recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Tanemon

The second baby stage isn't quite as delightful as the first, or quite as cute to me as Yokomon, which would have actually fit into this line a whole lot better, though the really odd part is that both Palmon and Biyomon were first introduced as branched evolutions of this little critter. The even-more-plant-like Yokomon was introduced later, and then brought into the anime to evolve into the bird.

I don't get it either, but it's not Tanemon's fault!

## Digivolves to

* Palmon
* Aruraumon
* Floramon
* Mushroomon

or

1. Betamon
2. Biyomon
3. Gotsumon
4. Kunemon
5. Monmon
6. Muchomon
7. Penguinmon
Ornismon

I said I wouldn't review every possible evolution of every Digimon, but whenever there's a thematically logical choice I like more than the "most canon" path for a main Digimon, I think it'd be fun to include it too, but just the one or this is going to get sucked down a rabbit hole like you would not believe.

Ornismon is given as an alternate evolution of Garudamon in the TCG, and I still like Birdramon a little more, but this thing dives even further into prehistoric avian territory with a beautiful color scheme to boot. It's also said to be one of the mightiest Digimon that has ever existed, moreso than Hououmon, to the point that in one anime, Ornismon was basically an ancient, sealed horror unleashed by a villain to wreak grand-scale destruction!

## Digivolves from

* Karatenmon

or

1. Garudamon
2. Meteormon
3. Silphymon
Mantaraymon

This, on the other hand, could have been a lot better. Real manta rays have one of the most unique, charming faces in the animal kingdom, but fiction repeatedly sees fit to screw around with it, and Digimon just up and gives the poor thing a dolphin's face where no such thing ever belongs. It's also otherwise another dull, angular armor design. Pass.

## Digivolves from

* Gomamon

or

1. Gizamon
2. Goblimon
3. Labramon
4. Otamamon
5. Patamon
6. Syakomon

## Digivolves to

* Tylomon

or

1. Dragomon
2. Whamon
Seasarmon

Labramon's artificial nature supposedly means it can never evolve beyond child stage, but it "miraculously" does so anyway, into this exceptionally powerful Holy Beast digimon and another digimon based on a "lion dog." It's also a sun-absorbing digimon that spends most of its time basking, like a cat, and is supposedly capable of generating a firewall against all viral digimon.

## Digivolves from

* Gabumon

or

1. Bokomon
2. Labramon
3. Lopmon

## Digivolves to

* Caturamon

or

1. Dragomon
2. Kyukimon
3. ShadowWereGarurumon
4. Taomon
Stegomon

Hold up...shouldn't THIS have been assigned to Armadillomon??? Not a bad stegosaur, otherwise. Nice to see some more leathery dinobeast digimon. Now might be a good time to mention that they literally did just pull some of these from existing games and decide later on they were armor forms. I guess the intention was that it would breathe some life and popularity into these underused monsters, but then they didn't really get a chance to appear in the anime or anywhere else of note, and I think by now, every kid viewer knew that the franchise would only treat ultimate evolutions as really worth anything. No matter how much we might love an Adult stage or an armor, we all kinda got this sense that it was already "obsolete" if it wasn't more evolved.

## Digivolves from

* Tuskmon

or

1. Guilmon
2. Hagurumon
3. Patamon
4. Terriermon

## Digivolves to

* Spinomon

or

1. Monzaemon
2. Orochimon
3. Rapidmon
WarGrowlmon

I wish we hadn't lost the art of "grisly" cyborg digimon. I guess it's kinda fun how much its torso looks like the front of a sports car, at least, and one of its attacks is to apparently impale the opponent on that segmented, metail cable on its back, which is called an "assault balancer," whatever that means. At least this continues to feel like something a kid came up with.

## Digivolves from

* Growlmon

or

1. Allomon
2. BlackGrowlmon
3. Deputymon
4. Elephantmon
5. Gargomon
6. Greymon
7. Raidramon
8. Sethmon

## Digivolves to

* Gallantmon

or

1. Imperialdramon
2. Machinedramon
3. Megidramon
4. WarGreymon
Mihiramon

Tiger Deva and servant of Azulongmon. Mihiramon would be a nicer looking design without the silly shields stuck to it like wheels, I think, but it is supposed to be a digimo of legendary caliber, so I guess it needs to have some gaudy decor on it; almost all the devas do. Mihiramon is a fast, powerful tactician and "biggest ruffian among the deva." Not necessarily supposed to be a bad guy, but he does appear in an antagonistic role in Tamers, and a frighteningly ruthless opponent who unfortunately has to be destroyed.

Not a design I find tooo interesting though, once again.

## Digivolves from

* Mikemon

or

1. Apemon
2. Lynxmon
3. Rabbitmon

## Digivolves to

* Leopardmon

or

1. Azulongmon
2. Beelzemon
3. Hououmon
Monodramon

Also seen in a Tamers video game rather than the anime, the child stage here is just okay. A serviceable squat dragon-kid with interesting cybernetic claws I mistook for a bunch of drills the first time I saw this design.

## Digivolves to

* Strikedramon

or

1. Allomon
2. Cyclonemon
3. DarkLizardmon
4. DarkTyrannomon
5. Deltamon
6. Depthmon
7. Deputymon
8. Growlmon
9. Kabukimon
10. Kougamon
11. Monochromon
12. Pucchiemon
13. Seadramon
14. Tyrannomon
Motimon

Baby II in this line is supposed to be evocative of mochi, but I always liked how it resembled a little blobby Halloween sheet ghost. It's officially speculated that Motimon was born from dictionary data, because for a baby Digimon it's supposed to be extremely knowledgeable and intelligent.

