Digimon Reviews, Episode 51: Vorvomon and Friends

More video game exclusive Digimon, originally reviewed in the original Episode 48, and a couple of strays from Episode 46. 

What was I thinking, reviewing six entire lines in a single article? And that one even had a bunch of X-Antibody Digimon! How long was that article originally? 

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Vorvomon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Rock Dragon
• Attribute: Virus

Vorvomon here is a Child-level and done as a tie-in to a new Digivice. There are two or three entire lines, but the other two fit together well as a set, so we'll cover them in the next article. It's a cute enough baby Deathwing, I suppose, a little dragon wyvern chick with body entirely made out of black ore, and apparently it can flap up for a couple of seconds, but gets tired easily. I really don't have a whole ton to say here, but I do acknowledge that the Vorvomon evolutionary line is probably the favourite thing of these post-Tri Digimon. Granted, a good chunk of what makes them feel special is that they're doing a pretty interesting but simple theme with coal? Eh. It's all right, I guess. I like him.

 7/10.

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Lavorvomon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Rock Dragon
• Attribute: Virus

Lavorvomon is... it's Vorvomon, but bigger. A bunch of those cool "claws made of yellow molten slag" thing going on, and some fun details with little mini-volcanoes on his back. It's the Adult stage, and I do get the feeling that instead of just a small dragon with a furnace in his body, when it actually became a fully-fledged dragon, Lavorvomon is straight-up just made of magma inside. I do like the detail that apparently because it's so heavy (being a magma creature and all) it just crawls around like an angry flightless bat, because it's a poor flier. The art style does make it feel like it is a generic dragon enemy from [Insert Generic Japanese Mobile Game], but that might just be me nitpicking. Lavorvomon is a pretty cool volcano-inspired dragon. It doesn't quite feel as interestingly wacky and has that grungy Digimon feel as something like Shellmon or Kuwagamon or Megadramon or anything, but it's still a pretty neat dragon. 

 7/10.

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Lavogaritamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Rock Dragon
• Attribute: Virus

Holy shit, that name, I had so many typos here. Lavogaritamon is... it's basically what you expect from a Perfect level of this line? It kind of interesting that after the rather wild jump in a lot of the more traditional Digimon lines, the Vorvomon line actually progresses from just being a small lava dragon to a big lava dragon. What is this logical progression, Pokemon? Bah! All jokes aside, It's still a cool-looking dragon, and those are cool, but at this point it's starting to just feel same, just bigger. I do miss the days when a Digimon evolution line involves a little smiling seed creature transforms into a flower-goblin with vine-fingers transforms into a boxing cactus transforms into a plant fairy. All of Vorvomon's forms honestly look pretty cool, like, very very cool, but they also don't leave much for me to talk about.

 6/10.

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Volcanicdramon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Earth Dragon
• Attribute: Virus

The final Ultimate form of the line, Volcanicdramon is what you expect from a giant, volcanic slag-themed wyvern. Again, it's pretty much the previous forms, but bigger. Like, you can't go wrong with a giant black dragon with molten/burning wings, and... you don't go wrong with Volcanicdramon and his pre-evos. You also don't really get much out of them. Fire dragons in general are always just sort of cool regardless of how you do it up, so this isn't particularly super creative to me? I like him slightly less than his previous forms, but that's not a knock on him. 

 6/10.

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Blucomon

• Alternate Names: Bulucomon (alternate romanization)
• Stage: Child
• Type: Small Dragon
• Attribute: Data

Blucomon here is the mascot for another mobile game, this time one from China, "Digimon Encounters". I do actually like Blucomon a fair bit, and I suppose it's no surprise that he looks a bit more monster-like compared to a lot of the ones we just went through. I do like that Blucomon is described to be literally made out of ice, and that his power will actually decrease if he walks out of icy habitats. I also like the fact that he's got a parka-esque fur around his neck despite being a mostly reptilian draconic creature on the same vein of Agumon. It's also apparently good buddies with Penmon, which is such a randomly adorable detail.

 5/10.

