Yesterday's bees were actually introduced by the third "Pendulum X" virtual pet, while the first introduced a variation on Greymon and a new family I'm sure they thought was going to be the new fandom darling, beginning with a shaggy, round dog head they named Dodomon for some reason. It's okay, but seen some much more exciting baby stages in the past.

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The next stage only adds legs, a tail, and moves the eyes farther down the creature's sides, but I actually do like it more with these subtle little changes. The face of Dorimon is a whole lot cuter than it was as Dodomon.

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So here's the child stage, Dorumon, and you can probably see what I mean about their hopes for this line. It's a dinosaur, a dragon, and a wolf, literally the three most easily marketable anime monsters rolled into one. The blocky, baby t-rex sort of shape to the head is what really saves an otherwise formulaic design, in my opinion, and it has a classic digimon feel that isn't too bad.

What makes Dorumon more interesting is its lore. I mentioned yesterday that these new digimon carry a plot device called the X-Antibody, but this is because something called the "X-program" was introduced to create a digimon mass extinction. The antibody program not only allows Digimon to avoid this termination, but come out of it more powerful than normal, and Dorumon is apparently the result of heavy experimentation to unleash the antibody's full power and create the perfect new digimon.

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Anyway, the first "correct" evolution of Dorumon really does look like a "grown up" version of the child stage, and I'm actually liking it much more now. This dog-a-saurus with wings has a pretty monstrous feel to it, especially now that it's showing of its jagged little sharky teeth!

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I'm afraid I can't say the same for the Perfect stage. Turning the thing into more of a dragon is a neat idea on paper, but I feel like the metallic nose horn and multiple, silver wings with gold thingadoodles on them are just...too much. It was a lot more interesting when it was more "carnosaur" than 'dragon."

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Do you think maybe they could have differentiated the names of this line a little better? I can't find any clearer artwork of the final stage, but from what I can tell, it's decent I guess. It loses the features that made Dorumon actually feel distinct, but, those are admittedly really awesome looking wings.

HANG ON A MINUTE, though!

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Yeah, this is a split digimon line! Turns out those X-antibody experiments are pretty rough, and if a Dorumon dies, the antibody can evolve it into an undead version of its adult stage that extends its own unnatural existence by consuming the cores of other digimon!

Sure, this design is little more than Dorugamon wearing a spooky costume, but it's such a damn cool costume! I love that mask! I love the dark blue, stitched-together bandages! I love how the magenta claws make it all pop! Finally, we get back into Digivolution going hideously awry, at least for now!

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Naturally, every stage of Dorumon has a Death X version, so this thing can evolve from either Death X Dorugamon or from a regular Dorugamon that's been killed. Too bad it's still such a downgrade, though. That last form was a tough act to follow, but they could have just transferred the same badass features to this one and it would have worked out fine. It just barely manages to get a three out of me, for the simple principle of this "evolution by dying" thing.

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Seriously, how am I supposed to keep track of these damn names? At least this thing looks a little cooler than the live Dorugoramon. The alternating red bird wings and black bat wings are ridiculously over the top, and I'm surprised that isn't something I've seen very often. I also like the metallic appendages connecting the wings to the elaborate shoulder blades, and the giant, serrated daggers on the ends to complete it all.

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