Digimon Reviews, Episode 57: Jellymon and Friends [Ghost Game]

We're closing out the Ghost Game cast, as far as I can tell with limited wiki-trawling, with my favourite out of the three main characters' partner Digimon!

Again, it is admittedly not ideal to be doing some of these reviews not having watched Ghost Game first, but rest assured that once I do so, I'll be back to alter some of these reviews with whatever additional comments on seeing these little guys animated and moving around as protagonists. At the time of writing, I'm ever so slowly going my way through Adventure 2020 while cleaning up older Digimon articles. 

I really would like to go back and redo a lot of the intro pargaraphs and redo a lot of the Armor, 'repaint' and 'X-Antibody' Digimons, honestly. I think I really did rush through them, but with almost a decade since I did some of those reviews and many more Digimon media having been released (and consumed by me) since then, I really do feel like I could go and have something more significant to say about many of them. 

Again, big big disclaimer: I haven't watched Ghost Game yet, and reviews may change after I do so. 

But I also do think that I want to go through and finish at least all the Digimon until 2025-ish, and we're still in the 2021-2022 time period! 

_________________________________________________________

Puyomon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby I
• Type: Slime
• Attribute: None

Oh!!! Yay!!! Look at this cutie. After being underwhelmed by most main character baby forms since... since all the way back in Tamers, Puyomon here is just so adorable! It's basically what I expect out of a 'chibi jellyfish monster'. I love the singular eyeball, the tiny nub-like tentacles, and the Puyomon in the background even has a little extending Xenomorph-mouth to chomp on some flying data. I'm not the most well-versed with real-life jellyfish anatomy, but that does sound like something that they would do. 

Puyomon is described by the official profile as drifting through the air or the sea, trying to stick to anything with its tentacles. And once it does, it'll emit tingling static electricity... which is its way of communication! Unfortunately, if there's a lot of them (like real-life jellyfish swarms!) this ends up making areas unapproachable and dangerous. 

It's cute! Adventure: 2020 did some nice little setpieces by using swarms of baby Algomon and Zurumon as hazards, which is a nice way to utilize these babies as independent species beyond just 'oh no, rescue the poor baby Digimon from the villain of the week'. 

 10/10.

_________________________________________________________

Puyoyomon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Baby II
• Type: Lesser
• Attribute : None

Puyomon evolves into Puyoyomon by taking in actual data on jellyfish. That's cute! It gains extra tentacles, and has sprouted two 'proper' Digimon eyes. I like the pink colour details, and the transparent 'bell' head shielding a core within. 

I like Puyoyomon a bit less than Puyomon, but this is expected with a 'main character' Digimon. Puyoyomon is a bit more independent, and has begun to grow its own preferences and will stick and not let go to something it has identified as something it likes... and also knows to only zap the things that it does not like. That is a nice development from Puyomon! 

 9/10.

_________________________________________________________

Jellymon

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

"Great, an Inkling", I said, when I first saw this Digimon for the first time. Splatoon's a great game and all, but it was kind of disappointing that we got the inevitable humanoid form almost immediately in the Child stage -- as admittedly cute of a little gremlin that the design is. Jellymon, however, has a very, very important feature that makes it a lot more adorable: 

!!! Look at it. 

Jellymon can retract its entire humanoid body into its jellyfish 'hat', with the eyes on its face manifesting on the jellyfish. That's actually awesome! The profile tells me that Jellymon prefers to be in its jellyfish form. I had expected that the show subverts this beyond its first appearance, but Jellymon does hover around in its retracted jelly form quite a bit more than I expected!

But even then, full-body Jellymon itself is actually a pretty interesting design, even if it is designed to be super-marketable. It's a little gremlin child that runs around with extendable arms and a really mischievous shit-eating grin. What little episodes of Ghost Game I've watched characterizes Jellymon-sama as a unruly little whirlwind that constantly torments her 'refined rich boy' human partner... but still cares for him quite a bit. It's a bit of an interesting subversion where most Digimon partners tend to either be 'cute loyal pet' or 'therapist making up for the partner's areas of growth', but Jellymon is a bit of a little nuisance. I like that. 

