Digimon Adventure/Characters
Digi Destined
Taichi "Tai" Kamiya/Yagami
"You can do it, and even if you can't, we won't think any less of you, man!"
Tai is the first season's leader, and bearer of the Crest of Courage. He's a reckless blockhead at times, willing to jump into anything, and this gets him into serious trouble when he gets the idea in his head that, since the Digital World is digital, he can't be killed. The realization that this isn't the case freezes him right in his tracks, and when he overcomes it, he makes the proper jump from "not afraid" to "courageous." Despite his recklessness, he's a warm, encouraging guy, very friendly, and the team just doesn't work without him.
He comes from a normal family, living with his parents and little sister, Hikari. Hikari ends up being a major factor in his character development, as taking care of her forces him to mature from "courageous action guy" into "responsible leader."
In the conclusion of 02, he and Agumon become ambassadors to the Digital World.
Voiced by: Toshiko Fujita (JP), Joshua Seth (EN)
- Aesop Amnesia: When he was young, he put Kari in danger and she almost died because he didn't think for her well being. After that he vowed to never make a mistake like that again. In the Dark Masters arc, T.K. gets kidnapped and he's not concerned in the least while ignoring Matt's pleas. The situation resolves with T.K. escaping himself.
- This also leads him to being a Hypocrite later on. When Kari becomes sick again, but in far less danger than T.K., he has the team make sure she is taken care of as their primary concern when before the completion of their duties as the chosen children was too important to concern themselves with saving T.K..
- Anime Hair
- Badass Longcoat: Wears a blue one the epilogue for 02.
- Balloon Belly
- Betty and Veronica: He's the Veronica to Matt's Betty towards Sora (The Archie). He lost.
- Big Brother Instinct: To Kari, especially in the first season
- And to Takeru as well. This tends to be a source of resentment from Yamato.
- Big Brother Mentor: To Davis
- Big Eater
- Bishounen: In 02, on par with Matt.
- Cross-Dressing Voices: In Japanese, European Spanish, and Italian.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Deadpan Snarker: Granted, this is mostly due to the Gag Dub.
- The Determinator
- Did Not Get the Girl: He doesn't really mind. He's even a Shipper on Deck for the said boy and girl.
- Dub Name Change: English first name is an abbreviated version of his Japanese name, which isn't that odd in the Digimon franchise. What is odd, though, is that his Japanese last name - Yagami - was changed for the dub into... another Japanese surname: Kamiya.
- Expy: Off of the character with the same name from Digimon V-Tamer 01, who in turn is an expy off of the main character Kentarou first manga C Mon Digimon.
- Figure It Out Yourself: Tai gets this response twice when he asks how to beat the Dark Masters.
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!
- Goggles Do Nothing: He gives them to Davis in 02.
- The Hero
- Hit Me Dammit: To Yamato
- Also to Koushiro, but far more dramatically.
- Hot-Blooded
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Towards Sora.
- Meaningful Name: His name has the character to "Sun" (as his crest) and his surname means "eight gods" (as the eight children).
- The Other Darrin: Given a different voice actor (Jason Spisak) for the dubbed version of the fourth movie, Revenge of Diaboromon.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Matt's blue. Though the line is switched a bit later on.
- Shipper on Deck: Becomes one for Matt X Sora later.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Though he never made a big deal about it.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Mimi. Most prevalent in 01.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Also has little shades with Mimi in 01.
Yamato "Matt" Ishida
"I finally got it figured out. If I'm ever gonna change, I have to do it on my own. On my own. The others can't help me."
Matt wants everyone to think he's a brooding bad boy, but he's actually rather sensitive. He has issues trusting people (himself most of all), and he's very overprotective of his younger brother, TK. This causes him to be very cautious (although not as cautious as Joe), which results in a lot of clashes with the get-out-and-go Tai. Despite (or perhaps thanks to) all this, his crest is Friendship.
Matt's parents divorced sometime after the Greymon/Parrotmon fight in Hikarigaoka, but before the first episode. According to the Radio Drama Two-and-a-half Year Break, Matt was the one who decided that TK would go with their mother and he would live with their father. He doesn't have a great relationship with his parents, as he seems to feel abandoned by them. He has very low self-esteem, and seems to feel his only purpose in life is to watch out for TK--when TK starts feeling smothered by him, he's noticeably dismayed. However, with some encouragement from his partner, Gabumon, he was able to come to terms with his family's divorce, and returned in time to help save the team.
In the conclusion of 02, he becomes the first man on Mars. He is married to Sora.
Voiced by: Yuuto Kazama (JP), Michael Reisz (EN)
- Aloof Big Brother
- Anti-Hero: Type II.
- Betty and Veronica: He's the Betty to Tai's Veronica towards Sora (The Archie). He won.
- Big Brother Instinct
- Bishonen: In 02.
- Chick Magnet: especially in 02
- Estrogen Brigade Bait
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!
- Heroic BSOD
- Ineffectual Loner
- The Lancer
- Long-Distance Relationship: An on going gag in 02 is that he and Mimi are in one from fan interpretation, there are numerous comments in the dub version that he would call her at night but always left her on hold.
- Men Can't Keep House: His dad definitely can't. Matt... does to the extent that he's forced to by circumstance. But season 2 has TK comment that his home is still pretty darn messy. And when looking in the fridge for something to give TK, he claims he's looking for something that's "not... expired."
- More Than Mind Control: Thanks to Cherrymon and the Sea of Darkness.
- Nobody Touches the Hair: He says this in a throwaway line in the dub. Like a lot of stuff in the dub, it sort of disappears into the ether after that.
- Official Couple: With Sora.
- The Power of Friendship
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Tai's red, though the line is blurred later on.
- Tall, Dark and Snarky
- Ten-Minute Retirement
- Theme Naming: Named after folk hero Yamato Takeru, along with his younger brother.
- Troubled but Cute
- Tsundere: According to an interview with Kazama Yuuto (his seiyuu) and Yamaguchi Mayumi (Gabumon's seiyuu), this applies to him. See the entry for more details.
- Tsurime Eyes
Sora Takenouchi
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'm the only one who can do it."
The group's mother figure, and owner of the Crest of Love. Sora is a sweet girl, but doesn't really see that aspect of herself very well. She spends most of her time mediating fights between Tai and Matt, and keeping the group in line. She doesn't always have the patience for it, but she tries anyway.
Sora's relationship with her parents isn't great. Her mom is a very traditional, ladylike figure who wants her to take up flower arranging, while her father is a professor at a college in Kyoto and rarely home. Sora is convinced early on that her mother doesn't love her; it's not until she unconsciously begins treating Biyomon the same way that she realizes her mother just isn't good at expressing it. They make up during the Myotismon saga, when Sora's mom pulls a Mama Bear on some Bakemon.
In the conclusion of 02, she becomes a fashion designer. She is married to Matt.
Voiced by: Yuko Mizutani (JP), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (EN)
- Action Girl
- Actor Allusion: Sora hilariously Lampshades herself in a No Fourth Wall session in one of the drama CDs, where she complains about sounding like an "old lady." Though 38 (the age of Yuko Mizutani when she voiced Sora) doesn't seem to be that old, it certainly qualifies as Dawson Casting! In addition to this, another drama track consists of a radio show recording DJ'd by Sora, which alludes to how Yuko Mizutani ran a radio show years back.
- Betty and Veronica: She's the Archie to Matt's Betty and Tai's Veronica. The former won.
- Cool Big Sis: To Mimi, TK and Kari.
- The Heart
- Heroic BSOD: Spends several episodes of the first series in the middle of one of these.
- Heroes Want Redheads: In a love triangle with Tai and Matt; and has been shipped with many other characters.
- Meaningful Name: "Sora" is Japanese for "sky." Guess who has the bird Digimon?
- Nice Hat: Oddly, it's a helmet in one episode and cloth in another.
- Official Couple: With Matt.
- One of the Boys: How she and Tai relate to each other.
- Parental Abandonment: Mom is emotionally distant and Dad is a workaholic. They work things out, though.
- The Power of Love: Her Crest.
- RedheadedHeroine: She has flaming-red hair and is more active than your average Chick.
- Shorttank
- Team Mom
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Mimi's Girly Girl.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Tai. Most prevalent in 01.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Also has little shades with Tai in 01.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: What her Education Mama, who is one already, wants her to be. Later, though, they make amends.
Koushirou "Izzy" Izumi
"Prodigious!"
Basically, Izzy is the one who can actually think his way out of a paper bag, which is only supported by his Crest of Knowledge. He's very curious and logical, and somewhat unsure of himself socially. He carries around a laptop computer, and his reactions to various problems are nearly always a variation on "If I learn enough, I can fix it."
Izzy is adopted. His biological parents died when he was very young, and his father's cousins adopted him, having recently lost a child of their own. They kept this a secret from him, but he accidentally heard them talking about it, and was devastated. After this, Izzy sank himself into his computer as an escape, probably to learn everything he could. At the same time, he loves his parents deeply and is very well-behaved for them.
Thanks to Character Development and a talk with his parents, Izzy is able to overcome his withdrawn personality better, so that he then can help Tai out of his depression over Kari during the Dark Masters Arc.
In the conclusion of 02, he has set up a research team to study more of the Digital World.
Voiced by: Umi Tenjin (JP), Mona Marshall (EN)
- Adorkable
- Bad Liar: Koushiro tends to babble nervously; laugh awkwardly and come up with weak sounding stories when placed on the spot and asked questions that he can’t answer.
- Big Words
- Character Exaggeration: His "computer nerd" status was exaggerated quite early in the dub. They even had him theorize about aliens.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: In a world made of digital information, Izzy's PiBook Laptop is priceless. The Digimon Analyzer reveals that WarGreymon has Dramon Destroyer weapons, which allow him to destroy MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon.
- Child Prodigy: Prodigious!
- Cross-Dressing Voices : Averted in Brazil.
- Deadpan Snarker: In the dub, Izzy tends to bring the snark in most conversation, especially if he is explaining something to either Tai or Davis.
- Doing Research: The kids would never have gotten very far without Izzy's laptop.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Orange boxers.
- Mission Control: The role he plays in 02 is similar to this.
- Mr. Exposition: Comes with being The Smart Guy on an island made of data.
- Parental Abandonment: Izzy lost his parents in an accident before he was a year old, so his father's cousins (who had lost their own baby boy some time ago) adopted him, but didn't tell him he was adopted. He accidentally overhears them talking about it and it caused him lots until they sorted things out, at which point he becomes Happily Adopted.
- Oblivious Adoption: His parents think he's this, unaware that he knew the truth.
- Tell Me About My Father: This is how things got better. And it's one of the most beautifully sad moments in the first series.
- Generation Xerox: His biological father was a mathematician. His adoptive father remarks that he is "the living image" of him.
- Potty Emergency: The original reason for Izzy's loss of composure in Our War Game.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Comes with being The Smart Guy.
- The Short Guy with Glasses: Though he doesn't wear glasses.
- Shorter Means Smarter
- The Smart Guy
- TV Genius
- Wise Beyond Their Years
Mimi Tachikawa
"If someone's in trouble, you help them out, even if they tried to pummel you into oblivion."
She's the girl, basically. Somewhat prissy and spoiled, she doesn't always seem to "get" the situation, and is sometimes rather selfish without really realizing it. Often considered the weakest character in the English dub due to her more girly elements being overplayed in translation. She matures into a kind, sweet, pacifistic Messiah figure, befitting her status as holder of the Crest of Sincerity. However, once she realizes how high the stakes are, she breaks down and refuses to continue, but comes to realize that some fights simply must be fought.
