Digimon Reviews, Episode 44: Bagra Army's Seven Generals [And Xros Wars Manga]

So after Xros Wars' first season ended, we get a brief time-skip and the second season of Xros Wars, titled "Digimon Xros Wars: The Evil Death Generals and the Seven Kingdoms", something I've just been referring to as the second season throughout my Digimon reviews. We get a new batch of generals that Bagramon apparently has stashed somewhere, and it's basically a nice culmination of the storylines built up throughout the first season of Xros Wars.

Again, the enemy is still Bagramon and we've covered all of his forms, but the seven generals are all-new Digimon, and we do get a bunch of new characters among the bad guys' army. Let's start off!
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Dorbickmon

I'm not sure what a 'Dorbick' is, but Dorbickmon here is one of the Seven Generals (called the 'Big Death Stars' in the dub, hilariously) and the first to fight our heroes as part of the Fire Fury Army, which is comprised mostly of draconic Digimon. Dorbickmon himself is a pretty neat little dragon-man, managing to look complex without being utterly cluttered like many other dragon-men in Digimon's history. He's kinda generically cool, although at this point I do think that Digimon has way more cooler dragon-men than Dorbickmon. His profile is basically just a highlight of how badass and cruel Dorbickmon is, and I don't think he does much other than be a mean, mean villain-of-the-week for our heroes to take down. The most interesting I really remember about Dorbickmon is the fan backlash that the writer ended up using Huanglongmon as his mount, which is... honestly kind of hilarious? I don't particularly care all that much for Dorbickmon, but he's not a bad design. He's just a dragon-armour man, we've seen a lot of these before. 


Some of the Generals have their additional combined forms of DigiXrossing with their minions, and Dorbickmon: Darkness Mode here is him becoming a weird little dragon-taur with his minion Huanglongmon. Which, if you're a bit more savvy with old-school Digimon lore, is kind of... a god-like being. Whoops, show-makers! Darkness Mode (FlareLizarmon) is him fused with a FlareLizarmon that turns into a flaming sword, and Darkness Mode (Dragon Army) is him fused with his entire army, which just gives him two huge wings, gets rid of the Huanglongmon and gives him nipple cannon beams. None of these are particularly creative, IMO.

  6/10 for regular Dorbickmon. 

Zamielmon

Zamielmon is the next member of the Big Death Stars, borrowing his name from a fictional hunter from the German opera Der Freischutz. And while I could really dismiss him as "oh, another humanoid monster", Zamielmon does have a couple of things going on for him that makes him a bit more memorable. The wacky elf getup, his weird tail that ends in an arm, and his lanky, robotic arms with crossbows attached are all fun features. Also a fan of his face, which looks pretty goblin-y like a lot of older Digimon. Zamielmon is the general of the Wood Spirit Army, leading fairy and plant type Digimon into battle, and this cheeky little fucker definitely looks like a particularly mean-spirited ouphe or fair folk that has dressed up in all sorts of armour. He's also kind of unremarkable in the anime, I think, but he definitely looks more impressive than I thought he would be. He's a weird weird goblin arrow man. 

  4/10.

NeoVamdemon

And then, holy shit, one of the Big Death Stars is a variation of Vamdemon, and NeoVamdemon actually looks pretty damn cool! Leading the Moonlight army and, of course, all the spooky undead and zombie Digimon, NeoVadmdemon's design is perhaps a bit too cluttered, but I do really love just how thin his abdomen and upper arms are, and how gangly his arms are. He's more like a weird hybrid of Vamdemon and Devimon as opposed to just being a Vamdemon variant, which I definitely appreciate. Also like the weird, downwards-pointing wings that double as a weird cape, too. NeoVamdemon also has a pretty memorable two-parter in the anime, unlike his two predecessors. I do like the little description in his bio that NeoVamdemon is an utterly emotionless being (definitely not true for the NeoVamdemon in the show, but I digress) that he's not like most demon or undead Digimon. He doesn't relish in slaughter or murder, only finding it something fulfilling that he just feels obligated to do.

And where the original Vamdemon summons a whole lot of vampire bats, NeoVamdemon summons a bunch of shadowy... whale-like things with no eyes and just a huge fang full of teeth. Apparently these are called "Evilvils", which is just such a dumb-sounding name. Anyway, I do like NeoVamdemon a fair bit. A pretty neat goth boy. 


Because the writers don't have much creativity in naming, NeoVamdemon's super mode is also called NeoVamdemon: Darkness Mode, where he fuses himself with his vampire army. It basically just gives him old-school VenomVamdemon tattered wings. Not the most creative form. The next form, though, Darkness Mode (MetalGreymon), turns NeoVamdemon into a cool, Megidramon-esque body shape with a serpentine lower body that ends in MetalGreymon's head, and one of NeoVamdemon's arms has turned into MetalGreymon's claw! I forgot the sequence of events that causes NeoVamdemon to fuse with one of the good guys, but it's a pretty neat final form in any case.

  8/10.

