Of course, this never really manifested beyond profile backstories, some short tie-in comics and a pretty sub-par 3D movie, Digimon: X-Evolution, which is a decent effort but ultimately flawed product.
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 first 'main' lines introduced in that series, which probably would've been protagonists had they made an anime or a manga series at this point.
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Dodomon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby I
- Type: Slime
- Attribute: None
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
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby II
- Type: Lesser
- Attribute: None
3/10.
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DORUmon
- Alternate Names: Dorumon
- Stage: Child
- Type: Beast
- Attribute: Data
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.
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DORUgamon
- Alternate Names: Dorugamon
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Beast Dragon
- Attribute: Data
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.
7/10._________________________________________________________
Death-X-DORUgamon
- Alternate Names: Death-X-Dorugamon, DexDorugamon (EN dub), DexDolgamon
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Undead
- Attribute: Virus
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.
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7/10._________________________________________________________
DORUguremon
- Alternate Names: Doruguremon, DoruGreymon (EN dub)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Beast Dragon
- Attribute: Data
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.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Death-X-DORUguremon
- Alternate Names: Death-X-Doruguremon, DexDoruGreumon (EN dub)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Undead
- Attribute: Virus
Still, they aren't the best-looking designs in Dorumon's line.
3/10._________________________________________________________
DORUgoramon
- Alternate Names: Dorugoramon
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Beast Dragon
- Attribute: Data
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.
1/10._________________________________________________________
Death-X-DORUgoramon
- Alternate Names: Death-X-Dorugoramon, DexDorugoramon (EN dub)
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Undead
- Attribute: Virus
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._________________________________________________________
Raptordramon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Vaccine
7/10.
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Grademon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Warrior
- Attribute: Vaccine
There are several Perfect-level Digimon that Raptordramon can evolve into, including Doruguremon up above (the others in the original game are X-versions of MetalGreymon, MetalSeadramon and Okuwamon) but the unique evolution of Raptordramon is the disappointingly generic Grademon. It's still objectively kind of a cool dual-sword-wielding metal man, but I've always found him to be honestly pretty forgettable. Grademon is noted to be the "Golden Meteor" due to how fast and hard it strikes as a swordsman... but he has cursed swords, and sometimes loses his sanity while fighting. The profile also notes that while Grademon doesn't have much power, he compensates in technique that makes him a better swordsman than the Royal Knight LordKnightmon... who... doesn't have a sword. Okay then.
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 is the ultimate hidden power within the Dorumon line, and was originally introduced as the final evolution only accessible via the Raptordramon/Grademon sequence. The X-Evolution movie and most video games tended to portray Alphamon as an alternate evolution of Doruguremon, though. Alphamon is introduced as one of the members of the Royal Knights, and one of the highest-ranking members... and he's basically a gundam with antique knight armour, huh? It's okay, I guess, and I find the design to look fairly more cohesive than Grademon. Alphamon's bio describes it as being kind of one of the final lines of defense that the digital world has, with him having the ability to stop time, unleash mass destruction, and summoning "a legendary monster from another dimension".
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.
- Alternate Names: Alphamon: Ouryuken
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Holy Knight
- Attribute / Subgroup: Vaccine / Royal Knights
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.
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Death-X-mon
- Alternate Names: Dexmon (EN dub)
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Unanalyzable
- Attribute: Virus
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.
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Gaioumon
- Alternate Names: Samudramon (EN dub)
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Dragon Man
- Attribute: Virus
We're not done with the Dorumon evolutions... but this one really feels a bit random.
Attached to the Death-X line is Gaioumon, who was initially conceived as a 'BlackWarGreymon-X', which you can totally see from the very WarGreymon-looking head. The designers liked it so much that they decided to release it as its own thing. It's got a bunch of neat details, I suppose, like the curved swords and the swords jutting out of its 'nose horn' and the sides of its samurai armour... but at the end of the day it is just a BlackWarGreymon in a samurai armour. Not bad for a samurai variant, I suppose, but when the very same digivice introduces three different dragon-knight-swordsmen, it's really hard to get excited.
Gaioumon is still noted to be a 'subspecies of the Greymon species' despite not having the 'grey' in its name, and was found within a 'neglected Oriental computer'. Its profile doesn't really offer anything interesting beyond the fact that it leaves behind spectral tracks that linger after it has walked past an area, and those tracks can cut people who touch it. I like Gaioumon more than Dorugoramon, though that is a low bar.
Gaioumon is one of those whose pose in the official artwork makes it hard to tell what the design looks like. It would appear in Xros Wars as a minor antagonist in an 'ancient Japan' themed location.
