Written by Jonathan Wojcik with the aid of With the Will, Digimon Wiki and Wikimon
THE JELLYMON LINE
BABY I: PUYOMON
JELLYFISH DIGIMON!!!! Another Cnidarian right on the heels of the Sangomon, and I'm still pleased that we got a coral monster before the more obvious jellyfish, but I'm also pleased we got a jellyfish. This is also one of the finest baby stages in the franchise now. A gelatinous bubble with a single eye, adorable nub tentacles, and a vicious little eel-like mouth that can extend out of its underside! All that is known of this creature is that it floats in either air or water, and when it encounters another form of life, it latches on and tries to communicate through tingling static electricity.
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RATING:
BABY II: PUYOYOMON
Puyomon apparently evolves into Puyoyomon when it absorbs actual data on jellyfish. Now it's a bit larger, it has more tentacles that are only slightly less nubby, it has more prominent "ear" or "horn" nubs common to some other baby Digimon, and it has the more typical set of two watery, more expressive eyes. Very cute, you just can't go wrong with jellyfish critters, though not quite as perfect as its previous stage.
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RATING:
CHILD: JELLYMON
If this is your first time seeing this Digimon, and you love Jellyfish monsters, you're probably disappointed. I don't have that problem because I saw this version first, and it's not a bad concept; Jellymon is basically like a jellyfish "fairy," even having the same noseless face and Grey Alien eyes of the classic Lilymon, except that Jellymon has a whole tentacled Jellyish on its head and its humanoid body is more weirdly proportioned, mostly chunky arms and legs with a littly tiny torso. It'd almost fit right in to Splatoon. And if you did prefer just the Jellyfish creature, you can take some comfort in the fact that Jellymon is able to retract her humanoid anatomy completely into her jelly head, taking on a form closer to her previous stage with a pair of longer tentacles:
She actually spends quite a bit of time in this form, too, the humanoid mode reserved in some episodes only for battling. It comes across more like she's a jellyfish that built a crude imitation of a human form, but I guess all Digimon are imitations of things to begin with.
Jellymon's characterization might also be the weirdest and most unique we've ever seen in a main character Digimon. Almost every other monster in the series has had an undying trust and respect for its human partner, but Jellymon's human is a rich, genius "cool kid" who's actually just a big internet gaming nerd and an easily terrified wimp, all of which Jellymon appears to find extremely funny. She's the first partner monster in a Digimon anime to terrorize, ridicule and bully her respective child, but she also seems to have some sort of maladapted crush on what she calls her "darling." I kind of wish more Digimon-Human partnerships were so dysfunctional. It's kind of refreshing to know they can be.RATING:
Jellymon's characterization might also be the weirdest and most unique we've ever seen in a main character Digimon. Almost every other monster in the series has had an undying trust and respect for its human partner, but Jellymon's human is a rich, genius "cool kid" who's actually just a big internet gaming nerd and an easily terrified wimp, all of which Jellymon appears to find extremely funny. She's the first partner monster in a Digimon anime to terrorize, ridicule and bully her respective child, but she also seems to have some sort of maladapted crush on what she calls her "darling." I kind of wish more Digimon-Human partnerships were so dysfunctional. It's kind of refreshing to know they can be.
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ADULT: TESLA JELLYMON
This line's whole personality gimmick seems to be mischief and boredom, as its Adult stage is said to have absorbed data from "steel cage death matches" and other combat sports in its endless quest for entertainment, acquiring a variety of physical battle techniques in the process.
The design is decidedly cooler than Jellymon, with multiple tattered, ribbon-like purple tentacles and a jellyfish bell that now hides its eyes, a nod to the traditional eyeless masks and helmets of angel-type Digimon.RATING:
The design is decidedly cooler than Jellymon, with multiple tattered, ribbon-like purple tentacles and a jellyfish bell that now hides its eyes, a nod to the traditional eyeless masks and helmets of angel-type Digimon.
