#child level

DigiMonday - ALRAUMON

(Child Level/Data Attribute/Plant Type)

Essentially just a paler, purple-flowered variant of Palmon, there isn't all that much that sets Alraumon apart from its more famous lookalike, at least at a glance; even its official description in the Digimon Encyclopedia consists more-or-less exclusively of ways in which the two are similar. There is one unique detail that Alraumon has going for it, though - the rather interesting etymology of its name. Wikimon suggests that the name Alraumon may be taken from the German word alraúne, which is one of several names for a very interesting genus of plants that carry a lot of importance in many European myths and legends; mandrakes!

(An Autumn Mandrake (Mandragora autumnalis) pictured in Cádiz, Spain, image source here.)

Belonging to the genus Mandragora in the family Solanaceae (the same family as tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and nightshades,) there are at least 3 different species of mandrake; the Mediterranean Mandrake (found in areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea,) the Autumn Mandrake (which grows in similar areas as well as Morocco, Portugal and Spain) and the Himalayan Mandrake (adapted to life at high altitudes in the Alps, China and Myanmar.) Above-ground their most distinctive traits are their extremely short stems (so tiny and stumpy that their leaves appear to sprout straight from the ground) and their crown of pale purple flowers (which might be the inspiration behind Alruamon's colouration, at least in part.) Perhaps their most curious trait, however, is found beneath the ground; like many plants found in open, frequently disturbed habitats mandrakes have a large central root (called a tap root) which allows them to store nutrients and anchors them firmly into the ground. If your interests lie more in mythology than in botany a mandrake's huge taproot may be familiar to you, as in many regions of western Europe the twisted roots of mandrakes were thought to resemble tiny human bodies hidden below the soil (leading to a mythological depiction of mandrakes as plant-human hybrids that would respond to being pulled from the ground by emitting a lethal scream!)

(A real mandrake root and a wood print of a "human mandrake", image sources here and here respectively.)

Today this mythologised version of a mandrake is probably more familiar to most people than any real mandrake species, and indeed its thought that the folkore around mandrakes may be the origin of their name (being a portmantue of "man" and "drake" (as in dragon), illuding to their alleged humanoid form and supernatural properties.) Medieval European herbalists also attribute quite a few uses to mandrake roots (including facilitating pregnancy, treating insomnia and even creating drafts that could cause people to fall in love,) although needless to say all of these claims are unproven and highly dubious (these were the same people who claimed that these very much immobile, harmless plants could only be safely harvested under moonlight and recommended using a dog to yank them from the ground so that it could face their killing scream in your place, leading one to wonder if they'd ever even seen a real mandrake.) Modern ethnobotanists (folks who research human-plant interactions) have pointed out that all parts of mandrakes except for their yellow, tomato-like berries are packed with highly toxic alkaloids and can nausea, confusion and hallucinations if ingested, and have suggested that these hallucinogenic effects may go some way to explain the alleged magic surrounding mandrakes. None-the-less, the image of a mandrake as a freaky little humanoid plant beast remains prolific in fantasy media, and may have played some role in inspiring the archetype of plant-headed humanoid creatures in pop culture, including-but-not-limited to Palmon and Alraumon themselves.

(A very polygonal Alraumon from Digimon World 2, image source here.)

Like many recoloured variants of existing Digis Alraumon debuted as an unobtainable enemy in 1999's Digimon World. Since then its appearances have been limited mainly to collectables (both real and digitally as in-game tokens,) but it has had a few more major appearances (finally being raisable in Digimon World: Next Order, and eventually getting a card of its own in the Digimon TCG.)

Funbeemon!!!! Fanbeemon in the dub!

Funbeemon’s a Child-level insect digimon, and one of very few examples of such. There’s Tentomon, Kunemon, and Wormmon, and there’s also a robotic beetle called Kokuwamon, but insect digimon are unfortunately quite uncommon in general. They don’t even have their own dedicated “Field” category – they usually either get lumped in with the generic monsters and dinosaurs of the Nature Spirits, or with the plants of the Jungle Troopers. Funbeemon, interestingly, is neither – it’s a Wind Guardian, which is the classification primarily used for birds and other flying creatures. And also plants, sometimes. Digimon’s Field categories are wildly inconsistent and weird, hence why I’ve never actually mentioned them up until now.

