Digimon Reviews, Episode 46: Gods, Peter Pan and Street Punks

Between the end of Xros Wars: Hunters in 2012 and the release of the anniversary movie-series Tri in 2015, there isn't a lot of new Digimon material... but the franchise was still kept alive with a bunch of video games (which mostly used old designs anyway), the profile website and a digital TCG... which introduced a lot of new Digimon. The problem? They all tend to be pretty underwhelming. It's also at around this point that the long-running "Olympus XII" and "Royal Knights" subgroups ended up having their members filled.

And... and not to be a dick about it, but it's at around this point that so many of these really stop feeling like they are Digimon to me. And I'm someone who tolerated a lot of the wackier nonsense in the past. In a vacuum, I'm not averse to humanoid designs or whatever, but these things just really end up feeling like they stray so much from what Digimon originally was that they ended up looking more like generic background NPC designs. And, frankly, a lot of the female Digimon are here for an almost eye-rolling level of fanservice.  This was what made my post-Xros-Wars stuff take so long to write, because I have nothing nice to say about a lot of them. 

I will be putting the whole article under a break for this one, because, well... none of these guys are actually relevant, with nearly all of them never appearing outside of the now-defunct Collectors/Crusade mobile TCG-collecting games. A vast majority of them just look like random designs pulled off from other franchises, and I honestly don't feel like many of them fit with the Digimon aesthetic. I also find that I was pretty dang negative in talking about many of them, so... yeah. Again, as a reminder... this is my personal opinion, but, jeez, I really do not care for many of these. I know the franchise has a lot of better designs particularly in 2019 and 2020... but man, I have to slog through these. 

Vulcanusmon

Let's rip off the band-aid and talk about the Olympos XII members in one go. And the first one is... it's not a boring design, at least? Based on Vulcan, the Roman god of volcanoes and blacksmithing, Vulcanusmon is... he's kinda neat? He's got those Japanese-style sandals, eight arms that hold different weapons, the face of a generic anime dude with a bandaged face, and an astronaut-like helmet-dome thing. I don't particularly care for this design, if we're being honest, but at least it does look a fair bit like an Ultimate-level deity god-man Digimon compared to some of the more sorry excuses that the Olympos XII has had in the past. Apparently he made Berenjena, Beelzebumon's eggplant demon-cannon. The only TCG that lists a possible pre-evolution for Vulcanusmon lists Asuramon as his Perfect-level pre-evolution, which... makes as much sense as any, I guess? Vulcy here isn't my favourite design, not by a long shot, but it's at least a somewhat creative looking one.

 2/10.

Plutomon

This Olympos XII member is perhaps the only one that seems directly connected to a previously-existing line, which is the Perfect-level Cerberumon. Every other member of the Olympos XII (except for Marsmon, Apollomon and Dianamon, who all debuted with complete evolution lines) all seem to just be immigrants from a completely different game. I was pretty ready to dismiss Plutomon as being similar to its boring Olympos XII ilk, until I realize just how much of Cerberumon's design made it into Plutomon. He's got those dog-fang shoulder pads, and apparently he attacks by channeling the dark energies to form an approximation of a chomping dog fang. That's adorably awesome! Anyway, Plutomon's design is perhaps the least boring out of the humanoid Olympos XII by virtue of manifesting that fun giant dog-fang, but he's still kind of m'eh. They really could've done more. My biggest gripe, really, are that these don't even look like Digimon. Even the most action figure designs of Frontier's cast still at least look like Digimon in some way. A good amount of this page's Digimon just look like very generic character designs from a generic setting.

 4/10.

Jupitermon (and Wrath Mode)

Ehhhhhh. Jupitermon here is based on Jupiter, the Roman god of lightning, thunder, the sky and the general boss of Olympus. And he's... he's a dude in golden armour, holding a pair of... dumb-bells? Okay, that's kinda bizarre, but the rest of his design is so bland and mundane. And because they really want to hype up this dude, Jupitermon has a "Wrath Mode" where he... becomes some sort of weird lightning being, holding together the plates of his armour, and has swapped out the gym equipment for a generic, exaggerated anime sword? Honestly, I kind of want to give this dude a higher mark for the silliness of the lightning dumb-bells, but it's just such a bland design that I can barely say anything to take up a paragraph. It's... it's not even an interesting humanoid design, honestly. And it's not like being an anime knight man with a cape is anything original in Digimon. We've got better-looking ones! 

