Digimon Reviews, Episode 40: Kudamon and Friends

Finally, we've reached the final part of Digimon Savers! You guys probably won't see it since these articles are coming out relatively regularly, but I do a lot of my Digimon Review writing in bulk and in advance, and it was so hard to get through this huge chunk of Savers-era Digimon. I'm not sure why because I do genuinely like Digimon Savers as an anime, but I had found it so hard to talk about some of these.

Also, I'm going to put the series on a hiatus for a while. I've got drafts up for the Dawn/Dusk games, so that might go up later this year, but I've been on a HUGE Digimon burnout, and it doesn't help that I really just don't feel like talking about a lot of the designs between Frontier and Savers, which... are still fun to talk about, but I'm just feeling a massive sense of fatigue. So I'm going to put "Digimon Reviews" on an indefinite hiatus, probably at least until the end of year. I still plan to at the very least do it up until Xros Wars, but whether I'll continue on after that is going to be up for debate.
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Pafumon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby I
• Type: Spirit
• Attribute: None

Anyway, the final member of Savers' secondary cast is Satsuma Rentarou (a.k.a. Richard Sampson in the dub), who acts as the overseer and general Nick-Fury-esque captain of DATS. He spends most of his time as the stern mentor, until around the halfway point of the series when he shows off the fact that he is actually pretty damn badass. I've excluded him from the past couple of pages because his partner Digimon is kind of part of a set.

Anyway, it's interesting that Kudamon received a Baby I form, Pafumon, when so many of the Savers-era partner Digimon only got a Baby II one. I do like Pafumon! He really does feel like a "puff" Digimon, a little blob with a cute face, bunny ears and a lower body that's just a bunch of hairy broom-like structure. Its bio even details a unique ability where when threatened, Pafumon will inhale air and then expel it to escape like some sort of airborne octopus. Neat-o!

 7/10.
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Kyaromon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby II
• Type: Lesser
• Attribute: None

Kyaromon is... it's interesting. It's this weird little hairy blob with huge rabbit ears and a tail, and disproportionately large eyes. It's the Baby II form of this evolutionary line, and... and it's fine, I guess? I'm just not a particularly huge fan of Kyaromon, but I certainly don't dislike him. He does look like some sort of mammal that could conceivably have evolved on Earth if things have taken a different turn somewhere. It's interesting to note that the bio notes that Kyaromon's insides have been "mostly empty", selling this entire line as some sort of weird, almost-ethereal beast. Kyaromon's a neat design! It's shown up here and there as a background baby Digimon. 

 5/10.
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Kudamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Holy Beast
• Attribute: Vaccine

Kudamon actually debuts with one of the Accel Genome virtual pets, but the year of that particular V-Pet coincides with the year that Savers debuts, so I figured I would just talk about both of them in one go. Anyway, the Kudamon with purple markings wrapped around some golden cylinder is the original Kudamon from the virtual pet, and the one with yellow markings on below is the Kudamon that appears in the anime.

• Alternate Names: Kudamon (2006 Anime Ver)
• Stage: Child
• Type: Holy Beast
• Attribute: Vaccine

Kudamon borrows its name and general concept from the Japanese yokai, the kudagitsune, or pipe-fox, which are ethereal spirits that live in bamboo pipes -- something we covered before with Sakuyamon, I believe. The original Kudamon is noted to always wrap itself around a holy catridge and never separates after it, and in combat, Kudamon will hide in the cartridge and basically just levitate it around to whack people. It's a far more faithful, if obvious, adaptation of the kudagitsune legend. Also love just how ethereal Kudamon looks, really selling the concept of a spirit-fox. The ghostly, long snake-like body that tapers off also works relatively well to give Kudamon a more distinctive look. 

The anime's version of Kudamon basically spends most of his time wrapped around Rentarou's neck instead of a golden cylinder (which is still there in the 2006 version, just a lot smaller) and acts as his advisor, and I always loved the visual image of a towering monolith of a man like Rentarou partnered with such a cute, adorable little snake-weasel. Anyway, Kudamon is another one of the Child-levels that I instantly love from Digimon Savers.