## Digivolves to

* Tentomon
* KoKabuterimon
* Kunemon
* Dokunemon

or

1. Crabmon
2. Gotsumon
3. Kokuwamon
4. Monmon
5. Otamamon
WaruMonzaemon

So, bizarrely, this darker and edgier Monzaemon exists, but it doesn't evolve from Numemon in any known material thus far, instead evolving from an ecclectic selection of Adult monsters that even includes Kabuterimon. It has, however, been associated with Numemon and regular Monzaemon on a number of occasions, and one episode of Digimon Frontier even pegs it as a Monzaemon subjected to horrible exprimentation.

It's a pretty damn sick design, too, easily one of the creepiest looking of the first hundred or so mons. I love those bloodshot eyes, the sewn-up mouth, the paw stitched on from seemingly some other monster and the single eye peering out of its chest in some of its official artwork.

An episode of Digimon Fusion, if you want to consider it canon, also features a sinister Warumonzaemon chef who can absorb regular Monzaemon until it grows gigantic, which is treated as a makeshift Ultimate stage called Gigawarumonzaemon.

## Digivolves from

* Grizzlymon

or

1. Allomon
2. Aurumon
3. Boogeymon
4. Clockmon
5. Devimon
6. Geremon
7. J-Mojyamon
8. Leomon
9. Tankmon

## Digivolves to

* Callismon

or

1. Babamon
2. Ghoulmon
3. Machinedramon
4. Pharaohmon
5. PlatinumNumemon
6. SaberLeomon
Patamon

...Not that there's anything wrong with Patamon, mind you. He's pretty dang adorable, being the tiniest, weakest and most naive of the original bunch, an almost helpless little hamster with devilish bat-wing ears. In fact, I could swear Patamon was originally categorized as a virus Digimon, but I guess that was retconned later and the viral designation went to Tsukaimon, a darker blue palette-swap.

Patamon's role in the anime was also an unusual one, since he was so small, weak and naive that his human partner had to do much more to protect him...and his human partner was the youngest kid in the group himself, Matt's baby brother "T.K."

By having Patamon to worry about, this little seven-year-old quickly grew more capable and responsible for his age, and there's something kind of sad and sweet about how he grows up into a young adult over the course of the franchise...but Patamon pretty much stays the same innocent, almost infantile little bat-rodent.

Until he digivolves, of course.

## Digivolves to

* Angemon
* Piddomon
* Pegasusmon

or

1. Airdramon
2. Bakemon
3. Baromon
4. Birdramon
5. Centarumon
6. Darcmon
7. Deltamon
8. Devidramon
9. Dinohumon
10. Drimogemon
11. ExVeemon
12. Gatomon
13. Gorillamon
14. Greymon
15. Growlmon
16. IceDevimon
17. Kokatorimon
18. Leomon
19. Magnamon
20. Manbomon
21. Mantaraymon
22. Mothmon
23. Musyamon
24. Nanimon
25. Nefertimon
26. Numemon
27. Ogremon
28. Pipismon
29. Ponchomon
30. Prairiemon
31. Rhinomon
32. Snimon
33. Stegomon
34. Sukamon
35. Swanmon
36. Tyrannomon
37. Unimon
38. Veedramon
Mothmon

Now, for an armored digimon and for one of these modern bug digimon, Mothmon isn't terrible. It's got six legs, it's not entirely humanoid and it almost has an actual moth's head, except for the little anime mouth, but I guess that derives direct from Patamon. A moth with a gatling gun is also kind of funny.

## Digivolves from

* Wormmon

or

1. Dokunemon
2. Kokuwamon
3. Patamon

## Digivolves to

* Jewelbeemon

or

1. Blossomon
2. MegaKabuterimon
Millenniummon

Chimairamon's Ultimate form, Milleniumon, fares a bit better. The way it blurs its components further into a more seamless looking monster is honestly VERY well executed; you can still see the influence of many other Digimon, but it's definitely more of its own creature, and also adds in some Machinedramon. This digimon's most devastating power is apparently that it can create its own pocket dimension, outside of time and space, to imprison other beings "for eternity."
MetalKoromon

Today, let's look at some robot Digimon that evolve from each other! One of the only mechanoid baby Digimon is Choromon here, translated in English versions as MetalKoromon even though Koromon is a Baby II Digimon.

This cute little thing is said to run on a program that moves in reaction to light, and goes motionless in darkness. A digimon based on an extremely simple robot, the kind someone might put together as an early test!
Snimon

Poor Snimon! Beetles were good enough for multiple complete Digimon lines, but not a mantis? One of the most celebrated and ostensibly ass-kicking of all insects? Wallowing forever as another orphaned adult, Snimon has all the trappings you would expect from a digimantid, including the classic eyeless helmet-face of early insect digimon.

Perhaps the fact that I can summarize a lot of these with phrases like "typical dinosaur digimon" and "the usual digimon jaws" stands as evidence that the style was, perhaps, a little too homogenous early on, but I still feel like the series only shifted gears to another, different sameyness that simply wasn't as good as the one they started out with. It has been many, many years now since they released even one more insect digimon that has this reptilian-alien look to it, and it makes me sad. Who cares if it's a little repetitive? A signature look can be its own kind of fun, and what signature look could be cooler than "all of the insects are also xenomorphs?"

## Digivolves from

* Dokunemon

or

1. Armadillomon
2. Gabumon
3. Kunemon
4. Otamamon
5. Patamon
6. Tentomon
7. Wormmon

## Digivolves to

* SkullScorpiomon

or

1. Arukenimon
2. Jewelbeemon
3. Myotismon
4. Paildramon
5. Scorpiomon
6. Shakkoumon
7. Taomon
8. Tekkamon
Woodmon

I am constantly forgetting that this is an adult stage. It's so small, and it's designed so much more like a child digimon! I always enjoy a good tree stump monster, though, especially with the classic jagged haunted tree mouth. A real Halloweeny 'mon!

How ya feeling about all this alternate art? A lot of Digimon have newer, nicer illustrations originally from certain mobile games and collectible cards, and I've been using the Waifu2x service to scale them up without wrecking their quality too much. Some of them are vastly better looking than the original bandai illustrations, but I feel like I should still be using those as the "official" images, shouldn't I?