 1/10.

Junomon (and Hysteric Mode)

Based on Juno, wife of Jupiter and based on the patron goddess of Rome, Junomon is... yeah, she somehow gets a design that's even sluttier than Venusmon, She's just a lady with a slutty costume, a flamboyant cape, and some weird gauntlets that end in needles or whatever. Not a particularly interesting or Digimon-y design to me, and even then, the same commentary is here -- we've already got a surplus of more interesting looking half-naked women. 

Like her husband, Junomon has a super mode, "Hysteric Mode", which is... a bit more interesting than Jupitermon's Wrath Mode. Apparently when Junomon is really, really angry she ends up transforming her arms into... two giant... needle-snake things? Eh. It's apparently an adaptation of how the mythological Juno/Hera is one of the most jealous goddesses ever. Junomon Hysteric Mode is... is not terrible? Not particularly great, but not bad. Again, these feel like generic enemies from the most generic Japanese RPG game, that's just got a bunch of details and spikes and zero charm. Did they really need the slutty-goddess form, though? Can't Junomon just have Hysteric Mode as her default? No?

 1/10.

Venusmon

Ah, here we go. Venusmon here is based on Roman goddess Venus, the goddess of love and lust, and... she's just a lady. Like, quite literally, she's just a lady in a fanservice dress and a ton of impractical hair accessories. That's enough to earn a huge eye-roll from me, but then you see that Venusmon seems to be expressly created just to be as fanservice-y as ever, what with that dress clearly not covering up any part of her back, and every single piece of artwork of her posed to display the most T&A. Anyway, even without the blatant fanservice element... this is still a pretty damn bad execution of a humanoid Digimon at all. Very lazy.

 0/10.

Ceresmon

And suddenly we go to a design that really should've been more of the Olympos XII. I'm not saying that they should all be animal gods, but Ceresmon's true form is a giant bird behemoth made entirely of a slab of forested mountain that has seemingly taken flight. Based on Ceres, Roman goddess of agriculture and fertility, it's such a fun, creative idea to have the embodiment of fertility be quite literally a sentient, moving forest, that, upon touch, creates even more forests. Sure, Ceresmon's "true" form is still a slutty lady ("Ceresmon Medium"), but it's at least somewhat integrated with a more god-like design in the normal Ceresmon, as you can see the humanoid form enshrined on the bird Ceresmon's head. Even if I do roll my eyes at the blatant, unnecessary fanservice, it's at least part of a pretty interesting concept. Ceresmon, interestingly, evolves from either Blossomon or Jyureimon, which is pretty neat. If she is just the giant mountain forest bird, I'd give her a 7/10. The fact that she has a 'true' fanservice goddess form slapped onto her docks some marks. 

 4/10.

Bacchusmon

And, yeah, I totally saved the two best Olympos dudes for last. Based on Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry, Bacchusmon is not at all just a generic, minimal-effort fancy-fantasy-armour design. Instead, Bacchusmon is a giant pink snake-thing that ends in a giant spherical maw (that may be his chest, depending on whether that little pink blob on top is his head or just a pimple), and with two long arms that end in green gloves. And those arm-bands give the appearance of eyes, which is neat! Like, honsetly, why can't more of the Olympos XII be more like this? I don't want them all to be as bizarre as Bacchusmon, but practically the entire set are just people in cosplay, maybe with some metallic parts or extra arms. Bacchusmon still manages to look like a god of wine of sorts, while also looking like a Digimon. I do also love the fact that Bacchusmon really likes to party with weaker Digimon, that he's the foremost drinker of the Digital World (look at those tiny barrels in the artwork!) and apparently he's good buddies with Ceresmon because she supplies him with wine ingredients. A pretty cool dude! Best of all, Bacchusmon either evolves from Digitamamon or Piccolomon, two utterly bizarre choices to pick, but also two that sort of feel like they make sense to turn into this giant Pac-Man snake god of alcohol. He still kinda gets 3/5 because ultimately he could've been designed a lot better, but he's hilarious enough that I will definitely say that he is heads and shoulders more memorable than every single member of the Olympoos XII by a huge margin.

 6/10.