Mimi's family life isn't delved into much. Her parents are hopelessly in love and, like her, not always fully in-tune--but when the danger is ramped up, they prove very brave.
In the conclusion of 02, she becomes a famous chef with her own TV show (a nutritionist in the original Japanese version).
Voiced by: Ai Maeda (JP), Philece Sampler (EN)
- Action Girl: Surprisingly gets her moments of one!
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: She eventually grows out of it.
- Brutal Honesty: In short, she has the Crest of Sincerity/Purity simply because she is no one but herself.
- The Cast Showoff: Episode 25 revolved around Mimi singing; her seiyuu, Ai Maeda, sings the ending songs.
- The Chick
- Cloudcuckoolander
- Hair Decorations
- Everything's Better with Princesses: She's not really a princess, but she poses as one for a Gekomon kingdom in episode 25.
- And Princesses Prefer Pink in that episode.
- Genki Girl
- Give Geeks a Chance: Is often paired with Izzy or Joe.
- Hair Color Dissonance: Is she a light-haired brunette? A dirty blonde? A redhead? [dead link] A strawberry blonde?
- Limited Wardrobe: In the second season, Mimi becomes one of the most noticeable aversions to this trope in the entire franchise, changing her clothes and hairstyle at least four times over the course of the season.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch
- The Messiah: Her compassion, willingness to forgive for the sake of peace, and cheerful demeanor get her a loyal army of Digimon followers -- including the Gekomon and Otamamon she darn-near enslaved.
- Nice Hat: A huge pink cowboy hat that she leaves behind in the Digital World at the end of season 1.
- Ojou
- Onee-Sama: Yolei calls her "Mimi-oneesama."
- Plucky Girl: In the last few episodes she gets over her sadness and is able to gather an army of ally Digimon to help defeat Piedmon's forces.
- Spoiled Sweet: Has to grow into it, but once she does, she handles herself beautifully.
- Ten-Minute Retirement: After seeing several Digimon die for them, she's so distraught that she decides to temporarily stay put to not be a burden to the others. She gets better with time and rejoins the group with reinforcements.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to Sora's Tomboy.
Joe/Jou Kido
"I tried positive thinking once. I was positive about one thing: I positively hated it!"
Because he's the oldest, Joe thinks he should be the responsible one and take care of the other kids--too bad he's a total pushover with no self-esteem. He's cut deeply whenever he realizes that people think of him this way, and tries to make up for it with acts of reckless selflessness that make Tai look positively cowardly. Perhaps the closest thing to a father figure in season one. His crest is that of Reliability.
Joe's family isn't a big focus, either--it's worth noting that, out of the 12 Digidestined in the first two seasons, his parents are the only ones never shown on-screen. His father is quite strict, being a doctor who wants all of his sons to be doctors, too. Joe's two older brothers, Shin and Shuu, rebelled in their own ways, while Joe is (as always) indecisive.
In the conclusion of 02, he becomes a Digimon doctor (i.e, a doctor for Digimon).
Voiced by: Masami Kikuchi (JP), Michael Lindsay (EN)
- Balloon Belly
- The Big Guy
- Butt Monkey: Lampshaded near the end.
- Cram School: Especially during 02.
- Crazy Prepared: Before they returned to the Digital World, Joe brought a roll of toilet paper among other things. It was used as a bandage for Ogremon's wounds.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dub only.
- Education Mama: His unseen father. They reach a deal, though: Joe becomes a doctor like dad wants, but on his own terms.
- Forgot I Couldn't Swim: Dub only.
- Japanese Sibling Terminology: Calls his older brothers "Shin-niisan" and "Shuu-niisan."
- Lost in Translation/Woolseyism: His crest, "seijitsu," has a lot of possible translations. The dub ended up going with "Reliability," which, while not a direct translation, is a pretty good catchall term.
- Nerd Glasses
- Nervous Wreck: He mellows out in 02 as he matures.
- Odd Friendship: With Gomamon.
- Only Sane Man: Or at least he thinks he is at first. One of the reasons why he was such a stick-in-the-mud at the beginning; he thought he was just being reasonable and that the others were actually putting themselves in danger by being irrational, making it his job to look out for them. This attitude wears off in time.
- Papa Wolf: He's a big wuss until one of the other kids is in trouble. Then the badass comes out. See The So-Called Coward.
- The Power of Trust: Faithfulness/Reliability, actually. As in, he's the one you're supposed to have faith in.
- Sempai-Kohai
- The So-Called Coward: Jumping off roofs and mountainsides is badass, okay?
- JesuOtaku even stated that Joe is always vouching for the safest route, choice, etc...yet always the first to throw his own body at these monsters. Because all Joe cares about is everyone's safety, she stated that even when the Mega level Digimon Piedmon is bearing down on them, you knew what Joe was even going to do before it-trying to get the other kids out of there without any regards to his safety. Joe is the real badass of Digimon!
- Talking to Himself: Joe, his two older brothers, and his CD drama-only parents are all voiced by Masami Kikuchi. Including his mother. Indeed, a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Mr. Kikuchi--one interview with him and Koushirou's seiyuu, Umi Tenjin, talks about how surprised the other actors were when he switched between all of the characters in real time.
- Team Dad: The page image no less.
- Ten-Minute Retirement: Not entirely by choice, but close enough.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Takeru "T.K." Takaishi
"I don't want to fight, ever!"
Matt's little brother, and the youngest Digidestined (at first). As the quote may say he doesn't like to fight... but when he does, hoo boy. His crest is Hope.
In the conclusion of 02, he becomes an author. He was also Narrator All Along for the 02 series.
Voiced by: Hiroko Konishi (JP), Wendee Lee (EN)
- Alliterative Name
- All Up to You: The battle with Piedmon is what solidified him as a competent ally.
- Cheerful Child
- Cross-Dressing Voices: Unlike Tai and Izzy, he gets a new, male voice actor in both versions for part 2.
- Dead Sidekick: Death Is Cheap, mind.
- Hope Springs Eternal
- Kid Appeal Character
- Morality Pet: For Matt.
- Nice Hat
- Japanese Pronouns: "Boku"
- Japanese Sibling Terminology: Calls Yamato "oniichan."
- Puppy Love: In-universe; Piedmon ships him and Hikari. Seriously.
- Tagalong Kid
- Theme Naming: Along with his brother, named after folk hero Yamato Takeru.
- What Would X Do? TK triggers Angemon's evolution by channeling his brother.
Hikari "Kari" Kamiya/Yagami
Taichi's little sister, and the Eighth Child, not that anyone knows it at first. Very sweet, kind and innocent, but also often wise beyond her years. She has the Crest of Light, which is only fitting.
In the conclusion of 02, she becomes a kindergarten teacher.
Voiced by: Kae Araki (JP), Lara Jill Miller (EN)
- Affirmative Action Girl
- Alliterative Name: Her dub name, "Kari Kamiya."
- Big Brother Worship: Admires her brother, and ends up feeling inferior to him in 02.
- Big No: When Wizardmon is killed.
- Big Yes: When LadyDevimon is killed.
- Cheerful Child
- Chekhov's Gunman: It's mentioned early on that she was too sick to go to summer camp with the other kids. Later, there's another episode actually involving her before the Myotismon arc really begins.
- Distaff Counterpart: To TK.
- Fluffy Tamer: In The Movie, "Big Agumon" seemed less intelligent and more violent than Tai's Agumon, but he still let her ride around on his back.
- Holy Child
- Ill Girl: Has pneumonia in Adventure, and that's why she couldn't go to the class trip and didn't join her fellow Digidestined until later.
- In the English titled episode "My Sister's Keeper," she is sick and Tai recalls another time when she was sick.
- Japanese Sibling Terminology: Calls Taichi "oniichan."
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Has both a real-life pet cat and a cat Digimon.
- Light Is Good
- Little Miss Snarker: And you can blame Lara Jill Miller for that.
- Meaningful Name: "Hikari" is Japanese for "light," and guess who has the Crest of Light?
- Kari also in some languages means "Pure" or "Pure One".
- Names to Trust Immediately: This isn't done for irony, as with another Light Yagami.
- The Messiah: Played it straight in Adventure, but deconstructed in 02 since she's so overwhelmed by it that she almost breaks down.
- Missed the Call: As mentioned above, she was ill. Coincidentially, her partner was in the hands of a Big Bad by then, having been lost as an egg and taken in by Myotismon... which raises the question of what would've happened had Kari not missed the call and gone to the Digital World anyway.
- Mysterious Waif
- Naive Everygirl: Subverted. She is sweet and kind and gentle, but tries her best to hold her own.
- Sixth Ranger
- Strange Girl
- Super Empowering: In "The Crest of Light", allows Biyomon and Patamon to go Champion, Gatomon to go Ultimate, and Agumon to go Mega, even though their previous attempts to digivolve failed (hilariously) due to exhaustion.
Main Digimon
Agumon
Tai's Digimon partner, who resembles an orange baby Tyrannosaurus. Like most, he has a personality similar to his Digidestined partner, if a little less hot-headed. Like the Digimon of later series' leaders, he is almost always the first to discover the next upgrade of the season and is generally the most powerful. He has the distinction of personally destroying three Big Bads all by himself.
His digivolutions are as follows:
- Fresh: Botamon, a small mon covered in black fur, with yellow eyes.
- In-Training: Koromon, a round, pink mon, with long ears, red eyes, and sharp teeth. Blows bubbles.
- Rookie: Agumon, his default form.
- Champion: Greymon. Essentially Agumon, but proper dinosaur size, and a massive fire attack.
- Ultimate: MetalGreymon. Greymon, with added mecha-armor and wings.
- He also accidentally dark-evolved into SkullGreymon, a skeletal dinosaur with a nuclear missile attached to its back, when Taichi tried to force the evolution.
- Mega: WarGreymon, an anthropomorphic dinosaur, with golden mech-armor.
- Mega (DNA): Combines with MetalGarurumon to become Omnimon (Omegamon), a white paladin-like figure.
Voiced by: Chika Sakamoto (JP), Tom Fahn (EN)
- Badass: Greymon and up. WarGreymon and Omnimon are the crowners in this area.
- Badass Baritone: Greymon and up.
- Badass Cape: As Omnimon.
- Balloon Belly
- Big Eater: And I quote: His appetite as well can be pretty ferocious.
- Artificial Limbs: MetalGreymon's left arm is mechanical.
- Bishonen Line: WarGreymon
- Chest Blaster: MetalGreymon
- Cross-Dressing Voices: Japanese version only.
- Cyborg: MetalGreymon, implied with Wargreymon and/or Omnimon.
- Deadly Upgrade: SkullGreymon
- Dem Bones: SkullGreymon
- Diagonal Cut: WarGreymon quickly defeats Machinedramon this way.
- Everything's Better with Dinosaurs
- For Massive Damage: WarGreymon's Dramon Destroyer claws are highly effective at...well, destroying Dramon type Digimon. This was a major plot point in the Dark Masters arc, as two of the four were Dramon, which allowed the Digidestined to kill them off.
- Kamehame Hadoken: WarGreymon's Terra Force! attack.
- Kill It with Fire: A huge assortment of Breath Weapon attacks, like Agumon's Pepper Breath and Greymon and onward's Nova Blast.
- Lightning Bruiser: Wargreymon
- Mighty Glacier: Greymon and Metal Greymon.
- Non-Mammalian Hair: WarGreymon has short hair flowing from his helmet.
- Playing With Fire
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
Gabumon
Matt's partner, a horned yellow reptile-like Digimon who, rather oddly, appears to wear a skin of white fur rather than having a natural coat. Something of a milder Foil to Yamato, he often criticizes his selfish moments but sticks by him regardless.
Also, the first mon on Mars at the end of 02.
