In late 2021, after the Digimon Adventure 2020 reboot, Digimon has its 9th anime series -- Digimon Ghost Game. Which, full disclosure, I've only watched the first couple of episodes of. But I will still do these reviews otherwise I don't get to talk about Digimon at all!
The concept is interesting, playing off an 'urban horror' vibe that Digimon does do quite well -- the earlier animes do this quite a bit, and the setting of Ghost Game takes place in a futuristic society with holograms and AI... which leads to 'hologram ghosts', that turn out to of course be good old Digimon. It's an interesting twist at least on paper, and the show was highly episodic which actually might make it a good background show for me to watch while work threatens to kill me.
From what I've heard, Ghost Game is a pretty nice show, particularly on the week-to-week basis? I did watch the first episode, where the manifestation of Digimon ends up causing things that look like supernatural incidents to the humans... with them making motherfucking Clockmon of all things actually feel scary. They actually make great use of the 'sewn-mouth' aesthetic that a lot of the '90's Digimon have, which I thought was pretty cool!
Again, the big caveat here is that I haven't watched Ghost Game yet, and so I'm likely to return here and redo some of these reviews once I have... which may be next year, or it might take me another 5 years!
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Also... I've been doing this for the past, well, 5 years. But here is a full list of all the Digimon, at least until where I've stopped reviewing them, and links to the page that I reviewed them in:
Do you know how much I appreciate Pokemon's numbering system? It might not always make sense, but boy oh boy, Digimon's classification system sure is something! The Digimon Reference Book finally sitting down and giving all the Xros Wars cast a level was what finally got me to sit down and finish this list!
(The X-Antibody reviews, by the way, have all been given their own separate pages: X-Mon I and X-Mon II. This includes Baalmon-X and a couple of stray new ones, but otherwise I really freed up the very cluttered episodes 29-33.)
(Speaking of decluttering, I've also split off chunks off of some Frontier-era and Savers-era posts and made a new 'Episode 30.5' and a new 'Episode 37.5' to let some of the articles breathe. I may do a re-numbering at some point, since we're getting a couple of these.
None of the reviews themselves have changed too much other than the formatting and location. I am aiming for somewhere of a 15-20 maximum entries for each page, which was a huge reason why I split up the original Pulsemon article into what's now 3 articles.)
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Curimon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby I
- Type: Lesser
- Attribute: None
One of the things that I don't really care for new protagonists in an anime is that we inevitably get a slew of very specific Baby I and Baby II stages that can't conceivably evolve into any other Child-level, since they just look like the iconic Child stage... but just the head. It's particularly bad when some of them don't even have anime appearances to make them memorable.
Curimon's... serviceable, a white blob with a tiny horn and a strange spiky plate. It's a nice nod to what's about to come next, but on its own Curimon's kind of bland.
5/10._________________________________________________________
Gurimon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby II
- Type: Lesser
- Attribute: None
Again, basically what you expect. It's just Gammamon's head, hopping around on its own, with more defined eyes and the head-crest taking the form of the child mode. Both Curimon and Gurimon like to bash their heads against rocks, which again is a nice nod to what the rest of the line is themed upon, but it does make the two babies feel very much like accessories.
Eh, it's cute enough. I've been a bit harsh on the babies in the past. Why did I do that? Babies are another one on the list of reviews that I need to revise.
8/10._________________________________________________________
Gammamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Child
- Type: Ceratopsian
- Attribute: Virus
And here we have the new main character mascot of the main 'gogglehead' of Ghost Game, the new Agumon/Veemon/Guilmon/Shoutmon/Gumdramon. It is, of course, another dinosaur-based baby, but I reasonably like this one quite a bit! It's based on a ceratopsian, and while it does have an anime monster-mouth instead of a beak, I actually like Gammamon's design a fair bit. It looks like it can go around on four legs while still raising itself up on two. I like the assymetry of the red ring/marking on one arm, and the head crest so visible on its baby forms are a lot nicer on a larger body. Not sure if he really needs that anime protagonist blue scarf, but it does bring in a nice bit of colour and the anime model makes it a lot less intrusive.
