This time around, we're going to discuss the Digimon Accel Justice Genome virtual pet, one of the virtual pets introduced in this whole Accel Genome series. A bunch of the Digimon introduced here will end up being important in the fifth Digimon anime, Digimon Savers, known as Digimon Data Squad in the West. And since this is a slightly shorter article in terms of the Digimon that we cover in this bit, I guess we'll talk about Digimon Savers a bit.After a hiatus on anime for nearly five years after the failure that is Frontier, releasing nothing but virtual pets and the odd video game or two (which, if you've been following my reviews in order, is pretty obvious in the amount of times I say "this dude never appeared in anything, but it's neat"). And Savers ends up as sort of a soft reboot once more, aiming for a slightly older audience and combining aspects of the concepts introduced in Adventure, Tamers and various video games. Starring the hot-blooded Daimon Masaru and taking a combination of Digimon both old and new, the story revolves around him encountering Digimon as they emerge into the real world, and Daimon finds himself in the employ of DATS, an organization of humans partnered with Digimon that work as this Avengers/Justice League-style team that protects the world from evil Digimon. After fighting Kurata, a rogue member of DATS that attempted to unleash the Demon Lord Belphemon into the real world, the DATS team ends up having to go into the digital world and try to convince the Digimon that not all humans are evil, although the events eventually escalate as forces on both Digimon and Human side end up causing an increase in hostilities that lead to the Digital World being invaded by Kurata and his army of genetically-modified humans and robots, and eventually the invasion of the human world by the Royal Knights.
Oh, and the entire series runs on hot-blooded manly-men-punching-gods-and-monsters, with the gimmick of the series being the fact that human emotion is quite literally a fuel for their Digimon partners, and main character Daimon Masaru will quite literally punch gods in the face just to get that burst of "Digital Soul" to help his partner evolve. Oh-kay.
Savers is just kind of a very solid series -- it's sort of like the Stardust Crusaders of Digimon anime, being a safe series that doesn't really do anything particularly poorly (unlike 02 or Frontier), doesn't particularly innovate itself (unlike Xros Wars or Tamers) and doesn't really delve too deep into the characterizations of its protagonists (unlike Adventure or Tamers again). It does everything right, delivering protagonists that do have some personality, delivering some badass action scenes with some neat new animation, delivering some fan-favourites that haven't made it into animation, and delivering some epic huge fights. It's just... kind of sort of not as memorable overall? I can tell you with certainty that I truly enjoyed Savers, but beyond some broad strokes, I really have trouble trying to remember the exact events and moments that really stuck out to me.
Eventually, though, Savers ended up performing pretty poorly as far as tie-in merchandise sells and the like go, and Digimon would have another long hiatus in anime until 2010. Bit of a shame. While we're still a couple of pages off until we actually get to the cast of Savers, one of the main characters in that series is introduced in this Accel Justice Genome virtual pet, which is why I decided to give a bit of a context to Digimon Savers the anime.
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Popomon
The Baby I of this virtual pet is Popomon, and I honestly have to applaud anyone who remembers the names of these baby Digimon, especially considering how little some of these appear in any sort of media. Popomon is pleasant enough of a design, being this ambiguously plant-like creature with two huge anime eyes and a cute little leaf tail, but, again, there's really not that much to go on for this one. I do appreciate how different Popomon looks compared to its evolution Frimon, but at the same time... it's also kind of boring, yeah? Just a plant baby blob. I realize that there's a huge decline in demand in this period between Frontier and Savers, but honestly, I think I realize why so many of the Digimon introduced in this period feel so underwhelming. It's because their profiles are so lifeless and half-assed. The older profiles aren't like the pinnacle of literature or monster world-building or anything, but you get an idea of just how the Digital World functions, and how these creatures interact. A lot of the 2002-2005 era monsters are just... there for the sake of being there, I guess. I dunno.