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Paledramon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Dragon
• Attribute: Data

His adult form, Paledramon, is basically him but bigger, with pretty cool arms made out of ice and... well, I suppose those tacky ice-crystal wings are to be expected. He is still a pretty decent humanoid dragon/dinosaur creature, though, and I don't think I realized until writing this how few ice-themed Digimon we have. Paledramon is noted to be cold enough to be immune to the changes in environmental temperature, but he's still very much susceptible to Digimon with fire attacks. Eh, they're not terrible, but I'll probably forget them after writing this article. 

 5/10.

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CrysPaledramon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Dragon Man
• Attribute: Data

At this point it's basically a given that any given Digimon line gets to become more humanoid as he evolves, yeah? Volcanicdramon notwithstanding? CrysPaledramon is basically how you expect Paledramon to become more humanized, gaining huge chunky Wolverine gauntlets and having his ice wings be more elaborate and Gundam-esque. And then his profile just details about how he's more powerful and stuff. 

 3/10.

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Hexeblaumon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Magic Knight
• Attribute: Data

And then we get to Hexeblaumon, a generic anime hero man which has apparently mastered "ice sorcery (a high-level programming language)", which I do appreciate how magic in Digimon-land is always prefaced with it being a programming language. It's got an ice sword and its ice wings now resemble Strike Freedom Gundam. They look cool. Get it? Cool?

...I really don't care about this one.

 2/10.

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Jazamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Child
• Type: Bird Dragon
• Attribute: Data

Debuting as part of the "Digital Monster X" virtual pets, (which is a reason for the large resurgence of X-Antibody Digimon in the recent years), Jazamon is a brand-new chlid stage that's basically a baby bird, but also a robot. It's pretty adorable, and, well, I do like robots and baby birds are cute. I do think that Jazamon is a wee bit too complex for a child-stage, but at this point I don't really think it matters a whole ton. Jazamon is noted to be unable to actually fly, is very skittish and timid, and can only glide around with its metal wings. Cute, but honestly kind of mundane.

 7/10.

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Jazardamon

• Alternate Names: Jazzdramon (old romanization)
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Machine Dragon
• Attribute: Data

Jazardmon, meanwhile, is a pretty cool design. It's noted to combine both traits of a "dragon and a fighter jet", but it really ends up looking like it's inspired by both but isn't really either. I absolutely love the funky way that those legs connect to the body, and those legs, while still resembling some sort of VTOL engine, also resemble giant boots and this gives Jazardmon a very Mega-Man boss vibe. The head does look a bit disproportionately large, but that might just be the forced perspective of the artwork. Overall, I actually like Jazardmon surprisingly more than I thought I would!

 7/10.

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Jazarichmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Machine Dragon
• Attribute: Data

The Perfect and Ultimate stages for the Jazamon line are a bit more obvious robotic dragons, and in the somewhat more generically cool sense instead of the wacky style that Mugendramon or Megadramon are, but that's okay. Jazarichmon is a bit less sleek compared to its pre-evolved and evolved forms, but it's still a pretty decent looking metallic wyvern-thing. I really don't have much to say here, it's not a super-revolutionary design, but it's still a pretty cool robot dragon. 

 6/10.

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Metallicdramon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Sky Dragon
• Attribute: Data

Metallicdramon is basically what you expect the final form of one of these things to look like, but a giant metallic dragon/bird creature is still a whole lot cooler than something like Hexeblaumon. I do like the design of the wings and the fact that the tail-stinger thing grows increasingly larger and larger as the line evolves. Metallicdramon apparently moves around so fast that other Digimon can't even see it, and when it shows up, it's a portent for some huge event. Whenever it flaps its wings, apparently particles that will "preserve the harmony of the world" are scattered. Okay, that's a pretty mythical quality to it or something, but I dunno, we don't really learn enough about Metallicdramon from just that.

 6/10.