The whole theme of Ghost Game is occult and ghost stories, which seems to be the vogue in anime in the past couple of years with Dan Da Dan and Jujutsu Kaisen seeing particularly great success. We even got remakes of Nube and Persona 3! So picking a triceratops mascot instead of a spookier one isn't exactly something that fits into the theme. Gammamon is meant to be one of those 'space alien communication' type of occultism, though, as shown by the name of its evolutions. Which... isn't the most immediate thing that comes to mind for a triceratops, but there you go.
Gammamon is noted to be linked to 'digital signals that came from extragalactic space', and is normally reserved in regards to emotions until you reach out to it. Gammamon also has retractable bat wings that allow it to fly. From what little I've seen of Ghost Game, Gammamon is depicted as a very young 'little brother' to the main protagonist, with him going around going "Hi! I'm Gammamon!" at every opportunity which I thought was surprisingly adorable. While I tend to not be the biggest fan of the 'main' Mascotmons, I thought this one was genuinely cute!
8/10._________________________________________________________
BetelGammamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Dragon Man
- Attribute: Vaccine
Gammamon has a bunch of different Adult stages in the anime, and what seems to be its 'default' one is BetelGammamon. Which... yeah, it's the sort of design that I really don't care about, but has become kind of expected for a lot of these protagonist partners. It's Gammamon in all red, with a fully humanoid body except for the claws, and that cute little scarf has blossomed into a full-on Final Fantasy accessory. It shoots fire out of its fists, because of course it does.
BetelGammamon's attacks rises depending on its emotions, but that's just all anime characters. This is BetelGamammon's 'strong and fast' mode, which is... it's expected that we'd get one of these. It's inoffensive, for what it is. I like Gammamon's child and other Adult forms a lot better. He also kind of reminds me of Shoutmon, doesn't he? Even moreso with his anime model, where he doesn't have quite the 'muscular adult' proportions that the Reference Book gives him.
5/10._________________________________________________________
KausGammamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Dragon Man
- Attribute: Data
KausGammamon is the 'calm and clear minded' Gammamon evolution, and I really like the blue colouration here. Interestingly, his head has grown a lot more draconic or theropodal, making it look like one of those Veemons. KausGammamon's whole deal is that it's a flier, hence having a sugar-glider pair of membranes under his arms. But his thighs and pectorals have also seemingly evolved into cyborg exhaust vents. Now jets don't exactly work like that, but it's neat enough.
KausGammamon lacks all the hot-headed spirit of its BetelGamammon form, and moves calmly and directly to dodge opponent attacks. It's all right, and I like it slightly better than Betel, but not exactly 'my thing'.
6/10._________________________________________________________
WezenGammamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Ceratopsian
- Attribute: Data
Oh, this is a lot more 'my thing'! WezenGammamon is just a straight-up robot triceratops. It still has the shark-y mouth of regular Gammamon, but it's turned green, and its three horns have transformed into chunky pesudo-cannons. I like how mechanical the design is, and the obnoxious scarf has been turned into wrapping around WezenGammamon's tail. It appears to be strapping a sci-fi device to the tip of its tail. This tail device is jabbed into the ground to 'draw energy' from it, to empower the gigantic gun barrels that form its forehead horns.
WezenGamammon is explicitly an anti-aircraft cannon Digimon, being slow but very destructive. The bio even mentions that the tips of its feet are actually 'autocannons', which... I'm not sure how exactly does it fire them without being in an awkward position, but it can. This one is a bit too streamlined for me to like it as much as some classic robot/cyborg Digimon, the likes of Mugendramon or Tankmon or Megadramon, but I still like it a fair bit more than the other two adults.
7/10, could be 8._________________________________________________________
GulusGammamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Dragon Man
- Attribute: Virus
So we get a 'SkullGreymon' for Gammamon, although it's in the Adult-stage. Normally these things are in far more advanced stages! I also normally go through all entries in these 'branching' evolutions, but like the Dorugamons back in the day, I'll alternate between the "good" and "evil" forms as we progress through the evolution stages.
GulusGammamon is basically just BetelGammamon, but with a far cooler black-and-hot-pink colour scheme. Oh, and he's got a full cape. BetelGammamon, as expected from these 'evil' evolutions, is only interested in fighting and will fight whoever he gets in his sights to the death, and will continue fighting even as its limbs get broken.
