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.
That said, though, I'm definitely not going to let up on other franchise's monster reviews. Currently I'm going through mainly Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, although expect some other games with smaller monster pools like Dota 2 or Darkest Dungeon to creep into the blog every now and then. Despite my fatigue, it has been fun talking about Digimon for the past couple of years.
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Pafumon
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!
6/10.Kyaromon
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, I just don't personally really like it. 4/10.Kudamon (and Kudamon II)
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 the right is the Kudamon that appears in the anime.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 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.Reppamon
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.Tyilinmon (a.k.a. Qilinmon/Chirinmon)
Reppamon's Perfect stage is Tyilinmon, based on the mythological Chinese beast, the Qilin -- a creature that some Western translators have tried to romanize as 'unicorn' or 'giraffe', neither of which really have anything in common with the mythological Qilin beyond being equine. 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. Look at this artwork!
7/10.Sleipmon (a.k.a. Kentaurosmon)
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 refernce 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.)Craniummon (a.k.a. Craniamon)
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. Duftmon (a.k.a. Leopardmon)
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.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. Algomon I [a.k.a. Argomon]
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. Stop trying to try to act cool with the "my name remains the same through all my evolutionary stages" nonsense. Algomon is apparently 'generated from a bug in an algorithm', and he's just this generic humanoid form with random eyeballs on his armour, and he attacks the world with gigantic vine-like tentacles. The concept of a vine-based plant enemy is kinda neat, but Algomon is... he's just so underwhelmingly bland, just a cluttered humanoid design with spiky armour. 3/10. Algomon II [a.k.a. Argomon Ultimate]
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 ultimately generic. 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... but the execution basically has him as a pretty generic random big bad evil Digimon that needs to be taken down. Honestly, they really could've done more with the parasitic vine theme than just have a bunch of them hang out of Algomon's body. 5/10. Examon
Other than Jesmon (who will show up much later) 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, though, being released after Savers' conclusion in a video game. The artwork is hella confusing, focusing a lot on the gigantic, long, tapering wings, but Examon is basically a humanoid dragon 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 style dragon Digimon. They probably could've done a lot more to make him interesting, but those huge wings are admittedly a neat way to give him an instantly memorable silhouette and design while keeping the classic 'Western dragon' feel intact.
8/10. Click below for some miscellaneous stuff!
Duftmon X-Antibody
4/10. TonosamaMamemon
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. CatchMamemon
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. DarkSuperstarmon
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 god damn edgelord! 5/10. Chronomon [Destroy Mode/Holy Mode]
The final boss of sorts in the Digimon Story video game (I didn't play it, and my only knowledge comes from a brief skimming of the plot on Digimon wikis), Chronomon is a super holy Digimon that was corrupted by the "Bad Tamers". Chronomon is an Ultimate-level birdman that's... that's pretty generic, honestly. It genuinely feels like they didn't put much of an effort into making this design unique, just adding random spikes and details to make Chronomon: Destroy Mode 'obviously' evil, and Chronomon: Holy Mode 'obviously nice and good. At this point I honestly wonder why they didn't just use a pre-existing Digimon instead for the role of a corrupted holy Digimon that became evil, instead of spending so little effort on these two. Hell, even the Chronomon name is kind of a misnomer, since he doesn't control time at all. I dunno. This is just such a generic "big event" monster design that feels utterly forgettable.
1/10. Yoyomon [a.k.a. Yo!Yo!mon]
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 or whatever? The thing is, though, while most contest winners are edited a bit and given lore (like CatchMamemon above, but there are some pretty great designs that are adapted from fan submissions like Devitamamon or Pharaohmon) YoYomon is just... unchanged. And it's just a goddamn yoyo with a face, with yoyos for hands, and a generic tsuchigumo 'abandoned object comes back to life' backstory. Not to make light of the kid who submitted this, but my complaints mostly go to the Bandai team who did nothing to make this design more interesting either visually or from a lore standpoint. Also, why is this a Perfect-level?
0/10. Surfymon
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 has a wee bit of a longer lore than Yoyomon, but it's still pretty bland, basically noting that he's an aquatic monster who got a surfboard so that he can be maneuverable on land. I dunno. He's marginally more charming than Yoyomon, I guess, and I find his silly surfboard and the fact that he's an XTREEM robot-man shark-man thing loops around from being stupid to being pretty charming. The only art style I can find of Surfymon just doesn't really feel like it fits with the Digimon art style, is all. 3/10. 
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