Part three of Unova! Again, not much to talk about in this opening section. I guess I just have to acknowledge the sheer amount of Generation V haters out there? While I acknowledge that Generation V does have some of the absolute worst designs in Pokemon's history, at the same time, going through V one by one, I do find that the hit-to-miss ratio did veer a lot more on the 'hit' or being inconspicuous enough that I didn't mind. Eh. Nostalgia factors, I suppose. Without further ado...
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#554-555: Darumaka & Darmanitan
- Types: Fire [Darumaka], Fire/Fighting [Darmanitan], Fire/Psychic [Darmanitan Zen mode]
- Japanese names: Darumaka, Hihidaruma
- Categories: Zen Charm [Darumaka], Blazing [Darmanitan]
One of the creatures found in the desert regions of Unova is the little Fire-type Darumaka over here, who's a cheeky little happy daruma doll. While the official art shows Darumaka like a happy little rotund... creature with arms and legs, Darumaka can retract his arms to actually resemble a real daruma doll. Darumas are these round dolls modeled after the founder of Zen, Bodhidharma. While sort of becoming a staple toy in Japan and more of a good-luck charm than anything, it's meant to symbolize the ability to get up after a failure, because any time you tip a daruma doll over, it swings right back up. The most striking part of a daruma doll is their eyes. The eyes are blank when you purchase a doll, and they are meant to help you "see through" a given task, painting one eye in when setting the goal, and then the other after fulfilling said goal. Apparently it's a custom in order to motivate the Daruma to give you the lack, where you promise to give him full sight after completing the goal. Darumaka's Fire-type likely originates from the daruma burning ceremony, where at the end of a year, all the daruma are brought back to the temple and burnt in a ceremony.
Darumaka himself doesn't actually try to adapt a lot of the daruma doll's lore other than its shape, with its dex entries detailing how it's hyperactive when it's internal fire is blazing, but falls asleep when the fire is out. Darumaka is also hilariously noted to have droppings that maintain their heat and are carried around by people in clothes to keep warm. Yes, Darumaka's shit is used to warm people up. Some people note that this means that Darumaka is actually a fire-monkey... and while I see why people call Darmanitan a monkey, Darumaka is clearly just a doll that sprouted hands. It's a pleasant design, although I admittedly didn't like it a fair bit in the beginning.
Darumaka evolves into Darmanitan, taking all the nice little gold eyebrows and red colouration and just transplants it into the form of a huge, stylized gorilla. Darumaka's little golden ornament eyebrows become giant eyebrows of flame, and... I'm really not a big fan of Darmanitan once it actually moves from its default gorilla knuckles-down position, but it's not unpleasant to look at. I just find the proportions to be an uncomfortable middle ground from being super-stylized and trying to be realistic. It's got a wide, wide grin which I actually like, and while not all Darmanitan have this ability (you must catch one with the ability 'Zen Mode'), the theme they've got going on is neat. See, the regular Darmanitan has all his anger and passion and worldly desires active, which is why it's a rampaging beast. However, once it gets hurt enough, it reverts into a blue coloured statue with its pupils grayed out, turning back into the most basic of daruma dolls and transforms into a Fire/Psychic pokemon that has to begin its journey of enlightenment again. While perhaps not as fleshed out as it could've been -- standard Darmanitan really loses a lot of his daruma-like characteristics, Zen Mode Darmanitan's colours are so far removed it's distracting and the Zen mode deal is actually kinda hard to pull off in-game -- the concept of a reverse-Hulk is neat.
Overall, though, there's not much to actually hate here, and while I think that the concept wasn't properly fleshed out and it's cluttered by combining the weird monkey thing, they at least made this evolution line somewhat interesting. Not my thing, but definitely a solid entry.
3/6.#556: Maractus
- Type: Grass
- Japanese name: Marakatchi
- Category: Cactus
I was kinda mean to Maractus in the past, I believe, but after looking at it again... it's okay. It's not the most interesting creature in Unova. It's a pure Grass-type, it's a rare encounter, and it's a boring, dancing flower-creature, and I will flat-out say that Cacturne is just so much better of a cactus monster than this. Maractus's biggest crime is honestly being forgettable. His lore is just "he likes to dance, because maracas", his design is a cactus bunny with maracas ears, and from a more technical standpoint Maractus doesn't have anything notable that literally every other Grass-type is able to do better.... but at least Maractus is trying. It's bunny ears double as maraca while also being the flower parts of a cactus, and I do think I like its hollow eyes. It's at least trying to do something with the design, especially compared to far lazier ones this generation like Liligant or Basculin. Maractus's boring and I can barely fill up this paragraph with words, but perfectly fine. While there's nothing really good I can say about him, I also can't really point out anything particularly bad beyond his blandness.