 7/10.
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Reppamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Holy Beast
• Attribute: Vaccine

Kudamon's Adult evolution, Reppamon, is a pretty damn cool evolution! It's sort of based on the Kamaitachi (sickle weasel) combined with a fox, and I do like the general design! It is kind of slightly messy, but the focus of Reppamon's design is drawn to the awesome fox mask face, as well as the gigantic zig-zag blade-sickle. Also interesting to note is that the blade has its own eye, noting that it's actually sentient. Hilariously, Reppamon tends to "quarrel with its own tail during battle". Reppamon's design and general look really sell him as a swift Digimon that zips around and cuts its enemies down before they have any time to react. Overall, a pretty damn cool, if ever-so-slightly cluttered, design.

 8/10.

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Tyilinmon

• Alternate Names: Chirinmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Holy Beast
• Attribute: Vaccine

Reppamon's Perfect stage is Tyilinmon, based on the mythological Chinese beast, the Qilin. Without going too in-depth about the legend of the Qilin, it's basically one of the greatest holy beasts in Chinese mythology alongside the dragon and the phoenix. And Tyilinmon's design does manage to show this off, being a horse with wings, Chinese dragon whiskers, a horn, and a bunch of Chinese ornaments on its legs and tail. Tyilinmon's noted to be as powerful as an Ultimate-level despite being a mere Perfect-level, and it despises conflict and wishes to guide others to peace.

It's actually a sentiment that Savers' Kudamon has throughout all  of his evolutionary forms, which I thought was pretty neat. It's a bit of a shame that Tyilinmon's design ends up honestly being way too cluttered... but it is still a pretty cool Digimon adaptation of a mythological beast. Not much to say here -- Qilins are cool, and Tyilinmon's a neat enough Qilin approximation. 

 7/10.
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Sleipmon

• Alternate Names: Kentaurosmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Holy Knight
• Attribute / Subgroup: Vaccine / Royal Knights

The huge plot twist as to why Kudamon is so damn powerful compared to the rest of the cast comes up in the final arc of Digimon Savers. Kurata and Belphemon are defeated, and DATS have brokered relative peace with the Digimon... but the the 'god' of the digital world, Ygdrassil, commands its Royal Knights to lay waste to the human world as retaliation for what Kurata has done. Turns out that Kudamon is actually the Child form of one of said Royal Knights, Sleipmon, and he has fallen in love with the world of the humans and ends up taking arms against his own comrades to defend the Earth. Also, for whatever reason, the English dub team decided to rename Sleipmon the decidedly less cool name of Kentaurosmon. Sleipmon, of course, draws his name from the mythological Sleipnir, the mythological eight-legged horse of the Norse god Odin, and I really don't think anyone will complain because of Norse legends? I dunno. 

And Sleipmon is... well, he's a six-legged centaur, with his two human-like arms counting as the fourth pair of horse legs, I suppose. I kind of find Sleipmon's design to be utterly cluttered with way too many random accessories, like those huge golden wing-things, the huge amount of stuff around his head and chest... but I don't know. I guess I'm just really taken in by Sleipmon's appearance and portrayal in the Savers anime? Sleipmon's bio notes that Sleipmon is, of course, really fast, and is noted as an anomaly among the Royal Knights for "not having a human form". Racist much, Royal Knights? I do like the face that his crossbow is called "Muspellsheimr" and that his shield is called "Niflheimr", named after two of the nine realms of Nordic mythology. 

Perhaps in reference to said mythology, Sleipmon is noted to reside in the icy pole of the digital world. A six-legged centaur knight is cool, and we do have a pretty cool character associated with him. I also appreciate that the designers still allowed Sleipmon to keep a more bestial face that does look like it evolves from Tyilinmon. He's not my favourite design in this evolution line, but he at least does look pretty damn majestic. Really could've cut down on the details, or have his official artwork be in a less confusing pose. 

 7/10. (bonus 1 point for manliness.)

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Craniummon

• Alternate Names: Craniamon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Holy Knight
• Attribute / Subgroup: Vaccine / Royal Knights

Basically most of the Royal Knights that had showed up in previous series show up in Savers as antagonists, although some, like Magnamon and UlforceVeedramon, end up just having glorified cameos of standing in the background. Out of the Royal Knights, though, the one to have the most dialogue and the one that acts as the 'mouthpiece' of the group is Craniummon, who acts as a recurring undefeatable enemy. Even when some of the Royal Knights fall left and right when the main cast achieves their Burst Modes, I remember Craniummon requiring a combined effort from basically the entire cast to actually bring down to his knees... and after that, he sort of gets a bit of a heel-face-turn and realizes that for all of his loyalty to Ygdrassil, it's "way" is now corrupted and he's going to fight alongside the good guys.

