Parts of this article were originally published in Digimon Reviews, Part 37, and Digimon Reviews, Part 34. Trying too hard to merge everything together in a single article for the latter really led to that particular part of the review to be triple the length of all the other Digimon reviews, and I also felt odd compressing all the Savers partner Digimon into single articles.
So I took the chance to split off the original Falcomon line (originally debuting in 2005's Pendulum X, and would have debuted alongside Funbeemon, Commandramon and the others) and the 2006 anime incarnation of Falcomon, which was heavily retooled for the anime, and merge them together here. We're going to talk about the 'original' Falcomon before the 'anime version' of Falcomon here.
Mercurymon, due to its role in Savers, have also moved from 34 to here. And just to round things up, I've moved VictoryGreymon and ZeedGarurumon here from the also full episode 39.
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Puwamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby I
- Type: Slime
- Attribute: None
This time around, we're going to the Nature Genome version of the Accel Genome series, and it's going to feature birds, plants, fish, and a bunch of animal and beastly Digimon. The Baby I for this one is Puwamon, who, I think, does a pretty neat job looking like an owl blob-baby without being too obvious as a dumbed-down version of Falcomon. I mean, just compare this to, say, Jyarimon or Chicomon or whoever! Anyway, Puwamon is a little owl-blob and again, perhaps has a wee bit too much going on for a Baby I Digimon. It's all right.
Puwamon actually makes an appearance in Savers, hatching from an egg and becoming the partner of Daimon Chika, the main protagonist's little sister, eventually evolving immediately into a Piyomon.
4/10._________________________________________________________
Pinamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby II
- Type: Chick
- Attribute: None
Pinamon's still a little blob-bird, but with enough differences from Puwamon and with somewhat more developed wing-numbs. I'm still kind of neutral on this thing, not particularly hating nor liking it. I can just imagine this thing just running all over the place which would, I think, be pretty adorable. I do like the little detail given in its profile in that its face is always stoic, so the only way to tell Pinamon's mood is based on how it runs. Both Pinamon and Puwamon hate their long tails being touched, and interestingly, it's able to generate electricity. In the Nature Genome virtual pet, Pinamon, interestingly, only really has Falcomon as its only bird-themed evolution, with its other choices being Mushmon, Goblimon, Swimmon, Gotsumon and Terriermon. In other words, the little chick can evolve into a mushroom man, a goblin, a tropical fish, a rock golem and a bunny plushie thing. Okay then.
4/10._________________________________________________________
Falcomon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Child
- Type: Bird
- Attribute: Vaccine
"Wait, this isn't Falcomon!" Well, you're half-correct. See, when the original Falcomon debuted in 2005's Accel Genome virtual pets, this was the official artwork and design. Sort of like an off-brand Hawkmon with vaguely owl-shaped eyes and a pretty bland green-and-gray colour scheme. And yes, I know the name is "Falcomon", but this dude's clearly based on an owl, isn't he?
Fast-forward a year to 2006, where they decided to use Falcomon as one of the main partner Digimon of Digimon Savers (Data Squad for dub viewers), and they decided to completely overhaul Falcomon, giving him a more proportioned and marketable body shape, a black-and-purple colour scheme and a clear ninja theme. And while I tend to like the more beastly and natural-looking Digimon a bit better, I kind of have to admit that original Falcomon here is kind of lackluster and pretty dang boring. Honestly feels like a minimal effort Hawkmon ripoff, sort of like how Commandramon up there is a minimal effort Agumon ripoff. Except Commandramon at least has the army thing going on. Original Falcomon has nothing interesting about him, not even in his profile, and it's small wonder they replaced him with a superior, more memorable version down the road. Sorry, man.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Diatrymon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Ancient Bird
- Attribute: Vaccine
So while I think Falcomon's transformation from the original virtual pet version to the anime version is ultimately for the better, I am glad that they didn't decide to revamp Diatrymon, instead making up an entirely new Adult-level evolution for Falcomon II, the ninja-ostrich Peckmon who we'll cover in due time. Instead, original Falcomon's default Adult-stage evolution is the very monstrous ancient monster-bird Diatrymon, taking his name from Diatryma, the genus name for a prehistoric, predatory monster-bird that are commonly portrayed in media as this giant apex predator "horror birds". Though nowadays Diatryma (or Gastronis, because taxonomy is complicated) is theorized to actually behave like, well, modern-day ostriches and probably aren't as horrifying as predators as popular media make them out to be. Diatrymon isn't worried about any of the real-world science debates, though, and is happy to embody the armoured giant flightless monster-bird tropes.
