So Xros Heart/Fusion Fighters isn't the only human-lead "army" in Digimon: Xros Wars. There's Blue Flare, lead by Aonuma Kiriha (Christopher Aonuma in the dub), which is the typical edgy, super-cool anti-hero rival to contrast Taiki's more carefree, friendship-oriented mentality. Kiriha is... Kiriha is a walking archetype, but one that does end up having some character development from an asshole to an aloof friend. It's written relatively well, all things considered, even if I don't remember a whole ton about it beyond general vague positive vibes towards Kiriha.
Kiriha's two primary partners are Greymon and MailBirdramon. It's interesting that despite having a warlike "I will be the strongest in the world" mentality, both of his Digimon partners that have any sort of personality share the same mind as him, which is why they get along pretty well.
This is a bit of a shorter article, since it was originally conceived alongside Twilight before I decided to split it apart, so I have transplanted some random Digimon released during the Xros Wars era here!
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So Kiriha ends up hanging out with a new, redesigned Greymon. And yeah, the official Bandai name for this beast is Greymon (2010 Anime Ver), but just like what we did with the Agumon and Falcomon in Savers, I'll just call him Greymon II.
Poor, poor MailBirdramon. When I first saw him, I really liked MailBirdramon a lot! Hell, he manages a great job at looking pretty different from his inspiration -- Birdramon -- that I completely didn't catch that MailBirdramon shares a name with one of the original partner Digimon until after I finished watching the show, which is a neat feat. He's a pretty cool-looking robot-jet eagle, and... and there's not really much for me to elaborate beyond that. I like his wings, I like his segmented neck and his cool, spiky dragon-head... but poor MailBirdramon ends up not really being much but look cool. Perhaps the biggest insult that despite the DigiXros'd versions of MailBirdramon and MetalGreymon being involved in the creation of the bigger Shoutmon X-whatever forms, MailBirdramon is always left out of the count.
Initially introduced as the 'brains' to Greymon's brawn, MailBirdramon seems to be the smart adviser sort of character to Kiriha, but as the show went on, it's clear that the writers didn't really give a shit about MailBirdramon, only including him as literally a power-up item to Greymon. It's like the Starmons or Ballistamon, but without any sort of defining characterization beyond being loyal to Kiriha. A bit of a shame, really. Still, while not quite as interesting as a character, MailBirdramon is still a pretty cool-looking bird, even if that claw-tail that's obviously meant to be a power-up part when he combines with Greymon is kind of obtrusive. Still, ultimately a design that I don't mind, and it's hard to say that I don't like this badass-looking metal bird.
9/10.
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8/10. Neat design, cool variant.
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So at the end of the first season of Digimon Xros Wars, Shoutmon actually unlocks the power of super evolution, and evolves into OmegaShoutmon. Around halfway through the second season, Xros Wars: Evil Death Generals and the Seven Kingdoms (heretofore referred to as "season two of Xros Wars"), MetalGreymon also gains the ability to evolve into ZekeGreymon. Since then, ZekeGreymon has been rather quickly adapted as the Ultimate-level evolution to Greymon's Adult and MetalGreymon's Perfect.
4/10. It's not a dude!!!
This probably should have been in the previous article, but we already have two dozen Shoutmons there. Shoutmon DX is the final ultimate form, crossing the two 'naturally evolving' OmegaShoutmon and ZekeGreymon together. So we get a robot dude.
My original quick draft of Cyberdramon II rated him as "2/5 or 3/5, nice concept, could do better", but then the more I look at this design, the more I realize that... I might actually like this iteration of Cyberdramon better than the original Cyberdramon. And I like the original Cyberdramon a lot! I think part of why I didn't really think highly of Cyberdramon in my first draft is that I'm looking mostly at galleries of the official Bandai artwork, and the one for Cyberdramon isn't the best-looking iteration of the character.
