Digimon Reviews, Episode 49: Algomon, Pulsemon and Friends

So, while a lot of my previous Digimon reviews have been sitting as drafts in this blog for literally years (I think I wrote a bulk of them in 2018-ish when Tri galvanized me to write about Digimon, but everything post-Xros-Wars just ended up draining me of energy) and I genuinely didn't realize that we had a huge resurgence as Digimon Adventure was rebooted in 2020! A lot of the cast are the same, albeit retooled, and a lot of the protagonist Digimon are apparently the same... but of course, with any new series, we get a lot of brand-new Digimon! And a lot of older Digimon that perhaps haven't seen much of a showcase outside of video games and manga apparently show up in this anime, too.

Huge disclaimer, I haven't watched a single episode of Adventure 2020, and I think I'll wait until the series is finished before watching it. No idea if I'll ever cover this the blog either... maybe as a 'seasonal' review or something. And so there's going to be that huge disclaimer that I genuinely don't know much about any of the show itself, and everything I say here is basically going to be taken from the fan-wiki. 

(I'm not sure if I would also review monsters from Appmon -- there's a lot of them, but since I did the D-Reapers, maybe at some point in the future? Like the Hearthstone articles and Pokemon reviews, though, I do want to go back and revise/revisit a lot of my older Digimon writing and edit some of them -- the formatting and scores in particular are something I do want to revamp. We'll see.)

As with most of the newer Digimon reviews, I'll be talking about brand-new designs first, and stick 'new super alternate forms' after a break.

This is the last 'Digimon Reviews' article I'll be doing for a while, and it's been a huge blast! I'm not sure what I'll do next. Some people have suggested Dark Souls or Monster Hunter or Persona/Shin Megami Tensei or Devil May Cry, but while the bestiaries for those games are no doubt fun, I also kind of want to do games that I've actually played through. I do have a relatively major RPG that I'll be doing-as-I-play that I plan to write about, but we'll see if I'll do any other major video game. 

The blog will go on a brief break for the next couple of days as I go back and fix a lot of the broken images for a lot of my 'reviewing monsters' pages. Mostly Pokemon and Digimon monster reviews. I've been linking directly to Wikis for these pages and when they change something in their website it does screw up what I do, so I'll slowly change things so that the images are hosted immediately on the blog. I'll also take the chance to fix up some of the formatting, I suppose.

Algomon (Baby I)

I'm not quite sure whether the many, many Algomons are actually part of the new anime or not (the Wiki I look at don't really elaborate on the degree of the appearances of the Digimon) but, huh, talk about obscure! Algomon, if you guys don't remember, is the villains of the Digimon Savers movie, and a pretty creepy plant monster Digimon. I actually like Algomon quite a bit, but for the most part post-02 movie antagonists tended to never really be brought up again anywhere. Algomon was kinda cool -- the Perfect form is just kind of just a kimono-wearing dude initially, but later on we get the revelation that Algomon is a plant monster with hundreds of eyeballs at the end of his vines. That's neat. And it's certainly surprising not only to see a revised version of Algomon, but an entire evolutionary line!

All of the Algomon stages are just called 'Algomon', which is, I think, a homage to one of the first unnatural Digimons to debut in fiction, Arkadimon from V-Tamers, another personal favourite who never really gets much love outside of its debut series. The Baby I stage of Algomon is a pretty cute one, still looking pretty much like a 'slime', but also looking pretty uniquely bizarre. It's this green teardrop with a huge eyeball-like design that feels more at home in a Yu-Gi-Oh monster. I do like that these new artwork also show the Digimon from another angle, showing that Algomon Baby I has a cute stretchy little pseudopod-like appendage or something. Apparently, these stages of Algomon converge and blanket places with high-capacity data leaks. Pretty cool, as far as slime Digimon go, and I feel like the Algomons really feel like they would belong among the art-styles of 90's more monstrous Digimon as well as the more refined artwork of modern Digimon. 

 9/10.

Algomon (Baby II)

The Baby II form is 100% a homage to Kuramon, the baby form of good ol' Diaboromon. The general silhouette is pretty similar, but there are a bunch of things that set Algomon's Baby II form apart -- the ears seem to look more like weird snail eyestalks, the eyeball design is a bit more intricate, and it's got two little spoon-like jagged arms poking out of its sides. The artwork also shows that these arms can sprout spiky-fingertip things, and there's a pretty cool starfish mouth underneath his bottom! A pretty cool design, and just like Kuramon before it, this form of Algomon also basically swarm around locations of data leaks. Not a whole ton to say here that I haven't said for the Baby I form, but I most certainly like this one!

 9/10.

Algomon (Child)

This is the Child form of Algomon, and unlike the more insectoid-based Keramon line, Algomon is decidedly plant-based, in a way. And... and it's still got its weird ear/eyestalk masses growing like horns, but the Chlid form of Algomon does look a bit more like a sentient plant monster, doesn't it? Again, it's still got its very prominent Yu-Gi-Oh eye design, but I'm a huge fan of how the central body is this purple sphere with an eye, while the rest of its body are wire-vines. The 'legs' are a mass of vines arranged like a octopus legs, and the 'arms' are just giant balls of vines wrapped together. Again, I don't really have much to say other than to note that this looks just so... different. It looks like a genuine digital monster, and not just an 'obligatory animal we turn into a monster' or just a small anime person in a suit. I definitely really, really like this one. 

 9/10.

Algomon (Adult)

And this is the final new Algomon form, before we get to the two Perfect and Ultimate forms that was introduced back in Savers. And Adult Algomon sort of acts as the connecting bridge. It's... it's most certainly not a perfect progression, but Digimon have always had this huge jump from being somewhat monstrous to more humanoid at either the Perfect or Ultimate stage, so we can let it slide. I do like how the perfect sphere with a single cute eye have basically mutated into multiple smaller, more menacing eyes and zipper-mouths centralized around a 'tongue' made up of red wire-vines. It's still got those snail eyestalk horns arranged into 'ears', it's got two creepy metal cyborg-hands, and there's a veritable mass of wire-vines below it. 