2/6.#557-558: Dwebble and Crustle
- Types: Bug/Rock [both]
- Japanese names: Ishizumai, Iwaparesu
- Categories: Rock Inn [Dwebble; Rock Hermit in Japanese], Stone Home [Stone Hermit in Japanese]
More bugs yay! And hermit crabs are like those kind of very weird, very quirky creatures that everyone in my school owned as a kid. I think I figured out why I'm actually a big fan of the fifth generations. They made cool bugs that are actually useful and have neat designs. It's a bit weird that Dwebble and Crustle, being hermit crabs, are actually classified as Bug-types this time around when Pokemon has been very consistently classifying crustaceans as Water-types, but eh. That's pedantry on my part. Dwebble, the adorably-named "rock inn pokemon", doesn't really change much of a basic cute little cartoon hermit crab other than swapping out the hermit crab's normal borrowed shell-home for a spiral shaped rock, which explains the rock typing. Apparently Dwebble melts holes in rocks with acid from his mouth, and like how real hermit crabs find homes in other shells once they outgrow their current mobile home. There's nothing much about Dwebble other than how freaking adorable he is.
Dwebble loses some of that adorableness when he evolves into Crustle, which I don't quite like as much for the simple reason of Dwebble being way too cute, but Crustle has a far more realistic set of crab-claws and a grumpier crab-face, and in perhaps one of the more hilarious evolutions, instead of just being content to be a hermit crab with a rock shell, Crustle gains an entire block of stratum with entire layers of rock on his back, which is both genius and yet also resulting in an appropriately goofy entry. Even ignoring the jokes that compare Crustle's massive backpack to lasagna or whatever, it's insanely gigantic and cumbersome looking. There's really not much to go on about Crustle, sadly, other than it's a hermit crab that hides in a crapton of rock, but they knew what they wanted out of the concept, and I like it. They can't all be super-complex creatures, and I adore these two. Especially Dwebble.
5/6.#559-560: Scraggy & Scrafty
- Types: Dark/Fighting [both]
- Japanese names: Zuruggu, Zuruzukin
- Categories: Shedding [Scraggy], Hoodlum [Scrafty]
Can't lie, the first time I saw a picture of a Scraggy shown to me, I went "the fuck is this?" and thought that it was some weird reject from another franchise. Scraggy's biggest draw, however, was the fact that the fifth generation sprites are the ones that start being constantly animated even throughout battle (before, naturally, the transition to 3D). Which means throughout a battle, Scraggy will go from just swaying from side to side, to pulling the baggy pants all the way up to the neck, and then letting go with the cutest animation ever. It's adorable! And it's a pokemon I did a complete 180 by simply seeing like around four minutes' worth of screentime for Scraggy in that terrible Zekrom/Reshiram movie. Since then, Scraggy and Scrafty have ended up, against all odds, becoming actual favourites of mine from the fifth generation. Perhaps not enough to displace the likes of Chandelure and Galvantula, but I genuinely like them. The idea of a lizard who uses its shed skin as clothing is... okay. The idea that those saggy skins end up being baggy pants for a pair of punk-ass lizards? That's hilarious. Scraggy's face is also amazingly designed to be hilariously silly looking, and I love it. I'm not sure why, considering that I tend to like more realistic-looking creatures more, but the sheer wide-eyed idiocy on Scraggy's face is just so freaking hilarious.
Oh, and the two are our first Dark/Fighting types, making them the true epitomy of dirty fighting, appropriate for being a bunch of street thugs. Scraggy's more silly-looking and innocent, but Scrafty is a straight-up hoodlum, as described by its pokedex species. As adorable as Scraggy is, Scrafty is definitely the better design. It's basically everything that Scraggy is, but I've always felt that the more cohesive colour scheme for Srafty's head, as well as the usage of the shed head-skin as a fucking hoodie, plus, y'know, the mohawk, makes Scrafty just so much more charming to me than the more-marketable Scraggy.