See, Cyberdramon II has taken the concept of Cyberdramon and made it really different while keeping the same silhouette, and I really have to respect them for doing that. The original Cyberdramon is basically a dragon-man in a suit, basically similar to a sleek version of what a Tokusatsu hero would look like. But Cyberdramon II takes the silhouette and tries to do a different sort of concept -- what if instead of being as sleek and as cyborg-dragonman like, this cyborg dragon goes full-on monstrous? And I know there's a lot of fans out there that prefer the original Cyberdramon. Completely understandable, and I can definitely see why. But I do actually think that despite being a massive Digimon Tamers fanboy, I do like Cyberdramon II a whole lot.
Let's just quickly go through Cyberdramon II's role in the anime. He's got Greymon's warlike personalitty, but with even less coherence and intelligence. It's exactly like the original Tamers Cyberdramon, but with a human that enables the violence since Kiriha is a bit of a battle-hungry war general himself. If he didn't come across Kiriha and liked his whole "be the strongest in the world" rhetoric, Cyberdramon II would be an antagonistic force.
Cyberdramon II's profile gives a completely different lore, though, noting that Cyberdramon II shows up from another world, and that it speaks and thinks in a completely alien way compared to normal Digimon, and it's basically Alien and Predator combined into one. It loves hunting, and it can blend into its surroundings, while its design philosophy, turning fully monstrous with a definite Giger-inspired face and body armour, is strongly inspired by Alien. And unlike the original Cyberdramon's slashing holes in reality, Cyberdramon II beats people up with a spear or his giant drill tail.... but sometimes it uses its fucking RIBS to skewer the opponent in an attack hilariously called "Glutton Fang".
Honestly, while I had thought that Cyberdramon II looked too busy, I ended up revisiting his action scenes in the anime and despite the anime's far less complex model, they did get a lot of mileage out of him. Those tattered wings, that giant drill-tail, that absolutely badass face... are all those pink dots his eyes? The segmented blue shell-like armour being broken up by the purple orb-things really does sell the alien look pretty well, managing to sell that, yes, this is a Cyberdramon way better than the original could. Just look at all those trading card artworks! Look at this thing! It's pretty neat-looking, and when drawn like this, it's actually the exact perfect level of looking complex without looking too cluttered.
And while I tend to shy away from featuring more than one or two pictures per Digimon, Cyberdramon II gets a lot of love from artists for trading cards, and you can see why. It's just utterly badass. And you know what? Apparently there is a dragon-man Digimon out there that I like. You win, Bandai!
10/10.
Honestly, Blue Flare just keeps spoiling me, huh? Deckerdramon here is another one of my all-time favourites from the show, and I had known that he's one that I'll give 5/5 to. And it's... it's kind of a silly reason, really, but that reason is simply because I just think that a gigantic living crocodile robot that doubles as a mobile military base that can operate on both water and land is pretty damn awesome. He's got tank treads instead incorporated into the flat crocodile feet, and every part of Deckerdramon is bristling with military weaponry! It's a neat way to make him look super-armed, but not clutter him too much. I love robots, and I can't lie, Deckerdramon is a walking military base that honestly still looks like it's a sentient creature. Plus, did we ever actually have a crocodile Digimon in the two decades prior to Deckerdramon? The closest I can think of is probably Leviamon, and he's more giant biblical sea monster than a crocodile.
Deckerdramon's profile notes that it's apparently the ultimate enemy of all flying Digimon, being specialized in anti-aircraft shootings, and this is combined with his short height and ability to navigate terrains to evade those pesky flying Digimon. Pretty badass design, honestly, and I don't think there's any real complaint I have about him. Deckerdramon fits in pretty well with Blue Flare's super-strong and militaristic aesthetic, and the writers actually ended up giving Deckerdramon a twist -- he's actually a very nice dude! He's basically the team's equivalent to Groot. He's going to rain missile death on the enemy if he has to, but despite being a giant robot crocodile of doom, he's the heart of Blue Flare, and had a pretty awesome final episode too. I think I'm giving him a 10/10.
10/10.
Anyway, while the Xros Heart team has a pretty wild selection of random supporting characters, Blue Flare basically has the four main fighters of Greymon, Mailbirdramon, Cyberdramon and Deckerdramon... and everything else has about as much importance as background soldiers in an Avengers movie. The bulk of Blue Flare is filled up by these guys, Gaossmon, which... sort of work in the whole dragon/reptile theme that Blue Flare has. They do look like weak buddy versions of Greymon II or Cyberdramon II, and I absolutely love that they're just these huge chompy dragon/dinosaur heads with legs and tail. Reminds me of the weird beasts from Morrowind or Adventure Quest.