Presumably, the idea is that when Algomon Adult evolves into Algomon Perfect, the purple parts sort of 'bloom' apart like a flower and form into the clothes around the more humanoid form of Algomon. Algomon Perfect does look very humanoid, but all the vines make a return in Algomon's Ultimate form. Honestly, I actually do like this a fair bit. It's very rare that we ever get the Digimon design team going back and designing pre-evolutions for Perfect and Ultimate Digimon, usually they're a bit obsessed at designing more mega-super-duper-ultimate-jogress-xros-up forms of existing designs, so this is certainly very welcome!

 8/10.

Sangomon

There's a bunch of these guys that debuted in Digimon Pendulum Z, which I didn't have the time to read up on the intricacies of. Again, I have no idea if any of these guys ever shows up in the new anime, and if I ever get to watching it, I'll probably go back to re-edit these reviews. And... and I love aquatic Digimon! Look at this cute guy. Sangomon is based on coral, but he's not just a coral with a face. I do love that he looks like a stubby-legged little dude who wears a helmet, and he's got cute sunken eyes. I love the two sucker-like arms that end in creepy worm-like mouths, and that its coral horns have a cute little clownfish buddy in it. Again, it certainly looks modern but also wouldn't feel out of place next to old-school designs, you know what I mean? And sure, maybe I'm just on a huge nostalgia binge, but I do really feel that if you're designing for a franchise, you should really be able to put Sangomon here next to designs from different parts of the franchise's history and make them all fit like they belong in the same universe. I think the post-Xros-Wars era really made me feel like a lot of the Digimon there don't really it quite well.

But I digress. Sangomon! He's a coral friend, and I do love the little description about how it just waddles around and interacts with other older aquatic Digimon, often hanging out on the giant shells of Shellmon, and allowing Ganimon (Crabmon) to 'trim' the coral on top of its head. It shoots out water jets or a paralytic mist, but... but there's nothing telling us what that clownfish buddy is. Is it sentient? Is it part of the coral? Is it a Digimon of its own?  

 8/10.

Tobiumon

What really makes me happy, though, is how much these guys actually feel like they belong among the ranks of the original 90's aesthetic. Look at Tobiumon and its rippling muscles and those leather straps around its wrist and tail! Sure, it isn't quite as gross-looking as someone like Coelamon, but Tobiumon looks very much like it would belong more along the likes of Coelamon and Deltamon moreso than something like the 'people in weird cosplay' that came from the digital TCG era of the franchise. And sure, we've got a full line that goes from Sangomon to Tobiumon and Gosukomon below... but what makes old-school Digimon so interesting is that you could tell me that Tobiumon evolved from... oh, Shakomon or Gomamon and it would vaguely work. And then you could tell me that he evolves into Hangyomon or MetalSeadramon or MarineDevimon and I can see that.

Tobiumon's name and design is basically taken from tobiuo, meaning flying fish. I like it! It either swims, flies around on its certainly more developed wings, and its two giant muscleman arms probably allows it to walk around on ground, too. Looking a bit closely there's a cute little grinning shark-like mini-fish on its chest, which brings to mind the weird organic-looking missiles that MetalGreymon or Andromon or Megadramon would have. These actually make sense on Tobiumon, though, because they're actually identified as 'suckerfish darts'. These are symbiotic remora-esque fish that double as missiles! Is that the transformed version of the clownfish from Sangomon? Yeah. Yeah, I'm liking this batch of Digimon a lot. 

 9/10.

Gusokumon

Holy shit yes. Okay, we go from a coral reef to a flying fish to... this motherfucker. Borrowing its name from the Japanese name of the giant isopod, this guy is so much more than just a giant isopod that they drew with some extra spikes. I love just how menacing and how differently-sized all the legs of Gusokumon are, and how the rear part of the abdomen has more regular legs. I love that it's got a creepy cyborg gas mask and antennae that trail down its body like ribbons. And I love that apparently it keeps the little symbiont/parasite from its two prior forms, because its armour plates apparently shoot out little fish friends like missiles still. 

Its whole official bio is just basically a nice little talk about real-life giant isopods. It lives deep in the ocean, it's a bottom-feeder that rarely moves and is long-lived... pretty cool stuff. Honestly, I just really like everything about this guy. Mostly just from a pure, viscerally badass-looking design. 

 10/10.

MarinChimairamon

Tobiumon has not one, but two possible Perfect forms! One of them is MarinChimairamon, which is... remember Chimairamon/Kimeramon from 02? Yeah, this is a weater-themed version of that guy! I can see a lot of random aquatic Digimon parts here and there. That's MarinDevimon's tentacles draped across its back. Ebidramon's claw as MarinChimairamon's left hand. Hangyomon/Divermon's right arm. Ikkakumon's upper torso, and Coealmon's helmet. Coelamon's itty-bitty legs attached like seal tail halfway across the Seadramon body. A bunch of octopus tentacles (Octmon, I guess) running across its serpentine body.

Yeah, I like this thing, obviously, because if you haven't figured out already, I'm a huge fan of aquatic monsters and aquatic Digimon. This one is just all of them! The bio notes that maybe it's made out of the same technology that made Chimairamon, but leaves it ambiguous. Honestly, I wouldn't put it past Dagomon or whoever in Cthulhu-creating this guy. I like him. 

 9/10.

Regalecusmon

You'd think that I'd bitch about the Ultimate form of the Sangomon line. But this is what I want my humanoid Digimon to look like! Tamers and Frontier get a pass for me because they actually merge with their human partners for their final forms, but if a Digimon naturally evolves into a ultimate, bipedal form, they should really have traits of their previous forms reflected somewhere in their design! And, sure, not every single Ultimate-level needs to look as beastly as Regalecusmon here, but we really should've gotten more. And this guy's cool! I love that his head is just a giant oarfish or some shit (specifically this one, Regalecus is a genus of oarfish) just fused onto the upper humanoid torso. I love that the lower half ends in some fishman finned legs. I love that it has got a gigantic crab-claw arm-mounted weapon thing.

