Like the other Xros Wars reviews, this originally meticulously listed all the various random Xrosed-up forms, and I've decided to remove them and only include those that has been given an official Reference Book profile. so the random fusions, as well as the XrosUp ones from Hunters, are gone. Sorry, XrosUpMervamon and your 'Sexy The Cannon' and DeadlyTuwarmon.
In exchange for this, we're moving the Xros Wars manga Digimon originally covered in episode 44 into here! Two of them are just Nene, so it actually works out.
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Sparrowmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Child
- Type: Bird
- Attribute: Data
The initial leader of Twilight was Amano Nene, the 'brains' to Kiriha's brawn and Taiki's... enthusiasm. She basically doubles as a tutorial character to the Xros Wars world, as well as the titular mysterious character. I did remember that she started off very interesting before being basically reduced to "I need to save my little brother from corruption", which is a bit unfortunate. Her most consistent partner digimon was Sparrowmon over here and Sparrowmon is... well, it's a pretty lumpy and messy design, if we're being completely honest.
While other characters like MailBirdramon and Dorulumon manage to hide their toyeticness by actually having a coherent design, Sparrowmon combines the concept of a jet and a bird in a most bizarre way. It does loop around and lead to Sparrowmon being utterly goofy and charming, and her pretty strong characterization as a bubbly, supportive partner was pretty memorable, but I'm not someone who is a big fan of her design. A combination of her body just being a lumpy jet (that's obviously only there to form Shoutmon X-whatever's wings) and her weird, stumpy arms holding guns... eh. She just feels so much like something designed as a transforming toy accessory first and an actual monster second.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon + Jet Sparrow
- Stage: Child
- Type: Enhancement
- Attribute: Data
Yep, obligated to include this Shoutmon "form". Apparently those guns are called "Zanahoria", the Spanish word for carrot, to match Beelzebumon's Berenjena/eggplant guns. The thing is, I really do like Sparrowmon in the anime as a character -- a combination of being cute and utterly bloodthirsty in combat is fun. But the design, unfortunately, is one of my least favourites from the show.
...also, Sparrowmon's canonized as a Child level? Man, I know Xros Wars is its own weird bubble with powerscaling and levelscaling, but Sparrowmon was dropping fools and taking names
5/10. would be 2 without anime.
...also, Sparrowmon's canonized as a Child level? Man, I know Xros Wars is its own weird bubble with powerscaling and levelscaling, but Sparrowmon was dropping fools and taking names
5/10. would be 2 without anime.
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RaptorSparrowmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Cyborg
- Attribute: Data
The anime's Sparrowmon never reached this form, but the manga gave every single one of the main cast a new evolution. That's nice, Sparrowmon isn't just a power-up for the Shoutmon X-something. Which is represented by Sparrowmon actually looking like a robot bird instead of a toy accessory.
RaptorSparrowmon still has Sparrowmon's charming, goofy Latias face, but the rest of the body is just a cool robot eagle. Or robot sparrow, I suppose. Its tails are a mass of cables and stuff, which is a nice extra detail. I really don't have a whole ton to say about RaptorSparrowmon, beyond the fact that it's actually a pretty fun robot bird. It's still 'not my thing', but I'm happy Sparrowmon got a cool-looking form.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Monimon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby II
- Type: Braun
- Attribute: None
Nene has a little army of TV ninjas called the Monitamons, and we'll start off with their smallest counterpart (since canonized as the Baby II stage), the Monimon.
Just like how Starmon has its small army of Pickmons, the Monitamons have their own cute little buddies, the Monimons. Monimon is just an adorable :| faced television with a little ribbon and stumpy little legs, and they basically act as the receivers for the Monitamons' reports, sort of like this 'terminal' for them to report through. It's a fun bit of symbiosis that I feel to be a neat bit of worldbuilding, and I find the Monimons to be particularly cute! They also communicate almost entirely by emoticons on their face, which is a particularly charming trait.
7/10.
6/10.
