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Pupumon
Pupumon here is the Baby I and the star of the Pendulum X 3.0 toy, which is kind of a "best of" version of the Pendulum X series, allowing Pupumon to eventually evolve into the other two stars of Pendulum X, Dorumon and Ryudamon, as well as a third brand-new Child stage that is going to be inspired by bugs! If you've read any of my Pokemon or Digimon reviews, you know that I do love my bugs. Pupumon, though, is just a pretty lazy slime with a zigzag mouth and little under-developed bug-wings. It's not unpleasant-looking, but it's clearly lazy and another example of them working backwards from the design of Funbeemon. The profile is also intensely generic. Whatever happened to unique-looking babies?
3/10.Puroromon
Puroromon is the Baby II of this evolution line, and, god, they also didn't try with this one, yeah? It's another one that's obviously Funbeemon, but more simplified. Not a huge fan of how this one looks, with the lazy gummi bear body without any sort of colour highlights. It's a small fly-bee thing, but a very lazy one. Digimon is a different sort of monster franchise than Pokemon and thus I don't expect any sort of attempt at trying to replicate a real-world insect life cycle, but jeez, show some sort of effort! 1/10.Funbeemon
Funbeemon is the Child-level stage, and it's... it's definitely an interesting one! I'm not the biggest fan of the anime eyes, especially considering how practically every other stage of Funbeemon's evolution line has buggy-looking eyes, but it's otherwise a perfectly neat looking Child-level bee Digimon. I do like its hunched-over posture, and its chunky arms that end in either pincers or huge stabby claws. Also love that Funbeemon's dropped its pre-evolution's zigzag mouth for a pair of sideways-clamping mouths. I don't think I like Funbeemon as much as I do Wormmon, Kunemon or Tentomon, but I suspect that's partly a matter of familiarity.Funbeemon's profile describes it as an insect Digimon belonging to the "Royal Base", a gigantic swarm of honey bugs or something. It's also noted to be a cheerful worker that gets along well with plant Digimon, but because it likes to gather data from other parts of the digital world, it's classified as a Virus species. Overall, while a relatively simple bug design, I do like Funbeemon a fair bit. It's a neat little cheerful-looking worker bee that contrasts pretty well with the far more badass-looking Flymon or Flybeemon, while not looking as dumb as Honeybeemon. It's a pity that this entire evolutionary line has basically been ignored by Bandai after Pendulum X, though, never really showing anywhere outside bit roles in the pretty obscure manga Digimon Next.
6/10.Waspmon
Funbeemon's default Adult stage is this badass looking Waspmon, who isn't just a giant bug monster, but a robot bug. I really love the amount of detail that went into this thing, really exaggerating the general look of a wasp to form a monstrous yet cool-looking creature that combines both bug and robot pretty well. The gigantic, bulbous abdomen ending in this sci-fi cannon, connected to the main humanoid torso with a very thin spinal cord, is a very striking feature. I also love how despite the upper torso having a humanoid configuration with humanoid hands, Waspmon's face is basically that of a robot wasp, and a closer look shows that it's got these external ribcage horns jutting out of his chest. Throw in a couple of huge sci-fi booster things on Waspmon's shoulder, and Waspmon is easily my favourite design on this page.Waspmon is, of course, the 'soldier' bees of the Royal Base that apparently these robot bees live in, and that the futuristic propellers on her shoulders allow her to basically move around like a helicopter in any direction. It's actually a fun little adaptation of a bumblebee's ability to do something similar, albeit translated into a gigantic robot bug. How did the creative team that came up with Waspmon here end up with such bland and samey designs with the Dorumon/Ryudamon lines?
Anyway, Waspmon is pretty damn cool. Perhaps she doesn't fit as well next to other, earlier bug Digimon, but I'm honestly a pretty big fan. It's honestly a bit of a crime that this entire line hasn't shown up, even as one-note enemies, in any Digimon anime series.