The bio also explicitly notes that Rergalecusmon straight-up just tore off a Zudomon's horn and is now wielding it as its personal sword. That's cool! I love the description that in-between describing Regalecusmon as the 'ruler of the abyss', the 'apex of the food chain', someone who rips off Zudomon's horn... and then also notes that 'it hates crowds'. Very, very cool. This is a fishman monster, and I highly approve of this monster. 

 9/10.

Pomumon

Oh, hey, this one is cute! It's a dragonfruit, but it's got the snout of a dinosaur and cute little bird talons and tail! I love this guy, it looks so weird and it's just such a creative-looking monster! I mean, I know I feel like I'm shitting on the past couple of pages, but honestly, I am so, so much more excited at looking at Pomumon and Sangomon compared to honestly entire pages of basically everything post-Xros Wars. It's like... okay, generic hedgehog monster and generic ice/metal dragon are not badly drawn, but this one actually feels like a unique creature! I could see this guy hanging out with Kiwimon or something!

Pomumon here is obviously very low on the food chain, being a walking fruit. It's sort of a fun take on Kiwimon, only instead of a kiwi fruit fused with a kiwi bird, this is a dragon fruit fused with a dragon. I like it. It shoots seeds from its dinosaur mouth. It has wings! A lot of the Digimon featured on this page has a lot of additional artwork done in their concept art, which really shows that the designers put in a fair amount of effort designing them instead of going 'make five different levels of ice dragon'. 

 8/10.

Parasaurmon

Oh, hey, we're getting a full set of dinosaurs, I guess? This guy is a dinosaur (a Parasaurolophus, specifically) that is crossed with fruit. It's got like, coconut fibers or something covering its legs and neck, and there's a vague 'tribal warrior' vibe that they're going on here, except Parasaurmon uses bananas instead of bird feathers as its headdress. Okay? Parasaurmon uses the fruit scent in place of pheromones. 

It's kind of my least favourite one out of the Pomumon line, but I still like it -- mostly for the fact that it's got fun bright colours and features the Parasaurolophus. Hadrosaurs get so little respect out of explicitly dinosaur-themed media, that I'm actually happy to see this one. It also has a somewhat 02-era Armour Digivolution vibe going on, no?

 6/10.

Toropiamon

Interestingly, Parasaurmon has two Perfects designed for it! Toropiamon (or Tropiamon, I guess?) is the more natural evolution, basically being a dinosaur-dragon made up of a bunch of plant parts. I love, by the way, the fact that its neck collar and neck is specifically based on the Titan Arum, the world's largest flower. There's a lot of cool stuff going on here -- the pineapple 'greaves', the nose-horns looking like flower steamen, the flower neck and flower head, the leaf wings, the tips of the tail... it does admittedly could stand to lose maybe one or two details, but it's also meant to represent the vibrancy of a flowering rainforest or something... and when a design is cluttered because it fits with the theme? I can actually get behind that. 

It's described as actually being pretty poisonous despite its colourful appearance. Pretty cool, overall. Digimon's got a fair amount of plant-themed monsters, but plant-animal fusions... I don't think we've got a lot of them. Petaldramon was one, and Toropiamon here can hang out with him now, too. 

 8/10.

Entmon

Interestingly, Toropiamon comes with its own 'SkullGreymon' style evil evolution! Entmon draws its name from Lord of the Rings' Ents, but it has nothing to do with those gentle giant tree-folk! Entmon is basically an evil undead dragon with stocky tusks and legs, and I do love that those wings are actually like, autumnal leaves, and that its bony appearance are actually gnarled, knobbed tree branches. Also love the little detail that its tail has an angry chomper mouth at its end, and apparently it's just shedding flies and spiders all around. The bio explicitly notes that the swarms of evil insects serve as muscles that allow Entmon to move at all! Quoting the bio: "it is terrifying to see the insects spill out of the joints all over its body each time it takes off with its dead-leaf wings". 

So yeah, we've got a fucking walking doom-death plant dragon monster. I could elaborate more, but I won't. I love this thing. It is interesting that both Entmon and Tropiamon are both merely Perfect-level, considering how visually epic they are. 

 9/10.

Mimicmon

Another one that I really liked is this Adult-level Digimon. Sort of reminds me of the simple 'just a metallic thing with arms' design like Nanomon, MetalMamemon or Giromon in the past, Mimicmon is significantly more elaborate! Its central body is a cage with what appears to be some glitchy creature trapped inside -- we get to see a bunch of seemingly contradictory animal parts poke out of the dark silhouette with a single eyeball visible, and the two chunky arms end in different-looking appendages. One is a chunky flamethrower, and the other is an arm that wields the ball-and-chain that was presumably part of its cage. 

That's because Mimicmon is identified to have been mutated from security software, and basically fused with a virus program that it has captured... multiple virus Digimons, in fact, and all the different appendages we see are taken from all the virus Digimon it's captured. It's Norton Antivirus if it fuses with the virus it captures! A very, very cool design overall, and a fresh take on the 'Chimeramon' style Digimon that feels fresh and bizarre. 

 9/10.

DoneDevimon

Okay, this is a bit interesting! DoneDevimon (sometimes DanDevimon) is an Ultimate-form variant of Devimon who consumed a bit too much negative data and goes insane... typical supervillain stuff. This one definitely shows up in the anime, because I've seen screenshots of this guy. He's also basically Devimon mixed with Venom from Marvel comics, yeah? Look at that pose and that face. Except unlike Venom (who's a musclebound buff guy) DoneDevimon is lanky and creepy. And, of course, there's also those two giant cloud-shadow arms that burst out of his back. I think I personally prefer DoneDevimon without those creepy giant arms and just kept him as spindly devil-Venom, but either way he's pretty neat! It's not my favourite thing on this page, but it's a pretty all right design. 

 7/10.