Still, Diatrymon is honestly pretty damn badass, being this monster bird with a jagged mouth and mean-looking claws and armour plates. I kind of wonder why they decided to give him the clashing colours of orange and green is a good idea, though. Anyway, while Diatrymon hasn't appeared anywhere outside of video games, I definitely do appreciate that this monster bird's existence, even if I really do think it would look better with other colours.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Yatagaramon
- Alternate Names: Crowmon (EN dub)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Bewitching Bird
- Attribute: Vaccine
The Perfect-level evolution for Diatrymon is Yatagaramon, based on the Yatagarasu, a mythological three-legged crow from Japanese mythology that represents the intervention of heaven in mortal affairs. Like Falcomon, Yatagaramon would be redesigned (although not quite as much as Falcomon) in the Savers anime. The original Yatagaramon is a pretty simple design, though. It knows its mythological basis of a three-legged crow, made it into a Birdramon-style giant bird, and then adds a bunch of Deva-style oriental armour to it. All in all I kind of prefer the newer Yatagaramon, although the original version here isn't honestly all that bad. Yatagaramon's profile notes about how it's sort of like a guide to the spirits of the dead, although more of a good guide than a sinister one. Yatagaramon's original profile isn't super interesting, just noting that it's this dark-but-good angelic crow that has really, really powerful data-disassembling powers. We'll talk about the other Yatagaramon when we reach Savers, so I'll keep this short. Pretty cool giant crow.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Valdurmon
- Alternate Names: Varodurumon (EN dub)
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Holy Bird
- Attribute: Vaccine
Valdurmon is... well, it's not an unplasant design, this giant, six-winged holy bird that shines with a rainbow-like aura, but it honestly feels and looks like a more boring version of Hououmon or Zhuqiaomon, y'know? Like, a six-winged god bird isn't uncool, but it's not that impressive after a while. Valdurmon isn't based on any specific mythology despite the Nordic sounding name, his profile is an utterly generic "hey this Ultimate Digimon is powerful" spiel, and his design doesn't make him any more interesting than, say, Ornismon or whoever. Like, sure, it's glowing with that fiery rainbow power, but take that away and you get a pretty boring six-winged bird. Yatagaramon, even with the glowing stuff gone, still has his pretty badass golden armour pieces. Like, I kind of feel like I'm being a bit unfair to Valdurmon here, but at the same time as much as I sigh in disdain at Savers!Falcomon's Ultimate form being another humanoid, Ravmon at least looks a lot less boring than Valdurmon.
Anyway, Valdurmon here is one of the component pieces of UltimateChaosmon up there, and I guess he contributes a bird claw and a wing? Valdurmon made its first major appearance in Adventure 2020 as the unexpected spokesperson for an ancient group of angel Digimon, and I like that a bird-dragon was chosen as the representative.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Falcomon II
- Alternate Names: Falcomon (2006 Anime Version)
- Stage: Child
- Type: Bird
- Attribute: Vaccine
We covered the original Falcomon a while back above, and when the production staff for Savers decided to use Falcomon as one of the main characters, they ended up revamping him significantly, And it's... it's for the better. I tend to balk at randomly slapping human accessories on monsters wily-nily (like Gaomon or Bearmon), but comparing Falcomon II with the original Falcomon, this ninja bird is so, so much memorable than off-colours feral Falcomon. Falcomon II isn't like a novel concept, but it's at least done relatively well. He's a fun little ninja owl wearing a ninja shirt, and the black, grey and red colour scheme works relatively well. Falcomon's bio notes that this is a subspecies of the original Falcomon, whose wings have developed enough to allow it free flight, and is kind of obsessed with being a ninja -- whether it be flying like a kite or throwing shuriken feathers.
The Falcomon character in the anime is... I'm legitimately not sure if he has much of a personality beyond being Ikuto's more mature babysitter, but I did remember liking the pairing. Ikuto and Falcomon go through a pretty basic and predictable story arc for a wild boy that is exposed to the fact that the world isn't black-and-white, and that he is a child of both worlds, but it's handled relatively well. The design of Falcomon's neat. I don't mind him.
7/10._________________________________________________________
Peckmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Bird
- Attribute: Vaccine
The champion level for New Falcomon swaps around from Diatrymon into Peckmon, changing from a Gastronis into a more child-friendly ostrich or emu of sorts, and dressed in... ninja gear. Of course. While the ninja gear is a inoffensive on Falcomon and blends in with the design well, I do think that Peckmon does overboard. We've got the shirt, leg guards, a huge scarf, head-bands... I dunno. Throw in the fact that Peckmon's actual wings and tail are bright orange and yellow, and the end result becomes kind of a messy design. It's not one that I'm particularly in love with, honestly. Not much to say here.