Also appreciate that Jellymon's humanoid body also has a bit of a weirder proportion. A bit less so in the anime model, but it does seem like its arms can stretch out and retract, and if we're going by the interpretation that the jellyfish 'hat' is the main body, or at least the core of the body, I like the idea that Jellymon's 'humanoid girl' form is something it inflates and can retract at any time. The profile even notes that it "usually lives with just its head showing", and floats around in the wind until it sees something it's interested in. 

I... I am surprised to realize how much I actually like this. It's not 'being humanoid' that makes me dislike a Digimon design, it's how unique and how interesting they are! 

 8/10.

_________________________________________________________

TeslaJellymon

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

Adult-level TeslaJellymon is a bit less interesting to me, mostly because they do play down the jellyfish-hat vibes. Sure, the tentacles are still there, transformed into raggedy strips of cloth... but being in different colours from the hat (the cloth pieces are gray-green, forming 'hair' and black-purple, forming 'Doc Ock tentacles') makes the jellyfish inspirations a lot less obvious. The human body has also gained a bunch of more... fashionable outfit, I suppose? I do like that it's not just obvious 'skin'. Like, you'd think the black parts are the 'clothes' and the pink parts are the 'skin', but the pink parts also become the sleeves and flare out from its stomach into a skirt. While the design is clearly meant to evoke clothes, it only evokes it and they remember that it's a Digital Monster that just takes the form of a girl. 

I do like the profile, though, which tells us that TeslaJellymon grew by... "absorbing data from combat sports like steel cage death matches". I am sorry, Shroudmon, move over, TeslaJellymon is the real badass bloody sports Digimon here. I don't actually see much of the 'extreme sports' or 'martial arts' vibe in her design, although I suppose that might have to be a 'watch the anime' thing. 

It's the least interesting to me out of the Jellymons, and not coincidentally it's also the one that drops the jellyfish tentacles.

 6/10.

_________________________________________________________

Thetismon

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

Thankfully, Perfect-level Thethismon is back in full force, bringing back the Inkling 'squid hair tentacles' very vividly with a nice contrasting neon green colours. Thethismon has gained a dress that seems to be made out of the squishy parts of a jellyfish. It's a bit hard to see in the official art, but that pink bit are two smaller more 'realistic' jellyfishes attached to the back of her dress as a bit of a fashion accessory. I like that Thetismon is also covering its eyes with a visor, too. 

That's pretty cool, all things considered, and I like this line a lot more than I do the formulaic Gammamon line. Yes, my preference would be for a more monstrous jellyfish monster in vein of Gesomon or Calamaramon... but if they were going to do a 'jellyfish woman', I am glad they actually put a lot of thought into designing it and making it feel unique. It doesn't have to be 'grody' and 'monstrous' and '90's', but I really like that Jellymon and Thetismon still feel like jellyfishes and monsters in addition to being a cute anime girl. 

Thetismon is noted to be discovered in the deepest trenches of the Net Ocean, and 'brings peace to its own vast territory'. By peace, the profile means 'violently murder any interloper who disturbs it'. With her metal lightning-conducting boxing gauntlets. That also shoots poison. Thetismon is otherwise kind to weaker Digimon, able to generate medication and antivenom from its tentacles.

This may be one of the higher scores I've given a modern humanoid Digimon, I feel. 

 8/10.