9/10.Cannonbeemon
8/10.TigerVespamon
-sigh- and we were going so well, too. Unfortunately and perhaps predictably, the final evolution of the Funbeemon line ends up being a humanoid. Yes, it's a bee-themed robot man with two gigantic lightsaber lances, but it's still kind of not what I was expecting to end the line after seeing Waspmon and Cannonbeemon. At least TigerVespamon looks kind of cool? Like, taken as its own thing, it's a pretty cool looking Kamen Rider or something I dunno, though. This looks more like the final evolution of Stingmon or something, sort of like the wacky overdesigned version of Kamen Rider TheBee. I just kinda feel let down after the sheer ridiculousness of giant military-themed robot bees, y'know?TigerVespamon, interestingly, is not the queen of the Royal Base honeycomb like you'd probably expect from a bee-themed monster evolution line, but rather just its most elite and powerful set of defenders. The profile also notes that the species is technically just called "Vespamon", but the most powerful ear the codename "Tiger". Okay, then.
6/10.Omekamon
Interestingly, in this particular virtual pet, if you fail to raise your Child-level Digimon well, instead of turning into a turd or a slug, your Digimon turns into Omekamon here, who is... apparently this weird Lego pastiche of Omegamon. The idea, I think, is that this is a small child's arts-and-crafts attempt at making Omegamon, with face and details crudely scribbled on with crayon (it's even carrying a giant crayon on its back and as a sword!), and its horns and shield and whatnot also equally crudely taped on with visible tapes. Originally I had just brushed it off as "what the fuck is this thing", but after looking at it a bit more, I ended up kind of liking Omekamon! He's sort of a different sort of take on something like Monzaemon or Etemon, being a Digimon that tries to look like a far more powerful being. It's a fun enough story even if I don't particularly like its design, and I do appreciate it for its concept, if nothing else. 6/10.MetalPhantomon (a.k.a. MetalFantomon)
Holy damn, Phantomon got METAL! And it's no hyperbole, that's quite literally his name. While Phantomon is just a fun frumpy old reaper ghost, MetalPhantomon goes all out, with a far more realistic-looking skull, a gigantic scythe made up of laser energy, and I absolutely adore the little detail of his skeletal hands being joined to his body with nothing but electrical energy, as well as MetalPhantomon's body being nothing but a ribcage and spinal cord that ends in a pink energy ball. MetalPhantomon is a pretty damn badass design even if it does try a bit too had to look edgy, and while a bit obvious, is still a pretty cool-looking design. MetalPhantomon, despite looking badass and metal as all get-out, is the 'trash' Perfect evolution of Pendulum X-3 if no other requirements are met. I do find it hilarious, though, that what's essentially a knockoff cardboard grade school arts'n'craft project like Omekamon ends up evolving into this badass edgy cyborg reaper thing.The lore behind this dude is that it's a mechanized Phantomon, however the hell you can mechanize a ghostly grim reaper. Apparently all those pink energy draws energy from an alternate dimension's digital world, so MetalPhantomon isn't just a cyborg grim reaper, but it's one that fuels on the energy of another world. MetalPhantomon is also one of the few Digimon from the much-ignored Pendulum-X era to actually show up as a villain-of-the-week in Digimon Savers, as a master of a group of Dokugumon, who uses his nightmare-inducing powers to make one of the main characters, Touma, relive the death of his mother and traumatize the poor man. Man, what a dick!