## Digivolves from

* Mushroomon

or

1. Aruraumon
2. Biyomon
3. Dokunemon
4. Elecmon
5. Floramon
6. Gotsumon
7. Hawkmon
8. Palmon
9. SnowGoburimon

## Digivolves to

* Cherrymon

or

1. Blossomon
2. Deramon
3. Garbagemon
Impmon

So then we've got Impmon proper, and this is honestly another design I didn't care about when it first debuted. I still feel like it's missing something and a little plain by series standards, but I've definitely come to respect Impmon's retro cartoon vibe. The pure white face and little doggy nose bring to mind Fleischer-era characters, the same feel the Warners from Animaniacs were going for, but with goofy purple devil pajamas and even a saw-toothed smiley face to let you know this thing is a little brat.

This is of course exactly why Impmon is so fondly remembered, because he IS a little brat; a digimon that was the partner to a pair of human children, but ran away when they wouldn't stop fighting over him, treating him more like a pet or an object than an independent being. Understandably, he has next to no respect for either humans or other digimon, especially not humans and digimon who team up with each other like losers, and continues to be more of an antihero than anything else.

It's always a lot of fun when a cute little battlemonster is actually a flawed, troubled character. It's what made Gatomon interesting, but Impmon runs even further with it.

I also end up saying this about a lot of anime critters, but Impmon is yet another who can clearly trace his aesthetic principle and personality back to the similarly flawed, troubled, but sometimes well-meaning Baikinman. If you never read my old article on this little bastard, now's the time to find out who actually started the Japanese trope of short, mischievous, jester-like pajama devils.

## Digivolves to

* Wizardmon
* Witchmon
* FlaWizarmon

or

1. Bakemon
2. BomberNanimon
3. Boogeymon
4. Fangmon
5. IceDevimon
6. Nanimon
7. Nohemon
8. Quetzalmon
9. Thunderbirmon
10. Vilemon
Thunderballmon

Yeah, this Mamemon is an adult stage, one down from every other Mamemon, and doesn't even get "mame" in its name! It can evolve into the original three Mamemon variants, which I guess is why it was created, but it's really not as interesting to me as any of the others. It just doesn't have that creepy-cute charm and the sense of a bigger monster collapsing in on itself.

## Digivolves from

* ViElecmon

or

1. Armadillomon
2. Hagurumon
3. Kokuwamon
4. ToyAgumon

## Digivolves to

* Thunderbirmon

or

1. BigMamemon
2. BlackRapidmon
3. Cyberdramon
4. Mamemon
5. Piximon
6. SuperStarmon
ShogunGekomon

It is, unfortunately, a little downhill from there, but maybe not so bad. What truly places Gekomon in the same family as "failures" like Numemon and Sukamon is that it's the only way to get the sixth pet's most powerful ultimate. This is the monster occupying the Monzaemon slot in the pet's coding, and even attacks once again with little hearts it can hurl. Obviously we end up losing a great deal of Gekomon's uniquely outrageous personality for an evolution that mostly thinks "bigger is better," or perhaps "fatter is funnier," and it did take a long tiime for this one to grow on me even a little in comparison.

I will say that the collector's card artwork may not be the MASTERPIECE Gekomon's represented, but it does go a long way to making this design look cooler and livelier. I really appreciate those drunken eyes and scary little teeth in this pose, and only now realize that this digimon is also meant to resemble a big, fat tomato, I guess like the real world "tomato frog!" That's certainly a step up from only a bigger, fatter Gekomon with funny hair, but I still miss how Gekomon basically sports a froggy version of that Violator mouth. What we really need here is an Ultimate stage that hearkens back to that, maybe even plays up the line's scarier qualities. Where's our Devigekomon!?

## Digivolves from

* Gekomon

or

1. Dolphmon
2. Kuwagamon
3. Monochromon
4. Roachmon
5. SandYanmamon
6. Shellmon
7. Starmon
8. Weedmon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. Leviamon
2. MarineAngemon
3. MetalEtemon
4. MetalPiranhmon
5. Parasimon
Starmon

Our next digimon is a rather forgotten one...sort of. This one-off Adult stage, just a metal star guy with limbs, was introduced as a possible evolution of Tentomon, oddly enough, in the sixth virtual pet, and could only go on to evolve into Tekkamon. Not a great deal has been done with Starmon since, and it's a digimon I know I constantly forget about. Maybe I'd remember it better if it had those cute little glowing dot eyes more than big blue anime eyes, but it's still eyes in a hole either way, which should be harder for me to forget about.

## Digivolves from

* Bakumon

or

1. Bearmon
2. Bokomon
3. Gotsumon
4. Hagurumon
5. Kotemon
6. ModokiBetamon
7. Otamamon
8. Salamon

## Digivolves to

* SuperStarmon
* DarkSuperStarmon

or

1. Angewomon
2. Jagamon
3. Piximon
4. ShogunGekomon
5. Triceramon
Veemon

Here he is, the main event, the franchise baby of the second season. Sometimes spelled Veemon, this little guy is considered a dragon digimon, rather humanoid for one, and reminds me almost more of a stylized wallaby or rabbit than a reptile. I feel V-mon is also made up of slightly cleaner, plainer shapes than the dumpier Agumon, and as a design overall, I'm afraid V-mon is also just an "okay, I guess."

