Kizuna Ultimate Image Figures Announced with Kenji Watanabe Artwork

[sirtao]

Eh, now you tell me I kinda see the intention... but I honestly don't agree with the results.

Friendship Gabumon is much more akin to Alternate MagnaGarurumon than a distillation of Gabumon's Adventure line elements. Hell, give him a sword and he's MagnaGarurumon X
Courage Agumon likewise feels more like a different evolution path for an X-Antibody version of GeoGreymon.

Also, they are too humanoid. Would have fit better if they were Bio-merge of sort.

Last, a nitpick: with those names one would think they had their Crest somewhere

 

[Sparrow Hawk]

Last, a nitpick: with those names one would think they had their Crest somewhere

Yeah!

I find it funny. We had enough of many Greymon/Garurumon species then they decided to give new names to two Child names to throw us off although there were tons of Agumon species so more than Gabumon species...

 

[Nightwing]

Eh, now you tell me I kinda see the intention... but I honestly don't agree with the results.

Friendship Gabumon is much more akin to Alternate MagnaGarurumon than a distillation of Gabumon's Adventure line elements. Hell, give him a sword and he's MagnaGarurumon X
Courage Agumon likewise feels more like a different evolution path for an X-Antibody version of GeoGreymon.

Also, they are too humanoid. Would have fit better if they were Bio-merge of sort.

Last, a nitpick: with those names one would think they had their Crest somewhere

He looks almost nothing like MagnaGarurumon so I'm not sure that fits at all, maybe a Wolfmon X but these are meant to be Super Ultimate and just look way too powerful to really fit with just Wolfmon if that makes sense. I'd say this Gabumon has more in common with MetalGarurumon and Mercurymon than anyone, and both these forms would look right at home with the Olympos XII imo.

Agumon does looks like it could evolve from either RizeGreymon X, any ShineGreymon, or WarGreymon X, so I agree there. There's some similarity to Vritramon too.

Being humanoid is of course meant to represent the titular bonds, which is shown by them being in sync with their partners in the movie, and is also mentioned in their profiles. I don't disagree about the Bio-merge or Matrix Evolution aspect being fitting, but at that point it just becomes Adventure aping Tamers.

About your last nitpick, I agree because I was really impressed by, first, the very visible sin crests of the SGDL X-Antibody forms for the X2, and second, the very visible Courage symbols on RizeGreymon. So I guess I was almost expecting it here lol. That said, the profiles specifically mention the flames and the armour as the physical representation of "Courage" and "Friendship", respectively.

I find it funny. We had enough of many Greymon/Garurumon species then they decided to give new names to two Child names to throw us off although there were tons of Agumon species so more than Gabumon species...

I'm actually starting to come around to the names, since it gives me a new perspective on the original Adventure.

I always saw the evolution in the Digimon to be representing the spiritual growth in their partners, but I never saw it as the the evolutions themselves being specifically influenced by the Chosen Children's growth. Like sure, SkullGreymon was born out of darker feelings, but with the new context of the possibilities open to children being the fuel for evolution, it makes a lot more sense in that it was an alternate path that Taichi saw for Greymon. Greymon himself might be an evolution fueled by Taichi (and much earlier, Hikari's) "possibilities" and courage. So Agumon taking on Greymon traits is technically Agumon undergoing the Last Evolution Taichi can fuel (as in, the last "possibility" for them together).

 

[Mon-Ohma]

Mmm...No... Still haven't grown on me I'm afraid. :/

The artwork does at least give them a slightly more 'beastly' appearance. But even though I can kinda see what they were going for, I still find them to be amongst the weaker and forgettable looking Grey/Garuru variants, in terms of aesthetics and design.

In conclusion, I find Gabumon's overall superior to Agubeefcakemon (that's what I'm calling it from now on), despite those VTOL wheel things giving it the appearance of some kind of Transformer. : P
In fact, remove the human mouth and in some ways it does work as a more natural progression from Weregarurumon.

Of course, I am somewhat in the minority that would have preferred the long-ranged/close-combat setup the other way round. Which is why I'm more partial towards Blitz and Cres.

 

[Sparrow Hawk]

I see. Maybe having "Bond" names to actually taken their human partners, crests and their growth, everything to evolve into something so similar to human body styles really too close while taking their whole evolution lines to mix in. Basically Agumon and Gabumon grownup... Rather than evolved ones? Their profiles telling you how strong their bonds are, the tamer and digimon partners at max bonding enough to be "Best friends" or beyond something like that. Still unique names.

 

[DragonicEmperor]

I kind of dislike that the profiles seem to tailor their creations fully exclusive to Taichi and Yamato instead of being a bit more generic. For WarGreyman it can work generic enough but all the MetalGaruruman partners need to ride motorcycles I guess.

Can't wait for Veemon - Bonds of Courage and Friendship, Guilmon - Bonds of Justice and Agumon (Savers) - Bursting Bonds tho.

 

[Nightwing]

I've been thinking about this a bit, but I think these "Bond" evolutions would be a pretty good choice for the new series of V-pets. A Bond of Miracles for Imperialdramon, and well the other Crests are obvious for the original Adventure cast, not sure what they'd do with Armadimon and Hawkmon.

I also had thoughts about a new, more involved crossover and given how desperate fans are to see VictoryGreymon for whatever reason, I was thinking it'd make sense for Masaru's Agumon to get the power of an Arbitrator post-Savers (might as well adapt the Next manga where Victory debuted and was so closely linked to the GeoGreymon line). So a Victory Greymon Burst Mode that's more in line with ShineGreymon in terms of design rather than WarGreymon would be how I'd handle that.

 

[Sparrow Hawk]

Does it mean we'd have to wait for another few years to witness 01's partners to get Bond evos? Nah but I wish it would be very very shorter months instead of years to wait.

When you mentioned Masaru, Agumon Bond is more suited for him better... Well if he got red belts on hands.

 

[Nightwing]

They could just introduce them like the introduce tons of other Digimon, through console, mobile, or LCD games like usual.

Agumon Kizuna is straight up WarGreymon with his outer armour melded into his body and with references to other forms. A ShineGreymon evolution would look pretty different. To be fair, VictoryGreymon isn’t very fitting either but that’s sort of the point in that, like in Next, it’s a special form passed down that is more powerful than Yggdrasil. Just a thought, since again, people really like VictoryGreymon lol.

 

[sirtao]

When you mentioned Masaru, Agumon Bond is more suited for him better... Well if he got red belts on hands.

Masaru's Agumon already has a Bond form: https://imgur.com/9Z9b47g

 

[Sparrow Hawk]

That's just Agumon Burst Mode. If this Agumon (Savers) got Bond form, he'd be another GeoGreymon with red belt gauntlets maybe.

Agumon Burst Mode will never have that official profile yeah?