_________________________________________________________

Amphimon

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

Playing up Thetismon's 'deep sea dweller' vibe, its Ultimate mode Amphimon has gained a full suit of armour. Normally this is where I groan... but Amphimon's suit of armour is based, at least thematically, on a deep sea diver. That's actually cool and fitting! The aesthetics go for a fancy 'cute magical girl mecha' vibe, which... actually works quite well here. Somehow. It's unapologetic bright pink, with all of the jellyfish tentacles still there -- the two inkling 'pigtail' tentacles and a mass erupting from her back as a skirt still marks Amphismon as keeping the jellyfish theme, even as its main 'humanoid' body has transformed. Oh, and Amphismon also has a little army of robot jellyfish buddies, like the Funnels in a Gundam. That is cute. These have '+' and '-' signs (which are also scattered on Thetismon's and Amphimon's design) and I find that to be a cute little detail. 

Amphismon is noted to have designed its suit to go even deeper, to reach the 'Abyss Sanctuary' at the extreme depths of the sea where the greatest underwater evils dwell. Just like its previous forms, Amphismon's personality is normally merry and cute, until it has to fight against great evils. Like, uh... what's an epic underwater Digimon? MetalSeadramon, Dagomon, Leviamon? We need more deep-sea adversaries!

Also, Amphimon isn't named after 'Amphibian', but follows the Greek-mythological-figure naming scheme as Thetismon. Thethismon is named after one of the nymphs, while Amphimon draws its name from Amphitrite, Poseidon's wife. Overall? I am quite surprised I like this line so much! 

 8/10. 

_________________________________________________________

Espimon

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

Japanese media often lumps UFO sightings as part of the 'occult', particularly in school-based settings, so one of the recurring characters in Ghost Game is this UFO-themed guy called Espimon. Espimon is... weird? He's a strange giant bear head whose body is attached to a little spacesuit/spaceship body with shuttle-boosters for feet, a little jetpack, and arms. I think if not for his oversized mouse head I might've liked him more, but then he wouldn't feel so unique? 

Espimon is described by the profile as a little gossipy hen that flies around and is summoned by any gossip or suspicion, often happy to go undercover to get the hottest piece of news. It can camouflage itself, and shoot out little mouse bombs. I don't know... the infiltration and vanishing bits are neat, but the random desire for information feels more like something that Publimon or one of those social-media-themed Appmons would be after than a UFO, I think?  

I don't know. I just am not feeling this one. Maybe the anime portrayal might win me over. 

 4/10.

_________________________________________________________

HoverEspimon

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

Espimon's evolution, HoverEspimon, actually becomes a UFO, although the main 'robot hamster' head is still there. It's kind of an awkward-looking UFO, being a space saucer with a whole body and long manipulator arms jutting out of it. I like the thrusters, though, which reminds me of good old SaintGalgomon's shoulder cannons. 

HoverEspimon has evolved specifically for travel purposes, being able to use its UFO body to go anywhere in the digital world. It can also vanish and camouflage itself a lot better, and that visor over its head can help it predict the movement of its enemies. Okay? Again, I don't have much to say about these two. They're all right, inoffensive UFO boys. 

 4/10.

_________________________________________________________

BlackTailmon Uver.

• Alternate Names: BlackGatomon Uver. (EN)
• Stage: Adult
• Type: Demon Beast
• Attribute: Virus

I am pretty sure I'll be mostly ignoring most 'Black repaints' from here on out because there's so many of them, but it is kind of cute that BlackTailmon, one of the more popular variants from the card and video games, makes their debut in Ghost Game... and she's drawn with a full-on hoodie and a little delivery backpack. 

This is BlackTailmon Uver, and Uver being a pun on... Uber? The delivery service? Black cats are actually associated with delivery services in Japan, with one of the primary delivery services being Yamato Transport (no connection to Adventure's Yamato) which has two black cats as a mascot. BlackTailmon Uver. isn't as blatant of a homage to either of those delivery services, but it's neat enough. 

I'm not sure what the personality of this little friend is in the anime, but BlackTailmon Uver is noted to have lost its mean personality after absorbing 'large amounts of courier service data'. That would be all of those calls recorded for training purposes, I assume. Uver's little backpack is an interesting, almost-magical storage box that keeps anything inside in the perfect temperature, and can only be opened by Uver herself. Rather cutely, BlackTailmon Uver often rides on the back of Pistmon... which is the bicycle sports evolution of Pulsemon! That's neat that those exercise Digimon are being given some acknowledgement. 