His digivolutions are as follows:
- Fresh: Punimon, a red blob with three headbumps.
- In-Training: Tsunomon, a round, orange-furred mon with one, knife-like horn. Blows Bubbles.
- Rookie: Gabumon, his default form.
- Champion: Garurumon, a large, wolfish beast that walks on four legs.
- Ultimate: WereGarurumon, basically an anthropomorphic Garurumon wearing punkish clothes.
- Mega: MetalGarurumon, a robotic version of Garurumon, with wings thrown in for good measure.
- Mega (DNA): Combines with WarGreymon to become Omnimon (Omegamon), a white paladin-like figure.
Voiced by: Mayumi Yamaguchi (JP), Kirk Thornton (EN)
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: His pelt
- An Ice Person
- Badass
- Badass Baritone: Garurumon and up.
- Badass Cape: As Omnimon
- Big Badass Wolf: Later evolutions
- Cross-Dressing Voices: Japanese and Latin-American versions only
- Don't Look At Me: He doesn't like to be seen without his pelt.
- Informed Flaw: Much of the Japanese supporting material claims that WereGarurumon is slower than Garurumon because it is a biped. You certainly wouldn't know that watching him go in Adventure.
- Lightning Bruiser: Garurumon, WereGarurumon, and MetalGarurumon.
- Lunacy: WereGarurumon possesses an attack that consists in a kick which unleashes a moon-shaped shockwave.
- Macross Missile Massacre: MetalGarurumon
- Made of Iron: Garurumon's fur (which possibly extends to WereGarurumon) is made of mithril, which according to Tentomon, makes him harder than steel.
- Magic Knight: WereGarurumon has shades of this; he's a physical fighter capable of Le Parkour, but the attacks we see him use are ranged Ki Attacks.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: WereGarurumon, who looks like a furry punk in leather. Also a subverted Bishonen Line.
- Technicolor Fire: His Breath Weapon as both Gabumon and Garurumon.
- Too Many Belts: As WereGarurumon.
- Undying Loyalty: He is a canine, after all.
- Wall Crawl: WereGarurumon practices this with impressive speed.
Biyomon (Piyomon)
Sora's pink-feathered bird-like partner, who often causes her some angst with her loyalty and gentleness. More than a bit hyper.
Her digivolutions are as follows:
- Fresh: Nyokimon, a small black mon with two leaves popping from the top.
- In-Training: Yokomon (Pyocomon), a pink blob with a big blue flower. Blows bubbles.
- Rookie: Biyomon, her default form.
- Champion: Birdramon. A big flaming bird that shoots fireballs.
- Ultimate: Garudamon. A bigger red bird woman that shoots bigger fireballs in the shape of birds.
Voiced by: Katori Shigematsu (JP), Tifanie Christun (EN)
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: She wears a ring around her leg.
- Braids, Beads, and Buckskins: Garudamon.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Spiral Twister!
- In the original, it's just called "Magical Fire".
- Giant Flyer: When evolved. It's worth noting that of all the final forms of the protagnists' Digimon, Garudamon is tied with MegaKabuterimon as the largest of the lot.
- Glass Cannon
- Hair of Gold: Garudamon
- Non-Mammalian Hair: Garudamon
- Playing with Fire: Biyomon, Birdramon, and Garudamon all have fire based attacks as their main weapons.
- Polly Wants a Microphone
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Not as obvious as with Izzy, but you'll notice her speech patterns are more antiquated than the other Digimon.
- Technicolor Fire: Her Spiral Twister/Magical Fire attack.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Pink? Check. Jewelry? Check. Hair like structure? Check. Long blonde hair, in Garudamon's case? Check. Yeah, she's a girl.
- Verbal Tic: "-piyo"
Tentomon
Izzy's partner, who resembles a red winged robotic insect (tentoumushi means "ladybug"). Not as brainy as his partner, but sometimes with a little more common sense. Tends to rein in Koushiro when his quest for knowledge goes a bit too far.
His digivolutions are as follows:
- Fresh: Pabumon (Babumon), a green blob with a pacifier.
- In-Training: Motimon, a pink blob with arms. Blows bubbles.
- Rookie: Tentomon, his default form.
- Champion: Kabuterimon. A big blue beetle that shoots electricity.
- Ultimate: MegaKabuterimon (AtlurKabuterimon), A larger red version of Kabuterimon with a new horn and a shell on his back.
Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (JP), Jeff Nimoy (EN)
- Big Creepy-Crawlies
- Giant Flyer: Of all the final forms of the protagnists' Digimon, MegaKabuterimon is tied with Garudamon as the largest of the lot. Kabuterimon also tends to be portrayed as the largest of the Champion-level Digimon, though this tends to fluctuate somewhat between him and Birdramon.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Everyone has a tough time fighting Andromon until Izzy notices sparks coming out of his leg. Kabuterimon zaps it, destroying a black gear.
- Deadpan Snarker: Results in some Snark-to-Snark Combat with Izzy.
- Kansai Regional Accent: The dub doesn't try to adapt it into an English equivalent.
- I Got You Covered: Sora rides with him so that Garudamon can attack Apocalymon without endangering her.
- I Am What I Am: Tentomon shoots down his partner's alien theory, then asks if there is some kind of secret about his origin. Unfourtunately for Koushiro, this is an Armor-Piercing Question.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: While as Tentomon he has a pair of vestigial arms, Kabuterimon and MegaKabuterimon have a fully functional extra pair.
- Shock and Awe
- Talking to Himself: For a brief moment in the dub, when Izzy's parents find out about him.
- The Watson: Izzy tends to have to explain what he's doing to him, and thus us.
Palmon
Mimi's partner, a plant-like Digimon who perhaps is the steady roots to Mimi's flights of fancy.
Her digivolutions are as follows:
- Fresh: Yuramon, white fluff ball with a purple face.
- In-Training: Tanemon, a green ball with legs and leaves. Blows Bubbles.
- Rookie: Palmon, her default form.
- Champion: Togemon, a large boxing cactus.
- Ultimate: Lillymon (Lilimon), a plant themed fairy with a BFG.
Voiced by: Shihomi Mizowaki (JP), Anna Garduno (EN)
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Togemon's gloves
- BFG: Lillymon's Flower Cannon!
- Bishonen Line: Lillymon
- Boisterous Bruiser: As Togemon
- Combat Tentacles: Palmon's Poison Ivy attack.
- Fan Service: See above.
- Fan Service Pack: As Lillymon.
- Taken for Granite: Once as Lillymon
- Girliness Upgrade: The tough, hard-as-nails boxer Togemon digivolves into the cheery, feminine Lillymon.
- Green Thumb
- Informed Attribute: Lillymon's official profile stated that she, and the rest of her species, are tomboys. You wouldn't know that by how girly they appear (mini-dress, boots, long hair, etc.) and act, or the fact Lillymon in general is more feminine than both Garudamon and Angewomon (the only other Ultimate-level females of the group).
- Magic Skirt: Unfortunately, to her more intimate fans, Lillymon's bottom is never seen despite flying in a short skirt. In fact, one scene where the viewer can see up her skirt, Lillymon's bottom is shrouded completely in shadows, not allowing viewers to see what's under her dress.
- Ms. Fanservice: As Lillymon, having a Mini-Dress of Power/Dangerously-Short Skirt along with Sleeves Are for Wimps certainly helps. And she is certainly cute and adorable.
- Plant Aliens
- Plant Person: Lillymon
- Our Fairies Are Different: Lillymon
- Spike Shooter: As Togemon, with her needle storm.
- Red Boxing Gloves: As Togemon
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Togemon's Tomboy to Lillymon's Girly Girl. Palmon herself can be considered the Tomboy to Mimi's Girly Girl.
Gomamon
Joe's partner, a seal-like creature. The biggest Foil digimon of the first season, with his optimistic and silly nature often clashing with Jou's much more serious nature. Despite his playfulness, Gomamon is level-headed enough know when to take risks and bright enough to keep Jou from giving in to despair.
His digivolutions are as follows:
- Fresh: Pitchmon, a white fish-like creature.
- In-Training: Bukamon (Pukamon), a floating grey seal. Blows bubbles.
- Rookie: Gomamon, his default form.
- Champion: Ikkakumon. A giant white walrus that fires torpedoes from his horn.
- Ultimate: Zudomon, a big grey and orange walrus with a turtle shell and a hammer.
Voiced by: Junko Takeuchi (JP), R. Martin Klein (EN)
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Zudomon has belts around his arms.
- Atlantis Is Boring: Gomamon's Marching Fishes attack is used very scarcely across the entire series; when it is used, it certainly proves to be incredibly useful for traversing water.
- Drop the Hammer: Zudomon wields what is purported to be Thor's hammer. It seriously makes up for Marching Fishes.
- Dynamic Entry: Late in Digimon Adventure 02 Ikkakumon shoots MarineDevimon when he isn't looking, which pleases Angemon. As Ikkakumon rushes forward and leaps out of the water, there is a Smash Cut into his evolution sequence.
- Hammerspace: Where do those fish come from, exactly?
- Magikarp Power
- Making a Splash: In theory. The "attack" that comes closest to this is "Marching Fishes". As Ikkakumon, he uses Non-Elemental attacks and as Zudomon, his main attack consists of Shock and Awe, even weirder is that the latter has water used in his transformation sequence.
- Mighty Glacier: All of his stronger forms have elements of this.
- Plucky Comic Relief
- Throwing Your Hammer Always Works: Pretty much how Zudomon operates, managed to defeat a Big Bad one level higher thanks to this.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: "Marching Fishes"… summons fish. Not even big fish. It's used maybe three times over the entire series. (though twice in the first 3 episodes to get the team moving when near water).
Patamon
TK's partner, who starts off looking like a pig with wings, and the most childish of the Digimon. And as it turns out, also the most powerful.
His digivolutions are as follows:
- Fresh: Poyomon, a white blob.
- In-Training: Tokomon, a white critter with lots and lots of teeth.
- Rookie: Patamon, his default form.
- Champion: Angemon, the angel monster.
- Ultimate: MagnaAngemon (HolyAngemon), Angemon with purple armor, a sword, and the power to beat anything.
- Mega: Seraphimon, fully clad in blue armor and with ten golden wings on his back.
Voiced by: Miwa Matsumoto (JP), Laura Summer (EN)
- Best for Last: The final partner to reach both Champion and Ultimate forms, probably because they were so broken. Interestingly, TK was the second Digidestined to activate his crest.
- Bishonen Line: Angemon and up.
- Blow You Away: Boom Bubble/Air Shot.
- Cross-Dressing Voices: As you can see, Jou, Yamato and Tentomon are the only male characters voiced by men this season.
- Cue the Flying Pigs: Well, not literally, but considering his picture, the stuff he pulls off comes across as pretty damned unlikely.
- The Faceless: Angemon and up have their faces covered by helmets.
- Head Pet
- Heroic Sacrifice: Angemon used all his power to defeat Devimon, thus reverting him back to a Digiegg.
- Lampshade Hanging: In one audio drama, he yells out, "I want to evolve every week like everyone else!"
- Just in Time: Saves TK from being crushed by Devimon, shows up when WereGarurumon is being beaten by Vamdemon/Myotismon, and saves TK and Kari from falling to their doom at the hands of Piedmon.
- Light'Em Up
- Lightning Bruiser: Angemon and especially Magna Angemon.
- Meaningful Name: Tokomon. Toko translates to "the very last."
- More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: Tokomon
- Our Angels Are Different: His evolutions.
- Reincarnation
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Until he evolves...