Craniummon's character is neat for what could otherwise be a bland villain, but his design is... it's kinda m'eh? He's just a black-armoured knight with a skull helmet! At least Craniummon looks distinctly memorable compared to some of the other Royal Knights, I suppose. Craniummon's profile notes that he's an extremely proud warrior to the point that it's almost a character flaw. While in the anime he's just a normal fighter, Craniummon's profile notes that his spear, Claiomh Solais (named after a sword from Gaelic mythology) is apparently able to curse an opponent to 'dance to death'. Anyway, Craniummon's kinda cool! I'm pretty sure if it's not for his characterization in Savers he's not going to get this mark from me, though.

 7/10. 

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Duftmon

• Alternate Names: Leopardmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Holy Knight
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Royal Knights

One of the new members of the Royal Knights introduced in Savers is Duftmon, who I distinctly remember as quite literally appearing randomly in one episode when the rest of the Royal Knights' lineup (which does not include Duftmon) had been prominently displayed earlier. Probably because "Duftmon" isn't a name that inspires badassery, he was renamed "Leopardmon" in the dub. Duftmon's a glorified villain of the week, though, basically showing up and being hyped up as one of the most powerful Royal Knights or whatever. His profile notes that he's the 'strategist' of the team.

• Alternate Names: Duftmon: Leopard Mode, Leopardmon: Leopard Mode
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Holy Knight
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Royal Knights

He's also able to transform into a leopard mode, but somehow that glorious blonde locks still remain. It's honestly kind of a pretty transparent "transforming toy" gimmick, and I've never really been all that taken in by Duftmon. He just looks so underwhelmingly generic, and as part of a team of similarly humanoid knights, Duftmon just doesn't stand out and his "Leopard Mode" is honestly a pretty bland gimmick that is basically the only memorable thing out of him.

 4/10. 
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Examon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Holy Knight
• Attribute / Subgroup: Data / Royal Knights

Examon here is one of the last members of the Royal Knights to be introduced. Poor Examon misses out on the party of Royal Knights terrorizing Japan in the Savers anime, being released in a video game.

The artwork is hella confusing, focusing a lot on the gigantic, long, tapering wings, but Examon is actually a draconic humanoid with some really, really huge, wide wings. It's... it's a pretty neat design, I suppose, if kind of 'safe'. He's just a dragon-man holding a huge lance, with oversized wings and tail. At least Examon does manage to look relatively distinct, making him way more memorable in my head than poor Duftmon there. Examon mostly shows up in video games, with his sole animated appearance being a brief cameo in Xros Wars.

I do really like the backstory given to Examon, though -- it is such a huge creature (his name is from exa-byte, apparently, which is 10  to the power of 24) that older computers are simply unable to render him. Interestingly, Examon's bio notes that his gigantic wings are sentient and are called Caledfwich, the Welsh name for Excalibur. Caledfwich can apparently transform on its own from those ridiculously large set of wings into a shield. Interestingly, Examon's lance Ambrosius can apparently shoot shells containing viruses, which is an interestingly odd and kinda-dishonourable way to fight for a Royal Knight. 

While I didn't have the best impression of Examon due to the ridiculously bad perspective of his official Bandai artwork, he's... he's neat, I suppose, and a cool enough design to be sort of the 'ultimate' Western-dragon Digimon.

 8/10. 

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Algomon - Perfect

• Alternate Names: Algomon Perfect; Argomon (EN dub)
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute: Virus

We're almost done with Savers' cast, I think, and just like all the previous series, we've got a tie-in movie. Basically the only real memorable part of the Savers movie is that it stars exclusively just the Digimon, and that Lalamon beat up a bunch of Goblimon with sausage nun-chucks. The main villain of that movie is Algomon here, sometimes referred to as "Algomon Perfect" because Algomon evolves into a subsequent form also called Algomon. Jeez, Algomon, Arkadimon did it nearly a decade before you did, and then Lucemon did it too!

Algomon is generated from a bug in the 'algorithm'. Get it, ALGOrithm? It's also a reference to the multi-eyed god Argos, with the eyeballs around its body. Algomon's base design is kind of a boring dude in a kimono, but it is actually a plant monster. Algomon Perfect is not the interesting form, but the concept is pretty neat. 