Eyesmon

This is an Adult-level? Really? It looks so much more badass than what I would expect from an Adult-level! Maybe it's Full Metal Alchemist that really made me think that giant amorphous jagged swirls of shadow with eyeballs are creepy and scary. Eyesmon is basically like Pride from that series, except arrange din a more... lupine (?) form? I love it. It's so creepy, just a mass of jagged eyes that takes the form of a spectral fox-dog-demon-ghost thing. The designers clearly like Eyesmon, because the bio notes that those eyes basically represent the data it collects, and depending on how much data it stores, it can even match the power of a Perfect-level. Cool!

The picture on the right is "Eyesmon: Scatter Mode", also identified as an Adult-level, and apparently Eyesmon can scatter itself into these smaller, simpler wraiths to run around and collect data before converging back into the main body. It's honestly not an original trope to Eyesmon, but it looks cool, and I'm certainly a fan of this one. 

 8/10.

Nidhoggmon

Eyesmon evolves into Orochimon, apparently? Which doesn't really have much to do aesthetically with Eyesmon, but then it apparently further-evolves into this Ultimate-level Digimon! Nidhoggmon, named after the dragon Nidhoggr of Norse mythology. This is its Ultimate form and... and it's pretty cool! I can kinda see a somewhat Ultraman or Godzilla enemy-esque vibe to this guy, with its creepy, stretched-out head with tiny beady eyes, glowing alien crystal wings, and a body that's just a mass of undulating, tapering... vines? Vessels? Those glowing yellow parts of its serpentine body are, presumably, its equivalent to eyes. 

It's not my favourite design on this page, but it's most certainly a cool looking alien kaiju monster. The idea is that Nidhoggmon is basically just constantly consuming and destroying things, and is slowly overheating and at a danger of blowing itself up. Okay, Burning Godzilla. 

 6/10.

Sunarizamon

A pretty cool guy! Another one that comes from the same game that introduces Pomumon and Sangomon above is Sunarizamon here, whose name basically means 'sand lizard'. It's... it's a lizard made up of sand! I like the artwork, though if you didn't tell me that it's sand I would've thought that it's some sort of sticky marsh goop. I do like the idea here that they manifest out of the sand like Sandman, and I like the description that it's able to use sand to transform, expand and contract its limbs. 

Again... I like a lot of the direction that the Digimon in this era has been going. Honestly, they actually do feel like someone put some actual thought into the type of creatures that would live and evolve in the Digital World. 

 8/10.

Baboongamon

The wiki tells me that Sunarizamon's evolutions are old-school guys like Golemon, Tortamon and Gokimon/Roachmon. The first two make sense, and the last one, I'm assuming, is the 'failure' digivolution. But the form that seems to be designed for it is Baboongamon. Which... is a giant muscular angry baboon who has a bunch of rocks cover up parts of its body. I guess that's the connection between Sunarizamon and Baboongamon? It's got rocks replacing its organs? Not quite as cohesive as Pomumon or Sangomon, but, 'kay, sure. 

Baboongamon is an all-right design. I like its face the most, with the rocks forming an eyeless helmet that shows off the baboon's distinctive red snout. If we're honest this guy's design is really not my thing, and either Golemon or Tortamon really makes for a more 'natural' evolution if we're comparing them side-by-side for Sunarizamon, but I don't hate this design. 

 6/10.

Gogmamon

Even the Perfect-form Gogmamon really looks like it's connected more to Golemon, doesn't it? Gogmamon was apparently straight-up called GrandGolemon in development, so I'm going to assume that the designers originally made Sunarizamon and Gogmamon as the Child and Perfect forms for Golemon, but then decided to give the line an extra original Adult-mode mid-part? That's neat.

Gogmamon is a pretty cool earth elemental style monster. It's got a pretty creepy Digimon mosnter face, it's got pretty cool rocky spikes -- I like the two jutting out of his back and just how pillar-like his lower arms are. Not sure about the massive mass of red spiky hair, but I also acknowledge how many of the old-school Digimon have that feature, so I'll let it slide. It sure is a huge bruiser-looking monster, and I like the little detail that it apparently photosynthesizes with crystals. 

 7/10.

Baluchimon

Named after the prehistoric rhinoceros predecessor Baluchitherium (now classified as part of Paraceratherium), Baluchimon here is the 'living' version of SkullBaluchimon, a rather obscure Digimon who I only remember because he was a boss in Digimon World Dawn/Dusk. SkullBaluchimon exists and he sure is a giant skeleton monster, but we finally get to see Baluchimon! That's so cool, and that's so obscure that I'm sure not a lot of people even care. But tegardless, I really do like that it's basically adapting a prehistoric animal in the same style as Bakumon or Maildramon or Pegasmon -- the 'holy beast' Digimon. I like that a lot! I really like that from a world-building part. Also, this is an Adult-level. I thought it was a Child! The concept art notes that Baluchimon is basically designed as an evolution of Bakumon, though the wiki itself doesn't note any game as of yet that allows this evolution. 

Baluchimon's backstory is that it's a bunch of protectors of an ancient ruin once used by Angel-type Digimon, and they're just quiet-but-powerful guardians of ruins, using their illusion powers to drive people away. Not particularly memorable, but also I do like how well it fits into the ranks of the old-school Digimon. If you showed this to me and told me that this was a background Digimon in 02 or Frontier, I wouldn't question it. Which, I feel, is definitely a mark of a successful modern Digimon design. 

 7/10.

Manticoremon

So... the good version of Devidramon? I think? The Perfect-level Manticoremon is a Demon Beast Digimon that is also bred by Angel-type Digimon to explicitly hunt down Virus Digimon. Interesting! Its wings extending from the sides of its head does resemble less devil-y Digimon like Airdramon, but it just looks like a feral creature! I love just how nasty those arms are, with the fingers arranged like spiky flower petals and a fanged maw on each palm. The 'manticore' part is also given a nod with its scorpion tails.

The concept art (the same one I linked from Baluchimon) identifies Manticoremon as an evolution or alternate counterpart to Gargomon, one of my favourite armour Digivolutoins, and I can actually see that. 

