Welcome to our second entry of Gotta Review 'Em All, where I provide commentary as I review all the 800+ Pokemon in existence. Today we'll be knocking around 20 or 30 out of the park, hopefully. The response to the first part was pretty amazing, and I'm definitely enjoying myself making these and forcing myself to reconsider what I think about these older Pokemon.
Click here for the previous part.
Click here for the next part.
Click here for the index.
______________________________________________
Click here for the previous part.
Click here for the next part.
Click here for the index.
______________________________________________
#037-038: Vulpix & Ninetales
- Types: Fire [both]
- Japanese names: Rokon, Kyukon
- Category: Fox [both]
We'll be starting off this particular leg of Pokedex exploration with good ol' Vulpix. Vulpix is a pretty cute fox, although she's a far more stylized one, with a far less prominent snout and having six tails splayed out in a fan. Unless I'm misremembering, Vulpix is our first non-starter fire type, and the first generation's fire types are essentially just a bunch of animals that happen to breathe fire, and sometimes have parts of their body actually on fire. And Vulpix is no exception. She's a neat and cute Pokemon, with the two shades of brown complimenting each other quite well, and the Pokedex focuses on how beautiful and popular it is, as well as how it has one tail upon birth which splits into six as it matures.
Vulpix then evolves into Ninetales, which, y'know, has nine tails. She turns far more fox-like and far more elegant, transforming entirely white in a bit of a more ghostly manner. She's still pure-Fire, but if Ninetales was conceptualized in a later generation I don't doubt that she wouldn't get Ghost or Fairy slapped onto her as a secondary typing. A hint of her time as Vulpix is left in a couple of shades of orange at the tips of her tails. And whereas Vulpix's pokedex entries just focus on her tail and the odd description of her fire-breathing abilities, Ninetales' pokedex entries have always intrigued me far more. "Grabbing one of its many tails could result in a 1000 year curse." (later generations would add 'along with their descendants') "Each of its nine tales has its own unique type of special mystic power." "Its tails are filled with a wondrous energy that could keep it alive for 1000 years." "9 noble saints were united and reincarnated as this Pokemon." "Very smart and very vengeful."
So yeah, Vulpix turns from a cute little fox baby into this majestic beast that has a fair amount of creepy coolness that came with it. You get the sense that Ninetales isn't outright evil or mean in the way that, say, the territorial Fearow or Beedrill are. Ninetales is very cruel when she wants to, but 'vengeful' and 'vindictive' all imply that Ninetales is seeking revenge for a particular insult. Even if it is something as simple as grabbing its tail. And one of the more interesting spin-off games, the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, the entire plot revolves not around a legendary Pokemon, but simply around Ninetales, who had cursed a boy and turned him into a Pokemon for the crime of touching a Ninetales' tail and leaving his partner to take the brunt of Ninetales' attack.
And Ninetales is based primarily on the legend of the Japanese kitsune. While the word 'kitsune' simply means just fox, Japanese mythology has so many legends surrounding the fox that it's simply a huge, huge well to pick out of. Zoroark is another Pokemon who is also based on the kitsune. And the kitsune is always depicted as intelligent being with magical powers that grow far more powerful depending on their age (hence why Vulpix's dex entries also emphasized that the number of tail multiplies with age) and are sometimes portrayed as tricksters, and other times as guardian spirits. Ninetales doesn't adapt all the legends associated with the kitsune (the human transformation abilities, for one, is given to Zoroark a decade later). Very common among Japanese, Korean and Chinese legends are those surrounding fox spirits with nine tales, with the Chinese equivalent being called the Huli Jing, and Kumiho in Korean.
A common motif amongst East Asian legends is how beings -- be it animals, humans or even inanimate objects -- can ascend into a spiritual state, and legends around the Chinese huli jing note that a fox gains transformation abilities when it reaches 50 and 100 years old, but when it reaches 1000, it becomes a 'celestial fox', which, of course, is described as a golden fox with nine tales, serving the gods and having transcended yin and yang. The Japanese kitsune likewise describe the white coat as being a good omen, signaling that the fox came from the god Inari, and are able to ward off evil and serve as guardian spirits. Also, tales of kitsune using their kitsunebi -- balls of ghostly flame -- to lead travelers astray is reflected in how Vulpix and Ninetales have several prominent spooky moves like Confuse Ray and Will O' Wisp in their natural moveset. They do a lot of tricks and possess people, but I can't find much legends about curses, so maybe they're made up for Ninetales?
So yeah, while on the surface Ninetales and Vulpix might just look like pretty fire foxes, they are based on one of the most popular mythological creatures in Japan, and it's always cool to see one of these Pokemon based on yokai and other aspects of Japanese legends. The nine-tailed fox spirit might be slightly more mainstream than it used to back in 1997 thanks to Naruto, but that definitely doesn't detract from the elegance of Ninetales in both visual design and in adapting a myth while making some of its own.
5/6.#039-040: Jigglypuff & Wigglytuff
- Types: Normal/Fairy [both; Normal prior to Generation VI]
- Japanese names: Purin, Pukurin
- Category: Balloon [both]
Jigglypuff! I've always loved Jigglypuff, almost exclusively thanks to the anime. Jigglypuff's pretty cute, though. A round sphere that doesn't even pretend it has a body, with tiny stump arms, feet and ears attached to it, and huge, expressive green eyes. How can you look at this and not think that it's cuter than Clefairy? It's also somewhat based on a balloon, as most fictional appearances give her the ability to inflate and float or generally act puffy, and generally just looks so, so much more charming than Clefairy ever does.