Bombmon, meanwhile, is a lot more charming! It's a bomb! We had a 'Bommon' before, but this swaps around the position of the fuse, and gives a completely different silhouette. But I do like the tuft of hair doubling as a fiery fuse, and I like how it has a cute little whale face for some reason. Bombmon just... sort of acts like a firework, either launching shockwaves when it 'explodes' or scatters particles of colours like a party fireworks, that the bio even notes that Bombmon often gets invited to parties to help spice things up. Okay, then!
5/10.
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Spadamon is a Digimon I legitimately forgot, and even when I saw his picture while doing this, I had to look him up and confirm that, yes, he's actually a recurring character in the second season of Xros Wars. He's not actually a formal member of any army, but ends up showing up a couple of times to help form X4S and X5S. Apparently Spadamon is a survivor of the "weapon Digimon" clan, who can transform into giant weapons. Sort of like Ouryumon, then, presumably? Spadamon's profile notes how he's the last survivor of this clan, but he's amnesiac, and basically has the backstory of any given anime protagonist. The Spadamon in Xros Wars is just one of the many oppressed civilians that Xros Heart helps out, and one that ends up getting a somewhat bigger role due to being able to transform into a weapon. Not sure how an albino lion-child is able to do that, though. Not that huge of a fan of this dude's design, it sure is a lion kid.
7/10.
6/10.
3/10.
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Greymon II
- Alternate Names: Greymon (2010 Anime Ver.)
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Dinosaur
- Attribute: Virus
It's a very neat take on a classic design, in a far, far superior way than poor old GeoGreymon or the X-Antibody version was. Plus, in a neat bit of mythology gag, Greymon II's coloured blue with orange highlights, similar to the original virus-attribute version of MetalGreymon! He's also drawn to be somewhat more accurate to how we undesrstand real-life theropodal dinosaurs to move around, as opposed to the original Greymon's more Godzilla-inspired look. Neat! I do like how Gremon II still have three massive horns, but they are arrayed differently from the classic Greymons, with the two 'ear' horns mounted differently and jutting from the side and backwards. Also like the fact that his tail ends in a stump with a bayonet attached to it. Another detail I like is the fact that the black-coloured upper half of his head has its own 'teeth' jutting out, which is a nice little detail. Overall, it's a design that manages to be unmistakably a Greymon, but also different enough to feel like its own thing. Good job, designers! I do note that I dislike the random knee-spikes that he has. But that's a pretty small complaint.
Greymon in the anime is kind of a flat character, basically just being a massive, angry brute that just wants to fight and just roars around like Kiriha's personal attack dog. If said attack dog is a giant mutant tyrannosaurus. In a nice moment, Greymon's first spoken line of dialogue after nearly half of the original season is asking Kiriha if he's all right after shielding an attack meant for his partner. Anyway, it's pretty neat to see that after so many various Greymon variants noting that this is an uncontrollable beast that is hard to control, only for all of their official iterations to be basically big dinosaur puppies, that we have an iteration of Greymon that is still allied with the good guys, but is a fight-hungry monster. A far better Greymon variant than GeoGreymon.
6/10 as a variant.
Greymon in the anime is kind of a flat character, basically just being a massive, angry brute that just wants to fight and just roars around like Kiriha's personal attack dog. If said attack dog is a giant mutant tyrannosaurus. In a nice moment, Greymon's first spoken line of dialogue after nearly half of the original season is asking Kiriha if he's all right after shielding an attack meant for his partner. Anyway, it's pretty neat to see that after so many various Greymon variants noting that this is an uncontrollable beast that is hard to control, only for all of their official iterations to be basically big dinosaur puppies, that we have an iteration of Greymon that is still allied with the good guys, but is a fight-hungry monster. A far better Greymon variant than GeoGreymon.