Algomon also spends a chunk of the movie in its 'Worm Phase', which is just a mass of tentacles with glowing eyes and its giant eyeball markings visible. That is much preferable! Despite being a one-off movie villain, against all odds Algomon received a full evolutionary line of Algomons from baby to adult to round up the evolutionary line in Adventure 2020. That's cool for Algomon, but I really didn't care much for its Perfect form. 'Worm Phase' is all right, though. 

 4/10. 
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Algomon - Ultimate

• Alternate Names: Algomon Perfect; Argomon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute: Virus

Algomon Ultimate is a wee bit more monstrous, with a disturbingly small head and a long, bent neck. A lot cooler looking and more monstrous than Algomon Perfect, but I still find his design to be 'just' a big dude. Again, the gimmick that he initially displays in the movie is interesting enough -- the monstrous core of a gigantic, city-wide infestation of vines that puts humans into a deep sleep while his small army of Ogremon and Goblimon take over the human world.

That said, the vines are a lot more prominent here and I like that the face is just a small little thing on top of a yawning gaping void on its chest. It's a bit hard to see in the profile, but it's just a black void there. In both Savers and Frontier, that gaping mouth would reveal a cluster of eyeballs that shoot lasers, which is neat. 

It took a while, but the renewed interest in Algomon made me pay a bit more attention to it, and hey, this vine-humanoid monster is all right. 

 6/10. 
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TonosamaMamemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute: Data

We're going to cover a bunch of miscellaneous video-game exclusive Digimon here, and we're starting off with the Ultimate-level TonosamaMamemon. Which is... kinda-sorta hilarious in a ridiculous way, I guess, but also kind of boring. I do find the fact that TonosamaMamemon's way of attacking is apparently to unleash cherry blossoms that will 'judge' the enemy if they hit, but if the blossoms are blown away with wind he's basically kind of useless? I dunno. Not a huge fan of this one, especially not of those bizarrely human-looking eyes. I tend to like Mamemon variants, but this one is just weird and feels like kind of a joke to me.

 2/10. 
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CatchMamemon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute: Data

The Perfect-level CatchMamemon, on the other hand, introduced in the trading card game, is hilarious! It's basically a Mamemon riding a small, fun UFO with long robot arms that grab Digitama. While it's obviously a joke on those prize-skill games, I do kind of find CatchMamemon to be ridiculously fun. It's also apparently born from a 'file management software', a fun detail that I find hilariously interesting. Despite the whimsical nature of this design, CatchMamemon is apparently super-serious and uncompromising, because managing Digitama is serious business. CatchMamemon is also apparently able to use his power to transform attackers into plush toys to carry them away, in order to prevent his egg charge s from being harmed in a battle. Or, if those slot-machine things on his UFO gets triple sevens, CatchMamemon will turn the enemy into a bomb. It's a bit of a ridiculous design that adds a whole lot of concepts into a single piece, but I dunno -- I do like CatchMameon. It has personality.

 4/10. 

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DarkSuperstarmon

• Alternate Names: DarkSuperStarmon
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Mutation
• Attribute: Virus

DarkSuperstarmon is a Perfect-level repaint of SuperStarmon, swapping out the gold for dark purple, the white for red, and the ribbon-like accessories for tattered black ones. It's... it's a pleasant enough 'evil' repaint, and thank god for not making this another generic whatever-mon (black). I do find him charming mostly for his hilarious bio, which notes that he's a Superstarmon that was produced from the observational data of a black hole, and it is soooo edgy and soooo badass that it has 'left behind its dreams', and is so 'burdened by his past' that is wears sunglasses to shut out all light. Haha, DarkSuperstarmon, you damn edgelord!

 5/10. 
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Chronomon

• Alternate Names: Chronomon Destroy Mode, Chronomon DM
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: God Man
• Attribute: Virus

Chronomon! This is a bit of a weird one. Debuting as the final boss of "Digimon Story", known internationally as "Digimon World DS", Chronomon was a Digimon that ruled over time and the villains of the game wanted to resurrect it. It's a simple enough excuse plot, and the design is essentially a god bird man -- an aspect that would be particularly emphasized by Chronomon's pre-evolutions added in later Digimon Story titles.

Chronomon's "Destroy Mode" is what you expect from a typical final villain design. A bit cluttered, lots of accessories, and meant to be intimidating. It's a big chicken-man with muscular arms, a dragon-man head, and two rigid shoulder cannons resembling dragon heads. The cannons point sideways, which doesn't seem particularly functional. Chronomon's Destroy Mode is its unnatural state that it assumes as the boss of the game, all berserking and corrupted due to "all the malice in time" flowing into it at the same time. Sure.