 7/10.

_________________________________________________________

Sunamon

• Alternate Names: Sandmon (EN dub)
• Stage: Baby I
• Type: Slime
• Attribute: None

...new babies??

Okay, yeah, the designer team are kind of 'cooking', as the kids say nowadays. As someone who's reviewed a couple hundred of these digital monsters now, I must say that quite literally since 02 or Tamers at the latest, all Baby Digimon have been so...  so boring. They feel so intrinsically tied to the Child forms, even those of Digimon that don't debut in the anime. And they seldom do anything interesting with it other than make them chibi heads of their child modes.

But look at Sunamon here! It's a pile of sand, with two rocks forming 'horns'. It's sucking on a little pacifier like good old Bubbmon (Pabumon) and it has got a little irritated eyeball at the center of its body. It is clearly designed for Sunarizamon, one of the newer Child-stages we reviewed with the Pendulum Z toys, but could also as well be the baby form of any mineral-ish Child Digimon like Gotsumon! 

Love the lore, too. Despite being a little baby, Sunamon is actually an aggressive little critter. It is territorial, and its body can harden or soften like sand or clay, but only its pacifier doesn't change shape. And instead of bubbles, it shoots out sand! That's cute!

 8/10.

_________________________________________________________

Goromon

• Alternate Names: Tumblemon (EN dub)
• Stage: Baby II
• Type: Ore
• Attribute: None

Sunamon's evolved form is the Baby II Goromon, who has gathered a bunch of rocks around itself. It still has Sunamon's eyeball, but it's encased in rocks now and it waddles on two adorable little feet. I love how the 'eye socket' also looks like a pair of jaws... which the profile notes that it's exactly what it is. The eye socket also serves as its mouth, and it 'turns completely blind when it's eating'. Oh, that has got to be unhealthy for its eye! No wonder it is so grumpy all the time!

Again, you can see this 'breaking apart' as the sand from Sunamon overflows when it evolves into Sunarizamon (which is the default design) but its eyeball surrounded by rocks really recalls Gotsumon, doesn't it? I would like to bring up more examples, but we don't actually have any more mineral/rock/earth themed Child-levels. Anyway, this is neat. 

I know the Sunarizamon line gets more stuff down the line, and i actually kind of like the eclectic release of fragments of its dedicated evolutionary line!

 7/10.

_________________________________________________________

BloomLordmon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Ultimate
• Type: Fairy
• Attribute: Vaccine

BloomLordmon is an Ultimate-level Digimon, and... it's 'plant Omegamon', was how I described it when I first saw it. Primarily white armour body, a sword in one hand, and a cannon in another? I do like the creativity that goes into making BloomLordmon really themed around plants. The sword and cannon being based on leaves and flowers are neat, and the two massive flower pauldrons are expected. But I really like the little bit of vine connecting the hilt of the sword to BloomLordmon's back, and even its heels are vines!

BloomLordmon is noted to absorb energy from its shoulder flowers and accumulate them, allowing it to gain enough power to rival the Royal Knights. Yeah, show those posers what for, BloomLordmon! BloomLordmon can manipulate the weather to make battlefields that work to its advantage, and its attacks involve shooting seeds from its machinegun cannon, and creating a giant light sword with its Solarbeam powers. 

It is still one of those fancy Ultimate-level knights at the end of the day, but I don't think we've ever had a plant one before. All the Ultimate-plant humanoids have all been some variant of Rosemon -- visually if not explicitly -- and BloomLordmon gets a bit of novelty points for that.   

 5/10.