3/10.Frimon
Popomon the little seed blob evolves into Frimon, which is a cat-blob with a frill. It's a very bizarre look, with the frill really looking like a frilled lizard... but Frimon is obviously meant to be a lion blob-baby, considering the spotlight evolution chain for this line. It's... it's actually a neat way to tie in Frimon's design as a blob lion even if it's not quite evidently leonine. There's otherwise not that much to talk about here, though. In Acccel Genome, which is pretty much the only place Frimon ever shows up in, he's able to evolve into some old classics -- Agumon, Patamon, Biyomon and Otamamon, as well as two new Child Digimon, namely Liollmon and Kokabuterimon. 4/10.Liollmon
Liollmon is... he's a baby lion with an ugly tuft of hair on his head. I dunno. I guess if you really do like lions, maybe Liollmon will appeal to you? I do like lions, but I really feel like there's something that's just so... so fucking boring about Liollmon, like they didn't put any effort into it. While reviewing Pokemon, some of my complaints often end up being "okay, but it's just a [insert animal here]", which is just honestly pretty lazy. Like, compare, say, Gomamon and Otamamon to a real-life seal or tadpole, and see how those really look unique compared to their animal inspirations. Even more straightforward monsters like Kunemon or Unimon do a lot to really make their design stand out. Liollmon? Liollmon is just a lion with an accessory and a bland bio noting how this is a 'holy' Digimon. And... and I know that I do complain about those over-designed try-hard dragon-men action figures, but boring, uninspired "let's draw an animal funny" are equally as bad. 2/10.Liamon
But Liollmon evolves into the even more boring Liamon, and it's... it's just a big, muscly lion with a bunch of minimal-effort bangles and hair accessories thrown in. What the fuck are those ear bangles for? Why does he have so many of them? Why the fuck is he so ugly and muscly? It's just genuinely uninspired and boring, honestly. Its bio notes about how Liamon is apparently the king of beasts, shoots thunder, and all that stuff, wow, you made a Deviantart OC, amazing. Honestly, it's just so stupid-looking. Look at this thing. Even if you like lions, can you even honestly say that Liamon is a good design? 0/10.LoaderLiomon
MUCH better. And yes, cyborg animals might have been a recurring trope in Digimon design, but a robotic lion is way, way more memorable than the two ugly lions up above. LoaderLiomon is the Perfect-level evolution here, and honestly looks pretty damn badass -- it's like a simpler, metallic version of SaberLeomon, with a pretty badass mace tail and a mane made up of blades. Hell, the bio even gives LoaderLiomon a pretty neat backstory, noting that it has combined with data from a construction vehicle, which turns its mane into a spinning drill! It's way more interesting than the vague "oh this beast is soooooo badass, trust us" tomfoolery that Liamon and Liollmon have.Surprisingly, after this entire line having been all but ignored after their original debut, LoaderLiomon ends up making an appearance in the relatively recent Digimon Adventure Tri movies, being one of the partner Digimon of the previous generation's Chosen Children in that movie, Nishimura Daigo, and eventually ascending into becoming the Baihumon of that universe. Not bad! Overall, this is a pretty damn awesome design.
7/10.BanchoLeomon (a.k.a. BantyoLeomon)
To explain BanchoLeomon (or BANTYOLeomon as it's originally romanized), I probably have to note the whole concept of Bancho itself, a trope in Japanese culture and media denoting a leader of a group of teenage delinquents, typically controlling a bunch of dropouts and being uncouth yet having a sense of honour, all romanticized as jerks with hidden hearts of honour and all that jazz. Sort of like cowboys or something. It is very common to see in any sort of anime set in a quasi-contemporary setting. Click here for TVTropes' explanation of that.
And BanchoLeomon is basically an Ultimate-level final form of the Liollmon line, although in practice it ends up basically being integrated into the Leomon line in practically all of its subsequent appearances. And from a design standpoint it's... it's okay, I guess? It has the black school suit that the Kujo Jotaros of the world wear. It's chomping on a piece of grass, and has bandages all over. It's got a more prominent anime hair, and a huge blade. It's a delinquent, all right. I'm just not quite sure just why Bandai decided to make this delinquent look as one of the ultimate forms of Leomon. Although, you know what? It's much more preferable than getting yet another multi-winged angel or humanoid dragon, so points for doing something different. It's just such a hilariously ridiculous design but still treating it as a badass, and I prefer something like this as opposed to WarGreymon Clone #14.
BanchoLeomon's profile isn't terrible interesting, just noting it as, well, a delinquent that believes in justice, while also making this whole backstory about how the title of "Bancho" is this illustrious title that very few in the Digimon world have ever been able to obtain... by fighting really really hard. Oh, and he's got a whole ton of nonsensical super-powerful tools, like that school uniform jacket that can negate 99% of damage or whatever.