Also, as the manga and numerous other fan art shows, Scrafty is one of those designs that sits just right at being goofy most of the time, but cool enough that it can sift into looking like a badass street-fighting lizard punk with a simple change in eye expression. It's nothing special to see a Scyther or a Mewtwo or a Lucario look badass -- simply standing still would do that. But Scrafty looking badass as it kicks people through those baggy pants? Hilarious!
This is how you adapt a part of human culture into monsters, by the way. If they had just half-assed and given Scrafty and Scraggy actual pants, the way that whoever designed Throh and Sawk did, I would've lambasted these two. The combination of creativity at working with the general punk/hip-hop aesthetic and integrating it into a lizard's gimmick of skin-shedding, as well as the facial expression and the mohawked crest all end up making Scrafty and Scraggy some of the most unexpectedly creative pokemon in the fifth generation. Again, not my favourite, but certainly a pretty cool, if weird one!
4/6.#561: Sigilyph
- Types: Psychic/Flying
- Japanese names: Shinbora
- Categories: Avianoid [Pseudo-Bird in Japanese]
Sigilyph is another pokemon found in the desert areas, and he's a weird dude. Sigilyph is Psychic/Flying, and probably goes to the same club as Claydol and Unown. Sigilyph is another ancient-artifact-that-is-somehow-alive pokemon, and of course it's also psychic-type. Sigilyph is apparently modeled after the Nazca Lines, fascinating geo-glyphs found in the desert of southern Peru, which are lines carved into the ground created in the shape of animals or human figures, and can be best seen from an airborne elevation. Sigilyph adds a hefty dose of additional Aztec/Mayan culture and while I'm not very well-versed in those cultures, I do find the resulting creature to be gloriously weird. It's cluttered, yes, and perhaps it's got one or two details too many, but I like it. From the central head with green fang-like decals surrouding two eyes, to a third eye sticking out of his head, to the two black fork arms and the two wacky wings and tail that are pleasantly coloured in yellow, blues and reds, Sigilyph is a gloriously weird-looking fucker that looked like a Xatu and a Claydol really had a drunk night one day and made this.
Sigilyph's dex entries are as repetitive and one-note as most other fifth-generation dex entries, but Sigilyph's entry is hauntingly cryptic. Apparently these guys never alter their flight paths, because they continually patrol the same routes of guarding an ancient city. Described as an "avianoid" pokemon, Sigilyph is a not just a flying mass of runes, it's a flying mass of runes designed to mimic that of a bird, and the result is surprisingly pleasant looking. A bit too cluttered, but out of that clutter comes out an actually weirdly pleasing design. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I surprisingly find myself liking it.
4/6.#562-563: Yamask & Cofagrigus
- Types: Ghost [both]
- Japanese names: Desumasu, Desukan
- Categories: Spirit [Yamask], Coffin [Cofagrigus]
These two, on the other hand... see, there is actually a set of ruins, the Relic Castle, on the desert populated by the Sigilyph and Sandiles. And one of the most common sights there is the pure Ghost-type Yamask, these weird little bird-head-like spirits with blood-red eyes that are constantly crying, two wing-arm deals and they carry a golden Egyptian mask -- a death mask. Yamask's Japanese name is actually just straight-up the English words "Death Mask" (or in katakana, Desumasu). Yamask is based on the Egyptian Ba, a concept in Egyptian mythology of a human's individual uniqueness, often depicted as a bird with a human head.
Cool, Egyptian ghosts! And their weird body structure and holding an eyeless mask is appropriately creepy, but the pokedex entries and the lore surrounding Yamask ratchets up the unsettling horror up to eleven. Quoting the Black pokedex: "Each of them carries a mask that used to be its face when it was human. Sometimes they look at it and cry." In White: "These Pokemon arose from spirits of people interred in graves in past ages. Each retains memories of its former life." WHAT. THE. FUCK.
