Digimon Re:Designs

I’ll be attempting to rework Digimon designs.

[monzaemonx]

Lotusmon Wip #3. Experimenting with colors. decided to combine the usual pink/peach lotus with the blue. Trying to make the rainbow subtle but that might change. Open to suggestions if anyone has better colors in mind. 

[monzaemonx]

So I did my versions of Lillymon, BanchoLillymon, and Rosemon. Switched the spelling from Lilly to Lily to match the cactus lily and used that flower for inspiration over lillies to better facilitate the evolution from Togemon. In contrast to Nymphaemon, who is based on water lilies, coming from a Togemon with stronger defenses and magical affinity, Lilymon is the evolution that occurs when the Togemon has great speed and physical prowess. Lilymon is a swift and brutal attacker who uses her spines in a sort of “death by a thousand cuts” strategy. She fights like she’s dancing to destroy any enemy she pleases. Lilymon will typically evolve into Rosemon, a vampiric noblewoman who uses her aroma and scarlet blossoms to lull her opponents before draining their life force through her thorny proboscis/rapier. As Rosemon tend to be malevolent in nature, a Lilymon will occasionally rebel against this destiny to instead become a BanchoLilymon, who sacrifices her flight for melee prowess and a strong desire to protect the weak.

[monzaemonx]

Lotusmon Redesign V.2

Added some more detailing and took some of the extraneous stuff off of her tail. Made her a lot more serpentine. Made her eyes the lily pad style that you see in old cartoons because I think it adds a nice element of friendliness. I’m getting better at scales I think but a bending tail is still a problem area for me. Next version will probably be the final one with colors and stuff.

[monzaemonx]

Continuing on the Lotusmon line, here’s Lillymon, or as I renamed her, Nymphaemon She’s still a magical girl but moreso a mermaid this time than a pixie. A mix of a koi and a water lily. The thought process here is that her sailor collar and above would be visible from over the water, like a nymph. Like Lotusmon, her main ability is pacification and illusions, but whereas Lotusmon has matured into selflessness, Nymphaemon is a fickle creature, like classical fairies. They’re prone to casting tricky spells on people and giggling, but to their prankees, it just sounds like gurgling water.

I’m thinking that Togemon is gonna have a split between being prickly/physical attack based(Rosemon) and being watery/magic based(Lotusmon). For Rosemon’s perfect form, I’m thinking of basing it on the Bougainvillea. It’s a thorny bush with bright pink flowers so that fits I think.

[monzaemonx]

Hey I’m back with a new redesign! (I’ll finish Seraphimon at some point...) This time it’s my second favorite Mega, Lotusmon. She’s a snake lady now and her main focus is the ability Seven’s Fantasia. She uses rainbow colors to hypnotize others into a state of euphoria. She’s not malicious about it though, she genuinely wants to help others escape the real world. This state of euphoria halts aging so a person can remain transfixed for ages before realizing that time has passed. She’s essentially the personification of escapism.

I’m also thinking of making her the “gatekeeper” to the Digital World; her Seven’s Fantasia being a “rainbow bridge” to it. Perhaps she appears on the screens of the downtrodden, offering them a way to another world. I’m also thinking of renaming her to Nelumon after the scientific name of the Lotus, Nelumbo but idk for sure yet. Let me know what you think?

[monzaemonx]

Hey I know it’s been a while but I wanted to give an update on this project. I recently got a tablet and this was my first drawing on it. It’s unfinished because I’m going on yet another hiatus and this was as far as I got before that... So here’s Seraphimon with some color and some design updates. Tried to keep more of his OG silhouette this time. Key parts that are still missing are some symbols on his armor and a lot of cloth that will eventually cover his other arm, come down from his shoulder seals, and create a loin cloth with his runes. I made his collar into a crown to evoke the sephirot of Keter which means crown. Anyways, I’ll be back in one to two months with his finished look and with updates on the rest + more redesigns....Thanks for your patience!

[monzaemonx]

Also here’s a quick Rosemon redesign I came up with while brainstorming for the Celestials. She’s more of an Indiana Jones type romantic adventurer now who lassos around and has epic sword duels. Her and Lotusmon are both the Queens of the Fairy Digimon. Rosemon takes the more hands-on aproach but she’s a bit reckless so her beloved has to often heal her wounds. Anyhow this all spurred on when I thought about how messed up it was for there to be a dominatrix with a flower thrown on her head in a primarily for-kids show so this happened.