4/10.Yatagaramon II
- Alternate Names: Crowmon (EN dub), Yatagaramon (2006 Anime Ver)
- Stage: Child
- Type: Bewitching Bird
- Attribute: Vaccine
7/10._________________________________________________________
Ravmon
- Alternate Names: Ravemon (EN dub)
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Vaccine
It's honestly expected at this point for any given evolutionary line to just turn into humanoid in the Ultimate level. And that's kind of something that I definitely don't like about Digimon -- but have grown to accept as a quirk of the series. In Falcomon's case, the final form is Ravmon (Ravemon in English), who is a humanoid bird-man ninja with a giant sword, talon claws and wings as under-arm blades. It's... it's pretty decent, actually, as far as these cool humanoid Ultimates go. If I ever go through the effort of rating all the humanoid Digimon, Ravmon is one that's just straight-up cool in a classic sense. Oh, and this official artwork isn't particularly good at showcasing it, but Ravmon's wings are actually slightly different -- one is black, and one is silver.
- Alternate Names: Ravmon Burst Mode, Ravemon Burst Mode
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Vaccine
Ravmon's backstory has kind of a typical "fallen angel" backstory for it, noting that Ravmon once served a God Man Digimon that was once a silver-coloured servitor, but was dyed black when said God Man was angry at him. Thus it became this super-edgy dark-but-not-evil sort of character that goes around as a ninja assassin, using its black-coloured wing to hide himself and the white-coloured wing to stab the enemy. Yeah, it's definitely the sort of backstory that's tailor-made to be marketable. Not my thing, but it is still a pretty cool ninja birdman assassin.
Like the rest of the Ultimates for the main characters, Ravmon has a Ravmon: Burst Mode ultimate, which just swaps around blacks, whites and purples. I genuinely don't have much to say about this form.
5/10._________________________________________________________
Mercurymon
- Alternate Names: Merukimon (EN dub)
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: God Man
- Attribute / Subgroup: Virus / Olympos XII
Mercurymon here is the only member of the Olympos XII to really get any sort of characterization, being a huge character in the Digimon Savers anime. See, Mercurymon in the anime is treated as this sort of tribal leader among the Digimon of the digital world, and is kind of a huge racist towards mankind (not without good reason, too, considering how the human Kurata's been killing Digimon left and right), but at the same time he ended up adopting an orphaned human boy, one of the main characters in Savers. It's interesting to see this little bit of depth to this character that flip-flops between being an antagonist and a protagonist before being made into a martyr after being convinced of the errors of his ways... but was brutally slain by the artificial Digimon led by Kurata, and explicitly had his reincarnated Digi-Egg destroyed so he can never reincarnate. Savers was kind of brutal like that. Anyway, I do have enough respect of Mercurymon as a character to not dismiss him for his design outright.
That said... wow, what a horrible design, huh? The Olympos XII is meant to homage the Greco-Roman gods, and while I realize that they can't just have everyone be posing godly musclemen, Mercury is the god of messengers, as well as thieves, commerce and trickery. So for whatever reason, they decided to portray him as this bizarre Conan the Barbarian knockoff that covers his body with beast pelts and a skinned Garurumon face, and fights with weird bone-daggers, and the profile notes that this guy is a wandering shaman.
...it's a really weird design to take. There was some theories that the original Mercurymon and Minervamon were designed to embody the qualities of their respective mythological inspiration while looking visually like the opposite. Or that they can embody their great qualities (speed and wisdom respectively) after overcoming their lack of it? It would be an interesting concept, but as Neptunemon shows above, practically the rest of the Olympos XII just play the trope of adapting Greek gods straight.
And even then...? Even with the cute idea that Mercurymon is a 'Mercury' that doesn't look like the traditional mythological 'Mercury'? I still really don't like his design.
3/10. Points given are only for Savers role._________________________________________________________
(Mercurymon is also the basis of headaches for the English dub team. Both the Roman god and the metal are called "mercury" in English, but the Frontier villain themed after the metal is actually called Merukyuremon, after the French pronounciation of the word "mercury", whereas this Olympos XII god-man Mercurymon is called Merukurimon after the English word "mercury". Since Frontier came out years earlier, the English dub team is sort of forced to call this dude "Merukimon" to avoid confusion with Mercuremon (dubbed into Mercurymon). Languages! Names!)