8/10.MetalPiranimon (a.k.a. MetalPiranhamon)
This seemingly innocent-looking robot fish is actually Ultimate level, and actually the default evolution of MetalPhantomon! So in this particular virtual pet, your final evolutions are god-warriors, dragons and robot bee-men... and a metal fish with a weight chained to its tail. Okay, then! MetalPiranimon definitely looks like it should be Adult or Perfect level instead of Ultimate, but it's not a bad design. If nothing else, it just looks so different from the glut of humanoids and dragons we've had, being this chunky, cyborg piranha with a square head. MetalPiranimon's profile notes how schools of MetalPiranimon exist in the rivers of the digital world, despite how rare Ultimate-levels are supposed to be (at the point of writing, there are more Ultimate-level Digimon in this franchise than any other level). Interestingly, MetalPiranimon's profile notes that if you press the red button on the top of his head, the jaws will pop off and be replaced with a new one. What the hell, is he like, a stapler-fish? A robot stapler-fish with a chain-and-weight thing attached to it for some reason? Kind of a bizarre critter. honestly, after the glut of cyborg dragons and cyborg dragon-men and cyborg samurai in the previous couple of pages, this one is actually kinda neat. I like him. 7/10.Phascomon
It's at around this point that the creative team behind Digimon decided to finally show off the rest of the demon lords based on the Seven Deadly Sins, via a combination of video games, trading cards and a manga. Despite what the concept behind them might be, the Seven Demon Lords are nowhere as epic as they seem like in their description due to actual official fiction never showing off more than one at a time.But I digress. Let's talk about one of the few Demon Lords to actually receive a full evolutionary line, and we'll start off with this sleepy adorable little demon koala bear, Phascomon. Drawing its name from Phascolarctidae, the scientific name of the family that koalas belong to, it's definitely an interesting choice for a Child-level demon creature! We've had obviously-demonic Child Digimon like Impmon, PicoDevimon and Boogiemon before, but Phascomon is one that isn't actually obviously demonic looking. It's just a sleepy koala until you realize that he's got itty-bitty devil wings growing out of his back. Definitely a fun little subversion, and I do like how Phascomon is described as the inhabitants of the evil forest that span the Dark Area (a.k.a. digital hell) and while it prefers to just sleep and be adorable like koalas, they are apparently still savage fuckers that will jump down and claw your eyes out, unlike the actually gentle real-world koalas. A fun little demon koala!
7/10.Porcupamon
The Adult-stage for Phascomon is this Porcupamon, which has nothing to do with porcupines (that'd be Togedemarumon). Instead, Porcupamon is a far more sinister looking version of WaruMonzaemon, this little puppet teddy bear that's been perverted and looks positively demonic. With stitches all over his body, and spikes jutting out instead of stuffing (hence the porcupine moniker), and mismatched colours making up his body, Porcupamon is definitely a pretty creepy looking doll. Those lifeless X eyes add to just how creepy this thing is, but the most striking feature, I would say, is the bizarre tube that runs from his mouth to his heart area. What the hell is that for? Does he... breathe from his own heart? What the hell?Porcupamon is also apparently a rare, endangered Digimon, and wasn't originally from the Dark Area but was driven there, which was what led it to develop all of these insane-looking adaptations like spiky stuffing and such. Definitely a bit of a shame that Porcupamon here doesn't see as much exposure among the various Digimon media the way that other creepy teddy bears do, since he's honestly a pretty well-done demonic doll design.
9/10.Astamon
Debuting in the same set of trading cards that Porcupamon and Phascomon debuted in, the Perfect-level Astamon, interestingly, saw a fair bit of unexpected popularity, being adapted into one of the main villains of one of the newer anime series, Xros Wars: Hunters. There Astamon is the evolution of Psychemon (the purple Gabumon repaint), partner of resident jackass rival Ryouma. Hunters was pretty dire as a show overall, but I did like Astamon in the few times he was allowed to shine.Anyway, Astamon is the Perfect-level evolution of this line, named after the demon Astaroth. And it's... it's an interesting design. It's just flat out a dude in a stereotypical mobster suit, complete with long scarf and a big-ass tommy gun. A tommy gun called "Oro Salmon", because foreign words sound funny, I guess. Sure, he's got those demonic wings on his back and a weird wraparound mask around his otherwise human face. Astamon's profile describes him as sort of an honourable demon, being nice and loyal to his friends while being ruthless to his enemies. I dunno... I tend to be neutral on humanoid Digimon, but the idea of a demon mobster with a goddamn tommy gun called "Oro Salmon" is just pretty damn hilarious.
6/10.Belphemon
And finally, the final Ultimate-level evolution for the Phascomon line is one of the Seven Demon Lords, representing the sin of Sloth... Belphemon! Named after the Assyrian demon Belphegor, Belphemon exists in two forms, an adorable little "sleep mode" where he's this cute kawaii chibi little doll that is chained to an alarm clock (no, really), and its true, rampaging "rage mode", where he becomes a gigantic, rampaging muscly demon monster with a pretty generic goat-beast-demon head. Honestly, if Belphemon existed merely in that Rage Mode form, I'd just shrug and go "neat, a typical demon", and moved on because, hey, at this point we've had like, oh, I dunno, an excess of thirty different demonic Digimon?