And taken on her own, Jigglypuff's pretty cute, too! She is heavily associated with the ability to make people drowsy with the move 'Sing'... which, in the anime, is portrayed as poor little Jigglypuff actually wanting to sing for people to listen, but her 'Sing' move makes people sleep, which just makes Jigglypuff an angry little puff. I like her! She's adorable, but she has more personality than just being oh-so-precious thanks to being a bit of a bastard (but a lovable bastard) in the anime. Jigglypuff's ability is like some sort of a modern-day interpretation of a siren song, but with a neat little twist to her. I really like Jigglypuff, and she's one of those Pokemon that's truly served well by things like the anime and the Smash Bros game. But I don't feel quite as strongly for Wigglytuff, which is why I'm splitting up the rankings for the two forms -- Jigglypuff is one of those designs that have carved such a huge identity separate from her evolution, anyway.
5/6 for Jigglypuff.
Which is definitely a shame when she evolves into Wigglytuff. She becomes a lot taller, a lot stretched-out and gains bunny ears, and she's... still cute, honestly. But not in the sameway that Jigglypuff is! I don't know. I don't really have anything against Wigglytuff, but there are some Pokemon out there that I really severely prefer their pre-evolved form compared to their evolved form. Wigglytuff's pokedex entries also essentially drop Jigglypuff's whole singing gimmick, instead going on and on about its soft, fluffy body and how it can inflate itself -- which I don't think I've ever seen a Wigglytuff do anywhere. She essentially becomes a lot more boring, losing a lot of what made Jigglypuff so appealing in the first place. So yeah. Honestly, Wigglytuff isn't a horrible design taken on her own, but she's just a fair bit more boring and definitely a case where I vastly prefer the pre-evolution as opposed to the evolved form. I don't hate Wigglytuff, but I just honestly am so indifferent about this pink oval blob that I really don't have much to say.
Oh, and these two are among the pink blobs that get the Fairy typing in the sixth generation, graduating from previously being pure Normal-types. Where Clefairy and Clefable become pure Fairies, Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff become Normal/Fairy dual types... which means... what, exactly? Jigglypuff is less fairy-like than Clefairy? It's a bit weird.
2/6.#041-042: Zubat & Golbat
- Types: Poison/Flying [both]
- Japanese names: Zubatto, Gorubatto
- Category: Bat [both]
Zubat and Golbat are some of those Pokemon that are perhaps infamous for being 'those god-damned bats that show up every two steps in a cave'. But I've always kinda liked them, too! I realize I may be in the minority for really liking Zubat and Golbat, but I've never personally hated them the way many people do. Zubat's found a crap-ton of caves, and was particularly a pest in the first four generations where Zubat is one of the more annoying and most common Pokemon in all cave areas (Zubat takes a break in the fifth generation, and wasn't as prominent in the sixth and seventh generations) but I've always liked Zubat's design in particular.
Zubat is a great design in no small part because it is unmistakably based on a very recognizable animal -- the bat -- while having a lot of the more fantastical qualities that a Pokemon tends to have... which, in turn, has some truth in real-life animals. Zubat's face is just, well, a mean-looking mouth with fangs and ears. It's a very cool representation of a troglobite, which are cave-dwelling animals that have adapted to living in a cave. Zubat mostly adapts a single trait -- which is the evolutionary decreasing and loss in eyesight because they live in a habitat where they can't really afford to put in so much metabolism to organs that don't do anything.
Instead, Zubat, of course, focuses on echolocation, just like bats, which is why its mouth and ears are so prominent. Oh, and the fact that Zubat will use moves like Supersonic -- something that anyone who's encountered these lovable swarming little shits can attest to. It's such a cool looking concept and design, from the simple blue-and-purple colour scheme, to the awesome eyeless face, and the two needle-like tails. I'm not entirely sure if the spine-tail things are actual tentacles to wrap around stalactites or if Zubats just stab them onto the cave ceilings, but they look cool nonetheless.
So yeah, Zubat's really cool. From both its moveset, its location in the games and its visual design, it really communicates that it's a weak, swarming predator that lives in caves, and rely more on inflicting poison and confusion upon its enemies because it's otherwise a pretty weak battler. Zubat and its evolutions are also Poison/Flying, and unless I'm remembering wrong, are the only Poison/Flying Pokemon in the entire franchise as of the seventh generation. I'm not 100% sure why they're poisonous (real bats aren't, although I suppose it's a reference to the diseases that bats can give you) but I suppose that's simply to highlight just how different they are compared to the other Flying-types? Poison typing was kind of assigned to many of the more 'evil' Pokemon in the original 150.
Zubat then evolves into Golbat, who's... a lot wackier. Its mouth has transformed to encompass its entire body, and its grown eyes and legs! Golbat essentially just became closer to its real-life counterparts, and its pokedex entries now emphasize on its role as a vampire bat Pokemon that attacks and drains theblood energy from its prey. It's appropriately ghoulish-looking while still being more cartoony than spoooky, and I've always liked its design. I also have a particular fondness for its original Red/Blue sprite that had him look absolutely high as all hell, with its tongue jutting out and its eyes looking like they don't belong.
But regular Golbat looks cool as well, and I've always liked the stylized, economical adaptation of a bat into Golbat. Zubat and Golbat serve a very important role in the Pokemon games as common, annoying enemies that populate caves, and while they might perhaps do this a bit too well judging by how many people apparently hate them, I've never had the heart to hate Zubat and Golbat. Perhaps it's partly because I really like Batman, or because I really like bats, or because they're purple, or because some part of me just really wants to make something out of these annoying bats that everyone hates. Even back when I was a kid, I was really drawn to Zubat in particular. And as I grew, I liked Zubat, Golbat and Crobat (who we'll talk about eventually) more and more, and Crobat has became a member of my Pokemon teams so many times. This is my list, so I can give them whatever score I want!
6/6, though it's mostly for Zubat.
Zubat is a great design in no small part because it is unmistakably based on a very recognizable animal -- the bat -- while having a lot of the more fantastical qualities that a Pokemon tends to have... which, in turn, has some truth in real-life animals. Zubat's face is just, well, a mean-looking mouth with fangs and ears. It's a very cool representation of a troglobite, which are cave-dwelling animals that have adapted to living in a cave. Zubat mostly adapts a single trait -- which is the evolutionary decreasing and loss in eyesight because they live in a habitat where they can't really afford to put in so much metabolism to organs that don't do anything.