## Digivolves to

* ExVeemon
* Veedramon
* Flamedramon
* BlackExVeemon
* BlackVeedramon
* GoldVeedramon

or

1. Allomon
2. Angemon
3. BlackExVeemon
4. DarkLizardmon
5. Depthmon
6. Gargoylemon
7. Gatomon
8. Gladimon
9. GoldVeedramon
10. Gorillamon
11. Honeybeemon
12. Kangarumon
13. Kyubimon
14. Magnamon
15. Ogremon
16. Raidramon
17. RedVegiemon
18. Sagittarimon
19. Sethmon
20. Stingmon
21. Strikedramon
22. Tankmon
23. Tyrannomon
24. Yasyamon
Nohemon

Okay, WHAT!? Palmon's crest can turn the caterpillar into a scarecrow!? This makes the absolute least sense of any armor evolution, barring perhaps a sort of "farming" theme, but I love it to death. I love all the puppety, stitchy digimon, but this is easily one of my favorites, and that's especially because the little puppet crow is the actual digimon here. The rest of the scarecrow is a decoy body it controls telepathically! It's also said to be adept at lying and storytelling, and its main attack, "Delusion Crow," weakens the opponent with its "cawing laughter."

I love everything about this digimon so much that I'm just sad it's an armor stage with no logical tie-in to any other digital monster. I think I even love it enough to give it the gold rating, which is the first time we've done that in a distressingly large number of recent reviews.

It figures almost all the armor forms connected to the awesome Palmon would be this good.

## Digivolves from

* Petermon

or

1. Impmon
2. Wormmon

## Digivolves to

* Zamielmon

or

1. WereGarurumon
Spinomon

In 2005 - fairly recent history by Digimon standards - a new virtual pet introduced Spinomon, one of the few mid-2000's and later digimon to still have that lovely attention to fleshy detail, and Triceramon seems to be its most common evolutionary predecessor. It doesn't really look anything like its Spinosaurus namesake, like, AT ALL, but it's a pretty cool scaly dinodragon and I like how the bladed crest is just a bunch of massive military daggers or very fancy kitchen knives.

The progression from a big, burly, plodding, thickly armored herbivore to a super-bladed carnivore is a fun one, and I think it makes a lot of thematic sense; a sort of "shield to sword" transition, like it finally got fed up with just enduring everyone else's violence and wanted to know what it was like to finally be the stabber, rather than the stabee.

## Digivolves from

* Stegomon

or

1. Triceramon
2. Vermillimon
Rabbitmon

I'm really torn between the fact that armor digimon SHOULD be armored like this, because that seemed like it was kind of the point, and the fact that it's not a visual style I find very appealing. There's not much to this little pink rabbit I care all that strongly about either way, except that it's said to enjoy collecting fossils for some reason. Actually, its two main characteristics are that it can burrow really well and it can curl into a defensive ball, so....another one that should have gone to Armadillomon.

## Digivolves from

* Cutemon

or

1. Gatomon
2. Lopmon
3. Mushroomon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. Antylamon
2. Asuramon
3. Garudamon
4. Knightmon
5. Mihiramon
Mammothmon

You gotta love a scary pachyderm. They're already intimidating for their size, but it's rare that a mammoth or an elephant gets to be this completely monstrous, which is wonderfully par for the course in our reviews so far. Mammothmon is said to be an ancient, mostly extinct digimon, however the heck that works in a world created by recent computer technology, and has a vulnerability to extreme heat. I like how its tusks are stapled together in different sections, including one segment covered in meaty flesh, and the mask completely covering its eyes looks even cooler here than it does on so many other mons. Apparently, the eye insignia on the mask actually allows Mammothmon to see, but only "far into the future!"

Interestingly, Mammothmon is a perfect level that can evolve from Drimogemon, and the idea of a giant drill-nosed mole becoming even a totally unrelated prehistoric beast does kind of have a sort of palaeological theme, doesn't it?

## Digivolves from

* Elephantmon

or

1. Apemon
2. Aurumon
3. FlareRizamon
4. Garurumon
5. ShimaUnimon
6. Stingmon
7. Togemogumon
8. Yasyamon

## Digivolves to

* SkullMammothmon

or

1. MetalGarurumon
MegaSeadramon

Eh, not really as exciting a change as Airdramon is about to get. Red and white are not colors that look at all attractive together, and do you think you have enough flippers, Megaseadramon? Sheesh. Not bad, but could have been better.

## Digivolves from

* Seadramon

or

1. Coelamon
2. Digmon
3. Garurumon
4. Shellmon
5. Stingmon
6. Submarimon
7. Whamon

## Digivolves to

* GigaSeadramon

or

1. MarineAngemon
2. MetalSeadramon
3. Plesiomon
4. Seraphimon
5. Suijinmon
6. WarGreymon
Poyomon

The youngest possible form of our seventh heromon is said to be quite possibly the simplest primordial digimon ever discovered, a mere bag of jelly with a face, and you can't really go wrong with that.

We're also going to start indicating the evolution levels of each Digimon we review up top, which we probably should have to begin with, but this is a line where it's going to be much more important to avoid confusion.
Paildramon

A fusion of X V-mon and a digimon will review later. Yeah it looks cooler than most of the things on this list, but how can I possibly keep caring!? There's even another, different fusion of the two besides this one, but it leans more toward the other digimon involved, so thank god we've got an excuse to save it.

## Digivolves from

* ExVeemon
* BlackExVeemon

or

1. Angemon
2. Chamelemon
3. Cyclonemon
4. Flamedramon
5. Garurumon
6. Greymon
7. Kabuterimon
8. Kuwagamon
9. Magnamon
10. Maildramon
11. Sethmon
12. Shadramon
13. Snimon
14. Stingmon
15. Tuskmon
16. Tylomon
17. Veedramon
18. Yasyamon

## Digivolves to

* Imperialdramon
* BlackImperialdramon

or

1. AncientSphinxmon
2. HerculesKabuterimon
3. MetalGarurumon
4. MetalSeadramon
MetallifeKuwagamon

UNfortunately, this is the only thing known to evolve specifically from Bladekuwagamon, and it's not terrible for one of the robopeople things, I like its cable arms and the tiny human face is actually fairly cool, but...this seriously pales in comparison to what it evolved from. The two should absolutely be reversed.