I think it's about at this time that I probably should note in writing that every one of Gammamon's evolutions all draw their names and attacks from the names of stars. Betelgeuse, Regulus, Kaus... Anyway, it sure is an evil dragon man! These kinds of 'evil evolutions' tend to worm their way into my heart depending on how well the story is executed, but as it stands, on its own it's just a cooler BetelGamammon.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Canoweissmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Sky Dragon
- Attribute: Vaccine
Despite having three 'good' Adult evolutions, Gammamon's only got two Perfect forms, one for the 'good' and one for the 'bad' evolution. And Canoweissmon here is the good evolution. It sure is a dragon! It sure is a white and red dragon. I like that Gammamon's triceratops horns are still there on the head, which is something, at least. Its bio is... simple? It burns with flames of burning justice, and it is a Digimon all about justice.
I find it all right, as far as cool dragons go, but it's also a design that I feel without a strong association with the character I'll just eventually toss into a pile of 'samey' as a lot of the many, many draconic Digimon that never had a major role anywhere.
5/10._________________________________________________________
Regulusmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Evil Dragon
- Attribute: Virus
The dark evolution of GulusGammamon is an evil version of Canoweissmon, and it's a little bit more of an interesting anatomy with two pairs of wings and a gigantic shield for an arm. Regulusmon and Canoweissmon are both noted to be Perfects with the power of Ultimates, and Regulusmon in particular is compared to Megidramon of Tamers fame... which... yeah, I don't know, those are huge shoes to fill!
Regulusmon actually has some creativity in its abilities beyond just 'big shadow laser beam', because it unleashes an actual memory-rewriting computer virus called the GRB Factor. This causes Digimon it infects to go haywire and frenzied, similar to the Black Gears and Black Rings and other similar plot devices in the past... but interestingly, Regulusmon's abilities do not work on Digimon that have 'Black Digitron' on them, which are all those 'Black' variants of Digimon. That's a neat nod to the many, many Black variants we've had in the past.
The evil Gammamon forms end up being the final villains of Ghost Game. Again, this is something that may go up or down depending on execution, but currently as a set they don't impress me all that much.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Siriusmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Light Dragon
- Attribute: Vaccine
And honestly, as expected, the final Ultimate evolution for Gammamon is an Omegamon/Imperialdramon clone. Is this guy also part of the Royal Guards? Are we still doing that? It's a nice-looking enough robot knight man, and I actually like the use of hot pink for the details. While the artwork shows an Omegamon-style 'one sword hand, one gun hand' anatomy, the art implies that Siriusmon can extend those reverse-bayonet blades out, giving him gunblade arms. His profile just talks about him being a hero of justice, and that he has a lot of super-cool powers. I mean, it's what is expected, but it's also easily the fortieth time I've seen this.
Again, I'm putting a perfectly average score for this guy. Depending on how much I like Ghost Game this score might increase, but as it is, I think I've spoken quite enough about how samey I find the glut of 'robot dragon knights' of this franchise.
4/10._________________________________________________________
Arcturusmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Dragon Man
- Attribute: Virus
Regulusmon evolves even further into Arcturusmon, who is, again, a black-armour knight and a parallel to Siriusmon. Arcturusmon has drills for his arm melee weapons instead of bayonets. Sure. I actually like Siriusmon marginally better than this guy.
That Megidramon mention before made me yearn for the time in Tamers where we had the stark difference between Dukemon (or Gallantmon) and Megidramon. Just having the Adult, Perfect and Ultimate 'evil' stages all basically be near-repaints of each other really isn't anywhere as dramatic as how different those two designs (or MetalGreymon and SkullGreymon, to use the original archetype) are, yeah?
Anyway, Arcturusmon's lore notes that any Digimon infected and secreting GRB factor (which is the thing that its pre-evolved stage Regulusmon shoots at other Digimon) will ultimately evolve into Arcturusmon if pushed hard enough. And that Arcturusmon will cause a digital hazard when it manifests. Okay. As far as I can tell without looking at spoilers, it's the evil Arcturusmon that's the final villain of the show -- which would be interesting? I don't think we've had the superpowered evil main character as the main villain, so that would be new.