[monzaemonx]

In truth, there wasn’t anything really wrong with Seraphimon’s og design in the context of it being the final form of an angelic warrior. The problem is that he doesn’t really say “Seraph” beyond the angelic influence. So I aimed to change that. Like the other two, his body is separated from his head. Just like Ophanimon, his armor is a metal puppet of sorts and his head/true body is made up of six wings covering himself just like a traditional seraph. Alongside him, I’m also showing my next iterations for the other two Celestials. I’ve added digicode and some designs to their armor and holy rings. I also adjusted the number for both artificial and true wings to better denote rank and classical form. Seraphimon has 6 true wings and 8 artificial ones for a total of 7 pairs of wings as the highest ranking angel. The other two each have 2 less pairs each, and every angel below them would have even less. I’ve also decided on how I want their digivolution lines to develop. Seraphimon will digivolve through each of the highest ranking of the two lower spheres and the other two will go through the second highest and lowest ranking respectively. So it’ll go Principalimon > Dominimon > Seraphimon, ArchAngemon>Virtuemon>Cherubimon, and Angemon>Powermon>Ophanimon. I’m still debating on whether to keep their “official” rookie forms, but I have a lot of design work to do before worrying about that lol.

For Seraphimon, I wanted them to be the direct line to “God” or perhaps “Homeostasis”. Their hidden face is even rumored to be a direct window to Homeostasis itself. Seraphimon corresponds to Keter, Chochmah, Binah and Da’at. In other words, the ineffable form and will of “God” beyond mortal understanding that’s always just out of reach, the moment of inspiration that begins all of creation, the pondering and reflection of that spark into a thought out path, and the empty space that contains the potential for expressing each path. Seraphimon is the “legislator” of the digital world. They speaks the direct words of Homeostasis to the rest of the world and their word becomes law as a result. He rules over the elements of Shadow(Keter), Light(Chochmah), Steel(Binah), and Ice(Da’at). Seraphimon is the wisest of all Angels and catalogues every event to happen within the world.

[monzaemonx]

Retroactively, here’s the elements for Cherubimon’s sefirot alongside a side view i I did that helped me place some new features:

Earth for Gevurah as it’s usually the element of strength and nature’s wrath is usually an earthquake.

Water for Chesed because it’s the most nurturing element and Chesed is also described as the Sefirot of “Flow”

Wood for Tiferet for a couple of reasons; nature is a balance, Rosemon wears a Tiferet, and it’s a good representative of the balance between earth and water(I know light is pretty important to the plant equation too but like, these are the ones plants need most imo).

[monzaemonx]

I always had a love-hate relationship with Ophanimon’s design. I really like the idea of mixing the warrior with the gentle guardian aspects of Angels. I liked the subtle hints towards Ophanim with her shoulder armor being wheels. But that’s kind it. The stomach gap was stupid, didn’t like the heels at all, her helmet kinda drew from the wrong angel, and every depiction of her without fail did something gross with her boob armor. Also, why was she only half-cowled while Seraphimon was fully covered face wise? Because we needed to see the motherly but “subtly” sexy angel warrior’s lips? Ugh. So here I’m attempting to fix that. By removing her head entirely. In fact, her body isn’t even her actual “body”. It’s something of a holy puppet controlled by her “mask”. This is the running theme I mentioned in the Cherubimon post, where the “true body” as it were, is detached from the “armored puppet”. As shown, the mask can enlarge into a chariot that the puppet rides. In this way, I get to keep to traditional Ophanim designs being paired wheels or chariots while preserving the Digimon with the puppet’s feminine silhouette. Another theme I want to introduce is the idea of decorative wings vs true wings. For the Angel digimon, in order to preserve their increasing wing count as they digivolve while also staying true to traditional Angel designs, I’m going to be taking a note from Ophanimon and having metallic, but not necessarily functional wings as signifiers of rank alongside the “true” white feathery wings. As you can see with Ophanimon, the true wings are on the chariot as that is her actual body whereas the rider has the metallic wings. Also the lance and the shield are still totally a thing I just forgot to draw them :p