If there's a saving grace here, it's that this line can, of course, end on Tyrankabuterimon, though the fact that it is called Tyrantkabuterimon makes it feel a tad less "official."

Sadly, at this point in our reviews, we have covered a surprisingly large chunk of all known insect digimon, which total less than 40 of the 1000+ digimon in existence and very, very few have been added to the franchise over its last ten years. What the heck do you have against bug types, Digimon? Why can't you be more like Pokemon over there???

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. TyrantKabuterimon
Scorpiomon

We could really just end this on Crabmon and Coelamon, but interestingly enough, Coelamon has repeatedly been able to evolve into this beautiful combination of anomalocaris and a eurypterid, translated in English as Scorpiomon because I guess they thought American kids, who aren't taught biology as a fundamental class, would be too confused otherwise.

This fella was actually the first time I ever saw Anomalocaris referenced in any media at all, and boy was that ever a treat to an American kid who DID know exactly what that was, and tended already to feel rather smug about it.

While the taxonomic progression of a crab to a fish to a panarthropod doesn't make much sense, I do love the idea of a Coelacanth monster evolving farther back through time into an apex predator of the Cambrian sea! It's just too bad that one of Anomalocarimon's only appearances in the series was as a minion of Metalseadramon who was subsequently killed for his bungling, a trope I really never care for in cartoon villain interaction.

Now, if the last eleven reviews are an indication, there will probably be comments on this asking why I forgot about something or another that can evolve from one of these Digimon, but I promise, it's only because I'm planning them for some other review. There are INFINITY TEN ways you can sort Digimon together, and we're only going to lump a bunch into whole "families" when they're especially coherent and especially "canon" as such.

Otherwise, the vast majority of these reviews are going to be just like this one: a short, sweet look at a couple of directly related or PROBABLY related Digimon as best as I can manage.

## Digivolves from

* Ebidramon

or

1. Coelamon
2. Dokugumon
3. Dolphmon
4. Gesomon
5. Ikkakumon
6. Octomon
7. SandYanmamon
8. Seadramon
9. Shellmon
10. Snimon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. HerculesKabuterimon
2. MetalPiranhmon
3. MetalSeadramon
4. Parasimon
5. Plesiomon
6. Pukumon
Makuramon

Monkey Deva and servant of Baihumon. This one is kind of interesting for the fact that it's a Perfect Level, puppet-like monkey digimon but has nothing whatsoever to do with Etemon or even looks like it came from the same franchise. Its creepy lack of facial expression is discussed as a defining characteristic in its official bio, though the anime doesn't really stick to that and often makes it obvious what Makuramon is feeling.

Makuramon has the power to trap things in an orb it can generate, and prefers to imprison opponents rather than destroy them, which is kind of a lot scarier for a person-sized, staring monkey to do than straight up killing you.

## Digivolves from

* Sepikmon

or

1. Opossumon
2. Swanmon
3. Turuiemon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. Baihumon
2. Beelzemon
3. HiAndromon
4. Justimon
5. Marsmon
6. Piedmon
Meramon

This humanoid fire elemental isn't quite as interesting as its prior or later evolutions, but it did come before all of them in the very first virtual pet, which actually made it a possible evolution of Agumon or Betamon! How weird is it for a little dinosaur to turn into a big, naked guy who's on fire?

Therein lies the whole appeal of Meramon, though. Sometimes, a big naked guy on fire is all you really need.

## Digivolves from

* Candlemon

or

1. Agumon
2. Bakumon
3. BlackAgumon
4. Hawkmon

## Digivolves to

* SkullMeramon

or

1. Andromon
2. Asuramon
3. BlackMetalGreymon
4. BlueMeramon
5. Mamemon
6. Mistymon
7. Phantomon
8. Vademon
9. WereGarurumon
Quetzalmon

Another non-bug for wormmon, but at least a "worm" and a snake have some visual similarity, and I like the implication that a snake might be the middle ground between a worm and a cat. It certainly has aspects of both! An angelic, vaccine-type snake based on Quetzalcoatl isn't a bad idea for a holy digimon, either, though it's a little grand of an idea to be limited to a relatively weak armor type. This really should have been something's Ultimate stage.

## Digivolves from

* DarkLizardmon

or

1. Impmon
2. Wormmon

## Digivolves to

* Minervamon

or

1. Majiramon
2. Sandiramon
RedVegiemon

One more major point of interest is that Vegiemon has a variant, Red Vegimon, with much more going for it than a mere color shift. This is supposedly a "fully ripened" Vegiemon, the truest and healthiest form it can take, and now attacks with a "putrid, poisonous breath" like many of my favorite monsters. Personally, I like both these vegetables equally. Red has a bigger, even toothier mouth, slightly different, smaller eyes, a smoother body and those cool thorny bulges on its tentacles, but I still love traditional Vegiemon's more decrepit appearance.

## Digivolves from

* Lalamon

or

1. Elecmon
2. Floramon
3. Mushroomon
4. Otamamon (Red)
5. Palmon
6. Veemon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. Cherrymon
2. Deramon
3. Garbagemon
4. Vademon
5. WaruMonzaemon
SaberLeomon

Nothing much for me to say about Leomon's Ultimate form, which he evolves to directly in Digimon Adventure, skipping any of the (very boring) Perfect Level options that would only be introduced later. Saberleomon is a nice design if you're all about lions, kind of a feline take on Garurumon's design.

## Digivolves from

* GrapLeomon

or

1. IceLeomon
2. Monzaemon
3. Piximon
4. Zudomon
MarineDevimon

Nautical-flavored Devimon surprisingly never evolves from regular Devimon, but it does evolve in some instances from "Icedevimon," which is really just Devimon colored blue.