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Guardromon (Gold)

• Alternate Names: Gardromon (Gold), Gold Guardromon
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Machine
• Attribute: Free

Just out of pedantry's sake, we're including him! We have a Guardromon variant, and he's gold! Because apparently we need more extra machine Digimon. Make some new ones, lazy game designers! As much as I do like good old Guardromon getting some love, I kinda wished this was like a proper subspecies like GoldGuardromon or GildedGuardromon with its unique lore, instead of just a Guardromon that just happens to have a different colour.

I have a bit of an extra attachment to this guy because I used him for quite a bit during my playthrough of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, where he evolves from good old forgotten Solarmon and has a cute set of Perfect-level evolutions that are all gold-plated!

 4/10.

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Hudiemon

• Alternate Names: Fudiemon (Japanese reading)
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Insect
• Attribute: Free

Oh, hey, look, a cosplayer. Hudiemon borrows her name from hu die, the Chinese word for 'butterfly', and admittedly I don't think we ever had a butterfly Digimon before, but this is honestly a pretty boring fairy. She looks like a Fairymon variant, I guess? The only remotely interesting thing I can say about this one is that she's an evolution from good old Wormmon, which is a totally random Child-stage to assign Hudiemon to... It's like, I'm not sure, she looks more like an extra from a tokusatsu show than an actual Digimon. She's not an unpleasant design, but I don't really care for her. She's got cool butterfly goggles, though.

 2/10.

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Cerberumon: Werewolf Mode

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Demon Man
• Attribute: Vaccine

Of all people, good old Cerberumon gets a new mode! And... and it's a pretty cool looking mode, all things considering. I guess it's to tie to Plutomon a couple of reviews back? 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.

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NoblePumpmon

• Alternate Names: NoblePumpkinmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Puppet
• Attribute: Data

Oh, okay, what now? Pumpmon gets an evolution nearly two decades after his debut? NoblePumpmon is the real, honest-to-goodness proper Ultimate evolution for Pumpmon, and it's... it's basically a Jack Skellington style affair, only with a pumpkin instead of a skull. And y'know what? Considering how Pumpmon is portrayed in that one iconic episode of Digimon Adventures, how it's supposedly hired as what's essentially a contract killer but would rather spend his time going around celebrating Halloween, before getting his ass killed for it by the evil big bad Vamdemon. And NoblePumpmon is... basically everything Pumpmon wants to be, but in actual style. No longer is he running around in a pudgy potato-sack body with an ax stuck to his head, but he's got spindly limbs, a proper suit, a hat, a cane, all the works! His personality is that he just wants to bring smiles to everyone with the pumpkin dishes he's able to conjure with his cape, and that's so wholesome. He's even got a pair of downwards-facing angelic wings that double up as a 'cape', and the whole combination ends up with such a stylish evolution for good ol' Pumpmon that you can't dislike this thing. The description of NoblePumpmon's attacks are even hilarious -- it's either giant pumpkin bombs (which are mundane compared to its predecessor) or "pouring a huge amount of pumpkin soup into the enemy's body and causing them to explore". Hahaha, that's brutal!

 8/10.
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Voltobautamon

• Alternate Names: Boltboutamon (EN dub)
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Demon Man
• Attribute: Virus

Somehow, when you combine the vampiric Vamdemon and the demon clown Piemon, you get... Voltobautamon, who is a crazy looking ghost pirate demon thing with multiple arms? It's an interesting design, and probably the bad guy in like everyone's childhood Digimon Adventure fanfic since its component parts are the two most memorable villains from the show, but I don't love-love it. It's cool enough, being a demon pirate with a funky cape and all, and I definitely appreciate that it isn't a cheap mis-mash of the two more iconic Digimon. But... we really don't get a whole ton, yeah? It's got a very pirate-y theme to it, I feel, and I do kind of actually appreciate how Voltobautamon actually has it's own identity, sort of? Voltobautamon is apparently controlled by some other entity or something, though, and his official profile doesn't really say much beyond him being the final boss of one of the newer games. I'm not the most interested in this guy, but the sheer Adventure-fanboyism in making a combination of Vamdemon and Piemon is something I can approve out of principle. 

 5/10.