- Story-Breaker Power: MagnaAngemon's "Gate of Destiny", unquestionably. Remember, this defeated Piedmon, a Mega-level Digimon who had twice triumphed over the combined might of the two Digidestined Megas, Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon. To a lesser extent, Angemon was overpowered for a Champion — his blink-and-you'll-miss-it KO of the Ultimate-level Phantomon provides more than enough evidence for this.
- Generally speaking, Patamon's forms at Champion-level and beyond are more powerful than the average Digimon a level higher than him. So, as a Champion, he's more powerful than most Ultimates, and as an Ultimate he's more powerful than most Megas. That's insanity.
Gatomon (Tailmon)
I've waited my whole life to meet you and find my purpose, and that is to protect you, no matter what the cost.
The last of the Digimon partners, who eventually partners up with Kari. The only partner who spends most of her time in Champion form (not that it's easy to tell) and her more frank toughness is rather a contrast to Kari's youthful innocence.
Her digivolutions are as follows:
- Fresh: SnowBotamon (YukimiBotamon), a white version of Botamon.
- In-Training: Nyaromon, a yellow cat head. Blows bubbles.
- Rookie: Salamon (Plotmon), a white puppy.
- Champion: Gatomon, her default form.
- Ultimate: Angewomon, Angemon's Distaff Counterpart.
- Mega: Magnadramon (Holydramon), a pink dragon Digimon with the head of a cat-like creature and ten wings on its back.
Voiced by: Yuka Tokumitsu (JP), Edie Mirman (EN)
- The Archer: Angewomon's Holy Arrow attack.
- Badass Adorable
- Blush Sticker: As SnowBotamon and Salamon.
- Broken Bird: The heaps of abuse dealed to her by Myotismon just because she had gentle eyes made her cynical and bitter, with Wizardmon as the only one whom she showed a bit of kindness to. Until she met Kari and became her partner, that is.
- Cats Are Magic: An interesting variation, in that Gatomon is the cat associated with Wizardmon. It’s like a classic Wizard-Familiar relationship, except that they are good friends.
- Cats Are Mean: Subverted upon her Heel Face Turn.
- Cat Fight: Appropriately enough, Angewomon vs. LadyDevimon, on two occasions between this series and the sequel.
- And taken literally during her first appearance.
- Dead Person Conversation
- Distaff Counterpart: Angewomon to Angemon.
- The Dog Bites Back: Perhaps if Myotismon hadn't made a habit of abusing her terribly, she wouldn't have shot an arrow through his heart.
- Cute Kitten
- Evil Counterpart: Angewoman has one in LadyDevimon, Devimon's Distaff Counterpart.
- Heel Face Turn
- Hypocritical Humor: Done in the dub, where she complains about one of her henchmon going on a rampage: "What's that big-eared freak trying to do?". Gatomon, I don't think you're in any position to call anyone a "big-eared freak".
- Fan Service: Angewomon.
- Kick the Dog: Or smack him with your tail...
- Lady of War: As Angewomon.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: And how! Before she met Kari, Gatomon only could remember her hatred against everyone and the brutal punishments she used to get at a daily basis. She even forgot about the day when she met Wizardmon! Of course, she got better.
- Lightning Bruiser
- Light'Em Up
- Light Is Good
- Light Is Not Good: Pre-Heel Face Turn.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Cute little kitty defeated the group all by herself. Though she is a natural Champion level Digimon while they're all natural Rookies.
- Our Angels Are Different: Angewomon
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's a Champion/Adult level, but she's much smaller and more powerful than most of the other kids' partners!
- Power Source: Before her Heel Face Turn, Gatomon survived by clinging to her hatred against Myotismon and everyone else.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to DemiDevimon's red, though she could also be seen as the red to Wizardmon's blue.
- Right-Hand-Cat
- Scars Are Forever: Has an x shaped scar on her left paw from Myotismon, but its normally covered by her glove. She has a glove on the same hand as Angewomon.
- Thinking Out Loud: Does this while observing on Kari, speaking her thoughts about her cloudy past. Wizardmon hears this, and asks her a question. Gatomon, not realizing she was thinking out loud, gets angry and tells him to stop reading her mind.
- Tuckerization: Salamon is named after dub producer Terri-Lei O'Malley's pet cat.
- Zen Survivor: After taking years (if not decades) of brutal servitude, Gatomon ends up being wiser and tougher.
Supporting Cast
Gennai
An old man who lives in the Digital World, who actually admits to being made of data- essentially, he's like a Digimon, but with none of the powers or attributes of them. Appears to run the place from behind the scenes, or at least used to...
Voiced by: Jouji Yanami (JP), Michael Reynolds (EN)
- Eccentric Mentor: Mainly in the dub.
- The Mentor
- Miniature Senior Citizens
- The Obi-Wan
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In one flashback episode that explains the origins of the digidestined, Piedmon is shown attacking the headquarters of Gennai's order. When Gennai attempts to fight back, Piedmon dodges around behind him and implants some kind of object into Gennai's back. This is never explained, nor is it mentioned again, although some suspect it to be the explanation for why Gennai looks like an old man in the first season.
- Fandom Nod: Koushirou's track in 2-and-a-half Year Break has him briefly wonder what that object could have been... then immediately go back to talking about something else. You can almost hear the writers laughing at us.
Leomon
A (at first) friendly wild lion-like Digimon who fights for the weak and helps the kids, though without entirely trusting them. He appears again during the Dark Masters Arc as the powerful SaberLeomon. He dies protecting Mimi during a fight with MetalEtemon, kickstarting the tradition of killing Leomon every time he shows up in a series.
His digivolutions are as follows:
- Champion: Leomon, his default form.
- Mega: SaberLeomon, a large quadrupedial lion with sabre teeth.
Voiced by: Hiroaki Hirata (JP), Paul St Peter (EN)
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Thrice in one arc!
- Face Heel Turn
- Heel Face Turn
- Heroic Sacrifice
- Martyr Without a Cause: Becomes his recurring purpose in each show.
- Mega Neko
- Panthera Awesome
- Sacrificial Lion: Quite literally as well as fitting the character type. He was also the first in the franchise's long Running Gag line of dead Leomon or evolutions thereof, though it didn't definitively start until Digimon Tamers.
- Super Mode: SaberLeomon, which he gains sometime after the kids went back to the real world.
- Golden Super Mode: Not in a divine manner like most examples, but this form gives him a golden/yellow fur. Lampshaded by Gomamon.
- Too Many Belts
- Worthy Opponent: To Ogremon
Ogremon
Leomon's rival and foil, an uncouth brute with a sense of humour. As his name indicates, he resembles an ogre.
He joins up with Mimi and Joe during the Dark Masters Arc after he is beaten by MetalEtemon.
Voiced by: Hisao Egawa (JP), Beau Billingslea (EN)
- Antagonist in Mourning: He even says that if he did beat Leomon, he wouldn't know what to do with himself. Then Leomon dies the same episode. Cue the waterworks from the goblin in leather. You were a good rival...
- Characterization Marches On: He has an Ogremon Honor Code in the final arc, while back in the first arc he was simply evil and willing to do anything to stop the children, even threaten to hurt a baby Digimon!
- Dark Is Evil: He's a Virus-type Digimon, duh.
- Dark Is Not Evil: In the final arc, he turns into a good guy in the end. He ends up traveling alone due to the fact the other Digimons are Data and Vaccine-types.
- The Dragon: For Devimon.
- Dumb Muscle
- Heel Face Turn
- Honor Before Reason: He only agrees to help Mimi and Joe because his own Honor Code says so.
- The Rival: To Leomon.
- Worthy Opponent: Again, to Leomon.
Piximon (Piccolomon)
A cute but powerful Digimon trainer living in a hidden oasis in the desert. He helps the DigiDestined train to combat Etemon.
Voiced by: Isamu Tanonaka (JP), Ricard Cansino (EN)
- Badass Adorable: Cute as two buttons, even while lobbing bombs at things. Hau, Omochikaeri!!
- Barrier Warrior
- Big Damn Heroes: Is introduced this way and dies this way.
- Blade on a Stick: It's actually called Fairy Tale.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Holds off the Dark Masters to let the kids escape. That's FOUR Megas (Ultimate Level) versus ONE Ultimate (Perfect Level).
- Facing the Bullets One-Liner: "Just call me a crazy little Digimon."
- Killer Rabbit: You wouldn't know it from looking at him, but he's an Ultimate-Level Digimon.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse
- Ridiculously Cute Critter
- Training from Hell/Wax On, Wax Off: Drops Tai and Agumon off in a cave and has everyone else wash his floors.
- Verbal Tic: In the original version, he ends his sentences with "-pi."
- You Shall Not Pass: His Heroic Sacrifice.
Wizardmon (Wizarmon)
A minion of Myotismon who is more than he seems, and has strange powers even by Digimon standards. Gatomon's only real friend (at first) who turns out to greatly influence the story.
Voiced by: Akira Ishida (JP), Robert Axelrod (EN)
- A Wizard Did It: Not Just for Pun, but see Scarily Competent Tracker below.
- Almost-Dead Guy: Keeps himself alive to ensure that he fulfills his destiny.
- Badass: Survived attacks that would One-Hit Kill higher level Digimon, defied the arc's Big Bad and was the first to harm him in the final battle, though Wizardmon was unarmed, and took incredible amounts of damage before dying like a man, complete with Famous Last Words. See also his entry under Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- Badass Adorable
- Badass Cape: Complete with Instant Runes.
- Black Mage: With various forms of Black Magic.
- Blue Eyes
- Calling Your Attacks: Averts this when necessary.
- Cats Are Magic: An interesting variation, in that Gatomon is the cat associated with Wizardmon. It’s like a classic Wizard-Familiar relationship, except that they are good friends.
- Coat, Hat, Mask
- Combat Medic: He healed Lilymon from petrification.
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Dead Person Conversation
- Determinator: Oh, yes indeed. See Squishy Wizard below.
- Dying Moment of Awesome
- Eccentric Mentor: More so in the Japanese version.
- Enigmatic Minion
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He’s a wizard. Go figure. He plays most of the tropes associated with the fantasy archetype incredibly straight. Also note that this trope is subverted in the episode named after him. We don't find out what "Wizardmon's Gift" is until he sacrifices himself for Gatomon and Kari.
- Expy: This Wizardmon gets an Expy in the future thanks to Sorcerimon, who looks exactly like him (except for a Palette Swap of blue and white instead of his Orange-Blue Contrast), is An Ice Person and more of a White Mage, sacrifices himself in a similar way, and even returns as a ghost in a similar way. Another actual Wizardmon also shows up in Frontier, but has different powers, is a Monster of the Week, and has very little personality resemblance with this one.
- Fireballs
- Foil: To Gatomon and Myotismon. Gatomon is his female counterpart, who is more of a physical fighter than a magical one, and with a tough personality but cute looks, all of which are the inverse of Wizardmon's traits. Similarly, Myotismon is a tall, blonde, blue-eyed and menacing magic user with extreme toughness and power, but Wizardmon also has blonde hair, blue eyes, uses magic, is of smaller size, and his gentle ways, as well as his noble and honorable sacrifice, highlight their similarities and contrasting differences... and just how evil the vampire really was.
- For Halloween I Am Going as Myself: Like a few members of Myotismon's crew, Wizardmon was able to walk in broad daylight without drawing attention to himself. He poses as a street magician, producing balloons and doves with sleight of hand.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: In the Japanese dub, he bribes DemiDevimon with a bottle of Sake. In the English dub, this becomes "a bottle of green chili sauce".
- Hair of Gold: One of the first visual hints that he’s not actually evil. Subverts Blondes Are Evil, too. Goes well with his Blue Eyes.