 8/10.

Piranimon

We're just jumping around a bit here, and Piranimon here is an interesting one! Back in 2003, we get the debut of MetalPiranimon, who's an Ultimate-class Digimon that's this pretty cool giant robot-metal piranha monster with a flail tail. It's honestly a bit randomly tossed into the pool of available Ultimate-level evolutions, and doesn't have anything to do with the likes of Cannonbeemon or Hisyaryumon or Gigaseadramon or whoever. 

And now we get regular Piranimon, almost two decades after MetalPiranimon's debut! Piranimon is the Perfect-class pre-evolution. Piranimon here looks so, so much more feral. I love that it's got a regular set of fangs, and then a secondary organic chitin 'armour' helmet around its head, and I love that said armour basically extends into two lower-horn-mandible things. I love the fact that its tail is just a rusty hook with barbed wires coiled around it, and it's got a skull-and-crossbones. It just looks so scrappy, like someone just designed the most metal and brutal looking fish ever. Love this guy, it's a fierce-looking fish!

 9/10.

Ghostmon

Ghostmon here doesn't particularly tie himself to any pre-existing Digimon, but the design is basically the same sort of burning puppet-style stitched-up grinning skeleton mouth shared by Meramon, Candlemon, Wizardmon, Pumpmon and a bunch of others, so this Child-level Digimon most certainly does feel like it fits into the ranks of the old-school 'Nightmare Soldiers'. It's described as being kind-hearted but shy, so it helps people while being invisible. 

A bit weird, but I'm most certainly not opposed to having another cute little spookster. It's a cutie. It's got a cute hat and it's on fire, and the wiki notes that this guy's specifically associated with the relatively more obscure Witchmon. Interesting!

 7/10.

HeavyLeomon

What is it with making Leomon evolutions into cyborgs? We've got GrappuLeomon, LoaderLeomon and probably a couple others I'm not thinking of? HeavyLeomon is an Ultimate-level and, I guess, the 'natural' evolution of GrappuLeomon? Who I mostly remember from Dawn/Dusk? We already have a bunch of more well-known Ultimate-level Leomon evolutions that are a fair bit more prominent. SaberLeomon, BanchoLeomon, even Marsmon if we're being technical. But okay, sure. This guy does look like he probably belongs in some huge mecha show, like an exaggerated Gridman mecha or something. It sure is a lion-themed robot. I don't have much to say here, I did get excited for Baluchimon and the Sunarizamon/Gogmamon combo filling up evolutionary lines, so someone out there that really likes GrappuLeomon probably appreciates this guy.

 3/10.

Mitamamon

An Ultimatel-level Digimon that's based on the Uka-no-Mitama, a Japanese deity, Mitamamon here looks... it looks like a pretty neat godly-beast Digimon. It's what Tylinmon/Qirinmon would evolve into if they kept the Asian theme instead of randomly becoming Sleipmon, I suppose. It sure does look like a bigger, more fancier looking Kudamon, a long fox spirit that rides on flaming wheels. The bio seems to describe Mitamamon as basically lacking physical form and being essentially a ghostly apparition and symbolism of the four elements? And that it escorts souls and stuff? Okay. It looks neat, at least. 

 5/10.

Komondomon

A GOOD BOY! This cute little fuzzy fluffy dog is apparently identified as a machine. But it's a doggo! And it's so cute! Apparently it's a transport Digimon. It's apparently a giant bus or truck-sized huge doggo? Okay, sure! It's apparently even able to dive underwater by spinning its tail. It's basically an organic version of the Trainmon from Frontier, I guess, which I find adorable. A bit bizarre that they took a look at the Komondor dog breed and decided that 'hey, let's make this a transport Digimon', but okay, sure! 

 6/10.

Junkmon

This Child-level guy is a Puppet Digimon that's... it's just kinda weird all around, yeah? It's got a beaver head and tail and claws, but it's got wheels instead of hind legs. I guess it's a puppet, too, you could see the stitches, but it's got metallic parts like a junk tank cannon and the wheels and stuff? Interesting, so it's a puppet that gathers junk, shoves them into his cannon, and then shoots junk at people. Okay! I like it, kind of. It's a bit weird, and I kinda wished it was more mechanical-themed, but I suppose something born out of a junkyard wouldn't look quite as cohesive. 

Unlike the other brand-new Child-stages, I don't think Junkmon has a properly-dedicated evolutionary line. He can evolve into Komondomon above or Machmon below, as well as Minotaurmon for some reason? I do like it, though -- Minotaurmon aside, the other two available Adult-stages for Junkmon are vaguely vehicular cyborg monsters. 

 6/10.

Machmon

Yeah, this guy looks like someone took good ol' Megadramon's head and fused it with the most 90's X-TREEM Ghost Rider pimped-out bike ever. God damn, Beelzebumon wishes his bike was as cool as Machmon. Speaking of the 90's... yeah, this guy really does feel like an old-school Digimon in its aesthetic, yeah? Creepy fleshy body parts surrounded by metallic cyborg augmentations? Except instead of humanoid or animalistic designs like Andromon, Megadramon or MetalTyrannomon, Machmon doesn't give a shit and wants to be a bike. I like just how metal everything looks. Spikes! Horns! Spines! It's personality is simple, just an angry motorbike-and-motorbike-punk in a single package. I like it. It's so silly and over-the-top. 

 8/10.

Rebellimon

Machmon's Perfect-mode evolution is still a vehicle-themed cyborg, but it's got a humanoid body this time around. It's almost kinda-sorta like an Ogremon, if you squint, except it's got a big-ass mohawk, a Mad Max mouth-mask, and its arms are replaced with giant mean-looking rusty implements. A double buzzsaw on one hand and a spiky knuckle on another. And Rebellimon just has a bunch of motorbike parts grafted onto it! I love this guy, he looks like a psychotic cyborg from the 90's. Apparently, it evolved from a Digimon at the brink of death that absorbs junk data, and it runs around as the leader of Machmon gangs. I like that Junkmon, Machmon and Rebellimon sort of form this combination of wheeled junkyard cyborgs. This guy would fit right at home in Warhammer 40K, and I mean that as a compliment. 