4/10._________________________________________________________
Proximamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Unique
- Attribute: Virus
Siriusmon and Arcturusmon can combine, actually, turning into this dragon-centaur robot called Proximamon. This sounds like the mega-final-ultimate form that is either a final boss, or the final form used to fight the final form. But as far as I can tell, surprisingly, Proximamon never made an appearance in the anime and have only showed up in video game spin-offs?
Proximamon's bio notes that it's a 'theoretical' prediction in a high-speed computing simulation, so it's not exactly a 'real' Digimon whose existence is confirmed. It has a duality of generating holy and evil energy, and constantly breaks down the digital matter around it and reconstructs them. That is a very cool 'final villain' or 'secret ultimate form' vibe, and the idea of disassembling the digital world into data and reconstructing it is a very nice eldritch-horror vibe unique to the digital world setting. Oh well.
The design is... it's a bit more interesting than any of its component forms, but that's really not saying much. I appreciate what they're going for here, and having a centaur body layout oes make it somewhat more unique, but ultimately it's not a design I really care for.
6/10._________________________________________________________
Oboromon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Undead
- Attribute: Virus
Ghost Game deals with the cast investigating creepy happenings that are mostly caused by spookster Digimon -- the likes of Mummymon and Bakemon acting like ghosts, or Reppamon and Yatagaramon being mistaken as their yokai counterparts. As the show goes on, we get a couple of new yokai! Again, these articles were written way before I've watched Ghost Game, so they're not really in any particular order.
Oboromon here is based on the oboroguruma, the 'hazy cart' yokai, a ghostly ox cart with a face on it. Oboromon... isn't actually a cart, but rather a skeletal wraith with a rather cool design. His spine just gives way into a giant ball of blue flame shaped like a skull, and one of his arms is the skull of a dragon holding a sword. He's got the garments of like a slain samurai, and his scarf trails off into purple flames.
How cool is that? This feels a lot more like a creepy 'ghost story' or 'urban legend' monster. Oboromon is described as a Digimon that lives in graveyards like a ghost, and it itself has no real sense of self -- being sluggish when outside of battle, before going into a berserker rage when it fights. Oboromon also talks suspiciously with the beast skull fused to its left arm. The blade is actually brittle, and smashes apart all the time... but it regenerates over and over every time it breaks. The vibe is less of an 'ox-cart yokai' but more of this tormented undead soul who can't find rest. Very neat, and I do like how 'old-school Digimon' this guy looks. It looks like it could really evolve naturally off of old, abandoned Musyamon, doesn't it?
8/10._________________________________________________________
Gyukimon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Demon Beast
- Attribute: Virus
Glorious. The Gyuki is a once-obscure yokai that has gained a lot of love in recent years thanks to modern anime, with Naruto's Killer Bee and One Piece's Saint Saturn both turning into monsters based on the 'ox-spider' yokai, the Gyuki or Ushi-oni. Gyukimon here is a great mixture of not just adapting the yokai, but throwing in a very Digimon twist to it! Like a lot of the great Digimon we've been discussing in the past couple of episodes, Gyukimon here brings in a lot of features of classic digimon while also having the nice modern details. And it's a 'spider-centaur', except the humanoid part is a minotaur
Or, specifically, a Minotaurmon. An emaciated, zombie-like Minotaurmon with rotting purple skin, but it's still got a cannon on his left arm. Gyukimon's Minotaurmon half has its eyes covered with seals, and it's got bandages wrapped all around its cannon and where it connects to the spider half, which gives the idea of a corpse that's being lashed together. And, of course, the lower spider half is straight-up just a black-and-red Dokugumon, with basically the same anatomy and Dokugumon's distinctive front legs arranged in a position where it could be grabbing those hair-locks. Love the seals slapped all over the body, and Gyukimon's abdomen has even got some creepy science experiment cylinders with green fluid stuck onto it.