• Alternate Names: Chronomon Holy Mode, Chronomon HM
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: God Man
• Attribute: Vaccine

Chronomon's true form is its Holy Mode, which is a much more pleasant design. It is still a chicken god man, and I don't know why they associated time and birds... but Holy Mode does look like a shinto priest of sorts and I do like the wings seemingly made up of paper. It is a bit of a different take on a "god of time" that doesn't go through the expected tropes, so it does make it creative... but I'm also a bit puzzled where the "chrono" part comes in.

Chonomon in its natural state is a materialization of the systems of the digital world that governs time, and restores the time disruptions caused by powerful Digimon and the cataclysms they make. Chronomon only manifests during moments of space-time disruption and disappears after repairing it, and no one in the "repaired" timeline has ever seen the chicken time god.

That bit of being a secret Dr. Who style maintainer of time is cool, but I genuinely can't tell if the games it debuted in ever made a reference to that...

But what is important is circa 2025, Chronomon actually made a surprise appearance as a major player in Digimon Story: Time Stranger, a highly regarded video game that starred the Olympos XII. Chronomon might be a giant chicken, but it also draws its name from Chronos! And it is revealed that Chronomon is part of the 'titan' faction and behind much of the time travel shenanigans in that game! That's a deep cut and I appreciate that someone remembers the chicken god of time, because I certainly didn't until then!

Anyway, I don't mknd Holy Mode, but I find Destroy Mode looking a bit like a bad action figure. I can see why they redesigned it for Time Stranger. It's not really "my" aesthetic, but I respect that it exists.

 2/10 on average. DM gets 1, HM gets 3.

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Yo!Yo!mon

• Alternate Names: Yoyomon
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Puppet
• Attribute: Virus

Yep, when I mean 'miscellaneous', I do mean miscellaneous. Yoyomon here is a Perfect-level Digimon that I think won a fanmade Digimon contest and was officialized in some trading card game. And fanmade submissions are all right! Devitamamon, Pharaohmon and a lot of other Digimon originated from fanmade submissions. But for the longest time, this batch of three Digimon just had their fan-made art and no bio. At least until recently. 

Yoyomon's bio is... generic. Ot's just a goddamn yoyo with a face, with yoyos for hands, and was born from 'image data showcasing skillful yo-yo techniques in tournaments'. Okay? It has one yo-yo to play tricks, and another bladed yo-yo to slice things up. It exists, I suppose. At least it's kind of cute. 

 2/10. 

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Surfimon

• Alternate Names: Surfymon
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Cyborg
• Attribute: Vaccine

Another pretty random fan-submission that became official from TCG's and whatnot is Surfymon, who is a shark-headed (Veedramon-headed?) robot man riding on a rocket-powered surfboard. I do like the fact that he has a surfboard shaped like a hammerhead shark. This thing is an Ultimate level for some bizarre reason. Surfy here is an aquatic monster who got a surfboard so that he can be maneuverable on land. I dunno. He's an XTREEM robot-man shark-man thing loops around from being stupid to being pretty charming. I jsut can't really care about this one. 

 2/10. 

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Atamadekachimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Dinosaur
• Attribute: Data

Another fan concept Digimon, Atamadekachimon ('big-headed-mon') is another too-jokey Digimon. It's a Tyrannosaur whose head is too big for its body, and it goes around carrying its tiny baby, Minidekachimon, on its tongue. It's cute, but I also really don't care for it. I actually cut this out of the original version of this review, but Adventure: 2020 randomly brought this guy as a villain-of-the-week as a rival to a duo of Tyrannomon and Gaossmon. It's... uh... it's effort on their part to dig up one of the more obscure Digimon and shove it into the anime. I have to go back and re-insert this entry. Okay. At least it's got better art now.

 2/10. 

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Minidekachimon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Small Dragon
• Attribute: Data

Okay, I guess we have to talk about this one properly now since against all odds, Atamadekachimon showed up in Adventure 2020, leading to its little baby Minidekachimon being canonized as a proper Child-level Digimon. I still feel they're a very one-off joke and I'm sorry, I don't find it all that funny. Minidekachimon looks cuter with its proportions, so it gets a bit of a higher grade. 

 3/10. 

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