So yeah, Yamask isn't just a happy little gas-ghost creature like Gastly, or the ghost of a dead pokemon. Yamask is straight-up the ghosts of people buried in these tombs, flying around holding the mask that used to be its face when it was human. It retains memories and sometimes looks at the mask and cries. And you can catch one of these things, and have him fight little electric zebras or fire monkeys. The soul of a human who is clearly in grief and crying. That makes the design of the red eye, which looks like it is crying, be far more sad. Worse, you can actually have Yamask breed with other pokemon. The pokedex isn't being ambiguous about it like it did with Spiritomb, where the 108 spirits could be interpreted multiple ways. Yamask are the souls of humans. And it remembers.
That's not quite enough, though, because Yamask gets to be a badass when it evolves into the mighty Cofagrigus, which is one of those ornate Egyptian sarcophagus (take note of how the Yamask mask is on the forehead), possessed by the dark ghostly powers of what used to be Yamask. Now the coffin itself has a creepy grinning face, and four shadowy arms on tendrils leak out of it to "swallow those who get too close and turn them into mummies". Yep, it's a coffin that eats grave robbers. Possessed by a ghost.
Cofagrigus can retract his shadowy arms and have that golden mask slide down to actually masquerade as a normal Egyptian coffin, which is just such a neat little detail... but perhaps most awesome of all is how Cofagrigus actually has an ability to turn pokemon into mummies in-game, with its ability "Mummy", which transforms the presumably-useful abilities of any enemy pokemon that hits it into Mummy, causing the ability to jump around both parties like some sort of crazy twisted game of hot potato, if the hot potato was a zombie pathogen. Best of all, people told me to google "walking Cofagrigus", and instead of floating menacingly like a poltergeist all the time, Cofagrigus can scuttle around on those shadow hands like some sort of twisted beetle or one of those contortionist ghosts, and it's both hilarious and unsettling at the same time.
Honestly, there is so much thought put into the design of Yamask and Cofagrigus, in animating their shadow hands, showing that they can pretend to be Mimics, doing the whole Egyptian theme, the Mummy ability... it plays into the theme of ghosts of Pharaohs cursing tomb robbers, and ends up causing something that's just so, so much more creative than another undead mummy.
6/6.#564-565: Tirtouga & Carracosta
- Types: Water/Rock [both]
- Japanese names: Purotoga, Abagora
- Categories: Prototurtle [both]
Tirtouga then evolves into Carracosta, which looks a fair bit more unique, but it's honestly just an upright turtle-man. I do like how he keeps his flippers, marking himself as a real turtle as opposed to a tortoise, but honestly? They really could've done more. There's a nice little attempt at making Carracosta's shell resemble some sort of assault vest, and that face looks kinda grumpy and old, but ultimately it's quite boring. It's well-drawn, and there's nothing offensive about this, but it's just okay as a turtle pokemon. It's cool, but definitely doesn't innovate too much from the original animal concept, nor does it do anything particularly special.
3/6.#566-567: Archen & Archeops
- Types: Rock/Flying [both]
- Japanese names: Aken, Akeosu
- Categories: First Bird [both]
Archen and Archeops, born out of the plume fossil, are far more distinctly prehistoric than Tirtouga, being based on the Archaeopteryx, a dinosaur-like bird or a bird-like dinosaur that was discovered with evident imprints of feathers despite a body that resembles other theropodal dinosaurs. It's cited to be the missing link between the evolution of reptiles and birds, although nowadays the consensus is that dinosaurs are... simultaneously birds and reptiles at the same time, or something like that? Also more and more dinosaurs have cropped up with feathers, I think, but the Archaeopteryx's status as the early bird-like progenitor is pretty neat. It's a shame that we didn't actually simulate actual evolution by having Archen just straight-up evolve into a bird, or evolve from a featherless dinosaur or something, but honestly, I don't mind. As a cute little baby feathered dinosaur, Archen looks appropriately colourful and adorable. Just look at its head. Look at it! Archen's adorably noted that despite being Rock/Flying, it can't actually fly, just hopping around adorably from one branch to another, although the newer dex entries note that it glides down from the treetops to nom onto prey. And Archen is actually one of the few Flying-types to not be able to learn the HM Fly. Even Dodrio can learn fly!