In the Savers anime, BanchoLeomon is an Obi-Wan Kenobi style of character that shows up and helps to train our heroes to achieve Burst Mode, which is the power-up of the season that causes the human's emotional BURNING SPIRIT to allow the Digimon to access a more powerful form than Ultimate mode, which is honestly kind of ridiculous, but also par the course for anime. Turns out that BanchoLeomon is the partner of main character Daimon Masaru's father, Daimon Suguru (Spencer Damon in the dub)... and BanchoLeomon is trying to get Suguru back from the clutches of the 'god' of the Digimon World, the supercomputer entity Yggdrasil. Following the track record of a Leomon dying in every season, BanchoLeomon would die in one of the final episodes of Savers, sacrificing his life in order to allow the main characters a shot at freeing or mercy-killing Suguru. Manly men punching gods in the face is the main theme of Savers, and I honestly thought that as predictable as it is, the execution behind BanchoLeomon's death is pretty earnest and well done. So while I don't particularly find this dumb-looking design to be appealing, at least it's different and they managed to turn him into an actual character. 7/10.Click below for the Kokabuterimon evolutionary line, and a bunch of others.
Kokabuterimon
Each one of these "Genome" virtual pets introduces two new evolutionary lines, and interestingly enough, Frimon has the potential of evolving into KoKabuterimon, which is a pretty interesting little bugger! It's a lot more humanoid, with two arms and legs and a definitely much more bipedal stance compared to the likes of Tentomon or Kunemon, but considering that "Justice Genome" is probably meant to evocate like, traditional Japanese hero archetypes, having one of them be a more humanoid buggy Kamen Raider isn't the worst thing out there. Kokabuteimon isn't my cup of tea, but he is a pretty neat looking humanoid rhino beetle. Not sure if that scarf is necessary, though I do enjoy the rest of him. It really doesn't look like a Kabuterimon, though, other than drawing inspiration from stag beetles. Although Kokuwamon also likewise doesn't look much like Kuwagamon, so I guess the Child-level insects just straight-up look different compared to their evolved forms? Anyway, not my favourite bug, but an okay design. Lvoe those big shovel-arms. 5/10.BladeKuwagamon
4/10.MetallifeKuwagamon
...which is more than I can say for MetallifeKuwagamon here, the Perfect-level evolution of BladeKuwagamon. It's a robot bug dude, and it's not even a robot bug dude! Compare MetallifeKuwagamon to GrandisKuwagamon or TigerVespamon from last week, and this thing is honestly just embarrassing. It's not even a good-looking robot, with those hideously gigantic cannon-fingers making his hands look inflamed, and a lack of any buggy features other than the obligatory beetle horns. Honestly, it's just such a piss-poor design all around that even as a robotic humanoid I can't really say that there's anything particularly neat about him. His profile is shit, his design is pretty bad... so of course out of the Kokabuterimon line, this fucker is the only one that made it into an anime. His character model doesn't improve on his design, by the way. Although I guess the Xros Wars Hunters episode was one of the crappiest in a pretty crappy season, so eh.Overall, while I try to keep an open mind and try to gauge the humanoid Perfects and Ultimates that fill up the Digimon ranks ever since 02, I really cannot find any sort of objective or subjective appeal from MetallifeKuwagamon. Ugh, even its name is dumb.
1/10.TyrantKabuterimon
So we go from a Kabuterimon into two stages of Kuwagamons and into... TyrantKabuterimon here, which is a huge, huge improvement over Metal Life Pissface. It's a pretty badass name, isn't it? TyrantKabuterimon? Some trading cards have TyrantKabuterimon evolve from HerakleKabuterimon instead. This dude is apparently the King of Bugs that will govern all insect Digimon, and commands a swarm of lesser insect creatures to surround him, and even then his body is laced with the plot device of Chrome Digizoid that allows it to reflect most attack while it shoots out beams that turn people into ashes. It's a bit of a letdown that unlike HerakleKabuterimon and GranKuwagamon, this dude looks more like a huamnoid wyvern-robot thing, but I do appreciate them still keeping TyrantKabuterimon appropriately monstrous.I do like the little details of the Kuwagamon pincers ending as his claws, those tendril whip-like tails, a scorpion tail and that somewhat draconic face actually being made up of bug-horns. And some trading cards do show that TyrantKabuterimon has a bunch of extra eyes -- one at the base of the huge dragon-head-horn assembly, and another one on his chest. Neat! TyrantKabuterimon is not my favourite design, but it's a neat looking king bug and I'm so glad that it looks like a proper bug monster as opposed to whatever the fuck Metallife is.