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7/10._________________________________________________________
Monitamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Child
- Type: Braun
- Attribute: Data
I do like that Nene's more stealthy, sneaky vibe is represented with the speedy Sparrowmon and the ninja-like information and surveillance gatherers that are the Monitamons... who are these adorable chubby chibi ninjas with giant TV monitors as heads. I like that! And gas mask tubes for some reason leading to their TV-heads.
I do like that they look both comical enough to serve as the butt of jokes, but also look competent enough that you do believe that they can actually do a fair bit of reconnaissance. Especially adore that little backpack he's carrying! It's pretty fun that Monitamon does visually communicate that it's a pretty dang weak monster that's not worth a whole ton in combat.
6/10._________________________________________________________
HiVisionMonitamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: LCD
- Attribute: Data
Apparently the upgraded version of Monitamon plays on the whole television aspect, and swaps out the old-school cathode ray television for a hi-def plasma television, which I found to be pretty hilarious the first time I saw one of these. Its name is particularly funny as well, and it comes with a cute little golden satellite dish. Thanks to the weird rules that Xros Wars operates on, though, HiVisionMonitamon isn't actually an evolution for Monitamon, but just a 'newer model'. How does that work, really? Anyway, it's a pretty cool-looking variant to Monitamon, and I honestly don't mind the Monitamon family as a group.
HiVision is noted to be just an alternate Adult in the Reference Book after they're given stages, instead of a proper Perfect-level. I think that's appropriate! I also like that the regular Monimon and Monitamon were given the classification of 'Braun' (referencing the company!) but HiVisionMonitamon is an LCD Digimon, fancy.
5/10._________________________________________________________
Mervamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: God Man
- Attribute / Subgroup: Virus / Olympos XII
Mervamon is the matured form of Olympos XII member Minervamon, who we covered a while back. Remember Minervamon? An adaptation of Athena, but depicted as a little child with a big sword? Xros Wars decided they wanted a barbarian Minerva/Athena, but thankfully at least they decided to make her an adult woman. Between Mervamon and antagonist Lilithmon, Xros Wars had its share of cheesecake shots. And... yeah, that's kind of obvious from the design. We will acknowledge that and move on, and be thankful that it wasn't Minervamon's original design that was fanservice'd up.
Despite being a fanservice delivery machine, I decently like Mervamon's design as a badass human warrior, which isn't something I can say about some of the other humanoid Olympos people. A lot of it has to do with that giant snake on her left arm and those fancy boots. Mervamon also had a pretty decent showing in the anime, being portrayed as a pretty badass warrior that serves as Nene's primary attacker once she joins the team; and goes through a nice little character arc with Beelzebumon.
- Alternate Names: JetMervamon
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Enhancement
- Attribute: Virus
The most common fusion Mervamon goes into is JetMervamon, which is a combination with Nene's main partner Sparrowmon. It's just Mervamon in a jet! The attacks become 'Sexy Dynamites'!
I mean... Mervamon's design is all right, I suppose. I think she's not overdesigned, and while the theme has really diverged a lot from the Greek goddess that she's supposed to represent or homage, Xros Wars at least tried to do something with her. The anime portrayal does help in making Mervamon feel less annoying to me for sure.
Other than Sparrowmon, Mervamon and the Monitamons, DarkKnightmon technically serves as a member of Twilight for quite a bit, but we'll cover DarkKnightmon in the next one.
4/10. +2 for anime. _________________________________________________________
Iguneetmon
- Alternate Names: Ignitemon (EN dub)
- Stage: Child
- Type: Reptile Man
- Attribute: Virus
Ignitemon here is Mervamon's little brother or something, and he sure is just a dude with a pair of giant shurikens and a big ribbon. It's just another dude, and feels a lot more boring than his big sister. You can call him a 'reptile man', Bandai, but that's just a hat!
Iguneetmon's awkward name is a pun on 'ignite' (he's got generic fire powers) and NEET, which is an acronym in Japan for Not in Education, Employment or Training... a term usually used to deride the useless, lazy, unproductive members of society. Which Iguneetmon is, showing up for a single episode to frustrate Mervamon for being a bum.
It's a one-note joke. Unlike Mervamon, I can't say anything nice about this one.