Archen evolves into Archeops, which is significantly less cute and far more like what you'd imagine a screechy lizard-bird to be. It's not as lizard-like as Aerodactyl, and definitely can't be mistaken for a modern-day bird with its weird snake head. Poor Archeops' design communicates its inability to really stay aloft for long, having a fat, cumbersome body and wings that don't look particularly aerodynamic. It can actually learn flying moves, but the dex entries make note that Archeops really needs a proper running start to take flight, only doing so when really, really needed. The 3D animations have him flapping his wings profusely to stay aloft, and honestly it's a bit mean for them not to give Archeops a final form where it can properly hold its own in the sky the way that Salamence did. Unlike the far-cooler looking Kabutops or Aerodactyl, this is a pokemon you totally can believe would go extinct due to not adapting properly, and its ability is even pretty cruel -- Defeatist! Archeops have a reasonable amount of stats, but his ability, Defeatist, will debuff all of Archeops' stats if the HP is reduced to half. Poor Archeops. I guess that's why you never really evolved beyond this fat lizard-bird form -- you're a defeatist!
4/6.#568-569: Trubbish & Garbodor
- Types: Poison [both]
- Japanese names: Yabukuron, Dasutodasu
- Categories: Trash Bag [Trubbish], Trash Heap [Garbodor]
Yeah, these two are kind of a meme as the worst designed pokemon ever, being based on literal trash and everything, yeah? Trubbish and Garbodor are this generation's counterpart to Grimer and Muk, and Koffing and Weezing -- a duo of pure-Poison types based on icky, gross shit taking form. Where Muk represents water pollution and Weezing represents air, Garbordor is the long-awaited land pollution pokemon. And honestly... the concept is very solid. Monsters made out of a mass of junk or trash taking solid form to wreak horrible vengeance on mankind might be a trope for a cliche'd Ultraman or Captain Planet enemy, and hell, Japanese culture does have the tsukumogami, items that gain sentience and become yokai after being discarded by their owners. I've previously stated my love for Muk and Weezing, so how do I feel about their much-maligned fifth generation counterparts? And, well...
Trubbish is actually reasonably cute for a trash monster, honestly. It's a little trash bag whose ears are formed out of the knot on top of the bag, and it's got a sad, fanged expression. Its bag rips apart on the sides and little chunks of the trash have clumped together to form little arms that trail adorably behind him. Like Grimer's origin, Trubbish was apparently created by the "combination of garbage bags and industrial waste", like some 80's B-movie sci-fi monster. They belch unsanitary poisonous gases, and the seventh generation in particular paint them as the personification of littering and pollution, characterizing the Alolan Grimer as their predators. I actually unironically find Trubbish neat and pleasing, as far as trash monsters go. Perhaps there's a bit of an 'underdog syndrome' going on, but I legitimately think Trubbish is a neat design.
4/6.
4/6.
Garbodor, on the other hand... he kind of drops the ball. The idea of the trash back ripping apart thanks to all the trash within having piled up and evolving into its own body is a very great idea! But the execution is suspect, leading to this... rather messily drawn creature. Its face looks wide-eyed in pain, and its bunny ears have evolved into little tufts of... of trash. And the drawing of said trash is perhaps my biggest problem with Garbodor. You've got the nicely asymmetrical arms, with the right arm starting near the head and is a tentacle made up of like metal bars, and the left arm starting near the lower part of the body and ending in little toilet paper rolls, but quite literally everything else that forms Garbodor's big fat body is just a formless mass of gray with random lumps of pink and bright blue thrown in there. I really wished they had put in more effort at communicating that Garbodor is a pile of actual, literal trash instead of just some amorphous blob. Just google "trash monster", or look at those artwork people make out of junk. Garbodor doesn't need to be particularly super-complex, but this is honestly just a wee bit too lazy of a design.
I guess Garbodor's main gray parts is meant to be just gigantic clumps of dust, since its Japanese name is "Dasutodasu", or roughly "Dust-dus", but if that's what they're going for, it's doing a pretty poor job, again, at communicating that it's made up of dust. One could argue that Garbodor is meant to look unpleasant and ugly, but my argument is that his ugliness isn't the part that I'm disputing. It's the laziness. An ambulatory, ugly pile of trash is not a bad concept! It brings variety, and are helluva far more creative than some of the shittier designs like the elemental monkeys. But I'm just kinda sad that Garbodor ended up just not quite looking like the ugly-cool walking landfill that it could've been. I also kind of feel that there's a huge missed opportunity at making Garbodor not Poison/Steel. It's got fucking steel pipes for arms! Shame.