Look at the concept art, too. (Which also indicate that this guy was originally called 'MetalOgremon' in development). Rebellimon originally had four spider-like legs and a crotch-mouth! As funny as that would've been, I like the final design better, which fits the whole 'junkyard cyborg biker gang' theme. 

 8/10.

LovelyAngemon

An Ultimate-mode Angemon? It, uh... it's like a Sailor Moon, I guess? I like that she's apparently a well-known close combat specialist and she's cheerful while she beats her enemies up. She's less of an angelic Digimon and more of a design that befits more of a human character, if we're being honest. And... again, I don't think I minded as much when it was like Frontier where we had humans getting armour and turning into Digimon. But this is apparently an evolution of Angewomon that looks even less like an angel. Eh? The 2020-2021 batch has so many designs that I feel fit the Digimon mould so well compared to the deluge of dragon-men, robot-dragon-men and anime-waifus that having those be the minority is honestly kind of a surprise this time around. 

 2/10.

Morphomon

I think this guy is the star of the final Digimon Adventure movie? Or something? I certainly haven't read the synopses of that movie. It sure is a cute little friend with butterfly wings. It's blue, like the Morpho butterfly! I kinda like that the butterfly wings become its sleeves. It isn't quite buggy enough to be a proper butterfly-themed Digimon, but I guess it's more of a weird butterfly-fairy? I do have to hand it to the designers, at least they made the wings extend from Morphomon's ears. If it had just sprouted from Morphomon's back like a generic fairy, I wouldn't have cared that much for him. As it is... maybe the movie will make me like him? 

 3/10.

Eosmon (Adult, Perfect & Ultimate)

And then we've got these guys, Eosmon (Adult), Eosmon (Perfect) and Eosmon (Ultimate). They're like, Morphomon, but robotic and digital, and they have hexagonal wings. Judging by the look, they are kinda inspired by Savers' Gizmon, perhaps? Drawing their names from the Eos of Greek myths (Titan of the dawn), these are all right designs, I suppose -- they seem pretty obviously supposed to be 'artificial Digimon. I honestly don't really care for the adult and ultimate forms -- the former  feels pretty bland and the latter is kind of a generic humanoid-looking enemy I seldom care for. But Eosmon Perfect is pretty cool. I like the weird hexagon-tentacle arms, and the wings look the coolest there. 

Again, I think my opinions may or may not change depending on whether Eosmon is an interesting character in the Kizuna movie or whatever. Its profiles basically just talk about how they're created by a researcher as part of a attempt to create artificial Digimon. Apparently Ultimate Eosmon has a giant abdomen that generates even more Eosmon? That's neat, I guess, it's a queen bee or something.

 5/10.

RareRaremon

Thanks to the commenter Chalicothere who made me aware that I actually missed a bunch of extra Digimon, and one of them is this gloriously disgusting RareRaremon! As I've been seeing all throughout this page, 2020 and 2021 is pretty good at trying to supplement a lot of classic one-off Digimon with new evolutions or pre-evolutions. RareRaremon here is the Perfect evolution of Raremon... and it's pretty interesting that this still looks like an evolution of Raremon despite not really having too much in common. This guy is not even the same colour! RareRaremon's lower body is just a mass of green globs with a bunch of hands, teeth and cyborg eyes poking out of various parts. You go up the body a bit and you get a bunch of blobby giant mouths that also look like they serve as arms of sort? It's like a Gibbering Mouther, one of my favourite D&D monsters!

And then you get the 'main' head, which is, yes, let's get it out of the way -- it does look a bit phallic. The black part is just filled with metal plates, with a big central toothy grin, but also a bunch of other little eyes and mouths dotted all over the metal part. Again, makes sense since the original Raremon always had some cyborg parts on it! I do have to applaud that for a 'mass of many features amalgamated into one' monster, we actually have a 'face' of sorts for the audience to hone into, which is the central big mouth and the eyeball on the lower jaw. I love that there's also a vague Tokusatsu-monster vibe to this thing's silhouette, you could totally see this being played with a suit actor within as RareRaremon goes off to fight Godzilla or Ultraman or a Sentai mecha. 

The lore of RareRaremon is also sufficiently grisly, noting that the body of RareRaremon constantly breaks down and reconstitutes itself, and the eyes and mouths on its body keep emerging and decaying. Such a nasty depiction of the evolution of a monster whose whole concept was being the nasty 'zombie' of decayed, flawed data. As you'd expect, it survives by consuming other Digimon and digesting their data, but it's just a stopgap. The noxious smoke it emits is apparently so foul and terrifying that even Ultimate-level Digimon avoid it. Pretty cool!

 9/10.

Potamon

Not particularly going in any order here, Potamon here is an Adult-level Digimon who is created from the 'data of all kinds of fries', and its existence solely revolves around that. It wants to spread the good news of how delicious potatoes are, and it will attack enemies with its 'Bashed Potato', essentially to force the critics to apologize and accept how tasty food is. Design-wise it's honestly kind of forgettable, the sort of Digimon that would be a vendor NPC in a Digimon World game. Sure, it's got potato hair? But the lore of someone who goes around yelling 'have you heard of our lord and saviour French Fries'? That's kinda cute. Apparently it's rivals with a Digimon I remember from Frontier, Burgamon. Neat!

 4/10.

Hiyarimon

Okay, this one is pretty cute. Hiyarimon ('hiyari' means 'chilly') evolves from YukimiBotamon and it's just a cute little chibi dinosaur made up of snow, but his snout and claws are made out of ice. It's meant to be the canon Baby 2 form of Bulucomon, the ice dinosaur-dragon we reviewed a couple pages ago. And honestly? Hiyarimon is pretty cute! Not a huge fan of the Cubchoo-style snot bubble, though it's kind of a running theme among many Japanese character designs to denote immaturity. 

 5/10.

