Tailmon's Final Evolution Leaked in CSA Digivice

December 13th, 2015. Japanese YouTuber Hackichannel uploaded a video showing off the recently-launched Complete Selection Animation Digivice today, an official anime cosplay toy that reproduces the evolution sequences and famous quotes of various Digimon Adventure Digimon. The CSA Digivice uses lines newly recorded for the movie series Digimon Adventure tri., and confirms Tailmon's final evolution sequence in it. Tailmon's evolution is found at 12:54 in the video above.

For background on the Tailmon controversy, see below. Spoilers for Tailmon's last stage follow.

The great religious debate of the 21st century.

Her Ultimate evolution has been a subject of controversy since at least 2002. When Tailmon first debuted prior to the anime series, in Digital Monster Ver. S (September 1998), Angewomon's only evolution was Holydramon. This was also the case in the 1999 Digimon Pendulum 1.5: Nature Spirits virtual pet, where Angewomon could only evolve to Holydramon (and only by Jogressing with Atlur Kabuterimon). At this time evolution was much more limited, with there generally only being one Vaccine, Data, and Virus Ultimate for each field (Tailmon & Angewomon's being Nature Spirits). During Digimon Adventure's original run, it was generally presumed that Holydramon would be Angewomon's Ultimate based on this limited evolution model. The first time that this could even be reasonably disputed was with the debut of Digimon Pendulum ZERO: Virus Busters in March 2000, just as the anime series was ending. Holydramon was not present in Pendulum ZERO, and instead Angewomon evolved into Omegamon by Jogressing with Holy Angemon or another Vaccine.

The Hyper Colosseum trading card game introduced a number of other possible evolutions for Angewomon; Crossmon (April 2000), Valkyrimon (October 2000), Babamon and Seraphimon (December 2000), and Marine Angemon (May 2001). At least for the Adventure universe, Holydramon seemed to certainly be her final stage when she appeared as such in the theatrical film Digimon Adventure 02: The Golden Digimentals!! The first strong argument against Holydramon came in September 2001, when the Three Archangels group was introduced to the trading card game and general Digimon lore. Ophanimon appeared as a new possible evolution of Angewomon. Designed as an obvious counterpart to Seraphimon, Ophanimon's mass exposure in the 2002 anime Digimon Frontier lead more fans to become aware of her, and gradually an argument in favor of Ophanimon as Tailmon's final evolution in Adventure emerged.

Detractors of Holydramon made the case that The Golden Digimentals!! was an extracanonical film, not fitting in Adventure 02's chronology and contradicting established canon by portraying Tailmon as being able to evolve to Ultimate when her partner Hikari had given up her crest powers (necessary for both Perfect and Ultimate evolution) between the film Our War Game and 02. Advocates for Holydramon countered that the film gave a plausible explanation for her debut, as the film's antagonist was attempting to rewind time during Holydramon's appearance, enabling Hikari and Takeru to evolve their Digimon. (Interestingly, the anti-Golden Digimentals argument has never been used to argue that Seraphimon is not Patamon's canon Ultimate.) Pro-Holydramon fans have pointed out that while Ophanimon is consistent with Angewomon specifically, the same can't be said of Ophanimon and Tailmon, Plotmon, or Nyaromon, all of which are animal-based rather than humanoid, and which share catlike traits. Holydramon on the other hand has feline traits more appropriate for Tailmon's line as a whole.

Proponents of Ophanimon also argued that Holydramon fit better as a final evolution for an Airdramon line, even though this has never been portrayed in any canon. Bandai and Toei as a whole left the debate untouched until 2013, when the Digimon Adventure RPG for the PlayStation Portable reignited fan discussion by portraying Ophanimon as the warp evolution of Tailmon. Many fans took this as a sign that Ophanimon was her new canon Ultimate, though the game also included several elements decidedly not canon to the anime, like having Gankoomon of the Royal Knights and his apprentice Hackmon appear in the game. Some years later fan hacking efforts uncovered that incomplete data for Holydramon was found in the game, and left unimplemented for what were likely game balance issues. (Not having access to the healing skills that Angewomon and Ophanimon share in the final game would make players more likely to use Angewomon than they would Holydramon.)

The debut of the Digivice Ver. 15th in 2014 and 2015 seemingly solidified Holydramon as Tailmon's canon Ultimate, but fans have continued to debate the issue up to this moment. The Complete Selection Animation Digivice has laid to rest the argument, at least as it pertains to Digimon Adventure's canon; Holydramon is Tailmon's final stage.

Ironically, the reverse situation has recently happened to Gomamon. In 1999 Gomamon's original Ultimate was Plesiomon, while in July 2000 (after Adventure had ended) the debut of Vikemon incited debate over whether Plesiomon was more appropriate for Gomamon's Adventure evolutions, or Vikemon as directly succeeding Zudomon. Vikemon had originally appeared as an Ultimate evolution for Angemon & Ankylomon's Jogress, Shakkoumon. Digimon Adventure PSP portrayed Vikemon as Gomamon's Ultimate, which the Digivice Ver. 15th agreed with, and the CSA Digivice has reconfirmed. As a result, Shakkoumon is currently without an established Ultimate form in the Adventure universe.