Regardless, though, it's actually... just fine. I don't like Garbodor all that much, but I definitely don't hate it. It's not boring and fills a neat little niche as the "ugly gross monster" that we've not quite had since Muk -- and honestly, Pokemon designs double as enemies as well as partners, so even if you're not big on having a walking dust golem in your party, they're still respectable enemies to fight. We can't have everything in the game be badass dragons and demons, right? I'm not apologizing for Garbodor, becausae the execution is ultimately bad and I wouldn't count it among my favourites, but at the same time dismissing the entire concept of a trash monster just because it's made of trash is just silly. In this case, though, Garbodor sadly doesn't quite elevate itself beyond its, well, trashiness. It's not terrible like people make it out to be, although maybe I'm just saying that because Garbo is such an easy target?
3/5 for Garbodor.#570-571: Zorua & Zoroark
- Types: Dark [both]
- Japanese names: Zoroa, Zoroaku
- Categories: Tricky Fox [Zorua; Evil Fox in Japanese], Illusion Fox [Zoroark]
And we're here into another one of the universally-loved pokemon, and honestly? I count myself as one of the people that really, really like Zoroark. That didn't happen until I'm well into the sixth generation, though, since for whatever silly reason, Zoroark's a pokemon you can only trigger an encounter with in Black/White with an event pokemon (and I didn't get to play B2W2 until way after sixth generation came out). But I met a Zoroark in the sixth generation's version of the lost woods, and absolutely fell in love with this trickster kabuki fox demon. Oh, and these two are Dark-types, and as a humanoid non-legendary revealed in the previous generation and starring in a movie, Zoroark is often cited as the fifth generation's "ripoff" of Lucario. I use those air-quotes very heavily because Zoroark, in my opinion, delivers such a more pleasing design and set of abilities, as well as in-game mechanics, far, far better than Lucario ever did.
Let's start off with Zorua, this cheeky little baby fox. The colour scheme is every kid's edgy fan character, two shades of black with red highlights, but honestly? Black-and-red is a great colour scheme when used in moderation. And here on Zorua, the combination of those colours and Zorua's mischievous look quickly communicates that Zorua's a cunning little jackass of a fox baby. I don't want to really bash Lucario, but compare Zorua to the rather blank-eyed face of Riolu, and how distinct Zorua and Zoroark are from each other. Zorua really seems like a proper pre-evolved stage with its own identity. Zorua takes all the tropes of a kitsune -- a fox as it's portrayed in Japanese myths -- that Ninetales glossed over. This isn't some ancient being hiding lots of power. This is a shape-shifting trickster, often transforming into its enemy to confuse it, and often transforms into a "silent child", something that's actually seen briefly in Zorua's multiple appearances. The seventh generation dex even gives us this creepy gem: "If a normally talkative child suddenly stops talking, it may have been replaced with a Zorua."
And unlike Lucario's ambiguous "aura sensing" abilities, Zorua and Zoroark's illusion abilities, in addition to actually being the basis of its NPC appearances in the fifth generation and apparently the cause behind the winding, reality-warping Lost Woods esque area in the sixth, is shown via its in-game ability, Illusion. Sadly, while not as versatile as it could've been, Zoroark's illusion allows it to initially appear as the last pokemon in your party. It's not an actual transformation like Ditto does, because all Zoroark does is to create an image of it, but it's still pretty neat! They also have a signature move, "Night Daze", which is just a generic blast of darkness.
Zoroark's silhouette was a bit puzzling the first time I saw it, and it's definitely a design that looks best in motion. Whether it be the movie or the in-game sprites, Zoroark's gigantic clump of hair actually flows relatively well, and its bright red colouration makes it pretty distinct from the sleekness of its slim humanoid fox form. Zoroark's face just exudes menace, with a bunch of red markings on her face that, combined with the large tuft of hair, resembles traditional kabuki makeup.