1/10. One point for shurikens._________________________________________________________
Damemon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Mutation
- Attribute: Virus
So the other central character to Twilight is Amano Yuu, little brother of Nene and sort of a fun combination of various older tropes. Yuu was a grief-stricken kid that was drawn in by the seductive power to be basically a god-like figure in what is sold to him as a 'game'. It's a rehash of Ken's story from 02, but unlike Ken, Yuu was extremely vulnerable and the show makes it quite clear. The idea that the good goofy partner is subtly and quietly manipulating Yuu is also a shade too 'real', I think. Redemption would come along for the two of them, but still.
Interestingly, though, Yuu is partnered with an updated version of Sukamon, which is... Damemon! Instead of being made entirely out of turd, Damemon is a turd robot, made by waste data. And I really love the update on Damemon! Damemon is another one that looks obvious that it's designed after a transforming toy, what with Tuwarmon's horn kibble popping up from the top of his poop-head, but I still actually like the concept of Damemon here.
It's being piloted by a new variant of Tyumon, Tyutyumon (who we'll cover later), and Daemmon is a poop robot that's far more capable of fighting, with arms holding tonfa-like guns. Of course, Damemon's whole deal is that it's obfuscating stupidity, pretending to be a simpleton that just goes around being a cute, clumsy poop boy that says "damedame" (no good, no good) a lot. Then we get the revelation that Damemon is basically assigned as Yuu's watchdog, to keep him on the leash of the bad guys. And then turns out that the only evil one is Tyutyumon, while Damemon is indeed a good boy. And he gets killed in a surprisingly touching manner that got me emotional for a pile of turd. Digimon does that a lot.
Overall, while I didn't thought I would say this, Damemon's actually a pretty dang interestingly wacky monster. Not a bad one!
8/10. +2 points for anime appearance.
Overall, while I didn't thought I would say this, Damemon's actually a pretty dang interestingly wacky monster. Not a bad one!
8/10. +2 points for anime appearance.
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Tuwarmon
- Alternate Names: Tsuwamon (alternate spelling)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Mutation
- Attribute: Virus
While this is basically Damemon transformed, and you can see that the turd pieces splay out and reveal a pretty badass looking ninja. Yes, it does have that unfortunately-shaped helmet, but that pointy piece helps his disguise as a piece of turd. Turns out that, at least initially, Damemon was just the disguise used by this mysterious ninja-man partnered with the evil Tyutyumon, and he's a sneaky, badass ninja man that goes around doing the evil orders of Bagra Army.
It's got a pretty fun, awesome set of ninja abilities in the anime, including a whole sort of cool ninja scythes and chains, that it's genuinely easy to forget that this dude spends half his life running around pretending to be a dumb poop robot. Best of all is Tuwarmon's attack, which is called "Smoking Boogie", where Tuwarmon uses those cannon poop-halves to unleash rainbow-coloured smoke bombs.
The show treats Damemon and Tuwarmon as more like a form change, but Bandai treats them as two different Digimon. More confusingly, initially it's noted that Damemon was Tuwarmon wearing a disguise, and that Tuwarmon is the true form... but after Damemon's sacrifice and reincarnation, Tuwarmon ended up being the super-evolution form for Damemon.
8/10.
The show treats Damemon and Tuwarmon as more like a form change, but Bandai treats them as two different Digimon. More confusingly, initially it's noted that Damemon was Tuwarmon wearing a disguise, and that Tuwarmon is the true form... but after Damemon's sacrifice and reincarnation, Tuwarmon ended up being the super-evolution form for Damemon.
8/10.
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Tyutyumon
- Alternate Names: Chuuchuumon (EN dub)
- Stage: Child
- Type: Beast
- Attribute: Virus
This asshole, Tyutyumon, is the Xros Wars version of Sukamon's little rat buddy Tyumon (a.k.a. Chuumon), and where Sukamon and Tyumon are just two dumb frat bros, Tyutyumon is a sneaky, conniving bastard. I love that it's communicated pretty well in the design, too, with Tyutyumon being seemingly made up of stitches covering whatever this rat's real body looks like. While initially pretending to be a literal accessory to Damemon (which is actually a fun, nice touch), Tyutyumon turns out to be a pretty devious shitbag that ends up being loyal to the bad guys even after Damemon/Tuwarmon defected, leading to the latter's death.