Instead, Zubat, of course, focuses on echolocation, just like bats, which is why its mouth and ears are so prominent. Oh, and the fact that Zubat will use moves like Supersonic -- something that anyone who's encountered these lovable swarming little shits can attest to. It's such a cool looking concept and design, from the simple blue-and-purple colour scheme, to the awesome eyeless face, and the two needle-like tails. I'm not entirely sure if the spine-tail things are actual tentacles to wrap around stalactites or if Zubats just stab them onto the cave ceilings, but they look cool nonetheless.
So yeah, Zubat's really cool. From both its moveset, its location in the games and its visual design, it really communicates that it's a weak, swarming predator that lives in caves, and rely more on inflicting poison and confusion upon its enemies because it's otherwise a pretty weak battler. Zubat and its evolutions are also Poison/Flying, and unless I'm remembering wrong, are the only Poison/Flying Pokemon in the entire franchise as of the seventh generation. I'm not 100% sure why they're poisonous (real bats aren't, although I suppose it's a reference to the diseases that bats can give you) but I suppose that's simply to highlight just how different they are compared to the other Flying-types? Poison typing was kind of assigned to many of the more 'evil' Pokemon in the original 150.
Zubat then evolves into Golbat, who's... a lot wackier. Its mouth has transformed to encompass its entire body, and its grown eyes and legs! Golbat essentially just became closer to its real-life counterparts, and its pokedex entries now emphasize on its role as a vampire bat Pokemon that attacks and drains the
But regular Golbat looks cool as well, and I've always liked the stylized, economical adaptation of a bat into Golbat. Zubat and Golbat serve a very important role in the Pokemon games as common, annoying enemies that populate caves, and while they might perhaps do this a bit too well judging by how many people apparently hate them, I've never had the heart to hate Zubat and Golbat. Perhaps it's partly because I really like Batman, or because I really like bats, or because they're purple, or because some part of me just really wants to make something out of these annoying bats that everyone hates. Even back when I was a kid, I was really drawn to Zubat in particular. And as I grew, I liked Zubat, Golbat and Crobat (who we'll talk about eventually) more and more, and Crobat has became a member of my Pokemon teams so many times. This is my list, so I can give them whatever score I want!
6/6, though it's mostly for Zubat. #043-045: Oddish, Gloom & Vileplume
- Types: Grass/Poison [all three]
- Japanese names: Nazonokusa, Kusaihana, Rafureshia
- Category: Weed [Oddish/Gloom], Flower [Vileplume]
Oddish is a pretty cool 'base' plant creature, being a little weed dude who has a hair of grass while its main body is a happy little plant bulb with a happy face and legs. The Pokedex note how Oddish is nocturnal (the games are somewhat more inconsistent, with only the second and fourth generation featuring nocturnal Oddishes), hiding its main body under the ground (in the process transforming its feet into more root-shaped appendages) and then wandering around at night when 'moonlight awakens it'. Oddish is also rumoured to shriek horribly if it's pulled out of the ground, which refers to the real-life myths surrounding the mandrake/mandragora plant. And, well, mandrakes are essentially normal-looking plants with a strange root that looks somewhat human-shaped. Oddish doesn't actually learn any shrieking or sound-based moves, though, so like the real mandrake it's a case of myths and old wives' tales. Real-life mandrakes are hallucinogenic and used as anesthesia in the past, though, which might actually explain Oddish's part-poison typing.
Oddish, according to his FireRed and Y pokedex entries, also is the only Pokemon with a scientific latin name, specifically 'Oddium wanderus'. Oddish also holds a particularly special place in my heart for one of the few Shiny Pokemon I've encountered naturally.
Oddish is a happy little buddy, but then it evolves into Gloom, which is based on the Rafflesia genus of plants, a breed of corpse flowers found in Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries in South-eastern Asia. Gloom is a pretty cool evolution for Oddish. Sure, it doesn't quite adapt the holoparasitism of actual Rafflesia arnoldii flowers (they grow on trunks of larger trees and draw nutrition from them) but it definitely draws the design of the flower and the absolute stench that the Rafflesia flowers emit. Real-life Rafflesia flowers have the smell of rotting meat to attract flies, which will pollinate their flowers, but Gloom's apparently just smelly. And I really love the design. It has a tiny flower with some red leaves (perhaps the remnants of the leaves on Oddish's head?) and has a more developed set of arms, as opposed to Oddish's armlessness. And it's pretty amazing that in Pokemon's first batch of characters, we get one based on a carrion flower (or a corpse lily).
Gloom also has one of the best faces in the Pokemon franchise as a whole, having that drool out of her mouth and those slanted eyes. The LeafGreen pokedex entry even explains that the drool is actually a sweet nectar that Gloom uses to attract its prey. I'll complain about Pokemon that are just 'plant/animal drawn funny' in later entries, but that simple face with personality kind of won Gloom over to me. So yeah, I've always loved Gloom, and I've always loved how nearly every pokedex entries emphasize that its stink can make people faint or even get amnesia. I'm just sad that starting with the third generation, the sprites have actually omitted the cloud of noxious spores that Gloom's first and second generation sprites have.
Gloom then evolves into its final stage, Vileplume (actually straight-up just called Rafflesia in Japan) and its'... well, it's a bigger Gloom. The little leaf-things are gone, and the flower is far bigger, presumably representing its maturity, and Vileplume's body loses Gloom's drool and slanted eyes and regains Oddish's eyes and mouth. Sometimes I wonder if Vileplume was meant to be the second stage of the evolution, and would wither away to Gloom upon reaching its final stage, and then the designers decided that having the flower grow bigger would communicate it better to kiddies not as well-versed in carrion flower life cycle as I do. But oh well.
Vileplume's really cool, too. I'm not sure if there's much I can say that I haven't said with Gloom, because it's essentially the same. Vileplume's a bigger Gloom, but appears to have a greater control over its stench and powers, with pokedex entries now emphasizing its powerful pollen and the size of its flowers. I've always loved the names of 'Gloom' and 'Vileplume', too, emphasizing that these aren't pretty flowers that we're dealing with, despite the colourful shade of red they have. Coupled with the Grass/Poison typing, it communicates really well that Gloom and Vileplume are, well, pretty vile, stinky corpse flowers that are as deadly as they are pretty. So yeah, I do like this line a fair bit.
5/6.#046-047: Paras & Parasect
- Types: Grass/Bug [both]
- Japanese names: Parasu, Parasekuto
- Category: Mushroom [both]
Oh man, I love Paras and Parasect. I've talked about them before and I'll try not to talk too much about them this time around. But I've always loved them even in the past, before I had any inkling on what they were based on -- a fact that I've only learned about in the last five years or so, which easily skyrocketed Paras and Parasect to one of my all-time favourite Pokemon. But even back when I was a kid, I always loved the design of Paras and Parasect. On the surface they were kind of similar to the Bulbasaur line, an animal with a plant (well, a fungus, in Paras' case) that grows bigger as the Pokemon evolves. And Paras always looked cool, having the appearance of a pretty well-drawn insect with prominent lobster-like claws that look like a scratch attack out of them would really hurt. Paras' main insect body, of course, is based upon that of a cicada nymph, and you can definitely see the resemblance when you compare it with another cicada nymph pokemon, Nincada from the third generation.
Paras and Parasect are both Bug/Grass dual-typed Pokemon, potentially making it one of the defensively weakest set of types. But these two prioritize flavour over typing, and I respect that a lot. See, as Paras evolves into Parasect, the bug body stays relatively the same, while the two tiny toadstool mushrooms on Paras' back transforms into a huge, huge single organism on Parasect's back. And most crucially, Parasect loses the pupils it once had as Paras. While anime and manga appearances almost ignore this, the Pokedex entries aren't shy as to the inspiration of Paras and Parasect, as well as just what happens when this Pokemon evolves. The fungus, in no uncertain way, takes over from the insect body as it evolves, essentially turning the bug body into a zombie. The Pokedex entries state with no ambiguity that the fungus is a parasite that infects the bug host and are parasites that absorb most of the nutrition that Paras gets from its diet. And some of Parasect's entries note that the fungi leaves its spores in Parasect's eggs, which means that all newborn Paras are already hopelessly intertwined with the parasitic fungus for life. And if we take Paras' inspiration from a cicada nymph to be literal, then Parasect's insect body is simply kept in permanent neoteny, never allowed to grow since all the nutrients are absorbed by the fungus... which actually does grow, and, as the Pokedex notes, 'does all the thinking' when they have became a Parasect.
Paras and Parasect, of course, are an exaggerated adaptation of the 'zombie ant fungus' and various other fungi who use insects as hosts and essentially hijack their simple, rudimentary brains and force the mind-controlled ants to travel around and move to locations ideal to spread their spores. The pokedex entries even note that the fungi on Paras is called Tochukaso, the popular name for Ophiocordyceps sinensis, the endoparasitoid caterpillar fungus, a plant that, well, essentially turns caterpillars and other bugs into zombies to spread its spores. It's a pretty cool fungi that is particularly popular in Japanese popular culture, and in addition to being notable for their parasitic qualities, the Cordyceps is also particularly popular as a form of medical drug in traditional Chinese medicine, fetching ludicrously high prices for supposedly having equal amounts of yin and yang energy in balance, being comprised of plant and animal (fungi and animal, really, but the ancient Chinese don't make distinctions between plants and fungi). Parasect's third-generation pokedex entries even note that Parasect's spores are popular as medicine in China. Not Poke-China, no, straight-up China. (Older Pokedex entries like to randomly reference real-life places).
Even without the horror story to go on, Paras and Parasect are a pair of really well-designed Pokemon. It communicates being a bug with a fungus on its back pretty well, and it does simply look cool, with well-defined arthropodal legs and giant claws and mushrooms. Of course, real-life Cordyceps fungi don't actually look like toadstools, but this is Pokemon and it's not a perfect adaptation of real-life creepy-crawlies. Perhaps one criticism I have for this evolutionary line is that Paras loses its cool-looking bug mandibles when it evolves into Parasect, who has a weird cartoon animal mouth... but eh. Add the zombie-fungus aspect to it all, and it becomes so much cooler. (Bulbapedia has a pretty great article on the inspiration between Paras and Parasect for further reading.)
Also to note that in the first generation of Pokemon, Paras and Parasect are the only Pokemon based on fungi, which gets grouped together with the plants in the 'Grass' typing. As the only fungal Pokemon, Paras and Parasecct also had the distinction of the only Pokemon being able to use the move Spore (its original Japanese name translates roughly to Mushroom Spores) which would be a running theme as a move shared only amongst mushroom-based Pokemon like the Shroomish, Foongus and Morelull lines. Which is pretty cool. Anyway, Parasect and Paras are pretty cool. They're easily one of he weakest and technically worst Pokemon lines out there (I should know, I tried to use a Parasect multiple times and it didn't work out so well) I still adore the mushroom bug zombie a lot.
6/6.#048-049: Venonat & Venomoth
- Types: Bug/Poison [both]
- Japanese names: Konpan, Morufon
- Category: Insect [Venonat], Poison Moth [Venomoth]
And, well, it's totally fine. Venonat's a completely fun little bug monster, and it really does seem that it is meant to be a generic weird hairy bug creature, as its pokedex entries really only ever talk about its poisonous hair cover and its super-powerful radar eyes. Multiple dex entries note how Venonat are active at night, but no game has ever actually reflected this.
Venonat's evolved form is Venomoth and it's a pretty moth, that's for sure, and I like it! It's a completely different beast than Butterfree, too. Where Butterfree had buggy, inhuman compound eyes and a more cartoony set of limbs, Venomoth has bug legs and a very insectoid head-thorax-abdomen body structure, but has two huge beady, cartoony eyes. Combined with his clear wings and horns, Venomoth is a neat, if somewhat generic, moth monster. And, well, its dex entries is basically kind of like Butterfree, but more poisonous.
There's also a 'conspiracy theory' amongst the Pokemon community that note the similarities between Caterpie, Metapod and Venomoth, as well as Venonat and Butterfree, and ask if the two final stages of the butterfly/moth evolution lines in the first generations aren't switched around. And it's easy to see why. Both Venonat and Butterfree have a predominantly dark purple scheme and they both share the same fangs, prominent compound eyes, and even those dinky little arms! Whereas Venomoth shares Caterpie's huge googly-eyes, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Venomoth's horns are meant to be an extension of Caterpie's own. Ultimately, though, we're stuck with what we got, so... eh. Venomoth and Venonat are cool! I've always liked these two, they just kind of feel somewhat overshadowed due to the consistent addition of new, cooler bug-types, and poor Venomoth just doesn't quite have the same nostalgic draw that Butterfree and Beedrill had. I still don't mind them, though.
4/6.#050-051: Diglett & Dugtrio
- Types: Ground [both]
- Japanese names: Diguda, Dagutorio
- Category: Mole [both]
Yeah, a lot of people really brush off Diglett and Dugtrio as the laziest Pokemon design out there, and respectfully, I must disagree. They might look simple, but Diglett and Dugtrio's whole deal of being Pokemon based on burrowing moles that visually resemble whack-a-mole games has always been hilarious to me. I've not always liked them, however -- back in the days of the first generation I was kinda just apathetic on them. Sure, they're cool in that you never, ever see what they look like under the soil (the chunk of ground they're embedded in will always move with them) and I'll be glad if we don't ever see what is under Diglett until the heat death of the universe. But I've since grown to appreciate the pun behind their design, and the fact that they got entire areas for themselves in the original games (and again in the seventh generation games!) is honestly pretty cool. They're pure Ground-types, which makes sense, considering they're all living underground and stuff.
I've always liked the little ecological tidbits we got from Diglett and Dugtrio's lore, too, tidbits that would've made poor Venomoth above far more interesting. The pokedex, the anime and the manga all talk about how Digletts feeds on plant roots underground, or that it tills the ground, that they move very fast and sometimes cause earthquakes, and makes ideal soil for farming, or that it lives in tunnels created by far-larger Ground-types like Onix. It's a pretty cool representation of moles, which are already subterranean in the first place.
Also, one thing that I really got a kick out of Diglett and Dugtrio is how fast they were. Like, obviously they're fast, they're moving underground where no one can see them! And they can somehow slash you, yet you can't see what they're scratching and slashing you with. One thing that I perhaps don't agree that well is the evolution into Dugtrio, where Dugtrio is, well, just three Diglett clustered together with angry eyebrows (and unlike Magneton or Klinklang there's no real thematic significance there) which is why the evolutionary line gets a 3 instead of a 4. Still, I can't hate Diglett and Dugtrio. They're perhaps grown into one of the more instantly memorable Pokemon designs from the original 150, and for good reason.
Also note that while the Generation III Sugimori artwork here shows a non-angry Dugtrio, their original concept art and a vast majority of their sprites and their anime/manga appearances show angry eyebrows until the 3D games dropped the angry eyebrows entirely. I guess Kalos's got some really nice anger therapy facilities, huh?
4/6.#052-053: Meowth & Persian
- Types: Normal [both]
- Japanese names: Nyasu, Perushian
- Category: Scratch Cat [Meowth, Bakaneko in the original Japanese], Classy Cat [Persian]
With the sole exception for Meowth, who is a cat I love. If all cats are wise-ass cool gangster wannabes with Brooklyn accents like Meowth, I'd be a cat person all day. And Meowth's pretty cool! I've watch the anime in both English dub and the original Japanese audio, and the one voice that both versions got right is absolutely Meowth. I slightly prefer dub!Meowth simply because that Brooklyn accent is just so endearing and so distinct, but I do like the Japanese voice a fair bit too. Team Rocket in the anime is the one constantly good thing even in the anime's more... bland streches of time, and Meowth's role as the jackass of the trio is definitely a huge part in why they work successfully. Oh, and, yes, Meowth talks. And it's amazing. I realize that thanks to the gigantic proportion of random legendary Pokemon that can talk (and random dudes like Zorua and Lucario for some reason), Team Rocket's Meowth is otherwise unique as a Pokemon that has learned the human language to impress a girl, only to be dismissed as a freak by that same girl when he showed up with the ability to speak human. Ah, love. So volatile.
And that's without going into Meowth's inspiration! Meowth isn't just based on any cat, he's based on the maneki neko, a very common sight in Japanese and Chinese culture as a solid-gold cat figurine with a beckoning arm (that sometimes move, depending on the statue) which is supposed to 'beckon' customers into a shop for good business fortune, particularly associated with smaller businesses. It's a combination of multiple Japanese and Chinese beliefs and superstitions, in that cats that wash their face will cause a rain to come, and, in response, customers will come seeking shelter from the rain.
This is of course represented in Meowth's design, particularly his earliest Sugimori artwork and Pokemon sprites, which actually depicts Meowth in the classic maneki-neko pose with either a single or both arms raised. The coin on Meowth's head is a Koban, an antique Japanese golden coin (something that some real-life maneki-neko are depicted as holding) and Meowth's signature move, Pay Day, literally gives you good fortune by giving you, y'know, straight-up money.
6/6 for Meowth.
And Meowth is just a stellar design, communicating that it's a cat, referencing a neat portion of Japanese culture... and then it evolves into Persian. Which... I don't dislike Persian! Persian is a perfectly cool-looking cartoon cat with a very feline build and an expression that really looks like it's going to fuck you up. Hell, it even shares Meowth's eyes and face-whiskers and colouring, something that isn't always the case in older Pokemon. But it's... it's essentially just a cat with a red jewel on the center of its forehead. And its pokedex entries essentially boil down to 'prissy cat that can fight if needs be'. Persian's a cool design, and perhaps one of the best-looking cat Pokemon... but it's, y'know, ultimately just a slightly odd-looking cat, and it falls into the same category of Venomoth and Pidgeot that, well, it looks good. It's just overshadowed by so many more superior design in the Pokemon world, and especially by just how iconic Meowth is in both design and personality. It's not even a Raichu/Pikachu situation where I actually like it if Pikachu evolves into Raichu. Meowth just loses so much of what makes it unique when it turns into a Persian. And it's not like I dislike Persian, but it's... it's just a cat, y'know? And while it's all right to sometimes have a Pokemon that's just an animal, but with extra details, the fact that you went from Meowth to this is kinda disappointing. On its own, it's an okay design, very competent. I just don't like this replacing Meowth.
3/6.
3/6.#054-055: Psyduck & Golduck
- Types: Water [both]
- Japanese names: Kodakku, Gorudakku
- Category: Duck [both]
Speaking of Pokemon that I prefer the pre-evolution over the evolution... Yeah, Psyduck is another one of those Pokemon that is heavily advertised at the anime to the near-exclusion of its final evolved form, Golduck. And Psyduck is one of the best examples of this! It's just a cartoon duck with the absolute perfect 'bwark?' face on its dumb-shit duck face, constantly confused and puzzled and vacant, and its suffering from constant headaches... which, when it gets painful enough, Psyduck unleashes a fuckton of psychic powers which he won't even remember about! Which is displayed really well in the anime, as Misty's Psyduck causes as much trouble due to his dumbness but bails them out with deus ex migraina as often.
And yet Psyduck isn't Water/Psychic as you'd think he is. And, hell, for the longest time I've always thought that at least Golduck, the evolved form, would be part-Psychic. But no, the entire line is always pure-Water, they just learn a couple of Psychic moves every now and then. It's absolutely bizarre, and perhaps one of the few times that one of the older Pokemon could potentially be revised in the future?
I've always loved Psyduck though. It's just this weird, flightless duck with mysterious headache-psychic powers. Back in the first generation, the Psychic type wasn't as properly defined (it's actually 'esper' type in Japanese) and only strictly-humanoid Pokemon were given the all-powerful Psychic type, so it's cool that Psyduck and Golduck, despite being based on, y'know, ducks, have strange access to this power.
And yet Psyduck isn't Water/Psychic as you'd think he is. And, hell, for the longest time I've always thought that at least Golduck, the evolved form, would be part-Psychic. But no, the entire line is always pure-Water, they just learn a couple of Psychic moves every now and then. It's absolutely bizarre, and perhaps one of the few times that one of the older Pokemon could potentially be revised in the future?
I've always loved Psyduck though. It's just this weird, flightless duck with mysterious headache-psychic powers. Back in the first generation, the Psychic type wasn't as properly defined (it's actually 'esper' type in Japanese) and only strictly-humanoid Pokemon were given the all-powerful Psychic type, so it's cool that Psyduck and Golduck, despite being based on, y'know, ducks, have strange access to this power.
Golduck is a sleek, sleek design, and is a very humanoid duck that's also based on the mythological kappa (its original Red/Blue dex entry flat-out acknowledges this), one of Japan's most famous yokai (Japanese mythological monsters) out there. And Golduck is a pretty sleek design! He just looks like a duck-man that can fight, and he apparently has complete control over his psychic power, and it's just a design that exudes strength and speed. But it kind of loses what makes Psyduck cool in the first place, and while I kinda get the evolution concept -- small duck turns into a big duck -- Golduck just doesn't actually do much with the concept of evolving from the constantly headache-addled Psyduck. The design team for Pokemon spends all this time crafting all this lore about how Psyduck isn't able to control its strange psychic-voodoo-causing headaches, and then it evolves and... that's it? He's just a duck-kappa-creature with psychic powers but no psychic type? I dunno, it feels like somewhat of an anti-climactic ending, where Golduck is still exactly the same Water-type-that-somehow-can-use-psychic-moves like Psyduck, but randomly loses the headache? I dunno. Back when we were speculating for the sixth generation, I really thought that Golduck's kappa-ness is going to count for an oriental version of the fair folk and maybe it's this mystical Fairy power that Golduck learned to harness. But nope, still just a Water type.
Eh, whatever. Psyduck's cool, Golduck's cool, I can take a slightly-inconsistent storytelling. Some people think that Psyduck and Golduck are based on platypus instead of ducks (despite their name -- both of them also have '-duck' names in the original Japanese) which I totally can see, since they don't have visible feathers or wings or any avian features other than their bills.
4/6.#056-057: Mankey & Primeape
- Types: Fighting [both]
- Japanese names: Manki, Okorizaru
- Category: Pig Monkey [both]
Ah, yes, it's these guys! Unless I'm screwing up, these are our very first Fighting-type Pokemon, which... which is easily my least favourite typing in Pokemon. I'm sorry, I've never really considered the Fighting type to be super-necessary. They embody... what, martial arts as its own element? Which is kinda cool, but it always felt like the Fighting type is kinda ill-defined, especially early on, and like the Psychic type seems to be relegated to the most humanoid Pokemon. Except for Mankey and Primape, which are these... balls of fur with arms and legs, and a face in the middle, and are apparently based on monkeys somehow. It's... um... yeah. It's a very stylized version of a monkey in the same way that Venonat is a very stylized version of a nondescript hairy bug. And if there's an animal I dislike more than cats, it's dirty, screeching, angry monkeys. And Mankey and Primeape perhaps embody this rabid ferocity of monkeys far better than all the legions of stupid monkey Pokemon to flood the pokedex in the subsequent generations will. I also don't think that I've really appreciated how creative they went with adapting monkeys without being too obvious about it until I made this review, and trust me -- despite my general negativity, my original draft was '1/5 forgettable monkey shits' before I realized how much I didn't mind Mankey and Primeape.