- Heroic Sacrifice: For Gatomon and Kari
- Heroic Second Wind: He gets two of these. Notable in that it would take incredible speed for him to have been able to block the last, fatal attack with his body as a shield, after he was blasted several meters away and knocked down moments ago.
- Heroic Willpower
- In the Back: A rare, heroic example when he manages to draw first blood against Myotismon in the final battle. Also counts as an inversion of Backstab Backfire
- Instant Runes: He has a few in the inner parts of his Badass Cape.
- I Owe You My Life: Gatomon once saved him from starving to death and from his crushing loneliness. Ever since then, he became completely devoted to her.
- Killed Off for Real: Whilst Adventure 02 reveals he can sometimes appear as a ghost in the real world, he can never reconfigure in the Death Is Cheap manner other Digimon do due to dying in the real world.
- Lip Lock: One of the few Digimon characters completely immune to this. The only time we see his mouth we discover that he has literal Lip Lock. His lips are stitched together. It doesn't prevent him from eating or speaking though.
- Loners Are Freaks: He was this before he met Gatomon, though he subverts the Ineffectual Loner trope as well later on.
- Magicians Are Wizards: An interesting variation in that while he poses as a stage magician at first, he still wears his full wizard outfit.
- Magic Wand: Look closely and you'll see it's in the shape of a Digitama (Digi-egg), or a Tamagotchi. Word of God says it's a Mythology Gag and a Shout-Out to the original Digital Monsters.
- Manly Tears
- Martyr Without a Cause: See also Expy. Generally he averts this by actually having something important to die for. Next to Leomon, however, he’s the Digimon most likely to sacrifice himself.
- Morality Chain: For a long time, only his presence kept Gatomon from being a full-blooded villainess.
- Mysterious Past
- Mythology Gag: See Magic Wand, Expy and Martyr Without a Cause. Also, in Digimon Frontier, a Wizardmon and a Gatomon are seen together in a crowd in one episode, as a reference to the relationship of these characters in Adventure.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Holy crap. No one can find the Eighth child? Found her ten minutes ago. Can't get there soon enough? Let's fly you over there. No one can heal Lilymon from petrification? Give me a challenge. No one can harm Myotismon? First blood. None of the superfast, superpowerful, Ultimate level Digimon can save Gatomon and Kari? Got there just in time. How did I do it? I'm magic.
- Nice Hat
- No One Should Survive That: Myotismon fails to kill him with his most powerful spells, which would be certain death to most Digimon beyond Wizardmon's level. As Badass as Wizardmon is, though, it doesn't last forever.
- No Self-Buffs: He could heal Lilymon, but apparently could not heal himself from the injuries caused by Myotismon.
- Not Quite Dead: A heroic version. Myotismon's rage and fear upon seeing him alive said it all.
- The Obi-Wan: To Gatomon.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Evidence suggests he's tied to the place where he died, unable to be reborn either because he died in the Real World, or because he's unable to move because he feels like he still has to protect Gatomon.
- Our Souls Are Different: See Our Ghosts Are Different, though Wizardmon brings up the question on what a exactly Digimon's soul could be.
- Occult Detective
- Orange-Blue Contrast
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: See Badass for more info. He's about TK's size!
- Platonic Life Partners: He and Gatomon were each other's only friends for a while. Needless to say they seemed quite close.
- Playing with Fire
- Psychic Link: With Gatomon, apparently. It's one sided.
- Psychic Powers: Specifically, levitation and mind-reading.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old
- The Red Mage: While most Digimon have one or two attacks and maybe one special ability, Wizardmon is arguably the most versatile character in the series. He could heal curses, fly unaided (or levitate, because he had various psychic powers), control the weather, dish out lightning and fire, and, in the Japanese dub, read minds. Not to mention he was incredibly hard to kill and could return as a ghost. Being based on Wizards as a fantasy concept, it's not a stretch to see he had a lot of different magical powers at his disposal. He's more of a Black Mage but has White Mage powers too. He gets even more powers in the Expanded Universe and in Digimon Frontier, including the ability to create copies of himself and produce fear gas. All of this on top of being a hunter, a spy, and an expert in stealth.
- Reincarnation: Averted. Unlike other good Digimon, he isn't reborn.
- Relationship Voice Actor: If you're an unrepentant fangirl, this allows for a probably-unintentional-yet-still-amusing, very brief moment, when Matt's dad helps carry Wizardmon around. Ishida and Hirata's characters in Saiyuki do that for each other quite a lot...
- Reverse Mole: Proud of it, too!
- Robe and Wizard Hat
- Scarily Competent Tracker: He was the first one in Myotismon’s crew to successfully locate Hikari, then brought Gatomon to her. Take note, he was racing against an army of supernatural creatures while looking for her in Odaiba, Japan. That’s not easy. He also manages to locate the true Crest of Light. Handwaved by the fact that A Wizard Did It.
- Shock and Awe
- Sinister Silhouettes: His is clearly visible among Myotismon's army before they enter the portal to the human world. He also gets another moment with this trope when he returns as a ghost in 02.
- Squishy Wizard: Subverted. Hard. He's small, but man, he took a lot of punishment before dying: surviving two One-Hit Kill attacks, being tossed into the ocean, blasted by magic into a wall by a superpowerful vampire and then using his body as a shield to block a third One-Hit Kill spell, and even lasting long enough after that to say his last words. Also played straight in that he's a bit of a Glass Cannon, but he manages to get up after he's been hit by something insanely powerful.
- Stage Magician: He poses as one of these to avoid drawing attention to himself in the Real World.
- Taking the Bullet: Is killed when he takes an attack meant for Gatomon and Kari.
- Undying Loyalty: To Gatomon and Gatomon alone. Well, Hikari too, by extension.
- White Mage: With some White Magic, namely immortality (see Wizards Live Longer, below), invulnerability, and healing powers.
- Why Won't You Die?: The outraged look on Myotismon's face in the final battle when he realized Wizardmon was still alive and powerful enough to hurt him was priceless. Subverted when Wizardmon actually dies.
- Wild Mass Guessing: Oh my. Wizardmon, more than any other Digimon in the fandom, is prone to this. What was his past really like? Where did he get his truckload of powers? What is it that makes him different from most Digimon? What was his relationship with Tailmon/Gatomon like? And most importantly, Why wasn't he reborn? If it was because he died in the Real World, then explain Myotismon and why Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon's Spirits don't linger....
- Wizards Live Longer: Zigzagged. First, he’s a Digimon, and thus is technically immortal (of the Type II, or undying, variety), then he’s supposedly killed by Vandemon, so you think he's dead, but comes back later, so you think he will live... and then he's killed off for real. THEN he returns as a ghost in the Digimon Adventure 02 and is thus more immortal than most Digimon.
- Zipperiffic: Just look at his outfit!
Major villains
Devimon
The first Big Bad of the show, a fallen Angel Digimon who terrorises File Island and the kids, but warns them there are plenty more, more dangerous villains out there.
Voiced by: Kaneto Shiozawa (JP), Tom Wyner (EN)
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever
- Big Bad: Of the first story arc.
- Dark Is Evil
- Demonic Possession: Of Kimeramon in the second series.
- Devour the Dragon: Turns Ogremon into Black Gears and absorbs him to increase his power. Ironically, of the two of them, Ogremon survived thanks to getting blasted out of Devimon in the fight before Devimon was killed.
- Evil Counterpart: Not only Devimon is a Fallen Angel type, but supplementary material mentions he is a fallen Angemon.
- Fallen Angemon
- Magnificent Bastard
- The Man Behind the Man: His powers of darkness took control of Kimeramon in 02. And if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty, when Kimeramon and Machinedramon fuse into Milleniumon in the games, Kimeramon's Biological Mashup body has been more or less subsumed by Devimon's influence. Take a look.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: Literally what he told Angemon as they were both dying.
- Our Demons Are Different: Wearing leather from head to toe for one...
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Made even more ominous by the lack of pupils or irises.
- Spear Counterpart: To LadyDevimon, Angewomon's evil counterpart.
- Starter Villain
- Threshold Guardians: Defeating him really brings the kids together as a team for the first time, not to mention allowing them to leave File Island
- Too Many Belts
- Villain Song: And the official German soundtrack even has a rap mix about Devimon. It's awesome.
Etemon
The second Big Bad, A anthropomorphic monkey whom the DigiDestined encounter on the mainland. Controls a Dark Network across the desert that amplifies his power and allows him to command many other Digimon, and proves to be surprisingly much harder to defeat than Devimon (and stay defeated).
His digivolutions are as follows:
- Ultimate: Etemon, his default form.
- Mega: MetalEtemon, basically a silver metal Etemon made out of hardest known substance known to Digimon.
Voiced by: Yasunori Masutani (JP), Richard Epcar (EN)
- Bad Boss
- Beware the Silly Ones: He's a monkey-like Elvis impersonator...and yet he's stronger than the demonic Devimon the Digidestined just took down.
- Big Bad: Of the second story arc.
- Body Horror: Fusing with the Dark Network caused him to bulk up rather grotesquely.
- Chrome Champion: As MetalEtemon.
- Cool Shades
- Dark Is Evil
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: Or worse, much worse.
- Maniac Monkey: Unlike the other villains, he dosn't ever bother to hide his ruthlessness through a gentlemanly manner.
- Evil vs. Evil: Against Datamon. As MetalEtemon, he gets into a brief fight with Puppetmon.
- Fartillery: One of his attacks as MetalEtemon.
- Hero-Killer: Due mostly due to being an Ultimate level Digimon while the heroes only had access to Champion level at the time. His Concert Crush being able to de-digivolve Digimon is another good reason.
- Laughably Evil
- Mood Whiplash: Comes right after the demonic and frightening Devimon and before the Complete Monster that is Myotismon.
- Musical Assassin
- Not Quite Dead: Pretty much gets sucked into a blackhole but survives and comes back as MetalEtemon.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: When he returns during the Dark Masters arc, at first he seems like nothing other then a filler villain. Then he kills Leomon.
- Also fitting beforehand. Despite his appearences, he's an Ultimate Level Digimon, while Devimon was only a Champion. He curb-stomps the kids' Champion-level Digimon with ease, has the rare power to de-digivolve Digimon, and becomes a reality-warper when he merges with the Dark Network, all of which makes him suprisingly dangerous.
- One-Winged Angel: When he fused with the Dark Network.
- The Power of Rock: His "Concert Crush" / "Love Serenade" technique, which allows him to de-evolve other Digimons.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Once he became MetalEtemon.
- Status Buff Dispel: His "Concert Crush" reverses digivolution. It's unknown if this only works against Champions, as he never really got the chance to use it against another Ultimate.
- Took a Level in Badass
- Villain Song: Weaponized thanks to his "Concert Crush" attack.
- We Have Reserves
Myotismon (Vamdemon)
The third Big Bad who proves far more dangerous than the others, and has designs on the real world as well as the Digital World. A rather classic vampire who can even pass off as human.
His digivolutions are as follows:
- Ultimate: Myotismon, his default form.
- Mega: VenomMyotismon (VenomVamdemon), an utterly enormous humanoid devil with limited intelligence, buglike design overtones... and a crotch monster.
Voiced by: Ryuzaburo Ohtomo (JP), Richard Epcar (EN)
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: VenomMyotismon, the largest Digimon in the series apart from Apocalymon.
- Bad Boss
- Big Bad: Of the third story arc and all of Adventure 02
- Blond Guys Are Evil
- Bloody Murder: Yeah, "Crimson Lightning/Mist", yeah...
- Far more apparent in the original version, where they were called "Bloody Stream" and "Melting Blood", respectively.
- Blue Eyes
- Came Back Strong: Each time he's seemingly killed off, he ends up brought back to life in an even more powerful form. That is, until the Digidestined finally blow up his soul and kill him off for good.