6/10 as a variant._________________________________________________________
MailBirdramon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Machine
- Attribute: Data
Poor, poor MailBirdramon. When I first saw him, I really liked MailBirdramon a lot! Hell, he manages a great job at looking pretty different from his inspiration -- Birdramon -- that I completely didn't catch that MailBirdramon shares a name with one of the original partner Digimon until after I finished watching the show, which is a neat feat. He's a pretty cool-looking robot-jet eagle, and... and there's not really much for me to elaborate beyond that. I like his wings, I like his segmented neck and his cool, spiky dragon-head... but poor MailBirdramon ends up not really being much but look cool. Perhaps the biggest insult that despite the DigiXros'd versions of MailBirdramon and MetalGreymon being involved in the creation of the bigger Shoutmon X-whatever forms, MailBirdramon is always left out of the count.
Initially introduced as the 'brains' to Greymon's brawn, MailBirdramon seems to be the smart adviser sort of character to Kiriha, but as the show went on, it's clear that the writers didn't really give a shit about MailBirdramon, only including him as literally a power-up item to Greymon. It's like the Starmons or Ballistamon, but without any sort of defining characterization beyond being loyal to Kiriha. A bit of a shame, really. Still, while not quite as interesting as a character, MailBirdramon is still a pretty cool-looking bird, even if that claw-tail that's obviously meant to be a power-up part when he combines with Greymon is kind of obtrusive. Still, ultimately a design that I don't mind, and it's hard to say that I don't like this badass-looking metal bird.
9/10._________________________________________________________
MetalGreymon II
- Alternate Names: MetalGreymon (2010 Anime Ver.)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Virus
So in an interesting twist, a version of MetalGreymon also exists in the Xros Wars world. But since regular evolution isn't a thing, MetalGreymon II here is the Digi-Fused/Digi-Xrossed version of Greymon II and MailBirdramon. And it's basically just Greymon wearing MailBirdramon like a transforming toy (because, y'know, it is a transforming toy), and I do like how the two actually ended up working in a set. It's neat that they integrated features of a half-robotic MetalGreymon II and managed to create the very coherent design of MailBirdramon out of it. And while you can totally tell where MailBirdramon's parts go in MetalGreymon here -- like the whip-tail being MailBirdramon's head, or MailBirdramon's claw-tail being MetalGreymon's cyborg arm -- it doesn't feel unnatural or wonky like every single one of the Digimon Frontier designs.
All in all, yes, it's admittedly a wee bit too busy for my liking, and I unlike the other "new" updated versions of old characters in Xros Wars, I still prefer the original MetalGreymon... but there's definitely a place in my heart for MetalGreymon II, and he's a pretty neat design that does everything the original MetalGreymon did, but in a different aesthetic.
MetalGreymon has had a bunch of alternate forms that has been identified in the reference book...:
- Alternate Names: DeckerGreymon
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Enhancement
- Attribute: Virus
We'll cover Deckerdramon below, but DeckerGreymon adds a bunch of accessories from Deckerdramon to MetalGreymon, most notably a big cannon and tank tread boots. It actually looks like a practical power-up super mode, even if I'm pretty sure having a separate giant crocodile aircraft carrier is probably going to be far more practical than giving MetalGreymon another gun.
Hilariously, the official profile notes that DeckerGreymon is apparently exactly as powerful as 324 Digimon. 324 Koromons, or 324 Lucemons? That's very different things, Zukan!
- Alternate Names: MetalGreymon + Cyber Launcher
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Enhancement
- Attribute: Virus
Apparently, just like Dorulumon, Cyberdramon below is able to transform into a gun emplacement. You can do that with your toys! It's got an awkward name ("MetalGreymon + Cyber Launcher"). It exists. I had given it a bad rating, but I've since clumped a lot of these as alternate forms.
MetalGreymon itself is pretty cool, both as an individual design, as well as a variation of the original MetalGreymon.