Splashmon

Splashmon here might otherwise be another in a generic "oh, he looks like a cool MegaMan boss, but a disappointing Digimon", if not for the utter style he has in the anime, where he relies more on subterfuge and pretending to be a human ally to our heroes. The fact that he has two forms -- a human villain with liquid for hair, and a monstrous, huge-fanged monster tiger form -- is also pretty damn cool. Splashmon's whole deal is that he can turn into liquid, which explains his malleable form, and interestingly, his "Water Tiger Army" is apparently comprised mostly of cyborg and machine Digimon. Splashmon is also someone that's vain and puts a lot of stock in maintaining his beauty. In the anime, the way that he assumes his monstrous beastly tiger form (his "Darkness Mode") is by unzipping all of those zippers found on his humanoid form's white suit, which is a fun little gimmick! Of course, Splashmon hates his monster form because it's ugly, but come on, Splashmon, the fact that you're a giant snarly tiger makes you stand out so much more than the other Big Death-Stars! Easily one of the more memorable Death Generals for me from the anime, due to his personality and fun voice.

  7/10. (+2 points for personality)

Olegmon

Olegmon is the token good teammate of the generals, in that he's... he's not even really evil, but definitely not a good guy. Olegmon is like this viking leader of a crew of pirates, leading the Gold-Thief Army, and he just apparently sails around the sea with his crew and collects treasure. And he's in the employ of the Bagra Army despite being a pretty fun, chill dude because, uh... reasons. I'm not sure. But apparently we get an unexpected connection with one of our main characters, Ballistamon, and apparently Ballistamon used to be a member of his crew, or something. He still opposes our heroes, but not in an evil way, and the way Olegmon was eventually defeated was a pretty fun, manly "well, shucks, I lose" bit. It's kinda nice, and I do like the little detail from the profile that Olegmon's obsession with gold comes from the fact that he apparently eats gold. Design-wise he's honestly kind of bland, just being a cyborg Viking plated with gold, but I do like how he fights -- it's not with his axes, but by unleashing two genie-like entities from his shoulders, Jormungandr and Surtr, both references to Nordic mythology monsters. Anyway, Olegmon's kinda cool.

  6/10.

Apollomon: Whispered

The actual 'token good teammate', it seems, is Apollomon, who actually opposes Bagramon! But he has an eeeevil split personality, called Apollomon Whispered. Which is a recolour of the regular Apollomon. As far as plot twists go, it's actually not a particularly good one. There's some fun angst that the regular Apollomon has for being evil, but ultimately, I do think that design-wise it's honestly kinda bland. I don't really have much to say about him, honestly. That black form on the right is Whispered's power-up mode, where he gets forcibly fused with DarkKnightmon. Kind of an interesting, but ultimately generic, colour scheme, IMO.

  4/10.

Gravimon

The final member of the Big Death Stars we face off is Gravimon, the general of gravity and leader of the Earth-God Army, and I'm a huge fan of him! From his voice, to his bizarre appearance... he's got these wacky, twisted, fucked-up limbs that look more like weird paper cut-outs that just taper off, that bizarre smoky cloud hair, and lots of wire tendrils jutting out of his back. Gravimon is a design that I feel was neat but ultimately unimpressive until I actually see him in the anime, and especially from the side. It's a pretty creepy look, honestly, and the fact that Gravimon can apparently manipulate gravity could probably give a couple dozen thematic reasons as to why his limbs look pretty fucked-up. And apparently, Gravimon can even detonate himself like an actual black hole, causing a big bang or something... although he doesn't want to do this because he's not sure how long it will take for him to regenerate. Overall, a pretty neat-looking villain!


Gravimon: Darkness Mode is a combination of Gravimon with a Centarumon, a Sagittarimon, a Cerberumon, a Crossmon, a Thunderbirdmon and a Hippogriffomon, and it does end up giving him a pretty fun set of revamped limbs. I do like that he still has Gravimon's general silhouette, but with random additional kibble from his minions worked in. Love those Thunderbirdmon wings and the weird combination of libs that end up with those spiky legs. Not the most creative form, perhaps, but a neat one.

  7/10.

GrandGeneramon

Of course, when you have a bunch of enemies together in a series all about fusion, it's sort of obligated to fuse them together. So at one point during the climax, the Big Death Stars (or their corpses, or something like that) are fused together into GrandGeneramon, which is like... it's kinda like Chimeramon, with multiple arms belonging to different generals, and the Dorbickmon/Apollomon combination forming the central torso jutting out of Splashmon's entire body as everything below the stomach. It's not the most creative look since it's basically just everything mashed together, but I do appreciate just how much of an abomination this looks like. Not my favourite design, but a neat little enemy to face as part of the story.

  5/10.

A bunch of extra background characters from the anime and the Xros Wars tie-in manga below!