- The Chessmaster
- Complete Monster: His atrocities and sadism makes him easily THE most evil Digimon alive.
- Dark Is Evil
- Deader Than Dead: The Digidestined finally kill him off for good by blowing up his soul.
- Devour the Dragon: Literally. He eats Demidevimon alive as VenomMyotismon to get a small boost in power during his fight with the Digidestined.
- Evil Overlord: A classic example
- Faux Affably Evil: At times
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His obsession with killing off the eighth DigiDestined caused him to end up bringing her partner to her. The very Digimon who ended up spelling his demise.
- Immortality: Has Type IV like most Digimon, but his case deserves special mention because he just isn't reborn as a Digi-Egg. Instead, his soul just kep coming back to life in a stronger form, first as VenomMyostismon and then in Adventure 02 as MaloMyotismon. It takes having his soul blown up by the combined light of every Digidestined on Earth to make him stay dead for good.
- Japanese Vampire
- Kick the Dog: Really, his entire existence is one long string of these.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Killing Wizardmon resulted Gatomon digivolving into Angewomon and killing his first form.
- Magnificent Bastard
- Manipulative Bastard
- Motive Rant
Myotismon: I planned to permanently fuse the Human World to the Digital World, so that, this way, I would rule over both worlds! I DID WHAT I WAS DESTINED TO DO!!
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Like his foil Wizardmon, he to keeps getting new attacks. First the bats, fine, fine. A red streak, okay. Telekinesis, ummmm... alright? Wait, is MetalGreymon about to finally kill him? Nope, he can just stop attacks with a stare. Did Wizardmon just make an In the Back attack? Too bad he can just throw it right back. And this is not counting his ability to come Back from the Dead.
- Not Quite Dead
- One-Winged Angel: After being killed the first time, he comes back to life as VenomMyotismon.
- Our Vampires Are Different
- Theme Song Reveal
- Weaksauce Weakness: Light
- We Will Meet Again: This happens enough to annoy the heroes.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: As Venom Myotismon, he goes from his Take Over the World plans to just being a rampaging monster whose only thought is feeding and destroying everything in sight.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Very willing to kill off his minions. In the dub this was changed to banishing them back to the Digital World. This seems a little odd considering the Dark Masters got away with killing off Digimon left and right.
MetalSeadramon
"You're finished, you upstart DigiDestined! In a word, your're sunk!"
The first Dark Master the kids face on Spiral Mountain, and ruler of the sea. A pretty straightforward brute who destroys anything and anyone that gets in his way. Resembles a sea dragon.
Voiced by: Yuuto Kazama (JP), Doug Erholtz (EN)
- Action Figure Speech: His mouth rarely moves.
- Bad Boss: Notably averted, as he's about the only Big Bad in the first series not to be one. So long as you do your job right he's actually a pretty good boss. Yeah, he killed Scorpiomon, but only after he failed him rather severely, and was very willing to reward him with his favorite food for doing his job correctly.
- Breath Weapon/Playing with Fire: He can breathe fire... for some reason.
- The Brute: His no-nonsense approach to beating his enemies.
- Chrome Champion
- Combat Pragmatism: His strategy on how to take care of the DigiDestined, but since the other Dark Masters are sadists playing around with the Villain Ball, he only got the chance during his few episodes. He even comes pretty close when he has Scorpiomon helping him, though because Joe and Mimi accidentally avoided his trap and beat Scorpiomon, his plan was thwarted.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: WarGreymon drilled into his nose, through his body and out his tail.
- Cyborg: "No matter, wherever those kids try to hide, I'll find them. I rule this ocean with an iron hand, iron tail, and an iron everything, for that matter."
- Deadpan Snarker:
- "Ha! Farewell, DigiDestined! It was a rare pleasure knowing you - MEDIUM RARE!"
- "Those fools don't think I know where they're headed. They're easier to figure out than a two-piece jigsaw puzzle!"
- "It was only a matter of time before you came up for air. Now you're going down with the ship!"
- Evil Counterpart: To Qinglongmon (It, MetalTyrannomon and MegaDramon are the Metal Empire counterparts to the Four Great Dragons).
- Evil Laugh
- Evil Sounds Deep: In Japanese.
- Famous Last Words: "I'm tired of playing around with you, WarGreymon. Say goodbye!"
- Fangs Are Evil
- Flight: Either due to jets along his body, or Power Floats.
- Frickin' Laser Beams: River of Power.
- Four Is Death
- If It Swims, It Flies
- Just Eat Him: Tried this on WarGreymon.
- Kick the Dog: Killing Scorpiomon and Whamon.
- Leeroy Jenkins: He prefers not to play with his food, just cook it.
- Light Is Not Good: So far, he's the only main antagonist who was a Data-type.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite being easily the largest of the Dark Masters, he's fast enough to go up against WarGreymon.
- Nigh Invulnerable: "What was that, a love tap? I'm made of Chrome Digizoid too, you know! You can't hurt me that easily!"
- No Ontological Inertia: With his death, the aquatic portion of Spiral Mountain disappeared.
- The Nose Knows: "Do you smell something? There's the scent of DigiDestined in the current. Either that, or there's a bad patch of seaweed around here..."
- Our Dragons Are Different
- Pitiful Worms
- Pragmatic Villainy: He's a pretty much a Benevolent Boss as long as you do your job right, rewarding Scorpiomon with clams (his favourite food) once the DigiDestined have been captured. Which is more than can be said for the other Dark Masters.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Sea Monster
- Signature Move: River of Power!!
- Sinister Schnoz: Which is a friggin cannon.
- Spikes of Villainy
- Surfer Dude: Sounds like one in the English version. Or Surfer Dude mixed with angry army commando.
- Tail Slap
- Token Good Teammate: Well, not really, as he is evil, but he's much less so than his comrades.
- Tunnel King
- Underwater Boss Battle
- You Can Run but You Can't Hide: "You DigiDestined fools! You can swim, but you can't hide!"
- You Fool!: Basically his catchphrase.
- You Have Failed Me...: Scorpiomon.
Puppetmon (Pinnochimon)
"We'll have lots of fun! Now you hide, and I'll seek and destroy!"
The second Dark Master, and considerably smarter, meaner, and more childish than the first. Manipulates and toys with his enemies quite a bit, and literally controls the forest. Resembles a marionette.
Voiced by: Etsuko Kozakura (JP), David Lodge (EN)
- Anti-Villain: Type ll, somewhat. While's a psychotic, manipulative jerk, he's actually pretty lonely and wants a friend to play with. Out of all the Dark Masters, his end was portrayed as the most tragic.
- Ax Crazy
- Bad Boss: A VERY bad boss indeed, having a habit of killing off henchmen for fun.
- Battle Boomerang: Flying Cross Cutter.
- Beware the Silly Ones
- Brats with Slingshots
- Bratty Half-Pint
- Carry a Big Stick: The wooden cross on his back can be detached and wielded as a weapon.
- Conveyor Belt O' Doom: The floor of his forest.
- Creepy Child: It helps (or rather doesn't) that he has a natural Kubrick Stare caused by his hat.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes
- Dark Chick
- Dark Is Evil
- Double Weapon: His hammer is also a gatling gun-like energy weapon.
- Drop the Hammer
- Dying Alone
- Evil vs. Evil: His brief scuffle with MetalEtemon.
- Famous Last Words: "Cherrymon... what is it that those kids have... that I don't?"
- Cherrymon: Friends.
- Fluffy the Terrible
- Four Is Death
- Friendless Background
- Gatling Good
- Giggling Villain
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: When he transformed his mansion into a Humongous Mecha.
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: Him against MetalEtemon.
- I'm Not Afraid of You: When surrounded by Angemon, Angewoman, MegaKabuterimon, Garudamon, and WarGreymon.
- Kick the Dog: Being the nasty little kid he is, he loves to do this.
- Kubrick Stare: Has a natural one caused by his hat (mentioned above) but has an even bigger one when he vows revenge on TK.
- Kill It with Ice: Met his end via MetalGarurumon's Metal Wolf Claw.
- Lack of Empathy: Implied, but not outright stated, to be why he enjoys torturing and killing his playmates. A sympathetic example in some ways, as he truly does want friends but this makes it impossible for him to have true ones.
- Last Villain Stand
- Living Toys
- Loners Are Freaks: A lot of his arc emphasizes his lack of true friends, despite his insistence that he has some. TK uses this to trick Puppetmon out of killing him.
- The Lost Woods: Rules the forest of the Spiral Mountain.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Pretty powerful, for something that looks like a child's toy. He's a Mega!
- Pass the Popcorn: Watching the fight between MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon, and Matt and Tai.
- People Puppets: Ironic, eh?
- Perverse Puppet
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's about the same size as TK.
- Power Floats
- Psychopathic Manchild: Type C or E, or a combination of both. In the dub at least. Though he still had this vibe to some degree in the original (a Mega level technically is full-grown). It's revealing, for instance, that too often he has the DigiDestined in his power, but constantly delays killing them because he wants to have some sadistic fun first.
- Nice Hat
- Noodle Incident: "This is more fun than the time I was fumigated for termites!"
- No Ontological Inertia: When he disintegrated, his Humongous Mecha fell apart, the forest portion of Spiral Mountain evaporated.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Rule of Symbolism: As he lies dying, his cross plants itself next to his body.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: How he ended the fight with MetalEtemon.
- Self-Serving Memory: When he's cornered by the Digidestined, he ends up flash backing to when Cherrymon implied he was missing something. He ends remembering him flat out saying to him "I'm saying they have something that you don't!" when in reality, Cherrymon never used those exact words.
- Sinister Schnoz
- Sinister Surveillance: In the first episode of his arc he uses a television with a remote control to spy on (and mess around with) the kids.
- Smug Snake
- Stupid Evil: Kills off his henchmen and allies, and decides to play around with the DigiDestined instead of finishing them off when he has the chance.
- Though there were two instances where he thought about just killing them all immediately, but both times he was talked out of it a minion (Kiwimon and Cherrymon, respectively).
- Sweat Drop
- Sympathy for the Devil: His death is rather depressing.
- This Is a Drill: Drill Nose.
- Villain Exit Stage Left: Too bad he ran into Matt and MetalGarurumon.
- Voodoo Doll: He has some of the DigiDestined.
- What's He Got That I Ain't Got?: Friends.
- White Gloves
- When All You Have Is a Hammer: With no tricks left, he tried attacking MetalGarurumon with just his cross. It didn't end well.
- You Fool!: "Fools! I'm never going to lose to you!"
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Killed Cerrymon, Mushroomon, Blossomon, and a RedVegiemon because he was either bored, or annoyed.
Machinedramon (Mugendramon)
"I'll try to make this as painful as I can."
The third Dark Master, and one who definitely isn't playing around. Rules a near-abandoned city and the deep underground complexes, and destroys all that defy him without passion or mercy. Resembles a giant mech.
Voiced by: Hisao Egawa (JP), Dave Guerrie (EN)
- Ax Crazy: Despite his Creepy Monotone voice, he's no less unstable and insane than Puppetmon and Piedmon and some of his lines outright state he enjoys what he does. He also sometimes gets a little carried away. During the final battle with him, he started firing randomly in all directions despite the fact he'd already knocked out the Digimon attacking him, leveling a large part of the city.
"Oh good, just what I was looking for - victims."
- Bad Boss: He constantly belittles his lackeys, and destroys the incompetent WaruMonzaemon.
- The Berserker
- Beware the Quiet Ones
- BFG
- Black Eyes of Evil
- The Chessmaster: When he's not mindlessly destroying things, Machinedramon proves himself quite capable of outwitting Izzy and Tai.