But yeah, Funbeemon’s a splendid little bee! I’m not sure what makes it notably more “fun” than your typical bee, but yeah! It probably is fun!!! Normally I’m not fond of when insect creatures end up with generic anime eyes, but Funbeemon does look quite cute with them, and they’re complemented by three occeli! Occeli are small, simple eyes that many flying insects have, usually in sets of three just like with Funbeemon. Funbeemon’s actually quite a good representation of a bee in general, with a more muted color scheme than the typical black and yellow, and a subtle fluffiness that’s surprisingly rare among digimon. Anatomically, it’s actually similar to Tentomon. It has two limbs for standing and a set of four limbs for “arms” – a larger set ending in simple points, and a smaller set ending in more dexterous pincers. For a subtle Digimon-y twist, the stinger is serrated!

Funbeemon is affiliated with something called the Royal Base, an “aerial, covert honey base”. The base is defended by Funbeemon’s most direct evolutions – Waspmon, Cannonbeemon, and Tiger Vespamon, which are all much more imposing than our little friend here. Funbeemon’s role is simply to gather data from flowers and vegetation, then bring them back to the base as raw materials. The exact use of these materials is framed as some huge mystery, but given it’s literally called a honey base and these are a bunch of bees I’m gonna go ahead and assume they’re making honey with it. Just a hunch. While Funbeemon mainly just gathers data, it does have offensive abilities as well – its stinger, for one, and it’s also capable of summoning allies with a technique called “88 Call”. 88 Call apparently being a bee pun – 88 is read as “hachi hachi”, with hachi being the Japanese word for bee!

As a relatively obscure digimon, Funbeemon has no other forms or recolors to speak of. What’s really unfortunate, though, is that it is already an X-Antibody digimon. Many digimon from this era were conceptualized as already possessing the X-Antibody mutation by default, with the unfortunate effect of never being able to receive a proper X-Antibody variation in the future. X-Antibody designs are historically rather hit-or-miss, but the more recent ones have often been pretty outstanding, so it’s a disappointment we likely won’t get another take on this lil bee.

Fortunately, Funbeemon’s pretty great as-is regardless. It would make an excellent partner :3

DigiMonday - GAOMON

(Child Level/Data Attribute/Beast Type)

There are many dog-themed Digimon, but among them Gaomon stands out as a personal favourite (something about that blue-and-red colour scheme combined with its cute "plucky kid trying boxing for the first time" vibe, I think.) Its official description states that it wears those big boxing gloves to protect the claws on its hands which are still growing in, and indeed with their thick padding they do kind-of resemble bag gloves (a type of boxing glove used for training, but which aren't generally used for actually fighting.) It's also apparently a relative of Gazimon, which I suppose implies that Gazimon is a dog as opposed to some sort of cat/springhare/monkey... thing?

(Bag gloves are made to protect your hands when training with punching bags. That Agumon's hands are basically unprotected, but then I supposed that's clearly not the biggest breach of punching best-practice its committing here...)

Gaomon debuted in 2006 in the Digivice iC 10X VPet, but is probably best known for its prominent role in the Anime Digimon Savers/Digimon Data Squad which debuted later that same year (where a Gaomon serves as the partner of Thoma/Thomas Norstein, and one of the main non-human characters.) Gaomon made another major appearance in the 2012 game Digimon Word Re:Digitize (where a named Gaomon, Sashenka, features as the partner of major supporting character Nicolai Petrov) and has since made frequent appearances in Digimon games, cards and merch. Its nice to see this funny little punch-pup getting some love!

Favourite Gaomon Art: This early Gaomon design, which is as silly as it is cute. It looks like early on Gaomon was intended to be more of a baby version of its "official" evolution, Gaogamon.