Surprisingly, I kind of overlooked this one until doing this review, and now I see how much there is to really love about Marinedevimon beyond merely the addition of tentacles. His gnarlier, more hunched build, animal feet, goth squid-mntle head and third eye are all really menacing and cool, plus I like how every tentacle is decorated differently, the single cephalopod arm for a tail, the pressure gauge he wears for no reason other than to look even more nautical, and best of all, the fact that all skull markings have been swapped out for skeleton fish!

On another note, Marindevimon's first anime appearance puts him at roughly a hundred feet tall, probably worth mentioning that.

## Digivolves from

* Gesomon

or

1. Depthmon
2. Dinohumon
3. IceDevimon
4. Orcamon
5. Octomon
6. Seahomon
7. Submarimon
8. Tylomon

## Digivolves to

* Parallelmon

or

1. Daemon
2. Ghoulmon
3. Leviamon
4. MetalSeadramon
5. NeoMyotismon
6. Pukumon
Reapermon

A virus Digimon "born from data on criminals," Reapermon is more or less an "evil" Digimon, but devotes itself to tracking down other evil Digimon as a bounty hunter, and has a nice enough design for a big robot man. The important thing here is that this scary skull-mecha has evolved from Shakkoumon in at least one piece of media, and that's pretty damn cool. From a heroic angel to a holy idol to an embodiment of death! As with Skullgreymon, I like the idea of a Digimon having a more chaotic, monstrous form it doesn't generally want to evolve into, but might be forced to under dire enough circumstances, and I think that's just the sort of final twist this line could use.

Yes, yes, there are other Digimon related to the Angemon line, including at least a dozen other "fusions" between Patamon or Angemon and some other Digimon, but I think we've gone over what most would consider the "core" members of this family, and we'll reserve additional fusions and spinoffs for reviews of their own. Like I said early on, we're going to try to keep each Digimon review page as streamlined as possible!

## Digivolves from

* MetalPhantomon

or

1. Infermon
2. Shakkoumon
3. SkullScorpiomon
4. Tekkamon
Tsunomon

The second stage in this line is, in my opinion, the goofiest looking Baby II in the entire franchise. I mean, it's a furry mammal head with one huge horn sticking out of it. It's ridiculous, but it's trying its absolute best to look cool, which sums up this Digimon quite well.

## Digivolves to

* Gabumon
* Psychemon
* Elecmon
* ViElecmon

or

1. Bearmon
2. BlackGabumon
3. Kunemon
4. Penguinmon
Mushroomon

An incredibly fun line and fun character today, beginning with its most common child form, an anthropomorphic fungus! Mushroomon is a pretty simple mushroom with arms and legs, especially themed around being poisonous and capable of hurling great little toxic mushrooms with feet of their own! I feel like I'd find Mushroomon a whole lot cooler if it didn't have eyes, though, and perhaps if it has the kind of fangly grin its little "babies" have! Still, not bad. As we mentioned earlier, one of Mushroomon's common evolutions is actually the spider digimon, Dokugumon!

## Digivolves from

* Tanemon

or

1. Yokomon

## Digivolves to

* Woodmon
* Ponchomon

or

1. Arbormon
2. Aurumon
3. Boogeymon
4. Dokugumon
5. ExVeemon
6. Flymon
7. Golemon
8. Rabbitmon
9. RedVegiemon
10. Stingmon
11. Togemogumon
12. Veedramon
13. Vegiemon
14. Weedmon
15. Yasyamon
Toucanmon

Not just a cartoon toucan, but a toucan whose wings have degenerated to flightlessness. As usual, digimon isn't too great at making wings actually look any more useless than other bird digimon, but it's the thought that counts. The "armor" part of this digimon is just a big eggshell, which is cute. There's not much else to Toucanmon except that it is also referred to as "gaudy and loud," and "rumored to be quite muscular" under its eggshell. I heard Toucanmon was ripped.

## Digivolves from

* Muchomon

or

1. Hawkmon
2. Penguinmon
3. Tsukaimon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. Taomon
MegaKabuterimon

Fortunately, these Gigeresque monstrosities happen to have the most consistent evolutionary chain of the original mains, or almost any central hero Digimon for that matter. This is a HUGE sigh of relief if you liked exactly what Kabuterimon already had going on, even if, admittedly, it gives us a little less to talk about.

I do like Megakabuterimon's rib cage and especially its arms a whole lot. Those bendy, many-segmented tubes just look too cool!

## Digivolves from

* Kabuterimon

or

1. Birdramon
2. Butterflymon
3. Digmon
4. Dokugumon
5. Gatomon
6. MoriShellmon
7. Mothmon
8. Searchmon
9. Tortomon

## Digivolves to

* HerculesKabuterimon
* AncientBeetlemon

or

1. GranKuwagamon
2. Magnadramon
3. MegaGargomon
Musyamon

Originally I just reviewed Zanbamon here, but, you're right, Musyamon is definitely the thematic, official Adult stage for the line. A straightforward demonic samurai with a lot of detail packed into its design, which is more than appropriate for the theme, and I'm glad those details are on the ragged and battle-worn side. As with a lot of earlier humanoids, what we see of Musyamon's face and eye placement are not quite human, but definitely more beast-like.

There's also a rather interesting child stage for these guys, but, it's even more appropriate to another series of Digimon we'll review it with later.

## Digivolves from

* Kotemon

or

1. Bakumon
2. Candlemon
3. Goblimon
4. Guilmon
5. Kunemon
6. Patamon
7. Renamon
8. Salamon

## Digivolves to

* Vajramon

or

1. Asuramon
2. Myotismon
3. SkullSatamon
WereGarurumon

On the other hand, it's explicitly stated that a lot of Digimon are born from our own world's computer data, such as programs, video games, viruses, image files and entire websites, so uh, yeah. I doubt anyone involved with Digimon thought of this at the time, but by their own rules and simple logical deduction, it's entirely likely that Gabumon and its evolutions are living manifestations of the internet's furry fandom presence.

Take that any way you want. I'm neither a furry nor somebody bothered in any way by furries, but I think even most furries themselves would have to admit that a lonely naked lizard in cosplay could easily be their entire subculture's mascot.