I've spoken a bit at length about Tyutyumon above, about how it's the real villain and everything. It's particularly cute due to the franchise and fandom's treatment of the goofy (and sometimes tragic) goober duo of Sukamon and Tyumon, so that's definitely a nice bonus as well in subverting it. And the twist also works well enough even if you see Damemon/Tyutyumon on its own and wonder why the mouse is sitting on a pilot's cockpit.
Anyway, as a bit of a 'toy set', I really do like Damemon, Tuwarmon and Tyutyumon, even without the fun story they're attached to.
7/10._________________________________________________________
Baalmon
- Alternate Names: Reapmon (EN dub)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Demon Man
- Attribute: Free
This one is technically part of Xros Heart, but that article was super long and Baalmon wasn't really involved in fusing into the major Megazord Shoutmon X forms anyway, so he gets to hang out with his girlfriend here.
Named after Baal, the Mesopotamian god (and considered a demon by Christian and pseudo-Christian literature), Baalmon here is a pretty badass anti-hero/anti-villain character in Xros Wars. The English dub changed this to 'Reapmon", which is still prety badass. Introduced as an assassin working for the Bagra Army, Baalmon is noted to have killed an entire temple of angel Digimon in the Sand Zone before joining the Bagra Army. Turns out, though, that an agent of the Bagra Army had mind-controlled every single one of Baalmon's victims, forcing him to kill his buddies in self-defense, and Baalmon basically went on full Kill Bill mode to find out which member of that organization was responsible. It's... it's an Ebemon, which is actually a surprisingly goofy design as Baalmon's rival. And I tend to talk about how I don't really find humanoid Digimon interesting, but Baalmon's story, as well as those pretty awesome accessories, really make him pretty neat! That grotesquely gangly left arm holding a bloodied blade is pretty neat, as is the right arm that's hidden inside a large, almost cannon-like sleeve with belts and seals wrapped around it. Inside this massive sleeve? A fucking shotgun. Also really like that cape made entirely of seals.
Baalmon would eventually join Xros Heart, and would be killed in a dramatic sacrifice... but in death, the goddess that he worshiped would redeem him and transform him into a new form, Beelzebumon. Turns out Baalmon's meant to be that elusive pre-evolution to Beelzebumon, and basically everyone considers Baalmon to be a Perfect-level Digimon, one of the few Xros-Wars-originating Digimon to actually have a classic-style evolutionary level. Baalmon's actual Bandai profile is also pretty interesting, noting that Baalmon acts like some sort of prophet that will grant you answers, but in exchange for an ordeal that the asker must complete. And should the ordeal not be completed, Baalmon will steal your soul. Also, apparently those amulet-seal things all hold hidden weapons, Naruto-style, which is neat.
7/10.
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Baalmon would eventually join Xros Heart, and would be killed in a dramatic sacrifice... but in death, the goddess that he worshiped would redeem him and transform him into a new form, Beelzebumon. Turns out Baalmon's meant to be that elusive pre-evolution to Beelzebumon, and basically everyone considers Baalmon to be a Perfect-level Digimon, one of the few Xros-Wars-originating Digimon to actually have a classic-style evolutionary level. Baalmon's actual Bandai profile is also pretty interesting, noting that Baalmon acts like some sort of prophet that will grant you answers, but in exchange for an ordeal that the asker must complete. And should the ordeal not be completed, Baalmon will steal your soul. Also, apparently those amulet-seal things all hold hidden weapons, Naruto-style, which is neat.
7/10._________________________________________________________
Beelzebumon II
- Alternate Names: Beelzemon (EN dub), Beelzebumon (2010 Anime Ver.)
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Demon Lord
- Attribute: Virus
New!Beelzebumon actually looks pretty damn faithful to the original design, while also changing a fair bit. Beelzebumon II ditches the badass leather jacket in favour for metal body armour, while the wings have been dyed blue and are a whole lot shorter. Also, the cannon ends up looking a lot more sci-fi based as opposed to the punktech appendage that the original Beelzebumon has. Overall, it's kind of a neat little variation of the original Beelzebumon that actually looks like a variation, while at the same time not changing too much of a pretty classic design. I really do think that I prefer the original Beelzebumon, but that's where the nostalgia is talking.