Gyukimon is described by its profile as being super stealthy thanks to its spider legs, and is extremely ferocious when it gets its prey. Those bells on its horns only ring when Gyukimon attacks, making those who have been chased by a Gyukimon be super-duper paranoid about bells. That's all nice and good, but Ghost Game adds in an extra little wrinkle as well -- Gyukimon's venom slowly turns whatever they bite into more Gyukimon! That's like, Regulusmon's little gimmick up above, but it's way cooler on this undead franken-spider monster.
I do really like this. And it's always nice when new designs feel like they could naturally 'fit' in place as evolutions of older Digimon, with Gyukimon here being a nice stage up from both Minotarumon and Dokugumon, two very different classic Adult-stages, while also still homaging a specific yokai. That's cool! It also means that over a couple of years, good old Dokugumon has gotten a dedicated child stage in KoDokugumon and a more thematic perfect stage in Gyukimon, a nice and more monstrous alternative to Arukenimon!
10/10._________________________________________________________
Chamblemon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Plant
- Attribute: Virus
I keep forgetting Mushmon is a Child-stage, mostly because it debuted quite late into the Digimon Adventures anime and there were a lot of smallish plant/fungus-themed Digimon like Vegiemon, RedVegiemon, Floramon and Woodmon that all could be Child-stages due to their small size. (Only Floramon is, by the way, out of that list). But Mushmon gets a brand-new evolution... and Chamblemon here is... just a pink Mushmon. That's a bit lazy! Even its official art is just recoloured, with it being in the exact same pose.
Chamblemon (whose name draws from the Japanese pronunciation of champignon, French for mushroom) is noted to be particularly weak. They spread 'sweepore' spores and create parasitic mushrooms that drain prey of their energy... which Chamblemon then feeds on. Okay? Ghost Game actually features the animated debuts of a surprising number of 'repaint' Digimon from good old Digimon World, which I do appreciate, but I am surprised that they introduced a brand-new one?
A commenter had told me that Chamblemon is 'creepy for all the wrong reasons in Ghost Game'. At some point I will find out what this means.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Hiyarimon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby II
- Type: Lesser
- Attribute: None
We're going to close this off with a bunch of randoms introduced in various mobile games -- some of which made it into the newer anime and manga. I very much appreciate that unlike the glut of mobile game Digimon between 2010 and 2020, a lot of these feel more 'Digimon-like'.
Hiyarimon here didn't impress me when I reviewed it in 2020, but I've since gained a new appreciation for it... for the simple reason that we don't actually have a proper snow-themed Baby II! We do have a YukimiBotamon (SnowBotamon) as a Baby I, and Penmon or YukiAgumon (SnowAgumon) tends to be the ice-themed Child-level. I guess the newer Blucomon works too, and this might be meant to specifically tie in with the Blucomon line... but it's not immediately obvious. I find that to be the best kind of Baby Digimon, where it's not just the disembodied heads of the Child-level! Little Hiyarimon gets its own identity, a rarity among honestly most Baby Digimon released after 02.
It's an all-right baby. It's a little snow friend with chunky Mochimon arms, and a icy beak-mouth that's dribbling snot. Don't like the snot, but I do like the idea of what appears to be an icy creature covered in snow.
6/10._________________________________________________________
FrosVelgrmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Giant Bird
- Attribute: Virus
FrosVelgrmon, as far as I can tell, doesn't have anything to do with the original Velgrmon -- who was the Beast Evolution of Darkness in Digimon Frontier. There really isn't much in common, I don't think, other than being a giant bird.
FrosVelgrmon is a bit prettier, being a big ice peacock. The fancy tail gets all the attention, but I like that FrosVelgrmon has four wings, and a bunch of gems on its chest and a nice set of additional icy decorations around its head. It's not 'my thing' exactly, but it's a brand-new Ultimate that isn't just another dragon, knight, robot, or a combination of those three... so that absolutely gets some bonus points from me.
Personality-wise, FrosVelgrmon is a rare Digimon that appears in snowy regions and rescues those stranded on snowy mountains... but if you're unworthy, you get a peaceful freezing death. Which is a nice little 'edge' that this beautiful bird has. FrosVelgrmon isn't a concept that's particularly novel, but it's also something that I realize doesn't readily exist in Digimon before... there has been so many super royal knights and super evil demons and olympus omegamons.
7/10, could be a bit higher._________________________________________________________
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