Written by Jonathan Wojcik
October 10: Top Thirteen MOST HALLOWEEN Digimon!
Having declared the Halloweenery of thirteen Pokemon last year, I can't very well let another year go by without giving Digimon the same treatment, being fairly fond of both franchises in subtly different respects. Let's just see how Digital Monsters stack up on my personal Halloween barometer!
#13: Apocalymon
The very final villain of the original and flawlessly wonderful Digimon Adventure anime series, Apocalymon is a being comprised of the data from millions of extinct or "deleted" Digimon, existing in perpetual misery and anger. He's one angsty-wangsty son of a bitch, is what I'm saying, and would be just another sad goth in a cape if his lower body wasn't a terrifying, moon-sized polyhedron with giant DNA tentacles, giving off a vibe suspiciously similar to Pinhead's puzzle cube and the Leviathan from Hellraiser.
#12: Devitamamon
This many-eyed cosmic horror is an evolution of the darling Digitamamon, and said to represent that little egg-beast's actual, true form. It's also likened repeatedly to "pandora's box," its goofy little egg-body apparently housing all the evil of the universe in some sort of endless, screaming void.
#11: Mummymon (the one on the left)
I'm not entirely sure Mummymon is ghoulish enough to belong here, but Arukenimon is, and I refuse to separate them, so we're cutting him some slack. It's just that Mummymon really isn't an undead, Halloween-style mummy when you get right down to it, but quite clearly - and much more bizarrely - an injured, bandaged military soldier. He's got a bandana, an assault rifle, leg braces and bandoliers. His alternative "Human" form even has a badge-encrusted army jacket and walks with a cane, like an old veteran. The striped crooks are the only incongruously Egyptian detail, possibly a last-minute afterthought to a design of moderately questionable political correctness.
#10: Warumonzaemon
Warumonzaemon is part of a whole series of powerful, giant plush toy Digimon who rather delightfully evolve from the lowliest slime, garbage and sewage monsters, who may in fact still be right inside their stuffed bodies, controlling them as puppets. There's a normal, "cute" Monzaemon, of course, who attacks his foes with flying pink hearts, but Warumonzaemon is his hardened, most hate-filled counterpart, with stitched-together lips and spiteful eyes and black hearts, like his soul.
#9: Puppetmon
Killer puppets are one of the humbler Halloween mainstays, and Puppetmon's creepy little face alone would fit in well enough here. Small but disproportionately powerful, a Puppetmon was even one of the uber-villains of Adventure, forcing his victims to be his "playmates" in games that were inevitably fatal. In the Japanese version, he even chases a little boy around with a gun for half an episode.
#8: Dracmon
This little guy wouldn't stand out much from all the other imp, demon and vampire Digimon if not for having his eyeballs on the palms of his hands, like the mythological Tenome or the Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth. It's too cute how he wears a little mask with painted-on "normal" eyes.
#7: Raremon
This puking, poisonous heap of rotten meat is really one of my personal favorite monster designs anywhere, but like Gloom and Garbodor last year, I'm just ranking these by Halloween-ness. That just accidentally coincides with most of my top favorites, honest! Raremon began as Digimon's own homage to my most beloved Kaiju, the toxic Hedorah, though his design also includes elements of the God Warriors from Miyazaki's Nausicaa and the mutated Tetsuo from Akira. Nearly devoid of intelligence, Raremon represents a Digimon whose evolution went hideously awry, or in the Xros wars series, a Digimon drained of its "data" and degenerated into a zombie-like data cannibal!
#6: Arukenimon
Object of Mummymon's hopelessly unrequited love, the power-hungry and sadistic Arukenimon is the demonic queen of all insect and arachnid Digimon, able to corrupt and control other monsters with strands of her hair and breathe disgusting clouds of acidic gas. She's also a total cutie-pie in both her arachnoid and human forms, if you didn't already follow the Mummymon link. I love the totally deranged eyes and weirdly elongated torso of her monster body!
#5: Ladydevimon
Another cute one, Ladydevimon was passed off in early English materials as a biker-like design, but you and I both know a demonic undead dominatrix when we see one. Well, I do anyway. The two best things about Ladydevimon - I mean the other two best things - are all the little demon pals apparently occupying her torn clothes and her ongoing fanservice rivalry with the stuffier Angewomon. It's also worth noting that Ladydevimon can evolve from the overtly male Devimon or Angemon. This isn't even unusual for Digimon as a whole, but in this case, it's accurate to authentic Succubus and Incubus folklore; both are simply different forms of the same shape-shifting being.
#4: Bakemon
The original undead Digimon, poor little Bakemon isn't very strong, but at least gets to form the bulk of many an evil army, frequent Goombas of villainous Digimon society. With its simple, tattered sheet-ghost design, Bakemon wouldn't be half as cool and memorable without those horrendous looking gums and teeth. You don't see nearly enough sheet ghosts who could gnaw your face off.
#3: Porcupamon
Because Warumonzaemon and Ladydevimon were just far too vanilla for a children's series about pet monsters, the two apparently got incredibly wasted at an evil digimon BDSM orgy and conceived this self-mutilating gas-masked latex gimp-bear with needle and razor blade stuffing. It's supposedly a relatively timid creature who took on this appearance to "camouflage" itself amongst more evil Digimon, but I think the little guy is confusing "evil" with "hardcore kink."
I just joke because it's easy, of course. Porcupamon is undeniably cool as hell to look at, hilariously tragic and just cartoonishly ghoulish enough to take the #3 spot.
#2: Parasimon
This green and purple, bio-mechanical, mind-controlling, tentacled, parasitic eyeball spider feels almost uncannily like it was made with me in mind. It's practically the ultimate embodiment of everything Bogleech stands for, and by extension, everything Halloween stands for. It's not very powerful, but like any self-respecting parasite, it can just wear something that is. It would be a tough call for me to pick between this guy and Raremon if I could really own a Digimon...I think Parasimon's many practical applications (all of them beginning with "enslavement" and ending with "of all mankind") would just barely win out.
#1: Pumpkinmon
...Well duh. The child-size Pumpkinmon is a standard evolution for Bakemon, another haunted "plush doll" type Digimon, Has a Jack O'Lantern for a face and is also the only Digimon with an axe lodged in its head, which is so wonderful that it could have been anything at all with an axe lodged in its head and still made this list. An elephant. A pineapple. Maybe even a Christmas Tree. Really, any possible combination of an axe and a head is a recipe for success.
I won't talk about what happened to this friendly, carefree, candy-loving little psycho in the cartoon. Nope. I rebuke your canon. He's alive, damn it. The dub said so. NO, SHUT UP. JUST SHUT YOUR STUPID FACE.LET'S LOOK AT LADYDEVIMON AGAIN.
HALLOWEEN 2012 ARCHIVE:
