Pokemon of the Week #1 -- Drifblim

Pokemon of the Week: #427, Drifblim, the Blimp Pokemon

Helium not included.

A bit of an experimental thing. Every Sunday I'll go on a random number generator, and whichever number pops out, I'll talk about that Pokemon in a short article. Kind of to break the slight monotony I'm feeling with just doing manga and cartoon reviews. (TV reviews will be back as soon as I have time to binge-watch all of the episodes I'm missing). I've thought about doing huge block reviews of every single Pokemon out there, but unlike, say, Hearthsone cards, I just can't fit all I want to talk about a single Pokemon on a couple of paragraphs.

So today's random number is 427, meaning that Drifblim gets to be lucky number one for our very first Pokemon of the Week article. Yay!

I've never really had much attachment to Drifblim. She's a very weird design. She's obviously based on a hot air balloon, with octopi-cloth tendrils and weird little cloud toupee, and a little 'X' patch as a nose-mouth thing. Come to think of it, Drifblim might honestly be the very first ghost-type that's just a normal object turned into a ghostly version of the Pokemon... it's just not as evident as the likes of Pallosand, Chandelure and Honedge. Honestly, Drifblim's a pretty okay design, and as a big fan of Ghost-types in general, I've always found Drifblim somewhat fascinating. Unless I'm forgetting someone, Drifblim is the only Ghost/Flying type, and that's because she's a ghostly balloon. So how can something so cute be a Ghost? Well, in typical Pokemon fashion, Drifblim (and her much more adorable little pre-evolution, Drifloon) is given a slightly sinister backstory by the Pokedex.

Multiple Pokedex entries note how in the evening Drifblims flies off to unknown destinations in huge swarms that suddenly vanish if noticed by people, and both Drifblim and Drifloon are known to pick up people and carry them away when they fly. Apparently, though, since he's a floating giant balloon, he can't really control where he's flying and tend to get lost. Since Drifblim is a balloon, though, she can at least control the altitude of her flight by adjusting the amount of gas in her body. I think in the Japanese version the Pokedex entry straight-up says that they take children to the Land of the Dead. Probably based on some obscure Japanese yokai.

Drifblim's most prominent roles in the games is in her home generation, Generation IV, where she's one of Gym Leader Fantina's signature Pokemon alongside Mismagius. In the manga in particular Drifblim is the most hilarious-looking transportation for a hammy French lady in a dress like that. In the games getting a Drifblim is a bit hard, mostly because getting a Drifloon is a mini-event. A lone Drifloon shows up on the valley windworks every... Friday? Then you catch it and evolve it into Drifblim.

In the later games Drifblim is a lot less prominent. She's used by Unova's Elite Four Shauntal in rematches, and are available in the wild in both Unova and Kalos games, but never really spotlighted in the way that Drifloon was in the Generation IV games... and honestly that's a bit of a weak spotlight. That's okay, though. Drifblim is a cool, slightly more obscure Pokemon.

I have to admit that while I never hated Drifblim at all, I never really gave her much thought before writing this article. She's just kind of there. Certainly never used her, not in the same generation that had other awesome ghost types like Dusknoir and Froslass. This balloon (well, blimp) ghost dude that sometimes kidnaps people. I do love Drifblim's ability selection, though -- Aftermath, Unburden (which for a time was her signature ability) and Flare Boost, all of which relate to his balloon-y ness. Especially Flare Boost, which honestly is a bit morbid but still very relatable.

In-game, Drifblim has a relatively large amount of HP for a fully-evolved Pokemon, and tends to lean more on Special Attack as far as stats go. Her defenses are a bit atrocious, which is to be expected because, y'know, fucking balloon. Definitely not one of the stronger Pokemon out there, with a base stat total of 498 he falls short behind some heavy-hitters like Alakazam, Scizor, Gengar and Talonflame, but she's just neither a sweeper nor a wall, making her a bit of an oddity.

Shiny balloon!

By the way, shiny Drifblim is gold and neon blue, which is awesome. Nintendo never really gave a shit about making good-looking Shinies until, oh, fifth generation or thereabouts, but some of their accidents really work well. Like Drifblim.

Movepool-wise she learns what you expect from a Ghost-type. Shadow Balls, Hexes, Ominous Winds, though Gust is the only Flying-type move she learns by level up. Fitting considering how... poor of a flyer Drifblim is. She also learns a fair amount of wacky normal moves like Explosion (balloon, duh), the Stockpile trio (balloons grow!), Minimize (balloons shrink!) and Baton Pass (good with Minimize, I guess?). With TMs Drifblim gets a wider array of moves, with Acrobatics and Fly for Flying-type STAB, a couple of Psychic and Dark moves, plus Will-o-wisp and freakin' Thunderbolt and Thunder for no real reason. She's got a pretty cool moveset, it's just that her stats don't lend her into being a good sweeper or a tank, neither does she have the right moves to be a proper supporter... which is a darn shame, because in theory any Ghost/Flying Pokemon should be a pretty horrifying attacking force. Drifblim's just too chill, I guess.

Overall, I don't really have much to say about Drifblim. She's got a very interesting and relatively unique typing, but she's just kind of there. I do like her, I think she's cool, but she's not the most memorable Pokemon. Though she's not one of those that I hate and would rant about, so this is a little appreciation post for Drifblim. There's really not much else I can say about her. She's decent but not strong, she looks okay but not the most well-designed... but now she'll always have a nice, special place in my heart for kickstarting this little project.

As a side-note, yeah, I consistently refer to Drifblim as a 'she'. I just kind of subconsciously assign genders to all the Pokemon, regardless of gender ratios. Yeah. That's how I roll.