And, well, Mankey's just a fighting-crazy ball of angry monkey rage, charging and descending upon enemies as a huge angry fur swarm of screeching pig-nosed monkey wrath. It evolves into Primeape, where the limbs change colour, and it loses its tail, and it gains weird manacles on its wrists and ankles, and it also has this anime-angry-vein on its forehead. Primeape is one helluva angry pig-monkey, and I do love the field day that the Pokedex has when describing Primeape. It's always furious, always angry, and it "stops being angry only when nobody else is around -- to view this moment is very difficult". Hell, even if you accidentally disturb it from its sleep, Primeapes will chase you in a "groggy state of semi-sleep." The Generation III dex entries note that its blood circulation towards its muscles is boosted when it's angry, but it becomes more stupid if it does so. In Sun we get the darkly hilarious entry of "it has been known to become so angry that it dies as a result". What!
So yeah, Primeape and Mankey is an evolutionary line I never really think much of. They're of the typing I feel the most blah about, and are based on animals that I also feel blah about. But I really appreciate the amount of effort that they went in making the monkeys of this world feel unique, and to give Primeape such a hilariously over-the-top personality as a raging frothing fighting baboon that I can't really dislike them. I'm not sure what a 'pig monkey' is, and I can't find any references to any pig-monkey hybrid or pun in Japanese, so eh. They're all right. They at least tried to make the monkeys look different, y'know?
3/6.
And, well, Mankey's just a fighting-crazy ball of angry monkey rage, charging and descending upon enemies as a huge angry fur swarm of screeching pig-nosed monkey wrath. It evolves into Primeape, where the limbs change colour, and it loses its tail, and it gains weird manacles on its wrists and ankles, and it also has this anime-angry-vein on its forehead. Primeape is one helluva angry pig-monkey, and I do love the field day that the Pokedex has when describing Primeape. It's always furious, always angry, and it "stops being angry only when nobody else is around -- to view this moment is very difficult". Hell, even if you accidentally disturb it from its sleep, Primeapes will chase you in a "groggy state of semi-sleep." The Generation III dex entries note that its blood circulation towards its muscles is boosted when it's angry, but it becomes more stupid if it does so. In Sun we get the darkly hilarious entry of "it has been known to become so angry that it dies as a result". What!
So yeah, Primeape and Mankey is an evolutionary line I never really think much of. They're of the typing I feel the most blah about, and are based on animals that I also feel blah about. But I really appreciate the amount of effort that they went in making the monkeys of this world feel unique, and to give Primeape such a hilariously over-the-top personality as a raging frothing fighting baboon that I can't really dislike them. I'm not sure what a 'pig monkey' is, and I can't find any references to any pig-monkey hybrid or pun in Japanese, so eh. They're all right. They at least tried to make the monkeys look different, y'know?
3/6.#058-059: Growlithe & Arcanine
- Types: Fire [both]
- Japanese names: Gadi, Uindi
- Category: Puppy [Growlithe], Legendary [Arcanine]
Growlithe and Arcanine are the original version counterparts to Vulpix and Ninetales, both being two-stage pure-Fire-type evolutionary lines who achieve their final form via Fire Stone. And, well, they're the original doggo Pokemon! I've always loved dogs, and while Growlithe and Arcanine are certainly not based on any specific real-life type of dog, it's still a pretty creative design. Growlithe's dex entries essentially tell us that he's a good boy, a cute little faithful guard dog (it's even called Guardie in the original Japanese name) and has a powerful sense of smell. It's apparently the Pokemon of choice for policemen in later generations that feature it, too, which makes it extra cool.
Growlithe is based more on mythological guardian creatures, though, so while it might visually just resemble a dog with funny fur and tiger stripes, its evolution Arcanine looks far... stranger. Its identification as a 'legendary' Pokemon (which newer dex entries take note to point out that -- no, Arcanine is not Legendary with a capital L) points to its real inspiration -- stone guard lion-dogs in Chinese and Japanese culture. Variants of the same type of guardian creature known as Shi Shi (Chinese), Shisa or Komainu (Japanese), Arcanine came from a period of time in game design where it's not based on a specific single mythological being but more of a combination of all of the various protective canine-feline guard creatures in oriental culture. Hell, Arcanine's original dex entries even note that it's legendary 'in China', which means that it's more likely based on Chinese Shi Shi. And all of that is pretty cool.
Growlithe is based more on mythological guardian creatures, though, so while it might visually just resemble a dog with funny fur and tiger stripes, its evolution Arcanine looks far... stranger. Its identification as a 'legendary' Pokemon (which newer dex entries take note to point out that -- no, Arcanine is not Legendary with a capital L) points to its real inspiration -- stone guard lion-dogs in Chinese and Japanese culture. Variants of the same type of guardian creature known as Shi Shi (Chinese), Shisa or Komainu (Japanese), Arcanine came from a period of time in game design where it's not based on a specific single mythological being but more of a combination of all of the various protective canine-feline guard creatures in oriental culture. Hell, Arcanine's original dex entries even note that it's legendary 'in China', which means that it's more likely based on Chinese Shi Shi. And all of that is pretty cool.
My real problem is that... Arcanine doesn't actually do much beyond that. He's just a big nondescript dog-cat-tiger creature with a pretty design, sure, but other than the visual cues, Arcanine's 'legendary' status or guardian status isn't actually reflected in gameplay or even in design. He's just a flesh version of the stone guardian statues that happens to breathe fire, and... that's honestly just it. I still like Growlithe and Arcanine as a pair of fire-breathing mammals, and their design is elegant enough, I suppose, but even as a dog person I've always felt Arcanine as a whole ended up as being just... kinda there? Arcanine just never resonated with me the way that other Pokemon do. It's still a great design, that's for sure, but it doesn't actually do much with it in my opinion. Sometimes, though, that's all you need to is to be a pretty majestic tiger-dog-creature, and Arcanine does still look pretty impressive in any case.