So, as Weregarurumon, our little buddy finally takes his roleplay to its logical conclusion.

## Digivolves from

* Garurumon
* Gururumon

or

1. Apemon
2. Fangmon
3. Fugamon
4. Icemon
5. Kabukimon
6. Meramon
7. Mojyamon
8. Nohemon
9. Turuiemon
10. Wizardmon

## Digivolves to

* MetalGarurumon
* ZeedGarurumon
* AncientGarurumon
* CresGarurumon
* Merukimon

or

1. Boltmon
2. Imperialdramon
3. MegaGargomon
4. MetalSeadramon
5. Sakuyamon
6. Seraphimon
African Buffalo

The strong and imposing **African buffalo** (Syncerus caffer) is Africa’s only wild cattle species , and one of the ‘Big Five’ mammals that were once popular with trophy hunters . With its bulky build and thick horns, the African buffalo is considered to be a dangerous animal, and its propensity to attack and even kill humans when wounded by an arrow or bullet only acts to reinforce this reputation .
MetalGarurumon

...Aaand then just becomes another robot from there.

Ah well. I liked the scary werewolf thing better, but becoming a robowolf does seem like the next step for this hopeless wolfaboo.

Godspeed, Gabumon. You at least know what you want out of life.

## Digivolves from

* WereGarurumon

or

1. AeroVeedramon
2. Andromon
3. BigMamemon
4. Gigadramon
5. Knightmon
6. Mamemon
7. Mammothmon
8. MetalGreymon
9. MetalMamemon
10. Myotismon
11. Paildramon
12. Pandamon
13. ShadowWereGarurumon
Peacockmon

I guess this has the vibe of a super-duper bird armor digimon. It's described as having "laser shaped wings," one of the most charmingly nonsense phrases we've heard yet, and a really awkward way of saying its feathers are made out of light.

## Digivolves from

* Soundbirdmon

or

1. Biyomon
2. Bokomon
3. Hawkmon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. AeroVeedramon
MarineAngemon

Interestingly, Whamon's "most official" evolution is one of the tiniest Ultimates in the franchise. Whereas Marin Devimon was a giant squid-man, his angelic equivalent is based on a real-world "sea angel," just like Pokemon's Manaphy! I like the idea that a clionid is the most supreme form that can be taken by various huge sea monsters.

## Digivolves from

* Calmaramon

or

1. Angewomon
2. Digitamamon
3. Lillymon
4. MagnaAngemon
5. MegaSeadramon
6. Mermaimon
7. Piximon
8. ShogunGekomon
9. Whamon
10. Zudomon
Roachmon

So there was one more lonely, adult-level insect digimon from the late 90's besides Yanmamon, Dokugumon and Snimon, but I guess I wanted to save something this good for a little later. It also hurts worse than a lot of other orphanmons, because of ALL the digimon I'd want to have a full evolution line, a goofy punkass cartoon cockroach is almost up there with Raremon. It has that more "American cartoon" look and feel that I loved about Chuumon, but doesn't skimp on the cool, insectoid details with a great looking hunchback, segmented abdomen and tattered wings with yet another Jolly Roger plastered across them, though now it's really bothering me how Roachmon's back is drawn in front of both wings and they don't at all look like they'd attach at the right angle.

Roachmon is BEGGING to evolve into a big Beelzebub-like fly Digimon that will never exist, and further into something even buggier and skuzzier than that, like an Ultimate that's just a whole big swarm of pesky insects, or a surprisingly tiny plague-infected flea, or even a gas-masked exterminator-like humanoid who's obviously just an insect digimon underneath its disguise.

Roachmon is of course another "garbage" evolution, but one from a later generation of the virtual pets. This particular pet introduced the concept of Jogress or "fusion" evolution, with every possible adult stage obtained by merging two different child stages. If, however, you tried to merge anything you weren't supposed to, your result would always end up being the punkass cockroach. This included both attempts to merge the same species with itself - an agumon with an agumon - or merge one of the adult stages with anything, since they were already a fusion product and couldn't fuse any further. I like the idea that Roachmon is specifically a garbage product of this particular evolutionary process.

Bizarrely, the only further evolution for Roachmon was originally Mekanorimon, the empty machine digimon requiring its own "pilot" to function. We reviewed it back when we reviewed Andromon, but I probably should have really saved it for here, since it actually debuted as the evolved form of this cockroach. Why? How?! Is there still supposed to be a Roachmon inside, like how Numemon controls Monzaemon? Or does this poor bug actually evolve, for some reason, into a brainless vehicle? Intriguing, to say the least, but Mekanorimon would later be demoted to only an Adult-level Digimon, and Roachmon would forever lose its ability to evolve into a Mobile Suit.

## Digivolves from

* Dokunemon

or

1. Chuumon
2. Kunemon
3. Tentomon

## Digivolves to

* Shadramon

or

1. Myotismon
2. ShogunGekomon
Pipismon

A subconscious part of me thought there was already a number of bat-based digimon, but I guess it was thinking of the bat wings on Patamon itself or the overall shape of Demidevimon. This is the only pure chiropteran digimon that I know of, and it's pretty sweet! Just a freaky, toothy bat with metal hooks on every appendage! Rad!!!

## Digivolves from

* Tsukaimon

or

1. Patamon
Pururumon

The earliest baby form of today's line is...good god...it's PRECIOUS. Like many baby stages, it's a "slime" digimon said to be extremely jiggly and wobbly, compared to a lump of silicon in its official description...but you can tell this is also a bird-based digimon. It's a blob bird. A blird. A borb. Whatever you want to call it. It's perfect is what it is. That same description lets us know that while it can't fly, it likes to lie on the ground in warm grass anyway. Get me 10,000,000.