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VictoryGreymon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Dragon Man
- Attribute: Vaccine
Jumping around slightly, we're covering some Digimon released in the Twins Virtual Pet, and highlighted as the final forms of the Agumon and Gaomon in Digimon Next.
...it's just WarGreymon, but with his wings being angled differently, his head-spikes changed, and he's holding a big three-bladed claymore. The lack of Wolverine gauntlets really does make him significantly a lot less cooler. The storyline has the Agumon and Gaomon be special 'Arbitrators' that are selected to be super-special-awesome. Okay.
And... eh. I'm counting him as a WarGreymon variant, and in that regard I feel that while they did try to change and give him a different silhouette, it goes worse in all aspects. Sorry.
0/10._________________________________________________________
Z'dGarurumon
- Alternate Names: ZeedGarurumon
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Data
ZeedGarurumon, I like a bit better because its differences make it a bit more distinct instead of just weird. The style of the cannons are a bit different, like it's from a different mecha anime style. The addition of teal is... neat. And ZeedGarurumon's got a big Megatron cannon on its back. That's something. It's a nicer looking change than VictoryGreymon above.
Both their profiles are extremely bland, too, the type that just talks up their power and their digizoids and their ultra destructive weaponry, which is never anywhere as interesting as they think it is. There's an art to describing super-powerful abilities without making them sound samey.
What's a Z'd? What's a Zeed? I don't know. I'm just happy (and a bit surprised) that these two never got a dedicated Omegamon form.
They didn't, did they? I just double checked. As of 2026, they didn't.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Ogudomon here is... he's interesting! He is introduced as the 'super demon lord' with seven legs, seven tiny eyes around a central maw, and is the "embodiment of the digital world's sins", and acts as some sort of a master for the Seven Great Demon Lords. I do kind of like his wacky design, from the seven-legged spiderlike body, to the weird central starfish-like mouth with a core, to the weird swords embedded in his knees and the weird, alien-like lizard mouth that jut out from the top of his spider-like body... It's an interesting design, for sure. Ogudomon is also noted to have "the power to atone all sins", whatever it means, and that it can basically counterattack anyone who attacks Ogudomon with the slightest trace of sin? Or something? Ogudomon is supposedly inspired by the Gnostic Ogdoad, but it's a tenuous connection at best.
As this weird master of the Seven Demon Lords (or the fused form of them, in some games), Ogudomon tends to be the main antagonist in many random spinoff games, like Digimon Collectors and some arcade games. I personally kind of find this underwhelming in the same way that Apocalymon is kind of underwhelming. A weird, non-humanoid primal evil that is 'beyond' all the members of a pre-existing set of super-evil villains is interesting, but Ogudomon has no real personality or backstory, and a randomly powerful enemy that exists just to be a randomly powerful enemy. I do feel like they really could've done a lot better in giving us Ogudomon's backstory, or to tie it in with the Seven Sins, but eh, at least it's design is weirdly cool. I am not a fan of the handwave-y backstory, but definitely a fan of the design.
6/10.
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Ogudomon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Avatar
- Attribute / Subgroup: Virus / Seven Great Demon Lords
Ogudomon here is... he's interesting! He is introduced as the 'super demon lord' with seven legs, seven tiny eyes around a central maw, and is the "embodiment of the digital world's sins", and acts as some sort of a master for the Seven Great Demon Lords. I do kind of like his wacky design, from the seven-legged spiderlike body, to the weird central starfish-like mouth with a core, to the weird swords embedded in his knees and the weird, alien-like lizard mouth that jut out from the top of his spider-like body... It's an interesting design, for sure. Ogudomon is also noted to have "the power to atone all sins", whatever it means, and that it can basically counterattack anyone who attacks Ogudomon with the slightest trace of sin? Or something? Ogudomon is supposedly inspired by the Gnostic Ogdoad, but it's a tenuous connection at best.
As this weird master of the Seven Demon Lords (or the fused form of them, in some games), Ogudomon tends to be the main antagonist in many random spinoff games, like Digimon Collectors and some arcade games. I personally kind of find this underwhelming in the same way that Apocalymon is kind of underwhelming. A weird, non-humanoid primal evil that is 'beyond' all the members of a pre-existing set of super-evil villains is interesting, but Ogudomon has no real personality or backstory, and a randomly powerful enemy that exists just to be a randomly powerful enemy. I do feel like they really could've done a lot better in giving us Ogudomon's backstory, or to tie it in with the Seven Sins, but eh, at least it's design is weirdly cool. I am not a fan of the handwave-y backstory, but definitely a fan of the design.
6/10._________________________________________________________
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