Titamon

"One-Man Army" Titamon here is apparently the 'bad guy' that faces off against the Olympos XII, and he's, unexpectedly, the Ultimate-level evolution of good old Ogremon! ANd I like Titamon a bit more just for that factor. And the fact that he's apparently holding a gigantic fuck-off blade made from the skull of a SkullGreymon. It is basically an adaptation of all the various Greco-Roman Titans, I suppose, because it goes around 'hunting the heads' of the Olympos XII. It also attacks by summoning a giant army of the undead, which is... neat, I guess? I do find it neat that apparently he's got a fucking eyeball on his crotch. Anyway, he's... he's still kind of bland, but at least we're deviating away from the 'generic anime humanoid' into 'generic anime humanoid monster'. Which... well, it's preferable than another random dude in a funny dress, I guess, and that sword is pretty cool. Like, I've been bashing the humanoids, but this one's a decent one.

 4/10.

Aegiomon

The Adult-level Aegiomon here is a satyr boy. Who, again, doesn't particularly look like a Digimon and more like a generic satyr character from a minimal-effort anime. Aegiomon here is the depowered, amnesiac form of Jupitermon and apparently your main character in the Digimon Crusaders digital card game or some shit? He's got hypnotism powers associated with satyrs in Greco-Roman mythology, but otherwise there quite literally is nothing interseting about Aegiomon. He's just a generic anime kid with tattoos, horns and goat legs that look out of place. Like, even by the standards of anime characters, Aegiomon honestly looks pretty bland and boring.

 0/10.

Aegiochusmon

How many of these are there? Too many. 

Anyway, Aegiomon evolves into Aegiochusmon, who is basically Aegiomon, but with adult proportions. Like an anime protagonist (but without any of the charm), Aegiochusmon has multiple forms, and... and none of them are particularly interesting, honestly. I skimmed through their profiles, because holy fuck they are really boring, but basically the five Aegiochusmon basically embody different parts of the Digimon kingdom, which is... neat, but then how come its evolution Jupitermon is just a generic suit of armour? Jeez, are these even still drawn in the Digimon aesthetic? Any of them?

Anyway, regular Aegiochusmon apparently embodies 'dragon', which... yeah, I don't even know what part of him is meant to be a dragon, beyond some red parts. "Blue" is meant to be machines, and while the asymmetrically large arm is neat, it's... it's just still kinda ugly. "Green" is plants, which is, again, another obvious and generic plant monster. "Holy" is just regular Aegiochusmon with some random glowing circles thrown in. "Dark" is... okay, Dark is kind of cool, with actual black-feathered wings and some mantis-scythe appendages, as well as stringy-hair covering Aegiochusmon's face... and if any of the other four forms show any sort of creativity like Dark Aegiochusmon, I might have something else to talk about. As it is, though, Aegiochusmon feels genuinely like someone's bad fanfiction self-insert character. 

 0/10.

Sistermon Blanc & Noir

More members of the TCG brigade are the Sistermons. Sistermon Blanc and Noir, seen up above, are Adult-level little loli nuns with rabbit hoodies, and they're... they're... what the fuck? Again, just a bunch of people in cosplay. They both then evolve into the "Awakened" forms, who are basically adults, with Noir being a nun that shows off her thighs and boobs. And also uses crosses as guns. I have never been a big fan of lolita fetish, nor have I ever really cared for nun fetishes. Throw in some distasteful "look at our religious imagery!" fake-edginess, and this is just a huge messy combination of bad ideas. They'd be cringe-worthy as just generic anime characters, but as Digimon? Nope. and I refuse to acknowledge this any further.

 0/10. Negative points.

Petermon & Tinkermon

Oh, look. It's Peter Pan. At least it's not more loli nuns, but unlike the Greek gods, they don't even try to add in a monster-mode for Petermon here. He's an Adult form, and his bio is basically "hey, guys, have you ever read Peter Pan? It's like, an iconic story that we're ripping off!" Also, there's a Child-level Tinkermon, based on Tinker Bell, who is super-skimpy to appeal to a certain demographic. Neither of these are interesting or creative and honestly barely even count as Digimon. Man, is the point of everything on this page to make me reconsider mocking Arresterdramon? Because I am now regretting mocking Arresterdramon, considering how much of a nosedive that the quality of Digimon design ended up taking after that. Like, how do these even count as Digimon? 

 0/10.

