#gulfmon

DigiMonday - GULFMON

(Ultimate Level/Virus Attribute/Demon Beast Type)

Goodness. Design-wise Gulfmon is a lot. Its upper body consists of a horned, vaguely-reptilian humanoid with huge, crane-machine style claws for hands, while its lower body consists of some sort of giant winged, also-horned critter which (though the image above doesn't show it) has a thick-lipped toothy maw where the upper body's pelvis would be. A maw, I should note, that also apparently fires lasers when in battle. From a design perspective, I'd say this is easily one of the wildest-looking Digis the franchise has produced so far.

Oddly, though, that freaky little mouth may be the key to making sense of Gulfmon. Given the beastly features of the lower body and the obvious demonic influence in the design of the upper body, users of the Digimon Fandom Wiki have proposed that Gulfmon's design may be at least partially based on the idea of a hellmouth. Originating from early English Christian artwork and later becoming a common feature of wider European gothic art, hellmouths are a stylised way of depicting the entrance to hell as the mouth of a gigantic, monstrous creature (often, though not always, the biblical Leviathan or a similarly whale-like critter) that would devour sinners on their way to damnation. Gulfmon's official description mentions that anything its freaky little pelvic mouth swallows is banished to the Dark Area (essentially the Digital World's hell) and that any Digimon it eats is destroyed so totally that they're excluded from the Digital World's usual cycle of data-based reincarnation, supporting the idea that Gulfmon's lower mouth is indeed intended to be a sort of cyber-hellmouth!

(A hellmouth depicted in manuscript Hours of Catherine of Cleves, released in 1440 (image source here.) The beastly design of many hellmouths puts Gulfmon's design into context, though its still really weird-looking...)

Gulfmon debuted in the 2001 film Digimon Tamers: The Adventurers' Battle, where a Mephismon that serves as the film's main antagonist Digivolves into Gulfmon and later Apocalymon for the final showdown with the protagonists. Its subsequent appearances have established its place in the lore(tm) as one of the most fearsome of the various demonic Digimon species, with its narrative appearances pretty much always being as a major threat or supporting antagonist.

Favourite Gulfmon Art:This card from the Digimon TCG showing a Gulfmon rampaging while an Apocalymon watches on. Do you think they bonded over their mutual experiences as freaky demons with weird, evil lower bodies?

Apocalymon resurrects in the Tamers universe as Mephistomon and later Gulfmon, and sends its minions Pipismon and Ponchomon (who still doesn't have a card - wtf Bandai?!) to go be evil and stuff while Takato and Guilmon meet up with Minami Uehara and her partner Labramon to have a Lilo & Stitch adventure. Also Takato has a gay shirts off swimming session with a tanned guy. Okay, it has been years since I saw this movie, I'm, definitely not telling this right... Seasarmon and Xiaomon were probably there too.

"Need to see what that mussy(mouth pussy) do"