8/10. Neat design, cool variant._________________________________________________________
ZekeGreymon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Virus
So at the end of the first season of Digimon Xros Wars, Shoutmon actually unlocks the power of super evolution, and evolves into OmegaShoutmon. Around halfway through the second season, Xros Wars: Evil Death Generals and the Seven Kingdoms (heretofore referred to as "season two of Xros Wars"), MetalGreymon also gains the ability to evolve into ZekeGreymon. Since then, ZekeGreymon has been rather quickly adapted as the Ultimate-level evolution to Greymon's Adult and MetalGreymon's Perfect.
ZekeGreymon is sure a golden robot dinosaur. It's a golden, cleaner, sleeker version of the MetalGreymon design, with flatter wings and a lot less clutter, and nearly all the robotic parts are now golden metal. It's neat. It's also a very anime-esque power up, turning golden which seems to be the major visual theme in Xros Wars for 'natural evolution'. I still prefer the base MetalGreymon (or the original MetalGreymon) a lot more than this, but it's not a bad look.
Because you know what? This actually keeps the 'winged theropod' look of MetalGreymon that so many other final Greymon forms lose in favour of going humanoid. I can appreciate that a lot. I've grown to appreciate ZekeGreymon for what it is, a Greymon final form that retains its dinosaur-ness!
4/10. It's not a dude!!!_________________________________________________________
Shoutmon DX
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon D-Cross
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
This probably should have been in the previous article, but we already have two dozen Shoutmons there. Shoutmon DX is the final ultimate form, crossing the two 'naturally evolving' OmegaShoutmon and ZekeGreymon together. So we get a robot dude.
It's basically what you expect, honestly, basically OmegaShoutmon bulked up with a bunch of kibble, a pair of robot wings, extra claws and thicker legs, and a giant weird blade-arm. It's a neat enough power-up mode I think, but it's not one that I'm particularly fond of. It's no Omegamon, although the moment was all right in the heat of the moment. The actual form is quite underwhelming, really.
3/10.
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3/10._________________________________________________________
Cyberdramon II
- Alternate Names: Cyberdramon (2010 Anime Ver.)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Alien
- Attribute: Vaccine
My original quick draft of Cyberdramon II rated him as "2/5 or 3/5, nice concept, could do better", but then the more I look at this design, the more I realize that... I might actually like this iteration of Cyberdramon better than the original Cyberdramon. And I like the original Cyberdramon a lot! I think part of why I didn't really think highly of Cyberdramon in my first draft is that I'm looking mostly at galleries of the official Bandai artwork, and the one for Cyberdramon isn't the best-looking iteration of the character.
See, Cyberdramon II has taken the concept of Cyberdramon and made it really different while keeping the same silhouette, and I really have to respect them for doing that. The original Cyberdramon is basically a dragon-man in a suit, basically similar to a sleek version of what a Tokusatsu hero would look like. But Cyberdramon II takes the silhouette and tries to do a different sort of concept -- what if instead of being as sleek and as cyborg-dragonman like, this cyborg dragon goes full-on monstrous? And I know there's a lot of fans out there that prefer the original Cyberdramon. Completely understandable, and I can definitely see why. But I do actually think that despite being a massive Digimon Tamers fanboy, I do like Cyberdramon II a whole lot.
Let's just quickly go through Cyberdramon II's role in the anime. He's got Greymon's warlike personalitty, but with even less coherence and intelligence. It's exactly like the original Tamers Cyberdramon, but with a human that enables the violence since Kiriha is a bit of a battle-hungry war general himself. If he didn't come across Kiriha and liked his whole "be the strongest in the world" rhetoric, Cyberdramon II would be an antagonistic force.
Cyberdramon II's profile gives a completely different lore, though, noting that Cyberdramon II shows up from another world, and that it speaks and thinks in a completely alien way compared to normal Digimon, and it's basically Alien and Predator combined into one. It loves hunting, and it can blend into its surroundings, while its design philosophy, turning fully monstrous with a definite Giger-inspired face and body armour, is strongly inspired by Alien. And unlike the original Cyberdramon's slashing holes in reality, Cyberdramon II beats people up with a spear or his giant drill tail.... but sometimes it uses its fucking RIBS to skewer the opponent in an attack hilariously called "Glutton Fang".