- City of Everywhere: His domain.
- Complete Monster: A cold hearted machine who lives to torture and kill.
- Creepy Monotone: Machinedramon speaks very quietly despite his size.
- Badass Baritone/Evil Sounds Deep/Power Echoes: All at once in the Swedish dub.
- Cyborg: Going by his feet, it's possible some of him is organic.
- Dangerously Genre Savvy: He doesn't care about playing around with the DigiDestined.
- Dark Is Evil
- Deadpan Snarker
- Delayed Reaction: WarGreymon dices him to pieces, but he doesn't realize it until he begins sliding apart.
- Dynamic Entry: He likes bursting through things.
- Evil Genius: He's a very effective strategist.
- Evil Laugh: It's very creepy.
- Evil Sounds Deep: And raspy.
- Famous Last Words: "Now I will finish you once and for all."
- Fangs Are Evil
- Four Is Death
- Fusion Dance: His remains combined with Kimeramon's to create Millenniummon.
- Genius Bruiser: He's the largest of the Dark Masters with a massive amount of fire power, but also a skilled strategist.
- Glowing Mechanical Eyes: They'll sometimes flash.
- Humongous Mecha
- Killer Robot
- Lightning Bruiser
- Made of Iron: Even as far as Digimon go, he's pretty darn durable. WarGreymon only managed to destroy him by using a weapon that is designed to kill Dramon-type Digimon, which unfortunately for Machindramon, includes him.
- Mechanical Lifeforms
- Mix-and-Match Man: He is composed of random pieces of other mechanical Digimon.
- No Ontological Inertia: Like the previous Dark Masters, his defeat results in his portion of Spiral Mountain disintegrating.
- Not Quite Dead: Unlike the other Dark Masters, he survives (despite being onion sliced!) and combines with a Kimeramon to form Milleniumon. Note that despite being canon, it's never showed in the TV series and instead kicks off the plot of the Wonderswan game series starring Ryo.
- Our Dragons Are Different
- Out of the Inferno: Shrugging off Meteor Wing, Hand of Faith, Celestial Arrow and Lightning Blade.
- Primal Stance
- The Quiet One
- Robotic Psychopath
- Shoulder Cannon
- Single-Stroke Battle: On the losing end of one with WarGreymon.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: His knees.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Annoyed when he loses the ability to track Tai and Izzy through Izzy's laptop, he orders his minions to just blow up everything. Even they think this is a bit much. ("Are you questioning me?")
- This Is a Drill: Dragon Fire.
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
- Walking Armory
- Wave Motion Gun: "Giga Cannon."
- Villain Cred:
Piedmon: "There's no escape from Machindramon! He's designed for total annihilation! It's only a matter of time now before he catches them, and then the game is over."
- You Have Failed Me...: To his minion, WaruMonzaemon.
"I'm sorry, I should be more sympathetic to you after your grueling battle. Let me reward you for helping me locate the DigiDestined" (cut to the outside of the room, which explodes)
Koromon: "You missed what I did as WarGreymon. I sliced you like an onion."
Piedmon (Piemon)
"How delightfully entertaining this is! I always get so excited before tragedy strikes!"
The final and most powerful Dark Master, who could be pretty well described as The Joker in Digimon form.
Voiced by: Chikao Ohtsuka (JP), Derek Stephen Prince (EN)
- A Glass of Chianti
- Ax Crazy
- Badass: In his first battle alone, he can curbstomp both War Greymon and Metal Garurumon at once.
- Baleful Polymorph: What kind of sicko turns people into keychains!?
- Barrier Warrior
- Beware the Silly Ones
- Big Bad: The last of the Dark Masters Arc, and also the strongest Dark Master.
- Best for Last: This actually backfired, since the DigiDestined got a lot stronger beating the other Dark Masters while Piedmon stayed the same.
- Blow You Away
- Brief Accent Imitation: "Hello, my name is Izzy and I'm very smart, although I didn't know how to stop me and my friends from being made into keychains! - Ha, ha! I love a good puppet show!"
- The Caligula
- Circus of Fear: Part of his headquarters.
- Complete Monster Is almost on Myotismon's level of pure, sadistic evil.
- Cool Mask
- Cool Sword: Trump Sword.
- Dance Battler
- Dark Is Evil
- Deliberately Monochrome: His domain.
- Diabolical Mastermind
- Evil Is Not Well Lit: Leads the Dark Area of Spiral Mountain.
- Evil Is Stylish
- Evil Redhead
- Evil Sorceror
- Evil Tower of Ominousness
- Eyes of Gold
- Fate Worse Than Death: Was thrown into MagnaAngemon's Gate of Destiny. While the show is rather vague on his true fate, other material says this move banishes its victim to subspace, where there is no escape. Considering Digimon are immortal barred being killed outright, this might cross over into And I Must Scream.
- Famous Last Words: "Most impressive. Trump Sword!"
- Fangs Are Evil
- Fashion Victim Villain: As pointed out by Mimi.
- Fluffy the Terrible
- Four Is Death
- Giggling Villain
- Hand Blast
- High-Class Glass
- Impossible Hourglass Figure
- Knife Nut
- Large Ham: Frequently talks about the war against the DigiDestined as if it were a stage production. Not that it makes him any less terrifying.
- Laughably Evil: Despite being a sadistic monster, he is also very amusing.
- Lean and Mean
- Lightning Bruiser
- Living Doll Collector: He turns almost everyone into keychains, and cracks jokes about how he's Gotta Catch Them All.
- Master of Illusion
- Master Swordsman
- Mind Over Matter
- Monster Clown
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Clown Trick.
- Nothing Up My Sleeve: The knife he used to kill Chuumon.
- Oh Crap: The look on his face right before he's blasted into the Gate of Destiny by WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.
- Ominous Walk: "The guy's not exactly in a hurry, is he?"
- Pass the Popcorn: Watching the DigiDestined battle the other Dark Masters.
- Playing with Fire
- Pointy Ears
- Power Floats
- Pungeon Master: He is a Monster Clown, after all.
- Psycho Electro
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Ring of Fire: Used one on MetalGarurumon.
- Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies:
Piedmon: "Once upon a time there were these DigiDestined. And then Piedmon destroyed them all. The end."
Izzy: "No offense to your storytelling skills, but I'd like it better if your ending were different."
- Shipper on Deck: TK and Kari.
- Sinister Surveillance: His hi-tech telescope.
- Slouch of Villainy
- There Was a Door: While chasing TK and Kari, he obliterates a door instead of just opening it, apparently solely to make a dramatic entrance. In the dub, he even lampshades this:
"I must quit this, it costs me a fortune in new doors."
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works
- Tooth Strip
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: While all four Dark Masters get hit with this to some degree, he got it the worst. In his first appearence, he gives the two DigiDestined Megas a Curb Stomp Battle, taking them both out in one hit. Then he saves himself for last and WarGreymon by himself manages to score several effective hits on him and together the same two Megas he took out in one hit before come close to beating him, forcing him to turn them into keychains to avoid getting beaten. To drive the point further home, even their Ultimate level Digimon are able to put up a decent fight with him by that point. It's not that he got weaker, he's just as strong as before but they got tougher fighting the other three Dark Masters and their forces, catching up with him.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: One of his powers, though he only displays it once, appearing to the DigiDestined as a non-Monster Clown.
- White Gloves
- Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him: If he'd disposed of the group when he had most of them turned into keychains, he might have actually won. MetalSeadramon even asked him why they don't use this strategy earlier on in the arc. Piedmon answers that it wouldn't be fun that way.
- You're Insane!
Apocalymon
"I am the Ultimate Evil, complete with hot and cold running water!"
The Dark Masters' creator and the true Big Bad of the series, Apocalymon pretty much showed up out of nowhere in the last two episodes. He somewhat resembles Devimon (his arms), Myotismon (his cape) and Piedmon (his mask). Oh, and his body is fused to a giant golden Death Star thingy.
Voiced by: Chikao Ohtsuka (JP), Paul St Peter (EN)
- Alien Blood: Green.
- All Your Powers Combined: Can use the attacks of every previous villain.
- Attack Its Weak Point: His humanoid half.
- Badass Cape: It appears to actually be apart to him.
- Big Bad: Of the entire series' story.
- Bigger Bad: To Piedmon's Big Bad.
- Body Horror: His torso is all veiny, with tubes.
- Combat Tentacles
- Cyborg
- Dangerously Genre Savvy: He forcibly regressed the partners to their default forms, and when the DigiDestined tried to change them back with the tags and crests, he circumvented Transformation Is a Free Action and destroyed the Transformation Trinkets. He then wasted no time in deleting everyone with Darkness Zone.
- Dark Is Evil
- Diabolus Ex Nihilo: The only foreshadowing of his existence comes in the episode prior to his actual debut.
- Dimension Lord: Though he kind of hates it there.
- Eldritch Abomination: His mere presence caused the Digital World to warp in space and time, and the Dark Masters to be spawned.
- Evil Is Not Well Lit
- Evil Laugh: "Wait a minute, what am I laughing at? I'm supposed to be depressed!"
- Eyes of Gold
- Famous Last Words: "Well, I may be beaten, but I won't go down that easily. I'll take you and both worlds with me! You still haven't seen my ultimate attack - Total Annihilation!"
- Fangs Are Evil
- Femme Fatalons: Nevermind that he's pretty much male. Memorably, he dug them into his own shoulders to emphasise the point about the pain he endured to become what he is.
- Final Boss, New Dimension
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: When using Darkness Zone.
- Green-Eyed Monster: His motivation is that he envies those who get to enjoy life while he was stuck in a world of darkness, as well as Digimon who were able to successfully Digivolve while the Digimon whose data composes him died in the process.
- Healing Factor: His shoulders heal instantly after he rips them open.
- High Collar of Doom
- Humanoid Abomination: Though he can survive the destruction of that part of himself.
- Large Ham: In both, but the dub really ups the level of ham.
- Laughably Evil: In the dub.
- Also Faux Affably Evil
- Lean and Mean
- Made of Evil
- Macross Missile Massacre: His version of Datamon's Virus Grenade.
- The Man Behind the Man
- Mother of a Thousand Young: He spawned most of the evil in the Digital World.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Touch of Evil, which spawns dozens of Devimon claws.
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast: His name includes a word meaning the end of the world.
- Not Quite Dead: Obliterating his humanoid half just pissed him off, and made him decide to Kill'Em All (including himself).
- Omnicidal Maniac
- Power Echoes
- Psycho Electro: He knocks everyone back with an electric blast, and sometimes radiates electricity.
- Rhymes on a Dime: "I'll take these children and use their fear to make them digital and disappear!"
- Sealed Evil in a Can: He's kept in his little pocket universe by the Wall of Fire.
- Self-Harm: Don't cry, emo Apocalymon.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Thanks to the Digivices containing the blast, all his Total Annihilation attack did was destroy himself.
- Silence, You Fool: "Silence! Whose the one telling this story anyway, me or you?"
- Status Buff Dispel: Reverse Digivolve.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum
- Take Over the World: "I will rule the world, and plunge it into darkness, so I won't have to be alone anymore in my misery!"
- Taking You with Me: Attempted with Total Annihilation.
- This Cannot Be!: His reaction to the DigiDestined reassembling themselves from data and allowing their Digimon to Digivolve to their final forms without their crests, thanks to Heroic Resolve.
- Too Many Belts
- Tragic Villain: He's made from pain, thus can feel nothing but pain. So he wants to inflict ultimate pain on the universe to end his suffering.
- True Final Boss
- Ultimate Evil: Self-proclaimed example.
- Zipperiffic: It looks like his arms are attached to his body by some.