Panbachimon

The last one from the anime doesn't actually have an official profile, but Panbachimon here does have a couple brief cameos in the anime. I'm not sure if he's part of a fan-made contest or what, but he's... he's kinda cute. He's a panda holding a huge bamboo, with a bee costume. It's kinda absurd, but after so many generic humanoids, it's actually kinda nice to have an adorable cute animal again. Also love the random smaller panda on top of the bamboo stick. Not sure if this is a reference to any specific myth or whatever, but I do like it. It's cute.

  4/10.

Shademon & Luminamon

So that's it for the Xros Wars anime! But that's not all of the new Digimon from the Xros Wars franchise, because it also spawned a tie-in manga... that ended up going in a completely different direction despite similar premises. We've seen a bunch of the alternate evolutions in previous 'Digimon Reviews' segments, but not all of them received official Bandai recognition. Shademon here does, though, and he's just this mass of shadow with multiple eyes, really reminding me of Pride from Full Metal Alchemist. In the Xros Wars manga, Nene ends up being captured by the villainous DarkKnightmon and infected with a Shademon in order to turn her into... MoonMillenniumon and later ZeedMillenniumon? Or something? It's been a long time since I last read the manga. It's kind of a simple design, I feel, and while not bad, they really could've made him look a lot more interesting. We also get the "NeneShademon" form, which I'll acknowledge but will not put pictures of here because she is inexplicably nude when possessed by Shademon.

In the final battle, Shademon was... purified or something? And he gets turned into Luminamon, which is... this cute little rabbit angel thing that seems kinda derivative of Terriermon and Lopmon. It's not a bad design, but I really have nothing to say about it beyond "it's cute, I guess?" 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. We also get a NeneLuminamon, which is basically a fanservice material like NeneShademon but with an angel theme instead of a shadow eyeball theme. I don't care for putting underage girls in slutty costumes. 

 2/10.

Other Xros Wars Manga Digimon:

There are a bunch other manga-exclusive Xros Wars Digimon that never got any official Bandai profiles, which I'll go through quickly:

MachLeomon is the manga's version of MadLeomon, which is basically a more traditionally humanoid (and thus more boring) version of the anime's MadLeomon. It's honestly kind of the same dude, except this one is a more obvious Leomon with bad hair. He combines with a bunch of Mushmon to become Mushed-Up MachLeomon, who is a lot less impressive than the anime versions of an upgraded MadLeomon which had chainsaws and snake heads and shit. 

Aircraft Carrier Whamon is an interesting concept, but it's basically just a Whamon with a small boat strapped on top of it, isn't it? 

OchiMusyamon here is a minor gag character based on the term ochi-musha, which refers to a samurai that has dishonourable fled battle. It's clear that he's a gag character, and... I don't remember him to be particularly funny. Neat that he apparently has fake bent arrows sticking out of him, though. Shortmon, as in shortcake, is just a random chibi humanoid with a shortcake piece with eyes for his face. Pretty boring design, honestly, and while not horrible, I can see why the Bandai team never officially 'canonized' this thing. 

Weddingmon and her alternate form, ReverseWeddingmon, are the main villains of an arc in the comics, with Weddingmon being a cake-themed princess with a bizarrely elaborate dress that makes Lady Gaga's ensemble look weird. She's... all right? ReverseWeddingmon is just bizarre, though, appaerntly representing her turning upside down with the cake being the true monster. She also apparently fuses with a bunch of Candlemon to take this form. Eh. 

DarkKnightmon got a bunch of additional fused forms when he attacks other members of the Bagra Army in a more elaborate storyline than what we got in the anime, but we already have way too many DarkKnightmon forms anyway. From left to right, we have DarkKnightmon (Duskmon), DarkKnightmon (Gulfmon), DarkKnightmon (Blastmon) and DarkKnightmon (Lilithmon). The last two are interesting, if cluttered, but... eh. 

None of these other than maybe DarkKnightmon's forms are honestly super interesting, and I can see why they never made it into Bandai's official stuff. 

 2/10.

Hyokomon, Buraimon & Butenmon

Looking at the random list of Digimon that showed up in 2012, we've got Hyokomon here, who shows up in one of the tie-in games. She's apparently a bird chick samurai, and she's kind of cute with her egg-shell body and her adorable little sword and topknot. Not much to say, though. Hyokomon evolves into the pretty boring Buraimon, who's a generic bird-man with swords. We already have a bunch of more interesting ones than this, and I really can't say anything interesting about him, which is why I sort of lump these three together. Butenmon is basically Buraimon's evolution, which is... even more cluttered, and looks like a rejected Yu-Gi-Oh monster more than anything. Not a big fan of any of these. I think they're meant to be the babies of an old video game final boss Chronomon, which... I can kinda see, but at the same time I've never found Chronomon super interesting, but okay. 

These all only ever really appeared in a single video game, anyway, and honestly this is probably why Digimon never resonated with the general public as much as Pokemon. There are so many creative teams with such inconsistent style, and so much random shit that shows up in random avenues and are exclusive to that particular media, that it's genuinely hard to keep track of them all even with a wiki. Next up we'll talk about Xros Wars: Hunters, the shittiest black sheep of the entire franchise.

 3/10.