recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Ebemon

We've got a nice, happy ending for this Digimon, too, entirely thanks to a fan artist whose entry won a 2002 design contest and permanently cemented a fully-evolved space invader into series canon. Granted, this is a very very different creature from Vademon and I'm usually not as big on mechanized evolutions, but this is just SUCH a cool, menacing, otherworldly tentacle-bot that it easily manages to make my favorites. All those speakers and scanners and hoses and vents are SO neat looking together, the asymmetry is a ton of fun and the clean, white chassis gives the whole thing a disturbingly sterile, medical sort of feel, like you know most of those things coming off of it are designed to be inserted into something else's orifices.

What's also great is the fact that, in every official image I know of, you can still faintly see Ebemon's organic brain through its elongated, alien robo-skull! If you're a big UFO geek, or really anybody with good taste, I'm sure you'll appreciate the backstory that this is, in fact, a Vademon artificially altered by experiments conducted at Area 51.

It wasn't aliens they captured at all...IT WAS A DIGIT MAN!!!

## Digivolves from

* Vademon

or

1. Datamon
2. Mummymon
3. SkullSatamon
Lampmon

I appreciate whenever a digimon has this more "western cartoon" style, and he's a competently designed genie, but at the end of the day there's really nothing more to him than you can expect from his concept. The face on the lamp is cooler than he is, really, and I wish the name "Lampmon" meant that he WAS the lamp and the rest was an illusion or something. That would be fun.

Lampmon gets a three, because it's still cool that an Ultimate stage gets to look this stylized and cartoonish, but we haven't seen much of him in any media so far.

## Digivolves from

* Wisemon

or

1. Asuramon
2. Digitamamon
3. Mamemon
4. MetalMamemon
5. Meteormon
6. Shakkoumon
7. SkullSatamon
Gorillamon

Another most people have totally, totally forgotten, but what RIGHT do any of us have to forget a gorilla with a big, bulging, hideously mutated gun-arm?! Actually...is this possible a white gorilla because of the movie Congo? It sure came out at just the right time to have been part of the creator's American movie kick. I wish I had anything else I could say about Gorillamon.

## Digivolves from

* Monmon

or

1. Agumon
2. Armadillomon
3. Chuumon
4. Gabumon
5. Kokuwamon
6. Patamon
7. Terriermon
8. Veemon

## Digivolves to

* Makuramon

or

1. Armormon
2. Etemon
3. MetalGreymon
4. Mummymon
5. Tekkamon
BladeKuwagamon

Fortunately, we've got something a lot cooler to review if we jump back to Kokuwamon and evolve it a bit differently. This alternate "kuwagamon" has yet to be featured outside of the card game and maybe one video game, I think, which is tragic. It is officially considered an insect Digimon and a cousin to the stag beetle, but it's evolved away from almost any resemblance to a living arthropod or even an animal, taking on the form of a gigantic, one-eyed sword with four long, spindly "legs" made entirely of electricity!

While I am generally more fond of the cartoonier and/or biological digimon, the idea of a little tazer-like robobug evolving into a giant metal sword-bug with lightning for feet is undeniably badass and pretty damn inventive.

## Digivolves from

* Kokuwamon

or

1. KoKabuterimon
Frogmon

We already have the best possible frog digimon, and it's called Gekomon, thank you very much! Not that I can possibly dislike any given froggy, especially with this particular froggy's little toothy smile. The accessories and armor glued onto it are kind of messy and they chose a terrible set of colors for this design, but I'm liking the fact that it can fly like a helicopter...and is that a knife? A sheathed army knife? Is this a tiny frog that flies through the air and stabs you!?!

...Its second attack is called "ambush dagger." It is a knife. I'm REALLY let down we didn't get to see this in the anime.

## Digivolves from

* Otamamon

or

1. Armadillomon
2. Syakomon
Apemon

Pretty indifferent to this one, known as Hanumon in Japan but not even as interesting as the actual Hanuman. Just an adult level ape with a bone. Whatever!

## Digivolves from

* Monmon

or

1. Bakumon
2. BlackAgumon
3. Bokomon
4. Candlemon
5. Chuumon
6. Renamon

## Digivolves to

* Gokuwmon

or

1. Doumon
2. Etemon
3. Kyukimon
4. Mammothmon
5. Mihiramon
6. Pumpkinmon
7. WereGarurumon
Crabmon

I believe I indicated at some point how random these reviews would have to get, so today, let's do Crabmon because I just felt like it! This design really could have used some pop-out eyes, easily the most endearing feature of an actual crab, but Crabmon is a solid, pleasant design and otherwise as good as a lover of crabs could ask for from a Digimon, especially a child level Digimon suitable for "main partner" status.

Crabmon even shows up as just that in the anime, however briefly, and appropriately paired up with a surfer kid! I like the idea of a kid who lives out on the coast and loves the sea and one day this crab starts talking to him and is like "yeah I'm both a crab and a computer monster, there's lots of computer monsters but I'm the crab one. Do you like the beach???"

## Digivolves from

* Bukamon

or

1. Motimon

## Digivolves to

* Coelamon
* Ebidramon
* Shellmon

or

1. Allomon
2. Archelomon
3. Dokugumon
4. Dolphmon
5. Flymon
6. Gargomon
7. Gesomon
8. Monochromon
9. Seadramon
10. Submarimon
11. Togemogumon
12. Tylomon
Hououmon

At least the "most canon" ultimate stage is a step back toward a feathered sky-terror, even if Hououmon or "phoenixmon" in the West still isn't quite as kickass looking, to me, as plain old Birdramon. The idea behind Hououmon is that it's the absolute ultimate god-beast of all bird Digimon, though this would be sort of contradicted later by other bird monsters.

## Digivolves from

* Garudamon

or

1. AeroVeedramon
2. Airdramon
3. Angemon
4. Antylamon
5. Birdramon
6. Deramon
7. Kokatorimon
8. MagnaAngemon
9. Majiramon
10. Mihiramon
11. Parrotmon
12. Silphymon
13. Unimon
Goldramon

Those holy beast reviews weren't terribly exciting, were they? I guess I should have put them all on one page, like I'm about to two with these two bozos. Goddramon is the most Godliest dramon, apparently, though not nearly as cool as that Holydramon thing that Angewomon evolves into. This is more on the busier side of digimon designs, and feels kind of redundant with a lot of other dragons and angels. I guess the metal feathers of its inorganic wings are kinda cool looking, at least.

## Digivolves from

* Maildramon

or

1. Cyberdramon
2. LordHolyAngemon
3. MagnaAngemon
4. MasterTyrannomon
5. Megadramon
Angewomon

And, surprise, the BIG secret to Gatomon is...the same big secret to Patamon, only now it's a girl one?

I honestly don't want to bash Angewomon, because she's still pretty badass as far as pretty blonde angel-people go, but she's pretty much exactly a gender swap of Angemon minus even his already subtle levels of "scariness," such as the giant-sized hands or the metal bolts, and that's unfortunately expected of female characters in a crapton of media. If they're evil, then they get to have some mildly grody aspects...but still never TOO grody.

It's interesting, at least, that Angewomon is a higher level than Angemon, and in several games, Angemon can himself evolve into Angewomon...but isn't that all the more reason to give her a design at least as imposing? At least put some equivalent muscles on her! Anything!

I will say that I like how her bow is an organic part of her wrist, and she does fit well into Gatomon's story of redemption and revenge. Myotismon basically goes out of his way to recruit Gatomon before she ever finds her human partner because he knows he's ultra-vulnerable to the combined attacks of Angemon and Angewomon.

I'll just give her a three. Her design could be better and she feels redundant, but I still generally want to like her.

## Digivolves from

* Gatomon

or

1. Kabuterimon
2. Monochromon
3. Nefertimon
4. Starmon
5. Stingmon

## Digivolves to

* Ophanimon

or

1. Babamon
2. Eaglemon
3. Magnadramon
4. MarineAngemon
5. Valkyrimon
Digitamamon

...But, behold, there is light in this darkness. Also like Numemon, V-pet Nanimon had its own exclusive, extra-powerful evolutionary upgrade, and "perfect" is right. There isn't anything to not love about a big, glowy-eyed egg with reptile feet. It's a little difficult at first to rationalize the connection between these two Digimon, but we mentioned that Nanimon is a Tamagotchi reference, and even said to have invaded the Digital world from "some other dimension." Digitamamon, meanwhile, is said to only evolve from the data of this other world, and looks more immediately like the broken egg design of a classic Tamagotchi itself!

Digitamamon's eggshell is actually described as just an egg-shaped "exoskeleton," and it's officially referred to as the "apex" of all possible Digimon evolution. This claim goes back to before Digimon ever evolved further to the ultimate stage, but I love the idea that a Digimon can both begin and end as an egg, and unlike many shadow-faced creature designs, Digitamamon has both an official "true" face and one that is not disappointing.

If it isn't broke, don't fix it, and if its face looks like nothing but eyes floating in darkness, that's exactly what it should literally, really be! Digitamamon's inner demon typically only emerges as an attack mechanism, which is rather dramatically referred to as its "NIGHTMARE SYNDROME" move!

...But, if this early art is to be believed, Digitamamon's inner being was going to be something much more interesting. As Nanimon was a poop-throwing reskin of Numemon, Digitamamon was a heart-spitting reskin of Monzaemon, so I guess there was at least one attempt to tie that in with Digitamamon's spookier, more monstrous design and concept!

As powerful as this Digimon is supposed to be, however, his only major role in the anime has been as a conniving, villainous restaurant chef, and you've got to love the Peter Lorre-inspired dub voice, which he keeps through his second-season, delightfully non-villainous reappearance!

I really do love this spooky egg monster as much as the next Digimon, and thank god, the TCG at least has given both Numemon and Karatsukinumemon the ability to evolve into one of these, so at least theoretically, I would never have to have a Nanimon anywhere in my home.

## Digivolves from

* Ogremon
* Fugamon

or

1. BomberNanimon
2. KaratsukiNumemon
3. MoriShellmon
4. Nanimon
5. NiseDrimogemon
6. Tuskmon

## Digivolves to

* Titamon
* Devitamamon

or

1. Ghoulmon
2. KingEtemon
3. Lampmon
4. MarineAngemon
5. Zanbamon
Ebidramon

This is another adult stage we can't say all that much about, but that doesn't mean Ebidramon is boring. A huge, monstrous lobster is something that's just always extremely valid, and would have made slightly more sense as the link between Crabmon and Anomalocarimon way back, but whatever. I just noticed, for the first time ever, that the original artwork has a shell that appears to be riveted together, which is a really fun little touch I think all other artwork has overlooked.

Also noteworthy is the fact that Ebidramon's right claw appears to also function as a secondary mouth, and of course, that its name is EbiDRAmon, with the distinct head shape of the other "Dramons!" That this lobster is also part of a family of dragons doesn't come up much outside its name, and the fact that its official description calls it a "nonconformist of the Dramon type."

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, DRAMOM! I'M A LOBSTER NOW! IT'S WHO I AM!!!"

## Digivolves from

* Crabmon

or

1. Betamon
2. Gizamon
3. Goblimon
4. Gomamon
5. Guilmon
6. Renamon
7. SnowGoburimon
8. Syakomon
9. Terriermon

## Digivolves to

* Scorpiomon

or

1. Cyberdramon
2. Dragomon
3. Jagamon
Antylamon

Lopmon continues to be a digimon of special significance when we find that its truest Perfect stage is one of twelve "deva" digimon, based both on zodiac animals and Buddhism's Twelve Heavenly Generals, which we'll continue to review over the next eleven pages.

The rabbit Deva Andiramon is a follower of Azulongmon, a data type digimon, and armed with a fairly terrifying attack. Converting its arms into axes it calls "bunny blades," any cut it makes on a digimon will just spread outward until the entire digimon has disintegrated.

You know, like the kind of blades a bunny does. Bunny blades.

The design isn't too bad, either. It's remarkably menacing with those peculiar proportions, and I like the scaly red armor of its midsection.

Andiramon, however, also has an "EVIL" form, which is almost exactly the same, but treated for some reason like a separate "form." I guess because it actually changes from data type to virus type.

## Digivolves from

* Turuiemon

or

1. Oryxmon
2. Rabbitmon
3. Wendigomon

## Digivolves to

* Cherubimon

or

1. Azulongmon
2. Beelzemon
3. Cherubimon (Evil)
4. Diaboromon
5. Hououmon
6. MegaGargomon
Cherrymon

So of course Woodmon matures into an entire tree, with nicely eerie, glowing eyes in its vertical crevices and multiple gnarly tree-hands, but...

...Cherrymon debuted in the original Digimon World games, and had an entirely different design with the most awesome face in the world. MISALIGNED, freaky eyeballs are the best possible eyeballs, and instead of a bushy mustache and teeth, alpha Cherrymon had a row of staples for a mouth! It was just an utterly creepy, weird, badass monster tree all around, and for some reason they decided it should instead be an old dude with facial hair. Boring. I'd give the original design a perfect five, but Cherrymon as it now stands is only going to earn a two, sorry. It would have been a neutral three, but the very idea of changing a monster in a mons game is kind of a sin against nature.

## Digivolves from

* Woodmon

or

1. Dinohumon
2. Golemon
3. J-Mojyamon
4. Kabukimon
5. RedVegiemon
6. Sorcermon
7. Vegiemon

## Digivolves to

* Puppetmon
* AncientTrojamon
Biyomon

When we do get to that bird, it's kind of just exactly what you would expect from an ornithological child-level digimon, not that it's a bad thing. Biyomon still has those signature mole hands, but she can fly with them, and after all these years, I only just realized how the little metal band on her leg is like the bands they use to mark trained birds or even tag research specimens.

Since we did talk about Gabumon's anime relationship with his human, I guess we should do so for the rest of the applicable monsters, especially because these are some genuinely interesting, genuinely relatable cartoon kids - sometimes even a little too relatable for comfort.

Sora seems at first like your typical cool, confident, sports-loving teenage girl, but as the show progresses, we learn how hard she struggles with her self worth. Of course you'll seem fearless and selfless if you're the very last person you care about, and the first person to ever catch onto that ends up not even being human.

As a design, I'll still only be giving Biyomon an average rating, but she's probably one of the sweetest characters in the show.

## Digivolves from

* Yokomon

or

1. Tanemon
2. Tokomon

## Digivolves to

* Birdramon
* Swanmon
* Sparrowmon

or

1. Airdramon
2. Akatorimon
3. Aquilamon
4. Dokugumon
5. Fugamon
6. Golemon
7. Kabuterimon
8. Kiwimon
9. Kokatorimon
10. Kuwagamon
11. Leomon
12. Monochromon
13. Nanimon
14. Numemon
15. Peacockmon
16. Pteramon
17. Saberdramon
18. Sukamon
19. Togemon
20. Unimon
21. Veedramon
22. Vilemon
23. Woodmon
Gizamon

Pagumon's other classic evolution doesn't look anywhere near as similar to it as Gazimon does, but you can see by the names that they're meant to be complementary to one another. Basically a toad with hair, fangs, claws and razor-sharp back spines, Gizamon is said to be ferocious in water but timid on land, at least when it's all alone. It seemed pretty bloodthirsty out of the water in its one major anime appearance, but that was a fairly large horde of them against a few hapless humans, so it's probably bolder in packs, like toad-piranhas.

Gizamon is also capable of rolling up into a "wheel" with its nasty back blades, and that's also about to be significant. How do Gizamon and Gazimon work as a thematic duo, other than their pugnaciousness? Let's see!

## Digivolves from

* Tokomon

or

1. Bukamon
2. Pagumon

## Digivolves to

* Cyclonemon
* DarkLizardmon
* Rhinomon

or

1. BlackGrowlmon
2. Coelamon
3. DarkTyrannomon
4. Deltamon
5. Devidramon
6. Devimon
7. Ebidramon
8. Flymon
9. Gargoylemon
10. Gekomon
11. Gesomon
12. J-Mojyamon
13. Kuwagamon
14. Kyubimon
15. Mantaraymon
16. Oryxmon
17. Ranamon
18. Raremon
19. Shadramon
20. Shellmon
21. Turuiemon
22. Tuskmon
Depthmon

Reliability was the power associated with Joe and Gomamon, which is why it turns V-mon into a sea mammal. It's basically a dolphin mermaid robot, and it's one of the cooler looking ones we've seen so far, but still just so far removed from my aesthetic that I'm at a loss to come up with a stronger opinion than "this definitely exists." You're killing me here, Digimon 02! Killing me!!!

## Digivolves from

* Manbomon

or

1. Monodramon
2. Renamon
3. Veemon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. MarineDevimon
2. Mermaimon
Ghoulmon

Called "Deathmon" in Japan, but personally, I really like the name "Ghoulmon." This Ultimate Level demon, another fan entry, is said to have once been an angel digimon before it fell to darkness, and is prophecied to one day end the world. Despite its demonic nature, however, it's said to maintain "absolute neutrality" and is only manipulated to do outright evil by smarter, more powerful demonic beings.

Physically, ghoulmon is one of the more interesting and less human demons, with its single glaring eye and complete lack of any other facial features or even a distinct head. The tripartate claws with additional eyes in their palms are also very cool, the red wings are a nice splash of color, and I always just generally liked the way its central eye is situated in its torso, ringed by a hint of pink tissue and shaded by an overhanging fleshy lid. Now that I look at it, it's kind of like some horribly distorted orca whale with an eye in its mouth, though that prooobably wasn't...on porpoise.

## Digivolves from

* Velgemon

or

1. Datamon
2. Digitamamon
3. ExTyrannomon
4. Jagamon
5. Kimeramon
6. LadyDevimon
7. MarineDevimon
8. Sakkakumon
9. SkullSatamon
10. WaruMonzaemon
Armageddemon

...But Diaboromon isn't the end of the road here, because this was one of the first digimon (and still thankfully among the relatively few) to ever get a "super ultimate" stage, caused when thousands and thousands of baby Kerumon fuse together and capable of directly replicating itself even further.

Armagemon is still a bit less strange than Infermon, but I like the "sadistic sperm whale" look on its face in some close-up shots, it regains the knobbly bug legs and the design is nicely completed with that segmented, facehugger sort of tail. A fine bonus boss form to a consistently weird and scary sequence of digimon, every stage offering something new and fun to its "maniacal computer virus" theme, even if none of them are ever QUIIIITE as magnificently lovable as their child stage was.
ExTyrannomon

Alas, like all those other failures, Raremon's charm is as fleeting as a beautiful flower, as its most official evolution is a wildly different entity and once again a giant, colorful plush doll with exceptional fighting power. I'm obviously glad that if we had to go that route, we get one of those Jawa faces out of it, and it's even a Jawa face inside a "mouth," which is at least two of my favorite design tropes in one.

Sadly, there's no official word on whether a Raremon still operates Extyrannomon the way Monzaemon is puppeted around by a Numemon, and one TCG card even shows us that the being inside of Extyrannomon has been reduced to a simple, black sphere.

Still, I can appreciate the notion that somewhere, deep down inside the gangrenous mess that was Raremon, there was still something conscious enough to want better out of life; that after screwing up its cyborgification that badly, it made one more effort to pull itself together and become something both more formidable and more huggable. Hedorah in Godzilla cosplay, learning for the first time how it feels when people like you.

And if you're still not really into that, we did mention that some games evolve Raremon into Dagomon, while other known options include Skullsatamon and even the lovable Datamon, which I always felt was Raremon's most appropriate and thematic evolution; from a giant, rotting cyborg failure to a tiny cyborg genius who's still not quite stable.

## Digivolves from

* DarkTyrannomon

or

1. Gesomon
2. Raremon
3. Tuskmon
4. Tyrannomon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. Babamon
2. Ghoulmon
3. VenomMyotismon
Devitamamon

Many years after its debut, Digitamamon was also given a further, final evolution, so we can STILL say that this Digimon both begins and ends as an egg, and this 17-eyed hellbeast is just plain killer! It'd honestly like it a bit more if its head was typically retracted, still just showing its eyes in the darkness off the egg, but those long, jagged jaws aren't too bad of a look either.

Devitamamon is actually one of many Digimon added to the canon from a fan-art contest, though the original creator's design was quite a bit different:

It probably sucks to win a contest like this only for your design to get completely overhauled, but I'm still a sucker for the many-eyed nightmare they ultimately went with. If there's anything I like more about the original, it's the black sockets for eyes in what's apparently more of a skull-like head.

I believe Devitamamon's official profile still comes from the original contest entry, at least, and its creator loaded it with a loving degree of dramatic horror. The contents of its shell are likened to a "Pandora's box" of all things evil, it's said to use a lost programming language to cast wicked digital spells, and its main attack is known as the "Black Death Cloud," which "robs opponents of their sight, gnaws at their spirit, and decomposes their body."

CALM DOWN, EGG!!!!!

## Digivolves from

* Digitamamon

or

1. SkullMeramon
2. Triceramon
Bukamon

The Baby II stage of this line is the one I'm most prone to forgetting the entire existence of, for whatever reason. It should be harder to forget a little dinosaur critter with flippers, which honestly looks more like a child-level than baby-level Digimon.

## Digivolves to

* Gomamon
* Syakomon
* Crabmon
* Otamamon

or

1. Betamon
2. Gizamon
3. Otamamon (Red)
4. SnowAgumon
5. Swimmon
1962

**Eurovisionsschlagern, Svensk final 1962** var den femte upplagan av musiktävlingen Melodifestivalen och Sveriges uttagning till Eurovision Song Contest 1962.

Varje bidrag framfördes två gånger av två olika artister och två olika orkester, den stora orkestern (SR:s underhållningsorkester) leddes av Egon Kjerrman, och den lilla orkestern (kvintett) leddes av Göte Wilhelmson. Otto Brandenburg blev den första utländska artisten att tävla i schlagertävlingen. Sånggruppen Four Hits (bestående av Johnny Ekh, Pia Lang, Leppe Sundewall och Bo Söderman) blev årets bakgrundskör.

Sju låtskrivare bjöds in detta år till att skriva ett varsitt bidrag till schlagertävlingen. En av låtskrivarna, Olle Adolphson, lät sitt bidrag, "Kärlek och pepparrot", framföras offentligt innan finalen, och blev diskvalificerad strax innan tävlingen sändes.

Detta år röstade TV-tittarna och radiolyssnarna via vykortsröstning. Vinnaren blev melodin "Sol och vår" som framfördes av Inger Berggren och Lily Berglund med 102 327 röster. Berggren fick äran att tävla för Sverige i Eurovision Song Contest.

## Bidrag

Resultatet tillkännagavs den 20 februari. Totalt skickades 212 549 röster in till tävlingen.

## Källor

* Melodifestivalen genom tiderna (andra upplagan). Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Premium Förlag (Stockholm). ISBN 91-89136-29-2
* Melodifestivalen 1962 – SVT.se
Deputymon

You know, we've almost COMPLETELY neglected the "types" some Digimon are supposed to have. Maybe because they don't have a major effect on anything, but it's worth noting that this Digimon here is considered a "mutant," and so are the majority of other Digimon with this type of face. The face that makes anything simultaneously cooler and more adorable to me, even a trope as old and busted as a cowboy.

Not just any glowy-eyed cowboy, though, because Deputymon, or Revolmon in Japan, is also one big giant gun. That's both very funny and just horrible. This Digimon by default is always aiming a gun directly at anyone it wants to socially interact with, which has to be at least a little awkward at best. At worst, I get a mental image of him trying desperately to explain something to a crowd of civilians who can't stop screaming every time he turns their way.

Deputymon was in fact SO cary that some dubs saw fit to censor him...by making the gun bright blue and painting over the gunshots with lasers. Now, I'm no fan of real guns, but every single child in the world knows what they are, and almost all of them already play video games significantly more violent than anything cartoons have ever been willing to show them. It has never not been silly to hide the concept of bullets from kid's series, especially considering the fact that there's nothing actually making energy weapons less gruesome or brutal. Is it seriously only considered more acceptable because it's not a technology we deal with every day in the real world? Is that REALLY it? We still know what it represents. A gun is a gun.

Deputymon is not, however, a gun for very long. There aren't any bigger guns he can evolve into, or really anything very appropriate for him...EXCEPT that he can sometimes digivolve into yesterday's Superstarmon, which may have been designed as the evolution for en entirely different digimon, but, I strongly like the idea of a deputy monster evolving INTO a big gold star badge. Not to mention, becoming so tough he trades his guns for his bare fists.

## Digivolves from

* ToyAgumon

or

1. Hagurumon
2. Monodramon
3. Psychemon
4. Salamon
5. Wormmon

## Digivolves to

* MetalMamemon

or

1. Andromon
2. BigMamemon
3. Cyberdramon
4. Mamemon
5. MetalGreymon
6. Pandamon
7. Taomon
8. WarGrowlmon
9. Wisemon
BigMamemon

Mamemon, but bigger. That doesn't sound that creative, and the design is even less detailed than regular Mamemon, but I still really like it. Maybe it's the sleepy eyes, or maybe it's the shoes that stomp its own name into things.

## Digivolves from

* BomberNanimon

or

1. Clockmon
2. Deputymon
3. Golemon
4. Greymon
5. Guardromon
6. Mekanorimon
7. Thunderballmon
8. Vilemon

## Digivolves to

* PrinceMamemon

or

1. Boltmon
2. HiAndromon
3. MetalGarurumon
4. WarGreymon
Koromon

What we called an "in-training" Digimon in the west is known as "Baby II" in Japan, which isn't terribly creative, but has a special sort of charm. It would be so much funnier if we did this with actual babies, like instead of calling it a "toddler" once it starts walking. "Oh yeah, this is my son, as you can see he's a Baby II."

It's kind of unfair to call these things babies, though, when it's at exactly this stage that a Digimon becomes capable of fully fluent conversation.

I like Koromon, because it's an adorable little bunny-eared pink blob-head, but it's still kind of fearsome looking with the protruding fangs and red eyes. If you saw that TV spot on the last page, you know this franchise was saturated in "THIS IS FOR ROUGH AND TUMBLE BOYS" advertising, but all us kids and teens at the time were honestly still suckers for cute shit regardless of what capitalism tried to tell us. Everybody wanted something like Koromon to give a big fat hug to, don't none of you lie to me.

## Digivolves to

* Agumon
* BlackAgumon
* Betamon
* ModokiBetamon

or

1. Gabumon
2. Gaossmon
3. Kunemon
4. SnowAgumon
5. ToyAgumon
Crusadermon

About the only really interesting thing about Knightmon is really that, of its MANY possible knight and warrior evolutions, its most direct upgrade is a virus type introduced in 2002 with such a surprisingly feminine motif, sporting incredibly long legs, an hourglass torso, bright pink armor and even a fancy gold bracelet. It's literally known in Japan as "Lord Knightmon" rather than some sort of "Lady" Knightmon, however. Knightmon is having absolutely none of your medieval traditionalism!

This is also part of a series of digimon called the "Royal Knights," but their introductions were scattered across many series and games. I feel like we don't have much reason to hold off on them and review them all together like we do some of the other "series."

## Digivolves from

* Kyukimon

or

1. Knightmon
2. Mistymon
Kokuwamon

So, even though Kuwagamon was introduced as the evolution of an all-organic ladybug, we would later get this adorable, tazer-headed robot bug as an "official" Kuwagamon child stage. That this would be so much more mechanical than its adult form is rather odd, and makes Kokuwamon feel more like one of those neglected one-offs than part of a proper line, but I guess what we can interpret here is that this little mechanoid WANTS to be an insect, and is granted that by the magic of digital metamorphosis.

## Digivolves from

* Kapurimon

or

1. Minomon
2. Motimon

## Digivolves to

* Grimmon
* BladeKuwagamon

or

1. BlackGargomon
2. Clockmon
3. Devimon
4. Gorillamon
5. Guardromon
6. IceDevimon
7. Kuwagamon
8. Mekanorimon
9. Mothmon
10. Raidramon
11. Soulmon
12. Tankmon
13. Thunderballmon
Bakemon

I didn't even know it was friday the thirteenth today! I missed a day there, so we had to upload Crabmon the same day, but who'd have thought Entry 13 would land on this day of days by pure accident?!

So we gotta do something spookular, and we may as well do Bakemon! While not treated as one of the full-blown feces-loving failure Digimon, Bakemon is a near-failure only barely stronger than a Numemon, and kind of implies that you were so bad at raising your Digimon, you up and killed it.

It's a gorgeous ghost, though. Just a simple, cartoon sheet phantom who happens to have incredibly terrifying teeth and gums, not a visual combination I've actually seen that often, and the excessively tattered, dirty look of the sheet adds that decrepit early Digimon touch to an otherwise ordinary monster trope.

As one of the weakest of all spooky Digimon, Bakemon show up in vast numbers in the anime as the lowest-ranking minions of some major villains, like the vampire Myotismon, and in a one-on-one fight, the poor things can be beaten up by a human kid with a stick. That's also because these "ghosts" are completely solid, and don't especially exhibit any ghostly abilities other than levitation.

There's also a variant on Bakemon, called Soulmon, whose one and only design difference is a witch hat so large it usually covers its eyes. It's also said to be a little smarter than Bakemon, and in at least one game, only Soulmon was capable of speaking.

## Digivolves from

* Tsukaimon

or

1. DemiDevimon
2. Elecmon
3. Impmon
4. Kunemon
5. Patamon
6. PetitMamon
7. Sharmamon
8. Wormmon

## Digivolves to

* Phantomon

or

1. Giromon
2. Myotismon
3. Pumpkinmon
4. SkullGreymon
5. Vademon
Yasyamon

I'm not sure how this design is meant to parallel the plant-based Palmon line, but whatever. It's another actually cool looking armor form for V-mon, a human shaped dragonoid with a pretty eerie mask. It's apparently supposed to represent a Yashka, which are sometimes malevolent, sometimes friendly, always terribly powerful protectors of nature. Okay, I guess that's the plant connection.

## Digivolves from

* Dracmon

or

1. Hagurumon
2. Kotemon
3. Mushroomon
4. Renamon
5. SnowAgumon
6. SnowGoburimon
7. Veemon

## Digivolves to

* Axemon

or

1. Asuramon
2. Kyukimon
3. LadyDevimon
4. Mammothmon
5. MetalTyrannomon
6. Paildramon
7. Phelesmon
Botamon

This begins with a freshly hatched, almost defenseless Botamon. In Japan, this stage is known as "BABY I." In English translations, it's known as "fresh." I think we're gonna stick with the Japanese terms.

Botamon is one of the most adorable of the baby Digimon, in my honest opinion, but I am fairly biased towards very dark things with luminous eyes and especially to things with extremely minimal facial features. I would want 5,000 Botamons and I would never ever want most of them to stop being Botamons.
Gomamon

As a matter of fact, this entire line is the one I'm most prone to forgetting from the mains, which is totally unfair, because Gomamon is a perfectly adorable, charming Digimon, intended to resemble a baby sea lion of some sort, though it's a little hard to parse that at first glance when almost all the Digimon thus far have had flippers for limbs anyway.

Like Aquaman, Gomamon's only attack is to communicate with fish, though the anime was often sure to include a convenient pond or stream close enough to every battle he got into.

What does set Gomamon apart from the other characters in Adventure is the fact that, while most of the Digimon are still loosely similar in some way to their human counterparts, Gomamon is the direct inverse of his partner in almost every way. He's endlessly enthusiastic, optimistic, fun-loving, curious and always willing to crack a joke in even the most dire of circumstances...whereas Joe, the oldest of the kids, is a panicky worry-wart who values order, safety and responsibility above all else; the kind of kid whose idea of "fun" is making sure that nobody else has enough fun to potentially get hurt.

Joe and Gomamon end up bickering a lot more than any other monster-child pair, but in the process, Joe learns how to loosen up when he needs to and Gomamon, in turn, learns more about restraint. We even find out that, post-series, Joe becomes a doctor...treating both humans and Digimon.

## Digivolves to

* Ikkakumon
* Mantaraymon
* Gesomon

or

1. Ankylomon
2. Coelamon
3. Dolphmon
4. Ebidramon
5. Gekomon
6. Kumamon
7. Manbomon
8. Octomon
9. Whamon
Aurumon

An insect with the power of love-armor is an owl with night vision goggles? Well...alright. It's silly enough that I have to like it, even if we're really getting shafted in terms of possible insect digimon here. Owlmon is apparently not very strong, but exellent at gathering information.

## Digivolves from

* Falcomon

or

1. DemiDevimon
2. Hagurumon
3. Mushroomon
4. Wormmon

## Digivolves to

* ?

or

1. Mammothmon
2. Myotismon
3. ShadowWereGarurumon
4. WaruMonzaemon
Chibomon

Today's digimon line, then, is basically the successor to Agumon, taking on the role of central mascot and the partner to our new main hero kid, just as generic as Tai but slightly younger and slightly less competent. Honestly, I just don't remember too much about the character, and I don't think we ever really saw Chicomon, did we? There's nothing to say about it as a design. Kind of as basic as a baby digimon can get.
Gabumon

And here he is, the UTTER dork that is Gabumon, and actually one of my three favorites of the lead hero Digimon, though that wasn't always the case. In fact, I kind of completely overlooked him the first time I watched the series as a kid, writing him off as just "the cool one that's sort of a funny looking wolf."

This is perhaps because Gabumon was dubbed with a fairly serious, less nervous, less goofy voice and personality than he has in Japan, and also perhaps because he was partnered with "Matt" or originally Yamato, the brooding loner and sometimes antihero of the kid group. I kinda found this type of character just plain forgettable and sometimes even grating when I was in the target audience, but as an adult who pays more attention to the subtleties of character writing, I now appreciate that this kid's pessimism stems from some excellently written fear and anxiety you don't see often enough in these fantastical adventures.

He seems like a badass, even kind of a jerk on the outside, but he's really just afraid and wants to do his best, and that's actually a direct reflection of Gabumon itself, because that's another thing my younger self completely and totally missed....

For YEARS into adulthood, I was absolutely fooled by Gabumon's ruse. I thought he was just some kind of strange, fat canine that happened to have an extra pair of arms, a horn on its head and a dinosaur tail. It's not as if that would have been unusual for a Digimon design, right? But no. Gabumon is only DRESSED like a canine. It's an awkward, doughy lizard creature wearing a "pelt" that comes into existence when he digivolves (much like other Digimon weapons and accessories) so he can appear like something fuzzier and scarier.

I know, there's an entire scene in which he takes the pelt off in an episode to keep his friend from freezing to death, but we never get to see what he looks like, and I just brushed off his ability to remove his fur as some sort of "cartoon logic," rather than a design characteristic.

As an awkwardly designed, calm and collected wolf creature, Gabumon was just sort of "okay" in my book. As a shy, dumpy salamander who spends his life larping as a wolf, Gabumon is hilariously weird and adorably sympathetic.

## Digivolves from

* Tsunomon

or

1. Koromon
2. Nyaromon

## Digivolves to

* Garurumon
* Seasarmon
* Drimogemon

or

1. Angemon
2. Boarmon
3. Centarumon
4. Chuchidarumon
5. DarkLizardmon
6. Dobermon
7. Dokugumon
8. ExVeemon
9. Fangmon
10. Frigimon
11. Fugamon
12. Gorillamon
13. Greymon
14. Gururumon
15. Kabuterimon
16. Kenkimon
17. Kyubimon
18. Leomon
19. Mikemon
20. Monochromon
21. Nanimon
22. Nefertimon
23. Numemon
24. Ogremon
25. Pegasusmon
26. Snimon
27. Sukamon
28. Turuiemon
29. Tyrannomon
30. Veedramon
31. Vegiemon
32. Wizardmon
Gargoylemon

My god. Something OUTRIGHT GOOD?! AT LAST!? The crest associated with Kari, Gatomon and Angewomon transforms a V-mon into a holy-aligned gargoyle, which is a logical concept we don't see nearly enough in our monster fiction, and it's a freaky design that would even fit right in alongside first-wave Digimon!

Gargoylemon has all the elegance and beauty you expect from an angel type, but even ganglier and gnarlier than the original Angemon, with a streak of the downright haunting in eyeless gaze, forever blinded by metal bands seemingly bolted to its face. It's almost a design that could fit into a game like Dark Souls or a Manga like Berserk. It's THAT badass.

...Maybe a little less badass when its first anime appearance, many years later, would be as a police chief in Digimon Fusion with a siren on its head, a trenchcoat, and sunglasses it can't possibly actually use, but you know what....I'm glad. I'm glad that this actually happened.

## Digivolves from

* Gazimon

or

1. Gizamon
2. Lobomon
3. Lopmon
4. Renamon
5. Terriermon
6. Veemon

## Digivolves to

* SkullBarukimon

or

1. Cyberdramon
2. Mephistomon
3. SkullScorpiomon
Arkadimon (Mega)

The Ultimate stage is unfortunately more of the same, visually just a very upgraded and slightly scarier version of the Perfect stage. This one DOES look more like it has a mouth in its chest, but it's not the alien monster maw that would have better suited this line. It does appar to be mostly tentacles inside that armor, and those seem to be eyes on its arms and legs, so props for all that at least.
Garudamon

Awww, man. We're jumping straight to this look, huh? Couldn't keep any of that gnarly, beastly prehistoric quality for even one more stage? I'm just wholly indifferent to Garudamon, personally. All I can really think of in her favor is that she's one of the rare female Digimon with a humanoid torso that gets to be burly and muscular, which is also kind of rare for bird characters.

## Digivolves from

* Birdramon

or

1. Airdramon
2. Akatorimon
3. Angemon
4. Aquilamon
5. Fugamon
6. Kiwimon
7. Magnamon
8. Oryxmon
9. Pegasusmon
10. Rabbitmon
11. Saberdramon
12. Togemon
13. Tylomon
14. Veedramon

## Digivolves to

* Hououmon

or

1. Daemon
2. Eaglemon
3. Fujinmon
4. Gryphonmon
5. Justimon
6. Ornismon
7. Valkyrimon
Plesiomon

I kind of still find Zudomon cooler, but the first video game to feature Plesiomon here had it evolve primarily from Zudomon, and it even has a color scheme and markings more reminiscent of Gomamon, so if you ask me, it makes a lot of sense as the final form. You go from seal, to bigger seal, to...muscular walrus dog man...and finally a prehistoric sea monster. Makes at least as much sense as a flower to a cactus to a fairy, doesn't it?

## Digivolves from

* Tylomon

or

1. Brachiomon
2. Divermon
3. MegaSeadramon
4. Mermaimon
5. Scorpiomon
6. WaruSeadramon
7. Whamon
8. Zudomon
Gazimon

Gazimon here is the most direct and obvious metamorphosis of Pagumon. It's hard to pin down what kind of animal we're supposed to be looking at, at first, with aspects of both carnivora and lagomorpha, but that's because it's not necessarily based on an animal, which we'll also get to shortly. At the time, it was the first fully mammalian child stage to stand on its hind legs, which was said to be so it could use its exceptionally sharp claws as weapons.

Gazimon carries the same mean streak it did as a Pagumon, using those claws to dig pitfall traps and supposedly never forming any real friendships, watching out for its own needs above all else. Naturally, this made it a wildly popular choice for the main partner of countless fan characters, either reflecting its human's loner broodiness or as a more ironic matchup with a sweet, nurturing kid who eventually finds the good in Gazimon's black little heart. I'm not bringing this up to poke fun at it, you are absolutely lying if you say you've never loved that kind of dynamic.

## Digivolves to

* Dobermon
* Gargoylemon
* Raremon

or

1. Cyclonemon
2. DarkTyrannomon
3. Devidramon
4. Devimon
5. Gargomon
6. Garurumon
7. Gatomon
8. Gesomon
9. Leomon
10. Lynxmon
11. Tuskmon
Guilmon

So here's Guilmon, a kid-sized red dinosaur with bat wings for ears and a lot of odd, black skin markings. It feels more like a fan made digimon than an official one, but...that's canon! This is a digimon "invented" by the series main child, and I actually really like that idea. It's a cute idea, and even the jagged edges of Guilmon's head have more of a "child's drawing" quality to them. Interestingly, this is the first virus type to be the series star, a digimon said to have significant potential for mass destruction!

I actually like the way Guilmon is drawn in the anime, too. It's cutesier, but in an awkward sort of way, like a bumbling dog just getting out of its puppy stage. Having been spontaneously created from a child's imagination, Guilmon also differs from previous digimon partners in its own infantile ignorance of the world, lacking even any prior experience living in the digital universe.

## Digivolves to

* Growlmon
* Growlmon (Orange)

or

1. Allomon
2. BlackGrowlmon
3. Ebidramon
4. Flamedramon
5. Gesomon
6. Greymon
7. Kyubimon
8. Leomon
9. Monochromon
10. Musyamon
11. Raidramon
12. Sethmon
13. Stegomon
14. Tylomon
Datamon

It's another of my personal favorites today, though this Digimon only really grew on me when I found out what it could evolve from and into in Digimon World: Dawn and Dusk, games I'm going to be playing for myself soon for the first time ever! Those evolutionary stages have little overtly in common with it, but we'll be reviewing them on their own down the road, and you already know what they are if you ever read any of my older Digimon articles.

Like the subjects of our last two reviews, Datamon was the "tiny" Perfect-level in one of the original virtual pets, appropriately known as Nanomon in Japan but probably changed to Datamon in English to avoid confusion with Nanimon. The idea is that this Digimon represents "nanotechnology," even if that really refers to microscopic robotics and Datamon is still at least a couple of feet tall. It does produce even smaller digital "bugs" from its virus-riddled body, but even those are visible to the naked eye, so maybe they deliver even tinier machines themselves?

Whatever the case, I love just how screwed up this little guy is. He's supposed to be a vaccine Digimon that was transformed into a virus type, and he really looks like a robot that's been busted and repaired one or two or ten too many times, with those same grotesque organic features we've seen in a few other machine types. My favorite feature of course is the organic eye, but I think I'd like him even with two of those glowing yellow robot ones; he's just that cool.

Datamon is also, apparently, a big ol' nerd, having appeared in the anime as a maniacal one-off villain and later as a somewhat friendlier but still antisocial shopkeep who plays video games in a dingy back room.

## Digivolves from

* Mekanorimon

or

1. Beetlemon
2. Cyclonemon
3. Deltamon
4. Kuwagamon
5. Tuskmon

## Digivolves to

* Quartzmon

or

1. Eaglemon
2. Ebemon
3. Fujinmon
4. Ghoulmon
5. GranKuwagamon
6. Machinedramon
7. Pharaohmon
8. PrinceMamemon
9. Raijinmon
Devimon

Devimon debuted before any other explicitly evil or diabolical digimon in both game and anime formats, including his own prevolution. In the virtual pets, several unrelated Digimon could evolve into this powerful virus type as an alternative to Angemon, and in the anime, Devimon was the main villain of the first story arc, the very monster that actually prompted Patamon to finally evolve for the first time.

As the go-to Bad Man Digimon of the series since the start, Devimon serves his purpose pretty well and still holds up great as a design, especially since he's been allowed to keep his freakishly gangly proportions to this day while the Angel digimon are drawn increasingly human.

What's truly great about this guy, though, are the sheer layers of goth he's pulling off. It's not enough that he's covered head to toe in black latex, that he has giant skeleton hands or that he has tattered bat-raven wings, no. He's also got...hang on, let's find another angle so we can take a proper inventory...

* TWO skull markings.
* ONE red bat-shape marking.
* ONE red bat-shape-devil-face combo marking.
* THREE unnecessary zippers.
* FOUR metal ball studs.
* FIVE studded leather bands
* FIVE partial metal bands
* FOUR sets of stitches on the same arm.
* ONE mummy-bandaged hand.
* THIRTEEN leather belts.
* ZERO leather belts that are holding anything up.

It's a scientific fact: you cannot and you will not out-goth-punk this electronic monster man. Don't even try. The only one who can ever possibly stand to do so is himself, as we will see later.

Another fun thing about Devimon is the fact that they even got away with this in 1999 at all. I talked about this a couple times when we were reviewing Pokemon, most notably when I reviewed the Abra family, but the America I grew up in was still coming down of the Satanic Panic of the 60's and 70's, and a significant swathe of the nation spent the turn of the millenium in outrage at the fact that, if you kind of squint, these "pokey mon" things could almost be interpreted as d-d-d-DEMONS.

DEMONS! SATAN'S DEMONS in a CARTOONY PICTURE SHOW what CHILDREN LOOK AT!

Meanwhile, Digimon not only had this full blown Satan in it, but went on to have approximately 10,000,000,000 more Satans, including even good guy Satans, which would have had these watchdogs positively busting a gasket if they'd ever really bothered to pay attention to this series.

## Digivolves from

* DemiDevimon

or

1. Agumon
2. Betamon
3. BlackAgumon
4. Candlemon
5. Gazimon
6. Gizamon
7. Kokuwamon
8. Monmon
9. Terriermon
10. ToyAgumon
11. Tsukaimon

## Digivolves to

* NeoDevimon

or

1. BlackMetalGreymon
2. Kimeramon
3. LadyDevimon
4. Megadramon
5. Myotismon
6. Phantomon
7. Phelesmon
8. Pumpkinmon
9. SkullGreymon
10. SkullMeramon
11. SkullSatamon
12. Vademon
13. Vajramon
14. WaruMonzaemon
Jijimon

I kinda like this little, shaggy caveman! He's a possible evolution of Piccolomon, but I thought he was different enough to warrant his own entry along with his female counterpart. I always like designs whose features are completely hidden by fur or hair.

Jijimon is said, of course, to be one of the most ancient of all existing Digital Monsters, but of course, in our timeline that means he's still only as old as the invention of computer networks. Time passes differently enough in the Digital World, under certain circumstances anyway, that Jijimon may still have lived the equivalent of thousands of years in the few decades since we accidentally spawned his universe.

## Digivolves from

* Betsumon

or

1. Armormon
2. Etemon
3. LordHolyAngemon
4. MagnaAngemon
5. Monzaemon
6. Piximon
7. SkullMeramon
8. SuperStarmon
9. Wisemon