CaptainHookmon

CaptainHookmon is a Perfect-level, and while he's kind of meant to just tie in to Peter Pan and Tinkerbell up there, at least adds some thing more creative. That gigantic harpoon cannon on his left hand is neat, and the fact that instead of a peg-leg, his artificial leg is a fucking revolver is pretty boss. Finally, something that's not going to be 1/5! CaptainHookmon is still ultimately kind of "just a dude in cosplay", though, and far less interesting than the actual Hookmon we got years past -- a design that actually looks like a Digimon. So Captain here gets points for the gun-leg, but not much else. I would've given him like, 6 or 7 points easily if he's got Hookmon's original face, but right now he just looks like a rejected background character from One Piece instead of a Digimon. 

2/10.

Ginkakumon

Based on two demon kings from Journey to the West, Ginkaku and Kinkaku, the Gold and Silver Horned Oni, have been a staple in Japanese media. And Ginkakumon here represents the Silver demon. It took a commenter below (thanks Chalicothere!) to point out what I missed about Ginkakumon -- he's essentially serving as a giant armoured robot suit for his sister Kinkakumon below. That makes his design make so much more sense! He's actually pretty cool as far as these giant robot-monsters go, even if he's still honestly 'not quite my thing'. And, of course, the gourd on his back is a reference to one of the weapons that hismythological inspiration wields. I certainly appreciate that he's not just some anime person with fancy RPG accessories, though, and the little addition of synergy with his sister piloting him like a mecha suit is kinda cool. He's a more fantasy-inspired version of Mekanorimon, which I actually do like.

 3/10.

Kinkakumon

Aaaand Kinkakumon, the Gold Brother (Gold Sister, now, I guess) looks like a barbarian slut. Like, yes, I know, barbarians don't wear a lot of clothes, but look at that pose and that ridiculous set of knockers. And the fact that, once again, Kinkakumon is just another "fantasy anime stripper" character. This lady feels more like a first draft of Mervamon before they actually realized she would look cooler with the snake-barbarian motif. She's pretty bland, just like almost every single design added from Collectors or Crusade, there just to titillate. Like, honestly, every second character introduced in these card-collecting game is like a stripper anime lady. At least he can ride in Ginkakumon? That makes Ginkakumon cooler in my book, though, while she's still just kinda whatever to me. 

 0/10.

Beelstarmon (a.k.a. BelleStarmon)

Oh man, are we done yet? Loli nuns and Greek gods... and now we get to the cowboys. Beelstarmon here is... a lady Beelzebumon. And of course she dresses in an outfit that shows off her entire abdomen, her underboobs and a low-cut set of leather pants. At least I can see a demonness gunslinger cowboy dressing in a bit of a more provocative fashion? But it's still another one that's clearly meant to titillate and nothing else. Beelstarmon at least looks genuinely badass, though, unlike the nuns, Venus or Juno up above, and I do love that she shoots out bullets that have Beelzebumon's face on them. Apparently her guns are called Rizoma de Loto, which means "Lotus Roots". Still a far blander design compared to her male counterpart, but at least I kind of vaguely get the reasoning behind this one.

 3/10.

MagnaKidmon & AvengeKidmon

An Ultimate-level Digimon that's... I was about to handwave this as "just another generic cool-drawn humanoid" until I realize that MagnaKidmon's feet are literally giant revolvers. This makes him far, far cooler than most other generic action figures -- the thing that I really want to note is that I'm not opposed to humanoid Digimons! Not at all! I don't mind them, but what I do mind them is when they quite literally are just regular folk in bad cosplay. MagnaKidmon at least looks like some sort of bizarre monster, with pistols for legs, multiple dragon tails (he's a dragon cowboy), and some long, black tapering wing-like things, and his fingers transform into even more gun barrels. He's also apparently buddies with a whole swarm of Revolvmon that he thinks are his posse -- because, of course, he's amnesiac. Is that like the Digimon team's go-to answer for any new Digimon in 2012-2015? "This character is oh-so-mysteriously amnesiac, because we can't think of a better backstory"? Anyway, MagnaKidmon at least looks kind of decent as a weird cyborg cowboy thing.

I like MagnaKidmon's design a lot less when it's all in black, because it really drowns out the amount of details and makes all of his parts blur together, honestly. Despite being a 'repaint', AvengeKidmon actually has a backstory that makes me glad I read the profile! AvengeKidmon isn't actually an alternate form or evolution of MagnaKidmon, but apparently thanks to MagnaKidmon's oh-so-mysterious properties, any Digimon he defeats who swears vengeance against him gets its Digi-Core "rewritten" into AvengeKidmon, a hate-fuelled black version of MagnaKidmon. Basically anyone that MagnaKidmon defeats and instills enough hatred into gets transformed into his own personal Inigo Montoya? That's actually a pretty fun concept, and plays off a whole "rewritten/replacing data" concept in these digital monsters that I don't think we've ever really seen before. Did not expect that I was going to not hate these two. I mean, not enough to give them high points, but sure, I like them better than the Olympos guys. 