Most of all is the pokemon's backstory. In all its appearances be it in manga, anime or games, it uses illusions to trick people, but it does so to protect its territory and especially its young -- with the villainous, roaring Zoroark from the movie being a mother on a rampage due to its young being taken hostage by the villain. Zoroark's illusions and vision-bending abilities ends up causing new areas to spawn (or rather, close off those areas until you meet a requirement) which is absolutely neat. There's just a lot of great things going on with Zoroark, from its awesome looking limbs, the way that they actually look like they can function like a real animal's (not like Palkia) and the general kabuki aesthetic... yeah, Zoroark's cool, and I really like it a fair bit.
6/6.#572-573: Minccino & Cinccino
- Types: Normal [both]
- Japanese names: Chirami, Chiracino
- Categories: Chinchilla [Minccino], Scarf [Cinccino]
Oh, hey, these two. Yeah, they definitely take the cake as the most forgettable pokemon of the sixth generation, being overshadowed by so many other awesome designs, but not being offensive so no one really remembers them. The two are pure-Normal types based on the chinchilla, sort of a cute rodent pet, and is designed in a quasi-Pikachu-clone aesthetic. They're... they're neat, but I genuinely don't have much to say here. They're probably someone's favourite Pokemon somewhere, and I respect it. They're neat. I just really don't have much to say about them.
It's got nothing going on for it, though, since Minccino is just apparently a literal cleanliness freak, sweeping rooms with their tails and that's quite literally it. When exposed to the Shiny Stone, Minccino evolves into Cinccino, whose glorious fur has evolved into an intricate scarf, and... and it's still honestly quite boring, with the dex having nothing to talk about beyond its scarf repelling oil and that it's a clean-freak. Minccino and Cinccino are inoffensive, I guess, and they're drawn relatively competently as a pair of cutesy pokemon, but they are so gosh-darned boring that I genuinely don't know how what to say. They're cute, and I think they have their fans out there. I just continually forget they exist is all.
3/6.#574-576: Gothita, Gothorita & Gothitelle
- Types: Psychic [all three]
- Japanese names: Gochimu, Gochimiru, Gochiruzeru
- Categories: Fixation [Gothita], Manipulative [Gothorita], Astral Body [Gothitelle]
Um. Yeah... these guys. It's really, really weird that there's a pokemon called Gothita, shortened from Gothic Lolita... which is a fashion fad in the 90's that's very popular in Japan, but the word 'Lolita' does have some really unfortunate connotations that I'm not sure I'm okay with being around in Pokemon. Gothita's line is one a pair of three-stage evolutions that are pure-Psychic, being cross-version counterparts with Solosis below. And Gothita's line is often compared as being cheap Gardevoir or Alakazam knockoffs. These don't teleport away, okay? It's far less frustrating to put one of these into a ball. Gothita's weird. She's a humanoid pokemon in the same vein of Smoochum where it's blatant that she's a humanoid, but has enough qualities from the large head and the stubby arms that still resembles a monster. For my part, I'm thankful that Gothita actually becomes less humanoid as she evolves. Gothita's whole deal is that she does nothing but stare. They are always staring at something, sometimes being so obsessed that they don't notice attacks. It's appropriately creepy, and I guess Gothita's design is innocent enough, playing up the black-and-white parts of fashion with ambiguous ribbons, but it's definitely not my thing.
Gothorita, the Manipulative Pokemon, is the most humanoid of the three, looking like Kirlia's goth cousin. Again, these go for the elegant-goth fashion instead of the punk-goth style, and... Gothorita is just... fine. Goth fashion is perhaps nowhere near anywhere that I conceive as a good concept for a pokemon design, but Gothorita is... adequately designed. Could stand to be a bit creepier, but the dex entries easily rectify this. Apparently Gothoritas tend to use hypnosis to control people and pokemon, leading people astray all over the world. They apparently draw power from the stars, which I find to be fun and hilarious. Not quite hilarious are the dex entries that describe Gothorita using the energies of the stars to "create friends for itself by controlling children". What the shit! And Hypno is the one everyone calls creepy. I'm actually surprisingly okay with Gothorita despite my noted disdain for humanoid pokemon. It's executed somewhat well here, again having a neat balance between humanoid and monstrous. I do feel that they missed a bit of an opportunity in not making these Fairy-types, but that's honestly a criticism I have for a huge chunk of Pokemon's population.
Gothorita evolves into the tall Gothitelle, who ends up in a hilariously conical body that both resembles a stylized dress and a Christmas tree, with her hair splayed out like some sort of wacky antenna. Gothitelle is known as the 'astral body' pokemon, and apparently they truly utilize the powers of the stars, with its Black entry noting that using this they can distort space to see far-off constellations, predicting the future and seeing their trainers' lifespans. Is that why they're emo and goth? They know when everyone they love is going to die? So yeah, Gothitelle is apparently some sort of weird astral radio tower. Oh, and perhaps as a big middle finger to all of the creepy fans making creepy fan art out of Gardevoir, Gothitelle's legs under that dress are little nubs. I find that hilarious.
Overall, though, these things are definitely more of a take-it-or-leave-it for me. I don't hate them, and they're executed well enough as far as a goth-themed pokemon evolution line goes, but they'll never be my favourites.
2/6.#577-579: Solosis, Duosion & Reuniclus
- Types: Psychic [all three]
- Japanese names: Yuniran, Daburan, Rankurusu
- Categories: Cell [Solosis], Mitosis [Duosion], Multiplying [Reuniclus]
I've been wondering since I was a kid what a microscopic pokemon would look like, and the fifth generaetion delivers with the hilariously adorable little Solosis, based in equal parts by a cell undergoing mitosis and a fetus in early stages of development. And they turned Solosis into the most adorable little bubble monster! Solosis is Gothita's counterpart, being exclusive to White and essentially having similar stats and movepools, but Solosis ends up being so much more appealing to yours truly. It's a cute little cell! With dot eyes, a diamond-shaped mouth, and a little weird.... organelle thing that acts like some sort of errant chunk of hair. Hell, it's even got the cleavage furrow (not that kind of cleavage, perverts) that mark that Solosis is quite ready for cell division. It's hilarious and cute, with the three main parts of an animal cell -- nucleus, cytoplasm and cell membrane -- being prominently on display, and the weird yellow turd-like thing representing all the random organelles.
Duosion ends up looking more like a little embryo, having adorable little nub-arms and a little conical body. The distracting yellow turd's gone, replaced by a small blob of the main body that's detached and floating above it. The shape of the jelly-like cytoplasm is also satisfyingly drawn, and while Duosion hasn't actually divided into two cells, apparently its brain has. Duosion's dex entries note that Duosion's brains often try to take differing actions, but if they agree on something, their psychic powers will be at their maximum. Duosion's neat, even if there's not much to talk about him since he's clearly a more-elaborate-Solosis.
Reuniclus, on the other hand, is pretty amazing looking, a great final form for this little cell creature. The main 'nucleus' of the entity has became a little humanoid baby with two detached rabbit-like ears floating separated from Reunicluls's main body. It's grown two long cytoplasm arms (pseudopodia?) and I absolutely love how Reuniclus has little multi-coloured organelles floating within the jelly-like arms as the 'bones' of those arms, while also subtly referencing the trope of psychic powers manifesting as extensions of your arms. It's a great mix of adorableness and weirdness, and it's the sort of fun sci-fi creature that I feel is one of the more underrated highlights of the fifth generation.
Unlike the Gothita line, sadly none of the Solosis line have any sort of wacky or creepy entries, just talking about how powerful their psychic power is and how versatile their blob fluids are, but that's okay. Reuniclus is a pokemon that wins by sheer bizarre concept and design alone, and it's such a great subversion of "creepy embryo" or "cell monster", resulting in this cute bubbly buddy that looks so friendly.
6/6.
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A mixture of some of my all-time favourite ideas and some of the more... controversial pokemon from a design standpoint like Garbodor and Scraggy, but honestly, this stretch and the next are where I feel that the fifth generation really excels creatively. Maybe that's why the more mundane designs like Minccino and Ducklett (coming up next!) end up being so disappointing? That everything else in this stretch of the pokedex are weird insane shit like floating psychic embryo-cells, metal tentacled durians, kabuki illusory fox-men, walking trash piles, bandit desert crocodiles and royal emperor jellyfishes? Yeah. For all its sins in making the elemental monkeys and some other lazy designs here and there, after the initial bunch of normal dogs and cats and birds, the fifth generation has the pedal on the metal on the weird and wacky concepts and never stops, and frankly while many of these fill in the same in-game niche as older species I really think it's very much unfair to brush off most of these as ripoffs. They're all pretty neat and creative. Mostly.
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