Onto lore. In my reimagining, Ophanimon serves two main purposes: Executioner of “God’s” will in the Digital World, and Messenger of “heaven”. With these roles in mind, she controls the sefirot of Hod, Yesod, and Netzach. In addition to their base meanings, I also thought up the idea of the elements showcased in Frontier would be good to attribute to the sefirot as the three celestials were pretty instrumental in that story. Hod is the sefirot of submission and/or splendor. The idea here being doing things you’d rather not do and submitting to beneficial rule or things you cannot fight against. The element I want to associate with Hod is Wind as tasks are usually easier when you don’t “go against the wind”. Netzach is the sefirot of endurance/victory. Basically the opposite of Hod, with Netzach are the things you should fight against and endure. Fire here acts as the “fighting spirit”; an undying flame that keeps burning despite hardship. Lastly is Yesod, which represents movement, connection, and communication between the divine and the mundane. For this one I thought lightning would work as it’s usually seen as a sign of the divine. Plus it’s a literal form of connection as well as a good mix of Fire and Air. I’ve also been toying around with the idea of adding the crests to the sefirot, but it’s been kinda hard fitting them in, so if anyone has suggestions for which sefirot to match to which crest please tell me lol.

[monzaemonx]

Cherubim are usually shown as having features from bulls, lions, eagles, and men. Never really rabbits though. As much as I love the bunny jester combination, it doesn’t really fit with Cherubimon’s lore or the other two Celestials. As such, I took his original silhouette and replaced his features with those of the aforementioned animals. His elongated feet became bull hooves, his thick arms became lion paws, his coattails became eagle wings, and his collar and head became humanoid armor. As for why the helm is floating, I’ll explain more in Ophanimon‘s post, but it’s a shared element I made to connect the three Celestials’ designs together.

On to lore. Beneath his name, you’ll see three sets of words that I’ll explain. The first being “Gevurah”, “Tiferet”, and “Chesed” as they tie cleanly to the other two. These are Sephirot, which are alleged emanations in which god acts that reflect humanity(very basic definition). For each of the Celestials, I’ve assigned three. How do these tie in with the other two titles? I wanted a clear “governmental” role for each of the Celestials along with their Sephirot. Cherubimon here fulfills the “Judicial” role. In that role, he uses the dual nature of, well, nature. I’m also tying in the cherub guardian of the the garden of eden. A flaming sword represents Gevurah which also corresponds to the wrathful side of nature and the lion. The flowers of eden correspond to Chesed which also represents the gentler side of nature and the bull. Lastly, nature is a balance and the beauty created in that balance is represented by Tiferet which corresponds with the eagle who maintains a balance in flight. With all of that in mind, Cherubimon is stationed at the gate between heaven and the rest of the digital world. He decides who enters and enforces that decision with primal might equal to that of the strongest Beast Digmon. Ophanimon then, roams the lower areas of the digital world, and Seraphimon, its “eden” or heaven. As always please don’t hesitate to give any feedback on this lore or the design itself.

[monzaemonx]

Re: Designs Incoming

Hey everyone! I kinda started this project and then never did anything about it so I’m gonna start again lol. Today I’ll be posting the first two redesigns. With the blog name it’s only appropriate that I start with Cherubimon and Ophanimon. Seraphimon will be following close behind. Needless to say, today I’ll be doing write ups for my new concept for the three Celestials and their roles/properties. I also want to preface them by laying out how the whole redesign process is going to go. First, I’ll be posting my initial sketch with a write up of my design decisions and any relevant concepts or references. Next, I’ll ask for your feedback(please keep it constructive). The last step will be a “final” design with color and a brief lore snippet. Please feel free to still give feedback after this stage as I’m always willing to change things with proper reason. Okay see you all in a bit with Cherubimon!

[monzaemonx]

Introduction

Hello everyone! I’m not the best with words so I’ll keep this brief! My goal with this blog is to basically redesign Digimon as a whole. Now, obviously I’m not a huge team of character artists in the 90’s so I can’t really explain, justify, or damn the choices made in (most) of these designs, but I am going to attempt to rectify and modernize them to the best of my ability. So here’s the two main categories of redesigning I’m going for:

Creature Design: This will mainly be for Ultimate level and beyond. I’ll be doing a couple of concepts per Digimon and then when I’ve produced one I’m satisfied with, I’ll do a general digivolution line consolidation.

Symbolism: Crests, Types, Elements. Basically, I want to further incorporate the categories into the designs more.

I’m not gonna go too much into tweaking the storylines of the anime, but instead I’ll try to alter the broader mythos. Please comment on each with your own opinions and takes on my redesigns!