's neat, but god-damn he is so generic.
3/10, would have been 2/10 if not for Tri. Death-X-mon (a.k.a. Dexmon)
My god, Dorumon's family just won't end, huh? Death-X-mon (or Dexmon, as the English dub team romanizes his name as -- and how the Japanese katakana actually pronounces his name), is the final final evolution of the evil Death-X-Dorugoramon, being another Ultimate-level creature, and he's actually noted that he's less a Digimon and more of a warped aspect of the digital world, introduced in the X-Evolution movie as the final threat and basically a brainless being that just repeats a series of computer processes like a true program... except that program basically says "kill everything". It's a neat concept for a computer program to be, I guess, and I really do like the unfinished-digital-rendering parts of Dexmon here. However, the ensuing design is kind of so cluttered and pretty bland, with gangly arms and random wings tacked on. I do love the fact that this incomplete eldritch abomination is like formed out of a CGI render grid or something, though, which I guess to digital monsters would be as creepy as a giant flesh-beast to us organics? An honestly neat concept, even if I'm not the biggest fan of him. 5/10.Fufumon
3/10.Kyokyomon
Kyokyomon (representing the "lancer" piece of Shogi) is the Baby II of this line, and he's a pretty decent-looking little worm-dragon with horns and tiny vestigial fin-legs. Interestingly, Kyokyomon's bio notes that he can stretch to nine times its normal length to attack the opponent. I really don't have a lot to say about Kyokyomon -- he's not the most memorable design out there, but he gets point for at least looking somewhat unique as a design. In the Pendulum-X virtual pet, Kyokyomon can evolve into either Ryudamon below, or an X-Antibody version of Guilmon. Sadly, the entire line tended to get adapted out of most modern video games. 3/10.Ryudamon
The Child-level Ryudamon doesn't borrow his name from a Shogi piece, but is apparently a reference to a dragon figurine made out of bamboo used in a rain-making ritual in Japan. Ryudamon himself is... he's basically a more lizard-like and yellow-coloured Dorumon, but with samurai armour, and they don't even do a partcularly good job at making the armour look good. I kind of like how the plates on his body sort of resemble those that armoured dinosaurs like Ankylosaurs have, but the rest of Ryudamon is kind of boring and haphazard, I think. Like Dorumon, Ryudamon is a prototype Digimon, and has the data of Eastern dragons embedded within him. Okay, then? Interestingly for Ryudamon, he apparently attacks by spitting out swords from his mouth. Ultimately, though, despite the... interesting concept, I do feel that Ryudamon is a pretty awkward design that probably could've used several revisions before it really looked good. 4/10.Ginryumon
There are a couple of things that Ryudamon can evolve into, including X-Antibody versions of Growmon, Allomon and Monochromon, but its obvious, default Adult-level revolution is Ginryumon here, named after the Gin/Silver General piece in Shogi. It's a pretty awkward four-legged lizard with samurai armour, and they don't even try to make it look like it's incorporated into Ginryumon's body the way Ryudamon's back half was. Definitely not a fan of this design, and it just looks weird and awkward. Ginryumon's profile describes it as being able to glide gracefully in mid-air, a property that Fufumon and Kyokyomon notes that the entire line has. Instead of swords, Ginryumon shoots out spears from his mouth. Doesn't make him any more memorable, and it's honestly no surprise the line tended to be ignored in video games. 2/10.Hisyaryumon (a.k.a. Hisyarumon/Flydragomon)
The default Perfect-level evolution is thankfully far more cohesive, with Hisyaryumon (Flydragomon in the English dub) clearly based on an oriental dragon. Hisyaryumon also incorporates the samurai armour plates a lot better, and having a mainly-red body ends up making the colour scheme look so much better than Ginryumon's clashing colours. I also enjoy how different Hisyaryumon looks compared to fellow oriental-dragon-inspired Digimon Qinglongmon and Majiramon. And being not quite as awesome as the Four Holy Beasts or the Devas, Hisyaryumon manages to look a bit less impressive than them while still looking pretty powerful himself. The Shogi piece this time is Hisya, the Rook. Hisyaryumon is noted to be the complete combination of the dormant "dragon" and "general" data within Ryudamon, and while normally calm, it will get really pissed off if you scratch the two magic orbs it's holding. Whereas Ryudamon and Ginryumon shoots out weapons from their mouths, Hisyaryumon instead transforms into a giant blade to whack people. Overall, a pretty pleasant design, even if one that basically all subsequent Digimon material ignore. 7/10.Ouryumon (a.k.a. Goldragomon)