Lesser Antagonists
Kuwagamon
A big red stag beetle, and the first Digimon encountered by the chosen children after they met their partners. He terrorized them, but when the Digimon partners digivolved to their Rookie stage and started to give him a beating, he resorted to knocking them, the DigiDestined and himself off the cliff they were on. A Kuwagamon later attacked Tai and Agumon in the deserts of Server, and one appeared in the real world after VenomMyotismon's defeat, knocking an airplane out of the sky. Whether these were the same one that appeared in the series premiere is left vague.
Voice by: Yuuto Kazama (JP), Michael Sorich (EN)
- Big Creepy-Crawlies
- Evil Counterpart: To Kabuterimon.
- Eyeless Face
- Flight
- Intangible Man: On Earth.
- Japanese Beetle Brothers
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous
- Starter Villain
Shellmon
"There is no escaping! You're in my element now!"
One of the only recurring antagonists that isn't in the employ of a major villain, Shellmon first appears in episode two and is defeated when Agumon Digivolves to Greymon for the first time. Later, he returns for revenge, but is sent retreating by Biyomon and Tentomon.
Voiced by: Yasuhiko Kawazu (JP), Tom Fahn (EN)
- The Brute: No real motivation is given for his actions other than that Shellmon are a naturally hostile species, and he doesn't even have dialogue in his first appearance.
- Creepy Blue Eyes
- Evil Laugh
- Evil Sounds Deep
- Making a Splash: Aqua Blaster.
- Real Men Wear Pink
- Sea Monster
- Smarter Than You Look: Despite his hulking, beastly appearance he managed to trick the Digidestines with a simple "drowning under water, please save me!" trick.
- Spikes of Villainy
- Suddenly Voiced: In his reappearance.
- Talking to Himself: Tom Fahn also voices Agumon.
- Tunnel King
- Twinkle in The Sky: Made one by Greymon.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: It's pointed out in the show after just two Rookies are needed to dispatch him the second time that they've obviously gotten a lot stronger, since it took a Champion to beat him the first time.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When he reappears, he's taken to prentending to be someone drowning in order to lure in victims.
- You Need a Breath Mint: "Oh, that breath! Ever hear of flossing?"
Bakemon
First appears in episode 11, when the DigiDestined were separated, and Joe and Sora encounter a group in a cemetery. They are able to merge together to form a "Lord Bakemon". Later, many more are encountered in Myotismon's employ, working under Phantomon. As evil spirits, they are weak against faith.
The Lord Bakemon also holds the honor of being the first enemy to be destroyed by the children's Digimon rather than just made to retreat.
Voiced by: Keaton Yamada (JP), Michael Reisz (EN)
- Bedsheet Ghost
- Bowdlerization: In the original, Joe chanted Buddhist sutras to weaken the Bakemon; in the dub, this is changed to repeating the mantra "Bakemon, lose your power".
- Com Mons
- Glowing Eyelights of Undeath
- King Mook: Lord Bakemon
- Killed Off for Real: The first enemy Digimon to be killed. Earlier ones were simply unbrainwashed or sent somewhere far away.
- Mooks: During the Myotismon arc.
- Red Right Hand: Lord Bakemon has hands of blue.
- To Serve Man: In their first appearance, the Bakemon want to eat Joe and Sora.
- Villain Decay: In their first appearance, they were more than capable of taking on the children's Rookie-level Digimon on their own, and it took the combined might of Birdramon and Ikkakumon to take down the Lord Bakemon even after it had been weakened by Joe's chanting. Come the Myotismon arc, the chanting itself is enough to incapacitate them, and the Rookies are easily taking on multiple Bakemon.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The first time they face the Bakemon, Joe uses Heroic Willpower to weaken them. The second time? Sora does this by recording. This might be a case of Dub-Induced Plot Hole, as in the original Joe invoked Buddhist sutras which might still work even if being broadcasted via a recording if the words themselves hold power even without the faith of the speaker behind them.
Datamon (Nanomon)
An enemy of Etemon's, this robotic Digimon is completely unhinged. Was once a Vaccine type, but became a Virus type after an attack from a powerful Virus type destroyed his logic circuits. Out for revenge against Etemon for sealing him in a pyramid. Kidnaps Sora and tries to create a copy of her so that he can use her crest and digivice against Etemon.
Voiced by: Hidenari Ugaki (JP), Eddie Frierson (EN)
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Fires his Plug Bombs into Etemon's Dark Network, causing it to grow and swallow him up.
- Mad Scientist
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Sealed by another villain, actually, and out for revenge
- Smug Snake
- Wild Card: Not actually directly opposed to the DigiDestined; in fact they shared a common enemy and could easily have been allies if Datamon had just asked them for help instead of trying to use them.
DemiDevimon (PicoDevimon)
One of Myotismon's lackeys, stirs up trouble for the DigiDestined. Tries to steal their crests, inevitably ending up being the one to cause the crests to activate instead. Gets abused by Myotismon and the DigiDestined alike, culminating in VenomMyotismon eating him.
Voiced by: Kouki Miyata (JP), Derek Stephen Prince (EN)
- Bowdlerization: Aside from in "Sora's Crest of Love" where it was too important to the plot to cut out, his Demi Dart is cut out of the English dub due to its resemblance to a syringe, which carries an association with drugs.
- Chew Toy: Constantly beaten up.
- Dark Chick: Of Myotismon's minions, despite being male.
- Dirty Coward
- Eating The Dark Chick: His eventual fate.
- Evil Counterpart: He's the Rookie form of Devimon. Guess which two Digimon beat him up most frequently (besides Myotismon himself)? Yep, Gatomon and Patamon.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: YMMV as to whether he's sympathetic, but he's definitely comically ineffectual.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: For about five straight episodes, earning more and more ire from Myotismon every time.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Gatomon's blue.
- Smug Snake
- Talking to Himself: Mostly avoided, but he does interact with Digitamamon, another of the Digimon that Prince voiced in the dub.
Phantomon
Myotismon's strongest underling, one of only three Ultimate-level Digimon to appear under his command (the others being Mammothmon and MegaSeadramon). First appears driving Myotismon's stagecoach; later reappears as the commander of the Bakemon army and also summons Tuskmon and Snimon to delay the children and smashes the recording that was weakening the Bakemon. Was caught in the crossfire when all eight DigiDestined Digimon attacked Myotismon, succumbing to Angemon's Hand of Fate.
Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (JP), Dave Guerrie (EN)
- Battle Butler: Could be seen as this, since he first appears driving Myotismon's stagecoach.
- The Dragon: Leads Myotismon's armies and is right at his master's side during the final battle with the heroes. (Well, the final one before Myotismon came back in a more powerful form, anyway.)
- Enemy Summoner: Does very little fighting for himself, using his army of Bakemon for most attacks and summoning Tuskmon and Snimon to battle Matt and Sora's Digimon.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Guerrie voiced Phantomon in the style of Boris Karloff.
- Expy: The Death to Myotismon's Dracula.
- Sinister Scythe: He is based on The Grim Reaper, after all.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Could easily become this to viewers who aren't paying close attention. When the heroes' Digimon are all sending their attacks at Myotismon, Phantomon is off to the side and gets destroyed when Angemon uses his Hand of Fate.
Cherrymon (Jureimon)
"Wait a minute, Puppetmon, I have a better idea. You can take care of those other DigiDestined children if you want to, but as for this one, leave him to me. I'll have him climbing up a tree before I'm through with him!"
A wise old Digimon who seems to be a friend of Puppetmon's. Sows dissension among the DigiDestined, realizing that united, they would be too strong for Puppetmon, but warns Puppetmon to be cautious anyway. Puppetmon dislikes this "negative attitude" and destroys him for it.
Voiced by: Masami Kikuchi (JP), Jeff Nimoy (EN)
- The Corrupter: Manages to turn Matt against the rest of the DigiDestined.
- Evil Mentor: Matt knew that Cherrymon worked for Puppetmon, but listened to him anyway.
- The Dragon
- Evil Laugh
- Eyes of Gold
- Famous Last Words: "Oh, the horror!"
- Fluffy the Terrible
- Glowing Eyes
- Haven't You Seen X Before?: "Well, well, well, look what we've got here. Greetings, nature lovers. What, you mean you've never seen a talking tree?"
- Incredibly Lame Pun: "Calm down, my fighting days are over. I only want to talk with you. In fact, you might even say... I've turned over a new leaf!" (laughs, then awkwardly stops)
- The Magnificent: The Lord of the Forest.
- Manipulative Bastard
- Master of Illusion
- More Than Mind Control
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous
- Oh Crap: When he realizes he's said the exact wrong thing to Puppetmon, and can only stammer "Well... not totally."
- Older Sidekick: To Puppetmon.
- Porn Stache
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The cool, calculating blue to his impetuous boss Puppetmon's red.
- Rubber Man: When Matt and Gabumon try to walk off, he stretches out one of his limbs to block them.
- Shout-Out: Jeff Nimoy's portrayal is one big Shout-Out to Marlon Brando, drawing a lot of inspiration from Vito Corleone and sharing his last words with Colonel Kurtz
- Spirit Advisor: As Puppetmon is dying, he asks Cherrymon what it was that the DigiDestined had that he didn't have. Cherrymon's voice replies, "Friends."
- Talking to Himself: Avoided as the only DigiDestined/Digimon that he interacts with are Matt and Gabumon.
- Tooth Strip
- When Trees Attack
- Wise Tree
LadyDevimon
"Oh please, please, Lord Piedmon, let me punish them!"
Devimon's Distaff Counterpart, and Angewoman's Evil Counterpart. The bodyguard and gatekeeper of Piedmon, she attacked Tai's group in the darkness portion of Spiral Mountain after they defeated Machinedramon. After effortlessly deflecting most of what the group threw at her (and getting into a Cat Fight with Angewoman) she was destroyed when Angewoman managed to blast her with a point-blank Heaven's Charm.
Voiced by Ai Nagano (JP), Melodee Spevack (EN)
- Bat Out of Hell: Darkness Wave.
- Bodyguard Babes
- By the Hair: Employs this against Angewoman.
- Cat Fight: With Angewoman.
Tai: "Wow, look at them go!"
Izzy: "I know I shouldn't watch this, but I can't take my eyes off!"
- Chained by Fashion
- Clingy Costume: It certainly seems to have a lot of mouths and eyes.
- Cool Mask
- Cute Little Fangs
- Dark Action Girl
- Dark Is Evil
- Deadpan Snarker
- Designated Girl Fight: Against Angewoman.
- Distaff Counterpart: To Devimon.
- The Dragon
- Evil Albino
- Evil Counterpart: To Angewoman.
- Fallen Angel
- Famous Last Words: "I'm melting!"
- Fashionable Asymmetry
- Femme Fatalons: Though they're much bigger on her left hand.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: Tattered bat wings.
- Hell-Bent for Leather
- Hot as Hell
- I Broke a Nail:
LadyDevimon: (after her spike is snapped in half) "You broke it!"
MegaKabuterimon: "Aww, send me the bill."
- Kick Chick
- More Deadly Than the Male: Devimon is a Champion, while she is an Ultimate.
- Won't Work On Me: (after effortlessly shrugging off attacks) "I'm sorry, are we just pretending? Let me know when your're ready."
- Opera Gloves: One.
- Our Demons Are Different
- Perky Female Minion
- Power Fist
- Power Floats
- Red and Black and Evil All Over
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Red Right Hand: Literally.
- Spikes of Doom: Black Wing, which transforms her left hand into a spike.
- Stripperific
- White-Haired Pretty Girl
- Wings Do Nothing: They never seem to actually move.
- Witch with a Capital B: "She looks like a witch!"