Honestly, while I had thought that Cyberdramon II looked too busy, I ended up revisiting his action scenes in the anime and despite the anime's far less complex model, they did get a lot of mileage out of him. Those tattered wings, that giant drill-tail, that absolutely badass face... are all those pink dots his eyes? The segmented blue shell-like armour being broken up by the purple orb-things really does sell the alien look pretty well, managing to sell that, yes, this is a Cyberdramon way better than the original could. Just look at all those trading card artworks! Look at this thing! It's pretty neat-looking, and when drawn like this, it's actually the exact perfect level of looking complex without looking too cluttered.
And while I tend to shy away from featuring more than one or two pictures per Digimon, Cyberdramon II gets a lot of love from artists for trading cards, and you can see why. It's just utterly badass. And you know what? Apparently there is a dragon-man Digimon out there that I like. You win, Bandai!
10/10.
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Deckerdramon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Virus
Honestly, Blue Flare just keeps spoiling me, huh? Deckerdramon here is another one of my all-time favourites from the show, and I had known that he's one that I'll give 5/5 to. And it's... it's kind of a silly reason, really, but that reason is simply because I just think that a gigantic living crocodile robot that doubles as a mobile military base that can operate on both water and land is pretty damn awesome. He's got tank treads instead incorporated into the flat crocodile feet, and every part of Deckerdramon is bristling with military weaponry! It's a neat way to make him look super-armed, but not clutter him too much. I love robots, and I can't lie, Deckerdramon is a walking military base that honestly still looks like it's a sentient creature. Plus, did we ever actually have a crocodile Digimon in the two decades prior to Deckerdramon? The closest I can think of is probably Leviamon, and he's more giant biblical sea monster than a crocodile.
Deckerdramon's profile notes that it's apparently the ultimate enemy of all flying Digimon, being specialized in anti-aircraft shootings, and this is combined with his short height and ability to navigate terrains to evade those pesky flying Digimon. Pretty badass design, honestly, and I don't think there's any real complaint I have about him. Deckerdramon fits in pretty well with Blue Flare's super-strong and militaristic aesthetic, and the writers actually ended up giving Deckerdramon a twist -- he's actually a very nice dude! He's basically the team's equivalent to Groot. He's going to rain missile death on the enemy if he has to, but despite being a giant robot crocodile of doom, he's the heart of Blue Flare, and had a pretty awesome final episode too. I think I'm giving him a 10/10.
...really, Reference Book? Adult-level? A creature this impressive is a mere Adult-level?
10/10._________________________________________________________
Gaossmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Child
- Type: Reptile
- Attribute: Virus
Anyway, while the Xros Heart team has a pretty wild selection of random supporting characters, Blue Flare basically has the four main fighters of Greymon, Mailbirdramon, Cyberdramon and Deckerdramon... and everything else has about as much importance as background soldiers in an Avengers movie. The bulk of Blue Flare is filled up by these guys, Gaossmon, which... sort of work in the whole dragon/reptile theme that Blue Flare has. They do look like weak buddy versions of Greymon II or Cyberdramon II, and I absolutely love that they're just these huge chompy dragon/dinosaur heads with legs and tail. Reminds me of the weird beasts from Morrowind or Adventure Quest.
Gaossmon's a neat looking creature, and it definitely fills its role as the little trooper for Blue Flare! Gaossmon's profile basically describes this part of him, about how it's just a plucky little dinosaur-dragon thing that's both tough, but also quick to flee. In Adventure 2020, a chatty Gaossmon pretends to be a local gang leader, hiding behind its Tyranomon 'little brother' (who evolved before him) but is actually a cute little waddling head with feet!
Other minor members of Blue Flare include a bunch of Golemon and Bommon. Plus a guest star Dracomon.
6/10.
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Other minor members of Blue Flare include a bunch of Golemon and Bommon. Plus a guest star Dracomon.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Bombmon
- Alternate Names: Bombmon (2010 Anime Version)
- Stage: Baby I
- Type: Slime
- Attribute: None
Bombmon, meanwhile, is a lot more charming! It's a bomb! We had a 'Bommon' before, but this swaps around the position of the fuse, and gives a completely different silhouette. But I do like the tuft of hair doubling as a fiery fuse, and I like how it has a cute little whale face for some reason. Bombmon just... sort of acts like a firework, either launching shockwaves when it 'explodes' or scatters particles of colours like a party fireworks, that the bio even notes that Bombmon often gets invited to parties to help spice things up. Okay, then!