## Digivolves to

* Poromon

or

1. Chicchimon
Starmon (Fusion)

So, here's where this gets somewhat weird. In 2010, Digimon underwent yet another series reboot into the "Digimon Fusion" anime we've only briefly mentioned before, and in this series, Digimon no longer had evolutionary levels. Instead, every digimon had a single set form and could simply fuse with any other digimon into something new, and I do mean this series establishes that e v e r y digimon can fuse with a n y other digimon, or any NUMBER of other digimon, to create something unique, unleashing absolute chaos on anyone who wishes to track all potentially canon monsters. This series even showed us an extra wacky "joke" fusion at the end of every single episode, but wound up featuring some of those for real, making all of those canon, and you better believe we'll be giving them reviews of their own some day.

Anyway, among the main characters of this new series was a new "Starmon," now an actual gold star without any additional limbs, and forming a sort of collective with a bunch of little guitar-pick monsters just called "Pickmon."

Together, the newly reimagined Starmon and the Pickmon could link together and function, somehow, as a sword, and none of this is nearly the oddest thing introduced in Fusion.

I like this Starmon. Regular Starmon was alright, but a tiny little gold star guy who thinks he's really awesome and can form a sword is even better. Where it gets rather strange and confusing yet again is that this Starmon can also transform into the same old Superstarmon, so this really is a completely alternate take on what "Starmon" is supposed to be.
Magnamon

And here's where things are about to get a little out of hand. There are many different digi-eggs, and for each one, V-mon has a different armor evolution. Some of them are pretty obviously related to the little guy, while some are so different I'm really not sure I should be reviewing them all on the same page...but, what the heck, let's give it a shot.

Magnamon is what happens when V-mon meets the Digi-egg of Miracles. Magnamon is also one of thirteen special hero digimon known as the "Royal Knights," which I guess we'll complete some other time. I'm not gonna drop what I'm doing here to look at twelve more of these bozos.

It's grown-up V-mon in gold robot armor. Whatever!

## Digivolves from

* Flamedramon

or

1. Agumon
2. DemiDevimon
3. GoldVeedramon
4. Patamon
5. Veemon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. Garudamon
2. Paildramon
TyrantKabuterimon

You probably won't be surprised to hear that, as Digimon went on, it continued to add grander and more epic monsters that, in some cases, should technically be considered a higher level than even an Ultimate, as is the case for Tyrantkabuterimon, which appears in only a couple of games and cards but is said to evolve exclusively from Herculeskabuterimon. I guess this is like what Pokemon eventually did with "mega evolutions," technically a creature at the same evolutionary level, but....more?

Our Tentomon never goes this route, but I wouldn't really put it past him. Tyrantkabuterimon is a virus type said to rule over insect Digimon as a fearsome overlord, and I could totally see newfound power going to his head.

As a design, this thing is certainly more interesting than most of the other robot-looking evolutions, with its mermaid-like shape and the giant, false jaws on its back, complete with their own additional set of eyes. You can find the real, extra tiny face at the base of the lower horn, just like a hercules beetle, but with yet another set of eyes below that, on the chest!

## Digivolves from

* Flybeemon

or

1. MetallifeKuwagamon
MetalPhantomon

The official Bandai art of this one is a little tough to make out, so here's a collector's card! This advanced Phantomon, like most Ultimates, isn't as charming to me as either regular Phantomon or the weaker Bakemon, but it still deserves appreciation for its metal skull face, rib cage fangs, electricity arms, nicely detailed spinal column and the fact that it just has a plasma sphere thingy instead of legs.

Metalphantomon has seen no real play in Digimon video games or virtual pets, but it did get to appear in an episode of one of the more recent anime series, and as one of those villains with power over dreams and nightmares!
Mamemon

You know what, we should have probably reviewed Mamemon sometime earlier. We've only now officially seen every single Digimon from the very first, original virtual pet, and Mamemon was actually one of its three possible perfect-level monsters alongside Metalgreymon and Monzaemon!

You may recognize "mame" as "bean," which references this Digimon's extremely tiny size. Originally evolving from either Meramon, Tyranomon or Seadramon, the idea here is that the monster has condensed itself down into a concentrated body more powerful than ever, kinda like dark matter I guess. I like the contrast of that cutesy face on such a simple sphere but with those frighteningly muscled, metallic arms and clawed feet. It really does look like something disproportionately dangerous.

## Digivolves from

* Nanimon

or

1. Clockmon
2. Deputymon
3. Frigimon
4. Greymon
5. Leomon
6. Mekanorimon
7. Meramon
8. Mojyamon
9. Ninjamon
10. Seadramon
11. Thunderballmon
12. Whamon

## Digivolves to

* BanchoMamemon

or

1. Lampmon
2. MetalGarurumon
3. PrinceMamemon
4. WarGreymon
Togemon

It's interesting how left-field Palmon's adult stage really feels. It doesn't follow stylistically from Palmon in any way other than the fact that the two of them are plants, almost looking like it came in from a completely different franchise...but I can't not like a cactus creature, and especially not when it has coconut-hole facial features. It's also HUGE, like most of the protagonist evolutions, huge enough for the kids to ride around on as needed.

## Digivolves from

* Palmon

or

1. Agumon
2. Biyomon
3. Floramon

## Digivolves to

* Lillymon

or

1. Blossomon
2. Garbagemon
3. Garudamon
Plutomon

Also debuting in 2013, Plutomon unfortunately loses the dumb dog guns and just doesn't feel as fun, but I do like the "energy jaws" it's generating in its main artwork, and all the various teeth on it do look pretty cool. I think I like it a lot more than your average "nondescript armored guy" digital monster, but it's still a symptom of an overdone trend in the series. It's even yet another "excessively ruthless antihero" sort of digimon, going way too far to punish evil, which is something we've seen several times now in the same universe.

What is REALLY cool though is that, according to its profile, the various teeth in Plutomon's suit make a chattering sound as it stalks its victims! Alright, you sold me, and you get a four.