_________________________________________________________

Oleamon

• Alternate Names: N/A
• Stage: Perfect
• Type: Insectivorous Plant
• Attribute / Field: Virus

Oh! Another cool one. Someone in the design team for this year really liked plants! Oleamon (presumably a reversal of aloe) is this rather unnerving hunched-over, rotten-looking flower... until you realize that it has the proportions of a humanoid in a robe. It's a bit subtle that I missed it the first time I'm looking at it, but the large flower hides the bottom half of a face with a long tongue inside, that main stalk has folds like a dress, and those two main 'leaves' are long sleeves with the random chunks of grass acting like 'hands. And this creepy design seems to have sprouted out of a reversed wilted flower itself. 

Very, very cool. This reminds me of the original artwork for the 'Ivy' enemy in Resident Evil 2, plant zombies that shamble around in imitation of humans. Oleamon is still a 'lady fairy plant' Digimon in the vein of Lilimon and Lilamon, but they did such a great job integrating tropes normally associated with horror villains into this one. The humanoid nature is a bit more obvious in its official animation model,  with how the main 'body' is highlighted over the mass of petals and leaves at its base... but Oleamon is still pretty badass looking reagrdless. 

Oleamon is noted to be specifically an 'insectivorous plant', a designation previously only given to, of all things, the various Vegiemons. It lures a scent from its flower, and when insect Digimon comes to investigate, it wraps its tongue around its prey before enveloping them whole with its petals to digest them alive. When it otherwise has to go into combat, Oleamon's grassy-leaves are actually poisonous, and can transform and merge into long blades to fight with. 

I like this one quite a bit. Oleamon and BloomLordmon both appear in Ghost Game, and Oleamon even gets to be a partner Digimon of a secondary character in the currently-airing-as-of-the-time-of-writing Beatbreak... evolving from Palmon's obscure cousin Alraumon in the process!

 9/10.

_________________________________________________________

Hydramon

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

One reason I can't get excited about BloomLordmon as much? It debuted in the same year/series as a different Plant Ultimate... Hydramon! Holy shit that's a badass design, isn't it? A 'hydra' Digimon isn't something that's surprising. But instead of going the boring route like they have done for maybe five dozen other mythological creatures and just adapting it straight-up, Hydramon isn't just a hydra, it's a hydra made entirely out of vines. This explains why it can easily regrow heads, since it's a mass of plants... but also... just look at it. 

Hydramon's body is just a mass of vines. The official artwork shows it having two claws, but one claw is in the process of unraveling (or taking form?) from individual vines. You can also see that all the heads are also just clumps of vines, and the rear half of Hydramon's body are a mass of gnarled roots. Those are really cool heads, too. The central Hydramon head has four eyes and a flowery set of crests, as well as its lower jaws being split into two chunks similar to a snake skull. (That yellow thing that resembles a lower jaw is actually a thorn of sorts that it is launching). The ancillary heads look nicely threatening, with glowing lights within their mouths that also seemingly light up their hollow eye sockets. 

And of course, on its chest is a gigantic, and, uh, interesting looking venus flytrap mouth. It still looks  threatening regardless of what jokes you make out of it, though. It really is a very cool design, bringing in a nice monstrous quality to a forgotten side of the Digimon world. Finally, a nice Ultimate level that threatening plant-types like Petaldramon, Blossomon and Entmon can evolve into! It is quite surprising how little plant-themed monsters that Digimon has, particularly in the higher levels... and this is much, much needed and very welcome. 

Hydramon's lore is quite expected for its design. It's a monstrous plant monster that takes root in swamplands, excreting toxins from its body that dissolves those around it, and it feeds on them. It also expels that liquid to melt the ground and creating swamps to expand its nest. All this talk about swamps are nice ties to the fact that real-world carnivorous plants grow in swamps, and the original hydra myth has it be fought in a swamp! In addition to highly-toxic Biotoxin gas, Hydramon can unleash laser beams from its heads. But the coolest ability, 'Division Break', has Hydramon move the vines it has in the ground. This causes fissures, which is such a cool thing to do. 

A hydra plant kaiju! This is what I want out of my Ultimate Digimon, not the 80th Ultimate-level dragon knight robot man!

 10/10.

_________________________________________________________