Hisyaryumon's final Ultimate evolution is Ouryumon (representing "Ou", the King piece in Shogi), and it's such a more cluttered design than Hisyaryumon. Here is a less cluttered artwork of him. It's a serpentine dragon holding blades in his arms with wings made of blades, and if you've been following this page from top to bottom, you'll realize that Ouryumon's whole point is to transform into a mighty accessory for Alphamon. There's not really much in Ouryumon's profile that really tells me a lot about him specifically, though, beyond the fact that he's a sword dragon. Not particularly interesting to me, honestly, and with the one role he was designed for -- being the weapon for Alphamon -- tended to be adapted into an ability that Alphamon simply has, it's not looking good for Ouryumon to ever see the light of day. Ultimately, though, he's a dragon that honestly looks different enough that I don't mind him being around. 5/10.Tobucatmon
5/10.SkullBaluchimon
SkullBaluchimon borrows his name from Baluchitherium, a genus of extinct, hornless rhinoceros progenitors, which now tended to be folded into the genus of Paraceratherium. There's really not much to tie in SkullBaluchimon with extinct rhinos, though, because it honestly looks more like a skeletal sabertooth tiger with skeletal wings. It's the default Perfect-level evolution for Tobucatmon (although many of Ryudamon's Adult-stage evolutions can turn into this too) and honestly a pretty cool design -- skeletal animals are just kind of pretty cool inherently, I think, and SkullBaluchimon does enough to make it look different without making it look cluttered. I do also love the detail that SkullBaluchimon was apparently created from the data of counterfeit fossils, and it's just a mindless fighting machine due to the way it was created. SkullBaluchimon was a recurring antagonist in Digimon Story: Dusk (or Moonlight in Japanese), which is why I remember him over basically everyone else on this page. I do like him. 8/10.Dinotigermon
Dinotigermon is the perhaps most natural Ultimate-level evolution from SkullBaluchimon, although he's one that hasn't shown up in as many places as SkullBaluchimon. Dinotigermon is kind of... kind of just a mismash of different animal parts. I can see sabertooth tiger, beare and wolf thrown into the mix, although I'm not quite sure where the "dino" part is? Dinotigermon is also one of those Ultimate-level Digimon that keeps surprising me that it's actually Ultimate and not an Adult or Perfect. Dinotigermon's profile notes that it is apparently a form of SaberLeomon that has survived so many battles, evolving into a slower but far more powerful form. Not the biggest fan of this design, but I can't find much to complain about it. It's a pretty neat cyborg beast. 6/10.Mametyramon
Hey, a Mamemon variant! Part of the theme of the Ryudamon line is apparently ancient prehistoric beasts, and Mametyramon is apparently a tiny little fusion of Tyrannomon and mamemon, and... and I kind of like this thing! It's got such a mischievous shit-eating grin on its face, it's got stubby dinosaur feet and gangly dinosaur arms, and a fun little steel helmet that marks it as part of the Mamemon family while not just being a Mamemon-with-an-accessory. Mametyramon is also noted to be very tiny, apparently not much bigger than a fist, and it's kind of a shame that he's never really shown up in any anime series. Nope, instead let's just use Betsumon. Mametyramon is also one of the few Pendulum X Digimon to show up in a bit more video games, which is why I was somewhat familiar with him. A pretty fun concept, honestly, and one that reminds me of two old-school Digimon, which is neat. 8/10.Dinorexmon
Mametyramon's default Ultimate-level evolution is another one that, like Dinotigermon, sort of makes me keep second-guessing myself if this is merely an Adult-level or a Perfect-level. Dinorexmon isn't really based on a Tyrannosaurus rex, mind you, but the super-elongated leg claw makes him more similar to the Dromaeosauridae family, famously known for its member, Velociraptor. That's pretty much where the similarities end, though, as Dinorexmon's elongated claw extends waaaaay longer than any Dromaeosaurid would, and his body is covered with hard, spiky scales. I'm not sure if I like it better than other dinosaur Digimon like Tyrannomon or Triceramon, though -- definitely feel like they could've done more to make Dinorexmon a lot more impressive than just drawing a funny-looking dinosaur. Not bad by any stretch, but not good. 6/10.UltimateBrachimon
Good old forgotten Brachimon ended up getting a proper Ultimate-level evolution, although in the Pendulum-X games UltimateBrachimon just evolves from a bunch of assorted Perfect-level dinosaurs like Mametyramon, Triceramon and MegaloGrowmon. It's pretty cool looking, honestly, and such a fun, chunky-looking monster. I love the huge amount of details packed into this thing without ruining the obvious Brachiosaurus look, like the exhaust vents above each leg, or the giant axe on his whip-tail, the artery/vein-like veins on his neck and especially the exhaust vents on his back. Apparently those vents are there to compensate UltimateBrachimon's insanely heavy body and allow it to walk around. I don't know if I'm just a sucker for these imperfect-looking techno-punk cyborgs, but I definitely like UltimateBrachimon a whole lot. Unfortunately, though, poor UltimateBrachimon has never really appeared anywhere else, despite being a pretty dang cool design. 8/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment