#Cthyllamon | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bethanythebogwitch · 5 months

Text

Digimon 2023 tier list

As 2023 is about to end, I'm gonna rank the new Digimon that debuted this year. This is purely my opinion based on how much I like each species. My tier list will run from S to D, with S being my favorite and D being my least favorite. I will only put one in each S and D. A will be Digimon I really like, B will be Digimon I like but not as much, and C will be ones I'm more ambivalent toward. I want to say that I don't dislike any of the new Digimon from this year, I just like some more than others.

The only new full evolution line we got this year is the Loogamon line. The baby stages are Fusamon and Bowmon. They're both cute and perfectly good Digimon, but it's generally hard for me to get excited about baby stages compared to the later stages. C-tier for both.

Loogamon is fun for being a new prototype Digimon with ties to Dorumon and Ryudamon via Seekers. I do think canine Digimon are overdone, but Loogamon sticks out nicely among the flood of Garurumon expies, which is a definite plus. I think I like it more than previous expies like Gaogamon and Dorulumon. I'll give it B-tier

Loogarmon I quite like. Again, canine Digimon are overdone, but this one manages to have a much more unique silhouette than the likes of Gaogamon, Dorulumon, and Fangmon. I love that the fire it breathes formes a muzzle, that's such a cool and unique idea. The wolf Digimon being a scary werewolf/garm monster is also a great step away from preguous Garurumon-style Digimon. A-tier.

The two Perfect/Ultimate level forms for Loogamon are Heloogarmon and Soloogarmon, with Heloogarmon being intended as a dark evolution, like the SkullGreymon of the Loogamon line. It's a badass werewolf made of hellfire that has the uncontrollable instinct to burn everything around it in a mindless rage. That is such a cool and scary concept, I absolutely love it. Easy A-tier. Soloogarmon as the good evolution is a lot less cool to me. Its the red-headed stepchild of the Loogamon family. I'm not a fan of how so many high-level Digimon turn into bipeds and Soloogarmon is definitely guilty of this. The mechanical elements also feel out of place compared to the rest of the line and that giant canister on its butt is just weird. The weapon being a wrench/lightsaber is cool, I just think it should be on a Digimon themed around engineering. I definitely prefer Heloogarmon as the Loogarmon evolution. I'm putting it on the bottom of C-tier because there is one I like less.

The Ultimate/Mega level is Fenriloogamon and I love it. Another quadrupedal Ultimate/Mega partner for a main character has been a long time coming as they're usually humanoid. For example, all the partner final forms from Ghost Game, the most recent anime, looked like people in costumes. A blue, flaming werewolf clad in silver armor is such a cool concept. I would love to see Fenriloogamon animated or in a video game. The Norse Mythology theme is also cool. Easy A-tier. Fenriloogamon also has another form called Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi which looks like if Zacian from Pokemon was designed by a heavy metal album cover artist. The blade it bears is Kazuchimon transformed into a sword. It look me longer than it should to realize that Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi is a reference to Alphamon Oryuken where Oryumon turns itself into a weapon for Alphamon. Given that the Dorumon and Ryudamon lines are in Seekers, we may see Alphamon Oryuken meet Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi. I also give this one an A-tier.

Commandramon is a high contender for my favorite Digimon of all time (which is ironic given how anti-military I am in real life), so I was super happy to see new evolutions of it for Seekers. Heck, the D-Brigade will be featuring in the Digimon Adventure fanfic I've been working on (please give me constructive criticism on what I have so far) Commandramon itself is not in this list because it's been out for a long time now. The new Adult/Champion level evolution is Hi-Commandramon, which is such an amazing evolution for Commandramon. I think its a better evolution than Sealsdramon, even though in canon Hi-Commandramon evolves from Commandramon who failed the test to become Sealsdramon. Hi-Commandramon is like Digimon distilled into one design, a high-tech cyborg dinosaur with military equipment. It may be a bit early in my tier list, but Hi-Commandramon is my S-tier.

The new Perfect/Ultimate level for Commandramon is Cargodramon, a dragon tiltrotor. It gives some air support and transportation to the army that is the D-Brigade. Cargodramon is definitely a callback to Tankdramon as the weirdly out of place vehicle evolution of Commandramon. I give it a B-tier.

Brigadramon is the new Ultimate/Mega level for the D-Brigade. In-universe, it was designed for a replacement for the original Darkdramon after that one went rogue. It acts as a commander that surveys from the air and guns down enemies from above. While I still prefer Darkdramon as a Commandramon evolution, Brigadramon is still great. It also works as an evolution for a ton of different Digimon without seeming out of place, which is a great factor in a series like Digimon with branching evolution lines. Off the top of my head, I can see virus MetalGreymon, MetalGreymon 2010, Gigadramon, and maybe Jazarichmon all evolving to Brigadramon. Easy A-tier.

Two new related Digimon are Luxmon and ArkhaiAngemon, who are both new angel Digimon. Luxmon is the new Child/Rookie level angel Digimon. I really like Luxmon, I think it's a great starting point for any angelic or holy line and I like that it looks like a child Angemon in footie pajamas. This may be heresy to say, but Luxmon is a better Angemon pre-evo than Patamon. I give it A-tier. ArkhaiAngemon is a new Perfect/Ultimate level angel and I do like it, but I think its probably the last interesting angel of its level compared to HolyAngemon and Angewomon. I kind of wish we got another feminine angel Digimon of this level (or any angel thats not a blonde white person) because it could be a great through line between Dacmon and LovelyAngemon without having to double-up on using Angewomon as the Perfect/Ultimate level when she's pretty firmly established as Ophanimon's pre-evo. I'll give ArkhaiAngemon a B-tier.

Quantumon is a cool design and is neat as the closest we've gotten to a Digimon form of Adventure's Homeostasis (even though she appeared in a completely different continuity). I Also appreciate another feminine Ultimate/Mega that's not sexualized. Honestly the biggest thing I have against Quantumon is that the end of Ghost Game sucked. I give her a B-tier.

Cthyllamon as an evil MarineAngemon is neat, but more interesting is that it many be a refenrence to an obscure bit of the franchise. Bck in the Digimon Accel virtual pets, multiple existing Digimon got Blast Modes. These modes only existed in those games and don't have reference book entries. One of these was MarineAngemon Blast Mode, which looked like an angry MarineAngemon with bat wings. We never got anything more than sprite artwork for the Blast Modes, but given the similarities, I think Cthyllamon is a callback to MarineAngemon Blast Mode. For that, I'll give it an A.

All the new Digimon introduced in Digimon New Century have bee great and Dijiangmon is no exception. As far as evil Digimon go, Dijiangmon is a interesting one. Instead of destroying things or raising armies, it just hangs out, being completely expressionless and never making a sound. It also has the power to telepathically induce other Digimon to fight. It's like the Digimon version of a creepypasta monster. I like it. A-tier.

A Digimon that has been announced but not yet fully released is Tlalocmon. We have the art and the knowledge that it's a Jogress/DNA Digivolution of Eldoradimon and SaberLeomon, but no lore yet. Despite that, what we have is super cool. It's an adorable Ultimate/Mega level, which is super rare, and its named after the Aztec god of rain Tlaloc. A twitter Digimon fan and Mesoamerican history enthusiast did a big post breaking down the design influences and mythological references in Tlalocmon that you should definitely read. Easy A for Tlalocmon and I can't wait to see it in action.

Another announced by not yet released Digimon that will be coming from New Century is Takutomon. I'm gonna be honest, I'm not nearly as excited about this one as I am about Tlalocmon. The design is fine, but I'm not too excited about another "dude in a costume" Ultimate/Mega level. Maybe my opinion will change as we get more information, but for now it's C-tier.

The final new Digimon released this year (not counting the one teased in the announcement for the new card game project which we don't even have a name for yet) is BigUkkamon. The name says it all, it's Ukkamon but bigger. And pink. And with less detail. Gotta say, this one is pretty boring. They didn't even include the weird head tree thing from 02 The Beginning in its official art. The lore is decent, but BigUkkamon is just bland. This one's the D-tier.

To recap:

S-tier: Hi-Commandramon

A-tier: Loogarmon, Heloogarmon, Fenriloogamon, Fenriloogamon Takemikazuchi, Brigadramon, Luxmon, Cthyllamon, Dijiangmon, and Tlalocmon

B-tier: Loogamon, Cargodramon, ArkhaiAngemon, and Quantumon

C-tier: Fusamon, Bowmon, Takutomon, and Soloogarmon

D-tier: BigUkkamon

Between Seekers, 02 The Beginning, and announcements for new card came and video game projects, 2023 was pretty good for Digimon. Hopefully next year keep on going and helps the Digimon renaissance keep going.

71 notes · View notes

bethanythebogwitch · 7 months

Text

Today I'l finishing up presenting and giving my thoughts on all aquatic Digimon. For previous parts of this series see all fish, all mermaids, all aquatics part 1, and all aquatics part 2. Today I'll be covering the remaining ultimate/perfect and mega/ultimate level Digimon.

The first one of the ultimate/perfect is Anomalocarimon. Anomalocaris is one of my favorite extinct animals and I'm absolutely delighted that both Digimon and Pokemon based a monster off of it. It also definitely takes after a sea scorpion with it's scorpion-like tail. It was even born from scientific data about extinct species. I think this is a great Digimon that deserved more attention. Anomalocarimon caused a bit of a translation kerfuffle when it was given the English name Scorpiomon (because American kids are too dumb to know what an Anomalocaris is I guess). Well there's also another unrelated Digimon called Scorpiomon so the English dub was forced to change its name to SkullScorpiomon. Yes, this has caused confusion before. Anomalocarimon also has an x-antibody form that looks like it was standing next to a bunch of exploding spray paint cans.

Anomalocarimon

Anomalocarimon X

Next is Dagomon, who was given the English name Dragomon. It's a minor change but kind of dumb because Dagomon comes from the Cthulhu mythos character Father Dagon and has nothing to do with dragons. Despite being named after Father Dagon, Dagomon is clearly Cthulhu as a Digimon. It's also treated as such in the animes. in Digimon Adventure 02 it rules over deep ones in an extradimensional spaces called the Dark Ocean and is implied to be more of a Lovecraftian horror than a Digimon. In Digimon Ghost Game it starts turning people into deep ones and is powerful enough to overwhelm a higher-level Digimon. I know it also shows up in Xros Wars, but I didn't watch that. It wears Buddhist prayer beads. In a heavily Buddhist country like Japan, a monster dressed like a Buddhist is probably the equivalent of historically-Catholic countries having vampire priests. I dig this one and while I say that a lot of Digimon could use more attention, I think Dagomon only showing up a little bit and being overwhelmingly powerful and mysterious is very appropriate for a Lovecraftian Digimon.

Related to Dagomon is Hangyomon, called Divermon in English. It's very much based on sea monsters like th Creature from the Black Lagoon, but with scuba gear. I think it's a neat Digimon. Notably, Hangyomon's most prominent appearance in the anime wasn't actually them. It was in the same episode as Dagomon and the Dark Ocean where at the end it's revealed that the creatures that presented themselves as Hangyomon were actually disguised deep ones serving Dagomon.

Next is Gusokumon and listen, I'm a simple nerd, I see a giant shrimp that shoots fish-shaped torpedos and I like it. It's also based on real-life biological phenomena relates to the deep ocean. Like many real deep-sea animals it lives life on show mode, being able to live an extremely long time while not getting to eat very often. It feeds on injured Digimon that sink to the bottom of the ocean, which sounds a lot like deep-sea scavengers and whale falls (Whamon falls?)

Next is MarineChimairamon, an aquatic chimera. Yes, it's spelles chimaira instead of chimera. When I looked it to to find out if that's an alternate translation from the original Greek I found out that "chimaira" is the name of a heavy metal band from Ohio. So congrats guys, you accidentally have a Digimon named after you. Two actually, because there is also a Chimairamon (English: Kimeramon) and the two are very similar concepts. They're artificial Digimon made out of a combination of body parts of multiple other Digimon. OC, do not steal. I actually like MarineChimairamon more that the original. I can see Coelamon's helmet, Ikkakumon's head and tusks, Octomon's horns, One arm from Ebidramon and the other from Hangyomon, and tentacles from Gesomon.

Finally at this level is MarineDevimon. Just like how MarineChimairamon is the aquatic version of Chimairamon, there is a land-based Devimon. While Devimon is an evil genius, MarineDevimon is consumed by hate and can destroy its enemies with raw power. I think it's a great design for an evil aquatic Digimon

The apex of Digimon evolution is the mega/ultimate level and there are indeed megas lurking in the depths of the Net Ocean. One of the many horrors down there is Cthyllamon. This very new Digimon is an evil version of MarineAngemon. It's just as tiny and like MarineAngemon, it preferes to not fight. While MarineAngemon uses the power of live to drain its foes of their fighting spirit, Cthyllamon terrifies enemies into diving up and brainwashes lower-level Digimon into serving it. Cthylla is a less-well known member of the Cthulhu mythos, a daughter of Cthulhu who looks like a winged octopus and serves as a back up body for big C if he is ever killed. Cthyllamon doesn't really have anything to do with that. I think it's a great counterpart to MarineAngemon and a delightful little villain

KingWhamon is a bigger version of Whamon and that's about all we know about it. Generally the measure for whetehr or not a Digimon is official is if it has an entry in the Digimon Reference Book and KingWhamon doesn't. The Reference Book is where you get the lore of what that Digimon is and does, so we don't have that for KingWhamon. Despite not appearing in the Reference Book, KingWhamon has an anime appearance in Xros Wars and a card in the card game, which sounds pretty official to me. It's a gigantic whale with an island growing on its head. Te idea of a sea creature so vast that it can be mistaken for an island is common in the legends of seafaring cultures around the world. It's a fine Digimon, I just wish we had more to go off of.

Next is Xiangpengmon and while it looks like a bird dragon, it is aquatic. It's based on the peng, a Chinese legendary creature that can turn from a bird to a fish. This is seen in its evolutionary line, starting as the bird Xiquemon, evolving to the fish Huankunmon, and finally ending as a dragon. Chinese dragons were often depicted as living in the sea and being capable of flight. I think Xiangpengmon is a great Digimon. It is one of 6 species that debuted in the China-exclusive mobile game Digimon New Century and all of them are amazing.

If there can be said to be an aquatic Digimon that's the most powerful, it would have to be Leviamon. Named after the mythical leviathan, Leviamon is not only a big red crocodile, it's one of the Seven Great Demon Lords. They are the epitome of evil in the Digital World and some of the most powerful Digimon ever. Each Demon Lord bears the power of one of the seven deadly sins and Leviamon holds the power of envy. Despite being ungodly powerful, Leviamon envies those it sees as better than itself and lashes out against them. How big is Leviamon? It's big enough that it could swallow the Digital World in one gulp. It's definitely for the better that it spends most of its time asleep in the depths of the sea. The lore says that the limits of Digimon power are being decoded and Leviamon has none. Its existence is also the foundation of evil in the Digital World. So it's a being with no limits that is the origin of all evil. Sounds less like a Digimon and more like some unfathomable embodiment of evil that happens to be masquerading as a Digimon. I think that's super cool and while Leviamon is definitely the least visually interesting of the Demon Lords, it's still one of the coolest. Leviamon also has an x-antibody variant and oh boy. The aquatic Digimon have actually lucked out when it comes to having decent x-antibody variants and you may wonder why I call x-antibodies as a whole overdesigned and ugly. This, THIS, is what I mean when I say x-antibody variants are overdesigned. There are so many lines on this thing that it can be hard to tell what I'm looking at. And it's not even the worst x-antibody form, not even close. The seal of envy hovering over it like a halo is cool, but all the Demon Lords get their seals incorporated into the x-antibody designs so it's not even a unique idea. There is just no salvaging this x-antibody design.

Leviamon

Leviamon X

That wraps up the aquatic Digimon and I had a lot of fun doing this. Since Halloween is up maybe I'll showcase some of my favorite spooky Digimon or the other Demon Lords. I may also do an intro to Digimon post because I have gotten comments from people saying they like the Digimon but don't know much about the franchise and how to approach it.

#digimon #anomalocarimon #scorpiomon #dagomon #dragomon #hangyomon #divermon #gusokumon #marinechimairamon #marinedevimon #cthyllamon #kingwhamon #xiangpengmon #leviamon

26 notes · View notes