But the simple addition of Sleep-Mode Belphemon, this adorable little sealed version of this rampaging beast, with an unexpectedly adorable face juxtaposed against those teeth jutting out from its head, ends up making Belphemon a whole lot more interesting. Sleep-Mode Belphemon is noted to be sealed in the deepest part of the Dark Area, slumbering away because, hey, it's the Sin of Sloth.
But if you ever wake Belphemon up by feeding it souls (or once every thousand years, depending on the continuity), Belphemon's alarm clock will sound and it will wake up, emerging in its true Rage Form as this monstrous ragebeast. And Belphemon Rage Mode is cool and all, but it's kind of a generic demon man, honestly. It's this duality that sort of makes this particular Demon Lord go from "cool demon lord" into something somewhat special. It plays on the well-worn trope of a sealed evil, and while it's nothing particularly special, it's definitely a fair bit more creative in its lore instead of just listing the fifteen different ways it is so awesome and can destroy the world in its profile. Looking at you, Alphamon. I mean, Belphemon still does that (apparently its roar will disintegrate any Digimon lower than Perfect level) but at least it's got some interesting lore to go with it. Also love the chunks of the Sleep Mode's head-teeth ending up on Rage Mode's shoulders, and some depictions show the chains that once held it in place hanging off his body, a far cooler look than the weird lightsaber Wolverine claws.Belphemon is also the only one among the three Demon Lords we're covering today to actually get a proper animated appearance, although interestingly, not as the main villain of his own arc, unlike Lulcemon, Daemon or Beelzebumon before him. See, the first arc villain of Digimon Savers is this asshole human named Kurata. Around the halfway point of the series, it's revealed that Kurata has found the sealed sleep form of Belphemon, and has been murdering Digimon and siphoning their data to feed Belphemon, eventually causing it to rampage through Japan until it's stopped by the first Ultimate-Burst-Mode evolution in Savers. Anyway, a pretty neat demon lord .
7/10.Barbamon
Barbamon, taking his name from the demon Barbatos (hence the massive beard), represents the Sin of Greed and he's... he's just an old wizard-man with a super-long beard, robes, a skull-staff and a goblin-like nose. Oh, and a bunch of devil wings. He's decidedly different compared to the other Demon Lords, but also at the same time so... so mundane compared to even other humanoid Demon Lords like Beelzebumon or Lucemon. Barbamon is noted to be the biggest schemer and the strategist among the Demon Lords, and is also, like, super-duper greedy. Sin of greed and everything. It's also, interestingly, noted to be far, far more powerful than poor old BelialVamdemon, whose skill is a mere imitation of Barbamon's. It's just such a shame that Barbamon's design is pretty underwhelming, huh? Barbamon, in addition to appearing with the rest of the Demon Lords in various video games as bosses and/or secret characters, is first introduced in the Digimon Next manga, which ran around the time between Frontier and Savers where no anime was running. Barbamon was the Big Bad of the series, although he was quickly usurped by some weird not-quite-a-Digimon plot device of the series. I dunno. Next was kind of an unmemorable manga. Anyway, Barbamon's not one I particularly like. He's not terrible, but compared to the other demon lords he's just... a boring old man with a weird beard, y'know?
5/10.Leviamon
I do like the contrast between Leviamon and other Demon Lords, though this is one where I kind of wished the designers had added a fair bit more detail. Leviamon just looks like, well, a giant dragon-crocodile thing with two long whip-tails and a super-long mouth. It does manage to create some cool-looking artwork as artists try their best to make the super-long jaws look dynamic, but I dunno... I really feel they could've definitely done a lot more to make Leviamon more interesting.
7/10.To recap the Seven Demon Lords, we have Lucemon (Pride), Leviamon (Envy), Demon (Wrath), Belphemon (Sloth), Barbamon (Greed), Beelzebumon (Gluttony) and Lilithmon (Lust). Kind of a shame that these seven never quite really ended up being shown as the main villains of any series, which tended to just show a member or two of the Seven Demon Lords alone without acknowledging that it's part of a set. Frontier's Beelzebumon and Xros Wars' Lilithmon certainly weren't part of any collective. Oh well. I find myself honestly without much to say about this set of demon lords, actually. Next up... I think we can finally move on to the actual Savers cartoon?
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