What I really love about this incarnation of Beelzebumon, other than his whole story of redemption? His attack. The original Beelzebumon had pretty generic-sounding attack names like "Chaos Flare" or "Double Impact". Beelzebumon II? His main attack is called DEATH, THE CANNON. That's cute.
4/10 cool character, but nah as a variant._________________________________________________________
Shademon
- Alternate Names: Shademon (Nene Ver.), Shademon (Haruko Ver.)
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Species Unknown
- Attribute: Virus
Shademon here, however, despite being a seemingly unimpressive mass of eyes in a shadow, is actually very important in the comic! Shademon is a Digimon that 'reflects the darkness in someone's heart', and was used by DarkKnightmon to infect Nene, and Shademon ends up being DigiXros'd with Nene to take control of her powers. That's cool, even if the design is a clear copy of Pride from Full Metal Alchemist without the fangs. (That would be Eyesmon, released almost a decade later, and somewhat based on Shademon).
Shademon's original 'Nene form' is a good concept, but the execution is... yeah, it's... not very wholesome, so it's not going to show up here. Also, despite Adventure 2020 seemingly overwriting Shademon by designing a visually very similar Digimon and giving it a new name... Shademon actually appears in Beatbreak, and has the ability to possess its partner as well! Thankfully, without stripping her clothes in the process!
4/10._________________________________________________________
Luminamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Fairy
- Attribute: Vaccine
In the final battle, Shademon gets purified and transformed into Luminamon, which is a little lumpy fairy-angel those ears are mimicking Nene's hairstyles. It's... it's inoffensive, but I really don't have much to say about it. Luminamon's official bio notes how it's this creature that brings good fortune and a great, bright future if it ever shows up in front of a person, and it only ever shows up in front of a pure person. It's there.
- Alternate Names: Luminamon (Nene Ver.)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Vaccine
Luminamon (Nene Ver.) is Luminamon fused with Nene, and it actually shows up in a recent profile in the Reference Book and some trading cards. It does look at least a lot less revealing than the Shademon version. The idea of Luminamon and Shademon being able to fuse with a human is sure a gimmick, but it's not unique to Luminamon and nowhere as cool as Shademon feeding and growing more powerful from emotions.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Weddinmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Fairy
- Attribute: Vaccine
In the manga, the 'Sweets Zone' arc is actually expanded quite a bit, with our heroes meeting the ruler of the location, Weddinmon. Who is this lady wearing a wedding cake as a dress. It's somehow a Perfect-level, and goes around creating giant cakes to gift to those that it favours. It protects happiness and summons gigantic cakes out of nowhere to drop on its enemies. Okay. Presumably despite the humanoid body, the true form of this Digimon is cake... because when it attacks, it merges with its Candmon and Shortmon minions and becomes 'ReverseWeddinmon':
Which is a giant cake monster! This one didn't get official artwork, but Weddinmon did. Weddinmon alone wouldn't be interesting at all, but The idea that it can transform into a much bigger cake monster with giant fork claws is a bit more fun.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Shortmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Food
- Attribute: Data
Weddinmon is attended by the Shortmon, for 'shortcake', and they have cakes for heads, little cream-tufts for tails... but otherwise just bodies of little children. They are meant to be polite butlers/waiters, and I like their design more than Weddinmon. I don't have much else to say about them, otherwise.
The Xros Wars manga did feature a bunch of other Digimon that feel a bit redundant with what we already have, with MachLeomon (basically MadLeomon), a bunch of upgraded DarkKnightmon forms (DarkKnightmon basically becomes almost the main villain and fuses with a lot of others), Aircraft Carrier Whamons and a couple of joke variants of Musyamon and Mushmon... but otherwise, I am happy that the couple of very distinct designs from the manga were actulaly not forgotten and canonized by the official Digimon website.
3/10.
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