7/10.Volcdramon (a.k.a. Volcdoramon)
Kind of a weird dude to throw in this virtual pet is Volcdramon, a possible alternate Perfect evolution from Greymon. Volcdramon is a giant dinosaur made up of volcanic material, with lava all over his body and mini volcanoes on his back. It's kinda cool, I guess, even if the bio is just an entire paragraph repeating "this dude is connected to volcanoes" several times over. It's not a particularly novel or original design, but a neat one. I don't have much to say about this one. I think it showed up in an episode of Xros Wars: Hunters that show that this dude is actually the size of a literal mountain? It's not really the most creative thing out there, but it's a neat design. Not sure what much else I can say here. Kind of a standard-looking monster that's cool and inoffensive. 6/10.ClavisAngemon
A bunch of stragglers here and there. Introduced in the video game Digimon World X and one of the few new Digimon introduced there, ClavisAngemon is a secret Ultimate-level evolution that most starter Digimon can evolve into. And he's... he's just an Angemon with different armour holding a giant key-blade. Ooookay? It's not our first Ultimate-level Angemon variant we've seen, what with Seraphimon, SlashAngemon, Dominimon, MarineAngemon and Ophanimon... ClavisAngemon just feels like it's minimal effort. He's sort of a key guardian that protects a giant Zenith Gate in the digital world and protects it, sort of like a discount bargain Heimdall. I honestly have no real opinion on this dude. He probably hangs out at Kingdom Hearts conventions, and everyone will be wondering why he's there, but they're also too nice to shoo him out. 3/10.PlatinumNumemon & GoldNumemon
Both GoldNumemon and PlatinumNumemon debuts in a Digimon Savers tie-in game, and they are both Ultimate-level Digimon that are basically gold/platinum coloured Numemon with some bling and two giant angelic wings. Unlike PlatinumSukamon, who's just a Sukamon that's a little bit shiny, apparently both of these are actually slugs made out of previous metals. It's just such a bizarre and weird addition to Digimon lore that they felt that it was necessary to give Numemon a proper final evolution instead of having to keep Numemon a weak turd-throwing snail throughout its entire life, or to turn it into a giant puppet. I mean, I love Monzaemon, but Numemon, as gross as it is, is a pretty iconic fixture of Digimon (and way more memorable than half of the things I've been reviewing since the end of, oh, Tamers or something) and I do appreciate these two angelic dookieslugs are added into proper Digimon canon. It's not the most creative design out there, what with it just giving Numemon a paintjob and some accessories, but look at how happy these two are!Anyway, they're getting a special rating:
10 Numemons out of 10 Numemons.Minervamon
Also introduced in the same video game that introduced the golden Numemons is Minervamon, another member of the Olympos XII subgroup we mentioned last week. Minervamon here is based on the goddess of wisdom, Minerva, and she's... a little girl dressed in a belly-showing armour (not very wise, there) with an oversized sword? Minervamon is just pretty baffling, honestly. She's clearly meant to appeal to the loli crowd (a pretty problematic thing that I'm not going to touch upon here) especially with some questionable artwork that more recent trading cards have given her. Hell, Xros Wars would even introduce an 'aged-up' legal version of her mostly for fanservice. I dunno, though. Minervamon is just such a weird, weird random take on the goddess Minerva, and throw in the very unflattering bio that's just a sexist jab at "ha ha, women can get violent because of their unstable emotions", which just adds to my dislike of this whole thing. I dunno. She's got a snake motif going on, which I guess is sometimes rarely associated to Minerva. And I kind of do like that, but the rest of her is just such a weird anime loli girl going on that I'm definitely not a fan. And while it's always been pretty weird that the monster you make into your subservient partner is a human-like figure, it's even weirder if it's a bikini-clad little girl. Even without that, Minervamon is such a bland and boring "human in cosplay" design. 1/10.
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