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PERFECT: THETISMON
Upon Perfect evolution, we finally leave behind the creepy little alien girl look for a grown woman who now sports both a jellyfish "hat" and jellyfish "dress," both with their own tentacles! She also has a black blindfold with a menacing, cross-shaped red visor, oversized mechanical gloves, stylish boots and what appears to be a couple of additional pink jellyfish that closely orbit around her. It's basically a Cnidarian Angewomon with giant, electrical fists, and all of those elements are cool.
Again, would I love a more "monstrous" jellyfish digimon even more, something closer in aesthetic to Gesomon? Definitely, yes, I'd always rather another "creature" over another "human in a costume," but when a digimon has to be a human in a costume, it may as well be based on an animal type we haven't seen before, and an animal type that lends them a great sense of style.
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ULTIMATE: AMPHIMON
As with Angoramon, it took two years for us to finally see the final stage of this line, and when I first saw a blurry preview image of its sprite, I was disappointed it appeared to be not only a humanoid, but a robot-like or knight-like humanoid, which I didn't think suited the jellyfish theme. I feel like it might be aesthetically a slight a step down from Thetismon for the lack of any immediately obvious jellyfish elements to the main body, but it does come with orbiting mechanical "jellyfish units," and it still has an array of jellyfish tentacles emerging from within its armor, so there's at least a jellyfish digimon inside the suit.
When finally revealed in higher resolution though, it was obvious Amphimon wasn't just any metal-plated humanoid, but based around a deep sea diving suit, and even more memorably, a deep sea diver with a Magical Girl twist. A clunky iron diver with a glass porthole face and everything, except it's also bubblegum pink with an hourglass waist, little metal "cat ear" spikes, a frill of green tentacles emerging from a poofy metal "skirt" and most delightfully of all a pair of tentacles as pigtails. It's Sailor Moon as a cnidarian crammed into the most fashionable outfit ever crafted to withstand the skull-crushing pressure of the deep ocean. And just like a shoujo heroine or the various angelic Digimon, Amphimon's duty is to battle evil at all costs, having adapted to pursue it to the deepest trenches of Digimon's Net Ocean.
It's a combination of elements that I've never seen before and which wouldn't normally have anything to do with one another, but make perfect sense in the context of Digimon and especially in the context of Jellymon. It would still make a perfectly good Ultimate for many others, of course, like the Sangomon line and all the tentacled sea life we covered for that review...but we'll be talking a bit more about that in a few more reviews, when we get to another Digimon that debuted in the very same Ghost Game episode as Amphimon!
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NAVIGATION:
Again, would I love a more "monstrous" jellyfish digimon even more, something closer in aesthetic to Gesomon? Definitely, yes, I'd always rather another "creature" over another "human in a costume," but when a digimon has to be a human in a costume, it may as well be based on an animal type we haven't seen before, and an animal type that lends them a great sense of style.
RATING:
ULTIMATE: AMPHIMON
When finally revealed in higher resolution though, it was obvious Amphimon wasn't just any metal-plated humanoid, but based around a deep sea diving suit, and even more memorably, a deep sea diver with a Magical Girl twist. A clunky iron diver with a glass porthole face and everything, except it's also bubblegum pink with an hourglass waist, little metal "cat ear" spikes, a frill of green tentacles emerging from a poofy metal "skirt" and most delightfully of all a pair of tentacles as pigtails. It's Sailor Moon as a cnidarian crammed into the most fashionable outfit ever crafted to withstand the skull-crushing pressure of the deep ocean. And just like a shoujo heroine or the various angelic Digimon, Amphimon's duty is to battle evil at all costs, having adapted to pursue it to the deepest trenches of Digimon's Net Ocean.
It's a combination of elements that I've never seen before and which wouldn't normally have anything to do with one another, but make perfect sense in the context of Digimon and especially in the context of Jellymon. It would still make a perfectly good Ultimate for many others, of course, like the Sangomon line and all the tentacled sea life we covered for that review...but we'll be talking a bit more about that in a few more reviews, when we get to another Digimon that debuted in the very same Ghost Game episode as Amphimon!
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