FrosVelgrmon

It's interesting that this is presented to us as a variant of Velgrmon, who, to those who might need a refresher, was the beast evolution of the warrior of darkness in Frontier. And beyond being a giant bird, there's... really not much in common? FrosVelgrmon is a very fancy Ultimate-level Digimon, though! It's a giant peacock with a pretty fancy tail, two pairs of wings, and a very cool ice mask as its upper face. FrosVelgrmon's lore is not the most creative, admittedly, just being a mystical being that lives in snowy mountains and rescues worthy travelers... though it will also personally execute anyone who's evil. 

Kind of interesting in that, at the time of writing, its evolutions have nothing to do with Velgrmon, and FrosVelgrmon instead evolves from the ice-themed Perfects Crescemon, Daipenmon or Panjyamon. Out of the three, hilariously, Daipenmon is probably the most appropriate (and hilarious), being an ice-themed avian Digimon. 

 8/10.

Frozomon

Wait, this is not a variant of Locomon? It looks just like Locomon! Just themed as an icebreaker train. Do icebreaker trains exist in real life? I know icebreaker ships do, but regardless, it's a pretty cool robot Digimon. Missile pods on its sides, two hands (one of which ending with a red-hot blade), and a bunch of armaments on the front end... No, wait, he's not a train, he's an ice-clearing tank, huh? The smokestack behind threw me off. It basically goes around rescuing people. Not the most memorable thing on this page, but still a very solid design. 

 5/10.

KoDokugumon [Child]

AAAAAAA look at this cute bebe spider! Dokugumon is one of the more forgotten Adult-level Digimon that I've always had a love for (one of my very first Digimon episodes was the Dokugumon episode). Dokugumon has a bunch of little baby helpers, the KoDokugumons, which act as his minions. The original KoDokugumon is basically just Dokugumon stripped of details. And then they made this guy to bridge the 'Baby' and 'Adult' stages. I love him! I love his multiple eyes, I love that the lines in-between the two central eyeballs resemble a cat-smile.  I love the metallic mandible, and, most of all, I love the giant gloves with the cute little skulls on it. 

Honestly, it's just a smaller Dokugumon, but I really like it. I also like that it stands as its own unique design as compared to the original Baby KoDokugumon. I love the little description that this KoDokugumon has to wear poison gloves because it's not strong enough to produce proper venom of its own. A cutie!

 8/10.

Click below the break for Pulsemon and friends, and some 'repaints'!

A bunch of them -- Aequcedramon, Pyontomon, Rurimon and Ganvivormon -- don't have bios at the time of writing, so I won't be talking about them.

Dokimon & Bibimon

I think we're almost done! We just get a last batch of around a dozen Digimon that evolves from these two guys, Dokimon and Bibimon, from the Vital Bracelet V-pet. These two are neat, I suppose, though they kinda feel a bit similar to Filmon's Baby forms. Dokimon apparently vibrates a lot and Bibimon is all about static electricity. Not much to write home about, at this point I really don't have much left to talk about Baby stages. 

 3/10.

Pulsemon

And here's Pulsemon, the Child-level. It's... it's kind of like a electric-themed Veemon, I guess? The colours are nice, the yellows and bright greens and stuff. Not a huge fan of the boots, but he does look like he probably would be a decent 'main character' partner Digimon like Shoutmon or Veemon. Not the biggest fan of him, but he's not terrible? The colours are all right. Pulsemon apparently is born out of data from hospitals and gyms, which is kind of a bizarre combination of themes for an electric-based gremlin. Inoffensive, I think.

 4/10.

Bulkmon & Runnermon

Bulkmon seems to be the default Adult evolution for Pulsemon, because it's basically the same design, but as a scary musclebound lizardman. It's the Greymon to Pulsemon's Agumon, basically. Again, it's a'ight. I don't particularly care too much, but it's kind of interesting because Bulkmon here is basically the evolution of Pulsemon after getting the 'data of a body composition monitor'. It's swole because it got data from gym equipment! It's the 'strength' evolution, apparently. Okay, sure.

An alternate Adult evolution is Runnermon, who's basically a white wolf-tiger creature with Pulsemon's gloves and a helmet. Okay, so these guys are like Armor evolutions, then? Runnermon is sort of like the Raidramon? Runnermon evolves from data from a treadmill, and can run really fast. It's kind of neat. Again, these designs individually don't do much for me, but there's enough of an interesting concept with the next couple of designs that these two get elevated a bit for being part of a set. 

 4/10.

Exermon & Namakemon

Two more possible Adult evolutions for Pulsemon are these guys. Exermon is... it's a yoga ant! It doesn't really look anything like Pulsemon other than sharing its colour scheme and eyes, I guess, but it's a yoga ant man! Okay, sure. Apparently it practices martial arts based on mollusk movement. And he's not floating, he's actually balancing himself on the tip of his stinger. He sure is an ant-man, but... but I find that I really don't care all that much? I'm not sure why. It's more interesting than the previous two, but even in Digimon I've seen much more interesting bug monsters.

Namakemon, on the other hand, is... interesting? It's the Numemon/Sukamon equivalent of this evolution line, the puppet Digimon that is a useless Adult-level that is lazy, useless in battle and throws poop around. Okay, it's a weird sloth puppet? I do like the claws, and how that one lower leg has the claw pierce out of a sock, as if Namakemon so doesn't give a shit about exercise like the rest of its evolutionary line. He's pretty charming, though I'm not sure why a sloth has Joker hairstyle. Okay, sure. 

 5/10.

Boutmon & Tempomon

Pulsemon has four possible Adults, and those Adults have six possible Perfects they can turn into. And... if you can't tell, I don't particularly care for these two. Boutmon is a martial artist, and seems to be the 'basic' evolution. He sure is a karate robot.

Tempomon is a lot cooler by virtue of having a Penmon hoodie, and that we only see two glowing eyes. And he's doing a cool pose. He's enhanced by dance music data and dance-fights. Okay, sure, again, there's a whole slew of sports themes for the Pulseman line. 

 3/10.

