#gokimon

DigiMonday - GOKIMON (aka Roachmon)

(Adult Level/Virus Attribute/Insect Type)

Every Digimon VPet has at least one deliberately ugly, canonically wimpy "bad" adult-level Digimon that indicates that you've done something wrong when raising a child-level 'mon, and in Digital Monster: Version S (the first Digimon video game, released in 1998 for the Sega Saturn) Gokimon was one such intentionally-awful monster. The exact nature of the screw-up needed to raise a Gokimon, however, made it unique; as they progressed through Version S players could unlock the ability to fuse two child-level Digimon into one of 5 new adult-level Digimon, with each obtainable child-level having different "attributes" that influenced the adult-level they'd become. Fusing Digimon with compatible attributes could get you a Gorimon, Gesomon, Evilmon or Tailmon, but if the Digimon you paired were incompatible (which it seems most combinations were, as the graph below shows) then you'd end up with this nasty little guy.

Note that this figure, as well as all VPet-related info, was taken from directly from Wikimon. Also, don't worry too much about the existence of a poop-attribute Digimon. There are a fair few of those...

Design-wise it goes without saying that Gokimon is based on a cockroach, with its snaggle-toothed expression and apparent habit of defending itself by scattering trash before running away playing into the popular perception of cockroaches as ugly, unhygienic and overall unpleasant creatures (its official description goes so far as to describe real-world roaches as "that most widely reviled of pests.") In realty of the over 4,000 known cockroach species only around 30 have taken to making their homes in our walls, cellars and refuse heaps, and of that 30 only 3 (the American, German and Oriental Cockroaches) are considered major pests internationally; other species enrich their ecosystems by serving as decomposers, burrow-makers and prey for a wide range of vertebrates and larger insects, and some (like the large, wingless and, in my opinion, rather unconventionally cute Madagascar Hissing Cockroach) even make popular pets. While even a relentless insect apologist such as myself can't deny that the roaches that invade our homes cause us problems (eating organic textiles and potentially contaminating food with their saliva, droppings and remains,) even the species considered pests are remarkable in their own ways. Did you know that German Cockroaches host a huge range of enzyme-producing microbes in their guts that allow them to digest almost anything organic, including things like soap or glue? Or that American Cockroaches can flatten their bodies to squeeze through gaps a quarter of their height, and can cover a distance equal to 50 times their body length every second? In the real world there's no such thing as a truly "bad" species; every living thing is just one of countless unique and remarkable outcomes of billions of years of adaptation and specialisation, each with a role to play in the vast biosphere that supports and connects us all...

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Six digimon fan art

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Guardromon BT15-061