 3/10.

Cerberumon: Werewolf Mode

Of all things good old Cerberumon gets a new mode, and... and it's a pretty cool looking mode, all things considering. I tend to dislike just having an animal Digimon just stand up, be humanoid and be its more powerful form, but Werewolf Mode has two gigantic dog heads attached to his arms, which is honestly pretty dang hilarious. Not my favourite design by a large margin, but it's pretty all right, and a nice little variation to Anubismon or Hadesmon for Cerberusmon's final form. 

 4/10.

Footmon

Also have Footmon, I guess, who is... a cyborg with dreadlocks playing football? What a boring football cyborg, too. And also, what a boring-ass profile. "Oh, this thing likes football, and it likes to kick football, and it wants to make a football league, and its special attack is kicking a ball". I mean, sure, I guess. Not a fan.

 1/10.

BanchoGolemon

Back when BanchoLeomon was released, its profile notes that it's part of the BAN-TYO (sic) group, but it's not until this period that we've ever seen any other member out of that group. They're all Ultimate-level, and we're going to open up with BanchoGolemon. Who... actually has very little, design-wise, with the original Golemon beyond being vaguely associated with rocks. It's kind of just another generic humanoid made up of rocks, although I really do like the giant drill that his left arm has transformed into, as well as the little golem buddies that fly around it. BanchoGolemon is apparently a huge, huge dick, and will only help out his own buddies. He's honestly kind of boring, though, and in my opinion doesn't even deliver on the whole 'delinquent' theme particularly well. If you didn't show me his name, I wouldn't have guessed that he's even a Golemon.

 4/10.

BanchoLilimon

A bit more like it! Lilimon isn't my favourite design, but going one step further and turning this cheery plant fairy into a delinquent schoolgirl isn't particularly creative. The simple addition of a spiked, thorny yo-yo that she weaponizes, though? That goes a long way into making BanchoLilimon a lot more charming. It's even got a funny little Togemon face, a neat little nod to Lilimon's most commonly-depicted pre-evolution! While her design is surprisingly a bit more 'real-world' inspired than I'd like, the Banchos are particularly based on a subset of Japanese culture anyway, and I do enjoy the fact that of all the possible Digimon that they picked to be delinquents, happy-go-lucky plant fairy Lilimon was one of the five they chose. Her profile is also pretty hilarious, describing what's essentially an emo punk teen, except this emo punk teen is an Ultimate-level Digimon.

 6/10.

BanchoMamemon

Heyyy it's Mamemon! With two giant... cutlass-club things (which, like BanchoLilimon, ends in Mamemon's goofy :3 face), and I do find it hilarious that the Jotaro Kujo cloak is basically stapled onto the back of Mamemon's body. A big fan of those random chains and smaller flying ball-heads, too. It's kind of a fun little variant, honestly. The Banchos aren't particularly my cup of tea, but I do find BanchoMamemon to be kind of hilarious. Not much to say here, though I tend to not mind the Bancho dudes as much as everyone else on this page. Might as well end this on a somewhat positive note, right?

 6/10.

BanchoStingmon

The last one here is BanchoStingmon, who is a red-coloured Stingmon with a delinquent cloak. And... and this is where the change in the Digimon aesthetic really ends up looking awesome, because the stylized, skinnier bug legs given to BanchoStingmon looks so much better than the action figure legs that the original Stingmon has. Plus, the fact that BanchoStingmon's weapons have became these cool-looking golden gauntlet with a single stabby claw? Stingmon was already kind of punk-looking, and apparently all you need to do is to give him a delinquent cape. BanchoStingmon, apparently also has a bunch of little stinger-bug buddies, so I wonder why it is BanchoLeomon and BanchoLilimon don't have their own flying lion heads or plant fairies to help them out. Anyway... the Banchos aren't particularly creative, but they ooze some amount of charm, at least.

 7/10.

Jeez, this... this was pretty tiring to write, if we're being honest. I don't think there's any batch of Digimon I particularly dislike more than these. All of them are just so damn boring and uninspired, and even the Banchos are neat mostly just for the sheer ridiculousness of their concept. I didn't even feel this tired writing about the X-Antibody nonsense!