Calumon

Calumon
Level	In-Training
Appears in	Digimon Tamers
Voiced by	(Ja:) Tomoko Kaneda (En:) Brianne Siddall (Br:) Christiane Monteiro

Calumon is a fictional character from the Digimon media franchise. Calumon in some sense represents Digimon Tamers as its mascot. Its Japanese name is Culumon, which comes from the Japanese word "Kurukuru", a word that describes the sound of spinning.

Conception and creation

The development team of Digimon Tamers decided early on in drafting that Calumon would have a unique role and serve as a mascot. Digimon in the Japanese-language incarnation of Digimon Tamers often spoke with affectations and patterns resembling those of human children. This generally did not carry over to their English-language counterparts, who spoke largely the same way. Chiaki J. Konaka pushed for this not to be the case with Calumon, because of a sentiment that the character "needed to have a strong impact on the audience". Thus, Calumon's dialogue often contained the words calu or kuru—pieces of his name—at the end of sentences.^[1]

Description

Calumon's role is not that of a fighter, and his immature antics and over-expressed emotions leave little doubt about this fact. In Digimon Tamers, Calumon is the only Digimon on the protagonist's side who had no tamer, although he does seem to have a special bond with Jeri. When Jeri was trapped inside the Kernel Sphere, Calumon was able to lead Beelzemon on a rescue mission. He also helped her snap out of her depression and protected her from the Chaos with a forcefield during the final battle. When the Tamers returned from the Digiworld, Calumon chose to live with Jeri. In the beginning of the series, Calumon thinks of the Real World as a game and the humans as other digimon. His ears, usually short, can be expanded, usually when Calumon is happy or excited, to the size shown in the picture to allow him to "fly". His forehead bears the symbol which is the polar opposite of the Digi-Hazard. Though that symbol is never formally named, it is safe to assume it can be called the Crystal Matrix. It is from the Crystal Matrix symbol that Calumon releases his power to catalyze Digivolution. In the Arabic dub, the symbol on Calumon's forehead is digitally removed, possibly for religious reasons. Calumon is also known as the Catalyst.^[2]

Digivolution

Calumon is a unique Digimon that does not digivolve and cannot be Digi-Modified. However, when Growlmon first digivolved to WarGrowlmon, the symbol on Calumon's forehead glowed and Calumon used his "Crystal Matrix", indicating that Calumon was in some way linked to the digivolution. Similar phenomena continued to happen throughout the Tamers' battles, and when Calumon was taken to the Digital World, it happened even more frequently, and sometimes to any Digimon that happened to be nearby. It was eventually revealed in the episode "Janyu's Ark" that Calumon was actually the manifested form of Digivolution itself, and he eventually used his power to the fullest to digivolve every Digimon in the Digital World to the final Mega level.

Attacks

Calumon does not fight, and has no attacks. In episode 34 he tried to invent attacks out of desperation, like "Big-noogie poke-you-in-the-eye Power Beam" and "hairy goopy blistering ball", but to no avail. However, in the final battle with the D-Reaper, he appeared to be able to surround himself and Jeri with some kind of barrier.

Appearances

Digimon Tamers

In the series Digimon Tamers, the Digimon Sovereigns reveal that Calumon originated as the element of Digivolution - the realized version of "Digi-Entelechies". In order to hide this power from the evil D-Reaper, they turned the power into the form of a Digimon. In the end of the series, the Sovereigns restore this power to the Digital World, but allow Calumon to continue to live as an ordinary Digimon.

In the Japanese version, Calumon had a habit of saying "culu". This was removed from the English Version, and some fans believe this is was to avoid any associations with Pokémon (who typically say their names frequently in the anime). However, in South-East Asia's version of the English dub (done in Singapore), Calumon keeps the habit, though it is said as "calu" instead.

Calumon is voiced by Brianne Siddall (English) & Tomoko Kaneda (Japan).

Battle of Adventurers / Runaway Locomon

Calumon appears is in Digimon's fifth and sixth digimon movies, but does not play a major role in either of them. He appears in the final battle in Battle of Adventurers and causes Growlmon, Gargomon and Kyubimon to digivolve to Ultimate, allowing them to destroy Gulfmon with their Trinity Burst attack. In Runaway Locomon he simply helps with Rika's party, and plays no part in the battle against Locomon and the Parasimon.

Digimon World DS

Calumon is a helper in the DigiFarms of the game. Calumon can be added to the player's party (after completing Quest 60), but it is unable to digivolve. Calumon has a default level of 99 and scan data is given with Beelzemon's data at the near end of the game.

Calumon's Trait significantly boosts the EXP all of your Digimon receives after a battle, and has some of the best support moves in the game, including one that fully revives all fallen allies.

Merchandise

There are numerous products based on Calumon. These include plush toys, posters, even a Tamagotchi-like game where players need to look after their own pet Calumon.

Calumon also has two albums, Asobo Culuculu and Culu Culu Culumon! sung by Tomoko Kaneda, and a third one I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas which was never commercially released.

References

1. ^ Konaka, Chiaki J.. "Calumon". http://www.konaka.com/alice6/tamers/characters/calumon-e.html. Retrieved July 28, 2010. 
2. ^ [1]