Pokemon of the Week #10: Phanpy

Pokemon of the Week: #231 Phanpy, the Long Nose Pokemon

WUV ME

Real life and TV shows and a bit of re-planning for the content I want to make in this blog got in the way of a couple of weeks' worth of Pokemon of the Week, but we're back. This week's roll is Phanpy, a Pokemon from Generation II that's actually quite dear to my heart. He's not going to win any 'top ten favourite Pokemon' lists or whatever, but Phanpy and Donphan are definitely an evolutionary line that I really liked. 

This article's supposed to talk about Phanpy, but let's talk about Donphan real quick and how awesome he is. Donphan's this very cool elephant-rhinoceros-wheel thing that randomly shows up in the prologue of the very first Pokemon movie, and back then there's no internet, no Serebii.net, no Coro Coro Magazine leaks to tease us about the next-generation Pokemon that we can expect to see in the new games. Nah, back then when it was just Red, Blue and Yellow, there were only 150 Pokemon. Then there was Togepi, then there was Mew. Okay, fair enough, the cartoon made their introductions suitably major. But then boom suddenly Ash is fighting this random trainer in the beginning and the opposing trainer sends out this freaking cool-looking iron-plated bull-rhino thing (yeah, Donphan's supposed to be an elephant but come on, who realizes that when they first see the dude?) that rolls up into a giant spinning wheel of doom to fight Bulbasaur. Donphan literally showed up out of nowhere, fought a little and was out of the plot that quickly, but man this thing really got me wondering just what else is out there beyond the first 150 (well, 151-plus-Togepi).

Fast forward a couple of years later, and we get the second generation games, though I didn't really actually meet Donphan or his pre-evolution Phanpy in the game. See, one of the biggest problems I have with Generation II is how little the Generation II Pokemon are actually represented in it. Like, nearly half of the Johto Pokedex are so elusively hidden as 1% or 5% encounters in areas filled with Zubats and Sandshrews, or are only found in a single route near the end of the game in Kanto... like, thanks to the manga and the cartoon and little guide books I know that these Pokemon existed, but I never actually met them at all in the games that I was playing. Dunsparce, Wobbuffet, Gligar, Donphan, Ursaring, Skarmory, Shuckle, Houndour, Qwilfish, Misdreavus, Xatu, Lanturn? I never actually met any of them during my run through Pokemon Crystal.

And who could blame me? Phanpy is only found in a single route in the very large Johto/Kanto map, specifically Route 45, a late-game long route filled with fucking Gravelers and Geodudes. Phanpy is one of the rare encounters, and is a version-exclusive one to boot... and at that stage in the game, you're likely to have a full team of fully-trained and leveled Pokemon anyway, so you're not really going to add a Phanpy to your team unless you really, really like the dude. Those who are playing Silver (or Japanese Gold, or the HeartGold remake) get Phanpy and Donphan in this route, those that are playing Gold (or Japanese Silver, or the SoulSilver remake) get Teddiursa and Ursaring in this route. I guess the pair have some similarities in that, uh... they're mountain dwelling mammals that evolve from something absolutely adorable into something cool? Evidently Donphan is the superior choice i this one.

So yeah, I didn't really play Crystal that much as a kid, only replaying it far later in my life, but I did play a lot of Generation III games. Phanpy and Donphan are one of the older generation Pokemon that made it into the base Gen III games, and while they're not exactly common, they're a lot more accessible. They're still only found in one area, in the Safari Zone, but it's a lot easier to encounter a Phanpy, and quite a few trainers use Phanpy as well. Sadly Phanpy and Donphan didn't really get too much exposure in the games, relegated to bonus post-game Swarm Pokemon or not existing in wild at all.

In the anime, Ash owned a Phanpy, hatching him from an egg, and Phanpy is hands down the cutest and most adorable Pokemon I've ever seen in the cartoon. It's just a widdly baby elephant! It's a freaking baby that is always so happy and runs around and Rollouts people. And then it evolves into Donphan and it becomes a badass, but Phanpy is far, far more memorable because of what a cute widdle baby it is.

Phanpy is a pure Ground-type, like Donphan. Which... okay? There's nothing really about this cartoon blue elephant that screams 'Ground', and honestly neither do Donphan -- he is armoured, that's for sure, but you'd think that would be Steel more than Ground, but there are far more inexplicable typings in Pokemon so I'll let this one slide. 

The Pokedex entries all state how Phanpy is so playful and nice and a cute little buds, but it's a baby elephant so when it playfully headbutts you, you go flying. It's nowhere as graphic as Bewear's "send trainers to heaven with its hug" pokedex entry, but still. Most of its Pokedex entries talk about how adorable their snouts are, how they use it to wash themselves, how they have huge ears to cool themselves, all sorts of cute baby elephant things.

Not really much to say about this little dude, honestly, but man, Phanpy's an adorable baby elephant that grows up into a cool-looking armoured elephant Transformer. Donphan's honestly not half-bad, with base stats that rival other middle-tier Pokemon like Poliwrath and Scizor, it's just that his movepool is kind of lackluster. Shame. Maybe Nintendo can give Phanpy and Donphan some more attention in future generations?