We've had a 'Bommon' before as the Baby I of the Commandramon line. Bombmon actually is written with the same kana (ボムモン) but they were speleld differently in English -- Bommon and Bombmon. The Reference Book keeps the different English spelling, but it's a bit more clear now that this is technically a variation of an older Digimon, similar to the Greymon and Cyberdramon in this show. Okay! This is a cute one.
5/10._________________________________________________________
Spadamon
- Alternate Names: Supadamon (alternate romanization)
- Stage: Child
- Type: Weapon
- Attribute: Free
Spadamon would show up in Adventure 2020 as a Leomon sidekick, which I thought was cute.
3/10.
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3/10._________________________________________________________
KingWhamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Aquatic Mammal
- Attribute: Vaccine
Originally left out of the Xros Wars reviews because there were so many different alternate forms! Xros Wars introduced a bunch of variations of classic, older Digimon that the fandom and the officials at Bandai tend to... handwave away. Recurring character ChibiKamemon (ChibiTortomon in the dub) actually was noted to just be *a* Kamemon with a unique name; and some Digimon receiving slightly modified models (like Raremon) didn't help either. So far, characters like GigaBreakdramon, HiMugendramon and GigaWaruMonzaemon exist in a weird limbo where they are lumped alongside the temporary Xros-fusion forms as not receiving any official profiles, even when Bandai went back and gave updated profiles for everyone that mattered... even random X-whatever Shoutmon forms.
KingWhamon is one of the few that got a bio, asserting itself as the Ultimate form of Whamon -- which, if you remember, is one of the few Digimon allowed to retain two different stages as Adult level "File Island Whamon" and Perfect level "Folder Continent Whamon". So they don't just evolve into an even bigger Whamon, but rather a Whamon with an island replacing its main head! This development apparently happened because smaller Digimon treating Whamons as a benevolent version of that whale from Pinnochio happens enough that some Whamon evolved to *be* that welcoming environment, creating bubbles around itself to protect its charges even when it dives. That's pretty cool, and other than ElDoradimon we surprisingly don't get enough of this "Digimon as terrain" creatures. It's a pretty nicely designed island whale.
Also, this guy isn't actually part of Blue Flare, but this is the shortest Xros Wars article so KingWhamon (who's one of the 'Zone' rulers) gets to hang out here.
7/10.
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RustTyrannomon
- Alternate Names: RustTyrannomon
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Virus
We're going to cover some of the other Digimon introduced elsewhere around this time -- where Digimon are primarily released via the online TCG during the run of Xros Wars and its sequel series Hunters... and these guys never showed up in the anime, but I felt these two robotic dinosaurs fit the Blue Flare vibe.
I do like that MetalTyrannomon finally gets a proper final form instead of just piggybacking as Mugendramon all the time. That said, RustTyrannomon is... it's a bit too cluttered? I don't dislike it, and maybe it's the art style's fault more than the actual design, but it did take me a while to really realize the pose they're going for. Despite being rusted, it apparently can also spread this rust to other Digimon around him. A robot dinosaur's always going to be neat, and I just find that I like other robot dinosaurs more than RustTyrannomon. That's not Rusty's fault, though. It's all right.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Aegisdramon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Vaccine
Oh, hey, speaking of mechanical dragons, we have another one in Aegisdramon. He's gold, and he's got gun-arms, and he's got wings, and he's got both a huge scuba tank and a boat on its top! This is honestly a design trying to do waaaay too much. I can respect the sheer silliness of Aegisdramon being a robot dragon that's trying to be the whole military fleet.
The bio isn't particularly interesting, and other artwork showcase that Aegisdramon really is just a mass of battleship parts with a dragon swimming underneath waving its big cannon arms. A bit too messy for me, especially compared to Deckerdramon above, but eh.
3/10._________________________________________________________
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