Pistmon & Divemon

At least not all of them are boring! Pistmon is about cycling, and what a hilarious design he is! I love how the upper humanoid body (which looks like some sort of Evangelion, or that might just be me misremembering a meme) just tapers off into some sort of mermaid-centaur thing connected to the bicycle. And the bicycle wheels are just powered with magnets or electricity or something. It's also identified explicitly as a plant. Okay, I guess the lower 'mermaid' body is like a flower? And the wheels are thorns? Very interesting design. Still kind of bizarre, but in a good way. 

Divemon is just a hammerhead shark fish-person. Which... which is interesting enough for me, honestly. It's just the dynamic pose and me just liking sharks. Not much to say, it sure is a shark-man who swims, and he looks pretty friendly. 

 6/10.

Shootmon & Climbmon

Again, I do appreciate that at least the Perfect forms are allowed to look a bit more creative. Pistmon and Divemon are all right, but these two are probably my favourites out of the rather long Pulsemon line. Which is to say... they're never going to be my favourite Digimon, but they're all right! Shootmon brings strong Mamemon vibes to the whole thing, with that grin, those springy legs and apparently it just carries around a big fuck-off cannon that shoots all sorts of sports balls at the enemy. You know what? That's kinda funny. I like it. Not sure why these guys are all Perfect-form, but okay.

It's not quite as one-to-one, but Climbmon shares Exermon's insectoid theme. He's a much cooler insect robot monster, with two of his arms ending in giant scythes, a second pair holding oversized kunai, and... and he's got a fun bright pink like suspenders or soemthing. All the others are based on sports which makes sense for Pulsemon being born out of gym data. I guess the gym also gives ninja training, because Climbmon, despite his name, looks more like a ninja insect parody than rock-climbing. These are a'ight. 

 7/10.

Kaduchimon & Shivamon

We've got four Ultimates out of six Perfects. Kaduchimon is, again, feels like the most basic of the four, being essentially Pulsemon but bigger, with armour and lightning blades. It sure is a giant zappy Gundam, and the bio is a pretty boring one talking about how it's a war god. Not my kinda thing. Shivamon is another Ultimate, and I think the one associated with the 'insect' evolutions (Exermon and Climbmon), but it's basically just a robot person doing yoga on top of a lotus. It sure is a 'Shiva' Digimon. I don't particularly care too much for it. They're drawn well, I guess. 

 2/10.

Achilesmon & Shroudmon

Yeah, I really don't care for any of these guys. Achillesmon at least follows through with the sports theme, though it's basically just a robotic version of a Greek athlete, with particularly exaggerated Hermes boot-wings. I honestly can't say anything here other than 'the art's nice'. 

And our final Ultimamte is Shroudmon, who's... I guess he's the epitome of... evil sports? Or some shit? Bloodlust and fighting, I guess. It's a pretty all right demon design, I like that the central spine is just a massive gout of fire, and the artwork for his gauntlets with the chains are cool. It's the coolest out of the four Pulsemon ultimates by default, I guess. Again, I honestly find it hard to really say anything about these Ultimate-levels. It's cool that they're trying something new, though, and I really didn't mean to sound so down and jerky about them. 

 3/10.

Omedamon

Honestly, as far as the obligatory Omegamon variant, this one isn't bad? I mean, it's still basically a white-coloured Ultraman knight person with a giant cannon on one hand and a giant sword on the other. Oh, they swapped colours and elements, and there's like, uh... chibi Megaman-looking heads on the shoulders? The appearance is apparently because this is a crossover design with Medabots, and is a combination of two characters from that franchise who fuse Omegamon-style. It's probably pretty cool to someone out there who likes both franchises. I am mostly indifferent, it's a pretty all right robot-warrior design, but we've got lots of those in Digimon. 

 5/10.

DarkMaildramon

??? Okay? Maildramon gets a black repaint? We haven't gotten a black repaint in a while. I do like that they gave DarkMaildramon some tattered wings, at least. It's a pretty cool-looking dark knight dinosaur dragon monster, I guess. The bio is basically a reverse-unicorn situation, where DarkMaildramon will only allow evil Knightmon to ride them. So... SkullKnightmon? 

 3/10.

MetalGreymon: Alterous Mode

I mean, didn't we already have a MetalGreymon with a big fuck-off railgun in RizeGreymon? This is just regular MetalGreymon, and I've always liked MetalGreymon's proportions. This is just MetalGreymon with a big 'Alterous' cannon. Sure, it looks cool I guess.

 3/10.

WereGarurumon: Sagittarius Mode

WereGarurumon looks a bit more different, but it's basically just regular WereGarurumon with a jetpack. It's a neat-looking Gundam jetpack that has cool glowing blue wings and shoots lasers. I guess this actually works as a middle ground that explains why WereGarurumon goes from 'badass punk werewolf' to a robotic cyborg wolf? He finds a jetpack at some point? Sure. I guess it's just a way for them to toss in new forms... but it's just WereGarurumon with an accessory. 

 3/10.

Agumon: Yuki no Kizuna

Not sure what's going on, maybe I'll like it better when I see it animated? It's like... uh... a Greymon-themed warrior man with WarGreymon gauntlets? The concept, I think, is kind of similar to Agumon Burst Mode or whatever from Savers, but with the Crest of Courage. Okay, sure, it sure has a bunch of flaming wings or something. I really want to get a bit more excited about this, but we've gone through probably a dozen different humanoid Greymon/Agumon evolutions that this one just feels very underwhelming. 

 1/10.

Gabumon: Yujo no Kizuna

Ditto for this one. Just from these still images, this one looks cooler than Agumon: Yuki no Kizuna? Might have been the wings, or the neat neon pink lines. It kinda looks a bit like one of the Gaogamon forms or Lobomon forms, but a bit more streamlined? I like the jetpack and arm lasers. This guy can apparently transform into a motorbike? Okay, sure. I really kind of want to be a bit more excited about these Agumon/Gabumon new forms, but I really can't bring myself to get super excited. 

 3/10.