3/10._________________________________________________________
GigaSeadramon
- Alternate Names: GigaSeadramon X-Antibody
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Data
This one was originally part of the X-Antibody series. The Pendulum-X virtual pet featured a Seadramon-X and a MegaSeadramon-X... but not a MetalSeadramon-X. Instead, what's obviously originally meant to be a X-Antibody MetalSeadramon is instead given a brand new name, GigaSeadramon! It's interesting, since this is supposed to represent the X-Antibody variants becoming their own unique species, but the X-Antibody storyline is kind of messy so I dunno.
GigaSeadramon still kind of looks like a variation of MetalSeadramon, although it honestly looks pretty damn different. It looks a lot more mechanical, with outright jet-like wings, and a head that looks like an angry fish and a missile had a baby, and then that baby grew some mean-looking sharp teeth. I enjoy just how different MetalSeadramon and GigaSeadramon ended up looking by simply swapping out the face, and I'm hard-pressed to say that I don't prefer GigaSeadramon's gloriously ridiculous looking chompers.
GigaSeadramon even has some neat lore thrown in, noting that it was constructed from a MetalSeadramon by the 'crack team', and that GigaSeadramon is basically the be-all and end-all of all aquatic warfare. It's longer than Whamon, and carries a small contingent of destructive robot Digimon like Chaosdramon, acting like a living aircraft carrier and troop deployer. Somewhat cluttered, but his neat bio and that face won me over.
8/10._________________________________________________________
GrandisKuwagamon
- Alternate Names: GrandisKuwagamon X-Antibody
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Insect
- Attribute: Virus
Like the Seadramons, Kuwagamon-X and Okuwamon-X showed up (as the 'poop' adult evolution, too, how dare they) in the Pendulum X virtual pet, and ended up getting a unique Ultimate-level, GrandisKuwagamon, clearly a pastiche on GranKuwagamon. And it's... it's pretty different, isn't it? GranKuwagamon is a weird giant bug-centaur monster, but GrandisKuwagamon is basically Stingmon and Shurimon's little robot baby, cosplaying as BlackWarGreymon. It's a bit hard to tell from the low-res artwork, but he's still got stag beetle horns jutting out of his one-eye Shockwave face. It's a cool bug robot Gundam thing, and while not necessarily something I would associate as a "Kuwagamon", it's one of the better looking (if simplistic) Gundamesque Digimon IMO. Not what I'm looking for in a Digimon, though. GrandisKuwagamon's profile describes it as the final, true form that only the strongest of the GranKuwagamon can achieve. Apparently it's a rival to BlackWarGreymon, and, yeah, I can totally see that. Probably sees each other in court a lot, on account on how BlackWarGreymon's probably suing GrandisKuwagamon for trying to copy his looks.
3/10._________________________________________________________
MedievalDukemon
- Alternate Names: MedicalGallantmon (no, really, EN dub), MedievalGallantmon
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Warrior
- Attribute: Data
We'll cover some extras as well, that are tied to the X-Antibody set of games but aren't themselves given the 'X-Antibody' moniker.
Dukemon-X was apparently introduced in a different, later game, because in the original Pendulum X 2.0, the Guilmon-X line ended in another new Digimon without any of that 'X' nonsense, and we've got MedievalDukemon here, who is... basically still just Dukemon, but with an axe instead of a lance-and-shield combo. Yeah, you can tell me about how the armour around his feet are slightly different or whatever, but I don't give a shit -- this is still just Dukemon! At least all the Veemon and Dorugoradoradoremifasolasidomons have the decency to look different from each other. MedievalDukemon, you can't just pick up a different weapon, glue a bunch of green gemstones and call yourself a different species! At least we've got some accompanying lore here, where apparently MedievalDukemon is yet another being that arrived from Witchelny, the Magical Witches alternate-universe Bandai game that Wizarmon and company show up from. Eh.
The best part of MedievalDukemon, in my opinion, is the hilarious mis-translation of his name in a PSP game into MEDICALGallantmon. Yes, he's going to do a whole lot of medicine with that big-ass halberd-axe thing of his. It's a shame. A MedicalGallantmon would actually be interesting, unlike this.
The best part of MedievalDukemon, in my opinion, is the hilarious mis-translation of his name in a PSP game into MEDICALGallantmon. Yes, he's going to do a whole lot of medicine with that big-ass halberd-axe thing of his. It's a shame. A MedicalGallantmon would actually be interesting, unlike this.
1/10. MEDICALLY GALLANT!
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