4/6, teetering on 3/6.#060-062: Poliwag, Poliwhirl & Poliwrath
- Types: Water [Poliwag/Poliwhirl], Water/Fighting [Poliwrath]
- Japanese names: Nyoromo, Nyorozo, Nyorobon
- Category: Tadpole [all three]
Back in the day, Poliwhirl in particular seemed to be one of the few Pokemon alongside Pikachu, Clefairy, Meowth and the starters to end up being the mascot of Pokemon as a whole. It's no secret that Satoshi Tajiri's favourite Pokemon out of the original 150 is Poliwhirl, and Poliwhirl was the starter pokemon of Red, the main character of the Pokemon Adventures manga.
And, well, the Poli line represents another very common, very easily observable metamorphosis, this time those found in frogs. We've previously talked about insect metamorphosis, something kids can potentially observe in their own backyard. And the transformation of tadpoles into frogs is one of the most bizarre and cool changes from juvenile to adult to exist in the natural world, and thus it's represented by the Poli line. Poliwag is a very stylized version of a frog tadpole who still has its tail, and has started to grow its rear legs, waddling around like happy sphere with those big, innocent eyes and that cute mouth. And it's got a spiral sign on its stomach, which isn't actually a pattern to represent hypnotism, but rather actual intestines of tadpoles that can sometimes be seen. Obviously, it's a lot less grotesque than real-life spiral intestines, but it's a cool little factoid that the Pokedex entries make sure you know -- the white part of Poliwag's belly is simply thin, see-through skin and you're looking at the swirling guts of the little bugger.
And, well, the Poli line represents another very common, very easily observable metamorphosis, this time those found in frogs. We've previously talked about insect metamorphosis, something kids can potentially observe in their own backyard. And the transformation of tadpoles into frogs is one of the most bizarre and cool changes from juvenile to adult to exist in the natural world, and thus it's represented by the Poli line. Poliwag is a very stylized version of a frog tadpole who still has its tail, and has started to grow its rear legs, waddling around like happy sphere with those big, innocent eyes and that cute mouth. And it's got a spiral sign on its stomach, which isn't actually a pattern to represent hypnotism, but rather actual intestines of tadpoles that can sometimes be seen. Obviously, it's a lot less grotesque than real-life spiral intestines, but it's a cool little factoid that the Pokedex entries make sure you know -- the white part of Poliwag's belly is simply thin, see-through skin and you're looking at the swirling guts of the little bugger.
Poliwag loses his tail when he evolves into Poliwhirl, just like real-life tadpoles... and also bizarrely loses its mouth, making him a strange variation of the actual tadpole-to-frog transformation. As Poliwhirl, he's got those slightly-raised eyes that cartoon frogs like to have, and has grown a pair of arms that end in boxing gloves, and it's... well, still apparently a tadpole, if its Pokedex entries are anything to go by. Unlike real-life tadpoles, Poliwag's entire line seem to be in a perpetual juvenile stage (at least until Politoed shows up in the second generation) where even its highest-evolved stage is still a tadpole. And amphibians are pretty weird, with some species of frogs, axolotls and salamanders actually displaying this trait, although it does make me somewhat surprised that our very first amphibian Pokemon (Bulbasaur doesn't actually count since he starts off a frog) doesn't actually depict the traditional iconic metamorphosis.
One thing to note about Poliwhirl is that halfway throughout the third generation, between the release of Ruby/Sapphire and FireRed/LeafGreen, Poliwhirl loses individual fingers and replaces them with boxing gloves, whereas its appearances has been inconsistently waffling between having four fingers or having a nondescript boxing glove throughout its multiple appearances. Presumably this is to more easily differentiate it and Poliwrath without checking biceps and eyebrows. Still, Poliwhirl is one of those instantly iconic designs, and partially thanks to both the anime and the manga presenting it and promoting it well, I've had Poliwhirl in my team more times than I can count.
Which is with a really heavy heart that I have to say that one of my personal favourite Pokemon Poliwrath is... really a bit of a lazy design. Poliwhirl and Poliwrath are easily differentiated if you know what you're looking for. Poliwrath's got angry eyes, and has beady pupils as opposed to Poliwhirl's more expressive googly-eyes. Poliwrath, having transformed into a dual-typed Water/Fighting type, has super-developed muscles and instead of little stump arms, have grown far more developed. In later generations, Poliwrath's developed individual fingers as well. I really love Poliwrath, and how its transformation isn't the obvious tadpole-to-frog transformation, It really only represents Poliwhirl itself evolving to become stronger, developing muscles to become a proper frog-man with powerful muscles that can allow it to 'swim through the Pacific Ocean'. I do really respect them for really sticking to their concept of a bipedal mouthless tadpole-man with boxing gloves, though.
I really love Poliwhirl and Poliwrath, especially thanks to Poliwrath's amazing name and its unexpected Water/Fighting type. Its portrayal in the Adventures manga has always been something that jumped out to me, and Poliwrath has always served me well in both the first, second and third generation playthroughs. But I really wished they had exaggerated Poliwrath's design somewhat to really make it hit home that he's a fighting tadpole-man. Still, the Poli line is a line that I've felt to be one of the classics of the first generation that combines a real-life inspiration with Pokemon's own wacky twist. I legitimately find these wacky tadpole-people as one of my favourite designs in the first generation, laziness in design notwithstanding, that I find that I really do like a fair bit. "What, you would rank the silly-looking spiral frogs above Arcanine?" Yes, yes I would. That's the beauty of Pokemon, really. Each design has its fans. Some people like Parasect and Poliwrath more than Arcanine and Golbat. Some people like Persian and Wigglytuff more than Meowth and Jigglypuff. And that's okay! That's what makes the franchise so great. There's such a huge variety to choose from.
5/6.
